Chapter 16 - Prison

A burly male cook with large and hairy arms was pouring a murky potato paste in the tin bowls on the greasy table in front of him. From time to time, large beads of sweat fell from his bushy eyebrows into the large pot on the stove.

An ordinary man would feel his stomach churning and retch at the sight. But the people waiting in line to get their food had long long since gotten accustomed to it. After all, in front of death by starvation, even the proudest man would cower.

Amongst those waiting in line also stood a blonde young man with whisker-like birth marks on his cheeks. Naruto took his bowl of potato paste and without bothering to look for a free seat, he went straight to the table in the most remote corner of the mess hall.

It was very crowded. There were only around 15 tables for the over 200 people that ate there every day. They had to huddle together up to 12-15 people at a table that was normally designed for only 8 persons. Despite that, the table Naruto was heading to was free.

What was even stranger than that was that it had always been like that.

The hall was full of men...each one of them looking more dangerous and vicious than the other. But as Naruto made his way through the tables, none of them dared to look him in the eye, lowering their heads to their bowls until he passed.

When he took a sit on one of the wooden chairs at the table, it made a sound as if it was groaning in protest at his absurd weight. That was because in spite of his slender-looking built, he weighted almost 400 pounds.

Naruto closed his eyes and circulated his chakra. One moment later, he lost his sense of smell and taste. After that, he began to eat. It felt like he was swallowing rubber but it was still better than the original taste and smell of that horrendous food.

"To this day, I still can't believe the shit you came up with." a voice rumbled from within his body. It was the voice of someone whom Naruto saw as his only friend - Kyuubi.

Although he much preferred talking to Kyuubi using his voice, Naruto didn't feel like doing that while he was in the middle of a few hundred people.

'Well, humans are the best at adapting themselves according to the circumstances. That's why we got to the top of the food chain despite being so weak compared to other animals.'

The amusement was clear in Kyuubi's voice when he spoke next.

"Yeah. Because giving yourself as an example for humans is truly legitimate."

Naruto didn't make a rebuttal. Kyuubi' barb was not unfounded. While not completely different than a human, Naruto could no longer consider himself one. Not after a certain thing happened.

"Anyway, how long do you intend on keeping staying here?"

'We're on an island, in the middle of the freaking Pacific Ocean, you dumbass. It has to be the 100th time I'm telling you this. Although I can walk on water, I don't have nearly enough chakra to cross an ocean. Even for a jinchuuriki from my past life it would would be impossible to do it.'

After spending close to 3 years of constantly bantering with his host, Kyuubi has long since became immune to his insults. In fact, after a while - although he would never admit it - it was almost endearing for the blonde to call him "idiot" after Kyuubi railed him up.

"Sigh, you should've just taken the chance last year when those winged aliens invaded the Earth."

As he was conversing with Kyuubi, Naruto finished eating - he never took more than a minute to finish it. The moment he stepped outside the mess hall, a luxuriant tropical forest came into view. Naruto's silhouette blurred out of view. The next moment, he appeared a few hundred feet away, at the beach. He cupped some of the seawater and began to wash his mouth thoroughly, cleaning it of the remains of that foul tasting food. Once done with that, his sense of smell and taste returned. Although it was still not pleasant, the taste of seawater was twenty times better than that of the food he ate every day.

He went to the trees bordering the beach and sat on the ground at their shade.

"I'd rather live as a sparrow, free, than as as a parrot in a golden cage. Had I agreed to help the government with the Thanagarian Invasion, I would've have become their toy. Their dog."

"Admirable feelings. But last time I checked you're still in a cage...just not golden, but full of sweaty and smelly men." Kyuubi snickered. His snickers transformed into a loud laughter when he repeated his own joke to himself once again.

"Shut up!"

Naruto's snapping only made Kyuubi laugh harder.

Two years have passed since Naruto killed the Joker and the people rioted. At the people's request, Naruto was spared from being sentenced to death, but a certain individual - General Danzo - made sure his life in prison would not be too comfortable: he was thrown into a secret prison of the government...a prison for metahumans.

This prison was special from many points of view. For one, it was located on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Second - and the strangest of them all - there were no guards. The prisoners were left all by themselves, apparently, nobody caring for their life/death.

That didn't mean there were no rules there. One of the prisoners on the island had the government's backing. He was like a local tyrant and everyone had to listen to him - and that's because he could decide other prisoners' life and death. Not outright, but there were loopholes...some rather glaring ones at that: although killing was forbidden, there was one situation when it was not: once a month, any prisoner had the right to challenge someone to a life-and-death fight. That was the way all the grudges and disputes were solved in this prison...and this is why the other prisoners feared Naruto so much, with the head of the prison being no different.

Scene break

Naruto's hands were in a tiger seal while he was trying to manipulate the lightning that crackled all over his body.

"You're soo~ stupid. How many times did I tell you that the tiger seal is famous for being specific to fire techniques?"

A vein on Naruto's forehead began to throb dangerously.

"Would it freaking hurt you to just shut the hell up while I'm training? If you know better handseals, tell me!" Naruto yelled at Kyuubi which only made the fox laugh mockingly.

