I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the character.
Failed Attempts
Naruto watched the crowd of prisoners carefully. He knew he had seen a glimpse of a black cloak and a moment later a red cloud but now he could see nothing except a massive group of prisoners in a too-small courtyard walking around for lack of enough room to actually exercise.
I have to leave before he decides to make a move," Naruto thought. It wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't put this stupid seal on me.
Naruto continued to watch for Akatsuki until the sun began to set and the guard making sure no one would escape shouted that it was time to turn in for the night. Naruto silently walked back to his room, all the while expecting a man in an orange mask to step out of the shadows and catch him. Finally Naruto reached his room and silently created a clone then waited for the seal to stop hurting him before climbing up to the corner of the room and turning himself invisible thanks to Kurama performing the jutsu and turning his container invisible as well. Naruto waited in silence, ignoring the pain as he waited for the guard. Instead, a person in a black cloak snuck in. The clone, who had been asleep, woke up just in time to be knocked out again by the man. The man dragged the clone away and Naruto, taking the man's presence as a sign that the guard was asleep or elsewhere, dropped to the ground and had Kurama release the jutsu then silently crept out of his unlocked cell and climbed to the highest level, silently running toward the statue and the hole in the ceiling above it. The guard was asleep at the desk, coffee spilled across the desk, ink staining a sheet of paper where he had been writing something, and helmet sitting at the edge of the desk, almost on the floor.
Naruto leapt to the statue then from that to the hole, climbing out of room and stumbling down the ceiling as spear traps attempted to impale him before a trap door opened. He instantly drew a pair of shuriken with a wire attached and threw them into the ceiling at the top of the pit, pulling himself back up and retrieving the shuriken before running down the rest of the ceiling,again dodging spears, before leaping to the next building and tumbling to a stop, the seal on his torso now burning painfully and making his body go numb.
"Not now," Naruto growled pushing himself up as alarms sounded. "Can't stop here."
He heard several dogs baying and howling as they searched for him and tried to take a step forward but his legs were like wet noodles and the pain was messing with his depth perception, resulting in him tumbling down the ceiling and crashing to the ground below where seven dogs grabbed him holding him still with their teeth as several guards walked over, one clearing the dogs with a whistle.
The next day, Naruto woke up in a small stone room with a heavy metal door and only a tiny rectangular window. It was his worst nightmare, and Madara's best dream. Naruto couldn't escape. Couldn't fight back. And there was likely no guards anywhere near him to come to his aid if he started shouting when Madara showed up.
Some hours later, a voice outside the window whispered, "Hey, you there?"
"Who's there," Naruto whispered.
"I'm a nobody, just a little nobody," the voice replied. "Listen, you wanna know how to escape?"
"Less that than remove this damn seal," Naruto stated. "How?"
"Defeat Mui in combat and that jutsu will disappear," the voice stated.
"Why are you helping me?" Naruto questioned pushing his face into the window to try to see the owner of the voice. "What do you get out of it?"
No reply. Naruto took a step back and sat down silently. He spent the next two days trying to think of a way to beat Mui without his chakra but, in the end could think of nothing except what Madara would do to him. Finally the door opened and several guards let him out leading him to the courtyard where several prisoners were standing around watching in fear as Mui walked through their ranks.
"Hold it!" Naruto shouted.
Everyone stared at him and Mui turned around in surprise.
"Ah, you're out are you?" Mui questioned. "Did you enjoy your time in solitary?"
"I'm out of here," Naruto stated. "I'm not waiting for the Akatsuki to come and get me. I'm going to clear my name."
"And what does all this, have to do with me?" Mui questioned walking forward into the wide circle the prisoners had formed around Mui.
"I heard if I take you down, the Celestial Prison Jutsu will be broken," Naruto stated as several low murmurs ran through the crowd. "I'm not nuts about fighting you since I don't know your abilities and I have next to none, but if it's the only way..."
"I'd reconsider if I were you," Mui recommended. "In your present condition, even you wouldn't stand a chance."
"Let's find out!" Naruto shouted sprinting forward.
He through a punch at Mui and Mui barely got out of the way before driving a knee into Naruto's stomach while still allowing him to fly past.
"Tell me," Mui spoke as Naruto leapt at him again and Mui kicked him away. "You feel you are an asset to your village, do you not? Have you ever murdered innocent men women and children just in the name of your village?"
"Are you saying I'm no good to my village unless I'm willing to do that?" Naruto spat.
"Exactly," Mui nodded.
"That's all b-"
Naruto fell to his knees as his body went numb before pain began to spread through it. Apparently, even the chakra used to fight was too much for the seal to allow.
"You're finding it difficult to breathe aren't you?" Mui questioned. "You're thinking, 'How can this be happening?' and how can you have sustained so much damage from so little effort."
"The chakra needed to fight...is still too much...for the seal," Naruto panted. "I'm not...a complete...idiot."
"That remains to be seen," Mui stated. "Eventually you will learn. You no longer matter to anyone. And even if you went to the gates of Hell and back for the sake of your village they wouldn't care."
"You go to Hell," Naruto spat as a pair of guards carried him past Mui. "This isn't over yet."
"Well well," the fat guard that Naruto was growing to hate sneered as he followed the two carrying Naruto. "You must have enjoyed your stay in Solitary because here you are going right back in again. Second offense, five days. Let's see how feisty you are after that."
Five days later, Naruto watched the door open and noticed that there was a small area in the corner that couldn't be seen by the guard opening it that could hide someone. He suddenly had an idea, not that he would need it. If he got locked up again, he would be in there long enough that there would be no way Madara wouldn't take the chance to capture him. Naruto was quite pleasantly surprised that he hadn't shown up yet. This time, Naruto was let out about lunch time and walked into the cafeteria to get something to eat. All conversation instantly stopped and all eyes turned to him. Naruto ignored it for a moment but when he reached the window that served food, he saw that the cooks were already gone. He turned around and was suddenly acutely aware of the attention. After a moment of silence, a tall man with the sides of his head shaved, the top with hair but combed back into a short ponytail similar to Shikamaru's, a brown leather jacket with yellow down the sleeves, light grey pants and black sandals stood and began walking toward Naruto. His jacket was open revealing his seal but he didn't seem to mind it much.
"Can we skip the fight?" Naruto sighed. "I'll get locked up again, you'll get locked up, and we'll both just be in a lot of pain."
The man raised his hands and began to clap and a moment later everyone in the room was doing the same, all smiling genuinely.
"What exactly is going on here?" Naruto questioned.
"Introduce yourself," the man suggested and Naruto grinned.
"Okay," Naruto shrugged. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki, proud shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and proud Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, not that that does me much good with this seal."
"A Proud Jinchuriki huh?" the man questioned. "I'm Maroi, nice to meet you. I haven't heard of a proud Jinchuriki for a while. I guess Fukai was only the first."
"Actually the first was Mito Uzumaki," Naruto stated. "Or maybe the old man Shukaku was first sealed into."
The man rolled his eyes grinned then motioned for Naruto to follow him and snuck into the kitchen where he made Naruto some ramen before returning.
"You're something of a hero around here," Maroi stated. "Tried to escape the first day, in Solitary twice, attacked Mui despite having no chakra. No a lot of guys would do that."
"Trust me," Naruto grinned. "That was nothing."
"Maybe," Maroi smirked. "But Mui's imprisonment jutsu has made us all forget we're shinobi. Just look around. These guys are sheep. Nobody ever stirs things up in here. It's so peaceful."
"Fight in the yard!" someone suddenly shouted and all of the prisoners rushed over to the window.
"Looks like someone else is takin' on Mui!" someone else reported.
"Thought you said this place was peaceful," Naruto blinked staring at Maroi.
"You must be a bad influence," Maroi laughed as they walked to a window that was relatively clear to watch.
There were dozens of prisoners around Mui who looked bored. One of the prisoners questioned Mui about the validity of the info Naruto had all but shouted when he himself had fought Mui. Mui responded by warning them all not to try to fight him or they would die, a warning which none of them heeded.
"Get him!" the seeming leader shouted as they all charged forward.
Mui appeared away from the group, one of the prisoners running forward to punch him instantly. he began avoiding attacks right and left as all of the prisoners charged again.
"Kusakage style, Explosive Palm," Mui growled blocking a punch before delivering an elbow, two punches, and a palm strike to four different prisoners, one hit each before slamming another's head into the ground all within half a second.
He jumped over two simultaneous punches and kicked both attackers in the head sending them flying before landing on one's back before quickly taking several more down. Naruto realized he had been killing each with one hit and grit his teeth. Finally he stopped with only the one who had been the leader left. He began walking forward over and around the corpses as the prisoner stumbled back.
Mui raised his hand and said, "Celestial Prison, flame sword."
a blade made out of flames erupted to life around his hand and Mui walked forward until it pierced the prisoner, jutting out from his back as flames covered his body. The prisoner screamed in agony as he burned to death and Mui walked away calmly as if nothing had happened.
"That guy is a monster!" Naruto spat.
"Leave it alone," Maroi cautioned. "I've been here for a while. I know everyone's story. That guy he just burnt to a crisp, he poisoned a village's water supply, killed everyone in it."
"Why did he do that?" Naruto questioned.
"Because some girl from that village turned him down," Maroi stated. "I'm just saying, you don't want to go throwing your life away on scum like him. You're worth a lot more than that."
Several hours later, the prisoners were again recalled to their cells for the night, Naruto again having glimpsed something, this time a yellow eye and pitch black skin, barely visible in the shadowy corner it was in, body half hidden behind a beam. As the prisoners made their way to their cell,taking Naruto's clone with them, Naruto hid behind a pillar of his own, having had enough of the prison. A few minutes later, a guard ran past saying something about being late. Naruto leapt out and knocked him out then put the guard's uniform on. He then hid the unconscious guard and calmly walked out of the prison through the front gate before sprinting down the steps and throwing the helmet away.
"One clone is all I need," Naruto grinned reaching the bottom of the steps. "So long Blood Prison. Madara and Mui can kiss my ass."
He turned and followed the stream by the prison toward the cliff. He would need to swim to keep from burning to death when he got away from Mui. When he reached the cliff, he found himself having to fight to stay on his feet in the wind. He was at a small outcropping and when he stepped forward, it crumbled under his foot forcing him to pull his foot back. Below him were two maelstroms side by side and several dozen massive jagged rocks. The moon was painting everything with a bloody hue and made the roiling water below look the color of blood, something that definitely unnerved Naruto.
"You'll die if you jump from there," a voice behind him called as he was about to jump making him stop, struggling to regain his balance.
He looked back and saw the girl with the green bandanna.
"Why are you so determined to get away?" the girl questioned.
"If I stay here, the Akatsuki will show up and murder everyone here until they find me then drag me away and kill me," Naruto stated. "You must know who they are. If I leave, they won't slaughter all of you, they'll have no reason to. Besides. If I'm stuck here, who's going to look for my impostor? I have to prove my innocence."
"How do you know they'll believe you?" the girl questioned. "After all, they're the ones who sent you here."
"You're right," Naruto nodded. "Only a handful believed me. But the Hokage is my father. There's no way he believes I did it. And if you think I'm sitting around here waiting for Madara Uchiha to come after me, you're crazy!"
With that, he leapt off of the cliff before she could raise anymore good points. As he fell, he could have sworn he saw a spot on a rock in front of him that looked like a face. But then he hit the water and was instantly sucked underwater, unable to do anything more than be whipped around. He was moving too fast to even be capable of moving his arms. A moment later, he was slammed into the wall and lost all notion of time, place, feeling, and general reality.
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