(A/N) Fight! There is a bit of blood here, and y'know, Naruto, so death of idiot bandits. Also, my friend has warned me that I have done poorly explaining the elemental prosthetics and Shisui's fire arm.
Naruto was pretty sad he couldn't actually yell at the bandits to scare them, but got over it quickly enough.
He ducked under a wild swing, and quickly dispatched the man. Nearby, Sasuke vaulted over a bandit, kicking the one behind him in the face on the way down, and embedding a kunai in the guy he'd vaulted over's face.
Naruto grinned and fist bumped him before brandishing a seal and spitting out a fireball. A shadow snaked in front of it, paralyzing those in its way, just as the fireball crashed through, burning those unlucky enough to be in its way.
Shikamaru nodded to Naruto as Naruto ran past him to get some more people.
Naruto glanced to the side, and found one half of the battle field flooded completely, both Anmari and Eidoko holding it back so only that side was flooded. Someone, probably Eidoko, had summoned a kraken, which was currently eating the people from that side, and brushing away their measly attacks like it was nothing. Which it probably was, to the 15 foot kraken.
Yunikon fell in beside Sasuke, effortlessly swapping styles to match Sasuke, the pair working their way through a good chunk of the bandits.
Shisui and Kakashi had gone for the leader, and were very clearly toying with him, Shisui flickering away just before the leader's weapon hit him, and Kakashi reading his book and dodging absently.
With the bandit camp demolished, the kraken unsummoned, and Umi and Anmari treating the few minor injuries they had sustained.
Shisui, chipper as ever, shunshined over to them after Kakashi used an earth jutsu to eliminate the signs of the bandit camp. "That was fun! Did you guys sustain any major injuries?"
A series of shaking heads later, Shisui plopped down next to them, still grinning. "Wonderful! This was a joint mission mostly because this camp is right on the border of Konoha and Uzushio, and because of the size of the camp."
'You mentioned earlier that Semari-baa-chan and Jiji liked sending teams on joint missions around the chuunin exams?' Naruto asked, letting Anmari bandage his leg where the cut was already healing.
"Ah, yes. With the scare we had where Uzushio almost got destroyed, Hokage-sama and Semari-sama decided to have closer contact," Shisui said. "More joint missions, travel and trade between the two villages, and such. Plus better communication."
"Although technically Mofu implanted the original agreement and Semari upholds it," Eidoko said, blushing when the others looked at her. "I like history."
'A good thing to know,' Shikamaru agreed lazily. 'So you don't make the same mistakes again.'
"Exactly," Eidoko said, grinning.
"That aside," Shisui said, shaking his head, "The Chuunin Exams are in another month, and it is highly likely you six will be participating."
"Nice," Yunikon said, grinning. "We get to see Konoha."
"Yay, I'll be back in the village that almost killed me," Shisui noted sarcastically.
Sasuke patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"You'll be there as an Uzushio jounin, Danzo won't be able to touch you for fear of losing Uzushio's support," Kakashi said, sitting down next to them. "We're on thin enough ice as it is from your birth, Naruto."
Naruto frowned. 'That was twelve years ago.'
"Uzumaki can hold a grudge," Umi said as an explanation.
"I should be getting back," Anmari said, standing up. "See you guys!" She disappeared in a puff of smoke, reverse summoning herself back to her own dimension.
Umi checked the sun. "Ah, it's almost dinner time. That explains the sudden leaving."
Everyone else checked the sun too.
"Well, why don't we stay here for the night?" Shisui suggested. "The area is already cleared and stuff, and given the large camp of bandits that had previously been here, we're highly unlikely to be disturbed."
"Works for me," Kakashi said, shrugging. "Naruto, Shikamaru, I'm sure you can find food?"
They nodded, Shikamaru more reluctantly than Naruto, and disappeared into the surrounding forest to locate some meat.
"Sasuke, tents, if you don't mind."
Sasuke nodded, chasing after his teammates to grab their packed scrolls, which they had forgotten to leave behind.
"I trust you guys know how to set up camp," Shisui told his genin, amusement lacing his tone.
"Yep," they agreed, splitting off to their own tasks.
"You have them trained well," Kakashi said, plopping down and leaning against a nearby log.
"Uzushio genin tend to be less rowdy than Konoha genin. Well, maybe that's the wrong term for it." Shisui shrugged. "They're better at listening, there we go."
"Konoha genin listen fine," Kakashi disagreed.
"I was a Konoha genin," Shisui pointed out. "I remember a lot of arguing. Uzushio at least tries to put kids that won't kill each other on the same team."
Within no time camp was all set up, and fish were nicely cooking over the fire.
'So were you born blind?' Naruto signed to Yunikon.
Yunikon shrugged. "I was born blind, but it was because of a disease of some sort during the pregnancy."
"Not very common," Umi agreed, "but happens enough that we can usually treat it before it gets too far. I think we're still working on a vaccine to prevent it completely. I wouldn't know though, I'm not a high enough rank to be involved in any specific projects."
'Shisui-sensei,' Sasuke signed, tapping on said jounin's right shoulder.
"Hm?" Shisui asked, turning to his cousin.
'What is with your arm?' Sasuke asked bluntly, gesturing to Shisui's fire arm.
Shisui glanced at it. "Well, my arm kind of got torn off during my fall, so after Orochimaru dragged my comatose body to Shizune, we went to Uzushio, and they got me this." He waved his arm.
'How does it work?' Naruto signed, distracted from his conversation.
"I'm not quite sure, I'm no seal master. Ask Umi."
Naruto turned expectantly to Umi.
"Well, it's a fairly complex series of seals, but essentially the arm is made of fire natured nature chakra. It draws power from the very air, using it to power itself so it doesn't draw on the user's chakra. It means they're able to be used by anyone, civvie or ninja."
"That's interesting," Kakashi noted blandly. "Do civvies actually use them?"
"Yeah! We got quite a few fishermen who do," Umi said, nodded. "They mostly lost limbs to sharks or barracudas or something."
"What is it with Uzushio and barracudas?" Kakashi asked mildly. "Kushina would blame everything on barracudas, even if it was impossible."
The Uzu genin shrugged. "It's just a thing." Yunikon said.
"A very old thing," Eidoko agreed. "We have records of it almost to the beginning of Uzushio itself. No one's quite sure who started it."
"We suspect it was the Uzumaki though," Yunikon said, grinning. "The Uzuki insist it couldn't have possibly been them."
"They're more likely to swear by their instruments anyway," Shisui laughed.
"Sun's going down," Kakashi noted. "Who wants first watch?"
'I can,' Naruto signed. 'I'm not very tired.'
"While we did clear out the bandits here, we should still double up on rotations, so which of my guppies wants to be up as well?" Shisui said, eyeing the surrounding woods.
"I can," Umi said, shrugging.
"Wake the next pair in three hours," Shisui instructed.
"I should be in the last watch," Yunikon said. "I can't see well in low light. The glasses don't work the best during the night."
'I'll be middle watch,' Shikamaru signed reluctantly. 'Shadows are most effective at night.'
"With that worked out, get some sleep, we have traveling to do in the morning," Kakashi muttered, disappearing into his tent.
(A/N) Chuunin exams are next! It will certainly be an adventure. After all, Uzushio is here this time.