Ren gave Temari a probing look as they walked side by side into the Kazekage Tower. The girl was still disgruntled and refused to speak with him after the 'training' she had gotten earlier today. She did not enjoy facing Ino at all as the Yamanaka girl systematically dismantled her with a contemptuous ease and what Ren supposed was a very irritating, amused smirk from Temari's perspective.
Worse yet, Ino only used the Wind Release during their... Well, calling it a spar would be too generous. For Temari, who prided herself on her Wind Release and who had put everything into training it, that was a very harsh reality check.
Temari knew that Ino was much stronger than her, but being so thoroughly destroyed in her own area of expertise? She had not expected that. Ren imagined that the girl's pride was trampled on today, and the quiet treatment she was giving him was just her not knowing how to react to it.
She was not really angry. Just... shocked.
Ino first started by bending the light with her wind chakra, creating several mirages around Temari, while also vibrating the air around them to generate her own voice and had them 'talk'.
Much to Ren's surprise, Ino even tossed Temari her war fan. And to give the Suna kunoichi credit where it was due, the second she tried to flare her chakra in the usual genjutsu disruption technique and realized the Inos around her were not an illusion, she instantly opened her entire war fan and blasted her surroundings with one of her strongest techniques.
It was exactly what a ninja should do when facing a too-skilled genjutsu specialist whose illusions could not be broken. Drown the area in Area of Effect attacks and hope that one of them hits the opponent.
And that's when everything started to go wrong for Temari. Ino didn't bother stopping Temari's jutsu. She let it rampage throughout the grasslands, and only bent or redirected the wind to go around her body. Her 'wind clones' were not affected either, as they were just bent light and wind chakra formed into Ino's likeness. Physical attacks were not going to phase them. Ino had tried to imitate something akin to Ren's intangibility, and this was the result. At most, they slightly flickered under the onslaught of Temari's gale.
When the winds finally stopped blowing, Temari was still surrounded by several of Ino's wind clones, and one even sneaked up on her from behind and touched her back.
Since these wind clones were made of wind chakra, transforming them into an offensive technique was trivial. Ren knew Ino was trying to figure out how to stuff a Vacuum Bomb into them, but for now, she didn't have much luck with it because the amount of wind chakra necessary for the technique was destabilizing the wind clones.
Nevertheless...
Ren inwardly chuckled as he remembered how Temari's eyes widened into saucers in alarm, only for her to be blasted forward by a small burst of pressurized wind that came from the clone's hand. The girl, unfortunately, opened her mouth, too, and it earned her a mouthful of grass and dirt as she plowed face-first into the ground in front of her.
The snickers coming from Ino's clones didn't help the situation at all, either.
Ren resisted the urge to shake his head. There wasn't much to say about the rest of their spar. Temari's temper flared, and even if she managed to keep a somewhat cool head, she was still angry. She started attacking Ino, throwing everything in her arsenal at her while hoping that something would stick, but every technique, the winds, no matter how fierce, simply bent around the Yamanaka girl, while her wind clones continued sneaking on Temari and shoving around with underpowered wind blasts.
The longer it got, the more Temari's anger transformed into desperation and helplessness. After thirty minutes, Ren had finally put a stop to the spar, because Ino drove Temari into outright sobbing and quivering.
Oh, Temari was still fighting, still swinging her war fan and pushing her chakra to create wind blasts. She was still trying even as she cried. She wasn't giving up, and that was good. But there was a fine balance between giving her a harsh reality check that would show her the possibilities and motivate her to reach them, and mentally breaking her.
Ren slightly smiled to himself as he saw the pondering expression on Temari's withdrawn expression. He did feel a bit bad about doing that to her. But she wanted to be strong. Pitting her against Hinata and Ino was going to make her strong either way as quickly as possible.
Ren only had to ensure the girl wouldn't break along the way. Hinata was not a problem. She knew when to stop. But Ino...
Sadly, Ren knew he wouldn't have that much time to supervise Temari's training too much. At best, he might be able to spare a clone. Soon enough, he was going to be extremely busy, now that he was in Sunagakure.
The guards opened the door leading to the council chambers, and Temari and Ren entered. The room was massive and spacious, but empty. Only a big egg-shaped table was in the middle with twelve people sitting behind it, and Baki standing to the side.
All eyes moved toward them as the movers and shakers of Suna watched them. Fighting the urge to fidget, Ren donned an amused expression that wasn't even fake and walked toward the table with Temari trailing behind him, with much less confidence.
"Hello, there." Ren casually said as he arrived in front of the table, earning himself a few scoffs, unamused and unimpressed looks, and even one or two chuckles from the Suna's councilmen.
Six out of the twelve were absolutely affronted at his casual attitude, though. But Ren didn't care. He had decided that since they tried to humiliate him for not knowing their etiquette, he would lean into the role of a country bumpkin foreigner and simply wouldn't respect their expected social conduct.
They should be happy he didn't come here with, 'Sup, bitches.'
Noticing that there was no chair prepared for him, he inwardly sighed at having yet another power play aimed at him. For Baki and Temari? That was okay. They were Suna ninjas. Having them stand during the meeting was acceptable. They were in front of their superiors.
