Author's note

Hello, I gotta say I'm nervous as hell writing this author's note, my name is Escobar, and this is my first fanfic, so please have patience with me, this idea came to me last week, and I thought it was too good to pass, i think it's a good idea and I don't think I ever saw someone do it, at least not the way I'm doing it, I expect to post once every 2 weeks, but I will make sure to at the very least to post once a month, about parings, this will not be a harem, I was planning for Mirajane, because I think it makes more sense as she would be able to better relate to Naruto's problems, but it might change, it just won't be Erza.

And I ask you politely, if you want to leave some criticism, I won't hear it if you come screaming at me saying I'm a piece of shit, also note that dates are messy in naruto, and I don't want him to be 16 while everyone at Fairy Tail is basically 18 and above, so to fit the story better I will mess with some dates so it can fit more naturally with the theme, Thanks for reading my note, and have fun.

"something" normal speech

'something' thought

*something* onomatopoeia

'something' higher/astral/demonic being communicating through thought

"something" higher/astral/demonic being speech

CHAPTER I
LIFE

Everything was dark, nothing could be seen, he walked through the vast darkness, he didn't know if he was actually moving, or for how long it had been since he got there, "it's all your fault", a muffled, distant voice was heard, "you can't runaway from what you have done", the air got heavier it seemed, almost suffocating, he was able to hear sobs, but, he couldn't locate them, they seemed so close yet so distant.

As he tried to look for the voices, a towering shadow slowly materialized upon him, it was taller than him, and inhumanly thin, it had long arms and appeared to have some sort of claw, it stared right at him, it's stare felt like it saw right through him, the thing that most stood out about it, were it's eyes, they were lifeless, they had no color, hollow, empty shells that glowed white, he could feel the hatred directed upon him, the wanting for revenge, a feeling of dread washed over him, but, along with it came also severe sadness, and extreme guilt. He could stare back no more, the guilt, the pain, the hollowness he felt was just too much, almost as if it was draining him of his emotions.

"You're a monster, they were right about you" it said almost as a whisper, "you failed them, you failed me, and you ran away like a coward afterwards, you lied, deceived and betrayed them"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" was all he could mutter, "I didn't, I didn't want any of this", he said as he got on his knees looking down not being able to stare it's eyes, "it was an accident, I had no control, it all happened so fast" he didn't mean to, it wasn't him, that thing made him do it "please forgive me" he said desperately.

Then, the scenery around him started to morph, dark blue waters replaced the total darkness, along with a storm brewing on what could only be described as the horizon, the figure that once stood in front of him disappeared, along with the felling of hate and dread, while at the same time being overtaken by a feeling of despair, as the the feeling of guilt got greater and greater, where he stood was now a boat, The boat was still connected to some sort of land, when he looked back to see the land, he saw in front of him a tall man with long spiky hair.

"You have to go, it's too dangerous to stay here" he spoke, "I'm sorry i wasn't there, I'm a failure as a godfather and an even bigger one as a teacher, but you have to go, I can't keep you safe." It gave him some sort of scroll, "Your parents, your family, who they were, were they are, it's all in here, I wish i could go with you, but I can't" the man kicked the boat into the open sea, " Don't look back, continue moving forward no matter what happens, and never forget" the boat got farther and farther away from, and as they both connected eyes for the last time, he said the last words he would ever hear from that continent "I love you Naruto".

*THUD*

His eyes now shot open, everything was bright, he could hear people talking, 'it was all a dream, I must have slept during work' he thought as he took in his surroundings, his head layed on top of an old wooden bar counter, as he stood up, still dizzy from suddenly waking up, he saw people fighting, drinking, sleeping, it was all a gigantic mess,'it's been 10 years' he thought as he looked around.

This was the Fairy Tail guild, the number one magic guild in the Kingdom of Fiore, it had been 10 years since everything happened, he got a job as a bartender in the guild, his attire changed a lot over the last couple years, he now wore a white porcelain mask, it was almost like a helmet, it encapsulated most of his head, he used a white social shirt, with a sleeveless black vest, along with black jeans, and a pair of social black shoes.

He still had contact with pervy sage through his toad contract, his godfather talked to him at least once a month, he was his only connection to the shinobi continent after the incident, he missed it, but he was on the run, he couldn't go back, even if he could, the "Akatsuki" threat' as Jiraya called it still existed, and he knew that were he to comeback to Konoha he would be putting then in danger, he wouldn't be able to look at himself anymore if any of them were in harms way because of him.

But it wasn't all that bad, the people here were kinder, they didn't know who he was, or what he had done, the region was mostly peaceful, at least compared to the Elemental Nations, he still couldn't live normally, if news spread overseas about a young adult from an faraway continent, that used chakra, had blond hair and blue eyes, people would come after him, be they Akatsuki or Anbu.

Was it overkill wearing a mask? maybe, but better safe than sorry, "HEY DUMBASS" Naruto zoned out of his thoughts as he was hit on the head by a flying bottle, "Yes, you" it repeated by throwing another bottle in his direction,this time, he was able to evade the flying menace, he turned his head to see who was throwing bottles at him, he saw a long-haired brunette with a large chest using nothing but a bikini to hide it, her name was Cana Alberona, "Bring me more alcohol", A great lover of alcoholic beverages to put it simply, and a great friend of his, "If you don't bring the alcohol soon I'll tell master you were sleeping during your shift", most of the time.

"Did you really need to throw bottles at me?" he saw her preparing to throw another bottle, "ok ok I'll bring more alcohol"he got out of the bar counter, and navigated to her through the guild to her table with an entire barrel of beer, "you didn't need to bring master into it, it was just an accident" he said putting it beside her table, "plus, you know how much I've been working this week? I haven't had a good sleep the entire month"

"I have yet to see Mira sleep in the counter, and she works just as much as you" she rebutted, "and yes the bottles were needed, seriously men around here have no class at all", if his face could be seen, you would be able to see a tick mark growing on his forehead, "but it must be just you getting old, right old man?" she smirked right at him.

He gritted his teeth,"hey im only 22, I'm still in my youth" she just sushed him, making his tick mark grow even further "and maybe men would have more class if you didn't throw fucking bottles at them to get their attention".

"yeah right, cause surely the bartender with a white mask that covers almost all of his head, is clearly a classy guy" she said rolling her eyes, "honestly how do you even eat with this thing on, I've never seen you even try to pull it off".

As he prepared himself to answer he,"Leave him alone Cana" intervened a beautiful young woman with long white hair, using a really pretty sleeveless red dress,as she intervened while the two bickered, her name is Mirajane Strauss, the only other bartender that works in the guild, "Naruto isn't your private alcohol provider, and we still have a lot of work to do", she said as she dragged him away from the alcoholic brunette, though her laughter could be heard as he was dragged by his co-worker.

"Ouch mira, you didn't need to drag me that way, I'm not a kid you know, in fact i'm even older than you", his relation with Mira was strange, they were really close since they were the only bar tenders of the guild, but she seemed to be really protective of him when he was talking to Cana, he never really understood why, but it was nothing out of control.

"You still have work to do" she said puffing her cheeks, " you wouldn't be so cruel as to let all the hard work for me to do, would you?", She said looking down, with fake tears, honestly she was able to play him like a damn fiddle if she needed to.

Ask he was about to speak he was interrupted by a scream that echoed through the entire guild hall "WE'RE BACK", the front doors flung open revealing a young man with pink spiky hair, and a blue cat with wings, their names were Natsu and Happy respectively, them along with Gray were probably the biggest troublemakers of the guild.

But something peaked his interest, along with the two trouble makers busting through the door, there was a busty blond, she was not a Fairy Tail mage, but her appearance was familiar to him, he just couldn't remember from where.

"Hey Natsu heard you destr-" said a man before being interrupted by Natsu, who suddenly punched him in the face, launching him a couple of meters, "HEY WHAT DID I DO"

"YOU LIED TO ME ABOUT SALAMANDER", said Natsu slowly walking towards the man, probably preparing to repeat hist latest act.

"HOW WOULD I KNOW, I JUST TOLD YOU THE RUMORS I HEARD" said the man getting up after the punch.

"So, Natsu is back" said a half naked man, cracking his knuckles, he had spiky black hair, his name was Gray Fullbuster, he had entered the just a few months after Naruto had arrived in the city, His relation with Natsu remembered him of his own rivalry with Sasuke, tho a lot friendlier than Sasuke ever was with him.

As the guild fell into utter chaos, the blond newcomer directed herself towards the counter," A-are you the real Mirajane? the one from sorcerer magazine?", the girl looked to be a fan of hers.

"The one and only, but what about you? a newcomer?" The blond merely nodded, she still seemed mesmerized by all that was happening,"do not worry, they'll stop fighting... eventually"

This broke her out of her trance "Uhm, are you sure", a chair flew behind her, " it's okay to not stop them?"

"They're always like this, it's better to leave them alone, plus, isn't it" at this moment a bottle flew by and hit Mirajane in the side of her head "Fun?" after that Mirajane fainted with smile.

