The big seal forming on the massive windmill shuriken greedily consumed Ren’s chakra, until he had roughly only twenty percent of his reserves left when he was done with it. By then, the seal was a proper beast but Ren didn’t have the time to admire it as small but bloody lacerations started forming on his skin, causing his blood to seep out as Ino’s wind dragon approached and he started feeling the increasing wind pressure pressing him down.

The wind dragon’s body was made of such pressurized winds swirling around each other that even the air surrounding it became sharp and despite it still being a few meters away from Ren, it was already cutting.

A shiver went up his spine.

If it was this bad at a distance, he didn’t want to know what actually getting hit by it would do to a person. Much to his discomfort, this reminded him far too much of Rasenshuriken’s effect.

But there was nowhere to run. The wind dragon was too massive. It was going to destroy everything in a several-dozen meters radius.

An excited smile appeared on Ren’s face as adrenaline filled his veins while his hair bound in a ponytail wildly flailed in the furious winds, mirroring the nearby trees. Ino definitely got too carried away. He could almost hear the pounding of his heart through the deafening swishing and whistling sounds of the wind.

Ren threw the shuriken, aiming at the dragon’s maw, and watched it with keen excited interest and trepidation as it neared its target. Only for the winds surrounding the dragon to affect it. The metal creaked. The blades cracked and twisted. Cuts started appearing on the surface of the shuriken.

A worry filled Ren but it all lasted barely two seconds.

Then, the seal destabilized, and Ren was abruptly lifted from the ground due to a sudden airwave hitting him while the world was drowned in the sound of shattering glass. His body was thrown back until his feet landed once more on the ground and he slid back for a few meters with his arms instinctively positioned in front of his face to guard from the still wild razor-sharp winds.

But not for a second did he stop watching the effect his seal had created, wonder and awe filling him so deeply that a small part of him started to sympathize with Bakuda and Deidara for being explosion-loving nutcases.

The winds themselves started turning into glass, the effect quickly spreading. It reminded Ren of seeing something freeze really fast but instead of ice, the wind dragon became glass. Its maw was first, then its face, neck, upper torso… the effect continued, accompanied by a loud screeching sound, until half of the wind dragon turned into glass before it finally stopped, Ren’s seal reaching its limit.

What was left was a massive glass statue of a dragon made of uncountable swirls folding over each other, as big as half of the Hokage monument.

But a moment later, the other half of the wind dragon technique, the half that was still made of pressurized winds, smashed into the glass statue and exploded, sending it rapidly crashing to the ground as glass shattered while Ino’s chakra powering the winds finally used its last shred of power and dissipated with a bang.

The ground shook from the impact of a hail of sharp glassy shards of various sizes raining all over the surroundings at breakneck speeds.

Ren hastily ducked behind a nearby tree, waiting until the storm of glass shards passed with a wry smile on his face showing how relieved he was that his seal stopped the wind dragon.

For a moment, he was worried there.

Fortunately, he had the glass alteration seal. The salt one would do exactly nothing there. For some reason, it couldn’t alter air to salt so it wouldn’t have worked very well against a wind technique.

Ren had no idea why that was a thing. It just worked that way.

It’s not as if he hundred percent understood these seals and their workings.

He discovered how to turn things into salt because one day, he was cooking and in the middle of it, he found out that either Ino or Hinata had used up the last of his salt.

The woes of letting his girls use his apartment…

He was still annoyed because of that when he made his clones for some seal experiments later that day so his clones decided to make a seal that would create salt.

The clones did not exactly expect to succeed. It was just a silly idea to play around with and waste time. And it wasn’t supposed to be a combat seal either.

Their goal wasn’t to make some new murder machine. It was for fun and to never run out of salt during cooking!

How was he to know it would affect humans so easily? Or that it would have been so effective in combat?

Once he figured out that little tidbit, his murder ninja senses started tingling. It didn’t let him sleep until he used this new discovery to make new, more powerful ‘explosive’ seals.

And they were damn dangerous. Hell, even the one-meter effect radius was an artificially made limiter he put in the seal. It was there to make it cost-efficient and to ensure the area of effect would not fluctuate.

That way, Ren always knew the exact strike zone of his seals.

He glanced over the grass littered with multiple glassy shards… But obviously, he could make the area of effect bigger. But the chakra cost was a killer.

This wasn’t something he could use in the field because by now, he would have been dead against an experienced opponent after using up so much chakra in one go.

Ren didn’t want to admit it but he felt a bit wobbly after that stunt.

Fortunately, through the detection seal, he could sense Ino’s last clone puff out of existence because it used up all of its chakra for the wind dragon. Only the last two clones of Hinata remained.

Ren groaned and rolled his shoulders. He was tired as hell.

To be honest, he did not expect the six clones to push him this much. He would rate himself as an elite Jonin-level combatant. He might not have the experience of Kakashi Hatake but he had his own weapons that made him just as dangerous.

Ino and Hinata… well, they were around chunin-level combatants right now. Maybe not with their control, which was way better than it had any business to be. Their elemental manipulation was solid low-jonin level for Hinata and beyond S-rank for Ino. But physically and chakra reserve-wise, the girls were chunin.

They could not match Ren’s speed and reaction time. Not really. And that gave him a huge edge against them. So, it was a small wonder they pushed him this far.

He was quite proud of them.

Despite the risk of sounding arrogant, he did think he was pushing that S-rank prowess. With his new seals? He’d say he was just deadly enough to be there already.

A small chuckle escaped Ren’s lips as he took a half-step back just as Hinata’s clone ‘ambushed’ him by springing out of the ground, her fingers jabbing into the air where his armpit was just a moment ago.

Heh. That would have immobilized his entire arm if it hit. His cinnamon roll was ruthless. He approved.

Undeterred by her failure, the clone instantly sprang into action and engaged Ren in close-quarter combat, sending palms, jabs, finger pokes, and even some un-Hyuga kicks at Ren, especially the one aimed at his balls was not cool, who was either parrying the strikes or evading them by stepping slightly out of Hinata’s reach with a small amused smile on his lips.

All that amazing Hyuga taijutsu prowess was worthless if the user could not land a hit. Unfortunately for Hinata, he was both faster than her and knew exactly what her reach was. So, evading her at the last possible moment, just to frustrate her more, wasn’t very hard for him.

If the girl wanted to beat him in taijutsu, she would need to get more creative than a straightforward rush.

But of course, Ren was aware that the second clone was ‘cooking’ something. He had no idea what as he could just sense its presence and didn’t have the time to get the visuals because he was a bit preoccupied with dodging. But it was nearby, doing something.

Ren parried a palm strike and jumped back, trying to make a bit of distance between him and Hinata only for the girl to instantly accelerate in an unexpected way via internal lightning manipulation and throw herself at him with a jab aimed at his forearm.

Sidestepping it, Ren pulsed his chakra out of the soles of his feet, jumping to the side… Hinata used the wall walking exercise to abruptly stop her momentum, turned to the right, and leaped after Ren, very unwilling to let him out of the close range.

Ducking under a kick aimed at his chin and getting into a crouch, Ren let out a sigh. He couldn’t use his exploding seals unless he regained some distance from the girl and she clearly knew it. Quickly glancing around for a suitable substitution target, his eyes abruptly widened.

Hinata used her Heavenly Wall technique and the surprised Ren was hit with a wave of chakra straight to his face that flung him back like a ragdoll until his back hit a tree.

Ugh. Crouching was not a smart thing to do.

He fortunately landed on his feet and… the second Hinata clone flickered in front of him when he was still trying to regain his wits after being treated like a pinball, her expression resolute and her arm already shooting toward his abdomen while holding Rasengan.

Heart leaping into his throat, Ren didn’t have much time to think. He did the first thing that sprang into his mind and used a chunk of his chakra to force substitution with Hinata’s first clone, the Rasengan just shy of an inch from his skin when they swapped places.

The second clone could only watch in dismay as her Rasengan went through the chest area of the first clone like a knife through butter and rammed into the tree trunk behind her, grinding out a sizeable hole into it just as the first clone finally realized what happened and her face twisted into disbelief before she puffed out of existence.

The last remaining clone turned on her heel and indignantly glared at Ren who couldn’t help but helplessly shrug with an apologetic expression as he flung a kunai at her.

Huffing, Hinata knew it would have some sort of exploding seal so she didn’t try blocking it and simply jumped into the foliage of a nearby tree, landing on the underside of a thick tree branch in a crouch. A split second later, she sprang herself forward into a leap at Ren and was midair, halfway toward him when the kunai’s seal went off.

And Hinata shrieked as her world suddenly swam and her Byakugan was assaulted with a blinding… something, causing her to reel in surprise and pain. She closed her eyes due to panic but it didn’t help the overwhelming sense of pounding irritation and ringing going through her head. Her hands covered her eyes on instinct as she winced at the unexpected sensation.

She had no idea how this was possible! Byakugan should not be blinded by chakra!

“And done.” Ren’s voice interrupted her inner turmoil as her body flew through the air, and then she felt kunai rammed into the back of her neck before her world went black before she even hit the ground.

Watching as the last clone of Hinata puffed out of existence, Ren let himself fall on his ass and let out a huge relieved sigh. It was finally over.

He was exhausted. The forced substitution took a lot out of him. The girl really surprised him with it. He did not expect Rasengan. He had to admit, much to his embarrassment, that he had forgotten he taught her that technique.

It’s not as if she ever used it since she learned it.

Nevertheless, a small smile appeared on his face. He was satisfied with his girls. Yes, he did hold back and hasn’t used clones. Neither did he fight seriously as he focused mostly on trying out his new seals. But they still managed to surprise him enough to almost land some nasty attacks on him.

Sadly for them, they lacked combat experience.

Well, now he knew how he was going to torment them for the next few months. His previous spars with the girls where his clones were running circles around them did help them but it was clearly not enough to make them capable of participating in the big boy league.

He had nine more months to get them to that level before they graduated. Nothing some specialized training arc torture could not accomplish.

It was time for the kiddy gloves to go off!

Ren’s eyes strayed toward the hole in the tree left there by the Rasengan as the lacerations covering his body stung and he remembered how close he was to having his guts take an involuntary trip through a blender.

Well, alright. Maybe the kiddy gloves should stay on for a few months. At least until he properly figured out a chakra-based force shield.

Safety first, right?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep