Author's Notes: WOOHOO! AN UPDATE! FINALLY! Heck, it's not even the longest break between chapters I see some stories have. So much for a 'hiatus' eh?
As I mentioned before, I've been distracted by other things going on in my life, and it's been somewhat difficult for me to finish this chapter. I told you guys I did half of chapter 16 already, but I scrapped all of that to move in a different direction for the arc. Thankfully, something called Labour Day came up, and I made the most out of it. I had the ideas in my head already; I just needed the time to write. Hopefully, the quality isn't too lacking :S
On a curious note, I noticed some reviewers mention that they only read my story because they accidentally stumbled upon it, and found it to their liking. Is this an ongoing trend with a lot of stories, or is my summary too...well, summarised? I always felt a short and concise summary was a better draw than long, rambling summaries that tell you everything about the story (and then some!). I'm not going to change it, of course, but I'm curious: what drew you guys to my story? The summary (I hope)? The title? The pairing? My pen name? Or that awesome image of Jiraiya I have as my profile picture?
Of course, I must thank you all for your wonderfully encouraging reviews, no matter if you read my story by accident or by design. I hope I can continue to write something that will entertain you guys until the story ends one day.
Finally, I wish I could promise regular monthly updates or something, but I can't. What I can promise, however, is that I will post a chapter as soon as it's ready to go online. Now then, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail.
Chapter 16: First Blood (X784)
Naruto milled about in the large meeting hall as Makarov's former team said their goodbyes to each other. Ōba had left already, unwilling to expose herself any further to the silly antics of the trio comprising Makarov, Goldmine and Bob. Well, she didn't mind the presence of Goldmine as much; the guy was pretty normal, all things considered. But Makarov was a dedicated pervert (whom Naruto needed to lecture about gushing over Mirajane's pictures some day) and Bob was…well, Bob was a pervert too, just with different tastes. The blond man knew Porlyusica was born grumpy, but he honestly felt that the crazy team that Makarov had assembled around him during his youthful days had something to do with her irritation at everything around her as well.
He had been planning to Hiraishin out of the area once the meeting was over, but something held him back. Makarov would call it paranoia, but Naruto preferred to call it being cautious. There were plenty of things that could go wrong with such an ambitious plan to take down Oración Seis and destroy Nirvana, and he wasn't about to take chances. Oración Seis managed to thrive despite having only six members. He highly doubted that they could do that without a powerful intelligence network feeding them vital information. From his infiltration of Tartaros, he knew that of the three guilds in the Balam Alliance, Oración Seis was the most reliant on their feeder guilds. It was entirely possible that one of these guilds possess information gatherers.
And what better place to plant such spies than Clover Town? It was the regular meeting place for the regional guild masters' meeting, where every guild master in the area came by to discuss everything under the sun. Sure, plenty of it was useless gossip, but nuggets of important information were exchanged here too. If he were the leader of a dark guild, he would definitely want to place someone with information gathering abilities in Clover, so as to always remain a step ahead of the legal guilds. And even if the dark guilds didn't have a permanent spy hunkered down in Clover, Naruto would bet they would have sent someone over, the minute they heard about Makarov asking for help against Oración Seis.
It was probably impossible for Naruto to detect any untoward presence if the guild masters couldn't. But no masking spell could hide from Sennin Mōdo's sensory abilities, not when it could detect even the slightest hints of magic. Unless a person's magic power was identical to the fluctuating amounts of Ethernano surrounding him or her, there was no way of evading Naruto. He had not sensed any active spells watching them during the meeting, which made things easier. Finding a secluded corner in the large mansion-like building, Naruto sat down in the lotus position to begin his meditation. Eyes clamping shut, he allowed wisps of Ethernano to flow into his body, mixing with his chakra. His field of magical perception widened immeasurably, as one by one, the magical presences in the region lit up like bright stars in the night sky.
Naruto could feel no immediate presence around the building besides the staff around, the guild masters leaving the place, and himself. Casting his detection net wider, he tried to look for other people with magic, but came up with nothing particularly incriminating. The town was clean, filled with civilians and a handful of unimportant mages. Naruto had investigated them before; anyone who lived in the vicinity of such an important location for legal guilds was on Naruto's radar the moment he began his journey as Maelstrom. They came up clean previously, but he decided to keep an eye on them anyway. Forming a clutch of Kage Bunshin, he ordered them to throw on Tōton Jutsu and watch the movements of those mages.
Once his worry was eased, he continued his surveillance. The lack of results troubled Naruto's mind, as he turned to watching the guild masters while they were leaving Clover Town. Was he overestimating Oración Seis? Did the dark guilds not think as far as he did? It was difficult to shrug off thoughts of how incompetent Oración Seis might be, and how much worse the Magic Council was if they allowed the dark guild to roam free for so long despite that.
But at last, something came up. Naruto wasn't sure if he ought to deem that a good or bad thing, to sense a powerful magical presence appear within his radius of observation. The mage was moving slowly towards Clover Town, walking through the foliage that surrounded the town. Then, two more smaller magic users popped up beside the first, moving purposefully towards the strong magic of the person Naruto tagged as Goldmine. The guild masters had scattered already, which didn't bode so well for the potential crisis ahead.
Time to get to work, I suppose.
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"Is there something wrong, Naruto-san?" Goldmine queried.
Naruto hopped off his perch on the tiled roof he had been travelling upon, landing soundlessly before the Quatro Cerberus guild master. They were on the outskirts of the town, a quiet area just before the tree line of the forests that blanketed the valley. The blond man's grim visage obscured by his mask, he silently wished that things didn't have to be so complicated. But life liked to throw him plenty of lemons, and he had no choice but to make as much lemonade as he could before the sourness got to him.
"Maybe you'd like to tell me where the real Goldmine is?" Naruto asked pleasantly.
A strangled laugh escaped Goldmine's lips. "What are you talking about, Naruto-san? Can't you see that I'm who you're looking for?"
"Oh well, it's not like it matters. I already have someone collecting Goldmine as we speak. So, which member of Oración Seis are you? Your mimicry is excellent," the ninja complimented airily. "I'm tempted to take lessons from you, given how accurate you are at portraying him."
"What are you insinuating here, Naruto-san?" Goldmine narrowed his eyes, adjusting his footing and profile. "This is nonsense. Are you trying to implicate me in something I have no hand in? You are far more suspicious than I am, given your insistence that you have clashed with Oración Seis without any witnesses to back those claims up."
"It appears speaking is not going to do much, although I believe there has to be a limit to the length of your transformation," Naruto declared, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Goldmine tensed, ready to spring into action. "I can tell your magic is dwindling even as we speak. It's quite the short duration for such a nifty spell, so I guess it's fairly useless for me."
Before Goldmine could do anything, half a dozen spiked chains burst out of the ground in a circle around the man. Startled by the lack of notice, he was promptly entangled in the web of metallic chains, the sharp additions on the links cutting deep into his skin. The man grunted, biting back a scream as the serrated teeth of the chains tore his wounds wider with every minuscule shift. Blood flowed down his body in thin streams, soaking his clothes and forming a small puddle at his feet. Magic began draining from him, sucked through the chains and back to Naruto, who hadn't moved an inch.
The restraints fell limply to the ground not seconds later, as a blast of smoke obscured Goldmine. As the cloud dissipated, Naruto smiled thinly at the appearance of a small blue creature. It had a tiny body that floated above the floor, small antennae that protruded from its forehead, and tiny, beady eyes with white pupils. It was dressed in a pair of black shorts, and had a sash running from shoulder to waist. There was no obvious indicator of gender. Naruto was no expert on all the magic in the world, and unfortunately, he didn't recognise it. He could, however, hazard a guess as to its identity.
"You obviously aren't human, and you have a summoner, so I guess you must be a Celestial Spirit," Naruto conjectured, as the blue-skinned spirit backed off slowly, eyes flickering between the stock-still Naruto and the ground where the chains had slithered back down into. "And Oración Seis has a spirit mage, am I right? So that's how you guys do it. Infiltration must be a breeze with such a powerful Spirit at your beck and call. How do you get past the short duration of your abilities though?"
"I won't tell you anything!" it shouted defiantly, before flying off as quickly as it could.
Naruto resisted the urge to snort in derision as the miniature spirit rushed off, no doubt to warn its master. Meanwhile, his clone had brought an unconscious Goldmine to Makarov, and dispelled to inform him of the guild master's safety. Naruto briefly wondered what sort of skills the spirit had as he broke into a sprint, right where he last pegged its summoner to be. It seemed that his arrival was expected, as not two hundred metres into the forest, a woman emerged from the foliage, looking extremely pleased at the sight of Naruto.
She was dressed in an extremely provocative way; a set of feathered wings and skirt, held together by a feathered dress with a v-cut all the way down to her navel. She wore a dark blue ribbon around her head, with bows hanging off the side that covered her ears. She also wore navy blue stockings and gloves that stretched past her elbows, along with sky blue boots with feathers from ankle up. Her silvery-blue hair, cut in a bob, shimmered in the brief sunlight that poked through the canopy, and her two white wing tattoos below her collarbone stood out against her creamy skin. It wasn't hard for Naruto to pin down her identity, not when he knew she was a Celestial Spirit mage, and that there was only one of those in Oración Seis.
"Angel, if I recall correctly," Naruto remarked casually, as he slid to a halt before the beautiful woman. "I suppose you are here on an information-gathering mission for your guild."
"Oh, heavens no," Angel's smiled saccharinely, a wicked juxtaposition to her sardonic tone. "You think too lightly of us, Uzumaki Naruto. Or should I call you Maelstrom-sama, hmm?"
"If not for information, then what?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms. "Why else would you have your spirit mimic Goldmine if not for information? I presume that spirit's mimicry must have some way of absorbing memories, for a five minute transformation after the meeting will otherwise be pointless."
