Ren leisurely walked through the streets of Suna, quietly humming to himself under his nose as he observed the happenings around him with a measure of amusement shining in his blue eyes.
Stopping at a stall on the side of the street, Ren smiled at the suddenly nervous vendor who glanced at his forehead protector and returned a strained smile of his own to Ren, who resisted the urge to sigh in exasperation. Unnerving merchants and civilians was fun for the first week he had been in Suna. After that, it just became bothersome.
The civilians knew at least somewhat about the situation between Suna and Konoha, and seeing a Konoha ninja inside Sunagakure, they probably expected him to get mad and go on a rampage or something. It was in their eyes. That uneasiness and fear, as their usually boisterous attitude became instantly subdued.
Ren considered just not wearing his Konoha forehead protector, but unfortunately, the thing served as an ID for the more ninja-oriented parts of the village. For example, he wouldn't have been let into the Kazekage tower to see Temari at her workplace without it. After all, they don't let random civilians just waltz into the military buildings.
"I will take fifty yakitori, please." Ren ordered, looking at the bird meat skewers.
"Um..." The surprised merchant stuttered in shock at the large order and helplessly looked at Ren. "I-I am afraid I have only twenty pieces prepared right now." He awkwardly told Ren with a fretful expression, who mirthfully raised an eyebrow at him.
"I can see that." Ren chuckled with a small shake of his head. That was kind of obvious. He had his merchandise on display right in front of him, and Ren was still good enough to count to twenty. "Just make more, I can wait."
"Ah! Right. Just give me a few minutes, sir!" The older man frantically nodded and quickly started preparing more skewers with slightly shaking hands.
Ren inwardly sighed and took a step back from the stall, instantly noticing some of the vendor's tension ease up. "Here. Down payment for thirty of them. I will pay the rest when I pick up the order." He said and put the money on the empty part of the stall, making the merchant perk up.
The financial situation in Suna was still not very good, and any money was good money for these people. Ren probably made his day by placing such a big order. Some of the other stall vendors around were definitely lowkey glaring at their fellow vendor's fortune.
"I will be back in five minutes for my order." Ren told the merchant and went on to explore other stalls, buying various knick-knacks he didn't even need along the way.
It was mostly to feel better about himself as he deliberately picked the more impoverished-looking vendors to buy from.
He was sure Temari was going to appreciate the silver hairpin he picked up, or that Gaara would like the raccoon plushy. Kankuro... well, he would probably scowl at Ren for the headband with cat ears he picked up for him, but the boy was probably still going to secretly wear it in the privacy of his room.
Kankuro was weird like that. But hey! No judging.
As he moved from vendor to vendor, browsing their wares, Ren noted with the corner of his eye how the passersby reacted to him. The civilians mostly avoided getting in his way, but it was the ninjas that were interesting.
Many subtly glared at him, some even showed hints of true hostility. Those who recognized who he was, however, looked unhappy, yet frightful as they hurried up to get away.
But it wasn't all bad. There were also those ninjas who profited from Ren's Dome technique. Picking them up from the crowd was not hard. They were those who gave him appreciative looks. Ren inwardly smirked. Making sure those who learn it know exactly who had a hand in inventing and spreading it was already doing wonders for his reputation in Suna.
Hm! Just as planned!
If Ren wore glasses, he would have probably been pushing them up at just the angle to make them glint in the light with a smug smirk. As it was, however, he only managed the smug smirk, making some of the more hostile Suna ninjas even angrier at him when they noticed.
They probably thought he was mocking them. And to be fair, he indeed was! Just not with his smirk.
Five minutes quickly passed, and Ren got back to the yakitori vendor. Paying him the rest of the money, he picked up his order. Fortunately, the vendor had paper buckets, so Ren didn't need to carry fifty skewers in his hands. It was one of the reasons why he picked that particular stall from the dozen other food stalls along the busy street.
With his bucket, Ren backtracked his way for a bit until he reached a side alley he had previously noticed. Entering, around ten eyes looked up at him. Some with empty, hopeless stares, others with calculation, most likely measuring the pros and cons of trying to rob him.
One or two froze in deep fear as they noticed his forehead protector, and Ren got the impression it wasn't because of the Konoha symbol on it. They huddled closer to each other, trying to make themselves look smaller. Both pairs of eyes belonged to females... and the implications of their fear at seeing a ninja didn't sit very well with Ren.
Most of the people sitting across the side alley were teenagers. Only one of them was a young adult. But all of them were scruffy-looking, somewhat dirty, and stinking.
They were clearly sharing this alley, surviving together as a group.
Fortunately, not once since he came to Suna did Ren see a homeless small child. The village was good at picking those from the streets and putting them into orphanages, from where they would enter the ninja academy. It wasn't nice.
Some people in Ren's past life might even think it is morally reprehensible, taking orphans and making them into child soldiers who had a good chance to not live past their teenage years in the profession that was chosen for them by the village.
And Ren wholeheartedly agreed. Except, it was a much better alternative to them starving or dying of thirst on the streets before reaching double digits in age.
Unfortunately, the village didn't have the resources to help all the homeless. And there were a lot of them in Suna, due to the economic crisis. Nor did the village have the means or even the desire to care for those who failed out of the academy.
Hence, seeing older teenagers or adults on the street wasn't that uncommon.
As Ren was measuring the homeless... kids with his eyes, one of the better-looking girls stood up and nervously shuffled toward him, glancing longingly at the bucket of yakitori in his hands.
"He- hello." She shyly greeted, tightly clutching her hands. It was obvious she was struggling to be confident.
"Hi." Ren answered, now curious. He decided to play along and find out what her angle was.
"Um..." The girl ducked her head, and it took her a few seconds to re-gather her courage before she continued. "The skewers." She whispered. "I- Y- You can have me for three. No! Two!" She spoke with a pleading desperation, and the situation instantly turned not fun for Ren.
Sighing, Ren shook his head, making the girl misunderstand and shrink into herself as she teared up in a very obvious disappointment.
"Come here. All of you. I have fifty yakitori skewers here. Five for each of you." He announced, and all of them lit up with joy, even though many of them also looked suspicious.
Ren didn't mind as he ignored their suspicions and looked back at the girl who had approached him. He put the bucket in her arms while she was staring at him in a mute surprise.
"Go, share it among your friends." He told her with a smile that got really awkward and uncomfortable when he noticed the overwhelming gratitude in her eyes.
One of the boys looked between the bucket and Ren with narrowed eyes. He clearly wanted the food, too. But he was also too wary. "What is the catch?" He asked out of nowhere, making the joyful atmosphere among the homeless teens disperse nearly instantly as they realized free stuff usually didn't come without one in reality. Especially not for them.
Ren nodded at the sharp boy and offhandedly unsealed some blankets and fifty bottles of water, putting them on the ground next to his feet. If the food had made the people in front of him happy, the water almost sent them into a frenzy. On Suna streets, water was hard to come by. Yet, it was one of the biggest necessities of life.
Most homeless in the village usually died of thirst.
"Here." A leaflet appeared in Ren's hands as he straightened back up. "Tomorrow, the village will be starting a large project. There will be a lot of work." Ren informed the group. "And a good pay. If you wish to earn some money, be there on time, prepared to do some shoveling."
He put the leaflet on top of the blankets. Everything he wanted to say to them was said. The food and water were delivered. Ren turned on his heel without paying the homeless kids more attention and walked out of the alley, feeling slightly better about himself.
There wasn't any deep reason for his actions. He did it because he wanted to and could do it. He chose to help those ten because he noticed them on his walk to the marketplace today. He gave them the leaflet and informed them of the opportunity because it could truly help them turn their life around.
After the recent influx of money to Suna thanks to Ren's schemes, a room for another project had opened up, and Ren managed to persuade Ebizo to go for another of his ideas.
Oh, how some of the other councilmen didn't like that. It meant more money in Ren's pockets from their budget, and less for them and their own ventures. But what Ren offered to the Suna council was just too precious to pass up on.
Ren didn't begrudge them their wariness, though. Giving too much of their money to him could become dangerous. Especially if he decided to ship it to Konoha.
He would need to start spending said money in Suna in some way, to alleviate at least some of their worries, wouldn't he?
Giving a long, "Hmmm." at that idea, Ren re-entered the main street and disappeared into the crowd of people when something attracted his attention. Turning his head, his blue eyes met the brown eyes of a random passerby, having a bad premonition as the brown eyes widened, startled.
A kunai popped into Ren's hand as he registered a glint of metal near the startled passerby's sleeves and heard the ruffling of clothes, followed by the swishing sound of air from behind him on both the right and left sides.
Assassins! Three of them. Ren realized as they all moved.