Naruto : Hidden Cloud

"So your love didn't save me, her chakra did?"

Hinata puffed up her cheeks, she was sure this was a miracle of love. But it was just Sato being smart. 

"No, Sato kun didn't give up, that's why he found a solution, in a way, I lived because of love!"

Hinata declared cheerfully, and Sato looked at her awkwardly, she was behaving silly.

Maybe her brain doesn't have enough oxygen yet, Sato thought. 

"Sato, what do we do about the curse mark?"

Karin asked while poking Hinata's ankle, because of her chakra, Hinata's body had accepted the curse mark.

But it was still called the curse mark, it was definitely not a good thing. 

"The curse mark? Now that Hinata has survived, there is another problem we need to solve."

"Orochimaru's soul is inside that curse mark, slowly his sage chakra will make Hinata loyal to him. That's another feature of the curse mark."

"But like I said, I will do something about it."

Sato stood up with a smile. He was relieved. Hinata's accident was actually a blessing in disguise. 

He had a way to solve the curse mark's problem.

"We have Itachi, his susanoo has a weapon called the totsuka blade. It can seal everything, including Orochimaru's soul."

"If you want, Itachi can get rid of the curse mark entirely, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"Without Orochimaru's soul the curse mark is a perfect sage mode. It's an incredible power boost."

"In fact if itachi was here, we wouldn't need Karin's help. He could have easily removed the curse mark from your body."

Sato explained to Hinata, who nodded in a silly way with her finger under her lips.

'Yeah her brain definitely lacks oxygen.'

Sato thought, Hinata not knowing that Sato was thinking rude things, smiled and got up.

"By the way Sato kun, I met Neji, Karui and Omoi in the limbo."

"None of them went to the pure land. they died so suddenly that they couldn't accept their deaths."

"But when I told them that you went out of your way to kill Orochimaru for them. They seemed happy."

"I think they are ready to pass on to the afterlife Sato kun."

Hinata smiled, actually the reason she was so cheerful was because she spoke with Neji and Karui one last time. 

They told her it wasn't her time yet, and that's when she felt a pull and came back to life.

Hinata firmly believed that she came back to life because Sato needs her help. 

"You met them..? I see, thanks for telling them Hinata. I don't want them to live in limbo forever."

"Let them rest in the pure land, they have helped me enough."

Sato sighed and let go of his thoughts, the story of his friends was over, this was it. At least their ending was better then Sakumo.

That man had to wait decades in limbo until Kakashi died, it must have been a great torture.

"Remember Hinata, don't use the curse mark until Itachi removes Orochimaru's soul. Just fight normally."

"For now we will wait until Orochimaru attacks the hidden leaf, then we will gang up on him."

"Although Orochimaru won't die even if we kill him again. We have to hunt down his spare bodies to actually kill him, but it's a good start."

Sato cracked his knuckles and decided on their next plan of action.

"We will fight Orochimaru, but we will act like we are doing Konoha a favor."

"This way I can kill Orochimaru again, and get benefits from Konoha at the same time."

Sato finally put his grief behind and started focusing on official business. 

Hinata nodded but she asked a question she has been thinking about. 

"Sato kun, killing Orochimaru once more is okay. But what about your plan to get stronger?"

"Without that bastard Orochimaru, how will you eat Matatabi's flesh?"

This was another thing which was bugging Hinata. Sato was going to hunt down Orochimaru, but without his help Sato wouldn't get stronger. 

Sato smiled, he didn't seem to care. He actually grabbed Karin's shoulder and grinned. 

"Hahaha, I have a solution Hinata, it's Karin. To eat Matatabi's flesh, I need to have chakra related to sage of six paths in my body."

"And Karin's speciality is transferring her chakra to someone else. If I keep biting her, maybe I can survive eating Matatabi's flesh."

"Just like you survived the curse mark, pure Uzumaki chakra is related to the sage after all."

Hinata opened her mouth wide. Her almost dying was a good thing then.

Not only did she get the sage mode thanks to her curse mark. Also, Sato kun found a way to get what he wanted, without Orochimaru's help.

"I can help you!? Sure Sato kun, you can bite me anytime~"

Karin blushed and smiled a disgusting smile, Hinata really wanted to beat Karin up, but this time she let it go.

Karin did just save her.

"Let's go everyone, let's have fun until it's time to beat Orochimaru!"

With renewed energy, Sato's group rushed to the finish line of the exam, the tower built in the middle of forest of death.

Haku was waiting for them here. After meeting up with him Sato filled him on what he missed.

The group passed the exam with a shocked Haku behind them. But there were already other teams in the tower, Sato's group wasn't the first.

"Look, three more passed."

Ino whispered to her teammates, Shikamaru and Choji. Sato's sharp ears heard Ino's whisper and he turned towards her.

He hadn't met Ino for such a long time, she probably forgot about him. As for shikamaru, that guy definitely remembers him.

"Hey, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji. Long time no see."

"What? You don't remember me? Aren't we good friends?"

Sato raised his hand and walked towards the trio. Ino was curious, Choji was confused and Shikamaru was helpless.

"What a drag, long time no see Sato."

Shikamaru helplessly

greeted Sato. He didn't want to talk to Sato because Sato was all kinds of trouble. 

But they were friends before anything, this wasn't something Shikamaru could deny.

"Who is this Shikamaru? Wait.. those eyes, you are that boy, that super strong boy with multicolored eyes!"

Ino exclaimed, she remembered this guy.

"You guy, you met me one day, showed me such a good time and vanished! How could you."

Ino exclaimed, she said something which could easily be taken the wrong way. And people in this tower did indeed take her words the wrong way.

Everyone was looking at Sato like he was a scum. Sato's face turned dark. Ino definitely did this on purpose.