"One, two, three, and now spin." Temari affectionately murmured into Ren's ear as her head rested on his shoulder while they danced. Following her lead, Ren made a passable showing, which made her amusedly whisper, "See? Your dancing prowess is not as hopeless as you made it sound."
Ren unhappily grunted, slightly tightening his hold on her waist. "Tell that to all those noble dipshits laughing at me behind my back." He muttered back, making Temari let out a measured giggle.
One disadvantage of being a ninja was that his hearing was way better than it was in his previous life. The nobles tried to be discreet. But he could still hear them, dammit!
"I am sure they are just jealou- ack." Temari teasingly started, until Ren stepped on her foot and promptly flushed in embarrassment.
He would have been fine if it had been on purpose, to make her stop teasing him. It was something he could see himself doing. The problem was that it wasn't. He truly just... stumbled.
Great. Now, even Kankuro was laughing at him.
'What an amazing banquet this was turning out to be.' Ren inwardly complained while Temari pulled him forward, continuing their dance despite his small mishap.
At least the amusement in her eyes had diminishe-
"So this is the Stomping-like-an-elephant technique Ino warned me about." Temari casually said, but her voice carried a bit of harmless ridicule.
Right. Ren realized he had spoken too soon.
He weakly pinched her side, making her yelp as they spun around, earning himself a small yank of the hair on the back of his head where one of her hands rested.
They took a step back, and staring down, Ren's eyes glinted. His foot deliberately 'overstepped' just an inch, about to descend on Temari's toes.
But Temari was half-expecting it, and she slid her foot back right in time so precisely that when Ren's foot landed, the tips of their footwear were very nearly touching.
"Ha. In your dreams." Temari sweetly purred into Ren's ear with a quiet, pleased, and sing-song tone.
The situation only deteriorated from there, as they made a game out of it, trying to step on each other's toes while still pulling off a mostly passable dance in front of their noble audience.
Soon enough, the song ended, and Ren turned his foot to the side to evade Temari's elegant ending move. She went all out for that one, and instead of just trying to use the tip of her footwear like usual, it was the high heel that almost descended on his toes in a brutal stomp.
Ren, on the other hand, used the small imbalance the motion caused her to bend her back backward. As he was bent over her, their eyes met, and Ren smirked.
"Don't even think about it!" Temari hissed in alarm, probably thinking he was going to drop her.
As if he would do that to her in public!
There was a time and place for such mischief.
Instead, Ren bent forward some more and claimed her lips, enjoying how she quickly reciprocated while letting out a startled but delighted hum.
After the kiss, they straightened back up, ignoring the several eyes staring at them as they vacated the dancing floor alongside several other couples. With that, the dance he had promised Temari was done.
Unfortunately, as the Kazekage representative, she could have easily refused it, but it still looked better for her to participate in the dance. And Ren was the poor, unwilling victim she decided to drag along, citing that if he didn't step up, then she might be invited to a dance by the Daimyo and wouldn't have a polite way to refuse.
Ren reluctantly agreed, not wanting to see the old Wind Daimyo's paws all over his girl's body, using the dance as the pretense.
He glanced toward where the man was seated, surrounded by a few of his bored concubines and chatting with several of his friends and officials. Ren's eyebrows twitched. He realized that Temari had tricked him. Even if the Daimyo wanted, he wouldn't be able to dance with Temari before he danced with at least one of his concubines first.
It was only proper.
Yet, the old Daimyo clearly had no intentions of standing up from his seat anytime soon.
Ren felt Temari poking him in the side and turned his head toward her, and gave the smirking, self-satisfied girl a dry stare that screamed, 'I know what you did!' But her smirk became only smugger under his stare before she let go of his arm with a small snicker.
"Get some food and go sulk in the corner or something." She put her palms on his chest and playfully pushed him slightly away. "I need to do my job and socialize."
Ren rolled his eyes, but he obediently bent slightly down as her hands gently fisted a handful of his kimono and tugged down while she also raised herself onto the tips of her toes, and they shared yet another quick kiss.
Pulling back, Ren nodded, and they separated.
She wasn't really wrong. The audience with the Daimyo before the banquet had been a long one, and many topics were discussed. Ren couldn't name them even if his life depended on it because he wasn't paying proper attention most of the meeting, but as far as he knew, several things were agreed on.
And now, Temari had to go and mingle, hopefully make even more deals with the nobles and officials now that the Daimyo had shown an agreeable disposition toward Sunagakure.
When and where else could she get such an amazing opportunity to make connections and deals other than here, with so many important people gathered? She absolutely had to strike when the iron was hot and do some socializing.
Alas, this inevitably meant that Ren would be getting a cold shoulder from his date for the remainder of the banquet.
As for him accompanying her... Perish the thought.
He found his place near the tables with food, and enjoyed the evening by having a special culinary experience as he tried out many of the served delicacies. The only thing he gave a wide berth to was the snails.
They looked to be cooked? Or boiled? Or something? But Ren instantly decided there was no way he would be putting one of those into his mouth anytime... one of the snails seemed to twitch, and Ren barely refrained from grimacing further than the corners of his lips pulling downward in disgust.
Correction. Ever. He wasn't going to eat one of those ever.
His eyes trailed toward a well-dressed teenager who was standing on the other side of the table, stuffing himself full with the snails, and doing it with such an obvious delight that Ren had to go and snort some fresh air on the balcony because holy shit.
Some people were simply insane.
Beckoning a waiter closer, Ren asked for a glass of juice, which had the waiter stare at him for a moment with such a strange look as if he had told him he wanted to drink bleach, but the waiter quickly pulled himself together and showed his professionalism when he simply nodded and told Ren he would bring him some right away.
Pleased, Ren looked over at the people on the balcony, and his eyes lit up when he noticed Nagase Hasegawa, the current Minister of Art. The man seemed mighty nervous, always glancing toward the pocket watch he was holding and the banquet that was happening inside.
Watching him, Ren noticed that his eyes strayed especially toward one person in particular. The Minister of Finance. Ren chuckled, but the sound was in no way mocking. Instead, it carried a hint of understanding.
Unfortunately, Nagase did not realize he was trying to play in the big boy league as an amateur who was not yet past his bed-wetting level of experience in such a thing.
Stepping forward, Ren walked toward the man. "Hello." He greeted him with a friendly smile, inwardly chuckling at the small, startled flinch Nagase involuntarily made.
But the man showed his aptitude for the court dynamics when his expression donned a pleasant expression a second later, and he greeted Ren back with enough friendliness that if he didn't know any better, Ren might have believed him the crap.
"I have noticed you keep staring at your pocket watch, Hasegawa-dono. Is there some special event planned?" Ren innocently asked and enjoyed how Nagase slightly paled.
"No." Despite his very well-hidden inward panic, Nagase replied with a polite smile without even a single stutter. "I don't think the Lord Daimyo organized anything like that." He chuckled while misdirecting and lying with truth. Ren was honestly impressed. "I just have an appointment and am wondering if I will make it."
"Huh. Really?" Ren noncommittally asked as he casually leaned on the balcony railing next to the Mister Minister of Art, causing the man to slightly squirm in discomfort. It was barely noticeable motion, but it was there.
Nevertheless, the man nodded, "The life of a Minister is unfortunately full of responsibilities."
"Well, that's weird, then." Ren hummed, looking up at the blue sky with a small, amused smirk. "I heard there is going to be a show exactly in," He paused for a second, before looking straight at Hasegawa, "Twenty seconds."
Nagase Hasegawa instantly froze, and his eyes widened in alarm.
"You know, man." Ren chuckled, "I get that this is a godsent opportunity for you. But really? Trying to pin the blame on Sunagakure? Did you really think that would fly?" He shook his head in an exasperated amusement.
Ren's innocent questions had the man pale faster than if a can of white paint had been dumped on his head. He opened his mouth, probably to refute whatever Ren was implying or profess that he didn't understand what he was talking about, but just then, several loud shrieks resounded from inside the banquet hall.
Still sporting a leisurely smile, Ren turned his head in that direction, only to notice that several nobles were now weeping tears of blood. For a moment, many of them threw strange looks at their horrified partners. But then the blood started gushing out of their mouths, ears, and nose, and the panic quickly set.
Women started shrieking louder while men were in panic as they spewed out the food or drink in their mouths, some going as far as throwing away the glasses they were holding.
As the first victims started dropping onto the ground, the samurai guards and Daimyo's ninjas flooded the room in short order, trying to calm the crowd down while some of them kneeled next to the obviously poisoned victims and tried to give them medical assistance, only to find out it was far too late.
The joyful mood of the banquet instantly turned gloomy as Ren glanced at Nagase, whose expression fell upon seeing that his target, the Minister of Finance, was still alive, huddling in the corner with Shido and his ilk, while a bunch of people he wasn't targeting died instead.
He realized that he had been had. His revenge had failed. And he doubted the Sunagakure ninjas were done with him for his attempt to frame them. The bastard next to him wouldn't be so obviously gloating if that were the case.
A flicker of rage and hopeless despair appeared on Nagase's face, but then his shoulders slumped in defeat as cold sweat washed over him. It was over for him.
Ren turned his gaze away from the audacious guy, wondering if Temari managed to secure enough deals to be happy before this mandatory shitshow started.
After all, Mr. Hasegawa's little plot gave them an opportunity that would be criminal to waste.