When Tenten saw everyone seated at the table—Wen Lan, Tsunade, Pakura, and the others—her already stiff posture became even more rigid.
She hurriedly shook her head.
"I already ate earlier, thank you, Lord Wen Lan."
Wen Lan didn't insist. He simply had someone pour her a cup of water and motioned for her to sit wherever she liked while he quickly finished his meal.
If it had been some poor kid from a struggling family, he definitely would've made them stay and eat.
But Tenten was a famously rich girl.
She didn't need it.
After finishing his food, Wen Lan wiped his mouth and asked:
"So, tell me. What brings you here?"
Tenten awkwardly rubbed her hands together and cautiously said:
"I want to get stronger… but Guy-sensei's methods don't really suit me. He told me to come ask you."
Wen Lan paused slightly after hearing that.
Tenten's talent was actually very good—
unfortunately, her aptitude for ninjutsu was downright tragic.
And Guy himself was a taijutsu specialist. His genjutsu capabilities were even worse.
Wen Lan lightly tapped the table and looked at Tenten for a moment.
"Your fighting style leans more toward a summoner-type build. And your chakra reserves are above average too. You could absolutely fight by summoning large numbers of creatures."
The reason he said this was because Tenten truly was suited for summoning techniques.
Unfortunately, the ninja world simply didn't have a proper "summoner" class.
After all—
Tenten was someone capable of forming a contract with the sea itself.
"But… but my family doesn't have any summon beasts…"
Tenten lowered her head sadly, her voice growing softer and softer.
"We can't even get in contact with ninja dogs. My father said our family has never had any summoning contracts recorded in our ancestry."
"That's fine. Summon beasts can be found."
Wen Lan stood up and bit his finger.
Tsunade noticed immediately and asked:
"You're planning to let her sign a contract with Katsuyu?"
"Yeah. It's still a path forward."
As he spoke, he formed hand seals and pressed a hand to the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A cloud of smoke spread out.
When it dispersed, a palm-sized slug appeared.
"Lord Wen Lan, it's been a long time."
Katsuyu's soft voice rang out gently.
Wen Lan smiled.
"Lady Katsuyu, long time no see."
Then he turned toward Tenten.
"This is Lady Katsuyu, one of the summon creatures from the Three Great Sage Regions."
"She is also the contracted summon beast of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and Lady Tsunade."
"She possesses powerful healing and fusion abilities."
"Lady Katsuyu, this is Tenten, a ninja of Konoha. She hopes to form a summoning contract with you."
Katsuyu slowly wriggled forward, her translucent eyes warmly observing Tenten.
"Child, I can feel the desire within your heart."
Tenten nervously nodded, not daring to speak.
"There's no need to be so nervous."
Katsuyu stretched slightly before spitting out a scroll.
"Write your name."
Tenten immediately nodded.
"Thank you, Lady Katsuyu."
She bit her finger and carefully wrote her name beneath Wen Lan's.
The moment the contract formed, a gentle stream of chakra flowed from the scroll into Tenten's body, like moonlight sinking into the deep sea.
"Come on."
Wen Lan stood up.
"Next, I'll take you to sign contracts with some other summons."
"Lady Katsuyu, are you coming with us?"
However, Katsuyu was staring at the table full of food.
For some reason, Wen Lan felt like she was drooling.
But then he quickly realized—
these were summon beasts.
Who said they had to eat normal things by normal logic?
"No, no. I'll just stay here and eat a little."
Wen Lan shrugged and left with Tenten.
They passed through Konoha's stone-paved streets as Wen Lan casually explained:
"Next, I'm taking you to the Inuzuka Clan. We'll get you some ninja dogs."
"Thank you, Lord Wen Lan."
Wen Lan waved dismissively, signaling her not to be so polite.
After arriving at the Inuzuka compound, no one stopped them.
Wen Lan was basically a regular customer at this point.
Very quickly, they arrived at the kennels.
The caretaker immediately greeted Wen Lan with a smile, but after noticing that Hana wasn't with him and that he had instead brought another girl, he asked curiously:
"Lord Wen Lan, what brings you here today?"
"I'm getting her some ninja dogs as summon beasts."
Naturally, the caretaker had no objections.
Very soon, Tenten signed contracts with more than ten ninja dogs.
The moment the contracts were complete, the dogs happily surrounded Tenten, wagging their tails like fluttering banners.
Wen Lan smiled faintly as he watched Tenten get mobbed by the dogs.
Tenten herself clearly loved furry animals too, crouching down to pet one after another.
"Alright. The Inuzuka Clan will have these ninja dogs delivered to your home."
"Next is the final step."
Tenten looked at him curiously.
"There are more summon beasts?"
Wen Lan hesitated slightly before nodding.
"Yes. But whether you can form the contract depends entirely on your own ability."
Tenten was puzzled—
but gradually she realized something was off.
They had already left Konoha.
Wen Lan led her rapidly through dense forests until they arrived at a coastal border region.
"Lord Wen Lan, where is this…?"
"This is the closest place to the seas bordering the Land of Fire."
He pointed toward the rolling ocean waves.
"Next, you're going to form a contract with the sea."
"With… the sea?!"
Tenten stared at him in shock.
"Isn't Summoning Jutsu only for living creatures?"
"No."
"You can carve the Summoning Formula onto a scroll and use the scroll as a medium to establish a contract with something that has no life fluctuations."
"It's different from a sealing scroll."
"A sealing scroll merely stores dead objects inside it."
"But if you form a contract with the sea, it's equivalent to creating a spatial passage between yourself and the ocean itself."
"The sea will endlessly pour out from your scroll."
Tenten looked somewhat confused—
but she still trusted Wen Lan's words and nodded.
"I understand."
Wen Lan simply found a place to sit and watched as Tenten took out a blank scroll and brush.
She began carefully inscribing the summoning formulas.
Her brush, dipped in ink mixed with blood and chakra, slowly traced intricate symbols across the scroll.
Truthfully, Wen Lan himself wasn't entirely sure whether she could succeed.
But in the original story—
she had.
And Tenten possessed another extremely strong talent:
Spatial affinity.
She had always been trained as a weapons-type ninja, but her sensitivity toward spatial chakra was exceptionally high.
That might very well be the key to forming a contract with the sea.
And everyone knew—
there was no such thing as a weak space-time ninja.
Minato.
Tobirama.
Obito.
None of them were ordinary.
Wen Lan was already considering whether he should ask Minato for the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Even if Tenten couldn't fully master it, it was still worth trying.
As long as she could perceive spatial fluctuations, she could begin studying space-time ninjutsu.
She could open a spatial portal in front of herself, throw weapons into it—
then open another portal beside her enemy and launch the weapons from an impossible angle.
A combat style like that wouldn't just overturn traditional ninjutsu combat logic—
it would push her weapon control to the absolute limit.
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