Kakashi smiled as the messenger hawk arrived with the requested funds and an order to return to Konoha for a debriefing. Of course this would cause them to miss the mission to provide babysitting services for a nobleman who was attending a darts tournament, and the controlled burn in a bit of parkland in the North, and throw all of their other missions into question but, after a mission like the last one, they all needed a little downtime, and the kids would need some counseling. Unless it was during wartime and they had no other options, Genin almost never ran missions like this.

So much for the Chunin Exams in January, but, at least they all got out of this alive and in one piece.

He handed the money the hawk had brought to Zabuza, who was the leader of the little group of missing-nins, concluding their business. The danger was past, and all that was left was to go home. They had fulfilled their end of the bargain, and the man had found no reason to complain about their pay or services.

"I hope we never see each-other on the opposite side of the battlefield." Zabuza said before turning back to the cave that served as the group's hide-out.

There was no goodbye but, then again, Ninja didn't often say goodbye as it was bad luck. They'd usually say something along the lines of "See you later" or " 'Til we meet again". As Zabuza had no intention of seeing them again however, that had served as his fare-well. He wouldn't be saying goodbye to the other man either, so it all evened out.

He would not be giving the cave's location to anyone when he reached civilization, despite the fact that giving the information would be pointless. He had little doubt that should he direct anyone to the cave, the group would be long gone by the time anyone he might tip off got there. Zabuza and the rest of his group were already packed and, hours earlier, the Demon Brothers had carried Mai off to parts unknown where she would be accompanied by her husband Renji until she was well enough for them to rejoin their group. The only thing giving the location of the cave would do would betray the trust that their brief companions who had saved Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had given them, and he had no intention of doing so.

As Zabuza disappeared into the cave, his team started their own disappearing act in a Saidaward direction. Based on Shimura's account of his and Meizu's treatment in Saida, he knew better than to expect a warm welcome from the inhabitants. It was somewhat understandable, considering the deaths of the small children, and the fact that the people of Saida needed someone to blame. Unfortunately, before blame could be turned where it was due, someone had stepped up and pointed the blame squarely at his team.

Konoha would deal with the situation later on but, that wouldn't be helping them now.

When Itachi and Kisame reached Saida, where their trail supposedly began, it was to find some overweight and far too richly dressed merchant standing in the town square sermonizing on how Ninjas were the source of all the trouble in the world, and that things would only improve if they were all gotten rid of. Kisame looked like he wanted to kill the man sheerly out of principle.

"Leave it Kisame." he said. "We don't have time."

"Don't have time for what?" Kisame, who was still reaching for his sword, asked. "You never told me where we're going."

He didn't reply, choosing instead to follow the first trail out of town he spotted that looked like it had been made by ninjas, and from the looks of things, this particular trail had had frequent ninja traffic on it recently. After following it for a while, he reached a clearing in the woods which contained a few wrecked and run-down buildings and a number of freshly dug graves. He barely restrained himself from racing over to the graves and frantically digging to make sure that Sasuke wasn't in one of them, as that would just serve to further fuel Kisame's suspicions and give something away to Madara should he be watching. Struggling to keep a sedate pace, he moved over to the graves and used an Earth Jutsu that he'd once copied in order to bring the corpses to the surface.

He did his best not to slump in relief when he saw them. None of them were Sasuke.

Since a couple of them were wearing hitai-ate marked with the symbol of the now defunct Yugakure, and another one was wearing a stricken through Frost symbol, he felt that it was safe to assume that these had been the missing-nin who had captured his younger brother. He could now see why the Hokage hadn't sent out assistance. By the time that Homura had received word that Sasuke had been captured, the Hokage must've received word that the situation had already been dealt with.

"It would seem that the fight's already over." he said as he re-buried the corpses.

He would of course be tracking Sasuke down before he and his team arrived in Konoha in order to make sure he was alright. Whether or not he stayed out of sight would depend on his brother's mental state. If the boy seemed broken by his experience, he would do anything it took in order to motivate him to survive and grow stronger. He had to. When he was gone, Madara wouldn't show his brother any mercy otherwise.

