Secrets of The Hidden

Chapter 3

Weakness

Zukawa rose early from a dreamless sleep. The sun was just starting to rise above the trees and it seemed to make them glow. The air was cool and the birds were up and about chirping to their hearts content. This was Zukawa's favorite time of day. The time when everything was quiet and she could enjoy the world in peace without anyone disturbing the beauty and silence with their chatter or busy work.

After she cleaned herself up and got dressed Zukawa walked over to the small kitchen area of the apartment space that was temporarily hers. There was a little food in the cupboards and in the fridge. Her guess was that someone came in earlier and left the food items there for her use. She grabbed some fruit and poured some milk into a glass and then walked over to the small table and proceeded to enjoy her breakfast.

She was almost finished when she tensed up a little bit. She sensed movement on the other side of the door. She almost grabbed a kunai out of her utility pouch but then suddenly remembered the ANBU officers that were supposed to guard her, took away all of her weapons. Heh As if I would try to escape. She thought. That would draw a little too much attention to myself She stood up and started to clean up her mess. All I have to do is get in do my job and get out. She was wiping off the crumbs from the table. But already I'm being watched. This is not good.

She heard more movement and then one of the officers lightly knocked on the door.

"Its open." She said.

Two ANBU members opened the door and walked inside the small living space.

"You left the door unlocked?" one of them asked.

"Well I wouldn't want you all to go to the trouble of having to pick the lock in case I got into trouble." Zukawa said with a sly smile.

"Okay well then are you ready to go? We were instructed to take you to the training grounds at six o'clock."

"Yes I'm ready." She replied. "Now lets go." She led the way out of the building.

All three members of team seven were present at training ground three at six o'clock sharp. Naruto was the last to arrive naturally. He still had a sleepy look on his face and was mumbling random things about ramen as he approached Sasuke and Sakura.

"Aaaahhh….Good morning…Sakura." He was having trouble putting together complete sentences.

"Mmhmm…" Sakura mumbled.

Long moments passed as they all waited for their lazy sensei and this stranger to show up so they could start training. Sasuke stared blankly at the forest while Sakura stared longingly at him. Naruto was teetering back and fourth on his feet and almost fell a few times. Nobody said anything. All there was was the pleasant chirping of the birds and the whistle of the wind.

Just then all three heard footsteps steadily approaching them. Naruto and Sakura snapped out of their stupor and Sasuke tensed up, not knowing what to expect. Soon three figures came into view and as the three came closer they could see that there were two ANBU officers and one beautiful woman.

The group walked up to the three genin and the woman was the first to speak.

"Well you three are here but where is your sensei?" she asked giving them a cold stare

"He's known for being late." Answered Sasuke ,returning her gaze with coldness of his own.

"Great." The woman said under her breath.

More long moments passed and there was more silence. Naruto would occasionally look back and fourth at the ANBU members and the scary woman who was to help with their training. It was like he was scared to say anything for fear of what they might do. Normally he would say whatever he wanted without fear of the concequences.

After minutes that seemed like hours Kakashi at last showed up.

"FINALLY!!!" both Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison. "YOU'RE LATE!!!"

Kakashi very casually looked at his watch "By only…Four minutes." They all gave him blank stares. "Not nearly as late as usual."

Sakura and Naruto were silent after that. Then Kakashi turned to face the two ANBU.

"So will you be joining us for our training?" he asked casually.

"No for now she is your responsibility." Replied one of the officers "But rest assured that we will be near by if she gets out of hand."

"Understood."

"I'm not a dog you know." Zukawa suddenly said. "I don't have to be treated like some animal that could break loose." She glared at her two guards. All they did was simply sigh and disappear to some unknown place. And it was silent once again.

"So sensei what do you have planned for us today?" Said Naruto, breaking the silence.

"Well actually I thought that our guest would lead your training today."

Naruto's face fell and he turned to look at the woman who scared the heck out of him. She was looking of into the forest but then turned to match his stare. A small, sly smile crossed her lips and a somewhat mischevious gleam could be seen in her lavender eye's.

"Well that's just code for 'I'm too lazy to do it myself.'" She said "But I'm up for a challenge." She peered Sasuke's way now.

"Great so were in agreement then." Kakashi said. He rubbed the back of his head and he smiled a smile that could not be seen because of his mask. "So then I guess you better meet everyone." He turned to face the first of his students "Now this pink haired one is Sakura Haruno. She is the most intelligent of the group. Then we have the number one loudmouth ninja Naruto Uzumaki. "

Naruto then opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when Sakura covered his mouth and whispered something threatening in his ear.

