</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Destroyor @ Feb 1 2004, 12:40 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> About Konoha backup, at most it will be one small team, that&#39;s it. Didn&#39;t any of you remember what Tsunade said when she order Shikamaru to retrieve Sasuke? There are no ninja to spare and Konoha is severly short-handed. What&#39;s this foolishness about invasion on the Sound Country? Konoha doesn&#39;t even have enough men to provide a secure small village, let alone another extra country. Tsunade did not even realize how tough it&#39;s going to be for Shikamaru and his genin team just going after Sasuke, so logically it is unlikely for her to &quot;waste&quot; valuable men-power to back Shikamaru up. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Genma, Shizune, Raidou, &amp; Iwashi will be returning to report what has happened soon to Tsunade or whomever may be handling administrative matters (Jiraiya?) while she&#39;s busy with the surgery. Given the amount of time elapsed since the discovery of the defeated Chuunin/Juunin and the various Sound-nin battles, they may already be back.

Discovering that there are four Ninja carrying a highly suspicious barrel all with Level 2 Curse Seals would likely trigger the initiation of an A-class or S-class mission, perhaps even warranting the recall of some of their troops. Especially if they put 2 and 2 together.

It&#39;s all a race against time, really. What it will be a race against if/when Sasuke&#39;s acclimation completes, well, that&#39;s less clear. Kishimoto still has some aces up his sleeve, and I&#39;m happy for it. It&#39;s been awhile since I&#39;ve seen a series go this long while keeping up a great storyline like this.