13 The Path of Damnation

"Then how impressed are you now, Ku-re-na-i-nee?"

"S-Shadow clone!" Said Kurenai with realization and astonishment.

"A-Amazing Shiki-kun said Hinata from the side.

Shiki then removed his kunai from the kunoichi's back and as she turned around he asked.

"So how about that date?" Leaving Kurenai speechless.

"Fine." She finally said. "I'll go on a date with you."

'Well, he put on such a great showing least I could do is humor him for a bit.'

And so after delivering the unwilling Hinata home so she could have some serious rest, the two went on to have dinner with Shiki accompanying Kurenai home afterwards.

Time went by as Shiki's routine continued, practicing his legacy jutsu and training with Hinata and Kurenai after class, asking the older kunoichi out on dates when he did well in their spars with them becoming a sort of reward for his hard work. This only made Hinata more motivated and wanting to grow older so as to have her promised date too.

Yugao started to have less and less time to train him, probably due to the rising tensions between the Uchiha clan and the village's management.

Shiki fell into this cycle until that fateful night. The full-moon stood majestically in the night sky while the screams of the dying uchiha echoed in a corner of Konoha. Shiki watched as if entransed as the wailing souls were funneled into the Soul harvesting Pot and new insights into the soul related jutsus contained within the legacy, endlessly sprouted within the redhead's mind.

A while after the souls stopped coming, Shiki snapped out of his transe.

'So this is what cultivators call sudden enlightenment . . . Let's hope it didn't kill any brain cells . . .'

Jokes aside, this valuable opportunity granted Shiki a much needed understanding of the soul's nature not only allowing him to attain greater mastery of the Soul Reading Jutsu but to also grasp the Soul Refining Seal.

So while he began to draw the ritual circle formula for the Soul Refining Jutsu which would take a couple of days, Shiki had several shadow clones utilize the newly improved Soul Reading Jutsu to peer deeper into the mysteries of the soul.

After he was done drawing, Shiki triple checked everything and only then did he release his Shadow Clone Jutsu and analyze the insights gained by the clones over the last several days.

'I see it now! So that's why the Soul Melding Seal only uses seven souls. After reading its description from the legacy, I thought I'd have to make some strategic choices in what souls to add onto it but I was dead wrong!'

'In truth the soul has eight parts. An outer layer that is composed of a beings memories, personality, emotions and knowledge, this layer is considered a tainting of the soul and must always be refined first before anything else otherwise using it will cause mental instability due to contamination of the user's soul!'

'The inner part is what is used in all the legacy's soul jutsus. It is divided into seven parts just like the Soul Melding Seal. One can refine them all leaving a soul without any defining characteristics, this is a Pure Soul and it is this type of soul that must be used as a sacrifice for the Soul Substitution Jutsu, the Soul Burst Jutsu, all the Reaper Jutsu and a few others.'

'Alternatively one can leave a single one of these seven internal parts intact. These parts are a soul's Yin and Yang that constitute the biggest portion. Then there are five small portions for each of the elements, with their relative sizes depending on the soul's affinity for that element.'

'Kekkei Genkai are just peculiarities in one or more of these portions. For example ocular jutsu are based on the yin portion, chakra nature Kekkei Genkais are quite obvious and abilities like Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku are based on the yang portion.'

'Depending on which part is left, the name changes so in the end there are eight possibilities: a Pure Soul, a Yin Soul, a Yang Soul, a Fire Soul, a Wind Soul, a Lightning Soul, an Earth Soul or a Water Soul. One can also refine one each, of the last seven from a single soul'

'There is a slot for each of these, except the Pure Soul, in the Soul Melding Seal. Although once one is introduced it can't be changed, souls of the same type can be overlapped without any problem! Although one must wait a certain period of time after one soul is slotted before another of the same time is introduce. The time period should be based on the power contained within the soul'

And so another year passed. Yugao started having more free time to train him a while after the Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke turned into an emo after a couple of days of being absent from classes, Shiki had taken to giving flowers to the girls, also becoming closer to Ino due to how often he patronized her family's shop and he kept his clones day and night refining souls.

Once again in his, not so little anymore, hideout, Shiki was finishing his preparations for the two most important Jutsu of his life: The Soul Melding Seal and The Reaper Contract Seal. Since the success of the latter hinged on the strength of one's soul, Shiki decided to do the former which would strengthen it first.

During the next several nights he planed to seal several of his pre-refined souls. He had a Yin Soul refined from all the Uchiha souls he possessed, only after extracting every last valuable piece of information from them, a Yin Soul refined from several Hyuuga which he would add to the seal only after the melding period of the one from the Uchiha, a Fire Soul refined from the Uchiha as well as other nameless shinobi with fire affinities.

He also had souls of lesser quality from all other elements, these would later be used for other purposes along with all Pure Souls that were refined from the souls of normal villagers and untalented shinobi.

The ritual for the Soul Melding Seal was relatively similar to those Shiki had performed before. As he sat in the middle of the sealing circle, Shiki released the Yin Soul refined from the Uchiha as he started the process which would complete itself according to the drawn formula while he suffered the greatest pain in the universe, the feeling of having your very soul refined whilst still alive.

There was no screaming because Shiki had no voice, he merely laid curled up on the ground, as his muscles teared due to the excessive force they contracted with.

After such a harrowing experience Shiki merely stayed on the ground contemplating his life choices, his eyes revealing a clear and pure Two-Tomoe Sharingan but, despite this great success he just couldn't be happy.

'Is this the price? Was I looking forward to doing this so many more times?'

After a couple of seconds he stood up ignoring his body's complaints while screaming.

"ENOUGH! I already made my decision! I knew this was a path of damnation where there is no return, no going back! That's right, forward is the only way!'

As he renewed his resolve, Shiki's emotional growth triggered his sharingan causing it to mature and develop its third tomoe but at this moment the redhead remained unaware of this development.

'I'm already injured, might as well meld the Fire Soul before healing myself!'

This time he stood firm as he sat, suffering unflinchingly from the tortures of soul melding.

After that night's events all the people around Shiki noticed a difference in his demeanour. Even the certified idiot Naruto could tell that even though he acted the same that something had indeed changed but they all didn't mention it with tacit understanding.

After a couple of days of rest to at the very least physically recover from the ordeal. Even though the mental sequelae wouldn't go away anytime soon or maybe ever, Shiki was back at his hideout to perform the next ritual.

The ritual for the Reaper Contract Seal was also similar to the others, with one notable exception, a mask must be carved from yew and after being soaked with the user's chakra, they must then wear it while sitting perfectly still in the center of the ritual circle, 666 Pure Souls must be used as a sacrifice to establish the contract.

This time, there was no pain, only a pervading sense of apathy and emptiness. Although this might leave others mentally scarred for life, due to Shiki's previous experience in the Void of Nothingness, he felt at home more than anything else

With the ritual being completed with unexpected easy, Shiki was left feeling a bit disconcerted but soon shook it off. However, as he stood up from his sitting position, he noticed locks of white hair. He immediately made a puddle with water style, tossed away his mask and used the puddle as an improvised mirror.

Staring at his reflection, the no longer redhead looked at an ethereally beautiful boy with alabaster like soft skin, bright shoulder length white hair and an otherworldly charm.

"How in the hell am I going to explain this!?"