~A/N: I'm back! As promised :) I know it seems like there hasn't been a whole lot going on lately (and if you don't think that, then yay!) but as far as the action goes, we're going to be getting back to it pretty soon. We're coming closer to the end of this little "arc." I think maybe around 5 more chapters. Anyway, enjoy!

Twenty-Seven: Change of Plans

"Two weeks?" Kakashi asked.

"Two weeks."

"And Kaoru told you this himself?"

Sakura nodded.

"And he didn't seems suspicious?"

"I don't think he would have given me that information if he thought I was a traitor."

Kakashi frowned. "You'd be surprised. He could be trying to bait us into coming out in the open."

She shook her head. "You weren't there, Kakashi. He seemed sort of suspicious at first—I think he thought I had had shinobi training—but once I told him my cover story he seemed to relax. It looks like the doctor family excuse is a common enough one."

"Well, we can't exactly have you disappear now. It would be too suspicious."

"It's just two weeks. You're not usually this cautious. What's with you?"

"I just don't like this mission."

"Why?" Sakura prodded, but Kakashi crossed his arms and refused to elaborate further.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. If you want to be that way, fine. You've been on-edge lately, though. If you ever feel like telling me what's up, I'll be waiting."

"Sakura—" he started, realizing she sounded like she was actually annoyed with him, but she was already gone.

"Wow! It seems like we haven't eaten dinner together in ages!" Akio exclaimed, not wasting any time before starting in on his food. It didn't look particularly appealing to Sakura, but the rest of the boys—minus Isamu—didn't seem phased by it.

"You think it looks like sloppy leftovers from two weeks ago too?" Isamu asked, shooting a knowing glance her way.

Sakura grinned. "You know it."

"I bet they're saving all the good food for when the big shots get here," Akira grumbled, looking down at his dish but eating it anyway.

"Who cares? Let's eat!"

Akira rolled his eyes as his cousin dug in, making a mess of everything in the process. "Maybe this is why we never eat together. No one likes to be around you when you pig out."

Akio said something unintelligible, which caused his cousin to glare and argue back. At that point, Sakura decided she wanted nothing to do with their conversation and turned back to her own meal.

"So they've really been working you hard lately too, huh?" Mitsuo asked, turning his attention toward her.

"Yeah," Sakura sighed, rubbing her forehead. "We've got to prepare for the influx of troops that may or may not be coming to this planning meeting thing."

"Sounds like you don't know much more than the rest of us," Isamu observed.

She shook her head. "Not really. Captain Shiba said that the leaders would all be coming here, but even he didn't know—or didn't say—how many soldiers we should expect. I just hope we have the supplies to treat everyone while they're here."

"I hope so too," Mitsuo said. "There's no telling if our enemy will try to attack while we're all concentrated here."

"For that to happen, the enemy would have to know we're all here," Isamu pointed out.

Mitsuo shrugged. "You know how word travels, even if you try to keep it a secret."

"I suppose you're right. Well Kaiya, you ready to see some action."

"Um, not really. I'd actually prefer it if all of you guys didn't come to see me with gaping holes in your chest," she deadpanned.

"It's not funny," she added, when the boys laughed.

"Ah, you don't need to worry about us," Akio said through a full mouth. "We're fighting gods."

Sakura laughed. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"Hey! We are! We've been training hard every day!"

"Then I guess I have nothing to worry about." Sakura smiled, but secretly she was a bit worried about them. She knew her persona was only for the sake of the mission, but the medic had found herself becoming attached to the four boys. She could almost call them friends, and she wished dearly that they didn't have to be a part of the rebel army.

Sakura kept telling herself not to let it bother her, but it did. What happened if one of them was killed later on? She hadn't meant to get attached, but they were basically her teammates out here, and she felt a little less alone when they were around.

She wanted to talk to Kakashi about it, and thought about bringing it up every time she went to meet him, but she never did. She got the impression that these weren't problems the silver-haired jonin had a lot. Her former sensei was probably better at staying detached from the people he encountered on missions.

