Nenshō drew a handful of Kunai and poured his chakra into the weapons shifting them into a pair of bladed metal whips swinging them at the Hyūga who rolled away from his attacked he rose from the ground hands glowing with chakra; he ducked another whip and moved forward and strait into the path of another. The metal whip flashed whit blinding light as he stuck it, the metal became hard and refused to move in his hands it was now nothing more than a piece of thick steel. Nenshō dropped the useless weapon and gripped the second whip with both hands bringing it down over his head, he saw the attack coming and shifted out of the way touching the whip as it headed for the ground, the weapon cut a thin trench in the ground and was stuck there. Nenshō again abandoned the weapon and withdrew jumping up to take a perch cursing in his head, he under stood now. It was the Gentle Fist technique; he never suspected it could be used in such a way. The Hyūga style made use of the Byakugan to target the chakra paths and points on the body to inflict internal damage by forcing their chakra into the enemy's body, when his metal weapons flashed blue it was because his chakra was being forced out by the Hyūga's rendering his steel weapons inanimate. He supposed he could just pour more chakra into the metal to make it move again, but since the effort could easily be undone by another strike of the Gentle Fist he figured it would be the quickest way to drain his own chakra. "Running away now that you're Kekkei Genkai has failed you?" the Hyūga asked looking up at him.

"That's not my only Kekkei Genkai" Nenshō muttered channeling his chakra into his fists and feeling them heat up as orbs of fire formed in his palms. He clapped his hands together sending a cone of fire down upon the village square strait towards the Hyūga. The enemy disappeared in the swirling light of the fire as it burned the square below forcing Nenshō to close his own eyes from the heat. The flames and smoke cleared away and the Hyūga stepped out from behind Zabuza's sword that still remained implanted into the ground, he hadn't through the sword could be used as cover for his attack. Nenshō charged up his burning palms ready to strike again when the enemy raised his hands over his head in surrender. "Don't attack it's me Ino!" he said. Nenshō looked over to where Ino was, she was on the ground in a heap, she had used the Mind Body Switch Jutsu while he was hiding behind the sword from the fire. The Jutsu had allowed her to take over the man's body leaving her own empty and defenseless; the action had taken its toll since any damage to the enemy was also inflicted upon the possessor. Ino arms and shouldered were burned from his last attack, he wouldn't let the sacrifice go to waste. He grabbed several shuriken and threw them upon the ground around him forming the appropriate hand signs and shifting the metal, the shifting steel ran up the man's body wrapping around his arms and legs binding them together. "Go back to your body now Ino" he commanded leaping back to the ground as Ino's body reanimated. She stood up and walked with him towards the captured Hyūga. Nenshō picked him up by the scruff of his shirt and held him up, "I'm your target right?" he growled looking into the man's white eyes. "So here I am what should we talk about?"

"He's not going to talk anytime soon" said Ino, "but I got a decent look at his mind when I took over his body, I've already learned everything I could from him." she explained. "I see" said Nenshō drawing a Kunai from his holster and bringing it to his throat, "Whatever it is you're dying for, I hope it's worth it." Nenshō said sliding the blade across his throat opening his jugular; Nenshō released the man and let him fall to the ground bleeding slowly to his death.

"Impressive" a voice sounded from above, "he was one of our better fighters, if only his mind was a bit stronger you both might be dead about now." Standing atop the roof of the butcher's shop stood three more shinobi all looking at them with white eyes. "No matter your outnumbered, so listen up if you spare us the trouble and surrender now we'll-" their sentence was cut off as the roof below then exploded beneath them, they leapt from the thatched surface just in time to take a position on the ground. Two giant armored puppets carrying halberds stepped over the ruins of the building blue chakra strings trailed from the massive automatons. Nenshō followed the strings trails over to the Inn where Supūru stood clutching her chakra strings controlling the puppets. "Are you so sure we are outnumbered? Theirs five of us if you count my puppets and only three of you, you would think a clan of geniuses would know a shinobi when they see one." She said moving the puppets to the enemy's flank. Nenshō grabbed the handle of his sword and hefted the large blade out of the ground bringing it to bear, "if you think your little trick scares us then think again, bending metal is hardly my only skill and if you're not careful Ino here can take your body."

A black furred cat jumped down from the window and circled around the three his mouth dripping blood. "That man you sent into the Inn is dead… just in case you were wondering what happened to him."

The three shinobi sprigged off their feet withdrawing away from them retreating back into the wilderness. Nenshō put the sword back down, "Smart move" he said.

"You know they're going to come back" said Ino hugging herself, "and they have around a dozen more to help them."

….

Ino winced as Supūru touched her burned shoulders applying a homemade ointment to ease the pain and hopefully ward off infection. "You should know better than to switch bodies with an enemy who's being attacked, especially if Nenshō's the one attacking. Honestly if that man hadn't taken cover your body would probably be a cinder right now."

"And if I hadn't taken his body me and Nenshō might be dead, believe me if the Hyūga's are good at one thing it's dragging out a fight. And who know how long until those others would have stepped in, one Hyūga is bad enough but four is more than we can handle."

"You don't need to lecture to me what the Hyūga are capable of Ino, I know plenty about their clan considering I raised one I consider myself an expert on them." Supūru said applying the cream on her skin harder than necessary causing her to shudder in pain. "I just don't want anything to happen to my son's fiancée, so promise you'll think about your own body next time you think about using that Jutsu."

