The Yondaime Kazekage frowned at the missive he had received from his spy in Konoha. He did not believe for one second that the Hokage had decided to completely retool their Ninja Academy curriculum merely because there had been a traitor amongst their ranks of Instructors. Somehow, the Sandaime, whom he'd previously thought to be completely senile, had become aware of his negotiations with the man's former student.

Why else would he choose to replace that cartoon filled dreck that had passed as the Konoha Academy curriculum for the last decade with something decidedly more...militant?

Sighing, he composed a letter to Orochimaru stating that he had received information that the old man who had looked to have been preparing Konoha for a massive de-militarization like the one Yugakure went through before it became a tourist trap had cottoned onto his plans...

"What're you up to Hiruzen?" Onoki muttered as he leafed through the pages of the glossy and stylish text that his spy had procured for him, having risked his life to run off a copy of the book that was most likely to replace Konoha's current textbooks, and send it to him post-haste in the teeth of his swiftest summon.

Unlike the brief, expurgated texts that had been used in Konoha's Academy for more than a decade, this book was reminiscent of the texts Konoha had used in that period between the Second and Third Wars when they were coming down from one battle, and gearing up for another one. Also unlike the previous text which pretty much had "Konoha is always right, and we never make a mistake" stamped on each and every one of its pages, this history text used actual accounts of battles drawn from source material, and critically detailed strategic errors that had been made by both sides. Though there was no bias against any nation in particular, the tone of the text was decidedly more...militant.

As he was reading through the chapter about the Kyuubi attack which contained what had to be the only cartoon in the entire book, and that being a drawing of the Kyuubi which was meant to be frightening but came off as looking slightly ridiculous, he received a missive from one of his spies in Suna. He quickly set the textbook aside, as this was of higher priority. Suna's increasing militarization had been worrying, especially in light of the rising number of border skirmishes his forces had been having with theirs.

He swiftly opened the coded letter and started reading. By the time he was done, he was laughing. Now that he knew what was going on, he was no longer anywhere near as worried as he had been only five minutes previously but, amused rather. Now that his old rival had stopped smoking whatever herb he'd been putting in his pipe in place of tobacco for the last decade, and pulled his head out of the clouds, Suna was screwed.

Completely oblivious to the international scramble to make sense of the radical change that was being made to the Konoha Ninja Academy's curriculum, Haruno Kita stood nervously alongside the representative from the other publishing company in front of the Hokage's desk.

"Due to several factors including last night's rather egregious breach of security at one of the publishing houses, which I was potentially expecting to trust to produce texts which contain information that is critical to the safety and security of this village, I have decided to give the publishing contract to your employer Mr. Haruno." The Hokage said. "I have also considered your advice regarding an informational pamphlet for civilian parents of Academy students, and found that it has some merit."

He did his best not to visibly react despite the fact that he felt equal parts relief and elation over the fact that he had managed to secure employment for himself, and a lucrative contract for his new employer that should keep him in a job for a good long while if nothing else went wrong. Thanks to those conflicting emotions, he simultaneously felt the need to sag in relief and jump for joy, though he struggled to do neither. He would of course be studying everything he could get his hands on about the publishing industry the instant he got home so he wouldn't disappoint his employer after starting off so impressively.

"If you would get your employer so we can go over the finer details of the contract and changes to be made to the text..." the Hokage prompted, dismissing him and his counterpart whose expression was rather sour.

He did his best not to run out of the Hokage's office and all the way down to the publisher's. If he was this thrilled, he could only imagine how his new boss would feel when he told him.

At the Konoha Ninja Academy, Hyuuga Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee found themselves sitting in an auditorium that was filled with just about every student who had either graduated or failed to graduate the Academy in the last four years. That morning, when they had met at their usual training ground for their usual training, their sensei Maito Gai had told them that they had been called back to the Academy, and that their regular training schedule was cancelled until further notice. He didn't look or sound very happy as he informed them of this. As they sat there in the middle of the crowd on one of the packed benches and tried to figure out why they had been called back to the Academy, Tenten and Lee putting forth even wilder theories with every passing minute while he pretended to ignore them as wild theories of his own ran unchecked through his mind, one of the Instructors stood before the podium that had been set up at one end of the auditorium.

