??? Forest Nearby Hokage Building
The forest at night was quiet save for the occasional chirp of crickets or the hoos of owls. Within there was a small building in the middle of nowhere. It looked to have the make of a hunter's cabin of some kind. The inside was draped in all kinds of animal skin. On a nearby table rested a butcher knife, for skinning and gutting any future catch.
There was nothing out of place, nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. That was the point.
"Jeez!" A voice sighed, exasperated. A hand reached up through the floor, pushing aside the covering animal skin rug. First, a large jaded scroll emerged. Then a spiky blond head poked its way out.
"Why was a passage like that at the Hokage building anyway? I got my clothes all dirty!"
Naruto made his way outside the cabin, holding the scroll across his back. He threw it open on the ground and sat by it, scratching his head.
"What even is this, damn it."
Characters from the scroll seemed to swim across the parchment, like tadpoles in a pond. Naruto couldn't even read anything except the first Jutsu! He scratched his head. "Jeez, I hope Mizuki sensei wasn't lying to me!"
Mizuki told Naruto that if a Ninja could manage to steal the scroll of seals and learn the Jutsu within, they would be allowed to graduate regardless of any prior decision. It all sounded pretty suspicious to be honest. But Naruto was at his wits end here; he had to take whatever chance he could get!
He read the only writing he could read on the scroll out loud. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
Naruto began to practice. He would never give up; he would never stop trying! He would show everyone, the entire village his Nindo way!
Hinata watched Naruto with a hint of relief. "Naruto-san is reading a scroll right now, Saul-kun. It's just Naruto! Why d-don't we continue-"
"Hinata. Can you tell me what he's reading?"
Hinata paused. Saul-kun sounded so serious...
"He's learning a jutsu, Saul-kun. The Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"Tell me what it says, word for word."
Not wanting to disappoint Saul, she read the contents of the scroll as he requested. As she did so however, Hinata couldn't help but start to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. The way the scroll was worded, it seemed like it was addressed to some sort of disciple. Naruto-san didn't have a teacher, right? Also, why was her perfect Saul-kun trying to learn it as well, illegitimately?
Once she was done, Saul made some hand signs to try the jutsu. Failed.
"Hinata. Can you please read it again?"
There it was again. That extremely serious tone of voice. She didn't like it. She didn't like what she was being made an accomplice to. But he was just looking right? It's not like just looking could harm anyone! She wouldn't disappoint him!
Saul didn't have nearly the same level of Chakra reserves as Naruto, whatever it was. Each attempt at the jutsu took exactly half of his Chakra, plus whatever overhead forming the Shadow Clone cost him. Since the chakra had already been released and the clone had failed to be created, the dispersal part of the jutsu was not relevant to recovering at least a little bit of his lost chakra.
Within around 30 minutes most of his Chakra was exhausted. He had already memorized the Jutsu from his continuous attempts; however, it was only a matter of time.
"Hinata, we need to get going. Anbu will be looking for Naruto soon, and I already learned what I needed."
"Saul-kun... Where should we go?"
He noted Hinata really seemed to be clinging to him. Was she kicked out of her clan or something? Saul motioned for her to walk and she followed.
"Hinata... I really should be going to my dorms. It's really late."
She shook her head. "No... Please..."
I sighed. I swear, this girl... If I left to go sleep at the dorm, would she just sit outside alone all night? ...She'd be paying me back with interest tomorrow for this.
"Alright, silly girl. We can stay out all night if that's what you want! You just have to make sure not to tell anyone about seeing Naruto tonight, ok? We just went to the forest to train for a bit, like we always did together at the academy."
Hinata already knew it. What they just did was wrong. But she did it for him! She wouldn't have told anyone anyway...
The two spent the night together at a park, huddling up against the nightly wind and staying close for comfort. They had both transformed into a couple of generic faces in civilian clothing to keep from being recognized. It was Saul's worst disguise yet, but the point wasn't to trick anyone. Their purpose was to obscure who they were 'exactly' in the case of gossip.
The next morning, Saul filled out his Ninja registration and collected his Genin stipend. With the pooled money in hand, they decided to rent a house near the outskirts of Konoha. Saul chose one near the entrance to the forest of death. Since it was an 'unlucky' location, they got it for cheap.
It was a single bedroom, 1 bathroom, dirty shack of a place. Hinata only needed one look before she huffed and started doing her best to fix the place. Saul on the other hand couldn't care less. It was already much cleaner than his old place! He decided to finally get some sleep.
The transformation jutsu required one to remain conscious in order to maintain the transformed appearance. This was the case because the jutsu had an active link to the mind. After all, you could control variations in your transformed appearance to a certain degree.
For example, say now you had transformed into another person and started talking. It wouldn't be usable if the mouth didn't move at all, right? That would be a dead giveaway! So the jutsu required the user to continuously expel miniscule amounts of chakra to both maintain the transformation and sync up the transformation with your thoughts.
Regardless of this, pulling an all nighter wouldn't usually be a problem for Ninja. Chakra strengthened the body passively and would mitigate most of the effects of short-term sleep deprivation. But Saul had also lost most of his Chakra from trying to practice the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu! He was really tired!
He awoke sometime in the mid-day, being hugged from behind like he was some sort of stuffed animal. There was an enveloping warmth pressed up against his back. It was a soft, yielding heat, almost cushion-like, as if something tender and full was nestled close behind a veil of silk.
Lower down, he saw his legs entangled with hers. The soft creamy flesh of her long white leg extended out and rested partially over his knee. Her curvy, bare thigh was draped over his hip. The warmth between her legs was pressed up against his back. Saul shifted.
A faint breath of air brushed against the nape of his neck carrying a sweet, intimate need. At that moment Saul decided… Hinata would not be escaping today.
Author's Note: Alright, we're finally past the events of episode 1 of Naruto. R18 Chapter coming up next! Hope you all enjoyed the little tease!