Chapter 11: Summoning contract!

"I'll go." the anbu commander said, his face hidden by his anbu mask.

Not many knew who his identity is, but the Hokage knew that except for Kakashi, the most proficient jonin would probably be his anbu commander.

The Hokage nodded at this.

"Who else should we send, maybe the Ino-Chika-cho trio? Shikaku Nara Spoke.

He belonged to the Ino-Chiko-cho trio and understood the difficulties of the Hokage.

Right now, there were no real heavy hitters in Konoha, that could handle kage-level enemies.

Amongst the sannin, one was a traitor, one was a waste and another was in other lands working for the village.

"I can go as well." Asuma spoke.

"Shikaku, you and your team can go, Asuma, you'll also be a teacher tomorrow, you should stay." The Hokage said.

Asuma frowned at this but didn't speak anything else.

Everyone started looking around, there were many jonins here but none of them could handle the Gold and Silver brothers.

If they send Jonins in bulk they'll lose lots of Jonin and Konoha couldn't handle that loss right now in times of weakness.

Instead, it would be better to send a few people who could be content with the Gold and Silver brothers.

The Hokage looked around the room. He knew the capabilities and understood everyone's character well.

Although he had deteriorated in his old age, he was still the strongest shinobi in this village, and the one with most knowledge.

He himself knew that despite that, he wasn't the best of leaders. He had filled on many matters throughout the years, trusted the wrong people, was too kind-hearted to take the necessary steps to hinder future problems, and made poor choices because of it.

He had once chosen Minato as the Hokage because he knew that Minato could do a better job, however, after the attack twelve years ago, he had to take up this hat once again.. and this time, he was even less appropriate for the job, as he aged and lost both his wife and his son, leaving him with no motivation to lead the village, however, he did it out of responsibility so that the darkness of this village wouldn't come out to the light.

"I'll go." Suddenly a voice said nonchalantly.

Everyone turned towards the young man, that sat in the Zaraki Clan seat.

The Hokage also looked at Oden.

Oden was an enigma to the Hokage, he knew that Oden was as talented as, Orochimaru, Minato, Kakashi, and Itachi, however, the Hokage wasn't aware how strong he was just yet.

But he seemed to still be in the Jonin category, even with his fearsome aura and chakra level.

"He's too young Hokage-sama!" One of the clan heads spoke their opinion.

"This is a serious matter, and we can't trust Oden-san to take this responsibility, even if he is a genius and a jonin, we should go with someone that has more experience." Another spoke, and soon everyone started discussing who should intercept the enemies.

The Hokage looked into Oden's eyes and saw unfiltered confidence, the same one that Minato once held, the same one that his former student Orochimaru held.

"Are you sure Oden-kun?" The third Hokage asked, silencing everyone.

Oden just nodded.

"Then we'll go with this, Ino-chiko-cho, the anbu commander, and Oden Zaraki will go to intercept the gold and silver brothers, your mission isn't to defeat them, just stop them from entering the land of fire, whatever means possible." The Hokage commanded.

There were different expressions on everyone's faces.

Oden simply nodded.

"We'll meet in Infront of the gate in 10 minutes, prepare well!" The anbu commander spoke before puffing away.

"Oden, stay for a bit." The Hokage said as everyone left.

"The gold and silver brothers are the ones that fought and killed the second Hokage..." The Hokage explained as he saw that they were the only ones left in the room.

"I know." Oden simply confirmed.

"Mhm... good, the here sign this with your blood." The Hokage said as he put forth a scroll containing multiple names, the last one on the list was Hiruzen.

Oden recognized this as a summoning scroll, and usually, they would be kept secret for only clan members.

"Are you sure?" Oden said with he hint of surprise at the fact that the Hokage would allow someone from another clan to sign his name on this.

Usually summoning scrolls would be kept as a treasure of one's own clan.

"Yes, it would be a pity if Konoha lost another genius... we've lost enough of them." The Hokage said with a smile, as he was happy that he could finally get a reaction out of the young clan head.

Oden reminded Hiruzen of Danzo when he was young, except that there was a slight difference.

Hiruzen could see the will to protect and care for others in Oden, as for Danzo, he would rather use others and treat them as tools, there was a darkness within Danzo that grew from jealousy from being unable to match Hiruzen in talents and capabilities.

Oden walked forward, bit his finger, and signed the scroll.

After that was done, the Hokage summoned his close friend and partner the monkey king Enma, the summon of the third Hokage.

"Hiruzen?" Enma spoke in askance as he was summoned.

"This is Oden, he is the next summoner of your clan, he'll be on his way soon to intercept The gold and silver brothers, please help him." Hiruzen said as he spoke to his long-time companion.

Enma looked down at Oden and tried to figure him out.

Oden had to look up, as Enma was a very tall monkey in human clothing...

"Do you know Bukijutsu?" The monkey king asked, cutting to the chase.

"I'm familiar." Oden stated.

"I see... then summon me when you need my help." Enma said as he disappeared into a puff.

"Charasmatic..." Odem commented.

"Don't let his exterior trick you, he is very caring and trustworthy." The Hokage said.

"Alright, prepare for your mission." The Hokage finally said as he pointed towards the door.

Oden nodded and flickered away to prepare for his mission.