"Well? Aren't you just moved beyond words?" Seeing Naruto remain dazed for a long moment, Jiraiya assumed he had been deeply touched by his gesture and couldn't help but laugh heartily at the sky.
"More or less," Naruto said after a brief silence, slowly nodding. He couldn't very well say he had just been chatting with a fox, could he?
"Let me see, what should I teach you?" Jiraiya stared at him intently for a good while. Suddenly, he bit his own finger and formed a rapid series of hand seals.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke, as tall as a person, erupted.
"I'll teach you the Summoning Technique then," Jiraiya said, arms crossed, standing atop a large toad about two meters tall. The great toad unrolled its tongue, presenting a massive scroll.
"The Ninja Academy should have taught you the relevant knowledge about the Summoning Technique, right? Sign your name with blood and press your handprint," Jiraiya instructed.
Naruto nodded slightly. Summoning beasts weren't as unattainable as chakra-conductive metal; the Summoning Technique was highly practical and feasible. The pragmatically focused Ninja Academy naturally wouldn't overlook cultivating such knowledge. A summoning beast didn't necessarily need to be overwhelmingly powerful; as long as it could contribute to certain aspects of a ninja's abilities, it held value in being cultivated. For example, Kiba Inuzuka's Akamaru could, in fact, be considered a type of summoning beast. Although Kiba always kept Akamaru by his side, the two had indeed formed a summoning contract. As far as he knew, many Konoha ninjas raised ninken as their summoning beasts. The powerful tracking abilities of ninken were extremely useful to many ninjas.
"Boar – Dog – Bird – Monkey – Ram… Summoning Technique!" Naruto awkwardly formed the hand seals for the summoning. Since it was his first time using the technique, he had no idea how to control the amount of chakra output, so he just went with the feeling that more was better.
POOF!
A figure, a good twenty meters tall, abruptly materialized. Naruto looked down to see a giant, purplish-red toad beneath him, carrying a wok lid-shaped shield and wielding a fish spear covered in thorny barbs.
"Hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto."
The giant purple toad looked up. After getting a clear view of the figure standing on its head, it said softly, "Hello, my name is Gamaken."
Seeing who had appeared, Jiraiya inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, it wasn't Gamabunta, that hot-tempered one.
"Gamaken, long time no see!"
"Long time no see, Jiraiya!" Gamaken said, lowering his head in greeting.
"This little fellow will be your contractor from now on," Jiraiya said, pointing at Naruto.
"I understand," Gamaken said to the contractor standing atop his head. "Though I am rather clumsy, I will do my best to help you, Naruto-kun."
"Thank you, Gamaken." Naruto let out a small sigh of relief. The Ninja Academy textbooks had stated that the more powerful the summoning beast, the harder it was to tame. He hadn't expected Gamaken to be so exceptionally good-natured.
Poof!
Gamaken's massive form vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"Good luck on your part, running into Gamaken, who's the most good-tempered of them all," Jiraiya said. "Remember the amount of chakra you just input."
Everyone wanted to contract powerful summoning beasts, but effort and reward were proportional. Summoning a stronger beast consumed a larger amount of chakra. For instance, the chakra Naruto had just used to summon Gamaken was an amount that an average chunin couldn't squeeze out even if they completely exhausted themselves, let alone actually summon him.
Summoning contracts were divided into individual summoning contracts and clan summoning contracts. An individual summoning contract, as the name implied, was a one-on-one contract signed with a summoning beast. A clan summoning contract, like the one Naruto had just signed, allowed him to summon any toad from Mount Myoboku. Unlike individual summoning contracts, which could only summon one specific beast, clan summoning contracts could summon multiple summoning beasts. The advantages were obvious, but the troubles were not few. For example, if Naruto wanted to re-summon Gamaken, he would need to input an equivalent amount of chakra into the summoning formula. If the deviation was too large, he might summon a different large toad instead. But overall, the pros still outweighed the cons.
For the rest of the time, Jiraiya didn't teach him any new ninjutsu but instead had him continuously summon different toads, introducing each one to him. Naruto truly had his eyes opened that day; Mount Myoboku was indeed worthy of being one of the Three Great Sage Regions. The sheer variety of toads, each with different abilities, could practically be considered a small hidden village in itself. The Mount Myoboku summoning contract could truly be seen as a protagonist's 'golden finger' from a common novel. A ninja, no matter how poor their aptitude, as long as they signed the Mount Myoboku summoning contract, could completely rely on its diverse array of toads to reach the pinnacle of life and win the fair, rich, and beautiful maiden.
Chunin Exam Arena.
Naruto and the nine others who had advanced in the preliminary matches stood in a neat line at the center of the arena. Originally, there should have been eleven, but Sasuke was inexplicably absent.
Looking up at the spectator stands, teeming with heads, each of them had different thoughts.
[When a ninja stands openly in the brightest spotlight, is he still considered a ninja?] Naruto wondered internally. One thing was certain, though: worrying about whether this was right or wrong, given his current status and position, was merely borrowing trouble.
"Look, apart from those three Sand ninjas, everyone else is from our Konoha!"
"I think that's pretty normal."
"It's not normal at all, okay? Why are there three Sand ninjas?"
"…"
With the home-field advantage, Konoha's residents enthusiastically discussed the participants. As the victors of the First, Second, and even Third Great Ninja Wars, Konoha was proud. This pride was evident not only in its ninjas but also in its ordinary villagers.
"Your village's teaching ability is truly outstanding," the Fourth Kazekage said with a faint smile.
"Your village's teaching standards are not lacking either," the Third Hokage replied with similar flattery. It cost nothing, so why not make everyone happy? The Third Hokage was also quite pleased with the current ratio of participants. Konoha's numbers, double that of the Sand, fully demonstrated Konoha's strength to the various daimyos and the uninformed spectators. The presence of a not-too-large, yet not-too-small contingent of Sand ninjas, on the other hand, amply displayed Konoha's magnanimity as the host nation.
What's that? You say Konoha has too many participants, implying there's an inside story? Hiruzen Sarutobi would state that they conducted the Chunin Exams with utmost fairness and impartiality. Konoha had numerous genin participating simply because their methods for nurturing genin were superior. As for why other hidden villages had fewer, or even none? That was because their basic educational infrastructure still needed improvement.
"For some reason, I do not see Uchiha Sasuke," the Fourth Kazekage inquired with a smile.
"The Fourth Kazekage seems quite concerned about Sasuke," Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled vaguely. Could he say he didn't know either? No, he couldn't. Many of the guests at this Chunin Exam had come specifically because of Sasuke's reputation as the last of the Uchiha clan. Even if Sasuke truly couldn't be found, he needed a plausible excuse to appease them.
He gave a subtle glance to a Konoha ninja standing nearby. The ninja, understanding immediately, vanished in a Body Flicker.
"First match: Uzumaki Naruto versus Temari!" An unnamed jonin looked at the time and announced, "All other non-participants, please wait on the second floor."