Boom!
A cloud of smoke exploded, and a massive orange toad with black markings appeared right under Jiraiya's feet.
"This is the Summoning Jutsu. After signing a contract with a creature, you can summon them using hand signs!"
Jiraiya proudly showed off in front of Naruto, waiting to see a surprised look on his face… but nothing.
Naruto's expression stayed completely calm, like this kind of jutsu didn't interest him at all.
"Ahem."
Jiraiya coughed to cover up the awkward silence, then asked Gamachu to spit out a scroll for Naruto.
"Open it up and take a look."
Naruto followed his instructions and opened the scroll, seeing a few names written on it.
Otsutsuki Hagoromo… Jiraiya, Namikaze Minato… there were five names in total, and now he was about to become the sixth person to sign.
"This is the summoning contract passed down through generations of Mount Myoboku. Use your own blood to write your name, then press all five fingers down to leave a bloody handprint. After that, just focus your chakra in the hand you signed with and do the signs: Boar–Dog–Rooster–Monkey–Ram. That'll let you use this jutsu."
Naruto did exactly as Jiraiya said—he bit his thumb, wrote his name "Uzumaki Naruto" in the sixth space, and pressed down with all five fingers.
"All done."
Naruto rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Gamachu, then got ready to try his first Summoning Jutsu ever.
But as soon as he lifted his hands, he froze.
"Boar–Dog–Rooster–Monkey–Ram… wait, how do you do the signs again?"
"..."
"Don't mess with me, idiot!!"
Jiraiya couldn't believe it. A genius who could control the Nine-Tails' chakra and might even become a Chunin… didn't know how to do hand signs?!
"Uh… but I really don't."
Looking at Naruto's honest expression, Jiraiya went quiet.
Was he serious?
But how could that be?
A ninja who can't do hand signs is like an AC repairman who can't fix ACs… does that even make sense?
"Well, it's not like I *can't* do any hand signs..."
Seeing Jiraiya's face, Naruto got a little embarrassed and tried to explain, then made the "Ram" hand sign.
"I can do this one!"
"..."
The Ram sign is the one used in both the Transformation Jutsu and the Substitution Jutsu. Naruto first learned it from Mizuki before everything happened.
Later, when he maxed out his Transformation Jutsu, he became even more familiar with it.
"If that's the only sign you know, how did you even graduate from the Ninja Academy?" Jiraiya was speechless.
If Naruto could only do the Ram sign, didn't that mean he only knew two basic jutsu—Transformation and Clone Jutsu?
"Well… I beat a Chunin teacher, and then I graduated," Naruto said.
"Chunin teacher? The one who told you there's a Nine-Tails inside you?" Jiraiya tried to remember the teacher Naruto had mentioned before.
"Yeah." Naruto nodded.
"Well then…"
Jiraiya let out a sigh. He already saw Naruto as a bit of a hopeless case with some brute strength.
But Naruto was his student now, and he'd already signed the summoning scroll—too late to back out.
"Let's start from the basics then. This is the Boar sign, this is the Dog sign…"
Jiraiya taught Naruto one hand sign at a time.
Luckily, Naruto wasn't stupid, and the hand signs weren't that hard to remember. As long as Jiraiya showed them once, Naruto could remember them all.
The problem was, just remembering them wasn't enough!
Naruto had no problem doing them one by one, but doing them quickly in the correct order still felt clumsy.
Speed with hand signs is tied to muscle memory. Since Naruto hadn't trained this way before, it was going to take time to get good at it.
A few minutes later,
Naruto got a bit more comfortable with the order and slowly tried the Summoning Jutsu.
Boar–Dog–Rooster–Monkey–Sheep!
*Poof!*
A cloud of smoke burst out!
Under Naruto's feet stood a giant red toad with a huge smoking pipe in its mouth, a bandage around its waist, and a short sword on its hip!
"Chief Toad?!"
Jiraiya was shocked that Naruto had managed to summon Gamabunta right off the bat. Even Jiraiya himself had to show respect in front of Gamabunta.
"Huh? Jiraiya, why did you summon me?" Gamabunta looked annoyed as he stared down at Jiraiya.
"Ahahaha… well, actually, I didn't summon you." Jiraiya chuckled, sitting on the toad's back.
"It wasn't you? Then who was it?"
Gamabunta couldn't think of anyone else alive who had signed the summoning contract besides Jiraiya.
Then Jiraiya opened the scroll and showed him the new name written on it.
"Uzumaki Naruto?"
Gamabunta gave Jiraiya an annoyed look. "Don't tell me this kid standing on my head is your new student?"
"That's right," Jiraiya nodded.
Gamabunta was quiet for a moment, then suddenly shouted, "Are you kidding me?! A brat like this summoned me?!"
Faced with Gamabunta's disbelief, Jiraiya didn't know how to explain.
He couldn't exactly send the toad back and ask Naruto to summon him again, could he?
"Hey, kid, get off my head already!"
Seeing Jiraiya stay silent, Gamabunta began to believe it a little, but he still wanted to test Naruto. So he started shaking his body.
But Naruto didn't budge at all—it was like he was glued to Gamabunta's head!
"Stop wasting your energy. You're not shaking me off," Naruto said calmly from the top of Gamabunta's head.
His perfect chakra control wasn't for show.
Standing on a moving toad? He could stand still even on slippery oil.
Even Jiraiya was surprised by how well Naruto could control his chakra.
"His foundation might be weak, but this kind of natural talent isn't bad at all," Jiraiya said, rubbing his chin as he started to look at Naruto with more approval.
Maybe he hadn't made a bad choice after all.
A weak foundation can be fixed. But if someone has no talent, that's when you know you really made a mistake.
"Not bad, kid!"
Gamabunta saw that he couldn't shake Naruto off and started to respect him a little. But if Naruto wanted his full approval, this still wasn't enough.
"Kid, if you've got guts, come down and fight me. If you can last five minutes against me, I'll let you be my little bro! You'll be able to summon me in battle from now on!"
The moment Gamabunta said that, Naruto jumped down in front of him and held up five fingers.
"Five seconds. If you can last five seconds against me, I'll call you the boss!"
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