8Beginning | YOSHINO
She met Shikaku Nara when she was six. He was ten. She remembered because he was the first boy who gave her a flower - a lavender rose given to him by his parents who told the boy to give it to her.
They became engaged at sixteen. She was not surprised. But no amount of knowledge could have dampened the unfairness, the betrayal, the injustice of her circumstances. That she must marry a man - not just another man but a Nara – the ''future'' of the clan, because of duty, of tradition, of blood.
Oh, of course, they were nice about it, covering the order as a question, giving her time until her 21st birthday to say 'no'.
She had until then to save money and leave. She had until then until her intended encounters another woman he would fall passionately in love and perhaps elope with.
Or until then for her intended to fall in battle.
Either way, what bliss, she thought many times to herself.
He 'cheated' on her multiple times - this she knew. It, of course, didn't bother her as much.
Oh but how she just hated the thought of having someone else's leftovers.
But they were at war and the peace in her team was hanging by a thread.
And she had dreams…dreams she might never catch, no matter how desperate and how badly she wanted them.
The more he fooled around with other women, the more chances he finds another. This was what she thought.
A scandal spread like wildfire when she was seventeen; he was nineteen. Four years before the date where they finalize their marriage. She was a chunin and he was a jounin, and he apparently had an affair with some low-ranked noble from the Land of Snow.
She was supposed to be ecstatic.
But her mother and father had just fallen in battle together, not even a month before the scandalous event. Her grandmother was in added misery and her brothers in battle were growing even more distant and angry at each other.
She was still too weak to stand on her own.
So she made a deal with him and they held hands for the first time in memory. She ignored the warmth and the false security his hand brought, forcing herself to hate and disgust him. It didn't take much.
His condition was that she only had to look at her betrothed's parents in the eyes and that was what she did without seeing them. She smiled and said:
''It was to be expected of a man. The engagement remains if my intended is willing.''
In exchange, he'll give her access to their clan's most private archives. She will have more power.
She found him everywhere after that.
And because she was a fool, she married him.