Chương 30: Chapter Thirty- To Be a Summoner
"I can't spend days here, Elder. There's a war waging through the Elemental nations as we speak" I advocated my apparent detainment to the two-foot tall lion that seemed to care little for my 'hooman' problems.
"War is nothing more than a change of the seasons, if your nation can't survive without one teenager then it wasn't worth fighting for in the first place." The elderly lion nodded to himself as he continued to guide me from his perch on my shoulder.
"It's not that I don't believe they'll survive, even from my perspective we're handily winning a gigantic war between all nations. But I have a responsibility, my squad, my sensei…..They don't even know I'm alive." I pleaded for the third time to just be sent home, sure I wanted a summoning contract but I also didn't want everyone to think me dead while in reality, I was on an undiscovered island for an indefinite amount of time.
"Pity that, but continue with the story about what brought you here, I believe you were vague in your explanation. You spoke of a beast of sand forcing you into reverse summoning yourself?" He asked as for the first time he seemed completely attentive to the conversation.
"Yes, it was incredibly odd. He was, well for most of the fight the shape of a man. But he wasn't, traces of madness and bloodlust followed the creature. Seamless wind release and complete control over the desert. It felt as if I was fighting the world itself instead of an actual combatant." It was the definition of an unwinnable battle, that scared me more than I'd like to admit. Sure I would be scared and completely outclassed if I stood before the unkillable titan that was the Third Raikage. But he was human, maybe at the pinnacle but still, human. He could bleed.
Seeing the very environment rise up and fight you was something I didn't even believe sensei could fight. Even though I watched that man pull a lightning dragon from the sky I still didn't like his chances. How could you even damage a desert that made up a nation? Subvert the very ocean and drown it, that was my only idea.
"You fought one of the Sages children, the One Tail Tanuki if memory serves me right." He paused as if gave me an appraising look. "You're lucky to be alive" My pride wanted me to respond defiantly at his disregard but I couldn't deny it. If I never had to fight that beast again I wouldn't complain.
"What does that mean? The Sage had children and one of them was that demonic desert spawn?!" It was laughable and began to doubt everything this 'Elder' was telling me.
"Shush child we have arrived. The first trial of the summoner" He spoke and indicated directly in front of us. A pillar, beautifully adorned with carvings depicting thousands of big cats. Though the size was beyond belief, thick as any tree around us and so tall even the gigantic trees around us seemed unable to reach it's peak.
"Though you are starting at a disadvantage I believe you can reach the peak" He hummed as jumped from my shoulder causing me to slightly stumble. "I will see you at the top child. Though if you'd like to continue our conversation I invite you to attempt to keep up" He spoke and began walking up the pillar turning back to look at me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"Sage-damn, bipedal bastard, oh listen to me, I am an Elder" I smartly spoke my completely unchildish tantrum under my breath as I abandoned my walking stick, gripped the tower, and began climbing.
Four Hours Later.....
"How damn tall is this tower!" I screamed at the tiny silhouette that just kept getting further away. If only my ankle hadn't shattered, this 'trial' would've been child's play with chakra control.
"We're nearly halfway, don't give up. Well, you don't have a choice to give up huh? Let go and you'll splatter" The evil bipedal cat cackled at my struggle. I stopped feeling my arms an hour ago and I was sure I lost every piece of skin on my hands. The pain was gone but I doubted that was a good thing.
But it allowed me to focus on something worse as my eyes struggled to remain open. I was halfway through our week of duty, which amounted to three days of full combat with menial rest followed by a battle with a titanic beast. Now I'm climbing a tower that I was beginning to doubt even had an end. That or we'd soon be among the stars as we had passed the clouds half an hour ago.
I was tired, I wouldn't make it. I doubt I'd manage another ten feet.
But throughout it all I somehow awoke on a stone floor, my hands stuck in a death grip on the last edge of the column. I have no idea how I got up here but as I observed my surroundings I figured it out.
The column I climbed ended, a whole above put me into this enclosure. I seemingly flipped myself into it and immediately passed out. Or I completed the climb in my sleep, which given the fact I couldn't remember even catching sight of the end, was a possibility.
I rose with a groan and did my best to get my hands and fingers to move. Locked as they were I managed to pry them off the edge and rise to my feet.
"What…?" It was the first time I didn't feel searing pain when I moved in over a day. I looked down at my perfectly functioning ankle in surprise. Noticing the bandages wrapped around my shoulder and ankle made it clear I'd been treated. By an expert healer at the very least.
"Congratulations on making it this far aspirant, the Grand Elder will see you now" An aged feminine voice spoke from behind me, near the entrance I spotted.
I turned to be greeted by another bipedal feline, just as aged as the her lion variant but this one looked closer to the white tiger I met upon my arrival.
Following behind her was the other elder who forced me into this ridiculous climb.
"How many levels of hierarchy do you people have, that is three at this point" I asked more out of curiosity than surprise. But given what I learned from Sakumo most summon clans are lucky to have a boss but to have two levels of 'power' above him made me curious. Based on the giant panther's reaction to the elders, at least the lion was above him in 'strength', so it wasn't just a position earned by age but no real power like in the Uchiha Clan.
The clan had many elders, but the clansmen usually only listened to them out of respect, but it wasn't something enforceable. Nor did everyone give the Elders face.
"Well, that is in perspective young one. I won't bore you with a lengthy explanation. There are four kings or queens of each of the four species that rule Panthera, they form a council to take care of the most mundane issues that could plague our island. One of the four will prove themselves and become what you know is a 'boss summon'. Then there are us, two elders watching over the council and the next generations." The female elder answered my question as she came in front of me and gave me a once-over.
"Then there is the Grand elder, he above all. Neither of us knows how old he is but we speculate he was around during the Sages era. He fulfills no role among the inner workings of our people, yet his decree is law." The Lion elder finished the explanation with a hum. "It was the reason I managed to grab you before that upstart could send you home"
That caused my brows to furrow. An ancient cat wanted to see me the moment I landed on his island.
"It is a fortuitous day, the first time the elder spoke in nearly fifty years." Both elderly felines seemed to 'purr' at that and before long they led me into a chamber at the very top of the tower. Grand doors that rose twenty feet tall and wide were cracked to just enough to allow us to pass through.
Entering the room I noticed a gigantic figure lying upon a mat that took up the entire back half of the room. An ancient panther turned ashen gray from age sat staring at me with his single working eye. But the stare itself made that crazed golden pupil that had been haunting me almost mundane in comparison.
"The breaker of fate arrives.....Tell me, child, how are you alive?" He spoke with a cackle in a graining tone i found similarities in the old smokers that would loiter in the many parks around Konoha.
But the words themselves? The question he asked? It made my stomach turn, the hair on my neck stand up and my heart beat pound in my chest. 'He knows! How could he know about the scroll?"
"Now it is not that serious, child of Indra. You may calm down" He said and taking his own advice he lit a pipe in one of his paws and entered what my sister would call 'Loaf mode'.
"It is rare I have a chance to speak to one who is no longer tethered, no longer in the grand plan if you will. You were meant to die, yet you live. Fear not as I don't wish you harm nor would like such an opportunity for myself. I'm merely curious, for the first time in a few hundred years." He spoke as if my apparent resurrection was a puzzle he was interested in solving, though sought nothing from it but a sliver of entertainment.
"I died, over two months ago. But as I was breathing my last, a…. Something appeared in front of me and offered an accord. A life for a life. The payment hasn't been, paid yet the service was provided with a promise."
"A rouge deity then.....Odd, to do something like this right under the Shinigami's nose as well? Very odd, but so very interesting!" With that, he let out a deranged crackling laugh that flooded the chamber with smoke.
"Children, Mufuso, Pathera. Do you deem him worthy?" He finished his laugh and immediately addressed both of the bipedal felines behind me.
"Well… yes, my lord, but his affinity hasn't been teste…." Mufuso began only to be stopped by the crash of a scroll. It unfurled as if by magic and floated in front of me.
My surprise only lasted a moment before I realized what I was offered. A contract, a complete contract with a seemingly major summoning clan.
"Grand elder, but the trials!" Pathera began to object before a condensed stream of smoke slammed into her face.
"I created those and nobody in over a thousand years has passed them, it is time for Panthera to rejoin the world stage. Whether the boy can become a Sage matters little to me." He spoke and just as Mufuso had said earlier his word was law. But was it correct?
The scroll itself was easily the most beautiful creation I'd ever seen. Adorned in the four corners were life-like depictions of the four feline races that made up Panthera. A lion, tiger, cheetah, and panther seemingly guarded a rowed column on the page.
What led me to question the Grand Elder's words was the fact that a single name was depicted on the scroll.
"Indra Otsutsuki....." I hummed as I could practically feel that this was fated, a name I'd been chasing since my uncle used Provocation Of the Third Eye on me. A ghost that I thought would take years to catch, now bound by blood and paper.
"Your progenitor, the first and greatest Uchiha. A bonafide demigod that still holds his finger on the scale of this world." The Grand Elder answered my unasked question.
Seeing that that bombshell didn't complete the quest I attempted to pry further. "Will you tell me his story, many have referred to me as his 'child' and frankly I'm tired of being the unknowing fool." I asked with a slight tilt of my head in respect.
"Sign the contract in blood…." He ordered and asked my name.
"Tometsu, Tometsu Uchiha," I said aloud as a second name joined the first. It was almost laughable my name was joined right alongside his. As if we were equals.
{Summoning Contract Acquired: Panthera)
I very much wanted to observe how the jutsu had changed in the scroll but something more vital was about to be discussed.
"Peru, now the grand elder, but I was once the personal summon of Indra. No even that is protensious, I was nothing more than a glorified house pet in those days" Peru answered many of my questions at once.
"Indra was the firstborn son of The Sage of Six Paths. I met him on his sixth birthday. Panthera didn't exist, I hadn't even found this island nor could I have hoped to create something as intricate as the scroll before you. But fate is sometimes kind, or meeting a living god was just fate defying luck. The sage created our contract and it was gifted to his son as a mere present." It hit me at that moment that I was talking to someone who met the Sage, possibly even spoke to him.
His age alone would have to make such a claim laughable, but I didn't sense a hint of decent in the millennium-old panther.
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