Ninja Tail
In this chapter, well, I'm afraid we're going to have some deaths...why you may ask? Well, you can probably figure out who's responsible. It's not Kenichi...though I'm afraid he's going to show up again soon.
Oh, and Fairy Tail will be up against the Jupiter Cannon.
Chapter 21: The Jupiter Cannon
Monsieur Sol hurled sand into Choji's eyes, hoping that would temporarily blind him.
"Let's see you fight vith some sand in your eyes!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
Fortunately, he was able to rub the sand out of his eyes.
Choji then used his Multi-Size Technique to make himself larger.
"Huh...it looks like you've become fatter zan ever..." noted the earth mage.
This naturally made Choji angry, who began trying to crush him with his hands.
"Zat may have backfired on moi..." noted Monsieur Sol as he began to avoid his strikes.
Fortunately for Monsieur Sol, he was able to lift Choji and throw him quite a distance.
"Zis superhuman strength sure is useful. Maybe I should try using ze interdimensional portal again later, non?" noted the earth mage.
He then threw some rocks at Choji, hoping that one of them would hit him in the face.
Immediately, he collapsed on the floor in a heap.
"Ze bigger zhey are, ze harder zhey fall, non?" inquired Monsieur Sol.
Unfortunately for the earth mage, Choji helped himself to his feet and began to try to stomp him.
"I guess you're not down for ze count yet..." answered the mage as he evaded his strikes.
Monsieur Sol realized that he had a problem. Choji was now too large for him to fight effectively.
Personally he could not remember the last time he had to face a giant. Was he going to become the next David?
Suddenly, he had the particular urge to press his hand on the ground.
Doing so, he summoned a giant earth golem.
"Would you look at zat? It looks like I've made a copain today!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
Oddly enough, the earth golem was about as large as Choji was at the moment, and was wearing a top hat and a monocle.
"Right zen...keep him busy while I search for ze fraulein!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
Immediately, the earth golem began trying to wrestle Choji to the ground.
Monsieur Sol immediately went to search for Lucy Heartfilia while he was distracted.
"I wonder why Jirobo didn't think of that..." thought the wrestler as he began to fight back against the golem.
He was going to have to chase after Monsieur Sol if he managed to defeat that golem.
Meanwhile...
Gray immediately started his battle by trying to punch Juvia...
...but as it turned out, he was going to have a hard time facing her hand-to-hand.
Much to her surprise, two arms (that were made of water) appeared above and below her original arm when she attempted to punch Gray.
Likewise, the same happened when she tried to kick him.
As they began to fight, Juvia noticed how attractive Gray looked.
"Isn't he hot..." thought the water mage.
She then remembered that she had a mission to complete.
"Oh, right. I can't let myself get distracted." answered Juvia.
Immediately, she punched Gray three times at once and sent him back a few feet.
"I'm not quite sure how I'm doing this...but I think I'm going to be pretty effective at fist fighting from now on..." thought the water mage.
Unfortunately for Juvia, Gray decided that he wasn't going to try to fistfight her anymore.
Immediately, he created some ice weapons to help him fight back.
"Wow...he happens to be an ice mage...just like I'm a water mage...what a coincidence." thought Juvia.
"I won't let you capture Lucy!" exclaimed Gray, lunging towards Juvia.
"Huh? Right, of course. Drip drop, drip drop." answered the water mage.
"Why do you keep saying drip drop?" asked the ice mage curiously.
"It's a verbal tic." explained Juvia.
"I see..." nodded Gray.
Immediately, she tried to imprison her opponent in a bubble.
However, Gray was able to burst his way out using his ice sword.
He then began to try to freeze her solid.
However, Juvia countered by hitting Gray with a blast of water, causing him to lose concentration and causing the ice to begin to melt.
"I have to admit, we've proven ourselves to be equal opponents so far..." noted the ice mage.
Suddenly, Gray began to take his shirt off, causing Juvia to squeal.
"What?" asked the ice mage.
"Nothing! Nothing! Let's keep fighting! We've both got a mission to complete, do we not?" inquired Juvia.
"Yes, of course." nodded Gray.
Immediately, Juvia resumed trying to punch and kick Gray...though she didn't seem too enthuastic about it.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" inquired the ice mage.
"Um..." answered Juvia.
Immediately, Gray summoned some hail to rain on top of Juvia (each of which were about the size of a tennis ball)...but she countered using her umbrella.
"Juvia knew that this umbrella would come in handy one day." answered the water mage.
"I suppose it did." nodded Gray.
Meanwhile...
"How did I battle against Tayuya again? He seems to have a similar fighting style..." noted Shikamaru.
"You cannot defeat me! I am much smarter than you are! I plan on becoming a teacher one day" exclaimed Totomaru.
Immediately, the three demons began to shoot fireballs of their respective color at Shikamaru, hoping that one of them would hit.
"I'm rather smart for my age, actually..." answered the shadow ninja.
"Well, I'm still the older man here! You cannot win!" exclaimed Totomaru.
Suddenly, Shikamaru tossed a kunai at his face while he was distracted, which he narrowly dodged.
"You know, every time you say something like that...I get an opportunity to attack you." answered the shadow ninja.
Totomaru scowled.
"Don't interrupt me while I'm talking to you! I'm trying to teach you a lesson in respect!" exclaimed the fire mage.
"You don't have any respect for me..." answered Shikamaru as he prepared a paper bomb.
Immediately, he hit the three demons with the paper bomb, causing them to become momentarily stunned.
He then tried to grab Totomaru's shadow, who began trying to avoid being caught.
He managed to do so, though it wasn't an easy task.
"Ha! Close, but no cigar!" exclaimed the fire mage.
"Yeah yeah yeah...this battle is such a drag..." answered Shikamaru.
"Then why don't you give up then?" inquired Totomaru.
"I've got a girl to save...and besides, she's rather attractive." said the shadow ninja.
"Is she your girlfriend?" asked the fire mage.
Shikamaru's cheeks turned red.
"No...at least, not yet." answered the shadow ninja.
"Keep attacking him! You're bound to hit him eventually!" exclaimed Totomaru.
"Can we reduce him to ashes?!" asked the red demon.
"That's a bit extreme...though I will allow you to burn him." answered the fire mage.
"Good to see you have standards..." noted Shikamaru.
"Can we make him cough and gag?" inquired the yellow demon.
"Why, yes you can..." nodded Totomaru.
Immediately, the yellow demon hit Shikamaru with a yellow fireball, causing him to do so.
"Ugh..." murmured the shadow ninja.
"Can we freeze him?" questioned the blue demon.
"If it will stop him in his tracks, then yes." nodded Totomaru.
Fortunately, Shikamaru was able to continue avoiding their attacks.
"Hold still, why don't you?" inquired the fire mage.
Once again, the shadow ninja tossed another paper bomb, but this time the demons were ready to avoid it.
"I guess they're rather smart...then again, they did learn from an evil genius..." noted Shikamaru.
This time, Totomaru decided to shoot a fireball of his own.
"Consider yourself flunked!" exclaimed the fire mage.
Immediately, he hurled a fireball at Shikamaru, knocking him off his feet and causing him to fall on the forest floor.
"Huh...this is the exact same forest we went into when we went to save Sasuke from the Sound Four...what a coincidence." answered the shadow ninja.
Could it be possibly that the Element 4 had become the interdimensional partners of the Sound Four? That would explain a lot.
Suddenly, the three demons jumped from the forest rooftops towards Shikamaru.
"I guess it's time to finish you three off..." answered the shadow ninja.
"Now we've gotcha!" exclaimed the red demon.
"I suggest that you surrender." answered the blue demon.
"You don't want some of my gas!" exclaimed the yellow demon.
Suddenly, Shikamaru remembered how he typically dealt with enemy summoners.
"Of course..." thought the shadow ninja as he prepared his shadow jutsu.
Meanwhile...
Aria immediately started his battle by shooting spider webbing at Natsu, who as before burned it easily.
"Well, I guess I'm going to have to try a different tactic here..." answered the air mage.
Immediately, he turned into vapor and headed deeper into the forest.
"Maybe I could try attacking him from a distance? He does seem to be trying to pummel me with his fists..." noted the man.
He began to create his own kunai using some of his tears.
"I guess being so tearful is actually coming in handy this time." noted Aria.
"Where did he go?" inquired Natsu.
For a moment, he wondered if he had retreated.
"I guess I'll go look for Lucy then. She's waiting for me to be her hero!" answered the fire mage.
Suddenly, Aria tossed one of the kunai he had created at Natsu.
"Never mind." said Natsu.
He then followed by summoning spiders to attack the fire mage, which began to creep him out.
"Oh boy..." murmured the fire mage.
And to make matters worse, unlike Kidomaru's spiders, they had the ability to drain his magic.
Unfortunately, they kept on coming.
"I could do this all day..." spoke Aria.
"Ugh...my magic power...how am I going to fight without it?" questioned the fire mage.
Fortunately, he was able to burn them somewhat easily.
As Aria discovered, he in fact did not have all day. Natsu immediately tossed a fireball at him, which he narrowly avoided.
"How did he find me? I'd like to think I hid myself pretty well." answered the air mage.
Curious, he noticed that Natsu's eyes had mysteriously turned white, and the veins were quickly visible.
In retaliation, he dropped a spider web on top of Natsu.
He immediately tried to free himself with his fire magic...but unfortunately, it appeared that it was draining his magic to prevent that.
However, as he quickly discovered, Natsu had another way to break himself free from the spider webbing.
Immediately, he used his Gentle Fist to cut himself loose.
"I guess I have this to go along with my Byakugan...I wonder if I can use this to defeat Erza..." answered the fire mage.
Of course, he was going to have to defeat Aria first.
Once again, he began to summon another spider...that was somewhat bigger than the ones that he had fought earlier.
"Funny, I was expecting one that was giant..." noted the air mage.
"You'll have to ask my wife for that. She's a lot bigger than I am...then again, she's in a contract with another spider user..." said the male spider.
"Your name is?" inquired Aria.
"Jorogumo...you should be able to use me to drain the magic out of your opponent...just let me latch onto his face." answered Jorogumo.
"Sure." nodded the air mage.
Unsurprisingly, Jorogumo began to do so. He was rather fast.
"Get off me, you facehugger!" screamed Natsu.
Unfortunately, he was able to do exactly what he had told Aria earlier.
"I'm feeling...really tired..." murmured the fire mage.
A tear immediately left Aria's eye.
"This is so wonderful..." thought the air mage.
Meanwhile...
Lucy frantically began to look for someone that could help her defeat the Element 4. From what she had seen, her friends could only hold them off for so very long.
But just who should she call for help? Granted, she could probably ask Lady Tsunade...
...but her office was rather far away.
"I might not have enough time to do so..." thought Lucy.
"Looking for friends, are we? Good luck with that. I'm surprised anyone would want to be friends with you to be honest..." said the nine-tailed fox.
"Why not?" asked Lucy.
"Um, I'm not quite sure..." answered Kurama.
"You need a new insult book." answered the summoner mage.
Kurama sighed. This was so much easier back when he was still in Naruto's body.
At that very moment, she saw the Sand Siblings.
"Bingo!" exclaimed Lucy.
Sure enough, they were busy sparring with each other. Apparently, they didn't stop their training for anything.
Except for a distress call.
"Listen, I need your help! My friends are in danger!" exclaimed the summoner mage.
"Huh?" asked Gaara.
"They're under attack by the Element 4!" bellowed Lucy.
"Are they anything like the Sound Four?" asked Kankuro.
"Well, there are four of them...so yes." nodded the kunoichi.
"Then we should be able to handle them." answered Temari.
Lucy let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, Gaara's tailed beast began to laugh.
"Yes! Go out and spill some blood! I'm looking forward to it! Hahahahaha!" laughed Shukaku.
"Is there someone laughing?" inquired Lucy.
"You can hear him too?" asked Gaara.
Kurama rolled his eyes. Shukaku was so obnoxious. Why did they have to be related?
"Maybe it has to do with my ability to summon animals...then again, tailed beasts appear to be my speciality." answered Lucy.
"Got that right." spoke Kurama.
"Let's go spill some blood! Just don't let Kurama join in on the action...because quite frankly, he deserves to be sealed! Hohohoho!" laughed Shukaku.
"Your tailed beast is a psychopath...and a troll." noted Lucy.
"I'm well aware of that." nodded Gaara.
"Good to see you've made a friend..." answered Temari.
"Let's get going. We don't have time to lose." nodded Kankuro.
Immediately, the foursome went to go help their friends.
Meanwhile...
"Makarov!" exclaimed Levy.
"What's the matter?" inquired the guildmaster.
"Phantom Lord's using a Jupiter Cannon against us!" bellowed the letter mage.
"What?!" screamed Makarov.
"We're going to get vaporized!" exclaimed Levy.
"We have to stop the cannon! Are you feeling better now that you've recovered from the beating Gajeel inflicted on you?" inquired the man.
"Yes, I have." nodded the letter mage.
"Good! I want you and Team Shadow Gear to destroy that cannon!" exclaimed Makarov.
Immediately, Levy went along with her teammates to stop the cannon.
Sure enough, it was beginning to fire.
Thankfully, Erza was able to intercept the blast using her Adamantite Armor.
However, she was left rather exhausted afterward.
"Erza! Are you OK?" inquired Naruto.
"Yes, I think so...that Jupiter Cannon is strong." noted Erza.
"It sure is..." nodded the genin.
Fortunately, Team Shadow Gear was working on destroying the cannon.
Immediately, Levy began to use some of her letter spells to damage the Jupiter Cannon.
This was followed by Droy and Jet using their magic to damage it as well.
However, the Jupiter Cannon was getting ready to fire for another attack.
"Hurry!" exclaimed Levy.
Jet nodded, and began to attack the Jupiter Cannon even faster.
Once again, the Jupiter Cannon fired a blast at the Fairy Tail base.
This time, Makarov intercepted the blast with his new Titan form.
However, Naruto got the feeling that he wouldn't be able to endure those blasts for long.
Nonetheless, he seemed a lot stronger than before now that Tsunade had made him younger.
"Hooray for Grandma Tsunade!" cheered Naruto.
At that very moment, they heard an explosion.
Team Shadow Gear had successfully destroyed the Jupiter Cannon.
"We did it!" exclaimed Levy.
"That'll teach them to beat us up..." answered Droy.
Gajeel rubbed his hand behind his head.
"Should we tell Master Jose that we're coming for him next?" inquired Jet.
"Perhaps." nodded Levy.
Meanwhile...
"Well, that earth golem wasn't as tough as he looked...but what why is he wearing a top hat and a monocle?" questioned Choji.
Immediately, the earth golem began to dissolve into mud.
"Now all that's left now is the French mage himself..." answered Choji.
Shrugging, he decided to resume his search for Monsieur Sol.
"Madame Lucy? Vhere are you?" inquired the earth mage.
Curious, he began to wonder if he should try searching for his comrades as well.
However, he could not seem to find any of them.
"Vhere did zhey all wonder off to?" inquired Monsieur Sol.
At that very moment, Choji began to attack him again.
"Sacre bleu! You defeated my earth golem!" bellowed the earth mage.
"Yes, I did." nodded Choji.
"No matter. It is time for my trump card! You've asked for zis, gros garcon!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
"You said I was a fat boy in French, didn't you?" inquired Choji.
The earth mage nodded.
Immediately, Choji lunged towards Monsieur Sol.
However, he quickly found himself unable to move.
Curious, he looked down, and discovered that he was slowly turning to stone, causing him to scream.
"Hahaha! In just a few minutes from now, you shall become a living statue! Bonjour, gros garcon!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
"What am I going to do?" asked Choji.
To add insult to injury, he was now experiencing hallucinations where people that he knew called him fat.
"This is the worst mission ever..." answered the fat boy.
"Right zhen...let's just sit back and watch ze show..." spoke Monsieur Sol.
Meanwhile...
At this point, Gray and Juvia were both feeling rather exhausted. For a while now they had been trading blow from blow, without too much success.
Eventually, Gray decided to give it his all in one last attack.
Immediately, he placed ice over his forearms...
...and made some enormous ice blades.
"Oh boy..." murmured Juvia.
He then followed by using his ice blades to slash Juvia seven times...
...only for her to counter with a Rashomon gate, much to both mages' surprise.
Oddly enough, unlike Sakon and Ukon's Rashomon gate, the gate was blue and had a picture of what appeared to be an Atlantean king on it.
"Look at the size of that thing..." murmured Gray.
As soon as Gray slashed for the seventh time, the Rashomon gate collapsed. Both combatants were left heavily exhausted.
"You know...maybe we could try to compromise...maybe we could sign a peace treaty between our guilds..." answered Juvia.
"I don't think Master Jose is going to do that..." spoke Gray.
"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" inquired the water mage.
"I suppose..." answered the ice mage.
"What is your name?" asked Juvia.
"It's Gray...your name is Juvia, is it not?" inquired Gray.
Juvia nodded.
"Pleased to meet you." said the ice mage.
However, at that very moment, something unexpected happened.
"I'm going to kill you!" exclaimed a voice.
"Huh?" asked Gray.
Suddenly, a throwing spear pierced the ice mage through the abdomen.
"Gah!" bellowed the ice mage.
"Gray!" screamed Juvia.
As it turned out, it was none other than Takeshi. He apparently wanted revenge on Gray for the way he had treated him earlier.
Suddenly, much to her surprise, she began stuffing Gray inside her body.
"What are y-"
Gray's injuries then began to gradually heal.
"How are you doing this?" asked the ice mage.
"I don't know...I've never done this before." answered Juvia.
"Well, at least it appears to be a decent healing technique...I'm not too comfortable about being in another person's body though..." spoke Gray.
"At least we can get healed, right?" inquired the water mage.
Suddenly, Takeshi punched Juvia in the face.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Juvia and Gray in unison.
Unfortunately, it appeared that any damage that Juvia suffered while Gray was still in her body would affect him as well.
And since Gray was still healing, he was going to have to remain in Juvia's body so that he could recover.
"I'm going to kill you too!" bellowed Takeshi, pulling out an axe.
And to make matters worse, Juvia was still exhausted from her battle with Gray, and vice versa. They didn't have any real way of defending themselves.
Finally, Takeshi could now create shadow clones of himself.
"We're going to kill you!" bellowed the shadow clones in unison.
Immediately, Juvia began to flee, transforming herself into water along with Gray.
Thankfully, there was a river nearby that they could use to hide themselves.
Of course, Takeshi was going to be rather persistent in pursuing them.
Immediately, he pulled out a chainsaw.
"Here I come!" exclaimed the psychopath.
Meanwhile...
"You're outnumbered! Surrender!" bellowed Totomaru.
"Actually, I think you're outnumbered now." answered Shikamaru.
"Huh?" inquired the fire mage.
Suddenly, the three demons began to toss fireballs at him instead.
"Why are you betraying me?!" exclaimed the Phantom Lord mage.
As it turned out, Shikamaru had used his shadow technique to turn the three demons against their master.
"We're sorry, master! We can't control ourselves!" bellowed the red demon.
"What did he do to us?" asked the yellow demon.
"This might be the end of line for you." noted the blue demon.
"Is there any way I can dismiss you three? I'd really appreciate it right about now..." answered Totomaru as he narrowly avoided the fireballs.
"Try performing a hand seal." suggested the blue demon.
Totomaru nodded, and the three demons disappeared.
"Well then...I guess it's just you and I! It's time for you to face the music!" exclaimed Totomaru.
Immediately, he began to play music on his flute.
Shikamaru covered his ears, knowing what he was trying to do.
"You can't cover your ears forever..." noted Totomaru as he continued playing.
Suddenly, Shikamaru latched onto his shadow.
"Huh?" inquired the fire mage.
He then proceeded to try to strangle him with his shadow jutsu.
Unfortunately for Shikamaru, Totomaru managed to break free, and this time, he successfully trapped the shadow ninja in his genjutsu.
Oddly enough, the chains surrounding his body happened to be red, blue, and yellow in color to go along with Totomaru's rainbow theme.
Totomaru then walked up to Shikamaru.
"See? What did I tell you? You cannot defeat me! I'm a much older man than you are!" exclaimed Totomaru.
Suddenly, Shikamaru grabbed him by the shadow once more.
"What?" inquired the fire mage.
"I broke my finger with my shadow jutsu...again." answered the shadow ninja.
Once again, Shikamaru began to try to strangle Totomaru.
"Just a few more feet before I can reach your neck..." said the teenage boy.
Totomaru gulped.
Meanwhile...
Fortunately for Natsu, he was able to defeat the male spider without getting too much magic out of him.
Nonetheless, he was starting to feel tired. This battle was starting to take his toll on him.
Then again, he had been fighting Aria for a while now.
"This magic absorption ability of his is going to be the death of me..." murmured Natsu.
Suddenly, Aria began to create a bow and arrow to attack him with.
"Let's see if I can hit him in the head..." spoke the air mage.
Unfortunately, he missed...because of a tree.
Aria facepalmed.
Fortunately, he had a way to counter that. He immediately blew away the trees in the area (with the exception of the one he was standing on), causing one to nearly fall on Natsu as he did so.
"Look what you did to the environment!" screamed Natsu. Despite being a fire user, he hated it when someone chopped down a forest just for a thrill.
Immediately, Aria began to cry.
"It's OK...I'm sure that we can undo the damage eventually...though admittedly it will take a long time." answered the fire mage.
Unfortunately, as it turned out...he was using his tears to make an even bigger arrow.
"Uh-oh..." murmured Natsu.
Immediately, he found himself pierced in the shoulder.
"Gah!" screamed the fire mage.
Aria began to cry once again.
He then followed up by hitting Natsu with an airspace, causing him to collapse on the floor.
"My magic...ugh..." answered the fire mage.
Unfortunately, without his magic, he did not have the ability to use fire.
And to make matters worse, his Byakugan had used up much of his chakra.
Aria at this point was about to cry his head off. His airspace had worked! It looked like had won today.
"Well, now to get the girl." said the air mage.
Immediately, he left to go search for Lucy, leaving Natsu behind.
"Surely she can't be too far from here..." noted Aria.
As he did so, he failed to notice that Natsu was slowly flaring up again.
Meanwhile...
Chiyoye happily admired the results of her actions. It appeared that there were no survivors.
"I guess it's time for me to leave and-"
Suddenly, she noticed that there were four people that she had not caught yet.
By the looks of it, they were rather powerful...and yet very young.
Chiyoye smiled. These were the exact kind of victims that she wanted!
Immediately, she began to approach them.
"Just a few more minutes until we can get Kimimaro to assist us..." noted Sakon.
"Finally! This is taking forever!" exclaimed Tayuya.
"I'm bored..." answered Kidomaru.
"I'm hungry..." murmured Jirobo.
Suddenly, they noticed Chiyoye was standing a few feet away from them. They immediately began to raise their eyebrows.
"Huh? What do you want?" inquired Sakon.
"Can't you see we're busy?!" exclaimed Tayuya.
Kidomaru scratched his head. What was she doing here?
Immediately, a black fireball appeared in her hand.
She then tossed it at the Sound Four, causing them to jump out of the way.
"Picking a fight with us? Big mistake." answered Jirobo.
Immediately, the four began to activate the second stage of their cursed seals.
As they did so, Chiyoye began to smile.
"Perfect...they're even stronger than I thought." said the necromanceress.
Immediately, she began to cast another spell.
"How about some lightning!" exclaimed Chiyoye, charging electricity in her hands.
She then launched the electricity at the four once again.
"Hmm...it seems that she's stronger than she looks..." noted Sakon.
"Oh well! More fun for us!" exclaimed Kidomaru.
"Yes...more fun..." answered Tayuya.
Meanwhile...
"You'll look lovely as a statue! I'm going to put you in ze center of my garden!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
"Oh no..." murmured Choji.
At this point, he was almost completely transformed.
"Bonjour!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
However, at that very moment, Gaara suddenly attacked him.
"What in ze world?!" exclaimed Monsieur Sol.
Fortunately, this caused Choji to turn back to normal.
"Thanks for help..." answered the Akimichi clan member.
Immediately, Gaara then followed with a sand tidal wave.
"Aah!" screamed the sand mage.
He promptly began to retreat. Apparently, he did not want to deal with a sand user that powerful.
"Where is he going?" inquired Gaara.
"Back to his master, I suppose." answered Choji.
"You think we'll be ready if he comes back?" asked the sand ninja.
"I imagine so." nodded the Akimichi clan member.
"Wasn't he a coward?" inquired Shukaku.
"Yes, he was." answered Gaara.
"Who are you talking to?" asked Choji.
"Oh, just my tailed beast...he's been living inside me forever..." spoke the sand ninja.
"Oh, right. Of course." nodded the chubby teenager.
"Oddly enough I just met a girl that can understand what my tailed beast is saying...then again, she happens to have a tailed beast as well, so maybe that's not too surprising." answered Gaara.
"Did you now?" inquired Choji.
"Yes...speaking of which, I don't think she's too far from me...she wanted to help Shikamaru, I believe." answered Gaara.
"That's awfully sweet of her..." noted the chubby boy.
"Well, I guess we can get going now...they're not going to try capturing Lucy again if Tsunade has anything to say about it." answered Gaara.
"Yes, of course!" nodded Choji.
"There's a fast food restaurant right over there." said the sand ninja, pointing to the right.
Choji happily went to go eat some fast food to support his jutsu.
Meanwhile...
Unfortunately for Juvia, she wasn't able to get too far before collapsing from exhaustion. She had used up most of her magic power during her battle with Gray.
"Did we...lose him?" inquired Juvia.
"I...think so." answered Gray.
"I'm going to kill you!" exclaimed Takeshi, jumping from a nearby bush.
"Never mind." spoke Gray.
Fortunately, at that very moment, someone showed up to bail the duo out of their current situation.
It was none other than Kankuro, who was wielding his puppets.
Immediately, he trapped Takeshi inside the Black Ant.
Juvia and Gray let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness...he was about to kill us..." said the water mage.
"I could see that." nodded Kankuro.
"Let me out and I'll kill you!" screamed Takeshi.
"Don't you mean or?" asked Gray.
"Let me out or I'll kill you!" bellowed the psychopath.
"That's better." answered Kankuro.
"What should we do with him?" asked Juvia.
"I say we take him to jail where he belongs..." suggested Gray.
"Alright then." nodded the puppetmaster.
Immediately, Kankuro began to take Takeshi (along with Juvia and Gray) back to Konoha.
"Wait, wasn't there supposed to be only one of you? I don't remember Lucy telling us about there being a duo..." said Kankuro.
"She saved my life...so I owe her a life debt." answered the ice mage.
"Yes, it's true..." nodded Juvia as she released Gray from her body.
"Wait, are you still part of Phantom Lord?" inquired Gray.
Juvia raised an eyebrow. It looked like she had a decision to make.
After much deliberation...
...she decided that she wanted to join the Konoha forces. They did save her life, didn't they? Just like she managed to save Gray.
She should really try returning the favor.
"I think it's time for me to take a career change...I hope that the rest of the Element 4 don't mind..." answered Juvia.
"Phantom Lord's probably going to get disbanded anyway...I don't think that the wizard council is going to be too happy with them for what they did to our guild." spoke Gray.
"True..." nodded the water mage.
Immediately, the trio headed towards Konoha.
Meanwhile...
Unfortunately for Shikamaru, he once again did not have the chakra to complete the shadow strangle jutsu.
Gradually, it began to wear off.
"Not again..." murmured the shadow ninja.
Was someone going to save him again? He had to admit, he might not be so lucky this time.
Fortunately, as it turned out, there was somebody ready to help him.
However, it wasn't who he was expecting.
"Lucy, is that you?" inquired Shikamaru.
Totomaru gasped. It was none other than the girl that he wanted to capture.
"Well, since you were the one that assembled a rescue team to save my skin...I decided to assemble a rescue team of my own..." answered Lucy.
"Did you now?" asked the shadow ninja.
"I figured you needed some help dealing with these four...so I brought some friends!" exclaimed the summoner mage.
"I see." nodded the teen genius.
"Since you were the leader of the rescue team...I figured I'd give you a hand..." said Lucy.
Suddenly, Shikamaru noticed that Lucy was wearing her pink tube top and shorts again.
"What happened to your ninja outfit?" inquired the shadow ninja.
"Oh, that? It's at the cleaners at the moment..." explained Lucy.
Curious, she noticed that Shikamaru was staring at her torso when she said that.
Immediately, she began to summon some beavers to help attack Totomaru.
However, much to her surprise, rather than attack the fire mage, they instead dropped a tree on top of him.
The tree immediately crushed Totomaru as he screamed in horror.
"That works too, I suppose." answered Lucy.
"So, you want to go back home now?" inquired Shikamaru.
"Lead the way." nodded the summoner mage.
Immediately, Shikamaru lead Lucy out of the forest.
As they did so, they failed to notice Totomaru limping his way towards the interdimensional portal.
Meanwhile...
Aria happily searched the forest, hoping that he would find Lucy...
...only to find Temari instead.
"Can I help you?" inquired the air mage.
Temari immediately pulled out her fan.
"Huh?" asked Aria.
Immediately, she began to blow Aria away.
In retaliation, he hit Temari with an airspace...
...but due to the fact that she was a ninja rather than a mage, this didn't hurt her too much.
"Funny...I was expecting that attack to do a bit more..." answered Temari.
Aria let out a sigh. It usually worked on mages.
Once again, she began to blow Aria away.
