Ayane braced for impact, knowing that her tactic in the previous encounter wasn’t for the teams best, which was proven by Nathaniels broken state. The scrolls she had found wouldn’t hold the onslaught back for long, at least the girl from Kiri looked like she had one or two things on her mind,and was just about ready to tell everyone about it.
"Good morning."
A man was standing on a branch overlooking the clearing. Somehow he’d managed to sneak up on the whole team, but they had been busy with other stuff. He wore a mask, which made it impossible to say anything about his features, and his clothes left no patch of skin revealed. Going from only his voice it was a young adult, but he might’ve been older. 
Attack is the best defence, or at least Zee from Kumo though so, she immediately launched a couple of attacks against the newcomer. A short fight erupted, Zee fought like she had before, with fury and intent. The newcomer seemed to focus on blocking and evading. Was he just here to grab their attention while the rest of his team snuck up on them from behind?
Ayane looked around, suddenly every branch and bush seemed impossibly humanoid, she could’ve sworn that one or two of them had moved as well. 
A huge explosion covered half the clearing in mist, and Zee charged right through it. Ayane stood still, one hand already forming chakra threads that sought Zanza’s weaponry. As a puppeteer her place was almost stationary, she was supposed to survey the battlefield, find an opening and strike hard. The threads reached Zanza’s large swords and Ayane felt a tiny bit relaxed, at least now she was armed, but not in a way that most people would notice. If they were ambushed she could send two razor-sharp zanbatou at the attacker(s) while her team got ready and she had time to summon a functioning doll.

Something moved in the corner of her eye, small and swift. Then the man stood before her in full figure. Somehow he’d escaped Zee’s attacks and managed to get to the other side of the clearing without being intercepted. Either everyone else had gotten extremely slow in the last two seconds or they were waiting for something. 
"Why, it's almost as if you are afraid of me talking for some strange reason. I wonder why?" His words were aimed at Zee, but he seemed to keep one eye on the rest of the team. "Look, I saw the rest of your team on the way here. Two of them were already dead and the other two didn't look like they were going to last when I left. I bare no ill will against you because I have to admit your plan to infiltrate another team was a good one but the rest of your team has failed you and made the point of this battle meaningless. I am asking you to cut your losses and walk away with your life."

…

[i]”What?”[/i] She thought, her mind racing to form a question, but Shingetsu from Kiri was faster. “What are you talking about?” He said, it was crude, but short and concise, straight to the point. She liked it. Anyway, back to the point, what?
What other team? Who was this guy? Cut what losses? The questions bundled up inside her, but she couldn’t just shout them out, that wouldn’t be proper. Instead her eyes shifted rapidly from Zee to the stranger. Zee was getting ready to attack again, Ayane saw it in her eyes, she was in battle mode, perhaps she hadn’t even heard what the stranger had said, only that he had spoken. With her fingertips Ayane tried moving the sword just a little, just to be sure that they weren’t stuck. If the battle erupted she might need them.