Ino tried her best to navigate the forest in the dark. She didn't dare do anything to make any light and reveal herself. She walked carefully seeing no reason to rush the signature she had detected wasn't moving at all and it was best if she saved her energy. She kept her cloak wrapped tightly around her keeping herself warm and hiding her drawn kunai under the folds. She readied herself for anything as she drew close. An armored figure stood in the middle of a clearing with a large sword strapped to his back. Through the dark woods she could make out his red hair and beard under his armored hood. His facial hair had grown out and she was sure he had had grown a little in the two years she hadn't seen him but here he was standing in front of her wearing one of his half smiles.
"Is that really you Nenshō?" she asked trying to restrain herself from rushing forward and embracing her old friend. She knew better than to be so trusting she was already taking a big risk coming out here alone. She didn't know any way for someone to fake another person's chakra signature but she wasn't about to be the first person to be fooled by such a trick if it really existed.
"It's good to see you Ino." He said hefting the large sword off his back and stabbing it into the ground. She had never seen the sword before but from its size and shape alone she had no doubt it was Zabuza's sword.
"How do I know it's really you?" she asked gripping the kunai tighter.
"You can read my mind?" he suggested leaning against the massive sword. Ino shook her head "No if it isn't you than you could have a dangerous mind seal that you kill me if I tried."
Nenshō crossed his arms, "Good point… then ask me something only I'd know."
Ino nodded ready to make use of the blade at a moment's notice. "What was the last thing you said to me before leaving Konoha?" she asked.
Nenshō smiled. "I told you that I was glad you ignored my threat to stay away from Kumo, I told you I thought you were good for him."
She smiled and sheathed the kunai moving closer to him flinging her arms around him. He laughed and put his arms around her.
"It's good to see you Nenshō." She said looking at him. "A lot has happened since you've left. And Kumo is missing right now his squad was ambushed."
"I know, that's why I'm here."
"You know?" she asked not completely surprised it seemed too much of a coincidence that he would show up around the same time Kumo went missing. There was a list of people ready to come to Kumo's rescue and Nenshō was pretty close to the top. And unlike her he didn't have an ANBU squad that would chase after and slow her down in the process.
"I just found out last night I saw the bodies." He said. "I wasn't there when it happened but Raion was there when it went down he saw the whole thing."
"Raion?" she asked.
"That'd be me?" said a voice from above. She looked up and saw a pair of glowing golden eyes looking down at her. A large blacked furred red manned lion jumped down from its branch landing feet first in the snow. "It's nice to finally be able to put a face to your name Ino." Raion said sitting next to Nenshō.
"So you've been working on summoning then? That explains the cat prints in the snow I found earlier." she said looking the large cat up and down. Nenshō nodded, "Yeah I've been practicing a few tricks since I left and Raion's a great tracker and moves faster than I can over long distances."
"You'd be a lot faster if you left the sword and armor behind." Said Raion shaking some snow off of his mane.
"We're not having this argument again Raion." Said Nenshō. "When did you get here anyways? I thought you were watching over the ANBU squad?"
"I was, but they started moving they've noticed your absence Ino and are trying to find you."
Ino cursed, "That means I have to get back, else they'd find you."
Nenshō grabbed her arm and shook her head. "I need you to come with me Ino; I'm going to need you to help me get Kumo."
"What about my squad?" she asked. "I'll be labeled AWOL if I don't come back to them."
"That is probably the least of your worries right now." Said Nenshō. "Raion was there when Kumo was ambushed. Apparently some of the ANBU members on his squad turned on their comrades and helped capture him. Including that wounded one you brought back with you."
"They turned on their comrades? Why would they do that?" she asked.
"I don't know." Said Nenshō, "Not yet anyways, but right now you can't trust the ANBU black ops or at least certain members for all we know your squad is planning to lead you into a trap as well."
"So then how do I get back home? They'll be hunting me and I can't be slowing you down." She reasoned.
"Maybe" he agreed. "But Kumo wouldn't forgive me if I just let you walk into a possible trap. So ANBU team or not I see no other choice but to let you come with me."
"I'm going to go back home now." Said Raion standing up from the snow and yawning. "I managed to track Kumo all the way to the border I'll rest for now but summon me again once you're a few miles past the border and I'll pick the trail back up." With that Raion disappeared in a puff of smoke. Nenshō pulled the sword out of the frozen earth and returned it onto his back.
