Cana was not having a good day. Usually, this would be the time she would be chugging down some of her favorite alcohol by the barrels. She really needed a drink right now, but first she needed to make sure that giant dark blob monster pounding their guild hall to ruins didn't hurt anyone.

Everyone gathered there could do nothing as they watched their home getting pulverized. Tears were running down a lot of faces. Macao and Wakaba were clenching their fists so tight that they shook. Cana felt her insides turn cold as another tentacle slammed into the side of the structure.

The brunette scanned the weary and defeated faces of her friends. She had to pull them together.

"Everybody listen up!" Cana shouted. "This isn't the end. We can't let it end here! Our friends inside fought with everything they've got to stop the Abyss Break. I don't know about you, but I want to welcome them back without adding more problems for them. We are not the kind to give up so easily because we are FAIRYTAIL!"

The guild members were rallied by her words. The busty woman let out a sigh of relief. Everyone seemed to be more determined than ever. Who knew that taking charge would be this hard? She would be having a few words with Naruto for making her some kind of on the spot leader. Hopefully over a drink, because she couldn't deny the fact that the blonde was very handsome. Well, she would have to think about that when this monster was defeated.

By this time, the monster has finished destroying the guild hall. Now it searched for new targets, more specifically, a group of Fairytail mages.

"Everyone, focus your attack on a single point." Macao ordered. "If we all combine our magic then it should have an effect on the thing."

They all nodded. It was worth a shot. They all had enough magic for one more spell. Although, Cana knew that if this didn't work, then nothing else will.

"Do it now!"

Cana fired her last tarot cards. Macao blasted the biggest purple flame he could muster. Wakaba blew a stream of smoke towards the creature. Alzack and Bisca fired their remaining shots and everybody did the same. They all sent their magic spells at a single spot on the monster.

An explosion obscured their view for a minute as it picked up a lot of dust. Everyone was silent.

"Is it over?" Alzack asked. As soon as the words left his mouth a dark tentacle came out of nowhere and sent him flying.

"Alzack!" Bisca called out as she saw him get taken out. She turned to help him but another tentacle slammed into her as well.

The dust was beginning to clear and they saw that the monster was barely fazed. Cana cursed silently and called out to everyone to fall back. They were powerless now. Without magic, they didn't stand a chance. A lone tear slid down her cheek as she thought, 'Someone please help…'

All of the tentacles rushed toward them. Suddenly, a large magic circle appeared just in the nick of time to block the attack.

"You will not harm my children!" Makarov roared. He was levitating on top of the rubble that used to be the guild hall. The members of Fairytail cheered.

The master held up his two hands and two magic circles appeared on either side of the dark monster.

"Begone, you foul creature!" Makarov brought his hands together and a sudden flare of bright light illuminated the area. The giant thing wailed as it began to fade away into nothing.

Erza panted as she and the others finally made it back to shore. Although it was a little ways from where the rest of the guild is since they had to use another route to escape. The ice path which Gray made for them to cross the water was slowly beginning to melt.

"Look!" Mira pointed toward the place where everyone else was. They turned just in time to see Master Makarov arriving at the scene and destroying the giant creature that was terrorizing their guild members.

"The master is a real man!" Elfman cheered.

"Thank goodness..." Mira said. Gray just had a small smile on his face. He had gently set Juvia on the ground for a while.

Then they heard the flapping of wings and a familiar voice calling out to them. Happy the flying cat suddenly crash landed in front of them with Lucy. The blonde girl groaned. She stood while rubbing her bottom.

"Happy, next time you should work on your landing skills." Lucy told the cat.

The blue cat scratched the back of his head. "Sorry Lucy, you were so heavy."

"I am NOT heavy, you stupid cat!" Before Lucy could throttle the furball, she was wrapped in a tight hug by Mira.

"We're so glad that you're safe." Mira said.

Lucy nodded gratefully. "It was all thanks to Natsu."

"Speaking of which, where is that moron?" Gray asked.

Erza, on the other hand, was not really listening as the girl explained Natsu's current whereabouts. She was glad that Lucy was safe and master Makarov was back. The Abyss Break had been cancelled due to the defeat of the element four. From the looks of things Natsu had already defeated Gajeel and was just exhausted by Lucy's account.

The redhead was staring at Phantom's guild hall, thinking of another blonde person in particular. Naruto had yet to finish his battle with Jose.

'Naruto, please be all right….'

He had begun to lose count of how many times the man had been torturing him with that damn spell of his. Jose was really pissing him off. He wanted to wipe the floor with that smug grin of his, but he knew that he had to be patient. Naruto just needed the right moment to spring his aces in the hole.

"Hmm, this is getting rather boring." Jose said. "After hearing your agonizing screams for a while now it's starting to blend together."

Naruto didn't respond as his eyes darted around the room looking for something he could use to distract him. He heard a commotion by the shore and He couldn't help but grin. "Looks like the cavalry has arrived."

Jose followed his gaze and what he saw contorted his face into an ugly scowl. Through the gaping hole left in the wall due to their battle, they were able to witness Makarov vanquishing the giant shade monster that had been terrorizing his guild mates earlier. The blonde couldn't help but chuckle in spite of himself. The action caused Jose to turn his murderous gaze back onto him.

"You lose, old man." Naruto said. He then substituted himself with a nearby piece of rubble.

Jose found him immediately and blasted him with a powerful spell that would have obliterated the blonde. It barely missed him thanks to his quick reflexes. He managed to roll away just in the nick of time. Naruto instantly got back up on his feet and ran toward the edge of the crumbled wall. He had an idea.

The foul energy emanating off of Jose was interfering with his ability to enter sage mode. Luckily, he had left a clone on standby in the forest where he was training. He couldn't dispel it from here and he won't be able to summon his clone gathering Nature Energy under these circumstances. Jose would attack before he could even finish the hand signs. He needed to buy himself some time.

A few seconds should be enough for what he planned to do…..

Jose moved to intercept him. "You're not going anywhere boy!"

At this pace, the guild master would cut him off before he could take another step toward the edge. He quickly summoned a clone behind him. His double planted his feet on his back and pushed off with all its might. Naruto launched forward, narrowly evading Jose's magic encased fist, and sailed over the edge.

He plummeted down into the sea below.

Naruto wasted no time. He stretched his hand out beside him and a clone in sage mode puffed into existence. However, before he could dispel it, a huge blast of dark purple magic sailed straight toward him.

"Naruto!" Erza helplessly reached out toward him. An overwhelming feeling of something she couldn't describe suddenly welled up inside of her. She was being restrained by Gray and Elfman, the both of them looked just as shocked as she was. Mira had her hands on her mouth. Her eyes were wide and misty. Lucy couldn't believe what she had just witnessed.

They had regrouped with the others a little while ago. Just in time to see Naruto leaping out of the structure. They spotted a clone appear next to him, but then it happened.

They also saw Jose standing at the edge of the nearly destroyed guild hall with a magic circle aimed directly at the blonde.

"Death Wave!" The spell was too fast. The Fairytail guild members watched as the attack enveloped Naruto.

Erza stood there, feeling as if time had stopped. It couldn't be true. She didn't want to believe it. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her or something. Naruto couldn't be…..

She felt something warm streak down her cheeks.

Jose bore a triumphant smile as he gazed down at the sea. The brat was finally gone for good this time. Admittedly, he was quite persistent and his skills weren't bad either. It was such a shame that he had to be eliminated. He would have made a powerful subordinate. Sadly, the boy was too misguided.

Now that one obstacle was out of the way it was time to settle things. He made eye contact with Makarov, who was glaring at him.

"You're next, Makarov! Let's end this!" Jose yelled down at him.

Suddenly, a fist slammed into the right side of his face that sent him flying into several walls. He unsteadily rose to his feet and was shocked to see Naruto standing in front of him with his sage mode activated. He was suddenly lifted off the ground by the collar and the blonde threw him through another wall, sending him into another room.

Jose got back on his feet, but Naruto rammed his fist deep into his gut before he could do anything else. The man doubled over in pain and wheezed as he tried to inhale. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of his mouth.

"How did you survive?" Jose gasped, clutching his midsection.

Naruto smirked, "You weren't paying attention."

Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of a person is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. A habit most people have is when two objects race past us, we tend to focus on the object moving faster. It was this principle that Naruto exploited.

As soon as Naruto summoned a clone to help propel him forward, he discreetly handed the clone one of his tri-pronged kunai. Thanks to his cloak flapping, it provided a good cover so that Jose couldn't see what he was up to. The instant the clone received the kunai he kicked off from the original, giving him a good boost.

Jose's eyes followed the original as he sailed over the edge, never noticing the clone hurled the kunai to the wall on his right…

"You bastard!" Jose snarled. He rose to his feet and gathered a gargantuan amount of magic. Jose's power skyrocketed even further, causing the entire structure to quake. "I'll make sure you stay dead this time!"

As Jose began preparing for his final assault, Naruto summoned a clone next to him and was forming a rasengan on his palm. The hokage added his nature affinity to the sphere. The orb doubled in size and produced large rotating wind blades that sent a whirring sound throughout the room. The clone also took out Naruto's last tri pronged kunai.

Jose saw this action and smiled evilly. "You fool. I already know that you use those knives to transport yourself instantly. As long as I know the location of everyone of them, I can anticipate your moves. PREPARE TO DIE!"

Naruto didn't respond. He held the Rasenshuriken to his side and readied himself.

Jose roared. "Phantom Devastation!"

The clone threw the kunai to the left and Jose smirked. As soon as Naruto vanished, he aimed the spell at the kunai and let loose a large destructive blast of magic that could've leveled a small town. The result was destroying a third of what was left of his guild hall. He didn't care as long as the little brat was dead.

However, his moment of victory disappeared as soon as he heard a grinding sound behind him.

"It's over. Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"

Time slowed down. Impossible! How did the boy get behind him? He was sure that he could only teleport to the daggers he threw. It didn't make any sense.

"Take this old man! Wind style: Rasengan!"

The blonde slammed the attack down onto the guild master's back. The sheer power behind it drove Jose flat into the ground. Once the jutsu diminished, Naruto tapped Jose's shoulder to mark him with the Flying Thunder god formula. This would be one of his aces up his sleeves, aside from the shadow clone gathering Nature energy, just in case something unexpected happened in the fight. Sometimes the tides of battle could be turned instantly like the flip of a switch.

Naruto leaped away from Jose, his victory was already assured…

Jose let loose an agonizing scream as he met his demise.

The guild members of Fairytail cheered when they saw Naruto slug Jose in the face. Erza was just relieved. She wiped away a few stray tears when she saw that the blonde was okay.

"What an asshole. Making us worry about him like that," Cana muttered. Although, the redhead could tell she was just as glad to see him unharmed. "I'm going to kill him for that stunt."

"Get in line." Erza told her.

"Count me in." Mira added.

Makarov overheard the girls talking and chuckled a little bit. He had also been worried about the lad for a moment there but it proved to be unnecessary when he showed up a moment later and punched his fellow wizard saint through a wall. It just begged the question: How on earth did he manage to avoid Jose's spell and transport himself in an instant?

The boy was full of surprises.

He was cut off from his thoughts when a sound of a huge explosion of some kind destroyed a huge chunk of the structure. Makarov knew that it must have been Jose's doing. He had felt his sudden spike in power even from this distance. Somehow, Naruto drove his fellow Wizard Saint to the brink which forced him to use his most powerful spell.

A minute after the explosion, Makarov felt another spike of powerful energy and a second explosion followed. It was even bigger than the last. A bright bluish white light emanated from inside of Phantom's guild hall. A gust of wind washed over them. It lasted only for a few moments and then it was gone.

A couple of the guild members were a bit stunned.

"What the hell was that?" Wakaba asked.

Makarov answered. "That, my dear fellow, was Naruto."

Everyone's heads swiveled to the master when they heard that.

"Are you serious?" Macao said. "Naruto did that?"

"Well who else could it be?" Makarov said with a hint of amusement in his voice. The expressions of the guild members were comical. It ranged from awe to wide-eyed disbelief.

There was a bit of silence for a while which was broken when Romeo was spotted running toward them. "Dad!"

Romeo enveloped his father in a hug. Macao was quick to return it.

"I thought I told you to stay at home son." Macao admonished lightly. The boy mumbled an apology but then Macao noticed something his son was holding. "What've you got there Romeo?"

The boy raised the object to show it to his dad. It was a strange tri pronged kunai with black writings on the handle.

"I found it on my way here." Romeo said. "It was lying on the ground next to some rocks."

He pointed over to an area that was full of rubble from their destroyed guildhall.

Just then, they heard a crumbling sound and saw the Phantom Lord guildhall beginning to crumble. Chunks of debris were beginning to fall and the entire structure shuddered. It was to be expected from the amount of damage it accumulated from the many battles that were fought.

"Oh no, Natsu and Naruto are still in there!" Lucy exclaimed.

Suddenly, everyone heard Macao and Romeo give a surprised yelp as Naruto suddenly appeared with Natsu. The two of them looked banged up a little bit. Before anyone could react, the pink-haired teen clutched his mouth and pushed people aside to get to some nearby bushes. He then bent over and threw up the contents of his stomach.

The blonde, on the other hand, noticed that everyone was staring at him so he only did what felt natural to him. Scratching the back of his head with a wide grin on his face. "Hey guys, we're back."

Everyone got over their initial surprise before erupting in loud cheers. They all swarmed him and pumped him for details. Others gave him pats on the back. They were all generally happy to see him.

"You gave us a heart attack Naruto." Macao told him.

Naruto looked sheepish. "Sorry about that."

"Here you go Naruto. I think this is yours." Romeo handed him one of his kunai.

The blonde ruffled the kid's hair. "Thanks."

Everyone made way for the master as he came forward. The old man smiled up at him.

"You did well my boy. Thanks to you, Phantom Lord was defeated." Makarov said.

Everybody cheered again. Naruto blushed a little bit due to all the attention.

Natsu came up to him after he finally finished retching and heaving. He was downright furious.

"That was the worst form of transportation I've ever had!" The teen said pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You could've at least warned me, you bastard!"

The blonde shrugged. "How was I supposed to know that it would affect your motion sickness, especially with the trip being instantaneous?"

"Grrr! That's it! You and me pal! Right here! Right now!"

Lucy came up and whacked the dragon slayer upside the head. "Give it a rest already Natsu." She said, exasperated.

Then three people emerged from the crowd. Naruto didn't know why, but he shuddered when he saw Erza, Mira, and Cana walking up to him with sweet smiles plastered on their faces.

"Hello, Naruto," Mira greeted with a honey filled voice. "We're so glad to know that you're okay."

Cana nodded, still smiling sweetly at him.

"We were so worried that something might have happened to you." Erza said. They all took one step closer and that was when Naruto felt intense killing intent. "Especially when we thought you were hit by Jose's magic when you fell."

It was then that the blonde paled when he saw the black aura of death surrounding the three women. He began to sweat profusely and started taking small steps back.

"Uh, w-well you see um, the thing is…." He desperately tried to come up with an explanation to appease the three angels of death that were bearing down on him. "H-how should I put this? Uh, I-it was an….accident?"

Naruto could see that they weren't buying it. The three women began cracking their knuckles while they still wore those sweet smiles. They looked like they wanted to murder somebody, him in particular.

"...I would start running now if I were you." Makarov advised.

'Good idea!' Naruto stared wide-eyed at something and pointed behind them. "Oh my god, what the hell is that?!"

Everyone, plus the three girls, looked behind them and saw nothing. They turned their attention back to Naruto, but only found a slight dust trail.

"NARUTO!" The three girls screamed and chased after the blonde. Everyone else just laughed at the blonde's misfortune.

A week after the whole ordeal with Phantom, things were beginning to dwindle back to normal. Well, as normal as you can get in Fairytail. The whole guild was back to its rowdy and destructive self in a matter of days.

Naruto sat on as stool at the makeshift bar they set up outside since they still had to rebuild the guild hall. Thanks to a small army of his shadow clones, the reconstruction was going rather smoothly. Everyone was pretty busy between mission requests and helping out with the construction.

