The ocean outside roared violently as wind and rain tossed the waves over each other. Noburu Akachi watched the violent scene from the warm comfort of his own home, his opium pipe sat over on the table untouched. The last four years he had grown rather fond of the pipe and the relaxing effects of the valuable drug spending his hours before bed enjoying and the view out his living room window.

He sighed, in light of the recent deaths of his men he had been forced to abandon the comfort along with other luxuries he had grown accustomed to. After spending years living off whatever scraps Zabuza could offer him he had become rather complacent with the local luxuries, he had forgotten the dangers of being a shinobi of having danger loom around every corner constantly needing to be on his guard.

A knock came at the door and he ordered his servant to enter, one of his lieutenants cracked the door to speak.

"Master… Jiro didn't attend the meeting earlier today neither did his second" he reported, "What's more our spies claimed to have seen those four leaf shinobi checking in at the Inn, they seemed to have been gravely injured, supposedly by these unseen enemies."

Noburu sighed, when he had learned of Kakashi's recent appearance earlier today he had suspected the Leaf Villages involvement, but less than twenty four hours and it seemed there troublesome vigilantes had already attacked them.

"Years of easy living have made us soft; the people of this country may be terrified of these killers… but so long as it's just us getting knocked around they won't do anything about it."

"What are you saying Master Akachi?"

"I'm saying we give the people of this country a common enemy."

Hinata lay asleep on the bed; they had managed to stabilize her conditions and bring her back to the inn and put her to bed. Naruto was sitting at the foot of the bed watching her sleep; Kakashi had been going over his end of the story over and over again trying to make sure they covered every detail of their encounter with the rouge shinobi. The man Jiro he had tried to capture was currently being held in the other room waiting for questing.

"Kumo Sabaku" said Kakashi looking through his bingo book, "It's good to put a face to the name… but he isn't listed anywhere, unlike that man Doro who's been wanted dead by the Hidden Mist village for eight years now."

"He said his mother was a sand village ambassador named Supūru Sabaku, he claimed she was… involved with Hiashi Hyūga."

"If that's true than that would really make him Hinata's half-brother, it's no wonder he's not in the bingo book. If the Leaf learned that the Sand Village possessed someone with the Byakugan I could start a war." Said Kakashi closing the black book.

"But he isn't with the Sand Village anymore, he's a rouge ninja," said Naruto, "He joined Zabuza along with his friend, and now he's hunting down the rest of Zabuza's followers and anyone who's getting in their way."

"From your story Naruto you provoked him into attacking you, if Hinata hadn't seen his Byakugan he probably would have let you leave mostly unscathed" explained Kakashi, "Tenten said when she was restrained that man warned her that innocent people could be drawn in the crossfire if we remained in the country. And considering you and Hinata were targeted when you visited the murder scene I can only assume they meant us along with the people of this country, I wouldn't put it past Zabuza's followers to hurt innocents to protect themselves."

Naruto gritted his teeth, "So you think we should just take their word and leave? After what they did to Hinata!?"

Kakashi shook his head, "For now I think we should observe their actions and see if they stay true to their word, make sure this little dispute doesn't end with civilians in there crossfire." Tenten opened the door dressed in her sleeping clothes, her chocolate hair was down and wet from her shower.

"They attacked us and you want to just give them a free pass?" she asked crossing her arms.

"No, until we know more about who these people are we can't really pass judgment upon them, if their motivations are as simple as they claim I see no reason to turn them into enemies."

Naruto stood and glared at Kakashi, "That Creep Kumo tries to kill Hinata and you don't think he's an enemy."

"Naruto" said Kakashi putting a hand on his shoulder, "I know this isn't easy for you, but right now I have to think about the good of the mission, we were asked to investigate the murders and act accordingly, despite their actions they are not enemies of the Leaf, it may sound strange to you but that creep as you call him was simply trying to protect his own skin."

"But-" he began only to be cut off by Kakashi.

"If anyone tried to take my Sharingan from me or make me there lapdog for it I'd probably kill them too."

"Hinata isn't like that." He retorted fists clenched.

"No" agreed Kakashi, "she isn't like that, but the same can hardly be said about her family. I believe you remember the brand on Neji's forehead binding him to the will of the main branch, Kumo fears that brand and will do whatever he must to avoid it."

Kakashi moved to the door, "I'm going to ask our friend some questions" he said leaving.

Tenten walked over and sat down on the side of the bed shaking her head to get the water out of her ears. "Go take a shower Naruto you look like shit."

He did look pretty awful dressed covered in mud and blood his clothes torn and ragged especially his shirt having been cut open by Kumo's swords, he looked over to the sleeping Hinata on the bed.

"Don't worry" said Tenten reading his thoughts, "I'll watch over her for you the showers just down the hall so you'll hear if anything happens."

Naruto nodded picking up his pack giving Hinata one last glance before leaving to clean himself up.

The Kunai twirled in Kakashi's hands as he leaned against the wall; he had no intention of torturing Jiro, cutting him to pieces would only make things messy and unreliable, Ibiki had taught him that. The Kunai was just a simple nonverbal reminder that he could torture the information out of him if he so wished. It also served to make him ask question particularly 'what is he going to do with that kunai' and forget about what other people could do to him for talking.

