13 12.KONOHA STRICT CORRECTION FACILITY

The Konoha Strict Correctional Facility also known as the Maximum Security Prison of the Land of Fire, is a place where shinobi who have committed serious crimes work off their debt to society.

In the past, when inmates were plentiful, the prison used to go under the name of 'The Ninja Prison for Capital Offenses and Villainies'. However, due to reduced crime rate and intensity, the prison was rebuilt into a smaller facility and was renamed. The prison is a shiro built castle in the centre of a volcanic area on a triangular island(akin to a kunai shape), with a long Bascule Bridge to connect the Watch-Tower with the castle.

It also consists of a large excavation area on the front of the island where prisoners are to dig through it, the ores of chakra-enhancing metal as a character building exercise.

The chakra-enhancing metal is found only in small amounts in the area where the prisoners were mining nonetheless it was a source that benefited Konoha.

After extracting what little there was of the unique metal from the ore and processing it, the metal is sold for a high price or can be used by Konoha Shinobi Forces for making weapons.

Shinobi, especially skilled ones, can forcibly channel chakra into weapons made from other metals too but it won't be as much effective as it becomes when used with weapons made from chakra-enhancing metal. It does what the name claims, it enhances the conduction of chakra in the weapon and made it easier to flow as well as mold it for longer periods of time without any difficulties and with the minimalist of Chakra requirements.

A weapon could be either enhanced with it or made entirely from it like tanto, trench knives, etc which can cost a small amount of fortune, or swords like the 'White Chakra Saber' by adding small amounts of chakra-enhancing metal into the steel in a very unique proportion and then it is forged to make the desired weapon. These weapons could also be attuned to a certain type of nature manipulations, in most of the cases mainly wind, lightning or sometimes even raw chakra itself.

During the process of forging a weapon the chakra-enhancing metal used can also be moulded to highly and greatly conduct only a certain Chakra-nature type like Sakumo Hatake's White Chakra Saber which was highly attuned to only lightning-natured Chakra, so much so that it used to release white light and loud sound of buzzing of lightning whenever used. The metal is just that useful.

The prison which used to house notorious thieves, murderers, serial-killers, rapists, contract-killers, felons, Yakuza, missing-nins, spies, foreign shinobi, etc; is now gonna house an eight-years old Naruto Uzumaki.

The 'Five-Man Escort Team' made their way over the Volcanic hill with Naruto, the prison has finally came into view. It took them a total of two days to arrive there on foot.

Once they were infront of the Watch-Tower, the tower-gaurds asked the Team Leader for papers. Dog showed the necessary papers to the guards. The gaurds checked them and confirmed their validity, then granted them entry into the tower.

One of the guards signalled and the other gaurd inside the watchtower opened the gates, afterwards, they took the escort team and Naruto directly to the Prison Warden's room so that the man can confirm and sign the scroll. Aside from confirmation, the Prison Warden also likes to know whom he will be housing. It helps him to decide what to do with the prisoner and to remind them why it's bad idea to misbehave in his prison.

The guards helped Naruto sit in the oversized chair that's usually reserved for criminals. He was quiet on the entire journey. No matter how the gaurds look at it, the child looked just as innocent as any other kid. Sadly, they couldn't do anything about it nor did it concern them because as orders dictates, the child will be locked in a prison cell thus from now on will live along with the other convicts.

When the warden arrived and saw the Naruto from outside the window, he couldn't believe his own eyes, it puzzled him, how a child this young has managed to kill two veteran Shinobis yet the files on the child is dictating otherwise. He had checked the files on Naruto several times in disbelief, and to be frank he wouldn't have believed it, most likely would have considered it a misprint but apparently he was wrong.

The files also assert that the kid is the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. He knew the difference between Bijūs and their respective Jinchūrikis, as well as knew the necessity of their existence for the 'Balance of Power' among the Five Great Nations. But he couldn't help but ask himself, aren't they special cases handled by the top Shinobi of the hidden villages. Hence why he is failing to comprehend why the Hokage has send one to his prison of all places?! Why not to a more suitable place like the Blood Prison?! Nevertheless! Before he meets the boy, no criminal, or any other convict; he always preferred to take precautions by having extra guards. Who knows what the Jinchūriki might do. He knew they are dangerous, how they could wipe out entire platoons of Shinobi in mere moments. He was a war veteran so he knew of the horrors and mayhem the Iwa Jinchūrikis has caused in the Third Shinobi World War. It was the reason why in the beginning, Iwa was on the verge of winning the Third Shinobi World War before the timely arrival of Yellow Flash who like a whirlwind took Konohagakure to victory against all odds.

The reports on the files aver that the criminal Naruto Uzumaki was convicted for his involvement in the Uchiha massacre and is found to be an accomplice of Itachi Uchiha. It also says that the child had murdered one Jōnin Policeman and a Chūnin gate-gaurd no less albeit in Self-defense. If it wasn't for the information about his Jinchūriki status, he wouldn't have believed anything. Hence, forgive him for his reluctant behaviour when a kid no more than eight-years of age is accused of murdering war veterans and was found guilty for involvement in the massacre of arguably the strongest clan of the Land of Fire.

Naruto was still sitting in the big chair and was looking down at the ground, thinking about his future plans. However, he was awakened from his thoughts when someone presented some papers infront of him.

"Sign here and here!." boomed the voice of the scary warden.

Naruto quickly complied.

It took some time to process the necessary paperworks down the channels (From Konoha ANBU to the prison guards, then from the guards to the warden and from the warden to the record rooms) of the prison facility. The warden was skeptical when he first read Naruto's file. As mentioned, it says he's a Jinchūriki which means the container of Bijū and on top of that the bijū is non other than the Nine-Tails thus his hesitation and delay in the paperworks. The paperworks are all appropriate and correct, despite how many they check, the kid's photo and info, they are accurate. It contains the necessary documents, the proper signatures and stamps from the council and the arbitrator, including Lord Hokage's. Hence, the kid/criminal/Jinchuriki/Naruto is now part of the prison's responsibility.

Of course, similar scenarios were happening with the guards. Despite, all the accurate paperwork, the guards were still reluctant to accept Naruto because some of them were present in Konohagakure, when the mighty bijū attacked, and that terror is still alive in their hearts.

Sadly, there was nothing they could do about it and their responsibility lies in housing the prisoners sent to this prison facility regardless of their feelings, even if the prisoner happens to be non other than the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails.

The Warden can do nothing but accept the Jinchūriki in his prison because he had little to no influence in the Konoha Council, there's nothing he can do about it. Especially over a decision that is approved unanimously by the whole Konoha Council including the Hokage and taking into consideration that each and everyone of them had much higher political standing in the society than he does. Hence, questioning their decision wouldn't be wise.

He could go to the Fire Daimyō, then again on what grounds does he can possibly challenge a Shinobi village's verdict. Fear? Hahaha! He will be immediately terminated from his position and as a Shinobi. Shinobi and fear can't live together. Hence in the end, there's very little he could do but to accept the tween criminal Jinchūriki in his prison and continue do his job.

Although the Jinchūriki was malnourished and looks harmless but he can't help but be a little wary and fearful. Keeping his emotions in check, he put on his warden image.

"Uzumaki Naruto, the files explains that you were convicted for your involvement in the Uchiha massacre."

"Can you tell me your side in this?"

If he's expecting an explanation, he's sadly mistaken as Naruto wouldn't even look at him in the eye. In fact he has been like that since his arrival in the prison facility.

Sighing in defeat, he found himself totally lost in this situation as he couldn't think of what to do in this situation. By law, he should proceed with the kid like any other criminal but deep down he is fearful cause he knew the child is housing the strongest of all Bijūs.

