Twenty-Five: Carrying On

"Are you sure you don't need me to go with you, Kaiya?" Mitsuo asked for at least the third time.

The blonde boy was just trying to be kind, Sakura knew that, but he clearly felt like he had to watch over her like she was his younger sister. It was going to make her mission more difficult if her new friends felt like they had to be with her every minute of every day. Luckily, they had to go through training that she, as a medic, did not, so the kunoichi was able to find some time to sneak around.

"I'm sure. I just need to go out and collect some herbs," Sakura said.

As a medic, Sakura was allowed more freedom than the average recruit, and it had made her life behind enemy lines the past month a lot easier. Not only was she not occupied by the hours of training exercises the others had to go through, but the camp she was stationed at had been sorely lacking in medics. It had taken the leaders just over a week to realize she was the most experienced healer and basically promote her to head medic.

She couldn't have asked for a smoother infiltration.

"Keep your guard up. With infiltration, you never know when someone sharp might come around. You can never assume you're safe. Do that, and you'll end up dead," Kakashi had warned her.

She felt a small pang of loneliness when she thought of her silver-haired ANBU partner. Since he had no reason to keep his disguise up, he'd been able to let the dye wash out of his hair. Sakura, unfortunately, had to keep sneaking away to make sure her hair didn't go back to its signature pink.

She wondered how Kakashi was doing. At first she thought he'd be bored—camping outside the barrier, while only seeing her once a week—but then she had found him absorbed in his Icha Icha, with the ninken spread out all around him, and Sakura knew he would be fine.

She still missed him, though. The kunoichi had grown used to having him around, and after living together for almost two months, it felt somewhat strange to be apart. She wondered if all ANBU teams felt like this, or if she and Kakashi had a special connection, because he'd been her teacher and teammate before.

"Well, if you're sure you'll be okay," Mitsuo said, dragging her from her thoughts. "You never know if there could be enemies out there, or bandits."

"My brother taught me basic self-defense," Sakura protested, still annoyed that she had to act like an incompetent fighter. The looks she got from some of the men were bad enough, and if it hadn't been for Mitsuo and the others looking out for her like protective older brothers, she probably would have lost her cool and pounded someone into the ground by now.

"Ah, relax Mitsuo," Akio said, rolling his eyes. "We all know you've got a crush on Kaiya, but—"

"What?" Mitsuo stammered, blushing slightly. "I don't have a crush on Kaiya!"

"Aw, come on—"

"Cut it out, Akio," his cousin groaned. "Quit trying to stir up drama. I know you want to see some action, but this is ridiculous. What are you, twelve?"

Sakura laughed nervously, her face coming close to matching her red hair. "Look, I'll be okay. It's not like I'm going that far from camp to get the herbs. I'll see you guys later, okay?"

Isamu looked up from his food. He was the only one to hear her, as Mitsuo and the cousins were still arguing.

"See you later," he nodded, looking back to his food.

Sakura walked easily through the camp. After a month of treating their various scrapes and bruises—as well as the occasional serious injury—she had earned the respect of almost all the men and women stationed there.

"Heading out to get supplies, Kaiya?" the guard asked as she approached the edge of the barrier.

"Yes, sir!" she said brightly—another part of her character. "We're running low on a lot of herbs."

"Looks like we need to tell the men to stop injuring themselves, eh?" he laughed.

Sakura joined in. "If you think of a way to make that work, be sure to let me know."

"Holler if you need anything," the guard said, watching as Sakura nodded before slipping carefully through the barrier and heading out to gather her herbs.

Sakura kept her guard up even after she left the restrictions of the barrier behind. The rebels trusted her, and had to reason to suspect their top medic was doing anything other than what she said, but Sakura had taken Kakashi's advice to heart. The last thing she wanted to do was blow her cover by bringing a horde of angry rebels to her meeting place with Kakashi.

She and Kakashi had been secretly meeting up once a week, under the pretense of her gathering herbs and various other medical supplies. In reality, Kakashi had everything already prepared for her, and they spent the hour going over anything new either of them had learned.

Kakashi occasionally ventured out and spoke with travelers, but he never wanted to be gone long in case something happened and Sakura needed backup. She had assured him that she would be fine, but he wasn't willing to take any risks after he had nearly been killed twice. He hoped Tsunade was getting a good paycheck from this mission, one he hoped would translate into a nice bonus for himself—not that he needed the money.

When she was certain no one had followed her, Sakura whistled softly, and Kakashi appeared from behind a tree.

"You look exhausted," was the first thing he said.

"Thanks," she muttered dryly.

"Did you sleep last night? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but no, I didn't get much sleep last night. Stupid recruits with their stupid training injuries. I swear, it's like treating genin all over again!"

Kakashi laughed, and despite her tiredness, Sakura found herself joining in.

"Now you know how I felt about you three," Kakashi said, taking a seat and relaxing against a large boulder. Sakura followed suit, sliding down next to him.

"I'm pretty sure it was mainly Sasuke and Naruto that got injured from the training."

Kakashi's dark eye glimmered as he looked down at her. "If I remember correctly, you came crying to me with your fair share of scraped knees."

Sakura wanted to burry her head in embarrassment. She had been such a wimp when she was younger.

