35 - 35 - Meeting Yama's Sons

The bear then said, "Now come, I will introduce you to a couple of my kids who you can use as summons for now."

Izuna then once again followed the bear through the cave, and as they walked, the bear called four bears of different sizes to follow them. They then all walked outside.

Izuna now stood in front of 5 different bears, from biggest to smallest, lined up from left to right, with Yama being the biggest.

Yama introduced his sons, "These are 4 of my sons that you can use as summons. The one next to me is my oldest, Tatsuki. He has the strength of an elite jounin, but only summon him in a do or die scenario. He will take up more than half your chakra when you summon him. The one next to him is Kusunoki. He's a little younger. He has the strength of a jounin. You can summon him when you are in need of him; he will take up roughly a quarter of your reserves. The one next to him is Shinrin. He is now a special jounin, and he can be used for your main attack for now when needed. And last is my youngest, Sugi. He is a genin. He's only 5 years old, so he's even younger than you. You can summon him whenever, but I imagine that you will mainly hang around him when you both are training instead of during missions for now, at least."

Yama continued, "They all have varying degrees of mastery over Wood Style, and none of them have completely mastered Sage Mode yet, so don't expect it. Tatsuki can somewhat use it, but it's not the best, and he's not very consistent with it."

Tatsuki then jumped in and said, "Father, I have gotten a lot better."

Yama laughed and then said, "Izuna, ignore him. They are all still very young and aren't used to guests."

Izuna didn't know what to say or do but then said, "Well, it is nice to meet you all. I'll be in your care." He said the last part with a small bow.

Sugi, the youngest, then said, "Look at this." Then he weaved some hand signs, and a clone was formed that looked somewhat similar to the small bear, but the clone clearly had some deformities.

Izuna quickly activated his Sharingan and noticed it was a wooden clone.

Shinrin then walked over and kicked the clone, causing it to dispel, and said, "Quit showing off, you little brat." The two bears then started to argue before their older brother, Kusunoki, weaved some hand signs, and two branches of wood grabbed the two bears and pulled them apart. He then said, "Both of you, be quiet."

Yama once again laughed and said, "As you can see, all of them are very childish, except for Kusunoki here. He has always been the serious one."

Izuna then looked at Yama's four sons and smiled, not knowing what to say to them.

Yama then said, "Well, now that you've met them, I guess it's time for you to go back. You've been here for a while. I'm sure your village is starting to get worried about you."

Izuna then thought about it and said, "Yes, they probably are." Hiruzen, at this point, probably thought Izuna had been killed.

Yama then said, "Okay, before I send you off, I'll say one last thing. Try to get yourself some water jutsus so you can practice them whenever you come back here to train."

Sugi then butted in and said, "Izuna's going to be training here?"

Yama then said, "Yes, Izuna has a couple of things he doesn't wish for others to see, so he will come here to train them."

Sugi then said, "Great, that means we can learn wood release together."

Yama then said, "Izuna still has a ways to go before he can start learning wood release, but if you're slacking, he will catch up and then surpass you." He then looked at his other three sons and said, "That goes for you three as well. You all better start working your hardest, or one day he might summon you, and you won't be strong enough to handle the situation."

The four bears looked at their father and said, "Yes, father."

Yama then said to Izuna, "Oh yes, I almost forgot, but Izuna, keep everything that happened here a secret. All you can tell people if they ask is that you have bears as a summons, and if they ask, you can say that we use Wood Release, but that's about it. I trust your judgment on what should and should not be said."

Yama then said, "Okay, kid, I'll send you back now."

Yama then ended the summoning, and Izuna was once again met with a black space that had tons of pressure pushing down on him for less than a second. Then, he was back in the Hokage's office, standing before Hiruzen.

Hiruzen looked at Izuna with a smile on his face and said, "Izuna, you had me worried."

Izuna then said, "Don't worry; everything worked out in the end."

Hiruzen then asked, "So they are your summons now?"

Izuna replied with a simple "Yes."

Hiruzen then asked, "So, will they be able to teach you Wood Release and Sage Mode?"

Izuna was at first surprised that Hiruzen knew the bears used Wood Release, but he remembered that he was close to Hashirama. He then replied, "Yes to the Sage Mode, but it doesn't seem like it will be anytime soon."

Hiruzen then said, "That's understandable."

Izuna then continued and said with as straight of a face as he could manage, "But no to the Wood Release, sadly I am unable to use it."

Hiruzen replied, "Ah, I see. That's unfortunate. Wood Release is a very strong Kekkei Genkai."

Izuna then said, "Yes, that's what I have heard."

Hiruzen then said, "Well, I'm glad you managed to find a good summons and survive the process, but I'm sure your parents are now anxious to see you, so go ahead and go home."

Izuna said, "Thank you, Lord Hokage. I really appreciate your help."

Hiruzen said, "That's my job, and it was my pleasure."

Izuna then left Hiruzen's office and started to head home, still surprised about today's events. He also thought to himself, 'Hiruzen really isn't that bad. I guess the multiple wars, then having to come back out of retirement when Minato died, really took a toll on him.'

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