The beatdown was short-lived.
From their undisclosed location, Arthur had slain both of them with just one kunai. They were seasoned Genin, but they weren't on his level. And with the element of surprise, defeating them was child's play.
After burying their bodies, he used his Crimson Gaze to scan the forest. Team 10 couldn't have gotten too far.
Chakra signatures raced across his vision's range as he searched across the landscape. Then, three familiar signatures caught his eye: Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji, all about to take a breather.
The two scrolls were with them, right in Chōji's pouch.
Arthur couldn't remember how this team obtained their scrolls, but he knew he needed to intercept them before anyone else.
With a silent leap, he propelled himself into the trees. He had a plan. A puff of cloud formed as he morphed into the appearance of a generic Sound ninja.
Through the dense foliage, he eventually spotted them huddled around a makeshift campsite. Shikamaru was talking with Ino about where they should go next. Chōji was busy eating a bag of chips. Based off their casualness, they seemed to believe they had escaped after obtaining his scroll.
This would be easier than anticipated.
Without warning, he burst through the undergrowth with a kunai in hand, causing the three to shudder in surprise.
"You three," he commanded. "Stay where you are…"
Shocked, Shikamaru and Ino raised an eyebrow.
Chōji himself accidentally dropped his bag of chips. "What the?! Where the heck did this guy come from?!"
Arthur didn't waste time on theatrics. While skillfully twirling the base of his kunai between his fingers, he said, "The scrolls... Hand them over."
"Why should we?" Ino protested.
Arthur's patience waned. "You don't want to upset me more than I already am…"
Shikamaru exchanged a worried glance with Chōji and Ino. They were now cautiously defiant.
"Looks like we shouldn't have camped out in the open," Shikamaru sarcastically joked.
Arthur saw through it as a drop of sweat dripped from the genius's face.
"We won't be bullied by someone from the Sound Village," Chōji declared.
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "You three don't seem to understand the situation."
"What's there to understand?" Ino smirked. "You're after the scrolls just like everyone else is."
"Like heck we're gonna hand them over to a punk like you," Shikamaru added.
Now Arthur had had enough of their tomfoolery. "If you don't hand over the scrolls, I won't just bully you; I'll kill you."
At those words, Arthur threw his kunai, starting the battle.
The weapon was quickly dodged by Ino. Chōji charged next, growing in size and then tucking himself into a ball, rolling forward.
"Human boulder!"
Arthur saw the attack coming a mile away. But it wasn't Chōji that he was focused on. Shikamaru would undoubtedly use his Shadow Possession technique to restrain his movements after a dodge.
'Chakra-enhanced strength…'
Just as Chōji neared him, Shikamaru was surprised that Arthur hadn't planned on evading. Instead, Arthur met the attack head-on as a punch collided with Chōji's massive form, creating a shockwave that sent tremours through the clearing.
Boom!
The impact was brutal. Shikamaru's eyes widened in disbelief. He hadn't anticipated such raw power from what looked to be an average shinobi. But a strategist always had a backup plan.
"Shadow possession jutsu!"
His shadow snaked across the ground, racing out to ensnare Arthur's movements. A triumphant smirk appeared on Shikamaru's face as the technique connected to Arthur's shadow. Without notice, Arthur's body was suddenly replaced with a log.
Arthur hadn't intended to meet Chōji's attack head-on; he was merely creating a diversion, having prepared the jutsu in advance.
With a burst of speed, he propelled himself from the bushes, landing right behind Shikamaru to deliver another chakra-enhanced punch. But before Arthur could strike, a feminine warning pierced the air.
"Mind-transfer jutsu!"
Ino then collapsed to the ground as a shadow tendril snaked out, wrapping around Arthur's arm with an iron grip.
"Gotcha!" Shikamaru exclaimed with a smirk.
Their initial surprise was only to try and throw Arthur off; he hadn't thought this team's Ino-Shika-Cho formation, a three-clan strategy that had been passed down from generation to generation, was that good.
"It's over for you," Shikamaru taunted. "Ino, I got him. You can come back now!"
Yet her body remained limp. Something had gone wrong. Had the jutsu backfired?
Little did either of them know, Arthur had used his Crimson Gaze on her prior to making his appearance known, making her think her target was elsewhere. And since her Mind-Transfer technique missed its target, she actually fell unconscious.
As if Arthur would have really underestimated a team like this.
"What the heck's going on with you, Ino?!" Shikamaru screamed.
"You things are far beneath real ninjas," Arthur said as his whole body began to shake.
Shikamaru tried to tighten the shadows' hold, but the strain caused beads of sweat to trickle down his face. Arthur was about to escape.
"Chōji!" screamed Shikamaru. "I could use a little help here!"
Suddenly, Arthur ripped free.
Bang!
One backhand sent Shikamaru stumbling to the ground.
"What's going on?" Chōji stammered, dazed after recovering from Arthur's unexpected punch.
Just as Ino was regaining consciousness, Arthur swiftly pulled out three kunai and threw them at her. They each found their mark, impaling her in the head!
Chōji's eyes widened; he couldn't believe it. Ino Yamanaka had died!
Blood slowly trickled down her face as her body fell flat to the floor. Arthur hadn't planned on killing anyone this early, especially not a character on the periphery of the story. But the deed was done.
"Did you think I was playing when I said I would kill you?"
Chōji scrambled to his feet, but the instant he saw how cold Arthur's eyes were after committing that act, he was filled with fear.
"Why so scared, Chōji?"
Chōji, tears welling up, could only stare as his body trembled like a leaf caught in a storm. This carefree, easygoing character who loved barbeque and naps had never seen death before.
