"... So, tell me, why me?"
Probably taking his questioning as a small sign of acquiescence, Hiruzen was only too happy to answer.
"The answer to that is simple. Sunagakure requested you." He said with a small chuckle, seemingly very happy about the situation.
Nevertheless, the answer took Ren, Ino, and Hinata aback.
"Why?" Ren blurted out, momentarily losing his composure, only to regather it a second later as he cleared his throat. "I mean, I somehow doubt that the less than an hour I spent in Temari's presence was enough to woo her to the level she would want to marry me. I am charming," Hiruzen snorted, "but not that charming." Ren deadpanned.
"Tell me, Ren. What do you think Sunagakure lacked the most compared to the other Great Villages? What was always holding them back?" Hiruzen asked, seeming genuinely happy that he could educate Ren in a relaxed manner.
It honestly suddenly came to Ren that the contrast in Hiruzen's demeanor from when he was the Hokage was massive. Back then, he looked as if he didn't have enough time. As if he couldn't deal with him quickly enough, so he could go do his next work. Oh, he hid it well, but the underlying impression was still there.
Now? Now the man looked like a retired elderly person who had all the time in the world. Relaxed and seemingly content. Ren didn't trust it.
"Resources. They lacked enough money, weapons, and whatnot else. It's why they invaded us." Ren gave the obvious answer that even a genin would be able to pick out, just barely restraining himself from adding 'Duh' at the end.
Sunagakure's lack of resources was now an open secret that everybody knew.
"Well, yes." Hiruzen sighed. "Konoha has its own share of guilt in that situation. It is normal that villages try to sabotage each other, but certain elements in our village," Ah, Ren realized he meant Danzo, "took it too far and pushed the Kazekage in a very unfortunate direction."
"And I guess this is why Konoha is so eager to play ball with Sunagakure." Ino nodded, properly joining the conversation for the first time. "You wish to keep this secret, don't you?" She asked, and Hiruzen suddenly started to look a bit uncomfortable. "Because if this spreads, Konoha's reputation will suffer a major blow. After all, we hurt and sabotaged our supposed ally so much that they had seen no other way than to attack us."
Right. Who would ally with Konoha once it was confirmed that they were willing to screw with their allies like this? If even an alliance couldn't prevent Konoha from doing something so underhanded, then it would be better to stay as enemies. Literally, Konoha would be able to cause them less damage that way.
Letting this out was the death of all diplomatic endeavors for the foreseeable future as far as Konoha was concerned.
"And Konoha is trying to open talks with Kirigakure, wishing to enter an alliance with them. This could ruin it." Hinata added her fifty cents, and Hiruzen gave her a surprised look, not expecting her to know that.
Hinata only gave him a bland smile in return as she mentally spoke to Ino and Ren. 'My father had to be informed beforehand to mitigate the damage, and I noticed the message on his desk in his study. Kirigakure has a Jonin with Byakugan, and that could cause major friction between the village and my clan if it weren't handled properly.'
"Right..." Hiruzen deflated with a small grimace, "You are not wrong, young ladies. But I think we have diverged from the initial question too much." He tactfully changed the topic, ignoring the intense stares of Ino and Hinata as he looked at Ren.
"The answer is a weapon." He spoke, making Ren furrow his eyebrows in confusion, "They have always lacked a properly trained and usable jinchuuriki." For a moment, he paused and, with the look of a reminiscing old man, he looked to the side where pictures of previous Kage hung on the wall as he slowly spoke again. "When Hashirama-sama gave the bijuu to other villages, his wife also gave them a way to reseal them. That's where most bijuu seals in the possession of other villages initially came from. It's also why the Uzumaki clan was attacked. With the stolen knowledge, the other villages managed to alter the seals a little bit by now, but it all started with Mito Uzumaki's seals."
Ren slowly started to understand what this was most likely about, but he let Hiruzen continue with his story, interested in hearing the history from somebody who lived it.
"But Sunagakure refused a bijuu, not trusting Hashirama. You see, they argued the seals could be faulty and release the beasts within the villages. They had an experience with Shukaku's rampage and knew how devastating it could be. Such a thing at that stage might have resulted in a complete annihilation of a fledgling ninja village. It was a valid concern, and Tobirama-sama actually did argue in favor of doing exactly that. Our enemies would have been decimated because of their own greed, and Konoha would have come out on top as the only major ninja village." Hiruzen fondly smiled. "But Hashirama-sama disagreed, hoping for peace."
It took a lot for Ren not to roll his eyes. Yes. Idiots gotta idiot. Good intentions or not, giving your enemies the equivalent of nuclear weapons was not a sound decision.
Heck, from what Sarutobi was saying, the villages would not have jinchuuriki or ways to seal the bijuu if that bitch, Mito, didn't give it to them. Honestly? Fuck her sideways on a spike in hell.
"Because of their refusal, Sunagakure has only Ichibi to this day. They had him sealed in a cup even before Hashirama-sama started hunting for bijuu." Hiruzen continued. "The problem is, since the other villages gained jinchuuriki, Suna also decided they needed one. But they have not received a proper seal from Mito Uzumaki. They eventually managed to make one through a bloody trial and error, but their jinchuuriki were always more or less unstable and thus, useless in a war."
Hearing that, Ren slowly nodded. He always wondered why Rasa did such cruel things to Gaara, and he never really believed that it was simply because Rasa was cruel and a bad father. But now that he was listening to Hiruzen, he started wondering if there was indeed more to the whole situation.
Rasa might be a complete bastard. But maybe he was a bastard who had a reason to act like one.
