Chapter 2: Return

It has been around six months since Natsu left on his training trip, during this trip Natsu has mostly been in the mountains where the temprature is very low so that he could improve the power in his flames, it was originally both Igneel's and Yamamoto's idea.

In these past six months Natsu trained a lot and had gotten a lot stronger as well, he sometimes trained to the point where he couldn't even move a muscle and got reprimanded by both of his tenants afterwards.

For training, both of his teachers/tenants told him to train his body by carrying boulders while running for miles. They also told him to train his control over his flames and lightning. Then he would train in his inner world with both Igneel and Yamamoto.

For his dragon slayer magic Natsu had gotten very control over his magic while also learning some other moves from his adopted father, while for his demon slayer magic both him and Igneel started by recreating his dragon slayer attacks for demon slayer magic while still working on some new attacks.

Speaking of his magic, the pink haired demon-dragon slayer found out that he had not only became the fire demon slayer but also the lightning demon slayer.

He also made great progress in learning kidō(advanced spells that require strong spiritual power; Hadō and Bakudō), zanjutsu(sword fighting techniques for the Zanpakutō), hakuda(an unarmed fighting technique that makes use of one's own body in a fight) and hohō(the name for all high speed fighting movements based on the Flash Step).

He had already learned many kidō spells, almost mastered the art of zanjutsu, was quite proficient in hakuda, which Yamamoto theorised that since Natsu's magic allowed him fight at close range it was easier for him to learn hand to hand combat because of his previous training and was quite good in hohō, while he did not master it, he was still quite proficient in it. He had already mastered the Flash Step due to the hellish thing that his Zanpakutō called training.

Both of his trainers also decided that they should work on his brain as well since only brute strength could only get him so far, so Yamamoto decided to play shogi with him(which Natsu could manifest in his inner world after Yamamoto taught him how to do it), when they played shogi both of his trainers noticed that Natsu could come up with pretty good planes on his feet but that alone could get him so far, they also decided to improve his behaviour, etiquettes and social skills so Yamamoto drilled that into him as well.

They were also working on his irrational weakness of motion sickness which Natsu could only describe as: the hell on earth.

Despite all this he still got enough time on his hands to read the book that Makarov gave him and learn a bit from them and he had already learned the basics of the light magic and was now working on a bit more higher level in it.

Currently Natsu was walking through the mountains when he smelled blood and quite a lot of it too in the north direction from his position, so he decided took off in that direction at full speed to look at what was happening there but was suddenly stopped by Igneel.

"Wait Natsu! Don't go there just yet." Igneel said.

"But why Igneel, someone might need my help right now." the pink haired slayer asked.

"Because I can sense Acnologia there as well and as you are right now, you are not strong enough to defeat him so wait until he is gone before you go there. You should also supress your magic power and spiritual energy as well, he might sense you and come here." Igneel informed Natsu, Natsu did as he was told and supressed all of his magic power and spirit energy but he still looked ready to argue against his foster father but before he could, he was cut off by his Zanpakutō spirit.

"He is right Natsu, you are not ready to fight Acnologia yet and if you go there you will be killed." Yamamoto warned so Natsu reluctantly stopped and waited for the black dragon to be gone from the area.

"Hey Igneel you said that he could sense me, what if he already sensed me and supress his own magic power to lure me in." Natsu asked now looking a little worried.

"Don't worry he won't be able to sense you because from what I can sense he is having a little too much fun right now, and as for supressing his magic power, well that is impossible for him since he has too much of it to be superessed easily." Igneel said making Natsu to sigh in relief. He waited for about an hour before Igneel told him that he can't sense Acnologia anymore now, which meant that he had left from the area. Natsu wasted no time and quicky used Flash Step in order to reach his destination quickly.

When Natsu reached to the sight he saw a figure in almost two parts which almost made him puke but he controlled himself and made his way to the figure, when he got closure he gasped in horror when he noticed that the figure was none other that his second father figure, the ace of fairy tail guild, Gildarts Clive.

"GILDARTS!" Natsu shouted and quickly rushed toward the downed mage, when Natsu reached Gildarts, he quickly used the small bit of healing kidō, that he knew, to stop the bleeding before he used his fire to close the wound and picked him up before using Flash Step toward the nearest town to find a doctor to heal the crash mage.

"Na...ts...u" Gildarts muttered before he lost consciousness.

When Natsu reached the nearest town, he quickly asked for the doctor and begged him to heal the crash mage, the doctor there told the pink haired dragon-demon slayer that it will take about a whole day for the surgery to take place inorder to attach new prosthetic arm and leg to Gildarts and that he should wait. It was an excruciating long day for Natsu as the surgery was under process. He had practically camped outside the surgery room, while the surgery was being performed, despite the protest from the doctor.

When the doctor came outside from the room, Natsu was already in front of him and pretty much demanded about his second father figure's condition. The doctor told him that everything was fine and his friend should be able to wake up in five days and even praised him for effectively closing his wound with fire otherwise the crash mage may had lost too much blood. When Natsu got the good news he sighed in relief and flopped down on a seat nearby him. That day he realised that he was still not strong enough to defeat the monsters like the Black Dragon of Apocalyse and the Black Wizard and made vow to train even harder than before so that he could become strong enough inorder to protect his loved ones and his family.

And true to doctor's word Gildarts woke up in five days and the moment Natsu was informed the was instantly in Gildarts' room and asked how was he feeling.

"I'm feeling alright, well as alright as one can be with these things." Gildarts said while pointing toward his artificial arm and leg.

"So what were you doing in those mountains?" Natsu asked.

"I was just passing by from there to start my mission but somehow I got stumbled upon that dragon's cave and got my ass handed to me." Gildarts laughed. "So what are you doing here in these mountains, I mean this is pretty far from Magnolia town." the ginger haired mage asked.

"I am on a training trip right now so that I can get stronger to protect my loved ones and family." Natsu replied.

Hearing this Gildarts raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean you are on a training trip, I mean you are quite strong for someone your age!" he asked.

Natsu wasted no time and brought Gidarts inside his inner world and introduced both of trainers/tenants and explained everything to him, from Lisanna's death to the start of his training trip, including his origins, he left nothing out.

After everything was explained and they were back in the outside world, Natsu left Gildarts inorder to leave the man to his rest, while Gildarts thought over everything that he was told and he feeling quite proud of Natsu after hearing that he was on this training for not his selfish reasons but to get stronger to protect his loved ones. He was also surprised to know that the boy he considered as his own son in all but blood was actually over four hundred years old and was brother of the most darkest mage in the history of wizarding world.

It took about a month for Gildarts to fully recuperate from his injuries with the help of doctor and Natsu, who used healing kidō, in which he was getting quite good, since Natsu was helping Gildarts recuperating he wasn't able to train much so he spent more time in his inner world so that he could learn as much as he could from Yamamoto and Igneel.

After the doctor cleared Gildarts fit enough to travel both mages set on their journey again, they both decided that they both should travel together now since his mission had already failed, Gildarts thought he might as well get accustomed to his artficial arm and leg enough to fight effectively with them.

It had been two days since they both set out on their journey together and both of those had been rather uneventful. Currently it was nighttime and the two of them sharing some stories with each other before Natsu decided to ask something to Gildarts.

"Gildarts can you train me?" Natsu asked causing said man to raise an eyebrow, before seeing the determination to get stronger in the younger male's eyes, shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure why not, but be ready to go through hell because I am not going easy on you." Gildarts with a sadistic grin on his face causing Natsu to think that he might have made a huge mistake by asking the crash mage's help in his training, but he shook his head, thinking that he would go through any training regime to become stronger and went to sleep with Gildarts in toe.

Next Morning

Natsu was sleeping peacefully but his sleep was interrupted when he felt cold water splash on his face, he quickly opened his eyes to find any enemy but only found a grinning Gidarts standing over him.

"Hey! What the hell was that for, I was sleeping so peacefully too?" Natsu yelled to which the crash mage simply put his pinky finger in his ear further frustrating the young mage.

"Well its time for your training so up up." Gildarts said while still grinning. Natsu got up from his place while grumbling something that sounded like 'stupid old man, I'll get you for this just you wait.'

After Natsu was ready to begin his training Gildarts lead him to a clearing before he stopped and faced his new young student with a serious expression on his face.

"Alright here is what we are going to do for your training, in the morning you will be doing physical training, after that you will meditate to increase your magic power, then you will go into your inner world and train there with both Igneel and your Zanpakutō spirit, then you will spar with me while I teach you somethings, then in the evening you will work on your light magic and I will help you in it and before going to sleep you and I will play shogi to increase your mental capacity. This will be your training schedule for rest of your training trip. Understood." Gildarts commanded stoically while Natsu simply gulped and nodded while thinking 'this is going to be one long trip.'

"Alright then come here." Gildarts said, when Natsu reached him, Gildarts asked Natsu to take off his upper body clothes and quickly placed a seal on him, causing Natsu to fall on the ground, "This is a gravity seal and you will be wearing it for rest of your training trip, you will only take it off for only a day in a week to get adjusted to your new speed and strength." Natsu again nodded while strugging to remain on his feet.

"Now then give me fifty rounds around this clearing, then a hundred push-ups, a hundred squates, a hundred crunches and a hundred pull-ups." Natsu simply stood there while gawking at the crash mage like he was crazy, Gildarts quickly got irritated by the looks he was recieving from his student, "What do you think you are doing standing there, get to it." he yelled while releasing a bit of his magic causing Natsu to jump a bit before he got to his hellish training regime all the while grumbling something about 'idiot slave-driver teachers'.

And for the rest of his training trip Natsu's training went pretty much just like that except some minor changes in his training regime but the worst he had suffer were the train trips that Gildarts made him do after discussing about it with both Igneel and Yamamoto, those hours or days(depending on the distance they were covering) were really painful for him.

One year later

It has been a year and half since Natsu left for his training trip and things seemed to be quiten down a bit in the Fairy Tail guild ever since then. Nearly all the members missed him but none more that the white haired beauty, Mirajane Strauss. She was currently working in the bar, she had change a lot in last year and half, she now had more curvy, voluptuous figure and large breasts, her white hair were loosely hanging over her back which curled at the end with two bangs framing her face and reaching down to her chest; her hairstyle's most distinctive trait was a short, upward ponytail obtained by gathering and tying the hair covering her forehead.

She was wearing a pink dress that reached down to her ankles and Natsu's scarf was hanging around her neck. When she came with the Natsu's scarf around her neck for the first time everyone was surprised and asked her why was she wearing Natsu's scarf, to which she happily smiled and told them that before Natsu left she met him at the edge of the town and they confessed their love for each other and before he left, Natsu gave his scarf to her and told her to wait for him to return.

When she finished telling her story to the guild, the female population of the guild had dreamy look in their eyes, while the male population was happy, proud, surprised and irritated, happy because they all thought that they both found someone to rely on other than themselves, proud because Natsu got the most beautiful girl in the guild, not that they would say that to any of the girls' face if they don't want to be on the recieving end of their magic and irritated because he got the most beautiful girl in the guild.

Obviously Elfman was far from happy about this and had even said that but after seeing his sister so happy in a long time he gave in and said that he was happy for both her and Natsu and couldn't wait for him to return.

Speaking about Natsu's return, when even after two months Natsu didn't return, everyone except old man Makarov, Happy and Mira started to become worried and even asked their guild master for someone to go look for him but surprising to them atleast the old master forbid everyone from going on search for their resident dragon slayer.

It was at that moment Erza walked upto their master and pretty much demanded an explaination on why he was forbidding them from going after Natsu. Makarov seeing that everyone was listening and they were not going to take no for an answer sighed and told them the story that he and Natsu came up with should their original story failed.

He told everyone that the day Igneel left, he left some instructions and some attacks for Natsu to learn when he reached a certain age and inside those instruction was written that he should practice those attacks away from any kind of civilization since they could be lethal to everyone except for the caster should they be performed wrong. He told them that both Natsu and he lied because both of them knew that everyone in the guild would have flatly declined Natsu's idea of training trip or someone would have tried to go with him, he also told them that the training trip on which Natsu had gone was consist of a year and half. After the explainations were done everyone left to do their business while still processing, what their master had told them.

And after hearing that Natsu had gone on a training trip for a year and half, almost everyone in the younger generation had taken their training seriously and all of them had gotten considerably stronger than they were before.

Ever since Natsu had left, Mira had been training even more furiously while also doing some jobs and maintaining the bar and had gotten a lot stronger than before. She even got letters from Natsu every month, in each letter he would write that he was doing and that he loved her but nothing on his training much to her dismay and the last letter she got from him was about two weeks in which he told her that he was coming back and was even bringing a surprise for everyone with him and told her loved her.

Currently Mira was working at the bar, while the old master of their guild was sitting at the bar with his legs crossed and a glass of beer in his hands and was occasionally taking swig from it while watching over his guild hall and Happy was with them muching on his fish.

"He should be back any day now." the short old man said before he chug down his beer and ordered another one.

"Yeah, he should. It sure is quiet here without him." Mira said while handing the old man his beer. After she got his last letter she had been even more happy then she was before and when anyone asked her about it, she would say that it was nothing and then go back to her work. It was Happy who told everyone that Natsu always sends her a letter every month and in the last one he said that he was coming back. The moment he said that, everyone was already asking questions about his well-being and it was Makarov who saved Mira by saying that Natsu was okay and he also recieved a letter from Natsu in which he informed the old man about his return.

"Aye sir." Happy chirped in.

"Don't worry he's coming back he even said that in your letter." the old man reassured them.

"Yes. Do you know how much stronger he will be now?" Mira asked curiously.

