Q & A Session 2

Another short answering session for the comments sent in through the ask box.
Warning: This post does contain some spoilers for the Naruto Gaiden and next gen stuff. 

Q1. I only read the Gaiden till Suigetsu tested Uchiha daughter's genes. I stopped after that because it felt like it might turn into a melodramatic soap opera. So i'm not really sure who the blue-haired dude is. Sorry. But it's good you like at least one character from the manga! Right!? Even so i'm really disappointed in future Naruto. I expected him to be a guy who dotes on his family, because he never had one. Kids are unconditional love! which Naruto has never had. If you look through the whole story i can't find many examples of somebody genuinely liking Naruto without him fighting to prove himself(maybe Chouji/Shika/Shino/Kiba but he's not really close to any of them, although i guess they seem closer in Shippuden?) or you know likes him but doesn't try to kill him later(Haku). Since all roads lead to AtO, it's why i like Harry and Naruto's relationship. Unconditional family love for all!
 
A. What the Gaiden lacked in melodrama it made up in spades with ridiculousness, I think. As for nice and interesting blue-haired Mitsuki- it turns out he's Orochimaru's child (I don't know the specifics just read it on the Naruto Wiki since I have no intention of watching the new movie). Which I'm actually sort of okay with. Maybe more than okay. At any rate, it revived a plotline I had planned for AtO ages ago. Not sure I'll use that plotline in the final version of AtO but it's nice to have it as an option. 

As for grown up Naruto in the Gaiden, yeah, he wasn't what I expected. It makes me wonder if he was so fixated on being the best Hokage that he was willing to ignore everything else for the sake of that dream. Was that the only thing he wanted in life? To be acknowledged and be the Hokage? Was having a family just something he had to do and not something he actually wanted? It felt like that to me.

Q2. From your blog posts it sounds like you are pretty far into your draft, does that mean that chapter 15 is done?

 

A. It's done in the most basic sense. I just have a draft version of AtO ch 15, which is not something I consider complete and upload ready.  It needs to be edited. And I'm only going to start editing when I finish the AtO draft- which will take a while. 

 

There are various plot things that I just need to see in writing to make sense of. I don't know if I'll make the end of September upload date for ch 15 but I'll try my best. 

 

Q3. I really love Against The Odds and I can't wait to read the next chapter. I also can't wait to see how you write all the other Naruto characters, especially Team Gai and Harry's reaction to Gai and Lee shenanigans. Will they be showing up soon?

 

A. Thanks. Team Gai won't be showing up anytime soon. I've toyed with the idea of Harry interacting with more ninja from Naruto's age group but that just never appealed to me.

 

When he's not busy with his own things/agenda, Harry will stick with the people he's met so far and the ones he spends the most time with. The ones he's growing more comfortable with. I will have him meet other ninja- maybe more of the older generation- and make different connections depending on plot relevance but yeah... Team Gai and even the rest of Konoha 11 are not very high on my list of people to write around Harry in AtO at the moment.