"That's them alright. They're in the heart of the valley." Said Kumo spotting the enemy camp in the valley concealed by the steam of the hot springs below. After a through interrogation and mind scan by Kumo and Ino they had managed to clean out any information about the location of the remainder of their forces. They had traveled to the capital and relayed the information to Konoha and waited for further instructions. That led them to where they were today. As Tsunade instructed them they led a small battalion of the Feudal Lord's forces to the valley deep in the country to meet up with a company of deployed ANBU.
"How can you tell?" one of the ANBU leaders asked turning to him.
"He just can." Said Ino for him deflecting the question.
"My lord wants this dealt with as soon as possible." Said the General behind him arms crossed. "I suggest we move in on their encampment when night falls." He said turning his face to the sky as the sun peaked in the horizon.
"I'd advise against that." Said Kumo. "Despite our overwhelming numbers they hold a defensible position and your men are no match for their shinobi." He explained drawing a kunai and drawing a small map of the encampment.
"We're shinobi." Said Nenshō. "We can weaken their defense from the inside and remove the Kinzoku clan as a factor."
"Sneaking into this camp shouldn't be too difficult." The ANBU captain speculated. "Even if we're discovered we can signal the attack to begin and escape in the confusion. We brought flairs and short range radios for communication it shouldn't be difficult to time an attack with you."
"How long would such an operation take and when can your begin?" One of the officers asked.
"We can start the operation a couple hours after midnight, most of the camp will be asleep then and we can move with relative ease. After that I'd estimate ten to twenty minutes within the camp before we have to pull out of there."
"Why twenty minutes?" The general asked.
"How long would your men take to notice a dead body?" retorted Kumo.
"Is twenty minutes enough time to properly dispose of an adequate amount of men?" he asked.
"All I need is five minutes in there." Said Nenshō lighting a cigarette. "Give me twenty and corpses are going to pile high."
Nenshō pushed the blade into the guards corpse sending him down in a heap as Kumo's swordsman puppet made short work of the others.
"That's the last of the patrols." Said Hinata through their coms. "The west end of the wall is clear for you two." She explained to them. Naturally Kumo already could see that they had removed the guards as a factor but the ANBU members didn't know about his little ability and Hinata was helping to keep them from guessing.
Kumo nodded knowing she could see him. He unslung his bow and notched an arrow with a paper bombs attached to the end firing it at the bamboo wall surrounding the camp. As well as their task of clearing out a barracks of Kinzoku members as they slept they had been assigned to place paper bombs throughout the camp to be detonated before the assault began. Nenshō took to the tree's moving towards the enemy camp.
"There's a guard in front of you just past the wall." said Hinata as he leaped over the bamboo wall. He spotted the guard and plunged the blade down as he landed on the pour soul sending the tip through his chest. He dragged the corpse into the shadows as Kumo covered his rear bow in hand and drawn just in case. He dumped the body in a latrine where few would bother to look. He noticed another body had been hidden in the piss trench. It seemed the ANBU members were already at work.
"You sure you can do all that work on your own?" he whispered to Kumo. Kumo had agreed to set the paper bombs and take care of the barracks for him while he handled personal business.
Kumo nodded and took off keeping to the shadows as Nenshō moved to the tent with the embroidered dragon.
"Nenshō?" inquired Hinata though his com. "Why are you separating from Kumo?"
He pulled the small radio out of his ear and turned it off stuffing it into his pocket. He didn't feel like anyone listening to what he was about to do. He slashed an entrance for himself through the canvas and charged in.
A tall balding man sat in front of a desk and turned upon hearing him enter. Nenshō moved into action. He ducked a fiery palm and stuck with the sword heating the blade with his Kekkei Genkai removing the old man's burning hand. The man reeled back in pain clutching his smoking stump. Nenshō sent a kick into the man's chest knocking the wind from him. Another slash and his remaining hand fell to the floor.
"You dirt." The old man grumbled looking at his stumps his chest heaving from lack of air.
"Keep your pathetic insults." Said Nenshō grabbing the man's collar and throwing him on the floor keeping him pinned to the ground with his boot.
