Disturbances (II).

"I still don't understand why you decided to work here instead of accepting the offer from Yukio's family, Sensei."

Itachi was currently sitting in a somewhat rundown restaurant on the outskirts of the village, eating a bowl of unagi while talking with the man behind the counter.

"Ah, you know, working for my former student's family would have been really awkward," the man laughed while he scratched the back of his head. "Also, I already told you to just call me 'Tanaka'."

He shrugged while a small smile formed on his lips. "Force of habit."

He thought that rejecting a job offer from the most successful restaurant in the village because your employers would be your former student's parents was stupid. If anything, that should have been even more reason to accept it. Tanaka, however, decided to do just that and instead started working in a small and rather unknown restaurant that had barely enough customers to pay its bills.

Having fulfilled all the necessary requirements to retire after he led his team to become Chūnin, he had hung his flak jacket on the wall and started to do normal civilian work instead. It suited him well, Itachi though. The bags under his eyes were much less prominent and his posture didn't scream exhaustion for anyone to see anymore.

"That wouldn't be a problem if you came around more often," Tanaka said. "On that note, bring Yukio with you the next time to decide to visit. I haven't seen him in almost two months now."

"From what I know, he threw himself into his work at his family's restaurant while spending the rest of his time on guard duty at the gate. I don't think he has enough free time to come to visit you regularly."

Although he denied it when Itachi had asked, he was convinced by now that this behaviour was a result of his loss during the Chūnin Exams. It had obviously destroyed much of his confidence, making him hesitant to take more challenging missions.

"I guess that means I should go to visit him instead, then," Tanaka sighed. "Anyway, what about you? I haven't seen you in a while either. Are you busy as well?"

He shrugged. "It's alright. I take regular missions, of course, but I focus more on my training right now."

"Intending on rising in rank, I assume?"

"That would be optimal, yes."

Not that he expected to do so any time soon. While promotions of any kind were common shortly before and after wars, as well as after incidents like the attack of the Nine-Tails, the process slowed down the more time passed. With that in mind, he thought he would probably need to wait another one or two years before he would become a Jōnin.

"Say, Tanaka, did you hear anything from Anko recently?"

Ever since she had set off on her journey, she had irregularly sent messages to him and their teammates. They were always short, though, only telling them that she was fine and improving a lot. He was kind of curious about what kind of place she was looking for because he knew that she wasn't just aimlessly traveling through the continent, but he hadn't pushed her when she didn't say anything. And anyway, he could take a good enough guess. Interestingly enough, both Yukio and the Sandaime seemed to know more about that, though neither was willing to tell him anything.

"Not since your last visit, no," the other man denied with a shake of his head. "I will tell you if I get anything new."

"That would be great, thank you."

After that, their conversation shifted to more innocuous topics, ranging from simple gossip to as of why Tanaka hadn't opened his own shop yet. That had been his dream, after all. It seemed he wanted to get some more experience before he did just that, which made sense to him.

"Well then," he said almost an hour later. "I will take my leave now. Thank you for the food."

He had almost reached the door when Tanaka called out again. "Oh, Itachi? I don't think I need to tell you, but it's better to be safe than sorry. There had been a lot of tension in these parts of the village recently, something about several shinobi causing trouble to the people that live here. They're not antagonistic to shinobi per se, but it's always wise to keep an eye out, you know?"

Itachi had heard about these incidents from his father as well. Just yesterday, a drunk shinobi had used a fire technique that blew a hole into a pub and almost caused a fire while just a few weeks ago, a fight between two young Chūnin injured a few bystanders. Nothing serious, as the police interfered fast enough, but it still left a bad taste in the mouth of many residents.

"I see," he said. "I will be careful."

"Yes, take care."

....

There were currently seven people present in the conference room deep inside the bowels of the Hokage Building and behind thick walls to guarantee that no one could listen to what was spoken inside. Of course, with the presence of a few additional Hyūga guards, there was almost no chance that anyone could even come close enough to try.

Whether that was enough to stop the black-white being that acted as a spy for Akatsuki was anyone's guess. Not even Itachi knew how his abilities worked, nor how extensive they were.

But back to the meeting.

Two of the attendees were Konoha's Jōnin CommanderbShikaku Nara and the ANBU Commander who was simply referred to as 'Cat'. Opposite of them on the other side of the table sat the heads of Konoha's four noble clans: Fugaku Uchiha, Shibi Aburame, Chouza Akimichi, and Hiashi Hyūga.

Hiruzen himself was the seventh person attending, sitting at the head of the table.

"Alright," he said. "Let's begin. Shikaku, if you would?"

The man nodded and rose to his feet. "Of course, Hokage-sama." He turned towards the other five participants. "I will make this short. We have intel that indicates the daimyo's representative might have harmful intentions towards Konoha."

There was no uproar at that revelation, but the surprise on their faces was evident. Not unexpected considering the daimyo was one of the people who were the least likely to wish them any harm.

