Chapter 60 (4/5)

In the Prison

"Welcome, newest plaything, to the warship's hold." The head jailer says with a grand sweeping flourish.

"Uh… you've already thrown us both into cells?" I awkwardly point out. "The time for that introduction was when we walked into the room, not when you've already chained me to a wall. And about that, can you let me down? Please? Also it's a blimp."

"No." She runs a manicured finger across my jawline. "You didn't say Mistress."

"Right… I'm totally not comfortable with this." I bluntly tell her. "So Koyuki, fancy a breakout?"

"A breakout?" The jailer scoffs at me and lightly pats my face. Why is it the face? Why? "You're chained to a wall with chakra suppressing cuffs made of the strongest metal we have. You have zero hope for an escape attempt, even if you do somehow miraculously get out of those restraints you have to get through your Mistress who will be very displeased with her newest toy."

"What she said." Koyuki weakly says as she's huddling in the corner of her own cell. She's hugging her legs to her chest in defeat, she's been beaten already. Not physically, but she's lost hope. She's given up. "Minus the Mistress part. I want nothing to do with that."

Okay, so maybe she hasn't given up entirely if she's joking. Ah, I bet she's waiting for the rest of the Konoha team to come save us. Too bad I'm not going to sit here and wait for them.

"Just because you don't see a way out doesn't mean there isn't one." I stare the kunoichi into her eyes. "So… are you willing to surrender or do I have to get creative?"

"Ha! Me surrender when I have you chained to a wall? No, no. The fun hasn't even started yet, I get you for a few more hours. At the minimum." She walks over to a table and unrolls a cloth bundle to reveal various tools. They're not all torture tools either, of course there's the usual rusty blades, pristine knives and blunt bludgeoning instruments but she has feathers and honey and… whipped cream? "Which do you want first? Pleasure or pain?"

"Yeah that's not going to happen." I disregard her and turn to Koyuki. "Grab your things Princess, we're leaving. I've had enough of this."

"Aw how cute, you think you have power here." The jailer grabs a sharp gleaming knife and stalks over to me. "The only thing you have here is me. Me and whatever I decide to do to you."

She swiftly slashed the blade across my chest, severing my shirt from hip to shoulder and lightly cutting into my torso. It's not a serious wound, my skin was barely broken. At best it's a superficial wound. One meant to cause intense pain instead of dealing damage.

"Oh." I lazily look down at the sinisterly grinning kunoichi. "So you've started with pleasure?"

"Pleasure? No that was pain. Perhaps you need more?" She expertly twirled the blade around her fingers like someone would a coin. "Usually I get at least a wince of pain with that."

"You'll have to step your game up." I casually respond to her. "Pain and I are very close friends. Some would say we have a blossoming romance."

"You're putting on a magnificent act." The jailer praises me. "But bravado will only get you so far. I'll break you, I've broken everyone. You'll be screaming Mistress, just wait."

"You think I'm bluffing?" I snort out in amusement. "Tell ya what, since someone rudely ruined my shirt by cutting it in two, why don't you take a look at my chest. Then tell me if I'm bluffing."

"If you insist." She steps forwards and grabs a fistfull of my sliced shirt. "This is just in the way, how about we remove it completely?"

She rips the ruined shirt off of me revealing my torso to the world.

I'm rewarded with the sound of two sharp gasps, both the jailer and Koyuki are staring at me with wide horrified eyes.

"Now you see I wasn't bluffing." I darkly say to her as the already cold temperature in the room plummets. "What you did to me was as refreshing as a summer breeze, a gently caress from a lover. You do not know pain. Don't worry, I'll teach you."

I smoothly slide both of my hands out of the restraints that have been bolted onto the wall. I'm mimicking the Soft Physique Technique, I had the rigid threads in my hands that mimic bones go slack to slip out of the tight bindings. It looked like my hands went completely boneless for a few seconds. I do the same with the restraints on my feet, my feet go completely slack and I tug them out of the bindings. I'm free.

But it's not enough.

I let the Jiongu out of my wrists and will it to wrap around the kunoichi. She's being restrained by her wrists, her feet and her neck. She didn't even try to dodge, she's just staring at me with wide horrified eyes.

