Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 25: "Nature God"

(Year: X784)

"Oi, stripper!" Natsu stomped through the rubble with Gajeel draped over his shoulders, "I see you survived the fall! Good for you!"

"No thanks to you, moron!" Gray snapped at him. If he wasn't carrying an unconscious Juvia in his arms, he would have punched the Dragon Slayer, "That was your fault, wasn't it?!"

Natsu grinned proudly, "Yep!"

"I almost died, dumbass! I should kick your ass, flame brain!"

"You just say that because I had the harder fight and think that you could take me! Look at the differences between us! You look like you had a walk through the park instead of a real fight!"

"Please, the reason I'm still fresh is because I'm not weak enough to get beat up like you are! I bet you were losing throughout most the fight and just barely pulled a victory out of your ass!"

"Oh really?! Well how about—"

"Would you too just stop?" Loki's voice pulled the duo's attention away from each other. The fire and ice users turned to face the approaching group of Loki, Lucy, and Levy. The rusted haired man was carrying an extremely injured Lucy. An also tired and injured Levy leaned onto the man to help her move forward. This proved to be a slow but steady process, "Not all of us have the energy to deal with your fighting.

"Fine," Natsu huffed, "We'll finish this later."

"It's good to see you alive, but…" Gray tilted his head to the side, "When did you get here, Loki?"

"It's a long story," Loki smiled, "Something else we don't have the time or energy for. We need to focus on the important things, right Levy?"

Levy rolled her eyes, "I wasn't going to leave Sol under the rubble. He would have suffocated."

"Yeah, but it took too long to convince you to leave him there," Loki noted in amusement, "I couldn't move all three of you."

Levy just let out a huff.

"We got to be close to done with this war, right?" Natsu asked, "We just need to deal with Jose, right? We should head over and help the others!"

"For once, I agree with the hot head," Gray nodded, "Let's finish this—"

They all paused as they felt a familiar wave of energy flood through the area. It was a pressure that none of them had felt for years. A primal fear popped up in the pit of their stomach as the presence of Fairy Tail's Demon lorded over them.

"Or…" Loki suggested, "We could go help the others in front of the guild hall."

Levi rapidly moved her head up and down, "I second that."

"Agreed," Gray began to inch away from the pressure of Mirajane's bloodlust.

"AAAHHH!" Natsu was already fleeing, "Run away!"


Pain…There was so much pain…Naruto didn't barely even remember the last time that he felt so much pain. It had to be back in his days at Konoha. Yeah, pain was a constant thing back then. How did he survive every day like this? How did he numb the pain?

He didn't for a long time. Yes. There were many times that he tried to give up. They didn't let him go. The pain never stopped in those days. Then, Danzo decided to act. The old man wanted to give Naruto a reason to fight onward for the good of the village, so he took the boy called a weapon outside.

Naruto's memory surged. The awe he felt that day returned. Beautiful blue plains rolled above him. Peaceful, puffy clouds floated gently across the sky. A beautiful sun shined its bright beauty down on him. A gentle wind softly brushed across his skin.

Kami…he remembered that day. It was the day that changed everything. He finally found a reason to live. Naruto wanted to have that feeling every day. The blonde wanted to be free…he wanted to touch the sky.

'That's right…I haven't achieved that yet…' Naruto thought, 'I can't die…not yet…not until that day…'

What could he do? Arashi was right to assume that he had no more cards up his sleeve. Everything Naruto had trained in for years had already been defeated…No…there was still one thing left. His only real natural ability. The one thing that no one could ever rival.

A near limitless pool of chakra.

Naruto focused on his chakra. Through his training, he had long since built a filter on how much was allowed to flow out at one them. This time, though, Naruto let the flood gates open. From years of suppression, his reserves were at a near absurd level. He naturally released something that he once required extreme amounts of outside chakra to obtain. For the first time since his fight with Gaara so many years ago, Naruto unleashed the power only he had ever obtained once.

Chakra Overload.

The roots, vines, and thorns around the blonde were instantly torn to shreds by the waves of blue energy. In an instant, Naruto's prison was torn asunder by the unstoppable raw energy that flooded right off of the jinchūriki's body. He was coated in a complete halo of the pure chakra. When the branches around him tried to grab onto him once more, they were instantly disintegrated into almost nothingness from the sheer intensity of the halo.

With a grin, Naruto brought his hands together to form a familiar hand sigh, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"


When Mirajane's magical power flare died down, her Satan Soul transformation was revealed for the first time in two years. While once wearing a rather modest dress, the Demon of Fairy Tail was now clothed in a single red leotard with the front and back open to allow a generous view of Mirajane's perfect figure. The open back also allowed dark, leather wings and armored tail to jump out menacingly. Her once flowing hair was spiked up wildly to reveal her pointed ears and the scar covering her right eye.

