__Sara Pov__

The night at the hospital was the most boring thing ever. I sat with my team while I mended my clothes and worked on the bow. They chattered on about nothing until it was finally time for them to leave, for which I was thankful.

I was still working on the bow, it was half done by now and I hoped that I could use it soon. This one took so much longer to make, but I was going for quality. I wanted a bow that could last for at least a year. The one I made on the road with the kids had been a temporary affair from the start, and though I could just replace the bowstring it wouldn't last much longer than a month.

When I had gone to sleep in the hospital I had expected more dreams like the one I had when I took the nap earlier. Whether it was lucky or unlucky I had no such dreams and spent the night dreamless.

The dream from earlier had faded almost completely now, and what I did remember was hazy and most likely unaccurate. I don't know why I held onto the dream so much, but the feeling that it was important stayed so I didn't let it drift off.

Right now I was leaving the hospital, hopefully to never be admitted again, and heading to the house. When I got there I noticed the yard had been cleaned and there was a tarp stuck over the window I had broken. There was no sign of Kakashi or the kids, so I picked up my gear and left to Gai's team.

The thought of joining up into Gai's team was something I looked upon with trepadition. I knew that they had all been training a year longer than I had, but with him as a teacher... how messed up were they really? Sure they had helped me hide and escape Kakashi, and let me burn his stupid book, but still. All I could hope for was that one of them would be normal.

I arrived at the training grounds they had set for a meeting place, unfortunately it seemed I was early. Surprisingly though, I wasn't the first one there, Lee was. He was currently kicking one of the practice logs and didn't notice when I approached him.

"Hey Lee, it's been a while," I greeted him warmly.

He turned to face me and the look in his eyes brightened considerably. "Sara! It really has been a while! Kakashi didn't kill you after all?" He ran over excited and I was reminded of a puppy that seriously had to pee. His eyes were just so big, I couldn't help the comparison.

"Nah, thanks to you guys I'm still alive," I grinned happily at the memory, "you're here pretty early."

"Of course! I've been here for 4 hours already!" He grinned and gave me a thumbs up like it was comletely normal to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to train before farmers got up to milk cows.

I just stared at him for a while, the bag I had on my back that contained my lunch and half finished bow sliding off my shoulder. Eventually I recovered enough to reply though. "Well with how hard you train, I will probably pale in comparison."

His eyes lit up like a puppy's again, and he turned them on me. "Really? Do you really think so?" He stepped in closer until he was seriously in my personal bubble. I think I can cross him off as being the normal one.

"Uh... sure. I mean if you keep up all that hard work," I grinned at him uneasily and he stood up straight, fire burning in his eyes for a while before he attacked the log with a renewed energy. I let out a noticable sigh of relief.

Of course, that was when Neji decided to show up.

"Hello again Sara, what brings you here?" He asked with his already deep voice. Someone hit puberty early.

"Oh, hey Neji. I think I'll go ahead and explain once everyone gets here." He just nodded at my reply and went to sit under a tree.

I let him walk off and picked my bag back up. Deciding that I could talk to him I went and leaned against the tree next to him.

"So, uh, you aren't going to start training like Lee?" It felt like a safe question to ask, Lee was his teammate after all.

"No, unlike Lee it was my fate to be born with a natural talent as a shinobi. While he will work hard it will always be his destiny to be beneath me. He will struggle to match my skill, but you cannot change destiny. Just like a frog at the bottom of a well will never know the vastness of the sky." He kept going for a while, just talking about destiny and using other strange metaphors. Somewhere in the middle I stood up straight again just staring at him. My bag slowly fell to the ground again when he finished with, "Don't you agree?"

I stared at him a little longer dumbfounded before replying, "Uh... I... I never gave it much thought?"

He didn't reply to that and went silent again. I guess Neji doesn't pass the normal test either. What in the world was with this team? How corrupted could they be?

Tenten finally joined us and came to greet me. "Hey Sara! Haven't seen you in a while, what's up?"

I turned to her with a hollow look in my eyes, I have just about given up on this team being normal at all. I thought I would just get to the point with her. "Tenten, are you at least a normal person?" My voice sounded hollow as well when I asked this, the look on her face said I was scaring the crap out of her.

