Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha
AN: this took so much longer than I planned because I kept changing my mind but this chapter is much longer than the others have been so enjoy.
Chapter XII: escape
x-x
Several hours after the last chapter
x-x
Getting out to the yard wasn't very difficult. He had done it several times before and was very confident in his ability to make it out there without getting caught. The hard part however was climbing the building.
He managed, with a running start, to get up the side of the building using the tree walking exercise and grabbed hold of the first overhang. After pulling himself onto the roof tiles he moved across the roof as quietly as he could to the next overhang, which was on the cell block area. He managed to get onto the next overhand as well but getting to the third roof was much more difficult as he didn't have a lot of space to get the same running start. He was now standing on just the overhang and only had a couple of feet to move.
Two and a half hours was the maximum amount of time he could spend climbing the building before he had to get back to his room due to the guard patrols. Unfortunately he forgot the fact that he didn't have a watch or any other way to tell time as he scaled the building.
He tried and fell back down to the hard roofing tiles several times. This was where he currently was, still trying to get to the third roof as time continued to pass. He also had to get up onto the fourth roof in order to get into the higher levels of the prison and reach the infirmary. He couldn't keep wasting time on this level when there was so much more to get through.
Trying to run back up the wall again, he nearly made it to the overhand and his hand just missed grabbing it before his feet gave way and he dropped back down to the overhang below. Instinctively his hand reached out to try and help him stop his fall. Something else happened though and he abruptly stopped falling. His feet were dangling about two feet off the roof tiles of the overhang and he looked up to his hand to see that his nails were firmly imbedded into the rock wall.
Raising a confused eyebrow, he looked to the claw-like nails on his other hand and tried to scratch the wall with them. The rock wall easily gave way to his nails and it seemed like the rock was far softer than he would have ever imagined. It was almost like he was burning part of it away as his nails entered the material and he could get a good grip on the wall with just his nails. Using his free hand he stabbed his finger nails in the rock and started scaling the wall with just his hands.
He reached the overhang and pulled himself up with ease and then stared at his nails. 'I had no idea they were this cool.' he thought as he flexed his hands and further examined his now deemed 'useful' claws. Coming back to the task at hand, he went to the next wall and climbed it the same way. He didn't even need his feet as his upper body strength was more than enough to climb and pull himself up.
Coming to the upper levels of the prison, he quickly moved to the wall and got out of the way as these levels had slits in the walls that served as windows. Moving to a nearby slit, he peeked in and saw a storage room. He could have climbed another story but that was where the guards rooms were and he decided it was better to go in on the floor he was at and take the stairs to the next level. It was possible that he could alert the sleeping guards and the guards that may still be awake if he proceeded to climb any farther.
Getting one arm through the skinny slit that was a window for the building, he squeezed the rest of himself through. His feet touched the floor as light a footfall as possible and he made his way to the door of the room. Before touching the handle, he closed his eyes and listened.
His ears picked up several sounds. The slight wind from outside that buffeted the building and whistled through the windows was the most prevalent sound but he could pick up voices from the floor above him which he had only rarely ever been on. Calming himself, he turned the handle to the door and then opened it slightly, he looked down the empty hallway and then opened the door enough to get his head out and see the entire hallway.
There was nothing there, which was what his ears told him but he was being overly cautious. He waited a few moment to ensure no one was coming and then moved out from the doorway. The staircase was just down the hall and that would take him to the next level where the infirmary was. There was at least one camera that monitored the staircase so he moved with care and kept to the shadows.
Making his way to the stairs, he found the camera and then went up the staircase in the best way he could to avoid being seen. This was by far the closest he had ever dared to venture when he was moving at night. He could be caught at any moment.
His head peaked above the floor as he reached the top quarter of the steps and he looked through the metal rails to view the new hallway. He knew with his ears it was empty but there were people in the rooms along the hallway. He could tell at least four people were awake and from the commotion they were making, they were likely playing cards and waiting to make their rounds, then they would switch with the next night shift.
Coming off the stairs, he moved as silently as he could down the hallway and looked for the correct room which had a red cross on it.
He moved past a few doors before he stopped and backed up. The room he was looking at had always had the door closed and he had never been able to see into it.
There were no lights on but his eyes could pierce the darkness and discern what was in it. The far side of the room had one wall that was covered with monitors, a desk, and then a single chair. It took him a moment to realize what he was really looking at and he wanted curse out loud.
The room was the security monitoring room for the whole prison. It had monitors for every camera in the whole building...and they were all turned off.
He put his fist to his mouth and bit his index keep himself from screaming in frustration and anger. All that time he spent trying to sneak around and maneuver himself so he wasn't caught on camera and the cameras weren't even on! No one was dutifully watching them and looking for escapees or possible security problems.
'God damnit! How many other prisoners knew the cameras didn't work?! Did Kenji know?' he wondered and tried to calm himself down. It seemed he had wasted so much time and worked so hard to sneak around, all for nothing.
It was at that moment that his ears picked up movement and the handle of a door down the hallway started to turn.
x-x
A guard came out of the break room and looked both ways down the hall. He had just been playing poker with a few of the other guards currently on duty when he swore he heard a growl like that of an animal.
Walking down the hallway, his eyes shifted back and forth between the doors. He glanced at the security room and then walked over to it. Standing in the doorway, he leaned in and took a look around.
There was no one there and nothing out of place. Moving to the staircase, he leaned over the side and looked for any shadow or movement but also found nothing.
Satisfied that nothing was amiss, the guard when back to the break room and shut the door behind him.
x-x
No sooner had the door shut than Naruto started breathing again inside the broom closet he was in.. He had raced into the nearby room on the other side of the hallway but this hadn't been the best of choices.
Once he was in the closet, everything had started falling on him. He was holding up two brooms and a mop with his arms and leg. His other foot was stepping in the water of the mop bucket and a bottle of cleaner that had fallen off the shelf above him. The handle of the bottle was firmly held in his teeth. He had been holding himself perfectly still the entire time the guard was in the hallway while his heart was beating like mad.
Trying to put the brooms back in place, he managed to step out of the mop bucket and open the door. As quietly as possible, he shut the door and continued on his way to the infirmary.
He passed several other doors before he finally reached the room he was after. He could hear snores coming from the rooms as well as the awake ninja playing cards and wondered if it would be worth it. He was going well out of his way for a person that he really didn't know and without knowing what he would be getting in return.
Moving to the door, he silently opened it and moved into the dimly lit room.
The infirmary only had six beds in it and only one was currently occupied. The privacy curtain was shut so he he walked over to it. There were no escape routes that he could see which did not involve the door he just came through. Should anything happen or somehow it was a trap, then he would not be able to do anything before guards came streaming in through the only entrance/exit. He did trust Kenji though.
Coming to curtain he gently slid it open and saw an old man sitting on the bed. His hair pure white while his face was tanned with some wrinkles at the edges of eyes, forehead, and mouth. The man apparently heard him as he had one eye open and was examining the person that was disturbing his sleep.
The man examined Naruto with his eye before he deemed that the boy was not a threat and opened his other eye as he sat up slightly on his pillow.
A moment of silence elapsed before the man spoke first, "Did you bring the stuff?" he questioned in a very expectant voice.
Naruto frowned slightly and reached to the back waistband of his pants where the materials he brought were placed to keep his hands free. He didn't want to seal them into anything as this would alert the prisoner to the fact that he could use his chakra.
He pulled the adult material and then handed it to the old prisoner who didn't move off the bed.
"Ohoho...lets see what you brought." said the old man in a low voice and he skimmed through the adult magazine and examined a few of the foldouts in it.
"Very nice." the man said as he was completely distracted by the material in front of him. He starting coughing a moment later but it was only a brief fit.
Getting annoyed, Naruto cleared his throat to get the man's attention so they could finish the transaction and he could get what he came all that way for, which he was still in the dark about.
