AN:

"Hello" - normal talking

'Hello' - thoughts

Chapter 19 - New members

A quiet rumbling sound could be faintly heard in the silence of the room. It could be mistaken at first for light snoring but after paying more attention to it one could discern that it sounded more like the purring of a cat...or a fox. Mirajane, who was a very light sleeper, eventually woke up because of it. However, no sign of discontent could be seen on her face. The sounds he was making were very faint; if she had not gotten enough sleep already, she would have not been woken up by them. Lifting her head from his arm, she shuffled closer to him and laid her head on his chest. Closing her eyes, she hugged his body and smiled. Unexpectedly, the faint purring sound he had been making stopped and she felt his right arm come around her back, bringing her closer to him.

"Morning, sleepyhead," she said and raised her head to peck him on the lips.

"Morning, little bee," he said too but he appeared to be much more tired than she was. Unlike Mirajane, Naruto had never been a morning person.

"Last night was amazing. The best night of my life." Mirajane said and sighed dreamily.

While humming his agreement, he brought his other hand up to her face and moved a stray lock of her white hair behind her ear to have a better look at her face.

"Even after just waking up, you're still so beautiful!"

The smile that appeared on her face at his words was dazzling.

"Flatterer! But we won't be doing it again any time soon, you left me very sore down there!" she said as if to admonish him but her grin made her words not quite credible.

Although he was a bit embarrassed by her words, he didn't become flustered.

"Didn't say it with that thought in mind. It was just the first thing that came to my mind," he said and pecked her lips again. She kissed him too and but when she tried to deepen it, he pulled back.

"Wait, I haven't brushed my teeth yet," he said, worried of his morning breath.

"Who cares, get back and kiss me!"

Seeing him still not making a move, she suddenly came on top of him and straddled his waist. She grunted a bit in discomfort at the soreness between her legs but she grinned when she felt his morning wood poking her.

"If I want you to kiss me then I'm gonna get kissed whether you like it or not!" she said and laughed when he started to squirm beneath her, trying to get away.

A small bout of wrestling ensued as they were both trying to get control over the other's arms. Of course, they weren't putting their entire strength into it. Given their crazy physical strength - especially Naruto's - they would have demolished the entire room if that was the case. Eventually, she managed to pin his hands above his head and, while sounding a little out of breath, she said victoriously:

"I got you now!"

But she let out a squeak when he unexpectedly threw her off to the side with his waist and their positions were completely reversed.

"Who got whom, now?" he said teasingly, this time with him on top of her.

However, despite initially fighting to get away from being kissed, he leaned down and planted his lips on hers in a kiss that quickly grew deeper and more passionate. Since she was so eager and didn't seem to mind his morning breath, nothing was holding him back from giving in to what he wanted as well.

"Now that's more like it!" Mirajane said and grinned in content after they parted.

Naruto moved a bit lower and let his head fall on her chest, mashing his face against her breasts. She giggled and tried to push him off but to no success.

"Get off me, you're too heavy!"

"Hng... this is heaven!" his muffled voice came out and Mirajane couldn't help bursting into laughter at his behaviour.

Her face flushed a little from how he began to tenderly fondle her chest but she smiled through her slight embarrassment and caressed the back of his head gently.

"I love you, Mira!" Naruto said as he raised his head from the valley of her large breasts.

"Hmpf, you're saying that only because I let you smother my boobs!"

He came up and kissed her collarbone, slowly kissing his way up her neck to her lips.

"I loved you when you were a just skinny little runt too." Naruto retorted teasingly and kissed her on the lips, not giving her a chance to say anything back. When he ended the kiss, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and basked in the flowery scent coming from her hair. "Your hair is so soft and it smells so nice too!" he said and Mirajane found herself starting to become aroused from what he was doing to her.

"We need to stop, Naruto..." she said, struggling to keep her voice even. "Girls need some time to recover after losing their virginity."

To her surprise, he didn't insist on it.

"Okay," he said while moving away "but we can still cuddle, right?"

She smiled at him sweetly.

"Of course we can!"

He rested his back against the top of the bed and Mirajane came by his side, leaning into him. He brought one of his arms around her to hug her and she laid her head on his shoulder, melting in his embrace.

At that moment, Naruto was so happy that he was inwardly starting to worry that something bad was going to happen soon. Life always found a way to screw him over and, because of that, being so happy made him feel as though he had broken some kind of law or had committed a sin. He had never realized just how starved for affection he had been all his life until he finally became one with Mirajane the previous night. And now, he could not get enough of it. Whether she knew what was going on in his mind at that moment or not, Mirajane intertwined her fingers with his and said:

"I love you too, Naruto. You've made me happier than I thought I'll ever be."

"I could say the same about you. I owe you." Naruto said.

She giggled, her voice sounding like a sweet melody in his ears. It felt like everything she did was meant to attract or tempt him in some way.

"You don't owe me! If anything, it's the other way around," she said and brought their locked hands up to kiss the back of his palm tenderly.

When she was banished from her village together with her younger siblings, it was Naruto that saved them in the forest. He was also the first one outside of Lisanna and Elfman to recognize her as a human being, not a demon. Not only that, he even gave her enough money to rent a house and pay for their meals for a few good months, despite that they were strangers and had no previous connections. Meeting Fairy Tail, becoming a Take Over expert mage, then an S-rank mage at only 16 years old and, after that, not falling into her despair because of her siblings' disappearance - it was all was thanks to him. Everything she had achieved so far, it was in a large part because of him and Mirajane had never forgotten about that. She had never forgotten how much he had done for her. That's why her love for him went beyond the realm of physical attractiveness.

On the other side, Naruto's heart soared at her display of affection and didn't try to correct her. He kissed the top of her head and then closed his eyes, just enjoying the moment, forgetting about anything else. After a while, only the sound of their soft, even breathing could be heard in the room. Unknowingly, they had fallen asleep in each other's arms.

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Mirajane woke up with a start and she almost yelled when her eyes fell on the clock hanging from one of the walls of the bedroom.

"Oh crap!"

She unintentionally woke Naruto up too when she jumped out of the bed but she was too stressed to realize it.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Naruo asked, his eyes still bleary and not realizing what got her so panicked.

"Wake up, Naruto! It's almost noon already!" she said while making a beeline to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

It was completely unlike her to sleep in until such a late hour. Mirajane was the type to wake up very early in the morning. She would always go for a jog first thing in the morning, then take a shower, eat her breakfast and still manage to be one of the first people to arrive at the guild in the morning.

When she came out of the shower however Naruto had turned on the other side, appearing to have fallen back asleep. She couldn't help palming her face in exasperation.

"Wake up, Naruto, we're already very late!"

"Relax, Mira," he said tiredly, not feeling like getting up from the bed at all. "What's the rush, anyway? Not like there's anything to do there anyway."

"How can you say that?! It's exactly the opposite! There's so much work to do!"

"Ehh, like what exactly?"

"We have to clean the courtyard, the remains of our demolished guildhall and build a new one from scratch. How can I relax when I've slept for so long while everyone was working hard?!"

Grumbling for being nagged at, he eventually gave up and decided to listen to her.

'Well, she's not entirely wrong. It's my first day in this guild too and I have to meet everyone.' he thought while taking a quick shower too.

When he got out, Mirajane was already fully dressed and was drying her long hair with a magical device that was blowing hot air. She was wearing a sleeveless black summer dress that came down to just above her knees, leaving her slender arms and her long and fit legs on display, and a pair of white sneakers on her feet. The black dress made a beautiful contrast with the white colour of her hair and her white sneakers fit with it as well.

"You like dressing in black quite a lot, huh?"

Turning off the hair drying magical device, she started to comb her hair. She sneaked a peek at him and when she saw him watching her waist-long white hair mesmerized, she giggled. He seemed to admire it a lot and he had even told her so more than once.

"I like to dress in most colours, not just black. But you're dressing usually in dark colours and since we're going together to the guild today, I thought about having matching outfits," she said and showed him her tongue.