A lone thread breaks off from the rest and fishes around in her pockets, after searching in two of them it pulls out a key. Not just any key, the key to the chains I was just in. The lone thread quickly unlocks the restraints and I maneuver the jailer to take my place. With four loud clicks she's locked in place, completely helpless to do anything at all. Completely at my mercy.

"Now then." I reel in the black threads that were holding her. "I'll be going now, thanks."

Like nothing outlandishly freaky happened I turn away from her and walk over to the door to my cell. With a specific application of force I smash the lock.

Okay fine I kicked the door down.

"Koyuki shall we depart? It's dreary is this place, it's not good for my complexion." I kick her door down too, driving the heel of my foot with as much force as possible into the lock to shatter the intricate components.

"You're actually saving me?" She asks in confusion. "But you always seemed so… so indifferent. Like nothing mattered to you as long as I keep breathing. Sometimes I even thought that was optional."

"People change." I hold a hand out to her to help her to her feet. "Plus I'm supposed to keep you alive for Shikamaru, I don't want him to get a bad mission record back in Konoha. We're friends, it's what we do."

"Okay." She takes my hand and I pull her to her feet. "But how are we supposed to get off the warship?"

"Blimp." I correct her. "And I have no idea. I'm sure something will miraculously work out for us. If not then we can wait until it lands or I could just steal it. But who the hell wants a blimp? Where would I put the damn thing when I'm not using it?"

"You're surprisingly relaxed for someone who was just about to be tortured." She points out.

"You're surprisingly relaxed for someone who just saw all of my scars." I counter. "Usually people freak the fuck out and I have to calm them down. It happens all the time."

"Oh, those are makeup." She waves me off.

"Uh no they're -"

"They're makeup." She growls out at me. "If they were real then I would be freaking out, but since they're makeup I'm fine. Because they're makeup."

"Ah. Right. Totally makeup." I see what she's doing, she's ignoring the obvious because she knows that she needs to leave and being traumatized by my scars will make her lock up. We can't afford that. "And whatever weird things I do are just crazy special effects. That's it. Just special effects."

"Yes." She attempts to convince herself. "Just special effects. Because shooting threads out of a wrist is just something that can't be done. It's a special effect."

"Exactly." I blandly agree with her. "So, shall we get going?" I gesture at the exit.

"Let's." We both make our way to the door.

"Wait!" The jailer calls out from behind me while rubbing her thighs together. "Master wait! You haven't punished me yet! Master I need to be punished! I've been a naughty girl and you have to discipline me!"

"Okay I admit that I toe the line a lot with my actions and what I say. But I'm always close to the line, sure I may step past it once in awhile but I never stray far from it. You, you sprinted past it while cackling like a madwoman. This is not the time or place for that, even if we were both into it - which I'm pretty sure I'm not but that is up in the air right now - you don't ask an escaped prisoner to torture you! Seriously woman learn some restraint!"

And with those parting words Koyuki and I leave the blimp's hold as the jailer wails in anguish behind us.

"Chick has issues."

With the Konoha Shinobi

"When is this blimp going to land?" Shikamaru huffs out. "We've been chasing it for hours. Hours. I can only run for so long."

"Please this is nothing." Anko lightly pats the panting chunin on the back. "Man up, your friend and Koyuki are on that blimp. We're not going to let something as meager as being tired slow us down!"

"But that's what being tired means." Shikamaru groans out. "Why hasn't Alvarcus done something yet?"

"That's actually a good point." The noticeably not panting Naruto speaks up. "Didn't he want to make a fireball or something?"

"Koyuki is on the blimp, she comes first." Kakashi chimes in. "He's got to get her out then he can make it go boom or whatever he has planned for it."

"You think he's alright?" Ino asks worriedly. "He's up there all alone in hostile territory. He could be being tortured right now!"

"Pfft yeah right." Anko laughs at the crazy idea. "If anyone is being tortured it's the other people on the blimp, I promise you that."

"Yeah." Kakashi winces in sympathy for those unfortunate souls. "Alvarcus is… creative. Very creative. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way."

"I just wonder what he's up to." Ino glances up at the blimp.

"Let's see what's behind door number one!" I grasp the doorknob and give it a yank. "The fuck?"

We must be in the living quarters because I'm staring into a room. It's very small, only enough room for a bunk and a dresser. It's practical and efficient.

