Ren and Hinata walked side by side at a slow, relaxed pace toward Konoha's gate in good cheer. Hanabi refused to leave Hinata's arms, so with a massively exaggerated sigh, Hinata eventually agreed to carry her.
But not before she teased her sister a bit about acting like a child. Honestly, Ren imagined that Hinata was certainly happy about it. She was just too shy to show it.
Of course, like a proper boyfriend, he teased her about it through their telepathy seal, and when she gave him a stink eye, he cheerfully ignored it.
They were almost at their destination when a group of ninjas, both from Suna and Oto, intercepted them as they were fleeing the village in a hurry.
The group stopped dead in their tracks, and their eyes met. Ren raised his eyebrow.
One Oto ninja couldn't handle the situation, and with a loud shout, he whipped out a kunai, running at Ren and Hinata, who had both their hands occupied.
Before the others could react, a clone burst into existence in front of the attacker and barred his path toward Ren. Naturally, the attacker was a somewhat experienced ninja and barely slowed down as he stabbed the clone, intending to barrel through it and continue with his offensive.
The clone burst into smoke, but the attacker didn't come rushing out of it. When the smoke dispersed, the Oto ninja was still in the middle of a stabbing motion, petrified into stone with a fierce, self-assured expression on his face.
The man didn't even register when he died.
Ren slowly turned toward the rest of the group, hearing them mutter something about "Stoner this or Stoner that", and his eye involuntarily twitched, making the ninjas tense.
Hinata's stifled giggles made his mood only worse.
One of these days, he was going to find out who came up with that stupid nickname and kick their ass until they regret being born. He wasn't even angry that Kumo put a significant bounty on his head or tried to assassinate him. But that nickname? Oh, that was practically a declaration of war!
Ren clicked his tongue and motioned with his head to the side, "Go on. Fuck off." He blandly told the stupefied group of ninjas in front of him.
They looked at him warily, but soon enough, the first of them decided to risk it and cautiously circled around Ren and Hinata, taking a long way around them. Only when the man got fully around them and started running away did the rest start moving.
Ren rolled his eyes. Now he understood why these people survived. They were cowards.
Not that he wanted to mock them because of it. After all, the brave fools were most likely dead. Yet, these cowards lived. It was pretty obvious who got the better end of the deal here.
The Suna ninjas spared a few fearful glances toward the unconscious Temari and Gaara held in Ren's arms, but one challenging half-smirk had them running for the hills.
Smart guys. If even the current Gaara scared them, then they were not going to put up much of a fight against the dude who subdued him and seemed to not have even a single scratch on him. Running back to their village and informing them about Temari and Gaara's situation was better than throwing their lives away in some harebrained attempt to help them escape.
"Was it wise to let them go?" Hinata asked, and as Ren turned toward her, he found himself being stared at by two sets of curious white eyes.
"Probably not." He smiled. "But I am just a chunin. It's not my job to hunt them down!" Ren self-righteously proclaimed and lifted his chin with a grin that made both Hyuga girls deadpan at him.
Even if Hinata's lips were slowly twitching into an amused smile.
Hanabi, however, frowned. She was taught very strictly about duty to the village and the clan and whatnot, so she did not appreciate Ren's attitude. Still with a displeased, deadpan look, she turned toward Hinata and complained, "Nee-chan, your boyfriend is a useless, lazy bum."
"Oh, you wound me, little Hyuga-chan. I am not a useless, lazy bum." Ren vehemently protested. But then he paused as he felt Temari start to groggily stir in his hold.
"Hold on for a second." He told the girls and turned toward the blonde girl he was carrying before he promptly knocked her out again.
"There we go." Ren casually hummed and turned back toward Hanabi, who was a bit startled at his nonchalance as Ren and Hinata started walking again. "Anyway, I am a great and smart lazy bum!"
Puffing out her cheeks, Hanabi gave him a mild glare, "Are not."
Ren smirked. "Am too."
"Are not!"
"Yup."
"No."
"Yeaaah."
"No!"
"You are just jealous that your sister likes me." Ren teased, and Hanabi's cheeks reddened as she buried her face in Hinata's shoulder with a muffled, "Am not!"
"Hehe." Ren snickered as Hinata threw him a glance.
"Congratulations. You have won a verbal contest against an academy student. You must be so proud." She let out an amused huff full of exasperation.
"Honestly? It is the highlight of my day. She was the most fearsome opponent I have faced today. The hardest fight I've fought to date. Alas, my victory was never in question. It was simply fate." Ren shamelessly stated in his best imitation of Neji and inwardly chuckled when he noticed Hanabi trying to hide her giggles.
'Thanks.' Hinata's eyes met Ren's with a vulnerable tenderness. 'Hanabi was quite shaken after hearing that Kumo almost managed to kidnap her.'
'You are welcome.' Ren nodded and felt a bit mischievous. 'About that promised evening...'
'Oh, get out of here.' Hinata fondly sighed in her mind before the connection between them was cut from her side, and her cheeks showed a faint blush as she pointedly avoided looking in Ren's direction.
Ren guwaffed, loudly enough to alert the Konoha ninjas who were securing the gate about their presence. He didn't want to get jumped by some inexperienced idiot who got startled because of the high from combat.
If not for their conversation, both Hinata and Ren were walking extremely quietly. It was an ingrained instinct at this point. After so much training, they simply adjusted to it.
It was a great skill to have for their line of work, but it could be hazardous around high-strung allies. Alerting them that they were there was just the polite thing to do.
Surprisingly, nobody barred Hinata and Ren's path. Some ninjas clearly recognized Hinata from the awed looks they threw at her, while others recognized Temari and Gaara in Ren's grasp from the weird looks Ren got.
But most simply avoided even looking at them, too weary after their battles, while they focused on whatever job they were doing.
Hinata led Ren throughout the village as they both inspected the damage with uncomfortable expressions while Hanabi clutched at Hinata's clothes.
It... could definitely be worse.
But Ren shook his head and gently bumped Hinata's shoulder as he mentally nudged her closed-off mind, pushing as much reassuring feeling toward her as he could. He could see it in her expression that she wished she did more and felt guilty about 'slacking off'.
Alas, that way of thinking led to a dark place.
Letting out a sad breath, Hinata spoke with a small, forlorn look, "Most Suna and Oto ninjas have already run away. At least, those who could. There are still quite a few groups barricaded in defensible areas all around the village, either having their last stand or trying to negotiate a safe passage outside of Konoha by taking hostages."
"Yeah. The cleanup and rooting out the entrenched invaders will probably take a day or two." Ren nodded. Two hours to deal with the invasion was not bad at all. Then again, ninja battles were usually a very quick affair unless there were two very skilled ninjas clashing.
"Could you please look for their brother?" Ren asked, gesturing with his head to his prisoners, as he stepped over yet another corpse. At this point, he didn't even check if it was a ninja from Konoha, Oto, Suna, or even a civilian.
There were tons of them strewn all around the streets as they got deeper into the village.
"The puppeteer?" Hinata hummed, "Give me a moment." And she looked in front of her, seemingly staring into nowhere while still walking forward, stepping around the corpses out of some perceived notion of respect.
Ren found it adorable, but inwardly, he rolled his eyes at her. The dead were dead and respe- ototo. He almost tripped. Looking over his shoulder, he threw a small glare at the corpse of a Suna kunoichi that almost sent him sprawling onto the ground.
He decided to sidestep the following corpses.
"I don't see him or his corpse." Hinata came out of her trance.
"Hopefully, that means he got away." Ren nodded.
Suddenly, a clone of Hinata was created next to him, and he threw the original a curious look, only for her to shrug, "I still had the chakra."
Huffing in exasperation, Ren also created a clone and the two clones quickly body-flickered away, going to help with the clean-up and rescue efforts.
Ren dearly hoped his contribution would be overlooked. He didn't want to be pestered about accepting a Jonin promotion. Screw that. Only an idiot would take it.
It was like one of those promotions where you have five times as much work, three times less free time, but only around thirty percent more salary. It was not worth it at all.
He should probably start thinking about creative ways to tell Hiruzen to screw himself if he tried to insist on it.
Suddenly, Hinata bumped her shoulder against Ren's, getting his attention. "Come on. I have located Ino. She is not that far away." She said as she turned to the left, and with a shrug, Ren followed.
He wanted to be rid of his prisoners first. It was bothersome to haul them around under his armpits. But oh well. If they stirred, he could just knock them out again. It was no big deal.
He was more than a bit curious how Ino fared in her mission.