Before Jose could even process this, Mirajane moved. In a blur, she was in front of Jose ramming her booted foot into his face. Unlike her brother before, she didn't stop with that one blow. She rammed Jose with a dozen different blow. Each strike was harder than the last. Then, she violently threw Jose away like a disgusting piece of garbage.

Being a Wizard Saint, though, Jose quickly recovered and flipped to his feet. Glowering in a rage, he prepared an attack to deal with the renewed Takeover mage. What he didn't realize was that Mirajane threw him for a reason. Unlike Jose, she kept an eye on the dark storm that the Phantom Lord leader used on her friends. As such, she saw as Erza and Fu broke free of the trap spell.

Unwilling to attack her enemy from behind, Erza cut in front of him. Her Heaven's Wheel Armor shined in an angelic beauty as she brought dozens of telekinetically controlled swords to slash at Jose's chest. At the same time, Fu, who was less concerned about honorable attacks, kicked at Jose's knees. She left dozens of bug bombs on the Wizard's Saint's lower half before rolling away with Erza to avoid the explosion that followed.

With Jose collapsing, Fu looked towards Mirajane and whistled, "Been a long time since I saw you like that, Mira."

Mira smirked, "It feels good, although, I wish that Elfman didn't have to get hurt for me to get this back."

Erza looked to the downed Elfman to see that he was still breathing, "Look's like he'll live. We can get Naruto or Porlyusica to help heal—"

The women paused as a magical burst of energy that dwarfed everything they felt before flew off of Jose. Covered in burns and bleeding cuts, Jose looked absolutely demonic. His dark magic covered him like a second skin. With a snarl, he pointed a hand out at the three women to unleash a massive dark wave of magic at them. Before the attack could even get close, though, it was stopped by a massive wall of sand.


Arashi looked up to the sky in awe from the center of the Execution Tree. The sudden…ungodly…surge of chakra had quickly gained his panic. This new view, though, put a deep fear in him. His Execution tree was torn asunder by the waves of chakra and from those waves came an army of Naruto.

A massive cloud of clones hung over the fake human. The number of duplicates were so great that the cloud covered the entire mountain in the shade from the son. Even if given hours upon hours of time, Arashi was sure that he wouldn't be able to count the number of clones correctly. For a solid minute, Arashi was too shocked to move.

Then, he realized that the clones were falling. Snarling, the Phantom mage focused on what to do. If he switched back to magic, then his ability to use his energy would quickly lock up. He couldn't risk that right now. Arashi snapped out to the plants around him, "Attack up!"

The dark plants obeyed. Luckily, he didn't need to use his magic to order around the already created plants. It did severely limit what he could do with the plants, but ordering them up was simple. While the black plants surged upward, Arashi flashed through different hand signs. Large wooden pillars quickly popped up to join their magically created brethren.

Arashi was immediately glad that he did so. All of the Naruto clones had created similar spheres of chakra into their palms. Even without magic, the Rasengan was a deadly technique. His trees would…Wait…Were the spheres still growing? Where they supposed to get that big?

To Arashi's dismay, the various Rasengan spheres did continue to grow. The swirling energy continued to surge outward until they were vastly bigger than the individual clones that had created them. All the clones pointed their chakra attack downward. Just as they were about to meet the foliage, the clones cried out the name of their attack in unison. Their voice combined into one giant roar that shook the very mountain that they were fighting on.

"Chō Ōdama Rasengan Barrage!"

Arashi could not even began to accurately describe what happened next. This was mostly because he was blinded by the bright light caused by the attack. From what he felt through his connection to the trees, though, the foliage was being torn apart at a level that not even Arashi could salvage. He had to fight not to wince from the feedback.

For a few solid minutes, Arashi's techniques held off the attack. Each blade and vine tried to fight off the grinding attack. The sheer force of the attack began to force their way through the plants. Quickly, all the protective layers around Arashi had created around him were destroy. Fortunately for the Nature God Slayer, the clones had ran out of chakra by the time his shields were destroyed, so Arashi still remained unharmed.

As he wiped his eyes to fix his vision, Arashi realized that he was the only thing untouched. The entire mountain lay bare once more. The clones had destroyed everything Arashi had built on the mountain. Nothing was left. Not even Arashi could reuse what was left.

"There's nothing, but…" Arashi's eyes darted everywhere, "Where's Uzumaki?"

