-->"Itachi didn't kill the clan, instead he and his friends are teaching the next generation to drive them (and maybe the rest of Konoha) crazy. Won't that be fun?"

Itachi chooses a different path and arranges for several academy children to receive extra training via "ninja summer camp" leading to some interesting ForWantOfANail effects. Can be found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8560313/1/The-Somewhat-Cracked-Mind-of-Uchiha-Itachi here]] and [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/7434022 here.]]

Has not been updated since late May 2017; may be a DeadFic.

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!!This fanfic contains examples of:
* AccidentalTruth: Chapter 9 has Mizuki do this via guesswork when trying to distract Kabuto, where he blabs about the Uchiha's current status in the village, their and others' problems with Danzou, and something surprisingly similar to the original coup plan (shocking the older Uchiha nearby). He actually doesn't know that much about any of the three due to his low security clearance as a chunin, thus making it this trope to himself, too. When Sasuke and Naruto find out way later how close to right he was about the coup, they're both shocked.
* ActionGirl: Most female ninja in Konoha. Often happily commented on by Kisame, who thinks it's awesome.
* AdaptationalBadass: In addition to the Konoha 12 getting some upgrades compared to canon, Tobi is even more of a threat in this story; in the original canon, the only Mangekyo Sharingan ability he ever displayed was Kamui, but in this story has can also perform [[MindRape Tsukuyomi]] and [[TechnicolorFire Amaterasu]].
* AdaptationalHeroism: There's a lot of this.
** Kisame befriended Itachi and is now a Konoha shinobi.
** Itachi is not a missing nin and has not killed off his family.
** Sasuke is a lot more mentally stable than in canon, as a result of making friends and not seeing his family murdered.
** Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha oppose the Uchiha Coup plan, [[spoiler: and fight on the side of Konoha during the Uchiha Civil War over the issue]].
** Mizuki is prevented from becoming Emo, which means he never becomes evil in the first place.
** Deidara bonds with Onoki over the fantastic explosions Dust Release creates, and never joins Akatsuki because of this and the fact that Hidan is a terrible recruiter.
* AdaptationalWimp: Of a sort; Itachi may be strong and healthy in this fic's timeline, but he has yet to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. As a result, he's unable to handle being double-teamed by Sasori and Kakuzu without backup, and he [[CurbStompBattle badly loses]] a genjutsu battle against Tobi, who Tsukuyomi's him into a 3-day coma.
* AlmightyJanitor: Iruka is strong enough to qualify for jonin rank, but refuses to try for it since jonin are required to go on more missions and his dream job was to teach at the Academy. [[spoiler:He gets promoted anyway after defeating Danzo and returning Shisui's eye alongside Mizuki. Sarutobi then offers to let him stay at the Academy in exchange for playing therapist for the liberated ROOT kids]].
* AlmightyMom: Mikoto has her moments.
** Yoshino Nara, Shikamaru's mom, at one point killed a guy with her [[NoodleImplements ''sandal'']].
** According to Chiyo, while they may have contracted some of their father's "crazy", the Suna Siblings most definitely have their mother's "brains".
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Hiashi's making up for lost time.
* AnimalCompanion: Sakura tames a park squirrel she names Cappy (Sasuke resuced it from choking on a plastic cap with surgery) and Naruto comes up with seals to let her summon him. He's very useful and even helps her beat Hinata in the finals since his limbs are too tiny to easily disable.
* ArchnemesisDad:
** How Gaara sees the Fourth Kazekage. The warning that he gives to the Konoha ninja makes this very explicit.
-->''Attention: Suna and Oto are about to invade you. My siblings and I side with the Leaf. Please show Baki-sensei leniency if possible. '''Go to hell, Dad'''.''
** His siblings feels the same and barely acknowledge him as their father. [[spoiler:Kankuro even admits that while he's willing to work with Rasa to protect the village, he will ''never'' forgive him for what he did to Gaara]].
* ArrangedMarriage: Tsume arranges one between Sakura and Kiba when she sees Sakura's taijutsu skills. They just sort of go with it, since they can decide to dissolve it once they're both fifteen or chunin, whichever is first.
* BadassBookworm: Iruka, Sakura, and Itachi.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The Sand Siblings ditch Suna after befriending the Konoha 12. They only go home when the main source of their bad treatment, their father, is removed from power.
* BigBrotherInstinct:
** Iruka and Mizuki to Naruto. Mizuki even threatens a nurse with giant shuriken for ignoring him when Naruto is clearly sick.
** Itachi to Sasuke. Therefore he is very upset about Orochimaru's apparent obsession with his brother.
* BloodKnight:
** Kisame calls himself such in the first chapter. Mizuki has shades as well, since his usual response to a situation is giant shuriken.
** Hidan. It blows his attempt to recruit Deidara.
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: The sand siblings towards Chiyo and Ebizo once they realize that the two of them are willing to prolong the Akatsuki attack on Suna just to prevent Rasa from regaining power.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: According to Iruka chunin have a minimum insanity requirement that they have to meet to remain on active duty. Jonin, however, get to be "lunatics", as indicated by Gai.
* ButtMonkey:
** [[spoiler:Orochimaru]] after being forced to return to Konoha. He is the recipient of much abuse from every single ninja jonin rank and above, particularly Tsunade.
** While the abuse he receives is much less comical but no less deserved, Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage. He loses his position as Kazekage and is often the victim of verbal abuse from the people around him for the monumentally ''stupid'' decision he made to invade Konoha alongside Oto. Not only that, all three of his children hate him. Temari barely acknowledges his existence, Kankuro disrespects him to an immense degree, and Gaara can't even stand to be in the same room as him.
* CargoShip: Mizuki and Giant Shuriken and Kisame and Samehada are both joked about in-universe. Neither man is amused.
* CatFight: In chapter six, between the four main girls of the Konoha 12 plus one against nearly every other girl in the academy.
-->And thus the Future Kunoichi of Konoha Showdown became the Legendary Academy Girls Catfight of Doom.
* CatsAreMean: There is an entire chapter dedicated to Team 7's Tora-catching efforts. Since they finished infinitely sooner than most teams, they end up getting stuck being the primary recipients of the mission. They eventually dub him more horrible than the Kyuubi could ever hope to be.
* CharacterExaggeration: Mizuki and his proclivity for giant shuriken. The author really didn't have much to go on, given that he's the StarterVillain who didn't last more than a few chapters/one episode (disregarding the later filler arc about him). But he attacked Iruka with a massive shuriken, which started off the RunningGag.
* TheChessmaster: Shikamaru and Mikoto both in the same chapter, with him knowing she's using him but not really caring since he likes her plan too. Mikoto later helps Itachi out after all three of his students make the finals.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome:
** By the time the Wave mission rolls around, most, if not all of the Konoha 12, have it. Kisame blames Itachi.
** The Sandaime comments that Itachi frequently goes on "make the world a better place" missions.
* CloudCuckoolander:
** Itachi, as noted by the title, is a bit off. During the invasion the kids wonder if he's finally fully cracked [[spoiler: after he starts laughing when he sees a bunch of genin kill two members of Akatsuki]]. He's okay, though.
** Most of Konoha is filled with crazy people. The Sand Siblings are left off-kilter when they realize they're relatively sane compared to most Konoha shinobi, when the opposite is the norm when they're in Suna.
** Deidara, especially in regards to explosions. Any thoughts of defecting from Iwa die when he sees Onoki's Dust Release blows things up in spectacular manners. It's bad enough that Shisui, who's ''Itachi's'' best friend and not entirely sane himself, asks the Tsuchikage how he's managed to put up with him for so long.
* CombatMedic: Sasuke. He's actually better at using medical techniques to harm than he intends to be.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Itachi's been raising chaos and causing well-intentioned havoc thanks to his summer camp, leaving several teams of very-tough graduates. His punishment? He's now the sensei of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
* CoolSword: Samehada, natch. Kubikiribocho as well, which is now in Tenten's possession. Kusanagi.
** Since Lee gets Samehada and Tenten has Kubikiribocho, Kisame petitioned the Hokage to either allow him to go hunt down an ex-swordsman from Mist to get their sword for Neji, or to let Neji have Kusanagi and round out the team. Whichever he can get away with.
* CreepyChild: Kisame was one, according to himself.
* CurbStompBattle: Kisame vs. Zabuza in Wave, where it's even lampshaded that he already knows all of Zabuza's best moves and how to handle them. Zabuza then tries to make it about the genin, to which Kisame notes that through watching him over the summers they've pretty much learned to handle Zabuza's more likely techniques like the Water Prison. It makes Haku's fake hunter-ninja stint even more of a save than in canon.
* CuttingTheKnot: [[spoiler:Rather than destroying all his hearts, Shikamaru orders Hinata to attack Kakuzu's brain, since he has only one of those. Sasuke still stabs him in the head a few times just to be sure]].
* DeadpanSnarker: Quite a few. Itachi has quite a few moments. Actually, everyone seems to have their moment at some point.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Itachi's personality is the result of him rising the ranks so quickly. Having been deprived of a childhood due to his genius talent, his easy camaraderie with children and obsession with chaos is just him trying to make up for what he lost. He is aware of this to an extent, which is why he forced Sasuke to promise him not to graduate early -- as a result, while Sasuke has an odd personality in his own right, he is far saner than Itachi is.
* DecliningPromotion: After Rasa was ousted from power, Suna's council unanimously nominated Elder Chiyo as his replacement. However, according to Gaara who heard it from Baki, when they went to tell her she promptly told them "screw you" which they had to take as a decline.
* DemotedToExtra: Kakashi, since he's not Team 7's sensei. [[spoiler: At least not until after the Kage summit.]]
** The Kyuubi. Even after Naruto becomes a ninja it's only slightly involved in Wave and only starts chatting during the chunin exams when it senses Shukaku.
* EmbarrassingNickname: The Kyuubi is rechristened "K-kun" by Naruto and his teammates as they agree Tora is a far greater monster. This later extends to the whole Konoha 12, leading to Lee then referring to Shukaku with the same affectionate suffix.
* EnemyMine: Iwa and Konoha in order to interrogate Hidan's head by mind-reading. Lampshaded since Deidara thought he was StatingTheSimpleSolution by asking why they didn't just hire a Yamanaka in the first place.
--> “…You do know Konoha has been our enemy for generations, right?” one interrogator asked.
** Orochimaru proposes one with Itachi when Akatsuki's trying to kill them both. Itachi refuses since Orochimaru wants his brother.
** [[spoiler: Though they hate it, the sand siblings have to accept help from Rasa to stop the Akatsuki attack, allowing him to become an interim Kazekage during the war against the Akatsuki.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Rasa does seem to love his children, and is hurt more than he cares to admit when it's obvious that they ''despise'' him in return.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Asuma and Kurenai, unsurprisingly.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Nearly everyone who shows up in the prologue, excluding Mikoto whose came in the third chapter. Iruka is the OnlySaneMan, Itachi has CloudCuckoolander tendencies, Kisame is on the side of good but still a BloodKnight, Anko's a flirt, Kakashi is chill and loves his orange books...
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Orochimaru agrees with Iruka that Jiraiya's smut is a terrible excuse for literature, and is also ''horrified'' when he finds out people think he wants Sasuke's body in a non-platonic way.
* EvilPlan: Orochimaru had his canon one of wanting Sasuke's body [[spoiler: but he also wanted to force both Sasuke and Itachi to get the Mangekyo so he could get the Eternal Mangekyo to get the Rinnegan to unlock the secrets of ninjutsu itself.]] The plan has issues when it seems Sasuke is having trouble getting the Sharingan in the first place, and Orochimaru is overjoyed when he finds out the kid finally did it.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Inoichi might be the head of Torture and Interrogation, but seeing his daughter so enthusiastic to follow in his footsteps obviously disturbs him.
* FaceYourFears: Gaara fears his father as much as he hates him. Thus, he has a minor FreakOut when he has to face his father in order to save Konoha's hospital from being held hostage during the Invasion.
* [[FanGirl Fan Girls]]:
** Samehada ''hates'' them.
** Notably subverted for Sakura and Ino -- thanks to the summer camp, both Sakura and Ino came to know Sasuke as a person rather than idealizing him, resulting in neither of the two having romantic feelings for him when they got older and retaining their close friendship, along with befriending Sasuke himself at a relatively young age. Unfortunately for Sasuke, that didn't go for the rest of the girls in his class (barring, of course, Hinata, who only has eyes for Naruto).
* FaceFault: Done by Obito when he overhears Sasuke asking him (well, his spirit, at his grave) to teach him strong fire jutsus to burn [[BunnyEarsLawyer Kakashi's]] porn as he snuck into Konoha to spy.
* ForegoneConclusion: Kiba gets matched against Shikamaru in the chuunin exam preliminary rounds. It was such a foregone conclusion in favor of Shikamaru, the story doesn't even dignify it with a description. Ino name-checks the trope afterwards to Kiba.
* ForWantOfANail:
** The main one is Itachi running into Kisame during one of his missions, and through a series of events managing to recruit him to Konoha. The Sandaime uses this to hint that he considers Itachi a good successor (despite Itachi personally having no interest), which partially pacifies the Uchiha Clan. This causes the coup to eventually [[spoiler:turn into an inter-clan civil war years later when Naruto is noted as the preferred successor. Apparently, they weren't willing to accept second-best, with an Uchiha teaching a future Hokage rather than an Uchiha ''being'' Hokage, as Fugaku lampshades.[[note]]Hilariously enough, in canon there is an Uchiha who ''does'' want to be Hokage and may have the potential to get there: Sarada Uchiha, Sasuke and Sakura's daughter.[[/note]]]]
** Mizuki is stopped from turning evil, which leads to him reading some files when he was helping Iruka out and deciding to look into an old classmate, leading to them accidentally making said classmate, [[TheMole Kabuto]], paranoid in thinking his cover was blown, leading to Naruto finding out about the Kyuubi at age nine while Kabuto flees the leaf.
** The presence of the Uchiha clan means Orochimaru was unwilling to kill the Fourth Kazekage since it would deprive the invasion of a powerful force. The Kazekage tries to tip things in their favor by hiring an Akatsuki team, accidentally complicating things for both sides. [[spoiler:Which leads to Sasori and Kakuzu dying while Orochimaru is too tired to use Edo Tensei against the Hokage.]]
** A rivalry with Itachi formed over many years of border patrol clashes kept Deidara in Iwa longer, since he and Onoki bonded over how much they dislike Uchiha.
** Thanks to Mizuki staying good and eventually adopting Naruto with Iruka, Naruto gains another sibling-figure in the form of Mizuki's crush/girlfriend Tsubaki, a medic-nin. Then, during the Academy, Tsubaki is the demonstrator for the medic-nin profession. Since the Uchiha Clan Massacre never happened and Sasuke isn't obsessed with gaining more power to kill Itachi, he's impressed with Tsubaki's demonstration; so impressed that he ended up becoming Team 7's medic instead of Sakura.
** Although his true identity hasn't yet been uncovered, Tobi gets exposed as not being Madara ''much'' earlier than canon thanks to his fighting against Hiruzen and Onoki, two people who knew Madara in the flesh when he was alive and can immediately tell they're not facing the real deal.
* FriendToAllChildren:
** Itachi is a surprisingly good teacher and good with children despite his utter lack of social skills.
** Gaara was the Konohamaru Corps' most frequent babysitter after Naruto. He's also an effective teacher to the only Academy Student who isn't afraid of him, Matsuri.
* TheGadfly:
** Shisui seems to be this. At one point he claims ''he'' is Itachi's fiancé.
** Itachi himself is perfectly fine with causing chaos if it's for a good cause.
* TheGambler:
** ''The entire police force'' during the chunin preliminaries, due to budget cuts. Thanks to knowing about the Konoha kids, they make a killing.
** Tsunade, as canon. They even catch up to her in a casino.
** Naruto occasionally dabbles in gambling. He's so good at it that they send him into the casino to find Tsunade, because he will always win when he has to.
** Eventually, the Konoha 12 and Itachi's friends take advantage of this by holding a jonin exhibition in order to fund raise more money for [[spoiler:their therapy practice with the the ROOT kids]].
* GoodParents: The Konoha 12's parents, all of whom are reasonable and supportive, if a bit over-protective (understandable, considering what the kids get up to). Special mention must go to Fugaku (after getting that stick out of his ass), who, while stern, nonetheless pushes Sasuke to do the best he can with his chosen field (even if he doesn't understand why Sasuke chose to become a ''medic-nin'' of all things).
* HeelFaceTurn:
** Mizuki -- more accurately he's prevented from making a FaceHeelTurn in the first place.
** Kisame, due to being recruited by Itachi right when he was considering leaving Kiri.
** Deidara stays in Iwa due to first bonding with his teacher Onoki over how much they hate dealing with Uchiha and later when he finds out Onoki's Dust Release blows things up amazingly. This means when Akatsuki tries to recruit him forcibly, Onoki declares war.
** The Sand Siblings make one slightly earlier than canon. Very slightly.
** [[spoiler:''Orochimaru'' of all people. It's still rather vague, but it seems he'd rather stay with Konoha then go back to Oto]].
* HighlyVisibleNinja: It's noted that genin are more concerned with looking non-threatening to the civilians who hire them, thus excusing their slightly more wild senses of style than chunin and jonin.
** Kisame admits to being one on purpose: he knows how to use Silent Killing as well as Zabuza if not better, but he finds it boring compared to what he can do with his flashier stuff.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Sauke's cousin Arashu. After accusing the Rookie Nine of only making the chunin exams due to nepotism due to seven of them being clan heirs or at least from the main family of a clan, he insults Neji (who defended them) for his Branch House status.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: How Danzo is defeated by Iruka and Mizuki, as he depended on his stolen eye too much]].
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Danzou was not sure if this was going on or not during his conversation with Iruka and Mizuki, and tried very hard not to reveal anything they might not actually know. It didn't help.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Mora, a Sound genin, congratulates Team Itachi on their completion of an A-rank mission... except, the fact that said mission was A-rank was classified.
* InnocentInnuendo: Downplayed, but Orochimaru's interest in Sasuke's body was ''entirely'' platonic and any Uchiha with the Sharingan (which he wanted to use to learn jutsu faster) would've done, but the other ones he tried weren't able to take the Cursed Seal. He's utterly horrified when he realizes that his actions have made people think he was a pedophile.
* InSpiteOfANail:
** Outside of Itachi being forced to teach Team 7, all the teams are exactly the same.
** Haku and Zabuza still die during the Wave mission.
** A still loses his arm to an Amaterasu during the Kage Summit.
* {{Jerkass}}: The Fourth Kazekage. Instead of in canon, where he was a well-meaning but terrible leader, this guy has barely any redeeming qualities, if any, all of his terrible actions being in the pursuit of more power.
* LoopholeAbuse: How Itachi managed to pull off the extra training program. Clan kids are allowed to be taught extra things by family members while still in the academy. Nothing says those kids can't bring along a friend or dozen to that training, nor that the family members can't ask ''their'' friends for assistance.
* LoveTriangle: Sakura with Lee and Kiba. Slight one with Tenten, Neji, and Kankuro.
* TheMatchmaker: Tsume is this for her clan -- when she learns that Kakashi has trained several ninja dogs, all of whom are trained enough to speak (and even teach at the Academy), she starts encouraging some of the unattached women in the clan to ask him out. Then there's ArrangedMarriage between Kiba and Sakura; it's apparently happened before, judging by Kiba's reactions when he sees the look in her eye.
* TheMedic: Sasuke is the first Uchiha medic, a fact that often surprises everyone he meets who knows anything about the Uchiha Clan (Tsunade even claims that Madara would lose his shit if he ever met Sasuke). It irritates him a little, but is ultimately something he finds to be proud of.
* MeleeATrois: Itachi vs. Orochimaru vs. Sasori and Kakuzu during the invasion. Several of the Konoha 12 and Gaara arrive to back up Itachi, though he lasts for a long time on his own.
* MistakenForPedophile: Orochimaru is horrified when Jiriaya explains what people think he wants to do with Sasuke.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Due to living in apartments all his life, Naruto is impressed that Tazuna's family home has ''two floors all to itself.'' Tenten then ups the ante by revealing her house actually has three floors.
* MundaneUtility: Kakashi uses his summon animals to act as substitute teachers for the Ninja Academy. They
* MythologyGag:
** When Sasuke asks Itachi what would happen to Shisui if he revealed to Ino, Sakura and Shino the identity of his girlfriend, he states:
-->'''Itachi:''' “Then, little brother, I may just have to plot against him, and maybe kill him and make it look like suicide if things go too far.”
-->'''Kiba:''' "…That was weirdly specific."
** After Mizuki starts what could be a StartOfDarkness, Kisame notes that his condition would be referred to in Mist as "The Emo" which leads to "Rage, resentment, crazy plots against your pals, possibly joining up with insane plotters" referencing how Sasuke (in both continuities) and Mizuki (in the anime) both ended up falling to Orochimaru, and the fanbase's tendency to call Sasuke 'emo'.
** When Itachi mentions that Team 7 has the same skill set as the legendary Sannin, Shisui thought Sasuke is likely going to be the Orochimaru of the team. Canon Sasuke left Konoha to join Orochimaru.
** When Tobi puts Itachi under using Tsukiyomi at the Kage Summit, he uses versions of the events as they happened in canon to torment and mock him.
* NeverMessWithGranny:
** Uchiha Elder Mira and her friend villager Elder Koharu.
** Elder Chiyo could have easily been Kazekage if she had wanted to. Key words being: "if she had ''wanted'' to". She hates politics -- Kankuro mentions that whenever he sees her at council meetings it's usually her telling Rasa to piss off.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Orochimaru might have had a chance against Itachi if the Fourth Kazekage hadn't hired Akatsuki as invasion backup. Sasori and Kakuzu both want him dead too much to let him be, leading to a MeleeATrois.
** Also to Orochimaru for not killing him, though he wanted another high-class ninja due to Itachi, Shisui, and the other Uchiha still being around.
* {{Nepotism}}: The Rookie Nine are accused of this, given seven of them are either clan heirs or at least from the head family, which a cousin of Sasuke's insinuates is the only reason they got to enter the chunin exams so soon. He's proved wrong when along with Team Gai they're the only Konoha genin to make it past the second test.
* NoBudget: InUniverse example. The Konoha Military Police constantly has its budget cut [[spoiler:due to Danzo's attempts to isolate the Uchiha from the village]]. They get by thanks to a lot of skimming, but eventually they're forced to go on a gambling spree during the Chunin Exams in order to get new equipment.
* NoSocialSkills: Itachi's are rather poor, often leading to him deferring to Iruka in social situations. It's so bad Noriko gives him ''two years'' advance notice for their first real date, just to make sure he's had time to think it over. He's good with kids, though.
* NotNowKiddo: The Sand Siblings have this problem, even when they're effectively the only reason why Konoha didn't demand reparations from Suna and are trusted enough to sit in on council meetings. They get around it by telling Chiyo (one of the only councilors willing to listen to them) their ideas and having her suggest them when the council convenes.
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: Suna's advisory council can't agree on ''anything''. The only thing they every agreed on in-story was who would replace Rasa as Kazekage (Chiyo), but she refused. They made Baki acting Kazekage instead, but since he lacks the necessary strength to take the position permanently, he doesn't have the clout to get things done. At one point, while watching one of their meetings, ''Shukaku'' states that the Konoha 12 (which consists of a bunch of preteens) have more productive meetings.
* OCStandIn: Noriko Uchiha for Itachi's canon girlfriend (the not-yet-created-at-time-of-writing Izumi Uchiha). She's his fiance, a chunin, and an archer. Her main role in the story is as a CoolBigSis to the Konoha 12 and Sasuke and TheRival to Shisui. She and Itachi mostly spend their date money on ninja tools and hide out under a genjutsu until their parents think the date's probably over.
* OddFriendship:
** Itachi and pretty much anyone he's friends with, especially Kisame. Ino and Shino form one as well, and even plan to go into Torture and Interrogation together as a team.
** Lee, Gaara, and Shukaku of all people, mostly 'cause no one feels like explaining to Lee what Gaara and Shukaku were like before.
** Gaara enters an IntergenerationalFriendship with Konohamaru Corps during his time in Konoha. It comes in handy later on when he and his siblings return to Suna.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Sasuke accidentally blowing up an opponent's heart. He was ''trying'' to rupture a tendon.
* OnceKilledAManWithANoodleImplement: ''Ninja''. Bound to come up.
-->'''Shikamaru:''' "Whoa…I think my mom just killed a guy with her sandal…"
* OnlySaneMan:
** Iruka and Kurenai for Itachi's circle of friends.
** The Sand Siblings are this for all of Suna during the Invasion.
** [[spoiler:Shin is the only one of the liberated ROOT kids who can act like a functioning individual in normal society. Not even he is sure why]].
* ParentalSubstitute:
** Iruka and Mizuki practically raised Naruto.
** Baki was more of a father to the Sand Siblings than Rasa ever was. That's why they decide to spare him and convince Konoha to pardon him once the Invasion is over.
* PassThePopcorn: Itachi at one point states his in this sort of mood.
** Post-invasion the Sand Siblings have the pastime of doing this during Suna's council meetings. Temari is horrified when Kankuro's comments on it inspire Elder Chiyo to ''actually eat popcorn'' during an important meeting.
* {{Patricide}}: If he had gone all DefrostingIceQueen, Fugaku would've been on the wrong end of his eldest son's kunai.
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Noriko is entirely capable of handling Itachi's odder tendencies and is willing to do things like give him two years heads' up for he first official date since she knows he has NoSocialSkills. He seems to simply be happy she's not a brainless fangirl and instead someone he can call a friend and rely on in a fight.
* PreciousPuppy: Exploited by Kakashi's ninken when they become the Academy's substitute teachers. They effectively their cuteness and puppy charms to get the students to want to learn so they can play with the cute dogs.
* RageBreakingPoint: PlayedForLaughs. After catching Tora faster than any other genin team in the village, Team 7 is constantly requested to retrieve him whenever he runs away from home. Eventually, Sasuke snaps and sets Tora on ''fire'' -- while the cat survives, the entire experience prompts Itachi to go get drunk and have his first ever hangover. It also wins Sasuke the title of being Shisui's favorite cousin.
* TheRival: Deidara and Itachi keep running into each other on missions, though they don't know each other's exact names (Itachi knows him as "the crazy Iwa nin" and Deidara as "that insufferable Uchiha"). When they finally meet outside of combat, it's funny.
** Noriko and Shisui are somehwere between this and SitcomArchNemesis.
** Lee and Kiba over Sakura. If they go overboard, though, she'll beat them both up.
* RuleOfFunny: The fic runs on this more than anything else, along with RuleOfCool as a reaction to how dark and sad canon was getting when the fic started out.
* RuleOfThree: Invoked in the Chuunin exams preliminaries as Itachi wonders why his team is going against Sound Genin's.
--> '''Naruto''': Weird luck?
--> '''Neji''': Rigged machine?
--> '''Asuma''': Kami mocking you?
--> '''Itachi''': [[DeadpanSnarker Asuma, you're not one of my students.]]
* TheRunaway: After the Invasion, the Sand Siblings refuse to leave Konoha unless their father is ousted from power. They get by thanks to the charity of their friends and the village's willingness to temporarily induct them into their ranks as thanks for their aid.
* RunningGag:
** Mizuki likes his giant shuriken.
** For a long time, Sasuke's inability to activate his Sharingan even when in actual danger.
** The police force's bureaucratic and budget woes.
** Itachi calling ROOT Danzo's hobby and pestering him with craft supplies to try and make him get a new one.
** For a long time, whether or not Iruka actually did have a crush on someone and was very good at hiding it or was just yanking the Official Couple's chains. [[spoiler:He did, on Kakashi.]]
** Neji and fate. He's gotten past it enough to attempt to make jokes on it. Not that he's any good at it...
** Any time anyone mentions Hinata's very obvious crush on Naruto, she freezes up and someone (usually another Hyuga (mainly Neji)) has to remind her to ''breathe''.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** Gaara found himself being treated better in Konoha than Suna. So in regards to the upcoming invasion, he tells his siblings the following: "I abandoned the plan a week ago, I'm staying here."
** The Invasion goes so badly that eventually every able-bodied invader books it once it becomes obvious that they're screwed.
* SentientWeapon: Samehada. She's a girl and likes Lee, meaning he gets her if Kisame dies. She also argues with Kisame a lot, and hates fangirls.
* SeriousBusiness: The gossip that Uchiha Itachi is dating ''someone'' was so talked-about in Konoha that spies reported on it and it almost reached the Raikage's desk. Itachi was mortified.
** Art, to Deidara. He's horrified to find out that the piece he bought at auction for his sensei was made by an Uchiha. He also foregoes defecting when he learns that his teacher can blow stuff up even better than he can.
* ShoutOut: Two of the [[spoiler: former ROOT kids]] with noted BelligerentSexualTension are named [[Manga/DeathNote Eru and Raito.]]
** Naruto reads a pirate manga and Iruka once goes shopping at [[Manga/OnePiece King Luffy's Krafts]].
* SickEpisode: Chapter 7: Sick, Dazed and Just Plain Crazy, where a good chunk of Konoha gets sick with the flu.
* SneezeCut: It happens to Deidara when Itachi talks about him to the children.
* SoProudOfYou: Fugaku and Mikoto are both proud of their children for their numerous accomplishments: training a future Hokage, becoming the first Uchiha medic, and [[spoiler:reuniting the Sannin]]. That last one however caused them a lot of worry -- mainly because A) Itachi labeled a mission to retrieve [[spoiler:Orochimaru]] a ''B-rank'' and B) Sasuke's scary willingness to be live bait.
* SparedByAdaptation: Considering the RuleOfFun, there are many cases of this. To note a few:
** Rasa (Yondaime Kazekage, Gaara's father) and Hiruzen Sarutobi (Sandaime Hokage) don't die during the Suna-Oto invasion. Rasa is directly responsible for Hiruzen living, since he was the one who hired Akatsuki (who have a grudge against Orochimaru for betraying them) to help out. The resulting MeleeATrois between Itachi, the Akatsuki members, and Orochimaru exhausted the latter enough that he could not perform Edo Tensei.
** Due to the delay of the coup, many of the Uchiha's are spared, at least until the in-clan civil war. Even then, Fugaku, Mikoto, Shisui, [[NeverMessWithGranny Mira]] and [[OCStandIn Noriko]] are spared.
** Shin and many of the other unidentified children of ROOT are spared of Danzo's plans on desensitizing them or be killed for the other members to succeed.
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** The Sand Siblings's early HeelFaceTurn screws over the entire Invasion plan and most of the damage from the Invasion is mitigated as a result.
** Rasa's decision to hire the Akatsuki to participate (one of whom happened to be a missing ninja from his own village no less) is equally disastrous for Oto. To be fair, it's not like he knew that Orochimaru was an Akatsuki deserter.
* StationsOfTheCanon: Through the chunin exams, excluding how Naruto learns Kage Bushin since he doesn't fail. Afterwards Tsunade is only retrieved after Team Seven kidnaps Orochimaru (with no Sasuke retrieval needed) and then it really goes OffTheRails since the author has declined to include a timeskip ''at all'' and the Kage Council gets called three years early, by Onoki of all people.
* StraightGay: Shisui. When Noriko starts shooting at Shisui for outing her engagement to Itachi, Sasuke refutes Itachi's theory that Shisui stood her up by pointing out that he knows as well as Sasuke does that Shisui only dates guys.
* ThereAreNoTherapists:
** Averted, and Itachi is determined to try and get Neji to see one; however once Gai is Neji's sensei the therapists assume ''Gai'' wants the therapy and all run away. Thankfully, by the end of the Wave mission, Neji has loosened up enough that therapy is no longer necessary.
** Iruka and Mizuki are later made into therapists [[spoiler:for the liberated ROOT kids and even later Orochimaru]] though Mizuki doesn't take it all that seriously.
* TooDesperateToBePicky: With Iruka and Mizuki sick and all their back-up substitutes also sick or injured, they are desperate to find someone to be act as substitute teachers. It shows how desperate they are that they accept Kakashi's offer to have his ninken act as substitutes.
* TooDumbToLive: What everyone, even the people of Suna and especially the Sand Siblings, eventually thought of the Fourth Kazekage's plan to invade Konoha with Orochimaru. It resulted in him getting ousted from power.
* TookALevelInBadass: Iruka and Mizuki compared to canon. Sakura sooner than in canon.
* TookALevelInKindness: The Kyuubi. Granted, as the latter parts of the manga showed, he was never really that bad of an entity, but here his relationship with Naruto is much better than it was at this point in canon, to the point that Naruto is giving him ''therapy'' for his issues whenever he isn't ranting.
** Fugaku, and the Uchiha Clan in general (or at least, most of them). It's a good thing too, as Itachi has admitted several times that patricide was on his mind for a while, at least until his father finally got that stick out of his ass.
* TrueCompanions:
** Itachi's circle of friends are all very close and willing to help each other out, even when the favor in question is well outside the norms.
** Thanks to the summer camp, the Konoha 12 effectively grew up together and become this (though it takes Neji a while to accept it).
*** HonoraryTrueCompanion: The Sand Siblings, who integrate with them during their time in Konoha.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: [[spoiler:Iruka and Kakashi]]. Funnily enough, it took [[spoiler:the liberated ROOT kids]] to point it out to everyone.
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 9, where Kabuto ends up exposed as a spy and Naruto (along with Sasuke) learns about the Kyuubi years earlier than canon. Fittingly it's less zany than other chapters.
* WorfHadTheFlu:
** Zigzaggged with Itachi. He is weaker than he was in canon due to not having the Mangekyo Sharingan but he also doesn't have the mortal, debilitating illness that more-or-less killed him in canon (and was the only reason he lost to Sasuke when they finally had their FinalBattle).
** Because the Uchiha Massacre never occurred, Danzo has to make do with just one of Shisui's eyes, instead the massive store of them he has in canon, which cuts him off from Izanagi. [[spoiler: His over-reliance on the eye allows Mizuki and Iruka to beat him once they figure out a way around it.]]
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