197: Big Problem! The Konoha Eleven Assemble

Naruto and Sakura walk by a construction site. They come upon old man Gennou from Sand country whom Naruto eats ramen with. They all go out for ramen. Naruto finishes first but he's still hungry so Gennou gives him the rest of his bowl.

Naruto falls off his bed while sleeping then notices fog outside his window. The ANBU are on the move. Shizune reports to Tsunade that the guy the ANBU marked is escaping. Gennou was a name in the older bingo books as a shinobi trap user. Gennou rests by a tree but he's soon surrounded by the ANBU. He had stolen something from the head carpenter. Gennou exposes his chest to show that his body is wrapped in exploding tags. There's a huge explosion and the ANBU take cover.

The next day Gai and other shinobi report to the Hokage after hearing the cries of the messenger hawk. Tsunade is concerned about a large scale attack on Konoha since blueprints were stolen. She sends out S-rank special guards to head to the northern border, leaving behind only a few shinobi in Konoha.

When Naruto wakes, he sees Sakura outside his window. Naruto mentions seeing the strange fog last night but Sakura said there were no fog reports. They arrive at Tsunade's office where Shikamaru has just been given his mission. Naruto mentions the fog to Shikamaru but he says it was a smokescreen. Tsunade explains to Sakura and Naruro that they will be on a special mission with Shikamaru. The entire team gathers by the shinobi memorial, which includes Lee, Tenten, Neji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura. Choji is still missing but arrives just on time.

Shikamaru says the village is under special guard status and it started with the smokescreen. Shino says his bugs were making a fuss. Choji and Sakura didn't notice anything. Inner Sakura thinks she's below Naruto. Lee says he didn't get involved because of the Anbu. Shikamaru tells them two weeks ago the ANBU secretly marked a man who snuck into Konoha's head carpenter's house and stole the blueprints fpr the village's important structures from a hidden chest. The smokescreen was to help the thief escape. He blew himself up without the blueprints which may have already fallen into enemy hands.The mission is to investigate the room from which the blueprints were stolen and to retrieve them. The thief was a first rate trap user and the blueprints maybe trapped. Shikamaru hands out photos of the spy and it's Gennou!

Naruto can't believe Gennou was a spy since he loved Ichiraku ramen. Choji agrees, to Shikamaru's chagrin.

At the head carpenter's house, Shikamaru goes through the construction records but Gennou is not listed in there since he was an outsider who is only allowed to work on residential construction. Hinata and Neji head teams to investigate various buildings. Meanwhile Shikamaru thinks its possible that Gennou hid the plans while escaping. Shino and Kiba go to try to find the plans with Akamaru and Shino's bugs. Shikamaru asks Ino and Sakura to check out the corpse for clues. Sakura readily agrees since she's practicing to be a medic nin but Ino's hesitant. Shikamaru questions the head carpenter about Gennou. He says he came to Konoha about three months ago. He visited him with a letter from the Sand Country lord. Since they needed people he was hired immediately. He wasn't good nor bad as a carpenter but he was a hard worker. Then he found that the letter of introduction was a fake. The head carpenter shows the letter to Shikamaru. Twelve years ago, another man brought a letter of introduction from the same lord, but when compared, Gennou's letter had different handwriting. The head carpenter tries to find the original letter, but it's missing. Even though the letter was a fake, he didn't care as long as Gennou worked hard and didn't cause trouble, but he had to report it to Tsunade.

Shikamaru, Naruto and Choji investigate Gennou's apartment. There are no traps and the landlady says he always paid his rent on time and was not a troublemaker. Choji finds instant katsu-udon and udon. Choji thinks that if Gennou lived by himself, he should have stored more food. Shikamaru points out Gennou ate out a lot at Ichiraku. They then go to talk to other carpenters who tell them that Gennou was friendly with a child in the village. But that's Naruto of course. The ANBU appear and they take away Naruto for questioning.

Review: An interesting start - lots of little things going on.

Notes:

3 months ago - Gennou comes to Konoha

2 weeks ago - blueprints stolen

Thoughts:

Why does Gennou use the same name as in the bingo book if he's undercover?

Why is Tsunade just concerned about the northern border?

Why did it take two weeks since the blueprints were stolen for the thief to try to escape?