The Prophecy child

by Knight Rider204

What will happen when a boy who has never seen the outside world and carrying the burden of many, steps on Ishgar. He has been trained like a soldier. But a curse prevents him from making new friends and family while his own have been sacrificed for his sake on the land of his ancestors. NarutoXHarem. I don’t own the cover image

10. A new enemy exists!

THE PROPHECY CHILD

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Chapter 10: A New enemy Exists!!

"Talking"- Normal person speaking

'Thinking'- Normal person thinking

"Talking"- Demon/ Dragon speaking

'Thinking'- Demon/ Dragon speaking

Disclaimer: Neither do I own Naruto or fairy tail. I just own my imagination

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~[The Tenshi lake]~

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As the midday sun rained scorching heat waves at the newly created 'coral' garden, a lone cloaked figure could be seen walking around the perimeter of the bizarre site. The only discernible feature of the person is his unnaturally tall build. As the mysterious individual continued his surveillance around the conspicuous sight, he gingerly took steps around the small coral spikes jutting out of the ground around the magically criminal scene.

Hunching over, the mystery man takes a knee beside the smallest spike, which is the most peculiar one. It is very similar to the large glowing red ones at the center, though what this glow entails is not yet within the strangers' figurative mental grasp. He clutches his hands around the small pike of coral and pulls it out of the ground without any effort, but only a grunt of annoyance.

Standing up straight, pulling out a small piece of paper with suspiciously familiar writing, the person presses the evidence of his investigation over it, making it sink inside the paper as a stone would drop into a water body. Peering over the large area encompassed by the wild corally spikes, as the stranger would put it, he furrows his brows and takes a cursory glance around the surroundings.

The area all around the once famed Tenshi lake, which was admittedly nothing of importance but a beautiful tourist sight and the only landmark being remotely close to the Torah village, was now covered in large red spikes that became more clustered and dense at the center.

Speaking of that lake, the stranger suddenly perked up with the realization of his forgetfulness. He sighed before quickly taking note of the time and strode quickly towards an opening between the coral spikes. Such an avenue of magical display will not be left unattended for much longer.

'Several third parties, including the pesky council, will soon arrive here to check onto this land...' the stranger thought in an annoyed fashion before stroking his chin with a thoughtful expression.

Masking his movements discreetly, the tall figure continued his stride through the same opening which led him inside the deep crimson forest of coral outcroppings. As he entered the confines of the large shadows that deprived him off his access to the sunlight, the stranger noted the bright red radiance emitted by the structures around him, almost giving him the impression of being incandescent. But try as he might, he couldn't sense any kind of heat that the spikes would emit or, perhaps, dormant energy that could lash onto him if he tampered around with them, as apparent from the little souvenir he took for himself from a while back.

He drifted off swiftly through some uninteresting spots, that lacked any signs of recent activity in the vicinity, well except for the ginormous spikes, of course. His hurried gait came to an abrupt halt as the cloaked individual seemed to study a peculiar spike or rather a series of spikes that seemed to be cleanly slashed off like butter at their pointed tip. Although, evident from the uneven and rough surface around the chipped part, whoever did this wasn't able to continue it for a long period of time.

Regardless, the thing that peaked his intrigue the most was the lack of any blood or any signs of lingering clues that would imply someone being injured recently at this particular spot. Like a forensic expert would, the now slightly glazed man, in his concentration brushed his fingers at some gashes along the other spikes with a contemplative disposition. His gloved hand seized their ministrations as he reached a slightly less dense arena in this compact and crammed coral forest.

It seemed to be the outshores of the now vacuous Tenshi lake. Small puddles of water, and multiple gashed or chipped spikes seemed to be scattered around the clearing in abundance. Long trench marks and craters embellished the land around at random positions. All in all, the figure wasn't able to discern any form of useful information about his target or its uncertain fate.

He impeded his investigation by himself as he started doing several hand gestures in preparation for a certain technique. Once he had gone through a series of long and complex hand signs, he slammed both of his hands on the ground. Numerous runes started rolling out from the impacted surface towards all the directions like rolling sea waves. The canopy then lit up in a faint glow as the surroundings became dimmer than they originally were. Red retained the surroundings, as short tendrils of energy lingered in the air around, wisping out of the corals as if they are being absorbed and vice versa.

Taking a cursory glance around at his surroundings, the figure smirked in bemusement as he peered over at the puddles of water in the vicinity that flowed with blue energy instead of the red counterpart that occupied the majority of the clearing.

"No matter how much you suppress your signature, I'll find you regardless of the amount of time it would take..." The stranger grinned with giddiness or perhaps unsubdued exhilaration.

The unbridled intensity and interest of this figure were clear from his words and tone of voice but his intentions towards the Uzumaki were still ambiguous at best.

"You use water, huh? Not surprising but still making presumptions without meeting you would be wrong." He continued as he studied more and a small, almost unnoticeable amount of miniature kanji started marching toward his foot.

Fumbling around in his cloak, the tall man took out a scroll from a compartment and laid it out on the ground. The words began crawling up on his scroll and arranged themselves in comprehensible sentences. Once again, a firm smirk etched over his features, making the red marking over his cheeks visible under the shadow of his hood.

His interpretations, alas were proven correct as he gazed down at the results of his analysis spell. The red energy around them wasn't magic but an unnatural mutation or variant of magic. The blue streaks of energy were very familiar to the man but his spell wasn't able to glean much from the pitiable amount of it in the surroundings. The trenches and slashes suggested the use of blades in this duel, which was the easiest part to conclude through the clues present aside from the jags and shaved parts of the land. It was like someone shaved off the land with a giant mace or something. But the shaves were too shallow to be caused by such a heavy weapon so the exact type of weapon involved against a standard Katana, according to his data, was still unknown.

This creature that his target had indulged in battle seemed to be too much of an unknown variable but it was clear that whoever it was, it sure was strong. The only certain conclusion he had drawn was that both combatants were still alive, regardless, if they sustained any crippling injuries or if they sustained any. His experience made it very clear because the energy still possessed the glittering essence of its owner, which would be lost if they were dead. On the other note, his target seemed to have an ability that granted him unyielding defense or ability that allowed him to totally forgo a highly dangerous spot without a speck of blood.

He was brought out of the nebulous of his own emotions and thoughts by a shrill croaking sound that cut through the heavy air around him in an instant as his analytical spell wore out. He touched the ground with both his index and middle finger, letting out a small ping of magic that signified him of the steadily approaching battalion of rune knights.

The mysterious individual scowled in irritation as his investigation was brought to an end by the most unsightly of his adversaries. He deftly weaved through one more series of hand signs and soon he was out of sight like all parts of his body had disintegrated into the flowing winds.

The multiple clangs of metal banging against the ground filled the still atmosphere of the clearing, after the departure of its previous occupant, as a battalion of rune knights deployed by the magic council filed into the clearing. Most were in a frenzy as they started searching for any clues around the arena in an undisciplined manner. Being in hurry and skillfully avoiding any sensitive spots that could hamper their investigative progress at the same time. Some seemed sloppy at best, both in their work and countenance, while the others skillfully carried out their duties, setting up multiple devices and working in complete tandem with their respective teams. Some donned confused expressions as they watched their other colleagues rush around in a very uncharacteristic manner.

"Umm, Sir!" One such young recruit decides to sate his curiosity by walking up to his superior and saluting, as is customary. "Why is everyone moving around like in emergency cases?"

"This an unnatural occurrence, newbie. The one who will provide the council with valuable evidence will be guaranteed promotion and a more influential post. They just wish to move up the ranks." The apparent leader of the battalion answered calmly with a crisp voice that screamed authority.

"If-If I may s-sir?" The newbie asked hesitantly before continuing once he received a nod from his captain in confirmation. "Why are y-you not searching for any evidence?"

"Because the area has been tampered with before we even got here." The captain informed his junior with a grim downturn of his lips.

"Y-You m-mean..." The new recruit trailed off with uncertainty and a little sense of loss.

"Yes. Our sensor said this energy is cursed energy. A type of energy that is usually used by the demons summoned by the Black Wizard. Meaning a demon was involved. By the looks of it, someone was present here before we came here, I noticed an extirpated missing spike on our way." The captain explained his deduction to his still inexperienced subordinate.

The new recruit of the Rune knights nodded in understanding of his captain's impeccable logic. Being an amateur at his job bugged him, but he figured he would learn new things from people such as his captain.

"There are many scenarios that could play out from here on out. One; it was a demon being captured by some dark guild; most likely Zeref followers, but seeing the scale of its attack, it might be too much for one person to handle. So perhaps, it has killed the dark guild members. But there are no dead bodies present..."

The newbie gulped uncomfortably as he grimaced in discomfort. Being in the figurative adolescence of his career, he wasn't much adapted to the concept of death.

"Second; two demons had a clash, but that is not possible, we only detected one curse energy source around this sector of the forest.

"Third; a mage and a demon had their fight here, that is the most likely outcome, seeing as there doesn't seem to be a large number of mages involved in this case. There is no way a high numerical value of targets could dodge an instantaneous forthcoming of thousands of spikes, such as this..."

As the captain pointed at the large canopy of coral spikes, the other rune knights, who had also stopped their task to listen to their leader's acute deductions, stared in awe at his perceptive theories that none of them could refute.

"In this case, if the mage is a dark mage then we are unlikely to find any further leads on this matter. If the mage is from a light guild, then we can easily dig up more information." The captain finished with a sigh and unlatched his helmet from his head to cool it down a bit.

"This must've been a hell of a demon!"

"Yeah! Damn. I wonder if this wizard who fought him is still alive?"

"Regardless, I wouldn't want to mess up with any of these guys in my life!"

"Shut up your chit-chat maggots! And start working!" The captain shouted out as his underlings hurried around, not keen on the idea of being the cause of their leader's ire.

None of the knights noted the presence of the tall cloaked figure, who exfiltrated out of the 'spike' forest like taking a casual walk in the park, continue his hurried gait towards the Torah village.

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~[Magnolia Town]~

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The constant chugs and chuffs of a train passed through the gentle evening wind as the locomotive swiftly maneuvered its way over the tracks to its next designated station. Inside the train, in one of the many compartments, a group of four teenage kids and a red-furred cat sat silently.

As evident from the tranquil atmosphere inside the compartment, most of the occupants were fast asleep. Following the example of the only non-human companion of theirs, the siblings too drifted off to their dreamland, only being disturbed once by the ticket collector.

Although the eldest of the Strauss trio was still awake with closed eyes as if pretending to be asleep to fool others or seemingly lost in deep thought. In reality, the fiery white-haired beauty was a little disturbed, succumbing to self-doubt and self-pity right after their new friend managed to help her from being consumed by the quagmire of negative emotions she's been dealing with for weeks.

No matter how much consolation the fairy tail duo provided her, she seemed to return to such thoughts whenever she noticed people giving her odd looks while passing by, like the TC from earlier. Many people observed her with awe, most likely due to her beauty. Even if she recognized the look of curiosity and admiration very well, that didn't seem to matter in this case. Hell, she would've been proud of herself if the circumstances were different but she still suspected and dreaded the outcome of the situation if these people did find out about her 'curse'.

She felt even more guilty now though...

She undid every effort the blonde enigma and his cat pulled in order to reassure her, to make her feel better, but all she managed to accomplish was a strained smile, which was as empty as an inverted glass of water. She felt guilty, making their efforts go to waste. Thus, the cycle of negative thoughts continued to feed upon her mind as the train drifted through the clover town station without stopping, as was its schedule.

If she was in the right state of mind, she would've realized how pathetic, useless, and out of character she was being; but the world-shattering event at the church was still fresh in her mind. Plaguing it with negativity, even after so many weeks of nightmarish struggle. Her demonic arm throbbed slightly, resulting in a disapproving grunt from the beauty.

Wincing and shrinking back due to the sudden encroachment of sunlight in her vision, she opened her eyes slowly. She waited for her blurry vision to readjust itself to her surroundings. Being irritated immediately, as was in accordance with her nature, she straightened up her slumped posture in her seat.

Feeling a sudden weight shift on her shoulders she noted Lisanna's relaxed frame at the corner of her peripheral vision, leaning over her shoulder while sleeping in a slouched posture. For someone so energetic, she sure seemed peaceful and quiet in her sleep-induced form. The elder sibling sighed and shifted her gaze slightly upwards in her opposite direction to witness her little brother doing the same with the blonde sorcerer.

Kurama seemed to be sleeping peacefully with practiced ease. As weird as it sounded, Mirajane had witnessed during their travel that the red feline was an expert at sleeping. He even practiced acting like he was asleep when he was very much awake. It seemed he wanted to perfect the art of being lazy as soon as possible!

Although the most interesting and surprising for her was the slightly slumped figure of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, who was leaning against the glass window of the vehicle. Seeing him relax was a very rare sight for the non-fledged mage, his ragged breathing, and lopsided gait were a clear indication of his roughed-up state, that might've caused him to take a quick nap, she thought. Amidst the rhythmic sound of the train tracks and the slight snoring of her siblings, Mira could still make out his steady breathing, as his exhale crashed over his mask in his sleep.

Gone was the powerful and confident aura that always weighed down on her whenever she was in his presence; replaced by an almost innocent, peaceful, and tranquil air around his persona. Although his aura wasn't overbearing or dominant towards them, as was most of the elders she had seen, it was surprisingly pleasant and provided them with a sense of security and relief. The mage himself was very cooperative and didn't order them around, but worked together with each of them, instilling a sense of equality among them. Quite frankly, she hated arrogant people with a 'holier-than-thou' attitude.

The blonde had occupied most of her thoughts in the past weeks, whether it be out of cautiousness, gratefulness, admiration, jealousy, or annoyance. The current sight made her loosen up a bit, as her worrisome thoughts left her mind; she could almost imagine the peaceful expression on his face right about now. Although she was curious how he looked under that mask, perhaps he was scary looking or he could even be cute.

She cracked up a rare bemused smile as her mind drifted off toward the possible facial features of her enigmatic friend.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have arrived at our destination. Magnolia Town! We hope you enjoyed our services and the ride as a whole. Please have a nice day!"

Everyone jolted awake at the sudden announcement, living in the wild for an extended period of time caused them to develop a sense of alertness even during their sleep. The younger two of the Strauss siblings yawned with slightly moist eyes, filled with sleepiness.

The lone mage in their group stretched a bit to loosen up and crack the stiffness from his tired muscles. He still felt the slight pain of his injuries and uneasiness of the being robbed of his magic by that shark sword, but his healing factor had at least stopped the deep bleeding injuries in the recent hours. Kurama, on the other hand just scowled in annoyance about being woken up from his 'short' power nap and mumbled something about 'Troublesome Announcements'.

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Walking along the cobblestone path of Magnolia town, Naruto and Kurama could not help but be forced to feel a little bit nostalgic. The latter of the two was more than happy to return to his birthplace while the former was a little relieved to meet his few friends again in a long time.

Casting a sideways glance at the siblings, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the awed expressions they donned currently while looking at all the fancy stores and architecture which was comparatively more progressive than the greenwill village.

Just as he was about to turn around, Mira- or white rat, as he would call her- caught him looking at them and smiled a little. Her strain didn't go unnoticed by the blonde who found it quite adorable of her to act all tough while undoubtedly hiding her anxious expressions from the others.

It wasn't like he was a master of reading people's faces- and certainly not in the case of women- but he could at least understand how she was feeling. No, he was the only one who could have even an inkling of an idea of her predicament.

He sighed.

At least, super-mustache Gramps could possibly help her or perhaps point them in the right direction. Hell, even a book or record about the type of Take-Over she possessed would help a lot. He had promised them of helping her though, so he was involved in the matter, no matter if they liked it or not. Although, he doubted there would be any such issues, taking into account the siblings' recent behavior towards him after his fight with the Sushi guy, Kisame.

Lisanna and Elfman were very trusting towards him and nice all along the way. But contrary to their behavior he was concerned about their well-being. He thought of this immediate faith in him as a naive act. It wasn't his fault though, he was trained in a total war-oriented program. Hopefully, they would be able to correct themselves without any repercussions.

Mira, on the other hand, was always a little wary of him and to some extent his furry friend too. In his opinion, this was very commendable. These were important traits, one could never be overcautious in this magic world. Although, she had been markedly acting kind towards him since yesterday. Perhaps he had been able to win over her trust a little.

In any event, she wasn't mean or a bad person by any means. She just acted that way, and contrary to how she acted, she was a very kind girl underneath. The circumstances of her partial take-over, her parents' death, the betrayal of her villagers, and the anxiety or self-conscious belief of perhaps being turned into a demon were very familiar experiences that he had gone through in the past. It could even be a consequential effect of her magic on her psyche. Hmm, I must find out more about this if I want her to have a normal life. Can't have the demon messing with her mind now, can I?

Anyway, he couldn't hope to know more about her condition than his current musings. Women were very hard to figure out in any case.

Talking about Women, the old lady saya-san will be pissed off at him for being away for this many months and not informing her. Or perhaps she has forgotten about his existence altogether. Yes, that was quite possible taking into account her 'special' condition.

He was so lost in thought, he didn't even notice an all-familiar building in his sight...

"Troublesome. Naruto don't space out, we arrived at our guild!" Until his friend interjected in between, that is.

Pivoting on his foot and turning sharply towards his right, he came face to face with the gigantic gates of his guild. They weren't that big, but considering his travels didn't include visiting such big architectural structures, in fact, most of them were caves or underground hideouts, these doors appeared pretty big to him now.

He motioned for the siblings to continue and open the doors but received no response. Turning back to face them, he saw every one of them with slacked jaws and eyes as wide as saucers, gawking at the sheer size of the building. Considering their background, their village didn't have any big edifice such as this, so it was understandable.

"Now that I think about it, our guild hall is quite the gigantic structure, huh?" Kurama teased the siblings with a smirk directed at Mira. The trio in question blushed and averted their gaze, well in Mira's case glared intensely at the cat.

Naruto just shook his head at his partner's antics but silently beckoned them to open the doors to their new safe house. The siblings took hesitant steps and gingerly touched the doors to check for any freaky magic. Yes, being with a paranoid mage such as Naruto who used security seals all around their camp, caused the siblings to become a little apprehensive of any magic stuff like their only magician friend.

The door opened up a little bit with a loud buzzing sound, accompanied by many shouts and multiple laughs from the other side of the door. Following the trio inside, Naruto and Kurama were immensely surprised by the lack of violence in the guildhall. People were chatting happily with each other with many having finished numerous mugs of beer, some were sprawled over the tables seemingly tired from doing hard jobs while others were gathered in a formation that made it easy for everyone in the guild to observe a particular table.

Near the job request bulletin board, two teenage boys were arm wrestling each other, effectively blocking anyone else from taking a job. One of them was familiar to the blonde. Gray fullbuster, in all his naked glory- save for a boxer- was fiercely glaring at his opponent with occasional grunts of appreciation. He seemed to be losing in this match of pure strength against his foe. He appeared to be the same as Naruto remembered, apart from having grown tall in his absence from the guild.

'A new member...' The other boy however was a different case. An unfamiliar boy with the same fierce glare as his opponent and pronounced canines, grinned back seemingly winning over the ongoing match. He had slanty obsidian eyes, oddly spiky pink hair, and a signature scaly scarf that seemed to radiate fluctuating amounts of heat to Naruto. He was dressed (unlike his opponent) in a red long-sleeved dress shirt with golden markings and baggy white pants with brown shoes.

Both of the boys gave the last push as Kurama led the group to the similarly aged boys with a lazy flap of his angel-like wings. Gnashing his teeth in frustration, gray did his best to hold out but the pink-haired boy gave the last push with a victorious grunt, and alas, with a bang, Gray's hand collided with the flat table base and the crowd applauded in victory.

"Hah! Now I'll take the mission, stripper!" The unfamiliar teen mage declared triumphantly with an almost obnoxious laugh.

Scowling in annoyance and defiance the dark-haired mage retorted, " That was just a fluke lizard breathe! I'm not giving you any mission."

The crowd groaned in annoyance, who were waiting for the boys to subside and take a request themselves, as the boys began exchanging their banter.

"Kids these days are so uncultured!"

"Yeah! Hey, you two are being a bother today. Cut it out you fools."

Everyone seemed to comment similarly but no one tried to stop the boys. Naruto noted that the Master was absent and Erza too as evident by the undisciplined behavior exhibited by the boys, as she would put it. That girl couldn't stop the older members from fighting yet but she bonked anyone around their age for their inappropriate conduct, which would be considered as such, only in her books.

"Boys..." Like a substitute would, Cana albenora took Erza's stead and bashed both of them on their heads and cleared the path to the request board by dragging the former arm-wrestlers to a table occupied by three other people.

"Natsu-san...Gray-san...Please don't fight!.." A girl, the same age as Lisanna's trailed off meekly. She was of a slender build with shoulder-length blue hair tied up with an orange headband and brown eyes. She wore a similar orange skirt to her headband which reached her knees and was sitting on the opposite side to the boys and Cana with two more boys.

"Oi you two! You are scaring Levy-chan!" Both the boys sitting on Levy's side hollered. A black-haired boy with a tuft of hair on the top of his head with his hair jutting upwards and falling frontwards was seated on her right. He wore a simple white shirt, green checkered pants, and light-colored shoes. He donned two distinct belts, crossing his chest, resembling bandoliers.

The second one was a tall lanky boy with orange hair wearing a high-collared dark shirt, with light-colored edges and sleeves reaching above his elbows, adorned by a motif reminiscent of wings and two leaves. His dark pants were tucked neatly inside his black shoes.

"Shut up! Jet and Droy. I am gonna go on that mission now! Gramps isn't here yet, so it's the best chance! I gotta have an A-rank job today!" The pink-haired boy, Natsu, threatened before trying to hop off the table to leave for his mission.

"I am the one taking this job, you Pyro!" Gray barked as they both butted heads together, glaring at one another as electricity sparked between their eyes.

"Both of you aren't allowed! In fact, other than Erza no one's allowed to take an A-rank job in our age group. Umm...Well, there's one more but he isn't at the guild so I'm not counting him in!" Cana reprimanded in a scolding tone as if lecturing her juniors. Well, it was true, she was the most senior member of the group.

"Yes..Master will be angry if you guys break the rules..." The girl, levy, voiced out her concerns, receiving a positive nod from her partners, although they didn't seem to be so confident themselves.

"As if Armour girl can order the great Gray-sama around!" The dark-haired boy scoffed in disbelief while flicking his neck upwards. Everyone else around sweat-dropped except...

"Yes Lord Stripper Gray-sama, the God of Exhibitionism! Say that in front of Erza if you dare." A red cat added in his snarky jab with a snicker, towards an already red gray who was about to explode in embarrassment.

"Hahahahaha- I can totally imagine Gray having such a title!" Natsu fell on his back and started rolling around in total hilarity.

