'Damn, these people are crazy!' Naruto thought as he ducked under yet another flying chair.
It was roughly an hour after Naruto and the guild members returned to the guild hall, and in that time Naruto had gotten to know a few more guild members that he wasn't able to speak to for an extended period of time before, like the rest of team Natsu. So far he seemed okay with most of them, although some had odd quirks.
The first noticeable person was Gray Fullbuster. Gray was pretty laid back and seemed like he'd be a cool guy friend to have. He used ice magic, which interested Naruto since that would have been considered a Bloodline Limit, like Haku's. Gray demonstrated a bit of what he could do by making small weapons and items made of ice. Naruto swiped at one with a kunai with a decent amount of his strength and was surprised to see the ice barely even chip. The only thing that bothered Naruto about Gray was his odd striping habit. Within the short time he spoke to the ice mage, Gray subconsciously striped out of everything he was wearing expect his boxers. How Gray didn't seem to even notice was beyond him. What was even stranger was that Naruto didn't even notice until the deed had been done, and he was staring at him the whole time!
The next person was Lucy, she didn't give him his last name, so he didn't pry. She could be an orphan or something, he didn't know. She was pretty carefree about anything really, except her rent. At some point in their conversation she seemed to remember that her rent was due in a few days, which brought down her mood considerably, but she immediately perked up once again to resume their conversation. She didn't seem to care of others judged her body, or rather she was proud of her womanly features if her tight clothes and short skirt were any form of proof. What was really interesting about her was her magic. She was a Celestial mage, which basically meant that she could use keys to summon spirits, and every time you obtain a key you need to establish a contract. There were silver keys, which were pretty common, and then there were golden keys. There are only twelve of these golden keys in existence, and Lucy happens to have four of these golden keys at the moment. She summoned one of her silver key spirits, and what came out was a small snow child creature thing that shivered quite a bit and smiled constantly. These keys acted basically the same as the summoning contracts back from where he was from.
Last but not least was Erza Scarlet. After their battle, she acted surprisingly nice towards him. He didn't expect her to be bitter about their draw, but she seemed even more willing to start a conversation with him. He learned that she was holding back on him somewhat in the fight, and that she could easily tell that he did the same, so she suggested a more intense spar on a later date. He hesitantly agreed. Hesitantly because most of his attacks were aimed to kill, so he wasn't sure that she could handle it, but agreed anyways to avoid suspicion. One odd thing about Erza was that she REALLY liked strawberry cake. He thought that her cake looked like a good treat, so he asked if he could try a bite, but the dark glare he got in return made him quickly retreat behind the nearest person, which was Mirajane. Mirajane just smiled at Naruto's actions and continued with her work.
Naruto heard a miserable grumble, and looked to see what it was. It turned out to be Natsu, who had recovered far sooner than Naruto figured he would. Naruto did kinda send him into the ground after all. Natsu looked at Naruto and in mere moments Natsu declared that he would beat Naruto one day. Naruto smirked at Natsu's motivation, but that quickly changed into shock when had to lean back to avoid a punch from the pink haired boy. The fist didn't hit Naruto, but it hit Gray directly in the chest. The Ice Mage didn't take it well.
"What the hell flame brain!" Gray yelled irritably. Natsu didn't even have time for a retort before Gray was upon him, and thus, starting a fight in the center of the guild.
"Was he even aiming for me?" Naruto asked aloud, not really expecting an answer, but he received one anyway.
"Probably not. Natsu and Gray have been rivals ever since they were children. They're always like this." Mirajane said with a cheerful smile. Naruto just stared at the brawling duo.
"You don't say," Naruto said with a short laugh, "I've heard of people that use fire and water never getting along, but I guess this is basically the same thing."
The next thing that happened completely took Naruto by surprise. Gray managed to land a solid kick into Natsu's stomach, sending him into the back of another guild member. The guild member lost the hold of his mug of beer and spilt it on the person sitting next to him. This little chain reaction triggered nearly everyone in the guild to start a massive brawl in the guild hall. Random objects and people were being thrown like they weren't considered important, some of which ended up being fairly close to hitting Naruto.
Naruto turned back to Mirajane, since the only other person sitting with him at the bar was Erza, who was too distracted by her cake to notice any of the violence going on behind her. Lucy had somehow managed to get dragged into the fight, but wasn't really fighting back. Lucy was basically doing her best to dodge all of the chaos around her. Naruto made no move to assist her since he found it to be funny.
"So I'm assuming that this happens often?" Naruto said as he pointed his thumb to the brawl behind him. Mirajane chuckled and nodded.
"Yup! There isn't a single day that a fight doesn't go on. It's one of the things that makes Fairy Tail the guild that it is." Mirajane said. Naruto nodded dumbly, still trying to process the information he had received.
'So they break this much crap every day? They must have to pay a fortune on repairs alone!' Naruto thought with a shiver. He couldn't imagine having to pay that much money for something like this. He had to give Makarov credit for not losing his mind from all of the money that he must've spent on the guild.
Erza had finally finished her cake with a happy sigh, but then her expression immediately turned serious as she turned around and saw the wreckage that the brawl was causing.
"ENOUGH!" Erza demanded with authority, even Naruto was compelled to stop drinking his beverage just so he didn't somehow piss her off. Naruto watched in fascination as the entire guild became silent and each of its members were frozen in place.
Erza's eyes scanned the room until they found what they were looking for.
She slowly walked over in the direction her eyes landed on. Naruto followed her vision the best he could until it landed on two teenagers, Natsu and Gray.
The two teenagers were frozen in place like the rest of the guild members. Both of their fists were just inches from their opponents faces, but were halted in fear by Erza.
Erza glared at both of them, "I'm going to assume that you two started this?" Erza asked coldly. Both boys nodded their heads, hoping to get out of as much trouble as possible by just agreeing with what the red haired mage said.
Erza took one more step closer before raising both of her fists into the air above their heads. "It's time for your punishment." Erza said with the same cold tone she used before.
Naruto turned back around to face Mirajane as he heard two sickening cracking noises, followed by the sound of something being dragged along the ground. Naruto turned his head to see Erza dragging both teenagers by their hair out of the guild hall, closely followed by Lucy.
"Sorry to disturb you all. Have a good evening." Erza said, and with that Team Natsu was gone.
Naruto let out a breath of relief. Erza was definitely one of the scariest women he had even met in his life.
Within a few minutes Makarov exited his office and walked up to Naruto and hopped on a stool next to the blond.
"Naruto, I'd like to discuss a few things with you if you don't mind." Makarov said.
"Um… alright, sure." Naruto said, slightly nervous. Makarov nodded and hopped off of the stool and gestured Naruto to follow him. Naruto followed the short man until they were back in his office, where they wouldn't be disturbed. Makarov sat at his desk while Naruto sat on the chair on the other side of the desk.
"Now, first and foremost, how are you feeling about everything that's happened so far?" Makarov asked, genuinely curious.
Naruto leaned back and thought about this question. How did he feel?
"Well. I guess I can say that it's nice here. Everyone here is so friendly. I'm not that used to it to be honest," Naruto paused to take a breath, "But that's the issue. I don't want to be extremely attached to those who have been so nice to me, but I know I'm already doing it. I want to go home, but I'm not even sure where I would start trying to do that. I've trained to be secretive, but with how everyone treats me… I'm afraid that I'll let something slip. I don't want to draw any more attention that I already have."
Makarov closed his eyes in thought of his next words. "I wish I could understand how you feel, but your situation is unheard of. All I can say is that becoming anti-social for the sake of your friends is a bad decision. You'll hurt them more by doing so. My advice to you is to treat this how you normally would. Build strong bonds and become friends with others. I know you don't want to face this realization and I don't want to be the one to say it, but you may be stuck here for much longer than you want to be."
Naruto nodded sadly. He was well aware of that outcome. He just wanted to go home so badly, but the thought of staying here was unthinkable to him. He at least wanted to say goodbye to his loved ones if he never saw them again.
"Again, I won't push you to join the guild, but the longer you stay here without our guild mark, the more people will become suspicious of you and your origins. Not even your training would be able to help you." Makarov said, staring at Naruto, who was looking at the floorboards. Makarov didn't understand the boy's need to be so reluctant to tell others of his situation, but then again he didn't have to live how Naruto had, so he had to place to speak on the subject.
"I know." Naruto responded simply, not trusting his voice at the moment. Naruto took several deep breaths to suppress his emotions, as he has done far too many times before.
Makarov waited a few long and tense minutes for Naruto to look up again, but with a bit more determination and resolution evident on his face.
"I can't say when I'll have an answer on whether or not I will join, but I can say it won't be too long. I'm not going to give up on returning to my home, but I need a little more time." Naruto said with a slight fire in his eyes, it was small, but still visible to Makarov. Makarov just nodded with a smile.
"I'm glad to hear that you aren't giving up so soon. You'll fit right in at Fairy Tail should you want to join. Now there is one more thing I need to talk to you about, since I'm sure you were a part of it." Makarov said. Naruto gave in a confused stare, forcing Makarov to elaborate.
"What caused the damage outside of the guild hall? None of the other children have come to me about this issue, so I'm going to assume that you and you alone were there to face the possible problem." Makarov said with a sigh. Naruto made an understanding 'o' noise before he thought of an explanation.
"Well I was returning to the guild late last night after my trip to the woods, and no, I will not explain why I was there," to this Makarov grumbled, but motioned Naruto to continue, "So as I was returning I sensed someone approaching the guild, and I could feel their hostile intent. I moved quickly so I could reach the guild before the person. As I suspected the person was attempting to attack the guild. I managed to stop him easily enough and sent him running. I didn't get his name, but from what I could tell he was a Dragon Slayer since he was saying 'Iron Dragon' along with his attacks. There was also a mark on his arm. I'm assuming it was a guild mark." Naruto finished in a business-like manner. Makarov was surprised with the amount of detail Naruto had given him. Makarov wasn't aware that Naruto was used to mission briefings, and this situation was basically the same thing in a sense.
"I see. Can you draw this symbol for me?" Makarov asked. Naruto nodded and Makarov gave him a small pencil and a blank sheet of white paper. Naruto did his best to draw the symbol, but his memory isn't the best and he only saw the symbol with quick glances during the fight. Even with the crude drawing, Makarov was able to figure out the symbol.
"Phantom Lord," Makarov grumbled. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but waited for Makarov to explain what Phantom Lord was. Makarov looked up at Naruto with a grateful smile.
"I'm glad you defended our guild hall. If that Dragon Slayer succeeded in destroying the guild hall, my children would have wanted payback. It's always a pain to try and defuse a situation like that." Makarov's smile disappeared and he became completely serious, "Phantom Lord is a rival guild, and has been teetering along the lines of becoming a dark guild, which is illegal, but the leader of the guild is a member of the Wizard Saints, like me. So he can escape the few illegal acts his guild has committed with only a slap on the wrist. It is surprising that Phantom Lord is also in possession of a Dragon Slayer. The Dragon Slayer is probably part of the Element Four, and elite group of S-class mages that belongs to Phantom Lord. I'll have to bring this up with the Council, although I doubt they'd even do anything about it. I'll also have to ask the members of my guild to return home in groups. I fear that Phantom Lord will strike once again, and soon." Makarov said with a hard look. He hated to think that his children were in any danger so close to their homes, but Phantom Lord is ambitious ad ruthless, so he will leave nothing to chance.
Naruto nodded, understanding the situation. As much as Naruto didn't want to face this fact, he liked the people here. They were all so nice and treated him much better than most people ever have before, and he wasn't even here a full week yet!
"I guess I have some work to do. You're free to go boy." Makarov said, shooing Naruto away. Naruto let out a small smile and exited the room.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Makarov had enforced the rule that guild members were not allowed to leave the guild alone, when questioned, the old man stated that there were a few rouge wizards wreaking havoc on the local populous. The guild members agreed easily and laughed the rest of the night away. Naruto watched as people left in small and large groups with growing concern.
"I feel like something is going to happen, but they can take care of themselves." Naruto said while sitting at the bar once more. Mirajane was still washing dishes from today, as she always does at night.
"You will feel like that towards your friends." Mirajane said with a smile. Naruto wanted to retort that he didn't want to become attached to people here, but held his tongue. It wasn't necessary.
"So how are you going to get home? You can't leave without at least one other person." Naruto asked with slight concern. Mirajane just blinked at him a couple of times before she brought an index finger to her chin in thought.
"I'm… not sure actually. I sort of forgot that Elfman was still at home recovering from his injuries," Mirajane said awkwardly, embarrassed that she had forgotten that Elfman wasn't present, "I guess I can just walk home and hope for the best." Mirajane shrugged.
Naruto's response was immediate, "I could always, you know… walk you home?" Naruto suggested, but mentally he was pissed at himself. 'Dammit, I don't want to be attached to these people. Why do I have to be so soft hearted?' Naruto mentally cried.
Mirajane perked up at the idea, "That would be wonderful, but I wouldn't want to bother you." Mirajane said, but Naruto shook his head.
"Nope, I'm walking you home. Think of it as repaying you for injuring Elfman, which I'm still sorry for by the way." Naruto said with a smile. Once again, he cursed himself for his big, helpful mouth.
Mirajane clapped her hands together happily, "Okay then! We can leave right now!" Mirajane said cheerfully. Naruto didn't have a chance to respond as he was pulled off of his seat by a firm grip on his sleeve.
"So tell me more about yourself, Naruto?" Mirajane asked with a warm smile and a gleam of curiosity in her eyes as they walked down the dimly lit streets of Magnolia. Naruto had to admit, this place was beautiful at night.
Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He didn't get asked that very often, "Well… What do you want to know?" Naruto asked in return.
Mirajane tapped on her chin with her fingers, "Oh I don't know. Maybe something about your life as a child or some of the other places you've been to. Just give me something!" Mirajane practically demanded. Naruto jumped slightly at the small outburst before recomposing himself.
"My childhood huh? That's not exactly a topic I enjoy sharing, but whatever. I am an orphan, and was alone for a good portion of my childhood. Don't take pity on me because I don't need it. I've made peace with the fact that I had a crappy childhood a long time ago. Although I did have a few friends at the time. I spent most of my time traveling once I was old enough to care for myself." Naruto said. 'With every lie is a little bit of truth,' Naruto thought. If only his childhood was as peaceful as he had just described it.
Mirajane looked at him sadly, but remembered what Naruto had said about pity, so she didn't comment any more about Naruto's childhood. She was sure she got more information than Naruto was normally willing to share.
"I can understand a little of what you're going through. My siblings and I lost our parents early in our childhood, but we were able to find a new family within Fairy Tail." Mirajane said with a sad smile.
Naruto raised a curious eyebrow, 'Siblings? I thought she only had a brother?'
"If I may ask, who else is your sibling? I only know of Elfman." Naruto asked carefully. He could have been treading on thin ice as far as he knew.
Mirajane stopped walking for a moment to look at the sky, "I had a sister… She died a few years ago during an accident on a mission. That was the most difficult time of my life, and for Elfman's, as well as a few of the guild members that knew her quite well." Mirajane said with sorrow. She wasn't sure why she was being so open with Naruto, but it felt nice to share once in a while with a person who might understand her previous plight.
Naruto understood very well. While he had no siblings, he had lost friends and family throughout his life. His godfather, the Third Hokage, and Neji were very hard blows to take. All of the beatings and insults he received from the villagers were nothing to the emotional pain he had gone through during those times.
"I know it hurts to lose a person you love. It hurts much more than any blade or spell. I've felt that pain a few times in my life, but all you can do is live for them, which you are doing very well as far as I can see." Naruto said encouragingly.
Mirajane slowly returned her gaze to Naruto's blue eyes. She could see the sadness they have held before. Mirajane let a small smile grace her lips.
"Thank you for listening to me, Naruto. It's nice to talk like this once in a while." Mirajane said gratefully. Naruto smiled and nodded in response and gestured her to continue walking, which she did without a second thought.
After five more minutes of walking in comfortable silence, they reached Mirajane's home.
As Mirajane stood in her doorway, the light from the inside of the home giving her a radiant glow as Naruto watched her enter her home a few feet away. Before Mirajane entered her home, her eyes went wide when she realized something.
"Wait, Naruto. How are you going to get back to the guild?" Mirajane asked with concern.
"Um… by walking?" Naruto responded cheekily.
Mirajane pouted, "I mean how are you going to get home by yourself? You aren't allowed to go back to the guild by yourself." Mirajane asked, stepping out of the doorway a little bit, but still holding the door open.
"Again, I'm going to walk. I'm pretty fast, so as long as I get back to the guild quickly we shouldn't have an issue." Naruto retorted before turning to walk away.
Mirajane shuffled her feet anxiously. She didn't like the thought of anyone being in danger, especially if there was something she could do about it.
"How about you stay here for the night?" Mirajane asked. Naruto turned around to respond, and was surprised by the amount of emotion that she was emitting. Her smile was warm and welcoming, almost motherly.
Naruto actually considered the idea for a moment, but declined. "Sorry, I prefer to sleep in a secluded area. I'm not really used to sleeping under the same roof as other people." Naruto said. He was playing his role as a nomad quite well in his opinion.
Mirajane frowned at that, "Okay… but I swear if you get injured I won't be happy!" Mirajane yelled. Naruto chuckled in response.
"I'll keep that in mind." Naruto said in good humor as he jumped to the nearest roof and began his run back to the guild.
'You better not get hurt, you dummy.' Mirajane thought with a small smile while entering her house. Her first priority, to check on Elfman.
Naruto hopped from roof to roof to quickly return to the guild. He figured that his trip back would be simple and easy. Of course that wasn't the case.
As Naruto was passing a nearby park, he heard heavy footsteps several yards away. Naruto immediately stopped his running and slowly made his way towards the noise. After following the noise to the center of the park, Naruto hid himself behind a large tree and poked his head around it. What he saw made his eyes widen in surprise and anger.
