26 Worries.

Sato sat down at a tree that was located by the training grounds of the Yuki clan. He sat in a meditative position.

While he helped with Naruto's training, he himself could not progress on his own. His sensei had left to gather materials he needed to advance further in his cultivation.

Sato had gather most of the elements needed for the next stage and only had to work on his Yin and Yang now to breakthrough.

His Ice element was unlocked with the help of his sensei Xu. He had him train in the elements and found that his Bloodline was dormant within himself.

Favoring his Yin - Yang body, his cultivation had ignored the Ice element in him and only with the help of his sensei was he able to awaken it.

His sensei told him that while his people would use chakra to awaken their bloodlines, Sato could not. Xu then decided to use his energy to influence the dormant element within Sato and stirred it with Qi so that Sato would have control over it.

At first Sato had a hard time controlling the element but after practicing he gained dominance over the element with his Qi.

After focusing on the elements and trying to master them, Sato started cultivating his Yin- Yang body again but he came about a bottleneck.

That's when his sensei had told him that he needed external help to move past it. When Sato had asked what was needed his sensei told him not to worry about it and that he had already planned to gather the materials needed for him.

Now the only thing Sato could do was to wait on his sensei and gain more control of the elements. His body was also improving with the years so he had to readjust his techniques with his growing limbs and reach.

His power and speed was also increasing so he had to master them in order to limit his strength when he 'spar' with someone and not inflict too much damage.

While lost in his thoughts in meditation, Haku came to sit by him in one of his given breaks from Fukushima and his training.

Even thought Sato had told him that everything would be fine, Haku just could not help but worry for Naruto. The chunin exams had already started and the first round was about to commence. He wondered if they had prepared Naruto enough and could only feel that there was more they could've done.

Sato noticed his nii-san presence and felt the worried energy perceived on him. If he was to be honest, Sato also felt worried about Naruto and the events to come but it was now out of his control.

He'd done most of what he could and hoped that it would be enough to soothe their worries. His focus now was on his sensei, his progress in cultivation and finally the invasion of Orochimaru.

If he had not screwed up the timeline, then right now Sasuke would have just shouted out about there being a Genjutsu on the second floor with Guy's team. Lee would have just asked Sakura to be his girlfriend and she would have comically shot him down.

Oh how Sato wished he could've been there for that but on second thought he was glad he wasn't. Why? well that would be because the coming event of Lee challenging Sasuke and mopping the floor with him but that isn't why. It's because of Guy showing up and punishing Lee for using a forbidden move.

Then both sensei and disciple would hug each other while screaming,

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE"

"GUY-SENSEI!!!!!"

"LEE!!!!"

Then both would run off into the abominable sunset on the beach, while team 7 and others would try their hardest to dispel the Genjutsu with no luck.

Shaking his head from that, Sato focus back on his meditation and the bottleneck he was stuck on. He had no way to breakthrough at the moment and sighing to himself he decided to start training in physical exercises.

He opened his eyes and acknowledged Haku who was still worrying about Naruto. He got up and patted his nii-san to free him of his worry.

"You are worrying to much nii-san. Do you think with Jiji's training you should be worried about someone else?" questioned Sato.

Haku's only reply to that was a wince on his face. He remembered his jiji's abonishment when he lost focus earlier while worried about Naruto and gotten a devastating attack to his gut courtesy of his jiji.

Sato looked back at his nii-san and chuckled at his pain and misery. He was successful in bringing Haku of out his worries about Naruto.

Just then both Yuki brothers noticed the 'Demon' Zabuza walking towards them. He was still on his probation but it would be over in a couple days. Although he had his stoic face on Haku was still able to tell that Zabuza was excited for it.

Zabuza had went too long without action and soon he would be with his blade once more. The only stipulation he had to deal with was getting a genin team. This would be a pain to him but at the moment the rookie genin teams were still in rotation and all were taking on the chunin exams.

So although it may be awhile when he would have to take on a team, it would still be coming soon.

Sato looked to Zabuza as he drew closer and suddenly it hit him.

'Sword'.

