บท 27: 27

The moon shines brightly, blanketing it with the luminous rays of the raging storm. It was evident that after today's events, this prison would no longer be as it used to be.

Most of the guards, officers, and wardens died today. The blood flows everywhere, and the assassin was nowhere in sight. Let alone fighting for survival they didn't even know who they were even fighting against. But despite their confusion, the deadly melody did not stop at all. There are bodies lying in heaps on the ground, and there is not a single guard in the corridor leading deeper inside the dungeon.

The only thing they knew about him was a single word. Ghost. The said Ghost walk in between the corridors. All that could be seen, stretching all the way to the horizon, was nothing more than the bloody bodies.

The barren prison had, no doubt, been the scene of a great battle that shook its foundation to the core. A single man killed everyone, bringing the feeling of despair and terror with him. Now they all realized, that they never should have expected a different result from this. They should have just killed him the first night he was here instead of torturing him over and over again...

Just like his name signifies, he was like a Ghost, whose very existence is hidden from the world of the living.

...

The man solely known as Keiji looked upon the environment with no discernible facial expression. He is the Gatekeeper, Keiji. The man is the key to the formation surrounding the prison.

And so, he patiently waited for his opponent, In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, appeared a man a few meters away from him, with a cloak covering his body and a sheathed sword in his hand, there is no doubt about it, it's him...

"I heard your name is Keiji..! I am sure you know I was coming", the assassin softly spoke to his opponent, his tone being warm and welcoming, "Shall we begin..?!"

Keiji, with all due sincerity, bowed his head to the figure before him. Anybody with common sense, regardless of the situation, would show at least this much respect to the person who managed to destroy the impenetrable and inescapable prison single-handedly.

Keiji knows that today, even if he wins by chance, the prison that is around for hundreds of years would be gone. In his entire life, he never set foot out of this prison, he was born here and would die here. And the monster who destroyed it; is standing in front of him.

Finishing his bow, the man's haori blew to the back with the advent of a sudden chakra burst, an indication of the tension between both combatants facing one another.

A stern look appeared on Keiji's countenance, and for a moment, he blinked gazing into the man's eyes. His look was that of a fierce and determined warrior as if he was glaring into his opponent's soul. His right hand grasped the hilt of his blade, which rested in the scabbard in his left. A tiny high-pitched sound could be heard when the man drew out his sword.

Holding it with both hands in front of him, he looked into the eyes of his adversary. The ground below him cracked as he flickered before appearing two steps in front of his adversary, intent on swinging his blade horizontally toward Ghost's abdomen with hopes to bisect him in half.

Ghost averted his gaze from Keiji's eyes, and proceeded to notice the blade, all the while keeping the sound at the back of his mind. The sudden scene of Keiji cracking the ground did not shock Ghost in the slightest.

Remaining silent as his gaze was focused on Keiji's blade and footwork, Ghost's chakra burst before suddenly forcing a wave of pressure from his being, the force behind it rendering even the ground beneath him beginning to crack, all with the intent of pushing Keiji back a considerable distance and resuming the battle from square one.

Keiji's eyes could see it all. Pure chakra repelled him from his position, rendering his offensive maneuver null.

Being sent away, he maneuvered his body to flip, landing on both feet with grace and finesse.

He was nothing short of impressed, yet his facial expressions did not discern it. He remained stoic and devoid of emotion, not uttering a single word. His eyes gazed unto Ghost a short distance away.

The assassin before him was certainly more than meets the eye, and so he decided to test his mettle. His right hand, which tightly held the blade, stabbed into the ground in front of him, allowing it to remain still and for it to be drawn at a moment's notice.

His hands then joined into each other, with raised index and middle fingers to form the tiger hand seal. Taking in a deep breath, the man's eyes narrowed, and from his mouth, a head of a dragon --made of pure flames-- was expelled. The sheer heat of these flames was enough to burn human flesh with little effort, and this monstrosity charged towards the Ghost, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu"

Underneath the heat of the hot flames, Ghost remained stoic.

Without any warning, the flames Keiji sent out so willingly surrounded him. Of course, this was not enough. Ghost merely stood there without a single sign of a mere scratch. And the flames began to break down into its base component: raw chakra.

Keiji's eyes shook. His attack turned into chakra right before his eyes. It was something he had never witnessed before, and this made him ponder on what the man before him is truly capable of.

"The flames were merely turned into chakra?! Who... What is he?" Keiji pondered. Suddenly, an idea struck Keiji's mind, and his stoic appearance crept up in his visage once more, narrowing his eyes to analyze the man.

Grasping the sword before him tightly, he pulled his arm back and swung it towards his adversary. Keiji did something different: instead of engaging the man before him in kenjutsu as expected, he threw the sword towards him horizontally.

The sword, in mid-air, was reminiscent of a lance, violently aimed towards Ghost's waist. Keiji's calves tensed, and his fist clenched as he looked on with scrutiny. "Let's see if you can do that thing with inanimate objects, shall we?", The man continued to converse, his eyes gazing forward, observing the smallest detail.

Ghost directed his eyes towards the projectile before him. He was surprised at the inefficiency of this Gatekeeper. Any other would have used their simple logic and employed an actual projectile — even a well-thrown shuriken or kunai would have sufficed. Nevertheless, this sword would still phase through him if he wish so.

Given that his opponent is such an idiot, He chose not to waste a Jutsu on him, and use the most simple maneuver available. He waited for but a moment, until the flung sword was only a meter away from him, before suddenly bringing his sword up in an arc-shaped slash.

The momentum behind the slash caused the thrown sword to deviate back up, spinning in the air and stabbing the floor in front of him without a master. "I must admit," Ghost spoke, "I did underestimate your... foolishness as to throw away your weapon, it was truly out of my expectation. But just for your satisfaction... I can phase through physical things"

Keiji was many things. Strange, charismatic, funny, goofy. But not stupid. With each action, Keiji knew the end result through sheer intuition, and this was no different.

His blade, being tightly held in Keiji's grasp multiple times, had been marked with a special seal formula, which allowed Keiji to transport himself to it at whim. It was the sword of Second Hokage after all. Something he never told anyone about.

He found his sword at the end of the first world war when a prisoner was brought here. It was the prisoner's possession that he found in the field, well long story short, Keiji ended up with the second Hokage's sword and it stuck with him till the end allowing him to master something that only the fourth Hokage could master in this world...

In what seemed to be less than a blink of an eye, Keiji appeared in front of Ghost, launching a thunderous punch to the man's face, which --if connects-- would surely send the Ghost backward.

The sheer, unrivaled speed of his teleportation made it all the more difficult for his adversary to be able to defend or evade in time. Additionally, the Ghost seemed to be viewing the man's action as stupidity, adding the element of surprise and making it all the more difficult to evade.

Ghost's sudden realization caused him to fall slightly short of Keiji's sudden appearance before him. There was no opening. But the punch and Keiji's body that followed with momentum just went through him. Ghost sent out another rhythmic shockwave of chakra that managed to push Keiji a notable distance away from him.

"Heh," Ghost chuckled, "I just told you I could phase through solid objects merely seconds ago... Your foolishness truly knows no bound. Though I am surprised. I didn't know you could do that technique"

"..."

"But other than that, You used that Jutsu, and still didn't manage to touch me or even make me move a single step... how disappointing. If it was Minato san instead of you, he would have left me with a scratch, even if it was a slight one"

Through his taunts, however, Ghost sharpened his senses towards the sword, 'That was the flying thunder god. The original version. Second Hokage?'

The man watched as his offensive maneuver failed, albeit coming closest to landing a hit to Ghost thus far. His gaze was shifted to his adversary a fair distance from him. He swiftly picked up his blade, keeping his eyes fixated on the enemy.

'He couldn't have reacted that fast. Does it mean he somehow saw through my attack? No, even then he still couldn't have reacted to it, which means he sensed my attack before I even attacked?!... is that even possible?'

Keiji now knew the man before him was of high caliber, so he decided to turn up the level of the fight. His hands grasped the blade tightly, before stabbing the ground again. His hands swiftly moved as he performed hand seals.

A few moments later, Keiji inhaled deeply, before spewing a massive quantity of water, gushing out of the ground, breaking the floor beneath them, was forming a small ocean right before the Ghost's eyes.

"This prison is made on water, here I have an advantage", The Gatekeeper said with a grin...

As for Ghost, he simply rolled his eyes...

"..."

He was disappointed in this so-called invincible Gatekeeper, knowing that Keiji attempted to make the environment more favorable for himself.

The instant Keiji completed his Jutsu, the water automatically starts gravitating towards Ghost at a rapid speed as if attempting to drown him. As the water rushed towards his being, rather than injuring him, it got absorbed into him, becoming one with him and once again converting into raw chakra that fed his body.

"What a waste," Ghost sighed, "I thought you could have actually tried a little harder. You didn't... allow me...!"

Deciding to attack for the first time, Ghost unsheathed his sword, which he subsequently swung in a wide arc, sending out a powerful blast of raw chakra, its aim to completely obliterate Keiji, which increased in speed as Ghost applied another wave of pressure through his sword, leaving no wastage of the massive heap of chakra he just absorbed.

The powerful shockwave of energy directed towards Keiji did not seem to faze him. Keiji had become quite a well-established shinobi throughout these years. Keiji's chakra signature had disappeared from the face of the earth.

One could see the man as merely an illusion without physical form whatsoever.

'Making a mirror image using the water reflection, interesting Jutsu'

The old man gestured hand seals, his eyes remained focused on Ghost thus indirectly limiting his visual scope. A few moments later, the old man spewed a massive wall of flames towards the assassin. However, things were not always as they seemed, In the midst of the flames covering his view upon being expelled from his being, Keiji had thrown his blade once more covering it with the flames.

'What a one-trick pony', Ghost thought, confirming his thoughts was the fact that he could sense the residual chakra of the Flying Thunder God Technique seal within the blanket of flames.

Ghost flowed chakra within his blade, before shifting his wrist slightly and subsequently raising his arm with incredible speed. He cut through with a strong gale of force, which sends a powerful shockwave that went straight through the center of the sea of flames.

The potency of the shockwave was enough to rip through the earth, sending debris flying in the same direction and forcing the flames to dissipate as they came closer. At the same time, it revealed the location of Keiji's sword, which too was blown away, therefore shifting in the opposite direction, causing Keiji's tactic to become all but useless.

Moreover, the shockwave continued to travel, with the intent of causing both injuries to Keiji via the attack's force and the rupturing of the earth beneath him.

Keiji could perceive the incoming shock wave as clearly as daylight. A second later he jumped upwards in a diagonal fashion to the left, subsequently avoiding the shock-wave and tremor.

At that very moment, his eyes remained on the man before him, 'He saw through my real form and the sword hidden in the flames in the blink of an eye. He is definitely a sensor, a pretty good one too. Not only nothing is working on him but his kenjutsu is also far above mine'

"..."

Noticing the assassin was still avoiding looking at Keiji's eyes, he couldn't help but feel annoyed, 'How arrogant'

He would use that to his advantage. Making sure that this man would at least look him in the eyes before the end of this battle.

His hand formed hand signs, and behind Ghost, a repulsive void was formed. A rift in the space-time continuum, connecting the plane of existence with the depths of Keiji's Dimension: a sea of lava. Not only would it be released in a vortex with power, but the small opening would also lead to the pressure skyrocketing.

This released lava behind him with such a strong force that it seems like a cannon fired. Meanwhile, Keiji grasped a scroll from the pocket of his yukata, looking on at his adversary.

