What is marriage? A lifelong union between two people. Those two people are meant to walk together hand in hand. They support each other throughout life. Marriage brings a plethora of emotions :love, hate, joy, sorrow, anger. You name it ,you're bound to experience it at some point. Then, there's the topic of divorce and polygamy, but that's another story.

Unfortunately, she didn't want anything to do with any of the above.

It wasn't because she found marriage repulsive or disgusting. She wasn't opposed to entering such a situation. Still, the arrangement in which they demanded her participation was a type of marriage she heavily despised.

An arranged marriage.

Seriously, no one relishes the idea of getting into a lifelong commitment with a complete stranger. Honestly, if there were someone with such character, they'd be declared optimistic at best but criminally insane at worst. Unfortunately, in this era, it's not like either party has much of a choice. Marriage alliances between prominent clans where heirs were traded like currency were all too commonplace.

Although hasn't the Uzumaki clan been aligned with enough people already? Then again, their only friends at this point are the Senju and the only reason they're even close to begin with are a bunch of shared chromosomes. One clan is more than enough to deal with. While it's good to have friends who will help you in times of need, the minute two or more of them decide to go into an all out war, you'll be stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Even though the alliance with the Senju allowed the Uzumaki to avoid the aforementioned situation, their high profile conflict with the Uchiha clan often evolved into proxy wars between clans which typically lasted a few years. Thankfully, the Senju only ever enlisted the help of the Uzumaki when the flames of war burned brighter than the sun.

Mito Uzumaki, granddaughter of the clan head, Ashina Uzumaki, was already in active courtship with Hashirama Senju, the young head of the Senju clan. The alliance was practically sealed for the next 40 years or so. She doubted the Uzumaki clan needed alliances, The island was easily a hundred miles off the coast of the Land of Fire. The island was shrouded by a powerful fūinjutsu , which was reinforced by the younger generation every 5 years or so. Not to mention the practically airtight defenses which started appearing within 5 miles of the island. Trigger even one of those defenses, and you'll be a dead man walking. The third defense was the Uzumaki name itself. They were the strongest clan on the continent, after the Senju and Uchiha clans of course. They were easily one of the most feared clans on the continent. Their immense power was the one of the leading reasons they'd been able to live centuries under partial isolation. Their alliance with the Senju was another leading factor. She doubted anyone would want to face the wrath of the two most powerful clans on the continent.

Hence, an invasion of Uzushiogakure would be considered a logistical impossibility. Due to the fūinjutsu shrouding it, even finding it would prove difficult . Their would-be invaders would also lose a lot of manpower as she found the possibility of them triggering at least half of their defenses a very probable one. She wouldn't dare cross the ocean to get to Uzushiogakure before opening her eyes properly. Even under the invasion of five clans or so, she was confident their skills would see them to victory.

The final factor was the ongoing war burning the land around them. Almost everyone hated everyone. Everyone was willing to kill anyone outside of their clan.

Their motives? Maybe a certain clan had much of a certain commodity or prowess in a certain area. Other clans would either fear or desire the power they had, hence war would break out between them. In such a situation, people have to watch their backs and play their cards properly. In times like this, even a moment of weakness could send you to hell.

Even under the cooperation of a few prominent clans, an invasion of Uzushiogakure would take a few years or so. In a time of war, a lot of things can happen within a few years. She doubted any clan could continuously suffer a huge loss of resources which could be likened to throwing balloons at a cactus or a spiked wall. That would essentially be a description of anyone trying to invade Uzushiogakure. The minute their would-be invaders were weakened from the military campaign, everyone else would see this as an opportune time to crush them for good.

Essentially, Uzushiogakure could survive with or without her. So, quite frankly, she wanted someone to tell her, why the fuck would she need to be married off as soon as possible?

It's not like she was going to cut ties with them permanently, move to the west ,take her father's last name and never come back.

Her initial plan was to become a fully certified sorceress, enter the Department of Magic Research.(DOMR).She would then proceed to work there for five years before transferring to the Independent Magic Research Division.(IMRD) While the pay would be a little less than before, she would be able to receive three of the rarest things in life: freedom, flexibility and most importantly, full ownership of all intellectual property rights to her research.

The first five years of a magic researcher will prove very formative towards the researcher. That is the foundation of one's career. With her abilities, she could easily become a Grade 3 researcher in 5 years.

