Titania and The Hunter

by Master Attlon

Born as a human. Treated as a demon. Gathered as a slave. Viewed as a leader. Traveled as a Mage. Grew as a Legend. The journey and life of The Hunter, Naruto Uzumaki

14. Bad Boys Get The Best Toys

Titania and The Hunter

Chapter 14: Bad Boys Get The Best Toys

Thanks to everyone who has Favorited and Followed this story. More than 1000 under each category. Never thought I'd make it here.

Gray just served that stupid bastard with shaved ice. But...you know...a demon of the book of Zeref is a pretty big problem to find yourself against.

Goodbye, Chibi-Erza. We will never forget you.

########Hunter########

Naruto flew back from the sheer force of the strike he blocked against, heading straight for the wall. He spun in the air until his feet landed against the stone wall, grunting in pain as his feet cracked into the brick.

But that didn't stop him, not for an instant. He used that force to push himself off the wall, soaring at the armor with a mighty yell as his swords stayed by his sides. Kichiyo braced himself with his bat at the ready, blocking against the several strikes that impacted against the stone as the boy yelled with a wild roar.

As Naruto made a dozen deep scratches against the weapon and cuts into the hand of the guardian, he still found no evidence of his attacks making any real damage against the being.

As the armor made a powerful swing against the midair Mage, the boy's form vanished as the full swing came to an end.

But Kichiyo knew it wasn't that easy as he looked behind him to see the boy hanging on to the bat by piercing it with his swords. He pulled the blades out of the blunt weapon and jumped off it, swinging both swords towards the space where the armor's head and chest joined in an attempt to decapitate the creature.

His swords dug into the stone but was stopped by its resistance. He snarled and pulled the swords out before the sentient rock could crush him with his palm. The armor stumbled but used that force to spin around and grasp the bat with both hands.

Naruto landed and anticipated the attack, holding both his swords in a guard to the left and braced against the bat. He grunted in sheer effort as his feet skidded along the gravel, pushing bones and rubble out of his way. Naruto lost his footing and was pushed away by the attack.

He skidded back a few feet before he felt his head spin from the force behind that last attack. He spit up some blood in his mouth before wiping his chin and looking up at the hulking, moving stone.

This thing was strong. Like really, really strong. Definitely one of the physically strongest creatures he had ever fought. Of course that was to be expected when fighting a living piece of stone. That bat could easily crush him into another one of those stylish splotches on the wall. For a rock, it was surprisingly quick when it came to going back into a defense stance to block his strikes. And of course, it was difficult to cut through this solid rock when he had to be wary of attacks.

And finally-

"I'VE GOT TO SAY FOR AN EVIL LITTLE BASTARD, YOU'VE GOT SOME PRETTY GOOD MOVES!"

It was loud and annoying as hell.

Naruto twisted his shoulder around as he felt his arm getting sore from blocking all of the swings from this guardian for the last 15 minutes. He exhaled a calming breath as he tried to stall the fight long enough to regain some strength. He looked up at the sentient rock, "Can I ask you a question real quick?"

"SURE! FIRE AWAY!"

"Why are you so eager to kill me? Every word that comes out of your...mouth, I guess...is either a death threat about squishing me or a very bad knock knock joke?"

"MY JOKES ARE NOT THAT BAD! THAT IS VERY RUDE OF YOU!" The guardian started to shake his arms in protest and stomp his feet into the ground, causing the whole room to shake. The blond boy just gave a tired, annoyed expression as he slightly lost his footing. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT THOSE ARE ALL ORIGINAL KICHIYO BRAND COMEDY GOLD LINES I'VE BEEN TELLING! THE BEST OF THE BEST I'VE COME UP WITH WHILE I WAS DOWN HERE!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched from the scene of this supposedly ancient armor throwing a temper tantrum like a toddler. "I don't care! Answer the question!" He yelled back.

"FINE! YOU KNOW WHAT, YOU'RE A DICK!" Kichiyo settled down and leaned on his eroded bat like an arm rest as he rubbed his non-existent chin. "HMMMMM, LET ME SEE!"

"Can you use your inside voice please?" Naruto said as he covered his ears from the constant abuse.

Good lord it was like spending an entire afternoon with Natsu and Happy after they were hopped up on sugar.

Wasn't going to make that mistake again.

"WELL, I'VE ALWAYS HAD TO MAKE SURE THAT NO ONE CAME DOWN HERE AND STOLE THE SWORDS! AND MY ORDERS WERE TO MAKE SURE THAT NO LIVING THING PASSED THIS POINT! NO MATTER WHO IT WAS OR WHAT THEY WERE HERE FOR, I HAD TO KILL THEM!"

Naruto didn't make any change in his expression. "Why?"

"BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS DONE! I WAS MADE DOWN HERE, I HAVE LIVED DOWN HERE, I HAVE GUARDED THIS PLACE FROM DOWN HERE FOR CENTURIES! THAT IS MY PURPOSE! AND UNTIL I CAN NO LONGER FULFILL THAT PURPOSE, I SHALL GUARD THIS PLACE TILL I DROP!"

Naruto shifted his vision to the side, considering what he had said. "But I didn't come here to take the swords. So why are you fighting me?"

"BECAUSE YOU CAN LIE! DECEIVE! EVEN IF YOU SAY YOU DID NOT COME HERE FOR THE BLADES, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL NOT BE SWAYED BY THE INFLUENCE THAT THE BLADES PRESENT!" Kichiyo threw the bat over his shoulder as he faced the blond Mage that had infiltrated the sanctuary. "SO I SHALL PROTECT THIS ENTRANCE FROM ALL PERPETRATORS! AT ALL COSTS!"

Naruto just looked at the towering statue with a befuddled look as he still couldn't understand the biggest issue at hand. "S-so, why are you only attacking me? Those other guys that walked right past you are the ones that want the swords! Why didn't you try to stop them?" The whiskered boy yelled out in irritation as he pointed his blades at the entrance.

"OH YEAH! THOSE GUYS WERE THE HEROES!"

"The heroes?" The boy droned out.

"YEAH! THOSE WERE THE GUYS WHO SAID THAT THEY WERE GOING TO GO AND PROTECT THE SWORDS FROM YOU, THE VILLAIN! I'LL HAVE TO GO AND KILL THEM AFTER I FINISH YOU OFF BUT I STILL THINK THOSE GUYS ARE PRETTY COOL!"

Naruto looked absolutely gob-smacked as the most he could do in his situation was look at Kichiyo disbelievingly and slowly shake his head. "Alright, let me get this straight. A group of suspicious looking guys came down here first, showing off their huge supply of weapons and not giving a fuck when you apparently flattened their teammates." He assumed by the two fresh red stains around him. "And then when you said that you were going to have to kill them, they blamed me as a culprit and you just LET THEM THROUGH?! Did it not occur to you that maybe they were the bad guys and they were lying to you?!"

"NO WAY! HEROES DON'T LIE! THEY CAN'T!"

"HOW STUPID ARE YOU?" Naruto screamed out at the top of his lungs.

"ENOUGH TALKING!" Kichiyo charged forward and swung his bat, Naruto jumping back as the weapon shattered the ground. He charged again and the two shared a quick exchanging of blocking weapons as sparks flew in all direction.

Naruto gritted his teeth as the force from each of the parried strikes was close to ripping the blades right out of his hands. He used both blades to halt a full side-strike as he groaned in exerted force. He yelled and pushed the bat back, causing the guardian to spin and try to strike his back using the centripetal force.

Naruto somersaulted over the oncoming object and dove at the feet of his enemy. Both swords were held out to the right side as he gripped tightly. "Tower Cutter!"

Kichiyo's right foot was cut into two as the guard yelped and landed lopsidedly. He tried to swipe at Naruto again but the boy evaded his range. But before he could dive for a second attack, the rock man pushed himself back up to his knees and faced the boy again.

Naruto clicked his tongue. Even when he was handicapped, this guy wasn't going to stop chasing him. He could run off now and try to catch up to the Ronin group before it was too late but this guy would probably crawl his way to them. And if he was going to get into another fight, he didn't want to be double teamed by several weapon users and a resilient chunk of rock.

So he looked up towards the large walls and ceiling surrounding him. He chuckled lightly as he came up with a quick distraction.

He jumped down into a horse stance and threw his sword up into the air as Kichiyo looked up at it. Naruto used that chance to jump forward and threw a Flying Gauntlet at the fingers holding the bat. The rocks broke apart and Kichiyo lost hold of his weapon, attempting to grasp it again before he dropped it. He looked up to see Naruto jump and grab the knight sword and he held both weapons close to his body.

"Shredding Saber Winds!"

Naruto unleashed a flurry of cuts as he shredded deeper into the already existing marks he left in the golem's neck. Rubble and dust flew up from his strikes as the boy yelled out a triumphant roar, mincing through Kichiyo's arm and cutting off the guard's head.

The stone helmet rolled on the floor as Naruto took a moment to breathe. He looked at his handiwork as the large rock body fell to its side, the loud voice it had once projected no longer ringing in his ears.

Naruto looked at the lifeless head with some regret. He knew that this weird stone guy had no real choice in having to defend this place or take lives. But he had to push through and complete this mission. He made a promise to Jura that he would.

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded his head at his former adversary. "I'm sorry."

"THAT'S OKAY!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Naruto jumped back in fright at the sudden loud shrieking voice ringing through the chamber. He looked down at the helmet that had rolled a foot away from him. He slowly and carefully shuffled his feet towards the rock armor. He lightly tapped the stone with the side of his foot.

"PLEASE STOP THAT!" Naruto looked down at the helmet with his jaw wide open.

"How the hell are you still alive? I cut off your damn head!" Naruto screamed back in anger.

"CAUSE I'M A ROCK, DIPSHIT! YOU CAN'T KILL A ROCK!"

"That's-...that actually makes a lot of sense." Naruto nodded his head when he considered that fact. He stuck the swords into the ground as he walked over to the talking head and sat down in front of it, readjusting Kichiyo so that he was looking forward. "So what are you going to do now?"

"DON'T KNOW! NEVER CONSIDERED WHAT I WOULD DO IF I WAS DEFEATED! ALWAYS IMAGINED THAT I WOULD STAY DOWN HERE MAKING UP NEW JOKES UNTIL I JUST STOPPED WORKING!"

"I guess that is something you could do. You can just stay down here and wait till you turn to dust." Naruto said as he tried to think about leaving this weird thing down here until the end of time. He grumbled a little and then opened his eyes in realization. "Hey, ever thought of joining a guild?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS A GUILD?"

"What? You have never heard of a Mage Guild before?"

"BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK FOR 400 YEARS! THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF I DON'T KNOW ABOUT!"

"Hmm, true," Naruto said as he nodded his head in agreement. "Well a guild is somewhere where a bunch of weirdos and freaks can get together and take requests and jobs as teams. Maybe there is a guild out there that is just perfect for you?"

Kichiyo laid there as he loudly hummed in agreement. "THAT SEEMS SORT OF STRANGE, BUT INTERESTING! BUT I CAN'T MOVE ANYMORE! SO I DON'T THINK I'LL BE ABLE TO JOIN A GUILD!"

Naruto pushed himself off his knees and stood back up. "That's alright. Once I'm done taking out all those 'good guys', I'll make sure to pick you up and drop you off somewhere. Let you see what the outside world is like." He walked over and started to pull his swords out of the ground.

"THERE IS NO ESCAPE!" Naruto looked over his shoulder and down at the inanimate talking helmet. "THIS PLACE WAS BUILT SO THAT NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO LEAVE! THE WALLS AND DOOR ARE SO STRONG THAT NO ORDINARY MAGE SHOULD EVEN BE ABLE TO CRACK THEM!"

"WHEN THOSE SWORDS ARE TAKEN, THIS PLACE WILL COLLAPSE AND KILL EVERYONE INSIDE OF IT! A FAIL SAFE TO MAKE SURE THAT NO ONE INCAPABLE OF HANDLING THEIR POWER WOULD LEAVE WITH THEM! THIS PLACE IS INESCAPABLE!" Naruto calmly picked both of his swords up and examined them. He sent one of them back into his Requip and stretched out his prosthetic arm.

"Hey, what was your name again?"

The statue stayed silent for a second as he angled his view towards the boy. "KICHIYO!"

"Well Kichiyo, you should know that I have been stuck in more places like this before. No way out. No escape. Made to think that you have no chance to leave ever again. But believe me," he turned around and gave the helmet a confident smirk. "I've always found a way out. And you'll get to see what the real world is like, trust me." He waved over his shoulder as the blond boy ran down the corridor, following where the Ronin had run off to earlier.

Kichiyo was left leaning against the wall, unable to move or chase or fight or leave. He was just going to be lying on the floor for the rest of his existence...

Not much difference than before.

"ALRIGHT! WHERE DID I LEAVE OFF?... OH RIGHT! 3 MILLION 245 THOUSAND 649 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL~ 3 MILLION 245 THOUSAND 649 BOTTLES OF BEER~ YOU TAKE ONE DOWN, YOU PASS IT AROUND, YOU'VE GOT 3 MILLION-"

########Hunter########

Naruto ran forward as fast as he could, his blade held safely out at his side. He had no idea how far they got, or how far he had to go. But from what Kichiyo had said, they weren't going to get out of here anytime soon.

"Damn. Well would you look at what we have here. We waited behind to face that damn rock thing but we get ourselves a little surprise instead." Naruto slowed down and cautiously stopped in place at the sound of the cocky voice. Coming into view from the light of the flickering fires, two sets of footsteps casually made their way towards him.

One of them was a middle-aged blond man with his hands held respectfully behind his back. Strapped across his shoulders was a long black spear with razor sharp end.

Besides him was a tall, smugly smiling dark-haired man who was giving the young boy a dangerous smile. Strapped to his back was a large axe that was probably bigger than the boy was tall. He walked forward and scratched his chin, laughing maniacally. "Hey, old man Qūzūn. Did you ever think in a million years we would have to face the little kid over the loud magical guardian built to protect this place?"

The older man shook his head. "No, I would never have believed that this young boy would be victorious in a grudge match against a creature like that. It goes to show that we may have underestimated this child's true abilities."

"Yeahhhhh, or maybe that guardian thing was just way weaker than we thought he was?" The man with the axe, Ziháo, said condescendingly.

"Yes," the spear user, Qūzūn, smiled darkly at that prospect. "Perhaps he was."

The axe wielder threw his head back and chuckled like a maniac with his hand over his eyes. He calmed down and let out a giggle every few moments. "Well, I guess we can see if this kid is any good for ourselves, huh?" He turned towards the boy and pointed at him, "Listen kid-"

The blond boy was already a small distance away from the axe wielder, giving him a cold glare as both Ronin were completely caught off-guard by the boy's speed and movement.

Naruto swung the blade from underneath in an upward form towards Ziháo's chin. The axe user desperately leaned back, dodging the tip of the knight sword by a hair's breadth. But Naruto used that momentum to spin and plant a strong back-kick into the tall man's gut, causing him to cough up bile and grunt in pain.

The Fairy Tail Mage used the Ronin as a jump post and rocketed towards the older blond, Ziháo getting sent off several feet from the force of the attack. Qūzūn reacted by pulling his weapon off his back and grasped it with both hands, making a stab at the gliding blond. Naruto stabbed Excalibur into the floor and used the sudden change of velocity to flip over the spear and get closer to his enemy.

Naruto used one foot to kick the spear off its course and raised his other high over his head. Before Qūzūn could even look up to see the attack, Naruto axe-kicked him over the skull. The older blond went straight into the ground, face cracking into the pavement as his eyes went white.

Naruto landed on his feet and looked down at the defeated warrior. He heard the sounds of heavy set stomping coming from behind him and instinctively rolled to the side. He barely dodged a massive axe blade from cleaving off his torso as he slid away from the attacker.

Ziháo was looking down at the boy with his eyes brimming with rage. He was flaring in anger and seething through his teeth, dribble coming down his chin. He hefted the massive axe off his shoulder and raised it over his head, the rage in his eyes changing into anxiousness to cut the boy into chunks.

Naruto kept constantly jumping back, missing the end of the large blade by only a few inches as Ziháo kept swinging it around like a madman. The large man handled the heavy weapon like it was a stick, swinging it around in a flurry of slashes as if it was weightless. And as he advanced on the young whiskered Mage, he left no openings for retaliation. All the black dressed boy could do was retreat or face his end.

Naruto stopped stepping back, holding his position as the axe came down towards his left side as Ziháo smiled wildly. He saw Naruto futilely raise his left arm in an attempt to block it, but the attacker was having no such wish. He completed his swing; preparing for a geyser of blood, an agonizing scream and a lump of severed flesh to hit the ground.

But after Ziháo brought the axe down, he looked on in shock as he saw the boy's left arm was shining and reflecting the light of the torches around them. The blond just looked at him with his own smug grin as he took a step forward and buried the hilt of his sword into the man's gut. As the axe user buckled over from the force of the blow, Naruto raised his left hand up and chopped the handle off of the axe.

Ziháo stumbled back, holding his stomach as he frantically looked at his broken weapon. He looked up just in time to receive a boot in the middle of his face. He flew backwards off the ground, his eyes stark white and blood leaking out from his nose. He bounced off the ground several times before landing on his back, unconscious.

Naruto spun in the air and landed on his feet effortlessly. He smiled and looked over the two men he had caught off guard. "You guys still want to debate over my skills or do you just want to take your quiet little nap?" He waited silently for an answer but got none from the beaten men.

"That's what I thought."

He was so glad he trained with Gildarts and Natsu when he had the chance to. Gildarts because he had gotten used to fighting large, stronger opponents by aiming for their weak points in combat (not that it helped any against him). And Natsu because he had also gotten used to taking advantage of momentary openings left from people chiding or talking too much.

Naruto walked over to the unconscious blond man and picked up one end of his spear. He covered his foot in Armor and broke the weapon in half, leaving it useless. Tossing it over to the side, Naruto looked at the side he used to catch that axe-user off guard and saw his sleeve had been torn to shreds. He grasped the ripped material and pulled it off, showing off his prosthetic in its entirety.

He lifted Excalibur up and put it on his shoulder, easier to carry as he ran down the corridor again.

Naruto ran further and further down the path towards the center structure. And he noticed that drawn or carved into the walls, there were elegant scriptures of a horde of dragons. He slowed down, taking an interest in the ancient markings that littered the hallways, illuminated by the burning torches.

They told some kind of story. The first paintings he saw were of hundreds of dragons, flying high over the skies of Earthland. Beneath them, there were homes and buildings, belonging to humans who worked in the fields.

Then, half of the dragons started to attack the people on the ground. Breathing out what looked like fire to burn down the humans and their homes. While the other half of the dragon horde seemed to charge the attacking half, stopping them from going any further.

"It looks so cool, right?"

Naruto tensed and held Excalibur up in a defensive stance. He heard gleeful, bouncy steps grow closer and closer to his position. He looked on as a younger, shorter blond boy came into sight. He was happily giddy and showed a smile as pure as sunshine.

Naruto didn't know why, but this kid's smile just made him sick. "What's cool?"

"These dragons! Duh! Look how awesome they are!" The boy said as he spread out his arms and looked at all the drawings on the wall. "I've just keep looking at these things, thinking about how cool it must have been to be alive at the same time as dragons."

He lowered his arms but kept that amazed twinkle in his eye as he looked over the wall again. "I heard a long time ago that they were the strongest beings in all the world. The kings of the skies, lands and oceans. And that they were unbeatable. Even the strongest mages back then couldn't even scratch them."

The young Ronin looked over to the boy with the weird markings on his face. "Could you imagine that? An unbeatable monster that can destroy anything in its path? It would be amazing to meet something like that!" He looked down at his hands with a crazed look in his eyes. "To fight them! To cut them to pieces! I want to fight one of them so bad!" His whole body was shaking in anxious excitement.

Ah. So that's where the bad feeling came from.

Naruto lowered his weapon but not his glare. "Are you going to keep fantasizing about animals or what? You're a part of the Ronin gang, right?"

The young boy realized he had gotten off track and started to scratch his neck and laugh with embarrassment. "Ehehe, sorry about that. I got a little off track." He put his hands to his side and smiled towards Naruto, "My name is Diyi. And yep, I'm a Ronin."

"Diyi, huh?" The young Fairy Mage looked over the boy opposite him. He was dressed up in the same black outfit that the other two Ronin were in, but much smaller in comparison. And he also had chains around his chest, probably hooked up in the back. "Aren't you too young to be a member of this kind of gang?"

"What! No way!" Diyi protested as he started jumping up and down like a child throwing a tantrum. "I might be young but I'm really strong! Honest!" He pointed at himself and said with his voice brimming with pride, "I've killed dozens of people and got recognized for it! How else can you do something like that and not be strong?"

Naruto just kept staring at the boy, only slightly furrowing his eyes after the ease he had in stating that fact. "That's not something you should be proud of."

Diyi just pouted and blew a raspberry at the party-pooper. "Says you! Ào-chan said that you need a lot of power and will to kill to grow up strong! And I'll only get stronger when I get one of those dragons swords! But you know that already, right Nii-chan?" Naruto gave him a questioning look as Diyi smiled again. "You beat the funny guardian guy, Qūzūn-chan and Ziháo-chan! You must've killed a bunch of people to get that strong! Way more than them, right?"

Naruto deepened his glare when the young Ronin said that. He raised his blade to the bloodthirsty little boy, "Enough. I'm finished with this bullshit. Get out of my way, now!"

Diyi giggled happily as he reached over his shoulders and pulled out his weapon. He gripped the sickle in one hand and spun the metal weight by its chain in another. He gave Naruto another one of his perpetual smiles, "Hehehe, it's not safe to be pointing such sharp weapons at each other like this, Nii-chan. I just told you..."

Naruto got himself in a readied stance and prepared for his att-

"-I'm strong."

Naruto felt his eyes widen in shock at the voice that appeared right behind him. He jumped forward, trying to make space between himself and the grinning boy that somehow got around him. Diyi brought the sickle down but Naruto raised Excalibur and blocked the weapon in a spray of sparks.

But he had no time to dodge the iron weight that was being manipulated in the Ronin's other hand. Naruto looked up as the weight dropped down from over the sword, straight for his head.

########Hunter########

The Ronin vice-commander was carefully walking down the hall in step with his Lord as they walked past all the paintings. But while Àomàn was only interested in the treasure at the end of the pathway, Réng found himself engrossed in the story of the dragons' past.

A tale of a war between dragons that ravaged the world and left it barren. How some dragons came to the humans for assistance and made them use some kind of magic. And then, the humans were the ones fighting against the dragons, and winning apparently.

"Réng, hurry up. You're falling behind." The man with the ancient black sword said over his shoulder as he waited for his longtime servant.

"Sorry Àomàn-sama." The swordsman with the five blades ignored the rest of the dragon history and followed his master once again. "My lord?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"I am just uncertain that we made the right choice to break off into groups like this, sir. Leaving Qūzūn-sama and Ziháo-sama together in the same place is like leaving a wolf and a tiger in the same cage. And Diyi-sama is far too inexperienced to fight by himself with no restraint. To leave our comrades to battle against whoever won the fight is-"

"Réng?"

The servant swordsman stopped talking and looked towards his Master. "Yes sir?"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" He looked over his shoulder and gave his oldest servant a cold glare. "If those morons lose to that golem then they were never worthy enough to follow in my shadow." He looked forward again, his devilish grin growing as he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. "I only need the best to help me take control of the swords."

Réng softened his eyes in worry about the detached tone his Master was taking with other peoples' lives. "Master-"

Àomàn ignored his servant's worry and concentrated only on the end result. "First I'll take the swords. Then, I'll find the Heartfilias. I'll destroy that bastard's home, kill all of his servants and partners. And I'll make sure he has a front row seat while I skin his little daughter alive like an animal." The Commander and his Lieutenant walked into the light of the central vault.

All around them, there was treasure and gold filling the massive building that rested underwater. As far up as they could see, there were paintings, gold coins and jewels. From the floor all the way to the ceiling, there were more and more murals that depicted the end of the civil war of dragons.

But it didn't matter.

The former heir of the Bunce ignored all the riches and money, only looking down at the prizes on the bottom floor. Imbedded in seven sheaths of stone were seven exquisite blades. Each with their own patterns and designs, giving off a presence of unparalleled power.

Àomàn smiled as he looked at the fruits of his efforts. "And then...the world."

########Hunter########

Naruto skidded back on the floor, giving him the room he so desperately needed from the psychotic boy. He lifted up his head, blood dripping down his scalp and all across his face. But he never lost his fearless glare aimed at the laughing child as he spun the weight in his hand excitedly.

"Hahaha, you are so amazing Nii-chan! That usually works to beat everyone else down! You really are strong!"

Naruto offhandedly wiped some blood off his face with his hand and looked down at it. "How the hell did you do that?"

Diyi tilted his head but kept his smile, "Do what?"

"You know what." Naruto pushed himself off the ground and settled himself for a fight. "How did you get behind me so fast?" He waited as Diyi realized what he was talking about and smiled even wider.

"Oh! That! Hehe!"

Diyi took a step forward, and appeared right in front of Naruto once again. Naruto clicked his teeth and brought his sword between the sickle and his neck. But the young Ronin lifted up the chain and wrapped it around the older boy's neck, locking him in as he drew the iron weight over his head again.

But this time, Naruto lifted his left arm over his head and blocked the weight completely, making a loud metallic thud ring out through the hall. Naruto stretched out the chains and pushed away from Diyi.

Diyi jumped back a little and grabbed his Kusarigama tightly. "My magic is called Flash. I use my magic to shorten the distance between my target and I so I can jump at them at Super speed!" As a demonstration, the Ronin boy appeared on the wall besides Naruto, using it as a step as he threw his weapon around like a sling.

Just as Naruto blocked the attack, there was another one being aimed at him from behind. He rolled out-of-the-way in an attempt to escape but the Flash boy was on the ceiling, aiming down as the weight cracked into the cement. With every attack he blocked or countered, there was already another being thrown at him from behind. And another. And another.

Diyi cackled like a clown as he watched the older boy seem to struggle with his movements. After a while, the weight started to graze his skin and the sickle started to leave shallow cuts. "Hahahahaha, to be able to move around and attack at these speeds is proof that only a genius could use this power! I've killed so many soldiers, mages and fighters like this that I've actually lost count! It's scary, isn't it Nii-chan? To face someone so terrifying!"

He appeared over a slumped over Naruto with his sickle overhead, preparing to deliver the final blow. "To face someone so strong!"

*Thump*

Diyi coughed up spit. He was so stunned that he couldn't even Flash away from the blind back-fist that found itself in his ribs. Diyi finally reacted and jumped back, breathing heavily as he glared at the back of the boy who didn't even turn around to counterattack. He saw Naruto slowly turn over his shoulder and look at him.

"You're fast. Not strong." He stated plainly while he looked like he just realized something.

Diyi widened his eyes before he hissed through his teeth, "What did you say?"

"I just realized what kind of fighter your are." Naruto pushed himself off his knees and rotated his neck and shoulder, sending his sword back into its Requip and leaving him unarmed. "You're a hit and run style fighter. I used to do stuff like that too when I was against guys who totally outclassed me." A certain old bastard with an eyepatch came to mind when he thought about it.

Diyi seemed totally befuddled by his statement. "W-what do you-"

"You're really fast, but that's to compensate for the fact you don't have much physical strength, right? You kept jumping around to attack from my blind spots and avoid a full frontal assault. Because your strikes were really fast but they didn't leave much damage." He looked over his clothes and touched the parts he was hit, "If I didn't fight back they would have started to pile up and that would have been worse."

Diyi was shaking uncontrollably, his eyes hidden by his shaggy hair. He looked at Naruto with pure detest, "Don't talk like you're my better! I've been through countless fights against weak people like you! And I've never lost a single match in my whole life! Not once!"

Naruto looked at him in shock before he narrowed his eyes sternly. "Then how the hell are you ever going to learn anything?!" He yelled back strongly as Diyi was caught off guard, "You're never going to learn anything and get stronger if you only win your whole life! You fight! You lose! You train! You fight! You win! That's how it works!"

Naruto blinked in surprise before he smugly rubbed his chin. "Ah, is this what they call 'Senior Guiding'? Perhaps this is what happens when you gain enough experience to lecture your juniors? Ahaha!" He laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

Diyi appeared in front of him, ready to cut open his insulting throat. But Naruto just looked at him blankly and stopped the attacks in their path. Diyi started to desperately swipe at him from all sides, trying to prove him wrong. But whenever the attack came close, Naruto leaned out of the way or stepped back. "I'm strong! I'm strong! I'M STRONG DAMMIT!"

"And now that you're angry, you've given up your only advantage." Naruto telegraphed a punch at Diyi's face, making him panic and jump back to give him space. Naruto shook out his hand and looked up at the younger boy, "You're not the only one who has been in life and death matches."

Diyi furiously gripped his Kusarigama and yelled out in desperation. Visions of an abused child fighting for his life in a horrific, blood covered surrounding of a cult. And killing each member there to survive, even through his own agonizing pain. He used Flash to charge forward and threw the iron weight with everything he had, "SHUT UP!"

Naruto dashed and stopped the iron weight in its place, the chain reverberating backwards. Naruto grabbed it and pulled, wrapping the chain around the young Ronin's arm as he tried to free himself. "I bet you will be very strong when you grow up. But maybe you should try to find something better to fight for than just killing for fun." Naruto smiled as he crushed the iron weight in his left hand. "So let me be the person to set you on that path."

He pulled with all his might, jerking Diyi off the ground and into the air.

Naruto jumped high and grabbed the younger blond by his face. He dropped down and prepared to implant the boy's head into the concrete.

He stomped the ground and held the young boy's head an inch above from impacting the floor. Naruto carefully laid the wide-eyed boy down on the ground as he picked up the chained weapon and separated it.

"Wh-what did you do?" Naruto looked down at the temporarily stunned boy as he shakily looked up at him.

"I scared you with the feint I just made. Making you panic, angry, lose control and almost smash your head in has caused you to go into shock. You can't move yet, right?" Diyi tried to lift up his arms but found that his whole body had sort of crapped out on him. He angled his head and looked up at Naruto, shaking it. "That will probably fade in a little while. Don't worry about it."

Diyi positioned his head again and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't think I like losing."

Naruto nodded and started fiddling with the broken weapon. "Yeah, no one does. That's why you've got to keep getting stronger."

"Is this how you got strong Nii-chan?"

Naruto gave him a thoughtful smile and nodded his head. "Yep. I used to win and lose a bunch of fights with my friends back when we were together. And when I started learning Magic, I fought against a monster and lost this arm." He waved to the boy with his prosthetic. "But I didn't want to just stay in place and worry about how I lost. So since then, I've been getting stronger and stronger to make sure I don't lose. I haven't won every single fight since then, but I've definitely been getting better."

"I think Réng-chan is super strong too." Naruto blinked and looked down at the little boy questioningly. "He's my Senpai in the Ronin. He's been teaching me how to fight with my sickle and weight. He probably saw that I wasn't strong enough and taught me never to confront my enemies."

Naruto settled against the wall and listened as the boy told him about the last remaining Ronin. "Réng-chan is probably the best swordsman I know. Like one of those samurai. He's fast. Strong. And really good with a sword. And he is way better than Ziháo-chan, Qūzūn-chan and I. So be careful."

Diyi looked up at the ceiling and seemed to grow a little somber. "But Ào-chan...he's really scary. He isn't as good a fighter as the rest of us. But when he uses his sword-"

The entire structure shook around violently, making Naruto stumble and try to keep his balance. They heard the sound of scraping stone and rumbling water. The walls started to crack and split, squirting out water at quick speeds as the boys were doused in it.

Diyi coughed up some of the lake water as it had already started to make puddles on the floor. "Wh-what's happening?"

Naruto looked off in the direction towards the center vault. He wiped his mouth and growled angrily, remembering Kichiyo's warning about the fail safe. "Bastards..."

He grabbed Diyi by the back of his uniform and pulled him up to the side of the wall, propping him against it as he started running off towards his next target.

########Hunter########

He waited patiently for the arrival of his foe as he stood at attention near the cracking, dripping wall. This was what his family had been teaching him since he was just a small child. The elegance to wait. To perform at the best of your efforts. And to always listen to your master.

It came with the job of being in the family of employees serving the Bunce family for several generations.

Réng had always listened to what Àomàn-sama asked and demanded for. Ever since they were both children, he had always been a devoted servant. And even now, when the Bunce family fortune was no more, Réng did not abandon his duty to follow his Master's orders.

