Chapter 44: Land Of Snow Arc (3) : First Attack!
Tachibana who was sitting on the bow of the ship, called out as he saw the large glacier in front of them.
"Director! There's a large glacier! Do you want to shoot on that thing? It has really unique ice mountains!"
The director was watching a replay of the scene Fujikaze had shot this morning as he turned around and looked at the glacier Tachibana was pointing at.
"Oh!? That's a good place Tachibana-kun! If you weren't a shinobi, I'd want to recruit you as my set director!"
Naruto and Sakura had arrived at the bow to look at the uniquely shaped mountains too. But that was when Sakura pointed something out, "Doesn't that seem fake? I mean is it really natural?"
Naruto was confused as to what Sakura was talking about but Tachibana caught on, "Ya think so?"
"Yeah…it seems strange. I've never seen anything like that in the academy textbooks."
"Hmm…eh. Yamato-sensei will take care of whatever is troubling."
Sakura gave him a deadpan gaze as she looked at how relaxed Tachibana was "...why're you so relaxed!? It's an A-rank mission!" Sakura complained.
'A-rank? Really? I mean it wasn't in the show, so I don't think it would've been too hard…'
'Well, whatever, doesn't hurt to pay attention.'
"Fine. I'll be a little serious." Tachibana nodded before jumping down from the ship and landing on the glacier.
"Naruto, wanna help me scout the mountains? Sakura's coming too!"
Naruto smiled when he heard that and immediately looked at Sakura who just gave him a funny gaze, "You can go west, I'm going east."
Sasuke joined them too and under Yamato's scrutinizing gaze they all began to explore the scene for any enemies.
Before the Genin of Team Seven could go too far, however, Yamato flickered from his position and arrived in front of them having completed hand seals.
"Wood Release: Unbreakable Wooden Wall!!"
Yamato slammed his hands into the snow and outshot a thirty-foot-high wooden wall that was seventeen feet thick and fifty feet wide.
But that was when Tachibana and the rest of Team Seven had their minds freeze.
A giant nearly transparent ice whale broke through the snow-capped mountain and crashed right into them.
Yamato hurriedly modified the wooden wall into a wooden dome that wrapped around them from the front.
As soon as the whale crashed into the dome, everyone heard a *thunderous*-
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*
The wooden dome having the support of the ground didn't sink too much, but not having completed fully from all sides, started to bend.
Yamato was doing his best to keep the dome supported under the weight of the massive but Tachibana realised it was a stupid thing he had to do only because the genin where there.
They were being burdens and wasting his chakra.
"Everyone! Get out of here while Yamato-sensei is holding the thing back!"
The genin came back to their senses as they rushed away from under the dome and moved in different directions.
Sakura moved to the boat to guard it.
Naruto and Sasuke moved to the sides while Tachibana rushed in between them all to a small snow hill from where he tried to assess the situation around them.
Almost as soon as the genin dispersed, Yamato flickered out from under the ice whale and arrived at the base of the 'mountain' from where their enemies had just attacked.
Standing atop the mountain were five shinobi dressed in strange armour.
"Ohh…Looks like Konoha sent a somewhat competent team to guard the princess." The man leading the rest of the three spoke in a condescending manner while looking at Team Seven.
"Oh come on Nadare, they're just a bunch of kids. At their age, we were fighting a war. They probably haven't even been weened yet with how much Konoha babies it's shinobi." A girl with pink twin tails addressed loudly, trying to get to Team Seven.
Naruto frowned when he heard that.
Although he understood that the lady was trying to get under their skin by her provocative remarks he didn't quite like the way she was casually talking about killing.
"Oh great shinobi-samas are you going to fight us silly children? Could you please leave us alone and we promise to leave you alone?" Tachibana asked with a calm smile.
"Ha! Sure we'll give you a bottle of milk so that you can suck on it while we capture the Princess and take her away." The twin-tail girl said with a smile.
"Is that so…" Tachibana said still smiling, "What a shame. It was good to know you-"
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*
A ridiculously loud explosion set off at the base of the snow mountain sending a plume of smoke that covered the large avalanche that had been set off.
While they were escaping from the ice whale, Tachibana noticed Yamato sending away a wood clone under the ice.
So when he realised that Yamato was probably preparing a trap for them, Tachibana kept them distracted.
But the first Ice Whale jutsu was impressive enough for them to know that a simple explosion wouldn't kill them. And so everyone in Team Seven prepared for the inevitable.
Sasuke performed the hand seals for the Fireball jutsu, Naruto performed the Multi shadow clone jutsu to create about twenty clones and Sakura prepared several kunai tied to explosive tags.
Yamato created more wood clones and hid them strategically around the snow, while Tachibana activated his spirit vision to see exactly where everyone was.
'They split up?' Tachibana noticed as he saw all the enemies swim through the snow and move at a quick speed towards all the different members of Team Seven.
'They're planning to take each of us in a one-on-one fight?'
'Why?'
'Wouldn't that give us the advantage?'
'…good for us I guess.'
"Watch out! They're coming from underneath us!" Tachibana warned everyone. Causing Naruto to jump back while Sasuke and Sakura aimed their weapons and tossed them at the snow as soon as they saw it move.
Sasuke's enemy was greeted with a fireball to the face while Sakura's with an explosion tag kunai.
Yamato's enemy deflected the kunai that came for his throat almost immediately and escaped the ground with a protective stance.
As soon as Tachibana tried to smash a kunai into the crown of his enemy, however, he vanished from underneath him as a sharp blade stabbed his neck.
Tachibana was shocked as he felt his throat fill with blood.
'What…?'
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A/N : Did he die?
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