425. Commotion in the Blood Prison

Mui glances at the unconscious body and turns towards Maroi.

"I did a clean job. No one… absolutely no one noticed me!" Maroi raises his hand.a

Mui inserts various syringes into the victim's body and injects various fluids from different containers into the prisoner's body.

ARGH… argh… ugh…

The prisoner scream and squirms in pain. Mui straps the electrodes onto the prisoner's head and activates the strange electric device.

Crackle… crackle…

Lightning flickers across the prisoner's body and fluid in the containers drain rapidly.

AAAAHHHH…

The prisoner screams in agony and struggles to escape from the shackles. Mui makes a series of hand signs and slams his palm on the prisoner's chest.

The celestial fire prison seal on the prisoner's body glows with a crimson hue and rapidly drains the latter's chakra. A pillar of scarlet energy rises from the prisoner's body. Mui controls the flow of the scarlet energy and directs it toward a wall of the secret room. A giant face appears on the wall. The giant face opens its mouth and pulls the scarlet energy towards itself.

The body of the prisoner breaks free from the straps. His body levitates in mid-air and the chakra drains from the prisoner's eyes and mouth. Mui slowly directs the prisoner's body toward the giant mouth.

Ugh…

The prisoner regains consciousness and glances at his surroundings. He quickly notices his plight and screams for help.

"Help me! Somebody help m…"

The giant mouth bites the prisoner's lower body and tears off his limbs.

ARGHH…

The prisoner struggles with all his might and waves his hands in the air to escape from his destined death.

"It's futile!"

Mui calmly stares at the prisoner as the giant mouth swallows the prisoner. The mouth closes and tranquility returns to the secret room.

"It's not enough!"

Mui shakes his head and sighs.

"At this rate, even if I sacrifice every prisoner in the Hozuki castle; it won't be enough to open the box."

Mui turns towards Maroi, who is gaping at the sight he just witnessed.

"No… no! Don't sacrifice me to that thing." Maroi raises his hands in panic.

Mui ignores him and walks towards the apparatus. He properly cleans everything, wipes the blood from equipment, and refills the containers using a canister.

Meanwhile, in a dark corner of the room.

Sasuke calmly analyzes the situation he just witnessed with his Sharingan.

'The fluids in those containers are some sort of chakra enhancement drug. It sacrifices the vitality and life force of the victim and rapidly converts them into chakra.'

Sasuke turns his attention toward the giant face.

'He is feeding that chakra to that giant face. Is that the ancient superweapon of Kusagakure, a box?' Sasuke attempts to analyze the box with his Sharingan.

Shiing…

The eyes of the face glow bright red. They emit a beam of light.

Whoosh…

Sasuke's surroundings morph into a scarlet world. Suddenly, a giant figure of a winged demon with sharp, long claws appears in front of Sasuke.

"Is this a genjutsu?" Sasuke attempts to draw his katana, but his body is paralyzed in place.

'I can't move! What kind of genjutsu is this?'

The giant demon opens its mouth and swallows Sasuke.

Argh…

Back in the real world,

Blood leaks from Sasuke's eyes as he breaks free from the genjutsu. There are three intersecting black ellipses in his eyes. Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan to escape the effect of the illusion.

Huff… Huff…

Sasuke breathes heavily as his mind is in a mess due to the aftereffect of genjutsu. As a result, he is unable to maintain his concealment. His camouflage breaks to reveal his body.

"Who's there?" Mui and Maroi are alarmed by Sasuke's presence.

Sasuke quickly covers his face with a black clock and dashes towards the ceiling with the small window.

"Someone sneaked into this place. Quickly catch him. We can't let him escape." Mui makes some quick hand signs.

"Fire Release: Heavenly chains of Suffering,"

Mui produces multiple scarlet chains of flames land launches them toward Sasuke to bind the latter.

Whoosh…

Sasuke swiftly maneuvers through the chains and avoids them.

"Lightning Release: Shock needle storm,"

Pew… pew… pew…

Maroi fires multiple lightning needles from his mouth. Sasuke avoids a few of them and deflects others with the scabbard of his blade.

Sasuke throws a kunai toward a contraption on the wall.

Click… clang…

The mechanism around the window on the ceiling activates. Sasuke jumps up through the opening and escapes the room.

"Quick, sound the alarm! Capture the intruder." Mui waves his hand and issues the order to Maroi as he jumps through the opening to chase Sasuke.

Whoosh…

Sasuke nimbly climbs the wall and escapes from the bottom of the bell tower. He swiftly changes direction and conceals his presence.

'This will create quite some commotion. I better return to my cell.'

Soon…

Horns and alarm blare through the prison. Searchlights flicker across the roofs as multiple guards with hounds search for the intruder.

"Unit one, check the perimeter. Unit two… search the front. Unit three and four, go quickly to the cliffs."

The guard captain issues a series of commands.

"All other units, keep a tally of the prisoners, and don't let any of them make any movement during this commotion."

He waves his hand and dispatches his man.

Sasuke uses this opportunity to sneak into his cell. He swiftly exchanges clothes with the dead-beaten guard, alters his memory with Sharingan, and tosses the latter into a dark corner.

"What's going on? What's with all this commotion? I am trying to sleep here." The rest of the prisoners also wake up and stare outside their cells.

"Oye! What's happening?" One of them asks a guard.

"Some fool is attempting to escape the prison." The guard replies and dashes towards another floor.

"Honestly, which idiot is trying to make a rum for it? With this seal on our bodies, we can't even leave this place. Even if someone escapes the prison, there is deep water around this place. And even if some lucky fellow survived that, then what use will it be with this damn seal on his body? We can't even use chakra with this damn seal." A few prisoners mock the courage of the fool who attempted to escape.

The commotion lasts for an hour before peace returns to the Hozuki castle. After a thorough inspection of every prison cell and prisoner, the guards return to their duty.

Inside Mui's office,

"I didn't expect someone will trail me to that place." Maroi shrugs his shoulders.

"What will you do now? The intruder escaped and we have no clue about his identity. He might even be a member of the flower faction."

Hmph…

Mui scoffs and walks towards the window.

"I will inform the higher-ups of this situation and let them decide our next plan of action." Mui glances at the entrance of the Hozuki castle.

A few minutes later, a messenger eagle flies out of the castle.

Sasuke glances at the eagle through the window.

'I have confirmed a few things on my own. Now, it's about time I talk with that 'spy' of the flower faction.

Next day in the morning,

In the dining hall, Sasuke is silently munching on some dry bread while drinking a watery soup in a corner. Ryūzetsu notices him and walks towards him.

He sits beside Sasuke and glances at the surroundings. Upon confirming that there are no eyes on them, he murmurs.

"I didn't expect you will pick a fight with the deputy warden. However, you are one tenacious fellow to recover so swiftly."

"I don't have time for idle chatter. What do you know about this prison and the plans of the Fruit faction?" Sasuke questions him.

"There was quite a commotion yesterday. Looks some third party was trying to pry the information about the Hozuki castle." Ryūzetsu shakes his head.

"Anyway, I just received a report from Kusagakure. Yesterday, a messenger eagle arrived in the quarters of the higher-up of the Fruit faction. Today, early in the morning, a few elders of the Fruit faction left the village. We suspect they are about to make a move." Ryūzetsu reveals the information to Sasuke.

'Hmm… looks like this girl is sincere with the cooperation. Then I won't hesitate to reveal a few things I discovered yesterday.'

Sasuke glances at Ryūzetsu's face. He recognized her true identity at their first meeting. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't hide her transformation from Sasuke's Sharingan.

"Very well! Then I also have something to share." Sasuke reveals the presence of a secret room and the secret human experimentation by warden Mui. He also reveals the information on the giant face and how it drained the prisoner of his chakra.

"As I suspected… yesterday, it was you right!" Ryūzetsu narrows her eyes.

"So, do you know something about it?" Sasuke ignores her glance and asks another question.

"With your description, there is no doubt about it! It's the Ultimate box of Bliss." Ryūzetsu speaks in a hushed tone.

"Ultimate box of Bliss?!"

"Yes, that's the name of the Kusagakure's superweapon. It's a powerful ancient weapon that requires a massive amount of chakra to activate. The flower faction is progressing faster than we expected!"

Ryūzetsu bites her lips.

"I have to inform the higher-ups about this!" She hastily leaves the dining hall.