Tsunade: What. Did you do?

Naruto: Alright, but you can't get mad at me...

Tsunade: What. Did you do?

Naruto: Okay, first, I was minding my own business-

Tsunade: [slams hand on table] BULL!

Naruto: I WAS!!

Tsunade | Naruto Mobile

I'd love to see a fanfic of Naruto in which Fugaku was made Hokage, but not the 4th instead of Minato like I see examples of on YT. Instead I want to see one where he becomes the 5th Hokage after Minato's death, because Fugaku disobeys the orders from the top to patrol the borders during the Nine Tails attack, and actually goes and helps subdue the Nine Tails himself.

How I personally could see it happening, though obviously someone writing said fanfic would make their own version of events: Technically this *should* result in him being disciplined for disobeying orders, but the majority of the village is way too grateful to him and the other Uchiha for the top brass to dare trying to discipline him, especially with the entire Uchiha clan being behind him. Maybe Hiruzen himself looks at the situation after the fact as a whole and decides he was wrong to go along with Danzo's idea to keep the Uchiha away from the Nine Tails during the attack.

Why does Minato still die in this scenario? Someone still has to seal the Nine Tails again, and we know he's already low enough on chakra at this point from having to have fought Obito/"Madara" by himself that he can't seal the entirety of Kurama inside Naruto, only half, and has to use the Reaper Death Seal to seal the other half.

Difference is since Fugaku and other Uchiha helped subdue Kurama faster, Minato and Kushina don't have to be turned into a shishkabob defending Naruto from Kurama's toenail, and the damage from Kurama himself is minimized a lot more. Minato still dies, and ultimately Kushina's gonna die too since Kurama was extracted from her, but she at the very least lives long enough to tell Hiruzen and the other elders what happened. Best case scenario, she lives for maybe 5-10 years afterward (remember, Mito, Hashirama's wife lived for 10 years after Kurama was extracted from her, and she was already elderly at that point). This means Naruto has at least one parent for at least part of his early childhood. Someone to stick up for Naruto and not tolerate the terrible job Hiruzen did of keeping his promise to Minato to look out for Naruto.

Since Kushina would live longer in this scenario and be able to tell the others what would happen, it would mean the top brass could make the same deduction that Minato made, that it was "Uchiha Madara". This means they can't as easily try to blame the Uchiha that are still living in the village, especially when they helped subdue Kurama (though Danzo would fucking try. God he's the worst). The "realization"/assumption that it was Madara and he's not only still alive but still strong enough at his age to fight the 4th AND control Kurama, and seeming to not have aged at all, would motivate Konoha to REALLY start taking military precautions to get stronger and concentrate on finding ways to fight him off the next time he shows up. This includes looking at living Uchiha members as possible counters to Madara himself, namely *Fugaku*. The man that did the most in this scenario to stop Kurama's rampage. They'd be very motivated in this case to name him as Minato's successor in this case. Protecting Naruto and training him becomes an even higher priority, not knowing when "Madara" would come back to try again (not knowing Minato was able to permanently sever his connection to Kurama with that sealing jutsu, Minato maybe didn't have time to relay that information). Either way, they know that the jinchuuriki of Kurama is a target by outside forces. This also puts more pressure on the top brass to make sure an Uchiha member is near Naruto all the time to make sure he doesn't lose control of Kurama, as he's trained to control Kurama.

Fugaku being Minato's successor would also put pressure on Fugaku to fulfill Minato's dying wishes to protect and take care of Naruto. Maybe once Kushina ultimately does die from having Kurama extracted from her, he and Mikoto personally adopt him and raise him, with a significant amount of pressure on Fugaku from Mikoto herself (as we know she was friends with Kushina). I think Fugaku would be a bit of a less strict father in this scenario as he's not under pressure from the rest of the clan to *literally overthrow the Leaf Village's government*. Itachi and Sasuke essentially have a 3rd sibling now to grow up with that depends on them to keep him in check, but also keeps him from being lonely. He also grows up knowing who his parents are, has talented adopted brothers to train with (though he'll still be a late bloomer to an extent, I don't think he'll be the literal laughingstock of the Academy considering he'll have actual support, self-confidence and validation from his adopted family). Though maybe Naruto's identity as a jinchuuriki and the 4th's son is still kept secret from the village as a whole. Or maybe just the fact that he's a jinchuuriki, but people still know he's the 4th's son. Up to the writer, honestly. It makes sense why Hiruzen wanted his identity kept secret to protect Naruto in the original canon, afterall. But either way, Naruto would actually know the truth.

In this case, perhaps Hiruzen *actually* acts as sort of a grandfather-like figure to Naruto as well instead of just being an old man that pays for his groceries or talks to him every once in a while. Maybe he does a little training of Naruto (and by extension Sasuke and maybe even Itachi himself, seeing as he's not preoccupied with being Hokage again).

