Chapter 19 Sasuke's Change

Somewhere in The Forest of Death.

Sakura was seen on top of someone biting his arms as the person was punching her head. The person's two teammates saw the struggle and immediately went in to help. They jump towards Sakura, wanting to stab her, killing her while saving their teammate. Just as their attack was about to land, a man suddenly appeared before them. This was person was of course Arata.

Arata appeared and immediately saw the situation. He saw Sasuke and Naruto under a tree fainted and injured. As he appeared before Sakura and saw the danger he was in, he was confused but at the same time angry. He activated his rinnegan and put his palms at the two's face. "Almighty Push' 'whooosh' The two blasted backwards from their position crashing into large trees. He then deactivated it as he wants his rinnegan to still be a secret.

Ninja 1: " What was that."

Arata: " Oi, oi, oi!! Sakura what happened here. How could something happened to you guys even without me."

Sakura: " A-- Arata!! What took you so long. We fought against such a powerful opponent before and he nearly killed them two. They stood no chance. When I took them and tried to protect them while they were unconscious I was ambushed by them!!"

Arata: " What? Naruto and Sasuke couldn't even handle him together? Then he must've been at least jonin level, which is impossible in this examination."

Sakura: " How could I know!!??"

Arata: " All right, I'm here now, calm down."

Arata looked around and saw the ninjas that he sent flying back slowly getting up. He also saw an injured Lee on the ground. He must've tried to protect them since Sasuke and Naruto was down.

Ninja 1: " Oi, who the hell are you."

Arata: " Oh, you didn't know? I'm their fourth teammate."

Ninja 2: " Impossible!! All teams are always made up of three members."

Arata: " Well... I was an exception. Now, now, what do you guys want to do now."

Ninja 3: " heh. Although you may be strong, you are just one person."

While this was happening, Shikimaru and his squad was hiding in the bush.

Shikimaru: " What!!?? When did he appear? Did you guys see him or sense his presence at all?"

Ino: " No we didn't. I never knew that he was that strong. To be able to send the two of them flying like that."

Choji: " Yeah."

Other than their team, Neji and Tenten was also high up on a tree branch somewhere looking at the battle. They rushed after Lee and found him in that state. Others didn't notice it but he did. With his eye sight, how could he miss the change in Arata's eyes.

Neji narrowed his eyes as he looked at Arata, " It seems that he is not an ordinary person." Even he couldn't detect Arata's sudden appearance.

Arata: " Just you three? I am more than enough."

Ninja 1: " hmph. Cocky fella."

Arata smiled, " Whether I am cocky or not, come and see."

Shikimaru and his team was just about to go and help Sakura but since Arata appeared, they didn't need to make a move anymore.

The three hidden sound ninjas made their move as they threw shurikens at Arata, but he just smiled as he easily deflected them off. He threw a special kunai at one ninja as his palm started to sparkle with electricity. 'swoosh' He appeared before the ninja and 'puchi' stabbed in his heart, killing him on the spot.

Ninja 1, Ninja 2." What!?? When did he get there."

Arata: " Is that it? If you don't want to die the you better leave your scroll here."

Ninja 1: " You better not underestimate us!"

Sound waves began to produce from he mechanic arms. As these sound waves hit Arata, Arata felt distorted and dizzy. His vision was getting blurry.

Arata: " So this is what gave you confidence huh."

Arata threw multiple special kunai's at the ground near him and closed his eyes. Since he could hardly see and felt dizzy, he might as well left it to instincts.

As the two ninjas saw him close his eyes and throw random kunai's at the ground. They immediately ran forwards not giving him another chance. As they were about to stab him, Arata disappeared from the spot and appeared behind a ninja. He immediately jumped above him and slammed him into the ground. Electricity once again appeared on his hand and pushed his body into the ground electrifying him which stunned that ninja. He didn't kill him because he wanted Naruto and Sasuke fight them. Their sound technique was a bit troublesome and wanted to see if they could deal with it.

The first ninja jumped backwards with a solemn face. This opponent was indeed strong.

Just as Arata was gonna make a move too, he felt an evil chakra coming from behind him. He looked and saw that Sasuke had gotten up. However, he was covered in marks.

Arata: " Oh Sasuke, did you finally get up, look at what they did to Sakura."

Sasuke looked at Sakura's injuries. He then looked at the ninjas that Arata were fighting and found that he had already defeated two of them. He looked at Sakura and with a cold voice, " Sakura, who was the one who hurt you."

Sakura: " Arata already killed him. It is just them left."

Sasuke: " I'll... kill them."

He instantly appeared at one of the ninja. As that ninja saw the marks he was confused because he recognized that mark as the one that his master's used on certain people. However, before he could react, Sasuke already before him and kicked him into the air.

Arata saw Sasuke's new strength as the curse mark covered his body even more. He was surprised that his strength was just a bit stronger than him in his natural state.

He saw as Sasuke pummeled the ninja. Just as he was about to kill him Sakura hugged him from behind. This cold person was not the Sasuke he knew.

Sakura: " That is enough. It is okay now Sasuke."

As Sakura said this, Sasuke's marks began to receded and converged into a mark at the side of his neck.

Ninja 1: " In return for sparing my life, I will leave my scroll here."

With this being said, he took his remaining comrade and walked away.

Arata: " Sasuke, what the heck was that power."

Sasuke: "...it's nothing." He was breathing pretty hard. It seems like the mark uses up a lot of chakra and energy.

Arata: " Well, now that we got two scrolls, we can just protect it until the time comes."

Sakura: "... Our previous scroll was destroyed by the person who beat us..."

Arata: "... Oh, well we still got some time left. I had an opportunity later but missed as that person had some help so that should be fine." He then looked towards the bushes. " You guys can stop hiding now."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura immediately went into full alert because they did not sense anybody near. Soon after, three people walked out. It was Shikimaru and his team.

Shikimaru: " 'sigh' Guess we were found out after all. What a pain. We were gonna help Sakura but you had already appeared."

Arata smiled at his words.

Ino: " Sakura, come here, let me fix your hair."

Sakura: " Oh, okay."

Arata then looked upwards. " Are you guys going to keep watching to or are you going to go wait until we leave?"

Neji and Tenten were surprised but Neji smiled as they jumped down and landed by Lee. " So you knew we were here after all."

Arata: " Haha, just barely."

The three group talked for a bit before dispersing into their own directions finding and protecting their own scrolls.