"Never thought I would meet an opponent that could use space-time Jutsu. But if this is all you got... then you are nothing", Ghost said as he felt the dimensional void open behind him.

In the instant that it opened, Ghost seemed to have teleported away from the said area, although in reality he simply leaped skywards.

All of the lava was now directed towards Keiji's location. In the meantime, Ghost readjusted his body in mid-air and kept his blade streaming with chakra to prepare for another spontaneous attack.

Keiji watched as his own creation made its way onto him; he merely looked at it without any discernible expressions. Without warning, another void appears before Keiji's body, vacuuming the lava into another plane of existence once more.

Watching Ghost dropping on him he slammed his palms on the ground, and a cylindrical barrier enveloped him while increasing in size in order to push Ghost back. He could use this as an opportunity to land an attack once Ghost is thrown out of proportion

But that proved to be nothing but useless...

As if he were a shooting star, absorbing the chakra of the barrier as he did so. Keeping his sword parallel to himself, he cut through the barrier like some kind of fragile paper.

What Keiji saw was something akin to a falling star approaching his being and, quite frankly, it was quite an eye-opener.

His chakra levels had now begun to gradually diminish, and on top of that, the man seemed to be in peak condition, only using Keiji's own chakra. He could feel the massive, seemingly unending chakra from his opponent's body.

Despite that, he is using Keiji's chakra till now. Not to mention, Ghost refuses to see him right into his eyes. Keiji was simply irritated. With the descending man getting close, Keiji stared at him, before Ghost's sword swung towards Keiji's head.

In that very instant, a void appeared before Keiji, enveloping and vacuuming the man before him. The technique was one of the highest calibers and was done at extremely close range, there is no way Ghost would be able to dodge this attack from point-blank range...

But the problem is this man's innate ability to suck chakra. Ghost chuckled and the void before him began to collapse and disappear in an instant while turning into Chakra and assimilating into his body once again much to Keiji's surprise.

"..."

Keiji somehow managed to dodge the attack barely by using the flying thunder god and changing directions even in a close-range attack like this, it would have been deemed as impressive by anyone, but what Ghost did was far from impressive.

'Nothing's working, what should I do..?! He can sense all my attacks before they even occur and he negates my attacks like it's nothing. All the while using those to fuel his attack. What an odd technique that is...? Not to mention this man is traveling at his own unthinkable speed, let alone hurting him, touching even a part of his hair is a gigantic problem. No. rather, letting the man use his own chakra seems to be a problem'

"Ghost", Keiji uttered. Keiji's only chance lies with the Genjutsu now, but given what is going on here, Genjutsu should not be working either.

Ghost sighed, "Are you done already..?!"

"Think. Think. This chakra guy seems to like turning stuff into chakra, I have no chance against him with Ninjutsu, Genjutsu should not work as well surprise attack ain't gonna affect him either. Poison might work, but I doubt those guys out there didn't try...", His eyes narrowed

"What to do..."

Muffled voices of guards came behind the walls...

Keiji's eyes remained on the enemy. A smirk appeared on his visage. "Looks like your time is up", Keiji then began his maneuver, his hands clasping to form a mist thick with Keiji's chakra. The mist covered them all, Keiji now knew that the man could sense him but it does not matter.

As long as he stalls enough, this would not remain one vs one anymore.

In the instant when the thick mist covered the entire area, a clone emerged from below and behind Ghost, as silent as the trained assassins of the Mist.

He could not be heard or felt in any capacity. And as he rose behind, the sight was overruled, as well as sensing due to the fact that mist was made of his own chakra, disabling the sixth sense entirely.

Immediately upon the clone's arrival, it's hand-stretched towards Ghost, who would be instantaneously sent to hell from the touch. In that very same moment, Keiji, who stood afar, formed a similar portal diagonally in front of Ghost, ensuring that in case he attempted to escape by traveling forward or upwards, his demise would already be assured, and his defeat would be inevitable.

Ghost shook his head with disappointment, "Haven't you learned already..?!..."

