"So, Jiraiya, what you need to..."
Before Hiruzen Sarutobi could finish speaking... A sharp shout suddenly exploded from behind him.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Jiraiya's fingers moved at incredible speed as chakra surged wildly through his meridians. Without the slightest pause, he completed the entire set of hand seals.
"Holy shit, Jiraiya!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils instantly shrank.
He immediately shouted sternly, "Stop, wait! You haven't signed any summoning contract yet, forcing the technique like this will trigger chaotic spatial fluctuations. The consequences are completely unpredictable!"
Before Hiruzen could even finish speaking, he already shot forward like an arrow, desperately trying to interrupt Jiraiya's hand seals.
"Pff!"
But he was still one step too late.
Jiraiya had already completed the final seal, and chakra burst out from his body.
"Puff!"
A thick cloud of white chakra smoke instantly exploded outward.
Only faint chakra remained on the spot. Jiraiya's figure vanished in the blink of an eye, disappearing completely.
"No! Jiraiya!"
Hiruzen suddenly stopped in place. His face instantly turned dark and ugly as endless regret flooded his heart.
Jiraiya had forcibly used summoning without a contract. He had definitely been dragged into a random summoning realm space. He was probably never coming back.
If he had been sent to some remote and deserted summoning world, separated by endless spatial barriers...
Even if Hiruzen searched the entire ninja world, where could he possibly find Jiraiya?
And he didn't even know any space-time ninjutsu.
He didn't dare think further. There was a very high chance Jiraiya would either starve to death in some foreign wilderness or be mercilessly devoured by violent summoning beasts.
"It's over..."
"Enma, is there any way to find Jiraiya?"
Hiruzen urgently turned toward the Monkey King Enma beside him and asked pleadingly.
Enma helplessly shrugged his broad shoulders, his tone carrying some helpless sighing at the unpredictability of fate.
"The landing points for this kind of contractless summoning are completely random. If his luck is bad, maybe in a few days you'll find traces of him swept into the cracks of Konoha's stone walls by spatial turbulence..."
"Ah!"
Those words made Hiruzen's expression even darker.
Jiraiya was his personally taught disciple. If he died in such a ridiculous way, Hiruzen would never forgive himself for the rest of his life.
As if seeing through the pain in Hiruzen's heart...
Enma slowly crossed his arms and added in a deep voice, "But you don't need to despair too much. If he was sent to one of the major summoning realms, then there's still a chance he'll survive."
"The current summoning world has long stabilized. It's nowhere near as chaotic as before. At the very least, they won't casually kill humans who accidentally wander in."
The reason he could say this so confidently was because all the major summoning realms now respected the Great Sage of Mount Myoboku as the highest authority, and rules had long been established.
Whenever humans accidentally entered a summoning realm, the local summoning beasts would immediately report it and wait for the Sage's orders before taking action.
Quite a few ninjas had accidentally wandered into other summoning realms before.
In the end, after Sage Gamamaru of Mount Myoboku gave the order, they were all safely returned to the ninja world.
"But... Jiraiya..."
Hiruzen clenched his fists tightly and paced anxiously in place, full of self-blame.
If only he had stopped Jiraiya earlier.
And really, why had he casually shown the Summoning Jutsu in front of Jiraiya for no reason?
Seeing him panic so badly, Enma could not help letting out a heavy sigh. In the end, he couldn't bear it.
"Hiruzen, our Enma Clan has always valued loyalty and righteousness."
"Fine then. Our Enma Clan has some reputation in the summoning world. I'll personally make a trip and ask around the major summoning realms for news of him.", Enma patted his chest as he spoke.
Hiruzen quickly thanked him. "Then I'll leave it to you!"
"That said, I don't know if I'll actually find him. The summoning world is far too big..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Enma canceled the summoning and disappeared.
———
[On The Vast Plains Deep Within Mount Myoboku]
"What the hell, where did this send me? Is this still Konoha?", Jiraiya stood there blankly, looking around at the completely unfamiliar surroundings.
Under his feet was soft green grass.
Strange ancient trees several times taller than a person stood all around him.
The sky looked like sunset, as though the sun was setting.
But strangely enough, there was no sun here.
"If there's no sun, why is this place so bright?"
Jiraiya looked around in confusion.
Whether it was the terrain, the plants, or the unique dense aura filling the world, everything was completely different from Konoha Village in the Land of Fire. It didn't even feel like the same world.
Was he still on the same planet?
Jiraiya subconsciously turned around. The moment he looked back...
A massive shadow entered his sight.
A giant red toad about the same size as him had silently appeared behind him at some point.
"Whoa, what a huge toad!", Jiraiya shouted instinctively.
Although giant summoning beasts were not rare in the ninja world, such a huge creature appearing without warning still startled him.
Before he could recover, a deep and lazy human voice slowly came from the giant toad's mouth.
"Human, judging by how confused you look, you accidentally wandered into our Mount Myoboku.", Gamabunta slowly spoke.
Jiraiya's entire body instantly stiffened. His eyes widened in disbelief as he pointed at the giant toad and stammered, "Y-you can actually speak human language?!"
Gamabunta smiled faintly, "Everyone here can talk, alright?"
"Come on. The Sage already predicted you would come. Follow me.", Gamabunta waved at Jiraiya, signaling for him to follow.
"Huh? Predicted I was coming?"
Jiraiya looked confused, but still followed behind him.
Very quickly, the man and the toad arrived at Mount Myoboku's main city.
The moment Jiraiya saw everything before him, he was so shocked he couldn't say a word.
Mountain ranges layered upon each other stretched into the distance. Tall buildings reached into the clouds. The roads were neatly planned, and trains moved along tracks.
Everything... everything made Jiraiya gasp in amazement.
These were things he had never even heard of before.
"This is!!!"
"What kind of place is this?!"
Jiraiya could not help asking in shock as he stared at everything around him.
"Hehe, you humans are still in the Stone Age. Of course you wouldn't understand these things."
Gamabunta laughed proudly a few times.
Then Jiraiya saw toads, White Zetsu, and members of the Hyuga Clan.
"Hey! Isn't that Konoha's Hyuga Clan? Why are they here too?!", Jiraiya shouted loudly.
For a moment, the toads, White Zetsu, and Hyuga clan members on the road all looked at Jiraiya strangely.
"Who is this guy? Where did this country bumpkin from the mortal world come from?"
"Wait?! How did a mortal human get in here? Where's security?"
Everyone started talking all at once in confusion.