True enough, Naruto was usually wearing dark coloured clothes such as his black trousers, black long coat and a blue t-shirt. As a teenager, back in the Elemental Nations, he used to wear an orange jumpsuit with only the upper part of his top being black but, after living for 6 years in a different world, his tastes naturally changed a little as he matured more. Furthermore, wearing dark clothes also fit his image as "the Raven" and nowadays he understood the importance of giving off a good first impression. After the fiasco of his failed first business attempt when his signboard didn't manage to attract even 1 customer to enter his odd jobs shop Naruto understood that he had to portray a certain image if he wanted to be taken seriously and that dressing in a full orange outfit would not cut it. However, even so, he still had a splash of orange in his outfit - the rather large orange whirlpool symbol printed on the back of his cloak. Although no-one except for Mirajane knew what it symbolized he was fine with that. It looked quite stylish too.

It didn't take long for Naruto to get ready; he was a man. By the time Mirajane finished with combing her hair and was applying a thin layer of gloss on her lips, Naruto was already fully dressed up too. His spiky blonde hair looked a bit messier than usual but it wasn't something a stranger would recognize.

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As Naruto and Mirajane were walking hand in hand by the riverside on their way to the guild, they noticed many passers-by throwing long glances at them. At first, Naruto thought that they were marvelling at Mirajane's beauty - in his eyes, she was the good-looking one between the two of them - but, as they went on their way, he realized that people were staring at him not at her.

"Is it just me, or people are staring at me weirdly?" Naruto asked after a while. "Do I have something on my face?"

Although Mirajane noticed it as well, she didn't pay it any mind. After years of being a model, people's stares no longer bothered her.

"No, nothing's weird at you," she said and kissed him on the cheek.

But when they arrived at the guild, they noticed that the mood in the courtyard became strange when the rest of the guildmates saw them.

"Oh my god, it's the Raven, in flesh!"

"It really is him!"

"Quickly, call Master!"

Weird enough to Naruto, they appeared to be very enthusiastic.

'What are they so excited about? Wait, don't tell me...' he thought when saw quite a few of the people in the courtyard holding a newspaper in their hands.

Soon, Makarov Dreyar appeared from behind a temporary bar that had been built the previous day and jumped on the counter.

"Alright, listen up, you dumb brats!" he yelled, his face glowing with mischief. "Remember when I told you that we'll get a new member today?"

At that, the rest of the guild members burst in questions and excited shouts at the same time.

"Don't tell me!"

"Is he actually joining the guild?!"

"The Raven?"

Makarov grinned in pride.

"That's right! Our new member is Naruto Uzumaki, also known as the Raven!"

Something like a stampede occurred and Naruto and Mirajane abruptly found themselves surrounded by people from all sides.

"I'm fired up! Naruto, fight me!" Natsu yelled with his fists blazing in fire and smoke coming out of his mouth like out of a chimney.

"Kya! One of the top 10 rankers in the "Most Eligible Mage" list! His position will only go higher after the newly issued Weekly Sorcerer's!" Lucy swooned with her hearts in her eyes. There was a magazine in her hands and she traced Naruto's portrait picture in it, noting that he was on the 8th position (Loki and Hibiki from Blue Pegasus were tied on the 1st place).

Many of them were with notepads in their hands trying to get his autograph and even otherwise serious individuals like Erza and Cana were showing excitement.

While Naruto had become very famous during the past few years by acting as the Magic Council's proxy and fixing many troublesome and dangerous situations in Fiore, it was still not to the point where his presence would elicit such a reaction from everyone in Fairy Tail. The reason for their behaviour, however, could be explained by just taking a look at the first page of Weekly Sorcerer's latest issue.

The Raven strikes again: Jose Porla, a former member of the Ten Wizard Saints, dead.

It goes without saying that after such a huge incident - guild wars did not happen every day and definitely not between the two strongest guilds in the Kingdom - the media would not pass on the opportunity to write about it. It was not only Weekly Sorcer that made articles about it, but many other newspapers too.

However, what was even more extraordinary than a guild war was the death of one of the Ten Wizard Saints. The Ten Wizard Saints were famously known by the general population as the 10 strongest mages in the entire continent, not just Fiore alone. And even if their ranks and membership changed as decades passed by, it was almost unheard of for one of them to be killed in action. In these times of peace, in the past few decades, none of the Ten Wizard Saints had been killed in combat. Most of them just died of old age or retired from life as a mage. And that was the reason why Jose Porla's death took the first page of the newspaper.

