AN:

"Hello" - normal talking

'Hello' - thoughts

Chapter 25 - The Apocalypse

A blue-haired young girl, sighed as she looked at the guild's Request Board. There were all kinds of jobs pinned on it and of all difficulties as well - since the old guild's destruction at the hands of Phantom Lord, the S-class jobs' separate request board had been merged with the one containing regular jobs. It could be said that any mage could find a mission fitting their level of power and their area of expertise. Regardless, it was difficult for the girl to find a job suitable for her. In the end, Wendy Marvell was only 12 years old; furthermore, she had joined Fairy Tail only 2 weeks ago. She lacked in both strength and maturity. She was too young.

"There's nothing that really catches your eye, is there?" a white she-cat asked from the side.

"Welcome back! Are you looking for your next job already? You seem to be getting familiar with the way things work here." a black-haired woman in her mid-twenties said and smiled kindly. It was Makarov's secretary. She was not a mage but people in Fairy Tail did not look down on her. She was good at what she did. In fact, she was not the only non-mage employed by the guild. The barman, the waiters, the kitchen staff and the janitors were also regular people.

"So you say, but the only jobs you allow her to take up are those really simple jobs within this town." the white cat complained.

"Hey, Carla!" Wendy admonished.

Mirajane, who was sitting at a nearby table looked up and smiled as well at the two of them. Both Wendy and Carla was so cute that she felt like pinching their cheeks and hugging the life out of them whenever she saw them. She simply adored cute things.

"I think it's important to build your experience with the smaller jobs first, though," Mirajane said.

"But don't you think it's about time she tried something big?" "I agree, maybe she should pick up a request from a town further away." Natsu and Gray popped out of nowhere and said, agreeing with the white Exceed.

Wendy clenched her fists in determination and said:

"It's ok. I'm going to work harder until I'm fit enough to take on a big job and be of use to everyone!"

Carla snorted in annoyance but Mirajane had hearts in her eyes. She unexpectedly came to the young girl, knelt in front of her and hugged her tightly to her ample bosom while letting out a small squeal.

"Kya! You're just too cute!"

Wendy's face flushed but it wasn't clear if it was due to how happy or how embarrassed she was. That's because it was no secret that when she had met Mirajane for the first time, her first reaction was to shout in excitement: 'The one and only Mirajane! Carla, can you believe it?!'. She was a big fan of hers even while she was part of Cait Shelter. If it wasn't for her extreme shyness she would have probably asked for an autograph too.

It wasn't only Mirajane whose heart Wendy had captured. The rest of her guildmates were charmed by the young girl too.

"You want to be of use to everyone, huh..." Max said in admiration.

"Good luck!" Warren cheered.

"Seeing such a hard-working, obedient girl just makes me want to root for her." Cana also added with a smile.

Despite her shyness, Wendy was pumped up by everyone's encouragement and support.

"Un, I'll do my best!" she exclaimed.

It was then that Happy's sardonic voice came:

"Lucy could learn a thing or two from her."

This time, Naruto grinned too. Generally, he was not mingling with the others that much because he had become rather introverted after spending nearly 6 years all alone. In addition, he was in a different age group than most of the members too - either he was too old compared to those like Natsu, Max and the rest - or too young and non-perverted to hang out with those like Macao and Wakaba. However, he loved watching the rest of the members with each other. He even started to take part in the bets on who would win whenever a brawl took place in the guild. He also loved watching Gray and Natsu beating the crap out of each other on a daily basis. To him, watching the people in this guild was almost like watching a comedy play at the theatre. Speaking of, Naruto especially enjoyed it when the blue Exceed riled up the blonde Celestial Mage. The blue cat seemed to have a special talent when it came to trolling others.

True to his expectations, Lucy glared at the blue cat and retorted:

"I'm admirable and obedient too!"

"What? Which part?" Happy asked.

"Every part of me!" Lucy yelled, "I am the very embodiment of admirability and obedience!"

"Admirable? Obedient?" Happy brought his paws in front of his mouth. "Pffft!" He burst into laughter.

"What was that supposed to mean?!" Lucy yelled and started to run after the blue cat who quickly slipped away.

Naruto chuckled heartily.

'That cat is too funny. I wouldn't mind having one like that too.'

But when he thought of how Mirajane swooned whenever she saw cute things - even Lucy had learnt the hard way to never summon Plue when Mirajane was around - he changed his mind. He didn't want to share Mirajane's affections with anyone. Not even a cat.

After Lucy and Happy disappeared and peace was reinstalled, Reedus said:

"Those members who are currently away will probably be in for a shock when they get back and see such a young child in our guild. It's been quite a few years since we've had such young members, Romeo not counting."

"Yeah, like Gildarts," Warren said and nodded in agreement.

"Gildarts, huh? There's no news from him as usual. How many years has it been since he left for his last job?" Gray said in wonder.

"Three years... I think." Natsu answered. He looked down.

"Don't worry about it," Max said in encouragement. "It's Gildarts we're talking about, not just any one of us."

"Yeah, totally. He's an exception, all right." Warren said categorically.

Just then, the bells of Magnolia Town's Cathedral started to ring loudly, in a particular pattern, and Natsu suddenly became excited. He rushed to the second floor of the guildhall and came out on the balcony.

"That's no ordinary ringing! And there's no religious celebration today or they would've rung the bells earlier in the morning. That means..."

When he came back downstairs, it looked like everyone was of the same thought with him. An impromptu guild-wide party began and everyone started drinking, dancing and chatting merrily. It was almost like a festival.

The magically amplified voice of a female was heard over the entire city:

"Attention, all residents! Magnolia is about to enter Gildarts Shift! Please proceed to your prescribed positions!"

"What the hell is Gildarts Shift supposed to be?" Naruto tried to ask Mirajane but she seemed just as enthusiastic as the others. He didn't get an answer.

He shrugged uncaringly and returned his attention to what he had been doing. Since Mirajane was now pregnant, she couldn't continue to work as a mage for a while. Therefore, the two of them had been completing some forms in order to apply for the benefit women would receive as help during their pregnancy. But then, he made an ugly scribble with his pen when a sudden earthquake shook the entire building. His eyes sharpened and Mirajane did not have any time to react at all before he grabbed her in his arms and covered her body with his protectively. A second later, they both vanished from the guildhall - he used a body flicker movement to instantly rush outside of the building.

With eyes wide in disbelief, he watched how the entire city suddenly parted from the middle and a street limited by huge walls on each side rose from the ground, as straight as a ruler. Magnolia Town was split in two.

"What in the world..."

It was then that Mirajane explained:

"Gildarts is back. You've probably heard of him before and know that he uses Crash Magic. What you don't know is how much of an airhead he is. If he walks through the town without paying attention, he ends up destroying all the houses in his path without even meaning to."

"How much of an idiot is this guy?!" Naruto nearly yelled, still in disbelief at the situation. He had met Gildarts before and it had not struck him as the type of person that would do something like that.

She laughed at his reaction.

"Over the years he caused so much property damage that the citizens of Magnolia took it upon themselves to build this system to avoid further destruction. So far, it's been successful."

By the time Mirajane finished her explanation, many of the members came out of the guildhall, in the courtyard, eagerly waiting for Gildarts to arrive.

Finally, he was there! However, when he came through the gates of the courtyard, he blew out a heavy sigh. His expression looked as though he was thinking that he got lost once again.

"Welcome back!" Mirajane said merrily and waved.

As if he had tunnel vision, ignoring everyone else, Gildarts came in front of Mirajane and said:

"Young lady, I'm looking for a guild by the name of Fairy Tail. I'm sure it should be somewhere around here..."

It took Mirajane all she had to not start laughing. Her grin almost reached her ears though.

"You're standing in it. And it's me, Mirajane."

"Mira?" Gildarts made a surprised face. "Holy hell, that kid wasn't lying about you. Wow, you sure have changed!"

'What kid?' Mirajane wondered for a moment but Gildarts continued to speak in amazement as he finally took a better look at his surroundings now that he realized he really was in Fairy Tail.

"Oooh! Hell, a lot has changed! You've rebuilt the whole guild?!"

"You haven't changed, old man!" Gray added from the side while also laughing at Natsu who suddenly found himself embedded in the ceiling after trying to ambush Gildarts.

"Man, I'm seeing quite a few fresh faces... this place sure has changed," he said once again in wonder as he looked over all the new members.

But then, his eyes landed on the face of a particular person.

"Don't tell me..."

His eyes became wide in surprise when he recognized who it was.

"You cocky little shit, you actually joined Fairy Tail!" Gildarts yelled but despite the abrasiveness of his words, he appeared as excited as a little girl.

He suddenly jumped at Naruto and the two grabbed each other's hands in a powerful handshake. Everyone was stupefied at the unexpected development.

"You two know each other?! You never said anything!" Mirajane said in surprise.

"I kinda forgot?" Naruto said and laughed awkwardly. "But damn, old man, I never thought I'd see you again, let alone see you come here alone, walking on your own two feet."

"Kuso gaki, what's that supposed to mean?" Gildarts yelled and from the cover of his cloak, his metallic left hand almost came out to slap him.

Makarov also came out of his office at that moment and called out for Gildarts.

"Oh, Master. Long time, no see!"

"Don't beat around the bush, let's hear how the quest went." Makarov joked but that made Gildarts rub the back of his head and laugh uncomfortably.

"Ahahah..." His laughter quickly died out and his expression became sombre. "It's no good... I didn't stand a chance."

The rest of the guild sunk into silence. Just looking at how they reacted when they found out that Gildarts was coming back, it was not hard to discern the amount of respect they had for his strength. It was bordering veneration. Gildarts was their hero. To hear that he failed in his quest shocked them.

"No way!"

"The one and only Gildarts..."

"Failed at a quest?!"

"I can't believe it!"

It had been a Century quest. Above the S-class missions, there were SS-class jobs Above those, there were the Decade jobs - those that had not been completed for a decade or more. And above those were the Century quests. Quests that nobody had managed to complete even after 100 years since they were issued.

"Sorry... I guess I've stained the reputation of our guild." Gildarts said apologetically.

Makarov shook his head.

"No. It's enough for me that you have returned alive. As far as I know, you're the only one to ever attempt the quest and return to tell the tale."

Gildarts grinned said while looking at Naruto.

"I'm not surprised to hear that. After all, I would have probably died too if it wasn't for him."

If they thought before that nothing could surprise them anymore, they were further startled when they heard those words and followed his line of sight. They realized that he was looking at Naruto.

"Naruto here saved my life."

\\\\\

Later that night, Naruto and Mirajane were walking by the riverbank, rather quietly. Naruto was not as chatty as he usually was with her and Mirajane's intuition told her that there was something on his mind.

He sighed. They both knew each other too well for one to pretend they were fine and the other to believe it. He said:

"We've never talked in detail about what happened during my SS-class quest, have we?"

Now that she thought about it, Mirajane realized he was right. The subject just never came around. First, it was the guild war against Phantom Lord and then it was the fact that they had moved together. For the first two weeks, they were so absorbed by each other that they didn't think about anything else. Then, Mirajane became pregnant. And after that, the guild war against Raven Tail happened and Mirajane was injured too. Although not even two months passed since he went on that SS-class job, so many things happened that it felt as though more than a year passed.

"I've only told you that I managed to escape from Acnologia without injury, right? What I didn't mention it back then was that nothing seemed to work against him..."

Mirajane countenance became serious at his words.

"His speed is so fast that only my Satori Satan Soul's ability to dodge any attack allowed me to evade him... You also know my physical strength... I can smash a lesser mountain to bits if I gave my all. But I couldn't even bruise him when he was in his human form despite punching with almost everything I got."

"Wait, he has a human form?!"

Naruto nodded.

"When he turned into his Dargon form, I immediately used my Rasenshuriken against him but he was completely immune to that too!"

"Immune? How is this possible?!" Mirajane asked alarmed. Other than Naruto himself, nobody else knew better than her just how destructive that technique was. It obliterated everything on a cellular level. How could someone be immune to such an attack? Furthermore, its range of destruction was wide enough to even raze off a small hill of the map.

"The only thing I can think of is that he has a similar ability to that of Natsu. Or better said, Natsu's ability is like a downgraded version of his. Natsu is immune to all fire magic attacks and can eat them to replenish his strength... well that's exactly what Acnologia did with my Rasenshuriken. He ate it and even complimented me on how delicious it was. That son of a bitch." Naruto swore.

"Before you think that probably he can only consume wind-based magic attacks, I'll let you know that Gildarts' Crash Magic was useless too. I guess that's also why he was almost one-shot-killed. I think Gildarts had never expected his magic to be completely ineffective."

They became silent again as they walked. Eventually, Naruto said:

"I'm just worried. Too many unexpected things happened as of late. And I couldn't protect you properly. The guild war against Phantom Lord - I barely managed to get back to Magnolia in time. Actually, if it wasn't for Erza tanking Jupiter Cannon's magic attack god knows what would have happened. Then, something similar happened when Raven Tail attacked. I couldn't get out of the Rune Barrier in time and you almost died because of it."

He stopped and looked at the river.

"If I couldn't even protect you properly against something like that, what am I going to do if Acnologia were to attack now?"

Mirajane's hold on his hand tightened and she made him look at her.

"It's not like that! I believe in you! I believe that with your Second Origin, not even Acnologia would be able to defeat you! Also, you have me! If we are together, who can stand against us?"

As nice as her words sounded, Naruto shook his head.

"Second Origin increased my reserves of magic power and allowed me to fully posses Satori. True, Second Origin increased my strength considerably but if you multiply 0 by how many times you want, the result is still 0. That's what my chances are against Aconologia are. And this isn't something that the power of friendship, feelings and so on could deal with, Mira," Naruto said seriously. "Acnologia had destroyed several countries before. If love and peace were as powerful as you guys in Fairy Tail seem to believe they are, would those countries have been destroyed?"

Mirajane bit her lower lip. It especially irked her how he said 'you guys in Fairy Tail'. As though he was not part of them too.

"You're part of Fairy Tail too!"

Naruto shrugged.

"You're a nice bunch, don't get me wrong. And I actually love the atmosphere in the guild too - always happy and energetic. I really like it here. But if y'all think that love is gonna do anything against someone like Acnologia, you're just being delusional."

"Ok, that was actually mean." Mirajane said and pouted.

Naruto brought their linked hands up and kissed the back of her palm.

"Don't be mad, little bee. I'm not being mean. Just realistic. You probably can't understand what terror does a dragon bring forth because you've never met one..."

"Dragons... I don't see how a human could beat them. And the Dragon Slayers I've seen so far are not powerful enough to even force me to use my Take Over...what good would they be against a Dragon?"

"Even in my previous life, I can think of only one being that could have probably stood a chance against Acnologia - Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. But even then, at least humans had a way to deal with it because it was a chakra beast, a being made of energy - Fuinjutsu and a few other special bloodline limit abilities could work. But Acnologia? I don't know what are his weaknesses or if he has any at all."

"I truly don't know how to deal with him."

\\\\\

That night, Mirajane was woken up by Naruto who was moving in his sleep. She was a very light sleeper and since she usually was the little spoon when they slept together, she was almost pushed out of the bed when his arms started to flail. It wasn't a violent shaking, but just enough to make one realize that he was having a nightmare.

It the night, a tree of gigantic proportion rose in the sky seemingly intending on reaching the moon itself. But that night, the moon was not pale white like usual. It was blood red. As for the tree, it was not just a tree. At that point, it could be called a god tree. It was incredibly thick and so tall that its peak could not be clearly seen because it was shrouded by clouds. It was humongous. Its roots alone were so large that they spread more than one could see with their eyes.

At the base of the enormous god tree, countless corpses could be seen. They were shinobi. An apocalyptic battle had taken place there before. But now, it was over. On their forehead, most of them had headbands signifying their allegiance to a united alliance of shinobi forces. However, one could still discern which Hidden Village they belonged to based on their uniforms. It was clear that all the major military powers in the Elemental Nations had taken part in that war. Regardless, it was over. None of them could be seen breathing. They were all dead.

New roots grew from the base of the tree and all those countless bodies were swallowed into the ground, becoming nothing but nourishment for the god tree. In a matter of seconds, they all disappeared. Those roots continued to enlarge to immense sizes and they started to spread in all the directions from the tree, to entire miles away and they showed no signs of stopping. They continued to grow infinitely. And wherever the roots passed by, the human settlements in their way were all robbed of their human population. The people seemed to not put up any resistance against the phenomenon. They were enraptured, trapped in an unbreakable illusion. They quickly became nothing but cocoons hanging from the immense roots of the god tree.

In one night, entire civilisations fell. In one night, an entire planet was conquered. In one night, a single man took over the world.

Naruto's spirit body started to float into the sky, quickly distancing itself from the ground. Soon, it left the atmosphere and the entire planet could be seen from the outer space. Even from such a huge distance, the god tree had grown so large that it could be clearly seen. Its roots had swallowed up the entire planet. And, at the top of the god tree, a lone being stood. It was a woman. A terrifying aura could felt from her - as though she was a goddess. Clearly, she was not human. Her two horns and the blood-red eye in the middle of her forehead were proof of that.

Suddenly, the eye in the woman's forehead unexpectedly looked in his direction!

Subsequently, his vision became white and, for a while, he couldn't see anything. But when his sight returned, he realized that he was no longer in the Elemental Nations. He was back in Earthland. He recognized the place. It was the place where he had collapsed two mountain slopes into a chasm in order to bury the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

His spirit body abruptly plunged down through the ground. Naruto had no control over his spirit body. He was akin to a passenger. Someone else was the driver. He continued to descend through the ground until the shape of the Box appeared in front of its eyes. He couldn't understand how he was even able to see it. But there were too many things that he could not understand in that vision. When he began to wonder what was going to happen next, cracks started to appear on one of the walls of the Box!

But when he looked at it with more attention he realized that it was not the wall itself that cracked but the demonic head protruding out of it. Then, the demonic head was abruptly shattered, like glass. The Box began to shake and a terrible wailing sound came out of it. It made his entire spirit body shiver. From the wall where the previous demonic head had been, another shape started to protrude. The mind-numbing wails coming from the Box of the Ultimate Bliss continued for a long while until the new figure completely emerged from the wall.

It was black, metallic, just like the rest of the Box. It looked like the head of a beast. However, Naruto would recognize that beast anywhere.

It was Kyuubi.

AN: The title says it all. In his vision, Naruto witnessed the end of the Elemental Nations, the Apocalypse. He even got to see the Rabbit Goddess herself. With him away and with Konoha destroyed, the Elemental Nation had never stood a chance against Madara and nobody had been able to stop Kaguya once Black Zetsu backstabbed him. It was the end. Also, out of the 4 demons of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, another one has been killed... Now, it looks like Kyuubi had taken its place.

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