Chapter 3: Fairytail

Naruto stared up at the building in front of him. It wasn't the most impressive structure in Magnolia. Sure it was probably taller than the rest of the houses, maybe three stories tall. A banner hung from the balcony above, what it said, the whiskered boy had no real clue since the language, while spoken the same, was written differently. But the symbol depicted what Naruto guessed was a fairy with a tail. Fairy. Tail. Ha, funny.

"It's the greatest mystery of all." Erza spoke as if reading his mind. "We don't even know if fairies have tails, but that's all part of the mystery."

"I see."

Naruto could hear a ruckus inside. He heard shouts and cheers. He also thought he heard a chair crashing into a wall or something. The whole place sounded like it was getting demolished from the inside.

"Um, are they alright in there?" Naruto asked worriedly. Erza, on the other hand, didn't even flinch as another object crashed inside the guild hall as if this were a natural occurrence.

"Its fine, compared to some other days, they're quite tame today." Erza stated.

Naruto hoped she was kidding.

Erza entered the front door with her gigantic monster horn, which she insisted on bringing along, and Naruto followed.

The inside of the building resembled a very large tavern. Long tables set in rows left a space in the middle from the front door straight to the bar. Mages sat in groups talking, joking, trading stories, eating and drinking. The place gave of a comfortable atmosphere or maybe it was just the people making it so.

The mages all fell silent as soon as Erza entered the room. Naruto could feel the sudden change in the room as Erza set down her huge monster horn, like they were expecting a bomb to go off.

"What's with the giant horn, Erza?" One of the mages broke the silence.

"I defeated a monster and the locals were so thankful they decorated it and gave it as a gift to me. Why do you have a problem with it?" She rounded on the mage.

The mage squirmed at the glare he received. "N-no, not at all."

She then proceeded to chastise different mages at once. Everybody else just nodded hastily and did as she said. Naruto heard a lot of "Yes, Erza." Or maybe it was like "Yes, Erza, please don't hurt me." She continued to call out different mages when she asked: "Where are Natsu and Gray?"

The female mage turned her attention to two boys who were both wearing fake smiles and had their arms around each other's shoulders like they were best buds. Naruto had to suppress a gasp. The two teenagers reminded him of the other two kids in his dream. Although the pink hair was now male and the other boy didn't seem as indifferent as the raven haired boy. But still the sudden appearance was…unnerving.

The black haired boy spoke first "Oh, hey Erza, We're just doing what best friends do, I guess." He was sweating nervously.

The other boy wasn't any better; in fact, he looked about ready to piss himself. "Aye!"

Erza relented to a smile. "It's nice to see you two getting along, although, it is only natural for even the best of friends to lock horns every once in a while."

The two boys laughed nervously. Then the pink-haired boy finally took notice of Naruto.

"Hey, Erza, who's the guy you brought along with you?" He asked bluntly. Everyone turned to look at Naruto, finally acknowledging his presence.

Naruto chuckled. "The "guy" has a name you know."

"Oh, forgive me. Where are my manners?" Erza apologized. "Everyone, this is Naruto Uzumaki."

Some of the mages craned their necks to see him. He turned to look at each of them and raised a hand. "Yo"

Before long, people from all over the guild had gathered around to say hello.

"Wanna join our team?"

"What's with those weird clothes?"

Not used to the attention, Naruto was starting to get a little overwhelmed.

Erza was a bit annoyed that the guild was harassing the new guy on his first day at the guild, especially since he was not even an official member yet.

"What kind of magic do you use Naruto?" a man smoking a pipe asked.

"Actually, I'm just Erza's luggage carrier." He lied. He caught Erza's eye and gave her a look. Now was not the best time to be revealing personal information, not that he can give much anyway. He needed to wait and meet this Makarov person first.

Thankfully, Erza understood and went along with it. "Yes, it is quite troublesome to carry around heavy baggage, especially mine."

The other mages just shrugged it off, kind of disappointed.

"Which reminds me," Erza said. "Mira, I need to speak to the Master."

A pretty white haired woman spoke up. "Sorry, the master's at a conference today. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back soon."

Naruto sighed. 'Just my luck...' he thought.

"I see. This brings me to my next point." Erza moved on. "Natsu, Gray, I need your help."