When Shikamaru finally recovered, he croaked, "Wait! We'll give you the scrolls!"
"Oh…?" Arthur mused. "Your options went out the door after I killed that stupid girl."
Those words hit Chōji hard. How dare Arthur?
With a roar of defiance, Chōji suddenly launched himself into his Human Boulder technique.
"Wait, Chōji!" screamed Shikamaru.
Arthur remained impassive, knowing that the boy's emotions were clouding his judgement.
Just as Chōji was about to collide with him, Arthur dissolved into smoke. Chōji then released the technique as he stumbled to a stop, bewildered by where Arthur had gone. Turning everywhere, Chōji finally saw him.
"Shikamaru, behind you!"
His warning came too late. A cold hand clamped over Shikamaru's mouth, stifling his scream. Chōji was too far to help, watching as Arthur already had a kunai in hand.
"How pathetic," Arthur said.
The next moment was a scene of horror as Shikamaru groaned from being repeatedly stabbed in his body. Sickening, crunching noises filled Chōji's ears over and over until his friend slumped to the ground.
Shikamaru's lifeless hand twitched once, then stilled.
"No!" Chōji screamed.
Shikamaru Nara had died. The harsh realism of the situation finally dawned on Chōji. His two teammates, his childhood companions, were gone, silenced forever by this unknown and terrifying person.
It was so unbelievable that he dropped to a knee. The act of failing to protect his friends made him not want to live anymore.
"Look at me, Chōji," demanded Arthur.
But the boy's unsure face stared at the corpses of his friends. Arthur slowly walked up to him. There was no more noise of a battle, just the silence of a defeated team.
When Arthur used his fingers to tilt Chōji's head up, all Chōji saw was that red glow, embodying the monster he never knew existed.
"You did this to yourself, boy…"
Chōji couldn't say anything. Not that he was tired or out of chakra, but he was paralyzed by regret, disbelief, and fear—a fear so primal that it left him dumbfounded.
Arthur used that moment to reach into Chōji's pouch and take the scrolls. The boy had not even moved from his spot.
"Run, Chōji… Run and go seek help. Tell them Orochimaru was responsible for the deaths of your friends…"
Arthur then turned around, hearing as Chōji turned to flee. The boy tripped but quickly scrambled up, tears welling in his eyes before his large frame vanished into the dense foliage.
The boy by no means considered even using his chakra pills. Perhaps that could have given him a fighting chance. But it's not that he didn't want to; it's what Arthur said that made him refuse to. Chōji was told to run, so he did just that, abandoning all sense of hope.
After confirming Chōji was long gone, Arthur gathered Ino's and Shikamaru's dead bodies. He secured items from both of their pouches.
To think one of the smartest characters in this world had died. He was written as a central character for the plot. Though he was the only child of Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, he was known for becoming Naruto's personal advisor after the latter finally became the Hokage more than a decade from now.
During the exams, he was also the only one in the Leaf that impressed the examiners enough to promote him to Chūnin. That was despite his loss in the final match against Temari.
Speaking of Temari, she was supposed to be his wife, and the two were meant to have a son together. Now that was surely never going to happen.
Regarding Ino, she too was a pivotal character who experienced a remarkable transformation throughout the story. In her early days at the academy, she was a popular student and the only child in her family. She even befriended Sakura Haruno, protecting her from bullies and fostering her self-confidence.
Placed on Team 10, she surprised everyone with her thinking and skills, eventually advancing to a higher rank to take on more responsibility within the village. She even formed a marriage bond with Sai, a new character who wouldn't be introduced three years from now.
This marriage bond of theirs also led to their first child together. Now this also wouldn't ever happen.
Arthur considered how he was able to defeat Team 10.
Their renowned Ino-Shika-Chō formation wasn't too difficult to deal with. Shikamaru, the brain, used his Shadow Possession technique to control the battlefield. Ino, the manipulator, used her technique to disrupt the opponent's flow. And Chōji, the brawn, delivered the finishing blow with his strength.
Arthur, unlike them, wasn't bound by the constraints of a predefined strategy. He'd known about them and their tactics prior to the fight. It was a predictable pattern the moment the fight started: Chōji's initial charge, Shikamaru's control for a coordinated attack, and Ino's preparation.
Arthur wasn't an intellectual like Shikamaru, nor was he a physical brute like Chōji, and his lack of experience with mind techniques paled in comparison to Ino's expertise.
However, he possessed something far more valuable in this situation: an awareness unburdened by the limitations of teamwork and a ruthless willingness to exploit others' vulnerabilities.
The entire time, Arthur's unexpected maneuvers disrupted their whole flow.
Chōji charges in too recklessly, Shikamaru was too readable, and Ino observed too much to see she had faltered under an illusion. This was also a rookie team, mere Genin who had never faced an opponent who disregarded the unspoken rules of non-lethal combat.
They weren't trained killers, and their experience lay in incapacitating opponents, not ending lives.
Arthur felt no compunction in killing them.
Chōji himself was allowed to escape on a whim, a contingency in case things went sour during the preliminary rounds. What Arthur believed was that the boy would likely run into one of the players. And in doing so, they would help him advance despite his lack of a team now.
'I wonder what they'll do now,' Arthur thought to himself.
He wasted no time piling the bodies around sticks and leaves. He then set them on fire and placed worms and other forms of bait around their burning flesh. This was to help attract the gargantuan insects to eventually devour them soon.
Arthur wouldn't sit around for that; he had to move. So with the grisly task completed, he vanished into the darkness.