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Normal Speech: "Naruto"
Important or Emphasized Speech: "Naruto"
Thoughts: 'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'
Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield!"
Demons and Dragons Speech: "Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"
Demons and Dragons Thinking: 'The question is what to do with him…'
Chapter 10 – All's fair in War!
Makarov Dreyar was truly angry for the first time in a very long time. Phantom Lord had crossed a line, and they were celebrating; completely ignorant of the consequences. Well, his children might be giving those brats in the rank-and-file a much-needed spanking, but the guild's master Jose Porla was a different matter.
Being a Wizard Saint himself, Jose was monstrously powerful, and Makarov didn't want to injure his own children accidentally while fighting his comrade-turned-enemy. That had been his rationale for stowing away in Erza's luggage and joining them, anyway…
His magic responded to his anger by transforming into a geyser of magical firepower that shook the entire building, as his instinctive Giant's Wrath spell lashed out to smash the walls around him and shattering nearby windows.
Finally reaching Jose's chamber, he lashed out and blew the door to smithereens. "Jose!" he bellowed. "Come out and face me!"
Stalking into the room, a man out for blood, his magic washed over the room like a tidal wave. Oddly, Jose was sitting in a throne-like chair quite coolly.
Barely able to restrain his anger, Makarov ground out, "Jose… what the Hell do you think you're doing?"
"Why, hello there," the master of Phantom Lord mused, unconcerned. "Long time no see, Makarov."
He was completely unfazed by how much power Fairy Tail's master was generating. "Six years must have passed since our last regular meeting, wasn't it?" he mused aloud, his voice a measured nonchalance. "I was so wasted that day…"
Angry and at the end of his rope, Makarov lashed out with a gigantic fist at Jose, seemingly crushing him and his throne.
"I'm not here to reminisce with you, Jose," the angry old mage snarled.
But Jose appeared without a single scratch, his appearance flickering as the illusion of his presence began to fade.
Makarov scowled. "So that's why I couldn't feel your presence here; you're busy sustaining this Thought Projection. Then you've already left the guild?"
"A battle among two of the Ten Wizard Saints of Fiore would cause an extraordinary cataclysm to occur." Jose smirked at Makarov's building anger, adding, "I prefer a rational victory."
Makarov growled but he couldn't blame his enemy's intelligence. "Where are you?! Come and fight me, fair and square!"
Jose smirked as a figure seemed to materialize at his feet. Much to Makarov's astonishment and fear, he knew who it was. One of his newest members of his family, young Lucy, now tied up and laid at Jose's feet right before his very eyes.
Cold sweat began to form on his forehead. "W- why?" Makarov demanded.
Jose ignored his question, pulling out a short knife and holding it over Lucy's helpless body, making her. Makarov's parental instincts went into overdrive. "No! Stop!" he shouted.
Then he suddenly felt a presence behind him. "Oh, there's no way that we'd kill Lucy Heartfilia-sama, now is there?" Makarov had no time to wonder why Lucy's family name seemed to ring a bell with him before he was rendered defenseless at the hands of Aria the Great Sky, as the suddenly-crying mage attacked him with some kind of spell that drained him of all his power. The resulting explosion left a hole in the floor leading down into the guildhall's dining room.
As he fell, Jose's last words echoed in his mind. "Please don't tell me that you didn't know who she was when she joined your guild, Makarov."
But before he could take Jose's parting words into consideration, a defeated Makarov Dreyar slammed into the guildhall floor with considerable force. A large crater formed under his prone body, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke that covered his impact.
The Fairy Tail expedition froze, unsure if the impossible had truly happened.
Above them, a male voice wailed theatrically, "So sorrowful, it's too sorrowful! Where does this sorrow come from? Ah! Is this the sorrow due to the world losing a great mage?"
Erza was terrified, standing in place and staring at where her master's body would lay prone. He was the strongest warrior that she knew, the pillar that she had yet to surpass, but here he lay defeated. She was so busy trying to reconcile the disparity of her knowledge against reality that she never noticed a streak of wet warmth running down her face from her uncovered left eye. Before her emotions can escape her iron control, a massive explosion suddenly cleared the smoke and dust away from the macabre scene.
Ice water seemed to run down her spine as a familiar figure seemed to materialize from the dispersing haze. The dark power of his murderous intent paralyzed everyone in Phantom Lord's guildhall, both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord alike, as each of second passed echoed ominously in their hearts and minds.
Naruto Uzumaki, the Yellow Flash and Demon King of Fairy Tail, appeared in the place of a defeated Makarov. Popping his neck, relieving some tension, he slowly looked up at the hole in the ceiling and frowned when he noticed Aria peering down through the hole and gazing at him.
His eyes flashed into the Chōbuku Rinnegan in response to his emotional turmoil, but his militaristic rationality overrode his anger. Ignoring the impulse to jump up through the hole in the ceiling and attack Aria, he instead knelt down as he gathered the natural energy slowly refilling his reserves. He sighed in relief while mentally musing, 'I have lost more than 75 percent of my chakra due to that spell… I must finish this as soon as possible.'
The unexpected appearance of the second Yellow Flash surprised everyone excluding Erza while it left an important question in the air, 'Where was the real Master Makarov then?'
"Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Erza was standing behind him, wearing her Tenrin no Yoroi and looking magnificent as usual.
"I'll be fine." Naruto reported, mentally running a check on himself with a bit senjutsuchakra his body. "Whatever Aria did to me seems to have inhibited my own body's natural ability to automatically use my chakra as well as draining me of it. This effect is only temporary, therefore I wouldn't need any immediate medical attention."
"Good…" the red head sighed. "I'm glad that you'll be okay, Naruto-kun." She thought that he might have been defeated or worse.
The kage bunshin Naruto had left vanished leaving a cloud of smoke allowing him to gain a bit of his chakra back.
Meanwhile, Aria the Great Sky was aghast. He hadn't expected Master Jose's plan to draw out and remove Makarov to fail in such a fashion, and he didn't like the idea that their original target might be discovered.
Gajeel, who'd joined him by now, smirked at his fear. "Heh, looks like Master's plan backfired!" he guffawed loudly.
"We must leave and inform the master!" Aria snapped as the chilling tendrils of Naruto's murderous intent seemed to crawl up his legs.
The Iron Dragon Slayer frowned as Naruto's barely-restrained bloodlust for himself and grimaced. "I don't like running away from a fight, but you're right. For once in your life…"
Aria cast a spell that made the two of them vanish in a swirl of wind, leaving their guildmates behind to face Fairy Tail's wrath.
Naruto's eyes widened and his muscles tensed, information from a dispelled Kage Bunshin suddenly filling his mind and providing a critical piece of information. Furious at himself, his killing intent spiked drastically. Several weaker mages wet themselves in fright.
"So that was his plan…" he realized aloud, puzzling Erza. Catching the redhead's confusion, he asked, "Do you remember what I told you about my Kage Bunshin and its abilities?"
"Uh… you told me that you receive their memories when they dispel…" trailing off as she realized that he wouldn't have mentioned this if something important hadn't just happened, she promptly jumped to an alarming (but reasonable) conclusion. "Did something happen to the guild?!"
"Actually, the guild's fine," he shrugged, making her sigh in relief. "The problem is that one of the many clones that I left behind? You know, to guard the guild and the girls? Well, the clone saw two members of the Element 4, 'Ameon'na' Juvia and Sol of the Land, subdue and kidnap Lucy."
Erza frowned. "Why would Phantom Lord start a war and go to so much trouble to get their hands on Lucy, of all people?"
"Apparently, Lucy's been hiding the fact that she's the daughter of Jude Heartfilia, the business magnate," he grunted, more annoyed than anything else.
The redhead was taken aback, more surprised by this new fact about Lucy than by the murderous bloodlust that her teammate continued to emit quite casually. Even though he'd calmed down a bit, his power was still washing over the entire guildhall. Grimacing, he stood up and shouted, "Everyone stand back! I'll finish this battle in one move."
"What?!" everyone bellowed. Erza simply shouted, "You heard him!" She wouldn't repeat herself.
The Fairies looked at each other before backing off, unwilling to provoke neither their Titania any further nor their mysterious Demon King. She helped remove the few battlefield casualties, barking orders. As the group's commanders, Naruto and Erza had every right to order them around as needed.
Also, thanks to Naruto's killing intent, the remaining members of Phantom Lord were too scared to try and attack at their withdrawing opponents.
"Thank you for trusting me, Benihime-chan," he whispered in her ear, making her blush rather badly.
Turning back to the remaining Phantoms, the Demon King of Fairy Tail bellowed, "Listen to me well, Phantom Lord! I offer you the chance to surrender peacefully!"
They laughed at his words and instead charged him, hoping to overwhelm him and his fellows in Fairy Tail through sheer numbers.
Naruto sighed in resignation. "A pity they wouldn't take my offer."
Shrugging in spite of himself, he added, "Now, no one can blame me for what happens next."
Making a few hand-seals at high-speed, he took in a deep breath that inflating his lungs and chest to at least three times its normal size. He yelled, "Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku!"
The Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku was a belch that released a spiraling cannonball of compressed air that slammed into the front lines of the approaching Phantom Lord grunts and quickly exploded.
The ball disintegrated into a windstorm, cutting at everything within reach and shearing through the building around it. But the squall vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind debris and dust that he'd kicked up. The most important thing, right then and there, was that Phantom Lord's rank-and-file had been vanquished and were left groaning and nursing deep cuts of all kinds.
Erza was stumped by the display of such deadly and destructive power, and she wasn't alone. Everyone who'd stayed behind now knew that Naruto was more of a monster of the likes of Gildarts, Laxus or even their master. They all gulped nervously in unison, praying to never have him as an enemy.
Naruto exhaled noisily, turning about to see his now-scared guildmates and sighed. The fact that his new friends would react like this to a small display of power really hurt.
Erza was the first to snap out of her shock once she noticed Naruto's brilliant blue eyes clouding with resignation. She remembered what she was like just after she'd fled the Tower of Heaven, before she found the beautiful guild of Fairy Tail and her many wonderful comrades. She wanted Naruto to trust her enough to tell her everything about himself, to open up to her and even the guild someday.
Without waiting for anyone, she walked up to the ever-mysterious shinobi and patted him on his shoulder. Still… she did have a small grievance to air out. "I didn't know that you could use spells like that, Naruto," she said severely. "Why have you never used them on me?"
Not even waiting for his response, she raised a sword at him. "Did you not use your spells on me because you thought I was weak? Have you been deliberately underestimating me all this time?" she demanded.
"Actually, I didn't mean to," he replied, nervously rubbing the back of his head. "I learned my kenjutsu from a samurai of my acquaintance." At the blank look on her face, he explained, "The samurai are a type of knight unique to my homeland. Thanks to my teacher, though, I learned about the thrill and the honor of fighting another sword-fighter on equal grounds."
Erza chuckled in spite of herself. Naruto seemed to have a silver tongue in addition to his lightning-fast reflexes; no wonder he could finish a battle so quickly. The others laughed, remembering that she'd still been unconscious when he'd first displayed his ninjutsu when he'd fought Natsu a while ago.
"All right, Benihime-chan, can you take our people back to the guild?" the shinobi asked her quietly. "I'll go save Lucy-chan."
"How do you intend to find her, Naruto-kun?" the redhead wondered. That was before she saw his smirk, that broad vulpine grin that he tended to affect when he had a cunning plan.
"I have my ways…" he shrugged, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"Okay, Naruto-kun," she nodded. "But be careful. I know that you're more tired than you pretend to be."
Not wanting to draw out their exfiltration, he smiled. "Okay, I'll do that," he nodded to her, disappearing in a whirlwind of dust and leaves as Erza turned back to her confused guildmates.
"Hey, where did Naruto go?" Cana asked.
Erza smiled slightly, changing back into her usual Heart Kreuz armor as she began coordinating Fairy Tail's departure. Her only response was, "To save a captured princess from the clutches of her evil kidnappers."
Her answer confused Cana and the rest of the guild, but they shrugged and followed Erza out, leaving Phantom Lord destroyed in their wake.
In reality, Naruto hadn't gone far. He was standing on the highest remaining tower of the ruined Phantom Lord guildhall. With his Choubuku Rinnegan now active, he was scanning the countryside around him for any trace of Lucy.
Much to his surprise, he found Lucy's energy signature nearby and accompanying a high-level mage. Jumping off the guildhall roof, he boosted his leap with a healthy amount of wind chakra that allowed him to reach the roof of a building within Oak Town itself. After a fair amount of roof-hopping, her energy had led him to a large building on the other side of the town away from the Phantom Lord guildhall. As he landed on the roof of the building's tower itself, he smirked triumphantly as he realized that Lucy was almost directly below him.
The person with her was easily as powerful as master Makarov, making him frown in contemplation. With his dōjutsu effectively useless in this situation, he crawled down the wall of the building and looked through a window only to see Lucy bound to a chair. Her companion was a man wearing a strange-looking coat.
Realizing that this man was the figure as strong as Makarov, Naruto knew that he could only be Jose Porla, the master of the Phantom Lord Guild. Noticing that the two of them were alone, he realized that he could easily snatch Lucy away and escape back to the guild with his Hiraishin no jutsu.
Between the power of his Chōbuku Rinnegan and the lip-reading skills that Iruka-sensei had forced him to learn when he was younger; he learned that Lucy and Jose were talking about letting her use the bathroom. He dumped a metal bucket in front of her, calling her out. But when she actually attempted to remove her panties in front of him, a flustered Jose promptly turned the other way, showing his back to the Stellar Spirit mage.
That act of courtesy was a rather huge mistake on his part. Seeing that her trick had worked, Lucy instantly kicked Jose in the groin and left him to clutch himself.
Naruto flinched, barely keeping himself from crossing his legs instinctively as he chuckled at the hilarity of Lucy managing to trick a Wizard Saint with such a childish move. The stunt was such a ninja move that he'd actually felt half inclined to teach her a few tricks.
Deactivating his dōjutsu and jumping down to the floor of the building, where he could wait for her to run out, he found himself still chuckling at the idea of a rookie like Lucy getting one over on an opponent like Jose. Her stunt was the kind of prank that he used to pull on Sarutobi-jiji to great effect, so seeing Lucy doing something similar brought back fond memories of simpler times.
Amazingly enough, Lucy had heard his laughter and promptly jumped from a staircase guardrail at the top of the tower, shocking the pain-stricken Jose Porla.
"Naruto!" cried the beautiful blonde as she fell towards certain death.
Having looked up just as she called his name, Naruto crouched down deeply. Feeding a lot of chakra into his legs, he jumped high into the air and managed to grab her while she was still falling. A cheeky grin on his face, he landed on the ground gently and was holding her in a bridal-carry stance. "You called, Lucy-chan?" he asked, more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.
Lucy blushed at the easy intimacy of his solid and muscular arms, feeling safer than she had been for years.
"How did you find me so quickly, Naruto-kun?" she asked, tears threatening to spill from her beautiful doe-brown eyes.
Not really noticing the way she'd changed her honorifics, Naruto untied her hands by way of a Kage Bunshin slicing through the rope binding her wrists. "We don't have time to talk here," he mumbled. "We really should get back to the guild."
Adjusting his arms in the bridal carry that he was still holding her in, he exclaimed, "Hold on tight, we'll be back home in a flash!" As she wrapped her arms around his neck for extra support, still blushing, Naruto focused on a certain jutsu-shiki and vanished in a flash of yellow light. The two of them left an angry and vengeful Jose Porla behind to formulate his revenge.
Original Jutsu Dictionary
Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku – Wind Release: Spiraling Vacuum Sphere
To be continued…