How does magic even work? Chapter 14.

Naruto felt cold, he had lost consciousness while floating in Edolas and now he didn't know where he was. He felt heavy, every part of his body was in pain, especially his upper back for some reason.

Trying to move his arms was rewarded by some extremely uncomfortable feelings so he decided to stay still. Not moving felt pretty good, except for the fact that he was on top of something hard that was not made of stone. He opened his eyes and was forced to wriggle his head bit by bit until he was able to see what was under him. It was big sheet of metal, but why would he be laying on that?

After a moment of staring at the metal he realized something, it was wet, so it was raining, that must be why he was so cold. He sighed contently, happy to have managed to figure that out, but then the smile turned into a frown. Not that his mind was getting up to speed again he realized that staying out in the rain the whole night would be bad.

He tried to move his arms again, he noticed that his left arm had a bit more mobility left so he relied on it to begin forcing himself to stand. It took a while for him to get on his feet, but when he was upright again he looked around, or tried to at least.

It was dark, the only thing he could tell was that he was somewhere between two walls. He tried to take a few steps but had to stop because he couldn't see where he was setting his feet on the uneven ground. He started to feel frustrated but then he remembered something, and concentrated on his magic. After a second when he had a grasp of it internally he directed some of it up to his eyes, and then the world became as bright as day again.

Now he had no trouble seeing the cobblestone he was standing on, and the house walls to his sides, and the gigantic sword at his feet. Zabuza! His mind screamed, he almost lost his balance when he jumped back from the sword and jerked around looking for the man. Then he stilled, because there was no need to be afraid of that.

Because Zabuza was dead.

He had killed him.

A wave of emotions ranging from regret to anger and everything between came over him. ``no...´´ everything stopped as he said that, he thought back to those last words that the assassin had said. ``it's fine... it doesn't matter.´´

As he spoke, he took some unsteady steps towards on end of the alley, stopping to look back at the sword a few times before deciding that it would be better to just go back and get it tomorrow. Hopefully no one would find it by accident and try to take it, but then again why would anyone who is not a wizard go through the trouble of hauling a sharpened sheet of metal around. Oh yeah Zabuza.

Smack!

Naruto slapped himself in the face, and then focused on walking again, he exited the alley and found himself in front of the river that flowed through Magnolia. He felt a bit of relief, it looked like he was back home again. But now he had to find his way to a more familiar street so he could get back to his hotel.

He began walking slowly in the direction he thought would be best, but with every step he took he felt his head starting to hurt more and more. Soon enough he was forced to stop and lean on a wall to keep his balance while gripping his aching head.

Then the world became dark again, Naruto despite the pain tried to channel more magic to his eyes, but then he realized what was wrong, he was out of magic. His legs gave out, and before he even hit the ground he had lost consciousness.

XOXOOXOXOXOXOXO

Naruto slowly woke up when he felt something heavy press against his face, it was soft but the weight was enough to cause his bruised face to sting a little. He blindly tried to push it of but his hand only sank into whatever it was slightly and he heard a soft sigh above him.

That was strange, he opened his eyes and saw that his hand was on a large pink cloth ball. Naruto was confused, this was no normal pillow, no pillow was this soft and warm. He sat up, cringing at the pain in his shoulder, and then looked down at the 'pillow' his face instantly became red. The pillow was actually one of Lucy's breasts, he sat completely still for a few moments staring at his hand that was still touching it.

Then Lucy moved a little and Naruto was so surprised by it that he fell of the bed they were on. Lucy was woken by the sound of Naruto slamming into the floor and quickly sat up and looked down at him. ``ah! Are you alright Naruto!´´ she quickly started checking him over, and Naruto looked down and realized why she would be worried.

It looked like some time after he had passed out he had been wrapped in bandages and such, he felt around his head and face and found some band aids there as well. ``I'm fine! I'm fine!´´ Lucy sat back and stared at him worriedly. Naruto stilled for a moment and then the main concern he had came to mind ``wait... w-w-why were we in the b-bed together!?´´

Lucy still had a concerned look to her when she began explaining ``well... during the night when we all came back people were scattered in and out of the town, so we went out looking for them. But it got late I took Wendy back to the girls dorm and then I came back here to go to sleep. But then I found you just outside passed out with all those wounds.´´ Naruto, when his wounds were mentioned brought a hand up to his right shoulder.

Lucy continued talking ``i took you inside and bandaged you up, but then I was really tired so I went to sleep... I guess. Are you sure you're okay? That cut on your shoulder looked pretty bad.´´

``It's alright, it doesn't hurt that much anymore...´´ after saying that he tried moving his shoulder a little, only to vince in the pain that came from the motion ``ggh! I-It's not that bad...´´ he said trying to put on a brave front that Lucy easily saw through.