The other mages started murmuring to themselves. Naruto thought he heard Mira gasp.

"Erza needs help?" A mage said in a hushed voice.

"This is a first," commented a striking woman in a blue bikini, chugging down insane amounts of alcohol...straight from a barrel. Naruto gawked at that last part. An entire barrel of alcohol...if she was a mage, then her power had to all go to reinforcing her liver!

The two boys released each other from their grasp. They stared at each other in distaste, like they couldn't bear to be standing next to each other much less be working together. Mirajane covered her mouth and her eyes were wide in disbelief.

"This could be the strongest team Fairytail has ever seen..." She said.

Naruto heard this and turned to the three mages. Erza was definitely powerful, Naruto had seen that first hand. Natsu didn't look like much, just an average teen wearing an armless coat, and a scarf. Same went for Gray, but why was he taking his clothes off like he was some kind of male stripper? Naruto shrugged it off, he wouldn't be surprised if all the mages here were just as strong as Erza.

"That's right, meet us at the train station in an hour." Erza instructed.

The boys clearly didn't like it, but they nodded.

At the train station, Naruto sat on a bench next to a pretty blonde girl from the guild who introduced herself to be Lucy. Naruto was astounded by the number of attractive women in Fairytail. She also came to tag along for the mission with some instructions from Mirajane. The others arrived fifteen minutes later.

Gray was trying to ignore Natsu's barrage of complains. A blue, talking cat with wings named Happy was flying after them as they made their way toward their station. Erza followed behind, with her monstrous luggage...which Naruto was going to have to carry. Naruto regretted that cover story.

"Why do I have to be on the same team as Gray?!" Natsu complained loudly.

"I don't like it either, but we're going to have to suck it up." Gray responded evenly.

Erza appeared behind them and they gave a small surprised shout. "How are we doing?"

The two resumed their friendship façade. "Let's go good buddy!"

"Aye!"

Lucy introduced herself to Erza while Natsu and Gray held a glaring contest while Erza's back was turned. The clock indicated that they had ten minutes to board their train.

"I hate to interrupt, but we should probably board now." Naruto pointed out.

"Of course," Erza said.

"Hey Erza, I'll help you on this mission under one condition." Natsu said.

"Shut up!" Gray whispered harshly to Natsu. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

Natsu ignored him and continued. "When we get back, I want a rematch with you. I'm a lot stronger than I was last time. I'll beat you for sure." Naruto could say this about Natsu, the kid had a lot guts, although he didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Erza inspected Natsu's newfound determination. There was a fire in his eyes that burned bright with excitement.

"Yes, I can tell you've improved." Erza conceded. "Very well, I accept your challenge."

Natsu pumped his fists. "Yeah, I'm fired up!"

Naruto sighed as the group boarded the train. After they found a seat, the whistle sounded and the train started to pull out. They sat in silence as the train began gaining speed. Natsu was trying to keep his breakfast down. He looked awful. Natsu moaned gradually as the train continued its course and picked up speed.

"Motion sickness?" Naruto asked in concern.

"...blurg..." Natsu choked out.

"Well...no barf bag handy. So just puke in Gray's pants then." Naruto advised.

"What?!" Gray snapped, glaring furiously at the suggestion.

Naruto shrugged, "Hey, you keep ditching your clothes, so if you're not gonna wear them, might as well put them to use if Natsu blows chunks. Either that or stop stripping."

Seething, Gray looked ready to strangle the orange-wearing teen...at least until Erza told him to calm down, then Gray looked like he was trying not to faint.

Erza then briefed them on the mission at hand. She told them that Eisenwald was planning on using Lullaby for something notorious. Natsu had been knocked out by Erza as to minimize his suffering until they reached the next station.

They reached the station in forty minutes, the train gradually getting slower before coming to an abrupt halt and the passengers were beginning to exit. As Naruto followed Gray down the length of the train, he bumped into someone.

"Whoops, sorry about that." Naruto apologized.

"No problem" The man said automatically. When he turned, Naruto's felt a sharp piercing pain in his head. He stood there clutching his forehead as the man moved away. He had dark spiky hair pulled back. His face was so familiar it made Naruto's head hurt. One thing was for sure, he knew that man, or he at least seemed familiar for some reason. The pain had subsided by the time Naruto decided to follow him.