"Kaiya?"

"Hm?" she asked, realizing that Akira had asked her a question. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Are you okay?" Mitsuo asked, turning to look at her with a concerned expression on his face. "You've seemed a bit distant ever since we heard about the gathering."

Sakura's gut clenched. She didn't think she'd done anything to arouse their suspicions. They couldn't suspect her, could they?

"Well of course she's off, Mitsuo. She's got to be working like crazy to get ready for that troop influx, right Kaiya?" Akio said, coming quickly to her defense.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Sorry guys, I'm just a bit more tired than usual. I don't get breaks like this often."

Akira chuckled. "Well it's good to know we're not the only ones being overworked. No offense, Kaiya."

"None taken."

"Yeah, well hopefully it all pays off when the leaders come to camp and see how good we all are. Then maybe we'll get to see some action. You know what that means," Mitsuo said.

"More money!" they all chorused, laughing as they downed their beers.

Sakura nodded, a half smiled painted on her face. She brought the drink to her lips, but couldn't bring herself to take a sip. She just kept thinking of all the men that were going to die when she and Kakashi exposed the rebellion's secrets to Sasaki and his men, and wondered how many of them were fighting for ideals and how many were fighting to support their families. She suspected the number was not tipped heavily toward the answer she preferred.

"Guys! Hey guys! Did you hear the news?"

Another recruit—Sakura didn't know his name—came running up to them. The small redhead was waving his arms excitedly, and the medic had to suppress a giggle. The kid did not look like he could be part of an army.

"What is it?" Mitsuo asked, putting down his chopsticks and giving the kid his full attention. Mitsuo was polite like that.

"Apparently things are going to start changing around here," the kid said, sounding a bit more smug now that he knew something the rest of them didn't.

"Changing?" Sakura asked, not liking the direction this was headed. "What's changing? And why?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know. I was just told that that Captain Shiba's finally starting to take charge around here, now that the big shots are coming in."

Akira snorted. "That showoff. He just wants to act all powerful when the commanders get here. I bet he thinks he'll be able to move up a rank or two."

"Of course. It's always about a show of authority with those types," his cousin agreed.

"Who cares? What I want to know is what he's going to do with our camp, and with all of us? I don't like this change thing. Things were running just fine before he showed up," Isamu grumbled.

"Careful," Mitsuo warned. "You probably shouldn't say that too loud."

"Mitsuo's right," Sakura cautioned. "We don't want to draw hostile attention to ourselves."

"What do you have to worry about?" Akio asked. "You're a medic."

"I worry about you idiots!" Sakura hissed, trying to keep her voice down.

The redheaded kid laughed. "Well, whatever. I'm going to tell the next table. I'm sure we'll hear more about it at the meeting tonight."

"Meeting?" Isamu asked.

"You guys really don't know anything, do you?"

The kid had a stupid grin on his face, and even Sakura looked like she wanted to punch it right off him now. But her self-control was better than that. Years of being on the same team as Naruto and Sai had done wonders for learning to control her temper.

"Well are you going to tell us?" Sakura snapped when she realized the dumb kid wasn't going to offer up the information on his own.

"No need to snap," he said haughtily, and Sakura found herself taking very deep and very calming breaths. She was not going to blow her cover by murdering some brat, no matter how annoying he was. "I'll tell you, since you all seem so confused."

This kid made Naruto look like a saint.

"Apparently all the commanders have called a meeting tonight. Everyone's to attend. A special squad will even be taking over on guard duty so all the guards can be there. According to the rumor going around, the commander's supposedly going to relinquish control of this camp, and name Captain Shiba commander."

Five pairs of eyes grew wide as the rebels took in the kid's words.

"I wonder who he had to threaten to make that happen," Isamu muttered.

"He probably just had to ask," Akira snorted. "He did catch that spy, remember?"

"So what?" Akio said. "It's just a spy."

Mitsuo shook his head. "No it was that shinobi from the Hidden Leaf. The one who was a commander in the last Ninja War."

