Prologue:
"Ao" a voice calls and the Hunter nin looks up to see Chojuro standing there "Yes" the older male asks "Lady Mizukage has asked for you she said that it was important" Chojuro speaks quickly having delivered his message he in all the subtleness of his age flee's as quickly as he can under Ao's piercing gray eyes.
'Mmph the youth these days' Ao snarks to himself on the way to see the Mizukage quietly wondering why she had called him to her office so late in the day arriving he knocks announcing his presense before entering the office to stand before Mei Terumi the 5th Mizukage.
"Ao there's a reason I called you here and you must be confused by know seeing as it's pretty late" Mei starts off rolling words around in her thoughts trying to find the best way to tell her most trusted advisor and longest friend "Yes M'lady" Ao stands straighter feeling that whatever his Kage was trying to say would affect him in some way or another.
How great it would affect him is what he didn't understand that was until Mei decides that she would just come outright and tell him "I want to create a political alliance with the Hidden Leaf Village" she sighs out and Ao's eyebrows raise into his hairline 'Now this is something not even I would've suspected' he thinks to himself.
-A few days later-
After Mei had practically ordered him to go too the Leaf Village and scope out the girls Ao had bitterly not that he would show it to Mei 'that woman is scary' he shudders softly to himself, accepted to go and find a girl to marry for the alliance that Mei wanted to create between the two villages.
Arriving in the village days later he's led to the Hokage's office who had recieved word via carrier pidgeon hours before his arrival to begin his search of the village girls for the one he would choose to marry with because afterall it had to be someone that he could tolerate in the long run.
"So your Ao then" Tsunade stares at him her honey brown eyes hardened as she gazes over the man that had come from Mist to marry one of her shinobi "Yes M'lady" Ao straightens before this new Kage deciding that it would be better for him if he remained polite at all times in her presense.
Sighing Tsunade realizes that he was about as stiff as most of her own shinobi "Shall we get started then" she asks wanting to get this over with as soon as possible so that she could drink her sake in peace Ao nods taking the chair in front of her desk and waits patiently folding his arms as he looks about the office taking it all in.
Pulling a folder out from one of her drawers she sets it down in front of him perhaps a little to roughly when it startles him somewhat "Here are all the girls that would be best suited to this type of thing" she answers when Ao looks at her questioningly.
Opening the folder he peruses the selected women raising an eyebrow at the girl with pink hair before closing the folder after going threw it for several minutes "Well" Tsunade snaps softly when all he does is remain silent "I'd like to meet with each girl to get a better idea of who I'd like to select" Ao bows his head in askance.
"I suppose that might be a better idea this way you can get a general idea of each girls unique personalities" Tsunade taps her lips with a finger before standing and calling out for Shizune who also happened to be on the list waiting for her black-haired attendant to arrive Tsunade sit's back down.
"You called M'lady" Shizune slides into the office panting slightly from rushing to Tsunade "Yes Shizune I'd like you to show our guest here around the village take him to visit Sakura and the others" Tsunade stresses out lightly hoping that her underlined message would get through to her attendant.
Getting the hint that this was the guy from Mist who had come to choose someone to marry Shizune puts a smile on her face before gesturing "Welcome to the Hidden Leaf Village I'm Shizune" she holds out her hand for him to take.
Taking it with interest Ao raises her hand to his lips placing a small kiss on the back of it before letting it fall back to Shizune's side who by now had a small blush on her cheeks because of Ao's actions.
Clearing her throat willing the blush on her cheeks to disappear Shizune turns gesturing for Ao to follow her and leads him out the door and into the streets of the Leaf Village the first on her stop was to visit Tenten seeing as she actually had business with the girl Shizune decides to introduce Ao to Tenten first.
Concentrating slightly Shizune locates the younger girls chakra just a few streets ahead of them predictably at a new weapons shop that had opened up a week or so prior with her destination in mind she leads the way with a determined look oblivious of Ao's look of uninterest.
'How boring could someone be' Ao grimaces to himself as he allows the slightly younger woman to lead him around the village sighing Ao crosses Shizune off the list hoping that the next girl would be slightly more interesting and not a total bore like the one who was standing next to him.
