"A fight… between enemy shinobi?" Naruto wondered, before spotting something else higher up above him.
It was hidden conspicuously so that only a shinobi would notice, but it was clearly there. The sun pretty much silhouetted it. Up in a bird's nest a couple stories above the ground, the blonde spotted a kunai sticking out from the twigs, refracting the sun's rays when it tried to pass through it and cast a shadow across the area. Naruto quickly hopped up to the canopy and carefully pulled the blade out, making sure the eggs were okay before jumping back down.
"That's an odd place to put something." It was an odd knife, not like any of Konoha's weapons, with a slight curve to its blade and an extra prong protruding from the cutting edge, ideal for shaving through enemies. He also noticed there was a piece of paper tied around the handle. It wasn't a paper bomb or anything like that. That much was made clear to him when he didn't pick up any specific markings or powders, or that it was big enough to be an explosive. It didn't detonate on contact either.
This was something else.
Before he could make heads-or-tails with what had gone on around here though, Naruto suddenly detected a disturbance on the wind and crouched low in the center of the clearing. His instincts kick starting at the sound of approaching danger, his gaze hardened and he placed a hand on the floor so that he could get a bead on the infiltrators.
The vibrations gave him all the Intel he needed. "There's someone here. No… three people?"
The instant he realized this, two shadows suddenly dropped down from the treetops on either side of him at a distance. The individuals then rushed at him from his left and right, attempting to blindside the boy with their speed and get him in a simultaneous attack on the first move.
Already aware of their presence, Naruto pocketed the knife, sprang to his feet and dashed at the one coming from his right. He met the attacker halfway who made to jump at him and strike from up high, but the blonde anticipated this move and slid under, slamming both hands into their lower and upper body and tossing them over when they failed to react to a counter. The act of throwing said attacker sent the person hurling into the other, who was also jumping to attack but ended up having their partner crash into them
The impact sent both of them flying back, but they quickly recovered and separated, back-flipping before landing in crouched stances. The moment they landed they dashed in and attacked simultaneously. A surprised Naruto started ducking and weaving as they assaulted him one after the other, aiming to bring him down with low and high blows, punches and kicks. "Whoa! Yikes! Hey… w-what… geez!" The jinchuriki danced between them, using swaying and evasive maneuvers he had previously used against Sasuke to avoid the duel fighters before allowing them to fly passed him and fall back. He too leapt away in a hasty retreat, hands hanging at his sides as he locked his best hostile glare onto them.
The two masked attackers put distance between them and their target, one taking up position behind the other, with the individual up front on their feet and glaring across at the boy.
"This is no ordinary brat!" the head attacker exclaimed, before both of them drew their swords from their backs. The blades flashed under the sun, alerting Naruto to the change in the fight's nature as well as an increase in danger.
It was during the stand-off the jinchuriki was able to take quick stock of their appearances as well as their abilities thus far. They both fought well in conjunction with the other, using speed, tenacity and coordination honed from years of experience. This made them a big threat. As for their outlooks, the one ahead of him was about half his body taller, same as the person backing them up. The two of them also wore dark shirts, trousers, sandals, gloves, and dark grey, figure-hugging body vests similar to an ANBU's. They also carried swords and had black fabric masks covering their faces, keeping their identities secret. The only way you could tell them apart was that one had short light brown hair and the other had shoulder-length dark brown hair, almost maroon in comparison to the other.
There was one other thing Naruto came to the awareness of.
The blonde blinked as he glared up at them. "You two are girls?" The way their shoulders twitched gave him his answer. He lowered his stance and glanced between them harshly. "Kunoichi, huh?. I guess I can safely say that you're not from this village either."
A light thump behind him followed by fast approaching footsteps cut Naruto short from his interrogation. Not a smart thing to do when in a fight but he wanted answers, and his little Q&A session didn't stop him from responding to the sneak attack, in which he back-flipped right over another masked kunoichi lunging at him from behind. He kicked off of the back of their head and sent them stumbling forward, allowing him to make a greater leap and land further away from the enemy.
When he did and set himself in a crouched position, he glared up to see all three enemy shinobi up on their feet and staring at him. It was kind of a creepy sight with all of them wearing masks where only their eyes were visible.
"A party of three, though I would have preferred one," Naruto grumbled, looking at the previous two before focusing on the newcomer, who had short silver and grey hair to match her mask. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing skulking around these woods?"
They were blunt questions sure, ones he knew he wasn't going to get answers to so easily but was still compelled to ask. It wasn't like he was getting defensive about 'his' territory exactly, the problem was much bigger than that. So, instead of bitching about the odds Naruto decided to step back a little for more space, noticing in that split instance the eyes of the silver haired kunoichi glance towards his pocket before looking back towards him.
It was thanks to that subtle lapse in attention that the blonde was able to discern what this team of enemy kunoichi was really after, which had him smirk deviously.
"So you're after the kunai? It must be pretty important for you to be trying to kill a scrappy young kid just to get your hands on it." He saw the trio flinch, which caused his smirk to unconsciously widen. "Too bad. I've got it and I ain't giving it back."
The woman with the silver hair grunted. "Stupid boy. Hand over the weapon and we'll let you go. If you don't, then we'll make you give it to us."
Naruto shook his head. "You know I hate it when people don't say the magic word. But as much as I'd like to talk about proper manners with you and stuff, I'd rather rip off those masks so I can get a good look at your faces!" Throwing his right hand up, he then tossed a pellet into the ground. The ball detonated and filled the air with a thick white smoke, blocking him completely from view.