Summoning Contract

Wu Yu took off his shirt and looked around. Where was he supposed to put it in the middle of this pool?

"What exactly are we doing?" He casually draped his shirt over Tsunade's shoulder.

Tsunade irritably flung the shirt back onto Wu Yu's shoulder. Then she lifted the hem of her own top, revealing her pale, smooth belly. Stimulated by Chakra, black Curse Seals appeared across her flat abdomen.

"Didn't I tell you yesterday?" She lowered her shirt. "As far as sealing effects go, this is the number one Four Symbols Seal in the entire ninja world. Stand still. I'll perform the technique."

As she spoke, she formed a cross-shaped hand seal. With three loud puffs, she created three Shadow Clones.

"You're the one sealing me?" Wu Yu watched Tsunade's three Shadow Clones swiftly take their positions, surrounding him from every direction. "I thought you'd ask the Third Hokage to do it!"

Tsunade said irritably, "Didn't you say you didn't want anyone else to know?"

She formed another seal, and with a puff, a scroll appeared in her hand. When she pulled it open, it was covered in densely packed black runes, with a large, bold "Four" in the very center.

"Don't worry. I don't know the Four Symbols Seal. This is the Four Symbols Sealing Formula personally sealed into this scroll by the Third Hokage."

Tsunade and her three Shadow Clones pulled the scroll into a fully extended circle, its inscribed side facing inward toward Wu Yu.

"Seal!"

The light shouts of the four Tsunades rang out around Wu Yu from every direction, and they actually sounded rather nice... In an instant, the densely packed black Curse Seals on the unfolded scroll flew toward him like a huge black spiderweb, wrapping tightly around his entire body.

Within the spiderweb of sealing Curse Seals was an unfamiliar Chakra filled with suppressive power.

The black runes that had wrapped Wu Yu up like a mummy slowly contracted toward his abdomen from all directions, their suppressive effect growing stronger and stronger...

[Wu Yu, I feel awful...]

The Jade Rabbit's voice inside him grew weak, and as the seal intensified, her voice seemed to be fading farther away. When the Four Symbols Seal finally took shape on Wu Yu's abdomen, the Jade Rabbit's voice vanished completely.

This thing could seal even the strongest Tailed Beasts. What was a miniature Immortal Beast with relatively little Chakra compared to that?

"Don't look at me like that. I know what you're worried about..."

Under Wu Yu's gaze, Tsunade began forming hand seals again.

As though deliberately letting Wu Yu see clearly, she formed them slowly and carefully. Boar, Dog, Rooster, Monkey, Ram—the seals for the Summoning Technique.

After completing the seals, Tsunade pressed her palm against the air beside her. A summoning array spread out in midair, and with a puff, a child-sized slug appeared amid a cloud of smoke.

"Lady Tsunade." This slug differed somewhat from the Katsuyu Wu Yu remembered as Tsunade's summon. Its entire body bore a faint reddish hue, seemingly to distinguish it deliberately.

"Katsuyu, the contract scroll and the key," Tsunade instructed.

"Understood." The red Katsuyu opened its mouth and spat out two scrolls, each no smaller than itself. Two of Tsunade's Shadow Clones caught one each.

The third Shadow Clone and Tsunade pulled the two large scrolls open with a whoosh.

The one on the left resembled a sign-in roster. Each column bore the name of a different ninja, with five-fingered bloodprints beneath them.

The scroll on the right, meanwhile, was covered in dense runes like some sort of coded document, leaving only a palm-sized square blank area.

"This is the Summoning Contract scroll." Tsunade pointed at the scroll held open by the Shadow Clone on the left. "Write your name in blood and press down your handprint, and you can form a Blood Contract with the Slug Sage of Shikkotsu Forest. In the future, you can summon it by forming the seals I just used."

Then she pointed to the scroll opened by the Shadow Clone on the right, indicating the square blank area. "This is the 'key' to the Four Symbols Seal on your body. As long as you press a five-finger Chakra imprint here, you can use the key to open the seal. Of course, you can close it again too. —Lord Wu Yu! Hurry and take the key!"

"Oh, oh... huh?" As Wu Yu listened, Tsunade suddenly started talking nonsense, startling him. But when he saw her unusual eyes, which seemed to have gained an extra ring of dark crimson iris, he understood and laughed. "So Haotu took over!"

Haotu, occupying Tsunade's body, urged him, "Being locked up by the Four Symbols Seal feels awful! Lord Wu Yu, hurry and let Sister Jade Rabbit out! Hurry, hurry!"

With Tsunade looking like this while speaking in the impatient tone of a little girl, it really was quite a strange sight...

Following her instructions, Wu Yu gathered Chakra at the fingertips of his left hand. He walked to the square blank space on the key scroll to the right and pressed down lightly. Sizzle... Like an Imprint, the Chakra left behind a signature.

Dense runes instantly crawled across Wu Yu's left palm and entire forearm. This was the key to the Four Symbols Seal.

"..."

Urged by Haotu, Wu Yu immediately closed his eyes and meditated, sinking deep into his spiritual world.

Drip...

In the blink of an eye, Wu Yu was already standing on the water's surface.

All around him was a seemingly boundless world of water, with no end in sight.

[Wu Yu...]

Hearing the voice, Wu Yu turned around and saw a massive iron cage, similar to the one imprisoning the Nine-Tailed Fox inside Naruto. Within the cage was the shadow of a gigantic rabbit, from which came a resentful girl's voice.

[That scared you, didn't it? Sorry! I'll let you out right away.]

Wu Yu activated the key's Chakra with the five fingers of his left hand and pressed it hard against his abdomen. The Four Symbols Seal's formation emerged in response. Grasping the Chakra as though it were a key, Wu Yu twisted it.

The lock on the huge iron cage clicked and turned. Bang! The gate flew wide open.

The giant rabbit shadow disappeared, and a small gray rabbit darted out, charging like a wild boar before leaping into Wu Yu's arms.

[You scared me to death, Wu Yu. I thought you didn't want me anymore.] The Jade Rabbit burrowed about in Wu Yu's arms.

Lying on the water's surface, Wu Yu stroked the Jade Rabbit's soft fur and smiled. [How could I? You're my trump card, my treasure. I could give up anyone, but never you!]

[Hehehe...] The Jade Rabbit happily snuggled and acted cute in Wu Yu's arms.

Little Jade's innocent laughter echoed by his ears. Wu Yu slowly opened his eyes and saw that Tsunade's gaze had returned to normal—Tsunade pointed at the Summoning Scroll on the left.

"From today onward, you are my disciple," Tsunade said, arms crossed.

As Wu Yu walked, he browsed the names on the unfurled Summoning Scroll. To his surprise, he saw the name of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. The final two columns bore the names of Tsunade and her disciple, Shizune.

Did Shizune ever summon the Slug in the manga? I didn't expect her to have a contract too. Then again, Tsunade doesn't seem like the type to play favorites...

Thinking this, Wu Yu bit open his right index finger and used his blood to write the name "Nakamori Wu Yu" in the column after Shizune's. Then, after smearing blood across all five fingers, he pressed down a five-fingered bloody handprint.

"Why are you taking someone else as a disciple without permission?" Wu Yu wiped his hand. "I never agreed to call you Master."

Tsunade folded her arms, utterly calm. "From now on, if your actions arouse the village's suspicions or invite their probing, you can pin it all on me, your master."

Wu Yu nodded. "Master is a little hard to say. How about I call you 'Auntie' instead?"

A nail-polished fingertip flicked his forehead.

BANG!!

Wu Yu flew backward, skipping across the water several times like a human stone.

When he finally steadied himself on the water again, Tsunade's reflection was already standing before him once more. Looking up, all he could see was her smooth forehead, free of the Yin Seal. "Great-Aunt would be more like it!"