….

Weakness.

The term just made Naruto's skin crawl all over.

It's a word that describes everything Naruto despises, because ever since he was on this Earth, he has always hated the feeling of it and tried everything he can to separate himself from the revolting feeling of helplessness.

But you can't run from your shadow, no matter how hard you tried.

Thunk!

Thunk!

Thunk!

Whenever Naruto had felt upset, he does the next best thing to separate the feeling he had dreaded, and that was working out. Luckily for him, there was nobody in one of the many Rec Rooms as most inmates were eating, working out and doing other stuff on their free period. Naruto was alone, with only a giant punching bag and his thoughts.

…..

"Did you say goodbye to your friends?"

"Yeah, I think we exchanged enough pleasantries."

It was an early that day, the sun was barely protruding over the horizon as it was trying to jumpstart the day.

Naruto wasn't mad about the candy, it was no big to him, and he can easily get/steal another one as he pleases. It was the satisfaction that fucker Kazumasa had felt when he had Naruto cornered in the wall. In all honesty, what made Naruto so pissed was that he can easily deck that fucker and leave him in a quivering mess right in front of everyone, but he couldn't…

"Listen, Naruto…"

Naruto turned around and looked directly at Sorae who had a melancholy look on her face. Naruto felt his face soften. He already knew that when she had that look she was going to tell him something that he was going to loathe.

"I know I'm not going to stop you with this and as usual you won't heed my call… But this is the one time I'm going to need you to listen to me."

Sorae stepped up to him looking him directly in his eyes.

"Do not. And I mean DO. NOT. Blow your cover while you are there. I do not care what happens and how easy it will be for you to guns blazing in there. I will not have you in danger and risking your life for something as trivial as that." She said as she also repeatedly poked him in the chest to give out more emphasis on her words. Naruto sighed, surprising to some; he has hidden hatred to his patented way of keeping promises. Over time he soon realize how painful and distraught having to deal with the pros and cons by staying undoubtedly loyal to the words of someone else. But for her…

"Okay Sorae… I promise."

He would risk that.

*Bam*

Just as Naruto was going through the rekindling of the recent memories that were embedded into his mind, he went overboard on the punching bag and smashed the bag off the metal hanger into the nearest wall and watched as the bag exploded off the wall. While watching, he saw the bag leaving a large puddle of sand and rubber all over the matted floor. Naruto gave an agitated sigh while his eyes rolled up slightly as he went over to a pile of other punching bags he left out and grabbed one to replace it, simultaneously grabbing a broom to clean up the mess. (1)

…

Around an hour after Naruto destroyed that one (and 2 more along the way) punching bag, Naruto felt 3 brief hums tingled the side of his neck. From what Naruto remembers that hum means that it was the free period for the most of the inmates here. Naruto knew that he didn't have a job yet so he expected this to be a one off thing before they left him to do work as he will soon. Naruto briskly left the recreation room as he turned off the lights in the room and traverse his way across the giant wing of the prison.

After rattling off the numbers in his head, Naruto finally found the room he would be sleeping in for an indefinite time. It wasn't much to the average person. 'Duh, it's a fucking prison.' Naruto mused to himself as he walked into his new habitat. From the front the area just looked like your standard prison room. To his left a double bunker bed (Naruto gave a slight prayer that he would not be bunking anyone for the time soon), next to the beds, a metallic toilet (Naruto already knew he wasn't using that thing), a 24' inch flat screen TV that was embedded on the corner of the room that was fixated only on one channel (Naruto expected that was one of the perks he could get while working) and under the TV was a book stand with a small coffee table and a rinky-dink chair.

Naruto got up and moved over to the Book stand under his TV; currently it was only holding a handful of books. One was a giant official pamphlet about the prison itself. Another was a random detective story about a guy named Alex Cross, next to it was a Harry Potter book; it was the 5th one in the series Order of the Phoenix. Next to that book was a book called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, however the book that really caught Naruto's eye was a beige colored book lying next to the Rats of NIHM.

It was book called 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

Naruto slightly remembered this book as he was "supposed" (in the loosest way possible) to study this book when he was still in high school. What interested this book was the name that was on it, Naruto slightly remembered hearing a project name way back in his childhood. He began to wonder what was it that made him attracted to the name. As far as he was concerned he began to read the first few pages of the book. (2)

…

'Oh yea, now I remember why I didn't want to read this shit.' Naruto thought as he was reading the book at a decent pace. He remembered pockets of the story, mainly the racial issues and youthful upcoming of the character Scout, along with her brother Jem and friend Dill. The story didn't bother him but because this was written way back yonder, the English and the pacing of the story made him mentally blanched, he most likely just skipped the story and moved on to just watching the movie to catch up on whatever he needed to know. Meanwhile through reading, Naruto heard a loud deep growl coming from the trenches that is his stomach.

