Chapter 2: Scamming Minato

"Hey boss!"

I stop eating my ramen at the sound of the voice I've grown used to hearing and I look towards the moving flaps of the ramen shop.

"Hey, are you hungry Minato?"

Behind the counter a man in his mid 20's wearing standard cooking attire warmly addresses the person walking past the blinds.

And a second later the person I've been spying on for more than a month at this point enters the shop with a bright smile.

Long spiky blonde hair that sticks out from every angle, large blue sea like eyes, and most importantly of all, a charming smile and a gentle face.

This man always surprises me whenever I look at him, there aren't many men that I would say are attractive but Minato is one of them.

But his appearance isn't the reason I've been spying on him. After all I'm not some horny teenager. What I'm after is something completely different, I'm just waiting until a related topic comes up so I can go up to him.

"No Kushina today?"

Minato blushed when he heard Teuchi mention his red head girlfriend's name.

"Ah, no? No, she's currently applying for jonin status and has to take a few assessments right now."

Teuchi's smile widened at the notion of Kushina possibly being promoted. Given that the two have been customers for years and have shared personal information and stories with each other it'd be strange if he wasn't happy for her.

"It's nice that your both finally going to be jonin, I've heard a lot of rumors about your accomplishments Minato. They're calling you the next Jirayia."

Unsurprisingly Minato just waves his hand embarrassed and acts modestly.

"No, those are just exaggerations, I'm no way near as good as Jirayia sensei."

He's finally mentioned his sensei after a month of me consistently coming here...

"No need to be modest Minato, how about this. I'll make you ramen, on me, and you bring Kushina over once she becomes a jonin so we can celebrate together?"

"Sounds like a treat Teuchi, I'll make sure to bring Kushina over."

With that, Teuchi goes to the back to make Minato his ramen leaving just me and the blond haired wonder alone.

Maybe it's because I've been staring at him this entire time but Minato has an extremely awkward expression, clearly not wanting to talk to a weird kid that's been staring at him.

But I don't care if he doesn't want to be around me so I get up from my seat and walk to him with a doubtful glare.

"Are you actually the student of Jirayia, one of the legendary sanin?"

Minato, too polite of a person to ignore me, responds with the most obvious fake smile I've ever seen.

"Yeah, he's been my jonin sensei ever since I graduated from the academy."

I immediately change my face to that of a curious and gleeful child.

"Can you show me the summoning jutsu that Jirayia is famous for using?"

"Umm..."

Minato scratches his head for a second before giving a helpless smile.

"Sure why not."

Minato leans down to the floor and performs hand seals at a rate so fast I can barely see them.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram.

With a strong bite Minato rips of a bit of the skin of his thumb before slamming it down onto the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

A small seal appears beneath his hand and a puff of smoke brings in a strange toad. It has bright purple skin and orange eyes with black slits, small black dots cover its arms and it has a white underbelly.

"Crooooooaaaaak."

The frog doesn't speak or attempt to communicate with either me or Minato. Instead it gives a loud croak and stares blankly ahead without the slightest bit of consciousness or human like intelligence.

"Wow!"

I sit down in front of the toad and place my hands on the floor. Just a few inches away from me is the summoning seal used to summon frogs from Mount Myoboku.

Without alerting Minato to any misguided intention I brush my hand along the seal for a quick second.

[Summoning Jutsu

A space-time jutsu that summons any party or object through a seal contract signed by both parties. This jutsu has an extremely unique effect compared to other space-time jutsu as it will summon the user of the jutsu to a summoning creature that suits them if the user doesn't already have a summon.

Would you like to learn this jutsu?]

This is the single thing I've been waiting for. Summons are probably one of the easiest ways to increase my strength and knowledge of this world.

In the original version of Naruto the main character managed to go head to head against a fully transformed jinchuriki solely relying on a summoning beast.

Just summoning a strong animal isn't the only benefit of the summoning jutsu either. Jirayia's power set in the anime that allowed him to rise to the peak of kage level was based completely off of his toad summons and their jutsu.

Imagine what I could get if I summon myself into Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, or Shikkotsu Forest?

A strong summoning animal, multiple high level jutsu, information about sage mode, special techniques and maybe even exotic items at the same level as the 7 swords of the mist.

Going through the normal shinobi progression is a slow and tedious burden, especially to someone like me who doesn't need the conventional ways to become stronger.

Doing this method is indeed dangerous, if the place I'm summoned to is harmful or if the inhabitants there are aggressive then I might get hurt.

But the risk is absolutely worth it, because unless the animal I get summoned to is at the level of a jonin or higher there is no way I'm losing.

Due to my large chakra pool I'll probably be sent to one of the three legendary locations, the only one that would most certainly put me in danger is Ryuchi cave.

But they won't kill me immediately either, I'll either be put through a trial or some type of test to prove my worth.

I'm hoping I get to Mount Myoboku since their oil jutsu will work well with Konohagakure's speciality, that being fire release jutsu.