Tsunade is having some headaches nowadays. First, she had a pipsqueak following her around every night, then she was all but forced to work with a idiot who was just lucky to have survived his near suicidal training, then her respected senior, Sakumo, started showing some serious signs of dementia as he started to wear that horrendous green spandex and shout about youth after that failed mission, and finally, this-

"Then he showed me a new jutsu and-"

"Could we talk about something other than your crush, Shizune?" Tsunade said with nearly a growl at her young apprentice who has been babbling more and more about the very same Hyuga brat that was in the center of all her recent headaches.

The black haired little girl shut up and looked to the ground embarrassed as she heard this, giving a very weak denial to the words of her teacher regarding her having a crush on Setsuna.

While not really a romantic crush, kids in this world, especially those training to be ninjas, were far more mature than those from other places and Setsuna was the top of the class. Not only was he handsome when compared to the other boys in class (Kakashi might have been more, but everyone thought by now that he had buck teeth or something so he was not counted) he was already starting to show some muscle development and has been helping Shizune a lot recently with her healing jutsus.

Add it and the time Shizune spends around him being rather large and it was not any shock she would develop a childish crush on the boy.

Tsunade could understand this. Heck, when she was Shizune's age she too developed for a time a crush on Orochimaru, but that was ultimately just admiration for his talents at the time. She could understand that, she really could, but-

"Why is everyone so seemingly obsessed with that annoying brat? Even at the hospital the other medics all keep singing praises to him and some even say he has the same talent as me or something. I just don't see it." Tsunade complained since, at the hospital, she has had more than once some of her books being 'snatched' by a doctor or a nurse (or Shizune) and given to the kid to study.

Normally she wouldn't mind it and the books always returned anyway, but it was still irritating.

"Uhm, teacher, you have never really talked or taught him so how can you know?" Shizune said, tilting her head to the side.

"I know because I do." Tsunade said with the absolute confidence an adult has when talking with a six years old child.

Shizune only released an 'Oh' and went back to try and concentrate on the hurt animal in front of her.

Tsunade just shook her head and decided to leave the place. She remembers that recently the village captured a spy from the Kaguya clan who had come to the border from the land of water and she wanted to check it out.

Those are getting more and more common. Spies being sent was nothing new, but that someone from a clan was sent was a bit unexpected to Tsunade, especially one with such a unique biology as that of the Kaguya clan. If their Kekkei Gekai is awakened it is usually rather strong, their bone control being quite powerful and versatile, but considering this spy was sent out to the land of fire Tsunade did not hope he would actually have the awakened bloodline.

Well, even so she was only really called because Orochimaru would be helping out in the T&I division and the guy would be sent to the lab after for some research. Orochi asked her for help with studying more about their body and such and, while she could not get involved directly with the blood itself, she was still more than capable of giving some great insight into the biology, health, and such from others.

It was not her preferred type of work, but it was still a nice distraction and she owed Orochi one after the last mission they went together, petty guy. Why did she have to owe him those dozen million ryo? And why did that stupid horse just break a leg a few meters away from the finish line?

"Sigh, I have something to do. Keep up the good work and note down any doubts you might have and I will answer it when I come back." Tsunade said to Shizune who nodded her head, her face in concentration as she tried to use the mystic palm technique, a more advanced form of healing jutsu.

Going into the T&I division Tsunade felt like her migraine might have just raised one step further with what she was observing.

"Fascinating. So you are saying that his resistance to genjutsu comes from a gland inside his brain that is constantly disturbing his brain?"

"Pretty much. If I were to guess it is more to do with his physical energy and spiritual one not being in good balance, they seem to fluctuate a bit and that gland is the thing responsible for it. Maybe that imbalance causes his chakra to move differently from others which makes him immune?"

"How interesting. I never knew Hyugas could be so useful when doing research."

"I am one of a kind, I guess. Anyway, I am more interested in his bone structure, it seems completely unlike anything I have checked and that unbalanced energy seems to cause it to expand and contract ever so slightly."

"Truly interesting. Shame I will need to wait before dissecting him, getting information is important after all."

"Fair enough. Still, that gland in the brain might be what allows the activation of their kekkei genkai. The Dead Bone Pulse sounds like it is using Yang Release to supercharge the bone's expansion to the point it duplicates them, perhaps by using a special enzyme of an evolved form of growth hormone. But, how it can allow for the body to modify to accommodate opening and closing, I can not be sure how that is possible."

"It is a Kekkei Genkai about the body, simple as that."

