Mikami Yuu froze for a moment.
It seemed this ninjutsu's image was different from the ones he had before. It could even make references.
Then several dialogue boxes appeared:
[A: Yes, yes, I'm your master. From now on, you must obey my every word and never disobey!]
[B: Your chains look so pretty and sparkly. Can I touch them?]
[C: (Remain silent and stare at her affectionately)]
"…"
Yuu hesitated between A and B for a few seconds before finally choosing B.
[Summoning Technique: (revealing a sly smile) Oh? What do you want to touch, exactly? These chains, my feet, or… whatever might be tied to the other end of the chains?]
"…Whatever is tied to them?"
What did that mean?
[Summoning Technique: Well… the other ends of these chains used to connect to many interesting fellows. For example, warty toads, terrible-tempered giant snakes, and sticky slugs… If you tug these chains, maybe you can meet them. But if you pull out something troublesome, the consequences might be very serious too.]
"!!"
Yuu's eyelid twitched.
Warty toads, giant snakes, slugs… Those descriptions were clearly referring to the summoning beasts of the Three Great Holy Lands!
Could it be that
the girl in front of him was the concept or meme known as Summoning Technique itself? Any summoning beast that had ever contracted with humans in history had once been connected to those chains. And he could use those chains to bypass blood contracts and directly drag those creatures over to work for him?
If that was true…
that would be way too broken.
It didn't feel very likely.
[Summoning Technique: Well… maybe it can happen. Do you want to try?]
Of course he wanted to try.
After all, Minato had just taught him the method. Even without a summoning beast, he should at least cast it a few times to test the effect.
So,
Yuu temporarily withdrew his attention from the galgame system and looked at Minato in front of him.
"Minato-sensei, I'd like to try the Summoning Technique."
"Oh? You memorized everything so quickly? Good. Remember the chakra circulation route and the feeling of spatial positioning I explained earlier. Try it first. If there are problems, I'll correct you."
Minato encouraged him.
Yuu nodded, took a deep breath, and slowly formed hand seals. Then he pressed his fingers to the ground. As the technique formula took shape, a circle of black runes spread out from beneath his palm, forming an ancient and mysterious pattern. At the same time, a portion of the chakra in Yuu's body was instantly drawn away.
With no preset contract target, under normal circumstances, nothing should have happened.
But…
Buzz—
[You formed the hand seals for "Summoning Technique." Along with ripples of spatial fluctuation, one of the chains wrapped around Summoning Technique's left hand began clattering, as if tugged by some invisible object. She curled her lips, pulled hard, and something floated up from beneath the silver water.]
[Summoning Technique: Oh~ Not bad luck. We got something! It's a very cute little thing~]
In reality,
Yuu looked down and saw a fluffy little white ball appear out of nowhere at his feet.
"Uu… woof?"
It was a tiny puppy that looked only a few months old, snow-white from head to toe. Curled up, it looked like a fluffy cotton ball. It seemed to have no idea what was going on, raising its little head in confusion. Its wet black nose twitched, and it let out a faint, bewildered sound.
"Huh?!"
Rin was the first to let out a delighted cry. Her eyes instantly lit up, and her face was filled with affection.
"What a cute little puppy!"
On the other side,
Minato was a little stunned.
Wait… what was going on?
Where had this thing come from?
Had some wild summoning beast clan been accidentally summoned?
At once, Minato stepped forward and crouched down in surprise to inspect the little white dog that had just appeared. At this moment, the puppy was sticking out its pink tongue and licking Rin's extended fingertip. When Minato touched it, it barked a few times, sounding extremely weak.
"Mm… it looks exactly like an ordinary puppy. There is a chakra reaction inside its body, but it's very weak. It doesn't seem to be at the level of a young beast from a high-level summoning clan… It's more like a ninja dog raised by the Inuzuka clan?"
Minato looked deeply puzzled.
Yuu was also confused. Just as he was about to ask Summoning Technique inside the galgame system what exactly she had pulled up, urgent barking came from afar.
