The transition from the monochromatic, high-friction data of the Land of Wind to the lush, high-density "Texture" of the Land of Fire's jungles was a challenge for Suna's traditional combat scripts. Beneath the vibrant vitality of the forest lurked a deadlier class of danger, one that thrived in shadows and high-interference environments.
The Sandstorm Squad, acting as a "Surgical Probe" deep in enemy territory, moved with cautious efficiency through the massive, ancient trees. Our mission was reconnaissance and the removal of Konoha border patrols. At first, the operation had been running on a "High-Success Rate" logic; the scattered Konoha units we encountered fought with bravery, but they lacked the hardware to counter our elite, high-spec coordination.
However, that near-flawless "Hunt Routine" ground to an abrupt halt when we entered a small, sun-dappled clearing.
Standing silently in the center were four figures. They didn't move; they didn't even initialize a combat stance. They wore the standard-issue Konoha flak jackets, their forehead guards etched with the spiral crest. They were perfectly synced with the shadows, their presence so still it almost bypassed our sensory array.
What made Special Jonin Iryō's pupils shrink, what caused his "Pulse Frequency" to spike into the red zone were the identical flaming-fan clan crests on their backs.
The Uchiha.
The next instant, all four lifted their gaze. In the dim forest light, four pairs of scarlet eyes flared to life. Within each, three black tomoe whirled in a terrifying, high-speed "Predictive Algorithm." The atmosphere in the clearing became suffocating, as if the air itself had been mixed by a hostile force.
"Uchiha! Three-tomoe Jonin! Pull out! ABORT THE MISSION!! NOW!!" Iryō's scream was warped by raw, visceral terror. He instinctively leapt backward, his fingers attempting to initialize a Wind Release seal.
But the Uchiha "Output" is faster than voice or hand.
The lead Uchiha Jonin looked almost bored, his expression that of a senior developer handling a trivial bug-fix. Without even shifting his feet, he uttered a single, icy word: "Too late."
The teammate on his left spun his tomoe. A massive Genjutsu slammed into Iryō's mind like a physical hammer. Iryō's seals froze; his body locked into a "Stagnant Process," his chakra flow becoming irregular and static. He was a puppet with his strings cut.
Almost simultaneously, a second Uchiha vanished, re-appearing at Iryō's side with a "Zero-Latency" Body Flicker. His short sword carved a lethal arc toward the defenseless throat, the Sharingan having already mapped every possible escape route.
"Captain!" Lucado roared, his chakra erupting as he slammed his palms onto the damp earth. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
A solid rampart of soil shot up to block the blade, but the third Uchiha had already completed his own sequence. He inhaled, the thermal energy in his lungs spiking.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
The massive orb of flame didn't strike the wall; it was "Steered" by the Uchiha's precise control, curving around the obstacle to blast Lucado, who was now exposed by his own defensive jutsu.
Boom!
Lucado had no time to recalibrate. Searing flame swallowed him whole. The blast pressure flinked his broken form against a tree, his chest armor charred and his status-bar unknown.
"Lucado!" Shiori cried out in horror. She launched a volley of poisoned senbon at the fire-user, but the man simply tilted his head by a few millimeters, the Sharingan tracing every needle's trajectory in real-time. Shiori herself accidentally met the gaze of the fourth Uchiha as he looked up.
A single glance was all it took. Shiori felt her consciousness being dragged into an endless, crimson abyss. Her sensory system snapped; her eyes went vacant, and her body became as rigid as a lamb for the slaughter.
In a single "Combat Frame," three-fourths of the Sandstorm Squad had been neutralized.
Only Sayo remained.
The instant Iryō had shouted, my heightened "Spiritual Sense", the result of a thirty-year-old soul refined by Natural Energy had screamed a Level-1 Warning. The Mirage blossomed beneath me, its Mag-Lev thrusters howling as they hurled me backward by a hair's breadth.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Three kunai wrapped with exploding tags struck the ground where my feet had been, detonating in a spray of dirt and shrapnel.
"Oh? An unusual hardware choice," the Uchiha leader noted, his eyes flickering in clinical surprise. Yet his assault never paused. His hands moved in a blur. "Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique!"
A searing jet of concentrated heat shot toward me, faster and denser than any ordinary fire jutsu.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!" I slapped the Mirage's primary control node. A thick rampart of stone rose to meet the flames. I felt the Mirage shudder as the extreme thermal load fractured the clay.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Ball!" My other hand formed seals. Through the Mirage's amplified vector ports, I fired a high-pressure air cannon at the Uchiha about to finish off Shiori, forcing him to abort his Kill and dodge.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!" My gaze turned glacial. I was no longer holding back for "Data Collection." Scrolls at my waist spilled black iron sand that became a sky-darkening storm, blanketing the clearing in a ruthless area-of-effect strike.
"A Bloodline Limit? Troublesome," the Uchiha Jonin snorted. His Sharingan whirled as he "Ghosted" through the iron rain, finding every gap in the density while deflecting unavoidable grains with a chakra-coated kunai. "Every move of yours is already predicted by these eyes. Your 'Lag' is too great."
Another Uchiha attempted a Genjutsu on my mind, but my dual-soul architecture and the Natural Energy core acted as a "Firewall." My consciousness merely wavered before I broke free and re-established the connection.
The third ninja weaved seals: "Lightning Release: Earth Flash!" High-voltage currents raced across the damp ground toward the Mirage.
I vaulted the Mirage skyward, the Mag-Lev field pushing against the earth as iron sand condensed into giant palms that smashed down at the four foes.
For the next sixty seconds, I fought all four elite Uchiha alone.
I pushed the Mirage's mobility to its absolute limit, weaving through the treetops to stay outside the Sharingan's "Optimal Focus" range. I used a "Multi-Threaded" attack: Wind for harassment, Earth for defense, and Magnetism for area denial. The iron sand became my shield, my spear, and my sensory cloud. Though the Uchiha could read my individual motions, the sheer volume of high-speed aerial bombardment forced them onto the defensive.
But I knew this was just a "Stop-Gap." My chakra was burning away at a catastrophic rate, and the Sharingan was "Learning" my patterns with terrifying speed. I had to execute an "Extraction Protocol."
"Spider Legion, Swarm Release!" I clenched my teeth and emptied every spider puppet in my storage.
Dozens of arachnid puppets surged like suicide-drones, focusing their fire on the Genjutsu specialist.
"Futile struggle!" The Uchiha were forced to divert their processing power, swords flashed, fire surged, and puppet chassis were blasted apart in a spray of wooden splinters.
Yet those few seconds were enough.
The Mirage dived in a near-perfect, frictionless swoop, grazing the ground at 150 kilometers per hour. Iron sand whips lashed out, scooping the wounded Iryō, the charred Lucado, and the paralyzed Shiori onto the platform.
"You won't escape" The Uchiha Jonin's eyes sharpened. He burst through the remains of the spiders and hurled a massive Wind Demon Shuriken. The projectile ricocheted mid-air off a tree trunk, its trajectory curving to seal every possible retreat vector.
My pupils shrank as I channeled my last remaining chakra reserves into the core.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Guard Wall!"
Dense iron instantly cocooned the Mirage's rear half.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
The Wind Shuriken and a following Fireball slammed into the barrier. Iron sand sprayed everywhere as the wall hit a "Critical Failure" point. The Mirage shuddered; a piece of the shuriken clipped a tail thruster. Flame bloomed, and the Mag-Lev field's stability plummeted.
Riding the kinetic blast and the smoke of a final spider self-destruction, the battered Mirage trailed a black streak of exhaust, wobbling over the treetops and vanishing into the dense canopy of the forest.
The Uchiha Jonin made no pursuit. He lowered his hand, his scarlet Sharingan fixed on the direction we had fled. For the first time, a flicker of genuine gravity crossed his impassive face.
"Sunagakure..." he whispered, his voice cold and analytical. "Since when did they have a Puppeteer with that kind of 'Throughput'? That kid's hardware is unlike anything in our database."
He looked at the broken pieces of the iron sand spiders on the ground.
"Flag this encounter," he ordered his team. "The Sand has a new 'Anomalous Unit.' We need to update the threat-level for Sector 4."