The earth-shattering collision between Sayo and Sasori had generated chakra fluctuations and subsonic roars that spread across the desert like a massive "System Pulse" hitting a calm network.
A Sunagakure border patrol team, stationed nearly twenty miles away from the rocky mountain range, was the first to register the anomaly. The captain, a veteran Chunin with a high-fidelity sensory build, immediately halted the squad. He looked toward the deep badlands of the Western Desert, his expression tightening into a mask of professional concern.
"Captain, we're picking up a catastrophic chakra spike... and massive acoustic signatures indicative of heavy puppet activity! Judging by the telemetry... the source is the Wailing Ghost Valley!" a team member reported, his voice shaky. "The frequency is unlike anything in our current database."
"Initialize the highest emergency protocol!" the captain ordered without a second of latency. "Send a Communication Falcon to the Village, mark it as a Level-5 Threat. Everyone else, shift into high-speed reconnaissance mode. We move toward the source, but maintain a wide perimeter. Do not engage the anomaly."
Inside Sunagakure, the Kazekage's Office and the Council of Elders were instantly jolted by the emergency alert. The Western Desert had just seen the "System Wipe" of the Fangs of Sand, and now a battle of this magnitude had erupted in the same sector. The realization sent shivers through the village's security kernel.
"It's Sasori! He must still be in the region!" Elder Chiyo's heart didn't just tighten; it suffered a "Critical Interrupt." Her first thought wasn't of the rogue master, but of Sayo, the student who had gone off to track a ghost with a prototype platform.
"Immediately organize a High-Priority Support Squad! I will lead the deployment myself!" Chiyo commanded, her voice cracking with the authority of a legend. Her aged figure, usually hunched over workbenches, suddenly burst forth with a speed that surpassed the village's fastest Jonin. She was "Overclocking" her own system, desperate to reach the site before the signal went dark.
Soon, a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) consisting of twenty elite Chunin and five Jonin was initialized. Led by Chiyo, they tore out of the village gates at top speed. However, no matter how much they pushed their chakra, they were still limited by "Legacy Movement Scripts" running across dunes on foot. The desert terrain was a constant tax on their stamina. By the time they reached the rocky mountain area, the battle had already "de-spawned" hours ago.
When Chiyo and her group rushed into the engagement zone, even these battle-hardened shinobi were stunned by the "Forensic Data" laid out before them.
The massive rocky mountain looked as if it had been hit by a kinetic orbital strike. Spiderweb cracks radiated across the cliff faces, and large sections of the bedrock had suffered total structural collapse. The ground was riddled with bottomless pits, glassified sand (SiO₂ transformed by high-intensity thermal output), and the dense, geometric traces of Iron Sand spikes. The air still carried the residual "Noise" of the conflict: ozone from the Mirage's magnetic field, the chilling scent of Sasori's poison, and a chaotic force-field resulting from the collision of two distinct Magnet Release signatures.
The most shocking sight was the scattered "Hardware Wreckage." Most of it was Sayo's signature, the shattered limbs of the Spider Legion were everywhere, their Iron-Oak frames charred by fire and corroded by Sasori's acid. Beside massive chunks of Iron Sand, they could also see fragments of high-spec alloys that didn't belong to any Suna-standard build.
"Spread out and perform a 360-degree sweep! Search for survivors and thermal traces of the enemy!" the lead Jonin ordered.
Chiyo remained motionless in the center of the crater, her eyes anxiously sweeping across the wreckage. Her heart was nearly redlining in her chest. She saw the broken spider-legs, Sayo's "Code" littering the sand. Her greatest fear was that the boy had been deleted.
Just then, a slight metallic rattle came from behind a massive, partially melted rock. All twenty-five ninjas instantly grew tense, pointing their kunai and sensory tools toward the sound.
A figure stumbled out from the shadows.
His Chunin vest was shredded in several places, covered in dust and a small amount of dried, dark blood. His arms and calves were wrapped in field bandages. His face was pale from "Excessive Chakra Depletion", his battery was clearly at 5% but his eyes were unusually bright, glowing with a cold, analytical fire. He was hunched over a large Sealing Scroll, frantically retrieving "Metadata" from the battlefield, broken parts and residual energy samples.
It was Sayo.
He noticed the arrivals and raised his head, meeting Chiyo's gaze. In her eyes, he saw a complex mix of extreme worry, relief, and the deep sorrow of someone who had expected to find a corpse.
"Sayo!" Chiyo rushed up to him, her hands grabbing his shoulders as if to verify his physical integrity. "Are you alright?! Is your system intact?! Was it Sasori?! Where is he?!"
The rapid-fire questions were a "Buffer Overflow" of grandmotherly anxiety.
"Elder Chiyo..." Sayo sighed, a sound of heavy relief as his body finally entered "Low-Power Mode." He winced as he moved his wounded arm. "Integrity is at sixty percent. Superficial damage and total chakra exhaustion. It was Sasori... the 'Scorpion' has executed a tactical retreat."
Confirming that Sayo was not in mortal danger, Chiyo's heart finally stabilized. But as the adrenaline faded, the reality of Sasori's escape hit her. Her eyes dimmed, and her hands dropped weakly from Sayo's shoulders.
She turned to the Jonin, her voice regaining its "Command-Line" authority. "Lead a detailed reconnaissance! Radiate one kilometer from this site! Look for residual chakra signatures or human traces. Report immediately and do not, under any circumstances, initialize a pursuit!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
After the squad dispersed, Chiyo looked back at Sayo, her gaze becoming extremely serious. "What exactly happened? I need the full logs, Sayo. Detail by detail. Do not omit a single frame."
Sayo took a deep breath, sitting down against the rock. He began narrating the entire process in clinical detail, from his tracking of the "Hiruko" signature to the final confrontation. When he spoke of Sasori appearing while controlling the "Third Kazekage" Human Puppet, Chiyo's body visibly swayed. Her face turned a deathly, ashen pale. Although she had suspected the "Corruption" of her grandson's path, the confirmation felt like a massive system-wide blow to her soul.
Sayo finished recounting the battle, the deployment of the Mirage, the Iron Sand World Method, and Sasori's treacherous sneak attack with the poisoned senbon.
Chiyo remained silent for a long time, the setting sun casting her hunched figure into a long, jagged shadow across the ruins. She looked at the destroyed battlefield, at the wreckage created by the young Sayo, and then thought of her grandson who had completely reformatted his humanity into darkness. Her heart was filled with a deep sense of powerlessness.
"You... you did very well," Chiyo finally said, her voice sounding like shifting sand. She patted Sayo's shoulder with a trembling hand. "To hold out against an S-rank anomaly for so long, and even force a retreat... your output has far exceeded my expectations. You have survived a stress-test that would have deleted most Jonin."
She turned away, looking toward the horizon where Sasori had vanished into the "Void Zone."
Sayo silently looked at the scroll in his hand. It contained the salvaged components of the Mirage and the few scrap pieces of "Sandaime-grade" Iron Sand he had managed to collect from the crater. To him, this wasn't just a loss or a survival story; it was a "Hardware Benchmark." He had seen the limit of his current technology. He had seen the "Regeneration Core" in action.
The conviction to initialize the "Mirage v.2.0" upgrade and to develop a "Neural Interface" was now the primary directive in his mind. He wasn't just building puppets anymore; he was building the wings Suna needed to fly out of the shadow of its own tragedy.
"I need more bandwidth," Sayo whispered to the desert wind. "I need more power."