Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and Fairy Tail.
A/N: I would like to give credit to iiNeo and Morregen as well as to all reviewers for the game ideas and for the story itself. Thank you.
I would also like to give credit and thank Killerssg, as he helped me quite a lot in this chapter with lots of interesting ideas. If you guys want to read some good Naruto Xovers, you can check out his fics.
Anyways, I hope that you guys will enjoy this chapter.
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(x789, Domus Flau)
"Without further ado, I bring you the Grand Magic Game's opening game!" Chapati cried "Let's begin, King of the Hill!" he then lowered his voice though it wasn't any less loud than before "Each team will have one participant. After each team submits their player, I'll explain the rules."
"Though, I would like to advise the teams to send their strongest participants for this round as according to the organizers, it is going to be quite dangerous and challenging compared to all the first rounds that had taken place in the past." Chapati added with a devilish grin forming on his large face.
"King of the Hill?" Naruto thought out loud at the first round's unusual name and looked at his friends who just shrugged at him, indicating that they also were confused just like him.
"It probably has to do something with combat, if it's named King of the Hill." Alzack reckoned while looking at Naruto, "So I think you should be the one to participate in this round, as Chapati did advise us to send our strongest member and you are without a doubt the strongest in our team."
"Alzack is correct, " Laki added agreeing with their teammate "It will be better if we can grab this from the very start."
Both Max and Jet also voiced their thoughts in approval with Alzack and Laki's.
"Alright, I will participate in this round then." Naruto grinned in excitement agreeing with his teammate's sound reasoning. Not to mention the fact that he, himself kinda wanted to participate in this round as it had a cool name.
He was going to make sure that he was going to be the King of that unknown Hill, while also earning ten points for his team. Believe it!
"Good luck, Naruto. Show them the might of Fairy Tail!" Team Fairy Tail cheered as the blonde waved and walked down to the stadium ground from the participant's viewer area allotted to their team.
"It seems, Naruto will be participating in the first round." Wakaba mused as he along with the whole Fairy Tail guild plus more, watched and cheered for the blonde; who now seemed to be doing some light stretching as he excitedly waited for the other participants.
"I think it is a good idea that he is participating in this round as the other teams seemed to be sending out their strongest member as well." Macao analyzed a bit concerned by the strong mages that were being sent out by the other teams to participate in the first round.
"We are probably going to win this round then!" Romeo cheered confidently with the others enthusiastically agreeing with him as there was no way that their Ace was going to lose.
Macao sighed as his words were completely ignored by his son and the others.
"YOU CAN DO IT NARUTO!!"
"GO FAIRY TAIL!!"
(Line break)
Quarto Cerberus sent out their veteran S-class mage Bacchus, while Orochi's Fin sent out a lanky-looking man with a disturbing grin on his face named Cixot.
Phoenix Grave had their most well-known mage called Mace Orlando on the go and Ichiya decided to represent Blue Pegasus at their first game.
Lamia Scale had their strongest mage Jura—possibly the strongest mage among the participating teams in the GMGs— to represent them in the first round. Hound Holy also sent out their guild-only S-class mage Grisha as they saw that other guilds were also sending out their strongest mages for the first round.
"Well, it seems I'll be the one participating in this round then!" Sting excitedly exclaimed, getting a nod of approval from Rogue and his other teammates. Well...except one.
"Ara, Ara...Sting, When did you become the strongest in this team?" Minerva smirked haughtily at Sting, prompting the white dragon slayer to halt his steps and nervously look at her.
"Mistress, are you going to participate in this round?" Sting inquired nervously as he glanced at their guild master's daughter and the strongest member of their team. If he was being honest, he wanted to be the one to participate in this round after he noticed who was going to be representing Team Fairy Tail.
"Hmm...I don't have time to waste with such useless games when everyone knows who the winner is going to be." Minerva replied, uninterestedly observing the participants from the other teams. There was no doubt that Jura was the strongest competitor among them in terms of strength, but the unique games of the GMGs were not always won by strength alone. "If you want, you can go at this round Sting. Since you are the strongest on this team... after me of course."
Sting twitched in annoyance along with the others at Minerva's uninterested response. They hated the way she always tend to rub her Superiority in strength compared to them on their faces.
"Yo! Jura, " Naruto grinned and greeted the older mage "It's nice to see you again."
"Likewise, Naruto-san." Jura smiled at the blonde enthusiastic greeting and stood next to him as all the other competitors slowly made their way into the field.
"I'm really looking forward to your performance in the games."
"Hehe... I'll make sure to not disappoint you with my performance then." Naruto bashfully declared and got curious when he noticed something odd, "Jura, why is that weird-looking guy glaring at you so much?" He curiously asked, while directing his gaze at Cixot who was glaring hatefully at Jura.
The Earth mage sighed as he too noticed the glare that he was receiving from Cixot, "You don't have to worry about him, Naruto-san. It's just that Lamia Scale and Orochi's Fin have had a bit of rivalry for some years now, as both the guilds are located in the same town." Jura clarified getting a nod of understanding from the blonde.
"What about Sting-san then?" Jura asked the Fairy Tail mage, raising his dark thick eyebrows a little in curiosity as he noticed the Sabertooth mage was also glaring quite hard at Naruto's back. "Do you both have some kind of story as well?"
Naruto turned toward the direction that Jura was looking and got confused as he too noticed the, now named, Sting glaring at him.
Weird.
"Eh, I have never met that guy before," Naruto responded to Jura's question and waved at the White dragon slayer in confusion "He is probably checking out the competition I guess."
Jura chuckled in amusement as he saw Naruto getting a bit annoyed due to the Sabertooth mage completely ignoring the blonde's wave and pretending like he wasn't just glaring at the blonde's back just a second ago.
(Line break)
"We're finally ready to begin. I wonder what kind of contest King of the Hill will be" Chapati spoke up "Yajima-san, is there anyone we should be looking for?"
"Hmm… well, we all know Jura-kun is a force to be reckoned with here… but I'm gonna be keeping an eye on Naruto Uzumaki-kun too." The short old man said, staring at the figure of his former employee who seemed to be conversing with the Wizard Saint "He used to work in my restaurant for some years before he joined Fairy Tail and got promoted to S-class within a few months. So I believe he is one of the strongest competitors in this year's Grand Magic Games."
"What about you Jenny-san?"
"I'm all for Ichiya-Kun, of course. He's our guild's strongest mage." She proclaimed her support for her guild's Ace in pride. Though, if she was being honest she didn't really have much hope of Ichiya winning the round, as strong as their Ace was, his strength was not at all comparable to the likes of Jura. There was also the Naruto guy that Yajima had just mentioned, if the blonde had managed to get promoted to S-class within a few months then he was bound to be strong.
She knew how tough the test for S-class promotions was. She had been trying to get the S-class promotion for 3 years straight now but every time she failed to pass the test. While this guy had managed to pass within a few months!
"It seems both of you are rooting for the participants of your own guilds then." Chapati teased his two fellow panelists, prompting both Yajima and Jenny to awkwardly cough as Chapati was indeed correct.
"Now let's start. FIELD OPEN!" Mato cried out and pointed his finger to the sky. Suddenly everything changed into a city, surprising everyone. In an instant, Naruto and the other competitors found themselves transported to the middle of a large city that had just popped up inside the large stadium field.
"Are we supposed to play hide and seek in here?" Grisha worriedly asked, looking around the city.
"Where shall we hide?" Ichiya was worried too.
Cixot looked unhappy and Sting remained quiet as a confident smile formed on his face.
"If it's hidden and seek, it's too strange" Jura commented examining the large buildings which looked like a replica of the ones in the Capital city.
"Everyone in the stadium! Please watch what happens in the town through Lacrima's vision!" The scene above the city suddenly showed all eight contestants.
"The King of the Hill rule is very simple. You all will be transported to different areas in this city and will be given a necklace with a golden bell attached to it, which you will have to wear on your neck. The goal here is to obtain the bells of your fellow competitors by either defeating them in battle or by just stealing the bells from them. Each bell that you collect from your fellow competitors will give you 20 points." Chapati paused his explanation taking in the excitement that was reverberating in the audience and continued, "There are also going to be 50 monsters lurking around this city which won't hesitate to attack you if they see you, but don't worry they are just magical tools that we created for the event. They are not going to attack the audience, " His words managed to calm down the nervous audience, "...Each of those monsters' strengths are comparable to a high A-class mage and if you are unable to collect the bells from your fellow competitors; you can defeat those monsters and collect the silver bells that each monster will drop after getting defeated. Though, those silver bells will only give you 5 points, compared to the 20 points that you will get from the golden bells."
"However, there is a catch..." Chapati paused giving a devilish grin, "if you somehow lose your golden bells to a competitor, they will not only receive the 20 points but also half of the points that you had collected by defeating those monsters. So make sure that you stay alert and on your toes! You can use any method and any magic to collect the bells, and whoever manages to collect the most number of bells, thereby, getting the most points before the 30 minutes mark will win this round and will earn their team 10 points while the other teams would get corresponding points according to their placement!"
As Chapati finished explaining the game rules all the competitors were covered in bright light and were suddenly transported to different areas of the fake city.
"I see…" Naruto chuckled in amusement as he saw a necklace with a golden bell attached to it near his feet. He picked up the necklace and wore it as instructed by Chapati "...it kinda brings back memories." he smiled as the goal of the round kinda reminded him of his genin days.
It wasn't the same, but it was close enough to make him a little nostalgic.
"Start! Collect the bells like it is your lifeline and become the King of the Hill!" Chapati announced the first event getting a huge cheer of excitement from the audience.
"Hmm...how should I do this?" Naruto grinned mulling over the various ways that he could use to collect the bells as the first round officially began.
(Meanwhile... outside the city)
"No wonder the organizers advised the teams to send their strongest members," Macao muttered as they finally knew the objective of the first game "It is indeed quite dangerous and challenging compared to the first rounds of the previous years."
Wakaba nodded agreeing with his friend's sentiment, "I hope that young Naruto will be alright." He spoke concerned with the blonde well-being as they watched their guild representative on the huge lacrima screen.
The blonde was doing alright so far, just like his fellow competitors. He had managed to easily defeat two of those weird monsters that had attacked him by using his strange knife and was now aimlessly wandering around the streets.
"Why does he look like he is annoyed?" Bisca asked in confusion as she noticed that the blonde was grumbling and seemingly cursing at something.
The other fairy Tail members just shrugged at her question. Their ace was just weird sometimes.
"He is walking straight to Bacchus, location." Macao nervously whispered as they saw Naruto heading toward the area, where the Quarto Cerberus Ace was lazily waiting for the other competitors to walk to him; while chugging down alcohol from his flask.
Bacchus was a strong mage, who had even fought with the Titania of Fairy Tail to a draw many times in the past, and now seeing Naruto was probably about to fight the mage for the bells was nerve-racking for them.
(With Naruto)
"This is kinda boring!" Naruto grumbled as he dodged a swipe aimed at his head by one of the monsters that had suddenly attacked him and then shot his wind-enhanced tri-pronged kunai at its head, 'killing' it instantly.
'Killing' was not exactly the right word, more like dispersed. As the bodies of the three monsters that he had defeated so far, including this one, had dispersed in a golden glitter leaving a silver-colored bell on the ground.
Naruto felt like Chapati was just exaggerating the monster's strength to scare the competitors. As the monsters were kinda slow and their strength was nowhere near an A-class mage since he had already defeated 3 of those monsters with ease, earning 15 points for himself in just 7 minutes.
He had initially planned to just search and defeat those monsters to collect as many silver bells as possible from them. While avoiding the other competitors as he didn't want to really give away his abilities so early in the Games but it seems he might just have to go with plan B, which is, finding the other competitors and stealing the golden bells from them without showing too much of his abilities.
Fighting these monsters was boring and most importantly, it was kinda troublesome to locate the monsters in such a large place as they didn't really have any negative emotions nor huge magical reserves for him to identify them without his sage mode. Add to the fact that the silver bells were only giving him 5 points each, which he felt was too troublesome.
"Great...now I'm thinking like Shikamaru." Naruto sighed as he thought of his lazy friend and picked up the silver bell from the ground which instantly flew from his hand and attached itself to the necklace that he was currently wearing.
'At least this is pretty convenient.' He thought as he didn't really have to worry about pocketing the bells in his small jeans pockets. His necklace had now 3 silver bells and 1 golden bell attached to it which made a tinkering sound whenever he took a step, which he felt was quite grating to his ears.
After aimlessly walking through the streets of the fake city for a few minutes, Naruto halted his steps as he finally saw a fellow competitor... sitting on the street and by the looks of it, the person had been probably waiting for him...or for someone.
"At last, some bastard had finally arrived!" Bacchus crudely remarked and took a chug from his flask as he noticed Naruto appear in front of him "Instead of wasting both of our time, why don't you just hand over your bell to me."
Naruto raised his eyebrow at the man's crude demand, "Why don't you just come and collect it from me if you want?" he retorted.
"Bahh! too much work," Bacchus complained as he stood up and scowl at the blonde "Instead of wasting my time with such pointless games I would rather like to spend my time in a bar with some sexy ladies!"
"So, just hand over your bells to me when I'm being nice to you kid. Otherwise, I would have to show you the difference in our pow..."
*BAM!!*
Bacchus wasn't able to finish his tirade as his world exploded in pain and he found himself flying away backward through multiple buildings, courtesy of a sucker punch thrown by an irate blonde who suddenly close the distance between them before he could even blink.
"Fucking dickhead, calling me a kid! How do you like that now huh?" Naruto glared his eyebrows twitching in annoyance at the unconscious form of Bacchus, who was now lying on top of large rubble from the destroyed buildings almost 20 meters away from the blonde.
Naruto huffed and walked toward the body of the unconscious man and checked whether he had accidentally killed the guy or not and snatched the golden bell off from the man's necklace. Which now only had a single silver bell attached to it.
"So much for showing me the difference in our powers." He taunted the very much alive but unconscious Bacchus, while childishly mimicking the man's previous rant "Now you know the light-year gap between our powers."
(Meanwhile...with the audience)
"Un...Unbelievable!" Chapati stuttered out in disbelief at the scene they had just witnessed "Naruto Uzumaki of Team Fairy Tail had just defeated Bacchus, the Ace of Quarto Cerberus with just a single punch!"
All of the audience had their jaws on the floor in shock at the announcement. Unlike Team Fairy Tail and its supporters, most of the audience hadn't even been paying attention to the lacrima screen where Naruto was being displayed; opting to instead simply pay attention to their favorite participants whom they believe had the most chances of winning the round, such as Sting and Jura.
Now, as they all watched the replay of the Quarto Cerberus defeat played on one of the lacrima screens, they couldn't help but wonder how strong the Fairy Tail mage was. Since it wasn't every day that an S-class mage of Bacchus caliber, got knocked out by just a punch...a single punch! Granted there was a possibility that Bacchus might have been caught off guard...but still...a single punch!? that was unbelievable.
Maybe Team Fairy Tail wasn't as weak as they had initially thought.
Sure the audience had witnessed Jura defeating Cixot just a few minutes ago, but it had even taken the Wizard Saint more than a single punch to defeat the Orochi's Fin mage. Moreover, they all were aware of the fact that Bacchus was far stronger than Cixot, as the former had defeated the latter during the combat round of the previous Grand Magic Games.
"The speed and the strength displayed by the young Naruto Uzumaki are quite extraordinary. Isn't it Yajima-san?" Chapati excitedly asked the old man, who had been observing the blonde through the lacrima screen with pride.
"As I've said before, " Yajima smiled as he heard the crowd slowly starting to cheer for the blonde "Young Naruto is someone that we should all be paying attention to during this year's Grand Magic Games."
"I'll make sure to do that from now on, Yajima-san," Jenny chuckled and started to observe the Fairy Tail mage through the lacrima screen, who seemed to be now...cursing at himself? She wasn't sure, as they had a hard time understanding what the participants were speaking due to the loud cheer of the audience.
With Team Fairy Tail
"Damn! Naruto sure did a number on him." Max said getting a nod of agreement from his teammates as they all saw the unconscious form of Bacchus.
"We all knew that Naruto was strong, but seeing him defeat someone like Bacchus with just a single punch makes me wonder how strong he really is." Alzack stated and chuckled in disbelief at the scene.
"I can't agree more with your statement there," Jet replied shaking his head at the unbelievable strength of their teammate and chuckled along with the others.
Up in the stands
"Go! Go! Naruto! You are the best!!"
"Go! Team Fairy Tail!!"
If the Fairy Tail members and their friends had been excited before, they were now completely over the moon as they saw what their Ace had done. Their chants and cheer of excitement grew even louder in support of their team and the blonde. Little Asuka being one of the loudest cheerleaders.
"See! I told you, big brother Naruto was going to kick everyone's butts!" Asuka cheered in pure excitement getting a groan from her mother and loud laughter from the others at her choice of words.
Maybe, she should really stop letting her daughter spend too much time with the blonde. Bisca contemplated.
"Only Naruto can defeat someone strong like Bacchus with a single punch." Macao sighed and chuckled at the scene they had just witnessed.
