Treachery
By: MercuryBatman
Prologue
Silence had taken over for a brief moment, for the wind had a deeply energetic conversation with the nocturnal creatures of the night.
Ino drew in an emotional breath; cold air filled her mouth and nostrils rendering a shudder in the midst of her sigh.
"Are you cold?" Sai asked. Ino stared at him blankly for a moment, and warmed into a smile. She thought of the serious irony his question posed. He was the coldest, most unfeeling person she's ever met, yet he was concerned with her well being.
"No, not really, it was the chill that made me shiver. Honest." She said again, with a smaller smile. Without being told Neji Hyuuga closed the window. He stepped past the sleeping blonde during his saunter.
The blonde's bloodshot blue eyes opened with fierceness. He moved swiftly with vigilant sight to his feet. "Oh. It's you." He said in a relaxed, yet hinting a condescending tone. Naruto had earlier just finished teaching the Hyuga a lesson in humility. The Byuukugan user had just been ruthlessly beaten in a match in which he came to the realization that his once pontificate ways were now over. Deep inside he had been pondering the past five months why the blonde was second in command to Ino on their mission. With that void of nebulous thoughts filled, he knew his place and apologized before the Uzumaki's eyebrow could arch.
Naruto nodded half asleep and fell to his knees with a thundering thud. He fell forward against the soft cushion.
No one dared to remonstrate his wishes to take a nap at such a crucial point of time in the night, in fear of been superseded or simply being taught a similar, if not the same lesson that Neji was given.
Sasuke eyed them only half interested in their interaction. He chuckled cruelly at Neji's immediate submission and lack of dignity in himself. It was as if the Hyuga had been rejuvenated into a whole new person. As if Hinata Hyuga had stood before Naruto meekly, not the second branch offspring of who had to be an egoist if not a narcissist.
"Thank you Neji." Ino cooed, Kiba laughed heartily from his throat. As if the moment had been convivial and lively instead of the opposite. Steadfast in their position as the new world order leaders. They inappropriately put in a younger version of Konoha in the form of redecorating the office. Their catalytic behavior was soon to start trends from the younger generation.
No scrolls, no ancient artifacts, not even old papers were allowed. Everything had been evacuated—in to the garbage.
Posters, new-found scrolls, and schedules for training for the younger children to learn how to become stronger ninjas took over the office.
There was no "hokage" there was only Ino.
An unsuitable leader to many, but ever since she manipulated Neji, Sai, Naruto, and Sasuke into following her and doing such a risky, and hostile take over the question of her leadership subsided into a void.
Make no mistake, Ino had them on lock. In fact she had this whole operation on lock.
Sasuke. He was second to know of Ino's dastardly plans, that's what made him come back to Konoha.
In total it took 2 years for this to come together from the time he was 15. Ino had found him and talked him into returning. Waiting one year to regain everyone's friendship.
In that year she had found Naruto's help in this. His plans to be hokage was yet to be realized and he would become the new leader once Ino was sure it was safe for him to. Meaning that the ANBU and the hokage were taken care of.
That is when Sai came into play. Sai had little to no emotion; it was a walk in the park for Ino to turn him against his own comrades. He had wanted power deep inside, but pounds and pounds of new people, fresh experiences had blinded him from reaching the potential to acknowledge and acquire all this.
Acquire. That was Neji's desire in this whole operation. In the midst of Ino speaking of her plans to Sai he had overheard and captured her when she was most vulnerable. As she walked home. Ino prevented him from reporting her by smoothly asking about his family life. Being strictly dedicated to his village he looked past her conniving. However, when she brought up the main branch and a way to become even better than that she not only had his full attention, but she had his alliance in this all.
Time past wistfully and silence finally ruled in the morning as the sun rose.
