Summoning Scroll

Along the way, Ueno Kei didn't stop for a moment, heading straight for home.

The people he encountered were curious about a child who stood barely 11 meters tall yet carried a blade seventy or eighty centimeters long on his back. Fortunately, though, no one came over to ask him about it.

Nor did anyone try to stop him. It was normal for children in this world to mature early, and adults didn't pay much attention to a child carrying a sword or the like. Besides, in a place like a ninja village, the child might well be a student at the Ninja Academy. There was nothing wrong with having his own weapon.

As long as he didn't cause trouble, no one would meddle in his business.

So Ueno Kei made it home without a hitch. The problem he'd anticipated never came up; his earlier worry had been for nothing.

When Ueno Kei hurried home, he shut the door and locked it behind him.

Back in his bedroom, he took the blade off his back and set it aside. Then he took the scroll from his clothes and carefully laid it on the bed. As far as Ueno Kei could tell, it might contain some kind of ninjutsu or information about a secret affair.

After all, in this world, ninjas commonly used scrolls to record things.

Of course, he might not be able to open it. To keep inherited techniques or important matters from being passed on to outsiders, it was common to seal scrolls and the like.

So Ueno Kei didn't assume he would be able to open it.

Ueno Kei took a deep breath to calm his excitement. He clenched his hands, untied the cord holding the scroll shut, and carefully moved his hands apart.

A hint of delight appeared on Ueno Kei's face. It moved! There was a chance!

But he didn't let his guard down. He continued unrolling the scroll slowly, ready to throw it out the window without hesitation if anything seemed amiss. Ueno Kei now valued his life dearly. He had found a goal to pursue, and he didn't want to die without knowing why.

When Ueno Kei had fully unrolled the scroll, he froze and looked disappointed. It didn't contain the powerful ninjutsu or classified information he'd imagined. Instead, there was a long list of names, laid out in a row, one after another.

It looked like a document listing the members of some organization. Even if they were important people, what did that have to do with him? Ueno Kei sighed in disappointment.

The disappointment in his eyes was impossible to hide. He hadn't expected much at first, but now that this was what he'd found, he couldn't help feeling let down.

Just as Ueno Kei was about to roll up the scroll and put it away, a line at the very end caught his attention. The writing was too small to read, so he took a magnifying glass from his bedside drawer.

He lay flat on the floor and carefully examined the writing in the bottom corner of the scroll. His expression changed at once. Then he looked again, unable to believe his eyes.

It was as if fate had played a joke on Ueno Kei. Just as he was about to give up hope, it had dropped a huge windfall on him, leaving him reeling.

The line read, "Lizard Clan Summoning Scroll, Xuanyang Clan, Year 192 of Zhengyi."

This was a priceless Summoning Scroll, the kind said to let someone sign a contract with a summoning beast from another dimension and make it their combat partner!

At that moment, Ueno Kei's hands trembled as he held the Summoning Scroll. His face flushed red, as if he couldn't breathe. He didn't know how powerful the summoning beasts were, but to him, this was absolutely priceless. Without an inherited family tradition or a teacher to guide him, his chances of obtaining a summoning beast were usually next to none.

This unexpected windfall made Ueno Kei want to roar with joy. And it was a scroll for an entire clan! He had keenly noticed the words "clan," which meant that after signing the contract, he could summon more than one beast.

Ueno Kei took several deep breaths, gradually calming down. Some of his excitement still showed on his face, but at least he looked much more composed.

Ueno Kei immediately turned and took a calligraphy brush from the bookcase he'd bought at the market. He bit his finger and let blood drip onto the brush.

In the blank space after the last name on the Summoning Scroll, he wrote his own name. Then he pressed all five fingers beneath it.

Afterward, Ueno Kei carefully put the scroll away, hiding it in the compartment beneath his bed.

Ideally, he should keep something like this on him. But Ueno Kei knew he was far too weak right now. If he carried a priceless object like the Summoning Scroll and someone discovered it, he could guess what would happen.

Even if it were discovered by a Konoha ninja, the best-case scenario would probably be that he had to hand it over.

Keeping it at home wasn't very safe either, but between two evils, he had to choose the lesser one. Of course, there was an even better option: summon a beast and have it take the scroll back to the summoning realm for safekeeping.

Unfortunately, Ueno Kei couldn't do that yet.

First, his meager chakra reserves weren't enough to use the Summoning Technique. He couldn't muster the amount needed to summon a beast.

Second, Ueno Kei didn't even know the Hand Seals for the Summoning Technique.

So although Ueno Kei seemed to have gained a tremendous advantage in an instant, for now it was only a castle in the air. And it would remain that way for a long time to come.

What Ueno Kei needed to do now was keep training and training, so he could build up more chakra. The amount of chakra a ninja could possess varied greatly from person to person, but everyone started with very little.

It could be gradually increased through training, though each person's natural aptitude placed a limit on how much chakra they could develop. Once they reached that limit,

their chakra reserves would be saturated. Without some special circumstance, the amount would stay fixed.

Naturally, Ueno Kei believed that even if his aptitude was poor, he would still be able to use the Summoning Technique someday. Chakra wasn't a difficult problem to solve; all he needed was time.

Based on his training over the past six months, Ueno Kei was confident that he could meet the required standard in four or five years. Still, it was only a prediction. Different summoning beasts required different amounts of chakra.

At least for now, Ueno Kei wasn't too worried about that.

The only problem was the Hand Seals for the Summoning Technique.

That was a problem. Ueno Kei couldn't just ask anyone, and not everyone knew the technique. If he asked someone who did, wouldn't they start to suspect him?

He could only wait for an opportunity in the future and see if he could learn about it through some special channel.

At the very least, the team leader he would get after graduation was worth looking forward to, Ueno Kei thought, frowning. After graduation, teams were made up of three students, with a Chunin or a Jonin leading them. He had learned all this not long after enrolling.

Ueno Kei really wanted to know who the first teacher he'd have—the one who would be most important to him in the future—would be, but that wasn't something he could control. All he could do was silently pray he'd be assigned a good ninja teacher.

Preferably a Jonin, since that would give Ueno Kei the best chance of learning the Summoning Technique.