Did you know that, according to Chinese tradition, water is a yin element? I had no idea, lol, but it all worked out in the end. :)

Water.

H2O.

One of the five traditional elements.

The liquid which covers over seventy percent of the Earth's surface, which makes up approximately the same amount of a human's body, and without which all known forms of life will surely perish.

Also, pure fucking yin.

Kyou watched, a grin on her face, as the water floating above her palm held the shape of a sphere, liquid despite the freezing temperatures. After talking it out with Tobi—the one true genius of their generation—she realized what she'd been doing wrong. Yin was the element of imagination, so why the fuck was she trying to find physical signs of its existence? It was already inside her, powering her daydreams and nightmares alike. All she had to do was harness that potential for her own ends.

Again, she wasn't really sure how it worked and she didn't have the technical vocabulary to describe exactly what she was doing, but, in the most basic of terms, she was just letting what she wanted to happen happen on its own terms, picturing the end result without fussing over how it came to be. It was a little hard, at first, since her sharingan had her so used to knowing every step her jutsus took, but once she learned how to take a backseat to her own chakra, it was actually pretty nice.

The water shit was a neat bonus, too.

She noticed right away that gathering yin chakra almost always resulted in a gathering of atmospheric water, too. The water was easier to manipulate when she circulated yin chakra through it, taking all sorts of shapes that were inconceivable only one conversation ago.

Tobi was so fucking awesome. She wanted to share to the fruits of his mental labor with him, but she wasn't sure she wanted to. Was it selfish? Obviously. But, if she kept her discoveries to herself, she'd have a reason to seek him out.

Plus, she kinda liked being the only legit waterbender in existence. Sue her.

The sphere of water changed shape, coating her hand like a glove. The fingers hardened into points, becoming wickedly sharp claws that glittered the harsh winter sun.

Mwahahaha! No longer did she need to use hand signs to turn water into ice! Now, it happened the instant she imagined it, the element helpless before the might of her whims!

Her entire body was filled with buoyant joy as she threw her arm out to the side, the deadly cones flying from her fingertips and embedding themselves into an innocent tree up the to first knuckle. Finally! All the dreams she'd nurtured since first learning her chakra nature could be brought to life! All thanks to the chakra whose literal job was bringing dreams to life! Who'd've thunk it?

If only she'd tried to use yin chakra earlier, she might have learned some cool shit by now.

Oh, well, she could start learning cool shit, now! Who was gonna stop her? Warai was back in the summoning realm, Satas was in hell, and her kaa-chan never left the house. She could whatever she wanted! Mwahahahaha!

Ok, evil mastermind time was over. Time to actually think about the thing she learned to use yin chakra for, in the first place.

From her, admittedly faded, memories of days spent scouring the Naruto Wiki, the first step to using medical ninjutsu was channeling pure yin or yang chakra. While hers was somewhat contaminated by the water she'd spent so long learning to control, she was fine with that. There were worse people to resemble than Katara, after all, and she may as well take her waterbending to the ultimate aesthetic extreme, maybe trademark it while she was at it.

She scooped up a palmful of snow, willing it to melt and become water. With the power of magic and chakra, it obeyed, once again coating her hand like a second skin. It wasn't even cold! She cackled as it began to glow, the yin chakra she channeled through it making its presence known in the most obvious way possible. The light was bright and could probably illuminate her entire house at night. Still, she had to frown.

It was blue. The medical techniques she remembered were green, not blue. Did it even matter?

She knew so little about medical techniques beyond the fact that they technically existed, and, not for the first time, she berated her past self for not paying more attention to a show she supposedly liked. Did color mean something? Was it only medical chakra if it was green? She had the yin chakra down, what was the next step?

She vaguely remembered something about a fish…but it was fucking winter and, even with her newfound mastery of her element, she didn't feel like chipping through the ice just to torture an animal for what might end up being no reason.

Fish are friends, and all that.

No, what she needed was a guinea pig.

Izuna had a few bruises, right? He'd sit still while she fucked around with his insides, right?

"Kyou-kun? Is that you?"

