Main World.
Winter, Year 26 of Konoha.
Mechanical Star, Mechanical City, Tianshu Headquarters.
This newly completed building stood at the highest point in Mechanical City, like a black blade thrust into the sky. Cast entirely from alloy, it had sharp, clean edges and not a single unnecessary ornament. Its outer walls had no windows, only countless tiny ventilation holes that gleamed cold and hard in the winter sunlight. Above the building hovered an enormous golden gear-the emblem of the Dubhe Battle Group. The gear rotated slowly. With every revolution, pale golden light spilled through its teeth, like stardust, like fine rain, like countless silent eyes.
Sasori stood in the hall on the headquarters' top floor, the light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows outlining his towering, two-meter-twenty silhouette. He wore deep purple Battle Armor, and the golden gear emblem on his breastplate glowed faintly in the sunlight. His hands rested behind his back as he gazed out at the city he had built single-handedly. Mechanical City-factories, churches, Growth Chambers, robot soldiers, believers of the Mechanical God Cult. From nothing to something, from wasteland to city, from wilderness to civilization. It had taken him several years, but he felt it was not enough. Nowhere near enough.
Now, he had the Dubhe Battle Group. He had an army of his own. He had a blade that could change the shape of warfare.
The door slid open silently behind him. A young man in a dark gray uniform walked in, his steps steady and his back straight. A golden gear emblem was pinned to his chest-1st Company of the Dubhe Battle Group, the Cardinal Guard. He was among the first warriors Sasori had selected from the Mechanical God Cult's believers. He had undergone standard-grade modification, survived elite-grade modification, and finally been selected for the