Ren stared at the messages hovering before his eyes, stunned by the realization.
Of course. Who could possibly understand the Three Basic Techniques better than the techniques themselves?
The instructors at the Academy could explain hand seals, chakra control, and the theoretical principles behind each technique. The personified techniques within Ren's system, however, could sense the flaws directly. They did not need to guess why a transformation lacked stability or why a clone appeared lifeless.
To them, those imperfections were as obvious as a musician hearing a wrong note.
Ren lightly cleared his throat and repeated the Transformation Technique's advice in a form Kurenai could understand.
"Your chakra is too scattered. Don't try to force it outward in every direction at once. Imagine that you're putting on a fitted layer of clothing. First, spread the chakra smoothly across your entire body. Once that foundation is stable, concentrate more chakra on the features that define your transformation."
Kurenai nodded and adjusted her chakra flow.
"That's better," Ren encouraged. "The chakra around your shoulders is much more stable now. Wait—the flow near your left ankle is still sluggish. Don't force more chakra into it. Guide the existing chakra downward and distribute it evenly."
Kurenai followed his instructions, slowly correcting each uneven section.
Because they stood back-to-back, she could not see Ren's expression. His palm rested lightly between her shoulder blades, allowing him to sense the chakra moving through her body. The unfamiliar contact made her posture tense at first, but his calm, focused guidance gradually eased her embarrassment.
"Now picture the person you want to become," Ren continued. "Don't focus only on the face. Think about their height, weight, posture, breathing, and the way they carry themselves."
Kurenai formed the final hand seal.
A burst of smoke engulfed her.
When it cleared, Teacher Oki stood where Kurenai had been. The copied face was accurate, and even the clothes closely resembled their instructor's usual uniform. The disguise would still fail under careful examination—the shoulders were slightly too narrow, and the posture remained too stiff—but it was already far more convincing than her earlier attempts.
Ren removed his hand and walked around her.
"Much better. Your proportions are still slightly off, but the chakra shell is more stable. Try walking."
Kurenai took several steps while maintaining the transformation.
The first movement was hesitant. After remembering Ren's advice, she lowered her centre of gravity slightly and imitated Teacher Oki's measured stride.
Ren nodded. "Now speak."
Kurenai frowned and attempted to reproduce their instructor's voice. "Everyone, return to your seats immediately."
The pitch was close, but the tone lacked Oki's weary authority.
Ren struggled not to laugh. "The voice needs work."
Smoke erupted around Kurenai as she released the technique. She returned to her original appearance and glared at him.
"You nearly laughed."
"Nearly," Ren admitted. "But I didn't."
"That doesn't make it better."
For the next hour, Kurenai repeatedly performed the Transformation and Clone Techniques while Ren relayed the system's corrections. Once the Clone Technique began offering advice, the lesson became even more productive.
Kurenai had always focused on making her clones visually accurate. She had never considered giving them subtle movements that matched her breathing or current emotional state. Following Ren's instructions, she began adding tiny details: shifting their weight, blinking naturally, tightening their grip on a weapon, and turning their heads toward sudden noises.
Her first attempts were clumsy. One clone blinked far too frequently, while another breathed so dramatically that it looked as if it had just completed fifty laps around Konoha.
Even Ren's Clone Technique was rendered speechless.
[Clone Technique: What is that supposed to be? Why is it gasping like a dying fish? Tell her to stop before she humiliates me further!]
Ren softened the criticism before passing it along.
"Your clone's movements are exaggerated. Subtle details make it appear alive, but too many will draw attention. Match its rhythm to your own breathing and allow it to remain still when stillness is natural."
Kurenai tried again.
This time, the clone stood beside her with a relaxed posture. Its chest rose and fell at the correct pace, and its ruby-red eyes tracked Ren's movements almost naturally.
The difference was unmistakable.
Within a single lesson, Kurenai's Transformation and Clone Techniques improved considerably.
They were still far from Ren's level, but her chakra flowed more smoothly, the techniques required slightly less chakra to maintain, and her creations no longer felt like hollow images.
When the lesson finally ended, Kurenai released her last clone and bent forward to catch her breath. Perspiration covered her forehead, but her eyes shone with satisfaction.
"That was incredible," she said. "I can actually feel the difference. The chakra doesn't resist me as much as it did before."
"You already had good control," Ren replied. "No one had explained where you were wasting chakra."
Kurenai straightened and smiled at him. "Thank you, Ren. Your guidance was genuinely useful."
She retrieved her school bag and searched through it. After counting the notes inside, her pleased expression became slightly awkward.
"I only brought one thousand ryō today," she admitted, extending the money toward him. "I didn't expect us to begin immediately. Can I pay the remainder during our next lesson?"
"No problem."
Ren accepted the notes without hesitation. Receiving one thousand ryō for repeating advice provided by his own techniques felt almost too easy.
Almost.
"How about we meet again in two days?" he suggested. "Spend tomorrow reinforcing what you learned. If we meet too soon, I won't know which corrections you've properly absorbed."
Kurenai nodded enthusiastically. "Two days from now, then. I'll practise everything you taught me."
She placed her bag over one shoulder and started toward the path leading back to the village. Before leaving the clearing, she turned and waved.
"Goodbye, Ren!"
"See you later."
Kurenai disappeared between the trees, leaving Ren alone beside the stream.
He glanced at the money in his hand before carefully placing it inside his pouch. His first attempt at tutoring had gone better than expected, but the remaining daylight was too valuable to waste.
Ren rolled his shoulders and opened the system interface.
The Three Basic Techniques remained his highest priority. They were his earliest targets and possessed the greatest favorability, particularly the Transformation Technique, which had already entered its third stage.
The maximum favorability value was one hundred.
Ren did not know what would happen once a technique reached that threshold. The previous stages had already strengthened seemingly ordinary Academy techniques beyond recognition. If maximum favorability produced another qualitative evolution, the result might completely overturn his understanding of their limits.
Then there was the Great Fireball Technique.
She had been in a foul mood ever since Ren deliberately restrained himself during his spar with Hizashi Hyūga. Burning a classmate alive would have been a terrible idea, but Great Fireball apparently considered moderation a personal insult.
During their conversations, she responded with cold and distant remarks. Fortunately, she continued cooperating during practice, and her favorability increased normally.
"At this rate, she should reach fifty within three to five days," Ren murmured. "Then I'll unlock her second-stage trait."
The prospect alone made him eager to continue.
Before beginning with Great Fireball, however, he turned his attention toward the new Water Release scroll Hiroshi had lent him.
The Water Clone Technique had already become a limited outfit for the Clone Technique. The other scroll contained a separate ninjutsu—Water Release: Wild Water Wave.
When Ren focused on its name, the system interface shimmered.
The surrounding training ground faded from his awareness.
[Encounter activated.]
A new scene appeared within the translucent window.
[Beside a quiet stream in Konoha, you encounter a silver-haired woman standing upon the water. Her presence is cold and tranquil, resembling the moon reflected upon an undisturbed lake.]
[At her gesture, the stream rises around her in flowing ribbons. The water follows each graceful movement, shifting between gentle curves and crashing waves as though participating in an elegant dance.]
[The sight holds your attention. Would you like to approach her?]
[Yes / No]
Ren selected "Yes."
The dialogue window expanded, its border rippling like moonlight across water.
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: Hmm? You have been watching for quite some time, young shinobi. Do you have some brilliant insight regarding my work?]
Within the scene, the silver-haired figure did not turn around. She merely raised one hand, causing a stream of water to coil around her fingers like a ribbon of glass.
Three possible responses appeared.
[A: Forgive the intrusion. I have never seen water controlled with such elegance. Calling it a technique feels inadequate—it resembles a living work of art.]
[B: Whoa, that's incredible! Can you teach me? I want to fire a water jet that powerful too!]
[C: Such beauty is wasted if it vanishes here unseen. Join me, and together we will carve this moment into the history of the shinobi world.]
Ren stared at the second choice.
The system's middle options seemed determined to make him sound like an overexcited child. B had only been correct once, during his encounter with the Great Fireball Technique. In almost every other situation, selecting it would probably destroy whatever dignity he had left.
The third answer sounded more impressive, but it was also far too dramatic for a first meeting. Ren had no desire to speak as if he were recruiting someone into a criminal organization.
He selected A.
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: Oh? It appears you understand how to appreciate beauty. Most shinobi treat water as nothing more than a weapon or a convenient tool. Few stop to observe its true nature.]
The woman finally glanced over her shoulder.
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: Tell me, then—do you understand the meaning of form?]
Ren considered bluffing, but an obviously incorrect answer might lower her interest.
[Ren: I don't. But I would like to understand. Please teach me.]
The water circling her hand suddenly changed shape, becoming a blade, then a flower, and finally a coiling serpent.
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: Water possesses no permanent shape, yet it can assume every shape. A shinobi who merely expels water creates nothing but a crude stream. To master me, you must give purpose to that formlessness.]
Ren listened carefully.
The encounter proceeded more smoothly than he expected. Exposure to modern entertainment, books, and countless dramatic speeches had given him enough material to imitate someone with refined artistic sensibilities.
Fortunately, Wild Water Wave's ideas about art were not especially difficult to understand. She valued adaptability, control, and the ability to shape water according to intention rather than simply pouring chakra into it.
By choosing his responses carefully, Ren gradually earned her approval.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave was successfully added to his target list, raising the total number of active techniques to six.
Once the encounter ended, the normal training ground returned around him.
Ren immediately attempted to practise the technique.
He formed the required hand seals, gathered chakra within his lungs, and converted it into water-natured chakra. The process felt far less natural than using Fire Release.
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"
Ren expelled a mouthful of water.
Instead of becoming a concentrated stream, it burst into a wide spray and soaked the grass several metres ahead of him. A startled frog leapt from beneath a leaf and vanished into the stream.
The system offered an unhelpful evaluation.
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: That was not art. That was a child spitting out bathwater.]
Ren wiped his mouth. "It was my first attempt."
[Water Release: Wild Water Wave: Then I pray the second is less offensive.]
His second attempt produced an actual stream, but it lost cohesion almost immediately. The third collapsed before leaving his mouth, causing him to cough and nearly choke.
After several more attempts, Ren finally fired a narrow jet of water across the clearing. It struck a patch of reeds beside the stream and knocked them sideways.
The attack possessed almost no destructive power, but it was progress.
He could now produce the water and propel it toward a target. Strengthening the stream, controlling its pressure, and reducing the chakra cost would come with time.
Ren was not discouraged. The technique had already joined his target list, so there was no need to master it in a single afternoon. Trying to force rapid progress while dividing his attention among six techniques would only exhaust him.
His remaining challenge was the Healing Technique.
Unlike a fireball, clone, or transformation, medical ninjutsu could not be practised effectively without a living subject. Ren and Rin remained observers within Konoha's medical unit, which meant they were not permitted to treat actual patients without supervision.
Small animals were the safest alternative.
Ren looked toward the stream and watched several fish moving through the clear water.
"I'll buy a fishing net tomorrow," he decided. "We can practise sensing their vitality and treating minor injuries before releasing them."
Rin and Obito needed the same training, so asking them to share the cost of the net was perfectly reasonable. After all, they were all medical trainees.
By the time Ren completed the rest of his routine, the final traces of sunlight had vanished. Stars emerged overhead, and cool evening air settled over the village.
Ren gathered his belongings and began the journey home. His body felt heavy from taijutsu practice, chakra exhaustion, and repeated Water Release failures, but the day had been undeniably productive.
As he approached his house, he noticed movement in the neighboring yard.
Rin was practising alone beside the fence.
Smoke surrounded her as she completed a transformation. For several seconds, another girl stood in Rin's place. The appearance was accurate, but the transformed figure remained far too motionless.
Rin released the technique and returned to normal just as Ren reached the gate.
"Oh, Ren-kun! You're finally back."
She hurried toward the fence. A faint sheen of perspiration covered her forehead, suggesting she had been training for quite some time.
"You stayed out late," Rin observed. "Did your extra practice take that long?"
"Partly." Ren stopped beside the fence and adjusted the strap of his bag. "I trained alone after the tutoring session ended."
Rin's gaze remained on his face.
"The tutoring session…" she repeated. Her tone sounded casual, but she was gripping the top of the fence more tightly than necessary. "Did Kurenai stay with you until this late too?"
"No. She left before sunset."
Rin's shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly.
"I see."
She glanced toward the patch of ground where she had been practising the Transformation Technique, then looked back at him with a gentle smile.
"If you're teaching Kurenai how to improve the Three Basic Techniques, you can teach me too, right?"
Ren paused.
Rin's smile remained as warm as ever, but something in her ruby-brown eyes told him that refusing would be far more dangerous than facing another ten laps around Konoha.
"Of course," he answered carefully.
"Wonderful." Rin's smile brightened. "Then tomorrow, I want a private lesson too."
Ren looked at his already overcrowded training schedule and suddenly understood that earning his first tutoring fee had created a much larger problem.
Kurenai might have been his first student.
She was not going to be his last.