"It looks like I really shouldn't be using Lightning Release for now…"
Hagoromo forced himself to fight off the dizziness and staggered to his feet.
His stamina and chakra had naturally recovered a little. From that, he judged that after arriving in this place, he must have been unconscious for quite some time. The Reverse Summoning jutsu had knocked him out—at the very least, he could be sure that he hadn't arrived here while conscious.
He should consider himself lucky.
During that period of unconsciousness, no enemies—or even wild beasts—had attacked him.
After painstakingly rebandaging his wounds, Hagoromo began to move, carefully surveying his surroundings.
This place appeared to be a barren mountain, its landscape drained of life and tinged with a sickly yellow. On the surface, it didn't look particularly dangerous—but instinctively, it gave off a bad feeling.
Reality proved once again that not everyone could be like Jiraiya, who could casually use a jutsu and end up in a sacred land like Mount Myōboku without suffering any side effects.
Not everyone was lucky enough to reverse-summon themselves into paradise.
Given Hagoromo's circumstances—and the fact that he had barely left the village in over a decade—there was no way he could identify this location by himself.
His top priority was clear:
Leave this unsettling place as quickly as possible, find human settlements, and determine Konoha's direction.
As for searching for Kushina—
He didn't bother.
A shinobi like Kushina was far more adaptable to this kind of environment than he was. She would know what to do.
"This place…" Hagoromo muttered as he walked, one hand pressed against his injured shoulder. "Forget living people—there isn't even a trace of wildlife."
There was no sign of life at all.
Almost as if mocking his expectation, a living creature appeared right then—
Unfortunately, after seeing it, Hagoromo would have preferred that it hadn't.
Accompanied by a beastly growl mixed with eerie canine howls, a massive dog-like creature stepped into view.
Four legs.
Three heads.
Short wings on its back.
An enormous body.
A vicious expression.
If Hagoromo were deeply familiar with Naruto's plot, his first reaction would have been:
"Hey… you look kind of familiar."
Granted, as long as he still had common sense, he probably wouldn't call a dog "bro"—even one this bizarre.
Aside from lacking black chakra receivers and ripple-patterned Rinnegan eyes, this creature looked exactly like one of Pain's summoned beasts.
It also looked hungry.
So hungry, in fact, that Hagoromo instantly sensed hostility. Friendship was clearly off the table.
The three-headed dog padded forward, stopping about five meters in front of him.
Hagoromo released his grip on his shoulder, bared his teeth in what could generously be called a smile, and even flashed a mouthful of white teeth.
What a friendly ninja.
…That is, if his hands weren't already flying through hand seals.
Fire Release: Flame Dragon Flame Bullet!
A raging fire dragon instantly engulfed the massive hound. For a brief moment, it seemed like Hagoromo might be smelling roasted meat.
The hunter becomes the hunted.
Unfortunately—
That did not happen.
When the flames dissipated, the three-headed dog stood there, completely unharmed.
"What the hell… Fire Release didn't work?"
Severe blood loss.
Low chakra reserves.
Lightning Release unusable.
A B-rank Fire Release couldn't even singe it.
Hagoromo made his decision instantly.
He turned around—
And ran.
The three-headed dog immediately gave chase.
After being roasted for no good reason—even if it wasn't injured—it still hurt. More importantly, it had no intention of letting potential food escape.
Thus began a desperate chase.
One man sprinting for his life.
One monster pursuing relentlessly.
Once again, reality proved a simple truth:
Two legs will never outrun four.
Hagoromo could only stop intermittently, use his limited chakra to counterattack, then run again—creating distance, getting caught up to, counterattacking again, and repeating the cycle.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield after Hagoromo and Kushina had vanished—
One sentence summed up the situation perfectly:
Sunagakure was in retreat.
Konoha's reinforcements had returned. Sunagakure was now at a disadvantage. Kushina had disappeared. The command post remained intact.
At that point, retreat was the Sand shinobi's only option.
They left behind a field of corpses and gained nothing.
Their objectives had failed.
Their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had slipped through their fingers.
They had even nearly lost their tailed beast.
It couldn't have gone worse.
That said—
Konoha hadn't escaped unscathed either.
"Lady Tsunade, should we pursue?" asked Nara Shikaku, the strategist.
Tsunade's face was still smeared with blood. Her left hand gripped her right arm tightly as she spoke, forcing herself to remain composed.
She could not let her hemophobia show in front of her subordinates.
"No pursuit. Immediately search for the wounded and begin medical treatment. Then—use our fastest communication method to inform the Third Hokage that Uzumaki Kushina is missing. Have the Hokage contact Namikaze Minato as soon as possible."
"Yes," Shikaku replied, turning immediately to carry out the order.
"Reverse Summoning jutsu…" Tsunade murmured to herself once he left.
Judging from the residual ninjutsu traces at the point where Kushina and Hagoromo disappeared—and the manner of their disappearance—it was highly likely that they had escaped via reverse summoning.
"I hope they're safe…"
Statistically speaking, using an unstable jutsu like reverse summoning was extremely prone to failure.
Tsunade had no idea that someone had performed an extremely unreliable modification to the jutsu.
And even if the jutsu itself didn't malfunction, the destination and distance were essentially random.
If those two unlucky fools had been sent to the Land of Wind…
Cough.
Surely they couldn't be that unlucky.
Tsunade reassured herself.
In any case, the only person who could reliably locate Kushina now was Namikaze Minato.
That was why the Hokage had to be informed immediately.
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