"Okay, so the idiot probably earned his title. Big deal. I agree with Isamu. I don't like him coming here and messing things up. We did just fine without him."

"Yeah, well, I'd watch what you say," the redhead said, sauntering off to tell anyone else he could find his news. "I think Captain Shiba's smarter than he looks. And meaner too."

Sakura thought the kid had a point. She didn't like this sudden power play by Kaoru. Was it completely innocent? Or was the man still sharper than she was giving him credit for?

She wished she had Shikamaru with her. The shadow user would be able to figure out what Kaoru was playing at. There had to be a point to all of this. Kaoru was smart—he wouldn't have caught Kakashi otherwise—so there had to be a reason he wanted to take control of the camp, didn't there? Or maybe he did just want to advance his status in the army before the fighting started.

"Kaiya? Are you all right? You look a little pale? Are you worried about something?"

Mitsuo's concerned face appeared in front of hers, bringing her back to reality.

"No," Sakura lied. "I'm fine. I just got a sudden headache, that's all. It's probably from working with those herbs all day."

"You really shouldn't overwork yourself. I know you're busy with the new troops coming, but you can't heal any of us if you're too worn out yourself. And if you get sick, there's no one to heal you."

"I'll be fine, Mitsuo. I promise. I just think maybe I should go lie down for a bit, before that big meeting that kid was talking about. I wouldn't want to miss it."

"I'll walk you back to your tent," he offered, and seeing no plausible reason to decline him, Sakura grudgingly accepted.

She had been hoping to sneak around and try to find out what was going on, but she would have to make Mitsuo think she went to her tent first. Oh well, she thought. At the most, it would take five minutes for him to leave, and then she could be on her way.

"Thank you for walking me back," she said, once the pair had reached her tent.

Sometimes, if she was working particularly late or early, she slept in the medical tent, but she did have her own sleeping quarters in the residential section of the camp.

"No problem," Mitsuo said. "Will you be alright now? Do you need me to get you anything?"

Sakura shook her head, wishing the blonde would stop fussing. "No. I'm fine, really. I just need to rest a bit and clear my head. I'll meet up with you guys later at the meeting, okay?"

Mitsuo nodded. "Sleep well. I hope you feel better."

"Thanks."

Ten minutes later Sakura had changed into more comfortable clothing and was sneaking out the back flap of her tent, careful not to make a sound. She didn't think anyone was sleeping around her, but she couldn't afford to run into anyone else that would want to walk her somewhere. If she wasn't on a mission, she would have really appreciated the chivalry—there wasn't a lot of it back in Konoha, seeing as she could beat almost every man there in terms of physical strength—but now she didn't have time for it.

Sakura slipped into an alleyway that she'd found was rarely used, and started making her way toward the center of camp. She tried to remain aware of her surroundings, but she found her mind kept slipping back to Kaoru and the mysterious leaders of the rebellion.

She was starting to get the bad feeling about this mission that everyone else seemed to have—Kakashi especially. Sakura frowned, thinking of the silver-haired jonin. He seemed to really hate this mission, and she couldn't figure out why. He hadn't been tortured or even injured when Kaoru had figured out his identity, so Sakura had no ideas as to why he was acting so sulky. She supposed his personality was a part of it.

He'd gotten like that before, when they were all together in Team Seven, and back then she'd just let it go. Back then it never would have upset her that he didn't talk to her, or tell her things, but now that they were ANBU partners, she couldn't deny the fact that she felt closer to him. She knew it was dumb, and he probably didn't feel any different toward her, but she at least had felt like she'd gotten to know her mysterious former sensei a little bit better. After all, they'd spent almost every moment together before she'd infiltrated this base.

And speaking of the base, Sakura had a mission to focus on.

"Fancy seeing you here," a familiar voice said from the shadows, causing Sakura to instantly freeze.

"Captain Shiba?" she asked, thankfully remembering to stay in character.

"Do you want to tell me what you're doing out here all alone, Kaiya?"