Chapter 3

Year (X776)

It was almost a year since Natsu had started looking for his parents, so his time was running out but nevertheless he was still searching, he was able to find their scents from times to times, but to his luck he just couldn't find them, but he had to give it to them for this damn test, during the time he was looking for them he was able to take his senses to the next level that few dragon slayers could get, his hearing was by far better, his eyes could see farther, and his smell sense had improved as well. His magic didn't improved much, he had almost the same level he had when he last saw his parents but this time he had control over new elements such as ice and water along with poison, he didn't learn a lot of new elements but at least he was able to get better with the ones he already had. Right now, Natsu was walking through a forest with no real destination in mind, after a while he smelled something in the air: ashes. "maybe that's Igneel!" Natsu thought as he started to run towards the origin of the smell, after a while he noticed that there was something else in the air which he didn't like at all, after some time of running he came to a stop as what he saw left him speechless. Just outside the forest and in front of Natsu was a village, but the village was burned down completely, every building was nothing but ashes. Natsu started to walk towards the village and when he got closer he stopped dead in his tracks, Natsu now recognized that other scent that was in the air, it was blood, in the ground there were many bodies, or at least parts of bodies since apparently the bodies had been there for some time now. Natsu couldn't take it and started to throw up, the sight of all those body in the ground just rotting away was too much for his eyes and nose, after some minutes of throwing up he looked up again and started crying for all those villagers for it was just sad for him. After a moment of concentrating he did what seemed to be the only thing he could, he started to rise a few yards into the sky thanks to his ability to control the earth, this was going to be hard to do since moving the rocks and earth was more hard than to just use them in an attack, after looking around again he started to move the earth below the bodies so that all of them were in rows, side by side, he apologized for not been able to bury them like they would have liked, he also apologized for not been able to bring them back to life with his sword and the reason for that was because their bodies were basically gone by now and his sword could only heal so much, and healing a decomposing body was out of the question but never the less, he could at least purify their spirit so that they could rest in peace and so he took tenseiga into his hands and made a cutting move that send a crescent moon like attack above all of the bodies which disappeared when it went past all the bodies, with nothing else to do Natsu called out the name of a new technique that he hoped to not use again. "Metsuryuu Mahou Kanashimi No Maisō (Dragon slayers sorrowful burial)" Natsu called out the name of the technique as he made a praying pose and then slammed his hands to the ground below him, the moment that he slammed his hands on the ground the bodies of the villagers started sinking in the earth only leaving small graves behind, by this point Natsu was panting heavily since he wasn't used to using magic in such a way but he started to walk back to the forest to get some wood and make crosses for each one of the graves. It was almost night when Natsu was about done putting down the crosses, just as he was putting the last one down someone spoke behind him.

"What happened here!?" a man with a long beard asked. Natsu was so focused on his task that he didn't hear or smell someone behind him, so he jumped to the side avoiding stepping on the grave and took a battle stance, once he took the stance he noticed that it wasn't just one man but many more in uniform. only the old man was wearing something different, the man was tall and looked old with graying hair just like his long beard. he was moderately clad in an armor which had a cape attached to it, the man was also holding to a staff with a designed serpent head on it, and finally a stereotypical wizard hat. "Answer me boy! What happened here!? What happened to this Village!?" the old man asked again, and this time Natsu answered.

"I don't know what happened here. When I got here the whole village was burned down to its core, I saw all the villager's bodies dead on the ground and buried them" Natsu answered to the man while he still had his fighting stance. "Now. Who are you and what are you doing here!? Was it you the one that did all of this!?" Natsu screamed for an answer while igniting himself in fire making the old man take a few steps back. his actions took all the people there by surprise to which some got in front of the old man asking, "Gran Doma sir, are you ok?" after a moment the man stepped up again and looked at Natsu.

"I am Gran Doma: I am the Chairman of the Magic Council. I am here because I was supposed to talk with the people of this village to see if they needed help, it appears we were too late. as for your last question, No I am not the one that did this, I'm the one that is trying to stop things like this to happen repeatedly" Answered the man to Natsu. In that moment Natsu realized what the man had just said, things like this had been happening repeatedly! in that moment a soldier comes in front of the old man and says.

"Gran Doma, sir. look at this, it's a mask from those people from the tower of heaven. it looks like this village has fallen victim to them as well?" the man said. What the man had just said was all that natsu needed to know.

"Hey old man! where is that tower of heaven that you are talking about!?" Asked natsu to Gran Doma, the man was about to tell the boy that it was not his business, but a soldier talked faster.

"we are really close to the ocean from here. that tower should be right in front of us according to the information we have gathered, but since it's far from here you can't really see I-" the man wasn't able to finish since he was pushed to the ground by natsu who was running towards the ocean. all the man just saw him go thinking that he was going to look for the tower but what surprised them was that natsu jumped off the big cliff, they all ran to see if the small boy was unharmed, but they only got another surprise. Natsu was surfing through the water towards where the man had told him the tower was, and after a moment he jumped to the sky and transform in a yellow lighting and leaving once again the people at the cliff surprised for a mere boy had just used fire, water and lightning magic as if it was nothing.

After some hours of flying natsu decided to stop since he was running low on magic and he knew that he would just end up dead if he didn't rest. so, he stopped on a small island that was just below him, the moment he touched the ground he walked under a tree and fell asleep soon after since he had used his magic too much for that day. Natsu woke up a few hours later, the sun wasn't up yet but he decided that he could use some of that time to eat and get ready to fight.

"Man. What am I doing, I should be looking for mom and dad" said natsu to himself. "then again I just can't leave those bastards out there" And with that Natsu Jumped to the ocean once again. Not long after that he was able to see a tower not too far from him, but as he got closer he could hear that there was a fight going on, he also smelled a lot of ashes which meant that the place was burning down. Not wanting to risk anything he used his lightning to move faster and get to the tower of heaven. "Shit. there's no entrance from here and if I look for one to get in I'll just waist time. well, this is going to hurt like hell. Igneel if I get a scar on my head because of this move I'll make sure to give you hell! AAAAAAHHHH Fire Dragon's sword horn!" screamed Natsu as he dropped head first ignited in flames towards the side of the tower.

BOOOOOOOM!

A big explosion was created at the side of the tower which made all the people to see what had happened. After a moment the people that seemed to have staffs with them took their positions again and started shooting magical blast to the kids that wanted to escape from them and the tower. Natsu stood up from the place that he had landed on to see how one of the blast hit one old man that had shielded a small redhead girl from the blast

"Rob... Rob Ji-san!" the small girl yelled at the old man in front of her.

"S-so... in the end a useless geezer like...m-me... was good for something...a-after all..." The man said to himself as the fire from the blast faded away. "Even if I give up on... m-magic a long t-time ago... you still h-have a great potential to u-use it E-Ezra-Chan" the man apparently said to the girl.

"Oji-san" the girl yelled again.

"T-to see you smile I-in a p-place like this... t-to be honest... I n-never thought I would see a smile like that again" the man said as he fell to his knees. "F-freedom is I-in your heart... E-Ezra-Chan your dream will surely be f-fulfilled" the man said as he fell flat on his face apparently given his last breath with those words directed to the girl.

"Oji-saaan!" once again the girl yelled to the man now dead taking notice of a mark on the back of the man. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed. because of that she could not hear some other boy calling for her to retreat but stopped as he as well as others took notice of weapons starting to float, then the weapons started to fly towards the people trying to stop every other kid to scape. Natsu couldn't tell what she was saying for a moment since she was whispering to herself and then shouted to the others. "Follow me!"

"wow. for someone that just released her magic she's pretty strong" Natsu said as he started to move towards the girl that was moving to some of the guards.

"Move" the girl said to the guards while holding a sword that was too long for her now.

"You heard the girl. Move!" Natsu said as he stopped behind the girl then jumped forward to the men punching them in the gut with his hands on fire. "You're looking for someone right? get going I'll hold the rest of this bastards here as long as I can. GO!" yelled natsu to the girl that was staring at him with wide eyes. Why the wide eyes? well that was because a well-dressed boy with black hair had just shown up to help her out of nowhere, but she couldn't care much about the boy right now, she had to find her friend, so she just nodded to him and started to run. "well I guess I'll be doing some exercise now. Come at me you bastards!" Natsu yelled at the remaining man that wanted to capture the people that had just escaped. "I'm all fired up!" and with that Natsu started to fight off the evil people in front of him. One by one the men started to fall, it wasn't easy but natsu just wouldn't stop, there was just no way for him to stop, and then he just had to stop, in front of him was a man with a girl on his arms and he held a sword to her neck. "Damn it! I thought that everyone had already gotten to the ship!" Natsu thought to himself.

"Listen you damn brat. put on those scuffs on the ground and go to a cell! or I'll make sure to slice her throat open" the man yelled at Natsu. He had to do it, he couldn't just let a girl die right in front of him, so he took the scuffs on his hands and put them on showing the process to the man so that he could see that he was doing as he was told, but just as the man was about to walk up to him Natsu slammed his hands on the ground making a small pillar grown and hitting the man on his family jewels, Natsu had hoped that the man would just drop the girl but his actions only made the man have a stronger hold of the girl making him cut her neck a little. Natsu froze in that moment there wasn't anything that he could to make the man drop the girl, then the man recovered his composure and aimed to kill the girl by stabbing her on the heart. without a second thought Natsu did what a Slayer was always supposed to do: he killed the threat. But unfortunately for him he got cut on the right side of his neck. Natsu had his right hand which was covered in lightning shoved inside of the man's chest making him bleed heavily until he was dead. Natsu was shocked by his action and flinched when he took his hand out of the man's chest, he froze again when he saw his hand covered in blood.

"I-I killed a man. I-I'm a murderer. I kil-" "thank you" Natsu was shut out of his thoughts when he heard those words. He looked down to see the same small girl that he was desperately trying to save, she was thanking him for killing…

"Thank you for saving me" the girl said to natsu as she then started to run to find her friends. Natsu stood there thinking things over, the girl had not thanking him for killing a man but for saving her life even if he had killed a man in the process, it looked like Igneel had not explained how the world really worked, and he had just had to find out the hard way that to save the lives of many then you may have to take the life of others. he then took notice of the same red haired girl that he had helped a few minutes ago been strangled by a pair of black hands that came out of the ground, he ran up to her and help her and saw that the hands were made out of magic... and the one to be making those hands was a boy not older than himself, why was he doing this to the girl he didn't know so he burned the hands away.

"The hell is wrong with you!? " Natsu yelled out his question, he didn't get an answer only a look of anger. he was about to jump to the boy and teach him a lesson but from the corner of his eye he took notice of more guards coming to them. "Shit. Hey girl get up let's go, we'll get captured if we stay here" Natsu said as he got up and started to run towards the boat, the girl was right at his toes but was crying for some reason. after a short moment of running they reached the boat and yelled to everyone to get ready to leave. as all the people got to the boat Natsu noticed that they wouldn't have enough time to get away, so he jumped towards the guards and yelled out one of his techniques out. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" with that attack natsu made a big fire wall that would give him and the others a few more seconds, but the guards just wouldn't stay there and let them leave just like that so they started to shoot magical energy balls to them and the ship, the fire wall was almost gone by that time and they could see the man getting closer and closer... until everyone took notice of two huge figures on the sky above them getting closer and closer, this distraction was enough to have all of the prisoners safe in the boat by that moment when the two figures were just above them and what they saw looked out of this world... the two figures were two dragons. the two dragons passed as if they weren't even there but for their luck after the dragons passed a big shockwave separated the guards from their prisoners. Right now, Natsu was looking at where the two dragons had just passed, he knew those two dragons and he just had to follow them, or he would lose their track, looking back he saw that all the people that had been prisoners on the tower were now safe he was about to go away but a voice stopped him from doing so.

"Thank you for helping us! My name is Erza! What's your name!?" The red head girl now known to Natsu as Erza yelled at him from the boat that was now away from the Island.

"Your welcome Erza! My name is AAAGGG" Natsu yelled in pain as he had been hit by a magical ball on his back, he turned around and fired his Fire Dragon's Roar at the guards behind him sending them flying back. "My name is Natsu Dragneel!" Natsu finally yelled out.

"damn, I couldn't hear his name. I hope we can meet again." Erza thought to herself as she took notice of a tattoo on the back of the boy, it was a dragon, or at least the outline of it.

"Damn! I can't see them anymore, well at least I can still follow their scent. Ha! now that I'm done here I'll just have to follow their scent" Natsu said to himself as he started to run at the ocean, once he got close enough he felt how blood was still coming out of his neck, so he set his hand in fire and put it on his wound to close it. "AAAAAGGGGG that fucking hurts... Hey why the hell is my hair black!?" Natsu yelled as he took flight with his lightning at full speed ahead also trying to get rid of the black thing on his head, if he used his full speed he would get caught up with his parents in no time.

One Hour later

"To think that humans are like that" Elaine said. "You're going to have to talk to Natsu again after he finds us"

"I know" Igneel replied. "we have been flying for some time now... Let's take a res-AAAGGG" Igneel winced in pain as something had just hit him on his back which for some reason was wet. "the hell did this!" Igneel roared.

"Found you!" Someone yelled from below them. the two dragons looked at were the voice had just come from, and their eyes widened when they recognized the boy that was on top of the water. "Heh. Take this you overgrown gecko. Water Dragon Slayer Slicer" Natsu yelled the name of one of his new technique. The technique started by water gathering on Natsu's right hand and then him swinging his hand horizontally making the water turn into a blade that sliced everything that it touched, this technique hit Igneel right on his stomach making him wince because of the small amount of pain. after that Natsu shot himself above his parents then landing on his mother's back and laying there. "Found you mom" Said Natsu before he fell asleep right there.

"well done Natsu, well done" Elaine said as she looked at her back to see a sleeping Natsu on it.

"That was a good attack I'll give him that much" Igneel said.

"I didn't think he would learn the water element out of all of them. he sure is unpredictable" Said Elaine.

"Yeah. Let's go down to that Island and rest, tomorrow we will go back home" Igneel said as he started to go down to the Island.

"Sure" Elaine said as she started to follow Igneel down. once on the ground Igneel went to get Natsu off his mate but stopped when he took a good look at his son. Elaine noticed this and asked Igneel what was he waiting for which made him get out of his trance and take Natsu on his big hand, he then put Natsu on the ground as gently as he could and when Elaine turned around she was surprised to see her son in such a state. "Natsu what happened to you!?"

"Elaine calm down… you remember that big tower we passed over an hour ago?" Igneel asked to Elaine to which she nodded. "I picked Natsu's scent there, but I didn't really think that he would be there. my guess is that he was fighting as well, that's why he's all beat up. You should heal him with your wind element" Igneel told his mate.

"Both of you are idiots" Elaine said as she started to heal Natsu. "Oh no!" Igneel turned to see what was wrong and Elaine answered his questioning look. "He closed this wound with his own fire, I can heal it, but it will leave a scar behind..."

"It's only a damn scar, it won't kill him to have it, besides, we dragons take pride om them. You got me scared for a moment, I thought that you were going to say that he was going to be an idiot because a hit on his head" Igneel said as he walked away, behind him was a pouting dragon with her tongue out. The next day Natsu woke up and started to talk about what he had done over the last months and what had happened yesterday, after that and eating Natsu got on top of Igneel so that they could go back home, after getting back to the cave in which they had lived three years ago they started to talk about random things and didn't train for about a week, after that Igneel asked Natsu if he was ready to learn Dragon force to which Natsu only nodded and so yet another training started, yet this time Natsu didn't really like it because of the first stage: meditation…

To Be Continued

This chapter is smaller than the others but I hope you enjoy it and keep reading.

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