Sakura did not lower her guard, even as Mui ushered them up the stairs into his office at the very top of the castle keep. It didn't seem like the prison master had any sinister intentions after all, yet still she could not shake the uneasy feeling that something was amiss. She caught Kazan's eye; he seemed to have noticed something as well.
"At ease," Mui said impassively, seating himself behind his desk.
The lord of the prison's office was a rather austere place. Two candlesticks stood before his desk, allowing him to press on with his paperwork even as natural daylight waned. A tall bookshelf loomed behind him, its shelves neatly filled from end to end with books and decorative earthenware.
"You wanted something from us, sir?" Kazan asked politely.
Mui steepled his fingers and leaned forward over his desk. "As expected of Kazan of the Hundred Transformations," he said. "I cannot see through your jutsu, no matter how hard I try."
"What!?" Kazan gasped, his eyes growing wide.
Sakura instantly exploded into action. In the dim light, she decided at once to forego Genjutsu. Using her incredible chakra control, she forced her chakra to surge to the very edge of what the Celestial Prison Jutsu would allow.
"Shannarooo!" Sakura roared.
The floorboards at her feet exploded inwards as she vanished in a puff of white smoke, reappearing in her true form in front of Mui's desk with her fist drawn back.
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!"
In a flash, four masked figures appeared out of nowhere around Sakura, each pointing an index at her. She froze, paralysed from head to foot, feeling though as she had been struck by lightning. Try as she might, she couldn't shift by even a centimetre.
"Hoho, it's no use resisting!" the man in the sheep mask sniggered. "We of Kusagakure specialise in imprisonment jutsu!"
Sakura closed her eyes. As far as she knew, the Paralysis Jutsu wasn't a Genjutsu, which meant she could break free either through sheer force or by driving it out from within, using the strength of her chakra.
First option it is, then.
"Not so fast!" shouted Ox-Mask, as Kazan pulled out a sickle and chain from his sleeve. "Why do you think we bribed Yuga to send us your child? We hold all the cards, here! You'd better lay down your weapons if you know what's good for your family!"
"Cowards!" Kazan spat.
Kazan was a family guy, so he threw down his weapons with a clatter and raised his hands in surrender, but Sakura was not done just yet.
"Body Revival Jutsu!"
Sakura's muscles began to ripple, though her captors took the strange vibrations for the usual twitching that came from struggling against the Paralysis Jutsu. In truth, her body was already burning through the nutrients from the military ration pill she had taken earlier…
"What do you want from me?" Kazan growled, his gaze flicking from Mui to the four masked figures. "You've gone to a fair bit of trouble to lure me here…"
Death and rebirth in a continuous cycle. Destruction and reconstruction, yin and yang…
"We have a job offer for you, Kazan of the Hundred Transformations," Tiger-Mask said. "Do as we say, and your child goes free…"
Strength began surging through Sakura's every muscle.
Her already toned stomach was firming up, and though her abs would never be as prominent as a man's, fine lines started tracing themselves on either side of her abdominal muscles in a V. Her thighs and backside started thickening, cords of strength forming beneath her skin. Her pectoral muscles tightened and her back gained definition, sinews deepening and lifting up her monumental breasts…
"We are in need of your special talents," said Monkey-mask. "We would like you to impersonate Uzumaki Naruto of the Hidden Leaf, travel among the other Great Villages, and assassinate key figures in his name…"
Sakura's biceps bulged, and she clenched her fists. That was the last straw!
"What the!?" Ox-mask shouted. "She's breaking free of our fourfold layered imprisonment through sheer strength!?"
"Die, you zodiac bastards!" Sakura roared. "As if I'd let you mess around with my friends!"
Caught off guard, the four masked men stood no chance at such close range. Sakura sprang into the air and drove her foot into the face of the man with the ox mask. The porcelain shattered on impact, and he was sent crashing into Mui's desk.
Using his head as a springboard, Sakura flipped backwards, caught the tiger- and sheep-masked men by their heads and smashed them together while still upside-down in midair, before landing gracefully in front of the last of the masked strangers.
"What are you waiting for, Mui?" Monkey-mask screamed, cowering in fright. "Help us!"
Mui calmly raised a hand and performed the tiger seal.
Sakura cried out as the Celestial Prison Jutsu blazed across her chest, its brand glowing a dull, angry red. It felt as if her insides were being dragged across hot coals; the cursed seal was twisting her chakra into the fire nature without her consent, igniting it within her pathways and searing her from within.
With a strangled groan, she collapsed to her knees, before falling on her side.
"Don't," Mui said calmly as Monkey-mask drew a kunai and prepared to slash Sakura's throat. "Being able to summon this much chakra under the Celestial Prison Jutsu means she must have tremendous amounts of it."
Even a flawless application of the Celestial Prison Jutsu couldn't seal away an inmate's chakra entirely. Most shinobi retained a small fraction of their true strength, and depending on their natural reserves, that slight percentage could still be enough to perform a jutsu or two.
"I see. It would indeed be a waste to kill her now," said the woman in the monkey mask, her shoulders rising and falling heavily. "As expected of one of the three hailed as the living reincarnations of those accursed Sannin. Best to leave her to the Box."
Mui stepped over the limp form of Ox-head and walked through the shattered halves of his desk. Stooping in front of Sakura, he lifted her feverish body and slung her surprisingly heavy body over his shoulder.
"That solves the issue of today's sacrifice," Mui said coldly. "I'll leave the rest to you."
Monkey-mask sniggered. "I'll take care of getting Kazan ready and writing the letter to the Leaf, then," he said. "Unfortunately, Inmate Manyū Sakura perished from her injuries following a prison brawl…"
Mui nodded, uninterested in the finer details, then turned on his heel and strode across the room to the bookshelf, Sakura still slung over his shoulder. He reached for a blue-bound volume and gave it a firm pull. With a sharp, mechanical clack, a section of the shelf slid back into the wall, revealing a narrow, dimly lit passage. Without hesitation, Mui stepped through and disappeared into the darkness, the entrance sealing shut behind him with an ominous thud.