Land Of Snow Arc (15) : Surprise Attack.

With the topaz pendulum spinning clockwise proving the confirmation of Doto's misunderstanding Tachibana looked at Koyuki.

"What do you think we should do?"

Koyuki had a frown on her face before she spoke, "I don't know. But I think it is safer for us to bring the Hex Crystal key to this place ourselves. What if Doto breaks or damages it in anger once he learns of the true nature of the 'treasure'."

"Alright, then we'll wait for Yamato-sensei here. And once he is here, I'll bring the Hex Crystal Key here for you to do whatever it does here."

"You don't know where the Key goes?"

"I mean…it's not like you can see a lock here can you?"

Koyuki looked around the mirrors and then at the floor but she couldn't find a spot in the area to place the key.

"Perhaps the key is meant to be used somewhere else?" Koyuki offered her suggestion.

"I dunno. We'll have enough time to figure it out once Doto is defeated anyway." Tachibana reasoned.

"Ok-"

*BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

The entire castle suddenly shook and Tachibana and Koyuki found themselves using the large mirrors to stay steady on their feet.

"What was that!?" Koyuki asked with worry.

"I think it's Yamato-sensei. He's probably here and is fighting Doto, maybe? Let me check using divination so that we can go meet him if that's the case. We could probably use the chakra absorption devices I've separated to defeat them anyway."

Koyuki nodded and Tachibana quickly used his topaz pendulum to perform another divination.

"Yamato-sensei is fighting Doto and Team Seven is also here."

Tachibana repeated the sentence seven times and opened his eyes to see the result, the pendulum was spinning clockwise rapidly.

"I'll go and bring Yamato-sensei here, I hope you can be safe and stay hidden. Don't let anyone get to you and use you as a hostage!" Tachibana said walking to the wall they'd come in from and pushing it open.

Koyuki nodded and giving her one last glance, Tachibana excited the Treasury, rushing back through the dimly lit corridor as he attempted to reach the place where the fight was going on.

It didn't take Tachibana as long as it had taken to get here since he wasn't carrying Koyuki on his back anymore and he quickly exited from the other secret entrance.

Then simply following the noise Tachibana arrived at the King's hall.

As soon as Tachibana entered the hall, he felt a breeze of cold air rush past his neck sending goosebumps all over his arms.

Timing a well-placed dodge, Tachibana ducked low under a frozen branch that flew over his head and pierced into the castle wall.

Looking up, Tachibana saw a wild scene.

Doto was fighting Yamato in the middle of a frozen forest while Team Seven was fighting Nadare in the same forest.

Doto and Yamato's fight was too fast for Tachibana to see anything. While Nadare's fight against Team Seven was slow enough for Tachibana to see that Sasuke was acting as the tank with his Sharingan, while Naruto and Sakura worked to damage and disable his chakra armour.

With the opportunity to land a surprise attack on either Doto or Nadare, Tachibana chose Nadare because he'd probably get killed if he made even a slight mistake in between Doto and Yamato's fast-paced attacks, possibly even becoming a hindrance for Yamato.

So hiding his presence among the tall trees, Tachibana began to unhurriedly observe the battle between Nadare and Team Seven.

Naruto was using his pink shield to constantly try and force Nadare into a situation where he would have to use his own shield to counter, but Nadare was clever and kept dodging Naruto, knowing that if he allowed the shields to touch each other his armour would become useless.

Sakura was helping by constantly trapping Nadare in genjutsu since the shield couldn't stop that.

Eventually arriving behind Nadare, Tachibana signalled to Sasuke about his presence who managed to keep the surprise on his face away and continue assisting Naruto and Sakura by interrupting all of Nadare's jutsu with the help of his wire kunai.

"Give it up brat! You won't be able to defeat me at all! You're newbies and can't do much else other than delay your inevitable death!" Nadare shouted as Naruto rushed at him for the umpteenth time with his pink shield activated so that Nadare would have to dodge instead of use his jutsu.

"And your annoying genjutsu! Why do you even try when you clearly know I can see through them like a fish in water!"

Tachibana slowly walked closer and closer from behind as all of Team Seven upped the rate of their attacks thanks to Sasuke doing his all to make Nadare pay attention to him instead of Tachibana.

As Tachibana came closer, Sakura also seemed to have sensed him since she started to use the most useless genjutsus just to keep Nadare guessing if what he was seeing was a genjutsu or reality.

She made him see things like extra kunai flying at him which Sasuke sometimes followed with real kunai flying at his head, and other times she worked on showing him Yamato defeating Doto which for the first few times impacted his morale but by the end became something annoying that he just had to constantly deal with.

Finally, Tachibana arrived close enough undetected that he performed the Body flicker jutsu.

"Now Naruto!!! Attack his shield!!!!" Sasuke shouted as soon as he saw Tachibana use the body flicker jutsu. He himself formed hand seals to launch the Great Fireball jutsu.

Sakura wasn't behind since she used her genjutsu to suddenly show Nadare that instead of a giant fireball what was flying towards him were a bunch of furry cats.

The sudden zeal in Team Seven's attack left Nadare feeling a little uncomfortable but being a Jonin he easily thwarted their plans.

As soon as Naruto jumped towards him, Nadare quickly formed an ice clone and pushed it his way so that he would be left to fight it. Then using the body flicker jutsu he stepped back while performing more hand seals to spit out an ice ball that countered Sasuke's fireball.

Sakura trapped him in a new genjutsu with kunai flying at him but he ignored it in favour of listening to his instincts which asked him to turn around.

Nadare listened to this small sense of danger and activated his pink shield as he turned around.

Tachibana didn't stop his attack in spite of Nadare's sudden turn to look at him but pushed through with the two chakra extraction devices he had stolen which he used to activate two pink shields at their full power.

Not having expected Tachibana to have two pink shields Nadare was taken aback as the three shields collided.

But true to the Jonin he was, Nadare instantly adapted.

His pink shield flickered off and Tachibana was left hanging in the air as his own two shields collided with each other.

Nadare instantly formed more hand seals, and 

"Haha~ You thought it was so easy to kill a Jonin!? Who was your teacher? Kakashi? He would be the only one stupid enough to use such a silly strategy against-" Nadare started but before he could end a kunai passed straight through his neck.

Using the single moment Nadare deactivated the pink shield to avoid letting it get damaged by Tachibana's advances, Sakura stabbed him with a real kunai while he was still under the effect of her genjutsu from the other kunai flying towards him.

"*cough* Wha- *cough*" Nadare tried to speak and he looked at Sakura out of the corner of his eyes, but before he could speak or say anything through his blood-filled mouth, Sakura drove the kunai deeper and sliced off his entire head.

Tachibana looked at the dying man as a few words came to his mind.

"The mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind."