“What do you think is the difference between an S-rank ninja and a jonin?” Ren asked the girls, and Hinata gained a pondering look while Ino opened her mouth to reply without thinking, but then her brain started to process the situation, and she stopped herself with a frown.

The girls looked at each other with a bit of helpless confusion on their faces, drawing blanks at how to answer the question. They knew Ren didn’t want an obvious answer like, ‘One is more dangerous than the other.’

Ren, on the other hand, just contently watched the girls fidget and exchange gazes as they communicated nonverbally with their eyes and expressions.

It was quite amusing seeing them panic.

“One has a bigger dick than the other.” Eventually, Ino replied with an eye roll when she got annoyed that she could not come up with a good answer. “Seriously, do you need to ask such a stupid question?” She grumpily huffed.

“Humor me, please.” Ren dryly said with a deadpan look that made Ino cringe as she ducked her head with a mullish look.

Ren snorted. Presenting topics and ideas students would never think of by themselves was a teacher’s job. But when neither girl interrupted the silence even after three minutes, Ren sighed.

But he could understand their troubles. As academy students, they didn’t have any opportunity to ever see an S-rank ninja, or even a jonin, in a proper action.

Funnily enough, the people who watched the anime were more informed than his girls when it came to this, despite not even being from this world.

“Fine. Let me just give you a lecture. You are not cute at all.” He said in resignation with a visible pout, suddenly feeling a burst of sympathy for his high school teachers who constantly asked questions and never got any answers volunteered back.

Ignoring Ino’s indignant, “I am plenty cute!” Ren gathered his thoughts and started to talk.

“Five Jonin.” He said before pausing for dramatic purposes and to make sure the girls properly pay attention. “That’s the standard response team for hunting down a spotted S-rank ninja. The village sends five Jonin who counter his skillset.”

“Isn’t that a bit low?” Hinata wondered out loud. That didn’t match the unbeatable standard the stories about these monsters usually set. “Wait. You have beaten ten jonin in your last mission! Does that mean you are an S-rank ninja?” She looked at Ren with unveiled wonder in her wide eyes, causing Ren’s heart to skip a beat.

With a grin involuntarily appearing on his face, Ren put his hand on Hinata’s head, enjoying her expression. “No. I am still lacking in many aspects to call myself that, in my opinion. But I can see why you would come to that conclusion. Which is why, after every feat worthy of S-rank classification, I made damn sure to show to the village that I don’t deserve it with the injuries on my body.”

“Is that why you made me botch your healing?” Hinata realized, and her expression darkened. Feeling a bit awkward, Ren quickly retracted his hand from her head and subtly shuffled a few inches away from her.

“Yes. Having somebody who fought Yagura, resulting in the man’s death, show up happy and smiling, cool as a cucumber, in the village and having that person show up barely able to stand presents two very different pictures.” Ren seriously said. “It’s the same with my last mission. The first one would be a competent S-rank ninja, no questions asked. The other one, though? It could be just a Jonin-level combatant who was very, very lucky.”

Even if Ren appeared just peachy during his last meeting with the Hokage, the second Sarutobi decided to investigate him, the first thing he would get on his table would be the report from the hospital where Ren went right after the meeting.

And in there, he would find out that Ren was basically dead on his feet and was just trying to present a strong front. That would paint a picture of him in Sarutobi’s mind.

On the upside? Ren trying to appear ‘strong’ in front of him would most likely make Sarutobi dismiss the possibility that his injured state was just a ploy to downplay his abilities.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

If the old man even considered that angle.

Sage, sometimes Ren felt so tired trying to find and craft schemes within schemes that had subtle hidden truths within hidden truths. He was pretty much out of his depth more often than not. He was never some sort of mastermind. He did his best, and that basically meant doing what came to his mind and covering it in so many layers that by the end of it, even he had no idea if he actually achieved something with it.

“But that does not matter right now.” Ren tried to change the topic with a shake of his head. “You are at the level where you could fight many of Konoha’s weaker jonin.” He praised the girls, and they perked up. “What you lack is experience, but that you will get with time. The reason I started talking about S-rank ninjas is that the next focus of your training will be getting you to that level. And for that, you need to understand what you are trying to accomplish here. Most ninjas have no idea what being an S-rank ninja means, so they don’t even know how to start getting to that level.”

Seeing the girls intently listen with interest written in their faces made Ren inwardly melt from how adorable they looked. But outwardly, he kept his serious visage as he continued.

“I categorize S-rank ninjas into two categories I came up with. Specialists, most S-ranks are counted as such, and All-Rounders, who are very, very rare because it is genuinely hard to reach S-rank threat level by simply being generally good at ninja-ing.”

“The Hokage is an All-Rounder, no?” Ino excitedly asked, remembering that everybody called the Hokage ‘Professor’ because of how good he was at everything ninja-related.

Ren gave her a small smile and a nod of acknowledgment. “Yes. He does not have anything exceptionally special. But he is just that good at all things ninjutsu. To the level, it became his signature.”

“What about monkeys and staff arts?” Hinata curiously asked, but Ren just shrugged.

“Yes, yes. He is known as the Shitflinger. Everybody knows that. Hell, in Iwa and Kumo, some also call him the Monkey with Erect Wood.” He exaggeratedly rolled his eyes with a small smile as the girls laughed.

“But we could argue about the specifics until we die of old age. It does not matter. The categories are just to make these things simpler to understand for you. They are not completely precise.” Ren explained, and when he saw that the girls understood, he moved on.

“And examples for Specialists are countless. The First and Fourth Hokage. Every single Kazekage and Raikage. The Second and Fourth Mizukage. The Second and Third Tsuchikage. Itachi. Deidara. Hidan. Kakuzu. Tsunade. Kisame Hoshigaki. Orochimaru…”

Ren suddenly stopped himself on that name, and his lips twitched in irritation. “Well, Orochimaru and Jiraiya are hard to classify. Strictly speaking, they are Specialists because they have their specialties they excel at. They are known for them and prefer to use them in combat. But they also try to imitate Sarutobi and know a lot more about other ninja fields than your usual S-rank ninjas, who mostly focus on their own talents.”

He was getting off-topic and started to ramble. He could see that he was slightly losing Ino’s attention. Shaking his head, Ren wryly smiled. “Anyway.” He spoke loudly as he gave Ino a nudge to her calf with his foot, causing her to flinch back to focus, and her expression turned sheepish. But Ren didn’t dwell on it. “People imagine S-rank ninjas to be some sort of monsters who are better at everything ninja-related than your normal Jonin. That is total bullshit.”

“There are exceptions, but most of them are just jonin who have some ability that is so dangerous that normal Jonin have a hard time dealing with them. Which makes them an S-class threat. For example, Itachi. He is known in Konoha as some sort of boogeyman and is feared because of his mastery of Sharingan Genjutsu. S-rank criminal at thirteen.” Ren dryly said.

He still didn’t believe that Itachi dealt with the clan by himself. Obito most likely killed the actually strong ninjas himself. Because no matter how good, no matter that he had his Mangekyo, a thirteen-year-old boy would not have enough chakra to kill several dozen Jonin, over a hundred chunin, and who knows how many Genin the late Uchiha clan had. All in the span of an evening? Alone? With nobody noticing a thing? With nobody putting up any sort of resistance? Within the premises of a ninja village?

Yeah, and pigs could fly.

… No. Onoki didn’t count. No matter how pink and small he was.

“Keep this to yourselves. Not many know it. But Itachi is terminally ill and near blind due to overusing his Sharingan.” Ren said, omitting some details. But Ino still gasped at that information while Hinata’s eyes suddenly gained an interested gleam. “He is venerated as some sort of unbeatable ninja. But put him in a taijutsu spar against somebody who really focuses on taijutsu, and he would lose. His specialty is Genjutsu, and he heavily relies on Sharingan. He is also a speed-based fighter who is passable at ninjutsu but does not use it very often. And from the knowledge available to me, I can tell you that he very much avoids any physical confrontation and prefers to use shuriken or kunai jutsu to keep his foe away from him. You would never catch him exchanging punches with his opponents.”

“Because taijutsu is his weakness.” Ino put the pieces of the puzzle together.

“If he is terminally ill, I doubt he can last long in a fight.” Hinata added her own fifty cents.

“But he is known for ending his fights nearly instantly…” Ino started, and Ren chuckled as he finished the sentence for her.

“Which is where his unbeatable reputation comes from. Good. Here. Have candy.” He unsealed two candies from his wrist seal and gave them to his two very exasperated students. “Remember. Misdirection is a very important tool for ninjas. Always take the facts and think about them from several different angles.”

‘Otherwise, you’d end up like Madara. Played by some weak-ass mommy boy marihuana wannabe who didn’t even have much screen time in the anime.’ Ren thought to himself but didn’t say that out loud.

“This is how you analyze S-rank ninjas. You take all the knowledge you have about them and then try to find their weak point. They are usually very skilled jonin, but they also have one thing they are known for. One overwhelmingly dangerous ability that sets them apart from the norm.” Ren tilted his head up and looked at the sun with a small frown. “But I think this is enough of an info dump for today.”

Sadly, they were not done yet. There was a lot to learn about S-rank ninjas. But at this point, Ren considered having his shadow clone write up a short book about it and just give it to the girls. He was surprised just how much information he came up with when he started considering these things.

Ren stood up and created a shadow clone. “Alright. Ino, he will give you the lift to Samui. Your Yin Clone is a very powerful thing. It could be your specialty. The way you use your Yamanaka Jutsu in general could get you to that level. Adding to that, your swordsmanship and ninjutsu prowess… you have everything you would need to get to that rank, and I can’t help you with that much.”

Admittedly, there was a bit of distaste in his tone as he said that. After seeing her Wind Dragon that would definitely get the S-rank ninjutsu classification, he wanted her to train her Wind Ninjutsu. But the girl got enamored with causing mental illusions via her Yin Clones. So, in her typical fashion, she did not listen and trained in what she wanted.

Ren wasn’t at all very butthurt. Not at all. Definitely no-… Okay. He was pretty butthurt.

Yeeees. Technically, her Yin Clones did not have a counter. Yes, she did manage to touch him in a spar with that technique. Yes, he and Hinata could fight against it by now because they built a lot of resistance to it during their training with Ino, who loved to hit them with it out of nowhere at times. Yes, other ninjas would not have the same resistance.

Ino, once she got quicker and better at wielding her sword, could very well become the next boogeyman like Itachi, who ends fights nearly instantly because nobody would know how to counter her or even understand what she was actually doing.

BUT!

Ever since seeing her prowess with Wind Ninjutsu, Ren wanted her to fulfill his childish dreams of being some sort of Wind Overlord, throwing wind attacks left and right with glee! He wanted to live vicariously through her, dammit!

Not that he would ever tell her that. It was a pretty embarrassing thing to admit.

Ino quickly left with his clone, and Ren turned toward Hinata.

At least he still had his sweet, obedient Hyuga girl. With an eager grin, he took out a scroll from his seal.

“This is something I worked very hard for when I was a kid.” He reverently gave the scroll to Hinata with shaky hands, almost tearing up. “I had many dreams of grandeur. This was one of them. This technique was supposed to be my triumph card.”

Hinata gulped, understanding that Ren was giving her something very precious to him.

“Then… why-?”

“It requires several seconds to use. It can only be used as a long-range attack. And I don’t have a way to aim it at such distances.” Ren admitted with a self-deprecating sigh.

Four months. That’s how long it took him to create the technique. It was a freaking grind. Only to find out he can’t use it in a real-life combat situation when he was finished.

But, well, he was eleven back then. And he was never really meant for ninjutsu, anyway. It stung. But such was the reality.

“How long range?” Hinata asked, looking intently at the scroll as she unruffled it.

Hearing her, a grin returned to Ren’s face, and it became positively smug. “Kilometers.” He said, shocking the girl as she read the name of the technique.

“Lightning Release: Railgun?”

‘Oh, yes. I am going to make a Lightning Overlord from you yet, my dear girl.’ Ren cackled in his mind.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep