Ren sat at a table in a clearing belonging to the Nara forest. He deliberately chose a seat on the side, not joining the main 'ball' of Ino-Shika-Cho people in the middle of the clearing who were drinking, talking, and having fun.
This was the Ino-Shika-Cho clan meeting, and Ino invited both him and Hinata to attend. Normally, he would feel awkward joining it as it was usually exclusive for their clan members. But in the previous two weeks, he had fruitful meetings with both the heads of the Akimichi and the Yamanaka clans, and as their new ally, Inoichi told Ino to bring him over.
At that point, Ren had to show up. Out of politeness, if nothing else.
Sadly, Hinata had to 'act according to her status as a Hyuga clan representative', as her clan elders and father would put it. So, she was doing rounds of meet and greet for the important people in the Ino-Shika-Cho clans, despite this meeting being basically an excuse for a party.
As for Ino, she was grumpily helping the clan women make and serve the food, so Ren was left alone, nursing a mug of apple juice Ino brought him not a long ago as he watched the people having fun.
Suddenly, a lazy-looking boy sat down in front of Ren and looked at him with his droopy eyes before he yawned. "So, you are the great blonde demon's boyfriend?"
Ren's lips twitched into a small, amused smirk as he gazed at the boy whom he recognized as Shikamaru Nara.
But great blonde demon, huh?
Ino was clearly letting some things out when they talked about her days, it seems. Isn't that interesting? His little blonde girl was growing up, making a name for herself among her peers!
"Maybe?" Ren raised an amused eyebrow at Shikamaru.
For a moment, Shikamaru stayed silent, contemplating his choices. To Ren, it looked as if he was about to fall asleep, but he knew that was, at least from one-third, an act to make people underestimate him. Or it at least should have been, but who knows with Shikamaru?
"... Could you get her to stop, please?" Shikamaru eventually asked, deflating and slumping in his seat.
"I don't even know what she is supposedly doing to you?" Ren tilted his head, really curious about what Shikamaru would say.
He lied a bit. Ino did tell him about the situation, but he was wondering if she was leaving more things out.
"She is an absolute lunatic." Shikamaru said with a defeated sigh, and if he weren't a Nara, that statement would probably have been shouted to the skies. But shouting interrupts silence and sleep, so it was most likely against the Nara code of conduct.
"She chases me with a kunai, and you'd think that as my teammate, she wouldn't stab me, right?" Shikamaru started talking and gained a distant gaze as he involuntarily shuddered, "You'd be wrong! I can't even count how many times I had her kunai handle deep in my flesh." His pleading eyes betrayed that there was just a tad bit of trauma because of that lingering in the boy. "I really need you to stop her before she kills me."
Ren looked at him, inwardly wondering how to play this. Eventually, he donned a calm, understanding smile and looked the boy straight in the eye.
"Oh, don't exaggerate. Ino wouldn't hurt a fly."
"The problem is I am not a fly!" Shikamaru instantly exclaimed with a small shout before hunching forward more with an embarrassed groan when he realized he had overreacted, and Ren inwardly snickered.
Screwing with Naras was unexpectedly fun.
I don't see any wounds or scars on you, though?" Ren hummed, giving the boy a once over but there was nothing immediately telling that he suffered such an overly enthusiastic, unconventional training.
To be fair to the kid, if there was any sign, he would have made Ino stop. He did tell her and Hinata to prepare their teammates for the Chunin Exam. But he didn't want them to kill them by accident.
At the same time, part of being a teacher was trusting his students. Unless she does something batshit crazy like throwing a kid off the cliff... looking at you, Jiraiya... then Ren, unfortunately for Shikamaru, was not going to intervene.
After all, what's a little stabbing between ninja comrades, right?
"She always drags me to Hinata, who heals me up." Shikamaru sullenly admitted, looking very cross about it for some reason. Glancing at Ren's expression, the boy rubbed his forehead before continuing, "Because of that, my father does not believe me. Something about healing not working that way." He gave Ren a deadpan stare. "What the hell did you do to those girls, and why do they need to make my life a hell?"
Ren nodded. So the boy knew that he was Ino and Hinata's tutor.
As for Shikaku, the man probably realized that something was up. And the only choices were either that his son was lying, or Hinata had made some sort of amazing breakthrough in the medical field.
Because the medical ninjutsu indeed did not work that way. A handle-deep kunai wound would require at least several hours of care, and even a rush job from a combat medic ninja would leave a horrendous scar.
The healing Shikamaru was describing was something straight out of the legends, comparable to Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred Seals. Believing that a fresh genin could do something like that was pretty much crazy.
But of course, Shikaku wasn't a man who would take things at face value. And he knew his son. As ridiculous as it might seem to a normal ninja, he most likely had his suspicions.
Slightly exasperated, Ren decided he would need to give Ino a talking to after explaining where she fucked up. He didn't mind Shikaku knowing. But this was a good lesson to show his blond hellion how her actions could have unforeseen consequences.
These thoughts blitzed through Ren's mind as he looked at Shikamaru in silence for three seconds before he suddenly asked him a question.
"Are you stronger?" Now that startled the boy, but Ren continued. "Faster?" He gave him a meaningful look that made Shikamaru wince as he realized where this was going. "Better at dodging?" Ren stopped and waited for a response from the boy, and Shikamaru did begrudgingly nod after a while, despite it being obvious he didn't really want to admit it.
"Better at using your clan techniques?" Ren asked one more question, and Shikamaru gave him an exasperated look.
"I had to get better! It was either that or she would have stabbed me more."
"Exactly." Ren chuckled. "Plus ultra." He started to snicker at the inside joke that Shikamaru did not understand, and looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Sage. You are the same kind of lunatic as Ino." Shikamaru grumbled as his shoulders slumped even more, if that was even possible.
"Where do you think she got it from?" Ren amusedly quipped back, enjoying the miffed expression on the boy who now looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
That said, he did owe the boy at least some sort of explanation.
"You are making things harder for you." Ren started, stopping Shikamaru in his tracks as he was about to stand up. Their eyes met, and Ren continued. "If you weren't so vehemently refusing the 'soft' approach and allowed Ino to make some sort of training regime for you and Choji, she wouldn't have been going so hardcore on you."
After all, Ren never got so far as to actually stab Ino during her training under him. He only ever threatened it. But Shikamaru was way more stubborn than Ino in his own way. He'd rather get stabbed than accept three times the training load.
Ren had no doubt the boy was going to figure this out. It was easier for him to just accept his 'fate' and go through Ino's training willingly. Because she was going to put him through it whether he liked it or not. Just like Ren put Ino through his training, whether she liked it or not, even if he wasn't quite that brutal with her.
"Think about that for a moment, okay?" Ren asked, and Shikamaru grimaced. But he did nod back at Ren before standing up with a massive frown as he put his hands into his pockets and sullenly walked away.
Ren suspected it was not great to be Shikamaru Nara right now.
"That fine, Shikaku-san?" Ren asked and looked to the side, where in the shadow of a tree, Shikaku Nara was standing and hiding in plain sight, clearly eavesdropping on their conversation.
The scarred man chuckled and walked out of the shadows before sitting opposite Ren, right in the same place his son occupied a moment ago.
"Yes. The boy needs to understand for himself that going along with some whims of women is less painful than the alternative." He chuckled, cradling a glass of beer. "If my wife knew what an effect Ino has on him, she would try to get them together."
"I am sure Shikamaru would be just delighted to hear that." Ren laughed, and Shikaku returned him a rueful smile.
"But that's not why I wanted to talk to you." Shikaku changed the topic, making the atmosphere serious in an instant. "I came to warn you. You have been making some moves recently, making many people quite unhappy with you."