And now, while his Master was retrieving his desired weapons and destroying this facility in the process, it was the servant's duty to stall his opponent.

Réng shifted in place and angled the five sheaths strapped to his body for easier removal. This...this would be where all the years of sword training come to light.

The tall, dark-haired man heard the sounds of splashing steps from the opposite end of the hall. He walked away from the wall and stood in the middle of the path, ready for his opponent. Their footsteps splashed through the water that had already started to reach his ankles.

From out of the darkness, the whiskered young man walked into the light of the torches that were still burning. Naruto slowly and cautiously stepped forward and stood opposite of the taller, older man. The Ronin bowed his head slightly towards the mildly panting younger man, "I have been waiting for you to arrive. Shall we settle this matter quickly or can we discuss a peaceful solution to this problem?"

Naruto didn't seem to acknowledge what the older man said and just continued to look him over. "You're different."

Réng only seemed to blink a few more times to show he was confused by the statement. "What do you mean?"

Naruto kept his body loose but continued to keep a wary eye on the Ronin. "You're a lot stronger than all the other Ronin you left behind. You didn't have your guard down even when I wasn't here. I knew that if I tried to ambush you from over here, you would have countered it. And you're not like the other guys either, you're not so far up your own ass that you can't see me as a threat."

"Of course I can see that you are strong. I knew the moment you blocked the attack from Kichiyo-sama that you were a worthy adversary that we may have to fight. Due to the fact that I couldn't hear the Guardian yelling behind us, I had a strong estimate that you were the one that was going to make it here." The polite Ronin stated almost blandly like it was no problem at all.

"Also, thank you for your compliment of my ability. It is quite an honor to receive a word of praise from someone who has won so many fights already." He bowed respectfully to the stunned younger man across from him. He stood back up and got into a deep stance, grabbing the hilt of the blade strapped to his left side. "As such, I shall challenge you to the full extent of my ability."

Naruto was dumbstruck as he couldn't believe what was happening. After all the craziness of separating lakes, talking rocks, homicidal weapon users and bald mages; somehow this was the strangest sight of the day. Such a respectful and noble swordsman was praising his enemy one moment and then ready to fight him the next. Naruto couldn't quite figure out what the right choice of action was here.

He raised his hands and motioned for him to calm down. "Okay, okay. Let's take a moment to-"

The swordsman appeared closer than arm's reach away from the boy, face to face with him. His eyes were steeled and unwavering as Naruto's widened in shock. He gripped his handle tighter and pulled it out in an arc.

"Iaijutsu: Calming Crescent Moon"

Naruto jumped away as fast as he could with Armor coating his feet. But even with the enhanced stepping, Naruto barely avoided the blade from getting a shallow cut along his chest.

As Naruto stumbled back from the abrupt move, he looked up to see the Ronin had already repositioned himself and was spinning in the air with two blades this time. Naruto panicked and summoned his swords to block the strike, barely parrying their impressive power.

The Fairy Mage was forced back, skidding against the water and ground as he held his blades back up to block the oncoming attacks. Like a relentless storm the Ronin struck against his swords with overwhelming skill and technique. He spun around, dashed forward, retreated back and attacked as if it was as easy as breathing. Even when more of the supporting walls started to break down and drench the two men, he didn't stop attacking.

The swordsman parried the countering strike from the younger boy and did a quick turn on his feet, throwing a back kick at his chest. Naruto jumped back and barely avoided the kick, but then saw the man jump up and throw two shorter swords as his face.

The two blades were imbedded into the ground as Naruto's feet kicked up water from the retreating moves. He was kneeling and breathing rather heavily as the man stepped forward and reached down, plucking the two small swords out of the ground and holding them between his fingers. "You truly are a man of great ability. I have not faced many with such instinct and agility like yours before. And to hold your swords after so many attacks tells truth of your strength."

Naruto looked up and glared at the older man, blood dripping down from the long cuts across both cheeks. He was finding it hard to react in time with the strikes and movements of the more experienced swordsman. His limbs were feeling sore and his breathing was starting to become more ragged. Naruto realized what this meant, of course.

He was getting too tired. All the continuous fighting, blocking against Kichiyo's attacks and dodging Diyi's strikes were building up after all this time. He still had a lot of strength reserved but he wasn't at top condition. And he wasn't in the best shape to be fighting against such a skilled swordsman.

Naruto let out a calming breath and pushed off his knees, holding both blades in his hands tightly. The Ronin looked at the boy's swords and seemed to realize something. He grew wary but slowly stood out of his experienced fighting stance. "Tell me where you obtained those blades?"

The whiskers youth looked off at the blades before looking back up at the man. "Does it matter?"

"Greatly. Those blades are-" he stopped his point of arguing and shook his head, regaining his stoic attitude. "Never mind. It does not matter anymore how you came across those swords." He pulled out a fifth blade from another sheath strapped to his midsection, a Wakizashi. "My name is Réng Hyou. Loyal servant to the Bunce family."

"And if you will not tell me how you found those swords, then I shall take them from you." He placed the hilt of the medium-sized blade in his mouth. He gripped both katanas and tantō in his hands. In his right, the katana was properly held with the tantō in a reverse grip over it. And in his left, the katana was held in the reverse grip with the tantō facing forward. He lowered himself down, his legs in a very wide stance as he kept his unflinching stare on the blond boy.

Others would have thought that this man was being a ridiculous fool with his choice of fighting style and stance. But Naruto could sense from the killing intent he was emitting and the steadiness of his swords, even the one in his mouth, that he was no amateur. He lowered himself into his own dual wielding stance, one sword in front as another was held slightly overhead behind him. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Mage of Fairy Tail."

The two swordsmen stood facing each other, neither making the slightest move. Even as the walls continued to break apart and fill the hallway with the water from the lake. As the water started to reach their shins, the men ever so carefully deepened their stance.

The ceiling cracked and shot out a spray of water, obscuring each of them from the other's view. And at that chance, they both dove forward and crossed blades through the dashing stream. Forced back from the power of the strikes, both men dove again and locked blades.

Naruto struggled to keep the deadlock still as he gave a weak smile at the older man. "I...can't sense any magic coming from you...are you even trying yet? I'm getting insulted." He hesitantly laughed as the blades screeched against each other, sparks flying in every direction.

With very little difficulty, the man spoke around the hilt in his mouth, "I am not going easy on you. Unlike the other members of the 44 Ronin, I cannot use any form of magic. But what I lack in magical ability..." He pushed apart the swords and charged, "-I more than make up with my blades!"

Réng ran forward and sent a barrage of slashes against the shorter boy. With every strike, Réng adjusted so that his swords swung around and nearly cut through the boy with the reserve held blade. Naruto was barely dodging with his best efforts against the overwhelming skill and speed Réng was using to fight, forced to use his prosthetic as a guard against some of the strikes.

Neither fighter was deterred by the crumbling surroundings or filling water, only concentrating on the enemy in front of him. As they traded blows and swiped their swords so fast there was only shimmering blurs, Réng brought himself closer in and swiped the blade in his mouth at the young boy's eyes.

Naruto instinctively leaned back, but was forced off balance by the Ronin. Réng sent a knee at his stomach and was blocked by Naruto shifting it off course with his elbows. But with that opening, he cut a deep gash along the boy's right shoulder.

Réng stabbed one of the tantōs into the shorter boy's leg, making him scream in pain. And tried to pierce the other one under his ribs, but Naruto's pain was making him livid and he broke the short blade before it could cut into him. As his sword broke, Réng jumped up and placed both feet against the boy's chest.

In an amazing feat of strength, the Ronin swordsman kicked Naruto in the chest and sent him flying down the hall. He bounced off the floor and laid in the water for a moment, breathing heavily as he dropped his swords. Blood seeped out of the cuts and around the small-sword still lodged in his leg. He struggled to lift his head and look back up at the man as he effortlessly swung his blades into a comfortable grip.

"You truly are a skilled warrior at your age. But I believe that I outdo you in swordsmanship skill. And even without the ability to use magic, I believe I am one of the strongest members of the 44 Ronin." Réng said without a single hint of arrogance or smug overconfidence in his tone. It was like he was just giving a fair warning. "You cannot defeat me as a swordsman."

Naruto groaned in pain as he got on his hands and knees with a trembling grip, looking down as the lake water filled up the hallway more and more. He reached out and grabbed Kusanagi with one hand while gripping Excalibur with the other. He was silent for a moment as the Ronin silently looked down at him, running water sounding in the background.

"You're right." Naruto sent both exquisite blades back into his Requip space as his hands were washed over by the water. "I'm not a strong enough swordsman. Not yet anyway. I can't beat you like this...not with my swords."

Réng kept an emotionless gaze on the boy as he seemed to resign himself to the fact. He closed his eyes in relief.

"But do you think that matters?"

Réng opened his eyes and looked down at the boy who was on all fours and shaking. But not from pain or fatigue. From anxiousness and perseverance. "I don't need to call myself a swordsman. Or a Ronin."

He gripped the tantō in his leg and shook it out, gritting his teeth as some blood spurted out of the wound. "I don't need to be a hero. Or a ninja. I'm not a slave. Or a Jinchūriki. And I don't even have to be a demon. Because I know what I am..."

He crushed the tantō in his hand as he stomped his foot and pushed himself up. He looked at the man with three swords with an indomitable spirit in his eyes. "I am The Hunter of Fairy Tail! I am a Mage!" He roared out defiantly as he got into a fighting stance, ignoring the state of his body as his soul felt like it was on fire. "And not you or anyone else will ever change that!"

Réng silently looked over the boy as he was slowly panting from the injuries. He had seen many other fighters, warriors and mages make a claim to not give up like that but fail to continue on. Succumbing to their fear, wounds or just unable to cope with the stress of fighting.

But he didn't sense any of that hesitation from the boy in front of him. He truly believed he could keep fighting the Ronin even without the use of any swords. Réng could tell all of that just from looking into the eyes of the young man.

In his entire life, he had only ever seen two other people who could dive into the storm like that without faltering.

He decided to fight the young Mage to the full extent of his abilities. Just because he had lost two of his five swords, did not mean he was any weaker without them. So why did that have to translate the same to the bare-handed fighter?

He lowered himself into a solid stance with both swords traveling along a line, pointing at the blond teenager. They both stayed still as they waited for another opening just like before.

Except this time Naruto didn't waste a moment hesitating and dashed forward, kicking up water with his powerful lunge. His charge forward went straight into the wall at the Ronin's right and used it as a jump post to ambush his side. Réng raised his arm and blocked the bulk of the dive kick with his bicep, grunting from the effort of the magically enforced attack.

He threw the whiskered boy off his arm and ran along the ground, waiting to attack on his decent. He waited to cut the boy's neck but Naruto channeled his magic into his fists and sent two attacks into the ground, keeping him up long enough for the blade to miss and cut some of his hair off.

Naruto landed in a handstand and started to spin on his palms, aiming kick after Armor coated kick at the defensive swordsman. He continued his barrage of strikes while the three-bladed swordsman was blocking them splendidly. The Mage knew that the Ronin had an advantage in skill and range but he had power and strength; if he could get in close, this match would be fair.

Naruto flipped up on his feet again and stepped back as Réng started sending well-coordinated slashes at his openings. Their feet continued to splash against the rising water as Réng dove forward and cut off the rhythm, catching Naruto by surprise as the two katana came at him.

The attack struck and forced the water around them to fly back. Réng kept his composure even as Naruto was using magic around his bare hands to block the blades an inch away from contact. Naruto growled and pushed the blades away, closing his fists and taking the opportunity to counterattack.

The two traded blows, dodged attacks and blocked strikes evenly. Where Réng surpassed him in swordsmanship, Naruto more than made up for in close quarters combat. He blocked a swipe with the back of his hand and swiftly moved inside the space of the swordsman's arm. He aimed a punch up but Réng moved his head, cutting a shallow wound into the boy's arm with the Wakizashi in his mouth.

Naruto took this chance to jump up and knee the Ronin in the chin, stunning him and crushing his mouth on the hilt of the sword. As he stumbled back and the sword fell from his mouth covered in blood, the whiskered boy spun and knocked one of the katanas out of his hand. As he got his balance and grabbed his head to keep his vision still, he looked down to see the boy was coming into an attacking stance within his arm span.

Naruto had his fist chambered to his side and used his other arm to block the sword attack over head. He gathered as much of his magical power as he could spare into his palm and buried it into the Ronin's stomach. His power flared and the swordsman was slowly lifted off his feet, his eyes wide open and some blood flying out of his mouth.

"Storm Palm Thrust!"

Réng was thrown back at immense speeds, bouncing off the water in the halls as he neared the entrance to the vault. Naruto followed the effect of his attack and ran down the halls towards the end of the hall.

########Hunter########

The leader of the Ronin group was laying each of the powerful elemental blades next to each other in the span of his jacket. He ignored the sound of the water pooling in together at the bottom of the massive vault as he only concentrated on keeping his prize together in place. He folded the arms of his jacket together and tied them, making a suitable knapsack to carry the weapons out of this sanctuary.

He tossed the bag over his shoulder and started to leisurely walk around the vault space, looking over the scripture and treasure that was blown away by the lake water. The gold and history did not matter to him anymore. He knew that wealth like that was fleeting and there was only one true way to keep an empire lasting forever; power.

He leaned his head all the way back to see the very top of the building spire. And all around the walls were indents and staircases in the building to help climb his way to the top. He couldn't help but chuckle a little about the stories of the inescapable place. How no man will ever see the light of day again if they entered the Den Of Dragons.

He slowly gripped the hilt of his legendary blade.

Pftt. Maybe for peasants. Not him.

He was forced out of his thinking when he heard the sound of something crashing through the piles of gold and falling into the massive pool that had started forming in the lower levels of the vault. Réng popped out of the surface of the water, gasping for breath as he swam his way towards the dry structures that his master stood on.

"Réng? What are you doing here?" The former heir of the Bunce cooperation questioned his servant as he pulled himself up out of the water, still gripping one of his swords.

"A-Àomàn-sama-" he coughed up some water and blood as he looked towards the entrance of the vault he had come flying in from. "You need to escape now! I'll hold him off!" He stabbed his sword into the ground and pulled himself onto one knee, using it as a stand to keep him from falling over.

Àomàn looked from his loyal servant to the entrance where he heard footsteps getting louder and louder. A young blond with strange markings on his face ran into the vault while breathing rather heavily. He had some cuts on his face and blood stained his tattered, ripped up clothes. He looked down towards the last two Ronin and glared, "Hey you! You're the leader? You were the one who took out the dragon swords and started to sink this place, right? What the hell were you thinking? You're going to kill us!"

Àomàn just looked down at his servant. "Réng, is this the kid who has been causing you guys trouble?"

"Hey! Don't ignore me asshole!"

"Y-yes my lord. He has proven to be a very powerful opponent to fight against. But..." He gripped his stomach as a spike of pain ran through his body, the previous attack far more damaging than he originally thought. "I shall hold him off while you-"

"Réng..." The leader carrying the swords muttered his servant's name bleakly. He looked down at his kneeling, injured butler with eyes as cold as ice. "You can't even handle a child, can you?"

Réng clicked his teeth, "Master-"

"Can I really put any of my trust in you and the others when you can't even handle a single Mage?" He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I thought you, more than anyone else, wouldn't fail me when I needed you."

"I-I'm sorry master." The proud swordsman said with a heavy head and heart.

"You're a samurai, right Réng? A clan of proud warriors who never settle for failure. And your family has sworn servitude to mine for centuries now. And yet here you are, failing my expectations. So how does a warrior like you make amends for this act, huh?" As Àomàn stopped his speech, he started to curl his hands around the hilt of his blade and pull it out.

Réng kept a regretful but calm expression on his face as he slowly closed his eyes and lowered himself into a seiza position. His former master slowly pulled out the sword made from a black dragon's scale and lifted it over his head. There was only act of repentance for a warrior like him to take after failing his master. An act he had learned to accept from the trainings of his family.

Death.

The sword came down, aiming for the swordsman's neck as he didn't make any action to dodge, waiting patiently for his redemption.

"MOVE!"

Once again, he felt the young mage's boot strike his chest and knock him out of his spot. The whiskered boy had his two blades in hand and raised them to intercept the black sword that was coming down, but was shocked to see the sword was having little difficulty cutting through the two metal weapons like sheet paper.

He moved in the air and barely dodged the sword from cutting into him. Instead, the force from the sword and magic sent a powerful shockwave and a large air blast struck down an entire wall of the vault, splitting it in two.

As the vault was flooded with even more water at a dangerously growing pace, the scriptures on the wall fell apart and crumbled to pieces. Naruto rolled out of the way and next to the recovering Réng, looking down at the two blades that had so easily been destroyed. "Dammit. And I was trying to keep these things intact this time." He tossed the broken weapons off and heard them splash in the rapidly drowning area.

Réng pushed himself up while holding his chest painfully, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving you. What does it look like?"

"B-but why?"

"Because you were about to be killed dumbass! I wasn't just gonna stand by and watch that happen!"

Réng mashed his teeth together. "That doesn't matter! A death like this is my only way to regain my honor!"

Naruto looked at him in anger. "Why the hell do you need to die for something like that?! It's just stupid and thick-headed!"

"You do not understand! My honor is the one thing I cannot live without! And if I have failed my master like this then I must atone for my mistake with my life! If I cannot live with my honor, what else is there to live for?!" He abandoned his usually calm demeanor and yelled out at the back of the boy standing in front of him. Until he felt the boy grab his collar and pull him in quickly.

"YOU FUCKING LIVE!" The boy with the mismatched eyes yelled out defiantly at the stunned older man. "In our life we can have many chances to prove our worth, honor and strength! But you only get to live your life like this once! And even if you're my enemy, I'M NOT GOING TO JUST STAND BY AND LET YOU KILL YOURSELF FOR SOMETHING STUPID LIKE HONOR! I WON'T WATCH PEOPLE THROW AWAY THEIR LIFE LIKE THAT! NOT LIKE THIS!"

Naruto started lifting the taller man over his head, "So if you want to find a way to get your honor back...Then get out of here and face me on land!" He threw the injured man over their heads and towards the entrance. Even with his wounds the swordsman landed on his feet and looked back to the two men standing in the middle of the falling landscape. He seemed to hold an internal argument of what to do next before he started running back to the entrance of the Den of Dragons.

Àomàn was left standing across from the strange blond boy with his Kokuryū out to his side. "That wasn't very nice of you. He really did want to die like that."

"Coming from the guy ready to swing the blade...that doesn't mean much."

He shrugged his shoulder and shook his head, "Come now. I was only going to fulfill his desire to keep his code of honor. After serving me for so many years it's the least I can do to make sure he dies content."

Naruto glare grew even sharper. "If he is such a great subordinate why does he have to die?"

Àomàn chuckled a little at the question from the outsider. Before he smiled viciously and his eyes became crazed and cold. "Because he failed me. All of them are failing me. All my life I have seen nothing but fools and lowly humans miserably fail at what they do. Servants. Soldiers. Accounts. My parents. All of them failures! And I want to move up in this world, regaining the empire I was so wrongly denied. I promised all those that followed me that I would give them strength if they could use it right but apparently none of them are up to the challenge! So what if I kill a few drones and useless morons! No harm, no foul!"

He barely got out of the way from a stepping sidekick that had enough force to clear out the water behind him until it filled back in a moment later. Naruto chambered his leg and kept it held high, "You know...it just dawned on me...guys like you" he looked over at the leader of the Ronin with a vicious smile of his own, "I fucking hate the most in this world!"

He then flipped back and dodged another sword slash from the man with the legendary blades. He was showing off his teeth and chuckling. "You too. The 'oh so honest', righteous types that interfere with everything I've worked for just rub me the wrong way!"

Àomàn started waving his sword wildly in an attempt to eviscerate the agile teen. Naruto stepped back and kept a constant distance from the range of the sword that was attacking him. He grinned and looked at the man holding the dragon swords.

"I heard that sword was very strong but you seem to wave it around like a toy. Maybe the legends of it are just blown out of proportion and it's just an old sword that kept in shape. Which means," Naruto jumped up in the air and gave himself a space over the stunned Ronin. He put a large amount of his remaining magic into his left hand and clenched a fist, falling back down at the heir. "Let's see how strong it really is!"

With his full power, Naruto landed a devastating hammer fist on the sword that Àomàn used to protect himself. The clash of metals rang out through the huge structure and a shockwave blasted through the air. The fluctuation of power subsided and everything became calm again.

Nothing.

Not a scratch.

The floor underneath him was cracked and splintered. Even the man's arm was shaking from holding off the power of that attack but the blade had come out of it completely unchanged. A stunned Naruto was thrown back when Àomàn swung him away and chambered his arm with a vile smirk.

"Didn't it penetrate your thick skull maggot? Humans...magic...they are nothing...in front of my blade!" He swung the sword out at the frozen Fairy Mage.

########Hunter########

Diyi was having trouble escaping from this flooding temple. No. Escaping wasn't the right word. He was barely limping out of this place while using the breaking walls as a support. And it really wasn't helping that the water had already risen up to the middle of his chest and was slowing him down even more.

Man if there was ever a time to wish you were a decent swimmer, it would be when the building you are trapped in was quickly flooding.

"A-aw man, Nii-chan really did a number on me. This just got a whole lot less fun real fast." The pre-teen heard the sound of even more rumbling and looked behind him to see the faint image of water filling up the entire hall. "Hehe, dang it. And I told Nii-chan I would get stronger too."

Just when the young criminal had resigned himself to his fate, he heard the sounds of boots meeting on solid rock. He looked back up just in time to be jerked out of the water and held underneath a tight arm. He looked up at the person carrying him while somehow not touching the water. "Réng-chan!"

The samurai was effortlessly jumping from wall to wall all the way down the hallway. "Hello Diyi-sama. Are you alright?" The man said trying to keep his usual calm monotone, but strangely he sounded like he was troubled and reluctant. "You are not too injured I hope."

"Just a little tired Réng-chan. Nii-chan was way stronger than I thought he was. I got beat pretty hard." He chuckled a little before he realized something. "What about you Réng-chan? You fight the whiskered-niichan too, right? Did you beat him?"

Réng stayed silent for a moment as he concentrated on the task at hand. "I do not know Diyi-sama. He was...a truly odd child."

"W-what about Ào-chan? Where did he-"

"Don't worry about Àomàn-sama right now Diyi-sama. We must concentrate on escaping from this place alive." He saw the guardian chamber they had first come through and jumped towards it. While he was running past he noticed the floating body parts of the two subordinates who were killed when they arrived and the separated body of the rock guardian they had met before.

As Réng continued to run at full speed to the first entrance, he heard a familiar voice ring out through the hall.

"You damn freak! Tell me how we get out of here already! I know you know!" The bruised, wild-eyed blond man said as he shook the stone armor helmet he had picked up from the second chamber.

"I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU, THIS PLACE ISN'T BUILT FOR YOU TO ESCAPE FROM!" Kichiyo screamed out again over the sound of the building collapsing around them,

"You bastard!" The former spear wielder tossed the stone helmet off to the side and watched it sink into the growing water. "Dammit! DAMMIT! NOT LIKE THIS!"

"Qūzūn-sama." The old blond man looked over to see two more members of the Ronin arrive to meet their end by drowning.

"Oh, so you two made it here as well. That little brat beat you guys too?" He received no answer from either, but Diyi did chuckle nervously. "Figures. I didn't even see him coming. Little bastard was quick."

"Where is Ziháo-sama?"

Just as he had finished asking the question, the former axe-wielder popped out from the surface of the water and gasped for air. He swam his way to the ledge of the floor, "I can't open the door! The fucking thing is shut tight!"

Qūzūn cursed as he stomped through the water as it rose higher from the addition of the breach from the vault. There was no visible way to escape from here in time before they drowned to death. He started to panic and hyperventilating, murmuring why he decided to join this group and the mistakes he made in the past.

*BAM*

They heard a loud crash and felt a shake run through the chamber walls. Ziháo took a deep breath and ducked his head underwater to get a look at the origin of the tremor. After a moment he broke the surface again and looked at his teammates in shock, "T-the door, it broke! Come on!"

Without hesitation, Qūzūn dove into the rising lake water and swam to the bottom desperately. Réng slowly walked to the edge of the floor and calmly told Diyi to take a deep breath, which he followed naturally.

The four Ronin swam through the broken doorway and saw a strange type of rock formation that ended at the door but started all the way up to the bank of the lake. They followed its form and started anxiously swimming their way to the surface of the lake, the structure behind them cracking and falling apart even more than before.

When they finally reached air, they took in deep breaths and coughed up the lake water that had filled their lungs. They crawled up the rock form and onto the grassland they had arrived on. Ziháo looked up to see a shadow slowly offer him a hand up.

"Do you need assistance?"

The Ronin smiled and coughed a little more, taking the hand for assistance to stand. "Yeah. Thanks for helping out your superiors dude. You might just get a reward for your-"

He then fully saw the form of the man who was helping him. He had a round, bald head and was extremely muscular. His eyes were narrowed in a serious manner but his smile was slightly cheeky as three of the four Ronin gaped at him in shock.

Behind the man, several stone spires, rock formations and massive craters littered the field around them. In the center of a crater, 30 something formerly armed warriors were locked up by stone handcuffs. Each of them bruised, beaten and completely defeated.

Jura gave them a confident smile. "What was that about a reward again, Ronin-Dono?"

Even while Réng kept his unflappable calm look, Diyi looked up at the Earth Mage in admiration and amazement. "Awesome."

########Hunter########

Àomàn ran up the path towards the top of the vault and looked down at the destruction he had caused. A clean, long cut had run up the entire wall of the vault in a diagonal line. He had to find higher ground or else he would be trapped underneath all of the water that was suddenly coming out.

"Hehehe, guess that should keep his mouth shut." He wiped his face clean and looked back up to the ceiling. "I probably went a little overboard on this. I need to make a move before-" he froze and realized he was missing something.

He looked around himself worriedly as he couldn't find the jacket bag carrying the swords he had taken. "Wh-where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!"

"Looking for this?"

He froze and looked up to see the blond boy stop climbing and look down at him with a tired smile, swinging the makeshift bag he had stolen from the Ronin. The swords scrapped together inside the cloth as the bloodied, worn out boy continued to climb his way up to the top.

The criminal was seething as he watched the Mage boy climb. This mongrel had the audacity to steal from him? And he even thought to gloat about it?!

Àomàn wasted no time and started to give chase by climbing up the stone wall as well. He used his Strong Arm magic to strengthen the power in his arm and pulled back to make another devastating strike at the climbing blond.

Naruto roughly jumped along the wall and barely avoided the air pressure from the swing reaching him as it shredded through the rock. "Hey! You should really watch where you-WOAH!" Dodging another slash as Àomàn didn't care that he was destroying their hold, only concentrating on killing the blond above him.

As more of his surroundings were destroyed, Naruto realized that keeping the weight on his back safe was slowing him down enough for the furious criminal beneath him to start catching up. And he still had a long way to go before reaching whatever was at the top of the structure. Naruto wrapped both his arms around the covered swords and jumped off the wall, sailing through the air for a moment before coming closer to the rising water underneath.

He shifted midair and tossed the bundle of ancient weapons up, sailing in an arc before landing at the ledge of where the ceiling met the wall. Naruto fell into the water and didn't immediately come back up. Àomàn abandoned his fury at the blonde and focused again on catching his swords. "Give...them...back-"

*SPLASH*

Naruto popped out of the water, yelled out with a mighty roar and soared at where the black-haired man was climbing. The Ronin barely had a chance to jump out of the way as the boy impacted against the wall and made a wide crater.

As Àomàn raised the sword to strike in close range, Naruto pulled his prosthetic out of the wall and started to block the weak, short range cuts. When he pulled the sword back and stabbed, Naruto used his left arm to run along the sharp edge and redirect the blade away from him, landing a swift jab into the Ronin's stomach and sending him flying away from the wall.

In the moment to compose, the weakened blond was taking as many deep breaths as he could as he looked down at his metal prosthetic in shock. All across the steel covered arm were permanent scratches from where the black sword clashed with his arm. There was even a narrow furrow all the way along his knuckle down to his elbow. This thing had withstood breaking stone, metal and everything in between but some light hits from that sword had damaged it!

As the debris from the ceiling broke off and fell into the water, the furious Ronin leader jumped out of the pool and soared straight at Naruto. He jumped back and raised his magic covered arms in defense against the sword slash, which did no good as a long horizontal cut appeared across both arms and drew blood from one of them.

"I WILL-"

He was kicked in the stomach and sent towards the far side of the structure they were fighting in. Naruto pulled himself out of the wall and looked up to see the killer whip his sword around again. But this time, Naruto jumped up along the rock and headed towards the top of the spire, avoiding the slash and jumping off of the wall.

"-NOT LOSE-"

But while in midair, he was violently kicked in the back and sent towards the edge of the ceiling. He bounced off the stone and fell on an outstretched platform, where he clutched his chest and coughed up a little blood. His vision was going blurry and his body wasn't reacting in time to fight back, all the fighting and injuries were finally taking their toll.

"-TO A FUCKING ANT!"

Àomàn dashed off the falling rocks and flew at Naruto like a rocket, sword outstretched to impale the whiskered blond. Naruto tried to dodge but was too late, pinned against the wall as the black dragon sword pierced his flesh and dug into his body right underneath his right set of ribs.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed out in agony as the swordsman tried to dig his blade even deeper into the younger boy's chest, hearing the faint sound of bone rubbing against the sword. A stream of blood flowed down the edges of the blade and dripped down onto the floor.

Naruto hissed and grabbed the black blade with both hands, trying to keep it from digging in underneath his ribs anymore than it already had. But Àomàn did not let up as he sadistically started to angle the sword more, making Naruto gasp in pain and cough up more blood.

"How does it feel, huh? To meet your end at the hands of a king? Can you feel the cold creep up on you as the light fades from your eyes? Well? Can you?" He leaned forward at the boy's pained expression and laughed even louder with a happy, sadistic smile.

"Ke-kehehehehehe..."

Àomàn looked at the boy quizzically as he somehow choked out a pained chuckle. "K-king? Pfft, you're nothing more than a spoiled brat with nice toys!"

The man was seething in anger as he tried to pull out his sword and cut off the boy's head to shut him up. When he realized that no matter how much he pulled, his weapon didn't move.

Naruto's left hand gripped the blade as tightly as he could, not letting it gain an inch backwards or forwards. Naruto slowly lifted his other blood covered hand off the sword and clenched a mighty fist. He gave Àomàn a burning, blood stained smirk and chuckled, "So what happens when that spoiled brat loses his toy?"

The Ronin panicked and released his hold on the sword, attempting to dodge the attack but Naruto dashed forward until he was only an inch away from the man's face. "Sorry, Ronin-Sama..."

"YOU FAILED!"

Naruto punched the man in the face as hard as he could, breaking his nose and knocking out several of his teeth. His face seemed to bend around the solid punch Naruto dug into his mug before he was sent flying to the other side of the building, smashing into the wall and falling to the floor unconscious.

The whiskered Mage held his punch up for a moment before he coughed in pain again and started to lean against the wall behind him. He slowly fell down the wall and landed on his butt, pulling out the bloody tipped sword that was lodged under his ribs. He inspected it for a moment and looked around at his surroundings; spotting the swords, the unconscious man and the water level that was already only a few feet away.

He weakly shrugged his shoulders, "Might as well see what all the fuss is about." He finished with a smile.

########Hunter########

Jura stood at the bank of the lake patiently, arms crossed as he gazed at the continuous series of air bubbles that rose to the surface from the collapsing structure underneath the lake.

"Hey Baldy! What the hell are you doing? Get us out of here already!" One of the 41 men behind him screamed out from where he was sitting on the floor, waving his locked arms around in anger.

Jura did nothing more than look over his shoulder at the men behind him. "I am waiting for my associate to arrive from the Den. Hopefully he will come back soon." He ignored the sound of the men hysterically laughing at him as he put his concentration back onto the lake.

"Do you mean that kid that followed after Àomàn? Hahaha, he doesn't stand a chance!"

"The kid is probably already dead!"

"I bet they're both dead! Floating dead in the water for the rest of time! Hahaha, it's better than they deserve!"

All of the joking men were scared shitless when the bald man gave them a cold, merciless glare from over his shoulder. They shut their mouths with an audible snap from the force of his intent.

