17 Ino-Shika-Cho

Choji brought Sato, Ino and Shikamaru to Ichiraku's Ramen.

They entered the food stand and sat down to eat. As they were ordering, Choji ordered nine bowls of ramen for himself.

Sato looked at Choji who was stuffing his mouth with the noodles and had black lines formed on his forehead. He wanted to puke up his blood.

He knew that the Akimichi clan was known for their love of food but this was the first time seeing someone like Choji eat so much right before his eyes.

Ino on the other hand looked at Sato, she started asking him about himself.

"Hey, You're named Sato right?" asked Ino.

"Why do you look so beautiful?." she continued.

"I look this way because I inherited my mother's features" replied Sato.

"Then what does your mother look like?" questioned Ino.

"My mother is not here, so I can't bring you to meet her." said Sato looking depressed as he remembered his mother's situation.

"Ino" called Shikamaru, who looked at Ino, implying that she had touched on a sensitive subject of Sato's.

"I'm sorry for reminding you about your painful memories." responded Ino.

"It's ok Ino-san, I know my mother will get better soon and then I promise to introduce you guys as my friends" said Sato who once again looked at the group.

Sato had already decided that he would befriend the trio and that he would have to help them when trouble came.

He knew the storyline and that calamity would befall their parents. He needed to plan for it, but he would only worry about that when the time came.

*Burrrrrrrpp*.

Choji just finished his ninth bowl of ramen and belched incredibly loud. He did not do it on purpose but the noise interrupted the trio's conversation and removed the depressing feeling in the atmosphere.

Sato looked at Choji once more and started laughing at him.

Shikamaru also looked at Choji with a smile.

"Nice one" commented Shikamaru.

He may have said this towards Choji's disruption towards the gloomy atmosphere that was in the air, or it may have just been because of the belch that Choji uttered.

"Disgusting, Choji cover your mouth when you do that." Ino replied with disdain.

Ino then turn back to Sato and questioned him some more.

"So Sato-kun you seem to not be a resident of Konoha? Where are you from?" asked Ino.

"I'm a member of Kirigakure" replied Sato.

"You're a shinobi of Kirigakure?" asked Ino with a shocked look on her face.

"Yes" said Sato.

"Then why does my mother want you to be my friend and how did you come to know her?" questioned Ino with her guard up.

Ino thought that Sato had used her mother to get in contact with her. She thought that he had ulterior motives and decided to interrogate him to figure out what he was up to.

"There is no need to worry." replied Sato who noticed Ino's intention directed to him from her questions.

"I just happened to come across your family's store, when a certain herb your family kept intrigued me." explained Sato and he continued.

"When I came to the store, I asked your mother to help me look for it. She told me that she does not sell them but would give it to me on the condition that I became friends with you."

"Hmmmm, really?" Ino spoke doubtfully.

"This is the truth. Whether you believe me or not is up to you." said Sato looking at Ino.

Ino stared back at him and notice that his eyes did not betray any emotions in them, and she thought that he might be telling the truth. With this she relaxed her guard and continued chatting and eating with them. She decided that she would question her mother once she returned.

If Sato's story matched up to her mother's then everything was fine but if they didn't match up....

Sato took note of this and went on to enjoy his time with the trio not worried in the least. He knew he was not guilty but he knew it was troublesome from the time he took the request.

After they had finished eating, they spent some more time together walking around Konoha. Sato visited some of the training grounds and playgrounds in the village.

Choji was still stuffing his mouth and Sato was flabbergasted.

"Didn't he just downed nine blows of ramen? He's still eating?" thought Sato.

Shikamaru noticed Sato's stunned expression while watching Choji and shaked his head.

"Choji just can't go two minutes without eating something" said Shikamaru.

Ino on the other hand was walking with the group and brought Sato to some of the places the trio liked to play. She would explain some of the places to him.

Sato liked hearing Ino's explanation. It gave him an in depth knowledge of his surroundings.

The group then came to one of the most famous places in Konoha. It was the Hokage-iwa(Hokage Rock). Sato took in the sights of the previous Hokages that was sculpted on the rock and he was in awe at the majesty of it.

Then the group noticed something. When they looked to the Sandaime Hokage's face, they found a child in an orange jumpsuit with blonde hair and whiskers on his face. He had blue eyes with black pupils. In his hands he was carrying a gallon of paint in one hand and a brush in the other hand.

This person was Naruto and clearly he was up to no good.

Sato looked at him curiously. He was not interested in the prank that Naruto was going to do. He already knew what was going to happen. What he was interested in was how Naruto would escape.

Even in the anime Naruto would escape jonin level shinobi but was never caught.

This was intriguing to him and he wanted know why.

As expected Naruto painted the Sandaime Hokage's face on the rock and successfully committed his prank but was soon chased by jonin shinobi.

Sato looked on cheerfully but he still was not able to comprehend why Naruto was able to get away from them.

