"So that's your plan?" asked Supūru watching the sun set in the west her clay pipe smoking in her hand. Nenshō crossed his arms and nodded. "This is a no win situation" he explained watching the cherry at the end of his cigarette glow red. "If we try making a run for it we'll just end up getting ambushed in the wilds and end up dead and the bandits will just take the opportunity to ransack this dump for all it's worth. If we just stay here and try to fight it out we'll eventually be wiped out and the town will just be caught in the crossfire, Ino says they have a dozen shinobi hunting us but we don't know if they can get reinforcements or not. I could hand myself over to the enemy but there's no guarantee they'll spare anyone, in fact I doubt it there a liability, we know of their existence and since Ino got a look at that guys mind we know have a small idea of their plans. The only solution is getting the assistance of Konoha, they'll ensure your son and his future wife reach the village safely."
"And the village?" Supūru asked watching the smoke swirl in front of the orange orb that drifted down into the horizon.
"I'm trusting you to help with that." He said putting the cigarette out. "Once we're gone then you just need to worry about ordinary bandits, they shouldn't be of any real threat to you."
"Why would I trouble myself helping this ungrateful village?" she said, "I've been thinking of moving to a new area and starting over especially since my secret's out, maybe even someplace closer to Konoha where I can be closer to Kumo."
"If you're going to be like that then I'm ordering you to stay behind and protect these people." He said standing up and giving Supūru the best Zabuza stair he could manage. "You promised you'd obey me as you did Zabuza once and help me."
"I promised I'd continue to help fulfill Zabuza's plans for the Hidden Mist. But this village has nothing to do with the Hidden Mist, and if you surrender yourself to the Leaf then you'll be dead before long anyways. I have no loyalty to a corpse." She said dumping the ashes out of her clay pipe.
"I killed the last person who said that to me, they were foolish enough to believe they could betray Zabuza and live to tell the tale."
"And if I disobey you are you going to kill me beyond the grave Nenshō? That's an impressive trick that even Zabuza never learned." She lectured standing up from her chair and moving onto her porch.
"Zabuza didn't need to work beyond the grave." Nenshō reasoned clenching his fist; he was going impatient with this woman.
"No" agreed Supūru, "he had you and Kumo to punish those men for him despite being deceased. But who's going to punish me for you? You're completely alone, and you're going to die that way. You don't have any other followers and your other friends are too wrapped up fixing your mistakes."
Nenshō slammed his fist into the wall of her cottage sending his gloved hand though the wooden boards, he cursed as he felt his knuckles break. "I know I've made mistakes" he growled. "Eri, The Hyūga Clan everything. But I'm trying to fix that as best I can and I need to get Kumo and Ino home alive even if it costs me my life. If I can get then to Konoha then Eri will have her godfather back and they can begin uprooting the dissenting Hyūga and getting to the bottom of this conspiracy." Nenshō pulled his arm out of the wall and turned his back to Supūru. "And don't lecture me about mistakes Supūru; I may not have had a chance to see my little girl. But at least I'm not the one hiding my face from my own child in shame."
Nenshō walked away rubbing his broken hand. He needed Ino to have a look at it; he didn't feel like asking Supūru for medical help not right now.
"So what did you learn about these guys? Aside from their numbers that is." Nenshō asked as Ino examined his hand delicately applying pressure with her fingers. "Not much" admitted Ino. "Unfortunately that man was kept mostly in the dark so I've only managed to learn a fraction of their plans."
"And?" he asked putting a cigarette in his mouth.
"A good portion of them are disgruntled Hyūga who don't recognize Hinata as a true leader. Their planning a coup in the hidden leaf. That much I do know the rest is pretty unclear. It's obvious they aren't working alone, they have some kind of outside help and they've managed to corrupt some members of the ANBU Black Ops into going along with this. I don't know how but this stretches farther than the ANBU or the leaf village."
"So what about me?" asked Nenshō as Ino's hands glowed green resetting the tiny bones in his hand. "Why are they after me? Is it because I killed Hiashi Hyūga?"
Ino shook her head, "Killing him certainly caused this sense of dissent with the clan, but honestly it has little to do with revenge. They were ordered to take you in alive but they don't know why just yet it's just an order from higher up."
"I see" he said pulling his hand back and flexing it. "So we won't be able to do much else till we get you back to Konoha."
"How are you planning to get us back?" she asked drawing invisible lines on the table with her finger.
"Do you trust me?" asked Nenshō digging his hand into his pocket. Ino nodded, "You've got us this far, I know you'll get us home."
Nenshō have her a wry smile, "I have a plan we just need to hold out here for a few days." He explained pulling a gold coin from his pocket and pouring his chakra into it. "How's Kumo healing? It isn't easy being bed ridden for so long."
"I know, he's able to stand now more or less, his healings going a lot faster now and I think he might be able to walk in day or two. Theirs bone fragments imbedded in his leg muscles, so he's going to need surgery when he gets back to Konoha or he's going to have a limp. It shouldn't be very difficult for Tsunade to handle but I'm not in any position to remove them. Not without risking infection or serious injury. I wouldn't even know about them if Kumo hadn't used his Byakugan to see them, it managed to drain whatever chakra he had, but at least we know his bodies back to producing chakra again."
The golden coin in his hand shifted into a small golden ring. "Here" he said handing the girl the ring. "Give this to Kumo; he still needs an engagement ring doesn't he?"
Ino nodded and took the gold band, "Thanks, I didn't even think about that things have been so busy lately marriage has been the last thing on my mind. Honestly I didn't think Kumo was anywhere close to proposing I was just thinking he would try getting time off of work and his duties as a Jōnin."
"Kumo's a Jōnin?" asked Nenshō, "You failed to mention that."
"Sorry" she said looking at the table, "but yeah he became a Jōnin shortly after you left the village. Once he learned that Tenten was having your kid he worked hard to get his ranking up so he would be cleared for higher ranking missions."
"You need a special commendation to become a Jōnin before you can take the test. Who gave it to Kumo?"
"Ibiki" answered Ino.
"Figures" chucked Nenshō, "he always did play favorites when it came to Kumo."
"That's what everyone said; it caused a lot of problems for Kumo and the counsel was going to reject his application for Jōnin until Guy sensei submitted a recommendation as well. He said it was because he witnessed him operating on an S ranked mission. But I'm of the opinion he did it so Kumo could help Tenten."
Nenshō nodded, "Sounds like something Guy would do."
Ino stood up and stepped towards the stairs, "I'm going to try and slip thin on Kumo's finger while he's asleep. He'll be surprised when he wakes up. Then I think I'll get some sleep, sound alright?" she asked.
Nenshō nodded, "go for it, just one more thing. How long do you think we have until they come back for us… it's been a whole day already."
Ino paused to think about it, "I say give it a day or two for them to gather their reinforcements, no more than three days considering how spread out they are. Or at least that's what I can tell from that one guys mind."
"I see" Nenshō said dismissing her. He looked at his healed hand and smirked. He just needed to hold out until the Hidden Leaf arrived, then he'd walk to his dead, head held high.