Summoning March

The moment he thought of it, he acted!

Ye Liang immediately left Anko's cottage!

Summoning Jutsu was a special kind of ninjutsu. Ye Liang had no plans to practice at the training grounds. If he summoned an enormous Summoned Beast like Gamabunta, it would definitely destroy the buildings there.

Ye Liang had no intention of paying for the damages.

After much deliberation, he finally made his decision!

The Valley of the End!

Mountains full of rocks!

This was where Naruto and Sasuke had fought their decisive battle in the original story. Gentle streams flowed everywhere, and because of the enormous waterfall upstream, the area never lacked water. The gorge below was also extremely wide, so the water was not particularly deep.

Ye Liang had chosen this place because it was spacious, making it perfect for summoning huge creatures.

He found a relatively smooth boulder and sat down.

There were plenty of rocks in the stream, so it was possible to walk across it.

"This should do, right?"

He took out a huge scroll and spread it open atop the boulder.

This was a high-grade Summoning Scroll.

Naturally, learning Summoning Jutsu required a Summoning Scroll. Summoning Jutsu required an extremely complicated rune ritual. Without a scroll, simply drawing the ritual runes on the ground would take a long time. Thus, engraving the runes onto a scroll and carrying it around became a basic requirement for Summoning Jutsu.

Ye Liang grinned at his Summoning Scroll. He had bought it from the Third Hokage for ten thousand yuan, and it was supposedly an internal price. Ordinary ninja would have to pay at least ten times that amount.

"The location is perfect! The tools are fully prepared! The summoning ritual can begin, over!"

Ye Liang had no idea what nonsense he was spouting. After rambling on for a while, he suddenly pulled a small knife from his pocket and cut open his thumb.

Summoning Jutsu required blood.

Ye Liang's Summoning Scroll was a random summoning scroll.

Proper Summoning Scrolls were passed down through generations.

For example, Naruto's scroll in the original story had been given to him by Jiraiya. It was already covered in runes and had formed a contract with the toads of Mount Myōboku, so when Naruto used Summoning Jutsu, he only needed to summon the toads there.

But Ye Liang could not do that.

Ye Liang did not have a hereditary Summoning Scroll, so he could only use this random scroll to randomly summon nearby Summoned Beasts onto the scroll. He would then tame them and add them to his list of Summoned Beasts.

With a pleased grin, Ye Liang pressed his finger onto the scroll.

Poof!

A tadpole the size of a thumb appeared on the scroll.

"Holy shit! That can't be right. With my summoning talent, how could I possibly summon just a tadpole?" Ye Liang was confused.

He had jōnin-level Chakra. The more Chakra one had for Summoning Jutsu, the stronger the contracted beast they could summon. With the amount of Chakra he had just used, there was no way he should have summoned only a tadpole!

Greatly disappointed, he immediately performed another summoning.

This time, it was a snail the size of a fist.

As long as a contract was not formed, Summoning Jutsu could be used again. Ye Liang was not worried about his first failure.

He cut open his finger again and summoned once more.

A long time passed.

Konoha.

Far away in the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi was reviewing documents when a hurried jōnin suddenly rushed inside.

"This is bad, Third Hokage! The warehouse was suddenly robbed! One of the high-grade Summoning Scrolls that had been on the wooden cabinet is missing!"

"A high-grade Summoning Scroll?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi froze for a moment, then lowered his gaze back to the documents in his hands.

"Oh, that one? Mr. Ye came to buy a scroll this morning, so I gave it to him."

"You gave it to Mr. Ye?"

The jōnin suddenly understood, but a chill ran through his mind.

"That Summoning Scroll seems to be defective. Not only can't it summon high-grade Summoned Beasts, it also keeps summoning all sorts of strange things. I wonder if Lord Hokage knows about that."

He looked at the Third Hokage again, but Hiruzen Sarutobi ignored him, so he could only withdraw.

Valley of the End.

Ye Liang had already failed his hundredth summoning.

"Fuck! If this summoning fails again, I'm going to smash up the Hokage Office!"

By now, he naturally understood that the Third Hokage had tricked him. As a jōnin, he had expended an enormous amount of Chakra, yet not only had he failed to summon a decent Summoned Beast, he kept calling forth all sorts of bizarre things.

Like a broken shoe!

Or a paint bucket!

The most terrifying thing was that Ye Liang had actually summoned a huge slug!

It was as big as a mountain!

Ye Liang had nearly vomited up the ramen he had eaten that morning!

In his previous life, he had feared slimy things like that more than anything, so he quickly dispelled the summoning ritual!

"Whew! This is the last time. Heavens, please bless me. I have to get a reliable Summoned Beast!"

Ye Liang prayed. By now, he was already feeling dizzy.

Cutting his finger a hundred times had left him in an extremely dangerous state of anemia. Ye Liang figured it would take at least seven or eight bowls of bone broth before he could recover.

Poof!

Smoke rose from the Summoning Scroll again.

Something sticky, something that looked like "shit," emerged.

Ye Liang stared blankly at it.

It was even slowly wriggling!

"Fuck! It failed again! You bastard Third Hokage! I'm going to fuck you to death right now!" he cursed as he prepared to charge toward the Hokage Office.

But just as he was about to leave, the sticky, shit-like thing suddenly lunged at him!

Ye Liang hurriedly raised a hand to block it.

But the instant they touched, golden light flashed! The contract was successfully formed.

"..."

To successfully form a contract through Summoning Jutsu, one generally had to "win others over with emotion."

In other words, one had to build a relationship with the Summoned Beast, help each other, interact with each other—in simple terms, become friends.

But there was another way to form a contract.

"Win others over with reason!"

As long as your fists were hard enough, no matter how savage a Summoned Beast was, it could be tamed.

Ye Liang had just used the second method.

When he instinctively raised his palm to block the "shit," he had habitually used a portion of his strength.

The "shit" sensed that its opponent was far stronger than itself and instinctively chose to submit. Thus, the summoning was successful.

"..."

"Why? Why would the heavens do this to me?!"

"Summoning shit?"

This was probably unprecedented in ninja history!

Ye Liang looked disdainfully at his Summoned Beast, a soft lump of mud that was wriggling around.

Naturally, he knew it was not actual shit. It might merely be some unknown mollusk, or perhaps even the residual cells of some creature.

But one thing was undeniable.

This thing definitely had no combat ability. Ye Liang could tell everything just by seeing it move slower than a snail.

Thirty minutes later.

An enraged figure stormed into the Hokage Office.