Summoning Contract

"You passed the test."

Orochimaru dismissed the summoned snakes, freeing the struggling Anko, then announced that the two of them had passed his test.

Bell-grabbing was a method the Third Hokage had once used to test them. According to the Third Hokage, when they had studied under the Second Hokage, they had undergone the same kind of test.

This testing method had become an unspoken tradition among the Hokage lineage.

Though they were all bell-grabbing tests, their essence was to observe whether the students' behavior met the examiner's requirements through the act of trying to seize the bells.

For this kind of test within the Hokage lineage, the strongest examiner present would be the leader of an entire village, while even the weakest would be at Elite Jonin level.

And the participants? Most were Genin who had just graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy and received their forehead protectors, with perhaps a Chunin mixed in at most.

With such a vast gap in strength, if the examiner in charge did not go easy on them, then practically no team would be able to pass. Kakashi Hatake in the future was a perfect example.

Therefore, those who passed this bell-grabbing test usually did so only after the examiner had observed traits that suited their tastes and deliberately went easy on them.

Every examiner had different requirements, which was why, even with the same test format, the ways to pass varied greatly.

Some liked people willing to do anything by any means necessary. Some liked those who valued their companions. Some liked the clever ones, those who knew how to think, and so on.

As far as Orochimaru was concerned, he had never believed the two could truly snatch those so-called bells from him. He merely wanted to see what talents they displayed during the process. Once he saw what he wanted, he would declare them passed even if they failed to take the bells in the end.

And Kagetsu and Anko had clearly given him quite a pleasant surprise.

"We passed?" Anko scrambled up from the ground, ignoring her disheveled appearance. Joy nearly overflowed from her face.

"You passed." Orochimaru rubbed Anko's head and led the two of them to the tree where the Ryūchi Cave scroll had been placed. He spread it out before them and stopped at the blank space at the end.

"Before signing the contract, I need to give you a warning." Orochimaru's intimidating gaze swept over them. The pressure behind it made even Anko, who had been immersed in joy, shudder. The color drained from her flushed face in an instant.

"Do not casually summon the giant snakes of Ryūchi Cave while you are still too weak. They will not obediently bow to your commands just because you are contract holders. They are also a source of danger." Orochimaru reminded them.

Kagetsu and Anko nodded.

Orochimaru was merely giving them a warning. With their current Chakra, they could not summon any large Summoning Beasts anyway. At most, they could summon some ordinary snakes from Ryūchi Cave.

Those snakes were little more than cannon fodder in Ryūchi Cave, as plentiful as could be. Unless an ordinary ninja faced an entire sea of snakes, they could deal with them easily enough.

"Do you still have the strength?" Orochimaru looked at the two of them.

"I do, Orochimaru Sensei!" Anko raised her hand, though anyone could see that she was not in very good shape.

Kagetsu beside her looked even paler. The instant he had forcibly restrained Orochimaru with the Shadow Imitation Technique, followed by the somewhat strained Shadow Coffin and Shadow Sewing Technique, had nearly drained all the Chakra from his body.

"That's enough for today." Orochimaru could see that neither of them was in good condition. "Gather here again tomorrow. I'll teach you some ninjutsu."

"Then what should we do next? How about we go eat barbecue and celebrate together, Orochimaru Sensei?" Anko nodded repeatedly and smoothly proposed the next part of the plan.

It was obvious that her worship of Orochimaru was overflowing, an undisguised fanaticism.

Orochimaru looked at the expectant Anko, then at Kagetsu, who had finally adopted a few traces of the Nara Clan's listless laziness. After pondering for a moment, seemingly recalling something, he nodded.

"Then let's go."

Pulling aside the curtain of the Barbecue Restaurant, Orochimaru led Kagetsu and Anko toward an empty semi-enclosed booth. Halfway there, however, Orochimaru's steps paused as though he had sensed something. Then he stepped forward and lifted the curtain of another booth.

Inside sat a trio: a blond man, a red-haired girl, and a white-haired older man. All three stopped what they were doing and looked toward the person entering through the curtain.

