Don't Trust That Uchiha

(Having learned from the mistakes of my first serial, I won't start this one until I have at least 400,000 words saved up.)

You were an orphan for as long as you could remember. One day, on your way home from work, a truck hit you, and you got a bonus package: amnesia and reincarnation in another world.

Good news: In this life, you were born in a little village called Takumi Hidden Village. Your family has over a dozen people, your grandparents are alive, you have both parents, and you have a younger twin brother. Your family gets along, and your life is peaceful and happy.

Bad news: When you were eight, your entire clan, except for you, was slaughtered by people sent by a powerful man your family couldn't afford to offend. Your swordsmith grandfather had angered him.

As for you, because you have the "Tearbone Swordheart," also known as the family women-only condition called "turns into top-grade tamahagane when cheated on," a strange ability you don't even know you have, the powerful man takes an interest in you. After you narrowly survive, you're dumped in your enemy's hometown, where you're raised as future sword-forging material and become childhood friends with your enemy's son and his cousin.

Then, on the anniversary of your relationship with Childhood Friend No. 1, you find out he jumped into a river and killed himself. Two years later, just as a mysterious masked man stabs you through the heart, you awaken memories of your previous life. From Childhood Friend No. 2, who's watching you die from nearby, you learn the truth: Childhood Friend No. 1 only dated you on the orders of his superiors.

You discover just before dying that you've transmigrated into the nation's most popular manga from your previous life. ...Didn't these memories from your past life arrive way too late?! One star. Definitely one star!

Good news: Maybe because you left a bad review, you are reborn.

Bad news: Maybe because you left a bad review, you are reborn on the very day your family was slaughtered and you arrived in your enemy's hometown.

You: "..."

Is it too late to take back that bad review?!

No refunds. At this point, since there's no way you can beat your enemies, you have only one option. Having learned from your previous experience of being adopted, you promptly reject the offer to be adopted by your enemies' clan. You decide to live quietly in a corner of the village, far from them, and keep your head down for as long as possible.

As long as you can hang on until they bring about their own downfall, you'll be fine, since you won't be with them when they're killed!

Believing this, you get the new life you have longed for. Everything seems to be getting better, until one day you suddenly (finally) discover, to your horror, that your two childhood friends seem to have come back with their memories too.

And they never planned to let you go this time, even though you don't want anything to do with them anymore.

*

Before Shisui died, the things he couldn't let go of were not only Konoha and his clan, but also his childhood sweetheart.

She was fragile and sensitive, and saw him as her whole world. She had once told him to his face that she would die without him.

Overcome with guilt, he entrusted his eyes and his beloved to the person he trusted most, Itachi, then leapt into the Naka River. There, he discovered that he had returned to the age of ten.

After confirming this wasn't a genjutsu, he also learned the future of the shinobi world from Itachi, who had likewise been reborn after dying. Together, they managed to stop the Nine-Tails' attack in time and worked to smooth over every potential source of unrest before it could take root.

Everything seemed to be getting better. Only one thing had gone wrong from the very beginning.

Shisui tries to get close to his beloved, who was never adopted by the Uchiha, but she keeps avoiding him. At last, he can't take it anymore and locks her in a room, using genjutsu to make her reveal what happened in the future. Shisui smiles.

"Didn't you say you'd die without me? Don't worry. This time, I absolutely will not leave you behind." The black-haired, red-eyed boy smiles just as warmly as before. He gently strokes his beloved, who has once again become obedient under the genjutsu, and meets the gaze of someone watching them from the shadows.

The two Uchiha silently reach an understanding.

You must not leave my side. Our sides.

Even if we go to hell, you're coming with us.

Reading guide:

1. Naruto-only otome fan fiction, with Shisui x heroine x Itachi, a three-way, mutual-love relationship. The main story is told in second person from the heroine's point of view; other characters' and omniscient viewpoints are in third person.

2. The story begins in the second loop after being reborn. There is no romance during childhood, just kids being close, and the childhood arc is fairly long, so the romance develops slowly. The blurb only covers the early part of the second loop and its central ideas. The heroine's point of view in the early second loop does not reveal the truth of the first loop, which unfolds in flashbacks from the three characters' memories. This loop will explain many of the earlier mysteries, but its overall tone is heavy, with Japanese-style pure (stomach-churning) love. Read with caution if you can't handle angst.

3. This is a story born from the author's desire to write a "burning winter" romance, while also exploring how the timeline might change in a second loop based on the original story's Tsukuyomi alternate timeline. The story and romance are split 60/40. The romance contains plenty of melodramatic, shocking, out-of-character elements, focusing on: Itachi (early story) -> Shisui (first-loop flashbacks) -> it's White Album season again (?) -> burning winter. The main story has an open ending, with separate endings in the bonus chapters.

4. There are many original additions. For canon, I use whichever version works best: anime, manga, or official novels. The original doesn't specify their age difference, so in this story Shisui is five years older than Itachi. The heroine is two years younger than Shisui and three years older than Itachi. At the start of the main story, the heroine is eight, Shisui is ten, and Itachi is five.

5. The heroine's clan and abilities draw on the Muramasa sword and various related fan works, with a few Touken Ranbu elements in the background, such as the Senji clan crest being based on the crest of the Senji Muramasa sword. You can still enjoy the story without knowing any of that.

6. If it's not for you, please click the X. Let's all be nice to one another.

7. Please support the official release, and enjoy reading.

Theme: A triangle is the most stable shape