Glancing away from the porn, he noted the impatient boy and remembered Kenji's deal.
Sighing he grabbed another pillow off the adjacent bed and put it behind him for support and so he could better see the boy that was looking at him. It didn't take long and Naruto thought about helping him but decided against it as the man didn't seem to want his help.
Motioning to a nearby chair, Naruto went and got it and then sat down in it next to the bed.
"Well I don't really have anything worthwhile to offer you. I'm an old man and I've been in this prison longer than I've been outside of it. I've never had many jutsu and you probably wouldn't be interested in the ones that I do have, but I do have something. Mostly its just a story but also something else. Are you interested?" he questioned despite the fact that he had already been given his end of the deal.
Naruto thought about it for a brief moment. He risked capture or discovery and had come all this way so he could get a story in return? It seemed a disappointment, however no one had ever told him a story before. No one had ever read him a book at bedtime like he discovered other children were privileged with. So, being told an interesting story might not make his entire journey worthless.
"Alright." responded Naruto and he sat back in the chair with his feet dangling over the seat and not touching the floor.
The man nodded and began, "Well, years ago I was an Iwa nin. I took part in the First Shinobi War as a chunin. To try and gain an advantage over our enemies, which were Suna, Kiri, and Konoha. One of the Kamizuru Clan members asked the Tsuchikage at the time, which was Mu the Second Tsuchikage, to send out a team of ninja to try and find the forbidden techniques of the First Tsuchikage. Rumors had spread after his death that he had hidden them somewhere and many of his clan were desperate to find them after suffering losses at the hands of the Aburame Clan.
The First Tsuchikage was a member of the Kamizuru Clan and they used bees in their jutsu. Before he died, everyone was sure that he hid his best techniques and even forbidden techniques for bug user in an unknown location. For whatever reason, he apparently didn't want any of his clan to use the jutsu but that was before the war turned out of our favor. Clan members searched for quite some time for any information on where it could have been hidden but it wasn't until that point that one of the members had discovered a detailed map to a location in Earth Country." said the prisoner who Naruto had never actually exchanged names with.
The man looked over at Naruto and noticed that he boy was giving him his full attention and hanging on his every word. He smirked slightly at the boy and enjoyed having the attention as he had never had children of his own. Continuing with the story, "It was determined that the map had been drawn by the First Tsuchikage and so the Second Tsuchikage agreed to see where the map led as it could be of great help to the war effort. A secret mission was issued and a team put together that few, if any besides the Tsuchikage, knew about. At least two members of the Kamizuru Clan went along with a few Jonin and Chunin with myself as one of those members. The map was very detailed but didn't give any specifics about where the area it showed was located or distances.
It was as if someone zoomed in on a specific area of a map of the elemental countries. It was very difficult to determine where the area in question was or determine any points of reference as there were few and only drawn on the map and not properly named. It took at least two weeks for a group of mapmakers in Earth Country from the Rock Temple to even determine and verify that the location the map was showing was in Earth Country. They were only able to identify one point on the map, which was a single and very old abandoned temple on one mountain of the many mountain ranges in Earth Country. The temple and mountain it was on were actually the starting point for the map.
If they hadn't been able to figure it out based on a very old map that they had, then no one would have been able to determine where the location was that the map showed. Earth Country alone has hundreds of mountain ranges and probably many lost temples. Few maps ever listed temples as they were of little importance to most people, especially ninja. Only the Rock Temple near the capital of Earth Country was well known and they had the map that showed the abandoned temples location.
After getting everything ready for the journey we set off for the temple, which was called Akuma Kiyome. It took quite a while to get there because of the rough terrain. We spent nearly two weeks just getting to the mountain temple and traveled into the northern area of Earth Country, which few ever visited. Once there, we tried to continue along the course listed on the map as best as we could. No one actually knew what we would find at the end of the journey as nothing was indicated on the map or in the rest of the scroll the map was written on. But everyone believed it would be those scrolls and that we would be doing a great service to the village.
