"He said that he couldn't do such cruel things to me. He used the same exact words my mother's love had rejected her with. Was it fate that I was to suffer the same heartbreak as my late mother?"

Those words echoed in Miya's mind as she sat under the kind sunlight. Certain unexplained sadness infiltrated her heart at the recalling of the passage she had read previously.

"The Lord Hashirama was compassionate person. He was already too perfect but somehow he still found flaws within himself. He wanted to become more knowledgeable and powerful for the better. He did not desire the wealth and influence for himself but rather for everyone. He believed strongly in love and wished that his love for mankind will unite all shinobis in the future. He hated the bloodshed and the sacrifice of the innocents.

After all…he had already lost two brothers to the never-ending conflict.

I thought that I would understand loss the way Lord Hashirama had to experience. I was wrong. I was just the same naïve fool was my mother for thinking we could understand…

My mother's health was failing by the day. Father had often described mother was a fragile being and she was. After my birth, my mother never recovered to full health but it was not that she was a lively person to start with.

It started off with a cough here and there…then one day there were droplets of crimson found in her handkerchief. My mother pretended to be that pretty fool, but I knew that from deep within she knew that the persona had benefited her. Most regarded my mother as another exquisite object added to my noble father's collection, but every object has its story. Knowing that her days were limited, my mother often called me by her side to share stories from her childhood.

My mother's real name was Sayuri. Shizuna was the name my father had given her when he married her into nobility. She told me she was the average village girl who laboured with her parents in harvests and took care of her siblings during their absence. Life was hard outside these great walls I call home.

My mother lived in a village nearby the Senju Clan's household. Peace was relative because of the Senju's gracious protection. Like me, during her youth she would often see shinobi children training and preparing for the next battle. It was a simpler time compared to the life she lived today.

There was a man who would pass by my other every morning when she went to fetch water. She said he was not the most handsome man, but he was the most honourable. He was chivalrous and wouldn't allow a young girl to carry such heavy water buckets despite how far or close the distance might be. It soon became a natural occurrence for him to accompany my mother back home while carrying the heavy burden. They spent the mornings talking and getting to know one another and soon…

My mother fell in love; however, she had fallen in love with a shinobi.

They resided in two different worlds. He witnessed the horror on the battlefields while my mother experienced nothing close to that. My mother didn't understand what bloodshed was on the literal term whereas he had lived it. My mother was a fool…a pretty fool.

As the months flew past, her beauty had become the talk of the village. Potential suitors came forth to win her hand, but she would have none of it. There was one man she desired to spend the rest of her lifetime with and to be without him would be a life not worth living. She was stubborn and naïve to the world around and to what her options were.

She waited for him to pose the question. She desperately wanted to live out her days with him. She wanted to bear his children and raise them in his likeness. She wanted nothing but him.

He was different. Mother could never confirm whether he truly loved her or if that his affection was only momentary. He never told mother he loved her. He only told her that he cherished her company. He never kissed her or held her tenderly. He only looked at her with sheer sincerity.

When my mother could not wait anymore, she asked him boldly to define their relationship and whether it has an end. He declined her. She asked him why, but he only said that he could not do such cruel things to her.

He had left afterwards and disappeared from her life.

My mother idolized my father ever since their first meeting. She told me that the reason for her adoration for father was not due to his status but to the timing of his appearance.

Mother fell into great sorrow when she was rejected by the man she had put all her faith in. She wanted to die, but she knew that with her gone then there would be no one to take care of her family. Both of her parents were aging and ill. Her siblings were too young to fend for themselves. My mother's world came crumbling down as a matter of an appropriate exchange for her famed beauty.

With my father, mother saw great aspects. He was an educated man and he was already married so she did not have to carry the burdens of a true wife. He promised to grant funds to support my mother's family in return for her being. She did what any intelligent and sane woman could have done then, so she married him.

Till her deathbed, my mother confessed to having never stopped loving that man…the shinobi. My mother held my hand dearly while she explained that she had and always will love me, but she would have treasured me more if I were his child. My mother didn't have me because she loved father and wanted to bring their affections to fruition. She had me because she wanted to thank my father for the kindness he had shown her during her darkest time.

I should have known then that love was not in my nature was I was never the result of it."

"My mother…she had also told me that she loved another man who was not my father." Miya whimpered as tears started to form around her clear blue eyes.

During the brief time Miya had spent with her mother, she had realized that she seemed to be always reminiscing about something. Her mother also passed away due to failing health, but it was rumoured that it was due to a broken heart. Her mother was also keen on keeping Miya by her side to pass on the tales of her childhood. It was then that Miya understood at a young age that she was not the product of love between a woman and the man she loves.

My mother's passing took a toll on me. The truth was that her passing did not affect me as much as her confessions had. I wanted to believe that although I was not the legitimate child, that I was still a child formed from the sacred bond of two lovers. I was wrong…

My mother's passing was pathetic. Father paid not much mind at all while the rest of the household carried on as if nothing had occurred. My mother was given a burial, but it was not to celebrate her life and the days lived.

