Prologue

The sun had just gone down, the land grateful as the cracked earth began to rapidly cool. Small reptiles and insects revealing themselves to the eye of the moon in the twilight, their scampering going unnoticed by the pair of men standing in front of the moderately sized building that stuck above the dry land and dunes of sand. This building was special as it wasn't any normal building, it's location in the middle of the desert being testament to this fact, no this building was made to be a prison in the harsh environment that it stood in such contrast with. Looking at the building that only stood at three stories altogether with a mere two guards in front one would assume that very few prisoners were within its confines and that person would be right in that assumption as there was but a single prisoner in this building, the prison was only designed to handle one inmate at a time but assumptions are dangerous since the majority of this complex lay underground in the darkness.

The creation of this prison took only a few short weeks, earth jutsu experts being required because of where most activity would be. The guards of this prison were primarily well trained blade users and hand to hand combatants with some long range bow and crossbow wielders, the reason for this being that the prisoner was a shinobi as one would expect such a high class inmate to be but he was unique since he could absorb chakra based attacks meaning that the strenuous process of nearly draining his reserves prior to his detainment would be useless if any other shinobi were nearby.

However this night would be special for the inmate as he'd be interrogated once again, the act kept without routine so he could never plan to escape. A man walked down a long flight of stairs with a pair of the prison's guards at his sides, the candles being somewhat comforting in the darkness of the passageway. They eventually came to a door that opened and led to a stone walkway that brought them to a metal platform that was lowered down to a stone platform, hundreds of archers overlooking as they descended into the darkness of the pit. They reached the stone platform where a dozen other guards stood at the ready with polearms and blades. The figure kneeling on the ground with chains binding them to the earth was clad in a thin lilac top with sleeves that widened as they went to the wrist with their pants being concealed by said top but the person standing before them knew they were black.

Anyone who'd seen the figure on the ground before them for the first time would assume they were female with long white hair but the chuckle that came from them would have immediately told them that despite his small physique and feminine hair... this was a man. "It's about that time again isn't it? After all this time I still don't know who you are." He said hoarsely as the figure approached to lift the prisoner's face, revealing the blindfold over his eyes.

"And you'll die not knowing, now tell us what you know and you might get water with your bread tonight." The man said with a tone of impatience, betraying his professionalism ever so slightly. Again the bound man chuckled until he received a slap to the side of his face. "I'm done wasting time! It's been too long for you to keep up the act, no more! Either tell us what you know or die knowing your leaders only lost a rook in the end! They say heroes fall hardest and there's no surprise that you weren't any different."

More chuckling from the bound man that unnerved the guards around the platform but didn't deter the interrogator in the slightest as he responded with another slap across the face. "It's funny how you all thought that just because you aren't shinobi-" The interrogator instinctually dropped to the ground as a volley of needles were spit from the prisoner's mouth and struck the two guards at his sides, who fell to the ground lifelessly. "That you don't have chakra." As soon as he finished his sentence the man shifted his body to the left to dodge a thrust from a naginata. With a voice that sent shivers down the spine of his interrogator the man spoke again with a cleared throat. "Three minutes until this whole place is gone!" Other guards followed suit in trying to injure the prisoner but their weapons couldn't find purchase in his body.

The interrogator scrambled up and ran to the platform as fast as he could, the few meters feeling like countries as he heard the scuffle behind him. "He's attempting a breach! Lock it down!" He looked back to see an axe miss it's mark and only chop the chain binding the right arm of the prisoner, this proved fatal for the nearest three guards as he immediately disarmed one of the swordsmen and with a well executed slash struck them deeply across their chests. Even with one hand bound he was still a monstrous threat and another two guards fell to the blade as the wooden platform began to rise, the interrogator noting that three more guards fell to the blade as he made his own getaway. "Archers! Fire!"

The long range archers didn't hesitate even as they saw their own still alive with the inmate, they all nocked their arrows and fired one by one until the entire area above the half trapped shinobi was almost blocked out by arrows that he couldn't see. He instead heard the oncoming arrows coming for him and as one of the guards was distracted by the sound he found that both his achilles were sliced into, and a hand firmly grasped the back of his neck. The arrows struck the platform in excess, some being split entirely by other arrows as the rain continued for nearly ten seconds. As the interrogator looked down he saw that every guard was dead, arrows riddling every part of their body. His relief turned to horror once he saw a face up corpse be thrown to the side like trash as the inmate was entirely unharmed.

