Author's Notes: Welcome! I'm still pretty pumped up by the general response for my fic! You guys leave such supportive reviews. On one hand, it makes me pleased that I'm actually doing a decent job, but on the other, I'm mildly disappointed that I don't get to reply critical reviews and explain my stance :P
Anyway, I got distracted watching Cowboy Bebop, so I'll need a bit of time to work out my latest chapter (which I'm halfway through). Don't worry, I still have plenty of text in reserve that'll last until next week, keeping up with my one-chapter-a-day upload speed. Appreciate my otherworldly gift, you impatient plebeians! :D
Dragonking20: I didn't have Wendy join because of the obscure prophecy thing Makarov(?) and someone were discussing after Wendy's arrival in the guild. Something about three dragon slayers gathered or whatnot. So I thought it would be wise to keep her away. Unfortunately, I'm not good with humour or omake, so you'll have to imagine the chaos that is trying to remove Naruto's mask. Erza won't get to fight Naruto until much, much later, and there won't be weapon use on his part, sorry :( As for the Strauss siblings, most specifically Mira, they will appear in Chapter 7.
maelmorth: You must have missed my author's note on chapter...2, I think? There's no harem, just some chicks who like Naruto but he doesn't like them back. That's what the question mark is for. But given a few people have already informed me about that, I might take down the label to avoid further confusion.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail.
Chapter 5: Ivan (X778)
Makarov placed his hands in a steeple as he looked at the two mages that stood before him in his office. One of them looked rather serious, as befitting the situation; the other looked positively giddy at the potential carnage that would occur in short order. Sighing, he grabbed an official parchment off his desk, handing it over to the senior mage in the temporary partnership. "This is a mission from the Magic Council to do a takedown on a small dark guild, Corazón Oscuro. I'm not sure why this is assigned to us, and why we're not teaming up with other legal guilds to perform this duty, but these are orders from the top. Everyone else is unavailable, hence only the two of you will go."
"This will be a piece of cake, Makarov," Ivan Dreyar boasted, barely glancing through the letter before tossing it to Uzumaki Naruto. "I don't even need Ráfaga-chan on this one."
Makarov shook his head, sending a worried gaze at the silently reading Naruto. "No. As small as they might seem, they are still a dark guild. Some support will be good, even essential. You will need someone to cover your back. Dark guilds don't fight clean like we do."
"Feh, I'll show them their place with my shikigami-chan," Ivan grinned maliciously.
The blond man standing beside him handed back the mission slip to Makarov, nodding tersely at his guild master. "I think it won't be an issue with a powerful S-class mage like Ivan on our side."
Makarov caught the message between the lines. Corazón Oscuro will not be able to expose me before Ivan. Leaning back into his high-backed chair, Makarov gave them an encouraging smile. "Bring glory back to Fairy Tail, hmm?"
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Metallic wheels screeched as slowly, the large locomotive rolled into motion, carrying with it passengers and luggage. In a near empty carriage, there sat two men facing each other. One of them had a mischievous grin plastered on his face, while the other had his features obscured by a cloth mask. Even so, his cerulean eyes were expressive enough to convey his thinly veiled disdain for the tall, tanned man sitting across of him. The dark-haired man was unfazed, and only seemed to find his companion rather amusing for carrying disgust at him.
"How should we do this, Ivan?" Naruto asked politely.
"Ráfaga-chan, don't be so serious!" Ivan mocked playfully. "You'll make me lose my good mood!"
The blond man stared out of the window at the shifting views, cradling his cheek in his hand. "We're facing a dark guild, and I'm not an S-class mage as strong as you, Ivan. I think I'm entitled to feel a little uneasy about the situation."
Ivan cackled as if Naruto had cracked a particularly funny joke. "Aw, does Ráfaga-chan need Ivan's protection? Don't worry about a thing! Ivan's shikigami-chan will take care of all the bad guys for poor little B-class Ráfaga-chan!"
Naruto snorted at the insult, before falling silent. Makarov had warned him beforehand that the guild master's son was beginning to show a more cruel and sadistic side, and was toeing the line of legality as a mage. His manic, almost desperate attempts to scour Fairy Tail for its secrets were blatantly obvious to both Makarov and Naruto too, and the blond man was growing so wary of Ivan that he had begun some surveillance on his increasingly wayward guild member. From his secret observations of the man, Naruto was pretty certain Ivan had no love for Fairy Tail, and was as likely to hurt his guild members as he would his enemies. In spite of his feelings for Fairy Tail, he was somehow obsessed with the guild to the point of hysteria.
Naruto guessed the man had more than a couple screws loose in his head, and another would probably force Makarov to excommunicate his own son. Over the years, his narcissism and arrogance had been slowly driving him apart from other guild members and even his son Laxus, whom he held no love for. It would be for the better when Makarov finally found the will to remove his son from the guild, and allow the guild to become a more cohesive family once again. Naruto even thought Laxus could benefit from not pushing his body beyond the limits just to try and please his uncaring father.
The rest of the train ride was mired in uncomfortable silence, and when it was over, Naruto was glad to step out of the locomotive, and bask in the midday sun. Ivan was less enthusiastic about the fine weather, and grumbled for Naruto to follow his lead. As they left Clover Town and headed into the forests, Naruto watched carefully as Ivan released several of his shikigami paper dolls into the wilderness, hoping to find any trace of Corazón Oscuro in the area. They were rather brazen to set up shop near the town where the legal guild masters had their annual meeting, but Naruto supposed they weren't wrong to abide by the old saying of 'the most dangerous place is the safest place'. No one would expect a dark guild to be hiding so close to Clover Town.
Their trek took them rather aimlessly up an increasingly steep slope, into one of the mountains that surrounded Clover Town. Naruto avoided mentioning that Corazón Oscuro was, in fact, on the next mountain over. But he had a cover to maintain, and Ivan was the senior mage on the mission. He had recently completed a spying mission on Corazón Oscuro for the Council as Maelstrom, and reported their small numbers and weak overall strength. It was probably what prompted the mission. He didn't know why the Council would ask Fairy Tail to complete it instead of Maelstrom, but he supposed they were trying to wean their reliance on his alter ego. The Rune Knights were picking up quite a bit of slack recently, especially since they had a new commander take over.
Naruto felt he should be glad for the decreasing demand for his services. It was difficult to keep up so many infiltrations. He had already dropped his identities in several dark guilds due to their minimal threat, and focused his time on Council requests and Fairy Tail responsibilities. With an increasingly powerful and clever Cana to teach, Mystogan to guide and close Animas with, he was swamped. It was also getting harder not to just knock some humility into the eldest of the three newcomers, Mirajane Strauss. She was being a pain in the ass for everyone, including himself, and even the usually levelheaded Erza butted heads with her regularly. He was glad her siblings Elfman and Lisanna balanced out the trio.
His musing had distracted him from the mission, which unfortunately was going nowhere. Ivan looked rather annoyed by his shikigami's lack of success. Tossing a few shikigami into the air, they fluttered about until they snared an innocent bird from its nest. They brought it back to Ivan, who turned it into another one of his shikigami, before tearing into it viciously. Frowning at the man's cruelty, Naruto nonetheless didn't speak as Ivan seemed to have regained his vigour, and let loose a whole torrent of shikigami, far more than what he did earlier. Sitting down on the ground roughly, the dark-haired man leaned his back against a tree as he proceeded to wait for his shikigami to return with good news. Naruto opted to stay standing, his arms folded as he also leaned against a trunk.
A look of unadulterated joy sprung up on Ivan's face after a long moment. He was an exceptionally expressive man, Naruto noted, as he received some information from his shikigami. Standing up, Ivan gestured for Naruto to follow as they ran through the forest, in the direction of where Naruto knew Corazón Oscuro was. Soon, even to Naruto's limited sensory abilities while not in Sennin Mōdo, he detected a magical presence ahead of them. Ivan bounded forward, and with a shout of glee, flooded the area with thousands of shikigami. Naruto observed as Ivan conjured a Thought Projection away from his real body, and directed the mage on the forest floor to attack the projection through a minor illusion.
The shikigami swirled around the mage, before they descended on him, cocooning him tightly in their papery hold. The mage had no time to scream as he was pulled down to the ground by his loss of balance, resembling a giant caterpillar cocoon with all the paper covering him. Only his nose and eyes were left exposed; his mouth was sealed to prevent him from alerting anyone else. Naruto had to applaud Ivan's skill.
Naruto added an extra layer of security when chains sprung from his open palm, and wrapped around the man. More chains materialised from his back, and shot into the air. They arced in their flight, before stabbing into the ground in a circular pattern. A mildly reflective barrier flickered into existence, sealing the two Fairy Tail mages and their captive within.
"My barrier will keep all noise in," Naruto said quietly.
Ivan grinned as his shikigami shifted to expose the man's mouth. "Are you from Corazón Oscuro?"
"Y-Yes," the man stuttered, clearly frightened out of his wits.
"Goood, mage-chan," Ivan smiled morbidly. His shikigami whirled around his hand, before they coalesced to form what appeared to be a large claymore. "Now, mage-chan, you're going to tell me everything about Corazón Oscuro, or I'll have to start chopping!"
"I will, I will!" the dark guild member sobbed piteously. "P-Please don't kill me!"
"Start talking then, mage-chan," Ivan's maleficent smile widened.
"I-It's due east from here. We h-have about t-twenty members," the mage babbled, his emerald eyes watering. "O-Our guild master i-is in the g-guild b-building right n-now."
"What sort of magic does he use?" Ivan prodded the man with the sword.
Though it didn't penetrate, it served its purpose of intimidating the man even further. "I-I don't know! H-He never t-told us. I've n-never seen h-him f-fight before!"
"I don't believe you!" Ivan roared, raising his claymore high, ready to chop down.
The mage screamed in terror. "I-It's the t-truth! P-Please b-believe me!"
Ivan ignored the man's claims as he reversed his grip, before stabbing downwards. The shikigami parted for their brethren, allowing Ivan's paper sword to stab right into the mage's knee. The man screamed himself hoarse as the raven-haired mage twisted his blade, clearly enjoying the captured mage's hollers and tears. Ivan ripped the blade out of the prisoner, laughing joyously as the man wailed at the excruciating pain. The Fairy Tail mage raised his blade once more, ready to run it through the other leg, when a crisscrossed net of chains blocked his downward thrust. He glared chillingly at Naruto, who glared right back.
"There's no need to torture him," Naruto glowered, having observed the situation at Corazón Oscuro personally. "He's just a grunt. Our intel told us the guild master's abilities already."
"He's a dark guild member, Ráfaga-chan," Ivan riposted coolly. "Why do you care?"
"Because this isn't how Fairy Tail operates," Naruto hissed back.
His hair grew prodigiously to cradle the man, pulling him away from Ivan. Ivan snarled at his partner, pulling back all of his shikigami to swirl around him in a flurry of white. Naruto's hair caught the man, forming a makeshift stretcher and straps to hold the mage in place, lest he move around too much and injure himself further. Then, Ivan pulled back all his shikigami, a stern frown on his face. "I'm the commander on this little mission, so you better don't interrupt my fun again, Ráfaga-chan."
As Ivan stalked off in anger, Naruto retracted all his chains, leaning down to speak with the captured mage. "I'm going to put you to sleep now. You might have to sit in jail for a while, but you will be fine."
The mage nodded quickly, as Naruto hovered his hand above his forehead, sending the man into a dreamless slumber. Marking him with a Hiraishin seal to remember his location, he tied the man up with ninja wire, before running to catch up with Ivan. He did a quick check of his equipment as he moved, fingering the Hiraishin kunai as he brought them in and out of the storage seal on his wrist.
He had a feeling they might be seeing some use later.
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Naruto wished he had Kurama there, so he could pretend the fox can track the mage's scent to the Corazón Oscuro hideout that he knew the location of. Unfortunately, Kurama was too unmotivated to follow Naruto on non-Maelstrom missions anymore, given Naruto's penchant for easier missions as Ráfaga. The fox preferred to follow Cana nowadays, and sometimes he sought Lisanna for some cuddling when the former was getting antsy about Naruto's frequent disappearances.
Mirajane had been critical about Lisanna 'consorting with pets of people from Erza's gang', but gave in eventually when Kurama once pouted at her, widening his watery eyes. Most adults swore the fox was using Charm Magic to attract girls; if Naruto didn't know any better, he would have thought so too.
Stumbling through the forest with Ivan in the lead, they eventually came upon the guild headquarters of Corazón Oscuro. It was built in a clearing no doubt cleared for that very purpose; a small rickety shack that showed the desperate times the guild had fallen in. Ivan, still in a bad mood, didn't bother with basic recon. He walked right up to their doors, and smashed it in. Naruto followed behind cautiously, a good five steps away from the enraged S-class mage. There was only a smattering of the scant few members the guild possessed, but as the mage they interrogated earlier revealed, the guild master was indeed in the building. He was seated on a wooden seat facing the doors of the building, his hands clasped together in front of him.
He was a greying man, with a long beard that reached his waist. Dressed in a black shirt and slacks, along with a baggy coat, he looked miserable in his ramshackle guild. His leather shoes were worn and battered, and his wrinkled face conveyed a sense of resignation. Naruto felt a small pang of pity for the guild master; his guild had been declared illegal after they took on a high-paying assassination job to settle the outstanding debts they had. Needless to say, they regretted that decision when the news leaked, and were in the slumps ever since.
"I see we have finally been found," the man rumbled, standing up from his creaking chair. "I am Fuegor, master of Corazón Oscuro."
"Ivan Dreyar, Fairy Tail," Ivan grinned, his mood getting better. "We're here to demolish you!"
"Ráfaga Remolino," Naruto introduced lamely.
"He's mine!" Ivan roared, as he dashed forward, a stream of shikigami flying ahead of him.
Fuegor countered by raising his palm, launching a large fireball that engulfed Ivan and his paper dolls. As the two mages did battle, that left Naruto to fight the rest of the members in the guild hall. He slowly retreated out the door as the Corazón Oscuro members walked towards him, before they shift gears and moved into full-blown sprints. Naruto sped up as well, moving backwards as he kept his eyes on them. They were as familiar with treading forest terrain as he was, and caught up with him in no time. There were thirteen of them.
Naruto grunted as he dodged various magic attacks, ducking behind a tree that exploded right after, sending splinters everywhere. His hair surrounding him in a shield of sharp spikes, Naruto then unleashed his chains, swiftly binding two that were too slow to escape. The chains wrapped around them tightly, Naruto swung them at their fellow mages, succeeding in distracting them from attacking him. The G-forces were too much for them to handle, as Naruto could feel them go limp in his chains. Dropping the two mages, the blond ninja rolled away from another intense barrage that cratered where he last stood.
Two down.
Hari Jizō was required once again, Naruto hiding in his cocoon of hardened hair while getting peppered by attacks. Hidden by his technique, Naruto quickly drew in a bit of Ethernano. Sage chakra mixed, he quickly flagged the two closest mages that were about to enter melee range. His hair suddenly grew to enormous lengths, twirling together before forming a giant maw. The hair proceeded to scoop the two screaming mages into its mouth, before Naruto hardened his hair into its usual spikes. More screams were heard, and blood could be seen trickling out of the mass of hair. The giant hair creation opened its jaw, and released the two mages, both of them bleeding profusely from many tiny stab wounds. Naruto ensured the hair didn't penetrate too deep; they would die of blood loss if they were left alone for too long, but nothing fatal as of yet.
Four down.
A mage wielding Earth Magic sought to encase him in a prison of earth, but Naruto slipped out of the earthen dome in time, his brief Sennin Mōdo over. He ducked as a knife came flashing too close to his face for comfort, and sweep-kicked the man, before blasting him aside with the blunt tips of two chains that sprouted from his palms. The mage released a choked shout from his lips, before his back collided with the rough bark of a tree, slumping to unconsciousness at the base of the trunk.
Five down.
The Earth Magic mage was clearly one wily foe, as Naruto found his footing shaken by the shifting ground. A large tree nearly toppled right on top of Naruto as well, who only just managed to roll out of the way. Naruto shot more chains from his hands, sweeping them about in a large wave. The chakra constructs knocked three down onto the ground, but not out of the count. A sneakier one managed to get close to his left, and swiped at him with claws extending from her fingernails. She was taken aback by the chains that emerged from Naruto's spine, and her hesitation proved her downfall as she was caught in a tightening hold. A quick rabbit punch to her temple knocked her out.
Six down.
One of the three fallen mages recovered enough to stand, but the other two had suffered the chains hitting their heads at high speeds. Too woozy to do much, they were quickly apprehended by chains bursting out from the soil, capturing them. Naruto extended those chains, using the mages as clubs once again. However, he was unable to move this time, given the chains had originated from his feet. The Earth Magic mage was first to realise the fact; being attuned to the ground must have helped. A colossal wave of dirt and uprooted trees rose from behind Naruto, threatening to drown the blond in a sea of soil. Naruto threw the two dizzy mages aside, retracting his chains just as the wave crushed him.
Hair erupted from beneath the Earth Magic user, the giant maws clapping around the shocked mage. A hand punched out of the loose dirt, and as Naruto clambered out of his temporary prison, he was at the end of another barrage. The hair rose higher into the air, before tossing the captured mage at his compatriots. One was too slow to dodge, and was knocked unconscious by the heavyset man. Down to three, they launched everything they had at Naruto. The thick mass of hair that was stretching from his scalp into the ground sprouted another thick mat of hair, which protected the blond mage once more with Hari Jizō.
Ten down.
Chains tore through the physical defence of hair, tunnelling between strands. They caught two mages by the neck, and before the dark guild members could pull the metal away from their throats, their heads were knocked together painfully. Naruto's hair fell away as he emerged from his cocoon, twin fists catching the two captured men in their jaws. With two loud cracks, their heads lolled back, clearly unconscious from the blow. The last mage trembled as he stumbled backwards, his shaky hands held in front of him. As the large magic circle appeared in front of him, Naruto spun his body, his right leg raised. It cut through the circle, and smashed against the man's right ear, discombobulating him. The foot pressed against his face until it hit the ground, taking consciousness of the mage with it.
All down.
Naruto raced back to the Corazón Oscuro home, where it seemed Ivan was finishing up. The building was on fire, though Naruto hazarded it was more the guild master's fault than Ivan's. Ivan was dragging the barely conscious man by his coat, the beaten man's feet digging small furrows in the soft dirt. Throwing him against a tree, Ivan laughed maniacally as he formed his shikigami blade once more, slashing wildly at the defeated Fire Magic mage. The cuts were shallow and non-life-threatening. But the behaviour was unforgivable.
"ENOUGH!" Naruto roared hotly, slamming his shoulder against Ivan.
Ivan snarled, slashing at Naruto. Belying his supposed B-class ranking, he reflexively stepped back, avoiding the slash. It took the next adrenaline-filled second for Naruto to realise he had just blown his cover. Even the shikigami user knew Naruto shouldn't have been able to dodge the move. Ivan tightened his grip on his blade. "Who are you?"
"Your guild mate," Naruto replied stonily. "Cease your attacks. Fuegor's been defeated already."
"He's the master of a dark guild. Are you sympathising with him?" Ivan narrowed his eyes, a murderous gleam entering his eyes. "I think I shall take you in too, spy-chan."
Everyone in the vicinity could tell Ivan had no qualms about cutting down his guild member. In fact, he was relishing the prospect of defeating Naruto. He wasn't going to listen to reason, and he certainly wouldn't let Naruto's explanation convince him. There was no other choice but to fight. Naruto steeled his heart, silently begging Makarov to forgive him. Putting his two hands together to form a cross shape, three identical Narutos appeared out of thin air. Ivan stared in shock as one of them grabbed Fuegor and retreated to where the man's comrades had been defeated by Naruto, while the other two stood on each side of Naruto.
"You have been a naughty boy, Ráfaga-chan," Ivan taunted, wagging his index finger.
The man threw his shikigami sword aside, the weapon dissolving into a stream of paper dolls. He raised his open palms at the three Narutos, and cackled as a spiraling torrent of shikigami tore through the open space between them. With a loud laugh, the torrent split into multiple streams, surrounding and colliding on the trio. His joy was quickly ended when an intense blaze erupted from Naruto's location, quickly burning up all of his shikigami. Ivan scrambled aside just in time as the burning oil tore down a large conical section of the forest in front of Naruto, who looked apathetically at the collateral damage he just caused. The clones dispelled as Ivan laughed madly once more, dashing towards Naruto with a reformed shikigami sword.
Ivan slashed at him recklessly. But instead of dodging, Naruto punched in front of him. His fist slipped through the Thought Projection, and caught the invisible Ivan right on the chin, staggering the larger man. His Projection flickered away, and he stumbled back, his footing shaky. Naruto followed up with a heavy knee to the stomach, lifting Ivan several inches off the ground. Saliva spurted from his lips, but before he could regain his breath, a spinning Naruto smashed an elbow against his jaw, knocking a few teeth loose. The blond man grabbed his opponent's wrist as he fell, and pulled him back. Naruto crashed his knee into Ivan's side, cracking a few ribs, and slammed his foot into the back of Ivan's knee, dropping him into a half kneel.