The journey progressed slowly as he made our way across a practically untraveled part of the Earth Country for those two weeks. We had to search for the pictured locations indicated on the map. They were each just a picture of a physical feature along the indicated route. There was no road or path so we had to spread out and search for the indicated pictures when we thought we might be getting near.
It took a while to find all the landmarks along the way and make sure we were headed in approximately the right direction. The closer we traveled, the more excited we got. Thoughts of hidden treasure and stores of other jutsu filled the heads of many members of the party. We wanted to find something incredible to make the arduous trip worth it and to help Iwa with the war.
The farther we traveled, the more dangerous it became. We started running into huge animals and predators that were extremely rare in the more populated areas of the Elemental countries. However that is what happens the farther west you go. Those animals wanted nothing more than to make a meal out of us. Even the forests and mountains got bigger but we didn't let the danger sway us from our approaching goal.
As we neared the end of the map, several members of the group started hearing a noise but thought it could have just been part of the surrounding forest or the valley we were traveling in. The noise got louder though and soon everyone could hear it. We first thought it was a waterfall, but the closer we got to it, the more the sound changed.
We started passing the bones of large animals that were laying on the ground and that should have been a good warning for us but we continued on to find the scrolls. Soon the only sound we could hear was the buzzing of something up ahead. It drowned out everything else, or perhaps it was just the only thing making any sound in the area.
Eventually we came upon what was producing the noise. It was a huge hive that was in a cave at the end of the canyon indicated on the map. Both features were marked very clearly, so we knew it was our final destination but that wasn't what he had on our minds at the time. Several members of the group originally thought they were bees but the members of the Kamizuru clan corrected them, they more closely resembled wasps.
Why exactly the cave was crawling with nearly half meter long wasps was anyone's guess. The Kamizuru clan was known for their bees and not wasps. No one in the clan had ever used wasps. Everyone was confused by this turn of events.
The wasps seemed to stay to the cave but many would leave and head in certain directions, and they probably returned as well but it was too difficult to try and tell them apart. We were cautious as there were just so many of them and they looked quiet deadly. We were told by the bee experts in the group that the sting of a wasp that size would certainly be fatal.
Perhaps the First Tsuchikage had a method to get around them or could use his own bees to communicate with them and this was what the two Kamizuru clansmen thought but they were wrong. So terribly wrong." the prisoner said with an empty look on his face as he stared across the room at the wall.
So far Naruto was very interested in the story and he definitely wanted to hear more so he waited for the old man to continue.
"They sent in some of their bees but they couldn't communicate at all with the much larger wasps. Eventually the wasps got agitated enough that they killed the bees and then went back their business which was taking care of the hive. We spent nearly a day debating what to do with the hive as we were all sure that something must lay behind the hive and further in the cave. That may not have actually been the case but that was what we all thought.
It was decided that we should try and sneak into the cave without disturbing the wasps. One person in our party was a high ranking jonin and knew how to turn himself invisible which was an A-rank technique of the village. He volunteered to sneak in and explore the cave to see if there was anything else in it.
Everything started out fine but we never saw or heard from him again. After two days had passed we decided that he must have been killed or was somehow trapped. The next person to try and get into the cave knew an earth technique that would allow him to move through the rocks and volunteered to go in. We thought this was more dangerous than the invisibility techniques as the user needed to move out of the rocks in order to see what was inside the cave and thereby expose onself to the wasps.
However, we still wanted the scrolls and anything else there was inside the cave so we were willing to take the risk. Thinking back, I'm not sure at that point if we still were trying to get the scrolls for the village's sake or just to gain the recognition of having found them and whatever else was inside the cave.
I can't remember that ninja's name but he was a one of the two members of the Kamizuru clan that came with us. He melted into the ground and moved to the cave. After another two days passed, we decided that he must have been killed as well. None of his bees ever made it out either.
At that point we were running out of options. Do we leave and head back with nothing or do we keep trying? With the loss of two members of the group we should have thought things out and been more cautious but we wanted what we still believed was in the cave, so we attacked.
We used every jutsu that we had. Fire jutsu seemed to work better than anything else but it also attracted more of them to the heat and light. Unfortunately most of us were Earth jutsu users and our jutsu didn't work well at all. The wasps could all fly, were incredibly fast, and were quite agile.
Despite all we had at our disposal and even the larger bee summons of the remaining Kamizuru member, we were pushed back. The wasps swarmed several of the ninja there and they were killed in moments. After that happened, we ran. It seemed like the only thing we could do and being a chunin I didn't have many jutsu to fight back with and only had an assortment of weapons and ninja tools to use.
We ran and kept running for the entire night but they just kept following us. They never quit or took a break and no matter how far we went or how much we tried to evade them, they merely found us again and attacked. Our numbers dropped throughout that night and by morning there were only three of us left that hadn't been stung or killed outright. They just kept chasing us without end. I think a couple of days passed after that and by that time we had no idea where we were.
You'd think they would give up when the threat had left but they didn't. They were determined to kill us no matter what, even if it meant their own deaths. Those damn Saimyosho (hell wasps)!
Nearing the end of our ability to fight back, it was only luck that managed to save the remaining two members, myself and another ninja. The other ninja used a fire jutsu with the last of his chakra and it ignited some of the surrounding forest. The wasps stopped their assault and then turned back for a time. Perhaps they also lost whatever marker they put on us but I'll never know for sure how they managed to track us so well.
We couldn't believe the sight of those Saimyosho leaving and tried to figure out why. It seemed that the smoke from a certain plant will drive them off or at least docile them enough that they would leave us alone and continued to leave us alone. We wrote down the types of plants that were ignited in the map and then realized we had no idea what to do next.
The chase had thrown us so far off that neither of us had any idea where to go. The map was still in our possession but we had no idea where we were on. Trying to backtrack proved difficult as we weren't that skilled in tracking and neither of us wanted to go back to the cave and try to complete the mission. It didn't seem worth it at that point. The rest were dead and going back seemed like a death sentence even if we had those plants.
Trying to find our way back to Iwa proved incredibly difficult with no idea of where we were. We traveled for miles on our own and thought we may never make it back at all. We ended up not making it to Iwa but heading right for the border. However the war was still on and we both strayed right into the front lines in Ame.
I managed to hide the scroll before we were attacked by a group of Konoha ninja that were on a mission to raid an Ame base. The other chunin didn't survive and I was captured, becoming a POW. I thought perhaps it wouldn't be so bad as prisoners may be exchanged between countries. This had happened before when ninja were caught trespassing into another country they weren't supposed to be in. I was lucky that the mind-walk that they used during the interrogation wasn't that extensive, otherwise they would have found out about the mission and the scroll. However they just wanted to know the current layout of the Iwa defensive line and they quickly discovered that I was just part of a pair of lost chunin.
Without any important information I was put in confinement and desperately waited for a prisoner exchange. I thought that perhaps the Tsuchikage would want me back because of the secret mission but things didn't work out.
In the time that I had been gone, a lot had happened. The Tsuchikage Mu had been killed and replaced by Oonoki. The problem was that Oonoki didn't have any knowledge of the mission, therefore it wasn't likely that I was going to be exchanged. I had been listed, along with the other members of the group, as missing in action because no one was sure where we had gone nor why we were gone so long.
Sometimes ninja that are put down on the missing in action list are also put on the list of possible deserters. Perhaps we even got placed as missing-nin, who knows. Our mission was never listed anywhere so our disappearances may have lead to our names being put on that list as well. I only knew that because I spent a lot of time working in the Tsuchikage's tower on paperwork and such. It was likely that we were labeled as deserters and Iwa would not want us back.
