right, forgot this kinda trailed off here...

I'm really digging this series. I always wanted the series to dwell more on the gritty, child-soldiering world of twelve-year-olds committing themselves to a military career, but the Wave arc is the only portion of the series that really devotes much time to how the system churns out broken, violent madmen like Haku and Zabuza. Pain and Konan were products of the same system, but even that was swept under the rug of Naruto's unflinching idealism.

Obviously, Naruto was all about the title character trying to change the world, but what if the world had changed him? I am beyond glad to see you tackling that question.

I really like Rika, not only for being not-Sakura, but for the sense of professionalism and experience she brings to the table. She's a great foil to Naruto's bull-headed insistence he's great without actually being great, Sasuke's inflated ego and Kakashi's pointless mind games. It really is a wonder Team Seven functioned at all with so many clashing personalities.

By the same token, though, you've also done a good job in making her feel competent without making her too perfect. She has some years on the boys and carries herself far more professionally, but even she admits she has faults. She seems to have a very specific idea of what it means to be a ninja, and while the narrative seems to endorse her view, it doesn't instantly make her an elite. The line about having learned only three jutsus is rather telling. Thank God you didn't make her a jutsu whiz with another set of magic eyeballs. These are kids. They're learning.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. I always thought darkness and the more intimate threats of the early parts of the series - with the likes of the Caged Bird Seal and Zabuza and Gaara - didn't really jive with the prophecies and scale of latter day Naruto. I'm a sucker for the smaller stories of Wave and Chuunin, so it's right up my alley to see someone writing in that vein.

So is "No doubt" Rika's verbal tick or something?

How ironic is it that these "Shinobi Test" stories were written and posted as short stories, completed plot arcs, so as to not add to the long list of incomplete and abandoned stories on the author's list..so of course this is abandoned and incomplete, dropped in the middle of the story and on something of a narrative cliff hanger.

Irony.

Just wait, OP will deliver

I love this girl

Well I honestly can't believe I never noticed these in two years. I do wish you'd continue them some day, they're exceptionally well written, like many of your works.
Thanks for the good read.

Made this story a series so the parts would be finished and not left incomplete... How's that idea going

Other than the Mary Sue OC this is a really good story

Ummm, you know Ryo are gold coins, right? I think a few Mon would be better than freaking ten thousand Ryo for painting a fence... One Ryo could, in the feudal age (technologically, too) of the Naruto-verse, feed a man for a week.

Naruto is scary. When Rika mentioned seeing Naruto being chased by ANBU, I remembered something. In the manga, Naruto wasn't just chased by ANBU, he successfully escaped and evaded them using E-rank jutsu...while wearing kill-me orange. Either the ANBU suck that bad, they were humoring him because they find his pranks hilarious, or he is just that freakishly talented at stealth. Probably the last and for reasons best left unsaid.

Please finish this.

just reread this again lol very nicely written. sad that your muse for this dried out but still good stuff xD

Poor Naruto, they are systematically destroying his world view. And considering how shitty his life already is, it's not the best thing to tell him he'll spend the rest of his life doing worse things and then still living a shitty life. Not good for his mental stability, really.

The final outcome seems a little predictable at this point.
The Provincial Governor wants him taken alive, probably because he's a relative (son is most likely but it's not important). They'll get him there, he won't stand trial because the Governor will pardon him or whatever. He'll tip his hat to the Leaf Ninja and head back out to take his revenge on the villagers. Since they got themselves blacklisted by Konoha, they're basically screwed. It's a crapsack world for everyone.

I did consider the possibility that he was playing with words and he means he'll never stand trial because he'll be executed immediately. Still possible but I consider it less likely than the first scenario.

By no circumstance do I at all believe that he means (or that he only means) that he expects to be rescued.

I feel like, in an effort to distance itself from the black-and-white morality of canon, that the plot is making the world out to be more miserable than it should probably be. Swinging too far in the other direction, as it were. Still an interesting story and I am enjoying the different (and yes, much more believable) outlook on the ninja village system. Very good read!