``mmm. I guess we should go to the guild and have Wendy heal you a little. But you're pretty dirty though. Better take a bath.´´ she said absently while getting of the bed. Naruto however got red in the face a second time this morning. ``EH!? T-T-tttt-together!?´´ Lucy stopped and looked back at the embarrassed boy, ``well... if you think you need help cleaning up then sure.´´ she was a little shocked when he suddenly got a nosebleed.

Then he quickly got and up staggered out the door while stuttering something that she could not comprehend. She walked over to her bed and leaned over to look out the window, from there she saw Naruto making his way down the street as quickly as he could. She had to wonder if he knew that he was only wearing his black pants and bandages.

She laughed a little when she saw him suddenly turn around, and come back into the house. She turned and gave him a big smile when he came back in ``c-... can I have my shirt?´´

Lucy stood up and walked into her bathroom, Naruto awkwardly waited by the door, wiping the blood that was still slowly dripping out of his nose. Then Lucy popped back out of the bathroom and looked to him ``come over here.´´ Naruto looked lost so Lucy went over and pushed him along.

When she got Naruto in she closed the door behind her and locked it, Naruto when he heard the sound of the lock looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He had no idea what to do now, locked in a room half naked with an older woman there with him. Yeah he was a bit too young to be in a situation like this.

Lucy however was completely calm, or happy or something, she had a somewhat smug smile on her for some reason. Naruto froze when she grabbed a nearby towel and tied it around his waist and then told him ``Take your pants and underwear off, I'm going to wash them.´´ Naruto was still frozen until Lucy took a step closer and said ``well if you want me to help you the-´´

``icandoitmyself!´´

As he shouted that he stumbled until his back hit a wall, then he awkwardly started undressing, glaring at Lucy who was still smiling. When he was done he handed the pants to Lucy and she threw them right into the washing machine.

Once again Naruto stood still not knowing what he was supposed to do, until Lucy walked past him and opened a second door behind him, he looked in and saw that in the second room there was a shower and bathtub. He was ushered in by Lucy who then walked back out ``just shout if you need anything.´´

Naruto wondered how this had happened, he only came back to get his shirt and now he was taking a bath. Older girls are scary, he thought to himself as he turned on the shower, and while waiting for the water to get warm started taking off the many bandages he had on.

Just before stepping into the shower he glanced over to the bath and decided to fill It up. With his body as beat up as it was it would probably feel really good to soak for an hour, or a day.

Outside of the bathroom Lucy was looking through her clothes, Naruto would need something to wear while his clothes were drying. After a few minutes of rummaging through her drawers she decided on an old pink tank top and a pair of blue sweatpants that she had not worn for about a year.

Just as she was about to go leave them in the washroom her window was suddenly opened from the outside, and Natsu barreled into the room. When he got back to his feet he looked over to Lucy and shouted ``I found Naruto's scent!´´ before Lucy had time to say anything her door was slammed open and Erza, Gray and Wendy came in.

Erza was the first to get a word out ``Lucy! We think we have found Naruto!´´ Lucy stood there with an exhausted face as her four friends continued shouting for a while. Soon enough they quieted down enough for Lucy to say ``aah...i already found Naruto yesterday. He's taking a shower right now.´´ she pointed back to the door to the bathroom and the others went silent.

Erza without a shred of hesitation went straight into the bathroom, opening the door and walked up to the Naked boy who stood frozen in shock. The she bent down and gently hugged him ``I am glad you are alright Naruto.´´ she said in almost a whisper. Naruto barely heard her say that, because this moment was the most embarrassing situation he had ever experienced.

But it got worse when Gray and Natsu came in and started commenting on his battered body, making Erza start checking him over as well. Then Wendy came in, got a full on look of his naked body and passed out with a face so red that it was hard to see the drops of blood that were coming from her nose.

That however got Naruto to snap out of his daze and shouted ``can I have some clothes PLEASE!´´

XOXOXOXOXOX

Makarow closed the door to his office behind him and hopped up to his chair, with a sigh he started going through the pile of letters that had come in during the time they were in Edolas. The first few letters were from the council, who were complaining about not receiving answers to previous letters. Then there were complaints about property damage caused by members, they were demanding compensation.

Then he came upon a more interesting letter, it was from the great library tower outside Crocus. About a week after Naruto had joined, Makarow had sent out letters to all libraries he knew of, detailing Naruto's magic and asking if they had records of anything similar. And after reading the letter it was clear that they had info that could be useful to the boy. Apparently they had three books that held information on magic similar to the one described, however they would not part with them so whoever wanted to read them had to come to the library.

He sighed deeply, there was always something annoying, taking a trip to Crocus and back would take around a week, maybe two if things got complicated at the library. But then again he was not the one that had to go there, he could just send Naruto there, but then it would probably take the boy a month.

Well that was fine too, the boy getting some traveling habit would do him good as a mage. Then It was decided, he would tell Naruto next time the boy came to the guild.

Then he continued sifting through the pile of letters and came upon a somewhat strange one. It was a letter with a dog paw stamp, when he opened it he noticed that the paper had little pugs printed on it. A drop of sweat rolled down his head when he realized that the letter was from Kakashi.

He skimmed through the text that was mostly questions about how Naruto was doing, also questions if Naruto wanted to come for a visit and so on. However at the end of the letter there was something that worried Makarow.

'One of my 'friends' in the council has heard talk of releasing Minato from jail. If so he will be put on some sort of observation. I thought it would be good for you to know.'

His brow furrowed and he gripped the paper tightly, Minato Namikaze, that man had proven how dangerous he was fourteen years ago, and now he was going to be set free? But that was something he would have to deal with when it happened, worrying about it now would only make him loose more hair, and that just would not do.

He brought out a pen and a few sheets of paper and began the horribly dull job of replying to the load of letters.

XOXOXOXOXOX

Naruto sat in the bathtub with a deadpan look on his face, next to him sat Gray and Natsu who had the same faces as well.

``why are we taking a bath together?´´

``Erza said it was good for building a lasting friendship.´´

``nah she said it was a family thing right?´´

``the hell you talking about you droopy eyed bastard!? She said FRIENDSHIP!´´

``what'd ya say fire brain!? She said FAMILY!´´

``I'm getting out.´´ Naruto said and quickly hopped out of the tub.

``aah! Wait Naruto!´´ the boy turned back to Gray who had just yelled ``pass me the soap before you go!´´ Naruto grabbed it on his way out and tossed it over his shoulder, and then ignored the fight that ensued over who would use it to wash first.

He closed the door and quickly found the articles of clothing that Lucy had selected for him, he didn't care about the color, but the fact that they were a bit baggy on him did make him a little mad. It was definitely not that he was small or anything, it was just that Lucy was... fat... or something. Her giant boobs stretched the shirt, yeah that was totally why it was too big for him.

With a huff he exited into the living room and turned to see that Lucy, Erza, Wendy and a pink haired woman in a maid outfit was sitting down drinking tea. Erza noticed him and set her cup down ``Naruto I want you to tell me what happened back in Edolas.´´

Naruto nodded and went over to Lucy's bed and took a seat, then he began a short retelling of his battle with Zabuza ending the story with a heavy feeling in his chest ``In the end... I... I killed him. And before he died he told me to take his sword.´´

He was met with silence so he decided to look up and was taken aback by what he saw, Lucy and Wendy were sobbing and hugging each other. And Erza had on fist clenched, her body was shaking and he thought there were tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

Then she slowly began speaking probably to make sure her voice would not fail ``it... it is regrettable that you were forced to kill your opponent... aaah this is my fault! I should have trained you harder so you could win by knocking him out! If it would make you feel better then please punch me!´´ as she yelled that passionately she stood up in front of Naruto waiting for him to take a shot at her.

``eeeeh... wait I don't really want to punch you...´´ Naruto felt drops of sweat form on his brow as Erza continued pressing him to punch her. Absently he noticed that the pink haired woman that had been there was gone now.

Erza continued getting closer and Naruto crept backwards until his back hit the wall, that however caused his shoulder wound to sting again and he unwillingly let out a yelp of pain. Lucy when hearing the sound remembered that Naruto needed healing and told Wendy to help him out.

Wendy was quick to stand up and walk over to Naruto, while wiping the tears from her cheeks, but when she came close she went all red again. She hesitated, taking a step forward and then one back, then she stopped and clenched her hands in front of her. Then she looked up to Naruto with determination, but the determination quickly faded, once again replaced by embarrassment. ``N-n-na... Naruto could y-you turn.. ahhr...around... please?´´

``yeah sure.´´ Naruto was not bothered in the least by how strangely Wendy was acting, and simply turned on the bed. He sighed in relief when he felt Wendy's healing magic beginning to wash over his shoulder. Having wounds rapidly healed like this was the second best feeling he had ever experienced, the first time he ate ramen topped the list.

``pff!´´

Naruto looked over to Lucy who had made that sound, she was trying to keep from laughing for some reason. Then he noticed that Erza was looking extremely stiff, she was also blushing and avoided making eye contact with him. What was up with those two.

What Naruto didn't know was that behind him Wendy had the single most dopey face the two older women had ever seen. Blushing, unfocused eyes, every time her fingers accidentally brushed against his back she would smile and so on. She even continued healing the same spot on his back for about a minute longer than necessary.

When Naruto noticed that all the pain was gone he tried moving his arms around, that brought Wendy back from wonderland and she nervously backed up a little.

Naruto turned to her with a big smile ``Thank you Wendy! I feel pretty good again!´´ Wendy seemed to break when she heard those words, steam started rising from her head and she was only able to make noises that sounded slightly like yeah and no problem.

Naruto started doing a few stretches too test what parts of his body were still in pain and meanwhile Erza seemed to calm down a bit. When her body was a bit less rigid she turned to Lucy and said ``I think ill go have a bath.´´

Lucy who was still having fun watching Wendy absently said ``yeah sure.´´ as Erza walked into the bathroom. But then she remembered ``ah hey! Natsu and Gray are still-´´ ``AAAH! Why did Erza come in!? WAIT DONT GET NAKED!´´

Naruto and the two girls in the living room stared at the door for a while waiting for something to happen, but when it didn't the boy sighed and got up. ``I need to go and get that sword, so ill see you guys at the guild later.´´ he walked out of the door, only to come back after a few seconds. He looked to Lucy ``hey can you tell Erza that I want to train on my own tomorrow?´´

``ah? Eeh sure.´´

``thanks.´´

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

He looked down at the massive sword with tired eye's, just finding it had taken and hour and a half and now that he finally had it in front of him it turned out that he barely had the strength to actually carry it. He bent down and heaved the sword up onto his back and unsteadily began walking in the direction of his hotel.

He ignored the looks he got from the people around him, he knew he looked strange carrying a sword bigger than his own body, but he'd get big enough to use it properly eventually. At least he hoped he would... what if he became a gnome like Master?

He quickly shook those thoughts away and focused on walking, there was no point in depressing himself right now. He continued walking in silence, only thinking about where he should go to eat later during the day.

It took way longer than he had thought it would but he had finally reached his hotel, but as soon as he entered the lobby the man who always stood at the check in called to him ``Hey kid! How long are you planning on stayin here dammit?! And you still haven't paid! Do you know how many numbers there are on your bill?!´´

Naruto sighed and let the sword on his back fall to the wooden floor, making some ugly dents on it, the man started screaming about that as well. The silently waited for the man to tire himself out, and when he finally did the first thing he said was. ``Hey can you send some bottles of water to my room? I'm really thirsty.´´

He ignored the mans now more powerful screaming rant and picked up his sword, then he slowly and carefully began walking up the stairs. By the time he reached his room he was covered in sweat and was having trouble standing.

After opening his door he took three steps in and then laid the sword down on the floor, gently this time he didn't want to destroy his room. Then he went straight over to his bed and laid down, he felt like he had done a full day of training with Erza.

But then it dawned on him, he had trouble even walking with that sword on his back. He sat up and glanced at the sword, Zabuza had been able to swing that thing around with one hand. What kind of training had the man done to become that strong.

He honestly wanted to know, he wanted to do the same training until he was able to wield that monstrous sword just as well as Zabuza could. Had been able too. Dammit don't think about it!

A knocking on the door brought him out of his thoughts, he opened it and dodged the bottle of water that was heading for his face. ``There's yer water kid!´´ the lobby man yelled and started walking away, grumbling loudly about how Naruto was a brat and so on.

Naruto only sighed and picked up the bottle and started drinking, but when he put the bottle down he spilled a bit and it landed on his shirt. He looked down and started wiping the water of but froze, only now did he realize that he was still wearing the pink tank top that Lucy had let him borrow.

Only now did he realize that here in magnolia people walking about with a giant sword was not that out of the ordinary, but a boy walking around in a pink tank top was pretty strange. He collapsed to the floor, this was way to embarrassing, he let his guard down too much.

No! This was Lucy's fault! Lucy was the one that made him take a bath in her apartment and then made him wear this pink thing. That's it! From now on beating Lucy was his first priority! First he would get stronger than her, and from there he would continue getting stronger until he was at the top of the world.

The boys stomach growled loudly and he stopped his inner monologue and got up, time to get some food. He walked out but instantly came back in again, he had to put on a real shirt first.

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

AN

Longer chapters from now on! Also this is the beginning of the next arc, and I think you know which one it is.