I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.
"Wow, so this is Fairy Tail?" Naruto asked as he gazed up at the building in admiration. "It's huge!"
"They finished it!" Lucy said in surprise. Naruto gave her a quizzical look. "Oh, it got destroyed in the guild war we had with Phantom Lord and they were still rebuilding it when we left," she explained. Naruto frowned. "A guild war? Isn't that forbidden?"
"Phantom Lord started the attack, so the Magic Council let us off," Gray said.
"But it's totally different from how it was before!" Lucy exclaimed as they entered the building. They were greeted by several guild members, but were too shocked by the changes to return the greetings.
"So, you're finally back, are you?" asked a short and very old man. Naruto turned towards him and couldn't help but gasp at the sheer amount of magical power he sensed within the old man's body. Luckily, his gasp went unnoticed in the rowdiness of the guild.
"This is our newest member, Juvia," he said, introducing the blue-haired girl next to him.
"It's good to see you all!" she smiled warmly.
"Hahaha! So you really have joined up, huh?" Gray grinned.
"Juvia….Thank you for all your help back there," Erza smiled.
"Hm? You know one another?!" the old man asked in surprise.
"Juvia has all of you to thank! Juvia will do her best!" Juvia smiled.
"Good luck!" Lucy said. Erza bent down to whisper something into the old man's ear. With his sharp hearing, Naruto couldn't help but hear their whispered conversation. He smiled at the old man's concern and flashed back to the smiling figure of the Third. The two were very similar. When he refocused back on the present, he noticed a new man standing in front of them, clad in black with several metal studs embedded in his body. The rest of the group were in various stages of shock and anger.
"It is the duty of an old man like me to guide young men who have lost their way back onto the right path. He's not a bad guy at heart, you know…..At least, I hope not," the old man explained.
"If this is the master's decision, then I will support it….But I think we should at least have someone keep an eye on him for the time being," Erza said calmly. Naruto smiled
wistfully, remembering his first teacher. It was the kind of thing he would have said.
Suddenly the guild went dark and the group sat down as a beautiful young woman appeared on stage and began singing. Suddenly Natsu jumped up and began yelling at the man in black from before. They were quickly hit by several mugs thrown by various other spectators.
"Okay, who threw that?!" Natsu roared, flipping the table. Gray jumped up and began pummeling him, causing Erza to drop her cake in the process. Soon enough, the guild was in an uproar, the mages fighting and brawling it out like there was no tomorrow. Naruto jumped to his feet, a mischievous grin on his face.
"All right! I haven't had a good fight in ages!" he proclaimed as he dived into the brawl. However, his wish was quickly denied as Master used his Titan magic to break up the fight.
As the guild subsided to its normal rowdiness, Erza tapped Naruto on the shoulder.
"So what do you think?" she asked. Naruto turned to her with a huge grin on his face.
"I love it! Where do I join?"
"Hey guys, what's up?" Naruto asked as he sauntered into the guild, suppressing a yawn. He had been exhausted from the journey and meeting so many new faces he had
collapsed the night before and slept in until late in the afternoon.
"The reporter from the Weekly Sorcerer is here, but no matter what I do, he doesn't notice me at all!" Lucy wailed. Naruto glanced the guy who was speeding through the guild, snapping pictures and rapidly scribbling in a notebook as he interviewed several members at top speed. He shrugged.
"It's only natural, we are new members after all," he said offhandedly.
"Wait… 'we'? So you decided to join after all?" she asked happily. He grinned and rolled up his right sleeve to show her the tattoo on his right shoulder.
"Yup! I talked to Gramps after the crazy battle last night and joined right after!" Lucy sweatdropped. "Gramps? You're just like Natsu…." she muttered. Naruto let the comment slide, remembering when he had first met Natsu…
"Hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto grinned at the pink-haired young man. "What's your name?"
"I'm Natsu Dragneel. Fight me!" Naruto blinked at the sudden change in subject.
"Um….do you always change subjects this fast?" he asked.
"Just fight me already!" Natsu whined. Naruto sweatdropped. "Fine. But let's go outside first." Natsu raced outside, dragging a protesting Naruto in his wake. Gray, Lucy, and Erza followed, sighing at Natsu's usual obsession with fighting people.
"Okay, start!" Gray said, refereeing the battle. Natsu immediately jumped forward, thrusting a blazing fist to Naruto's face. Naruto easily ducked and sent Natsu flying back with a solid kick to the abdomen.
Still flying through the air, Natsu took a deep breath, saying "Fire Dragon's Roar!" as he sent a blazing stream of fire at Naruto. Lucy shrieked in shock as Naruto was incinerated.
"Natsu! You didn't have to go so far!" she berated.
"No….Naruto's fine," Erza said, narrowing her eyes. When Natsu stopped his roar, a badly burnt Naruto toppled to the ground….to disappear with a poof of smoke. At that exact same moment, Naruto appeared behind Natsu and executed a devastating drop kick that Natsu barely managed to block in time. Natsu quickly jumped back to the offense, bombarding Naruto with a barrage of flaming punches and kicks, all of which Naruto easily dodged, a smile creeping onto his face.
"You're too hotheaded; you charge in blindly and attack recklessly," he commented. "You can't beat me like this." At that, Natsu went berserk.
"Oh yeah? Take this!" he roared as he brought both of his blazing hands together. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" The area around them was engulfed in a gigantic explosion.
Natsu landed on the ground, wiping his mouth as he grinned.
"Is that good enough for you?" he challenged. Naruto appeared behind him, kunai at the ready. "It was a good try, but you can't beat me with that level of strength." Natsu turned around completely shocked.
"What….how…?" he stammered. Naruto shrugged and gave him a mysterious smile. "You fight too sloppily; your attacks are obvious and you make too many sweeping movements. Actually, you remind me of when I was younger; you have plenty of destructive power, but you waste it on excessive movement, so if you polish up your fighting style, I'm sure you can catch up to me," he grinned, giving Natsu a thumbs up. Natsu scowled but accepted the praise.
"You're so strong for our age, Naruto!" Lucy exclaimed as they met up with the rest of the group. "I bet you could even match Erza!"
"Um….how old are you again?" Naruto asked.
"I'm 17!" Lucy said.
"Well, I'm 15…"
Naruto snapped back to the present at the sound of an electric guitar. "Huh, what happened?" he asked in confusion looking around. On stage sat the man he had met yesterday…. What was his name again? Oh yeah, Gajeel. He was dressed in a white suit and was singing while playing an electric guitar. All around him the guild members were in various stages of shock, but Naruto couldn't help but be impressed by the lyrics. Suddenly, he noticed Lucy wearing some sort of bunny suit dancing along to the music.
"Coool! The absurdity is resounding! It's the hit song of the year!" screamed the reporter as he cried tears of wonder. Naruto grinned – he was really starting to like Fairy Tail! It was amazingly destructive and heartwarming at the same time, just like him! He couldn't wait to start his first job…..
