Night was falling by the time she felt chakra signatures approaching. The three Sound shinobi. They weren't just coincidentally in the area either. Their movements suggested they were actively looking for something. Haruka didn't curse out loud, but she really, really wanted to. Her chakra reserves had recovered somewhat over the past two hours, but it wasn't enough.
She slowly left her hiding spot under the roots, picking up two small stones as she went. No point staying out of sight if the Oto nin already knew where to look, and she wouldn't risk letting them near her defenseless teammates. She pulled her wakizashi and tanto free of their sheaths, taking a fighting stance. After her training with Zabuza, Haruka was under no illusions that her skill with blades was anything but that of an amateur, but she'd used almost all of her team's projectiles on the traps and couldn't risk solely relying on chakra for this fight.
"Stop playing around little girl and wake up Sasuke. We want to fight him," the guy with the bandaged face and straw raincoat said. Haruka ignored him, instead throwing one of her stones at a wire to his right. A moment later a barrage of shuriken flew out of the trees and straight at them. The Oto shinobi looked surprised, but jumped up and out of the way. Straight into the path of the second barrage, Haruka released with the other stone a moment later. They couldn't dodge mid-air, but the boy without the bandages managed to blow a few of the projectiles away with wind jutsu before they hit, while the other boy used his straw coat to block some of the others. The girl of their team got cut up pretty badly though. They could have protected her, if they'd so chosen, but apparently they were a team in name only. All going after the same goal, yet moving completely independently of each other.
Raincoat Guy snarled something at the other two and then came running at her while they stayed back. Idiot, she thought. Haruka wasn't about to complain though, it would be hard enough to dodge the guy's weird chakra punches and keep him away from her unconscious teammates even if she didn't have to deal with the other two.
She jumped over the first punch, staying well clear of the chakra wave that followed it and landed behind her opponent in a crouch. Turning as she straightened and drawing her wakizashi across his back from shoulder to hip. Her steel bit deep, but he moved out of the way before her tanto could pierce his lungs. Still, the wound would slow him down significantly.
Haruka jumped and rolled to the right the instant she felt someone use a jutsu behind her. Not a second too soon it turned out. Apparently the Oto team wasn't all that concerned about fair play after all. The second guy had both arms outstretched in front of him and two streams of wind ripped through the place she'd stood in a moment earlier. Haruka felt three more chakra signatures closing in, but couldn't concentrate enough to find out who they belonged to.
The next few minutes were spent desperately rolling and dodging as the Oto kunoichi threw senbon after senbon, luckily her accuracy was a lot worse than Haku's, and the guy without the bandages threw the occasional wind jutsu into the mix. Haruka managed well enough, even got to set off a few more of the traps, but it wasn't something she could keep up forever.
"Death Knell!" Raincoat Guy suddenly shouted and she was hit by a wave of sound and chakra. Fuck, she'd forgotten about him. She almost fell, suddenly nauseous and desperately trying to keep her balance. Her arms and legs were shaking with the effort, but she managed to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged.
The three Sound shinobi were laughing while one of them explained that the technique worked by attacking the ear drum and inner ear. The voice was weirdly muffled and very hard to hear. Haruka didn't even understand why until she noticed the blood dripping out of her ears. If she didn't move soon that would be the least of her injuries though.
"Shadow Possession complete," another voice said, and then there was an uproar. Nara Shikamaru forced the Oto nin to stand still, while they tried to struggle against his jutsu, but all they really managed to do was shout profanities and insults. His teammates, Ino and the Akimichi boy, used their chance to bind the other team's hands and feet with ninja wire. They finished only seconds before Shikamaru lost control of the shadow, but Haruka was incredibly grateful for the help. At least right up until Ino pointed a kunai in her direction.
"I know I look bad," Haruka told the other girl. "But I promise I can kill you before that thing leaves your hand." Ino flinched back at that, but didn't lower the weapon.
"We came to help," Shikamaru said with a look at his blond teammate. "We'll just take their scroll and be on our way." Haruka eyed him for a moment and then pulled out her Heaven Scroll.
"Theirs is Earth, just like yours. Also, I know perfectly well that your initial plan was to wait out the fight hoping that the winner would be weak enough for you to steal the scroll you need."
Shikamaru gave her a sheepish smile at that, asking if she'd be willing to part with the scroll, since they had helped her in the end. She told him she might because it was merely a spare and then stopped mid word when she felt another chakra signature approaching at high speed.
Kakashi landed in front of the little group only moments later, looking incredibly pissed. He gave her a quick once over, checking for injuries and then inquired about the boys without sparing so much as a glance for anyone else. Haruka explained what had happened to them and that Sasuke's fever had broken shortly before the Oto nin had attacked. Kakashi in turn informed her that the people Jubei had found had been so concerned with the threat Orochimaru's presence posed that they hadn't thought it important enough to sent someone for Team 7. Jubei, who was perched on the jonin's shoulder, supplied that he'd gone to find Kakashi then.
"Come on, I'll get you back to the tower," the latter said, but Haruka shook her head.
"We'll be disqualified if you do that, won't we?" She asked and then continued when he nodded. "The boys would be so pissed. I think I'll enlist Team 10 as an escort instead." Shikamaru groaned at that and mumbled something about troublesome women, but agreed, knowing it would be the easiest way to get the scroll they needed.
Haruka almost collapsed to the floor in laughter when Kakashi signed: 'Confirm —decision,' at her. But she dutifully signed back, that yes she was sure, no this wasn't a hostage situation and thank you for worrying. That last one had him disappearing in a cloud of chakra smoke, as she knew it would.
Afterwards she relieved the Sound shinobi of their Earth Scroll and threw Naruto over her shoulder, while Choji carried Sasuke. Ino almost had a panic attack when she saw the Uchiha, but Shikamaru took care of that and they made their way towards the tower.