"I'm not sure if he has any really special talents but he…well...I guess you will see soon enough." Kakashi continued in a quiet voice. "And then last we have Sasuke Uchiha, the only survivor of his clan." Kakashi peered in Sasuke's direction to see him in the same bored stance as always. "I'm actually quite proud of him. Not too long ago he was finally able to activate his sharingan. It's an eye technique that-"

"I know what it does." Zukawa cut him off. "So we have an Uchiha eh? This is going to be very interesting."

After all introductions were complete she looked each of them in the eye. None of them moved, blinked, or even breathed.

"You will refer to me as Zukawa-sensei." She finally said. "Anyone who does so otherwise will be punished."

Naruto cringed at her words.

"You will follow my instructions with no questions asked. If you fail to complete a task that I have asked of you, you will also be punished."

Silence and blank stares followed her words.

"Hey lady…I mean Zukawa-sensei." Naruto started "We aren't little-"

Zukawa cut off the blonde ninja with yet another cold stare and he froze.

"O-okay okay…" he said.

Zukawa let out a short sigh before continuing. "Because today is our first day together I would like to test your strength and see exactly what I'm working with." She pointed towards the forest. "Move over there."

Sasuke led the group into a little meadow in the middle of the tree's. The three genin and Kakashi awaited more instructions.

"So what are we going to do Sensei?" Sakura asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Play Hide and seek." Replied Zukawa.

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled "SENSEI WE ARENT LITTLE KIDS! WHT ARE WE PLAYING THESE STUPID GAMES FOR?!"

"For someone who considers himself a grown up ninja your behavior says differently." her words were cold and final. No one dared question her and Naruto shut his mouth immediately. "This is a part of your training. Kakashi and I will both hide in the forest and your job is to find us. It's that simple."

"Wait a second." Sasuke said. "All we have to do is find you? There has to be a catch or it would be too easy."

"Yeah Sasuke's right!" Sakura chimed in "What's the catch?"

"Well I guess it would be too easy. I mean after all you are genin." Zukawa said in sarcasm. "If you want to make it more difficult then you have to find us and try to at least put a scratch on us."

"Which would mean that we have to fight?" Sasuke said. Clearly he thought that this would be easy.

"Yes it would."

"Yes! This is gonna be fun!" Naruto cheered.

"Okay then." Zukawa turned to Kakashi. "Lets go." And with that both sensei's disappeared and were now running through the tree's. "Do not go easy on them." She said once she was sure no one would hear them. "But be sure not to kill them."

"Yes I understand." Kakashi replied.

Several minutes later both Kakashi and Zukawa were very well hidden. All they could do now was wait to be found and fight if they had too.

As Kakashi was sitting at the top of a very large tree he thought over the current situation. He was surprised by the harshness of Zukawa's words not only to his students but also to himself. "Don't go easy on them. But be sure not to kill them." What had she meant by that? Of course he would never kill his own subordinates. What kind of village did she live in anyway? He now feared the kind of things that she was planning. But now was not the right place to ponder on such thoughts because someone was coming.

From atop the tree Kakashi could clearly see the pink haired figure of Sakura. She stopped right where she was and looked around her. An unsure look was present on her face. It was like she had no clue what to do. She jumped up into the same tree that Kakashi was positioned in.Then she placed herself on a large branch and started scanning the area.

She turned around to face the opposite direction. She still had the same look on her face as she looked all around her for any race of the two senseis. She decided to jump up to a higher spot in the tree to get a better view. "Ugh where the heck are they?" she whispered to herself." Kakashi was watching her every move. She was standing on a branch not so far from his. And from where she stood it was possible that he could be found even if he was using an illusionary technique. After all she was a genjutsu type and was smart enough to tell if she was being tricked with such a technique.

Just then they heard Naruto yelling. Obviously he had found Zukawa.

Once Sakura heard Naruto's yelling she turned around quickly and was about to run in the direction of the sound. But then she seemed to notice something. Crap I've been foundThought Kakashi. Sakura stared more intently in Kakashi's direction while she crept slowly up the tree. Then her face was serious and she instantly threw a Kunai at her sensei.

Kakashi dodged her attack and threw a few kunai's of his own revealing where he was hidden. She jumped out of his way and grabbed a few shuriken but had no chance to throw them. Kakashi had run up to her and kicked at her legs causing her to loose balance and fall out of the tree.

Sakura did manage to land on her feet but was barely able to contemplate what to do next, her sensei was just too fast. He threw more kunai at her and ran up to her attempting a punch but she was able to dodge it. She held a single kunai in her hands and clutched it harder and harder with each passing second as if it would save her.

But she could not just dodge forever. Eventually Kakashi landed a punch square in the chest causing her to fall to the ground with a thud and she yelped in pain.

While the silver haired shinobi towered over his female student a loud cry came from behind him.

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled. "Don't worry I'll save you!"