Left…Right…Front…Back…Down…Up?

Arashi looked up to see his enemy floating high in the sky, "He can fly?!"


Jose instantly recognized the owner of the sand attack. It could only be one person, "UNBREAKABLE SHIELD! HOW DARE YOU INTERVENE!? I AM SICK OF YOU CHILDREN INTERFERING—"

An electrified fist to the face silenced the Wizard Saint and sent him flying back through the rubble once more. The strength of the fist and the wounds previous inflicted on him quickly caught up to him and forced him to drop his magical energy burst. With a new black eye, Jose stumbled to his feet once more. This time, though, it was far less dramatic.

Laxus glared at the staggering Wizard Saint while removing his coat and throwing it to the side, "If you didn't want people to interfere in your fights, then you shouldn't have started an all-out war."

Behind Laxus, the sand shield fell to show Gaara standing with his arms crossed, "Sorry, we're late. After Laxus met up with us, it took a while to convince—Fu, wait! Save the love for later. We're in the middle of a fight."

Fu paused, "Fair enough, but you're going to pay later for getting hurt and for making wait so long."

Gaara sighed, "Fair enough."

"Do…DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME!?" Jose, outraged by their nonchalant talking, fired beams of magic at them. To his shock, the attacks passed through them like they weren't there. Before Jose could voice his surprise, he was knocked to his knees by a few accurate strikes from staffs. Looking up, he realized that the people he attacked were just an illusion.

Laxus was busy rolling up his sleeves as he stepped back to join the rest of the group, "Like Gaara was saying, we're so late because it took forever to convince Mr. Shy Guy to come."

Erza's eyes widened as she saw a cloaked figure appear beside her, "Mystogan…"

Mystogan said nothing. Instead, he just looked away to hide his face from the others. Erza and Mirajane looked at him in interest. This was their first time seeing him.

"Do…Do you think that this changes anything?!" Jose coughed out. Injured and bleeding, he forced himself up again, "I'll kill all of you and destroy…Fairy…Tail…"

The Wizard Saint paused when he realized his situation. He stood injured and weakened in the middle of his broken guild hall. There were literally no more of his subordinates able to help him. Jose was now alone facing six extremely powerful mages who all stood side-by-side together and were all glaring at him in hatred.

Gaara summed it up perfectly, "I believe that now would be a good time to beg for mercy."

Mirajane snorted, "Not like we would give it to him."


Cana blinked as all the shades were dispatched with ease. While the worn out mages from their side were having a difficult time, their new backup dispatched them all with ease with a few simple blast spells. She looked to their savior, "Master Makarov…"

"Cana," Makarov smiled at her and the rest of the guild, "Glad to see that all of you are alive. Sorry that his old man was too busy with his nap to be of any real help."

Almost the entire guild were crying at the sight of their once fallen master. Cana dropped to her knees in gratitude, "We…We're so glad that you're okay."

"That should be our line," Freed noted as he stepped up behind Makarov with the rest of the Thunder Tribe, "Looks like you went through hell."

"You have no idea," Cana took a deep breath, "You're here…so Laxus is here too?"

"Yep," Bickslow pointed his tongue out like always, "He went with Gaara and Mystogan to stop Jose."

"Gaara and Mystogan?" Cana was overwhelmed.

"I know right?" Evergreen winced, "Normally, we would have went with Laxus, but…Admittedly, we would just slow them down. Those three plus, those Erza, Fu, and Mira? Kami, I don't want to be anywhere near that."

"Mhmm…" Makarov nodded, "Today is a day of pride for Fairy Tail's newest generation. You took down Phantom Lord…All while leaving our own guild hall standing!"

Just as Makarov said that, Fairy Tail's guild hall collapsed. It wasn't because of the previous fight, though. The elder master had done the damage while dispatching Jose's shades with his Casting Magic. After all, despite his age, Makarov was a Fairy Tail mage through and through.


Naruto had absolutely no idea how he was hovering as he was. His entire plan was use the clones to capitulate himself up and used to moment to eat as much of the air particles as possible before he began to fall. As he shifted back to his magic and began to swallow the air, though, Naruto noticed that he suddenly felt lighter. It was like the weight of the world was off his back.

Still chugging down as much air as he could, Naruto looked down to see that he wasn't getting closer to the ground. He was, in fact, flying. The blonde had no idea how he did it, but…He could fly. Joy surged through his chest. Finally, he'd taken the next step to his goal. He could almost feel it…Naruto was just fingertips away from grasping hands with the skin.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, Arashi was looking up at him in horror. Not because of the flying thing. Arashi quickly got over that revelation. What really horrified Arashi was how Naruto's appearances flickered. For a few split seconds, Naruto looked to be almost combining with the wind around him. The skin on his arms almost became translucent. His legs morphed into twin tornados. His hair seemed to fly like the wind.