To his surprise it's the girl with brown hair pulled up into buns on either side of her head "Tenten" Shizune calls out drawing the girls attention onto themselves "Oh Shizune I was just on my way to see you" Tenten drawls out trying but failing to glance at him subtly and with a small smirk introduces himself.
"I'm Ao" he bows his head to the younger girl before stating his reason as to why he was in the village "I'm here on some business" he stands straighter waiting for her reaction "Oh is that so" Tenten smiles nervously before turning towards Shizune.
"Well um was there something you needed Lady Shizune" Tenten asks decidely flustered by the older mans steely gray eyed gaze "Ah yes that book I lent you I'm going to need it back" Shizune fumbles under the mans gaze un-nerved by how he kept staring.
Groaning at the idiocy of the two females before him Ao is decidely bored of this already and wished that they would move along to this time a hopefully more interesting female Tenten hearing the soft groan shifts her gaze onto Ao and notices the extremely bored look on his face and subtly nudges Shizune.
Jumping at the jab to her side Shizune turns around realizing that she had once again gotten lost in her thoughts and stares at Ao finally realizing that he was looking bored and sighs to herself knowing that neither she or Tenten had captured his attention.
"Well see you later" Shizune waves leading Ao through the village with a frown on her face not sure if he would talk to her after that embarrassing display but decides to speak up anyway "Um I'm sorry about...that..." she trails off realizing that Ao wasn't even paying attention to her at all.
'I guess I can't really blame the guy I've been an absolute bore so far' Shizune sighs to herself before quite literally running into Ino, noticing the new girl Ao stares at her noticing this Ino smiles flirtatiously "Hi I'm Ino Yamanaka and who are you" Ino leans forward smiling sweetly at Ao.
"Ao" he introduces himself already feeling agitated with his mission seeing as how all the women of the Leaf seem to 'boring imbeciles' but perks up slightly at the interest shown from this new girl 'Ino she said her name was hmmm' Ao decides that he would see how long she holds his interest.
Gesturing to Shizune that he wanted her to walk with them Ao stands there patiently noticing the pointed gaze Shizune asks Ino to join them on their journey through the village "Sure I don't see why not" Ino grins blue eyes shining with interest at the new male and happily skips to his side barely holding herself back.
"So Ao it's obvious that your not from around here" Ino states casually keeping pace with him with little effort "Your right I'm from the Mist village and I'm here on official business" he repeats the line waiting for her reaction to his words "Oh so if your on business then why are you here wandering the village" Ino asks brows furrowed in confusion.
Lowering his gaze onto the blonde haired girl "Because I'm looking for someone to marry" Ao states as casually as he can hearing Ino gasp in surprise he stops and looks at her hoping that she wouldn't run away "I'm sorry um I guess Lady Tsunade didn't know this but I'm engaged" Ino whispers softly turning away from him.
"I see thank you for your time then" Ao frowns realizing that he had only 4 girls left to meet and so far only one of them had managed to capture his interest for a short period of time quickly moving away from Ino Ao speeds ahead wondering how much longer it would be before he could sleep.
"Wait Ao" Shizune calls out stopping him in his tracks and he looks back to see another girl 'The Hyuga girl if I remember correctly' he states to himself wondering how long it would take her to realize that he also held a byakugan in one of his eyes.
"Hinata this is Ao" Shizune takes over introducing the two because of Hinata's shyness to others 'well everyone in generally' Shizune thinks to herself, waving shyly Hinata looks down stuttering out a soft greeting "H..h...hi" Ao instantly decides that he wouldn't be getting anywhere with such a mild-mannered woman.
Shaking his head Shizune gets the hint "That's enough Hinata I'll see you around" she grins putting the younger girl at ease before leading Ao away from the girl and to another part of the village "Sorry about that she gets like that around everybody" Shizune apologizes to Ao before falling silent realizing once again that he wasn't paying her any attention.
Hearing loud laughter ahead of him Ao snaps out of his thoughts and see's a purple-haired woman cackling madly at some poor civilian cringing at the creepy woman Ao instantly crosses her off the list 'Just seeing her is enough' he shudders cringing when the woman cackles louder.
Seeing the cringe Shizune steers Ao around Anko looking for Yugao hoping that she wouldn't be able to catch his attention finally finding her she grins victoriously upon finding her 'Kami' Ao clenches his eyes shut feeling a headache forming behind his eyes opening them slightly he quickly shuts them again seeing something he would have rather not seen.
Sighing as Shizune finds Yugao and Genma together and they weren't just sitting there either they were heavily kissing each other and leads Ao away from the couple and to the last girl on the list Sakura Haruno.
Feeling oddly exhausted Shizune awkwardly searches for Sakura's chakra and finds her thankfully not to far from her and Ao walking fast she leads Ao towards her wanting this day to be over so that she could nap in her office for awhile "Hey Sakura" she greets turning tired eyes on her little sister as she liked to call her sometimes.
"Hi Shizune" Sakura greets before turning to the mysterious man holding out her hand with a grin on her lips she introduces herself "Sakura Haruno apprentice of the 5th Hokage and you are?" she asks in a playful voice already knowing what he was after but knowing that it was for the benefit of the two villages if this allaince was created.
"Ao and it's a pleasure to meet you Sakura" Ao is pleasantly surprised by this pink-haired girl he liked the fact that she was playful enough to tease him but not act like a harlot at the same time 'Obviously this girl was raised with manners' Ao muses to himself before letting a smile grace his lips liking the blush that spreads across the younger girls cheeks.
"That blush becomes you Sakura" he teases her back and watches with interest as the blush reddens before disappearing all together 'Ah so she has some fight in her' Ao once again thinks to himself before opening his mouth and inviting her to walk with them to her destination.
"I'd love the company" Sakura answers feeling confident to walk next him after a few minutes she asks a question "So Ao has any one managed to capture your interest" she asks a playful smile on her lips and Ao nods "As a matter of fact someone has" he answers as best he can not wanting to let it slip who exactly he was interested in.
'Oh I bet it's someone like Tenten' Sakura feels her confidence drop thinking to herself that she wasn't really pretty not like the other girls in her age group and falls into a light depression, seeing Sakura's good mood fall Shizune wonders what Ao would do to cheer Sakura up as this is the most he had talked all day.
Ao also seeing the change of moods in Sakura wonders what could have happened to make her depressed like she now was stopping he turns towards the girl "Sakura, are you alright" he asks though it was clear in the way he was looking aroud that he was unused to feeling concern for another person.
'HEY Dummy Mister Handsome is asking you a question' Inner appears jerking Sakura out of her thoughts and she quickly nods her head "Yes I'm fine, thank you for asking" she smiles as best she can not wanting to worry her new friend "If your sure Sakura" Ao prods further hoping that she would tell him but somehow knowing that she wouldn't.
"Positive Ao" she breathes out breathlessly suddenly realizing just now how close he actually was to her and flushes a bright red in that moment she trips over her own two feet and slams into a shinobi that didn't know her scrambling up off the man Sakura groans at her own clumsiness and go's about apologizing to the guy.
"Hey I'm sorry I didn't see you there" she apologizes holding out her hand to help him up but when all the guy does is give her an icy glare and slap her hand away Sakura feels her temper rise in anger at the insolence of the man "Maybe next time you should watch where your going you stupid girl" the man snarls stalking past her.
Freezing Sakura becomes angry at the man's vile words and decides that she'd teach him a lesson in manners and storms forward catching the man by the arm and swinging him around and with her fist slams it right into his face instantly breaking his nose "Next time you should be courteous to those who help you" she snaps still furious.
Ao had seen all this and had decided that he was going to step in but Sakura had beat him to it and again he was surprised he liked a woman who could defend herself if need be and with that his decision was made walking Sakura the rest of the way to her destination making small talk along the way he lets Shizune lead him back to the Hokage's office.
Standing before the Hokage for the 2nd time that day Ao is decidely more interested this time around curious as to what else Tsunade had taught Sakura he's snapped out of his thoughts Tsunade asks "Well have you decided or do you need a few more days to make your decision.
"No, I've decided" Ao pauses wondering what her reaction to his answer and selection would be "Yes who have you decided on then" Tsunade asks wondering who could have captured his interest in just one day of meeting "Ah I've selected Sakura Haruno as the person I wish to marry" Ao answers and Tsunade is stunned into silence.