"My friend says you were able to identify the man who managed to snare you. So I'm interested in what you could tell me about them, I was attacked by another man who could control metal. What can you tell me about him?'

Jiro was sitting in a chair his body still restrained by the wires that had ensnared him. "If I tell you… promise me you won't send me back to the Mist Village."

Kakashi took a few seconds to look like he was mulling it over, putting the kunai down he smiled.

"I think I can agree to that, now tell me about these shinobi."

"Their names are Kumo Sabaku and Nenshō Kinzoku I used to work with them when we were following Zabuza around and doing work for Gatō" Jiro explained.

"There not listed in the Bingo book, how did Zabuza come to acquire them as followers?" he asked trying to keep a steady flow of questions, another tactic Ibiki had taught him keeping the questions constant could keep the victim thinking more about the answers instead of the consequences of giving them away or ways to lie around the questions.

"They're both Genin from the Hidden sand village; they both left their village around the same time. Kumo was exiled because of the troubles his Kekkei Genkai could have caused. Nenshō left because of his clan as far as I can tell. We found them surviving in the land of fire, Kumo was a wanted poacher with a bounty on his head. While Nenshō had a bounty posted by his own clan for some reason."

Kakashi turned around and picked up the kunai again just to keep him guessing, "So Zabuza had taken up the bounties on both of them to earn some money? Is that right?"

Jiro nodded, "Yeah he was prepared to kill them… until he learned what they were. Neither of them really argued about him taking them into his fold. Nenshō was starving when he found him and Kumo had gone almost a year without talking to anyone. They were really young back then just a year or two older than Haku but very talented, Kumo was already an accomplished puppet master with an uncanny proficiency for razor wires he could control and make simply by focusing his chakra, it's another bloodline trait he possesses."

"And Nenshō?"

"He was unbelievable with his metal, no one had heard of such a Kekkei Genkai before but there was more to him than that, it took Zabuza awhile but he learned he could create balls of fire in his own hand and manipulate them. The kid said his clan didn't think he possessed their blood line trait but he learned to harness it as well as his metal manipulation."

"So why are they hunting you?" Kakashi tossed the kunai into the air and caught it spinning it three times before tossing it again.

"When Zabuza died he left us orders to destroy Gatō and his criminal empire."

"But you had different plans didn't you?"

"It took some work but despite the setbacks the country was still easy picking for organized crime, and Gatō's death created a power vacuum. We began to take over the gambling houses and drug trade on the island. But there were those that felt obligated to follow the orders of a corpse it started something of a civil war, what's more some tracker ninja from the land of mist were onto us. So we made them a deal; look the other way and we would help them get their hands on unique Kekkei Genkai, including a Byakugan."

"So you betrayed your former comrades." It wasn't a question, the tone of accusation evident in his voice."

"Zabuza was dead and buried" defend Jiro, "and so was his dream we only did what any shinobi would have done, point is they both were taken prisoner by the Hidden Mist, until today I had thought they were either dead or in prison, looks like they escaped."

Kakashi picked the man up and flung him over his shoulders. "Let's go downtown I don't know what else I can ask scum like you."

Kumo opened his leather pouch and pulled a few dried leaves from it crumbling them in his hand before sprinkling them onto Nenshō's wound. They had managed to find an abandoned warehouse on the town's docks to use as a temporary warehouse; the burning lamps gave them enough room to care for their injuries.

"That Chidori is more powerful that I could have imagined it went through your armor with such ease" commented Kumo handing a small piece of metal wire to him.

"Shut up and let me cauterize the damn thing closed" he said sitting still as Kumo inspected the massive cut.

"Sorry but you're going to need to give this wound some time to close before you do that unless you want to risk nerve damage, or maybe you would prefer to go into shock."

Sighing Kumo took the piece of wire in his hand and shifted the metal to form a sewing needle for Kumo, Nenshō couldn't shift metal unless he had contact with it and managed to implant a small amount of chakra into it, eventually the chakra ran out in the metal the time depending how much chakra he poured in.

Kumo threaded the needle and began to painfully close it causing Nenshō to grind his teeth, "The herbs I sprinkled on should fight infection, give it a day or two and you can burn it closed."

Nenshō nodded, "What should we do about the leaf shinobi?" he asked shifting his armor back over his wound to cover it, with the metal wire keeping it closed he could make sure the wound didn't open up again.

"I doubt they will leave, but if they try to we have to pursue in case they intend to bring back more Ninja, and ANBU team here would ruin everything let alone more Hyūga's."

Nenshō smirked, "If we're lucky I'll get a rematch with Kakashi, not to mention getting finishing off that Hyūga girl."

Kumo didn't want to talk about killing the Hyūga girl, the sound of her scream sounded through his mind and he shuttered, he hated to have others pulled into this, especially people he had blood ties too.

"Kakashi will be hard enough but that Naruto guy will be difficult, it doesn't show very well but he has an uncanny amount of chakra and a temper to match, we need to leave them alone for now and focus on getting to Noburu."

"What about Jiro?" he asked, "you missed your chance to get him."

"Jiro's small getting him will be easy, but Noburu's pulling all the stings, we kill him and everyone else is easy pickings."

"And then what?" Nenshō asked taking a smoke out and lighting it with his finger.

Kumo gave a little half smile, "Don't know we never thought that far."