Secrets of the Reaper's Power

Giving out instructions to not be bothered until he came out no matter what, the still unsure Shiki covered his entire room with extra seals to prevent anyone from telling what was happening inside or interfere with it.

'Ok . . . Here goes nothing . . .' Shiki thought to himself as he started the process.

It was quite simple, he just needed to sit down and focus completely while wearing his Reaper's Mask and go through the astonishingly long sequence of hand seals. But after he was done, Shiki didn't actually have a clue on what would happen, the legacy he received was strangely vague on that bit.

There were records of the power gained afterwards but nothing about the process throug which one gained it, something Shiki found a bit weird since the legacy was usually exhaustingly detailed on all aspects of what it contained.

But soon, Shiki no longer had the pleasure of doubting as several dark emotions started assaulting his very soul who was already quite unstable. This storm of hatred, resentment, loss, sadness and most of all never ending despair caused not only mental anguish but due to Shiki's unbalanced soul, caused actual soul rending pain.

It was combination he had never weathered before and was utterly unready for. Fortunately his time in the Void actually helped strengthen his soul allowing him to barely survive the ordeal but soon everything faded to black as Shiki fell into the realm of unconsciousness . . .

An undetermined amount of time later, the boy slowly opened his eyes only to find himself in an utterly alien environment.

It was a monochrome world . . . A white sky adorned with a pitch black sun and flowing with black clouds and gusts of black wind. Bone white trees of colossal proportions taking root in deathly black soil. A plain in the distance with blood red spider lilies the only presence of colour in this world and a flower with suitingly dark meanings

A beach of pure, bonedust like, white sand where waves of a pitch black ocean crashed with a strangely muted sound but as Shki continued observing his surroundings, he noticed something he couldn't quite believe he missed before . . .

Perched on a black rock near him, was a giant, pure white owl staring intently at him.

'How the hell did I miss this?' He thought.

"You didn't. i was hiding myself." The owl answered in a wise sounding mature, female voice.

'It read my thoughts!?' Shiki thought with surprise.

"It's she." The owl said in a firm tone before calmly replying. "And yes I did."

"Don't you think that's rude?" Shiki tentatively asked.

"Do you think I care?" The owl answered.

"Can I ask about this place and how did I get here?" Shiki inquired.

"No . . . But I'm here to explain those things to you anyway so you don't really need to anyway . . . Moving on . . ."

Slightly dumbfounded by the Owl's attitude, Shiki elected to listen to the explanation in silence which the owl seemed to actually appreciate.

The explanation was mind blowing . . . as it turned out, this monochrome world was Yomi, the actual underworld where devoured and desecrated souls would end up, damaged beyond repair and turned into a vile but pitiful existence sustaining this realm with their remaining essence.

What Shiki felt after performing the Reaper Possession Seal was actually the feelings and pain of all the souls he had refined in his life wich explained their resentment. This realm was connected to the entire Narutoverse, not just Shiki's world in particular and the fragment of the Shinigami he could summon was just a infinitesimally small part of an incomprehensibly colossal whole.

The Shinigami was the eternal guardian of Yomi and the owl was one of his countless familiars. She along with the underworld crows under her command had the duty to bring defiled souls to suffer in this real feeding it with their anguish. It was a truly dark and desolate place of endless suffering.

But then, the explanations went into the details of the Reaper Possession Seal and now, the owl gave Shiki two options: Take in a fragment of the Shinigami and become a true Reaper himself or be returned unchanged to his own realm but it wasn't that simple.

The latter choice, which the owl claimed his ancestor had chosen meant that his memories of this event would be erased and the next time he used the seal, it would work how it was detailed in the legacy which was how Shiki's Uzumaki ancestor had used it.

At the cost of Pure Souls let the power of the Shinigami inhabit your body and use its terrible power for your own goals and purpose. If there are no Pure Souls to be offered the user's lifespan would be consumed instead in their place.

If he took the deal and became a true Reaper himself however, things would be far different. An endless lifespan, perfect immortality and unique and overpowered ways of using newly acquired abilities but there was no free lunch in the world.

As a Reaper, he would have to undertake the duty of continuously sending souls to Yomi which wasn't a that big a deal to Shiki but there were other, more serious problems. He would be neither living nor dead so no more children even though his treasured tool would still work which if it wouldn't it would be a deal breaker.

Shiki didn't really dream of being a father so although this seemed like a terrible price to his ancestor it was quite alright with him . . . The real problem was the final condition. As a being of Yomi, it would take a complicated ritual to summon him to the mortal realm, it involved sacrifices, a vessel that could support him and his new abilities would be severely limited.

Beyond that, no matter how compatible the vessel was, it would still crumble from Shiki's power and the more powerful he became, the faster this would occur, trying to use his powers would speed up the process and in the end, it would be another's body, not his. To be honest, Shiki was already thinking of declining, there would be far to many demerits for him to consider it.

But then, the owç mentioned something that reignited his hopes . . .

"That would be it for somebody else but for you . . ."

Surprised by the owls words, Shiki asked.

"For me!?" With bubbling excitement.

"Hmm . . . It seems your eyes have established some sort of connection to this realm . . ." The owl said pensively.

It was then Shik focused on his eyes with disbelief.

'I-I can't believe it . . . Mangekyo Sharingan!?' He thought dumbfounded. 'But how!?"

'Was it due the storm of emotions I experienced when I first performed the seal . . .' Shiki theorized.

And he was indeed correct, due to the various negative emotions bombarding his soul, Shiki had finally awakened his very own Mangekyou Sharingan, a black iris with a red, lotus flower like pinwheel pattern, it looked quite cool even though in this realm he couldn't even produce a mirror to see them himself.

Due to Shiki's connection to Yomi through his own dealings with souls, his Mangekyo that was produced from a Yomi related trauma, became connected to this dimension. According to the owl, Shiki's right Mangekyo would be able to bring things into Yomi while his Left mangekyo would be able to bring things out. It seemed quite underwhelming at first but not at all.

Not only would this allowing him to travel to the mortal realm and back as he pleased, he could also bring the deathly power and objects of this realm with him. These things had devastating effects on the mortal plane but those won't be spoiled now . . .

Safe to say though, Shiki had gained very overpowered eyes and so chose to make the deal after all since its biggest demerit was solved by his newly acquired Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Good!" The owl exclaimed after the process was done. "A couple of last points for you to consider.

"Time goes on about ten times faster here so you can take advantage of the difference however you please. Take note though the whole process after you took the deal was completed in 66 days so 6.6 days have already passed on the mortal plane."

"Also, living beings can't handle being here for long so don't bring anyone you don't feel like inflicting cruel torture upon here." The owl warned.

"Noted!" Shiki replied animatedly.

"You can also now summon me and my underworld crows but my level of strength in the mortal plane depends solely on my summoner so take that into account, for that purpose . . . My name is Reika." The owl finally introduced herself.

"Well, glad to have your assistance and company Reika!" Shiki greeted his first true summon.

And so, he returned to the moral realm with his mangekyou but after talking with everyone and making sure everything was okay he went back into Yomi to take full advantage of the time difference for the purpose of learning about his new abilities and plan out things with more time.