Saul agreed to meet Sakura after their meeting. They also exchanged addresses, just in case they needed to find each-other again. While Hinata set out to find Sakura with her Byakugan, Saul thought back to his battle against Naruto.
His starting strategy was tailored to his assessment of Naruto. At the beginning of the series, he knew the guy foolishly almost never started off his fights by using the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu. He only summoned clones when he felt he absolutely needed to. This created a massive gap between his initial and potential combat prowess that Saul originally wanted to exploit to immediately defeat Naruto.
So once the fight started, he hid and Naruto behaved exactly as he predicted, rushing headlong into danger. That point was his best shot at winning the spar.
He had created a shadow clone to ambush from the tree, as he hid his true body with the Trench Jutsu. However now that he looked back on it, Saul realized he could have probably done much better to take advantage of that moment.
One more shadow clone at the time could have been used to set up trap wires around the area and taken a more frontal spot for ambush. This would both immobilize Naruto temporarily and distract him from the clone heading from the more discrete spot. If Naruto didn't fall for this, then the fight would become more difficult from that point onwards.
Unless he wanted to expose his frontloading technique, Saul couldn't actually use the Mind body Palm in combination with the body flicker jutsu. So the second clone that used the body flicker jutsu to arrive could not take advantage of the moment Naruto was casting the Multi Shadow clone jutsu to instantly win the fight.
He'd specifically chosen a kick because his hands were in the body flicker seal. Additionally, he shouldn't have let the clone be dispelled after landing the kick. A body flicker jutsu costs much less chakra than the overhead of creating a new shadow clone. A fighting style of appearing near the enemy, attacking immediately, then running away regardless of success or failure combined with multiple clones would be incredibly difficult to deal with.
Finally in the moment where Naruto made hundreds of shadow clones to all find him at once, Saul had already most likely lost. His hiding spot would be surrounded, and he'd be mobbed by hundreds of clones at once. In a real fight Saul would have just quite simply ran away at this point. Going for the central one was a gamble, one that hadn't paid off. Naruto wasn't that stupid.
But in the end he had won thanks to Naruto's genius idea, so maybe not? Honestly the guy just needed some proper training, and he'd quickly become a monster. Even Saul didn't dare to actually fight with his real body - instead preferring to use Shadow Clones to do all the work. One injury could be the end for him. But Naruto? His body was ridiculous, and his healing factor was even more so. He had everything going for him except for the head on his shoulders. Classic.
Saul kissed her on the cheek.
"You really are amazing, Hinata. Your eyes are growing better and better by the day! Absolutely the best!"
Hinata felt like she was on top of the world! She blushed from the kiss, grew elated from the praise, and clung tighter to her Saul-kun. She'd never leave him no matter what. Every single one of her days was made by even a simple action of his, and the recognition she so badly craved was actually given when she deserved it. She could genuinely feel that he was happy because of her. Hinata loved it.
The pair thought nothing of their casual public affection on the streets of Konoha, but someone across the street happened to see it. He was a black haired man, with bangs of hair covering up his entire forehead. He didn't want anyone to see it after all. He didn't want people to see the brand of slavery to the main family, the caged bird seal, when they looked at him. He observed the pair for a while with white, pupilless eyes before walking back to the Hyuuga clan grounds.
The two Genin found themselves outside of Sakura's house. She hadn't gone out yet this weekend, but Hinata was really good at finding things now. Even though she ate at least 6 times as much as Saul did (so the pair never really went out to eat), she was finally able to eat as much as she wanted without having to worry about appearances. Saul bet she was still holding herself back but he didn't know how to approach the topic yet without going bankrupt.
He theorized that around 20% of it was going to her body, 20% to her boobs alone, and the last 60% all to her eyes. She was growing much faster than the original series because of it. He figured her tits might even be the same size as Tsunade's or larger. He'd have to get a titty fuck from her sometime later. For now, he'd initiate contact with the pink haired woman.
An middle-aged blonde haired woman opened up the door.
"Hello. Who might you two be?"
Saul spoke politely, "Good afternoon Madame Haruno. My name's Saul and this is Hinata. We were both graduates to become genin alongside Sakura. We were asked by our mutual friend and her teammate, Naruto, to assist her with something. Could we please borrow Sakura-chan for a bit?"
Friends? With the demon fox? Haruno Mebuki scowled. She initially wanted to refuse them.
The only person her daughter had ever brought home was Yamanaka Ino. She was proud of her for being able to make friends with a girl from such a prestigious family! After all, clan ninja were powerful in Konoha.
That's why when she saw the girl, she changed her mind. Mebuki was afraid of the white eyed one - she looked like a Hyuuga! They were not ones to be trifled with, especially for civilians like her.
"Sakura! You have some guests here to see you!"
Sakura came down in her casual wear, noticing the two who stood at her door. They were familiar faces, but she really didn't bother to remember the names of anyone that wasn't important. So that's why she immediately recognized Hinata, even though the girl had been quiet and didn't speak much.
"Hinata? What are you doing here?"
Hinata stepped behind Saul's back. Why was she still so shy around anyone that wasn't him? He spoke up for her.
"She's just accompanying me. Actually I'm Saul, here upon the request of Naruto. Could we talk in private? It's regarding your mutual teammate, Uchiha Sasuke."
Sakura was confused. She knew she had talked to Naruto about helping her with Sasuke, but the man couldn't bear to personally do that for her. He had copped out, saying that he couldn't help her with Sasuke and that someone else could do much better. Sakura had thought he was lying and just didn't want to because it would hurt, but at least in that case Naruto would stop getting in the way of her and Sasuke.
He really had recommended her to someone? And they showed up at her house? Naruto was really an idiot. With him out of the way, what was stopping her from getting Sasuke now!? Why would she need some other man's help? Still, she had to keep up appearances.
"Sorry, I'm busy right now." She said, fixing her hair, "I'll talk to Naruto about this later."
Mebuki glared at her daughter.
Sakura looked at her mother's gaze and relented, "Just give me a bit and I can at least hear you out."
Saul gave a fake smile, "That's no problem, would you like to meet up at the local coffee shop? That way we can have something nice to talk over."
Oh? He was treating? Sakura was suddenly more open to the idea.
"Give me 30 minutes and I'll be there."
Author's Note: First chapter of the day here early for you guys because I couldn't sleep with a stomach ache lol, so figured I might as well write something! Hope you guys enjoy it lol, the next one will come after I end up waking up, or after a little while longer if I can't go back to sleep.