"I know it's a double edged sword but it's one of the best Jutsus I got, and besides these burns are a small price to pay to protect Kumo. I never thought I'd be the one protecting him though. He's usually handling the fight a mile away from everything, on missions we hardly ever have contact with the enemy, they never get close enough to attack us instead they wear themselves down on Kumo's puppets."

The wooden boards above them creaked, as Kumo moved above them from the sound of his movements Ino guesses. Supūru handed Ino the jar of cream and gracefully moved out the door as Kumo moved downstairs. Ino sighed looking at the door close behind Supūru, it seemed she wasn't ready for her son to see her just yet, Ino patience was beginning to wane as she resisted the urge to tell her lover the truth.

"Who were you talking to?" he asked standing at the top of the stairs supporting himself with the railings of the stairs.

"No one, just one of the innkeepers." She answered. "And what are you doing on your feet? Your legs haven't completely healed yet." She said moving to help him down the stairs. "I'm not the type to take doctor's orders."

"That's not very wise to say considering the doctor is going to be your wife." She said easing him into a chair for him to sit down. "I can't stay in that bed forever, not while you're having to fight out there." He retorted. "The sooner I'm back on my feet the sooner we can leave and get back to Konoha and begin weeding out the traitors in the ANBU Black Ops."

"I guess we won't have time to plan the wedding when we get back… this isn't going to end anytime soon for us is it?" she said slumping in her chair. Kumo shook his head and pulled his pipe from his jacket already loaded with fresh tobacco; he struck a match and lit the contents inside drawing in a mouthful of smoke. "If this goes as deep as it looks it could take years to unearth all the turn cloaks in the ANBU Black Ops. I doubt Konoha will be much safer than anywhere else, our homes become a den of lions."

"I know" she said slumping, "but I keep wanting to think things will go back to normal when we return home. Things were so hectic before you went on this mission, working with the Intelligence Division and trying to take care of Eri and helping Tenten. And now our troubles are just beginning."

Kumo put the pipe down on the table and opened up his arms inviting her into his embrace. She shifted herself onto his lap and let his arms fall around her cradling her face into his shoulder. Kumo kissed her head and felt his shirt get wet with hot tears.

"I said I'd make time after this mission ended Ino… and I'm still going to do that. I promise I'll figure something out."

….

Nenshō leaned in almost pressing his ear against the door of the local tavern listening through the locked door. "So what do you think we should do Kenchi?" a voice asked from behind the thin wooden walls. "We need to get those shinobi out of the village." Said the assumed Kenchi, "If we can get them out of the village than we shouldn't get any more trouble." He explained.

"Yeah we get that" a third voice said, "but how are you planning to get rid of them?"

There was a long pause, clearly this Kenchi character was having to take a moment to think about it. "One of them is badly wounded and bed ridden, if we can take him hostage I'm sure we can get to others to leave the village. If we can sneak into the Inn later tonight we can take them off guard."

Nenshō hear enough, Supūru had told him about this little meeting with the town folk about the recent attack on the village, he hoped it would be a lot of talk about repairing the butchers shop but it seemed otherwise. Nenshō raised his steel boot and brought it down upon the wooden door shattering the frame and sending it crashing down, the voices silenced as he stepped into the smoky tavern. The smell of tobacco lingered in the air and he pulled a rolled cigarette from his pocket and lighting it as he walked into the main room looking at the gathered villagers sitting around a large table, six members sat in their chairs looking at him with wide eyes. He removed the cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. He hefted Zabuza's sword over his shoulder and cleaved through the table they all sat around sending a shower of splinters everywhere. "Let me make this very clear to all of you" he said narrowing his eyes at every one of them. "And be sure to spread the word around town, if anyone gets within a hundred feet of that inn, then their going home in two body bags instead of one."

"I'm sorry Nenshō" said one of the men standing up, from his voice he could tell it was Kenchi. "We appreciate what you've done to us in the past, but your presence is becoming hazardous for us."

"I've kept this village safe for over a year and this is how you repay me?" Nenshō growled. "By planning to send me and my friends to their deaths?"

"If you stay here we all die." He retorted.

"I'm not going to let that happen" Nenshō promised, "these people don't care about you and if I leave then the bandits will just come back to burn this village to the ground, so leave the shinobi to me. And remember what I said, anyone found within a hundred feet of the inn is going home in separate halves."

"You think you can threat us Nenshō?" Kenchi asked as Nenshō hefted up the sword and turned to walk out the door. "It's not a threat it's a mercy" he said, "Kumo may be bed ridden but he's far from helpless, if any of you weaklings tried taking him on, he'd send you home in hundreds of tiny bits."

Nenshō finished his cigarette and threw it on the ground stomping it out and heading for the edge of town. He scanned the area around him making sure he was truly alone before biting his thumb and drawing blood for his summoning Jutsu. A small yellow eyed ocelot appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke. "It's been a long time Nenshō, what can I do for you?" he asked.

Nenshō pulled a scroll from his pocket and handed it to the small cat. "Thanks for coming Suigin; I need you to get this to Tsunade of the leaf village. Understand?" The cat nodded taking the scroll in its mouth. "I'm serious" Nenshō said, "you're not to give this scroll to anyone other than the Hokage, not a another ninja or her secretary but directly to her hands got it?"

Suigin set the scroll down and looked back up at him. "So what's so important about this scroll anyways?" he asked.

"It explains a series of recent events that has transpired here. When you give this to her tell her that Ino and Kumo both are in serious danger and need help. And that if she comes to extract us… then I'll surrender myself to the Leaf Village."