Early morning.
After a night.
Jiraiya's injuries have healed nicely.
When this elite ninja instructor began teaching Akihara Kagura, he seemed to become serious: "First, what I will teach you is the art of Summoning…"
This was the first technique Jiraiya chose to teach Akihara Kagura. Rather than simply teaching the art of Summoning, it was more about Jiraiya wanting Akihara Kagura to sign a summoning contract with Mount Myoboku, thereby establishing a connection between Akihara Kagura and Mount Myoboku.
Mount Myoboku is one of the three great sage heritages in the ninja world.
Only in a sage heritage site can one have the possibility to learn Sage Mode.
Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Jiraiya to teach Akihara Kagura primarily to enable Kagura to learn Sage Mode, as many of the powerful Wood Release techniques of Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage of Konoha, were recorded as Sage Jutsu.
To make Akihara Kagura as powerful as the First Hokage, it was essential for Kagura to learn Sage Mode. Currently, in the entire ninja world, Jiraiya is the only known ninja to master Sage Mode.
Through yesterday's lesson, Jiraiya believed that Akihara Kagura was not a person with evil intentions and decided to let Kagura sign a summoning contract with Mount Myoboku.
"Summoned creatures can help a ninja do many things…"
Jiraiya has always been very skilled in using summoned creatures from Mount Myoboku.
These toads can not only assist him in battle but also help with disguises, communication, and concealment, greatly aiding Jiraiya.
"Now…"
"Let's have you sign the summoning contract with Mount Myoboku!"
"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"
Jiraiya quickly formed hand seals and slammed his palm on the ground!
A black summoning circle appeared on the ground, and a puff of smoke rose from the circle, revealing a large toad.
The toad wore a loyalty tag around its neck and held a scroll in its mouth. It gently extended its long tongue and placed the scroll in front of Akihara Kagura.
"This is the summoning contract scroll that our generation has signed with Mount Myoboku. You need to write your name on the scroll with your own blood to establish a summoning contract with Mount Myoboku. From then on, you can summon toads from Mount Myoboku to assist you…"
The scroll slowly opened, revealing rows of blanks.
The names of five individuals were written at the front of this summoning scroll, with Jiraiya's name second to last, and the name of a certain Otsutsuki Hagoromo at the top.
Akihara Kagura bit his finger and wrote down his name.
"..."
Jiraiya watched Kagura's actions, murmuring to himself: "The art of Summoning is a space-time technique and also relies heavily on talent. But since you were able to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique, combined with your chakra, you should easily summon the toad Gamabunta, and possibly even the two sages, Fukasaku and Shima…"
Toad Gamabunta.
Among the toads of Mount Myoboku, Gamabunta boasts an exceptionally strong combat ability and is one of Jiraiya's most important partners, assisting him in numerous battles.
Fukasaku and Shima, two sage toads, are Gamabunta's parents and esteemed elders of Mount Myoboku. Both sages possess the ability to wield powerful senjutsu.
Most importantly...
These two sage toads are true mentors, not only teaching ninjas how to merge natural energy with their chakra to use senjutsu but also assisting them in entering Sage Mode.
If Akihara Kagura could summon Fukasaku and Shima, learning or utilizing Sage Mode in combat would become much simpler.
"Ninjutsu: Summoning Jutsu!"
Akihara Kagura quickly brought his hands together in a seal and released his first summoning jutsu in the ninja world, immediately sensing the summonable creatures!
Besides the Ten-Tails' husk within himself, there were many summonable creatures from a hidden place, both large and small, and Akihara Kagura issued the summon command!
Mount Myoboku.
This is a Sage's place in the ninja world.
Deep within a temple on Mount Myoboku, a giant orange toad sat on a huge chair, soundly asleep with its eyes closed.
This giant toad wore a string of prayer beads around its neck with a "Oil" character plaque in the middle, and a hat symbolizing wisdom on its head.
The Great Toad Sage.
The founder of the Mount Myoboku legacy site and the highest-ranking individual in Mount Myoboku, he spends years dreaming, foreseeing the future in his dreams.
"It seems... someone is calling me..."
The Great Toad Sage seemed to murmur something in his sleep.
By the Great Toad Sage's side.
Stood Fukasaku and Shima, the two sage toads.
These two sages are very small in stature, preferring to walk upright, and their thought processes are very human-like.
