Konoha's New Number One....Baby?!

Right

The moment was just right, Konoha was where he wanted them to be, playing into his hand, pecking at his crumbs attached to a string.

It was nearly midnight somewhere in the world, but the day was bright and sunny, in great contrast to what he felt suited his planning.

His Elite Loyal Izumi stood at attention, her back to the door of Lelan's office. "Sir, we've been making steady progress in pushing back the Frost Lord population. Many of their smaller cities have been annihilated."

Lelan nodded but continued to write. "What have you done to the prisoners?"

"There wasn't many survivors."

"A number?"

"Seventeen, sir."

Lelan put down his brush. "So little, why is that?"

"We killed every last one that was of no use to the regime, the ones that we took have successfully been reborn.

Lelan was quiet for a minute or so. "I'll take your word for it," he reinked his brush, stood, and walked to the window without a single glance at the Elite Loyal. "What is Konoha doing about this? Are they still sending troops to scour the area or did they get our message when the four squads never returned?"

The Elite was silent for a moment. "We have picked up movement between Frost and Konoha. Information about us has been spreading but Konoha appears to be closing itself off, that or they have found a new way to get information across without leaving footprints."

"Concerning. Up the collection process, I feel that our time has come. Sooner than I would like, but beggars cannot be choosers."

"Yes sir."
___________________________________
"You wanted to talk to me Ino?"

"Yeah," she patted the bench beside her. "Come. Sit with me a while."

Sakura moved. "Mind telling me-"

A couple of yards away, Choji shouted, "Ino, I managed to get Sasuke and Shikamaru to come like you asked!"

They could obviously see that. Shikamaru looked visibly contrite as always, black eyes looking up to the sky. Sasuke's face was sour, he was probably forced from training or something.

When the group drew closer, Lee, Neji, Hinata, Ten Ten, Kiba, Shino, and Konohamaru hopped down from the trees, "Why did you call us all here Ino?"

"I was getting to that." The Yamanaka scanned the group to make sure everyone she called for was present- sans Naruto of course, there wasn't much hope for the boy to go anywhere nowadays with as busy as he is.

Then her eyes went back to Sakura, and her face was no longer welcoming.

The mood shifted and a shiver up a couple of people's spine. They were sure that this wasn't just a get together. Something bad had to be happening for Ino of all people to get so uncharacteristically serious- they didn't know what to say.

She looked at the ground and cleared her throat. "Before I actually get into it I just wanna ask one thing. Who knows?"

Sakura looked at her friend. "What do you mean who knows?"

Ino shrugged. "If they know them they know, I just wanna see how much of the situation has already been leaked."

She said it like it was supposed to be secret.

And Sakura guesses she was right when the only people to step forward were the clan heads- minus Sasuke because of the whole his family was massacred all those years ago.

Sasuke turned and focused all of his attention on Ino. "So there has been something going on. I assumed I was just being paranoid."

Ten ten laughed at him. "When are you not being paranoid?"

He turned up his nose.

Ino shook her head. "Alright, alright, back to the topic at hand!"

"I've noticed that the ninja patrolling the village have gotten more alert, more secretive. There's been less and less rookie teams being let out for missions and more and more ninja leaving and coming back a week or two later. I tried to 'talk' to Iruka-sensei about it but the man shut me down before I could get more than a sentence in. Sasuke raised his shoulders at the group in a what can you do?
gesture.

The clan heads nodded their heads, accepting and seemingly unsurprised by the information.

"Anyway," Sasuke said, "I hope that this doesn't mean that we're going into another conflict, because I don't think we're that prepared to be fighting with another village, or village's, again so soon after Orochimaru. Why are all of you looking at me like that? Was I right?"

"You are," Kiba said. "And I don't know if that's because this village is crap at being secret or if you're just that nosy."

Hey!" Sakura cut in. "Can you just explain what's going on instead of beating around the bush?"

"Yeah, well, long story short," Shikamaru steps forward. "We might have a war on our hands."