Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Naruto. If I did, then I wouldn't have just wish-washed on the pairings in the end.
L: Please don't start a flame war Skillet.
Chapter 3: New Faces
To say things had not been going for well for Konohagakure no Sato as of late, due to Elder Council and Danzō Shimura having gone behind the backs of the Hokage and banished Naruto Uzumaki for injuries sustained by one Sasuke Uchiha upon being retrieved from his attempt to join the traitorous sannin Orochimaru. Despite his claims that Naruto had attacked him, Sasuke had escaped again with the assistance of Kabuto, fundamentally proving Naruto's innocence.
Of course, this wouldn't matter to the village which had wanted him gone for 13 years if it weren't for the plethora of negative side effects that came with it. For starters, once the people of the Land of Waves learned that their hero had been unjustly banished, Tazuna used his new influence over trade in Shang to cripple Konoha's trade. Other lands such as the Land of Tea, did the same thing, as the newly reigning family over Degarashi Port, the Wasabi family owed their existence to Naruto's help, resulting in Don Jirōchō using his friendship with the Tea Daimyo to cut off all business with the Land of Fire. The Land of Spring also isolated Konoha, refusing to involve itself in the filming or technological industry of Konoha anymore.
A combination of this lowered Konoha's stock, and caused the Fire Daimyo to reprimand them and slash their mission budget by 75%, resulting in a massive economic recession. Their military power also decreased, as the newly crowned Kazekage took Naruto's banishment as a personal insult and tore up the new peace treaty, before heading home and declaring that no one from Konoha would be allowed in Suna without his say so. Kumo also broke off relations, referring to the act of banishing someone for being a jinchuriki as a personal insult to the Raikage and his family. With Hizashi Hyuuga's sacrifice now for nothing, the Hyuuga clan angrily declared independence from Konoha and demanded a large sum of compensation, with many clans soon following.
Seeing as all their troubles could be traced back to Naruto's banishment, the Elder Council now fully supported the attempts of the sannin to find Naruto and reinstate him as a ninja of Konoha. This would be easier said than done however, as Naruto hadn't been seen in Shang since Gaara gave him a boat to the southern lands. It was thought that Naruto may have made landfall somewhere in Ishgar or Alakitasia, so an investigation was launched there. Despite the full cooperation of Emperor Spriggan and his government, the small remainder of Team 7 couldn't find Naruto anywhere in Alvarez.
Meanwhile, Team 8 and 10 assisted in the search in Ishgar despite their clans having formed settlements outside of Konoha as well, searching Veronica, Bosco, Seven, and Iceberg. Team Gai stayed put in Sunagakure with intent on assisting Gaara with his own search. Currently, the red-haired Kazekage was checking documents covering another possible location called Fiore "Ishgar is quite the interesting place. I'd like to know more about these mage guilds if I get the chance Kankuro."
"Focus on the task at hand Gaara, Naruto's still out there and we're running out of places he could be." Kankuro said as he brought in more files on Caelum and Minstrel, nations westward of Fiore.
"It's like finding a needle in a hay stack to be honest. Blonde hair and blue eyes are a lot more common amongst Ishgaran folk than they are here in Shang." Gaara said as he combed through the file on Fiore, before coming across someone that peaked his interest "I think we've found our guy. He's changed his clothes, but I could recognize him from a mile away. Yūra-san, notify Team Gai that we'll be heading to Fiore."
"Hai Kazekage-sama." Yūra followed the order and left the room to inform Team Gai of the good news. However, as soon as he was sure Gaara and Kankuro were out of earshot, he spoke into an earpiece he had hidden under his turban "Sasori-senpai, we've located the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. He's been hiding in Fiore!"
Being called to the Magic Council was something no mage wanted to happen to them, especially if you were apart of a guild as destructive and wild as Fairy Tail. This was the way Makarov was feeling as a result of the job that occurred not long ago in Shirotsume where Naruto destroyed the mansion belonging to the deposed Duke Everlue. The Magic Council demanded compensation for the damage as well as a written apology from the Master.
