The three genin were struggling to stay awake by the time the next team came out to take watch. Gratefully, they handed over the duty and stumbled to their bedrolls.

Just as he was pulling his blanket over himself, eager to bid goodbye to the last of this miserable day, Hazō's attention was caught by a whispered conversation between two chūnin sharing a bedroll a few yards away.

"They wouldn't really send Captain Zabuza after us, would they?" Ueda said fearfully. The man was built like an oxcart — at least six foot eight, massive shoulders, and a chest that Hazō would have had to stretch to reach around. Despite his imposing presence, the chūnin seemed honestly frightened at the thought of the Demon Swordsman coming after them. "I mean...they'd be losing a ton of money taking him off missions, right? And besides, they wouldn't give him permission to go into Fire. It could start a war...right?"

Saito Kaho was the exact opposite of her bedmate's physique: tiny, willowy...a very stupid person might have said 'delicate'. She laughed, running her fingers vigorously through her long black hair to loosen it from its carefully out-the-way battle-ready updo.

"Come on, lover, you know this," she said, combing her fingers through it to get out as many of the snarls as she could. "He's the Captain of the missing-nin hunter squads. He doesn't go on missions, he just collects heads for the bounties. Most missing-nin who last more than ten minutes are big enough news that their home village has a major price on their heads. And no, they wouldn't give him permission to enter Fire, but he'd do it anyway. And the Mizukage knows that, and Captain Zabuza knows that he knows and so on down all the ridiculous numbers of layers those two think at. If Zabuza gets overly enthusiastic chasing a bounty, violates someone else's turf and gets caught at it..well, he can probably just say 'yes, but...missing-nin bounty!' and it's fine."

Whatever the opposite of 'reassured' was, Ueda was that. "But if they didn't buy it, he'd start a war!"

Saito leaned up so that she could kiss him gently. "I love you, ox," she said, cupping his cheek. "But you really need to stop hoping against hope and just accept what is. If Zabuza gets in trouble, the Mizukage can complain that Fire got overly aggressive and killed off a licensed missing-nin hunter in pursuit of his duties. And if Fire gets too snappish about it, the Mizukage can say that Zabuza exceeded his authority and went rogue, disregarding the very strict orders that he'd been given to not violate any other nation's territorial boundaries."

Ueda started to say something else, but Saito silenced him with a kiss, molding her entire body into him in a gesture of love, reassurance, and comfort that lacked lustful fervor only because both parties were too tired and too frightened to do more than wrap themselves around each other and fall into dreams.

Hazō pulled his own blankets up with an unhappy frown; for a moment he worried that he wouldn't be able to sleep with these new concerns chasing themselves around inside his head. Almost before he finished the thought he was tumbling down through layers of dreams into the sodden sleep of a young boy who had been running on the very last dregs of his energy for days.