Maybe Hiruzen actually makes time to guilt Jiraiya to come and meet his god-son once in a while. This results in Naruto going to Mount Myoboku sooner in the timeline (seeing as his father presumably went as well, having Toad sage mode and frog summons himself, it'd make sense to establish that tie with Naruto too), though I don't think his training there would happen that much faster. At most he gets Sage mode a year sooner. If you really stretch it then maybe a year and a half to 2 years sooner. Afterall, this is still Naruto, and he's still a gigantic ball of ADHD energy. You'd still have to send someone with a sharingan with him just to be cautious of course. This could be how Naruto meets Kakashi. Afterall, he has a Sharingan, was anbu for much of his teen/early adult years, was Minato's student, and by extension knew Jiraiya as well. I think Fugaku as Hokage (and adopted father to Naruto) would find that fitting when authorizing such a trip.

Speaking of Fugaku as Hokage, there would be some changes of course. Starting with there being more Uchiha in Anbu ranks, maybe with allowing non-Uchiha into the ranks of the Konoha Military Police force as a balance to pacify the elders that would be against this (and because I think Fugaku would realize that letting the Uchiha and non-Uchiha mingle more would be better for the village in the long run), and the Anbu and Military police would work together more harmoniously.

Danzo would probably still try to assassinate the Hokage, it'd just be Fugaku instead, snd for a different reason: Danzo's hate and jealousy of the Uchiha. He'd be even angrier thanks to the exact opposite of what he wanted to do happening after the Nine Tails attack, too. And unlike Hiruzen, Fugaku probably wouldn't be nearly as lenient. He's a ninja cop afterall. Danzo would at the very least be imprisoned for life, and made to divulge everything he knows (as well as losing that fucking Hashirama cell arm and however many stolen Sharingan he had at that point). As much as I'd personally like for Danzo to be summarily executed, that's probably not what would happen. But lifetime imprisonment is a good alternative. The Root would definitely be disbanded as a result as well. And as a result of Danzo and the Root's secrets being divulged sooner, a little more would be known about Hashirama cells a la Danzo's weird-ass arm. Maybe said research could be used to stave off the blindness that comes later on with the Mangekyo Sharingan, and/or Kakashi's stamina issues with his own Sharingan could be somewhat alleviated with said research. Not a lot since Tsunade isn't there, but a little bit.

Speaking of Tsunade, you can bet your ass when Itachi gets his chakra illness that Fugaku would send people to find Tsunade to have her treat him. Afterall, Itachi couldn't exactly find the best medical care in the canon timeline because of his status as a missing-nin/notorious criminal and mass-murderer of his own clan. In this scenario Itachi would have had no reason to carry out the Uchiha clan downfall, so he'd have access to legitimate medical care. Would Tsunade be able to save his life? I don't know. She'd almost certainly be able to prolong it or make him more comfortable without reducing his combat capabilities nearly as much, though.

Maybe through dealing with Tsunade and her fear of blood, some investigation into the Sharingan's uses for hypnosis/psychotherapy would be suggested. Seriously it's amazing how well the Sharingan could have been used for dealing with people's mental health issues, with it's uses of genjutsu, hypnosis, etc. It's too bad we never got to see those sorts of applications in the main timeline.

I might add more to this later today, but I'm tired and need a slight bit more sleep before my class today so for now this is where I leave it.

tsunade from naruto

I haven't drawn a Naruto character in a while

It's the 5th Hokage aka The Legendary Sucker herself, Tsunade. Didnt even realize last week was her bday (also first time I've ever drawn her before, believe it or not)

Jiraiya and Tsunade shouldve been a couple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY WONT KISHIMOTO LET GOOD COUPLES EXIST GODDAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! JIRAIYA CARED SO MUCH ABOUT TSUNADE AND SHE CARED SO MUCH ABOUT HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think this is anything groundbreaking, but the argument that Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't find a suitable replacement for himself after Minato's death was absolute bullshit. Fugaku Uchiha was right there. The only reason that didn't happen was the discrimination against the Uchiha that the other 3 village elders (and presumably Hiruzen himself since he went along with their prejudice) held. He was called "Wicked Eye Fugaku" and had his own run on sight order against him from other villages, just like Minato. He had the power, and the experience from being head of the Uchiha clan and head of the Konoha Police Force.

And don't give me the argument that he didn't have the temperament. The other frontrunner besides Minato was *Orochimaru*. Fugaku may have planned a coup d'etat against the Leaf, but that was after decades of political isolation, discrimination and outward distrust/hatred of the Uchiha, even more so after the Nine Tails' attack on the night of Naruto's birth. He was loyal to the leaf and would have gone to fight the Nine Tails himself if orders didn't come on down from Hiruzen and the elders to "patrol the borders", an obvious indicator that they distrusted the Uchiha and thought them responsible.