"Are you ready to go if we're fast we will be able to cross the border sometime tommarow. And if we're lucky we can throw that ANBU squad off trail."
Ino nodded she wouldn't let her exhaustion or hunger slow him down more than she was already with her presence. She reached into her medical pouch and pulled out a food pill biting into it for energy. She nodded to him mentally preparing herself for the journey. "Let's go then Kumo needs us."
Kumo eyed Itami as he circled him in the small room twirling a kunai in his hand. "I hoped you've thought more about how little it will cost you to tell you what I want." He said dragging the blade cross his bare chest opening the flesh and letting a flow of blood seep out. He gritted his teeth and gripped the arms of the chair trying not to cry out in pain. Whatever the blade was coated with it seemed to close his wounds fairly quickly making the cuts burn white hot with pain.
"I mean come on any information you can give me is already a couple years old anyways. Wherever he went two years ago he certainly left it not like you'd be leading us too him." Itami cut in again on his right shoulder more blood poured out before the injury sealed itself and burned with more fiery pain, Kumo felt his whole arms turning hot along with his chest. He imagined soon it would feel as if his whole body was ablaze.
"Irrelevant." Stated Kumo. "Whoever you are you'll use that information to find him." Kumo words were rewarded with another slash opening a small cut across his good shoulder blade. Kumo bit into his lips drawing blood from them trying to hold the pain in. He felt as if hot molten metal was being pumped through his veins. Sweat beaded down from his body stinging the cuts slightly.
"What direction did he travel when he left?" he asked making another cut across his belly.
"South." Lied Kumo earning a right hook to the side of his head from Itami.
"You were pretty quick to answer that." He said stabbing the point of the knife into his chest just over his heart pressing the tip in enough to draw a faint amount of blood. Kumo felt his veins grow even hotter.
"And I can't stand liars Kumo now let me ask you again what direction did he travel? North, East, West? I'll end this when you give me something. Do you know what country he went to? Or maybe he never left the Land of Fire?"
Kumo looked down at the gathering blood upon his cell floor. "Just kill me already." He whispered to him trying not to scream as his body burned up.
"Oh you don't want to die Kumo." He said dragging the blade across his knee. "You want to live and get out of here. Go back to your apartment, pay that stack of piling bills, and slip a new ring on that girl's finger. Sure you'll be returning to a life a debt and fixing up Nenshō's little mistakes but it's not like you didn't choose that life for yourself."
Kumo spat out some of the blood he had been sucking off of his lip. "Now who's the one lying? I know as well as you do that I'm not leaving here alive after what you've done. So stop thinking I'm going to buy into this false hope of going home. I've already abandoned hope of ever seeing Ino or anyone else ever again. Hope isn't going to make me talk so you might as well just kill me."
Itami shook his head and gave him another punch knocking Kumo to the stone floor his head hit the floor and he felt himself go into a daze. Itami grabbed his bloody shoulder and turned him over forcing him to look at him.
"If hope won't make you talk then pain will eventually will. I'll get something out of you eventually." He said squeezing his side over one of his broken ribs.
"I don't fear pain." Growled Kumo. "I embrace it." Itami stormed out of the cell leaving Kumo on the floor covered in sweat and blood his body burning up. Kumo watched as the door closed behind him before slipping off into unconsciousness.
Itami stormed down the hall frustrated. Three days he'd been trying to force the information out of Kumo and so far he hadn't yielded any results. He was starting to grow tired of this subject and this temporary prison. He was ready to leave the snowy Land of Iron soon he'd be moving as soon as they had a lead on Nenshō Kinzoku and his whereabouts. He just hoped the metal manipulator was somewhere with fairer weather than this place, as that catching his trail would involve interrogating subjects with a substantially lesser tolerance for pain and manipulation. "What is it?" he asked the cat faced ANBU who waited for him at the end of the hall.
"I received contact from the other squad." He said standing against the wall like a statue.
"And?" he asked.
"They will be delayed in their plans… the girl Ino Yamanaka is missing assumedly to search for Kumo. They tracked her for a while before losing her trail. They are currently working on trying to find her."
"They lost her?" he said anger rising. "That girl was our leverage and you let her slip away? What are wrong with you are the ANBU black ops really that incompetent?"
The ANBU's hand shot out and took him by the throat. "Don't insult me because you're the incompetent Itami." He said squeezing his throat. "You were the one who said you didn't need any leverage to get this man to talk and here you are screaming that the thing you claimed you didn't need is gone. Don't forget it was our idea to drag the girl out here to use against this man."
Itami clutched at the hand gripping him trying to choke out words. "I didn't expect this man to be so resilient; I didn't assume he'd take the pain so well."
The hand tightened stopping the words. "You should have known better Itami this is the student of Ibiki Morino and Zabuza Momochi you're a fool to underestimate his tolerance for pain."
Kumo managed to wake himself up again from his sleep. His lips were dry and cracked and his throat felt like sand paper. He reasoned he couldn't have been asleep for very long considering the blood on the ground hadn't even fully dried yet. His stomach was growling for food he didn't have to give it. He couldn't stop feeling for his missing molars with his tongue constantly being reminded of their absence feeling the jagged shards that still remained in his wounded gums. The cold draft that drifted through the cell chilled his skin as his veins still felt as if they pumped fire through his body. He wondered how much blood his body had lost; he wondered when his body would run out. If Itami continued going at this rate he'd be dead before long. He had lost his sense of time a while ago and for all he knew he had already been pronounced dead back in Konoha. He smiled to himself thinking about how he had gotten life insurance a little more than a year ago. At least that would be more money in his will to be left to Tenten and most of his remaining possessions would go to Ino. He all thought of her and anyone else in Konoha out of his mind. They would only tempt him into giving into Itami's methods and he didn't plan on saying anything. Even the smallest bit of information could risk putting them on Nenshō's path and he wouldn't do anything to do that. Nenshō had left his life behind in Konoha so Kumo wouldn't. He had a debt to him he could never repay. He had done his best trying to keep the remaining fragments of his life in the hidden leaf village together giving what he could of his time and money. He had given a lot to repaying that debt but it never felt like enough.
A knock came at the door. Kumo turned his head up looking into the barred window at Itami's face. "I want you to reconsider making that deal Kumo and right now I think I may have something you might want." He said unlocking and opening the door. As Kumo looked out into the hallway he saw her. Itami gripped Ino arm throwing her into his cell.
"Ino?" he cried as she rushed to him. Her body was covered in caked blood and bruises she knelt down and wrapped her arms around him, her body felt warm, damaged, broken, but warm as well as alive. Her platinum hair wasn't in its usual ponytail and was instead down and cascading around her head and shoulders the way he liked it when they were alone together.
"Kumo" she said squeezing him gently taking care not to hurt him. She looked into his eyes and brought her face in to kiss him softly but tenderly. Kumo touched her cupping the back of her head and pulling her face into him. His hand moved down her spine past her shoulder blades to the small of her back where he stopped and pulled away from her.
"What's wrong?" she asked running her fingers through her hair.
"Where's the scar on the small of your back?" he asked throwing her hand away and looking at her sternly.
"What scar?" she asked cupping his face.
"What was the last thing I said to you before I left on this mission?" he asked this time his tone becoming more dangerous.
"You said you loved me" she said softly sounding confused, "and that you'd miss me."
Kumo stuck her in the collar hitting a pressure point and sending her down as he grabbed the length of chain connecting him to the chair in the room wrapping it around her throat and strangling her with it. She struggled clawing at his face and arms as her face turned white and hateful. "Kumo please" she choked out to him tears running down her face. Her nails cut into his face and he bit them drawing blood and managing to crack the bones under his teeth. The chain tightened and Kumo heard her neck break. Tears streamed down Kumo's face and the illusion broke. The Genjutsu didn't last as the image of the woman he loved disappeared before him. In her place was a pale faced black haired woman dressed in an ANBU uniform dead on the floor. Kumo's cell door flew open and the cat faced ANBU stepped in kicking him off the dead woman to retrieve her body. Kumo retreated into the corner his body shaking and more tears streaming down his face watching the man drag the body out of his cell.
"JUST KILL ME ALREADY" he screamed, "JUST LET ME DIE, I WONT TALK, DON'T YOU SEE YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME I HAVE NOTHING LEFT FOR YOU TO TAKE I'VE ABANDONED ALL HOPE. JUST PLEASE KILL ME."