Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

"You did well. You are much faster now." Ren said to the panting girl who collapsed onto the grass after she finished ten laps around the pond. She gave it her all since Ren wanted her to finish them as fast as she could.

She still wasn't anything to write home about. He would say she could probably keep up a pace with the guy, Itsuki, who was on the last mission with him.

Which was impressive for an academy student and spoke a volume about the effectiveness of her physical training under her clan. It was around a high genin level of speed.

It was not good enough yet. Ren's goal was to get her to at least a low Jonin-level speed before she graduated. Maybe more, depending on how motivated to train her properly he felt.

The plot might have changed but Ren was sure there would be some manner of war in the near future and a slow ninja was a dead ninja. He'd rather if the girl didn't die. It didn't hurt that he was starting to like her.

She had a playful streak that the anime did not show at all. Then again, she did live in an environment where playfulness was tantamount to a deadly sin probably punished by caning.

He had less than two years until her graduation. He was playing with the idea of giving her his gravity seals... but he was still hesitating.

"Now that you are properly tired, it is time for some combat training." Ren suddenly said after giving Hinata three minutes to catch her breath.

Hinata groaned and pushed herself back on her feet, "Sensei? Did you train like this too?"

"Of course not. What would I do that for?" Ren said with an easy-going smile, looking at her as if she was crazy.

Hearing him, Hinata's lips twitched downward, "Then why do I need to go through it?" She asked and threw Ren an accusatory look.

"For my personal enjoyment?" Ren raised an eyebrow at her, enjoying the scowl on her face. It wasn't every day one could see a Hyuga scowl. Ren was proud to have this profound effect on the girl.

"Alright, alright." He continued after a few seconds passed, his smile falling off his face and his tone turning serious. "My training was far more tiring than yours. Believe it or not, I am still kindly holding back."

And he wasn't even lying. The first half-year of using his gravity seals was... it didn't exactly hurt but he was practically living in constant discomfort. And he was always tired before his body got used to always being weighed down.

"And the reason why we are moving to combat training is that you are still not giving it your all during spars in the academy." Ren said and with the look he threw her he dared her to protest.

Hinata just shyly ducked her head, falling silent. She couldn't argue against that and she knew it.

"Look. I honestly have no idea how to make it better." Ren sighed and gave Hinata a genuine, wry smile. "I think your kindness is great."

Hinata's eyes widened at that and a faint blush appeared on her face as she suddenly found her hands extremely interesting while pressing her index fingers against each other. It was a habit she did when she was extremely embarrassed.

Ren actually found it rather adorable but they didn't have all day so he continued, "I could give you an entire speech about how you are hurting your classmates by holding back." Now that pulled Hinata right out of her own world and she wilted as if he had just dunked her with a bucket full of ice-cold water.

"But somehow, I don't think that would help you much. This is the best thing I could come up with. You are going to spar with my clone, trying to hit him."

With that, a clone of Ren suddenly came into existence three meters away from him. No seals. No calling the technique's name. It just appeared. Completely silently.

Hinata was not experienced enough to properly appreciate the absolute bullshit he had just done. Nor would she realize how much effort Ren had to put into practicing that technique to accomplish this.

He had two free weeks during the mission and he was not slacking during them. And neither were his clones. Still, this was one of the hardest things he had actually done so far when it came to ninjutsu. So, he kinda just wanted to show off.

Even if Hinata's reaction was nonexistent. The girl only looked between Ren and his clone, her reluctance clear on her face. She definitely did not want to fight.

Deciding to give her a little bit of incentive, Ren grinned, "This is your chance to get back at me, ya know? You won't be physically hurting me if you hit my clone but I will still feel the pain once it dispels."

The girl suddenly stilled as her head slowly registered what Ren said. He could almost see how she started mentally going through the training and teasing he put her through so far. Slowly, all hesitancy disappeared from her expression and her eyes gained a slight vindictive gleam.

'Good girl.' Ren inwardly nodded in satisfaction. That was exactly the reaction he needed from her.

"Well, then," Ren sat near a tree trunk and used it as a backrest as he pulled out a dark green book, his fuinjutsu notebook, and opened it.

"Feel free to start whenever." His clone finished for him, giving Hinata a challenging smirk, and putting his hands into his pockets.

"You only need to hit him once and he will disappear. The shadow clones are extremely fragile." Ren said from behind his book, not even bothering to look at Hinata over the cover.

"But you will not score a hit unless you give it your all." The clone spoke, but seeing as Hinata still seemed to hesitate, he decided to be mean, "Maybe I should make you run a lap around the pond for every second you hesitate?"

That did it. Without even realizing it, Hinata sprang forward, rushing at Ren's clone who only casually hopped back... and the second Hinata reached the place where he previously stood, a pink paint exploded from a seal he had discreetly placed on the ground with his foot, covering the wide-eyed HInata from head to toe, causing her to trip in her shock and clumsily rolled a few times on the ground until she stopped right at the clone's feet.

"Heh~, you might make a better pinkette than that classmate of yours. Sakura was her name?" Ren's clone taunted, knowing that Hinata secretly disliked Sakura for having Naruto's attention and not caring about it. "I heard Naruto likes pink hair so I decided to give you a bit of help in that regard. Aren't I kind?"

The glare Hinata sent his way was legendary but Ren's clone just gave her a cheerful grin.

"Maybe activate your Byakugan?" He kindly advised her in a patronizing way as he looked down at her due to her being on the ground.

Not able to contain her frustration any longer and seeing only one good target to vent it, the veins around Hinata's eyes bulged as she gritted her teeth and jumped at Ren's clone once again, this time more carefully.

...

Ren enjoyed his day immensely.

The sky was blue. Birds chirped in the treetops. The gentle breeze was comfortable. The sun was enjoyable. His fuinjutsu notebook was again a few ideas richer. 

And Hinata was cosplaying as a rainbow. With a few added colors in the mix.

All was as it should be in the world.

Ren watched the fight from his comfortable spot, subtly looking over his notebook while hiding his amused smile.

Hinata, in her multicolored glory, almost ferociously struck at Ren's clone, trying to hit his stomach with her palm but at the last second, the clone pivoted on his heel, making her miss.

"Are~, you were so close, Hina-chan! Just an inch!" Ren's clone exclaimed with pure happiness in his tone as he aimed his palm at Hinata who flinched and promptly jumped back like a scared cat.

The clone once got her point blank in the face with a seal on his palm. One that projected paint in the direction it was pointing toward.

Hinata had no way of knowing that the seal had only ammunition for one use. It was empty but the clone clearly enjoyed scaring her with it and using it to make her back off when she got too close.

"Tehee~." The clone gave Hinata an innocent smile as the seal didn't activate and the girl realized he was just bluffing. Again.

It caused her to jump at him with newfound ferocity and angry scowl.

She threw one gentle fist poke after another so fast that her hands started to blur but Ren's clone was always just that inch out of her range. Always sidestepping when she thought she got him. His speed always slightly increased when she was sure of her victory.

Ren saw how Hinata tried to brutally axe kick his clone's face, only for him to grab her foot at the ankle and joyfully spin her through the air a few times, making her scream in fright, before releasing her foot.

At the start, Hinata still pulled her punches despite being angry. But as the fight progressed and she got covered in more paint while Ren's clone taunted her, she slowly stopped holding back. She now tried to hit the clone with all she got. With all her speed and strength. With all the feminine fury she could muster.

His clone literally annoyed her enough that she forgot to hold back.

Ren had a blast watching it as he wondered if she realized how much force she was using. Some of her attacks were borderline lethal.

This was also a great combat training for her. The paint seals could be exchanged with exploding seals so getting covered in paint practically simulated a lethal hit. Hinata did not realize it but Ren was using the training exercise to give her some much-needed combat experience. And he had to say, the girl was doing great so far.

She was no longer falling for the simplest of traps and even managed to evade most of the hidden paint seals covering the ground of the battlefield. And by now, after almost an hour of fighting, the battlefield had hundreds of seals hidden all over it. The joys of fighting a seal master, right?

Hinata had to fight while avoiding them all and Ren had to admit he was slightly impressed that she was managing it. From time to time, she did accidentally step on a seal and got a new unexpected paint job out of nowhere but Ren thought she would be triggering far more seal traps than she did.

The Byakugan was indeed a cheat in this kind of exercise.

But she was not fast enough to hit his clone and he kinda did specialize in evasion so really, she had no hope of winning this exercise unless his clone monumentally screwed up.

Ren's clone substituted just as he was about to be hit and a paint bomb suddenly appeared in front of Hinata's gentle fist strike... exploding upon hit and covering her again in paint. This time, it was orange.

"Opsie. But look! You match with Naruto now!" He gave her a double thumbs up with a wide grin as he tilted his head and innocently asked, "Dattebayo?"

Hinata screamed in impotent rage, the orange color dripping from her whole body onto the grass.