"You are as brilliant as Racer implies, Uzumaki," Angel laughed merrily, unfazed by the threat of Naruto. "You are truly quite the thorn in our side…no, in the side of every single dark guild to have ever existed. To think, you fathomed Gemi's abilities with so little to go upon…and even discovered him before he managed to return to me with valuable information! How dreadfully skilled you are. I suppose that is why the Magic Council relied so much on Maelstrom to bring peace to Fiore."
"If you heard about me from Racer, why do you not run?" Naruto enquired curiously, suspicions about Angel's true mission in Clover Town rising. "I did beat Midnight, who is rumoured to be the strongest member of your guild. You will stand no chance against me if you can't beat someone of Midnight's caliber."
"Well, none of them are really suited to seduction, are they?" Angel smirked as she accentuated her voluptuous bust with a supporting arm. She clasped the elbow of her other arm, making a show of sucking her index finger and moaning sensuously "I'm sure even a man like you can fall victim to the charms of a woman. No man in infallible to the wiles of a seductress."
"You're nowhere close to being as attractive as my subordinate or my girlfriend," Naruto shrugged flippantly; he was far too experienced to let such techniques sway him.
Angel snarled as she immediately dropped the act, her hands holding out a key. "You piece of shit! I'll kill you for insulting me! Open, Gate of the Ram! Aries!"
Naruto slipped into a neutral stance, ready for whatever spirit Angel decided to summon. To his utmost surprise, it was a sweet looking girl. The pink-haired spirit looked rather frightened by the prospect of battle, although she was clearly trying to steel herself for the fight ahead. Two brown, curled horns protruded from the sides of her head, and a wool-like strapless dress covered her body, although it was only long enough to reach past her hips. Tan, thigh-high stockings adorned her alabaster legs, and a woolly set of boots covered her feet. A pink wool snood was wrapped around her neck, and she had woolly gloves that stretched all the way up her forearm.
Naruto wasn't about to underestimate the summon of one of the Oración Seis, even if the girl looked completely harmless. It could be a ploy to make Naruto less serious in battle, underestimating the girl and succumbing to a sneak attack of some sort. With that in mind, the blond didn't waste any time, charging forward at the Celestial Spirit. Aries took a step back in fear at the determined, almost manic gaze of her opponent, but hardened her will and raised her hand.
In her palm, a large ball of fluffy wool appeared. As she swung the hand in a wide, horizontal arc, a wave of pink wool exploded in Naruto's direction, encompassing the onrushing blond in its warm and comfortable hold. Despite all his best efforts, Naruto couldn't retain the focus for battle, finding his body relaxing beyond even what he felt when in a state of slumber. The only experience he had that came close to such a state of relaxation would be that recent moment with Mirajane.
Angel cackled tauntingly as Naruto struggled to get out of the wool, denied by the soft fluffy substance that had some amazing adhesive properties normal wool certainly didn't have. Aries didn't let up her attack, seemingly intent on smothering him completely as she continued to toss pink balls of wool at the growing ball of pink, slowly engulfing all of the man. Then, just as his entire torso was enveloped in the substance, leaving only his head exposed, Angel spoke.
"You know, I think Midnight must be getting a little soft if this is how strong you really are," Angel remarked sardonically. "Imagine, defeated by Aries! She's so soft I can beat her with only my fists! Though I suppose for a man so wrapped up in his heroic ideals, she's probably a worse opponent for you than Midnight."
"You…talk too much," Naruto sputtered out, fighting the urge to just drift off to sleep.
"Maybe I do, but that hardly matters anymore now that you're trapped," Angel replied haughtily, a victorious smile perched on her face. "Caelum! Finish him!"
Before Naruto could register the words, such was his deep state of relaxation, a thick beam of light punched right through the pink ball of wool. Aries' warm brown eyes widened in horror as a huge hole was burned right through the wool and what must have been Naruto's torso. Mouth agape, Naruto's horrified stare was desperate as they fell upon Aries, who shied away from the eye contact.
Then, he vanished in a puff of white smoke.
Angel's triumphant grin was immediately wiped off as the ball of wool collapsed into a pile of soft curls, leaving no sign of the blond mage. Rage settled into Angel's features, and she turned to the forest. "Caelum! Flight form! Find that bastard!"
Soft whirling and clicking sounds emerged from within the foliage where the beam had originated. Before long, the Celestial Spirit, now adorned with wings, arrived at Angel's side. The metal sphere was about to flutter up into the sky when something arrowed straight down from above like a meteorite, smashing the flying contraption into the ground violently. Aries gasped at her fellow Spirit's crushing defeat, but before she could react to reach her mistress' side, the Celestial Spirit mage was blown away, smashing painfully into the unyielding trunk of a tree.