"How much stronger he will be, that I don't know but what I know is that he will be strong enough to protect those he love, I have complete faith in him." the old man said.

"Aye sir."

It was at that moment Gray came to the bar and ordered something to eat, "Whatever, but I will still beat him." Gray boasted.

"Whatever you say Gray." Mira said but the smile and the demonic aura that she had at the moment said something else and Gray wisely chose to keep his mouth shut, he had already gotten his beating from a freakishly strong girl, he had no intention of getting beaten up by another one. In the morning there was a guild brawl and he somehow landed on Erza's cheese cake completely ruining it and got the beating of life time from her for ruining her precious cake.

Two more hours passed without any event and everyone was enjoing themselves when everyone felt two ginormous amount of magic power heading to the guild, one of them was at Gildarts' level while the other one was even stronger than it, just as all of the mages were about to freak out, they heard the ringing of bells which indicated only one thing, Gildarts was back and the next announcement confirmed their suspiscion.

"Prepare for Gildarts shift, citizens please go to the designated area. I repeat prepare for Gildarts shift, citizens please go to the designated area."

The moment this announcement was finished cheers erupted around the guild hall, completely forgetting about the other ginormous magic power presnce. Everyone, including Mira, Makarov, Happy, Erza and Gray, went outside to meet their ace but all of them were greeted by two figures approaching the guild.

One of them looked laid back but held a great amount of power while the other figure walked with great confidence, he had an aura of authority and unimaginable power around him and everyone knew who those figures were; one was Gildarts Clive and other was Natsu Dragneel.

"NATSU" Mira yelled in delight and ran forward to greet him.

Moments earlier

Two figures could be seen at the outskirts of Magnolia Town, one of them was muscular man, who was 6'2" in height, he had shoulder-length orange hair that were slicked back and a stubbly beard. He had heavily muscular body, while his left arm and left leg were prosthetics. He was wearing a large brown colored clock that hid most of his upper body and had a bag sling over his shoulder. He was Gildarts, the ace of the Fairy Tail guild.

The other figure was 5'8" in height, he had a lean muscular body, similar to that of athletes, he had shoulder length spicky pink hair, that were red at the tips, with two bangs framing his fames while some reached his eyes, he had black eyes that strangely resembled that of dragons, he was wearing a blue shirt, black pants with black boots, he was also fingerless gloves that had somekind of metal plate and a Fairy Tail insignia on it. Over all of this he was wearing a white sleeveless coat that reached a little past his knees, it was decorated with red flames, with red lightning over it, at the edge while at the back of the coat was a large insignia for a red dragon which was surrounded by reddish-orange fire with blue lightning. At the front the coat was closed by a black thin rope and finally to complete the outfit he had a katana with a dark purple handle and a circular hand guard with a purple sheath tied to his side. This figure was Natsu Dragneel, the Lightning-Flame Demon-Dragon slayer of Fairy Tail.

"So Natsu are you excited to see everyone again." Gildarts asked.

"Yes I am very happy and excited see everyone again." the young boy replied.

"Are you sure you are feeling like that because of everyone or is it because of a certain white haired demon." Gildarts teased Natsu, causing the young boy to develop a small blush but it quickly disappeared and warm smile came to his face.

"Yes I'm sure but Mira is more of a reason."

Just as Gildarts was about to reply the town in front of them split into two parts revealing a path that lead to the Fairy Tail guild. As they got near Natsu could see that everyone one was outside the guild but he wasn't looking at them rather he was searching for his white haired goddess. When he spotted her a warm, loving smile came to his face, Gildarts seeing the look on his student's face smiled as well.

"NATSU" Mira's yell could be heard by both of them clearly before Natsu was tackled by a white blur. That white blur was none other than Mira, who was hugging Natsu for all he was worth.

"I told you that I'll come back to you." Natsu whispered to her at she happily nodded before she kissed him, Natsu returned the kiss soon both of them forgot about everything else, it just the two of them, nothing more mattered to them now.

A chuckle brought both of them back to reality causing them both to separate quickly, but were still hugging each other and develop blushes. They turned to the source of the chuckle and saw that it came from Gildarts, who was now standing with the rest of the guild and was grinning at them, while everyone else were staring at the two them before cheers errupted and everyone greeted both Gildarts and Natsu.

"Well Natsu, Mira save everything for later, but first let's get inside the guild and relax a bit." Gildarts said with grin still present on his face causing both two blush even more before they separated from each other and held hands and went inside with everyone.

"Natsu, Gildarts its good to see you my boys." Makarov greeted.

"Its good to see you as well Gramps." Natsu said.

"Its good to see as well master." Gildarts said before he rubbed the back of his head shipeeshly, "Master about the mission," he started, when Makarov raised an eyebrow, he continued, "well it didn't go well and I failed." causing everyone to go quite before they all felt a sudden pressure on them, Gildarts already knew who caused this pressure and he knew that he had to do something otherwise things could get out of hands, so he simply put his hand on Natsu's shoulder causing him to flinch before he calmed down and the pressure was gone. This interaction did not go unnoticed by anyone and everyone was astonished by what Natsu just did.

"Let's talk in my office." Makarov said and left in the direction of his office with Gildarts in toe.

After Natsu calmed down he looked at Mira, who had a concerned look in her eyes, he smiled at her causing her and whispered to her that will talk about it to her later in the day, she just smiled at that and nodded before she went to the bar with Natsu in toe, who ordered something to eat, while he talked with Happy, when his order arrived he slowly starting eating using forks, causing everyone to gawk at him.

He noticed everyone's eyes on him and got irritated with it, "What!" he asked.

"N-N-Natsu e-e-eating slowly," Gray said with his pointing at the young slayer, causing said slayer to become confused.

"Natsu you are using forks." Erza said in equal astonishment, only adding to confusion.

Seeing his confusion, Mira decided to elaborate, "They are looking at you like that because you are now eating slowly and are using forks while in the past you ate pretty fast and without any forks."

Natsu looked at her before he decided to say something, "Well I decided that it was time for me to change, after all it is unsightly for a prince to act like an idiot."

"What do you mean by the prince part Natsu?" Levy asked.

"What I mean Levy is that I'm Prince of Dragons and Igneel was the King of Dragons." Natsu said shocking everyone before he went back to eating.

Meanwhile in Master's office

After Makarov and Gildarts reached the Makarovs's office, the short old man quickly used silencing runes around office and looked at Gildarts.

"Now tell me what really happened during the mission?" the old master asked.

"Well I was on my way to complete the mission when I came upon a very large cave in the mountains, when I got near the cave, I got attacked by the black dragon, Acnologia. He destroyed my left arm, left leg and some of my internal organs. By the time I knew what was happening, everything was already over. It happened so fast that I never even saw it coming. After Acnologia left, Natsu arrived and healed me with what little knowledge he had in healing before he closed my wounds with his fire and took me to the nearest town. After a month on recuperating, I was cleared by the doctor there to travel again. So I decided to travel with Natsu a bit, but on the second day of our travel, Natsu asked me train him, I was caught off gaurd but I agreed to this and since then I have been training him along with both Igneel and his Zanpakutō spirit." Gildarts told ths old man who was surprised by what happened but was glad that two of his 'children' were safe.

"So you have been training Natsu along with his tenants. Tell me how strong Natsu is now?" the old man asked.

"Hmm, we have been sparing almost everyday ever since I started training him and at that time he was already almost at Laxus' level and that was around a year ago." ginger haired man said, not seeing the old man's jaw drop, "And I have a feeling that he stopped considering me a challenge around three months ago and you wanna know the best part, he still haven't reached his full potential yet." shocking the poor man even more.

"H-How did Natsu got so strong so fast?" the old man asked.

"I don't know myself master, he is a prodigy like no other and I am sure in four or five years he will be strong enough to defeat both Acnologia and Zeref single handidly." Gildarts said with utter confidence in his student, causing the old man to nod his head dumbly.

"Well let's go back downstaires. God knows I need a strong drink after hearing that." Makarov said while massaging his temples causing Gildarts to chuckle before both men went downstaires.

Downstaires

Natsu was at the bar and had been talking with Mira, Happy and some other guild members, sharing stories from the training trip he had, when he noticed that both his teacher and the old man were coming toward him.

When they reached the bar, Makarov looked intently at Natsu trying sense the amount of magic power that Natsu now had and was quite shocked feeling so much of it. It even dwarfed his own and Gildarts and both of them were as strong as the Ten Wizard Saints, with Makarov being one of them, at rank 5.

"Natsu my boy I want to test your skills, so I want you to fight Mira tomorrow in the morning." Makarov said shocking everyone in the guild.

"Master are you that it is good idea, I just told how strong Natsu truly is!" Gildarts asked

"Yes Gildarts I'm sure of it. So what do you both say, are you up for it!"

"Yes Gramps I'm up for it." Natsu said with a smile with Mira saying the samething and then both Mira and Natsu left the guild to go around the town. While they were walking around, Natsu told her how he found Gildarts and what had transpired from then on. They ended their walk when teached Mira's home, Natsu and Mira kissed one another one last time before both them went in opposite directions while giving their good lucks to each other.