Ninja Tail
In this chapter, Lucy and her friends are going to take on the Bandit Queen...you've been waiting for a confrontation, now haven't you?
Oh, and Naruto and his friends are going to try to slay a vampire! Hooray.
Chapter 25: The Bandit Queen
Lucy and her friends were starting to get a bit bored. To be honest, taking out these bandits was becoming too easy.
Then again, the bandits were losing morale rather quickly.
However, as it turned out, things were going to start getting more difficult.
Suddenly, Setsuna's wind clone appeared.
"Mistress? Is that you?" asked one of the bandits.
"I'm one of her clones, actually." explained the wind clone.
"Oh...help us! Please!" exclaimed the bandits.
"I'm working on it." nodded the clone.
Immediately, she pulled out a katana.
"Uh-oh..." thought Lucy.
With a few slashes of her sword, a small tornado appeared and began to juggle Natsu, who began to feel motion sick.
"Ugh..." murmured Natsu.
"Thank goodness this is only a clone..." noted Lucy. From what she could tell, a duplicate a ninja created of themselves was always much weaker than the original.
Nonetheless, this clone seemed to be a tad bit stronger than the bandits they had faced earlier.
Immediately, the wind clone began to try to slash Lucy, whose ninja outfit ended up being slashed.
"Aw man..." complained Lucy.
She then followed by trying to slash Gray, who countered with an ice sword.
"This clone is fast." noted the ice mage.
Apparently, they were going to have to stay on their feet if they wanted to take down the clone.
Immediately, he began to participate in a swordfight with Setsuna's doppelganger. Thankfully, she wasn't as good as swordplay as her original counterpart.
Juvia took the opportunity to flank the clone with her three-armed punch, which was rather successful.
Immediately, the clone was knocked on her feet.
Gray then followed by stabbing the clone with his ice sword, causing it to explode into a burst of wind.
"Well, that wasn't so bad." noted Lucy.
"I don't think this is over yet though..." acknowledged Gray.
"True..." nodded the summoner mage.
At that very moment, the former bandit chief appeared, and began to rally the bandits together.
"They're ready for an all-out assault!" exclaimed Natsu.
"That's not good." nodded Juvia.
Immediately, the bandits began to swarm the foursome.
"It looks like we're going to have to make a stand here..." noted Lucy.
Natsu began to feel rather nervous.
Juvia started off by launching a miniature tidal wave at the bandits, causing them to collapse on the floor.
Gray then followed by dropping icicles on the bandits, which sure enough proved to be rather sharp.
Natsu then shot several fireballs at the bandits...though he was still rather woozy from the tornado that Setsuna's clone had summoned, he was still going strong nonetheless.
Lastly, Lucy decided to attack the bandits with something rather ironic...a flock of magpies.
"Agh!" exclaimed one of the bandits.
"Get them off me!" bellowed another bandit.
"They're trying to take my jewels!" exclaimed a third bandit.
"Well, that worked surprising well." noted Lucy.
However, she quickly discovered that the former bandit chief was now piloting what appeared to be a war machine.
"Something tells me they're starting to get rather desperate." spoke Lucy.
Natsu's face was covered with sweat.
Immediately, the war machine began to shoot several cannonballs.
"Look out!" exclaimed Gray.
This was then followed by the war machine charging straight towards them.
"Oh my..." noted Juvia.
It appeared that they were going to have to work together once again in order to take down the machine.
"Give it up! You're finished!" bellowed the bandit chief.
"I wouldn't count your chickens before they hatch." said Lucy.
"Funny, I believe that I stole a flock of chickens last week..." answered the former bandit chief.
"OK..." answered Natsu.
Meanwhile...
Curious, Naruto decided that it was about time to accept another request. Surely he would do better at the S-Class Trials next year if he became stronger?
Then again, he might not actually be at Fairy Tail next year.
Nonetheless, he decided that he wanted to help the citizens of Fiore again.
This time, he had the peculiar request to slay a vampire.
"Hmm...this sounds rather risky." noted Naruto. Inevitably, the vampire was going to want to drink his blood.
Curious, he wondered if any of his friends wanted to participate in this mission.
Sure enough, Hinata was nearby, licking the flames from another torch.
"Hey there, Hinata! Do you want to help me with a mission again?" inquired Naruto.
"Huh? Sure!" nodded Hinata.
