The next day, after breakfast, Ren informed Temari that he would like to start her training, causing her to get excited. Mirthfully wondering how long that would last, Ren teleported them to the Hidden Garden after she fetched her fan. He led the girl to the massive grassy plain in front of his house and smiled at her a bit too sweetly.
Not that Temari noticed through the haze of her barely restrained glee.
"Ready to start your special training?" Ren asked, his smile turning into a small smirk he could not suppress.
"Of course! I will not disappoint you!" Temari exclaimed, eyes blazing with determination. Getting training from an S-rank ninja was something even many Jonin dreamed about but could not get. She knew that this was not an opportunity she could squander!
Ren pleasantly nodded, his smirk slightly widening, "Then listen! I have a special training method." He said and leaned forward while his voice got quieter as if he was going to tell her some important secret.
Temari eagerly ate it up and leaned forward, too, with wide, expectant eyes, and ears attentively waiting to catch every word.
Ren paused for dramatic purposes.
"You are going to do..." He started and noticed that Temari was slightly quivering in excitement. He inwardly chuckled as his expression went blank and his face exuded extreme seriousness.
"100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10 kilometers of running!" He loudly exclaimed with a smug self-satisfaction exuding from his tone as he put his hands on his hips, and Temari's face fell into deep confusion.
The girl tilted her head and blinked a few times, wondering if she had heard right. And when her mind told her that yes, she didn't have any problems with her hearing, she gave Ren a deadpan look with an unimpressed, "Hah?"
Silence fell between them, and Temari's eyebrow twitched as she saw the obvious anticipation in Ren's smug expression. He was waiting for her to protest.
Reluctant to do what he wanted, Temari inwardly scowled in irritation and stayed silent. But that only seemed to make Ren smirk harder. He even raised his eyebrow at her, and Temari's composure started to crack.
"You can't be serious." She blandly said and crossed her arms on her chest.
"Oh, but I am. Here," Ren handed her a paper tag, and under her curious gaze, she noticed she had never seen the seal on it. "Channel some chakra into it when you start your run, and when you are done running ten kilometers, it will turn red. You have thirty minutes."
Temari's bewildered gaze fell on the tag, but then she raised her eyes back toward Ren, still wondering if this was supposed to be another tasteless joke or something.
Go on." Ren cheerfully shooed her away with a few waves of his hand, and Temari realized he was indeed serious about this.
Gritting her teeth, she scowled at him as she turned around with a huff and stomped deeper into the grassland to have more space for her exercises.
Ren chuckled under his nose as he watched her posterior do some very nice movements due to how strongly she was stomping her feet in her anger.
Shaking his head in amusement as Temari threw herself onto the ground, starting with her push-ups, Ren pulled a blanket out of his storage seal and put it on the ground before sitting on it. A mug of hot chocolate appeared in his hands, and he slowly sipped on it. A deeply satisfied sigh involuntarily came out of his mouth.
He loved these teaching gigs.
Ren leisurely watched as Temari angrily pumped her body up and down on her biceps. He raised his mug in acknowledgment when he noticed that she was watching him with the corner of her eye. That made her scowl harder. But also, her push-ups became faster.
"Good girl." Ren pleasantly said loud enough for her to hear him and nodded with satisfaction. Honestly, he had an amazing talent when it came to motivating his students, didn't he?
'I can hear her teeth grinding against each other all the way here.' Ren resisted laughing out loud.
To be honest, Saitama's training regime might be somewhat demanding in Ren's previous world, but here it was kind of trivial. At best, it would be a good warm-up, but high-ranking ninjas had better ways to stretch their muscles than doing basic exercises like these.
That was the source of Temari's anger. She expected something special. A training method that would allow her to get strong quickly. Something amazing! And Ren gave her this. How could the girl not be absolutely mad? She could have done much better on her own!
Alas, that was not the point of this little exercise. For Ren, Temari was a completely new student, and he needed to assess her. So far, he had learned she was obedient even when facing instructions she thought useless. That was going to serve her well. Many of his instructions will not make sense to her, and having an overly rebellious attitude would be detrimental to both his patience and her progress.
Honestly, Ren was a bit surprised she did not argue with him more. He expected Temari's temper to burst out, but the girl could restrain herself when necessary.
Well, no matter. The day was still young. He still had time to make her scream in rage later.
The catch in this Saitama training regime he gave her was the time limit. Finishing it in thirty minutes was something a normal human could never accomplish. But it was actually very generous for a kunoichi of Temari's caliber. She did not realize that yet, but she was going to find out. And then, Ren would see how she would react. Would she slack off? Or would she press on, increasing her efforts to finish sooner? Would she get angry at how easy the exercise he gave her was?
You'd expect a kunoichi who was a Jonin in all but rank would be hard-working, but Ren had seen his fair share of lazy Jonin. As that green goblin thing from Star Wars would say, strong they might have gotten, but the determination to go further, they lacked.
Many people said that they wanted to get stronger, and they might even mean it. Yet, when it finally came to training, they would do the bare minimum.
Soon, Ren would see if Temari needed an additional kick to her ass or if she was serious in her determination to get stronger. She was kinda alright in the canon, but nowhere near S-rank. So, as far as Ren knew, the coin could fall on either side.
As Temari finished with the exercises and started her run, Ren noted that only almost five minutes had passed since she had begun. That was not a bad time for three sets of one hundred repetitions of three exercises.
Nodding to himself, Ren's eyes strayed toward Temari's posterior, and he had to admit to himself that he wouldn't be all that disappointed if it turned out the girl needed a kick in the ass to motivate her. His lips stretched into a smirk once more, and with a flare of chakra, he activated the seal inside the mug, refilling it with hot chocolate before he took another sip.
With the corner of his eye, he noticed Ino looking at them from inside the window of the house. A second later, she disappeared with a small puff of smoke, and a new sense of anticipation filled Ren as he pulled a second, empty self-refilling mug with a seal with the supply of hot chocolate.
He barely put the empty mug on the blanket when Ino burst out of the door and started to hurriedly walk toward Ren. Halfway to him, Ino noticed what Temari was doing, and a playful smirk appeared on her lips.
"Run, Temari, run!" She shouted, cupping her mouth, causing Temari to flip her off.
Chuckling, Ino continued her near run toward Ren, and when she finally reached him, Ren smiled, "He-" He was about to greet her, but she had thrown herself at him, and before Ren could react, he felt her repeatedly kissing his cheek and jaw, getting progressively closer to his mouth.
Ren's arms encircled Ino's waist, and she slightly pulled away, "I missed you." She cooed.
"I missed you, too." Ren replied and enjoyed how Ino's lips landed on his for a moment before Ino ended the kiss and hid her face in the crook of his shoulder as she embraced him.
"So... you are tormenting the junior?" Ino quietly mumbled into his clothes with an impish voice full of playful tone, "Can I join?"
"Hmm..." Ren looked at the running Temari in contemplation as he considered it, when suddenly, a chill went up her spine that almost made her trip.
Her pace subconsciously increased.