"I believe that most of you are aware of the reason why Assistant Instructor Mizuki is no longer with us." the scarred man who looked to be about a decade older than the team said. "Because of Mizuki's treachery, it has been decided that all students who have passed through the Academy during his tenure will be re-evaluated. From now until January, all students who are studying under a Jounin Instructor will be expected to return to the Academy twice a week for remedial study in areas they may be lacking. As for all others, you will be expected to return to the Academy five times a week before you will be given another shot at the Graduation Exam in January. This means that for some of you who may believe that your chance at becoming a ninja was unfairly taken from you, you will be given a second chance to prove your worth."

There was a great deal of noise at this announcement. There were cries of shock and indignation, cheers, and whispers running through the crowd as people processed what the Instructor had just said and reacted either positively or negatively depending on their situation. Neji remained silent through it all, as did Lee, but both for different reasons. Neji because he was certain that he wasn't lacking in any areas thanks to the superior education he had received from his clan, and Lee because he was worried that he would be found lacking despite the thousands of hours of hard work he had put in to improving himself.

The Instructor gestured for silence.

"Do not celebrate too soon." the Instructor said. "This will not be easy, especially since the curriculum for the Academy has recently been changed, and we will be studying from the new texts as soon as the first sets of books are ready."

There were a great many yells of surprise at this, and even Neji himself looked slightly stunned by the announcement. Before the noise could turn into anything more than a dull roar however, the Instructor who was speaking for the Academy used a strange jutsu that grew his head to massive proportions, and yelled for quiet, stunning the crowd into silence.

"Good, now that I have your attention, I am going to give out the schedule for the testing which will be taking place over the next three days..." The Instructor said before listing said schedule.

Sasuke barely suppressed a yawn of boredom as he stood watch over the drinks tent. The small town cider festival that he and his team were running security for would be lasting until the end of the week. So far the whole thing had been a snoozefest as far as he was concerned, with the only thing interesting happening being Sakura.

When Sakura had discovered that most of the food they were being given had apples in it in some way shape or form, she had looked like she was about to completely snap, and he was reasonably certain that the Uzumaki had prevented a bloodbath when he had offered to judge the baked good competition in Sakura's place after Tetsuo had offered her services for the job. Fortunately, the otherwise completely uncultured boy had proven to have a refined enough palate and a large enough vocabulary of food terms to satisfy the competitors' concerns over his suitability for the position.

He suppressed another yawn as he watched the rather laid-back villagers continue to get drunk on the locally made cider and applejack. Everyone else looked as tired as he felt, and since it was so early in the evening, the odds of a fight breaking out were much lower than they were during Kakashi or Tetsuo's shifts. Not that any had done so yet mind you. In fact, the guys he was watching were more likely to pass out in their drinks like that one guy was doing right now.

As he watched more and more of the local drunks and a few merchants who had stopped by the town to check out the festival with an eye on possibly investing in the event next year pass out, an alarm started going off in the back of his mind.

Something was obviously seriously wrong.

As he turned to leave and alert Kakashi or Tetsuo to the situation, he collapsed to the ground, and his own consciousness rapidly faded. As his eyes closed, a pair of strangers stepped into view, stopping a few paces away from where he was lying, unable to move.

"Is that everybody?" one of the strangers asked.

"Yeah." the other said somewhat nervously. "You know, when I saw the ninjas, I thought we were dead..."

The first man snorted.

"Ninjas generally don't notice "civilians" until it's too late." the man said derisively, a sneer evident in his voice. "It's like we're invisible to them or something. Did you find where the two big ones holed up when they realized they'd been drugged?"

"No." the second man said.

"Leave it. We've got to get out of here before they wake up, otherwise we really will be dead." the first said.

It was at that point that everything went black. When he came to an unknown amount of time later, it was to find that he was bound, and that he'd been blindfolded. He could feel a warm body next to his. It felt to be about his size, possibly a little smaller, and the regular breathing seemed to indicate that whoever it was was asleep.

"I still say we should take his eyes." a voice said from an unknown distance that was far too close for his comfort.

"We don't know if he has the Sharingan or not, and if he doesn't, they're worthless." another voice piped up from a little further away. "Not all of the Uchiha had them you know, and if that one did, Konoha would be crowing about it. Besides, we need them in good condition for sale."

There was a sigh and the sound of footsteps as the one who had casually suggested removing his eyes moved away.

Everything went black again.

Edited 10-6-12