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Sayo stood outside Elder Chiyo's front door, drawing a deep breath. Clutched in his hand was a specially-made sealing scroll carrying months of painstaking effort and his dream itself—the Mirage prototype. He knew this step was crucial; Chiyo's approval and guidance could shape his creation in ways nothing else could.
He knocked. Moments later the door opened, and the elder regarded him with a flicker of surprise. She sensed something different in the boy since their last meeting—his presence calmer, his eyes barely restraining an almost indescribable excitement.
"Sayo? Come in." Chiyo stepped aside to let him pass.
Without small talk he followed her into a workshop crammed with puppet parts and scrolls, turned, and said gravely, "Elder Chiyo, I've built a new puppet. I'd like your guidance."
"Oh?" She arched a brow, intrigued. She knew the boy's gift for the Puppet Technique was extraordinary; anything that made him this solemn would be no ordinary work. "Let's see it."
Sayo nodded, backed up to clear a space, formed hand-seals, and barked, "Release!"
Poof! A veil of smoke dispersed to reveal a sleek, never-before-seen platform of uncanny beauty hovering in the center of the workshop. Matte deep-gray, its lines sharp, it hung a palm's breadth above the floor, faint esoteric runes glimmering across its hull, exuding a quiet, overwhelming power.
"Wh-what…?!" Chiyo's composure vanished, replaced by utter shock. Her cloudy old eyes snapped wide; she instinctively stepped forward, scarcely believing what she saw.
Levitation? With no supports? No Chakra Threads? It defied every principle she'd known in her decades as a Puppeteer.
"It's called Mirage, a mag-lev passenger platform I designed," Sayo said, pride coloring his voice. He began with the anti-gravity theory of Magnet Release, moved on to vector-thrust maneuvering, integrated recon arrays, weapon hard-points, and the multi-purpose folding grab-arms… Chiyo listened with total concentration, astonishment lingering on her face. Every concept pried open a new window in her long-settled understanding of the craft. Mag-lev? Vector propulsion? A boy had actually realized these unheard-of ideas?!
Yet when he reached the core of the matter—its power source—his tone grew cautious.
"…I call the engine a Beginner Natural Energy Puppet Core."
"Natural Energy?!" Chiyo cried, her expression changing instantly. "You— you've dabbled in that force?! Do you realize the danger, Sayo? One slip and you're petrified stone!" Her voice turned harsher than ever, laced with dread and worry.
Sayo hurried to explain, "Please rest assured, Elder, it's not direct usage. Through an ancient Spirit Siphoning Seal I draw a hair-thin wisp of Natural Energy's essence, dilute and convert it into a mild, controllable new power. Look—it's running perfectly stable." He indicated the silently hovering Mirage.
Chiyo leaned in, sensing carefully. Indeed, though vast and pure, the energy felt uncannily gentle, nothing like the raging Natural Energy she knew—yet her grimness did not lift.
She seized Sayo's arm, eyes sharp as blades, voice low and deadly serious. "Sayo, listen! No matter the method, involving Natural Energy is a secret that could shake the entire Ninja World! Guard this core with your life—let no second soul learn its core principle! Otherwise it will bring you not glory but endless calamity—perhaps even annihilation to the Village! Do you understand?!"
A chill ran down Sayo's spine and he nodded firmly. "Yes! I understand! Apart from you and Father, I'll tell no one the core's secret!"
Only after that solemn vow did Chiyo's expression ease, though worry still lingered. She turned back to Mirage, feelings in turmoil. The boy's talent had already surpassed her expectations, sending him down an unprecedented path that even she found terrifying.
Once the shock passed, decades of mastery took over. She circled Mirage, studying it, fingers brushing joints and runic nodes.
"The magnetic field can be distributed more evenly; here and here the runic circuits need fine-tuning—cuts energy loss by at least ten percent."
"The vector-nozzle steering's too complex; in battle it'll break. Borrow the joint design of 'Father' and 'Mother' from the classic Puppet Brigade—simplify, improve reliability."
"The recon array's sensory barrier is too small; I'll teach you a wider 'Spider-Sense' layout."
"The weapon hard-point lacks structural strength; add internal cross-bracing to handle violent maneuvers…"
"And overall weight balance—levitation nullifies most, yet at high-speed turns it still matters. Recalculate and adjust…"
One by one, Chiyo cut to the heart of flaws Sayo's experience had missed, offering solid fixes. She held nothing back, pouring out a lifetime of expertise to perfect every system of Mirage.
Sayo drank in every word, scribbling frantically. The master's insights cleared away countless vague or unseen details in a flash.
Thus the old master and the youth sank into discussion of tomorrow's weapon of war. In the workshop the hovering Mirage stood silent witness as Sunagakure's elder and budding prodigy fused their minds, a creation beyond its era steadily approaching perfection under a legend's guiding hand.
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