The massacre did happen, but it happened “earlier” and ties, sorta, back into the wars which a lot of the other points do to.
So after the First Shinobi War ended, there were some smaller conflicts here and there but nothing on the previous scale. Danzo was a bastard but because there had only been world war, hadn’t started dropping the age to ridiculously young child soldiers, Konoha wasn’t coming off of 3 world wars in a 60~ year period like canon. At the height, maybe a few exceptional 12 y/os were sent out, certainly not 6 y/os. There’s also no ROOT hidden inside of ANBU, bc Danzo has full control over the ANBU so no big need, though there are some special operatives that start young. It’s shady as shit, but not ‘kill your brother to become a full member’ a la canon Sai. Mokuton experiments did happen, largely under Danzo but he didn’t realize it was children being experimented on, he thought they were adults. Tenzo still exists and when he found out about the child experimentation, he tried to kill Orochimaru and thought he succeeded (when in reality he failed and Orochimaru fled the village). Again, Danzo a’ok with adult human experiments, not with children. Not as big of a jerk as you could have been award! Still a bastard tho.
Izuna didn’t distrust/hate the Senju the same way Tobirama did to the Uchiha in canon, but this is largely because Izuna loves his wife and the Senju and Uzumaki are cousin clans. I have no idea how the Senju died out in canon? I’m very confused about the plot point to begin with? But there was no Senju Massacre or anything close. Honestly there would still probably be Senju around, they might have started choosing to take their spouses’ surname to get away from Hashirama’s looming shadow but that’s the only reason that the Senju would have ~disappeared~. After Hashirama left, Touka, as the closest main branch relative, became clan head. Izuna’s second son became clan head but then he died and leadership was transferred back to Izuna. When he died Tsunade refused to take up the mantle and it passed to Fugaku as the closest/oldest cousin (one of Tajima’s brothers/sisters was Fugaku’s grandfather/grandmother)
Danzo retired and passed the hat to Kushina, who was trained by Tsunade. The start of her reign was a bit rocky. Again, Madara’s longest legacy was a peace that was extremely fraught. The other great nations did not like Konoha, at all. The smaller nations had better relationships but weren’t strong allies. While all of this is going on Hashirama is working on his own v poor plan to make things better. Not going to say exactly what but, black zetsu, manipulation, etc, etc. But, instead of Obito, he goes after Nagato who was either v young or not born yet when Uzushio fell and him/his family were one of the few that didn’t go to Konoha. This is the point where things get messy because of the Pain Arc. Bc of later events I’m just gonna say…didn’t happen. However the Akatsuki was still formed and it could have happened exactly like canon (danzo, still a bastard) or it could have been some weird Hashirama manipulation insanity like Madara did with Obito and Rin. Either way Nagato ultimately is set up as the guy that will revive Hashirama completely once he has all his pieces in place.
Now we go back to canon. Kushina and Minato are married. Minato has his team. Still only one war so far so Sakumo is in the clear, weirdly this could v well be a pretty happy au for Kakashi tbh. Since the other villages don’t have the bijuu/are just starting to suspect Konoha has them all (except Suna’s), Rin is never kidnapped to be made a living weapon so Kakashi never kills her. Obito has no reason to really have any boulder related accidents so they’re still odd frenemies and Kakashi is happier but more uptight than his canon counterpart.
Kyuubi attack does happen. Only instead of Obito as the masked man, it’s Nagato. And instead of this being an Obito-only play, Nagato brings the entire Akatsuki with him. This results in Kushina and Minato dying like they did in canon, but in the chaos of the kyuubi attack the Akatsuki took the chance and massacred the Uchiha. (They didn’t get all of them but almost everyone.) Naruto was born and we’re not doing weird yin/yang halves of Kurama. Kushina sealed the entire thing in him as a last-ditch attempt.
However, this left Konoha weakened and now it’s confirmed that they definitely had something to do with the missing bijuu. This kickstarts the second shinobi war with the great nations pretty much dogpiling on them. Danzo gets handed the hat back because Tsunade nopes out of Konoha real hard after having lost her student and brother in the attack. Obito, Mikoto (pregnant with Sasuke), Tsunade, and Shisui are the only Uchiha to survive the Massacre. Danzo tries to do peacetalks but bc he very much took after Madara’s kind of rule by force logic than Izuna’s, it doesn’t go well. It goes so poorly in fact that for years it’s Konoha and the smaller nations who got dragged into this, struggling to survive. Eventually Danzo capitulates and gives away the bijuu (also to remove what the rest of Konoha now see as ticking time bombs) and the second war ends when Naruto is 8~
However, bc the village saw the kyuubi’s attack as the primary reason why the second war started and life was terrible, they hate Naruto. Not canon hate, but seriously, seriously, *seriously* hate the jinchuriki more than anything at this point. Danzo, old and too busy with the war, pulled a Hiruzen and just let it happen kinda? Again, bastard. The village knew Naruto was Kushina’s son but they got dragged 8 years through a terrible war that they essentially blame him for so… yeah.
The fic starts with Naruto taking the place of Sasuke next to Orochimaru if that gives you any indication of how that canon path diverged lol.
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