Setsuna's P.O.V.
I can understand it now. Orochimaru-sensei really was a wise one in his choice of words.
"HELP!" Obito screamed once more as he was captured by the threads of a giant spider. I would have gone there to do it, but I am needed here to deal with the actual giant spider as well as having a clone dealing with a pack of wolves. At least my clone had the help of Anko, who was honestly quite a good fighter even if she lacked any speciality besides her shurikenjutsu that has poison in it.
But seriously, could Orochimaru-sensei not have chosen basically an escort mission? This utterly suck balls, the forest is scarry as fuck and there are more giant beasts than I care to count. That Obito is even more of a weakling than I expected only makes things that much worse since he does not seem to understand his limits.
The giant spider tries to pierce me with its front leg, but I avoid beneath it and use my strange force jutsu to hit it extra hard, sending it flying up and through several tree tops. This, however, is not enough as I see it spitting what looks like several spikes of some sort of solid substance.
Maybe it is something like those arrows that the spider guy from the Sound Four could use? Well, whatever it was, the thing launched it at me and I had to do my best to block and break them.
"KYAAAA! I hate spiders!" Said Obito, who I noticed with the corner of my eye had several small black spiders showing up around him from the web he got himself in.
Seriously, what the hell has this kid learned in his years in the academy?
"Bebe, go help the idiot." I tell my mouse friend who rolls its eyes at me before darting off. The little fucker is developing more and more of a nasty personality, huh.
Well, whatever. I prefer him having some attitude anyway. He may be small still, smaller than any of those spiders advancing on Obito, but the little guy was absurdly fast and nimble for his size and his bite could pierce even solid steel with little to no issue. Those small spiders are just plain incapable of dealing with him.
Seeing that Obito was going to be saved by my rat, I turn my full attention back to that spider and I curse once more how ineffective I am at dealing with long distance. We have been fighting for a few minutes now and I only landed four hits in and they all ended up in different places and none was able to fully crack its exoskeleton.
Shunshining towards it, I concentrate my focus on it even as it keeps trying to run away and keep its distance.
Say what you will, but this spider is scarry intelligent. I can't stay running after it forever though and going around the forest like this for long is just asking for other beasts to show up.
"Let's end this in one go." I mutter to myself as I concentrate. "Seven Breaths: First Breath Open. Second Breath Open. Eight Inner Gates: Gate of Opening Open."
Using my strongest mode my speed accelerates to its maximum right now. My strange force jutsu does not work as well since I can't risk putting as much chakra on my cells with how frantic it is, but even if it is only half as effective this is not a problem.
Getting close using maximum speed, the spider can't avoid me in time and as I get to it's face we stare eye to eyes, then-
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" I shout, childish glee in my tone as I manage to do an epic action I always dreamed of doing in my previous life (I liked Jojo, I call that good taste).
As I finish smashing the spider's head in I feel its stingers hitting my hand, my body grows slightly dizzy so I stop as the spider drops dead. Stopping my technique I feel extreme exhaustion, even if this was done in a very short time that sort of combo is still a bit too much for my body.
Regardless, I began immediate medical treatment to remove the poison that the spider planted on me. Not all of the poison though, I left enough so my body grows used to these toxins but not enough to where it would stop me from acting. Getting close to the spider's corpse, I do a quick check and finally use a sealing scroll to seal up the entire thing.
It may not be useful, but at least the poison can have some utility when my pieces for hidden weapons arrive, and if not for that then at least it can work as food for Bebe for a while.
After doing that I jump back towards where the others were and see that Bebe has removed Obito from the threads and had helped the kid to deal with the spiders.
"Huff, huff, that was difficult." Obito said, hands on his knees as Anko returned with some scratches and bruises on her body while my clone returned intact before dispelling. Memories from the fight appear in my head .
"Here, let me help." I tell Anko as I approach and start using my healing jutsu on her. The first time she was a bit hesitant to accept it, but by now she mostly just rolled with it as long as I was not touching any area she is uncomfortable with me touching.
Obito only stares as I offer some treatment to Anko and, after I am done, he asks.
"What about me? I have some scratches too?"
"Wounds build character and the ladies like scars." I said, making him pout before I continued. "Besides, I helped Anko since she is an important fighting force right now, you are not that. You are the 'client' being protected, so as long as your injuries let you move around well then that is that."