Stepping off the crushed remains of Caelum, sparks flickering between broken pieces of metal, Uzumaki Naruto looked like a terrifying merchant of death. A bright blue ball of whirling energies sat prettily in his palm, completely at odds with the sheer power it seemed to possess as it sent Angel flying. He didn't look at all happy with his crushing triumph against Aries' summoner, however. Patiently, he stared at the unmoving form of Angel, now seated at the base of the tree limply. Aries took one frightened look at Naruto, but deemed Angel's health more important than hers as the kind-looking Celestial Spirit stumbled over to her mistress with all the finesse of a cute, ditzy and clumsy girl.
As she reached Angel's side, she couldn't help but gawk at the wound. Or rather, the large, spiral bruise on Angel's side that was darkening into visibility. As Aries planted blobs of wool on the wound, trying to give her mistress a small measure of comfort, a puff of smoke greeted her. Angel had disappeared, replaced by a small blue spirit. It looked almost exactly the same as the one that mimicked Goldmine, but wore orange shorts and had its sash slung over the opposite shoulder instead.
"Mini!" Aries cried out, and quickly enveloped the small summon in her comforting pink wool.
"So I was right. A good thing I sent my clone ahead of me," Naruto said aloud, staring intently at the small blue figure cradled in Aries' arms. "Go back to your world, spirit. You'll only get hurt if you stick around."
"I fight for my mistress, and I will protect her if I have to," Aries replied resolutely. "That is the way of Celestial Spirits."
"Very well then. I will have to forcibly send you back like I did your metal friend," Naruto stated calmly, the ball of energy in his hand growing to the size of a basketball. "When I beat her, I'll hand you over to someone who will treat you nicely. You deserve better than Angel."
As the blond man charged forwards, the huge energy ball bristling with power, another voice shouted out. "Sand Spear!"
Swift as a bolt of lightning, a powerful lance of sand pierced the mage rushing towards Aries. It punched cleanly through his body, going from one side through to the other at chest level. Aries squeaked as the same man died in front of her for the second time that day, his eyes bulging as the manoeuvre pierced his heart with deadly accuracy. Then, as he did before, the masked mage vanished in a blast of smoke, leaving the area bereft of enemies. Excessive cussing was heard as Angel and Scorpio stepped out into view, the former's features contorted in a rictus of fury.
"That bastard! Just how paranoid is he?!" Angel raged at her inability to kill Naruto. "God damn it! He's just playing with me!"
"Tch. You just got overconfident, Angel," another voice reprimanded mockingly. "Midnight couldn't handle him, and you thought you could? Maybe you are as dumb as you look."
"Fuck off Cobra. I don't see you contributing to that asshole's death," Angel seethed, as three more men appeared before Angel.
Aries tried her best to prevent her fear from showing; Angel would punish her severely if she made the proud Oración Seis member look weak in front of her guild. Cobra, the dragon slayer, leaned closer to the pink-haired spirit with a sinister smile. "Oh, isn't she the cute little lamb?"
"Keep your filthy hands to yourself, Cobra," Angel sneered, dismissing all of her spirits. She was strong, but not strong enough to maintain four spirits outside the Celestial World without repercussions. "Now what do we do? Our bait was taken, but he sprung our trap like we were some rank amateurs."
"Sniff him out then. He can't hide from Cubellios or me," Cobra grinned, stroking the smooth scales on the top of the giant snake's head. "There's no way he's going to beat all four of us."
"Remember, beat on him all you want, but he's mine to kill," Midnight threatened his guild members. "Cobra, find him."
"Okay, okay, we got it. You have a hard-on for Maelstrom and you want to murder and maim him. Sheesh," Cobra grumbled at being ordered about. "Just because someone finally got the measure of you, doesn't mean you have to take it out on all of us…"
Before Midnight could punish the dragon slayer for his mockery, however, he was interrupted by a lone throwing knife flying into their midst. Racer stiffened, recognising the blade immediately. The warning he was about to shout died prematurely on his lips as Maelstrom materialised in the middle of the group, crashing a powerful blow into Racer's stomach. As the Slowing Magic user contorted unnaturally around the fist from the force of the punch, the rest of Oración Seis tried their best to react to the threat. A blast of wind and poison converged on the assaulter, and a storm of sand followed shortly as the three other members of Oración Seis tried to crush Naruto in one hammer blow.
The attacks were easily deflected away from their original paths, following the spin of the powerful gust that swirled around their adversary, leaving the mage untouched by the simultaneous barrage. As the dark poison of Cobra and the blinding sands of Scorpio obscured the blond from view, Midnight lost his patience. Snarling fiercely, he took control of the substances caught up in Naruto's protective dome of wind, and compressed it ruthlessly. Half expecting a loud squelching noise to signal the death of Naruto, they were sorely disappointed to find nothing when Midnight dispersed the poison and sand to see within. All that was left of the blond mage was a large script on the ground where he was last standing.
Even Racer's Slowing Magic would have done absolutely no good against an instantaneous technique, as a large blue cylindrical barrier sprung up around Oración Seis suddenly, trapping them within. Midnight, now fully enraged, attacked the barrier with his Reflector mindlessly. He was denied as the barrier refused to budge, completely unaffected by the attack. The dark-haired mage couldn't wrest control of the energy that comprised the prison either, which prevented him from collapsing the construct. Cubellios hissed loudly, attracting the attention of the other members of the dark guild.
"What is it, Cubellios?" Cobra enquired, following the gaze of his beloved friend.
Stepping out into view outside the barrier was their opponent, looking infuriatingly calm and collected. Midnight howled as his enemy appeared, and tried to impose his will on the air that surrounded Naruto. It failed miserably. The blond mage shook his head as he strolled towards them. "Four of the six. You guys are really going to great lengths to kill me."
"Shut up! We're nowhere near done yet!" Midnight growled, assaulting the blue translucent walls futilely.
Naruto didn't retort that statement. "No, I suppose trapping you like this is nowhere near what a true conclusion to our battle should be like. The barrier is a space-time technique, meaning you are all now effectively trapped in a different dimension from me. You cannot reach me unless you have the ability to bend space-time to your whim and fancy."
"Fuck your barrier!" Midnight slobbered, thumping his fists against the barrier madly. "And fuck you!"
"You look like nothing more than a rabid animal to me now, Midnight," Naruto scorned, though a hint of pity was detectable in his voice. "I shall help you end your derangement then. Permanently."
With a single hand seal, the fūin that the blond had left earlier to create the barrier glowed ominously. Naruto watched silently as a massive pillar of black, scorching fires erupted from his seal, completely filling up the cylindrical barrier with unquenchable flames. He was glad to have found Jiraiya's Fūka Hōin scroll containing Itachi's Amaterasu; he couldn't manipulate it directly without a Mangekyō Sharingan, but he sure as hell could put in into his seals for more esoteric offensive purposes. Such as the secondary function of his strongest barrier, first created in hopes of luring enemies in, and dying in a suicidal blaze of glory.
Then, the barrier splintered and exploded.
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Makarov Dreyar wasn't too sure what he expected himself to see as he rushed over to the scene of the fight. Goldmine was relatively unharmed, and the man had woken up almost immediately after he was dropped off by one of Naruto's clones. His old teammate urged him to go help the blond mage against Oración Seis; while Naruto was no pushover, even he could be taken by surprise if a fake Goldmine attacked him. He was of an advanced age though, and he sure as hell wasn't skilled enough to hop on roofs like his former guild member.
Having to run all the way to the other side of town to join a pitched battle between Oración Seis and a Wizard Saint was not very high on Makarov's list of things he'd like to do, but he liked the masked brat, and letting him die was not an option. As he approached the forest, a large pillar of translucent blue flickered into existence, before being filled with black fire. Makarov had never seen black flames before, but he'd been alive enough to hear of God Slayer Magic. Unfortunately, from Naruto's intelligence, Grimoire Heart supposedly had a fire god slayer in their ranks, or at the very least, a very powerful Fire Magic user who manipulated black fire. If the strongest of the Balam Alliance were in the area too…
Shaking thoughts of unpleasant possibilities aside, Makarov was about to enter the forest when the barrier burst abruptly, the black inferno showering the surrounding forest. As the trees untouched by the actual flames spontaneously combusted from the heat of the fire, Makarov found himself having to keep a distance, just so his face didn't end up melting off his skull. A brilliant white energy gathered in his clenched fists as a lone figure could be seen stumbling out of the fiery blaze towards him. It was impossible to tell if it was friend or foe, with the heat haze and the intense fire drying his eyes out.
Makarov tensed as the person, identified as a man, fell out of the forest with little grace and finesse. Third degree burns covered nearly every exposed inch of skin, and the clothes may as well be individual threads. While he wasn't sure about the looks of any of the Oración Seis members, or if there were more than one around the area for that matter, he was quite sure that man wasn't Naruto. The magical signature was different, and the clothes were all wrong.
As the Fairy Tail guild master prepared to immobilise the potential threat, the man raised a palm at him. Suddenly, Makarov found his clothes pulling him backwards, crashing unceremoniously into the brick walls of the house behind him. His clothes didn't let up, tightening their hold on his body and exerting an increasing amount of bone-breaking force. The venerable Wizard Saint fought the constriction, but before he could raise his finger and fire off something at the unknown enemy, the man was flung bodily aside by a huge gust of wind.
Makarov found his garments loosening to their original state, and he scrambled out of the indentation in the wall and onto his feet to face the person who just helped him. He found the tension in his shoulders slipping away instantly at the sight of a sooty, coughing and smoking, but otherwise unharmed Uzumaki Naruto. The blond was thumping his fist to his chest, spitting out black smoke and embers. It didn't look very pretty, but at least he seemed relatively healthy.
"Makarov. What are you doing here?" Naruto asked hoarsely. "Where's Goldmine?"
"He's safe enough. I thought you needed my help more than he did," the old man answered primly. "Don't give me the excuse of being able to handle it. You clearly didn't expect that explosion, did you?"
