Starting over

#80 Black Tengu

Naruto POV

I and my team watched as the chakra levels of the attackers jumped. I gave my team the signal to get ready to jump in if need be, since I saw that Temari already was moving in. We watched as Temari jumped in front of her team, fan drawn and looked at the black tengu with a smile on her face. At first the Iwa shinobi were surprised to see another enemy arrive, but they regained their thoughts just in time to realise that the newcomer had cast a jutsu before confronting them. They jumped up, just in time to avoid getting cut in half by a giant wind blade, that came out of the forest. One of them wasn't fast enough and the blade cut his left foot clean from his body. He cried out as they landed again, but kept his cool enough to immediately start a medical jutsu to at least stop the bleeding.

Temari saw this and gave her team two signals with her hand behind her back, before bringing her fan back and swinging it forward, unleashing a giant wall of winds. The three Iwa shinobi jumped to the left, avoiding the attack, but were forced to jump up by a bunch of earth spikes shooting out of the ground, were they had landed, courtesy of Korun. As they were in the air, Joaba and Shiji finished a series of hand signs. A giant flaming dragon flew out of Joaba's mouth, while Shiji had taken in air and now blew it out at incredible speeds. The wind easily caught up to the fire dragon and seemed to disappear, since it didn't overtook it. But as soon as the wind had disappeared the fiery dragon got bigger and changed colour from red to blue. The unharmed Iwa shinobi flashed through hand signs, making two earth dragons rise from the ground and head against the attack from their enemies. As the three dragons clashed, it became obvious that the two earth dragons were no match for the wind enhanced fire, as they melted away as soon as they touched the blue beast. The trio looked on in fear as their doom was only slowed down by their counter attack, but was still headed their way.

Since they were still floating in the air, they couldn't maneuver and thus were pretty much defenseless. The already hurt shinobi suddenly grabbed his friends and pushed them to the side, effectively sacrificing himself to save his friends. His team cried out for him, as he was engulfed in the flames. It was silent for a split second before the silence was broken by the pain filled screams as the shinobi was burned alive. His friends stared at the flames in disbelief, realising what had just happened.

Temari and Shiji appeared behind the two, kunai at their necks. "Now, leave and don't come back.", Shiji said, before he and my girlfriend pushed the two black tengu shinobi away from them. You could see the two trembling behind their masks, their hands hovering over their equipment pouches, twitching. "I said leave.", Shiji again said, this time louder and with an angry edge to his voice. The two white masked shinobi looked at each other and jumped away from the clearing, into the woods, towards Iwagakure.

"Alright, I think they are gone for now.", Temari said, after a few minutes, where she had extended her senses to try and find them. I smiled, put my sword back onto my back and relaxed a bit. My team did the same, while Temari and team Shiro went ahead and cancelled the barrier that had kept the council safe.

The council looked at the fourth Suna shinobi with suspicious eyes. Temari was disposing of the body of the killed member of the black tengu, who had surprisingly no self destructing seals on his body. She looted everything valuable from his body, before letting Joaba burn the body. When they walked back over to the group, the council members took a step back, trying to keep their distance from the girl.

"Don't worry. This is Hana. She is our team captain.", Shiji introduced Temari to the council. "Then why wasn't she with you when you came into town?", the elder council woman asked, still keeping her distance from the newcomer. "I was. You just didn't see me. We had made this plan of me staying in the shadows until I'm needed, before we even set a foot into your village. It was to keep you safe and to deceive the enemy to underestimate us. And it worked.", Temari explained, while she went over to take the lead.

"Everyone, Diamond three.", Temari said, when the council didn't say anything. Walking in front Temari opened the safety latch from her fan, always ready to reach behind her back to quickly swing it forward. The council slowly followed her with Joaba and Shiji on either side of them and Korun trailing.

My team and I jumped in a loose square formation around the group, prepared to intercept any other danger before it got to the group, not wanting to have any more delays on our journey. The reason we hadn't intercepted the black tengu before was simply, that Temari had let them pass, most likely to see her team in action. When we had felt their chakra spike, we almost jumped into action, but we saw Temari get involved and decided to hold back, watching how the fight evolved.

I quickly summoned Akira when I felt several large chakra signatures approaching. My team appeared next to me having felt the same danger. We raised our weapons as we waited for our enemies to show themselves.