Setsuna's P.O.V.
After signing the contract with Bebe, my rat which had no name so I gave it one, I could more or less truly start to understand why beasts would even want to make a contract with humans. To put it simply, beasts naturally absorb nature energy, but for it to have maximum effect they need not only it but also regular chakra for their growth to be at its maximum. Since I noticed this with my byakugan I started actively feeding Bebe my chakra.
Strangely enough the little guy's body barely grows at all, but after a while of feeding it some chakra it became clear that there was a positive effect when its intelligence grew at incredible speeds and all its attributes increased at a fast rate.
It was still small, but it now can bite whole chunks from chakra metal with little difficulty and it's innate ability to communicate through the mind grew to the point it now can talk normally as if it was a five or seven years old child with no issue.
Honestly, I have no idea how Bebe could even communicate through telepathy since that is not one of the abilities expected from his mix of species, but maybe it was due to his benign mutation? Whatever, what is important is that it was growing well and soon should be able to finish up with even this mace with the mix of chakra metal in it.
"Come on, just fifty more laps and we can take a break!" Duy shouts excitedly as he was running in front of everyone, looking at him running so easily it was hard to imagine he was carrying weights in both his arms and legs that are downright absurd.
The man's physical growth seems to have skyrocketed since his body was healed from its dark injuries and now even at his base state he is comparable to a Chunin, perhaps an elite chunin that is approaching Jonin.
"Yes, for the honor of our youth!" Hatake Sakumo, the legendary White Fang, said with a broad smile while wearing the same green thighs as Duy and running while using even heavier weights than the man. Sakumo, however, was sweating bullets all the way to the point it was almost comical.
Duy, it seems, corrupted Sakumo to the point that whatever image he once had was crushed into dust, but honestly the man seems so much more free and happy now that it is all cool in my eyes.
Beside each parent were their children with Guy looking like a younger clone of his father and Kakashi who looked with dead inside eyes as he saw his father's state. He has already become a chunin by now, genius that he is, but he would be stuck in the village for the next two weeks.
Doctor orders, he got in a conflict with Kumo shinobi at the borders and needs to recover from some injuries. Not only that, his sword broke during the fighting which was a problem in and of itself for his fighting style.
In truth this was not so strange, Kakashi may be extremely good at swordsmanship but he is still very much not an absolute master yet and the sword quality that Kumo ninjas have access to tend to be higher than those in Konoha since the Land of Lightning have one of the top 3 best mines in the entire shinobi world and some of the best blacksmiths, meanwhile Konoha depends mostly on the land of Iron for their weapons so their cost is higher and the amount of top tier swords available for purchase is lower.
In the original timeline, Sakumo would be dead and his sword, which is near legendary already, would be inherited by Kakashi (and broken later on)... but Kakashi now has no such benefits so he almost died due to his lousy-ish weapon.
Maybe I should ask teacher if she can let Kakashi have the Thunder God sword? It is not like teacher or me use a sword, I don't even bother with swordsmanship honestly and have enough on my plate anyway while teacher has just as little interest in kenjutsu. Well, I guess I can always talk to her about it in a week or so since the exams for graduation are coming soon.
I am eight years old now, only had three years of ninja school which is about half of what would be considered the norm in the future, but that is about as long a time as one gets nowadays considering the tension the nations have going and the amount of conflicts sparking all over.
No official war started, true, but that is about as good a news as they come right now. Even if nothing happens right away it is all but inevitable for the war to explode at any moment now. There is just no way the village can allow the ninja school to take six years like in the future.
After a little while, the running ends and both Duy and Sakumo look at all three of us youngsters.
"Since in a week's time there will be your graduation test, today shall be our last training before it happens." Duy says, making me, Kakashi, and Guy quite surprised.
"Guy, Setsuna, you both need to try and enjoy this last period of time and study in whatever area you think you can still improve." Sakumo stated, turning his eyes specially to Guy. "Especially you Guy, your clone and transformation techniques still need more practice. Use this week to try and improve it even if just a bit."
"Hai!" Guy said in a loud tone that showed his agreement. "If I fail it, I shall run a thousand laps around Konoha!"
I sweat dropped at that one, just our usual one hundred laps were already ridiculously high, a thousand would be almost as if you intend to run almost the entire length of the fire nation more than once, easily.
"That is the right enthusiasm, son. But you should not even think about failing, just do it!" Duy said with a bright smile. Seeing their bond, it is clear that both father and son really were good people and a great family.
Sakumo and Kakashi seemed to see the same, with Kakashi trying his best to act 'cool' while his father smiled softly before he turned to me.
