Author Ramble:

This chapter was a total pain in the rear to write. It took me being very tipsy to get it started in the early hours of this morning. I was at a party, and indulged in some alcohol. I fell asleep and tried to get it finished before I got kicked off the laptop on waking up. I was so tempted at times just to procrastinate on writing it, but if I did it would never be written. Not as long as I initially had it planned, but it is an acceptable enough length, I hope. Next chapter will possibly be next weekend, maybe sooner, it all depends.

The giant steely maw opened wide to devour Naruto, flame flickered within it, and he stared absolutely fascinated – this was beautiful. The dragon formed of weapons stared ahead, and he could swear that it had life, it was roaring and so close to him. One tiny part of him wrestled for him to impulsively touch it, he didn't, but was feeling quite daft for

"Steel Dragon Fire Wave!" Tenten roared in tandem with the speeding dragon, the curly haired woman absolutely still, her focus devoted to maintaining her attack.

Her brow was slick with sweat, hair damp against her head. She had poured everything she had into the attack, her desire to secure a victory was evident, and Naruto felt that they understood each other in that moment. Tenten Steeling was a woman who had trained so hard to get to where she was, she wasn't a prodigy, she was like Naruto, every achievement she had fought to earn.

They fought as two equals, Naruto may be stronger, and he certainly was, but she understood that – fought on anyway. They understood to never give up; except that ordinary looking woman before him had probably bested Naruto there. Seven years he had just given up. He had called himself a disgrace; considered himself a failure. He hadn't been, until he had done just that, but this was his chance to make amends, and he wouldn't let it be said that Naruto Uzumaki didn't learn from his mistakes.

Naruto crossed his arms and then opened them, popping out an exact copy of himself, he looked at his doppelganger. "Let's do it, we've been practicing it for years now, clone Naruto. You better not screw it up!" He warned his clone as he fell into position, his clone also doing so.

"Wind Make: Spiralling Sphere!" His clone bellowed, flashing a smug grin at Naruto, as if the clone was trying to make the point that had done his part perfectly. That was the thing with this variation of Clone Magic, they tended to embody the worse aspects of the creators personality.

"Water Make: Tearing Torrent!" Naruto yelled at the exact same moment, watching as the two techniques became one. The wild rotations of the Spiralling Sphere was swallowing up the current of water that Naruto had released. It became mere water vapour, obscuring Tenten's vision, and creating a solid barrier as the strong wind whirled within the mist. It was a technique that brought sad memories to the forefront of his mind, as he remembered the man who had helped give it life.

The steel dragon was struggling to breach the barrier, but it simply couldn't. The Typhoon Water Vortex was a very powerful defensive technique that when used by Naruto, who with the vast amounts of magic to strengthen and sustain it, was quite possibly on its first use against an opponent, impossible to defeat. It had its weaknesses, but against the unprepared – it had yet to fail.

It was over just like that, both techniques fell apart, and Naruto and Tenten stared across the pockmarked ground, Tenten breathing heavily.

"I win." Naruto stated, bluntly.

"Every time I get so close to closing the distance to that man, someone else comes along and knocks me back, you didn't even fight me seriously. I was scared, even although I knew this was just a match, I was scared, you were so much stronger and I can't match you...I am undeserving of the S-rank classification." Her voice was bitter, and the disappoint in herself was obvious. Her head was hanging in shame, eyes stuck staring at the ground.

Naruto's eyes widened. Crap, he thought. He hadn't meant to do this, he wasn't one to crush someone's spirits, how to fix this? How to make her feel better, he racked his brain furiously for an answer. "Fear isn't evil...it is what tells you what your weakness is. Knowing your weakness will make you stronger. Fear is what tells us what the stakes are, Tenten, without fear, we don't fight for a worthy cause." He walked towards her, mindful of the small holes now littered across the battlefield, and extended his hand towards the curly haired mage.

She raised her head, a small smile appearing. "You aren't such a bad guy, are you..Boss."

Erza was frowning.

Something just felt wrong, the Guild was as chaotic as ever, but there was someone missing, that someone was Naruto Uzumaki. Nobody really knew the older mage very well, even Erza didn't, and he was the man who had taught her bladework when she was younger. She liked the man very much, he had a kind smile, and was a skilled enough mage. Master thought very highly of the man.

She turned away from her cake, placing in back on the plate, reluctantly standing to seek out the Master. There was just a feeling of something being wrong, the Master had been a little quiet as of late, she had put that down to Laxus being excommunicated, but now that she thought about it, this had been going on for longer than that. In fact, she thought it could have been since the Rune Knight had came to give the Master a message.

She looked at the short Wizard Saint. "Master, where is Naruto? He hasn't shown up at the Guild for around a month, that is most irregular of him." Erza waited patiently for the older man to answer, presuming that maybe Naruto was on vacation, or taking a longterm mission. Normally all the Guild would know if someone would be away for any length of time, but Naruto tended to keep to himself, so it wouldn't be that unusual.

"Naruto is no longer an active mage of Fairy Tail." Makarov announced, jumping up on a table, looking around the Guild. "Naruto before he came to Fairy Tail was a Commander of a Rune Knight Division, due to the disbanding and subsequent reforming of the Magic Council, he has been recalled to duty. He had to renounce his membership to Fairy Tail in order to do so. "

"Naruto...he was the tall blonde guy, wasn't he?" Someone asked.

"Yeah, he was pretty cool, I never really talked to him though." Another piped up.

Erza was stunned to silence. A Fairy Tail mage had left to join the Council? No, surely not. She knew that the Council were not enemies, but they were always trying to make things hard on Fairy Tail, and now Naruto had gone to them. Fairy Tail was a family, and family didn't abandon family.

"Don't be stupid, Erza!" The man had scolded her when she had picked up a giant sword that was nearly triple her size and definitely outweighed her. He grabbed it from her, stuck it blade first into the ground. "You are still a kid, you know. Don't pick up things that outweigh you, you'll end up as nothing but a squashed tomato."

She had glowered, but he had then effortlessly brought a smaller blade into existence, summoning it from the pocket dimension.

He handed it to her carefully. "This is Fire Leaf, she's a special sword, forged by one of the best blacksmiths in all of Fiore, and she's yours now, Erza. A Requip mage like yourself needs to start her collection. She belonged to a very brave woman, one named Kushina Namikaze. She had red hair just like yours, and she was really strong. You will carry on her spirit, won't you, Erza? I think that she would be proud to have you wield her weapon."

"It's so beautiful," she had exclaimed, running her hands lightly over the blade. "How do you know? How do you know that I am worthy to carry on her spirit, to wield the sword of someone you admire...I can't."

Naruto had just smiled. "She..she..was my mother. I know it because I am her son, she left more than just her blades to her son, she left an echo of spirit to remind her precious son that he would always be loved." He swallowed, blue eyes glancing down at the blade, a bittersweet smile on his face. "I'm not worthy to wield such a blade, but you represent the future of Fairy Tail, and I know that she would be honoured to have such a fine mage carry on her legacy!"

"Me...a fine mage?" Erza had responded, unable to fully voice the emotions that had swept through her.

"You must be mistaken, Master. That cannot be, he would never leave us," she protested strongly, shaking her head.

Makarov seemed to visibly harden before responding. "I am not mistaken, Naruto answers to the Council now, that is all there is to say. Go take a mission, we'll never get the renovations complete if we can't pay for them!"

Naruto now had a lifetime ban from Mermaid Heel, as if being male hadn't been enough of one, a picture of him was actually hung on the entry of the Guild. He didn't see why he got the blame for destroying the favoured training grounds of the Mermaid Heel Guild, his new right-hand woman was just as much to blame. Yet he was the one landed with the repair bill. The Council covered it, but he fully expected getting a lecture from old man Doma when he arrived back in Era.

"So, I couldn't help it, but I noticed you have a Fairy Tail mark on your arm," Tenten broached the subject, hiding her eagerness for an answer poorly, but still trying to sound as if it was a casual commentary.

"Seven years in Fairy Tail," Naruto answered, not really wanting to get into it all. "Like I said earlier, I only just got recalled a few weeks ago, you know that Dark Guild activity is at an all time high, right?"

"Yeah, but why would they want a Fairy Tail mage to be working for the, no offence, boss. Everyone knows that Fairy Tail and the Council aren't exactly on the best of terms, you guys are off your rockers." Tenten instead of getting a satisfactory answer was clearly just getting more fascinated with Naruto's story.

Naruto wasn't one for keeping secrets, or he hadn't been when he was younger, and Tenten was a comrade, so no harm in getting it all out in the open now. "I led the Division decimated at Morta Island, and I left shortly after, I failed to honour my comrades by giving up. The entire Island was a trap, you know, " he swallowed, keeping his pace even as he walked. "They died, shrivelled up, some of my friends went down without even getting the chance to fight back. I should have told them to run, but such a magic shouldn't be allowed to go on. It was our job, stop those who abuse magic, so I told them to hold on. By the time I told them to run, there was less than fifteen of us left. Out of fifty, only fifteen, and they were all elite amongst even Rune Knights, and only fifteen of us were able to run. It was one man, couldn't make out his face, or anything but his shadow. "

"One man did all that...how?" Tenten voiced, brown eyes full of horrified sympathy.

"I told them to get off Morta. I remained behind to be the distraction, but he still got them, even although he was fighting me. I don't remember much after that, next thing I know was being pulled out the sea by a leisure cruise."

"So whoever did that, whatever did that, is still out there?" Tenten asked, a shadow of fear appearing in her eyes.

"Not for long, it is only a matter of time, until all illegal Guilds are destroyed, I'll make sure of it. We'll make Fiore a safer place by bringing about a country free from the plague of Dark mages!" Naruto answered, confidently. He wasn't really quite so confident, doubtful whispers in his ear, reminding him of the Morta Massacre.

"You don't honestly think that we alone can do that, do you? As long as magic exists there will be those who use it for good, and also those that use it for dark purposes. You can't expect to stop them all, it is impossible. This is me, your new underling being the voice of reason, sir." Her hands went to her hips as she spoke, daring him to argue with what she had just said.

Naruto didn't. "Not really, it'd be nice and all, but I'll settle for doing all that we can stop as many as we can. It is funny, but if I had said that back home, in Fairy Tail, half the Guild would have been ready to run out the door, battle lacrima on their backs." He answered, hoping to appease her, as expected, she wasn't afraid to give her own thoughts, even if she referred to him as boss, or sir. He liked this version of Tenten, she was quite assertive, and possibly suffering from a moodswings the way she went from one extreme to another. "Anything else you want to know?"

"Yeah, what happened to your hair?"

Okay, he hadn't been expecting that, he lifted a hand that ran through the fuzz that had once been thick spikes. "It got shaved off, they needed access to my scalp or something. It looks stupid." He couldn't help himself, it really did look weird, Naruto didn't suit short fuzz for hair. The only other worse hair style would be a bowl cut. He grabbed her arm, as they finally reached their destination. "That would be our train, Tenten. Let's go."

"Erza is acting kind of strange, isn't she." Lucy commentated, watching Erza stab her fork repeatedly into her uneaten cake. After the Master had answered Erza's question, the red haired young woman had been strangely subdued, which wasn't like Erza. The entire Guild had been subdued for a while, but it was beginning to pick back up.

Cana leaned over, putting her drink down. "It isn't surprising. Naruto was the one who helped her learn how to speed up her Requip and how to use her swords, " she crossed her arms underneath her breasts, her head cocked to the side as she thought. "He wasn't exactly close to anyone here, except Gildarts, the top S-rank mage." Which unsaid was why Cana had always paid close attention to the blonde haired male.

Lucy frowned. "That is strange, how long had he been a member for again?" She asked, it had to have been at least six years, if her arithmetic was correct.

"He came nearly a year after Erza joined, when she was still trying to get a grip to her magic, and it was thanks to him that she probably ended up as the strongest female in the Guild. He gave her the first of her magical swords, one called Fire Leaf, I think. Macao said it belonged to a famed mage called Kushina, and that it must have cost Naruto millions of credits to obtain." The brunette had lowered her voice to just slightly above a whisper. "He was a nice guy, I don't know why he'd be working for the Council."

"He inherited it from his mother," Erza joined the conversation showing no signs of irritation at finding herself as part of the gossip. "Which makes it all the more priceless. I don't like to use it much, it is silly really, but other than Naruto - that sword is part of her legacy. I asked the Master, a few years back, and Kushina Namikaze was married to Minato Namikaze. He was a rising young Wizard Saint, at the time the youngest to gain the title, and Kushina was the daughter of a Duke who eloped with him after he saved her from kidnappers. He nearly lost his rank for that, but he was too popular and the romance of it all made him even more popular. She had already been an accomplished mage, but free from society, she blossomed into a powerful mage in her own right. I admire her, and am honoured that Naruto believed I was a worthy successor."

Lucy spat out her drink. "That means that he was the son of Minato Namikaze...why wasn't that all over the magazines?" She asked, confused. A mage from such a lineage was bond to catch a lot of attention. "Why wasn't he an S-rank mage?"

It was the Master that piped up. "Not all desire the fame that comes from such a rank, Lucy. Naruto was one of those, he went by the name of his mother, to avoid being linked to his own parents. I don't profess to understand why he did so, but he had his own troubles of the past," the Master paused, frowning. "Now let that be it, he may not be here with us now, but he is still part of our family. Family doesn't gossip about family, brats." He scolded them.

Lucy dropped her head in shame.

When Naruto sat in an compartment, he wasn't expecting to see another blonde, one from Fairy Tail. It was none other than Laxus Dreyar, except he lacked the cocky aura that Naruto associated with the slightly younger man. In his early twenties, Laxus was only a few years younger than Naruto, and when Naruto had came to Fairy Tail, the Master had attempted to shove the two together as friends. For a short time they had taken missions together, but any dreams of a longterm team came to a halt when they had an all out brawl in the streets of Magnolia.

Tenten was sleeping.

So it was just Naruto, and Laxus who was looking out the window.

"Where is your fan-squad?" He referenced to the team that Laxus had assembled, he was kind of glad to see Laxus, even if he was a bit of a bastard, he was still a Fairy Tail member.

Laxus shot his head around, glaring at Naruto. "You trying to be funny, huh, Naruto? Go ahead, say it all, I can take it."

Taken aback, he frowned. "What is your problem, you are rarely without your team, how is it being funny asking where they are? I know you have an attitude problem, but would it kill you be to nice for once? I don't know why the old man lets you stick around Fairy Tail sometimes."

Laxus was clearly torn between anger and defeat. "You don't know...do you? " He asked, more for his own sake. He slumped his shoulders. "I've been kicked out of Fairy Tail...going the same route as my old man, a Fairy Tail exile." The Lightning mage offered up a grimace that had probably been his attempt to smile. "

Laxus had been excommunicated? When had all this happened, and why? "You are an arrogant brat, Laxus, but you aren't a bad guy. What the hell did you do? You are his grandson, he adores you more than anything, Master Makarov would never abandon his own flesh and blood unless there was something that he could not forgive -" Naruto broke off, if there was one thing that Makarov, or any Fairy Tail mage could not forgive was hurting family and innocents.

Laxus nodded at the unspoken question. "I deserved it. " He stated, not making any excuses. That had been something Naruto had liked about Laxus, he was blunt and hadn't been one to make excuses for himself.

Naruto couldn't help, he just sympathised with Laxus, even if he didn't know the exact circumstances, he could feel the regret burning away within the other blonde. Laxus hadn't always been so full of anger; Naruto had quite liked him until he had slowly began to ferment after being in the shadow of his fathers crimes and his grandfathers fame.

On impulse he made an offer. "Join my division, the sleeping beauty over there is Tenten Steeling, and we're off to recruit some more. We were a team once, Laxus, and we are mostly good together, how about it, eh?"

Makarov Dreyar literally slammed their heads together.

"My grandson Laxus," he'd said in introduction. "This is Naruto Uzumaki, he's joining Fairy Tail, and I've got a mission for both of you. "

They'd completed it, and completed a lot more.

"Nope. " Laxus said immediately. "I've got to go my own way, Naruto. Not that I'm not grateful of nothing for the offer, but I want to do my own thing. Since you hard my spiel on not being part of Fairy Tail, I'm guessing there is a story behind your ignorance and offer. Care to share?"

Naruto was an honest guy, mostly, and he didn't want to burden Laxus, who with his new and less harsh attitude didn't deserve to hear about his father, but Iwan Dreyar would probably try to go after Laxus. So he decided on honesty, rather than trying to shield the grown man. "I ran into Iwan Dreyar and his lackeys, which I now know as Raven Tail, it got ugly, I got blown up along with a hideout building and got recalled to work for the new Council. So I'm not Fairy Tail listed anymore."

Laxus didn't visibly react at the mention of his father.

Naruto didn't know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Sounds like fun, and positively Fairy Tail-like, blowing up a building and getting the Council on your back," He offered a smirk, still a shadow of his old one. "You can always count on me, Naruto. If you need a mage to watch your back, just get a message to me, and it'll be like old times, minus the mass-destruction. I don' t think I can afford to pay for repair bills anymore."

Naruto grinned. "You can count on getting that message, and it was you that destroyed things, so don't go blaming that on me."

Tenten let out a loud snore.

Laxus glanced at her questioningly.

"Tenten Steeling, she is a Requip and Wind mage. I think she uses some fire lacrima as well, not sure, I didn't ask. She's my first recruit for a squad that will focus entirely on taking down illegal magic activity. I don't like the Council much sometimes, especially Doma, but at least this way I can do some good, more than I could do taking missions to recover someones lost necklace." Naruto answered, rubbing his nose.

The train began to noticeably slow.

"This is my stop, " Laxus said, standing up. "Remember what I said, I've got your back if you want me to." He offered a quick smile, it wasn't a smirk, but it was a genuine smile. He shrugged on his jacket, leaving the compartment.

Tenten opened her eyes, finally ceasing to pretend to sleep. "So..." She trailed off, "You used to be in a team with Laxus Dreyar, and you called me a sleeping beauty, really?"