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"Little Tsunade, you're here."
The Sage's main body stopped dozens of meters away from Tsunade, Naruto, and Karin, and then the three heard a gentle female voice resonate in their ears.
"Yes, long time no see, Senior."
Tsunade respectfully bowed to the Sage, then raised her hand to point at Naruto, saying seriously,
"Because this child's talent is exceptionally outstanding, I've asked you to personally teach him Sage Art. I apologize for disturbing you."
The Sage is a very special entity, as it can split off independently conscious clones from its main body. Therefore, the Sage's main body is perpetually in a state of slumber, and it sleeps for years at a time.
Tsunade remembered that the last time the Sage woke up was when she developed hemophobia. Even when Karin was sent here by Tsunade to learn Sage Art, the Sage's main body was not disturbed; instead, the clones taught her.
As for Naruto, just as Tsunade said, because his talent was too exceptional, Tsunade decided to wake up the Sage's main body to allow Naruto to better learn Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Art.
"Yes, I've already sensed it."
The Sage's voice came through, then a giant tentacle on its head tilted towards Naruto, wiggling slightly, and it said,
"This little one's body is very special; it feels just like nature itself. It's truly incredible."
Saying that, the Sage suddenly asked Naruto, "Little one, are you willing to sign a contract with me?"
Although the Sage was very curious about Naruto's unique body structure, it didn't inquire further and instead extended a contract invitation to him.
Beside them, Tsunade was utterly astonished to hear the Sage personally invite Naruto to sign a contract.
Summoning contracts generally fall into two types: one is a clan contract signed directly with a certain clan.
This type of contract theoretically allows one to summon all members of the summoned beast clan with whom they have a contract.
However, this type of summoning is two-way. For example, if Jiraiya wanted to specifically summon a certain frog from Mount Myōboku, besides the Chakra consumption, he would also need to obtain the other party's consent.
Although generally speaking, almost all frogs of Mount Myōboku would not refuse Jiraiya's summoning.
But there are very few exceptions, such as the master of Mount Myōboku, the Great Sage Toad.
Well—given the Great Sage Toad's personality, if Jiraiya truly had a strong need, it might still be possible to summon it out of Mount Myōboku.
However, the other two are basically impossible.
The White Snake Sage of Ryūchi Cave is extremely arrogant; even Orochimaru's summoning would not be answered by it. As for the Sage of Shikkotsu Forest, it is simply too large. Even a Ninja like Tsunade, exerting all her strength, could not fully summon its main body out of Shikkotsu Forest; at most, she could only summon larger clones.
But there is another type of summoning contract, which is a summoning contract specifically signed for a single individual.
Compared to clan contracts, which allow for the free summoning of any member of a clan, this type of contract seems somewhat monotonous, but it has an advantage: the Chakra consumed during summoning is shared by the Ninja and the summoned beast, and the other party's consent is not required for summoning.
In other words, if Naruto accepts the Sage's contract invitation, he would only need to pay half of the Chakra consumed when summoning the Sage's main body in the future.
Do not underestimate this half-consumption; for ordinary summoned beasts, it might not be much.
But for an existence like the Sage, the Chakra that could be saved might be an amount that Tsunade couldn't even squeeze out, even if she were completely drained.
All of Shikkotsu Forest consists of clones of the Sage; it is inherently a clan. Signing a contract with it is no different from signing a clan contract.
The difference between Naruto and Tsunade is active versus passive.
The Sage actively extended a contract invitation to Naruto, so he would sign an individual summoning contract. Tsunade's contract, on the other hand, was passively signed with the Sage's clones, making its contract attribute the same as a clan summoning contract.
More importantly, the 'Sages' of the Three Great Sage Regions are all extremely ancient beings. Even Ninja who have signed contracts with their clans find it very difficult to meet them, let alone have a Sage actively extend a contract invitation.
This scene shocked Tsunade no less than hearing her grandfather, the First Hokage Senju Hashirama, known as the 'God of Ninja,' laugh and say he wanted to become sworn brothers with Naruto.
In fact, Senju Hashirama was also a junior in front of the Sages of the Three Great Sage Regions.
If one had to compare, the Six Paths Sage would be more appropriate.
"Sorry."
Naruto, hearing the contract invitation from the Sage, refused without a second thought, shaking his head directly.
"I've already promised someone else; I won't be signing a summoning contract for now."
"Naruto, you can actually sign this."
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, Kurama's voice resonated in his mind, speaking in a complex tone.
"Although I don't like it, I don't object to you signing a summoning contract with it."
Kurama thought Naruto refused the Sage's contract invitation because of it. The last time it made Naruto refuse Jiraiya's suggestion to sign a contract with the frogs of Mount Myōboku, besides disliking frogs, it also wanted Naruto to save the contract slot for other Tailed Beasts.
Naruto was already its Jinchuriki; unless Naruto died, they were destined not to be separated. After Kurama recognized Naruto, it also silently paved the way for his future, and contracting other Tailed Beasts was a very important part of that.
Although a person can sign more than one summoning contract, the number of contracts is not unlimited, and besides it, there are eight other Tailed Beasts. Kurama naturally didn't want Naruto to waste contract slots.
However, the Sage was an exception. Although Kurama had never interacted with it, it also knew that it was an existence on the same level as that annoying frog.
If Naruto could directly sign a summoning contract with the Sage, it might help him more than contracting a single Tailed Beast.