The setting sun stretched the shadows of the two puppeteers long across the ruins of the Wailing Ghost Valley. The heat was finally bleeding out of the sand, leaving behind a biting, crystalline cold. Sayo sat perched on a jagged rock, his breathing still slightly ragged as his body's internal "Maintenance Scripts" worked overtime. He had already treated his lacerations and swallowed a high-grade Military Ration Pill to initialize the recharge of his chakra batteries.
Elder Chiyo stood silently a few paces away, the wrinkles on her aged face appearing deeper than ever in the harsh, low-angle light. Her gaze swept across the ravaged battlefield, finally landing on the massive, cooling remnants of the Iron Sand. To her, it wasn't just metal; it was the desecrated legacy of the Third Kazekage. Her eyes were a complex storm of pain, struggle, and a grandmother's fractured love.
The Jonin scout returned from his 360-degree sweep, dropping to one knee to report. "Elder Chiyo, no traces of other personnel were found in the immediate sector. The enemy's retreat trajectory points toward the Northwest Void, but the thermal tracks disappeared after entering the Quicksand Area. Furthermore..." He hesitated, his voice dipping an octave as he looked at the black sand. "The residual chakra signature at the scene is high-density. There are signs of violent Magnet Release collisions and... extensive Puppet Technique activity of an unknown tier."
The scout was an elite, and he wasn't blind. He was looking at the "Metadata" of a Kage-level encounter, but the terrifying suspicion was something he didn't dare voice.
"Understood. Maintain high-frequency vigilance. We remain in Level-4 caution until we cross the village firewall," Chiyo said, her voice sounding tired and hollow.
After the Jonin was out of earshot, she walked up to Sayo. Her presence felt heavy, like a mountain about to collapse. She lowered her voice, her words sounding like a final directive. "Sayo, you saw the 'Source Code.' You saw what Sasori has become. What happened to the Sandaime... the fact that he has been reformatted into a Human Puppet... it must never be revealed to the public."
Sayo looked up, his dark eyes reflecting the cold logic of her concern. His thirty-year-old soul, the mind of Logan the engineer, had already run the simulations for a "Public Disclosure" event. The results were catastrophic.
"I understand the protocol, Elder," Sayo whispered. "If the news leaks, the Fourth Kazekage will be forced into a high-priority 'Hunt Mode.' He would use the entire Village's remaining resources to delete Brother Sasori. But right now..." He gestured to the Suna ninjas searching the rubble. "Kumogakure just finished their DDoS attack, and Iwagakure is already probing our northwest borders. The Village cannot withstand a massive internal turmoil or a dispersal of its prime combat units. Our system is already running at 90% load."
He paused, his voice dropping further into a clinical whisper. "Furthermore, a Kazekage being turned into a Human Puppet... it's a 'Critical Vulnerability.' If this data spreads, the Hidden Sand will lose all credibility in the international OS. We would be seen as a village that couldn't protect its own core processor. It would invite every scavenger in the Ninja World to attempt a total system wipe."
Chiyo looked at Sayo with a flicker of genuine surprise. She hadn't expected the eleven-year-old to not only understand the geopolitical "Encryption" but to articulate the systemic risks so clearly. She nodded heavily. "You are right. Rasa has only just stabilized the kernel. This news would be a 'Blue Screen' for Suna's morale. We must quarantine this truth."
The question was how to explain the catastrophic damage to the valley and Sayo's presence at the center of it. They needed a plausible "Patch" for the story.
"Elder," Sayo began, his engineering mind drafting a report in real-time. "We report it as a border skirmish. I was out here on a 'Materials Acquisition' mission, searching for high-conductive ores to upgrade the Mirage. I encountered an infiltrating Iwa reconnaissance squad. An elite squad, perhaps their special 'Earth-Eater' unit. We engaged in a high-intensity combat loop. I barely managed to repel them using the Mirage and my own Magnet Release, but the hardware was severely damaged in the process."
Chiyo's cloudy eyes brightened. "And the Magnet Release traces from the Sandaime?"
"We blame the enemy's hardware," Sayo said. "Iwa is known for its Earth and Magnet Release variants. We claim they utilized a high-spec, experimental Earth-Release Ninja Tool or a unique Bloodline Limit. In the chaos of a World War, 'Data Noise' is expected. As long as we provide a scapegoat, the Council won't look too closely at the frequency of the sand."
"Good. We initialize that narrative," Chiyo decided. "I will personally brief the Kazekage to standardize the logs. I will issue a 'Gag Order' to the scout team. Everything seen in this ravine is now Top Secret."
Soon, the Suna Search Squadron assembled. Chiyo stood before them, her posture regaining its legendary authority. "Investigation results: This sector was the site of a high-tier skirmish between Chunin Sayo and an infiltrating Iwa Recon Unit. The threat has been neutralized. Because this involves wartime intelligence and prototype weapon data, this mission is now classified as an S-rank Secret. Any unauthorized disclosure will be treated as a 'Traitorous Process' and terminated accordingly."
"Yes, ma'am!" the ninjas replied in unison.
On the way back to the Village, Sayo sat on a pack animal, the Mirage prototype safely sealed back in its scroll. He looked back at the ruins as they faded into the twilight. He had protected the village's stability, but he had also buried a secret that felt like a ticking time-bomb in his chest.
Upon returning to Sunagakure, the report was presented to Rasa. The Fourth Kazekage looked at the scrolls, his gaze lingering briefly on the phrase "Traces of violent Magnet Release collisions." He frowned, but his mind was already calculating the logistics of the Iwa border. He didn't have the "CPU Cycles" to investigate a skirmish that ended in a win. He signed off on the report, and the file was archived.
Sayo returned to his small workshop, the door clicking shut with a finality that signaled the start of a private session. He opened his palm. Resting in his hand were several jet-black, incredibly heavy iron-sand particles he had scavenged from the crater.
Using his analytical senses, he performed a quick scan of the material's properties:
ρₛₐₙₔ = mₚₐᵣₜᵢ꜀ₗₑ / Vₚₐᵣₜᵢ꜀ₗₑ ≈ 19.32 g/cm³
χₘₐ₉ₙₑₜᵢ꜀ ≫ standard iron
The density and magnetic susceptibility were off the charts. This was "Sandaime-grade" hardware, sand that had been saturated with the chakra of a Kage for decades. It was the "Perfect Material" he needed to upgrade the Mirage's weapon systems.
"The search for the master is over," Sayo whispered, his eyes flashing with a cold, determined light. "The research for the 'God-Tier' update begins tonight."
The "Mirage v.2.0" was no longer just an idea. With these samples of the Third Kazekage's power, he was going to build something that could bridge the gap between a genius and a god.