"Demigod Mode…" Arashi whispered in fear. He quickly shook himself out of it, "No…Not all the way. Thank Kami…"

If Naruto actually managed to completely activate Demigod Mode…No one in the area could possibly stop him. Luckily for the Phantom mage, Naruto's form shifted back to normal, and he began to fall. Not wall was good though. Naruto's magic was on an entirely different level than mere moments before from the influx of his element.

Realizing that his flight had come to an end, Naruto executed the next part of his plan. He spread his legs out like he would take a deep stance except he was turned sideways in midair. The blonde then held his left arm down to Arashi and his right arm up to the sky.

Arashi noticed the shift in the magic. He couldn't fight what was to come next with his chakra techniques. In response, he shifted back to his magic and clapped his hands together. Like the other blonde, the Phantom mage began to shift his magic as well.

"Sky God's Secret Technique: Heaven Apocalypse!"

"Nature God's Secret Technique: Forest Dragon!"

From the sky above, a swirling vortex of black wind fell down like a raindrop the size of a colosseum. The dark wind snarled and whipped in a concentrated form of the sky's wrath. It quickly fell to leave it's angry mark on the world below it.

From the earth below, a wooden dragon rose like the defiant ego of life. The scaled creature with a thick wooden hide roared and snapped his sharpened teeth. It quickly flew up to dominate the sky suppressing it.

The two final techniques of God Slayers met in a surge of magic. Blaring sound and noise tore through the area. Both the earth and the sky trembled in absolute fear as the two elements met in an angry struggle. With both their creators pushing them forward, the elemental creations desperately pushed forward until they became unstable.

In a bright burst of light, magic exploded from the two techniques demonstrating their tie in power. The fallout caused the sky to part and the mountain to crumble. After a good several minutes, the noise and destruction calmed down to reveal how much damage was caused. Nothing remained of the power struggled except rubble and fearful silence.


To Jose's credit, he tried to put up a fight. Keyword is try, though. Even from his first attempt, he was shut down by sand erupting below his feet and sending him off balance. As he was flung through the air, Mirajane quickly met him and knocked him down where he was caught by the blades of Erza.

For a second, the Wizard Saint's vision went black from the pain and damage. He quickly forced himself back to consciousness. In a blur of motion that demonstrated just how skilled he was, Jose wrote a destructive Casting Spell that would send out a large explosion all around him. One huge negative aspect of Casting magic was that a small mistake could lead to large backlash. This was exactly what happened when Mystogan pointed two of his staffs at Jose to convince the Phantom Lord leader that he wrote the correct spell.

The error caused the magic to explode in his face and send him back in a smoking mess. He landed straight into Fu's knee which cracked against the middle of his back. Gasping in agony from the blow to his back, Jose stumbled forward with his head hunched over only to be smashed into the ground once more by an elbow to the back of the head courtesy of Laxus. The lightning mage quickly kicked what he viewed as a pile of filth away.

"Kami, now I wish that I didn't bring Mystogan along," Laxus frowned, "This is too easy."

"If you wanted a real challenge, you should have made it here earlier~" Fu sung out teasingly.

"I was across the whole damn country," Laxus rolled his eyes, "Maybe I would have been here if you called me earlier."

"We didn't think that we needed you at first," Erza admitted.

"And maybe you were right," Gaara had a bored look, "You were doing fine without us, really. If all six of us were up and ready to fight at once, then this joke's guild wouldn't have stood a chance."

Jose hissed. Despite losing blood from Erza's cuts and al the pain from the burns and bruises, he wasn't willing to take this mockery lying down, "Don't…you…dare—"

BOOM!

The bombs that Fu place on Jose during her knee to the back blew up causing Jose to shut up. Gaara's sand quickly jumped to life and began to smack the Phantom Lord master repeatedly across the ground.

"I bet to differ," Mira still looked angry, "Elfman wouldn't have gotten hurt if you showed up sooner."

"Neither one of you would have unlocked your full takeover again, though," Fu argued.

"Oh geez…" Gaara rubbed the back of his head, "Does this mean the full demon is back? I thought nice Mira's teasing about Fu and I was bad enough."

"Well…" Mystogan spoke softly and in a manner that disguised his voice, but he did add a bit to the conversation, "At least the guild won't be as boring."

"The only reason you think that it's boring is because you put everyone to sleep when you show up," Laxus snorted in amusement.

In that moment, Gaara's sand flung Jose towards them once more. He was quickly halted by a combination of swords and staffs that slammed down all around him and held him up like a broken scarecrow.

"Why do you do that anyway, Mystogan?" Mira questioned as she brought her hands together and began to nonchalantly channel magic into her palms, "We got a poll running through the guild."

"…Shy," Mystogan lied to hide the fact that he didn't want people to know that he was both from another world and that he looked like one of Fiore's most dangerous criminals.

"Told you," Laxus smirked at them.

"No one is that shy," Erza argued.

Gaara's eyes darted to the other red-head, "Remember when Naruto first brought me to the guild?"

"Hmm…Good point." Just as Jose was about to recover, Mira finished her concentrated ball of dark magic destruction. A quick throw to the Phantom Lord leader gave him a taste of his own medicine of dark magic. He was covered in an explosion of darkness before he was dropped to the ground once more.

"And now we're all beating on a guy together. Real family bonding here," Laxus began to calmly stride over to the downed Jose, "Perfect for Fairy Tail, right?"

Gaara shook his head, "Not a member of Fairy Tail."

"Not yet you mean," Mystogan stated.

Gaara frowned, "I liked you better when you didn't talk."

Once Laxus was in front of Jose, he reached down and picked Jose up by the throat. The once powerful Phantom Lord master was now a broken man. He was completely covered in burns and bruises. The different slashes across his body allowed blood to trail down the few bits of untouched skin. Hell, the man seemed to have even lost a few teeth.

"No…" Jose breathed out in pain, "How could…my guild lose…to Fairy Tail?"

Laxus smirked at him, "Because we're better than you."

With that said, Laxus slammed Jose back down to the ground and knocked the Wizard Saint out. Sighing, he turned to his fellow S-class mages, "Please tell me that there's someone left to fight. I literally just got warmed up."

Fu shook her head, "Well, we could look. But even if there are, I doubt they'd be willing to fight after this."

"Damn."


Naruto groaned as he pulled himself from the dented rubble. That landing sucked. After the fallout from the two massive spell, Naruto had fallen uselessly to the destroyed mountain. With both his magic and chakra being locked up, the jinchūriki could do nothing to soften his fall. It didn't help that all of his armor had been destroyed in the backlash.

As the whiskered man pushed himself up, the rubble off to the side shifted to show a strange creature. Humanoid in shape, the being was distinct his bumpy skin and mismatched sized muscles. Black veins popped up from below its skin leading all the way up to his black eyes that shine at the panicle of a monstrous face with dagger teeth and a crooked nose. On the top of the creature's forehead lie a large cut that allowed trickles of red to run down the strange face.

"Woah…" Naruto's searing red eyes stared at Arashi's form, "So that's your real form. I can see why Dollotrons aren't categorized as human."

"This…." Arashi let out a grunt. He focused and shifted his form back to his more handsome appearance. The shift allowed the various bruises and cuts to show through his destroyed suit. A cut at the top of his head allowed a thin line of blood to run down his head, "That was not my real form. This is. This is who I am. I am not some kind of subhuman….I'm not…"

Naruto eyed the cut on Arashi's forehead, "You bleed red."

Arashi reached up to wipe the crimson liquid, "The black veins are deceiving, aren't they? I think it's kind of like a bruise…or maybe the thickness of them are different or something. But yeah, my blood has always been red. Even in…that form."

"I looked into Kaa-san's notes on the Life Make magic," Naruto noted, "From what I can tell, the spell creates a deformed version of the creater's vision…on the outside. Dollotrons are almost exactly the same on the inside. The only reason they aren't considered human is because of appearance and because of the taboo of using magic to create life…Hehehehehehe…"

Arashi's eyes narrowed, "Why the hell are you laughing."

"Just laughing at the irony of you being called a monster for your outside appearance while I….Never mind," Naruto shook his head, "Let's just finish this."

Arashi nodded, "I can't use my magic or chakra anymore…and neither can you. So I get the pleasure of killing you with my bare hands."

"You can try," Naruto rushed forward. He punched Arashi right across the face. The Phantom mage took the strike and fired one back right at his enemy. Like the other blonde, the jinchūriki was forced to take the blow before firing one off of his own.

In a blur of motion that hid the exhaustion that was creeping up on them, the God Slayers trade blows. Punches, kicks, and head-butts were thrown at each other. Even without any energy to back them up, neither of the mages were willing to back down at all.

As they traded blows, a familiar feeling overcame both of them. They remembered days of the past. A little blonde boy thrown into a cage to cry all night about being called less than human. Dark, masked figures pulled the subhuman from his cage with enough force to nearly rip his arm off. Needles, knives, and probes were stabbed into the boy to test how much he could endure. The boy's form shifted back and forth from a beaten, little Naruto to a deformed, crying Arashi.

For a moment, both of the blondes stopped. Naruto was the first to speak, "You know…in my world…when two people who are completely equal in strength fight…they often gain a better understanding of each other…"

"I…I don't care!" Arashi roared and smashed his fist across Naruto's jaw, "I hate you!"

Curled up into a ball, Arashi sobbed. His guards mocked him…poked his wounds with their staffs. Their words burned more than the physical wounds, though. Who was this April Kazen who the guards said abandoned him? Was it…his mother?

Naruto responded with a massive punch of his own, "You should care!"

A tiny Naruto sat in the corner of his cage. The tears running down his face mixed in with the blood that stained his entire body. Why couldn't he just die already? He didn't want to be a weapon. All he wanted was to fall asleep and never wake.

"NO!" Arashi roared. One of his hands reached out reached out and grabbed Naruto by the neck, "YOU STOLE WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!"

Arashi used his free hand to strike Naruto in the face once more.

There was no hope for him. Arashi knew he was going to die in this prison. He endured for so long, but he was about to give up. Even the most defiant of plants needed a little sunlight to keep growing.

Another punch, "You just come out of nowhere and are accepted just like that?"

"Huh?" Arashi thought he was imagining it when a thick old book appeared in the middle of his cage. He crawled over to it. Luckily, the scientists that ran tests on him taught him to read so they could examine his intelligence, "Nature God Slaying Magic?"

A third punch, "It doesn't matter if we had nearly identical pasts!"

Arashi ran as fast as he could. The prison behind him was overgrown with dark plants that defiantly tore through everything in revenge for what was done to their creator.

The free hand grasped around Naruto's neck, "Your life got better!"

April Kazen: A Loving Mother and Mage of Fairy Tail. That was what the grave said. After months of learning how to morph his hideous appearance and then tracking down the woman the guards talked about, Arashi found out that she was already dead. Not only that…she had another child…a real child.

Arashi lowered his head, "When you were freed, you got a mom! You got friends! You got everything you ever wanted! That's why…that's why every day…"

Naruto Uzumaki. The Unstoppable Sword. Adopted son of April Kazen. Hero to the people. Conqueror of dark guilds. Beloved by all. The man that stole Arashi's life…Arashi stared at the newspapers he collected. He had pinned him to the trees that lined his sanctuary. As he looked on, his hate grew and grew. Arashi would kill that man if it was the last thing he ever did.

Arashi raised his head to reveal the tears rolling down his face, "Every day I wished that I was you!"

Naruto looked on at Arashi impassively. His faced was covered in a crimson blood that matched his eyes.

"I always wanted what you had!" Arashi began to sob, "Even if we stared out the same…why did you get so much better? Why did you have to steal my mom? Why…"

With a snarl, Naruto ripped Arashi's arms away from his throat. Then, using all the stamina he had left, the jinchūriki hit his enemy with the strongest punch he ever gave. Arashi flew back and landed flat on his back in the rubble. He did not stand up, "Idiot…you don't understand anything…"


Natsu was jumping up and down and pointed at the destroyed mountain in the distance, "Woah! Look at that! Naruto definitely just broke my record for destruction! I need to up my game!"

"No more destruction for a while, Natsu," Makarov gently stated as he reclined on a piece of broken rubble. All around the other members of the guild were resting from exhaustion of the fight, "I think that we've had our fill today."

"Especially you, old man," Laxus grunted as he placed Jose down beside the rest of the unconscious prominent members of Phantom Lord. They had already recovered all of the Element Four and Gajeel and had safety retrained them all, "I don't think you can criticize us anymore for destroying things."

Makarov snapped at his grandson, "Shut it, brat! That was an accident! Besides, it was barely standing as it was!"

"This does give us a chance to rebuild and redecorate…" Erza stroked her chin in thought as she thought of the possibilities.

"That is if the rest of Phantom Lord doesn't come knocking in revenge," Mirajane sat with the still unconscious Elfman resting on her lap.

Gaara shrugged, "Mystogan said not to worry about that. He gave me these."

The jinchūriki revealed the Phantom Lord flags that he had hidden in his gourd.

"Woah, did he hunt down all of Phantom's branch guild halls?" Fu whistled low in appreciation.

Gray looked around for the S-class mage only to be disappointed, "Good job, Mysto…Ah man, did he leave already? I just barely got to get a glimpse of him. Damn it."