"I-I would like to think so. Are you alright Sara? You look like a ghost." She reached out hesitantly to me, wondering most likely if I was a ghost.

I was so relieved, no puppy dog early bird and no fate obsessed-ness. She seemed so much more normal than those two. I knew one question that might prove if she was normal, "Do your teammates always act like this?" I whispered at her.

She looked over my head at the duo of weirdness. "Oh, yeah. Lee loves training for some reason, and Neji believes in destiny and whatnot. Aren't they kinda strange?" In those three sentences my faith in this team was restored, at least where Tenten was concerned.

Tears streamed down my face as I tackled her into a hug. "Thank goodness! Someone normal!" She patted my hair like I was insane, but at that moment I really didn't care what she thought. Gai's corruption seemed to only affect boys, and that was a relief.

Speak of the devil, or in this case think of them, for at that moment Gai appeared in the clearing.

"Hello my youthful students!" he bellowed at full volumn. I hid behind Tenten, wary now of his evil weirdness. I wasn't quick enough though, because he spotted me. "Ah! There you are Sara! Are you going to explain to the team why you are actually here?" How was he so cheerful? It wasn't natural!

I didn't let him notice though as I stood up straight again and walked over to stand near him, and by near I mean 5 feet away. He didn't settle for that though and walked over, putting a hand on my shoulder.

After a breif glare at him I turned to my next temporary team. "Yeah, so... I'll be joining you guys for a week, hope we work together well."

I should have known that Neji would go onto some monologue about destiny, but I ignored the entire thing. At the end though Tenten spoke up. "So why are you joining up with our team?" She spoke for the entire team it seemed.

I gave them the short answer and they accepted it. Afterwards Neji spoke up saying:

"So I guess that we'll be training with you today and then going on a mission?" He asked the question like he was talking to me, but looked at Gai for the answer instead.

"That's the idea! Now then, let's all start training!" Gai pumped his fist into the air yelling the last part like a cheer. Lee was the only one who pumped his fist into the air, sending out a cheer of his own. Reluctantly I half lifted my fist, letting out a weak cheer along with Tenten and Neji. Maybe Neji would be somewhat normal, if I got past the whole destiny shpeal.

_-_ .,zZz

Judging on Gai's personality, I already knew the exersizes would be pretty over the top. His excitement about everything was actually pretty annoying though.

"Right! Now then, let's do 500 push-ups!" he declared after we had all finished our last lap, the 50th, around Konoha. By now Neji, Tenten, and I were panting. I guess all of Lee's training paid off as he was still full of energy and let out a cheer, dropping immediately to the ground to start.

We had done exersizes ranging from 300 crunches, to 600 log kicks, to 1000 punches. There were more, with the numbers large enough so it was a struggle to finish them, but not too large that it was impossible.

Gai kept us exersizing until about 1:00, then he said to take a break for lunch. I sank down next to my pack gratefully and opened it up. I pulled out my lunch and opened it to see... a complete mess of food.

"Ugh... it must have gotten ruined because of me dropping my pack so many times." I muttered lowly after my initial groan.

That sparked a thought in me and I hurriedly looked through the pack, making sure the bow was alright. Thankfully it didn't get any damage done, though I would inspect the pieces more later to make sure. I turned back to my lunch and shrugged. It was all ending up in my stomach anyways.

Once we had all finished lunch we went on to practical training. We worked on jutsus and teamwork. I got a feel for the talent that they all had and worked out formations that would work for us. I also used the time to put the final touches on my distance jutsu. Neji and Lee were both close range taijutsu fighters, while Tenten was a mid to long distance fighter with killer accuracy. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her kunai storm.

I had mastered a long range jutsu that Kakashi had taught me for detainment, it was called Doton: Te no Ryuchi no Jutsu. It was an earth style and it created two rock formations that would bind a persons hands apart. It was meant to be used with someone else distracting the opponent at close range and luring their arms into position, I would then begin the jutsu and lock first one hand, then the next.

(AN: Doton: Te no Ryuchi no Jutsu = Earth style: Hand Detainment)

I partnered with Lee to master this, his timing was exceptional and I managed to trap Neji, a somewhat willing dummy, with it. While it usually required two people to be able to use it, Kakashi told me that I could eventually use it on my own while moving the enemy around by myself.