For the last 2 years, while he was in prison, Naruto had been trying to train in elemental techniques. But a serious problem had arisen after cleaning his clogged chakra pathways: no matter what series of handseals he performed, the desired result didn't come out. Whether it was a wind technique that he wanted to cast, or a fire technique, or any other, what came out every time, was the same thing: lightning...and a black coloured one at that.

Basically being striken by the bolt of black lightning that Shazam had called forth had destroyed any of the chakra affinities Naruto might have had.

For a few good weeks, Naruto's anger knew no limits...atnd it was during that time that he instilled terror into the other prisoners on the island.

But after a while he eventually become resigned. He accepted the situation and tried to make the most of it...only for another problem to appear: he knew no lightning technique from his past life. Before getting the six paths sage mode, in his past life, Naruto had not had a lightning affinity. He had also not memorized any lightning techniques beside Kakashi-sensei's Raikiri whom he knew only because of having seen it being performed by said jounin countless times...and Kyuubi was definitely of no help this time either. Apparently, the fox knew nothing more than Naruto did when it came to the handseals necessary for lightning jutsus.

In a rare moment of seriousness, Kyuubi spoke to Naruto while he was struggling to shape the lightning in something like a hound and make it hit the target.

"Naruto, I have an idea."

"What is it this time?" Naruto snapped at him when his lightning hound dissipated into the air at just a few moments after being casted.

"I know you managed to learn the trademark technique of your past life's sensei, and that you even improved its destructive ability...or it is because your lightning is black? Anyway, what if instead of trying to manipulate the lightning outside of your body, you'd do it the other way around?"

Naruto let himself sit on the ground as he pondered at Kyuubi's surprisingly interesting idea. When Kyuubi's words truly sank in, Naruto felt as if he had an epiphany.

"Why didn't I think of that before?!" he said as he punched his own thigh. He felt like slapping himself.

"Say, Kurama, do you remember the reanimated 3rd Raikage that I fought before? That freak ate a full powered Rasenshuriken face first and he only got some scratches here and there - and that while wind is the counter element of lightning and while Rasenshuriken is the strongest wind technique ever created...just think of how powerful his lightning armour jutsu must have been!"

"Erm, that's not what I had mind... Perhaps I also didn't word it out correctly.."

Naruto had jumped up to his feet in excitement while talking but at Kyuubi's words, he sat back on the ground, deflated.

"Oi, oi! I didn't say your idea is crappy, so stop it with that shitty sulking face. Just try out this first, and then we'll try your idea too: gather your black lightning into your fist and the punch...there, to your left side, at 400 feet away, there's a cliff. Try punching it with your fist encased in black lightning."

Naruto jumped up to his feet and his body blurred out of existence, only to rematerialize in an instant at 400 hundred feet away. It was as though he teleported. When he got in front of the cliff wall, black lightning coated his right hand and he punched.

The sound of a small explosion was heard and a car-sized indentation appeared into the cliff, the rock having been grinded to dust by the black lightning.

Naruto whistled in appreciation. Probably only a Kyuubified Rasengan could possibly deal such a damage.

But Kyuubi was not pleased with the result yet.

"Oi, Naruto. Try it differently this time: gather lightning into your fist again, BUT at the point of impact, discharge it through your knuckles instantly."

Naruto did as told, but this time, instead of an explosion, a grunt of pain was heard.

"Gah, I think I released it too early!" he complained while rubbing his now red hand.

Gathering black lightning into his fist again, Naruto punched. Again, again, and again. The skin on his fist began to peel off by the time he punched for the 10th time.

As he was preparing for his 11th punch, his concentration became so intense that Naruto lost his sense of self. Naruto's previously blue eyes morphed into red slits and then, a weird feeling came over him. A feeling that he had felt for only two other times in his life before: when he had cut the bullets shot at him by the gatekeeper of Arkham Asylum and during his fight with Superman. In that moment, the red eyes that were in the form of slits, dilated. More precisely, his pupils were the ones that dilated to the point that they looked like full moons. When that happened, Naruto's perception changed: everything seemed to have slowed down in his eyes, his very fast punch looking as if it had been thrown at a snail's pace. He saw his fist approaching the cliff and when it was at half an inch from impacting the rock, he willed his black lightning to burst.

*BOOM*

A deafening explosion burst and Naruto was flung into the ocean like a broken kite by the aftershocks.

"Fuck! Fuck! What did I do wrong this fucking time?!" Naruto yelled to the heavens enraged when he climbed up on the surface of the water.

"Naruto.." came Kyuubi's weary call.

"I'm not in the mood for your bullshit this time, Kurama." Naruto said, nearly growling at him like an animal.

"Just look at the cliff."

"Where did you see a cliff, are you a retard?!"

"That's exactly the point, you dumbfuck. There's no cliff!" Kyuubi yelled back at him in the same foul-mouthed manner like Naruto.

The fox's words hit home this time. From atop the ocean, Naruto scanned the shore. He finally realised the meaning of Kyuubi's words. Right in front of him, there should have been 4-story block sized cliff. But now, only a few scattered pieces of rock remained. He gasped in disbelief at his own feat.

"...You've got to be shitting me!"