Kakashi leaned against the support beam, one long leg stretched out before him as the other hung off the side of the porch. Sasuke took a knee while reattaching the new hinges to the old sturdy door of his Uncle's old home.

Sasuke was not allowed visitors in prison but since his probation, Kakashi had made it a priority to visit with Sasuke when he could. Only Naruto and Kakashi frequented the compound. There were no other visitors. Not even Sakura could bring herself to speak to Sasuke yet. She was still hurt, still betrayed. She looked the other way in passing but he kept his eyes forward, never looking back at her. He didn't mind the solitude. In fact, he was relieved to be left alone a majority of the time. Repairing the Uchiha district was keeping him occupied and his mind on other things. Not being able to use his chakra for the last three and a half years, his body still reacted to draw on it but nothing happened in response.

"Sasuke," he lazily said. He already knew the answer but he needed to hear it from Sasuke himself. He didn't know if the younger shinobi would answer him but he had to ask regardless. His student left years ago to pursue his goal with the legendary Sannin Orochimaru to train him. To Kakashi, Sasuke was still the prideful youth who was distant and only focused on getting stronger. Beyond his determined and angry eyes was a broken little boy. But in front of him was a man who held such tremendous power and skill. That broken little boy was a shell left behind now. Kakashi had only admitted to himself that he was heartbroken that he failed Sasuke as a teacher, a protector, a comrade, a friend.

Sasuke looked up at him from his kneeled position.

"In the end, was it worth it?"

Sasuke's brows knitted, his eyes and hands going back to what he was working on, ignoring his former sensei. He wasn't going to give Kakashi the ability to say 'I told you so'. Kakashi's warning about revenge had made him question the hate that had been in his heart when he was younger but within a few hours, he left Konoha with Orochimaru's minions. To be honest, he couldn't really give him an answer anyway. Finding out the truth about Itachi after he died, he spiraled into another path of anguish and darkness. The only thing that changed his heart on destroying Konoha was his brother. Seeing Itachi one last time during the war, it helped him struggled out of his darkened heart and finally decide to come home. It took him a few years to finally surrender but he did and served his time without a word. Sasuke looked over at Kakashi who had gone back to reading his worn and tattered Icha Icha.

Mia's body was no longer a dangly adolescent. Her figure was starting to form into a young woman's. Her legs had become thicker with muscle and her arms more toned. Mia's index and middle fingers were wrapped together; her hands were dusty from the chalk powder. Gripping one of the many wooden bars running across the wall of the gymnasium, she pulled her body up against the horizontal bars and with steady upper strength, her legs outstretched into a perfect line, balancing herself against gravity.

After an afternoon of training herself in the gymnasium, Mia walked home the same old road she did every day. The sun had set a while ago and the crickets had started chirping. The gate with the faded fan came into view. She had only one hope left in Konoha and he resided behind that old gate. She had never seen the gate open and if she was going to get an answer, she was going to have to get into the compound.

Mia pulled the purple hood of her hoodie over her head and ran to the wall of the Uchiha compound, jumping over and landing on the inside with a light thud. It was dark and eerily quiet. She walked with careful and quiet steps onto the main street. The street lights had been blown out long ago and she could see graffiti written on some homes with broken windows. Thieves and vandals had no regard to the Uchiha's memory. It made her sad to see the district so run down and she hoped her own clan's abandoned compound didn't look like this now.

Unaware of a presence behind her, the piercing tip of a kunai was pressed against her neck.

"There's nothing of value here. Leave now and I'll spare your life." said a cold, flat voice. She had never heard that voice but she knew exactly who it belonged to without having to guess. The voice was so cold it sent a chill down her body. The hair on her neck stood up.

Gulping, Mia slowly held her hands up. "I'm not a thief. I came here to speak to you, Sasuke Uchiha." She slowly turned around, her hands still up and for the first time in six years, she made eye contact with the last of the Uchiha, his sharingon was no activated. He held the kunai right under her chin, his brows knitted and he did not say another word.

"I need a jonin to train me to be a ninja. I have asked everyone in this village. You're the only one left"

"I am not a jonin by their ranks. A genin can not take a student under their wing." He replied flatly.

"But you defeated Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin. You killed Akatsuki memebers, did you not? You're stronger than Konoha's jonins." Mia's eyes did not leave Sasuke's. Her determination did not waiver.

"Even if I could, I don't have patience to be a sensei."

"Don't start making excuses like the others. You're the only one left"

Sasuke dropped the kunai and turned to walk away, "My answer is no."

Mia's eyes widened. Sasuke's refusal made sure her hopes would never come to light. Her emotions flexed from determined to panic to anger within seconds as she yelled, "You owe me!"

"I don't owe you anything. I don't know you" he said without giving her another chance to protest as he headed up the stairs of a porch of a house.

Mia ran to the base of the porch and whipped her hood off her head, her finger pointing to the large scars running across her face, "You don't recognize me?! I was ten years old when Orochimaru exterminated my clan for refusing to work with him!"

That grabbed Sasuke's attention. He stopped and looked back at her.

"He slaughtered my mother and my sisters while they defended our clan. These scars are a reminder of that day." Her voice broke in a struggled attempt to keep from crying out of frustration.

"You were the little girl under the floorboards" Sasuke finally gave her his full attention, coming off the porch to meet her where she stood. His memory traced back to that night.

Outside the house he walked through, he could hear the ground rumbling from jutsus being performed and women's screams. He was looking for something for Orochimaru but so far had turned up nothing. Sasuke stood in the doorway of a room. The bed was unmade and the frame was crooked, away from the wall. It was moved in a hurry. Sasuke pushed the bed over, revealing a small cellar door. Pulling it open, Sasuke's sharingan was met with terrified coral eyes. A young girl gasped and scooted further into the cellar, her back against the wall but not out of sight of the red eyes of a younger Sasuke. Her hand held the open wound on her cheek, blood seeping through her fingers and down her forearm. Blood covered her chest and tears streamed down her face, clearing a path through the blood. In that moment, Sasuke had a flashback of his own self being terrified of Itachi the night his family was murdered. He saw himself in the girl's eyes. He should kill her, he knew he should. Instead he pressed his finger to his lips, silently telling her to remain quiet. She nodded and he shut the cellar door, pulling the bed back over and straightening it out to not raise any suspicions.

"Yeah, that was me. My sister killed the man who did this to me and tried to hide me. But you found me. You could have killed me but you didn't. You let me live while everything I had known and loved was destroyed. I was too young and too weak to fight, my kekkei genkei had not awakened and I listened to their screams, unable to do anything! You may have spared my life but you helped murder everyone I loved. You owe me, Sasuke Uchiha." Mia did not back down even as Sasuke stood before her, his arms across his chest. He could kill her here, within a blink but she didn't fear death. No, she didn't fear dying anymore. Losing everything takes away your fear. Her coral eyes radiated that fearlessness.

For what seemed like a lifetime, Sasuke did not say anything. He only held her gaze as if reading her. He turned to leave again, "I can't teach you much while my chakra is sealed but if it means a way for you to survive, I'll train you"

Mia closed her eyes, sighing in relief. "When do we begin?"

Author's note: A little more is revealed about who Mia is but soon we'll find out what her kekkei genkei is and more about her clan. What do you guys think so far? I'm anxious to hear. Reviews truly do inspire us writers into seeing our stories through. I hate finding wonderful stories and then realizing they hadn't been updated in years and so little love for them.