The clan was not only forbidden from helping with their Sharingan, but made to move entirely to the outskirts of the village after the attack, and then spied on. As well as being blamed for the Nine Tails attack thanks to Danzo (the eternal ruiner of everything good in the Naruto universe, fuck him to death forever) spreading rumors that they had. Most people would question their loyalty to their village if they were treated like that.

Fugaku absolutely would have been a better choice than having Hiruzen stay hokage into his late 60s. Hiruzen was a man that tried his best, but he made a lot of mistakes. For example, earlier in his reign, he was too militaristic. Later on, he tried too hard to compensate for that by being too lenient and letting Danzo do way too much in the shadows. And I don't think Fugaku would have tolerated Danzo's actions nearly as much as Hiruzen did. Do I think Fugaku would have been a saint? No. Fugaku was the head of the military police, so it's pretty easy to assume his way of ruling would be a bit more strict and involve some darkness of it's own. But I don't think he would have tolerated Danzo doing the shit he did with no oversight, especially when Danzo did things that ultimately didn't benefit the Leaf, no matter how much he thought they would.

So what am I talking about in regards to Danzo? So there's a few things that Danzo did that Hiruzen absolutely should have imprisoned him for, if not executed him for.

1. Danzo leaked the fact that Naruto was the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails *against orders from Hiruzen himself* just to create a rallying point of hate for the rest of the villagers. And conveniently left out the part that Naruto was Minato's son and that Minato wished for him to be seen as a hero for the burden he was taking on. He should have faced consequences for that, like at the very least losing his position of power and having Root dissolved. Yes, I know Hiruzen didn't have proof, but that's what investigations are for. And there's really no excuse for not finding out when you can just have a particularly talented Yamanaka clan member, even the clan head, read Danzo's damn mind. Or at the least publicly dare Danzo to submit to such a method. Danzo would look very suspicious to all of Konoha if he refused.

How would Fugaku have handled that? Probably using the Sharingan to force Danzo to tell the truth himself. And would probably have been able to find proof as well considering *he was literally a goddamned ninja cop*.

2. Danzo literally tried to have Hiruzen assassinated. And how did Hiruzen respond? Let him off with a warning. A fucking warning. And Danzo responded by telling him his softness would be his downfall. Like gee maybe rescind the warning and just go straight to having him killed, considering he had basically just made clear he felt no real remorse for his actions? Or at the very least imprison him right then and there?

Now do I really need to say how Fugaku likely would have responded? Dude was a ninja cop. Safe to say he knew where the lines had to be drawn. He'd at the very least have had Danzo exposed and imprisoned for his crimes. Execution would probably be the better option in Danzo's case... but I digress.

I won't bother going into how Fugaku would've handled Danzo's greatest crime, that being pushing and manipulating Itachi into massacreing his entire clan, considering that would by default require Fugaku to be dead. But obviously it never would have even happened if Fugaku had become 5th Hokage after Minato. The reason for the planned coup would never have even existed at that point. The Uchiha would've felt much more validated by the rest of Konoha had Fugaku become the 5th, and it's safe to say he wouldn't have allowed his own clan to be mistreated.

Now onto some other reasons:

1. Fugaku certainly had earned the fear of other villages, what with having his own run-on-sight order, his nickname "Wicked Eye Fugaku", and his own Mangekyo Sharingan. Much like Minato, no one wanted to face him on the battlefield. No one was going to try to attack the village while he would have been in power.

2. He had the power to control the Nine Tails, thanks to his Mangekyo Sharingan. Hell, he might not have necessarily needed his Mangekyo considering Sasuke suppressed the Nine Tails chakra in Naruto after the time skip with BASE Sharingan. If Naruto ever started losing control, Fugaku could run in and suppress the Nine Tails then and there (provided they were inside the village at the time).

3. He almost certainly would have been able to fight off Orochimaru during the Konoha Crush, as well as being really valuable in the fight against Pain. Even if he couldn't have fought Orochimaru alone (I doubt that though considering how easily Itachi humiliated him), it's not like Hiruzen wouldn't have still been around and able to aid him. Reminder that Hiruzen, even at 69, was able to defeat Edo Tensei versions of the 1st and 2nd Hokage and almost kill Orochimaru as well. He was called "The Professor" for a reason. And Hiruzen certainly wouldn't have died to Orochimaru in that case, since Fugaku would have been the one to fight him.

