"Looks like Lightning Release is completely off the table for now," Kamishiro muttered, fighting off a heavy wave of dizziness as he staggered to his feet.
His stamina and chakra had naturally replenished a bit. He must have been unconscious for a while. The Reverse Summoning Jutsu had definitely knocked him out cold. He was just incredibly lucky no stray enemies or wild beasts had stumbled across him while he was out.
After painfully re-bandaging his wounds, Kamishiro finally took a look around.
He was standing on a barren mountain. The landscape was a dead, sickly yellow, completely devoid of life. It looked empty, but every survival instinct screaming in his head told him this place was profoundly dangerous.
Clearly, not everyone had Jiraiya's ridiculous luck. That old pervert could cast a random jutsu without a single side effect and magically end up in a sacred paradise like Mount Myoboku. Kamishiro? Not so much.
Having barely stepped foot outside Konoha over the last decade, Kamishiro had absolutely no way to determine his coordinates. His top priority was to leave this ominous wasteland, find some humans, and pinpoint Konoha's direction.
As for Kushina? He wasn't worried about finding her. A seasoned elite like her was far more adaptable to strange environments than he was. She would know exactly what to do.
"Forget humans, I don't even see a shadow of a living creature out here," Kamishiro grumbled, clutching his injured shoulder as he walked.
It was completely devoid of life.
But, as if the universe specifically wanted to spite him, a "living creature" immediately answered his call. And honestly? He really wished it hadn't.
Accompanied by a low, guttural growl, a massive canine stepped into view. It had four legs, short fleshy wings on its back, and three separate heads.
If Kamishiro had been a hardcore Naruto lore expert in his past life, his first reaction would have been: "Hey man, you look pretty familiar..."
Of course, as long as his brain was still functioning, he wasn't about to call a mutant demon dog "man."
Aside from the lack of black chakra receivers and the Rinnegan eyes, this thing was a dead ringer for Pain's infamous Multi-Headed Dog summon.
The beast looked hungry, and Kamishiro instantly sensed its hostility. Making friends was definitively off the table.
The three-headed hound prowled forward, stopping exactly five meters away.
Kamishiro lowered the hand clutching his shoulder and actually flashed the giant dog a brilliant, white-toothed smile.
He was just so incredibly friendly. A true animal lover... Yeah, right.
His hands were already a blur of rapid seals.
Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb!
A violently roaring dragon of pure fire instantly swallowed the giant hound. For a split second, Kamishiro almost thought he could smell Korean BBQ. You want to eat people? Let's see how you like getting eaten.
However, that comforting fantasy shattered instantly. As the flames dissipated, the three-headed dog stood there, completely unscathed.
"Are you kidding me? Fire jutsu doesn't work?!"
Kamishiro's mind raced, rapidly assessing the situation: severe blood loss, dangerously low chakra reserves, Lightning Release disabled, and a B-rank Fire jutsu didn't even singe its fur...
In a split second, Kamishiro made his tactical decision.
He turned around and ran for his life.
Naturally, the three-headed hound charged right after him. It might not have been burned by the fire, but the impact still hurt, and it definitely wasn't going to let its dinner get away.
And so began the chase. One human sprinting madly on two legs, and one demon dog relentlessly pursuing on four.
This perfectly illustrated a universal scientific truth: two legs can never outrun four. Kamishiro was forced into a desperate, repetitive loop: stop, use a fraction of his remaining chakra to launch a counterattack, widen the gap, run, get caught, and counterattack again.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield Kamishiro and Kushina had left behind, the situation could be summed up in one sentence: The Sand had lost.
With Konoha's reinforcements fully deployed, the Sand's combat advantage collapsed. Kushina had vanished, and the Konoha command headquarters remained standing. The Sand forces had no choice but to retreat.
They left behind a mountain of corpses and gained absolutely nothing. Their primary objective failed, their ambush was thwarted, and they nearly lost their Tailed Beast. It was an unmitigated disaster.
However, Konoha wasn't celebrating either.
"Lady Tsunade, should we pursue?" Shikaku Nara asked.
The blood on Tsunade's face hadn't even dried. She gripped her right arm tightly, fighting with everything she had to keep her voice steady. She absolutely could not let her subordinates see her crippling hemophobia.
"No. Begin search and rescue immediately. Tend to the wounded," Tsunade ordered. "And... use our fastest communication channels to report Kushina's disappearance to the Third Hokage. Tell him to contact Minato Namikaze immediately."
"Understood." Shikaku accepted the order and rushed off.
"A Reverse Summoning Jutsu..." Tsunade murmured to herself once she was alone.
Judging by the residual chakra traces and the visual phenomena of their disappearance, she had easily deduced how the two of them escaped.
"I just hope they're safe."
Statistically speaking, using an unstable technique like a blind Reverse Summoning was begging for a disaster. Tsunade obviously didn't know that a certain someone had "tweaked" the formula. Even if the jutsu itself didn't fail, the destination was entirely random.
What if those two unlucky fools teleported straight into the heart of the Land of Wind?
No, nobody's luck is that bad, Tsunade tried to convince herself.
Regardless, the only person capable of tracking down Kushina across dimensions was Minato. The Hokage needed to know immediately.