Tachibana watched as Shizune sealed away Tsunade's body into one single scroll so that her funeral could be conducted in the village once they returned.
Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all looked depressed.
Yamato was the only one among all of them that managed to keep his emotions in check. Firstly, he wasn't very close to Tsunade and he'd seen several more deaths while he was part of the ROOT and ANBU and more recently the death of one of his closest friends, Kakashi.
With the shogi pieces in their hands, ones that Tsunade had inscribed the seals to keep them safe from jutsus that interfered with space, everyone hoped that Tsunade would have a better experience of life on the other side than she'd done on this one.
"Let's move. I'm sure the Kumo team will still be hot on our tails to attack us at our worst." Yamato said with a commanding tone that left very little for discussion.
Tachibana, however, quickly interrupted.
"Let me divine about it first."
Yamato's eyes widened subtly but he hid them from everyone present and nodded for Tachibana to do what he wished.
Tachibana undid the topaz pendulum wrapped around his waist and let it come to a still before he closed his eyes and entered cogitation.
With his lips opening to let out a thin whisper, Tachibana performed his divination.
"Running away from the enemies pursuing us is the safe option right now."
Tachibana kept his eyes closed and repeated the statement seven times, his voice steady and his hand completely still.
The result was apparent and it's result was revealed to Tachibana even before he looked at the pendulum because of Sakura's audible *gasp*.
Tachibana looked down and sure enough, the pendulum was spinning anti-clockwise.
"....It seems we have to stay and fight." Tachibana spoke with a frown much to the displeasure of both Shizune and Yamato who couldn't understand the divination.
"We're going to die if we do that." Shizune quickly spoke.
But Yamato was more experienced with Tachibana's divinations so he only *sighed*, wiped his face with some water he created using chakra and then *sighed* again as he spoke in a tone that left no room for discussion, again.
"We stay. We fight. It'll depend on fate if we survive."
Shizune's eyes widened as her mouth opened and closed several times but none of the other people doubted Tachibana's divination abilities.
As such, she was forced to suppress her dissatisfaction and listen to Yamato as he spoke again.
"Although we can't run away that doesn't mean we serve ourselves on a platter. We shall adopt the strategy Tachibana-kun told us earlier and attempt to delay the oncoming force using guerrilla warfare until reinforcements from Konoha arrive."
"Can't we inform Konoha about Tsunade-sama's passing away somehow? We also need to tell them about the strange method Kumo used to teleport those explosive seal bombs to us." Tachibana spoke again.
Yamato looked at him and then at Shizune who nodded her head quickly.
"I have Katsuyu-sama's reverse summoning seal with me. I can send her a scroll and ask her to inform Shikaku-sama about the…news…in some way if possible."
Yamato nodded with a *sigh* of relief. "You do that. In the meanwhile, let us prepare a fort."
The genin all focused as Yamato bent low and placed his palms on the ground.
Almost immediately everyone felt a strange tremble underneath their feet. It was hard to balance but after simply sticking their feet to the ground with chakra, they managed to not get thrown off.
Except to their surprise, nothing appeared out of the ground no matter how long passed.
Just when Naruto was about to ask what was happening, Yamato stopped and spoke once again.
"I've laid out an underground fort. It is filled with traps and tricky seals. It will swallow up any shinobi that step anywhere around this area and trap them inside the fort."
The genin's eyes widened since they hadn't expected such a thing was possible, especially since to their eyes everything appeared completely normal on the surface.
"Naruto, you'll be responsible for the chunin and genin shinobi who will be caught in the fort using your shadow clones." Naruto nodded and before he could ask another question Yamato continued-
"The layout is the same as the village around the Hokage office, with the electric poles being replaced for traps so you can make use of it the best.", Yamato explained and Naruto nodded with a serious expression since he knew the village like the back of his hand.
"Sakura and Sasuke, both of you will be responsible for killing any shinobi that manage to survive being taken under by the fortress or try to escape or report back to their HQ in any way."
Sakura and Sasuke nodded, understanding the gravity of their tasks.
Finally, Yamato turned to Shizune who had returned after sending a message to Katsuyu.
"Shizune, you'll be responsible for fighting the Jonin along with me."
Shizune nodded and her hands clenched into fists, alluding to the anger that had filled her after Tsunade's death.
Tachibana on the side was a little confused.
"No role for me?" Tachibana asked Yamato, and Yamato shook his head before speaking calmly, "No, Tachibana-kun, you don't have a role. If you want one, make sure to simply take on the role of being invisible. As long as you can remain invisible you can do whatever you want."
"Why Yamato-sensei? Tachibana-kun is the strongest of us all! Could he not help me in the fortress?" Naruto argued boldly.
Yamato shook his head and explained.
"First it is because Tachibana-kun is the most valuable to Konoha right now. As long as we can get him back to Konoha, he can be of huge help in battle planning with his divinations."
The genin's eyes widened since it was indeed true. Having Tachibana to be able to look into the future and figure out enemy plans would help them to a large extent.
It was much like the advantage the Allied forces gained over the Axis when Turing broke the Enigma.
"Secondly…he's the son of the Daimyo.", Yamato said, albeit with clear regret since he wanted Tachibana to fight too. Especially when they were already low on power since Tsunade had died and they had to possibly fight a stable Jinchuriki alone now.
Tachibana's jaw clenched.
The meaning behind Yamato's words was clear.
If Tachibana died now, they didn't know what kind of backlash they would face from the Daimyo. What if he cut off giving them missions and gave them to an enemy shinobi nation instead?
In times of a sudden war, money was a point of high stress. Everyone was scrambling for proper funding which could mean the difference between life and death.
Especially when their Hokage and Elders were part of the enemy forces too.
Tachibana clenched his fists and spoke in as calm a tone as he could manage, "As long as I don't let them see me anything's fine right?"
Yamato's brows rose in surprise for a second as he asked back, "Got an idea in mind? I'm sure they know about your fire teleportation already and will be careful of your abilities. I think the Jonin in the previous batch we faced also kept an eye on you because our most recent traitors informed them about your abilities."
Tachibana nodded in understanding but didn't reveal anything for now, he simply said, "Don't worry. I won't let them see me. They won't even realise who killed them."
With everything set up, Yamato looked at Naruto before opening a simple slit in the ground from where he could enter the underground wooden fortress.
Naruto looked at everyone and gave his best smile, but everyone could see it was strained. Especially when they heard his sorrow-filled parting words.
"I hope you're all here when I'm back after I kick everyone's ass! If not I'll kick your ass in the afterlife, dattebayo!" Naruto said before jumping into the hole Yamato had created.
Sakura and Sasuke looked at everyone before nodding and taking their position in the extremities of the surrounding area to remain hidden until Yamato's fortress acted and separated the weak from the strong.
Shizune and Yamato remained where they were but Tachibana nodded to them and walked off into the forest, the sound of his feet crunching leaves and branches growing fainter by the minute until it vanished completely.