Nenshō flicked the ash off his cigarette and watched as the grey matter fell to the earth fifty feet below him. Three days had passed since there encounter with Leaf Shinobi and so far they had been doing nothing but recognizance with Kumo's Byakugan. After paying a visit to Jiro in prison they had managed to pinpoint Noburu's compound on the island, although compound seemed to be a nice way of putting it fortress was probably a more appropriate term, the stone wall stood high and was surrounded by mist obviously a hidden mist technique.
"Is he in there?" he asked stamping out the butt on the branch.
Kumo nodded pulling off his goggles and leather skullcap wiping the sweat from his forehead, "Yeah, along with thirty guards, along ten shinobi, among them is Misuto he's probably casting the mist Jutsu meaning he'll detect us as soon as we get within that mist."
"That's three more since yesterday" said Nenshō cursing , "looks like he's expecting us to walk up the front door."
"If we want to end this we just might have to go through the front door, Jiro admitted to talking to Noburu before we finished him, meaning he knows we're coming for him and why. Right now all of his eggs are in one basket; we just need to destroy the basket."
"So how do you plan to do that?" Asked Nenshō pulling a fresh cigarette from his pack, they'll spot us if we try getting anywhere near that place, and once inside we're surrounded, I'd be easy if they were normal guards, but these guys can be tricky."
"He's trying to bait us, he wants us to fight him on open ground, he knows he can't make many clever traps that I can't see with my Byakugan so even genjutsu is out of the bag for him, and he needs to make sure we are close enough for him to counterattack. It's almost a direct challenge if I've ever seen one."
"So what do we do about it?" he asked lighting the smoke.
"Let's wait a few days and see how things change my guess is we'll have to take him up on his offer, since sneaking in isn't an option all we can do is wait and see if things change in our favor."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we have little choice but to strike."
Hinata stood in line at the food stand waiting on everyone's orders; Kakashi had sent her and Tenten out to get lunch for everyone. Once she had awakened it had taken no time at all to close her wounds with medical Jutsu, though she was still feeling some residual effects from the blood loss. After waking up on a sleeping Naruto she had found herself being attacked by a questioning Tenten who wasn't satisfied with hearing that nothing had happened between them. The weapon master had slipped away to ask a few questions, Kakashi had said the phony murders were starting to increase and all the victims were somehow former members of Gatō's shipping company, he suspected the remnants of Zabuza's followers were trying to get the citizens riled against Kumo and Nenshō with the fake murders, from the rumors circulating it was working, since every murder carried collateral damage unseen before. Some of the murders were clearly the work of those two but it showed with their precision and obvious use of their unique Kekkei Genkai. Two nights ago Jiro was found with the iron bars of his cell wrapped around his body crushing his bones.
"Hello Hinata" a voice whispered in her ear, she turned to see Kumo looming over her, she went for her kunai holster but he grabbed her hand.
"Don't make a scene; this is just a simple genjutsu so there's no reason to panic" He explained letting of her hand, "If you panic, I'll be forced to kill you and don't think I can't I'm well within my power to do so."
"So what's stopping you?" she asked trying to appear normal as usual, facing the line again and letting the illusion speak over her shoulder, her hands hung at her sides near her kunai holster.
"What's stopping me?" he asked seeming to wonder himself, "what's stopping me my little half-sister is absolutely nothing that said I don't want to kill you."
She clenched her fists, "somehow that doesn't make me feel better."
Kumo chuckled, "I didn't think I would, I just want you to understand why I'm doing this… surely you know why I can't simply trust you."
Hinata nodded, "You fear my farther would try to brand you with the curse seal" she explained, moving forward in the line trying to keep her voice low to not arouse suspicion.
"Am I wrong to?" he asked.
She shook her head, "No… even I fear my farther at times, if you really are my half-brother my farther wouldn't hesitate to seal you, if not kill you."
Kumo crossed his arms, "So how can I trust you to keep my existence a secret from the Hyūga clan?"
She pulled her hands to her chest, "I… I don't know, I wouldn't want that seal put on anyone, it divided my family and has been the reason behind so much resentment, but I honestly don't know anything I could say to you to convince you of that."
"I see" he said.
"But if I could request something of you… don't hurt Naruto or Kakashi sensei or Tenten, they wouldn't dare tell my father of your Byakugan, they know how I feel about the curse seal" she explained, "I don't my family's mistakes to cost them their lives."
Kumo sighed, "If I hurt you they'll go after me anyways, it's unfortunate but it's impossible to not get them involved… but I won't kill them unless they give me little option."
Hinata nodded, "thank you… I suppose."
Kumo smirked, "Don't thank me; I don't like involving people if I don't have to and I wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't seen my Byakugan."
"What about those leaf headbands on your puppets?" she asked accusingly, "did those people get involved?"
Kumo frowned, "That's entirely different, those shinobi died in action, it was misfortune that brought us against one another."
"And you took their headbands as trophies?" She asked.
"I took them out of respect, those men died for something I never had something I envied and always wanted something only Zabuza was able to promise me."
"What was that?"
"A village… that was my deal when I joined Zabuza; my mother had been forced to flee the Leaf village and the Sand village exiled me to keep peace with the Hyūga clan. I was offered a place in his dream, his newly made Mist village; I was ready to die for it, just like those shinobi were ready to die for their village."
Hinata frowned, "So that why you're killing these people? Because they betrayed Zabuza's dream?"
"I'm killing them because if I let them live after everything they've done I'd be no better than them betraying my master's trust, my dream died with Zabuza not my loyalty."
She looked over to see Tenten approaching them from the crowd; Kumo noticed it too moving to leave.
"One last question" she requested.
"Just one" he said.
"If you kill me… will you take my headband?"
Kumo chuckled, "You don't need to worry about that" he said touching her shoulder, "I won't kill you unless you give me reason too."
Hinata turned to face him, "W-what made you change your mind?"
"I don't know, I guess you could say I want to trust you." He said before fading out releasing the genjutsu.
Kakashi looked at the scrap of paper on the table; Tenten had brought it back after getting lunch with Hinata, apparently someone was offering a bounty of three million Ryō to whoever killed both Kumo Sabaku and Nenshō Kinzoku.
"This certainly poses a problem" he said closing his book, "Whoever posted this bounty knows the identity of our rouge shinobi."
"What does that mean?" asked Naruto opening his bowl of raman.
"It means whoever posted this bounty is more than likely a former follower of Zabuza" Explained Kakashi, "seems like this is there counter attack to them, they must be getting desperate, there trying to add some muscle to their ranks get some bounty hunters to work for them."
Hinata stared into her soup bowl, "D-do you think it'll work?"
"I highly doubt it" said Tenten, "I doubt most bounty hunters are equipped to deal with those two, unless there ninja trained."
Kakashi folded his arms and sighed, "I agree they hardly possess the skill to pose much threat, but they will make it more difficult for those two to maneuver and such a high bounty would provide plenty of cannon fodder things could get very bloody very soon."
Noburu watched as his lieutenant entered into the room, "What's our status Misuto?" he asked, "Has anything entered your mist?"
Misuto shook his head, "Nothing but wildlife master… it's been three days, they may not be coming."
Noburu smirked, "they'll come" he said, "they just need some more incentive, bring me Zabuza's sword, that'll stir them up."