Quiet murmurs filled the room of chunin as they waited for the reason the Hokage had called them in. Most of the group was no older than twenty, a vast majority of them being around Aoi's age. Eventually Shikamaru entered the room, and when he spotted his old classmate, he made his way over.

"It's rather odd to see you in a regular chunin uniform," Shikamaru said as a greeting. Aoi was indeed in a traditional leaf uniform, with black sweat-like clothing underneath his forest green vest. Not bothering to reply, Aoi simply nodded. There was a faint bird song from Aoi's shoulder, and Shikamaru leaned slightly off the wall the two were standing on. His eyes widened at the full grown bird on Aoi's shoulder.

When Aoi simply reached into his pouch and grabbed a piece of pocky, and eyebrow rose. With a quick snap, he fed the plain biscuit end to the bird, eating the chocolate covered portion himself. "When did you get a bird?"

Aoi looked out of the corner of his eye at the spiky mess of hair that sat on Shikamaru's head. "Three weeks ago. It was supposed to be able to leave last week, but it has stuck around."

Leaning back, Shikamaru chuckled a little. "Maybe it thinks of you as its nest." Aoi simply shrugged, and the two fell into a silence. The entire room soon followed suit as Tsunade stepped up to the front of the room.

"Thank you all for coming on this rather short notice." Every eye fell on her, not wanting to anger their quick tempered hokage. "We have recieved a mission notice today that is of rather high importance. One of the feudal lords, that lives to the north, has a bit of a problem. His daughter is nowhere to be found, and her marriage is taking place two weeks from today." At this murmurs spread throughout the room, but after a glare from Tsunade, they were quickly quieted.

"You can imagine how much trouble this must be causing at the palace. The man who she is to marry is from a small country to the east of the Land of Fire, and this marriage is to secure the treaty between our two countries." An even larger number of voices joined this time at the information being told to them. They had no idea why this concerned them, it was clearly a mission for jonin at the least. When Tsunade coughed in a rather irritated manner, the noise ceased once more. "As I would hope you are aware, due to the recent fight with the sound, we don't have many shinobi to spare. Due to this fac-"

Just then, the doors slammed open, and a man looking to be in his late twenties fell flat on his face upon entering. Laughter rang out at this, and the noise rose to a new level. Aoi looked at the man plainly, as did Shikamaru. Though dirt covered his clothing, the rich weave of the fabric, as well as the colors, were unmistakably that of a royal. The man quickly picked himself up, dusting off the dirt from his legs, though it was a small improvement to his dirty figure.

A snap was heard from the front of the room, and the silence that enused was thick enough that you could hear individual breaths being taken. That was, if anyone was breathing. The fear that caused the silence made the atmosphere heavier, and the only ones that seemed unaffected were Shikamaru and Aoi.

Tsunade had a vein on her forehead, and when everyone slowly turned to face her, her smile was obviously strained. The man who had entered the room quickly made his way to stand near Tsunade, but made sure he wasn't within striking distance. His eyes scanned the room, showing brief lights of interest here and there, until they landed on Aoi.

"Allow me to introduce Mamoru. He works for our client and is here to approve the person that will be impersonating the princess. Due to the nature of the situation, it is unwise to let people know that the princess is missing, so one of you will take her place while another team of shinobi will be tasked to finding her." Tsunade looked down at the man beside her, who was wide eyed and staring intently at Aoi. "Is there anyone here who bears a resemblance to her?"

As if he was a kunai being launched from a shinobi's hand, the man bolted towards Aoi, stopping before him. "You. Are. Perfect." He took one of Aoi's hands cradling it in both of his. "Would you please take this job miss?"

Aoi just stared at him blankly, not responding. Shikamaru held up a hand toward the man. "Um... I think you-" He was cut of as the man bowed deeply in Shikamaru's direction.

"I'm very sorry. This lady must be your girlfriend! I promise nothing will happen to her, you have my word! She won't be in any danger of marrying either, rest assured." Shock came over Shikamaru's face, and a few chunin in the room turned away from the scene letting out throaty coughs into their fists.

After recovering from his shock, Shikamaru tried again. "I think you're misunderstanding something here. You see Aoi-" He didn't get to finish the sentence as yet again the man interrupted.

"Ah I should have known a maiden like this would have such a beautiful name. It fits her perfectly!" The man turned to Aoi. "You see miss, you truly are perfect for this part. You have the air of royalty already, especially a princess. Quiet and reserved, just as one would expect you to be. Not to mention that you seem to have a love of animals," Mamoru gestured to the bird perched on Aoi's shoulder, "much like she did. See, you must take her place, you truly are a perfect fit for the part. Why, even your hair seems to be the right length."

Aoi's hair had grown considerably in the time during and after the chunin exams, and it now went almost to the end of his shoulder blades. He hadn't bothered to cut it or restrain it in any way, so it fell straight down in his face, parted slightly to the sides.

Finally Shikamaru seemed to be able to get a word in, so he spoke hurriedly and got directly to the point. "Aoi's male." The entire room seemed to freeze as the blood drained from the man's face. A few chuckles here and there finally escaped the throats of some shinobi, and the laughter soon spread. Now instead of the pale color that had covered the man's face, a fierce blush took its place.

"I-I'm very sorry Aoi, I-I just saw you and assumed. I suppose I shouldn't have and maybe if I had stopped a moment to think then this wouldn't have happened and this could have..." Mamoru stopped, realizing he had been rambling. He bowed deeply as Aoi stood there straight faced. "My apologies."

"Not a problem, it has happened before." The man straightened, though he didn't seem to shocked by the information.

