Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

"What do you think is going to happen Tachibana-kun?" Naruto asked with a downcast expression.

Tachibana spared him a short glance before he continued to look ahead as they rushed through the jungle while following Tsunade.

"I'm sure whatever happens, Tsunade-sama will be able to take care of it."

Naruto was silent after that but a few minutes later he asked another question, this time in a whisper that Tachibana barely heard.

"Who is she anyway?"

Tsunade, Yamato, Inoichi and Shizune all heard the question but acted like they didn't. While Shizune was interested in Tachibana's answer, Tsunade paid no attention to it since she was more worried about what was going to happen at their destination.

"...Tsunade-sama is many things. She has so many titles given to her that it'd probably take me a few minutes to properly list all of them."

"So she's strong?" Naruto asked innocently while looking at Tsunade's back.

Tachibana nodded. "There probably aren't many people in this world that can fight on equal grounds with her."

Silence recaptured the group once again, and after about twenty minutes when Naruto had another question, Tachibana silenced him by placing a finger on his lips and pointing in another direction.

Naruto turned around and looked in the direction Tachibana was pointing with narrowed eyes as he struggled to make out anything because of the dense foliage around them.a

Sasuke had already activated his Sharingan and he gripped his kunai tightly in response.

Tsunade and the other Jonin had also noticed what was going on and quickly took cover behind trees, with Yamato signalling Team Seven appropriate positions.

Naruto and Tachibana hid behind the same tree while Sasuke and Sakura hid behind another.

Yamato then gave them separate signals. Asking them to spread out and handle the east and west directions so that they could handle any enemies that might decide to flank or escape through the sides.

Shizune and Yamato took up the North East and Nort West sides with Tsunade in the centre, while Inoichi remained behind everyone with Sakura and Tachibana given guard duty to take care of Inoichi's body in case he had to use the mind transfer jutsu.

Team Seven looked at Yamato for further orders and he signaled them something simple.

'Make sure no one crosses our line of defence.'

Tachibana looked at Tsunade and saw that she was very relaxed.

'Is she not going to make a move until and unless necessary?'

'...or it's because she's afraid of blood?'

But Tachibana wasn't given time to think of answers to his question since everyone heard swift *swishes* along with light *cracking* of twigs on the forest floor that were rhythmic in nature.

The sounds were loud in the silence of the forest, and as it moved closer they heard the sound of footsteps that rustled through the branches and leaves.

The genin lay prepared in an attempt at ambushing their enemies while the Jonin along with Tsunade had already vanished into the nearby trees, blending fully with their surroundings.

*Thud* *Thump* *Swish*

Within moments, a mob of shinobi came into view of all the genin.

They all had dark green clothes that camouflaged them well with the forest, but each one of their positions was laid bare before Sasuke's Sharingan and Tachibana's Spirit vision.

With kunai and shuriken at the ready, Tachibana and Sasuke cocked their arms to launch the perfect first attack.

Tachibana was about to launch his shuriken but stopped at the last moment. His eyes widened as he noticed something peculiar.

'Their emotions…'

'They're muted…!'

Sasuke though didn't notice anything wrong and flicked his shuriken almost as soon as the shinobi arrived in his range.

With the shuriken already launched, Tachibana had no choice but to attack so he almost immediately pulled out the big guns, explosive tags.

'Damn! I didn't think it would be the ROOT personal there were involved in this attack again!'

'Did their loyalty for Danzo and the turmoil in the village allow them to defect undetected!?'

'Have they noticed it too?' Tachibana wondered but with no time to ponder he launched his kunai with explosive tags into the forest.

'If the ROOT shinobi are working with Kumo do the Kumo shinobi know about Tsunade's weakness to blood!?'

The shuriken and kunai that Sasuke and Tachibana launched easily found their marks. But most shinobi easily deflected them.

What they didn't realise however was that Sasuke had planned a trap for them since he hadn't thrown normal shuriken by wire shuriken that were embedded into the thick trees around them, creating a tight web of wires that would've sliced through any unaware shinobi.

"Careful-" One of the shinobi shouted to warn the others, but Tachibana didn't give them any time.

*BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

Three explosive tags melded together to cause a medium-scale explosion that sent blazing hot fire all around the forest, causing most shinobi to cover their eyes to shield themselves, except they ended up running right into the razor-thin wires that Sasuke had planted.

With the shinobi entangled, Naruto and Sakura took the baton and entered the battlefield.

Naruto with his typical Multi Shadow Clone jutsu while Sakura used kunai laced with poison.

Sakura rushed around the trees to claim the lives of the shinobi that Sasuke had trapped while Naruto used his clones to provide Sakura a buffer by taking the agro from all the other shinobi around them.

The unit that had appeared in their range suddenly broke into a chaotic spin because of the several Naruto clones that attacked them from all directions.

But this didn't last long since three shinobi quickly adapted to the situation as they performed hand seals and caused lightning coats to appear on their bodies.

Before anyone could recognise what was happening, the three shinobi quickly vanished from their spots and reappeared a few meters away before all the Naruto clones suddenly blew up into a *puff* of smoke.

However, that wasn't where things ended.

As soon as the large number of clones disintegrated, a sudden large wall of wind broke through from Naruto's mouth.

"Wind Release! Great Breakthrough!"

Sasuke, not being one to lag behind, added onto the jutsu skillfully using his Sharingan to study how the jutsu Naruto had made was released.

"Fire Release! Multi Great Fireball Technique!"

A storm of fireballs escaped Sasuke's mouth as they mixed with NAruto's great breakthrough jutsu and evolved into a massive terrifying hurricane of fire that spun at crazy speeds to trash through the line and formations of the shinobi team that had attacked them.

What was worse for them was, as soon as the fire reached them, Tachibana quickly used it as cover and began teleporting around at a rapid pace as he sliced the necks of any shinobi in his range.

Yet the snowballing fight didn't remain one-sided for long.

With quick and nimble finger dances, the same three shinobi from before formed new hand seals and released a new technique.

"Lightning Release! Great Panther Annihilation!"

Three gigantic, eight feet tall panthers made up of lightning emerged as it separated from the lightning cloaks of those shinobi, rushing straight ahead towards Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura who were caught off guard behind the panthers easily broke through the firewall they had so tirelessly created.

Tachibana was still under everyone's radar and he paused behind a tree to think of a plan to take advantage of this situation in some way.