Latest Update:November 25, 2022
Summary: Itachi had done many things in his life that he wasn't proud of. No matter how one might try to justify it, he had undoubtedly committed unforgivable crimes in the name of what he thought was right. To make matters even worse, his actions not only didn't improve Sasuke's life but actually caused him even more pain. The only thing he could honestly say he had done right was stopping the Edo Tensei and showing Sasuke the whole truth, but that unfortunately didn't make up for a lifetime of mistakes.
With that in mind, waking up as a child almost two decades in the past was somewhat of a surprise. After all, weren't there people who deserved a second chance much more than he did? Weren't there people who could do much more good than him?
It was he who was in this position now, however, which meant it was up to him to create a better future. One in which his clan wouldn't be destroyed, Madara would be stopped, and, most importantly, Sasuke could be happy.
Itachi would make sure of that.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19833751/chapters/46964497
Word count:393k+
Chapters:75
Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Let's start this from the beginning
Prologue
Itachi was confused when he woke up.
He remembered fighting Kabuto and having a final conversation with his brother, but he also remembered releasing the Edo Tensei and thus was pretty sure that he should be dead.
Itachi knew from the first time he had died -oh, and didn't that sound just ridiculous?- that there wasn't anything but blissful warmth in the afterlife. It was possible that the Edo Tensei somehow cursed the summoned soul, of course, but he thought it was much more likely that the user was the one cursed by the forbidden technique instead. After all, why punish the victim for the deeds of the culprit?
For a moment, he entertained the possibility that he might have been summoned once again to fight as someone else's slave, but then he realized that he wasn't standing in a coffin but lying in a bed instead. And the reason he wasn't seeing anything wasn't that said non-existent coffin was closed, but because he hadn't opened his eyes yet. So, even though his senses were still a bit blurry and his mind still tried - and failed - to fully understand what was going on, Itachi did just that.
He didn't know what he had expected, but seeing a very normal ceiling had certainly not been it.
Sitting up, he instantly noticed two very important things:
First, there was a big red and white coloured fan symbol he knew all too well plastered on the wall in front of him. He had no idea how he had ended up in a place with the Uchiha emblem of all things, but that was exactly what he saw.
However, the second thing made him forget about that mystery for now:
He was small. And when he said small, he meant tiny.
Itachi looked at his puny little hands in confused horror for several seconds, not quite believing what he was seeing. He opened his mouth, not knowing if he was going to scream, cry, or even utter any tone at all, before snapping it shut with an audible clack.
He hadn't survived in the ANBU and as one of the most well-known criminals on the continent by losing his mind every single time something unexpected happened. Even if this was a bit more than just 'unexpected', he would stay calm and collected. He could panic later, but for now, he needed to concentrate on finding out what was going on.
Standing up with forced composure, he noted the different perspective the change in his height gave him, forcing him to stand still for several seconds to adjust to the change before being able to start walking around the room.
He had planned to look around and see where exactly he was but stopped moving after only a few steps when he finally recognized the room. Now, from the position where he stood in its centre, he couldn't help but wonder how he hadn't recognized it sooner. The bed, the wardrobe, and even the carpet, he knew it all.
This was his room. Not only that, but it was his room from before his clan had been relocated to the outskirts of the village just a few weeks after the attack of the Nine-Tails.
Itachi started moving before he even knew what exactly he was doing. One moment he stood in the middle of his room, and the next thing he knew was that he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
What was looking right back at him was unquestionably his face.
His much younger face.
Deciding to do what he should have done from the very beginning, Itachi closed his eyes and concentrated on the flow of his chakra in his body, but he didn't notice anything strange or unusual. Or at least nothing that indicated that he was under the influence of a Genjutsu. What he did notice, however, was that his chakra reserves were much smaller than they used to be. He never had the biggest reserves in the first place, but now they were barely above the level of an average Genin if even that.
Ignoring this for the moment, he opened his eyes and activated his Sharingan, but he didn't notice anything strange even then. Itachi hesitated just a mere second before activating his Mangekyo Sharingan, but still, nothing changed.
If it wasn't a Genjutsu, then there was only one other possibility that came to his mind.
People had always called him a prodigy, a genius, but you didn't need to be a genius to realize what kind of situation he had found himself in.
He looked just like he did when he was a child and had woken up in his childhood home. Furthermore, to bring the point across even more, he recognized a lot of the various chakra signatures he could feel from outside the building. How couldn't he when he had been the one responsible for extinguishing their light in the first place?
The conclusion seemed obvious, no matter how mad it sounded:
He was in the past.
It should be impossible. The entire idea was ridiculous because... time travel? Really?
But then again, bringing back the dead sounded impossible too up to the point when it actually happened.
He frowned and looked around, his gaze accidentally meeting his image in the mirror. Once again his childlike face looked back at him, now with the addition of heavy eyes that it shouldn't possess for many more years. His eyes followed his tear-troughs, which were not as pronounced as they would be later in his life, and he could see-
I can see! My eyesight isn't blurred at all!
This realization would have had a bigger impact if he wouldn't have started to feel lightheaded at that moment. Quickly realizing that his Mangekyo was eating up his chakra reserves at a frightening pace, he immediately deactivated his Sharingan.
With a heavy sigh, Itachi leaned against the wall.
So, he thought, to sum things up: I woke up in a house I didn't live in since the Nine-Tails attacked the village from which I can conclude that my body is at most five years old. My chakra reserves are reduced, but I am still able to use both my Sharingan and my Mangekyo Sharingan. However, my eyesight has not yet been compromised nor have I noticed any problems with my breathing, so I'm probably - hopefully- as healthy as I used to be when I was a child.
He sighed once more. For now, Itachi would just assume that he had indeed travelled back in time, no matter how ridiculous that theory might sound.
He stood in the bathroom for what felt like hours, doing nothing but look at his reflection in the mirror and think about the situation he had found himself in.
Itachi just couldn't understand why he of all people had been granted a second chance. For all his good intentions, he still murdered his own family. Young and old, babes and children, and even his parents. Not to forget all the crimes he committed in the name of Akatsuki, or even in the ANBU before that. The list of his crimes was long, and there were so many people who deserved another chance much more than he did. No matter what some people might say, he wasn't a hero.
And yet, here he was.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a door being opened, followed by a soft feminine voice calling his name. It had been many, many years since he had last heard it, Itachi immediately recognized it as his mother's. He knew from the moment he had accepted that he had truly travelled back in time, even if he did so only hesitantly, that he would need to face the ghosts of his past sooner rather than later.
Quite literally, in fact.
But now that the meeting with his mother was just about to happen, he knew that he wasn't ready yet. He needed more time to prepare himself.
Without much thought, he opened the window and jumped outside.
It was fortunate that only his reserves and not his control had been set back to fit the age of his body because if that were not the case, his attempt to use a shunshin would have resulted in a very embarrassing and rather spectacular failure. But as his control was still as good as before, this action did not pose a problem even with his drastically reduced reserves. Thus, he vanished from sight in search of a place where he could think in peace.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19833751/chapters/46964497