"Old fool, did you sleep in confusion again?"
Sage Shima was always quite blunt with the Great Toad Sage.
"Could it be another prophecy..."
Sage Fukasaku shook his head, about to say something when he sensed someone initiating a summoning contract with them!
"This is..."
"Someone is summoning us!"
"Is little Jiraiya in danger?"
Fukasaku and Shima sensed the summoning at the same time.
In the entire ninja world, only Jiraiya could summon them both!
However, Jiraiya found it very difficult to summon them; most of the time, their assistance was needed to enter Sage Mode, and for regular battles, Gamabunta or other toads were sufficient!
Just as the two Sages were about to respond to the summoning, the summoning command suddenly disappeared, as if another toad from Mount Myoboku had answered the call.
"Little Jiraiya wouldn't summon us without a reason..."
Sage Fukasaku shook his head worriedly, fearing that something serious had happened, and turned to look at the huge chair next to him, saying, "When the old fool wakes up, let him check if Jiraiya has encountered any danger... Where is the old fool?"
"Ah?"
Sage Shima looked at the empty chair with eyes full of shock, her face suddenly filled with panic: "This is bad, the Great Toad Sage is in trouble..."
"The old fool is gone!"
Sage Shima's face was also full of dismay!
Even though she always called the Great Toad Sage an old fool who slept too much, she knew well that the Great Toad Sage was a pillar of Mount Myoboku!
Elsewhere.
On a small hill near the town.
Akihara Kagura sat on top of a doctoral cap.
The Great Toad Sage, who had been in a dazed sleep, slowly woke up, opened his eyes to survey his surroundings, and in a daze, saw Jiraiya before him.
Jiraiya opened his mouth in shock, looking incredulously at the summoned beast brought forth by Akihara Kagura, tremblingly extending his finger: "You kid... How could you summon the Great Toad Sage, you little kid!"
"Ah ah ah ah ah..."
"I'm going to be scolded to death by Sages Fukasaku and Shima!"
Panic shone in Jiraiya's eyes, as he ran around in fear.
"Wait, you kid!"
Jiraiya suddenly stopped, pointed at Akihara Kagura sitting on the Great Toad Sage's cap: "Get down from there now! Don't sit on top of the Great Toad Sage's head!"
"..."
Akihara Kagura leaped down, looking at the frightened Jiraiya, and frowned: "This summoned beast, was it not supposed to be summoned? It looks big, but it doesn't seem to have much fighting ability..."
"He is the Great Toad Sage!"
Jiraiya, grabbing Akihara Kagura's shoulders, explained to his disciple the serious consequences of summoning the Great Toad Sage: "The highest-ranking sage of Mount Myoboku, the Great Toad Sage possesses the ability of prophecy. You summoning him here will drive the toads of Mount Myoboku mad. Once those guys find out, they'll definitely scold me to death!"
"Don't be nervous, Teacher Jiraiya…"
Akihara Kagura looked at the nervous Jiraiya and began to soothe his own teacher, offering a suggestion: "Wouldn't it be fine if I just killed this Giant Toad Sage so that the toads of Mount Myoboku don't find out about this?"
After saying this, Akihara Kagura then turned his gaze towards the toad summoned by Jiraiya, which wore a loyalty tag, "It would be best to kill the toad summoned by Teacher Jiraiya as well, to prevent it from going to Mount Myoboku to tip them off..."
"..."
Jiraiya's head was scared crooked.
Jiraiya, trembling, pointed at Akihara Kagura and began to scold: "Don't say such horrifying things! And don't come up with such extreme ideas!"
"..."
The toad Loyalty, summoned by Jiraiya, heard Akihara Kagura's words and immediately realized the severity of the situation, quickly dispelling the summoning to return to Mount Myoboku to report.
"That guy ran away."
Akihara Kagura sighed.
"My life... is over..."
Jiraiya held his head in despair.
"If I hadn't accepted the old man's task, I wouldn't have taken you as a disciple; if I hadn't taken you as a disciple, I wouldn't have taught you the art of summoning; if I hadn't taught you the art of summoning, today's incident wouldn't have happened..."
This tall man, who was always carefree and unrestrained, was now squatting on the ground like a complaining wife, doubting his own life.
However...
Jiraiya was depressed for a while but quickly recovered.
"Things haven't reached the worst point yet!"