Shikamaru on the other hand scratched his head and let out a sigh. He knew what Naruto was doing but he thought that it was still pointless.

Ino also look at Naruto in disdain. She thought that Naruto was more of an idiot that anyone else. Ino had already met Sasuke and she was already head over heels for him.

When Naruto tried to be Sasuke's rival she got pissed at Naruto and since then held him in contempt.

While Sato was amused by this, he noticed movements at the Uchiha clan. When he saw this he knew what was happening. It was the Uchiha's destruction.

Sato thought that Itachi Uchiha and Obito had finally made their move. It was evening now and Sato did not want to draw trouble towards himself. He quickly said goodbye to the trio and told them to hurry along home.

He knew that their parents would worry about them. The events happening now will bring a huge reaction to the clans and their security would be alerted.

After telling them to not worry their parents, the three walked back home and Sato also went to his residence.

Coming to the front of his cottage he noticed that Midori was not back yet. This caused some worry for him because he did not want her to be caught up in the events happening at the Uchiha's residence.

Turning around, he was about to head out again in search of her but found that she was already returning.

Sato saw Midori smiling at him. She was in high spirits but he did not know why. As he was about to ask her about it he heard her call to him.

"Sato, come with me, the Hokage would like to talk with you." said Midori.

Bewildered, Sato wondered why the Hokage would want to see him.

"Did you do something?" asked Sato to Midori.

Hearing him ask her this Midori just smiled in response and brought him to see the Hokage.

Sandaime Hokage was still thinking about his visitors from Kirigakure. It had been over a year now that they came to visit. He wondered what their plan was, but he soon disregarded them as they did not cause trouble.

Sarutobi had his anbu keep tabs on them so that he would be informed the moment anything troublesome were to happen. Unexpectedly nothing major occurred. This puzzled him as he thought that they would be up to no good.

However Midori and Sato just spend their time at the cottage and roaming around Konoha like they said they would. This would have been perfect camouflage if the two were plotting something.

Still nothing happened. The two were excellent guests who neither complained or push their problems onto him so he just threw them to the back of his mind.

At the moment Sarutobi had more pressing matters to worry about. He tried to get in contact with the Uchiha clan and wanted to quell the rebellion. Then the tragedy occurred and the clan was massacred.

Right as they were in the middle of an operation, Midori requested to see the Hokage. Wondering what she intended the Hokage accepted her visit and told the anbu to escort her in.

Midori came to the Hokage's office and bowed to him.

Sarutobi nodded to her and gestured to her to explain her visit.

After a couple of minutes Midori left the Hokage's office and returned to Sato.

Midori brought Sato to the Hokage and Sato was standing before him with a dazed look on his face.

When Midori brought Sato to the Hokage's office he had no idea what she was planning. When they were finally in front of Sarutobi, he explained that Sato would be assigned to someone who could teach him.

Hearing this Sato fell into thought "So she was worried about me because she thought I had stagnated in my training."

He looked at Midori who smiled back at him.

Midori thought that she had finally found a way to help him. Asking the Hokage to find someone to train him would allow him to continue with his training and he won't be as depressed anymore.

Sato then thought, "The Hokage is kind but he would not just do this for free. There must be more to this."

Sarutobi knew what Sato was thinking but he did not say anything and only waited for Sato to respond.

After a while Sato said, "Okay I will gladly accept Hokage-sama's generosity."

When he said this the Hokage had a smile on his face and then nodded to him.

"Good, then come back tomorrow and I will introduce you to your new teacher." said Sarutobi.

Midori and Sato both bowed, and then they left to come back to the cottage.

When they arrived, Sato paused and then looked at aunt Midori.

"What did you promise for this?" asked Sato.

Midori knew what he was talking about but turned her head away.

"Kids do not need to know about the actions of adults." replied Midori.

Sato heard this and while smiling his eyebrows twitched and he had an angry bump on his forehead. Just as he was about to yell at her he heard her say,

"I did not promise much, however, should Konoha need your assistance in the future, you will have to help them out".

Sato heard this and was shocked. He thought to himself "Are you mad?. You basically sold me to Konoha, Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Even though he wanted to say this to Midori, he only spoke of it in his head. He had now been made an associate of Konoha or was it more like a slave.

Sato had a huge headache from this, but what irritated him more was his aunt's behaviour. He saw her smile and noticed that she acted like she had done something meritorious. But he knew that this was nothing more than trouble. He did not know whether he should laugh or cry.

He decided that what was done, was done. Any actions he took now to prevent it would be futile. He might as well plan for the future now. After thinking for some time he realized that things might not be so bad.

He had found someone to teach him Taijutsu techniques again and train him more in Bukijutsu. Also he might be able to ask his new teacher about the ninjutsu scrolls he required. Although obtaining them might be a problem, at least now he had a way to try and get them.

Sato decided to accept this unexpected hindrance and turn it into a fortuitous event instead.

After training some more, Sato went to his room to once again cultivate.