Finding Sasori

The vast, boundless desert sped beneath him. Scorching winds whipped past his ears, yet they could not dispel the gravity and urgency in Shaye's heart. Piloting Mirage, which had been further optimized and adjusted under Elder Chiyo's guidance, he raced toward the depths of the western wasteland at an astonishing speed.

Mirage now differed somewhat from the prototype that had hovered in the workshop. Temporary protective armor had been added to its shell, its critical rune nodes had been reinforced, and its overall contours had been streamlined further to reduce air resistance at high speeds. Like a silent gray swift, it skimmed low along the curves of the dunes, leaving behind only a faint wake that the wind and sand erased almost instantly.

Based on the briefing Elder Chiyo had provided and the scattered intelligence he had gathered along the way, Shaye had fixed his target on the site where the Ghostcry Valley bandits had been wiped out. When he arrived at the camp hidden within that remote canyon, even though he had prepared himself, the sight before him still made his stomach churn.

The camp was terrifyingly silent. There was no smoke, nor any sign of large-scale ninjutsu destruction, yet the stench of death hung so thick it seemed impossible to disperse. Dozens of corpses lay sprawled in twisted poses, their faces blackened or frozen in unnatural rigidity—clear signs of severe poisoning. Other bodies were even more horrifying, as if they had been torn apart by immense force or precisely sliced and pierced by sharp weapons. Little blood remained around their wounds, because it had long since congealed.

Suppressing his discomfort, Shaye guided Mirage down slowly at the edge of the camp. He did not enter rashly. Instead, he released several reinforced spider reconnaissance puppets and sent them deep