"As for you, Setsuna, I understand you already have a firm path ahead of you, you are sure to pass without issue since you are more than capable enough. However, times will be dangerous soon and, especially being a medic-nin and a Hyuga, my advice would be to learn techniques to enhance your speed since your close quarters ability is decent already."
I actually scratch my head at that. I do have good speed, but it is nothing too exaggerated right now. Due to my body still being too young I can only use the first two forms of the Seven Heavenly Breaths that Duy and Sakumo have been researching otherwise I'd cause permanent damage to my lungs, I could learn the Eight Inner Gates, but Duy and teacher both told me that this technique is not one I should learn for now in my body's formation years. Both agreed I can only even begin to try and master it after I am 12 and the only reason I can even use the Seven Heavenly Breaths right now is that using it since my age should help me slowly develop my lung capacity to get higher and let me achieve the higher levels of it easier later on.
So, yeah I am a somewhat traditional ninja right now, good offensive skill, decent perception, great medical skill, but my defensive and survival skills are somewhat lacking by comparison (and I completely lack any large scale jutsu right now).
I should really have tried to invest more time on those, huh? Oh well, my objective always was to develop a skill set more suited to support and that would let me be firmly put in the rearguard and support division. It is the safest one, after all. Much better to be the one that does the healing, than the one sent to the front and needs to get healed after.
Besides, I still have my strange force jutsu when it comes to close quarters, my fuinjutsu skills, and finally the genjutsu I have been learning in the academy. Even in Genjutsu I have been focusing on relatively less than other areas, I am still rather confident in it since I am pretty sure that amongst my classmates I am the current best at it.
Even better than those Uchiha kids who all (except Obito) unlocked their Sharingans after I taunted them over it, only for me to still be better than them in Genjutsu afterwards. It is pretty easy to learn genjutsu when you know how the brain works more or less and can observe chakra to see what change does what to the brain (also helps that I was given free reign to practice on the prisoners and spies captured and that reside on the Konoha prison, pretty sure the head of T&I wants me to work on the division later on).
I still don't quite understand why they glare at me for the taunts though, it did help those assholes unlock their Sharingans early on so they should be grateful to me, right?
"However, even so I want to give you one final gift." Sakumo says before he takes out a paper. "This here is chakra paper, it is one of the major exports of Konoha and it is made from the trees that lord First Hokage made in the past. Using them we can much more easily test the chakra nature you possess, check what you have for now."
I nod and take the chakra paper and half turns to dust and the other half gets all cut up into pieces. I almost laugh at the coincidence, having the same chakra natures as shinobi Jesus (AKA Naruto), but I am not too sad about it. Sure, I would have loved to have lightning affinity for the sake of developing something like the Lightning Chakra Mode, but there should be something like it for Earth and Wind Releases as well and both have many uses of their own anyway.
Sakumo saw my affinities and nodded his head.
"It seems you are one of those with natural twin affinities. Quite good, even if not as great as my son who was born with three naturally." Sakumo said, making Kakashi perk up and look a little extra pleased.
Well, can't really say anything against it, Kakashi really is quite something after all. The guy is the only one who more or less can keep up with me, even if I win most of our spars when we fight.
"I know your teacher has many ninjutsu scrolls from the Senjuu clan that she would be willing to let you learn, but I talked with her and during the rest of the week I will guide you before the graduation exams in learning more about nature transformation. Well, at least your Wind one, I have never trained for Earth release as I lack that affinity, but a week to learn more about Wind release should barely be enough for a start." Sakumo says with a smile and I nod at him.
Thinking for a bit, I dispel both my shadow clones. Sure, it would cut down my training in other aspects for a time, but I do lack any form of elemental jutsu right now and learning more about Wind elemental transformation can help me a lot in those regards. Heck, just imagining maybe adding wind on my chakra strings or using it for sound based Genjutsu or ninjutsu is quite incredible.
"Good, I will teach you two more about your elemental transformation." Sakumo says, looking at me and Kakashi who both nod our heads. Sakumo then turns to Duy and says. "I will move a distance away then to start the training if it is fine with you."
"Sure, no problem. I am sure you will allow these two to burn their youth to the maximum!" Duy said with an excited expression.
After that we three moved to one of the training grounds around Konoha. It was not too distant from the village, but just as a precaution I used my byakugan to check if there was any possible enemy shinobi around since this is technically outside of the village's detection barrier.
Sure, no sane spy would try and do anything this close to the village, especially with the White Fang present, but I'd rather not risk my life in case someone is dumb enough to try.