Everyone shared a peal of blown-out laughter while Elfman closed Lisanna's eyes with his hands and Mira did the same with her own, realizing the shameless nature of the dark-haired boy's actions.

But one person, in particular, recognized that voice...

"Kurama-kun!!" A brown blur snatched the feline out of his perch on the blonde's head. Cana smothered the poor feline in her developing figure as the subject of her affection turned slightly blue due to the lack of oxygen in his system.

"Mou~! I wanna pet Kurama-kun too! Nee-chan!" The shortest of the white-haired trio whined, feeling quite jealous about being brought away from her furry friend.

Mira gave a nervous smile to everyone around as they became the center of attention of the whole guild. Unconsciously, tucking her demonic arm inside her cloak just in confirmation, so that no one could see it.

Cana blinked once, then twice, and then once more before realizing what the younger girl said and retorted in a little irritated tone, " Huh? Who are you?"

A cough resounded in the middle of the guild drawing their attention towards the virtually concealed figure of Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. " Cana. These are the Strauss siblings. The boy over here is Elfman, the shorty over there is Lisanna and the grumpy over here is Mirajane."

As the blonde pointed them out, the siblings waved at the crowd in greetings and in Mira's case nodded in appreciation. Although soon Lisanna's cheeks puffed out in the biggest pout of the year with reddened cheeks, "Unnn! Naruto-san. Don't be a meanie!"

Mira was too anxious at the moment to even glare at the blonde and simply opted to listen in on others to gauge their reactions.

"Woah! It's the Ghost Kid"

"Ah. He is back, I thought he wasn't returning and he left the guild for good"

"Oi don't say that in front of his friends. They'll report it to the master. The master is pretty biased towards children, you know!"

" Yeah! That kid is pretty good too from what I hear."

As the whispers continued, Mira listened in and was even more confused. It seemed that Goldilocks was an enigma to his guild itself.

" You were here Naruto. I didn't quite catch you there!" Cana exclaimed in mock surprise as she widened her eyes. Although, her lips quirked upwards in a small smirk.

"Tch! Cana you told me it's gonna be my lucky day! That's total bullshit! I lost to flame breath and on top of that I have to see that ugly mask of this cloaked freak." The half-naked mage scoffed with dripping sarcasm in his tone.

Naruto's stern facade cracked as a mixture of anger and disappointment seeped into his countenance. As easily riled up as he could get around his friends, the blonde's disappointment won over and his shoulders slumped in resignation. Dark clouds appeared over his head and his posture bent downwards.

"You didn't even notice me! And you easily recognized Kurama by his voice alone! How rude can you guys get? I see how it is, this dumb cat is more important to you than me?!" The crestfallen boy mumbled in dejection as everyone around seemed to stifle their laughter at his childish complaints.

"Oh relax Naruto! I was just teasing you." The card mage giggled behind a still-dazed cat.

"Hmph! Freak you failed in your so-called high-class job didn't you? I knew you would just return home with disappointment!" The ice-mage asked in a condescending tone.

"Nah! We completed the quest. It was difficult but we even managed to complete many more jobs on the way too." The student of Ablaze told him in dismissal, as he didn't wish to disclose more information about his self-imposed exile.

"What! How the hell did you get any jobs on the road?" Gray and many others openly expressed their disbelief while the others just raised their eyebrows in curiosity.

"Meh! The master sent them through messenger hawks to our reported locations." This time Kurama, who was still in Cana's arms, answered the incredulous queries, relieving his roommate from further questioning.

"The master is picking favorites here!" Gray grumbled as many others nodded along with Natsu, who apparently experienced a shortage of jobs in their day-to-day life. Others like Cana just rolled their eyes in exasperation and muted annoyance.

'Wrong timing pervert...' Naruto thought as a giant shadow slowly rose near the second floor's stairway with its magical presence sending out giant waves of alarm in Naruto's mind for some reason. Odd, he never felt worried about the old man's presence, thought the boy innocently.

"Did you say something Gray?" The shadow spoke in a deep voice, full of authority and a forbidding threat with glowing yellow eyes.

Everyone felt a shiver run down their spines as Gray started shaking like a leaf in a storm." N-Nothing! That was just a joke y-yeah!"

As gray flashed a shaky thumbs up to the guild master in his giant form while Natsu laughed aloud claiming this act of his rival to be cowardly. Naruto raised an eyebrow at his behavior. He is either really powerful and brave or really stupid and lacks any sense of danger, which is quite the bad Combination

The Strauss siblings were unable to even move due to the heavy presence of the wizard saint weighing down on them. Shakily taking a step forward, Mira hugged Lisanna close to herself.

Makarov raised an eyebrow in interest, sensing the odd magical power of the girl and one of his most covert mages present on the scene. He shrunk down to his normal size, which was surprisingly very short in comparison to normal human standards.

"Oh, new members! And you are back Naruto-chan. Was your Job a success?"

The master asked in a very professional tone of voice as the subjects of his query tensed up in surprise except one. Naruto's hands twitched in annoyance inside his cloak, at the familiar nickname. He could easily see the evil glint in the old man's eyes from a mile away.

"Yes, it was a success, Master! I thank you for your generosity to manage my work on the road too." The blonde replied in an equally crisp voice that was devoid of any emotions, unnerving even the guild master.

" Yes! I thought you would take your sweet time but you completed it in a very short term" Makarov nodded in confirmation while the guild members looked on in wonder at such a professional conversation between a child no older than 12 and their master, "... Though, I must ask you to introduce your new girlfriend to me!-hahhahahah!"

And just like that, the tense atmosphere crumbled away like flower petals in a storm wind. Makarov sported a goofy grin that was completely opposite of his serious demeanor a couple of seconds ago. Gray, Mira, Levy, and Cana blushed at the implications of his words while Lisanna, Natsu, Naruto, and Elfman tilted their heads in confusion. The other older members gave flat looks to their joyfully laughing master because of his anti-climatic conversation and 180-degree change in attitude.

"Whatever you mean. These are the Strauss siblings though. Go ahead introduce yourselves." Naruto stepped aside so the Strauss siblings could take on the figurative stage.

Being the unofficial social butterfly that she was, Lisanna stepped forwards first with a bright smile, that could light up the whole Magnolia town easily, " My name is Lisanna. I hope I can make a lot of friends here!"

As the short white-haired girl pumped her hands in the air, everyone smiled warmly at her innocence. Even the ever-stoic Naruto jumped out of his 'mission mode' instantly and offered a tiny smile under his mask, not that anyone could see it.

Her presence alone is enough to lighten up the mood in the guild. What a bright child she is! Master Makarov thought wistfully. Seeing his children growing strong and gaining new allies was truly a boon for his old eyes.

"H-Hi. I am E-Elfman. Nice to meet you..." The only male from the Strauss trio introduced himself shyly. He shrunk away swiftly though, as he noticed everyone looking at him, receiving mirthful chuckles from all around.

"I'm Mirajane...But I am not sure if I wanna join here.." Mirajane said softly, which barely came out as a whisper.

Hearing her response, her siblings and Kurama were frozen shocked due to her sudden change in opinion. Sharing uncertain glances about their own decision as well, both the Strauss siblings silently re-evaluated their decision and nodded in affirmative, seemingly deciding to follow their elder sibling even if they had to leave Fairy Tail. Naruto on the other hand just nodded at Makarov who had glanced judiciously at him for his opinion.

"No worries my child, if Naruto has brought you here then I believe in you. You can take all the time you want to make your decision." Makarov told them with a smile, his wrinkled eyes curving upwards in true happiness.

"I see there are new members here. If it isn't too much, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze and the furball over there is Kurama" The Konoha mage stated while squaring up in front of them and casting an appraising glance at the new litter of recruits in their guild.

"I-I'm Levy Mcgarden, everyone. I've been here for a year now! It's nice to meet you too Naruto-san, Kurama-kun!" The blue-haired girl waved shyly while avoiding any visual contact with Naruto's concealed form. He looked a little scary for the poor girl, especially with his kitsune mask.

"I'm Sarusuke but you can call me jet." The tall boy said while tipping his hat in a cowboy pose.

"I'm Droy. And you better watch yourself around Levy!" The second one with black hair threatened while everyone around deadpanned at him for his not-so-subtle crush on his partner. Naruto was confused as hell but he simply shrugged and nodded in confirmation anyway. This action caused most of the guild members to fall over in shock as they were expecting a dramatic showdown between the two.

"Oi, I'm Natsu Dragneel, The son of the fire Dragon king Igneel! You better remember it Nagato guy!" The pink-haired boy declared loudly, grinning widely in pride at his self-proclaimed title.

"What! It's Naruto! You are as stupid as gray, pinky! And It's rude to mistake someone else's name when they clearly state it to you!" The All Slayer replied in an agitated tone as his hands twitched with the urge to hit this stupid scarfed boy.

Mira smirked, watching the ever-cool Mr Broody being so bothered by someone just misspeaking his name. Well, she couldn't blame him, the pink-haired guy's voice was certainly annoying for her. The younger Strauss siblings exchanged nervous glances while Cana and the others shook their heads in amusement as the boys interacted with each other.

"What did you just say?! It's salmon and not pink, you stupid freak show! And how dare you compare me to someone as stupid as Gray!" Natsu rebutted back and shouted out while his hands caught fire. Gray on the other hand had gained several tick marks, as the two most annoying people he had met, unintentionally flamed him in their separate arguments. A chilling mist seeped out of both his hands.

"What did you just say Ash's brain? Imma going to freeze you into a strawberry ice cream!" Gray shouted out as he shot forward while taking up his standard ice-make stance.

"Oh yeah! Bring it on. The one who wins among us is definitely getting that A-rank, old man." The fire dragon slayer spoke with utmost confidence as he readied himself in a crouching stance and both of his hands caught fire.

Everyone around the three challengers perked up in interest. Watching three budding teenagers duke it out in a spar was one of the best ways of entertainment they could think of at the moment. All heads turned up to their master who nodded in affirmation as he looked intently at his recently returned surrogate child. The inexperienced and dumbfounded trio of Strauss siblings looked on in astonishment as the pink-haired guy started letting streaks of fire out of his mouth while the half-naked guy made the air around them drop in temperature with his mist thingy. Well, they had a bad experience with the mist so it wasn't a surprise that all of them were rather uncomfortable in this situation.

"Hmm. If I am being honest, I do wish to see a dragon slayer in action. It's a lost art, right? I've not got any solid info on this kind of magic." Naruto contemplated briefly, eyeing Natsu with an appraising gaze. He looked over at Kurama who had a nasty grin over his feral front and a wicked glint in his red-slitted eyes.

"Naruto just make sure you go easy on them, alright? Let's take this outside now!"

---

Everyone looked strangely as a barrier of eerie red energy glowed momentarily before it subsided and shrivelled out of sight just as the trio of combatants entered the arena. 4 Tri-pronged kunais were positioned in a quadrilateral sequence. Most of the mages had never seen Naruto in action, compared to Gray or even a recently admitted Natsu, who didn't hesitate from showcasing his abilities.

Cana sat on the sidelines with a table and three separate boxes, with a chibi face of each of the competitors, while their names were written in haste, evident from the sloppy handwriting. One by one all of the members started placing their bets on the combatant, who they believed would be the victor.

Most members placed their bets on a very smug gray as a sign of friendly support or just because they were unsure of the other's capabilities. Some others like Macao, Wakaba, and the newly admitted members of the guild placed their bets on an over-enthusiastic Natsu, who was jumping in exhilaration. Kurama watched with a grin, as his partner's box was mostly left empty by the guild members who were mostly unsure of his abilities. That's the way! Bring me more profit.

