Ninja Tail
In this chapter, Team Natsu (er, Team Naruto) is going to head towards Phanta Claws's factory in order to stop him from ruining Christmas...but it's not going to be a simple matter of punching him in the stomach and moving on with it. Otherwise this chapter wouldn't be very long...
And of course, Lucy, Natsu and Team 8 (sans Hinata, who oddly enough is part of the aforementioned team) are going to continue battling the pirates...and don't worry...they're not going to end up as zombies because the treasure is cursed...this is the world of ninja we're speaking of, not the world of magic.
Also, Chiyoye is going to show up again...in case you haven't figured it out yet, she's up to no good.
Chapter 10: Holiday Hijinxs
Deciding to take a break from working on the interdimensional portal (which thankfully, she would be able to get operating again soon), Levy decided to read a book.
In this case, it was about Fairy Tail's history.
She had heard that more Fairy Tail recruits had disappeared...she was really starting to get rather worried. She hoped that the book would get her mind off of it.
She in particular was looking forward about reading about how Fairy Tail came to be.
"It's a bit hard to believe that we weren't nearly as big of a guild as we were today...but I suppose we all have to start somewhere." spoke the leader of Team Shadow Gear.
"Do we now?" inquired a voice.
Curious, Levy looked around, and noticed that Chiyoye was standing a few feet away from her, much to her surprise.
"Chiyoye! You scared me!" exclaimed the bookworm.
"My apologies." answered the mage.
Levy immediately noticed that Fairy Tail's guild mark had been placed right over Chiyoye's forehead.
"So, is there anything you wanted me to help you with? In about half an hour from now I need to go see my teammates...they say that they wanted my help with something." asked Levy curiously.
"Oh, I just wanted to know what was behind that door." explained Chiyoye.
"Hmm?" inquired the mage.
Curious, the leader of Team Shadow Gear noticed that the mage was referring to the classified door not too far from where was sitting.
"Er, I'm afraid you can't go behind that door. Only S-Class Mages are allowed in there." explained Levy.
"Are they now?" inquired Chiyoye.
"Yes...the spellbooks inside that room were entrusted to us by the Magic Council themselves. They said that they would be dangerous if they ended up in the wrong hands...why do you ask?" asked the 17-year old.
"Oh, I was just wondering." answered the recruit.
"To be honest, our guildmaster assigned me as the leader of Team Shadow Gear...but he's still hesitant to let me in there...said that there were some books he didn't want anyone in this guild to have...not even Erza." explained Levy.
"Well, I'll be seeing you then..." nodded Chiyoye as she left the library.
"Hmm..." questioned the leader of Shadow Gear. Was she hiding something from her?
Shrugging, she decided to continue reading her book.
"You know...it's funny...our interdimensional portal happens to be the exact same color as our guild mark...what a coincidence." noted Levy.
Meanwhile...
Unfortunately for Naruto and his friends, they had attracted an attention of a pack of wolves.
"I wonder why the wildlife keeps trying to kill us..." noted the genin.
"First the tiger, and now this..." questioned Erza.
"I'm starting to wish that my partner Kiba was here...he knows canines like the back of his hand." noted Hinata.
"Does he now?" inquired Gray.
Immediately, one of the canines bit Naruto in the hand.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the ninja.
"At this rate I'm going to get my shirt ripped off again..." thought the genin.
Fortunately, it appeared that the wolves weren't going to do them much harm...considering the fact that Hinata was summoning a flame barrier to protect them from their fangs.
"There...let's see them jump over that..." answered the kunoichi.
Sure enough, most of the wolves weren't willing to try doing so.
"Good thinking, Hinata." noted Gray.
"Yes...it looks like they're retreating." nodded Erza.
"Oddly they seem rather worried about something..." noted Naruto.
Suddenly, they began to hear the sounds of sleigh bells ringing.
"Huh? Is Phanta here?" inquired the genin.
Curious, Hinata used her Byakugan to see if Phanta Claws was indeed coming.
However, as it turns out, it was simply some of his reindeer.
"He's not here Naruto. Just his reindeer." explained the kunoichi.
"Aww..." complained Naruto.
Curious, Hinata noticed that one of the reindeers had a rather peculiar-looking nose. It appeared to be...glowing.
"Hmm?" inquired the kunoichi.
Taking a closer look, Hinata discovered that the reindeer was charging for an attack.
"Everybody get down! Everybody get down!" warned Hinata.
Immediately, Erza and Gray took cover. Unfortunately, it appeared that Naruto had a bit of trouble catching on.
"I don't recall this being a dance floor..." questioned the genin.
Getting a bit...desperate, Hinata tackled Naruto to the ground.
It was not a moment too soon, as the shiny-nosed reindeer immediately shot a laser beam at the foursome.
"Thanks for warning us..." noted Gray.
"What kind of reindeer is that?!" bellowed Naruto.
"According to the mission guide, he is known as Rudolf the Laser-Shooting Reindeer...the other reindeer wouldn't let him play in their reindeer games because of his nose...so he began to violently kill them." explained Erza.
"That's rather petty, don't you think?" questioned Hinata.
"Yeah...it was specifically why he was chosen by Phanta to guide his sleigh...well, that, and the fact that he can shoot lasers out of his nose." continued the knight.
Sure enough, Rudolf was getting ready for another round of lasers...but thankfully our heroes were prepared this time.
However, he wasn't alone. Immediately, reindeer began to fly over the fire barrier.
"Oh, that's right...they can fly, can't they?" inquired Gray.
"Yes, they can." nodded Erza.
Immediately, the reindeer began to attack our heroes, hoping to devour their flesh.
"I can't believe Phanta Claws would use these ferocious creatures just to drive his sleigh..." noted Naruto.
"He's a psychopath." nodded Erza.
Sure enough, one of the reindeer tried to take a bite out of Gray's arm...who found himself being frozen for his trouble.
"Who would have thought that Christmas Eve was going to be such a nightmare?" questioned the ice mage.
"I know..." nodded Hinata.
More reindeer appeared...by the looks of it they were trying to trample them.
"Keep your distance!" warned Erza.
Curious, Naruto decided to see if he could summon anything that would give them an edge against man-eating reindeer.
Eventually, he came across a key that had the crest of the ram on it. Much like Aquarius's key, it happened to be golden.
"Here goes nothing." noted the genin.
Immediately, Aries appeared in a burst of yellow light.
"Greetings!" exclaimed Naruto.
Aries immediately noticed the man-eating reindeer looking at her hungrily. Apparently they were in the mood for lamb chops.
"Are you sure that I can take these reindeer on? They look rather...vicious." questioned the sheep.
"I'm starting to feel a strange sense of deja vu..." noted Hinata.
"Of course you can! You're a summon spirit!" exclaimed the genin.
"OK...I'll give it a shot. Wish me luck..." answered the ram spirit.
Immediately, Aries used her Wool Bomb technique, which utterly devastated the reindeer. She immediately let out a sigh of relief.
"Will you help us defeat Phanta Claws?" inquired Naruto.
"Who is Phanta Claws?" inquired the ram spirit curiously.
"A ferocious monster...who happens to look somewhat like Santa." answered the genin.
"Sorry, I can't do it." answered the spirit.
"Very well..." sighed Naruto as he recalled his summon. It looks like he was going to have to use another summon spirit if he wanted to continue fighting Phanta Claws.
Unfortunately, it appeared that Rudolf was now going to deal with them himself. He immediately flew over the fire barrier and begin to fire a barrage of laser beams at them.
"Yeowch!" exclaimed Gray. Those lasers burned his skin.
"Ugh..." murmured Hinata. That was one tough reindeer.
Oddly enough, Rudolf happened to remind her of somebody that she knew...though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
At that very moment, the laser-firing reindeer began to charge up another laser.
However, this time Erza was prepared.
"Let's see how he likes a shield with a reflective surface..." said the knight in shining armor.
Immediately, she used her shield to deflect the laser right back at Rudolf...
...who collapsed on the floor in a heap.
"I guess he won't be bothering us anymore." noted Naruto.
"Let's keep going." agreed Gray.
Immediately, the foursome continued to Phanta's Factory.
Meanwhile...
"Yer no match for me crew, ye landlubbers!" bellowed Captain Bloodbeard as he drew his sword.
"We're not letting you take our ship!" exclaimed Kiba.
"Arf!" bellowed Akamaru.
"Why does he keep calling us landlubbers?" asked Lucy curiously.
"He sure loves saying that word..." noted Shino.
"I'm scared!" bellowed Natsu.
"To be honest, we all are at some level. They're total lunatics." nodded the summoner mage.
"Attack!" bellowed the pirate captain.
Immediately, the pirates began to swing their swords at the crew. In retaliation, Shino began attacking the pirates with his bugs.
"This is worse than when we got scurvy!" bellowed one of the pirates.
"Get them off me! Get off!" exclaimed another pirate.
"I normally use those bugs for espionage...but since we're under attack by bloodthirsty criminals..." noted Shino.
At that very moment, Captain Bloodbeard lunged towards Kiba.
Thankfully, Akamaru stopped him by biting him into his right leg...as his left leg was a pegleg.
"Yeowch! Get him, Patchy!" screamed the captain.
At that very moment, a parrot began attacking Akamaru, who began to howl. The bird was surprisingly ferocious.
Realizing that her friends (both old and new) needed her help, Lucy began to summon animals to attack the pirates.
In this case, they were a pack of sea lions.
"Yarr! What in Davy Jones' locker?!" screamed the pirates as the sea lions began to attack them.
Oddly enough, the sea lions were bouncing the pirates around on their noses.
"Well, that should keep them busy..." noted Lucy.
However, at that very moment, a pirate with thick, bulging muscles (who may or may not have been on steroids) grabbed the summoner mage so that she couldn't move.
"Let go of me, you pervert!" screamed the kunoichi.
"Hahaha!" laughed the pirate.
Fortunately for Lucy, she always had a certain fire mage to help her out whenever she ended up in terrible situations...
...or did she?
However, as it turned out, Natsu was cowering in fear.
"If the big fish don't give me, the sea will! They're going to make me walk the plank for sure!" bellowed the fire mage.
"Natsu...um, can you do me a favor? This pirate is kind of...squeezing the breath out of me." asked Lucy curiously.
"But he'll beat me up!" exclaimed Natsu.
"You're one of our best mages...a measly pirate shouldn't be a match for you!" answered the summoner mage.
"Are you sure?" asked the fire mage.
Lucy nodded.
His hands trembling, Natsu punched the pirate in the face.
"Aargh!" screamed the raider.
Naturally, this freed the summoner mage from his iron grip.
"Thanks..." answered Lucy.
Natsu returned to cowering in fear, causing the kunoichi to sigh.
Fortunately for the quartet, it appeared that the pirates had decided to retreat for the time being using their emergency lifeboats.
"We'll be back later, ye landlubbers!" exclaimed Captain Bloodbeard.
"I'm getting tired of you calling me that." answered Lucy.
Sure enough, Patchy the Parrot returned to his master once more.
"How long do you think they'll be gone?" inquired Kiba.
"They might be planning on returning once they're learned where they can locate the treasure." suggested Shino.
"I see..." nodded Lucy.
"We had better make sure we're ready then." nodded Kiba.
"Ruff!" agreed Akamaru.
"Right...of course..." nodded Natsu.
Meanwhile...
"Well, this is the factory...it's even scarier than it was in the picture that Ebemener Scourge gave us..." spoke Naruto.
"Yes, I know..." nodded Hinata.
Sure enough, there was a large amount of smoke coming out from the pipes in the chimney.
"Not doing favors for the environment, now is it?" questioned Erza.
"We might want to get an umbrella in case they're acid rain." nodded Gray.
"Say, do you hear something?" asked Naruto curiously.
At that very moment, Frosty the Mankiller jumped down in front of them.
Immediately, he let out a roar, causing the teenage ninja to gasp.
"It's Frosty the Mankiller!" screamed the genin.
Hinata raised an eyebrow.
"Does he kill women too?" inquired the kunoichi.
Hinata's question was answered when Frosty tried to rip her face off.
"Sheesh." thought the Hyuga clan member.
Unfortunately, Frosty the Mankiller was not alone. Evil snowmen began to pop out of the ground.
"I wish we had a snowblower right about now. To think I built some of these when I was a child..." noted Gray.
"Talk about irony." agreed Erza.
Immediately, the evil snowmen began to attack the foursome.
"Who would have thought that snowballs would be so painful?" questioned Naruto as he began to duck and cover.
Fortunately, Hinata was able to melt the snowmen...but more of them kept on coming.
Curious, she began to wonder if she should try attacking Frosty directly. He was the snowman summoning them, after all.
Unfortunately, much to her surprise, her fire attacks didn't seem to be harming him much. He simply used the snow around him to heal himself whenever he found himself wounded.
"This is becoming a war of attrition..." noted Erza as she continued cutting through the snowmen.
Suddenly, Hinata noticed that Frosty was wearing what appeared to be a magical hat. Maybe she should try attacking there?
It seemed as good of an idea as any, as her friends were rapidly being overwhelmed by the snowmen. Naruto was running away from a snowman driving a zamboni, Gray was (strangely enough) being terrorized by a snowman with a snowblower, and last but not least, Erza was being run over by a snowman driving a snow plow.
"I guess it's up to me." noted Hinata.
Immediately, she tossed a fireball at Frosty's hat.
The hat immediately fell on the floor...which caused the snowman to revert back into normal.
Consequently, this caused the other snowmen to turn back to normal as well...much to the relief of Hinata's teammates.
"That was close..." noted Naruto. Who would have thought that they were going to be attacked by killer snowmen?
Curious, Hinata noticed that there appeared to be evil magic radiating from Frosty's hat, and began to pick it up curiously.
"Here's hoping he doesn't end up possessing my body..." thought the kunoichi.
Fortunately, nothing like that happened...in fact, the evil magic inside the hat began to disappear.
"That's a relief." noted Hinata.
Curious, she decided to put the hat back on Frosty again...who oddly enough did not seem to be much of a mankiller anymore.
Immediately, he began to hop away.
"That was strange..." noted Gray.
"At least he won't be bothering Icevale anymore...hopefully." answered Naruto.
Erza opened the door to Phanta's workshop.
"What exactly are we going to find in here?" thought the magic knight.
Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pleasant.
Meanwhile...
After entering the island where the treasure was allegedly located, the foursome began to search for the treasure.
Kiba and Akamaru used their powerful sense of smell, Shino used his bugs, Lucy used her summons, and Natsu...well, he mostly cried like a baby.
"C'mon Natsu! I'm sure we can find the treasure if you help us!" exclaimed the summoner mage.
"But what if we don't?!" exclaimed the fire mage.
Lucy sighed.
"Don't tell me you're giving up this easily..." answered the summoner.
"Fine...but don't expect me to succeed in finding it..." answered Natsu as he began to use his enhanced senses.
Immediately, they entered the cavern...and were attacked by a flock of bats. Well, Shino was anyway.
"I'm starting to question having so many bugs inside me is really such a good idea." noted the bug user.
"Yeah..." nodded Kiba as he began to help his comrade fend off the flying mammals.
"Why are bats the only mammals that can fly?" inquired Lucy as she began to summon some owls.
"That's a question that I'm not quite sure of myself." nodded Shino.
"These bats are scaring me..." noted Natsu.
Immediately, the owls began to attack the bats, causing them to retreat.
"It's a good thing that bats have natural predators..." acknowledged Lucy.
"Yes." agreed Shino.
"Now that I think of it...it is rather dark in here." noted Kiba.
"I'm scared!" exclaimed Natsu.
"Then use your fire as a torch." answered Lucy.
Natsu immediately set his hand on fire to light up the cave.
"That's better." nodded Kiba.
"Arf!" exclaimed Akamaru. Personally he never really had to rely on his sight to begin with...he just had to use his hearing and his sense of smell.
Nonetheless, he was glad that they had a light source. That way, they wouldn't have any...accidents.
Curious, the foursome continued into the cavern to see if they could find anything that would lead them to the treasure.
However, as it turns out, there were some...boobytraps.
"This is the pyramid all over again!" thought Lucy.
Immediately, a boxing glove emerged from the ground and punched Kiba in the stomach.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the dog user.
Akamaru whimpered out of concern for his master.
"We might want to proceed...slowly." noted Shino.
"Are we going to die?" asked Natsu.
"I would like to think that we aren't." answered Lucy.
Already, sweat was beginning to fall down the fire mage's face.
"I'm starting to wonder what I should tell my guildmates if I ever get back home..." thought the kunoichi.
If this kept up, Natsu wasn't going to want to go on missions...and everyone was going to suffer for it.
Hopefully he would eventually turn back to his old self...or at least stop being so frightened all the time.
At that very moment, a can of bug spray appeared and sprayed itself in Shino's face.
"Agh!" exclaimed the bug user.
"Shino! Are you OK?" asked Kiba.
"I think so...who would have thought that they would have a bug spray trap?" inquired the Abarume clan member.
"They must be prepared for everything..." noted Lucy.
At that very moment, a metallic hand appeared and tried to tear at the kunoichi's dress.
"No thanks." answered the kunoichi.
Oddly enough, she had not actually suffered any real clothing damage since she had gotten to the world of ninja. Did she transfer that to someone else? If so, she was starting to feel sorry for them.
"I sure hope that they're doing OK..." noted Lucy.
Meanwhile...
Lady Tsunade was standing inside the Hyuga clan household, where Hiashi Hyuga and his nephew were sitting. She was trying to explain to Hiashi Hyuga what had happened to his beloved daughter.
"What?! Are you saying she's stranded in some sort of alternate world?!" exclaimed Hiashi.
"I'm afraid so." nodded Tsunade.
"This is terrible..." answered the Hyuga clan leader.
"I sure hope that she comes back soon..." agreed Neji. He was personally hoping that Hinata's latest mission was going to be a success...which it technically was.
"The interdimensional portal may have saved her life, however...as you may be well-aware of, the two ANBU members that accompanied her were found dead, as well as the missing child." explained Tsunade.
"It did?" inquired Hiashi.
