"You are not left-handed." Anko curiously watched as Enma prepared to summon the snake for the first time, but instead of his right hand, he used his left. He even kept the Snake Summoning Seal on his right wrist, instead of his left wrist as right-handed people do.
"I am naturally ambidextrous, Sensei. As for my right wrist, I already have a Summoning Seal there," he informed her, and she dumbly stared at him.
"You just quashed all your hopes of becoming a Snake Sage. White Snake Sage is usually very easygoing, but she will never agree to teach you Snake Sage Art if you have a contract with some other creatures."
"That's fine." Enma smiled, and she stared at him for a good minute.
"Remember to use the seal to summon an uncontracted Snake. Do not summon a snake that is contracted with someone else," She worriedly said, and the Uzumaki understandingly nodded his head.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Anko held her breath as she saw the seal spread on the ground, and then, with a large puff of smoke, a giant red serpent emerged from it.
It had golden eyes, and she tensed up when she saw a single golden scale under its jaw. It was a Reverse Scale, and it meant that this summon was very aggressive.
The serpent was nearly three hundred metres long and towered over them as it flared his hood.
"Hey." Enma smiled at the snake whom he had summoned. "My name is Uzumaki Enma, and you will be my Snake Summon from this day onwards."
Anko half-expected the snake to attack her student, but instead, it lunged at her.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" She immediately placed her palm on the ground, and out of the smoke, a silver-white serpent emerged and its head clashed with the red serpent, saving its Master.
"Garaga, you are not allowed to harm my Master."
"Master?" The Red Serpent laughed. "You are pathetic, Habu."
"So, your name is Garaga?" Enma smiled at the red serpent, whom he could sense was very strong.
"Yes, and I will let this slide this time, Little Man, but next time, only summon me when there is a battle worthy of me..." Its words had not even finished when Chakra Chains burst out of the ground, and even though he tried to get away, he was soon bound.
Garaga's eyes widened in shock as he felt his body growing weak, and then he heard the very cold voice of the boy who had summoned him.
"I will kill you if ever call me 'Little Man' again. It's Enma to you, even though I prefer you would call me Enma-sama or Master."
Garaga raged at his words and was about to spit his venom when a Chakra Chain bound his mouth.
"Try to harm me and people close to me, and I shall steal one of your eyes."
To make his point clear, Enma suddenly lifted himself with his Chakra Chains and landed on the chain that was binding the serpent's mouth.
The proud snake tensed up when he saw his Summoner's right hand gather a ball of lightning, and then he heard the sound of thousands of chirping birds.
Garaga now realised very well that if he behaved rudely again, the boy would truly ruin his eye, and so he stopped struggling.
Sensing the snake calm down, Enma dropped to the ground again.
"I don't like giving threats to someone I wish to get along with, so do not force me again, Garaga. I will only respect you if you will respect me." He said and freed the Snake, who kept staring at him and then leaned in close to take a whiff of him.
Anko and Habu stayed ready in case the Red Serpent would attack Enma, but he pulled back and towered over them again.
"Do not call me again if there is not a battle worthy of me." It repeated its words and then returned to the Ryuchi Cave with a puff of smoke.
Habu, who was Anko's Main Summon, laughed at what she had just witnessed and then leaned in to nudge her head against Enma.
"You smell of my Master."
The Uzumaki felt his cheeks warming up at her words, and the White Serpent then pulled back.
She was even longer than Garaga, and her body was also thicker.
"He's a troublesome one, but he has been looking forward to the days he would get summoned in unexpected and exciting battles," Habu informed them.
"Who's the strongest of all Snake Summons?" Enma curiously asked.
"That would be Manda."
"Then?"
"Aoda. After him, I am the third Strongest Snake in the world." She proudly said.
"And Garaga?" He smiled.
"He's young. Probably sixth or seventh strongest right now. Mamu is unquestionably stronger than him."
"I see. He seems fun though."
Habu curiously looked at him and then nodded her head.
"He's dangerous too. Do not let your guard down in front of him. If he ever finds you weak and loses respect for you, he will kill you."
"I will be fine." Enma confidently smiled, and Habu nodded again before she looked at Anko.
"Prepare twenty bodies for me next time, Anko. You disturbed my sleep over nothing."
"Yeah, yeah." The Hebi-sensei waved her hand. "Go, get your sleep."