Oh boy, the pay…

Moving on, after transferring to the Independent Magic Research Division, she would move back home. Even with a lower pay, as a Grade 3 researcher, with her abilities, there would be no shortage of bonuses and the occasional raise before her promotion to a higher grade. Hence, it would only be a matter of time before she started earning the salary of a Grade 3 researcher in the DOMR. Due to the high living cost in the capital, it would be a better alternative if she went home where the cost of living would be lower. There ,she only needed to spend money on buying books. On the other hand, her utility bills and food costs would be cut in half. Rent would be free as her mother had left her a house. At home, she could just work flexible hours and still get paid a decent amount of money. At last she could live her dream life, work ,climb the corporate ladder, get more money, relax, eat , sleep and live her life as she pleased.

But those fuckers ruined everything.

Screw the clan elders!

From the beginning ,her grandfather made it explicitly clear that he didn't really care how she lived her life. All that mattered was she lived a life under the sun, not in the shadows.

Besides, she was okay with helping out once in a while. She only wanted freedom back home ,freedom from judgement and the freedom to live as she pleased.

But they wanted to control her life.

Quite frankly, it was very unfair. From the minute she was born, they placed countless expectations on her shoulders. She was expected to be as proficient in fuinjutsu as her cousin who ,unfortunately for her, was a living genius in the art.

She was born with a unique chakra nature which meant she couldn't perform complex jutsu without first observing the structure of chakra needed to activate it and making slight modifications. On the bright side ,it meant she could perform a much larger range of jutsu than the others as only a few modifications were required to enable her to perform them.

Honestly, why didn't they notice anything?

They did not focus on the fact she needed more hard work to get to where she was.

They called her all sorts of names, mongrel, half-breed, null, useless and so on. All because her father wasn't an Uzumaki. That was their fucking reason.

Hell, after her cousin's talents started to show ,she wasn't even allowed to play with her.

HER. COUSIN.

Her best friend growing up.

She hated how they made her feel she wasn't good enough to stand by her. She hated herself for letting those words get to her. She hated herself every time she ran away from her cousin who tried to play with her. She hated herself every time she belittled herself for everything she couldn't do right.

It might have been a major motivator for her conscientious nature and dedication towards magic research, but she resented that they made her feel this way. It was definitely her fault for taking things too far, but was it really necessary for them to say what they said to her?

They hated her and they made it very obvious towards her. Even as a child ,she could hear their thoughts. It was far worse than anything they had ever said to her directly. She could hear those thoughts, as if they were her own. Of course, she couldn't reply. She had not mastered telepathy yet.

On the day she left home to study in the west, she could practically hear their joy on her departure. The joy, the words ,the intonation. All that was left was an Oscar award for hiding it so well. They had even hoped she'd never come back.

Her deep seated resentment was a boiling sea. She had never felt more anger in her entire life than on that day.

Yet, when the Senju enlisted the help of the Uzumaki, she was one of the first names to be offered. Mito wasn't even selected to begin with, she wanted to help her future husband on the battlefield. Young love is indeed beautiful, isn't it?

They didn't want her to return. So be it. She did everything to make sure she lived the best possible life in the west. She wanted to spite them, make them realise how wrong they were of her. That she had more talent than all of them combined.

But ,somewhere along the line, she had lost sight of her original goals. Her time in the west had taught her an important lesson: Pursue excellence and success will follow. Those were words she now lived by. It's okay what people think about you, it's not like they know the truth at all. From that point on, she strived to live up to her ideals of excellence and no one else's.

She had a good run in the west. They uprooted it and forced her to return to that place, where she would be chained ,unable to chase her dreams. All to avoid risking one of their own.

Son of a bitch!

When her service in the war was required, she did anything but slack off. She only slept four hours a day in order to submit reports to the IMRD and fulfill her duty as an intelligence operator. While it wasn't as dangerous as going on the battlefield, it still was exhausting and had its fair share of dirty work.

Interrogation and sometimes infiltration, all to gather valuable intel on the enemy. She had done work on and off the battlefield. On the bright side, thank goodness for the existence of surveillance tags. It made spying so much easier.

Her work was unlike that of a soldier where you eventually go numb from the mindless killing. It was so painstakingly boring she really wanted to kill someone. This war was a waste of her time.18 hours a day she was listening in on people but the contents were so mind numbingly boring. In order to get some valuable intel, she shifted her view to the battlefield. She had observed every soldier, analysing every one of their movements, seeking out any potential weaknesses. They were usually present in the children and teenagers. Never the adults.

