The reason for their leaving was unknown to her, just that her parents told her that she had to leave as soon as possible, they did not get to take many of their own belongings with them. It was not until they were on the road did her parents explain that they were headed to the land of fire for refuge. She tried to ask why, why they needed to leave their home. But her parents dodged the subject. Saying she would know when she got older, which was something she always hated hearing from adults. She did remember learning in school that the Land of Fire housed a shinobi village, but their very culture was against Ninja and Ninjutsu as a whole. So why would they even be going there?
She had a lot of questions, but extraordinarily little answers.
"Yua, darling. Please remember that we are doing this to keep you safe." Her mother told her on one of the cold nights they had stopped to camp out. She did not understand that either, what were they trying to keep her safe from?
She had simply nodded to her mother and nestled in close to her as she watched her father male patrols around their camp. Making sure to always keep her and her mother within his sight.
They traveled for many days, it seemed like ages for a six-year-old. But they had finally made it to the village that they would call home, she stayed close to her mother as her father spoke with the guards of the village, explaining that they were refugees. Yua was nervous, and for good reason. The villagers did not look to happy about it, she even heard some whisper, wondering why samurais were there. It was common knowledge that Samurai and Ninja do not share the same ideology, though Yua had always been curious about ninja.
It took them awhile to settle in, her mother had picked up a job first, so they could have an apartment. A lot of people weren't sure about hiring her father at first. But eventually he too ended up with a job.
It was about two weeks after her father had gotten a job, that they had brought up schooling.
"Hunny, apparently the academy also teaches civilian classes." Her mother was telling her. Yua was seated at their couch, looking at the pamphlets of the academy. She blinked as she picked up one for the Ninja part of the academy. "Mommy. I want to go to the Ninja part." She said, handing it over to her mother, who looked shocked at that.
It took her mother and father three days of arguments before they decided to allow her to go.
For her age, she was roughly a year behind the other kids her age, but with special classes, she eventually caught up to her age group, and could rejoin her other classmates.
One of the teachers stood at the front of the class with her. "This is Yua, she will be joining our class as of today." The man was a little jerky with his speech, another one that did not seem to like her and her family. But didn't show it outwardly.
She moved up the isle and fond a seat next to a dark-haired boy with goggles. He was sitting alone, so she figured it would be okay to sit by him.
He glanced at her for a moment before whispering. "Hey... You are the girl from the land of iron, aren't you?" he asked her.
His question caught her by surprise, but she nodded. "I'm Yua." She whispered back. The boys grin was contagious.
"I'm Uchiha Obito." He whispered back. It was not hard to think that she managed to make a friend.
_
Yua stared at the target in the academy yard, it has been roughly six months since she started the academy now. And she was watching how all the other kids were already so good with shuriken. She looked at Obito, and then to Kakashi. The other boy she had met through Obito, and even to Rin. They all had perfect forms. With a small sigh, she watched Obito a bit closer then tossed her shuriken-
Well, at least it hit the target, not really a bullseye. But she would take it!
Rin even grinned at her, she had met up with Rin so many times after school, trying to get better with throwing shuriken.
That had always been the one thing her parents were worried about, that she would end up hurt if she messed around with tools like shuriken, but she had told her parents that her teacher went over tool safety with them every time they used them, much to most of the kid's annoyance, because they were all born Ninja… So, she felt a bit bad, because she was sure that was partly due to her being there.
But she was very happy to think about that now, as the last of her shuriken hit the target as well, and she was jumping out of happiness.
She met up with Rin and Obito after class.
"I tried to get Kakashi to come with us… But he refused." Rin said with a sigh.
Obito rolled his eyes. "He's too good for us now that he's graduated the academy." He huffed.
Yua breathed. "Come on now, Obito… Don't be that way." She said lightly to him.
Yua was wearing a green track suit, something way to close to Might Gai's green jumpsuit. She swore she would get new clothes when she graduated. Her hair was shoulder length and black, and she had grey eyes. Her jaw was set and sharp, looks that were praised about in the Land of Iron's noble families. She was also pale, a show to the fact that she grew up in a country that had a lot of snow most of the time. A lot of people praised her for he looks withing the village, because she did not look like most of the clans.
Obito sighed as he looked at her. "It's just frustrating, Yua. He's a genin, but he thinks he is better than us?"
"Obito.. he lost his father recently too. Don't forget that!" Rin scolded him. That had come to as a shock to most of them, they had all heard the rumors. But they did not think Kakashi's father would do that.
Yua, Rin and Obito had showed up to his funeral, to be there for Kakashi. And they had noted that there had been hardly anyone there, other than the Hokage and a few other classmates.
"Rin is right, Obito. Cut him a bit of slack." She said as they walked down the street. Rin and Obit were older than her by a year, and she was older than Kakashi by one year. Where Obito and Rin had just turned eight years old, her and Kakashi had turned six and seven respectfully.
Due to the war now, they had been told that there were going to be pushed forward for graduation. As they needed more ninja.
And that thought made Yua nervous, she was great at Ninjutsu, she had a lot of the basics down pat. But her throwing skills of shuriken sucked.
As a change of subject, Yua brought this up to her classmates.
"So, don't worry about that Yua, a lot of people can't throw shuriken. You do well with kunai, so that might just be the best ninja tool for you." Rin said with a chuckle. They had stopped outside of an ice cream shot to get some ice cream. "For someone who came into the academy with no ninja background, you are excelling way better than sensei ever thought you would. " she added. "My mom said that they weren't even going to consider letting you, because there was no saying if you would be able to pick up chakra control. But you did!" Rin never failed to hype up her accomplishments, and it always made her feel happy.
Yua chuckled softly. "Yeah.. my own parents were not sure if this had been a good idea, because everyone was further ahead than I was. But here I am now." She grinned.
Obito handed ice cream to both Rin and Yua. "here's to our soon graduation!" he cheered. They dinked their ice cream cones together before eating.
_
War was something that had never been on Yua's mind, being raised in a high standing family, only her father had ever seen fighting. So the first time Yua saw a brawl between two boys of the academy, she had been startled. She knew fighting was a shinobi thing, but were they really that violent about it?
She had kept her distance from it, not wanting to get involved, which is how she found herself in the library, she used it as an excuse to get away from the kids in the street. He curiosity got the better of her when she found the history section. Grabbing a hold of a thick book, she pulled it down and plopped it on the table.
She opened it to see a picture of a man with silver hair and red markings on his face. The description of the photo said Senju Tobirama, The Second Hokage.
That piqued her interest. She had only ever seen the second Hokage as a face on the monument above the village. She had no idea that the man looked pretty.
So, with that thought she dove into the book, learning that Tobirama was also a water jutsu user, that his chakra nature had been water, really excited her. She took note of the jutsu he was able to do and vowed to learn them as well.
Once she had finished the book, she placed it back on the shelf, she left the library to go find Rin.
Upon finding the brown-haired girl, she launched into a detailed explanation of the book she found and how she was inspired to try learning some of the Jutsu the second Hokage had known.
Rin could not help but to chuckle at her excitement. "You are certainly a different one, Yua. A lot of people are mostly excited by the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama. Not many actually seem to idolize his brother." She said with a smile.
Yua rolled her eyes. "I've read up a lot on him too, but Lord Second did so much more for the village, how could people not like him?" she asked her.
Rin shrugged a bit as she rested against the wood of the bridge. "I don't know why people don't, there a lot of rumors about Lord Second, but that's all they really are. Just baseless words, with nothing else to go on." She said to him.
Yua leaned over a bit to look at the water. "Konoha doesn't have many good water users anymore, Lord Second was the best." She sighed. "I have a goal, but I know it is going to be really hard to accomplish, but I want to be just as good as he was. I know there is no way I will be better, but still…" she sighed.
"Yua, you are really great. I'm sure you will be able to reach your goal without an issue!" Rin said.
Yua blinked a little bit before a small smile formed on her lips. "Thank you, Rin." She said softly.
_
Yua lived up to her words, she studied and practiced as often as she could, obviously being barely a genin level, she could not do most of the jutsu. And she had a feeling a lot of them would be hard even when she was an adult. But as a good start, she was able to move water! That is more than some were able to do.
By the time it came to graduation, she was able to use at least the bare minimum water jutsu. Which was mostly using a stream of water and splashing people with it. But it was decent.
The test for graduation was not exactly hard, it was challenging. Everyone passed, but there were whispered that they would have passed them even if they failed the exam. The war was not going good for Konoha now, they were running low on ninja, sure they had enough now. But who knew how long that would last?
Yua's parents were the ones who were the most nervous, they had even tried talking her into dropping out. Saying that this wasn't her war to fight.
"Mother, this is my war. I am a citizen of Konoha now. So, I should fight to protect it!"
Hime stared at her for a moment, a range of emotions going through her head. "Are you sure about this?" she finally asked.
Yua nodded her head. "More than anything, sure I'm nervous about this. But as of right now, we will only be taking missions in the village. They want to push us to the chunin exams quickly. and that will be when we will really start leaving the village."
She could see the worry on her mother's face. "If you are sure..." There was nothing she could do to stop her daughter when she put her mind to something.
Another grin formed on her lips. "Of course,~"
After that, she went about helping her mother in the kitchen. Her father had been gone more and more recently. Her mother kept saying that it had to do with work, and that he would be able to bring him more money… There were times where she was not sure if that was the case at all, but she never questioned her mother.
_
Three days after the conversation with her mother, her and her teammates were on the bridge, waiting to meet up with their Jonin sensei, her teammates were ones she had never really hung around while they were in the academy, but she did not question the way they worked things, or how they sorted them out onto teams. She eyed both.
Nakamura Aimi, a girl with short brown hair, in more of pixie cut than anything, she was also pale, but everyone assumed that was just a thing with her family. She was outgoing and loved flowers, from what Yua knew, her strong point was Genjutsu, Yue remembered well when Aimi had put a genjutsu on one of the other students. It had been fascinating really. Yua wished she were as good at genjutsu, but really, she was not. Her focus was Water Style since her chakra nature was water.
Her eyes slid over to the only male in their unit, Tanaka Ren, a male also with a fair complexion, though his hair was a vibrant red, a lot of people whisper that he may have Uzumaki blood in him. F what she had gathered of him, he was a shy kid. Though, for being shy, he was weirdly good at Taijutsu, not as good as Gai, but damn near close. Though she has seen him use Ninjutsu as well.
They were a strangely unique group.
But Yua loved it regardless. Because the kids never treated her badly for being from the Land of Iron, it was mostly the adults that did not seem to like her. But that never really bothered he, because she knew she was good regardless of what the whispers said about her.
Yua leaned against the railing with a soft sigh, she only hoped that their sensei would not have a grudge against her. It would suck to have to work with an adult who did not like her because of her family.
They all looked up when they heard heeled steps getting closer to them, a woman, who looked to be no older than thirty stepped up. She stopped and eyed the genin with dark brown eyes, her own hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her locks matched the color of her hair. She was of tanned skin, and her eyelids had eyeshadow on them, she also wore the bright red lipstick that Yua had ever seen.
"So, you three are to be my Genin then?" she asked, her voice was as smooth as butter. It was nice to hear.
The three of them nodded to the woman, Yua had only heard rumors about some if the Jonin. Kakashi's father, before the escalation to the war, had been a well renown Jonin in his right. But Yua was sure she's never met this woman or have seen her since she's been there.
"Well, my name is Saito Yui. I will be your Jonin instructor from here on out." She said to them. "So, introduce yourselves, let me get to know you." She said to them.
Aimi was all for this, she grinned as she started to speak. "I'm Nakamura Aimi! I really like flowers, like all of them! I am also rather good at Genjutsu, but that's because it is kind of a family trait!" she said in an excited tone, Yui, as was the woman's name, looked amused by her tone.
Ren spoke up quietly. "I am Tanaka Ren, I like Taijutsu the most, but I can use Ninjutsu as well." He spoke, as to his personality, he was shy, or at least not outspoken like most people were.
Yua breathed slowly before she spoke as well. "I'm Sasaki Yua," she swallowed a bit. "I'm not really shy, but I like to keep to myself for the most part, unless I am around friends, I am close to." She said lightly, thinking about Rin and Obito specifically. "I am fairly good with water style, since it's my chakra nature. I have a goal; I want to be about as good as the Second Hokage with my water jutsu." She spoke. He had only ever told Rin and Obito about this, so this was the first time she was opening to anyone about it.
Yui grinned slightly, oh? This girl, a child with no Shinobi background, strive to try and be as good as the Second Hokage? That was a big goal, normally people dream of becoming the Hokage, but not this child. She seems to have a liking for Tobirama, and this was not even her birth village. A lot of people were aware that Tobirama did not get the respect he truly deserved, and really it was a shame.
But it seemed as if this child would make up for that.
"That is a big goal, Yua. Lord Tobirama was an extraordinarily strong Ninja, maybe not as strong as his older brother, Lord Hashirama, but he still had a name for himself. If you want to try and be as good as him, you will have to work ridiculously hard for that." She said to the girl, and the look of determination was really something she has not seen in a long time. "Alright, with that out of the way. I want you to meet me at the missions office, we will be starting missions as of tomorrow." She explained.
Aimi made a whoop sound, she seemed to be extremely excited to start on missions.
"Mission's office, nine am sharp guys, anyone late and you will be running laps around the training grounds." She said to that. With that, Yui vanished in a poof of smoke.
Aimi looked at Yua and grinned. "So, you want to be like the Second Hokage, huh?" she asked, she seemed amused and curious. "What made you decide that? Hardly anyone talks about him anymore." She said to her.
Yua shrugged a little bit. "I found a book in the library about him, it had been after we found out what our chakra natures were in the academy…" she said to her with a shrug. "It was an interesting read, and he seemed to have done a lot for the village." She added. "I cannot understand is how anyone wouldn't like him?" she said as she looked at both her teammates.
Aimi sighed softly. "Yua… He had a thing against the Uchiha clan, that's why a lot of people do not think about him." She said to her.
Yua raised an eyebrow at that. "You mean some hear say?" she asked her, to which both nodded. "You can not go off hear say! For all we know he may not have been against them at all." She huffed. "So, unless you can give me some evidence that he said that he hated the Uchiha clan, I will not believe what may have be just twisted words down the line." She spoke.
Aimi and Ren looked at eachother and shrugged. "What eve suits you, Yua." Aimi said.
"I'm headed home to tell my parents the good news, so see you two tomorrow morning!" Aimi said as she left, Ren nodded before turning and going in the opposite direction.
Yua watched them leave and sighed softly. She supposed she could leave as well. Not like there was anyone there to stick around with now anyways.
Heading down the road, Yua lightly kicked at rocks. She envied Rin and Obito, not only were they on the same team as Kakashi, but they had Minato as their Sensei too. She was a little jealous, she would not lie. Minato was a popular jonin now. He was young, barely out of his teens yet. He was nice, and even though he was training Kakashi, he had stopped by and helped some of them at the academy, even though he really did not have to. He was kind and anyone would want him as their Sensei.
Yua stopped outside the ice cream shop, thinking about how often her and Rin and Obito would go there, and to think they will not have a lot of time to be around each other now. It was saddening to think about really, she looked down at the ground. She had wanted to graduate so badly… But now here she was, feeling sad over not being able to see her friends all too much. How pathetic was that?
She was a shinobi now, she needed to start acting like it!
She gently slapped her cheeks with her hands, causing a few people to stare at her as they were going by. But she found she did not care. She was so use to others already judging her. So, let them look.
She straightened out her red over dress, she had black leggings on under it. She then stood up straight and moved on a head. She was not just a little girl anymore, she was able to fight, she was training to be a great ninja! so she did not have time to just sit and pout like a baby. She let out a low breath as she continued to walk, her eyes glancing around every so often. She wore her leaf headband proudly on her forehead, she was no long Yua of the Land of Iron, but Yua of Konoha. And she felt a bit more pride for Konoha than she did for the Land of Iron, from what she remembered, her family had been chased out of the land. For what? She would likely not know until she was much older, whenever her mother decided to tell.
She could not deny that she was curious, and that she wanted to know why she could no longer see her grandparents. But at this point, she was sure that being able see them again was a pipe dream, and one she did not wish to think about all that often.
Stopping, Yua glanced around again. Taking note of where she was again. She was close to the gate.
Blinking she looked up at the large gates and remembered the first time she had came through them. She had been scared. But no longer.
"I will protect Konoha, with my life."
The words were easy for her to mutter. Because she meant each of them.
She would protect Konoha because this was her village now as well. And she did not want anything back to happen to it.
