13 Departure.

Sato came to his mother's side one last time before leaving. He had to see her again. He stayed for a certain amount of time.

Then he said, "Well I'm going now mom. I'll see you when I get back".

And with that he came to the entrance of the clan where Midori, Iwata and Fukushima were waiting for him. Fukushima start spouting all kinds of nonsense for Sato to hear.

Iwata also started giving tips to the both of them.

Midori just nodded her head and replied the both of them, "Don't worry, I'm here too am I not?. We won't have any kind of problem with me tagging along".

To which both Fukushima and Iwata could not refute her. After a few goodbyes both Sato and Midori set off for their journey.

This trip was not meant to be long but Sato proposed that he wanted to train along the way. Midori obliged. She let Sato train his battle techniques with the wild animals located in the mountains along the way.

Sato had fought several battles now and steadily improved himself, and was facing off against a male tiger. This tiger was twice the size Sato knew from his previous life. It was muscular and intimidating.

The tiger was staring angrily at Sato. It felt that Sato was a weak human and that he encroached on his territory. He wanted Sato's life for offending him.

Sato on the other hand had a slight curl on the side of his lips. He wore a blank expression but was still excited by the thrill of this fight.

Sato did not waste any time and threw shurikens at the tiger. He then followed up closely with a dash and took out an extended kunai pointing it at the tiger.

Along with his taijutsu training Fukushima also trained him in bukijutsu (Weapon Techniques). This gave Sato another tool in his arsenal of weapons. He thought having other skills along with his own would increase his versatility.

This gave Sato another form of attack. Well that was to say if Sato had used his sword will at the start of the fight the tiger would have no chance of living.

He would just use one stroke of his sword qi and the tiger would die. This was not beneficial for him however as he needed to temper his body and instincts. He needed to learn how to react and how to defend himself.

Sato's sword qi was like a trump card. If he unleashed it the opponent would not know what had struck them even after they had been cleaved apart.

This however was only plausible to shinobi and monsters below the jonin level. This was because their fighting instincts would warn them about the imminent danger that was approaching them.

Their reactions and speed far outclassed Sato's and until he trained his sword will further it would not be helpful to him against jonin level shinobi.

Midori was watching over Sato from atop a tree. She had a stern look on her face as she watched the two battle. She stood alert and composed just so she could be able to react should Sato suffer serious injuries.

She did not want to have to explain to her little sister why she allowed her son to battle with a ferocious tiger and why she let it maim him.

Sato however was focused on the battle at hand. After the shurikens he threw at the tiger, he followed with a dash to the side of the tiger planning to impale his kunai into it.

The tiger roared at the turn of events and swiftly dodged the shurikens that it was about to be struck with dashing to one side. When it looked back at the direction where Sato was it became flustered.

It spun it's head because it momentarily lost it's target. This was detrimental to anyone in combat.

The tiger panicked and he moved backwards slowly scouting it's surroundings.

Just then a slight glimmer flashed and Sato had already impaled his kunai into the tiger's left shoulder just right above his front leg.

Feeling the pain from the injury the tiger became enraged and roared furiously. It then attempted to retaliate. It lunged in the air hoping to land on Sato with it's mouth open trying to bite down on him and rip him to shreds.

Sato already knew the intentions of the tiger as after he impaled it he knew his actions would anger it and and then it would counterattack.

Not panicked in the least Sato quickly withdrew from the tiger's range and threw even more shurikens at it.

This caused the tiger who was now in mid air to receive a storm of shurikens being impaled in his body.

The tiger could do nothing and landed on the floor. His body was wrecked in all kinds of wounds with shurikens latching onto them. Blood trickled out of his wounds and every action he take ended up aggravating it more causing even more blood to flow.

Sato however did not allow the tiger to suffer for too long. When he saw that it landed on the ground and it was impaired of it's movement he quickly dash to it and wielded his extended kunai once more.

This time instead of wanting to injure the beast he wanted to end it's suffering and made a piercing motion towards it. Just as the tiger was about to retreat his saw a metallic light shine and then he felt his vision darken. Sato's kunai struck it's head piercing between it's eyebrows.

His life force slowly left his body and he collapsed motionless on the floor. Seeing this Sato withdrew his kunai and after making sure the tiger had died he clasped his hands together.

He said a silent prayer for the beast.

Even though he needed to train Sato was not a ruthless killer and he held sympathy with the animals he's killed.

After saying his little prayer Midori approached him.

"Why do you pray for them?" asked Midori perplexed by Sato's action of always praying after he has killed animals.

"I do not need to kill them but they still die by my hands for my training. Thus it is my responsibility to pray for them. This is just something that affects my mind and my karmic goals. You need not mind this" replied Sato.

Sato needed to do this. If he killed too much then that would affect his state of mind and would hinder him on his cultivation. Sato knew that cultivating was a long and tedious road but he still chose to walk it.

After saying this Midori furrowed her brows as she could not comprehend this.

"What is his state of mind and what does that mean?. Is it something that helps him gain power?" thought Midori to herself.

Sato did not know her thoughts and if he did he could only hold his head and shake it while laughing.

After some time had passed he asked Midori to store the corpse in a sealing scroll.

Midori then went around masking their scent and using to dirt get rid of any traces of a battle occurring here. She did not want to be tracked by other animals and then having to fight them as well.

After dealing with the essentials both Midori and Sato kept walking. Sato found it miserable to be walking in the mountains as he remembered that shinobis would travel on trees.

He could not however replicate this but he started thinking about using qi as another way to practise climbing trees and running on them.

This became a thought that he would implicate later as they travel so that he could find a way to travel better.

Sato was thinking about his skillset at the moment. He recapped what he had learned so far. His taijutsu was acceptable for now. His instincts and reactions are now trained up to a level that he is able to react according to the situation.

He also possessed the sword qi and able to comprehend sword intent. Although it was strong and he could use it in place of ninjutsu, for the time being he needed to work on it to make it stronger.

He also had a good foundation of bukijutsu and was now qi disciple seven. Overall he was most probably a genin level shinobi.

This was what Sato assumed and so he came and asked Midori for her evaluation.

"Aunt Midori, based on what you saw of my fighting capabilities would you say that I am a genin level shinobi?", questioned Sato.

Midori looked at sato amused and a slight curl formed at her lips.

She thought, "So you do worry about your appearance you little rascal".

She then replied Sato's question, "If just based on your taijutsu and bukijutsu prowess then you can be considered at the genin level shinobi".

"But I have not seen you use ninjutsu yet!" exclaimed Midori.

Sato had a pondering expression on his face and he pinched his chin with his hand and folded the other one supporting the other hand.

Towards what Midori just told him he could not refute her as he really did not use ninjutsu or rather could not.

Sato had Fukushima show him ninjutsu scrolls while teaching him taijutsu and bukijutsu. While he was not able to use it he was able to derive something from it.

Unexpectedly what he grasped from both Futon and Suiton was how both wind and water element was worked in this world.

Knowing about this Sato then began contemplating about the basic elements and other elements.

His question was, "Can wind, water, fire, earth and lightning really be the basic elements or is there something else here?".

Trying to comprehend the elements that he knew of, Sato gleamed even more about his own meditation technique.

This excited Sato as he found out more about his own rite of passage. His own meditation technique that would enable him to further gain more strength.

Sato then knew that the technique he practised till now would only work for helping to breakthrough till the foundation establishment stage.

Once he broke through he would need the help of the other elemental ninjutsu scrolls to gleam the truth behind the elements and empower his own technique to derive more strength and implement it.

But for the moment he had only looked at Futon and Suiton scrolls. Getting the Katon, Doton and Raiton scrolls would prove difficult.

This was for the future however and right now his only goal that he needed to concern himself with was obtaining more yang qi and balancing the yin and yang qi within his body.

Once he was able to accomplish this then would he be able to progress further and only then would he have the time to worry about obtaining the elements.

He did not answer Midori's inquiry about using ninjutsu. Fukushima did not spread news of what happened at the training ground so only Sato and Fukushima knew what had happened.

Sato and Midori continued their journey together and would sometimes camp in the mountains.

While camping at night Sato would be tempted to cultivate but he knew that he could not do so right now or else the fragile balance he has would be destroyed. This frustrated him and he would get irritated at himself.

While Sato was awake Midori took up a position near a tree and and went to rest.

Midori's posture sparked something in Sato as he turned his head to look at her. When he looked, he saw Midori being defenseless and too revealing.

Her left arm was across her stomach and her right hand lay by her side. Her robe was slowly slipping down off her shoulders and her voluptuous chest was about to be exposed.

Sato already frustrated from not being able to cultivate had impure thoughts run through his mind. His cheeks turn a deep red and he was about to lose his self control but quickly spun his head and shouted at Midori.

"Midori-san, Midori-san!" exclaimed Sato.

"Uhh, huh?. What... what's going on?" said Midori. Then she quickly regained her senses and stood up alert and in a battle stance.

"You fell asleep and your posture was indecent" shyly replied Sato.

Midori's face became red after hearing what Sato said and she quickly pulled her robe tighter. This instead outlined her voluptuous figure even more and made Sato blushed again.

"You.... you" said Midori pointing her finger towards Sato.

"What you?. How could you expose yourself like that to a four year old kid?" replied Sato.

Midori was stunned for a moment then she became more embarrassed and stomping her foot she went to another tree further from Sato's sight and hid herself to rest.

Sato on the other hand was still thinking about the indecent scene in his head. He was a forty year old man in his past life and saw a lot more indecent stuff on the internet.

But he was a child and his childlike body was still reacting to indecent situations. Sato tried to calm down and he suppressed his feelings.

"This is something I will have to be wary of in the future." thought Sato.

"To think that I could be affected like this, this could be a weakness my enemies try to exploit. I will have to work on this" pondered Sato then his face once again became red.

Strength. That was what was needed in this world and if you had any weakness that could be exploited. Then your enemies will surely focus on that point. If Sato wanted to protect himself and others he needed to reduce the amount of weaknesses that his enemies could exploit.

Sato then determined that he would fix this weakness but for now he needed some rest. Sato did not sleep well this night still frustrated from what happened and how he could not cultivate.

The next morning aunt Midori came and woke Sato from his slumber. She was careful around him now thinking that he was a perv.

Sato did not mind this and ignored her attempts of insulting him. He got up and they proceeded on their journey.

They passed the mountains while Sato still fought and trained. He was still focusing on his taijutsu training now trying to defeat animals with only his bare hands now instead of relying on weapons.

Doing this increased the difficulty of the battle as he had no distractions to implement in the battle to draw his opponents attention away.

He mainly used his arms and feet and came up with more creative ways to defeat them with only palm strikes, fist strikes and kicks.

He went on doing this and both Midori and Sato finally came to the front of a village. This was their destination and the place Sato thought would be beneficial to his cultivation.

This was place he also thought would be able to gather the scrolls he needed to comprehend the next level of his meditation technique.

This village was Konohagakure!