This apology was being delivered by Master Makarov, along with Naruto who'd been ordered to come and apologize for the damages in person, and Erza who'd decided to take a portion of the blame as well. To Makarov's confusion, Erza seemed to have been avoiding Naruto ever since they got back from Shirotsume, and she seemed to very embarrassed whenever they were close to each other. As a result, the trip to the Magic Council's Fiore branch was long and awkward.
"How could you have destroyed 50 million jewel in Magic Council property on such a simple job?" The Magic Council's chairman scolded Makarov as Naruto and Erza stood off to the side. Specifically with Erza standing at the opposite end of the room as Naruto. Makarov tried to come up with an explanation for the destruction, but only ended up stuttering in embarrassment "You'd better shape these hooligan brats up Makarov! Or else we'll be forced to take drastic measures. Court adjourned!"
While Crawford Seam drew the session to a close and Makarov had to deal with more of the Council's bureaucracy, Erza sighed in resignation before she noticed a familiar face walk by her and out the corridor of the court. Said familiar face was a young boy around her age with blue hair and a strange tattoo over his right eye, wearing a Rune Knight uniform. Almost immediately recognizing him, Erza suddenly ran out the room after him.
"Wait, Erza-chan? Where are you going?" Naruto yelled to his guildmate, before following her to find she was currently engaged in a fight with the blue haired youth.
The boy seemed to be well versed in Celestial Body Magic, and simply blocked Erza's blades with solar flares that he emitted from his fingertips as if it was nothing. Thinking that this stranger instigated the conversation, Naruto began to produce Wind Magic to help Erza fight. However, the fight was abruptly stopped when the boy asked "As much fun as I'm having with this, why are you intent on killing me?"
"Don't play dumb Jellal! You know what you did to me, what you've done to our friends! Wally, Millianna, Simon, Shou; where are they?" Erza screamed in anger as she pointed her sword in the boy's face.
However, despite these accusations he kept a stoic demeanor "I'm sorry, but you must be mistaking me for my brother Jellal. He was kidnapped by dark mages from Tartaros years ago, so it surprises me that he's still alive. My name is Private Siegrain Fernandes, I joined the Magic Council not long ago. If you could provide any information on the whereabouts of my brother or the remaining R-Systems that would be a great help Miss Scarlet."
"R-System? Tartaros? Jellal? I'm so confused right now!" Naruto tried to wrap his head around everything that Siegrain was saying.
"It's nothing you should be concerned Demon Brat. That is your name right? Me and Erza will just have to keep between us for the time being." Siegrain gave Erza an evil glare straight into her eyes that chilled the girl to her core, before walking off.
Hearing his old nickname from back in Konoha come up once again, plus the private's incredibly shady behavior rubbed Naruto the wrong way, resulting in him raising a fist and trying to attack Siegrain from behind "I'm gonna cream you, you bastard!" However, before he could catch up to him, Erza caught Naruto's arm and held it in place with a tight grip, letting Siegrain walk away with one more smug sideways glance.
Still incredibly miffed with the encounter, Naruto objected to Erza's action "What the hell Erza-chan! Don't you see that jerk deserves it for what he said to you!"
"Naruto, whatever happened between me and Siegrain in the past, it's just between us. Please just let it go and don't mention it to anyone in the guild, especially not the Master." Erza pleaded with the former shinobi. Understanding the seriousness of Erza's tone, Naruto reluctantly agreed.
"Naruto, Erza, get over here! There's someone I'd like you to meet!" Makarov called his children over out of the blue, causing both of them to freeze up at what the most likely angry master had in store for them. However, when they met with Makarov they saw that he had yet another stranger with them; this stranger was a boy a few years younger than either Naruto and Erza with spiky pink hair and beady onyx eyes. He wore a red coat and had a scaly white scarf wrapped around his neck, with a grumpy look on his face.
"Some Rune Knights found him wandering around the outskirts of some deserted town on the 7th. From what they could gather from him, his name his Natsu Dragneel and he claims to have been raised by a fire dragon named Igneel." Makarov explained the origins of the pink-haired boy, who reminded Naruto a lot of himself.
This spurred Naruto to try and introduce himself Natsu "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the Master of Fairy Tail one day."
"...Are you strong?" Natsu immediately asked the wind mage "Because if you are, I'm totally gonna kick your ass in a fight!"
"Not another one!" Makarov screamed in horror when he realized the pink haired boy's attitude could lead to destructive problems in the future.
"This place is huge!" Natsu claimed as he laid eyes on the Fairy Tail guild hall for the first time "So this is a mage guild."
"Yep. The best and most destructive in all of Fiore!" Naruto claimed proudly as they got closer to the guild hall.
'That second one isn't exactly a good thing.'
Natsu seemed to be very excited as he looked upon the guild hall, but found himself confused when he read the name "Kind of a weird name, don't you think Gramps?"
"It actually represents everything our guild stands for Natsu." Makarov began to explain the name "You see, no one really knows whether or not fairies have tails, or if they even exist for that matter. So unless we try to find out, it will always be a mystery. But that could become an exciting adventure! Those who join us are the ones who are willing to go on these types of adventures."
"I have no idea what you're trying to say, but it sounds awesome!" Natsu said with a large grin on his face.
"Come on in, we'll introduce you to everyone else." Makarov opened the large doors where the rest of the guild was drinking and looking for jobs "We're back everyone!"
"Master, Erza, Naruto! How much did the Council scream at you?" Macao made fun of what was likely a long and painful experience for them, before realizing there was a new guest amongst them "Who's the new kid? The ones we have not enough or something?"
"This is Natsu, he's a fire mage who claims to have been raised by a dragon." Makarov introduced the boy, who looked around the guild and saw several different people of all shapes and sizes going about their business. However, he quickly locked eyes in a harsh glare with Gray, who currently wearing nothing but his boxer shorts.
Gray noticed this, and responded threateningly "What's the matter, you got a problem with me or something?"
"What if I do?" Natsu growled at the young ice mage.
"Gray, your clothes!"
"CRAP!"
In response to seeing Gray's embarrassing habit for the first time, Natsu decided to mock him "You're some sort of pervert aren't you?"
"What did you say to me Pinky?"
"You heard me, you pretty boy streaker!"
"That's it, let's go!" Gray while preparing a magic circle for his Ice Make magic in the palm of his hands, while Natsu followed suit with his Fire Dragon Slayer magic. However, before the fight could progress any further, Erza had walked up to separate them, doing so by smacking them upside the head.
Gray understood to keep his mouth shut, having dealt with this sort of thing in the past. However, Natsu had only just met Erza and shot back "You wanna piece of me too Erza!"
"No, you idiot!" Gray hastily tried to hush up Natsu before Erza really got mad. However, this didn't work in time as they quickly found themselves imprinted painfully into the wall.
"No fighting, understood?"
"Yes ma'm." Both boys groaned in pain as they fell from the wall, rubbing their bruised heads. After his vision returned it's blurry state, Natsu moaned "She's super scary."
"You got that right." Gray agreed as he rubbed the large bump on his head Erza had left behind. Noticing Naruto had approached to check on them, Gray said to the Wind Devil Slayer "Seriously Naruto, I have no idea what you see in her."
Worried that someone might hear, Naruto immediately covered Gray's mouth up "Shut up Gray!"
"Why, Jet and Droy already told everyone how you two were making out on that last job. Or are you just going to pretend that never happened?" Gray asked mockingly, while Natsu also understood a little more about Naruto's response.
"I see what's going on here! Naruto and Erza, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-"
"Wind Magic: Tempest Cannon"
Then, for the second time that day Natsu and Gray had been imprinted into the wall.
To the members of the Fairy Tail guild, the time went by as fast as the wind, and a new year had already begun in the form of X778. Members such as Laxus, Erza, and Naruto had begun making names for themselves due to their destructive tendencies during jobs and their great magical power. While Naruto was somewhat fearful that this new reputation would allow Otogakure and the Akatsuki would track him to Fiore, but was still enjoying the amount of attention he was getting.
Natsu had gotten used to being at Fairy Tail and had made bonds with its mages, causing him to become an official member of the guild shortly after his arrival. He also made a bit of a habit of challenging the others to fights, such as Laxus, Naruto, Erza, and Gray. While he was equally matched with Gray, his fights with Naruto and Erza tended to end in regular defeats, and Laxus never bothered to pay attention to his requests.
Three new members also joined earlier that year, being the Strauss Siblings: Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna. Specializing in Take Over magic, they were ostracized by the locals who didn't understand their powers and run out of town a mere few days after their parents died. The eldest sister seemed to blame herself for this, due to having the most terrifying magic out of any of them. However, that didn't stop her from forming a rivalry with Erza only a few members understood.
Similarly, the rivalry between Natsu and Gray raged on like it did when Natsu first joined the guild. A regular sight for those passing by the guild on an ordinary day were the two trying to knock each other out with hard fisticuffs. One day in summer, Makarov was looking for Natsu "Hey Natsu, where are you?"
"He and Gray went outside again Jiisan. Probably going at it again." Naruto informed the frustrated Makarov while looking at the job request board. True to Naruto's words, Gray and Natsu were outside beating the crap out of each other while constantly spewing whatever insults came into their angry little heads.
"Lamebrain lizard!"
"Ice stripper!"
However, the fight quickly drew to a close when Erza intervened once again by pushing the boys apart "Knock it off boys, you're making a nuisances of yourselves."
"Mind your own business Erza!" Gray yelled in anger at their fight being interrupted.
"You wanna piece of me too Erza?" Natsu challenged the armored girl.
"If you insist." Erza smirked as both Natsu and Gray charged at her. This didn't end well for either of them, as within two seconds they were jumbled up in a bruised pile of limbs "No more pointless fighting from you two, okay?"
After Erza left the two of them in a painful position, Naruto approached from behind to see the results of the one sided fight "Did Erza-chan catch you guys fighting again?"
"She just got lucky is all! I'll win next time Naruto!" Natsu declared before giving the wind mage an evil glare "I'll prove it! You fight me right here!"
"Wind Magic: Tempest Cannon"
Naruto wasn't exactly in the mood for another one of his guildmate's challenges and simply blew him away with a magical gust of wind. After this new one-sided fight drew to a close, Gray felt the need to ask Naruto "Hey, you've got Devil Slayer Magic right? How come I've never seen you use it in a fight?"
"Because the last time I did Jiisan yelled at me three hours straight for tearing down 5 acres of trees." Naruto sheepishly said as he remembered the last time he tried using the Kyuubi's magic in Magnolia.
Later that day, people went about their business in the guild as usual while either drinking, partying, or trying to find a good job to do. However, all attention was quickly brought to Natsu when he excitedly ran into the guild with a large white and blue egg "Hey everyone check out this cool egg I found!"
"Where in blazes that you find that thing Natsu?" Makarov asked, worried that the egg could hatch into something dangerous.
That thought never even crossed Natsu's mind though "I found it in the East Forest! I bet it's Igneel's kid!"
"Looks like you're good for something after all Natsu. I was just getting hungry too, so why don't you fry us up that egg?" Gray jokingly suggested, pissing the dragon slayer off.
"ARE YOU CRAZY, IT'S PROBABLY IGNEEL'S KID!" Natsu screamed in anger at the thought of the egg being eaten, before pointing out the blue marks on the egg "See, claw marks! It has to be a dragon's egg!"
In response to Natsu's reasoning, Naruto agreed "Can't argue with that logic!"
"Are you both stupid or something?"
"Hey, I've seen weirder!"
"So anyway Gramps, why don't you hatch it with a spell?" Natsu suggested to the guild master, who didn't seem very willing.
"Foolish child, you should know I can't do that. Using magic in such a way would be a disrespect to the miracle of life. If you want it to hatch you'll require patience and love, something no spell can offer on its own." Makarov tried to explain, to which Natsu just confusedly tilted his head "You'll understand when you're older child."
"He's saying that if you want it to hatch, you'll have to work for it. It would be a nice change of scenery for you Natsu." Erza tried to offer her own explanation. However, when a certain someone heard her voice, they immediately yelled in fury.
"I've been looking for you Erza!" Mirajane stood up from her chair and growled at her rival, with her younger siblings nearby "Why don't we pick up where we left of earlier?! Let's go!"
"We never did finish our match did we?!" Erza's face curled into a furious snarl, as she and Mirajane charged at each other and began viciously fighting each other .
"You're going down this time Erza!"
"I'll tear you to pieces!"
"Metal training bra!"
"Navel showing floozy!"
"Ugly prude!"
"Stupid cow!"
"Thunder thighs!"
"Granny hair!"
The other children of the guild watched the fight in a mix of fear and confusion, with Gray questioning "I'll never understand why she can tear apart the guild hall as much as she wants, but she'll put us in the ground when we fight."
"I just want to know why those two fight all the time." Naruto wondered aloud, with the others in disbelief at his obliviousness.
"You really are a clueless idiot aren't you Naruto?" Cana said blankly to him, before sighing "You'll understand one day I guess."
It was at this point when the fight between Erza and Mirajane had suddenly stopped, as the latter had heard Naruto talking to Gray and Cana, and excitedly ran up to him "Naruto-kun! I didn't know you made it to the guild hall yet! Why didn't you give me a heads up?"
"Um, I didn't see you here?"
"You're so funny Naruto-kun! Did you cut your hair or something, because you look really cute!" Mira blatantly flirted with the former shinobi, in spite of his almost super human obliviousness.
Erza however, knew exactly what she was up to and resumed attacking "Get away from him!"
"I have no idea what those two want with you Naruto, but one of these day's I'll give all three of you a beat down you won't ever forget!" Natsu declared, also not understanding why Erza and Mirajane were fighting.
However, Lisanna did understand and found Natsu's words cute "Give us a break Natsu, keep up the tough guy act and you'll never get the girls to like you!"
"Shut up Lisanna!"
"Don't be rude, I just wanted to know if you needed some help hatching the egg! I've never hatched a dragon before so it sounds like fun!" Lisanna said before continuing "We'll need to warm it up with body heat though."
Natsu grinned at the word heat, and began producing a small fire in his hands with magic "I've got plenty of body heat Lisanna!"
"Not that kind of body heat dummy! Let me handle this!" Lisanna scolded her friend before activating her specialty in Take Over Magic.
"Take Over: Animal Soul"
In a flash of light, Lisanna had turned into a large bird to help warm up the egg, surprising and impressing those who weren't familiar with her style of magic "Birds are experts when it comes to hatchings eggs!"
"So is Natsu not getting that she likes him or?" Naruto whispered to Gray, who didn't seem to believe what he just said.
"You have no room to talk Naruto."
Things went well for the egg and it's adoptive family over the next few days, with the exception of a few hiccups such as a surprise attack from a goran. While most of the guild saw it as little more than a cute game between Natsu and Lisanna, some weren't as keen on the idea. This was especially true for Mirajane, who was furious at the thought of her baby sister befriending someone who she considered to be on Erza's team.
However, early one morning Natsu awoke in a panic when he found that the egg was missing from the small house Lisanna had built for it using her magic. As a result, he was now going around the guild accusing anyone he could think of stealing it "Alright which one of you took our egg!"
"Why would I want that dumb thing?" Gray asked, not realizing he'd stripped to his boxers once again.
"I don't know anything about it guys, sorry." Cana apologized to them before pointing out Gray's near nudity again "Gray, your clothes!"
While Gray panicked and began scavenging around the guild hall for his missing clothes, Natsu went to accuse the next person "Naruto, you took the dragon egg didn't you? Give it back or else!"
"Wha ah you talkin abow?" Naruto tried to ask, though it was mostly unintelligible from the mouthful of ramen he was eating for breakfast. Seeing the bowl of the traditionally Shangese dish immediately caused Natsu to begin panicking.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU FRIED IT UP AND PUT IN RAMEN DIDN'T YOU!"
After swallowing his mouthful, Naruto confusedly tried to explain as he had no clue what was going on "But this is pork ramen, not egg ramen."
"Don't be stupid Natsu, our egg was moving and it's impossible to eat a fertilized egg in most types of egg dishes." Lisanna offers a better alibi for Naruto, which seemed good enough for Natsu to accept. However, this didn't stop him from going around and accusing Laxus and Erza.
"Laxus, was it you?"
"Beat it kid."
"Erza?!"
"Don't jump to conclusions."
Running out of options, Lisanna tried to ask her older sister for any ideas "What about you Mira, have you seen it anywhere?"
"Nope." Mirajane plainly stated, before deciding to take the opportunity to tease Natsu a bit "Are you sure you didn't eat it yourself Natsu?"
This accusation caused another brawl, as Natsu angrily tacked Mira who ran right into Gray and knocked him into Naruto. This caused the former shinobi and the bowl of ramen he was eating to go tumbling to the floor. After getting up and wiping some of the ramen off of himself, Gray angrily yelled at the two of them "Watch where you're punching idiots!"
"You guys." Naruto growled as he stared down at his ruined breakfast "Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to come across my favorite food in Magnolia. It's only served once a week!"
"Calm down everybody!" Erza tried to satiate the situation, knowing they would probably end up using magic if things went much further.
All while the older members of the guild sat idly by and watched the fireworks "Those kids are nuts Master! Hate to see what things are gonna be like in a few years."
"Hey, you're the one who brought Naruto here, and he and Erza have already started wrecking stuff!" Wakaba reminded Macao of his decision 2 years ago.
Makarov however seemed much more comfortable with the fighting compared to Macao and Wakaba "These children only fight because they acknowledge each other and strive to improve, because they see themselves in one another. There shouldn't be anything to worry about."
"Why are you so mean? I just want the egg back." Natsu cried a little, even after Erza had managed to break up the fighting.
"Just give him the egg back!" Erza growled at Mira, suspecting her of taking it.
Mira wasn't nearly as convinced "Please, I bet you ate it Porky!"
"Hey Cana-san, wasn't Elfman telling us about how jealous he was of their egg earlier?" Naruto remembered a previous conversation they'd had with the demure boy earlier.
"You're right!"
"So Elfman ate it!" Natsu said in disbelief, shocked that the gentle Elfman would do such a thing. Said shock quickly turned into anger when Elfman appeared from behind "It was you Elfman?"
"Sorry guys, I didn't mean to steal it or anything! You just toss and turn in your sleep so much I was worried that it wouldn't get enough body heat, so I figured since I'm a big guy I could warm it up a bit myself!" Elfman explained himself, with the egg safe and sound in his arms.
"Thank you so much big brother!"
"Yeah, you're a real man!"
Before Elfman could hand over the egg back to Natsu and Lisanna, a large crack suddenly appeared near the top and it began rising into the air. After a few moments of shaking and breaking off what was left of the shell, a small blue cat with white wings flew into the air after hatching from the egg, to shock of everyone in the guild "IT'S A CAT?!" After a few moments of weakly gliding around the air, the newborn creature landed softly on Natsu's head.
"It's so cute!"
While the guild was crowded around its newborn mascot, another flying blue creature flew on to Elfman's shoulder "My parakeet's back! Hey buddy, remember me?" Had Elfman been a bit quicker, he would have caught a glimpse of Naruto who was now hiding behind a pillar with a bird cage in his hand.
However, Erza and Mirajane did manage to catch sight of him "So you got Elfman a new parakeet Naruto-kun?"
"Uh, well yeah, he was talking about how much he missed his old one earlier, and there are plenty in the woods nearby. So I just figured..." Naruto explained himself bashfully when he realized he'd been found out.
"Next time get your colors right dork, his parakeet was red." Mirajane said a large grin and a small blush on her face.
"See that, a minute ago everyone was all worked up and fighting, but now they're all happy again!" Lisanna realized upon looking at the present state of the guild "He's like a blue bird of happiness!"
"That settles it then, this little guy's name is Happy the Dragon!" Natsu proclaimed as he held the sleeping blue kitten, before remembering a question he'd wanted to ask Lisanna "By the way, can you tell Erza and Mirajane to stop trying to fight Naruto all the time! I'm the one who gets to beat him first!"
Lisanna giggled a bit at Natsu's misunderstanding, and tried to explain a bit better through the lens of her own childhood naiveté "Natsu, Mira and Erza don't always hang around Naruto because they wanna fight him. They do it because they wanna marry him!" While Lisanna's view on the situation was a bit exaggerated to say the least, Natsu was in complete shock at this a massive amount of pity for Naruto having the scariest people in the guild want to marry him, Natsu walked up and bowed his head.
"You poor poor man. I'll never forget your sacrifice!"
A few days later, Naruto had taken on another job with Gray to defeat a group of bandits who had been terrorizing a local village. However, as typical for the two of them the boys had also caused a lot of damage with their ice and wind, resulting in another scolding from Makarov upon their return "Naruto, Gray! What were you two thinking?! How come anytime either of you go out on even the simplest of job, you always cause more damage than the people your fighting?"
"They were part of Naked Mummy Jiisan, we couldn't exactly give them flowers and chocolate." Gray snarked while rubbing the large bump on his head that Makarov had left both him and Naruto.
"I still say that's a dumb name for any guild, dark or otherwise." Naruto yawned while scratching his head.
While Makarov was visibly annoyed with how nonchalant they were about the guild's destructive tendencies, he was quickly distracted when Team Shadow Gear came running in after their own job "Big news! Gildarts is back!"
"What?"
"Awesome!"
"Who?"
Several of the newer members such as Naruto, Natsu, and the Strauss Siblings had no idea what this meant and were very confused, especially when the church bells began ringing and the ground around the guild hall began to shift "Wait a minute, what's going on? Who's Gildarts?"
"Gildarts is the strongest mage in the guild, and ever since Ivan was excommunicated, the only S-class mage. He's known for taking high level S-class quests and recently went on a decade one. I'm surprised he's back so soon." Macao tried to explain to the newer members, not noticing the glum look on Cana and Laxus' face.
However, Natsu was still very confused "S-class...Ivan...wha?"
"S-class is a special kind of mage that can take restricted jobs on the top floor." Naruto briefly stated, having been able to gather that from his past information "I don't know how to become one, but I'll do it! That's the first step to becoming Master!"
"I bet I'll become one before either of you!" Natsu said to both Naruto and Gray.
"In your dreams!"
After a few minutes, the Magnolia Gildarts Shift had stopped and cleared a path for Gildarts to come through to the guild hall where most of the guild eagerly awaited his arrival. When he arrived, Naruto was surprised to see that he was a very sluggish looking man with neck length red hair and a scruffy looking face "Hey Master, how are you doing? I see you've been inviting a lot more kids into the guild. Let's see I remember Cana, Gray, Erza, Droy, Jet, and Levy. Who are the other rugrats?"
"I'm Natsu! Wanna fight old guy?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the Master of Fairy Tail! Dattebayo!"
"So we've got two more jumping beans? I bet you boys get along well with Gray. And are you from Shang?" Gilders asked Naruto, due to the rarity of anyone from Shang visiting the continent of Ishgar.
"Yep!"
"Mister Gildarts?" Lisanna got the older man's attention by tugging on his cloak "I'm Lisanna, and those two are my big brother and sister Elfman and Mira. The blue kitty is mine and Natsu's son, Happy the Dragon!"
"Hello sir, nice to meet you." Elfman politely greeted the older mage.
"Got some interesting new people here Master. I see the rest of you have grown up, especially you Laxus!" Gildarts said to the teenager sulking in the corner, before asking "By the way, where's your old man? He usually wants to thrown down with me first thing whenever I get back from a job!"
"Gildarts, Ivan is no longer a member of Fairy Tail. I'll explain more later, but you had good timing for what I had planned." Makarov said as he walked up to the front of the guild "We're reinstating the S-Class Trials! We've been short on the number of mages who can do S-class requests, so in one week we'll be holding an event that will help us pick one new S-class mage for our guild!"
The guild went silent at this news for a brief moment, before it went into yet another frenzy at the news "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"
"I can be an S-class mage? Hah, I'm gonna kick everyone's butt in this exam!" Natsu excitedly said while hopping around the guild like a toddler.