"No. I didn't think Amaterasu flames when compressed were strong enough to punch through a fucking space-time barrier," Naruto retorted sarcastically, scowling at the minor slight at his abilities. "Black fire is still only just fire, damn it! Midnight got desperate and lucky. Otherwise, I would have turned all four to ashes. Fucking Uchiha and their stupid Sharingan tricks, bending realities one jutsu at a time."
"Four? You were facing four of them?" Makarov gawked, stunned at both the numbers Naruto was facing, and at his nonchalance to the situation.
Naruto flashed him an annoyed glare as he brushed off the dust on his coat. He seemed more bothered by Makarov's line of questioning than the fact that his plan failed, and he just got a face full of black fire trying to cook Oración Seis alive. "Yes, you senile old coot. I said four. I managed to escape with Hiraishin, and afterwards I only caught sight of Midnight trying to escape. I haven't seen the rest of them. I don't even know what it's like at the epicentre now."
"Then I'll follow you. You can't fight four of them on your own," Makarov declared sternly.
"No. You have to get back to Fairy Tail," Naruto said, staring back at the flames that were doing their best to engulf the entire mountainside in record time. "They were trying to ambush me. Collecting information was only a secondary objective for Oración Seis here. I don't know what they know about me, so they may have caught wind of my past affiliations to Fairy Tail. As I said, only four of them are here to kill me. There are two that are unaccounted for, one of them being their leader."
"You can't be serious!" Makarov shouted, pointing at the forest blaze. "You nearly died fighting four of them, and now you're rejecting my help? You may be strong, but you're not invincible! Don't be so foolhardy!"
"I may not be, but even if I die, we've just put together a plan to take them down. If I can bring one or two into the grave with me, that's a win in my book," Naruto retorted matter-of-factly. "Fairy Tail is possibly in danger, even getting attacked now. I'll send you back."
As Naruto walked towards Makarov, the man shuffled backwards, holding out a hand imbued with magic to ward off the mage's advance. "Don't be ridiculous! Don't force my hand! I'll knock you out and fight them all myself if I have to!"
"I don't want to live through this battle, just to see Magnolia Town up in flames and Mira dead," the man smiled morosely, before closing the gap between them in the blink of an eye. "Keep them safe for me, old man."
Makarov felt a light touch on his forehead and instinctively shut his eyes, unleashing a wide and blunt blast of light outwards. Something soft was pressed into his palms immediately after, and when Makarov creaked an eye open to see what was happening, he found himself standing on top of the bar table inside Fairy Tail, his small hand resting on Mirajane's left breast. The ivory-haired girl looked more surprised than angered, squeaking as Makarov clenched his fists in exasperation, inadvertently giving Mirajane a painful grope.
"Master!" Mirajane admonished reflexively, swatting the man's hand away. "What happened? Why are you back here? How are you back here? Weren't you supposed to be at Clover Town?"
"What do you think? Who else do you know has the ability to appear and disappear like that?" Makarov growled in ire, palming his forehead. A quick look around the guild hall showed no signs of an attack by Oración Seis; only the curious eyes of his guild focused on him. "I can't even go back in time to help him now, that obstinate fool."
God damn you and your stupid heroism, Naruto.
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Racer wasn't sure how they managed to survive. He knew how they tried to keep themselves from being roasted by the black blaze, but he was certain they would be dead had they stayed inside that near impregnable barrier for even a second longer. When the barrier exploded, they had been sent careening away, separated by the spreading forest fire. He was dazed from the sudden flight, but no worse for wear. The blond mage groggily rose to his feet, narrowly avoiding the spreading black fire that seemed to cling to every surface like, regardless of flammability. It only served to keep him from getting any more injured; he was already sporting quite a few burns on his face and the loss of his Mohawk.
I have to find the rest before that bastard does. We need to regroup or we're smoked, Racer pondered, as he stumbled towards Clover Town. It was the logical thing for any person to do, leaving the intense forest blaze for somewhere that wasn't on fire. He was sure the first instinct of Cobra, Midnight and Angel was to head away from the flames too. They can fight mages with ease, but they can't fight a fire that was hungrily consuming an entire mountainside of trees.
But that seemed unnecessary only a moment later, as the black fires ceased to spread. A blue energy was blanketing every wisp of the dark flames, encapsulating it and drawing it all towards a single point. Racer had no doubt as to the identity of the man accomplishing such a feat. None of the Oración Seis members who turned up to fight Maelstrom was capable of sucking up the all-consuming and insatiable black inferno like that, and the only man he knew who could manipulate black flames in any way was Zancrow of Grimoire Heart.
Make that two men now, Racer grumbled silently, as he summoned an SE motorcycle that he didn't sacrifice earlier to ward off the fire. He had seen Cobra's pet snake shield the man, and Angel's scorpion summon erect a huge cocoon of sand. He used his motorcycles as a poor shield substitute, and half his magic trying to slow the flames from reaching him, hoping that someone would take down the barrier before they all cooked alive. Midnight, his obsession having turned into lunacy, relied on his reflexive use of Reflector to keep the worst of the fire off him instead of focusing solely on survival. He used that concentration to gather some of that unnatural blaze and punched through the barrier with a bit of difficulty. That shattered the thing, and saved everyone's lives, leaving them sporting burns, singed hair and unsalvageable clothes.
