The air in the primordial jungle was thick, heavy with the scent of dinosaur blood and the static electricity of a fractured reality. Doctor Strange remained impassive, a figure of anachronistic calm amidst the prehistoric chaos, his gaze fixed upon them with the stern disapproval of a master before two reckless disciples.
"I don't know what you're talking about, sorcerer," Tsunade retorted, her body still vibrating with the adrenaline of combat. Her shinobi instinct, forged in years of war, screamed at her that this man was a threat of a completely different caliber than Hanzo's thugs. "This is none of your business."
"When the very fabric of reality threatens to collapse, it becomes my business," Strange said, his patience visibly waning. "That scroll you carry is not a simple chakra scroll. It is a fragment from the birth of your universe, a fundamental note. And you," he said, looking directly at the symbiote through Tsunade's eyes, "are a note from a completely different song. Together, you are creating a dissonance that is tearing the pages from the world's book. I must take the scroll to contain it."
Pompous charlatan, the symbiote's voice hissed in Tsunade's mind. He speaks of reality as if it were a book from his personal library. Nevertheless, princess, his analysis, though melodramatic, is correct. Our combination is... volatile. But the solution is not to hand over our most precious bottle to this pretentious guardian.
"Not a chance!" Tsunade exclaimed, taking a step back and protecting the scroll. "This scroll is my mission! I won't hand it over to anyone!"
Strange sighed, a sound of infinite fatigue. "I didn't want to do this by force. But you insist."
He did not attack. He simply raised his hands. The world shattered again. The jungle floor folded in on itself, becoming a mosaic of mirrors reflecting infinite versions of themselves, each reflection distorted, watching them with empty eyes. The trees twisted, their branches intertwining to form a cage of living wood. Reality became a nightmarish kaleidoscope. Strange now floated in the center of his creation, observing her.
"This is the Mirror Dimension. A pocket of reality where I can control the variables without harming the real world. Give me the scroll, and I will allow you to return to your... prehistoric mire."
Tsunade felt a wave of vertigo. The sensory overload was too much. She was about to scream, to unleash her power blindly, when the symbiote's voice became sharp and commanding in her mind.
Don't be impressed by his carnival tricks, princess. It's just noise. An illusion designed to confuse you. He wants you to panic. He wants you to react. Don't give him the pleasure.
"I can't think! He's everywhere!" she replied mentally, as a reflected version of herself smiled back with too many teeth.
Then don't think. Feel, the voice commanded. Remember that sensation. The heat. The vibration. The submission to the pleasure that makes you strong. Forget the fear. Focus on the pleasure of the power I give you. Pleasure is clarity. Let me guide you.
A familiar, unholy warmth spread through her body. The symbiote's invisible hand slid over her soul, calming the panic, replacing it with a cold confidence and the shadow of the ecstasy it had taught her. The world of mirrors was no longer terrifying. Now it was simply... a stage.
He is controlling this little pocket of reality. We cannot fight the pocket, so we will shatter it. I want you to strike the reflection directly in front of you. Not with your usual strength. Focus. Imagine all your rage, all your frustration, all the power I have shown you that you possess, condensed into a single point, the size of a needle. We don't want to break a mirror. We want to make the entire structure vibrate. A note so pure it will shatter the glass.
Tsunade took a deep breath, gathering her chakra. Her fist was coated in a thin layer of purple biomass, not to add strength, but to focus the energy. She lunged forward. Her strike was sharp, precise, almost silent. It connected with her own reflection.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a thin line, like a spiderweb, appeared on the mirror. And that line spread, not just across that surface, but throughout the entire dimension. The crystal world began to vibrate at an unbearable frequency.
Strange's face showed genuine surprise for the first time. "Brute force channeled with impossible precision... What are you, exactly?"
"We're your worst headache!" Tsunade roared.
With another blow, the Mirror Dimension shattered, not like glass, but like a soap bubble, returning them to the jungle. Strange took a step back, his expression now serious. The girl was more powerful than his initial readings had indicated. The symbiote was not just amplifying her; it was refining her.
"Enough," Strange said, his tone now devoid of all patience. "Playtime is over."
He raised his hands and began to weave a complex spell. Golden, flaming runes appeared in the air around him, forming an intricate circle. Chains of pure energy materialized and shot towards Tsunade.
This is bad, the symbiote admitted, its tone losing some of its arrogance. These are not illusions. They are conceptual bonds. If they catch us, he can separate me from you and take the scroll. And believe me, princess, as entertaining as our partnership is, I'd rather not end up in a jar on this wizard's shelf.
Tsunade dodged one chain, but another wrapped around her ankle. She felt a pull, not just on her body, but on her very soul, as if the spell were trying to rip the symbiote from her.
"Agh!"
She was about to be defeated. The chains multiplied, closing in. Strange was about to complete the spell, his face focused and grim.
It was then that the sound returned. THUMP.
The drum. Deep, booming, coming from the scroll at her waist, which began to glow with a blinding white light.
"No!" Strange shouted, realizing what was happening.
Reality tore apart again. The primordial jungle, Strange, his golden chains—everything dissolved into a nauseating swirl of colors. The last image Tsunade saw was the sorcerer's face, a mask of pure frustration.
****
The landing was a brutal impact.
She fell to her knees on damp earth. The deafening sound of chaos was replaced by the nightly song of crickets and the whisper of the wind through the leaves. The smell was of pine and wet earth. She was in Konoha. The relief was so overwhelming that her body reacted violently. She threw up, a deep retch that expelled not only the sparse contents of her stomach but also the exhaustion and terror of the journey.
She stayed there on all fours, trembling, covered in a cold sweat. Her chakra was in complete disarray, her energy channels vibrating erratically. She could feel the damage at a cellular level.
Well done, princess, the voice whispered in her head. For the first time, its tone was tinged with genuine exhaustion. You survived. By an... unpleasantly narrow margin.
It took her several minutes to move. She stood up, leaning on a tree trunk. Her entire body protested. Through a clearing in the woods, she could see the lights of Konoha and, in the distance, the Hokage Monument.
She was back. She had completed her mission. She had the scroll. All she had to do was walk to the main gate, identify herself, report her return, and hand over the artifact that had nearly destroyed her. It would all be over.
Don't be naive, the symbiote hissed, its usual arrogance quickly returning. The warning was so cold it made her stop. Do you really think you can just walk through the main gate and say, 'I'm back'? With me inside you? Carrying an artifact that tears reality apart?
Tsunade frowned. "And what do you suggest? That I stay out here forever?"
I suggest you use that mind of yours for something other than medicine, he replied. Analyze the situation like a shinobi. They will interrogate you. They will use the Yamanaka to rummage through your mind, and they will see me. And when they do, they will lock you up. You will become a lab specimen. They will study you, cut you open to see how we work. They will tear me from you and put me in a jar. And the scroll... they will give it to some old man like Danzo, who will hide it in a dusty vault.
"They are my people. Sarutobi-sensei... he will understand me," she thought, but the words felt hollow in her own mind, a faith she no longer felt with the same certainty.
Sarutobi is the Hokage, the symbiote continued, its logic sharp. His loyalty is not to you, but to the village. And we, princess, are an existential threat. Politicians don't appreciate art; they fear what they cannot control. And we, my dear, are uncontrollable. Your duty tells you to report. Your survival instinct tells you it's foolish. We have survived elite ninja, a prehistoric predator, and the dissolution of reality. Are you going to let your own people's bureaucracy defeat you?
She stood motionless. She looked toward the village lights, the symbol of everything she had fought for. It was her home. Her duty. Her identity. Then she looked at her hands, feeling the latent power beneath her skin. The symbiote was right in a pragmatic and brutal way that her shinobi training forced her to acknowledge. Turning herself in was the "right" move according to the rules she had grown up with, but it wasn't the smart move. Not for them.
With a pang of self-loathing, she turned away from the main gates. She moved stealthily through the forest, skirting the village perimeter toward a section of the wall with less surveillance, an escape route only the most experienced shinobi knew.
Excellent choice, the voice in her mind purred. You have taken your first step into a more... efficient world. I see great potential in you, Tsunade.
She didn't answer. The use of her first name unsettled her. She slipped over the wall like a shadow. The symbiote augmented her, sharpening her senses to a superhuman degree. She could feel the vibrations of the guards' footsteps through the stone and smell the metal of their weapons a hundred meters away. Evading the patrols was insultingly easy.
She moved across the rooftops of her own village like an intruder. Every familiar tile, every known alley, now felt like enemy territory. She headed to her apartment, a place she hadn't seen in weeks that now felt like it belonged to another life. She entered through the kitchen window and landed on the floor without a sound.
In the darkness of her home, with the windows closed and the door secured, Tsunade finally allowed herself to breathe. The air smelled dusty, but it was familiar. She set the heavy scroll on the floor as if it were a bomb. Then, she walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.
The person who looked back was her, but also not. Her face was gaunt, her eyes wild with exhaustion. She was covered in the dried blood of a dinosaur and Rain ninja, and mud from a forgotten world. In her eyes, she saw the guilty look of a traitor. Shame hit her again. She had chosen an alien parasite over her duty.
Do not regret what is necessary, the voice said, its tone now softer, almost comforting. You have ensured our survival. You have protected our two greatest treasures: the knowledge of the scroll and ourselves. That is all that matters. Loyalty is a fluid concept, princess. Today, your loyalty must be to us.
She took off her tattered clothes and stepped into the shower. The steam filled the bathroom, but it couldn't dispel the cold she felt inside. As the water washed away the blood and dirt, she closed her eyes and focused. She could feel it. The symbiote was not a layer, but a network intertwined with her nervous system, with her muscles, with every fiber of her being.
Now, the voice continued, a hot bath and a bed. Rest is the first of pleasures. We must recover. The journey has damaged your body at a cellular level. Allow me to help you. You will need all your strength for what comes next.
As Tsunade prepared to face the night, she realized a terrifying truth. The prehistoric jungle, the nightmare city, the void between worlds... none of those had been the most dangerous place. The most dangerous place was here, her own home, where every shadow could hide an ally she now, by choice, had to treat as an enemy. And the voice in her head, her only confidant, was the reason for it all.
****
As Tsunade prepared to face the longest and strangest night of her life, in another reality, Doctor Strange was in his Sanctum Sanctorum, the trace of his failed spell still vibrating in the air.
He stood before the Orb of Agamotto, which remained clouded, unable to penetrate the strange defenses of the new universe the anomalies had jumped to.
"I have lost them," he said aloud, his voice echoing in the silent library. He was cataloging the event in a mystical record. "They jumped through a dimensional rift before I could contain them. The artifact they carry is a fixing point for an unstable reality, and the symbiotic creature acts as a chaotic amplifier."
He walked away from the orb, his face grim.
"The symbiote is of a known class, though a renegade. A plague, but an understandable one. The girl... she is the real variable. Her power is immense, raw, and it does not abide by the laws of magic I know. It is something... primordial. I could feel it. The potential to break worlds lies dormant within her."
He stopped in front of a window that did not show the streets of New York, but the stars swirling in a distant nebula.
"Combined, they are not just a destabilizing factor; they are the seed of a potential multiverse-level catastrophe. I could not track their final destination. They fell off the map, into a shadow dimension that even I cannot easily perceive."
His face hardened with new resolve.
"But something tells me we will hear the repercussions of their chaos very, very soon. And next time, I will be prepared."