"Farewell." The White Serpent said as she returned to the Ryuchi Cave.
"Twenty bodies?"
"They grow stronger by eating people or things with Shinobi-level Chakra."
"Oh..." Enma lost himself in his thoughts, and Anko narrowed her eyes at him.
She painfully tapped his head, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Don't think about it. If you happen to have dead bodies around you, just gift them to your Snake. Do not actively try to hunt people to feed him."
"Yeah, I understand." He said and then followed his Sensei back to the Village.
She had taken him away from the Village out of caution, and she was relieved she did it because the one he had summoned was fairly big.
The two returned to Konoha before noon and met up with Karin and Shizuka at the Third Training Field.
"Anko-sensei! Nii-san!"
The Princess brightly waved at them and when they landed by their side, she informed them about the results of the Chakra Paper Test that the Nakagami had just taken.
"Her Primary Element is Wind, and her secondary element is Water."
"Hey, hey, that's very useful." Anko smiled at her student. "Unfortunately, I am not too skilled with the Wind Element, but we have Enma here." She smiled at the Uzumaki, who nodded her head.
"I will train you in Wind Nature Transformation."
At his words, Shizuka grew very excited and bowed to him in gratitude even though they were Teammates and very good friends.
"Sensei, you promised to teach me lots of Earth Style Jutsus!" Karin said to Anko, who tapped her head, but very gently.
"You are already plenty strong."
"I want to become stronger." She brightly grinned.
"Fine, come with me." She said and led the Princess away, leaving Enma and Shizuka alone.
The Nakagami silently followed Enma, who had stepped on the water in the river.
They stopped in the centre of it, and the Uzumaki observed the flow of her Chakra, assessing her control.
He then handed her his gold coin and asked her to stick it to her nose.
Shizuka, having been practising it, quickly did as asked, and waited for several minutes to hear his assessment.
"You have improved a lot." He smiled, and seeing his smile, she blushed a little.
"Thank you."
"Do you want to learn Shadow Clone Jutsu?" He asked her and she surprisedly looked at him.
"I don't have enough Chakra..." she nervously said.
"Yes, not enough to use the Jutsu as I and Karin do, but you can safely create two Shadow Clones, and it will make your progress faster. As for your Chakra Reserves, they are low, but they can be increased. Firstly, they will naturally increase as you grow older until you reach your prime. Secondly, you can grow them by using your chakra and recovering it over and over again. Another way is by training your body, and in your case, through meditation, which is very important. The progress will be slow, but in a few years, it will make a massive difference..."
Shizuka nodded her head, attentively listening to his words.
Enma then patiently taught her how to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and given the details and how smart she was, she managed to succeed on her very first attempt.
She, however, felt very weird at having her Chakra halved so suddenly, and it made her feel a little dizzy.
"Sit down, cross-legged, and meditate." He said, and just when she and her Clone were about to walk out of the river, his words froze them. "On the water."
Even though she pouted and felt unwell in her heart, she listened to him and carefully sat down on the water, which was easier said than done.
Even as she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind to meditate, she failed.
"Forget about everything else. Just close your eyes and focus on the flow of your Chakra."
She did as asked, and did not care that she started floating down the river. And seconds later, her body came to a stop.
Something was supporting hers and her Clone's backs, and she only found out what it was when she opened her eyes three hours later.
She found his bent leg against her back, and he was lying down on the water with his hands at the back of his head, taking a nap and supporting her Clone with his elbow.
"How do you feel?" She was startled at the sudden question, and then slowly stood up and stretched her limbs.
"Good."
"Alright." Enma pushed himself off the water with his hands, jumping on the ground, and she followed him. "Do you want a dumber version of the Wind Elemental Training or the smarter version? The smarter version is quite hard and only works for smart people."
"Smarter." She confidently said, and he smiled before he brought her in front of a tree.
"Write your name on it as good as you can write on a paper, without touching it." He said as he proceeded to write his name on the tree trunk with his right forefinger, which stayed six inches away from it. "Start by keeping your finger one inch away."
"How..."
"That's for you to figure out now. Focus on what Wind Element is about. It's part of nature..." he meaningfully said and walked away, leaving the two Shizuka frowning.
The Nakagami and her Shadow Clone looked at each other, and then took deep breaths and got ready to start their training.
And it was the hardest thing Shizuka had ever done in her life...