However, Makarov's next announcement immediately deflated him "Only a select few from this guild will be joining us for this trial I'm afraid Natsu. This year I've picked six of you that have the potential to be considered S-class: Erza Scarlet, Laxus Dreyar, Macao Conbolt, Cana Alberona, Mirajane Strauss, and Naruto Uzumaki!"
"Awwwwwwww no fair." Natsu began to sulk when he learned he wouldn't be participating in the trials this year, along with an equally saddened Gray.
"How come Naruto's going when I can't? I've been in the guild longer!"
"We mustn't complain Gray, this is the Master's decision and we must respect it." Erza scolded Gray for his vocal objections.
"Easy for you to say, you actually got chosen!"
While the rest of the guild was in a bustle concerning the announcements, Naruto stood there pondering over the necklace that Tsunade had given him before his banishment 'This is it Baachan, I'm one step closer to achieving my new dream.'
"Now then, for those participating I'll allow you one week to choose your partners for the trial, and for those not...better luck next time!" Makarov gave the last of his announcements before walking off and letting the guild discuss amongst themselves.
"Hey Naruto!" Natsu grabbed the former shinobi's attention "Can I be your partner for the S-Class trials? It sounds a lot better than sitting around the guild waiting for you guys to be done."
Not expecting someone to out right ask to be his partner in the trial, Naruto gave him a grin "Sure! Let's do this!"
"Yosh! This air feels great!" Lee said as he soaked in the scenery of Magnolia, having arrived there with the rest of his team a few days ago. Also there were the member of Team Asuma and the Kazekage's escort who had spent the past year scouring Fiore for their missing comrade. Reports of a notoriously destructive mage with whiskered cheeks led them directly to Magnolia "Naruto-kun?! Where are you?"
"You're not going to find him just by calling his name Lee, we need to find someone who knows him or has seen him first." Tenten said while going around showing people Naruto's picture as a Konoha genin and asking if they'd seen him.
However, Gai seemed much more enthusiastic about Lee's method of searching "You don't understand Tenten, Lee isn't merely calling out Naruto's name! His releasing his flames of youth like a glorious dragon in hopes that they will reach Naruto and beckon him to us! Naruto! We're here to bring you home!"
"Fools, I still they still haven't even considered that possibility."
"What possibility Neji-kun?" Tenten asked her teammate and lover.
"For all we know, Naruto could have spent the two years of his absence here, enough time to start a new life. And if that's the case he may not want to come back." Neji theorized, the mere possibility shocking Tenten.
"How could you say that Neji-kun? Naruto loves Konoha!"
"The Naruto we knew two years ago did. For all we know his banishment has killed any interest in the village he once called home; he might have even found a new dream to chase after. I'm just being realistic." Neji said grimly before showing a picture of Naruto to a young girl with short white hair "Excuse me miss, have you seen this man? We have a few questions for him."
"You must be old friends of Naruto's or something! Sorry but you just missed him, he went off to Hargeon with some of our other guild mates earlier this morning." Lisanna explained to Neji.
'Of course he did. But look on the bright side Neji, after all this time searching you have a definitive lead.'
Lee having heard the conversation, decided to interject "Tell me miss, how do you know of our youthful friend?"
"He's gonna marry my big sister one day!"
...
"WHAT?!"
(A/N): WEN NATSU? NOW NATSU! Now that Natsu's made his definitive debut in the story you guys can stop asking me when he'll appear. But in all seriousness, I'm very sorry for yet another extensive wait on this story, as I had to restart Ninja of Santoryu for it's third arc, and focus on other projects including work and school. But now that the first major story arc is in full swing, you should have a bit more to look forward too.
Sorry if I didn't develop Gildarts enough for his introduction, but I fully intend to in the chapters to come. Speaking of character development though, I found that I actually really enjoyed writing Mirajane and her crush on Naruto in this. I was intending for this to just be Naruto x Erza, and I don't like writing harems but I want to ask you guys: Should I keep the pairing the same, or change it to Naruto x Erza x Mirajane. I'll put a poll up on my profile for you to vote on, so vote on it before the next chapter comes out!
Please click the review button if you're not gonna be a troll or a jackass, and if you like the story follow and favorite. See you next time!
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