Chapter 2
It was the beginning of the third day of the Grand Magic Games. So far Sabertooth was still in first place with Mermaid Heel right behind him. Fairy Tail was no longer in last place due to the battle on the second day. The crowd was, like always, excited to see the new event of the day. However what they were all waiting to see wasn't the event itself, but the participants. Actually a specific participant - the mysterious male mage from Mermaid Heel.
Ever since people heard that the exclusive girl-only guild had hired a male mage, they were wondering what is so special about him. Some were saying that Mermaid Heel will no longer be a female-only guild, while others were saying he had tricked the guild master to let him join. Others had said "He stole the hearts of the members of the guild". However after interviewing Mermaid Heel's guild master, Sorcery Week confirmed that he was not a permanent member, but a temporary member that was given the guild mark, and had joined more than a year before the tournament.
What shocked the interviewer even more was that the guild master said that she hired him to participate in the tournament on behalf of their guild. When the interviewer asked him why would they hire a male mage, the guild master said that she had met the young man through her ace (I don't know if Kagura is the ace or not, but for the story she is). The guild master explained that they had made a deal - in exchange for boosting their reputation and training their members, she would allow him to join the guild temporarily and participate on their behalf in the next Grand Magic Games.
The interviewer also asked the guild master if she is now allowing men to join the guild? She sternly said no, and that he is an exception because he is strong and her ace recommended him.
The interviewer asked "Why then hide this fact until now?". The guild master answered that she didn't want to give the false impression that men could join, and the mage doesn't want to attract allot of attention to himself. This made the audience come to two conclusions - that the mysterious male mage is very strong, and that he has something to hide.
Meanwhile while announcing the names of the participants Chapti Lola suddenly froze for a second before regaining his bearings. "It seems that we don't have the name of the Mermaid Heel participant, however it appears that he is the so called 'mysterious male mage' that we have all heard of". "So without further delays here he is!" Right when he said those words, a mage came out of the Mermaid Heel players' box. This mage was wearing a blue cloak that covered his entire body including his face. It seemed he was trying to hide his identity, which added to his mysterious image. The crowd was also trying to figure out who this mage was. But before they could think more of it, Orga decided to solve the mystery by himself.
"Yo buddy, how about you lose that cloak and tell us who you are" he said that with a cocky tone. When the mage didn't answer he got annoyed, "Hey, answer you piece of shit, you think you are so cool with the mysterious persona you have. Let me tell you something, you're not. So why don't you get rid of that cloak and show us how you look unless you're too afraid to show your face." Orga's rant was cut off by Jura. "While I don't agree with my fellow participant's choice of words, I do feel it will show us respect if you remove the cloak so we can see our opponent's face." Erza decided to add her own two cents, "What Jura says is true. I know you have your reason to hide your identity but all will feel better if we see your face." Suddenly the entire crowd was cheering and calling for him to show himself.
But then as suddenly they all stopped cheering when they heard laughter coming from the mage wearing the cloak. "Oh please, you can stop with the bullshit, honor, and respect. You just want to see my face. Very well if you all want to see my face so badly, I will show you it, but let me warn that when you see it, you will feel like you're looking at a demon." He said this with an evil laugh. The whole crowd froze when they heard his words but none could find a way to reply. Seeing he wasn't getting a reply anytime soon the mage sighed, "Oh well, don't tell me I didn't warn you beforehand." After saying those words he pulled back the cloak's hood, revealing his face.
When people finally saw his face, they couldn't understand his warnings. "He doesn't look like a demon. On the contrary, he looked very handsome, so handsome that it made all the girls in the stadium blush. The mage had bright tanned skin, blue sapphire eyes, and blond spiky hair. However the most unique thing about his appearance were his birthmarks which looked like three whiskers. However Jura, as a wizard saint, immediately recognized the mage. He gritted his teeth and thought "No wonder he gave the warning beforehand. He truly is a monster or like he called himself, a demon. The mage's name is Naruto Uzumaki, and he is wanted for killing many criminals including dark mages."
"You!" Jura yelled. "Me?", the mage asked in a fake innocent tone. "What the fuck are you doing here you bastard!". Jura was so mad that steam started to come out of him. Erza was shocked since she knew Jura to always be a calm and polite man. To see him so angry made her scared and wonder who the mage really is. The mage started laughing, "What am I doing here? I am participating on behalf of Mermaid Heel." He said this before rolling down his left sleeve to show the guild mark on his arm. This only made Jura angrier, "There is no way, he murmured, there is no way I will accept a dark wizard like you in this tournament Naruto Uzumaki!".
The crowd was silent. No one dared to say a word. Chapati regained his senses and turned towards his guest the Rune Knight commander, Lahar. "Lahar, is what Jura-san is saying true?". Lahar took a moment to think of his words before starting to talk, "Hmm, Jura-san called the mage Naruto Uzumaki, right?". Chapati nodded. He then fixed his glasses and said, "Jura-san is correct. The mage who is participating on behalf of Mermaid Heel truly is Naruto Uzumaki". "Are you sure?", Chapati asked. "Yes, while we don't know almost anything about him, we do know his appearance from various witnesses who have seen him. That mage is wanted for the murder of many criminals, the destruction of many dark guilds, and other crimes. I am truly surprised that he is here. We have been searching for him for years."
"To see him here is truly shocking. Even more than that he is a member of Mermaid Heel, this violates many council rules, and Mermaid Heel's guild master will have to explain her actions in the future. But that doesn't matter right now. What does matter is the fact that we have a dark mage nearby and he is a participant in the most important event in Fiore."
Hearing this, Chapati's jaw dropped. "So what should we do Lahar?" he said in a trembling voice. Lahar's face turned serious before taking the microphone and announcing "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Lahar, head captain of the Rune Knights, the custody enforcement unit. I am truly sorry for interrupting an important event like this, but we have a major problem on our hand. You see the participant on behalf of Mermaid Heel (pointing to were Naruto is standing) is a wanted dark mage by the name of Naruto Uzumaki. The mage is wanted for many crimes, including the murder of many criminals. Even though he carries the mark of Mermaid Heel, he is still a wanted criminal so I will have to delay the event while we arrest him".
During Lahar's speech a messenger came by caring a note addressed for Lahar. Yamjin tapped Lahar's shoulder, stopping his announcement. "What is it Yamjin-san" he asked, only to see him holding the note addressed to him. Lahar read the note's contents, slamming his hand on the comment table. "What! This has got be a joke, they can't be serious", he screamed before storming out of the comment box. Chapati, who had by now regained his senses, read the note before grabbing the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, ahh we have a message here from the king himself. It says that Naruto Uzmaki is pardoned for his former crimes until the end of the tournament".
The crowd's reaction was mixed. Some were too shocked to say anything. Others were shouting "Kick out the criminal!". Some were happy, hoping to see the power of the said criminal. Jura and Erza were not happy, but they didn't say anything. After all what could they say, it was an order from the king of Foire himself.
After the announcement everyone focused on the judge who was explaining the events of the day. After the judge finished talking each of the participants picked a number. Naruto got number 7, right after Jura. He waited for Erza to choose the number of opponents, and raised an eyebrow after hearing Erza's decision for him to challenge all 100 monsters. As he watched Erza's fight he began to wonder, "Hmm this stubbornness, amazing stamina, and red hair. It seems you truly are a member, however there is only one way to find out for sure."
Time to skip to the MPF event:
After the judge described the MPF event, each one of the participants hit the device in turn. Naruto as second to last was wondering what Justsu would use. He sighed after seeing Jura's score of 8544. Naruto knew that Kagura would be annoyed with him if he doesn't do better. So he summoned a shadow clone, surprising the audience, before making a Rasengan in his hand while the clone put his hands together next to the orb. The orb changed, having the appearance of a giant Shuriken. Then he yelled, "Futon: Rasenshuriken!" before throwing the orb which blinded the area for a moment. After the area cleared they saw how the orb was completely torn, and MPF was counting 9999 points. Right after Naruto came Cana using one of Fairy Tail's great three spells, 'fairy glitter', and also received 9999 points. The announcer then declared that do the fact that both Cana and Naruto have the same score they would each get 8 additional points.
Time skip to the battle:
Now it was time for the battle portion of the day. Originally Mermaid Heel was supposed to go first, however their battle was moved to last. The battles so far were interesting. Shelia from Lamia Scale fought Wendy from Fairy Tail team A. It was called the 'battle of the sky' since both of the competitors used sky slaying magic. Even though the battle ended in a tie due to time running out, it was impossible to see who would have won. It also was interesting to see the difference between the two sky slaying magic.
The next battle was between Rufus from Sabertooth and Eve from Blue Pegasus. This battle could only be described as weird. Eve is a wonderful mage, but the way he thinks about his "sensei" is very disturbing (not to mention that his "sensei" himself is disturbing in many different levels). Eve lost hard which was disappointing because he could have done way better. Raven Tail's Alexi vs. Semmas was also disappointing because it seemed that Alexi was waiting for a different opponent. Eventually Alexi won but you couldn't see what kind of magic he had used.
However now was the start of the battle that everyone was waiting for. Who was fighting this battle? Two super strong opponents. From Fairy Tail team B was Laxus Dreyar, an S class mage of Fairy Tail, formerly the number one guild until it had lost most of its powerful wizards, currently making it the weakest guild. Laxus himself was one Fairy Tail's strongest mages. And if you didn't include Gildarts Clive and the master himself, he would be considered the strongest. Laxus is also the grandson of the current guild master which also says how strong he is.
His opponent however is a very different story. Not a lot is known about him. His identity was a secret until he chose to reveal it to the public. Naruto Uzumaki from Mermaid Heel was the first and probably last male member of the guild. Naruto was a wanted criminal that the magic council had been trying to catch for years. The first known about him was from 13 years ago when he had slaughtered an entire dark guild. Some witnesses claimed it looked like he had teleported, indicating, teleportation magic, however it wasn't confirmed. So far no reliable witness had confirmed what type of magic Naruto uses. Also it was known from the interview with the guild master that Naruto had been a member of Mermaid Heel for over a year. That only raised more questions like how had no one noticed a male mage having a Mermaid Heel mark for over a year.
Meanwhile arcadious, was wondering if he did the right choise by switching. He knew Laxus was one of the strongest members of Fairy Tail. However he didn't know who was the mysterious mage. Yet also knew that he was so strong that, by the order of the king, the battles were switched so that Fairy Tail would fight Mermaid Heel. Since the mysterious mage had revealed himself to be Naruto, he wasn't regretting switching the battles.
Laxus was eyeing his opponent. "Hmm he doesn't look strong", he thought. Then he sensed his magic which made him frown. "Something is wrong with his magic, it doesn't feel right. This will be interesting. Let's try to rile him up." "So you are this big shot criminal who everyone is talking about. You don't look so tough." Giving his best smug look he said "In fact I think this will be the quickest battle I ever had". "You're wrong. So if you think you can beat me, come and give me your best shot". Laxus said this while giving a 'come and get me' gesture.
Naruto didn't respond. In fact he looked bored. "You don't get it, do you?". "What don't I get?". Naruto answered, "This battle will end in a tie." That comment recived confused faces from the audience, and also from Laxus himself. Naruto sighed, "Let me explain something. I really don't care about winning the tournament. I came here for a different reason. However, Kagura will not allow me to quit or lose on purpose. And you are too strong for me to defeat in 5 minutes so eventually we will fight until the time runs out." "So you are saying that you would win if there wasn't a time limit? "Of course" was Naruto's answer.
Now Laxus was pissed, "You bastard! Don't think so highly about yourself." Laxus threw lightning bolts towards Naruto who simply dodged them all. Laxus' anger rose even more seeing Naruto dodge his attacks effortlessly. Laxus then summoned a huge lightning blast which covered the entire stadium. Naruto, seeing the large blast, sighed before doing some quick hand signs. They were so fast that most of the audience didn't notice him doing them at all. Right after he finished doing the hand signs, a huge wall of wind appeared and deflected the lightning. Everyone was shocked seeing this. Afterall this was the first time in history that Naruto had been seen using his magic.
Meanwhile, in the stands Aradious was grinning, "So he is a wind mage, how rare." He was really happy that he had switched the fights since now he had some information on Naruto. And the more the fight goes on, the more info he will get. Laxus was shocked seeing his attack deflected. It was his most basic of attacks but still really powerful. "So you are a wind mage?" Naruto answered "It is one of my powers. Now that you know what type of magic I have, you should give up. I have an elemental advantage and if this is your most powerful attack then you're going to lose." Laxus was exploding with rage, "You bastard, I will show you my full power." Laxus then summoned multiple lightning bolts, each one more powerful than the other. However Naruto's wind wall deflected them all.
Laxus then summoned a huge amount of lightning to his hand before shaping it like an arrow, massive destructive lightening arrow he yelled. The arrow grew to a large size and charged towards Naruto at amazing speed. Naruto didn't even tense seeing it before summoning his wind wall to defend himself. The arrow hit the wall and looked as if it was going to break it. But then the wind wall grew larger and deflected the arrow. "That was a great attack. If I hadn't added more power to my wall you would have broken it." Laxus was boiling mad from being so underestimated. He wanted to explode but then looked towards where his grandfather Makarov was sitting, and calmed down.
Makarov was smiling, thinking to himself, "Laxus, I'm glad you understood. This opponent is different from others you fought, he will take advantage of mistakes you make. The only way for you to defeat him is to have a fully calm mind, and observe him completely. This isn't like when you fought Natsu and Gajeel. Underestimating him and getting angry will only make it easier for him to defeat you." Makarov knew how truly powerful this young man is. While most didn't feel it, he felt it. He knew Laxus' opponent was holding back, that he was suppressing most of his power. And while Laxus wasn't going all out either, he knew his opponent was barley starting to show the true depth of his power. He was wizard saint. And while not being a sensor he could sense the power of the young man that was fighting his grandson.
