The pair walked around Konoha for a while, doing various leisure activities. The arrogant woman had warmed up to him slightly, even if she didn't outwardly show it.
"...and this is Ichiraku Ramen. Even though it's a small restaurant, the place is pretty popular among people who like Ramen. Want to try?"
Temari crossed her arms. "Try what? Ramen? Please. You really think I would eat something so cheap?"
Saul glanced inside the store. A familiar spiky haired blonde sat at the stall, animatedly chatting with the blushing brown haired girl at the front. Teuchi's daughter? He'd forgotten her name.
"Besides, isn't that guy the loud one from the Chunin exams? He's annoying."
Saul sighed. "Then what do you want to get for lunch then? I'm kind of running out of options I can reasonably afford at this point."
Temari looked down on him with disdain.
"You can't be that strong then, if you're so poor you can't even afford a meal. Have you even done any C-rank missions?"
Saul smiled. "You can find out for yourself in the upcoming third stage of the Chunin exams. I hear it's going to be a tournament."
"Hmmph. We'll see then. In the meantime, are you going to continue to be so useless? Why can't you even recommend a good place to eat!?"
Saul frowned. This arrogant bitch never bothered to hold her tongue. Even though he planned some sort of relationship with Temari in the future, he had already gotten most of what he wanted today out of their earlier interaction. Yet she continued to test his patience.
"I have a place in mind. The question is, can you afford it?"
"Afford it? Of course I can afford it! You're talking to the Princess of Sunagakure."
"Well if you're so well off, how about this. I'll show you a place, but you have to treat me to a meal as well. Treat it as mission fees or something for my guidance around Konoha."
Whatever it was... It couldn't be too expensive, right?
"Alright, deal. As long as the place is good, I'll treat you as a minor token of my gratitude."
The pair walked out of Yakiniku Q around an hour later. Saul had eaten his fill for once in a long time, so he was happy. Temari on the other hand was questioning her decisions while trying to maintain an air of nonchalance. Since when did a woman have to treat a man to lunch?
"You eat like a pig."
"Thanks Temari." Saul replied while picking his teeth, clearly unbothered by the insult. "If you ever feel like treating me again let me know."
"In your dreams." She crossed her arms with a small smile lingering at the edges of her lips. "Where to next?"
Saul glanced over at Temari with the corner of his eye. This woman was clearly enjoying teasing him despite herself. Earlier however, Saul confirmed she had very little vigilance in regards to Genjutsu. When she slammed into that pole, Saul actually had been hiding it from her perception with the Illusion technique as a test. What medium did he use to cast the Genjutsu?
Saul took another slow drag from his pipe. Smoking was a nice cover. The scent spread quickly through the air due to the incineration of the herbs soaked in his chakra, and it was a fairly innocuous activity that wouldn't raise any eyebrows. Due to the absence of any better easily available methods, he had chosen this as his 'medium' for now.
After all, he couldn't grow a field of flowers at will like Yakumo, nor did he want to get a weird ass outfit like Kurenai and constantly stuff new petals between the folds. Smoking would do until he found a better medium to transmit his Genjutsu. The more, the better.
"Not sure. Generally at this point in the day I'd be training."
Temari took off her gigantic fan and opened it a sliver to lightly fan herself. The summer heat had been getting to them. It was in the middle of the summer after all. She grinned.
"Just training is boring, though... How about a spar? It could be fun. Do you think you could take me on?"
Interesting...
Saul smiled. "If we were to fight though... You'd lose."
*Tch* "You sure know how to talk big huh. Wanna bet?"
"What stakes?"
"If you win, I'll treat you to as much BBQ as you want until the next stage of the Chunin exams. That should be pretty tempting to a pig like you, right?" Her eyes curled with amusement.
"And if I lose?"
Temari put her finger onto her lips and smirked. "You'll be my subservient little tour guide for as long as I'm in Konoha. It gets quite boring without a bitch boy to vent on from time to time, after all."
Saul was going to put this woman in her place.
"You're on."
She chuckled, continuing to fan herself. "Oh, did I strike a nerve? Haha~"
When Saul and Temari arrived at Team Eight's Training grounds, the area was already occupied. A clone of his dispelled itself before a white eyed girl flickered in front of him without warning. Temari took a step back, on guard.
"Saul-kun~💗"
Hinata completely ignored the tense Temari. She hugged his arm and looked up at him with both affection and playful reproach.
"Didn't you say you were going to be at the Hospital? What changed?"
"I did go to the hospital, and I treated a little girl called Sayuri. She's cute; I'd love to take you to meet her one day."
Hinata smiled blissfully, "I'm glad to have you back, though, Saul-kun." She turned to Temari for the first time, a hint of coldness within the depths of her eyes. Her tone turned emotionless.
"And who is this?"
Saul slipped out from Hinata's grasp. Then he leaned in close to whisper something in the black haired girl's ear. After that, Hinata was all smiles again.
"No problem then, Saul-kun! Have fun sparring!"
She walked back into the forest to resume her training.
