The next day after the awkward family dinner, Ren picked Ino up at her house in the afternoon, before leading her to training ground forty-one where Hinata was already supposed to be waiting for him.
They arrived, and Ren smiled when he saw the Hyuga girl already doing her daily dose of physical exercises. Oh, she protested at first, saying that Ren was not doing them either. And sure enough, he was not. The gravity seals would make his body strong without them.
But he was also a hypocrite and proud of it. So, his dear student whose ninja skills focused on taijutsu was going to do her exercises. He just told Hinata that once she got a student of her own, she could tell him or her what to do.
The girl was all sorts of pouty that day but she begrudgingly listened and there was no problem with her ever since.
"This bitch?" Ino 'whispered' in surprise for the whole clearing to hear when she spotted Hinata and Ren instantly facepalmed.
Of course, his hopes that everything would go smoothly and the girls would get on well were dashed almost in the very first second he brought Ino to her first training session and had her meet Hinata.
How could it possibly go any other way, right? Just his luck.
"Um... did I do something to make you angry?" Hinata asked with scrunched eyebrows, wondering what Ino's problem was.
It was a good question because Ren had no freaking idea either.
"I don't know. Did you? Sasuke started paying attention to you recently. I don't know what you have done to bewitch h-" Ino put her hands on her hips and Ren was surprised she wasn't growling at Hinata.
When he heard her reason for acting out, he let out a groan. Of course, it had to be something childishly inane.
"He does?" Hinata asked, interrupting Ino's tirade while being completely taken aback.
Seeing that Hinata did not even notice the massive issue plaguing her mind as of late, Ino got even angrier, "You-!"
And Ren knew he had to intervene. "Alright, alright. Break it off. Don't start growling and biting her, Ino. You are supposed to be a kunoichi. Not a stray cat." He put his hand on her head and roughly ruffled her hair, redirecting her anger at himself in an attempt to control the situation.
"Hey! Stop that!" Ino shouted, trying to get away but Ren was a bit too strong so his hand stayed on her head.
"Mhm." Ren hummed, raising his eyebrow at her, "Say sorry?"
She was so going to argue. Her expression clearly stated that. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth was already opening... but Ren put a bit more force on her head in warning with a bit too friendly smile on his face and fortunately, her Yamanaka brain kicked in as she realized the message.
Not wanting to get her hair viciously ruffled, Ino turned to Hinata, and with a big scowl, she gritted out, "Sorry."
"No problem." Hinata nodded in understanding and Ren felt proud of her. Always so kin- "Bimbo." She added with a friendly smile of her own, making Ren's mind freeze.
"What did I do to deserve this?" He abruptly blurted out and looked toward the blue sky in exasperation.
And here he thought it would be Ino causing the problems.
"Will you please behave? At least until the training session ends? Both of you?" Ren asked in an annoyed tone, giving the two girls a serious look.
They hadn't gotten even to the introductions yet and the two girls were already on each other's throat.
Since the peaceful approach was clearly not going to work with them. Ren decided to go with the law of the jungle.
He turned toward Ino, "You can piss Hinata off afterward, Ino. She will beat you down like a misbehaving step-child and that will be that."
He was blatantly leading her on. And he truly hoped she would catch on. Alas, he was left disappointed.
"She? Beat me? Please. She had just recently learned how to speak without stuttering." Ino mockingly said, again loud enough for Hinata to hear.
From what Ren knew, Hinata was usually paired with boys for spars in the academy. It might sound unjust but she was a Hyuga. And they were known to train exclusively in taijutsu. Putting her against girls would be just unfair.
So, Ren surmised that Ino did not know how she compared to Hinata since she likely never faced her in the academy.
While Ino did not catch on to the direction of Ren's previous provocation, Hinata was a veteran of getting teased by him during training. She quickly realized where he was going with this and before Ren could propose a spar, she decided to do it herself.
"So you wouldn't mind a spar, right?" Her friendly smile was still on her face as she ducked her head, touching her index fingers together in feigned bashfulness.
Ren gave the girl a blank look at that. It was obvious to him she was faking it.
"No. Why w-"
Ino was about to refuse when Ren shrugged and decided to just go with the flow, "Great! I didn't want your first training to be hard but since you two girls get along so well, maybe having a manly exchange of fists will make your flames of youth burn brightly." He cheerily told them, making Hinata look at him as if he grew another head while Ino was standing there with her mouth open at being pressganged into a spar.
"You have five minutes for warm-up exercises. Get on with it. The spar will start after the five minutes are up." He waved them off and pulled out his fuinjutsu notebook.
Five minutes later, the girls were warmed up and raring to go, standing a few meters apart from each other in the clearing with Ren between them.
"Okay. No killing or crippling blows." He wasn't afraid of that happening. Hinata was too soft-hearted while Ino was too weak. But he had to say it.
"And begin!" Ren shouted before jumping back to give the girls enough space for their fight.
Normally, Hinata would hold back and wait for her opponent to attack but she seemed a bit too angry today and instantly rushed at Ino who was completely surprised by the sudden aggression from the usually timid girl. She tried to put her arms up into a guard...
But because of Hinata's training with Ren, she was far faster than she showed in the academy. Hinata's fist flowed right around Ino's guard, so quickly that Ino couldn't even respond before she was slugged right in her face. Hinata didn't even bother to use the gentle fist.
Ren owlishly blinked, rubbing his jaw in bewilderment. He did expect the result. But he didn't think it would be a one-hit knockout.
'Seems like Ino will be much more work than I assumed.' He inwardly sighed.
"Did I hit her too hard?" Hinata quietly but worriedly asked as she came to stand next to Ren and they both looked at Ino who was still somewhat out of it as she lay on the ground.
"She will be fine. This is exactly what she needs." Ren told her in the same volume, ensuring that Ino would not overhear them. "She needs to realize how weak she is. That's the first step."
Hinata nodded and moved closer to Ren, leaning on his shoulder, "Hm. So, should I hit her again, then?" She 'innocently' asked.
Ren sighed and looked toward the sky again. He was starting to understand Kakashi's attitude.
---
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