Chapter 57: New summoning contract

6 months later, in Oden's background, a table had been set up. Oden sat there with his wife beside him and another girl in front of him.

"Tomorrow's the day huh..." Oden said, time had flown by so fast.

"Yes, I can't wait!" Ayako Sarutobi said in excitement.

Hinata just smiled.

"Oh right, Hinata I forgot to bring my study papers, sorry!" Ayako remembered that she had promised Hinata to bring her some of her study papers for medical exams.

"No problems, you don't have to bring them!" Hinata answered. She wanted to borrow some of Ayako's notes. She thought it would be a good way for them to become closer friends.

"Ah, how about you follow me back, I'll show you some other things as well."

"Ah, about that..." Hinata answered, but she looked over to her husband before answering, seeing him give her a simple nod she answered.

"Yes, I'll go over, we can go now if you want!" Hinata seemed excited.

"YES! Thank you for the tea future husband-sama!" She said as she stood up and flashed away.

"Ah, Oden-kun, I'll see you later." Hinata stood up courteusly and then followed Ayako.

Oden chuckled, one was wild like a bunny, the other was tame like a kitten.

Oden sipped more of his tea, before Migoto appeared before him.

"Did you find him?" Oden's face returned to a serious looking one.

"No, we sent out many genins and Chunin but none could find him..."

"That's troublesome, he's been gone without a trace for half a year already..." Oden contemplated.

"Yes, don't you think that something happened to the old master?" Migoto couldn't help but to ask.

"Hmm.. No, I've got this feeling that he's up to no good."

"Would the old master disappear for so long just to cause more trouble?" Migoto couldn't help but to express his doubts.

"Yes, the less trouble he makes, the more he's charging up for a big one." Oden said without a doubt.

"I see."

"We can only wait, call back the searching teams."

"Yes patriarch." Migoto then flashed away.

"Grandpa, I hope you're just taking a vacation somewhere and not building up more Trouble for me..." Oden whispered.

Oden got up and flashed to the forest of death, he started training again, as usual. Ever since Jiraiya and Naruto went out, he had been training like crazy.

'I'm strong, but still not enough to take down those guys.. not that it's my goal, but I need to at least be able to protect what I care about...' Oden thought as he worked even harder.

When the sun started to set, Oden returned to his District. But instead of his home, he went to the ancestral hall.

There, he found a big scroll that hanged in the middle where all the previous clan heads had written their names.

Even for Oden, when he had become the clan head, he had to write his name on this scroll as part of the ceremony.

He walked to it and read it.

Oden Zaraki

Butsuma Zaraki

Yujiro Zaraki

Shin Zaraki

Ise Zaraki

Oda Zaraki

Hime Zaraki

...

...

...

"Sigh, no one, no matter how powerful, can withstand the passage of time." Oden said as he walked past the scroll. There 3 other scrolls laid on a stand.

Oden Opened up the one in the middle.

"I couldn't decide for one of them in the past, so I waited to choose one. But I should do so now."Oden said as he looked at the summoning scrolls his ancestors left for the future clan heads.

'Although not every clan head chose to have a summoning contract. It seems like my father didn't have one.' Oden thought as he looked through them.

There's no hint as to what the summoning scrolls are for as there was no text on them describing who the contract was for..

Oden chose the one in the middle, as he found that the latest person that had written his name was his great grandfather, Yujiro Zaraki.

Oden cut his finger and wrote his name, next thing he knew, he was reverse summoned.

"huh" Oden fell to his feet and stabilized as he found himself in another, great hall. The great hall was huge enough for even the tailed beasts to sit in it.

"Let the meeting start... Haaa who are you punk?" Furthest away from the entrance, was a gigantic throne and on it sat a... mantis?

Looking around, Oden found that there were gigantic Mantises sitting in the hall as if they were having a meeting.

All of them are huge, except for the one sitting on the throne. Although the throne was huge, the one on the throne was no bigger than a wolf.

Seeing how everyone got defensive, Oden introduced himself.

"I am Oden Zaraki, clan head of the Zaraki clan. I wrote my name on your summoning contract."

"Hmm, what happened to that bastard, Yujiro?" The smallest mantis, that sat on the throne said.

"My great-grandfather has died of old age."

"Pfahahahha that punk-bastard died? Are you stupid or are you ignorant? Nevermind, I'll find him and take my revenge later." The mantis leader said.

Oden's eye twitched, doesn't this mantis know that human life expectancy isn't that long... His great grandfather died not long after the creation of the hidden leaf village.

Oden looked at the leader and found the mantis to have a pink Mohawk hairstyle, sunglasses and nunchucks.

'This mantis definitely has problems with his brain, I'll never summon him.' Oden thought.

"So you think you can write your name on a piece of paper and we'll come and serve you like dogs?" The leader asked.

"..."

"Talk or I'll make shrimp stew out of you!" The mantis leader said.

"Shrimp stew?" Oden repeated

"PUNK DID YOU JUST CALL ME SHRIMP?" The leader stood up and started spinning his nunchuck around as if he was ready to fight.

"No one calls me shrimp ever again, I was bullied my whole life for being smaller than the others, I'm going to kill you!" He shouted.

"Oh no, he's done it now, everyone calm down the leader, I'll take care of our... guest." A big mantis said, and all the other great mantises jumped towards the little mantis and tried to hold him back.

"Little hairless monkey, come with me." One of the smaller, big mantises said.

Oden followed the mantis out of the great hall, and as they stepped out, what he saw really shocked him to the core.

There were mantises the size of mountains running around, playing and shouting far on the horizon.

"Ah, you must be surprised, if I remember correctly, in your realm, everyone is born small and grows bigger, in our realm, everyone is born big and grows smaller." The mantis said.

Oden looked at him and found him having a thin, grey beard that fell down to the ground. white haori, straw hat and a katana on his back.

"Size is also related to strength, the stronger you are, the smaller you get." The mantis explained.

"Then why did your leader get bullied for being small?" Oden asked.

"Ah... about that, he never got bullied, he was respected since his birth... but according to him, as the strongest of our Clan, he needs to have a sad back story...." The mantis didn't continue.

"..."

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I'm still on a break, it's just that I wrote this chapter and found the leader of the mantis clan hilarious, so I wanted to share it with you guys as most of you that are still with me to this chapter, actually share my sense of humour 😅