Kugutsu no Shinigami

| 34 | Demolition

Kakashi sighs, and to add the second tally in recent times, asks: "Was that really necessary, Tsumetai?"

Tsumetai stares back reprovingly, an incredulous gaze not even wavering from the challenge. "Of course. How else will we maintain cover?"

"Not that, I mean the cruel method of killing! Surely, nobody deserves even that."

"People do. You just haven't seen the true personality of Kami."

Tsumetai pivots on his feet, retracing his steps.

"Where do you think you're going, young man?" Sai calls after him. "We can get the prisoner and get out!"

Now, I am faced by the crossroads. To establish me as the Ice Angel, as Moratorium is the Hakai no Akuma (Devil of Destruction), or to remain in the shadows?

The answer will be determined.

"I suppose that we can do so..." Tsumetai responds, walking back to rejoin the group. "Do you know where the target is located?"

"Indeed," Kakashi responds on behalf of himself and Sai. "We got it off a guard that we killed."

"Then we proceed." The brief, apathetic response comes as expected.

From there on, Team 7 stalk through the halls at a swift pace, covering ground that one would assume a giant had walked, and they had done so at a record time.

3 minutes.

Three minutes is all it takes to traverse such a vast castle, a prison, specifically, whilst evading all forms of contact with hostile forces.

Eventually, they arrive within a gloomier segment of the prison, a far cry from the grand hallways with luxurious decor that lined it.

Chandeliers? Lighting? Any form of comfort? All of them are absent from the depressing atmosphere that seems to hold no care for its inhabitants.

A row of prison cells lines the walls, leaving no room for plain walls.

Like a sanctuary for birds, except the owners are cruel, deciding to possess no humane living conditions. The place reeks of urine, and even Tsumetai's supposed apathy is penetrated by the sheer stench of the foul odour.

They march, making haste due to the aforementioned odour, towards the furthest row of cells from the perceived main entrance.

They arrive at a lonely cell, a woman dressed in rags that seem to have accumulated a myriad of dust and mould during the years of her imprisonment, her cell unpleasantly damp.

She has an exotic red hair, long and unkempt, stretching to her feet where it pools on the floor, her minute cell covered in a red sea.

"Miss Kimyona Ko?" Kakashi asks, stepping forward into the dim light of a lamp that rests on a desk.

"Who's askin'?" Her voice is roughened, her speech a terrible grating sound that really harms the eardrums of those listening.

"Kakashi Hatake, and we're bringing you back to your home country of Kirigakure."

"Konoha shinobi?" She rasps again, seemingly confused, but nobody can tell.

"Yes, now hurry up!" Sasuke butts in, unlocking the prison cell door.

Their first mistake.

A great screech reverberates throughout the cell block, arousing the prisoners from their slumber.

As a result, the second that her cellmates awoke, the serene but revolting environment dissolves into something chaotic.

"Let me out!"