Facing Sarutobi Shio, who had led his team away without permission, Uchiha Ryosuke neither tried to stop him nor offered any explanations.
After both sides had moved a certain distance in different directions, Uchiha Ryosuke finally stopped.
He began to look for a suitable spot to set up exploding tags traps.
"Facing such powerful enemies with an unequal strength, staying to confront them head-on or simply fleeing are both unwise. Only by outsmarting them can we win."
"I can only say I'm sorry…"
Uchiha Ryosuke muttered to himself, while simultaneously taking out the exploding tags he had stored and preparing to set up traps.
He deliberately said those words to anger Sarutobi Shio and the others into leaving, mainly to buy himself time.
Splitting up meant that, statistically, the enemy would often choose to pursue the larger group.
After all, they were confident of victory.
And it was precisely while Uchiha Ryosuke was trying to recall how to set traps that a system prompt immediately sounded in his mind.
"Ding! You carefully recalled trap-setting methods and comprehended Top-tier Trap Setting Techniques!"
"Top-tier Trap Setting Techniques allow for the perfect placement of exploding tags, kunai, Shuriken, and other mechanical traps, making them difficult for enemies to detect."
"I can comprehend trap-setting techniques like this?"
Uchiha Ryosuke was a little surprised.
With a thought, he quickly gave it a try.
Instantly, a massive stream of information on how to set exploding tags formations, kunai, and Shuriken mechanical arrays surged into his mind like a mighty river.
These perfect techniques would be very difficult for enemies to detect.
They could be used to deal with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist who were about to pursue him.
Uchiha Ryosuke immediately began to act.
He used his powerful perception to determine the enemy's location and movements.
At the same time, he began to set various traps in places where the enemy was likely to pass.
Meanwhile, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, who were rapidly pursuing, had no idea that deadly traps awaited them.
At this very moment, they were still accelerating their relentless pursuit.
"They've split up," Kuriarare Kushimaru reminded.
"Hmph, won't that just make them die faster?" Munashi Jinpachi sneered.
Suikazan Fuguki grinned menacingly, "Give those three to me, and you all can handle the remaining one."
"Are you kidding? You want to take on three enemies by yourself?" Kurosuki Raiga snorted in question.
From their tone, it was clear that these guys didn't take their impending opponents seriously at all.
After all, whether judging by intelligence reports or the traces left by the enemy during their pursuit, all clues pointed to one fact:
The Konoha Ninja they were currently tracking would not have strength exceeding that of a Chunin.
Wasn't this just a massacre waiting to happen?
"Let's quickly deal with them and then head to the next ambush point."
"Before negotiations make progress, we must inflict as much unbearable damage on Konoha as possible, especially by killing their active forces and draining their fresh blood."
Ameyuri Ringo also chimed in.
Upon hearing this, the seven of them became even more excited, as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
To create cruel slaughter and make Konoha pay a heavy price—this was their important reason for coming to the battlefield… Uchiha Ryosuke had already set up five traps, located in different directions.
They were basically along the routes the enemy was most likely to take.
This also included the retreat routes of Sarutobi Shio, Hyuga Koji, and Uzuki Sen.
At this point, all of his kunai, Shuriken, and exploding tags were used up.
"I should have made those guys give me all their equipment when we separated earlier."
Uchiha Ryosuke felt a pang of regret.
He wasn't finished yet; if he hadn't run out of Ninja tools, he would have liked to set a few more traps to prepare a big surprise for the arriving Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
"Let's hide first."
Thinking this, Uchiha Ryosuke used his camouflage technique, directly merging into a nearby large tree, as if he had completely become part of it.
And it was at this moment that the system prompt sounded in his mind again.
"Ding! You used Camouflage Technique and comprehended Advanced Camouflage Technique."
"Advanced Camouflage Technique allows the user to perform relatively perfect camouflage, making it very difficult for enemies to discover."
Listening to the system prompt ringing in his head and feeling the sudden surge of information in his brain, Uchiha Ryosuke secretly rejoiced.
"This heaven-defying comprehension is becoming more and more useful."
Immediately, Uchiha Ryosuke used the Advanced Camouflage Technique he had just comprehended.
He first cleaned up all the traces left by his previous activities in the vicinity.
Then, he re-merged into the large tree next to the trap.
This time, Uchiha Ryosuke's aura almost completely vanished.
Not only that, his heartbeat, breathing rate, and so on, began to become lower and lower under his conscious control.
This made him almost completely a part of nature.
Even if an enemy stood face to face with Uchiha Ryosuke, they might not be able to detect his presence.
Now, he just needed to patiently wait for the enemy to walk into his trap.
Through his powerful perception, even with thick foliage obstructing his view, Uchiha Ryosuke could clearly hear the enemy's movements.
At about five hundred meters away, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist split into two groups.
One person pursued Uchiha Ryosuke's direction.
The remaining six pursued towards the location where Uzuki Sen and the others had retreated.
"Just as I thought, hehe…" Uchiha Ryosuke chuckled inwardly.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist indeed split into two groups to pursue them.
And only one came towards him, while the rest went after the three Konoha Chunin.
All of this was within Uchiha Ryosuke's predictions.
When he set the traps earlier, his focus was on the retreat routes near Uzuki Sen and Hyuga Koji.
"If I can take out the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist here, it would be like ending their fate early," Uchiha Ryosuke thought silently.
Since the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist's team was still intact, it meant they hadn't encountered Might Dai yet.
If these guys died here, he might become the hero who ended the Third Great Ninja War early.
As he pondered, time passed minute by minute.
Before long, Uchiha Ryosuke clearly heard movement about fifty meters away.
But just as the enemy was about to enter the exploding tags trap he had set, and was on the verge of being blown to smithereens, at that very moment, a sudden loud "boom" echoed from afar.
Fire and thick smoke pierced through the trees and shot into the sky.