Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

Chapter 4: Edolas World War – Outbreak

Naruto awoke to find himself amidst a group of slumbering Fairies.

After eating his fill and indulging in the various delicacies of Edolas (Lucy, and Lisanna to a lesser extent, insisted that he in fact gorged on the food — his response to that was that they'd never seen a real man eat, an answer that got a laugh out of Lucy and caused Lisanna to direct a strange look of longing at her oddly dressed brother), as well as engaging some interesting conversation with his new acquaintances, he had inexplicably fallen asleep. Had he not known that these people were genuine, he'd have thought they'd drugged him, but that assumption disregarded the fact that his body would have purged the effects of any invading poison/intoxicants in mere moments.

As for the actual reason he had just dozed off? He was just that tired.

Tired enough to fall asleep on the floor, as it turned out. He wasn't the only one who did so, though, hence the mass of unconscious bodies lying all around him. The thought did cross his mind that those who joined him on the floor were in fact imitating him, because who would deliberately sleep on the cold hard ground, otherwise? He quickly dismissed the thought, though, when he realized that these very same people were easily among the stranger groups of people that he had ever had the pleasure of meeting, and that was saying something.

When he felt a small weight shuffling atop him, he looked down, and was surprised to have his line of sight blocked by the crown of the head of one Lisanna Strauss. The girl was actually sleeping, snuggling her head into his chest as she laid there, half-draped onto him. They had only met yesterday, hadn't they? Why such... closeness?

As far as he was concerned, this was Exhibit A as to why he thought them all to be so damn weird. It did occur to him that perhaps she did it to avoid lying down on the floor, but that was just something he told himself to try and explain what this was. If she actually had an aversion to sleeping on the floor, she would have moved to one of the couches in the guild hall, since not all of them were occupied.

Hearing the discordant snores of an individual sleeping incredibly close by, he sighed, thinking it was another girl — if so, she sounded kinda mannish — before having the hell scared out of him when he saw it was the overly-bundled dark-haired boy, Gray, who was fond of wearing multiple layers of clothing. He was lying peculiarly on his belly, drool pooling on the floor next to his slack-jawed mouth, and he was blindfolded by a thin, red cloth.

His left arm was outstretched in Naruto's direction as if he was reaching for something, but the rest of his limbs were tied together as if he had been hog-tied before he had managed to free up an arm or something. He was sweating like crazy, too; for some reason, the guy refused to remove at least some of the clothes he was wearing that served to make him incredibly warm at all times. Naruto shuddered at the unappealing display, turning his head on his pillow in order to face his other side, determined to direct his gaze away from the disturbing sight. The one he was greeted with upon his head's reorientation was decidedly more pleasant, especially given his inclination towards things of a more... sensual nature.

It was Juvia. As if the fact that it was the girl who enjoyed using him in various provocative ways to rile up 'Mr. Clothes' over there wasn't enough, she was positioned in such a way that put her racy undergarments on display.

She was slumped over in her sleep, her red tie discarded (Gray's blindfold, he realized) as her shirt was partially opened, revealing part of her lacy red bra to go along with her already revealed flat stomach. Her miniskirt was hiked up and her legs were now bereft of her fishnet tights (so that was what she used to tie him up), and her matching panties were on full display.

'What a shameless woman,' he thought, smirking wryly. She was lucky he had, at the very least, some semblance of honour (Jiraiya's efforts notwithstanding), otherwise he would have succumbed to the carnal desires she had awoken in him in the display.

'I don't remember the ground ever being this comfortable, though,' he thought curiously as he rolled his head on a pillow, or what he had assumed to be a pillow. He didn't think someone would have provided as much, so it was a nice gesture, as far as he was concerned. Seemed like something that girl Mirajane would do, especially after seeing her sister contently sleeping in his arms. She had been shooting him these strange looks the entire time he was chatting up her sister. Such a thing didn't really escape his notice, but the strange thing about it was it seemed like she couldn't care less that he knew of her odd behaviour, happily waving at him when she noticed the perplexed look he sent her in return.

As comfortable as it was, though, the pillow felt very warm. Wanting to flip it onto the cooler, more pleasant side, he eased himself up onto his elbows slowly so that he didn't wake Lisanna, half turned so that he could keep his distance from Gray, and blindly reached down to quickly grasp the pillow so that he could flip it over without nudging Juvia. He froze, though, when he heard a soft, feminine moan sound out after he squeezed his 'pillow'.

...Yeah, there was no pillow.

It turned out that he had been using the magnificent mounds that were Lucy Ashley's breasts as a head cushion. While he was impressed at just how soft they were, he couldn't believe how he had mistaken them for a pillow. And their shape... man, she had every right to be proud of them.

'Why was I even sleeping on her chest anyway?' he asked himself internally, removing his hand from the supple, squeezable globes with a level of reluctance that surprised him. He soon recalled that she had actually put him in a headlock to punish him for doing something to anger her (whatever the hell that was; it was obvious that she was the quick-trigger type, so it was hard to keep track of just how many things it was that annoyed or angered her) and it appeared that the two had basically fallen asleep that way. It was an odd way to punish him to begin with, because her chest was so large and soft that all she managed to do was hold his head against them, her scolding choke-out not affecting him in the least; thus, he felt no inclination to actually extricate himself from her grasp, given that he found the hold to actually be more rewarding than punishing.

Noticing the faint light from the moon filtering in through the circular windows on the upper walls of the building, Naruto realized that while it was still dark out, the time was ideal for him to finally make his leave.

As he attempted to remove himself from the slumbering embraces of both Lucy and Lisanna, he had to stop himself when he realized that with the way they were positioned (with the latter on top of him and him partially on top of the former), such a thing would be very difficult to pull off without waking one or both of them. The last thing he wanted was for any of them to be cognizant of his departure until he had actually made it, so he quickly scanned the room for a guinea pig that would aid in his escape.

Spotting Levy, the lithe blue-haired mechanic that was always at odds with Lucy (and as it turned out, him by association, given that he was somewhat chummy with his fellow blonde), he snickered mischievously as he prepared to introduce the two young women to a whole new level of intimacy. Forgoing a seal-less body-replacement, given that he wanted to ensure a perfect replacement, he reached out for her, performing the technique with only one hand seal. Clasping his hands together to form the snake hand seal, his chakra reached out and successfully enveloped her small frame, swiftly pulling her into his just-vacated position between Lucy and Lisanna.

'Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique): success,' he thought roguishly, smirking at how Lucy had her rival snuggled up into her ample bosom. While he would have liked to see the fireworks upon their awakening, him sticking around for such a thing would have defeated the entire purpose of him leaving furtively in the first place. These members of Fairy Tail were weird, but they were also good people. 'Some more than others,' he thought, glancing at Lisanna as he tried to hold in his snickers, smiling widely at how she now had her head resting upon Levy's backside.

He was never good at goodbyes; they were always an awkward affair. Better to leave them with positive memories, he thought as he made his way out of the guild hall, since he'd never see them again once he got back home. Sneaking out was an ignoble thing to do, and not something he was particularly proud of, but he wouldn't be deterred. The last thing he needed was them hindering him when he was on the verge of a breakthrough in his quest to escape Edolas.

When he crossed the threshold of the guild hall's front door as he stepped outside, he briefly paused to admire the lush, exotic scenery, deeply inhaling whatever aromas his nose could grasp as he enjoyed the most refreshing breeze he had felt in quite some time.

"Hey!"

Opening his eyes in slight annoyance as he was interrupted from savouring a most invigorating zephyr, he stared ahead as the frame of a relatively tall young woman came into view. She had lustrous, deep blue hair that stretched down to her waist, but of course her more notable physical assets were her large brown eyes and even larger breasts. She was garbed in a very revealing top that was cerulean in color and had a decorative bow that showed off her impressive cleavage and flaring hips, and black capri pants that were of a tight fit.

When she came to a stop in front of him, she placed her hands on her knees and bent slightly at the waist as she caught her breath, her heaving shoulders doing a good job of showing her exhaustion from all the running she had been doing. She looked to be distressed, although in spite of the situation, a part of him couldn't help but note that her current stance provided quite the appealing view of her sizeable cleavage. Her current posture also allowed for him to notice that she had a piece of parchment clutched tightly in her hand.

"Haah... haah... warn... haah... the guild... hurry!" she gasped.

He never said anything in response, though, remaining silent as he watched her curiously, her heaving shoulders slowing as he caught sight of something interesting printed upon the paper.

'Hm? What's this?' he wondered, snatching it out of her loose grasp ("I–hey!" was her protest, before she just let it pass when she realized that he paid her no mind whatsoever), scrutinizing what was a clear picture of himself with the words 'WANTED — ALIVE' boldly typed below it. "Wanted...?"

"Yeah, it–" the girl said, before abruptly perking up when she recognized him. "It's you! The guy on the poster!" Her tone was filled with the surprise and awe one would have if they met a celebrity in person for the first time.

"...Yeah, what the hell is this?" Naruto asked annoyedly, a peeved look on his face.

"Um, what do you think? It's a wanted poster. Your wanted poster."

"Yeah, I got that. What I'm talking about is this shitty picture. What the hell kinda picture is this?" he asked angrily, upset as if it was the busty blue-haired girl that was responsible for the image.

It was a relatively accurate, if propagandized, picture of him with the left half of his face shrouded in such a way that it encouraged his newfound persona of a malefactor. His orbs shone with a malice he didn't think himself capable of, a menacing scowl on his face as the depiction was topped off with blood splattered on the visible part of his face.

He looked like a villain, to put it simply.

What he really wanted to know, though, was when and where the photo was taken. He didn't fight until he had vacated the Royal City, and even then, it was hardly the sordid affair the picture would incline one to believe.

Then it dawned on him. It must have been his clone. He had created it the night before, but even with that being very possible, he knew that the public face the Royal Army had so kindly crafted for him was quite the exaggeration.

"Heh... you think that's bad? Looks better than mine."

"Oh? And who the hell are you? No offence, but you hardly look like the type to get a wanted poster."

"My name is Wendy," the girl said with a strained smile as she stood to her full height, which was a mere few inches lower than his. She was still breathing deeply, and although it was much less pronounced than it had been before, her breathing still did wonderful things to her breasts, as far as their movement was concerned. That, coupled with the beads of sweat that trickled into her cleavage made for a sight even he would struggle to refrain from indulging in.

"And as to your comment," she said smugly, "here's all you need to see."

He reached out to take what it was she offered him, which was a leaflet of papers identical to the one he already had of himself.

Fairy Tail Wanted Posters.

Sure enough, the first one he saw was of his new acquaintance, garbed in her usual attire as she stood with a couple of daggers in hand. It read, 'WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE', denoting that they didn't value her as much as they did him; he also had a higher bounty than her, but... who was counting? As for what the poster itself emphasized...

"Is... is this real?" he asked incredulously.

"...Yeah..."

"They... they played up your... uh..."

She blushed at what he was referring to (her chest), glad he didn't explicitly say it. "...Y-Yeah."

Naruto didn't know what to say about that (well, he could have said something, but he just knew it'd be inappropriate — he had plenty of experience in similar situations to know that he'd say something tactless), so instead tried to change the subject, however awkwardly. "So, you said your name was... Wendy, right?"

"Mmhmm. And what's yours?" she asked, glad he didn't stay on the topic of her boobs being immortalized in such a fashion.

"Naruto," he said, speaking calmly with a genial smile on his face as he returned her little collection of posters. He smirked at seeing her flush at the sound of his voice, but did not comment on her reaction.

"Are those knives?" he suddenly asked, eyeing the magic daggers she had on her person. At the very least, it seemed that part of her wanted poster was accurate.

"Ye-yeah," she said.

"...Can I have them?"

"Really? You want my daggers?" he heard her ask in surprise, and when he nodded in affirmation of the request, her mouth moved several times as she struggled for words. Finally, she asked, "Why?", but he got the feeling that she wanted to say more and merely settled for the one word inquiry.

"They remind me of a weapon I like to use. Also, if you want me to take care of this guy," he said, referring to the incoming enemy that had been tirelessly pursuing her, "it'll be appreciated if you do end up giving them to me. I think I'll make good use of them."

Shrugging at what he said, she just handed the two blades over to him and allowed for his perusal of them. "If you can guarantee that you'll at least waylay him, they're yours."

"Nice. Okay, go and warn the guild so you can all escape while I... 'waylay' him. Leave it to me," he said assuredly, holstering the blades after he got a bit of a feel for them.

"Oh?" she said, her voice lowering an octave as she raised an eyebrow at him, reacting to the almost casual way he had said that he'd take care of things. "You know, I really like confident guys." She said this almost conversationally, purring seductively at him as she did so.

"Uh... yeah, okay," he said, a bit nonplussed at how pert she was. It wasn't that long ago where the prospect of him meeting a forward woman was foreign, and now in addition to Juvia, there was Wendy. He would have thought it was a blue-haired thing if Levy wasn't so ice-cold to him, but that could easily be attributed to his friendship with Lucy. The relatively recent experience he gained from his brief interactions with Juvia allowed for him to nip the strange turn in the conversation in the bud, though, by remarking, "That's nice, but now's not the time for that. Thanks for the blades, but I've got to get going. See ya."

He didn't bother looking back, vanishing in a burst of high-speed movement to put some distance between him and the guild before Wendy could utter a final remark.

[|||]

"This is incredibly distressing news," an Exceed that was advanced in age said wearily, rubbing at his distinctly-shaped eyes as he digested the grave news delivered to him and the higher ups of the Kingdom of Extalia. His wispy beard concealed the heavy frown on his face, but his tone did more than enough to convey his displeasure at what he had heard.

He was not the only one frowning at what it was that had been said. He, along with his three fellow elders, flanked a large throne where a female Exceed dressed in full regalia along with a large flowing dress with decorative ruffles sat.

She was Queen Shagotte.

An exemplary beauty of her race, the Exceed Queen had gray eyes and white fur, her face garnished with diamond-like piercings. Shifting in her seat once more, she absently noted the love-hate relationship she had with her current attire. While she greatly disliked it due to it being incredibly showy (not to mention the effort she had to put in day after day donning it and wearing it for hours on end), she couldn't help but be appreciative of it whenever she found herself seated on the stunningly designed, yet incredibly uncomfortable, throne; the multi-layered dress provided sufficient cushioning whenever she sat upon the hard ceremonial chair.

Kneeling deferentially before her were the two highest ranked Exceed outside of herself and her small council of elders: Nadi and Nichiya. The former had black fur and was taller than the average Exceed, although that was solely due to his elongated neck and rectangular head. The Minister of State of the Kingdom of Extalia had his usual jovial smile plastered on his face, and his odd habit of waving his hand back and forth seemed to be as strong as ever.

The latter had a severe countenance that was directly incongruous to that of his comrade, although his head was also disproportionate to his body. He had yellow fur and wore a red hat with a cat symbol on it; he also had a red apron depicting the similarly designed insignia of Extalia, which denoted his rise to the captaincy of Extalia's Imperial Guard in recent years, a promotion that was aided by the relinquishing of that very position by a certain panther-like Exceed.

They had just reported the humans' rapid mobilization and deployment of their expansive army, for reasons they were not privy to. Naturally, the worst-case scenario was what they anticipated, and considering the Queen's vision, it was certainly in play.

It would seem that they were on the verge of war.

"If this action by the humans is not a herald of our long anticipated conflict, of our long feared demise–"

"No," Shagotte said. "You are mistaken, Martam."

"...My Queen?"

She directed a look at each of her four advisors, one they immediately recognized to be her saying, 'I saw this in my vision.' As a result, they subsequently remained silent on the matter.

"Their target is not us, but a human from Earthland. Doubtless they seek him for his magic power..." she said.

"But then... why would they send out their army in droves like this?" Nadi asked obliviously. "Aren't the humans collecting magic on our behalf?"

After the five of them exchanged discreet looks between themselves, Shagotte said, "Nadi, Nichiya, thank you for your report. ...Please, leave us."

Nadi, despite his bafflement at the request, nodded obediently and made to follow the command to turn and exit stage left, but stalled when the cleft-chinned Exceed next to him did not stand from his kneeling position. In fact, he only increased his posture of subservience, bowing his head so far down that his hat had fallen from it perch within his orange tufts of hair, the tips of his ears almost touching the floor.

"My Queen! Please, allow me the honour of taking my men~ to capture this SMELLY HUMAN–!" Nichiya began, having raised his voice as he raised his head, only to cut himself off as he was met with the disapproving frown of the queen. Not wanting to ever see such a look directed toward him, he quickly added on to his statement, saying, "And, um, escort this h-human here to Extalia!"

"And why would we allow you to do such a thing?" Mejeer asked, curious to know the eccentric captain's reasoning.

"Those humans are foolish, and inferior to us in every way! They have already done their rudimentary task, allow us to take it from here! Give the order, my Queen, and they will obey us! If not, you can cow them with your godly power once more!"

Shagotte wanted to refuse him. This quarrel did not concern them; her vision involved nothing of this nature. She opened her mouth to verbalize her thoughts on the matter before she was preempted by Martam whispering in her ear. When she glanced at him, he nodded resolutely. Heaving a sigh of reluctance, she acceded to the captain's request, saying, "Very well. Take your men, but be quick about it."

"Yes, your Majesty!"

When Nichiya and Nadi finally left the throne room, she directed a saddened look to Martam. She never would have thought she'd end up risking the lives of her subordinates, all in order to keep up their little ruse. Then again, at the urging of her advisors, she had abandoned one of their own...

"...Shagotte."

"Hunh...? Wha–?! Lily?!"

"...Yes. I hope you don't mind me calling you by your name, since you are no longer my queen," he said. The bitterness in his voice made her cringe. He didn't seem to notice, though, or if he did, he didn't care.

Uncaring of the fact that he had infiltrated her royal chamber, as well as having interrupted her sleep, he proceeded to hastily push a piece of paper into her hands.

"Wha... what is this?" she asked drowsily.

"Information," he said. "You're going to need it if you want to ensure Extalia's survival."

"Why? Why do this, after we betrayed you? Why come to me? What can I possibly do with all of this?"

"Because the human king, Faust, would see our race destroyed," he said. Pointing at the document clutched within her hands, he continued, "Those are estimates for their troop numbers; they're building up their military to impose war upon you and yours."

"..."

"As for my reasoning behind all this... . Well, to be frank, I... hated Extalia. I still do. I despise it, loathe it, for turning its back on me. I served you faithfully, and you tossed me aside just to maintain your illusion of divinity."

"Li-Lily..."

"But I've realized that no matter how much I dislike it, it is still the place of my birth. It is still my homeland. My loyalty to Faust was purely because he opposed you, and so I threw myself in with him and his army. He had been trying to keep this from me, and for good reason; in the end, I couldn't turn my back on you, not after learning of all this."

"Th... thank you, but–"

"As for why I come to you with this... as surprising as it may sound, you're the only one I can trust in this regard. That day you banished me, I saw the regret on your face. I believe you to be more concerned with your people's fate than your stuffy old advisors. All they care about is keeping up their clever little charade, crafting your splendid little narrative of godliness. As for what it is you should do with the information... well, I'm sure you can figure that out..."

And she had. Whenever Pantherlily provided her with intel (always to her directly, and always in the dead of night), she passed it off as a pseudo-vision whenever she saw fit to inform her inner council of what it was she had learned.

When the four elders finally shuffled to stand before her, she sighed, and was about to dismiss them, before–

Carnage. Countless bodies strewn all over, far too many to count. The earth, rent apart, appeared on the verge of collapsing in on itself. The sky, a foreboding saffron in color, appeared to be turbulent in its consistency. And standing tall in the middle of all this was a lone shadow, a solitary silhouette of a man; a human. The one responsible for their predicament.

Gasping as her mind released her from its merciless grasp, she took deep breaths to steady her heartbeat, digesting what it was her premonitory ability had just shown her.

"It's changed," she whispered gravely, rubbing her temple as she tried to make sense of what she had witnessed in her mind's eye. "The vision's changed... Nichiya! Send word to him, hurry! He mustn't pursue that human from Earthland! He's too powerful!"

"Your Majesty, they cannot know of the true nature of your ability! It's too dangerous!" Martam said.

Shagotte frowned heavily, utterly impuissant and unable to do anything to effect change, especially with her body as frail as it was. The burdens of leadership had taken their toll on her: the sending of some one hundred eggs to Earthland (including her own), the sacrificing of Pantherlily's honour for the sake of their illusory superiority, and now... this. Powerless to do nothing more than hope for the best, she clenched her eyes shut in her frustration, slumping back into the throne she was seated on as the weight of it all bore down on her shoulders.

'Pantherlily... once again, I find myself relying on you...' she thought regretfully, frustrated at her helplessness at the whole thing.

'...Please, save us.'

[|||]

(Meanwhile — A Short Ways from Fairy Tail)

"That idiot! Just 'cause he beat Knightwalker, he thinks he's hot shit! C'mon Wendy, show us where he went already!"

The blue-haired young woman sighed. "Calm down, Lucy. As you can see, I'm already going out of my way to do just that." When the blonde harrumphed, Wendy ignored her, asking Lisanna, "Who the hell is this guy, really? Do you honestly expect me to believe that he beat Knightwalker? Sure, he seemed confident, which I kinda like, but–"

"He did. I know what I saw," Lucy said with a confidence that surprised Wendy. "Sent the bitch flying. I only wish I coulda done that to her."

"...Lisanna? Do you believe her?"

"I... I do," the girl said simply, electing not to say anything more on the subject. Her bright blue eyes peered through the early morning fog, squinting as she tried to see what was ahead despite the fact that the sun had yet to rise, which made visibility incredibly poor.

'Interesting. Naruto... he certainly seems capable, but for him to so easily win over Lucy and Lisanna... he's definitely someone to watch out for,' Wendy thought. Speaking of winning them over...

"You know, I was wondering just what it is about this guy that's got you so worried for him after just a day of knowing him."

Lucy scoffed. "What is this, twenty questions? Why are you so interested?"

Wendy smiled. "I'm just trying to figure out how this guy has got you both falling for him." When the two girls both flushed and looked away (Lucy sternly ahead, and Lisanna shyly at the ground), her smile widened. Looked like she hit the nail on the head.

"You know, I can't say I blame you guys," Wendy said, a bit wistfully. "I feel like I haven't met someone like him in forever. In fact, I think I'm kinda jealous."

"Oh yeah?" Lucy said, her voice taking on a taunting lilt. Her bravado seemed to have been renewed at the blue-haired girl's admitting of her attraction to Naruto. As strange as it was, on some level, the busty blonde felt vindicated at the admission. Sure, she was all but certain that she herself was harboring some kind of feelings for her fellow blond (not that she'd ever admit something like that), but hearing others profess as much only drove home the fact that he was certainly a prize worth fighting for.

"Yup," Wendy said, popping the 'p'. The two girls shared a grin at that. Challenge accepted.

In the Fairy Tail guild, Levy wasn't the only person who found herself at odds with Lucy, which wasn't too surprising given the blonde's penchant for ruffling the feathers of whoever, whenever; Wendy and Juvia were no exception, although they were similar in that, in most cases, they really couldn't be bothered to deal with her antics. Of course, Levy would tend to take up arms on their behalf, although such a thing was almost always coincidental.

It was just how things were; Lucy was very outgoing and fun-loving, although her brand of fun tended to get under people's skin, and Levy, while just as fiery, tended to keep to herself more. Her hobby/borderline profession of machinist inclined her toward such behaviour. It was the reason why she never got into much, if any, quarrels with her fellow blue-haired guild mates.

"As nice as it is to see you two getting along," Lisanna interrupted snidely, her surprise at their so easily proclaiming their interest in the spiky-haired blond quickly turning into annoyance, "we have to actually find him, you know. For all we know, he could be fighting the forces of the Royal Army on his own."

"You're right," Lucy said, becoming serious as she pulled out her inactive magic whip. The action of arming herself prompted Wendy and Lisanna to do the same, with the latter equipping a long magic staff while the former pulled out a pair of obsidian tonfas; since Naruto had borrowed her preferred weapons in her magic daggers, she had decided to make use of her lesser-used weapon set.

Due to their suspecting the approach of an enemy from just about anywhere (the fog was very bothersome in that regard), their progress in tracking just where the blond had gone went slowly, although it ultimately didn't derail them too much since they eventually managed to find him after a short while, aided by the loud commotion being caused by what they believed to be the pained cries of a Legion.

"Whoa, who knew a Legion could make a sound like that?" Lisanna remarked. 'Did Naruto do that?'

"Who cares, we've finally found him," Wendy said, relieved. A small part of her was actually worried for the blond, thinking he might have been in over his head when he left on his own like that. "See, there he is! Can't believe you dragged me through all this, though..."

"Oh, be quiet. You obviously wanted to see him again, otherwise you woulda complained a whole lot more," Lucy said with a smirk.

"Come on, you two! Can't you knock it off? We need to keep quiet; we didn't see any enemies so far, have we? Maybe there's a reason for that! Also, wouldn't it be nice if we kept things going this way?"

Lisanna's snarky scolding went largely unheard, though, as Lucy dashed toward the young man they had spent quite some time trying to track down. He seemed unaware of her approach, and Lisanna had to bite back a sigh. It wouldn't be pretty, but he did deserve whatever 'special treatment' the eccentric blonde had planned for him given his sneaking off.

'You'd better have a good explanation for all this, Naruto...'

[|||]

Naruto was disappointed to learn that he had less options available to him than he would have originally thought as far as his venture to return home was concerned.

He had felt pretty silly when he realized that he fixated upon returning home by way of the method he had been brought to Edolas, when he had a sort of 'warp-zone'-like technique available to him via his Toad summons all along. The fact that the Summoning Technique (and, as a result, the Reverse Summoning Technique) had eventually proved to be a dead end did little to console him for his brain fart, though, instead putting more pressure on him to get back to the Elemental Nations through a more unconventional method (read: one not involving the use of chakra).

Despite its relatively straightforward functionality, the summoning technique's success was primarily contingent upon the second part of the technique. Sure, there was the whole, 'bite thumb, do hand-seals, dredge up chakra, and poof' to it, but if all that failed to bring forth one of the animals he'd forged a bond with, then it was all for naught.

That, unfortunately, was the case here for Naruto.

After leaving Fairy Tail, and after his encounter with Wendy, he had been expecting to get into some sort of fight, seeing as how there was a Legion pursuing his newest acquaintance, but that was not the case. It turned out that the soldier commandeering the creature was actually a scout of some sort, because as soon as the man had caught sight of him, he directed it to double back, seeking to fly them back so that they could hook up with their allies.

...Naruto was surprised at how powerful his gravity manipulation really was. With barely a flicker of his chakra and a flexing of his fingers, the aerially fleeing creature was brought down to earth, violently.

'What a strange animal,' he thought, examining its appearance. The way it looked was so odd, it wouldn't have made much more sense even if it was a summon, which admittedly took on relatively unique appearances. It had smooth, dark fur and with large, round glowing eyes, its head strangely shaped and angular with smooth, black horns protruding from it; it also had a large, gaping maw filled with sharp teeth along with a tuft of dark hair on its chin resembling a beard, as well as three slitted nostrils on each side of its face. The black paws it had were disproportionate in size in comparison with its large body, with sharp talons on each claw, and it had a long, thin tail which ended in a strange shape resembling a broken eggshell.

When he approached the downed animal in the aftermath of his violent insistence for it to stay, he almost winced at the effect his forced gravitational pull had on its most prominent feature, its wings. The impact had crippled it severely, with the appendages it used to achieve flight having taken the brunt of the damage; it wasn't going to take to the skies anytime soon, if ever again.

Naruto almost shrugged at the thought, not caring all too much if that indeed was the case. It was a small price to pay to keep his enemies unaware of the position of both himself and his unwitting allies in Fairy Tail. Now, as for the deceased individual who was piloting the animal, well... the kind of rest he would be getting was of the more permanent variety, seeing as how his neck had been snapped, among other things.

It was a bit of a grisly sight, not one Naruto was all that pleased to see, but it wasn't something that affected him, to be honest. Sure, given his idealistic nature, the death of the no-name man, despite their being enemies, brought a frown to his face. At the same time, though, he knew how things worked, how fragile the human body was — and this guy wasn't even the kind of human he was familiar with.

Before all of this, he couldn't have fathomed such a thing as people subsisting without chakra in some way, shape, or form. He didn't know how to explain its presence, it was just... there. It was... essential. His whole life, all he had known was that if someone was deprived of it, they'd either be dead, or heading towards it.

It would have made sense to him if magic had in essence filled in where chakra couldn't as far as this new world was concerned (it would have been a way to relate the foreign energy to chakra, at least), but it tuned out that nobody had magic inside their bodies like his people had chakra inherently within themselves. While he didn't think a human with the bare necessities of chakra would survive such a violent impact, he knew for a fact that an individual with chakra, no matter how minuscule, wouldn't die so... horribly.

Seriously. It was gruesome.

Conjuring up a clone to perform the thankless task of getting rid of the body, Naruto set about making his preparations for his upcoming fight against the kingdom that, without any provocation, put him in this situation. He made sure to be quick about it all, having realized that this lone, now deceased soldier and his permanently-grounded mount must have been gone for far longer than their allies would have accounted for, and if he wanted to get the drop on them and wreak some serious havoc, he'd need to get going.

"RAAAAGH! Screwdrive Elbow Crush!"

'What the hell?' Naruto thought, his musings interrupted by the outburst as he made a sort of half-turn in time to catch sight of a yellow and black blur launching itself at him before he felt the soft curves of a certain blonde pressing against his back.

Oh, and she also happened to have her elbow against his temple.

It didn't hurt much, of course — and knowing who was administering the technique (if it could be called as such), Naruto knew it was meant to be painful — but it was still kind of annoying, so he disentangled the grip the girl had on his upper body/neck and promptly flipped her to the ground.

"Oof!" his assailant exclaimed, the wind knocked out of her at the unexpected reversal.

"Heh," Naruto chuckled, quickly enforcing his advantage over his fiery female acquaintance as he secured both of her hands above her head with his left hand, all the while kneeling over her as he basically straddled her without actually sitting on her. "How are you? Comfy?"

"Ngh... haargh... get off me!" Lucy growled breathlessly, surprised and more than a little upset that he had so easily turned her little torture technique against her. Her reaction made it all but certain to Naruto that nobody had ever reacted to her assaults the way he just had.

"I dunno... I kinda like having you under me like this," Naruto said, taking great joy in her frustration at how easily he had subdued her, her harsh pants that resulted from her having the wind knocked out of her drawing attention to her chest, which was heaving appreciably.

His innuendo-laced tone, combined with where she noticed his eyes to be wandering, caused the buxom blonde to blush furiously, her struggling to escape his unrelenting grip increasing significantly despite her feeling a faint arousal at the attention he was giving her. "Perv," she mumbled, her face maintaining a constant flush as her mind started to wander now that she was at this 'perv's' mercy.

Unfortunately for her, she was only providing more spank bank material for the now-dubbed pervert, as her efforts to escape his hold only added more variations to the way her breasts moved, swaying and undulating in the way only boobs the size of hers were capable of.

A small part of him was sorely tempted to make a move given the good vibes he was feeling from his fellow blonde, but the rational part of his mind reminded him that not only was such a move too forward (the uncertainty of what her reaction to such an advance would be helped in keeping that lustful action at bay), but that now was obviously not the time for it.

"Whoa!"

Their current questionable positioning, of course, wouldn't stop others from assuming something had occurred, if that startled shout was any indication.

The two blonds, who had been nose-to-nose and chest-to-chest, turned at once in the direction of the voice together, slowly.

They were met with the amused gaze of Wendy and the mortified one of Lisanna.

"I-It's not what it looks like!" Lucy said frantically, desperate to dispel the illusion the situation had cast on her character.

"Oh, I think its exactly what it looks like," Wendy said seductively, conveying just what she thought had happened in her tone of voice alone. "So you're a sub in the sack? Good to know, Lu-cy."

Sputtering at that remark, the blonde turned to the whisker-marked young man, hoping that he would back her up in front of her friend despite her attacking him; in all the commotion, he had gotten off of her and relinquished his restricting hold on her, smirking as he recognized the look she shot him. His response, motivated by his desire to further her embarrassment after she tried to punish him in such an emasculating fashion (not to mention influenced by what he secretly believed to be the truth), was to shrug as if to say, 'She's got a point.'

The blonde's squawk of indignation was only eclipsed in volume by the blue-haired girl's laughter at her expense.

Standing to his feet, Naruto noticed that the third Fairy Tail member that had followed him was silent, and when he met her questioning blue orbs with his unconcerned ones, she seemed to visibly relax, seemingly understanding his wordless assurance that nothing x-rated had gone on.

Lucy, seizing the opportunity to change the subject, launched to her feet in order to give Naruto a piece of her mind. "Oi, what's the big idea, running off like that? What makes you think you can just up and leave after we fed you and everything?" While she would have liked to give him more of a tongue-lashing, she didn't want to come off as clingy, which she was certain such an action would do.

'She sounds like Ayame-chan when she hounded me for not paying off my ramen tab,' Naruto thought with a smile. "Are you saying I have to stay with you just because you gave me a meal?"

"No," Lisanna said, "but why leave without saying anything? Aren't we friends now?"

Naruto sighed. "It's not as simple as that, you know. I'm not planning on staying here, there was never any plan for me to stay here, and nothing will keep me here. If you all want me to stay then that means you want to stay, which means that when I leave, we probably won't see each other anymore."

"The hell are you talkin' about? You act as if you're from another world or somethin'."

Naruto smirked at Lucy. "Maybe I am," he said mysteriously.

"...You're serious," Wendy said, ignoring the blonde's irate shouts as she stared at the confident young man.

Naruto nodded, his change in demeanour allowing him to stop having to hold Lucy at bay when she realized he had stopped playing around with her. He noticed Lisanna didn't seem all that surprised at the revelation, but seeing as he had resolved to part ways from them, didn't really care to pry.

He also didn't really care to explain his current circumstances, so considered himself fortunate in a sense when their little conversation was interrupted by the ominous sight of the gradually clearing sky getting blotted out by a great number of the kingdom's dark-winged creatures.

"Oh no..." Lisanna mumbled, stunned at the sight.

"Dammit! This is why you've got to come back to the guild!" Lucy said, grabbing a hold of his arm in an effort to make him see reason. "You can't fight all of that!"

Naruto shrugged her off, saying, "Go back without me. Your friend has the right idea."

The two girls turned back to find Wendy already heading back to where their guild was located. "What the hell, Wendy?"

"We-Wendy..."

"Guys, don't bother with him. That look in his eyes... I can tell he's as stubborn as you, Lucy. ...I'm gonna head back. With all these Legion coming, Levy is sure to activate the guild's transportation magic, and if we don't get back before then, we'll have to hide out on our own for who knows how long." When she noticed that what she had said dawned on them, Wendy smiled grimly. "Yeah... I'm not interested in any of that. I need food... and sleep. Later."

She had scarcely said that before the four of them felt the ground rumbling violently, a precursor to a magic technique the three females knew all too well.

"What the hell?! Is that bitch actually leaving without us?" Lucy asked incredulously, furious at her rival's inconsiderate hastiness.

"She is..." Lisanna said needlessly, as the building resembling a gnarly tree started the charge-up process for its mobilization process, preparing to burrow underground in a flare of magical power.

"That right there is why the king wants us dead," Wendy said in explanation to Naruto, who looked surprised at the display of the guild initiating its transportation spell. She didn't bother elaborating, turning to run back before the spell was completed.

Lisanna took that as her cue to pick up where the ample-chested woman left off, touching Naruto's arm gently to get his attention as she said, "He doesn't condone magic use by anyone... at all. It's illegal–"

"–For anyone who isn't him or working for him, right?" Naruto said, interjecting as he met her concerned gaze.

"That's right," she agreed. "It's been like this for years, you know."

"Yeah, that stops today," Naruto said with a growl, a determined look in his eye. The anger in his voice drew their collective attention; even Lucy stopped her fuming at Levy's running away from them to spare him a look. "What a shitty double-standard. Somebody should kick his ass, and that somebody is me. In fact, it's in all of our best interests if we destroy him and his army."

It was bad enough that Faust had gone power hungry enough to spread his influence to other worlds (which was admittedly impressive, though no less tyrannical), but the fact that he was oppressing the people who lived here only pissed him off more. That old bastard was going down.

"You talk as if we're world beaters," Wendy said with a self-deprecating chuckle, shaking her head at his bold statement as she placed her hands on her hips.

"You may not be," the spiky-haired blond said, "but you'll never get anything done with that kind of attitude. Besides, even if you're not, I am. Now, I'm gonna get going and–"

"Not so fast!" Lucy said shrilly, grabbing him by the front of his shirt in her anger. "There's no way we're going back without you, you know! Fairy Tail doesn't abandon their own!"

"Yeah, but I'm not a member of Fairy Tail, am I?" he asked rhetorically. Lucy answered anyway, trying to shake him silly as she did so.

"Of course you are! You joined yesterday as far as I'm concerned!"

Lisanna could only laugh sheepishly as she saw the two blonds locking horns, literally and figuratively, ending up almost forehead-to-forehead as they got carried away with their little squabble.

"Just shut up and take responsibility!" demanded Lucy. The short-haired girl, for her part, almost blushed at how easily those words could be misconstrued.

"Why do you want me to come back with you so badly? What do you really want, Lucy? Tell me," Naruto demanded.

Lucy merely looked down at the ground at that, looking surprisingly reserved in that moment. "I... I don't want anyone to die. ...I'm not stupid. Right now, we're helpless, and our best bet for survival is to keep doing what we're doing. Running sucks, but it works. All the proof we need is in how we're the only active guild around."

"Heh heh. Sounds like you're quite the mother hen, Lucy. Who'da thunk it?" Naruto said, laughing at hearing her say that. The well-proportioned girl didn't know whether to be incensed with him or embarrassed at his words, so settled for giving him a look that could only be described as a combination of one of pleading and one of anger. When he shook his head resolutely, refusing her despite her uncharacteristic plea, she sneered at him, turning away abruptly before following after Wendy, her head held pridefully high.

Naruto smiled grimly at that. He didn't feel all too bothered by it, really, since he knew that she just wanted to keep up appearances as far as her being a tough person. At least she had her priorities straight. Now, if only a certain petite white-haired beauty would follow her lead...

Looking at his side, Naruto sighed. Sure enough, Lisanna stood there unwaveringly, seemingly determined to get him to 'see reason'. It seemed Lisanna was even more stubborn than Lucy, which he found to be a little surprising, if he were honest.

When the two of them started to feel the ground rumble, they glanced in the direction of the guild, which finally completed its transportation technique as it burrowed underground in a flash of light and a surge of magic.

Naruto sighed at the seeming finality of the act, as well as the look of concern on Lisanna's face. He couldn't, in good conscience, leave the girl to fend for herself. Were the circumstances different, he'd have been more concerned with ensuring her well-being, but with him being fully rested and having been well nourished, he was feeling the effects of big-headedness. It was with good reason, though; from what he knew, there wasn't anyone in Faust's army who could stand against him when he had his full complement of chakra available to him.

"Come on, let's go. No point standing around like a couple of idiots," he grumbled, gesturing for her to take his hand.

Lisanna was smart enough to infer what it was he meant for the two of them to do, and, knowing that it was in their best interest to stick together, she closed with him in order to remain close by his side. She made sure not to take hold of his hand, though — an act he assumed to be a small form of protest on her part. Shrugging it off, he took that very hand she refused to grasp and held it out, placing it on the ground as he channeled his chakra to perform a technique available to him through the Animal Path of the Rinnegan.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"

In a gigantic puff of smoke, a brown bird at least three times the size of the Legions that were so widely feared in Edolas appeared, wings folded and eyes opened. It looked highly unusual, with a prominent, jagged yellow beak, three legs and three wings; it also had purple ringed eyes with six tomoe spread evenly between the first two 'rings' of each eye.

The Rinnegan summons available to Naruto through the Animal Path were inherently different than the conventional Toad summons he'd been familiar with and made extensive use of over the years. To summon an animal via the dōjutsu, no blood was needed, and no hand-seals were required; just a Rinnegan was necessary, really.

"Craaawww!" the drill-beaked bird screeched, opening its mouth and flexing its limbs. It was only after it performed this attention-drawing action that the short-haired girl in his presence seemed to notice the fact that they were perched atop its head.

"Oh my goodness!" Lisanna exclaimed, sprawled out on all fours, practically on her belly as the bird stood proudly, unfurling its two main wings boldly as she struggled to find purchase on her hands and knees atop the creature; to her credit, she made every effort to maintain her stability atop the creature, as difficult as it was.

"Whoa... Naruto..." the white-haired girl mumbled, stunned at the blond's latest feat as she perused her surroundings. While they were high up off the ground and had yet to even take flight, she could see a great distance in almost every direction, a credit to just how large Naruto's bird was.

Through it all, Naruto unsurprisingly maintained his balance, to her combined awe and annoyance, with the latter emotion coming in greater supply when she realized that he wasn't making any effort to show off his impeccable grace — it was all very natural for him, or at least it seemed that way. Her thoughts, though, quickly returned to marvelling at the bird's sheer size.

'Wow... this thing could probably swallow a Legion whole if it wanted to,' she thought, her astonishment preventing her from voicing her thoughts out loud.

"...Well, no sense in wasting our time. Let's get going," Naruto declared in a relatively calm manner. At this, the giant bird started flapping its wings, whipping up huge gusts of wind that buffeted almost everything in sight. Lisanna, looking down at the ground as she noticed the effect the giant bird's takeoff had on it, winced, imagining how it would have probably sent her flying had she not been perched atop it.

"WAIT!" she cried, raising her voice so that she could be heard over the howling winds conjured up by the summoned bird's takeoff, and she knew that she'd probably have to scream herself hoarse just to speak with Naruto while they were airborne, if this was any indication. "What about the guild?!"

"What about them?" Naruto shouted in return, looking back at her as they took off skyward. "They left you behind! Why worry about people who only look out for themselves?" Sure, they were a fun group, but they were still pretty shitty for so easily leaving her behind like that.

"They're my friends!" the petite girl shouted, just barely shaking off the crestfallen look on her face that resulted from the foreigner's cutting words. Harsh as they were, though, she couldn't help but wonder if her friends at Edolas Fairy Tail fought to stay and wait for her or not — the mere prospect of her Edo-siblings basically acquiescing to the decision to leave her behind filled her with a strange sadness. It was unlikely, sure, but it was a legitimate concern given that their relationship was not as close as it should have been.

"That just makes it worse!" Naruto responded. "What kind of friends just leave you behind like that? That's... wrong!"

Lisanna didn't know what to say about that, so held her peace, but not before giving him a few more pleading looks. Did she mean for him to search for them?

When she noticed him look back at her in concern, she stood shakily, shaking her head with a scoff. "Look at me. Moping when we're heading straight into a fight... I'm so pathetic." The fact that she was helping perpetuate the inaccurate and overstated 'damsel in distress' stereotype really irked her, even though she didn't consider herself to be a warrior, really.

Being reduced to a civilian for the better part of two years did that to you.

Even so, there were no excuses for such behavior; it was a poor mindset to have, regardless of how one looked at it, especially considering that they were bound for quite the significant conflict. Hopefully, Lisanna thought, Naruto would be up to the task, because she wasn't feeling all too confident in engaging in a serious fight. If his confidence was any indication, though, it was their enemies, not them, who would have to worry about what was to come.

[|||]

(A Short Time Later — In the Skies Amongst the Clouds)

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"OI! COULD YOU, LIKE, STOP THAT? IT'S GETTING REALLY ANNOYING!"

"SORRY, BUT I... I CAN'T HELP IT! THIS IS SO CRAZY!"

"I GET ALL THAT, I REALLY DO, BUT DO YOU HAVE TO SCREAM INTO MY EAR? IT'S NOT A VERY NICE FEELING, YA KNOW! IN FACT, IT PRETTY MUCH SUCKS!"

"BUT I CAN'T LET GO OF YOU!" Lisanna screamed in protest, having grabbed a hold of Naruto shortly after the bird he had referred to as his 'summon' took off through the skies at what seemed to be warp speed. In her defence, this was the very definition of a bumpy ride. "WHAT WILL I HOLD ON TO, IF NOT YOU?"

"HOW ABOUT THAT FOOT OVER THERE?" Naruto asked, referring to the third leg on his bird summon's back.

"WHAT? YOU MEAN THE THIRD FOOT BEHIND THAT THIRD WING?!" the white-haired girl asked shrilly, incredulous at the abnormal anatomical features of Naruto's winged ally.

"YEAH, THAT'S THE ONE! DON'T WORRY, IT'S SAFE AS LONG AS THAT WING ISN'T BEING USED, SORTA LIKE THE WAY THINGS ARE NOW!"

"AND WHAT, PRAY TELL, WOULD IT ACTUALLY BE USED FOR?"

As they came up upon the vast flock of Legions headed their way, Naruto glanced back at her with a confident smirk, saying, "THIS!"

To her growing horror, the previously inactive appendage unfurled itself and started flapping vigorously, propelling the giant bird they were perched upon into a corkscrew-like fashion as it accelerated, spiralling into the ranks of the Royal Army's winged animals.

"CRAAAWWW!"

What ensued was an unforgiving slaughter of epic proportions, with countless Legions being absolutely shredded left and right, and while the violent action did answer Lisanna's question, it didn't change the fact she was still so very scared out of her mind.

Once their ride righted itself, she watched as the Legions that had been cut down by the brown bird's incredibly lethal drill-shaped beak plummeted to the ground below, a good number of them dead before they even hit the ground. As for the soldiers riding the slaughtered swine-like creatures, she knew not what happened to them, but one could hazard a guess as to their fate.

It was... frightening.

"...DOES THAT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION?" Naruto asked needlessly.

The blue-eyed girl didn't say anything, clenching said eyes shut as she clutched onto Naruto, her arms wrapped around his torso in a vice grip while she whimpered despondently.

"MAN, I COULD REALLY USE SOME GOGGLES!" Naruto shouted randomly as they cleaved through another cluster of the wispy-winged creatures. "HEY, LISANNA! DO YOU KNOW WHERE I COULD GET A PAIR?"

She didn't, but if he was dead-set on getting himself some goggles, then she'd have to make sure that he got her a blindfold, because she wasn't sure if she was willing to subject herself to watching much more of this.

She mewled as she felt them enter another vertigo-inducing spiral, knowing that meant that more Legions were falling prey to the devastating drill-spin attack of the bird at Naruto's beck and call. Part of her marvelled that they hardly felt any resistance from the flying bodies, as if it was all so effortless on the bird's part.

After a few more turns of this, they soared upwards, slowing into a glide as they settled into an altitude far above the other occupants of the Edolas skies. "Finally," Lisanna said hoarsely, breathing deeply as she relinquished her securing hold on Naruto, glad that she no longer had to raise her voice to be heard over the howling winds that came about as a result of the freaky fowl's aerial prowess. "Is... is it over?"

Naruto didn't answer, peering down solemnly as he scanned the scattered remains of the Royal Army's Legion Corps. When Lisanna joined him in looking down to see what had him so silent, she gasped in surprise.

The Kingdom's vaunted Legion Corps had been utterly decimated, with over three-quarters of the numbers that had been sent in pursuit of them ripped to bits by Naruto's vastly superior winged mount. The ground below them, consisting of the vast countryside that laid between Fairy Tail's usual base of operations and the town named Sycca, was littered with bodies of both Legion and human alike.

Naruto... did he know he was capable of doing this all along? Did he really believe himself strong enough to so thoroughly dominate their enemies despite being so incredibly outnumbered? It was... nothing short of astounding.

"What now?" Lisanna croaked. She wasn't fond of the sight, but reasoned to herself that it was a necessary evil, lest her fellow Fairies get caught up in all this madness and get themselves killed. Legions were creatures that the Royal Army used to terrorize the citizens of Edolas; the fewer of them there were, the better, especially now that it seemed that war had broken out.

"Hang on," Naruto said, still scouring the remainder of their opponents who were fortunate enough to not suffer his summon's wrath, "I'm looking for..."

He trailed off as the sound of a Legion close by roaring registered in their ears, drawing their attention to it. On its back were two figures that Naruto seemed to recognize, based on his reaction to catching sight of them.

"...It's them..." he whispered as if in a trance, while the yellow-beaked bird rose slightly higher than before to maintain a higher altitude than their enemies.

"Um... who?"

"Oh, sorry," the blond said sheepishly. "I was just talking to myself... about them. It's just, I was wondering where these two were. I had thought they'd've run away or something."

"Yeah? And just who are you talking about?" she asked irritatedly.

"Um... that big black talking cat and that redheaded girl I fought outside the Royal City," he responded casually.

"What?! You fought them?!" Lisanna half-asked, half-shouted, realizing he was referring to none other than Erza Knightwalker and Pantherlily.

"Yyyyyeah. What, didn't Lucy tell ya? I kicked their asses. And, get this — I'm probably gonna have to again! Wish me luck, eh?"

"Huh? W-wait! Don't leave me here!" she shouted after him as he leapt off his bird's back, shocked and upset that he'd so recklessly dismount and leave her on her own like that.

"Don't worry, I'm right here, ya know."

Gasping with a hand held to her chest in a futile bid to quell her erratic heartbeat at being so easily started, Lisanna turned to find Naruto standing behind her as if he had never left. "Don't do that!" she scolded, feeling very upset with him. "I don't want you fighting Erza and whoever else the Army sends after us, okay?"

"Too late," 'Naruto' said as he pointed downwards, drawing Lisanna's attention to another Naruto slamming a purplish sphere of energy into the back of Erza's Legion, sending it down to the earth as it was devastated by the attack.

She had only looked away for the briefest of instances! What on earth had happened?

[|||]

(Moments Before)

"About time you got back," Erza growled as Pantherlily flew in, retracting his wings as he landed next to her on the back of her prized Legion. While he had a Legion of his own (a result of his status as a Division Commander), he deliberately avoided using it in favour of flying on his own, uncaring of the fact that Legions were capable of achieving great speeds.

"Hmph. If I didn't know any better I'd say you actually cared," the bipedal panther said. When she snarled at him in response, visibly offended at the remark, he smirked.

Why would she care, anyway? Unless... "...You need my help to take down Uzumaki? Is that it?"

"Feh. Forget I asked," the redhead said grumpily, still irked at the reminder that she'd been so easily bested by the blond interloper.

Pantherlily was glad for his quick thinking in diverting her attention to her own failure regarding their opponent. The last thing he needed was for her line of questioning to delve too deeply into his external activities. His dealings with Queen Shagotte needed to stay discreet.

While he still abhorred the elders who saw fit to banish him for the most trivial of reasons, he was nevertheless inclined to prevent Extalia's demise, which he had recently learned was one of Faust's ultimate goals.

Just because he had become a turncoat to the nation of his birth didn't mean that he would stand idly by while his homeland was marked for destruction. As a matter of fact, the primary reason he'd joined Faust's army was due to the intensity of the negative feelings he had for the land in which he was born. Being discarded in such a manner despite all he'd done was a hard pill to swallow, as unjust as it was, and while it was a rash decision in hindsight, he was too prideful to renege on his commitment to the human king.

Until now.

As they picked up speed, drawing closer and closer to the assembled air corps of the Royal Army, Lily took the opportunity to look around, and when he saw just how much of the army had been deployed, panic raced through his heart. 'How could I have been so stupid,' he thought, harshly scolding himself as he realized what this all meant.

Faust intended to capture Uzumaki and complete his coup of Edolas all in one fell swoop.

Why else would he unleash the entirety of the army he had at his disposal for one lousy mage? This wan't even including the ground troops from each of the Four Magical Warfare Divisions, which had apparently mobilized as well, for reasons Faust saw fit not to tell them of. Them being out of the loop — despite the fact that between the two of them, they oversaw half of said troops — wasn't all that big of a surprise (as Erza pointed out to him sourly) given that the two captains had been scouring the countryside as of late in search of Fairy Tail. The rogue guild had predictably fled underground to wherever it was they liked to hide, while they, having come up empty-handed, were not commanding their respective divisions, which in turn had mobilized on the King's order.

When they had neared enough to see the mass of troops in the distance, they were shocked at what laid before their eyes.

There were more Legions on the ground, mutilated and crippled, then there were still whole and healthy in the air.

When a massive shadow loomed over them, they soon saw the reason why; it was the first glimpse they caught of the predator that had been preying on their ranks. It was a bird, one with an appearance so odd they couldn't help but gape at it. Before they could do anything about it, though, it soared up even higher than it was before, but not before a figure that was tiny by comparison leapt from its back, plummeting towards them.

"It's him!" Erza hissed.

Pantherlily narrowed his eyes, realizing that his easily incensed companion was correct in her observation. It was him.

"UZUMAKI!" the redhead yelled, clearly eager to reengage him, but before Pantherlily could say anything to curtail his worked-up companion, the blond held his right hand out in front of him, clutched within his left, free-falling all the while.

'What is he doing?' the black Exceed wondered.

Erza, to his eyes, didn't seem all too concerned with what it was he was doing; all she seemed was determined to get the better of him in this clash.

"I've got you now," he could hear her mutter, a dark look in her eyes the likes of which he hadn't seen in a long time. In a flash, she quickly morphed her spear into its cannon form, a long barrel forming at its end as she quickly fired off a shot of bright red energy to blast him out of midair; she was wholly determined to prevent him from completing his technique, and the Exceed was inclined to think her preemptive attack would be successful.

The attack, which as far as he recalled was potent enough to pierce her opponents, came upon the dive-bombing young man with all haste, but he match its speed with his own attack, reaching out with a glowing blue sphere to counter the energy projectile.

To their collective surprise, the attack was actually absorbed into Uzumaki's own spell, though based on his wince and the sparks of energy arcing around and through his arm, Pantherlily suspected the assimilation process wasn't all that seamless.

He did deem it a success for the battle-adept mage, though, based on how it morphed into a bright purple ball that vibrated within his hand in a pulsating manner.

"Take THIS!" the interloper yelled fiercely, slamming it into the back of Erza's Legion as he landed between them. The creature bellowed painfully in response; the attack must have been wreaking havoc on its innards (made somewhat apparent by the animal spewing copious amounts of blood), as the only outward marker denoting the attack's success was the burned fur on the Legion's back at the point of impact, as well as the deeply engraved spiral marking at said spot.

Almost immediately, the creature, devastated by the attack, started its unwilling descent to the earth as it made its way to join its other fallen brethren that had been cut down earlier. Pantherlily, anticipating as much, was quick to manifest his angel-like wings to prevent himself from falling helplessly in tow. He had half a mind to aid Erza, who he knew couldn't fly since she was a human and all, and was about to do just that before he was surprised by the sight of her remaining afloat thanks to her spear, whose head had turned into a long, obsidian blade as it maintained a small, black sphere of energy below her.

"My Gravity Spear," she explained at his questioning look. Not saying anything else, she looked down at the man who had the power to so casually take apart hundreds of Legions, including her own. He by now had very easily landed on the ground, amongst the mangled bodies of both humans and Legions.

'At least he's left a good portion of the humans alive,' Pantherlily thought, finding such a fact to be nothing short of miraculous if he were to believe that they all suffered precipitous drops similar to the one Erza's Legion had. A small, small part of him was sorely disappointed that more of them hadn't been killed, since they still posed a threat to Extalia with their vastly superior numbers, but he crushed that rebellious sentiment ruthlessly, feeling that senseless death wouldn't have solved much of anything.

When they noticed the blond just standing there looking up at them, he asked his prideful companion, "Does he mean for us to go down and join him?"

The burly Exceed frowned as he noticed Erza scowl at his query, who was clearly irked at the mere prospect of doing anything according to their opponent's desires. "No. We attack at range, from up here in the air," she said defiantly, making to modify her weapon to maintain her floating position while preparing to pepper him with long range spells. Uzumaki seemed to realize her plan, though, raising a hand up toward them, palm open.

The next instant was nothing but a painful blur for Pantherlily, who ended up eating dirt as he was slammed into the ground, violently. While his hearing was muffled due to the ringing in his ears in the immediate aftermath of the disorienting technique, he could faintly make out Erza's pained wheezes, and so could only assume that she had experienced treatment similar to that he had just endured. The respective forces of their impacts produced small craters in the ground, complete with hairline fissures as they were all too rapidly reintroduced to being ground bound.

Looking around, the Exceed noted the terrain where they now found themselves to be rocky and arid, not unlike the small valleys within the mountain ranges found outside most of the settled regions of the continent. He didn't know whether such terrain would prove to be to his and Erza's advantage, but he felt like he would have liked his chances a lot more if things went down in a more familiar setting.

Sure enough, in the far distance, he could see a town from the mountain range they were now within (Louen), and in another direction he caught sight of another town with more of an architectural feel to it (Sycca), with its buildings actually appearing to be decently constructed.

"Sorry," they heard the young man apologize good-naturedly, verifying beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the one responsible for bringing them down out of the air, "but I like getting up close and personal when I fight. I don't have a lot of long-range ninjutsu to throw at you guys, at least ones that aren't outright lethal, so I'm not about to let you shoot at me as you like, you know?"

"Tch," the large black cat heard Erza scoff, who had quickly climbed to her feet in a show of bravado meant to show their opponent that his attack had little effect on her. While he was more curious as to what the blond meant by 'ninjutsu', Erza seemed more concerned with what he said in explanation for what he did, saying, "What kind of warrior tries to explain away his actions when he does something in a fight?" Her attempt at bluster was ill-advised, the Exceed thought, seeing as how she was still a bit wobbly and unsteady on her feet; at the very least, she was in no position to be so openly critical.

Pantherlily himself was still on one knee, gathering himself; while he had been intent on fighting Uzumaki first, he wouldn't mind if Erza performed her usual song and dance, engaging their opponent heedlessly while he sat back and rested for a bit. Hopefully she wouldn't get herself killed or anything...

"I'm not just a warrior, you know," Uzumaki said irreverently, but answered her rhetorical question nonetheless as he said arrogantly, his good cheer seemingly diminished, "and I told you why I did that because I want you to know that anything you even manage to do will only be because I allow it."

Pantherlily knew a taunt when he heard one, and the sight of a snarling Erza charging headlong towards the blond as he smirked darkly confirmed his thoughts on the exchange. "Erza, stop!" he shouted, forcing himself to stand, not wanting her to step into the trap he knew she was running right in to, despite such a desire running contrarily to his earlier thoughts.

"Shut up, Lily!" she screamed back at him, unwilling to back down from such a challenge, the consequences be damned. She was clearly determined to beat him, regardless if he had the advantage or not.

Brandishing the Gravity Core incarnation of her Ten Commandments Spear, she unleashed an orb of gravity that arced with energy as it rapidly expanded in size at the spear's tip before ejecting it at point blank range at Uzumaki. It seemed he realized just what the attack was (or perhaps he just didn't care), because he stood his ground despite Erza's becoming dangerously close to him.

What happened next was so ballsy that it put the fact that the blond had been basically unaffected by the sudden shift in gravity out of Pantherlily's head.

