Summoning Jutsu!

"What? Not willing?"

Yao's face darkened. "Orochimaru, I gave you face, didn't I?"

"I originally wanted a fair trade with you—each getting what we need. Why won't you take the toast and have to drink the forfeit?"

Orochimaru's face darkened.

The pride of a senior made it impossible for him to tolerate threats from a twelve-year-old brat:

"Brat, what do you think you're doing? Don't forget your situation!"

"My situation?"

Yao laughed as if he'd heard a joke. "Orochimaru, I always thought you were a smart man."

"Looks like you're still too arrogant to see the writing on the wall!"

With that, Yao stepped forward, and an overwhelming, terrifying surge of Chakra exploded from his body.

Kabuto's face changed drastically. He stumbled back half a step, on high alert.

Yao stared at Orochimaru, enunciating each word: "I could kill you and still get the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!"

"I'll find a way to get your research notes eventually."

"The only difference is whether you hand them over alive... or turn into a corpse I slowly pick clean."

"Kill me?!"

Orochimaru looked as if he'd been gravely insulted, laughing in fury, his golden slit pupils gleaming with cold light:

"Brat! Do you even know who you're talking to?"

Even with his hands crippled, he was still one of the legendary Sannin, a master of countless Forbidden Jutsu!

Being so belittled by a junior made Orochimaru feel humiliated.

"It seems I need to make you understand the current situation."

Yao snorted, wasting no more words. His right eye suddenly focused!

The three black tomoe that had been slowly spinning abruptly accelerated, transforming into a four-pointed windmill pattern.

Against a deep, crimson backdrop, the windmill pattern turned slowly.

"Th-this is... the Mangekyo Sharingan?!"

The anger on Orochimaru's face froze instantly, replaced by unparalleled shock and fear.

That miserable memory of being tortured to the brink of death by Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi was dredged up again, his very soul seeming to ache.

"Orochimaru, before these eyes... all your jutsu... are useless..."

Orochimaru's ears echoed again with those fear-inducing words.

"Damn it!!!"

Orochimaru let out a resentful roar through gritted teeth, his heart seething with frustration!

He really wanted to charge forward and tear this Uchiha brat apart.

But reason told him.

He couldn't form hand seals now, his strength was severely diminished, and he was facing a Mangekyo Sharingan with unknown abilities.

His chances of victory were slim to none—he might even die here.

Weighing pros and cons, swallowing humiliation—this was always his forte.

After a few seconds of suffocating silence, Orochimaru seemed to have his spine pulled out, his voice dripping with humiliation:

"...Fine!"

"I... agree!"

"Wouldn't it have been easier to say that from the start? Wasting everyone's time!" The coldness on Yao's face vanished instantly.

Orochimaru's chest heaved as he suppressed his rage, tilting his head toward Kabuto:

"Kabuto, bring the summoning contract scroll for Ryūchi Cave, and the complete scroll for the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!"

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama!"

Kabuto shot Yao a deep look, then quickly turned and walked into the depths of the secret chamber.

A moment later.

He returned carrying two scrolls of different designs and handed them to Yao.

Yao took the summoning contract scroll first and unrolled it directly.

On it were already many names written, the last one being the three characters for Orochimaru.

Yao bit his thumb and, in the blank space after Orochimaru's name, solemnly wrote his own name:

Uchiha Yao!

The name fell, and a faint glimmer flickered across the scroll—the contract was sealed.

Yo returned the Summoning Scroll to Kabuto, then took the scroll recording the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, scanning it quickly.

Then he compared it with the Impure World scrolls seized from the Root Base, and found that Orochimaru's version was far more detailed.

Clearly.

This was an improved edition!

"Pleasure doing business, Orochimaru-sama!"

Yo smiled faintly, then waved at the two of them:

"I hope next time we meet, you've healed your hands and aren't so... pathetic anymore!"

"After all, you're a senior I respect. Being too pitiful really damages the image I have of you!"

"Farewell!"

With those words, Yo vanished completely, as if he had never been there.

Orochimaru stared fixedly at the spot where Yo had disappeared, his golden slit pupils flickering with humiliation, venom, wariness—and of course, greed and other lights.

"Uchiha... Yo... I'll remember you! I hope next time we meet, you don't fall into my hands!"

Orochimaru muttered the name under his breath, as if trying to grind it to dust.

Yo returned to Konoha and went straight deep into the mountains behind the lower reaches of the Naka River.

The forest here was deep and secluded, with flowing water murmuring—a good place for training.

Yo found a relatively flat clearing and began studying the Summoning Technique.

So-called Summoning Jutsu was, in essence, also a form of space-time ninjutsu.

First, you sign a blood contract in advance, establishing a connection channel with the special space or habitat where the Summoning Animal resides.

Then, using chakra formulas, you lock onto the location and perform the summoning.

As for which specific Summoning Animal would answer the call, it depended on which one was "free" or "willing" to respond to that chakra fluctuation.

Of course.

Once you got familiar with the Summoning Animals, you could summon whichever one you wanted according to your own will.

But at the start...

It was all down to luck!

The technique itself wasn't complicated; the core lay in sensing the connection to the contract scroll and outputting chakra with precision.

"Let's give it a try!"

Yo took a deep breath, bit his thumb, drew it across his palm, and rapidly formed the hand seals for the Summoning Technique:

Boar! Dog! Bird! Monkey! Ram!

"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"

He slammed his palm onto the ground.

Bam!

A burst of white smoke exploded.

When the smoke cleared, coiled on the ground was a... snake, entirely emerald green, no thicker than a finger.

It raised its tiny triangular head, its bean-like snake eyes fixed on Yo, and actually spoke in human tongue:

"Hey, you brat over there! You're the one who summoned me? Don't you know the rules? Where's the offering?"

"A hundred live human sacrifices! Not one less!"

"..."

Yo was a bit speechless.

Were all the Summoning Animals from Ryūchi Cave like this?

Demanding offerings right off the bat, with a tone bigger than Manda's, and a hundred live humans—could you even eat all that?

"Is your dad Manda?"

Yo couldn't help but retort.

"Manda-sama is a high-ranking member of our Ryūchi Cave! How dare a brat like you speak of him so casually?"

The little green snake immediately hissed, flicking its tongue, its attitude arrogant: "Less talk! Offerings! Or I'll cancel the summoning and go back right now!"

Yo couldn't be bothered to waste words with a snake smaller than his own little finger, and directly cut off the chakra supply.

Bam!

The little green snake vanished in a puff of smoke, wearing a stunned expression that screamed "How dare you ignore me!"

"These guys..."

Yo shook his head.

"Again!"

Yo formed hand seals once more, this time holding nothing back on his chakra.

"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"

Boom!!!

A white smoke cloud, hundreds of times louder than before, exploded outward, the blast wave flattening the surrounding grass.

The smoke rapidly condensed.

A massive blue serpent coiled in the clearing.

Its body was thick, its scales gleaming with a cold, metallic luster.

On its triangular snake head, a pair of pale yellow serpent eyes calmly looked down at Yo from above.

Though its size and presence couldn't compare to Manda's, it was a world apart from the snake earlier.

"Is this... Aoda?"

Yo recognized this serpent, which had also appeared in the original story, and recalled it was Sasuke's Summoning Animal.

Aoda lowered his head slightly, studying Yo, and spoke in a deep voice:

"A new contractor? That Orochimaru fellow actually handed over the contract to a brat—how rare!"

Aoda didn't demand any sacrifice, his demeanor much gentler: "So, summoning me—what's the matter?"