'The hell? I thought I at back like 4 hour ag- oh.' And because of that Naruto got a grim reminder of the events earlier that day, leading to his hungry. 'Urgh, damn you Sorae I wouldn't be in this predicament if it wasn't for you.' He raved in his head as he went back to burying himself into his book while simultaneously tried to ignore the growling of his stomach.

*Growl…*

'Shut up….'

*Groowwl…*

'Shut uuuup…'

*Grooooowwwwlll…*

'Shut. Uuuuuuuup…'

*GROW-*

'FOR THE LOVE OF THE DIVINITY KAMI, WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!?'

*…*

'….'

*…*

'Finally-'

*GRRROOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLL!*

'FUCKIN-'

Naruto threw his book down and began to massage his head before his head exploded from frustration. He couldn't read anymore due to the annoying nature of his stomach not having content to fuel off of. Naruto threw his head back and groaned.

"Just fucking kill me already."

*CRASH*

Naruto immediately shot up from his chair and shielded his eyes from the barrage of glass being flown everywhere from his room. He looked up and saw the rebar that was reinforced in the window was completely obliterated along with the glass that was taking occupancy on his room's floor. He searched the cause of the destruction that was happening in the room. His eyes fixated on a white humanoid figure that was crouched over.

"If you want to die…" The figure said in a low voice while rising up from the ground. From that point on Naruto saw the figure in its full glory. He was bombarded by an array of nothing but white. The figure was a girl with pure white hair, a white jumpsuit that held on to her body showing a development of pure womanly design. On her sides are giant brown boxing gloves on each hand with no footwear to compliment. But the biggest draw to the girl was her crimson red eyes that showed childlike joyfulness and a radiant smile that was almost impossibly whiter than the rest of her body. Naruto automatically knew who he was looking at the moment he got a full view.

'Shiro...' he silently mused as he took in the surprise appearance of the long lost childhood friend.

"THEN LET ME BE THE ONE TO KILL YOU!" Shiro gleeful said to the blond in the corner. Naruto gained a confused look that turned into shock as he quickly evaded Shiro that lunged towards him with a shard of glass, courtesy of the window she destroyed. Naruto gave a panicked look to the girl as she also looked at him with a confused face.

"Hm? Why'da move away?" She said as she cocked her head in a dazed motion. If it wasn't for the fact that she almost lodged a giant glass shard near his jugular his heart would've fluttered at the cute display Shiro was sporting. Shiro in a quick motion got into Naruto's personal space and pressed the side of her head against his chest. Naruto watched the girl as she gave a soft 'Oh' sound and say; "What you said was a lie!"

Naruto gave a quick 'eh?' sound as Shiro looked back up at him while pressing the soft boxing glove in his chest area.

"That's what it's telling me!" She said while staring at the region she's pointing at? 'It?' Naruto thought, 'Is she talking about the thing she lodged in me?'

*GROOOOOWWWWWWLLLL*

…

"See! It's telling you too!" Shiro said while lightly laughing. Naruto face quickly morphed into a face of agitation after what had transpired.

"Shiro's gonna find food for Kuro-kun!" Naruto quickly picked up on what she said and asked her why. She gave another dazed look but then smiled and said;

"Because Kuro-kun is Shiro's best friend remember!" She said as she quickly exited the where she abruptly entered. Naruto say there in a perplexed state. 'Kuro-kun? So she remembers me… I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.' Naruto knew that was a nickname she had for back in their childhood, he couldn't exactly remember where it came from but he knew it was significant to the girl. Naruto undoubtedly had to weigh the options on what's in store.

On one hand, he automatically knows not to reveal that he knows about the wretched egg or else it would cause massive mayhem. On the other, she knows him better than anybody and faking like he doesn't remember her would immediately get snuffed out. It could pass with Ganta considering her was significantly younger and was pretty traumatized to the point of subconsciously keeping the memories locked but not for someone like Naruto.

Naruo mentally groaned at all the probabilities he was rattling off his mind, it was making him exhausted from the mental standpoint. 'Now I know how the Nara's felt.'

While Naruto was lost in his own world, he never noticed the screen door open and walked in the assistant that was with the Chief Warden.

"5580, we have a task we… need… you.." The woman said, trailing off as she finally noticed the destruction that was within his room. Naruto snapped out his trance and look to see the assistant fixated on a certain thing. Naruto followed her eyesight and finally caught on to what she was looking at. Naruto immediately went into overdrive as he came up with multiptude of excuses of the damage in the room.

"…Uhhh…. It… was... stuffy..?"

….

"I'll go get the broom."

….

'Man, at this point I really need a fucking nap.' Naruto can be seen on the west side of the prison island. Over there, Naruto is seen picking up and discarding trash from the guys who were currently working on the construction of a new building for the Prison Amusement Park hybrid. At first, Naruto was told that he wasn't going to do much, but according to Makina, this was just a job exclusively for him in order to "Get his feet wet" for the rest of the time.

'Of course I get singled out of all people.' Naruto complained as he was lugging around a wheelbarrow that had an assortment of tools and fixtures within it. It wasn't much but at least he knows he's getting some Cast Points off of this, maybe he can hurry this up and get to the store and buy himself a sandwich for his barren stomach. While he was working, his mind wandered towards the thoughts of Shiro again, slightly wondering where the Albino girl ran off too after her dramatic appearance did.

*Clang!*

Kuro-Kun!"

Naruto stiffed up and turned around towards the calling of his name. And in turn he saw a slightly scuffed up head and shoulders of Shiro who was waving at the blond where a discarded manhole should be at.

'Heh, speak of the devil I guess...' Naruto mentally joked by the coincidental timing of the young girl appearing once again. She exited the manhole covering and skipped towards the blond with a heartwarming smile. "Shiro brought the food you wanted Kuro-kun!"

"Oh?" Naruto thought as he was reminded of the promise Shiro made before she left out earlier. She opened up her hand and within the glove was a pretty big cookie with an almond protruding in the center of the stuffed cookie. As Naruto grabbed the cookie from out of her hand, he noticed an abnormality of the cookie.

"Shiro.. Did you take a bit out of this?" He said eyeing the little nimble mark. Shiro's cheek bloated up and she looked own slightly. "Shiro was a little hungry from the travel and wanted to try some." Naruto gave a small laugh at the antics of the girl and gave an assuring rub on her head. "It's cool Shiro, Thank you for the gift." Shiro's face lit up in excitement and began to chant "Try it!" to the whiskered teen. Naruto, by all means not complaining, went to bit the cookie, only for him to immediately sense something fly towards his head and dodge to his left. He looked to the ground and saw a hardhat, Naruto turned to see who the assailant was.

He was greeted by 3 entities, the center looked like some typical douchebag with a pompadour gelled to the extreme, to his left was a pudgy guy with a buzz cut and to his left was a lanky looking guy with his hair in a ponytail ala Shikamaru. "Hey dickhead," The Pompadour guy yelled, "Quit flirting with the woman over there and get back to your job!" Naruto rolled his eyes at the guys and was ready to ignore them until…

"Hey, doesn't that kid look familiar?" The pudgy one said to his entourage. The pompadour guy looked at him quizzically until a look of epiphany hit the Shikamaru clone, "Hell yea, it's that fucking Massacre kid!"

"Y'know, I'm really starting to fucking hate that nickname.' Naruto thought as he already know he's going to get into some problems with these guys now. "Oh fuck yea, you're the kid that killed all those kids in that fucking middle school, aren't you?" The pompadour guy laughed, "How does it feel knowing that the world wants your head on a platter including your precious friends?" Naruto gave a look of indifference until he saw the side of his face fly past Naruto as he was now seeing a glove in front of his eye.

"Leave him alone you big meanie! Kuro-kun will never hurt one of his friends!" Shiro yelled at the downed man while standing in a valiant display. "What the fuck is this bitch problem!?" The pudgy guy yelled as he went in to give Shiro a wide left, only to be greeted by Shiro bare heel embedded into his lower jaw. The guy flew back while the Shikamaru clone grabbed the shovel the Pompadour guy dropped and whacked her clean across the head with the front side of it.

Naruto immediately saw red and grabbed the guy's throat and slammed him on the ground. Naruto then perched himself on top of the guy and went for a ground and pound. The other two rush to the blond assaulting their man and grabbed him by his arms, the Shikamaru clone rushed at him only to find both of Naruto's feet slamming into his face. And with the forward momentum, Naruto overpowered the two and front flipped the two and resumed the ground and pound on the Pompadour guy.

While Naruto was busy assaulting the 3 men, unbeknownst of him was a hidden figure watching the fight from the distance. That figure turns out to be Tamaki, watching the boy beat up the poor men on the screen of his device. Tamaki gave his trademark back crawling smile as he observes the carnage.

