Blue Bird Squad raced back the way they had come, relying on their familiarity with the terrain and Hyuga Tianyi's early warnings.
They reached the valley chosen for the ambush first.
Natural erosion had carved it into a maze of narrow, winding gullies.
Heavily weathered stone pillars and cliffs rose on either side, while jagged rocks littered the ground.
Only a sliver of sky showed overhead. Dark and oppressive, the place was perfect for concealment and surprise attacks.
"Cat, take her to the designated hiding place. No matter what happens, don't come out unless you hear my signal."
Captain Blue Bird gave the order quickly.
Cat nodded silently and picked up the eight-year-old Uzumaki girl.
She slipped soundlessly into a narrow crevice at the base of a cliff, vanishing deep inside.
There, she began setting up a simple barrier to muffle sound and conceal their presence.
Meanwhile, Tianyi, Blue Bird, and Crow prepared the ambush.
Hyuga Tianyi activated his Byakugan. His sight pierced through every inch of terrain from the valley entrance to the heart of the ambush site.
Even the structure of each rock lay clear before him.
Guided by that precise vision, he picked out the gully bends the enemy was most likely to pass, the shadows of stone pillars, and spots high on the cliffs.
He discreetly set multiple triggered flash-bomb traps and pit traps there, along with...
Special Kunai bearing the Flying Thunder God Formula—more than enough to cover the area. He used chakra to wedge them into cracks in the stone,
bury them in the earth, or suspend them from threads as fine as spider silk. Their cunning placement formed a hidden network of Flying Thunder God coordinates.
Captain Blue Bird and Cat focused on the more destructive Explosive Tag traps.
They planted them along