Uchiha Jyun stashed the last of the scrolls into the hidden compartment in the wall of the kitchen she shared with her two children. The effort that it took her to reactivate the protective seals took more out of her than she anticipated.
"I wish I had more time," the former Yuki Clan kunoichi muttered, and then chuckled humorlessly to herself. More time? Once upon a time, she had cursed Shinigami-sama for giving her an entire lifetime when all she had wanted was the soft embrace of the afterlife. This was doubly true when she found out what world and what clan she had been reborn into. Jyun held no illusions that the world of shinobis and smaurais was easy, peaceful, or remotely romantic. In a universe where great nations seem to constantly be at war with each other and themselves, tragedy, hurt, and loss lurk. It was all too reminiscent of her old life,. She distinctly remembered losing her oldest brother to a war fought thousands of miles away from her hometown, and the depression that followed. Jyunwas just thankful that she was born during a time when her clan was prospering, and in a country far from Konohagakure. She was even more grateful that she did not in fact turn out to be an overpowered genius. Those tend to not live very happy lives in the ninja world. Retaining memories of a former life was enough. She did not need to be smack in the middle of the plotline of a story she once thought was fiction, deciding whether her friends or acquaintances lived or died, double-guessing every decision she makes. That was a burden she did not want to bear. Call her selfish, but living on the peripheral edges of the main story would ensure that she would never have to pull on her "abilities" to "see the future." It was much better to be an orphaned member of a small but powerful and not-yet-hated-or-massacred clan, in a village that she feels only a modicum of attachment to. That was not to say that she disliked her childhood. The members of the Yuki clan were kind to her, and she did have as idyllic a childhood as someone with a rare kekkei genkai could possibly hope for.
She never expected to fall in love with another ninja, much less one from a technically enemy village. Somehow, Uchiha Akio made her discard every rule she had sworn she would live her new life by. He was, unlike stereotypes of his clansmen, cheerful and bright, kind and gentle, and loyal to a fault. One slip in her guard, one night spent together in a little inn near the border of Kusa, and her future was sealed. She eloped with the Sharingan user, reasoning to herself that she had never heard of Uchiha Akio, that her small family could probably stay far away from the action, and that if worst comes to the worst she would take her family and run. Plan B sounded fantastic. Until she went to Konoha with her new husband and realized whose branch of the Uchiha family she had unwittingly married into. There was a reason why her Akio did not seem like the typical Uchiha ninja after all. It turned out that her deceased father-in-law's father was Uchiha Kagami. The one Uchiha who the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama (a man known as much for his hatred of the Uchihas as he was for his prowess) trusted. The one who, she remembered to her utmost horror, Uchiha Shisui, the tragic genius who was murdered by his own village as a teenager, was descended directly from. Uchiha Akio was a bit perplexed why his wife wanted to know whether he had any siblings or first cousins, or why she became extraordinarily pale upon learning that he was all that remained of the Kagami branch of the Uchiha clan, but he chalked it up to moving into a new village and a new clan. Jyun, after the initial shock (and more internal curses at Shinigami-sama), resolved to try and alter the future, for the sake of the future child she will have.
Make that two future children. It turned out Uchiha Shisui had a sister. Or maybe he didn't and Jyun's presence in this world changed things. Either scenario was equally likely. After all, there were many things about the hidden villages, their inner functions, and the people living within them that the story she knew from her previous life had not told or even hinted at. She loved both of her children dearly. Shisui, her spiky haired, impossibly cheerful son and Shizuka, her kind, though sometimes sarcastic, daughter. For a while, with a loving husband, her life was complete. Konoha was a good village to live in. Peaceful and prosperous. Even the famously stiff Uchiha clan wasn't too bad once she integrated into it (an admittedly hard task given her status as a former Kiri-nin and shinobi of another clan). She met some of the people who she had memories of. Sarutobi Hiruzen, as the Sandaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, who she reported to frequently once he became the Hokage, Hatake Kakashi, who she ran a couple of missions with, and even Tsunade of the Sannin at the hospital. Unexpected, but happy, relationships were formed. It turned out that her husband was on a genin team with none other than Nara Shikaku, before the famed Ino-Shika-Chou trio were formed after the three clan heads made chuunin, and maintained a close friendship with the shadow user. The head of the shadow jutsu clan even became her daughter's godfather (through some maneuvering and scheming on her part, of course). Then, there were the Uchihas themselves. Uchiha Mikoto, who was beautiful and kind, though who also had a backbone of steel, and Uchiha Fugaku who admittedly was a pain in the neck and too self-important for his own good, but who was also fair. She even met Uchiha Obito a few times. The loud, orange goggles-wearing shinobi who would bring about so much pain and death babysat her children once or twice. Jyun did seriously consider killing Obito and changing the future once and for all. But teenager Obito was so trusting, so good, and still such a child that she could never bring herself to do it. Shizuka, for some reason, was also extraordinarily fond of her distant cousin, and she hesitated to do anything that would hurt her daughter, young as she was and unlikely to remember anything once she grows up. Then, Kannabi Bridge happened and the choice was taken out of her hands. Still, Jyun was content enough in the little world that she built up around herself.