'Hm. Okay Mr. Homecoming, let's see if we can truly get that fighting spirit out of you.' Just as Tamaki said that, he switched over to a screen showing a remote bomb that was attached to the building fixture above the blonde and the albino girl. Tamaki pressed the screen and was rewarded with a giant explosion.

On the other side of the spectrum, Naruto immediately stopped his assault as he looked up and heard the loud explosion and his eyes was greeted to a giant cloud of red, yellow and grey. While watching, the pompadour guy took advantage of the distracted blond by cheapshotting him and ran off with his injured buddies. Naruto almost peruse only to remember the still unconscious girl was far away from him. Naruto ran to the Unconscious Shiro and threw her over his shoulder and start to book it. Only instead his way of exit was blocked by the falling rubble. Naruto looked up and saw the giant metallic spear to start falling off the top of the building..

Naruto immediately put his mind into overdrive as he was looking for a way out.

Jutsus? No, he was too tired and didn't have enough chakra.

Sage mode? Too long for him to set up.

Rinnegan? Naruto began to put pressure into the eyes as he start to see the sphere free fall to the center where they were located. And of course the damn thing was not trying to work. But as he was trying to force the Rinnegan to work, he felt a different source of power forming. He felt heat in his chest and in his peripheral he saw a red glow and hexagonal figures surround him. 'The shard?' Naruto took the opportunity and put more focus in the unknown power and felt the power course through him. And while doing so, he felt the blood from the cut he received from the slug by the guy he was beating up.

He let his body naturally reach to the power and was soon granted a sheer array of power exploding from his mouth as he yelled to the top of his lungs at the giant sphere. And as he did that the entire sphere was surrounded by the hexagons and was struck by multiple protrusions of blood as Naruto let out a long bellow to compliment the attack. The sphere shattered into multiple pieces, luckily away from the two. Naruto and Shiro can be seen in the epicenter of the destruction, panting (while simultaneously cleaning his mouth) as he soon fell on his bottom due to his legs finally collapsing on him. He laid Shiro right next to him as she immediately went into a fetal position.

"Mhhmm, no obaa-san, Shiro doesn't want anymore cookies…" Shiro said, talking to herself in her sleep. Naruto gave a relieved smile, happy that the girl was still okay. He looked up to the sky and then towards the debris around him.

"When it rains, it pours I guess." Naruto whispered, as he saw what was (hopefully) the apex of the wild day he had at Deadman Wonderland. Honestly, he should be thinking about the mysterious power that the Shard gifted him, how was he going to handle Shiro, or what caused the explosion from the building.

But to be honest?

Naruto just wanted to take a nap.

Naruto laid back on the ground right next to Shiro, finally enjoying the sound of tranquility throughout the mayhem; he turned over and saw that surprisingly Shiro held on to the cookie she was supposed to give him. Naruto gave a soft smile and grabbed the cookie while Shiro snuggled closer to him. He laid up slightly and put his arm around the girl, while letting the taste of delectable strawberry hit his mouth…

…

'Wait a minute…'

Naruto just remembered that Shiro came out of a manhole opening…

That led to a sewer…

Where she had came out from…

And that tranquil sound was soon replaced by the sounds of retching…

…

In story trivia:

(1): Stolen from The Avengers, the scene where Captain America was having flashbacks to his time in WWII and demolished his punching bag. I thought it was a funny enough gag to use.

(2) : Just a weird collection of some of my favorite books that I've read throughout the years. And Naruto's experience with TKAM is the exact way how I dealt with it, surprisingly.

Overall Trivia

-The first 5 paragraphs took over a half a year for me to figure out and word properly and the rest as of the time this gets published took me 2 hours plus breaks.

-Naruto was going to have a weird affiliation with birds, specifically with Ravens due to their extreme intellect but was axed due to the similarities of Senji/Crow.

-Weirdly enough I haven't read Deadman Wonderland since the series ended back in 2013 but I remember the key scenes for this chapter word for word.

Author's Note:

Not much of one to be honest. I was gonna address the criticism of Naruto's actions last time but I really want to take a nap so I'll let the chapter speak for itself. I don't want to put a timeframe on the next chapter since my lazy ass can't seem to release a fucking chapter less than fucking 6 months so I won't jinx it. As I said last time, the next chapter will be a filler chapter to pan out some kinks I want to work on. Maybe after that I can work around some other stuff that I've been playing around with like that AoT project I want to tackle to get me back into shape. Until then hopefully I can catch y'all real soon.

Peace.

-Icarus