The sun was blazing mercilessly overhead as the caravan made its way towards water country. It was beyond the comprehension of the ninja escorting the party how one man could require so much stuff that he needed to bring six wagons worth of it with him on vacation, but the merchant apparently didn't see a problem with it, or in spending an extravagant amount of money in hiring Konoha's finest to guard his possessions on the long trek from the other side of fire country.

Neji was at the rear of the group, keeping an eye out for anything coming from behind them while Aoba and Naruto walked at the front. Kakashi was technically team leader, but he had gone several miles ahead to scout, and no one had seen him in days, apart from Neji who occasionally used his byakugan to check on his teammate.

Naruto and Aoba hopped on top of the nearest wagon to rest as the caravan stopped for lunch. They both lay there for a few minutes, watching the merchant and his family lounging below as the servants bustled to prepare and serve them food. The silence was interrupted suddenly when Aoba began mumbling about something under his breath. Naruto looked at him and raised a brow in question. The two didn't work together often, but Naruto knew that the other rarely complained about anything, being of a serious but good-natured disposition.

Realizing his grumbling had caught his companions attention, Aoba turned towards him and attempted to wave it off as nothing. Naruto, who could be annoyingly perceptive when he felt like it, wasn't buying it. Aoba recognized the futility of entering into a competition of wills with the 20 year old Kyubbi container, and sighed in defeat.

"I was just mentioning how badly it sucks that the merchants daughter is the hottest thing I've seen in quite sometime and the mission parameters strictly forbid us from interacting with his family unless it is directly related to saving their lives." he explained.

Naruto rubbed his chin for a minute of careful contemplation.

"Well," he began, "The pervy sage always used to tell me that 'If you have time to whine and complain about it, then you have time to do something about it.'" He then grinned as if this solved the issue. Aoba looked at him doubtfully.

"And what exactly do you intend for me to do? Write Konoha and demand they override the orders not to interact? Or perhaps I could just grab her and go missing nin?"

Naruto shook his head, completely ignoring the sarcastic tinge to Aoba's comment. "Naw, writing would take to long, and I doubt the old hag would change the orders any way. And you should never go missing nin over a girl, way to melodramatic." Aoba's eyebrow twitched as Naruto continued, "But, I could make a clone when nobodies looking and have it sneak into the woods and henge into a bad guy and then come storming back out and grab the daughter, and then you could jump in and rescue her. Then you get to be the hero, and hold her all close and stuff!" Naruto was looking very excited by this point and time, and Aoba had to jump to knock the boys hands out of position as he went to make the signs to summon a clone.

"I'd rather not be a false hero, if you don't mind," Naruto had on a face that said, 'I don't see you coming up with any better ideas', but Aoba ignored it and continued, "Besides, it wouldn't reflect well on Konoha to let them think that we allowed a kidnapper to get that close."

Aoba nodded as if to confirm his point and then looked intently at Naruto so as to avoid looking down at the merchants daughter, because that really was a bad idea on Naruto's part and he was not going to compromise a mission just so he could feel a set of feminine curves pressed up against him, even if they were very tempting curves, and even if she did have the softest looking lips, and deep eyes you could fall into, and … what was his point again? Oh, right, so he was not going to compromise the mission for that, thank you very much.

"Okay then!" Naruto declared, breaking into Aoba's train of thought and already hyped up on a new scheme, "Then you should just go down there and declare to the merchant that you are worthy of his daughter, and he's being to high-minded and…"

"Ironically," Neji broke in, making the other two nin try to conceal the fact they jumped at his sudden presence, "making a statement with words is the least effective method. If you want to prove something its best to do it with actions."

Aoba let his head thump forward onto the top of the wagon and sighed heavily. "How on earth would I set about doing that?" He asked, gazing down at the lovely young woman. Just as Naruto was about to come up with another far fetched scheme to get Aoba of the top of the wagon and into the life of the lovely young merchants daughter (or just into her pants, you never could tell what to expect with Naruto) a movement caught the eyes of all three shinobi.

Only the daughter and the young man traveling with the party were left below, and it was the latter that made the movement that drew the nins attention. He had, quite speedily, abandoned his seat and taken up the other half of the young woman's and was now kissing her full on the mouth. The three above watched in slack-jawed horror.

"B-but, I thought that w-was her brother.." Naruto stammered, "H-how could they," He was pointing and gaping at this point.

"It would appear that they're both wearing engagement rings," Neji noticed, his byakugan activated and his mind currently the most sober minded of the three atop the wagon, "I suppose that would explain why the younger son referred to him as 'older brother' while she simply uses his name."

Aoba just whimpered like a kicked puppy and buried his face into his arms so as not to watch.

Two hours later, when Kakashi happened to head back, finally, he found the three still sitting atop the wagon. Neji was using his byakugan to scan the surrounding area, while Naruto patted Aoba's back in a semi-comforting fashion, looking like he was ready to give up trying to cajole the older man. Looking down at his underlings, and then towards the couple still snogging below, he decided he just didn't want to know.

~*~

AN: This was the result of a challenge between my sister and I, and has been sitting on my computer forever. I figured that it might as well be posted, seeing as I haven't had time to write much of anything new lately. I'm honestly not sure what I think of it.