“Ole!”

At the last moment, Ren unsealed a red blanket, and holding it with both hands, he sidestepped Ino, who charged at him, causing her to ram into it headfirst and get entangled in it. She let out a frustrated yell as she tried to tear it away from her face, giving Ren enough time to playfully spank her rear, making her jump slightly with a surprised yelp.

Ren jumped away from Ino, letting out a jovial laugh as a bucket appeared in his hands, and he crouched, getting into position.

Ino growled and finally managed to get rid of the blanket covering her face. With a snarl, she abruptly turned toward Ren, fully prepared to rip him a new asshole…

“Ora!”

Only to have her temper forcefully cooled down as ice-cold water from the bucket splashed against her face, drenching her from head to toe and making her shiver.

Ino stopped in her tracks from the sheer surprise, spurting a stream of water from her mouth. But she recollected herself relatively quickly, and her eyes narrowed with fury.

Gnashing her teeth, she gripped her sword tightly and indignantly yelled, “Ren! I am going to kill yo-“

And then, with a puff, she got a face and mouth full of feathers.

Ren watched in astonishment as the blonde girl fell on her knees and hands before starting to heave out the white feathers she involuntarily inhaled. His timing was impeccable. Even he had a hard time believing it!

Incapacitation by feathers, baby!

Hinata just watched from the sidelines with eyes full of pity for Ino while training her lightning nature exercises.

The girls called it bullying, but Ren insisted it was a healthy dose of big head growth prevention. It was necessary, too. Less so for Hinata. Despite becoming a bit aloof, she was still a very humble cinnamon roll and didn’t like to brag. Ino, however, was an entirely different matter.

Ren knew that her prowess had already inflated her head. Deep down, she thought herself superior to her peers. And while she wasn’t wrong, it was Ren’s privile-, ahem, responsibility to show her she was not all that special just yet.

He took that massive burden upon himself quite eagerly.

Ren patiently waited like a proper gentleman until Ino coughed out all the feathers. He let her take a short breather before she prepared for the continuation of the battle.

He expected her to be angry, but contrary to his expectations, Ino calmly looked at him, her eyes hooded and intense as she said with an utmost certainty, gazing him directly in the eyes and conveying her determination.

“I am going to win this.”

Smirking for a second, Ren utilized the transformation technique. “Yosh! Show me your Flames of Youth burn brightly, young Ino!”

He turned his hair into an imitation of Gai’s hairstyle and gave Ino a white toothy smile, even adding the shining white sparkle effect as he encouraged his precious pupil with a thumbs-up gesture.

Watching Ino’s horrified stare was a delight worthy of embracing his inner Gai-ness.

At that moment, he knew… he had scored some emotional damage!

Scrunching her eyebrows in disgust, Ino huffed and narrowed her eyes at Ren, getting ready to charge at him. Ren smiled and started to wonder what to nail her with next.

An egg to the face, perhaps?

Or maybe a plain old paint bomb? Fuchsia sounded good.

Hm, what about putting glue into her hair? That should wake the dragon.

Choices, choices…

Ino scowled and charged. Ren prepared to counterattack. And suddenly, nothing.

Ren’s mind blanked out. He instantly snapped out of it as fast as possible, but Ino had already put her hand on his chest by that point, showing the widest and smuggest grin of all as she was barely refraining from squealing in glee while her fingers coiled around Ren’s shirt.

Ren blinked in bewilderment, looking at her hand. ‘Wait, what!?’ His mind was reeling from what had happened, trying to understand it as he jumped back on instinct, Ino letting go of his shirt in time so as not to stumble because of her grip.

“Yes! I did it! Yaahoo! Victory!” Ino shouted loudly, throwing her hands up in jubilant celebration before she started to jump up and down excitedly while still sporting her grin.

“How!?” Hinata exclaimed from the sidelines, her exercises forgotten. She had a hard time believing the bimbo had actually won.

Because they were not nearly on their teacher’s level, they agreed that taping him on the chest counted as a win. But so far, neither of them managed to do it.

Opening his mouth, Ren stared at Ino in disbelief before promptly closing it without saying anything. For ten seconds, he just stared. Enough time for Ino to calm down and start feeling unsettled due to his silent non-reaction.

But then Ren just grinned at her and suddenly appeared in front of her, ruffling her hair, much to her vehemently protesting annoyance. Alas, Ren decided to take a small revenge by ruffling the heck out of her, so he didn’t let her run away.

“I am so proud of you!” He told the blonde girl as she gave him a mighty pout that could fell even the most hardened shinobi, making him laugh while her pout turned into a shy but happy smile.

To be honest, in a real fight, Ren would have had a clone waiting nearby who would pull him away from danger at the last moment. He tried to imitate Orochimaru’s style a little bit with it.

But he wasn’t going to tell that to Ino. She deserved her win and the feeling of accomplishment born out of it.

“I had a new idea, you see!” As Ren pulled his hand away from her head, Ino started to exuberantly explain without Ren even needing to ask. He exasperatedly chucked and decided to listen to her bragging. Whatever she had done to get him was interesting.

It wasn’t genjutsu. That much Ren was certain of. Yet, somehow, the girl disabled his senses. Just for a moment. But in ninja battles, a moment is all it takes.

“We use clones so much!” Ino continued, “And we always provide our yin chakra. So, I wondered if I could make a clone made out of pure yin chakra, but that was impossible because the yang chakra makes the actual physical vessel. So, I tried and tried, and failed and failed, but then it came to me! My enemy can be the vessel! My Yin Clones are spiritual in nature, kind of like my clan Jutsu! They form in the enemy’s mind.”

Ino finally took a deep breath and slightly calmed down before averting her head with a small blush while clasping her hands together behind her back as she admitted, “Well, they are not that effective yet. I can’t keep them in existence for more than two seconds. It is a work in progress.”

The more she talked, the more astonished Ren became, and he noticed that even Hinata was listening to Ino with rapt attention.

Ino was clearly unaware, but she had once again done something impossible.

The girl had discovered a new way of affecting ninjas’ senses. One they haven’t trained to resist. One, they wouldn’t know how to train to resist anytime soon.

‘Yes.’ Ren eyed Ino’s hair while only half-listening to her babbling, ‘It must be the blonde hair. It’s a sign of a cheater.’

Naturally, he ignored the fact that he was blonde, too.

More importantly, “Didn’t I tell you to not blatantly experiment with new, possibly mentally damaging jutsu on your fellow academy students?” Ren asked Ino with a raised eyebrow, making her tirade stop in its tracks as the girl now looked at him like a deer caught in headlights.

“But…” She had the audacity to whine in protest, and while knowing he should scold her so much she would feel shame until her graduation, Ren couldn’t help the small, amused smile that spread on his lips.

He fondly sighed. “We will experiment with it here. Naruto is dumb enough without you playing jenga with his mind.”

It was obvious that Ino didn’t like that, but she eventually relented and let out an unhappy, “Alright…”

Chuckling, Ren spread his arms in an inviting manner. “Come here.”

And Ino didn’t hesitate even a second before she grinned and jumped into his embrace, her lips instantly pressing on his with demanding fervor as her arms snaked around his neck.

Watching Ino and Ren make out, Hinata good-naturedly rolled her eyes and returned to her lightning release exercises. She would have to step up her game.

The blonde bimbo was cheating far too well.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep