Naruto sighed as the team settled into their night's camp. A few days on, and Sakura's eye was still a spectacular shade of purple and Sakura's lip was still swollen. She apparently didn't heal nearly as fast as he did, and if those wounds didn't heal without a trace by the time they got back to Konoha, there was no telling what the girl's mother would do. The woman had gone absolutely insane when Sakura had shown up back home with a couple of scratches and a scrape or two.
Nobody knew exactly who had started that fight between Sakura and the Tanigakure ninja that had resulted in those injuries but, - while they had been there - all of the ninja of that village - few though they were - had looked as if they were spoiling for a fight. None of them had been happy that Konoha ninja had been hired to guard that caravan, considering the fact that its final destination before it split apart and each part of it went their own way was their village. One would think that the fight that would have eventually broken out considering how much the Tani ninja seemed to want one would have involved the Jounin rather than Sakura, but that had not been the case. The adults of the village had had the patience and control that came from more than a decade of training. Training that the Genin had lacked.
After pulling the pair of kunoichi apart, Kakashi and Tetsuo-sensei had hustled them out of the village as quickly as they could without making it seem as if they were fleeing. If it appeared that they were fleeing, it would make them look guilty, and they would attract the negative attention of the villagers who would promptly take the other kunoichi's side in the matter which they would still be likely to do anyway even if she was in the wrong because she was one of theirs. That negative attention they would've received had they appeared to be leaving with a little more haste than was called for might have taken the form of a mob which was something they wouldn't want because a Tanigakure mob would be more organized and better armed than the one that had seen them off from Saida.
As they crossed River Country on their way back to the border, Sasuke and Sakura got a bit of practice in tree-hopping. Once Sakura finally got over her fear of falling, she took to it like a fish to water. Sasuke, who'd only just mastered the tree-climbing technique to Tetsuo-sensei's satisfaction, was a bit more frustrated by the technique, but managed to pick it up without mishap. Thanks to Sasuke and Sakura's mastery of tree-hopping, the trip back to the Fire Country border was much quicker than the trip out had been, and as soon as they reached the border, they ran to the rendezvous point where they met and relieved the team that had been patrolling the border before them. The team of teenage Chunin were rather relieved to be going home because things had gotten rather cold, and the Winter rain was due to start soon. While the Chunin would be cozy in their nice warm beds and Ito's mother's basement where a rec room had been set up, they would be out in it.
The team's first day of border patrol had gone rather well. Kakashi and Tetsuo-sensei had showed them several signs of a border incursion that they should be on the lookout for as they slowly moved along the border between Fire and River. Many of the signs that Kakashi and Tetsuo-sensei had created and displayed were near invisible and rather innocuous on the surface. Should they see genuine versions of any such signs during their patrols, they should call for reinforcements, send word back to Konoha in case the team didn't survive the encounter, and attempt tracking.
After walking along the border for most of the day, getting a feel for the area and learning what to look out for, the team had finally stopped at a good spot that was out of the wind at around sunset and set up camp. Having set up camp so many times before, the team could practically do it in their sleep, which was one good thing to come out of the mess of the first trip the team had gone on. After getting a good nights sleep, they got back on the road, clearing up the camp in record time before taking on another day of patrol that was almost completely uneventful if one didn't count the team of Tanigakure ninja that had been shadowing them on the other side of the border. After a day of running parallel to the Tani team who were probably just waiting for an excuse to start something, they settled down a little way from the border in an area that was firmly in Fire territory where they were now setting up camp.
After they'd gotten tents set up rather than simply laying out on bedrolls like usual because it looked like rain or even a much rarer snow considering how cold it was, they decided that it might be safe enough to light a small relatively smokeless cookfire that evening. That fire was a small comfort to the group, and a source of envy to those who had to sit watch away from it with their back to it in order that what little light it shed wouldn't destroy their night vision. Much to Naruto's dismay, his watch was first, meaning that he would be getting a cold dinner later when Sasuke came to relieve him.
After admiring Sakura's shiner once more, he reluctantly turned to face the falling darkness hoping that no trouble would come to them in the night. He didn't hold out too much hope though, trouble almost always came to him eventually, especially when he was out of the village on what was supposed to be a "routine" C-ranked mission much like this one had been labeled as.
While Naruto was settling in for the first watch of the evening over on the River Country border, a different group of ninja were gathering near the border between Fire and Hot Water Country. Unlike Team Tetsuo however, this wasn't a border patrol force. Instead, it could almost be considered an invasion force despite the fact that what they were invading was within their own territory. This group of ninja who were all experienced career Chunin were part of a force that was surrounding Saida, preparing to go in two hours before dawn when the mercenaries who held the village captive were at their least alert.
Hidden in the woods that surrounded the town of Saida and the massive orchards that ringed the town were several teams of experienced ninja of which the group was one. Like most members of the force who had been sent to Saida, every member of this team was a veteran of the Third War and one was even a veteran of the Second. They, like the other teams, had been hand selected by the Hokage in order to minimize casualties. The less ninja that were lost in this mess, the better.
As they stood vigilantly waiting, hoping that the element of surprise wasn't blown and that this wouldn't turn into the bad sort of bloodbath when they went in, one of the operatives who had been sent in ahead of the mission to gather intel came to the group to provide a sitrep on conditions within the village. On this sort of mission where the entire continent would be dissecting their actions that night for a long time, it wouldn't do to accidentally kill a bunch of civilians and accidentally bypass a bunch of mercenaries who would then attack you the instant your back was turned.
Two minutes after the intel operative arrived, the group was standing around a rough map of the town they would be liberating early in the morning attempting to memorize the layout and points of interest. They weren't the team that would be sent in to capture the merchant and bring him before the Daimyo who would most likely have him publicly executed as a warning to others who might consider stealing sections of the outer reaches of his territory but, that didn't mean that their role in this was unimportant however. They would be one of several teams that would be helping to clear the way for that team and liberating the small town that merchant had taken over.
After planning for a while longer and getting a bit of food and a few hours of sleep so they would be alert when the time came, the time to move in came. Unlike the ninja battles most people pictured, having seen or heard of the titanic battles that took place between the strongest of ninja during times of war or other times of strife, the sort of battles that young ninja aspired to when they saw their first A-Ranked Jutsu at the Academy, there were no large explosions or fancy jutsu. They ran through the town silently, leaving death in their wake, killing mercenaries as they slept in their beds, on bedrolls, and drunkenly passed out in alleys.
They ran silent, deadly, and completely unseen. Rather than being customer pleasers who put on a show that was meant to impress and intimidate whoever may be watching, they were true ninja in every way that night.
Then, somewhere across town, someone screamed...
While ninja ran through the streets of Saida killing mercenaries left and right, Kisame and Itachi stood outside of Kumogakure after having rather swiftly completed the mission to which they had been assigned before Itachi had taken his little detour, and having finally had that long awaited talk that Itachi had been avoiding for nearly two weeks. They had talked for most of the evening after Itachi had finally given in and told him what he'd been avoiding telling him for years, and then a long silence had fallen, probably the longest silence in Kisame's entire life.
"So, let me get this straight." Kisame said, almost wishing he hadn't had that discussion with his partner. "Madara practically forced you to join the Akatsuki after he helped you kill your entire clan, which you did for Konoha to whom you are still loyal, and that the reason you killed the clan was to protect your little brother because they were all going to be executed for treason because they were planning a coup, and if someone else did it, your brother would have been killed as well?"
"That's pretty much sums it up, yes." Itachi replied in that same emotionless tone he almost always used, the same tone in which he'd narrated a tale of what could be considered treachery to the cause that he'd apparently never supported in the first place.
"You know, I think I liked it better when you were quiet about your past so you wouldn't have to lie to me." Kisame said as he started walking down the road they had been standing in the middle of when Itachi had finally given in and talked, unsure of what to think or feel about his partner who was still something approaching a friend at the moment.
Hey, at least Itachi was honest.