"EEEEK, MIRAJANE-SAN"

"Don't worry, she'll be ok, this isn't the first time she fainted"

Lucy who hadn't even registered his presence until now, robotically turned her head towards his direction, "GAHH A STALKER WITH A MASK, GET AWAY FROM ME" she jumped back, and aimed her keys at him.

"Hey I work here" he answered in a defensive mannor, "it's not respectful calling people stalkers you know?" he said looking a bit downed, faking some tears, "I*SNIFF* AM *SNIFF* INTROVERTED YOU KNOW", she started desperately saying sorry worried about what she had done, "bah, doesn't matter now" he said now with a completely blank voice, she face fault at the sudden change of expression, when she came back to her senses, she saw him staring at her, she gulped, it isn't a normal occurrence to see a weirdo with a mask, even for Fairy Tail it was like this guy came out of nowhere, and started working as a bartender, but she felt more at ease now, "So what's your name? you still haven't said it".

Lucy, now fullycbroken from her scare, answered "I'm sorry for my mannors" she said bowing respectfully, "the name's Lucy" she looked at him with an inquisitive look, "but what about you, never heard about you before" it was a bit odd, she never heard about this individual before, how would anyone miss this, a bartender working for Fairy Tail with a mask, how would anyone miss that, but even his presence didn't feel right, she felt as if she was seeing a projection or a ghost, it was like he wasn't even there to begin with.

His eyes shot open for a moment after hearing her name,"I'm Naruto, I work here as a bartender" he calmly answered her, "Me and Mira take care of drinks, food, and pretty much everything in the guild" he explained it further, "we are also the ones who registrate magic contracts" he said ending the explanation, but she still looked worried, as if she did something wrong "do not worry about mannors in this place, specially with me, I'm only a bartender, plus as you can see most of the folks around here don't have it any sort of respect anyway" he said turning his head towards the massive brawl taking place, "looks like things are gonna get serious now" he said as magic seals started being activated around the hall, and the mages prepared for a serious fight.

"STOP THIS, YOU FOOLS"

After an intervention from master Makarov, along with a long list of complaints by the magic council, the fight finally stopped, and the blond girl, Lucy, officially joined the guild, she got her mark in her , but she left with Natsu to go looking for Macao, an old mage of the guild that had gone missing.

He couldn't help but reminisce about team 7, the way Natsu and Lucy acted towards each other, remembered him of his relation with Sakura, of course Lucy seemed to be way less aggressive than Sakura.

He couldn't help but imagine how all his friends were nowadays, Jiraya off course told him about how things had changed, but nothing major, they were mostly vague, apparently Neji had become a Jonin, and Gaara had become kazekage, he just couldn't imagine Gaara of all people becoming a Kage.

He was zoned out of his thoughts when he saw that he was alone now, again, a single tear fell out his left eye, he wanted them to be here, he wanted to be with them, he started turning off the lights and organizing the tables, the contrast between the lousy morning, and the now silent night, was gigantic. As he replaced Older contracts with newer ones, he started going up the stairs to the second floor, only a single new S-class mission was added, all S-class mages were out in their own missions right now, he wondered how "Mystogan" was doing, the two of them were really good friends.

'The two biggest weirdos are friends, sounds like a bad movie trope', he inwardly chuckled, his demeanor took a sudden downturn when he saw the 100 year quest, it had been 3 years since Gildarts had left, that wasn't what worried him, even though it had been 3 years, Gildarts would still monthly contact him, but the last message was from 3 months ago, he didn't think the man was dead, he was the ace of Fairy Tail after all, what worried him was 'What would be able to put Gildarts out of commission for such a long time?'.

'Nah, he probably just got drunk and forgot about contacting us' he shushed away those thoughts, nothing in this continent would be able to defeat Gildarts, as he started closing down the building, he couldn't help but feel a lingering danger, things on the Elemental Nations were quiet, but phantom had been mobilizing for quite some time, and The Balam Alliance seemed to be making it's moves.

As he got out of the now locked and dark building, he saw the once populated streets, now deserted, he started slowly walking towards a nearby pond, as he approached he made sure he was alone, the last thing he wanted was having to explain what was about to happen, as he got near the pond, he put his finger on the pond and sent a small pulse of Chakra, from the pond jumped a small toad, around the size of a hand.

He got his hand out of the pond and extended it towards de toad, as if waiting for the toad to give him something, as If on command the toad started regurgitating something, from it's mouth came a scroll twice it's size, the took the scroll and patted the toad on the head "thanks little buddy", the toad seemed to like it, but soon after jumped back into the pond. Naruto started reading the scroll, 'nothing out of the ordinary' he thought, after a few minutes reading it he made a hand signal, the scroll caught fire, and a few seconds after that it didn't exist anymore.

'He could send more detailed reports' he thought, honestly most of what Jiraya reported to him was really vague, but he couldn't blame the man, his godfather had been working nonstop to maintain peace in those damn warring states... but still, he wanted to know more. He traversed the streets in a slow pace, calmly taking each step,he remembered the first time he got in this city, battered, bruised, scared, and alone, he didn't understand why Makarov accepted him, the man knew what he was, but he still let him be a part of the guild.

He was zoned out of his thoughts when he realized where he was, 'home' he thought, a large building stood before him, an apartment complex, he navigated through the stairs of the building, getting to the 3th floor, he walked to a wooden door with the number 31 engraved in it, the door creaked as he opened it, he took in his surroundings as he turned the lights on, it was simple yet comfortable, nothing too much, nothing too little, it was considerably better than where he lived in Konoha, 'look what has become of you, a pathetic rat'.

He froze, he slowly closed the door, he grabbed the door knob to lock it, *CRACK* broken out of his stupor he looked down to see that he had crushed the doorknob, 'A coward, running away, you can't even show your face' it said in a cackling voice, Naruto grit his teeth, 'AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT, BECAUSE OF YOU, I CAN'T GO BACK TO MY HOME, BECAUSE OF YOU, I HAVE 10 S CLASS ASSASSIN'S LOOKING FOR ME' , he turned and punched a hole in the wall with pure brute force, 'BECAUSE OF YOU, MY PARENTS ARE DEAD', he punched another hole into the wall, 'DREAMS, FRIENDSHIPS, FAMILY, YOU ROBBED ME FROM THAT, ALL OF IT BECAU-' *RING*, the doorbell sounded, interrupting his rant against the thousand year old demon, *RING*, it sounded again, 'Looks like someone has visits' it cackled before going quiet, he was able to open the now knobless door with some difficulty, on the other side of stood a familiar face, the blond girl, Lucy.

"HEY I'M TRYING TO SLE-" she stoped her speech mid sentence as she saw him open the door, "hm-er-hm", she stumbled over her words, she still wasn't accustomed with this guy's appearance, his aura was just odd, it was somber, but now it was even worst, his eyes were lifeless, dull, like someone who had lost all purpose in life, but probably the thing that most scared was seeing a man with a mask with 2 holes in his wall, holding a a crushed door knob.

"You need something?" he quickly broke the silence, he didn't want to seem like an asshole, but right now he just wanted to go to sleep.

Now broken from her mumbling mess Lucy answered "U-um i-i was trying to sleep and i heard a loud noise, could you please turn it down", she felt something was off, but she didn't want to question it, it was late, she was tired, she really didn't want do deal with it, the last thing she wanted was having to deal with a psycho punching through his walls and crushing his own door knobs.

"No problem goodnight" he slammed the door in her face, lucy would have face fault, if she wasn't just so goddamn tired, it was almost a relief that this happened, she wouldn't have to deal with it, she just accepted it and went to sleep. He locked the door behind him and directed himself towards his bedroom, he walked in a fast pace through the apartment, quickly passing by the living room and the kitchen, he approached the bedroom's door, as the door quickly creaked open, a dark messy room could be seen, it had a somewhat large bed, there were scratches all over the walls, clothes were on the ground, along with some blood splashes could be seen spread throughout the room, some seals could be seen in the walls, the room looked more like a prison than a bedroom.

He quickly made a seal with his hands, before throwing himself into the bed, not caring to change his clothes before sleeping, but, he looked to his side before sleeping, maybe looking for a more comfortable position, and he saw it, on top of a bed table, right by the side of his bed, there was a photo stand, perfect, organized, with no blood splashes, along flowers on each side of it, his anger washed away at the sight of what was in it, as he saw the picture, he started couldn't help but start crying, in a mix of sorrow, guilt and happiness, this was just too much for him to handle today, as he fainted in bed, still crying, the picture you may ask? it was and picture, years old, of 2 boys who looked to be around 12 years old staring at each other, along a girl with pink hair who stood in the middle, as a silver haired man with a simple mask in his mouth stood behind them smiling.

So that's it, I expect to launch another chapter around the end of this month and the beginning of December, I hope you a liked it, and also that my writing wasn't atrocious, anyway see y'all next time, Escobar out.