Poisoned by Choice

Chapter 10: Harder and Harder

Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively

A/N: And with this the mini-arc is over. It was interesting to try this way and I think I'll add more stuff like this in the future, but nothing major for now. Also as of last update this is my first story to have over five hundred favorites and subscribes! This is a hell of a lot better than anything that I expected to get and I want to thank you all for that.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Demon/Dragon Talking"

'Demon/Dragon Thinking'

"Telepathic Conversation"

'Flashback'

Magic/Magic Item

Location/Time Change

Outside the Bandits' Cave

Ryker slowly limped his way after the two bandits that had come to retrieve him that morning. He nervously flickered his gaze between his escorts while tightly clutching the envelope in his hands. It contained all of his savings that he had left after salvaging everything he could from the wreckage and paying his staff and the mages. He barely made the required amount and after this wouldn't have a penny to his name until the next set of taxes for the town. But it would be a cold day in Hell if he stayed in Lily Town after this. He would take his family and go to the Rune Knights and report what happened, they would do something about the damned bandits.

The two bandits stopped in front of their cave and motioned for Ryker to enter first. He stepped into the darkness and became more and more nervous the deeper in he went. The remaining bandits leveled deadly stares at the short man and pointedly sharpened their weapons or displayed their magic while he passed them. Finally he reached the back of the cave and was confronted by the huge figure of Kenta. He involuntarily shrunk down to present less of a target, but Kenta's eyes found him anyways with restrained anger burning within them.

"Trash." He boomed out with clear distain. "Do you have the money?"

"Y-y-yes." Ryker squeaked out. He had never been more terrified in his life. His knees were knocking together and he was drenched with sweat despite the cool temperature inside the cave. He shakily handed out the envelope to the giant bandit leader. "H-here."

A hand reached out and snatched the envelope away from Ryker. He gave a start and looked over to the man that he hadn't seen earlier. It was a thin man in tattered brown clothes, black shoes, and was wearing a tossel cap. He had a hard face that seemed to be set in a permanent frown that was currently directed at Ryker. The envelope was quickly ripped open and the contents scanned through. His beady black eyes narrowed in anger. A fist lashed out and sent Ryker sprawling.

"What's wrong, Nero?" Kenta questioned.

"The money ain't all here." Nero rasped out. "Bastard's short."

"T-t-that can't be true!" Ryker protested while backing away on his ass. "I made sure to divide the money up correctly. It should all be there!" His voice rose in pitch while panic creeped in.

Nero began to advance on the quivering mayor when a commotion at the cave's entrance distracted him. Nero and Kenta went to investigate, the useless mayor left crying in relief.

Naruto stood out in the entrance way with a hand over each of the guards' faces. Next to him were Cana and Sanji. "Hello!" Naruto cheerfully called out. "We're looking for our employer. He appears to have given us the incorrect payment and we want to straighten things out." The thud as Naruto dropped the guards echoed around the cave. It had been fairly easy to get the drop on the pair after following Ryker from his ruined mansion.

"I'm sorry." Kenta apologized as he stepped out of the crowd. He held out the envelope that Ryker had brought with him. "It appears that we have what you're looking for. Take this and I'll allow the unprovoked attack on my men to slide."

"No can do." Cana told him. "See, we have several complaints to file to our client and need to speak to him immediately."

"I'm sorry." Kenta's voice dropped its polite tone. "But you can't see him at this time. Leave."

"No." Naruto said before spinning around and grabbing Berk's wrist then throwing him over his shoulder. "We're here to take care of some unfinished business."

Berk rolled with the throw and popped back up to his feet next to Kenta. He had been ordered to follow the men escorting Ryker from a distance in case they were followed. It had seemed far-fetched at the time, but Kenta had been right and the Fairy Tail mages that had kicked his ass yesterday showed up to follow them. He had been waiting to launch his sneak attack, but the blond must have discovered him earlier. He had underestimated the Dragon Slayer's senses and had paid for it.

The two sides began to prepare for a fight. "It appears that diplomacy has failed." Sanji commented before activating his Battle Mode.

"That's the hundred and twelfth time. Well at least we get to keep the Fairy-Tail-failed-diplomacy streak going." Cana said.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted. "Poison Dragon's Roar!" He had learned his lesson last time and was planning to stick to his ranged attacks. The trio quickly had to dodge however, when a fireball was shot at them. The poison vapors were removed and it was revealed that all of the bandits were wearing gas masks. "What the hell?!"

"Don't think that we haven't learnt our lesson, Basilisk." Berk told him. "With these masks on your poison can't touch us!"

With confidence stemming from countering Naruto's poison, the bandits charged the three mages. This proved to be nearly disastrous when a barrage of cards and kicks hit their gas masks, destroying them and allowing Naruto's poison to enter their lungs. "Wow. That was anticlimactic." Naruto commented. He had asked for more standard bandits earlier but that was just sad.

Even the bandit leaders looked embarrassed by their subordinates' actions. "Nero, make a note. After we establish a new base there will be a seminar about not being overconfident because your equipment let you survive an attack. There will also be another seminar about why bum-rushing an opponent that can use ranged magic when you are in an enclosed area is a very shitty idea."

"Yes, sir."

"Until then…" Kenta slammed his fists together and they let out a ringing noise that reverberated around the cave. "We have a fairy infestation that needs taken care of."

Cana sent out her cards to attack but they were countered when Nero launched several smaller rocks. The cards exploded in midair and the dust from the rocks mixed with the smoke to block off everyone's eyesight. Naruto was able to make his way through the cover with his heightened senses and attacked Kenta from behind. "Poison Dragon's Toxic Fist!" Instead of knocking the bandit leader over as expected, Naruto felt as if he had attempted to punch a steel pillar. 'Fuck! That broke my hand. He's way harder than that other guy was.'

Kenta then struck Naruto with a backhand that broke his jaw. "You won't take me down with a weak attack like that." He informed him before following up with a kick. Naruto ducked under it and put some distance between them.

He created a Poison Dragon's Spine and flung it at Kenta's face in an attempt to break his gas mask only for the spine to break instead. "So you're the guy that does that." He muttered with narrowed eyes. After their counter ambush the Fairy Tail mages had determined that the guy that Naruto fought had been the one that made everything harder, but it seems that it was the work of the bandit leader. This was going to be a pain. Since he had used the same magic on his gas mask then Naruto only had one move that would work and it was going to hurt like a bitch to use.

Kenta patiently waited for Naruto to attack. He used a mainly defensive style that focused more on the opponent wearing themselves out while trying to break through his Hardening Magic and then punching them with his enhanced fists. It had worked for him during his time in a mercenary guild and it would work now. He noticed Naruto rushing in low for another attack and prepared himself. The blond would have realized that his magic wouldn't hurt him and that his only option was to try and remove his mask so that he would breathe in all the poison in the air. Judging by the fact that he already knew about the hostages beforehand and with how easily his men went down, Kenta was willing to bet that it was a type of sleeping gas. If they were hit with that then it would all be over and he wouldn't get his revenge.

He was surprised when he saw that Naruto was actually planning to use a knife-hand strike to attack. Was he trying to hit a pressure point? Kenta snorted. 'Idiot. My magic prevents anything that can't break it from getting through.' And with all the time he had spent working to master it, there was very little out there that could do that. When Naruto's attack started Kenta sent out a punch to match it, but was confused for a moment. Wasn't that the hand he had broken earlier? Then their attacks met and his arm exploded in pain.

Naruto smirked as the large man feel for his trick and called out his attack. "Poison Dragon's Sharp Horn!" He felt all of his fingers break, but powered through the pain. A burst of poison traveled into Kenta's arm and exploded out of his shoulder in a purple cloud. Naruto then tried to kick the mask off, but it was too hard. He ended up using his face like a springboard and jumped back from the man. He accessed Kyubi's chakra and grimaced as his hand knit back together. He might permanently damage something if he wasn't careful. Kyubi could fix a lot, but he had warned him that there was a limit to what it could do. For now he would play the waiting game and let his poison run its course. He hadn't managed to get a lot into Kenta's system, but he estimated that it was enough, even for a man of his size.

Cana vs Nero

Cana swore as she was forced to dive out of the way of another barrage of flying rocks. This Nero guy was a real pain in the ass to fight. His version of Rock Magic seemed to allow him to control them telekinetically and he was able to spam his attack as much as he wanted compared to Cana and her limited amount of cards. She had used up most of her Explosive Cards, but that was according to her plan.

