Naruto One Man Team by Ackdam

Chapter 13: In the Forest

Three days later found teams eight and ten bounding through the forest, keeping a solemn watch for anything out of the ordinary. Hinata had recovered from her shock enough to function but they could all tell she was still distraught over what happened. Naruto explained to her everything that went on while she was so blissfully unaware and she was thankful that she didn't have to see her love torture someone. That thought was only solidified when she saw the blanching faces of her teammates as they recalled the events. She was also grateful that she wasn't the only one who had killed and felt like she and her teammates bonded a little more, though in a grim way, from all having their first kills that same day. The only kill that wasn't a first was from Naruto whose kill had died when he hit a tree after the clone exploded, breaking his neck.

In their brief travel they managed to take out two more teams and dissuade another from engaging with such a large group, and as such they now had a full extra set of scrolls with an earth scroll on the side. They had all felt a large chakra presence the day before, but shrugged it off so long as it stayed away from them. Now, traveling through the treetops, they saw what looked like a small clearing ahead with a few people in it. Naruto turned to the others and whispered out to them. "We'll take a closer look, but keep yourselves hidden and don't engage unless I say." They nodded to him and jumped as close as they dared, taking up positions on one side of the clearing, far above the gathering.

Down below they saw the three sound genin facing off against Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji as they stood between the sound team and Sakura, who was looking rather worn and beaten. They couldn't hear too well what the exchange was but it eventually lead to a bit of a scuffle in which it seemed the sound genin were out for blood. The fight progressed until a couple more Konoha genin showed up. One Tenten and the other Neji. Naruto could tell just from Neji's stance and attitude that he was almost as much of a prick as Sasuke, but before the two could engage Neji smirked. "Looks like we won't have to." They heard him say as a lone figure crawled out of a hollowed section of a tree.

"Sakura, who did that to you?" The Uchiha asked as he made his presence known. A dark aura of purple smoke seemed to drift off his body while odd marks shifted over his skin. Sakura was beside herself with glee that Sasuke was thinking about her. She was so caught up in the moment that she forgot to answer him, but that didn't matter.

"Hah. I did! What are you going to do about it Uchiha?" The guy that had been blowing wind out of his palms stepped forward with an evil smile.

"Zaku you idiot!" The bandaged one yelled at him, but before either of them could react Sasuke was already going through hand signs and blew out several balls of fire.

"I'll smash him to bits Dosu. Zankūha!" Zaku cried out extinguishing the flames only to reveal the shuriken hidden inside of them. He quickly threw a guard up to lessen the blow.

"Zaku! Behind you!" Again it came too late as Zaku's arms were pulled painfully behind his bad while Sasuke planted a foot on his spine.

"You seem very proud of these arms." Sasuke grinned and pulled slowly reveling in the other boys pain as he pulled the arms out of their sockets and tore the tendons. They could see Sakura practically drooling at this point as she saw the power of her Sasuke-kun.

Naruto whispered to those still hidden. "Something isn't right. There's no way he's that powerful, and those marks..." They all agreed but didn't move as Naruto hadn't given them any signal to. "Shino, Hinata, what can you tell me about him?"

"H-he seems to have a different chakra going through him. His system can't handle all of it and it's leaking out." Hinata looked astonished as she had never seen chakra pour out of someone like what was happening in front of them.