Saul turned back to the stunned Temari, who already had her fan drawn, ready to defend herself if need be. Seeing Hinata walk away though, the tension released from her shoulders and she dropped her fan back down to the ground.
"Saul! Wasn't that the Byakugan Huntress, Hinata?"
"Yep. That's her."
"What the hell was she doing, hugging you like that?"
"She's quite cute isn't she?"
This man was impossible. Temari thought back to Hinata's crazy gaze. It made Temari feel as if she could be slaughtered at any moment, with no power to resist. Nothing but bad news, that woman was.
Temari pursed her lips. "Was that your teammate?"
"I told you, didn't I? I am a part of the second team in the Chunin exams. Didn't you believe me?"
"To be honest, no. Aren't you just some weakling?"
Saul did not give off such a menacing aura. She could not resolve his meek appearance with the stories of a team who had single handedly slaughtered over 21 people in the last round of the Chunin exams. Suddenly, Temari was feeling a lot less confident in her ability to actually take him on.
"Are you ready to fight?"
"Uhmm... You know this is just a spar, right? No killing or seriously injuring, the like?"
"Of course Temari. Even if someone happens to get injured I am actually quite an accomplished medical-nin. So don't hold back."
Right...
Temari took a deep breath to re-compose herself, then psyched herself up. She could do this.
The blonde haired woman picked up her fan and opened it just wide enough that two giant purple 'stars' were visible upon the paper of the fan.
"I'm ready then. Are you?"
Saul smirked. "Let's dance."
Temari immediately started by swinging her fan. A giant blast of wind sliced out, cutting up the grass and sending strands flying in the air. Saul jumped out of the way, then casually took a drag out of his pipe. He observed the wind as it passed.
"You're still not taking this seriously, huh! Why are you still smoking that damn thing!?"
"Why not?"
From her movements alone, Temari was much stronger and faster than the likes of someone like Sakura. She still seemed slower than him but... Just blowing wind should not have that kind of cutting power. Plus, a gust of wind seemed to precede the actual cutting. There was something else going on here.
Temari widened her fan even more. "Try and dodge this then!"
Saul just stood there though, mockingly, as he puffed out a ball of smoke. This angered Temari, who sent out another gust of wind. This time the area of effect was much larger. The wind spread over a wide area, cutting everything it touched. Saul body flickered out of the way.
"How long do you think you can keep this up, Temari? Wide ranged moves like that have to use up a ton of chakra."
The woman shot back.
"How long are you going to keep running, coward? This isn't exactly a spar if you never attack!"
"Fine then, let's see how you handle this..."
Saul summoned a shadow clone. Then they both summoned shadow clones. Two multiplied into four, four multiplied into eight, eight multiplied into sixteen. Temari was surrounded on all sides.
"You think I'll be tricked by some basic clone Ninjutsu?"
All the Saul's chuckled. "We're not fake, you know."
Temari heard two whistles of wind as two Kunai were launched toward her back. She blew them out of the way, but then two more followed from a different direction. She couldn't fan them away in time, so Temari dodged out of the way. They grazed her shoulder though, causing her to bleed.
"What the fuck? No, this isn't possible. RELEASE!"
In Konoha, the Genjutsu release technique was sparsely taught to Ninja on a need to know basis. Team Eight only knew it because their instructor was a Genjutsu specialist. Thus she placed greater importance on the art. Sunagakure was different however. They had actually developed the Genjutsu release technique on the basis of fighting against the Sharingan. It was much more commonly spread among their Ninja in particular.
The clones however, did not disappear. Instead some of their shadows did. A trench as well had appeared to her side. Suddenly, she was grabbed. Temari tried to twist around and elbow him, but he was stronger, faster. Her movements were used against her - her own strength even turned into leverage for him. Before Temari could react, her arm was twisted painfully behind her back and a Kunai was held at her throat.
"It's my win."
Author's Note: Saul took a play out of Sakura's playbook in this one. Mixing shadow clones with normal clones, and using the illusion technique to make them look more realistic. This allowed him to achieve a technical perfect victory, subduing her before she even had a chance to fight back.
Regardless, Temari didn't really stand much of a chance here. She's mainly a long range fighter. Her fan creates winds mixed with sand, but it's very chakra intensive to blast winds that deal any real damage. This can be seen from how little she actually swung her fan - lots of wide area damage when she did, but every fight she only struck once or twice.
Even if Temari had gotten him with her winds, it's doubtful whether or not she'd deal any real damage. Even someone like Tenten only took small scratches from the winds from her full strength fan. Medical Ninjutsu would be enough to sustain him here longer than her chakra would last to keep him in the winds.
In close range though, Temari seems to be a much stronger fighter. She was able to temporarily hold her ground against speeds of Lee's caliber, surpassing her brother Gaara in terms of physicality. It would be a mistake to assume she'd be a pushover once you got close. However, Saul just outpaces her too much, whether it be chakra reserves, strength, durability, recovery, or speed. Regardless of how the fight went, it'd be a stomp.
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