Midnight, from what Racer had seen before they were all thrown in different directions, looked the worst off given his lack of self-preservation in that moment. Racer himself was pretty okay, all things considered; his clothes were designed to keep him safe from vehicular fires and while the black fire was far more deadly, the flame-retardant clothing helped. His hair being burned to ashes was a foregone conclusion, but his shades kept his eyes from the worst of the heat. As Racer rode closer to the man sucking up the black fires and saving the town from getting engulfed like the forest, he spotted Angel on the warpath. He halted his bike, and allowed the woman to catch up. After all, there was safety in numbers against a foe of Maelstrom's magnitude; he didn't actually care about any of his guild mates' wellbeing at all.
The woman was in a decent shape like him, if the red burn marks on her pale skin were any indication. Sand made for a good shield it seemed, if the black fires only left first degree burns on her extremely exposed body. Said body was even more exposed now, with the entire top half of her revealing dress gone, ostensibly burned to nothing. The wings were not present, likely to have been lost when the fire claimed the thin material of her dress. All that was left protecting her modesty was the charred feathered skirt she was left with. Racer knew of her propensity to flaunt her assets, but he didn't think she would enjoy baring her entire torso to the world, especially when her formerly perfect skin was now blotted with angry red marks.
"That fucker!" Angel screamed furiously, as she stomped towards Racer with murderous intent. He tried his best not to stare at her exposed chest. "How the fuck is he beating us so easily?"
"He's not like any other legal mage," Racer muttered, allowing Angel to straddle his bike behind him as they raced in the direction where the captured flames were all headed. "He doesn't fight clean, he doesn't fight with mercy, he doesn't fight with honour. He's out to kill us from the first second. It's like fighting another one of us instead of a legal mage."
Angel didn't say another word, fuming silently behind the speed maniac. As the bike burst out of the smouldering forest with a loud roar, they found themselves a fair distance away from what looked like a pitched battle. Angel smirked as she observed the fight, sliding off Racer's bike. "Well, looks like someone just went off the deep end. His pet snake protected him, didn't it?"
"If that reptile got hurt, Cobra gets mad," Racer nodded in assent. "But that's not an angry Cobra, it's a crazed Cobra. That's as bad as Midnight going nuts right when Maelstrom popped out of nowhere. The snake's probably dead or on the way there for Cobra to get this mad."
And indeed, it seemed as though they didn't even need to interfere at all. Cobra, with body armour composed of a sickly purple and black poison, was hammering away at their adversary, screaming death threats and interspersing it with incoherent babbling. His arms were covered in reptilian scales, and with every wild slash they spewed out large amounts of poison that lingered in the air, adding to the vast quantity that was already hovering around the maniacal Cobra. The poison, seemingly sentient, lashed out at the blond mage with arcing lances that smashed rather than pierced, carving out deep trenches in the ground with every missed strike at Cobra's opponent.
Maelstrom seemed to be rather bemused by the berserk Cobra, and was being pushed back from the sheer force of nature that Cobra had become. His focus was entirely on dodging the man's wild and unpredictable attacks, with no room for counterattack whatsoever. But even as Cobra triumphantly scored a glancing blow across the man's arm, ripping the bracer off and doubtlessly poisoning him, his efforts to kill Maelstrom were stymied by Midnight, who charged into the scene heedlessly. A spiralling blast of air blew the blond mage away violently, but most crucially, away from Cobra and indeed, everyone's attack range. The blond man's body smashed through several brick walls directly behind him, flying out of their view.
With that reckless attack, Maelstrom suddenly became the least of their concerns as Cobra decided Midnight needed a good bashing for sending his opponent flying out of his grasp. Midnight obliged his fellow guild member as they began to rip into each other quite literally. Even Angel, who was not the most astute of mages, knew that having an internal conflict would be detrimental for their mission against Uzumaki Naruto. But any intervention was unnecessary as their common enemy stepped out into view, brushing off dust from his coat. He only looked mildly annoyed at having been propelled through a couple of walls.
As the Oración Seis members readied themselves for another go, the man scoffed in pity. "You guys don't even know how expendable you are. This battle is over. I got better things to do than get caught up here."
Then, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
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Poison. It was something Naruto never paid any heed to, not when Kurama had been around. Even after he reached Earthland, there just weren't enough devious enemies that utilised poison for him to be overly concerned about that particular tactic. Mages liked big and flashy spells that blew the opponents away. Poison was too difficult an art to master compared to magic spells that were just as efficient at fighting and sometimes killing, even if they were far from stealthy. It was just his luck Cobra was a poison dragon slayer, and Naruto was obviously not going to be immune to his poison.
