Ino shivered. The cold air sent shivers down her spine and she zipped up the heavy jacket tighter her wet hair clung to her back. She had obeyed Kumo and had dressed herself in the changing room as quickly as she could manage not taking the time to dry herself off much to her frustration. She exited the waiting room to find Kumo waiting for her dressed in his usual grey hooded jacket the scorpion puppet slung across his back. "How do you know we're about to be attacked?" she asked strapping her kunai holster to her thigh. He didn't answer her and moved through the lounge passing by the elderly managers. "Hide" he said to them as he reached the front door opening it letting the wind blow in carrying flakes of snow with it.

"Hide and stay down until we come and get you." He ordered stepping outside into the snow Ino following close behind. He ran outside and took to the trees moving among the branches until he found a good perch close to the stone pathway leading to the Inn.

"Do you have any idea how close they are?" she asked landing beside him and drawing one of her kunai for good measure.

"Theirs twenty and their seventy yards away, their armed." He whispered pulling a scroll from his belt and broke the seal and unrolling it upon the branch biting his finger open and spreading the line of blood upon it. In a puff of smoke the wooden samurai puppet appeared before her completely clad in red and black armor.

"You finished it?" she asked receiving a small not from the puppet master.

"You mentioned being able to perform a body mind transfer Jutsu correct?" he said pulling his steel compound bow from another scroll the mouth of the scorpion and he pulled an arrow notching it to the string.

"I can but I need to have a direct line of sight and even then it's a problem unless their immobilized, I can barely see anything right now it's too dark and the steam doesn't help at all" she said, "You have some kind of plan?"

He nodded, "if I can draw them in closer you can perform this Jutsu and take one of them prisoner and extract whatever information we need from them."

"Didn't Lady Tsunade say we were just to observe the rebels not engage them? If I can get close enough I can take over one of their minds without anyone noticing." She said trying to spot something through the dark fog.

"If we don't engage them" he explained, "Then they'll probably ransack the inn and take whatever they please… I doubt they'd let the inn keepers live and report their presence."

Ino sighed knowing he was right, just two days into the country and they were already defying Tsunade's orders.

"I'll draw them in from a distance once you can make visual contact I'll let the Samurai finish them off and try to immobilize one of them then you can to preform your mind transfer and obtain whatever information you can."

"Alright" she said nodding.

Kumo pulled back on the bows string and let the arrow fly into the darkness, sounds of panic and sounded in the distance apparently the arrow hand found its mark. Kumo notched a few more arrows and let them loose. Ino had wondered how he could manage to see through the dark tinted lenses, it was clear to her now that he could see far better than her. Kumo drew a long knife from his back his fingers fitting around a steel knuckle guard similar to Asuma's knives. He swings the blade deflecting a few stray arrows that moved too close, Ino moved behind a tree feeling the trunk vibrate as the arrows impacted it. The enemy was shooting blind. Screams came from the smoke as Kumo sent the samurai puppet forward blue chakra strings trailing from the end. Ino watched as dark silhouettes came into view attacking the puppet with both swords drawn moving gracefully among the shadows. Cutting down the fruitless attacks. A sword wielder locked blades with the shadow sending a flurry of attacks trying to defend himself and his remaining comrades. Ino moved in closer to preform her Jutsu. The puppet dodged back and the figure pulled an orb from its pocket letting it explode in its hand. Ino covered her mouth as a thick powder filled the air, she reached into her medical bag for her pack for her rebreather but she had already gotten a breath full.

She strapped the mask on but already found herself getting dizzy, the powder was starting to take effect on her body. Her body wobbled and she grabbed for the trunk of the tree, trying to make sure she didn't fall from her perch. Kumo appeared at her side a rebreather strapped to his head completely masking his face. She felt like she had just gone through a night of drinking sake and was about to pass out drunk. Suddenly she found herself falling to the while earth.

Ino's head felt like it was changing sizes and she wished it would simply pick a size and stick with it. She groaned and sat up clutching her head. She was in her bed of the inn. She looked around the empty dark room and sighed wishing her head didn't hurt so much. She was still dressed in the clothes she had worn when she had gone to face the rebel attackers minus the heavy jacket. She figured she couldn't have been out for very long considering her hair was still wet.

"You should drink" said a voice in the room. She looked over to the open window were Kumo was sitting barely illuminated by the red glow of his lit pipe. The eerie orange light revealed his face and he blew a string of smoke out the open window. He pointed to her nightstand were a glass and pitcher full of water sat, as soon as she saw the glass she realized how dry her throat was. She grabbed the glass and downed it seconds; she then grabbed the pitcher not bothering to fill the glass and emptied it as well.

"What happened?" she panted looking at him tap out the embers letting them fall out the window before closing it.

"That powered you breathed was a unique concoction, it was designed to disorient you, I've administered and antidote but you should be feeling residual effects." He explained tucking the pipe away.

"Sorry about that." She said trying to stand up, wobbling a bit and then sitting back on the bed.

"We weren't supposed to be facing other shinobi" said Kumo, "we were caught off guard but I managed to take care of them."

"Can you help me get to the bathroom…? I need to change out of these clothes." She said. He nodded and moved to help her letting her lean on him as he walked her to the bathroom grabbing her pack along the way and handing it to her as he closed the bathroom door behind her.

"I feel drunk" she groaned looking at herself in the mirror, she looked like a wreck.

"I'm sure you do." He said from the other side of the door.

"How did you identify the poison?" she asked opening her bag.

"It was a simple mixture of fermented herbs infused with chakra, once I identified the herbs I was able to apply my own concoction and dilute the poison."

"I fell down" she said remembering as she pulled on a night shirt over her night shorts.

"I caught you." He corrected her.

She sighed and turned the sink on splashing water on her face. "I'm sorry" she sighed grabbing the towel from her face, "If I'd have been quicker with my mask I wouldn't have passed out… and we'd have been successful."

"Don't worry about it… the important thing is no one was hurt. Our hosts are alive and grateful they seemed to have heard plenty of uncomfortable stories about other people who weren't as fortunate as them. They insisted we stay here for free." He explained.

"That's good, I thought you'd be angry things went sour." She said opening the door and stumbling outside. Kumo caught her and helped her move across the room to her bed. She laid back propping her up against the headboard.

"It's always worse to lose comrades." He said picking up the pitcher and moving to the sink to fill it. He moved back and placed the pitcher down and filled the glass sitting on the side of the bed pulling out a couple tablets from his jacket pocket and handing them to her.

"These should help with the headaches." He said as she took them downing them with the water. He moved to leave but she grabbed his arm.

"Can you stay here?" she mumbled, "Until I fall asleep?"

"I'm just going to be in the other room" he explained being pulled back down to the bed, "You can call me if you need anything."

"I don't know if I can sleep with my head throbbing" she pouted her words slurred slightly, "besides I sleep better with other people around."

He sighed and leaned against the headboard, "Your being troublesome." He said crossing his arms.

"And you're sounding like Shikamaru." She grumbled grabbing her forehead wishing the throbbing would end already.

"Who?" he asked.

"Never mind" she mumbled leaning against him.

"Besides you shouldn't refuse a pretty girl trying to get you into her bed." she giggled turning her head to look at him.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked leaning in and taking his lips, she leaned into him turning his head to face her, and after a few seconds he finally responded moving his lips against hers. She draped her arms over his shoulders and felt his callused hand move across her bare thigh. She pulled back from the kiss but only barely the skins of his lips were clutched in her teeth.

"Did you like that?" she breathed though her teeth not letting his bottom lip release from her grip.

"Yes" he said pulling his lip back before leaning into her again his hand combed through her hair and cradled her head. She shivered as his teeth raked across her lips. Her hands moved up his neck and found the strings to his skull cap.

"No" he said pulling away from her his hand moved from her thigh and pulled her hand away.

"I want to see your face" she whispered, "You said you wanted to trust me."

"I do… but I can't, not yet." he explained.

"What do you have to lose?" she asked taking his left hand into his, she had never noticed but one of the digits of his ring finger was missing.

He didn't say anything and let her hand go and move up his neck to the leather strings. She pulled them undoing the knot. She pulled off the cap the goggles and head plate with it. His eyes were closed dark purple scars outlined his eyes the skin on the other half of his face was slightly pail from the lack of sunlight. His hair was a dark black and cut extremely short. He opened his eyes and she gazed into the silver pupil-less orbs that seemed to glow in the dark.

"You're a Hyūga?" she asked familiar with the white eyes of the Byakugan.

"My father was" he said, "But they can never know… no one can."

She traced the scars with her fingers, "How did you get these?"

"I'll tell you later" he said moving her hand away, "go to sleep."