Ino gripped the purple tissue in her hand until her knuckles were white. Sasuke of who was sitting on the chair next to hers stopped crouching over to rest his elbows on top of his legs and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"This can't be right. This is far too easy." Ino finally said after staring blankly, she stood up in seriousness and paced around the room. Naruto's heart sank; his throat became dry, had the council planned treachery, before us?
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Sasuke laughed, gathering Ino's immediate attention. He chuckled again before continuing "we had this perfectly planned out, every second of it. How could it have been too easy? Because it wasn't, the plan just worked out to exaction, that's all. You worry too much." He said standing up going over to the window Ino was looking out of.
"No, no you're wrong. Sasuke think about this. We had the most hostile of takeovers. Tsunade-sama is critically injured." Ino said shuddering at the thought of her healing. They had only a month to think of how to put her back in the infirmary again. Mission impossible, really. They had beaten her by a previous poisoning only.
"Ino, the council must have foreseen civil war if they were to stop us, and backed out, relax." Sasuke said seating her in a chair. Ino chewed her pink glossed lips for a minute. Sasuke's vision became hazy; he looked away from Ino for a moment. Thoughts of actually kissing her had stabbed into his mind. Not that it would hinder anything or make anything uncomfortable. It was just the thought of it that bothered him.
Ino wasn't the same girl she was from 12, she had grown up in all sorts of ways. She had become much more austere, without losing a drop of beauty, more serious without losing her sensible humor, and her body gave shape to puberty in the right way.
"This might be exactly what they want. They want us to be worried. Either it's too easy that they want us to think it isn't over; leaving us boiling in anxiety. However, it could be just the opposite. They don't want us to know of course. But, I suppose you're right. I'm going to relax and trust you." Ino said. Sasuke frowned. Ino failed to seem sincere enough; still he kissed her cheek and thanked her for listening to him. Above that, he was tossing and turning with the same thoughts. On top of that he churned with the desire to actually kiss Ino's lips. Which right now pouted in deep thought, leaving him with a tough decision to make: kiss Ino, or keep reassuring her, both of which would exhibit to Ino that even he didn't trust his own words. She would think the kissing would be to digress her from worrying, building an askance relationship between them. So he just sat in a chair and stared out the window.
After their victory, Tsunade had been first priority to the ANBU leaving them an easy target for the team. Team Naruto, struck with a powerful attack, with combined efforts they succeeded in taking over Konoha.
"Sasuke, you know what they say about civil war; a country divided isn't a country at all. So I think you right about them not wanting to start something." Naruto said after awhile of thinking the same thoughts.
Konoha council
"They are to be executed at dawn." Danzo seethed as he stood up in the dark, make-shift room. The survivors of the ANBU nodded. The elder council members mumbled in agreement, angry at themselves for not taking this into account and preparing for possible treachery.
"Danzo you aren't thinking clearly." Tsunade said with a calm voice. Danzo froze, Tsunade's silent anger was like a tsunami it only destroyed, nothing good ever came from her heated wrath.
"Tsunade, I understand you may want to beat the to a pulp for your own retribution. But, we have to show Konoha we are under control." Danzo said wrathfully, his blood roared in his ears as if he were young again and in the midst of his first battle.
"Think about it. No one in Konoha knows, why not keep it a secret? Delve deeper than that! Think about exiling them and guarding Konoha at all times. Executing them might make us seem too harsh, which would fall into people actually wanting a new government. They would want to know why they are being exiled, and riot might start that would cause civil war." Tsunade said through her teeth, her jaw was wired shut until it healed properly.
"I'm not following." Danzo said with his anger erasing.
"I understand what you are trying to say. The people won't want an old fashion government who still execute their own people. Once they find out that there is an opportunity for a new government they'll want to try it out. People will just say "Kids will be kids" and we'd lose power. If we exile them, then they can't be in power, and we can still keep it a secret. Just send them on a pretend mission." One of the council members said.
Tsunade nodded.
"Exiled when I am healed." She said, looking at her hand that was already starting to recuperate.
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