After physical examination was over, new prisoners were assigned to their cells. Nothing noteworthy happened after that and Kakuzu just spent rest of the day studying the prison's layout.
Soon the night fell. Around midnight, Kakuzu decided it was time to start the operation. But before he did that, he had to take care of something.
He looked down at the spirit's chest. He could see the seal markings across his body. It was the jutsu that Mui cast on every prisoner - the Celestial Prison. Kakuzu's spirit was restricted by it as well. Right now, it had trouble circulating chakra around it's body. That meant that it couldn't augment itself with chakra and therefore it was only as strong and as durable as it would physically be, which wasn't anything impressive. And considering that it was created from a heart belonging to just a random shinobi, even a proper Genin could take it down as long as they were patient and observant. Even if other prisoners were in a similarly weakened state, Kakuzu needed to get rid of the seal to proceed with his plans.
In the end he decided that only way he could get free of the seal without outside help was to approach it somewhat recklessly. Stealth was important for this operation, hence why he sent just a puppet. If this failed, however, he would have other choice to break into a prison by himself and forgo any plans of being careful.
Kakuzu focused on the chakra pathway between him and the spirit and started to channel chakra through it. He concentrated and gradually increased the chakra stream. At some point, the spirit begun overfilling with chakra and the seal of Celestial Prison begun to glow red. Kakuzu felt that it was enough, as the spirit reached maximum amount of chakra it could accumulate, and he directed all of the gathered energy towards the seal with force. The seal begun to glow even more intensely and caused the body to heat up, before it could burn it however the cracks begun to appear on the markings and it soon shattered.
After the jutsu was broken, the chakra begun to freely flow through the spirit. Kakuzu sighed in relief. This had saved him quite the trouble. Then, after making sure that no guard was nearby, the body he was controlling opened it's mouth, and like a snake, a mask begun to slither out from the throat. The spirit's true body moved and looked like a snake. It had long and thin body, with no appendages. It quietly slithered towards the cell door and went through the gaps. Then it went inside cell next to it, and slithered inside.
The prisoner was asleep. He didn't even notice the spirits presence even after it stood right on top of it. It was disappointing, but he bad to start from someone. The spirit swiftly got hold of the man's limbs, restricted him and covered his mouth to not alert anyone. Man seemed to have finally woken up, but it was too late. Threads looped across prisoner's throat and soon he lost consciousness, this time, with no hope to ever wake up.
First, Kakuzu undid the Celestial Prison. Then, the threads pierced prisoner's heart, and the familiar process begun to unfold once again. Slowly, man's body begun going through disturbing changes and the mass of tentacle-like threads begun to rise.
The spirit revealed a scroll hidden within its body of threads. It was a storage scroll, and after opening it, it summoned A mask from it. Kakuzu controlled the spirit to place the mask on top of constantly moving blob of threads. This time, the new spirit took the standard firm of the water affinity mask and stayed in it's cell as the other spirit went towards the different one. Killing and turning more prisoners into the similar creatures. This went on for a while. One after another, more and more prisoners were sacrificed, and turned into the mindless puppets.
It was unfortunate that spirits were incapable of doing overly complex actions. While the spirit was turning the prisoers, Kakuzu constantly directed and manipulated it. If the spirits could perform Earth Grudge Fear by themselves, The process would take significantly shorter time as multiple spirits could be working at the same time. However, that was not possible. The spirits could follow orders up to a certain complexity, however there was a limit to it, and the adaptability wasn't their strong suit. In short, Kakuzu was annoyed how long it took for process to progress.
• • •
Meanwhile, real body of Kakuzu was outside of the castle. Right now, he was walking on the road that led to the prison.
As he was moving forwards, something buzzed besides him. It was size of a bird and was circling around him as he played with it. It was black creature that had a four wings and it's body resembled a miniature dragon. on place where it's face was supposed to be, was a mask that with a shape of the seprent's head. It was result of Kakuzu's experiments with the mask's seal.
After working on it for a while, he managed to find a way to create spirits with different shapes of vessels. And quality of these masks steadily improved during the process. The spirit with the body of spirit was result of his work, as well as this small one besides him. He now could somewhat manipulate forms that the spirits would take. He could decide proportion of the body parts, amounts of appendages and size of the spirit, although the spirit needed strength to support it's changes. Kakuzu wasn't sure about how strong he could make them, but they had potential.
Soon walls of the Hozuki castle could be seen from the horizon. Kakuzu was expentant at the thought of what he might get from the priso . And if he was lucky, he would get personal mount as well.
"Well then. Let's get going."
• • •
Kakuzu detected a movement from the corridor. The spirit ceased it's activity in response to not be discovered.
A cloaked figure approached one of the cells and stealthily opened the door.
"isn't that where Sora is?"
Kakuzu wasn't certain about current situation, but more things progressed, more his assumptions were starting to become true. If Sora really possessed the chakra of the Nine Tails then things would make some sense. But if that was the case, then his plans needed to go through some changes.
The stranger unlocked the lock of the cell. Then quickly knocked out alarmed Sora and disappeared from the scene.
Kakuzu signaled some of the spirits and they swiftly broke out from their cells and followed the cloaked figure. The one he directly controlled on the other hand, continued to work on other prisoners.
After some time, another figure appeared and approached a certain cell.
There was movement in the cell. A woman stood up from her bed and observed the person standing in front of her. She seemed vigilant, yet kept calm demeanor even though she was confused by the unexpected guest.
"Who are you?" She asked.
In response, the man took off the robe covering his face.
"I'm sure you have heard of me somewhere. Here, how about you take a closer look?"
The women widened her eyes as she recognized the person.
"I see… This… complicates things. what is a member of Akatsuki doing here?" She asked.
"I'm on a personal business here, so you don't neex to be concerned about myself. Especially considering when situation in your village. Things are probably not going well in the Hidden Grass Village." Kakuzu answered.
"What you mean?"
"Village higher ups are scheming something, right? And I don't mean usual corruption that most villages go through. They must be aiming for something grand. Is that not why they imprisoned that boy? And the reason that you are here? ." Kakuzu asked.
"… How did- ... no, it's obvious, you seem to have already done your research. I didn't expect you to know so much." The woman answered after a brief silence. "Do you know what their goal is?"
"To awaken Satoru." Kakuzu answered.
"Right…" The woman sighed. "That means you've been keeping an eye on us for some time now… I'm not sure how to deal with you guys. but since you've decided to approach me, is there something you want from us?"
"That's right." Kakuzu nodded. "I want to make an offer. To you."
"What kind of offer?" She asked.
"I will get rid of Satoru for you."
"You mean… you sound certain that that will happen." She said.
"Satoru will be summoned. They have already taken the boy. As of now, there isn't much time left."
The woman furrowed her brows.
"But… Can you defeat it?" She asked.
"Who knows… I might subdue it, or it might be stronger that I expect it to be and kill me instead. But the thing is, I'm your best bet. I'll also help you to get your revenge while getting rid of some old fools along the way. Maybe that'll give a chance for Grass Village to prosper." Kakuzu explained.
There was another brief silence as the two stared each other.
"And in exchange?" She asked.
There was simple reason why Kakuzu was willing to go through the trouble for her. From the beginning, the moment he saw Sora, he decided that he would fight against Satori subdue the beast anyway. And by getting her on his side, he would have an insurance in case things went south for him, in the form of her Kekkei Genkai that could revive the dead. There was only one reason why he bothered to approach her.
"Your life. That is what I want im exchange."
