FOUR

Discriminatory

BEING A WOMAN WHILE WISHING TO HAVE BEEN BORN A MAN was Azura's usual passing irritation. That being said, when she picked up her katana, she felt that familiar rush as the steel glinted against the dimly covered sun. The edge of the blade swung with slice through the wind and collided with steel as her blue eyes narrowed upon her trainer. She angled the blade, placing her left foot behind her, and swung once more. The muscles of her arms had grow much in size since she first began, and her trainer was forced back at her strength.

She spotted the glint of sweat upon his brow, feeling her own lips wish to curl. Regardless, out of the practice of being humble, she had long since learned not to brag on every achievement. She took a another step forward, noticing his muscles shift, showing he was about to go on the offense and catch her in her blind spot. She kicked back, shoving her heel into his shin and twisting her blade so his went flying from his hand. This made his blade slam into the stone statue of the great eagle that rested to the left. A maid had jumped and quickened her pace for her chores on the engawa.

"What, Azura, did I tell you about taking Kuni's fighting style for your own?" Oniyuzu Ramarou said, his lips twisted into a frown. Azura slightly smiled, swinging her blade back into its scabbard.

"While underhanded, it is yet effective," she told him, holding out her hand.

"The point, Azura, is that you are skilled enough to win honorably," he reminded her, for he had long since gotten demoted from 'trainer' to 'person who nearly lost an eye when Azura was fourteen'.

"Yes," Azura agreed, running her fingers upon the hilt. "But this way is efficient and quick. The results end the same."

"You are angry about something then," he said, running a hand over his forehead and wiping off the sweat.

"I am not angry," she said, already knowing that being angry would only make her situation worse. Instead, she schooled her features into something even her grandfather might be proud of seeing and turned to her former teacher. "I summoned you here for more than just a sparring session."

"I don't suppose it's to finally have a nice cup of tea and talk over your engagement," he said, and she felt a smile slip past her guard. He had been asking for a resting session for months, having been likely paid extra to slip it into her head that marriage into a good family would only benefit her. Just like every other person in her life that had been bribed the same way, she brushed off the comments.

"Actually, it is what I wished to do," she agreed slowly, trying to appear aloof as she thought of Oda Kenpachi with a souring mood.

"Yes," he said gravely. "Oda is a...strong man."

"Oh, I know that," Azura replied. "I have heard much of this man. A strong man. A rich man. A high born man. A man with much influence. Notice how no one has come forward to say that he is a good man."

Ramarou frowned, but was uncharacteristically silent on that matter of questioning. "Is now the time to be thinking on what type of man he is?"

"I know what Oda Kenpachi is," Azura said, glancing out the corner of her eyes. "I made a promise to my grandfather. There is no backing out for as long as I wish to uphold the Shao family name and honor my father and mother."

"Then what is it you speak of?"

"I made a deal with our lord Daimyō," she said, turning her gaze towards one of her only friends. It was rather easy to become close to someone who spent a good portion of her life teaching her the only activity that she actually enjoyed. To Azura, time with Ramarou was what she spent hours waiting for, days prepared for, and nights thinking about. When she held a blade in her hands and felt the weight of the steel, it was the only time she tasted a glimmer of her own life. It was the only time when she held her own life and path in the palm of her hands. That was all Ramarou's doing, for he had allowed her the comfort of steel that meant more to her than gold.

"Deals with a Daimyō are never beneficial," Ramarou whispered, for his words spoke a glimmer of treason that brought a smile to Azura's face.

"Careful, Rama-kun," she whispered back, her lips still curled.

"I've asked you not to call me that," he shot back.

She chuckled once more, before schooling her features. "The deal was in exchange for my obedient hand. I have gotten something worth my virtue."

"What could you have squandered your virtue away to obtain?" Ramarou asked, and her smile was nearly infectious.

"I've been given a seat on grandfather's council." Azura took a step forward, hiding her lips in case any might be watching to understand her words through lip reading. "I am finally to be heard as ambassador to the Daimyō."

"You took Myuuga's job." Ramarou's thick brows had shot up. A jolt of worry coursed through his veins as he took in the girl before him, proud as any Shao and just as brave. Still, Myuuga once had a servant girl whipped for looking at his neck because he thought she had the audacity to meet his eyes. "Azura, he is not one to anger."

"I am not worried of Myuuga," Azura said, her lips spread into a twisted smile. "I think that things might actually change. It is a position, Ramarou."

One thing Ramarou had noticed about the girl before him was that despite the coolness of her eyes or the hard set of her lips, her brows were immensely expressive. It was one of the reasons he even recommended bangs, not that she ever listened, since he could usually tell exactly what she was thinking by the furrow of her brow. He could tell she was practically bursting with excitement.

"You must proceed cautiously, young Azura," Ramarou whispered, steering her by the arm so they might seek more privacy behind the statue of the goddess of fertility. "I know how you wished to enter this part of your grandfather's world, but you must be weary. Not everyone will want you there."

"Oh, I am well aware, Ramarou," she said back in a hiss. "But that's why I need you."

"I am not joining the politics again. My hair is greying enough and if you met my son, you'd know why," he retorted, watching her smile spread across her face once more.

"We couldn't have that. However would you catch yourself another wife with a grey head," she replied with her usual sharp tongue. "No. The politics of this society is not where I want you. I want you to be my shadow instead."

He took a step back, his surprise apparent on his face. "Shadows are for life, lady Azura."

"I know. I plan to be in this game for a long time. Now that I have finally sunk my claws into a position, I will tear out the innards of the entire council just to stay there," she said instead, her eyes glinting as hard as the steel blade she had slammed into his only minutes prior.

"Don't tell me your goals have not changed." Ramarou had hoped, prayed, that she might eventually relent of the dream she had as a child. Not only because he thought it improbable, if not impossible, but because through the years he had known her, she had become his own. The path was littered with blades, all aimed for her neck by men who would sooner see a Shao daughter dead than on the seat of power.

"My goals have never changed or strayed. I will become the Daimyō."

"Azura," he whispered back, as if his disapproval might persuade her against her goals. Still, he knew the girl well enough to be aware that no matter what he said, she was unlikely to ever bend. "This road is not going to end how you want."

"See, that's what people have told me." Azura had walked over to the statue where Ramarou's tachi blade had impaled. It was nothing like the shibuki blade he once held proudly as a man of the Mist's seven swordsman. In one swift motion, as if the action was as easy as picking a flower, she tore the blade out from the belly of the eagle. She inspected the blade for chips or imperfections with a cool eye. "Then again, that's what everyone said when I begged to learn how to wield a blade."

She tossed the blade in the air, only a light motion. It landed in such a way that she gripped the tip of the steel with a cool gaze towards Ramarou and held out the tachi so he could grab the hilt. "The blade is not the same as politics."

She laughed. "Is it not?" Ramarou grabbed the tachi from her hand and sheathed it in a single motion. "I was told I was unfit for a blade. I mastered it. I was told I would never be able to beat a man-a warrior even-in a fight. I made Keichi Reiga cry like a little girl." She took another step forward, and he was able to see the leather pants she wore through the slit in her robes. "I was told I'd never get on the council. I am the ambassador." She ran her fingers over her own blade's hilt. "I am tired of men telling me what I can and cannot do. No. I might never get what I want, but I will not quit just because someone tells me it's impossible."

Ramarou let out a long sigh, his body tense as his eyes ran over Azura's face and back towards the estate where he had first met her upon the high engawa. Her face had been so small, her hands had been weak, but her father had already paid him handsomely to teach her the blade. As a former swordsman of the mist, Ramarou could not refuse a request by a Kirigakure lord. Still, he thought once she fell down a few times, she would quit.

Obviously, she did not.

"I am not telling you to quit because you are a woman, Azura." Ramarou still felt the tension in his shoulders, but relaxing was not an option when his next words would decide his own fate. "I am merely warning you that your opposition will be ruthless, unfair, and cruel." She opened her lips to speak, but he silenced her with a stern glance. "Still, I've known you to be just as cunning to combat the ruthless, resilient to block out the unfair, and crafty to render the cruel obsolete." Ramarou swiftly got to his knees, and held out the blade that she had given back to him. "You have my loyalty, and by extension, the protection of my body as a man of the Mist, now in your shadow. Do you accept my blade, Shao Azura?"

Azura's hands were trembling, her eyes burning, and she nodded her head. She was nearly too afraid to speak, but the words came out anyway. "I accept your blade, Oniyuzu Ramarou. May you protect me well." Azura let out a sigh of relief. "Well, now that this ceremony is over, I suppose I better attend to..."

"The wedding?" Ramarou asked, watching her face harden.

"We must all make sacrifices," she said, finally allowing herself to smile. "Perhaps my fate will be like that of Auntie Niyeifei."

"We can only hope," Ramarou said with a glance of amusement.

"Did you hear? Her sixth wedding is to clash with my first?"

"The dishonor," he agreed.

"Indeed," but she could not hold back her smile.

"Be careful, Azura," he said, dropping the formality yet again. "Oda Kenpachi has a terrible reputation."

Azura glanced over to him as she turned her to head to prepare for her meeting of her betrothed. She was told it was lucky she even got to meet him, since even Emika hadn't met her own husband until the ceremony. "I am not afraid of him."

"Of course not. You are not afraid of anything."

Azura smiled one last time, but that smile faded as she turned her back. How I wish that were true.

No, she never thought she'd ever marry for something as childish as love, but she'd always hoped she could find someone she could grow to love. She found out later that day, a confirmation of her fears, that she could never grow to so much as like Oda Kenpachi.

━━━━༻❁༺━━━━

Her robes were heavy and not at all practical for walking. Azura stared at herself in the mirror, proving herself to be every bit as uninterested in the dress, let alone a marriage. Still, to her left and right were Yui and Mui, twin maids who had taken to dressing her when she was a little girl. Azura had tried to befriend them when she was younger, but them, just like everyone else, was reluctant to so much as smile in her presence. That being said, Azura had instead taken to pretending like they did not exist. It wasn't a perfect system, but it beat the alternative of becoming a lonely child in desperate need for some companionship.

"Beautiful," Azura commented, raising her hand to dismiss the two. "You may go."

"Thank you for your work. I love it!" Azura had said this to them before when she was still a teenager, but their response made thanking them all the more unappealing.

"No. We are unworthy of your appreciation. Please forgive us. We did not mean to ever seek gratitude. We are unworthy!" The two had been distressed, causing a great deal of confusion for a 13 year old Azura, so the girl had sworn off on gratitude. The girls bowed, exiting the room in tow.

Azura took a step forward, running her fingers over her face where the makeup had hid the very light freckles she once had. She sighed, having assured her grandfather that she liked them, but he had been clear that "Azura, freckles are for peasants. You are a Shao." After that, she had lost the chance to argue with him.

That much was very depressing, since Azura loved arguing. Also, most of the time, she was correct in all her valid points, so she could usually win. That was, unless she was trying to argue with her grandfather. It was easier to make a mountain bend or an ocean dry. All he had to do was say, "Azura, speak another word and every blade in the estate will be melted down and forged into something pretty you can wear."

Azura pressed her fingers once more against the mirror, before she left the room to meet the infamous Oda Kenpachi. The track down the halls, with two Chuunin on either side of her, was a quiet one. She had long since felt her spirit drift away from her and she could hardly feel her own head as the pins and needles that kept her hair back had made her skull numb. It had been a long time since she felt this tired, making her much prefer walking in rags down the winding path to the wave country with two psychopaths who she may or may not have become fond.

Oda Kenpachi was tall. Azura could tell that much just by seeing how his head towered over her grandfather, despite the fact that he was lounging under the table. When Azura enter the room, he stood up and bowed. Her grandfather was smiling, as if the scene warmed the ice around the room.

"Lord Oda Kenpachi." Azura got down on her knees, her head lightly tapping the ground as she showed her respect. "I am honored and humbled by your presence."

"The honor is mine." Oda Kenpachi smiled, raising his hand to aid her to stand. She took it, mostly due to her grandfather's watchful eye. His hand lingered on hers for a moment too long to be considered appropriate had he not been the one to marry her.

"I have already assembled your wedding trousseaus," Kenpachi assured her, and she felt her heart quake for a moment as he gestured to the large ensemble of linens, jewelry, and other superficial items that made it quite obvious that the marriage was real.

"I am delighted at how prepared you were, considering an engagement was only just decided upon," Azura said, her eyes slanted as she smiled.

"Azura," her grandfather warned, but she was already quiet.

"I have heard much of your recent acquisition to the Kado prefecture," she said, hoping to flatter him into speaking. Kenpachi, seeming to enjoy the bait of talking about himself, merely nodded.

"Yes. It was a well struck deal," he said, and her grandfather laughed.

It was a swindle. Kado housed many of Kirigakure's poor, and now they have been relocated and pushed to the edge of the city so Kenpachi could partake in creating gambling dens and spas for the rich.

The Daimyō must be aware, but judging from his face as the two talked business, Azura could tell that awareness did not equal the ability to actually care. After all, it was only to benefit him if their houses combined at the cost of more citizen's livelihoods and jobs. Azura stared out at the beautiful linens and gowns and silks that Kenpachi had procured for her. Many of the jewels could feed an entire household for a year, and there they were, collecting dust.

She had to get out of here. Azura was afraid of saying something that might be taken in offense, but it seemed that in her time of spacing out, Kenpachi had already decided his time was to be cut short. He bowed to the Daimyō, and bowed to her. Words were exchanged, but Azura was no longer listening. It wasn't until him and his men were gone that her grandfather spoke to her.

"You did well," he told her, as if pleased. Azura turned her gaze to him. "I was impressed. Your father and mother would be proud."

Azura didn't enjoy when he would speak as if they were already dead. Still, he was the one who raised her, so she tried to be respectful. "If I am to marry him."

"When you marry him," he corrected, and she smiled.

"Of course. When I marry him-"

"You are to marry him before you come with me to Konoha."

That got Azura to halt, for the trip into Konoha was only a week away. "That's soon."

"Yes. Forgive me for not trusting you," her grandfather told her, his eyes narrow. "But I don't. Something warns me that the sooner you are wed, the sooner you will be managed and I can finally rest."

"Managed?" Azura tried to bottle the anger again. "I would not go back on a deal. I will marry. Whether to Kenpachi or anyone else you desire. I do not care about the wedding. I care only about the result of it."

He grimaced, already regretting his decision on giving her power. He would have been satisfied if she would have taken the small jobs, but after she threatened marriage to a lowly Shinobi out of spite, he had been forced to give her a position of high stature. Muuga had not been pleased, but none were as angry as the Daimyō himself. Still, he had a feeling that once she was tasked with true politics, she might finally realize that it was not suited to her. He hoped that she might get the taste, and finally know her place was raising children and managing the estate as her mother once had done.

Still, as the Daimyō stared into his granddaughter's eyes, he saw a resolve that brought a sliver of doubt into his chest.

━━━━༻❁༺━━━━

Sasuke spent a vast majority of his time in the wake of Naruto's appointment to Hokage doing busywork. It was, in Sasuke's mind, an excuse to stay preoccupied with the steady rebuilding of nation trust after the Fourth Shinobi War. Also, if it kept Sasuke away from a failing relationship with one Haruno Sakura, that was also a plus. Said woman was likely still at home, throwing his stuff out the window. That couldn't have taken long since Sasuke assumed she would react poorly and already moved out his very few items.

Luckily for him, being a material boy was not on his list of pass time activities. Even so, he was rather okay with their relationship being over. Shion, however, was not.

"Poor boy," the girl said, pressing her arms around Sasuke's arm and dragging him over to where Naruto was hidden behind a mountain of paperwork. "Come on. Talk to Shion-nee-sama."

Sasuke visibly grimaced at the nickname as the girl decided to press down upon his shoulders. He began to think back on a time when he might have thought she was even a little bit cool. The memory quickly made him shudder. Naruto, however, looking pleased at the distraction from paperwork, glanced over and made a "pfft" sound.

"Yeah, tell Shion-nee-sama all your dirty details," Naruto said with a grin that didn't waver, even in the face of a scowl so bitter that Sasuke was fairly certain it could have cut through glass itself.

"Naruto, don't make fun of him. He's going through a bad breakup," Shion reminded, and Sasuke grimaced again. He glanced out the window, wondering if he could make his escape in the form of actively tossing himself out through the glass.

"It's very mutual," Sasuke reminded her for the tenth time, not that Shion cared what anyone had to say.

"I was telling Sakura last week. If you are gonna be dating a jackass," Shion said, and Sasuke immediately turned a dark glower in her direction. Shion didn't pause, and Sasuke had a feeling it had to do with Naruto's playful and goading "pfft" as he tried not to laugh. "Then you gotta do something drastic and dramatic at the end."

"Alright. That's it. I'm leaving," Sasuke said, and he couldn't believe he stuck around as long as he did just to get harassed. Even so, Shion kept a strong grip on his arm.

