The Origins and the History of the Toads, Slugs and Snakes in Naruto

One of the things that make Naruto fights so interesting is how the combatants can sometimes use the summoning Jutsu to summon a special animal that they have already formed a contract with.

We have seen this happen plenty of times, and it does indeed add a nice color to the scenario considering how each one of these summons aren’t just tamed animals, they all have their distinct personalities and different ways of doing things.

So, what are these special animals? Where do they come from? What do we know about their history? What is it that makes them so special? And how are they different from tailed beasts?

We’ll be talking about all of this in this post.

Well then, shall we begin?

To start things off, the summons in Naruto aren’t limited to a specific kind of animal. It can be toads, slugs, snakes, dogs, monkeys or whatever.

In fact, the tailed beasts themselves can also be summoned. However, since unlike these animals, they are sentient masses of chakra, it is significantly harder to summon them. For example, ten tails cannot be summoned by anyone other than its Jinchuriki because of the substantial chakra there is inside of him.

As for the usual summons, they also follow the same route. The stronger a summon is, the bigger the amount of chakra is required to summon it. But there are still a lot of summons that require relatively less chakra, which is why ordinary ninjas can also use summoning techniques without exhausting all of their chakra.

Alright, so what are these special animals?

They are actual entities that live somewhere around the Ninja villages, and can even be reached through foot if one is looking for them deliberately.

However, if one wants to perform a summon, they first have to form a blood contract with them. And it’s not like anyone can just form a contract with any animal, there are some animals that a user may have natural affinity for, that’s why, summons differ from person to person.

Like how Toads were more suited for Jiraya, while Orochimaru seems like he has a natural affinity for snakes.

There are many kinds of summons, and there is not enough material to go about them all. Which is why, let’s talk about the most prominent ones.

Mount Myoboku

It’s literal translation is, “Exquisite tree mountain,” and it is also known as, “The land of toads.”

It is a legendary place, and all of the toads that Jiraya, Minato and Naruto have ever summoned come from this place. There are authority figures, and the land itself is home to many inhabitants. It is a beautiful and rich land full of toads.

Mount Myoboku is located somewhere in the land of fire, and it takes around a month’s worth of travelling time to reach it from Konoha, but only those who know the secret route can find it.

Of course, one can also reach here by the use of reverse summoning technique.

Young Jiraya had a high natural affinity for toads, so when he used the summoning technique without ever having formed a contract, he ended up at Mount Myoboku.

The origins of how Mount Myoboku came to be have never been revealed, but judging from how the land has an ultimate authority figure “Great toad sage,” as well as old advisors like, “Shima,” and, “Fukasaku,” it is obvious that it has been around for a very long time. The authority figures may have changed overtime but the idea of how well established Mount Myoboku is further instates how the toads must have a really long history.

Furthermore, there is a score of musical genjutsu that has been continuously passed down among the toads, generations after generations, since an immemorial time.

These genjutsus are unique to the toads, and only the toads can perform it. 

The ultimate genjutsu that was used during Jiraya’s battle against Pain by Shima and Fukasaku, is one of these genjutsus: Demonic Illusion: Total Confrontation Chant.

Plus, there are also statues of real Toad ancestors who turned into statues while trying to learn Senjutsu.

These facts are more than enough to state that these special animals have been a thing in the Naruto verse for the longest time.

Now, just like how it’s Mount Myoboku for the toads. There are also similar places for the slugs and the snails. However, unlike Mount Myoboku where Naruto himself went to train for a while, we don’t know that much about Shikkotsu Forest (Slugs) and Ryuchi cave (Snakes)

Shikkotsu Forest

Its literal translation is, “Damp bone forest,” and it is where Tsunade’s summons come from.

Now, we don’t know a lot about this forest.

In fact, the only known slug is Tsunade’s summon Katsuya. Katsuya works as a great chakra channeler which makes it easy to perform healing jutsus, it can also divide its enormous body into smaller slugs.

We can’t say much about the forest itself since Katsuya is the only slug we know of, but a few other slugs shown in the cover pages of chapters 4, 153, and 162 in the actual Naruto manga.

Though, there are also theories that Hashirama learnt sage mode at the Shikkotsu Forest, but those are only speculations so we can’t say much about them.

Next up we have the Ryuchi cave.

Ryuchi Cave

It’s literal translation is, “Dragon ground cave,” and as you already know, it is where the legendary snakes reside.

Orochimaru used it to do a lot of stuff, he uncovered the abilities of Jugo’s clan, and also trained to learn the sage mode together with Kabuto.

Now, unlike Mount Myoboku which may require a month’s worth of travelling, travelling to Ryuchi Cave only takes a couple of days from Konoha. Though it is very difficult to just accidently stumble on it, the snakes take precautions to make sure that only those who are actually trying to come to the cave can find it.

And considering the very nature of snakes, only those who are willing to do anything to achieve more power come to this cave. However, those who fail the trials posed by the White Snake Sage are then devoured by snakes.

Just like how Naruto came to use toads, and Sakura could summon Katsuya, Sasuke could summon the snakes.

Not to mention, Sasuke’s disciple Boruto Uzumaki can also summon snakes from the Ryuchi cave.

So, these were the three legendary sage regions.

The other notable summons like Kakashi’s dogs, the third Hokage’s “Monkey king Enma,” also have their very own places where they reside, but those places aren’t referred to in the series, unlike these three legendary sage regions.

Since Mount Myoboku has an obvious history and a proper established civilization, we can probably assume the same for Shikkotsu forest, the Ryuchi cave, as well as the residences of other summons in Naruto.

Another interesting fact about the summoning jutsu is that usually one has to form a blood contract before they can properly summon a special animal, but if one has Rinnegan, they can summon several animals even if there is no blood contract, this is done through the “Animal Path.”

They can also summon unconventional things like the “Demonic statue of the outer path,” but this of course, also require an awful amount of Chakra.

In short, these special animals are real living entities that reside somewhere around the ninja villages, some of them have a prominent yet unexplored history, and they are different from tailed beasts because unlike them, they aren’t made just from Chakra.

So, there you go, this is what we know about the summons in Naruto.