#wave arc

And I started to think of how Asuma's death kind of represented a turning point where the konaha 12 are not kids anymore, things are getting serious, main ensemble members are drying, ect.

And I thought, the other thing like that in the original series was the death of the third homage. Exept even that didn't hit as hard because he was old and stuff. Then I realized one big opportunity lost with his death: the person was likely to maybe someday tell Naruto the truth of his parents, especially since he's the one who made it classified in the first place.

Here's where the AU comes in: I was trying to think of scenarios in which the third would have allowed Naruto to know about his parents during the time before the thirds death, and had a thought: there's a bunch of fics out there of Wave having some connection to hidden Whirlpool village, Uzushio, either neighbors or even that they were protected by/allied with Uzushio before the village destruction.

So what if, during the wave arc, Tazuna and the other villagers reacted when they heard Naruto's last name, being overjoyed to hear that at least one Uzumaki survived. Being hush hush about it because they don't want Gato to know because having an Uzumaki present threatens his standing.

Eventually they get Naruto alone with some of the older villagers who express their relief and exitment that there are still surviving Uzumaki after the destruction of Uzushio.

Naruto is so confused, poor kid. These old people are almost acting like he's some long lost relative or something, something about his last name, the destruction of some place called Uzushio? And what's this about asking about his family? Are all these old people senile and mistaking him for someone else?

The villagers confirm his last name is Uzumaki, and that they are talking about his clans home village of Uzushio, which was destroyed during the last war. What do you mean you've never heard of it? Is your ancestral homeland surely your parents would have mentioned it.

And then they learn that he's an orphan left all alone in the world, nothing of his family save his name and the symbol on his back. He tries so suggest that maybe he's not related to those Uzumaki, only to be rebuffed by a team of geriatrics, each pointing out some innocuous feature they swear is an Uzumaki trait, from his speech pattern and large amount of Chakra, to his ears and his chin.

By the end a group of Wave villagers old enough to remember Uzushio in its prime have mentally adopted Naruto and started telling him stories of Uzushio and the Uzumaki Clan, even trying to determine who he might be related to.

Eventually an old woman remembers a friend of hers, who's daughter was sent away to Konoha years before the attack, to be a Konoha ninja. they figure that must have been his mother, and naruto puts together that he was born around the same time as the nine tails attack of the village and they come to the conclusion that his mother probably died in the attack, weakened from childbirth, maybe even dying to protect her baby, and that he must not have had a dad in the picture for him not to be claimed afterwards.

Maybe they even introduce him to a village elder who's actually an Uzumaki and married into Wave decades ago, even long before the attack, and as she took her husband's name and wasn't a ninja, no one caught on. Maybe it Turns out to be his great aunt or something.

I'm imaging the bridge being named something representing the return of the Uzumaki clan.

Also, when the missions over and is time to return to Konoha, the entire village of Wave tries to fight for custody, especially his Great Aunt, who insists on accompanying them back to Konoha to interrogate the Hokage as to her grand nephew's treatment.

Maybe his newly found great aunt or distant cousin decides to move to Konoha, maybe with a bunch of her kids and grandkids giving Naruto a bunch of cousins. Or maybe he just gains a single elderly Uzumaki refugee from Wave.

I feel like Sasuke would be pretty mad/offended on narutos behalf over having the knowledge of his family hidden from him, since at least Sasuke has his memories and his clans belongings.

34) The presentation of the three main characters has changed,

Before Sakura was presented solely on the basis of her crush on Sasuke and her dislike of Naruto, now, she's granted the title of “the brightest of Naruto’s classmates”. Her apprehension to Naruto has been erased, but her crush still remains an important definition of her character. Naruto and Sasuke’s presentations are intrinsically the same -different wording.

35) Kekkei Genkai are feared -therefore, those who possess them are prosecuted/killed. The idea is introduced by Haku in Chapter 29. While what he says is solely linked to Mist -Konoha had two clans with kekkei genkai (now, one), the weariness towards those with such bloodlines might be “universal”. Tobirama’s reason for discriminating against the Uchiha was because of how their doujutsu developed and evolved, and nothing of his weariness was overcome by those who came after him. Kakashi is particularly accepted because he has the Sharingan but not the blood/chakra of an Uchiha, he’s not part of the bloodline.

