Chapter 18: Meeting the Jonin Instructor
After a short while Iruka came by to inform Saul and Hinata that it was time to come back to class. The Jonin instructors would be arriving soon - they just had to wait in the classroom. The pair walked side by side.
"Saul-kun... Who do you think our Jonin sensei will be?"
"I don't know... Maybe it's a hot babe, who knows?"
Hinata looked at him pitifully.
"B-but, you have me."
She opened her mouth wide, tearing up slightly and showing her tongue. Then she closed it (quite cheekily for her if he might add) and gave him a smug smile after seeing his reaction.
"You're mine, Saul-kun."
Hinata grabbed his arm and hugged herself to it as she walked now, holding it in-between her breasts.
Nope. No that was really hot, but he wouldn't let this take root. Otherwise there'd be big problems later.
"Hinata. You cannot satisfy me alone."
Her eyes widened in shock. What was her perfect Saul-san saying!? Was she not good enough? Did she disappoint him somehow? Hinata looked as if she was about to cry for real.
"Don't worry, I will always be there to support you. Regardless of your family or clan - I will not abandon you. But you can't just keep me to yourself. That would be really selfish of you... right?"
Ah, so that was it. Her lovely Saul-kun wouldn't abandon her. However, she didn't just dislike the idea of another woman in his arms... She hated it... But Saul-kun had already explained so much to her already. Could she really be that selfish? Someone like her, trying to monopolize him, alone? If she was truly that selfish, would Saul-kun still keep her?
Suddenly Hinata shivered. She held onto his arm tighter.
"I w-won't be that selfish... Saul-kun. I'll be fine with anything, ok? As long as you just don't leave... Never leave..."
She didn't let go of his arm until they reached the classroom. Shortly after, everyone had arrived. Team 7 was the last to show up.
Naruto was clean, handsome. He gave Saul a big smile when he arrived in the classroom. Sakura on the other hand, seemed to be both shaken up and confused. Sasuke was as cold as ever. He wondered exactly what had happened?
He didn't get to ask. Kurenai was one of the first Jonin to arrive. "Team 8!" she called. Hinata looked mortified. Saul patted her shoulder, and they both headed to greet Kurenai.
Kurenai was a tall woman, with long messy black hair and red eyes. She wore a one piece dress that looked to be made of cloth strips, lined with black stripes that bound them together. One of her shoulders was bare, while the other was red sleeved. A chainmail undershirt kept her large breasts in place, while her thighs were covered in gauze.
Saul didn't know exactly what he was looking at, but it was hot. She was the picture of bizarre seduction. The woman seemed more concerned with how Hinata was looking at her though. Was she the big sister type?
"What's with the getup?" Kiba commented, arms behind his head as he chewed on some gum. "Surely you can't fight in that, right?"
Kurenai smiled amusedly, looking at Kiba as if one were to look at a child. She spoke quietly, but there was also a chilling unspoken threat in her tone.
"Do you want to give it a try?"
Kurenai was known for her Genjutsu. As one of the foremost Genjutsu experts in Konoha, she was often compared to some of the late Uchiha in regards to her prowess. She didn't even require eye contact to trigger her Genjutsu!
Her embarrassing defeat to Itachi was not indicative of her overall skill. That monster had become strong enough to slaughter the entire Uchiha clan overnight at the young age of 13! Kishimoto even officially stated that, "Whether it be Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or Genjutsu, Kurenai was going to get absolutely bodied by Itachi. Genjutsu was actually her best choice."
Currently what Kurenai was to Itachi is what Saul was to Kurenai. There was no comparison. He was so much weaker than her in every area that he had much to learn.
Kiba sensed the possible danger and didn't respond. Animal instincts really kicking in to save his ass huh...
Unperturbed, Kurenai led the group outside. They ended up at a bakery.
"So, what are your specialties and abilities? I've already had time with your files, but I'd like to hear it from your own mouths. And what would you like to learn in the future?"
She asked, biting into a stick of dango.
Kiba grinned, "Akamaru and I are best at speed! We're fast, and Akamaru has a really good sense of smell! I'm strong too; I'm going to become the first Inuzuka Hokage one day!"
"Big dreams for a genin. I hope you can back up your words today. What about you Hinata?"
Hinata froze. Noticing this, I smoothly took over for her.
"Don't mind her, she's shy. I'm Saul. Honestly, my strongest asset is probably here." He pointed to his head. "A lot of genin don't know how to use it."
Kiba scowled.
"Aside from the basic academy jutsu, I can use the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu. In the future I'd like to learn a lot more things - the very nature of chakra interests me. And I'd like to meet more new people too." Especially girls...
"The Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, interesting..." Kurenai's eyes sharpened. "Mind telling me how you learned such a Jutsu?"
Saul yawned, giving off the appearance of no concern. "Ah, I learnt it from Naruto." Simple, easy, direct. People with something to hide often tried to overexplain or provide too much backstory - the psychology behind it being if it's complicated enough, the truth won't be exposed, right? Wrong.
The more complicated and thought out your explanation was, the more suspicious it seemed. Not only that, but the more complex the reasoning, the more likely there is for you to make a mistake. It only takes 1 hole for everything to be exposed. Saul was quite experienced with this sort of thing. After all, he'd been lying to everyone his entire life.
"I see..." she said, before gazing at Hinata. Saul patted her back encouragingly.
"H-hello!" While still clearly nervous, she seemed comforted by Saul's presence. "I'm good at scouting with my Byakugan. And I probably won't lose if it's up close..." She smiled embarrassedly.
"In the future... I want to b-be with the person I love... Forever." She looks down at the floor, too embarrassed to meet anyone's gaze.
Saul smiled at her warmly, and even though she wasn't looking at him she blushed even more. Caught you. He wondered, was this girl always looking at him with her Byakugan?
Kurenai finished her dango. "Alright, now that we've finished introductions, I think that's it for today. It's getting late. Meet up with me outside the mission office tomorrow morning, ok?"
The Genin nodded. Kurenai smiled, "I didn't hear you guys?"
"Yes Sensei!"
"Good. I'll see you all tomorrow then."
Author's Note: If you may recall, I announced a draft chapters area in the discord for receiving feedback on ch before posting. Unfortunately it seems no one is giving feedback lol, so it ends up being a delay before the chapter posting more than anything else. Therefore I'll just post here from now on out.
Observant readers might have also noticed that I didn't have Kurenai offer them a Graduation exam. This is for two reasons.
One, I think it's highly likely Kakashi was lying to Naruto's team when he said Ninja would go back to repeat their final year in the academy if they failed. This is unrealistic because in the academy, there were no ninja who stayed back to repeat multiple years. All were of the same age.
This statement is made even more ridiculous by the following assertion. He told them that 70% of genin were not passed by their Jonin instructors, and that he had refused several teams in the past. If that's the case then where did those ninja go? Because they weren't in the academy.
Two, a rank lower than Jonin exists, a rank selected for based on leadership qualities and the intelligence required to lead other ninja. Chunin. The most realistic scenario is that if your assigned Jonin instructor did not want to take you for whatever reason - you would be assigned a Chunin leader instead.