ONE

Disobedience

"Maybe I didn't go for my father. Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right, so when I looked in the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile. But I was wrong. I see nothing."
- Mulan

THE SHAO FAMILY WERE SAID TO BE CURSED WITH only women who could not continue the legacy. At least, that was what Azura heard from a young age from her tutors, children around the square, and her mother. Shao Azura had once believed that nothing good would come from her life because she was not born with the right equipment.

Perhaps that did make her work harder, train longer, and become far quicker. It did not, however, help when the end of the fourth Shinobi war came and went with little to do with breaking tradition. She realized that on her tenth birthday, when she first got it into her head that she could succeed her grandfather.

"My lord, you have yet to choose your heir. Perhaps it's time to consider alternative chooses for succession." Takahiro Meguno was her grandfather's advisor, but most of his advice, her grandfather merely made a show of heeding.

Her grandfather, his face set as he pressed his palm into his eyes, peaked at the advisor through brittle fingers. There had been a time when his face was clear of wrinkles, but as the time passed on, those became his most prominent feature. Still, as he peered at the documents sprawled on his desk, he looked that much older. His voice rumbled with deep displeasure. "Yuki is still young. Could she give birth to another?"

"After the last birthing? Another child just may kill her," Takahiro Meguno said, and he made a show of grabbing on of the Daimyō's newest treaties. "You will need to train an heir soon. The council will need a name of succession. The fact you have yet to hear one is testament to their reluctance to have a Daimyō to replace you."

Her grandfather pressed his hand to his face. "Niyeifei has yet to breed even one son. What am I to do when all my children continue to spite me," he said, his face crumbling. "Two husbands and no sons that one continues to disappoint."

"Perhaps it's finally time to consider a cousin or distance Zhang relative instead," Meguno said, and Azura's eyes widened at the prospect of the Shao family no longer being that of power.

Her grandfather looked all the more stricken at the thought, and she felt she could no longer reign in her voice.

"I could be the next Daimyō," Azura had said, her bright blue eyes filled with wonder as she slipped into her grandfather's study. The two men paused, staring at the girl as if she had grown a second head. It was such a look that caused Azura to glance at herself in the window to make sure she had washed her face clean of the chocolate cake she had consumed earlier. "I could. Grandfather, wouldn't that be amazing?"

He sent her an awkward smile, kneeling down next to her and tucking a strand of raven hair behind her ear. "Azura, the Daimyō is a boring profession. No. Instead, one day, we will find you a suitable husband. You will raise his children, and give the Shao family a son."

Azura felt as if her ears were on fire. There so much she did not understand. Chakra for example, was a mystery. Her little sister's excessive crying. Her mother's love of pickles. All of that was always defeating her comprehension. This, however, she did understand.

"Grandfather," Azura had begun, but the elder man had already ruffed her hair and dismissed her.

"Go back to your lessons, Azura." Shao Junmiro was finished speaking, and Azura had learned last year that once he was finished, no one could get a word in edge. She glanced towards advisor Takahiro, noticing that he was sending her a look she could only describe years later as pity.

As she turned to walk away, wondering what the hell just happened, she saved Takahiro's expression in her memory. This was due to her seeing it thousands of time throughout the course of her life when she spoke of something as ridiculous as becoming the next Daimyō.

Still, regardless of lack of equipment, Azura was still a member of the Shao family. That day, she became determined to chisel her way up the rank she born to bow down to, regardless of all who swore she could never.

When she went back to her lessons, learning croquet and flower arranging, she finally looked around at the three other girls. They were all mindlessly doing what their mother's told them to do, and when Azura glanced down at her knotted pile of yarn in the shape of a terrible flower, she realized what they wanted her to become.

"That was a very long bathroom break, Lady Azura," Negini Ume told her. Ume had been Azura's tutor since long before Azura could remember a time where she wasn't learning some new instrument or how to properly draw or write. Now, with an anger coursing through her that she did not understand, Azura's lip curled.

"I quit." Azura heard the other three girls, Ito Kagura, Sato Setsumi, and Sato Emika, all stare up at her with similar looks of horror. It was probably a terrible thing to hear, but at one point in time they all likely wished to say exactly that. Still, no high born lady could just 'quit'.

"You what?" Ume gave Azura a chance, one chance, to sit back in her chair and continue her sewing. Of course, with enough practice, even Azura could be good at that much. Ume always felt that the black haired girl simply did not want to show any such talent or ambition.

Still, ten year old Azura was angry. More than that, she was enraged. She didn't know why until later, but temper tantrums were a new sight to behold on the high born girl. She always had life, energy, and obedience. Ume had nearly begun to think the girl was just too good, even if she was not very good at sewing.

"I quit." Azura found the words to be liberating. "I think I will enjoy my day outside. In the sun. Instead of spending another minute in here, pricking my finger ever ten seconds, trying to make yet another rose. In fact. I am done with roses altogether. Thank you for all you have taught me about the needle." Azura then bowed—to her tutor. This was another act of much disrespect since she was highborn, and Ume's family had not a single ryō to their name nor an act of redemption to their legacy.

Sato Emika had raised her dainty palm to her lips, as if witnessing something absolutely terrifying instead of a ten year old telling everyone where they can stick the needle.

Azura didn't look back when she dragged her slippers across the ground and walked out of the room. Of course, she would be scolded, smacked, and ordered to resume her studies by her mother later. Still, Azura was unrelenting, and very disobedient. Her parents soon learned that the only method to get through to her was compromise.

In order to master the needle, they had to aid her in mastering the sword.

Author's Note

This story is set in the same universe as my other Naruto stories. They will have slight spoilers for the endings of those other ones. Still, they are slight and will always be without real context so don't trust what you read!

You don't need to read the others to understand this one. Just know that some stuff does change in the Naruto unverse due to the other stories so if you see something and are like 'wtf that doesn't make sense', it's cause shit has changed big time. For example, most of the Uchiha clan is still alive. The old council (Include Sasuke's dad) is dead.

Please enjoy!