"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Rang a shrill cry, bouncing off the walls and echoing through the large halls. It was midday and no one was sleeping but neither were they expecting the castle to explode with such a sound even some of the villagers thought they could hear a cry in the distance.

"Princess?!"

The maid called out as were others as they ran around gathering anything and everything that may work to calm the girl down,

"You must not yell, please calm down"

But tears filled her chocolate brown eyes and she shook her long blonde hair,

"NO! I WON'T! I WON'T ACCEPT IT!"

The tears finally fell and she wailed louder than before,

"I WANT FAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!"

It was closer to nightfall when the shadow of a figure strolled down the hall, hands behind his head without a care in the world. And he didn't, after running a couple of pointless and tedious errands he was ready to chill out and take a nice long bath with flower petals and chips and…

"Fang!"

He turned to see Fani running down the hall toward him.

Fani was a young girl with reddish brown hair tied in the required bun so that it didn't get in the way. She was always smiling but had a spitfire that he quite enjoyed. She was always helping keep him out of trouble and served the princess loyally.

"Ah… Fani. what's up?"

She came to a halt in front of him breathing heavily,

"Please… Please tend to the princess… she is distraught.."

He rolled his eyes,

"You mean mad? The princess is mad or something?"

She frowned,

"I said distraught meaning upset, distressed, mentally deranged-"

"Ah! She's gone crazy-OW!"

He nursed the new lump on his head glaring at her half heartedly.

"Please tend to the princess, she has called for you."

And with that Fina walked away because wasting anymore words on him would have been pointless.

He sighed might as well get it over with and walked toward the beautiful princesses room.

"Don't give me stupid missions, or put me in stupid teams. Give me the people i want so that i can find Naruto."

Tsunade groaned,

She needed a drink,

It had only been six months… SIX MONTHS since Sasuke returned from training and he had been pestering her non-stop about a team of HER ninja that he wanted to use for his Naruto retrieval mission.

And sure she wanted to bring Naruto back. The kid was her grand son for god sake's but she knew that he would… eventually. So instead she spent the time preparing a HOME for him. The village was more accepting of the boy who had sacrificed himself to contain the kyuubi as well as prevent a political war. And after three long years many of the civilians missed his bouncy personality and bright smile.

But this boy made her lose all patience. His pestering would make even a saint lose his mind.

"I said no, and NO MEANS NO YA DAMN BRAT!"

"Tch!"

She hurled a paperweight at him and cursed when he dodged.

She needed a drink.

Taking a deep breath she rubbed her forehead,

"Putting that aside for now… I have a new mission for you, Sasuke"

Sasuke stood in all his egotistical glory with a deep frown. The woman was either deaf or stupid cause he was sure he said he didn't want anymore stupid missions.

"Don't be so full of it, i already called the team."

And sure enough a knock at the door sounded,

"Come in"

She called out and the door opened allowing the three others who had just arrived to walk in. a lazy stroll with hands deep in his pocket, a cheery smile topped with pink hair, and a deathly pale guy who showed too much skin for Sasuke's comfort. Shikamaru stood on the far right, then Sakura and last Sai.

It was always a rare opportunity to work with Shikamaru. Sasuke had gotten used to working with Sai, Sakura and a man named Yamato for the past couple of months. Kakashi had returned to train anbu at the council's request and so Sai and Yamato were just there to fill a need.

But to Sasuke, Yamato was nowhere good enough to be there their teacher and that Sai-guy…. Well he had too many problems to discuss…

"Good looks like everyone is here"

Tsunade smiled,

"I'll get straight to the point. Right now in the land under the stars the Daimyo is marrying off his daughter. But to build military power he is searching for a strong man to marry her to. Our Faire daimyo is sending one of his own knights and has requested us to escort the man."

Everyone listened silently except…

"What else?"

Sasuke said,

"You wouldn't send a tactician like Shikamaru on a simple escort mission"

And Tsunade wanted to smile because Sasuke really was too smart for his own good. In his desire to become hokage he had dedicated himself to working with other teams and learning their strengths and weakness.

But she couldn't.

Because his nasty little attitude would never leave if she encouraged it.

"You are correct in your assumption, This is not just a simple escort mission. We have also been requested by the land under the stars to protect the princess."

"Protect her?"

Sakura raised a brow,

"Apparently there are many that would have no problem winning the competition and then killing the princess to gain the power. your job would be to protect her without letting the enemy know of your movements"

Shikamaru sighed,

"Jeez what a drag…."

"I have faith in your abilities"

ANd they all felt a surge of pride as the 6th hokage looked at them with a smile,

"DISMISSED!"

seeing characters change and come back is always hard but I do love good character development so let's see what happens with these character ay!