"But, this was the shinobi realm, where powerful rivalries simmer and blood and lives are easily lost. Uchiha Akio fell to a Kumo-nin's kunai in the waning days of the Third Shinobi War, and Jyun herself was badly injured from a poisoned sword wielded by an Iwa shinobi. She lived, barely. But, the medic-nins of Konoha were only able to do so much to contain the poison. Jyun felt the deadly substance creep through her veins, sapping her energy day by day. When she collapsed one morning a few months ago and was told that she did not have long to live, Jyun knew that she was not destined to live out her children's stories. She was not even really going to fully live out her own. When she heard the diagnosis from the medic-nins, she inwardly berated herself for not doing more to change the fate of the people she loved. She always thought that there would be another year to avoid disaster, and that she just wanted to selfishly enjoy the peace she had without worrying about the future. Fate, evidently, had other plans. Jyun was left with mere months to decide what to do with all the information her mind holds. How does one go about changing the future when one is no longer around?
Luckily, Jyun had a few advantages on her side, apart from the experience of two (both admittedly too short) combined lifetimes and foreknowledge of how the future in the world she was now in was supposed to play out. First, she had already experimented with and knew that change was possible. Granted, the changes she made were small, such as pushing for Shizuka-chan close to the Nara clan head and his family. But, the changes were made. After all, Shizuka-chan was very attached to the toddler Nara Shikamaru, close enough that she would definitely have shown up in the original story if she had existed (something Jyun was still unsure about). Second, but more importantly, Jyun gave birth to a frighteningly smart son. Shisui, for all his joking, easy-going tendencies, was a genius. He was not just skilled in the shinobi arts, but he was observant and intelligent. Behind his cheerful façade hides an analytical mind. While Jyun has not doubt that her daughter, who somehow inherited two kekkei genkais, would grow up to be an impressive kunoichi, she knew that Shizuka would still be too young to affect any change before anything truly horrific (such as the suicide of her firstborn caused by Danzo) happened. So, she had to rely on Shisui and, if she knew anything at all about her son's close friendship with the Uchiha heir, Itachi, to put their collective minds and skills together to alter the course of history.
Jyun sincerely hoped that the clues she had left around were enough to point the two Uchiha geniuses in the right direction at the right moment in time. More importantly, she hoped that the trail she very carefully laid out would not be found by anyone else other than her son or his currently pint-sized sidekick. "Well," she thought, "It will be out of my hands soon enough."
The former Kiri kunoichi looked at her own face in the hallway mirror. Her skin was sallow, and she looked gaunt. She knew that she did not have much time left, and silently wondered whether she incurred bad karma from refusing to change some of the events that had occurred and only selfishly thought about saving her children, which she thought she could only do by keeping events as close to the original timeline as possible so she knew when to act. Oh well, if this was karma's way of telling her that she should have at least tried to save the Yondaime Hokage and his wife or her clan, it was too late now. Jyun knew she was not perfect. Her hesitancy to change the world too much cost pain and grief to other families, and she would have to live and die with the bitter thought that she may have had a hand in her children's deaths. But, she had put her plan into action. Maybe, just maybe, whatever Gods out there, in this life or the last, would be willing to at least lend a helping hand. She could only hope for that much.
Jyun peered out of the window. It was getting late, and her children should be coming home now. As quickly as she could, she moved into the kitchen and started preparing dinner. It would not do at all to let her children, but particularly Shisui, to think something was wrong besides her failing health. As the last rays of the day's sun shone done on the rooftops of Konoha, Jyun was determined to be present for her children during dinner. She does not have long left, and she intended to push aside her scheming and just be with those she loved.