“Summoning Jutsu?”

  Minato had a slight understanding of this kind of ninjutsu from his time with Hiroshi, but he only knew the basics. As for the specifics of how it worked and the principles behind it, he couldn’t say he understood much at all.

  “The so-called Summoning Jutsu, as the name suggests, allows a ninja to summon a certain entity to assist in battle. And what we typically summon are living creatures,” Jiraiya expined.

  If it had been anyone else, Jiraiya would’ve glossed over the details and simply taught them the jutsu, but Minato was different. At just seven years old, he had already demonstrated the natural talent to grasp the Body Flicker Technique on his own. If Jiraiya guided him carefully, Minato might even develop a unique ninjutsu of his own someday. Such a skill was something even Jiraiya hadn’t mastered.

  “Summon… living creatures?” Minato's eyes widened in surprise. From Jiraiya's simple expnation, it was easy to gauge the difficulty of this technique. Low-ranking ninjutsu wouldn’t possess this kind of power.

  Now it made sense why Jiraiya had previously said that even if Minato lost control, the summoning wouldn’t harm anyone—it wasn’t just any ordinary technique.

  “The creatures summoned by this jutsu are called Summoning Beasts. Like us, they are living beings in this world. A ninja can summon them through a contract, a bond formed through power,” Jiraiya continued.

  He reached into the pouch on his waist and pulled out a ninja scroll. With swift hand signs, he pressed his hands onto the scroll, and a rger scroll appeared in his hands.

  “To perform a summoning, one must form a contract with a Summoning Beast. The stronger the beast, the rarer it is, making it harder to find. So, while summoning jutsu may seem like a B-rank technique, its true power goes far beyond that.”

  Jiraiya’s face showed a slight smirk of pride as he spoke.

  “Among the known summoning beasts in the ninja world, the strongest is the Monkey King, Enma, whom the Third Hokage signed a contract with. His strength is on par with that of an S-rank ninja!”

  Minato inhaled sharply. The term “S-rank ninja” referred to a cssification of power within the ninja world, and these ninja were immensely powerful, even rivaling the Kage of the five major nations.

  The fact that the Third Hokage’s summoning beast had strength comparable to that level of ninja… it was almost otherworldly!

  Jiraiya chuckled lightly, “Summoning beasts like Enma are unique to the Third Hokage, and are considered the strongest. Other summoning beasts don’t have this kind of power.”

  Minato nodded. If powerful summoning beasts were common, the rank of the jutsu would surely be much higher than B.

  “So, does that mean I need to go find a strong summoning beast and make a contract?” Minato asked, curious.

  Jiraiya ughed, “Finding a powerful summoning beast isn’t easy. Besides, if your own strength isn’t enough, how could such a powerful creature ever agree to form a contract with you?”

  He shook his head with a smile, but there was still a confident gleam in his eyes.

  “I’ve said it before: you’re my student. If there’s nothing special about you, then I, as your teacher, would be remiss.”

  “Besides Enma, there are three legendary locations in the ninja world, each home to incredibly powerful summoning beasts. I’ve signed a contract with one of them—the Mountain of Myoboku!”

  Jiraiya id the rge scroll on the ground. Minato’s eyes fixed on the names written in blood across it. One of those names, naturally, was Jiraiya’s own.

  “To sign the blood contract, you must write your name with your own blood. Once you do, you’ll be able to summon the toads of Myoboku to fight alongside you. The strength of the summoned creature will depend on how much chakra you release.”

  Minato stared at the scroll, feeling a sense of déjà vu. The name “Myoboku” didn’t sound unfamiliar, and he wasn’t shocked when Jiraiya mentioned that the summoning beasts of Myoboku were toads.

  He crouched down, bit his right thumb, and wrote his name in blood on the summoning scroll.

  Jiraiya smiled and took the scroll, rolling it up before saying, “Now, I’ll teach you how to perform the summoning jutsu hand signs.”

  Jiraiya demonstrated the hand signs for Minato, who nodded in understanding. The signs were the same basic ones he had learned at the ninja academy—He, Ro, I, Ni, and the others. Minato had practiced them countless times on his own.

  “Summoning jutsu is a space-time ninjutsu, which means you need a medium to perform the summoning. The medium is your own blood, which forms the link during the contract,” Jiraiya expined.

  When Jiraiya mentioned space-time ninjutsu, Minato felt a strange sense of familiarity. He wasn’t sure why, but it almost seemed like he had encountered this type of jutsu before.

  “Now, watch closely as I demonstrate.”

  Jiraiya bit his right thumb and smeared the blood on his left hand, then swiftly performed the five hand signs. With a dramatic sm of his hand onto the ground, a wave of chakra patterns spread from his palm, forming a circle, almost like a magic array.

  “Boom!”

  In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya was standing atop a massive toad that was even taller than Minato. Its skin was dark red, and it wore an oil tag around its neck with the word “Chou” written on it.

  Most kids would’ve been frightened at the sight of such a giant creature, but Minato remained remarkably calm.

  “This is Chou, the toad,” Jiraiya said, smiling.

  Minato nodded in acknowledgment, though he wasn’t sure how to address the enormous toad in front of him.

  Chou, for his part, appeared calm and docile, standing silently without making a sound.

  “Did you get it?” Jiraiya asked as he leaped off the toad. With another puff of smoke, the toad vanished.

  “Mm-hmm,” Minato replied, understanding the basic principles and methods. Now, it was all about controlling his chakra output as Jiraiya had expined.

  “Alright, it’s your turn to try.”

  Minato, eager to give it a shot, quickly followed Jiraiya’s example. He smeared the blood from his previously bitten thumb onto his other hand, then expertly and swiftly performed the five hand signs. His palm smmed onto the ground.

  In that instant, Minato poured his chakra into the summoning. He was excited to see what kind of creature he could summon now...

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