Naruto: Faint Smile - CH 91

[Arata Takeshi - POV.]

Today, as I walked out of my room in the inn, I found Jiraiya waiting outside my room with a wide grin and mischievous look in his eyes that usually meant something ridiculous was about to happen. I was getting used to it by now, but still, every time he had that look, I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of concern. Usually, whatever he was about to say would involve me doing something outright evil or uncomfortable. 

But surprisingly… today his tone was serious.

“Takeshi, I’m about to teach you one of the most important jutsus a shinobi should have in their arsenal,” he said, dramatically pausing for effect. “The summoning jutsu!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Summoning jutsu, neat.” I always assumed I would inherit my father’s contract with the crane clan, but I never found his summoning contract, so there wasn’t much hope in that regard.

Still, I was interested in getting a summon. Depending on the clan, the benefits they provided were far too good to just ignore.

Jiraiya nodded, pulling out a scroll and unfurling it with a flourish. “This right here kid, is the BEST summoning contract there is! The toad summoning contract!” he said, patting the scroll proudly. “This will allow you to summon mighty toads in battle. They’ll fight alongside you, offer advice, and sometimes even save your skin when things get rough.”

Toads. So that’s going to be my summoning clan. I always thought it was going to be something related to cats, or maybe wolves. I wonder if I can have more than one summoning contract, and if so… can I make a team of summons that work well together?

I never looked too much into this subject, so I’m mostly navigating on unknown waters. But it was worth researching a bit now.

Jiraiya took a deep breath and began explaining the details. “The contract works like this: you sign it with your blood, and that binds you to the toads and the toads to you. After that, with a bit of chakra and the right hand signs, you can summon them whenever you need help.”

I listened carefully, nodding along. “Sounds simple enough.”

“And once you’ve signed the contract,” Jiraiya continued, “You’ll be able to call forth toads of varying sizes and abilities. The more chakra you pour into the jutsu, the stronger the toad you summon.”

I nodded again. Simple enough. Sign the contract, do the hand signs, put a decent amount of chakra, summon toads. Use toads. Got it.

“Now, go ahead and sign it,” Jiraiya said, handing me the scroll.

I looked down at the scroll, then at Jiraiya, before biting my finger to draw blood. Then I used the blood to sign my name on the scroll, the red ink seeping into the parchment. 

After I was done, I glanced back up at Jiraiya, who nodded approvingly. “Good. Now that you’re signed up, it’s time to teach you the hand signs.”

He quickly demonstrated the sequence of hand signs—boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram—moving through them with ease. I watched closely, memorizing the movements. It was a straightforward sequence, nothing too complicated.

“Alright,” Jiraiya said, clapping his hands together. “Now, let me show you how it’s done.”

He performed the hand signs and slammed his palm onto the ground, a puff of smoke filling the air as two small toads appeared. They looked old, and grumpy.

“Jiraiya! What do you think you’re doing summoning us out of nowhere?!” The female toad with a wig scolded, smacking Jiraiya on the head with a small stick she seemed to carry for moments like this.

“I swear, one of these days I’m going to—”

“Easy, easy!” Jiraiya held up his hands in surrender, wincing as Pa gave him a glare. “I’m just showing the kid how it’s done. No need to get violent!”

The old toad with white hair sighed, rubbing his forehead. “We were eating.”

Jiraiya gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.”

I watched the entire exchange with a faint smile on my face. I had seen Jiraiya get smacked around enough times by now that it wasn’t surprising anymore, though most times… it was the ladies smacking him. If anything, it was almost expected he was going to be smacked once or twice a day.

This was the first time seeing a pair of tiny toads smacking him though.

With the two tiny old toads still glaring at Jiraiya, the old sannin turned to me, rubbing the back of his head. “Right, uh... anyway, your turn. Give it a shot.”

I nodded, stepping forward. I started with the hand signs—boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram—then pressed my hand firmly onto the ground. I could feel the surge of chakra flowing through me, and for a moment, everything seemed to be going well.

Then suddenly, the ground beneath me vanished.

“Hmm…”

One second, I was standing firmly on solid earth, and the next, I was free-falling through the air. The world around me had completely shifted. I blinked, trying to make sense of the disorienting rush of wind as I realized I wasn’t in the same place anymore. 

This isn’t the field... 

I looked around and saw nothing but sky and clouds below me. 

Did I do something wrong? 

I don’t think I did… I followed Jiraiya’s instructions to the letter, from the hand signs to the amount of chakra needed. So why was it that instead of summoning a toad, I was falling to my death? Well, I suppose using the word death was me being a bit dramatic.

That being said, I still had no idea where I was or how high up I had been sent. The landscape was far below me, a blur of trees and mountains that were growing closer by the second.

I still have a minute or so before reaching ground.

I considered my options. I had no idea where I was, but I had to land safely first. Chakra surged through my legs as I prepared for impact. This wasn’t the first time I had been thrown into an unexpected situation, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. 

