Time in the Hidden Sand Village had ceased to be measured by the movement of the sun and instead shifted to the rhythmic cycle of manufacturing. Deep within his restricted workshop, Sayo had lived through a blur of "Development Sprints." When the last micro-seal component designed for stabilizing the high-voltage energy output was finally carved and passed its brutal "Stress Test," a sudden, heavy silence fell over the room. It was the silence of a completed compilation.
Sayo slowly straightened his back, the vertebrae popping in a sequence that felt like a hardware reboot. He swept his gaze over the workbench where the results of months of labor were arranged in neat, modular categories. To an ordinary puppeteer, they were just strange shapes of wood and metal. To Sayo, they were the "Hardware Components" of a revolution.
There was the primary chassis - a sleek, matte-charcoal shell made of reinforced Iron-Oak and Iwa-grade alloys. Beside it lay the magnetic-levitation baseplate, its surface inlaid with precise, high-frequency runes that looked like the circuitry of a futuristic motherboard. There were the vector-thrust nozzles, designed with Logan's memories of fluid dynamics; a sensor module integrating a reconnaissance lens for high-resolution battlefield telemetry; and miniaturized weapon hard-points ready for future "Iron Sand" updates.
Every component of the Mirage prototype was complete. They lay there quietly, like a sleeping behemoth awaiting the first "Power-On Self-Test."
Just as Sayo was preparing for the final integration, his father, Sharyu, returned home from a grueling logistics shift at the northern border. Seeing the mountains of strange, futuristic parts spread across the workshop, the veteran technician froze. He had spent his life repairing standard-issue Suna puppets - clunky, mechanical dolls with gears that groaned and joints that leaked oil. This was different. This looked like it had been pulled from a different century.
"Sayo… you… you built all of this alone?" Sharyu's voice shook with a mixture of disbelief and a father's pride. He knew his son was a genius, Chiyo herself had said so but he hadn't imagined Sayo could independently design and manufacture something so far beyond the village's "Legacy Architecture."
"Every blueprint is mine, Dad. Every part was machined here," Sayo answered, his eyes shining with the focused intensity of a lead architect. "But I've hit the limit of my physical reach. I need a second pair of hands for the final assembly. I need a senior technician I can trust."
Without a second thought, Sharyu rolled up his sleeves. "Tell me where to plug in, Sayo. Let's bring this thing online."
The two threw themselves into an orderly, high-speed assembly. The workshop felt cramped as the heat from the oil lamps rose, but the atmosphere was electric. Sayo directed with surgical precision, treating the process like a "System Integration" phase. He explained the function of each module the way the vector nozzles would handle yaw and pitch, the way the baseplate would generate the repulsion field.
Sharyu, with decades of puppet-repair experience and hands that were rock-steady from a life of manual labor, fitted the delicate components together. He locked the alloy joints with a satisfying click that signaled zero-tolerance precision.
They installed the Natural Energy Puppet Core (Type II), the "Reactor" built specifically for the Mirage's high-power draw.
They laid the "Chakra Fiber" energy-conducting lines that linked every peripheral system to the central bus.
They sealed the streamlined shell, ensuring the aerodynamic foil was perfectly symmetrical.
They calibrated the magnetic-levitation array angles to ensure a balanced lift-off.
They adjusted the vector-thrust joints, verifying that the Wind Release ports could pivot 360 degrees without latency.
Days of frantic work culminated in a final, satisfying snap as the last armor panel clicked into place. In the center of the workshop stood an unprecedented creation.
The Mirage was a matte charcoal shuttle, its body elongated and sharp, resembling a lethal obsidian predator. There was no conventional undercarriage, no wheels, no legs, no points of friction. A slight rise in the center created a protective frame for the future cockpit. Complex thrusters studded the flanks and tail, and faint sealing runes glimmered along the edges like lines of dormant code.
The moment of truth had arrived. The "First Boot."
Sayo drew a deep breath and stepped forward, his heart rate spiking in a way that the Body Tempering Furnace couldn't regulate. Sharyu stood to the side, his fists clenched in nervous anticipation.
Sayo raised his hands, his concentration hitting 100% CPU usage. Ten near-invisible chakra threads shot from his fingertips - thin, high-bandwidth links that latched precisely onto the Mirage's primary control nodes. Through those threads, he fed his refined, Jonin-level chakra into the core.
"Activate Protocol: Mirage."
Inside the core, the Spirit Siphoning Seal awoke. It reached out into the ambient environment, drawing in the wild Natural Energy of the desert and filtering it through the "Middleware" conversion barriers.
Voom--
A deep, potent hum vibrated through the floorboards. It wasn't the clatter of a machine; it was the resonance of a power plant. The magnetic runes along the underside of the chassis blazed with a soft, milky-white light, and a powerful, invisible magnetic field flared into being.
In the next instant, the 400-pound Mirage prototype defied the laws of physics. It rose smoothly and lightly, hovering exactly ten centimeters above the workshop floor. It was rock-steady, as though suspension were its natural state. There was no "Jitter," no "Lag."
The Mag-Lev system was officially online.
Stifling a shout of triumph, Sayo twitched a single finger. The vector nozzles pivoted with a soft hiss of compressed air, and the platform glided forward with a grace that made traditional puppets look like ancient toys. He executed a flawless 180-degree turn in the cramped space, then reversed it, every motion fluid, silent, and frictionless.
"It… it actually works! Sayo, you've done it!" Sharyu's voice trembled as he stepped forward, gingerly touching the cold, solid hull of the floating machine. He could feel the raw power humming beneath the surface, a power that didn't feel like chakra, but like the world itself.
"Yes-- we did it, Father," Sayo said, his face breaking into a brilliant, rare grin. The weight of years of "System Debugging" on his own body and his engineering theories had finally been rewarded.
The two stood in the dim light of the workshop, grinning at each other like children who had just discovered fire. The hovering Mirage prototype glowed softly between them, a silent herald of a new era.
It was still just a prototype. There were no weapons mounted yet, the sensor suite needed a full "Calibration Run," and the "High-Speed" flight test hadn't been attempted. But it flew. The most difficult "Architecture Barrier" had been shattered.
Gazing at the floating Mirage, Logan's engineering soul didn't just see a machine. He saw a strategic platform capable of skimming the dunes at 300 kilometers per hour. He saw a tool that could automate the Kazekage's gold-panning and secure the borders without the cost of human lives. He saw the future of the Land of Wind, floating ten centimeters off the ground.
The "Mirage Protocol" was no longer a design on a scroll. It was a live system, and it was ready to change the world.