The chef, almost upon Tsunade, dropped the act. He threw a punch at the incoming lightning.
His fist shattered the bolt. With a pop and a cloud of smoke, his transformation dispelled, revealing dark skin and a broad, powerful frame.
The son of the Third Raikage. The future Fourth Raikage. A.
A the elder.
Young A.
Ren's fingers flicked in rapid sequence, Start of Spring, Rain Water, Awakening of Insects, Grain Rain…
Finger force brimmed with life, like the season's first fine rain, and thunder boomed within the showers.
As the strikes cut air, illusions and sounds flowed with them, some bright and sweet, some earth-shaking, elusive and hard to read.
Young A answered with punches, again and again. His iron fists flared with sudden lightning, breaking every incoming finger force with simple power. Unchanging force against a thousand forms. One strength shatters ten thousand techniques.
Their exchange was so fast that Shinku and the others were dazzled and could not even move. By the time they gathered themselves, the two had traded dozens of blows.
Ren could not break through. He stepped back, frowning, scanning the street.
The lively thoroughfare had emptied without anyone noticing. People love a spectacle, if they live to watch it. The shinobi world is still less bloodthirsty than a coliseum crowd.
The tourist mass scattered. Only a tight ring remained, nearly a hundred Hidden Cloud ninja, masks off, surrounding Ren's team on all sides.
Asuma and Kurenai's heads rang. They could not fathom how a simple mission to bring Tsunade home had led them into Rain assassins and then Hidden Cloud ninja.
Shinku's face went pale. Among those hundred were at least a dozen jonin he recognized. There were surely more he did not.
And leading them was A, the son of the Third Raikage, who had just fought Minato at the border.
A master on par with a village's Kage, commanding twenty or thirty jonin and dozens of elites in Tanzaku. This was not sightseeing.
The only person who could draw them together was Tsunade.
Enemies on all sides.
Ambush at every turn.
Ren sighed up at the sky. "Your respect for Tsunade puts us Leaf to shame."
Young A had brought a full detachment, with two or three dozen jonin, the rest strong chunin, just to kill one Tsunade. Far stronger than the unit Danzo sent to assassinate Hiruzen in certain stories.
"She is worth it," A said, acknowledging Tsunade's value.
By power, she is one of the Sannin, known across the shinobi world. By skill, she is the finest medical ninja. By impact, she built the medical-ninja system others race to copy.
The Leaf can pit one village against several. Tsunade's credit is large. Her system massively increased the Leaf's recovery and stamina in war.
A raid is coming. Their healer is alone. You do not pass up that chance.
A looked at Ren and added, admiring, "Two years. I did not expect your growth to be this fast."
Asuma and Kurenai looked at Ren. Even Tsunade turned. It was clear A knew Ren.
Do you have connections with everyone?
Shinku stayed expressionless, eyes on the ring of Cloud ninja. If someone told him Ren knew Uchiha Madara and the Sage of Six Paths, he would not blink.
"We ate together," Ren said. "I am closer with his brother, Killer B…"
He explained, years ago, while working alone on a border assignment, he met B. They hit it off. B introduced him to A. They shared some meals.
Tsunade, famed across the shinobi world, looked like a wrecked hemophobe, dead weight. Ren's strength had jumped, but A felt confident. Shinku and two kids were negligible.
Holding the overwhelming advantage, A did not harvest the win at once. He tried to maximize it.
"Do you remember my invitation at the Fire Country border two years ago?"
"Burned into me. The terms were too rich to forget."
"Doing nothing would bring you a basic income of one hundred million ryo a year. If you impregnate and sire children, more money. Any girl you fancy, any number, the Raikage will go speak for you."
Wealth, status, beauty, A restated his offer.
None of them had expected that Ren and A had that kind of past.
A finished and said, "My offer still stands. Come to the Hidden Cloud. All of it is yours."
"Ren…"
Shinku and the others looked at him, uneasy. Even Tsunade sighed. The terms were frighteningly tempting, even she would feel it.
Judging from A's tone, they wanted Ren as a stud. But a pampered, happy stud.
Ren shook his head. "You said the same thing two years ago. I will answer with the same thing."
"You refuse?" A was surprised.
"I refuse."
"Reason?"
"You offered all that not only for my Uchiha blood but because you admire who I am."
"Correct."
A nodded. "From the first glance, I knew you would fit the Cloud. And it is true, not only me. The village respects your character."
Righteous and generous, chivalrous, born for the Cloud. We Cloud folk admire such men.
Ren sighed. "If I accept, your admiration vanishes. When you no longer admire me, how much of your promise holds?"
Why does A admire me?
Because my character is good.
Now, if the Leaf had not wronged Ren first, and Ren flipped for the Cloud for profit, would that still be good character?
Even if A kept his promises, he would no longer regard Ren as special. He would see him as a small, self-serving man.
Then Ren, who flipped to the Cloud, would be a man without a place, enjoying the same treatment as a certain future Seventh, all the side-eye in the world.
______________________________________________
If you want 20 chapters ahead, check out my Patreon:
patreon.com/PureParadox