Grief isn't something people teach you how to process. You don't expect to suddenly be gripped with an array emotions that make you want to curl up, and spend your days crying. You want to just turn back time and stop everything from happening, erase it and do it again.

Grief can be especially difficult if you've never actually lost someone in your life before.

Yua wasn't the type to be crushed by tragedy, or at the very least, she would never show it. Instead, she was the type who went through the motions of life as a way to cope, with her new situation. Yua wasn't ready for someone close to her to die, she knew her mother didn't deserve death, and Yua knew her former self must have had something to do with how she reacted.

Of course what she felt could be an echo. Perhaps it might have also been her own trauma, as she'd never experienced any kind of tragedy like this attack brought.

Nonetheless, her eyes were red, which the classical tomoe whirled to life.

She had the Sharingan, now, she wasn't sure how to feel about that.

She was scared, mostly, and decided to keep it to herself for the most part. Sharingan made you a target, and if you weren't strong, you ended up like how this clan will if she doesn't do something. She was an orphan now, and was moved into the orphanage soon after the attack. She visited Itachi even more now, and made sure to keep up her training.

One thing was different now, she was a lot more cautious of Orochimaru, since she was now an unclaimed orphan, with no protector, no one to miss her, she was even more of a target.

Then again, hanging out with the head of the Uchiha's clan's son was probably enough to keep her just out of reach.

For now, anyways.

She had signed up for the Academy the other day. Her mother wanted her to wait, but guess what, she couldn't wait. She needed to become a Shinobi as fast as possible in order to have her own place. She can't stand children her age who aren't Itachi.

Yua would begin attending in the spring, she would be five by that time. She would be ahead of Itachi, but she supposed it was for the best.

She never expected her mother to die, nor did she expect herself to have such a strong reaction should the woman die. Current Yua suspected it was the real Yua who was actually grieving, which in turn, added to her guilt, as she assumed the girl was dead.

YUa's life was rather robotic for a while, after this fact, she would wake up, train, go to school, visit Itachi upon the end of school, train, return to orphanage, eat, sleep, repeat.

There was one difference in her robotic routine that occurred today.

Yua didn't want to rely on her Sharingan, but she knew it was helping her by a long shot with her training and studies, as she had accelerated her skill by a lot. She had perfected tree and water walking, she had perfected her aim in shuriken and kunai, she had even learned a bit of taijutsu due to the academy teachings.

(She was top student in a month, of course. Math was easy, since she already knew it. History she already knew as well, though the academy did give her a less open perspective, as they focused on Konoha. The only the that was sort of knew was learning about chakra and ninjutsu. She wasn't trying, to get that title of the best, it was just a consequence of her obsessive training. She had to be good. Or she would die.)

The girl was growing quickly, and now her sharingan whirled as she held a sword, something she wasn't going to say how she got. Same with the kunai.

It wasn't exactly stolen, she had just gone out of her way to buy it from a suspicious character. The money she had used was saved, taken from her mother's allowance she had been storing up.

Yua felt at ease for the first time in a while, knowing she was at strong as she could be at her age, for the moment, especially satisfied with the progress she made. Yua set the sword against a tree, and focused on her kunai and shuriken. She had debated on going at it like Itachi had done, but decided against that.

Instead, she pulled out a blindfold, placing it over her eyes. She took in the breath, and began. She heard the hits, and remove her blindfold.

She had missed two, out of eight. Yua sighed. "So close." She repeated the exercise, and this time only missed one. Yua was irritated with her failure, and so proceeded to with exercise without a blindfold, memorizing the area, before putting the blindfold back on.

She hit every target. It wasn't as impressive to her as it could have been, but it did give her a sense of satisfaction. Yua decided to make it harder. She put the target's in harder to reach places, up and down, so she would have to jump and flip in order to hit all the targets. She placed them where Shinobi would most likely hide.

That one took her longer, she didn't start with the blindfold, of course, instead she activated her sharingan, and began. It took her a while to actually hit all the targets, but eventually, she was successful.

Yua landed on the ground, her heart bounding like a drum, as she grinned like madman looking at all the pieced targets. She felt proud, and strong, after being able to make those targets, and now she knew she just had to how to probably do it, without her sharingan.

She need this to be her skills, and on the event she ever goes blind, she needs to be just as strong. She can't rely on the Sharingan.

"Hello." Yua kept herself calm as she looked on at the snake man who had just revealed himself from the shadows. Yua knew he was there this time, mostly because she had be absolutely focused on enhancing her sensory abilities, and because he wasn't trying to hide himself, well not to the degree he was fully capable of, but at a much lower degree, because... Yua wasn't sure yet.

Most likely to see how well he sensory abilities were, now that she thought about it. Damn him.

The air was still around him as he stood there, the piercing gaze almost never leaving her, as he composed himself, the corners of his lips turn upwards, his shoulders more relaxed and both of his hands visible, almost like he was trying to making himself appear more friendly, less menacing and... creepy.

He failed.

Yua in turn, narrowed her eyes, suspicious of his intentions although fully aware of his goals. He was bothering her, here, now, why? Surely she wasn't his next target? Or was she more of a opening to the Uchiha Clan, since she didn't exactly run away from him. Albeit, that was more of a pride thing on her part. The small girl was aware of his activities, even more aware than most jounin. She wouldn't say anything, she didn't have any proof, and regardless, she was not going to risk ending up on a Sannin's shit list.

It's possible he's sticking around because he wants to study an Uchiha, and Itachi is a little to difficult to reach, but I'm an orphan nobody cares about, which makes it easier for him to reach me. Yua realized, and tried to hide her growing anxiety from the Sannin.

"What do you want?" She skipped the pleasantries, going for a more direct approach. Orochimaru's supposedly friendly stance became more strained, as a grin began to show itself. "Hello again Yua, I was just in the area and happen to notice your little training... you started the academy not to long ago, didn't you?" He questioned, head tilting. Yua tensed, not liking his tone. "Yes, I did."

"Your mother finally let you join early?" His seemingly innocent question made Yua's heart sting at the memory, and she picked up on what he was doing. He was attacking a weakness. A psychological one, he must know her mother was dead and he was using that to make her vulnerable. A sad little girl without her mother, a raw wound. Yua found herself insulted and irritated by his tactics, bring that sort of thing up to a little girl, how dare he try to manipulate her.

"No. She died." Yua said, and she caught the small flash in his eyes, she didn't pick up on what emotion was behind it, though. His schooled expression into one of pity, one she knew was absolutely false. "Oh, my apologies for bringing it up-"

"Oh you knew." The words slipped out of her mouth before she even realized she said that aloud, and she froze, catching his expression. She inwardly flinched.

"What?"

"You knew she was dead. It was obvious. I don't take my normal route from my house anymore, and I know you've been watching me longer. Plus it's obvious my mother wouldn't just change her mind like that, and the Nine-tails attack just happen so... it's obvious. Trying to manipulate me like that with that sort of tactic is just insulting, did you not think I would pick up on such an obvious manipulation?" Yua snapped, deciding it was probably better sooner than later for the sake of her sanity to just stop with all the facade, she was so sick of lying.

Lying to everyone about everything she knew. Not telling a soul of who she truly was. She was sick of it, and she wasn't in the mood to play this man's game.

"Ah fuck. Ok, look, I'm not really in the mood to play the little naive and childish but also a sweet little fucking prodigy Uchiha girl, so cut the crap." Yua said, surprising the Sannin with her language, but also causing him to drop his supposedly friendly posture and body language. Yua walked over to her things, disregarding the Sannin, who raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"Quite the vulgar language. Did they teach you that at the Academy?" He asked sarcastically. Yua shrugged. "Nah, picked it up when I was younger." This got another raised eyebrow, and Yua was pretty sure that eyebrow was going to disappear into his hairline.

Once she was done packing up her thing, she set them against a tree and looked at the Sannin. "Alright. So you're a Sannin." She said, and Orochimaru nodded, before she continued. "You're Orochimaru, yeah?"

"Oh I'm flattered, you've heard of me."

"Yeah, my clansmen say you're sketchy, that you're also mad, and that you shouldn't be trusted." Yua listed, and noticed his lips thin as the expression on his face dropped. "Ah... so you don't trust me?"

"Nope. What kind of fool would trust someone who's been spying on them, a little girl, for the last... how long as it been?" Yua wondered aloud, and Orochimaru's expression changed, resembling a grimace. "Regardless of whether or not they are a fellow leaf nin, I don't trust people with your kind of... feeling."

Orochimaru titled his head at that, almost in curiosity. "What feeling?" Yua paused, trying to put it into words. "Well... general creepiness... the look in your eyes screams greed, you are obviously after my clan's dojutsu, and you are clearly power hungry and seem like you will do anything to gain said power." Yua stopped herself from saying more as she saw a growing look of... disturbing interest in Orochimaru's eyes.

"Then that look." She noted, and he stepped closer to her. "You're right." He admitted. "I am after power... the Uchiha power is... absolutely fascinating."

"Eh... I personally think it's kind of overrated." Yua admitted, and Orochimaru's expression turn into that of shock and surprise, like he expected her heard her wrong. "Why would you say that?"

Yua looked at him, and for some reason, she decided to reveal her eyes. They spun into life, spinning almost hypnotically, she saw the Sannin's eyes as he stared into them, a look of pure glee and excitement.

"Oh, oho..." He chuckled in amusement. "Kukuku... an Uchiha child, with the Sharingan..."

"Orochimaru. Ignore the magic eyeballs." Yua snapped, irritated, and the sannin look amused at her term for the prized dojutsu. "How long have you had them?" He question, reaching out and snatching her chin, moving her head up to get a better angle. Yua deactivated her eyes, and pulled away.

"Oi! No touchie." She held up a hand. "Look. The Sharingan is overrated in comparison to other dojutsu. I know for a fact are eyes are good, but my mom is dead," Yua took a breath to calm herself, "And the memory is permanently embedded into my brain. I will never forget it... literally, I am quite incapable of doing so." She explained. "If I use these in battle, yeah, it's useful, but everything that occurs will be stuck inside my head on an endless never ending loop. Imagine any bad memories you have, the kind that give you restless nights and cause you to avoid certain people and pick up certain habits," The young girl explained, "Now in remembered in perfect detail. It's also not just the event you remember, but the feelings as well. Stuck. Never able to forget. Never able to shut out. Never able to ignore." Yua explained, stretching out every detail to further let it sink in how it is to have the Sharingan.

"There is a reason Uchiha go mad." She ended her speech with just that single line, trying to explain to the Sannin what's it's like to have these eyes. "Everything comes with a price... the Sharingan, the Uchiha's curse of Hatred." She hissed out, and finally looked back up at Orochimaru, who had watched her throughout the entire exchange.

"I... see." He did not think it wasn't worth it. Of course, for someone like him. Yua sighed. "But I suppose explaining this to you it was pointless.. now tell me the real reason you've been spying on me."

"I wanted to observe an Uchiha.."

"I get it. You want the Sharingan, and you wanna see what it can do, what it's secrets are, yeah?"

The Sannin said nothing, just stared at her. Yua sighed. "Alright." This surprised him. "You're going to cooperate?" He asked, surprised.

"Hm... not for free." Yua corrected, and Orochimaru smirked, nodding. "You want something.. what is it?" Yua glanced at her sword, and he followed her gaze, before nodding. "You want me to train you in the sword." Yua crossed her arms, nodding.

"I need to get stronger... and the academy is ok and all, but it's taking to long in there... I also need to develop my eyes." She activated the dojutsu once again, revealing only a single tomoe. "You can observe how these eyes work, and the different between each stage's recall and power, and how long it takes to develop to each stage. I'll answer any questions you ask to the best of my ability... and in return, you teach me how to use that sword. Make me stronger." The Uchiha declared, and Orochimaru didn't bother hiding his grin, the long creepy tongue making another appearance.

"Kukuku... you have a deal... young Uchiha."

Well... sorry I've been away... went on vacation... fell down a sand dune... sat on a volcano... and crossed a fuck ton of desert and mountains...got sick... so less vacation and more... sight seeing/murdering my body's muscle/getting lost/pain

I will try to update more often, but I need to figure out a better time management plan. Let me know what you think in the comments about Yua's knew arrangement!