Emiko had always known she was different. It was in the way the other girls shied away from her. The way she was always so eager to please them even when they were being mean. She just liked pretty girls, their smiles, their laughs. Emiko found the way they bit their lips or blushed with pleasure from gifts or compliments mesmerizing. The problem was mostly that people noticed.

There were mean spirited rumors about her all over the village.

Her father had been ashamed. He'd started talking about finding her a husband long before she was of age. She'd felt guilty about how much relief she'd felt when he died, lost to a spring flu. She was one of the better glassblowers in the village at least. When strangers strayed into their sleepy seaside village in Wave country, she managed to sell most of her wares. It kept her and Kei fed anyway.

Emiko wouldn't have minded that kind of life. Supporting her brother and eventually saving enough to afford him a wife. Emiko would never marry a man of her own volition, and she knew Kei was kind enough to never force her. She could rely on her own hands to feed herself, so she didn't have to anyway.

But then she thought she'd made a friend, maybe even more than that.

Midori was one of the prettiest girls in town, her family was also full of glassblowers. Emiko knew she only came around to take advantage of her skill and try to learn the methods and tricks that made her so good in comparison to the others in the village. It just hadn't seemed like such a bad thing to be used.

She could admit she'd been lonely. It hadn't seemed like such a bad trade. Spending time with a beauty in exchange for some of her skills.

It had seemed magical when Midori kissed her. It made her heart race and her face feel hot. Emiko had loved kissing Midori, she even thought Midori must have liked it too. It felt like something from her wildest shameful dreams.

Then it became a nightmare.

They got caught kissing.

It was a terrible situation-especially because the older girl claimed to everyone Emiko had tried to seduce her and Midori had simply been too weak to fight her off and got dragged to the sandy tree nook they'd been caught in.

It was a blatant lie, but Midori's parents were still alive and there was no one to argue for Emiko.

The village soon boiled with rumors. Neighbors that had watched her grow up spat on her and refused to have her anywhere near any other girl in the village. The few childhood playmates that had once acknowledged her existence turned away the moment they saw her on their path.

None of Kei's friends were allowed to play with him anymore.

Emiko had known they had to leave. The road was dangerous-but so was the growing hostility of their neighbors. They needed to find a place where no one knew of her perversions, it was the only way to survive. She hadn't known what to do except pack up, take to the road, and hope for the best.

She had felt terrible for her brother. For having to leave everything behind because Emiko could never even pretend interest in a man, and was clearly very weak to feminine wiles.

The ninja had been a surprise. So had the offer. Emiko had refused immediately when the ninja offered to take them to his clan.

She'd taken a look at his serious dark eyes and wondered if she even had a choice in the matter. Then Naoya Uchiha had told her he was hardly desperate for assistance and had a technique he could use to copy her abilities regardless. He offered to escort them to another village in exchange for showing him her skill. He'd even been willing to take them there first, so they wouldn't have to worry about him reneging on his words.

Emiko had eagerly taken him up on that-and ended up disbelieving how fast shinobi truly traveled. A three week trip by caravan was no more than a three days run for Naoya, with Emiko thrown over one shoulder and Kei tucked under an arm to boot.

Seeing how amazing ninja were had led her to ask if his original offer was still on the table. Naoya had proven to be a man of his word, and he told her he had no interest in having an actual wife, he'd just wanted someone to claim the title so his clan elders would leave him alone.

Of course then Emiko had laid eyes on Aiko and they never got around to even pretending to have a wedding.

Aiko was the most beautiful girl Emiko had ever seen. She didn't think princesses or noble women could have been capable of being half as lovely. She'd met the other girl's eyes, and she had no words for the feeling that had bloomed in her chest. It was a quiet steady certainty that everything that had ever gone wrong in her life, from her mothers death when she had run afoul pirates, to having to flee the only home she'd ever known over a scandal, was suddenly worth it-because it had led to that moment.

And unlike it had been with Midori-Aiko liked her too, really liked her. She'd known by the way the other girl had smiled, nervousness and excitement a perfect mirror of Emiko's own. They even shared a room.

Naoya had come in to set a partition between them and his mother that very first night. Her nominal fiancé had looked at them, knowing and amused.

It was only then that it hit her; others had witnessed her falling in love at first sight with a woman but no one was reacting to it badly. Naoya had even gone out of his way to provide them privacy from the only woman in the home who could spend the night supervising and making sure they didn't touch each other.

But touch each other they did. They kissed softly, tenderly, fireworks exploding in the back of her eyes from Aiko's easy acceptance. By her tentative caressing, she'd never felt so loved, or so treasured. Emiko had never thought anything could make her feel so good or so happy.

"Is it really okay?" Emiko hadn't been able to hold back the question. She already loved Aiko so much, and she didn't want to bring the love of her life and her wonderful understanding family.

Aiko didn't hesitate to put her fears to rest, "I'm never going to marry a man. I don't like them, I don't want to have any children that will die in the never ending war with the Senju. The two of us can grow old together. You can make money, and I'll take care of the home."

It was a simple plan. But one that was perfectly possible. Emiko was looking forward to her future for the first time she could remember.

Following Naoya to his clan had been the best decision of Emiko's life.

Akio even offered to teach her brother some ninja arts.

Her first few months in the Uchiha compound felt like a dream.

She'd helped Aiko's little sister Akane, who was a ninja too, build something she called a 'greenhouse'. Apparently wanting a little house with glass walls was the entire reason Naoya had been in Wave trying to figure out glassblowing. It didn't take long after to realize that Akane wasn't anything like anyone else she'd ever met. And that impression only grew as the ninja compound she'd arrived in changed before her very eyes.

Aiko was a key part of it. She spent all her mornings making Akanes bribery bentos, and her afternoons negotiating on her sister's behalf. Emiko tried to pitch in where she could, running her new glass workshop with an Iron fist, making sure her mother in law ate when Aiko didn't have time, and even checking in on Aiko's half orphaned nieces.

Emiko was glad Kei spent so much time training, because she didn't really have much time to spend with him and be a good older sister. Not that Kei seemed to mind. He was completely taken by the ninja arts and all the techniques and stuff he wanted to learn.

She was still really grateful when her mother in law recovered and started pitching in to help the family too. Especially when she made a comment about having an unofficial wedding for her and Aiko someday. Emiko didn't think it would ever really happen, but saying something like that, saying that she would accept Emiko as a bride for her daughter was clear acceptance from her mother in law.

Emiko had cried from joy.

Her own mother had died in a pirate attack when Kei was just a baby, and she'd had to grow up overnight to help her father raise him. When her father had fallen ill, Emiko had been under too much pressure to even think about the future properly. She couldn't really picture her parents being so accepting of her deviant inclinations.

Her mother in law's affection and acceptance meant the world to her.

Her new family was full of brilliant and kind people, so she didn't really understand the divide between her mother in law and sister in law. Aikos attempts to explain didn't make much sense to her. Shouldn't her mother in law be trying to spend every possible second with Akane if she was scared that her daughter would die soon?

Instead she froze her out, worse even than the cold way she looked past her son's presence. She didn't even want to see Akane. And all Akane did was smile sadly and tell Aiko to secretly pass along hugs.

It was heartbreaking.

She wasn't all that clear how Akane became a warrior, no other little girl in the clan had to go to the field, although she'd heard recent mumbling that some wanted to, but she did know it had something to do with her fiancée. Akane was to be wed to the clan equivalent of the headsman's son, which would elevate the family's status in the clan. But no one in her new family seemed particularly happy about it, merely grimly accepting.

All her attempts to figure the situation out were met with Aiko's sad eyes or Naoya's calm disapproval. Even Akio, admittedly the most easygoing of the family, would squirm away at the first opportunity whenever she tried to pin him down and ask.
There were a lot of things like that in the Clan. Secrets that were only a secret because no one planned to tell an outsider about it. It was aggravating. Emiko tried not to let it get to her but it just caught her off guard sometimes. Mostly it made her worry about her and her brothers place in the clan-which was silly. She and Aiko would grow old together. But the fear was always there, just waiting to find her alone in her workshop or an empty house. Emiko had been run out of the only home she ever knew because she'd never managed to be on top of any situation.

She probably would have kept digging if Kei hadn't gently reminded her that the Uchiha had been at war a long time and lost a lot of people.

