Chapter 17 - Dance of the Seedling Fern

A little over a week passed since, with Kyuubi's help, Naruto got a grasp on how to more efficiently use his black lightning. After these few days of constant training, he could successfully discharge the lightning through his fist 8 out of 10 times. The problem he was encountering though, was not the chakra exhaustion but the fact that he didn't have anything left to destroy. Naruto felt incredulous at the mere idea.

He was currently washing his ragged clothes into the water of the sea when the noise made by 4 helicopters flying above the island reached his ears.

'Did something happen? They don't normally come more than once at two weeks to bring supplies and, usually, there are just two.'

But he shrugged it off. He was just mildly curious, he didn't care to the extent of actually going over to see it by himself.

However, half an hour later, he felt a presence stealthily approaching him. As though he had not noticed anything, Naruto bent down and grabbed one of the small stones from the sand at the shore and without even needing to look back and take aim, he threw it. The nail-sized stone all of sudden started to cackle with black lightning and when it hit its target, the tall palm tree burst into countless splinters, as though it had been a hand grenade that exploded there.

The splinters coming from the trunk of the tree were shot everywhere and because of that, a new silhouette came out into view, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Very useful ability you've got there." Naruto said as he turned around and glanced at the one that had been trying to sneak on him. It was a plump teen, with two large front teeth and beady moist black eyes. He gave Naruto the feeling of a bleeding rat. Oh, yes, one of the splinters that were shot because of the explosion was deeply buried into his right side, just below the liver.

Uncaring of how badly the rat-like metahuman in front of him was bleeding, Naruto continued:

"I know how you tried to sneak on me - you have the ability to turn invisible. Pretty neat if you ask me...However, how the hell did you find me?"

The fatty looked at Naruto, a feeling of dread enveloping him. He didn't dare to hide anything.

"I-It was my sense of smell."

"Heeh~" Naruto voiced out mildly impressed.

"Well, your reason for trying to spy on me... come on, spit it out... Depending on what you say, you might actually get to live."

Naruto spoke with a relaxed tone, his face looking as though he was talking about the weather outside, not about whether he was going to kill someone or not. But the black lightning sparks that began to dance around the fingers of his right hand made the fatty feel the chills go down his spine.

Scene break

As the 4 military helicopters landed on the island, most of the prisoners gathered at the scene. They were thinking about the same things as Naruto - usually, the helicopters came on the island only twice every month to bring the supplies and it was just two of them, not four. Was somebody going to get taken away?

In front of everyone's stares, the doors of the helicopters opened at the same time and nearly 30 fully armed special forces operatives jumped on the ground, with their weapons pointed at the surrounding metahumans in a threatening manner.

Everyone stepped back cautiously. Although not few were the ones who had a physic that could withstand bullets, the prisoners knew better than underestimating them. Because they were aware that the bullets these special ops used were not ordinary.

A few moments later, a bald but young, tall and well-built person stepped out of one of the helicopters elegantly. He was dressed in an expensive black suit and black shades were protecting his eyes from the blinding rays of the tropical sun.

The man took off his sunglasses and smirked.

"Hello everyone! I believe most of you have heard at least once of the name: Lex Luthor."

Nobody seemed to react to his arrogant introduction but after a few moments, a burly prisoner that had 4 muscular arms asked in a mocking voice:

"Last time I heard you bought an island in the Caribbeans. What made your illustrious ass come to this dump?"

Lex Luthor didn't bat an eye at the 4-armed man's mocking words. He had never expected to receive respect from the inhabitants of this island. They were some of the worst criminals in the United States of America, most of them being of that kind that could not be bought with just money alone. Therefore, Lex Luthor's assets were equal to garbage in their eyes.

Because of that reason, Lex Luthor came with something different. Something that everyone on the island longed for.

Lex Luthor spread his arms in a grand fashion:

"I'm here to offer you a deal. I came here to give you freedom!"

One of the prisoners couldn't help starting to chuckle:

"And what do you want in return, oh Messiah?"

The rest burst into loud laughter.

"Are you trying to convert us to a new religion? Because I'll treat you as my god as long as I get out of this hellhole."

"Heil Luthor!"

"May the gods give you hair!"

Everyone began to laugh uproariously and started to jeer at him.

"Enough!"

A shout was suddenly heard and the silence was instilled in an instant. It came from a gigantic looking black man. He stood at 8 feet tall and his body was packed with iron-like bulging muscles. He was the head of the prison's right-hand henchman and one of the most powerful metahumans on the island.

When the silence instilled, the giant black man asked Luthor with his deep, rumbling voice.

"What would you want from us in exchange for freedom? And what kind of freedom is that?"

Lex Luthor recollected himself and dressed his voice before speaking:

"This deal is just for one person. For the most powerful man among you. It doesn't matter whether if your ability is - say - poisoning, invisibility or controlling the fire. I only care for the most powerful."

Lex Luthor's words were like a cold shower for the prisoners. 90% of them could already kiss goodbye their chance to be free. Because although they were powerful and vicious in their own right, there were a few monster-like existences against whom they simply stood no chance.

Lex Luthor noticed the changing of their mood and to his disbelief - and then elation when he realized the implications - he noticed that even the immensely powerful-looking giant metahuman had a deflated expression on his face.

'Are there actually other metahumans here that are stronger than this monstrosity of a man? He looks like he could chew on steel and complain of having some crumbs stuck between his teeth.'

Just when Luthor was about to make another call, the over 200 hundred metahumans in front of him hurriedly parted from the middle as the Red Sea did in front of Moses.

Through the middle, a 20-year-old man began to walk towards the helicopters.

Lex Luthor's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the person in front of him: spiky blond hair that fell to his shoulders and looked like the mane of a lion, 3 pairs of whisker-like marks on his cheeks and red-tinted blue eyes. His body was on the slender side, but given the deep footprints he left in the sand, Lex Luthor understood that he must have weighed well over 400 pounds.