In accordance, prior to Keiji being able to achieve the activation of the technique, Ghost swiftly increased his base speed and, with but a single step to the left disappeared from sight momentarily. His steps could not be heard in this thick mist as he had already closed the distance in only a second, before suddenly attempting a horizontal slash at Keiji's neck.

Keiji showed signs of anger, looking forth towards Ghost. For the first time in the battle, Ghost was looking straight into Keiji's eyes.

This is the first time Ghost actively chose to attack Keiji during this battle. And surely enough, Ghost shows no mercy, and the Gatekeeper's neck fell off his body. The barrier was down the moment Gatekeeper died.

Looking at the second Hokage's sword on the ground, he smirked a bit...

...

When everyone came they saw their invincible Gatekeeper was lying without the head. His sword was crushed into pieces. It would be nigh impossible to put it together anymore...

From start to finish, Keiji couldn't even touch Ghost's hair or even make him use his own chakra. He was also killed the moment Ghost stopped playing and attacked seriously.

...

On the open seas, Kisame Hoshigaki stood on the bow of the smallest flagship in his fleet, the prison's illusion has been shattered already.

Small as it may have been, the ship was the fastest in the entire Kiri fleet as it ripped through the waves with ease.

As the ship sped through the waves and open ocean, the crew knew this was an important mission as their captain had received word to head towards the prison despite being told not to act.

As the island came into view Mangetsu Hōzuki descended from his perch and began walking towards his commanding officer, "Sir, we're coming up on the prison.....", Mangetsu started to say before noticing that there was smoke streaming from the island.

"What is that?" Mangetsu Hōzuki asked as Kisame looked up to see what his subordinate had seen.

With full fear in his eyes, Kisame spun around to Mangetsu and signaled the crew to hurry. "Full Speed", Kisame ordered as they raced towards the now burning prison. The guards on the island are dead, the formation was down and broken; meaning the Gatekeeper is dead.

When Kisame and his team reached the burning prison, all they saw were the dead bodies that are now burning to ashes.

"Spread out, see if you can find any clue that could give us Ghost's identity", Kisame ordered

"Hai"

...

Mei Terumi opened her eyes as she grit her teeth and tried to sit on the bed she miraculously was at. She shockingly looked everywhere, "This is...", Her eyes could not believe it, "This is the Hospital. Why. How am I here? What happened to the prison?"

Mizukage came into her room, "Hello Mei"

"Yagura...? How..?! Why am I here?"

"This is what I want to ask. Why is it that only you survived? Kisame found you unconscious inside the burning prison. Everyone and everything else is burned to a crisp. They found only a handful of intact bodies, even though they are pretty much charred.

Mei took a deep breath, "Do we have anything on him?"

Mizukage Yagura stares at her for a while with an amused smile, "You tell me. Everything in the prison is gone and burned to a crisp. Even his blood, nails, or body hairs the prisoners collected were destroyed by the doctors themselves, and then they killed each other"

Mei opened and closed her mouth, "My house. He lived with me for an entire year, I am sure if-"

"Your house has disappeared, that entire place is nothing but barren land now"

Mei sat there in shock. How come they have nothing on him? How did it go from him living with her for an entire year, getting tortured for so many months, killing so many Kirigakure elites, to having nothing on him?

Not even a single clue? Aside from his...

"Wait, I know, I saw his face, he... he...", Mei tried hard but could not remember anything about his face, she remember everything else, like when he said... said... about something...

"...He also said there is something about... Something about a..." Mei was starting to feel dizzy, she shut her eyes tightly trying to remember anything about him in the prison...!

He was like a dream that disappeared the very moment they woke up.

Meanwhile, Ghost calmly walks on the water's surface while blowing the flute. Playing a melodious tune as he casually walks towards the border. None can see him, none can find him. He is Ghost, whose very existence is nothing more than an illusion itself. And just like that... his figure turned illusionary, and he is gone, evaporated in thin air.