Hideo shook my shoulder to wake me up. I sat up and nodded.

"Nothing to report," he whispered.

I nod and grab my shoes and belt. Shaking the shoes out to ensure nothing crawled in them during the night, and slipping them on. I stood up, putting my belt on and grabbing a blanket from my sleeping bag and wrapping it around my shoulders.

"About thirty paces that way," Hideo pointed to a spot beyond the trees, "is a small hill that will allow you to see a good distance around."

I nod and give him a thumbs up, I'm not awake enough to fully answer him, but thankfully Hideo knows this by now. He waits until I start moving, then I can hear the soft shuffling of him getting his shoes off and slipping into his sleeping bag.

I walked in the direction Hideo pointed and found the small rise. It wasn't high enough that I would be a shadow against the sky, but it was tall enough that I could see outside the oasis. A great place to keep watch. I take my hair down from it's bun and finger brush my hair. I am going to change all my clothes this morning, once I'm finished with this watch. Because we are in an oasis, I might take a washcloth and clean myself up a little bit. I know I won't wash my hair, but it would be nice to wash the sweat off of me. I should have done that last night and I would have, if I didn't fall asleep last night. Making a note to always wash up, no matter how sleepy I am, I continue to scan the area.

Nothing happened when the camp began to wake up. I moved from my area and walked back into camp. I moved over to where our packs were packed and pulled out another set of clothes. I grabbed my washcloth and soap and a brush. Then I moved over to a different part of the oasis where the bushes were a bit taller. I got the washcloth wet, ran the soap across it and washed my face, my arms, under my arms, my lower legs and stomach. As I finished washing a part, I would put on my fresh clothes. I then got the brush wet and ran it through my hair. Then I braided my hair and wrapped it around my head, then I took a couple handfuls of water and dropped them over my head. It is a good way to ensure that my head stays cool, especially since it takes a long time for my hair to dry when it is braided.

I took my stuff back to my pack, resealed them in one of my scrolls, grabbed a different scroll and walked over to the fire that was lit. I pulled out one of the smaller pots I had in my scroll and added some water and waited for it to boil. Then I pulled out a small paper packet and added the contents to the pot, whisking the powder until it was thoroughly mixed together. I then took the pot and poured the contents into four cups. Washing my pot out, resealing it in the scroll, I picked up the cups and walked over to where my team was waking up.

"Here," I handed each member a cup, "this should help you all wake up."

"What is this?" Amagi asked, sticking his nose into the cup to smell the contents.

"Something Mother would make for us when we would be in the caravan, it is a special hot chocolate mix, with herbs to help us keep up our strength and a few extra things, she didn't tell me, but it is one of my favorite things to drink when out in the desert," I finish, trying to figure out if I should continue to explain. Hot chocolate is not something everyone drinks, but it is a family tradition for us so we are used to drinking it.

I watched as my team each took a small sip. I watched as Amagi wrinkled his nose as he tried to figure out what he thought, where Hideo's face lit up and he took another, deeper drink. Baki-sensei looked over at me and grinned.

"I haven't had hot chocolate like this since I was very young, it is just like my mother used to make."

I grinned so large that my cheeks hurt. "I'm glad you like it. I have enough for us to have some every other day that we are supposed to be gone."

"So," Amagi looked at Hideo and grinned, "Tsukio will be taking the third watch every other day, then?"

Hideo laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" I sputtered, "That isn't fair!"

The boys looked at each other and laughed, even Baki-sensei's lips tipped up in a smile.

I took a large gulp of my hot chocolate, and just watched as the boys teased each other.

"Anything to report?" Baki-sensei asked as he stood up and put on his shoes.

"Nothing to report, it was a quiet night. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was that one of the cooks decided to take a swim before anyone else woke up, and one of the other cooks made a bigger than needed fire."

"Those things are probably related," Hideo mused.

I nodded in agreement.

"Assignments for today, Tsukio in the middle, Amagi and Hideo in the front. I want Hideo to start scouting this morning. Remember, we only travel for two hours before breakfast, then five hours only to rest. I want all three of you to put sunscreen on and keep your scarves on the whole time we are traveling."

"Yes Baki-sensei."

"Good, now finish packing up our camp while I go and check in with Daiki and see where he is wanting to stop today."

I set my mug down on the sand and helped the boys pack up our sleeping stuff into our packs. It only took us a couple of minutes. I couldn't help but grin as the boys made sure to drink every drop of their drink. Once we were finished, I walked over to where the coffee was and added some to the hot chocolate in my mug. I had never tried it before, but Father loved to do that. After a drink, I decided that it was something I needed to continue to do.

Shortly after I finished my coffee, the drivers were hooking the beasts up to the wagons and the loud bell rang out. We were off.

I would love to say that guarding a caravan was fun, but really it was a lot of doing the same things over and over again. We woke up, drank tea or coffee and scouted ahead for a couple hours. Then we had a quick breakfast before we moved on again. We would stop for lunch, rest for a couple hours, usually equal to how many hours we moved before breakfast. Finally we would head out on the last leg of the day. It would be the worst scouting time, with the sand being hot and the sun beating down on us, but while uncomfortable, we trained for this, so we just did it.

We followed this same pattern for ten days. On the eleventh day, our boring caravan trip was interrupted.

AN: Hello again! How is everyone today? A shorter chapter, but my poor genin needed a small break. Any guesses as to why? I'm in the process of moving, again, so my updates will be slow, but as long as I have Internet, we should be good. Until next time.