Using the same basic principal, but without Lee distracting I also created four semitriangular walls that would trap the opponent from the neck down. After being encased the earth would expand and cover the inside so that they could no longer move their hands nor any other part of their body. This one I named myself, calling it Doton: 4 Kabe no Hakodzume no Jutsu.

(AN: Doton: 4 Kabe no Hakodzume no Jutsu = Earth style: 4 wall encasement || And yes, I am very literal when I name things)

In all, this training was a huge help, and bore fruit. Gai's style of hard work really wasn't all that bad, and certainly wasn't old fashioned. Sure, the new jutsu I created would take some time to get used to, but in a day I could work out how it could be used. Kakashi's teachings and Gai's hard work combined to help on this one.

After jutsu came mock battle. I was paired with Lee while Tenten and Neji were paired against eachother.

Fighting Lee, a complete taijutsu user, was incredibly fun. I hadn't had a straight on battle with no tricks in a long time. I even became lulled into not using any jutsu throughout our entire fight, it felt like poetry. His movement was flawless, and to say the least, fast. I would have trouble keeping up at times and he would land a good hit.

What impressed me more was that he treated me like any other ninja. He didn't have the sexist opinion that girls were weaker than him and came at me full strength. Even Sasuke, known for not holding back, did so. He just did it so that nobody would notice. All the genin I had fought so far that were male underestimated me, except Lee.

Still, there were moments during the fight when I would take a glance over at Neji and Tenten's fight. Nothing ever seemed to change though. It looked like they just repeated the same jutsus over and over, using the chance to perfect them. Tenten would launch kunais and other weapons at Neji and he would just send them spinning away with his rotation. It was a boring match, maybe if Tenten just stopped with launching kunai it would be different. Though going after Neji, even with a weapon, in close combat would be difficult. His use of the byakugan and gentle fist was spot on. It would still be good training for Tenten though, even though she just provided backup.

Eventually Gai called an end to the fights though. It was a little past 7 now and he told us to meet up in front of the Hokage's office bright and early the next morning. I have a feeling his idea of early would be darker though and expected us to be there before sunrise, which just wasn't going to happen.

Forgetting that I should probably go and speak with the Hokage about the three men that had attacked Ayaka, probably aiming for me, I went straight home. I was tired beyond belief, and after making sure that the kids were alright I dropped into bed. My head hadn't even hit the pillow before I was asleep.

_-_(<<doesn't that look like an upside down sleepy face?)

When I awoke the next morning it was from another of those weird dreams. This one faded even faster than the first though and before I knew it, the memory was completely gone. Still, I was a little shaken.

Looking out the window in our room (the unbroken one because the broken one had a tarp on it) I saw that it was an hour or so before sunrise. Knowing that I couldn't sleep anymore after waking up from the dream I shuffled around the room quietly, wary of waking Ayaka. I got ready in a half hour and went down to the kitchen to get some breakfast. This consisted of 3 hard boiled eggs I had made when I got back from the mission with Kurenai and a thing of grapes. I left a note for Kakashi and walked out the front door.

I wasted 15 minutes walking around the deserted streets of a sleeping Konoha. It seemed to desolate without the bustle from all its inhabitants. I passed a bakery on my path and smelt the heavenly smell of fresh baked bread. Seeing the lights on I knocked lightly on the back door. It was opened shortly to reveal a young woman, no older than 25 wearing a light blue apron dusted with flour. She had deep brown eyes that held an unmistakable light of humor and her auburn hair was pulled up into a high ponytail.

"Hello there, I'm sorry, but we don't open for another half hour," She smiled at me politely.

"I had figured, but I'm going on a mission and was wondering if I could buy some bread. I was passing by on my way to meet my team and smelt it," I explained.

She nodded her understanding, "Well, I suppose you could buy some, one loaf hot from the oven will be 5 dollars."

"Thank you so much, could I get two loaves then? I'm Sara, what is your name?" I inquired politely.