He didn't expect himself to get scratched at all. In an even fight with the dragon slayer, Naruto was pretty confident he would have been superior at close combat. However, a crazed Cobra taking Naruto by surprise, and somehow reading all his moves before he even put them into action was impossible to avoid. He couldn't even get into Sennin Mōdo to toughen his skin and prevent the exact problem that was currently afflicting him. Every time he tried to, Cobra would force him to some crazy manoeuvre that took his utmost concentration. He didn't need a lot of focus to mould sage chakra in Earthland, but he still needed some.
The blond man could already feel the magical poison coursing through his veins from the light scratch on his arm. It wasn't the fastest acting poison ever, given Naruto still had his faculties mostly intact, but it was definitely messing with his chakra control. He surmised that it was probably catered towards disrupting an enemy mage's ability to fight back. The fact that it was burning fiercely as it spread its way up his arm hinted that there was some element of corrosion in there too. If not for his natural Uzumaki vitality, he might already be six feet under.
As he lay in the ruins of a poor civilian's thankfully empty home, he took the breather to try and think through the situation. It was making less and less sense with every passing minute. The seal on the necklace he gave to Mirajane had not reacted to any changing levels of Ethernano that would indicate combat, which told Naruto that Fairy Tail was likely safe. If Oración Seis was truly targeting him, the most reliable contingency plan would be to threaten his loved ones with death. Was the leader just indulging Midnight and letting him get back at Naruto? Was the excuse of hunting him merely a red herring, to divert attention from another mage who was collecting information surreptitiously, under the cover of battle?
The poison disrupting his motor functions and higher-level thinking sure wasn't helping him puzzle things out. As his head throbbed with a near blinding headache, he struggled to push himself out of the hole in the wall that had finally ended his momentum. Swaying dizzily, he steadied himself with a hand on a dusty couch. He wondered how he was going to fight four Oración Seis members now, especially if they were all still as combat ready as Cobra and Midnight seemed to be.
I'm going to need Wendy to heal me at this rate. Porlyusica is more skilled, but her methods take too long, Naruto thought wryly, as he tried to stumble his way back to the fight. His legs gave out before he even reached the next hole in the wall, leaving him panting shallowly in the middle of someone else's living room, his face buried in the carpet that was now more brick dust than soft fabric. I guess they will really need to bring Wendy along when they fight Oración Seis…THAT'S IT! WENDY!
The sudden realisation gave Naruto a burst of energy, as he formed a Kage Bunshin. There was no sense letting the four Oración Seis members take apart the entire town in their search for him. The doppelgänger was fortunately in far better shape than his creator, and bounded off through the line of holes to confront his adversaries and direct them away from Clover Town. With a good bit more focus than he would usually need to muster up for a Hiraishin no Jutsu, he pinpointed Wendy's tag amongst the thousands he had all over Fiore. With a grim smile and a quick prayer, the prostrate man vanished from his spot on the ground.
He thanked his father and mother profusely for their genes as his superior reflexes found him reacting to the situation faster than his enemies did. With a quick touch and an application of chakra, the trussed up Wendy was taken out of her kidnapper's grip before the man had a chance to express his surprise. Naruto was about to make the jump himself, but was interrupted when a staff smashed into his midsection. His vision went completely white as the man administered another crushing strike to his jaw, sending the blond man careening away. His body crashing into something far more solid than he, the blond shinobi felt the rough bark of a tree scrapping against his back as he slid to a stop at the base of the trunk.
The blurry vision of his poisoned state returned soon enough, and seated powerlessly at the foot of a large tree, with a dark-skinned, tattooed man looming over his collapsed form was not where Naruto envisioned his final moments to be. The metallic taste of blood in his mouth was unfamiliar after all these years of comprehensively beating his opponents, but in spite of his impending death, Naruto couldn't help but feel the corners of his lips tugging upwards.
"Maelstrom, I presume," a gravelly voice addressed him.
"Oración Seis," Naruto coughed weakly, copious amounts of blood drenching his mask.
The man's voice was rather flat and neutral, but Naruto could easily detect a hint of ire and displeasure. "That is the name of my guild, yes. My name, however, is Brain, while my colleague over here is called Hoteye. You don't seem to have come off so well against the rest of my guild. Although I must say, I'm quite impressed. How did you get here from Clover so quickly?"
"Trade secret," the blond mage replied cheekily, hacking out another gob of blood. "You are impressive too."
"How else do you think a guild of six holds its own against Tartaros and Grimoire Heart?" Brain remarked lightly. "You figured things out a bit late, but still far too quick for my tastes. How did you know I was after the dragon slayer in your guild?"
"Jellal is dead. If you could get what you wanted from his body, you would have already," Naruto gasped, the pain wracking his body excruciating. "You need him alive and breathing. Wendy can revive him. Attacking me is a smokescreen, killing me a bonus."
"Bravo! A truly brilliant man," Brain complimented. "However, your meddlesome ways will have to end here. It's a pity for you to face me in such a terrible state. I think my other self would have loved to test me against you. I don't suppose you have some method of haunting the dark guilds after death?"
"No," Naruto whispered. "But I can do this."
He vanished into thin air.