Makarov shook his head, "He's still the same guy, even if he did help big time. Mystogan saved my ass by gathering my scattered magic."

"So…" Levy gave a small smile through her bruised features, "We win?"

"Hell yeah, we do!" Natsu led a cheer through the rest of the guild members, "Fairy Tail's the number one guild!"

"Not exactly yet…" Cana looked over to the destroyed mountain, "Naruto hasn't come back."

All eyes turned to the destroyed mountain.

"He already won," Gaara spoke up, "He's just finishing collecting himself. Give him a minute."

Laxus raised an eyebrow, "How do you know?"

Not wanting to say that Kurama was giving him a heads up on the result of the matter, Gaara lied, "I've been around him enough to know when he's fine. Arashi never stood a chance."


Arashi watched with acceptance as Naruto stalked towards him. Crimson red eyes stared down on him. Heavy steps brought the jinchūriki closer to the downed Nature God Slayer. The magically created human knew that his end was here. He lost the fight for his life. It was the gamble he had willingly made.

Naruto moved to the side of Arashi. His demonic looking form towered over him. Arashi just closed his eyes in acceptance, "You won. Do what you must."

"Alright…" Naruto clenched his fist and prepared himself for what he was about to do, "I've been waiting years for this. Finally…This is what Kaa-san asked me to do…"

Arashi waited for the final blow to come. It never did, though. A soft crunch of dirt confused him. Opening his eyes, Arashi was surprised to see Naruto on his knees. The whiskered blonde met the Phantom mages eyes one final time before bowing his head onto the ground.

"Please forgive her," Naruto begged.

"W-What?" Arashi didn't know how to react that.

"In her journals, Kaa-san often wrote entire pages on end about how she wished that she fought harder for you," Naruto kept his head down, "She regretted not being able to keep you so much that she left Fairy Tail and hid herself away. Every day, she hated herself for not defying everyone and everything to take you and run. Kaa…April Kazen never forgot about you once. In her will, she asked me to do the thing that her illness prevented her from doing. She wanted me to track you down and beg for your forgiveness. So please…I beg you to forgive her."

"You…wanted to beg for forgiveness…" Arashi was overcome with emotions, "But why…why didn't you just say that?"

"Would you have believed me?" Naruto questioned his forehead still touching the dirt, "You were determined to hate me from the beginning…to think the worst of me. No matter what I said or requested of you, you would have thought I was trying to trick you to lower your guard. So I used that hate. When we met, I convinced you that I was pure evil and got you to fight with everything you had. Now, you lie defeated and helpless. You have no reason not to believe me."

"You did…all this…promoting this war…risking your life in a fight with me…just to beg for forgiveness?"

"Well, I did want a drop of your blood too so I could unseal the secret contents of my God Slaying book, but I could have just done a sneak attack and ran off with your blood," Naruto explained, "But then you never would have heard April's last message to you. She loved you Arashi…more than anything. Far more than me."

"But…" Tears once more began to roll down Arashi's face, "She replaced me with you."

"No. I never once replaced you. The day that she died…she almost called me by your name. You were always at the front of her mind when she looked at me. I was just a sad replica of you…her real son."

Arashi let out a sob, "T-That can't be…"

"It's true. I know it's true, because I have relived every moment with her in my head hundreds of times. She wanted you. She would have given everything up for you. The world…Fairy Tail…me…all of it was nothing compared to you. Unlike my parents who put the good of other people above my life. That's why…That's why every day since she died…" Naruto raised his head. The rolling beads of blood rolling down his cheek and wanting look in his eye made it look like he was crying, "I wished that I was you."

Hearing that, Arashi finally broke down completely. Tears of both happiness and sadness rolled down his face. He shook uncontrollably at the realization that he was wanted so much by his mom. His hate faded away in that instant. Through all of his pain and struggles, Arashi was loved.

"Hehehehe…" Arashi trembled from the sheer emotion he was feeling, "I guess the grass is greener on the other side, huh?"

Naruto lowered his head once more. Crimson eyes closed to force down the pain. He finally voiced his secret fears about April. His heart ached so much, "Yeah…It sure is."


"Hey…" Naruto carried Arashi over the rubbles that was once the Fairy Tail guild, "You're all alive…That's a thing."

Fairy Tail cheered when they saw the jinchūriki carried the last member of Phantom Lord. With his hair pooling over his face to hide his eyes, Naruto trudged over the rubble to lay Arashi next to Gajeel.

Gaara peered down at the still breathing Nature God Slayer, "So…You didn't kill him."

