Kito was a retired Chunin, and his daughter was in the room with him. Attacking to knock him unconscious and making him forget with Genjutsu, while possible, would come with a ton of risk. The least risky option would just to make an excuse, a passable one, to hold the man off for now. He could implement a more permanent solution later.
Saul smiled weakly, "Actually, I was originally an orphan. After I graduated from the ninja academy though, I haven't been to the orphanage to visit."
Kito's eyes widened. "Oh! No no, you don't have to worry about anything! The director is such a kind woman after all! I'm sure everyone would love to see you again."
Saul shook his head. "It would really just be awkward, right? I didn't want to come back until I was a fully accomplished ninja. Now coming back just to ask for help after I've been given so much already... I couldn't."
He played the part of a young adult estranged from his parents. It was a defense that was simple enough and didn't require any specific knowledge from the original Saul.
Kito pursed his lips. "Are you sure you just don't want to visit? You could just come by with us two; we don't have to ask about learning Medical Ninjutsu."
"That's enough, Kito-sama. You do not have to coax me like your daughter. It's fine."
The man glanced at his daughter, who was still sitting peacefully on the bed. She waited patiently as the two adults had their conversation. Sayuri was such a good girl...
"Then... Ok. Can we continue this conversation outside? I'd like to show you my gratitude."
Saul left the hospital with an extra 50 thousand ryo. Kito had been extremely generous with his first payment. He made sure to pay Saul the equivalent fees of what a medical Chunin would expect from a treatment like this.
Their future agreement had him paying Saul 10 thousand ryo for every consecutive treatment, to be done bi-weekly in order to maintain Sayuri's health. These kinds of fees were the maximum someone like Kito could afford consistently with his salary.
Had he overcharged Sakura? Of course he had. But it was fine, right? He knew she had a bunch of money from the land of waves mission, and that she didn't really have anything else to spend it on. Sakura still lived with her parents - practically no cost of living.
Saul chuckled to himself. Who was he kidding? He never intended to help the bitch with Sasuke in the first place. Although next time she came to visit, he'd show a lot more 'sincerity.' He still needed the money after all.
As he aimlessly walked the streets of Konoha, Saul made plans for the future. Karin was on his mind now - he needed to find a way to bring the woman into Konoha. Her chakra would be essential for his future training. Draining her through constant shadow clone visits was both risky and inefficient. He kept having to take care of the helpless girl within the wild too - she wasn't self-sufficient like his other test subjects. And... The man looked up.
A blonde haired woman strolled the streets of Konoha in front of him. Her hair was tied into four pony tails, each on a separate quadrant of the back of her head. She was alone, like Saul, as she walked with a permanent scowl.
He had left a shadow clone with the clingy Hinata today. She needed to learn that even when he was apart from her, that did not mean he was abandoning her. His trip to the hospital this morning provided the perfect opportunity for him to start getting her used to spending time away from him again.
Such time away would prove invaluable to Saul as the number of his 'hidden' activities grew. Even now, it granted him a chance he would not pass up. He walked up to the woman.
"Fancy meeting you here."
Temari turned back and glared.
"Who are you?"
Saul gave her a disarming smile and moved by her side.
"My name is Saul. I remember seeing you and your team at the Chunin exams. You guys were the only team to arrive faster than us in the second stage, right? Pretty impressive."
She harumphed and kept walking. Saul followed.
"I don't speak with weaklings, you know."
"It's good I'm anything but weak then."
Temari stopped.
"What do you want?"
Rude, blunt, and straight to the point. This daughter of the Kazekage would be nothing without her body. Saul had been staring at her ass beforehand as he caught up to her. She was wearing a pencil skirt that hugged her buttocks as she walked. Each of her ass cheeks rippled with every step. If the future events played out like they did in canon, this woman could be a target. Saul just wanted to test the waters a little before he struck.
Taking a puff out of the pipe he had in his mouth, Saul took a long drag, leaving the woman in silence for a moment.