"They also lost their biggest opportunity to gain a proper sealing method when the Uzumaki clan was attacked and plundered by Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. Suna was not invited. Both because of their distance from the Land of Whirlpools and because they were allied with Konoha in hopes of receiving the seals. And then, Iwa dangled the sealing method in front of Suna's face, inciting them to stand against Konoha in the Second Ninja War." Hiruzen seemed to wilt as he slumped, his eyes glassy and full of regret.
Ren could hear what the old man was not saying, though, so he didn't feel much pity for him. Suna wanted a bijuu sealing method. Konoha built an alliance with them, most likely promising it in the future but never delivering. So, when Iwa came offering it, Suna changed sides.
Ren let out a long, suffering groan in his head. Now, he didn't have just a small inkling as to why Suna wanted this marriage alliance. Now he was absolutely sure. He was their ticket to resolving the jinchuuriki problem, and Konoha was actually willing to give him away!
"Bunpuku, the first successful jinchuuriki of Suna, was a monk who refused to fight. They had to nearly kill him to weaken his will every time they wanted to unleash the Shukaku. It was quite cruel." Hiruzen got out of his funk and once again relaxed against the backrest of the coach. "And Gaara... he was an unstable kid who so far killed more of his own Suna villagers than actual enemies."
"Compared to the jinchuuriki of other villages?" Hiruzen shrugged. "Those who can fight alongside their armies and are capable of following more complex orders than 'go boom here'? Suna jinchuuriki were always a joke. They worked well for defense in the desert. But for offense, they were useless. Unless you literally smuggle them to the heart of an enemy village, that is." He bitterly added, taking a small jab at his own recent failure.
"And I fixed Gaara's seal." Ren spoke, feeling like an absolute idiot for missing this point. He thought it was no big deal. Gaara could now sleep. Doesn't matter, right?
Apparently, he was quite wrong, and it came to bite him in the ass.
"And you fixed Gaara's seal." Hiruzen nodded, regaining some of his previous mirth, but Ren didn't pay him much attention as he started pondering the situation.
Sunagakure wanted his bijuu sealing method. If he gave it to them, maybe he could avoid the marriage to Temari... except, no. That was stupid. Konoha's higher-ups would never agree to giving it away for free, no matter that it does not belong to them.
Ren might as well go rogue and have fewer problems than if he did that.
But that wasn't all of it. Sunagakure would most likely rather have him fully, with his sealing talent, if they could get him, rather than just the bijuu sealing method. Ren reckoned it was a form of future investment for them. After all, who knows what he might create later on in his life, right?
Even if he was unwilling to share with Sunagakure out of loyalty to Konoha, there were ways to get their grubby paws on his work either way.
The political marriage. The goal was not just marrying him to Temari. No. The basic principle was that the two people from different sides were eventually going to have a child with blood relations to both sides. Hence, it brings both sides closer and makes them reluctant to attack each other.
It was why hidden villages did not practice political marriages. They totally would not work. The war was going to start regardless, so why bother giving valuable blood of their village to their enemies?
Ren almost jumped from his seat and punched Hiruzen when he realized this simple fact. Because surely, the Konoha higher-ups must have their doubts about the effectiveness of a political marriage between the villages.
He was not 'offered' because they valued him. He was offered because he did not matter in their eyes overly much, and they already expected the alliance to flop in a decade or two. Ren glanced at Hiruzen; there also might be some ulterior motives from some old scheming men involved.
But back to the talk about kids. They were going to expect him to screw Temari as often as possible until she got pregnant. Now that was not happening. Ren refused to have kids until the matter with Kaguya was resolved.
He doubted Sunagakure was going to accept that.
The kids were the cornerstone of this scheme. Even if Ren refused to give Suna his sealing methods, would he also refuse to teach them to his future kids with Temari?
The whole ninja culture was based on parents passing down their techniques to their kids. Even if he was some sort of Konoha zealot, would his loyalty to Konoha triumph against his love for his children?
That's what Sunagakure was most likely betting on and what Konoha did not care about.
Because the kids would stay in Sunagakure. Their mother would be Suna kunoichi. They would grow in Suna. They would go to the academy in Suna. They would be trained in Suna. Even if Konoha gave them some sort of dual citizenship, somehow, and Ren didn't think that was going to happen, they would be Suna ninjas first and foremost.
And if Ren were in the position of a Suna councilor, constructing this scheme? He would even brutally announce, decades later, that the jinchuuriki status would be passed to the children from Temari's line. That surely would force the seal master to give his techniques to his children, if only to prevent his grandchildren's suffering.
For now, Gaara was enough. They had time to scheme. His seal was stable, and he would grow to be a powerful jinchuuriki in time. But Suna needed a solution to what would come after him, and Ren had to begrudgingly admit that this scheme was pretty good.
They were playing the long game. They knew of a guy who could give them a solution, and they were pushing to secure him. They had already waited half a century; they could wait a few decades more to get what they wanted. As long as the marriage with Temari went through, Ren's cooperation was not strictly required. The knowledge could be carefully manipulated out of him in many ways.
That... was just the tip of the iceberg here. The first thing that came to Ren's mind when he thought about how the future might go with his current information. He was aware that he was definitely missing many other implications and intentions.
It was a lot to take. And despite feeling as if somebody punched him in the gut, Ren knew he should push for more information. He absolutely detested that somebody was playing games with his future. Especially since Ino and Hinata did not seem to have a lot of place in these games. But there was simply nothing he could do with it for now.
At least, this somewhat cleared up Sunagakure's intentions. It was a small relief that they were not malicious. Manipulative, maybe. But as far as he could tell, they did not mean to hurt him. Which was a surprise. Ren half expected this to be some ploy to get a clean assassination shot on him when these talks started.
Now came the tricky part, though. Ren needed to hear what Konoha would get out of this arrangement. And he doubted he would get a straight answer from Sarutobi.