AN: What's up, those of you still reading? Since this is a new arc, we are giving you a new recap of the story so far. But first, there are a few things we would like to say to you all. Firstly: to that new guest reviewer I would like to say "I don't update when we finish a chapter, I update to a schedule because I have the next several chapters already written." Secondly: thank you to everyone reviewing, certain people's puns give us a good laugh. Thirdly: this is the first arc that does not follow cannon closely, so all of you who wanted us to do our own thing are about to find out what it was all gearing up for.

Now, on with the recap.

The Adopting Naruto arc: ch 1-12.

Iruka adopts Naruto as his brother, but unfortunately this annoys Danzo. While Naruto and and his new bestie Hinata are off pranking the Uchiha police, Danzo is busy trying to assassinate Iruka. It does not work because Mei doesn't want to kill her favourite enemy until they are at least adults, and hires Wind and Rain to rescue Iruka. Fugaku grows a mustache and stops the coup just in time to attend Danzo's execution for attempting to kill a loyal Leaf shinobi. Naruto decides he wants to learn manners and fuuinjutsu, and Iruka feels up to the task.
Arashi and Kazama arc: ch 13-21

Naruto has his sixth birthday party during which Shisui gets on a sugar high and Iruka convinces Lord Third to tell Naruto about Minato and Kushina. Naruto learns about his parents. A month later, he gets a late birthday present from Jiraiya, which consists of school supplies. Kakashi starts dating Tenzou. While Iruka trains for the chunin exams, Naruto summons Joe the shinigami and makes himself float. Iruka takes the chunin exams, Naruto adjusts to the floating life, and Arashi and Kazama turn up. Fugaku suggests they adopt Naruto and Iruka, and the Fourth Hokage's parents obligingly take in the two boys. Oh, and Iruka makes chunin, but we forgot to mention that.

The Academy Days arc: ch 22-29

Karin and her Mum pack up and move to the Leaf, where Karin summons Joe and makes friends with Madoka and Ino. Arashi, Naruto and Iruka have lots of fun together, but Kazama doesn't like Iruka. A year passes, during which Iruka turns 17 and Naruto turns 7. Kazama and Iruka have the shouting match that has been building all year. Iruka goes on a mission with Itachi, Hana and Gai to cool off. Iruka makes love with Mei in the Temple of Joe, and is not even sorry when she takes the scroll he and his team were sent to retrieve. While Iruka is doing that, Itachi makes friends with Hana and earns the respect of Kakuzu. When Iruka gets back to the Leaf, he makes friends with Kazama. The two of them decide to have Naruto apply for the specialist test when he graduates the Academy. Oh, and Naruto stopped floating.
Kakashi arc: ch 30-35

Naruto, now twelve, is not allowed to take the specialist test: Mizuki passes him with terrible scores out of spite. Team Seven Takes the bell test with Kakashi. Moving on. Mizuki steals the sacred scroll of sealing from Lord Third's house, and Naruto makes friends with Konohamaru. Wind and Rain's kid makes a brief appearance. Eizo-Mori makes his debut.
The Land of Waves Arc: ch 36-51

Zabuza and Haku don't die. Sasuke awakens her sharingan. Wind and Rain steal back the Sacred Scroll of Sealing. Naruto learns the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, and masters flying with his anti-gravity seal.

Sasuke's filler: ch 52-53

Sasuke, Kazama, Madoka and Kakashi's kid all get kittens.
Chunin exams arc: ch 54-101

Eizo forces Sasuke to be friends with him. Sasuke's Dad tells her she can't take the chunin exams because she is too grounded. Sasuke and her team enter anyway. Itachi gets pregnant with Shisui's baby and Fugaku gets pissed. Eizo uses his cuteness to uncover Orochimaru's plot to destroy Konoha and gains Ibiki as a babysitter. Orochimaru does not show up in the Forest of Death. Sasuke and Naruto accidentally kiss in the Forest of Death. In the preliminary matches, Gaara breaks Lee, and Neji beats up Hinata. Karin awakens her chakra chains, and Kabuto advances to the finals for once. Jiraiya trains Naruto for the chunin exams, but Naruto does not want to use the Nine Tail's chakra because that's stealing. Kakashi trains Sasuke, who gets to hang out with Kakashi's wife and kids, Tenzou, Aki and Minoru. In the finals, Naruto knocks the back-stories out of Gaara and Neji, and Sasuke is nearly crushed to death. Fugaku awakens rinnegan, and accidently summons Konan after the invasion starts. Konan stops Fugaku from killing Rasa while Rain kills Orochimaru for realsies. Unfortunately, Rain didn't study up about the Reanimation jutsu, and now the Leaf is stuck with Hashirama and Tobirama Senju for the foreseeable future. While that's happening, Deputy Kinoko and Jiraiya defend the village from the snakes and traitorous Uchihas. Karin's mum saves Sasuke, and is revealed to be the long lost Queen of the Land of Whirling Tides. Jiraiya does not see Konan before Naruto drags him away to find Tsunade, who can fix Sasuke for good. Konan is sad and makes up an excuse to come back. Lord First adopts Tenzou as his very own.
Mushroom filler: 102-104