With that said, after reading the article, Fairy Tail's members realized that Jose Porla didn't just disappear off to somewhere, right when guild war reached the climax. They finally understood why Jose Porla appeared to have retreated instead of taking action against them personally: he had never retreated, it was Naruto who had stopped him. It was their gratitude coupled with his fame and the fact that he had joined their guild that made everyone react like that.

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After living as a loner for the past 6 years since he started his new life in Earthland, Naruto had become accustomed to quiet and orderly environments. Because of that, a few hours from his introduction to the guild, he was laying slumped in a cushioned chair in exhaustion. Dealing with so many rambunctious people for a few hours left him drained of energy.

'That pink-haired brat in particular...'

He was having a hard time believing how much he had changed since he was a young boy.

'Come to think of it, I wasn't much different from him when I was a teenager.' he thought as he recalled how he used to be, especially before leaving on a trip with Jiraiya.

'But even as a kid, I've never been so crazy about starting a fistfight with others. I was just hyperactive.' he said and laughed to himself. Yes, he had had the honour to witness one of Fairy Tail's characteristic guild-wide brawls. A brawl that had been ignited by none other than Natsu himself.

On the other side, Mirajane was sipping from a cup but the tips of her fingers were white, showing how hard her hand was clenched on it.

"That...that bimbo! I can't believe what Cana did!" Mirajane said eventually, not able to hold in her frustrations anymore.

Cana had never shown any interest in the men from Fairy Tail, often saying that they have no class for always brawling like that with no regard for their appearance. But when she saw Naruto, she started to act like a love-struck teenager.

"I can't believe she asked you to write an autograph on her boobs! That little...!"

She stopped herself before she could say something she would regret. In fact, Mirajane and Cana got along very well and that's why she had never expected her to make such blatant advances to Naruto.

"You have nothing to worry about, you know me better than anyone else. Everything will remain just a fantasy for her." Naruto joked, trying to placate her.

She huffed but did not contradict him. She knew that he was the last man who would ever entertain the thought of cheating. He was too loyal for that to ever happen.

"I know but it still pisses me off to no end!"

She was fuming. Naruto grinned at how jealousy was showing its fangs.

"Think about it this way: you're one of the most popular models in Fiore. What would happen if I was to get jealous of every man who has ever fantasized about you while looking at your photo spreads in Weekly Sorcerer? If I got angry for every one of them I'd die of a stroke or something."

Mirajane looked at him in surprise. She had become a gravure idol before she and Naruto became a couple and after that, she just continued doing it since it was easy money and she liked being a model too. She had not thought deeply about the situation until now and Naruto had never said anything about it before either. At this moment, she was reminded once again just how well he had always been treating her - he had fully accepted her as she was, not asking her to change her lifestyle to fit his tastes.

Her anger at Cana now forgotten, Mirajane asked Naruto in a small voice:

"Me being a model... Does it bother you? Does it make you unhappy? Never really took the time to actually think about it..."

Naruto scratched the side of his jaw uncomfortably. He wasn't sure how exactly to get his thoughts across without making her misunderstand his words.

"I'd lie if I said I'm perfectly happy that others get to see you in those postures but... I'm not too affected by it either."

"Ehh?" Mirajane exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, you've been a gravure model way before we even became a thing so I knew what I was getting into. If it was a deal-breaker for me we wouldn't have become a couple in the first place. Wouldn't I be a hypocrite to demand you to change your lifestyle after that?"

He smiled and patted her on the head. The unexpected gesture made her look at him wide-eyed. Generally, she didn't like having her hair messed up but at that moment, him patting her on the head felt sublime. It transmitted exactly the things that she needed to feel from him: reassurance, acceptance and love.

Unaware of just how much significance the act of patting her head had had for Mirajane, Naruto continued:

"Of course, my first instinct would be to keep you locked in an ivory tower only for me to see you -" he laughed "- but I can't suffocate you like that."