What's not practical and efficient is all of the unicorn paraphernalia. Unicorn posters with rainbows shooting out of their horns, various stuffed unicorns of every color imaginable, delicate porcelain figurines line the dresser and even the sheets have unicorns prancing on it.

"That's a lot of unicorns." Koyuki pointlessly points out like I didn't already notice.

"Whatever it is I bet it's more entertaining than this." Naruto whines. "Why does he always get to do the cool stuff?"

"Says the kid being trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin." Shikamaru dryly says while dully staring at Naruto. "And the kid that helped stop an invasion. And the kid that helped get Tsunade to -"

"Okay fine I get it." Naruto cuts off his friends from continuing. "But he always gets the cool role. He's never on the chasing after the blimp team. He's always right in the thick of it."

"You're not wrong." Kakashi agrees with a shrug. "He's always doing something eventful. Never a dull moment with him."

"What's behind door number seventeen?" I grasp another door knob and yank the door open.

Two surprised faces stare at me in fear, not because of who I am but because of what they're doing.

"Oh. Might I suggest a good lock or perhaps a sign warning people to not disturb you? Er… awkward... I'll just be going now. I'm taking this shirt though thanks!" I quickly shut the door.

"Who was in there?" Koyuki asks. She didn't get a good look because I closed it too quickly.

"Two very naked people."

"O-oh."

"Is it just me or is the blimp descending now?" Ino asks the others.

"It's not just you." Kakashi assures her. "We must be rapidly approaching it's landing spot."

"Alright, first thing first." Shikamaru authoritatively speaks up. "We need to save Alvarcus and Koyuki."

"That's assuming they need saving." Anko cackles madly. "I bet they have everyone screaming in fear and the enemy will sprint out of the ship the moment they land!"

"Sure." Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "Assuming they need help we'll be there to provide it. How about we take down the first four people we see and steal their uniforms? Then we can move around more freely without drawing too much attention to ourselves."

"Works for me." Kakashi shrugs in indifference.

"An infiltration mission! Haven't done one of these in awhile!" Anko clasps her hands together while plotting. Plotting what? No one really knows.

"Yay. I'll be able to wear something that closes again." Ino stares accusingly at her sensei.

"It's decided." Shikamaru stops that argument before it can happen. "We'll take disguises and locate Alvarcus and Koyuki. Shouldn't be too hard, I bet they'll be attracting a lot of attention."

"The security on this blimp is terrible." I conversationally say to Koyuki as we continue to explore it. "No one has raised an alarm, no one as accosted us, no one has even attempted to stop us from moving about."

"Maybe because the only people who know we've escaped are either tied up or too busy with each other to care?" Koyuki helpfully points out. "No one else knows so why would they raise an alarm?"

"Good point." I concede to her. "Sure makes moving around much easier. Not to mention letting me rig this blimp full of seals. Terrible security, simply terrible. If I didn't immediately make my way to find you I could have done this the second I was on the blimp."

"Doto's shinobi are too confident." Koyuki provides the reason we're not being harassed by shinobi right this very instant. "They're too used to everything falling into place for them, no one stands up to them anymore. It's made them arrogant."

"It's made them stupid." I snort out. "Never ever give a shinobi time to prepare. It only makes us more deadly. That rule goes doubly for seal users, it gives us plenty of time to make our seals. I may be deadly with my jutsu but I'm imaginative with my seals. I'm not sure which one is worse."

"What do those fancy squiggles even do?" Koyuki looks at the most recent seal I've left behind.

"That's a wonderful question. You'll see when the time is right."

"Doto-sama!" A panicked shinobi bursts onto the bridge and immediately falls down to a kneeling position. "The prisoners have escaped!"

"WHAT?" Doto roars in fury at his incompetent subordinate. "Find them! Find them and bring them to me! NOW!"

Doto stomps over to an intercom system as the panicked shinobi flees from his master's wrath to find the prisoners.

"Attention everyone onboard." Doto says into the microphone. "It appears that our guests have escaped. Find them. Find them and bring them to me. The one who does shall be greatly rewarded, I will provide whatever you ask should it be within my considerable power to grant it. And to the prisoners that so unintelligently fled, you will not leave this warship unless you're in chains."

"It's a fucking blimp!" A very faint voice can be heard is one strains their ears to the maximum.

"Pilot. Stop our descent." Doto demands as he regally sits back down on his luxurious armchair. "We will resume once they're caught again. Don't want them slipping away."

"The blimp has stopped descending." Kakashi grimly tells the rest of the team as they shove four almost naked bodies into a closet. They've infiltrated the landing zone and acquired their disguises already.

"That's going to be a problem." Naruto squints up at the blimp. "Wonder what caused it to stop?"

"My money's on Alvarcus. I bet he did something." Shikamaru sighs. "Probably something stupid."

"I blame you for this." Koyuki scathingly snarls at me as I'm carrying her bridal style while sprinting down a long hallway. "This is entirely your fault."

"How the fuck is this my fault? I'm here to save your ungrateful ass!" I snarl right back at her. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to dodge when I'm carrying you? You're lucky that I have a trick to redirect kunai and that you're the mission objective or I'd turn your ass in and get that reward for myself!"

"You wouldn't dare." She calls my bluff.

"Oh really?" I come skidding to a stop as the mob of shinobi behind us starts to close the gap. Once everyone went on high alert we were instantly found. "Let's see… which way is the bridge again? There should really be signs around the ship. That would make navigating much easier."

"CHARGE! FOR DOTO-SAMA!" A warcry rises up behind me from the mob of shinobi barreling down the hallway.

"Will you all shut up I'm thinking!" I shout at them in anger.

"CHARGE!" The warcry rises up once again.

"Fuck off!" I shout at them as my wind mask branches out of my back and turns to face them. Then a gale rips out of its mouth and every single shinobi that was valiantly charging towards us is ungracefully hurled down the hallway. They all slam into the far wall, making a large mound of painfully moaning bodies.

"What the hell is that?!" Koyuki shouts into my ear even though she's literally in my arms.

"Damn girl did you have to be so loud? I'm right here." I would rub my ears but I'm holding a Princess still. How unfortunate. "That, my dear Koyuki, is one of my special effects."

"R-right." She stutters out as she pales when I withdraw the mask back into my back. "Special effect. That's all it was."

"Exactly." I can't believe that's actually working. "So. Quick question. Do you believe Doto is a threat to your safety?"

"What?" Koyuki asks in bewilderment. "Of course he is!"

"A big enough threat to remove?" I seriously ask her.

"Are you asking me if I want my uncle dead?"

"Yes. I am." I confirm. "I'm trying to not be as… violent as I have been recently. No that's not right, I don't care about violent. I'm trying to be more restrained about when I'm violent, that's more accurate. I could easily waltz onto the bridge and slaughter everyone, hell the pile of shinobi behind us is lucky I didn't use my fire heart -"

"Fire heart?"

"- and used wind to push them around. So this is me trying to be a less indifferent and uncaring version of me. I need a reason to kill, a valid reason."

"Didn't you kill three people the moment you arrived on the warship?" She asks in confusion.

"I said trying? I mean they were in my way and threatening my life, that's good enough right?" I weakly make an excuse. "And it's not a warship it's a fucking blimp. This pathetic balloon doesn't deserve to be called a warship. We're getting off topic."

"Koyuki Kazahana, do you want me to protect you by removing the threat that is your uncle Doto Kazahana? The man that killed your father. The man behind all of your suffering. The man that has driven the Land of Snow into poverty and despair. Will you allow me to kill him for you? I sharpened the blade. I will hold it against his throat. I am ready to spill his blood to the ground. But I will not decide if he will die, that falls to you. It is by your will that I kill him. This is your choice."

"Ye-"

"Wait." I cut her off. "Think about what you're agreeing to. Take the time to draw your conclusion, this is something that I will not have you second guessing after it's done."

We fall into a silence that's only broken by the moans of the pile of shinobi at the other end of the hallway.

"Yes." She confidently says. "I want Doto dead."

"It will be done." I assure her. "But when the Konoha shinobi freak out and start yelling at me you will step in and tell them that you asked this of me. That you were the one that decided his fate, not me."

"If that is the price I must pay, then I will pay it." She balls her shaking hands into fists. "I'll gladly pay it."

"Sweet!" I happily chirp out. "Let's get going then! I've got a man to kill and steal armor from!"

"Wait right now?" She asks me in shock as I start to jog down another hallway.

"Well… we've got to find the bridge first."