I do not own Naruto.

Speaking/Thoughts

Satsuki looked behind her to see that the only two of the team still remaining was Kiba and Neji who both had angry looks on their faces. "You two aren't holding grudges because Naruto beat you are you?" Satsuki asked a bit worried about how much force they would use to retrieve him.

"Of course not, but if he happens to acquire a few unexplainable injuries on the way back; well we wouldn't lose any sleep over it." Neji said with a pompous smile on his face. Both he and Kiba had been taking his training to the maximum ever since he had lost to Zale, and this left her a little worried about bringing them on this mission, but they needed man power.

"I'll say." Kiba said with a laugh.

"Just so you know if you kill him you'll be charged with killing a fellow ninja." Satsuki said, and their smiles faded. "I hope Choji and Shikimaru are okay."

"I'm not concerned anyone that follows Naruto's orders can't be all that strong." Kiba said Akamaru barking in agreement, and he was growled at by Satsuki. "What did I say?"

"Naruto is plenty strong you idiot!" Satsuki said her fist clenched, and Kiba fell a bit behind. 'What happened to Naruto in the Forest of Death; he changed a lot after he came back from that, but I think I might actually like him better this way.'

-Scene Change-

Zale took a brief look over his shoulder not seeing the leaf team anywhere in sight. "I think we should stop for a rest." Chrome said looking behind them seeing no one. "We should be far enough ahead so that it won't be much of a risk."

"Don't be an idiot for all we know they could be right behind that next tree just waiting for us to take a rest, so they can attack." Zale snapped back causing Chrome to flinch then keep his eyes on his feet. "Aria, go back, and stall them when you beat them check in with the communicator."

"Yes sir." Aria said stopping on a tree trunk while Chrome, and Zale with Kurumi tossed over his shoulder ran ahead. She waited for a solid five minutes before they finally arrived, and they determined that her opponent would be Neji who sneered as if she was an unworthy opponent.

"Look I'm advising you to surrender as my quarrel isn't with you it's with Naruto Uzumaki battling you would be a waste of time, and chakra." Neji said with his superiority voice.

"I believe I know you; you're the one that lost to Naruto when he had less power." Aria said teasingly, and Neji's brow furrowed deeper. "I'm fairly certain that you won't be able to beat me, and I'm sure that you'll never come close to the power that Naruto possesses. You two fighting as it stands would be like an ant trying to defeat an elephant. That is the difference between your power."

"You'll pay for that you gutter trash!" Neji yelled charging forward only to run face first into an invisible wall of ice. "Do you think that this will stop me?" Neji delivered a strong open palm strike to the barrier shattering it to millions of pieces. "Tell me can you do that?"

"I'll admit that I may have underestimated you." Aria said closing her eyes, and Neji took this opportunity to go for a strike only for needles to cover his arms. "Those are my ice needles a very useful, and devastating technique."

"This won't stop me!" Neji charged forward again this time seeing the ice needles hurtling at him. "Rotation!" Aria was slightly shocked that this technique completely stopped her volley of attacks. She tried once again only for the same thing to happen. "You can't penetrate this, it's an ultimate defense."

Aria didn't respond instead suddenly disappearing in a burst of snow sending the tiny ice crystals up his nose, and causing him to sneeze. "Let's try again!" Aria swung her arm, and ice needles materialized an invisible force sending him right after Neji who once again blocked it with rotation. "You didn't even see the attack coming."

"I'm a wielder of the Byakugan, there's nowhere to run, or hide from me because I will find you." Neji said running at incredible speeds towards Aria actually landing a few blows before she managed to scramble away. "See you're weak against me."

With a dead arm Aria scowled this time large arrows forming then moving toward Neji who just used rotation once again. 'He took the bait!' Aria thought excitedly changing the direction of the arrows to spin against the chakra dome's rotation. As they spun ice sprayed from them coating the dome, and forcing it to stop.

"You stopped my defense." Neji said shocked by this looking at the ice spray to make sure that it was true.

"Yes I did, and a ninja that hides behind a seal is no ninja at all. If you're not prepared to die in combat then you shouldn't be a ninja." Another arrow formed in her hand this one spiked, and splintered, and she threw it with surprising power behind it. "Even if I can't kill you."

Neji unexpectedly actually ran turning on a heel, and sure to keep the arrow out of his blind spot hid behind a tree. It missed by a few inches landing a few feet from his having torn through the tree like butter. "I need to get close." Neji panted looking at Aria whose eyes scowled at the tree he hid behind. "I'm going to need to make a run for it."

"Where do you think you're going?!" Aria demanded when she saw Neji try to move from his position. He was met with a volley of the spiked arrows one of which grazed his cheek.

'Then I am going to have to fight.' Neji thought. He scooped up a rock, and threw it opposite of him before running the other way leaving Aria distracted by the action.

"You moved to be out in the open, how stupid are you?" Aria asked with mirth in her voice a new volley of needles, and arrows coming out of the air, and at Neji.

"Eight Trigrams: One Hundred Twenty Eight Palms!" Neji yelled getting into his stance in a hurry before he struck down one arrow after another only a few ice needles getting through. "My rotation wasn't the only defense I had, with the sixty four palms, and my Byakugan I can destroy all of your arrows, and needles."

Even as he spoke Aria's eyes scoured the scene investigating what just happened. 'Despite what he says a few of my needles made it through. That means that he must have a blind spot, and that means that I can beat him.' Aria looked at the needles on the ground trying to decide exactly where Neji had been blind. 'In a spot right in the middle of his hair line, and the start of that pony tail. I just have to time it right.'

Neji looked as more ice needles formed, but he didn't notice the high concentration of needles toward his blind spot. They came at him, and he shattered thousands of them with his quick reflexes. Aria lost sight of him in the hail of all of the needles, but she was confident that she had won.

She was shocked when Neji stood with a smug look on his face, and only a few needles impaled in his neck head none of which fatal none of which even made it past his hair. "You saw the weakness in my Byakugan, but I knew it better than you. All I did was pump the chakra from my body, and I managed to save myself from any severe damage." Neji smiled as he approached her.

Aria tried to form needles or anything really, but all that accumulated was a few beads of ice that fell to the ground. "I figured out your weakness too, you use the water vapor in the air to make your ice, but now you've used it all up that leaves you helpless." Neji said walking closer and closer to her until he stood right in front of the exhausted girl.

"Now I'll you'll feel the full assault of my attack, and you're not going to survive like that idiot Naruto did. Eight trigrams two palms, four palms, eight palms, sixteen palms, thirty two palms, sixty four palms!" Neji ended the technique with the strong step forward delivering the finishing blow to Aria who coughed up blood into the air. "Now who's an ant?"

"You've lost Neji." Aria said with a smile wiping the blood from the corner of her lip with very stiff motions, and it turned into a small shuriken that barely cut deep enough to draw blood from a previously made wound. This caused Neji to smile as if it could do anything. "Human bodies on average are 65% water. Now I have an opening."

Neji watched shocked as the blood was drawn from his system, and no matter how much he tried to stop it the blood kept drifting out of his body until he was pale white, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Once she had regained her bodily functions Aria returned his blood with a smirk on her face before taking out the communicator.

"That was a very smart victory Aria." Gaara said walking out with Shiki and Kira behind him.

"Too much brain power involved, but I have to hand it to you. The way you used his own body water on him to win was really impressive." Kira complimented, and Aria smiled before pulling out her communicator. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure that they don't think we're dead." Aria said opening it up, and she saw Zale on the other side. "Victory confirmed, and by the looks of Kira and Gaara here we can confirm they won their fights too."

"That's great catch up as soon as you can." Zale said before cutting off the communication.

"Come on let's get going." Kira said picking Aria up.