So, I was sent to this prison. I tried to keep up hope that someone would try and get me out of here and it was maddening considering that I still had the scroll. A decade or two after that, I learned that the Kamizuru clan had been wiped out in a failed attack on Konoha during the Second Ninja War. Their bees didn't stand a chance against the Aburame clan's insects. The information that I had was at that point worthless. Even if there were forbidden jutsu in that cave, without a member of the Kamizuru clan to use them, they would likely mean nothing as they were meant for bees and bee users. It wouldn't do any good to anyone else.
Time passed after that and though I wished I could leave this place, I was still an Iwa ninja that was captured during the war. I tried to get out through legal means but I couldn't send any information to anyone in Earth Country. I suppose I just slipped through the cracks. Despite not knowing anything and being lost, I was still accused of spying behind enemy lines. Konoha wasn't about to release me and Earth Country didn't want me. I'm just one many people that ended up stuck in this prison as a result of the ninja wars. I suppose their might even be Konoha ninja in some Iwa prison too.
I still can't be completely sure of the real reason but I've been here ever since." said the man as he concluded his story. Naruto sat silently at the end and contemplated what he had just heard. It was an interesting but sad tale.
He did wonder what became of that scroll. It seemed odd that the man was able to 'hide' it and it wasn't found after an interrogation or upon arriving at the prison.
"So where did you hide that scroll?" Naruto asked and the man raises his eyebrows and then smirked.
"I used a jutsu. I'll tell you how if you tell me how you managed to get up here without alerting the guards?" bargained the old man and Naruto thought it over.
If it was some kind of jutsu that the man was using then it might be worthwhile to get. He of course had no idea how, besides fuinjutsu, a person could hide a scroll on their body but he though it might be useful. After all, he did have many scrolls with him and some were quite important.
"I came out through the yard, climbed the building and got in through one of those skinny windows." Naruto answered.
"How did you get past the cameras?" he questioned and Naruto replied, "I snuck past most of them before I found out that no one actually monitors the cameras in that security room."
The man's eyes widened slightly before he fixed his features and then fulfilled his end of the bargain. His hands formed a single handseal and his throat bulged.
Naruto watched transfixed as the man regurgitated a scroll, most likely from his stomach. The man pulled the scroll out and then smile at Naruto's expression of disbelief and slight disgust.
"Its an old ninja trick. You use a complex jutsu to create an area inside your stomach that can safely and securely hold different items. Then you can bring them back out whenever you want. I think its nearly impossible for someone else to get access to them. Even if they cut your stomach open." said the man in response to Naruto's unasked question.
The man tossed the scroll to him and Naruto caught it but grimaced as it was a little bit wet with saliva. After drying it on his leg, he opened the scroll to find the map that the man had been talking about. It was as he had described it and there was more information that had been penciled in later on in a different person's handwriting. It included various other drawings and writings which amounted to what looked to be a whole journal. It even contained drawings of plants that Naruto thought must have been the ones in the story that stopped the wasps from chasing after them.
"Its not any use to me anymore and I can't even be sure there is anything at the end of that map. Even if there was something, it can't be used by anyone since that clan is gone. You wouldn't be foolish enough to try and go after an non-existent treasure, would you?" he questioned and Naruto absently shook his head 'No' but his mind was filled with different thoughts.
"Well you better not..." but he was cut off by Naruto, "What about that jutsu you used to hide the scroll...what would you want for that?"
The man raised an eye as he hadn't considered parting with that jutsu or any of the jutsu he had but he was interested to see what the brat would offer. "What are you willing to trade?" he inquired and waited to hear the answer.
Naruto's hand went behind his back and pulled out more material that he brought with him just in case. It never hurt to be prepared and he smiled as he remembered hearing his mother speak in his dreams.
The man smiled slightly as he looked at what was apparently a signed copy of Icha Icha Paradise and two other magazines.
'I suppose I could part with that one jutsu.' he thought and went about explaining the jutsu to Naruto.
It wasn't until after Naruto had left that he realized that the prisoner he had been talking with could use his chakra and use jutsu.
x-x
Naruto got back to his room before the guard patrol. It was far easier getting back, especially since he didn't need to worry about cameras anymore.
