Ren inwardly sighed as he and the survivors from the clash with Obito walked through the demolished parts of Sunagakure, heading toward the center of the village where the thankfully untouched Kazekage Tower was located.

Unlike when he and Temari arrived, ninjas and civilians alike were busy running around, doing various things as they slowly started to clean up the streets. It was chaos, but a good one. The village looked alive despite its devastated state and gloomy atmosphere.

Temari clutched Ren’s arm, nearly hanging off from it as if it were her lifeline, while tears involuntarily flowed from her eyes. When Ren had a clone fetch her, Gaara, and the rest of the surviving ninjas, he expected her to be angry about him sending her away. But surprisingly, she only rushed at him and hugged him.

Instead, it was Gaara who was actually angry at him. Ren was still a bit speechless about that. He totally didn’t expect the tanuki boy to glare at him with a pout and then start giving him a cold shoulder.

In a way, he guessed it was adorable in that ‘a lil bro is mad!’ kind of way. But Ren wouldn’t apologize. Chiyo was an S-rank kunoichi, and she still ended up dead after facing Obito. He could not both fight the guy and protect several people from him. Ren refused to think that his handling of the situation was wrong. If Obito showed up in front of him again right in this moment, he would unapologetically yeet Gaara and Temari back to the Little Garden before they could say ‘Bastard’.

Speaking of Chiyo, she and the devastated streets of Suna were the reason for Temari’s tears. The girl spent most of her time with Ebizo, but the old man was close with Chiyo, so Temari got at least somewhat close to the old woman.

Putting his hand on Temari’s in an attempt to console her, Ren received a small, watery smile from the girl, but neither of them spoke. Ren had no idea what to say, so they continued in silence until they reached the Kazekage Tower, where Ebizo was already waiting for them.

The old man opened his mouth, his eyes trailing over the small team of the returning ninjas… His face visibly fell, and his complexion grew paler as he realized what the lack of Chiyo among the group meant.

Temari let go of Ren’s arm and, with slumped shoulders, she silently approached Ebizo with a scroll. “Elder Chiyo bravely defended this village.” She dejectedly spoke while handing the scroll to the dazed Ebizo, who looked at it as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The atmosphere of the whole gathering turned somewhat gloomy as everybody understood the scroll contained Chiyo’s remains. One of the very few S-rank ninjas of Sunagakure had fallen.

Anger, pain, grief… various emotions mixed and boiled in the people within the crowd. But Ebizo was a ninja, and this was far from his first loss. Taking a shuddering breath, he looked at Temari and gave her a firm nod.

“She shall be buried among her comrades, and her heroic deeds will be remembered fondly.” He softly replied in accordance with the Sunagakure traditions. “Come. We have a lot to talk about.”

With that, Ebizo turned around and slowly walked back into the Kazekage Tower, clearly wanting everybody to follow him. Yet, Ren couldn’t help but notice that the man’s posture seemed very lonely.

…

“What do you mean, we won’t retaliate!?” An angry councilman snarled, slamming his hand on the round table around which everybody sat while glaring at the others, daring them to protest.

But his glare was not enough.

“Are you stupid!? Where would we retaliate!” Another councilman erupted. “We need to focus on shoring up our defenses and putting the village back together!”

“And if the Akatsuki attack us again?” A third member of the council, a woman, asked while hiding her frown behind a small fancy fan, asking the question everybody was dreading. “If we don’t retaliate, then that will just send out the message that we are a fair game.”

“And can you provide us with the location where those bastards are hiding?” A fourth member, a man sitting directly across her, asked, his tone holding nothing but curiosity.

After all, the woman was the village’s spymistress, so the question was valid.

“…”

“…”

Yet, both the woman and the councilman, who was angry about the lack of plans for retaliation, stared at their opponents in this verbal dispute in an awkward silence. Neither had a solution to that problem. They just wanted the bastards who had attacked their village to pay.