He stood on the chains then grabbed the cuff at his wrist and with one pull he was completely free of any binds, the blindfold being the last thing removed. He quickly looked around and grabbed one of the naginata before lobbing it into the walls around him, he quickly used another three for his next movement and speared one into the ground next to him. "Hope I'm not too rusty..." He used the weapon embedded into the ground as a launch and propelled to the first foothold as the archers fired their next volley of arrows, the shinobi gave a final leap to the raised elevator as he could see the tips of dozens of arrows right over him.

"Nope." With a press of a big red button the entire elevator collapsed into the darkness below. The guards monitoring the elevator looked down and saw no sign of the prisoner and quickly clasped their hands together in victory, but their celebration was short lived as they found themselves against the ground once the man dropped onto them. They stopped struggling once they felt all of their vitality leave them and the man turned to face the swarm of guards that came at him with various weapons.

Their forces went against the shinobi but to their best were only able to slow him down, their weapons only being deflected in their strikes or being used against against each other as they found they'd been disarmed entirely with their weapons being lodged in their chests or necks giving them swift deaths. Arrows and bolts fired were only finding themselves used in fratricide as the shinobi used his enemies to take the fire. The last of the melee fighters were done and the ranged were all that stood between the inmate and the stair way but to the surprise of the remaining guards on that level he decided to bound up the wall and use carved windows as a foothold to wind up on a bridge and begin to tear through the forces there.

A number of battle cries were cut short as they were swiftly taken down either quickly and fatally or incapacitated and knocked out with finishing blows to the head. A majority of the fighters were men but even the women were not spared from losing their lives entirely in the pathway of the escaping prisoner, in his wake dozens of bodies were left either dead or unconscious as he broke the door ahead of him down and fought his way up the stairs. The interrogator ordered the two at the door he just ran through to hold it with all they had but they were quickly underneath the wooden door as the inmate stood on it barefoot, he smirked and pointed at the fleeing interrogator as another swarm of guards came at him and met similar fates to the last. "Somebody get Onaro-san!" He made it through the next door while the guards found themselves being mostly knocked unconscious this time around through hard strikes to the head and by their own blunt weapons being used against them. Again the inmate burst up the wall and found himself at the last bridge, a mountain of a man standing cross armed while his interrogator was cowering at his side.

"Never thought you'd manage to make it this far... The prison built all for you and you want to leave? Youth these days." His baritone voice echoed through the now silent cavern as guards below focused more on tending to their injured, getting them off the bridges entirely.

"Well it's been a fun hundred eighty three days but I have to find out who's responsible for this place being made, so if you don't mind moving aside so I can do your jobs better than you ever could... And of course give me my footwear." The warden only laughed heartily as he raised a hand to an archer on his right.

"Now!" With one shot the archer struck a stalactite but the real surprise was the explosion that came afterwards and the falling rocks shattered the bridge the prisoner was standing on, the last thing he saw as he fell was the sardonically waving warden. As a shinobi the young man was used to dire situations and this one wasn't any different or worse than most.

With a grit of his teeth he enforced his lower body with the chakra he stole and leaped from perch to perch, never staying on one chunk of earth for too long as he moved like a panther in the mountains. He got higher and higher until he managed to reach the same level of his taunting warden but his goal wasn't there, he eyed a massive spire of earth and leapt to it with all the force he could muster, running along the falling spear until he reached its apex and leapt to the ceiling of the cavern and grabbed ahold of a stalactite that had a fuse on its base. His hands were glowing blue from his chakra as he climbed rapidly to the top, his feet joining once he grabbed the rope that held the balls of explosives together and yanked it with him towards the remaining guards. "Was this ever something you were trained for?" The interrogator wavered as he questioned, his superior for all his mass and masculinity could only sniffle and respond with a whimpering voice

"N-No..." The rope was thrown at them.

BOOM*

The guards at the large doors on the surface had no idea what hit them when the explosion blew the remainder of their forces away, the doors splintered and were in remains right in front of the now abandoned prison. The inmate walked out and scanned the fallen guards that ultimately failed in their assignment until he eyed the broken form of his previous interrogator. With a calm movement that betrayed his previous actions he grabbed the legs of the man and stripped him of his footwear. "About ten seconds early in my prediction but I prefer being early over late." He slid the open toed footwear onto his own feet and took a few steps in them.

