Chapter 24 Invasion

Seeing their sudden appearance, Naruto smiled and said, " Finally you've arrived. I knew that you wouldn't miss this chance."

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Kakashi and Sasuke appeared on the arena and Sasuke had given his name so that the two could quickly get to their battle.

Kakashi had to make sure that he made it on time as Sasuke looked at Arata for a bit with a smile and then at Gaara.

Seeing Sasuke's smile, Arata felt Sasuke's confidence as if he believed that Sasuke could beat Arata now, which made Arata even more excited as he also wanted to fight someone on his level. Gaara made his way to the arena while Kakashi appeared among the stands where he stood by Guy and watched the battle from there.

Sasuke, Gaara, and the referee were the only one left standing on the arena. Seeing that the two was ready, the referee finally gave the word to start the match.

Gaara and Sasuke stared at each other while trying to anticipate for any moves. It was at this time that sand began to pour out of Gaara's gourd that was strapped to his back. The sand flew out of the gourd and on the ground.

Seeing the sand, Sasuke decided to test out its capabilities and threw shurikens at Gaara who didn't even move as the sand automatically blocked the attack. As the sand blocked the shurikens, it sand transformed into that of a sand figure of Gaara and formed as the figure grabbed the blocked shurikens and sent a wave of sand at Sasuke. Sasuke quickly jumped high into the air as he dodged the attack and prepared to throw another set of shurikens and Gaara's sand clone threw the shurikens that it had blocked and intercepted Sasuke's shurikens. As Sasuke lands, he began to move at a extremely high level of speed. With the speed shown, Gaara recognizes that it is similar to Rock lee's speed with his training weights taken off.

Gaara begins to panic as he grew even more serious since that speed can threaten him to a certain affect and pours out more sand to focus on defense and attack while keeping up with Sasuke's speed. However, it proves to not be useful as Sasuke lands a solid blow on his face, cracking his sand armor. With Gaara receiving a blow, Sasuke uses it to his advantage by maneuvering around the sand and gets even closer to Gaara and sends him back with a powerful kick.

The two continued to clash as Sasuke is gaining the upper hand with the fight. Gaining more distance, Gaara decides to go on a complete defense as he makes a hand signal that surrounds his whole body with sand and forms a ball.

Sasuke tries to interrupt the technique by trying to close in with his fast speed but fails to break it as sand pikes poked out of the sand ball and nearly pierces Sasuke. Sasuke however, uses his sharingan and luckily escapes the unexpected attack.

Breathing heavily from the close call and using the high speed for a while now, Sasuke jumps back and tries to attack again with more speed and power, but fails to break the sand ball apart. Sasuke soon saw sand gathering above the Gaara's position and it started to form into that of an eyeball.

Seeing that his position was not favorable, Sasuke heard Gaara started to call out seals slowly. Not trying to wait for Gaara's next attack, Sasuke leaped further and further away from Gaara and walked along the wall surrounded the arena.

Arata was wondering what Sasuke was about to do. Physical attacks didn't seem to work against the sand guard so he didn't understand what the point of gaining more distance would do in his situation unless he has learnt a new technique. From personal experience of fighting Gaara, he knew that the lightning chakra nature should work against Gaara's sand. He didn't know what sort of training Sasuke had done over the past month but since Sasuke showed confidence in front of him than his thought of Sasuke learning a new technique should be it.

Not long after, Arata saw Sasuke gathering chakra into his palm and saw that lightning started to form. It was when Arata knew that Kakashi must've taught Sasuke the chidori/ lightning blade. Since the two possess the sharingan, it was natural that the straightforward move was best for Sasuke to learn because of the sharingan's ability to read moves.

Sasuke showed a proud smile as he completed his move. With his enhanced speed and sharingan, Sasuke's new move should be strong as the more speed and power Sasuke can gain over the long distance, the stronger it's move is.

Sasuke screamed out as he charged at Gaara and thrusted forward and managed to pierce through the hard defense of the sand ball. Sasuke felt the right impact, but felt that the situation could turn bad as his entire arm was not in the sand ball and if Gaara used more pressure, it can tear off his arm easily. Sasuke's thoughts turned correct as he felt the sand tighten around his arm and he tried to pull it out. Struggling to pull it out, Sasuke quickly activated the chidori again which made it easier for him to take it out.

Just as Sasuke took out his arm, he felt an ominous presence from the hole and saw a large sand claw coming his way which caused Sasuke to jump backwards to dodge the attack. Seeing the large sand claw, everyone gasped at the monstrous sight. It was at this time that Arata saw light blew feathers falling from the sky. Arata looked around and saw that everyone was quickly falling asleep.

"Genjutsu" Was Arata's immediate thought and formed a hand sign that quickly dispelled the technique that tried to make him fall asleep. He quickly looked around and noticed all the higher level ninja's using the same technique to dispel the genjutsu. Confused on what was going on, Arata was about to head his way to Kakashi so he can learn on what's going on and what he should do. However, just as he was about to head towards Kakashi's location, he felt a tingling at the back of his neck and quickly ducked and moved out of the way.

Arata looked at his previous location and saw that is was another ninja but it had the sand logo for his ninja headband. It was at this moment that he understood the situation that they were in, invasion.

Surprised by the genin's sudden dodge, the sand ninja looked at his target and wanted to finish off his target but was surprised by the sudden move that the genin did as he saw that the genin's body was covered in electricity and instantly moved in front of him. Seeing his situation, he cut horizontally trying to slash and kill the genin before he can finish his attack but he looked down and saw a Kunai stuck to his chest before his vision darkened and then he fell to the ground.

Finishing off the sand ninja, Arata pulled out the kunai from his chest and began moving to Kakashi.