And here you have Chapter number 7 to enjoy.
Naruto's blue eyes flew over the yellowed pages of the book he was reading. These past few days he had spent reading as many books as he could. Of course he didn't rush reading them. He had a lot of time to spend, there was no reason to use gale force to read through them and to do so would arouse the suspicion of the old archivist at any rate.
Naruto gave a smalle sigh as he remembered the day he had started to go through the royal archive.
Flashback
Naruto eyes cracked open as he slowly woke up from his slumber. The soft cushions of the bed were superb. In fact the overall quality of the bed was just excellent. Exactly what one would expect from the royal family, only the best quality. For a second he deliberated on staying inside this soft bed but decided against it. He threw the soft, white blanket off of his body, even if he bemoaned the loss of warmth.
Since he didn't have a need for any sleep wear he had merely slept in a pair of crimson boxers. He really loved the color red, although he would never wear an outfit comprised of only red or too much of it. He did have some amount of common sense.
He shuddered at the thought of him wearing some kind of red jumpsuit with a blue collar while screaming like some kind of lunatic. Like that would ever happen.
'I would probably rather kill myself than let it come to that.' he mused with a distinct frown at the thought
His feet touched the cold stone floor of the castle when an old male voice spoke adressed him.
"I see that you are awake, Lord Naruto." he heard the voice say and completely uncharacteristically for a feared dark mage of Naruto's caliber he gave a startled yelp as he lightly jumped into the air.
He turned to the source of the voice to see an older male. He had somewhat grayed hair and a wrinkled face. He wore a butlers uniform. Black pants, black tailcoat, white button up shirt.
"Who are you?" the blonde asked after having calmed himself down. The old man had really surprised him.
"My apologies Lord Naruto. I did not mean to startle you." the butler gave a bow in subservience, the mans facial expression unwavering "My name is Alfred. His Highness, the King has assigned me to be your personal butler as long as you are staying here in Mercurius."
"You did not have to apologize, Alfred. It was my fault that I was so unaware of my surroundings that you startled me like that." Naruto grimaced inwardly, he had been lax simply because of a nice bed to rest in and a decent roof above his head. If it had been someone that had wanted to harm him, like one of Orochimaru's lackeys or one of those Copy Fairies 'What did they call themselves... Raven Tail. Right that was it.' he reminded himself as he thought back to Alexei
If either of those two had snuck up on him he could have been in serious trouble, fortunately it was only a simple butler without any magical abilities.
"Where are my clothes, Alfred?" he asked the butler who gestured to a chair that was placed in front of a large full body mirror
Naruto walked to the chair and raised an eyebrow when the clothes that were laid out on the chair were not the one he had worn on the previous day.
"What happened to my clothes?" he wasn't really angry if those clothes were somehow lost. Everything of value was stored inside his Requip space and his clothes were merely some cheap stuff apropriate for travelling in the cold winter air of Fiore. Not a single bit of it had cost any noteworthy amount of money.
"Your clothes have been thrown away, Lord Naruto. Do not worry though. We made sure that no item went lost in the act." Alfred explained calmly, if the old man somehow feared a temper tantrum he didn't show it in the slightest "His Highness said that the clothes you were wearing were not befitting the person that saved our dear Princess from an uncouth violator." this was the first time Naruto noted a change in the old mans voice, he seemed positively livid as he mentioned the near rape of Hisui. Naruto supposed that Alfred must have been in the service of the Fiore family for a long time. "As such he has supplied you with an attire of the finest fabrics for you to wear."
On the chair was a long, flowing, forest green robe. Apparently the King really liked the color green... well not that anything was wrong with that. Afterall green was the complementary color to the wonderful red he so loved. The lower part of the robe was parted into three segments to allow for better leg freedom. One each of the parts which covered his legs there were patterns stitched on them in a golden color. The left and right section were mirrors of eachother. The stitching resembled a kind of flower with wings. The middle section was parted by a golden diamond shaped sword whose handle split of into three directions, like the branches of a tree. The center part ended on his midsection coiling once around it and the other two pieces split off and framed the outer edges of the fabric all the way to the top. He also had been provided with a pair of brown shoes, a pair of brown pants and a simple white shirt.
Alfred walked up to the blonde boy and took the clothes into his hands.
