Chapter 19 - Alive?!

On the prison island

"AARGH!"

A colective scream of despair. Sounds of bodies being impaled or dismembered and the sick noises made by the blood splattering into the air... it was a carnage.

Everything was white...and crimson red. The previously lush tropical forest that covered the island seemed to have disappeared. A new forest had appeared, a white forest had swallowed the green.

It was a forest of white bones, painted with the crimson blood coming from the mangled corpses of the metahumans.

The special operatives surrounding Lex Luthor stood there petrified in shocked disbelief. They were hardened veterans, true warriors that faced death on a daily basis. But nothing could have prepared them for what they just witnessed. It was a cruelty and carnage above everything they have ever seen before.

Suddenly, the sound made by a series of heavy steps was heard and a silhouette covered in blood from head to toes appeared from amongst the gigantic bone forest.

It wasn't known who started it...but a terrified yell was heard:

"M-Monster!"

Following that, as one, the entirety of the special forces began to shoot madly at the bloodied silhouette until they ran out of bullets. Sweat was pouring like a tropical rain down their temples and their hands was shaking.

A chuckle was heard.

"Hehe.. That tickled!"

As on cue, the over 100 reinforced bullets that hit his body, all fell down on the sand at the same time. They had managed to pierce the skin, but right under the outer layer of the skin, a white membrane seemed to have stopped their advance completely.

It was one of Naruto's new kekkei genkai-related techniques - Inner Bone Armour. He had created a very thin but nigh impenetrable bone membrane, right below the skin all over his body. (1)

A crazed laughter escaped from his lips after the bullets all fell to the ground.

"Let me repay you the favour, motherfuckers!"

"Electromagnetic Murder!" Naruto shouted and stomped his foot powerfully onto the ground.

Black lightning exploded from the sole of his feet and, on a radius of 50 metres around him, the sand was transformed into glass.

Travelling through the ground, the black lightning reached the group surrounding Lex Luthor. It took only 2 seconds - then, the nearly 30 special operatives all fell to the ground. Their clothes and armour turned into ash and black charred corpses was all that was left of them.

*thump*

*thud*

Heavy sounds were reverberating into Lex Luthor ears every time Naruto stepped. He was approaching him.

Luthor looked at the forest of bones and and at the mangled and bloodied corpses. Then, he looked at his own feet, at the charred remains of the special operatives.

A terror like never before flooded him. He backed away and stumbled. He almost fell...when 5 powerful fingers grabbed at his head, almost digging into his brain.

When Naruto spoke, instead of the crazed voice Luthor had been expecting, a cold and composed one hit his ears.

"Give me one good reason why I should keep you alive."

It sent frozen chills down his spine. He almost urinated himself. But the businessman grit his teeth.

'I'm not going to die here! Everything I have worked so hard for, my entire life, would be for nothing!'

'I cannot die here! I cannot die before fulfilling my grand ambitions!' Luthor shouted at himself in desperation.

"It seems that you do not value your life-" Naruto spoke. He was about to clench his fingers and turn Luthor's skull into a gory paste when the bald man yelled:

"WAIT! Wait, please!"

"Given your strength, you will easily win this tournament. You will have everything you want: freedom, money and even women if you want...everything! But if I die, all these rewards will be gone... You won't even be able to leave the island anymore as you don't know how to pilot a helicopter!"

Naruto's grip on Luthor's head loosened and the man fell to the ground as if his body had no bones left in it.

Lex Luthor sighed in relief. He didn't know what the future had in store for him, but, right then, he knew that at least his survival was assured - Naruto still needed him.

Heavy steps began to be heard again. Luthor followed Naruto with his eyes, as he went to the shore.

Naruto took off all of his clothes and entered the sea. Blood and filth spread into all directions around him as his body was being cleansed. He also washed his clothes as well as he could before putting them on.

Meanwhile, Luthor got up from the ground and looked around himself with amazement and fear etched in his eyes. One meter around the place where he was standing on still had sand, but everywhere else, the sand had been turned into glass!

'Just how much control does he have on his power and over his own emotions?' Luthor asked himself in disbelief.

In everyone's eyes Naruto looked just like a bloody berserk slaughtering right and left indiscriminately. But that seemed to be far from truth - even in his frenzied slaughter, Naruto did not lose his mind - he didn't kill his ticket to a new life (namely Lex Luthor). And if his control over his emotions was amazing, controlling lightning as it travelled through the ground to destroy everything except for one small area, was not any less impressive.

Luthor noticed Naruto approaching him when the sound of the glassy ground cracking under the weight of his body reached his ears.

"I have a few questions for you..."

Luthor tensed at his words.

Naruto's red-tinted blue eyes met his and be spoke again:

"I'm warning you: I have the ability to distinguish whether someone is lying to me or speaking the truth. I know even when someone is speaking half-truths."

"Lie to me only once, and you die."

His voice was calm, it was as if what he spoke was a matter of fact.

Luthor felt his throat becoming dry. He didn't doubt that Naruto will keep his words about killing him. After all, even if he couldn't leave the island that day anymore, someone was bound to come to the island anyway after a few days if there was no sign heard from Lex Luthor in the meantime.

Naruto plopped himself on the sand, at just a foot away from Luthor who, in that moment, looked like he would give anything to be anywhere else on the planet instead of sitting in a circle of 1 meter of sand with someone as vicious and dangerous as Naruto.

"Question number 1: what is this tournament really about?"