This time, he decided to retreat back to the interdimensional portal. He wasn't liking his chances against Temari, considering that she was resistant to his airspaces.
She then went to help Natsu, who was still recovering from his battle earlier.
"Are you OK?" asked Temari.
"Yes, I am." nodded Natsu as he helped himself to his feet.
"A friend of yours wanted me to check on you." explained the wind user.
"Was it Lucy?" inquired Natsu.
"Yes, it was. Why do you ask?" inquired Temari.
"Hooray for Lucy!" cheered the fire mage.
"Yes...hooray for Lucy, I suppose." nodded the sand sibling.
Immediately, she escorted Natsu back to Konoha.
"Are we all done here?" thought the fire mage.
Hopefully they would be able to wrap things up...it had been a rather long day.
But at least they managed to rescue Lucy...and she had managed to rescue them in return.
Nonetheless, he got the feeling that he was going to have to face stronger opponents in the near future.
Then again, he did like a challenge...though admittedly it would still take some time before he regained all of his self-confidence.
Until then, he was simply content to relax.
Meanwhile...
Jirobo tossed a boulder at Chiyoye, who narrowly avoided it.
This was then followed by Kidomaru shooting spider webbing, which she avoided as well.
Tayuya began to sing, but she covered her ears.
Shrugging, Jirobo and Sakon & Ukon decided to lunge towards her, hoping that they could beat her into submission with their bare hands.
This would prove to be their last mistake.
Suddenly, Chiyoye grabbed onto them by their arms.
"Hmm?" inquired Jirobo.
"What are you-" asked Sakon.
Immediately, Chiyoye began to drain the life out of them, causing them to scream in pain and revert back to their original forms in the process.
She then let go of their arms, causing their bodies to collapse on the floor.
"Jirobo!" screamed Tayuya.
"Sakon and Ukon!" bellowed Kidomaru.
Chiyoye began to approach them as well.
"What do we do?" asked the spider man.
"Keep shooting! Finish what we started!" ordered Tayuya.
Tayuya and Kidomaru began to attack Chiyoye once more.
Suddenly, she stopped walking towards them, and stretched out her hand in front of her.
"Huh?" asked Kidomaru.
"What is she doing?" inquired Tayuya.
Suddenly, Kidomaru felt something grab his ankle. He looked down, and screamed in horror.
A horde of zombies was emerging from the ground!
Unfortunately, it was already too late for him and Tayuya. The zombies immediately began to devour their flesh, causing them to scream in pain and in terror as they began to revert back to their original forms, much like Jirobo and Sakon & Ukon before them.
"Ha! That was too easy!" exclaimed Chiyoye.
Nonetheless, she was feeling much stronger than before.
"Well, I won't have to worry so much about Fairy Tail anymore..." noted the mage.
Once again, she began to take her leave.
Meanwhile...
Levy got back from her mission to destroy the Jupiter Cannon. She was rather satisfied as to how well it had gone.
However, she suddenly noticed that Mirajane had a rather worried look on her face.
"Is something the matter?" inquired the letter mage.
"Chiyoye just received a drastic power boost!" exclaimed Mirajane.
"What?" asked Levy.
Curious, she looked into the crystal ball indicating Chiyoye's power...and discovered that the mana had turned green.
She immediately turned to the crystal ball guide, and discovered that the mana was color-coded for their convenience.
Apparently, Chiyoye had moved up a level when it came to magic.
"This isn't good..." murmured the letter mage.
Hopefully, she could be stopped before the mana in the crystal ball changed color again. According to the guide, yellow was up next.
If the mana in that crystal ball turned black, then not even the entirety of Fairy Tail may be enough to stop her.
"We need to catch her fast!" exclaimed Levy.
Immediately, she began to wonder where she had gotten such a significant power boost. Granted, she was probably harvesting innocent people like cattle as she pondered, but it seemed rather sudden.
Sighing, she decided to turn back to the matter at hand.
"We have to stop Phantom Lord at all costs!" exclaimed Levy.
Immediately, she went to reenter the battlefield.
Oh no! Chiyoye has successfully slain the Sound Four and has inherited their abilities! She's going to be a lot stronger from now on...I can tell you that.
But do you remember who they were summoning? Hopefully, he will be able to stop Chiyoye from slaying anyone else.
In the next chapter, there's going to be more bloodshed...I'm sorry to say. This time, Kenichi is going to be responsible.