Nero was beginning to get annoyed with Cana's attacks. The explosions and dust were making it hard for him to see and he couldn't move much while using his magic. He had preemptively summoned three larger stones that floated around him in a circle to guard against any sneak attacks and had been spamming smaller rocks around the room randomly. Judging by Cana's cries he had come close several times, but hadn't managed to do anything substantial. It was irritating. He planned to solve that with his next attack. Both of his hands were held out wide and he began to pull the rocks from the walls towards him. They formed a large boulder above him that he prepared to throw the first chance he got. Narrowed eyes darted around the dust while he backed up against a wall to narrow the places Cana could attack from. Now all he had to do was wait.

Cana cursed as she saw the outline of the boulder Nero had summoned. She didn't have anything big enough to take that thing out and she didn't like her chances of advoiding it in the section of the cave she was in. Her best bet would be to take out the mage before he could finish attacking. She pulled several cards out of her bag to prepare for her next move. She had to pull this off perfectly or she would be crushed. One card was thrown at Nero's feet before being activated. "Prayer's Fountain!" Several streams of water burst forth, but Nero blocked them with his rocks. Before he could react, Cana sent a set of cards at him in an arc. "Card Volley!" They collided with his boulder and destroyed it along with his other rock shield.

"That's not enough!" Nero told her and sent forth all of the rubble from the destroyed rocks as a storm. "Die!" Cana sent forth her own set of cards into the rubble. 'Another counter.' Nero noticed. A smirk formed on his face. 'But it's no use. An explosion will just give me more rocks to work with and make her cards useless.' Nero's expectations were dashed when instead of exploding on contact like he predicted the cards cut through them all. He hastily threw up his last rock shield but they went through it as well, forcing him to physically move. He wasn't fast enough to avoid all of the cards and one card hit him in the shoulder.

Cana also didn't manage to escape unscathed and wasn't able to get out of the way from all the rocks in time. She cried out in pain while being battered by the rocks and felt something give in her leg. She looked down to see what was wrong and saw that her lower leg was bleeding pretty bad and was probably broken. "Shit!" Cana swore while looking over at Nero. If her attack hadn't worked then she was screwed. After getting a look at him she smiled. It appears that she was in luck.

Nero clutched a hand to his shoulder and hissed in pain. He hated being hurt. He was going to make that bitch pay. His attack had broken her leg so she wasn't going anywhere for now. He pulled the card out from his shoulder and was surprised to find that it was actually two cards stuck together. One of the cards seemed to be a normal playing card and the other depicted a ram with the word "sleep" above it. The card began to glow green and magic began to waft off of it. Nero's eyelids became heavy and he realized what was going on. 'Shit! She tricked… me.' He looked back at Cana and saw her with an arm outstretched before everything went dark.

Cana dropped her hand and sighed in relief after she saw Nero collapse. She had layered her Shuriken Cards over top of a variety of her other cards in the hope that she would be able to hit him with the extra cards once they got close enough. It was convenient that her Sleep Card had been the closest to him. Her other cards would have taken him out as well, but the Sleep Card worked faster. She worked her way over to the wall of the cave and propped herself against the wall with her bad leg spread out in front of her. She wouldn't be much help for the rest of the fight.

Sanji vs Berk

The flying cat landed another flurry of kicks onto Berk's Rock Armor. It shattered, but he was unable to make it past the Hardening Magic that covered his skin. Sanji swore and was forced to retreat from several rocks. This was becoming a real problem for him. He could handle the Rock Armor just fine if he concentrated his kicks on one area, but after that he didn't have enough power to break through. Unlike with the bandits he fought yesterday, he couldn't just kick Berk in the head enough to knock him out in one go. He was also running low on time for his Battle Mode.

Berk was content to wait out the rest of the fight. He had seen the limitations of the cat's transformation yesterday and he was unable to kick through Kenta's magic even if he could break through Berk's armor. All he had to do was wait and then the problem would solve itself. From what he could tell, Nero had already lost, but had managed to at least take his own opponent out of the fight. It didn't matter. Once he finished off the cat he could help Kenta with the Dragon Slayer if he needed it, which Berk doubted. He had never seen anyone managed to break through Kenta's Hardening Magic before and he doubted he ever would.

Sanji launched himself at the bandit again at an even higher speed than before. He lashed out with a spin kick and then reversed his position in midair so that instead of hitting Berk's face, he ended up hitting him in the back of the head. Sanji had noticed that Berk tended to reinforce whichever part of his Rock Armor that he was going to kick and had counted on the back to be weaker. A quick series of kicks later and he started working on his head. Berk recovered slowly, but managed to hit Sanji by sacrificing the rocks on his left arm to send the cat into the wall. He was pinned in place by the rock piercing his sleeves and struggled to get out of them to no avail as he couldn't build up the momentum needed in his current position. Berk gathered the remains of his Rock Armor and concentrated it all into his fist. "Die, you damn cat!" He roared out before slamming his fist into the wall. Berk gave off a satisfied smile before removing his arm. There was no way that he had missed the cat like that. But when he moved his hand Sanji was gone, and not in the dead way he was supposed to be. Berk looked around to try and find him, but couldn't.

Sanji floated above Berk and sighed in relief. He had managed to revert back to normal in order to slip out of his restraints and flew away before he was hit but it had been close. He was out of time with his Battle Mode again, but he had a plan to defeat him. Just because he was small didn't mean he couldn't still fight. Sanji quickly lit a cigarette and took a long drag from it before going to work. He dropped down behind Berk's head and tapped him on the back. The bandit spun around with a sweeping backhand that Sanji avoided and got right into his face. He then blew all the smoke in his mouth into Berk's eyes to blind him. While the mage swore and tried to rub his eyes, Sanji went to work on his mask. While Berk had covered the mask up with his rocks Sanji could still reach it if he did it right. He reared back his legs and began to rapidly kick where Berk's mouth should be while using his wings to push himself forwards. He was weaker outside of his Battle Mode, but Sanji could still pack a punch with his kicks if he tried. Berk was too distracted by the smoke to reinforce his armor and Sanji managed to break through it and then destroy the gas mask.

Berk tried to hold his breath when he realized his mask was broken, but Sanji blew another smoke cloud into his nose and forced the man to cough and take a deep breath. The poison in the air took care of the rest. Sanji looked down at his defeated opponent in disappointment while he smoked his cigarette. He was angry that he had been unable to defeat him by himself and had to once again use Naruto's poison to defeat someone. 'I've got to find a way to get Battle Mode to last longer.' For now he would just have to wait for Naruto to finish his fight.

Naruto vs Kenta

Kenta swore up a storm in his mind. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid! You let your guard down and the little shit got the drop on you. That's the kind of shit that can get you killed. Get your head in the game, Kenta!' He berated himself. He could feel the poison working its way through his veins. He couldn't afford to stay on the defensive anymore. The ball was in Naruto's court now and the clock was running down. He had to end this fast and get his men out and moving after killing Ryker. Otherwise their asses would end up in either the Council's or the Kingdom's prison. Ryker flared his magic and requipped a pair of spiked brass knuckles onto his fists. He hadn't had to use these in a while, but they were what had helped him earn the name, Kenta 'The Unbreakable' in Bosco. Kenta switched to a more offensive stance and charged at Naruto with a shout.

Naruto noticed the change and decided to play things safe. Chakra was pumped to his legs and he began to backpedal away from the much larger man. Kenta chased after Naruto with reckless abandon and eventually was able to back him into a corner. Naruto started channeling chakra to the rest of his body and began to bob and weave under Kenta's attacks. He just had to hold out until his poison took the man down from the inside. Time to stall. "Why are you doing this, bastard?"

"Because Ryker ruined my life and I'm here to return the favor." Kenta replied. His quick jab was barely dodged and Naruto felt his hair part from how close that attack was.

"So becoming a bandit is your solution? Brilliant plan." He mocked.

"Shut up! You're just some hired muscle. You don't know what he's done to this town! I'm doing this for Lily Town and everyone who lives under this tyrant's heel, not just for myself." Kenta shouted back. He had been forced to join the military in order to provide money for his family after his father died. He had spent years working there and then solo in a mercenary guild sending anything he made extra back to his family. And when he finally returned, he discovered that they had been dead for years and that all the money he had sent had been taken by Ryker. Only his training had kept him from finding the man and brutally murdering him. Instead he gathered up a group of people and started harassing Ryker as bandits. After he had given him the last of his money, they would have let his family go free and then kill Ryker before escaping across Fiore's borders. Then if anyone hunted them down they could claim it was a job and since they were a foreign guild nothing could be done about it. Fiore operated nearly solely on its magic guilds and thus had little laws in place for the other types, which made it relatively easy to operate in without being persecuted. It had been the perfect plan until these little shits had gotten involved and Kenta wasn't going to stand for it.

Kenta was growing frustrated with Naruto's constant dodging and knew he had to do something fast. The extra movement was causing the poison to spread faster. He was starting to slow down and he could feel the pain in his arm spreading out. It was time to take drastic measures. He had noticed that Berk and Nero had been defeated earlier, but their opponents hadn't gotten off scot-free. Abruptly he slammed one of his fists into the ground and threw up a cloud of dust that blinded Naruto. Using it as cover, Kenta rushed over to Cana with a fist drawn back. If he killed the guy's partner then he'd go into a rage and Kenta would have the upper hand again.

Cana saw Kenta approaching and threw her Thunderbolt's Fate at him only for the man to dodge it and keep coming. He threw his punch at her head and Cana closed her eyes and threw her arms in front of her face to offer some form of protection. A loud boom was heard yet she didn't feel any pain. When she opened her eyes Cana saw that Sanji had flown in at the last minute and kicked Kenta's fist hard enough that it missed her head. She looked to the side and saw that it had come close enough to have cut off some of her hair from the force behind it.

Sanji flew in the air with his face scrunched up in pain while his right leg dangled uselessly by his side. "Don't touch Cana-chan, you shitty bandit!" He threatened.

Kenta went to backhand Sanji, but was stopped from hitting the flying cat. Naruto had caught his arm in one hand and was glaring at Kenta in fury. He had activated Dragon Force and magical power was coming off of him in waves. "Don't touch my friends, you fuck." He told Kenta before clenching his hand and breaking the large man's arm.

Kenta stared at Naruto in fear. The power coming from him was tremendous, and more importantly he had broken his arm through his magic. With one hand! He had never even met anyone that could scratch him let alone break a bone. "Monster…" He stammered in fear.

Naruto leaned in close to Kenta's face with piercing red eyes. "I'm not a monster. I'm a demon. And you shouldn't try to hurt a demon's friends." He then proceeded to use his new strength to beat Kenta into a pulp. Naruto held nothing back as he slammed a flurry of poisonous jabs into Kenta's stomach over and over again, uncaring for how mangled his hands were becoming as he unloaded his poison into Kenta's body. He ended his beat-down, by snapping Kenta's knees and shattering his jaw with a vicious uppercut. When the man hit the floor with a thud Naruto stood there panting after deactivating Dragon Force with both his hands bleeding onto the floor.

His friends stared at him in shock. They had never seen Naruto get that brutal with an opponent before. He turned back to them with a tired look, but still gave them a smile to let them know he was okay. "Let's go home guys."

The Rune Knights that they had called for earlier made it to the bandit's cave a couple of hours later to arrest both Ryker and Kenta's gang. Naruto had smelled the scent of the bandits all throughout the town earlier, but hadn't realized until they had gotten back from defeating them. He knew then that the townspeople were helping the bandits and had led his team away and they had devised a plan to help Ryker and take care of the bandits in one fell swoop, while still getting the man arrested for his over taxation of the town. After explaining everything to the Rune Knights the Fairy Tail mages had gotten Cana and Sanji's legs put in casts and the rest of their minor injuries patched up before they left Lily Town. Sanji flew in the air holding some of their bags while Naruto carried the rest. Cana limped next to them on crutches while they approached the train station.

Sanji went to drop their stuff off in the luggage car and left Cana and Naruto alone at the station. Naruto looked on the train with distaste. "You sure we can't just walk back?"

Cana whacked him over the head with one of her crutches. "Yes, I'm sure you big baby." She then walked up behind him and balanced on one leg. "Now carry me."

"Carry yo-?" Naruto said only to be knocked off balance when Cana jumped onto his back. "Oi, why do I have to do this? I'm injured here." He groaned while motioning to his bandaged hands. He hadn't finished healing yet and they were still tender. Nevertheless he grabbed Cana's legs and shifted her weight so that he could hold her better.

"I'm the one that has trouble walking here. So you be my legs and I'll be your arms." She placed her head on his shoulder. "Deal?"

"Do I get a choice?" Naruto asked.

"Nope!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Fine. Deal." He relented before carrying her onto the train.

A/N: Done. That was a little harder than I thought and that last part just came to me, but I'm happy with it. Next chapter we'll catch up on what's happened with canon and get back into it. Till then, later.