Amid an endless dark void, shimmering purple-white energy flickered in and out of existence, weaving itself across the emptiness like living starlight. Indrah stood still, quietly overwhelmed by the change in his surroundings.
"What the hell is this place?" he muttered, scanning the strange expanse. His body wasn't really here… it felt more like a projection made of pure energy. But the weird part was how easily he could sense everything. It was like his awareness had expanded outward, giving him a god's-eye view of this whole space.
'I see… so this is my Mental Plane,' he figured, taking in the glowing mass of radiant purple-white light floating in the abyss. But that just raised another question—why was he here now?
HUMMM
Dozens of symbols suddenly lit up across the void—floating, pulsing, each one a different color and form. His head throbbed the moment he focused on them.
Every symbol represented a jutsu. The colors told him what kind—like the deep red, wave-shaped one marked as [Great Annihilation] for Fire Style. And there were a lot of them… way more than he thought.
'Using and Mastering are two different things,' he realized. He might've been able to use these skills before, but that didn't mean he had full control over them. He could fight… but this was about understanding.
So, he tried sorting them. After a few focused thoughts, the runes floated into neatly organized groups.
'No way the original Sasuke or Indra had anything like this,' he thought. 'Where the hell did this come from?'
He tried cross-checking the ability against what he remembered from the anime. Came up empty. So he turned inward, scanning his whole existence like combing files on a hard drive… and after about an hour, he found something.
A Rinnegan ability. One he didn't remember being mentioned in canon.
[Pattern Recognition] — capable of extracting large amounts of data from small details. Originally just for tactical insights or reading hidden meanings… but now? It had mutated.
It could distill entire techniques down to essence, fusing similarities into compact runes.
"So… these Runes are the essence of each skill," he muttered. He could feel it was true. Though, there was probably more to it… and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like this might be a result of Shinsu interfering—perfecting, adapting everything he brought with him into something more compatible with the Tower.
Shrugging that off for now, he decided to start with something simple.
'Let's test the Fire Style.'
But just as he was getting ready to dive in, his thoughts slipped. The Fire Runes shifted on their own, gravitating toward each other.
"Merge."
BOOM
"Shit…!"
They collided before he could stop it. All the Fire Runes slammed together, drawing in that purple-white energy from the surroundings, sucking it into the swirling chaos at the center.
He cursed his own impulsiveness. Fire Runes were his second-largest category after Lightning. If this screwed up…
He held his breath and watched. In a few minutes, a tenth of the energy mass was drained—and then, heat. An overwhelming, bone-deep heat filled the space. Something new was forming.
Out of that burning intensity, a single Rune emerged. Just one.
A simple Fire symbol inside a circle. Looked basic… but it wasn't. The moment he focused on it, his mind lit up with fresh knowledge.
"Holy shit…"
⸻
[Flame Order]
A higher-order Fire ability. Let him mold flames freely, adapting his old Fire Jutsus with precision.
Flame Nova — a grand, wide-scale technique formed from all the merged Fire Runes.
⸻
"Hehehe" He started laughing with relief.
The fusion worked. But the purple-white catalyst—that was the strange part. That power wasn't Sasuke's. It wasn't the energy's either. It was his.
That was when it clicked: this was his Unique Ability.
A new Rune surfaced, dark as pitch, nearly invisible against the void. Shaped like a five-pointed star, small as a pinky nail.
⸻
[Synthesis]
Can combine multiple skills to generate entirely new ones.
? ? ? ?
⸻
"There's nothing here but what I already know… I get it now. The Runes are tied to what I understand," Indrah thought, still stunned.
He didn't know how far this power could go, only that it wasn't from Sasuke or the Tower. It was his alone.
"Alright then… time to merge the rest of the elements."
Ten minutes later, the void looked emptier. Most of the elemental Runes were gone, replaced by new, cleaner versions:
⸻
[Flame Order] – Flame Nova
[Water Order] – Zero
[Wind Order] – Atomic
[Earth Order] – Solid
[Lightning Order] – Senbonzakura
⸻
"Ahem… that last one didn't have a name, but I changed it," he admitted. It reminded him of something from Bleach, and the vibe matched. So why not?
He could even alter Rune appearance and naming if he wanted. That was new.
He wanted to keep going—but the exhaustion hit hard. The more purple-white energy he drained, the heavier he felt. He didn't want to imagine what would happen if it hit zero. Worse, trying to access Runes beyond what was currently energized gave him a blinding headache.
'Yeah… screw more training for now,' he decided, finally exiting the Mental Realm and crashing straight onto his bed.
He was asleep in seconds.
…
Test Director's Office,
"So, he took out every Regular on the field?" Hansung Yu asked, lazily swirling his coffee like he had all the time in the world.
"'Took out' is putting it lightly," Hax replied. "They're not gonna walk for a month. The Princesses just had fall damage, though."
"Hmm… good to know. You can go."
She nodded and left. A moment later, another figure entered the room.
"He's not like the other boy. We don't need him," Hwaryun said flatly.
"You saw something?" Hansung asked.
"No."
"…Then why so serious?"
She didn't answer immediately.
"We Guides see the Tower's paths. We can foresee events… even fates. Especially those of important people. It's what Red Witches are known for," she said calmly.
Hansung just watched her.
"But with Irregulars… it's different. We can't see their fate. Can't predict their path. They carve their own way. The most we can do is guess what might happen on that path. We can only see the consequences of the Path they are walking."
"So?" Hansung's smile didn't fade.
"But, Even King Jahad and the 10 Family Heads had their destiny tied to the Tower. We can't see those, But Fate will warn us. Irregulars like Enryu and Phantaminum are the same. But this guy?"
She looked him dead in the eye.
"He has no connection to the Tower."
Hansung's smile finally slipped.
"…Are you telling me, he's an Irregular even among the other Irregulars?"
"Correct. That's why we don't need him. He's not a piece on the board."
Hansung sat in silence, trying to wrap his head around it.
"He doesn't belong to the Tower."