"Orochimaru?" Jiraiya, with his long white hair hanging loose, rose to his feet in delight upon seeing the newcomer.

"Orochimaru-sama." The blond man in the booth also greeted Orochimaru, pulling the red-haired girl beside him along.

"So it's Minato and Kushina." Orochimaru took in the atmosphere of the booth and saw that this was a long-awaited gathering between master and disciples. Just as he was considering whether he should leave, a small head poked out from behind him.

"Sensei?" Anko had only been questioning at first, but after seeing the people in the booth, her expression first turned blank. Then she seemed to notice something, though she was not sure, and looked up at Orochimaru.

"Sensei?" Jiraiya keenly caught Anko's form of address for Orochimaru. He looked at Orochimaru in surprise. "You became a team leader again?"

"This is Mitarashi Anko, and this is Nara Kagetsu." Orochimaru reached behind him, dragged Kagetsu forward, and pushed him to the front. With one hand on each of their heads, he said, "They became my disciples today."

"This is Jiraiya. Stay away from him! This is Namikaze Minato, Jiraiya's disciple."

Orochimaru introduced them one by one, but skipped over Kushina Uzumaki.

Kushina, who had been ignored, showed no unusual reaction. She had long grown used to being overlooked like this. Back when she had been hot-tempered, she naturally would have exploded, but with Minato by her side now, her emotions were exceptionally stable.

Besides, she was not particularly fond of Orochimaru either, always carrying that cold, sinister aura around him.

"Hello." Namikaze Minato took the initiative to wave at Kagetsu and Anko. Under their attentive gazes, he casually pulled out two oddly shaped, forked Kunai from his person and handed them over.

"I don't have anything else on me that I can give you right now, so take these two Kunai." Namikaze Minato said warmly, rubbing his hair.

Kagetsu examined the special Kunai in his hand. Its surface was covered in symbols that looked like chaotic scribbles. Other than the family's Shadow Secret Technique, Kagetsu had not yet studied knowledge such as Sealing Technique, so he could not tell what the markings on the Kunai represented.

Still, he liked the gift. At the very least, the symbols had some research value for when he studied Sealing Technique in the future.

He glanced up at Namikaze Minato. He could sense a power in the other man that made people feel safe and inclined to trust him. Those who were extremely sensitive to Chakra could judge a person's temperament through it.

For example, Karin of the Uzumaki Clan in the future could judge the state of someone's inner emotions from whether their Chakra felt warm or cold.

"Senior Minato is so gentle!" A rather mood-killing voice beside him interrupted Kagetsu's thoughts. He twitched at the corner of his mouth and looked speechlessly at Anko, whose eyes were shining.

At this stage, Anko was actually still suffering from a serious case of lovesickness?

"Want to eat together? Let's call it a joint dinner for both our classes." Jiraiya chuckled and took the initiative to invite them.

Orochimaru did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked at Kagetsu and Anko. Sensing her teacher's question, Anko hurriedly nodded and shot Kagetsu a slightly dangerous look.

Not wanting the trouble, Kagetsu nodded along.

The atmosphere in the booth immediately became lively again. While grilling meat, Jiraiya talked endlessly about his experiences and stories from the past several years, as well as the local customs of various places.

As expected of someone who wrote novels and traveled everywhere gathering information and inspiration, Jiraiya's stories quickly captivated the two women present.

Kushina Uzumaki was unable to leave Konoha because she was being watched, while Anko was simply young enough to find everything new and fascinating. On top of that, Jiraiya told his stories vividly and entertainingly, immediately capturing both of their attention.

Even Kagetsu listened seriously while doing his best to replenish his strength with food.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, one side had enjoyed telling stories while the other had enjoyed listening, and both groups departed in high spirits.

After being sent home, Kagetsu went to his study to feed the hungry Blue-White Bug, then began testing the Summoning Technique he had just learned in the open space of the courtyard.

He bit his finger and smeared the medium for contract Summoning—his own blood—across his palm.

Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Goat!

He performed the summoning on the ground.

After a puff of smoke exploded, a snake as thick as a baby's arm was summoned from distant Ryūchi Cave.

