[Daigo]

    A familiar figure moves through the streets of Yukigakure, looking for someone she sought out previously. A bit of questioning, a bit of searching, but eventually Nashida would hear footsteps behind her, almost deliberately slow. Standing still for a moment, a female voice clears her throat, waiting for the tall woman to turn around. Standing there is the same woman previously sent from Daigo, dressed as close to exactly the same as she was before as was possible. Unlike before, she gave a very slight bow, as she began to talk with her hands and explain why she was there.

"Lord Daigo has requested your presence. He wishes for your assistance with a type of training he didn't convey to me. It didn't seem like an urgent matter, but all the same he says he's waiting where he first helped you with your training and says you'd know where that is."

    Giving another bow, she turns and walks away, done with her message, before jumping and near instantly disappearing from sight. Out in the snow, a ring of dried grass and melted water surrounded Daigo as he was throwing Kunai at that same target Nashida had been attacking when Daigo walked up to her before. It was not in good shape by any means, but someone had secured it better so it wouldn't simply tumble to the ground, but it was riddled with weaponry all the same. On repeat he would throw his weapons, walk and retrieve them, walk back to that same spot, and throw them again. Be in minutes or hours, not for a second did he break this cycle, to the point the grass had a set of footprints where he had walked the exact same path, the exact same place he stood and threw, not as much as a single deviation.

[nashida]

Nashida blinks in surprise when she turns to see the woman from the last time she'd gone on a mission with Daigo, and she recognizes her after only a moment. After all, that mission had actually been quite recent, although the much more memorable portion of the mission had been how sore her legs were after dragging the sled almost the entire way to Hyozan Keep over the course of a single day. She'd decided from then on that if Hyozan Keep required another delivery, she'd just do it in two days and just accept the risk that they might be stopped and attacked by bandits on the way.

She's told now that Daigo has requested her presence and that he wants more training with her. The situation is more than a little odd for the Tantetsu shinobi: she's the lower ranking Genin, and he's the Jounin that should be training her, so although the mentor would normally send for the student in order to tell them when the training would occur and where to meet, this seemed more like a spur of the moment training request. The much taller Nashida nods once at the other woman before she turns and walks away, then pulling some kind of disappearing act. She was of no consequence to Nashida, but all the same, she doesn't start walking towards the training field directly, but takes a few minutes to go through a few side alleys. Daigo hadn't outright stated that he and she should not make too many public appearances together, but she thought it prudent to ensure that even other Nakajima weren't made entirely aware of their meetings.

She arrives to see that Daigo appears to be making work at marksmanship with his thrown weapons, and she stands far enough back that she wouldn't be sneaking up on him or interrupting, and only giving her hellos when the other ninja is returning with his retrieved shuriken.

"Hello again. I'm here for the training as ordered."

It seems that her clothing is still the kind reminiscent of the military uniform, though she wasn't wearing her armored coat this time around; after all, she'd been in the middle of shopping when the woman had approached her, although what she was wearing now should be sufficient for any kind of training Daigo had in mind. If he had required her to have it, he felt it likely he would have mentioned it to the courier. Or assistant.

[Daigo]

    Stopping half way back, he immediately holstered the weapons one at a time before adjusting his clothes, smoothing out any visible wrinkles, then finally waving to Nashida.

"Sorry to have brought you here like this. I had fully intended to simply ask you but, well that cousin of mine has started acting like this more and more as of late and insisted she should bring you to me, and I couldn't be bothered to argue."

    Waving her closer, he narrowed his eyes now looking her over curiously. There was a feint memory of her telling him she could summon before, and he had seen the physical large contract, or perhaps one of many contracts related to said summons. In truth he didn't know a lot about summoning contracts or the scrolls associated with him, but he certainly didn't see her carrying any massive scrolls around on her back. After the obvious looking her obvious, he rubbed at his eyes before giving a wide-armed stretch.

"I want you to teach me to summon, specifically those centipedes you told me about before."

    Walking past her now, he once more started trying to look and see if she was hiding some large scroll on her person, before walking a complete circle around her and back to where he was standing.

"The Lady Shuka has once more told me she's too busy to speak on such matters, so that means you're next on the list."
    

[nashida]

Today seems to be a day of surprises for Nashida, because now Daigo is actually apologizing to her about being brought out to the training field by her mentor, only to realize that it was likely the doing of his own cousin, who seems to want to act as his assistant. Considering Daigo's new position as the leader of the clan, Nashida momentarily wonders if this is a sign that this cousin of his is vying for a position to empower herself through self-applied nepotism, but she's not sure, and he's probably aware of what it might mean for her to insist on such things.

Still, it seems that he was interested in something other than training jutsu this time around, and although Daigo walks about with an apparent air of relaxation, Nashida herself contrasts it with a firm stance with her hands clasped in the small of her back, watching him circle around her and, she assumes, looking for the summoning scroll for the ice centipedes. That wasn't something she often carried around, as it was a rarely used contract in the first place, and it seems their Yuki Lady was involved in some other business that needed more attention. She wonders about that, but decides it would be quite foolish indeed to make any kind of accusation that Daigo wouldn't have gone directly to the Yuki Lady himself; that would have been ridiculous. Although the Nakajima were not held in especially high regard with most of Yuki, Shuka did not hold much of a grudge, which is rare in the elderly, in her experience.

"I see! This is not so difficult in getting you the summoning contract, but the Summoning Technique is also required for the usage of summons... Allow me to demonstrate."

As she speaks, Nashida brings both arms from behind her back to hold them in front of her, removing the glove from her right hand before forming the five hand seals, not as quickly as she would normally, ensuring Daigo can see them well enough to memorize them quickly. Then she bites the thumb of her right hand, only just hard enough to draw blood from the pad of her thumb before she slams her palm to the snow, causing radiating black lines of text to appear for only a moment, before a puff of smoke blasts upwards, leaving behind a surprisingly small centipede of only a foot long, the lowest ranking centipede of the group.

"Haimu-"

"Haimushi's here and ready to fight! Who am I gonna be taking down today?! I'll smash 'em and I'll wreck 'em and- and- and-"

Nashida is interrupted by the summon, as it turns this way and that, clacking its mandibles together with clicking noises, as though ready to bite anything nearby and inject it with its venom. But when it's clear that it's not being summoned for a combat situation, it becomes more annoyed, then turns its head up to look at Nashida and Daigo, clearly unhappy that it doesn't seem to be needed for their venom.

[Daigo]

    He had seen only one other use the summoning jutsu in front of him before, but he wasn't all that interested in it at the time. What they had summoned also didn't exactly inspire him to pick up a lute and write epic tales of the small grasshopper that appeared from the smoke cloud. While he was much younger at the time, he simply had other things on his mind, other techniques to learn and perfect, and more so Seika was still so far ahead that he was near copying her at the time. She wasn't using summoning so Daigo figured it wasn't worth bothering with, but things had changed in so many ways since then, and the two of them took rather diverging paths.

    With how quickly Nashida acted, he assumed this might be easier than he had first thought, but he bent at the knees in a partial squatting position and began paying close attention.

"I see, so..."

    Standing back up, he mimicked the hand signs as he spoke quietly.

"Boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram."


    His hand went up to his face immediately in a stereotypical thinking pose as he kept watching. The smoke appeared then cleared, and there stood a creature that was certainly a centipede, but far from impressive. Looking closer and closer at the creature, eventually he was bent down, staring at it, his shadow covering the small guy. Reaching out as if he intended to poke it, he retracted his arm and put both behind his back, standing up straight and looking at Nashida.

"How exactly does this work? You use the hand seals, then you bled, and I assume they are transported from somewhere else. I'd assume without signing the contract then it simply would do nothing, or waste chakra?"

[nashida]

Nashida is a bit surprised watching Daigo get to work at learning the C-rank technique, having never personally watched his learning process before this point. But she nods when he goes through each of the hand seals on his own, noting the correct seals and in the right order. It was a rather esoteric technique, and with her own natural proclivity for Steel Release rather than most other types of Ninjutsu. She does know that the summoning contract is required, although she'd been told that Kuchiyose could be used for other things besides creatures. She'd never attempted to learn; her Steel Release was more than sufficient for most of the purposes she had in mind, and Haimushi was...

"Staring at me like that is liable to make me bite ya, fatty!"

Well, Haimushi was less than her ideal summoning partner.

"That's not entirely true, the blood is definitely required to summon creatures, however. The summoning technique can be used for summoning other things, though those things are unrelated. It'd be a similar process, only blood isn't required for those kinds of summoning techniques. For this summoning, you must use blood to form the pact with your summoning partner, as well as for signing the contract to begin with. Speaking of which..."

