Nenshō bit his thumb drawing blood for the summoning Jutsu. In a puff of some he returned Raion to them. The red manned lion looked up at the mid afternoon sun that shone in the sky. "Took you longer to get here than I expected." He said stretching himself out.

"It took a while for us to get the ANBU off our trail." Explained Nenshō bandaging his bleeding thumb. "It took us most of the night but I think we lost them, or at the very least sent them on a wild goose chase."

Raion raised his head sniffing the air. "Do you smell Kumo?" asked Ino resting against a tree. The lion nodded to her. "His sent is all over the place. He was bleeding pretty badly when they transported him so his scents pretty strong around here. It seems they traveled farther north with him."

Raion took off into the trees, Ino and Nenshō followed him keeping close to him as best they could. Despite years they had spent apart Ino could tell Nenshō was moving slower than he used to when they went on missions together. At first she had thought it was the sword he had added to his arsenal but upon closer examination she saw that the steel plates of his armor were thicker and heavier than they used to be covering his arms and legs and on top of that they were covered by a thick grey winter coat that had been collecting snow as he traveled. In truth she was surprised he was managing to move as fast as he was and keep up with her and Raion. She wasn't surprised he had claimed the massive unwieldy sword but the heavier armor that slowed him down was a bit of a surprise. She supposed she could ask about his slower speed as soon as they had a chance to get a break.

Raion leapt down from the trees into a forest clearing sniffing at the ground. "His sent his all over the place here." He said pawing at the ground brushing up some of the fresh snow. "I think the people that took him made a temporary camp here." Raion unearthed a small patch of red stained snow that had been covered by the freshly fallen flakes. Ino felt her heart sink at the sight of the blood; Nenshō's hand fell upon her shoulder as if he could tell what she was feeling. "Let get moving again Raion we can't afford to be wasting time" he said.

Raion didn't respond and buried his face into the red snow; at first Ino thought he was just getting a better sense of Kumo's smell but when the lions face came up with Kumo's pipe clutched in its teeth by the bamboo stem. Ino rushed over and grabbed the pipe from the lion looking at it. She had given Kumo the pipe as a reward for finishing the Chūnin exams little over three years ago.

"This is bad." Said Nenshō looking at the pipe as Ino whipped the blood and snow away. "Why?" asked Raion. "What's this pipe supposed to mean?"

"Kumo wouldn't part with this easily." Explained Nenshō. "He's trying to warn anyone he can to stay away. He's saying that he isn't getting out of this alive."

The hammer twirled in Itami's hand as he circled Kumo the ANBU stood waiting in the corner for protection. Ever since Kumo had killed that one ANBU who had tried to trick him with a Genjutsu Itami refused to enter into his cell without the cat faced shinobi for protection. "You're really something even in your weakened state you managed to kill a former member of the ANBU black ops. And here I had thought you were too weak to do anything like that, it seems we need to up your dosage." The cat faced ANBU stabbed a syringe into Kumo arm pumping more drugs into his system. "So let's get back on track, I believe we left off where you were telling me all sorts of interesting things about Nenshō, first and foremost where he is. Now let's begin."

Itami struck Kumo's knee with the hammer the sound of the blunt instrument cracking the bone echoed through the cell followed by Kumo's cried of pain. "Now do you have something to tell me?" he asked lightly tapping Kumo's undamaged kneecap with the hammer.

"Fine" he growled trying to work against the drugs in his body, "Nenshō never left Konoha he's actually been secretly working undercover in the ANBU black ops for over two years now investigating your little operation" he lied. Itami frowned and hit him in the other kneecap making Kumo scream even more. It took a second for Kumo to recover from the pain for him to speak again.

"It's true" said Kumo, "He was recruited by the Hokage for the ANBU and took advantage of this situation to remove Hiashi Hyūga from the equation." The lie earned Kumo another strike, Itami stomped down and crushed his foot under his boot heel.

"He's probably leading a handpicked squad here right now to take you down; Ibiki's going to have a busy schedule interrogating you all after this."

Itami swiped the hammer across his face. "STOP LYING YOU PIECE OF SHIT" he yelled striking his ribs and shoulder. "JUST TELL ME ALREADY."

The ANBU grabbed Itami and forced him back off of Kumo wrenching the hammer out of his hands. "You're going to kill him." he warned him opening the cell door and dragging the enraged interrogator out with him.

"I'll kill him if that's what it takes." Itami hissed as the door closed behind him leaving Kumo alone in the cell to slip out of the chair and lay on the freezing stone floor falling into a deep sleep.

Ino looked at the abandoned castle ruins through the binoculars surveying the area and trying to spot the patrolling guards. "You sure he's in there?" she asked turning to Raion. The lion nodded, "I haven't seen him of course but his scent's very strong and fresh in there so it's very likely he's in those ruins somewhere."

Nenshō grabbed the binoculars from Ino and took a look for himself. "Not a very impressive structure." He commented observing the broken walls and burn down buildings all being overtaken by the vegetation.

"It's been abandoned for a couple generations now." Explained Raion, "Some of the stone buildings and tunnels underneath are intact so it's quite possible he's being contained in there, this castle was once used to house prisoners in the Land of Iron so I'm sure there are plenty of cells for them to use. Even cells to house shinobi." Ino took back the binoculars and put them away. "So where supposed to find Kumo in this half destroyed structure that we don't even know the layout with an unknown number of enemies and nothing to go off of except Raion's nose. In short a less than ideal situation."

Nenshō crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree trunk. "This is starting to feel nostalgic, let's wait until night fall."