(PoV shift: Escapee 1st person)

Being stuck in there for that long wasn't fun but damn it feels good to have the sand on my back again. Now I know what anyone who just saw that would be thinking, but I'm here to tell you what you need to know since someone has to explain to you what the hell got me here. "Now it might seem bad I know." I voiced to nobody in particular. "But seeing me do all of that would make you think I'm a bad guy... and you aren't wrong but you aren't right." I popped some joints with the newfound freedom my limbs had. I'd say I'm an antihero if anything and being twenty-five still gives me a good time to live with knowing that I have a lot of blood on my hands. Now since I have a lot of time to spare I should get to telling you who I am and how I wound up in this prison with a thousand guards and one inmate. First things first, the name's Kusanabe Zeko and I'll be honest in saying that it's weird that I'm telling you this from a middle right now with my prison break instead of the beginning with me being born but we're gonna jump to that now.

(PoV shift: 3rd person)

The elemental nations were a series of five major countries with the unofficial head of which was The land of Fire with the main village of Konohagakure, the Village hidden in the leaves. A majority of the history of these nations tied to this country and this village in particular. It all started with the first Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and goes down to where they currently are at their ninth Hokage. However the focus isn't in this nation exclusively right now, no the focus is to the west of the Land of Fire into the Land of Wind where Sunagakure, the Hidden sand Village, lies. It is in this village where the shinobi are allied to Konohagakure after many rough periods of time, and as such being allies they have made exchanges.

One of the most prevalent exchanges was of a single clan member from a clan that was attempting to gain footing in the world again after being nearly wiped out by one member many years before now. The member of this clan who now resided in this village was currently standing beside his crimson haired wife who was doing her best to push through the horrible pain of childbirth. "Almost there Yokano!" The man who had willingly chosen this village to be with this woman was allowing his hand to be squeezed as she pushed one last time while the doctor congratulated them on a successful birth.

"M-May I see?" The woman labored, her vision blurring from the intense pain she'd gone through. The doctor's eyes narrowed as she eyed the infant, the team of flak jacket wearing Ninja in the immediate area noticing as well. "What-What's wrong?" A few moments passed until the doctor spoke up.

"I-I'm very sorry but your son, he's not fighting. He hasn't cried and I'm barely feeling anything from his chakra network. A nurse came and held her hands to the infant, a light green aura emanating from them. Neither of the medical professionals commented on the birthmarks on the infant as the concern was his life.

The nurse herself shook her head and lowered her hands. "He won't make it at this rate, something's wrong with his chakra network. It's like he needs help but if we try to force any onto him it could damage his body."

The white haired father of the child looked at his wife who was barely holding back her tears until she looked at her stomach. "Akira! We have to ask-"

"No. We don't need to make him do anything, my son will-" His partner held up a hand as she closed her eyes, communing as she called it.

"He's already agreed to if it will help." The team of shinobi in the back moved in and set up a sterile table and laid a clean cloth onto it, no words being said as they'd been prepared for this in advance. The eldest of the group seemed much wiser as she eyed the infant as it was placed before her. Yokano's bed was moved beside that of her son as her stomach was exposed from her teal gown, a pulse of chakra revealing the spiral seal on her stomach. With an expertise lost upon most of the others in the room the eldest woman placed her hand against the seal and turned, allowing a large mass of chakra to begin to leave her. Faster than someone her age would normally move, the woman created another seal onto the infant's stomach as it's movements became slower and faint.

"Not letting a baby die on me today." Once the seal was drawn the mass of chakra rushed from Yokano's abdomen to her son's which sparked him to cry and finally clear his lungs as the process snapped him to a new sense of pain. Akira looked at his wife who was now a foot in the grave but nonetheless her eyes stayed on her son as he was wrapped in his blanket and given to her.

'Please Yokano... I don't want to trade a son for my wife, I need you both.' The man held her as she smiled at her still crying son, shinobi in the room remaining at the ready in case anything went awry.

"He's perfect..." She faintly said, holding her child closer to her as his crying began to quiet down. "My little Zeko made it after all." Her husband looked at her in worry but she had a weak chuckle at his concern. "After everything that just happened I'd be a terrible mother to die now, I've at least got to see him off on his first day at school." Akira let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as he looked at his now calm son, seeing the platinum blonde hair he was known for on his head while his eyes had lines around them like his mother but the skin around them was also dark giving a mask like appearance. The marks on his arms and body not going unnoticed either but he didn't care.

His son was not only born today but escaped the future that they were told would befall them, to Akira this was a day he wouldn't forget even as his wife finally passed out with their son firmly in her grasp he smiled and thanked the others in the room for all of their hard work. Had they not done what they did then fate would have denied his new, and most treasured gift that trumped any other he'd received. 'Welcome to your life Zeko.'