Tsunade leaned back in her chair and took in the view of Konoha from her office and considered the problem in front of her. For a moment she contemplated having a drink but, decided against it. She had cleared the room only a minute ago so she could think about the problem in peace and alcohol wouldn't help.

The documents that had been delivered by Otonashi were spread across her desk. If they were legitimate she could turn this into an advantage and quite possibly deliver a decisive blow to Otogakure. However, if they weren't legitimate then building a strategy around them might lead to a disaster. Granted her former teammate would not be participating in the attack itself but, his lieutenants and second in command would be.

In favor of the documents legitimacy was the timing of the attack. It would take place during the Senjin festival which was a large but local event only three days away. Furthermore the plan as it was laid out seemed to depend on the fact that the majority of the population of Konoha would be in one place as the attack began. However, the strongest evidence for these documents legitimacy was Otogakure gained nothing by alerting them of any potential attack.

As it was laid out now the main force would attack the southern gate head-on but, they were only meant to be a diversion. A secondary and smaller force was meant to take up positions on top of the Hokage Monument cutting off any retreat to the shelters. A third and the smallest force would come in from the east using the trees as cover. Their exact target was unclear but, the hospital, ANBU headquarters along with several specialized training fields could be at their mercy.

If this plan was followed she could position a large force at the southern gate while having ANBU units intercept the ones that were meant to take the Hokage Monument. The third force could be destroyed by the members of the Aburame clan with some Hyuga as backup. Not to raise any suspicions though they would have to let the first group penetrate into the village a little. Of course if this plan was a fake she could be placing her forces in the wrong places.

Still, the more she looked at these plans the more they appeared to be legitimate. That didn't necessarily mean she trusted Kumogakure no sato. She could easily imagine her former teammate and the Raikage agreeing to set Konoha up. Orochimaru would have no qualms about sacrificing dozens of his own men if he could draw Konoha into a decisive battle. The fact that Kumo was apparently offering limited forces to aid in any follow up attack wasn't exactly comforting either.

Pulling Naruto in for a talk only had managed to make Otonashi seem even more suspicious. If what Naruto had told her about Otonashi was true his selections as a messenger made perfect sense. If this was all a trap then sending Otonashi who had technically committed treason as a sacrificial lamb was no big deal. His loss would be no loss. Sending Naruto to talk to Otonashi would accomplish little but, she had.

Still there was one more thing that made her think that this offer was legitimate. The Orochimaru she had known had never favored complex plans. Yes, he always had a fallback strategy but, that was generally to save his own neck. If she was to compare him to a snake he would be a venomous one striking with a quick deadly blow more than a constrictor who would squeeze the life out of its prey. The Sand Sound invasion which had been his last major effort to destroy Konoha had been fairly straightforward.

Of course she had to remember that his strategy had changed in the last year or so. Now his forces attacked hers whenever they met. Konoha hadn't lost many ninjas to this new strategy but, they weren't exactly in a situation where they could afford to lose any. Not to mention the trouble it caused with escort and C ranked missions. After all nobody wanted to hire bodyguards who would be attacked themselves and Genin couldn't be sent out without their Sensei or doubling of their teams.

She briefly wondered where these forces were coming from that seemed almost inexhaustible. Even if Orochimaru had managed to recruit every half trained washout wanabe ninja on the continent there should be a finite supply of them. From the limited intelligence she had managed to gain on his lieutenants none of them seemed particularly tactically minded. Between that fact and the change in strategy she almost wondered if someone else was calling the shots in Otogakure.

There was a knock at the door, "go away." She answered without looking away from the view. The door opened and Tsunade assumed that it was either something very important or someone with a death wish. Swiveling in her chair she faced the intruder.

"It turns out we have a file on Naruto's friend." Shizune said holding up a folder. "It might be important." She added dropping the folder onto her desk.

"Summarize it."

"He's training to be a Medical-nin but, he specializing in poisons particularly neurotoxins."

That was interesting Tsunade thought. While poisons were not that uncommon of a weapon neurotoxins were. The trouble with them was if you were accidentally exposed to them you tended to be dead before you even realized it. Of the five neurotoxins users she had known three had fallen to their own concoctions.

That was why the Fourth Hokage had to ban the use of them in Konoha. They were simply too dangerous. Ironically the thing that made them so deadly made them so tempting to use. The speed at which they killed meant that a low-level ninja could take out a high-level ninja with little trouble. "Who reported this?"

"It was belatedly reported by Kakashi Hatake. Apparently he mentioned it to Naruto and then Naruto mentioned it to his sensei."

This didn't really change anything. If true Otonashi was a lot more valuable to his village than she had first thought. That didn't mean they wouldn't use him as a fall guy. If their real plan was to destroy Konoha sacrificing one ninja with a useful ability would be a fair trade.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune said interrupting her thoughts. "Do you intend to inform the advisory Council about these recent events?"

