A Growing Affection

Chapter 56: Alliances under Attack

"Good morning, Naruto," Neji said somewhat stiffly. The two young men  had met up on their way to the Ninja Operations building. Uzumaki was  mission ready: clad in his orange and black jumpsuit, with both his gear  pack and Kitsune strapped to his back. The Hyuga branch member wore his  clan robes, as he usually had since Naruto returned to the village,  just over one year ago.

"Hey, Neji," Naruto greeted his friend and rival, "Why are you heading to Ops?"

"The Hokage has summoned me," his quiet voice made it obvious Naruto should have expected that.

"You too?" the Chunin smirked, "I guess that means we're probably gonna be working together again."

"That does seem likely," the Jonin said dryly.

"Good, you're both here," Tsunade said without preamble, as the two  youths entered her office. Sakura Haruno was already present, waiting.

"I have a mission for you three," the Hokage informed them, "In case you hadn't guessed. It is an A Rank escort mission."

She  flipped open the file, and turned it around so they could see. Naruto  immediately recognized both of their clients, while Neji remembered the  woman in the second photo, though he had never met the other. Sakura  didn't know either of them.

"You escorting Daimyo Haruna of the  Land of Greens, to meet with Daimyo Toki of the Land of Birds," the  medical Sannin explained, "Those two countries have been in the process  of forming an economic and military alliance. If this conference goes  well, they will be signing the treaties. You are to escort Lady Haruna  to the Land of Birds, remain with her for the duration of the  deliberations, and then return her to the Land of Greens."

"You must be expecting trouble, to assign this as an A level task," Neji put forth, "Is there some resistance to this alliance?"

"Not  internally," the Kunoichi Sannin smirked at him, "But the Land of Grass  has been trying to intercept communiqués between the Greens and Birds  for a while now. We suspect they have designs on both countries. The  alliance would probably put the kibosh on their plans. You should expect  Grass Ninja interference."

"Why us?" Naruto asked, confused, "I mean, no offense to Neji, but why not just send us with Kakashi-sensei and Hinata?"

"I  considered it," their commander admitted, "And while both Daimyos  wanted you, Naruto, Lady Toki also requested Neji's presence. Hiashi has  been asking to have some of Hinata's time for clan duties, and sending  Neji instead frees up Kakashi for another task. So it worked out pretty  good this way."

The blonde teen nodded. He was disappointed, but understood the Hokage's reasoning.

"Now  that that is cleared up," Tsunade leaned forward, and handed the oldest  teen the file, "Neji will be in charge, obviously. You are expected in  the Land of Greens in five days, so you should have plenty of time.  Dismissed."

She stopped paying them any attention, and the younger shinobi got the message and vacated her office.

"Back  to the Land of Greens, huh," Naruto grunted as he remembered his rocky  introduction to Princess Haruna, "We better get going."

"No," Neji  said, shaking his head once, "As the Hokage indicated, we have ample  travel time to make the first leg of our journey. I still have some  things to take care of, so we will not be leaving until this afternoon.  We will meet at the gates at three PM, sharp."

He stared at Naruto  as he said that. The members of Team Kakashi indicated their  understanding, and left to finish their own preparations. Once they were  gone, Neji withdrew his phone, and hit number one on the speed dial.