"If you're going to kill me just get it over with boy." He said trying fruitlessly to slip out from under his heel that painfully pressed into his sternum.
"I'm going to get answers from you first grandpa. And I don't have time to interrogate you properly so if I have to I'm willing to force the answers from you and sort through the lies and smaller details later." He growled picking up the helpless man by his shirt.
"If you torture me I'll call for the guards." He threatened.
"My friend has already taken care of the guards and is keeping close eyes both inside and out of this tent. I can do whatever I want inside here."
"So what do you want to know?" he rasped as Nenshō dropped him on the floor. He took a cigarette and touched the end with his finger tip and lit it.
"Tell me everything you know about my farther." He said taking a long draw off the smoke. "Tell me about the origins of my metal manipulation. If anyone knows you do old man."
The man chuckled. "If you wanted answers you should have asked my daughter before you killed her." he grumbled.
"It's hard to ask your mother questions about daddy when she's trying to put a kunai in your throat." He retorted. "And don't think you can make me feel guilty about my actions, it won't change anything."
"Your killing your own kin and you don't feel any guilt." He said accusingly.
"My mother tried to kill her own son without hesitation, it runs in the family. Now tell me what you know old man."
"Forty years ago" the old man began explaining. "A small village in the Land of Iron began learning the ways of the Shinobi. The people of this village were once of an old shinobi clan long forgotten from history legend says they had fled from the Land of Clouds and sealed their Kekkei Genkai for several generations to keep their presence a secret in the foreign country. It took generations before the seal broke and there were able to reclaim their bloodline trait. And by then they were well established in the Land of Iron. But the samurai of the nation didn't desire the creation of a hidden village in their land." He said. "But the Feudal lord backed the creation of the Ninja village and the Samurai feared they would lose their military power within the country to the shinobi as they had in other nations. But because of the feudal lords backing the creation they simply couldn't eliminate them on their own."
"So you did it for them." Said Nenshō, it wasn't a question."
"They paid us quite handsomely for the job even the Kazekage wasn't aware of this action at the time." He explained.
"What about my farther." Nenshō demanded. "Who was he?"
"Your farther had no name." The old man said. "He was but an infant when we attacked the village. We took him from the ashes wishing to conduct an experiment and see if we could breed with him and inherit the ability to manipulate metal. We kept him in captivity until he came of breeding age. He spent most of his life in a wooden cell away from the world. He couldn't even speak when he came of breeding age."
"You're sick." Nenshō growled slamming his fist into the wooden desk cracking the boards.
"Did you expect something different?" the man spat. "Did you think dirt like you could have come from anywhere else? Did you hope for a noble account of your father's life, a story of a powerful shinobi?"
"What happened to him?" Nenshō growled.
"We had no use for him once my daughter gave birth to you, and all this time we thought his bloodline trait had taken away your burning palm. How foolish we were to attempt to kill you."
Nenshō slammed his fist into the old man's face breaking his teeth. "You're wrong" he snarled. "If you'd have let me live I'd have killed you for this." His fist impacted again and the geezer's nose broke. "You called me dirt? Well this dirt's snuffing out the flame of this wretched clan."
Nenshō kicked him and turned to storm out. Kumo stood waiting for him at the tents entrance arms crossed.
"Aren't you going to kill me dirt?" the chieftain asked.
"You're all already dead." Said Nenshō moving off into the night Kumo close behind.
Kumo pulled on the long chakra string detonating the paper bombs. He and Nenshō watched the explosions go off in the distance and the Feudal lord's forces advance on the camp to wipe it out.
"Thank you for letting me get my closure." Said Nenshō watching the small figures clash with each other the rebels being slowly overwhelmed.
"Was it everything you wanted?" asked Kumo striking a match to light his pipe.
Nenshō shook his head. "Not really, it was kind of pathetic really. I almost wish I'd never done this to begin with."
"Things are never how we expect them to be." Said Kumo blowing a smoke ring.
"Whatever." Chucked Nenshō, "I just want to go home, this part of my life's dead."
He turned to Tenten placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let's all go home."