Enken

Enken (えんけん, ENKEN; literally, "Looking Into the Distance") is a series, based in the manga universe of  (written by ), written by User:Ten Tailed Fox. The main character, Ryun Uchiha, is a reserved, dedicated, and highly opinionated who searches for a way to bring peace to the war-torn ninja world, as well as to restore the fallen Uchiha clan to its former glory.

The story began in October of 2008 under the title Naruto: Another Road and, later that same year, a second title was given for the second part of the series; Naruto: Trials of a Shinobi. Shortly after writing began, User:Silver-Haired Seireitou (then called User:Seireitou), User:Narutokurosaki547, and User:Echo Uchiha became prominent co-writers, forming the concept of the Yonkō, which became a re-occurring theme within the series.

The series, as a whole, wasn't given an official title until September 1, 2012, when the name Enken was coined by the original author, Ten Tailed Fox, to define the general mindset of the characters within the series.

Enken "Manga"
Enken is called "the manga" by the author. Though it is a fan fiction series and not literally a manga, the term "manga" is often used to denote the canon side of the story.

Setting
The series takes place in the fictional continent on which the original Naruto series takes place on, however, several new countries and locations appear. Additionally, there are other continents that have been introduced in this fan fiction series, such as the Lost Lands, a continent with its own ninja villages. These villages, however, appear to be more futuristic than the ones on the main Naruto continent, and seem to find their basis in the.

The majority of the series takes place in a newly introduced country on the main Naruto continent, called the Land of Mountains. The Land of Mountains is a medium-sized country that resides just south of the border of the. As the story progresses, the Land of Mountains becomes more prominent in the world, eventually gaining equal status to the and becoming a major player in world politics

Growth and Popularity
The series became popular at a rapid pace upon its introduction. Then called Naruto: Another Road, the series quickly expanded to include characters from most of the major users on the Naruto Fanon Wiki at the time. It was during this time that the series lost its sense of individuality, becoming simply the story of the Yonkō, until early September of 2012, when it was given the blanket term Enken to describe all of the occurrences in the series.

After its first year, the series took on a site wide role, with the majority of the users, both major and minor, taking some form of role in the plot. While many of times their contributions were for the sake of their own fan fiction series, such as those of User:The dark ninja, they also inadvertently became part of Enken as well. Other site wide events, such as User:Cyberweasel89's The Watchers event became part of the story when characters from Enken were incorporated into it.

By late 2009, it is safe to say that Enken (though it was not named such yet) was the most popular series, as well as the most contributed to and the largest, on the entire Naruto Fanon Wiki. It spawned four spin-off series, Naruto Raijū, Naruto Raijū: The Beginning, Naruto Raijū: Endgame, and Naruto Raijū: The Return, which focused on the Mazuka clan and other characters that were irrelevant to the main series; though it did mention the main characters of Enken, such as Ryun Uchiha, which served to tie it in to the main series.

The series died down in popularity by 2010 and by 2011, the stories of Enken were referred to by many Naruto Fanon Wiki users, especially those that had participated in its rise, as the "glory days" or the "golden era" of Naruto Fanon. A final series of arcs were announced at the end of August 2012 to finally bring the series to a close.

Plot Overview
Many years before the start of both Enken and the canon Naruto, the Second Shinobi World War ravaged the world. During this war, four persona emerged that would eventually become prominent figures in shinobi society. They were called the Yonkō; a group consisting of Hikaru Kurosaki, Seireitou Hyūga, Ryun Uchiha, and Echo Uchiha. The group were the students of prominent jōnin, Shōyō Kawahiru.

Fast-forwarding past the events of Naruto and the, the shinobi world is in disarray. The actions of, who had taken up the guise of the legendary Madara Uchiha and used the codename "" before his identity was revealed, had caused the shinobi system to be thrown into doubt. During this chaotic time, Ryun Uchiha, who had been a survivor of the, had become a wanderer in the distant Land of Mountains. There he meets his old teammate and rival, Seireitou Hyūga, and the events of the series begin moving.

Most of the series revolves around Ryun's constant attempts to keep his younger brother, Tora Uchiha, safe from harm. To do this, he is pit against villains such as Zukia Tojiro, the evil brother of the, the group known as Kagekenin, the evil shinobi Myoken, and more recently, the mysterious masked man, Zoku.

Enken is primarily, though it maintains a healthy balance of comedy, personal drama, and action. Character development is heavily emphasized, best exemplified in the cases of Ryun Uchiha, Tora Uchiha, and Seireitou Hyūga, who's personalities, beliefs, and goals evolve as the series progresses. Like the canon series of Naruto, Enken focuses initially on the exploits of the Yonkō, however, it eventually branches out to explore other characters. Another major point of the series is that events are not random and characters, even those that may not have crossed paths yet in the series, are all connected in one form or another. Actions have consequences in the series, just like in real life, that rear their head in the form of new story arcs or even good characters turning evil, and vice versa.

Characters
As the main story does, Enken possesses a very large and colorful cast of characters that all have a heavy impact on the series. While Ryun is the main character of the series, most characters get their time in the spotlight, and several of their histories and actions are explored to enrich the story and give the reader a better understanding of the characters as they go about their lives within the story world. Ryun in particular begins the story with only his brothers, Tora and Sanji Uchiha, as his close personal friends. However, as his journey progresses and he meets more and more characters, the cast of people that surround him and push him further as a character also grows.

Unlike Naruto, Enken doesn't place an emphasis on the the three-man teams that are so prominent in that series. This is mainly a vast majority of the characters in Enken are fully grown from the onset of the series. Student-teacher relationships play a heavy role in the story, best demonstrated in the relationship the Yonkō had and revered with their sensei, Shōyō Kawahiru. Ryun and Seireitou, in particular, receive training and instruction under a variety of masters during the course of the series and develop unique bonds with each of them, furthering their character development.

Histories of certain characters, especially the main four, also play an important role in the story. They are often used to enlighten the reader on why a situation is the way it is in the present time of the story, such as to explain a character's motives, desires, plans, or what made them into the person they are at any given point in the story.

As with Naruto, many of the characters have their names derived or borrowed from. Often times, these are obvious and are meant to be. Puns on certain names, items, and topics are also prominent.