Ino's hands glowed green as she performed her medical Jutsu on Kumo who was still lying flat on his back awake. Her chakra moved through his body easier than before but still with great difficulty. It'd take weeks at this rate to get him on his feet again. She tried to focus her current efforts towards mending the damage to his chest and shoulders so he could return to moving his upper body. His legs were going to take ten times as much work. Even if her Jutsu wasn't being slowed down it'd take a week at the very least to get him back to his normal self. "Feeling any better?" she asked watching the bruises recede under her touch. Kumo silently nodded and raised himself off the futon and leaning his back against the wall. He reached over and grabbed his headband and goggles pulling them on to cover half his face. "I'll never understand why you still insist on covering your face with that thing." She said crossing her arms and trying to spot his white eyes through the tinted glass.

"Old habit." He said shrugging, after wearing this mask for most of his life he didn't really mind still wearing it, like Kakashi and Zabuza, Kumo simply found it covenant if they didn't see his whole face or his Byakugan, he'd still sleep with it on if Ino didn't insist he take it off when they were alone together.

"Well as long as you don't wear it twenty four seven like you used to I won't complain. Can you channel any of your chakra?"

Kumo looked at his hand and tried focusing his chakra into his usual strings. Thin blue glowing threads started to extend from his fingertips sweat beaded down from his forehead as he let the strings recede back into his hands exhausted. "A little" he said resting his head back, "it still difficult through, I doubt I could last very long in a fight."

"You don't need to worry about any fighting Kumo leave that to me and Nenshō for the moment alright, just worry about getting your strength back up and rest."

"Where is Nenshō?" he asked grabbing the bowl of hot broth she had brought up for him. He felt a little awkward eating solid foot with his molars still missing and he wasn't sure he'd be able to hold anything else down.

"He's scanning the woods around the village for some bandits, sounds like their pretty common around here and the town folk let him stay here from time to time since he takes care of them. He's also trying to make sure we weren't followed here."

"Do you think we were followed on the way here?" he asked sipping from the bowl. Ino shrugged, "We didn't see any evidence that we were being tracked, but naturally that doesn't mean no one's been following us, I'm going to visit Kenkō she's been helping you heal and is trying to fix whatever's in your system. Raion's outside keeping a look out."

"Raion?" asked Kumo setting down the empty bowl.

"He's a friend of Nenshō's he's a summoning he can perform a lion. He's on the roof were he can keep a look out, call him if you need anything and he'll be right there for you."

"I don't need a body guard." He protested pulling on one of his black shirts and grabbing his set of marionette trench knives tucking them under his blankets.

"We all disagree" she said moving towards the door, "Those knives won't be of much use to you in your current state so try and bear with it ok, I'll be back in a couple hours, until then just relax and get some more sleep, I know you've been doing a lot of that lately but you need it."

Kumo nodded and lay back knowing he didn't have any room to argue with her, he was going to have to accept that he wasn't very good with arguing with Ino. She blew a kiss to him and left out the door leaving him alone to the quiet of the room.

Ino opened the door to Kenkō's little cottage. The old woman was hard at work sitting next to the fireplace were a bowl of water boiled, she tossed in some diced up roots into the hot water to extract the contents from the roots. "What are you working on?" she asked looking into the bubbling pot.

"A little something for the sheriff's horse, the poor creatures has a bad infection after taking a slash from a bandit's sword. Until I can figure out a way to cure that young man we can only try removing the poison from him I have some herbs soaking for him they can help his metabolism speed up. We'll need to boil them later and extract the juices from them as soon as I'm done with this. Feel free to sit down and wait I don't have much refreshment to offer you I'm afraid."

Ino smiled finding a chair and sitting down, "that's alright I'm fine." She said looking around the small cottage taking in her surroundings. She watched the woman working diligently over the steaming pot. The more she looked at the old woman the more she seemed to resemble the photo of Kumo's mother Supūru.

As the boiling water started to quiet down in the cauldron she moved to remove it from its hood, Ino stood to help her but she seemed to pick up the cast iron pot with ease and moved it to sit on the table.

"Who are you?" asked Ino knowing a woman her age shouldn't be able to handle a full caldron. No civilian at her age should possess such strength.

"What are you talking about?" she said moving across the room to the other cauldron, picking it up and moving it over to the fire. "You know my name is Kenkō."

"Yeah… but I'm not entirely sure that's your real name, you're a skilled herbalist of course growing a vast collection of medicinal plants, but that's just half your garden, half of these plants are poisonous and don't have any medical uses. You're stronger than anyone should be at your age, especially a civilian."

Kenkō turned away from the fire and looked at her eyes turning dangerous, Ino reached into her pocket and pulled out the photograph of Kumo's mother showing it to her. "You said you came into this village a little over ten years ago, around the time Kumo lost his mother who you resemble quite well despite the obvious age difference." Ino turned the photograph around for her to see, "I'll ask again who you are really? Because you're more than just Kenkō the herbalist."

The old woman stepped forward and took the photo into her slim fingers looking it over with her green eyes. "Where did you get this picture?" she asked tracing the edge with a finger.

"It belongs to Kumo" she explained crossing her arms over her chest, "He got it from a file on Supūru Sabaku in Konoha, it was given to him from a friend named Ibiki."

The old woman gave Ino a smile, "I suppose I should be happy my son is marrying such an inquisitive young girl" she said. Ino looked at her, "You're Supūru, your Kumo's mother!" she said hearing the words from her mouth. She nodded, "I suppose I'd be no use hiding it much longer I'm surprised Nenshō didn't already tell you to be honest."

"Why are you here?" Ino asked as they both sat down, "according to Kumo, your dead."

Supūru shook her head, "I never really died, it was just a simple Genjutsu to trick him" she explained handing the photo back to Ino. "But why did you trick him?" she asked, "Why'd you leave your son alone?"

"I didn't" she said, "When I left Suna with Kumo I knew it would be impossible to survive on our own, so I tried to find what friend I could with the contacts I had made being an ambassador for the Hidden Sand Village. I found an ally in one of my old friend Zabuza Momochi who agreed to give us his protection so long as Kumo and I aided him in his cause."

Ino raised an eyebrow, "So if you joined Zabuza why did you fake your death?"

"When I told Zabuza about my son he insisted he finish Kumo's shinobi training himself free from distraction, the way Zabuza saw it so long as Kumo thought I was alive his emotional attachment to me would keep him from reaching his potential. I agreed to his terms but only because I wanted my son to be safe and receive the best training he could. Zabuza then ordered me to keep my head low and use whatever skills I had to earn money for his cause."

"So then how dose Nenshō fit into all of this?" she asked.

"He's been trying to track down all of the surviving followers of Zabuza, my name came up and he tracked me down, from what he's told me I'm the only one he's managed to find still alive, the rest are either dead or captured."

"When are you planning to tell Kumo?" she asked knowing her fiancé would be pleased to learn of his mother's existence.

"I don't know" she answered.

Nenshō moved through the tree's navigating the branches by moonlight. It things went well he'd be back at the inn before the kitchen closed and order a hot meal, one of his rare luxuries these days considering he wasn't very skilled at cooking whatever he hunted, he wished he forced Kumo to teach him his cooking skills before leaving to go back on the run. And right now he wanted a steaming bowl of rice and hot bowl of spiced beef more than a late night run through the woods. The sight of trees and brush caught his eye and he moved down to the forest floor to remain unseen slowing his pace to move through the brush quietly. He took a perch on a small ridge and pulled out his binoculars and peered through the lenses spotting a camp fire in the distance. He spotted a few halberds and other weapons lying against a nearby tree. A few unkempt men sat around the fire eating out of their mess kits. Nenshō sighed and hope he would still be able to make it back it time for a hot meal, he should have asked Ino to get something for him or keep it Kenkō or as he knew her Supūru Sabaku would be willing to cook something for him. Her cooking was one of the reasons he was so fond of hunting bandits in this area he could get a meal more decent that anything he could make on the road and managed to make whatever money he could looting the bodies and collecting the odd bounty here and there. Supūru didn't mind helping him so long as he protected her anonymity from everyone including Kumo. As much as he hated lying to his best friend he didn't feel like losing his only follower either. His attention was brought back to the camp when one of the bandits stood and drew a sword; his other comrades joined him and grabbed their weapons lying on the trees. Three masked ANBU stepped out into the fire light their hands held out trying to engage the men in conversation. Nenshō cursed under his breath, he hoped he had actually managed to get them off his trail but that it seemed was asking for a bit much. He had no doubt he could handle the bandits alone but the ANBU would be another matter especially since he doubted there were only three in these woods. He packed his binoculars away and quietly worked his way back to the village to inform his friends. It seemed he'd be getting that hot meal after all.