But Konoha didn't really want to give Ren away to Suna just like that. He was still an S-rank ninja. So, while he was sent to Suna on a pretty much permanent basis, he was still technically a ninja belonging to Konoha.
The politics of it were convoluted. But they did allow Ren not to care about these power plays. Rolling his eyes at them, Ren unsealed a comfortable chair from his storage seal with a popping noise. Every ninja in the room instantly tensed, and several council members now had weapons in their hands, but Ren ignored them as he flopped down into his chair and pleasantly smiled at the councilmen.
He was about to speak, but Ebizo showed his experience again by speaking first and taking the initiative before Ren could attempt to do so.
"Is this Konoha's attitude toward Sunagakure?" He gravely asked in a low tone, giving Ren an unimpressed look, while many of his co-workers were now openly glaring at him.
Ren had to give it to the guy. He was trying to frame his actions as actions of Konoha since he was technically their representative. Ren surmised it was supposed to scare him into being a good boy since his actions could cause a diplomatic incident, just as their villages had allied with each other.
"Nah. This is my own attitude toward your bullshit." Ren nonchalantly answered, surprising many of these councilmen with his audacity.
Ebizo's face scrunched, "We are going to send an official complaint to your village." He said with an unhappy finality, while Temari, who was standing next to Ren, nervously fidgeted and looked between him and Ren.
She very obviously wanted to speak, but knew it was not her place. Ren slightly smiled as he noticed her with the corner of his eye. It was quite adorable.
Slightly turning his head and looking Ebizo in the eyes, Ren shrugged. "Feel free."
It was enough to make the man frown, while the atmosphere in the room grew more unfriendly. And maybe it was not smart of Ren to antagonize them. But here's the thing. They were not going to be his friends, no matter how well-behaved he acted today.
And his threat of notifying Konoha? It was empty.
Just like Ren could complain about how poorly Suna had welcomed him and how they tried to humiliate him, Suna could complain about his attitude. Nothing would come out of it.
The Hokage would get the message, read it, maybe chuckle or scoff depending on her mood and level of drunkenness, before promptly throwing the message into the nearest trash can.
Threats like this only worked on people who had no idea how things truly worked, and Ebizo's disgruntled expression was because he had just realized that Ren was not as much of an easy target as he first appeared.
"Can we start already? I don't have the entire day to entertain your stupid attempts to masturbate the perceived authority you think you have over me." Ren said, and the room instantly descended into a cacophony of shouts, insults, and angry exclamations that Ren let calmly wash over him, completely unfazed.
A few moments later, Ebizo finally knocked on the table several times, silencing everybody as he coldly gazed at Ren and spoke in an admonishing tone. "You are in our village-"
"For your own benefit." Ren blandly interjected, his expression becoming blank. "I was not sent here to be your practice dummy. I am here to deter Iwa from attacking you. I am here at your own request because you want my seals. I am here to make sure the alliance between our villages will not crumble at the first opportunity. And yet, you act like squabbling children, trying your damnedest to piss me off."
"For instance?" Ren trailed his eyes over the sour-looking councilmen. "I could help you solve the pesky problems with the water supply. Quite easily at that." He pulled out a paper tag and a glass from his wrist seal and put the tag above the glass before activating it. A small stream of water started pouring into the glass until it was full, and then Ren stopped the tag from spilling more water. "This is not a storage seal containing water. It's something that could ensure your village would never have issues with drinking water ever again."
Ren inwardly smirked as he noticed the astonished looks of the councilmen. The quicker ones were looking either longingly or greedily at the paper tag, while Ebizo's expression was almost contrite.
The guy realized he had fucked up.
They had known that Ren could make a seal for holding a bijuu. But they didn't really think he could help Suna much outside of that. Which was why they tried to assert their authority over him. But this was a game-changer. And from his expression, Ebizo knew that.
Of course, Ren wasn't above taking a dig at somebody who was malicious toward him. "Naturally, I wanted to sell these seals to your village cheaply. But eeeh, recent events persuaded me that I should add a bully tax, retard tax, and asshole tax on top of it, making them double the initial price." He breezily said, "Fifty million Ryo a seal. It's practically a steal!"
And it was. For him.
Creating one of these took a trip to the river in the Land of Rivers. But now that he had a marker near the river? He could have set up a new connection in ten minutes flat.
The faces of many councilmen, Ebizo included, twisted and darkened. Many gritted their teeth. And a few started to look pensive as they ran the numbers in their mind.
But nobody said anything. Ren could see it on their faces. They wanted to refuse. If only because they didn't like him. But they could not.
After all, the monthly budget that had to be allocated to securing drinkable water was more or less thirty-ish million Ryo, according to the documents Temari had shown Ren.
Here, he was offering them a seal for one payment of fifty million that would solve the issue for good. In the long run, they were going to save way more money.
They were between a rock and a hard place, and this was an offer they literally could not refuse. Alas, that did not mean they were going to just easily accept.
Ebizo joined his hands in front of his face and looked at Ren with contemplative eyes as his voice gained a suspicious undertone. "Why should we trust you? As you so readily reminded us, you are a Konoha ninja."