"Good, your wariness will do you good later on." Sakumo says, nodding in my direction before reaching to the floor and taking out two simple leafs. "The training for you two is actually rather similar. We will start with this. Wind element chakra has a natural affinity for cutting, I want you both to use just chakra to cleanly cut this leaf. Remember, wind change in chakra nature is based on dividing the chakra into two and grinding them together. It must stay steady and sharp, the sharper you can get it the better. Now, for you son you should practice Lightning Element and it's training is rather similar, you also must generate chakra in two halves and grind it together, but you must make your chakra near impact each other constantly making the grinding unbalanced and nearly joining the two halves without actually touching them. Remember, the more close contact between the two sides and the faster it goes, the best it will be. Your objective is making this leaf crinkle."
He then offers me and Kakashi a leaf each. Kakashi goes straight into trying it with no thought on why the chakra worked in such a way, but I just sit down and think about it instead.
Dividing my chakra into parts is absolutely nothing new for me, it is honestly almost second nature with how precise my chakra control has to be for my medical ninjutsu training. But creating something like what Sakumo instructed, that is not quite as normal. The most likely better way to create friction between two separate but close chakra 'clusters' would be by making the chakra turn a bit 'rugged', but wouldn't that make chakra turn into electricity?
How is it that the wind element is generated according to what Sakumo said? Is it more like simple force and energy generated from the contact of two chakra clusters?
Sighing, I decide to try it out to see if I can figure it out.
Using both hands with the leaf in the middle I release my chakra from both, trying to grind them together and-
"Shit." I curse as my leaf was not as much cut as it was just smashed into pieces.
"Careful there, you must better control your output." Sakumo says. "Remember, your objective is to grind chakra only enough to generate the effect you desire, not to smash the leaf like if you were using the gentle fist. It must have just enough, the chakra grinding must be steady and sharp, not blunt."
I nod, picking another leaf and trying again.
After twenty tries I managed… to not smash the leaf anymore. Yeay, I am finally at the starting point, what joy.
Turning my gaze I see Kakashi picking up another leaf as he was still on his third and that one got a bit crinkled up.
Geniuses are so unfair.
… I may be a hypocrite, huh. Well, who cares? In the end, the only hypocrite I like is myself anyways.
Anyway, after I saw Kakashi sending me that irritating gloating eye smile (don't ask me how he manages to do it, he just can), I did a hand sign and released a single shadow clone to help me with this.
If it is only one it should be able to train for a good while and with both of us training for wind style we should get good results in the end. If Naruto, who had the kyubi causing trouble as he learned pretty much anything, could learn wind and totally master wind transformation within two weeks or so by using a bunch of clones, I should get some decent results using just one but with the usage of Byakugan and my own trained chakra control.
But, most importantly, I will be able to remove the smug smile from Kakashi's bucktooth face!
3° Person P.O.V.
Meanwhile, in the Hokage office, Hiruzen and several jonin were in an important meeting.
"Any updates?" Hiruzen asks Jiraya who was present for once. The white haired sanin scratched his head at that before answering.
"Things are not pretty. The amount of skirmishes has been rising and some of my spies indicate that the Grass Village leader has entered secret talks with Iwa who has started stocking materials near Kanabe Bridge. Not only that, it seems like Kumo has been amassing a large fleet near their border for a maritime invasion somewhere. They seem to be trying to make an alliance with Kiri so the two villages can attack together at the city of Chinku." Jiraya said, making Hiruzen look extremely displeased.
Both news were extremely bad, the city of Chinku was where the wife of the Daimyo of the land of fire comes from as well as the main sea trade post for the land of fire. If it was damaged or occupied then the Daimyo would be furious, to say nothing of how that place had plenty of roads and infrastructure that would make invading deeper into the land of Fire simply too easy.
As for the news about the land of Grass, while the accumulation of resources near Kanabe Bridge, the main route to pass the Kanabe River and only way for an invasion from the land of earth to be sustainable, was troublesome Hiruzen was not worried about Grass VIllage truly helping Iwa. Grass village was infamous for being entirely unreliable and making money by selling information on just about anyone and anything, they having some of the very best information networks in the ninja world, even greater than Jiraiya and Konoha's network.
No, Grass Village would only bother with selling information and being 'allies' with them just means it is all the easier for them to spy on you and sell your information out. That was a mistake Konoha committed during the second shinobi war that cost them the deaths of dozens of Senjuu ninjas caught in an ambush due to information leakage from Grass.
Honestly, if it was up to Hiruzen alone he'd have long since ordered the eradication of the village that helped destroy his teacher's clan, but that village served still as a buffer zone between the lands of Earth, Wind, and Fire so destroying it would make the whole region far too unstable and represent an even greater danger to the Land of Fire.
That was the only reason why Hiruzen bothered with keeping the lip service of keeping up the 'alliance' the land of Fire and land of Grass had. It was an alliance not worth the paper it was written on in Hiruzen's eyes, but it was barely enough to give maybe some pause to the Grass ninja village if they tried to do something.
