Chapter 12: The Job Request

Naruto was floating in a dark empty space. He felt numb for some reason. He just drifted through the endless darkness around him. The sensation felt familiar for some reason. Naruto wasn't dreaming, he could tell that much. The way he could feel his deep intake of breaths and the familiar heartbeat, it was too real.

After a long while, Naruto was beginning to wonder if he was going to stay like this forever. The darkness just never seemed to end. He tried to move his arms around and swim through it because the sensation was similar to being under water. He flailed around uselessly.

Just then, Naruto saw an outline of huge figure of some sort of animal lying down. As he drifted closer, the features of the creature were becoming more noticeable.

It was a huge orange fox. He could see razor sharp claws attached to its massive figure. Its intimidating size was enough to crush mountains. He could feel the massive energy reserves radiating from the fox. If Naruto had to describe it in one word, powerful would seem like a fitting attribute. The only bizarre feature Naruto could spot was that the fox had nine tails.

"Kyuubi," Naruto spoke suddenly.

The fox heard Naruto's voice and opened one gigantic eye. Its red feral slits focused on Naruto.

"Naruto," The Kyuubi spoke in a deep voice. "You have lost your way..."

The next morning Naruto woke from his seated position, leaning on a tree. He sat up and stretched. Naruto yawned widely as he stood and rubbed his slightly aching back. A rock had lodged itself in the ground where he slept and it made sleep almost impossible last night.

He decided to skip breakfast for now. He gathered his rucksack and made sure his gear was still intact. When he felt satisfied, he grabbed his belongings and began to dash among the trees. His current destination now was Lupinus town, where he will complete his first job request.

The following morning, after Natsu and Lucy undertook the S-class request, Naruto decided to go on a mission of his own. He didn't plan to spend the rest of his nights sleeping in the basement. The Master had quickly found out about Natsu thanks to Laxus who claimed to have seen a small blue cat snatch up a request from the second floor. They sent Gray to bring back the two for punishment. Naruto felt sorry for those two when they got back.

His job was fairly simple. Defeat a horde of undead that have been terrorizing a town. The reward was good, eight hundred thousand jewel. That could at least enable him to rent an apartment. It would also last until he took on a new job.

Mira had helped him pack for the journey ahead of him. She even insisted on accompanying him to the train station to see him off. Naruto courteously declined, saying that he won't be taking the train.

"Then how will you get to Lupinus?" He remembered Mira asking. Naruto just winked at her, leaving a confused look on her face as she wished him good luck.

Now, dashing among the trees, feeling the wind in his face, Naruto felt rejuvenated. This form of travel suited him. He never felt comfortable sitting idly inside a train. He preferred to be on the move himself. That way he could always adjust his route whenever possible.

As he traveled, Naruto couldn't stop thinking about his encounter with the Kyuubi. The fox had some sort of connection to his past. Naruto couldn't explain it, but he knew the Kyuubi was a big part of who he was. The fox was a part of him somehow, he could feel it. Now, Naruto only had to find a way to contact him again, if he could just learn how.

By half an hour past noon, he began to see a faint outline of a town. Naruto stopped to perch on a high branch as he rummaged through his rucksack and brought out a map. Mira had given this to him in case he needed a reference of the landscape. The map confirmed that the town ahead of him was Lupinus. Tucking away the map, Naruto resumed travelling.

"Who needs trains? Not me." Naruto smirked to himself, practically hearing Natsu's moaning, groaning, and cursing him for being a 'lucky bastard' while trying to avoid hurling from here.

Upon arriving at his destination, Naruto wandered through the streets of the town, trying to look for the mayor's office or whoever ran the place. The paved stone road was filled with vendors and stalls. The buildings were neatly and systematically arranged. A whole block was full of stores that sold different kinds of clothing. Another sold food and other delicacies. The whole town was decorated for a festival. So why do the people look like they were preparing for a funeral instead?

Everywhere he looked, Naruto was met with the weary and sad expression on everyone's faces. A few men were glumly hanging a banner for a celebration of some sort, Naruto saw a child, a young girl, clinging to her mother's clothes as they walked by. The girl was frowning because her mother looked so sad.

"What's wrong mommy?" Naruto heard the girl ask. He looked back to see that the mother had knelt down to face her daughter.

"It's nothing honey," The mother assured the little girl. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from crying. "I'm just… afraid of tonight."

"Why?" The daughter asked.

The mother couldn't stand it any longer as she burst into tears and hugged her daughter tightly. She sobbed and her daughter, not knowing what was happening, was confused about why her mother was crying. Other citizens looked on them with sympathy but made no move to comfort the mother.

This left Naruto thinking: What the hell is going on here?

Naruto found the mayor's office at the center of town. The secretary was reluctant to let him convene with the mayor until Naruto explained about the job request. When he entered the small office and sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. He was told to wait until the mayor arrived.

He began to pace the little office space as time dragged on. There was a small bookshelf to the left wall that contained a small collection of books. The chair behind the desk faced away from the window. Naruto spotted a small photographed picture of a family that consisted of a stocky middle-age man carrying a small raven-haired boy in his arms beside an elegant woman with long flowing brown hair holding a young girl that looked exactly like her. They all smiled as the shot was taken.

Naruto heard the door open as the same man on the photograph came in. He wore a simple black coat and tie. His beard was cut short. Most of all, he looked tired. His shoulders sagged as if the heavy weights he carried were about to crush him.

"You must be the S-class wizard from Fairytail." He stated. "My name is Saburo. I'm the mayor of Lupinus."

S-class?! Something about this didn't feel right...

Naruto shook Saburo's hand. "Nice to meet you sir, I'm Naruto."

Saburo sat down heavily on the chair behind the desk, clearly exhausted. "I believe you have received my letter regarding the change in the job description?"

"What change?" Naruto asked.

"In light of the circumstances," The mayor looked over his shoulder nervously as if someone might be eavesdropping on their conversation. "I have changed the rank of this request to S-Rank, provided that the reward was increased as well."

Something was definitely wrong here. Naruto had found the job on the normal request board.

Naruto frowned. "We didn't receive any information regarding these changes. Perhaps you're mistaken?"

Saburo's face fell. He slumped back into his chair. "This is terrible. What am I going to do now?"

The man looked close to breaking down. He regained his posture somewhat and sat up to face Naruto again.

"Sir, if I may ask, why change the request all of a sudden?" The whisked blond asked seriously.

"I sent that letter months ago!" Saburo exclaimed. Naruto could now see just how tired he really was. He tried to hide it, but the mayor has gone through quite the ordeal.

"It doesn't matter now, I guess..." Saburo said dejectedly. He stared at Naruto with desperate eyes. "Whoever you are, I hope you can save us, because if you don't, then all of the people in this town will die."