He didn't start looking over his new scroll as he needed to keep working on his wall walking. Even if he put off sleeping, he absolutely needed to finish learning that technique. The deadline he had set for himself was just a few days away.
However, he now knew that should he get into trouble, that he could save himself from a fall into the lava, and certain death, by using his claws. So instead of just practicing using his feet, he started trying to incorporate his claws into the training as well. They would likely leave marks all over the walls of his cell but it would be worth it if it ensured he could safely get across the gap between the prison and the tower.
He began going up the walls on all fours with his claws digging into the rock and his feet sticking on the surface. After a few hours, he was satisfied that his progress had increased and went to sleep.
x-x
Three days later, early in the morning
x-x
Running along the surface of the rough rocky terrain was a group of Konoha ninja. They were heading out to the prison to start their shift. It was early in the morning but that was difficult to tell as apparently the area they were in was always dark and cloudy because of the volcanic activity.
Moving near the middle of the pack was Mizuki. He had been waiting for his chance to get to the prison and knew exactly what he needed to do, which was to the finish the job he started when he framed the Kyuubi brat for murder. It angered him greatly that the brat had gotten off with a short prison sentence and now he would get the chance to rectify that.
No one could stop him and he was confident that the brat was as good as dead.
x-x
Sweat dripped down his face as he hung underneath the lowest overhang on the prison. Naruto had left his cell around half an hour ago and climbed up the building in the yard. He then moved to the side of the prison and climbed down to the last overhang, then moved underneath it to the front of the building.
He was positioned right by the drawbridge and out of sight. When the drawbridge came down, he would leave his position and jump to the underside of the bridge, and then run across it. Konoha ninja would be coming from the tower and enter the facility to take over as the new shift and then the old shift would leave the facility. This gave him a short amount of time to run across the underside of the drawbridge and make his escape.
So he wouldn't get tired waiting for the right moment, he secured the ends of two short ropes to kunai that he had taken from the confiscation room and made something for him to lay on. The kunai were deeply imbedded into the wood of the overhang which created something like a rope hammock for him to lay on. He used one of his bedsheets and attached it to the rings of the kunai. This ensured that he did not get tired or had to keep holding on to the overhang while waiting for the new guards to arrive. He was laying down on blanket, still underneath the overhang and out of sight.
He didn't know the exact time when the guards would change but knew it was somewhere between the three hours period of 3:00am to 6:00am just before the prisoners were woken up. Since there was a chance that he might miss his opportunity if he wasn't always in position, he came up with this simple hamock.
The only problem was that twenty feet beneath him was the lava and he was getting rather toasty.
He couldn't actually see anything except the lava so he had to rely on his ears unless he wanted to risk sticking his head out underneath the bottom of the overhand and risk being seen. He would not make such a mistake after getting so far.
The only thing he could do in his current position was to stare at the lava. Its movement was quite hypnotizing and he could see the heat rising off of it.
An unknown amount of time passed before he finally heard the motor for the drawbridge start.
'This is it.' he thought with a smile and dug his nails into the wood of the overhang to get himself in position for when the drawbridge came all the way down.
It seemed to take forever for the drawbridge to finally come all the way down and once it had, he came out from his spot upside-down and moved to the bottom of the drawbridge.
Making sure his feet were properly secured to the bottom, he started to move across the underside of the bridge. It was slow because he had to concentrate and he dug his claws into the bridge to make sure he had some kind of contingency in case he fell. On his hands and feet he moved just faster than walking speed.
He was being as careful as possible and could hear the new shift of guards above him moving quickly to the prison. They only touched the bridge surface a couple of times as they were jumping across. However he stayed at his steady pace. There was no room for a mistake.
It was when he was nearing the halfway point that something happened which he wasn't expecting. Someone ran by him on the underside of the bridge. Looking up, or down as it were, he saw the same man he had talked with in the infirmary several nights before. The man stopped and looked back, then said in a low voice, "Thanks for the info on the cameras, brat. You can keep the scroll its of no use to me. See ya around!" and with that he continued running to the end of the bridge.