Deputy Kinoko adopts Kimimaro and Jugo. Kimimaro does not die.
Finding Tsunade arc: 105-123

Naruto and Jiraiya go on a road trip to find Tsunade and convince her to help Sasuke. Jiraiya begins teaching Naruto the Rasengan while they search. Naruto continues to doubt his parents' love. Meanwhile, Jiriaya's old sidekicks from the Hidden Rain arrive in the Leaf and settle down to wait until Jiraiya's return. Eizo turns two, Okami's strength gets progressively less and the Hokage gets more and more fed-up with his job. He just wants to retire, dammit! Jiriaya's illegitimate love child, Kimiko, turns up in the Leaf after her mother's death. Arashi volunteers as babysitter, and before twenty four hours are up, Nagato has already found Kimiko and made friends, much to Konan's amusement. Yahiko, Nagato and Konan start hanging out at Arashi and Kazama's house to play with Kimiko.

A masked man approaches Tsunade asking her to join his cause, but she tells him she'll think about it. Jiraiya and Naruto find her that very day, and Naruto promptly challenges Tsunade to a duel, much to Shizune's horror. After beating Naruto and his incomplete rasengan with one finger, Tsunade bets him Sasuke's life and the First Hokage's necklace that he can't master it in a week. Naruto's response is "challenge accepted!", and he sets out to master the jutsu. After a week of failing miserably, Naruto is nearly ready to give up. But the appearance of the masked man, and a strange, plant-like being distracts Tsunade from the bet. Jiraiya barely survives his fight with the black-white, man-eating plant monster. Tsunade gets her but kicked by the woodstyle using masked man. Naruto arrives on the scene just in time to get pissy at the masked man for wearing a mask while not Rain. He breaks the mask to see who's under it, only for the masked man and the plant monster to gap it before Naruto can see who he just smacked in the face. Tsunade gets over her fear of blood in time to stop Naruto from dying of the fatal injury the masked man gave him.

Back in the Leaf, Okami has reached her limit, and Karin takes over healing Sasuke after the Queen collapses. Fugaku makes it clear he does not want Oaki to kill herself over Sasuke, and Okami takes a well earned nap. Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto and Jiraiya arrive just in time for Tsunade to pull Sasuke back from the brink of death. Okami, rejuvenated from her nap, assists while Karin replenishes her chakra by stuffing her face. Fugaku and Eizo are both very happy their favourite Sasuke will be alright. Naruto falls asleep on Jiraiya, who ends up having to carry his new sidekick home. Upon reaching Naruto's home, Jiraiya finds his old sidekicks reading a bedtime story to his kid. Needless to say, Jiraiya is much surprised. He resolves to be a good Dad, and begins at once.

The next day, Tsunade and Jiraiya both refuse to be Hokage, and Naruto puts a candidate of his own forward. Lord Third agrees, and convinces Fugaku to be the new Hokage. Lord Third then makes Naruto a chunin, along with Shino, Kabuto and Shikamaru. Kimiko, with some help from Naruto, befriends the Konohamaru Trio and ends up in the Academy. Even though Kimiko's mother forbid her from learning the ninja arts, Kimoko wants to learn them, and launches herself into learning them after some encouragement from Iruka. Deputy Kinoko is made the new Police Chief, Fugaku is made the new Hokage, Sasuke wakes up, Killer Bee decides she wants Nagato as her boyfriend, no matter that she is a Cloud jinchuuriki and Nagato is the leader of the Hidden Rain. Naruto has a chat with Killer Bee then goes out for lunch with Kazama, who can and does eat three times as much ramen as Naruto. Rasa, horrified that Fugaku is the Hokage, quits in frustration, fully intending to return to the Hat if the council cannot find someone else. Sasuke wakes up from her coma and is very confused about her Dad being Hokage.

The Moon Filler: 124-129

Hiashi and Hizashi learn about their dear, departed mother. Turns out she was a princess from the moon. Hizashi adopts Toneri Otsutsuki and Hiashi becomes King of the Moon. (It's a filler - well mostly. We would've summed it up in flashbacks when necessary in the upcoming arc anyway, so why not make a mini-arc out of it?)

