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Normal Speech: "Naruto"
Important or Emphasized Speech: "Naruto"
Thoughts: 'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'
Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield!"
Demons and Dragons Speech: "Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"
Demons and Dragons Thinking: 'The question is what to do with him…'
The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.
It is a world of magic.
Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.
Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.
The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.
There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.
In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.
This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…
…and its name is Fairy Tail!
Chapter Three: King VS Queen
Monday, 7th August X784
The air was fraught with tension, as Erza 'The Fairy Queen' Scarlet faced herself off against the mysterious newcomer. They could hear the murmurs and whispers, both of them, but ignored the rabble in favor of focusing on their opponent.
Both fighters stood across each other in their respective battle stances. Naruto flexed his fingers somewhat, as Erza spaced her legs in order to gain a better position.
Master Makarov broke the silence. "Okay, are you ready?!" he declared loudly.
Naruto just shook his head. "Before we begin," he began, "…let's make a bet, Benihime-chan. Since I'm going to be a member anyways, I'd like to take you out for dinner."
Amidst the dead silence that hung in the air in the wake of his daring proposition, he amended, "Well, that's if I win, anyways. However, if you win, I'll help you in any mission request for a month. What do you say?"
She smiled and said, "But how do I know that you will keep your promise if I win?"
"I always keep my promises or my name isn't Naruto Uzumaki," the blond shinobi said, smirking confidently.
She smiled slightly. "You've got yourself a deal, Naruto Uzumaki-san."
"Oh, no, no, Naruto will do just fine," he said modestly. "After all, we're part of the same guild now."
"As you wish, Naruto-kun," Erza replied smugly.
Makarov grew tired of their flirting. "Are you two kids done flirting?" he asked them crossly. "We want to see a fight, so fight already!"
The two of them had the decency to blush, slipping back into their respective combat stances.
Shaking his head in mild annoyance, the diminutive master of the Fairy Tail magic guild grumbled under his breath about young brats and their flirting. Clearing his throat, he asked again, "So, are you ready?"
Both Erza and Naruto nodded. Makarov stepped back and shouted, "Then… begin!"
Erza immediately yelled, "Kansō: Ken no Mahō!" Her magic power surrounds her right hand, a sword emerging from the array. The weapon was a long sword of bluish steel, measuring four feet long and with an angel-wing guard and a cubic pommel. Grabbing the sword hilt, the redheaded swordswoman swung it around, moving the sword to her side, parallel to and above the ground.
Naruto smiled slightly. He responded by flexing his left hand and summoned a katana with a puff of smoke. Fairy Tail's members, including their master, found themselves shocked by the display. They'd never such magic before. Lucy Heartfilia was the first to find her voice. "Didn't he say that he wasn't a mage?" she sputtered. "How did he use a Kansō,then? He even has a Ken no Mahō like Erza!"
Master Makarov answered her. "Naruto does not use Eternano-type magic like we do, but rather a similar energy that only his people can produce from their bodies. They call it chakra, and its many applications are varied and much more versatile than magic." The guild members were shocked, staring at the blond shinobi and his summoned weapon in dumbfounded amazement.
His katana had an ornate oval silver guard and had a braided crimson material wrapping up its hilt. The sheath was white, made up of what seemed like traditional lacquered wood, and featured several metallic silver ornaments on its far end. Erza quirked an eyebrow, not recognizing the sword that he was using against her.
Naruto held his sword in his right hand, waggling his left index finger at her in a 'come-hither' gesture, but then again he always did have more balls than brains. Erza was also never a woman to back down from a challenge, as seen when she dashed quickly towards him.
In a flash of light, she sliced down at him with a vertically descending slash. But he sidestepped her attack, making her overexert herself before rapping the tip of his scabbard against her wrist and making her drop the long sword by reflex.
Not to let Naruto get a chance to attack her while exposed, she used her Kansō magic to replace her long sword with a pair of short swords that she held in a reverse grip. She attacked with the right-hand sword, with a slash coming up from below but Naruto stopped her attack with his scabbard, surprising her by the fact that a scabbard was able to stop her sword. However, she was undeterred, flicking her left wrist in order to flip the sword in hand so that she could use the weapon conventionally, quickly following up with a high-to-low slash with her left sword.
But Naruto had other ideas. Drawing his katana in a flash, he bared just enough of its blade to catch her second sword, and had effectively pinned her again. Before she could break his hold on her, Naruto shifted his weight forward. A snap-kick to her stomach sent her flying back as he sheathed his katana again, staring at her expectantly.
Erza felt the wind rush out of her lungs from the force of Naruto's kick. She'd felt that blow, even though her basic Heart Kreuz armor. Flipping in midair, she landed gracefully on her feet, tried to take a deep breath, and promptly winced in pain. Looking down, she grimaced as she noticed the deep dent in her armor, along with the throbbing agony that came with severely bruised ribs.
"Maa, maa, Benihime-chan, you should take this fight more seriously," Naruto mused lackadaisically. "I won't be holding back any more. Prepare yourself," he warned her, fully unsheathing his katana.
Makarov and the rest of Fairy Tail alike all gasped, their jaws dropping at his declaration. Contrary to his performance thus far, he was still holding back. None of them had thought that someone could compete with Erza in a swordfight, much less put her on the ropes. What surprised them even more was the dent in her armor testifying to his physical strength, and Erza was having problems breathing.
The redheaded Titania of Fairy Tail glared at her opponent, but knew that he was right. She'd have to finish this fight, and fast, but he would not give her victory so easily.
"Kansō… Kureha no Yoroi,"she rasped, and her armor began to glow with a golden light before materializing a suit of dark armor into existence, in all of its foreboding glory.
Naruto smiled slightly at her maneuver. "Maa, maa, Benihime-chan, you're all dark and sexy and bewitching in a suit of black metal feathers. Deliciously suitable for your fashion sense, I'd say," he teased, her lips curling into a genial, yet perverted leer.
Even though the male guild members agreed with him, they'd have never admitted as such in front of her, having feared her wrath. Happy, Natsu, and Gray instantly shouted, "Are you out of your mind? Do you want to die?!"
Then they all face-faulted once they noticed that Erza was blushing, embarrassed. She was blushing so badly that her face could've matched the color of her hair. But she noticed her fellow Fairy Tail members whispering amongst themselves and gave them all her worst glare, cowing them into a fearful silence. Naruto's amused chuckling snapped her out of her funk. "Well, then… shall we let begin?"
When she nodded in determination, he added, "Then come at me as though you're going to kill me."
She could feel her eyes widen. "Are you…" she began, unsure if she wanted to know the answer to her unspoken question.
"I know that you naturally hold yourself back, because your precious rules forbid you from killing," he mused aloud. His face was deceptively smooth; she could taste his irritation at such a rule, and yet… she snapped out of her assessment when he added, "However… you cannot touch me unless you come at me as though you're trying to kill me."
The redheaded swordswoman nodded. "All right then, Naruto, but don't blame me when you lose," she said, dismissing the short swords in favor of the scimitar that usually came with this particular set of armor. She grabbed the new weapon with both hands and held it out before her, in what he recognized as the migichūdan no kamae, a classic kenjutsu stance that indicated she was right-handed.
Naruto only chuckled at the absurdity of Erza's assertion before his usual cheerfulness gave way to an icy hardness. Bending his knees and crouching slightly, Naruto slid his right leg forward into a battōjutsu stance, making Erza frown as she realized that the shinobi was presenting a minimal profile to her. 'He's minimizing his openings, tightening up his guard,' she realized.
Those glacial blue eyes, betraying no emotion, sent a cold shiver down everyone's back. For some reason, everyone there suddenly knew that Naruto was so much scarier than Erza. This fight was about get serious, and both fighters assessed each other with a calculative gaze.
Going on the attack, Erza charged Naruto with far-greater speed than she had ever previously displayed before. The blitzkrieg surprised him, which nearly cost him the fight as she slashed at his head. He leaned back to avoid her attack but was surprised to discover that she'd chained her attack into a series of sword slashes. He managed to dance away from her attacks, but the last one was too close for comfort, prompting him to jump back. The sensation of liquid running down his face had him reaching up to dab at his cheeks, and his fingers came away bloody. She'd nicked him on his cheek, making him frown as he realized something.
"I congratulate you," he said coolly. "Cutting me is a testament to your dedication and skill in armed mêlée combat. No one back home had managed to draw my blood in combat ever since I turned seventeen. Thank you for showing me that I've gotten soft." Turning to look at her, he smirked. "Allow me to repay your kindness."
He shot forward like a rocket, leaving a crater where he'd been standing. She stood her ground, with her sword held low in gedan no kamae as she waited for him. In the blink of an eye, he'd yanked out his katana and slashed at her, which she met successfully. The loud clanging din of clashing metal rang out across the street as their eyes met. Her lips peeled into a grimace as he continued to press the full weight of his considerable physical strength against hers. Their swords ground against each other, both of them vying for supremacy.
'What ridiculous physical strength!' she managed to think to herself. Naruto's eyes were cold, dead, and the sheer weight of his presence seemed to bear down upon her with all the implacable fury of nature itself. Her mind's eye flashed back to Jellal, and how he'd become changed by what he called 'the spirit of Zeref' and had become cold and murderous. Yet now, here she stood, facing off against another man with those same dead eyes proclaiming the capacity and will to kill.
Lost in thought, she almost didn't see Naruto using his sword scabbard to try and to bash her head in for a knockout blow. He swung at her, but she managed to push back his sword and managed to miss the very tip of his sword scabbard by a centimeter. In that critical moment, he left his back exposed and she saw an opportunity to cut his back open with a falling slash. Taking the chance, she took it but got caught off-guard as he suddenly flipped his grip on the sheath, slamming down on her descending sword. Her weapon recoiled off the ground from his sudden attack, and he went on the offensive.
Having managed to reverse his course in midair, Naruto had left Erza wide open after pinning her sword arm against his continued offensive. As his scabbard swept past her vision, his katana now fell upon her, leaving her defenseless. She only just managed to jump back as his sword nicked her just below the ribs and drew blood. He saw the whole spectacle and smiled thinly. 'She's fast,' he mused. 'I've gotten soft, no doubt, but she's still very impressive.'
She stood there for a minute, panting heavily. Her lungs burned in her chest and her muscles seemed to creak under the strain that she was putting on herself. Looking over at Naruto, she glared at him but only his smile widen into a broad grin. Noticing that the only thing she did to him was the nick on his cheek, which had somehow healed itself and had left behind dried blood.
She frowned as she staggered briefly, using her sword to balance herself. Now that she had time to think, she realized that he didn't even have the decency to look winded. Here he was, fighting her to within an inch of her life, and looking as though he hasn't a care in the world. How insulting!
'What is he?' she thought to herself, her right hand tightening its grip on her sword. 'Why is he so strong? Even now, I can feel that he's still holding back… a lot.'
As though he knew about her anger over their difference in strength, Naruto called out to her. "Hey, what's wrong, Erza? You mad?"
That was the last straw. Erza flared her magic in a tide of crimson fire, even as her killing intent spiked drastically. She shrieked, "I'm going to wipe that smug grin off your stupid face, shinobi!" But her ultimatum only made his smile widen even further, redoubling her rage.
She blasted toward him using her magic, and their swords met in a new cycle of clashing swords. Naruto had a full-blown feral grin on his face, while Erza was having trouble maintaining her current speed. She noticed that he was still holding back, given that he was only parrying or dodging her attacks and letting them miss him by the barest of inches. He was deliberately keeping himself only slightly faster than her, which made her grit her teeth. 'What will it take to faze him?!' she shrieked to herself.
Then Naruto swept his katana down, trapping her own scimitar beneath his weapon, before lashing out with a sidekick that sent her reeling back several steps and effectively disarmed her. He then bounced off his right foot, jumping towards her in a high-velocity dash, his katana posed to slash her in half at the waist. Now unarmed, and unable to face him on equal grounds in hand-to-hand combat because of his immense strength, Erza did the best next thing.
She ran towards him and fell to her knees, bending over backwards at the waist just enough to dodge his sword as she began sliding towards her own weapon. His attack missed her by centimeters, but the sheer force of the vacuum left behind in its wake suddenly exploded and sent her body tumbling. She finally careened to a stop near her own sword, promptly grabbing it by the hilt and holding it at about head-height. Naruto's smile deepened somewhat in the face of her hassō-no-kamae, feeling nostalgic for those days of kenjutsu training under Mifune's personal tutelage.
Fairy Tail was so obsessed with watching Erza get her head handed to her that they completely failed to notice that the spectacular fight had drawn the people of Magnolia Town. Amongst these curious lookie-loos was a very eccentric reporter who was screaming, "THIS IS SO COOL! WHAT A COOL FIGHT!"
This was Jason, a star-struck reporter for Sorcerer Magazine. He'd just arrived at the Fairy Tail Guild to see if he could finagle an interview, but went off-guard by the fight. He was surprised to see a young man who could match Erza move for move. Taking a couple of good pictures, he quickly began running back to Sorcerer Magazine headquarters, repeatedly shouting, "COOL! A POWERFUL NEW MAGE!"
Lucy perked up. "Did anyone hear anything strange just now?" she asked distractedly, looking around.
Next to her, her blue-haired Guild mate Levy McGarden only shook her head. Shrugging, Lucy turned back to the impressive battle in front of them.
At first, Naruto's battle with Erza seemed to be a beautiful and mesmerizing dance. To the experienced eye, however, Erza was struggling to keep up in this deadly game of clashing wills and was losing. Metal crashed against metal, as sparks flew, and the two of them vanished in a blur of speed.
Suddenly, the tempo of the battle skyrocketed, as the clashing swords were now little more than blurs and now accompanied by the shrieks of clashing metal grinding against each other. This cacophony was earsplitting, forcing the entire audience to plug their ears in an attempt to preserve their hearing. Gray Fullbuster mused to himself that this noise reminded him of birds shrieking in chorus. As light danced across the two clashing blades, like firecrackers exploding in the dead of night, sparks flared into existence amidst the dueling swords like the blinking lights of fireflies, and faded just as quickly.
Fairy Tail was awestruck at this display of raw speed and sheer power.
They could hear the sounds of the constant and reverberating clashing of blades.
They could feel the wind surging in the void left behind by their attacks as the blades cut through the air.
They could see craters in the road, caused by the sheer force of both Erza and Naruto landing on the ground with monstrous force and jumping high into the air with just as much power, and deep gouges caused by sword strokes that had missed each other and instead tore deep furrows into the soil.
They were scared of having another Erza hanging around to scare the living daylights out of them.
Natsu was awestruck at the sheer ferocity and violence of the fight, and was just as fired up about his imminent fight with Naruto.
Happy was terrified, since Naruto was clearly stronger and more fearsome than Erza was, and she could already pummel Natsu into the ground even if she was at her worst. Naruto looked as though he could kill Natsu accidentally if pushed into a fury.
Gray also wanted to fight Naruto, but thought that challenging the blond titan was a death wish.
Lucy was also scared but she respected Naruto, especially since he could push Erza to her limits. She even thought that they'd make a perfect couple. A devious plot began to formulate in her head as she smiled. She'd file it away for later and ask for Mirajane's help then. She had no idea that Mirajane had the same devious plan as Lucy.
Fairy Tail's master, Makarov Dreyar, was calculating and analytical in the face of Naruto's stunning performance; a rare mindset for him. 'I thought that he might be able to bring Erza to a draw, but I never thought that he could be strong enough to actually toy with her like this. He hasn't used any on his so-called 'jutsu' yet, and his physical strength is already an order of magnitude greater. Just how powerful are his people?'
The pair was still clashing swords, their faces a study in contrast. Naruto was smiling as if he'd just won a sweepstakes, all while dodging Erza's angry swipes. On the other hand, Fairy Tail's Titania had a murderous expression on her face, as if she'd like nothing better than to carve her yellow-haired opponent into chunks.
Nevertheless, she was smiling inside. She'd never had so much fun fighting anyone before. She'd found her equal in battle, but she still didn't understand him. 'Why would he be interested in me?' she wondered idly.
Then she snapped out of her battle haze when Naruto called out to her, "Okay, Benihime-chan, I think that this is enough for today. What say you? We finish this with one last move?"
Panting from the sheer effort of the fight, her lungs greedily sucking in as much fresh air as she could take in, Erza nodded mutely. Her endurance was reaching its limits, and she was surprised to discover that Naruto was exhausted too; betraying his condition by the way that his breathing had become slightly heavier.
By this time, they'd been clashing for the last two hours, and their bodies were screaming for relief. She nodded, panting as she managed out, "Okay… okay, Naruto… one last charge."
He nodded, sheathed his katana in its scabbard. They both walked towards each other, assessing the other standing before them only twenty feet away.
Then they both fell into a kenjutsu stance.
Naruto took up his battōjutsu stance again, while Erza slid her sword behind her in a waki-gamae, copying her opponent in minimizing her openings and bolstering her defense.
An eternity seemed to pass between the two of them. The tension was high, as Elfman took this to whisper to Cana about the ancient and truly manly tradition of the final kenjutsu charge, but she didn't appreciate his words. Just as she was ready to slug him, the wind picked up and sent a leaf flitting in-between Naruto and Erza facing off against each other.
Just as the leaf hit the ground, the two of them charged each other, yelling incoherently.
"Uzumaki Kenjutsu-Ryū… Rasenshinkūgiri!" Naruto roared, pulling his katana out and sweeping it out at Erza in a horizontal slash.
"Kureha… Gessen!" Erza shrieked, her sword lashing out in a cross-shaped formation of destructive cutting power.
A blinding flash of light and a decent-sized explosion later, the two of them were standing where their opponent had just been standing. Their backs were to each other, their swords parallel to the ground.
For five agonizing seconds, time seemed to stop. The spectators all held their breath; tension over the outcome was high. Someone had begun taking bets on the fight, about maybe five minutes into Erza's epic sword fight with Naruto, and many people stood to clean up on the results.
Then it happened. Erza fell forward, stabbing her sword into the ground to try to keep her from falling completely. Her armor suddenly had crisscrossed white lines across its entirety, which lengthened until they reached each other just before the whole suit of armor fell apart and disappeared, leaving behind a black sports bra and boy shorts that protected her modesty.
As she fell to her hands and knees, her dark brown eyes widened as she felt blood begin trickling down her torso and her back. Meanwhile, the perverts in the crowd passed out with spontaneous bloody noses, even as other people began arguing over their winnings and/or losses.
Naruto swabbed his sword on his shirtsleeve, cleaning off any blood that he might have gathered, and sheathed his katana into its scabbard with a loud click. As if on cue, Erza passed out and fell, only to have Naruto cross twenty feet in the blink of an eye so that he could grab her before she hit the ground.
Laying her across his lap, he noticed the presence of a freshly bleeding cut, long and shallow, running across her torso. He sighed and raised his hands, bathing them in the green fires of medical chakra, and hovered over the two light wounds on her belly and the single wound on her lower back.
Under the majesty of medical chakra, her wound sealed itself up and left no scar visible. Naruto hadn't put anywhere close to his usual power into this Rasenshinkūgiri, and he'd still managed to generate a vacuum blade that had nearly cut Erza in half at the waist. If he hadn't made sure to keep his katana from actually touching her body, he definitely would've killed her.
Still, the fact that she'd made him resort to such a powerful technique was a point in her favor. She definitely possessed an incredible amount of strength and skill to her. Probably enough to give Killer B, or even the samurai of Iron Country, a run for their money in a kenjutsu match.
He was having a hard time not blushing as he healed her, given that she was wearing little more than a tomboy's version of women's underwear. Sweeping her up into her arms, he carried her like a bride on her wedding day and brought her to her fellow guild members. He had no idea that she was smiling at him.
The people of Fairy Tail, who'd frozen earlier, came running up to check if she was all right. Amidst the general yelling and carrying on, a growing tide of anger began to rise over the fact that he'd hurt her.
"Shut up, you idiots!" Makarov roared, defusing the situation. "She's just sleeping now! Mira-chan, could you come up here and take Erza to her room?"
"Of course, master," Mirajane, the Demon of Fairy Tail, said happily.
The diminutive man turned to Naruto. "An excellent fight, Naruto-kun," he praised. "So… do you still want to join Fairy Tail?"
Naruto smiled. "I think… that I'm going to like joining up with you lunatics," he sniggered.
Makarov threw back his head and laughed hysterically as the rest of Fairy Tail cheered and whooped, generally celebrating his decision.
To be continued…
AN: Thank you Reikson for your help.