Meanwhile -

Tetsuma sprints through the high branches, leaving small indents in the bark whenever they push off. Blinking away frustrated tears, they curse their father under their breath - and that jerk Butsuma, too, for good measure. Why is it anyone's business if they sneak off to learn jutsu other than silly kunoichi tricks? Tetsuma's going to be a real shinobi, the best ever, just watch them.

That, though, apparently means leaving the clan, along with any pipe dreams of showing just how awesome they are, and how they deserve the title of clan prodigy, not Butsuma.

The trees thin, turning into pines as they approach the northern mountains. Tetsuma leaps to the ground and darts among the trunks, before tripping as they round a particularly large tree -

- And landing in a tangle of limbs as they collide with someone who they could've sworn wasn't in their path a second ago.

She yelps and now the tangle of limbs contains two pairs of each limb, rolling along the grass before resting by a tree.

"...ow."

Tetsuma's startled to say the least. They go to untangle themselves and stand. "Sorry!" they say, then - "I'm Tanaka Tetsuma. Do you need help up?" This person looks like she's from the Land of Lightning, though Tetsuma hadn't though they were that far north. Luckily, the Senju have no current quarrel with any Lightning clans, while most of their enemies do. They'd be a fool to give their clan name, though, even if this person doesn't look much like a shinobi, so 'Tanaka' it is. 

This person blinks, and says something in a completely unfamiliar language. It sounds like a question.

A foreigner? 

Tetsuma shakes their head, shrugs, then gestures to themselves and says, "Tetsuma." They then offer their hand. 

She takes the hand and dusts herself. "Dayo," she introduces herself.

Tetsuma smiles and says, "Hello, Dayo!" Um... They've never actually taught (or learned) a language before... Maybe start with basic words? Their father's men should've given up on chasing them by now, anyways, even if this takes a while.

Actually -

They look around. 

This isn't the same forest, and a quick chakra pulse doesn't disturb any illusions. The trees also feel real to their mokuton, which might be why they didn't notice at first.

So very good genjutsu, or they stumbled into someone's space-time ninjutsu. Both would explain the sudden foreigner, who doesn't seem hostile. Both possibilities are also highly alarming.

Tetsuma gestures widely at the forest and says, "Do you know where this is?" while doing their best to clearly telegraph confusion. 

She shrugs and shakes her head, looking around in confusion, too.

...Great.

Tetsuma closes their eyes and extends their senses. No one else obviously near, no suspicious rustling, no killing intent...

They open their eyes, look around, and pick up a nearby stone. Then, with illustrative pointing, "Stone. Tree."

"Stone. Tree," she repeats. She pauses. Then she raises one finger and points at it, then two, then three, then four, then five. After all, numbers sound more useful than random nouns.

Tetsuma delightedly repeats the numbers, then does the same in Japanese, then combines the numbers with the random nouns. They then pause, and look around. Everything's so wet, and there's not really any dirt to draw in... They hold up their hand in a 'wait' gesture then dart off at nearly-top speed, aiming to get out of sight so they can pretend to find a nice, light piece of wood and some charcoal for drawings, and then notice that the trees only extend so far, a half mile maybe, which is weird because this forest feels like it should be larger than that, so they sprint in that direction - 

And reach the edge of the forest. The ground terminates suddenly in a sharp cliff. Trees cling to it as far as they can, leaning over the side. The sky seems to stretch below the cliff, though a swirling, almost shimmery fog starts at ground level and thickens rapidly towards the cliff's possible base, obscuring the view. There's no visible horizon.

Tetsuma skids to a stop, digging a small trench in the ground, and stares incredulously. Something feels weird about that fog to their chakra sense. They turn, sprint back the way they came until they reach the clearing they left Dayo in. (It's been a bit less than a minute, at most). They gesture back, agitated, and try to figure out how to indicate bizarre cliff thataways with charades.

...This is definitely not their original world, or it's a genjutsu by someone who probably already knows about their abilities given that Tetsuma's not dead. They make a Ram seal, then hold a Snake seal, concentrating until a nearby root sprouts and detaches an extremely crude approximation of a cliff with trees at the top. 

Tetsuma picks it up, gestures for the sky, shows it circling down, then gestures for the cliff extending down really really far, then points again back the way they came. 

She looks extremely confused! Then gestures at the two of them and points in that direction and mimes walking with her fingers.

Tetsuma nods, then starts using their wood-sense to try and find a more civilian-compatible path that doesn't involve jumping over boulders or the like. They make a point of walking at a civilian's speed when they set out, gesturing for Dayo to follow. 

Yeah Dayo is probably a civilian. She follows.

They reach the cliff edge in somewhere around fifteen to twenty minutes. It's still as Tetsuma saw, mostly, though the edges have maybe shifted a little. A long patch of the mist has a glimmer of color to it, and seems to be flowing more consistently and more swiftly than the rest. A few thin tendrils sweep over the forest here and there. 

...okay that is just bizarre. She points back the way they came, sounds safest.

Tetsuma nods and turns to go. They set out for the clearing they arrived in, figuring that's as good a place as any. 

Yeah probably. They can proceed from there in some other direction, presumably.

The clearing isn't empty when they reach it. A large red fox is perched on a log, head tilted to the side, tracking the two humans' movements rather intently. 

...well that sure is a fox. Onwards.

The fox huffs, and says, sounding amused, "Hello. It's rather rude to ignore someone, you know."

Both of them will be able to hear him just fine in their own language, though his words have an odd echo to them. (Unfortunately, the two humans still won't be able to understand each other.)

Tetsuma rolls their eyes. "Whose summons are you?"

She blinks at Tetsuma, then at Reim. "My apologies, where I'm from foxes aren't people. It's nice to meet you."