Nashida now focuses her steely ice-blue stare down at the small foot-long centipede now, giving him the stare that means an order is coming.

"Haimushi, bring the contract."

Haimushi mutters to itself, but then scurries along the snow, leaving behind a clear symbol on the ground with its legs and body twisting into a new word, one that is clearly meant to summon something else, and after a moment, a puff of smoke appears once more, producing a curled scroll that looks quite old, but very carefully maintained. The seal holding the scroll closed is firmly latched, and Nashida turns to look at Daigo once more.

"It's necessary to gain the approval of at least one centipede summon in order to gain access to this specific contract..."

[Daigo]

"I can summon in a manner of speaking myself, though it's quite different, or maybe it isn't at all. I'll have to study this later."

    His eyes fall back to the small creature that is in the midst of both threatening and insulting him, as he raises a single finger into the air in front of his own face as it started to glow with a green fire. Pointing it outward towards the centipede, it might have initially seemed like a threatening gesture, but slowly he moved it, melting the snow on the ground all around it before the fire went out.

"You are quite brave."

    Giving a nod towards Haimushi, he looked back to Nashida as his arms were once more behind his back as his default resting position. Quickly bringing his hands up at her words, he narrowed his eyes and quickly created two hand seals in rapid succession, before gently placing his palm to the ground, as four lion statues game pushing out from the ground covered in snow. Once they were fully above ground a barrier connected between them now only around them but up above.

"I can summon, in a manner of speaking, though nothing alive. I simply assumed it was quite different, but perhaps that's where the blood price comes into play."

    He followed her gaze back down to the small creature as it was given a clear order, watching how it reacted.

"Is that so? Well, I suppose since Haimushi is here, I should ask him."

    Moving closer he sat in a squatting position once more and simply looked at the centipede for a moment. The barrier around them started to dissipate as the statues began to sink back into the ground.

"What do you say? Think we could work together? Maybe you could introduce me to some of your friends and family."

[nashida]

Nashida watches with a firmly stoic face as four lions seem to crawl up from the ground and erect a barrier around all of them, though in reality she was actually a bit surprised. It was certainly similar to the summoning technique, but like Daigo said, it did not require any blood to be shed in order to make them appear. She watches them slowly sink back down into the earth when Daigo ends the technique, as well, and she seems quite unworried about the fact that Daigo has formed a flame at his fingertip in his signature green flame, although Haimushi itself seems to bristle at the flame. When the flame melts the snow and the centipede gets called brave, it seems a little less sure of itself, though it doesn't last long.

When Daigo suggests introducing the centipede to its friends and family, Nashida shrugs. She'd never been able to call upon the other members of the centipede contract, although she'd certainly seen some of their names. They simply never responded to her attempts to summon them, with Haimushi claiming that she would need to become stronger before they listened to her at all. As Daigo suggests that they work together, the centipede seems to turn its antennae towards Daigo, then towards Nashida, then back again. Its mandibles click together a few times, apparently a thinking gesture for it, before it turns back towards the scroll and uses its mandibles to deftly and gently unlatch the seal, allowing the scroll to open for them, revealing many older names that have clearly become quite faded from age, with Nashida's being the most recent one, with her name a deep dark black with a red circle next to her name. Nashida speaks up again to explain.

"It seems like Haimushi trusts you enough to let you sign the contract. Other members aren't really able to summon other centipedes. Only the centipedes that respect you will allow you to summon them. You simply sign your name and add a drop of your blood next to it, and the seal of the contract does the rest."

Nashida steps back a little, allowing Daigo to sign the contract if he wishes, and she folds her arms in front of her chest. Haimushi seems a little curious about the higher ranking shinobi now, rather than annoyed with him. It had apparently recognized the power Daigo had, and was likely unwilling to be burned by him, while also trusting Nashida's judgment of him.

[Daigo]

    The process was surprisingly far less painful than he had expected it to be, thinking he'd need to go through trials to convince some giant monster not to eat him, or fight off a horde of angry bugs. Apparently simply being respectful and asking was more than enough, which in itself was likely some sort of lesson he knew well enough, it was just not something he was accustomed to in the shinobi world as often as he would have liked. Everything shown and said so far made perfect sense, and it felt familiar, comforting even; show the thing, explain the thing, do the thing.

"I appreciate the trust and I'll do my best to return it and keep it."

    It was likely not often someone was seen giving a bow towards a creature the size of Haimushi, but sure enough Daigo gave a full bow. The creature had helped him out here as much as Nashida had, so no reason not to show it respect. Out of habit he lifted his hand as each of his fingertips started to glow in green fire, as he more often than not branded his signature, but given the context of what this was in front of him, perhaps catching an old summoning scroll on fire wasn't such a grand idea.

"I don't have anything to write with, but..."

    On his right hand was a simple silver ring, but what wasn't obviously seen was the sharp spike pointed inward toward his palm. Pressing his thumb to it, he bent down and signed his name in blood, with surprising precision as if he had done this multiple times before, then pressed his bloody thumb behind his name, leaving a thumb print.
    
"How exactly does one go about gaining the respect of these other centipedes to summon them?"

[nashida]

Nashida watches as Daigo signs the contract with his own blood, and after the blood droplet lands next to his name, the summoning scroll shudders for a moment, and the blood instantly dries into the parchment, leaving behind his own name and red dot before the scroll seems to roll itself back up. Even after its seal closes and locks once more, it continues to roll, seemingly becoming smaller and smaller before their eyes until it blinks away into nothing, leaving behind only Haimushi, who looks back and forth between Daigo and Nashida as the giant of a woman approaches once more.

"Welp! My job here is done! See ya later, and next time, it better be for a fight!"

Haimushi grumbles to itself as it ends the summoning technique on its own without waiting for Nashida to tell him not to. Now she was the one that had to explain the rest of the summoning contract to Daigo, since Haimushi seemed to think that there wasn't going to be any further excitement at the moment. At least Nashida had had this explained to her already, although she wasn't entirely clear on the details of how summoning contracts worked. She returns her gaze to Daigo in order to explain the process to him.

"They're already aware of you, more than likely. Haimushi is likely telling them all about the Jounin Nakajima that signed the contract in order to be able to summon them. They're not entirely physical, in a sense. They're somehow also a kind of spiritual creature..."

It was hard to explain, especially for a woman whose entire life was mostly built upon the physicality of the world around her and trained in the use of her hands to make hard objects.

"The only real way to know for sure if you've earned the respect of the higher ranking summons is to try and summon them yourself. If they answer your summoning, even when you're not in combat, they respect you. If the particular centipede you try to summon refuses to answer the summoning, then they do not respect you, and you won't be able to summon them until you become stronger..."

[Daigo]

    His eyes narrow as Haimushi disappears not long after the scroll. A drop of his blood hits the snow, melting it much like a scolding hot water drops might, staining the grass below. His eyes met Nashida's, the clear curiosity there for how exactly he was going to summon more than a small bug he could likely remove by accident let alone in a serious confrontation. Once more his eyes narrowed at her comment, but he looked upward as if it clicked, nodding in response.

"So, they are somewhere, physical and not physical in a sense. I suppose that makes sense given the context."

    He thought to himself again, that curious look returning to his face, if it was simply a matter of strength, chakra availability, something else he couldn't quantify yet. It wasn't as if Nashida herself was weak, but if all she could summon was this small creature, then would it simply take this further measure of strength to bring forth something worth his attention.

"Is this simply a matter of expenditure of chakra? I don't yet know their names, forms, or anything much of them to know who or what I'm summoning. I'm not exactly sure what I'm calling to in order to call at all. I assume there is a structure to this, otherwise trying to summon the creature you introduced me to and ending up with something much larger, or the opposite could cause quite the unfortunate incident."
    

[nashida]

Nashida nods as Daigo seems to understand that the centipedes are somewhere between the physical and the non-physical. Then the question of how exactly they choose which centipedes to summon, and she realizes she'd never told him their names, as she should have done while he was signing his name, or Haimushi should have, too. She frowns as he suggests that it's an expenditure of chakra, wondering if he was in a sense insulting her, but if he is, she's decided not to take it as an outright insult, even if that was something he'd meant to sting her with. If he'd wanted to sting her, he would have done so with his fire, instead, she's fairly certain.

"The summoning is done through calling their name, usually in your own head, although some of them respond better to having their name said aloud. There's the one they all call Boss, though I've never seen anybody summon her, not even once. It might not even be possible to do so. The one below her is called Sepa, and most of the other centipedes respect him for his immense strength. Joro is quite stern, but she is also very defensive of those near her, often to the point of interceding. Akuchu is... a showoff. He still has a lot of learning left to do, but he's helpful. The very bottom is Haimushi. I'm sure there are others, but these are the only ones I'm aware of. You could ask the other centipedes for the name of the one they call Boss, but Haimushi has never answered me... I think he's even afraid to say her name."

This last sentence actually leaves Nashida with a bit of a smile on her face. She held a little disdain for the small, if fiery, centipede, the only one that would answer her when she called forth for any of the other centipedes.

"They do require chakra in order to summon them, of course. I think it's more to do with their size and needing to pull them through some gate to their world, but I'm fuzzy on the specifics."

[Daigo]

"I would certainly like to meet this one you keep referring to as the boss, but in time. In truth, I'm not sure exactly where we should start."

    Rubbing at his thumb where he seemed to have stopped bleeding already, he took a deep breath, more and more curious about this boss, if even the other creatures under them were afraid to simply say their name. Having a creature able to be summoned to a dire situation with such strength would no doubt be a boon. If the others were even a fraction of summon holding that sort of power and fear, he certainly was itching to see them up close.

"So, simply cast the jutsu, say their name, and they appear?"

    He wasn't going to waste time thinking on it too much longer, suddenly turning and quickly casting the hand seals into the air, pricking his thumb once more on that same ring, and slamming his palm down to the ground perhaps a bit harder than was necessary. He wasn't going to bother summoning the small creature he had met before, he wanted to see what was on the other side of wherever they were in all its glory. He had no frame of reference of the size of whatever might appear in front of him, especially given Haimushi, perhaps something the size of a horse, maybe as tall as himself at most.

"Sepa was it? Please come forth and introduce yourself."

    He could feel his chakra draining from him, partially of his own accord and if the summoning was not asking but demanding for more than he had originally tried to give. Without fighting it, he let what needed to be taken, within reason, flow from him, as a puff of smoke much larger than he had expected exploded in front of him, obscuring much of the area.
    

[nashida]

Nashida's eyes widen when Daigo states aloud that he's summoning Sepa, and although the Nakajima was likely expecting something quite small, the Tantetsu shinobi quickly moves back to make room for the giant of a centipede that he was summoning now. Although she'd never seen them, she'd been given a description of what they were like from Haimushi, so she was at least somewhat prepared for the gigantic centipede that might show up. The smoke erupts from the huge seal created by the summoning technique, the ground shifting as the summoning gate is opened and Sepa himself rises in order to come out into the real world. More than likely, Daigo would probably end up sitting or standing on its frilled brow, the 50 foot beast towering above even the trees.

He gives Nashida a derisive glare, but he clearly knows that she's one of those that have signed the centipede contract, but simply hasn't earned his respect yet.

Nashida herself stares back up at the giant monstrous beast, but makes no move to shrink away or even to retreat from his gaze, with her arms clasped across her chest as Daigo proves that he was able to summon at least Sepa, one of the highest ranks of the centipede contract. Although he wasn't the absolute strongest of the contract, it was clear from his regal appearance that he was used to being treated as the one in charge. The blonde woman still stands her ground, wondering what Daigo would think about such a massive centipede as it breathes out a small puff of flame.

[Daigo]

    Jumping back as the ground is shaking far more than what's expected of a small creature, then moving back a second time realizing Nashida was backing off as well. It was likely she had an idea of what was coming, and perhaps the safer route would have been to ask for details on these creatures, but he wanted to see it for himself in all its glory, or lack there of, depending on what came out of the surprisingly large cloud. It didn't take long before he started to see body parts, then a clear picture of a creature, as the smoke was being forced to clear from just simple movements, and the space filling with more than air.

"Interesting."


    Daigo calmly spoke at barely an audible tone, as he was immediately looking the beast over, his face the same relaxed state as it almost always was. His muscles tense as he goes to step forward, but sees the bit of flame, and a genuine grin starts to spread across his face, as he moves forward finally. with one arm in front of him, and the other moving behind his back, he bent at a ninety-degree angle to bow respectfully, looking up to try and look the creature in the face.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I take it you are Sepa? My name is Nakajima Daigo. Is that fire I see? Do we perhaps have something in common already?"