Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and Fairy tail.
A/N: I updated this chapter as I've made a mistake. Macao is 4th guild master not 5th. (Thank you, bobthenerd, for pointing this out)
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(Year X788, Hargeon Town)
Ring!!*
"Urgh.." Naruto groaned as he tried to muffle the ringing sound of his alarm clock by covering his face with the blanket. However, after a few seconds, he ultimately admitted defeat and decided to just wake up when the ringing sound of the alarm clock started increasing.
Naruto tossed the blanket from his face to the side and sleepily pushed himself up into a sitting position on his bed. He scratched the back of his head and drowsily glared at the offending alarm clock, which was still ringing loudly. It was only 6:30 am! Letting out a tired sigh he reached for the alarm clock that was on his nightstand and turned it off.
After letting out a massive yawn from his mouth, he got down from his bed and slowly headed toward the bathroom to wash up and take a quick shower; while simultaneously taking off the orange-colored pajamas that he was wearing.
After a few minutes, he came out of the bathroom, completely fresh with an orange-colored towel wrapped around his waist. He then went toward his wardrobe and picked out the clothes that he was going to wear for the day, which were a dark orange shirt and black jeans.
After he got dressed, Naruto checked himself in the mirror rolling up the sleeves of his shirt just below his elbows. He raised his eyebrows a little when he noticed that his hair has gotten longer and planned to trim them a little whenever he got the chance. He then grabbed his forehead protector that was on a small table, just beside the mirror, and tied it to his forehead.
Hey, just because he was not in Konoha or the Elemental Nations, didn't mean that he was no longer a shinobi.
After checking himself in the mirror for the final time, he nodded in satisfaction with his appearance and gave his reflection a thumbs up.
Naruto then headed toward the door, not forgetting to wear the black combat boots that were placed at the entrance, and got out of his small one-bedroom apartment— which he was thankfully able to rent a year ago with the help of his boss.
Locking the door of his apartment, he slowly headed toward his workplace to have breakfast and to start with his work.
As Naruto leisurely walked the cobblestone roads of Hargeon; occasionally greeting some of the vendors that were opening their stores, he couldn't help but wonder how the time has passed so fast.
It just felt like yesterday that he and Kurama were dumped into this unknown, magical world, but already a whole year had passed by and he still haven't seen any sign of his partner waking up. And he knew that it would take a long time before he could even talk to his partner again.
He deeply missed his home, Konoha. Not a single day passed by, without him thinking about his friends and Konoha. And he couldn't wait for the day when he could finally go back to Konoha and meet them.
However, these past few months that he had spent in this world have completely made him fall in love with this world. The peace here was kinda intoxicating to him. And he was going to cherish every moment that he had spent in this world when he finally go back to the Elemental Nations.
Though he loved the peace and monotony in his current life, he was getting a bit bored by it. He thoroughly missed the thrill of going on missions and fighting strong people. He hadn't been to a fight or had even seen a fight for about 9 months, and it was kinda getting to him. It didn't mean that he was a fight junky or anything, he just wanted a bit of a thrill. That's it.
'Should I join a Magic guild?' He idly wondered as he knew that the guilds receive mission requests just like hidden villages.
Though, just because he hasn't seen any action for about a year didn't mean that he was slacking in his training. He would often go to the forest outside of the town, to train by fighting against his shadow clones and would even practice some Jutsu; while perfecting and refining the jutsu that he already knew, as he didn't want to get rusty due to the lack of action. He even managed to fully master the Hirahshin Jutsu a couple of months ago!
Naruto halted his internal thoughts as he finally reached the building where he use to work. It was a restaurant, in fact, it was the same restaurant that Ranji had recommended to him. The restaurant was called 8-Island and he has been working here as a waiter, cook, security, and sometimes even as a receptionist, for over a year.
As he stood and looked at the closed door of the restaurant he couldn't help but fondly recall the faithful day, when he was hired by the restaurant owner, to whom he was eternally grateful.
(Flashback)
It had been over three weeks since Naruto had parted ways with the four idiots and if he was being honest, his current situation was not looking really good.
After he had come to the horrible realization, that while the people in this world spoke the same language as him, they certainly didn't write the same way as him. So, he had spent the last three weeks trying to learn how to write and read the language of this world as it was a huge problem that could probably bite him in the ass if he didn't solve it.
The process was quite slow and tedious, though. Since he didn't have or knew anyone who could translate the script for him. Hence, he had to take some extreme steps to solve that problem...he had to do something which he had never thought he would ever do in his life. Going to a library and bookstores.
More like raiding the town's library and bookstores with dozens of his transformed shadow clones to read and better understand the written script of this world. Occasionally, he would even ask the librarian or the bookstore owners to teach him or translate the script for him; who despite looking at him like he was some kind of dunce, had provided the help.
And after many trials and errors, he finally managed to learn to read the written script of this world, in just three weeks! Of course, it would have taken him months without him using more than 100 shadow clones each day. Though, using so many shadow clones had caused him many headaches, not only by the excess amount of information that he was receiving from them but also by their constant bickering and attitude problems.
Sometimes he really hated his shadow clones! They were a pain in the ass.
However, spending three weeks without doing anything other than studying had put him in a very bad situation right now. He was completely broke! He had spent almost all the jewels that the four idiots had lent him on inns, books, and food. Now he had only 250 jewels left in his pocket!
He needed to find a job, really badly now. Which he was planning to do today. Though, he doubted it was going to be easy.
But first, he needed to fill his stomach with some good ramen as he haven't had his breakfast yet.
So, here he was now. Standing in front of his favorite restaurant, called 8 Island, waiting patiently for the restaurant to finally open for the day. As it hadn't opened yet, since it was still really early in the morning, probably around 6:30 am.
"Hello, Young man."
Naruto turned around when he heard someone greeting him and saw the person that had greeted him.
The person was a short, old man with thick light-brown eyebrows and a small toothbrush mustache that reached halfway to his mouth. The old man was wearing chef clothes and a chef hat.
"Were you calling me, old man?" Naruto curiously asked as he didn't know the old man nor he had ever met him.
"Yes," The old man replied, his eyebrow twitching a little when he was given the title 'old man' by the youngster.
"I was wondering why you were standing in front of my restaurant, so early in the morning?"
"Oh! You are the owner of this restaurant?" Naruto asked in surprise, getting a nod of confirmation from the old man.
"Well, I was just waiting for your restaurant to open, since I'm feeling quite hungry at the moment."
"You might have to wait for more than an hour then. Since the restaurant doesn't open till 8 am."
"Yeah, I know. And I don't really mind waiting for another hour."
"Oh, really? Any reason for that?" The old man chuckled at Naruto's word and curiously asked.
"Well, because your restaurant makes the best ramen in town! that's why I don't mind the wait." Naruto said enthusiastically and grinned as the old man laughed at his response.
"Haha, thank you, young man. Hmm...Let's head inside the restaurant then. It will make me feel bad if I let you wait any longer." The old man kindly said as he slowly walked toward the restaurant door.
"What really?" Naruto asked in surprise, getting a jovial nod from the old man.
"Thank you so much, old man."
"Don't mention it." The old man chuckled as he opened the restaurant door and entered the restaurant with an excited Naruto.
"Why don't you sit here and wait for a few minutes? While I go to the kitchen and prepare you a nice bowl of ramen." The old man kindly told Naruto, pointing at one of the chairs.
"Sure, old man!" Naruto grinned and sat on the chair that the old man had offered him.
"Oh, by the way. What kind of ramen would you like?"
"Ah... Miso ramen." Naruto thought for a second and replied.
"Okay, just wait for a few minutes." The old man said as he headed to the kitchen to prepare the ramen.
...
After waiting for a few minutes, Naruto saw the old man coming toward him holding a steaming bowl of ramen in his hand.
"Here you go young man, I hope you like it." The old man said as he place the bowl on the table.
"Thank you, old man! " Naruto thanked the kind old man and dug into the delicious bowl of ramen.
After finishing the ramen in just a few seconds, Naruto let out a huge grin of satisfaction and looked at the old man who was sitting on the opposite side of the table.
"That was one of the best ramen that I have ever tasted! It was even better than the ramen that I had eaten yesterday in this restaurant!" Naruto enthusiastically complimented the old man giving a thumbs up.
"I'm glad you liked my ramen!" The old man laughed and replied.
"By the way, if you don't mind me asking what's your name, young man?"
"Ah, I didn't give you my name right." Naruto blushed in embarrassment as he had had forgot to introduce himself, to the guy who was kind enough to offer him a bowl of ramen.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."
"So, Naruto. Do you know how to use magic?" The old man asked curiously.
"Well...ah. Yes, I do know how to use magic." Naruto replied after musing for a bit. He didn't know how to use magic or even knew the basics of magic, but he had decided earlier that he would start calling his jutsu as magic. Since it would be quite hard for him to explain to others if they start questioning his unique abilities and the best way to explain without arousing any suspicion regarding him, was to just tell people that his jutsu was a form of magic.
"Oh, What kind of magic do you use?" The old man got even more curious than before and asked.
"Ah, I can create multiple clones of myself."
"If you don't mind, can you please show me your magic?"
"I don't mind, old man. It's the least I can do for you treating me to ramen." Naruto told the old man and crossed his fingers to perform his signature jutsu.
"Shadow clone jutsu."
Naruto lightly called out the name of the jutsu as two identical clones of him appeared beside him in a puff of smoke.
"Amazing, these clones are solid!" The old man exclaimed in amazement as he closely examined the clones.
"I thought that these clones of yours were similar to thought projection magic, but this is highly advanced."
"I don't know what you mean by thought projection, but yeah, my clones are solid. And the best part about my clones is that I can get every information that they had learned or gathered when they dispel." Naruto grinned as he boasted about his cool jutsu.
"How many of these clones of yours can you create at once?" The old man asked in excitement with a slight glint in his small eyes, which Naruto missed.
"Well, I can create more than a thousand, if I want."
"Would you like to work in my restaurant?" The old man asked with a slight hint of excitement in his tone.
"What...?" Naruto stumbled a little at the sudden job offer.
"Really, old man? You are not joking right?" Naruto asked excitedly as he was really in need of a job and he hope that he was not hallucinating.
"Yes, I'm not joking. I had heard you talking to yourself about needing to find a job outside the restaurant... *Naruto blushed*...and so I was wondering whether you would like to work here?"
"I would love to work here, old man! Thank you so much!" Naruto cheered, picking the old man up from the chair and hugging him tightly.
"Ugh...Put me down, Naruto." The old man whizzed as his face started turning red due to the tight hug that he was receiving from Naruto.
"Oh... Sorry, old man. I got too excited." Naruto sheepishly apologized as he saw the old man's face and placed the old man down on the chair.
"Cough... it's all right." The old man coughed and waved off the apology.
"Oh, by the way, Naruto. I have to tell you something."
"What, old man?" Naruto grinned and asked still too excited with the thought that he had finally gotten a job. He couldn't believe his luck! Now he didn't have to worry about sleeping on the streets or going hungry due to having no money.
"My name is Yajima. Not old man! Remember that!" The old man yelled as he jumped and hit the completely unprepared Naruto on the head with a wooden spoon...hard, knocking Naruto's head on the table by the force.
"And you will be working as a waiter!"
(Line Break)~~~~~~~
(Present)
"Yeah, right. A waiter." Naruto mumbled, sarcasm oozing in his tone as he lazily stirred the blue sky bolognese that he was cooking with a wooden spoon.
It was 3 in the evening and Naruto was busy in the restaurant kitchen cooking for the customers, as one of the chefs had found it funny to take an early leave today.
"Did you say something, Naru-chan?"
"Nothing much. Just thinking about the time when you told me that I was going to work here as a WAITER, old man." Naruto sarcastically replied, turning off the gas stove and starting plating the bolognese.
"Haha...I remember that." Yajima amusedly laughed at Naruto's response, flipping an omelet that he was cooking for himself using magic.
"Boss. Is the blue sky bolognese ready yet? the customer is kinda getting angsty." One Naruto clone peeked inside the restaurant kitchen through a curtain and asked the original.
"Yeah...Yeah, It is ready. Take it to the customer." Naruto lazily responded as he handed the plate that he had just plated with the blue sky bolognese to his shadow clone.
"By the way, old man. Why did Steven leave so early today? Shouldn't he be the one cooking instead of me?" Naruto asked with an annoyed expression as he thought of the other chef that used to work in the restaurant.
"Ah, Steven wanted to visit Crocus to watch the Grand magic games, which is going to start on Friday. So, he had taken an early leave and a week's holiday." Yajima informed Naruto, happily eating the omelet that he had prepared.
"What the heck? Today is only Tuesday! Why does he need to take a leave two days before the games had even started and put even more work on my plate than I already have!" Naruto complained, irritated by his colleague's penchant to dump his cooking duties to him.
"And most importantly, why does that lazy bum get a holiday for the Grand Magic games and not me??"
"Well...You didn't ask." Yajima responded with a shrug of his shoulder. As he saw Naruto about to explode in a series of curses, he raised his hand and started speaking.
"Would you like to go to Crocus with me, to watch the tournament?"
"Yes! I would love to old men! When are we going then?" Naruto let out an excited cheer, his earlier anger at his lazy colleague completely forgotten.
"We'll be heading out early in the morning tomorrow, so try not to oversleep."
"Don't worry, I won't." Naruto grinned as he waved off the concern. Though, after a few seconds, his face-splitting grin disappeared from his face and a curious expression took over.
"What about the restaurant then? and what about Miya and Layla? Are they going to be working while we are away?"
Miya was the restaurant receptionist and Layla was a waiter beside Naruto.
"The restaurant would be closed for a week and you don't have to worry about those two. I have already given them a week's holiday as well and had even given them tickets to the Akane Resort."
"..."
"Damn you! Old man!"
"Ah, ah, ah... You shouldn't be cursing your boss like that. Naru-chan."
"Go to hell! and stop calling me that!"
(Line Break)~~~~~~
The next morning Naruto and Yajima got into a train and headed toward the beautiful city of Crocus. And after a tedious five-hour-long journey they had finally reached the capital city.
"Ugh, I hate traveling in those things," Naruto complained as he stretched his legs a little earning a slight chuckle from Yajima. Even after traveling on those trains a couple of times, he was still not used to the fact that he had to sit in a small compartment for hours in those things.
As both of them slowly walked out of the train station, Naruto stood still as he admired the beauty of the capital city. He had never been to Crocus, heck he had never traveled outside of Hargeon town, other than the two times that he had gone to Magnolia town to visit the four idiots.
The city was massive! Konoha had nothing on this place. There were merchants everywhere trying to sell their goods to the masses. Street performers littered the streets trying to earn a quick buck. Children were running around the roads playing an assortment of games and just having a good time. The one thing that Naruto noticed more than everything else that was happening around him was the fact that these people looked genuinely happy. It was as if he was back in the streets of Konoha watching as the villagers go about their daily lives. It brought a small smile to Naruto's face.
"You find it impressive don't you?" Yajima asked chuckling at Naruto's wide-eyed expression. Seeing Naruto slowly nod at his question without even at him, he amusedly stated, "if you think that this is impressive then you haven't seen anything yet, just wait till you see the castle and the stadium."
And wait he did as they walk continued to walk on the crowded street. When the castle came into view Naruto was amazed. The castle was located in the center of the city and was sealed off from the rest of the city by a large wall. Inside the wall, Naruto could see a rather large garden that made a smaller circle inside of the first outer wall. Past the garden was the main building which had multiple spires shooting up from the castle. The majority of the castle and the spires were covered in both gold and ivory. The closest thing to this that they had in Konoha was the Hokage building but that was nothing more than an office building.
And when he finally saw the stadium he could feel his jaw drop a little at the sheer size of the stadium, It was twice as large as the stadium in Konoha!
"The city will be hosting the Grand Magic games in this stadium tomorrow."
"I can't wait!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly at the prospect of finally seeing mages fighting with each other.
From what the Old man had told him, the Grand Magic game was a tournament that started last year and was sponsored by the King of Fiore. It was supposed to be an annually held tournament, which would pit all the legal Magic guilds in Fiore against each other to claim the title of the strongest guild in the nation along with an eye-watering cash price of 30 million jewels.
...
"So, who are you rooting for old man?" Naruto asked though he already what the answer is going to be, as both of them walked toward the hotel that the King had apparently booked for them since Yajima was one of the announcers of the Grand Magic games.
"Of course, I'll be rooting for Fairy tail. I want to see whether they will be able to perform better than the last tournament." Yajima answered as a matter of fact.
Naruto has heard a lot of good things about Fairy tail from the old man, who was also a former member of the guild. Three years ago Fairy tail was the strongest and the top magic guild in Fiore but after the sudden death of more than 20 members at the hands of Acnologia— which to Naruto's astonishment and disbelief was a freaking dragon— along with its former master, the guild had lost its former glory quite badly. It was now considered one of the weakest guilds in Fiore and during the First Grand magic games, they weren't even able to get past the second round of the tournament.
And as his thoughts wandered to the dragon king that had supposedly killed more than 20 members of the strongest guild, he couldn't help but wonder how he would fair against the dragon without Kurama.
(Line Break)~~~~~~
(Time skip, 4 days later)
Four days have passed since he arrived in the beautiful city of Crocus, and the Grand magic games were finally over with the title of the strongest guild in Fiore going to the Sabertooth guild, the previous year's runner-up.
Naruto still couldn't believe the things that he had witnessed during the tournament. The powers that some of the mages had were completely...magical. Some of the mages in the tournament were quite powerful, though from what he had observed, other than the one bald dude none of them could have hoped to challenge an S-rank shinobi. They would have been completely massacred.
And the most important thing that he noticed was that the mages didn't fight with the intent to kill, which was a far cry from the chunin exams, where even kids as young as ten sometimes went in for the kill or fight to kill. Though, it didn't surprise him much as he knew that in this World or just Fiore in general, killing a person was banned unless that person happened to be a dark mage. Even then, it was heavily frowned upon by the public and by the law to kill someone.
He was truly glad that his excitement and expectations for the tournament didn't end up in disappointment. Though, he was quite disappointed that Fairy tail was eliminated in the preliminary round itself— which was some kind of a race involving puzzles that the participants had to solve— coming in 145th position.
And by the expression on Yajima's face who was walking beside him, Naruto was sure that the old man was also quite sad and disappointed by his former guild performance. And Naruto couldn't blame him for that. Even he would be quite sad if not even a single Konoha shinobi could make it to the final round in a chunin exam.
"So...Old man, aren't you a bit too silent." Naruto jokingly asked trying to lighten the mood a little, as the old man hadn't uttered a single word throughout their walk from the hotel to the Crocus train station. It kinda made him concerned a bit, as while Yajima was normally a silent type of guy, the old man was never that silent whenever he was with him.
"Sigh...Just thinking about certain things, Naru-chan." Yajima sighed and replied to Naruto, making Naruto even more concerned, though he didn't ask any more questions.
As both of them finally reached the train station, Naruto went to the ticket counter to get two tickets for them to Hargeon town at Yajima's request.
When Naruto returned from the counter with the tickets, after a few minutes, he was surprised to notice Yajima talking with a man that Naruto couldn't recognize.
The man looked like he was in his late 30s and had quite a slim and muscular build. He had short, straight, slicked-back dark blue hair and was sporting some wrinkles on his face and a slight prominent mustache. He was wearing a knee-length white jacket, brown pants, and black boots.
"Yo, old man, I'm back."
"Oh. Naru-chan, What took you so long?"
"There was a long line of people in front of the counter," Naruto told the old man, and looked at the other man, deciding to introduce himself he moved forward his right hand for a handshake.
"Hello, My name is Naruto. I am this old man's caretaker." Naruto shook his hand with the man and introduced himself with a face-splitting grin.
"Haha...Nice to meet you Naruto. My name is Macao. I'm the guild master of Fairy tail." Macao laughed a little at the blonde cheeky introduction and introduced himself.
"Oh...You are the master of Fairy tail?" Naruto asked in surprise, ignoring the old man's glare that he was receiving for his 'caretaker' remark.
"Yes, I'm the 4th master of Fairy tail," Macao nodded his head and replied. Macao then looked at Yajima and said, "I'm sorry Yajima-san, but I think I'll be on my now. The other members might get concerned about my absence as our train is about to depart in five minutes."
"No need to apologize. Though like I said, whenever you get the chance do try to visit my restaurant with the fairy tail members, okay?" Yajima kindly told Macao as he shook said man's hand.
"Sure, Yajima-san. I'll remember that." Macao smiled and then looked at Naruto and said "It was nice meeting you Naruto, but I'll have to go now. Do take care of Yajima-san okay?"
"It was nice meeting you too, Macao. And you don't have to worry about the old man, I'll be sure to take good care of him." Naruto grinned and replied to Macau, ignoring another slight glare from Yajima.
"Okay, bye you two. Take care." Macao waved at both of them and started heading toward his train.
"You too, Macao."
"Bye, Macao-kun."
As Naruto and Yajima watched the retreating figure of Macao, both of them had varied expressions on their faces. one was smiling while the other was frowning a little.
"What were you two talking about, old man?" Naruto curiously asked Yajima, as he saw Macao finally disappear from his view.
"Nothing much. I'll tell you later." Yajima responded, making Naruto even more curious. Though he decided to not push for answers, even with his curiosity, as it was not really his business, and simply decided to head to their train.
(Line Break)~~~~~~
(5 hours later)
Naruto and Yajima had finally reached Hargeon Town after another tedious 5 hours long journey by train. Both of them were standing outside of the train station now. It was 7 pm and both of them were tired and couldn't wait to go back to their house and rest. However, one of them had another plan.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow old man, good night," Naruto told Yajima tiredly and started to slowly walk toward his apartment.
"Wait, Naru-chan."
Naruto turned toward Yajima tiredly and asked, "What is it now, old man? I'm really exhausted, Ya know.'
"I know, " Yajima sighed knowingly, as he too was fully exhausted by the journey. Though, he needed to discuss something with Naruto, urgently.
"But I need to discuss something important with you, right now."
"Really? Can't we discuss it tomorrow?"
"No, I've been thinking about it for a long time. I wanted to have that discussion with you after a few months. But certain things that I have recently witnessed had made it obvious that I couldn't hold it any longer."
Naruto raised his eyebrow a little, as he could hear the serious tone in Yajima's voice and decided to hear him out. As he had never seen the old man so serious and guessed whatever the matter of discussion was, could be really important.
"Alright, old man. I'm all ears, what do you want to discuss with me?"
"It might take a bit long, so can you teleport us to the restaurant?"
"Didn't you hate traveling through my hirashin?"
"Yes, but I don't want to walk right now," Yajima replied to the question, he did indeed hate traveling through Naruto's hirashin, as it made him feel nauseous.
"Sure." Naruto agreed, bowing down a little to grab the old man's shoulder. Though he paused for a second and let out a sigh of irritation, "You know all man, if it was so important, I could have directly teleported both of us to the restaurant from Crocus, and we might not have to travel 5 long hours on the train."
"Well, I didn't think about that." Yajima nervously laughed as he did indeed forget about that fact. The only reason they had decided to travel by train and not simply teleport was because of his body reaction to Naruto's Hirashin.
"Sigh...whatever. Just hold your stomach tight." Naruto sighed and advised Yajima, as both of them flashed away from the spot in an orange flash.
(Line break)~~~~~~
(Inside the 8 islands)
"blerg!"
The moment Naruto and Yajima were transported inside the closed restaurant, the latter crumbled to the floor and started vomiting all of his meal on the wooden floor.
"There...there. You big old baby." Naruto sighed, patting the old man on the back, and summoned a shadow clone without doing a hand sign, who directly went into the kitchen to bring a bottle of water.
"I hate you, Naruto." Yajima groaned as he finally stop vomiting and felt his body feeling a bit better. He then took the water bottle that the shadow clone had brought him— who dispelled himself after his order was done— and started drinking it.
"You should at least clean your mouth first with the water, old man," Naruto told Yajima, a bit grossed out.
Yajima ignored Naruto's words and continued to drink the water.
"phew...now I feel a bit better." Yajima sighed in relief and looked at Naruto. "Now this is taken care of, how about we start with our discussion?"
Naruto nodded and both of them sat on one of the empty tables in the restaurant.
"So, what did you want to discuss with me old man?" Naruto curiously asked, really wanting to know what had made the old man so heated up, that he even willingly asked to travel by hirashin.
"It's about you joining a magic guild, Naru-chan," Yajima stated, looking at Naruto seriously.
"You have been thinking about joining a guild, weren't you?"
"Yeah, I did think about joining one." Naruto nodded and replied, as he did indeed think about joining a magic guild and Yajima had known that fact for a while. While he loved working in the restaurant, even if he had to do multiple jobs at once with his clones, he was getting really bored doing the same thing day by day. The reason he had yet to join one was that he couldn't decide which guild to join and the thought of having too much attention on him more specifically on his unique 'magic', by the magic council if he join a guild. Which he really wanted to avoid at all costs.
"Well, Naru-chan. I want to request you to do something for me, then. You can decline if you want, but please give it some thought before you give me your answer, okay?"
"You want me to join Fairy tail, don't you?" Naruto questioned and smirked when he saw the old man's surprised expression.
"How...How did you know I was going to request you to join Fairy tail?" Yajima asked completely surprised that Naruto had guessed what his request was.
"Well, it was not really hard to guess," Naruto shrugged and continued, "You've been pretty silent and looked like you were in deep thought, right after the Grand Magic games; especially on the day of the first round and you've been singing praises about Fairy tail past glories to me for quite a while now."
"Sighed...you guessed it right, Naru-chan," Yajima sighed and slightly chuckled at being caught, "I do want you to join Fairy tail."
"Okay, I will join Fairy tail."
"Huh? Just like that?" Yajima asked in surprise at his request being accepted by Naruto so quickly. He had thought that Naruto would have asked him multiple questions regarding his request, owing to Naruto's curious nature. "You don't have any questions about why I want you to join Fairy tail?"
"Old man, I owe you a lot for everything that you have done for me." Naruto smiled at Yajima and continued, "the least I can do for you is to join the guild which you seem to deeply care about. Besides, I feel like it will be quite fun to join a guild."
"Thank you, Naru-chan, for accepting my request." Yajima gratefully thanked Naruto with a smile and continued, "Though, even if you haven't asked me my reasons for requesting you to join Fairy tail, I would like to tell you my reasons for requesting you that."
"Okay, I was also kinda curious to know that." Naruto sheepishly replied as he indeed was very curious behind the request but he thought it would be rude and ungrateful to ask the old man about the request. Since the old man had done so much for him, without ever asking anything in return; granted the old man did make him do multiple jobs at once, but that's beside the point.
"You see, I knew that Fairy tail had been going through a really rough time for the last 3 years, with the death of Makarov and more than 20 of its strongest members, it was indeed inevitable that Fairy tail would become weak in terms of strength. But, I didn't think that their situation would be so dire." Yajima sighed sadly and continued with his explanation,
"From the conversation that I had with Macao-kun, I was able to realize the dire situation that they were in. The members of Fairy tail seemed to have completely lost their spirit, and their will to fight and move forward. More than fifty members have left the guild in just 3 years and the remaining members were also losing hope of ever reviving the guild into its former glory. The guild also is massively in debt and with the lack of high-paying quests, the debt is increasing day by day."
As Naruto heard the explanation, he couldn't help but feel sad and pity at the condition of the guild. They were indeed going through a lot, though he wondered the purpose of him joining the guild.
"And that's where you come in, Naru-chan," Yajima said looking at the confused Naruto "You are a very strong man, Naruto, and I want you to join Fairy tail to protect them. With your positive influence, you could raise the member's spirit and will to fight and if possible, try to guide them and make them strong. With your strength alone Fairy tail might gain back some of its lost glory."
"Sigh...That's quite a lot of responsibilities you are putting on my shoulder old man." Naruto sighed, messaging his head a little.
"You do know that I can't protect them or stay with them for long, right?"
"Yes, I know that Naruto. However, you still have about 4-5 years before your friend finally recovers, don't you?" Yajima asked Naruto, as he was the only one in this world who knew about Naruto's origin.
At first, he was surprised to know that Naruto was from another world but he believed it since his former teammate was from a different dimension as well. He was really glad that Naruto had trusted him enough to tell him that secret. But that was a story for another time.
"Yes." Naruto nodded his head and replied in confirmation.
"You still have a lot of time to bring positive changes to the guild, then," Yajima told Naruto getting a nod of agreement.
"However, try not to get in trouble with the magic council okay? and if anyone asks you about your 'magic' just give them the same explanation that I advised you to give.
"Sure, I'll remember that." Naruto grinned, giving a nice guy pose, "So, when should I be leaving for Magnolia?"
"How about the day after tomorrow?"
"Hmm... Alright. I think I'll be able to handle all my business here in a day, though you have to take care of my apartment." Naruto thought for a second and told Yajima.
"Okay, I'll do that. Just remember to say goodbye to Miya, Layla, and Steven."
"I would never dare to forget that."
(Line Break)~~~~~~~
(Magnolia Town)
Two days later, Naruto was finally in Magnolia town. Having said goodbye to Steven, Miya, and Layla, promising to visit them from time to time. He even received goodbye kisses on the cheek from the two girls!
He had been in this town two times in the past to visit the four idiots, who were running a pretty successful restaurant, called Raftel. But have never gotten the time to tour the whole town.
Now, Naruto was standing in front of the said restaurant which had a huge closed sign in front of the door.
He was wearing the same orange shirt and black jeans, with black combat boots and his forehead protector tied on his forehead. However, he was also now wearing a simple black jacket with an orange zipper over his shirt, as the weather was getting colder due to it being the month of November.
Naruto was hoping to meet the four idiots first and say hello, but it seems they were out of town. So letting out a sigh, he walked towards the location where the old man had told him the Fairy tail building was.
The old man had told him that he wouldn't miss the guild building as there was a large 'Fairy tail' sign on top of the building, but it seems that the old man might have been lying to him. As he couldn't see any building with the 'fairy tail' name on it in the location.
"Did that old man prank me or something?" Naruto groaned annoyed with the fact that he was not able to find the Fairy tail building, where the old had said it was. Deciding to simply ask someone for the direction he approached a man who was walking passed by him.
The man's appearance was weird, to say the least, with some sort of Oni theme going on with his dress code. But, Naruto decided to simply ignore it as he had seen much weirder appearances and dressing styles in the past.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find the Fairy tail guild building?" Naruto asked the man, who turned and looked at Naruto with an annoyed expression.
"Hmm...Why do you want to know that?" The man glared at Naruto trying to look as intimidating as possible, which only serve to make Naruto amused at the man's poor attempt to intimidate him.
"I was thinking of joining Fairy tail, but I can't seem to find their guild building," Naruto told the man, and his eyes narrowed a little at the man when he felt the man's emotion rise a little at the mention of Fairy tail.
"Oh..ho.. you want to join Fairy tail?" The man grinned at Naruto, folding his arms together, "Why don't you follow me then? I'll show you the Fairy tail guild."
"You don't need to do that," Naruto said as he felt that the man was planning something, "Just point me in the direction of their building, and ill be on my way."
"No, No, can't do that." The man smirked and put his right hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Follow me, or else I'll have to force you"
"Hmm...Okay, if you insist then." Naruto thought for a bit and agreed to the 'offer'. Feeling amused when he saw the man grin, thinking that he got intimidated by the threat of being 'forced' to follow him.
'Yeah, right.'
Naruto knew that the man was planning something, and he could tell the man's intentions toward him were not good at all. However, he wanted to know what problem the man had with Fairy tail. So, he decided to just follow him to deal with that problem.
After walking for a bit, the man led Naruto in front of a massive gate that was richly decorated with ornaments. In front of the gate, there was a large building decorated with a pair of giant horns and a number of spikes on the roof, waving a flag with the same symbol that he noticed was on the man's forearm. On the spikes, he also noticed a name carved into them 'Twilight Ogre.'
'It seems like this is a magic guild. I didn't know that Magnolia had another guild besides, Fairy tail.' Naruto mused as he looked at the impressive building.
"Our guild building is impressive, isn't it?" The man proudly grinned seeing the impressed look on Naruto's face.
"Yes, it is indeed impressive." Naruto agreed and looked at the grinning man, "though I don't understand why you brought me to your guild. Didn't you tell me that you are going to lead me to Fairy tail?"
"Yes, I did tell you that, didn't I?" The man laughed and continued, "Don't worry I'll direct you to the Fairy Tail guild build. But first, I wanted to show you how impressive our guild was."
"Hmm...Thank you for showing your guild, it is indeed impressive. But can you now lead me to Fairy tail?" Naruto asked the man with a blank expression, already knowing that the man had no intention of leading him to the Fairy tail guild building.
"Why are you in a hurry so much? Let's get inside the building first. The inside of the building is even more impressive than the outside. Come on." The man grinned, walking toward the door of the building, followed by a very annoyed Naruto, the man then opened the large wooden doors of the building and led Naruto inside the building.
.
When Naruto entered the guild hall, he couldn't help but be impressed by the several ornaments decorating the large hall. That man wasn't lying when he was saying that the inside of the building was much more impressive than the outside. He could see more than 50 men lounging around the hall wearing the same Oni-theme dresses as the man that had led him here, drinking and laughing as they chatter among themselves.
All in all, they seemed to like to have some sort of weird fascination with Oni, judging by their appearance and the design of the building.
"Hey, everyone! Look who I brought here!" The man yelled as both of them entered the crowded guild hall. All the people inside the hall stopped what they were doing and looked at the man and then at him.
"Who is that bastard, Thibault?" One of the men sitting near Naruto asked pointing his finger at Naruto, not noticing the slight twitch in Naruto's eyebrow.
"This man here, " The man, who Naruto now knew was named Thibault, grinned and put his arm around Naruto's shoulder, "..wants to join Fairy tail."
"HAHAHA!"
All the people inside the guild hall laughed like they had heard the funniest joke in their life when Thibault told them about Naruto's wish to join Fairy tail.
"Hahaha...Really?" Some random guy asked, laughing hard.
"Yes." Thibault grinned and nodded his head, his arms still on Naruto's shoulder.
"Who would like to even join that sorry excuse of a guild?"
"Yea! They are the weakest guild in Fiore!"
"This guy looks weak, so I'm not surprised that he wants to join a weak guild like
Fairy tail!"
"I guess it's true when people say only weak guilds attract weak mages."
"Look his arms are shaking, haha, he is scared!"
"No wonder he wants to join Fairy tail! He wants to feel at home with those weak mages!"
Naruto's arms were indeed shaking, but not for the reason those people were thinking of. He was really getting annoyed and even a little angry at the insulting words thrown at him and Fairy tail. He wasn't going to let some idiots insult the guild that Old man Yajima cared about.
"Enough!!"
But before Naruto could say anything a loud voice shut down all the laughter inside the hall. Naruto looked at the source of the voice and notice a man coming down the stairs from the second floor.
The man was a middle-aged man, having a shaved face with a haircut resembling a military one. He had a broad jaw, wide lips, and a thick nose. His thin eyebrows reach up into his hair, and he was wearing tinted glasses. He was wearing a yellow-green pinstriped suit and pants with a purple cape over the outfit that had a button with the same logo that Naruto had seen outside the guild and he was smoking a large cigar.
"What's with all the commotion here? Can't you let me sleep for even a minute?" The man complained, taking a huge puff from his cigar.
"Master! we are sorry!"
'So that guy is the master of this guild.' Naruto carefully looked at the man as everyone bowed and apologized to the man.
"And who is that kid?" The guild master asked, pointing his finger at Naruto. Naruto slightly twitch at being called a kid but decided not to act on it.
"Master," Thibault grinned, his arms pulling Naruto a bit closer to him and said, "this kid here wants to join Fairy tail."
A chorus of laughter again erupted inside the guild hall.
"Oh?" The master grinned and took a good look at Naruto, "You want to join that weak guild?"
"Yes, " Naruto replied in annoyance, roughly lifting Thibault's arm from his shoulder, and then turned around, "And if you guys are just going to laugh around, then I'll be taking my leave."
Honestly, Naruto wanted to beat them all up for laughing at him and Fairy tail, but Yajima had told him to avoid fighting with other mages of different legal guilds as it might draw unnecessary attention to him.
