Prologue

A lone man sleepily sits on an old swivel chair, staring at the 12 monitor screens laid out in front of him. As these screens are the only sources of light illuminating this tiny room, the man couldn't help but feel his eyelids slowly drift shut. But he couldn't fall asleep on the job. If anything were to happen without him noticing, he'd be killed on the spot. He of all people would know. After all, he's seen it happen first hand so many times. He remembered the crazed smile of the man he nicknamed, 'The Executioner,' as he would plunder into the room, ignoring the desperate cries for mercy and forgiveness. The Executioner would stare down at him, eyes wide with a haunting, teeth-showing smile plastered on his face, extend his hand down to envelope the cowering body, and ultimately crush the poor soul.

The man sitting in the chair shuddered at the memory. His gaze trailed from the monitors down to the tile floor. It was obvious that cleaning hadn't been taken seriously as bits and pieces of trash and dust were littered about, but above all, dark red bloodstains lay, staring back at the man. He could almost hear the screams of the countless previous security officers that had messed up on the job. The man sighed to himself as he quickly shifted his gaze again back to the black and white screens. Sitting upright in the chair now, as opposed to his previous slouched position in the chair, he began peering into each camera.

As anyone could probably guess, a place where security detail can be easily removed and replaced isn't a good place to work. Definitely illegal too. But sometimes, the only places you're left with to find good work just have a lot of risks attached to it. Though, if the man were to stop for a moment and consider someone else's well-being other than his own, he would feel sorry for the locked up 'prisoners' he had been watching day in and day out. He stared at the figures on the screen. Some were crying in their tiny cells, while others were angrily voicing their frustrations by banging on the bars holding them in. A few haven't moved for days, perhaps due to starvation, dehydration, depression, or all of the above. The more he thought about the prisoners, the more he realized how much of a rabbit hole this situation really was. The stench of rotting corpses was suddenly brought to his attention, even though the smell had always been there. Being trapped in that tiny room, knowing that these prisoners were all suffering in the floors below him, knowing that they have been suffering for perhaps, decades, was too much to take in.

The man took a sip of tea from the chipped mug sitting on the desk in front of him. This is exactly why he had detached himself from these prisoners, and had decided to live solely for himself. It was just a lot easier that way. It made him feel less guilty. But today was especially hard for him to keep his mind focused on ignoring the eternal suffering below him.

Because what exactly did these so-called 'prisoners' do? Absolutely nothing. They just caught the attention of the wrong person. The wretched snake of a man, the master of this entire facility, Erai. The man gulped as he remembered the stout little man, always on the tail of anything that could bring him to wealth, laughing at the suffering he brought upon others. He created this facility to capture shinobi with rare jutsu or Kekkei Genkai, and enslaved them within this underground tower to perform high risk jobs that earned Erai 100% of the profit. How the system worked here, in a way, was similar to how the five villages within the five Shinobi Nations worked. Shinobi would take on missions to fulfill for their Nation. That's what was essentially happening here. Except, there was a lot more on the line in here in this hell. The enslaved shinobi caught here had no choice but to take on life-risking missions that could kill them. But if they chose not to take on the mission, they would be killed. After all, there is nothing Erai hated more than insubordination. Captured shinobi would sometimes starve to death if they were forgotten because there was no mission for them to take on. So even though Erai was the one everyone absolutely loathed, getting on his good side meant staying alive.

If everyone hated him so much, why couldn't they oppose him? There were surely enough of them to take down one tiny little egotistical man. Two obstacles stand in the way. For one, there are five Shinobi who have attained the absolute trust of Erai, them being labelled as the "Pillars of the Underground," as they ensure that order is in place. The Executioner is one of them. The man didn't know much about them, except for the fact that they were ruthless killers who would do anything for Erai. The second reason is the powerful forbidden technique that Erai had himself. Despite having absolutely no talent as a ninja, Erai possessed one jutsu that ensured no one could oppose him. By imprinting a specific seal on the backs of people, he essentially held their lives in his hands. While he couldn't control their movements like how Puppet Jutsu users can with puppets, he can suck the life energy out of anyone he performs the jutsu on and into himself. At this point, anyone who spends just 2 minutes in this facility would know about Erai's cursed technique, as it is the only thing he loves to gloat about.

The man sighed to himself yet again. His gaze shifted to the unravelled scroll on the desk, with the message to keep track of cell number S5. Like how shinobi missions are ranked, the people locked inside the cells were given a rank based on how useful they have proven themselves to Erai with their abilities, with S being the highest, followed by A, B, C, and D. There were only 6 people out of the total 100 who had managed to attain the S rank. Five of those S-rank shinobi are the previously mentioned "Pillars of the Underground." Because they were all extremely capable in completing every mission they were given, no matter how gruesome, they demonstrated their utmost loyalty to Erai, earning them some freedom within the tower. They were left free to roam around, as it was clear they weren't going to go anywhere, even if they were set free.

However, the last S-rank captive held in cell S5 never managed to obtain Erai's trust. Or maybe they never tried. No matter the reason, it seemed that Erai was finally going to dispose of them. The security man's gaze trailed over the top right monitor. He stared into the tiny room, taking note that nothing had changed from when he had last checked the monitor a few minutes ago. In fact, nothing had changed within that cell for days now. There was still the old wooden table with scrolls neatly piled up in one corner. To the left of the table was a sheet on the floor, where prisoner S5 lay, with another sheet covering their body. He watched as the lump underneath the sheet shifted it's position.

"S5 is just shifting around in their sleep, I guess…" The security guard quietly muttered to himself, "It's amazing how they can sleep so peacefully for two days straight."

"Hey, it's time to change shifts." A loud voice startled the security man as he jumped and whipped around to see who was behind him. There stood the only other security officer who had managed to stay alive.

"Oh...hey...uh, yeah, I'll be off then," The first security guard thanked as he felt a sense of relief knowing that he was a free man. He got up from the swivel chair, feeling pins and needles tingling on his bottom as he trudged towards the better lit hallway and away from the dark miserable room.

"Yeah," The newcomer replied as he walked over to the desk to skim the open scroll on the desk, "Prisoner S5, huh? It's a shame Erai is getting rid of them. Haven't they been here for about 14 years now?"

"14 years? That's...that's a while," the security guard stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn around to look the newcomer in the face. The only thing on his mind was to get out of there and to finally put this feeling of dread to rest.

"I guess he finally got fed up with S5 not cooperating!" the newcomer continued to gleefully chat, "Serves them right, though, I mean Erai was kind enough to promote them to such a high rank and that's still not enough for them?"

"Yeah...it's...it's unforgivable," the security guard gulped as he began to feel his body heat up. He nervously wiped his brow as soon as he noticed sweat trickling down his head. 'Just let me go already,' he thought to himself.

"Anyway, sorry for keeping you! You're probably really tired!" the cheery newcomer slapped the security guard on the back, startling the latter once again. The security guard tried to flash a smile back as he felt a sense of relief wash over him again.

But before he could move, the newcomer gently placed his hand on the security guard's shoulder and whispered, "By the way, I wanted to ask...how long has prisoner S5 been gone for?"

The security guard felt his stomach drop as he slowly turned his head back to stare at the top right monitor, eyes widening when he noticed the lump underneath the sheet had disappeared. Only traces of white smoke remained. Prisoner S5 is gone.