Okay, before anyone makes the comments. I am not trying to promote my own work, nor am I trying to attract new readers. I'm just trying to introduce something new. Some may not see the NaruSaku-like relation, while others may see it clearly.
Now with that out of the way, I'm going to just jump right in.
For those who don't know me to well...which is pretty much everyone on this site minus a few people, I am the author of a book series called "Chris Lynheart" (Len-heart) which was originally very inspired by Naruto. In fact, were it not for Naruto, I never would have gotten into writing, and my life would be an absolute mess right now.
Chris Lynheart was originally supposed be a fanfiction, but with different character names. However, as I was writing it, I suddenly got the idea. "Why worry about someone else's story when I can write my own?" Because of that one sentence, I erased what I'd written, and started over again.
The story starts off very similar to Naruto. In fact, it's almost a copy and paste. The problem at the time was that I was having trouble coming up with my own opening, so I thought I'd borrow Naruto's, which has a pretty decent opening. Of course, the story breaks away from the Naruto similarities pretty quickly, and it rapidly develops into its own story.
Now, the reason I say NaruSaku "still lives" is because my two main characters act fairly similar to Naruto and Sakura, but are still worlds apart.
For example, in the beginning of book one, Chris paints a clown face on the Washington Monument and is chased by police officers. He manages to slip away by blening in with a crowd of pedestrians, and slips away. However, he is caught by the sheriff of the D.C police force. He's then forced to clean up his mess, and is then taken to a newly opened restaurant. However, Chris, like Naruto, also has a powerful spirit sealed inside him, but because of a much different reason. The 9-tails was sealed inside Naruto for what is arguably a selfless cause to save the village. Chris, however, was kidnapped by the U.S government and used as an experiment where they sealed the Grim Reaper inside of him, hoping they could control Earth's elements and wipe out any who opposed them. However, the experiment was a presumed failure.
Chris is different from Naruto for several very powerful and heart-breaking things. Chris has no one to fall back on when things are getting out of hand. His memory was wiped before he was released from military custody, and his only two dreams are to meet his mother and hear her say "I love you" and to learn of his own past. Chris is beaten, teased, bullied, and just hands down tortured by the other students who he goes to school with. He's failed by the teachers for no reason, and he has attempted to end his life a number of times. Unlike Naruto, Chris tries to not make himself known, and tries to hide in the shadows so he can just remain in peace. However, he's not offered that kind of luxury.
Jessica Holland, the lead female of the series, comes into play in chapter five, which is named after her. Jessica's character goes even deeper into the lore of the story than Chris does, and has a gift called "Forayer's Sight" which allows her to look into a person's past by looking into their eyes. Jessica sees how Chris is being treated, and uses her "power" on him, which leads to their friendship.
Jessica becomes very defensive of Chris, and stands up for him in ways he'd never dreamed of. As the daughter of two U.S Marines, and the younger sister of a U.S Army Speacial Forces unit, she knows how to fight. She humiliates Chris's enemies, offers him comfort, brings him food, and convinces her parents to do something special for him. I don't want to spoil everything in case someone decides my book is worth checking out.
Jessica's main dream is to be a well known author and singer some day, but she also has a dream of seeing Chris's dreams coming true someday as well
Throughout the book, certain events happen with Jessica that weaken the seal holding the Reaper back inside Chris. And by the end of the book, he goes on a rampage after being forced to watch Jessica be beaten by his biggest enemy, Mathew Villmont and his friends.
Jessica learns about what happened, and Chris breaks the truth that he has the Reaper sealed away inside of him. This makes Jessica uneasy at first, but she eventually tells Chris she doesn't blame him for what happened, and that he and the Reaper are two different beings.
Their friendship continues to develop throughout the rest of the book before Chris leaves with a pre-ranking member of the Seventeen Assassins to learn about his past and control the Reaper's power.
Whether or not some view it as a similar pairing to NaruSaku, I picture their relationship as fairly similar. Of course, there has to be differences for obvious reasons.
I just thought I'd share.
