A FEW OTHER THINGS

Kakashi was the first to realise that they weren't alone but he said nothing about it. They'd been following Sasuke and had barely enough time to stop and hide as the barrier went up around the village. He himself had only just managed to stop and pull Sakura out of the danger before they too would have been...repelled. Sam's eyes opened.

"Oh, you're alive." He said to the boy as he listened to Inoichi Yamanaka's voice in his head.

"It's a good one and more than likely, it's coming from outside the village." He concluded "I haven't seen one this strong since the Hokage fought that snake bastard. We've sent some Anbu to test the entire range for weaknesses but unless we can find who or what is generating it, I don't think we'll be able to bring it down. We'll have to count on Anko and her team. They're the only ones outside the wall who have enough intel to make sense of this."

Sam was looking about him, assessing the situation. "A barrier?" Sam asked finally

"Yes. It seems to cover the entire village. Yamanaka says that he can't sense anything beyond the wall. We've been cut off." Kakashi replied

"From help?" asked Sam

Kakashi turned to him, "No, from escape."

It was a strange situation indeed and getting stranger by the minute. In a lot of ways, it was an ideal attack scenario; a true classic. The Akatsuki wanted Naruto and perhaps Erica, so they created a diversion. They had somehow enlisted Sasuke to draw Naruto away and used a barrier jutsu to prevent any aid from reaching them. However, some things didn't add up. Why was Sasuke working with the Akatsuki; the very organisation his despised brother belonged to? Why did he abandon his comrades, who clearly didn't know that they were going to be sealed inside of Konoha? Was this the work of the masked man calling himself Madara or was this some variation on Pein's attack on Konoha?

These were questions that could not be answered by the information Erica had provided them. Some things were the same; Pein's jutsu's and the abilities of the Akatsuki members. Other details of the attack were completely different. It had been Itachi who had first suggested the possibility that Erica's and his own actions could have changed the manner in which events would unfold. It seemed as though the younger man had been right.

"What do we do sensei?" Sakura asked

He smiled beneath his mask. It had been a long time since she had forgotten herself and called him teacher.

"We're not getting through the barrier here. We'd need to find out which of our attackers created it and disable them."

"Will Naruto be okay? That Sasuke guy is pretty strong." Sam asked

"I'm sure he'll be fine. I think we need to focus on our opponents now and let Naruto deal with Sasuke." he replied. He hoped that it was true but knew that they had to get through that barrier. If Naruto lost control...

"Opponents? What opponents?" Sam asked, finally spreading his chakra to scan the environment. Kakashi deactivated the sharingan, deciding that he may have more need of it later.

A sudden wind buffeted his face as Deidara of the Akatsuki came over the forest from the direction of the gate. Clinging to the clay bird and shrieking about not liking heights was the strange masked man who had replaced Sasori in the organisation. Usually Kakashi would never back down from a fight as potentially challenging as this would be but these were not normal circumstances. Tobi, who claimed to be Uchiha Madara, was playing the part of the idiot but Kakashi wasn't fooled. If even half of what Erica said about him was true, then his very presence in Konoha put everyone at risk. Deidara was a strong opponent but Tobi was the real threat.

Information is power for a shinobi. The right information can save lives in the field and cripple seemingly invincible foes. He could only hope that this was the case now. The Hokage and her advisory council had analyzed the information Erica had given them and developed a strategy for dealing with the problem of the Akatsuki and Pein's attack on Konoha. A part of that plan was the development of specialised squads for taking down the various members of the Akatsuki. It hadn't been luck that had sent Anko's team out of the village once they recognised Pein as the attacker. Kakashi himself had been assigned to the squad designated to fight Tobi. However, his team was likely scattered across Konoha engaged in various individual battles and frankly, Kakashi couldn't think of a worse place to fight Tobi that inside the village.

He reached up and turned on his radio. There was no point in maintaining radio silence if their enemies were inside the walls.

"Yamanaka, we need Team Sendo at my co-ordinates. Leak the information to Danzo as well. Have you had any response from Anko's Team? Okay, soon." Kakashi turned the headset back off.

The clay bird was almost on top of them.

"Hatake san, what do we do?" Sam asked

He analysed their chances. Sam was an inexperienced fighter who was prone to sporadic fits of impulsiveness. Sakura was more experienced but was better at close combat. Most of her powerful attacks would be useless unless they could somehow get her in the air. Sam's special power could be of use but he was still untrained in using that ability in combat. He'd only used it effectively when they'd retrieved Erica. They would stand a chance if their back up arrived in time but he wasn't willing to risk the lives of his team on that chance; especially when Tobi didn't seem hostile.

"Sempai!" Tobi squealed in panic as the bird carrying the two of them rose and fell erratically.

"I'm not your goddamn Sempai! Now get the hell off!"

"But Sem...Deidara-chan! Tobi is afraid of heights!"

"Just jump off, yeah!"

"Sempaii!"

The bird banked sharply and crossed over the wall and through the barrier. As it passed outside the wall the invisible force slowly pushed Tobi off. He fell as gracefully as a rock and landed in a cloud of dust at the very edge of the forest.

"Sempaii!"

"Stop calling me Sempai, you Uchiha freak!" Deidara yelled, sneering as the wind swirled around him. He turned to face Kakashi, "Oy, ever wonder why the Kyuubi went berserk and nearly destroyed your village?" He hooked a thumb in the direction of Tobi who was pushing himself awkwardly to his feet. "Consider it a gift from Pein-sama to Konoha, yeah." With an irritating smirk, the blonde gave a wave and turned the bird towards an area of forest that was emitting smoke and the sound of lightening.

It was all Kakashi could do to resist 'facepalming' as Erica would say. He was not a man to believe in luck (black cat excuses or not) but he was seriously beginning to think that Sam and Erica were ill omened. He resolved to be more involved in Sam's efforts to get home.

Tobi turned to look at Deidara and then back to them. They watched as the air seemed to swirl around him like water going down a drain. For a moment nothing happened then a wave of killing intent spread across the area while a rage filled red eye opened.