(June, year 54 AK)
Shisui had followed the retreating Ao and the other Mist ninjas while keeping his distance and making sure that they would go all the way out from the Land of Fire and to make sure that there wouldn't be any incidents on the border.
Yuta and the rest of the Konoha's response team had moved some distance away from the battlefield and found a cave to rest for the night, since it was already getting dark.
Shninji had treated his own wound on his chest, and it turned out to be not as serious as it looked. Yohei and Isao didn't fight at all so they both were fine, Hikari wasn't injured, just a bit tired and her clothes were all bloody, Itachi was tired but uninjured, and Yuta was very exhausted and his back was still hurting from being hit by a water jutsu before, but there was nothing they could do about that, since none of them was a medical ninja, and as soon as they stopped for the night Yuta immediately went to sleep.
Yuta was so exhausted from the chakra overuse that he was only kept going up until now on his willpower alone, and as soon as there was an opportunity to rest, he dropped to the ground and turned off momentarily, barely able to put his hand under his face in time so he won't be sleeping with his face directly in the dirt.
The idea about distribution of shifts to watch over the camp through the night didn't even enter his mind, and the unprofessional ninja conduct he was displaying right now was the last thing on his mind.
There were some talks going on through the night, but Yuta was asleep, so he didn't overhear anything at all.
...
The next day Yuta woke up from his sleep and slowly sat up, his body felt heavy and each move caused his back to hurt a lot, but it was still bearable, and Yuta slowly looked around the cave.
"Finaly awake?" Hikari said.
Yuta saw Itachi and Hikari sitting not far away.
"How long did I sleep?" Yuta asked, his voice came out rough and quiet.
"It's already afternoon, you had slept for about fifteen hours straight." Hikari said with a smirk, then after a brief pause she continued, "Shinji and the others are on the lookout for Shisui-sensei, he should return any minute now, if everything went smoothly on his end that is."
"It's Shisui-sensei we are talking about, of course everything went smoothly." Yuta responded immediately as a matter of fact.
Yuta looked at Hikari and Itachi more closely, Hikari seemed to have cleaned up her clothes from blood, well, as much as it was possible to do in the field at least, and Itachi seemed fine, but also Yuta felt as if Itachi was quite distant, even more than usual.
'Hm, what's with him, I wonder...' Yuta thought, 'I wish I could just talk to him openly. I did want to end up on his team so I could interact with him more, but in the village he is still constantly under Fugaku's surveillance, and outside of the village there is always Hikari present, and she doesn't know anything about the Uchiha situation and about me and Shisui being working together to deal with it... And even if I could trust her with this, and that's a big "if", dragging her into all this mess doesn't seem right, better to keep her in the dark, at least for the time being.'
After a brief silence, Itachi looked up at Yuta, there was a complicated look in his eyes, as if he was deep in thought about something unpleasant.
"I heard about your fight with the Mist ninjas." Itachi said slowly as he looked at Yuta, "That what you did back there, was that really necessary?"
'Is he referring to me blowing up the four enemy bodies to pieces? Is he judging me for being too cruel or something? I was fighting tooth and nail for my life back there!' Yuta thought with annoyance building up inside him, 'Right, like he is the one to judge...'
...
'Sigh... I keep forgetting that this Itachi is not the same as the one who kills his parents and clan, not yet at least, and not ever, not while I'm here...'
'The original Itachi had lost his teammate with whom he had already forged a bond and become friends, that's how the original Itachi had awakened his Sharingan and started to slowly fall into darkness, that's when he started to dislike his father and to avoid staying at home. Then he becomes a Chunin and joins ANBU, gets brainwashed by Hiruzen and Danzo, get's influenced by Shisui who were overly loyal to the village and who trusted Hiruzen and Danzo, then he forced to spy on his clan, started to despise his clan, and finally, he loses his only remaining friend – Shisui, and that's what had plunged him into the darkness completely and he awakens MS, and only then he gets manipulated by Danzo to slaughter his entire clan...'
'And the most critical event of them all was Shisui's death, and as long as Shisui stays alive – Itachi won't turn dark like his original character in the story did.'