Housing the Jinchūriki in his prison is the least of his problem as there may be a riot not just among his own men but maybe among the prisoners too. His guards might stop obeying his orders just to create a scene due to the presence of the Jinchūriki. Whereas some of his prisoners who were sent here for harrassing the Jinchūriki would be equally furious and may even try to harm him, and if they succeeded, there's no doubt it will bring the wrath of the Third Hokage on him and on his prison. He didn't want that to happen at any cost.

Two large doors are opened as they exited the Watch-Tower. Naruto shivered at the site of the lava surrounding the prison, it made the prison very intimidating. The prison is shiro-built and was present on a piece of land in the middle of a lake of lava. It looked less like a prison and more like the Hell on planet Earth.

On the first glance, their seemed to be no way to get to the other side of the prison but everyone except, Naruto, knew that a Bascule bridge/Draw bridge spans the gap between the prison and the Watch-Tower.

One of the guards signalled something to the prison gaurds at the other side of the building and the draw bridge then connected the prison with the Watch-Tower. The group waited for the two pieces of bridge to lock in place and then made their way across to the prison. 

Dog had to keep a firm hand on Naruto's shoulder to keep him from running away in the opposite direction.

The heat from the lava caused the air around the bridge to waver slightly and the prison building somehow became more frightening to Naruto than it had been some minutes ago.

After crossing the bridge, they came face to face with two large doors. It were opened as they came near them and the group entered the central prison. They passed through the entryway and the escort group nodded to the guards. The Chūnin gaurds then guided them around the cell block with the prison warden accompanying them.

In order to reach the location where Naruto would be staying for the rest of the duration of his imprisonment, they had to cross through the entire cell block. The cell block consisted of an open area, four stories tall, with walkways on either side and lined with cells that were filled with criminals.

They were currently on the top floor and would have to walk down three staircases to the bottom level. The bottom level only had a few cells and mostly contains the showers, laundry, entrance and exit point to the yard, and a kitchen. Of course they had to walk down the staircases while in full view of the entire prison population. It was unfortunate but due to the architecture of the prison, the only place for Naruto to stay safely was actually in the basement which was renovated into a sort of solitary confinement cell, especially for Naruto. As they reached the last of the staircases and proceeded to walk further down, the light started diminishing further and further until it was completely gone. The gate gaurds then lighted the flambeaux accross the walls of the basement.

As the escort group kept moving, they finally reached the last corridor and headed for a side staircase to the solitary confinement level or what the prisoners called 'The Dungeon', where Naruto will serve his sentence for the next five years, atleast according to the Third Hokage.

As they passed through the dungeon, two large, bulky and tanned identical men stopped eating, chuckled, and waved in their direction.

The escort group find it unusual considering that no other cells were supposed to be on the bottom level let alone prisoners. Upon closer inspection, they recognised the said prisoners as the secretly hired 'bodyguards' for Naruto's safekeeping in the prison in exchange for extra food, they are non other than the Legendary Stupid Brothers.

Now, they didn't find it unusual anymore because the real reason why the brothers had been moved there was to make sure that they could better protect Naruto from the other inmates with harmful intentions. They are nothing more than paid watchdogs and are incredibly stupid. They could come inside and go out of their cell however they desired and usually they leave their cell only when they were hungry. Naruto absently wondered why so far, they had only encountered two prisoners in this floor.

Despite the bottom floor of the prison being quite large, the Dungeon really wasn't that big. It was just a row of cells on one side and numerous storage rooms on the other side. The cell that they were headed to was at the very end of the dungeon facing the direction they were walking in. A camera was also situated by the door to watch the hallway.

The escort group continued on and made there way down to the last cell in the Dungeon. Looking around, Naruto saw no additional staircase and he hadn't known that he would be staying in the lowest level of the prison. As the group was passing through all of the solitary confinement cells, Naruto got the feeling that the cell he would be staying in would resemble the ANBU holding cell.