That's about it for the recap. It hasn't been so long between the new arc and the last arc this time, so we only recapped the important points. Now on with our first non-canon-following arc!

After a week doing nothing but relax and regret nothing, Rasa decides he should probably go back to his village and be Kazekage again. There is no way they could have found a new Kazekage - he just needed to get away for a while. But now, after a spending a week in a forest on the border, Rasa is quite ready to assume his responsibilities without the risk of going on a killing spree every time someone asks how his face is.

Oh. Gaara gets the tendency towards killing from Rasa, not Shukaku. Shukaku just encourages Gaara. Damn.

It looks like Rasa owes Gaara an apology. Maybe Gaara's recent mildness will last if Rasa is a bit nicer - okay, a LOT nicer - to his son.

Decided, Rasa heads back to the Hidden Sand. When he arrives, Rasa heads to the council room. For some reason, they are in session.

The council turns when Rasa enters. "Ah, Lord Rasa, you are back," says Baki. "Fortunately, we found a new Kazekage."

Rasa is too shocked to say anything. Where did they find a new Kazekage? The Kazekage chair turns towards Rasa, revealing Gaara. The Kazekage hat is sitting crooked on Gaara's head, and the robes are too big for him. He looks like a kid playing dress up. "G-Gaara..?" Rasa stammers out.

"Hello, Father," says Gaara, smiling, and pushing the Kazekage hat into place, only for it to slip down in front of his eyes. "I am Kazekage now."

"How?" asks Rasa. "Why?"

"Well…"

After the door closes behind Rasa, Baki bangs his head on the table. Gaara wonders what the council will do.

"What's gotten into him?" growls one of the councilmen. "He can't just up and leave! He's a KAGE!"

"Not if he keeps acting like that!" snaps another councilman. "We can't let this kind of behavior go unchecked."

"We have no choice but to put up with him," says Baki. "There is no one else who can be our Kazekage."

Gaara decides to take the opportunity to realize his new dream. "Can I be the Kazekage?" he asks.

"You?" asks one of the councilmen. "Aren't you a bit young?"

"Maybe," says Gaara, shrugging. "But I'm more powerful than all of you." He decides to give a little speech to convince them. "I have abandoned my goal of living to kill others. Now I wish to protect my village and my people. If you allow me to take the position of Kazekage I will lead the Hidden Sand into a brighter future. I have ideas about how to boost our economy, and reform our schooling system. If you allow me to bear this honourable burden, I will protect the Hidden Sand and its people with my life. I will even secure an iron clad alliance with the Hidden Leaf."

"Allow us to discuss this," says Baki, and the entire council falls to discussing Gaara as if he is not there. After a heated discussion that Gaara does not bother keeping up with, Baki turns his attention back to Gaara and says, "The council has decided: you shall be our Kazekage. Your age will not be an issue unless you start actually behaving like a twelve year old."

"...and that is what happened," finishes Gaara, pushing up the Hat again.

"Well, f###," says Rasa, once again regretting all his decisions. He can almost hear Fugaku laughing at him.

With Sparky sitting on his shoulder, Naruto heads to the hospital to see Sasuke. As he comes close to Sasuke's room, Naruto hears the murmur of voices. Curious, he sneaks closer to eavesdrop.

"...and then Iruka took them to meet this year's new entrants," Mr. Nice Hokage is telling Sasuke. "Lord Second remarked that the new entrants seem older than they were in the past, while Lord First cooed over how adorable all the baby ninjas are - his words, not mine. Iruka told them that due to the amount of mental issues caused by entering and leaving the Academy too early, they raised the minimum entrance age to seven and the minimum graduation age to ten. Lord First got all emotional and started crying, saying that his dream of a world where children do not have to die in adult's battles is close to coming true. Then Lord Second scolded his brother for crying, only to start crying himself."

Sasuke laughs weakly.

Naruto grins at Sparky, who ruffles his feathers in an amused way.

"Of course, Lord Second tried to deny that he was crying," finishes Mr. Nice Hokage. "But no one was fooled."

Sasuke laughs again and says, "The First and Second Hokages sound like dorks."

"Oh, they are the biggest dorks," says Mr. Nice Hokage.

"Dad," says Sasuke quietly. "Why do you and the rest of the clan like Naruto so much? It doesn't make sense."

"Not just Naruto," says Mr. Nice Hokage. "Hinata too. They saved our clan."

Naruto sucks in his breath. When did he and Hinata save the Uchiha clan?

