After the Tournament Arc!
Snippet 7
Discovering future!Lucy is like opening that storage scroll that everybody puts to the side with dire warnings of 'DO NOT OPEN', because once they figure out why she's like that, they can't stop speculating. No really. Shikako equates it to Pandora's box. Itachi seriously looks pained.
"That's..." she trails off.
Itachi keeps silent, though there is a muscle jumping his jaw. If he were the type, he'd be cursing.
"Oh well," she mutters after a sigh. "It's not the first time we've had a suicide mission."
Before her partner could answer that,Natsu explodes. Literally, and metaphorically at the enemies sneaking up on them and on the prospect of death.
"No," he snarls. "We are not going down today."
He drags them through the castle, leading a merry chase and giving both former shinobi some bit of hope and amusement.
"He reminds me of Naruto," she tells him over punching some royal soldiers.
Itachi laughs, a sound out of place in a skirmish - it isn't a battle.
And then future!Lucy falls and both of them feel their magic stirring in response.
Things go faster at that, Itachi's eyes and magic not even stopping, Shikako's touch becoming deadly and their famous partnership proving that teamwork destroyed anything, even hordes.