Uzumaki produced another blue sphere in his right hand, an action which drew its own taunts from Erza. "Is that all you know how to do?!" she jeered, conveniently forgetting about his incredibly potent gravity magic which he had successfully unleashed upon them twice in as many encounters. In response, he dispelled his own magical sphere of energy and replaced it with one as ridiculously large as Erza's, even larger than his own body, a development that wiped the smirk off Erza's face and only increased Lily's anxiety.

"Shit," he grumbled, diving behind the makeshift cover that was a disabled Legion as he heeded the warning his instincts all but screamed at him regarding the impending clash of techniques, despite the evidence to the contrary as seen when Erza and Uzumaki's attacks last collided a short time ago. His decision was soon proven to be quite prudent, though, as Uzumaki's blue absorption sphere failed to subsume Erza's Gravity Blast due to its instability, leading to an earth-shaking explosion that seemed to engulf the two of them.

When the explosion finally died down, Lily stepped out from behind his impromptu cover, completely unharmed thanks to his quick thinking. The explosion that resulted from the two colliding techniques must not have been as violent as he'd thought it would be, though, since both Erza and Uzumaki merely had their clothes scuffed up despite being at the relative epicentre of the blast, although they were sent sprawling due to their close proximity to the detonation.

Seeing Erza now temporarily incapacitated, Pantherlily took that as his cue to try his luck with the strange human; he was surprisingly hardy, already back on his feet with a self-deprecating smile on his face. The more Lily thought about it, though, the more he saw this as an opportunity: Faust intended to use Uzumaki's potent power to secure the ascension of his magic-deficient race to top dog status at the expense of the overlord species that were the Exceeds, so if he could defeat the blond human here, he could hide him away until Faust expended all of the magic at his disposal. Sure, he'd have to do something about the technicians who oversaw the operations that went down in the Anima chamber to stop them and ensure any energy they procured wasn't put to use, but he'd worry about that when the time came.

Pantherlily moved in to attack, drawing his blade before shortening it to increase its maneuverability and make it easier to handle. Charging the shinobi with all the speed he had at his disposal, he put his impressive swordsmanship on display, attacking his whisker-marked opponent with a variety of slashes, swipes, thrusts, and stabs.

None of them hit.

While Uzumaki was sweating slightly as a result of the attacks, the winged panther knew that this was purely out of physical exertion, not a feeling of any sort of danger. While he himself was extremely skilled with a sword, he still fought as a conventional swordsman, and he was starting to feel like such rigidity in his style was holding him back despite how ruthless he knew he could be. He may as well have had no flair, no unpredictability, for it all resulted in a seemingly easy fight on his opponent's part.

Seeing his ally in Erza begin to gather herself much like he had earlier, Lily started exerting himself even more, seeking to defeat and subdue the escaped prisoner before she could get another crack at him. Unfortunately for him, Uzumaki also seemed to notice that her return to battle was close at hand, and, probably out of a sense of not wanting to have to fight them both simultaneously, worked to end their current engagement.

Sidestepping a vertical slash, Lily saw the blond quickly form a yet another of those blue magical spheres in his right hand and could only watch helplessly as it was smashed into his magic sword, causing him to curse, "My Bustermarm! Shit!" as it was reduced to pieces. The man-sized cat didn't have time to mourn his obliterated weapon, though, as the blue-eyed teenager was quick to grasp his own weapon, a small, magic dagger, and swing it at the Exceed warrior. Pantherlily's battle instincts allowed for him to dodge what he perceived to be a haphazard swing, but when he felt the area immediately adjacent to his left eyebrow split open, he couldn't hold back a gasp that conveyed a mixture of the surprise and pain he felt. How? How did it hit? He had dodged it!

Uzumaki, smirking at how easy it was to inflict damage on him, said slowly, "That was my wind chakra, you know. If you didn't jump back, I would have cut your head clean open."

The feline warrior snarled at him in anger; what the hell was he talking about? He did cut his head open; the blood running over half of his face said as much. Despite being distracted by the rivulets of blood running down over his left brow, Pantherlily leapt back and away from Naruto as he decided to bow out of the fight while he was ahead, keeping a fair distance between himself and his clearly superior opponent while still remaining in the small clearing within the mountain range. He was clutching his wound, holding his hand over the cut that was practically on his left eyebrow in order to keep the blood out of his eye.

"Long range attacks won't work on him," he heard Erza mutter to herself quietly, obviously thinking that she'd actually prove to be a match for the seemingly superior Earthland mage. Lily doubted as much. He had no doubt that the blond was a well-rounded fighter, and he found it both amusing and saddening that in decimating over one third of the Edolas Royal Army — which was comprised primarily of the Legion Corps — Uzumaki had done more for Extalia (albeit unknowingly) than he ever had.

When Erza next charged the blond, incensed that he had rebuffed her previous attack with relative ease, she had the tip of her spear transform into a prominent arrowhead-like shape with a white circle surrounded by a thick golden layer beneath the silver and black spearhead.

"Silfarion!" she shouted, her speed skyrocketing absolutely thanks to the effects of her Velocity Spear.

To his surprise, the blond, who seemed to be caught flat-footed and completely off guard by this wholly unexpected development, just barely managed to prepare himself for the rapidly incoming female warrior. Before the boost, her speed wasn't reputable by any stretch of the imagination (although she was far more agile than he himself was, Lily noted objectively), so for someone who'd never seen this ability, it was no surprise that they'd be caught unawares in such a way.

While the foreign warrior recovered admirably, pulling out a matching magic dagger to make a pair (where did he even get those, anyway?), the Exceed's sharp red eyes noticed him close his mismatched left eye with a grimace. What was with that eye, anyway? Was it some sort of magical implant?

It seemed he was going to engage Erza as he was — with only one eye, though he didn't seem all too concerned with doing so, what with that damnable smirk of his still prominent on his face — and so readied his dual-wielded weapons to parry Erza's triangular pointed spear.

The hot-headed woman darted in with a swiftness far above anything she would have been capable of ordinarily, swinging her spear in a vicious upwards slash as if she intended to split his face in two. Uzumaki managed to parry the attack, though it seemed to be a close call given his self-inflicted issues with depth perception. Pantherlily frowned heavily at the sight; Erza was too good a fighter to miss such a welcoming vulnerability, which meant that she was a good bet to beat him now if she capitalized on his blind side, which she would most assuredly do.

Uzumaki never gave her the opportunity, though, quickly reopening his magic eye as he raised both arms to parry the follow-up strike by Erza, although it was done in an unorthodox fashion; the dagger in his right hand blocked the downward swipe, while the short blade in his left hand came down on top of Erza's stymied speartip, trapping it in its place.

So the eye thing was all an act; he'd certainly had the Exceed fooled, and he wasn't even fighting the blond man, so for him to have baited Erza was of no surprise to him. Erza tried to wrench her prized weapon free, but quickly found that in order to do so, she'd have to eclipse the spiky-haired blond in strength, a feat that she found that she wouldn't be able to do.

"So... what now?" she asked sternly. "We are at an impasse; neither of us can attack or defend without discarding our weapons."

"Speak for yourself," the blond said with a sly smirk, before a third arm sprouted from his chest.

"Wh-what the fuck?!" was all Erza managed to utter before the seemingly artificial arm grabbed her around her throat so roughly that her scarf may as well have not been there. "Urk!"

When it then lifted her clear into the air, she grabbed and scratched at the fingers enclosed around her neck, her lustrous, wavy red hair swinging from side to side as she kicked her legs frantically in an effort to escape. At the same time, her multi-purpose spear fell to the ground in a muted thud, forgotten in her panic at the unexpected turn in events.

'Is... is he trying to execute her?!' Lily thought worriedly, staring helplessly at the sight. "Argh... shit!" he heard himself grumble, shaking off his petrification as he dashed in to help his choking comrade, determined not to let her die.

Uzumaki looked at him briefly, that goddamned smirk still plastered on his face, before he brought his two normal hands together to form a strange, cross-like hand sign.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

In short order, the dark-furred Exceed was confronted by a doppelgänger, who quickly punched him harshly, the strike catching him clean in the solar plexus as he was knocked flat on his back, gasping and wheezing. So the guy could duplicate himself now? In light of this latest twist, only one word could sum up the feline warrior's thoughts on the matter, a word that was prominent in his mind in the wake of his failure, one that served as his last conscious thought as his vision darkened in his body's quest to shut itself down in response to the vicious blow.

'...Fuck.'

Not much to say, except that the next chapter shouldn't take nearly so long barring anything untoward happening for me. 'Till next time, folks.

CS.