"Mage-sama..." The powerful Lamia Scale Mage looked back to see the only reasonable member of the Ronin make conversation with him, the young blond boy besides him looking up at the Mage. "This is truly a hard topic to face, but they may be right about what happened to Àomàn-sama and Naruto-sama. If they did not make it out of there in time, what shall you do?"

"I will turn your group in to the authorities first, Ronin-Dono. And then..." He looked back out to the lake with a strong gaze, "If Naruto-Dono did not survive, then I shall retrieve him from the ruins and give him back to his family. Let him receive a proper burial, worthy of a man as brave as him."

The thought of his temporary partner not surviving settled into Jura's mind before a large explosion of water occurred at the center of the lake. All of the people on shore looked up in surprise as debris and rock flowed out from geyser of water. There was a surge of bubbles coming out when two blurry figures started to approach the surface of the lake.

Naruto popped out of the water, gasping for air and coughing up water as the black sword in his hand waved around. The whiskered Mage pulled the unconscious criminal out of the water and tried to keep them both afloat. He looked at the men on shore, "Jura! A little help!"

The Earth Mage didn't waste a moment as he sent an arm made of rock out into the center of the lake and pulled the boy and Ronin out of the water. It retracted back to land and dropped them on the grass, all of the other Ronin looking at the scene in shock.

Naruto tossed the unconscious man off to the side and laid down on the grass, exhausted from all of the fighting. A shadow passed over his head and he opened one eye to see Jura looking down at him with a pleased smile. "Can't...talk now...must fill lungs...with air..."

Jura took note of the fact that the boy was covered in bruises and cuts. He clothes were tattered and he was missing a sleeve to cover up his scratched up prosthetic. And that even with a severe wound underneath his ribs like that, he had carried out the man responsible for all of this fighting. "You did very well Naruto-Dono."

Naruto looked up at him and chuckled, giving him a quick thumbs up before dropping his arms back down. He took in several very relieving breaths of crisp, fresh air as Jura dragged the Ronin leader towards the rest of the group. He smiled and pushed himself up to a sitting position, partially squeezing the wound on his chest. "Look what I got."

Naruto concentrated his magic on his Requip and summoned forth a bag with several sword hilts popping out of the top. He pulled the jacket open and revealed seven different, colorful blades with their own intricate designs and style. Jura and the Ronin looked at him in complete shock, even Réng had his eyes opened wider.

"YOU GOT THE BLADES!"

"Naruto-Dono this is fantastic! Even among all the chaos you still managed to bring the blades with you?"

Naruto scratched the back of his neck and laughed, "Well they were lying there in a neat little pile and I couldn't resist."

"That's so awesome Nii-chan!"

"Stupid brat!"

"Bastard!"

Naruto laughed and winced when he was forcing his wounds to open back up. Jura looked at him with concern, "Will you be alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'll be fine." He looked over to where a large group of men were all glaring at them hatefully, except for about two of them. "Woah...you beat all of them by yourself?"

"Yes. But they did not have very much individual strength, rather relying on their overwhelming numbers and use of magic to amplify their weapons. Once I was able to separate them from their groups, they were not a very imposing challenge to face."

Naruto looked at the man blankly and felt some sweat go down his neck. "Scary."

"I believe the strongest members of the group went into the temple with you Naruto-Dono. How did you fair against them?"

Naruto got comfortable in the grass and remembered all of the fighting he did down there. "They were pretty strong in my opinion, some more than others those." He heard the axe guy and spear user click their teeth angrily. "And it was hard to fight all of them when I just finished with Ki-"

"Oh Shit! Kichiyo!" Naruto crawled his way to the lake and dunked his head into the water, looking at the remains of the once great building. He pulled his head out and looked up at his partner. "Jura! You've got to get me back down there! I left someone back there!"

"Wh-what?" Naruto tried to get back in the water but Jura grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away from the lake. "Naruto-Dono stop! The Den of Dragons has completely collapsed! You can't hold your breath long enough to reach the bottom and even if you could no living thing would be able to survive down there!"

Naruto tried to pull himself out of the grip the Lamia Scale Mage had on him, "I don't care, he's still-" he realized something and went in the opposite direction, running towards the blades that were on the ground.

He messed with them and looked them over from top to bottom. "One of these has got to do something! Anything! Come on-" he looked up towards the Ronin and ran up to them with a pleading look. "Hey, you guys know how the swords work right? You've got to tell me how they work."

They all looked between each other and gave a snide laugh. "Go fuck yourself kid."

Naruto felt his brow twitch in irritation. "Fine, but just so you know, I was being nice. You forced this on yourselves. Erza's Demon Questioning Wrath!" He grabbed the collar of the first guy he saw. "What do the swords do? Not fast enough!" He punched him in the face and knocked him out. He grabbed another guy, "What do they do?" Punched him before he could even start to sputter.

The Ronin members watch in fear as the crazy blond boy started basically beating up their teammates and throwing out a question every other attempt. While Jura just stood off to the side and shook his head in disbelief.

"It's the blue one."

Naruto stopped his fist just short of beating up another member of the Ronin and looked towards the respectful samurai he had faced earlier. The man looked at him with his stoic expression still evident and then back at the swords. "The blue knight sword. In the middle of the group. That one has properties of the Water Dragon that has blessed it. That was what Àomàn-sama researched about the blades."

Naruto looked from the man to the blades, dropping his next victim and picking up the long blue blade by its hilt. He examined it and then swung it out at the lake.

Nothing happened.

He tried it again with another mighty swing.

Nothing.

"It doesn't work. Is it broken or something?" He asked concerned about if he had broken the ancient, legendary weapons.

The man shook his head, "No, you just have not concentrated your magic on the blade's power. Concentrate only on the sword...let its presence take over you and become one with it."

Naruto looked down at the blue blade that rested in his hand. He slowly gripped it with both hands and closed his eyes, following the advice of the experienced swordsman.

He felt the sword's mere existence clash and grow with his own. In the presence of his magic, the sword gobbled it up like he did ramen, leaving nothing left. But from the blade eating off his magic he felt the sheer volume of power start to rise as it felt like he was being backed up by a dragon itself.

Jura watched in amazement as a faint, shimmering blue energy started to form around the shape of the blade as Naruto raised it over his head. He opened his eyes and brought the sword crashing down into the water.

Two walls of pure water flew up into the air as everyone was blown back slightly from the sheer force of the blast. Jura covered his eyes from the power of the water splashing into him as it started to finally die down. He looked on in pure amazement at the similar sight he witnessed before, the water rising up into the air and separating to reveal the destroyed structure resting at the bottom of the lake. "N-Naruto-Dono that was amazing! You split the lake in half!"

His compliments fell on deaf ears as he saw Naruto lying on his face, sprawled out on the ground and breathing heavily. "N-no more...too much...tired...no magic."

"Naruto-Dono! Your friend?"

"Oh right." Naruto ran off the shore and slid down the rock formation Jura made earlier to bust down the wall. When he reached the end he jumped off and dashed into the muddy opening of the sanctuary.

Jura watched apprehensively with his vision on the wall of water that slowly fell back into place. Jura looked back down to see the water fill the lake back up just as Naruto had emerged and started to climb the slide. Jura pulled the rock slide back up to the surface and placed Naruto on the grass again.

"Got him. Hahaha." Naruto placed the large, hulking rock that was about the size of his chest down on the ground and turned him towards Jura.

Jura looked at the large helmet in wonder. "What is this object?"

"MY NAME IS KICHIYO!" Jura jumped back from the loud voice that shouted out from the stone helmet. Several members of the Ronin group groaned in annoyance as Diyi cheered in excitement. Jura looked at the soaked blond incredulously.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and smiled, "Meet Kichiyo."

########Hunter########

July 8, X779

"A-A-Amazing! Truly unbelievable! The archeological find of the century!" The dandy looking archeologist looked over the large stone helmet that covered most of the table he was placed on. All around the table the older members of the archeological society were poking and observing the helmet. "A sentient, formerly dynamic rock being with auditory functions from the dark ages! Imagine the stories! The untold knowledge and wisdom it can pass down to us from its centuries of experience!"

"OKAY, SO A BABY SEAL WALKS INTO A CLUB...HUH? GET IT? COME ON THAT'S A CLASSIC!" The two mages who were watching the scene from a few feet away couldn't help but chuckle meekly at the guardian's attempt at dark humor towards the curious men.

"It appears that he seems to be quite the topic to talk about huh?" The bald Lamia Mage said.

"This is why you should never meet your heroes." The bandaged, blond Fairy Mage said as he shook his head in disappointment.

The mages stood by the entrance of the shabby looking establishment and kept their eyes locked outside where the Ronin were being piled away into 4-Wheelers supplied by the Rune Knights. Making sure they were in retrieval distance in case any of them attempted to escape.

"Naruto-San! Jura-San! Please come here!" They walked over to where Jean-Luc Neville was beckoning for them by the tables. When they arrived he immediately clasped his hands around Naruto and shook them vigorously before moving on to Jura. "Thank you! Once again thank you from the bottom of my heart for your excellent service!"

"There is no need for so much gratitude Neville-Dono." Jura protested docility in an attempt to calm the man down.

"Yeah we were only doing what you asked us to do. No problem."

"No! What you two have done is a far greater deed to this country than we believed!" The man protested in admiration. "Not only did you retrieve the swords of legend; but you defeated a grave threat to the safety of the people, unlocked access to a tomb that is rich in the knowledge of the dark ages and brought back a living 'specimen' from that time period!"

"WHO YOU CALLING A SPECIMEN, BUB?" The helmet protested loudly in anger before Naruto punched him over the head, which was basically all that was left of him to begin with.

"But truly the most fascinating aspect is these swords. They are so well crafted and sturdy." All of the group gathered around where seven different swords were lined up together across a second table adjacent to the first. "Kichiyo-San, you said you knew about the properties of these swords, correct?"

"YEP! EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW! I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS ABOUT HOW EACH ONE WAS MADE AND-" Naruto slapped a hand over where his mouth was to keep him quiet. Since the helmet didn't actually have a mouth the action was rather moot but it served to shut the stone creature up.

"Here Kichiyo I'll take care of this." He walked over and examined each sword carefully. "Kichiyo explained to me all of their abilities and stuff yesterday. He said..."

He pointed at the farthest one to the left and panned right, telling the group their affinity. "That was the sword of the Earth. That one was for Fire. This one was Sky. Light. Water. Wind. And the last one was for Shadow." He finished on the last black blade on the table and crossed his arms together. "He said that each of these swords was blessed with a portion of the dragon's original power and the basic use of their abilities."

Neville looked at the swords in astonishment. He then blinked and looked between the deep green colored blade and the light blue colored blade. "Wait? Sky? Wind? Shouldn't they have the same properties?"

"Kichiyo said that the Wind blade was helped forged by a dragon whose power specialized in using wind offensively. While the Sky sword was used for healing wounds and injuries. Although if each sword wasted as magic like the water one did yesterday, then good luck finding someone with enough magic to help an army on the battlefield."

"A sword that heals injuries?"

"Yeah Kichiyo told me that it was the only sword that is unable to hurt other people. Right?" Naruto looked back towards the helmet with his question.

"THAT IS CORRECT! THE BLADE BLESSED BY THE SKY IS UNABLE TO INFLICT PAIN OR DAMAGE UPON THOSE IT COMES IN CONTACT WITH! IT IS A WEAPON OF THE BATTLEFIELD USED TO BRING PEACE TO THE WEARY; THAT WAS WHAT GRANDEENY-SAMA SAID SHE WANTED THE SWORD TO DO!"

"Incredible." Neville carefully picked up the healing blade and looked it over in stunned fascination. "Well, I hope these will be able to help people one day."

"Jura-San!" A Rune Knight walked into the bar and up to the imposing Mage. Jura and Naruto looked back at him, "One of the Ronin is requesting the presence of the other Mage. The one with the blond hair."

Naruto blinked in surprise as he walked out of the bar/hotel and saw Réng standing there, his arms locked together with proper cuffs. In the background Naruto saw Diyi being placed into the prison carrier with the rest of the Ronin. But unlike them he had a smile on his face and waved goodbye to older boy happily.

Naruto returned the wave before looking up at the samurai he had fought yesterday. "Thank you for your help yesterday. I wouldn't have been able to save Kichiyo without your assistance so thank you." Naruto bowed to the older man who returned it without question.

He stood back up and looked down at the younger blond, "They belonged to the people who saved my life."

Naruto looked up at him in confusion. "What?"

"Those blades you fought with yesterday, they belonged to two people I had once met in a village many years ago. Back when the Bunce corporation were still a prominent business, Àomàn-sama was attacked by a group of assassins. I was just a child then but I still attempted to protect my master with my life. But before long all the other guards and soldiers were killed and I was about to be as well."

"But then...I saw a man and a woman appear from out of the nowhere, telling me to run and hide. I was still a coward back then so I couldn't help but run away. And I watched those two beat away the army of assassins like they were just swatting flies. It was amazing and terrifying, yet graceful and beautiful all at the same time." He remembered fondly watching the couple fight away the assassins like it was child's play, breaking his stoic mask and forming a small smile.

"One of them was a dark-haired man while the other was a lady with red-hair, right?" Reng's eyes widened in shock and he looked down at the smiling blond. "Kazuya Sukimina and Erika Sōto. They were my best friend's parents and those were their swords. Well, copies but you get the idea."

Réng kept still before he smiled and nodded his head. "Almost 20 years ago I resigned myself to death but was saved by two heroes who charged the storm by themselves. And now, all this time later and I was saved again. Perhaps...I should find something more to fight for. Something to make my saviors proud."

Réng bowed with deep respect to the blond. "Goodbye Naruto Uzumaki-sama. I hope one day our paths may meet again. In a more docile and friendly manner, hopefully." Naruto nodded his head and waved as the man walked in the prison carrier and took away the entire group of criminals out of town.

Jura walked up to the young blond and got his attention. "Neville-Dono has reimbursed us for our services in the request. Are you certain you do not want to take it? This reward belongs to you far more than it does me."

"Nah, I'm fine." Naruto chuckled and grinned happily. "I didn't take this job legally so I can't get paid for it. Besides, I think 'those' are more than enough of a reward for something like this."

Jura smiled and nodded his head, placing the 8 million J in his jacket. "Also, there is the matter of Kichiyo-Dono. Despite the requests from Neville-Dono and the rest, he seems to be extremely determined on joining a guild. I couldn't believe you had offered him membership into Fairy Tail but it seems like something you would do."

Naruto just started up at him blankly with huge white eyes. "Yeah...about that..." He scratched his neck and looked in a different direction, "I'm not taking him with me."

"What?"

"I think he's a great guy but my guild's got enough weirdoes as it is. Plus one of our guys just had a baby so we can't have a golem living over there."

Jura looked at him worryingly. "So where are you going to take him?"

Naruto kept his face completely blank and still for several seconds. Before looking up at the Earth Mage with wide, pleading eyes.

"No."

"Please?"

"No.

"I'm not taking any of your money...this is the least you could do for me."

"Naruto-Dono, I am not taking Kichiyo-Dono back with me to Lamia Scale. That is final."

Naruto raised his hand in the Rock sign and smiled, "Loser has to take Kichiyo with him."

Jura contemplated...

########Hunter########

Damn.

Naruto-Dono was really good at Rock-Papaer-Scissors.

"JURA-SAN! ARE WE THERE YET?" The helmet tied around the large man's back yelled out in excitement.

Jura shook his head and sighed tiredly, "No Kichiyo-Dono, we're still not there yet."

"OK..."

"...HOW ABOUT NOW?"

Jura could have cried from the unfairness of this deal. Naruto-Dono skipped out on the reward and fame but got a much greater prize in return. What did Jura get?

"JURA-SAN! JURA-SAN! KNOCK KNOCK..."

Not worth it.

#########Hunter########

Naruto was standing in front of the fire he had made for the night and he was completely absorbed in the task at hand. He was concentrating all of his effort on the image forming in his mind. It had taken him hours to Copy them because they were so much more powerful and they had strong magical properties his magic had to copy.

But...

Naruto raised his hands and seven different swords formed in the air. Each of them identical to the original dragon blades down to the last detail. He sent six of them back into his Requip space and held the green colored sword by its hilt.

He pressed the flat of it against his chest and channeled his magic through the blade. Just like the Water Dragon sword, the Sky sword consumed a huge portion of his magic power just to use. But when it started to activate, Naruto felt his cuts and bruises start to heal and fade. The pain from his head wound slowly disappeared and left nothing back. He pulled the sword off of him and noticed that the wound under his ribs was still there but lightened.

He smiled and looked down at the considerably powerful magic item. No wonder these swords were so desirable; if you could use your magic efficiently then these swords were unbelievably useful. And he was lucky enough to have a partner and clients that let him copy them for his own.

But that wasn't the largest prize he had earned from this mission. Naruto sent the green blade back into his Requip space and summoned a sword with a black sheath in its place. He looked at the sword worryingly and seemed reluctant as he coiled his hand around the black grip.

He slowly drew the Kokuryū out of its dress and looked at its flawless, shining black feature. Naruto was lucky he was able to hide this thing in his dimension space but no matter how long he tried to cover it in magic, this sword really was magic proof.

He told Jura that he had taken the blade from the Ronin Leader and prepared to turn the weapon in along with the criminals. But it was the disciplined man who suggested Naruto never let that sword fall into the hands of anyone else. Even if that sword was taken up by the authorities or the council, there was still a large chance that someone would steal it from there as well.

And he could understand why. Just holding this sword and looking at it felt like he was overwhelmingly stronger than ever before. It was a very big temptation to put in the hands of a growing Mage like him and would normally cause concern.

But fuck that. This was just a sword. An extension of himself that he would choose to use as a weapon. Nothing more.

Naruto strapped the sword and its sheath to his left hip and tighten it. He looked over the new additions to his arsenal and couldn't hide the massive shit eating grin forming on his face.

First S-Class Mission.

Finished.

########Hunter########

"Okay! This is the last time I am going to be nice about this!" Makarov yelled furiously from where he was standing on the table. His eyes were pure white from rage and he had throbbing veins all over his head. Besides him Gildarts also had a rather disappointed look aimed at the young members of the guild. "Which one of you took the S-Class request? I'm sick of asking!"

All of the members of the new generation were gathered together around one table. They each had their heads down and were uncomfortable about being yelled at by their master. Yesterday he had found out that one of the S-Class requests he expected to arrive was gone and he suspected it was one of them that had taken it.

Mira was gritting her teeth and shaking angrily. Finally she couldn't take this treatment anymore. "Aaahhhhhhhhhhh! Enough is enough! Natsu, admit to stealing the request and taking your punishment like a man!"

"Ehhhhhh!" The young pink-haired Dragon-Slayer was caught off guard by accusation. "Why me? I'm not the only one that could have taken it! It could still have been any of you!"

Everyone just looked at him blankly.

"Ahhhhhhh! You guys all suck!" Natsu felt completely dejected and lowered his head, feeling the hopelessness of losing all of his comrades at such an important time. He felt a hand rest itself on his back and he looked up to see Lisanna smiling at him.

"It's alright Natsu. If you didn't take it then I will believe in you until the end."

"Lisanna~." Natsu said with slightly watery eyes at his friend's faith in him.

"Of course if it turns out you did take it then I won't be able to help you."

"Traitor!"

"I bet it was the armor girl. She's been raring to go out and take missions like that for years now. She told me herself."

Erza grabbed Mirajane by the straps of her outfit and put her face up to hers. "Don't put this all on me Mirajane! You've been thinking about asking Gildarts to take you out on S-Class missions too!"

"Don't just yell that out you skank!" The girls started to pull each others cheeks furiously for accusing the other of the crime.

Cana was placing her cards out in front of her and giving a reading. "For the culprit...I see...nothing but pain and anguish for their deed."

"YER DAMN RIGHT ABOUT THAT!" Makarov yelled out as he flailed around in the air. "One of you better admit to this right now!"

Gray got out of his seat and looked at his master, "Jii-San, we've told you already! It wasn't any of us!"

"Okay then! Well if it wasn't any of you, then who took the request then?"

"Hey guys!" All of the guild looked over to the voice that had presented itself at the door. "My cold's all gone."

Naruto was smiling happily and waving his hand at all of his friends. His clothes were all nicely new and fresh. But his prosthetic arm was covered in deep scratches all over. Plus he looked extremely exhausted and he had a new sword tied to his waist.

Most of the guild just looked at him with stark white expressions. Like a safe was just dropped on their heads and they could finally see clearly for the first time.

"Hey Naruto! Jii-chan's all pissed at us about something stupid! So get ready!" Natsu yelled out to his friend who had been sick for the last few days.

For everybody else, that safe on their head had opened their eyes. For Natsu, it was another blunt trauma to add to the list.

########Hunter########

Done

So I realized something recently. I have been spreading my effort between other stories and relaxing a lot when it finally hit me.

I've lost a lot of the passion for this story. My favorite story. The first story where I actually started to develop and test myself as a writer like this, and it deserves so much more than that.

So I will attempt to make up for this by doing my best to release as many chapters as I can as fast as I can. Because just like you, I really want to get past these previous years and move along to canon. I'll do my best to get this up to date before the one year anniversary comes along in November.

Also, before anyone starts raging on me about why I let Àomàn live. My argument; Walter White. When a man is obsessed with making an empire, killing them isn't what stops them from going on. It's crushing their dreams and letting them see everything they've worked for and planned for fall apart in front of their eyes.

That's why Oda never let's one of his antagonists die. Because letting them see their efforts fail is far more crushing then ending their lives so easily.

And please review. I live off reviews. They help me grow. They're like broccoli and milk, necessary for little authors and authorettes to grow and be strong.

ReadxReview

Thank You and Bye