Pretending they hadn't noticed their tail was a double-edged sword; it left them some element of surprise to use, but it also meant that their would-be attackers had the option to pick the ground. Sasuke's jaw tightened slightly as they rounded a curve in the road and it became clear exactly why they hadn't been ambushed until now: rising from between the trees was a high spur of rock, several times again the average person's height. The road had been cut through the centre of the formation, comfortably wide but unpleasantly claustrophobic for their purposes.

... yeah, Sasuke decided, that was not where he wanted to deal with an ambush.

"Hold on," he said out loud, keeping his senses carefully attuned for sound in the silence around them, and knelt on the pretext of adjusting something with his shoe. There were in fact stones all over Stone, so he made a show of trying to knock one loose, buying them time. "Maybe we should just take a break."

That seemed to be the signal needed. With a sudden rush of chakra, a quintet of shinobi appeared in front of them, ringed in a half-circle just out of sword's reach. Their forehead protectors marked them out as Kiri-nin, something that made Sasuke's eyes narrow as he straightened back up. Most of their landings had been less than impressive, but at least one -- startlingly red-headed, oddly enough -- moved with real stealth.

That one stepped forward now, expression cool: "We want something you're carrying. Don't resist, and we won't hurt you."

"We're not infringing on anyone's territory," Sasuke replied, moving the decoy package behind him in a signal to Adela -- follow the plan.