"Now, now, what's the hurry?" The guild master asked, "You can't just leave like that. If you are going to join Fairy tail, then you would have to pay us some of the money that they owe us and I know, they are going to accept you into their guild as they seem to accept anyone into their weak guild."
"What kind of nonsense is that?" Naruto glared at the master, annoyed by such a ridiculous demand, "I have still not joined them yet, and even if they owe money to you, you can't harass or bully them like that!"
"Oh, what a terrifying glare." The master mocked, eliciting laughter from the other guild members. He then glared at Naruto and grinned wickedly, "How dare you tell me how to act you weak brat? Those weak fairies owe my guild a lot of money! They only managed to survive this long, because of my kindness! So, until they pay me every single jewel, I'm going to harass them and act however I want!"
"You are such a scumbag!" Naruto scowled at the master and slightly narrowed his eyes when he saw the guild members slowly grabbing their weapons and standing up from their seats.
"You dare call me a scumbag!" The master yelled angrily and pointed his finger at Naruto, "Roughen up this weak fairy tail bastard! Show them why he should cower before the might of Twilight Ogre!"
"Get that bastard!" "Yeah!"
'Ah...shit. My first day in Magnolia and I've already seemed to get myself into trouble. Whatever, I was going to beat these guys one day anyway.' Naruto thought and sighed as he saw all of the people now grinning at him with all sorts of weapons in their hands. He then saw the closest person to him, Thibault, unclasping his Kanabo from behind him.
'How cute, they think they can beat me.'
"Any last word before we beat you up, fairy scum!" Thibault grinned and mockingly asked.
"Yes, " Naruto's eyes twinkled a little and smiled at Thibault, ''All of you are going to need a doctor after this."
"Wh..." Before Thibault could even finish his retort his world erupted in pain and then darkness.
(Line Break)~~~~~
(3 minutes later)
Inside the guild hall of Twilight Ogre, numerous human bodies lay on the cold wooden floor. All of them were completely knocked out and it looked like they were sleeping, however, that was not the case.
"What happened?" Someone groaned in pain and asked in confusion. He slowly pushed himself off the ground and his eyes widened in shock when he saw all of his fellow members and even the master were on the ground, completely knocked out. He also saw numerous chairs and tables broken and strewn on the floor.
"I beat the shit out of you. That's what happened."
The man shivered in fright when he heard the all too familiar voice beside him, now remembering what had happened in those few seconds. He slowly turned his head toward the voice and saw the man responsible for their current condition.
He remembered the man knocking each of them out before they could even react or fight back. That man was too fast! One second he was near the entrance of the guild, and before they knew he was in front of their faces and punching the daylights out of them. Even their master didn't fare well, the master was kicked hard in the stomach before he could even react and was thrown behind the bar.
Naruto who was sitting at a table, lazily looked at the man that had just woken up, if he remembered correctly that man was the second guy he had knocked out with a punch.
"You...Cheated!" The man shakily pointed his finger at Naruto and exclaimed.
"Eh..? How did I cheated?"
"You didn't even let us use our magic spells!"
"What kind of an idiot would wait for his enemies to prepare their spell?"
"Well...well..."
Naruto sighed, as he looked at the sputtering man and stood up from the table that he was sitting on. He then walked toward the man and grabbed the man's shoulder, prompting the man to flinch a little in fear.
"Now, care to tell me where the Fairy tail guild building is?"
"What..?" The man looked at Naruto, a bit confused by the question for a second, and stuttered out a reply, "Oh, yeah..ah, the fairy tail guild building is at the top of the northern hill. Their building is a small tavern, you wouldn't miss it."
"That was easy, isn't it?" Naruto stood up, still looking at the man who slowly nodded his head at his question, "If you guys had just told me their location, instead of trying to bully me; you all wouldn't have been in this situation."
Without waiting for an answer, Naruto slowly walked toward the entrance. After walking out of the guild he let out a silent curse when he saw many people curiously looking at him and the guild building. He could hear them murmur about him beating the whole guild and he even heard some exaggerating his actions a bit too much for his liking.
'So, much for trying to avoid attention.' He sighed and decided to ignore those murmuring and simply head toward the hill where he now knew the Fairy Tail guild building was.
After walking for about ten minutes and climbing through some stone staircases,
he finally saw the guild building that he was looking for.
It was indeed a small tavern, with its walls mainly composed of bricks bearing visible cracks here and there. In front of the building's wooden doors was a large archway composed of massive beams; halfway up its length was a pyramidal sign with Fairy Tail's name on it, with very long edges going past the beams holding it up, topped and paired with a large symbol, which Naruto knew was the Fairy Tail's guild symbol, having seen it on Yajima's shoulder.
Naruto then slowly walked toward the wooden door and raised his hand to knock on it.
*End*
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A/N: I kinda rushed and glossed over some parts of this chapter as I wanted Naruto to join Fairy tail as soon as possible.
As, I've already said the story is going to be slow-paced, in terms of the flow of the chapters. So please don't hate me if you find it slow.
And I would like to apologize for my bad writing style and grammar as well. I'm trying my best.
Anyways, thank you all for reading my story. If you have any suggestions, complaints, or advice, feel free to leave a review or PM me.
Next chapter Naruto will finally join Fairy tail!