Wakaba grinned at his friend's words in agreement taking a huge chug of beer from his glass and going back to observe Naruto through the lacrima screen.
"It seems the blonde idiot is still very sensitive with being referred to as a kid." Steven, the chef of 8-Island restaurant commented getting a round of chuckles from the people around him as it was indeed true. He still remembered the black eye given to him once, when he had called blonde a 'kid' in jest.
"He is such a hypocrite," Macao complained with a huff, "He doesn't like being called a kid, while he goes around giving embarrassing Nicknames to other people." He still feels insulted whenever Naruto called him an old man.
Just a few seats away from the enthusiastic Fairy Tail supporters, Master Goldmine, the guild master of Quarto Cerberus groaned in embarrassment at the poor performance of his guild S-class mage.
"That damn idiot! He had it coming, for being so careless and for always underestimating his opponents!" Goldmine cursed loudly at Bacchus's unconscious form through the screen, making the other members of the guild that were sitting near him gulp in fear at their master's loud cursing.
''Poor Bacchus, he is going to get an earful from the master after this round." One of the Quarto Cerberus members whispered in fear, getting a nod from the other members. They now truly pitied their Drunkard guildmate.
(Back with Naruto)
"Damn it! I lost my cool there."
While the spectators outside the field were completely losing their minds in disbelief at his actions; Naruto was cursing and berating himself with some colorful words for the way he had smacked down his rude opponent as he heard the announcement made by a shocked Chapati and also the loud cheers from the audience.
"Now the other competitors are going to be on guard during the combat rounds, making the fights even more troublesome for me." Naruto groaned as he again continued to walk aimlessly through the empty streets of the fake city.
In the wise words of his perverted Sensei, a Shinobi was supposed to always keep their real abilities and strength a secret from their opponents, and catch them completely off guard when they make the mistake of underestimating you.
Which, he had managed to grandiosely fail just in the first round.
Granted, it was inevitable for his abilities to be known by the audience and the competitors during the later rounds, but it would have been a bit easier for him later on if he hadn't lost his cool and knocked Bacchus out with a single punch. As the other competitors would have underestimated him making his work a bit easier. Now they were all going to be wary of his strength and speed.
Of course, he would like to put on a great show for the audience, while bringing more positive recognition to his guild during the competition. But he also wanted to be as mysterious as possible until the combat rounds.
Though, he doubted it was going to help them much in defeating him. As he still kinda had numerous tricks up his sleeves.
"Ah Hah! I finally found you! You damn glory stealer!"
Naruto halted his internal monologue as he heard someone yelling behind him. He then turned his attention toward the person and quirked his eyebrow in confusion as he saw the representative of Team Sabertooth, pointing at him with a wild expression on his face.
'What was his name again?... Ah, Sting, right.' Naruto recalled the name of the Sabertooth mage given to him by Jura while observing the mage's appearance, well, mostly observing the mage's necklace. 'He has six silver bells and two golden bells, that's good.'
"Hey! Why are you looking at me like that?" Sting exclaimed angrily as he saw Naruto looking at him with a hard stare.
"Oh? sorry about that." Naruto sheepishly apologized after realizing that he had been just standing and observing the mage for quite a while "Are you here to steal my bells?" He curiously asked the mage pointing his finger at his necklace.
"Heck yeah!" Sting confidently replied and glared heatedly at the confused shinobi "Not only that, but I'm also here to beat your ass. You glory stealer!"
"The game is to simply steal the bells, you know. You don't really have to beat my ass to do that." Naruto chuckled at the brash attitude of the mage, it kinda reminded him of his younger self.
"That's rich, coming from someone who had knocked a competitor unconscious for the bells!" Sting retorted at the blonde words as he also had heard the announcement made by Chapati; of Bacchus's quick defeat at the hands of the person standing in front of him.
"Ah...I guess you are correct." Naruto sighed after hearing Sting retort as it was indeed the truth. Though he was a bit confused by something, "By the way, why are calling me a glory stealer?" he asked the mage, quirking his eyebrow in confusion as well as a bit of curiosity.
Sting gaped at the Fairy Tail mage as if he had just heard the most absurd thing in his life, "Are you telling me that you don't know what you have done?"
"Eh..? I don't quite understand what you are talking about. So you might have to explain a bit here." Naruto told the mage, now getting even more curious and confused seeing the expression on the mage's face.
"You bastard! You defeated the Minotaur that was weakened by me and took all the glory and the reward yourself!" Sting raged at the blonde, his eyes burning with fury at the unfairness...literally.
Naruto's eyes widened as he now understood and remembered what the Sabertooth mage was talking about. His eyes then slowly narrowed at the raging mage and quickly covered the distance between them with the use of his body-flicker technique and angrily grabbed the furred collar of the mage, whose previous raging expression turned into shock witnessing the speed displayed by the Fairy Tail mage.
It was now Naruto who was completely furious.
"You dickhead! You are the jerk that promised the innocent village chief that you will return the next day to defeat the minotaur and didn't return!!" Naruto angrily glared at Sting, while furiously shaking the startled mage's whole body by his collar.
(Meanwhile...With the spectators.)
'What are those two even screaming about?' was the thought that was running through the head of every spectator that was watching the bizarre conversation between the two blondes. All of them had stopped observing the other competitors as they were now thoroughly invested in the conversation that was going on between the two.
Well, not everyone.
"How doesn't he still know that it was Sting who had broken the promise to the village Chief!?" Max cried out in disbelief at the ignorance of his blonde friend. He remembered that he had already explained to the blonde about the twin-dragon slayers of Sabertooth during that job. Did Naruto had forgot his explanation? Probably. He couldn't really strike out the probability of that happening as his friend was quite stupid sometimes.
"Now, now...Max, " Alzack chuckled seeing the incredulous look on the sand mage's face "Don't be too hard on him. You know that Naruto doesn't really follow the news or care about the happenings of the magical world right?"
"Sigh...you are correct, but still..." Max sighed in defeat while nodding his head in agreement as he knew that Naruto didn't really follow or care about the names of mages, their appearances, or their ranks.
Alzack continued to chuckle at his friend's expression and seeing the confused look on the faces of both Jet and Laki, decided to explain to them what had happened during their first A-rank job of the year; as they only knew about Naruto defeating the Minotaur and not the full story.
Up in the stands, a few seconds ago.
"Mommy, what's a dickhead?" Asuka innocently asked her horrified mother as she heard her big brother use the colorful words.
Some of the people that had heard the little girl's innocent question became nervous and tried to explain to her that it was a bad word, while some of the others like Wakaba, guffawed hysterically.
"That's it! I'm never letting Naruto spend time with Asuka ever again!" Bisca cried out and glared at the blonde through the screen "Naruto, You idiot! Did you forget that Asuka is watching you? Stop using such crass language!"
(Back with the two blondes.)
"I didn't break my promise to the village chief! I did return to the village to take care of the minotaur two days later with my partner, but you had already taken advantage of its weakened state and defeated it!" Sting explained glaring back at the furious Naruto while trying his hardest to free himself from his fellow blonde tight grip on his collar but to no avail.
"Two days later!? You promised them to come back the next day! That means you have broken the promise!" Naruto tightened the grip on the mage's collar and scowled "...and you seemed to misunderstand something, you jerk. The minotaur was not at all weakened, instead according to the village chief, it was much larger and stronger when I fought it."
"That's bullshit! you dumb blonde!"
"You are also a blonde! you jackass!"
"Grr..." Sting growled at the comeback, though there was a slight hint of blush on his face due to his mistake "I have wasted enough of my time talking with you! Now I'm going to kick your ass until you apologize. You glory stealer!"
"Like hell! I'll..."
Whatever colorful comeback Naruto was about to give ceased, as his eyes widened in alarm, sensing a large amount of magical energy getting built up in Sting's mouth and not to mention the annoying grin on the mage's very punchable face.
"White Dragon Roar!" Sting cried out his signature spell directly aiming it at the head of the wide-eyed Naruto.
"Shit!" Naruto cursed as he saw a comparatively, small laser-like beam of white light materialize from the dragon slayer's mouth and hit him head-on...literally, at point-blank range before he could even react and he was thrown upwards by the force of the beam, slamming back on the ground after a few seconds of flight with multiple gashes on his clothes and even had some blood dripping down from his forehead.
"That will teach that glory stealer!" Sting grinned victoriously while adjusting his collar as he saw the damage that his roar had caused to the Fairy Tail mage.
He sauntered toward the injured mage who seemed to be rasping in pain with eyes closed and knelt to inspect the damage he had caused, after making sure that his fellow blonde hadn't suffered any life-threatening injury, he sneered as he reached for the injured 'mage' golden bell "I guess, you got lucky with Bacchus as well. Just like you got lucky with that Minotaur, after all, you are nothing more than a glory stealer from a weak guild."
However, just as Sting was about to snatch the golden bell from his defeated for, the supposedly injured mage suddenly opened his eyes and grinned at him mischievously.
"How was my act?" Naruto grinned, winking at the surprised mage, and grabbed the mage's hands that had been reaching for the bells, before his body suddenly exploded in a loud bang catching the surprised Sting in the explosion.
*BOOM!*
"Ughh..." Sting groaned slowly getting back up on his feet as his whole body twitched in pain and felt his ears ringing from the loud explosion that he was just caught in.
"I guess, I was lucky this time as well right?" Naruto cheekily taunted the groaning dragon slayer as he amusedly watched the mage struggling to get back up on his feet from a few meters away.
Unknown to the dragon slayer, Naruto had quickly made a shadow clone—the exploding one— with a considerable amount of chakra to be able to take the force of the spell that the mage had been preparing, just behind the dragon slayer and had performed a quick substitution with it which went completely unnoticed by the 'victorious' mage.
"You...bastard..." Sting growled furiously at the taunt. He didn't know how the Fairy Tail mage had managed to survive his roar spell, heck, there was not even a scratch on his fellow blonde. But one thing was sure to him now. Before the end of the round, he was going to make sure to wipe that infuriating cheeky grin off the blonde's face "...I'm going make you pay for this!"
"White dragon iron fist!" Sting roared engulfing his right fist in light and charged at the Fairy Tail mage, who looked quite annoyed by his action instead of being alarmed or surprised, which infuriated him even more.
"Sigh...Just wildly charging at me like that won't help you, brat." Naruto sighed and chided the furious mage as he easily sidestepped the punch thrown at him and grabbed the right arm of his attacker, and tossed the said attacker forward using the momentum of his own charge.
"Who are you calling a brat? You are probably not even much older than me!?" Sting raged at being called a brat and continued to blindly charge at the blonde, getting the same result again and again. which made him completely livid.
"You are still younger than me aren't you? So I can call you a brat if I want." Naruto teased the younger boy as he now knew that the mage was younger than him. Thanks to the mage's own admission. He knew that he was being a hypocrite as he also hated when someone called him a kid or Naru-chan and was also acutely aware of the fact that he was kinda acting like a jerk with the younger mage now. But it was all part of his plan, which would make sure that he won't have to show much of his abilities— other than his hand-to-hand combat skills and his shadow clones— while also ensuring that he will be able to get the golden bell and also manage to bring a bit more recognition to Fairy Tail.
Getting inside the head of his opponent, figuratively, off course. A tried and proven method, that he had been following since his genin days after getting the same treatment from his scarecrow sensei.
"I've told you, brat. You need to think before you charge at me blindly like that, as there is no way that you can defeat me in hand-to-hand combat." Naruto grinned cheekily as he expertly dodged another punch from the mage and kneed him in the stomach, getting a gasp of pain for the dragon slayer.
Naruto wasn't an arrogant guy or anything, but he was sure that no one in Fiore could beat him in pure hand-to-hand combat as the mages here didn't really focus much on their close combat skills, instead relying more on their magic.
He didn't know that he was going to completely reevaluate this thinking in the future.
"How about this then!?" Sting grinned at the annoying blonde joining the open palms of his hands together, with all the fingers on one hand in contact with the corresponding ones on the other hand; making the Fairy Tail mage quirk his eyebrow in curiosity at the odd stance.
"Holy Ray!"
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as a bright light rapidly gathered around the dragon slayer's palm forming a large sphere and a large number of white rays, similar to the one before, started heading toward him at a rapid pace in a curved trajectory to strike him.
From the exploding clone memory, Naruto knew that getting hit by one of those beams of light was going to hurt like hell—not to mention the fact that there were now numerous of them— he started getting into action.
As Sting concentrated magic on his palm directing the numerous beams of light, his eyes started to widen in horror and disbelief, since none of the beams were managing to strike the target. As Naruto rapidly flickered around the whole area where they had been fighting at a speed, that his eyes even couldn't keep up with, completely dodging his holy rays spell.
'What kind of speed is that?' Sting gulped in terror at the speed displayed by the blonde 'How am I ever going to reach Natsu-san level if I can't even touch this glory stealer?' he thought in dismay thinking about the person whom he used to consider as a rival.
"Phew... are you done now?" Naruto grinned confidently at the horrified mage, enjoying the expression on said mage's face, and wiped the tiny bit of sweat that was beginning to appear on his forehead with the sleeves of his jacket.
While the blonde was radiating confidence outwards, internally, it was a whole different story.
'Damn, I need to work on my body flicker technique even more after the games. I almost got hit by some of those beams there.' Naruto thought in relief as he managed to avoid the beams due to his shoddy body flicker technique. He didn't want to imagine the outcome if he had been hit by those beams. It wouldn't have killed him or anything, but it would have surely made his day even worse than it already was.
Of course, if he had wanted he could have taken the easier option and used his Hiraishin. But where was the fun in that? not to mention that it would be kinda unfair to the younger mage than it already was.
Who was he kidding? This fight was completely unfair to the dragon slayer, right from the beginning. A war veteran, who had seen countless amount of deaths and deadly fights before even turning 17, versus a young teenager, who hadn't probably even seen someone die in front of him. Yeah right, talk about being unfair.
"I'm not done yet! You bastard!" Sting roared angrily at Naruto after noticing that his fellow blonde seemed to be thinking about something, while not even paying attention to him.
'How dare this jerk not even pay attention to me when we are in the middle of a fight!?' Sting internally raged at the disrespect shown to him.
"Sigh..." Naruto sighed as he stared at the raging Sting, "Come on then let's finish this already." he challenged.
"Glady!" the white dragon slayer exclaimed and prepared his final attack.
"WHITE DRAGON ROAR!!"
Seeing the white beam of light moving toward him, tearing and slicing the cobbled stone street on its path at an alarming speed, creating a linear explosion in its wake; Naruto simply let out a small smile to grace his lips which went unnoticed by the white dragon slayer, and stood still on his position, letting the spell hit him full force... creating a large explosion and smoke as it did so.
Sting watched the smoke created by the explosion in trepidation, wondering whether he was able to finally defeat the annoying Fairy Tail mage. As the smoke subsided, he became anxious seeing there was no sign of his opponent.
"What...?" Sting uttered in surprise and complete panic as he felt a pair of hands grabbing hold of both of his legs and felt himself, getting dragged under the ground.
"Gotcha!"
Sting heard the victorious voice of his opponent and saw said, opponent, slowly emerging from the ground with a grin on his whispered face, holding a golden bell in his hand after successfully dragging the dragon slayer's body under the ground, leaving only the head above the surface using the 'Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu'.
"Get me out of here, you bastard!" Sting yelled at his victorious opponent as he struggled to get himself out of the dire situation that he found himself in. He didn't know how Naruto had managed to put him in such an embarrassing position, but one thing was sure, he was going to go all out after he got himself out of this situation and take back his golden bell.
"Ah, ah, ah..." Naruto grinned at the struggling Sting finding the whole situation hilarious, and a bit nostalgic as the golden bell in his hand attached itself to his necklace "...I don't think I would do that. As I already have what I needed from you and I need to collect more of these to win this round. So... you would have to get out of there yourself.Bye."
"Argh!!!" Sting continued his struggle as he saw his fellow blonde turning and walking away from the area while giving the mage a wave from his bandaged right hand.
"Get back here! You glory stealer!" The struggling dragon slayer screamed at the blonde's back "I'm still not yet done with you!"
"Whatever, brat. You need to first focus on your hand-to-hand combat if you want to even scratch me." Naruto drawled and advised as he heard the declaration without even looking at the dragon slayer, and walked away, leaving the boy alone...screaming and struggling, with only his head above the ground surface.
Naruto amusedly thought it was somewhat kinda poetic.
As Sting watched the back of the Fairy Tail representative walking away from the area, he gritted his teeth in anger and swore defiantly at the blonde "Next time, I won't make the same mistake twice. Next time, I'm going to go all out and beat you to a pulp!"
The Shinobi just chuckled and ignored the white dragon slayer's rant, simply opting to go and find some of those monsters to collect even more bells. Now making sure to avoid the other competitors as much as possible, as he had enough fun for the day.
(A few minutes ago, with the spectators)
Those last few minutes had been a roller coaster ride for the audience, who had been watching the whole spectacle between the two blondes. At first, they thought that the Fairy Tail mage had no chance against the Sabertooth mage as they saw the former get hit by the latter spell at point-blank range and saw the bloody form of Naruto.