"Keep strong, little one. You'll find love again," Shion assured him, letting out a very dramatic, and very fake, tear.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, and Sasuke was about to seppuku himself out of the need to get out of the conversation. "I actually need something. I asked Shion to do it, but she said-"

"I am a lady!" Shion said, watching her former teammates give the girl incredulous glances that basically shouted 'says the girl who beat Choji in an eating competition last week'. "Kay. That's fair."

"What is it?" Sasuke asked with a sigh as he currently wished that he had stayed very far away from Konoha.

Still, with Naruto's wedding and becoming Hokage, he was pulled back into the politics now that his brother had taken a long hiatus from clan duties in order to enjoy his vacation. Sasuke wasn't going to question it since Tsukasa was scary enough, but a pregnant Tsukasa might actually kill him. That being said, the clan's decisions went straight to Sasuke's very exhausted shoulders.

"The delegates for Kiri and Suna are arriving in a couple weeks," Naruto said with a sigh, moving aside yet another paper that had writing in terrible penmanship.

"Hn." Sasuke made his opinion on the Daimyō of the water nation very known, considering he was known for detesting Kekkei Genkai and having many Sharingan users that were captured in the Third Shinobi war put straight to death. No trials, just execution. This left a deep bitterness in the hearts of the remainder of the Uchiha clan.

"We got a couple threats," Naruto mentioned, glancing towards Shion who smiled thinly.

She went to the desk and pulled out a scroll that was well mixed with fourteen others. Still, Sasuke suspected that Shion knew her way around Naruto's desk better than the Hokage himself. "It was rather graphic," Shion said, opening the scroll and biting her thumb and tracing a small kanji for 'release' upon the blank pages. On the inside, a threatening note fit with a picture of a Daimyō's severed head rested on the page. "I'd take care of this but I'm needed here."

Shion, being one of the more ambitious Shinobi, was tasked with planning the Chuunin exam in its entirety. It was a daunting challenge, usually enlisted on older Shinobi instead of a small group. Naruto was massaging his temples. "This is so troublesome, dattebayo."

"Okay, chill out Shikamaru," Shion commented with a smile as she sat on the edge of the desk. "Still, if any of those from the Mist or the wind countries are injured, our ass is grass."

"Great vocabulary," Sasuke commented dryly. Still, as he looked over the threatening scroll, his brows furrowed.

"There are fifteen ones like it. We handed that over to the intelligence division," Naruto said with a wry grin that wavered. Sasuke glanced up at Naruto again. "So we assembled a team to help get to the bottom of it. The notes were delivered like a warning to Natori in the aviary. Someone doesn't want 'foreign scum' in Konoha." Naruto looked worried for a moment as the thought brushed against his mind. "There have been multiple killings of Kirigakure merchants. They were just travelers on the road. Suna as well. Iwa. All of them. Shion believes they are connected. I have files on each case."

"I found the bodies," Shion said, the humorous light leaving her eyes. "On my last mission. Four bodies strung up for the crows. I buried them, but what would happen once rKiri learn of this and find that we have no names for the culprit? You know how they are. We have to gather more information. The team Naruto assembled is a good one."

Sasuke didn't want any of them in Konoha either, but just not enough to act on it. "So this team." Sasuke, for one, was the last one to enjoy working on teams. "Whose on it?"

"Yurika from the Cryptanalysis team is to handle any messages or codes for the investigation," Naruto stated, handing Sasuke a folder of her file. Sasuke opened it lazily, but his eyes were serious as he read over her file. "She's more than capable of handling any information on the case." Naruto picked up the next file. "Of course, you are familiar with Sai."

Sasuke glanced up, and even with his usual unreadable expression, Shion snorted at the horror in his face. "He's not that bad," Shion said with a shrug.

Naruto's smile thinned.

"Is that why you declined the mission?" Sasuke said with a dry deadpan. Shion chuckled.

"If you'd rather be involved with all the preparations on the Chuunin exam," Shion said, her eyes narrow with amusement. Sasuke couldn't discern which scenario would be worse.

"It's a necessary distraction," Naruto suggested. "I'd assign Shikamaru, but again."

"Chuunin exams. Got it," Sasuke said with a sigh. Still, it just had to be Sai.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, bitting his thumb as he pondered his next words. "I don't want my first year to consist of any conflicts with another village. We have to find the sender."

Sasuke finally released his smug smile as he raised a thin brow.