Child Emperor licked his lollipop and summed it up. "So, strictly speaking, the old 'Sasori of the Red Sands' really did die. He ceased to exist in the biological sense."
"What exists now is an artificial intelligence that inherited all of Sasori of the Red Sands' data, memories, and goals. He's based in the cloud, can control countless puppet terminals at once, and is practically immortal."
"You could think of him as a superprogram called 'Sasori of the Red Sands,' or a Digital Life."
"As long as the network core survives, my master can 'revive' in any puppet connected to it."
"What was destroyed just now was only one of my master's thousands of terminals."
Boruto and Shikadai listened with mouths slightly open and vacant eyes. Their faces plainly said, "I understood every word, but together they make no sense," and "I don't understand, but I'm blown away."
This was far beyond anything they knew about ninja, life, or even existence itself.
"Digital Life? Artificial intelligence?" Boruto murmured, repeating the two unfamiliar terms.
While they struggled to digest that revelation, on the other side of the battlefield...
The purple Urashiki puppet slowly pulled its drill arm from the wreckage of the Red Wing mecha and shook off the nonexistent "blood."
It faced the headless red mecha kneeling on the ground and gave a derisive chuckle.
"The legendary puppeteer, Sasori of the Red Sands from Sunagakure. So much for that."
"Your core was destroyed so easily. What a joke. This planet's technology really is backward."
"It is a joke."
An utterly emotionless voice came from above and to the side of the purple puppet.
The purple puppet jerked its head up.
Another Red Wing Mark Mecha, almost identical except for its paint and serial number, hovered silently dozens of meters overhead.