Sato had forgotten about the sword from the painting back at the clan quarters in Kiri. He suddenly realized that maybe the painting was transferred over with the move.

This brought some excitement for Sato. His master had focused on his elemental cultivation and was helping him increase his base power. He was now trying to help him increase his natural talent with the Yin-Yang body but Sato had forgotten his sword cultivation.

It was only by looking at Zabuza and remembering how the man loved his sword that he remembered of that. He was able to use sword intent and now he was determined to be able to wield the next state of the sword will, 'Sword Heart'.

At this time Zabuza stood before them and was about to begin his conversation with them.

"Hahaha! Soon I will be in action once more. Not only this but I will finally have my blade back." stated Zabuza.

"That's great Zabuza-sama!" cheered Haku.

While Sato stood there blinking at the two. That was not how Zabuza acted. He was a cold blooded killer and never expressed his emotions like that.

"Is this actually Zabuza?" thought Sato to himself. "Unbelievable."

"If you'll excuse me, I need to check on something with jiji." spoke Sato.

Then Sato went off to seek Fukushima to find the painting.

Zabuza looked towards Sato and then turned his attention to Haku and asked, "What's wrong with him?".

"Nothing, it seems his sensei is away at the moment so he can't really train but looking at you he remembered something. It got him all excited and personally I also want to see what he is going to do." answered Haku.

Zabuza struck a thinking pose with his hand rubbing his bottom chin that was covered in medical bandages. He seem to be pondering on what it was that could have brought Sato his memory on something that he had forgotten about.

"How about we follow him and find out then?" asked Zabuza.

To which Haku quietly nodded quickly and then both shinobi made their way to Sato.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Naruto was at the moment staring at Training Ground 44 or 'Forest of Death' as his proctor for the 'Second Exam' so aptly referred to it. He was mildly excited for this exam as it involved more physical action than his previous one.

He thought that Ibiki Morino was just pulling their legs with that crappy paper exam and he was right. When Ibiki explained the whole exam it was all crap he did to psyche them out.

Then out of Kami knows where his proctor for his second exams come exploding through the windows in a balled up tarp sending glass remains everywhere.

Once the ball landed in the room it opened up to reveal a very voluptuous and revealing female who introduced herself as the 'Single and Incredibly Sexy' Mitarashi Anko. ( A/N: Not going to describe her because if you don't have a mental picture of her already from the anime or other webnovels then you need to do so. )

Then Naruto and his team were standing before Training Ground 44 while the other genins were asking questions about the second exams such as

"What do we do about Food!!!" shouted a plump Choji.

"Where am I going to shower" screeched one Sakura Haruno.

To which most people just looked at her as if she was seriously asking that or others who sweatdropped at it.

Anko promptly ignored the degrading kunoichi then she shouted at them to exchange their permission slips for the scrolls.

After a couple of minutes Team 7 got their scrolls and the gates to the training grounds opened ushering the genin teams inside.

Some time had past and Naruto and his Team had encountered another genin team who they promptly disposed of.

They were now seen jumping from the trees when suddenly the team stopped in their tracks. After looking around their area Sasuke's eyes widen and shouted to his fellow teammates to jump.

It was too late however and they got caught up in an attack made of great wind and chakra.

Naruto was blasted away from his teammates while Sasuke was able to position himself to reduce the damage he would have taken. Sakura who was behind the two at the time had a better reaction as she was further away from the attack.

Still the attack had been almost instantaneous for her and she took damage from it.

Sasuke and Sakura landed in a clearing and looked towards where the attack had came from to locate their opponent.

Meanwhile Naruto who got hit by the attack was groggily getting up only to look at a giant snake with it's mouth open rushing at him in an attempt to swallow him.

"UuAcah, What the..... what the hell is this?" questioned Naruto as he jumped back onto a tree to the side of the battlefield.

Then he scanned the snake and the area around him sizing up his opponent, establishing a plan of attack before engaging with his enemy. If it was one thing the blonde got from his 'training' with the Yuki brothers it was to never rush your opponent without analyzing them first.