"I try to forget about that stage of my life," she grumbled.

Kakashi smiled. "I found it sort of cute."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Great. Because that's what every ninja wants to be called. Cute."

He reached out to ruffle her hair. "So did you find anything out?"

She groaned. "Nothing. I'm beginning to think I got stuck in the reject camp."

"Cheer up," Kakashi said, noticing her glum expression. "You're too good of a medic to keep out of action for long. If nothing happens here, they'll move you to where there is something going on."

"Yeah, I guess. What about you, anything?"

"Hm, well, in the latest volume of Icha Icha, the busty blonde protagonist—"

"Ew, okay, never mind. Forget I asked. I do not want to hear the intimate details of Master Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade's sex life. You know, just because she finally agreed to go out with him doesn't mean that pervert needed to write about it in his books. I don't know how you can read that. Hey, what's wrong?" The Copy Ninja had gotten a funny look on his face. "Kakashi?"

"I've…never really thought about it like that," he said, suddenly looking at his precious porn book like it would never be the same again.

"Oh, well, sorry I ruined it for you," Sakura said, but Kakashi didn't think she sounded all that upset about it.

"Right. Well, I guess that's that, then. You should try to get a bit of sleep. You've still got about an hour before you have to head back."

Sakura yawned, emerald eyes fluttering closed. "Yeah, I guess I do. Hm, a nap does sound nice."

She was already asleep when her head lay back against the hard stone. Unwaking, she grimaced and rolled her head to the side, leaning gently against Kakashi's arm. The Copy Ninja stiffened, but Sakura seemed to relax, so he wasn't about to disturb her. Instead, he shifted slightly, adjusting his body so she could rest more comfortably.

He knew Sakura was stretching herself thin, between taking care of the injured all day, and then turning around and spying once night fell. He didn't blame her for sleeping when she could. Kakashi also doubted that she allowed herself to sleep this deeply, even in her own tent.

He brushed a wayward strand of auburn hair out of her face. For an hour, at least, she could sleep carefree. He would watch her back.

"Hey, did you hear the news?" Akio asked the next morning at breakfast.

Sakura yawned, not particularly caring about whatever news he had heard. She'd been out late again the previous night, searching the camp for any sort of battle plans or clues that could help them.

"Some pretty high-ranking people are coming to camp today. Apparently our camp is centrally located in terms of the larger bases, so someone decided they should all stay here. Crazy, huh?"

"Yeah," Sakura whispered, suddenly interested. This could be the break they'd been waiting for.

"Do you know who it is?" Isamu asked.

Akio shook his head. "No. I just overheard some of the instructors talking about it last night, but I don't think I was supposed to, so I didn't ask."

"What if it's Kenji Mizushima?" Akira pondered. "That guy's a legend. Every kid wanted to be him when they were little, even if he was sort of thought of as evil at the time."

"When are they supposed to get here?" Mitsuo asked. "I haven't seen anyone making any sort of preparations. You didn't hear anything about this, did you Kaiya?"

Sakura shook her head. To be honest, she was a bit surprised she hadn't been warned there would be more soldiers coming. As a medic, she needed to be prepared. But, it would work out in her favor in the end, because she could use the new arrivals as an excuse to go out and meet Kakashi.

"Weird." Isamu shrugged.

Just as they were going to put their plates away and go about their respective days, they heard a commotion coming from the entrance to camp.

"Well," Akira muttered, "I suppose that answers that question. Come on, let's go see who it is."

The group hurried to where the noise was coming from. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to have the same idea.

"I can't see," Akio complained.

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was shorter than average in height for a man, but she was a bit shorter than average for a woman, so there was no way she could. Isamu and Mitsuo, however, were on the taller side—Isamu was taller than even Kakashi—so they at least, could explain what was going on.

"I don't think it's anyone famous," Mitsuo said, scanning the new arrivals. "The captain's a blonde guy, but I don't know him. It looks like his second-in-command has brownish hair? Ring any bells?"

They all shook their heads. Brown and blonde hair were about as common as it came in the Land of Silver. Even Sakura's auburn wasn't all that strange.

"Oi! You recruits, quit staring! Don't you have duties to attend to?" one of the instructors snapped at the growing crowd.

The onlookers all scattered, not wanting to get stuck with cleaning duty or any other sort of punishment, Sakura and her group included.

"I guess we'll see you later then, Kaiya," Mitsuo said, waving as they parted ways. The boys headed to training, while Sakura made her way to the medical tent.

"If they tell you anything, be sure to let us know!" Akio added.

"Okay, I will," Sakura said.

One way or another, she was going to find out who those people were and why they were here. She wasn't going to squander the only good opportunity she'd come across since this mission started.

"Oh, Kaiya. Good, you're here. There's someone I'd like you to meet. This is the captain of the third regiment," Sakura's commander said, moving out of the way so she could get a good look at the blonde man from earlier.

Third regiment. Sakura played it over in her mind as the blonde man stepped forward. Why did the third regiment sound familiar to her? Was that where Isamu's brother was stationed? She cursed her slow mind. She knew someone had mentioned the third regiment to her before.

"So you're the top medic here?"

"Yes, sir," Sakura nodded.

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Kaoru Shiba."