"Take a deep breath. It will help you calm down." Ren said, standing next to Temari, who was anxiously fidgeting to an adorable level. They stood in the waiting room in the repaired arena where the Chunin Exams were held. It was the same room where the contestants waited for their matches just a few weeks ago, but the circumstances were vastly different.
Today... was his and Temari's wedding.
Because it signified the joining of their two villages in an alliance, neither the Konoha nor the Suna old geezers agreed to make it just a quiet event with only those who needed to be there present. In fact, they vehemently protested, until it was decided... read, until they decided... that the entire village should be able to participate!
Yeah. Ugh. Ren was not very happy about that. But it did not sound like such a big deal when they talked about it during the negotiations. Now though?
He was kinda as anxious as Temari. He was just hiding it better.
Temari slightly pushed the curtain covering the open space from where the inside of the arena could be observed, and peeked at the crowd of people. The second they noticed her, there was a loud cheer, one that made her yelp as she let go of the curtain, letting it fall back down, covering the room as Temari swore under her nose. Ren chuckled, earning himself an unamused, small glare from the girl.
"Easy for you to say." Temari mumbled and averted her gaze, glancing back toward the curtain. "This is embarrassing."
Shaking his head, Ren flexed his chakra, letting Temari notice, and as she turned back toward him with a questioning look, he spoke, "Here. I layered a genjutsu over the curtain. You should be able to look without most people noticing."
"Thanks." Temari nodded and turned her entire body toward the curtain in an attempt to hide how much she appreciated the gesture, but Ren still saw how the tips of her ears reddened.
He watched as she slightly pulled the curtain away, just enough that she could peek through the small gap, and pretended to be busy watching the performance that was going on inside the arena. Her eyes still tended to flicker in his direction, though. But even Ren had enough sense to know he should not mention it.
The village was milking this for all it was worth, and the spectators actually had to pay quite a bit for their seats. In exchange, Konoha invited a traveling troupe from the Capital city to make a performance as a prelude to the main event.
To be honest, Ren was more interested in Temari than whatever was happening in the arena. She looked amazing. She had the same black kimono with the pattern of yellow sands on it. Her make-up was something he reckoned took her at least an hour of effort to get just right, and the girl looked somewhat nervous until he complimented her when they first saw each other today.
Her shoulders visibly sagged a fraction of an inch as the tension left her. But it was obvious she was not used to wearing something like her make-up. She was still, even now, looking quite uncomfortable with it.
But Sage, it made her look gorgeous.
Her sandy-yellow hair was in a bun with two slightly curling strands falling around her face and onto her almost bare shoulders, caressing her collar bones before ending as they almost reached her chest. Ren mirthfully stifled a smirk every time he noticed Temari's fingers twitch in a desire to pull out the big, decorated ornamental hairpin that held her bun in its shape.
Her kimono showcased her curves excellently, too. Way more than her usual combat-ready clothing. These Suna ceremonial clothes didn't really leave much to the imagination, and Ren was enjoying the experience.
"Stop staring at my rear." Temari muttered with an embarrassed huff, causing Ren's eyes to... relocate upward.
"I am not." He shamelessly denied everything, sporting an innocent smile.
She had her back turned to him. She saw nothing. She could not prove anything. And he was ready to die on that hill.
Temari looked at him over her shoulders with a pointed, unimpressed look that fell completely flat because of her small blush.
"I was admiring the... patterns on your kimono. They are nice." Ren half-heartedly defended himself, this time failing to prevent his smirk from showing.
"Sure, you were." Temari exasperatedly rolled her eyes at him. "Just as I am sure they get really interesting around the area of my ass, right?" She quipped back and involuntarily grinned.
"It's your kimono, so I guess you'd know best." Ren humbly agreed, making Temari giggle. Ren inwardly hummed. He was happy to see that his attempts to make her relax via small talk had succeeded.
Temari opened her mouth to retort, but the sound of the door opening interrupted her. Noticing that Hiruzen Sarutobi had entered, both Temari and Ren turned toward him.
He was going to officiate their wedding because... well, he had the qualifications as the previous Hokage. Sadly, things were very different in this world. Religious weddings were more or less nonexistent, and it was usually the government officials who had the certification to wed people.
Ren looked into it after he told Hiruzen that he, Hinata, and Ino were already married, and he found out that the closest thing to priests in the Land of Fire were the monks of the Fire Temple. And let's just say, they did not exactly offer these kinds of services.
Hiruzen was followed by Homura and Koharu, the Konoha Elders, and behind them was Baki with Kankuro and two other men who Ren remembered were a part of the Suna negotiators. They probably had a high rank in their village, but Ren did not recognize them, nor did he know their names.
"I see you are both prepared." Hiruzen calmly said with a friendly smile as he approached Ren and Temari. "Do you have your lines memorized? I certainly had a bit of trouble with them in my old age." He jokingly said, trying to bring levity into the situation.
"My lines are 'Yes' or 'I do', no?" Ren nonchalantly shrugged. "It's basically just a mini-training for my married life."
That earned him a swat from Temari as her quivering lips tried to suppress the inappropriate smile, while Hiruzen gave Ren a look. He may be joking, but it was pretty clear the old man wanted everything to go perfectly.
"We both know our lines, Sarutobi-sama. We already did a small practice while we waited here." Temari politely answered for both of them, and Ren gave her a small pout for ruining his fun.
"Great." Hiruzen gratefully nodded, "Then we can-"
"Ah. Wait just a moment, please." Ren interrupted him, causing him to frown as he turned toward him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes? Is there something you need clarified, Ren? We don't have a lot of time before we have to start."
Sweeping all the important people from Konoha and Suna in the room with his eyes, Ren chuckled and secretly activated a seal. "There is just one small adjustment we decided to do."
"Adjustment?" Hiruzen incredulously asked, starting to get miffed.
The old man definitely spent dozens of hours organizing this event, so Ren doubted he was very happy about some sudden deviation from his plan. But it was for a good cause!
The door to the room opened yet again, attracting the attention of everybody inside as Ino and Hinata entered, both wearing ceremonial kimonos of their own, both looking beautiful, and both were followed by their immediate family. For Ino, it was her parents, while for Hinata, it was her sister and father.
Hiruzen's jaw almost dropped to the floor, and his mind went blank as he realized the implications of Ren's words.
After a moment of silent staring between the newly arrived people and the people that were already in the room, Hiruzen woodenly turned toward Ren, his lips gaining some serious twitch as he spoke in a quiet, grim, and low tone that did not hide even slightly how pissed he was.
"You can't be serious."
Ren shrugged again, and instead of answering, he looked at Temari, who let out a tense breath before speaking to Hiruzen. "We... talked. And decided that this will be for the best."
She almost managed to say it with only a small hint of conflict in her tone, and Ren gave her a grateful look. She was still afraid of Ino and Hinata, so the idea of ending up in this kind of marriage with them was more than a little disturbing to Temari. But she decided to go along with it.
Funnily enough, it wasn't the polygamy aspect of it that bothered her. No. That was very welcome, according to what she told Ren. For Sunagakure and for her as its future Kazekage, it was a major win to have this kind of connection with the Hyuga and Yamanaka clans. She even jokingly lamented that there was no other woman from an important clan.
It was the 'Having to share a husband with two S-rank kunoichi' that terrified her.
"Hiruzen? What's going on?" Koharu asked, looking as nonplussed as Homura.
"Ren wants to marry Temari, Ino, and Hinata at the same time." Hiruzen answered, his frown deepening as he tried to come up with a way to deny the 'request'. But he simply could not find a reasonable argument for saying no.
"Absolutely not!" Homure vehemently protested. "The dignity of Konoha and Suna depends on this wedding. We can't afford to do to insult Temari and Sunagakure in such a wa-"
"We don't see a problem with it." Baki interjected, and the two Suna officials were eagerly nodding behind him, causing Homura to grimace for a second before he schooled his expression.
A small stare-off started between the Konoha and the Suna sides. The Konoha Elders and Hiruzen were all shades of unamused, while the Suna people looked as if their deepest wishes were about to come true.
Ren, Ino, and Hinata stayed silent, mirthfully watching the completely silent fireworks of conflicted emotions while Ino's parents and Hinata's father looked fairly uncomfortable, but were ready to support their daughters' desires.
Ren found that admirable. Not many Konoha ninjas would have the balls to go against Hiruzen in this way.
It was the reason why Hinata decided to deal with the Hyuga clan yesterday in the first place. They all knew that unless the Hyuga Elders were dealt with, they would be a major obstacle here and now. So, they had to go before the wedding. As the Hyuga clan head, and without the Elders breathing down her neck, she could choose her husband for herself.
"If I may interject." Ren happily spoke, interrupting the tense atmosphere in the room, while enjoying how the Konoha Elders gritted their teeth. "As Sarutobi-sama said, we don't have a lot of time." He smirked, making it very obvious that his introduction of this problem this late was very much deliberate.
Hiruzen's expression darkened. Homura looked constipated. And Koharu, much to Ren's surprise, outright snarled at him. But that just made his smirk widen.
"You are totally right. We will just have to improvise." Baki had no problem taking Ren's side.
Seeing no way out, Hiruzen grudgingly admitted defeat with a short, biting, "Fine. Have it your way." But he was clearly unhappy with it.
Ino and Hinata marrying Ren in front of so many Konoha citizens was bad. It would significantly complicate any future honey-trap plans for them.
"Great!" Ren exclaimed and clapped his hands, "Then we should go through the whole thing one last time. After all, a change like this is bound to complicate it a bit, no?" He proposed, watching with the corner of his eye, how a small vein appeared on Hiruzen's forehead.
'And whose fault is it?' Hiruzen thought before irritably nodding with a sullen expression as they started the rehearsal.
Ren decided to stop poking at him. After all, today was an important day, and they at least needed to pretend to be friends, no?
...
Author Note:
I am not writing the wedding itself. Fuck that.
... Ahem. What I mean is that I don't think I could make it interesting and have no idea how to even start with something like that. It sounds like a drag. Sorry if somebody wanted to read about it. But I am skipping the ceremony itself.
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