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The "Mirage" finally lost all power deep inside a dry riverbed littered with jagged boulders. The magnetic levitation system died completely; the tail thruster kept belching acrid black smoke, and the platform's hull was scorched and deeply cracked. Suppressing a splitting headache and screaming muscles brought on by total chakra exhaustion, Sayo stumbled off the ruined puppet and rushed to his teammates.
The sight made his heart sink to the bottom of a pit.
Xu lay limp, her face bloodless. Even though the fight was over, the terrifying illusions of those Three-Tomoe Sharingan seemed to rage in her mind, leaving her drenched in a cold sweat. Lucado's condition was even more horrifying. Having taken a direct Great Fireball head-on, his ninja vest had fused into blackened scraps against charred flesh, giving off a sickening burnt stench.
Worst of all was Captain Iryō.
A ghastly blood-hole marred his right wrist. The kunai had punched clean through, and the sharp chakra it carried had wreaked havoc inside—tendons severed, vessels shattered, and the delicate chakra pathway network ripped to shreds.
Sayo's mind replayed the nightmare. Captain Iryō, a Special Jōnin, had first-rate reflexes, but before the Uchiha, everything looked like slow-motion. That strike had been meant to cripple him. Sayo had only managed to nudge a falling shuriken with Magnet Release at the last millisecond to turn a lethal throat shot into a wrist hit.
One exchange, near-instant defeat. The might of the Uchiha was absolute.
"Stop the bleeding!" Sayo bit his tongue hard, using the sharp pain to jolt himself out of his dread. He drew a shaky breath, squeezed the last dregs of chakra from his meridians, and let a faint green glow bloom over his hands: the Healing Technique.
He started with Iryō. He sent his chakra in like the finest thread, sealing the main vessels to halt the life-threatening hemorrhage. But the destroyed chakra pathways were beyond him. Even if the flesh mended, the captain's hand was ruined—he would never form seals again. In that instant, Iryō's career as a ninja had ended.
Next, he moved to Lucado. Facing such extensive third-degree burns, Sayo's medical ninjutsu felt feeble. He gingerly clipped away cloth fused to the wounds and infused the gentlest chakra he could manage—not to heal, but to keep the flicker of life from guttering out. By the time he reached Xu, black spots were dancing before his eyes. He settled her scrambled meridians, whispering, "You're safe..." until her rigid body finally relaxed.
In the silent riverbed, only the wind and Sayo's ragged breathing remained. The shadows of the boulders stretched long like tombstones.
"We can't stay here," he croaked. "The Uchiha patrol radius is massive. We have to reach the Land of Rivers front camp. Only there do they have a chance."
He forced himself up, strapping the grievously wounded Iryō and Lucado onto the twisted "Mirage" platform. It could no longer fly, but it could serve as a crude sled. He hoisted the unconscious Xu onto his back.
The four of them—bearing heavy casualties and an even heavier sense of failure—began their grueling withdrawal. Every step was a battle against gravity; every rustle in the trees felt like a cold blade at their throats. This defeat, paid for with the future of a Special Jōnin and the near-death of his friends, made Sayo see the absolute gap between a rising talent and the legendary clans of Konoha.
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