'Where am I?'
'Why does my head hurt so much?'
For a moment, these were the only thoughts left in Gamabunta's mind.
He could not believe that he, one of the strongest summons, had actually lost to a human in physical strength.
But Jie did not care about Gamabunta doubting his life. Seeing that the toad had no intention of answering, he pressed down with his foot again.
Another force came crashing down. Gamabunta heard cracking sounds from beneath his body, and pain rushed through him.
His first reaction was to cancel the Summoning Jutsu and return to Mount Myōboku.
As a summon, Gamabunta could normally undo the jutsu whenever his life was in danger and return to where he came from. But this time, when he tried to cancel it, nothing happened.
The summoning link was still there, but whenever he tried to break it, an unseen force blocked him.
At that moment, Gamabunta finally understood. He had picked a fight with someone he absolutely could not afford to offend.
Then he felt Jie above his head preparing to move again.
Fear surged through him.
If another wave of force came down, he might really die here.
Before Jie could stomp down again, Gamabunta immediately shouted, "I surrender! I'll take you there!"
Jie slowly stopped.
If Gamabunta had cooperated earlier, none of this would have been necessary.
Jie made it look easy, but he had actually used several hidden boosts. After all, summons were different from humans. In pure physical strength, most humans could never compare to them.
The reason Jie could suppress Gamabunta with two casual-looking steps was because he had used several burst-type strengthening techniques, including Sage Mode.
Only because Jie had now reached the perfect Sage Body, along with the system's reward that gave him near-perfect control over all chakra natures, could he suppress Gamabunta so lightly without anyone sensing what he had done.
As for why Gamabunta could not cancel the Summoning Jutsu, that was because Jie had secretly set up a spatial barrier around him.
Within that barrier, no one, including Jie himself, could use space-time ninjutsu.
After gaining the Uzumaki bloodline, this kind of sealing jutsu and barrier had become easy for Jie to use.
For Jie, space-time ninjutsu was only a useful extra. Losing it for a while did not matter much. But for Gamabunta, having space-time ninjutsu sealed was a real threat.
Since Gamabunta had already given in, Jie simply stood on his head and gave Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata their instructions.
"Sasuke, Hinata, stay here for now and get familiar with your summons."
"As for Naruto, go back to Konoha and tell Jiraiya to come to Mount Myōboku. I'll be waiting for him there."
There were some things Jie needed to settle with the old toad of Mount Myōboku, and Jiraiya was just right as a witness.
He also wanted Jiraiya to see what the sacred land he respected so much was really like.
After that, Jie released Garaga and sent him back to Ryūchi Cave. Then he looked down at Gamabunta.
"Take me to Mount Myōboku. Understand?"
After being crushed twice, Gamabunta no longer dared resist Jie's orders.
Just two steps had left several of his limbs injured, and even his chest had taken damage. As for internal injuries, Gamabunta could not judge how bad they were yet.
If he refused to listen now, he might really die here today.
A cloud of white smoke rose, and Gamabunta disappeared with Jie from the kids sight.
The three looked at one another.
They did not know exactly what had happened, but they could all tell that this had become a big deal.
Sasuke and Hinata were no longer in the mood to bond with Murasaki and Yui. After sending their summons back to Ryūchi Cave, they also decided to return to Konoha with Naruto.
Once they arrived, the three rushed straight to the Hokage building and found Jiraiya.
After hearing what had happened, Jiraiya fell silent. So much time had passed that he thought there was no need to bring up the old matter again.
Back then, he had only wanted Naruto to inherit his father's path and become a contractor of Mount Myōboku.
But by chance, that decision had brought the old prophecy back in front of Jie. Jiraiya shook his head with a bitter smile and stood up.
"I understand. I'll go to Mount Myōboku now."
Up to 40 chapters ahead on patreon :-
patreon.com/Vristikk