A/N: This chapter took longer than I planned and is probably the worst so far because it's sort of fillery-ish because I didn't want to start the battle in this chapter. Hope you enjoy.

-Chapter 9-

24 Hours

"There are only 24 Hours left until the attack Kuroko-sama." The young king just blinked and nodded his understanding signing yet another one of the documents that were gradually piling up in his office faster than he could sign them. Riko briefly wondered if the royal advisors were planning to kill the teenager with paperwork before he could even make it to a battlefield.

"I have the reports on the progress of the Shadow guard. Kagami-kun in particular shows great improvement from training with Izuki-kun." A bulky folder slid across the desk towards Kuroko the Shadow mage opening it immediately glancing over the documents before regarding Riko with his perpetually blank gaze.
"Thank you, Riko-san. I would come and see them personally but I fear there is no time." Both their eyes briefly flicked to the numerous piles of paperwork not just listening the King's desk but the floor around it.
"Understandable Kuroko-sama" Riko smiled gently taking the folder back before standing to leave the Shadow-mage to his work. "I'll see you around."

The door shut behind the brunette women with a quiet yet satisfying click, leaving Kuroko alone with the mountains of paperwork invading his office. Preparing to attack the wind kingdom was hard enough on its own but having to do mountains of paperwork that really wasn't necessary and only needed to be done because he was a new king made things infinitely harder. He remembered the words spoken by his father numerous times when he was young. War is not kind, when the rich wage war it's the poor who die.

-Consumed by Shadows-

"No success I see, Kasamatsucchi." The blond teen looked up at the dark haired man from his reclined position on a pristine white couch.
"Not quite we did better than loosing." Kasamatsu plonked himself in an armchair facing the couch in a far less graceful manner than usual running a hand over his face in the process. The army had returned from the battle near midnight and it had taken an hour after to make sure all the wounded were cared for before the strategist-general could finally come to see the king.

"From what I could see on the screens, there were enough casualties to hold the Water kingdom back for a least a couple of weeks if not a month." Kise's golden-hazel eyes bore into Kasamatsu's own steely blue. Despite the blond's casual position laying on his stomach propped up on his elbows chin rested on interlocked hands, he was far more intense than usual giving off a strong aura of both satisfaction and danger.

"Hopefully, the Water kingdom has always been unusually resilient." Kasamatsu sighed letting himself sink deeper into the large armchair.
"Aominecchi just likes to push them too hard." Kise smirked eyes narrowing ever so slightly in thought.
"Water-mages were said to make fast recoveries in myths idiot, the king has no impact on that." Kasamatsu growled deciding to forgo either kicking or hitting the blond given he was 1. Extremely tired and 2. It was 1:30am. Kise at least had the grace not to respond to that statement.

"If there is nothing else to discuss we should both get some sleep, battle reviews start in the morning." The elder of the pair stood muffling a yawn as he did so. Kise pushed himself up into a sitting position before standing running a hand through golden hair.
"Yeah, 'night Kasamatsucchi." The light king left the room flashing a blazing smile at the elder mage as he did.
"You too, idiot." Kasamatsu sent a beam of magic towards the light bulb sucking the light out of it instead of flicking the switch before retreating to his own chambers.

-Consumed by Shadows-

"Shin-chan, are you sure we need to have a ton of soldiers stationed right at the border?" Takao sat on the Wind king's desk facing him legs swinging.
"Cancer is ranked last today and Scorpio is third to last, even my lucky items are unlikely to secure us from attack we must be prepared." Midorima pushed his glasses up in a rather snobbish manner fiddling with the small raccoon statue on his desk. The strategist settled for staring at the strange sceptre like contraption he'd been presented with upon entering the office for his daily dose of annoying Shin-chan.

"You know the horoscope stuff really means nothing right?" blue eyes scan the room taking in the array of Oha-Asa posters covering every inch of available wall even one of the two walls made of glass was covered.
"Luck is everything." Midorima nearly growls controlling his urge to throw one of the numerous folders covering his desk at the hawk-eyed strategist only resisting because he needed to keep up a composed appearance (and Takao's mind for strategy was desperately needed.)

"Having troops standing on guard at the border isn't helping though. They'll be tired out by the time any attack happens. The Shadow kingdom hasn't even started to mobilize." Takao attempted channelling his wind magic through the sceptre resulting in Midorima's hair getting blown straight up n the air and Takao getting blown backwards off the desk taking copious amounts of paperwork with him.

"It is more advantageous than getting surprise attacked. Now either clean up the mess or leave." Midorima glared at Takao who was laughing his head off flat on his back on the floor. The raven-haired teen continued to chuckle as he gathered the fallen documents together dumping them on Midorima's desk in for him a neat pile. The wind-mage just glared shoeing the younger out of his office before slamming the door shut and proceeding to tidy his desk. As much as he needed Takao to both plan strategies and help get around his own social awkwardness the shadow-wind mix mage was incredibly annoying.

-Consumed by Shadows-

"10 hours." Riko sighed glancing at her watch for what felt like the millionth time in the last 2 hours. The Shadow guard sat in a single semi-circle before her most of them looking intently up at the projector screen. The rest (read Kagami) fiddled with their swords, stared at the wall or did anything possible to avoid paying attention. She tried to ignore the brash redhead. If push came to shove she could always get Hyuuga to push him back into line.

"Hyuuga you will lead a third of the main troops, Kiyoshi another third and Tsuchida take the remainder. Izuki I'm putting you in charge of the remaining Shadow guard Mitobe and Koga will back you up." The six older members of the group nodded. Kiyoshi smiled, Hyuuga looked annoyed and Izuki seemed to twitch slightly either with nerves or anticipation no one could tell. The other three just looked at her with varying degrees of interest.

"I expect you four to be on your best behaviour especially you Kagami-kun. Izuki-kun is not the usual team leader follow his orders." Chocolate brown eyes bore into the four youngest members of the royal guard. Furihata shook ever so slightly, Fukuda and Kawahara just stared back blankly and Kagami had wisps of heat radiating of his body fire-powers activating with his excitement. Riko shook her head in a mix of amusement and disappointment. The fire-mage would never cease to amuse her no matter how annoying he got on a regular basis.

"You're dismissed, get some rest. Meet again at 1800 hours. I don't want to see any of you doing anything other than resting or homework. No weapons practice or sport. Got it Kagami-kun." Her eyes bore into the young knight who began to attempt shrinking in his seat, which ultimately failed thanks to his height.

The group moved to leave the room Kagami leading the charge for the door ready to escape the demon strategist. Hyuuga leaving last watching as the rest of his team rush out ready to do whatever they did when not aloud to do anything physical. He could only dream of how stir crazy Kagami was going to go and sincerely hoping the redhead didn't decide to bother Kuroko in his boredom.

"We're ready, bring anything to us Wind kingdom." Riko chuckled almost manically as she watched the door close behind Hyuuga shutting off the projector mindlessly. If all went to plan and they managed to land a surprise attack on the Wind kingdom, everything would go their way. Now she just had to wait till the battle begun.

A/N: So please follow favourite and Review if you enjoyed I will endeavour to make the next chapter a lot better. Also updates for the next couple of months will be very irregular as I have a drama production coming up for school and the rehearsals take up at least half my free time.

Thankyou
-Angel