I remember standing alone by her grave just outside the manner walls after her funeral in the great rainfall. However, there was another person who also stood with me.

That man was the Lord Butsuma Senju. He had this tenderness in his expression as if the heavy rain had washed away his stoic exterior. In his hands were white lilies…Sayuri.

I often wondered if Lord Butsuma was the man my mother longed for. She wore the Senju green with such pride and enjoyment. Her eyes were fixed on his person during all those gatherings. She spoke of him with such high regards and respect despite the common tendency for nobility to look down on those dedicated to a lifetime of servitude.

Did my mother share the same fate as me?

"You are awfully out of it these days, Miya" said a familiar cool sounding voice.

She whipped her head back to find the infamous silver-haired jounin leaning against a tree with his signature book in hand.

"Hatake-san." She acknowledged him with a nod.

"Are you feeling alright these days?" he asked with concern embedded deep within his tone.

"Why do you ask? I am quite fine." There was a defensive hint in her tone.

"From what I had witnessed, I beg to differ." He replied with ease as if it was all that he needed to explain his sudden interest in her life.

"I am sure you have far more important things to do than to meddle in my personal affairs." Miya was a bit agitated when she replied coolly.

"Well," he sat down beside her as he gave a long pause, "I can't help it if your issues interfere with the training of my students."

She looked him in the eye with seriousness, "When have you even cared about Naruto? You were always so preoccupied with Sasuke before his departure." She taunted the man in front of her.

Miya was a mild girl prior to all of this. She was polite and gentle but somehow remained to be assertive on her beliefs. It was until recently that she had started to become protective and secretive of her privacy. Kakashi knew that there must be something going on in this young girl's life to make her change so dramatically in a matter of days.

"Naruto is all I got now. But Miya, somehow you always were involved with my students at some point." He returned the hostility.

"Are you calling me loose?" she questioned his intent for all of this.

"I just would like to get to know the civilian girl both of my prized students were so fascinated with." Those words slipped off of his lips effortlessly as if practiced before.

Miya let out a faint yet mocking laugh, "Mesmerized is more like it." She added to his sentence.

He shifted his weight towards Miya and closed in on her rather unexpectedly, "Show me." His breath whispered only deep enough for the both of them to hear.

She kept an intensive eye contact with this older distinguished man. Her blue eyes focused on his darker mature ones. The air had become thick between them as the struggle for dominance began.

"Do you believe in reincarnation Hatake-san?" she breathed with her eyes never leaving his.

"I try not to focus on the past. The future holds far more prospects." He answered.

"Doesn't the past define who we are today? The losses we suffered and the grievances we endured?" Her words seemed to be targeted at Kakashi as it struck a deep part of him.

"You have changed." His eyes narrowed in suspicion at her choice of wording.

"How so?" she teased him as her lips secretly slid her bottom lip.

"You are different than before." He tried to suppress his rising heartbeat.

Miya could sense the change in atmosphere between them. It was screaming danger but nonetheless tempting. She was a smart girl and she knew that she needed to get herself out of this risqué situation.

"I am sure many would look down on a man, no matter how accomplished he may be, for harassing a young girl… in a secluded area?" she smirked as her eyes dared the man to say another ill-mannered word.

He still remained the same and unfazed…this was the benefit of wearing a mask as no one could tell your expression. Regardless, his eyes still focused on Miya's slender yet alluring frame.

"Don't let your reputation proceed you, Hatake-san." She got up from her seat. "There are techniques that, even when performed by a skilled shinobi such as you, will not work on me." And she left him behind to head home.

Kakashi rarely paid a mind to the common civilian unless it involves his duty, but this girl seemed to enthral him beyond belief. Most members of the opposite sex would fall prey to the moment he had just created and succumb to tell all the information he required. Some women did it because they fall prey to seduction but most young girls would easily give up due to awkwardness. However, this girl was different and she knew what he attempted to do. Despite her young age she still held her ground like that of a well experienced woman in the art of seduction.

To be honest, Kakashi had always been curious about the girl who had managed to capture Sasuke's egotistic and Naruto's wondering attention. It was a well-known fact that she possessed that certain elegance and refinement of nobility despite of what is known of her ancestry. Her beauty had started to become the talk of the village ever since her features started to fill out. It will only take a few more years to smoothen all the leftover edges and then she would truly become the second coming of the Lady Shizumi.

The Godaime had instructed that Kakashi keep a close eye on her for her rather strange behaviour recently. Although without much interaction, Kakashi knew that Miya had once been such a sweet and loving girl but now it seemed to have all changed. The Sandaime often talked of this girl with such nostalgia and fondness as if she reminded him of someone from his youth. Godaime was wary that Miya's sudden interest in the village's taboo history and its current politics had been caused by another outer interference. Kakashi knew well that the Godaime feared the much rumoured second coming of the cursed love story.

"Was the transition already initiated?" he carelessly whispered out as he headed to meet up with his student.