Trivia / True Potential

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Prior to Chapter 27, several readers complained that Naruto was too weak as a result of relying on the Kyūbi too much. DryBonesKing acknowledged the complaints in the Author's Note at the end of Chapter 27 and decided, in regards to Naruto's fight in that chapter, to remove a few elements of the fight where Naruto would have used the demon's chakra to show how he can fight on his own.
  • When Chapter 55 was first published, Naruto initially let go of Hidan's head following their fight during said chapter. Many readers complained over how stupid it was that he didn't bring Hidan's head back to Konoha instead. Recognizing his mistake, the author updated the chapter about one week later. In the updated version, Naruto attempts to bring Hidan's head back to Konoha by sealing it inside a scroll, but Zetsu intervenes and prevents him from doing so.
• Creator's Favorite: Besides the four main characters, the author is very vocal about his liking of the jinchūriki. While Naruto and Gaara get about the same focus and development as canon, Han, Rōshi, Yagura, and Utakata are prominently featured in the fic as early as before the Time Skip. Fū, Yugito, and Killer B are later introduced after the time skip. Others characters featured in this fanfic that he listed as being among his favorites on his profile include Haku, Kushina, Minato, Jiraiya, Itachi, Deidara, and Rock Lee.
• Schedule Slip: The story went through almost all of 2017 without a single update, until a new chapter was posted in February 2018. Reasons for the lack of updates include the author's own personal problems, as well as being unable to write a mystery driven arc a la Phoenix Wright or Danganronpa before giving up, and settling for something else.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The author's notes for Chapter 57 mentions that Naruto would've learn about his jinchūriki status from Han during his first C-Rank mission, instead of from Mizuki like in canon. Those same notes also mention that the fanfic was supposed to start with Hiruzen suckering Anko into accepting to take on a genin team (which is only alluded to in the fanfic itself). She would then convince him to let her choose her genin, leading to her "stalking" all the academy students before choosing Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru. However, the author scrapped this idea because 1. he wanted to develop the friendship between Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru, and thus making them become friends while they were still at the academy was more important to the story than having Anko choose them; and 2. he had a hard time making the conversation between Anko and Hiruzen work, so he decided to only allude to it.
  • According to the author's notes, Hidan's introduction was initially meant to be the focus of a much longer arc, basically being yet another "C-Rank mission going wrong" in which Team Anko fights several Jashin Cultists, eventually leading to a fight against Hidan on a Jashin Temple. The author decided to cancel it upon realizing how little it added to the actual story.
  • Initially, Shikamaru and Temari were supposed to become a couple like in canon, given that the author is a big shipper for that couple. However, while writing the first interaction between Shikamaru and Kurotsuchi, it inspired him to have Kurotsuchi become Shikamaru's girlfriend instead.
  • According to Word of God, the ROOT Arc would've had Team 7 fighting against three ROOT Agents who would've been revealed to have been Uchiha that Danzō kidnapped prior to the Uchiha Massacre.
  • Homura and Koharu would've been involved in chasing Danzō.
  • More fights were planned for the Kumo Invasion, and some of them are even set up in earlier chapters. The cut fights are: Darui, Neji, and Tenten vs. Nasumareta, Karin vs. Ajisai, Tsunade vs. Edo!Tensei Hanzo, Kiba/Risho/Roto vs. Edo!Tensei Kakuzu, Koharu/Homura vs. Edo!Tensei Kinkaku/Ginkaku and a chase-fight between Han and Kabuto, albeit these fights probably still happened, just as Offscreen Moments of Awesome. Kabuto, for example, references a chase with Han later on.

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