"I'm Mayu, I'll go and get your bread right away," She bustled off into the kitchen and I stood on the door for about 10 minutes before she returned. "Here you are Sara." I took the two loaves and passed her the money.

"Wow, did you just pull these out of the oven?" I looked at her in surprise.

"I thought you would appreciate it more, it's a cold morning after all." She smiled at me warmly.

"Again, thank you. Sorry for the bother." I smiled back.

"Not a problem, please, stop by again."

"I most definitely will." with that we parted ways and holding one loaf in my hands I stowed the other in my pack. I ripped off a chunk of the bread and bit into it, relishing in the warmth. The flavor was amazing, and I could detect a hint of cinnamon. It was wonderful.

I saved about 3/4 of the loaf to share with my team and went over to the meeting place. Lee and Gai were already there, as expected.

"Sara! It's good to see you come so early! Your youth is almost overwhelming!" Gai shouted in greeting.

"Indeed Gai-sensei!" Lee agreed with him, also yelling.

I broke through the conversation, not willing to go along, "Do you guys want some bread? I picked up from a bakery on the way here." I held out the loaf and both of them ripped a chunk off. Upon tasting the bread they went off on how good it was and the youth of it. They were so weird.

A few minutes later Tenten and Neji walked up together, I held out the loaf and they split the rest of it in half.

For some reason they all freaked out over it together after that while I just stood to the side sweatdropping. Were they all serious? Sure, the bread was delicious but... Was it just the morning or something?

After some time I cut into their amazement, "Can we get going to the mission office now?" I was ignored. "Hey, can we go?" I said a little louder, I was again, ignored. By now I was getting slightly irritated. "Are we done here?!" I questioned even louder. Guess what? I was ignored. Full on irritated at this point I hit them all on the top of their heads, they fell to the ground and looked up at me in shock holding where I had hit them. "For the fourth time, are we done here? Can we go?" I spoke in a tense, irate voice. All of them nodded hastily, with the looks on their faces it was hard not to laugh. Instead I turned away and cracked a smile, "then let's go."

Gai and Lee recovered their energy and ran off ahead of us. I watched them go and just sighed.

"What's up Sara?" Tenten asked, mistaking my sigh for being depressed or something.

"What? Nothing, it's just that Gai and Lee are... eccentric? They're worse than Naruto sometimes."

She smiled knowingly, "yeah, but you get used to it."

I looked over at her, "well unlike you though, I have a choice." She grimaced in agreement.

Neji piped up, muttering something like, "birds of a feather."

I caught it and finished the statement, "flock together."

Neji's eyes widened slightly in shock, but he got over it quickly and turned away. Tenten just giggled a little. Neji was kinda childish just then, it was funny.

_-_

A while later we caught up with Gai and his miniture replica at the mission office. They had just opened when we entered the room. Unsurprisingly, the people weren't surprised.

"Hello team Gai," one of them greeted monotonely.

"Good morning! Team Gai reporting for their mission!" He greeted cheerfully, saluting. Lee followed his example and saluted as well. The three of us just sighed.

"Right," they were obviously used to Gai by now, they didn't even react to that. "For your mission you will be..." He shuffled through some papers, "detaining a group of bandits. They are located on a road northwest of here in a valley. We want you to capture them and bring them back to Konoha."

Gai walked up and took the paperwork for the mission. He saluted and we all walked out the door together.

"Well then! Let's get going right away! How about we see if we can do it in 1 day instead of 3?!" Gai suggested.

"Gai-sensei! That's impos-" Tenten was cut off by Lee.

"Good thinking Gai-sensei! In fact I think we could do it in a half day!"

They were idiots. Strong idiots, but idiots nontheless. We headed through the village at a run and once out of the gates took to the trees. We traveled through to lunch, keeping the same pace.

When I took out the second loaf of bread all of their eyes lit up. I looked them over and let out a small sigh. I ripped the loaf into five equal pieces and handed them out. They ate their packed lunches first before their bread. When they bit into the bread their fawning started all over again.

I watched them for a while, sweatdropping. Eventually though I broke in.

"Hey," I was shocked when they all shut up and backed away quickly. It took me a moment before, "I WASN'T GOING TO HIT YOU!" They looked releived and turned back to me.

"What is it Sara?" Neji questioned.

