Chapter 13: Erza's School Days/Training DayErza's School Days.
2 weeks after Natsu and Gray's departure.
"Enroll in the ninja academy? What for?" Erza asked
"Well, I figured since you have an enormous amount chakra especially since you're not even a trained shinobi, you should become a shinobi too. It would be a waste to have a rare case like yours go to waste." Lili answered.
"I think you should, Erza." Makarov said.
"It will be good for you to expand your horizons. In fact I'm ordering you to go to the academy."
"Well if the Master says I have to then I guess I have no choice. Are we leaving now?" Erza asked and Lilian nodded.
"The new year is about to begin but we have to get you registered and take care of all the paperwork first."
Lilian answered.
(2 weeks later)
Lilian was standing in front of a bunch of children, wearing standard jonin attire for the Hidden Leaf. Her hair was tied in a high pony tail, with her forehead protector tied where the name suggests.
"Good morning class, I'd like for you to meet your new classmate, Erza Scarlet." Lilian introduced.
"Sensei, why does she look as old as you?"
"What's up with her red hair? It looks like a tomato." Kids called out and the entire class began making fun of Erza well except for one kid. There was a boy with spiky blue hair who seemed to be one of the more reserved kids in the class.
"If I hear another person belittling Erza, the whole class is taking a pop quiz do you understand me?" Lilian threatened and the whole class became quiet.
"Well they are just kids so I guess this was to be expected..." Erza whispered.
"I'm glad you understand, so please take a seat anywhere you like." Lilian said. Erza sat next to the boy with the blue hair who was seated in the back of the class.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Erza asked and the boy shook his head. Lilian started to lecture the class about the history of the Hidden Leaf Village and it's founders.
(A few hours later...)
It was lunch time and all the life including Erza grabbed their lunch and went outside.
"I learned so many things today, this is gonna be a great experience." Erza thought to herself out loud. She looked at a lone swing underneath a tree and decided to eat her lunch there.
"This reminds me of when I first joined the guild. I was always distanced myself from everyone and watched from afar. It seems that part of me hasn't changed." Erza thought as she watched all the kids eating and laughing together.
She looked down at her food which was nothing special. Just a sandwich, a bottle of water and a banana. Lilian had offered to give her anything she wanted for lunch but she ultimately declined, saying that she didn't want to be treated better than the other children.
"Perhaps I should've taken Lili up on that offer. Some strawberry cheesecake would be lovely right now." Erza thought aloud.
"Umm..."
Erza heard the voice and looked up from her tray to see the boy she sat next to in class.
"Oh, hello there." She greeted.
"How come you're sitting here all by yourself?" He asked. Erza was surprised by his question but she smiled.
"I don't really mind being by myself is all. What about you? I figured you would be with all the other kids as well." Erza answered.
"I always come here during lunch. To be honest you're kind of sitting in my spot." He smiled.
"Oh I'm sorry" Erza was about to get up but he stopped her.
"It's okay, you can sit there." He said.
"By the way, my name is Naegi. It's nice to meet you, Erza." He smiled as he sat on the large root that stuck out from the tree next to Erza.
"Well it's my pleasure Naegi." Erza smiled right back.
"Did you know that the spot you're sitting in is a really important spot?"
"Oh is that right?"
"Yeah! My parents told me that the Savior of the world used to sit there when he was in the academy!"
"Savior of the world? And who might this Savior be?"
"Have you been living under a rock or something? He's a super awesome shinobi who saved the whole world centuries ago! His name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I heard that he returned recently I want to meet him sooo bad." He said excitedly.
"Naruto Uzumaki? I actually know him. Him and I are actually good friends if I can say so myself." Erza said and Naegi's eyes beamed.
"No way! Not only did you meet him but you're actually friends with him? It sounds too good to be true." Naegi pouted like a child. Erza chuckled and patted his head.
"Maybe if you're on your best behavior I'll ask him to come to the class."
"Really!?"
"You have my word."
"I think I'm starting to like you already." Naegi smirked
After lunch, the class stayed outside but was held on the other side of the building.
"Alright class, we're going work on throwing kunai." Lili announced as she pulled out a few kunai seemingly from out of nowhere and tossed them at the wooden targets. All three landing in the dead center. Bullseye.
"Now, let's see... Erza, tell me three things that every ninja has to take into account when throwing a kunai." Lili said, putting Erza on the spot.
"Wind direction and speed, moving targets, and distance." Erza answered.
"Very good. Now we're going to do a little test. Don't worry you won't be graded or anything, I just want to see where the each of you stand. Naegi you're up first." Lili said as she used her ocular prowess the kunai out of the targets and handed them to Naegi.
Naegi took the kunai, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes he swiftly threw the knives and they all landed in the dead center, the same way Lili threw them.
"Perfect Naegi, you're up next Erza." Lilian praised as she used her powers to hand the kunai to Erza. As soon as she took them she launched them at the targets, nailing each of them in the dead center.
"You don't have the luxury to take a breather and relax in battle to strike your target." Erza said.
"You're absolutely right Erza. Good work."
The other kids in the class were impressed with how good Erza was at throwing kunai. One by one the kids went through the kunai exercise until it was the final girl's turn. This girl had long silver hair braided into a fish tail that hangs over her shoulder. She had dark purple eyes and fair skin.
"Do your best Kirigiri!" Naegi cheered.
"Sure..." She responded coldly.
She took the knives and took a deep breath. She threw them at the targets and well... She barely hit the edge of the first one, the second one was a bit closer to the middle and the third one... Lilian had caught it with her fingers right between her eyes.
"She's... Really bad at that." Erza whispered to Naegi in concern.
"This always happens. Her kunai skills haven't gotten any better since we started the academy." Naegi whispered back.
"She's always sleeping in class, she's super lazy, and she doesn't even show any kind of effort in taijutsu! Out of everyone she's dead last. The only good thing she does is get perfect scores on tests." Naegi whispered loudly
"So we've got a lazy genius on our hands huh? Is there anything else about her that's interesting?" Erza asked.
"Hmm if I really think about it, I don't think I've ever seen her smile. Not even once."
"Kirigiri... This is supposed to be your graduation year, if you don't start improving you won't become a full fledged ninja." Lilian said in 'teacher mode'.
"Sure, Sensei." She responded as she went back in line. Lilian sighed and proceeded with the lesson.
Erza spent the rest of the day watching Kirigiri. Just as Naegi said, she with most of her time in the back of the class snoozing away. But her genius assumption was correct when Lili threw chalk at her while she was sleeping and forced her to answer a pretty complicated math problem. Kirigiri looked up at the problem and solved it instantly. Math certainly wasn't Erza's strongest subject but she would manage. The day ended and everyone filed out of the class one by one, chattering about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Kirigiri was walking by herself just like Erza expected. However Naegi jogged up to her and asked, "Hey Kirigiri, do you wanna go to the dango shop and play some Shogi? I'll even bring Erza-san with me."
"Sure..." She answered.
"Erza-san!" Naegi called out, getting Erza's attention. Naegi ran up to her and asked, "Do you wanna play some Shogi with me and Kirigiri"
"Umm what's Shogi?"
"Eh don't worry about it I'll show you!" He said as he grabbed her hand and began to drag her along with him.
"Okay I think I've gotten the rules down now." Erza said as she put down the rule book. Naegi had gotten beaten by Kirigiri several times in the time.
"How many times is that?" Erza asked.
"29..." Naegi said, paled, with an exhausted and defeated expression.
"If you work hard you might be able to win one day."
"Okay, I'm ready to begin." Erza said as she moved Naegi out of the way and in front of the board.
15 moves later...
"Checkmate." Kirigiri said and Erza paled.
"I knew it was going to be over quick but I never expected this." Erza said baffled.
"You're better than Naegi I suppose." Kirigiri said with her usual stone cold face.
"Just adding insult to injury aren't you..." Naegi whimpered in defeat.
"Let's play again! I'm all fired up now!" Erza declared.
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Checkmate."
"Just forget it Erza it's hopeless." Naegi advised who had lost for the umpteenth time in a row. Shellshocked with the amount of losses she accumulated in such a short amount of time.
"It's getting late I really must get home." Kirigiri said as she got up from her seat and went to walk out of the shop.
"Did you have fun?" Erza asked with a smile stopping Kirigiri in her tracks.
"Yeah..." She answered as she proceeded on her way home. Erza smiled warmly until she heard yawning beside her.
"I think I'm gonna go home too. I'll see you tomorrow." Naegi yawned as he too went his separate way. Erza made her way to the Hokage tower where she would stay until Lilian could find her a suitable place to live. The Hokage tower was different now ever since Naruto's time. The red cylindrical tower was replaced with a building that was just as real but Pentagon shaped with a flag for the Hidden Leaf draped over it. Erza walked, getting many stares from people as she walked. Some perverted men who focused on her beauty, some women who were jealous of her looks, and some children who were incredibly intrigued by her Scarlet hair.
She walked through the front door of the tower and saw Lilian waiting for her.
"You were out for quite a while what were you doing this whole time?" Lili asked.
"I was hanging out with Naegi and Kirigiri." Erza answered.
"Kirigiri? I'm surprised she actually hung out with you guys." Lilian said as they began to progress through the building. They waited for the elevator to come and continued chatting.
"Well, it was Naegi who asked her, I kind of just got dragged along." She responded.
"She's not a very open girl as you could see for yourself. She's incredibly intelligent, her IQ is off the charts." Lilian said.
"No kidding, she beat me and Naegi in Shogi over 40 times collectively in a row."
"40 huh? She just doesn't show any effort in anything other than thinking problems or strategy games. She's so shy people tend to stay away from her." Lilian said.
"So she doesn't have any friends?" Erza asked.
"Other than Naegi, no. But you can tell, she really values having Naegi around. When they play Shogi together you can tell she's having a blast even though she wins all the time." Lilian giggled.
"And what about Naegi? He seems to admire Naruto a lot." Erza asked.
"Naegi, if I'd say there was anyone who was a mixture between Naruto and Sasuke it would be him. He's a dunce and impatient when it comes to studying. But he excels in everything else. Honestly he's probably the top ranked student in the academy right now." She answered. The elevator stopped on the living quarters for the Hokage tower where only the Hokage and his family could live if they choose.
"So how was your first day?" Lili asked.
"If I can finish it off with a bath and strawberry cake, it'll have been perfect."
Training Day.
Sasuke had Gray with him by himself ready to teach him.
"Now I that you use ice magic, do you know what makes ice molding magic so dangerous?" Sasuke asked.
"My master Ur, taught me that molding magic is the magic of freedom. The more free I am, the stronger my magic is." Gray answered.
"That's true, but not what I meant." Sasuke said.
"What are the changeable qualities of ice?"
"Quantity, and form if I had to guess."
"You're half right. It's temperature or Frost rate, Quantity, Form, and density."
"I understand the first three but why density?"
"I'll show you exactly what it means." Sasuke said as he activated his rinnegan. He brought the rib cage of his Susanoo to life and said, "Go on, hit me with your most powerful attack."
"Okay." Gray responded as he placed his fist in his open palm and tried a lot of magic power.
"Ice Make: Impact!" He declared his attack and a giant hammer like drill smashed down on Sasuke. The impact kicked up a lot of snow and when it settled Gray was shocked. Sasuke hadn't even budged an inch, and his Susanoo didn't have a single scratch on it.
"I see now. The bones of your exoskeleton is so dense that they're almost impossible to break."
"You're a lot smarter than Naruto." Sasuke said as he deactivated his Sharingan letting his Susanoo disappear.
"It's called a Susanoo by the way." Sasuke said. He pulled out a scroll and a dry erase white board poofed into existence.
"Truthfully, increasing the density of your ice can be both the most difficult and simplest part of training." Sasuke said. He went on to explain how the molecules of water and ice worked.
"And when you make ice the molecules become more compact and close together to crystallize. Understand?" Sasuke asked and Gray nodded.
"Now why is this important? Think of diamonds. The reason they are so hard to break is not just because the molecules are tightly compacted, but it's the way they are compacted. It's not enough to have the molecules compacted, but the shape is the most important." Sasuke explained.
"Basically I have to change the properties of my ice on a molecular level. Right?" Gray asked and Sasuke nodded.
"So how do I do it?" Gray asked.
"You have to become one with ice. That's why I brought you up to these mountains. Feel the ice with every fiber of your being. And once you can you'll be able to use ice even tougher than my Susanoo. Now close your eyes, visualise the molecules and weave them together." Sasuke said as Gray got into his magic pose. He did as Sasuke told him and visualised it.
"I can feel it... I can see it..." He thought.
"There! Ice Make: Shield!" He declared as he slammed his hands on the ground and a wall that resembles half of a snow flake.
"Let's see if you were able to do it." Sasuke said as he raised his left hand and electricity started emit from it. Gray stepped away from the shield and Sasuke shot a beam of lightning towards the shield. It impacted the shield but alas it didn't go through.
"Hn, and on the first try too." Sasuke said, quite impressed with Gray. The latter looked at the shield and saw that it had a few cracks at the point of impact and frowned.
"It's not enough." Gray said.
"Let's go again."
...
"Alright I'm ready to start trainin'!" Natsu declared.
"Aye Sir!"
"So what are you gonna teach me first?" Natsu asked with stars in his eyes.
"There's three things that I want to teach you over this two year span. One is to teach you to use your flames for other than burning things. Second, I'm gonna help you improve your hand to hand combat. Third, how to become a dragon." Naruto answered.
"How to become a dragon? How on earth can you teach me how to do that?" Natsu asked.
"Well I guess I'll start with that..."
"To keep it simple, I'm gonna help you turn into a miniature Igneel. I call it, the Soul of the Fire Dragon!" Naruto said, fairly proud of the name of this technique he came up with. Natsu tilted his head in confusion still and asked, "The miniature Igneel part I get, but what exactly is going to happen?"
"Hold on." Naruto said, pushing his hand out to match his gesture with his words.
"Hey, Kurama, is it even still possible for me to go into four tails mode and what not?" He asked his tailed beast partner.
"Of course it is, chakra mode is only you using your body as a vessel for my chakra. The four tails transformation is like our linked transformation with the exception that our bodies are linked instead of me just feeding you chakra." Kurama answered.
"Okay good, because it was going to be really awkward if I couldn't show him what I meant." Naruto laughed and Kurama sighed at his behavior.
"Here I'll show you." He said to Natsu, returning his mind back to the real world. Naruto's body began to be covered in a black and crimson colored chakra. He crouched over onto all fours like an actual beast and his tails swung freely.
"THAT'S SO AWESOME!" Natsu shouted excitedly.
"If my plan goes how I hope you'll be able to do something similar to this." Naruto said, his voice deeper and more rough then usual.
"Great so how do I do it?" Natsu asked eagerly.
"It's simple. You have to embody the fire on your spirit. Let your own body turn into flames." Naruto explained as he sat down the ground in the same meditative pose he would use to gather natural energy. He patted the ground next to him, a sign for Natsu to copy his pose. Natsu did so and looked at how Naruto was perfectly still, even his breathing looked like it had ceased if you didn't look close enough.
"Look for the inner flame inside you, and let it grow until it reaches its peak. And let it explode." Naruto said calmly. Natsu however struggled to remain still and focus. He sat there for what it felt like hours until he got frustrated and gave up.
"Aaaggghhh this is too hard!" Natsu fell back on to the grass and stretched his body out.
"Are you giving up already? Gray will be leagues stronger than you of you quit now." Naruto said and Natsu sat back up and sat still in a flash.
"Can't let that ice pervert beat me." Natsu muttered to himself and Naruto grinned. "Hook line and sinker" he thought.
(Several days later.)
"UUUUGGGGHHHHH It seems like no matter how long I sit there I'm not making any progress!" Natsu shouted in frustration.
"Patience isn't exactly in Natsu's vocabulary, Naruto." Happy said.
"Hmm, this really isn't working." Naruto thought until an idea popped into his head.
"It's risky but I've gotta try it."
"Natsu follow me." Naruto said as they began to trek up towards the mountains. As they journeyed up the mountain the air became thinner and the heat started to increase a bit. They got to the top of the mountain eventually and they looked down to see that they were standing on the rim of a volcano.
"What did we come here for?" Natsu asked and Naruto didn't respond. Instead he grabbed Happy by his tail and kicked Natsu into the Volcano.
"What are you doing!?" Happy asked as Natsu screamed, falling in to the volcano.
"You baaaasssttttaaaarrrdddd"
Sploosh...
Happy wailed as he tried to break free from Naruto's grasp.
"Let me go! I have to save him!" Happy cried.
"He's the fire dragon slayer. If this kills him he was never meant to see Igneel again in the first place." Naruto said.
A few moments passed and Naruto was starting to wonder if Natsu had actually died in the volcano. However those worries were soon gone away when the volcano erupted with fire.
"He did it!" Naruto said as he covered his face to prevent any smoke or noxious gases from entering his body. When the eruption died down, a flash of red, orange, as yellow flew up into the air. It came back down and Naruto's eyes widened in shock but he smiled. Natsu had turned into an actual fire dragon, complete with wings and tail, all made of fire. (A/N: He's like a miniature Atlas Flame.)
"You really were able to do it. Now-" Naruto didn't even get to finish his sentence as he has to dodge an incredibly fast slash from Natsu. Natsu turned around and glared at Happy like he was a piece of steak.
"Natsu... Snap out of it Natsu..." Happy pleaded but his pleads fell on deaf ears. Natsu attacked Happy like a wild animal and...
Splatter!...
Happy had his eyes closed in fear but When he opened them he saw Naruto standing in his way. Naruto, in his chakra mode had taken some of the strike on his right shoulder on a diagonal path to his right pectoral. Naruto grimaced in pain but he held Natsu in place with his chakra arms.
"I've... Got you now..." Naruto said in between breaths as he held Natsu as hard as he could without hurting him. However Natsu turned into a flickering flame and slid under Naruto's chakra arms. Then he rematerialized to his side crouching down. Natsu inhaled deeply and let out a might rust that engulfed nearly the entire mountain. Naruto has grabbed Happy and fled far away as he could in that short time.
"Naruto..."
Naruto heard that voice but couldn't recognize who it was.
"Who's there!? And how do you know my name!?" Naruto questioned.
"I can absorb these flames. Just this once. Do not allow Natsu to use this technique again. And don't say a word about this." The voice warned Naruto as he watched the flames reduce and Natsu's skin could be shown. He returned to normal and fell on the ground, unmoving and unresponsive. Naruto walked up to Natsu and felt his pulse. Natsu was alive, and his breathing was normal, he was simply unconscious.
"His magic power is extremely low though..." Naruto said to himself.
"Naruto... I don't want to see Natsu like that anymore." Happy whimpered.
"Don't worry Happy, I'll make sure he won't."
"I really need to learn some sealing arts for a situation like this." He thought as he saw Sasuke and Gray running up to them.
"What the hell happened? Are you guys alright?" Gray asked when he saw Naruto's wound. Naruto smiled weakly and said,
"Don't worry about me, ol' fuzzbutt will take care of this for me. But it is going to leave a mark."
"What about Natsu?" Sasuke asked.
"He's fine, he just needs rest."
"Who was that voice though..."Thanks guys for reading. Please follow, review, and favorite, I'm so close to 500 followers I can smell it. And it's that smelly smell. That smelly smell that smells... smelly... Lol love you guys.