"Humph, ridiculous. The human body is still the human body, kekkei genkai simply means the body behaving in a specific way or having a natural affinity for a certain thing. I saw Uchihas, Hyugas, and this guy right here, all have kekkei genkais and at most a small gland like the one in his brain seems to have any sort of special meaning, and those probably simply produce enzymes in special ways. If that can be copied or implanted on others, it should not be impossible for others to also display the same abilities."

"Kukuku, you are becoming a rather interesting child. What do you think of becoming my disciple after you graduate?"

Tsunade felt a shiver run down her back as she almost had to wonder how that same Hyuga brat had found himself here and was now side by side with Orochimaru talking about scientific terms and had such bizarre ideas. Bloodline and kekkei genkais are something that everyone knows about quite clearly, it is passed by blood and that was especially so by those related directly to the body.

It is the pride of the clans and many ninjas, that he is just shoving it all into simply biological terms and talking or replicating them is not something a normal kid would talk about.

Heck, Orochimaru and Hiruko were the only ones she knew who had that sort of way of thinking, and both only developed it when they were much older than the Hyuga brat.

Anyway, she coughed in her hand to gather the attention of the mad scientist and the mad scientist in training (in Tsunade's eyes).

"Oh, Tsunade. You finally arrived, I see." Orochimaru said in his usual husky tone.

"Lady Tsunade, a pleasure to meet you again. I hope you are doing well." Setsuna said with a gentle and respectful tone.

Tsunade only humped, approaching the gagged man and noticing how he was already rather hurt but there were some places that were healed and there was no risk for his life at the moment.

With a single glance Tsunade could tell the spy from Kiri has received some treatment since arriving, the signs of medic ninjutsu applied to him were a bit rough but certainly not bad overall.

She would give it a six out of ten.

Turning to Orochimaru, she could not help but ask.

"Orochi, I didn't know you actually decided to properly learn medical ninjutsu."

"Oh, I didn't. The one who did the healing was actually this little one here, quite a talent don't you agree?"

Tsunade's eyes actually slightly widened at that, her eyes aiming at the six years old kid who clearly showed good potential. She, however, was not convinced.

"Fine then, why don't he show me what he's got?" Tsunade said and Orochimaru wisely chose to not say anything about the actual reason Tsunade was called over.

The woman was as whimsical as they come, since the second war she barely shows interest in anything, if she wanted to test the kid then Orochimaru could indulge her. Besides, even if only briefly he has already obtained some interest in the kid and his way of thinking and talent, being able to observe him in action some more would certainly be entertaining.

As for Setsuna, he did not show much hesitation as he moved to the gagged and bound spy from Kiri and took a bisturi before using it to slice the man a bit further. He did so with no hesitation since the one that was responsible to extract information from this man was Orochimaru and if the snake sannin was against any of his actions he could speak up at any time to stop him.

Tsunade on the back, though, stumbled a bit as she saw the blood flowing out, her eyes widening as she took a step back and Orochimaru scowled a bit at this, Tsunade's excessive homophobia was a bit too strong and time alone clearly wasn't fixing it.

The boy did not do any hand signs. He merely used his chakra in the exact way necessary to activate the natural regenerative capacity from the Kaguya clan member. While this clan was not Senjuu or Uzumaki they may as well be seen as having the third best natural physique in the world, their natural life force was heads and shoulders above most others and, as such, it was not hard to stimulate his cells into growing the right way.

Orochimaru licked his lips at the display, especially of such an extremely fine control over one's chakra to the point the boy could use jutsu with no hand sign. He had asked him how he did it before and the boy explained how he did what he did and why, the usefulness of the Byakugan in seeing clearly the chakra and its aspects while doing a jutsu and how it was not too hard to copy it enough times to the point he could do it even without actually using hand signs.

Deep inside, a small seed of envy over such eyes started to appear in Orochimaru as well as utter disdain over the clan who had all but wasted it. If it was in his hands, how much better would eyes like this be and how fast would his research go? Such questions could not help but spring into the snake sanin's mind.

As for Tsunade, she had to hold herself back from running away at the blood being shown but as the kid finished the healing he used some cloth to clean the blood and show the injury well healed, just a faint mark showing any sign of there having been a gash there previously.

Taking a breath to calm down, Tsunade approached it to inspect and she begrudgingly had to accept it. This child, irritating as he might be, was a bonafide genius at healing.

"... Whatever, pass the results over to me to check." Tsunade said, irritated over having been proven wrong as she took the medical results from Orochimaru's hands and began to look it over.

Setsuna on the side observed the woman and, after a little while he decided to ask her something.

"Do you have homophobia?"

"Not your business." Tsunade said with no hesitation. She did not want her weakness to be known to even little kids.

The kid though, thought for a little bit before speaking.

"Can, can I try something? To maybe get you better?"

