Shadow of Fiore
A Naruto Fairy Tail Crossover
A/N: Enjoy the next chapter folks. Your overwhelming response to the first chapter inspired me to write up this chapter.
Ch 2: Fear the Ignorance:
Laxus words were like a clarion call to Gildarts and Makarov. Makarov immediately rushed to the common guild hall to confirm the news with his own eyes. Gildarts who was under a strict regime of potions and medicine by Polyrusica was also hobbling towards the guild hall. Both of their eyes met and they renewed their mad dash to the hall. They came skidding into the floor, only to notice the utter pandemonium and chaos, Laxus' words had thrown the guild into. Half of the guild members were armed to the teeth to face Naruto most of them the new generation and the rest were crowding Naruto to see if he had really come back. Mainly it consisted of the old timers and the people who wanted to meet one of their guilds most infamous members.
Indeed the guild of Fairy Tail did not achieve their prominence due to the work and efforts of the new generation. The guild was established under the power of Mavis Vermillion, The Founder and First Master of Fairy Tail and Master Tactician. It was due to the combined efforts of many of the prominent mages of that era like Marcus Grudge, Master of Phantom Lord, Mavis Vermillion and Darion Emrys, one of the last descendants of Merlin; that they were able to defeat Zeref.
But unfortunately they only manged to seal him inside Tenrou Island. Mavis Vermillion had achieved fame and popularity for her major role in defeating Zeref. Also thanks to Darion Emrys efforts, Zeref was permanently forced into a young age of a teenager thanks to the Arc of Time magic possessed by Darion.
Unfortunately the effort of subduing Zeref's immense power and to ensure that the changes remain permanent cost Darion his life and that led to the end of the Emrys line. Marcus Grudge was hailed as one of the greatest masters of Phantom Lord for his unrelenting assault on the Black Mage himself. The man had singlehandedly kept Zeref and his army of Demons at bay with sheer blasts of magic while Darion Emrys and Mavis Vermillion worked in tandem to stop the Black Mage permanently. Only when Acnologia was summoned, did Mavis Vermillion enter the fight and employ one of her infamous spells Fairy Sphere to protect themselves. That combined with the tactics and power used by Mavis, she was well feared and respected.
After that Earthland was in turmoil thanks to the absence of any effective leadership. By then the Iron Trinity of Mavis, Marcus and Darion had passed on and the leadership of Fairy Tail fell into the hands of Purehito. Purehito employed some effective rules and formed the basic charter for a magic council and made sure to keep the rogue mages in order. But after the defeat of Zeref, many rogues and demons belonging to Zeref's order started harassing the people and destroying villages. It was at that time many guilds started forming their assault teams.
Makarov Dreyar was considered a one man army thanks to the use of his powerful Titan Magic. But Purehito only sent him to missions where it was necessary to destroy large amount of rogues with no room for mercy. Initially Makarov did not believe that Fairy Tail was capable of murder, but Purehito was adamant that certain people were better to be dead than alive. When shown with an example of what Makarov's hesitance in destroying a dark guild led to the death of an entire village, Makarov accepted that in certain cases it was better to finish them off than to offer mercy. Later Makarov would embark on a mission that would spread his news of strength far and wide.
A village resting on a mining shaft was seemingly facing problems in working in the mines. Faced with the loss of their revenue and the rumours of a monster hiding in the mountains, they requested a mission from Fairy Tail. Makarov had chosen the mission and reached the village at night. Considering that it was night he was ready to hit the sack when there came loud roars and hisses from the mining shaft. Immediately he had jumped into it and landed on some thing hard and shiny.
Immediately a huge eye blinked open with a menacing yellow sclera and a a black slit pupil. Immediately Makarov transformed his arm into Titan Form and delivered a brutal fist to the eye. With that punch, Metallicana woke up and roared his anger to the high heavens. Metallicana's roar destroyed the mine shaft and threw Makarov into the air. But when Metallicana came out he faced the boot of a furious Titan mage. The claws of Metallicana fought against the armoured gauntlets of Makarov's Titan Magic. Makarov in his fury fought like a berserker and thrashed the Iron Dragon ruthlessly. Finally with a roar of fury Makarov shot Metallicana into the mountain and covered the hole with rubble. But his fight with Metallicana was seen by the villagers and the epithet ,Titan of Fairy Tail was given to Makarov.
After that mission Purehito handed over the reigns of Fairy Tail to Makarov and left on his journey. It was during that night Makarov found Naruto Namikaze. Once Naruto was settled into Fairy Tail, he was tentatively shown the darker aspects of Fairy Tail and their actions. While Gildarts was squeamish about many things such as murder and assassination, Naruto merely faced them with a stoic look and just asked him when he had to start. That led to Makarov using Naruto to do various missions for the council and the guild in order to eliminate traitors and rogues. But Naruto's record was kept classified except for the fact that he became an S Rank mage. It wouldn't help the morale of the people to learn that the Council employed mages to assassinate and destroy people who went against their rules.
Naruto seemed to be made for assassination. He made kills look like accidents and destroyed demons and beasts with minimal collateral damage. Despite the classified status of Naruto's records, news had leaked to the masses that Fairy Tail possessed a new S Rank Mage. But the other guilds got even more news thanks to better spies that not only was Naruto Namikaze, a S Rank mage but he was High S Rank, which meant Fairy Tail presently had four S Rank mages all of high status. Only after Ivan's betrayal and the public news that Naruto Namikaze had assassinated him and left Fairy Tail on a sabbatical made the other guilds heave some relief, about Fairy Tail's power.
But the effects of not possessing a powerful enforcer was already being felt all over Earthland. Despite the presence of Rune Knights, many of whom were talented enough to give S rank mages trouble, they were too idealistic and transparent to perform the kind of work Naruto did. The lack of Naruto Namikaze, Shadow of Fiore was felt severely by the Council.
Even though the general public was unaware of the activities of Naruto, the darker elements weren't. They were rightfully afraid of the man who could penetrate any defense and take on any opposition and destroy it. The dark guild, Manticore Sting was destroyed by Naruto Namikaze. But its legacy lived on in horror stories told of the man who fought like a wraith. He lived in shadows and was said to possess a sword that was made of the brightest light. The sword was rumoured to be able to cleanse the darkness out of the people. His utter destruction of the 100 mages and 4 demons of Manticore Sting were legendary.
But when news came that Naruto had left on a journey, all kinds of dark guilds and rogues came out of the woodwork and sewers. It was a sad day for Makarov when he heard the news of Deliora and the death of Ice Mage Ur by imprisoning it. It was even more depressing when he heard that the news about Deliora's rampage was known earlier, but the Council did not possess a mage who was capable of supporting Ur single handedly. So they were going to send a platoon of Rune Knights but unfortunately by the time the platoon reached there, Ur had already passed away imprisoning Deliora in an icy prison. Also the Balam Alliance would never have formed if Naruto was present. But now Naruto was back from whatever place he had gone in search for.
Makarov knew Naruto was alive and was coming back soon. Gildarts return only confirmed that. Apparently, the Ace of Fairy Tail had faced Acnologia in the Hundred Year mission. Only Naruto's interference had helped Gildart's leave the battlefield with only a missing hand. While Makarov was sure Gildarts would have survived without Naruto's help, he would have come back with much more grievous injuries. Even Makarov was unsure of whether he would be able to take on the Apocalypse Dragon and survive singlehandedly. It seemed that the younger generation had really improved over time. But now time to meet with Naruto.
(At the Guild Hall)
Naruto Namikaze had nearly pulled out his tanto and had beheaded the person who had tried to shake his hand. But he controlled his impulse and limply shook Wakaba's hand. Just as he nodded in Macao's direction and was observing the younger generation of Fairy Tail, when he felt two immense presences. He looked up to see Makarov and Gildarts looking at him. Naruto was going to flash them a grin, when magical energy flared from the centre of the Guild Hall. In amidst the confusion of Naruto's entry they had forgotten about the man who had identified Naruto. Laxus Dreyar stood there with his magical energy flaring all over the place. His sheer magical energy seemed to make those weaker than him start to shiver and in some cases even faint. Immediately Naruto looked at him, the resemblance between Ivan and Laxus was unmistakable. They even possessed the same unmistakable psychotic grin.
"You know your father was grinning like a fool when he fought me", spoke Naruto conversationally as though he was talking about the weather.
" But only at the beginning, then he begged me to spare his life", His voice acquired a razor quality as he said that.
Immediately Laxus' body acquired a golden glow and he thrust his hand out in a corkscrewing motion. From his hand shot out a bolt of yellow lightning as Laxus intoned," Crash of Thunder". Before the people in the guild knew it, Naruto had pulled his tanto out and slashed it in a horizontal arc. A white arc of energy flew which swallowed the lightning attack and then kept on towards Laxus. Before it could reach him, a colourless beam of magic slammed into it and the slash of energy dissipated into its constituents and they returned back to Naruto. He turned around to see Gildart's hand was stretched out.