"Woof! Woof woof woof!"
Everyone raised their heads at once and looked toward the sound. A young ninja wearing the Inuzuka clan's signature mesh undershirt, with red inverted-triangle face paint, was riding a sturdy yellow-brown dog and rushing over at high speed. Only when he got close did he slow down.
"Huh, Jōnin Minato?"
"You are… Inuzuka Hideki?"
After recognizing each other, the ninja named Inuzuka Hideki jumped down from the large dog. His gaze swept over Yuu and the others before landing on the white puppy between them.
"Ah! So it's here! I was wondering why it suddenly disappeared… Did it run over here on its own?"
"This is your dog?"
Minato stood and asked.
"Yeah."
Inuzuka Hideki nodded. "A new batch of puppies was born recently in the clan. These past two days, I happened to have time, so I brought them to the forest with a few clan members for basic training, to screen out individuals suitable to become ninja dogs. I didn't expect to suddenly discover one was missing when I counted them earlier, so I searched all the way here."
As he spoke, Inuzuka Hideki crouched down. The little white dog seemed to recognize him and immediately wobbled over to rub against his pant leg.
Minato hesitated. "If I said… this puppy was summoned here by my student using the Summoning Technique, would you believe me?"
"?"
A few minutes later,
Yuu and the others learned the rough situation from Inuzuka Hideki.
As ninja clans famous for animal-related secret arts, the Inuzuka and Aburame clan compounds were both located near the edge of the village, close to the forest. Next to the training ground where they were now, about one kilometer away, was the Inuzuka clan's training area. Clan members often trained dogs there.
So…
"Could it be that this little thing has the aptitude to become a powerful ninja dog in the future, and at that exact moment sensed Yuu's summoning formula? Since it was also nearby, it was summoned over without having signed a blood contract?"
It sounded a bit ridiculous, but they really couldn't find a more reasonable explanation. As the Yellow Flash, Minato's character spoke for itself. Inuzuka Hideki couldn't possibly suspect that teacher and student had colluded to steal his clan's dog…
"So that's how it is…"
Inuzuka Hideki thought for a moment. "Since this little guy has fate with you, and it looks like you like it too, if you don't mind, I'll give this puppy to you to raise. I'll just report it to the clan when I get back."
"This… is that alright?"
Yuu asked.
"No problem!"
Inuzuka Hideki waved a hand. "You're Mikami Yuu, right? And this should be Nohara Rin? I'm Inuzuka Tsume's younger cousin. I've heard her mention your names in letters before. She said that if there was a chance, she wanted to give you a few ninja dogs as partners. This is perfect. We can fulfill that promise!
"Mm… since there are two of you, if you're interested, you can come back with me and pick another one. We still have plenty of good-quality puppies there."
Mm, Inuzuka Tsume had indeed mentioned this back in Wildfire City.
Even without that connection, using a ninja dog to gain the friendship of the elite jōnin—and future potential Hokage—Namikaze Minato, as well as his student, was a very worthwhile deal. Conversely, if he insisted on taking the puppy back, it would look a little bad.
"I… don't need one."
Rin was tempted for a moment, then looked at the little white dog beside her.
"I think this one is very nice. Why don't Yuu and I raise it together? What do you think, Yuu?"
"No problem."
Yuu nodded.
He wasn't very interested in raising dogs. If he really did raise one, he would just leave it with Mikami Tajima and his wife as a pet, to accompany them when he was away from the village. Since Rin was interested, letting her take care of it was fine and saved him a lot of trouble.
Hearing this, Rin held the puppy and smiled until her eyes curved.
"Alright."
Inuzuka Hideki also nodded. He took out a small notebook and pen from his ninja pouch, quickly wrote several lines, then tore the page out and handed it to Yuu.
"This is what these puppies usually like to eat, along with some basic training points and things to watch out for.
"Since you've adopted it, treat it well. If you have any questions, you can come to the Inuzuka compound and ask me anytime."