"OK then! Let's become vampireslayers, shall we?" exclaimed Naruto.
"I might become the next Buffy..." murmured the kunoichi.
"The next Buffy? Well, admittedly, I'm the blonde here..." noted the genin.
"But you're not a girl." answered Hinata.
"Fair enough." nodded Naruto.
Curious, he noticed that Sakura was nearby as well, and she was punching a punching bag with her fists, which were currently coated in ice.
"Maybe I should start calling myself the Avalanche...since I have super strength to go with my new ice powers..." thought Sakura.
"Sakura, can you help me with this mission as well?" inquired the genin curiously.
"Sure...what do you need help with?" asked Sakura.
"I'm trying to slay a vampire." explained Naruto.
"Alright then." nodded the medical ninja.
"Um, Sakura...you're taking off your pants." warned the genin.
Frantically, Sakura put them back on.
Curious, he noticed that Gajeel was nearby as well, eating a sword.
"Gajeel, can you help me? I know that we were enemies in the past but..." answered the genin.
"Is there going to be combat?" inquired Gajeel.
"As a matter of fact, there is. I need you to help me slay a vampire..." spoke Naruto.
"A vampire? Alright then." nodded the iron dragonslayer.
Curious, Naruto decided to see where he needed to go to complete the mission.
As it turned out, the vampire lived in a dark, spooky castle near a small town by the name of Scaryvania.
"Scaryvania? Go figure." answered Naruto.
Immediately, the four set out to go search for the vampire.
"Hmm...it says that Scaryvania is to the east...I suppose we should head there for supplies before we go slay the vampire." answered the genin.
Sure enough, there was a dark, spooky forest up ahead.
"We might want to be careful...there might be dangerous creatures in that forest." noted Hinata.
"Well, I already went into a jungle where there were several creatures trying to kill me...one of them ripped off my shirt." answered Naruto.
"You got your shirt ripped off?" asked Sakura.
"Yeah...it's already happened to me twice." said Naruto.
Gajeel rubbed his hand behind his head.
The four of them cautiously proceeded through the forest.
Sure enough, there were several unfriendly creatures inside. Immediately, they were attacked by ghosts.
"Turn back..." warned one of the ghosts.
"It is dangerous..." answered another ghost.
"We know...we're trying to slay a vampire here so that people don't get their blood drunk." answered Sakura.
One of the ghosts slashed her in the face.
"Alright, you asked for it!" exclaimed the kunoichi.
Unfortunately, her fists went straight through the ghost.
"Don't try to punch us...it is futile..." warned said ghost.
"Darn it! What's a girl to do?" inquired Sakura.
"Maybe you could try hitting them with your ice magic?" asked Hinata.
Oddly enough, Hinata's Gentle Fist technique was proving to be very useful against the ghosts, since said technique targetted the soul.
Shrugging, Sakura tried doing so, which proved to be effective.
Gajeel's iron dragonslayer magic was proving to be useful as well...apparently, the ghosts didn't like metal too much.
Naruto tried to summon Taurus and Aries, but they were both very frightened.
"Take a deep breath for me, will you?" inquried the genin.
Taurus and Aries nodded, and began to take deep breaths.
"I wonder why this forest suddenly became so scary." said Sakura.
"Maybe there's something tainting it..." answered Hinata.
Suddenly, they began to hear the sound of what appeared to be wolves.
"More wolves? I already recall facing them in my ice mission...then again, something seems more sinister about these ones..." noted the kunoichi.
Sure enough, they were now under attack by some wolves...who happened to have glowing red eyes. Apparently, they were possessed by something.
Taurus and Aries began to panic.
"Don't let them eat us!" exclaimed Taurus.
Aries immediately jumped into Taurus's arms.
"Um, hello there, miss...I haven't seen you before." answered Taurus.
Aries's cheeks turned red.
"Um, hello?" inquired the sheep spirit.
Immediately, Naruto created some copies of himself to attack the wolves...since unfortunately his celestial spirits weren't being helpful at the moment.
"Maybe I should try summoning a spirit that's braver?" inquired Naruto.
Suddenly, one of the wolves bit Aries in the leg.
"Ouch!" bellowed Aries.
This made Taurus angry...though he happened to be somewhat lecherous, he was also somewhat chivalrious, and he did not want a pretty girl to end up in danger.
So, he began fighting back against the wolves...who oddly enough turned to be more bark than bite.
"There we go!" exclaimed Naruto.
Realizing how brave Taurus was being, Aries decided to step in on the action as well.
Immediately, she began to plow through the wolves with her horns.
"It looks like they're beginning to falter..." said Hinata.
"That's a good sign." nodded Naruto.
However, it appeared that their leader was on the eve on his appearance.
Their leader in question...happened to be a werewolf.
"Uh-oh..." thought the kunoichi.
"You want to get through this forest? You'll have to kill me first!" exclaimed the werewolf.
"It appears that he's guarding the way out of the forest so that intruders won't disturb his master..." noted Sakura.
"Your name is..." asked Naruto.
"My name is Lycan...admittedly my parents weren't too creative..." answered Lycan.
"OK..." answered Gajeel.
Immediately, Lycan lunged towards the four.
Meanwhile...
Levy was trying to get the interdimensional portal up and running again. She had been saving her magic for the occassion.
Now, it was about time to try again.
"Hopefully I can make it last longer this time..." noted the letter mage.
She didn't want the interdimensional portal to close on anyone else.
On the plus side, her experiments with it were proving to be rather successful.
"At this rate I should be able to make it more permanent..." noted Levy.
That way everyone could go back home and everyone would be happy. Sometimes, she knew what it was like to be homesick.
"I feel bad separating everyone from their homes..." thought Levy.
Then again, Makarov did insist on trying to test out the interdimensional portal. He said that it would be wrong to let it go to waste.
Now that she thought of it, she was rather interested in seeing what was on the other side herself.
The world of ninja seemed like a rather interesting place. Was it like the world of magic? There were a lot of questions that she wanted answers for.
"Hmm..." thought the letter mage.
However, she got the feeling that heading to the world of ninja could be rather dangerous as well. She might not want to go in there alone.
"I suppose I could try bringing my teammates with me...then again, they might not be as interested in exploring the world of ninja as I am." answered Levy.
Shrugging, she decided that it was time to continue her work.
She didn't want to be a slacker.
"Let's see now...if I cast this spell and then cast that spell...hmm..." answered the letter mage.
Suddenly, Happy entered the room.
"What are you doing?" asked the Exceed.
Levy jumped in surprise.
"Happy! You scared me!" exclaimed the Letter Mage.
Happy sweatdropped.
"Sorry about that..." answered the Exceed.
"It's fine...I was just working on making another interdimensional portal so that everyone could get back home..." spoke Levy.
"Hooray!" exclaimed Happy.
"Hopefully I'll be able to make it more permanent so that it doesn't suddenly close like it has before..." answered the letter mage.
"Woohoo!" bellowed the Exceed.
"However, I have to wonder how making a permanent interdimensional portal would effect Fairy Tail and Fiore as a whole..." noted Levy.
"Hmm?" asked Happy curiously.
"Now that I think of it...we seem to be adding a lot of ninja to our guild to replace the ones that we've lost to the interdimensional portal..." acknowledged the leader of Team Shadow Gear.
"At this rate we might have to change our guild's name to Ninja Tail!" exclaimed Happy.
"And you just made a title drop." answered the letter mage.
"A title drop?" inquired the Exceed.
"You just said the title of the story out loud." explained Levy.
"I did? Heh heh." answered the blue cat.
"Yeah...I'm starting to see why the author would want to call it that..." noted the letter mage.
"Yeah!" exclaimed the Exceed.
"Can we stop breaking the fourth wall now? I need to focus..." asked the leader of Team Shadow Gear.
"Huh? Of course." nodded Happy.
Immediately, Levy continued trying to research so that she could make a better interdimensional portal.
"How big can I make an interdimensional portal anyway? I'm not sure if I need to limit myself to one size..." answered the letter mage.
Happy left to go take a catnap.
Meanwhile...
"Sheesh...those bandits sure have impressive technology..." noted Lucy.
Did they somehow manage to enter the world of magic?
Then again, she had heard that some ninja had been using puppets to assist them in combat...they were rather elaborately designed.
In fact, according to Juvia and Gray, one such puppeteer had managed to save her life.
"Hooray for ventriloquists...I guess." answered the kunoichi. To be honest, ventriloquist dummies kind of freaked her out. They were kind of...uncanny.
To make matters worse, several bandits had arrived to assist the war machine. Some of them shot arrows, others tried to stab them.
"As if the war machine wasn't powerful enough alone..." thought Lucy.
Thankfully, they managed to take out the bandits quickly.
Unfortunately, the war machine showed no signs of slowing down the assault.
Suddenly, the war machine pulled out a flamethrower and began to shoot out flames at the foursome.
"Prepare to be cooked!" exclaimed the former bandit chief.
"Wah!" exclaimed Lucy.
"Take cover!" warned Gray.
The bandit chief began to laugh...though in the process several of the huts the bandits were using as houses were burned away.
"I might have to help rebuild those huts later..." thought the former bandit chief.
However, his plan to defeat the intruders had a flaw.
Natsu immediately swallowed the flames and began to shoot them at the war machine, setting it on fire.
"Aah! Fire fire fire!" bellowed the former bandit chief.
And since the war machine was made of wood...the fire began to spread quickly.
Thankfully, there was an emergency fire extinguisher inside the war machine, along with an axe.
Using the axe, he pulled out the fire extinguisher and began trying to put out the fire.
Fortunately for him, he succeeded.
"Thank goodness...sheesh...look how messed up the war machine is now..." noted the former bandit chief.
However, the fire extinguisher gave Juvia an idea of what to do next.
Immediately, she attacked the war machine with a waterfall, causing the inside of the machine to be flooded.
"Aah!" exclaimed the bandit chief.
This did the trick, and the war machine was shattered.
Immediately, the bandit chief went to alert Setsuna of the situation.
"Well, looks like a job well done." answered Lucy.
"Yes, it does." nodded Gray.
"I think they're going to send their leader now though...I believe it was that woman we encountered earlier...or rather her clone." spoke the summoner mage.
"I hope that we're ready..." said Natsu.
"Juvia thinks we are. Drip drop, drip drop." answered Juvia.
Immediately, the former bandit chief alerted Setsuna of the situation.
"Can't you do anything right?" inquired Setsuna.
"I tried to stop them, mistress! But they were too strong!" he explained.
"Fine...I'll deal with them myself. Don't make such a big deal out of this." answered the bandit queen.
"Fine..." answered the former bandit chief.
Immediately, Setsuna pulled out her katana.
"Off to slay the intruders I go." said the wind ninja.
"Where did you get to be so strong?" inquired the man.
"Well..." answered Setsuna.
"Alright, you sissies! I want you all to be the strongest ninjas you can be! If you slack off, you're going to suffer the consequences!" exclaimed the sergeant.
As it turned out, Setsuna used to study at a ninja military school. Her parents had been rather hard on her.
"Sir, yes, sir!" bellowed the ninja.
"Right then...show me what you got!" bellowed the rather nasty ninja.
Unfortunately, the ninjas did not have much.
"Are you kidding? C'mon, be a man!" exclaimed the drill sergeant ninja.
"But I'm a girl..." said Setsuna, raising her hand.
"Then don't act like a woman! Act like a man!" bellowed the sergeant.
Sighing, Setsuna decided to give it the best she had.
As it turned out, she had hidden potential.
Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind sent her fellow students flying away.
"Wah!" bellowed one of the students.
"Hold on to your seat!" exclaimed another student.
"Magnificient! Apparently, you're stronger than I thought! Maybe I should use you as an example..." answered the sergeant.
"An example?" asked Setsuna.
Granted, during her chakra test it was proven that wind was her speciality...but she had no idea she was this talented with it.
Immediately, the sergeant asked Setsuna to step up in front of the other students.
"Um...sure..." nodded the wind ninja in training.
Setsuna did as the sergeant demanded.
As it turned out, the sergeant was much more amicable towards those that actually were strong.
"This fine girl is the best student we have ever had! I want you all to be just like her!" exclaimed the sergeant.
Immediately, his students saluted Setsuna with respect.
"You know...as much as I dreaded going here...I guess this isn't so bad..." thought the wind ninja.
She was going to have quite the story to tell her parents when she got home.
"So...you used to be a student at a ninja military school?" inquired the former bandit chief.
"Did you think I spent my time as a youth picking flowers?" asked Setsuna.
"I guess not." answered the chief.
"What is your name, anyway? I don't believe you ever told me before you let me be in charge as the bandit queen..." spoke Setsuna.
"My name? It's Kerai..." answered Kerai.
"I see..." nodded the wind kunoichi.
"Where did you get that katana?" inquired Kerai.
"Well, since I did so well at the ninja military school...my parents gave me this as a gift. Said that I could use it to help me become the best ninja I could be..." explained the wind kunoichi.
Immediately, Setsuna left to go deal with the intruders.
"Good luck out there!" exclaimed the former bandit chief.
Meanwhile...
Once more, Hinata set up a ring of fire to help defend her teammates.
"Funny, during our battle, you seemed to prefer fighting offensively..." noted Gajeel.
"Well, that's because you made me angry...I usually don't fight like that nowadays." answered Hinata.
"Oh..." acknowledged the iron dragonslayer.
"Speaking of which, don't beat up Naruto again..." demanded the female fire dragonslayer.
"We actually got a duel over who got to be the next S-Class Mage, actually." said Naruto.
"I know...I was there. I meant don't torture him again...he's not a test dummy." demanded Hinata.
Gajeel nodded. From now on, he wasn't going to be evil. Being evil sucked.
Of course, Sakura wasn't one to fight defensively. After asking Hinata if she could remove her from the fire barrier, she began pummeling the wolves with her fists.
Likewise, Gajeel began doing the same. Apparently, he wanted to go on the offensive as well.
"Do you want to go on the offensive too, Naruto?" inquired Hinata.
"No thanks. I'm good." nodded Naruto.
Unfortunately, it appeared that even some of the trees in this forest were a threat to them.
Immediately, they began to try to claw at their faces.
"Oh my gosh! The trees are attacking us!" exclaimed Naruto.
However, they did not seem to realize that they were up against a fire mage.
Hinata tossed some fireballs at the offending treants, causing them to burn.
"Well, I guess I won't have to worry too much about trees suddenly attacking me...I might as well become a lumberjack." answered the kunoichi.
Then again, she'd rather attack enemies with her fists rather than with an axe...much like Sakura herself.
However, Sakura now had a variety of weapons to go with her bare hands these days.
"I wish I had some silver right about now..." noted the kunoichi as she began to freeze the wolves solid.
"You will never defeat my pack!" exclaimed Lycan.
Immediately, he began to howl and more wolves began to appear.
"Funny, you appear to be the only werewolf in your pack..." questioned Sakura.
"I know...the other werewolves kicked me out because I was a lunatic..." answered Lycan.
"I can see why." nodded the kunoichi.
"Heh heh...lunatic." thought Gajeel.
Curious, Naruto remembered that he could also summon Gamabunta to help him attack his enemies.
Immediately, he pressed his hand on the ground, and the giant toad arrived to help.
"Lucy, is that you?" inquired Gamabunta.
Curious, he then realized that it was actually Naruto.
"Oh. Never mind, then." answered the giant toad.
"Hmm? Did you say Lucy?" asked Naruto. Apparently, Jiraiya was training Lucy in Naruto's absence.
"Yes, I said that." nodded Gamabunta.
"Oh...I guess Lucy's training under pervy sage's wing...interesting..." thought Naruto.
Immediately, Gamabunta began to attack the wolves, crushing them underneath his bulk.
However, Lycan wasn't one to give up, and he sank his teeth into Gamabunta's leg.
"Ouch!" bellowed the giant toad.
"I'm going to eat your legs!" exclaimed Lycan.
However, Gamabunta managed to grab the werewolf by the tongue, and flung him into the sky.
"Aaugh!" screamed the werewolf.
Leaping his way back towards Gamabunta, he began trying to claw him in the face.
"He's persistent..." noted the toad.
"You didn't tell me that you could summon a giant toad..." answered Gajeel.
"I usually save him for emergencies..." explained Naruto.
Immediately, Gamabunta hit Lycan with some water, causing him to smell rather bad.
This did not do favors for Hinata and Gajeel's heightened senses of smell, who began covering their noses.
"Ugh...my nose..." murmured Hinata.
"Agh..." spoke Gajeel.
In retaliation, Lycan began to tear into Gamabunta viciously.
"I might need some help here..." said the giant toad. Lycan may be much smaller than he was, but he was still very ferocious.
"Taurus! Aries!" exclaimed Naruto.
Taurus and Aries began to help the giant toad defeat Lycan, attacking him with an axe and some wool respectively.
"Aaugh!" exclaimed Lycan.
Oddly enough, the wool in question made him feel rather relaxed.
"I thought I you could only summon toads..." questioned Gamabunta.
