Chương 521: INTERLUDE_13.8 (521)

Takuma was in a meeting when he heard a knock. He looked up to see his secretary peeking through the glass slot in the conference room door. He gazed at her for a moment, wondering what it was about. She knew not to disturb him during this meeting if it wasn't absolutely necessary, and seeing her here meant that one of his clones had sent her to him.

"Let's take a break," he said to the room of his subordinates and then stepped out.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but you instructed me to inform you if there was a call from home," she said nervously. A dozen thoughts passed through his mind before he realised that her nervousness wasn't from any sort of bad news but from disturbing him during the meeting.

"It's okay. You only did as I asked. What is it?" he said in a calm voice.

"Mister Maruboshi Kosuke has asked you to return home. Should I send a message that you're busy?" Maruboshi had never called him during work before. There had to be a reason he was wanted back home.

"No, I'll be returning home." Takuma opened the heavyset door of the soundproof conference room and told the people inside that he needed to reschedule the meeting for another time, giving them some instructions so as not to render the meeting a complete waste of time. Before he left, the secretary handed him a slip of paper.

"This is from Hippo." Hippo was Takuma's de facto spymaster, his reach stretched to every corner of the village. He was connected to guards, journalists, establishment owners, back-alley dealers—anyone who was in the business of information or had the means of gaining it. It was a niche network of informants that Takuma had invested in and ordered Hippo to develop because he wanted more eyes and ears inside the village.

He had even activated some of his old Police Force informants as a means of extending his reach into the village underworld. He was about to tell her to show it to a clone, but it was a small yellow sticky note, so he took it, only to be left confused by Hippo's words: "Bear dressed in clothes spotted in the village?" he uttered. —. Takuma blinked when he saw two absolute units of grizzly bears sprawled in the backyard of their home.

One of them lay on his belly and seemed to be on guard even while appearing to relax; the other one displayed a full belly without a care, as though he were at home. Near the bears, he recognised the remains of the sweet watermelons Maruboshi had bought for the week; they had eaten them, rind and all. As if that weren't strange enough, there was a thick slab of ice twice the size of a king-sized bed and a white polar bear, bigger than the brown bear duo, lying on it.

The slab of ice was the least strange part because, of course, it had to be there or the polar bear wouldn't fare well in the temperate weather of the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Ah, welcome back, Takuma," Maruboshi greeted him with a smile, as if none of this was strange. There was a homely old man in his fifties sitting beside him with a glass of watermelon juice in his hands. Their eyes met, and the old man bowed his head lightly to greet Takuma.

"What is this?" Takuma asked, baffled and bewildered by the sight in front of him. The two brown bears were wearing little colourful vests, for God's sake! Hippo's bizarre words somehow made sense now. The polar bear lying on its side turned—the ice creaking underneath the mass of one of the most terrifying animals in the world—and flopped to the other side, fixing its eyes on him. Takuma, who could call a river to rise to his command, gulped. After all, who wouldn't if they saw a polar bear so close outside a zoo?

"Hmm, human boy, are you the one named Takuma?" the white bear asked.

"What is it to you?" Takuma asked, blinking in disbelief as he heard the animal speak. The polar bear didn't answer and lazily gazed at him.

"Why are you so skinny? Do you not eat enough? Do you not feed him?" he asked Maruboshi.

"He eats a lot for his size, and yet…" Maruboshi said, sighing in worry.

"You should have seen him a few years back. He has filled out his frame decently since then, so I have hope."

"He looks tired," the old stranger sitting beside Maruboshi said. Maruboshi nodded.

"Kids are stubborn." One of the brown bears looked up with half-lidded eyes.

"Human, small and weak. Not like a bear, big and strong." The bear then yawned and went back to relaxing after dropping the insult. Takuma felt whiplash from what was happening at his home. Taking pity on him, Maruboshi invited him to sit down, and he finally got the explanation that he desperately sought.

"Is it right that you saved one of our own from a terrible fate at the hands of your kind?" The polar bear's words caused the brown bears to growl in anger, as though even the slightest reminder of it made their blood boil. Takuma considered his response for a moment before nodding. He had found a ROOT-affiliated experimentation lab in the Taiheiyo Evergreen Forest.

A number of chakra beasts—intelligent variants of animals who could use chakra—were being held captive and used as lab rats for a variety of heinous experiments. Among them was a small brown bear who had summoned a colossal grizzly bear that had almost killed him in anger. He closed his eyes and felt his mood plummet as the memories of the human child resurfaced.

The child had been subjected to who knows how many things that had changed his physiology and made it so unstable that he died shortly after exiting the clean and controlled environment of his prison.

"How is that little bear? Is she well?" Takuma asked.

"She has made a complete recovery… though some scars remain. Reuniting with family helped," Kumashiro answered.

"She would like to meet you and express her gratitude."

"I'm glad I could help," Takuma said, unable to imagine what kind of mental toll that sort of situation put on someone. The polar bear exchanged a glance with the homely old man.

"There's something you can help us with," Kumashiro said and sat up on the slab of ice.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Kumashiro, an emissary of the Tetsuboku Archipelago, the exalted home of the Eight Great Bear Clans. We are here to extend to you the honourable position of our clans' summoner." Takuma was surprised, to say the least, but he didn't show it. His ANBU training kicked in, and he maintained his poker face. Summoning contracts with chakra beasts were a rarity in the world of shinobi. And now, one of those rarities had presented itself to him—in his backyard, no less.

That seemed too good to be true.

"…Why me?"

"We have had our eye on a few candidates to take up the mantle, and you're our choice," Kumashiro said.

"The good deed you did for our clan by rescuing one of our own gave you a great advantage and tilted the decision in your favour."

"I see, but you didn't answer my question. Why was I one of the candidates?" He knew a couple of shinobi with summoning contracts and thus knew that the chakra beast clans carefully selected the individuals they contracted with. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"We of the Bear Clans never held much interest in the world of humans. We are satisfied with remaining in our archipelago, away from the chaos of your kind, but we can't deny the usefulness and perhaps necessity of maintaining contact with the larger world outside our home. To facilitate that, we have chosen one human to be that connection." Kumashiro's words made Takuma quickly glance at the old man, who he assumed had come with the bears and was now merrily sipping on his watermelon juice.

"Though you look feeble and weak, we can sense that you are strong," Kumashiro said, using the royal 'we' to address himself.

"You are a strong shinobi of the Great Hidden Leaf and reside here in its heart. You are in a highly favourable position to be our connection to the world. You provided help to our kind and even exacted revenge against those who made her suffer, which speaks of your character. The Bear Clans deem you suitable." Takuma understood that logic. They had presented good points, and yet, he didn't know how they had actually found him.

He had only shown his face to the chakra beast in the underground lab, and they had somehow managed to track him down.

"How did you find me?"

"We have our ways." He got the sense that he wasn't going to get an answer right now, so he switched his focus.

"I'm assuming you're the summoner of the bear chakra beasts, sir," Takuma said, turning to face the old man.

"May I have your name?"

"My name is Suguru," the old man nodded.

"You're right, young man, I am the current-generation bear summoner." He had a large belly with broad shoulders and thick arms—signs that, even though he was now out of shape, he had pushed his body hard in the past.

"I'm assuming you travelled here and then you summoned them," Takuma said, pointing to the bears.

"That I did."

"No wonder. You would have been escorted away at the gates had you tried to enter openly," Takuma chuckled. It explained why there weren't any guards stationed outside his house; otherwise, Suguru and the others would have been treated as foreign dignitaries.

"Though I did hear a report of a bear in clothing. What is that about?"

"I travelled with my eldest grandson. He had a cub who wanted to see the sights with him."

"If it's only a cub, then I don't think it's going to raise any major alarms," Takuma said, though he couldn't be sure. He suspected that he'd have to pull some strings afterwards.

"Where are you stationed, sir? Or have you retired?"

"Ah, I'm not a shinobi. I have never been a shinobi," Suguru replied.

"Pardon?" It wasn't just Takuma; even Maruboshi looked surprised at the revelation. Suguru seemed to be expecting it as he chuckled.

"I'm a humble merchant—""A very successful merchant," Kumashiro interjected, a tone of pride in his voice.

"—who happened to sign a summoning contract through some strange circumstances," Suguru said.

"Wait, sir. You're not a shinobi?" Takuma said.

"Then how…"

"How can I use the Summoning Jutsu? I may not be a shinobi, but I've been blessed with chakra and happened to learn how to use it from a former shinobi when I was very young. Though I never became a shinobi as I was not interested, I continued using chakra when I realised it gave me a strong body, something that helped me earn a living for my family and myself for the longest time. Even now, I only know four jutsu, with the Summoning Jutsu being one of them."

Suguru was not only not a shinobi, but he also wasn't even a Land of Fire resident. He hailed from the neighbouring Land of Rivers.

"Suguru is a very successful merchant and has built a great trading business that is the lifeline for many people," Kumashiro said.

"You may find it strange that we did not choose a shinobi, but Suguru was able to provide everything we wanted. As a merchant, he could procure anything we desired and even use his wealth and influence to collect information to keep us up to date with the happenings in the human world." Suguru had started in the Land of Rivers, but had expanded into the Land of Fire, and had accumulated great wealth during his lifetime that could feed several future generations of his family.

He didn't look like it, but the man had led his business and people through the turmoil of the shinobi wars and lived a full life.

"I'm old now," he said with an accepting smile full of lived experience.

"My chakra has been declining for the past few years, and I fear that in a few more years, I will not be in a condition to do my job as the summoner properly. It's time for me to step down and allow someone else to take my place."

"You'll remain our summoner till the day you die, Suguru. Even if you are no longer able to summon us, it has been our honour to have known a man such as yourself," Kumashiro declared with a depth of sincerity that couldn't be faked or taken lightly. Suguru smiled and looked satisfied.

"Those words warm my heart, Kumashiro, but you should focus on the young man here."

"Yes, yes, we should," Kumashiro said, turning to Takuma.

"As Suguru said, we need a new summoner. None of his children or grandchildren has shown the same gift of chakra as him, so we have come to you, saviour of my kind. Do you accept our offer, Takuma of the Hidden Leaf?" Takuma was tempted. Of course, he was. He recalled how Jiraiya and Naruto used their toad summons in battle. He had seen firsthand how Anko and Orochimaru had used their snake summons in battle. He knew that Itachi often used his crows for tracking and sometimes even as couriers.

Lord Hokage's summon was infamous and was mentioned as part of his legend.

"What would it cost me?" However, he also knew that nothing came for free. Anko's snakes didn't fight alongside her, risking their lives in her conflicts, without a price. She had to feed them. Not to mention, the stronger the snake, the higher the demands. Many of the stronger snakes had personality quirks, leading to eccentric demands from her for their help.

"The same deal as Suguru. If we require something like food or raw material, like metal, you'll procure it for us. Of course, we won't demand it for free and will provide equal value in return. We can't offer money, but we will barter for it. The natural resources of Tetsuboku Archipelago will not disappoint," Kumashiro laid down the conditions, and Takuma nodded; they seemed reasonable.

"With Suguru, we used to give him more than he gave us so that he could sell and earn a profit. However, we understand that you are a shinobi and may not be after mercantile profit."

"…Would your clans fight beside me?" Takuma asked.

"If that's what you desire, we will do it," Kumashiro said, raising his body to reveal his full size. Though he was only the size of a polar bear, he still had a very large and threatening silhouette.

"We have worked with shinobi before, so we're familiar with how that relationship functions. We have several capable warriors in our ranks, though you will need to earn their respect if you want them to fight your battles."

"I can understand that," Takuma said.

"We shall discuss the terms later. I ask you again: do you accept our offer, Takuma of the Hidden Leaf?" Kumashiro asked, channelling the entirety of his charisma, his voice booming with authority.

"I accept," Takuma said. He didn't really need any time to think. Offers like this didn't come every day, and rejecting them would most definitely forfeit the opportunity forever. It was not like he had any other offers, so he couldn't be picky and was thus grateful. Not to mention, bears were apex predators in the animal kingdom; he expected them to be strong.

"Then, let's sign the contract." At that moment, a sun bear of the same height as Takuma became visible. Kumashiro was so big that Takuma hadn't noticed that the giant polar bear was hiding another bear behind him. The sun bear weaved hand seals and slapped his paw on the floor to cast a variation of the Summoning Jutsu, summoning a stone slab the size of an adult torso.

Kumashiro asked Takuma to write his name and then used one of his claws to carve it into the centre of the ceremonial stone slab, as if it weren't solid rock but soft clay.

"Now, cover your name with your blood and bind the contract. It must come directly from your body to the stone without anything in between. It will establish a connection between us." Takuma smoothly pulled out a kunai and cut his palm open to spill blood. Maruboshi rubbed the back of Suguru, who clearly didn't appreciate seeing an alarming amount of dripping blood.

The moment the entirety of the text was covered, the slab glowed and the blood seeped into the stone, leaving no trace other than that the carved text was a bright crimson colour.

"Congratulations." Suguru approached him as Maruboshi was dressing the cut and handed him a jutsu scroll with the Summoning Jutsu on it.

"If you ever need any advice, don't hesitate to write to me. I've met many bears during my time as the summoner and would be able to help you build a rapport with some of the especially stubborn ones."

"I'd appreciate that greatly, sir," Takuma bowed, sensing no ulterior motive or deceit.

"It's time for us to leave and return home with the news, Takuma," Kumashiro said. The sun bear clapped his paws, and the ceremonial slab vanished.

"Learn the jutsu and summon a mighty bear. All of us will be waiting eagerly to see which of the eight clans you will call first." Given that Takuma didn't know any of the bears, his first summon was going to be random, but the bears believed that the first summon would show which clan he was most compatible with. And with that, all four bears in his backyard vanished. Soon after, Maruboshi escorted Suguru to the inn where he was living.

Takuma also left to find Suguru's grandson and found him carrying a sun bear cub in a backpack as they roamed the city. They attracted attention, but no authorities approached them because the sun bear looked harmless and had yet to learn to speak in the human tongue. By the time Takuma returned home, Maruboshi was already back and was staring at the large ice slab in the backyard.

"We should break it up and scatter it around the yard and garden and then let it melt naturally," Maruboshi suggested, and they got to breaking it.

"Where did you get a block of ice this big anyway?" Takuma asked as he punched it from the side, causing cracks to spread out in a flash, followed by the slab breaking into manageable pieces.

"I didn't. Kumashiro did. It seems that he possesses the rare Ice Release bloodline limit," Maruboshi commented casually.

"What? How?!"