Naruto ran straight forward at his sensei. He pulled out a kunai and it seemed like he was actually going to attempt a full frontal attack. He let out a loud battle cry as Kakashi turned around to block his opponent. Once Naruto got close enough to actually throw a punch he suddenly jumped over Kakashi's head trying to land on the other side in front of Sakura. But the blonde ninja's attempts were futile because as soon as Naruto was overhead all Kakashi had to do was stretch his arm up and punch his student right in the stomach. Naruto gasped desperately for air as he fell solidly to the ground.

"Kakashi- sensei!" Sakura screamed "Why are you attacking us so hard?!" She crawled over to where Naruto lay. Even after taking such a hard punch he could still manage to sit up. "You could have seriously injured him!"

"I'm just following orders." Was his reply

Just then Sasuke came flying through the tree's. It seemed like he had also been hit pretty hard. But he hadn't just been punched. It looked like he had also been burned. His body crashed to the ground and dust flew everywhere. Not even a second later Zukawa came striding in towards them.

Sakura looked horrified at the battered form of her beloved Sasuke. She immediately left Naruto's side and went over to Sasuke to try to help him up. His clothes were singed and there was a large hole in the middle of his shirt that revealed a terrible burn scar.

"Zukawa-sensei!" she screamed "What have you done to Sasuke!" Kakashi noticed that tears were forming in the kunochi's eye's.

"Something he could have prevented if he were a better ninja." Zukawa replied.

Naruto was standing up now. And he had his special determined look plastered all over his face. Then he preformed several hand signs and in a puff of smoke there were many shadow clones of him-self standing behind him, each wielding kunai in their hands.

"Alright let's go!" Naruto yelled and all of his clones charged right at Zukawa.

The red head didn't even flinch when she saw all of the Naruto's charging after her. But once they got close enough she raised her leg up and it looked as if fire was emitting from it. In one fluid motion she did a graceful spin kick that in mere moments destroyed all of Naruto's clones.

Naruto stood there stunned and Kakashi couldn't believe it either. What kind of technique was that anyway? She didn't even use any hand sign's.

Now Sasuke was standing with Sakura right beside him. She was trying to convince him that it would be best if he lay down because of his injuries. But of course the proud Uchiha would not listen. Kakashi saw it in his student's eye's that all he wanted was to defeat the woman who had the nerve who insult his abilities as a ninja.

"Let me at her." Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

Under any normal circumstance Kakashi would be reading his book. But he was given instructions to keep an eye on the mysterious kunochi. So far she hadn't done anything that would cause alarm. After all a fight like this would still be considered training, very harsh training but training none the less. He told himself that if the fight went too far then he would have to intervene. But he would wait for now. Besides, this was getting interesting.

"If you want to fight, then come." Zukawa said emotionlessly. She jumped up into one of the trees behind her and motioned for Sasuke to make the first move.

The Uchiha survivor preformed a few hand seals and filled his chest full of air. In an instant he released a giant fireball from his mouth and set the tree completely on fire.It was several minutes before the fire had died off and once the smoke had cleared he saw that his opponent had dodged his attack.

"Nice try." A voice said from behind him. Zukawa did not seem tobe slightly burned by his grand fireball attack and she was about to give an attack of her own. Sakura quickly jumped out of the way as Zukawa threw at him several balls of fire that formed in the palm of her hand. He was unable to dodge because they were incredibly fast. He got burned once again but he would refuse defeat. He got up again only to be met by a stone hard punch from his attacker. After this he could take no more as he fell to the ground unable to get up.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled. She started to run to her crush's side but was stopped by Zukawa's outstretched arm.

"You can't help him." She said. "What could you do but simply hold his hand while he writhes in pain? You're too weak." Her face was cold and her voice void of any emotion. "Your all weak." She walked over to Sasuke and kicked his side. "Especially, you. And you're supposed to be an Uchiha."

"Hey sensei!" naruto yelled. "Why do you have to be so harsh!?"

His words seemed to set something off in Zukawa's demeanor because she now looked extremely angry. Her fists started to clench and her eye's were wide with rage. Kakashi stepped forward a bit to be cautious. This is what he had feared would happen.

"Harsh?" Zukawa said out loud. "You think I'm…harsh?" She slowly rose up her right arm and started to take of the long brown glove that she wore. "I'll show you harsh!!"

A/N: YYAAAAAYYY!! I finally have chapter 3 out! Sorry it took so long! Hopefully that wont happen again but no promises. I'm the type of person who has to be inspired to write or else the story is no good. I hope you enjoyed and I apologize for any grammar/spelling mistakes if there are any. I would love some feeback so if you would please reveiw. My only worry for this chapter is that Kakashi is out of charicter because if he is then tell me and I will definatly fix it in coming chapters! Also I will put links to pictures of Zukawa (or what I think she looks like) up on my profile if you want to see. Thank you so much for reading! Later! XP