Once the plan had been agreed, Ran began her work. Becoming very still and calm, she faced towards the river, and made the series of hand signs that activated the Earth Release Labyrinth technique. For their purposes it didn't need to be fancy and full of twists, turns and traps, just to get them from here to there. The rock beneath the river was hard and densely formed, and tunnelling beneath it was difficult, but in time, Ran managed to make a passable tunnel, a little on the small side, and not hugely stable, to take her and Shinso across, and up by sloping stairways gradually towards the surface. She stopped, putting bare hands against the rock and feeling for movement above, then continuing on with her tunnel, now horizontal to the forested ground above them, but heading onwards in a twisting pattern as she tried to follow the faint sensations nearer to the people on the surface who were creating them. During this time she was silent, concentrating, but after the fourth of fifth stop, Ran smiled, looked to Shinso, and pointed up. βThere's one up there, alone, and I think, wounded,β she whispered. Their movement had been slow and irregular, and it was hard to pinpoint exactly, but as far as she could tell, they were definitely alone. βTime to put yourself in here,β she put her gloves back on, got out a shuriken and held it out on the palm of her hand.
While Shinso activated his sealing technique, Ran took the time to open up the tunnel in front of them, a little wider, and close it off behind with a simple wall that they could easily bash through if they needed to, but that their prey was unlikely to notice. Ran was getting tired, her chakra reserves weren't going to be able to take too much more moving quantities of earth around, but all she needed to do now was get to the surface. She holstered the Shinso-shuriken, making sure to note its exact location, before she completed another quick hand sign, turning the earth above her to soft sand and letting her βswimβ easily through the earth to the surface. She emerged in woodland, and instantly hopped into some nearby undergrowth, peering around for a sign of the shinobi she had felt earlier. Ran had to do a little searching, she hadn't emerged particularly nearby, but she heard breathing, heavier than normal, a little hiss and a quiet swearword uttered, and as she peered around a tree, saw a Sand shinobi, cloaked and with the turban-like robes that the Sunagakure ANBU wore instead of masks concealing her face. She was not looking in peak condition, her clothing was dirty and ripped, and she was attempting to tie a splint made from a branch to her leg that looked quiet obviously broken. She was so absorbed in her task, and trying to do it quietly, that she hadn't noticed Ran sneaking up on her. Her team-mates probably left her behind, thought Ran, or else she just couldn't keep up with them. Well, good. It meant that Ran's own people had at least inflicted some casualties, that even taken by surprise the Root ANBU weren't totally inept.
Ran took out the Shinso-shuriken, gave it a glance, then threw. It was all up to Shinso from here, although there wasn't too much to challenge him, except for one thing. Hunkering back down into the bushes immediately, she already had her hands on the ground. Once Shinso had immobilised her, all three of them would be sinking into the ground, and down into Ran's tunnel below.