The retreat was a heavy, agonizing crawl through a world that had turned into a "Low-Resolution" blur of pain and exhaustion. Sayo, his body operating on a "Reserve Power" mode that bypassed normal biological safety limits, dragged the nearly wrecked Mirage sled. On its cracked deck lay the unconscious Captain Iryō and the faintly breathing Lucado. On Sayo's back, Shiori (known by her squad call-sign "O") remained trapped in a deep, post-Genjutsu "Sleep Mode." Every step Sayo took felt like his muscles were being shredded by high-tension wires.
Occasionally, the jarring bumps of the sled against the dry riverbed's jagged rocks would pull Lucado back from the threshold of a "System Shutdown." The severe pain from his third-degree burns tormented his physical frame, but the "Error" in his mind was even more agonizing. His gaze moved with agonizing slowness, landing on the straight, unyielding back of Sayo.
In a daze of painkillers and shock, Lucado seemed to see a ghost of the past. He remembered the Puppet Repair Class years ago - the frail, scrawny, black-haired boy who was a "Premature Build." That boy had always been staring at parts in a daze, his face pale, his chakra-refinement levels so low they barely registered on the instructors' sensors. Sayo had been the "Legacy Bug" of the Academy, the last-place student who everyone assumed would be "Deleted" by the first real mission.
How could he... how could he have reached this level? Lucado thought, his mind struggling with the "Logic Gap."
The junior who once needed Lucado and Shiori to provide "Defense" in practical combat classes now possessed the terrifying "Throughput" to fight four Uchiha elites and drag his entire squad out of a death-loop. Magnet Release, a High-Spec Natural Energy Core, and a combat intelligence that operated with near-zero latency... Sayo was an "Anomalous New Star," and his light was so dazzling that it forced everyone else into the shadows.
Envy? It was there in Lucado's heart - a small, corrupted file. Jealousy? Perhaps. But more than that, there was an unspeakable sense of a "Version Disconnect." Lucado had tried his best, running his "Chunin Script" to the limit, yet the junior who once looked up to him had quietly evolved into a "Jonin-Tier" powerhouse. This realization, like a sharp fragment of shuriken, pierced his remaining pride, adding a heavy bitterness to the physical agony of his burns.
However, the "Battlefield" never shows mercy for personal feelings.
Just as they were about to cross a relatively open wooded area, the "Home Server", the Land of Rivers camp seemed to be within sensory range. But then, a "Threat Detected" alert spiked in Sayo's mind.
Three figures appeared silently in front of them like ghosts, blocking the extraction route. One was tall and slender with "Predatory" eyes (Ino); one was heavy-set with a deceptively simple expression (Cho); and one stood in the center with a calm, high composure (Shika). The Konoha headbands and their "Tactical Triangle" formation instantly identified them, the legendary Ino–Shika–Chō combination.
"Sunagakure wounded? Priority target identified," the Nara-clan leader (Shika) said, his eyes scanning the "System Damage" of Sayo's group. He didn't relax his posture; he was already calculating the "Optimal Delete."
Lucado, his nervous system already frayed, subconsciously tried to struggle to a defensive stance. But the movement triggered a "Hardware Error" in his charred chest. The sudden, searing pain made his body stiffen for a fraction of a second.
In a high-stakes encounter, a few milliseconds of "Input Lag" is a death sentence.
"Shadow Imitation Technique!" The Nara ninja formed a seal. The shadow beneath his feet spread.
It raced along the cracks in the ground like a black viper, accurately capturing Lucado's figure the moment he stiffened.
"Success," the Nara whispered. But he didn't intend to capture; he was executing a "Kill-Command." For Suna ninjas who had breached the Fire Country, elimination was the only logical output.
"Shadow Neck Bind!"
The shadow connected to Lucado twisted upward, transforming into a lethal, black "Execution Script" that wrapped around his neck.
"Ugh...!" Lucado's eyes bulged, his face filling with horror and pain. He tried in vain to grab the invisible shadow, his burned chest heaving, but the "Audio Output" was cut.
CRACK.
A sound like a dry branch snapping echoed through the clearing. Lucado's struggle hit a "Hard Stop." His head tilted at an unnatural angle, and the light in his eyes, the flickering of his life quickly faded into darkness.
System Status: Lucado – OFFLINE.
"LUCADO!!!" Sayo's roar wasn't just a sound; it was a "System Spike" of grief and rage. He had just set Shiori down and had no "Processing Cycles" left to rescue his friend.
Anger and sorrow instantly devoured Sayo's engineering logic. The teammate who had been a part of his "Daily Routine" for years had been deleted right in front of him.
"You... deserve to be formatted into dust!" Sayo's voice was as cold as a "Thermal Sink." A massive amount of chakra, mixed with a "Corrupted" killing intent, erupted from his Natural Energy core.
"Mind Body Switch Technique!" Seeing the energy surge, the Yamanaka ninja (Ino) immediately activated her clan's "Intrusion" trying to take over Sayo's mind.
However, as soon as her spiritual body broke into Sayo's consciousness space, it didn't find a standard mind. It hit an indestructible, multi-layered "Hardware Firewall." Sayo's spiritual power, tempered across two lifetimes and refined by a Natural Energy furnace, was an "Encrypted Domain."
"PFFFT--!"
The Yamanaka ninja was hit by a "Backlash" so severe it caused her physical body to spurt blood from her nose and ears. Her "Spiritual Body" had been violently repelled by Sayo's dual-soul architecture. She screamed - a high-pitched "System Alarm" before fainting. Her spiritual level was permanently "Corrupted."
"What?! The Mind-Body link was rebounded?!" The Nara ninja was shocked. He had never seen a "Reflection" of that magnitude. He immediately tried to redirect his shadow to capture Sayo.
But Sayo's "Clock Speed" was now redlining.
"SPIDER LEGION - FINAL COMPILE!"
Several scrolls exploded open. The remaining dozen spider puppets, scarred and half-broken from the Uchiha fight lunged at the Nara like "Malware" suicide troops. They didn't target vitals; they "DDoS-ed" his space, entangling his limbs and self-destructing to create a massive amount of "Visual Noise" and physical interference.
The Nara was caught in a "Overflow." Shadow Imitation required precise geometry, but Sayo was saturating the battlefield with "Random Data." He couldn't lock on.
"Partial Multi Size Technique!" The Akimichi ninja (Cho) roared, his arm enlarging into a massive "Hammer" to crush Sayo.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!" Sayo waved his hand. A torrent of pitch-black iron sand appeared, wrapping around the giant arm like a "Flexible Logic-Trap." The magnetic interference disrupted the Akimichi's kinetic balance, making his movement sluggish. Simultaneously, another stream of iron sand turned into "Kinetic Needles," stabbing at the Akimichi's massive hitbox.
Sayo, even in his "Low-Power" state, was suppressing the famous Ino–Shika–Chō combination through sheer "Output Density." The Yamanaka was "Crashed," the Nara was "Busy," and the Akimichi was "Throttled."
Realizing they had encountered a "God-Tier Anomaly" while attempting a routine cleanup, the Nara leader prioritized "System Survival."
"Withdraw! Initialize Extraction!" he shouted, using his shadow to force back the last spider before grabbing his unconscious teammate. They vanished into the forest, leaving behind blood and failure.
Sayo did not pursue. He gasped for air, his vision flickering with "Low-Voltage" warnings. He staggered to Lucado's side, vainly trying to initialize a Healing Technique, but the "Hardware Damage" to the neck was total. The life-force had dissipated.
Another companion had been "Permanently Deleted."
He silently hoisted Shiori back onto his shoulders. With his last bit of "Battery Life," he dragged the Mirage sled, now carrying the remains of Lucado alongside the crippled Iryō, step by step toward the camp. The setting sun stretched his shadow across the grass, a long, lonely line of "Depleted Resources."
The cruelty of the Third Great Ninja War had never been so "High-Definition." In the world's cold code, Lucado was just a file that had been overwritten. But to Sayo, it was a "Core Partition" that would never be restored.
"I'll remember this" Sayo whispered to the silent woods. "I'll remember the code for revenge."