Rehabilitate Naruto villian

[pspinler]

So, I've been getting into Naruto fanfiction of late, starting with S'TarKan's most excellent fic "Team 8", but also finding a number of other well written works. I guess when there's that many fics written, even a small percentage of good fics yields a decent number of worthy fics to read.

Anyway, I was wondering if there are any Naruto fics out there where the fic rehabilitates and redeems any of the major villians. In particular Orochimaru, but any other major villian, like Kabuto Yakushi, Itachi Uchiha, Pain, Madara Uchiha, or the like.

I'd prefer to avoid fics where the storyline is concentrated on a villian / heroine romance. In particular, Uchicha Itachi seems to be a popular romance writer target. (wtf???)

Thanks,
-- Pat

Edit: correct spellings of characters' names

[Comartemis]

I don't know if Haku can really be considered a villain (major or otherwise), but Tempered in Water features a really well-developed Female Haku/Naruto pairing. HitokiriOTD is putting the romance largely on hold until after the timeskip, but romance is definitely in the works from what I've seen.

[pspinler]

I don't know if Haku can really be considered a villain (major or otherwise), but Tempered in Water features a really well-developed Female Haku/Naruto pairing.

Yup. Darn good fic, I agree.

I'm not sure I'd call Haku one of the major villians of the story, though. He only featured in one story arc, and wasn't considered a major player on the order of Atasuke or Orochimaru.

There's also several good fics that have Haku surviving and befriending Naruto (although my memory for titles is abysmal). So, let's take a rehabilitated Haku out of the list of candidate fics.

-- Pat

[crystlshake]

Id run across one of the stories in one of the three naruto communities I check off and on that used the angle of Itatchi killing his clan (iirc) to prevent a hostile takeover action. I've got the information muddled with some other stories but I think the one Im thinking of had Itatchi kill Kisame before returning to Konoha with Naruto's aid. It was a powerful Naruto story as well I think. There may be a few others in there as well.

http://www.fanfiction.net/communities/anime/Naruto/

I believe the story should be within the first 1-3 update pages of one of the three communities:

Cool not deadlast

Kyuubi Induced

1,000 Plus

[pspinler]

Scanning through one of the recommended reading topics on The Fanfiction Forum, I found this one:

Never Cut Twice by shadowmaster62

in which Naruto becomes a missing nin and is tutored by, and later is the companion of Itachi and Kisame when Itachi and Kisame withdraw from Atasuke.

-- Pat

[CJN]

I haven't read it myself, but Puppet Master Naruto by SerpentSannin might fit:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3740802/1/Puppet_Master_Naruto
"Akasuna no Sasori finds a heavily beaten and dying Naruto outside the walls of Konoha and decided to take the boy under his wing after realizing just who or what he contains in his navel. OOC Sasori OOC Naruto Features Adult Themes NarutoAnko"