---Mount Myōboku---
The air in Mount Myōboku was thick and sweet, heavy with the scent of strange, oversized flora and the rich, damp earth. It was a realm of vibrant, almost violent life, where colossal mountains scraped the sky and waterfalls cascaded into pools of crystal-clear water. A serene, ancient energy pulsed through the very ground, a natural chakra so pure it was almost palpable.
Amidst this tranquil paradise, two figures were having a very loud, very domestic argument.
"I told you, Pa!" a small, green toad with prominent eyelashes and a purple marking over her eyes exclaimed, waving a tiny, webbed fist. "Dinner was at sunset! The sun has set! The moon is rising! Therefore, dinner is missed!"
"Now, Ma, be reasonable," her companion, a slightly larger toad with impressive white eyebrows, reasoned calmly. "The Great Toad Sage was in a deep meditative trance. I couldn't possibly disturb him for something as trivial as a bowl of cricket soup."
"Trivial!?" Shima shrieked, her voice echoing through the clearing. She brandished a small, expertly carved wooden ladle with surprising menace. "My cricket soup, which I spent all afternoon simmering with rare herbs and spices, is trivial!?"
"That's not what I meant, my dear," Fukasaku sighed, taking a precautionary hop backward.
"You're just like that Jiraiya-boy!" Shima continued, her tirade now in full swing. "Always late, always with some grand excuse! 'Oh, I was peeping on the women at the hot springs for my research!' 'Oh, I was fighting a giant snake!' It's always something!" She took another threatening step forward, the ladle held high. "I swear, one of these days, I'm going to..."
POOF!
A sudden, violent explosion of white smoke erupted in the clearing between them, sending a gust of wind that rustled the giant leaves and made both toads cough and sputter.
"By the Sage's whiskers!" Fukasaku croaked, waving a hand to clear the smoke from his face.
"Jiraiya-boy!" Shima screeched, her anger instantly redirecting. "I told you not to make such a mess when you arrive! One of these days you'll give the Great Sage a heart attack, and then where will we be!?"
The smoke began to clear, revealing a tall, shadowed figure. It was a human, certainly, but as the last wisps of smoke dissipated, Shima and Fukasaku froze.
This was not Jiraiya.
The man was a giant, even taller than their usual human visitor, his frame broad and powerful. He wore a magnificent crimson coat over a simple white shirt, his platinum-blonde hair a stark, almost ethereal contrast to the lush greens of the mountain. His blue eyes, sharp and intelligent, swept over the strange, beautiful landscape with a look of calm, analytical appraisal.
He looked at them, the two small toads, and gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod of recognition. Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he vanished. Not in a puff of smoke, but in a silent, instantaneous flash of platinum-gold light, leaving nothing behind but the faint scent of ozone and two utterly bewildered Great Sage Toads.
Shima's ladle clattered to the ground.
"...What," Fukasaku finally muttered, his ancient, wise eyes wide with a confusion he hadn't felt in centuries, "...was that?"
---A Few Seconds Earlier - Alaric's POV---
Alaric knelt on the plush carpet of his and Kassandra's bedroom, the soft fabric a stark contrast to the hard, decisive pressure of his palm against the floor. He took one last, lingering look at his wife, at her beautiful, smiling face, at the perfect, impossible life he had built in this world. He closed his eyes.
'Reverse Summoning Jutsu!'
The world dissolved. It wasn't the nauseating lurch of Hiraishin, but a strange, pulling sensation, as if he were being drawn through a long, tight tunnel of pure energy. It lasted for only a second, and then, the sensation was gone.
He opened his eyes to a world of impossible green. The air was thick, humid, and thrumming with a life force so potent it made his own chakra sing in response. He stood in a small clearing, surrounded by plants and fungi of a size and color he had never seen before. In the distance, mountains pierced the clouds, their peaks lost in the heavens.
'I'm finally in Mount Myōboku,' he thought, a slow, satisfied smile spreading across his face. He looked around, confirming the location from the memories he had of the anime. He saw the two small toads, their argument momentarily forgotten as they coughed in the cloud of smoke his arrival had generated. 'Aren't they Fukasaku and Shima?'
He was about to speak, to introduce himself, when a sudden, cold thought hit him. Time dilation. He had no idea how time flowed here in relation to his own world.
'Ah damn, I need to go back. Immediately.'
His eyes widened slightly with a sense of urgency. He couldn't risk it. Not yet. With a flicker of thought, he pressed a small amount of chakra into the ground beneath his feet, leaving behind an invisible, permanent Hiraishin marker. Then, without a second's hesitation, he activated the jutsu, his body dissolving into a flash of platinum-gold light.
---A Few Seconds Before That - Kassandra's POV---
Kassandra watched as Alaric knelt, his hand pressing against the floor. A complex, circular pattern of what looked like black ink spread out from his palm, glowing with a faint, otherworldly light. And then, with a soft poof, he was gone.
She was about to reach out to Aletheia, to ask the Isu about what she had just witnessed, when her eyes widened.
He was back.
He had reappeared in the exact same spot, a look of intense concentration on his face. It had been less than a second. She hadn't even had time to fully process his departure before his return. "Wha-?"
"How long was I gone?" Alaric asked immediately, his head snapping up, his sharp blue eyes locking onto hers.
"Agápi mou," she replied, her own voice filled with a bewildered amusement, "I wasn't even able to move before you came back. Maybe… half of half a second?"
"And I remained there for at least fifteen seconds," Alaric said, a wave of profound relief washing over his features as he stood up. "That's good. That's very good."
He walked to her side, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss to her forehead. "Tell me how many days or months I've been gone when I come back this time."
"I will," Kassandra smiled, reaching up to pull his collar, bringing his lips down to hers for a deep, passionate kiss. "Se agapó," she whispered against his mouth.
"I love you too," he smiled back.
And then, with a final, silent flash of platinum-gold light, he was gone again, leaving her alone in the quiet bedroom.
.
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