"Yes...I believe she used it a few moments before the ANBU members were attacked...she apparently wanted to look for Naruto." explained Tsunade.
"They were like brother and sister, weren't they?" asked the leader of the Hyuga clan.
"Also, due to the magic of the interdimensional portal...somebody who isn't part of your clan has inherited the Byakugan." continued the kunoichi.
"They have?" inquired Hiashi Hyuga.
"Yes...in Hinata's stead we have a young man by the name of Natsu Dragneel...we believe that he has inherited his Byakugan from her..." explained Tsunade.
"Has he now?" asked Neji curiously.
"Yes...as such, we sent him on a mission along with Hinata's teammates..." continued the Fifth Hokage.
"Did you?" asked the head of the Hyuga clan.
"Since he was new to being a ninja, we brought his friend from this mysterious world...a young lady by the name of Lucy Heartfilia...who oddly enough has several similarities to your daughter." explained Tsunade.
"Really?" asked Neji.
Tsunade immediately handed Neji a paper detailing Lucy Heartfilia's life story...which she had handed her a day earlier to tell her more about herself.
"I'm scared..." noted the Hyuga clan member.
"Let me see that, Neji." answered Hiashi.
Neji nodded as he handed his uncle the paper.
"Hmm...are you sure that she and my daughter weren't separated at birth?" inquired the head of the Hyuga clan curiously.
"Well, we don't know everything about the interdimensional portals yet. This is still rather new to us." noted Tsunade.
"I see..." nodded Hiashi.
"I just wanted to let you know this in case you ever decided to search for her..." explained the Fifth Hokage.
"I just hope that she returns soon..." answered the head of the Hyuga clan.
"If we can find out how to make an interdimensional portal...she probably will." nodded Tsunade.
"Good luck then." nodded Hiashi.
Immediately, the Fifth Hokage left the Hyuga household.
"How did it go?" asked Shizune.
"I don't think he will be declaring war on us to try to get her back...so I think it went well." answered Tsunade.
Shizune let out a sigh of relief.
"Say, what's Shikamaru doing?" inquired Tsunade's apprentice.
As it turns out, he was trying to create an interdimensional portal of his own. Unfortunately, it appeared that he couldn't create one big enough for Lucy and Natsu to fit through.
"Can I help you?" asked Tsunade.
"I'm trying to see if I can use my chakra to travel across dimensions..." answered Shikamaru.
"How is that going for you?" inquired the Fifth Hokage.
"I've only been able to create small ones unfortunately...so far I've only managed to send a few small objects across." explained the ninja.
Meanwhile...
"Ow!" exclaimed Makarov.
Something had hit him on the head...
"Where did that come from?" asked the guildmaster curiously.
For some strange reason, he kept finding litter in his office. Since when was his office so filthy?
He could have sworn that he had cleaned it up yesterday. Was someone breaking in and messing up the place?
"I might need to have a talk with my guild..." questioned Makarov.
Back to the world of ninja...
"Let us know if you make any progress." said Tsunade.
Shikamaru nodded.
"I sure hope that we can get Naruto and Hinata back..." spoke Shizune.
"So do I." nodded the Fifth Hokage.
"It feels like forever since we've seen the two of them..." noted Tsunade's apprentice.
"Yes...Sakura in particular is very upset about all this. She feels that this is somehow all her fault. She said that she punched him in the face a few days before he disappeared..." answered the Sannin.
"How would it be her fault?" inquired the apprentice.
Tsunade shrugged. It was rather surprising what people would blame on themselves.
"Why exactly did she punch Naruto, anyway?" asked Shizune.
"She caught him staring at a picture of a pretty girl in a bikini." explained Tsunade.
"Yikes..." murmured the kunoichi.
"Then again, I did break both of Jiraiya's legs for spying on me while I was in the shower." noted the Sannin.
"Sheesh...I don't want to make you angry." acknowledged Shizune.
"Believe me, you wouldn't like me when I was angry." nodded Tsunade.
"Er, do you want me to do you a favor? Just ask me and I'll do it!" exclaimed the apprentice.
"No thank you. I just want to get some sleep..." explained the Sannin.
"Right, of course! I'll prepare your bed for you!" exclaimed Shizune.
"Really, I'm fine." answered Tsunade.
"I'll...er, see you later!" bellowed the kunoichi.
Tsunade waved farewell to Shizune as she went to bed.
"I just hope that wherever Naruto and Hinata are...they're doing alright." noted the Sannin.
Well, it looks like our heroes are still working on their missions...will they be able to succeed once again? Then again, they always seem to succeed in what they do...they're so good at being heroic.
But what exactly is Chiyoye planning?
See you later!