Ren, sitting on the other side of the table near Temari and Gaara, silently listened to this emergency council meeting and was glad he never shared the knowledge that the Akatsuki base was in Amegakure with these grief-stricken idiots. He could see them running off in the name of revenge, but he knew that they would never return from there. Not with Nagato and Konan guarding the place.

As for his feelings about the situation… He wondered if he was a right bastard, but he thought the result was not that bad. Of course, he was in a different state of mind after the battle, and while they marched through the devastated parts of the village. His thoughts on the matter were also different back then.

But after he sat down and had a moment to think, to properly consider the situation, he had to admit he didn’t mind how this encounter ended.

The reason why he felt sour was that Obito pretty much humiliated him. Killing Suna ninjas right in front of his nose… that feeling was infuriating for Ren. He hated it.

But…

As far as damages went, only three districts of Sunagakure were in ruin, with two more somewhat damaged. Casualties were considerable, and Chiyo was the most important one. But Ren didn’t know the woman all that well. He felt bad about her death and his failure to prevent it, but it was more because Temari felt bad about it.

Was that cold?

Maybe. But it was what it was.

In exchange, two Akatsuki members, Kakuzu and Hidan, were dead. Permanently. And their remains were sealed, so no Edo Tensei fuckery could happen with them.

That was at least something.

As the Suna council descended into bickering about the crisis, Ren was instead considering countermeasures and thought about the seals he would need to quickly develop. He didn’t want to ever be in a situation where he could not shut Obito down in a fight.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. He casually researched a solution to Obito’s bullshit for years, getting almost no results at all. The only thing that was going to change was that now, Ren was fully focused on putting all his resources into this single problem.

‘I should probably make some village-wide sealing array. At least a sensory one.’ Ren inwardly mused. It wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop Obito if he decided to waltz into Sunagakure again. But at least, it would alert the village to his presence.

Ren inwardly sighed as his thoughts turned heavy. There was so much to do and not enough time for all his projects.

“Enough!” Ebizo intervened in the argument among the council members with a stern, quiet voice, suddenly pulling Ren out of his thoughts. “Akatsuki is now our village’s mortal enemy. We shall kill members of its organization on sight.”

That clearly pleased a great many people in the room.

“But the other side of the argument is also valid. We don’t have the resources to counterattack right now. We are at war, and our village is in a dire state right now. We can only bear it. But make no mistake! One day, we shall have our revenge!” Ebizo’s solemn voice carried across the room, causing the eyes of people to burn with silent passion.

‘The man clearly knows how to charm his audience.’ Ren thought with a small smile as the atmosphere in the room slightly lightened.

“Now, let’s stop arguing like children and start solving the pressing issues. We must-“

A sudden crash interrupted Ebizo’s words as a woman abruptly appeared right above Ren before crashing into him, toppling him and his chair to the ground.

Ren, sprawled on the floor with a bewildered expression, stared at the ceiling, his mind still processing what the heck had just happened as his hands found their way around the unexpected female whose nice breasts were definitely not pressing themselves against his chest.

He dazedly looked down and instantly froze when he noticed a few notable things.

Blood was drenching his shirt, flowing from wounds on the unconscious woman who had blue hair, the kind he could recognize anywhere. She also wore an unmistakable, damning combo of a dark coat with very telling red clouds.

Not a popular fashion choice in Sunagakure these past few hours.

The rest of the room stared at her, bewildered and with murder in their eyes as weapons started appearing in their hands. Even Gaara started to gather his sand.

A strained smile appeared on Ren’s lips as he realized the contingency teleportation seal he had secretly sneaked on Konan activated because she had been near death.

But Ren leaned his hand back, lying its back on the floor with a groan. A helpless, wry smile stretched across his lips. Now, how was he supposed to talk them into giving her some medical attention instead of helping her cross to the afterlife?

Her timing really couldn’t have been worse if she had tried.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep