Chapter 58. The 5 Great elders

I see..."

Oden looked at the gigantic mantises in the horizon, some of which reached the clouds.

"Those are our children. The one that has his head in the clouds is the newest member of our Clan." The mantis explained.

"What's your name?

"I'm sifu, the oldest mantis alive."

"I see then you must be one of the strongest." Oden said. Looking at sifu, he found him as big as a house, which was small compared to all the other mantises in the hall. There were a few others about the same size as sifu.

"Yes I'm one of the 5 Great elders. the others you saw are normal elders. They can't fight, Only those that are the strongest can become part of the Great elders."

"I see."

Sifu suddenly raised his... mantis claws and clapped them, creating echoes that flew to the horizon.

Not long after, 4 other Mantises showed up. all around the size of a house, one was the size of a truck.

Oden didn't recognize them from the great hall earlier.

"This human is Oden, he will be our summoner in the future, greet him." Sifu said.

"Yes, greetings human Oden!" They all said at the same time.

"we are the strongest of our kin, You'll summon us in the future." Sifu said.

"BAAAAAAAAAAAM" a ground shaking smack was heard as the gates to the great hall were kicked open, and out came a small, wolf sized mantis, with a pink mohawk, nunchucks and a leather haori.

"No, as the leader of our kin, I should be gracious, from now on this punk can summon me and only me." Their leader said.

One would almost believe him if they didn't see all the elders of the mantis clan, laying on the ground with broken arms and legs. One was even weeping loudly like a child.

"It's fine, I only want these five." Oden said, denying him.

"No, it's either me or no one. It's that I don't want my kin to get hurt in any way or form. It's not that I want to travel outside our realm to the human realm to find Yujiro and kill him, yes, that has nothing to do with it."

"... do your know about sage arts?" Oden changed the subject.

"Sage arts? hmpf only weakling-punks like the five great elders know it, I don't need those things. With my nunchucks I can kill anyone." The leader said.

"Yes we know it, we can teach it to you, and our leader's name is Sama." Sifu said and explained the name of the mantis with the mohawk.

"Sama?" Oden questioned.

"Yes when he was born smaller than all the others, his parents knew he would become stronger than the others, and that they would one day call him 'Sama' sooner or later anyways, so they named him Sama." Sifu whispered.

"I see..."

Oden stayed for another few days, to familiarise himself with the mantis clan. At first he wanted to return because of his second marriage that would take place the day after.

But the mantis clan explained that the time dilation between the realms is different, so he doesn't have to worry about it.

By the time he returned, only a few hours had gone by in the human realm.

Oden hurried to one of the training grounds as he wanted to try his summoning.

'Let's see, no one is close by, here is good enough.'

Oden bit his thumb and used 90% of his chakra to summon Sama, yet nothing happened.

"What.. it's insufficient.... my chakra is huge, way bigger than normal kage even without the Mugengan activated." Oden was surprised to find that his normal chakra was insufficient.

He activated his dojutsu and used triple the amount he had used the first try, before a puff happened.

"Ah, finally, now I can kill that punk-bastard..."

Oden saw his summon with pink mohawk arrive and instantly spin around his nunchucks.

Before Sama could say anything else, Oden released the summon and with another puff, Sama disappeared.

"Good to see that it works at least." Oden whispered before returning to his clan.

The next day Oden woke up early and prepared the day as it was an important date. He then dressed up in his expensive black kimono as today was the day he would marry another wife.

Hinata had also dressed up in formal attire and both of them walked towards the Konoha Matrimony hall by the time that the sun had reached its peak.

All great clans sent their clan leaders to witness the marriage, and the jonins of great status also joined the ceremony.

When Oden and Hinata reached the matrimony hall, they found a stage where two banners hanged, one representative of the Zaraki clan, while the other of the Sarutobi clan.

Under the Sarutobi banner sat a young, petite lady with short, shoulder lengths brown hair, brown eyes. She was dressed in a formal kimono and sat on her knees, waiting for her future husband.

In front of the stage with the banners was three rows where people sat to witness the marriage.

The row on Ayako Sarutobi's side sat all the members of the Sarutobi clan. In the middle row sat all the important clan heads, jonins and important civilians. The third row was for the Zaraki clan.

Oden walked forward and sat in front of Ayako, under the Zaraki clan banner.

Hinata also walked to the stage and sat beside Oden, under the Zaraki banner.

Finally, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Migot walked forward and shook hands, publicly showing that both clans agreed to the marriage. Normally Akai should have been the one to step forward but he was nowhere to be found.

Hiruzen stepped forward and shared a speech.

"...Then from henceforth, Oden Zaraki and Ayako Sarutobi are one in marriage. Hiruzen spoke as everyone started clapping.

Oden turned his sight and looked at everyone's faces, and remembered when he had first married Hinata, and now he was here getting married once again, fulfilling his role as a noble clan leader.

Ayako and Oden shared food together as husband and wife.

The ceremony lasted many hours and Ayako seemed more emotional at the idea of leaving the Sarutobi clan than Hinata was when she left the Hyuga clan.

Their situations were slightly different, Hinata was an outcast while Ayako was treated like a princess. She was warm and kind so everyone liked her so leaving her clan in the sense of moving out was harder on Ayako than for Hinata.

Late at night, They finally returned to the Zaraki residency.

To Oden because of his mentality from his former life, it felt a little out of place to have two wives, but neither Hinata nor Ayako seemed to find fault in it so in the end Oden just accepted his fate.

Three days later, Oden could be found in his library looking through some old documents. He had a frown on his face as he tried to make sense of what he had found.