"You see... Instead of rushing through the exams like you guys, we took our time to crush the opposition."
Saul glared at her with dead eyes, like the woman had only ever really seen in Gaara. She flinched. Too much intimidation? He'd tone it down a little.
"I've heard tales of the 'sand demon' from your village. But I've seen Gaara. He's a man of flesh and blood; he's no demon."
This was a slightly more obscure manipulation tactic. It was most effective at gathering information, often used by interrogators against their unsuspecting captives. Rather than openly asking a question, causing the person to raise their guard and be careful about what they said, a statement was much more likely to provoke a full response. Especially if the statement was wrong. People loved to prove others wrong. It was human nature.
Temari smirked. "You might think so. But Gaara isn't someone you can just judge by appearances alone."
"He doesn't look that strong."
"Don't make me laugh! Unlike a sheltered little Konoha Genin like you," she said with a growing confident bluster, "Gaara has already completed a B-rank mission. He's killed veteran ninja without even taking a single scratch! His defense is absolute."
A B rank mission. So just like Naruto's group. Saul continued fishing.
"I see. Being teammates, you two must be pretty close then."
Temari felt a surge of fear remembering how her younger brother had slaughtered that team of rain ninja in the forest and how he had almost done the same to her older brother, Kankuro. Temari had barely appeased him by acting pitiful and cheery to distract him, but... They were the opposite of close.
She feared Gaara more than anything, about how he might one day kill them too. Just how he killed their mother. Temari had gone on an outing by herself to avoid the uncomfortable sand delegation. Her younger brother always sat there, talking and giggling to himself. He almost never slept either.
Kankuro was no better. He was always looking at his puppets, fiddling around with the components or testing different motions with his chakra strings. And her sensei, Baki, was always out doing god knows what. Temari felt like she was going insane cooped up with them.
"...You know nothing."
She continued walking. Saul continued following. Annoying.
"Speaking of, what's your name? You never introduced yourself."
"I don't want to get too close to a Konoha- Ah! ...Ow."
Temari had walked face first into a streetside pole and fell back onto her ass. She hadn't noticed it at all when she was walking. How could she become so careless!
Saul snickered. "Careful. The street poles in this village are made of pretty tough stuff. You'll get hurt pretty quickly if you just bash your head into them like that."
Temari blushed. "You think I don't know that?"
"I mean, it was kind of just standing there. What did the pole do to you?"
"Shut up!"
The woman was bleeding a little from the scratch on her forehead. Unprepared, she had not been able to reinforce her body with chakra. Temari glared at him angrily from the ground.
Saul reached down and helped her up. Then with a few hand seals, a green glowing light extended from his palm in a sphere.
"What are you doing!?"
"I'm a medical-nin, you know. I can heal you. Stay still."
He actually learned the Mystical Palm Ninjutsu? Tch. Not manly at all. Temari watched him with disdain as she let him heal the wound on her forehead.
"I'm not paying you for healing something like this, you know."
"No worries. Take it as a show of Konoha's hospitality."
The blonde haired woman smiled a little bit despite herself. Maybe... This annoying guy wasn't so bad after all. Throwing the eager man a bone couldn't hurt, right? The lord knew she needed someone to keep her entertained while she was stuck here with her brothers. Saul, was it?
"Temari."
"Hmm?"
"You were asking for my name. It's Temari."
"Ah... Nice to meet you then, Temari."
"It's your honor."
This bitch...
Author's Note: Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro were not informed of the Konoha Crush plan until the day of the operation approached. Ninja were often kept on a need to know basis, only told minimal information to prevent leaks. In Temari's eyes, currently Konohagakure and Sunagakure are allies. This is why she wasn't on guard around Saul, allowing him to test her as he pleased.
This confirmed many of his suspicions about the current plot. Learning from his tryst with Orochimaru, he no longer blindly follows what he learned in his previous life. Rather he confirms them with his own eyes. His current communication with Temari is a result of this new cautious approach.
And with this extra chapter, we're currently caught up to the current schedule of 1 ch per day.
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