"Ahem… That's just an illusion. The personalities of shadow clones are totally random," Yuki Seisui insisted stiffly, trying to defend himself. "Completely random!"
"I'm the most stable and reliable one, anyway."
After saying that, Seisui looked out at the endless wheat field. Even with the help of shadow clones, it still seemed unlikely they'd be able to harvest it all. He quickly turned to the other two and said, "You two start harvesting. I'll go look for help."
"Alright," Minato nodded. Then he asked, "Who are you going to ask?"
"Shikaku and the others are busy learning the clan's secret techniques. Kushina's also studying sealing jutsu,"
"They probably don't have time, do they?"
Uchiha Haru chimed in, "And besides, this is a mission for our team. Isn't it kind of cheating to get help from outside?"
Seisui shook his head and pointed at the wheat field. "Even if each of us made one shadow clone, we'd never finish this in time."
"This whole thing was clearly some evil scheme cooked up by that white-haired jerk just to mess with us. I'm going to the Panda Clan for backup!"
Both Minato and Haru were stunned. The Panda Clan?
Before they could respond, Yuki Seisui had already vanished.
He'd used reverse summoning.
"When did he even make a contract with the pandas?" Minato asked curiously.
Haru shook his head. "No idea."
Minato, being a contract holder with the toads of Mount Myoboku, naturally knew about reverse summoning, but that kind of jutsu usually required coordination in advance. You had to agree with the other side beforehand to be summoned there.
But Seisui hadn't shown any signs of prior arrangement, which left Minato puzzled.
==========
Meanwhile, in the panda world, Seisui looked gratefully at Panda Ming. "Thanks, Panda Ming."
"I'll bring you some sake next time."
Panda Ming was lying lazily in a pile of bamboo. He let out a nonchalant grunt without even looking up, still munching on his bamboo.
Minato's confusion didn't matter to Seisui. In his view, summoning was just like making a call, with a teleport feature. He'd made a private contract with Panda Ming and came up with a trick: if he summoned him twice in rapid succession, that would signal a reverse summon.
It was like making a phone call: one ring to bring you over, hang up, then call again, and you get pulled to them instead.
Simple as that.
"Rawr~"
Just as Seisui was about to go find the Panda Sage, something latched onto his leg.
Looking down, he saw a baby panda hugging him, just like last time.
"Kuma! Come back and eat your bamboo!" Panda Ming called out, raising a thick stalk of bamboo in one paw.
But Kuma only tilted its head at him, then ignored him completely, hugging Seisui tightly.
"Heh," Seisui chuckled and picked up the baby panda. "I'll take her with me for now."
Panda Ming glanced over and gave a slow nod.
"Fine, take her."
"Just don't forget the sake next time."
And with that, he stopped paying attention and casually snapped the bamboo he was holding in half.
"Come on, let's have some fun today," Seisui said, carrying Kuma as he walked deeper into the bamboo forest.
He'd had a contract with the Panda Clan for several months now and was familiar with the place. Before long, he found the Panda Sage practicing tai chi.
Every time he saw the Panda Sage doing tai chi, Seisui got a strong feeling of déjà vu.
Loose boxer shorts, a bamboo twig in his mouth, practicing slow and deliberate movements.
It was way too familiar.
The only thing missing was for the Panda Sage to be named "Po."
Noticing Seisui, the Panda Sage calmly paused his movements.
"Oh, Seisui, it's you."
"Are you here to learn our exclusive Panda Clan Sage Mode?"
Seisui was speechless.
The three great sacred places all had "Sages," so now you decided to call yourself one too?
And since they all had Sage Modes, you had to invent one too?
This competitiveness is on another level.
Still, Seisui replied, "Actually, I came to ask if I could borrow two or three pandas to help out with a task."
"Huh?" The Panda Sage looked surprised. Borrow pandas for manual labor? Where did that idea come from?
He glanced at the lazy pandas lounging around nearby and couldn't help thinking, Does this kid not realize my entire clan is full of slackers?
But despite that, the Panda Sage nodded and said, "That kind of thing isn't my concern. You decide."
He looked at the baby panda in Seisui's arms and added, "Same as always, just don't bring any cubs into danger."
"Do whatever you want otherwise."
Seisui nodded. That was all he needed to hear.
==========
Soon after, Seisui stood beside the wheat fields, watching a group of pandas hard at work. He gave a satisfied nod.
"Nice one, Seisui!" Minato praised him. "I couldn't even get the toads from Mount Myoboku to budge."
"Your pandas are way better."
"Mhm," Uchiha Haru agreed as she held Kuma in her arms.
But Kuma kept squirming, trying to wriggle free and climb into Seisui's arms. "Ying~ ying~ ying~"
"So cute," Haru said as she gently stroked Kuma. "Baby pandas are the cutest."
Unlike the big ones, who always had a bamboo twig in their mouths, wore loose shorts, and had fierce expressions.
Seisui looked at the shadow clones and pandas working together and said to Minato, "I'll cut up front, and you collect the grain in the back, okay?"
Minato blinked, then nodded instinctively.
Seisui, seeing his agreement, drew his sword and dashed toward an empty section of the field.
He moved swiftly, wind-style chakra coating his blade to make it razor-sharp. Wherever he passed, entire sections of wheat fell like waves.
"You can do that with jutsu?" Minato stared in disbelief.
He'd never considered using ninjutsu for something like harvesting. In his mind, it was always meant for battle, killing enemies or protecting comrades.
The idea of using it for farming had never even crossed his mind.
"You really are something else…"
Minato muttered under his breath, "Maybe you're the one destined to become Hokage."
With that, he quietly went to gather the fallen wheat.
Seeing the others working, Uchiha Haru set Kuma down. There was no way he'd just stand there while his teammates worked. He imitated Seisui's movements and began harvesting too.
He didn't have wind chakra, but his blade was sharp enough, and his imperfect Body Flicker Technique got the job done.
From a tree not far away, Jiraiya watched the three and nodded in satisfaction.
"Didn't expect you to be this good at teaching," Tsunade said beside him, unable to hide her surprise at the scene.
"I gave them a mission to harvest the entire wheat field, but it was never something they could complete alone."
"So they had to figure something out."
"Thinking is the best teacher," Jiraiya said, his tone unusually serious.
Tsunade stared at him in disbelief. Was this really the Jiraiya she knew?
"He really does seem a bit different now," she thought silently.
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