"What kind of intel is that?" Shibi asked. "Is the source trustworthy?"

"Most of it comes from spies whose identities are only known to Hokage-sama," Shikaku said with a small bow in his direction. "But one source that can be revealed and that's known to all of you would be Asuma Sarutobi."

The part about spies only he knew about was a lie he had told Shikaku to explain where he had his information from. However, the part about Asuma was the truth.

Itachi didn't know much about his relationship with his son in his timeline aside of what was common knowledge, which basically meant that all he could say was that it hadn't been a good one and that Asuma joined the Twelve Guardian Ninja that protected the daimyo as a result of it. That had been enough to tell him that it would only get worse than it already was at this point, though, so he tried to improve their relationship as much as he could over the last few years.

Unfortunately, he was only partially successful. While he thought that his efforts bore fruit, it was clear that his shadow still hung over his son's head. Knowing that, it didn't come as a surprise when he declared his intention to leave for the daimyo's palace almost one year ago.

However, they kept in contact, which was something he doubted they did in the other timeline. It was through this connection that he 'officially' found out about the opinions of one of his son's comrades, Kazuma.

Hadn't he already known about the incident where part of the daimyo's guard plotted to overthrow and destroy Konoha, he would have been shocked when he read about it in the letter.

Fugaku cleared his throat. "And what exactly makes him think the daimyo would conspire against us?"

"You misunderstand, Uchiha-san," Shikaku said. "It's not the daimyo that's conspiring against us but his representative."

"He would go against the feudal lord?" Hiashi asked, surprise evident in his voice. "The daimyo's guards are chosen with the utmost care, how could someone like that rise to such a position?"

"It seems that his loyalty is the very thing that's the problem. It's because he's so loyal to the daimyo that he wants Konoha gone so that his lord can rule the Land of Fire unopposed."

"That's madness," Cat said with a shake of her head. "Without Konoha and its forces, there is nothing that would stop other countries from invading. It doesn't take a genius to understand that."

Shikaku nodded. "We assume he hopes that after he brought down Konoha, the surviving shinobi will willingly serve the daimyo and unite directly under him. This means he's either a fanatic who can't fathom that a shinobi wouldn't want to serve the daimyo or he has a plan to actually achieve his lofty goal. Obviously, we will assume the latter is the case just to be safe."

"From the moment he enters the village, at least two ANBU teams will shadow him wherever he goes," Hiruzen took over, making everyone turn towards him. "Then, as soon as we can be sure who he works with, for such a plan can't be executed by a single person, he will be taken care of. However, arresting such a high-profile guest in secret might lead to other problems, so as long as nothing unexpected happens, we will need the cooperation of the police."

"I'm at your disposal, Hokage-sama," Fukagu immediately agreed.

"Well then," Skikaku spoke up again. "Now to the second point of order. It's regarding the delegate from Kumogakure. While our intel is much more vague on this matter, we suspect that they might be up to something. At the request of Hokage-sama, we went through all the reports we have about their activities over the last few years and found that there was an increasing trend of them trying to steal bloodlines from other villages." Hiashi and Fugaku, the only people present with a Kekkei Genkai, sat a bit straighter at hearing that. "While it's unlikely that they would risk another war already, we should at least consider the possibility of them trying something in that direction during the visit."

"The ANBU will dispatch some teams to keep an eye on the delegate and his companions, of course," Cat said. "But they will probably bring sensors with them if they really try something funny. Most of our Hyūga are currently on missions outside the village, so we would request the aid of your clan for the duration of the visit, Hyūga-sama."

The Byakugan was one of the most effective tools to observe an enemy, especially in a village. After all, a sensor wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Hyūga and a random shinobi when they were far enough away. In a village, the only thing a sensor was good for was to say whether or not someone was close by.

Also, while he formulated it as a request, it was clear that Hiashi had no choice in that matter. If he disagreed, he as Hokage would order him to do so anyway, after all. This was more polite, though, and at least kept up the pretense that he had a choice.

"Of course. I will send some of my clansmen your way, Cat-san."

"Thank you."

"Also, if you find someone sneaking around your districts, make sure not to kill them," Shikaku added. "It might be that their very intent is to create a situation where we must appease them in some way. If fighting can't be avoided, try to take them in with as little harm as possible."

There were general sounds of agreement.

"I trust that all of you will make subtle preparations to improve our security during the next few weeks," Hiruzen said while standing up, intend on ending the meeting. "Make sure you're prepared should fighting break out, but don't let anything seem amiss. My doors are open should anyone of you require assistance in any way. Now, if no one has anything to add, that concludes today's meeting."

There were no further comments, and after everyone had voiced their thanks, they left the room.

This time, there wouldn't be an incident like the one Itachi had told him about. Trying to kidnap the heir of one of Konoha's greatest clans, he thought with a scowl. 'I can't decide whether that's daring or just plain stupid.'

Then again, considering that they actually did almost get a Byakugan out of it in the end, maybe it was he who was stupid.