Before the Slaughter

"How would you like to see Muku again?"

Ryuzetsu froze. Then she got mad.

"Do you think you can fool me with such nonsense!?" She shouted.

Ryuzetsu had come to terms with her childhood sweetheart's death and only wanted to do right by him. She did not, could not bring herself to believe he was still alive.

"It's not nonsense." Shiki calmly replied.

"Although Muku is lost to the world, his soul corrupted the the Box of Ultimate Bliss itself, I should be able to allow you to speak to him one last time. You won't have a lot of time though, a few minutes at most." He explained.

The Kusagakure kunoichi fell into silence.

Shiki's words made her want to believe. Even though reason told her not to, she wanted to believe his words were the truth . . . And so she did.

'But I can't dishonor Muku's memory in an attempt to see him again.' Ryuzetsu thought to herself.

After a few long moments of deep consideration, the young kunichi could no longer bear the temptation and made her choice, a choice she would come to be even more thankful she took, in the days to come.

"So long as you do not ask me to go against my consciousness, and this benefits the village like you say it will . . ." She took a deep breath.

"Then I accept your offer." She finally said.

"You won't regret it, swear the oath and I'll tell you everything." Shiki declared.

And so she did. The oath was the compilation of all the things one had to swear by in order to become a part of his little plan and now that Ryzetsu had sworn them, it was far too late for her to regret.

Following this, Shiki explained to her how their closer relationship would mean for Kusakage and, despite the increased hold Mugetsu would have on the village, the village's benefits and prosperity would increase proportionally.

This helped o assuage Ryuzetsu's concern and let her be surer of her decision to take Shiki's offer, that being his main purpose.

AFter all, to him, the Soul Contracts worked more as a fail safe rather than a method of control most of the time. They stop betrayal from occurring and encourage cooperation but by earning genuine loyalty, the productivity of his subordinates greatly increase.

Before giving Ryuzetsu the customary tour of Desert Fortress and the Mugetsu Core Member enhancement package, Shiki decided to take care of the business in Hozuki first.

It would be good for Ryuzetsu to gain closer before truly starting her new life in his service and he had a reputation to uphold when it came to the swift resolution of any mission, regardless of its contents or difficulty.

To be honest, Shiki was not expecting any sort of trouble when it came to the recovery of the Box of Ultimate Bliss and the suppression of both the warden and the Blood Prison Council.

He did have reservations when it came to the question of properly wielding the Box's power but he had enough confidence to merit an attempt at the very least.

Before going him and killing his targets though, Shiki had to make sure no prisoners wouçd manage to escape.

Just to be sure, he had created a sealing formation around the entire Hozuki Castle as part of his "preparations" all he had to do now, was merely give the signal and it would activate, sealing the entire castle.

After he had recovered the box and silenced Mui and the elders, Shiki would then establish contact with the Desert Fortress and have kahyo come and take her new position.

As for Ryuzetsu, she really had no part to play, something which somewhat upset her. In truth, the only part that mattered for her, in Shiki's mind at least, was the opening of the Box, the occasion where she could see Muku again, even if briefly.

That however, would be done in a safe and thoroughly sealed environment, just in case of the unlikely event that Shiki loses control of the blasted Box.

Still, it was time to go and Shiki stood perched on top of Hozuki Castle's highest tower, Itachi Style, more to look cool, or feel cool since nobody could actually see him, than anything else.

Stalking Mui through the castle's halls, Shiki waited for the perfect opportunity. Even though with his power, he could ignore any sort of plan and just kill them all since no one would be able to escape him, especially with the barrier in place.

However, Shiki enjoyed doing tasks systematically, plan ahead and execute his plans with precision and professionalism, only improvising when needed.

Despite not being a necessity, it also helped maintain Mugetsu's reputation and the Reaper's reputation as a true professional, a good enough bonus for him to justify not solving all of his problems with brute strength.

Shiki's dislike for using genjutsu to control people also came from this sort of attitude. He had no problems with using it in combat or to extract information but he disliked using it to manipulate people into becoming his allies.

He never let this harm his plans though and, any time he found such things necessary, he never hesitated, just like the Kusakage who proved impervious to reason and Shibuki who after meeting with Naruto became a little too idealistic to be a reliable ally without some . . . "adjustments".

Back to current events however, Shiki's idea was quite simple. Stalk Mui until he and the Elders were all in the same room, preferably their secret place that contained the Box of Ultimate Bliss and eliminate them all in one fell swoop.

Simple but effective. He would then activate the barrier surrounding the castle in order to prevent any escapees and call Kahyo to move her, after which her training would continue along her new duties was the warden of the notorious Blood Prison.

Unfortunately, Mui did not meet with the council every single day, only when there was business, which made all kinds of sense.

Shiki was in luck however, in the third night of stalking, the group prepared to offer up a prisoner with high chakra levels to the Box and would thus meet.

After learning this from his spying, Shiki decided to watch them fail in their endeavour before actually killing them. He was quite interested in the process of opening the Box and was looking forwards to see an attempt in person before making his own.

In a dimly lit room a man laid on a stone table as Mui and the elders surrounded him. Behind them, a huge Box with a creepy looking face sculpted onto each of its laterals sat there as if waiting for its unwitting minions to offer it tribute.

'What is the functional purpose of such dim lighting?' Was the extent of Shiki's thoughts as he watched the ritual begin.

The man levitated up from the surface of the table he laid on as Mui and the elders raised their arms up.

'I mean, what purpose does it serve? Other than to make this scene ominous of course.' Shiki mindlessly pondered.

The boredom of stalking someone as uninteresting as Mui for two days and three nights had left its toll and Shiki's thoughts were wondering about.

His eyes and senses did not miss a single detail of the events that were occuring though, Shiki's training was far too thorough for that.

On the side of the Box facing the ritual, the huge sculpted face started opening its mouth as the chakra of the man being offered in the ritual was forcefully taken from him.

However, as the group noticed the amount of chakra left within the man was little and the Box no even close to opening, they did something Shiki did not expect.

One of the elders took out a hand full of pills and force fed them to the man being drained. Miraculously, his chakra levels rose drastically, with the power of his chakra increasing as well.

'Aren't those my chakra pills!?' Shiki thought with surprise in his masked face.

The pills used by the elder were indeed the pills Shiki had made from Takigakure's Hero Water and a few other ingredients, including addictive ones, it was one of Mugetsu's most popular products in the underworld.

'That's actually quite smart.' Shiki appraised.

'Through the massive amount of pills, their literally making sure to extract every little bit of potential in the man so as to open the Box.' He thought with praise at the ingenuity.

as proof of their efforts, the Box did indeed respond. The attempt still ended in failure but there was no denying how closer they had gotten when compared to the movie.

Perhaps in time, they would not even require a jinchuriki and would be able to succeed without provoking the action of other villages . . . Well, no chance of that happening now though . . .

Satisfied with what he had seen and somewhat pleased at seeing how his action influenced the plot of the series, Shiki decided it was high time for his targets to bite the dust.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.