Whirlwind Fighters (NaruTema)

#24 Real Enemies

Watching the kunai fly, Naruto felt oddly at ease, as if the stress of waiting was gone and he was finally free to breathe again.

However that moment only lasted for the blink of an eye as the blonde jumped to the side, avoiding the blades.

Spotting the mask of Madara, Naruto signalled to Temari and the rest of their group as they made their way towards their designated targets.

As they arrived with their opponent the red eye behind the mask was slowly spinning. The man himself stood calmly, his hands hanging on his sides, waiting. B didn't waste any time, as he launched an attack, hoping to catch their opponent off guard. His hopes were dashed however as his punch didn't connect and he stumbled through their attacker. The shinobi from Kumo turned around confused, he was certain that he hadn't missed, however it was also evident that his punch did not affect the man.

Naruto didn't have time to think as he quickly moved out of the way, to allow Gaara's sand to shoot past him. He was surprised how fast Temari's brother had gotten, as the sand surrounded the orange masked man. As the redhead closed his fists the sand tightened and attempted to crush the man inside, only for the man to walk out of the prison, phasing through the sand. Temari and Naruto moved up, their weapons drawn. Pumping chakra through their blades Naruto swiped high as his fiancee went low, both attacks simply phasing through the man. This time however he retaliated, as they were on their backswing he spun around kicking Temari away from him.

Naruto quickly threw away the idea that this might have been a clone, since it wouldn't make sense for the clone to be able to switch between solid and illusion. Raising his sword he blocked the kunai swipe aimed at him, while Temari came up behind him, swinging her naginata. The result was the same however with the blade phasing through the man's chest. However, Naruto noticed that the kunai he had been pressing against also became an illusion.

"Hello Orochimaru." Tsunade greeted as she swatted away the kunai the snake had thrown at her.

"You don't seem surprised to see me." The pale man stated, sounding disappointed, earning a smile from his two former teammates.

"Did you really think that we would not try to spy on you and the Akatsuki?" Jiraiya asked, taking out a kunai. The snake sannin looked around, seeing Itachi jumping towards them.

His eyes widened in realization as he saw the Uchiha pass by a fighting group, not helping his Akatsuki teammate.

"How long was he a double agent?" He simply asked, before vomiting up Kusanagi, knowing that he would have to be serious from the start if Itachi was planning on joining the fight.

"Since the beginning." Tsunade stated, not seeing a reason to lie anymore.

"Kakashi, take the purple masked one. Sasuke, take red! Rasa takewhite! We will take yellow!" Mikoto shouted her orders, as she quickly looked the four masked shinobi over. The teams quickly moved along towards their assigned opponents. Kakashi went and jumped towards the masked woman, Kurenai and the rest of their squad following closely. The four enemies had only stood there, watching. They made no moves to stop the squads, even going so far as to jump apart, making space between the four different fights. Kakashi looked over their opponent as the group readied their weapons.

"Wait!" A voice that the man knew too well cut through the air as he raised his kunai to attack. His eyes widened as the girl raised her hands to the mask, struggling against her own body and revealed her face.

"Rin." The one eyed man breathed out.

"Please, put me out of this misery." The girl pleaded, a tear rolling down her eyes.