"Humph, if a little kid could find a solution I would not be stumped by it." Tsunade said with no hesitation and Orochimaru had to agree. Tsunade was most likely the very best doctor in the entire world and she has had this problem for years now.

She tried to heal it, but she just couldn't do it. How could a small kid manage it when she couldn't?

"Maybe, but how would you know if you don't try?" Setsuna said with a shrug.

Tsunade decided to humor the kid. It was no big deal after all to at least try this.

"Fine, let's see what you manage, kid." Tsunade said as she stopped looking at the documents of the medical tests on the spy for a moment.

Setsuna nodded before he activated his byakugan and did some hand signs. Tsunade felt the kid's chakra trying to cast a genjutsu on her and she nearly snorted at this. Using a genjutsu to try shock treatment to make her get over her situation was something she did long ago and it simply did not work.

Still, she let the genjutsu take effect and… nothing.

"Fine then, am I healed now?" Tsunade said with a tone of humor and the kid put his hands behind his back and a few seconds later he showed them to her covered in… pink paint smelling fruity.

Tsunade looked at this with a raised brow, no sign of it meaning anything as she asked.

"What? Is this supposed to be anything?"

Orochimaru, though, was entirely shocked as he looked at the kid and Tsunade before he spoke.

"Tsunade, that is blood."

"... What?" Tsunade said in shock and doubt with the kid smirking as he presented his hands closer for Tsunade to see and, with trembling hands, touched it.

The texture was that of blood, sure, but the smell and color were entirely different. Just this was enough to where she no longer felt anywhere near as much of an aversion to the stuff.

"How?" Tsunade muttered and the kid shrugged.

"Basic genjutsu. Just needs to change the way you experience blood in terms of sight and smell. Mental problems with a trigger are not something you normally can just rationalize away, so by just removing what makes the trigger, well, trigger you can accomplish what you want."

Orochimaru and Tsunade looked at one another, shocked they never thought of this. Tsunade, with slightly trembling hands, took a kunai and pierced her own skin and when the pink 'paint' and fruity smell hit her, she did not feel the shakes and such expected from her condition.

"This is a very basic genjutsu, you can cast it on yourself easily enough or maybe have your summon do it? I heard that the legendary Katsuyo is a very wise being, he should have no problems using such a technique if you ask him. Just, maybe slowly weaken the genjutsu effect step by step and in a few years you should no longer be triggered by blood." Setsuna said and Tsunade took a deep breath and, a few seconds later, tears started spilling from her eyes.

Finally, finally she found a way to get over her current state. It was not perfect, but with this she finally had some way to get better. To no longer feel as stuck in the past as she has been for so very, very long.

After a long time of this, Tsunade regained her composure and looked at the kid and, with a bright smile, declared.

"It is decided, I will be your sensei!"

Setsuna wanted to say no, but Tsunade seemed to sense this and she showed him a truly angelic expression while clenching her fists in a clear indication she would not accept a 'no' for an answer.

Still, he had to at least try.

"But I am already so busy with my physical training and ninja school as well as all the other things and-"

"We can find the time, don't worry about it and leave it to me. Don't worry, I will make you the very best doctor of Konoha soon enough." Tsunade said, cutting off the kid before she took him by the scruff of the neck and raising him up before he could even react. "Not come on, we have to go talk with your clan about you moving over to my compound and you becoming my apprentice!"

Setsuna could not resist the 'hurricane Tsunade' who simply dragged him along on her rhythm.

'Well, at least it will be nice to no longer sleep in a house that stinks of shit' Setsuna thought to himself as he was taken away by the strongest woman of Konoha.

As for Orochimaru, he could only narrow his eyes at this since he also had started developing such an idea. Not only due to appreciation over the kid's talent, but because his eyes and insight would be invaluable for future research.

Still, the snake sannin was wise enough to not get in between Tsunade and something she wanted. He was not yet immortal enough to try assisted suicide like that.

Besides, the kid was still in ninja school and it would be at least a few years before he graduates. By then the kid would have likely already learned plenty from Tsunade and Orochimaru could talk with their old teacher into becoming the kid's jounin instructor.

Yes, yes that would work nicely for the mad scientist, having such a kid grow for a time under Tsunade and learn more about medicine would certainly be a huge help for him in their future research.

If there were any complaints though, it was that Tsunade ended up not helping him at all with this spy and instead took away Setsuna without even a 'by your leave'.

"Kukuku, it seems Tsunade regained some of her feistiness. Oh well, more of you for me, right?" Orochimaru said for the Kaguya clansman who had no idea how fucked he was just yet.

But he would learn, oh he would.

AN:

I am up to chapter 23 complete, in case anyone was wondering if I was not writing anymore.