As Hiruzen was thinking about what to do with the information, Danzo on the side spoke up.
"Hiruzen, we should act at once. We can't allow Kiri and Kumo to be able to work together, we should attack Kiri and make them too unstable to even try and join in the fight." Danzo said with passion.
"Danzo you are being too extreme once more. If we move first it would make the other villages have the excuse they need to act and the war would start before our preparations are fully complete." Hiruzen said to which Danzo snorted.
"You are being too soft Hiruzen. If we wait until we are fully prepared the enemy may also be fully prepared too. We should strike while we can, not give the other villages a chance to get ready." Danzo said and Hiruzen shook his head in the negative.
Danzo was really as hasty as always, Hiruzen's old friend was far too quick to act first and think on the consequences later. He didn't even consider ways to ensure that war did not happen or the cost of the war in lives, only thinking of expanding the land of fire and conquering more territory.
"... If we are worried about our enemies entering an alliance," Orochimaru spoke up, making the two bickering older men turn to him. "Why not shore up our own allies? Convoque a meeting with all our allies and try to ascertain their allegiance properly, especially Suna."
At the mention of Suna the entire meeting hall grew quiet. Suna, after losing the second shinobi war, was turned into an ally of Konoha for necessity seeing as they were weakened quite a bit so they could only pay tribute to Konoha for the sake of protection. However, their payments have stopped a while back and they even have attacked the convoy from Tsunade in a brazen fashion with the excuse that Konoha did the same to them previously.
Hiruzen put his pipe in his mouth as he thought about it. Suna's alliance with Konoha was very weak recently, the Third Kazekage having become quite powerful and the village growing a lot in terms of power recently, there was every chance that the village hidden in the sand might just completely break the contract and try to attack Konoha and the land of fire. Still, if some sort of deal could be reached that benefited both villages that would be for the best.
Danzo, however, was not happy about such a thought. Konoha was the strongest Shinobi village, so why should it lower itself to beg for an alliance with the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages? They should instead attack it, take their puppetry technology and the several golden deposits under the sands and make use of it for the benefit of the unification of the ninja world under the leadership of the Hokage (Danzo)!
"We shall do as Orochimaru said. Send an invitation to our allies for these talks, no need to be overly quiet about it." Hiruzen declared before continuing. "In other news, the graduation time is close at hand and it is time to divide the teams. I thought carefully about each team, considering the specializations, balance, and what each individual team member may gain from the instructor. Come to the front to get your list and check who you have."
All Jonin present moved to get their documents to check it out. They all nodded, already more or less deciding if the one marked passed or not to join their team just by looking at the document.
One person, however, looked infuriated with what he was seeing.
"Lord Hokage, why have I not received Hyuga Setsuna as a student?" Hyuga Hiashi, future patriarch of the Hyuga clan, complained as he saw that he got three Hyuga members on his team, as was normal for Hyuga kids when there were enough of them, but the most talented of them all was not given to him.
Hiashi, having heard a lot about the kid from Hizashi, was actually a bit excited about taking the kid under his wing. Not only would he serve as a way to get Hiashi and Tsunade closer, something that would be great for Hiashi when he took over the clan, but he could help train the kid further on the Gentle Fist.
Sure, actually teaching him the more secret techniques directly was forbidden, but if he happens to show him a few dozen times the techniques without actually speaking them out it would not be against clan rules, right? It was how Hizashi learned most of the techniques he's got nowadays, after all.
Hiruzen, however, shook his head.
"While I am sure you would be more than adequate to help young Setsuna, there is another that has approached me a while back who has had an interest in the child for a while now and who I believe can help him achieve even greater heights." Hiruzen explained before turning his gaze in a direction, making the future patriarch of the Hyuga Family to turn in that direction and understand what was going on.
After all, the one there was one of the disciples of the Third Hokage himself and one of the favorite candidates for the position of Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru who was looking highly amused not only by the glare of Hiashi, but by the one that Tsunade was sending him.
Just a look at his old teammate's expression and the snake sanin was sure that, if anything happens to Setsuna, then Tsunade would not stop until she makes sure that he dies for it. He already allowed for Nawaki, Tsunade's younger brother, to perish in the past as his student, if her most prized disciple dies on his hands then Orochimaru was quite sure that, old friends or not, he would need to become a missing nin and run away to hide for a long, long time.
Regardless, Orochimaru was pleased with the student selection he had obtained.
"The top shinobi, the top kunoichi, and the dead last on my team. Kukuku, teacher was quite generous with me it seems." Orochimaru said with an evil smile as he saw who he would be teaching.
Hyuga Setsuna.
Mitarashi Anko.
Uchiha Obito.
AN:
Figured I might as well post until this point, so you guys are only 10 chapters behind where I am in writing XD.