"Hey! Are you calling me weak?" Obito yells loudly and Anko goes to him, kicking him in the chin.
"Shut it. We already got in far too many messes because of your loud mouth." Anko said with irritation, but she was not wrong.
This kid ought to be part Uzumaki, his notion of being 'quiet' is shouting in such a way someone fifty meters away doesn't hear him clearly. Honestly, we have been attacked seven times during these days here because the beasts were attracted by him shouting.
Obito just glares at us before he turns to the side and mutters.
"I wish I was in Rin's group."
"Yeah, yeah, you wanted to be around your crush who would have said what you wanted to hear and treat you kindly as if you were the most special boy out there. Well, tough luck. We are not like that and neither are the enemy shinobi when we go to the battlefield. Either you suck it up and get stronger, or just give up and don't get in the way of those actually trying." I said with a roll of the eye which made Obito grit his teeth in anger.
Honestly, he has been pissing me off something fierce for a while now. He is far weaker than I had expected when in an actual tough spot, had no situational awareness and right now he was just plain unfit to be a shinobi as far as I was concerned.
Taking a deep breath I see that the Tower near the center of the forest is a good distance away. After we got close to it on the first day we decided to explore the forest a bit seeing as we needed to stay here for several days anyway. Honestly, I just want to check all the different herbs and take some mineral samples too. If Obito could keep his mouth shut it would be even more perfect since we would not be facing so many chakra beasts.
Regardless, since the situation right now was taken care of I went ahead to check all the things around. We simply spent our time in such a way, traveling from place to place in his forest and dealing with some of the chakra beasts until the time was up and we went to the central tower.
Getting in front there we could see something left in the front there. Three scrolls together with a piece of paper all left in a desk right in front of the tower.
Going there with careful steps, I checked the paper first. A mix of grimace and smirk on my face at what I saw.
"What is it? Something good?" Obito asks and I shake my head before beginning to speak.
"It reads: 'A shadow clone of mine watched the test, you all passed. Normally we would do some basic D rank missions, but the Hokage sent me on a mission two days ago. I will be back in a few days. I prepared a ninjutsu scroll for each of you to help with what I feel are each of your weaknesses. Master your respective ninjutsus before I return.'" I said with a slight sigh. Orochimaru was definitely way more busy than I expected, huh.
Anyway, checking the scrolls each had a different name in it. Taking mine I opened to check what ninjutsu there was inside it.
"Mine is Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole technique and Earth Style: Earth Clone technique." I say to the others. No need to hide, that sort of stuff after all.
Anko smirked as she heard that.
"Heh, mine is better. I got the Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique."
Obito just frowns as he says.
"Mine just has the basic shunshin technique." Obito says. Well, I got two C rank jutsus, Anko got one C Rank, and Obito had just a D rank one.
I just say.
"To be fair, you already have the Fire Ball jutsu, so you should improve your basics before you can actually start learning new things." I said, and it was the truth.
If he just learns his Fireball technique well and improves on his basics he would be much better off than right now.
He just takes a breath before saying.
"Let's get out of here. I need to go see Rin already."
"Sure, sure, simps gotta simp." I said with a droll that made him try and punch me, just for me to shunshin out of the way.
He made this entire week in the forest way more difficult than it had to be by many times over and I am quite sure that both me and Anko were tired of his BS.
Anko, on the side, just crosses her arms and says.
"We should practice together. Where can we meet?"
I put a finger on my chin at that and think a bit.
"I would suggest my place, but I refuse to get anywhere near the Hyuga Compound if I have a choice and Minato should have his team over at the Senjuu compound to train and if Rin is around I doubt Obito would be able to do anything besides simping for her-"
"HEY!" Obito shouts, even if I noticed his gaze turning happy for an instant when I said Rin would be around at the Senjuu compound.
Seriously, does this kid not have anything in his head besides Rin? The girl isn't even into him, I checked. I asked what she thought of Obito and she said clearly she only saw him as a silly younger brother who needed someone to watch over him or he might feel lonely.
Not exactly the type of description of a girl who would see you as a boyfriend material, more a silly pet really. Besides, I am 80% sure she has a crush on me considering the gazes I saw her shooting in my direction whenever we were in the hospital working together or when I was working and she thought I was not seeing. I guess I WAS the top of class, treated her well, helped her with her troubles to learn medic jutsu, and am quite handsome for my age (extremely well muscled and, say what you will about the Hyugas, but they are a handsome bunch).
All things a love struck fool like Obito really are not. He only ever shows her his unreliable side, is not strong, is too brash, doesn't share any of her interests, honestly his obsession with her is almost creepy and, even if she is not that old yet, Rin can certainly see it.
"I guess the next best place should be the Uchiha compound?" I said in doubt.
Obito actually stops making faces at me before he smirks.
"Oh, so you want to come over to my family's compound to train. Well, I guess I can think about asking permission for you to come and-"
"I do have some friends in the Police Department, they should not mind letting us train there for a bit and maybe even give us some tips if I help them out in healing." I said, cutting off Obito who freezes at that.
I mean, the Uchihas are the ones responsible for Konoha's prison. With me constantly visiting to test out genjutsus for the last few years as well as treating them with respect while showing great talent in Genjutsu, even trading ideas on the art with some of the guards there, you could say I developed a relatively good relationship with some of them.
Sure, there were assholes there, like three idiots for every one decent one, but that still means I had plenty of people in that clan I had a positive relation with. And even the assholes showed me some respect when they saw my genjutsus as well as my strength for my age.
Uchihas respect strength, after all.
"Anyway, let's get going then." I said as I activated my Byakugan for the first time after an entire week without.
Looking in all directions though, I frown.
"... Guys, you two get going. It seems I have some guests." I said with a frown and both frowned when they heard this.
Seeing that neither seemed to move, I continued.
"He is the son of the patriarch of the clan. You two don't need to stay here in wait… Oh, right." I realized a problem, doing a hand sign and a shadow clone being created in front of me with a puff of smoke. "He will help guide you guys away. Since the mission is over and done with, I can use my Byakugan now so you can just trust it to take you all safely out of the forest."
"... Fine, but you better show up for training tomorrow!" Anko said and Obito just looked unresigned, but accepted my directions and moved along together with my clone and Anko.
That kid really needs to work hard to get stronger. Right now he was just plain weak. I already experienced these days what an 'escort mission' was like and did not fancy doing it for years during the war while still needing to try and figure out how to get my hands on, and master, the Flying Thunder God technique.
I just sit up to relax a bit. This week of fighting tired me out in a different way from usual, but it was certainly a good experience. Not only did I improve considerably in some aspects I sucked at before, but I feel like I am close to being a sensor ninja now even if you disconsider my Byakugan.
It must be because I am similar to Shizune, my Spiritual Chakra is naturally much higher than my physical one and grows steadily and fast. Only, unlike her I improve my physique constantly so my chakra is well balanced enough and my control is much better than hers as well.
Spiritual Chakra is the key to sensory skills, after this week of hard work I developed some degree of sensory skill naturally. I should probably try and improve on this as well later, another thing to improve upon.
… Being a kid sucks, if I was older I would have enough chakra to make more shadow clones to help me with my training.
Regardless, I sit down and begin reading the ninjutsu scroll Orochimaru left here. It was clearly new and there are more details than the basic ones normally present in ninjutsu scrolls. From all the notes and descriptions here, it seems like this is something Orochimaru wrote down himself, describing it best he can and in as many details as he can as well.
Even possible applications he could think of are included here, ways of usage that can be useful, and more. Despite the man not being around, he clearly showed his care and the ideas and extrapolations mentioned here for the jutsus are fascinating.
They may just be C rank ninjutsus, but right now they are probably amongst the best things I can learn. There are even mentions here on how to improve on earth chakra transformation as well as some extra viable exercises for wind transformation.
"... As expected, he is a capable teacher." I say to myself with a chuckle.
By the time Hiashi arrives I have read through the scrolls a few times.
"Setsuna, I need your help." Hiashi said as soon as he came up.
"Did something happen?" I ask in doubt. Normally the man would not come all the way over to talk to me. Honestly, he never once did through all the time I have been here so why did he come over this time around?