Noticing a lack of confidence in the populace about their enigmatic friend's abilities, the Strauss siblings felt a little disheartened. Well, Kurama did tell them he wasn't much of a social guy and didn't have many friends. But being underestimated must be painful given his amazing skills, even if their judgment was highly biased and not authentic at all.

The ever-present smile left Lisanna's face and her cheery attitude too shrunk away into a more reserved stance. It didn't persist much longer though, as a clearly annoyed Mirajane handed her a pouch of jewels, with clearly unspoken instructions to shove the bag into the box reserved for Naruto.

As Lisanna's smile and mood lifted up considerably, she skipped towards the betting table where Cana was still waiting for the last of the bets to be placed. Kurama frowned in some irritation as he saw his profit being divided in half while Makarov just chuckled in amusement.

Lastly, Cana too placed her bet on Naruto much to the others' surprise...

"Hey Cana, switching sides now are we?" Macao said from her left side, a little bit tipsy after consuming a lot of alcohol.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" The very confused brunette shot back inquisitively.

"We mean that mostly you hang out with Gray. So why aren't you betting on your friend?" Wakaba too asked a little more in control while puffing out a little bit of smoke from his pipe.

"Tch. She just wants to get a share in my winnings just like the white-haired chick." Kurama scoffed in annoyance as he was crestfallen from having his whole profit money cut up in three parts. Mira on the other hand resisted the urge to slap him stupid for calling her that.

"Eh? It's not that hard! I'm old enough to know where to place my bets and I'm just smart with my decision. I may not exactly know how he uses his seals but I hear he taught Erza about magic. So, it's safe to say he's at least as strong as Erza and she can defeat those two anytime she wants!" The brown-haired girl reasoned calmly before nodding for her master to start the match. The group around her slightly frowned, now a little worried about their own bets.

---

~[ The Match Ring ]~

---

Before the master could step up though, the blonde mage raised up his hand to hold off the proceedings for a little bit...

"What are the stakes of this spar, Master?" Naruto asked.

"I thought it was implied that it was an A-ranked job.", Makarov said with a raised eyebrow. Naruto never brought up useless things until he was planning something.

"Meh! That's lame. Naruto, there are no interesting A-ranks on the board. Why don't we add up some stakes from our side?" Kurama suggested from the sidelines drawing everyone's attention.

"Yes, in real life, combat is a fight where our lives are at stake. To make spars more realistic and challenging, we must similarly simulate them so that everyone gives their best in order to win. So what should it be?" He said looking at both of his foes who seemed rightfully confused.

"Hey! I've got the best idea!" Kurama said while cocking a foxy grin that was full of playful mischief.

"Go on." The master gestured for the cat to continue.

"Whoever will lose would have to become the other's underling, in case Naruto wins, you'll become my underlings-hahahahah!"

As the cat declared this most of the people around started cheering for their respective participants while the combatants themselves looked troubled...

"I accept" Except for one. Naruto conceded with a sigh, already having seen it coming but then smirked. This should be interesting.

"Me too. It'll be fun to have a henchman of my own." Gray said with his usual cocky smirk in place. Natsu just grumbled out his agreement.

"Alright! Begin!" And just like that two of the three combatants moved forwards and clashed together. Natsu tried punching his rival in the face with a fire-infused jab which was very sloppy. Gray, on the other hand, being a practiced hand-to-hand combatant, easily avoided the jab but had to jump back as Nastu spewed out some fire from his mouth.

Naruto meanwhile was still rooted in his place, observing his current competition. Gray was fairly limited in his fighting abilities, a mid-long range specialist but not weak in close either. He lacked some strength but that was understandable, given his age. The new guy, Natsu, on the other hand, was a wild card, primarily a better close-range fighter, and his fire was deadly.

Dragon Slayer magic was a derivative of his All Slayer magic after all, but the fire wasn't his area of expertise when it came to Slaying arts. Natsu could cover his body with fire, or at least some parts of it and the fire was hotter than normal fire but it wasn't anywhere near the level of fire the Pit demons could conjure. Although, the magic power used was much less in comparison.

Having enough of his analysis, he decided to move...

"So this is the power to slay a dragon, huh? I'm honestly quite disappointed!" A voice interrupted the constant slang thrown between the teen rivals as they exchanged blows with one another, completely ignoring the presence of their blonde-haired adversary. Stopping in their tracks and jumping back a little, both boys created some space between themselves and turned toward Naruto.

The blonde was pointing a finger at Natsu, who was annoyed by his last comment while an irate Gray took his ice-make stance beside Natsu, both of them coming to a temporary truce between themselves. Once sure of having his opponents' attention, Naruto made a 'come at me' gesture with his finger toward the dragon Slayer.

Easily deciphering the meaning of his opponent's action, Natsu jumped into action and sped up towards Naruto, as his clenched fist caught fire.

"FIRE DRAGON'S FIST" Natsu swung his fiery fist at Naruto's head who simply tilted his head to the side and caught his wrist. Writhing in pain, as the blonde tightened his grip over his wrist, Natsu used his unique footing stance to his advantage as he aimed a kick at his opponent from the other side.

Quickly letting go of his opponent, the All Slayer caught the kick from Natsu, much to the latter's shock. But the shock was easily conducted towards the blonde when the pink-haired boy puffed up his cheeks for an all too familiar attack, at point-blank range...

Meanwhile, irritated at being ignored by his competitors, Gray decided to teach them a lesson. After all, he had a reputation to uphold, the great Gray-sama smirked cockily.

Just as he thought both of them were locked in a deadly inescapable lock, he gathered his cold creativity and prepared a finishing attack...

"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR"

"ICE MAKE : CANON"

Being stumped momentarily by the large build-up of magic from behind his current close-range opponent, Naruto was unable to dodge or block Natsu's roar completely. The upper left side of his mask caught fire as soon as it came in contact with it. Quickly discarding his kitsune mask, he twisted his hand holding the dragon Slayer in a way that his attack was swept through his left side in an arc, completely avoiding him and colliding with the high-speed cannon ball, creating a lot of steam around the battle arena.

Astonishment was visible on Natsu's still inferning mouth, as his back lurched backward due to the force of his own attack. The blonde quickly kicked the pink-haired boy on the back, sending him towards the still-approaching cannon ball and blurred out of view into the steam. Unable to stop his forward momentum, Natsu bashed his head into his rival's attack which was heavily slowed down by his roar, but it was still enough to knock him out of consciousness, as sweet sleep claimed his eyes to darkness.

On the battlefield, the steam rolled around Gray as a loud banging sound resounded in the unclear aftermath of his attack. He hoped at least one of his opponents was knocked out cold from his ice cannonball. Suddenly multiple whipping sounds alerted his ear sensors from his left, making him turn towards the direction on his heels and jump to his left as several shurikens whirled past him.

As the steam cleared up, Gray witnessed the sight of his loud-mouthed rival sprawled across the ground in a disheveled state. He snickered briefly and took a glance around the arena with a smirk marring his face, "Heh! One down-EHH?!"

He wasn't given much time to think about the debacle as the whipping sounds which had lowered down in decibels returned, now on his right and slowly increasing in volume as they headed towards him. The shurikens wound up around him and forced his back to a tree with multiple metal strings incapacitating his movements as they dug up in his skin, eliciting a painful grunt from him.

The next moment, Naruto blurred in front of him with a grin- wait! It wasn't a grin but he was tugging at the strings with his teeth. The dark-haired mage scowled in annoyance and tried to resist his restraints. The stinging sensation around his torso increased suddenly as the strings around his body tightened, causing some blood to drip down on the ground.

"I win!" He said simply, "You weren't ready for an A-rank, Gray as much as I hate to admit it, you have potential. But your pride stunts your growth short. You refuse to accept others' superiority over you, *sigh* Listen if you had taken me on with Natsu's help I would have requested the master to let you go together on that A-rank as a team with him. After all, the stronger opponents you fight, the stronger you become."

Gray looked down at his lap in resignation, only now did he realize, he was still a pompous brat. He thought he would live on for Ur and never make mistakes similar to what he'd done in the past but here he was committing the same errors as his past. He could feel the almost forgotten sensation of warm tears in his eyes, the regret he felt squeezing them out through his eyelids.

Naruto looked over at the other fallen fairy tail member and then gazed glumly at his mask. His mask was resistant to most elements including fire, it even was able to withstand magical blasts from rune nights head on but Natsu's fire burnt it like paper. Although that wasn't what worried him, it was the fact that his fire almost instantly latched onto his skin like it wanted to consume him, it had a Predator's drive for sure.

So this is the lost magic to slay dragons, he thought with an inquisitive touch across his forehead. His injuries from the fight with Kisame played a major role in his mediocre performance in this bout. It dulled his senses too and his magic reserves didn't fill out as easily as they would normally. That sword, Samehada, was indeed something else. He felt a slight heat build-up in Ascalon, it seemed it was also exhilarated by the thought of cutting up a fellow sentinel.

He trotted towards the downed dragon Slayer to carry him outside the arena...

---

~[ On the Sidelines ]~

---

"Now pay up Cana! The kid lost!" Macao cackled in a drunken stupor as he watched Natsu almost burn off Naruto's head off, not realizing the dangerous situation.

Everyone either gasped in horror or made a call for the master to intervene, even if it seemed a far-fetched possibility for Naruto to avoid any injuries.

"Master! You should stop the fight or else the kid'll get injured." Wakaba voiced out in concern but was interrupted...

"Feh! Just watch oldies. Look he kicked him away." Kurama pointed out as a lot of steam obscured their clear vision of the battle arena.

As everyone observed intently and the steam cleared a little to show Natsu bashing himself against the ice cannon ball, they winced at the worrisome sight. But the events afterward were just a blur as Gray ended up being tied to a tree..

"I win!"

As many of them heard that declaration, they paled in dread as Kurama hurriedly collected his very many jewel pouches in glee. Many cried anime tears while some seemed rather disappointed by the sudden end of this threeway spar.

"Wow! does he use speed magic, Jet? He blurred right in front of Gray!" Droy exclaimed, looking at his friend for confirmation.

"I don't know..." Jet trailed off as the master himself cut him short.

"It isn't surprising. He's just too fast for you all to follow, when you have an experience like me you can track him pretty easily. Honestly, he hasn't even used his magic in this match." Makarov listed off in disappointment. He had no leads about the boy's magic or his magic reserves too.

He knew only what Erza could tell him about...

"Ah! I got it. Naruto-san didn't use the zap spell!" Lisanna exclaimed with wide eyes as if coming to a sudden epiphany.

Makarov narrowed his eyes at that and made note of this spell, it was more than likely a speed enhancement spell but he pushed it to the back of his head to process it afterward.

"B-But how is that possible! He's the same age as us!" Jet said in some irritation, as the thought of being inferior to someone ticked him off the wrong way. He was even less inclined to believe it was someone who was the same age as him.

"There are many who are younger than you yet incredibly strong in this magic world. Some take up a certain simple style of sorcery, use it uniquely, as none had done before, and climb up the ranks effortlessly, all within a span of a year..." The master of Fairy Tail said wistfully, as an image of Erza flashed through his mind, "...while some are completely enigmatic. Honestly, Naruto possesses talent even greater than Laxus."

At his declaration, many of the old fairy tail members looked on with slack jaws. The grandson of Makarov was infamous for being the strongest mage in Fairy tail bar the master and 'that' guy, the ace of fairy tail. So to think that this boy could surpass that scary blonde made them shiver involuntarily. They just hoped he wouldn't be as brutal as the aforementioned mage.