Those thoughts flashed through Yuta's mind as he calmed himself. Itachi's question had stirred more emotions in Yuta than he had expected, as Yuta didn't expect at all to be judged for his excessive cruelty on the battlefield by Itachi of all people...
As Yuta sighed and fully calmed down, he said, "I did everything I could to win that battle, and even then, I only managed to get five out of six enemies, and the sixth one had almost got me."
As Yuta said that, Hikari immediately added with a smirk, "Yea, Itachi, you should've seen his face back then, Yuta was standing completely still and helpless, paralyzed by fear, while that last ninja was walking straight at him to finish him off, the pitiful look on Yuta's face at that moment was priceless!"
Hearing that Yuta's face darkened and he shouted with some anger, "Hey! I wasn't paralyzed by fear, and there was nothing wrong with my face back then either! I was just having my last stand and preparing for my last fight!"
"Yea, sure..." Hikari replied and then started laughing, while Yuta only sighed tiredly, and although he acted annoyed, strangely enough, he felt a little better now, like if the weight of all that bloody visions from his memories became a little bit lighter.
"I see." Itachi said after a few seconds, "I'm sorry I asked that."
After that the silence returned to the cave, but now it felt less cold than before.
After a bit of silence, Hikari's annoying smirk suddenly returned back to her face, and as Yuta was already expecting another mocking remark pointed at him, Hikari said playfully, "Hey, Itachi, how many enemy ninjas did you beat down during the last battle? I had seven myself, and even Yuta had five. How much did you get?"
"Hey, what do you mean by "even Yuta"?" Yuta immediately retorted on autopilot, and only then did he realize that Hikari didn't target him this time with her banter for a change.
"I've got one." Itachi simply responded without much interest.
"Just one, huh, I see..." Hikari commented with a smirk.
"I was fighting the enemy Jonin." Itachi said, a bit of irritation sipped into his voice this time.
"Yea, I saw that..." Hikari said with the same tone, as if implying something.
Itachi turned his head away from Hikari, and Yuta was sure that he heard an almost inaudible "Humph" from him.
'Well, that's new...' Yuta thought as he observed Itachi's pouting with amusement.
...
After about half an hour of waiting, Yuta felt familiar chakra signatures had approached the cave.
Shisui, Shinji, Isao and Yohei entered the cave, Shisui looked over the three Genins and said enthusiastically, "Rested well? Our job here is done, let's return to the village."
"Shisui-sensei, why did you let the last four Mist ninjas go?" Itachi suddenly asked with curiosity as he stood up and faced Shisui.
"Why, you ask... You see, Itachi, our mission was never to eliminate all of the intruders. It was to resolve this situation and to get rid of the threat they represent. It wasn't necessary to kill them to begin with. Now, that the remaining of the Mist ninjas had withdrawn from our land, the mission is complete." Shisui responded, calmly explaining his reasoning to Itachi.
"Then we could've removed the threat even without killing at all?" Itachi followed up with another question.
"It wasn't that simple." Shisui said thoughtfully, "When someone attacks you, you usually don't have the leisure to resolve the situation peacefully. If you hesitate and don't act decisively and quickly, someone that is precious to you might get hurt as a result. Maybe, when you become strong enough, you will be able to resolve such threats without spilling blood, but without the overwhelming strength it is just a wishful thinking that will get your friends killed."
...
"I see." Itachi said slowly as his eyes were unfocused, "So the ultimate peace could only be achieved with overwhelming strength..."
'What "ultimate peace", what is he even talking about? I wonder what is really going on in that head of his...' Yuta thought.
After that, the group led by Shisui had moved out, heading back to the village.
--- AN ---
Schedule update: I decided to stop scheduling chapters to come exactly at 9pm EST, I was trying to schedule it on that time previously because I saw in the metrics that it was the prime time. But from now on I'll post a new chapter as soon as it is ready instead. It will be easier for me and better for the reader since the chapter will come out a bit sooner. So, no more schedule, I'll try to post a new chapter each day, and it'll come at random time instead of 9pm EST now.
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Thanks to Loalola, Jayroy_63, Krishna_Razz, Zen_Slacker, chosen_one, Eyes_Of_The_Void, Elijah_Thomas_1921 for the power stones.