Furthermore, Sasuke is directly mentioned in the exchange, and Naruto links Haku’s words with Sasuke’s goal: To kill someone (Itachi who killed his clan by the fear it installed in the power-ups: they were accused and punished for controlling the Kyuubi without a shred of single evidence, Itachi even canonically states later on that there’s “no hope for this clan”, meaning, those who carry the bloodline).

36) Iruka is the person Naruto cares for the most, at this point, he might even be more important to Naruto than Konoha itself. That notion is cemented (but it might be a lie of Kakashi), in chapter 34, where Kakashi states that Iruka is Naruto’s hero.

37) An interesting point to make: Kakashi states that Konoha (therefore, he), knows about Zabuza’s attempt to coup and kill the current Mizukage -alongside his wish to raise funds to do another coup. Therefore, Konoha must be aware of the bloodline cleansing that is happening in Mist, a genocide on such a large scale can’t be kept secret that long -furthermore, there’s no indication that the murders are happening quietly either since those who possess kekkei genkai are pushed to hide their bloodline.

Meaning: Kakashi and Konoha claim to fight for “the right thing”, but they do nothing -nor military, nor diplomatically, to stop such massacres; they are still pretty much in touch with the Mizukage that carried out/ordered such killings. Kakashi downgrading Zabuza for working for Gato is absolutely comical because not only is he working for an authoritarian regime but also downgrades someone that (even as despicable he is), is actually trying to do something.

Kakashi (and probably Konoha), can’t differentiate between a person’s ambitions from their ideals, they might seem equal on the surface, but their intrinsically different -which is one of the reasons Kakashi would never stand against Konoha, he can’t differentiate between the two. One means an individualistic goal, the other one is founded on the possibility of a communal achievement.

38) Sakura recites one of the shinobi rules -those were written by Tobirama. Kakashi and Naruto were judging Inari’s cowardliness with the perspective and internalization of the same rule Sakura is now reciting. Inari is a civilian and can’t be judged by those premises; Naruto is excused by his age and experience. Kakashi isn’t. While I’m on it, that same rule seems to be the one Sakumo broke and the reason why he was shunned away; it seems to be also the rule Danzo took by heart, essentially proving that Konoha (and Hiruzen) aren’t opposed to that mindset. Hiruzen creates a feeling of loyalty and magnifies it in order to exploit it - while Danzo decides to erase all perception from an individual, merely making his soldiers live to achieve a particular goal.

39) Naruto’s speech to Zabuza (here and here) about the way shinobi apparently need to be emotionless in order to complete every mission or becoming strong is a direct contradiction to the rule introduced by Sakura herself. The way Kishimoto wrote those scenes means that their clash of ideals is on purpose, even Zabuza admits that shinobi are human beings and they aren’t able to completely erase their feelings (yes, that also contradicts the Curse of Hatred that is later on introduced).

40) Kakashi knows the problem of the belief system that puts value on shinobi's lives and yet decides to endure it (1, 2). (I won’t go in detail here because there’s a full meta on Kakashi and his character coming).

41) Sasuke literally rejects Sakura when she asks him to go out on a date.

Then, in the next chapter when she tries to ask him out again (albeit not that directly as in Wave), he tells her that she’s even in worse condition than Naruto.

Furthermore, Sasuke acknowledges that she’s trying to flirt with him and rejects her regardless -meaning, he’s showing no romantic interest (she might not know that it wasn’t Naruto who tried to kiss her back in chapter 3, but she is more than aware that Sasuke knows about her intentions and still continually rejects her, her insistence is unrequited).

42) Since her value is tied to Sasuke’s perception of her (as we mentioned before), she gets particularly violent towards Naruto. Now, I’m linking the panel where she actually punches him because he hinted that they were sentimentally involved, but she previously displayed verbal aggression towards Naruto for no real reason other than being rejected (and downgraded) by Sasuke.