Naruto for his part was in a daze. He barely managed to keep sticking to the bridge as many different thoughts went through his head and distracted him.
'What the hell is going on!? He's pretty fast for a man on his deathbed.'
Nonetheless he got this thoughts back to the present and continued pushing on though at a much slower speed than the old man that just ran by. He at least needed to get halfway to get to the drawbridge that was on the tower. The new shift of guards had already made it inside the prison and he could hear the old shift going across the bridge to the tower.
'Go faster!' urged the Kyuubi and Naruto mentally told him that was what he was trying to do.
The ninja made it to the opposite side and he could hear the motors for the bridge engage to start pulling it apart. Forgoing his hands, Naruto frantically started jogging across the bridge and then running. It was possible that he would fall to his death but he had to get as far across the bridge as he could.
He ran across the halfway point as soon as the bridges started separating and started losing his footing a moment later.
As the angle of the bridge increased, he started going faster because he was moving down hill. The speed became too much for him and though he tried to slow down, his feet started to lose their ability to stick to the surface.
He veered to the edge of the bridge with what little traction he had left and once he reached it, he jumped for the the lowest overhand on the tower. At this point it was likely that he could be seen but he would rather be found out than fall to the lava below.
He soared through the air attempting to reach the tower. His aim was good, despite being upside-down, and his hands grabbed the edge of the overhand. He hung there for a second or two and then pulled himself under it.
'I'm across.' he realized with a smile and it was the first time in over three years that he was no longer on the island prison. He listened closely to see if any alarms went off and to find out where the guards that just ended their shift were. It was likely that they would go back to Konoha and he didn't want to be spotted by them.
Minutes went by as he heard the doors to the tower open and many men moving out of the tower just beneath him. Looking down he could actually see them and he just hoped they wouldn't look up. They walked out until they were a little distance away from the building before speeding up to a run and then jumping across the landscape.
There was no alarm sounded and no other indication that he had been discovered.
'But they will discover I'm gone. Probably when they do the next patrol.' Naruto remembered and knew that he needed to get moving, however, he wasn't sure where to go.
His plan only lasted until he got to the tower and he hadn't really thought about where to go once he was across the bridge.
Naruto's thoughts were interrupted however when he heard a muffled scream coming from the tower. He listened and could hear muffled voices through the thick stone walls. Then he thought he heard fighting, but things went silent after that. Though he knew he shouldn't investigate, he ended up moving underneath the overhang until he was on the opposite side of the tower from the bridge. Climbing onto the tiles of the overhang, he moved to one of the slit windows and peered in.
In the dark he could see a ninja laying on the floor with several kunai sticking in his back. His eyes widened at the site and he moved away from the window.
His heart was still pounding from his entire journey and his breathing was labored but the only thing on his mind was what had happened. Who had killed the ninja in the tower? He however did know the answer and it came to him a moment later. The man that ran across before him had obviously done it. No one else would have.
Looking back in the window, he couldn't hear any noise coming from the tower but he had no idea if there were still ninja inside of it or the white-haired man.
What he did know was that the tower had supplies in it, supplies that he couldn't get in the prison. To survive, even for a short period, he needed food and water. Currently he had neither as he wasn't able to get into the kitchen and had no containers for storing water while he was in the prison.
Despite the danger, he could get all the items that were needed for travel from the supplies in the tower. The only time he left the village was when he came to the prison and he had no practical experience at traveling or surviving on the land. He only had theoretical knowledge and everything he read in the books explicitly told him that he needed supplies.
He had no money either and so he couldn't buy anything wherever it was that he was going. Looking back through the window one more time, he made his decision.
x-x
Mizuki smirked as he moved through the prison on his rounds. It was still early in the morning and he was on the first patrol through the prison with several other ninja. Making his way down the cell block, he moved right for the stairwell that would lead him down to solitary confinement.
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