The ground rushed up to meet me, and at the last second, I released the built-up chakra, softening the impact as I landed in a crouch. Dust flew up around me, and I straightened slowly, looking around.

“Well there goes my left leg…” I chuckled, it seemed that despite my efforts, I hadn’t managed to avoid all the damage. My leg was broken.

—-------------------------------------------------

[Jiraiya - POV.]

The moment Takeshi slammed his hand down onto the ground, I knew something was off. It wasn’t the usual puff of smoke you’d expect when someone did the summoning jutsu correctly. No, instead of summoning something, he disappeared into a puff of smoke, like the universe had decided to yank him right out of existence.

At first, I stared at the spot where Takeshi had been standing, smiling, my mind trying to catch up to what just happened. Then, slowly, the realization hit me.

“Wait… what the—”

Mikoto and Fugaku are going to kill me, and sensei will help them!

Before I could picture how the Uchiha Matriarch was going to skin me alive as sensei watched, Ma smacked me upside the head with her stick, hard enough to rattle my teeth. “You idiot! You had the boy try a summoning jutsu without even making sure he signed the contract properly, didn’t you?!”

“Wha—No! No, no, no, he signed it!” I waved my arms frantically, grabbing the scroll and shoving it in front of her face. “Look! It’s right here, see? He signed the damn thing!”

Pa, who had been quietly observing with an irritated expression, seemingly ready to smack me, stepped closer and squinted at the contract. “Hmm…”

Ma leaned in, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the parchment. “Let me see that…” Her scowl faded almost instantly, replaced by an expression I’d never seen on her face before, shock. Genuine, wide-eyed shock.

Pa’s mouth dropped open slightly, his usual grumpy demeanor replaced with something approaching disbelief. “This… this has never happened before.”

“What?!” I said, completely lost. I held up the contract, waving it like it was going to explain something to me. “What’s going on? He signed the contract! He should’ve summoned a toad! Why was he reversed summoned?!”

Ma looked from the contract to me, then back to the contract. Her eyes were still wide as she shook her head. “I can’t believe it...”

“Believe what?!” I demanded, throwing my hands up. My mind was officially racing from confusion to full-on panic. “Where did he go? And how do we bring him back?! Sure, the kid is annoying, and loves to cockblock me, but he’s my student, and I WON’T have him die after four months with me!”

Pa exchanged a look with Ma, then turned to me, rubbing his chin. “Jiraiya… it seems that boy, Takeshi... already has a contract with another summoning clan. Well… kind of.”

I stared at him blankly. “What do you mean he already has a contract? I’m standing right here, looking at the contract he just signed. And even if that was the case, he would’ve summoned something, not… this.”

Pa shook his head slowly. “No, no, this is different. He… has a contract, but at the same time, he doesn’t… basically, another clan has already claimed their rights on him. Long before today.”

I blinked, my brain still trying to process this new information. “They can do that?”

Pa let out a sigh, looking up at me with the kind of patience you reserve for explaining something really complicated to someone very, very slow. “You see, the summoning world is vast. Each clan, whether it’s toads, snakes, slugs, or others, operates within its own realm. And sometimes, though it’s extremely rare, a shinobi can be claimed by a clan before they’re even aware of it. This is what we call an incomplete contract…”

My eyes widened as the pieces started clicking into place. “So, what you're saying is... Takeshi disappeared because another clan claimed rights to him…”

That didn’t make sense, Shinobis could have more than one summoning contract… I know more than a few Shinobi with two or more summons… so even if this mysterious summoning clan had claimed dibs on him, he still should’ve been able to summon the toads.

Ma nodded. “Normally this happens when the summoning clan in question is… very territorial of their summoners. These types of contracts are not something that can be easily undone as they are tied to a person’s chakra, deeply rooted in their very being. Meaning this other clan made his signature in our contract void, and forcibly summoned him to the realm of those that claimed rights to him.”

I ran a hand through my hair, my mind spinning. “So you’re telling me that Takeshi could be anywhere right now? He could be in some weird other dimension with... I don’t know, giant sharks or worms or something?”

Pa and Ma exchanged a look that made my stomach drop even further.

“Possibly,” Pa said, his voice heavy. “There’s no way of knowing until we learn which clan holds his contract. And for that, we need to go back.”

I groaned, slumping to the ground in defeat. “Great. Just great. I finally start liking the kid, and now he’s been sucked into a world, without his claymore or sensing, facing Kami knows what!”

Ma patted me on the shoulder with surprising sympathy. It was weird not being smacked by her. “It’s not your fault, Jiraiya. There was no way to know this would happen.”

I rubbed my face, trying to pull myself together. “Okay, okay... so what do we do now?”

Pa stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Well, the boy will likely figure out where he is soon enough. And once he does, and the clan that claimed him deems him worthy to finalize their unfinished contract, they would bring him back.”

“Assuming he survives,” Ma added, earning a glare from Pa.

“That’s... comforting,” I muttered. “So basically, the only thing I can do… is wait and hope he doesn’t get eaten by whatever’s in that world?”

Ma nodded. “Essentially, yes.”