"When?" asks Sasuke. "How? What did they save us from?"

"Listen," says Mr. Nice Hokage. "And I will tell you a story."

When Fugaku is a child attending the Academy, he is bullied for being an Uchiha. He is not alone - all the Uchiha children are bullied and ostracized. They all think the same thing: when we graduate they will finally accept us.

Except they do not.

If anything, the adults are worse than the children. With few exceptions, the Uchiha clan is hated and ostracized by all. At first, Fugaku does not understand why. Then he realizes that they are afraid. The people of the Leaf are afraid of one of their founding clans.

After he becomes the Chief of Police, Fugaku meets with the clan to discuss what to do about this. Kinoko suggests they win people's trust - after all she has recently married a non Uchiha civilian. Fugaku agrees with the plan, and the rest of the clan skeptically agrees to try it. It goes well for a while.

But everything changes when the Nine Tails attacks.

For some reason, after the attack, rumors spread across the village that the Uchiha clan staged the attack in an attempt to kill the Hokage and seize power. Now all the hard work the Uchiha clan put into bonding with the village has been undone. People see them as traitors, monsters, evil. The clan calls for a coup d'etat. Unable to talk them out of it, Fugaku is forced to go along with the plan.

Then word spreads across the village that the nine tails is alive. It is imprisoned inside Naruto Uzumaki, the only child born the day the fox attacked. He has no parents, no blood relations, and soon the village believes he is the fox reborn as a human child. As a result, some of the hate directed towards the Uchiha clan lessens.

But still the clan will not back down. Itachi and Shisui work with the Hokage to try and stop the coup. Through some careful spying, Fugaku learns that if the clan does not abandon the coup they may face total annihilation. Having given up trying to talk the clan out of it, Fugaku hopes that Lord Third, Shisui and Itachi will find a way to stop the coup.

Fugaku wonders if he could stop the coup, if only he could find the right words to convince the clan.

And then one day, while he is mulling over his problem, Kinoko shoves Naruto into Fugaku's office. From the moment he steps in the door, Naruto does not stop talking. He manages to get right past Fugaku's defenses - close enough to touch - and starts inspecting Fugaku's paperwork. Fugaku is overcome by a splitting headache and drinks his tea in one go.

Naruto must've drugged it while inspecting the paperwork, because Fugaku wakes a few hours later with a mustache drawn on his face. He discovers after some sleuthing that Naruto and Hinata orchestrated and executed a plot to drug and draw mustaches on everyone in the police station. Shisui discovered them, and it would have been game over if he had not decided to help them.

Fugaku does not wash his mustache off right away and while it is still on his face he feels different, stronger. He does not feel quite right after he washes the fake mustache off and asks Mikoto if he can grow a real one. She laughs and tells him he can, but he'll owe her one in the future - she'll call in the favour when she needs it. So Fugaku grows his mustache.

Then Fugaku calls a meeting of the clan, at which Itachi and Shisui are present. He speaks to the clan, persuading them that a coup is a bad idea. Some are still doubtful, but after he tells them they could all die, or plunge the world into war if they continue down their current path, enough people change their minds for him to feel confident in banning any coup d'etat.

The clan puts more effort into being accepted than they ever did before the nine tails attack. Because Fugaku did not keep Hinata and Naruto's role in things a secret, the clan puts up with their antics and protects Naruto as much as they can. They cannot be everywhere at once, and Naruto is still abused by the villagers. The clan marvels at how he is so cheerful despite how he is treated. He inspires them to keep on trying, to keep moving forward. If Naruto can hold on to the dream of being accepted, so can the Uchiha clan.

Slowly but surely, the Uchiha clan is being accepted. And now, people are starting to see Naruto in a more positive light too.

Naruto stands with his back pressed against the wall, shaking. Sparky lays his head against Naruto's cheek.

That prank with the mustaches saved the Uchiha clan? Naruto had no idea. He knew the Uchiha clan was generally a lot happier after the prank, but this? Naruto does not know what to think.

"So that's why…" whispers Sasuke. "He saved the clan…"

"Yes," says Mr. Nice Hokage. "That is why. Now I have to go: I have a meeting or something. I will bring Eizo to see you later. He won't shut up unless I do."

Naruto hears Mr. Nice Hokage walk to the door. Naruto does not move, he just stares up at Mr. Nice Hokage.

Mr. Nice Hokage walks past him, seemingly not noticing Naruto standing there. But then he stops with his back to Naruto and says quietly, "Well, now you know."

He knew I was here all along! Naruto realizes as Mr. Nice Hokage walks away.