An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
At thirteen, Itachi Uchiha carries a heavy burden — the protection of the Hidden Leaf Village. However, as the day of the Uchiha massacre approaches, he’s faced with a new path that challenges him to abandon his duty and allow all-out war.
On a quiet autumn evening, after overhearing a conversation between his childhood friend Izumi and Sasuke, Itachi makes an unpredictable decision. He won’t sacrifice his family to the village’s demands; instead, he’ll defy everything he knows.
With Sasuke and Izumi by his side, they forge a new path and disguise their identities, but the shadows of their past, the truth they left, and the people who lived and changed through the war won’t be far behind.
Sakura Haruno, a skilled "unstable kekkei genkai" hunter (part of the New Leaf's UKG task force), is determined to wipe out the last remnants of the Leaf’s most unstable kekkei genkai that led to the Third Great Ninja War: the Sharingan.
She has trained her entire life to fight these cursed eyes, and she will cleanse the world of their evil herself, if that's what it takes to ensure that nothing like the Shinobi War she lived through as a child ever happens again.