Chapter 141

"I suppose having a summon is pretty cool, even such a limited one," Ishii sighed a little enviously.

"Well, what's stopping you from getting your own?" I shrugged and, jumping over a rather large rock after Hizashi, continued. "You can find the necessary scrolls readily available among similar information in the village library, so go for it if you really want to."

"Maybe I should give it a try…"

"Just don't forget that about ninety-eight percent out of a hundred never return to their summoning world," Tsume scoffed. "It's almost a guaranteed death for nearly every fool who wanted to get a summon."

"And what about the Third Hokage's students and Sakumo Hatake?" my partner countered reasonably, not paying much attention to the kunoichi's sarcastic tone. "If we go by your words, only one should have survived, not all four."

"Firstly, Sakumo-sama's summon of dogs has been passed down through his clan for several generations, so he wasn't taking any risks by simply signing the scroll. Secondly, the Sannin were already much stronger than the average jounin at that time, so their chance to impress their summoning animals was much higher than many other candidates," Inuzuka listed. "And thirdly, neither you nor I have enough chakra to summon even a large beast, let alone a boss, which is a universal requirement among all summons."

"You know quite a lot about summons," I remarked.

"Considering that our clan has been trying to buy or exchange a dog summoning scroll from the Hatake since almost the founding of Konoha, it's only natural that we studied all the possible pitfalls of summons and tried to make a direct contract by entering the world of dogs," Tsume snorted. "You can guess the result—none of those who tried ever came back."

"It's well-known that it's much easier to find an already created scroll and try to gain the summon's consent with it than to attempt to make a new one by moving to the appropriate world," Hizashi unexpectedly added, clearly listening to our conversation. "Among those who have reached the level of jounin, trying to obtain a contract is considered a twisted form of suicide rather than a way to increase personal power. Even kage-level shinobi are not immune to failure. As for the Sannin, such success is largely due to their teacher's connection with the monkeys rather than anything else. If signing summoning contracts were that easy, such scrolls would be present by the dozens in every village instead of the few that currently exist. I was personally acquainted with two who tried their luck. None returned."

Well, think about whether it's worth risking for a slim chance of personal enhancement with almost guaranteed death, or if it's better to do without a summon. After such a rather pessimistic explanation about summons, Rotaro's enthusiasm noticeably waned. I would have also considered it if I were in his place. Naturally, the desire to chat while running disappeared among the team, which was probably what Hyuga aimed for, so we continued in silence.

Despite the ongoing skirmishes on both sides, we didn't encounter any Iwagakure no Sato shinobi teams on the way back and reached the camp without incidents by the evening of the next day. The lack of need to conceal our presence significantly affected the team's speed of movement.

Under the watchful eyes of the sentries on the walls, after overcoming the defensive trap zone, we found ourselves inside, and the commander immediately went to report the successful completion of the mission, taking the unconscious prisoner from me beforehand.

All that remained was to be glad for the chance to rest—despite what seemed like a quick completion of the mission thanks to my idea, the constant tension and inability to sleep properly in enemy territory clearly took their toll on me, more in mental fatigue than physical, unlike my partners.

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