"I think... I just want to get strong enough that I could survive any future war?" Ren replied unsurely.
And his biggest problem was that he didn't have a clear path or a plan on how to do it other than, 'Git gud real fast, bruh!'.
It's not as if he got some cheat or golden finger that would allow him to comfortably grow stronger than Kaguya so he could bend her over his knee and spank the crazy out of her before taking her in as his concubine and have her happily thank him for it.
He was on his own, only with his wits and ideas. The asshole who dropped him in this world, if there was one, did not bother to provide him with a cheat.
The most reliable plan Ren had so far was to prevent the whole thing from happening but even then he would need to kill Orochimaru, Kabuto, and the cherry on this whole shit pie, destroy Pain's Rinnegan.
No Kabuto? No Madara. No Rinnegan? No Juubi. No Juubi? No Kaguya.
Simple, right?
Well, no. Excuse him if he was a bit floundering with his goal. He didn't really have any concrete idea how to get there other than keep practicing, keep making new seals, and keep training his companions while hoping for the best.
Because what else could he do?
If he had Obito's teleportation? He could just pop next to Nagato's original body and slit his throat before poking his eyes out. It would be done. Speedrun finished.
But he did not have it. It sounded simple. Just kill Nagato and destroy his eyes. It would solve everything. But Nagato is guarded by several S-rank ninjas, and most of the time, he has an entire ninja village subservient to him around him.
Hell, even Kabuto, the easiest target of the three who was right now in Konoha as Orochimaru's spy, was an Elite Jonin-level combatant. Trying to assassinate him inside the village could go up shit's creek real fast. It's not like Ren could bomb the hospital just to get a chance at killing the boy.
Kabuto needed a more personal touch because his healing made him into a proper cockroach.
So, even for him, Ren was pretty much stuck in a waiting game for the Chunin Exams, where he would be given a golden opportunity to deal with him.
And the less said about Orochimaru, the better.
Great, now he was starting to be depressed...
"Mou. If you don't want to tell me, just say so." Hinata pouted, identifying with her Byakugan that Ren wasn't fully truthful with that answer. It made him give her an exasperated smile.
Blasted Byakugan. Ever since she managed to do away with the bulging veins, it was almost impossible to lie to her.
Rolling his eyes, Ren huffed, "Alright. Alright. It was only half true. I want to get strong because only strong ninjas are truly free." He admitted.
Honestly, if the apocalypse was not imminent and he had the time? Ren would probably spend his lifetime trying to figure out a seal that could allow him to travel to a different world.
That sounded like such an amazing life goal to him. He wouldn't mind wasting his life on it. Alas, the world was not so convenient. Even if he did start with such research, there was no guarantee he could finish it before Kaguya became a problem.
It felt too much like gambling to Ren to risk it.
"What do you mean?" Hinata furrowed her eyebrows, but she was obviously interested. There wasn't much freedom for her in her life, and Ren's words hit a bit too close to home for her.
"Look at the Sannin." Ren started explaining, pointing his fork at her. "They are all roaming the world, doing mostly as they please. Well, Orochimaru is a rogue ninja, but that is beside the point." He chuckled, "He and Itachi are rogues in name only. It is just a formality for them. They are so strong that when a squad of ANBU discovers their location, they don't attack them. Instead, they take a detour several kilometers around them. The only people hunting them are pretty much the idiots who had never heard of chakra and who they can dispatch by sheer reflex, even in their sleep. I envy them that. The freedom that comes with that kind of power." He finished with a shrug.
"So... you want to become nukenin?" Hinata asked in a nonplussed tone and raised her eyebrow at him.
And the fact she was not screaming, glaring, or looking at him as if he had betrayed her six generations was very telling. She looked a bit sad and uncomfortable, but that was it.
Ren shook his head with a snort, reaching out and taking her hand in his. "No. I'd like to be more like Jiraiya."
"A pervert?" Hinata asked with an overly innocent look as her lips tugged into a small smirk. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth right about now.
"Oh, shush you. I'll show you a pervert." Ren teasingly threatened in a low tone, knowing she perfectly understood what he meant.
He got only a grin in return as she exclaimed, "Mhmm. Please do! I am waiting for that the whole day."
For a moment, they enjoyed a companionable silence between them before Hinata's smile slowly fell.
"I guess that's why you made these dangerous seals? How does Time Stop Seal even work? That's not supposed to be possible." She half asked and half sullenly complained.
She still wasn't over the fact that her clone had died before it could even realize it. She had no idea what killed her clone until the spar was over, and when Ren told her it was a time stop seal interacting with her Heavenly Wall, her jaw dropped to the floor.
As somebody whom Ren taught his explosive seals, Hinata understood at least the bare minimum about the sealing art.
Even though her talent, and more importantly, interest, in it was nonexistent. Give her flesh to mold any day, and she would happily do it, but scribbling symbols was just boring. Effective. Sure. But boring.
She loved throwing the exploding senbon around. But that does not mean she loved learning how to create them.
And Hinata decided never to do that again. Sealing just didn't agree with her. Not even her desire to free her clan from the Cursed Seal could overpower her distaste for the sealing art.
Ren let out a helpless chuckle followed by a casual shrug. "How do you create a personal pocket dimension to store stuff with just scroll and chakra-infused ink?" He asked and Hinata opened her mouth, only for her expression to scrunch in thought as she started to consider it. She had to admit... he had a point?
When he put it that way, it didn't sound very logical.
Seeing her pondering look, Ren huffed in amusement and entwined his fingers with hers to get her attention back. "Ninjas consider it common sense by now. Of course, it is possible to make storage seals with ink and paper! Everybody does it, duh!" He rolled his eyes with a snort.
To be honest, even the people in his previous life took this for granted. It was 'common sense' for them too. But if one really thought about that? It did not really make all that much sense.
"Even a novice in sealing arts can learn how to make the storage seals nowadays. It is one of the first things they learn. But it does not mean they fully understand every principle behind it." Ren said, causing Hinata to nod slowly.
He chose this comparison because he knew that she did not understand everything about the explosive seals, yet she could use them easily.
"Take the bijuu seals, for example." Now that he had given her a frame of reference, he could introduce the topic better. "Do you really think somebody actually tried to invent a seal that could hold a bijuu first? No. The first recorded sealing of bijuu was done by the first Hokage's wife when Madara brought the Sharingan-manipulated Kyuubi to fight the First Hokage. And she was simply desperate." Ren explained.
Well, technically, there were documents about Shukaku's sealing into a teapot before that. Which was probably what gave Mito the idea that her harebrained scheme might work. But the teapot usually did not last for more than a year before Shukaku was free again, so Ren did not count that as a successful bijuu seal.
"So, she decided to stop the bijuu by storing it inside of her?" Hinata asked in disbelief, her tone showing she was wondering if the first Hokage's wife was an idiot.
Ren nodded with an amused expression. "Desperate situation calls for desperate measures. She was one of the best seal masters of her time, and she made a great seal to hold the beast. But I don't think the woman actually expected to survive."
"But she did, right?" Hinata asked, a bit moved at the heroism of Mito. Even Ren had to agree that sealing a bijuu into her with a seal she put together on the spot and without having any insurance it would work? Because nobody had done it before her?
He'd be terrified. Especially when he knew how often sealing experiments can and do go wrong. And make no mistake, that was nothing but an experiment.
She just did not have any other choice than to go through with it and hope for the best. Ren could almost picture Mito shouting 'Leeroy Jenkins' as she initiated the sealing.
It was both brilliant and jaw-droppingly stupid. But the most important part? It fucking worked.
"Yes. Her seal held spectacularly for the rest of her life. And it gave the First Hokage the idea to round all bijuu up and give them to the other villages like candy in exchange for peace treaties." Ren deadpanned, but it didn't last long because he started laughing out loud at Hinata's dismayed expression.
The history books did not share that little tidbit. No. They said the glorious First Hokage negotiated peace with the other rising ninja villages. They did not say 'How' he did it.
Because fuck it sounded stupid in Ren's mind but when he actually said it out loud? Hashirama was a mentally malnourished moron. You don't sue for peace by giving your enemies weapons of mass destruction.
Especially not ones that need human sacrifice.
"You are joking." Hinata furrowed her eyebrows, but when Ren just continued snickering, her face scrunched further in mortification. "Oh my god, you are not joking." She indignantly realized that the godly figure of the First Hokage they taught about in the academy might not have been that flawless in person.
Ren gave her a fond smile and felt a pulse of chakra coming from the kitchen. He pulsed his chakra to answer, and his clone came into the room, holding a plate of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Hinata's favorite.
The clone put them on the table, and Hinata's attention was diverted to the baked delicacies, her earlier mortification completely forgotten, as she quickly snatched one for herself and started nibbling on it like a squirrel, much to Ren's amusement.
Ren took one roll for himself as he spoke, "My seals are similar. I had an initial idea, and I experimented." He took a bite and didn't speak until his mouth was empty again. "I managed to make the seals, but that does not mean I completely understand how they work. If I did, I could do much more with it."
Like creating a Time Chamber for training. Oh, how he wanted to do that.
Knowledge and understanding were power. Sadly, he lacked them. If he knew how his Time-Stop Seal fully worked. If he knew every principle in it. He would not be limited to giving his enemies a time-out.
"My Alteration Seals are simpler. I do have a certain level of understanding when it comes to them. It's why I managed to make a glass alteration seal after stumbling upon salt alteration by a fluke. But even then, it was a hard process. For now, I can only do salt and glass." Ren shrugged.
The fanfictions lied. This stuff was hard as hell. Just because he knew how to turn things into salt did not mean he could now make an infinite supply of gold and diamonds.
That was a completely different thing.
Unfortunately, he was not a chemist in his previous life. He barely remembered his chemistry classes from school. He didn't know the composition of gold... well, he didn't know the composition of salt either, but never mind that... so he would have to start from a complete scratch with it.
And he just didn't have the time. He would rather use his time for something more combat-oriented than making things turn yellow and shiny.
It's not as if he could stop Pain or Obito by throwing gold at them.
"Now, the Time Stop seal, for that one, I barely understand the basics." Ren gave Hinata a smile that showed his distaste, and the Hygua girl giggled before leaning forward as she brought her fork with a cinnamon roll in front of his mouth to cheer him up.
Ren took an exaggerated bite out of the roll, causing a spike of elation to shoot through Hinata as she involuntarily grinned from ear to ear.
"One day, one of my clones didn't disperse on time. I didn't mind it much, but when, even after eight more hours, he was still present, I went to check up on him, and voila, I found the bastard frozen in time. eyes slightly widened and the suggest smile on his lips." Ren playfully clicked his tongue, and Hinata imagined the situation before snickering.
"Yes. That sounds like you." She kindly admitted, getting a small pinch on her hand from Ren in return, causing her to yelp and give him a playfully warning look followed by a smile.
"Oh, shut up." Ren stuck his fork into a cinnamon roll and stuffed it into Hinata's waiting mouth, making her let out a small, if a bit exaggerated, moan as she intently watched his reaction.
Gulping down, Ren fought a hard internal battle to not avert his gaze. "It took me four hours to figure out enough about the seal to negate the effect and free my clone." He said irritably, only to jump a bit in his seat when he felt Hinata's toes press into his inner thigh under the table.
They slowly went higher and higher, making Ren's breath hitch while the Hyuga minx had a knowing smile on her usually innocent face. She was about to reach his mini-me when Ren grabbed her foot and stopped her in her tracks.
"I'd like to give you a massage." Hinata offhandedly said, silently ending the topic of seals, and Ren had to inwardly agree that there were more important things they could be 'discussing'.
"Oh? Really?" Ren asked, his fingers running across Hinata's feet in his grasp, causing her to stifle a mewling sound as her toes wiggled because Ren hit her ticklish spot.
"Yes. I need a guinea pig for my new medical ninjutsu massage skills." She nonchalantly shrugged, trying hard to look casual, but her cheeks were adorably flushed while her eyes were resolute as she slightly quivered because Ren continued to tickle her foot.
"I agree to use my body for your experiments." Ren solemnly stated, "But the cost will be your virginity." He smirked as he found a particularly fun cluster of nerves on her foot, making her whimper.
Narrowing her eyes, Hinata sent a discharge of medical chakra out of her foot, straight into Ren's hands, and his breath hitched as his body stiffened from the unexpected wave of pleasure that flooded his body through his hands.
He let out an audible moan, much to Hinata's mirthful giggling. Looking at her from under his bangs, the girl looked very pleased with his reaction.
Well, now he was truly looking forward to that promised massage.