"It's been two days." Said Supūru as Nenshō stepped down the stairs of the inn. "It seems you've been lucky so far." She said.
"What do you want?" he grumbled not completely awake yet and not in the mood to talk to argue with her. "Are you still planning to hand yourself over to the Leaf?" she asked sitting at one of the tables. Nenshō was just starting to see it but Supūru's features were slowly changing over time, her worn features were beginning to fade as her wrinkled skin and pale complexion smoothed out and started to regain its bronze complexion. Her long grey hair was slowly regaining its sandy blond color. She was slowly starting to resemble the woman Nenshō had seen in Kumo's photograph.
"The message should have reached Konoha by now, so yeah I'm going ahead with It." he defended grabbing a glass of water. "So what of it?"
"Why are you throwing your life away?" she asked examining the grain patterns in the wood. "Don't misunderstand me Nenshō… because I do appreciate what you are doing for Kumo and Ino both. But why are you sacrificing yourself to do this?"
Nenshō shrugged, "There my friends, I don't really know how else to put It." he confessed.
"I knew Zabuza Nenshō… possibly better than you ever did. What you are doing goes against everything Zabuza believed in. He wouldn't have risked his life for anyone of his followers, let alone for friends he didn't have."
Nenshō smirked to himself. "I don't think anyone truly knew Zabuza, if you said that to me a little over eight years ago I'd agree with you and wouldn't hesitate to leave Kumo or anyone behind for that matter. But Zabuza died avenging Haku's dead, and soon after that I found myself relying on Kumo for my own survival. I didn't understand why Zabuza died like that at first but… when I was in that prison Zabuza's death started making a little more sense to me and I decided that if I ended up dying helping Kumo escape from that hellish pit, or if we died bringing justice to those that betrayed our master, I'd be ok with that. And that decision, it hasn't changed since."
"I see" she said not taking her eyes away from the table. "That's a sufficient answer, I suppose." She admitted folding her hands in front of her.
"You accused me of hiding from my own son… and your right I am hiding. But I sold my son to a monster to save myself. I'm not very proud of that fact Nenshō, I'm not very eager to admit what I've done to him."
Nenshō pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket and pressed his finger to the end lighting it. "I don't know what to tell you Supūru. But Kumo and I never viewed Zabuza as a monster like you did. Yeah he wasn't the easiest guy to learn under, we both have scars to prove this. But those scars aren't regrets, their lessons he branded into us with cold steel and we learned them well. And if it wasn't for those lessons we wouldn't have survived as long as we did. If you ask me you did your son a favor sending him to that so called monster. Your kid's a Jōnin and a damn skilled one at that; he's engaged to a skilled Kunoichi and despite some understandable trust and social issue manages to have a decent circle of friends. So in short, you produced my best friend and a skilled shinobi only who's only rivaled by yours truly. So how about you stop dragging this guilt around because it's not a part of my job description to put up with your shit. So shut up and go meet your son face to face, or just shut up I don't care which really. But let make this clear to you, I'm not going to accept insubordination, even from you. So when the extraction arrives you will stay behind and protect the people of this village from the local bandits until I say you can leave it."
"And if I refuse?" she asked her tone not defiant but curious.
"You're not going to refuse, because you know Kumo would want to make sure this village stays safe. And if that reason alone isn't good enough for you then I'll handle your insubordination as Zabuza would. With a kunai to your throat."
"You think you can kill me Nenshō?" she asked.
"I'm willing to find out if I can in order to protect these people. And don't think I'll hold back just because your Kumo's mother. As far as he's concerned you're already dead and I'm willing to make his assumption true if I have to."
Supūru smirked. "It seems I haven't given you enough credit Nenshō. You're a lot more like Zabuza than I had a originally thought."
He didn't say anything and continued to smoke his cigarette in silence not sure if she was complementing him or insulting him. Not that it mattered much he supposed, he wouldn't be alive much longer anyways to care about what people thought of him.
The sound of the villages alarm bell made Ino sigh in relief, after waiting days to hear the signs of attack she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest knowing the wait was over. She reached over to the table and grabbed her kunai holster strapping it to her thigh and tying her hair back into its usual pony tail. She looked over to Kumo who lay asleep on the futon unable to wake from the alarm due to the sedative he had taken last night. He could hardly sleep without them.
She opened the door and dashed outside meeting Nenshō on her way down the stairs. A fresh suit of armor was donned on him and Zabuza's sword was strapped on his back. "About damn time." He muttered as they rushed outside only to be met by a volley of arrows. Nenshō hefted the sword off his back and stabbed it into the ground in front of him, he spun around and hooked his arm around Ino's waist and put his back to the sword crouching as the arrows tinged against the blade making it vibrate against his back. A crossbow bolt struck his shoulder and pierced through his armor cutting into his left shoulder. He gritted his teeth and growled tightening his grip on Ino trusting that she was fully protected from the barrage of wooden missiles. She looked up at him and touched his shoulder where the bolt had pierced him. "Let me heal you." She said her hand glowing green. He brushed her hand away and waited for the volley to cease. "Save your chakra for the fight, we've got more to worry about than scratches right now."
Nenshō pushed her off of him and stood up grabbing the swords hilt and pulling it from the ground with his good arm and throwing into the gathered crowd of bandits armed with bows and crossbow. The massive blade spun and cut down four of the men reloading their weapons before cutting into the side of a house. Ino rolled away from him grabbing her kunai and tossing it towards the remaining bowmen burying the knives into their chests sending them to the ground.
"You shouldn't send bandits to do a shinobi's job." Nenshō yelled, "All it does is create a mess of bodies."
A white eyed Hyūga stepped forward from the crowd. "They serve their function well enough, after all that is blood dripping down your arm isn't it?" he asked. "I doubt you have the energy to take them all down Shinobi or not. You know the outcome of this as well as I do Nenshō; end the struggling now before we have to break every bone in your body."
Nenshō tossed one of his Kunai at the man only to have him dodge the blade; several more bandits rushed brandishing weapons. Nenshō ducked a swipe from an axe and followed up sending a spike from his armor through the man's chest grabbing for the axe and wrenching it from the dying man's hand and spinning around to bury it into another bandits shoulder. Another rushed in with a tanto trying to run him through. He side stepped the man and clotheslined the man with his left arm instead of letting him fall to the ground he wrapped his arm around his neck and twisted his neck snapping it with his single arm. Before he could release the corpse the Hyūga rushed in his hands glowing with chakra as he struck the arm with his gentle fist. The corpse dropped to the ground as Nenshō felt his left arm go limp and drop to his side completely numb. Nenshō brought his leg up kicking at the man making him retreat. Nenshō's right hand started forming signs behind his back. Another Bandit moved in to attack but was quickly cut down by Ino who moved over to assist him.
"You should surrender now, your left arm is useless and you can't perform your Jutsu without it."
Nenshō brought his hand out forming a ring around his mouth and breathing out a ball of fire. The fireball Jutsu caught the Hyūga instantly incinerating the man instantly. The fool didn't know that making hand signs with one hand had been one of the first things he had learned from Haku. One of Supūru's massive puppets burst out from one of corners brandishing one of its halberds, it brought the weapons down upon the crowd of bandits knocking them off their feet and kicking up blood and dust. Nenshō spotted Supūru atop a roof chakra threads trailing from her finger tips as she manipulated the puppet from a distance. The massive puppet swept its pole arm across the ground sweeping away enemies in its path. One of the shinobi ducked the swipe and came up pulling a bolas from his belt the cords wrapped with paper bombs. He tossed the weapon and its explosive cords wrapped around the giants leg and exploded sending shards of wood and metal everywhere as the cords detonated. The puppets leg blew apart and the lifeless doll succumbed to gravity and fell to the ground crashing into a house on the way down. The shinobi rushed away from the explosion and climbed up onto the roofs rushing towards Supūru Kunai in hand. Nenshō's metal bracer shifted into a metal hooking onto the roof and pulling him up to intercept him landing on the tile roof in front of the man. He dodged a slash from the kunai and caught the man with the whip and threw him to the ground hard enough to kill him.
He turned again to rush to Supūru's side only to be beaten by a Hyūga who leapt upon the roof hands burning with chakra. Supūru raised a Kunai to defend herself but the man was faster striking her in the shoulder. She reeled back from the strike and formed fresh chakra strings that wrapped around the arm that struck her the tiny threads constricted around his appendage forming crisscrossing cuts across his skin cutting in like razor blades. He charged up his free hand with more chakra and struck her arm blocking her chakra. The threads dissipated and her legs gave out from under her coughing up blood. Nenshō charged in the metal whip now formed into a long blade and clutched into his remaining arm. He let her body fall against him to keep her from falling off the roof as he moved the blade around her curving it with his Jutsu to keep it concealed from the target until the last moment where it cut though his chest straight into lungs. The blade shifted at his command and moved until he had found the man's spinal cord and severed it. Nenshō kicked the corpse off the roof and turned back to Supūru.
"My chakra's been blocked." She coughed splattering up more blood as Nenshō laid her down to rest. Before he knew it Ino was at her side ready to work her healing Jutsu. "Damn gentile fist" she cursed as she tried healing her internal injuries. Nenshō tried fruitlessly to move his paralyzed arm and agreed with Ino, that damn technique was causing him a lot of trouble lately. He looked down at the crowd of gathered bandits below them, some of them clambering to get onto the roof at them. Nenshō formed the sword in his hand into a long spear ready to defend the roof at whatever cost. "The Mist" Supūru coughed. Nenshō wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't mentioned it but as soon as he noticed it things became all too clear to him. Since the fight had begun the air had filled with a heavy fog blurring his vision. It seemed the bandits and shinobi alike didn't notice or think anything of the thickening mist. But Nenshō recognized, the Hidden Mist Jutsu as soon as he saw it. And he knew of only one person alive who could perform it. He looked over to the house he had buried his sword into and saw that the blade was missing and all that was left was the wound in the houses side.
A shadow moved through the mist faster than his eye could catch but as the shadow moved into range of the bandits, it stopped and hefted the massive sword around decapitating a crowd of the bandits. Nenshō squinted his eyes and looked through the mist towards the figure tearing through the ranks of bandits he caught sight of the figure and smirked. Through the mist carrying the sword was the spitting image of Zabuza moving with perfect speed and grace wielding the sword as it was intended through the crowd of meat.
"Excellent puppet Kumo." He praised under his breath. "It's perfect."