She still tried, teleporting to the boy, but the knife, which seemed to travel at an impossible speed, hit Shikadai instants before she arrived at his side and pulled him away. She saw the poison on the blade and she knew that if they didn't leave this instant, Shikadai would die. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. She barely felt how Sasuke somehow took the both of them in his arm and dragged them through a portal that was not their before. She was hearing sounds, seeing flashing lights. Everything was fuzzy. She barely noticed the dancing lights of Sasuke's Kirin ensuring their escape.

The landing was hard. All air was pushed from Himawari lungs. It's what she needed to wake up again. Shikadai had already lost consciousness due to the poison and Sasuke was barely standing. They needed help, both of them, but she sensed the enemy glooming. She knew they would come back and that, if they stayed, she would not be able to protect the both of them while simultaneously fending of their enemy. The three of them would be dead before their call for help would even be able to reach the village. It was in that split second Himawari decided to make a risky decision. She had no choice.

"Reverse summoning jutsu!"

Himawari, holding on tightly to her to comrades arrived at mount Myoboku. She was tired and afraid, the toads didn't like when people arrived unannounced and with uninvited guest, but this was the only place where their enemy wouldn't find them, which also had the resources to help her take optimal care of Sasuke and Shikadai. She was almost out of chakra, this technique was new to her. She just hoped Gamakichi would understand.

"Himawari! You have some explaining to do!" Himawari flinched at the sound of Gamakichi's voice. He sounded mad. Her and her shadowclone were desperately trying to save the lives of both Sasuke and Shikadai, while a second clone was gathering nature energy for her to use, in an attempt not to run out of chakra. She felt Gamakichi approaching.

"Oh, I see now." The anger had disappeared from his voice, making room for genuine concern. "What happened, Hima?"

"We were sent on an intel gathering mission, about another Ôtsutsuki. We discovered a hideout and went to check it out. We ended up being overwhelmed by the enemy."

"How's that possible? You can sense the enemy with your Byakugan, right? And this Uchiha boy, he can sense chakra with the help of the rinnegan, or am I missing something?"

"No, you're right. Both me and Sasuke picked up three enemies. However, one of them had a peculiar jutsu… He put innocent human beings under a powerful genjutsu and then used them as puppets.. It just complicated thing."

"Well, I can imagen that. What happened to the two of them anyways." Gamakichi took out his pipe, smoking it as he was watching Himawari healing her comrades and listening to her story.

"Sasuke just used up all of his chakra, getting us out of that dimension and after a prolonged fight with a powerful enemy. Shikadai got injured while covering Sasuke and saving him from possibly getting killed. He took a poisoned kunai to the gut. I tried to save him, but even I was too late. After all that training and I still couldn't save my friend when it mattered the most." Himawari sighed. She was ready to give up. She had almost run out of all of her chakra and the only thing keeping her going right now was the nature energy that she used as an extra chakra source. But she knew she couldn't continue like this, or she would have to make an additional clone to gather up even more energy for her to use.

"Don't beat yourself up Hima. Right now, you're the only one keeping these two alive. If you give up, they die and then all would have been for nothing. So suck it up and keep fighting, for both of their sakes. Now, what can we do to help?"

Himawari reached in her pocket and grabbed a carefully folded piece of paper. She gave it to Gamakichi.

"Get all of the ingredients on this form. It's a recipe for a medium that will help me extract the poison from Shikadai's body. It will buy me enough time to figure out an antidote for the poison, without having him dying on my. Also could you sent my father a message on my behalve?"

Gamakichi gave the list of ingredients to a nearby frog.

"Do you want to write a message or shall I just verbally pass one on?"

"Verbally, please. They're way too critical to be left alone right now."

She didn't even finish saying her sentence when a small messenger frog appeared, ready to hear the message that needed to be past on to her father.

"Okay" Himawari said without looking up from the bodies of her comrades. "I want you to tell my father that we were ambushed. Tell him that Sasuke managed to get us all out and that I moved us to Mount Myoboku for safety. Let him know that Sasuke is unconscious from exhausting all of his chakra reserves and that Shikadai is gravely injured after being hit by a poisonous kunai. Ask him to sent back-up, with at least one other medical-nin to help me out with healing the two of them. Tell him to be prepared for trouble, once we leave mount myoboko, as the enemy will most likely be waiting for us. As for the intel, we know there is something going on in that dimension, which also seems to happen in the land of birds itself, but that we have no clue what exactly it is."

The moment Himawari stopped talking, the frog disappeared, ready to deliver the message to her father. Himawari could only hope that the reinforcements would arrive in time.

-Author's note: I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thank you for reading!-

disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters