Ren watched as the flying person was getting closer, bemoaning his luck. It was Onoki. It had to be. He didn't know any other midget who could fly.
A part of him dearly hoped the man just came here for a reconnaissance, but he knew he was not that lucky. For Onoki, this was a great opportunity. He'd have to be extremely incompetent to miss it.
During a clash of armies, S-rank ninjas had to be on standby to counter the enemy S-rank. But the Iwa army was not yet here. Onoki did not need to be cautious about defense, nor did he need to conserve his chakra for a necessary counterattack.
Adding to that, his ability to fly, which gave him amazing agility, Ren had to disgruntledly admit that trying to score a few pre-emptive strikes against Sunagakure's side made a whole lot of sense when thinking about it from Iwa's side. The possible benefits were immense, and the risks pretty much non-existent.
Suddenly, Onoki stopped mid-air, still outside of the range of Sunagakure's attacks, and Ren's lips pursed as he saw him taking a stock of the Suna camp and the fortifications they were building. For ten tense minutes, Onoki brazenly observed the Suna camp while Ren observed Onoki. Ren almost let out a relieved sigh when he saw Onoki's shoulders slump in a resigned displeasure.
He inwardly chuckled. Honestly, there was not much to observe. It was not as if Suna would use some new, amazing, ultra-great strategy. They were doing pretty much the same exact thing as they did during the first, second, and third wars because it worked for them well enough.
It was not something that could be countered just because Iwa had intel about it.
The actual tactical move of Suna was those ninjas gathered in the two closest hidden border outposts to the east and west, who were supposed to storm the Iwa backlines after the clash started. But that was not something Onoki could discover through a casual aerial recon.
It was why Ren did not attack him. This far away, there was one thing he could use against Onoki, but he didn't want to reveal it unless he absolutely had to.
Hoping that the old midget would turn around and fly away, Ren could only mentally groan when Onoki suddenly raised his hands and joined them together.
Letting out a disappointed sigh, Ren raised his own left hand, one wearing a glove now gleaming with seal lines as Ren's chakra flooded it.
A shining ball of Dust Release started gleaming on Onoki's palms, intense enough that the ninjas in the Sunagakure camp below finally noticed his presence. The camp instantly became hectic, the people down there resembling panicked ants from this height.
Onoki coldly snorted, 'Too late!' He thought with a grim, fierce expression, on the verge of condensing his attack.
But his senses suddenly flared, and the hair on the back of his neck stood. Eyes abruptly widening as he subconsciously registered the incoming danger, he didn't even have the time to think as he reacted on a finely honed instinct, throwing himself headfirst to the side while abandoning his attack.
A highly concentrated, blue, and somehow fiery beam razed its path through the position where he flew just a moment ago, continuing higher into the sky for two more seconds before it quickly thinned into nothingness.
Breathing hard and trembling, Onoki realized he had almost died right there and then. He dodged it narrowly, but he did dodge it. Yet, the chill of the beam still seeped into him, and his teeth chattered from the bone-deep cold now permeating his body. Glancing at his left arm, the part of his body that was the closest to the beam, he noticed a fine layer of frost covering its surface, spreading to his whole left side.
Flexing his still powerful muscles, the icy covering shattered, and Onoki turned toward where the attack came from with a snarl and narrow-eyed, angry glare, only to see some unknown young upstart bastard cheerfully waving at him before giving him a shooing motion.
Onoki's already foul mood soured even more, and for a moment, he wanted nothing more than to hurl a few dust-release beams at the youngster. But then the chill in his body pulsed, and his back pain flared, sending a searing agony through his body while causing him to grit his teeth.
Cooler heads full of pain finally prevailed as Onoki realized his surprise attack had failed, and the other side had a way to counterattack him. Staying and trying to do damage would not only be futile, but it would also be dangerous.
Disgruntled, Onoki gave the young ninja one last unfriendly look, etching his smug mug into his memory. He intended to browse through the bingo book, hoping to find him there. After all, he needed to know who had just earned the undivided attention of Iwa assassins.
With that done, Onoki turned around and flew away, unhappy that he didn't manage to accomplish anything of note here.
Watching his figure slowly disappear in the distance, Ren let out a small chuckle before helplessly shaking his head. He actually aimed to kill with that attack, but surprisingly, the old man managed to dodge it.
That was not ideal. Not at all.
Now he knew to be wary of this kind of attack. He now knew how quick it was, and he also knew that Suna's side had a way to threaten him even in the skies, so he would be way more cautious with any future offensive on his part. In a big way, this nullified a lot of the surprise attack advantage Ren would have had during the clash between the Iwa and Suna armies.
'This is exactly why I didn't want to engage him right now.' Ren exasperatedly thought. Unfortunately, Onoki didn't give him much of a choice.
But maybe... It was not all bad.
Onoki was the Tsuchikage. He was here only because the risks to his life seemed to be nonexistent.
After all, Kage had to stay safe. Losing Chunin and Jonin would be painful, but if their Kage died, Iwa might as well capitulate right there and then. He was the most important piece on the board.
'Hopefully, now that he knew he was also at risk despite his flying, he would obediently stay put in the Iwa command center.' Ren wistfully hoped. But he also knew that Onoki was stubborn as hell, so who could really say what he would do next?
The entire exchange lasted maybe a minute from the time Onoki was spotted by the ninjas in the camp, all the way to his retreat. The other nearby ninjas were only now starting to clamor around Ren, and Ebizo quickly rushed to his side with an alarmed expression.
"That was Onoki? Is he gone?" He hurriedly asked in a tense tone, and Ren nodded, not minding the way the other people from the command center crowded the surroundings.
"Good." Slowly, Ebizo started to calm down. "That's good." He let out a relieved breath. "W-"
He was about to say something, but then a faint popping sound seemed to come from the distance, attracting everybody's attention.
Ebizo's eyebrows furrowed. "What is that sound?" He frowned while trying to squint, alert that it might be some sort of attack from Iwa, but it was futile. Not even those with great eyesight could see anything because it was happening too far away.
Ren wryly smiled as he got feedback from a dispersed clone. "That... is the sound of the Iwa army running through the minefield." He informed them.
The Iwa army had reached the borders.