Ren coughed and waved his hand around, clearly unused to the dust which had been present a moment ago. ‘How the hell did it even summon dust, it’s supposed to be a fake clone..’

 

‘Perhaps doing two basic jutsus at the same time wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve had before.’

 

Mizuki smiled and responded to his question. Ren struggled not to guffaw at the frozen muscles of the instructor. He could imagine how annoyed he was in the inside; his façade be damned.

 

“This was a superb performance. I haven’t been a teacher in this academy for a really long time, but no other performance has been as high quality as this one. You actually formed some sort of semi-Shadow clone but not actually a real one while also changing their appearance.”

 

Ren nodded but did not really really care that much about the compliment. Mizuki had not seen the rise of any prodigy in the academy excluding one Hyuuga prodigy, and everyone knew that the Hyuuga specialized in taijutsu and the prowess of their doujutsu.

 

He then proceeded to perform the other basic technique in a similar manner. Iruka and Mizuki were fair in their judgement which the former kept writing down on his register with Mizuki chirping one or two words sometimes.

 

“Well then, while we can proceed with the spar immediately, you’ll have to wait a bit since we want to finish the entire batch with this part first. So, you’re free to leave the classroom for a duration of around thirty minutes. I suggest you gather with the rest in front of the field we always do our taijutsu lessons.”

 

Ren lowered his head in respect towards Iruka and turned around to make his way towards the said area.

 

“Well then see you two later, Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei!”

 

Neither noticed the cold gleam which invaded his eyes for a silver of a second.

 

xXx

 

The clearing hadn’t changed in the last week Ren had not been there. He saw some of his classmates who had successfully completed the first part of the exam ahead of him but decided to stay alone.

 

He sat down on the grass and laid down completely. He took a lesson from a certain Nara and started to look at the clouds. He focused his attention and started meditating. It was a good way to get his chakra control to a higher level.

 

After a while, other classmates of his also came out. They included some he was acquaintances with, some he considered ‘friends’ and some who he was complete strangers with.

 

Noticing this, Ren finally stopped and decided to stretch his muscles a bit and did light exercise. This would be the first time he’d try himself against a chunin or even genin for that. He wanted to know where exactly he stood as a shinobi.

 

His amethyst eyes shone brightly at the thought of testing his strength before the brightness slowly dispersed while he looked at the figure coming towards him.

 

The last to come out was Naruto who had a massive grin on his face, and was holding a hand over his mouth; at that moment he completely resembled a fox who had successfully pranked someone.

 

‘Don’t tell me this dumbass actually went ahead and did what he told me he’d do yesterday.’

 

Ren was speechless for a moment before bursting in a silver of a laughter.

 

Ren smirked and gave Naruto a thumbs-up, who had risked it even knowing it could end up with him failing the exam. He then observed his surroundings and saw Shikamaru with Choji looking at the clouds, Sakura fighting with Ino over ‘Sasuke-kun’ who by the way was minding his own business.

 

The whiskered blond walked towards Ren and laughed out loudly as he told Ren what he had done.

 

Through the usage of a jutsu he had created called ‘Sexy no Jutsu’ he had caused Iruka to explode with a nosebleed while Mizuki sported a massive blush and gave him a panic attack, causing them to be late for a bit – this caused Ren to slap him on the back of his head for delaying what was already a hassle to wait for.

 

It did not take long for Iruka and Mizuki to arrive, with a very annoyed and embarrased look in the former and an exasperated face in the latter.

 

XxX

 

The taijutsu fights did not last that long for most of the students. Sasuke actually came close to throwing Mizuki off the circle, but ultimately came a little bit short. Naruto was so impressive that even Sakura was in awe – she still had to ruin it by saying Sasuke’s performance was way better.

 

Ren couldn’t help but shake his head. ‘The sooner you forget about her, the closer you’ll be to your dream you dumb blond.’

 

That was the class loser, someone who had below average grades and struggled to even do a simple clone on every other day, and the troublemaking soon-to-be ninja was enjoying every moment of it excluding that one hurtful comment by Sakura.

 

Soon enough came his turn. A glint of glee showed itself on Ren’s eyes at the mention of his name.

 

Iruka and Mizuki had taken turns with each spar and this time around it was the latter’s turn to spar with Ren and properly assess his student’s taijutsu.

 

The white-haired man walked towards the circle while smiling at Ren who ‘politely’ returned the favor with a grin of his own and the two then met at what could be regarded as the middle of the circle which was modestly wide and long.

 

The two formed the Seal of Confrontation and proceeded to go to different parts of the circle waiting for the signal to begin. Soon enough, Iruka raised his hand above his head and then slashed it downwards, the spar had begun.

 

Ren lurched forward while his body shone in several lines of crimson light which made the older man lose focus for a moment. He had never seen something so eccentric.

 

The redhead landed his fist on Mizuki’s stomach which woke up the chunin from his thoughts almost immediately. But not before he could block yet another punch aimed at his abdomen

 

Mizuki felt like an elephant had stomped on his stomach. The urge to vomit came to him all out of sudden, but his pride as a shinobi did not allow him to do such a thing. Instead he focused on the kid in front of him.

 

‘This fucking brat, was that a seal he used there?!’

 

On a situation like this, he began to slightly growl and his cover began to break. Although it wasn’t quite apparent to the others, Ren did notice the fact that his opponent had slightly lost his cool for a moment there.

 

His eyes widened as he felt one of his feet lose the push it had once possessed and was launched backwards by Mizuki’s elbow. Ren glared at his opponent with a vicious intent. This was not that obvious and noticeable, but Mizuki had used Earth Chakra to make him lose control of his stepping.

 

Unfortunately for Mizuki, that would’ve worked on nearly all of them present here, alas Ren was someone who tended to pick the smallest of movements and acted on them if possible. He had been merely caught off-guard by the fact the chunin was willing to cheat so quickly and not think it through.

 

The older man did not hold back at all, he immediately rocketed forward and threw a leg at Ren. The sheer speed of the kick broke through the sound barrier and at this Iruka knitted his eyebrows.

 

‘He’s overdoing it. What the hell is he thinking?’

 

Yet he did not intervene, he was sure his friend had a reason for trying so hard. Perhaps he saw something in Ren he wanted to pull out?

 

Ren knew that it would be difficult to block it, so he instead opted to lower his body so the kick went over his head. He immediately arched his arm and grabbed tightly onto the leg so that Mizuki couldn’t even balance his body.

 

Using his momentum, he threw Mizuki over his body and slammed him onto the ground with as much strength as he could muster in that split of a second.

 

Not wanting to be in what could be a torrent of pain, the blue-haired young man somehow managed to land with his feet and escape a terrible fate.

 

For that short period of time that neither Mizuki nor Iruka were paying attention, Ren’s body shone once again with a brighter crimson color than before.

 

If anyone was familiar with seals, they’d immediately connect this oddity to it. Ren wouldn’t blame them either, as this was indeed a Weight Seal. A seal which made his body weight several dozens of times more, thus limiting his movement normally.

 

…

 

There was no time to think for the chunin as a fist coated in chakra barely missed his head, only leaving a small cut instead of what could’ve been a trip to the hospital for several weeks.

 

‘What in the actual fuck? How is this kid so fucking precise?!’ Mizuki complained inwardly while he was forced to block one of Ren’s kicks aimed at his head.  He pushed the leg away and knitted his eyebrow.

 

Noticing in what sort of embarrassing position he was currently the older man panted heavily and counted his chances. If he really lost to an academy brat, he’d be the laughingstock of the entire village for the years to come. He’d be known as the chunin who did not deserve his rank!

 

Negative emotions began to gnaw at his heart just at the thought of that. ‘A dumb tomato-head like you should know your place!’

 

Mizuki channeled Chakra on his feet and arms and ran towards Ren who had opened a considerable distance between the two. Iruka was closely paying attention, he believed the amount of power his friend was putting was way too high.

 

Ren found himself in a weird position.

 

Truthfully speaking there was no need for him to remove one of his Weight Seals just for Mizuki, but he was just tempted to test his skills against an actual chunin. For as much of a faux person he was, Ren did not really doubt his skills.

 

His lips curled in disdain as his arm shone in crimson, allowing yet another weight seal to burn off his body. Mizuki broke the sound barrier by channeling chakra into his body, but Ren could still fully follow any movement of his.

 

‘As if I could let you win over me!’

 

His eyes followed the slightest of movement and just when Mizuki thought he could utilize an opening, a fist slammed into the chunin’s face with a burst of chakra from the redhead.

 

The last thing he felt was his body flying outside the circle and his eyes started to whiten.

 

Iruka leaped into action immediately, a sense of Déjà vu circulating around his mind.

 

‘Not this again…’

 

xXx