Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

It took Ebisu an entire week to set things up and Ren was very happy about it as it gave him time to learn the Shadow Clones.

Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't easy. Just crossing your fingers and shouting the technique's name to the heavens was not enough.

Trust him. He tried. And he felt like an idiot afterward when nothing happened... He was five, then. Remembering it, he felt like an even bigger idiot. Because if he had miraculously pulled it off the technique would have killed him with how costly it was.

Even today, the biggest problem with learning the Shadow Clones for Ren was the chakra. It cost a whole lot. He could maybe do five tries before he was spent and had to wait for hours until his chakra pool recharged. So, Ren had to go slow, try it, and then analyze and figure out what he was doing wrong.

The technique was quite complicated too. It took Ren six days and by the end of it, he had to concede that Naruto was a genius. Even if he was an idiot.

Then again, recalling the other geniuses he remembered from the anime, Ren had to admit that these two labels go hand in hand in this world.

Ren recognized that Naruto was really good at ninjutsu years ago. It was when he was learning Rasengan. The fact that Naruto managed to pull it off during the short time he and Jiraiya looked for Tsunade was astonishing to Ren after he experienced just how difficult it was.

That said, Naruto had enough chakra to train an entire day without a break. Ren could give it an hour at best before he had to call it quits due to exhaustion creeping in.

That, like nothing else, hammered down just how special Naruto was in this world. Chakra-wise Ren was not like Sakura. He was above average for his age and rank. And while he got much better than he was years ago when he tried to learn Rasengan for the first time, he still acutely felt the need to use his chakra efficiently. Because it was a very limited resource.

The anime did not do it justice. Since it followed Naruto's life, the chakra cost of techniques was mostly glossed over. The dude could just spam them all day long, and even if he got near chakra exhaustion... Kurama chakra battery just recharged him free of charge.

The ninja Jesus did not need to trifle himself with mortal worries like chakra capacity unlike Ren and the rest of the ninja scrubs.

In this world, he was the biggest cheater of them all.

Much to Ren's dismay, he had only one day to try some of his Shadow Clones plus fuinjutsu combo ideas, and most of them were in the very initial test phase but so far, he was happy.

Ren did not want to learn the technique to use it in combat. He focused on fuinjutsu. He had years to consider things like his specialization when it came to ninja arts. And he was very aware that he couldn't just learn it all. Maybe if he was stuffed into Naruto he would have tried that. With a thousand shadow clones, it might even be a possibility.

But Ren didn't have such leeway. He had to specialize to be effective. Just like every other ninja alive. Nobody was master of all.

After thinking of both the pros and cons of every ninja art for literally years during his early childhood years, Ren picked fuinjutsu. Because that was the only thing that ever worked on Kaguya. No taijutsu, no ninjutsu, and certainly no genjutsu ever even scratched her.

Naruto landed a hit on her face. But it didn't even phase her. Heck, it did not even leave a bruise!

And while Ren's hope that he would get so good at fuinjutsu that he could give trouble to Kaguya might be foolish, he had to at least try, no? So, why not choose the only thing that could actually affect her or the bijuu?

... Maybe the fact that he wouldn't need to half-kill himself with physical training, stewing himself in his sweat under the sun, and panting in exhaustion every single day might have had something to do with his decision too.

It was no wonder his taijutsu still sucked. He hated physical training. Loathed it with his very being and eagerly cheated at it with his fuinjutsu.

That old-fashioned Saitama training every ninja in the village tried to do as some form of self-torture? Yeah, screw that. He had enough Physical Education classes in the academy to be completely fed up with that bullshit.

He was an otaku in his past life and being reborn into Narutoverse would not change that.

He might have spent his whole two last academy years creating the absolutely best, most user-friendly, and just slightly uncomfortable while still beneficial self-adjusting gravity seals he could manage to come up with but it was totally worth it. It got him a 'get out of the jail forever' free card when it came to physical training.

If he had trained properly in the physical aspects of being a ninja with his gravity seals, he would have had a body as strong as Guy's in a few short years. With tenth the effort too.

But taijutsu was not only about having a strong body. Technique and fighting style were important too and Ren just had to admit to himself that he was not and never will be that talented at close-quarter combat.

It was much better to invest his time into fuinjutsu for Ren.

That's where the Shadow Clones came in. He had many ideas, but not enough time. He had many dangerous experiments to do but didn't want to die in a fiery explosion. Fuinjutsu had a reputation for being dangerous for a reason.

Hence why he was so desperate for the Shadow Clone Technique. Almost every really good idea he had was dangerous. Almost every single one had a high chance of going horribly wrong. But with Shadow Clones? That no longer mattered!