Naruto on the other hand was taking it easy these past couple of days. Ever since the defeat of Phantom, the Rune Knights immediately came to do a full investigation on the incident. Each of the members was questioned. Master Makarov had to make a trip to Era to face the Magic Council. He tagged along because Mira told him it would be better if the master had a chaperone with him. In the end, the investigation concluded that Phantom was indeed the one who held the blame for this mess so no charges would be pressed against them.

He had been allowed to observe the meeting but he frowned as he recalled a few of the other council members complain about how Fairytail was once again causing a ruckus. Naruto briefly made eye contact with Seigrain, the blue haired man with past connections to Erza, and he could tell that the council man was just merely amused by the chain of events.

Although, underneath that confident exterior, Naruto saw a bit of uneasiness and annoyance Seigrain was trying to hide and it was directed at him.

The blonde was thankful when the meeting finally came to an end. For some reason one of the council members, a woman named Ultear he remembered, kept leering at him. Frankly, it made him really uncomfortable.

He was glad that this whole ordeal was finally over with. Politics, rules, and laws were a huge pain in the ass. Even if those things weren't, Naruto could say, with the exception of Yajima, he hated the Magic Council; and if it wouldn't have caused problems for the guild that had taken him in and treated him like family, he'd have beaten the smug bastards within an inch of their lives. Now he was contentedly enjoying a steaming bowl of ramen next to a bored looking Lucy and a half-naked Gray who hasn't noticed his lack of clothing yet sat on the other side of the girl.

"I'm sooo bored." Lucy complained. "There's nothing to do around here and job requests are really slow today."

"Don't worry about it, Lucy." Naruto said after inhaling his noodles. "I'm sure there must be an interesting job coming up soon."

The celestial spirit mage sighed. "That's easy for you to say. You actually got to keep what you were paid on your last accidental S-class mission. Erza refused to let us take the reward from the people on Galuna island. Now my rent's coming up and I'm short on cash."

Gray snorted. "We're lucky that was our only punishment. It could've been worse."

Just then an irritated Natsu came up to them with Erza following behind. The pink-haired teen plopped down on the chair on the other side of Gray while muttering something unintelligible. Erza sat next to Naruto.

"I'm guessing he lost again huh?" Naruto asked the red-head.

Happy the cat flew down and perched himself on Natsu's head. "Yep, Erza totally destroyed him."

"Next time for sure." Natsu grumbled, looking like someone took away his favorite toy or something.

Erza proceeded to order her regular strawberry cheesecake from Mira when she finally noticed something about the blonde next to her. Naruto caught her looking and grinned. "What do you think?"

Naruto was decked out in his new clothes. His new outfit consisted of a black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, black jogger-style pants, brown-black winkle pickers, and a pair of red gloves. He had took off his forehead protector and tied it around his right arm, on his shirt sleeve. His hair looked a little bit more wild and untamed because of this but unknown to him, it only made him look more roguish and handsome in the eyes of the female population.

"I-I think you l-look very nice, Naruto." Erza inwardly cursed herself for the lame response. She was blushing a little bit and was thankful when Mira arrived with her cake so that he wouldn't notice.

"Maybe I should call the people at Sorcerer's Weekly." Mira said from behind the counter. "They could use another model. I wouldn't mind seeing you on the summer special page, Naruto."

The blonde and Erza blushed, Naruto because of the compliment and the fact that Mira wanted to see him in nothing but swim trunks or something. Erza was blushing because she couldn't help but imagine him in swimwear.

Mira giggled when she noticed her two flushed friends.

Then they heard Lucy stand abruptly from her stool and squeal in happiness. "Levy!"

Walking towards them was none other than Team Shadow Gear. Jet and Droy were finally healed thanks to their cranky healer, Porlyusica. Lucy engulfed her friend in a hug which she returned. Everybody was glad to see them up and about. Then the three of them approached Naruto.

"Hey guys, glad to see you-" He was interrupted when Levy suddenly hugged him tightly.

"Thank you so much, Naruto." Levy said when she pulled away.

"Yeah, if it weren't for you, Levy might have gotten hurt as well." Jet said.

Droy nodded. "We owe you one. You name it."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "It's alright you guys. I'm never going to think twice about helping my friends."

Unfortunately, a loud and obnoxious voice just had to ruin the mood. "Ha! You guys are pathetic! Is this what our guild has deteriorated into? Is this just a guild full of weaklings? Gramps should just retire already."

Laxus was sitting alone on a table with an arrogant grin plastered on his face.

"Man, look at this place." Laxus said in that snarky tone of his. "If I'd have been here, none of this shit would've happened."

Mira slammed her hands on the bar angrily. "Well, you weren't here and that's that. The matter is settled, so there's nothing else you can do. Besides, when we tried getting your help, you refused!"

Laxus grunted and jerked a thumb over at team Shadow Gear. "None of this would've happened at all if these weaklings didn't get their asses handed to them. You three are a disgrace to this guild!"

Natsu couldn't take it anymore. He encased his fist in fire and charged. "Laxus!"

The man just smirked as the dragon slayer came closer. At the last second, he disappeared in a bolt of lightning, causing Natsu's punch to hit nothing but air.

"Too slow, you little punk!" The man said from behind him.

He was about to make another comment about the sorry state of their guild but stopped short as he felt something cool and metallic touch his neck. Everybody gasped as Naruto stood behind Laxus holding a tri pronged kunai to his jugular.

"You're not the only one who's quick to act around here." Naruto said. "I would hold my tongue if I were you. If I ever hear you insulting my friends again, nothing will keep you safe from me."

Laxus smirked. He once again disappeared in a bolt of lightning. He quickly appeared behind Naruto and put him in a one armed choke hold.

"Just because you beat that old fart Jose doesn't mean you can go toe to toe with me." Laxus said. He tensed when he felt a pointed tip touch him at the back of his neck. His eyes widened in surprise.

Another Naruto stood behind him with a similar kunai poised to strike. "Like I said before, you're not the only one who's quick to act. If you're never around when the guild needs you, but gonna run your mouth when the dangers over, you're nothing but a small dog trying to bark the loudest since you haven't got any fangs, asshole."

The guild members were sharing the same thoughts. 'So fast!'

There was tense silence that followed. Everyone in the guild could feel the heavy atmosphere. Any provocation from both sides might lead into a full out brawl between the two blondes. Laxus was literally throwing off sparks and Naruto tightened his grip on his weapon. If a fight broke out between these two, they might destroy half the town.

Everybody in the guild knew how powerful Laxus was. He wasn't an S-class wizard for nothing. However, Naruto was a mystery. He had yet to explain or to tell them how he defeated Jose, one who was a wizard saint, one of the ten most powerful wizards in the land. So far, they had yet to see Naruto lose to an opponent. The blonde always came out victorious over those he fought, whether it was Lullaby, Natsu, Gajeel, or Jose.

The bottom line was it wouldn't be pretty if the two decided to go at it.

"That's enough, the both of you!" Makarov ordered as he came on to the scene. You could tell he wasn't pleased by their behavior.

Naruto reluctantly obeyed. The clone Laxus had in a choke hold dispersed. Realizing that he was strangling a fake angered Laxus, but he chose to rein it in. The Dreyer saw the disapproving look his grandfather was giving him and he merely gave a disinterested grunt. He began to walk away, but not without having the final word.

"This guild will be mine one day old man, whether you like it or not. When that happens, there won't be any room for weak pieces of garbage. I'll make this guild into the most powerful one the world has ever seen."

He turned his head to glare at Naruto. "This isn't over, you little punk. Next time I see you, gramps won't be there to save your ass again. Watch your back."

Unbeknownst to the Fairytail guild members, a person hidden in shadows witnessed the whole proceedings with mild interest. His demon masters at Tartaros had tasked him with keeping an eye on this particular guild. After the whole misstep back at Lupinus, he was to ensure that mistakes like that would not be repeated in the future. They had grand schemes after all and his masters wanted him to observe a certain individual who might cause hindrances for them in the future.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The man mumbled to himself. He grinned. "This is going to be fun."