The next day it was time to head out on the mission. Zaria had already gone ahead and secured a path for the rest to travel on. Team seven gathered there things and met back up with team thirteen with the exception of Raiden who was still in the hospital and Zaria. Team seven wasn't aware that Zaria had gone ahead already.
"Where's Zaria?" Sakura asked looking around for Zaria.
"She went ahead and cleared a path for us" Daisuke replied.
"By herself?" Naruto questioned. Both Daisuke and Satoru nodded their heads.
"Zaria may have only just become a chunin but she is claimed to be one of the strongest female ninjas in our village" Satoru commented with a smirk.
"Really?" Sakura questioned.
"Yeah well she comes from an elite clan so it's not that surprising" Satoru stated but then realized that was a bad idea to mention that.
"Elite clan? What clan?" Sasuke asked.
'Seriously they're related and he's the one asking' Satoru said within his thoughts.
"Um she prefers to keep that a secret" Daisuke responded rescuing Satoru.
"Thanks" Satoru whispered to Daisuke. A large shadow of a bird appeared on the ground and everyone looked up at the sky and saw a huge hawk flying above.
"She's back?" Satoru questioned confused to why Zaria came back.
"What is that?" Sakura asked.
"That's Zaria and her hawk" Daisuke replied. "She uses that hawk in order to survey the land from the sky" he continued. Zaria descended down and leaped off of her hawk. The hawk was gone in a puff of smoke.
"You guys didn't even leave yet? I spent like two hours clearing a path for you people!" Zaria said annoyed.
"Calm down Zaria, we were just about to leave" Satoru defended.
"Well lets go then. We're wasting time by just standing here" Zaria said as she turned around and walked away. Daisuke and Satoru both sighed knowing this is was going to be a long mission. They followed Zaria and team seven followed behind. They were now outside the village. Zaria walked in front as if she was the leader. Kakashi watched Zaria from in the back. The little girl he knew as a child wasn't the same girl that stood in front of him today. He was actually impressed with whom she had become.
"What's her deal anyways? She has more of an attitude problem than Sasuke" Naruto questioned.
"Come again?" Sakura growled threatening to hit him.
"uh I didn't say anything" Naruto responded scared of Sakura.
"hn so annoying" Sasuke commented.
"Zaria had a rough childhood" Kakashi interjected. The three looked at him hoping he would continue his story.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you know her?" Sakura asked. Naruto and Sasuke were interested in hearing his answer.
"Well Yeah sort of" Kakashi replied. "She's the younger sister of a former team mate of mine" he continued. "Unfortunately he died in the third great ninja war" he finished. Zaria could hear him talk about it but chose to ignore it. She could tell he was being pretty vague on who he was talking about. She had told Kakashi that she would appreciate it if he didn't tell Sasuke the truth about who she was until she felt comfortable to do so herself. Her thoughts got cut off when she heard rustling in the trees. Zaria stopped in her tracks. The others did too, but were confused on why.
"Zaria what's wrong?" Kakashi asked.
"Can't you sense it? The enemy must know we're on to them" Zaria replied. "COME OUT I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! THERE'S NO SENSE IN HIDING NOW" she then shouted in the direction where she sensed the presence. The two ninja came out of hiding.
"Well look here the little girl spotted us. How impressive" one ninja said.
"Hey boss that girl is from the Uchiha clan" the other one whispered so only his partner can hear.
"Hmm interesting, at least I know she'll put up a fight" he mumbled. Daisuke got a good look at their headbands and saw they were from the Flower Village.
"You guys are flower ninja?" Daisuke questioned. The one ninja gave a sinister smirk.
"That's right, my name is Giichi a jonin from the flower village" he introduced.
"and I am Hiroki also a jonin from the flower village" he added.
"Jonin eh, this is going to be easy" Zaria said as she smirks cracking her knuckles. Sasuke was ready to join in but Satoru stopped him.
"What are yo-" Sasuke started.
"Zaria can handle this on her own, you'll just get in the way" Satoru said cutting off Sasuke who clenched his fist in frustration.
"So we're just supposed to stand her and watch?" Naruto questioned also frustrated.
"Don't worry, it won't take very long" Daisuke commented. The five watched the fight from a distance.
"Big talk for such a little girl" Giichi commented.
"That's cute, you think I'm just a little girl" Zaria retorted. While he assumed that Zaria was distracted Hiroki proceeded to attack.
"ninja art: exploding blossom jutsu" Hiroki shouted forming hand signs as flowers fell from the trees and started exploding near Zaria. She however didn't move. The five of them thought she got caught up in the explosion until the smoke cleared revealing Zaria standing behind the enemy ninja. Both turned around in shock. Zaria used Chidori and stabbed threw Giichi.
"She knows Chidori?!" Sasuke pondered as he was amazed with her skill.
"She must have copied it from me during a training session a long time ago" Kakashi responded.
"Copy?" Sasuke questioned. Now he was curios. He wanted to see how skilled Zaria was. He knew the only way you could copy a jutsu like that is if she had the sharingan. He knew that was impossible. Zaria was surprised to see that Giichi turned out to be a clone and got hit from behind. Zaria went down and hit the ground hard.
"Zaria!" Satoru shouted in panic. Zaria was then revealed to have been a crow genjutsu.
"Genjutsu huh? Not bad" Giichi commented. Zaria was no where in sight.
"Where did she go?" Hiroki asked.
"She's hiding nearby" Giichi responded. "Stand guard" he continued as his eyes wondered looking for Zaria's hiding spot. Suddenly streams of lighting came racing towards Giichi and Hiroki. Both got away in time but got caught up in Zaria's fireball jutsu.
'Fireball?' Sasuke thought. Giichi and Hiroki appeared to have used shadow clones. Now Zaria was caught off guard. She knew this fight would finish faster if she just used the sharingan, but she didn't want to.
"Zaria be careful they're using a camouflage jutsu" Satoru alerted activating his Kumogan to assist Zaria. His Kumogan allowed him to see chakra patterns which comes in handy when tracking someone.
Zaria nodded her head signaling to Satoru that she heard him. She didn't want to, but now she had no choice. If she wanted to win this battle, she had to use it. With one blink she activated her Sharingan. She turned her head to the group. Sasuke saw her eyes and was in disbelief.
'The sharingan? How? She's an Uchiha?'Sasuke was lost. All these questions raced inside his head.
Zaria found where the real ones were hiding and threw kunai to lure them out. It worked as she threw more kunai at them. She missed, but did it purposely.
"You know for the rumored Dragon of the Uchiha clan, you're skills aren't that impressive" Giichi commented. That commented confirmed Sasuke's suspicion. She was indeed from a member from the Uchiha clan. Sasuke didn't think that there was someone else that Itachi spared.
"oh please I haven't even gotten to that part yet" Zaria retorted.
"you're no match for us, you might as well give up now" Hiroki stated. Zaria smirked and tugged at the thread she had in her hand. It sprung a trap that she had set moments ago with the kunai. The thread wrapped around the two tying them together.
"What the-" Hiroki was caught off guard.
"Dammit, how did we not see that coming?" Giichi muttered.
"I'm going to show you how I got the title of Dragon of the Uchiha" Zaria stated forming a hand sign.
"Fire style: Dragon flame jutsu!" Zaria shouted before blowing out a flame that resembled a dragon. The two were burnt to death. Zaria brushed herself off and went back to her team.
"Sorry I took so long. I didn't think they would put up such a fight" Zaria commented.
"So you're a member of the Uchiha clan?" Sasuke asked. Everyone could feel the awkward tension in the air. Zaria knew she was eventually going to tell him whether she wanted to or not. Right now was not the time to discuss it.
"We'll talk about that later. Right now we have to focus on the mission." Zaria stated. She turned around so she didn't have to look at him. Everyone else was silent. At this point there was no way to predict on how this mission would turn out. Zaria could sense the distrust Sasuke had for her. Sasuke wanted his answers. Knowing Sasuke he'll probably pick a fight with Zaria in order for her to answer his questions.