The group stopped at the last door and the warden pulled out his keys. He unlocked the door and they walked in. It definitely hadn't been what Naruto thought it was going to be. The room was actually rather large, and at least four times the size of the ANBU holding cell. There was a bed with metal frame, a short table desk and chair, a small fridge, several cabinets with a small countertops and a bookcase filled with some books and a few scrolls. Naruto also had a closet and a door leading to a bathroom with shower. This meant that he did not have to shower with the rest of the inmates. This was actually very similar to his apartment, only condensed. The room also had a calendar and clock on the wall.

The room could have a good amount of space if he moved the table under the bed then he could train and go over the katas the academy instructor Iruka had taught him. Suddenly, he realised his new abode was not only down in the lowest area of the prison to keep him safe and separate him from the rest of the prison population but also served to hide the amenities that he had been provided with, which the other prisoners lacked.

The Third Hokage had made this room by destroying four cells and combining them together, especially for Naruto though he didn't knew about it.

"This is actually a lot more better than my broken apartment and I don't have to pay any rent. Hehehe... atleast something good came out of this imprisonment for me." Naruto thought trying to look at the positive aspects of things to make himself feel a little better and to help himself accommodate better to the prison life ahead. Naruto then sighed and resumed his thoughts, "Although the location was a little too dark for my tastes. Was it really necessary to choose my cell at the bottom level of a shinobi prison? Then again I am the demon boy, aren't I? And beggars can't be choosers. I guess this is it."

Bird couldn't help but wonder if the space wasn't rather extravagant for a prisoner but he knew the Hokage greatly care for the boy and a child living in a prison did need some extra amenities. Boar was most impressed with the entire operation and the craftiness of the Third Hokage to make the life of the boy as comfortable as possible and as safe as possible while still adhering to the laws and decisions of the village and country. The boy's prison cell is probably the was most hospitable one in this cell and the room itself was atleast four times larger than the other cells.

"I will be back and I will get my revenge on those who had wronged me. I won't forgive them. I won't ever forgave anybody in my life and will never trust anybody, anymore. As of this moment this is my Nindo, Ninja way. I will make those bastard villagers pay. I will made them experience hell on the earth. I promise it."

"To hell with their acknowledgement. To hell with the Hokage. To hell with the village. From this day onwards, I will solely live for myself and myself alone." Naruto once again darkly proclaimed to himself as he took his first step inside his cell.

Naruto walked to the bed and sat down while taking a look around the room/cell. The room was pretty nice. As he looked at his escorts, he realized that they obviously couldn't stay and had to leave.

Dog walked forward and tried to ruffle Naruto's hair with his hand. But before he could touch Naruto's hair, Naruto quickly and promptly stopped his hand and said in a very calm yet dangerous voice while smiling which made a shiver run down his spine, "Pleaseeeeee! Don't touch me! ANBU-san!"

Dog quickly realised and tried to restore Naruto's lost faith in the Third Hokage, "Naruto! Lord Hokage will free you from here. Please understand, his hands are tied to laws. Don't mistake Lord...."

"It was a mistake." said Naruto.

"Huh! What?" asked Dog in confusion.

"I did the mistake in believing Lord Third Hokage. I should have never agreed with him. I shouldn't have accepted the apartment. Then I wouldn't have been imprisoned here. I should have lived in the forest. I don't need anymore anybody's pity. I will serve my sentence for seven years and then I will find Itachi Uchiha and the culprit who framed me. I will punish them. You may leave ANBU-san!" ordered Naruto and then closed the door of his cell.

By the time Naruto finished his outburst, Dog has been convinced, his worst fears had came true. Naruto has changed, for the better or worse, he doesn't know. Only time will tell.

The warden told him from the other side of the closed door that they would talk in the morning about the duties that he would have to perform during his sentence around the prison.

At least a minute had passed since he had closed his cell's door, and the footsteps were slowly becoming fainter as the escort team and the gaurds had made their way up the staircase and out of the Solitary confinement area/Dungeon.

"Now I guess I'm truly alone. I must decide my routine. I have to grow strong in order to bring the culprit who framed me to justice." Naruto thought while he hardened his resolve.....