"I-I d-didn't think h-he would l-look so n-nice..." Levy mumbled quietly with a slight pink tint to her cheeks. She was a fan of romance novels and couldn't help but notice the masked boy's charm when unmasked.

"Ah! Naruto's quite the cutie but he's as dense as a rock when it comes to such business. Hmm, but don't say it in front of him, he doesn't like being called cute or such chummy stuff." Kurama quipped in between their small circle of similarly-aged kids, although he was a lot younger than them.

"He likes his tough guy-act too much!" Cana too joined into their amicable conversation with a soft giggle, as the said boy walked towards them with Natsu on his shoulder and Gray limping behind slightly, clutching his injured torso.

"Yay! You won Naruto-san! And Gary-san and Natsu-san were cool too!" The short white-haired girl cheered for all of them giving them each a bright smile while Gray just mumbled a short 'thank you'.

"Y-Yes Congrats!" Elfman offered with a thumbs up.

"Thanks!" The blonde said with a small smile, barely passable as a smile though.

"Mou! you didn't show me your cool flashing spell or any other tricks, but you showed us your face so it's even for now! And you look so cooool! Don't you think nee-chan?" Lisanna said in a whining tone before switching up to swooning instead and then facing her elder sister.

Mirajane on the other hand was frozen stiff, with her hand clasped over her mouth. She did it to stop the gasp that would have escaped her lips when Naruto was about to be roasted by the Natsu guy. But now she kept it to control her raging blush, which was glaring a smoking hot red shade even from within the confines of her skin.

It increased tenfold when Naruto gazed at her with the same smile plastered on his face, making her heart skip a beat. His cerulean blue eyes, flawless but somewhat dust-covered skin, sharp accentuating features of his face outline, and finally the way his blonde hair framed his face from his sides. He looked handsome, cool, and cute at the same time, but her mind couldn't process it completely and it shut down for a moment...

"..e-chan! NEE-CHAN!" Lisanna's voice pulled her out of her stupor as she blinked and looked around at the people staring at her confusingly.

"You okay there, Mira-san?" The cause of her trance spoke with a little tilt and wave of his hand.

'He's so cute...' she squealed internally and blushed again while avoiding looking at his soul-calming eyes. "D-Don't w-w-worry about me you B-Baka! Aren't you injured yourself?!"

Her annoyed act was ruined terribly by her red cheeks and stuttering voice which indicated her cloaked bashful turmoil.

"Huh? Don't worry about me! I'm alright!" He gave a thumbs up and passed Natsu onto Wakaba who sped up towards the guild with everyone else doing the same.

"W-Who s-said I-I'm worried for you!? Speak for yourself Goldilocks!" She flailed her arms in denial and finally huffed indignantly.

"Troublesome girl..." Kurama drawled out, exhausted after collecting his own money and giving equal shares to Cana and the Strauss trio.

Naruto just ignored her for the moment, the negative emotions in her were accumulating recently, he tried his best to steer it elsewhere but it was not working. Hopefully, Master would have some material that will guide her onto the right path.

"Master, I want to know where Erza is. I wanna introduce her to the Strauss siblings." Using his deceptive sentence, Naruto notified Makarov of his intentions. Of course, he wouldn't demand such things from him like her location immediately or care about connecting her to other guild members. Don't get him wrong, he cared for her but he was inept at thinking of her social well-being in any way, being a novice at best in the department himself.

The Strauss siblings perked up in interest too. Erza's name was brought up a lot of times during their conversation earlier and she was one of the only friends Naruto had with Gray and Cana being the only others. She was apparently strong too. While the thought was exciting for Lisanna it was bothering Elfman from the inside. Mira on the contrary felt something weird, something she had never felt before. It was like a slight annoyance mixed with excitement and a somewhat burning sensation in her heart.

Taking his hint, Makarov stopped in his tracks and turned around with a Grandfatherly smile toward them. Not noticing, the lack of their master between them, the guild members continued to make their way toward the guild merrily.

---

After some time had passed, Naruto set up a silencing seal around their vicinity for extra measures while Makarov looked on inquisitively.

"What's so important? You couldn't discuss it at the Guild?" He asked curiously.

"No. I thought it would be bothersome for Mira-san." He replied without missing a beat while glancing at her.

"Huh? Me?" The white-haired beauty said with a confused tint to her query.

"Yes. Please show him your other arm, Mira." The blonde instructed in a smooth way trying to abate the growing anxiety of the eldest Strauss.

Hesitantly, the white-haired girl took away the guard of the darkness of her cloak to expose her arm to the only person out of her family. Makarov observed the nervously shuffling trio as the eldest revealed her somewhat demonic arm to him. It was a lot better than most cases he had seen, perhaps a credit to his own adopted child who looked as nonchalant as always.

"Hmm, much better than what I would anticipate from such a case." He noted to the audience matter-of-factly.

"W-What d-do y-y-you m-mean? I- I am n-not possessed?" Of course, she knew she wasn't... most likely, depending on the way you see it. But it was the most glaringly daunting question she needed to be confirmed for her.

"No, it's a special Take-Over. Take-Over: Satan Soul. The last wielder was recorded to have perished around half a century ago. But it's going to go back to normal once you override the demon's remaining will." Makarov said seriously.

Mira frowned in sadness, she wasn't going to be left out of it at all now, was she? She wanted to be free from all this magic stuff but it seemed to be a pipe dream at this point.

"Don't look so down now, alright? I'll have the best of my mages look after your condition and help you, after that, you may freely choose to either stay or leave our guild, hmm?" The old man continued, causing Mira to become a little bit more nervous and sad at the thought of being handled like an explosive bomb. The thought of enduring someone else's company was not pleasant at all either.

Naruto remained silent throughout, observing her changing degree of emotions from the sidelines with Kurama. Although Naive, he couldn't pass on an argument over Makarov's insightful judgment of someone's character. He was far more experienced than him and whoever he must've chosen will undoubtedly help Mirajane with her magic if not he was there to support her either way...

"So you can start training with Naruto from tomorrow onwards..." Makarov trailed off with a cheeky smile as the siblings lit up in joyousness. It took a moment for the blonde to realize but he clearly understood his master's words and nodded at him.

He then turned towards Mira and smiled at her good-naturedly. Seeing him smile like that and the thought of spending some more time with him caused Mira's head to blossom with a newfound warmth. Blushing bashfully she too nodded in an assertion.

Naruto undid the seal around and as soon as he did a very loud and angry voice screamed out from the guild...

"WHERE IS THAT BASTARD? HOW DARE HE KICK ME INTO NAKED KNIGHT'S CANON LIKE THAT!"

Hearing this almost everyone in Magnolia instinctively covered their ears in defence. The most futile effort was from Kurama as his sensitive hearing numbed for a moment.

"Hahahah- Naruto. I had the bartender make some ramen for you. You can have it in the Guildhall." The short man said with a knowing smile as Naruto stiffened in an effort to restrain himself from jumping in giddiness.

Barely concealing the drool escaping from the corner of his mouth, Naruto made a mad dash toward his precious ramen. Makarov chuckled in humour whereas Mira and lissana giggled at his antics. Elfman just raised an eyebrow when his nee-chan looked thoughtful for a moment before it passed away.

Whenever she was thoughtful, it was either disastrous or a very pleasant surprise for someone, but he didn't know if it was either, given the recent events.

"Well just one question for you guys? Lisanna-chan, Elfman, and Mirajane-chan, tell me did you pass around the Tenshi lake while coming to Magnolia?". As soon as he was sure, the blonde was out of sight, he dropped the bomb on the siblings.

It had the desired effect, the blood ran cold in their bodies as soon as they heard him utter those words. Wincing at the memory, they looked up towards the old man who was stroking his chin thoughtfully, with nervous and trembling smiles. Sweat poured down their forehead as they weren't able to come up with any plausible excuse to defuse the situation.

"W-We didn't see any such sign on the road. I am not sure, we probably didn't. Yes!" Elfman manned up and deflected the onslaught wittily causing his siblings to sigh in relief.

Makarov raised an eyebrow in interest, well he got what he wanted, so their answer didn't matter much, "A'ight! Let's Go on!"

Makarov clutched a paper behind his back tightly, which contained a poorly drawn image of a black-wearing individual with some descriptions and a sign from the Tartaros Guild in Bold...

---

~[ EASTERN ISHGAR ]~

---

In a very remote land, inhabited by no human civilization, the sun scrawled down towards the western horizon in a painfully slow descent. The day-long bright and burning hot sunrays were touching the surface of the cooling sand at a very obtuse angle. The cooling air wound the sand dunes up suddenly, flowing in an upward thrust as dust rose up like a fountain would. A dark shadow loomed over the dead desert like an upcoming storm in this drought-afflicted region.

An ominous airship with a large central hull, consisting of two large elongated parts jutting frontwards with numerous magical glyphs keeping it afloat, loomed over the dreary sand sea. The hull's shape was that of a real boat, possessing an arched, pointed lower part, ending on the front in a dark section that housed the Grimoire heart guild's symbol, with an open zone right above it, where the main hall seems to be located.

Such hall was topped by a dark, arched roof reminiscent of a capsized hull, on whose back part sits yet again another, similarly-shaped tower, sprouting from the main hull and going up several meters, which ends in a massive observation deck protruding frontwards, complete with large windows.

At the tower's sides, on the dark roof, is a pair of large, wing-shaped ornaments jutting upwards; a similar pair of wings is also present on the airship's protruding sections, with one of them adorning each outer side. The two attached sections of the ship possess frontal, protruding dark parts reminiscent of rostrums, each adorned by a light motif, somewhat similar to a stylized monstrous head. Both the hull and the two adjacent sections bear linear blank parts, where a multitude of square windows are lined up one after the other, these being highly reminiscent of hatches.

Inside this airship, somewhere near the rear end under the observation tower, the steady sound of fingers flicking through numerous papers kept on resonating unlyrically. A large library, full of ginormous bookshelves inbound on a central area of sorts where a long rectangular but comparatively regal table; sat untouched by the dust that seemed to have collected on the other inanimate occupants of the room. The only source of light was the single window over the ceiling- which let the orange-tinted sunlight of the eve -enter the room. Antiquated, heavy, and light; all types of books sat around on their respective bookshelves while some notes pertaining to their subject hung loosely between their pages.

On an armchair around the table in the centre, sat a purple-haired girl. Ultear seemed to be staring intently at the book in front of her with undulated attention. Her hair was straight with a single braid at the side kept by a pink bow, glittering in the brightness provided by the only light source illuminating the room. She wore a purple battle kimono with golden trimmings and long black sleeves, with the section from her elbow down bearing chunky, grey wrist guards.

"Meredy! Master Hades said you seem to have an affinity towards sense-based sorcery. Hmm...? Ah! How about we search more about it from the lost arts section here!" The teenage girl looked behind her inquisitively.

At first glance, one would think that the girl had gone crazy and was speaking to herself but on further inspection, they would find out that their suspicions were all specious. A small girl with bubble-gum pink hair and similar clothing stood behind her, barely visible amongst the Brobdingnagian furniture. The only distinguishable and intrinsic feature of her seemed to be the pink-coloured ear muffs she wore..

"I don't care about it...but please can we change this costume once we're done here, Ultear-san." The recently mentioned Meredy whined, but only verbally, her tone seemed a little too strained to be capable of such a feat.

"Worried about your clothing more than your training...Fine! But I'll give that to you only if you manage to impress me, Ultear!" A very familiar voice groaned out in her head when the girl heard her companion's whine. She whipped her head around, trying to find the source of the voice externally with wide eyes.

