The more Sato studied the more he realized just how much he was missing from his training. He'd learned all he could about various jutsu, throwing weapons, basic medicine, water style, lightning style, even a very surface level effort at understanding genjutsu. There was one thing he was lacking though from all the skills the manual mentioned: survival training. In such a rapidly developing place like Konoha it wasn't like it was a skill that came naturally to people and Sato was no exception. Never once had he been so much as camping and he knew for a fact that traveling through the forests and wilds of the various lands was important for any shinobi who didn't want to draw attention and there was a lot of it to use on top of that. Even these days villages were very, very far apart with great expanses of woods and valleys between them.
Unlike jutsu this wasn't something that just studying the scrolls or learning in class could help with. This had to be hands on. There'd been a few basic lessons on it so far with them going out behind the academy and learning some very, very basic things but they'd never left the safety of the village walls or anything of the sort. His mother was, as always, worried about him trying out another possibly dangerous act of 'training' but as with when he'd asked to go to the academy in the first place she could tell he wasn't going to take no for an answer. She helped him pack up and made sure he had more than enough food for the night he'd spend out in the forest.
Stepping outside of Konoha was a surreal experience to say the least. It'd only just dawned on him that he hadn't been outside it like this before, the last time he passed through it being months back when he'd arrived with his mother. A lot had changed for him since then. He'd been so nervous to come someplace new -- now he was bristling with confidence to go outside it again, marching down the road before cutting off to the side to enter the forest.
It was honestly unreal. He'd been on the very edges of the forest of death which were unnaturally wild and back home there'd been very thin forests around the place but this was different. It was a small wonder it was 'the Village Hidden in the Leaves'. The lush forest seemed to go on forever from the ground, the foliage not so thick that you couldn't walk through it all but the sheer tree cover making it hard to see in any direction for very far. And the sounds! Insects, birds, small animals, he could hear them all out here in their domain. It almost felt like traveling through these forests was intruding in a whole other world.
Once he was a good ways in he set up a small, modest camp and pulled out his scrolls, reading them over and trying out everything he could; making a cooking fire, finding water, identifying edible roots and berries, making a shelter. Heck, even something like tying knots had slipped him mind until now. Obviously there was only so much he could do in a day and it almost felt like the sun was setting too soon. Almost. He was certainly sore enough to feel like he'd gotten a lot done in all that time. He stumbled back to camp and had a rather bland meal out of everything he'd gathered, ignoring what he'd packed with him for the sake of making his training feel complete. Eventually the sun would set entirely and he'd simply lay by the fire, staring up at the leaves above and wondering if he could get a good nights sleep on this hard ground even with a sleeping mat.
Word Count: 646
Unlike jutsu this wasn't something that just studying the scrolls or learning in class could help with. This had to be hands on. There'd been a few basic lessons on it so far with them going out behind the academy and learning some very, very basic things but they'd never left the safety of the village walls or anything of the sort. His mother was, as always, worried about him trying out another possibly dangerous act of 'training' but as with when he'd asked to go to the academy in the first place she could tell he wasn't going to take no for an answer. She helped him pack up and made sure he had more than enough food for the night he'd spend out in the forest.
Stepping outside of Konoha was a surreal experience to say the least. It'd only just dawned on him that he hadn't been outside it like this before, the last time he passed through it being months back when he'd arrived with his mother. A lot had changed for him since then. He'd been so nervous to come someplace new -- now he was bristling with confidence to go outside it again, marching down the road before cutting off to the side to enter the forest.
It was honestly unreal. He'd been on the very edges of the forest of death which were unnaturally wild and back home there'd been very thin forests around the place but this was different. It was a small wonder it was 'the Village Hidden in the Leaves'. The lush forest seemed to go on forever from the ground, the foliage not so thick that you couldn't walk through it all but the sheer tree cover making it hard to see in any direction for very far. And the sounds! Insects, birds, small animals, he could hear them all out here in their domain. It almost felt like traveling through these forests was intruding in a whole other world.
Once he was a good ways in he set up a small, modest camp and pulled out his scrolls, reading them over and trying out everything he could; making a cooking fire, finding water, identifying edible roots and berries, making a shelter. Heck, even something like tying knots had slipped him mind until now. Obviously there was only so much he could do in a day and it almost felt like the sun was setting too soon. Almost. He was certainly sore enough to feel like he'd gotten a lot done in all that time. He stumbled back to camp and had a rather bland meal out of everything he'd gathered, ignoring what he'd packed with him for the sake of making his training feel complete. Eventually the sun would set entirely and he'd simply lay by the fire, staring up at the leaves above and wondering if he could get a good nights sleep on this hard ground even with a sleeping mat.
Word Count: 646