Ren could create five copies with his current chakra capacity. That was actually really good. He once spoke with a ninjutsu specialist jonin who had above average chakra capacity for a jonin-ranked ninja and even that guy could only make seven copies.

Sadly, the bastard refused to teach Ren the technique despite being wasted. He just laughed Ren out of the room.

Sure, Ren was around ten years old back then, but still! Laughing at him was rude.

That said, creating five clones was pushing it for Ren. Each of the five copies would have very little chakra, making them useless both in combat and for training purposes.

Creating three was optimal. Two if he actually wanted to train with chakra. But Ren learned the technique to help him with fuinjutsu research. For that, he didn't need much chakra so three copies were just fine. Fuinjutsu was very chakra-efficient. His clones could brainstorm fuinjutsu ideas for hours without going poof. And they could experiment for quite some time too, depending on how much chakra a seal needed.

But the most valuable use of Shadow Clones so far was the creation of exploding tags. Ren was a part of the Barrier Corps. He got there after getting assigned to Team 7. Which meant that fucktard Hatake and his equally retarded bell test.

No. Nobody used such ridiculous bullshit as a test in the village. Yes, Ren knew others used it in the past but surely they were not as unreasonable as Hatake.

Yes, Ren was salty.

Konoha was known for teamwork but it was not something jonins required from genins fresh out of the academy. Nobody tested teamwork of all things. Ren knew that much. He asked around. His classmates were very willing to share their stories.

Teamwork was something that developed over time. It wasn't supposed to be there from the very start. The academy was a competitive environment in the first place. The students competed with each other constantly. It was encouraged, And it was expected.

You can't just throw them, with that mindset cultivated for years, and tell them to compete for bells while secretly expecting them to work together and actually think they would do what you want. Of course, they are not going to do that! There is a reason why none of Kakashi's previous teams passed, duh.

Jonins are supposed to teach teamwork. The emphasis on the word 'teach' is really, really important in that sentence.

Even Kakashi's very own team was as dysfunctional as they come, always arguing, always fighting, even having some weird love triangle.

Despite knowing the answer, and almost screaming it to the faces of his would-be teammates, Ren's team flunked. Because his teammates just didn't want to work together, believing that one of the three would not pass a bit too much.

There was no make-up test like Naruto had. Nobody tied to the post. No 'don't feed that guy' thingy. It was just... Ya didn't work together. Shucks to be you, tehee~.

Honestly, Ren realized that Hatake just didn't want a team. No matter what, Ren's team flunked the second they had the misfortune of being assigned to Kakashi.

He wasn't that angry over it anymore anyway. A person should not be angry at the mentally ill.

... Fuck Hatake.

So, Ren failed but he didn't return to the academy. There was no 'returning to the academy'. That was a blatant lie meant as a form of psychological pressure. Once you graduate from the academy, you are a Konoha ninja. There is no easy way out. You signed up for military duty. Congratulations.

The Jonin test is just a way to determine if you get into the elite Jonin track course or not. Having an experienced ninja who can show you the ropes and teach you the basics is invaluable. Many people who manage to get on the Jonin-led team become jonins later in their lives. That's statistically proven and it is why the village 'wastes' a few Jonins to 'babysit' some talented Genins.

It's basically an officer course.

Those who fail their test are redistributed into various departments in Konoha's military depending on the talents they showed in the academy or if they are not particularly impressive at anything, they end up in the Genin Corps. The place for the fodder.

Of course, even somebody from the Genin Corps can become a Jonin. But it is much harder for them. It usually requires so much commitment and hard work that would make even Guy proud.

Ren was assigned to the Barrier Corps because his fuinjutsu aptitude was noticed. While it was called 'Barrier Corps' it was really just a fancy name for the fuinjutsu division. Its main responsibility was the various barrier fuinjutsu around Konoha, hence the name. It wasn't anything special. No, they did not create teleports nor did they learn how to seal bijuu. They created… exploding tags.

As a member of that division, Ren had a weekly quota of exploding tags he had to create and hand in to the Konoha Armory. It was a very bothersome task and ate up a very big chunk of his time. As a chunin, Ren had to make fifty of them a week. That was around one to two hours of work per day, five days a week of repetitive work where if he didn't focus enough, he could blow himself up.

Some days Ren even regretted ranking up to chunin. That's how bad it was. But alas, only Chunins could access some fuinjutsu scrolls in the Barrier Corps library so Ren took one for the team. All in the name of pseudo-science.

But thanks to his Shadow Clones, he was finally free of that chore.

There was no way in hell Ren would be ranking up to Jonin even if he could. That Kosuke guy? The eternal genin? He was totally onto something when he refused his promotion.

The increase in workload was truly not worth it. 

It's not as if Ren had to be Jonin to become strong. Just look at Naruto, the genin that became Hokage.