The battle started and Kakashi advanced towards Setsuna, his speed, despite still being only five years old, was much higher than most of the rest of the class but Setsuna was no slouch either. Jumping back he made sure the distance would not be too large or too small as he waved three hand signs.
"Hell Illusion technique." Setsuna used his only current genjutsu right away. In Kakashi's mind the surroundings changed and, in front of him, there was no longer Setsuna but instead it was his father's body, being stabbed over and over by the enemy shinobi in some dark forest.
As the son of an active ninja working for Ambu, Kakashi has already understood the dangers of the ninja world. Since he was three he has always worried whenever his father got out to complete a mission and his father dying just like that was Kakashi's worst nightmare.
This, however, was clearly an illusion.
Say what you will about Sakumo, but he trained his son well. Even if Kakashi was only five his training was such that he could already see through such basic illusions and knew how to dispel them. He only took three seconds to dispel the illusion, causing the teacher to be impressed by both his speed of doing so and Setsuna's speed of casting it. The teacher almost expected the fight to end then and there, but he saw Setsuna open his palms and aim all five fingers towards Kakashi.
"Hoh." The teacher sounded as Kakashi tripped on what, for him, must have been nothing.
Kakashi stood back up and tried to walk when Setsuna's right finger moved and Kakashi's feet tripped once more, Setsuna's left thumb then moved and Kakashi felt it then. The sleeves of his shirt on the right arm moving and pulling it to the side to help with tripping him once more.
The teacher realized that this was Setsuna using the same chakra strings he has seen him experimenting with for a while now. He didn't expect him to use it in such a way when there were no teachers for that in Konoha (chakra strings being more a Suna specialty), especially since that is normally a very chakra intensive technique.
This was due to how normally a person can't identify with precision the tenketsus (chakra exit powers) so they need to flood the tip of the fingers with chakra and have even higher chakra control attainments to use the strings. What the teacher didn't expect was that, for a Hyuga, this was truly trivial.
Seeing the tenketsus was only natural for them, as such Setsuna could use the strings with the highest efficiency possible, lowering the chakra requirements and maximizing the strength of the strings.
However, even if the teacher was surprised by this, he had heard of Kakashi before and was not surprised when Kakashi moved with the flow, letting his body be taken as Setsuna wanted and using the movement to catch a kunai from his weapon pouch he keeps on his thighs and throw it at Setsuna.
Setsuna had to duck back to avoid it, throwing himself to the ground as he saw that there was something attached to the kunai and he thought it might have actually been an explosion tag. Fortunately, it was just a piece of paper, but this move was enough since it managed to stop Setsuna's control over Kakashi's movements long enough for him to use his sword.
"As expected from the son of senior White Fang." The teacher chuckled inside as, despite only being five, Kakashi managed to coat his sword with chakra and use it to cut the strings locking his body.
This was the infamous Hatake Swordsmanship, known for being one of, if not THE best swordsmanship school in the ninja world. Kakashi had only started learning it, but covering the sword with chakra was nothing much.
Not wanting to make this fight take any longer than it had to, Kakashi moved in close using Shunshin, Setsuna getting up and using a single seal to unleash the clone technique.
Only, unlike regular clone technique Setsuna did something that made the teacher quite shocked. From Setsuna's shoulders, it was not a single pair of arms that was present, but three. All arms moved in to counter punch Kakashi who used his eyes to try and see which one was the real one.
'There!' Kakashi thought, using his sword back to block Akashi's left hand as he moved in close as to get on a bad angle for the right arm, giving him the opening he needed and-
"Pew." Setsuna spit in Kakashi's face. The kid actually froze at that and stumbled back from shock at the ridiculous move but before he could complain Setsuna continued his right arm move and, from his tight fist, opened it to throw sand at Kakashi's face.
"Eww." Most of the class voiced. It really was not a pretty sight but Setsuna did not care about that as he proceeded to release a punch at Kakashi. He tried the same principle as what he saw with Shizune's healing technique, dividing the physical and spiritual chakra and using just a part of the spiritual one to control the physical, only he focused on causing damage instead of healing. It was similar to how the usual enhancement method using chakra is, only different in percentage and purpose.
Setsuna had only seen Shizune use the healing jutsu, a yang based technique, and acted out of instinct as he tried to copy it with a different spin.
"BANG."
The teacher was too slow to stop, being only able to watch as Kakashi was thrown far away and was clearly injured. However, worse than him was Setsuna whose hand got seriously hurt and already showed signs of having some of the bones cracked or broken.
"Fight over, winner is Setsuna." The teacher said, before moving to him and Kakashi, taking both into his arms and continuing. "Everyone stay here, I will come back soon. Just need to drop them off at the nurse's office."
In a hospital bed, Setsuna was sitting in one of the available beds and pouting.
"Why did I try that? I should not have done that." Setsuna complained as he looked at his hand on a casket. He would need to keep it that way for at least another two days as, even with healing jutsu, the nerves on his hand were still very sensitive.
The doctor was very precise when saying he was not to use that hand for two days and was not allowed to train using it for at least four more days. All because of a single punch he should not have thrown.
Reclining on the hospital bed, Setsuna thought back to that fight. He felt it had been interesting, but he made too many mistakes. First, his chakra strings were still only enough for usage against clothes. No way, a person can easily circulate their chakra and disrupt invasive chakra connected to the body so strings are not used against another person unless it is an ally or you have enough control and strength with them.
Setsuna knew he was not on that level, but the strings still worked well when it comes to clothes, which means Kakashi could still use his hands and his usage of kunai, especially the deception with the paper that looked like an explosive tag, was unexpected.
In the end, Setsuna only managed to land that firm blow because Kakashi was caught by surprise by that spit and the dirt Setsuna took from the ground when he fell previously. If they fought again, Setsuna knew he would most likely lose. There was just that large a base difference between the two at the moment.
The unexpected thing was him trying to use that punch. It was just a thought he had before the fight in all honesty, after all the monster strength jutsu of Tsunade was most certainly a way of chakra manipulation since there were no seals when using it. Since she developed this technique most likely when learning medical jutsu, Setsuna imagined it should work in this sort of way.
He honestly just didn't expect to get his hand 'Deku-ed' like this.
KNOCK KNOCK
Looking at the door, Setsuna saw that it was actually Guy at the door.
"Uhm, can I enter?" Guy asks and Setsuna nods his head, waving for him to come inside.
Classes had just ended about an hour ago and, on Guy's hands, there was actually some chocolate and sweets.
"I told my dad you got injured during the sparing, he told me to bring you this to help you keep the flames of youth shining bright." Guy said with a big toothy smile that would have been more impressive if not for him missing some of his teeth.
Setsuna noticed that and, while accepting the candy, gestured for Guy to sit and then asked.
"Did you get hurt too?"
Guy, as if just realizing what Setsuna meant, laughed it up.
"Nothing serious. I just lost when I faced that guy, Uchiha Inabi. He got me good using his shurikenjutsu and his taijutsu was really good." Guy said and nodded to himself. "If I just fought him without the weights, I am sure I would have been fast enough to defeat him!"
Setsuna just deadpanned at Guy when he heard that.
"Did you go fight in the sparring matches while using the weights your father got you?"
"Yes, why?" Guy asks in curiosity, not understanding why anything would be wrong about this.
Setsuna could only facepalm when he heard that.
"Guy, don't do that anymore."
"But my father told me that I should only take them off when I have something important I must protect or when my life is in danger." Guy said stubbornly and Setsuna had to rack his mind over how to get Guy to understand why fighting with weights pushing him down was not a good thing.
It took him a few seconds, but Setsuna thought of a suitable solution.
"Guy, we are all future Konoha shinobi. If you pull your punches or limit yourself during sparring, it is not only you that is being troubled but your opponent as well. What if, by not fighting you seriously and learning about it now, he gets hurt later when facing an enemy shinobi?"
Guy froze at that and, out of nowhere, started crying.
"Waa, I did something terrible." Guy said and, after a few moments he said with a determined expression. "Yosh, I will go search for Inabi right now for a rematch. Thanks, Setsuna, for making me see my mistakes. Bye!"
With that, Guy left the room running, almost hitting someone on his way out.