She kind of hated her brother a little bit for a long while after. Because once she noticed, she couldn't ignore it. The way Aiko only ever smiled as if she wasn't sure she was allowed. How Naoya could often be found staring blankly into space. What she'd originally thought was her mother in law's strange illness had been a soul deep grief.

All of her new friends and apprentices had a long list of friends and family they had lost to war. They all had days they didn't come into work because it was a loved one's death anniversary and they opted to go pray at their family shrine.

Emiko hadn't really put it together because the scope of it was just so big, it was barely comprehensible. Her village had suffered two pirate attacks in her lifetime. She didn't remember the first, which had happened when she was very young, but she'd been seven during the second one. It had been horrible-suddenly her mother was gone, they had to worry about starving in winter, and they had to physically rebuild the village. But it had been more than ten years. Those scars had healed, slowly-but they had. Her father said anytime the attacks were so close together their region had made a covenant to hire ninja to deal with them.

Shinobi had killed all the pirates along the coast. It was only a matter of time before they began to build up again, but pirates were like rats, you couldn't expect to keep them all out, you simply had to be sure to prevent an infestation.

War with another clan for hundreds of years was impossible to wrap her head around. Especially when so many of the scars the entire clan walked around with were mostly unspoken. Simply a quiet grief everyone bore, from the youngest babbling twins she'd met to the Clan Head she'd glimpsed once. Even Akane, who was clearly doing her best to change the hopeless grief that haunted the compound, had traces in the tightness of her shoulders and eyes.

But things were changing. Emiko had a life she hadn't dared to dream of, so she chose to believe in Aiko and her sister. She knew they were fighting to make the clan a better place.

Everything was going very well for her new family, which was why Emiko was so shocked to get home and find Akane angry. It had taken her a moment to understand that was what made her hover awkwardly in the kitchen door-she'd never seen Akane angry before. But the severe frown came with a razor sharp sense of danger that made Emiko want to go still and not remind her sister in law that she existed.

It was a little too late though, Akane had clearly noticed her.

"Aiko should be here soon," her little sister in law said, too calm for the rage written on her face. "I need to speak with both of you."

"A-About what?" Emiko managed to stutter out.

"You'll know when my sister gets here. I'm only going to explain once." Akanes words dripped authority. Emiko genuinely forgot most of the time that her sister in law was effectively the head of the household. Everyone followed her lead. Even her mother in law didn't alter any of Akanes orders in the home.

When her wife arrived Emiko's eyes watered in relief. She loved her little sister in law, she really truly did, but Emiko did not appreciate being in an enclosed space with her when she was upset and Emiko was the only one around for her to glower at.

"What's wrong with you?" Aiko asked bluntly, her wife unbothered by her sister's state of upset. Emiko had always known Aiko was the braver one between them anyway but it stung a little to see it so blatantly obvious.

"I want you to adopt Hinata and Haruki," Akane said straight away, "Their step mother has been chosen, and she's been overheard discussing sending them to the Susano orphan home for training."

The words meant nothing to Emiko-but the way Aiko's spine went ramrod straight and her fists clenched meant they were nothing good. Emiko was fond enough of Aikos nieces that she didn't mind the thought of taking them in. They would never be able to have kids anyway and adopting was certainly a way to add to their family.

"Is Ryota going to be a problem?" Aiko asked.

"Not for me," Akane assured her.

Emiko was privately glad her sister in law had a target for her rage.

"I suppose I should get some sheets and maybe another wardrobe," Emiko mused aloud. It would be a tight fit, mostly because of the partition Naoya had put up when he'd realized the inevitable nature of their relationship.

"I was thinking of just expanding the house," Akane said. "We don't really need the chicken coop anymore. We should add three rooms. One for the two of you, one I'll share with the twins, and one for Naoya."

Emiko thought about that. Her own room with her wife, two lovely daughters and her new family coexisting happily.

Her little sister in law was the best. Emiko resolved to work even harder and make her new family proud.

x

Once upon a time, Emiko was a simp. Now she's all but married, got some kids, spends time perfecting her craft, and is basically living her best life. Her shinobi gamble paid off big time. That said-war still tainted that-cuz half of this fic is look at war ruining all the things.

What do you think of her and her journey-was the civilian aspects of her character distinct?

Next up we see Akane and her thoughts about her marriage.