Not Strong Enough

"Lord Jingū, I've already had the factories producing Poison Gas Bombs at full capacity as you requested, but..."

Amemura, a jonin, stood in the office, his tone conflicted.

Jingū Kiraku raised a brow.

"What? Did you run into some difficulty?"

Several days ago, he had already ordered the full-scale production of Poison Gas Bombs.

After all, they were about to face a major power like the Land of Fire. Conventional methods gave them no chance of winning. They had to use something special.

Among their options, Poison Gas Bombs—a weapon highly characteristic of the Land of Rain—were a solid choice.

Surely, those potent gases would give Konoha's forces quite the surprise.

Hearing Jingū Kiraku's question, Amemura quickly reported, "The raw materials for Poison Gas Bombs mainly come from Ibuse, but as our production capacity has expanded, the Ibuse in the surrounding area are no longer enough."

"So it's a shortage of raw materials..."

Jingū Kiraku clasped his hands together and frowned faintly.

Ibuse were a species unique to the Land of Rain, found in the valleys around Amegakure.

However, most of those Ibuse were fairly small and produced very limited poison gas. They were nothing compared to Hanzo's Summoning Beast, which could blanket an entire battlefield with a single breath.

Which meant...

"Wouldn't it be enough if I summoned a bigger Ibuse?"

It was as though a lightbulb had popped up over Jingū Kiraku's head. He immediately thought of a solution.

"Ah?"

Amemura froze for a moment before saying, "But in all of Hidden Rain Village, aside from Hanzo, no one can summon those large Ibuse."

Jingū Kiraku offered no explanation. He merely took out the Salamander Clan's Contract Scroll and stood up.

"Come on. Let's go try it."

Seeing the scroll in Jingū Kiraku's hand, Amemura seemed to realize something and hurriedly replied, "Yes."

Before long, Jingū Kiraku brought Amemura to a training ground.

It was located at the edge of the village, minimizing the impact a Summoning Beast might cause.

Under Amemura's watchful gaze, Jingū Kiraku first bit his finger.

He then pressed the crimson blood onto the scroll and wrote his name on it.

As he finished the final stroke, Jingū Kiraku could clearly sense that some unseen existence had connected with him.

The contract was complete. Next came...

"Summoning Technique!!"

Jingū Kiraku slammed his bloodied palm onto the ground and activated the Summoning Technique.

Based on his memories of the original story, the more Chakra expended during the summoning process, the larger and fiercer the Summoning Beast would be!

Fortunately, Chakra was the one thing he lacked least right now!

Under the effects of the Absolute Loyalty skill, Jingū Kiraku's Chakra was directly tied to his Reputation Value.

And his Reputation Value had now reached a staggering thirteen thousand points!

The Chakra needed to summon a Summoning Beast? Pocket change!

So Jingū Kiraku poured an enormous amount of Chakra into it in one go, filling the summoning scroll to the brim.

The next second, under Amemura's utterly stunned gaze, a massive pillar of smoke shot into the sky!

An enormous black silhouette emerged from within...

As the smoke dispersed, what appeared before Jingū Kiraku was an Ibuse as huge as a small mountain.

Unlike the one Hanzo had summoned, this one was even larger, and its skin was black rather than deep purple.

Large, thick protrusions covered its skin, making it look exceptionally sturdy.

A massive scar ran across its left eye. It had a smoking pipe clenched in its mouth and carried an enormous cleaver on its back.

Its entire body exuded the air of a Social Fish.

"Who the hell summoned me?"

A deep, hoarse voice came from the Social Fish's mouth.

Its gaze swept across the area, and it seemed somewhat surprised.

"Uh, I summoned you."

Jingū Kiraku waved, finally drawing its attention.

There was no helping it. Before this Ibuse, a human body was simply too tiny.

By Jingū Kiraku's estimate, this Social Fish was probably even bigger than Gamabunta of Mount Myōboku!

"Hm? You're the one who summoned me?"

The Social Fish lowered its head, its eyes larger than lanterns examining the young man.

Jingū Kiraku raised his head and looked the creature directly in the eye.

"That's right. My name is Jingū Kiraku, and I want you to be my Summoning Beast."

He made no effort to conceal his purpose, as if he had absolute confidence in his own strength.

At that, the Social Fish pulled the enormous cleaver from its back and drove it heavily into the ground.

The collision between blade and earth even made the surrounding area tremble...

"Heh, plenty of people have wanted me to be their Summoning Beast."

The Social Fish sneered disdainfully.

"I'm the Salamander Clan's Chief. How could I possibly become the Summoning Beast of a snot-nosed brat like you?"

Hearing that, Jingū Kiraku immediately grew interested.

"The Salamander Clan's Chief?"

"Then that means you can represent the entire Salamander Clan?"

Seeing that Jingū Kiraku showed no fear and even seemed a little excited, the Social Fish frowned.

"Kid, I don't care what you're planning, but becoming your Summoning Beast is absolutely impossible!"

"Don't be so absolute. Maybe you'll agree in a moment."

After saying that, Jingū Kiraku gave Amemura a gesture—

You leave first.

Understanding his meaning, Amemura did not hesitate. Under the Social Fish's gaze, he quickly left the area.

"Sending your companion away? Looks like you're planning to use force?"

The Social Fish instantly saw through Jingū Kiraku's intentions, but all it felt was disdain.

It wasn't as if no one had tried that before. Without exception, they had all died to its poison gas and cleaver.

"Since you're unwilling, then I have no choice but to do this."

Jingū Kiraku rolled his neck, acting as though he did not take the huge creature before him seriously at all.

"Heh, foolish! Arrogant!!"

After roaring in anger, the Social Fish blasted terrifying poison gas from its smoking pipe. In the blink of an eye, it engulfed the entire training ground.

What surprised it, however, was that the human brat did not try to evade it. Instead, he stood where he was and endured the poison gas head-on.

That directly left the Social Fish stunned.

It had never seen a human who could survive such poison gas, especially without any protective measures!

"What a shame. A brat with such an enormous amount of Chakra, dying just like that."

The Social Fish sheathed its cleaver on its back and turned to leave without hesitation.

To its surprise, a lazy voice suddenly came from within the thick poison gas.

"Hey, big fish, the smoke you're puffing..."

"Isn't strong enough!"