Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Fairy Tail and any other anime or manga that appears in this fic.
Last Time:
He could not afford to put himself in the spotlight at the moment. He wasn't ready for that kind of attention just yet. He blinked as he deliberately stopped himself from derailing the object, which was soon embedded within Elfman's chest.
'Sorry about that Elfman but unfortunately, Makarov and I can't allow any more of my abilities to be discovered.'
As Elfman immediately sank to his knees and cried out in pain, Naruto sensed the pink energy of whatever it was in Elfman turn black and evil. Then all hell broke loose.
Chapter 7: Take Over Troubles-Part 2
The explosion of highly concentrated magic was not what Naruto was expecting. Instead of a huge flare of sinisterly coloured energy to expel itself from Elfman, the 'explosion' was simply a rather violent transformation. Sure there was a dramatic spike in Elfman's magical output and a transformation of said energy from 'friendly yet fierce' to 'malevolent and angry', but…Naruto was surprisingly disappointed.
The Juubi, at the moment of its transformation, evolved from its grotesquely bloated, round body with spiky protrusions growing out of its back to a lean, misshapen monster with elongated body proportions, an emaciated twisting neck, its tails ending in hands and its head having the ear on its right side, the mouth on the left side and eye in the middle. It certainly wasn't an improvement but, at the very least, it was dramatic.
Come to think of it, most transformations undergone by Shinobi were dramatic. Orochimaru's 'Yamata no Jutsu (Eight Branches Technique)' transformed him into a giant white serpent bigger than Manda with eight heads and eight tails. Hoshigaki Kisame's fusion with Samehada turned him into a huge shark-man, complete with fins, webbed hands and gills. Jinchuriki turned into chakra beings by sacrificing their skin and considerable blood…Elfman's transformation just didn't seem impressive to Naruto. Of course, his standards were different from everyone else, so some leeway had to be given.
The transformation began with Elman's muscled arms doubling in mass spontaneously. The morphing was unnatural, looking as though thingsin had made their way within his body and were forcing his anatomy to expand in order to make room for itself. A similar event was taking place within his legs; they were steadily bulking up, taking on the appearance of a feline. Judging by the large paws that were forming in place of his feet, it seemed like those of big cats. His spiky white hair turned jet-black and his nails sharpened to inch-long claws that were immediately buried within the earth as his body convulsed in pain.
Naraku's mocking laughter forced Naruto to remove his eyes from Elfman's transformation. The assassin Mage was already backing away, leaving the Lizardmen he had brought to confront Naruto. "My, my, the old man wasn't kidding when he said it would be potent. To think that only a shard of the Demon Lacrima would be enough to corrupt him." Naraku seemed to pause in thought, his chuckles silent for a moment before they resumed with greater enthusiasm. "Oh, I see."
Naruto shifted into a ready stance as he took a few steps back to keep both Naraku and Elfman in his sights. With Elfman in this state, he didn't feel like exposing his back towards him. If he was attacked he would be forced to reveal some of his skills. "What the hell did you do to him?" He growled, channeling a good amount of chakra into Samehada. "And what the heck is a Demon Lacrima?"
As expected by now, Naraku just released some more dramatic chuckles that echoed in the area. "Do you really expect me to tell you? Such stupid naivety. If you want to find answers, search for them yourself." He said as he turned his back to Naruto, not deeming him dangerous at the moment. "As to what I did to him," Naraku's ruby eyes turned to gaze into Naruto's crimson slit eyes, smoldering with a fire that rivaled those of Obito and Kisame. Naruto could see the substantial amount of power that Naraku's eyes exuded; they were the eyes of someone who had the power to ensure that their goals were achieved.
In some ways, they resembled his own eyes. The similarities were few , but they existed. The differences on the other hand, were distinctly obvious. "I suppose you could say that I awakened his true instincts." Naraku smirked at the creeping irritation in Naruto's eyes. "Farewell, little Fairy. Pray that we don't meet again…for the next time will be your last." With that said, a purple miasma cloud was expelled from within his cloak that hid his form entirely from Naruto…or so he thought.
Naruto could see his adversary hide within the foliage ten meters away from them. He grimaced at the thought of fighting someone as calculating and cunning as Orochimaru again. 'Samehada, do you mind eating that Demon Lacrima thing in Elfman?'
Samehada was silent for a moment before she gave her answer. "Theoretically, I should be able to do so. I'm not sure how long it will take, but I'm positive that I can consume at least half of the foreign 'magic' in his body."
Naruto nodded minutely and dropped her to the ground just as the Lizardmen finally grew impatient and charged at him. "Do it." He whispered to his blade.
Samehada's bandages came undone as she used the chakra boost from Naruto to unleash her true self. The scales that were usually hidden from sight and keeping her in a sword form literally exploded into view and her large, demented mouth was exposed for all to see. Naruto knew the risk involved in his gamble-allowing Naraku to get even a glimpse of Samehada's abilities was not appealing to Naruto. However, all that Naraku would see would be her energy absorption talents; if he found those useful, since Naruto wasn't sure if there was any Magic that could replicate the effect, Samehada would not allow anyone but him to wield her.
Those spiky barbs of hers freakin' hurt. They fucking hurt like hell.
Despite the lack of limbs to allow movement, Samehada easily slithered through the approaching Lizardmen, who ignored her in favor of Naruto for some reason. Reaching the transforming boy, she sank her serrated fangs into his flesh and began to shave off the energy being expelled from his body.
Meanwhile, Naruto had already slid into the Hyuuga taijutsu style and waited patiently for the nearest creature to engage him. As they neared him, shouting out garbled war cries, he let his inquisitive mind get to work analyzing their speed and evaluating their reflexes. When the first one attacked with a magically-enhanced roundhouse kick, Naruto tilted his body to the side and cleanly avoided the attack.
Whilst the Lizardman was still in the process of completing its rotation, Naruto had already landed four lightning fast taps to its outstretched leg. Having the skills of Hyuuga Hiashi, Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata made it possible for him to target four vital joints that caused the ligaments supporting the bone to collapse. As a result, the bone would suddenly and painfully slide out of its framework and effectively cripple his opponents.
Not even bothering to pay attention to the cries of the Lizardman as it landed heavily on the wounded limb, Naruto rushed towards the next batch. Their strikes were good, fast and co-ordinated such that Naruto mused that any other person would have suffered a bruise or so from them. Shifting his body at the last possible moment to avoid their blows, Naruto easily kept dodging their attacks and constantly forcing them to overextend themselves.
After one particular opportunity arose, Naruto struck with a palm strike that literally liquidated that Lizardman's heart. Sensing one approaching from behind, Naruto seamlessly switched from Jyuuken to Goken, if only for the moment, and slammed his left foot right in the creature's lung. There was a loud cracking sound that reported the breakage of the Lizardman's ribcage.
Switching back to Jyuuken form, Naruto shot a quick glance towards Elfman and let out a silent relieved sigh as he saw the changes steadily being reversed. 'I have to finish this quickly and deal with the puppeteer.' He shifted into the required stance for the 'Hakke Rokujuuyon Sho (Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)' when he sensed a huge spike of energy approaching at high speeds.
'What the-'
"Darkness Stream!"
A large Magic seal appeared directly underneath the remaining Lizardmen. Multiple tendrils of darkness burst forth and enveloped them all. Mirajane landed with the force of a raging bull and struck her hands in front of the darkness prison. "Evil Spark!" Channeling a decent amount of magic into her hands, she thrust them towards their prison and released the electricity that had been building up.
-With Naraku-
The Daiyoukai of Death's Head Caucus sat atop a tree in the distance as he watched the blond mage take on his Lizardmen. The boy was skilled, very skilled in hand-to-hand combat if the display he had just seen was any indication of his ability. Naraku estimated the boy to be an expert in unarmed combat; he moved with the grace and fluidity of someone who spent a great deal of time training and his physical strength was indeed impressive for someone of his age. However, the 13 year old was no Master; he had a few holes in his stance and his reflexes needed some work.
On the other hand, his weapon was a most intriguing sword he had ever seen. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he swiveled his head to better look at it. 'Hmmm…it has the ability to absorb magic? That certainly would be useful against certain individuals.' Unfortunately, he didn't have any other information on the sword and was pressed for time; had those factors been negated, he would have tried to attain the blade. 'No matter. There will always be another time to seize that blade.'
He smirked as he felt the other Strauss sibling heading towards their location. 'So little Mira finally appears…now that I have a rough estimate of her capability, its time I took my leave.' He hopped off the tree branch and landed on the forest floor. 'But first,' he drew power from another Demon Lacrima shard and focused. 'I should leave them one final challenge.'
A purple magic seal appeared in the air before him and Naraku cast his spell. "Living Magic: Creation."
-With Naruto and Mirajane-
As the dust cloud whipped up by Mirajane's spell died down, Naruto finally got a good look at her new appearance. Her eyes had become darker and her eyelashes longer, with a dark, thin marking in a light zigzag-style crossing her right eye vertically; similar markings were present above her right breast and on both of her bare thighs. Her hair was wilder, jutting upwards and getting curlier, with the front ponytail growing longer, and her ears enlarged, extending backwards and gaining pointed edges, bearing resemblance to those of elves. He could see she had also gained sharp canine teeth, and her lips covered in dark lipstick. Her forearms and hands received noticeable changes, becoming covered in scales, and each sprouting a fin-like protrusion on its outer side. She also grew a large, stocky tail, seemingly made of metal plates or scales, getting smaller and smaller near its end. Her clothes also changed; her outfit was replaced by a dark, skimpy one-piece suit revealing her arms and legs, which was open on the front and the back, exposing most of her belly, wide cleavage and upper back too. Such cloth had lighter-colored edges taking on spiky shapes, and her similarly spiky collar was tied around the neck by a cravat tie. Her shoulders were tied in some thin belts protruding from her one-piece suit, and her feet were covered by matching, high-heeled thigh-high boots, which were decorated by lighter motifs on their upper parts, taking on the shapes of jagged blades pointing downwards on the front of her legs, and on the lower parts, in correspondence to her ankles and feet. She also donned a pair of gauntlets covering the back parts of her transformed arms.
Most importantly though, was the fact that she looked several years older. If he had to estimate, she looked to be around 19 years. A goofy grin settled on his face. 'I think I'm gonna have very pleasant dreams tonight.'
Mirajane scowled heavily at the unconscious Lizardmen at her feet before she bounded towards Elfman, worry and concern shining in her eyes. As she neared his downed form, she caught sight of Samehada still feasting on the last traces of tainted magic in his body. Assuming the worst, she cried out to her younger brother. "Elfman! Wake up!"
Samehada took that as her cue to leave and she disengaged her fangs from his body, dropping him none too gently on the floor. He immediately began coughing violently, spewing out trace bits of saliva whilst he gingerly pushed himself up. By that time, Mirajane had already reverted back to her human form and was soothingly rubbing his back to try and ease his discomfort.
'Samehada, come. It's time we returned.' Slithering back towards her master, the sentient blade found herself being picked up by the white-haired female.
Mirajane glared at the strange thing she was holding. Whatever had happened to her brother was surely due to this thing's actions and she was determined to pound it into oblivion for harming her brother. "What the hell is this-Fuck, that hurts!"
Samehada's deadly barbs made their debut, becoming well acquainted with the inner workings of Mirajane's left hand. They struck deep, probably going through her entire palm and out like a hot knife going through butter. Dropping the handle, Mirajane winced as the barbs were pulled out of her palms. 'Great…just fucking great.'