"I was wondering if I could see the mission plan," I turned to Gai as I spoke. He nodded and held it out to me, no questions asked.

"Why do you want to see the mission plan Sara?" Tenten asked.

"Oh, I wanted to come up with a plan of my own and talk it over with Gai," I answered distractedly already coming up with formations and ways to go about this. Gai's answer was almost like a full on fight. He really was pretty straight forward.

"Why would you allow Sara to help come up with a battle plan Gai-sensei?" Tenten turned to their teacher. They had some discussion about me, but I really didn't care. They would probably talk about me either way.

Eventually Gai called an end to the break and we packed up again. It took us the rest of the day to find and track the bandits, when we finally found them we set up camp about a mile away from them.

After a cold meal, afraid that the light of the fire would give us away, we all sat down to discuss battle stratigies.

Gai spoke first, "Well then Sara, you've seen my plan, but I want your thoughts on this."

"Right then, listen carefully to what I have planned. Our goal is to detain these men, not kill. It will be a little more difficult, but we also have to make sure that they don't escape, otherwise they could start up again.

"The idea is simple actually, but if anything goes wrong it will turn into a fight. I'm going to explain it in the case that everything will go as planned. First off, they're pretty smart at what they're doing so they are likely to place senetries. From our intel there are about 50 men, using that we can assume with the usual 4 hour shifts that there will be about 10-15 senetries at any given time. This is the first hurdle." I drew out a plan of the camp from memory when we first discovered it.

"Now then, the question is how to eliminate the senetries without killing them or alerting anyone else. Stealth and speed will be key here. Gai and Lee fight mainly with taijutsu, but this will cause to much noise in this case. Tenten, your use of weapons is good as well, but since we can't kill it isn't a good option either. However, Neji using his byakugan can see chakra points. With him he can sneak up on each gaurd and hit one, knocking them unconcious, correct?" I turned to him for the answer and he nodded, and I crossed off the circles that represented senetries, "Good. You'll need a partner for this however, because I plan to have you strike during the last 30 minutes of their time. This way they will be tired and thinking of a nice warm blanket and a few hours sleep. You won't make it in time alone.

"I'll help out on this. Sneaking up on your own is difficult, but if I make just enough noise that they'll come to investigate, but not enough to raise the alarm, you can move more freely and therefore more quickly." I looked at all of them and they nodded their understanding.

"What do we do after that?" Tenten asked for the group.

"After that it is a matter of speed. We still need to be quiet, but not as much as before. There will still be at least one man, maybe two, awake to send out the replacement senetries. Once you get the signal from Neji and I, Gai and Lee will take care of him. I don't want too much noise either, a grunt is alright at this point, but I don't want any shouts. Quickly and quietly." I paused and crossed off two more circles, "Tenten, how is your aim in the dark?" I questioned quickly.

She responded immediately. "Just as good as during the day, why?"

"Perfect. Once you see Gai give his signal then you will throw kunai out. The goal is to pin clothing here, or trap them under blankets. You want their hands immobile, as well as feet if it can be managed. The regular soldiers won't be in tents, but the command will. Once you're done with that you will help Gai and Lee in tying them up. Neji will already be tying up the senetries we knocked out earlier. While you all focus on them I'll go after the commanders. With a group this size it will most likely be a leader and 2 of his most trusted men. However one will have already been up so he could wake the next round of senetries.

"I'll sneak in and put them under a simple genjutsu that I learned from Kurenai, after that I'll tie them up. From there it's as easy as bringing them back to Konoha." I finished the explination, crossing off each of the circles on the plan.

"Do you have a plan for if it does turn into a fight?" Neji questioned me.

I gave him a sardonic look. "Would I be any sort of tactician if I didn't? Yes, if it turns into a fight then we will keep them in the clearing. Neji, Lee and Gai will be in the midst fighting them while Tenten and I are on the edges of the fight, launching kunai into the legs of anyone who tries to flee."

"Nice plan Sara!" Lee cheered quietly.

"Thank you Lee. The question is, what do you think of it Gai?" We all turned to him for his answer.

It didn't take long, "When do you want to attack?" I smiled at him, anticipating the question.

"Tonight."