Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

Kurenai was clearly an emotional mess after seeing her Genin murdered but she was still a Jonin. She calmed down halfway on her way to Zabuza and instead of trying to charge him down with a kunai, her hands flickered in a flutter of hand seals as she cast a genjutsu at him.

Seeing that, Ren quickly whipped out a kunai and threw it at the man's head... but as he expected, Zabuza dispelled the genjutsu and parried the kunai, making it spin through the air around his body. He glanced at Ren with disinterest before turning his attention back to Kurenai.

Only for Ren's kunai to explode, engulfing him in a wave of fire and metal shrapnel.

Ninjas. They train themselves to notice and react to exploding tags but if they don't see them, they tend to get careless.

Fortunately for Ren, his exploding seals could be put directly on the kunai and were black, just like the steel kunai were made of. They were hard to spot during combat.

But Zabuza was not such an easy opponent. Ren's eyes widened as he quickly ducked, feeling Kubikiribocho swish through the air an inch above his head. Pivoting on his heel, Ren swiped a kunai full of wind chakra at Zabuza's calves but the man just jumped over it, evading injury... only for a kunai to suddenly burrow into his stomach.

Retracting his chakra string that scored said hit, Ren hopped back, evading the water that burst from Zabuza's body, confirming that it was just a water clone. Well, that was given. Ren doubted the real deal would have been unable to dodge his kunai on a chakra string trick. The Zabuza he was fighting was a bit too slow for a high A-rank ninja.

Glancing around, Ren could barely see Itsuki and Kenji facing another water clone of Zabuza while Kurenai seemed to be in a high-speed battle with the man himself. Surprisingly, she was doing pretty well, unlike Ren's teammates who seemed to be at the end of their rope.

For a split second, Ren considered who to reinforce but he quickly realized his teammates were shit out of luck. If he went to help them and Kurenai died, the situation would worsen. Kurenai had a much higher value as a combatant unlike the two dudes almost losing against a water clone.

Ren would prefer to find himself with Kurenai against Zabuza rather than facing him with his temporary teammates. Inwardly hoping that the two chunins would not die against the water clone, Ren jumped toward Kurenai and Zabuza.

Worse, the mist was already starting to reform.

Seeing Zabuza going on the offensive as he got dangerously close to Kurenai, Ren threw a kunai but he aimed not at Zabuza but at the ground in front of him, causing the man to stop and cautiously jump away from it when it landed.

Sadly, the man remembered the exploding kunai trick.

But the kunai did not explode this time. Zabuza's eyes looked at Ren, his forehead unhappily creased as he realized he had been tricked into aborting his attack.

Ren just gave him a cheeky smile when suddenly, a hand of his shadow clone appeared from the ground under Zabuza, a kunai full of wind chakra cleaving straight through his right ankle.

The timing was good. Ren's shadow clone emerged just as Kurenai hit Zabuza with yet another genjutsu so the man didn't have time to dodge. But the Zabuza in front of them burst into the water again, revealing that the fight was not yet over.

Ren abruptly whipped a chakra string at Kurenai, connecting it with her back and yanking her away from her position as Zabuza appeared in front of her in a burst of speed and slashed at her. Her body was flung at Ren and smacked into him, causing him to slide on the ground a few feet due to the residual force. Noticing that her face was full of blood due to a shallow cut across her face, Ren rapidly threw Kurenai away as he felt the air being displaced behind him.

"You are annoying." A growly voice sounded from behind Ren... but it was too late to dodge as Zabuza's sword was already halfway through his chest.

In a puff of smoke, Ren disappeared, leaving behind a log, which made Zabuza huff in annoyance as he sank back into the mist.

Fortunately, preparing the battlefield to Ren's advantage and spreading around some substitution logs was the first thing his shadow clone did before trying to score a hit on Zabuza.

Frustrated, Ren appeared on a tree, having no clue where on the battlefield he was. All he could see was white mist, causing his shoulders to slump.

"This is getting ridiculous." He grumbled.

All he needed was to get his finger on Zabuza or his sword. But it was proving to be far more problematic than it sounded.

With no other choice, Ren reluctantly once again sent out a powerful gust of wind, dispersing the mist... only to see Zabuza stand on the pond near the road. Ren's eyes widened as he saw Zabuza's hands going through multiple hand seals before a dragon made of water rose from the pond and... smacked right into the middle of an empty road.

For just a short moment, Ren's brain froze as he tried to comprehend why. But then Kurenai shimmered into existence on the pond, standing behind Zabuza as she buried her kunai handle deep into Zabuza's kidney.

Surprisingly, this time the man did not burst into the water. She got his real body. Then again, a water clone is unable to use ninjutsu so the second Zabuza used that water dragon, he revealed his position.

With a defiant roar, Zabuza swung his sword at Kurenai who was unable to dodge due to their proximity, cleaving her in two straight through her stomach. But her body shimmered again before dispersing into a white mist and Zabuza's eyes widened in shock as a kunai ripped his throat open, Kurenai appearing behind him once more.

Ren watched it with his jaw on the floor, having a hard time believing this just happened.

For the entirety of the fight, Kurenai was on the back foot. Her genjutsu was very useful for creating openings for Ren. But other than that, it was almost as if she wasn't even there.

Ren thought this was going to be like in those fanfictions where the protagonist had to deal with the opponent himself. That he would need to figure out a way to defeat, or at least survive Zabuza, by himself and save the day.

He was totally not counting on Kurenai being actually capable of... this.

Was this even allowed?

Wasn't it against some sort of karmic bullshit of destiny?

Just then a mad cry full of sorrow resounded from the tree line and a young man wearing a Kiri hunter ninja mask ran at Kurenai with plain murderous intent, throwing needles at Kurenai who seemed to barely stand on her own feet.

But Ren knew about Haku's existence and prepared for him.

His chakra fluctuated, his hands coming together, the name of a technique he was about to use on his lips... when Haku stumbled due to genjutsu and didn't even try to dodge as Kurenai instantly nailed him to the forehead with a kunai.

Fun fact, being enraged makes people very susceptible to genjutsu.

Ren owlishly blinked and closed his mouth with an audible click. Taking a deep breath, he awkwardly calmed his chakra, 'I guess I was relegated to the side-kick position.' He wryly chuckled.

While Ren's brain was working on comprehending the situation, Kurenai stumbled her way toward him and sat on the ground, leaning her back on the tree while breathing hard.

"Thank you. You distracted Zabuza long enough for me to set up my genjutsu." She tiredly spoke, trying to smile but it only came out as a grimace.

Ren remembered that her Genin team had just died and realized she probably felt like shit. She was clearly exhausted and covered in mud and the wound on her fa-

'Wait.' Ren blinked, realizing there was no cut across her face. 'Holy shit. It was just genjutsu?' He felt incredulous. He no longer knew what in that battle was real and what was just her playing mind games and setting the stage to land that final blow on Zabuza.

Yes. Ren was impressed. But he also felt conflicted. He had underestimated this woman far too much because of some preconceived notions from his past life. But she evidently did not get the rank of Jonin for free.

Feeling that his shadow clone had dispelled, Ren's musings were interrupted as he received the memories and inwardly sighed. Kenji was dead and Itsuki was near chakra-exhausted.

Should he feel a bit bad for being satisfied with how his first serious battle against a highly skilled ninja in this world went?

Glancing at Kurenai... yup, he was definitely not going to say that out loud.