Jiraiya looked at the Giant Toad Sage, who was gradually coming to his senses, stepped forward, bowed deeply, and started apologizing profusely.
"Sorry, sorry..."
"Giant Toad Sage, my young disciple is somewhat ignorant and does not understand the situation at Mount Myoboku. I hope you, as a noble elder, can forgive this slight and forget about today's incident..."
"And also..."
"It would be best if you could speak well of me in front of the Sages Fukasaku and Shima..."
"..."
The Giant Toad Sage was confused for a while, looking at Jiraiya who was bowing and scraping in front of him, pondered for a moment, and then asked: "By the way, who are you again?"
The Giant Toad Sage, always sleeping, with its age spanning over a thousand years and having experienced too much, often forgets many people and many things, even frequently forgetting Jiraiya's name.
In the past, Jiraiya only felt a bit helpless about the Great Toad Sage forgetting his own matters, but today, he suddenly felt a bit of joy.
"Can't remember me? That's really great!"
Jiraiya's face beamed with joy, happily persuading it: "Then you must also forget about today's events, hurry up and cancel the summoning to go home and sleep!"
"I remember now, it's little Jiraiya..."
The Great Toad Sage slowly uttered Jiraiya's name.
"..."
Jiraiya's expression instantly froze, and he dejectedly sat on the ground, resigned to be scolded: "Never mind, I'll summon Fukasaku first and explain everything clearly!"
Mount Myoboku.
Deep in the temple of Mount Myoboku.
While Fukasaku and Shima were still hesitating, a huge toad leaped over; it was the son of the two sages, Gamabunta!
"Gama has just returned!"
"Gama told me that the Great Toad Sage was summoned by someone!"
"That guy Jiraiya has taken a disciple, and that kid used the summoning technique for the first time and was not skilled, directly summoning the Great Toad Sage!"
"That kid wanted to silence him, to kill the Great Toad Sage!"
"That guy Jiraiya is summoning me!"
The huge Gamabunta sensed someone was summoning him, holding a giant smoking pipe: "I'm going there now to see which arrogant kid it is!"
On a mountain top near the town.
"Ninja Art: Summoning Technique!"
As Jiraiya performed the summoning technique, an extremely large red toad appeared here!
This huge toad had a smoking pipe in its mouth, a series of tongue piercings on its tongue, and a short sword hanging at its waist, making it look very formidable.
It was Gamabunta from Mount Myoboku.
"Which kid..."
Just as Gamabunta appeared and was about to curse, he saw the Great Toad Sage sitting on the ground, focusing on a young boy standing in front of it.
The Great Toad Sage conversed briefly with Jiraiya and then ceased to focus on him, instead intently observing Akihara Kagura, the one who had summoned him.
"Little one…"
"A little one who has never appeared in my dreams…"
"Even though I can see the story of Hamura and Hagoromo, even the tale of an ant moving its home, I still can't see your story…"
"Huh?"
Jiraiya was about to explain to Gamabunta when he suddenly heard these words and sharply reacted, turning his gaze towards the Great Toad Sage!
"Wait, Great Toad Sage!"
"Great Toad Sage can't see Kagura, does that mean Kagura is not the Child of Prophecy?"
"…"
The Great Toad Sage slowly shook his head.
"Is it not so…"
Jiraiya's brows furrowed, a hint of disappointment appearing on his face.
"…"
The Great Toad Sage did not respond, continuing to gaze at Akihara Kagura, trying to see through the boy as if through a veil, unable to clearly perceive anything beyond the surface that Kagura presented.
"But…"
"Nature is very close to you."
"Can't you feel their presence?"
The Great Toad Sage possessed an immeasurable amount of natural energy and could see the natural energy constantly drawing close to Kagura.
This natural energy, even more than the Great Toad Sage, sought closeness with Kagura, something the sage had never witnessed in thousands of years.
"Are you talking about… these?"
Kagura lifted his hand, as if he could sense the natural energy.
This natural energy was absorbed into Kagura's body.
A shade of black and white eyeshadow appeared on Kagura's face, and a tremendous aura burst forth from him, instantly knocking over Gamabunta and Jiraiya, leaving only the Great Toad Sage unmoved in his original place!
Jiraiya quickly hid on top of Gamabunta's head, staring in amazement at Kagura standing before the Great Toad Sage!
"That is… Sage Mode!"
~~~
Just like that... I got Sage Mode
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