"Thank you."
After Inuzuka Hideki left,
the training field became quiet again.
Minato withdrew his gaze, looked at the little puppy in Rin's arms, and seemed thoughtful.
"Yuu, try again. I'll use sensory ninjutsu to help confirm how exactly your Summoning Technique is operating."
"Alright."
Yuu had the same intention.
He formed seals again: Boar—Dog—Bird—Monkey—Ram. Chakra surged through his body.
This time,
the Summoning Technique girl plucked a chain on her right hand.
In reality, an obscure spatial fluctuation appeared. A small magpie with gray-blue feathers flapped its wings and appeared in front of Yuu. It seemed frightened, chirped twice, and then immediately spread its wings and flew away.
Then came the third try.
A brown lizard more than half a meter long, with rough scales and a long tail, appeared out of thin air. It looked like it had fallen from a tree, sprawled on its back with all four limbs up. It lay motionless for a while before suddenly flipping over and scrambling into the nearby bushes on all fours.
"…"
Minato no longer knew what to say. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Rin.
"Rin, you try too?"
"Mm!"
Rin had watched Yuu play with the technique for a while and was extremely envious. She seriously formed the seals and tried using the Summoning Technique. But after several attempts, aside from consuming chakra, nothing changed around her.
Then Minato personally tried as well, with the same result.
"This…"
Minato opened his mouth, his blue eyes carrying a trace of confusion.
"Yuu… your Summoning Technique is indeed strange.
"From what I sensed, your chakra seems to undergo a kind of… mutation during the final positioning and pulling stage. It doesn't point to a specific contract mark, but randomly captures a coordinate. The result is that it randomly grabs a living creature from within a few kilometers and summons it over…
"This kind of special talent is something I've never seen before."
Mm, it was indeed a type of talent.
After all, many people who had signed blood contracts couldn't necessarily summon the exact summoning beast they wanted during battle. Sometimes the summoning beast might even quarrel with its master and refuse to work.
And Yuu, while only just beginning to learn Summoning Technique, could summon something every time he used it. Even if they were only ordinary small animals, that was enough to be surprising.
In any case…
"At the very least, this proves that you have talent for Summoning Technique, Yuu, and you grasped its formula principles very quickly. Next, you can first practice with ninja tools or small animals, familiarizing yourself with chakra control during summoning and dispelling. After that, you can consider the question of contracted summoning beasts."
Minato patted Yuu's shoulder, his tone returning to its usual gentleness.
"…I understand."
Yuu was starting to figure it out too.
So apparently…
this newly appeared Summoning Technique girl was a fishing addict.
The chains wrapped around her hands and feet were, in essence, fishing rods. Using Summoning Technique was like using these rods to cast and fish. Currently, perhaps because he had only just started, his proficiency was lacking, and his chakra was not abundant enough, so the pond he could fish in only contained nearby "small fish and shrimp."
But in the future…
given enough time, it should be possible to catch "big fish" on the level of the Three Great Holy Lands.
Yuu planned to follow Minato's suggestion first, using small animals and ninja tools to practice, raising his proficiency before deciding which Holy Land he should sign a contract with.
At once,
Yuu glanced at Rin, who was carefully holding the puppy, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
Rin also noticed his gaze at just the right moment. She turned back, smiling brightly.
"Yuu, let's give it a name."
"A name? Let's call it Shiro."
Yuu said casually.
"Shiro… isn't that a little too ordinary?"
"It's fine. The name matches the dog. If you think it's too simple, use your surname and call it Nohara Shiro."
"Ah… what do you mean, use my surname…"
Rin pressed her lips together, and a blush unconsciously appeared on her face, as if she had thought of something strange. Then she quickly shook her head to throw away those distracting thoughts and happily rubbed her cheek against the puppy's fluffy head.
"Alright, then from now on, you're Shiro."
The little white dog wagged its tail and made a comfortable whimpering sound, seeming quite satisfied with this outcome.