Within the world of Genjutsu, Hinata could not see her Saul-kun. He didn't even respond when she asked him to let her out! She felt a horrible, bad feeling creeping up her spine. She bent down to the ground where he had grabbed her ankle, hoping to find him.

No hole in the ground, nothing. He wasn't there. Hinata activated her Byakugan within the Genjutsu.

"SAUL-KUN!!!"

She immediately dashed through some trees, and there he was. Her beloved's heart had been pierced through by a Kunai, and there was already a pool of blood around him.

"N-no. No. No. This isn't funny, Saul-kun. Let me out! Release! Release!"

Her emotions were in chaos, so her current attempts to release the Genjutsu did way less than her first attempt. She knew this was fake. She knew this couldn't be real! But her heart was filled with so much agony! Hinata didn't care!

Immediately ripping off portions of her own clothes, Hinata did her best to try to stop the bleeding. Even if he wasn't real, she couldn't just watch him die right in front of her eyes! But the blood! The blood was gushing, pumping through the clothing and getting everywhere! Life was leaving him with every beat!

"No Saul-kun!!!" A choked scream came out as she started crying, "Don't do this to me!"

A voice echoed through the world. "Hinata, this is what could happen if you don't take your battles seriously. You didn't even summon a single shadow clone!"

"I'M SORRY!!! I just didn't want to hurt you Saul-kun! Please! I didn't mean anything bad!"

The Saul on the ground coughed up blood. Then he slowly stopped struggling. The life left his body. She immediately ran down and hugged his dead body, sobbing even louder. The voice around her reverberated with disappointment and anger.

"Are my words a joke to you? Did I not warn you to take the fight seriously! Even a lion uses all its strength to hunt a rabbit! Your prideful arrogance and willful disobedience could cause this to happen to me for real!"

His words struck her harder than any physical blow. Hinata couldn't respond, trembling and choking up. She curled up into a fetal position and didn't move for a long while.

Saul sighed, releasing the Genjutsu. She had literally passed out. He moved over to her in real life, picked her up into a princess carry, and left to carry her home under the gaze of a disapproving Kurenai.

When Hinata woke up, she wouldn't let him go. Saul comforted her as he always did. He stroked her hair, rubbed her back, let her cuddle with him. He didn't say anything, waiting for her to speak the first word. It was the middle of evening before she finally spoke.

"I'm s-sorry , Saul-kun."

"Do you realize what I was upset about?"

Hinata nodded. 

"Tell me."

"I-it's because I belittled you." Saul didn't respond, so she continued, "I didn't use my full strength against you like you asked me to... I didn't mean to demean or humiliate you, Saul-kun. I promise. You're already growing so strong so quickly, yet I know you wouldn't like to lose. I didn't want to deny your efforts by taking advantage of my bloodline... But now I know that it must feel worse to fight someone that isn't seriously trying..."

"That's not why I got angry, Hinata. You've missed the point."

"Then what did I do...? Please tell me!"

Saul lifted his finger, "You didn't listen to me. When I tell you to do something seriously, and you disregard what I say, then that is guaranteed to upset me. It was made worse by the reason for your disobedience...

Pride. Arrogance. If you won it would be warranted, but you dismissed my request and lost as a result. Do you really think you know that much better than me?"

Hinata shook her head tearily, "N-no Saul-kun... No..." *sniff*

Saul hugged her again, kissing her forehead. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad, Hinata. This is just important, really important. Can you promise to just actually listen to me if I request anything of you seriously? Otherwise..."

He was in fact, trying to make her feel bad, especially by saying those words. However, it was for a purpose of paramount importance. If she didn't listen to him in the future at a critical moment, there could be huge consequences.

"I promise! Saul-kun, I promise! I won't do anything like that again! Never!"

He hugged her even harder for a moment, then stood up, finally smiling at her. "Good. Well it's already evening, so I'm quite hungry. I'll make us something to eat."

Hinata immediately stood up. "Saul-kun, please, let me do it! I want to make things up to you at least a little bit!" 

"Hinata..." He said mock warningly. 

The girl shrunk,

"I-If you really don't want me to Saul-kun... I won't. I'll eat whatever you make. Ok?"

Saul relented with a teasing smile.

"Just checking. You can do it, Hinata."

An enthusiastic Hinata bounced up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before moving into the kitchen. 

"I'll make everything just how you love it, Saul-kun!!!"

"Thank you, Hinata. I really appreciate you."

The cheerful humming coming from the kitchen was proof Hinata had heard his thanks. Then Saul let out a sigh, his mind going back to the previous battle with Hinata. 

She should have won. Even without her using clones he barely stood a chance. Saul knew that she had been continuously practicing the ability to draw her bow quickly and move while firing. Yet she had stood still in the clearing, intentionally giving him a ton of time to prepare before even firing her first shot.

She didn't try to hide either. He didn't have a Byakugan. If she hid in the forest, constantly eliminating clones one by one it would have been impossible for him to deal with. Her Taijutsu was impeccable as well. Even against seven clones of himself, all equal to him in both Taijutsu and physical conditioning while constantly using the body flicker jutsu to dodge her 'instant kill' gentle fist strikes, she still managed to hold her own!

His strategy had been tailored to a weakness in the Byakugan. Sure you could see everything at once, but you could not perceive everything that you saw. The brain had to process and recognize what it was sent, thus, it could be overloaded. 

He tried to accomplish that with multiple body flickers, attacking from all angles. She indeed got hit, but then used that cheat-like ability revolving heaven to literally reverse the tides of the fight in an instant! He didn't know she was already skilled enough to perform that! 

He summoned a ninth clone while she was spinning and sent him to transform into a rock, hiding within a nearby trench. That's right. His chakra had been growing, enough to reasonably use more clones with jutsu rather than just 8. Like the frontloading technique, he had never revealed this to anyone. It came in handy then. 

Hinata was too busy dispelling all of his clones, so she missed it. Then the 'final' two clones ran in to engage her in battle. Even then, she was still much faster than him, and she could use the body flicker jutsu. If she had just decided to create distance when she saw the green glow of the mind body palm, Saul would have had no options left.

If he chased using the body flicker jutsu, unless he exposed his frontloading technique he wouldn't be able to activate the Genjutsu again before she created range or dealt with him. If he didn't chase using the body flicker, well... She was way faster than him. Additionally, she could fire while moving. A few arrows would end any hopes of him winning the fight. 

But she... didn't. One of the final clones being dispelled was the queue for a plan he had came up with on the fly. Once the second to last clone was dispelled, the hidden clone to trigger the rest of the binding traps he had set up. She completely negated it with her rotation again, but that was only the beginning of the ambush tactic he thought up for Naruto. The clone in front to distract, while the clone hidden nearby was the true threat. 

Hinata didn't actively check the ground with her Byakugan. Ignorant of his chakra increase, worn by the fight, yet still confident, she put all of her focus on the 'last' clone. This is why she was caught off guard. Saul's win was merely a fluke born of many chances granted by the loving woman: a consequence of her own disobedience. Over the meal, he would make sure to tell her about everything he noticed so she can learn and improve. Then he'd spar her again tomorrow.

Author's Note: Sorry for the late ch, felt pretty burned out today, with work and not really getting much sleep. Hope you all enjoyed