4. If Fugaku had become the 5th after Minato's death, Hiruzen could've done a much better job honoring Minato's dying wish for him to take care of Naruto. You know, by directly raising Naruto himself, or at the very least being able to be much more of a mentor for him, seeing as he didn't also have to continue the duties of being Hokage. Or hell, Fugaku could have made the decision to adopt Naruto himself considering he literally has the kyuubi sealed inside him and Fugaku has the power to control it. Kind of a no-brainer solution there, frankly.

Now to address some potential issues that might come up if he had become the 5th Hokage:

1. Some people might assume that if he had, he'd be overly partial to the Uchiha and treat them better than everyone else. While this is a possibility considering he was literally the head of the clan, I'm not so sure that would be the case. First, it's a common fear of those in power that if the oppressed come into power, they'll then do the same thing to the former oppressors that the former oppressors did to them. It's generally not true either. Sure, there's individual exceptions *cough Netanyahu cough* but most people who have faced oppression generally don't want to visit that oppression on others.

And while it's possible Fugaku might be that type, I don't believe so. Remember, when Kakashi received a Sharingan from Obito as Obito's (at the time) dying wish, a lot of Uchiha were furious and didn't think he deserved it. Fugaku however, as head of the clan, decided that it was better to honor Obito's dying wish. That at least gives an indicator that he's more reasonable than the most extreme members of his clan. It indicates to me that at worst, he would have *mild* favoritism towards his clan, but would try to be as reasonable as he could. Again, remember that it was only after years of discrimination and isolation from the rest of Konoha that he formulated plans for a coup d'etat. This is also a man that was willing to die instead of fighting his own son, despite said son literally betraying the clan. Itachi himself had doubts about whether he could face his own father in battle, had Fugaku chosen to fight, but Fugaku refused to fight him at all despite Itachi literally massacreing the rest of the clan and being there to kill him and his wife. He is not ruled purely by clan mentality.

2. There is the possibility that he would have been too strict as hokage, using too much of an iron fist style of ruling as opposed to trying to negotiate with others. I admittedly have less justification for denying this possibility. I don't think we have a lot of evidence either way for this.

We know that he made some questionable choices as a father (bringing Itachi to a battlefield at fucking FOUR YEARS OLD, having to be guilted by Itachi into attending Sasuke's induction ceremony into the Ninja academy, using his own son as a spy against Konoha without even telling him it was for the purposes of an impending coup, etc), but I don't know how much we can attribute this to him personally versus just being a product of his time as a ninja of his generation. He just fought in the 3rd ninja war, and presumably was at least alive when the 2nd war was happening. He wasn't that much younger than the Sannin afterall. We also don't know that much how he handled his job as a ninja cop, or how he disciplined members of the clan.

However we also have the aforementioned cases of him being fairly reasonable in his dealings with others. We also have the distinct possibility that Hiruzen would stay on as an advisor, with Hiruzen in his more benevolent later years being more likely to preach compassion. While I have my issues with Hiruzen as Hokage, I think he would have been a pretty good advisor. Fugaku would also have the counsel of his wife, who we know from Itachi Shinden was the softer and kinder of the two. She was the one that often reminded him that Itachi, though already a genin by age 7 and extremely talented, *was still only 7 years old*. He would have been more likely to listen to her on such things without having been hardened by the aftermath of the Nine Tails attack in canon. And well.. he'd also have those 2 useless old fuck elders Koharu and Homura, I guess, though I don't know how much help THEY would be. Granted though, I think they'd at least keep him from being overly partial to his own clan.

3. There's the possibility that he wouldn't have allowed Naruto as much freedom as Hiruzen did. And I mean, maybe. While I don't think he'd be full authoritarian, he probably wouldn't be as lax as Hiruzen was.

But that being said, I think he wouldn't have had a lot of reason to keep Naruto on a short leash when he could personally make sure that Naruto was always teamed up with a strong Uchiha on missions. Afterall, in this presumed timeline of events the clan wouldn't literally be massacred. I could see Naruto's jonin squad leader being Itachi or Shisui, or some other strong Uchiha capable of suppressing the Nine Tails. Or hell, maybe even if he did still team Naruto up with Kakashi, he could personally train Kakashi (or have some other Uchiha train him) to use his own Sharingan better. He already honored Obito's dying wish afterall. And I don't doubt he'd consider his own son Sasuke trustworthy enough to be Naruto's teammate, too. I also don't believe Fugaku would be the type to disregard Minato's dying wishes regarding Naruto either, as he already respected Obito's dying wishes regarding the Sharingan he gave Kakashi. Naruto might have been able to master Kurama's power a little quicker too, having all those Uchiha to suppress Kurama whenever Naruto did start to lose control.

Alright though, I'm theoried out at this point lol. I've been writing this for literally hours. Hopefully I got my point across without getting too fanfiction-y lol.

Master and student!