That 'training' or hellish torture as Naruto would deem it instead, did help out a lot at a time like this. His friend Sato did pound into him the necessary things to accomplish first before engaging any enemy.

Naruto mentally thanked the brothers and then focused back on his enemy. Realizing that this snake was no ordinary snake and that the training known for housing animals that took on barbaric appearances was not on the same level as the reptile in front of him.

He could only deduce that this was most likely a personal summoned monster. Naruto had his face distorted with the fact of the snake being a summon. This was mostly because of the knowledge pounded into him by Haku that either his proctor Mitarashi Anko had attacked him, which was unlikely.

Or another perpetrator had attacked them. This person being one of the Sannin and traitor to Konoha, Orochimaru. This was the mostly plausible conclusion he could come to which quickly made him worried.

If it was indeed Orochimaru then he had to deal with this summon fast and regroup with his team. There was no way he could fight a Sannin let alone Sasuke or Sakura and even if they teamed up it was more likely they will die.

Forming some hand seals, Naruto drew two kunai in his hands and send them towards the summon snake. He knew that regular weapons won't work on summons but those weren't regular kunai.

The two kunai head straight to the snake who did not even bother with it until it came before it. It had opened it's mouth to swallow Naruto in an attack once again but when the kunai arrived before it, the snake was about to deflect it with it's hard scales.

Only for the kunai to increase with a blast of wind and shot into the snake's mouth. After it had swallowed the kunai the snake summon hacked up air from it's mouth trying to regurgitate them back out.

When nothing came, the summon then sent a deathly glare towards the blonde and started charging at him once more.

Naruto on the other hand seeing his plan worked, held up his hand in a single seal and whispered, "Boom".

Then the kunai that was swallowed by the snake glowed and exploded sending smoke coming out the snake's orifices.

Unable to quell the rage going on in it's stomach the snake swelled to an unimaginable size and exploded with it's guts spewing everywhere.

Naruto looked upon his handiwork and while he wanted to dry-heave at the mess he caused, he had to go help his team. Quickly jumping on the trees he made his way back towards Sasuke and Sakura.

( With Sasuke and Sakura )

Both genin were scared. Their opponent was a monster. The killing intent that their opponent was sending to them was unbearable.

Glancing to his right he could see Sakura frozen in shock and sweating profusely. That's when he determined that they were going to die. Looking back at the enemy ahead of them, Sasuke knew there was no way to survive.

Just then, he watched as the enemy threw two kunai aimed towards both genin at their throats. Gritting his teeth Sasuke brought his own kunai out of his pouch and slam it towards his leg.

Once it pierced, he was able to dispel his fear from immobilizing him and quickly tackled Sakura away from the oncoming metal.

"Kukukuku, how interesting. You've dispel your fear by inflicting pain upon yourself." spoke Orochimaru.

Sasuke glared at the form of Orochimaru in front of him and then turned to Sakura.

"Sakura, we're running. Retreat at my signal, there is no way we can fight this guy." said Sasuke.

Sakura could hear the fear in Sasuke's voice. This wasn't the Sasuke she knew, this wasn't the undeterred Sasuke she remembered. He was petrified, hesitant and trembling.

"Kukuku, are you going to run for me?. That is what prey do, run. As I am the predator it is only logical for it's prey to fear him and run from him." laughed Orochimaru.

As he talked the genin stiffened in fear once more.

That was when Orochimaru struck. Moving at speeds that they could not keep up with, Orochimaru arrived in front of Sasuke and sent a kick to him.

It hit true and sent Sasuke back hitting a tree and hacking up blood.

Orochimaru was about to enjoy toying with his "little Sasuke-kun" but that was when Naruto had arrived and kick the Sannin on the side of the head and sending him into a bush nearby.

Then Naruto looked towards his members and then back towards his enemy. Anger filled him, rage, fury. It all gushed out of him.

His head was tilted towards the ground and his hair shadowed his eyes making it unable to tell what he looked like.

The whiskers on his face became more pronounced and his fingernails grew to resemble claws. A thin orange veil of chakra covered his body and the scratches that were inflicted upon him with the earlier wind attack was gone.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!" screamed Naruto.