📖 Chapter 3 – Echoes of Chakra, Echoes of the Past
From the central library in the east wing, Rei watched the dance of papers as if they were more than mere sheets. Each scroll, each symbol, each illustration spoke to him of a world he still couldn't fully accept as real. Everything seemed born from a mind that blended legends, war, and… an energy called chakra.
The first text he had read the night before spoke of the Rikudō Sennin, the Sage of the Six Paths. And the curious thing wasn't that he already knew of him—or thought he did—but that here, the details were different. Some dates were unclear, some names absent. There were gaps in his memories, as if his prior knowledge was… incomplete.
Or edited?
"Ancient texts aren't always reliable," said Sayuri, watching him from the doorway. "Winners write history. And in this world, the just almost never win."
Rei looked at her with respect and attention. She wore a plain, light-gray haori, unadorned. Her eyes seemed less sharp today, as if she were speaking to a student, not to a project.
"Is there something you don't understand?"
He hesitated before speaking."All of this… chakra, clans, conflicts. How can people live like this?"
Sayuri stepped closer and placed a hand over one of the scrolls."With resignation. Or with vision."
And then, as if she didn't want to go deeper, she turned away.
But her words lingered in the air. Vision.
In the days that followed, Rei settled into a fixed rhythm: study in the mornings, physical training at dusk, escorted walks through the gardens with Shuri before nightfall. During those walks, they spoke little, but every sentence mattered.
"The noble clans slaughtered each other for generations," she said one afternoon. "But your eyes don't look with hatred. That's rare for someone your age."
Rei didn't respond. He only lowered his gaze to his hands.
That night, as he took off his robe to sleep, he noticed it for the first time: a thin black seal, like spilled ink, marked just below his left collarbone. It didn't hurt. It didn't burn. It just… was there.
A chill spread through his stomach.
He stepped closer to the full-length mirror in the room and examined it in detail. It wasn't a common symbol. Neither of a clan nor of basic sealing techniques. It was made of spirals and connected lines. Something about it reminded him of circuits. Spiritual technology. Or encoded energy. He couldn't define it.
In his mind, an image flashed like lightning: a circular stone door covered with the same pattern. Where had that memory come from?
The next day, he showed the seal to Shuri without saying a word. She paled, stepping back.
"Does Sayuri-sama know?"
Rei shook his head.
"Then don't mention it. Not yet."
"Why?"
Shuri stared at him for a long moment. Then she lowered her voice."That symbol… doesn't belong to this continent."
And she walked away.
The world around Rei seemed to compress in that instant. Continent? Was there something beyond the ninja world? Why was the seal on him? Since when?
That night, he didn't sleep. He sat beneath the dim light of the garden and gazed at the stars. He tried to remember, to dig through his mind for images, voices, sounds. But the only thing that came was a single feeling:
This body is not entirely yours. But the soul… that's another story.