The water she'd gathered around her hand stopped glowing and lost its shape, falling onto the snow with a plap. She turned around to see her favorite cousin, the mighty Madara himself, approaching her with a soft smile on his face. He was…thirteen? Thirteen. He was thirteen, now, and was starting to resemble the him who would bring the world to its knees. He still wasn't old enough to wear the official high collared yukata all the adults in their family wore, but the thick scarf wrapped around his throat was a good substitute. Still, he wore far fewer layers than Kyou, his fire natured chakra keeping him warm in ways her water, while objectively superior, could not. Unless…

Could she use yin chakra to warm herself up?

Madara walked up to her, standing on the surface of the snow like some kind of Legolas. It was a waste of chakra, in her opinion, and everyone knew the best part of snow was the footprints.

"You sounded like you were having fun," he said kindly. "Do you mind if I join you?"

Hmm, well, not technically, no, but the odds of him actually being able to do what she did was—.

He had the fucking sharingan. Fuck.

She hid her hands behind her back and turned her face away with a sniff. "It's a secret!"

Madara, angel that he was, laughed at her refusal instead of taking offense. "Really? It sounded fun, though. Are you sure I can't take a peek?"

Uh, yeah? Like hell she was letting him steal her super awesome technique! It was a Kyou only exclusive! GTFO!

He laughed again, the sound a little strained in the face of her rejection. "I get it. I'm sorry for asking."

He turned to walk away and Kyou's calcified conscience sank bony fingers into her heart. She reached out to him, catching the back of his kimono and tugging him to a gentle halt.

"You can't tell," she pouted, cursing the soft spot she had for him. "It's mine."

He turned around, the smile on his face tugging at the heartstrings she could have sworn she'd trimmed from existence. He closed the distance between them, his body radiating warmth.

"I won't," he promised in a whisper, his foggy breath mingling with her own. "Is it a jutsu? You haven't come up with a new one in a while."

Right. She'd never come up with new jutsus, only changed the ones the rest of the Clan used to suit her suiton chakra. Maybe, one day, when she was big, she'd be able to use a fireball like everyone else. She knew how, thanks to her sharingan, but her body just wasn't able to do it.

She brought her hands out from behind her back, bending over and scooping up some snow, her bare fingers burning with the cold. She held the soft, fluffy ice in her hands, looking down at it as it started melting in the ambient heat of Madara's body. Did she really want to do this? If she showed him, he might tell his dad, and then she'd have to show everyone. She didn't want to. It was hers.

And Tobi's. Hers and Tobi's. Not Madara's.

She looked up at her cousin through her hair and he met her gaze with a smile.

Well, it should be fine. He was the good one. He said he wouldn't tell, so he wouldn't. Even if he did, maybe nobody would be able to do it, their katon limiting them the way her suiton did her.

A knot of anxiety tied itself in her chest, but she started channeling her yin chakra, anyway, the snow in her hands melting and rising to hover above her cupped palms. It glowed faintly, the blue light that so confused her refracted by the liquid onto their dark clothing in mesmerizing shapes. It was pretty, she'd give it that, but she had a specific function in mind that rendered its pleasing form moot.

"Kyou," Madara whispered, his hands coming up to cup at the air around the floating blob of water, coming close but not quite touching it. "This is amazing."

She chanced a glance up at him and noted with relief that his sharingan wasn't activated. The secret of the pretty water was safe.

"What does it do?"

The water froze, going from fancy jelly to a ball of needle sharp spikes in the time it took for his voice to fade from the air. Madara jumped back, black eyes wide as he watched the dangerball melt back into a pretty lava lamp.

She smiled at him, taking immense joy in the fright she'd given him. He still wasn't using his sharingan, so she felt pretty safe repeating the finger blade trick she'd come up with before, once again impaling a poor tree with little icicles. Madara watched, open mouthed, as she gathered up more snow, making another, bigger floaty blue light for his amusement.

He walked back up to her, this time finding the courage to poke at the water with a gloved finger. The water avoided him and he huffed a breathless laugh.

"Kyou, this is…this is incredible! How did you—?" He cut himself off, shaking his head with a smile. "No, I know. It's a secret, right?"

"Mmhm!" She molded the water into a lumpy facsimile of a hyena. "No telling!"

He chuckled wryly, gaze never leaving the water. "Amazing. I don't even know where I'd start to try something like this."

She smiled smugly, conveniently forgetting how long she spent mulling over the most obvious clue in the history of riddles. He laughed at her arrogance and pat the top of her head, ruffling her hair affectionately.

"Good job, Kyou-kun," he said, the genuine pride in his voice filling her with warmth. "You really are a genius."

"Kaa-chan, I have a question."

Her mother hummed in response, her hands never pausing as she combed her hair. She sat on the edge of the bed they still shared, her back perfectly straight. She was much stronger now after so many months of her strange daily training. She was eating better, too, so she looked a lot healthier, color in her cheeks and light in her eyes. She still never left the house, but she often sat in the light from the window, so her tan was much deeper now, too.

"What can I do with yin chakra once I figure it out?"

The comb froze mid pass, glossy black tresses caught in its teeth. She turned her head to look at Kyou, brown eyes regarding her in the stiff way that told her she'd asked a bad question.

"What do you mean? I thought you had a plan?"

"I do," she said as she carefully stitched at a hole in her handmedown yukata. "I've hit a bit of a roadblock, though, so I thought I'd look at the other things I can do to see if they solve my problem."

Her mother's hands resumed their task, though rigidly. "I see. Yin chakra can be used in many ways. Genjutsu is the most common, but it's far from the only thing it can do."

Yeah, she knew that. Even now, she was hyper aware of the water in the air, the element practically begging to be used in tandem with her yin chakra. It was weird, but not terrible. She'd have to ask Warai about it when he came back.

"Like what?" She kept a careful eye on her mother's movements, watching for any signs of distress. "Do you know any techniques?"

She did, she just wasn't gonna share. The way she tightened her grip on the wooden comb and increased the pace of her combing told Kyou all she needed to know. Her mother kept a lot of secrets and whenever Kyou got close to one, she got incredibly agitated. She never hit her daughter, though, not on purpose. Sometimes, her brown eyes glazed over and she held on tight enough to bruise, but she was always sorry, after. Kyou couldn't find it in her to blame her mother for those episodes. She wasn't like Satan, taking out her anger on the nearest helpless victim. Kyou didn't know very much about PTSD or flashbacks other than she probably had them, too, but she knew the victims couldn't really control when they happened. All she could do was try to learn her mother's triggers and avoid them.

Even if it meant having her questions go unanswered.

Like, where was her mother from? She wasn't an Uchiha, that was for certain, but Kyou knew nothing about her life before she was presumably deceived into marrying a psychopath. From the Clan gossips, she'd learned that her mother was supposedly a civilian, but…she could use chakra? Understood it on a fundamental level and used it to recover from the bullshit Satan had put her through—physically, at least. That didn't sound like a civilian. It was more likely that her mother was from another shinobi Clan, but Kyou didn't want to ask about that. If the Clan thought she was a civilian, then she was probably undercover, or something, and if the elders found out…

Well, some things could stay secrets.

"Forget it," Kyou said, holding her yukata up to the light to see if she'd missed any holes. "It's not that important—."

"Have you stopped to think," her mother interrupted, voice small and shaky. "About what it means to be intangible?"

Kyou froze, arms locked above her head as she realized she was actually getting an answer to her question. Slowly, she lowered the yukata, looking at her mother's stiff back with wide eyes.

"'What it means'…Well, it means you can't touch it, right?"

"Not normally, no," her mother confirmed, arms wrapped around herself so tightly Kyou could almost hear her bones creaking in protest. "But with yin chakra…" She sighed, loosening her clenched muscles one by one before turning to look at Kyou over her shoulder, expression tired. "There are a lot of things in our everyday lives which we can't normally interact with, Kyou, but are nonetheless present."

That made sense. Now, if only she'd said that from the beginning!

It gave her a reason to talk to Tobi, though, so she'd forgive her. This time.

Kyou watched as her mother went back to combing her hair, clearly done speaking on the subject, and sighed to herself. Her yukata was repaired, so she set it aside and dragged over her newest set of armor. It was one of her older cousins' old sets, as Madara was still wearing his. She was growing faster than any of the boys and being tall was a welcome novelty but she waws sure it was starting to annoy some of the more violent minded boys. With Satan dead, she lost her most prominent connection to the main family. Sure, she was still technically a member, but the 'make Kyou our leader' campaign had all but officially died. Without the elders in her corner, her position in the Clan was shakier than ever and there was no shortage of people taking advantage of that. Although, she wasn't sure why. The only reason anyone disliked her was the threat she supposedly posed to Madara's position, right? Unless…

Was there another reason for people to hate her?

You know, beside the fact she was a total bitch.

"Kyou." Her mother's voice brought her from her musings. "Do you like living here? With this Clan?"

The question caught Kyou off guard and she couldn't stop the violent snort that ripped through her sinuses. "Fuck no! They're all assholes! Well, except for Madara, Zuzu, and baa-chan, but the rest of them can burn in a fire for all I care. Meanies, the lot of them!"

Her mother laughed in response, quiet but genuine, and Kyou let herself smile at the rare accomplishment.

"I see," her mother said, laughter still ringing in her voice. "yes, they have been…meanies, haven't they?"

"Yeppers! Total asshats undeserving of love or affection."

Her mother laughed again and Kyou fought the urge to let out a victory cry. Twice! She'd made her mother laugh twice in one day! Huzzah!

"Kyou, do you love me?"

"Of course, I do! You're my kaa-chan!"

"That's good."

What a strange question.

The unsuspecting victim walked at a leisurely pace, hands folded behind his head as he meandered through the village. His footsteps left no imprint on the snow, his subconscious use of chakra keeping him from sinking. He spared no glance for his kin as they made their way to and from their homes, going about their business as he did his. Unfortunately, he spared no glance for the sky, either, or he might have been able to avoid being pressed face first into the snow, the weight of a cousin bearing down on his back.

"Kyou!" He sputtered, knowing instinctively which cousin it was. "Get off me!"

She cackled, pressing him further into the snow with unnecessary vigor before rolling off him.

"Got you, Zuzu," she crowed, placing her hands on her hips in a classic display of arrogance. "Constant vigilance!"

Izuna pushed himself up off the ground, hastily dusting the snow off his clothing before it could melt and soak his skin. He made a face at his younger cousin before turning away from her, arms crossed over his chest in a pout.

"Zuzu~," she crooned, reaching out to wrap her cousin in a too tight hug. "I need a favor."

"No."

"You don't even know what it is~."

"I don't need to. If it's you, it's gonna hurt, get me in trouble, or both."

"Mmmm~, Zuzu, please. I'll oil your armor."

He opened one eye and looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Fix my clothes, too."

Ah! She had him.

His posture loosened as she nodded vigorously, falling into her trap with practiced ease.

"So," he asked, head tilted back to give him the illusion of looking down on the taller girl. "What do you want?"

Quicker than lightning, her fist flew out and struck him on the outside of his arm. With a reflexive yelp, he grabbed at the newly injured spot, blinking back tears before they could ruin his oh so manly image.

"What was that for?" He whined.

"I need a bruise. Now let me see."

He fought her off as she tried to pull his winter yukata from his shoulders. "Woah, stop! What are you doing?"

She huffed impatiently at him. "You'll see when I do it, now show me your arm."

He regarded her warily for a long moment before slowly pulling his arm from his sleeve, goosebumps prickling his skin as he exposed it to the crisp winter air. She took his bicep between her hands, vision sharpening with sharingan clarity as she assessed the injury she'd dealt him. As expected, the sharingan alone wasn't enough to really see the damage beneath the skin. Calling on her yin chakra, she ignored the way Izuna stiffened under hands in response to the liquid water that rushed to coat them.

Yes. With her hands covered in yin filled water, she could actually feel the way his capillaries had burst beneath her fist, blood rushing to the area to facilitate healing.

Right. This was the important part. Looking at her own body, she had a vague understanding of how an unbruised arm looked. Taking that model, she applied it to her chakra and then applied her chakra to the rapidly forming bruise.

She watched, transfixed, as the damage was undone, not quite reversing itself, but certainly healing at a much faster rate than would otherwise be possible. Was she speeding up his body's own internal processes, or was she asserting her will over it? Did it matter?

"Uh, Kyou? Can I put my clothes back on?"

She came back to herself and let him go, stepping back with a smile on her face. "Thanks, Zuzu! I figured out something important!"

He looked at his arm, twisting it this way and that before tucking it back into his sleeve and giving her a narrow eyed look. "Uhuh. And are you gonna tell me what you did, or…?"

Her smile grew a little sinister. "Nope."

"Right. Ok. Can you fix my yukata by tomorrow? Kaa-sama will be mad if she finds it like it is."

She nodded absently, already lost in the plans she had for her future.