"Regardless of your gender however, I would like to ask you to perform this task. Your resemblance to the princess is far to great, and I feel you have the greatest chance of pulling this off." Bowing deeply, more fitting for a request, Mamoru went on. "Aoi, would you please take the place of the princess?"

Looking to Tsunade, Aoi saw laughter carefully hidden in her eyes. With a curt nod, she signified that Aoi should go on the mission. Aoi turned to Mamoru. "I will take the mission." The man straightened immediately, a look of shock now present on his face. Mamoru hadn't expected Aoi to agree so readily.

He coughed lightly into his fist. "Well then, time is of the escense in this matter, so please follow me and we can get you properly clothed." Nodding, Aoi pushed off from the wall, only a slight limp in his gait as he followed Mamoru from the room.

_+_

The door to the hokage's office opened slowly, revealing several figures behind it. Tsunade looked up from the papers in front of her to face the group entering the room. In all there was Kaori and her team, Kiba as well as his team, Migota, and Murasaki. They all shuffled into the room, casting glances at the two figures sitting on opposite sides of a table to the side.

Shikamaru reached down to the shogi board in front of him, ignoring the stares of the people that had just entered. He moved a piece then sat back, regarding the board once more. The figure opposite him caught the most attention, as they slowly moved a hand to the board, moving a piece of their own.

The figure was richly clothed in a silk kimono. The deep purple that made up most of it was accented by blue edging which had what appeared to be real gold thread sewing intricate designs on it. There was a plain pink obi around the waist, giving the outfit a complete feeling. Their light blue hair was pulled up into a bun at the top of their head, and was set in place by intricate golden pins. The pins were giant affairs, being that there were only two, and the designs were beautiful as they sat on their head, two tassles hanging off the end. As the group continued into the room, they could see the front of the figure. A golden necklace hung around their neck, with a glistening pendant at the end of the same material. Their face was powdered white, making them seem paler, while a bright red coated their lips. There was a light purple color around their eyes, making the blue color stand out more. Their hand reached out to move another piece, hands gripping delicately with their royal blue nails.

Tsunade coughed, dragging attention from the figure to her. Kaori stared a moment longer than the rest, positive she had seen the figure somewhere before. She shook the feeling off as Tsunade began talking.

"As you may have guessed, I called you all in here for a rather important mission, that is extremely time sensetive. The mission is to locate and return a princess to her castle before her wedding day in two weeks time." Kiba raised his hand, much like a student at the academy would. Tsunade nodded her permission for him to speak.

He pointed at the richly clad figure. "Maybe I'm not understanding something, but is she not the princess?" Tsunade smiled a little, mischief in her eyes.

"Not at all Kiba. That would be Aoi, dressed to look like the princess." Jaws dropped to the floor and everyone turned to look at him. He returned their stares with a blank look, then nodded in greeting before returning his attention to the shogi board. Eventually everyone shook themselves back into reality, turning once again to face the hokage.

A look of seriousness took over her face. "Aoi will be buying us time while we find the princess. Since Aoi isn't in the best of condition at the moment, we will be having another team accompany him to fight off anything that might become an issue." Everyone in the room nodded, so Tsunade continued. "Murasaki, you will be leading Kiba, Shino, and Hinata on the search for the princess. You have to find her within the two week time period and bring her back to the palace. Shikamaru will be leading the rest of you on the protection of Aoi. Kaori and Migota, you must make sure that Aoi acts like a girl. Does everyone understand the mission?" Nods again were given from everybody.

"Don't fail." Everyone shuffled out of the room except Shikamaru and Aoi, who would be joining them later. As they walked out, there was a soft sigh from Shikamaru.

"You're a good opponent Aoi." One or two caught the nod from Aoi as they walked out the door, then the motion of Aoi surrendering yet another piece as he continued the game. Nobody spoke as the group walked out of the building, but the moment the sun hit their faces, everyone slowed in their walking.

Kiba looked at the others in the group, especially the other males. "Was that really Aoi?"

Kodomo spoke. "I don't believe it either. I mean I know it is, but he was so feminine."

Shino gave a brief nod in agreement, and Ryo spoke. "It's amazing what a little work could do..." Everyone seemed to consider this.

"I'm kinda jealous though..." Everyone turned to Migota as she spoke. "Well he gets to wear all that fancy clothing and stuff. I was sorta jealous when he was picked instead of me."

"We all know you could never pull off being a princess, Migota. After all, you're way to much of a tomboy." Murasaki slapped her lightly on the shoulder and laughed, not noticing the dark aura that eminated from her being.

Kaori sighed. "He is such an idiot." Hinata nodded shyly in agreement, as did Kiba and Ryo. "Truly, Murasaki, are we still at the age where you must pick on the person you like?"

Murasaki released Migota as if he had been burned, backing up while furiously waving his hands, a blush spreading over his cheeks. "Wh-what are you guys on? Me? Like Migota? Tha-that's just... There isn't any..." Finally Murasaki started to cough, using the moment to hide behind his hand and regain composure. "Anyways, shouldn't we be getting ready for the mission?"

A few mumbled their agreement and started to walk off. Before Murasaki sighed a breath of relief though, he caught a glare from Kodomo. Chills wound up his spine, but Murasaki shrugged it off. Now wasn't the time to ponder what the glare meant, he had to focus on his mission.

_+_

O.O I... I forgot to upload it... I swear I had, but... I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE! I thought I pressed save and upload, but I guess not... I finished it last Wednesday, and am just realizing. I turned off the computer and turned on my play station to finally complete assassins creed black flag, and it took awhile and now it's almost an entire week since I meant to post this. Sorry.

In the interest of just giving you the chapter, no question or riddle. Vote/comment/fan. See you a day or so.

-Nicky~