“Such a small thing, yet it can make such a massive difference.” Hinata said in wonder while looking at her Lightning Chakra training seal as the trio sat in the grass and enjoyed some food after their spar.

She flexed her hand and deactivated the training seal before she channeled her chakra, instantly turning it into a lightning-natured one with practiced ease and perfection only her Byakugan could allow her to reach as lightning sparkled between fingers.

In the same breath, a senbon appeared in Hinata’s lightning-clad hand, and she made the lightning instantly cling to the metal needle as she flicked her wrist, throwing the needle at a nearby tree trunk.

The needle hit the tree straight in the middle of its trunk, punching through it and burning the surroundings of its impact area charcoal black near instantly before continuing on its path, punching through and burning several trees, stopping only as it smashed into a boulder two hundred meters away from the trio, creating a sizeable cracked crater in the stone with its landing.

Seeing the result, Hinata’s jaw dropped as she speechlessly stared at the destruction a simple lightning-infused senbon wrought.

She… didn’t expect this. It has been what? Two weeks since she had gotten said seal from Ren?

The same lightning-infused senbon would maybe manage to get through one tree. And that was a big maybe. She was not very good at ninjutsu, elemental or otherwise. Hell, she wouldn’t previously be able to throw a lightning-infused senbon at something two hundred meters away if she tried and there were no obstacles in its path!

Her lightning chakra had become several times stronger in just two weeks.

This… this was insane!

“It’s your Byakugan.” Ren’s voice suddenly interrupted Hinata’s awed astonishment as he noticed her baffled expression and decided to explain.

Hinata turned her head toward him and curiously tilted her head in a questioning gesture, her face still holding traces of disbelief.

“A normal person could probably get to that level-” Ren nodded toward the destroyed tree trunks that started to catch on fire, and Ino was in the middle of stifling it by manipulating oxygen in the air away from them.

Giving her some basic science education was paying off.

“Maybe in two years of using the seal? It depends on talent. Somebody could take five years while a more talented person could get there in one.” Ren continued with a casual shrug, and while his tone was nonchalant, he had to admit, he did not expect to make a perfect solution to Hinata’s problems with a lack of talent for elemental ninjutsu.

He naturally wanted himself and his girls to benefit from his new training seals. He didn’t make them just for Tenten’s benefit. But he didn’t exactly expect the synergy between them and the Byakugan.

Every training seal for different elements worked on different principles. But the lightning chakra training seal Hinata was using acted like an insulator. It hindered and weakened her lightning chakra all the time. And she needed to adjust the strength and flow of her lightning chakra to reach the same level of power as she had before activating the seal.

The seal would constantly hinder her in increasing amounts, and she would constantly need to fight against it with her chakra, getting more skilled at wielding the lightning release while her lightning chakra would also be growing stronger in the process.

She would not even realize how strong she had gotten until she released the seal and used a lightning jutsu because of all the interference from the seal.

That was why Hinata was caught so off guard by what her lightning-infused senbon had done.

Sadly, diminishing returns did play a part in it, and Ren doubted Hinata would keep her current rate of improvement for much longer. But improvement was still improvement, even if it was at snail’s pace. The girl had leapfrogged several levels in lightning release prowess during the past two weeks anyway.

When it came to Ino, the training seals were not that beneficial for her. She could not use them in her mindscape, which made her opt not to use them more often than not, considering the blonde usually trained mostly in there.

But for Hinata?

“Your Byakugan lets you know exactly how to adapt to each new stage of the seal. It shows you every little flaw you make in chakra manipulation and channeling. That makes it laughably easy to adjust and improve.” Ren exasperatedly shook his head. He was almost jealous of Hinata for this, to be honest. “A normal person-” Such as him, he ruefully added in his mind. “needs to figure out every step of increased difficulty as the training seal does its thing. It’s usually trial and error since, you know, we can’t see chakra. But you?” Ren let out a small sigh. “You have a perfect cheat code that lets you blitz through it with barely any struggle.”

“So, the increase in potency of my lightning chakra is because I…” Hinata trailed off as she furrowed her eyebrows with a weirded out expression because she had a hard time believing it was that simple. “What? Trained properly with it and used my Byakugan?”

“Yes.” Ren answered with a deadpan.

Yes. It was bullshit.

It just wasn’t freaking fair! First, Ino, and now Hinata. Here, he thought this world favored blondes and let only them cheat. But his bluenette was now just as big of a cheater as Ino was.

Ren decided to just stay focused on his seals. That’s what gave him an edge. It was a shame, too. He was just like any other boy. He had dreams of throwing lightning bolts and causing storms with a swipe of his hand.

It was cool!

But seeing what Ino could achieve with her mindscape training and what Hinata could achieve with her Byakugan and his training seal? It really gave him a hard reality check.

It felt as if the world was screaming at him to stay in his lane.

Sure, he could focus on elemental techniques. He, after using his training seal for wind chakra, could probably already give Asuma a run for his money in a showdown of wind ninjutsu. He could most likely face most less experienced Jonin by using wind ninjutsu, too.

But he was not getting to Ino’s and Hinata’s level. Nor would he be catching up to them in ninjutsu prowess. Just like they would never even glimpse at his level in the sealing arts.

And when you are unreasonably good at one thing, then using something else in a fight is just a form of self-sabotage. Using ninjutsu in most fights just wasn’t worth it for Ren anyway.

It was still cool, though!

Sigh, he really wanted to be good at it. Such a pity.

“This could make the Hyuga clan into a powerhouse.” Hinata whispered with a slightly shaky voice, her tone sounding quite conflicted.

“Yes.” Ren simply nodded. He understood her feelings. She was raised to believe she should do everything for the Hyuga clan. He mostly disabused her of that notion. And there was no love lost between her and the Hyuga clan. But that didn’t mean she didn’t feel bad going against one of the few things she could remember her mother teaching her.

“… Better not sell it, then.” Hinata mumbled, and her shoulders sagged as she averted her eyes.

But Ino heard her as she came back from dealing with the fires, and she had a different opinion on the matter. “No, no, no. I haven’t put in so much effort into helping you with them to not get my due praise.”

That earned her deadpan stares from Ren and Hinata, which made her get defensive.

“What? I wanna make mom and dad proud!” Ino exclaimed, making Ren snort.

“There will be people who won’t like the shift in the status quo this would cause. Many people. Influential people. And clans.” Hinata dryly said, looking at Ino as if she were an idiot. “It’s not something Ren can just… release to the public.”

“Bitch.” Ino rolled her eyes. “We will deal with it when it comes. We are strong. Besides, Ren wants to give others access to them.” She said, and suddenly, Ren found himself under two stares. One expectant and amused, and the other exasperated and heavy.

He awkwardly shuffled in his place before giving Hinata a fragile smile, “Ugh, maybe not right now.” He tried to explain. “I want to water the seals down. Like, a lot. Biiiiiig time. Giving people an easy way to get guaranteed S-rank elemental chakra manipulation skills with just a few years of training is probably not a good idea.”

Seeing the girl calm down, Ren inwardly sighed. He had no idea what to do with this unexpected discovery, to be honest. One part of him wanted to give the ninjas access to it. It would make the incoming Fourth Great Ninja War easier.

But another part of him, the less naive one, realized that if he released it to the public, his enemies would also get their hands on it, possibly spiralling the whole thing into an unpredictable storm of butterfly effects.

Making Ino and Hinata stronger was fine. It didn’t affect anything on the macro scale in the world. At least, it was unlikely to do so until later on. But releasing these training seals would simply flip the board altogether.

There was also the fact that for all the bullshit about understanding and ending the conflict the canon Naruto anime was about, this world was not that bad at it when it came to wars.

Sure, the ninja villages fought a major war every twenty years or so. And they devastated quite a few villages, cities, et cetera. But it was confined to a few countries.

The whole Third Great Ninja War, with its several years of duration, had fewer casualties than the first day of the Battle of the Somme in Ren’s previous world.

The ninjas just did not have that perspective, so to them, their wars seemed devastating. But Ren knew it could be so much worse. And giving the ninjas more easily attainable power would most certainly not improve things.

“Yes. It is definitely not a good idea.” Hinata said with a wry smile. And yet, she couldn’t help but ask. “… Could I, ugh, maybe get one for Hanabi?” She timidly poked her pointing fingers together as she shyly ducked her head, feeling very embarrassed about asking for this. “Please?”

“Sure.” Ren chuckled.

“Yup. No problem.” And even Ino nodded.

They knew how much Hinata loved her sister, and they had no problem with this. Even though Ren was aware he needed to brace himself for obnoxious and arrogant ‘requests’ from the Hyuga clan elders once he gave the seal to Hinata’s sister, and they saw how effective it was.

Just like Hinata had a Byakugan, so did every Hyuga. The seal could transform the entire clan into Jonin to S-rank level monsters in elemental techniques in a very short time.

Saying no to them was going to be annoying. Ren had no doubt he would be classified as an enemy in their mind for that.

But fuck them.

“Thank you.” Hinata sweetly smiled, and Ren simply leaned forward, giving her a short kiss.

“You are welcome.” He smiled at her and enjoyed the peaceful, romantic atmos-

“Hey! I wanna a kiss too!” Ino suddenly grabbed his shoulders and shook him a bit, her lips set in a devious smirk as she knew exactly how annoying this was for Ren, before she yanked Ren away from Hinata and delivered her own kiss straight on his lips.

Hinata blinked a few times. But then her expression scrunched and gave way to irritation as she narrowed her eyes at Ino, who was making out with Ren. “Oh, this means war, bimbo.”

She caught Ino by her ponytail and yanked back.

The two girls started to play fight in the grass while Ren watched them in amusement, snickering to himself. He loved these peaceful moments.

Hopefully… they would last.

—

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep