Sorry this one took so long, I got distracted with a few things. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
So this is what she meant... Thought a face palming Mavis Vermilion as she sat in the booth of a train, watching the poor green-haired dragon slayer across from her groan in misery. To think that magic users who wielded the powers of dragons could succumb to such a lousy weakness. Then a surprising thought popped into her mind. How could they ever ride their dragons if they get motion sickness?!... Well, that's assuming they did ride their dragons...
But what piqued her interest even further was Gray sighing in defeat at Aki's pleading puppy eyes boring into him. He leaned back where he was sitting and uncrossed his arms, leaving them to rest beside him. Aki shot him a weak smile, then proceeded to lie down straight on his chest, wrapping her arms around him and curling her legs up like a cat. She fell asleep faster than the guild when Mystogan was there.
Mavis giggled at the sudden display of romance. She would've asked the other members of the team about it, but she had better questions to ask. Maybe if she had time later though... Leaning forwards and looking beside her at Kakashi and Erza, she began to speak.
"So... How does the team do things? What's the 'usual' plan?" Mavis asked, her tactician side showing through a little.
Kakashi shrugged and eye smiled sheepishly, if that was even possible. "Well... to be honest, we don't really have a 'plan' most of the time." He explained, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
Mavis raised an eyebrow curiously. "How do we do jobs without having a plan?" She asked. Being the strategical genius she was, having a plan was almost second nature to her. Not having a pre-set course of action seemed completely out of the question.
Erza let out a hearty chuckle. "You see, Aki and Gray usually charge in before we can get any planning done. And even if we do set up a strategy, most of the time they ignore it and charge in anyways!" She said.
Mavis turned her head to the pair of dragon slayers in question and noticed that Gray was pointedly staring out the window. The faint blush on his cheeks was a clear indicator that he was embarrassed by Erza's reveal of their usual procedure.
Aki was blissfully ignorant, which didn't help Gray's predicament. Being asleep, all it did was focus all the attention on him, causing him to shift uncomfortably.
Mavis giggled a little, but otherwise ignored it. "So I assume Erza is the team leader? And therefor the strongest member of the team?" She asked.
Erza smiled and shook her head. "No... I may act like I'm the leader of the team, but I'm far from the strongest, especially with you here... If you were to order the team in terms of power level, I'd say I'm around fourth, although Aki and Gray have been catching up rapidly." She said, prompting Gray to break out of his stupor and raise the arm that wasn't being smothered by Aki's body.
"YOU BET WE ARE! JUST YOU WAIT! AKI AND I WILL BE ABLE TO BEAT YOU SOON!" He exclaimed, albeit not too loudly. After all, wouldn't want to wake the sleeping beauty that was resting directly on him, eh?
Mavis smiled at his obvious determination to defeat the scarlet knight. I can already tell... if Aki is even half as determined as he is, those two are going to go far... She thought. But then she had another revelation. So that would mean that Kakashi and Natsu are both more powerful than her... She realized. "Tell me about Natsu! What's he like? Is he strong? What kind of magic does he use?!" She asked in rapid succession, her eyes becoming stars in excitement.
Erza blinked at her rapid fire questions, but then turned to Kakashi. "I think Kakashi is better suited to answer this one." She said, crossing her arms and leaning back to listen to Kakashi.
Said silver-haired ninja leaned forwards and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... where do I even start?..." He wondered out loud, seeming to be thinking deeply. A second later, he gave a little shrug and spoke again. "I guess I'll go over what he's like first." He said, which only furthered Mavis' excitement.
"Well, the first thing to know about the guy is that he's sorta got two sides to him." He explained, confusing the first master.
He continued. "When we're out on jobs or other things, he's a pretty serious guy, always analyzing and thinking of the most efficient way to take whoever we may be fighting, and he's pretty good at it, too. When we're relaxing at the guild or someplace else, he's as carefree as you'll find Aki to be, and a really cheerful guy. Makes conversation and jokes like any other person at the guild." He explained. A few seconds later, Kakashi thought of another little tidbit. "He doesn't really have any strange quirks to him, but sometimes if a fight is really boring, and not too important, he'll do something... odd... to liven it up a bit."
From the first couple sentences, he already had an A+ in Mavis' books. The guy just seemed almost exactly like her! Serious when he needed to be, but at the same time cheerful and friendly! And being a good strategist certainly didn't hurt. At the same time though, she wondered just how well Natsu actually fit the explanation. Only time would tell.
Suddenly, Kakashi smirked and began speaking again, once again grabbing Mavis' attention. "You guys may not think so, but I believe that he'll actually be quite miffed that he's not the youngest in the group anymore, not including happy."
Gray raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You really think so?" He asked. Erza gave Kakashi the same look, silently asking the same question.
Kakashi nodded. "Mhm, I do. You may of forgotten, but I spent six years traveling around with him, so I know him better than you guys do." He said, earning a nod from Gray and Erza. Mavis on the other hand just had even more questions.
She waved her hand, gaining his attention. "Why were you two traveling for six whole years?" She asked.
Kakashi shrugged, giving her the impression that it wasn't too big of a deal. "We were just traveling around Fiore. Natsu and weren't born here, so we wanted to see the whole country." He explained.
Mavis gave him an unimpressed look. "So you two just randomly took off for six years?!"
Kakashi looked to the side, as if inwardly debating about something. After a few seconds, he responded. "Well... we kinda had to this decade quest, but we had to go so far to get there, we decided to travel around Fiore."
Mavis sweat dropped at his explanation. Well, they're certainly powerful, but incredibly lazy?... She wondered. And if they're not from Fiore, where are they from?
Kakashi continued with his explanation of Natsu. "About his magic... well, it's honestly really hard to explain..." Said Kakashi, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Mavis scrunched her eyebrows and frowned in confusion. "How can magic be hard to explain? Isn't it just dragon slayer magic?" She asked.
Kakashi shook his head slowly. "No... It's not just dragon slayer magic... Hmm... How do I explain this..." He mumbled, thinking hard. A second later, he came out of his stupor with an 'aha!' and began speaking again. "Let me put it this way... Natsu has enough different techniques and abilities that he could use a different one against all of us and still beat us ninety nine times out of one hundred. Maybe not you though, after all, we've never seen your magic so we have no idea how strong you are." He explained, gaining a shocked reaction from not just Mavis, but the rest of the team as well.
Erza raised an eyebrow. "Just how many magics does Natsu know? You've never actually told us." She asked.
Lucy remained silent, but was still pretty shocked at Kakashi's bold statement. She probably would have had a stronger reaction, but after spending time with the team, she learned to accept that Natsu and Kakashi could just do stuff like this.
Kakashi spoke in a deadly serious voice. "Over ten."
Erza gave off an impressed expression, nodding in approval. I mean who wouldn't be impressed? Lucy was almost in the same boat, although instead of being impressed it was more along the lines of in awe.
Mavis on the other hand had a little more of a reaction. Not externally, but on the inside she was reeling. What the hell?! Over ten? I've never even heard of someone who knows so many! And he probably mastered them all if he can beat each person here with a different one. She thought. Ooooohhhhh I JUST CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HIM! She inwardly squealed in excitement.
But before she could ask further questions, Kakashi audibly sighed as if he were exasperated and began speaking yet again. "I guess this is as good time as any to explain a few things about mine and Natsu's techniques. And the first thing you have to know is that technically, Natsu only knows one magic, his dragon slayer magic."
Kakashi had decided that it would be beneficial to explain the difference between 'Jutsu' and 'Magic'. Of course, this also meant that he would have to tie in the Elemental Nations to his explanation, but he decided that he wouldn't reveal the fact that they had actually jumped through dimensions.
The group just stared at him, clearly baffled at Kakashi's statement. "What do you mean Kakashi?" Erza asked. "We've seen him do so much more than just use dragon slayer magic. Actually I don't think he's ever actually used it on a mission with us!"
"Where Natsu and I come from, the fighters, or mages, are called shinobi, or ninja." Said Kakashi.
Erza nodded, rubbing her chin as if trying to remember something. "Yeah... I think Natsu mentioned something about that before actually. But it was before you joined..." She said, trailing off at the end.
Kakashi shrugged. "Well that's fine I guess, just tell me if I'm explaining something that Natsu already told you." He said, prompting a nod from the rest of the team. "Great. So, shinobi are essentially trained soldiers, and from a young age are trained in various combat styles. The main three are ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu." He explained. He looked around at the team's mix between shocked and blank expressions. Sighing, he asked them, "You with me so far?"
Mavis nodded, signaling that she needed no further explanation. Erza tilted her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows. "But why would young children need to be trained as soldiers?" She asked.
Kakashi looked out the window, adopting a sour expression. "It's... complicated. Let me finish and then I can tell you if we have time." He said.
Erza nodded and went silent, waiting for Kakashi to continue. But Gray had a question to ask. "So what are those three things you mentioned?" He asked.
Kakashi briefly gained a tick mark, clearly a little frustrated at Gray. "I was just about to explain that..." He muttered. A few seconds later, he began explaining again. "Anyways, I'll explain the three in order." He said.
"The first of the three, ninjutsu, is the manipulation of an energy called chakra to achieve certain effects. Chakra is much like magical energy, except every single person where we come from is born with it, and instead of being stored in a large container, it runs through our bodies like a second set of veins. Losing all your chakra is almost always fatal, so it comes at a higher risk than magical energy. As for actual ninjutsu, it's extremely varied in it's usage." He said.
"Almost every technique you see Natsu and I perform is ninjutsu, and using it usually requires the use of hand seals, which I'm sure you've seen us do before." He said, prompting a nod from them all, minus Mavis.
"Next up is taijutsu. This one is far more simple, as it's basically a fancy name for hand-to-hand combat. It doesn't require the use of chakra, so it's usually what shinobi will use if they don't have enough chakra for ninjutsu or genjutsu." He explained.
Kakashi took a deep breath, winded from talking for so long. But it was for good cause, everyone on the team understood him perfectly fine, no questions required.
"Lastly, genjutsu is the use of chakra to place people under illusions. Not many people are good at this since it requires the user to have very good chakra control." He said.
Mavis still had a few questions about the new concepts that had just been explained to her. "So are there different kinds of ninjutsu? Like how there are a bunch of different kinds of magic? And what kind of ninjutsu does Natsu use?" She asked, leaning forwards intently.
Kakashi responded. "While there are different kinds of ninjutsu, there are far less than the different kinds of magic, but explaining them would still take a long time, so I'm going to skip that for now and just answer your questions about Natsu." He said, gaining a nod of understanding from Mavis.
"Natsu's favourite style of ninjutsu to use is one that is only known to be able to be used by him, and his father before him. It's quite interesting, really, it allows him to control sand. Furthermore, sand will automatically defend him from attacks, regardless of him doing anything whatsoever."
Mavis raised an eyebrow before sighing. "I think it would be a lot cooler to see in person..." She muttered.
Kakashi laughed. "Actually you're right, just talking about it sounds pretty boring. But for now, we're gonna see your magic, because we just arrived!" He exclaimed, pointing out the window at the approaching town.
A FEW HOURS LATER, NEAR THE WYVERN'S DEN
On the side of a steep mountain, we find Team Seven slowly trudging their way up to the wyverns nest. They had already been walking for a little over an hour, and Lucy already resorted to summoning Horologium from the celestial spirit realm. Mavis also grew tired of walking, and her short legs didn't help much against the steep hill. To counter this, she simply floated alongside them, much like Natsu.
But much unlike Natsu, she was a constant chatterbox. Throughout the entire trip, she constantly popped out small, unimportant questions and other jibber jabber like a popcorn machine shooting off popcorn.
Erza and Kakashi led the group, quietly talking among themselves and trying to ignore Mavis' constant noise. They figured it would be better to let Aki or Gray handle the questions, since they could somehow keep up with Mavis' seemingly endless energy.
"Woooow! Look over there! those flowers are so pretty!" Exclaimed Mavis, pointing at a nearby patch of flowers and hovering alongside Aki, who was in turn beside Gray. She preferred to float in a sitting position, as if she was sitting upon a chair with her legs dangling off the edge, unable to touch the ground.
Gray was staring off into space, clearly not paying much attention. "Yeah..." He muttered. Aki on the other hand didn't hear the question at all, and instead entertained herself by playing various games with Happy, such as rock, paper, scissors, I-Spy, and... you get the idea.
"What's wrong Gray? You seem out of it." Said Mavis, taking a sideways glance at Gray.
Gray leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I guess... There's just so much to think about really. Not to sound rude or anything, but how are you even alive? How come you're so young? What happened to Natsu? I'm sure Kakashi knows something we don't, but he won't tell us!" Gray said all at once, sighing in frustration directly after.
Mavis looked down as she inwardly debated. I could tell them how I'm here... but would Natsu be mad? I don't want to do something he doesn't want after he literally brought me back from the dead... But I also want to know just where he is! Finally, coming out of her thoughts, she sighed and took a deep breath, ready to explain.
"I actually don't know what exactly happened to Natsu, But I can tell you why I'm alive. It's because Natsu brought me back to life." She said.
Gray froze. His eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what Mavis just told him. Natsu... brought her back to life?... he can do that?! That power... It's not human, it's the power of a god. The power to bring the dead back to life... still though, I can't help but think... can he can revive... Ur? Gray wondered.
After a few seconds, he snapped out of his thoughts by Aki calling out to him. Realizing he had stopped walking, he jogged back up to where they were.
"Why'd ya stop, Gray?" Aki asked.
Gray stared at her in disbelief. "You didn't hear what she said?... NATSU LITERALLY BROUGHT MAVIS BACK FROM THE DEAD, AKI!" He exclaimed, waving his arms around.
Aki's reaction to the big news was far less... intelligent... than Gray. When Gray said the words, she paused for a second, before her eyes went wide with excitement and a wide grin came over her face. She shot her arms up in the air and exclaimed. "IT JUST MAKES NATSU THAT MUCH MORE AWESOME!"
"Aye!" Happy agreed cheerfully in between bites of his precious fish.
Kakashi heard them talking and inwardly smiled. If only they knew just how much Natsu sacrificed to use that technique... Maybe I should tell them? I was going to let them decide whether or not tell people, but it seems Mavis doesn't care.
"If you're still wondering, the reason why Natsu isn't here right now is because he used a technique to bring Mavis back from the dead." Kakashi spoke aloud, gaining the attention of the four behind him, as well as Erza beside him.
Aki looked baffled. "What do you mean? How come he's been away for so long if he just used some magic?" She asked.
Kakashi laughed loudly. "Just some magic, eh? Well I can tell you right now, it wasn't magic, it was a jutsu that only a select few people have access to." He said.
Aki stared at him blankly. "Jutsu?" She asked.
Kakashi looked at her quizzically for a few moments before slapping a hand against his forehead. "Oh that's right, you were asleep..." He muttered. "Well..." He began.
Kakashi went on to explain basically everything that he had already explained to the rest of them on the train, except in a little less detail to save some time. He told her about chakra, as well as ninjutsu, but decided to leave out everything else.
When he mentioned shinobi, Aki unwrapped her scarf and formed the most butchered tiger hand seal Kakashi had ever seen. Happy followed suit, forming a seal of his own with his tiny paws. "NIN NIN!" Aki exclaimed.
"Aye!" Happy agreed.
At the end of his explanation, Aki just nodded her head, letting them know that she understood what he had just said. "So the thing he used to bring Mavis back was a jutsu?" She asked.
Kakashi nodded. "Mhm."
Aki once again adopted a puzzled expression. "But I still don't understand why he's been gone for so long if all he did was use one of these jutsus." She said.
Kakashi looked dead serious. "The jutsu that Natsu used was no ordinary technique. It's extremely rare to be able to use, and under normal circumstances, it spells certain death for the user." He said, causing the entire team to gasp.
Mavis had never felt so bad in her entire life. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she began trying to hold back sobs. She subconsciously stopped floating, just standing there in shock. Did... did I cause someone to sacrifice themselves for me?... N-no... She began to think, but Kakashi's speaking snapped her out of her thoughts.
Seeing their distress, Kakashi quickly began to explain the rest of what he was saying. "Hold on now, I did say 'normal circumstances', didn't I?"
Mavis's head snapped up and she stared at him. "S-so Natsu is s-still alive?" She shakily asked, on the verge of tears.
Kakashi eye smiled and nodded. "Yep!"
The team let out a huge sigh of relief, their worries vanishing at Kakashi's statement. Mavis smiled brightly and wiped at her eyes, clearing the traces of water that had appeared. She once again began floating, coming up to her sitting position.
Erza was next to speak. "So what's the catch then? How did Natsu survive using the jutsu if it means certain death for the caster?" She asked.
"You see," Kakashi began. "the reason why it always kills the caster is because it simply requires more chakra to use than any person should have. Every person to have ever used it has died from basic chakra exhaustion."
"Then how?" Erza asked.
"To put it simply," Kakashi spoke with a shrug. "Natsu just has so much chakra that he didn't die."
The entire group's jaws dropped to the ground at this, and they breathed out a collective "Wow..."
Suddenly, Kakashi turned dead serious yet again. "But there's more to it." He said. "To use the technique and live, Natsu essentially 'sacrificed' a large portion of his maximum chakra to power the jutsu. He told me that it'll take almost three years for it to regenerate, so until then his max chakra reserves will be almost forty percent lower than normal."
Mavis stared in shock, thinking about what Kakashi just said. She looked at the ground beneath her sadly and spoke in a really weak voice. "But why would he go so far for someone he's never met?..." She said, but it came out more like a mutter.
Suddenly, a brand new voice was heard directly behind her.
"I honestly *cough* have no idea *cough*."
It sounded raspy and weak, as if the person speaking was deathly ill. Couple this with the coughing, and it really sounded as if the person was going to die at any minute.
