Nenshō brushed the snow from his shoulder. Three days of tracking the raiding party Kumo had tagged was starting to bear fruit. By their count they estimated the force consisted of two hundred infantry along with fifty archers and twelve officers. And of course twenty shinobi from the Kinzoku clan. An estimated fifth of his clan's force.

"Hey Nenshō." Said Tenten looking at him away, taking her focus away from the hunting party they observed from a distance. These regular forces were completely oblivious it was almost laughable.

"Yeah?" he said watching his breath swirl in the air like smoke.

"I've been wondering." She said pulling a ration bar from her pack and biting into it before handing it to him. "Why do you carry your clan's name if their your enemies? Couldn't you have just taken your father's name?"

Nenshō chuckled. "Well for one I never knew my farther or anything about him." he explained. "So I don't even know what his clan was or if he was even a Shinobi, though I suspect my metal manipulation is from his half." He explained. "If I were to answer you I'd say I kept the Kinzoku name out of spite for my own clan. I don't think anything enrages them to know an outcast like myself still breaths and reminds them of their failure, and their mistake."

"That's a lot of resentment towards your own family." Said Tenten as he bit into the bland ration bar.

"My own mother tried to kill me in my own sleep the night after I graduated the Suna academy because I never managed to awaken my burning palms. Resentment isn't the right word for it."

"What did you do that night?" she asked.

"What do you think I did?" he retorted handing the ration bar back to her.

"You killed your own mother?"

"She wasn't much of a mother." He said trudging through the snow and hoping Kumo had managed to cook something more flavorful than the bar he had just eaten. He never understood how Tenten was able to sustain herself and remain content with the simple rations.

"What about those faces in that bingo book?" She asked looking at the black leather bound cover tucked into his back pocket. "Do you recognize any of them?" she asked.

"A few." He admitted. "Some of my former trainers are in this book and even some close relatives. But trust me, I have no living family aside from you and Kumo, the only other person I cared about died."

"No one else?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "Your master, your friend, and me. What about Guy? He's starting to call you one of his disciples."

"Guy." He said uncorking his canteen. "Is a bane on my existence in the Leaf village. Zabuza may have been a harsh teacher but he never asked me to run a marathon on my hands."

Tenten giggled. "I know how you feel, but believe me he grows on you. Besides he wouldn't bother training you if he didn't like you."

"I think I'd rather have him as an enemy." He grumbled.

"I wouldn't say that." She sighed. "He's a formidable enemy."

"So am I." He said. "And this is my chance to prove it."

….

Kumo traced the lines of the map with his finger ending on a single black dot.

"From their current movements we can assume this village is their next target." He said looking at everyone gathered around.

"Their group is moving slow thought the mountains and being headed by the Shinobi, they should be attacking any day now. The twenty shinobi have already separated from the rest of the force to attack the village. I assume this force is moving to clear a path to the capital while the rest of the forces move in to lay siege to the capital. Or at least that's what I suspect." He explained.

"Makes sense to me." Said Tenten eyeing the map he had drawn out. Naruto was listening over his venison stew while Ino and Hinata nodded. Nenshō was currently filling his own bowl casually listening to Kumo assessment.

"We should attack when they move in on the village." Said Ino observing the map. "They won't be expecting an outside force to strike and the regular force won't be backed up by shinobi. I'd be a good chance to capture those officers and interrogate them."

"What about the village?" Asked Hinata. "We can't just leave them to fend for themselves."

"It will be tough to time." He said "But if we're crafty we can evacuate the village before they strike and possibly thin out their ranks."

"How do you plan to do that?" asked Naruto between bites.

"We'll use your shadow clones." He explained. "It will take a substantial group to evacuate the villagers effectively. Plus numbers will be effective against the forces when they move into the village we can take advantage of your shadow clones to hold them off and thin ranks while we try capturing the officers. Nenshō can back you up he's the expert on his clan's abilities and fighting tactics."

"It's not like I'd settle being anywhere else." Said Nenshō stirring his stew with his spoon.

"Where do you think I should be?" asked Hinata.

Kumo pointed to a ridge a ways away from the village. "Tsunade placed Ino in command of this operation." He explained. "That's why I'm suggesting her and Hinata take up a position away from the fighting. Hinata's Byakugan can assess both operations while Ino can communicate with her telepathy and give us instructions while we work."

"So that leaves you and me to capture the Officers and thin out the regulars." Sighed Tenten. "Twice the work with half the fun."

"I need to watch you play a game of Shogi with Shikamaru sometime." Giggled Ino. "But how are you planning to capture twelve officers while dealing with over two hundred men. That's a lot to handle even if they aren't shinobi."

Kumo nodded and walked to the wall of the cave to his scorpion puppet opening a compartment in its back pulling a red scroll and breaking the seal. He unrolled it outside the mouth of the cave and drew some blood and spreading it on the scroll.

A massive red steel and wood elephant appeared in a puff of smoke dressed in heavy armor. Two steel bladed tusks shone in the moonlight and a tower sat upon the puppets back manned by faceless human sized puppet archers.

"This puppet is designed for capturing numerous enemies and transporting them out of hostile environments. It's called the red war elephant." A series of trap doors opened on the elephant large enough to house people inside of them.

"You built this?" Ino asked in awe of the massive automaton before her.

Kumo shook his head. "No, Lady Chiyo constructed this puppet, it was one of my gifts to her its actually ten puppets in one with the archer, it's a total of twelve puppets."

"Can you control that many puppets?" asked Naruto. "I mean you couldn't control that many of my clones when you used the human puppet Jutsu on me."

Kumo shook his head. "Normally I can only create ten chakra strings." He said pulling out his trench knife lacing his fingers through the knuckle guard. "But this knife is made of a special metal that can channel my chakra." He explained making the guard and blades edge glow blue with chakra. Chakra strings began to form running from the edge and knuckle guard.

"It's similar to Asuma's knives." Observed Ino.

"But wait." Said Tenten. "How can you control the puppet if you can't move your fingers to manipulate them?"

Kumo attached the Chakra strings to the elephant making it lift its front leg off the ground. "I can pull the chakra into my body, shortening and extending the strings at will, I don't need to move my fingers to control my puppets even without the marionette blade."

"Marionette blade?" asked Ino.

"That's what he calls It." explained Nenshō. "He came up with this idea to control more puppets that he would be able to with just his hands. But even with that little invention of his I've never seen him use the War Elephant before. Are you sure you can hand it?"

Kumo nodded.

"Then get into position we've wasted enough time.