Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. I am sorry am late in delivering this chapter. I have trying to find a way for Naruto to be part of the story and I was honestly lazy. Plus my beta was having some problems and thank god he was safe from that super storm, Sandy. He had his own set of problems as well. However, now that I have finished my rant please enjoy this story…
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…'
Chapter 7: Phantom Lord
Sunday, 22nd August X784
"I'm sorry, Siegrain-sama, but I didn't think that that woman's magic would be that powerful!" Ultear Milkovich sputtered through her Thought Projection magic. "Also, I was taken completely off-guard when I learned that the Yellow Flash somehow had the ability to resurrect the dead! He restores that woman to life, using the ice that she used to seal the demon Deliora away, and even destroys it as though it was little more than an annoyance!"
Meanwhile, deep within the confines of Earthland's Magic Council headquarters in Era, Jellal 'Siegrain' Fernandes quirked an eyebrow as his mind raced to digest Ultear's data. He'd read all of the incident reports, of course, and had heard the rumors. But to hear his best subordinate all but confirm the stories only made for some very unpleasant implications. "Go on," he said calmly, with only the slight narrowing of his eyes betraying his renewed interest in Fairy Tail's Yellow Flash.
"He had this wonderfully sinister aura about him, and those eyes… they made me shiver," Ultear murmured breathlessly, remembering Naruto's flat glare. "The cold glare… I felt as though I was little more than an ant under the weight of his eyes. I'm beginning to think that the rumors about him being more powerful than Zeref are true."
"Do you, now?" Jellal murmured, intrigued. He didn't know Ultear to be a woman given to flights of fancy, so her assurance had to be given a lot of weight. "He must be very powerful indeed. We already know that his magic is unique enough that we've never seen them before. We must be careful to not draw his attention to us, or he might become a problem."
But there was still one thing that nagged at him; the fact that his rumored ability to resurrect the dead had apparently been confirmed. "However, the fact that he can raise the dead is a powerful skill," he added, and Ultear scowled. She didn't like being reminded of the fact that she'd bore witness to her mother's return and was feeling seriously conflicted even now. "He may yet prove useful in our quest to resurrect Zeref the black mage. Moreover, please don't talk about your mother like that, Ultear. I respect your mother; if she hadn't died fighting Deliora, she probably would've been one of the Ten Wizard Saints by now."
Ultear only sneered. "You think too highly of her. My mother is a pitiful and miserable woman who was so obsessed with magic that my father abandoned her. Now that she's back, she'll go back to whatever rathole that she sets up for herself."
"The more important things you lose, the more power you can obtain," Jellal mused, smiling slightly.
"I was- am, of little consequence to my mother," Ultear snapped, but her co-conspirator could easily detect the trace of sadness and resentment in her voice.
"I do wonder about that," he continued. "As you know, she raised those two students out of regret and her lingering affection for you. You might even go and-"
"Enough," she snapped, interrupting him. "Let's deal with the next stage."
As he stared at her beautiful face, he noticed the left side of her jaw starting to swell. "What's wrong with your face?" he asked her tactlessly.
She screeches as she looks in a mirror. "What the Hell is this?!"
He laughs. "It swells up now? Speaking of which, what was your impression of Natsu during your fight?"
She winced as she placed her hand on the swollen cheek. "I didn't even use half of my power, but he had an impressive strength of will. He'll only grow stronger and stronger… but we have to be wary of the Yellow Flash, too. You know, he goes by another name."
"Oh?"
"The Demon King of Fairy Tail…"
"Charming. We'll just have to see about that."
Sunday, 22nd August X784
Naruto had just joined Team Natsu outside of Magnolia Town's train station, and suddenly started sneezing loudly. "Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Erza asked, concerned. "Are you catching a cold?"
The Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail only laughed. "Oh no, I don't get sick at all. This was probably someone talking about me behind my back."
She cocked an eyebrow, but ignored the comment as a personal joke.
Once they'd reached the city limits, Naruto said that he was going home before vanishing in a flash of yellow light.
Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were still thinking about Naruto's lecture.
Erza was trying to decipher Naruto and his many mysterious depths.
Gray was remembering yesterday's events.
{Flashback; Yesterday}
Gray couldn't believe what he was seeing, seriously wondering if his eyes were lying to him.
His teacher, Ur, was back and all thanks to Naruto. But before he could even talk to him, Naruto fell to the ground. Running up to his comrade and checking his pulse, Gray sighed in relief; Naruto was still alive, just unconscious. Turning back to Ur, he noticed that she'd just woken up. As their eyes met, Ur smiled weakly. "Long time, no see, Gray…" she rasped, and that was enough.
Gray took her in a hug as he cried. She rubbed his back soothingly. "It's alright, Gray…" she rasped, trying to comfort him.
Lyon was shocked silent as he realized that his mentor, the woman that he admired the most, had returned from the dead. Then he began to cry as well; not just tears of joy, but also sadness, shame, and embarrassment. 'To think that she was still alive, even as the ice…' he realized belatedly,'…I could've lost her forever…'
She turned to Lyon and smiled. "Lyon, my idiot disciple… I forgive you, too," she grunted, punching him in the arm gently. "If not for you, I'd still be a block of ice."
He couldn't hold back his tears anymore and started sobbing outright, asking her to forgive him even after everything he'd done. Ur only hugged both the boys as they cried, and felt tears prickling her eyes as her maternal senses went into overdrive.
The morning sunlight slipped through the window shutters and struck Naruto in the face. He grimaced, covering his closed eyes with his hand before burrowing his face into his pillow. He stayed that way for all of a second before sitting up in his bed, nursing a rather annoying migraine as he cursed a blue streak. "I'm definitely soft now. I need to work on that when we get back…"
He stretched his body and sighed as he heard the comfortable crack of stiffened joints and the slight pain of loosening muscles. Then he smiled as he noticed that a wild mane of fiery red hair on the pillow next to him. He smiled wryly. 'Now I know how my dad felt when he met my mother. I think we're cursed to love women with exotic hair… damn it all, dad, this is your fault!'
For some ungodly reason, Happy entered the room at that exact moment, yelling loudly for someone to save him from Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer was close behind; apparently, Happy had said something that had angered the pink-haired hothead. Of course, all the noise woke Erza up, much to Naruto's dismay.
As she yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, he couldn't help but notice that she looked really cute. She blushed when she noticed his eyes on her and looked away.
Gray walked in, followed by Lucy and Ur, who was the first to speak. "Good morning, Naruto-san," she said, uncharacteristically respectful to someone that she'd only just met.
Everyone looked back at the blond ninja, having only just noticed that he was there, as he smiled back at her. "Good morning to you all," he grinned, absently popping his knuckles.
His nonchalance made everyone, except Erza and Ur, spontaneously plummet to the ground out of sheer exasperation.
Quickly getting to his feet, Natsu yelled, "Naruto! Fight me!" and charged at the ninja still in bed.
"No," Naruto said coolly, dodging the punch quite casually before flicking Natsu in the forehead, somehow sending him flying through the open bedroom door to crash into the hallway wall behind him and quickly knocked unconscious.
Everyone there twitched at his casually-violent response to Natsu's challenge before Gray took the bull by the horns. "Naruto-san, if I'm not being rude in asking… how did you manage to revive Ur-sensei?"
That question got the interest of everyone present as Naruto's bangs shadowed his eyes. He sighed deeply, realizing that he would have to talk about his powers eventually. Finally, he said, "I'll only tell you guys if you promise to not tell anyone else about them."
They all promised and he continued. "I revived Ur by combining my special ability with these eyes…"
Gesturing to his eyes, he activated hisdōjutsu again and shocked everyone there. His ocean-blue irises had darkened to a royal-purple and three concentric circles, each of them dotted with three tomoe, seemed to ripple outwards from a blood-red pupil. Having already seen them, Gray didn't react. Lucy and Happy were scared almost of their wits, while Erza and Ur were more surprised than anything else.
Natsu broke the tension with his awestruck shouting. "That's so cool, Naruto-san! How did you do that?!"
Naruto smiled as he realized that all of them were more curious than scared. He should do something nice for Natsu when they got back. "What you see in my eyes now is the Choubuku Rinnegan, a unique and hereditary mutation that grants me powerful abilities. One of these abilities allows me to… 'see' the flow of energy. That helped me determine if Ur-san was alive or not; if she was dead, I wouldn't have brought her back. In any case, since she was still alive, I used a jutsu that allows me to alter reality in order to reshape the life energy in the Iced Shell spell into anything I could imagine. But I had to read Gray's memory in order to see Ur's body. Using her life force to bring her back was easy, in comparison to actually shaping the melted ice into a flesh-and-blood body. I needed Gray's memories of Ur as a template for successfully reshaping her body into what he remembered."
Suddenly realizing something, he turned to Ur. "By the way, Ur, do you have a sister or something?"
Ur raised an eyebrow at the non-sequitur question. "No, I was an only child and I have no family anymore. I was married once, you see, I even had a daughter. But she died and my husband left me soon afterwards. Why?"
"I asked because I met a young woman that bore an aura signature that's very similar to yours," the blond ninja explained. "Huh, come to think of it, she even looked like you somewhat; a very attractive young woman with pale skin, long hair, and makeup. She also had some kind of time-control magic; I think she called it Time Arc. Also, she used Transformation Magic to disguise herself as a masked man named Zalty."
"Oh…" was Ur's only response. Then Natsu perked up, realizing something. "Hey! I fought the time-controlling masked man! But he smelled funny; he wore women's perfume."
"I know that this is painful for you to remember," Naruto pressed Ur. "…but are you sure that your daughter's dead? She could very well be that young lady I met. Ten years have passed ever since you sealed Deliora away."
"But that's…" Ur sputtered, bad memories clashing with her savior's words. "The doctor said…" she trailed off as she realized something that brought her to tears. "Oh, no… no, what did I do?!" she wailed, falling to her knees and crying hysterically.
Gray was by her side instantly, trying to comfort her. "What's wrong, Ur-sensei?" he asked.
She continued to cry for a while. Naruto already had the idea that something awful had happened to Ur in the past, but the others were confused. After Ur calmed down a bit, she began to talk. "I had a child once, a daughter. She got sick when she was small. I took her to a good doctor in the hopes that he could make her well again."
Lucy was already teary-eyed and Gray was clenching his fists. "But that damned doctor tricked me!" Ur shouted angrily. "He said that she died and her body was so badly mutilated that I wouldn't want to see her!" Naruto only closed his eyes, silently mourning the death of innocence as Natsu actually growled.
"I was heartbroken when he told me that she died," Ur muttered, sniffling. "I didn't want to see if she really had been mutilated by the illness' effects on her in death; I didn't want my best memories of her to be tainted by such a ghastly image. Like an idiot, I believed him. I left without seeing her body."
"So the young woman really is your daughter…" Erza muttered. "What's her name, Ur-san?"
"Ultear. Ultear Milkovich…"
{Flashback End}
Erza suddenly began to speak, snapping Gray back to the real world. "Now… let's get back to the guild and let the master decide your punishment."
"Shit!" Gray grumbled. "I almost forgot…"
"Regarding this case, I kept thinking I could overlook your actions…"
They all sighed in relief before Erza added, "But the master renders the verdict. I do not intend to defend you, either. So be prepared for your punishment."
They all groaned in despair, their heads hanging low. Then Gray flinched, remembering something important. "Oh, shit!" he swore. "The geezer will do 'that' to us!"
"Oh, no, you don't mean 'that', Gray!" Happy wailed, frightened.
Natsu was smiling obliviously before Lucy asked, "Natsu, what is 'that' that they're talking about?"
His face suddenly transformed from a happy smile to a blatantly-terrified look right in front of her, only scaring her even more.
Erza smirked slightly. "Oh, I think Master will definitely do 'that' to you guys as punishment. I feel sorry for you, Lucy; even you will get 'that' as well."
Lucy was hugging a little stuffed dog in fear. "I don't understand!" she screeched. "What is 'that' you guys are talking about?!"
Natsu and Gray had their heads bowed in resignation, Lucy continued asking them about 'that' to no avail, and Erza noticed that they had the attention of the people of Magnolia Town as they whispered amongst themselves. "Huh," she mused speculatively. "Are they scared of us or something?"
Then she could only just suppress a gasp as she noticed something strange and unbelievably shocking, as she bore witness to a sight that she'd hoped would never happen. Gray snapped out of his depression when he heard Lucy gasp outright and Natsu growl. He glanced around, trying to figure out what his compatriots were staring at, and then croak in disbelief. As one, the four of them broke into a run as they ran up to the Fairy Tail guildhall.
Up close, however, they belatedly realized that the guildhall had been wrecked. Massive iron shafts had been thrown throughout the guild's walls, making it resemble a giant pincushion of sorts.
Natsu was shaking with rage as he growled out, "The guild… our guild is ruined!"
An equally angry Erza demanded, "What in the world happened here?!"
"Phantom Lord…" Mirajane replied from behind them, happening to have returned from an errand.
"What did you just say?" Gray asked, after calming himself down.
"Phantom Lord?!" Natsu snarled, visibly angry.
"I hate to say it, but they got us…" the Demon of Fairy Tail scowled, anger seeping into her voice.
Meanwhile, Naruto was shirtless in his house and wearing only a pair of shinobi pants. Unusually for him, he was exhausted. But this wasn't because of the mission but rather because he'd used the Choubuku Rinnegan without unsealing his full power.
As a result, using an Onmyōton-type jutsu like Banbutsu Sōzō drained most of his usual chakra reserves and knocked him out cold. Given the fact that such a ninjutsu was classified as a ridiculously high-powered S-class jutsu rather than just simply impossible, Naruto needed to release his sealed power in order to even use it safely. But that caveat came with its own problems, making him sigh as he remembered why he'd sealed away the vast majority of his power in the first place.
He couldn't walk around without killing civilians by the leaking traces of his immense power. He'd trained himself for the last four years, all to control his power, and all that training paid off. Now he could move around again without hurting anyone anymore. Just to be sure, he applied a suppression seal on himself; the irony of this necessity had not been lost to him.
Now, for the first time in four years, he was about to release those seals. Sitting down in the lotus meditation pose, he began to release all of the built-up chakra that he'd sealed away only three years ago. He scowled as he struggled to maintain the slow trickle needed to successfully release these prodigious reserves. He couldn't let all that chakra out all at once; he'd explode from the sheer overload of the last three years and what was left of his body would make the room look like something out of a horror movie.
This meant that he had to sit there, slowly releasing the seals little by little until he finally opened about a tenth of the whole array. He felt a flood of rejuvenating chakra that ran through his body, healing his injuries and rejuvenating his vitality. He sighed happily as he stood up, stretching in place as he threw a few punches in the air. "There's no way in Hell that I, Uzumaki Naruto, will grow soft like Sarutobi-jiji!" he declared, grinning broadly.
Not knowing that the guild had been attacked, he went to his backyard and trained for a couple of hours, slowly loosening his seal up even further and thus increasing his power. He stopped quickly enough, unwilling to open the floodgates any further.
Instead, he went back to meditation, now beginning to control his breathing and expanding his consciousness. This allowed the natural energy of the world to activate his Sennin Mode. Much to his surprise, however, he noticed that the signatures of his friends at the guild were underground and that there were a lot of hostile foreign signatures in the guildhall itself.
His eyes flew open as he stood up to get dressed. "Damn it all, now what happened?" he groaned. "I hope nothing bad…" and vanished in Shunshin no jutsu, heading for the guildhall.
Minutes later, Naruto appeared outside the guildhall in a smoky explosion and was shocked to see just how much damage had been done to the place. He noticed that the metal columns had magical energy, what the locals called Eternano, flowing through each of them in as much the same way as Ur's Iced Shell spell.
The guild members weren't in the guildhall, but rather in the basement. As he walked in, his nose twitched and he realized that he couldn't smell blood or death in the air, two scents that usually accompanied such a devastating attack.
That said, the guildhall had been smashed up pretty bad. He sighed in relief, though, since he didn't want any of his new friends to get hurt or die. Then he heard a familiar voice shouting from downstairs.
As he made his way down into the basement, he could hear Natsu shouting, "They attacked us first!"
"Natsu, that's not the problem," Mirajane interjected, sounding annoyed. "We all know that the Magic Council prohibited conflict between guilds."
Erza then added, "If that's how master feels, then there is nothing we can do about it."
Feeling impish, Naruto slid into the group until he was right behind Erza before saying, "The master's wisdom is truly great. He knows of the horrors of war…"
His soft, matter-of-fact appearance startled everyone in the basement turned temporary guildhall. All of them instantly looked over at Naruto with wide eyes as he waved merrily at them.
Everyone there, except for Mirajane and Erza, spontaneously toppled to the ground out of shock at his laidback demeanor. "Welcome back, Naruto-kun," Mirajane said cheerfully. "But what did you mean?"
"Oh, that?" the blond grinned nonchalantly. "What I meant was that this attack was just a means to provoke us into starting a fight." His guildmates looked skeptical, making him roll his eyes as he elaborated, "Nobody's been hurt too badly or killed, have they? Who attacked us, anyway, Mira-chan?"
Mirajane frowned but replied, "The Phantom Lord guild."
"Oh, I remember something about how they used to be the top magic guild in Fiore, right?" Naruto mused aloud, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
"Naruto, we have to go kick their ass!" Natsu yelled.
"No," the blond shinobi said coldly, the ice in his voice scaring Natsu stiff and surprising everyone in the guild with his rapid mood change.
Mirajane nodded as he continued. "They might be angry that our guild took their spot at the top. Now, they're probably seeking a way to get revenge or to destroy us. If we don't do anything to fight back, they'll start attacking members of our guild and try to start a war."
He rolled his neck uneasily as Erza then added her two cents. "But that begs the question; why would they risk being labeled a dark guild, just to take us down? There has to be something else at work here; they wouldn't risk so much on such a trivial matter like revenge."
"In any case," Naruto shrugged, "…since master said that there's no need to worry about them, forget them. But, in the interest of safety, I suggest that everyone stay together in groups."
Everyone in the temporary guildhall took note of what Naruto's words. They knew that he was an experienced mage and was very powerful, as evident by him setting a guild record for most completed missions in a week as well as becoming an S-class mage in only a fortnight. The blond smiled slightly as his new family began talking amongst themselves in small groups, taking his advice.
Turning to Mirajane and Erza, he said, "Mira-chan, you and your brother are welcome to stay in my house, and Benihime-chan can bring her team along as well. My house is big enough for all of you, so don't worry. I won't take no for an answer from either of you, understand?"
Both Mirajane and Erza blushed and shook their heads in denial, making excuses about not impeding on his courtesy. Privately, however, each of them worried about what their growing feelings for the powerful young man would make them do when they'd be in such close proximity to him for extended periods of time. He smiled slightly as a bit of his dark aura leaked out and summoned that dreaded horned hannya mask again. The pressure of his dark aura froze the whole guild; they knew what this weight meant, especially after having seen and felt its effects after Natsu had first tried to attack him.
Lucy flinched in fear as Happy whispered, "Do not anger Naruto-sama at all!"
Natsu yelled, "Aye!"
"Natsu's acting like Happy again, and Happy even used the respectful term –sama, too!" Lucy wailed.
Grey began to shiver as Elfman whispered, "Only a man can be as scary as Naruto-san!"
Erza was stunned at the ominous feeling. She'd never come face-to-face with such an intimidating little trick, and flushed slightly as the spine-chilling feeling seemingly pierced her body and froze her bones in place. Her blood ran frantically, as though the air around her had become incredibly cold all of a sudden, and she blinked as his presence suddenly acquired a crushing weight that threatened to destroy both her body and soul completely.
For her part, Mirajane was also blushing bright red, albeit for a different reason. Her heart began to beat rapidly as a warm sensation began to flow throughout her body. Her demonic side, which she hadn't even acknowledged ever since that terrible day, was screaming at her to take this dark and powerful demon as a mate and secure his considerable power for herself. As her imagination began to run away from her, images that hinted at incredible ecstasy flooded her mind.
Both of the red-faced young ladies shivered in delight as they said in unison, "Yes, Naruto-sama! We'll come with you and stay at your home!"
Naruto nodded and smiled, the strange and oppressive weight dissipating and letting everyone start breathing normally again. Lucy was scared of Naruto somewhat because he could scare Erza Scarlet herself into obedience.
But that made her start wondering about him. Naruto was a mysterious and ridiculously strong character. She could understand him scaring Natsu, but how was Erza vulnerable to his power?
Even after what little he'd told them of the Choubuku Rinnegan, she was no closer to really knowing anything about him. Also, why did she feel as though she knew him from somewhere?
"So, let's be on our way…" he said, grinning, before stopping in his tracks and turning back to them, looking rather sheepish. "Oh, yeah, I forgot that you guys don't know where I live. Well, you're in for a real treat, then."
He walked out, the rest of the guild in tow as they whispered amongst themselves. Naruto headed west from the trashed guildhall for about fifteen minutes before they approached a massive gate framed by the front legs of a massive ten-tailed fox statue with its mouth open in a roar. Everyone was awestruck at the size of the gate and statue. An awestruck Natsu was the first to speak. "That is so cool, Naruto!" he shouted. "Is this your home?"
Naruto smiled slightly, a sad quirk that only Erza, Mirajane and Lucy really noticed. "This might be my house, Natsu, but my home-" he cut himself off as he noticed Happy the flying cat spreading his wings and flying towards the fox statue.
"Happy, don't get too close to that statue!" he shouted, surprising the gang.
"Why?" the winged cat asked cluelessly, sitting on the statue's snout.
Then, as if to answer his question, the fox statues' eyes began to glow blood-red. The creature roared, shaking itself loose as it came to life. Happy wailed in fright as he was hurled away by the roar and latched himself to Natsu's head out of fear. The statue seemed to yawn and a ball of red energy swelled into existence from within its gaping maw. At such a close distance, such a powerful blast would definitely wipe them out. Running wouldn't let them get away from that thing with their lives.
But just as it was about to fire, Naruto flared his chakra and made everyone tremble under the weight of his power. Only a split-second of what felt like soul-crushing force was all that the statue needed to notice its master and stop its attack, returning to its original position.
A still shivering Lucy shouted to no one in particular, "What the Hell just tried to kill us?!"
"An automated defense mechanism that I designed for unwanted visitors," Naruto shrugged, prompting everyone there to turn and stare at him. "I use that giant fox golem to protect my home from outsiders, invaders, and the like. Obviously, they'll roar to warn off intruders at first, but they will automatically attack anything that they don't recognize."
As they continued to stare at him, he added, "My sentry will only stop when I'm nearby or if their target has been destroyed. But don't worry about that; I'm going to key each and every last one of you guys into my security systems so that it won't attack you."
The group sighed. As they walked up to the gate, it opened up automatically and the sight waiting for them left them awestruck. Naruto's house was an exotic design that featured sloping roofs that curved upwards at a gentle angle on each of its levels, and also had a large and beautiful garden surrounding a sizable reflecting pool in the front yard stationed on the left side of the paved path leading up to the large house's front door.
Standing before them, his arms spread open as if to take in such a remarkable sight, Naruto bowed at the waist in a highly exaggerated display of flamboyance before saying, "Welcome to my humble home."
Almost in unison, the whole group wondered what kind of home Naruto would consider extravagant if the exotically-designed mansion before him was little more than a house.
As he was about to usher them in, a pale-skinned woman with blond hair and light green eyes appeared and bowed to Naruto as if he was a prince. He groaned. "Maya-chan, how many times do I have to tell you not to bow to me like that?"
"I'm very sorry, Naruto-sama, but I'll never learn," the blonde woman said cheerfully. "If you hadn't come along when you had, I and my whole family would've died at the hands of those werewolves."
Naruto grumbled something about promises and saving people as an older man with dark hair and light-blue eyes also appeared and bowed at the waist as well. "You know that she's right, Naruto-sama," the slightly-tanned man said reproachfully. "As we've already told you, our family tradition states that we must serve anyone who saves our lives."
"Not you too, Marco-san!" Naruto groaned. "I thought I told you that calling me master wasn't going to fly! I'm not your master! I save anyone who's in trouble!"
"Naruto," Erza of all people was the first to interject. "If you don't mind me asking… who exactly are these people?"
"Ahh, Benihime-chan!" he started, as though he'd only just realized that he'd brought them along. "This gentleman here is Marco Polo-san and his wife Maya Polo-san. They have four beautiful children, each of whom you'll meet once you're actually inside my house."
Now Mirajane was intrigued. "How exactly did you meet them, Naruto-kun?"
"Not much of a story there, Mira-chan," the blond shinobi shrugged. "I was passing through Fiore's northwest region a while back when I came across their family surrounded by a pack of werewolves that had attacked and destroyed their village. I saved them, but couldn't get to anyone else from that village in time." He scowled as bad memories flitted to the forefront. "So I had the unique… pleasure… of exterminating that entire werewolf pack."
As they mulled over Naruto's unambiguous words, Marco added, "I'm grateful to Naruto-sama for saving my children. I have sworn myself to his service."
Naruto grumbled something as Maya said, "Naruto-sama, dinner will be served in a few minutes. Why don't we take your guests to their rooms and let them refresh themselves?"
Sighing wearily, he nodded. "Good idea, Maya-chan. You might as well let your kids show them to their quarters. I'll be up in the library."
Lucy went starry-eyed when she realized that Naruto had a library, prompting her to ask, "Naruto-san, can I go to the library with you?"
"Sure you can. After you eat," he replied cheerfully. "I need to do something first."
He vanished in a sudden whirlwind as both Marco and Maya showed his guests into Naruto's house.
Before they could take their master's guests to guest rooms in separate wings of Naruto's large home, the two of them and their charges were besieged by their four children.
The oldest were fifteen-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. The boy, Zigor, had green eyes and dirty-blond hair and peppered Elfman with questions about what it meant to be a man. The girl, Rozalia, had dark hair and steel-blue eyes and seemed a bit shy around Natsu and Gray, blushing ever so slightly.
The third child was Julio, all of ten years old. Curiously, he might've resembled his father Marco entirely, except that his left eye was light-green and his right eye was light-blue. He was energetic and a bit of a prankster, given that he'd tied a simple knot into Happy's tail and the flying cat had yet to notice.
Last but not least was Elizabeth, all of six years old. The girl that everyone called 'Eliza-chan' had light blond hair, sky-blue eyes, and had little freckles on her small face that had Mirajane hugging the little girl tightly and calling her adorable.
Ironically, the youngest children of the family began fighting over Happy all of a sudden. Their mother intervened, saving poor Happy from being pulled apart. The gang laughed as Happy cowered behind Natsu's head, whining something about demonic children.
The three female members of the Polo family lead Lucy, Mirajane and Erza to their quarters in the east wing of Naruto's palatial home. Mirajane asked Maya about where Naruto slept, making her giggle and wonder aloud if someone was interested in a late night visit. Her thinly-veiled insinuation left all three of them blushing in embarrassment. Adding to their shame, Maya added, "You can't miss it; just walk up the central staircase until you see an orange door. That door leads to his personal apartment. It's right next to the white door that leads up to the attic."
The girls huffed in embarrassment as Maya chuckled. "I'll tell you something else about Naruto-sama," she added, grabbing their attention. "He's a very secretive man. Not that he wants to, but he's had a lot of bad things happen to him. He must have lost someone important to him; he might seem strong, but he's actually heartbroken inside. I'm hoping that you girls might be the help that he needs to put his heart back together again."
"Don't you mean one of us would help him?" Erza asked, wondering about Maya's choice of words.
"No, I actually meant all of you," Maya said, grinning. "I think that all of you might have a connection to him somehow." Erza, Lucy, and Mirajane flushed at her insinuations, making her chuckle.
Maya stopped by a plain door and opened it, turning on its lights. Her three temporary charges found themselves impressed by the room. It was fairly large, featuring three full-sized beds. Each bed even had a personal nightstand with a small lamp placed on top of it. The room also had a big bathroom, complete with a couple of shower nozzles dangling over a rather large tub.
The girls were starry-eyed. "Wow!" Lucy squealed. "This is almost like a five-star hotel room!"
"Oh, yes," Mirajane said distractedly, more interested in looking over the room's subdued decorative style. "Even better, we don't have to be with the boys."
"We can sleep here without Natsu's snoring or Elfman's shouting," Erza added. She was more interested in marveling at the grand view of Naruto's backyard and the majesty of the mountains on the horizon.
"Naruto-sama does have a private hot spring," Maya mused leadingly. "Would you girls like a dip?"
"We'd love to!" a gleaming-eyed Lucy, Erza, and Mirajane all shouted in unison, dropping their bags on the floor and trooping out after the blonde woman.
Meanwhile, Marco and his two boys were introducing Gray, Elfman, and Natsu to a guest room in the west wing. But the three of them didn't want to talk; they were still too pissed about Phantom Lord's audacious attack. Stopping in front of some random door, their guide turned to them. "Here you go, boys," he said casually. "This will be your room. Just remember; don't break anything, or Naruto-sama will have your heads."
The three of them shivered, nodding feebly. Naruto's wrath was fresh memories; none of them were inclined to invite his anger anytime soon. Apparently satisfied, Marco opened the door to their room and turned on the lights. The room's subdued decorations accentuated its three beds, each with its own nightstand and small lamp. The big bathroom that was attached to the room itself was luxurious in ways that none of them had thought possible.
Predictably, Natsu took the lead. He jumped and dived onto the bed under the window, shouting, "I call this bed! It belongs to me and Happy now!"
"Aye!" Happy added merrily.
"Damn it! I wanted that bed, you hothead!" Gray bellowed, running to the nearest bed long enough to grab a pillow that he threw at Natsu, hitting him in the face.
"You icy exhibitionist prick!" the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer shouted, retaliating in kind. The thrown pillow hit Gray in the face with enough force to knock him out flat on the ground.
Triumphant, Natsu roared with laughter as Elfman tried to intervene. "Are you two men or not?!" he bellowed. "You should fight like men!"
He got a double strike, a pillow from both Natsu and Gray, to the face for his trouble. Growling, he snatched up the two pillows and leapt into the fray with a roar. Marco stood by the sidelines, shaking his head in exasperation.
Two hours later, the group met in the dining room for dinner. As they ate, Maya came up to Naruto, water pitcher in hand. "Naruto-sama, please lock your library so Julio-kun and Eliza-chan cannot get in and ruin your notes. You do remember what happened last time, yes?"
"Oh, that reminds me!" Lucy perked up. "Naruto-kun, could you please let me in your library? Pretty please?" She was all but begging him, her hands clasped together as though she was praying.
Naruto sighed. "Fine," he said, as Lucy squealed happily. He never could say no to a pretty face…
"Can I see your library as well?" Mirajane and Erza asked him simultaneously.
Chuckling, he nodded indulgently.
A few minutes later, with dinner over, Naruto took the girls up to his library.
Lucy gasped as she realized that she could see full bookshelves as far as the eye could see.
Erza noticed an orange-covered book, the words Icha Icha Paradise denoting its title, and read only a few passages somewhere in its latter half before she started blushing horribly.
"You know, you could borrow that," Naruto said casually, from behind her. Erza started, twitching at the sheer embarrassment of her predicament. "I didn't know you were into racy smut novels, ero-Benihime-chan," he added, humiliating her even further. "If you'd like, I could always show you some of the moves in those books."
The heat on her face burned hotly as her host chuckled under his breath. As he pulled away, Lucy noticed some papers on a nearby table and wandered over to them. As she began reading their contents, her eyes widened as she realized what she was reading. Turning to Naruto, who'd just struck up a conversation with Mirajane, the Stellar Spirit mage yelled, "You're Hokage-sama!"
Meanwhile, in Magnolia Town, Levy McGarden and her teammates Jet and Droy were walking home together after the guildhall had closed for the night. Following Naruto's advice had been a good idea; several hooligan bands had seen them together and had all but run away from them.
They were having fun; laughing and joking around, before they were hit by something from behind and everything went black.
To be continued…