Spinning once more, Naruto cracked a knife-hand strike against Ivan's throat, causing a choked gurgle to emanate from the mage's lips. Eyes rolled back into his head as Ivan collapsed backwards awkwardly, his right leg and left arm trapped under his own body. Naruto spat at the ground in disgust, before moving to secure Ivan.
Fuegor could only stare wide-eyed at the scene.
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Makarov was reading the report from the Council commending the job well done by Fairy Tail, when he heard the door of his home slam open and shut. Curious as to who would bust into his home in such a foul mood (given Laxus was out on a mission and Ivan should be just returning with Naruto from a successful mission), he walked down the stairs to greet the individual. A tied up, gagged and boneless Ivan was held in a fireman's carry on Naruto's shoulder, standing in the middle of the Dreyar home. He shook his head in equal parts disappointment and anger as his unconscious and bound son was thrown at his feet. Naruto stood before his guild master, the blond man looking's eyes reflecting his suppressed desire for inflicting hurt.
"What did Ivan do?" Makarov inquired in resigned tones.
"He tortured a man for fun, then attacked the guild master of Corazón Oscuro when he was already defeated," Naruto sneered in disdain, kicking the fallen mage childishly. "When I tried to stop him, he attacked me. Suffice to say, I fought back."
"He knows you are not what you seem then?" Makarov sighed in exasperation.
Naruto nodded curtly. "I don't care about my name, my reputation. But he's got to go, for the sake of Fairy Tail. It's a guild under your command, yes, but it's also everyone's guild. There are impressionable young children joining our guild, and they shouldn't have to deal with, or work with someone like Ivan."
"I know," the old man sounded his age for once, as he stood up from his seat. "I know."
Naruto watched as Makarov kneeled down to gently snap the ninja wires that were tied around his son, his tears threatening to spill. His heart aching for his master, Naruto's own tears gathered at the edge of his eyes as he watched the aging father removed the cloth gag from his son's mouth. Makarov wiped his leaking tears with his arm. "Did anyone see his actions?"
"Other than the mages he tortured? No," Naruto replied softly. "Maybe…maybe excommunicating him is a bit harsh? Can you get through to him?"
Makarov let out a hollow laugh, shaking his head despondently. "Ivan has always been greedy for power. Money, status, strength as a mage…it didn't matter, he wanted it all. When he discovered the secret of Fairy Tail, he tried so hard to get it. He even assaulted some members when searching the guild building. People brushed it off as friendly brawling, but you and I both know better. He doesn't care for anyone but himself now. You're right, he has to go."
"Do you need me to do anything for you?" Naruto asked quietly. "I can arrange for him to leave this guild proudly."
"No, the guild deserves to know," Makarov remarked sadly, moving around his son to pat Naruto on the arm. "Thank you, for not killing him."
"It's Fairy Tail's unofficial law, isn't it? Not to take lives," Naruto replied, his azure eyes meeting the old man's. The balding guild master grinned as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Yes, it is. You deserve a good rest for your good work. I don't want to see you picking up a job anytime soon, you hear me?"
"Sure, old man. I got my own things to do anyway," Naruto's eyes curved into happy crescents, as he turned to leave.
I need some time alone to grieve.
I'll take care of your children for you.
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"Everybody's looking at me through rose-tinted glasses since I was a kid just 'cause I'm 'your grandson'!" Laxus exclaimed, his eyes narrowed in anger. "Doesn't matter what the hell I do, it's always, 'well he is Makarov's grandson', 'he is the grandson of the master of Fairy Tail, after all'…I never get any proper credit for anything!"
"You're thinking about this far too much," Makarov replied gingerly, scratching his cheek nervously. His mind unwittingly drifted over to thoughts of a certain mage he knew who avoided his deserved credit like the plague. "Proper credit is a remarkably difficult thing for anybody in this world to achieve…"
"It pisses me off enough already, without you bringing that shame upon me as well!" Laxus shouted, gesturing at his grandfather angrily.
Makarov sighed, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his bathrobe. "Look…"
"Don't you even have any goddamn feelings?! Why did you excommunicate my dad, damn it?!" Laxus roared, to which Makarov sighed.
The guild master of Fairy Tail shut his eyes, squaring his shoulders. "He was a danger to the guild."
"Okay, so he did a lot of stupid things!" Laxus cried, his anger reaching its limit. "But he's still your son, isn't he?! He's still family, damn it!"
The balding mage stared into Laxus' eyes unwaveringly, his tone serious and final. "Family or not…I cannot allow a man who endangers the lives of his comrades to be a member of this guild. Like the generation before me, I will protect this guild. That is the way of Fairy Tail."
"Then what…are you gonna get rid of me an' all?" Laxus sneered, his clenched fists white. "If you do, I'll just go join the guild my dad founded, and I'll take you out!"
Makarov's eyes widened in shock at Laxus' words. "The guild he…founded? Do you mean to say you know where he is right now?"
"Hah, like you give a crap. Ain't no use pretending like you care at this point," Laxus scoffed derisively, turning his back on his grandfather. Makarov called out desperately. "W-Wait! He left the guild in possession of extremely sensitive information regarding Fairy Tail! We must find him, or the guild may be in danger!"
Laxus stuffed his hands into his pockets, his shoulders hunched. "Says the guy who went and chased him out…"
"Laxus!" Makarov shouted, his frustrations beginning to boil over as well.
"I'm going to surpass you one day…not for my father, but so that I can be myself…" Laxus intoned darkly, before shooting a fierce glare at Makarov. "So I can be a man in my own right."
The blond teen stalked out of Makarov's room angrily, slamming the door shut as he stormed out of the Dreyar household. Makarov clenched his fists as he struggled to hold back the anger at his son, his grandson, and himself. His knuckles popped as he shut his eyes, forcing the tears back. Then, he relaxed his fists, taking a deep breath as he regained his composure. Naruto stood before the Titan Magic user, his hands in his pant pockets. His right hand pulled out a slip of paper, which he handed to Makarov.
"Raven Tail," Naruto murmured. "The name of the guild Ivan set up."
Makarov shook his head as he tucked the slip into his bathrobe. "You are too efficient, Naruto. I just heard of Ivan's new guild, and here you are, presenting me the information already."
"No need to thank me," the ninja sighed, before pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the door. "You could have taken my suggestion to let Ivan go with his head held high, you know. It was quite clear Laxus would be deeply affected by Ivan's excommunication."
"And my reply remains the same," Makarov huffed.
"Your choice. Anyway, he's not doing anything special at the moment, although he's mass recruiting mages from all the dark guilds that I dismantled as Maelstrom. He's already broken out plenty of dangerous criminals from jails to add to his forces," Naruto said. "He hasn't done anything substantial yet, but from what I could glean when joining his guild, he's making preparations for an eventual war with Fairy Tail. There's talks of joining the Balam Alliance, but from my understanding of Ivan's personality, he will be too proud to do that, even if the alliance is just a non-aggression pact."
"And the thing that I requested you to help me with?" Makarov cocked an eyebrow.
Naruto nodded. "I've infiltrated that guild already, and I'm working my way up. He's not the type to let the grunts know anything, given how impractical and silly that will be with hundreds of no-name mages. They are gathering mages too, though legal ones, and even did one or two relatively peaceful takeovers of other legal guilds. They have four subdivisions now, and he doesn't look like he's stopping soon. No concrete moves are being made yet, but he's definitely afraid of you, and won't touch Fairy Tail until he thinks he has complete control over the situation."
"Is he prepared for his guild to be deemed dark?" Makarov asked seriously. Naruto nodded, eliciting a sigh from the elder mage. "So it's going to happen no matter what. I can't help but fear for our children, Naruto. They are still too young for these conflicts."
"Don't worry on that front. They are growing stronger day by day, and the bonds of family will spur them further," Naruto replied pensively, gazing out the office windows into the clear skies above Magnolia Town. "Have faith in them. Besides, he won't make a move until he's absolutely sure he can defeat us, which means he's waiting for Gildarts to leave long and far enough not to be a threat. Given his idea of far enough is the hundred year mission which someone else is on right now, it'll be a while yet before he tries anything."
"Even so…" Makarov trailed off.
"Tch, fine. I'll show off my strength there, become his elite, and be privy to all his plans," Naruto rolled his eyes. "Will that make you feel more secure, old man?"
Makarov smiled thinly. "That's your speciality, not mine. Do what you need to do."
"What a bothersome old man. I should never have made that offer," Naruto groused, even as he threw a cheeky grin at his guild master. He disappeared instantaneously, leaving the Wizard Saint to his thoughts.
He pulled the slip Naruto gave him out of his pocket, a grim frown on his face. "Raven Tail, huh?"
Ivan, how far will you fall?