That made him worry. Makarov knew of Naruto and had his suspicions when no reports arrived about him in recent years. However he was astonished after feeling the man's power. He truly believed that if Naruto would go all out he could be on par with wizard saints. Another thing was the kind of power that Naruto seemed to possess. His magic was odd and felt wrong. Actually it didn't feel like magic at all. In fact it felt like something else, something familiar. And those hand signs he saw Naruto make raised even more suspicions. "I wonder if he's actually a one of 'those'?" "Naa, I am probably imagining things. Afterall, I heard of the tragedy that wiped out their kind." What Makarov didn't know was how close to the truth he was, and how wrong he was about the strengthdepth of Naruto's power.
Back to the fight, Laxus was thinking about his next move, "Hmm, it seems that throwing attacks at him will not work, and his wind wall will deflect it all. I don't want to use my trump card yet so there is only one option left." Laxus elevated his magic power and covered his body in lightning, transforming himself into lightning going super fast towards Naruto. He was so fast that the wind wall couldn't deflect him on time. "Let's see you block that" Laxus thought. While in lightning form he couldn't be harmed or feel physical damage. But he could still deal stunning damage to his opponent. Right before he hit Naruto he felt a punch to his stomach and flew towards the wall. Laxus recovered. But before trying to go after Naruto again he was hit right before he could attack. "I don't get it. How could I be blocked, I don't have a physical body in this form?". Laxus heard Naruto's voice, "You were thinking something like that, right?"
He then saw Naruto start to laugh. "I can't believe you could be so stupid as to as use a spell like that against an opponent like me." "What do you mean?" Laxus asked. "Your spell has a major weakness. By becoming lightning you have the same weaknesses of your element. The main weakness of lightning is wind, my element." Naruto told him "Look at my hands." Laxus' eyes widened as he looked towards Naruto hands, seeing wind twist around them. You've covered your hands with wind magic!" It wasn't a question, more like a statement. "Please, doing something like this is basic for me. Also because you were hit with the element you're most vulnerable to, you get twice the damage." Laxus gritted his teeth in frustration. Seeing Laxus' anger, Naruto laughed even more. "Well, to tell you the truth, it wouldn't have worked if you were stronger than me."
Laxus was super annoyed. But taking another deep breath, he remembered that getting annoyed will only harm him. "I see, now I will have to use my true power." Right before Laxus could prepare to unleash his dragon slayer magic, he heard a buzz sound, and then Naruto's voice: "It seems I was right, this battle is a tie." Laxus' rage only grew, he was so pissed. Even though the battle was a tie, he knew it was only because of the time limit. "You bastard, next time we fight I will kick your ass." Naruto laughed before saying, "We will see."
A little while after the battle Naruto was in a restaurant having lunch. During his meal another figure entered the restaurant and stood behind Naruto. "Can I help you Kagura?" Naruto asked. Kagura didn't seem surprised that he had noticed her. She took the chair opposite Naruto and sat facing him.. You could see she was annoyed, from the scowl on her face. "Don't give me that look Kagura. You know that I couldn't defeat Laxus in five minutes." "Yes you could have" she said, "especially since he was underestimating you." "True, but then I would have to reveal my more powerful techniques. That could raise questions."
Kagura sighed knowing Naruto was right. "Besides" he said, "the reason we are here isn't to win the games, but to fulfill our goals. Master agreed to that too." This made Kagura raise an eyebrow. "Goals", she said in a cold tone, "Have you found him, not yet. But I have my suspicions. I know he is here, but because I never met him I don't know what his magic feels like." Kagura asked "Then how do you know?" Naruto answered "I have my ways. Let's just say that even though I haven't met him yet, I can understand the way he thinks. And according to that he will be here." Kagura was clenching her hand tightly, "Is their anyway for you to find him?" Naruto thought for a moment before a realization came across his face and his lips formed an evil smile. "Milliana" he said. "Millianna?". "Yes, Millianna met him. I know she can't sense magic signatures like you or me, but we could try and ask her if she remembers how his magic feels." Kagura frowned. "I know how you feel Kagura, but she is our only chance, as much as I don't like it." "Fine Naruto, I'll ask her when she returns." "Good" he said, "and once we know how he feels it will only be a matter of time before we find him." "Soon" she said, "soon we will find him and make him pay. Naruto, I swear we will make him pay for what he did to us. I swear that our revenge will be fulfilled. And Jellal Fernades will die by our hand, and so will everyone else who stands in our way!"
