Title: Of Briars
Author: Ohtori Akio
Couple: Anko X Fourth Hokage
Anko first spied her beloved drifting through tangles of vibrant wildflowers. They paled to drab weeds when compared to her love's radiant beauty.
Blooms born pretty in spring died ugly come winter. But such things were not true to her beloved. Timeless and ever beautiful, with pale skin and soul piercing eyes. Unchanging, immutable. An eternal being, whilst flowers simply wilted and bent in transient existence.
Petals darkening, eye centers unseeing, her flowers swelled, cracked and fell helplessly to the earth. Fell, as Anko longed to fall, tumbling with her love amongst the reedy grasses.
But just as some flowers wither so others might blossom, not all loves flourish.
Forbidden by all, it had been by only love.
Long ago, the garden of her beloved's heart had been cultivated. Seeded by a powerful ninja, whose empire rose. A rustle of silk, a swirl of scales. He was an intruding thistle, pushed haphazardly through newly tilled soil.
Time passed, and spring fell to winter. Anko wove wedding garland for her lost beloved. It would fade, wither and die, leaving her yearning for a garden of bereft flowers.
END