The "Intelligence Feed" in the Land of Rivers field hospital was a constant stream of tragic data packets, but one specific report coming from the southern directories of the Land of Fire caused my internal "Processor" to stall. It was a report detailing an energy spike of such catastrophic magnitude that the environmental sensors in the sector had been temporarily blinded.
As I sat in my small research nook, surrounded by medical charts and the blueprints for the Mirage Chrono-Furnace, I parsed the decrypted logs. The Third Mizukage, enraged by the failure of his "Silent Killing" infiltration, had deployed his sharpest "Execution Scripts": the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. They had been ordered to bypass every defense firewall and strike directly at the heart of Konoha.
Seven high-spec units, each wielding a "legendary Blade," were rampaging unchecked through the Fire Country's southern woods. Their mission was a "Total System Wipe" of the Leaf's morale. However, they had encountered a "Logic Error" in the form of a routine Genin patrol, a squad led by a thirteen-year-old boy named Might Guy.
The intelligence described a suffocating murderous intent that swept the area, a "System Alert" that should have signaled the immediate deletion of the Genin team. The Seven Swordsmen, including the likes of Biwa Jūzō and Suikazan Fuguki, regarded the children as insignificant "Background Processes" to be casually terminated.
But then, the "Eternal Genin" arrived.
Might Duy, the father of Guy had appeared on the scene. According to the survivor logs from a hidden Konoha scout, Duy didn't possess a high-output Ninjutsu or a unique Bloodline Limit. To the world's "Standard Sensors," he was a low-tier unit, a "Legacy Build" that had never been updated.
"Guy! Watch closely! This is… the final… Eight Gates Formation!!"
As an engineer, I had read about the Eight Gates. In my old life as Logan, I would have described them as a series of biological "Safety Limiters" built into the human chassis to prevent the brain from over-volting the muscles and shattering the skeletal frame. They were the body's "Surge Protectors."
Gate 1-7: Controlled "Overclocking" of the system.
Gate 8 (Gate of Death): A "Total Hardware Burn-in."
To initialize the Eighth Gate, the user must physically puncture the "Limiters" at the heart's location, forcing the body to bypass every biological safety protocol.
"Gate Eight - Gate of Death - OPEN!!!!!!"
The report described an indescribable energy eruption, a crimson volcano of "Blood-Steam" billowing from Duy's body. It was a "Full-System Purge." His skin turned a lethal red as his blood began to boil, the steam acting as a high-pressure coolant that allowed his muscles to move at velocities that warped space itself.
"What?! This Chakra?!!" The Swordsmen's arrogance hit a "Runtime Error." They weren't looking at a Genin anymore; they were looking at a "God-Tier Anomaly" that was currently deleting the laws of physics.
"Evening Elephant - First Step!"
Duy vanished from the "Visual Buffer." The next instant, the air in the clearing was compressed into a visible "Kinetic Shell" by the sheer speed of his punch. The vacuum-pressure hit the Swordsmen before their sensory systems could even register a threat.
Kuriarare Kushimaru and Munashi Jinpachi were the first to be "Uninstalled." Their bodies and their legendary blades, were shredded by the kinetic impact before they could even initialize a defense script.
"Second Step!"
Duy flickered again. The "Latency" between his attacks was zero. Tōka Yabaki attempted to block with his "Blunt Blade," but the hardware was simply pulverized by an incomprehensible force that ignored material density. Suikazan Fuguki, the wielder of the great blade Samehada, tried to absorb the energy surge, but the blade's "Absorption Capacity" was instantly overloaded. Fuguki's bones shattered mid-air as he was launched into the distance like a corrupted piece of data.
In less than ten seconds, four of the Seven Swordsmen were "Dead."
The survivors - Biwa Jūzō, Kurosuki Raiga, and the Hōzuki representative were paralyzed by a "System Crash" of fear. To them, Duy was no longer a man; he was a crimson god of destruction who was burning his own "Kernel" to save his son. They didn't even attempt to fight. They executed an immediate "Flee" command, vanishing into the forest and abandoning their mission, their pride, and their fallen comrades.
The crimson steam finally dispersed. The "Overclock" was over.
Might Duy's internal hardware had hit its "Failure Point." His ashen, burnt-out body crumpled backward into the dirt. He had successfully saved his son, but the "Execution Cost" was his life.
"Dad!!!"
Looking at his safe and sound son, Might Duy gave a final "Thumbs-Up", a universal "System OK" signal. His arm fell limp, and the "Power Supply" of his life went out. He had burned himself to ash, blooming in the brightest, strongest blaze the Ninja World had ever recorded.
Sitting in the Suna field hospital, I set the report down, my hands trembling slightly. I looked at the blueprints for my Chrono-Furnace.
"He achieved 'God-Tier' output with 'Genin-Tier' hardware," I whispered to the empty room. "He bypassed the limitations of the world by simply deleting his own future."
As an engineer, I was horrified and awed by the "Efficiency" of the Eight Gates. It was the ultimate "Short-Circuit." But it reinforced my own mission. The "Blue Beast" had proven that the human body held a reservoir of power that was currently "Locked."
"I don't want to burn to ash," Logan's soul thought, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the Sandaime's Iron Sand samples on his desk. "I want to build a system that can handle that 'Crimson Steam' output without the 'Permanent Crash' of the Eighth Gate. I need to move from 'Biological Combustion' to 'Natural Energy Integration'."
Might Duy's sacrifice had stabilized the southern front, but it had also updated the "Global Meta." The world now knew that even a "Genin" could kill the "Legends" if they were willing to pay the ultimate price.
The name of Might Duy, the "Eternal Genin" didn't make it into the official Konoha history books as a Kage, but it was branded into the "Root Directory" of everyone who saw the reports.
"Guy... become... an outstanding... Ninja..."
I looked at the phrase in the report, a sudden surge of "Empathy" hitting my chest. This war was a monster that required the best people to burn themselves out to keep the "System" running.
"I won't let Shiori or Rasa or Chiyo burn like that," I vowed, my pen returning to the Chrono-Furnace blueprints. "I'll build the 'External Cooling System.' I'll build the wings that don't melt when they fly too close to the sun."
The "Blue Beast" was gone, but the "Will of Fire" he had ignited was now a high-priority variable in the Third Great Ninja War. And I, the "Suna Engineer," was going to be the one to build the counter-measures for the world Duy had left behind.