Luthor spoke, trying to make his voice as calm as possible, as to not make Naruto suspect anything. He had no intention of lying anyway.

"I did not lie previously. It is a tournament that started decades ago and it had began at the same time with the Cold War between the Occidental World and the Communist Block. Originally, it was held between death-row prisoners that were ordinary humans but after a few years, only metahumans were chosen to participate."

To Luthor, Naruto looked as if he was pondering on his words.

"He is not lying." Kyuubi told Naruto.

"You did not lie. Let's continue." Naruto said and Luthor released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Question number 2: why are you participating? Why only now after all these years?"

Luthor tensed. The answer to this question was related to something classified, something that only a handful of people knew. But looking at the cold and merciless eyes of his interrogator, he knew he could not hide anything.

"I am looking for a weapon. A metahuman powerful enough to kill Superman and not only."

This time, Naruto took a few moments to converse with Kyuubi, before his eyes glinted dangerously.

"What are you hiding, Luthor?"

The tip of a bone started to protrude from Naruto's left palm. Witnessing such a sight first-hand, petrified Luthor. He spilled the secret before Naruto could even issue his verbal threat.

"O-Originally my intention was indeed to find someone powerful enough to kill Superman. However, as of late, a new, more powerful, uncontrollable factor came into play - not counting you."

Naruto's interest was picked.

"Tell me everything."

Luthor didn't dare to hesitate.

"The idea started from Emil Hamilton, one of Star Labs' scientists that used to aid Superman quite a lot in his early years as a hero. However, after that one incident where the so-called Man of Steel went rogue - you must have surely heard of it - he began to think that Superman was more of a danger to Earth's safety than a help...so he devised a plan..."

Unknowingly, Luthor managed to captivate Naruto's attention completely.

"...For a long time, he made preparations for it and, after getting all the necessary materials, Hamilton joined a secret organization of the government together with his assistant - Cadmus. Unfortunately, Hamilton went missing a few months after that - we still do not know the reasons."

"His assistant, for a better or worse, was actually an even more brilliant scientist than Emil Hamilton himself..."

"You see, professor Hamilton's plan had been to create a metahuman capable of going toe-to-toe against Superman...a clone made from Supergirl's very DNA."

Naruto couldn't help taking a deep breath.

'A clone of Supergirl?! ...since when had cloning become possible in the first place?!'

"His assistant, however, created something more powerful than what Hamilton even dared to dream. He created a Kryptonian that is actually immune to Kyptonite's effect..."

A deep silence followed.

"So, basically, you have created a weapon that was more perfect than you had intended in the first place. Have you lost control of it already?"

Luthor shook his head.

"Actually, that would have been a better situation than the present one. The weapon is very loyal to its creator - the former assistant of Emil Hamilton." Said Luthor "I have never been able to discern what his thoughts were behind that ever-present smile of his. That man, Orochimaru, is one of the most dangerous per-"

Naruto tuned out the rest of Luthor's words when he heard the name of the assistant.

'Did he just say that his name was Orochimaru?!'

So far Naruto had met a few of the people from his last life - his grandfather, the Inuzuka Clan, Rock Lee and Guy...but none of them had seemed to be aware of their past lives.

'When it comes to Orochimaru, however...'

Naruto thought about the Snake Sannin from his past life. If there was one person that had become a true immortal, that was Orochimaru - not the Sage of Six Paths, not Madara... It was Orochimaru.

'The Snake Sannin was revived from just some cells of Kabuto and Anko's cursed seal...and when he resurrected he knew everything that happened while he was 'dead', as if he had always been alive in the first place.'

The point was that Naruto feared that it was impossible for Orochimaru to not be aware of his past life - he thought that if there was one person that would find a way to remember, besides himself, that would the Snake Sannin...and that revelation led his mind to quite a few disturbing ramifications.

While Naruto was deep into his thoughts, he didn't notice the look of the superiority that all of a sudden flashed through Lex Luthor's eyes.

'How in the world could I possibly forget something like this?!' Luthor kept asking himself.

Telling Naruto about Supergirl's clone made Luthor recall which was the reason why Supergirl's clone had no weakness against Kryptonite... Initially, because of the terror and shock instilled by Naruto's brutality and by the carnage he had caused, Luthor's mind was thrown in disarray, but now he remembered it.

Lex Luthor regained his confidence and the corner of his lips twisted into that overconfident smirk he always sported. It was the attitude of a person that knew that he had everything under his control, that he was above everyone else.

"So you wanted someone that could counter the weapon your organization had created. Too bad for you that I don't give a crap about your problems." Naruto said when he stopped his train of thought.

Lex Luthor's smirk only widened.

"Oh, allow me to show you something." the businessman said and his hand went to the chest pocket of his suit.

He took out his smartphone and, after tapping the screen a few times, a photo was shown.

When Naruto's eyes fell on the screen of the phone, what he felt first was confusion.

It showed a girl that was floating in a tube full of a greenish liquid with only a transparent oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose. It was not unlike what he saw once in a SF movie about human experiments.

"Look closer at the girl inside." Luthor said in an insidious voice, dripping with mockery.

Naruto felt the urge to skin his bald head alive for a moment. But his curiosity won over his desire to show Luthor his place.

When his eyes fell again on the photo showed on the screen, shock flashed on Naruto's face.

Long legs, an exquisite figure, crimson-red hair that reached her feet...and 2 pair of whisker like marks on her cheeks...

"I-Imposible!"