'Uzumaki Naruto! What in the world is he doing here?'

Nobody aside from General Danzo knew which was the exact location where Naruto had been imprisoned. Lex Luthor reckoned that the general had wanted to somehow brainwash Naruto and make him his personal weapon. It wasn't like it would be the first time he did something like that. Long story short, Lex Luthor had not been aware of Naruto's presence on the island. But now that he saw him, Lex Luthor could only feel like kissing Lady Luck's hands in gratitude.

However, Luthor's smile stiffened when Naruto seemed to ignore the special operatives surrounding him and kept advancing towards him.

"Halt!" the leader of the special ops shouted and the entire squad aimed their weapons at him, Naruto's forehead being now covered in red dots.

Naruto stopped, but there was a mocking smile on his face when he saw some of the soldiers' weapons trembling lightly. Apparently, Lex Luthor wasn't the only one that recognized him. It wasn't every day that anyone broadcasted himself torturing someone to death over the entire USA and it wasn't an everyday occurrence for someone to murder over 100 people in cold blood, in less than twenty minutes.

"There is no need to look any further. I'm the most powerful on this island."

His words reeked of arrogance but nobody dared to refute his words. Because he was one of those figures that could back up his arrogance, he had the strength to do so.

"So tell me" Naruto continued "what exactly is your deal? Regardless of how many connections you have, it is very hard for you to get a death row prisoner like us freed. What is that I need to do in exchange?"

Lex Luthor didn't dare speak with the same haughty air as before. The existence in front of him had fought by himself against the Justice League's strongest...he had defeated Superman, Lex Luthor's ultimate enemy. Lex Luthor was not the kind to act like an idiot and poke with a stick at the tiger.

"Actually it is nothing as obscure as you might think." the businessman said, "Key-figures from the most powerful countries all over the planet had created something similar to a contest...and there are enormous amounts of money involved, even for someone as wealthy as me."

"This contest consist of life and death fights in a cage amongst death-row prisoners, the most powerful metahumans from the following 6 countries: USA, Russia, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Germany. The winner of this tournament not only gets exonerated regardless of his previous crimes but also 10% of the money...and that is a number of 10 digits."

At his words, a deathly silence instilled amongst the metahumans. For a few moments, nobody made a sound. But then, without warning, the giant black metahuman together with the head of the prisoners screamed at the same time and lunged towards the seemingly unsuspecting Naruto.

When the rest of the prisoners saw the giant black man jumping towards Naruto with a battle cry and the head of the prisoners - a rather scrawny and short man - with his long and green claw-like nails slashing at his back, like a one-man-army, they all lunged towards him as well. Naruto was considered the strongest prisoner on the island, but in front of over 200 vicious metahumans he would not stand a chance...and if the strongest were to die, wouldn't that increase the chances for the rest of them to be chosen by Lex Luthor?

When it came to getting the opportunity to be freed and then also receive a sum of at least 10 billion dollars, even the psychopaths normally not interested in money were rendered crazy with greed.

Before the giant and the head of the prisoners even jumped, Kyuubi alerted Naruto:

"That ape-sized black bastard is going to attack you... wait! The head of the prisoners will do it as well... Oh crap. Careful, Naruto, they are all going to gang up on you. Run!"

Kyuubi's voice sounded a little panicky.

"So fortunate that you still have your Negative Emotion Sensing... but run? You've got to be kidding me."

"Are you a retard? What could you possibly do now? Run the fuck away, you stupid shit or we're both going to die!"

"Both?" Naruto scoffed and he mentally raised an eyebrow. "You can always escape in your spectral form and go posses some other metahuman."

When he replied, Kyuubi was filled with anger

"Who the fuck do you think I am? Do you think I am a flimsy human that would cower away and abandon you just like that? Huh?!"

Then, his voice became unprecedentedly serious, and his following words had an air of solemnity.

"This is not like in our past life... You are not my jailor. We are not enemies anymore. You are my partner. If you live, I live. If you die, I die. You are my friend, Naruto."

Their conversation was, of course, mental, and it happened at a much faster pace than the events from reality. When Kyuubi finished his words, the giant man just kicked the ground, lunging towards Naruto.

"What's with this stupid chick-flick moment? Stupid fox!"

Naruto shot back aggressively as to hide his emotions and that his eyes were beginning to water. He had never expected Kyuubi of all the beings to say those words.

But then, his mental projection that stood in front of Kyuubi inside his mindscape gained a ferocious smile on his face.

"This isn't the last moment of our lives, Kurama... I will show you... I will show you what have I been doing for these 2 years while you had your beauty sleep."

Kyuubi's so-called "beauty sleep" was, in fact, a period of slumber that took place every time when the demon fox ingested Naruto's chakra. In that time Kyuubi ceased all of his body's functions except for those necessary to stay alive, focusing on converting Naruto's chakra into his own. It lasted sometimes even up to 3-4 days. So Naruto had had plenty of time to continue with his own training.

Naruto lowered himself on one knee and a soft blue aura began to glow around his entire body. Due to the enormous amount of chakra he was pumping in, his chakra heart began to throb dangerously, eliciting sharp bursts of pain inside his dantian. But Naruto was unrelenting. He squeezed off every drop of chakra inside his body.

"I will show you, Kurama.." Naruto said, "I will show what is going to happen to everyone in the world that will ever get in our way..."

Still kneeling, he punched the ground explosively.

For a moment nothing happened. The giant black metahuman was only two feet away from him, in mid-air, just about to slam into him with his full force. Similarly, the head of the prison's obviously poisonous claws were also just about to bury themselves into his back...when it happened:

"AARGH!"

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