Mavis, who had not yet turned around, noticed the shocked expressions of all the members of Team Seven, even Kakashi. Aki broke out into a huge grin and waved in the voice's direction.
"Yo! I knew you'd be back soon!" She cheered.
Happy flew up and landed on Aki shoulder. "Hi!" He exclaimed, waving with a little blue paw.
Mavis' eyes went wide. Could it be?... she wondered. But how did someone even get behind me without anyone noticing? And how did he get here in the first place?
As she slowly turned around, she got a good look at the person. He wore a red coat that extended down to his knees, with a split in the front and back past the waist. Jeans covered the lower half of his body, and plain white sneakers were on his feet. Over his right eye there was a cloth headband with a metal face plate, and his hair was salmon-pink with white on the ends.
But other than his appearance, the most noticeable thing about him was just how weak he looked. His cheeks were gaunt and his eyes sunken. The parts of his hair where pink met white looked more like the pink was just loosing it's colour, and he was leaning heavily on an ancient looking double bladed scythe.
Despite all this, the guy had a smile on, as if nothing were wrong at all. Mavis wondered aloud this time. "Natsu?..."
Natsu took one hand of his Lifehunt Scythe and waved with a smile. "That's me!"
Before he could speak another word, Mavis dashed forwards and wrapped her arms around him, engulfing him in a tight hug. She just stayed there for a few seconds with her eyes closed, saying nothing.
"Thank you..." She finally said.
Natsu looked down at her with a heart warming smile and patted her back. "You're welcome."
Suddenly they heard Gray's voice from where the group was standing. "Oi! Hurry up! We've got a job to do in case you've forgotten!" He called out to the two.
Mavis took her arms off Natsu and hurried back to the group with a grin. "Coming!" She yelled.
But as it turned out, traversing the rocky mountain side was harder than it looked while barefoot. Just after she started running towards the rest of the team, her little foot clipped one of the outlying rocks, and she slowly began to wobble and fall. "AHHHHHH!" She shrieked as she fell.
She hit the ground in a very wendy-like manner, laying on the ground face down with her arms outstretched in front of her.
Natsu watched the scene with a massive sweat drop. So this is the first master, eh? Something tells me that I don't need to refer to her as 'Lord First'...
Natsu walked over to her with a sigh and lifted her off the ground, placing her on her feet. Giving her the once over, he noticed a small cut where her foot had struck the rock. He kneeled down and placed his hand over her foot, and the cut just faded away as if it were never there.
Mavis' eyes became stars at the sight as she watched with amazement. "Wooow!" She exclaimed. "You can do healing magic too!"
Natsu got back up and picked up with scythe to lean on again. He dusted off his jeans and looked at her with a mischievous grin. "Yep, but try not to get yourself hurt too much, I didn't revive you only for you to go hurt yourself every mission."
Mavis put a hand over her mouth and giggled. "Ok! But are you going to come with us on the job now?" She asked.
Natsu smirked at her. "What do you mean 'now'? I've been here for almost half an hour!" He said, shocking the group excluding Kakashi.
Mavis stared at him. "How?" She asked.
Natsu grinned. "Like this!" He exclaimed. Suddenly, he slowly started vanishing into thin air from the feet upwards. "I guess you could say I was the true ghost of Team Ghost!" He shouted at Kakashi, still invisible.
Kakashi waved him off dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Mavis looked at the spot where Natsu once stood bug-eyed. What kind of trick is that? I can't even sense his magic presence anymore! It's like he just disappeared without a trace!
The other members of Team Seven simultaneously face palmed. Lucy, who was still in Horologium, didn't face palm, but she shouted something that couldn't be heard, so Horologium translated for her.
"So that's how he just shows up out of nowhere!; She says with shock." Horologium explained.
"I think that's pretty obvious, Lucy." Said Happy with a shrug.
"SHUT UP CAT!; She exclaims with anger." Horologium said.
Mavis watched the scene, holding back small giggles of laughter. But after a second, she turned back to the spot where Natsu turned invisible. "What's Team Ghost? I thought this was Team Seven?"
Natsu came back into visibility and nodded. "Yeah, it is Team Seven, but Kakashi and I used to be part of a two man team before we left on our decade quest. It was called Team Ghost." He explained.
Mavis tilted her head and brought a finger to her chin. "Why the name 'Team Ghost'?"
Natsu smirked and bent down again. "Because of this." He said. He then proceeded to put his hand into the ground, phasing through it as if it weren't even there.
Mavis watched him with fascination. "So Kakashi can do that too?" She asked.
Natsu nodded and stood back up, once again leaning on his scythe.
"Yep. Now, let's go kill some wyverns!"