Ren flopped onto a couch with an audible groan, feeling exhausted as Temari sat down opposite him, all prim and proper, looking as if the endless meetings did not affect her.

They had just spent the last few hours in the council chambers, where the movers and shakers of Konoha argued mostly about barely important details.

Who the heck cared if the decoration on their wedding would follow Konoha or Suna tradition? Couldn’t they do freaking both!?

Haaa~. Ren stifled a grunt.

At least, it was over, and Ren even managed to argue some important points in his favor. Honestly, the only point he truly cared about was the clauses about them having children.

The bastards wanted to sign off on them having to have eight of them as soon as possible.

Oh, the absolute horror in Temari’s eyes as she tried to look calm. She wasn’t fooling anybody with how deathly pale she became.

Clearly, some people in Suna did not wish for her to become the future Kazekage, and this would absolutely ruin her chances. After all, she can’t really become an S-rank kunoichi if she were turned into a baby factory for the foreseeable future during her best development years.

Ren inwardly smiled at the memory of her surprise when he stood up and protested that clause. That probably bought him more brownie points with her than any hours-long conversation ever could.

Then again, he also did not feel happy with some old coot dictating to him when and how many children he should have. And when Temari shakily stood up a few seconds later, vehemently protesting alongside him, it made the whole discussion quite awkward for the scheming bastards.

They couldn’t exactly insist without looking like the bad guys, after that.

In the end, Ren managed to wrangle a concession out of them, and they unhappily settled on Ren and Temari needing to have two children eventually. But at least, there was no time limit set for them in the alliance documents. They could take their time with it, and Temari audibly let out a relieved sigh at that.

From then on, Temari argued several points, fiercely trying to protect her rights like a lioness protecting her cubs, and giving the old men and women a hard time, while Ren watched on as nothing immediately concerning him came up.

It was mostly about trade agreements between Suna and Konoha and diplomatic stuff between the villages. Temari had to care because she was a shoo-in for the Kazekage post, so she wanted to get the best deal possible for her village. Ren… not so much. He didn’t care and spent the rest of that meeting speaking to Ino and Hinata through the telepathy seal.

“What are you grinning at, you fool?” Temari’s curious voice suddenly pulled Ren out of his reminiscence and made him turn toward her, only to see her nimble on a cookie from the refreshments on the table between them.

“You look very pretty today.” Ren sincerely complimented her, making her roll her eyes at him with an annoyed huff.

“Stop being a shameless flirt.” She retorted, but her cheeks did become redder, so Ren inwardly chuckled.

That always worked on Hinata, and it looks like it was going to work on Temari as well. The trick, sadly, was in being sincere. Especially when dealing with a very observant kunoichi. So, it could not be used all the time.

A somewhat awkward atmosphere spread between them, and Ren reached for his own cookie as they both started enjoying the treats in a companionable silence.

“… To be honest?” Ren decided to speak after a while, “I thought you would be more angry about these arrangements.”

“Yes? What did you expect? That I would come at you, swinging my fan left and right, the second I see you?” Temari asked with a mirthful exasperation in her tone.

“Yup. I expected you to be a very angry kunoichi.” Ren simply shared his thoughts with a small shrug.

“I always expected something like this. I was raised for a political marriage.” Temari deflated for a moment, and in that moment she seemed so… sad. Ren’s heart skipped a beat. But just as he was starting to feel sympathy for her, she straightened up again as if nothing had happened and scoffed at him. “Well, sure. I would have never imagined having to marry a tree-humper.”

“You shall do as the substitution for a log.” Ren jokingly said, wiggling his eyebrows at her, making her snort.

“Nah. I kick and bite. Especially in the bed.” Temari jovially replied, but Ren noted that the warning in her casual words was real.

He hummed in understanding, causing some of the tension in her shoulders to slowly disappear. The girl might spout about how this was always going to happen to her in some form, but she clearly was not exactly comfortable with her situation. Ren frankly felt the same, and the last thing he wanted to do was to make things harder for her because it would make things harder for him, too.

But he was still curious. “And who did you expect to marry? The Daimyo?” He asked, keeping the light-hearted tone of their conversation alive with that ridiculous suggestion.

The Wind Country’s Daimyo was like sixty-fou-

“Honestly? Yeah.” Temari casually interjected before taking a bite out of her cookie, causing Ren to freeze in shock as he stared at her in bewilderment.

“Our Daimyo is… let’s say, a connoisseur of the female body, and he had never hidden that he wanted me in his bed ever since he saw me when I was fifteen.” Temari awkwardly said with a half-full mouth, but it failed to fully hide her discomfort.

“I trained like hell to avoid it. To become a good and valuable kunoichi for my village. But I still thought my father was eventually going to ship me to him as his new bedwarmer slash Suna spy one day. It would have been beneficial for the village.” She tried to nonchalantly shrug, but the gesture felt forced.

The girl quieted down for a moment, and clearly, even her loyalty to her village was not enough to make her actually appreciate the idea of marrying their Daimyo.

“I see.” Ren muttered, the previous jovial atmosphere crashing down as he contemplated the fact that he might just have made the Wind Daimyo his enemy by marrying the girl the old dude desired.

That was such a great start to his village-building plans! He inwardly screamed and wanted to rip his hair out. All he wanted was to be a generic shonen protagonist who always wins! Why did this shit have to be so complicated!?

“Yes. This is better.” Temari sprang up from her disgruntled mood and gave Ren an intense look. “But that does not mean I am happy with this!” She tried to glare at him, but Ren didn’t feel like entertaining her after hearing that tidbit about the Wind Daimyo. He only gave her a dry look back. Mostly undeterred and barely faltering, she continued. “But… I am going to try to make this work. Somehow.” She mumbled the last part.

“…” Ren looked at her and noticed how tightly she was grasping her hands. How nervous and sincere she truly was.

“…” Temari refused to back down with her gaze.

Ren barked out a short laugh. “Sage, sleeping in one bed will be nerve-wracking.”

That returned some mirth into Temari’s expression as she smirked. Something Ren noticed she did often. “Tsk. Typical man. Already thinking of sex.” She mockingly scrunched her nose at Ren, but she looked almost expectant for him to return her quip.

After all, both of them knew that was not really what he meant. Ninjas and kunoichi were trigger-happy. The knowledge that the person next to him in the bed was from a different village would cause even Ren, who thought himself to be a quite progressive-thinking individual, some discomfort.

Trust issues were the real issues in their world, and this was akin to showing a very vulnerable side to somebody who should by all means be an enemy.

Would he even wake up? Or would he, one nice morning, end up with a kunai in his throat in his sleep? How was he supposed to know? Should he just trust Temari? The whole problem was that trusting a kunoichi from a different village was hard!

And they were supposed to share their entire life? Eat together? Eat from the same plates? Drink from the same mugs? Use the same cutlery? Share the same living space? Hell, half of their profession was about poisons. That was doubly true for kunoichi, so excuse him for being just a little bit paranoid.

Even this conversation of theirs. They were trying to be polite and nice. But there was still an underlying tension between them. Temari’s eyes were glancing around, looking for defensible positions and exit points in the room, and even Ren was wordlessly analyzing her body language, watching for any threatening move. It was instinctual. Ingrained in them by their upbringing, training, and education.

And if Ren had trouble? Temari most definitely felt much, much more uncomfortable. Ren wouldn’t be surprised if she slept with a kunai under her pillow and another dozen under her bedsheet from now on.

It might not be only him who would be doing the poking with the pointy end in the bedroom.

He was definitely going to put up some alert seals once they were expected to live in a house together. Just in case. S-rank he might be, but he was still vulnerable during his sleep.

This trust thing between them was going to take time. For both sides. But it made Ren feel relieved that Temari was at least willing to try. That was honestly more than he was hoping for.

Seeing that the conversation had halted, Temari tried to bring it back on track by throwing Ren’s words back at him. “And what about you? Don’t you already have two women? Shouldn’t you protest harder?”

“Hinata and Ino will want to speak with you about this.” Ren seriously nodded. Then, he grinned at her as she started to become pale, and she took a sharp breath.

Both of the aforementioned girls gained quite a reputation. He could see why Suna kunoichi would be a bit frightened by being told that Ino wanted to talk to her. Talking was probably not what Temari was imagining was going to happen during that meeting.

“Ah, don’t worry.” Ren tried to reassure the scared girl, his grin still going strong. “We have already talked about this, and they are not exactly against it.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel calmer? So, they are only somewhat against it?” Temari muttered with a snort full of false bravado as she tried to calm down. “But alright. This at least brings me to a more important topic.” She unsurely trailed off and looked away from Ren.

Ren raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for her to elaborate.

Eventually, Temari clicked her tongue, and her expression became determined as she turned back toward Ren and looked him straight in the eyes. “What do you expect from your time in Suna?” She dryly asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Ah. He was no longer speaking to Temari, his future wife, but to Temari, the kunoichi of Suna.

And yes. It was… very suspicious for Konoha to send an S-rank ninja to Suna. They had their bullshit reasons that sounded very valid. It still didn’t mean that it was not sus.

Ren released a long breath, “I am afraid that is a discussion for later.” He said in a no-nonsense tone with absolute finality.

“But-” Alas, Temari was not content with that and was about to protest.

“And in private.” Ren added, making the girl blink as her brain registered his meaning.

“Ah.” She uttered as she subtly looked around the room, an understanding dawning on her.

“Indeed.” Ren nodded in amusement.

Best not to forget that in Konoha, seeing through walls and lip-reading was very much their everyday reality.

“And here I thought they put us here expecting us to fuck.” Temari playfully grinned.

“Well, they probably did.” Ren hummed, and her grin disappeared while her blush emerged.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep