"Big brother, hurry up! Teacher Guy has already arrived at the training ground!" TenTen, the energetic girl, urged with a sweet smile, hands on her hips, right next to Ren's ear. "Don't get too proud of your best result in the last physical test! Rock Lee and I will catch up to you soon!"
"Understood," Ren replied. He put the kunai he had created into his Ninja Pouch, then changed into his training clothes, and followed TenTen out towards the Konoha training ground. On Ren's right index finger, he wore a silver-white ring—the Primary Ninja Pouch he had successfully created a month ago. After dripping his own blood onto the ring, Ren had formed a contract with the Primary Ninja Pouch, becoming its owner. No one could open this ring except Ren. In the eyes of others, this was just an ordinary ring.
After the contract was successful, Ren placed the three types of kunai he had previously created, along with commonly used ninja tools like shuriken and detonating tags, into the Ninja Pouch, just in case of an emergency. However, Ren had only created this one Primary Ninja Pouch for a few reasons. Firstly, this type of Primary Ninja Pouch was a two-star weapon, and its forging success rate was extremely low. His successful forging of the first one was largely due to coincidence. Secondly, one of the raw materials for making the Ninja Pouch—moonstone—while not expensive, wasn't a commonly used forging material. There wasn't much stock left at Ren's house. After he tried forging the Ninja Pouch several times and failed, he ran out of moonstones. It seemed if he wanted to continue forging, he would have to wait for his parents to return from their business trip to the Land of Iron.
---
"Big brother, did you hear any strange noises?" On the way to the Konoha training ground, TenTen suddenly stopped and asked Ren.
"This way," Ren nodded. He had also heard the strange sound and pinpointed its direction.
"Let's go take a look." The ever-enthusiastic TenTen immediately pulled Ren, walking towards the source of the sound.
Soon, they both witnessed the scene: a short-haired little girl with pure white eyes was cornered by a few eight or nine-year-old bullies. With tears in her eyes, her head was buried in her chest. She remained silent, not daring to resist.
"Look! Her eyes are really white!" "Monster, she must be a monster!" "Let's defeat this monster! We'll be Konoha's heroes! Let's go together!"
As they spoke, the bullies closed in on the girl. One of them had even raised his fist, intending to strike her.
"Stop!" TenTen immediately rushed out, jumping into the midst of the crowd. With arms outstretched in front of the cornered girl, she righteously yelled at the group of bullies, "You're not allowed to bully people!"
"Otherwise, you'll all be in big trouble today!"
The bullies were momentarily startled by TenTen's outburst. However, they quickly realized that the person standing before them was just a little girl, no bigger than them. The surrounding bullies burst into laughter, looking at TenTen as if she were an idiot.
"In trouble? You're the one who's going to be in trouble, right?" "Where'd this wild girl come from, daring to meddle in other people's business!" "I won't be in trouble!"
TenTen snorted, showing no fear in her eyes. She directly pointed her hand at Ren, who was standing behind the group of bullies. "If you want to hit me, you'll have to beat my big brother first!"
Ren: "???" Sister, is this how you 'saw injustice and immediately drew your sword to help'?
The bullies' eyes all followed TenTen's pointing finger and landed on Ren.
"Brothers, beat him!"
Several bullies waved their fists and rushed towards Ren.
"Boring~ Who's interested in fighting with you boys here?" Ren sneered. Instantly, a dark gleam flashed in his hand. The fingers of both hands were already filled with shuriken. The shuriken shot out immediately.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A few sounds of air being sliced through. The kunai in his hand grazed the cheeks, sleeves, and trousers of the little bullies, adding a few minor scratches to their bodies. Ren had perfectly controlled his strength, only scratching their clothes and causing minor bruises. This level was enough to deter these bullies and teach them a lesson.
As predicted, the moment the shuriken were thrown, the little bullies froze, terrified. One of them suddenly felt a tingling on his cheek. Reaching out a hand to wipe it, bright red, warm blood smeared onto his finger. He exclaimed in shock, "Blood! I'm bleeding!" His voice held a fearful sob.
The other bullies also discovered their "wounds" at this time and screamed in fright.
"I-my arm is bleeding!"
"Oh my God! Murder! Someone here is going to murder us!"
"Mom, save me!"
Screaming and crying erupted one after another. Those bullies looked at Ren as if he were a "devil." Completely terrified, they screamed and ran away in every direction.
---
Meanwhile, TenTen pulled up Hinata, who was still squatting in the corner. She smiled and said, "Don't be afraid! Those bad guys have been driven away by my big brother! My name is TenTen, what's your name?"
"My name is Hi... Hinata Hyuga," Hinata whispered, then her eyes lingered on Ren.
"He's my big brother, his name is Ren, and he's very powerful~~" TenTen explained enthusiastically.
"Thank you, thank you, Ren-kun," Hinata said, lowering her head, not daring to look directly at him out of self-consciousness. She only felt that the light around him was dazzling, as powerful and handsome as a prince who had fallen from the sky! Even a secret glance at him made her heart beat faster!
"Why are you here alone?" Ren asked.
Such a soft voice~ Hinata's heart fluttered slightly. Her head dropped even lower, and she said nervously and softly, "I... I accidentally lost my way..."
"Is it the Hyuga clan's compound? It's not far from here, so let's take you back first," Ren said after thinking for a moment.
TenTen was a little surprised beside him. Huh? My big brother is usually very afraid of trouble. Today, he actually took the initiative to say he wants to send this girl home. Could my big brother be... have a crush on this little girl from the Hyuga clan?
And just as TenTen was pondering this, the very next sentence Ren uttered almost made TenTen stumble and left her utterly dumbfounded.
Ren took out a kunai. Facing Hinata with a gentle smile, he said, "My family owns a weapon shop. As a thank you, how about you buy one of my special kunai?"
"It's very cheap; it only costs one thousand Ryo~"