Let her give a little lesson.

Birth/bərTH/

noun

The emergence of a baby or other young from the body of its mother; the start of life as a physically separate being.

Life/līf/

noun

1. The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

2. The existence of an individual human being or.

3. The period between the birth and death of a living thing, especially a human being.

Death/deTH/

noun

The action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism.

These are the three phases a human will go through. It doesn't matter if a person will face them earlier than they are meant to or perfectly on time, they are the guidelines everything will follow and that was the end.

But, for now, humor the existence of something after death.

Some believe in a place where a person will go if they are "good".

Heav·en/ˈhevən/

noun

1. A place regarded in various religions as the abode of God (or the gods) and the angels and of the good after death, often traditionally depicted as being above the sky.

Others, in a realm people will go when they are "bad".

Hell/hel/

noun

A place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.

These realms go by various names and are held to a very specific religious standard by many.

So imagine the surprise she felt when she - who grew up trusting in these places, these ideas and concepts - opened her eyes to see not burning flames or puffy clouds and pure white wings but large towering figures covered by a hazy film.

Shocked and terrified to her core, the only thing she could do was scream.

And so she did.

It was a high pitched shriek, positively shrill and full of terror and confusion. It took her perhaps a few seconds to figure out that she should not be making that kind of sound and that obviously something was wrong.

From there it was a chain reaction of realizations.

She was small, she was weak, she was an infant. She was cold and frightened, unable to lift her own body. She wasn't dead, she was somewhere strange with someone even stranger holding her in their arms.

She wasn't in the hospital listening to the monitor fall flat as they took her off of life support. She wasn't feeling the last few beats of her heart fade off into an unnatural stillness. She wasn't in a place where she could understand the native language. She had no one she knew she could rely on. No familiar faces or features, only strangers and the woman who birthed her to depend on because she had no other choice.

And she didn't know what to do other than completely shut down because somehow, by some power, she had been reborn.

Re·in·car·na·tion/rē-inkär'nāSHən/

noun

The rebirth of a soul in a new body.

All of the nurses who handled her often remarked on her abnormal behavior.

She was a quiet child, always staring wide-eyed at everything around her. Always held herself stiff when they touched her and absolutely lost it when her mother came within three feet of her.

Such an odd child, they would whisper, a pretty one but strange.

But she didn't know any other way to be.

She was an almost adult thrust into the skin of a baby, given to a new family, and was expected to take to this situation like a duck to water. She was adaptive but that idea was just too far fetched for her to even comprehend. Granted, none of them knew of her real age but she thought she was entitled to a little bad behavior. Hell, she deserved to raze several cities to the ground in a fit of rage.

She thought, all in all, that she was taking this pretty well all things considered. Others would have lost their minds or something worse - and she was beyond lucky to have parents who didn't want to hurt her which was why after enough time had gone by she decided to be kinder. After realizing just how much her rejection hurt her new mother, she began to respond to the name she picked out.

The woman didn't need to suffer her own child shunning her because of something she couldn't control - none of this was wasn't her fault.

Sakkaku.

Illusion, it meant as she had learned from observation. It seemed with languages she was a quick study which she was grateful for. Communication was the key if she wanted to assimilate into this new culture.

It was nice, she guessed, so she took it. Why wouldn't she when day by day she forgot simple things from her other life? Things like her hometown, the car she had owned and loved, her high school, her college, and eventually her own name. And if she couldn't recall what she was originally called, then what could it hurt to take another name?

She would twist and turn until she adjusted hers and felt right in her new skin and that started with accepting her family.

Let her talk about her mother. She was a kind and patient woman and took time when approaching her, seeming to sense her apprehension. It effectively made her feel so guilty about her treatment of her mother, that she vowed to try harder to be more accommodating.

Her name was Kurama Kuronue, with hair so dark a red it appeared burgundy - a color she inherited - paired with intelligent golden eyes bursting with life - which she didn't inherit sadly, black eyes for her - and a friendly disposition. She was a small woman but she was fit like no one she had ever seen before, like wow she must've done like a zillion power squats to be like that!

Sakkaku never saw a man - or woman - around and according to the gossip, she was a bastard child. Lovely. That explained why no one came to visit.

Still, Sakkaku lucked out with the reincarnation pinwheel. She could have gotten a family that abused rather than ignored her or even been reborn into a third world country where the enslavement of females into sexual enclaves was something endorsed by the government. She shivered and looked at the faintly smiling woman who watched her lay about with nothing more than unadulterated love shining in her round eyes.

Yes, it could've been a lot worse.

When Sakkaku first decided to openly show her intelligence, she hadn't been aware of the consequences that would follow, of the things she had set into motion and would have to suffer through. She hadn't known that it would be taken in a different way than she was used to. So, thinking only of how fast she could become mobile again, she spoke her first word and showed advanced cognition around four months.

"No!" She shouted, lips pulled down in a harsh frown and wide amber eyes stared into black as surprise sparked across the older woman's face.

Letting the spoon full of mush and milk down into the miniature bowl sitting on the table, her mother stared hard back at her disgruntled face.

"What did you say?" She said, delicate brow wrinkling. "Can you repeat what you said for kaa-chan?"

Shooting the "food" - she doubted it was edible - that didn't end up in the garbage a glare she scowled harder. Shebreastfeedingst feeding, she took the disgusting powdered milk, but she would NOT take the vomit Kuronue tried to pass off as baby food. It was time to make her preferences known.

"No more!" She repeated on a shout before smacking the bowl to the ground, mouth screwed shut and head turned away. The maid who was currently entering the room witnessed the debacle and promptly dropped the vase she had been holding with a sharp crash.

Flinching at the loud sound, Sakkaku turned to face her and was startled to see the expressions on her face. It was a wild medley of awe, disbelief and… fear?

Her tiny brow furrowed and she wondered if she had read that right, but when her mother whirled around and dragged the girl into a separate room, she knew she hadn't imagined it.

Straining her ears as hard as she could, Sakkaku only caught a few words but all of the gist of it.

"...will do anything...protect...clan...very smart...quiet...or else Dara-san...consequences...you understand, ne?..."

The rest fell off into mutters and Sakkaku felt confused. Her mother had sounded threatening. Was it really so bad to show her advanced intelligence? Did she do something wrong?

Doubtful thoughts swirled around in her head, but when her mother re-entered the room with the girl who now refused to meet her eyes and flashed her a smile that could melt icecaps, she decided that if it made Kuronue so happy, gave her something to be proud of, and helped further her own plans, it was worth it.

But if only she knew then what she would know in the future, she might have thought differently. It would have saved her gallons of blood, sweat, and tears.

You all know the filler episode with the Kurama clan with Kurenai? And the girl who couldn't control her genjutsu abilities? Yakumo? My SI replaces her and has her advanced kekkei genkai. You can google her if you don't know what she can do or who she was. I like the thought of a illusionist.

Edit: 3/4/17