AN: Well, I told you guys to expect an update soon, and here it is. Enjoy.


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.


I sat at a secluded table in the back corner of the guildhall eating ramen peacefully without removing my mask, to the constant astonishment of my guildmates, while flipping absentmindedly through the newspaper.

That is, until Natsu interrupted me..

"Hey! Naruto!" Natsu shouted as he ran up to my table with a piece of paper in his hand, "I just found a job request for getting a book back from this one guy, Duke Everlue, since it's basically an infiltration mission I figured it'd be right up your alley! And get this, the reward is 200,000 jewels!"

"Not interested." I replied without even looking up from the newspaper causing Natsu's jaw to drop in surprise.

"What do you mean you're not interested! It's 200,000 jewels just to steal and destroy one lousy book!"

"I meant exactly what I said, I'm not interested. If you really need help that badly go ask Lucy, I heard that guy was looking to hire a blonde maid so there's your ticket in."

"Alright!" Natsu shouted as he began to sprint out of the guild, "Thanks for the help Naruto!"

"Whatever, "I sighed in exasperation, "just let me eat my ramen in peace." Little did I know that I had just inadvertently helped to create one of the most famous, more like infamous really, teams in Fairy Tail's history.

I continued to look through newspaper for a while, content with just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere for a bit. But, eventually, after I had finished my ramen of course, I decided that it was time to go do some training. As I stood up I let Mirajane know that I was heading out into the woods to train before heading out of the guild.


I stood in an empty clearing in my battle gear while focusing my magic power, "Alright,"I thought, "time to work on my magic sensory capabilities."A magic seal appeared beneath my feet as I began to activate my magic, "Mass Shadow Clone." I whispered to myself as I was obscured by a massive cloud of smoke.
The smoke dissipated to reveal hundreds of shadow clones that scattered into the numerous trees surrounding the clearing as I closed my eyes and tried to find my center. "Alright," I thought, "now I just need to stretch my senses out and try to focus in on areas of high magic power concentration."I ignored all of my other senses as I tried to strengthen my connection with nature's flow in an attempt to detect the ambient Eternano in the environment.

Now, let me say it outright that magic sensory is a ridiculously difficult skill to learn and is even more difficult to master. A few people, those lucky bastards, are born capable of sensing the magical presences of others, but the rest of us have to shed blood sweat and tears to gain the ability. And when I refer to sensing the magical presences of others, I'm referring to actually being capable of determining their location by their magical presence alone rather than just being capable of sensing their magical power.

Just about any mage can feel the magical presence of another mage if they release their magical power. But it takes true skill and a shitload of hard work to be able to determine someone's location when they're concealing their magic and to be capable of applying it in a combat situation.
It's hard to explain how magical sensory works, but the best way I can put it is this. It's almost like the spatial awareness a person has for his own limbs how, even if they can't actually see their legs or their hands, they know where they are at all times. That's kind of how it works, it's not so much a clear-cut sense but a feeling you get as soon as someone with magical power enters your detection radius.

Which, leads me to another topic, everyone's detection radius is different. Some people, generally only those on the same level as the Ten Wizard Saints are capable of sensing every magical presence within a mile of themselves when they put their mind to it. Others, are only capable of sensing up to about five feet or so. Me? Well, at this point I could only sense up to roughly fifteen feet or so, but I was hoping to remedy that with some good ol' hellish training.

And speaking of which, let's get back to that. So, there I was, standing in the middle of a clearing with my eyes closed completely while trying desperately to sense my clones before they pummeled me. Thankfully it worked and I managed to sense a clone as soon as it came within fifteen feet of me. I requipped a couple shuriken and whipped one at my clone, hitting it and causing it to dispel.

I tried to ignore the memories of the clone but they still managed to interrupt my focus causing my magical senses to go to just about nil. I tried to regain my focus as quickly as I could but I failed to do so before getting decked by a clone I didn't sense.
"Shit!"I thought as I quickly recovered from the blow and prevented myself from falling face first into the dirt, "I've still got a long way to go."


I slumped to the ground while leaning against a tree trunk after a long day of training. The sun had long since set and the once pristine clearing was now marred by craters and had multiple areas where the grass had been completely torn up. Broken tree limbs littered the area and aside from the tree I was currently leaning against almost all trees near the clearing had their trunks completely shattered covering the area with even more debris.
About an hour or so into the training I had my clones split up into groups and do the same exercise to expedite my training. Thanks to that decision I had managed to crank up my detection range to roughly thirty feet in one day. I was pretty proud of myself.

"Heh," I chuckled slightly as I surveyed the damage that I had caused, "looks like I'll have to find a new area to train, again."

"Naruto!" a voice called out in the forest that I clearly recognized to be Mirajane's.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"There you are!" Mirajane exclaimed as she walked into the clearing, "I was worried sick about you!"

"You should know by now that I'm capable of taking care of myself." I responded, "I may not be an S-class mage like you, but I'm competent."

"I know, but it still worries me when you just run off unannounced like that."

And that statement immediately set off warning bells in my head.

You see, while I'm pretty much unknown by the public, I'm a little, and by little I mean extremely, infamous in certain circles. Circles that aren't exactly nice. Circles that send assassin's after you when you're infamous and they find out where you are. Which made my life a lot more complicated and difficult than it needed to be.
Which also led me to be extremely paranoid. Paranoid to the point where I've told Mirajane to only interrupt my training in the instance of an emergency so that if someone masqueraded as her to get the jump on me, I would know. Paranoid to the point where I always have clones shadowing me in the trees. Paranoid to the point where I never use more than seventy-five percent of my magic power when I train in case someone attempts to kill me when I seem to be exhausted.

And, it was situations like this that made me very thankful for being paranoid.

"What can I say," I said while shrugging my shoulders as one of the clones that I had hiding in the trees snuck up on the imposter, "being unpredictable—"

"—is what's kept me alive for so long." the clone finished from behind her while holding a kunai knife to her throat.

"N-Naruto! What's the meaning of..."

"I have to admit," I interrupted her as I stood up from the ground, "I'm pretty impressed. You've mimicked her perfectly, but you slipped up. I always tell her when I go out to train." I chose to keep the fact that she's only supposed to interrupt me in an emergency to myself, "So I know for a fact that you aren't Mira. So just who the hell are you!" I screamed while pointing a finger at the imposter.

As soon as the doppelgänger knew that he was exposed he quickly dropped the act as the expression on Mirajane's face quickly morphed into one of the most vile grins I had ever seen. "Why don't you drop the illusion too." my clone suggested while digging the knife into his throat slightly, "An expression like that doesn't belong on Mirajane's face."

The assassin complied and dropped the illusion to reveal a tall man, taller than me, with short, spiky black hair with bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. He wore a sleeveless black shirt and black pants with vertically striped hand and leg warmers and toeless ninja sandals.

"Just who the hell are you?" I questioned.

"Zabuza Momochi, also known as the Demon of the Hidden MIst."

"Shit!" I swore due to recognizing the name as my clone immediately slit the man's throat revealing it to be a water clone. While I hadn't recognized his appearance I remembered reading his name in the Bingo Book of a Missing-nin I had dealt with previously. This guy was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and was extremely good at what he did. Which was killing people. Which didn't exactly bode very well for my health in the near future.

Mist started rolling in and my clone and I immediately went back to back in an attempt to cover our blind spots. I quickly created more clones and silently thanked Kami that I had started making sure to leave at least twenty-five percent of my magic power untouched whenever I trained after the last assassination attempt.

"Let me guess," one of the clones that stood on the fringe of the group called out as the rest of my clones fell into a tight formation, "you're here for the scroll aren't you?"

"Yes," Zabuza's disembodied voice responded sounding as though it was coming from all throughout the clearing, "that's exactly why I'm here." As soon as he had finished speaking Zabuza appeared directly in front of the clone and decapitated it with his massive sword before it could even react. Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he vanished into the mist.

"Alright," I thought, "he's obviously capable of requip magic because there's no way he could conceal a sword that's bigger than his body on his person." I closed my eyes as I became one with nature's flow and started picking up the ambient Eternano in the surrounding area. "I am so glad I decided to work on this today."

Please note that if I hadn't decided to train that specific skill that day I would likely be dead right now.

My senses were muddled slightly due to the high concentration of Eternano in the mist, but I could still make out the magic signatures of my clones despite the fact that they were all masking their magic signatures so I hoped I would be capable of sensing my would-be assassin. Despite the fact that my detection range had expanded Zabuza was still outside of my range which meant that I had no idea where the fuck he was.

Several of the clones surrounding me transformed themselves into shuriken in preparation for my plan and to help conserve magic power by avoiding requipping them instead. And also, it's always good to have some clones laying around the battlefield disguised as shuriken or other miscellaneous objects.

Suddenly a mass of highly concentrated Eternano entered my detection range at high-speed and was heading straight for one of my clones. The second that Zabuza slowed down to decapitate the clone I threw the barrage of shuriken at him catching him slightly off guard. Rather than dodging the barrage of shuriken he instead raised the massive flat of his blade to block them causing me to smirk slightly.

Zabuza had fallen right into my trap.

While Zabuza was immobile I took in the details of his sword in an instant. The first thing that I took note of was that the sword was absolutely massive, it was clearly larger than its wielder and Zabuza was pretty damn tall to begin with. I also noticed that it had only one edge and there was perfect circle near the tip of the blade that was empty. I also noticed the blade's absence of a hilt and that near the area where the hilt should have been the edge formed a half circle that was perfect for decapitation.

"Obviously this sword was built with assassinations in mind, my guess is that most people's necks fit perfectly into that half circle."
The shuriken that I had thrown clattered harmlessly off the flat of the blade until one of them transformed back into one of my clones mid-flight. It immediately slapped its palm against the blade and activated its requip magic as a magic seal appeared before a plume of smoke obscured the blade.
When the smoke cleared to Zabuza's surprise and my joy the sword was nowhere to be found.

This, is the trap I was referring to earlier.

Zabuza immediately jumped backwards to distance himself from my numerous clones, "Wh-what just happened?" he questioned while trying to wrap his mind around what had just occurred.

"Simple," I replied, "there's a reason my requip magic is referred to as 'The Thief'. I liked your sword, so I stole it. It's as simple as that. And now," I stated while making certain that Zabuza was focused solely on myself and not my clones, "you're dead."

One of my clones appeared instantly behind Zabuza and kicked him sending him flying through the air towards myself. I held my hand out and requipped an insanely long nodachi into my right hand that impaled Zabuza straight through the heart as it appeared.

I smirked slightly underneath my mask, quite thankful to have made it out of the battle alive.

That is, until Zabuza's body dissolved into water.

"Shit!" I thought as Zabuza's laughter filled the area.

"Did you think you're the only ninja capable of misdirection brat?" Zabuza asked in a condescending tone as my clones and I once again took up a tight formation. I immediately dismissed the nodachi as it was singling me out from the rest of my clones and I switched places with one of my clones using Body Replacement just like Zabuza had done before. "I will admit, your little trick with the clones caught me off-guard. And I never would have expected someone would be capable of stealing other people's weapons with requip magic. But it was blatantly obvious that you were stalling for something, so I just switched places with a water clone. Nice try."

I shoved down my feeling of desperation and closed my eyes in to try and begin utilizing my magic sensory abilities once more. The slight panic I was experiencing only increased as my mind was flooded with the memories of my clones as they were taken out one by one.

Giving up on using my magic sensory I opened my eyes to find that all of my clones had been dispelled.

Aside from the ones that had transformed into shuriken that is.

I began to slowly inch towards where the shuriken lay hoping that Zabuza wouldn't catch on to what I was doing. I began to pump magic power to both my eyes and ears to push my senses even further as I tried to determine Zabuza's location.

I heard a slight rustling behind me and immediately dove forward narrowly dodging a katana that had been aimed directly for my head.
"Damn!" I thought as I came out of my roll and requipped a katana of my own, "That was way too close for comfort! And now I'm even further from my clones, and I don't have the magic power to summon any more. At this point my life depends—"

My train of thought was broken as I once again had to dive out of the way of Zabuza's katana. I immediately spun around to face my attacker who was nowhere to be found. "Alright, gotta stay calm."I closed my eyes and began to focus solely on my hearing.

There was a slight rustle behind me followed by a the whoosh of a blade passing through the air. I sidestepped to avoid the vertical slash getting sliced on my left shoulder in the process. Ignoring the pain I spun around and launched a horizontal slash at Zabuza. Zabuza jumped backwards managing to avoid the strike before dashing back in and launching a decapitating strike at me.

I managed to duck beneath the blow before elbowing Zabuza in the gut knocking the wind out of him. I struck him with my katana leaving a gash on his torso that stretched from his left hip to his right shoulder. I slashed again but Zabuza sidestepped the blow before launching a vertical strike that threatened to cut me in half. I blocked the blow with my sword but I was forced to my knees by the strength of the blow.

Seizing his opportunity Zabuza delivered a devastating kick to my face that sent me flying. Zabuza lashed out and managed to score another hit with his blade on my right thigh that began bleeding profusely. I landed roughly on the ground before righting myself taking note that I had landed a few feet from the shuriken I had thrown earlier.

I smirked slightly as I held my katana out in front of myself. Zabuza charged me and once more tried to decapitate me. I ducked under the blow and thrust my blade forwards hoping to impale Zabuza.

The taller man managed to spin around the blow and launched a downward strike hoping to cut me in half. I sidestepped the blow and spun behind Zabuza hoping to strike him in the back with my katana.

Before I could make my swing Zabuza kicked me in the chest sending me tumbling across the ground. Zabuza leapt into the air with his katana pointed downwards in an attempt to spear me with the blade. I just barely rolled out of the way in time and got to my feet as he pulled his blade out of the ground.

I decided to take the initiative myself and sprinted towards Zabuza. We both swung our swords at the same time and sparks flew as the blades crashed into each other.

"Tch," Zabuza ground out as he began to push me backwards, "you're pretty good kid."

"You too." I replied while trying to halt my momentum as Zabuza continued to push me backwards. Zabuza gave a mighty push with his blade causing me to stumble backwards slightly and immediately slashed with his katana. The blade bit into my leather breastplate and cut right through it due to Zabuza's tremendous strength but I managed to come out unscathed. As I struggled to regain my footing Zabuza lashed out again and this time his blade cut right through my undershirt and left a large gash from my right shoulder to my left hip.

If it wasn't for the protective runes inscribed on the inside of that undershirt I might've died right there. As it was, the undershirt immediately repaired itself, and the healing runes began to kick in and started healing the large cut on my torso.

Zabuza attempted to cut me again but I leapt backwards to put some distance between the two of us. As I jumped through the air my breastplate fell off due to Zabuza having cut through the bindings that secured it to my chest. "Note to self, get breastplate repaired. Also, don't initiate a power struggle, it'll just end badly."Zabuza ran towards me and slashed vertically with one hand on his sword. I side-stepped the blow and narrowly ducked under a punch that was aimed for my face.

I went to sweep his legs with a kick but he jumped over it.

As expected.

I pushed off the ground and rose while spinning quickly with my blade outstretched scoring several large gashes on Zabuza's torso before he slammed his forearm into me sending me flying away. I quickly got to my feet and stared at Zabuza as he once again disappeared into the mist.

Realizing that I was only a few feet away from the shuriken I had thrown earlier I began slowly inching my way towards them. The tension began to mount after several moments passed with no sign of Zabuza. I had reached my goal and prayed to Kami that Zabuza didn't realize that the shuriken were actually clones.

In an attempt to throw him off, I began to bend down to pick some of them up when I heard a telltale rustle of cloth behind me. I immediately spun around and blocked the slash that threatened to cut me in half, but I was once again forced to my knees by the strength behind the blow.

Zabuza pulled his leg back once more to deliver another kick but the strike never came.

In a large puff of smoke three of my clones changed back to their normal form and immediately stabbed Zabuza in the chest with the knives that had been hidden in a secret compartment under the metal plates on my gloves. The force behind Zabuza's blade lessened and I spun out of the way of the blade while channeling all my remaining magic power into my arms. I launched a superpowered horizontal slash that completely separated Zabuza's torso from his legs causing him to fall to the ground roughly in two parts.

I watched Zabuza's body warily to see if he had switched with a water clone at the last second. I finally let out a sigh of relief when after thirty seconds Zabuza's body still hadn't dissolved into water. I dismissed my katana before picking up Zabuza's, which was quite nice, and ordered two of my clones to deal with Zabuza's body while the other helped me back towards Magnolia Town and Fairy Tail.


AN: And there you have it, this chapter's shorter than the last, but it seemed like a good place to stop at. The next chapter should be longer, and as a result will take a bit longer to post. It should be up within the next two weeks or so.