Right before his eyes, three people were being pinned to a tree by tight shackles while the person performing the action was sloppily painting a symbol on their abdomens. Upon closer inspection he realized that the three people pinned to the tree were Fairy Tail members. Levy, Jet and Droy if he remembered correctly. They were all pretty nice, especially Levy, although when he started to talk to Levy a bit more, Jet and Droy got defensive for some weird reason.
But none of that mattered now. What mattered now was how he was going to handle this. He couldn't figure out what the symbol being painted on them was from his distance, but he assumed it is the Phantom Lord guild mark. The cloaked figure was most likely the Dragon Slayer he fought, since Naruto was getting the same vibes from the figure and that the figure was wearing an identical cloak to the one that the Dragon Slayer had worn before Naruto fought him.
'I could fight him right now, but then I would only have one culprit. Someone needs to show Phantom Lord that they can't do this without repercussions.' Naruto thought before an idea popped into his head, 'I could follow him back to their guild and fight the members, but that could be dangerous. Oh, what the hell! I need to do this! I can't let this go unpunished.' Naruto thought angrily. With his mind made up, he patiently waited for the figure to finish his painting. Naruto decided to give the figure a large head start for multiple reasons. One being that Naruto knows that Dragon Slayers had a good sense of smell since one of the Fairy Tail members mentioned it offhandedly as they watched Natsu brawl against other members, and two because the figure was terrible at covering his tracks. Naruto probably could have followed the Dragon Slayer the first night, but he was still unaware of most of the laws here. He didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble.
After thirty minutes of following the figure, Naruto finally smiled triumphantly when the figure made its way into an odd looking building. It was definitely imposing, Naruto figured as much from a big guild.
'Now what's the best way to go about this… the Dragon Slayer knows my face and my relation to Fairy Tail, so I shouldn't go in without a disguise. I don't want to kill unless I have to, but I need to make these people afraid of something. Maybe a transformation jutsu?' Naruto thought. Naruto just sat on the roof he was perched on for a few long minutes before an idea popped into his head. 'Oh yeah, definitely a transformation, and I know just who to be.' Naruto said as a large smirk presented itself on his lips. He made two clones to sit motionless on the roof while Naruto moved in to start his plan.
Inside the guild building, the members were cheerful and happy, why? Because they just struck a large blow against their rival guild, Fairy Tail. Gajeel was in his corner, eating his metal like he usually does. Jose, the Phantom Lord guild master approached the Dragon Slayer with a wicked smile on his purple lips.
"Great job, Gajeel! It seems that you've redeemed yourself from your previous failure." Jose congratulated. Gajeel grunted in response.
"I just underestimated that blond guy. If I ever meet him again, I won't make the same mistake." Gajeel said with confidence, but on the inside he wasn't as sure. That blue sphere that the blond had used against Gajeel was no joke, and the blond didn't even look like he was even trying.
The rest of the guild members were drinking the night away in celebration, but the sounds of cheers and merriment slowly died off as a low mist rolled in through the main door. None of the members moved an inch, almost memorized by the slowly moving mist as it continued to enter the building endlessly.
Jose stared wide eyed at the spectacle before signaling his members to be ready. Jose grabbed a radon guild member tightly. Gajeel retreated to the support beams that were near the roof, preparing for anything.
"You, go notify the rest of the Element Four. I have a bad feeling about this." Jose commanded. The member responded immediately and ran to another part of the guild building.
The rest of the mages stood battle ready, some were swaying somewhat from the amount of alcohol they had been consuming previously. As more minutes passed by most of the members were sweating nervously, the tension slowly getting to them. The mist was blocking most of their separate visions, making it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet forwards.
"Someone's been naughty…" A deep voice said, trailing off at the last word. Most of the members stood upright at the voice. It certainly wasn't something they wanted to hear in this situation.
"One of you has done a bad, bad thing..." The voice spoke once again, seemingly from all around them. Some of the members were beginning to panic and fire random magical attacks blindly.
"If one of you does a bad thing, and the rest of you celebrate it, means that all of you deserve punishment…" The voice spoke once more, but this time it was followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged along the ground. Now a few of the very weak hearted members were beginning to cry in fear. Gajeel was trying his best to pinpoint the voice, but his senses were being screwed with.
'Somehow this damn mist is messing with me.' Gajeel thought angrily.
One random member began to back up until he bumped into something solid. The member slowly turned his head. His eyes went wide and his mouth began to open, a scream threatening to escape his throat at the person before him.
"You're first. You will learn why you should fear a true demon." The tall, imposing, face-bandaged man said lowly while raising his sword high above his head.
The last thing that was heard was a terrified scream before everything went to hell for the Phantom Lord members.
I like the way I did this. This went much better than I thought, but I didn't know what else to add to the Mirajane/Naruto dialogue. So sorry for that.