If they were fighting a band of rag-tag Sky nin long enough for an earth and fire shield to be a threat to their wards, they probably shouldn't have taken the mission in the first place. That was her belief, anyway. Above all else, ninja should be efficient when dispatching enemies and protecting allies.

Sky-nin... She was vaguely aware of Konoha's history with the Land of Sky, and the implausibility of these being actual Sky-nin attacking (the history books had implied there were none left), but she couldn't think of who else would pretend to be Sky nin or why. Particularly not to attack the people they were escorting. Unless there were people in the group that misrepresented their identity? An issue to worry about later.

Fighting back to back was, at least, one of the easiest arrangements when fighting alongside someone she hadn't practiced or planned anything with before. She shifted stance slightly to match his position, and frowned out at the nin approaching from her side. Three were relatively close, but she could see two further out in the trees, hanging back for some reason. If they thought they were out of her range...they were wrong.

"Five." None were in optimum genjutsu position, though, so for the moment...Earth jutsu was the best choice. She drew her sword in a flash, and with the same motion sent a shock of earth toward the nearest (cocky looking) shinobi approaching her. The rippling earth shifted into a grasping hand just as they made to leap out of the way, and the unfortunate shinobi vanished under the crashing tide of earth with an unpleasant shout.

"Four. How many are there out of sight?" She realized the sharingan wasn't strictly a sensory dojutsu, but from what she understood he could probably see further in his direction than she could with it. If she assumed they sent about the same on both sides, doubling what he saw would get a rough estimate. Allowing for the possibility that one or two might try from a different direction, anyway.