My mother always scolded me for my selfish nature. She told me to look after my siblings more, to share what I had with them.

I was a greedy child…maybe still am.

-Selfish-

"Don't think I did not see you, Mito-chan."

Mito bristled, her straight back curling like that of a cornered cat. "What are you accusing me of? And I told you Kou, stop calling me Mito-chan, it makes me sound like a child."

"And yet, this is what you are. A child that wants to get the one toy she's not allowed to have. As they say, don't drop the fish in your hand for the one in the ocean."

"It's not like I'm choosing." She fumbled with the edge of her sleeve, her stormy eyes revealing the turmoil inside. Kou was safe. He would judge, he would cajole, but he would listen and… care. "It is not I who chose my husband."

"Mito…"

"No, let me say this. Let me say this before it swallows me whole, before the disdain at this injustice seeps into my veins and poisons my heart. It is I who is sold off for the good of our land!" She was panting now, her voice rising in shrill tones of desperation, hands clinging at Kou's hakama. "I am not blind, I see how our people starve, but it is not I who brought them to starvation, it is not I who cut ties with the continent and drove off all merchants!"

"Mito," cajoled Kou, "the price for our independence is steep, but we would have otherwise paid for grain in blood, chakra and people. Our people!"

"And so I have to pay?" She covered her mouth as soon as the words got out, but it was too late. Kou's face shadowed.

"You are a child, Mito-chan."

Mito's head lowered, shoulders slumping in penitence. "Forgive me, I was selfish."

"You are," he said, the viciousness gone. To Mito he looked tired, much older than he really was, with dark circles under his eyes and hollowed-out cheeks. "Compared to the fate of others, you will be a queen. There is nothing your Senju prince won't give you..."

Flashes of crimson-haired bodies littered with bite marks filled her head. Bodies dropped in the ocean from the continent's shore, sucked dry of their energy and bloated with sea water. She shivered, shame covering her like tar. Yes, she was selfish. Her price was nothing at all, a gift, compared to what other Uzumaki had to pay. The Senju, Konoha… they would provide them with grain, and more importantly with an ally they could trust.

"You are right," she whispered, "as always."