A weak Sasuke would very soon be a dead Sasuke, and he couldn't have that.

Shin sighed as he, his friend who had yet to be named, since the name he'd previously had had been discarded, and the team they'd been following reached Saida where Team Tetsuo would be picking up the rest of their supplies before heading back to Konoha. After running flat out for an entire day and night to get there, he and the little guy had followed Team Tetsuo back from the cave where they and a group of missing-nin from Mist had been holed up after what looked to have been an exceedingly difficult mission.

Both he, and his training partner who would be forced to fight him soon were exhausted, and it was beginning to show.

When they'd arrived back in Saida, Team Tetsuo had received a welcome that was far less warm than the one they deserved, considering the fact that they had done something that had quite likely saved the town in the long run. Any would-be conquering army that came through the Hot Water border would have run through the small town first on their way into Fire Country, and a guy who had been confident enough to try building a hidden village under everyone's noses would be the sort who had the balls to try invading another country if he thought he might get away with it, and the ego to believe that he would get away with it.

As Team Tetsuo left Saida with their packs which, fortunately, the innkeepers hadn't been stupid enough to try destroying out of fear of whatever traps they might contain, the merchant who was so fat that he was surprised the man could even walk decided to gather the townspeople in order to give the team a sending off party with rocks.

That was going just a little too far.

It wouldn't be fair to kill the townspeople who had been duped by the lies of a man who had thought he could get out of paying the ninja by sending a mob after them, but he had to neutralize them somehow...

Coming up with what he thought was a brilliant idea, but one the little guy and Danzo-sama would more than likely consider idiotic, he Shunshined over to the side of the merchant who was at the head of the mob.

"Throw that rock and Danzo-sama will expose your involvement with the underground slave market." Shin said to the fat merchant who was trying to stir up civil unrest in a theatrical whisper that he was certain had carried to over half of the mob which was standing behind them.

The merchant dropped his rock in surprise, indicting himself in the eyes of the listening public. Whether or not the man was actually involved in the underground slave market, he had just destroyed his credibility in the eyes of the Saida townspeople. The villagers who stood immediately behind the merchant looked at him in disgust and, from the looks of it, were prepared to throw their rocks at the merchant rather than the departing ninja.

As he vanished and reappeared by his training partner's side, a whisper started going up through the crowd. Apparently, a number of the townspeople had been involved in the burial of a group that had been associated with the group that Team Tetsuo had assisted the missing-nin from Kiri in taking out. The merchant had claimed that the Konoha nin had been in on it with that group, and had turned around and betrayed them when they felt it was convenient to do so. But, with the allegedly slave trading merchant's word in question, people were beginning to wonder what really happened, especially considering the fact that someone had remembered seeing one of the ninja children being kidnapped as they lost consciousness.

There were also grumbles from a group of stallkeepers and cider manufacturers who had apparently either been stiffed by the merchant, or had been given raw deals by him. It was amazing how much rich people felt compelled to steal despite the fact that they had more than just about everyone else. The sad thing was that people who would chase a poor man who stole a crust of bread to the ends of the earth tended to let them.

The mob began to disperse and head back to their homes, save for a few who looked very much like they wanted to chase the merchant who had turned them against the ninja who had avenged the deaths of a number of their children out of town.

And that Pipsqueak, is how you correctly neutralize a threat with words. he signed to his pale partner whose dark hair and dark eyes made him look even paler than he actually was.

You wanna help me plant the evidence proving that that asshole who tried getting away with stiffing ninjas and turning a town against us is involved in a bunch of illegal shit? he signed as they walked off.

Gladly. the little guy signed back.

Rather than follow Team Tetsuo out of the village and down the road to Konoha like the probably should have been doing, they went to the rooms that the fatass merchant had rented and had a look around. The little guy, who was the best artist he had ever seen, didn't have to forge too many papers. The lardass had his finger in several pies, a few of which were illegal, and hadn't bothered trying to hide the evidence of his dirty dealings all that much, confident that since nobody had gone looking for it before now, they wouldn't go looking in the future.

Now, to find a way to get the good townspeople of Saida to find all this wonderful evidence before the merchant left...

Edited 10-6-12