Ninja Tail 11
In this chapter, our heroes are going to enter Phanta Claws's factory so that they can stop Phanta from ruining Christmas...only to discover a rather shocking secret about him.
Oh, and Lucy (as well as Team 8) are going to adventure into the cavern...but of course Captain Bloodbeard and his fearsome crew are going to be following them...
Chapter 11: Pirate vs. Ninja
Erza, Gray, Hinata, and Naruto entered the factory...which as they discovered was full of scary-looking toys.
"What exactly has he been building in here?" questioned Gray.
"Well, Ebemener did warn us that he was building evil toys..." noted Hinata.
"He clearly isn't right in the head." acknowledged Erza.
"I don't know...I think that this teddy bear is kind of cute." spoke Naruto as he picked up a cute-looking teddy bear.
Suddenly, the teddy bear tried to bite him in the hand, causing him to scream.
"Aah!" exclaimed the genin.
Shortly afterwards, the evil toys began to come to life.
"We might want to run..." noted Gray.
Nodding, the foursome decided to head deeper into the factory so that they could find Phanta.
Instead, they found what appeared to be elves making evil toys.
"So...is this their assembly line?" inquired Naruto.
Oddly enough, the elves had gray skin like their master...and were wearing red instead of green.
"We might want to...avoid getting their attention." noted Hinata.
At that very moment, Gray sneezed...causing the elves to start paying attention to them.
"Curse my freaking allergies!" bellowed the ice mage.
The elves immediately began to arm themselves...with candy cane swords, explosive christmas ornaments, gingerbread cookie flamethrowers, and oddly enough, reindeer antlers.
And speaking of reindeer...there were more reindeer waiting to eat their flesh.
"What are we going to do?" inquired Naruto.
Getting a bit...desperate, Hinata used her Byakugan to look for a way out of their situation.
Sure enough, there was an exit nearby...but it lead directly to Phanta Claws, who was loading his sleigh.
"I'm afraid that we need to hurry..." explained the kunoichi.
"Is it Phanta?" inquired Gray.
"I believe so, yes." nodded Hinata.
"We'll hold them off! You two keep on going!" exclaimed Erza.
"Sounds like a plan." nodded Naruto.
Immediately Naruto and Hinata leapt away while the evil elves approached the two Fairy Tail mages.
"So...how long do you think we can hold them off?" asked Gray.
"I've been in battles just like this before...I think we'll be fine." answered Erza.
Suddenly, one of the elves tossed a Christmas ornament bomb at the duo.
"Whoa!" exclaimed the ice mage.
"Then again...they do have explosives." noted the knight.
As it turns out, Phanta Claws was getting ready to take off...taking a minute to view his naughty list.
Much to Hinata's surprise, everyone in Icevale appeared to be on that list...except for Ebemeaner Scourge himself.
"How very odd..." questioned the kunoichi.
At that very moment, Phanta began to take off on his sleigh, forcing Hinata and Naruto to jump inside to stop him.
"Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" bellowed the evil Santa.
Immediately, Naruto and Hinata braced themselves as the sleigh lifted off into the sky.
"Here's hoping that we don't fall to our deaths..." noted Hinata.
"Isn't the ground covered with snow?" inquired Naruto.
"It may not break our falls, Naruto...we might end up breaking our necks instead." explained the kunoichi.
"Oh, right..." nodded the genin.
At that very moment, Phanta Claws noticed them.
"What the-you two rascals get off my sleigh!" bellowed the evil Santa.
Immediately, Phanta began to try to push them off.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Naruto.
"Oof!" bellowed Hinata as she was knocked to the ground.
"I'm going to give Icevale a very special Christmas this year...and you two aren't going to stop me!" bellowed the evil Santa.
Meanwhile...
Lucy suddenly noticed that there appeared a piano in the cavern, for some strange reason, and began to wonder what was going on.
"What is this old piano doing here?" inquired the kunoichi.
Curious, Lucy decided to look at the instructions to see what she needed to do.
"Play the music correctly or else you will die...well, good thing I happen to know how to play a piano..." noted the mage.
"I hope you're correct..." answered Natsu.
Curious, Lucy noticed that there was also a music sheet in front of the piano detailing which song to play...as well as an added note.
"Three guesses to which movie the author is referencing...er, I'm not sure what that means." noted the kunoichi.
Shrugging, Lucy began to play the piano...but unfortunately, she made a mistake.
At that very moment, a heavy sandbag nearly fell on Shino.
"Be careful." warned the bug user.
"Sorry, my finger slipped." answered Lucy.
Once again, the kunoichi continued to play the piano. Immediately, the door to the treasure room began to open.
However, at that very moment, Kiba began to smell something.
"You might want to hurry, Lucy. I sense that the pirates are on their way here..." explained the dog user.
Akamaru began to howl.
"What?!" exclaimed Natsu.
Immediately, the fire mage began to use his Byakugan to see if Kiba was correct. Sure enough, the pirates were making their way towards their location...and this time they were carrying guns.
"Finish the song! Or we're going to die!" bellowed the fire mage.
Unfortunately, Lucy made another mistake, causing a boxing glove to punch Kiba in the stomach.
"Ugh...my lunch..." murmured the dog user.
"How many booby traps are connected to this piano?" inquired Lucy curiously as she continued to play the instrument.
Meanwhile...
Hinata and Naruto continued trying to stop Phanta Claws...who unfortunately was having his reindeer do some rather impressive tricks with his sleigh to shake them off.
However, at that very moment, Hinata remembered something important.
"Oh, that's right...I have motion sickness now. I shouldn't be jumping into people's sleighs..." noted the kunoichi.
Feeling rather sick, Hinata eventually began to vomit.
"Ugh..." murmured the Hyuga clan member.
And as it turned out, she had vomited on Phanta Claws's face.
"Whoops?" inquired Hinata.
"Aargh! I can't see!" bellowed the evil version of Santa.
At that very moment, Phanta lost his grip on the reindeer's reins, and he began to fall off the sleigh.
"No no no!" bellowed the evil version of Santa as he fell.
Unfortunately, this left the sleigh completely out of control...and it began to fall.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Naruto.
"Oh boy..." murmured Hinata.
Fortunately for Hinata, she landed on the snow sitting down.
"That was rather lucky..." noted the kunoichi.
Unfortunately for Naruto, he crashed into the ground head-first and was buried up to his waist.
"Where did everybody go?!" exclaimed the genin.
Thankfully, Hinata pulled Naruto out of the snow.
"Thank you..." answered the ninja.
"Well, do you think we stopped Phanta?" inquired Hinata.
"I think so...how is he going to deliver those evil toys without his sleigh?" asked Naruto.
"I suppose...but what if he survived the fall?" asked the kunoichi.
At that very moment, Phanta began to emerge from the snow. He seemed rather...angry.
Then again, considering his reindeer had run off and his sleigh had been wrecked, this wasn't much of a surprise.
"Somebody's been very naughty..." said the evil version of Santa as he pulled out a snowball launcher.
"I guess we're going to have to beat the Christmas cookies out of him..." noted Naruto.
Immediately, Hinata and Naruto got ready to rumble.
Meanwhile...
Using his cryokinetic abilities to make several ice weapons, Gray began to fight off the evil elves.
Likewise, Erza was using her sword to thin their herds as much as possible.
Unfortunately, they simply would not leave them alone. They kept on coming. In fact, more and more of their adversaries were beginning to reveal themselves.
They were a rather diverse bunch, to say the very least. Not only did the army include evil elves, it also included evil snowmen (much like the ones Frosty the Mankiller had sent earlier before Hinata found a way to purify him), more of the flesh-eating reindeer, as well as more of the evil toys.
The evil toys themselves included airplanes that dropped explosives on them, action figures that were armed with miniature firearms (including lasers of all things), vehicles that tried to run them over (many of which were being driven by said action figures, including Barbie of all toys), more of the evil teddy bears, a doll that tried to stab Gray in the face, and a jack-in-the-box that happened to be explosive.
"How many of you are there?" bellowed Gray.
"Enough for all the children in the world...or at least for Icevale." explained one of the elves.
"Well, that's not a good sign..." noted Erza. Icevale was rather large for a town in the middle of the tundra.
"How long do you think we'll be able to hold them off?" inquired the ice mage.
"Hopefully enough for Naruto and Phoenix to deal with their leader..." answered the knight in shining armor.
Shrugging, Gray decided that he should keep on fighting as long as he could...even if the odds were stacked against him and Erza.
However, at this point, they were already starting to lose ground. It was only a matter of time before Gray and Erza would end up reaching each other's backs.
At that very moment, an elf came by wielding a chainsaw...which had red and green stripes on it for some particular reason.
"Yeehaw!" bellowed the elf as he began to charge towards Erza.
Thankfully, the knight in shining armor was able to send him packing...but not before giving her a small cut on her cheek.
"Oh great...I'm starting to bleed." noted Erza.
"That's not a good sign, is it?" asked Gray.
"No, it is not." nodded the knight in shining armor.
Shortly afterwards, an elf threw some hail at Gray, who began to experience irony.
"Ow! Why can't I be immune to my own element like Natsu is?" inquired the ice mage.
"Didn't you train to become resistant to the cold?" asked Erza curiously.
"I didn't develop resistance to blunt objects..." answered Gray.
"I see..." nodded the knight in shining armor.
Meanwhile...
Fortunately for Lucy and Team 8, the former was successfully able to play the piano without anyone suffering too many injuries.
Oddly enough, Lucy noticed that the song in question was "Never Gonna Give You Up"...which she had the urge to sing to Shikamaru.
"I wonder why?" inquired the summoner mage.
Curious, she began to wonder what he was currently doing. Surely he was doing something active, right?
Meanwhile...
"Zzz..." murmured Shikamaru in his sleep. As it turned out, he was currently taking a nap.
Currently, he was dreaming about doing an S-Rank mission with his teammates.
"Yes...keep at it...you're doing well...I know that we can do this mission...everyone's counting on us." said the Nara clan member.
At this point, he was starting to drool.
"Yes! We did it! Our formation was perfect!" exclaimed Shikamaru.
Back to us...
Unfortunately for Team 8, the pirates were not too far from them. In fact, they were going to be upon them in a few minutes.
"We better hurry." noted Shino.
Immediately, the foursome headed towards the treasure room...which oddly enough only included one treasure chest.
"Strange...I was expecting more than this..." questioned Kiba.
"Arf!" nodded Akamaru.
"Well, admittedly this cavern wasn't very big." noted Lucy.
"We're not going to get cursed if we take gold out of this chest, are we? I don't want to end up as an undead!" exclaimed Natsu.
"I don't think we're going to get cursed, Natsu. We're not in the world of magic anymore...don't you remember?" inquired Lucy.
"Oh, right." answered the fire mage.
"Yarr!" exclaimed Captain Bloodbeard.
"Darn it! He's already here!" bellowed the summoner mage.
"Give me and me crew me treasure, or I'll make ye walk the plank on yer own ship!" exclaimed Captain Bloodbeard.
"Our frigate had a plank? I guess I didn't pay attention..." noted Shino.
"Yes, we did. I don't know why since we were never going to use it..." questioned Lucy.
"But we need that to pay for Tsunade's gambling debt..." answered Kiba.
"Too bad! Nobody cares about her!" bellowed Captain Bloodbeard.
Kiba's face turned red.
"What did you say?!" exclaimed the dog user.
Akamaru began to growl at Captain Bloodbeard.
"I know I don't!" bellowed the captain.
Immediately, Kiba and Akamaru began to attack the pirate captain...Shino seemed angry at Bloodbeard as well, though admittedly his facial expression seemed the same as always.
"Why does he never show emotion? He reminds me of Erza..." thought Lucy.
As it turned out, Natsu was hiding behind the treasure chest.
"C'mon, Natsu! Fight like a man! I'm a woman and I'm fighting like one." answered the kunoichi as she began to create a few clones of herself.
Reluctantly, the fire mage stepped out from his hiding place.
"There! Was that so hard?" inquired Lucy.
"Yes, it was!" exclaimed Natsu.
Lucy began to sigh. At least the fire mage seemed to be showing some progress.
Nonetheless, it was going to be a while before he was back to his old self.
Meanwhile...
Phanta Claws immediately opened fire on Naruto and Hinata with his snowball launcher...which as they discovered was surprisingly deadly.
And to make matters worse, Phanta was using his Christmas magic to summon snowmen to help him attack the duo.
Deciding to deal with the snowmen while her best friend in the world continued fighting Phanta, she began to prepare some fireballs.
Immediately, Naruto summoned some shadow clones so that they could pelt Phanta with some snowballs of his own.
Unfortunately, this appeared to irritate him more than anything else.
"You're on the top of my naughty list!" bellowed Phanta.
"You sure you don't mean the bottom?" asked the genin.
"Whatever! I'm going to bury you alive in coal!" screamed the evil version of Santa.
Suddenly, an avalanche of coal began to move towards Naruto.
"Aah!" screamed the genin.
Fortunately for Naruto, he was able to leap away from the coal. Unfortunately for his clones, they were not as lucky, and they all disappeared into smoke.
Naruto kept on attacking Phanta...but due to the fact that he had very sharp claws, he realized that he couldn't get too close to him if he didn't want to get shredded.
Apparently, he was going to need to decide on a different course of action.
"I guess it's time for one of Lucy's summons..." noted Naruto.
Immediately, he reached into his bag to see if he could find anything that would be useful in defeating evil holiday icons.
"Let me see..." said the genin.
Curious, he noticed that one of the keys had a circle with two horns sprouting on other side. A head of a bull was carved into a base.
Shrugging, he decided to give this one a shot.
In this case, this particular key allowed him to summon a helpful minotaur by the name of Taurus...who didn't seem too happy to see him.
"Good moo-rning, Luc-wait a minute! You're not Lucy!" inquired the bull.
"Sorry...I'm afraid that she's elsewhere in the moment." explained Naruto.
"But she was so hot..." complained Taurus. It wasn't every day that he got summoned by an attractive female.
"I'm afraid your old mistress is going to have to wait...I'm your master for the time being." said the ninja.
Taurus let out a sigh.
"If you want, I could try transforming into a pretty girl for you...I've got just the jutsu for that." explained the ninja.
"What's a jutsu? And what do you need help with?" inquired the bull.
"Oh, I just need you to hit that fat guy over there as hard as you could...just don't hit my friend Hinata...she's on my side." explained Naruto.
"She's attractive..." noted Taurus.
Naruto sweatdropped. Was his summon going to try to flirt with Hinata? He wasn't sure how she was going to react to that.
Doing as his new master commanded, the minotaur immediately plowed into Phanta Claws's fat belly.
This worked surprisingly well. Phanta Claws immediately fell on the floor...which gave Hinata an opportunity to attack him.
As it turned out, she was still trying to melt the snowmen...so Naruto tried to get her attention.
"Hinata! Now's your chance to hit him with your Gentle Fist!" exclaimed the genin.
"Hmm? Alright then." nodded Hinata.
"I suggest you try hitting him in his big round belly...it seems as good of a target as any place else." noted Naruto.
"You're right...it is one enormous weak point, isn't it?" questioned the kunoichi.
"Yeah, pretty much." nodded the genin.
"I've got to go on a diet..." murmured Phanta.
Immediately, Hinata hit Phanta in the stomach with her Gentle Fist technique as hard as she could.
"Aargh!" exclaimed the fat magician.
Curious, Hinata noticed that for some strange reason...Phanta Claw's clothes had turned red.
"Huh? I could have sworn that he was wearing green earlier..." questioned the kunoichi.
Shrugging, she decided to hit Phanta Claws again...whose claws suddenly disappeared.
"Something's going on here..." thought Hinata.
She then hit Phanta again, causing his beard to turn white.
"Wait a minute...let's do this one more time." thought the kunoichi once again.
Hitting Phanta again one last time...she immediately noticed his skin was no longer gray...and his eyes were no longer red.
At this point, she began to realize who "Phanta Claws" really was.
"Santa? Is that you?" questioned Hinata curiously.
At that very moment, Naruto began to charge up a Rasengan.
"Um, Naruto...you should hold your fire. I think we've been hoodwinked." questioned Hinata.
"Huh?" inquired the genin curiously.
Curious, Naruto decided to throw his Rasengan off into the distance. Hopefully it wouldn't hit anyone.
"What happened? Where did the monster go? I could have sworn he was here a few minutes ago...did he flee for the hills?" inquired Naruto.
"I think Santa's been the victim of evil magic, Naruto." explained Hinata.
"Has he now?" asked the genin curiously.
Meanwhile...
Unfortunately for Gray and Erza, at this point they were surrounded. There were simply too many evil elves, evil reindeer, evil action figures, evil dolls...you get the idea.
"Is this going to be our last mission?" inquired Gray.
"This may very well be our last stand." nodded Erza.
However, at that very moment, something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, the evil elves, evil reindeer, the evil snowmen, and the evil toys...suddenly stopped looking so evil.
"Huh?" inquired Gray.
Shortly afterwards, the factory itself started to look less dreary. Gradually, it was becoming more and more colorful.
"What's going on?" inquired Erza.
Also, nothing was attacking them anymore. In fact, it appeared that the evil toys wanted to hug them...though admittedly one of the teddy bears wanted to hug Erza in the chest.
"Well, at least we're safe...that's for sure." noted Gray.
"I still have to wonder what exactly just happened...did an evil spell suddenly just wear off? It looks like it did." spoke Erza.
At that very moment, the elves began to continue making toys...which thankfully were no longer evil-looking and were not going to be used to wage war.
"Are we done?" asked the ice mage curiously.
"Something tells me that Naruto and Phoenix defeated the evil Santa...so yes." nodded Erza.
"I just can't help but shake the feeling that we're not finished here..." questioned Gray.
"Then again, maybe not." answered the knight in shining armor.
A few minutes later...
"What happened?" inquired Santa as he began rubbing his head.
"I think some sort of evil magician casted a spell on you to make you turn evil...and you ended up spreading it to everyone else that you knew personally." explained Hinata.
"I wonder who tried to ruin Christmas?" inquired Naruto.
As it turned out, Santa could not remember what had happened recently.
However, he did recall seeing a man wearing a top hat and a cane right before he started going insane.
"Wait a minute..." questioned Hinata.
"Is this someone we know?" inquired Naruto.
"Let's just say that we're going to need to pay Ebemener Scourge a visit." explained the kunoichi.
Sure enough, Erza and Gray arrived on the scene.
"Santa? Is that you? You still owe me that toy train since when I was five..." said Gray.
"Funny...I always thought that Santa only existed in fairy t-oh wait, that's right. I'm in a fairy tale world now..." noted Naruto.
"What exactly is going on?" inquired Erza.
"We need to talk to Ebemener Scourge...I think he's the one behind this. I suggest that you get ready to fight again." explained Hinata.
"Um, sure..." nodded the knight in shining armor.
Fortunately, the mayor's house wasn't too far from them.
Curious, they decided to look out the window to see if they could find anything.
As it turned out, Ebemener Scourge was checking Christmas off a checklist full of holidays.
"Well, I've officially ruined Christmas for everyone...that'll teach Santa not to give me clothes for Christmas...but what holiday do I go after next? Halloween always scared me as a child...but maybe I should go after Valentine's Day. My girlfriend dumped me on that particular holiday. Or maybe I should go after St. Patrick's Day...that holiday always made me drunk..." noted Ebemener Scourge.
"He's definitely behind everything." explained Hinata.
"Alright then..." nodded Erza.
Immediately, the S-Class Mage punched down the door to Ebemener Scourge's house, much to his surprise.
His head sweating, he began to greet them rather nervously.
"Um, h-hello there, Fairy Tail mages! What brings you here?! Did you s-slay Phanta Claws for me?!" exclaimed the evil mayor.
"You're in a lot of trouble." said Gray.
"What? How come? I assure that I never did anything wrong...except maybe embezzle from my citizens once or twice. It was only a dollar or two, I swear!" answered Ebemener.
"That doesn't explain how expensive his manor looks..." thought Hinata to herself.
"As bad as embezzling from your people is...that's not what we want to talk to you about." explained Erza.
"You tried to ruin Christmas!" bellowed Naruto.
"What are you talking ab-oh wait...you caught me plotting my next holiday attack, didn't you?" inquired the mayor.
"Yes, we did." nodded Gray.
"You're in a lot of trouble, Ebemener Scourge." answered Erza.
"Oh dear...it looks like I've been busted. Well then, I guess the only thing left now is to..."
Ebemener Scourge transformed his cane into a sword.
"...kill you all and mount your heads over my fireplace!" bellowed the mayor.
Naruto and Gray gasped in shock while Hinata grasped her neck. Erza simply frowned.
"Well, this cannot be good." noted Erza.
Immediately, Ebemener Scourge lunged towards the foursome with his sword, hoping to cut them to ribbons.
Thankfully, Erza intercepted the sword...and got into a swordfight with the corrupt mayor.
"It looks like we're in for a challenge..." noted Naruto.
"Don't worry, Naruto! There's four of us and only one of him! I'm sure that we're going to be fine!" exclaimed Gray.
At that very moment, Ebemener Scourge snapped his fingers, and Team Natsu began to hear loud footsteps outside.
"What was that?" inquired Hinata.
At that very moment, two enormous snow golems burst through the walls and began to roar at the foursome. By the looks of it, Ebemener Scourge had summoned them to grind them into paste.
"You were saying?" asked Naruto.
"I have a big mouth..." noted Gray.
Meanwhile...
Kenichi soared across the sky with his dragon, looking for more weak shinobi to eradicate from the world.
He had to admit, he always felt satisfied whenever he personally slew a ninja that was vastly inferior to himself, though personally he felt that he should pick up the pace, as he had felt that he had been rather inactive over the past few weeks.
Then again, he had not visited the Land Of Fire in quite some time, as he did not usually feel that it was thriving with the frail.
However, there did not appear to be any sign of any potential victims at the moment, as he had ventured into the wilderness miles away from Konoha.
Curious, Kenichi used his Rinnegan to look for signs of chakra, as he usually did whenever he wanted to search for more victims.
However, to his mild disappointment, he did not find any in his proximity. He was going to need to search elsewhere.
"Well, that's a bit of a shame...but at least I appear to be doing my job well. There's not a weak ninja in sight." noted the ninja.
Kaishi immediately roared in satisfaction. As it turned out, Kenichi had bended him to his will not too long ago using his dark chakra, so he shared much of the personality that his master did.
"Keep on searching...I'm sure that we'll find someone eventually. And when we do find someone...you'll know exactly what to do." said the darwinist ninja.
Kaishi nodded.
"Very good." answered Kenichi.
Immediately, the ninja and his dragon continued soaring through the skies.
What's this! It turns out Ebemener Scourge was the real threat to Icevale this whole time...who would have thought that he was so petty? It looks like it's up to our heroes to try to stop him...
Oh, and Lucy and Team 8 will finally get the treasure they wanted...or at least Lady Tsunade did.