Seeing Naruto celebrate, Ren was happy for the boy. It was only natural. After all, he had a hand in molding him into his current state. He might not have directly taught him much, but he had given a lot of journals to Karin, knowing they would eventually find their way to Naruto’s hands.

Even the idea to use substitution with the Shadow Clones or the idea to explode them was something he suggested in one of these journals.

Because Naruto was thick.

He was good at thinking on his feet during a fight. But when it came to figuring out how to use his skills creatively? Nah, he was pretty useless at that. It’s why the kid loved swarming people with his clones. It didn’t require much thinking.

Even now, Ren could see multiple ways to improve the usage of clones beyond what Naruto had shown in the match. More ninjutsu spamming, for example.

Naruto had the chakra to spare for it, and he also had some nice wind techniques courtesy of the journals.

Ren would be lying if he said he was not jealous of the kid. The things he could have done with the ability to spam shadow clones to that degree… Ren ruefully sighed just as the next match was announced.

“Next match will be Aburame Shino versus Karui of Kumo. Contestants, please come to the arena.” Hayate announced.

Ren’s eyes strayed toward the silent Shino, who started walking toward the stairs nearby, giving him a subtle, inquisitive look.

He wondered what Hinata had done with Shino and his bugs. Because Ren knew his girl. There was no way she would have helped Kiba like that and would not have offered something similar to her other teammate.

To be honest, the idea of what she could have done with bugs made Ren a tad bit unsettled.

“Shino.” Hinata suddenly said, stopping Shino in his tracks. He slowly turned around, staying impassive, as he slightly inclined his head to show he was listening.

“If you lose, I will be mad.” Hinata casually said, but there was an undertone of warning in her voice.

Ren, surprised, looked at her and inwardly groaned.

Oh, she was angry. The barely restrained feminine fury she exuded was almost palpable. Ren could understand. She probably spent a lot of time helping and training her teammates, and seeing Kiba lose a match he should have easily won…

As a ‘Sensei’, he knew it was not a good feeling.

Acknowledging Hinata’s words, Shino nodded before he resumed his walk to the arena.

The match quickly started with Karui trying to throw some insults Shino’s way to get him angry, but against an Aburame, she might as well have been cussing a wall.

That naturally pissed her off, so her tactic worked at least on one of the contestants.

With a massive scowl, Karui drew her sword, cloaking it in lightning chakra just as Shino sent a swarm of his bugs straight at her. There was no trick. No scheme. Just a head-on attack.

Which was weird because Aburames hated sacrificing their bugs if they didn’t have to.

Scoffing arrogantly, Karui slashed her sword and used some sort of lightning technique that created a wide net of lightning in front of her, a net that could fry everything trying to pass through it, and Shino’s bugs could no longer evade it.

With the corner of his eye, Ren noticed Kurenai nervously cringe, knowing that losing so many bugs would be a devastating blow to Shino.

Only for his bugs to enter the lightning net, getting zapped, … and continue on their way toward Karui straight through it as if nothing happened.

Karui only managed to shriek in shock and terror as the black swarm of bugs passed through her technique, which should have fried them to crisps, before she was engulfed by them.

Then, the shriek of terror turned into an unholy scream full of searing pain.

“Did you make his bugs resistant to lightning?” Ren asked in amusement.

Inwardly thinking that the Aburames would be Hinata’s friends for life once they learned she had done that with Shino’s bugs.

It would take years of dedicated effort and millions in resources to make even a slightly lightning-resistant bug. And even then, it might not really be combat-effective.

It seemed that Hinata skipped all that here.

“Shino spars with me a lot.” Hinata hummed and smiled at Ren, completely ignoring Karui’s shrieks as the bug-covered girl threw herself onto the ground, frantically rolling there. “Obviously, I had to make his bugs at least somewhat lightning resistant, otherwise every spar would have been devastating to his hive. I also made them somewhat fireproof and capable of breathing in water. Plus, a slight cold resistance.” Hinata nodded to herself, pleased with the result, while Ren’s jaw dropped.

Forget friends for life. He wouldn’t be surprised if Aburames started to worship her as their bug queen!

Karui’s screams ceased, and Shino recalled his bugs, leaving only the bloody unconscious body of the Kumo kunoichi. She wasn’t a pretty sight. Patches of her skin were missing, showing chewed, bloodied flesh underneath. A lot of her hair was gone, too. Half of her nose and bits of her lips were missing.

Not even her clothes were spared as bugs chomped through the fabric as easily as through skin and flesh, turning them into barely-held-together rags.

Blood started pooling underneath the Kumo kunoichi, the second Shino recalled his bugs, and Hayate quickly declared Shino the winner as the medics rushed into the arena.

“In hindsight, I might have made their pincers just a tiny bit too sharp.” Hinata admitted with a small wince, seeing the partly eaten-alive girl.

Clearly, Shino wasn’t happy about the Kumo’s attack in the Forest of Death, and he decided to show his displeasure with the girl. It’s always the quiet ones.

“In my defense, it had never been a problem for me thanks to my Hyuga techniques.” Hinata added, causing Ren to give her an incredulous look.

“At least they are not poisonous.” Ren muttered under his nose, remembering the ROOT ANBU Aburame dude.

But Hinata heard him and decided to dash his hopes. “Hm? Oh, they are. I thought Shino lacked an offensive option, so…” Hinata trailed and awkwardly laughed as Ren gave her a deadpan look, turning at the half-dead Kumo kunoichi being carted off to the medical area.

He really wouldn’t say that Shino lacked offensive options.

“I… might have overdone it?” Hinata asked, causing Ren to sigh.

“Was it fun making these bugs?”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe.” A big, contented smile appeared on the girl’s face, and Ren couldn’t help but shake his head, unable to stay mad at her.

“Alright. I get it.” He resignedly said, deciding he should throw stones from his glasshouse when he also created some dangerous seals because the process was simply fun.

He probably wasn’t the best role model for the girl. So, he decided he would just silently hope she won’t accidentally create some nightmare-level Khepri creation during her mad sciencing.

While they talked, the next match had started, and Shikamaru lazily faced off against Baiu, the last member of Team Shigure. It wasn’t a long match. Baiu threw his umbrellas in the air, giving Shikamaru the much-needed shadow right in between them, allowing his technique to extend all the way to his opponent’s feet.

It was over before Baiu could even activate the needle thrower hidden in the umbrella.

Shikamaru then simply walked toward him, forcing Baiu to mirror his moves. He snatched an umbrella that started falling to the ground when Baiu stopped supplying chakra to it, and Baiu grabbed at the air. They came near each other, and Shikamaru then swung the umbrella, bonking Baiu on the head with it as Baiu mirrored the movement and swung his empty hand at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru requested Baiu to surrender, but he refused and got lazily bonked once more.

This repeated several times, until Baiu was outwardly crying at the humiliation, and Ren honestly thought that the lazy Nara boy actually enjoyed bonking the Ame ninja on the head with his own umbrella.

He knew that Shikamaru could have strangled him or made him into a pincushion with more advanced shadow manipulation techniques.

Ren shared a glance with Ino, who huffed in exasperation at Shikamaru’s actions.

“Choji’s good?” Hinata asked, causing Ino to nod.

“It wasn’t easy, but he is calm. Shika is mad that Shigure’s death made Choji so distressed, though.” Ino rolled her eyes, and Hinata’s lips twitched as she looked into the arena where Shikamaru was still bonking Baiu.

“That’s so petty.” Hinata giggled.

“I know.” Ino snorted. “I am so proud of him. He is finally putting effort into something out of his own volition!” She emotionally sniffed.

It took five whole minutes until Shikamaru bonked the immobilized Baiu unconscious.

The last match would naturally be Gaara versus Lee because they were the last two remaining genin, and Ren didn’t want to watch that slaughter. Gaara had three years of training on his canon counterpart. He had more chakra. Better control of it. Stronger and more refined techniques.

And Lee? He had only a more mature body. Just like in canon, he only trained under Gai for the last year and a half.

Ren knew how this one was going to end. Especially because both Lee and Gai were the same thick-headed idiots. With their strength, using a weapon would make them nigh unstoppable, but no. That was against their Springtime of Youth!

Or whatever.

The worst part was that Ren wouldn’t even be able to interfere. It simply wasn’t his place.

So, he decided to let fate take its course, hoping that Gai would have enough sense to jump in if Lee got in trouble. The man was one of the fastest ninjas in the village anyway.

“I am going home, girls. Wanna come with me?” He asked Ino and Hinata.

With that, the preliminary rounds of the Chunin Exams were officially over for him.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep