23

The guard's eyes searched for the surface as he was dragged to the bottom of the tank. His lungs tightened, screaming for air. The pain of the cold was excruciating: shrinking his skin against his bones.

But, then, a silver lining appeared. Almost invisible to the naked eye, it enveloped him with a false sense of security, promising a space to breathe. Sudden fatigue washed over him as the cocoon constricted around him. He tried to struggle against it but slipped towards the whispered temptation. Really, it was such a small thing, to take a breath… And they always took a breath.

He opened his mouth, and the remnants of his body's warmth were dredged from him, gently. Like a ghost, a dark shape pulled away from his motionless form, sapping the last drop of chakra from his tenketsu. His eyes were left frozen open, unseeing.

...

A shape emerged from the water, pushing against the wet surface. The remaining guard scrambled back from the edge of the tank, his eyes bolted on the watery form.

"Why are you doing this?", The guard asked.

"Because he is under Genjutsu of Master"

The electricity hummed and crackled as watery claws gripped the side of the tank.

Finally, the creature pushed through and lifted himself out from the tank. He sprawled across the ice, then gathered himself into a solidified form. At last, he stood on two limbs that resembled legs. His face turned out to be quite handsome, his body is perfectly toned.

"Who are you!!!", the guard at Shizuma's side shouted.

The man gave him a tired expression, "Arui Gobetsu"

"The Anbu captain. You betrayed us", The guard stumbled back as he finally turned to flee, but Shizuma caught him before he could do so.

The guard screamed, his eyes widening as he was lifted in air through a choke. The same draining process that had claimed his colleague sucked his own chakra.

Then, his voice died in his throat. He dropped to the floor, lifeless, his skin shriveled as if he had suddenly aged ten years.

The guard screamed wordlessly as his body fell.

For a moment, the sound of his screams cut through the eerie silence of the prison but then, the echoes faded away.

Shizuma let out a laugh, amused by how easily he had deceived them.

"Did you secure our route to the docks?" Arui Gobetsu asked as he peeled off the guard's boots and clothes.

"About that, I have some bad news", Shizuma continued, "The Ice Warden is aware that one of the guards was conspiring with a prisoner", he said, "Fortunately, I was able to shift the blame on someone else to avoid detection, but it's only a matter of time before they realize he was a pigeon"

"It doesn't matter. Listen up"

Shizuma nodded

"The barrier maintained by the ice warden is similar to a Four Formation seal", he explained.

He squats down and picked the guard's body whose clothes are now being worn by him, "It was common knowledge that the red lines that traced the main prison yard in the shape of a flower marked the center of the ice barrier's seal. No matter what, nothing should be able to make it past the castle's periphery unless we first take out the anchor", He tossed the body into the water with an unceremonious splash. It sank before bobbing back to the surface, immediately frozen, "The anchor is the gatekeeper and the key to this formation"

He turned back to face Shizuma, "Inside this prison, the gatekeeper is the strongest entity present. Of course, that wouldn't be the case if the seal wasn't feeding him continuous chakra. So always watch your back..."

"Yes"

"Let's go", he said, "It's time to raise the alarm..."

...

A finger of pale light slashed across the floor of the hospital ward. Shirai, the officer jolted awake, startled by the wind rattling the windows. The storm, which had been swelling in the skies outside for several hours now, had finally broken. Rain quickly froze into icy sleet that pelted against the roof tiles with a dull roar.

And, above the cacophony, an alarm sounded.

The siren blared through the empty courtyards, echoing through the cell blocks as well as the medical ward. Shirai heard footsteps pounding outside in the corridor.

"What is going on?", Shirai asked as he stop one of the officers.

"A guard is found dead on the lower floor", The officer hurriedly said, "Someone is out of their cell..."

"What. Who would be so stupid to break out knowing there is nowhere to go"

"Hell if I know. I only know that one of the guards is dead and we are searching for the killer. Let's go"

Below them, there was a clamor of shouts and shrill whistles as a troop of guards skidded across the courtyard. They were accompanied by a pack of ninken, and headed directly towards the entrance to the prison's subterranean levels. Shirai watched until they disappeared around the corner, then continued his way.

As they neared the top of the tower, Shirai caught a glimpse of guards' helmets over the edge of the balcony. They were scanning the prison yard for any sign of a break for the main gate, but due to the blinding weather and subtle tapering of the tower, Arui had so far remained below their line of sight.

Shirai paused, gripping with his fingertips as he leaned back to gain an angle. Then, tensing for a moment, he threw his entire body up, curling his momentum over the edge of the balcony.

As soon as he landed, a fist blurred towards his face and Shirai hurriedly dropped down to avoid the strike. He then dashed forward, taking advantage of their close proximity, to strike a blow to the Arui's solar plexus. Somehow he missed as his ankle was caught.

Arui threw Shirai back against the floodlight casing with a loud clang, and he blacked out.

"Arui Gobetsu? You were a traitor?!", His hand went to the radio making it crackle a bit, "Calling for back—" he choked on his words as newly arrived Shizuma drove his elbow into the man's windpipe, crumpling him to the floor instantly.

In the wake of the scuffle, the head captain of Anbu, and Shizuma froze as static crackled over the unconscious guard's radio.

"What was that?!"

"Nothing, I thought I saw the prisoner who tried to escape, it was a false alarm from my side", Arui Gobestsu changed his voice a bit and talked on the radio. Due to the bad weather and the radio's crackled voice, the rest did not notice anything unusual.

"It's alright. We might have caught up on something. Looks like they've reached containment block B! We found a bunch of bodies in some kind of water container", The rest of the transmission cut out, inaudible due to the bad weather.

In the meantime, under Ghost's mental orders, Shizuma turned the heavy floodlight to point at a concrete bunker on the other side of the courtyard: the entrance to the containment blocks.

"What are you doing?", Arui Gobetsu asked.

"Master ordered to do it, if anyone comes barreling out of there, they will get caught by the light", he turned back towards his partner, "It's clear that Master is trying to buy any spare second of time we could afford at this point"

...

When they arrived at his location, It was under Ghost's mentally telling them the way. What they saw was quite surprising.

There were no other guards in the watchtower, but then there wasn't any space for a cell either. Shizuma barreled down the stairwell, almost reaching the base of the tower before he, at last, ground to a halt at one of the landings.

"Damn it", Shizuma said, "I am sure he told us to head this way"

Arui Gobetsu frowned, "Something's not right. This space is all wrong"

"Yeah", Shizuma wagged his head in agreement. But then he frowned. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"According to master, there should have been a space between the third and fourth landing, but it's not, the stairwell is continuous"

They traded glances. Genjutsu. Shizuma supposed they would have probably missed the cell entirely if they hadn't known what to look for, but as he turned back up the stairwell, tapping at the walls at periodic intervals, he soon discovered a hollow spot. It was between the third and fourth landings, just as his partner had suspected.

"There"

Arui Gobetsu nodded as he made a hand sign, "Kai"

As it crumbled, they found themselves staring into a circular cell with a single slit window in the wall on the far side. They hadn't seen the window from outside, confirming their suspicions that the cell had been hidden by genjutsu.

Ghost looked up, his body shaking from the cold, unable to properly amass the chakra to keep himself sufficiently warm, his vision was gone and he could barely make out the figures of the two shinobi before him. He held his arms as he shivered fiercely

"G-G-Good J-Job"

Arui Gobetsu took out a pill from his pants before handing the pill to Ghost.

Ghost took the pill and his skin became tight, as small amounts of the moisture evaporate from his skin causing steam to appear from their body, the cold disappeared, the ice chains melted, he is free to use Chakra now.

He stood up with herculean strength, the heavy titanic chains made a clinking sound as he simply phases through them, freeing himself off this misery.

Ghost barely had any fingers left on his body, be it of his hands or his legs, using his body as a medium, he flows an incredibly dense chakra, "Y-Yin Yang Body R-R-Regeneration"

Using Yin to imagine and Yang to make it a reality, Ghost regenerates his third leg, his bony fingers, his cut-off nose, and his eyes grow back to their original form, his face, his body hair, and nails, everything healed with visibly no scar or signs of torture. Even his hair began to grow thick and fast.

This was a forbidden kinjutsu he developed after getting inspired by the creation rebirth of Tsunade, he studied the first Hokage's cells for years alongside Orochimaru before he could do it.

Of course, this forbidden kinjutsu can only be used by him who has a nearly limitless and incredibly dense amount of chakra. Even then, Ghost groans in pain every time he has to use this technique.

But to someone like him, pain is nothing new.

With a puff of smoke..!! a pitch-black sword appeared in his hand, "Did you find anything other than what I already know?"

"No Master"

"Very well. You both did a great job. Now, wipe clean this entire cell, do not leave a single piece of clue, and then... kill each other", he said as his figure blurred and disappeared.