Kumo felt warm, he didn't know where he was but his stone cold cell seemed to be no more, he opened his eyes and stared up at the plain simple ceiling. He glanced over to the open window shining yellow sunlight into the room. "Glad to see you're awake." He recognized Nenshō's voice immediately and raised his head to see him. He winced in pain and fell back down onto the pillow his head had been resting on. "Easy" said Nenshō stepping into view and kneeling next to the futon he was lying on. "You really shouldn't be moving in your current state, you have a score of broken bones and even more cuts all over your body, you'll pull stitches if you're not careful" he explained.

Kumo sighed, "How long have I been out?" he asked eyeing his old friend. "You mean since you proposed to Ino? About three days ago."

Kumo looked back up the ceiling, "I thought that was a dream" he said, "I didn't exactly plan on giving her a broken ring while in a cell covered in my own blood."

"I fixed the ring." Said Nenshō rolling a cigarette, "It's not a bad one either that stone alone must have cost you a pretty penny. Besides how would you have given it to her anyways?"

"I don't know…" he admitted as Nenshō lit his smoke. "Just something a little more pleasant, I was thinking of going to her when she was working in the flower shop and asking her to help me find some kind of flower I didn't know the name of and try describing it to her, and when she asked what color the pedals were I'd take the ring out and say it was colored like this stone. A lot better that offering a broken ring while suffering from delirium."

Nenshō breathed out a cloud of smoke, "If you ask me that thing in the flower shop seems cliché and boring. I think handing over a piece of warped gold in the middle of a bloody dungeon while your delirious makes for a much more interesting story to tell at parties."

Kumo smiled a bit, "I suppose you're right" he said pausing to let a silence hang over the room. "They wanted me to tell them anything I could about you Nenshō." He stated not liking the discomfort the quiet was bringing them. "I know" said Nenshō.

"I never talked" he assured him.

"I never once thought you did" he told him, "thank you Kumo… for everything." He flicked off some ash and leaned against the wall. "Ino told me about what you've been doing for Tenten… and for Eri… thank you."

"You don't need to thank me" Kumo told him just to be cut off by Nenshō.

"Yes I do… I know I didn't need to ask you to what you've done but… thank you for giving my girl everything I couldn't."

Kumo nodded in understanding, "Anytime, but back to the matter at hand… who are those men and why are they looking for you?"

Nenshō shrugged, "No idea I've been trying to keep my head down as far as I know I was only wanted by the Hidden Leaf for treason. I'm at a loss for who these people are, but I'm going to find out and when I do I'll set everything right again."

"So then, what's our next move?" Kumo asked wishing he could leave this bed and get back into action. "Our next move" began Nenshō "is to get you back on your feet and keep you safe until then. So leave everything to me for right now, you've done enough."

Nenshō put out his cigarette and moved to the door. "It's good to see you again Nenshō."

Nenshō turned and smirked at his friend, "You too Kumo… now get some rest it'll help." He closed the door behind him leaving Kumo to rest.

Ino rapped her knuckles on the door. "It's open" Kenkō said from inside. Ino opened the door and stepped in her sense of smell being bombarded with the scent of burnt tobacco. She was more than used to the scent at this point, after years with Asuma Shikamaru and now Kumo, she almost found the smell to be as pleasant as it was familiar. The smell of Kenkō house shifted her mind to nights spent in Kumo's apartment.

Kenkō was sitting at a desk in the corner examine the vial of Kumo's blood she had collected earlier, he dipped an eyedropper into the vial and collected a sample that she dropped into a glass dish filled with some kind of clear liquid. The single drop of blood clouded the glass turning it red before slowly fading into a reddish amber color. "I've never seen anything like this before." She commented turning to Ino in her chair. "You mentioned it was affecting your healing Jutsu?" she asked moving over to a cabinet and opening it to grab a granite mortar and pestle. Ino nodded, "If by effecting you mean completely stopping me then pretty much, whatever this is it's making it very difficult to channel chakra through his body, I poured everything I could spare into healing him but I only managed to close a few cuts nothing more.

She then moved to a shelf taking a few jars and opening them pulling out a variety of dried leaves and roots and even some seeds. I see well until we can find a way to nullify this drug we'll have to do what we can to get it out of his system. There are some gedoku flowers growing in the garden" she began.

"You need the roots?" asked Ino being more than familiar with the flower, the woman smiled and nodded, "of course it's good to see you know your plants."

Ino nodded and turned back outside and moving to the garden, she spotted the flowers and pulled a few up from the earth before heading back inside and moving to the workbench across from Kenkō who was already grinding the ingredient with the mortar and pestle mashing the ingredients into a yellow sticky paste. Ino drew one of her kunai and began dicing up the roots for her to add to the mix.

"How long have you lived in this village?" she asked trying to make the time pass with small talk. The old lady looked at her as if considering the question. "A little over ten years, I moved around a lot in my youth collecting herbs and learning the lore of my trade. But as I began to age I decided it would be best if I settled down so I set up a stand in this village selling medicine to the townsfolk and travelers within the year I was able to afford getting this little cottage just outside of town. Tell me where did you learn about plants, not many recognize the gedoku flower let alone know the medicinal uses of its roots."

Ino smiled, "My family owns a flower shop back in Konoha, my parents made sure if I was to work there I would know everything I could about the flowers I sell, it annoyed me at the time but it's become more than handy over the years, it's one of the things that even helped introduce me to Kumo when I think back I did meet him in my family's flower shop trying to order rare flowers."

"You mean that young man you were carrying?" she asked slipping in some of the diced roots and mashing them into the thick paste. Ino nodded to her whipping her knife clean before holstering it again watching Kenkō grind the final pieces of root into the paste. They left as soon as she finished and headed towards the inn and up to the room where Kumo was sleeping. "This will help remove the drug from his system I can't promise it will cleanse his system but it should help remove a fair amount from his blood." She said as she stepped inside and kneeled down next to the sleeping Kumo, she looked over him for a lingering moment before removing the blankets exposing his bare chest covered in cuts. She pulled two brushed from her belt and handed one to Ino. "Apply the medicine over his cuts once every day, wash and reapply the paste it should absorb some of the poison through his wounds." Ino nodded and join Kenkō in applying the yellow paste onto his wounds. Kenkō applied the medicine onto the cuts and scratches that lined his face. "I'd hate to see these cuts become scars, he's very handsome." She said almost sadly. "I know" said Ino smiling to herself.

"Are you his girlfriend?" she asked applying some finishing touches to his wounds. "Fiancée" she said showing her the golden ring that now sat upon her finger. Kenkō smiled, "congratulations" she said standing and heading for the door. "Come see me tommarow and we'll try and figure out what else we can do." She closed the door behind her leaving Ino alone with her sleeping fiancé. She moved over to Kumo gear and decided to take the opportunity to unpack. She removed his skullcap and goggles that customarily covered half his face and put it beside him to take if he wanted once he was awake and able to move along with his pipe and set of trench knives all within arm's reach he wasn't in any condition to fight but she felt that they would both sleep better if he had easy access to them. She also put a few of his scrolls holding some of his more familiar puppets beside him. She placed his jacket on the coat hook and emptied the pockets to inspect the various items including the worn photo of her. She also produced a picture of Kumo's mother Supūru Sabaku; it was a copy of another he had framed in his apartment these two were the only photographs he had of his mother taken just a couple years before he was born. She stared at the sandy blond haired woman smiling up at her looking alive and full of youth. Ino frowned as she examined the picture even closer taking in the features of the woman she had never met and thinking she almost looked like Kenkō if she was decades younger and not ravaged by the passage of time. Her subtle features and smile made her realize why Kenkō had seemed familiar to her when she first saw her. But the woman in this photograph was supposed to be dead and even if she was alive she wouldn't be anywhere close to Kenkō's current age. She heard a groan come from Kumo and pocketed the picture and turning around to see him looking at her. "Ino?" he said his voice still hoarse.

"Hey honey" she said moving over next to him, "how are you feeling?" she asked happy to finally see him awake.

"Better than before," he said his eyes glancing over to her left hand where her engagement ring was completely fixed like Nenshō said the facets of the purple gem caught the light and sparkled. "I love it" she said catching his gaze and adjusting the ring, "the stone's perfect" a small smile circled Kumo lips hearing this.

"I'm sorry" he said, "I'm sorry I attacked you back there… I thought you were someone else, another one of their cruel tricks" he confessed.

"What do you mean?" she asked cupping one of his cheeks, "what happened to you in there?"

"When I wouldn't talk… they tried tricking the information out of me, some woman disguised herself with a genjutsu to look and sound like you. When she wouldn't answer my questions properly I knew she wasn't the real you… and I killed her with the genjutsu still in effect she looked just like you when I took her life and I… I haven't been able to get that image out of my mind ever since."

Ino leaned down careful not to press down on any of his broken ribs or bruises, she closed her eyes and fruitlessly tried to hold back the tears laying her head upon his bare chest. "It's alright Kumo, you don't have to think about that anymore it's over." She felt her quiet tears slip out and dip down her face onto her lover's chest.

"I had abandoned any hope of ever seeing you again." He said his hand managing to find her long hair; he ran his fingers through the platinum strands as if he wasn't sure she was truly here right now. "Well I'm here now and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else" she said enjoying the feeling of his hand moving through her hair. They hadn't had a moment alone in over a month and right now they just needed to be close to one another.

"Do you need anything?" Ino asked him thinking he must be starving right now among other things. "No" said Kumo, "just stay with me like this for now… until I fall back asleep."