Though, some of them did notice an identical clone of the shinobi appearing behind the dragon slayer and disappearing, as fast as it had appeared.
After that, the whole fight they had just witnessed made their jaws drop to the ground. As the mage of the supposedly, weakest guild of Fiore started to completely toy and make a mockery of the second strongest mage of the Team Sabertooth...the strongest guild in Fiore.
"What...what is going on? Ladies and Gentlemen! Would you believe that!?" Chapati exclaimed in shock at the scene of Naruto dragging the dragon slayer under the ground "Naruto Uzumaki had completely defeated the White dragon slayer of Sabertooth and snatched the golden bell away from him, like someone who had just stolen candy from a kid!"
"This is...incredible..." Jenny muttered with her hands covering her mouth in disbelief seeing someone toy with an S-class mage of Sting caliber. Not to mention the fact the Sting was one-half of the famed Twin dragon slayers of Sabertooth, who hadn't ever lost a single duel during the previous years' Grand Magic Games.
Bacchus was one thing, but Sting!? That was completely mind-blowing!
'They haven't even seen anything yet.' Yajima amusedly thought as he saw the shocked expression on the audience and his two fellow panelists' faces. Being the only person in this world who knew about Naruto's 'full' capabilities, he couldn't help but wonder, how everyone would react if the blonde decided to go all out.
With Team Fairy Tail and Supporters.
"HE IS THE ACE OF OUR GUILD!!"
"YEAH! GO NARUTO! SHOW THEM WHY THEY SHOULDN'T UNDERESTIMATE US!!"
"HAHAHA! NO ONE CAN DEFEAT BIG BROTHER NARUTO!!"
"Oi...oi...aren't you guys being too much?" Steven, the most mature one of the bunch sweat dropped as he saw the Fairy Tail guild members and even Team Fairy Tail, who was just below their stand, cheering for the blonde at the top of their lungs.
Even the cute little Asuka was making an evil face while making a weird pose and cheering for his former colleague.
'What a loud bunch...' Steven sighed in defeat at the boisterous attitudes of the people around him, though he felt a small smile form on his face.
With Team Sabertooth.
While the members of Team Fairy Tail were celebrating in excitement, there was a whole different atmosphere around the members of Team Sabertooth.
"Ah!!! He decapitated Sting!!" Lector and Frosch, the two exceeds/cats of the twin- dragon slayers, exclaimed with a horrified expressions on their faces.
"Calm down, you two. Sting is alright." Rogue words managed to calm down the two horrified exceeds. While Rogue had managed to calm them down, he himself, was anything but calm internally.
The Shadow dragon slayer couldn't believe the way his friend was defeated by the mage of Fairy Tail. Granted, Sting hadn't gone all out but seeing his friend getting completely toyed with by the opponent was quite unbelievable. As, apart from Jiemma, their guild master, and Minerva, Sting was undoubtedly the strongest in Sabertooth.
"That idiot completely made a mockery of our guild!" Minerva gritted her teeth in anger as she saw the poor performance of her teammate "Master won't be happy with this!"
'That was an understatement.' Rogue and the other members of Team Sabertooth, nervously thought. Even the ever-confident Rufus was nervous about the inevitable punishment that was awaiting the white dragon slayer.
"Hey, that jerk is directly walking towards Jura!" Frosch exclaimed in giddiness "He is now going to get his deserved beating for doing that to Sting!"
Everyone observed and Paid attention to the lacrima screen where Naruto was being shown. As there was a possibility that they could get much more information about the blonde's abilities through his inevitable fight with the Wizard Saint. Which, they knew that the former was unquestionably going to lose as Jura was without a doubt one of the strongest mages, not only in this competition but in the whole nation.
(Back with Naruto.)
"Fuck my life..." Naruto groaned and palmed his face as he set saw Jura standing in front of him, with a smile on his face. Of all the competitors he could've met, it had to be the wizard saint! He wasn't afraid of the mage or anything...he was just not in the mood to get into a troublesome duel.
He just wanted to get over this damn game as fast as possible.
"You shouldn't use such language, Naruto-san." Jura chuckled and lightly reprimanded the blonde.
"Come on, Jura..." Naruto lightly chuckled at the mage's reprimand "...anyone who comes face to face against you in a possible battle is going to same thing."
"Well, I thought you would be one of the exceptions, Naruto-san," Jura replied amused by the blond's words "As you seemed to have made quite a performance against Bacchus and Sting."
Naruto grimaced realizing that Jura had also heard the announcement...who was he kidding?...of course, the Wizard Saint had heard it! He also noticed that the mage had the same number of bells on his necklace as him: three golden bells and three silver bells, which wasn't really surprising as Jura was a powerful mage.
"So... were you waiting here for me to get my bells?" Naruto curiously asked, internally praying that the mage would give a negative response.
Thankfully, Jura shooked his head negatively.
"I would have loved to test my skills against you once again, "Jura smiled and replied, "but we would have to postpone it for future rounds."
Naruto blinked in confusion at the response, "What do you..."
*Ring!!!*
"Times up! Every competitor will be now transported back to the field!"
Chapati's loud announcement reverberated throughout the whole stadium. Much to the relief of the blonde, and to the utter disappointment of the audience that was spectating the conversation between the two mages; hoping to see an epic fight.
"That's what you meant, huh?" Naruto gave an amused grin to the chuckling mage in front of him, now understanding the response as he felt the fake city slowly disappearing.
"You got that right, Naruto-san," Jura replied as the first round of the Grand Magic Games finally came to an end.
The result of the first round was:
Bacchus from Team Quarto Cerberus— 7 points. (He somehow gained consciousness and managed to defeat a monster.)
Cixot from Team Orochi's Fin— 13 points.
Mace Orlando from Team Phoenix Grave— 17 points.
Sting from Team Sabertooth— 20 points. (He also managed to dig himself out from the ground with sheer strength and defeated a monster as well.)
Grisha from Team Hound Holy— 23 points.
Ichiya from Team Blue Pegasus— 30 points.
Jura from Team Lamia Scale— 70 points.
Naruto Uzumaki from Team Fairy Tail got first place and earned 10 points for his team with a score of 72 points. Just 2 points more than the runner-up, Jura.
A shocking result that the spectating crowd had never envisioned would ever occur.
The whole crowd's attitude toward Team Fairy Tail was changed completely due to the incredible performance of Naruto.
(Line break)
"Naruto! You did it!!"
Team Fairy Tail exclaimed and all of them tackled the surprised blonde to the ground in excitement.
"I can't... breathe. Guys..." Naruto wheeze out finding it hard to breathe, getting his friends to sheepishly apologize, and got off from the wheezing blonde.
"You were amazing in this round!" Max beamed, recalling the extraordinary performance put on by the blonde.
"Haha... I was indeed amazing, wasn't I?" Naruto grinned and boasted in jest.
"Yup. You showed those bastards that Fairy Tail was not some weak guild!" Jet cheered in giddiness, getting a nod of agreement from the team.
Well...except one.
"Guys, it is really good that we managed to get the 10 points off from this round thanks to Naruto, " Laki spoke getting the attention of her friends and adjusting her glasses "but let's not forget that we have to compete in another round today. So, we should be concentrating on it now."
This made the whole excited members calm down a bit as they realized that she was indeed correct. They still had the combat round of the first day to compete in.
"Who do you guys think would be selected from our team to fight in this round?" Alzack curiously asked his friends.
"It won't be Naruto that's for sure, as he had already competed in the first round..." Laki, the voice of reasoning of the team answered "...so it is probably going to be one of us."
Max, Alzack, and Jet sweated nervously at her words.
"Eh, don't worry guys. You all are going to do just fine!" Naruto confidently tried to cheer up his friends as he saw their expressions, getting a slight nod of thank you from them.
"Go Fairy Tail, Go!!"
They all smiled as they heard their guild earnestly cheering from them, up from the stands. They were going to do their best to not let their beloved guild down.
"Now if you excuse me"Chapati cleared his throat to silence the crowd "Let's take a look at the battle's system" A hologram appeared on the air, showing the match-ups "The matchups were decided by the organizers.
"I hope there are some interesting matchups" Yajima commented getting a nod of agreement from Mato and Jenny.
"The first matchup of the First day is..."
(Line Break)
(In Fairy Tail lodging.)
"Max, you don't have to feel down about it man." Naruto tried to console his depressed friend while patting him on the back but to no avail. The blonde looked at his other friends for some help but only receive an unhelpful sigh in return.
It was around 7:30 pm and the Fairy Tail mages were all back in their lodge after a
rather eventful day. Most of them were in the living room, drinking and just talking excitedly about tomorrow's events. While some of the younger members like Asuka and Romeo had decided to go to bed as they were tired from all the cheering that they had done.
"But we lost our first place and went down to the 5th place because of me!" Max sobbed pitifully as he took another huge gulp of beer from his glass in despair.
The sand mage had been like this since the end of the first day of the Grand Magic Games. As he had lost his combat round against Lyon from Team Lamia Scale, taking away the early lead that their team had and putting them down below in 5th place; behind Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Sabertooth, respectively.
Naruto sighed seeing the pitiful state of his friend as he recalled the 'unfair matchup' between Lyon and Max during today's combat round. To say that the sand mage was destroyed by his opponent was a gross understatement. Lyon had simply frozen all the sand spells thrown toward him by Max with his ice-make magic and made quick work of the latter.
The blonde was also quite concerned for the White dragon slayer of Sabertooth as Macao had mentioned the way their guild master treated his mages a few moments ago. Jiemma, the guild master of Sabertooth was a scum, as far as Naruto was concerned.
The arrogant man was apparently quite infamous for the harsh way he treated his mages... like an expendable army, only accepting and keeping the people whom he considered strong and could raise the name of his guild. While severely punishing the members for any defeat or signs of weakness, even expelling them from the guild. During the last year's GMGs, the scum had done the same thing and expelled a mage for losing a round, while embarrassing that person in front of his whole guild members.
Just thinking about that scum made Naruto's blood boil. Who the heck even treated their guild members like that? He just hoped that Sting also doesn't get expelled like that for the defeat. If he did get expelled, the blonde promised himself to have a chat with Sabertooth guild master.
"Forget about it now, Max." Macao reasoned and also tried to console the sand mage, bringing back the Naruto out from his thoughts "There are still many rounds and games that you can participate in, where you can get back the points to the team again. So instead of getting depressed about it, you all should try to plan for tomorrow."
"Master is correct, Max-kun." Kinana kindly told the mage "You might have been absolutely destroyed by Lyon-san today, but you can still try harder and win in the coming days."
Naruto, Macao, and the others sweat dropped as they heard the girl's poor attempt at consoling the depressed mage and just sighed in defeat as said mage started to bawl his eyes out...again.
"Did I say something wrong?" Kinana nervously asked the others as she saw the effect that her words had on the mage.
"He will be alright, Kinana-chan." Naruto sighed deeply as the innocent girl nervously tried to console Max, with not-so-kind words. The blonde just hoped and prayed that Team Fairy Tail will be able to get back the lead that they had lost in the coming days.
He hoped.
*End*
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A/N: I know I kinda drag out the first round. Sorry about that, if you guys get bored and put off by it.
I also know that some of you will be quite made with the way I handled the fight with Sting, but let me just say that this version of Sting is still young, compared to the Canon. So he is more hot-headed and weaker.
Also, please don't try to go too deep with the points as it isn't that important XD. Though, if you have questions about it feel free to PM me.
The next chapter will cover the 2nd and 3rd days of the Grand Magic Games.
Bye.