Once realizing, it was just a blurring memory, she settled in her seat and sighed sadly while carefully brushing her fingers over the pink bow in her hair, at that particular memory.

As she looked at the little girl, innocently looking at her attire, completely ignorant of her misdeeds, she felt the contriction within her rising once again since she had joined this guild.

In the end, though, it was all important. To rectify. To be happy. To make everything correct as it should have been. That was her goal and feeling penitent over one sin wasn't going to ensure its completion. Thus suppressing her compunction, she continued going through the record of various materials available at the library to learn suitable magic for the girl.

"Ano...I don't know how to read much though. How can you be so sure that I'm going to be any good at this mage stuff?" The little girl asked with a cute tilt of her head.

Ultear, seemed to ignore her for a moment; carefully trying to memorize something from the material, before casting a sideways glance at her, " I can see that from your height..."

The teasing jibe seemed to work as the pink-haired girl pouted at the older beauty for a fleeting second before frowning in sadness. It wasn't her fault though, she was so young and now she had no one to teach her such basic things.

Sensing, where the girl's thoughts were headed, Ultear quickly continued her intentionally paused statement, "...but don't worry! It's not like you've got to start learning and reading this complex stuff right away. You'll start with the simple stuff, something everyone goes through to learn magic, and then move on to the difficult task."

"Really? But I'm not sure if I could do it...you know this magic stuff...and the scary ojissan did say he will kill me if I'm not 'useful', so..." The young girl shuddered at the memory of that eye-patched old man glaring at her intensely, like peering into her very soul itself.

Ultear merely rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Look don't worry, the brutes here don't know how to train a girl with care. They're all unmarried psychopaths who just follow their delusional dreams without a second thought. That's why I'll be helping you, we girls should stick together after all, right?" She smiled reassuringly at the girl, a true smile she had offered someone in years.

Having someone we can let our guard down around is a relief, she thought. Being surrounded by these fools in the guild who thought about nothing but fighting was tiring for her, mentally speaking. It wasn't like she thought about anything other than her own goals and interests but the way this guild worked wasn't suitable for her. The scoring system, impractical assessments, experimentation, ruthless beatdowns of the lower members without any constructive improvement, and mindless killing of useful manpower were not her 'motos operandi'.

She was conniving, something which would seem extrinsic to anyone who knew her from a couple of years ago, not that many people knew her anyways. Manipulation, deception, and strategic warfare were her forte, so to speak. Maybe that's why she was Master Hades' favourite kin and the leader of the said unit as well, despite being a comparatively recent addition to the guild ranks.

"Really! Thanks, I'll try my best to not disappoint you Ultear-san!" Meredy smiled brightly as she skipped a step forward toward the older girl, unconsciously being drawn in by her warm smile.

Being traumatized by the destruction of her whole village at a moment's notice was unbearably painful for the girl's conscience. A little girl with no semblance of right or wrong, noble or evil, or even truth and lies, she was comforted by only Ultear at such a time. That's why even among scary people, who seemed keen on the idea of finishing her off, meredy found solace in Ultear's company and longed for her affection like an innocent infant would.

"I know you would, Meredy. I saved you because you're the only kid I've ever seen other than myself, who possesses such magical reserves. I'm sure you'll become a proud member of the seven kin in no time." The ice mage assured the ear-muff-wearing girl with a warm hug that relieved her craving for affection instantly.

Suddenly light pattering of footsteps echoed throughout the room as a loud boisterous laugh indicated its culprit to be at the door.

"Hahahahahah- Ultear, I see, playing with your new toy are we?" A blonde individual with crazed red eyes grinned maliciously at the two girls.

"What's so funny, Zancrow?" Ultear asked, shielding a shivering meredy behind her outstretched hand.

"Hahahahahahah- It's so like you Ultear,... you are the cruellest person I've ever met!...-H-hehe-... It's not even funny how you are deceiving that girl into believing in you and then you'll just watch her from the sidelines when we decide to dispose of her just like yo-"

The manic laughter that gripped meredy's heart with intimidation and foreboding maliciousness seized abruptly as the equally cold and crisp voice of her protector cut through Zancrow's obnoxious laughter like a knife through butter, "Why do you believe I am deceiving meredy?"

"H-Huh? Then what is this, but a sick joke? Don't tell me you seriously think this pipsqueak could possibly rival our strength within a year's span of time and become one of the seven kins!" The pyromaniac dark mage stuttered a little at the chill in his fellow dark mage's timbre but recovered quickly with a nasty snarl.

"I see no merit in citing reasons for a dumb pyromaniac like you. And besides, you said the same thing about me, when I joined the guild ranks but now I am the leader of the whole unit, Zancrow!" Being annoyed by the blonde's incessant mockery of her charge, the lone female member of the seven kin replied scathingly with a noticeable edge to her voice.

Hearing the response to his question, zancrow paused for a moment. It was unexpected for their smooth-talking Ally to suddenly snap at someone with such intensity. Yes, she was annoying but she mostly kept to herself and never meddled with someone else's business, but now that he had experienced it firsthand, zancrow found out it was excruciatingly infuriating.

Someone who was clearly beneath him, in strength, in experience, or even in intellect(according to him), trying to belittle him, add onto that, the fact that she was appointed as their leader, no his superior! Such thoughts made his blood boil like his own black flames. His body went rigid and shook a little before a low long-drawn chuckle rumbled through the silent library.

"I wonder-hahahahah-", Arching his back a little, Zancrow continued with his signature crazed laugh, "- I wonder if you would talk so proudly if I were to tell this little pipsqueak about your past endeavours. Your decisions, your actions, and your reactions. Heh! And most importantly! Your precious contribution in our last assignment, miss leader of the seven kin!"

As Zancrow came to the end of his discourse, Ulter felt a heavy weight sink into the pit of her stomach. Panic settled in her system as her mind raced at the speed of a magic mobile, all the while stealing glances at an unsuspecting meredy.

Not finding any workable excuse or retort that would solve this situation, Ultear's magical output doubled immediately as a green orb snuck out of her sleeves. Zancrow grinned with glee as the anticipation of yet another battle licked at his inner desire for destruction. Black flames started swirling around him until his hands were partially covered in a thick inferno of hot black flames.

Meredy, on her account, was frozen stiff as she witnessed mage combat for the very first time in her life. The constantly fluctuating waves of warm green energy emanating from Ultear seemed to be somewhat cold but light at the same time, while the red-eyed guy exuded an aura that caused heat waves to visibly ripple off his body. Even if she didn't have these sensing abilities beforehand, she knew she could've been able to see the heat waves generated with minimal effort due to their sheer intensity.

"Take Caution! Master Hades has invited the members of the Seven Kin on the surface! I repeat, all the members of the Seven kin, are to assemble on the surface!" Fortunately or Unfortunately, depending on how you see it, a sudden announcement impeded their brief clash.

"Tch, You were lucky this time. But next time I'll annihilate you bitch!" The blonde guy spat with the utmost venom, his anger leaking through his vocal cords as he took off through the corridor to quickly obey his guild master's command.

Ultear didn't dignify her guildmate with any verbal response but instead made a mental note to avoid this loudmouth as much as possible. Pivoting off her feet Ultear quickly followed suit after her recent adversary, so as to not displease Master Hades.

After all, he wasn't someone she would want to mess with...

"Ultear? What was the fire dude going on about?" The sound of tiny pattering, much lower than the volume of her footsteps, and the meek question from her charge, startled the time mage a bit..

"Don't mind him! And Stay away from him or else he'll fill your mind with his nonsense, Meredy!" Ultear sighed a little but then ordered in an authoritative tone, which elicited a forced, almost imperceptible nod from the little girl.

Although no one could tell, Zancrow's subtle threat had worked Ultear's nerves more than ever, so much that, she even considered abandoning this mission and taking a nap in her quarters.

---

The old Master of Grimoire heart stood idly on the hot sand of the desert around him in silence, as if in deep contemplation about a profound event. In reality, awaiting his elite squad of mages was almost agonizing for his exceptionally productive regime. Instilling discipline among his guild members was one of the first tasks he performed while creating it. May it be through fear, deceit, authority, or respect, he didn't really care...

But even through all of this, the young generation of mages seemed to impress him ceaselessly with their ability to run his patience as thin as it could get before snapping. Although today, the wait was all the more degrading for his cause, if the information and hints scattered around here matched even remotely to the assumptions he had made, then it would greatly boost his chances of achieving the ultimate magic world.

A new weapon. Or should he say a pair of new weapons, awaited him...

A low chuckle briefly resounded through his old vocal cords. He may be old but his power was far from over, on the contrary, it seemed to increase every day with surprising results. Truly, having a special understanding of magic seemed to do the trick for him.

His hand slid over the eye patch he wore...

'Yes, Indeed! Demon's eye couldn't be wrong. There must be some depth to this Intel...' Just as his thoughts trailed off towards the setting sun and the orange-tinted sky, six figures landed behind him and kneeled in respect before their guild master, all donned in their battle suit, ready to play with death in order to achieve their ever-lasting peace. To dominate this world, which should've been righteously theirs, the powerful kind of humans. It was all reduced to dust just because some idealistic fools wanted to achieve a pedantic balance between the normies and magic folks...

Such a pipe dream...It disgusted him to no end! His hands clenched ever so slightly, anger seeping through his body language as he peered toward the horizon.

But with the help of such faithful mages and his thoughtfully laid out plan, he will revive the only menace that could liberate sorcerers from this abyss of slavery. Being undervalued even after being priceless was truly a cursed notion. Lord Zeref, though, could end all of this...

Yes, of course!

"Why were you all late? Were my instructions lacking clarity? I thought I made it clear that you assemble before me at the soonest moment possible", The chilling undertone of his forewarning greatly disturbed most of his subordinates, his calm but overwhelmingly dangerous aura didn't placate their instincts either.

Even in the hot desert, the famed members of one of the most powerful dark guilds in Fiore felt numb from within, but the sweat forming around their bodies gave an opposite impression to the guild master about their panic-stricken state.

"Master Hades, I apologize. Zancrow created an unwanted nuisance for me on my way here" Ultear, being the wittiest among them all, made a crafty albeit selfish excuse on her behalf, with her ever-calm and no-nonsense disposition placed on.

"What! You bitch! You tryna pick a fight with me!" The Blonde God slayer hollered from the far right corner of the group.

"Is it true, Zancrow?" Hades' sudden inquiry placed the questioned mage in quite a dilemma.

"M-Master Hades you know her, she's a manipulative bitch! Don't trust her!" The panicked mage tried to reason feebly.

"And you forget who taught her that, perhaps? I am not a naive child to fall for her tricks, however cunning they may be." The master raised an old eyebrow in inquisition, bemused slightly by Zancrow's nonsensical arguments.

Zancrow sweated slightly and shot a heated glare at the perpetrator of his predicament, which wasn't as effective due to his frightened expression. Ultear merely smirked in slight derision, but still schooled her visage tightly to not ring suspicious bells in Hades' head.

Receiving no response to his query, the master of Grimoire heart sighed in slight resignation, "Anyways, I gathered you all here for an important task. Ultear, step forward!"

The aforementioned mage rose from her kneeling position and stepped forwards, differentiating herself from the perfectly synced position that they had landed on.

"Does anyone feel anything amiss around us?" Hades stared out at the seemingly everlasting sand sea.

The currently appointed six members of the seven kin all stared around in a perplexed state. Nothing worth noting happened around this part of the desert, most one could notice were some sand dunes that were pretty common in any desert they had visited before.

Sharing a subtle side glance towards each other, the guild members came to a mutual consensus and uttered unitedly, like a well-trained military platoon, "Negative!"

"Tsk.Tsk.Tsk. It seems all of my teachings and your training was in vain. You still couldn't figure out the subtlest forms of concealment and at such a plain setting as well", The guild master contemplated himself, missing the sudden change in the countenance of his subordinates.

"Of course, Sorry to disappoint you, Master Hades. It was our mistake. In a desert, the dangers usually lie beneath the sand deposits or perhaps this is a mirage of some sort!" A man with a goat-like face reasoned with a tone of self-depreciation.

"Well then, my children, do just that and this time I hope you won't disappoint me!" The old master said as he re-equipped an overly large staff in his left hand.

His other colleagues too shared a similar spirit of atonement and started scanning the area with a resolute spark in their eyes. The dumb ones like Zancrow and a fat guy to the far left though weren't able to accomplish much through their feeble attempts at processing this artifice. Instead, the former growled audibly and looked at the fat guy with anger, who stared right back lazily. Both of them engaging each other in a staring match until one of the other kin finds a breakthrough to this puzzle posed to them by their master.

Azuma, on the other hand, used his Great Tree arc spell, to try and navigate under the sand, hoping for once that his abilities would trump others' in tracking tasks as opposed to combat, not that he cared about anything except fighting strong opponents. Although for the sake of redemption for his previous ignorance regarding this mission, he desired a better outcome this time. It would assure him that the master would keep his word and continue helping him find strong opponents for himself and give him a sense of relief, concurrently. After all, he didn't want to screw with the old man right now, at least not yet..

"Ah~ This scape doesn't seem to have a wind flow associative with its structure, Master. How truly disconcerting!" The sunglasses-wearing Rustyrose exclaimed loudly with exaggerated gestures, trying to add an extra flair to his hyperbole.

"Hmm? What exactly do you mean, Rustyrose? Do the eyes of your mind see beyond our perception?" Hades shot back with an immediate but cryptic inquiry while appearing to be slightly perked up, at his subordinate's apparent progress in unravelling the faux blanket of normalcy cast over this area. The other kins too listened intently.

"I mean the feather of my imagination, seems to bend north towards that dune, but it doesn't make sense that the same feather bends west when I place it a little off towards the right..." The usually fanciful and flamboyant silver-haired mage explains stoically while holding two black feathers in each of his hands. The feather on the right-hand flails towards the west while the one on the left hand towards the north, simultaneously.

"And, what does that mean exactly?" This time the question was directed towards all the seven kin members present, while the questioner smirked in satisfaction.

"That..Is this some kind of an illusion?" The only female mage among the teenagers and a goat man uttered in uncertainty with a hint of suspicion laced in her tone.

The hesitation within her assertion contradicted her intentions and the exclamation came off as a question rather than a statement. Instead of answering his loyal mage directly, hades bangs the staff in his hand strongly against the sand surface, which causes a shockwave to disrupt the stable environment, and the surroundings all around them break off like window glasses. The young mages all note the sudden drop in magical energy around them, which they hadn't been able to distinguish previously.

Each of them stiffened slightly, as the magic around them goes haywire, like cars banging horns on a junction repeatedly. With wide eyes, the members of the seven kin witnessed the sight akin to the world crashing on itself, but their eyes followed their nonchalant Master walking off towards the smudged illusion as they soon followed suit.

"Illusion, concealment, and teleportation...all of these integrated within one system. Truly, what art did these people wield to create such security systems? It's no wonder, we weren't able to discern their whereabouts for centuries." As Hades resumed appraising the magically intricate designs etched upon the ground, the shattering illusion finally collapsed in on itself, projecting the reality of this lifeless land.

All around them tall yardangs of sand stood proudly as if challenging any passerby from ignoring its unique and sturdy build. They weren't hanging in any particular direction like any sand structure would, but were almost standing around at a 90 angle with the surface. Sculpted and shaped like the face of an ancient deity, most of these structures were a sight to behold for any archaeologist.

One, in particular, had multiple hands and a feminine build, with its tongue out as a clear sign of rage and anger. Another one had a male bearded face sculpted around all four of its sides and a serene expression. A peculiar sight to behold though was a pillar with a sculpture of a king with crown-like endowments and bandaged eyes, who sported an eerie smile. That one, in particular, appeared to be gazing at the intruders with slight curiosity. Unmoving, it may be, it didn't exhibit any magical signature either, but its eyes seemed to be glued on their person.

Moreover, as the group of dark mages continued their voyage across the desert towards an oasis in the middle of the desert, the sun continued its sojourn towards the west, causing the shadows cast by these sand pillars to spread over a length.

After passing through many such shadows towards the oasis and their apparent destination, behind Hades, the seven kin of purgatory, found little evidence of recent activity in the vicinity. Mostly the waste generated around trees remained cluttered due to wind and the water inside the central lake had floating dry leaves over the surface.

As if to further strengthen their assumptions, the fruits lay scattered under their respective trees, untouched and decaying, signifying the lack of wild activity in the area.

Ultear sensed a familiar feeling well up inside her heart. Some sort of recognition or perhaps a deja vu, maybe she had been here before. Alas, she wasn't able to continue dwelling upon this strange phenomenon and discern its reasons as she heard a scoff echo through her left ear.

"What is this boring place? Are we going to fight someone or not?" Azuma voiced out his frustrations through gritted teeth as he examined the area more attentively to find any details he could've missed.

"This is a hideout. To answer your second question, according to my intel most likely not." Their leader provided concisely as he continued his gait forwards.

"Imagine my excitement when you, yourself graced us with your presence. I thought it was going to be an action-packed job and we were all going to face a very strong opponent together. But all it turns out to be is a freaking field day around a historical civilization." The annoyed brunette grunted and twisted his neck sideways while folding his hands across his chest.

Zancrow too shared the same sentiments as his friend and rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation and disappointment.

"Although disappointing, this situation still works out for me~ These sights fan my imaginative powers very much towards mysticism~" Back to his usual self, Rustyrose added his two cents in a beautifying manner, with his hands in a dancing pose.

A distinct bitter scent hit Ultear's nose as she passed by a shrubbery nearby. The nostalgia overwhelmed her senses, robbing her sense of self as he slowly came to a stop in front of a familiar herb.

A small tree with light green almost yellow-tinted long leaves appeared a little different under the evening sunlight of the desert than she remembered. The plant had long, thin, and pointed leaves with multiple leaves on the same branch jutting upwards. The oil upon it though was the same as she retained its memory. At first glance, it could be brushed off as simple moisture, but Ultear knew better than to believe that in such dry and deadly conditions the herb could preserve such moisture.

"Ultear, remember this is a basic medicine found in most forests. It helps heal wounds and prevents infections, it won't help in a major emergency though!" A bemused voice chuckled a bit before resuming in a light hum as some blonde hair touched Ultear's pale skin near her ankle.

"Itai.Itai.Itai. Stop giving me a lecture. Please stop the bleeding. Ow! now that burns!" A much younger version of her voice cried out in displeasure before hissing in pain and kicking the owner of hands that was tending to a gash across her leg.

"Why di-"

"Ultear! What are you wasting your time on? Hurry up!" A very commanding voice, opposite to the affectionate and sweet voice her mind drifted towards, broke her out of her memory lane visit and forced her back into reality.

Everything now appeared to be a contrast to its past self, everything was so forced and dull as if all life had been siphoned off. The bright cheerful voice that once was a beacon of hope for her grief-filled being, was now a mere whisper from the past. Sometimes she questioned, how just a single fortunate factor could outweigh all of the unfortunate experiences in her life.

But now the question was just as regardless as his existence was for the world. Losing someone she cherished was difficult but having it happen twice killed her from within. Still, the hope that she could have it all again led her; to be compelled to follow the instructions of a madman.

Wiping off a single tear that slid down her snow-white toned chin, Ultear rose to her feet, clutching the same herb that had captivated her being in a confectionary ride to her past, and sprinted back to catch up with her team.

---

The orange tint in the sky, which appeared to be ever-present since they arrived in the ruins of this place, blends out of the horizon in a decelerated rhythm and is replaced by an eerie calm and chill dark of the twilight. The stars and the moon twinkled brightly, more so than usual, providing the team of dark mages from Grimoire heart the much-needed visual assistance to manoeuvre through their long march behind their master.

Suddenly, in mere moments though, the plain and boring sandscape gave way to a large lake of water and...well sand. Although, as expected from an arid region like this, the lake didn't possess much of the former in abundance, just enough to make this area appear akin to a quagmire.

The increasingly frustrated Zancrow and Azuma, because of the silent treatment from their companions groaned a little in annoyance.

"Is this what you dragged us in here for?" The only blonde member of the kin managed to barely suppress his voice from erupting into a shout of indignation.

"Quite down your yapping, brat. Yes, this is the general location but we must find any re-" Just before hades could complete his sentence though a sudden and loud hissing sound interrupted his utterance.

"It's a pothole. Master Hades, you said it was a hideout. What kind of hideout is it?" Ultear questioned with a curious expression while staring listlessly towards the murky sand.

Everyone promptly turned around just in time to witness a gross and skin-crawling spectacle. Bazillions of scorpions crawl out of the murky, wet sand and climb atop each other to rapidly reach for their perceived invaders; their pincers and stingers poised to strike. Surprisingly, in a silver moment, they charged straight for the leader of the group, Hades.

But soon the hordes were dashed away, as Zancrow leapt forward and unleashed a Fire God's bellow upon the charging enemy. The arachnids soon were all set to fire and fall to the ground, some writhing around while others silently accept the judgement of death.

"Heh! what a creepy start! But now let's start the action, Bastards!" With bloodshot rage-filled eyes, the God slayer openly challenges any present enemy.

"Zancrow stand down!"

"Bu-"

Before he could enunciate any more profanities, the waning black flames which were remaining after his attack rose to form a shape highly reminiscent of an arachnid's with a single swishing stinger-like tail behind.

"Hmm...Hades you don't look much older than I remember..." The fire itself spoke, but one could see the scorpions moving within their smouldering remains in this entity made of fire. Everyone except Hades, stood stunned by this unexpected turn of events.

The flames of god, which only a God slayer could turn around his control, were behaving in a sentient manner. An unbelievable sight to behold for anyone, even for sorcerers, more so for Zancrow who was watching the events unfold with his eyes wide and jaw slack.

"Why did you leave your pets here?" Hades questioned with a stern preposition. The kin of purgatory straightened themselves as their master seemed familiar with this unusual...thing.

"Eh! I thought I'll just remind you of my endless being. You refused my beliefs during the war, but now you; yourself follow them. Truly, my friend you've accepted the endless path of art, too." A gruff but somewhat amused chuckle echoed from the mystic entities' direction. It almost seemed like a... thought projection.

"Enough banter! Now onto business. Where is it?" The old master seemed a little miffed because of the strangers' sudden change of topic.

"Oh! Sorry, I can't lead you there. But of course, it was a surprise to me that your little gang of misfits turned out to be useful. I was just...testing them?" The male voice trailed off and after a brief contemplation uttered an uncertain query. Like it was unsure of his own actions and intention.

"So, does it mean, that you aren't going to enter the Ballam Alliance? You are going back on your words too, you took a hefty amount for this intel." Hades took a small step forward in a threatening manner, which greatly unnerved his subordinates while the stranger seemed unfazed.

"Oh~ Do you think this is scary? Although, we accept your offer, just a cease-fire and free exchange of intel. Leader-sama believes that should be enough." The stranger too took a cautious stance, although a projection wouldn't be much of a threat as the life in the scorpions dwindled and one by one they started falling; which resulted in the form losing its definitive shape.

"If that is so, then why aren't any of your members present? You just broke a contract too, are you trying to mock us before you even are a part of the alliance? If you do remember the alliance will crush your measly organization of degenerates!" The anger and annoyance in hades' voice were palpable, at a point that manifested itself like an aura of death around the hulking man.

"No need to be so angry now, Master Hades. You are a friend of mine and also as a fellow artist, I assure you of prospective benefits. But as a sign of goodwill, I took the liberty to investigate this site. I must say it wasn't much but my red sand will lead you towards the artefact; Oh no! the only artefact within these ruins." A hollow smirk spread across the fire projection's face as it completely lost its shape and disintegrated into a pile of ash.

Zancrow started shaking like a dry leaf and after chanting enough colourful words continued, " How dare that bastard control my flames! I'll kill that punk! Master hades, no need to ally with those fucks. Let me at him! I'll dispose of his useless body down the dump!"

"Foolish brat, You must know when to use a tool and when to discard it. Besides he's a war veteran, even if you somehow overwhelm him in the magic department, you'll die, trying to catch him lacking" Hades responded in a calm tone and started walking towards the pothole while the kins just followed behind silently.

Ultear seemed intrigued by the occurrence, and Azuma's spirit was pumped up due to the prospective potential fight he could have with a guy, whose power was acknowledged by hades himself. Zancrow was as usual disgruntled and the fat guy as well as the goat guy were stoic.

Soon a trail of blood-red sand stretched down towards the centre of the pothole. A broken stone with chain-like runes surrounded the sculpture and wound around the base. The runes did not seem discernible because the stone was broken in various places, and missed a lot of segments that would give it a meaningful pattern to understand its magical application.

"Ulteat, just rewind the time of this stone as much as you can" Hades ordered with a slight eager glint in his old, experienced and piercing gaze.

The aforementioned girl pointed her palm at the broken stone pieces and it glowed a luminescent green. At first, the stone remained unmoving and unfazed by whatever it was that Ultear was trying, but soon after, small pieces of stone started reassembling themselves in the gaps and gashes around the big stone tablet. Although slow the process was steady and after a long wait of around fifteen minutes, the stone was recovered to its former glory.

"It appears that whoever did this was around here months ago, master" Ultear stated her assumptions while huffing a little to readjust herself from the disorienting experience of exerting her magic channels continuously.

"We aren't going to find this person soon then...That's unfortunate. They had to have some knowledge about the Demon's eye wielders if they managed to come here and destroy the linkers of this rune." The old mage bent down and inspected the chain-like runes with narrowed eyes. The runes continued their pattern underneath the sand but didn't react to any of his magical operations.

Ultear caught her breath with a noticeable inhale of air and sneaked a brief glance over the elaborate writing on the stone tablet. Many nondescript writings or more like carvings on the stone, seemed to be written on the tablet, while most of the script wasn't even visible to any of them except for hades. Although, what interested her the most was the strange insignia of a leaf which consisted of a whirlpool at its centre. She felt like she should know this from somewhere though...

"Azuma let's take this stone tablet to the airship." He ordered as the aforementioned kin complied wordlessly but with a grunt of disappointment.

" Master hades, whose hideout is this anyway?" The purple-haired girl questioned once more to hopefully find some answers about this assignment.

"Hmm. Telling you wouldn't hurt I suppose. It was of a clan which had many members with a bloodline, one of the most powerful militias from the recent trade wars, to be precise." Hades told them with a touch of contempt in his voice, slowly running a hand through his grey beard, hades observed as Azuma used his great tree arc magic to lift the tablet with a large hand-shaped tree.

"But what will this stone help us with exactly?" The purple-haired girl asked with a curious tilt of her head.

Although before hades could answer her query the goat face spoke up with his calm and eerie voice, " Master if I may interrupt, What is a bloodline?"

"Huh? A bloodline is an ability that manifests through a particular family's lineage. It's passed down through blood and there are many types of it. Although, bloodline users are very rare to find in Fiore, isn't that right master?" Ultear cleared up her teammate's question without missing a beat and blinked up when she realised there was a pin-drop silence around her. Only the creaks of the moving tree hand echoed below the night sky.

Ultear turned around and looked at her companions who had slightly different but at the same time similar kinds of reactions. Zancrow sneered contemptuously in her direction while the other kins nodded in acknowledgement. The most surprising one though was Hades' visage, who had a slight troubled expression on his face. His lips were curved down in a frown while he stared at ultear with a concerned touch, that was highly unlikely of his usual nature.

"Ultear, that's arcane knowledge. It's not something you could've read, it's something only high-ranking mages and war participants know off...So it's a little jarring to know of this, Who told you about their existence?"

Although gentle, the question had a stern assertion that compelled ultear to answer, but she hesitated a bit. With a sad sideways glance out of nervousness, or perhaps, caution, the only female within the group,"...My friend mentioned it in passing."

The utterance was barely above a whisper and she almost choked on her words while mentioning him but everyone heard her voice crystal clear. Some members tensed, while the master shrivelled his eyebrows together, resembling someone who wasn't able to solve a great mystery.

After a brief silence, the gruff and rough tone of Hades' voice broke the chilling atmosphere through his ceaselessly emitting magical aura, that flared a little,

"Regardless, Bloodlines can manifest in numerous ways, through inclination towards a certain type of magic to special powers that defy even the most forged laws in existence. Although, the most mysterious and dangerous recorded in history are a type of ocular anomaly within a certain clan. That clan housed this place for their operation. I can now see why we weren't able to track them in war or any of our spying efforts, no wonder their skills and network far exceeded the council's feeble mechanisms who couldn't even capture a single mage from said organisation."

As the master of grimoire heart resumed his anecdote, he seemed to be recalling a difficult period, something that had greatly affected his psyche to the point it pained him to even think of such memory bits. But he seemed to push through his inner nebulous of conflicting thoughts and maintained his voice to emulate a lacklustre recounting of a history book. Although the venom was evident within his speech whenever speaking about the war or its participants.

"My team captured one, but at what cost? He was a powerful mage, known to be the clan head at that time, who decimated most of our battalion in the army and even killed some of my most trusted allies. I, along with four more of my friends interrogated him and tortured him but it was in vain. He didn't utter a single word, he managed to kill one of my dearest friends in his last moments and became partially blind, somehow because of the last move he used. I still find it hard to believe, he somehow altered reality. In the heat of the moment, something within me snapped. I gouged out his remaining eye so that he couldn't do any more damage to us. We suffered heavy casualties as was. The council ordered me to relinquish it as an act of patriotism for the country, for them to study it and possibly make an alternative to its otherworldly powers for our army. But, ..."

Hades covered his eyepatch with his right hand as he continued speaking about his exchange with his greatest enemy from the past. Someone who took away yuri from the world and initiated his journey to find the real magical peak, to never lose to any power.

"..the curse of this eye was, the wielders never survived more than a day. As a last attempt, I took this eye for myself and transplanted it into my eyeball. Its powers are latent and grow with each emotion one feels, when I felt the need to protect fairy tail, it reached new heights, but when I discovered its limit the curse started taking its toll on me. It never evolved again, I tried my hardest through any means necessary but alas I failed, miserably at that. I sought answers though..."

A brief pause caused by the sudden emergence of a nasty smirk erupting on his aged face lasted for a few minutes before the smirk grew even larger as Hades grew eager, possibly, due to his next few words.

"...at the end, Lord zeref answered my plea and gave me the means to achieve the ultimate magic world through this eye. It taught me about the miserable irony of this magic world. This cursed eye derived power from pain, power caused peace to plummet into needless wars, and evil always contaminates the purest of hearts and only someone who dwells within the abyss could lead this world to its purest form. One must know the worst to recognise the best, this stone tablet contains answers to the questions, I have had about this demon's eye for decades. Although lord zeref has mentioned that these people transcend to the next evolutionary state of their power by killing another of their kind. Thus, I must find any remaining members of this clan and that man who destroyed this hideout either is an ally or the stepping stone I need to crush, so that I could achieve more of the demon's eye's powers..."

The Airship hovered above their heads at this point, as the members listened intently to their master's most detailed depiction of his own life story. Despite being his confidants for a long amount of time, even the elite group never knew of their master's motivation or his dark side more than he liked to exhibit, so this was a rare chance for them to gain some semblance of identity for their leader.

"...Although the clan is said to have perished in the last decade, I highly doubt that there is no one that survived within that pesky group of monsters. Regardless, once I kill this survivor, I'll be a step closer to my goal. Second to none, but only godly beings like Lord zeref, my power will be feared within earthland as the most terrifying piece of art, forever. I'll make every last one of those royals and powerless apes beg for mercy, as we establish our rule over this empire and achieve the true one magic." A truly terrifying and mind-numbing chill ran down everyone's spine, as a bloodthirsty grin split their ever-stoic master's face.

Such passion and sheer hatred! Truly master hades dwelled in the abyss and they doubted anyone in this world could rival his strength other than their god, Lord Zeref himself. The kins were all too, overwhelmed by his speech and grinned in excitement. No one could ever question Hades leadership, his will was contagious for the ones who followed his ambitions. Even if it leads into an unknown, unforeseen set of beliefs that none of them had envisioned before. Soon everyone jumped at the airship's entrance...

Except one. Ultear stole a last glance at the ruins that seemed so familiar to her. Briefly, for a fleeting moment, she saw a boy wearing white-flaming haori standing across from her, staring at her longingly.

"Please! Ultear, I didn't want to die! I know you'll help me! Please I want to live...forever with you... just like we used to.." His blonde bangs flailed a little in the stormy winds that approached and soon his full form dissolved into the night sky as Ultear helplessly tried to follow it among the infinite stars he might be approaching.

Soon a woman similar to her appearance with short hair smiled at her from above. Although Ultear didn't dignify her with the sad smile she offered the boy before, she merely sneered and scowled while following the kins...

'Don't worry I'll make sure everything is right...As it always should have been...'

It seemed Hades' motivation worked for Ultear too, but in a slightly different way...

---

={Author's Note}=

Hello Guys! Sorry to disappoint you with my late update but here it is! I broke my device and lost many chapters with it. I had to rewrite quite a few advanced scenes that I had done before, so it was a little boring.

This chapter is not heavily action-packed, but I'd like to take as much time to flesh out and develop the upcoming arcs as much as possible,

One more important thing, I don't know how many of you think like me but I think the animation of Fairy tail at the time was good but now it seems... a little absurd to me.

So I'd like you to think of my characters appearance a little differently.

Ultear looks like Suzune Horikita from Classroom of the elite. Same hairstyle and expression sets.

Only her appearance though, as you would imagine her behavior and character traits are completely intact.

Also, more such cases would be brought up in the future author notes. So if you are that invested in my story you could just check it out down here. I assume I've improved a lot in this chapter and you would find very less points to criticize my writing.

But I'm back in the game and I wanted to add more to this chapter but I think this is long enough, also if you wanna suggest anything regarding the length of my chapters then feel free to do so.

Now I take my leave, the next update depends a little on what my future entails, as I've mentioned my entrance was a little off and I've got to focus on my studies as well as my career too. I hope you understand.

Also, try to guess who this mysterious people are that popped up in this chapter! I'll appreciate the gesture and it'll motivate me, but it's ultimately your choice, readers.

Anyways, Good luck to all of you!

Ja ne!