Meeting Hiashi made Ren question if the man loved Hinata at all. Maybe the canon had it wrong? Or was Hiashi acting like a total bastard due to some stupid clan politics or something?
Honestly, Ren didn't care. His mood was somewhat ruined.
Training Hinata was firmly classified as a chore in his mind but now he was getting emotionally invested because he felt pity toward the girl. Her situation was worse than in canon but unlike canon, there didn't seem to be anybody in her corner.
Well, the circumstances pushed her under Ren's tutelage and despite his misgivings, he was going to give her a fair shot. Somebody had to.
Arriving at a small clearing in the middle of a forest within the training ground number forty-one at the pace of a jog that a fresh genin should be able to follow, Ren stopped and looked behind himself as Hinata almost reached him, breathing slightly harder while sweat was covering her face.
The girl was clearly in good physical shape for her age but that heavy jacket was not a good choice during summer. Especially not while exercising.
"Right." Ren nodded and approached a nearby tree before sitting on the ground and leaning his back on its trunk, "Make yourself comfortable. We are going to have a small talk while your body calms down."
The jog here took quite a long because this training ground was Ren's favorite. There were many types of training grounds with various terrains. This one was a public training ground so anybody could come here but because it was further away from the village, not many people came here. Better yet, it was very big so even if somebody did come, there was quite a big chance they would not walk on Ren's training since he liked to use the forested parts at the back of this training ground.
Hinata unsurely followed Ren's order, her head ducked and looking at the ground while choosing a tree four meters away from Ren and imitating him by sitting down and leaning her back on it.
"Introductions first," Ren cheerfully said, inwardly sighing at how withdrawn in her shell the girl was. If it was Naruto, he would have had already sung him an entire story about ramen and his goal of becoming a Hokage.
"My name is Ren and I am a Chunin from the Barrier Corps division of the village. I focus on fuinjutsu. I like good food," Ren's lips suddenly quirked up into a small smirk, "and today I have discovered a newfound dislike for Hiashi Hyuga. Your turn." He said, enjoying how Hinata's head whipped toward him at the last part of his introduction and she gave him a wide-eyed look full of shock.
Now that Ren thought about it, this was probably the first time in the girl's life that she heard something like that said about her father. Honestly, Hiashi's behavior wasn't the reason he said it. Ren's words were truthful but he also just felt the girl needed to hear these words.
"U-um. I- I am Hinata... Hyuga." Hinata unsurely started speaking, "From the H-Hyuga clan. Eto... taijutsu." She embarrassedly flushed at that and it took her a few seconds to gather her confidence again and continue but Ren just patiently waited, "I like my sister." Ren raised his eyebrow at that. The girl said that one without stuttering. "And I... I dislike... um," The girl fell silent, glancing at Ren before ducking her head and clutching her hands together. And when Ren thought she wasn't going to speak further and was about to end the introductions with a sigh, he heard her faint whisper, "my f- father."
Owlishly blinking, Ren was floored. He did not expect that when he made his own introduction. The canon Hinata never disliked her father despite how badly she was treated. He wondered if the past year was truly so bad for her that the girl's feelings on the matter actually changed.
Well, it did not matter for now.
"Okay. Let's set some ground rules first." Ren said.
Hinata slightly nodded with a muffled, "Mhm."
"Rule number one!" Ren proclaimed, making a slight pause to create suspense, "The jacket has to go!"
Hinata's eyes looked at him in shock for the second time that day, making Ren self-satisfied. But he decided to press on.
"Rule number two! You are going to grow your hair out!" He told her in a no-nonsense manner and the girl actually blushed, probably confused about what was going on.
"Well? Why are you not taking the jacket off? You do have a shirt underneath it, no?" Ren asked with a raised eyebrow but Hinata only clutched at the hem of her jacket, looking unsure.
"Um... why?" She quietly asked.
'Because I want you to grow a damn spine.' ... He couldn't tell her that.
With a sigh, Ren decided to explain a bit differently, "It will hinder your training. It is a very nice jacket," And it really was. "and you look good in it," And she really did. Ren smiled as the girl's cheeks reddened even more but she still seemed to pay his words rapt attention, "But during our training sessions, please take it off."
It wasn't as if Ren wanted to ogle the girl or something equally inane like that. He just needed her to grow less shy and since the girl seemed to have body issues, there was a straightforward way to do it.
Making her wear fewer clothes and praising her appearance here or there would hopefully slowly build her self-confidence as she became a stronger kunoichi under Ren's tutelage.
The quick way to do this would be to throw her to Anko for a week or two. But while Ren did want Hinata to become more confident, he didn't want her to show up wearing only a mesh shirt and trench coat.
He could already imagine Hiashi's expression if that happened.
Unfortunately, Ren had to do this the slow way.
Reluctantly, Hinata obeyed and took her jacket off. Ren had to say, the girl was going to have some serious assets when she was finished growing. She quickly tried to cover herself with her arms out of embarrassment despite wearing a lilac shirt. So, Ren decided that she needed another distraction.
"As for your hair... umu, that's for my personal enjoyment, of course." He sagely nodded, "You are going to be a very pretty girl one day."
Hearing that, Hinata whined, not used to compliments, "Uuu~" Her hands covered her red face. But she was still not fainting which pleased Ren.
He was kinda trying to gently probe her limit in this regard but it seemed that since he was not an orange-wearing idiot there would be no problems with her fainting due to slight teasing.
That pleased him immensely. Having her randomly faint would definitely get old really fast. He didn't have the patience to deal with that level of incompetence.
Smiling at the adorable little thing in front of him, Ren decided to throw her a bone, "If you do well in your training and your hair becomes long enough, I will teach you hair techniques so that it won't be a liability but an asset instead. So do your best. M'kay?"
Now that seemed to cheer the girl up and made her look a bit eager.
Good. She wasn't such a lost cause, after all.