"Not anymore..." answered Naruto.
"Alright then..." nodded the giant toad, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Unable to defeat the trio, Lycan eventually fainted...shortly afterwards, he transformed into a small puppy.
"Hmm...it appears that whoever cast that spell on him...their magic is wearing off..." noted Hinata.
"You think it was the vampire?" inquired Sakura.
"Most likely." answered the Hyuga clan member.
Shortly afterwards, the forest became much more cheery. It now looked far less scary than before.
"So far we seem to be doing a good job." said Naruto.
"I actually liked the old forest better..." answered Gajeel.
"I guess you can't please everyone." shrugged the genin.
Immediately, they continued making their way towards Scaryvania.
Meanwhile...
"Here comes their leader!" exclaimed Lucy.
Immediately, Setsuna approached them.
"Well well well. It looks like you and your friends have launched an all-out assault on our little camp...I guess Konoha couldn't tolerate us any longer." acknowledged the kunoichi.
"No, we could not. You can't just go around stealing our belongings, you know." said the summoner mage.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Natsu.
"No matter...to be honest, I was getting a bit bored being the leader of the bandits...I actually wanted something to do other than go around stealing from others...I'm glad I've finally found something else to do." answered Setsuna.
"Yeah...I guess so." nodded Gray.
"If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you shall get." nodded the kunoichi.
Immediately, she began to blow the four away.
"Aah!" exclaimed Natsu.
"The wind is buffeting my face!" bellowed Gray.
"She sure is strong..." noted Juvia.
"I'm not the leader of the bandits for nothing." answered Setsuna.
She then followed by trying to slash the four in rapid succession. Juvia immediately blocked with her Rashomon gate.
"What's this? It appears we have a Rashomon user here...I'm rather impressed. It's not going to be easy to tear it down...at least not for my loyal bandit crew..." noted Setsuna.
The Rashomon gate then followed by shooting bubbles at the kunoichi, who began cutting through them with her blade.
"I haven't recalled a Rashomon gate being able to do so before...but I guess I have to adapt accordingly." answered the kunoichi.
Immediately, she began to slash and cut the Rashomon metal gate, causing it to fall apart. She then panted in exhaustion shortly afterwards. It was hard work.
"That was one strong metal gate...now then, where were we? Ah yes!" exclaimed Setsuna.
Summoning three clones of herself, she began to whip up a hurricane.
Immediately, the four of them found themselves being buffeted with some rather fierce wind indeed.
"What jutsu is most effective against wind, anyway?" inquired Gray.
"I believe that it was fire jutsu...Natsu, you need to do something about this!" exclaimed Lucy.
"You think I can do it? I hope you're right..." answered the fire mage.
"Well, at least he seems a bit more confident than our last mission together..." thought the kunoichi.
Taking a deep breath, Natsu let out a Fire Dragon's Roar, causing the wind clones to disappear and the winds to disappear.
Setsuna was rather shocked at the occurrence. Then again, considering a wind user's corresponding weakness in the chakra elemental table, she wasn't too surprised. It was only a matter of time before one of them was going to try that.
"I might need to be cautious...that drill sergeant did warn me that wind ninja were weak against fire ninja...and that I would be at a disadvantage if I ended up facing one..." noted Setsuna.
She began wondering if pillaging ninja from the Land Of Fire was such a good idea, and if she should have tried pillaging ninja from the Land Of Lightning instead.
But no matter. Even if she found herself outmatched, she could always rely on her apprentice to help her out in a bad situation.
But for the time being, she needed to deal with her biggest threat.
Immediately, she began to slash Natsu repeatedly.
"Agh!" exclaimed Natsu.
He collapsed on the ground, not expecting Setsuna to be so quick.
"Natsu!" bellowed Lucy.
Fortunately, Juvia was there to help. She immediately stuffed Natsu in her body so that he could heal.
However, this caused Setsuna to mark her as her next target.
"Stab the medic first...the drill sergeant said..." answered the wind ninja.
As Juvia knew, if she suffered damage while Natsu was still in her body, he was going to feel it as well.
She immediately began trying to avoid Setsuna's attacks while Natsu began the healing process.
"I'm giving my name a whole new meaning..." thought Juvia, noting how similar her name was to "rejuvenation".
"Should we help her?" asked Gray.
"I believe so, yes." nodded Lucy.
Immediately, Gray used his ice magic to freeze Setsuna in place.
"Let me go!" exclaimed Setsuna.
"Only if you agree not to rob the Land Of Fire again..." answered Gray.
"That's a bit tempting at the moment...but there's still a lot of loot that I've left unplundered..." noted the wind ninja.
Immediately, she broke free from Gray's ice magic.
"Darn it! I was hoping that it would hold her a bit longer..." noted the ice mage.
She then followed by shooting wind sickles at Gray.
"Yeowch!" bellowed the ice mage.
At this point, Lucy decided to see if she could summon a magical creature rather than an animal for a change.
She ended up summoning a miniature dragon.
"Perfect! Now I can fight wind with fire!" bellowed the kunoichi.
"Isn't that just dandy?" asked the dragon.
"Why do you sound like Eddie Murphy?" inquired Lucy.
"No reason..." answered the miniature dragon.
Immediately, Lucy used her mini dragon to attack Setsuna with fireballs, which she began to parry with her sword.
"Aren't you a fiesty one..." noted the wind kunoichi.
"I'm not going down without a fight." answered Lucy.
"Of course you're not..." spoke Setsuna.
At that very moment, Gray stabbed her from behind with an ice dagger.
"Agh!" bellowed the wind user.
Juvia and Natsu appeared a few minutes later.
"I'm starting to see why my bandits had trouble disposing of you...but no matter. It's time for me to call for reinforcements!" exclaimed Setsuna.
Setsuna let out a whistle, and several bandits appeared to help their mistress defeat the intruders.
"Calling for reinforcements, huh? I do that all the time..." noted Lucy.
Juvia, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy got ready to fight the bandits once again.
Meanwhile...
Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, and Gajeel approached Scaryvania. Once again, the background was becoming dark and spooky.
"Now this is more like it." thought Gajeel.
"At least the forest is still cheerful." noted Hinata.
Suddenly, several villagers began to attack them.
"We're under attack!" bellowed one of the villagers.
Immediately, the angry mob began to throw pebbles at them, as well as lunge at them with their pitchforks.
"Ouch! Quit it!" demanded Sakura.
"Seems they're not too happy to see us..." answered Hinata.
"You're with the vampires, aren't you?!" exclaimed one of the villagers.
"What? We're not with the vampires!" bellowed Naruto.
Curious, the villagers suddenly halted their fire.
However, one of them pointed out something suspicious.
"Wait...if you're not with the vampires...what are you doing hanging out with one of them?" inquired one of the villagers.
Immediately, said villager pointed to Hinata, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
"Huh? Hinata? She's not a vampire..." answered Naruto.
Curious, Hinata recalled that she happened to be in a family of aristocrats...and that she had drunk some dragon blood not too long ago.
Also, her eyes happened to be rather pale.
"Is is true? Am I really a vampire?" inquired Hinata.
Curious, she looked at herself in the mirror and discovered that she had a reflection.
"Oh...I guess not. Heh heh." answered the kunoichi.
"Put your weapons away. She's not a vampire, she is our friend." explained Sakura.
The villagers let out a sigh of relief.
Immediately, they escorted them to their leader...whose name happened to be Samson.
"Greetings! I take it you accepted our request to slay a vampire?" inquired Samson.
"Yes, we did." nodded Sakura.
"I'm looking forward to it." spoke Gajeel.
"Of course you are." answered the medical kunoichi.
"Good...his name is Dracferatu. He's been attacking us and drinking our blood...and turning us into his loyal followers..." spoke the village chief.
"That's terrible." nodded Naruto.
Immediately, Samson handed the four an instruction book on how to deal with vampires.
"Interesting..." answered Hinata.
She decided to hold onto the book for safekeeping.
"I take he lives in that dark, scary castle out in the distance?" inquired Sakura.
"As a matter of fact, yes he does. Be careful! He has a horde of evil minions to do his bidding!" warned Samson.
"Right, of course. I'll stab him in the heart with a stake and watch him turn into dust! Or maybe I'll expose him to sunlight and watch the sun do the rest..." nodded Gajeel.
"I'm afraid sunlight doesn't reduce him to ash...it just makes him sparkle." answered Samson.
"Oh...I guess I'll just stab him in the heart with a stake then." spoke the iron dragonslayer.
"Good luck out there!" exclaimed the village chief.
