Saul brought Hinata to their morning training spot, away from prying ears. He knew after her public outburst the Hyuuga clan might send someone to investigate, but for now it was still fine.
Saul soothed her, rubbing his hands along her back. He needed to be silent, needed to let her vent.
"Saul-kun!" Hinata cried out with a choked sob. "Why Saul-kun, why!? I didn't say anything bad, right!? I was only trying to help! Please believe me! I didn't mean to mess it up! I didn't want to make all our training a waste!"
Internally, Saul was full of joy. Oh don't worry, you poor thing! It wasn't your fault. No, you performed even better than my wildest expectations! Ahahahahaha! But externally, Saul remained silent, only quietly stroking her hair and rubbing her back.
Hinata could already see it now, the chilling look of disappointment across his face, the incoming scolding, the eventual abandonment. Just when she finally had someone who believed in her again, who acknowledged her efforts, who made her feel welcome and loved! She didn't want to see it! Why was she such a failure! Couldn't she do anything right???
"Saul-kun... Hic." Hinata's voice cracked as she said his name once more before continuing to sob.
"Hinata."
"...Yes? Hic."
"Hinata!"
"Saul-kun..."
"Look at me while I'm speaking to you."
She didn't want to look! She really didn't want to look! She really, really didn't wanna look! Here it comes, the scolding! It's what worthless bitches like her truly deserved! Resigned and ready to accept the inevitable, Hinata finally looked up at him and froze. Her lips formed a silent 'O.'
Saul was smiling at her. When they locked eyes, he brushed a lock of her hair away that was covering her forehead.
"It's ok Hinata. You did well. You did everything right. Naruto was the one with the problem there, can't you see? Even if he was hurting, he shouldn't take it out on the people trying to help, right?"
Hinata froze. It was Naruto's... Fault? How? No, Naruto wasn't like that! It must have been her fault! She was the one who messed up!
"Naruto-kun... He isn't like that... I swear..."
Saul smiled comfortingly at Hinata.
"I believe you. Naruto was probably just having a really bad day. It's his dream to become the Hokage one day, right? Failing the graduation exam must have hit him really hard. He must have just lashed out because he was in so much pain. It was just a mistake; it doesn't define who he is as a person."
Suddenly Hinata felt warm, so warm. She was so much better than before! Why did talking to Saul make her feel like all her worries, all her failures, were nothing of consequence? He knew her so well, made her feel so accepted! He filled her with confidence too, like she could take on the world as long as she was by his side! Hinata started giggling uncontrollably.
Saul gave her a confused look.
"Oh Saul-kun, don't worry. I just realized, I've been so... Silly. Why did everything have to be my fault? Naruto-san was clearly acting up! You're completely right! I'll go talk to him again right now."
"Wouldn't it be better if you gave him some time, Hinata? He still needs time to come to terms with everything. Why don't we go and speak with him after everyone gathers for Jonin-Genin team assignments? I'm sure by then he won't be on edge!"
Hinata giggled like she was high on something.
"Yes of course! Saul-kun always knows best!"
Oh lord, this girl was going to be a handful wasn't she.
After they walked out of the forest, Hinata practically interrogated him about where he lived, where did he go in the mornings when it wasn't with her at the academy, where he spent his evenings, etc. It would be a few days until they all showed up together for their Jonin assignments, so Hinata wanted to have a surefire way to find him. That's the reason she gave, anyway.
Neither of them had a telephone, radio, or anything like that. Those types of equipment were tightly controlled by Konoha's leadership and only being lent to a select few Jonin. To find someone you basically had to wander around until you came across them.
Hinata's Byakugan could only cover a spherical range of a full goddamn kilometer, so it's not like she could find him no matter where he was in the village, right? And if she focused her vision into one sweeping line, she could see much, much further. Saul sent his quiet condolences to Neji who struggled with some spider dude easily outranging his Byakugan while firing at him with a bow and arrow.
"I'll see you tomorrow Saul-kun! Wait for me!"
Hinata said as she headed off to the Hyuuga compound, reluctant to let him leave her sight. Saul let out an exasperated sigh. Good grief!
Once Saul was back at the dorms, he found an eviction notice present on the door. He was expected to fully move out by the end of the month at the latest. By then, Saul thought, he should have more than a few Genin missions under his belt. He was also told to expect a village stipend for newly promoted civilian Genin. At the very least he would never be homeless, not unless he truly procrastinated until the very last moment.
Tonight however, Saul wasn't dealing with any of that. Tonight was the night Naruto was going to steal the Scroll of Seals.
The Scroll of Seals was a treasure trove of forbidden ninjutsu. Jutsu that posed great risk to the user. Jutsu that would cause immense harm to the world if spread. Jutsu that were exclusive to the elite of the elite.
In the original story, Naruto had learned the Multi-Shadow Clone Ninjutsu from the scroll. Shadow clones were just like the academy clone jutsu, except said clones would both be fully tangible and carry a portion of the user's consciousness. The cost of such a clone was to divide the user's chakra by half, one half for the original and the other for the clone. Once the clone was destroyed, it would return whatever experiences it had back as memories for its user. This was the basis behind a shadow clone.
The Multi-Shadow clone Jutsu was a little different. Instead of just splitting one's Chakra by half and being done with it; the shadow clones themselves were also able to split into more shadow clones. As long as a shadow clone had enough chakra to cover the overhead of forming another copy of the original's body, this jutsu could effectively create an infinite number of clones. That's what made this version dangerous.
One user with a huge amount of chakra could literally become a one-man army! Since shadow clones also copied the body and memories of the user, you could theoretically have thousands of extremely highly trained soldiers! However, this would also only be able to happen once.
When shadow clones were dispelled and returned their experiences as memories, this could damage the user's psyche. If using only one clone was potentially dangerous, what happened when you were talking about orders of tens, hundreds, even thousands of copies!? At that point going insane would be the least of your concerns.
That is why the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu was a forbidden Jutsu! Naruto could only spam it like he did in the original series precisely because of his Uzumaki constitution combined with the miraculous healing factor granted to him by the Nine Tails. If anyone else tried to use it the way he did, they would be suicidal!
"Still... I wanted to at least learn it."
Torn between heading off to the forest for 'training' or just ignoring the event all together, Saul's feet had ended up taking him by a small restaurant with a few booths. The front-row seating allowed you to watch the chef as he made your food fresh.
Ichiraku Ramen, huh? Saul walked inside on a whim.
Author's Note: Hey everyone! I wanted to get these last two chapters out together, so I delayed the release of the prior chapter until I was mostly finished with this one! Saul's plans for Hinata still aren't over yet however, he has yet to taste the fruit. I hope you all enjoyed it!