Immediately Laxus spoke up," So you really are worthy of defeating my father. You are strong". Laxus bowed after saying this and vanished into the upper floors of the guild. Gildarts voice was clearly heard over the deafening silence clearly," Atleast he isn't trying to kill you." A few people let out nervous chuckles at that. But Makarov simply came down and clapped his hands on Naruto's shoulder and led him to the inner sanctum of the guild, The Master's Study.
Erza and Mirajane were looking at the flight of stairs that led to the Master's Study. Never had they ever entered the Master's Study. Even Makarov never seemed to use it. He mostly left his paperwork to Mirajane or he did it in the Guild Hall. But now he had taken this perfect stranger(for them) and even welcomed him into his personal study.
Meanwhile Natsu was jumping up and down in excitement. His head was filled with dreams of how he would kick Naruto's ass and later Gildarts and even after that Master Makarov's ass, when he was socked out of his dreams by Gray. Immediately both of them started trading insults and knocking the daylights out of each other.
Erza and Mirajane looked at each other then at Natsu and Gray fighting. Both of them unanimously decided to let the both of them fight it out of their systems. But first they needed answers and for that, they looked at Macao and Wakaba with an evil grin. The two men felt as though the devil himself had come to take them when they saw those grins. They tried to flee but they were captured and were interrogated.
"Who the hell is Naruto?", shot Erza to the two of them with a menacing glare. Wakaba gulped and said," He was one of Fairy Tail's most elusive and most powerful members. He was rumoured to able to take on Makarov and win. The man has been known to take down Dark Guilds singlehandedly and erase them off the face of the earth."
Erza's demeanour acquired a dangerous lilt to it when she heard that Naruto had killed people even if it was of a Dark Guild. She was going to have some words with the man when he came down.
(In the Master's Study)
Naruto entered the study with a fond smile on his face. It was just like how he remembered it. Gildarts followed him and sat at the Master's right. There was chair to the left of the Master's Chair. it was partially hidden in shadow. That was his chair. It was placed to represent the strongest in the guild and their hierarchy. The man sitting to the right would be the Ace of the guild. And the man sitting to the left would be the Shadow of the guild. The Ace took the flashy missions and ensured that the image of the guild was maintained. The Shadow made sure there were no lurking enemies who would try to stab them from behind or from the shadows. But even though the Ace looked like he got the fame and everything, he was also a major target for assassins and enemies. While the Shadow is invisible and is known only to few people.
Makarov looked over Naruto and smiled at him."Its good to have you back, Naruto. Any news?". Naruto's eyes acquired a hard glint in them as he said with a grim smile," The council meeting today will be attacked by the members of the guild of Eisenwald. They plan to unleash one of Zeref's demons, Lullaby."
Makarov and Gildarts simply nodded at the information. They knew better than to question him about his sources. Naruto inserted a hand into his vest and pulled out scroll. Makarov and Gildarts looked at it curiously. Naruto imbued it with some of his chakra and it burst open with a puff of smoke. Makarov looked at what the scroll had kept inside it. He was shocked to find it contained a flute possessing demonic energy and also the head of Erigor, Eisenwald's Guild Master and A Rank mage.
" You took care of the problem then.", Makarov said with an uneasy smile. Naruto simply nodded. Then he said," That wasn't the only thing I came across in my travels. It seems the guild of Eisenwald was built over a summoning circle. A circle which was active. When I destroyed their guild I found a secret passageway to their basement. Apparently only the Guild Master knew about it. I found something ... no I found someone, over there."
Makarov looked at him with apprehensive eyes. Summoning circles were dangerous things. They could summon something harmless as flowers to vicious demons. "And what did you find about this circle?".
"It was specifically tuned to certain co-ordinates. I was unable to make heads or tails of them. But I recognised the person who was summoned". Makarov gasped at this." It was one of my old comrades ,Chouji Akimichi. He was apparently tortured to death.", said Naruto in a furious tone.
Makarov gasped at the implications of this. It meant that people possessing Naruto's skills could enter this world from his world. And the co-ordinates also meant that they had deduced that they had found the point of reference to Naruto's universe in the Space-Time dimension.
"It gets worse",said Naruto.
"Apparently, the guild indirectly supported the Balam alliance and sent their co-ordinates to them too. Not only that I found a message from Grimoire Heart, the leader of Balam alliance. It went as such,
"We have found the objective and summoned a person. His name is Sasuke Uchiha"
Makarov groaned at the message.
A/n: Read and Review... Tell me if you want someone else to also come from the Naruto Universe...