"This kid is very excited, I see." Next to enter the door was actually someone rather unexpected.
"L-Lord Hokage!" Setsuna nearly shouted as he saw who had come.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage and the strongest (politician) Hokage appeared at the door. Beside him, Asuma who looked at Setsuna with his hand on a cask.
"Hey, Setsuna. Your hand okay there?" Asuma said with no care about his father in the room. For him, Hiruzen was just his annoying old man who liked to boss him around and be annoying.
Setsuna, while still taking glances at Hiruzen with slight worry, said.
"I am fine. This is just the result of a jutsu going wrong, but I think it should be the right path anyway. Just, guess I will wait until I learn healing jutsu before I keep trying it out."
"Oh, that is fine. Also, guess what? I am the class representative!" Asuma said, full of confidence.
No way, after Setsuna and Kakashi dropped out the best in class right now really was Asuma who has had the best tutors the Hokage could provide for him since very young. Even if he was not as talented as Kakashi or Setsuna, Asuma was not bad and with his training he had a solid head start compared to most of the other students.
"That is great, man, congratulations." Setsuna said before smirking. "But I bet I can still defeat you if we spar."
"Humph, as if. I am the class rep, and that means I am the strongest." Asuma said and Hiruzen on the side actually laughed a bit at this conversation.
"Yes, and I am proud of you, my son." Hiruzen said, making Asuma nearly tear up at that. Genuine praise from his father was so very rare. "But, if you intend to lead your class, you must stay the strongest."
"Easy, just wait and see old man." Asuma said with confidence before waving to Setsuna. "Since you are fine then it is okay. I talked to my stinky old man and asked him to come check up how you are and help you with any doubt you have in your jutsus."
"Yes, yes, it is only fair after you helped my son with the chakra string. Useful trick, that one. I am sure it will be useful for him when he gets better with it." Hiruzen said.
In honesty, his reason for coming was twofold. First, he had used his crystal ball to observe the match and was curious about Setsuna since his use of the clone technique as well as his last punch were quite interesting and not something he expected seeing on someone who isn't even genin yet. If he could manage something like that so early and had managed to actually defeat the son of Sakumo, then he was one of the future geniuses of Konoha and cultivating some connection with him was not bad.
And as for the second reason for Hiruzen to come over, he was honestly bored from all the paperwork and the hot springs had received a new sealing jutsus that blocked outsiders from investigating the place. It was one of the worse innovations from Kushina, something that made the Hokage and his favorite disciple cry when they realized the injustice that red haired heartless monster did.
As such, when Hiruzen wanted something else to look at, he could always come to the Konoha Hospital where the nurses used relatively quite short skirts and white silk stockings (protocol instituted by Hiruzen himself for… reasons).
Yep, there was a good reason why Jiraya and Hiruzen got along so well.
"Thanks, Lord Hokage. I honestly was surprised how well it worked and why the other Hyuga clansmen never tried to use chakra strings. I believe puppetry would be very suitable for it and help when it comes to longer distance fighting." Setsuna explained and Hiruzen nodded before asking.
"Would you mind showing me how good your strings are?"
Nodding his head, Setsuna used his threads to hold onto Hiruzen's clothes. The old hokage easily broke them as he moved but he raised a brow either way.
"Interesting usage, and the strength is certainly not bad for your age. Now, about that favor my son gave you, why don't you explain to me how and why you did that punch to get so injured like that?"
Setsuna did not have that much of a problem explaining things for the Hokage, telling him what he did and why he did it with regards to the punch.
As for the Hokage, he felt once more that he had somehow found what the result of a child of Orochimaru and Tsunade would be like. If it wasn't for the byakugan on his face Hiruzen would actually doubt anyone saying that this is not their child or that somehow Orochimaru cloned himself with some Senjuu in the mixture.
Hells, even WITH the Byakugan Hituzen was not fully convinced that was not the case.
Taking a breath, Hiruzen recomposed himself as to stop reminiscing about how cute his disciples were back when they were Setsuna's age and then said.
"I see. As for your technique, that is indeed similar to how the jutsu of Tsunade works. I do have some knowledge about it also, but only a medic-nin would be properly able to use this jutsu, an area I admit I am not the best at. For that, I believe Tsunade would be the one more suited to teach you."
