Clear the Path – Posted 2019.09.02

The following are the recorded responses of Eyazahrid to the feedback he received on the above listed chapter and the story in general for the week following. This document is to serve as a replacement to the traditional Author’s Note at the beginning and ending of chapters and will be kept separate from both the above listed chapter and any future chapters unless deemed sufficiently important.

As most of the responses for last chapter were about Sakura- yeah, try to wrap your head around that– I’m going to address the matter of her last. Normally I do the most negative response last but with mo st of the others being pretty short- in comparison- it simply feels better this way.

So, without further delay, let’s dive into last week’s chapter.

Main Characters

sakurasucks brings us the question; “Naruto U., Kushina U., Naruko U just wondering on how you determine that they are part of the story since there has been little interaction with them”

Good question. There are three points to be addressed for that question.

First, two of those characters were in the chapter you left that review on.

Second, even if characters are not currently being shown the effect they had on the story is still present. Kushina, as the most obvious example, caused the majority of the story even if she hadn’t intended to. Because she’s had such an impact she’s included on the character list.

Finally, I haven’t changed the summary at all since chapter one nearly four years ago. Considering how much it’s evolved I’m probably massively overdue to update it but haven’t really bothered.

Rogue vs Rouge

Rouge Survivor has again mentioned that I used “rouge” instead of “rogue”

Have you considered that I might just be petty enough to continue my typo purposely because you keep bringing it up?

And yes, I’m very well aware I messed up your username too.

I am a petty motherfucker.

Chapter Size

Mem0ry and a Guest have both mentioned my short chapters again. I address this in the 2019.09.04 Update.

Rest assured larger chapters will be coming, though they will not be without cost.

“Naruto’s Women”

First, I’m not too fond of the term “Naruto’s Women” because it makes it sound like a harem of some sort. Naruto has lovers, but there’s nothing to make them exclusive. Whether or not the women in his life have other lovers is a matter of their own preference and circumstance.

I’m not going to enforce some sort of double-standard on my characters. Naruto can have multiple lovers and so can his lovers. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.

Of course, the matter of him being their favorite lover is without question. He’s not the side hoe.

Onto the matter of the women themselves, Ino has a larger chance of ending up with Naruto than Hana does, though it’s still entirely possible.

CamTheTheif

I could have split your responce into the categories it covers but I’m laz- erm, “exhausted from a long day of teaching people that they have to have shit plugged in for it to work” so I’m just going to take care of it all at once.

Don’t worry, I’ll hate myself for it halfway through anyway.

Personally I wouldn’t consider mental stability to be a value that goes down but rather a balance that could go either way. In Yagura’s case he’s too stable and it doesn’t fit the reality of the world around him.

I suppose that’s still ‘unstable’ because he’s lost his balance but it’s definitely not the same instability common with the Shonobi world- or my characters- so I should probably get a better word for it.

Regardless, in Yagura’s case he requires too much structure and is far too rigid in his beliefs on how the world should operate. I’ll speak more on it in the upcoming update- 2019.09.11- so I wont’ elaborate too much here.

Seals should be showing up a bit more soon, I have some plans for them.

At the moment Naruto does not have plans for Asuma. I- erm, he has been too occupied by the matters of Mizu no Kuni. When that’s wrapped up he’ll look into Asuma.

I’m quite fond of Naruto and Danzou’s relationship too.

Sakura has been fun to write, she’s always such a fantastic tool for any writer because she provides so much potential to a story. Even if a writer absolutely loathes her she can still be utilized to set up elements of the plot rather easily.

It might be because she’s so bland and worthless in cannon, but I really wasn’t all that fond of her so I may be a bit biased. Have read quite a few enjoyable Naru/Saku stories though, so I’m not too unreasonable.

More of Sakura to come at the end of this commentary, though I do hope I’ve been able to make these “cute but crazy” characters stand out from each other. I want them to be similar- it’s the feel I’m going for -but I don’t want them to seem like the same character with a different appearance.

Yagura

As I’ve mentioned I intend to do an entire thing on Yagura (and Naruto) in thsi week’s update so I won’t go into as much detail here.

I’m also not so cruel as to ignore your questions.

Or am I?

There seems to be a lot of positive feedback for Yagura which pleases me despite him not really being a “main” character. I hadn’t seen a lot of stories that actually included Yagura for more than a chapter or two and they typically didn’t give him anything more than a sub-plot enemy personality so I tried to come up with something that might explain his actions- because Tobi is a good girl- and allow you all to want him dead at the same time.

I’ve seen both, so I am hoping that both is the general opinion on him. If I’ve managed to acheive that balance I’ll consider him a successful character.

Regardless he’s been a bit..”fleshed out” in my own humble opinion and I’m happy to see that you like it.

I nearly started writing about responses to chapter 97 here which is an example of why I need to have these done before the new chapter comes out each week. I’m leaving this here in hopes that it will remind me to stop procrastinating, though we all know how successful that will end up being.

As for Naruto and Yagura getting along, well, you’ll see that in chapter 97- in fact, you probably already have- and I’ll discuss it more in the next update.

Sakura

And now for the star of chapter 96, Haruno Sakura.

What a strange thing to say.

I had some vague plans for Sakura long, long ago and tried to move things towards them a while ago only for things to spiral into…this.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened but I’m certainly not complaining. Like with Sasuke, writing her- this way, at least- is really giving me an appreciation for her character.

Or lack thereof.

It’s debatable.

There hasn’t really been any negative feedback for her, per se, but some have commented on how Naruto reacted to her.

To the comment that he shouldn’t stick his dick in crazy it’s a little too late. He and Anko have been getting it on for some time now.

And for the “red flags” Sakura shows, again- Anko. The woman crawled into bed with him covered in blood- yes, that’s Sealkeeper cannon though I can’t be bothered to look up the chapter right now- because she thought it would be arousing. Sakura wanting to make bloody flowers is going to seem rather mild for him in comparison.

Sakura may resemble a mini-Anko but she has a long way to go to even think about reaching her level.

While were on the subject of mini-Ankos, no.

No.

No.

We cannot have a squad of mini-Ankos running around. That would be absolutely horrifying. It most definitely would not be made of Anko, Sakura, Tayuya, and Kin.

Stop making me think of these, things, dammit.

We’ll cut it here for the Sakura section before I get too many ideas and end up taking up another project- that Naruto/FemDanzou? I’ve come up with a fucking plot for it. I have scenes planned out. Oh, merciful gods above, it’s actually going to happen- when I barely have time for the existing ones.

General Responce and Closing

No one seems to be back to hating me again yet, which I consider a success. Sakura was wildly popular- which is still weird to say- and Yagura was pretty well received.

I’d hope you all receive chapter 97 well but I’ve already seen your responses to it. I haven’t fucked up too badly just yet, we’ll see how long I can keep it up.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid