While the original Ren watched Ino 'helping' Sasuke awaken his Sharingan, the clone Ren was hidden as he observed Mizuki's meeting with Naruto.
Ren had to admit that he was very curious about what changes his meddling would create here.
Naruto was smarter. Mizuki should know that. And that should change everything. Honestly, it was surprising to him that Mizuki actually approached the kid anyway. So, what exactly was the man going to do? How was he going to trick Naruto into doing his bidding?
Ren decided he had to be careful here. Weak as he might be in a fight, Mizuki was still an experienced chunin. He had a lot of experience in their profession. Somebody like that definitely knew how to manipulate people.
And Ren didn't want Naruto to get himself into too much trouble, so if the situation looked dire, the clone would jump in. But for now, he wasn't going to steal Naruto's thunder. This will be a valuable experience for the blonde kid, after all.
"Naruto, congratulations on becoming a ninja!" Mizuki exclaimed, and Ren had to admit he did look genuine. A kid would have a hard time catching his deception. Hell, he would have a hard time catching it if he didn't have foreknowledge.
"Thank you, Mizuki-sensei! So, what did you need to talk to me about?" Naruto asked confusedly before he gave Mizuki a sheepish grin and bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "Karin-chan is waiting for me at home, and I don't want to make her angry by being late."
Ren smiled at that. Karin knew how much becoming a ninja mattered to Naruto. He knew she was throwing a congratulatory surprise party for him.
"E~h. Good for you, kid!" Mizuki gave Naruto a grin. "I see. The friendship between you and Karin goes deeper than it first seems."
"Ehehehe." Naruto returned the grin and shyly laughed.
"That's a pity." Mizuki sighed as his expression fell. "I wanted to give you a special test. But, well, it is not mandatory, so if you have to go, then we can just skip it, I guess." He awkwardly said.
Of course, that managed to excite Naruto like nothing else. The boy's face instantly lit up. "A special test? For me?"
"Yes, Naruto. If you complete it, you will be directly promoted to the chunin rank." Mizuki firmly nodded, giving the kid a small, encouraging smile. "It's for the exceptional students and well... I wanted to give it to Sasuke at first, but you improved a lot recently, so you deserve the chance."
In his hiding place, Ren's eyebrow twitched as he saw the megawatt shiteating grin spread across Naruto's face upon hearing that.
"REALLY!? Take that, bastard!" Naruto jumped and punched the air with a loud 'whoop'.
"Okay, okay! Calm down, Naruto." Mizuki fondly and gently rebuked him. "Do you need to go or are you up for taking the test?"
"I'll take the test, Mizuki-sensei! What is it? What is it? Am I going to save a princess? Guard the Daimyo? Infiltrate Iwa?" Naruto leaped into Mizuki's personal space and rapidly asked his questions with so much enthusiasm that Mizuki was getting a nearly visible whiplash from the questioning.
Mizuki put his hands on Naruto's shoulders and pushed him away, the gentle smile on his face twitching somewhat fiercely. "Don't worry. The task I have for you is of a similar importance."
"There is a big scroll in the Hokage office," Mizuki started, and Naruto's eyebrows suddenly furrowed, "it was placed there for this test. You must steal it and bring it here." He gave Naruto a paper with a location written on it. "But remember, Naruto. The Hokage Tower is guarded by ANBU. I know you can evade them. I have seen you do it plenty of times. But getting caught means instant disqualification." He firmly warned.
"Do you think you can do that? I can always go and give the task to Sasuke if you are not feeling up for it." Mizuki asked with what looked like a genuine concern at Naruto, who was now silently staring at the paper in his hand.
"Ne? Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto eventually asked, just as Mizuki was getting annoyed with the boy's silence.
Blinking, Mizuki smiled, keeping up his facade as a helpful teacher. "Yes, Naruto? Do you have any questions about the task? Feel free to ask. If I have the answer, I'll gladly give it to you."
"Mhm." Naruto nodded as he took a step forward, closer to Mizuki, and looked him in the eyes. His frown disappeared, and a cheerful grin appeared in its place. "Idiotsaywhat!?"
"What?"
Mizuki's brain lagged behind for a moment, but before he could decipher that he was just tricked, Naruto used his momentary confusion to brutally crash his knee right into his nuts.
Mizuki's eyes widened in pain as he released a breathless gasp, his body locking in, and he was about to start falling forward. But then Naruto's fist crashed into his right cheek, making his head whip back, only for its back to hit the tree behind him with enough force to crack the bark.
Mizuki was out cold before he even registered what happened.
Naruto stood above his unconscious body, looking between it and his fist with a conflicted expression.
"He really thought I was an idiot, huh?" He muttered to himself, inwardly feeling a bit ashamed when he realized that just a year ago, this ploy might have worked perfectly in Mizuki's favor.
His inner conflict was interrupted when he suddenly heard a sound of clapping from behind him. Naruto abruptly turned around, ready for another fight, only to see Ren clapping his hands as he approached him with an amused smile.
"You just defeated a chunin, Naruto. Why so gloomy?" Ren asked, making Naruto regain some of his cheerful attitude at the indirect praise.
Honestly, Ren was disappointed.
Not in Naruto but in Mizuki. He expected the man to pull something more... elaborate.
Trying to pull the same shit from canon on a more mature, older Naruto? Really?
Don't get him wrong, as far as Mizuki's attempt at manipulating Naruto went, his techniques were not bad. He knew about the rivalry Naruto had with Sasuke, and he used it perfectly.
Naruto was genuinely pumped to get ahead of Sasuke. But he still treated Naruto like a naive, idiot kid.
...Well, the boy was a naive, idiot kid.
But Karin made sure that his knowledge about the world was up to snuff, so he quickly realized why trying to infiltrate the Hokage Tower and steal something from there might be a big no-no.
"I just caught him off guard." Naruto admitted and rubbed his nose. Despite his humble words, his expression betrayed that he was quite happy with himself right now.
Ren rolled his eyes at the boy. Jinchuuriki plus Uzumaki combo was ridiculous. The only reason why the boy didn't have chunin-level combat ability was his lack of experience and techniques. Physically, he was already on that level despite doing nothing to reach it.
Give the boy a year of dedicated training, and he could be physically on the same level as his canon counterpart was at when he returned to Konoha after his training with Jiraiya.
He could easily become a Jonin-level ninja in a year.
That was just absurd. Most ninjas take years to get there. Hell, Itachi and Kakashi took years to get there after their graduation. Well, yeah, they were kids, and that was a factor. But still.
Your average Joe Jonin usually only got promoted to chunin around the ages of seventeen to twenty. And then, those who don't get eternally locked into the chunin rank still need to be there for five-ish years before they get strong enough for Jonin promotion.
That's what a normal ninja is like.
Ino, Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, and to a lesser degree, even the rest of Konoha's kiddie main cast? They were not the norm. They were the exception. The talented ones.
"So," Naruto scratched his cheek, "what are we going to do with him?" He poked Mizuki's leg with his foot.
"I am going to take him to the T&I, where I will explain the situation." Ren shrugged. "You should come with me to give your statement to get it out of the way. Come on. It won't take long."
With that, Ren bent down and, after ensuring that Mizuki would not be waking up anytime soon on his own, he picked the man up on his shoulder.
"I am sure the old man Hokage is going to praise you for taking out a traitor." He smiled at Naruto.
...
"With these eyes, I am going to kill my brother."
The original Ren watched as Sasuke was hyping himself up with his edgy monologue as he knelt on the shoreline and admired his new eyes in the river's water reflection.
There was an unmistakable Mangekyo Sharingan pattern in his eyes.
And he is just going to call it as it is. This was bullshit. Fucking bullshit. Fucking blondes and their cheats!
He would understand if Ino helped Sasuke unlock his Sharingan. Okay. That would have been fine. Acceptable. Within the norm. Understandable.
But no!
The girl had to freaking surpass all the expectations. Just remembering how Sasuke's eyes went from black to red with one tomoe, to two tomoe, then to three tomoe within a minute was making Ren involuntarily twitch.
That was absurd enough.
But her mental illusions were apparently good enough to make the boy's eyes shift one more time, and voila, Mangekyo Sharingan.
That's where this bullshit just crossed the line and Ren's suspension of disbelief bowed out.
He only watched Sasuke with a blank expression on his face while Ino stood next to him, grinning and smugly preening at her achievement.
"It was worth it!" Sasuke exclaimed, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"With this, I can fulfill my ambition!" He yelled through his bawling with an ugly, strained smile, as if desperately trying to persuade himself.
"So, worth it..." He let out a pitiful whimper as his body shuddered in revulsion.