"You smell like death and old blood," Pakkun said thoughtfully, completing his circuit around Naruto.
Naruto looked surprised.
"You smell like lust and pain," he said, coming back to the fore after his circle around Hinata.
Hinata looked embarrassed.
"You smell like hatred and frustration," he finished thoughtfully, sitting on his haunches and appraising Sasuke's look of indifference before turning to Kakashi. "And these are your genin?"
Kakashi nodded happily. "Death, bloodlust, pain, and hatred. They're like wild dogs just recently met."
Let's talk about Nugar's People Lie
, currently available on FFnet in the Naruto section.
The story begins with Naruto being involved in a horrific accident as a child, which brings him into the care and attention of Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi. Naruto quickly develops into a controlling, antisocial, yet talented young ninja and is put onto Team 7. While instructed to make friends, Naruto learns that his team mate, Hinata, has a crush on him, and he takes advantage of this by making her into a skilled pawn. Add in Sasuke and Kakashi, and the team as a whole is made up of people with questionable morals and screwed-up childhoods that they'd rather keep to themselves.
That is the beginning of 'Team Lie'. And their first real mission together involves plenty of psychological trauma for the three young genin.
The fic contains several arcs, beginning with "People Lie".
This fic has examples of:
- A God Am I: Orochimaru has ascended into being a god.
- Berserk Button: You do not hurt Naruto in front of Hinata. Or Sasuke. You do not hurt either of Sasuke's team mates. You especially, do not, ever, hurt Hinata in front of Naruto.Naruto: If they do anything to hurt her, I will rip this seal off my stomach, unleash the Kyubi and watch this world burn.
- Black Eyes of Evil: After Team Lie makes their deal with Kyuubi, Hinata is left with completely black eyes which can see through things even the Byakugan can't.
- Blood Magic: Their deal with Kyuubi means each of Team Lie can sacrifice blood to him for power.
- Buried Alive: This happened to Naruto once by a cruel and violent failed genin. He barely survived the attempt on his life and its suspected it's only only thanks to the nine tails fox that he even pulled though in the end.
- Character Development: All of team Lie become a little more humane as time passes, but Naruto in particular deserves a special mention for turning from a heartless, manipulative Manipulative Bastard to a slightly more morally conscious, still-as-manipulative-but-makes-a-few-mistakes Manipulative Bastard who genuinely cares about his friends.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Gai's punishment for Team 7 for putting his team in the hospital is to run laps around Konoha until he tells them to stop. He let's them stop three days later, by which point Hinata's unconscious, Sasuke's crawling, and Naruto is barely walking.
- Darker and Edgier: For pretty much every major character.
- Naruto starts off in a very dark place and comes out befriending a torturer and a sadist. He isn't able to make friends naturally, which is largely due to being a Jinchuriki, but also due to his disturbed state of mind. When he finally does come upon somebody he can make friends with, he manipulates her into physically harming herself, transforming her admiration for him into almost total submission. While Hinata does become more confident as a result of Naruto's attention, she's given up on acknowledging anybody else that isn't somehow associated or important to Naruto's goals.
- Hinata develops a strong lust for Naruto, one that he doesn't always reciprocate. She has dreams about them getting intimate, insists that she and Naruto sleep in the same tent while on a mission, and is more than willing to undress in front of Naruto anywhere, and in front of anyone, he deems appropriate. Her and Sasuke's personal issues receive plenty of examination, and none of it heartening.
- Sakura, believing that Sasuke is in a relationship with a tall, voluptuous blonde (Naruko), suggests that they could still make a relationship work by having a threesome... moments before Naruko drops the act and flees. Sakura is twelve-years old. While the story takes place in a world filled with ninja, still, immediately suggesting a threesome is pretty forward.
- Deal with the Devil: All of Team Lie makes a deal with Kyuubi: Blood for power, power for blood.
- Determinator: Hinata most certainly. She's training harder than ever to be worthy of Naruto's attention, to the point where she risks her life getting impaled by multiple senbon during a training mission just to fulfill Naruto's objectives.
- Naruto tells Hinata to start a fight with someone - and lose. Hinata picks Ino, and against all odds, she keeps up the act long enough to get Ino to challenge her to a fight in front of their whole class. Hinata is confident that she can win the fight, but the hard part, and the whole point, is that she doesn't come off as the hero. She lets Ino pound the snot out of her, and her only victory is getting Naruto's acknowledgment.
- Did They or Didn't They?: The end of Chapter 5 and the start of Chapter 6. Naruto relieves Kakashi from being the lookout, and when it's Hinata's turn, she goes out to relieve him, but it isn't mentioned what clothing she's wearing. Soon it's Sasuke's turn, and when he arrives, he finds Hinata in her sleeping bag next to Naruto, both lying on a tree branch. Naruto moves the sleeping bag and reveals "pale flesh", and Sasuke leaves shortly after. The next day, there's a rather ambiguous mentioning of how Hinata and Naruto clean themselves, including rotting leaves that got stuck under their fingernails, and then the plot moves on to Naruto and Sasuke's sparring match. It's more-than-obvious by this point that Hinata wants to take the next step in their relationship, but the prose leaves it vague.
- Eldritch Abomination: Team Lie's first major enemy is a Shoggoth.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Hinata's in the middle of warning Sasuke and Naruto about murderous cultists in the building the latter two are fleeing into when she realizes she can't see anything at all behind them. The Byakugan protects it's wielder from seeing things that are damaging to their eyes or sanity, like an Eldritch Abomination.
- For Want Of A Nail: Hinata deliberately picking a fight with Ino and losing results in the latter becoming more focused on taijutsu.
- Gone Horribly Right: Naruto's and Hinata's attempt to always suppress their killing intent means Sasuke doesn't take very serious threats against his life seriously.
- Heroic BSoD: After their fight, Sasuke strings a bunch of wire around Naruto's neck to keep him quiet, but Naruto reacts to this and retreats from the rest of the group. When Hinata finds him, he's having his shadow clones commit stab themselves until they explode. The ninja wire around his throat greatly reminds Naruto of the trauma he endured toward the start of the story.
- Not long after, when Team 7 enters a barn full of ravaged cow offal, Sasuke has a BSOD as well, as the whole scene reminds him of his clan's massacre at the hands of Itachi.
- In-Series Nickname: Team 7 is better known as Team Lie.
- Mugging the Monster: The cult that kidnapped Team 7 to sacrifice them to the Seven Tailed Bear, didn't know Naruto contained the Kyuubi.
- Naked on Arrival: Played for Drama and Played for Laughs at the same time. Sasuke's fangirls celebrate when he and his team return to Konoha completely naked. They're all naked due to being stripped by a cult which then carved runes all over their bodies.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Yamato beats the hell out of Hinata in front of Naruto to punish both of them.
- Pet the Dog: Naruto's relationship started off as ruthlessly manipulative on his part, but eventually softened into a long series of this. The first and most shining example is shown when Ibiki suggests Naruto breaks his promise to Hinata. He is so distraught at the very idea he can barely form sentences.Naruto: I can't break that promise to Hinata, I can't!Ibiki: Why? Is it because she won't trust you anymore? Or because you staked your honor on a promise? Maybe you don't want to disappoint her? Love? A bargain? So I ask you again. Why?Naruto: Why?! Trust...promises...! She's Hinata!
- Screw Destiny: Kyuubi makes it very clear to Neji there's no such thing as destiny or fate.
- Scylla and Charybdis: At one point Team Lie has to choose between facing a house full of murderous cultists or the Shoggoth chasing them.
- Stepford Smiler: Naruto is a Type C. People know he is a psychopath, but he hides it by using an advanced Transformation Jutsu and crafting a female persona, Naruko. Sasuke notes at one point that Naruto's shadow clones sometimes have an emotional slip, which is seen when Naruko tricks a shopkeeper into increasing their day's pay by acting modest, but was trying to rob the man blind out of spite.
- Tranquil Fury: Sasuke doesn't believe Naruto's and Hinata's very real threats to kill him because they've learned to subconsciously suppress their killing intent.
- True Companions: Team 7/Lie eventually.
- Villain Protagonist: A toss-up between Team 7.