She usually reported those weaknesses to her superiors. Although the intel was always presented to them, it usually proved useful to her. There were times where she would scavenge the remains of the battlefield, scouring the minds of the dead for anything useful. In the event she met someone, they were swiftly dealt with. She only ever ran away when it was deemed too risky.

While scavenging the remains of the dead was exciting, interrogation was a lot more calming for the mind. After all, the human mind was fascinating. Prying into the minds of others was a lot easier when they were unconscious or dead.

In order to turn the tides of battle in their favor, she had done everything in her power to outmaneuver the enemy. Outsmarting the enemy at every point was crucial. It did not matter how many people she ended up killing in the end. The sooner she could return to the west the better.

For all her efforts in ending the war, all she wanted was five more years in the west. Five years in the DOMR. Just five years. Then she would settle down at home and only go to the west occasionally.

But no…..She had to get married as soon as possible. Why? At age 20,she was already of "marriageable age". Fucking bullshit. Marriageable age my ass.

She was already of marriageable age. So what? Seriously, who gets married the minute they are of age? Well, if you have a candidate ,then by all means, go ahead.

But she didn't.

She wanted to live a peaceful life by herself. As a child, she had never caused any trouble. She had even paid off every expense she incurred in the west by herself. Even under the servitude of the Senju, she had obeyed every single one of their instructions. She had even "shaved a few years off the war" as stated by Hashirama himself.

For all her years living with her head down, they should have at least let her do as she pleased just this once. What was so undesirable about her that they needed to marry her off so soon?

Eavesdropping and telepathy served her well once more. The elders believed her existence would poison the minds of the younger generation. Her existence would tell them that a woman could achieve as much as a man. The west had poisoned her mind with those individualistic ideals. Her ideals, if allowed to spread, could bring about the downfall of their clans. Besides, they had also feared she would grow too powerful for them to keep her in check.

Damn it.

Ah well. She couldn't really blame them. Sexism and chauvinism was quite rampant in the west ,although it wasn't as bad there. Gender equality was an ideal backed by a majority of the population, although there were also many who opposed it.

Although, lets be honest here, at this point ,the elders sound like a bunch of fucking hypocrites. When she was weak, they considered her useless. Now that she was fairly powerful, she was out of control. Before she had left for the west, they had hoped she would never come back. Now that she was back ,stronger than ever, they wanted to stunt her growth. They didn't want her to grow. All they wanted was a powerful puppet they could control.

Obviously, she feared getting into an arranged marriage. People like her were hard to find in the west, never mind back home. There, her ideals were considered slightly radical for a woman. She would be considered downright psychotic here. Quite frankly ,she didn't belong here.

There's no telling who you will end up with in an arranged marriage. Marrying a cripple or a retard was the least of her worries. She could just leave or live her life as she pleased albeit with the stigma. It's not like they could stop her. If she married someone who forced her to give up her ideals and dreams, let's just say death would be a more merciful sentence.

She was running out of options. Well, the ones she could use anyways. Kill the entire clan? The Senju would go after her. Renounce her ties to the entire family? That meant she could never return and besides the food in Uzushiogakure was too good to resist. Run away? The Senju and the Uzumaki would be after her. Kill her husband? His family and hers would be after her. Kill herself? That's only meant as a last resort.

At this point, her last option was to fake her death and run away. In that order. Unfortunately, this meant she would have to plan it carefully and she should avoid returning too often. Even one mistake could end up in a multitude of horrible outcomes, ranging from getting the death penalty to war breaking out between the east and the west.

She had tried going back to the west but she was foiled within 30 seconds. Her room was constantly watched. She knew if she tried anything more ,the security around her would only get tighter.

At least the guards outside her room would not know what she did behind closed doors.

Thankfully, her emotional outburst which involved a lengthy explanation on why she wouldn't be a good wife and an excessive amount of cursing caught her grandfather's attention. Perhaps it was some amount of pity on his part as the elders had placed immense pressure on him to marry her off.

Her grandfather made an agreement with her. He would find her 12 prospective males to marry. She was to discuss marriage terms with them. She could make any term she wanted as long as it didn't involve crime. She couldn't blatantly lie. If all 12 men refused her hand, she would go free and the clan would fulfill 7 of her wishes as long as they were reasonable. If she failed, she would have to marry the first man who would take her.

Forget escaping for now. Her priority was to persuade them to refuse the marriage offer. It didn't matter how many changes she had to make to her appearance and mannerisms. It was only temporary anyway. The ends justify the means.

With all her planning ,there was no way she could fail.

The bet was hers for the win.

Until it wasn't.