Tsunade frowned, from the day she had become Hokage she had tried to limit their influence. The two of them had finally accepted that they were advisers and nothing else, which had diffused a lot of the tension between the three of them. Unfortunately, they had been meeting with Danzo lately and that was making her nervous. As far as she could tell all former Root members were inactive but, she didn't like the fact that there was an organization within her village that was not under her control. That always led to trouble even if they were acting in the best interest of the village.

"I will inform them as soon as I've decided on a course of action," she said. Shizune nodded but she seemed uncomfortable.

Hanabi Hyuga eye's slowly followed the names on the memorial monument until she came across the one she had come here to pay her respects too. While many Hyuga had added their names to this monument the only one that meant anything to her was the latest, her sister Hinata Hyuga. Unbidden a memory from early childhood came back to her. She had been playing a game by herself that involved her inching around the edge of the veranda on her toes. She had been approaching her goal when her legs simply gave out. She would've cracked her head against the stone if Hinata had not been there to catch her. Looking back now Hanabi wondered how long her sister had been there watching over her.

That had been their patterned though. Hinata had always been behind her a perversion of the normal sibling rivalry but, then they had never really been rivals. Considering what had been at stake between the two of them they had gotten along remarkably well. Hinata had always been a dependable playmate, but as they had got older she had drifted away from her. It had been their parents overall disapproval of Hinata that had encouraged her to put distance between the two of them.

In the end they had hardly talked. The last time Hanabi had seen Hinata was the night before her last mission. They had both been reading and her sister had said she was going to bed because of an early morning mission. She had barely looked away before muttering good night. Even if she had known it would be the last time they would see each other, what would she have said? The distance between them had hardly been increased by her death.

Still, she wished she could return to that time or even earlier. The simple fact was that Hinata had been the closest thing she'd ever had to a friend. Growing up she had been kept within the confines of the main house with only the occasional venture to the larger village outside. Her home had been a large world to explore but, it had been vacant of anyone her age. The Academy had hardly been better, her intelligence and talent had seem to scare off others.

It had been a memory of her sister that had given her hope. Hinata had been alone until she had graduated and been put on a team. Then Hanabi remembered that even her father and mother kept in contact with their old team. It had been that hope that drove her forward more than anything else. With the new rules and multiple graduation opportunities she managed to be considered a genius even among a graduating class full of them.

The problem with her plan seemed obvious now. She had graduated at ten and neither of her twelve year old teammates seemed to want her around. They weren't mean to her they just sort of ignored her. They would work with her on missions when necessary and they would train with her when there sensei was around but outside of that they wanted nothing to do with her. She couldn't help but contrast her team to Hinata's former team. They had seemed to enjoy spending time with each other. Maybe that comes with time she hoped.

Glancing at the monument shadow she realized it was time to go in without another thought about her sister she turned and left. Her team was meeting near a bridge today and as she approached the shorter of the two stood on the railing and waved. Curious about this odd behavior she hurried to join her two teammates.

Akeno the shorter of her two teammates turned to greet her and said, "Hey, Hanabi we were wondering if you could help us with something."

"Don't bring me into this," Takeo who towered over her by a head and a half said taking a step away from the two of them.

"Fine then Hanabi and I will split the winnings."

"What winnings?" Hanabi asked completely confused.

"You see," Akeno said kneeling down to be at her eye level. "Hoshiko was bragging about her team earlier because they took on some ninja during their last mission. Anyway, she kind of made a bet that their worst could beat our best. So are you up for it?"

Akeno smiled at her and she blushed as conflicting thoughts fought for dominance in her head. On the one hand her father had told her never to spar with anyone unless he or her sensei was observing. On the other hand this was the first time that anyone let alone one of her teammates had asked her to do something. Hanabi had never disobeyed her father before and it took more effort for her to nod her head in agreement then anyone could ever realize.

Sakura decided that she hated guard duty. Sure there had been a certain novelty to it for the first few hours but, after that it had just become tedious. She had been looking forward to going on a mission with her old team again too. Unfortunately, only the most important outgoing missions were still proceeding as scheduled and her team's mission had been one of those sacrificed. Now Naruto was off somewhere and Sasuke was reinforcing another gate.

She frowned as she looked over at the team she was reinforcing. In particular the blond haired girl that was her friend and occasional rival as she remembered what happened at Sasuke's house earlier that day. Kakashi had stopped by her house early to inform her that their mission had been scrubbed but, she and Sasuke should report for duty as soon as possible. Using this as a pretext to visit Sasuke at his home she had headed over to the Uchiha district. Passing under the small gate she had nearly collided with Kado as he appeared to be fleeing from his home.

The younger of the two remaining Uchiha still bared a passing resemblance to Sasuke when he was that age, but even dressed in his hand-me-downs no one could confuse the two. Kado was the complete opposite to Sasuke in almost every way possible except for when it came to talent.

Kado had been born and raised in Kemurigakure so he was an illegitimate child but, he held the Uchiha blood and had managed to activate his Sharingan. After his discovery and some negotiations it had been decided that he should live with his only remaining blood relative.

"Hey, Sakura I am in a bit of a rush so"

"What did you do?" She interrupted his explanation. Sasuke and Kado's relationship was complicated at the best of times.

Kado's grin faltered as he glanced back at the main house. "Well," he began drawing out the word. "You see, while Sasuke was away taking the Chunin Exam Ino asked me if I could help her with some Kenjutsu training. Since this is the first time they've trained together since then, I would prefer not to be here."

She allowed herself a smile as she let his arm go and he bolted. From what Sasuke had told her once he was slowly learning a fighting technique that negated some of the Sharingan's abilities. He had enlisted Kado's help in his training. Sakura wondered what Kado could have taught Ino in a month but, it might be worth watching. Hurrying past the abandoned buildings of the district she made her way around the main house to the back where she knew Sasuke frequently trained.

The sound of wooden swords striking each other was carried to her by the wind before she saw the two in the heat of a mock battle. She did not know much about Kenjutsu but, both Sasuke and Ino had taken up swords after the trouble with the samurai. Sasuke had been impressed by a particularly strong samurai he had fought while Ino's reason was a bit different. Sakura 

suspected that by taking up a weapon used by the people that had killed her father she felt empowered over them. Of course what was more likely was she was just using it as an excuse to get closer to Sasuke. Oddly that last thought didn't seem to upset her as much as it once would have. Still, she did feel a thrill as she watched Sasuke fight.

Despite what Ino might have learned she was being completely dominated. Sasuke struck quickly driving Ino backwards and she was barely able to block one blow before it was followed by another. Soon she was trapped as Sasuke pushed in for the kill. With a blink of the eye everything changed. One moment Ino was being forced to one knee and the next she was behind Sasuke wooden sword poised to decapitate him.

Sakura was as shocked as Sasuke was. Sasuke recovered before Sakura did and turning he asked a question. Before Ino could answer Sakura called out to him. She briefly wondered why she couldn't wait a minute but, she suspected something was going to happen and she didn't want it to.

"There's a wagon coming," Chouji's voice called out breaking into her memories.

While all the gates of Konoha were wide enough to receive wagons and customers could use all three, the only gate that accepted wagon traffic from civilians was the eastern. She along with the rest of Team Asuma stepped out from behind the wall and waited to inspect the cart. As it came to a stop nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was a driver for the ox team and next to him sat a man that was probably the merchant that owned the supplies. On either side of the cart stood two samurai guards.

While these samurai only carried a single sword she was nervous around them. Wrapping the cart lightly with a staff she tested for concealed compartments or anything else out of the ordinary. Ino searched through their personal possessions while Chouji just stood back and looked intimidating. This was the third cart they had inspected today and everything seemed normal. She only half listened to Shikamaru's interrogation.

"What's in the barrels?" Shikamaru asked in a bored tone.

"Sake, would you like a free sample. What I'm I saying, I doubt you're old enough to partake in some of the finer things in life." The man's tone was jovial which seemed to be a trait of all merchants and he had a deep laugh. Still, Sakura wondered why they all seemed to think it was a good idea to point out how young they were.

"We will need to test a sample from each of your barrels before you're allowed to sell them. They will be held at a warehouse at our expense until the tests come back." Shikamaru continued ignoring the earlier comment.

Ino was already opening the lid and taking out a syringe full of liquid from each barrel. So far everything seemed normal but, Ino surreptitiously flashed her the warning sign. She covered her surprise by pretending to be interested in a knot in the wood.

"Yeah I know how it works but, has anyone really tried to sell you poison sake before?" The man continued.

"Everything seems in order," Shikamaru said ignoring the last question. "By the way turn right as soon as you get inside and follow the signs. There was a fire last night and a building collapsed into the street, it's still blocking part of the normal route."

That last part of Shikamaru's speech wasn't true. However, to do a more thorough investigation they wanted the cart to be within the walls of Konoha and away from any outside observers Sakura thought as she followed the cart inside. As the cart turned to parallel the defensive wall of Konoha Shikamaru stepped into the walls shadow. A second later his shadow had captured all four men freezing them in place. Chouji's arms and hands expanded to capture the two samurai in a firm grip while she and Ino secured the driver and the merchant, the whole operation from start to finish took less than five seconds.

"Ino what are you suspicious of?" Shikamaru asked his bored guard persona dropped replaced with a very serious Chunin.

"This guy has too many calluses on his hands to be a merchant," Ino answered tightening her grip on the merchant in question.

Jumping onto the wagon Shikamaru quickly removed one of the lids from the barrels. Peering into the barrel he gently kicked it and then shoved it off the cart spilling its contents into the streets. Shikamaru kicked in the bottom of the barrel with a loud crack and a second later he bent down and held up a handful of exploding notes.