Nenshō tried to suppress his yawn but ultimately failed. The damn things really were contagious as one of the captives had yawned and spread it to him and Hinata. Kumo shifted through the pages of the Bingo book he had confiscated off the Grass Ninja.

"This isn't a normal bingo book" he said, half to the interrogates half to Hinata helping him with the questions. "There aren't just ninja listed in here." He showed Hinata the picture of Tomi along with the million Ryō bounty on his head. He checked the faces crossed off and looked and turned the page to look at a man his face covered in an orange and red dragon tattoo. Nenshō stopped on the image and stepped up to the man he was interrogating.

"Why is this man in your Bingo Book?" he asked turning the image to face the grass ninja, he tightened the cables around the man tighter squeezing a few gasps of pain.

"That's Orenji Kinzoku" the man said, "He's a branch member of the Kinzoku clan."

"I know who he is" growled Nenshō, "I want to know why he's in your book?"

Hinata tapped on his shoulder and he turned to see a large black and red scorpion behind her reaching up to her knees a messenger tube strapped to its back.

"Doku?" he asked stepping forward to the familiar summon.

"You know this creature?" asked Hinata as he opened the messenger scroll up and pulling out a rolled strip of flesh. He unrolled it and beheld the dragon symbol upon it.

He tightened the cords on the ninja again. "Alright" he growled, "Enough word games, who hired your village and what does it have to do with this?" he held the strip of skin out for everyone to see.

"We were hired by the feudal lord of the Land of Mountain's" stammered one of them, "he is trying to end a rebellion in his country and is trying to eliminate the supporters and financers."

"Are you saying Tomi is helping to finance the war?" asked Hinata.

"He's an arms merchant; he has a caravan moving into the country along with members of the Kinzoku clan, their trying to establish their own village in the region."

Nenshō turned to Hinata, "We need to go help Kumo… we've already wasted enough times."

"If this is true" said Hinata, "we need to speak to the Hokage about reinforcements first."

"Fine" he growled, "but we'll need to travel through the night to make up for lost time."

"What we do about them though?" she asked looking at the Grass Ninja still lashed to the trees.

Nenshō flashed his hand signs and released the cables. "You will find your arms dealer a hundred yards to the east of here, feel free to take him in we have no reason to protect him anymore."

The only real light in the room was the red glow from Kumo's pipe that reflected off his silver eyes. They agreed to stay in the village until they got word back from the Hokage moving away from the specified location he had sent to her. It was clear there was little they could do without reinforcement except continue to scout the area for rebel forces. They agreed to use the ransacked village as a base of operations while they waited for backup to arrive. The empty room attic of the tea house was housing was currently housing them. Kumo was sure Nenshō would come whether or not the Hokage gave him permission. Like he said he had told her everything, or at least answered her questions until she couldn't think of anything and fell asleep. He had talked about his life in Suna with his mother, he told her of his illegitimate farther Hiashi Hyūga and why he was forced to keep his eyes hidden away from the Hyūga clan. He had given details of his life in the wilds before finding his way under the tutelage of the rogue shinobi Zabuza Momochi and his followers. His four years being imprisoned by the Hidden Mist and having to endure their countless brutalities and experiments.

He insisted he keep Nenshō out of the story as much as possible, but he was willing to tell her what he knew about the fire using Kinzoku clan. He had studied up on them after coming to Konoha, the four years in prison had changed many things. The Kinzoku clan had attempted a coup de tat when Garra had become Kazekage the clan had fled the village when their attempt had failed and had been responsible for various terrorist activities for the last three years. The unburied body they had found half burred in the snow was a clan tradition. Having been killed by a simple peasant the clan member was deemed unworthy of a burial and was left to rot away.

Ino shivered and caught sight of her own breath.

"Cold?" he asked her sitting across from her back against the wall. She nodded and he pulled a metal can from the corner and started to pile wood inside lighting the tinder with embers from his pipe bathing the room in a dim yellow light. Ino sat up from her bedroll and moved to her pack pulling out a nutrition bar and sitting next to Kumo the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"Can I ask you something?" she said leaning against his shoulder. "It's a bit personal."

"What is it?" he asked tapping the ashes out of his pipe.

"That kiss" she said looking into the can of embers. "It was your first wasn't it?"

"Yeah it was." He said tucking the pipe away in his jacket. Ino smiled and threw a corner of her blanket over his shoulder wrapping them both it in.

"I'm fine" he protested as she leaned against him.

"You're not very romantic are you?" she sighed disregarding his objection.

"I've never given much thought to romance." He admitted looking at her. She felt strange seeing his silver eyes look her over.

"Never?" she asked turning his face to look at him. "What about when you lived in Suna? Didn't you think of settling down back then, when you had a place to settle?"

Kumo shook his head. "I was ten when I was exiled, after that I didn't have much of a life."

"What about now?" she mumbled turning to face him watching his eyes flicker across her face. He remained silent for a long moment but she didn't feel he was trying to avoid the question.

"Are you going to kiss me?" she whispered seeing his gaze trace over her lips.

"I'm thinking about it." He answered.

She held her breath for a second waiting. "And?" she asked.

He brought his face to hers and kissed her his arm hooking around her waist and pulling her into him. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled back from the kiss smirking.

"Good answer" she whispered tracing the surgical scars around his eyes with her fingers. She moved in to give him another kiss when he stopped her. She listened and the sound of people moving outside broke the moment. Kumo put out the fire while Ino peeked out the window. Armed men marched in formation through the streets carrying torches, pikes and pushing charts of supplies.

"The men from the Kinzoku clan that attacked this village must have been an advance raiding party." Explained Kumo. "Their moving a larger force though this valley."

"Their setting up camp here." Said Ino watching the soldiers unload one of the carts while an officer moved into one of the houses.

Kumo reached into his pouch at his belt and produced a small spool of fine platinum wire. "What's that for?" Ino asked as he attached the spool to his glove pulling the length and attaching the end to one of his tiny mechanical spiders

"This wire has been infused with Nenshō's chakra." He explained pulling on his goggles and cracking the window for the spider puppet to crawl through.

"If he's anywhere within a few miles of if he can sense it. It's not much but it's one way we can track them better than we're doing so far. We should stay here and wait for them to pass us by… stay on your guard."

Ino crossed her arms and sighed. "We just can't have a moment can we?"

"I'll make it up to you later." He said forming a single chakra string and sending the wood and metal spider on its way trailing the almost invisible silver blue wire.

"Are you serious?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm serious." He said turning to face her, rare smile on his face. "I'll make up for lost time."