I am the new Hokage of Konoha.

What he was like there.

I'm not the neighbor next door.

Never mind, there's still time. I'll think about it more later.

Yun Ting rubbed his temples, sat back down at his desk, and took out an arm-length scroll that was bound with a thin rope and looked quite old.

This was a contract scroll about summoning beasts that he had accidentally found while searching for Wood Release techniques in the Senju clan's archives.

The contract was with the slug of Shikkotsu Forest, one of the three great holy lands of the ninja world, who had a deep connection with his Senju clan.

Unrolling the scroll, Yun Ting looked at the surnames of the ninjas who had once signed their names.

Aside from the vast majority being familiar Senju clan names, there are also Uzumaki clan, Kaguya clan, and so on.

These were undoubtedly once the top powerful ninja clans in the ninja world.

However, when faced with a contract from one of the three holy lands, they all flocked to it.

This gives you an idea of ​​the immense charm of Shigulin.

Yun Ting continued scrolling, and when he saw the names of the two people closest to him, namely "Hashirama Senju" and "Tsunade Senju", he nodded knowingly.

Turning the page further, it becomes a blank page.

Clearly, there is still a vacancy in this psychic contract.

Without any hesitation, Yun Ting bit his finger and signed his name in the blank space following "Senju Tsunade," then pressed his blood-red fingerprint below "Senju Yun Ting."

The First Hokage was powerful not only because of his Wood Release techniques, but also because of his Sage Mode.

Yun Ting, who aspires to evolve from the small-sized first generation to the complete first generation, would naturally not miss this opportunity.

He doesn't need to worry about being unable to cultivate.

The reason why Tsunade, who is also a member of the Senju clan, cannot practice Shikkotsu Forest Sage Technique is that her body cannot withstand the corrosive damage that comes with practicing Shikkotsu Forest Sage Technique.

But Yun Ting is different. Like the First Hokage, he possesses Wood Release and his own life recovery speed is extremely fast. He is not afraid of the effects of corrosion, which fully meets the conditions for cultivating the Wet Bone Forest Sage Technique.

Besides, even if cultivation doesn't go smoothly, there's still the system.

Once he comes into contact with the cultivation method of the Wet Bone Forest Immortal Techniques, he can exchange for immortal techniques through the system.

So why not do it!

Chapter Twelve: The Slug Immortal

With the contract signed, Yun Ting was just wondering if he should take advantage of the free time to summon the slug.

Suddenly, white smoke appeared around his body.

"This is... a reverse spirit communication technique?"

As soon as Yun Ting finished speaking, he vanished from the spot.

The next second, members of the Fourth Hokage's bodyguard rushed into the Hokage's office. Seeing that it was empty, the leader, Hayama Shirakumo, narrowed his eyes and said urgently, "Quick! Go and call the Third Hokage!"

Unaware that his actions had caused a panic in the Hokage Building, Yun Ting opened his eyes again to find himself in an unfamiliar place.

Before him stood rows of trees that seemed to pierce the sky.

This tree has no branches or leaves; its bare trunk and branches are a ghastly white, giving it a skeletal appearance.

Despite this, the forest was unexpectedly filled with moist and refreshing air, especially with the immense life energy that he was very familiar with perceiving permeating it everywhere.

Yun Ting took just one light breath and felt a sense of comfort throughout his body.

"The Wet Bone Forest? It truly lives up to its name as a treasure land," he exclaimed.

Just then, as if noticing the newcomer, slugs of varying sizes, blue and white, poked their heads out from the woods and looked at Yun Ting.

Soon, a slug, larger than its kind, wriggled to the latter's side and whispered in a gentle female voice that seemed somewhat incongruous with its appearance, "Are you Lord Senju Unting?"

"I dare not accept such a title, Slug Immortal, please just call me by my name," Yun Ting quickly replied.

He knew that the entire Wet Bone Forest was just one Slug Immortal, and these seemingly small slugs in front of him were just its clones.

This means that the person he was talking to was none other than the Slug Sage himself.

This person is an ancient relic, just like the toad sage of Mount Myōboku, who has lived for thousands of years. He has no choice but to respect him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm used to calling all my contracted companions 'Master,' and I'm afraid I won't be able to change that anytime soon. Also, I'm not some kind of immortal, just a slug that's lived a long time and knows some immortal arts. So please just call me Live Slug, that's my name." The slug's voice remained gentle and kind, and its words were exceptionally humble and restrained.

Sure enough, just as I remembered, the immortal of Shikkotsu Forest unexpectedly had a good temper.

Here, Yun Ting has to observe a few seconds of silence for Orochimaru, who made a contract with Ryuchi Cave.

Now that they had said that, Yun Ting didn't stand on ceremony and called out "Live Slug".

Upon seeing this, the latter nodded happily and said, "Since Lady Tsunade, no new people have entered Shikkotsu Forest for a long time. When I saw Lord Yunting's name, especially since he was another Senju, I took the liberty of summoning Lord Yunting over. I hope I did not delay Lord Yunting's important business."

For the live slug, although it has had all sorts of contractors in its thousand years of life, the one it has been with the longest is the Thousand Hands Clan, so it naturally has more feelings for the people of this clan.

According to Tsunade's previous accounts, the Senju clan has now dwindled to almost nothing, which saddens her greatly.

Therefore, upon seeing the name "Senju" added to the contract scroll it had placed in the outside world, it made this rebellious act of communicating with spirits, which was inconsistent with its personality and carried a touch of willfulness.

Upon hearing this, Yun Ting immediately waved his hand and said, "It won't delay anything. I don't have anything to do right now anyway."

Anyway, the summoning contract scroll was right there in the Hokage's office. Even if others didn't know, the experienced Hiruzen Sarutobi would instantly understand what had happened once he saw it.