"You're not posing naked and you're not doing anything obscene anyway. I also know just how much you like being a model. So keep doing what makes you happy because you being happy makes me happy too. Your smile is all I need."

"Naruto!" she cried out as she suddenly sat up from her seat and she jumped into his arms, nearly toppling them both over. It was only his inhuman reflexes that allowed him to instantly create a shadow clone and make it support the chair from behind to stabilise it and prevent them from making a scene. The sudden commotion they caused already made quite a few people turn their head at them (they were currently inside a coffee-shop, taking a break from the guild) and Naruto looked apologetically at them before turning his attention back to his girlfriend.

"Uh, Mira, what's gotten into you?!" he began to say but then he saw that she was almost tearing up. Inwardly, he started to panic.

"Did I say something wrong? Sorry, didn't mean to-"

While sitting in his lap, she pressed her lips against his in a short kiss - they were in public, she couldn't afford to get too touchy - and let her forehead rest against his. She didn't stay like that for long though because they had already shown too much PDA for a coffee-shop. She sat down back in her seat opposite of him. However, for the rest of their stay there, her hand was lovingly clasping his and her big blue eyes never looked away from his. Mirajane had fallen for him all over again; now, she was more in love with him than ever.

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In the middle of a rocky wasteland, a tall and muscular young man stopped in front of a structure that looked like a fortress carved out of a mountain. From the outside, it appeared as though it was abandoned and desolate, just like the rest of the landscape. A similarly tall man but with black hair and a darker skin tone came out from the balcony of the tallest tower and smirked at the sight of him.

"What are you here for, boy? I doubt you came all the way here just to visit your father. You never do that nowadays."

The young man gritted his teeth at the sarcasm dripping from those words.

"You know damn well why I am here!" he shouted and his magic responded to the anger he felt as arcs of lightning started to twist around his arms and shoulders.

The older man laughed out loud at the negativity oozing from his son's magic power.

"I knew it! I knew that Fairy Tail would not be able to keep around a mage like you! Hahaha!"

"Welcome to Raven Tail, Laxus. I've been waiting for you."

He was Ivan Dreyar, the master of Raven Tail, the only Dark Guild that was not part of the Balam Alliance. He was the son of Fairy Tail's current master that had been excommunicated nearly a decade ago for his acts against the guild. Ever since that moment, he had sworn to get his revenge against Fairy Tail. For years, he had been saving up money and looking for powerful members to join his guild so he could wage a war against his father. Even the guild that he had created was named in a show of hostility to his former guild - Raven Tail.

'All these years, I've been bidding my time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, to get my revenge. I never dared to go through with it because the strength of Fairy Tail's S-class mages far surpassed that of my guild. However, things have changed.'

'The old man appeared to have lost his touch or he wouldn't have lost against a pathetic weakling like the Wind Element from Phantom Lorde. He won't stand a chance against my power!'

'Fairy Tail's Ace, Gildarts, has been away for 3 years and will not come back for a very long time due to his 100-year quest so he is out of the equation too. And now, Fairy Tail has even lost Laxus, who actually joined my side! The scales have more than balanced! They are now tipped in my favour!'

'I'll let you celebrate your victory against Phantom, for now, Fairy Tail. I'll even let you rebuild your guildhall and put your affairs in order. It will be all the more satisfying to destroy it with my own two hands, to crush your hope and happiness myself!'

A faint chuckle came out of his chest but, as he continued to imagine Fairy Tail's destruction, it soon became a burst of full-blown laughter, to the point where it sounded evil, obnoxious. It took a long while for his laughter to die down. As he watched over the barren scenery of the rocky wasteland from the balcony of his tower, Ivan muttered in dark satisfaction to himself:

"Rejoice while you still can, Fairy Tail. Your days are numbered!"

AN: It's not only Fairy Tail that got a new member in Naruto, but Raven Tail also got a new member in Laxus too. At the beginning of the story, I changed rather small things - such as Eisenwald's demise and Mirajane's upbringing and power level - but with Laxus' early excommunication things will start to be altered more and more. Look forward to more changes compared to the canon as the story progresses.

(Not an English native and I have no beta either. Sorry for any mistakes I may have made.)