Curious, Naruto started to wonder if he was being deceived again. Samson seemed a bit more trustworthy than Ebemener Scourge was...but he didn't want to fall for the same trick twice.
"Would you mind if we took a look at your reflection first? Just wondering...last time we went on a mission like this we ended up running into a rather corrupt mayor...he almost made us kill Santa!" asked the genin.
"Sure. Wait, kill Santa? Sheesh." questioned Samson.
Sure enough, he had a reflection.
"Well, he seems trustworthy enough. Let's get going!" exclaimed Naruto.
"I'm with you there." nodded Hinata.
Immediately, the four headed towards Dracferatu's Castle.
"They might be our only hope..." thought Samson.
Meanwhile...
Konohamaru once again walked his way to school. This time, he had brought some ryo to protect himself from the bullies.
"Let's see now...this is about five hundred ryo...this should be enough to hold them off for now..." said the genin.
Then again, their prices just might be absurd. They seemed rather...greedy.
At that very moment, The Sorority approached him again.
"Did you bring the money this time?" asked Momoo.
"Yes, I did." nodded Konohamaru.
"Good! Hand it over!" exclaimed the leader of The Sorority.
Immediately, Konohamaru handed the thugs the ryo he had in his pocket.
"So, are you not going to beat me up?" inquired the genin.
"No. We are not." answered Momoo.
Konohamaru let out a sigh of relief.
"We're just going to wedgie you up that flagpole over there." explained the leader of the bullies.
"What?!" bellowed the apprentice. He thought that he was going to be safe from the bullies now. Why were they still bullying him?
Immediately, the bullies picked up Konohamaru by the underwear and hung him up the flagpole.
They then left him be so that he would be late to school.
"Bye!" taunted Momoo as he headed back home. Apparently, he wasn't interested in visiting his teacher himself today.
"This is a Morton's Fork, isn't it?" thought Konohamaru. Regardless of whether he paid the bullies ryo or not, he was still going to get bullied...though admittedly the bullying wasn't going to quite as extreme if he paid the bullies not to do so.
Apparently, it didn't matter much to the bullies whether he provided them with ryo or not. They were going to bully him regardless. What exactly was their problem? Did they all suffer from a bad childhood in the past?
Considering that he had lost his grandfather because of a deranged maniac that liked to dance around in other people's skin, he supposed that he could relate to them. He began to wonder how he was doing inside the Grim Reaper's stomach.
He was going to be stuck in there forever.
He had to admit...though he enjoyed training with his jonin teacher...he hated having to walk his way towards him every single time. For some strange reason, that was when Momoo and his gang always struck.
He also got the feeling that he wasn't their first victim...and that they were looking for another genin to bully as he spoke.
"Maybe I should try not walking alone for a change..." noted the boy. Maybe that way the bullies would be more hard-pressed to attack him. Then again, Momoo never seemed to try to bully him alone, either. Both times he had brought his friends with him.
"Well, I suppose it's better for nothing." said Konohamaru as he began to free himself from the flagpole.
Immediately, he landed on the ground and helped himself to his feet.
He then tucked his underpants back in.
"Here's hoping that I'm not late for school...my jonin teacher won't be happy with me if I am..." answered Konohamaru.
Hopefully things were going to change one day. But just who was going to be his savior?
"Hopefully someone big and strong..." he thought.
Maybe he should try telling his jonin teacher about the bullies? She might be able to give him a hand.
Then again, she always seemed to be rather busy, since he wasn't the only student that she was training at the moment.
She personally reminded him a bit of Kurenai, who as he knew happened to be his uncle's girlfriend.
Then again, unlike her, she wasn't a genjutsu specialist. She was in fact a ninjutsu specialist. She in fact had mastered three nature transformations, which he found to be impressive.
Then again, one of those nature transformations was one that she specialized in...which in this case was fire, much like his uncle.
Maybe he could try mastering more than one nature transformation. That would be something that he could show off to his friends, now wouldn't it?
These thoughts surrounded his head as he headed towards his jonin teacher.
Who is Konohamaru's savior going to be? You'll find out in due time...but in the meantime, let's focus on our main characters, shall we? He's going to receive some time in the spotlight sooner or later...but for now, I hope you enjoy watching Naruto and Lucy (along with their friends) go on another mission.
In the next chapter, we're going to be introduced to Setsuna's apprentice...as well as Dracferatu...see how I named him? Heh heh.