Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot.

Nara Shikamaru. Sakura knew the name before she knew her own. She had never met him, never seen him, she didn't even know he was a person. But he was her goal.

Sakura's mother, Haruno Mebuki, had shaped her daughter, Sakura, into the perfect lady, the perfect wife. All for Nara Shikamaru.

Mebuki was a civilian, a peasant one at that. She had married up though, her husband Haruno Kizashi, was a merchant. Not of high statue but still higher then her. With him she knew she would live comfortably.

But Mebuki always wanted more, once, when she was younger, she had set her sights on a man, so handsome and kind. Funny and smart. His name was Nara Shikaku, but fate was not on her side and Shikaku married a woman, a kunoichi.

Mebuki vowed, on the day of his wedding, that her child would marry the next Nara. Her child would be beautiful and graceful, confident and alluring. Enough so that the Nara heir would marry the Haruno heir. Their statue would be raised and Mebuki could become closer to Shikaku, make him love her enough to leave him wife.

So not long after Shikaku and Yoshino went on their honeymoon Mebuki had met and married Haruno Kizashi. The man may have had horrible hair that was pink and shaped in a star, but he was easy and quickly fell for her.

When news had reached Mebuki of the Nara heirs birth, she was in the last few weeks of her pregnancy. The Nara was a boy, she rubbed her stomach and smiled, she was having a girl, how Kami had smiled at the union, Mebuki thought.

When she had given birth to the girl Mebuki looked at the pink hair, the green eyes and the large forehead. Tilting her head, she wondered if her daughter would bloom into the most exquisite woman or the most out of proportion, multi-coloured freak. It was too early to tell. Most babies were ugly anyway.

Mebuki started her daughters training early, always telling her the same thing as much as was possible.

"Nara Shikamaru is your goal. You will marry him." It was how she started her lessons. "To do that you must..." And the lesson would carry on.

Sakura was always inside learning these things with her mother. She did not go to school, she stay at home all day and her mother taught her. She taught her basic things, like to read and write, but then she also had other lessons, like to sit and stand and walk. One time her mother made her wear these stilts on her feet and taught her to walk.

There were lessons on flowers and art, lessons on music and literature. How to smile, how to touch, how to talk people into doing as you wish. politics, economy, statute, finance, cooking, cleaning, dancing. Sakura was taught many things, never leaving the house to go to school gave her much time.

When she was seven, though, was the first time Sakura had not spent all day inside with her mother, instead, when she awoke, her mother had taken her outside. They went for a walk and met a man, he was tall and he had long hair, it was a dark blue and his eyes were a stunning violet. His skin was sun-kissed and he was tall, but everyone was tall to little Sakura.

This man was to teach Sakura the basics of being a ninja. She remembered being confused, she remembered her mother bending down and whispering in her ear that same phrase.

"Nara Shikamaru is your goal. You will marry him. To do that you must become a ninja." Mebuki then would leave her daughter with the blue haired man. He never did tell Sakura his name, she simply called him sensei.

Sensei taught differently then Mebuki, he was not warm, not in the slightest, but he was not harsh either. He was neutral, he just taught her. He taught her the basic's how to properly throw kunai and shuriken, basic taijutsu. He also helped her develop he chakra network before teaching her basic ninjutsu and genjutsu.

Sakura enjoyed these lessons, she liked doing something different then what her mother made her do. Sometimes she even forgot her goal, she forgot her mother and her father, her sensei, too, was sometimes forgotten and it was just Sakura.

When she was eight, a week before she was to start the ninja academy, Mebuki pulled out a stack of photos. The first was a girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes. She was very pretty and was smiling in the photo, winking at the camera man.

Yamanaka Ino. competition. Mebuki said.

The next photo was a large boy with two swirls on his checks, he had a packet of chips, he was smiling slightly.

Akimichi Choji. Best friend. Mebuki empathized the next thing. Be nice to him, he will get you extra points in Shikamaru's books.

The next photo was of a shy looking girl with a blueish hair. she had milky lavender eyes and looked shyly at the camera.

Hyuuga Hinata. No possible threat, make friends with her, she is the Hyuuga heiress.

A boy with triangles, he was wearing a fur hoody and had a puppy in his arms. He was grinning largely at the camera.

Inuzuka Kiba. Comes from a large clan, not clan heir. No importance.

Another boy with dark glasses and pale skin, he was wearing a high collared shirt and I could not see half his face.

Aburame Shino. Has bugs that live inside him, do not get on his bad side.

A blonde haired boy was grinning at the camera, he had lines on his checks that looked like whiskers and he was grinning largely.

Namikaze Naruto. The son of the Hokage, befriend him.

The next boy was so pretty, so cute, he had dark black eyes and dark black, tinged blue, hair. He wore a high collared shirt too and he was smirking at the camera. Was this Shikamaru?

Uchiha Sasuke. Second son of the Uchiha head family. Do not approach but do not appear hostile to him. His family runs the police force.

The last photo was of a boy with his hair tied up into a pony tail. His hair was still kind of short so it stood up, making his head look like a pineapple. His eyes were half-lidded and he was slouching, he had his hands in his pocket and had his head tilted towards the sky.

Nara Shikamaru. Sakura, this is your goal, you will marry him. The photo was handed to her and she stared at the face of her future husband.

This is my goal

I know that I should be focusing on the stories I have but this one was just begging me to write it down. I can't help it. Though the updating of this one will be really uncertain.

Plus this just came to me so I don't know much about where its going. I don't even know what pairing it will be, will there be a pairing at all? Who knows.

Anyway,

R&R.