Assassins! Three of them. Ren realized as they all moved.
The world slowed as the knives neared Ren from the front and back, but these ninjas seemed to be only chunin. They were too slow. It might have worked if Ren hadn't noticed the ambush, but he did. Slipping an inch past the knife coming at him from the front, Ren was already bringing his hand up to retaliate when, suddenly, purple smoke bombs exploded from beneath the assassins' cloaks, filling the street.
Ren could hear people start to scream as he stopped his attack and scrambled to channel wind chakra around himself, putting up a barrier that kept the most likely poisoned smoke out. It was so thick that visibility was near zero, and Ren had a hard time seeing more than a foot in front of him.
He barely managed to settle the wind barrier around himself when he heard a faint clicking noise from the direction where his assailants were supposed to be in the thick purple smoke around him.
Ren's eyes widened as he recognized that noise. After all, he heard it almost every day at home. Instantly activating his intangibility seal, senbons exploded from three directions in the smoke with an audible crack, raining down on him and the surroundings.
His intangible form was peppered with them as they phased through him and tried to make him into a Swiss cheese. The terrified and painful screaming from the crowd intensified amidst the sound of deafening clanging as a lot of senbons fired from different directions smashed into each other and ricocheted before eventually ending up on the ground.
Stray senbons rained down on the unfortunate, random bystanders who just happened to be on the street and were now panicking inside the poisonous smoke.
Worse yet, the senbon shooters were aimed at him, even if they were fired in a wide arc, not unlike a shotgun shot. Most were supposed to hit his body and stop there, but he was intangible, so the fired senbon did not lose their momentum as they too flew into the panicking and fleeing crowd in the smoke.
Ren offhandedly noted that his three attackers seemed to be screaming too, as their bodies were pretty much the biggest and closest obstructions for the shot senbons. But that did not give him pause.
Barely two seconds had passed since the entire attack started, and Ren slightly crouched and narrowed his eyes, preparing his kunai to strike. He couldn't go tangible just yet, as the senbons were still flying everywhere, especially the ricocheted ones, but soon it would be over and...
Three deafening explosions abruptly swept the street alongside an intense heat wave, resounding through Sunagakure as they violently shook the ground and covered the screaming of the civilians.
Chill went down Ren's back, 'That was close.' Ren's mouth widened into a grimace. A second later, and he would have been hit point-blank. He was almost about to get tangible again to counterattack.
The booming sound stopped as suddenly as they drowned the surroundings, and Ren's slightly ringing ears started to hear the wailing screaming of the people on the street again.
Not hesitating, he used another wind jutsu to create a gentle updraft that took the poisoned smoke high into the air before harmlessly dispersing it. The visibility was restored, and Ren's heart dropped.
Charred corpses in violently ripped pieces with half-melted senbon stuck all over them littered the ground around him. Nobody survived in the immediate vicinity. Those not killed by the senbons or not flash-cooked by the heatwave enough to die right away were finished off by the ensuing shockwave that tore them apart.
A bit further away, heavily injured people were wailing in agony, many missing limbs or suffering grievous injuries and burns, but at least there were survivors. Even those bystanders, far away, who were most likely out of the smoke cover, did not come out unscathed.
Some had blood leaking out of their ears, others had senbon sticking out of their bodies, and many were seemingly hit by the aftermath of the explosion's shockwave, looking dizzy but not injured.
Sweeping the hellish scene with his eyes, Ren instantly dismissed it despite the ugly feelings it evoked in him, and he started checking the surroundings for any other surprise attack. He noted that his three assailants were in numerous pieces among the corpses nearest to him.
Suna ninjas started to appear on the nearby rooftops, all alarmed and on the edge. Ren tensed at the unfriendly looks he received from all around him.
This didn't look good, now, did it? He helplessly sighed in his mind.
Dismissing the kunai in his palms, he raised his hands in the universal unthreatening gesture. He had half-expected some gung-ho idiot to attack him and start a fight that they would all regret, but luckily, the cooler heads prevailed despite his spotless Konoha head protector.
Not even pausing a bit, many of the ninja quickly jumped toward the survivors and started helping them however they could, while ten visibly tense Jonin with grim expressions flickered toward Ren, surrounding him.
The ninja in front of Ren, a delinquent-wannabe, black-haired man with a perpetual scowl on his face, gritted his teeth in agitation, "Is this some sort of revenge from Konoha for the invasion!?" He loudly exclaimed.
Too loudly, in fact. Ren's eyes cooled as they narrowed at him.
He opened his mouth to explain the situation, but was interrupted by the same man before he could even start. "Do you take Suna for a jok- gurk!"
Not in the mood to let the idiot hype the surrounding ninjas into attacking him and turning the situation against him, Ren let the heavy presence of his chakra settle over the surroundings.
It was similar to a killing intent, just without any implied, overt threat. The weight of his chakra manifested, and the Jonin around him, even the ninjas helping the injured, stiffened as they realized that yes, he was indeed an S-rank ninja more powerful than them.
It was an instinctual thing as the hair at the back of their necks bristled, and their wariness shot up. The animalistic part of their brains screamed, 'Watch out, a bigger predator!', while their experience as ninjas made them push through their nerves and prepare for combat.
Ren looked at the man in front of him, who stared at him in a mixture of mute fear and anger, clutching his kunai in his hand. It was also good for momentarily shutting idiots up.
Knowing that the effect won't last for too long, especially not on a Jonin, Ren decided a stronger approach was necessary. "You are either an absolute moron who thinks starting a fight with an S-rank while you already have a crisis on your hands is a good idea, or you are with whoever sent the three assassins after me and bombed this street."
The man bristled, but his confidence wavered as he noticed some of his companions shooting him not very comfortable, questioning side glances. Ren's shoulders slightly relaxed. It seemed these ten Jonin were not all colluding with the assassins. If they were, they wouldn't care about his statement, and they wouldn't hesitate.
Whoever planned the ambush was good. They almost killed him with three chunin. They didn't know about his intangibility, but they did account for his shielding seal that blocked the bijuudama. The attack came fast and hard, one lethal strike after another in quick succession. The assassins were clearly attempting not to give him the time to put up a barrier. The approach was tailored for him, or at least, for what was known of his skills.
The fact that he was known for his exploding kunai to a degree, and they used an explosion before some idiot came indirectly accusing him of bombing the street...
Sure. It could be just a general dislike for Konoha and its ninjas. It could be a coincidence. But did he want to believe in coincidences?
And if his suspicions were correct, even the location, the street filled with people, was not random. Baki should have reported his reaction to Killer Bee destroying the village he saved from bandits.
With a cold fury settling in Ren's stomach, he looked the bristling Jonin straight in the eyes, "You are a moron either way. But if it is the second option, you are also a traitor to your village."
"Now, I am going to sit on that bench over there," Ren motioned to the right. "and-"
"The hell you are!" The Jonin hissed, only to freeze when he felt a blade of a kunai on his neck. The other Jonin stiffened for a split second before they jumped back and took out their weapons.
Ren dispassionately looked at the man who was held hostage by his shadow clone.
"I am not asking. I am telling you what is going to happen. We are going to wait for somebody competent to show up and deal with the situation." He glanced at the other, nervous Jonin around. "Or do you have something against that?"
The rising tension in the air could be cut with a knife.
Fortunately, that's when the cavalry arrived.
"What is going on here!?" Ebizo's old, but still commanding voice resounded through the street.