So he wasn't worried about anything happening over there.

Now that he's in Shikkulin, he'll take this opportunity to explore this sacred place.

"Does Lord Yunting wish to see my true form?" After a short while, the slug that had climbed onto Yunting's shoulder asked.

"Is that alright?" Yun Ting was very curious about the live slug's true form.

According to his understanding, the slug's true form was never fully summoned throughout the original story.

Even Tsunade only summons a small part of her true form.

"Of course, no problem. Lord Yunting is my contractor, and we will be fighting side by side in the future. It is only right that we get to know each other better."

As the live slug spoke, it led Yun Ting deeper into the Wet Bone Forest.

Yun Ting looked around and saw slugs of all sizes, blue and white, with transparent mucus secreted from their mouthparts, everywhere on the ground and trees along the way.

It doesn't look disgusting at all; on the contrary, it has a kind of cute and simple charm.

Along the way, the slug on his shoulder suddenly asked curiously, "Is the robe that Lord Yunting is wearing the Hokage's robe? Could it be that Lord Yunting is now the new Hokage of Konoha?"

“Indeed, I am now the Fourth Hokage,” Yun Ting nodded.

"That's amazing! It reminds me of Lord Hashirama from decades ago, who was also a Hokage," Katsuyu exclaimed.

"Haha! I'm no match for the First Hokage now!" Yun Ting said with a laugh, waving his hand.

During this exchange, Yun Ting unknowingly arrived at his destination.

When he passed the last pale tree and came to a clearing, he looked up and, even though he had prepared himself mentally, he couldn't help but show an expression of utter shock on his face.

It's...it's...too big!

Even though his eyes had seen countless massive modern buildings made of steel and concrete, Yun Ting was still speechless with shock when he looked at the indescribably enormous, seemingly endless living slug before him.

At that moment, he finally understood the meaning of immortals.

Even without using any sage techniques, this person can cause the earth to shake and mountains to tremble simply by rolling their body slightly. Their power is probably no less than that of an S-rank large-scale ninjutsu.

At this moment, taking advantage of Yun Ting's momentary daze, the slug on his shoulder jumped down, wriggled to the side of the live slug's main body, and then merged its small body into it.

The next second, the enormous head on the slug's body moved.

It lowered its head slightly, looking at Yun Ting, who was no bigger than a pebble in its eyes, and spoke in its gentle, soothing voice:

"Lord Yunting, this is truly our first meeting. I hope you will take good care of me in the future."

"And... I also hope that you will take good care of me in the future, Huoshou." Looking at Huoshou, who was still as kind as ever, Yun Ting felt a little relieved and said solemnly.

Chapter Thirteen: Immortal Arts

As a future partner in the battle, after a friendly exchange with Yun Ting, Huoshou also fulfilled her contractual obligations and carefully explained her various abilities to him.

Besides his unparalleled medical skills renowned throughout the ninja world, the former also possesses abilities such as tongue and teeth mucus, the Split Technique, and vision sharing.

Among them, the tongue-tooth sticky acid, a rare offensive technique, is a tactic that Orochimaru tacitly acknowledges as capable of killing him.

Because slugs are mollusks, purely physical attacks are ineffective against them.

These are only some of the aspects of the opponent's strength that have been demonstrated.

After all, right now, neither Yun Ting nor Tsunade has summoned a small portion of the live slug, and they cannot unleash its full power.

I wonder if Hashirama Senju at his peak could have done that.

Yun Ting shook his head. Although the Hashirama cells in that person's body were practically a bug, if he really tried to forcibly summon all of them in the face of the ridiculously large live slug, he would probably die instantly after all the chakra in his body was drained. The Hashirama cells wouldn't even have time to replenish their chakra.

Let's get back to the topic.

At this point, Yun Ting revealed to Huo Yu the core purpose behind his signing the Spirit Scroll contract.

"Cultivating immortal arts?" The gentle female voice of the live slug was not surprised.

Anyone familiar with the three sacred lands is naturally very interested in their Sage Techniques, which are different from the chakra system, but very few are ultimately able to master them.

The slug did not refuse, and patiently explained, "If Lord Yunting wishes to cultivate, I will not refuse. However, Lord Yunting, please know that unlike Mount Myōboku and Ryūchi Cave, the Sage Arts of Shikkotsu Forest are not suitable for humans to cultivate. In the past thousand years, only Lord Hashirama has successfully cultivated them. Even Lady Tsunade had to give up after cultivating for a period of time. This is because the process of cultivating Sage Arts is full of dangers. A slight mistake can lead to assimilation into natural energy and death. Please remember this, Lord Yunting."

“I understand,” Yun Ting said knowingly. “However, just because Tsunade can’t cultivate doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Although they belong to the same clan, Yun Ting and Tsunade are not particularly close in terms of blood relation, after all, the Senju clan used to be so large, with many branches.

If we're being really serious, he and Tsunade, who is more than ten years older than him, are considered to be of the same generation, so he calls her by her given name.

The live slug didn't care about any of that, but was surprised by Yun Ting's confidence: "Oh? Why do you think so, Lord Yun Ting?"

Yun Ting speaks with facts.

He clapped his hands together, and in an instant, as if an earthquake had struck, one after another, incredibly thick trees sprang up from the ground centered on him.

Soon, amidst a roar, a large patch of green forest appeared in the once snow-covered bone forest.

"Senior Hashirama was able to master the Shikkotsu Forest Sage Technique because his life force, possessing Wood Release, far surpassed that of others," Yun Ting said confidently, standing among the trees. "Now that I also possess Wood Release, I suppose my chances of successfully mastering Sage Techniques are even greater."