Kagetsu felt the Chakra his body had just begun recovering drain away once more. At the same time, an indistinct connection formed between him and the summoned snake.

The summoned snake slithered and coiled across the ground. Under Kagetsu's gaze, it quickly curled itself into a spiral. Its head was raised high, its forked tongue constantly darting from its mouth with hissing sounds. After its golden eyes swayed about, they met Kagetsu's gaze.

Kagetsu felt that he could control the summoned snake before him. Its limited intelligence was simply not enough for it to think about resisting.

This was probably the most ordinary and lowest-ranking venomous snake in Ryūchi Cave.

After testing his control over it, Kagetsu felt somewhat disappointed. Although the snake was obedient enough, its brain was not capable of understanding even slightly complicated orders from him.

Attack a target.

Search for living creatures nearby.

The simpler the order, the faster it carried it out. But if the command became even a little more complicated—for example, adding the condition of ninja or wild beast while searching for living creatures—it would remain confused for a long while.

Conclusion: Other than wasting Chakra, summoning it was useless. If he wanted it to have any killing power, he would have to consume a large amount of Chakra at once to summon an entire sea of snakes, creating an indiscriminate venomous snake disaster.

Kagetsu continued experimenting repeatedly until he exhausted his Chakra once again. Only then did he gain a deeper, reality-based understanding of Ryūchi Cave's Summoning Technique.

The more Chakra consumed, the more powerful the Ryūchi Cave snakes that could be summoned. This included Giant Snakes of enormous size and immense destructive power! Among those snakes were higher-ranking ones with intelligence.

They understood human language and could communicate with humans. But likewise, they had the right to refuse contract Summoning. During his experiments, Kagetsu had summoned one before, only for it to reject the summons.

When Orochimaru's Team gathered at the testing grounds the next day, Kagetsu immediately raised his questions and deductions upon seeing Orochimaru, wanting him to confirm them.

Orochimaru glanced at him and acknowledged it. "The truly powerful snakes of Ryūchi Cave are those with intelligence, those capable of communicating with people. But most of these snakes have their own tempers and personalities. If you want to summon them into battle, you must first satisfy their desires."

"In other words, signing a Summoning Contract is merely the threshold. To summon those powerful intelligent snakes, we also need to reach a certain agreement with them personally. Is that understanding correct, Orochimaru Sensei?" Kagetsu asked for confirmation.

"Yes. For example, the condition I reached with Manda is that it responds to my summons and fights for me when needed. In return, after the battle ends, I must offer it a sufficient sacrifice." Orochimaru confirmed Kagetsu's understanding and gave an example.

"A sacrifice?" Anko looked bewildered.

"People." Orochimaru calmly revealed the nature of the sacrifice. His hoarse yet magnetic voice raised goosebumps all over Anko's body. "Manda enjoys eating people. But Ryūchi Cave has no humans."

Anko immediately shuddered again.

"If you want a Giant Snake with combat strength like Manda's, you must go to Ryūchi Cave and personally negotiate with one of them. During that process, you must possess the strength to ensure your own safety! Otherwise, even as contract holders, there is a significant chance that you will become food for the snakes there."

Orochimaru spoke meaningfully. "Equal strength is the foundation of negotiation."

"The Summoning Technique is actually this dangerous? Then..." Anko became deeply conflicted.

"Ryūchi Cave is merely special. If you contract with Mount Myoboku or Shikkotsu Forest, you generally will not encounter much danger when you go there.

"The personalities of those toads are much better than the snakes'. And Tsunade's Slug has the best temperament of all."

At this point, Orochimaru simply gave Kagetsu and Anko a few more explanations. He even compared the sacred lands of the other two Sannin's Summoning Beasts. Finally, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Kagetsu. A cold smile appeared at the corner of his lips as he added, "Although Ryūchi Cave follows the cruel law of natural selection, the same is true in reverse. If you have the strength, you can conduct any kind of research or experiment on the snakes of Ryūchi Cave! You do not need to worry about the Ryūchi Cave Sage's condemnation or retaliation."