The line moved into the body search phase, where prisoners employed all kinds of tricks. Though every inmate was branded with the Heavenly Prison Seal, which inflicted burning agony if they used Chakra, that didn't mean there were no other methods.
If someone could endure the pain without showing it, they could still use Genjutsu to evade detection.
For example, Kusagakure's Anbu, Ryuzetsu, who stood a few meters ahead of Naruto.
With white hair, blue eyes, and a pirate-style headband, it was hard to tell whether they were a man or a woman. Though from the looks of it, Hozuki Castle seemed to house only male prisoners. Since the searches were conducted one by one, Naruto had no idea how Ryuzetsu would manage it.
Soon, it was the next person's turn… apparently, Ryuzetsu had slipped through.
"Next! Uzumaki Naruto!"
Naruto was about to move forward with his prison uniform in his hands, when he suddenly heard a chuckle from behind. He instinctively dodged sideways, and with a thud, the jailer lunged at empty air and faceplanted onto the ground.
Naruto then glanced back with a mocking grin.
"What are you doing?"
"You bastard!" The jailer snarled in rage, clenching his fists, "Don't get cocky! Once you're in Hozuki Castle, don't even think about leaving! You'll suffer soon enough!"
"Oh, really?" Naruto didn't stop, walking toward the search room as he tossed back, "I wasn't planning on leaving anyway."
The so-called rooms were merely curtained-off partition. Surprisingly, even a place like this cared about prisoners' privacy, even providing a fully equipped infirmary and library.
According to the warden, once you entered, you should abandon all thoughts of leaving… your village would never trust you again. But if you gave up on escape, life here wouldn't be too bad.
After all, Hozuki Castle's funding didn't just come from the Land of Grass, it also received contributions from the Five Great Shinobi Nations. Even prisoners were assets to their villages, so they wouldn't be left to rot.
Whether it was uncovering the truth or wartime needs, these people could still receive pardons and return to serve their villages. Plus, since the other nations had invested money, any country that didn't contribute would feel uneasy.
If a village sent prisoners without paying, its criminals would inevitably face mistreatment, breeding resentment over time. If someone exploited that, it could spell disaster for the village.
Because of this, the conditions here were far better than in most prisons for Shinobi.
"Strip all your clothes!" A fat warden with a bulbous nose barked, brandishing a black baton. Several jailers closed in… clearly, they'd been ordered to give Naruto 'special treatment'.
Naruto didn't hesitate. This wasn't the time for words. He struck instantly, his waist and hips twisting like steel bearings as a whip-like punch, carrying visible force, smashed into a jailer's face.
With a bang, the jailer's face deformed instantly, his nose breaking with a crack. His body folded like a shrimp and hurtled backward as if hit by a battering ram.
With a thud, he slammed into the wall, leaving a massive dent.
Seeing this, the other jailers turned pale, and the fat prison warden also broke out in a cold sweat, 'That punch had created a shockwave… wasn't he supposed to be under a seal?'
"Still want to check me?" Naruto retracted his hand, his gaze sweeping over the warden as he flashed a cruel grin, "I'll rip your organs out with my bare hands."
'Damn it!' The warden's legs nearly gave out, 'What kind of monster was this?'
"N-No need!" The warden stammered, fear written all over his face as he swallowed hard and backed away, "W-We've already checked… No need for another inspection."
"Good." Naruto, clad only in his underwear, slung his prisoner uniform over his shoulder and swaggered off, his well-defined muscles impossible to ignore.
"Sir…" A jailer approached, his face still pale from shock, "What's the deal with that guy? From Konoha…?"
As he spoke, he glanced at the corner where the unconscious jailer was being carried out on a stretcher.
"If he didn't use Chakra, and it was just pure physical strength… that's already far beyond normal humans. No… that's not even human anymore."
"That's Konoha's Jinchūriki. It's a miscalculation on our part." The warden muttered, slumping into his chair in relief, "The intel said the Kyubi's Jinchuriki relies entirely on Chakra and barely trains otherwise."
"If that were the case, all we'd need was for Mui-sama to seal his Chakra, and he'd be practically powerless. Not to mention the prison rules… most people wouldn't dare defy them."
"But sir, with those muscles, he doesn't look like someone who doesn't train at all!" The jailer was still trembling with fear when he recalled the scene when Naruto took action.
"Who knows? Best not provoke him from now on." The warden sighed, "That punch… he probably wasn't even using his full strength. Just the aura he gave off was enough to give anyone nightmares."
"Sir, there's no need to be so nervous. We could always gather more men." The jailer whispered, "No matter how strong he is, it's just his body. We can use Ninjutsu."
"Forget it. At most, we'd rough him up a bit. Konoha would never let anything serious happen to him." The warden said, "But if that guy catches someone alone? If he really digs our organs out, the worst he'd get is a reprimand and solitary confinement."
Hearing this, the jailer shuddered and dropped the idea of revenge.
…
Inside his solitary cell, Naruto had just lain down when he suddenly sat back up. Reaching his hand out between the bars, he waved it around and shouted.
"Hey, neighbor! Come out and talk!"
After a while, there was no response… no one acknowledged him.
"Neighbor! Come out!" Naruto banged on the bars of the next cell, his voice growing louder, "Neighbor! If you don't answer, I'll start yelling!"
In the adjacent cell, Ryuzetsu gritted her teeth, enduring the backlash from the Heavenly Prison Seal. During the search, she had used a Genjutsu, triggering the seal's punishment.
Because of that, she needed at least a day or two to recover.
But just as she had closed her eyes to rest, the guy next door started shouting. And that guy was none other than her target… the Kyubi's Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto wasn't the Kyubi's Jinchuriki anymore, but this information was only known within Konoha and the Kage of the other Great Shinobi Villages. He hadn't gone around announcing it, as that would've been too suspicious.
A crumbling, chaotic village like Kusagakure was barely holding itself together. And Ryuzetsu is just an ordinary Anbu's member, so she had no way of knowing her target had long since changed.
Hearing Naruto's yelling, Ryuzetsu initially thought she could just ignore him, believing he would eventually stop. But all she got was more shouting, and Ryuzetsu couldn't stand it any longer. She was here undercover, trying to stay low-key.
And if Naruto kept this up, jailers would come. And in her current state, if she slipped up, the consequences would be dire.
"What do you want?!" Ryuzetsu coldly walked to the edge and slapped Naruto's hand away, "Shut up. You're disturbing my rest."
"Nothing much. Just meeting the new neighbor." Naruto said with a grin, though he couldn't see her… only her hand.
He vaguely noticed a reddening along the Chakra Pathways on Ryuzetsu's arm, and a sudden realization dawned on him, 'Sure enough, she had used Genjutsu during the search and was now suffering the backlash of the Heavenly Prison Seal.'
"You're in pain, aren't you?" Naruto lowered his voice, his tone laced with mockery.
"What?"
"The backlash from the seal! It's impressive that you're not screaming… you've got good endurance," Naruto said pointedly, with a hint of sarcasm.
Ryuzetsu, who was sitting next door, felt a chill in her heart. She hadn't expected to be discovered the moment she entered, 'Was there anyone else who noticed?'
"Don't worry, I'm probably the only one who knows about this at the moment."
"You!" Ryuzetsu's pupils widened slightly, somewhat scared that the other party knew what she was thinking, "What do you really want?"
"That's a secret."