Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Anything I write in this story is purely from my thoughts
Chapter 18
ROAAAAAR
The roar of a beast could be heard seemingly all across the ocean. The gale winds that blew carried the soundwaves all across Fiore. It was heard even by a white-haired girl holding petting her pet bear that was several sizes too big for its own good. Even this predator was scared by the roars.
"Don't worry, young one," The girl said. "It won't get you."
She then looked to the horizon and smirked. "Zeref, even with all your demons you have created, you have nothing on Naruto."
GALUNA ISLAND
"Yes!" A bloodied wizard walked staggered towards a cavern that held a half-melted case of ice containing a demon. "I will finally surpass Ur!"
The demons stood before him as a massive, dark blue, humanoid with a large torso and two large arms ending with scaly hands. Its neck and the two sides of its torso was covered in spikes, and its two large legs had feed that resembled that of a bird. Its hair is shaped like a mane flowing down its neck. It had a pair of horns that pointed upwards jutting from a plate on his forehead. He also had large pointed teeth and hollow eyes.
A bright purple light shown from the cavern roof and bathing the remaining ice holding the demon in place, "I, Reitei Lyon, shall vanquish you foul beast and surpass my master once for all!" He declared.
He held his hand out on his side with a thin layer of haze gathering around it. "Ice-Make: Snow Dragon!"
Lyon called out summoning a giant dragon almost the same size as the encased beast. Deliora simply swiped its hand out destroying the creature like it was of paper.
"I should have expected a fight from you, beast," Lyon smirked.
"Ice-Make: Snow Tiger!"
"—Snow Ape!"
"—Snow Dragon!"
The three towering ice creatures stood in front of their master eyeing their opponent with their crystalline eyes. "Go!" Lyon yelled and his creations spang into action.
The Ice Dragon snaked itself around the demons squeezing the life out of the demons. The Crystalline Tiger pounced and bit on the demon's head. And finally, the Ape made of Frost cocked its hand back ready to slug Deliora on the face.
When the punch connected, the demon didn't even budge. In fact, it didn't even damage it! With another roar, the Demon fired an energy beam destroying the Ape and parts of the cavern they were in. It flexed its arms out easily breaking the Dragon's hold on it. Reaching above its head, it grabbed the Tiger and threw it over to a stunned Lyon.
"It can't be!" Lyon said with wide eyes as his tiger flew towards him. "It's that strong…"
"Ice-Make: Shield!" Gray yelled as a wall of ice appeared in front of him saving him from the impact.
"Do you see it now? The stupidity of your actions?" Gray asked as he walked ahead of his senior student. "There's a reason why Master Ur sealed this thing."
"Now, I have to clean up your mess," Gray exhaled as he crossed his arms in front of him. "Tell the others I'm sorry."
"Haven't I knocked your head for this?" The familiar voice of Naruto echoed through the cavern. "I thought I told you not to give up that easily."
"But there's no other way!" Gray protested. "We have to seal this thing or else!"
"See what you did here you idiot?" Naruto said slapping Lyon at the back of his head. "I just gained a family here and you're making me lose it already all because you couldn't surpass your master?!"
"YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" Lyon yelled at the blonde. "DID YOU EVEN LOSE A MASTER BEFORE YOU COULD SURPASS HER?!"
Naruto looked at Lyon with a deadpanned expression. "I did, but you wouldn't know that, would you?"
That calmed Lyon for a bit. "Y-you…"
The blonde didn't even listen to him anymore instead walked forward towards the demon. "Baka…You want something to surpass?!" He raised his voice. "I will give you one!"
With a burst of speed, Naruto made a dash towards the demon. In the time they had the conversation, the demon was now free thanks to the moon drip. Not even a second later, he was already at the demon's torso punching him through the wall.
"So much power…" Lyon said as he watched Naruto send the beast through the wall.
"You better believe it," Gray said. "It's like he is in a whole different league than even Erza!"
The two of them ran to the monster shaped hole in the wall. They could see Naruto in the air throwing the same shuriken-shaped jutsu Gray had seen before.
"H-he actually did it…" Lyon's voice trailed off watching the attack make minced meat out of the demon.
"See, what did I tell ya?" Gray shrugged casually like he wasn't talking to an enemy.
"What's his name?" He asked.
He watched as Naruto landed nimbly on a rock in the distance. Gray followed his gaze and smiled.
"His name is Naruto Uzumaki," Gray answered.
"Naruto, huh?" His senior student muttered to himself.
"Huh? You say something?" Gray asked not hearing what he said.
"Alright, you win… I surrender," Lyon said.
"You better!" Gray yelled to the other man.
Naruto came walking back into the cavern. He saw Gray with tears streaming from his face. Naruto smiled.
"So, your sensei's free now, isn't she?" Naruto said watching the rest of melted ice flow into the ocean. "At least she's not cooped up here holding cranky demon inside of her. Okay, even I know that one sounded wrong. Sorry about that."
Gray didn't get mad at that. He just let out a sniffle and said, "I am happy for her. Now she can go see the world."
Naruto just placed a hand on the ice wizard's shoulder letting him ball it out.
"Is everyone alright?!" Lucy voice echoed through the cavern as she and Erza came running in.
"It's all over," The Celestial Wizard sigh as she watched the remnants of the battle.
VILLAGE IN THE ISLAND
"I can't believe we finished an S-class Quest!" Lucy cheered as she walked towards the village.
Gray just smiled confidently not in the mood to say anything due to the current events. Lyon's arm was slung over his shoulder as he helped him walk back to the village.
"Has anyone seen Natsu?" Happy came flying towards them
"I didn't see him in the temple," Naruto said shrugged with the wizard with dog-like features on his shoulders.
"Should we go back and look for him?" Lucy asked.
Naruto turned on his heel to go back to the temple when he spotted a pink blur from afar speeding at towards them.
"YOU BASTARDS!" He came yelling. "WHAT IS WITH YOU LEAVING YOUR FRIENDS LIKE THAT?!"
"Well to be fair, Deliora was released and we had to deal with it first," Naruto reasoned earning a glare from the irate dragon stayer.
"And you, you came and stole my fight, but you didn't even see me fused to the wall!" Natsu said.
"Geez, Natsu," Naruto said avoiding the flame encased fists carefully not to drop his cargo. "We're sorry."
"That's enough," came Erza's stern voice. "How did you get out of the wall?"
"I don't know," Natsu shrugged. "It was like the wall spit me out. I didn't see who did it though."
Just then, Lucy gasped out with what she had seen. "Guys, look!"
Everyone whirled around only to see that the whole village was restored even though earlier it was all but wiped out of the map.
"No way…" was all Natsu could say.
"Speaking of the village," Erza said. "You still have a curse to dispel."
"But we defeated Deliora," Lucy reasoned. "That should mean the curse was broken, right?"
"Well, no," Naruto shook his head.
"Then, what are we waiting for?" Natsu said dashing to the village without waiting for the others. "Let's go heal them, real quick!"
"Uhh…" Gray gently nudged his white-haired sibling student.
"Don't look at me, I am as clueless as you guys," Lyon said.
"WHAAAT?!" Lucy screeched.
"We were aware of the existence of the village ever since we arrived here three years ago, but we never bothered them and they never bothered us," Lyon explained.
"Really? For three years?" Naruto asked. "That seems odd."
"So you have nothing to do with this?" Erza asked.
Lyon shook his head, "Look we've been exposed to the moon drip all this time, the same as them, but nothing untoward happened to us."
"Don't think you can get away that— Mmmpf!" Natsu said only to be stopped by Erza squeezing his lips shut.
"In any case, we won't learn anything standing around here," Erza announced. "Let us investigate."
"Why are you taking me along?" Lyon asked Gray.
"Because your friend's waiting for you at the village," Naruto said remembering the girl's words as she tied her up. "She's probably worried about you."
AT THE VILLAGE
"Everything's really here!" Lucy said in awe as she walked in between the cheering villagers.
"I wonder what happened?" Natsu asked slamming his fists on one of the walls to check the durability.
"Then you better not destroy anything," Naruto deadpanned seeing what the pinkette was doing.
"Lyon, Toby!" Sherry came running to meet her teammates. "You're okay! When I heard Deliora's roar, I thought…"
"It's alright," Lyon said. "Deliora's defeated."
"Then that means you—" Sherry began only to stop when he saw the white-haired wizard shake his head.
"Then who did?" She asked.
Lyon's gaze shifted to the blonde who was slowly placing Toby down. As soon as he did Toby got to his feet and got into Naruto's comfort zone.
"YOU DID?!" He screeched causing the former shinobi to pick his ear due to the volume of his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, I did," Naruto said gently pushing Toby away. "Please don't shout into my ears."
Sherry bowed to the blonde in gratitude. Toby followed her example.
"Thank you so much," Sherry said.
"Uhh, it's nothing," Naruto waved her off sheepishly. "I only happened to be at the right place at the right time."
Sherry straightened herself and shook her head. "You don't know how long I have waited to kill that demon for destroying our village. This means a lot to us."
Toby nodded. "If there's anything we could do for you…"
"Why don't we start with not causing anymore trouble?" Naruto suggested.
"That would be doable," Sherry said.
"What will you do now?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know," They both shrugged. "For a long time, we wanted to take our revenge. Now that it's done though…"
"Why not try joining a guild?" Gray suggested.
"That is not of your business," Lyon snapped prying himself off of Gray's grip. "You should go. Your team mate is calling for everyone."
Naruto looked over to see Erza gathering the villagers together.
"Will you be okay?" Naruto asked earning nods from the three.
Gray and Naruto walked up to Erza just in time to hear her talk.
"So, you're telling me your appearance changed after the purple moon appeared, is that right?" Erza began earning nods from the towns people. "And you're saying that this started three years ago?"
"Yes, that sound about right," The village chief nodded. "So, we beg of you. Please destroy the moon."
"Wait," Naruto stopped everything. "They're saying that for three years you didn't bother even to investigate the ruins when the lights started. Is that true?"
"He's right," Erza said. "Why didn't you investigate?"
The villagers became nervous all of a sudden, but the village chief spoke in their behalf. "It is a tradition not to go anywhere close to the ruins."
"Really?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Even with this dire situation?"
"What are you hiding?" Erza asked.
"To tell you the truth, we investigated the ruins countless times already," One of the villagers explained. "But every time we try and go there, we always find ourselves back in front of the village gate."
"Hmmm…as I thought," Erza hummed with her fingers stroking her chin in a thinking pose.
"What are you planning?" Naruto asked.
"I pointed this out to you on the way here," Erza said. "Just wait and see."
"So, are you really going to destroy the moon?" Lucy asked.
"Yes," was the redhead's simple answer. "Natsu, I will need your help."
"Geez, that's Erza for you," Gray sighed. "Talking about doing something impossible like it's nothing."
"Requip,"Erza yelled as a light enveloped her body changing her armor.
Her armor changed into a barbaric appearance that was adorned with numerous fur trimmings around the armor's joints. It was adorned with blue ornamental stripes over each piece of armor and golden animal-like ears with a blue stripe across each ear. The breastplate features a medallion similar in shape to a four-leaf clover over the armor's collar and displays a blue ornamented cross over her abdomen area. The shoulder section consisted of massive pauldrons that pointed upwards.
This armor's edges were decorated with the blue ornamental stripes and the armor's sleeves were lined with fur. The armor's skirt was composed of intricately designed golden plates that don a fur-lined edge around the skirt and covers the upper part of Erza's thighs embellished with a brown leather belt that grasp the skirt around her hips
The left gauntlet covers her forearm and has a fur lining around the wrist while the right one which lacks fur was noticeably larger and rounder as it extends down to her hand and had a round red gem over the wrist-section of the gauntlet.
Around her knees, the knee guards sported protruding metal ornaments reminiscent of Dragon's wings, and the plates that partially cover Erza's thighs are held up by straps tied behind her legs. The greaves have fur sprouting from both the knee and the ankle areas; The armor is completed with Erza's footwear composed of plain blue plate-armor.
Her hands carried an extravagant spear with a steel blade adorned with a golden embellishment in its center and ornated by a red decoration reminiscent of ribbons which flow down the side and attach to both sides of the pole. The pole features a substantially thick golden stud with a flat silver surface.
Once the light of her magic died down, she stood in all of her glory.
"—Giant Armor!" Erza called out the name of her armor. "With this armor, my throwing power considerably increases, and this is De-Malevo-Lance, my spear that is able to purge darkness."
"Now time to destroy the moon and get everyone back to normal," She declared. "Natsu, get ready."
All around them the villagers cheered at finally being rid of the curse.
"If we're going to destroy the moon, shouldn't we get to higher ground, like in the ruins maybe?" Natsu surprisingly reasoned.
Erza shook her head. "Here is just fine. Besides, the villagers need to watch this."
Naruto looked up at the sky in awe. Within his mindscape, he debated with the biju if he could do that. They, well Kurama for the most part, bragged that they could do it especially with the Rikudo powers.
"So, you're going to throw your spear at the moon?" Naruto asked.
"That is the gist of it," Erza nodded. "But the armor's ability may not be enough to do that alone, so I will need Natsu's power to give me a boost."
"Coooool!" Natsu and Naruto had stars in their eyes at Erza's explanation.
'More like impossible,' Lucy and Gray deadpanned; their thoughts synchronizing. 'And he's encouraging them to boot…'
"I'll help too!" Naruto exclaimed placing a hand on Erza's shoulder enveloping her in a cloak of red energy.
'I feel…stronger…' Erza thought as she felt Naruto's 'magic' enter her system.
Erza gathered her own magic as she readied to throw her spear. Natsu ignited his fists on fire and punched the other end of the spear.
With a loud battle cry from all three wizards (including Naruto who didn't even need to) and a deadpanned expression from their two companions, the spear was sent flying into the air. Erza, especially, didn't expect what happened. She didn't expect the extra power from what Naruto did to her.
Everyone watched as the spear almost broke the sound barrier as it flew upwards to its target, the moon. Lucy and Gray, along with the villagers, watched with mouths hanging open as the spear hit and shattered something in the sky. Even the part that wasn't hit by the spear started crumbling from the shockwave of the attack alone.
'So much power,' Erza studied her hand with the bubbling energy that slowly disappeared. He looked at the blonde oddly. 'Just what was that, Naruto?'
All around her, the villagers cheered now that the moon was destroyed, but their cheering turned into shock as they saw what happened next.
"Eh?" was everybody's surprised response as they watched what they thought was the moon shatter revealing another moon glowing right behind it. This time though, the moon didn't glow purple. It was its normal color.
"The moon didn't break, but the sky did?" Lucy voiced her thoughts as she tried to catch the falling crystals in her hands.
Everyone was confused, to say the least. The villagers examined their bodies for
"What's going on?!" Natsu screamed in confusion.
"Now I remember!" Naruto yelled in realization finally remembering what Erza was referring to. "It was the dome-shaped thing that was over the island, right?"
"Yes, Naruto. I'm glad you remembered," Erza nodded. "You see, the moon drip's magic crystallized and created a layer in the sky. Think of it as the exhaust from the magic. Now that it is destroyed, the island will return to its original shine."
"If that's the case, then why won't we turn back to normal?" One of the villagers asked.
"Simple," Erza said. "It's because this is their normal appearance."
"Come to think of it, I don't sense anything malevolent coming from them, even before we shattered that dome thing," Naruto said.
The villagers looked at each other not knowing what to make of it.
"The magic didn't alter their appearance," Erza explained. "It only affected their memories."
"EHHHHH?" A louder more confused reaction came from the Fairy Tail Wizards save for Erza and the villagers.
"IS SHE FOR REAL, MAN?" Gray asked one of the residents.
"Uh…we're still not sure," The villager answered.
"So you're telling me you were humans all along with the ability to transform into a demon?" Naruto asked dramatically.
"Not quite," Erza shook her head. "They are demons with the ability to transform into humans. This could be the reason why Lyon and his group were not affected at all. It must only affect demons. It is also the cause why the villagers were not able to approach the temple. Demons could not approach a site that contains holy light."
"I don't believe it," The voice of a newcomer caught the villagers' attention. "You actually pulled it off."
The newcomer was a purple demon of average height with dark purple spots all over his body. He has two horns on his head and a large, black mustache, which goes from his nose, around his mouth to his chin. He wears a blue cap adorned with skulls, a light green cape, which is wrapped around his chin, and a white T-shirt. He also wears dark pants, which are held up by a pink rope tied around his stomach, functioning as a belt, and dark boots.
"Y-you're that sailor!" Gray said in disbelief.
"Eek! A ghost!" Happy and Lucy panicked.
"Did you say g-g-g-ghost…" Naruto turned deathly white hiding behind the armored wizard.
"Bobo…" The village chief said with teary eyes while the others looked at him in confusion.
"But I could have sworn…" One of the villagers said. "We killed you…"
"And you disappeared from the boat," Gray reasoned.
"Demons aren't so easily killed with a stab to chest," The man/demon named Bobo chuckled. "And the disappearing thing?"
Wings sprouted from Bobo's back lifting him into the air with a gust of wind. Once in the air, he began his speech, "I am sorry for hiding the truth from you. I was the only one of us who regained his memory, and I was scared of everyone because you believed you were humans."
The villagers were moved both by his words and the solution to his problems. One by one each of them flew into the air cheering and singing praises for their prayers being answered.
Naruto came out from behind Erza and cleared his throat, "Right, there's no such thing as ghosts. I knew that."
"You should have seen the look on your face when you thought he was a ghost," Happy snickered at the blonde shinobi.
"You were just as scared, cat!" Naruto screamed chasing Happy around the village.
"You know, from this standpoint, they don't look like demons at all," Natsu said.
"Yes," Lucy nodded. "They look more like angels."
THE NEXT DAY
The Fairy Tail Wizards were on the road once again. They were on the final stretch on the way to their guildhall. The wizards were reflecting on the events of last night…
It was a very eventful night. The villagers were so happy that they threw a huge feast, a demon feast as they put it. There was a lot of food enough that everyone went to sleep stuffed and contented.
Well, most of them went to sleep, except for Lucy.
She thought that she would only worry about Natsu and Gray's snoring, but she didn't account for Naruto. The blonde shinobi not only snored loudly, but he also mumbling a name Sakura in his sleep if Lucy was not mistaken. He then went and grabbed Lucy into his arms like she was a pillow. After that came his sleep fighting, almost hitting her with all sorts of jutsu that miraculously didn't break anything.
Lucy 'woke' up from the little sleep she was able to get. She watched as the three boys woke up feeling refreshed from their sleep. They were even startled when they saw Lucy had deep bags under her eyes. She only watched as Erza woke up from her sleep not at all bothered from the events of last night.
'How was she able to sleep so soundly,' She thought to herself.
Well, that was until her mouth hang open when she saw that there were earplugs that fell from her ears.
The next day, after breakfast, the villagers once again greeted them with food that packed from the party last night and their reward for the quest. They kinda went overboard with the food preparation last night since they were so happy that they ended up preparing too much food.
Natsu and Lucy had stars in their eyes when they saw the huge stacks of bills that were in front of them. Lucy even went as far as to say that her rent problems were solved for at least a year.
Erza was quick to dash their spirits saying that this quest wasn't an officially-sanctioned quest from the guild so it wouldn't be right to take the prize money. The village chief argued that he could give it to them as a thank you gift for all their help on the island, but Erza still refused. In exchange though, the chief offered them, more specifically Lucy, the other half of the reward, a golden key, to which she happily accepted. They said their goodbyes after that.
As they left the village, the next event happened. Naruto, who was walking ahead of the group suddenly fell into a hole that was conveniently placed trap in front of the village gates.
"Even the traps were restored…" She muttered to herself in a deathly white face.
"Are you okay, Naruto?" Erza knelt beside the pit that Naruto was in.
"WHO DUG THAT STUPID HOLE!" A very angry Naruto exploded from the bottom of the hole back to the surface.
The villagers, along with Natsu and Happy, feigned ignorance leaving Lucy to answer to the irate shinobi.
Naruto chased Lucy across the village trying to get back at his partner for the stupid prank/trap she pulled.
They were only stopped when Happy commented, "They look like an old married couple."
Both blondes stopped and made a temporary truce. They looked at Happy with a murderous glare and yelled, "WE DO NOT!"
That delayed their trip home further until Happy and Lucy apologized to whoever they needed to.
I know this will sound repetitive, but the moment they decided to leave again. They once again fell victim to Lucy's trap/childish prank.
"Nice knowin' ya, Lucy!" Natsu and Gray patted her on the shoulder and walked as far away as possible from the S-class wizard's rage.
Deciding not to resist anymore, Lucy bowed her head in submission, but the other Fairy Tail Wizards were surprised when Erza just shrugged it off.
And that's it, that's all that happened the night before to right before they left the island.
Now, here we are on the final stretch to home. Natsu grumbled about not receiving the money for the dangerous quest while Lucy stared in awe at the new key she gained, a zodiac key if I may add.
"So, which key did you get?" Naruto asked.
"Sagittarius the Archer!" Lucy grinned as she showed off her Key to her partner.
"Woah," The others said as they imagined what the latest Celestial Wizard would look like. And of course, Natsu was the furthest from the truth.
"What's the big deal with the golden keys anyway," Gray asked.
"Big Deal?" Lucy seemed offended by the statement. "I'll have you know that there are only twelve zodiac Keys in the world. They're really rare!"
"Geez, I was just asking. No need to get your panties in a twist," Gray said causing the Celestial Wizard to blush in embarrassment at the words the Ice Wizard used. She unconsciously held down her skirt as she stared at him in shock.
"Like that pervy cow and the monster maid?" Natsu asked.
"Just watch Natsu!" It seems Lucy was more offended by that. "They'll be stronger than you! You'll see!"
"I hope you're not forgetting about the punishment that is waiting for you once we get home," Erza said raining on their parade.
That caused Natsu, Lucy, and Happy to freeze on their tracks as they thought about the horrors that awaited them.
"Heh, serves you right," Gray teased the three.
"You're not off the hook, Gray," Naruto added. "Master was mad about you not returning with them."
"How about we go on a detour?" Gray said nonchalantly walking away.
"Oh no you don't Gray," Erza blocked his path. "Master will serve his justice one way or another. He is contemplating on using that…"
Naruto looked at them oddly as he watched them start to panic.
"NO WAY!" Gray made a scene about whatever Erza was talking about. "THERE'S NO WAY I'M DOING THAT AGAIN!"
"NO! NEVER AGAIN!" Happy followed his example.
"WHAT IS THAT EVEN?" Lucy asked starting to panic.
"Don't worry Lucy, I'm sure Gramps would say 'Job well done!' or something like that," Natsu tried to ease her worries.
"No, I'm sure that is already a given," Erza said.
"NOOOO!" Natsu screamed trying to get away. "ANYTHING BUT THAT!"
"Oh, no you don't," Erza said dragging him by the collar.
"Okay, I give up," Naruto said curiously. "What is that anyway?"
Gray and Happy looked at him with fearful expressions saying, "You don't want to know…"
As they walked back getting close to the guild, they couldn't help but hear the whispers of the townsfolk. They thought nothing of it at first, but they were proven wrong when they made it to their guild.
It wasn't nothing after all.
In fact, their guild hall was wrecked.
A/N: Yo! Here's another chapter for you. On that note, Lucy said that the Golden Keys were rare, then here came Hiro Mashima giving Lucy golden Keys left and right, arc after arc. Are they really rare then? Should we just take Lucy's word for it? Well, I'm done. That's all from me. hope everyone's doing good. See you soon.