To be fair, she was low on magic and exhausted from using her Take-Over spell. Satan Soul took a great deal of effort from her to activate and maintain, making it extremely taxing for her to use it more than twice in a day at her current levels. Add the fact that her hands were seriously injured and in no condition to defend herself, she felt pretty justified in swearing loudly at nothing in particular.
Naruto shook his head at her antics and strode towards her downed form. By now, Elfman was able to stagger to his feet and also made his way towards his sister. "Big sis, what happened to you?" He questioned as he noticed the mess that was her hand. His eyes narrowed and his tone grew angrier. "Who did this to you? I'll teach him what happens when he messes with us!"
"Um…" Mirajane and Elfman whipped their heads to see Naruto holding Samehada in his hands and scratching his head in a sheepish manner. "Do you mind waiting until I explain before you act?"
Elfman hesitated for a moment before nodding as Mirajane just shrugged. Naruto took his cue and set Samehada on the ground in front of them. "Samehada is a sentient blade that recently took a liking to me. Since then, all others who try to wield her end up paying for it," he wrinkled his nose at Mirajane's hand. "Usually by blood. I should have told you about it but I didn't think that situation would occur. That and I don't really know you guys that well. Now, why don't I bandage Mira-chan's hand and head back to the town?"
Elfman looked like he was about to say something but was cut off by Mirajane. "Hold up. First of all, why was your weird sword munching on Elfman in the first place? Secondly, why were you guys attacked by all those Lizardmen?"
"Well, Elfman and I happened to run into a member of the Assassination Guild Death's Head Caucus. His name was Naraku-"
"Wait, you met the Daiyoukai of Death's Head Caucus?" Mirajane interrupted with wide eyes. Naraku was an infamous member within that Guild for completing over 300 assassination requests. If she were to compare him to Fairy Tail's standards, he was most likely somewhere around the level of Gildarts Clive. Not a reassuring thought.
"Yeah…he brought the Lizardmen with him and managed to stab Elfman with something he called a 'Demon Lacrima shard'. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Seeing their confusion, Naruto sighed once more. "Figures he would use something extremely rare or at the very least, not well known. I'm guessing you felt that change in Elfman's magic energy?" He asked.
Mirajane nodded as Naruto settled down to a crouch and began bandaging her hands using those of Samehada. "Yeah, I just finished dealing with the Gorians in the Northern Sector when I first felt it." She replied.
Naruto nodded as he continued his tale, Elfman also settling into a crouch to listen to what had occurred. "He thrust the shard inside Elfman; it was way too fast for either of us to do anything to stop it." Well, that wasn't true but some falsifying was necessary for his future plans. "After that, Elfman began transforming into something and Naraku left. He probably expected those Lizardmen to take both of us down. Thanks for the save, by the way."
She just shrugged and averted her eyes away, a very light dusting of pink on her cheeks. "Don't mention it. You probably could have handled them on your own."
Naruto shook his head. "I still offer my thanks; any help, no matter how large or small, should be rewarded with gratitude."
Elfman jumped into the conversation. "So why was your sword attacking me? I don't think I was going after you." He puzzled, looking comedic with his confused expression.
"Since the shard was infusing your body with its own magic, I had the idea of Samehada feeding on that tainted magic to bleed it dry. Even if it contained a large amount of energy, Samehada would shave that amount faster than it would be released into you." With that, Naruto finished bandaging Mirajane's left hand and rose to his feet. Dusting off his pants, he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the appearance of an extremely large purple magic seal in the air.
"What the f-"
"RRWAAAARRGGGHH!" Like a hologram being projected, a creature appeared from within the seal. It was twice as big as Elfman with large long arms, sprouting sharp claws, and covered in thick fur, with its abdominal and pectorals prominent in the middle. Its hair took on a mane-like appearance that reached the back of its knees, its ears and canine teeth become pointed, and it had a pair of striped horns pointing upwards, starting from a plate on its forehead. Its legs, much smaller in comparison to its large arms and torso, grew dark hooves, and also gained a pair of protrusions sprouting from their shoulders, similar in appearance to its horns.
Hovering in the air beside the creature was Naraku himself. He gave the three of them a cheeky little wave before disappearing in a blur of motion.
The monster roared once more before it started bearing down upon them with surprising speed. Naruto cursed before he scooped Mirajane with his left arm and grabbing Elfman with his right. Channeling chakra into his feet, Naruto jumped out of the creature's path and landed several feet away with no effort.
Naraku was gone; Naruto couldn't sense his magic nearby and it wasn't possible to fool his new otherworldly senses. He could finish this quickly with Ninjutsu but Mirajane and Elfman were around; what would be the best thing to do?
He turned to Mirajane. "You wouldn't happen to have any ideas to take that thing down, would you?" He asked.
"Knock it unconscious and I can handle the rest." Surprisingly, it was Elfman who spoke up. His eyes were hard and unflinching as if he was daring Naruto to disagree with his idea.
"No, Elfman! You can't perform the Full Body Take-Over just yet! You'll end up being overtaken by it!" Mirajane glared at her brother, unwilling to let him go through with his plans.
Naruto arched a brow despite keeping his eyes on the charging creature. "Is there a problem with Elfman's Take-Over?" He leaped away from the beast's furious dash, curious as to why it didn't try using its arms whenever he jumped away. 'It's probably operating on its base instincts and can't utelise its limbs to their full effect.'
Landing smoothly, Naruto decided to give his own input. "Mirajane, perhaps we should attempt Elfman's idea." He cut off her imminent objections with a well-timed cough. "I know you care about your brother's wellbeing, but Elfman knows the risks and wants believes he can overcome them. I cannot say for sure, but his idea is the best we've got."
"But-" She protested weakly.
"If something does happen to him, you'll be there to help him through it. Believe in him." He set Elfman down and gave him an appraising look. "He is your brother, after all."
Elfman nodded his head in thanks as he began to gather the amount of magic necessary for his plan. "Thank you, Naruto-san. Hearing such words from a real man makes me strive to do better than before."
Naruto shook his head in amusement. "So all I have to do is knock it out?" He questioned as he began bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Elfman's nod was all the confirmation he needed. With another burst of chakra, he was halfway towards the monster, which was also on its third charge attempt. Seeing that his eyes would be hidden from their view, Naruto willed his Byakugan to appear. His eyes transformed from their usual red slits to white ones, with a tinge of pale lavender. Stopping five feet away from the charging beast, Naruto settled in the Jyuuken stance for the second time in the day.
"You are within my range…" He waited patiently for the beast to approach him, nostalgia flitting through his mind. In his eyes, the monster was replaced by the image of the old Uzumaki Naruto. It amused him greatly at how ironic the situation was; he and the beast had taken the roles of Neji and Naruto respectively. "Now…like back then…"
The beast was less than a meter away when Naruto finally moved. "Hakke…Ni Sho (Eight Trigrams: Two Palms)!" Two consecutive strikes stopped it cold in its tracks.
"Yon Sho (Four Palms)!" Another two strikes found their marks on the beasts flesh, making the total count four strikes.
"Hachi Sho (Eight Palms)!"
"Jū Roku Sho (Sixteen Palms)!"
"San-Jū Ni Sho (Thirty Two Palms)!"
Blow upon blow rained upon the creature with unerring precision and speed, afterimages forming and further enhancing the illusion of Naruto growing arms to attack it. Finally nearing the end of his technique, Naruto landed the final blow and walked past the frozen beast with his hands in his pockets. When he stood back to back with the creature, he silently finished the name of the technique. 'Hakke Rokujūyon Sho (Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms).'
As though a silent trigger, the beast slammed unto the ground in blissful unconsciousness.
In no time at all, the sounds of footsteps announced Elfman's approach. Turning to face the youth, Naruto let out a chuckle at the awestruck face Elfman had. "Not that I mind you basking in the awesomeness that is me, but don't you have a job to do?"
Elfman grew serious and knelt beside the unconscious beast and concentrated. "Take Over!" A bright light began to radiate off Elfman as he absorbed and copied the power of the Beast. Naruto watched with interest at the display whilst Mirajane looked on in hope and concern. The light grew brighter as Elfman began to grow taller and more muscular. When the light finally died down there was Elfman in the Beasts form, the only difference being the white hair and tattered pants.
"E-Elfman?" Mira called gently. "Elfman do you hear me?" Elfman looked down at his sister and their third teammate before a smile made its way onto the Takeover mage.
"I knew I could do it." he said grinning happily.
Naruto tilted his head. "So long as you believe in yourself, you can achieve whatever goal you set your sights on." Despite his words, he had already activated his Sharingan in the likely outcome that Elfman lost control of the beast. Taking chances was not something he took lightly.
Mirajane wrapped her arms around Elfman and let out a relieved sigh. "I was afraid you weren't going to make it. What you did was very reckless and could have easily blown up in your face. Don't ever scare me like that again, you hear me?"
Elfman chuckled. "Sure thing. Now I can finally be as strong as everyone else an-" He stopped mid sentence as he dropped to one knee and began clutching his head. He began to thrash around and let out a beastly roar that sounded throughout the forest.
Naruto grit his teeth and made his choice. 'I'll have to reveal my Sharingan to Mira-chan; she's already seen me subdue Acnologia and we are the only ones here.' As Mirajane backed away from her deranged brother, Naruto strode forwards and locked eyes with Beast Elfman.
The Sharingan's final commonly-used ability is capable of inducing a unique brand of hypnosis that involves suggesting actions and thoughts to the opponent through genjutsu cast by simple eye contact between both parties. As an experienced user of the Sharingan and having the wealth of experience from the strongest Uchiha in history as well as insights into its weaknesses from other shinobi, it was child's play for Naruto to suppress the consciousness of the beast within Elfman.
Within the space of a second, Elfman's bestial eyes gained their human awareness and he took a step back as he looked at Naruto in a new light. "You…you managed to subjugate the beast."
Mirajane was also in a similar state of shock. It was as though each time Naruto revealed something about himself, instead of providing answers, it drew up new questions that left her more than a little confused. "Naruto-kun…what happened? What did you just do?"
For a moment, Naruto gave no response and the fringe of his hair covered his eyes. "What I'm about to tell you is a secret that Master Makarov and I want to keep for a while longer. If you want to know…" He gazed at them with his Sharingan rotating hypnotically, pulsating with power and authority. "You must promise to never reveal this without mine or Master's permission."
Seeing them nod solemnly, Naruto began to talk.
A/N: Whew! Aaaaanddd DONE!
I know I said I would work on 'Saiyan Vizard' but this has been on my mind for some time and I wanted to get it out before I began the next chapter. As such, the deadline for 'Saiyan Vizard' has been postponed to the 10th of April.
Naruto did not bring out any shuriken, kunai or ninja tool whatsoever because he has them sealed on himself. Unsealing them in the fight would just be drawing even more attention to himself. To the reviewer who said Naruto would not let his friends get hurt…that is not the same Naruto I'm trying to portray. This Naruto doesn't trust easily; he may be friendly and helpful, but unless he has actually worked with the person or crossed fists with them, he won't find it that hard to manipulate them to his advantage.
Mirajane at the moment is a lot weaker than her S-Class self because she hasn't gotten there yet. She made S-Class when she was 16, three years away from this point. With training from Naruto, its possible that she could make S-Class the same time Erza did.
Just to let you know, Naruto isn't going to be a rule-breaker but he won't be a goody two-shoes. If he can get something done without being caught, you'll definitely see him do it. One example would be against Phantom Lord which you will see when it happens.
Any thoughts on Elfman learning to control the beast from Naruto? PM your opinions to me. The Demon Lacrima thing is something similar to the Shikon no Tama and more will be elaborated in the next few chapters. Naraku doesn't really use Living Magic; it's a magic that he can only use when he has the shard with him.
MaelstromBankai.