"Not like she would be willing to teach me." Setsuna sighed as he said that. "I have been trying to talk to her at night for months now and she always runs away."
"Oh, so you were the 'annoying pipsqueak'." Hiruzen muttered with some surprise and, as Setsuna turned his eyes to him, the old Hokage pretended he did not say anything as he continued. "How about this, I will allow you to start medic classes earlier. It is only a few months early, but this and me telling Tsunade about how you tried to copy her jutsu like that should be enough for her to at least meet you once or twice."
Setsuna's eyes brightened at that.
"Thank you, lord Hokage."
"Hoho, don't worry about it child. It is all fine, but, just to satiate this old man's curiosity, could you perhaps tell me why exactly you want to talk with Tsunade so much?" Hiruzen asks and, with that, Setsuna's mouth shut.
With that one question, Setsuna found himself in a much tougher spot than he expected. If he told the Hokage about the state Duy was at, it was entirely possible he would be removed from the ranks of Konoha shinobi or at least be removed for a time. Besides, it was true that only if it was someone like Tsunade would it be possible for Duy to be healed and the man did not wish for others to tell the Hokage about it.
But, even if that was so, the more it delays the less time there would be for Duy to receive treatment. The man's reasons make sense, but maybe…
Taking a breath, Setsuna said.
"Before I answer, I must ask, if a shinobi has medi problems and is receiving treatment, would the village help him with a pension while he is being treated?"
"Depends on his rank and the reason for his treatment." Hiruzen admitted easily enough. "The village right now is a bit tight on funds, but we do provide pension for those chunin and above, especially if the reason for the sickness or injury is related to a mission or training."
At that, Setsuna winced and Hiruzen seems to have realized what should have happened. The Hokage had heard and seen more than once how the exuberant father and son on green spandex had one more companion from the Hyuga clan training with them through the streets of Konoha for a while now, considering that the child had just come to visit Setsuna the hokage knew that this must be related to those two.
The Sarutobi ninja actually sighed a bit as he thought of the older of the pair. The second 'eternal genin' in Konoha, the man was completely unlike Hiruzen's friend Kosuke who was a genin only by choice while having the skills of an accomplished Elite Jounin. No, Might Duy, as far as Hiruzen knew, was completely talentless in all forms of ninjutsu and did not have anything special about it besides his wishes to train his body so very hard.
Even if Hiruzen allowed him, when he was young, to study the Eight Inner Gates. he did not have any big expectations of Duy. The man was infamously bad in all things 'ninja', as such Hiruzen just thought that Duy must have hurt himself while training to open maybe the second or third gate after his fifteen years of effort on the technique.
But, seeing Setsuna's expression, Hiruzen decided to be a bit kinder. It was not quite the village protocols, but to win the favor of a future genius as he was sure by now Setsuna was, some small pocket money was no big deal.
"Let me guess, it was Duy who got hurt."
Setsuna winced at that, making Hiruzen chuckle. The kid would need more training to be able to keep a poker face, his emotions were so readable that it was honestly funny.
"I will tell him to come over to the Hokage tower and if he is really hurt I will personally provide him a stipend equal to what he normally earns during the time of treatment."
"Really, lord Hokage?" Setsuna said with surprise. If needed he would have told the Hokage about how strong Duy really was, but if the Hokage would help even without it then that was all for the best anyway.
"Yes, that is no big deal for me." Hiruzen said, standing up as he then said. "But, in exchange, I want you to work extra hard in your studies as a medic. I am sure that you shall become a truly impressive medic in time, maybe no less than even Tsunade."
"I understand, lord Hokage." Setsuna bowed to the Hokage at that who just smiled at the kid before-
POOF
Vanishing in a cloud of smoke.
No way, the hokage may have wanted to go out to relax a bit after an all-nighter of documents thanks to the situation on the border, but the distraction the man needed after that was not so much Setsuna and his situation as it was him back in his house on his hammock swinging from side to side with his pipe and his imported joint inside it.
He was the hokage, of course he needed to have some advantages with that sort of position.