"I told you that I was just going to beat him to a bloody pulp," Naruto argued.

"Yeah, I didn't believe you," Gaara tossed Naruto's headband at the blonde, "I think you dropped this."

"Thanks. Couldn't fight him with this weighing me down," Naruto quickly put the headband on, "By the way…When did you get here?"

Laxus swung an arm around Naruto's shoulders, "He got here with me and the old man, cuz."

"Don't call me that."

"Sure, whatever."

Naruto looked over to the injured Levy and unconscious Lucy, "So you didn't get yourselves killed."

Levy puffed her chest out in pride, "Not just that. We both beat an Element Four by ourselves."

"Really?" Naruto was actually surprised, "Well, good job."

Levy felt satisfaction at his words, "See. I'm not weak. You should have kept me in your plans."

"I was planning to avoid the most injures," Naruto eyes Levy's beaten form, "Not to keep you from fighting. I figured you could hold your own, but Lucy…I didn't think that she had it in her."

Fu nodded, "Actually, I think she would have lost if it didn't turn out that Loki was a Celestial Spirit?"

"What?"

Gray sighed, "It's a long story that would be easier if he didn't have to go back to his world. Basically—"

"HALT!"

All the injured mages paused their conversation and turned to see the Magic Council's army of Rune Knights approaching them. Out of instinct, most of the members of Fairy Tail began to panic. Natsu was trying to run away, and Makarov almost burst into tears. Only Naruto and Gaara didn't seem all that uncomfortable with the idea of being confronted by the Magic Council.

"What's the problem?" Naruto questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?" A spectacled, dark haired man stepped out from the crowd of soldiers. Naruto remembered that this man was named Lahr, "We are here to investigate the obvious illegal guild war."

Everyone pointed to the downed Phantom mages, "They started it."

Lahr adjusted his glasses, "And you finished it."

Laxus let out a grunt, "No laws against defending ourselves."

"Indeed," Lahr let out a sight, "Still, we need to take all members of Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord into custody for questioning. You too, Sword and Shield."

"Not…Arashi…" Gajeel's quiet grunt drew everyone's attention to him. The Iron Dragon Slayer seemed to have woken up and was glaring at Lahr, "Leave him here."

Lahr scoffed, "You're in no position to make demands."

"But I am," Naruto got in Lahr's face, "Leave my teacher's son here, or we'll have an issue. I won't let the Magic Council get their hands on him again."

"Son? You think that thing is actually human?"

"In a lot of ways, he's more human than most of the people here," Naruto argued.

Lahr snorted, "No matter what your weird opinion is, we have to take him in. Resist if you want, but remember that the Magic Council would be delighted to have something against you, Unstoppable Sword."

Before Naruto could speak, the earth below them began to shake as a lady landed right in the middle of the rubble. Naruto looked to see the new person to appear, "Xion?"

"Hey there, Sky God!" Xion waved and skipped over to them causing the rubble to shake, "Couldn't help but overhear…you know, because I was listening in and all."

"Why are you here?" Naruto questioned.

Yagura's entrance was a lot less spectacular, "You really didn't think that Marissa would let two God Slayers fight without having someone ready to intervene, did you?"

"Speaking of which…" Xion reached into her coat and pulled out two letters, "This is from the Priestess of the Church of the Rabbit Goddess. She has officially recognized Naruto Uzumaki and Arashi Kazen as saints. Arresting them would be the state interfering with church activities, which is kind of a big issue, right?"

Lahr began to stutter in outrage, "Now see here! You can't just come in and stop direct orders from the Magic Council!"

Yagura's eyes gave the man a stern look, "Do you really want to cross Marissa?"

Lahr paled.

"I didn't think so."

"So…" Gajeel relaxed at this news, "Arashi's safe?"

Xion gave a thumbs up, "Yep!"

Gajeel let out a sigh of relief before pushing himself up, "Alright then, let's do this then. Not the first time I've been arrested and probably won't be the last."

Still angry at this development, Lahr snapped at the rest of the mages, "The rest of you won't get out of this! Pick up the injured and unconscious and follow me!"

"Guess that's me too," Fu sighed, "I'll see you later, Naruto…Naruto?"

With everything finally over, Naruto allowed himself to collapse. He landed face first into the dirt. Everyone rushed to his side. Before he closed his eyes and slipped into blissful unconsciousness, he took in the sight of the content form of the sleeping Arashi Kazen. Oddly enough, despite all he accomplished this day, Naruto didn't feel nearly as happy as the other God Slayer. In fact, he felt angrier than ever about the hand that life had dealt him.


Thank you all for reading and please remember to…

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