"It is my brother, he was injured and I need your help to treat him. Please." Hiashi said, a tone bordering desperation on his mouth. "Tsunade is not around and the other doctors are not sure they can heal him properly without sequelae. Please."
I frown hearing this. Honestly the mere thought of stepping foot on the Hyuga Compound made me uncomfortable and I would rather never go there again, but Hizashi was good to me. Sure, he was a bit of an idiot and certainly blindly loyal and brainwashed by the clan and its dumb rules, but he still tried his best whenever we trained together and showed some genuine care towards me.
"... I can take a look." I said, not saying I could or could not deal with whatever problem Hizashi may have before I even checked the man.
Being too overconfident is not good, after all.
"Great! Please, come with me." Hiashi said before he put his hand on my clothes and started carrying me away.
… Damn he is fast. The guy really was an elite jonin at the peak, even if he is no 'kage' level he was still extremely strong and way faster than me even if I try my best.
In the end it took us around three hours at max speed from Hiashi for us to arrive near the clan compound, where he stopped carrying me and we moved together.
Honestly, probably for the best. With how stuck up those elders are they would probably throw a hissy fit if they saw me being carried by the future patriarch, regardless of reason.
I guess the excessive inbreeding amongst them really made them go a bit cray cray, huh.
Regardless, I noticed the strangely fervorous gazes some of the side branch Hyugas launched at me as I passed by. It honestly made me feel goosebumps, how they looked at me was so intense it did not feel right.
Deciding to concentrate on what actually matters we soon arrived in a bigger house on the Side Branch side of the family. Opening it, I soon saw Hizashi sitting in a bed with a lost expression and his hands under heavy wrappings. I did not wait for an explanation, just activated my Byakugan to look into it and winced at what I saw.
"Setsuna, it is good to see you again." Hizashi said with a small smile. "I heard you were undergoing training with lord Orochimaru? Did it go well?"
"... I found out that escort missions suck." I said and both Hiashi and Hizashi nodded as if by reflex. "Also, you are lucky I arrived by now or healing you would be even more complicated."
"You, you can heal it? Really?" Hizashi asks, his voice cracking as his fingers twitch as if they wanted to close, but a wince made him stop trying to be an idiot.
"Honestly, I think only me or teacher Tsunade can heal this. Whoever it was that hurt you, they clearly wanted to cripple you there." I said as I approached closer. "Honestly, give it a few more days and your bones would have started healing in the wrong position, recovering then would be a near impossibility unless we completely shatter all your bones and fix them all one by one. If this was teacher Tsunade she would be able to heal your hands without as much of a hassle as me, the recovery period would also be shorter, but I can also do it."
Thank Sage for chakra threads. I have learned how to change the nature of my threads to act like healing chakra so I can sew blood vessels and even mend bones with relative ease. Teacher was a bit annoyed that I could do so, thanks in part to my Byakugan to let me see in the smallest of details even through flesh. That is the only reason why I can execute this operation since I will need to fix in place and mend all the broken bones in his hands one by one.
Turning to Hiashi I said.
"Get me some blood ginseng, bring as many of those as you can." I tell the man who did not give two shits about proper decorum as his eyes, that seemed to brim with tears, turned extremely firm as he nodded and dashed away.
Blood ginseng is a type of flower that appears in some areas where many battles happened and blood spilled. It has the characteristic to help replenish a person's blood faster by consuming a paste made with it. There are medicines made with them that can do so at a much faster rate, but the regular paste has the advantage of being milder and lasting for a longer while without overdrafting the chakra system or the body's vitality.
Hizashi just stares at me for a bit before he shakes his head and chuckles.
"Who would have thought I would be getting help from a junior so young? Setsuna, regardless of how things happen, thank you for this."
"Leave the thanks for when this ends. Right now, I will just need you to not try and resist as I put you in a genjutsu to make you fall asleep." I told him.
Normally no ninja, much less an elite Jounin, would let himself be hit by such genjutsu and not even try to resist, even if by sheer reflex. However, Hizashi does not do so whatsoever and as I do four hand signs he falls asleep then and there.
He must really trust I won't do anything to him, huh. Anyway, right now I am quite a bit exhausted still from the whole training from before, but I should at least have enough stamina to manage until the bones in a worse position are on the right way.
Well then, time to operate.