At the break of dawn, Saul arrived at the entrance to the Academy. If his internal feeling was correct, classes would officially begin in 2 hours? 3? He wasn't sure. He didn't exactly specify a specific time yesterday, so he decided to arrive at the earliest time that could still be reasonably be considered 'morning'.
And yet... Saul *still* didn't arrive before a certain Hyuuga Heiress. She stared into the road serenely; who knows what was going on in that head of hers. Hinata didn't seem to notice him yet.
This was normal. The Byakugan had to be activated by supplying it with chakra to grant its supernatural visual prowess. When not activated, the only thing it granted was 360 degree vision. Active or inactive, the Byakugan itself did not make the mind behind it superhuman. Just like everyone else, the Hyuuga still needed to 'look' at what they saw in order to properly perceive it.
Saul spoke up. "Good morning."
Hinata immediately stood up and hugged her chest.
"H-hi."
She was back to that again? Saul thought he had made more progress with her yesterday; she had even stopped stuttering (mostly) while they were talking before! Well he supposed heading out to meet a man, alone, was a little too much for the girl regardless of the pretext. Maybe she considered this a date?
Saul chuckled. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. I'm sorry for not being more specific about the time."
"No! No, I wasn't waiting for long..."
The two walked together to the training grounds, where Saul pulled out his one and only Kunai. Hinata also took some out from her tool pouch. They were sharp and pristine, way higher quality than Saul's.
"You could borrow mine if you'd like..."
"I won't stand on ceremony then." Saul picked out a few of her Kunai.
At this point, Saul basically had Hinata figured out. She did not value material possessions, and her sense of self-worth was so low that she would accept any kind of treatment without complaint. What was most important to her?
First, her family. Regardless of the way they treated her, Hinata felt it was her fault for not being good enough. This was evidence of a sad, twisted, abusive relationship. If Hinata had not met Naruto in the original series, she'd likely have been branded with the cursed seal and become a slave. After all, she was already thinking like one.
Second, everyone else in Konoha. This was rooted in her sense of self worth. She genuinely believed if anyone else was in her position, with her bloodline, her resources, they would do better than her. She would offer everything up freely if she could.
Both blind to her success and critical of her failures, Hinata was a very vulnerable woman. Saul could think of more than a few surefire ways to take advantage of her. Both material-wise and physically.
Saul threw a few Kunai absentmindedly at the forest target, feeling much better than yesterday. He wouldn't openly take advantage of her weakness. He was growing a soft spot for the woman, and the potential consequences from the Hyuuga clan were not worth risking.
"Look, Saul-san! Nine out of Ten!? You did so well!"
His shitty Kunai from yesterday affected him more than he thought. Having to run back and forth from the throwing position to retrieve his shitty imbalanced Kunai each time he threw must have made it difficult to get a proper result.
"It looks like you're my lucky charm, Hinata. Give me one second, I'll retrieve the Kunai so you can give it a go."
Hinata was already blushing by the time he glanced over at her. What a cute woman.
Saul brought the Kunai back to her. Is she the type to perform worse under pressure?
"Your turn." Saul said, already turning his attention away to form seals for the clone jutsu. He walked over to another area of the forest, his voice trailing behind him, "You can do this."
Hinata felt comforted by the fact that he didn't seem to be watching. She turned toward the target and took a breath to steady herself. After around half a minute she checked Saul again with her Byakugan, just to be safe. He really wasn't watching!
The faintest traces of a smile formed on her lips. That's right. Nobody was watching or judging her. She could do this. Hinata threw the kunai quickly. Every single one hit the bullseye. Ten out of ten!!!
Wait no, that had to be a fluke! She couldn't do that again! Even with her Byakugan, Hinata had never gotten that high of a score! What if Saul came back and saw it? Would he expect more from her? Would he be disappointed when she let him down??
Just as Hinata was about to rush over and take down the Kunai, the Saul she had been keeping an eye on with her Byakugan vanished into a cloud of smoke. A nearby log transformed back into Saul.
"Kyaaa!"
Who knew the first jutsu he'd actually use seriously would be the Substitution Jutsu!? While useless in combat, the jutsu certainly had its uses in a pre-combat scenario.
"Ten out of Ten! Well done, Hinata."
Hinata, while still flustered, was questioning everything. Why did he trick her!? Did he really enjoy teasing her that much? Was he here to judge her!?
As if responding to her inner questions, Saul continued in a soft, yet serious tone, "It's just as I thought. You have the skill, Hinata. What stops you from showing it is not a lack of practice. It's something more fundamental."
Saul steps closer. He's closer than Hinata would have liked, but she was already too nervous to speak. He touches her chest with his pointer finger, right above her rapidly beating heart.
"What you're lacking is in here. The belief in yourself, the assurance you can succeed. Confidence."
Hinata didn't want to believe his words. What did he know about her? Had he been the one, listening for hours upon end on why she was never going to be good enough? Had he endured the scorn of his entire family for just being who he was?
Saul snapped! "Hinata, the evidence is right there! Ten out of ten. Look what happens when you believe in yourself!"
"Saul-san... It was just a fluke..."
Saul stopped himself from arguing anything more, merely smiling. "I believe in you."
Somewhere deep down Hinata knew Saul was right. But she wanted to scream, to cry, to run away, to go anywhere but here! Hinata was not ready to confront the ideology she believed in her entire life. Even thinking about it made her so stressed!
Saul took note of her expression and decided to temporarily give her some space.
"I'll be back with your Kunai; it's the least I can do after you were kind enough to let me borrow them for training."
Hinata started to calm down as Saul walked away to gather her Kunai. She couldn't help but hear the words he said to her over and over again. Then there was the transformation, his eyes laser focused as he examined the clone of her likeness. Maybe... Saul had been observing her for a while now. Maybe he felt the same way about her the way she did Naruto. Otherwise, how else would he seem to understand her so well?
"...Thank you, Saul-san."
She didn't know if she was ready to reciprocate his feelings just yet, but the knowledge only made her realize they might be more similar to each-other than she first thought. She had mostly calmed down when he came back, only feeling warm inside from his presence. He handed the Kunai back over.
"Hinata, if it's alright with you, I'd like to switch up our practice to something a bit more helpful to you."
Hinata nodded. "Yes...?"
Alright, it was time to start the process of killing two birds with one stone. Saul's arms clasped into a seal. Chakra coalesced around his form, gathering at his hair, clothes, face, skin.
"Transform!"
Hinata stared wide-eyed at his transformation.
Author's Note: Alright as per your suggestions I've made a discord for both the SFW and NSFW images, and I will be posting SFW images in paragraph comments. The invite to discord is below.
discord gg YwperMGsBq (Add a '.' before discord and a slash before 'Y' for it to work.)