"Please let me assist with that, my Lord." the old man said and his white gloved hands quickly helped him slip into his new clothes. While he normally would rather cloth himself the man was being payed to help him in whatever way he could so the least he could do was make use of the butler.
The soft fabric of his new clothes felt perfect compared to the scratchy, cheap clothes he had worn before.
"I must admit I am impressed with this." Naruto stated honestly and looked at himself in the mirror. He inspected himself from head to toe "I wonder though, how did the King get my measurements and have this made on such short notice?"
Alfred gave a chuckle at the young mans wonder "For his Highness something like this is made in record time, no matter the time of the day, the day of the week, no matter the weather. There is little that the King can not command to be tailored in a few mere hours." the butler explained to him "As for your measurements; before we disposed of your previous clothes the seamstress took a look at your clothes and with a single glance she was able to tell what size would fit you."
"Then extend my thanks to both his Highness, for this gracious gift and the seamstress for a job well done." Naruto commanded and the butler nodded, lowering his head in acceptance of the order
"As you wish, Lord Naruto." Alfred responded "Would you now like to eat breakfast?" the old man asked and Naruto shook his head "No, I will be skipping breakfast. I would like to get to exploring the archives as early as possible."
Alfred gave a slight bow "Very well." he accepted the mage's wish "If there is anything you may need do not hesitate to call for me."
"Of course. Should there be something I need I will call for you, Alfred." he placed his hand on the old mans shoulder in appreciation of his work and gave him a polite smile before walking through the ornate doors of his temporary lodging
"What a polite young man." the butler commented to himself
He had met quite a lot of young nobles in his tenure as a butler for the Fiore family. When any of the more well known nobles of this Kingdom or another visited he was usually asked to take care of their needs while they resided here in the palace and conversed with the King for whatever it was they were here for. Most of them were bratty, spoiled, arrogant and foul tempered so someone like Naruto who seemed to embody the exact opposite of those traits was a welcome distraction until the next time he would have to deal with one of those type of people.
While he had never asked the King where exactly in Mercurius he would be able to find the archives the various guards that were stationed throughout the palace were able to give him directions.
Eventually he found the place he was looking for. An ornate golden gate was between him and the vast collection of books. Giving the door a push the room was laid bare to him.
Large towering shelves reached up to the ceiling of a room that could only be described as massive. However they were not only large in height, they also streched from one ende of the room to the other end only leaving small intersections in orderly intervals. Each single shelf seemed to contain hundreds if not thousands of individual books of varying thickness, height and color. It was a pure paradise for anyone that liked books or accruing knowledge.
Naruto was almost giddy with anticipation of opening the first pages of one of these books. Within these walls, he was sure, he would find at least some clues on the mage known as Zeref. There was no other way that a collection of books that had to begin many centuries back didn't have anything detailing lesser known facts about a notorious being such as Zeref.
All the scholars of this day and age barely knew more than what was common knowledge to anyone with some interest in history and even the pieces and fragments that had been collected by the Blood Mages before him, by his Master, by his Master's Master and so forth. These snippets barely amounted to anything more than rumors. Theories about the mans power, but nothing that could help him in his search for the man himself.
Meanwhile the Magic Council carefully tried to erase and cover up every bit of knowledge about Zeref so as to prevent anyone like him rising up once more to wreak havoc upon the world and anyone trying to delve deeper into the mysteries of the dark mage Zeref was carefully monitored.
Naruto snapped out of his musing and took his first steps into the vast room. Had the room been completely empty he was sure that his steps would have echoed for a long time.
He gave a cursory glance towards a small desk that was placed in front of the large rows and rows of shelves. At this desk there was a small figure resting his or her, for Naruto was unable to tell the gender, head on it. He decided to ignore the desk and person in favor of continuing his advance towards the fountain of knowledge.
Suddenly the sound of a chair scratching over the ground reached his ears. He gave a glance towards the desk only to see that the person at it had disappeared; only to suddenly stand in front of him.
Now that he took a closer look the person was female. She was old, very old. The old woman was barely half as tall as Naruto was, as she barely reached the midsection of the green robe he wore. Even including her gray hair which was done in a bun like style she was quite small. She wore a kind of deep blue clothing with plenty of gold embroidery, one forming the crest of the Fiore royal family, others forming books. Her face had plenty of wrinkles and her nose was slightly crooked. Upon her crooked nose was a pair of rectangular glasses however the womans eyes also seemed to be completely closed.
Why she bothered to wear glasses in such a case was beyond Naruto.
"Is something wrong?" he tried to hold his voice as neutral as possible despite the slight amount of annoyance that this old crone caused by keeping him from going through the vast stores of knowledge right in front of his face.
"YOU DIRTY SCOUNDREL!" she shouted. If her voice was a croak from either age or disuse Naruto couldn't tell
"I beg your pardon?" the blonde asked politely although his voice was completely suffused with confusion 'Out of my way you useless crone.' he thought darkly to himself
Oh how he wished to just blast her out of the way with some magic for getting in the way of getting closer to his goal. But no, no, that would ruin all the fortuitous luck he had to get here in the first place. Not to mention, he would once more be hunted down by every mage, bounty hunter and knight in the country.
"You sneaky little rascal!" she once more accused him, clearly upset by his presence "I don't know who you are but this place is absolutely off limits. Only someone of the Royal family and the Archivist may enter this sacred archive." she prattled, much to Naruto's annoyance as his right eye began to twitch "You dirty thief obviously snuck into the palace and intended to rob these halls!" she stated boldly her face twisting into a victorious expression at apparently having deduced his purpose.
"No, actually..." he wanted to correct her but the old lady didn't want to listen even one bit
"Be quiet you insolent thief." she interrupted him, her eyes snapped open to reveal a pair of weary brown eyes which eyed him warily "I caught you red handed in the act. You will not desecrate these halls with your impertinent lies." she sucked in a lot of air and released a loud shout "GUARDS! GUARDS TO ME! STOP THIS THIEF!"
He could hear the rustling of the guards armours with each step. The synchronized sound of their feet hitting the ground as they rushed toward Naruto's location.
Naruto gave a small sigh in exasperation. Why did old people have to be so difficult. At least the butler, Alfred, had some sense.
One group of guards had rushed through the golden door that led to the archive.
Each one was clad in their pristinely polished armor and an ornate halberd in hand. Over their armors they wore a tabard with the crest of the Fiore family.
"You called Lady Arika." the leading guard stated looking at the wizened woman
"Yes, you bumbling fools." she screeched with a frown "Arrest this audacious thief for waltzing into the palace like that."
The guards took a look at Naruto and then looked further around the room "I'm afraid I do not know which thief you are referring to. Would you care to describe him, Lady Arika?" the guard that had previously spoken adressed the woman once more
The old woman developed a tick mark on her head "Are you fools blind?" she asked in anger and viciously pointed at Naruto "There he is. Right in front of you. Arrest the thief."
The guard glanced at eachother and their exasperation was almost palpable.
"I'm sorry, Lady Arika." the guard shook his head at the archivist "Lord Naruto is his Highness and the Princess' personal guest. He is no thief."
"What?!" her eyes bulged and almost popped out of her head "This can't be right." she muttered although everyone could still hear what she had said
"It is the truth." Naruto interjected with a smirk "If you have a problem with that take it up to the King."
Arika glared so fiercely at Naruto that one might have thought she wished to incinerate him with her stare.
"Alright you are his Highness guest but this place is still absolute off limits." she stated with gritted teeth "Now scram you little pest." she made a swiping motion with her arm to signal the guards to take him away.
The head of the guard squad cleared his throat "Actually, Lady Arika, his Highness has given him permission to go through the archive."
The old womans jaw dropped "Why- I never- This can't be-" she muttered incoherently "In the sixty years since I've been appointed as the archivist by the previous one no one has ever been allowed to go through this collection of books. This has to be a mistake."
"It is no mistake." Naruto stated confidently as the old woman seethed on the inside and outside at the disrespectful attitude of this boy "The King has granted me permission to peruse these books at my leisure and nothing you say will prevent me from doing so."
The crone grumbled something unintelligible "Alright, alright. But don't think I like this. I will be keepin an eye on you and if I see something I don't like, King or no King, I will throw you out." she then gave the group of guards an annoyed glance "What are you still standing around for? Go back to your posts you useless fools."
As the group of guards disappeared Naruto could clearly hear them trade insults about 'the old bat' and the blonde could feel himself agreeing with them. The old woman certainly didn't seem to be the most friendly person. Arika either didn't seem to be able to hear them or she ignored the insults on purpose.
Naruto walked towards the rightmost row of bookshelves and picked out the first book that seemed to be suffering from the wear and tear of age. He sat down at a nearby table and began to flip through the pages of the book.
Flashback End
That was the day he had become acquainted with the archivist Arika. Even after the initial meeting the crone proved to be an insufferable annoyance. The woman had the most annoying tendency to randomly fall asleep at her desk and when she drooled on whatever paper she was writing on at the time and smudged the ink she tended to blame him for it, even if he couldn't have been responsible for it.
'Although she probably just uses that as a poor excuse to see what I am doing.' Naruto reasoned with an internal sigh as he flipped another yellowed page.
The book seemed to have been the diary of some poor sap during the Dragon civil war four hundred years back. Unfortunately the ink didn't stand up to the wear of time and whatever else it was exposed to before the book had been found. Many of the words were not able to be read, reduced to fractions which had him guessing as to what the person wanted to say or completely missing.
He turned another page only to find the righ side of the next set to be completely empty. Turning another page he saw that the next two were empty as well, just as the one after that and the ones after.
'Seems like this is the last entry that person got to make.' while reading about the Dragon Civil War was somewhat interesting he had yet to find anything about Zeref among the dozens of books he had read.
Date _ of Year X_
Today I have witnessed a most frightening event.
Acnologia the most powerful and talented of us human dragonslayers turned into a dragon himself.
I do not know the process by which this happened but one young boy whose magical aura was so dark and dreadful that the mere feeling was sickening ended up being the cataylst to turn Acnologia into a black dragon.
I did not get a good look at this person, as I was running like a coward, but going by the description and feeling I believe him to be the reputed 'Black Wizard' Zeref. The ensuring slaughter of the humans and dragons that were unfortunate to be in the path of the rampaging black dragon was pure horror. Acnologia consumed everything in its wake. Man, Woman, Dragon, Magic. Everything fell before him as he proclaimed himself King of Dragons.
But Acnologias hunger is not sated. Even now, I know he is eradicating each and every of those with Dragon Slayer Magic. I feel his new dreadful presence approaching in the distance...
I'm scared... more than that; I know that I will die... but I can not let Acnologia kill everyone else in this town to get to me.
Even if it means my end I'd rather perish in the stead of a hundred innocent.
The entry ended there.
'What a noble person.' Naruto thought, it reminded him of what his father had done to save Konoha the day of his birth.
More importantly there it was! His first lead on Zeref.
'But turning someone into a dragon...' Naruto thought with a frown 'That is not normal magic...It seems to go beyond the realms of our understanding.' He closed the diary as a thoughtful expression spread across his face 'Chasing Acnologia is madness but maybe it is the only way I will be able to find Zeref?' Currently that was the only lead he had.
Dragon's are nigh invulnerable against conventional magic and Acnologia the human turned dragon who had risen above other dragon slayers and above other dragons would even be a notch above the power of a regular dragon.
Naruto closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He hung his head back over the top of the back of the chair he was sitting in. His thoughts ran rampart. Eventually he opened his eyes to stare into the green eyes of somebody else.
He noticed that Princess Hisui's head was above his. He had of course known that the Princess had spent a good deal of her time these last days spying on him. During dinner she always glanced towards him when she thought he wasn't looking but this was the first time she had approached him this cloesly.
"Good afternoon, Hisui-hime." Naruto greeted the princess with a smile
"Good afternoon, Naruto." she responded with a soft blush across her cheeks, as she realized how close their faces were
"Is something the matter, Princess?" Naruto asked her with concern flowing into his voice "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Umm..." she fidgeted under the blonde's gazed unable to respond to his question "No, I'm sorry for disturbing you."
The green haired princess turned around and was about to walk away but Naruto grabbed her arm before she could get out of his reach.
"Just sit down and talk to me." he offered her "I know you want to, that's why you've been observing me and sending me these glances during dinner."
Even from his seated position with Hisui's back turned to him he could see her flush in embarassment "Y-you noticed that?" she asked in shock as she stuttered over her words
The dark mage in disguise merely gave a good natured smile as he let go of the princess' arm "Indeed I noticed." he seemed amused by her innocent reaction "Now come on and sit down. I promise I wont bite."
Reluctantly Hisui sat down next to him.
"I'm sorry for spying on you. I meant to talk to you but..." she paused for a moment as she felt thoroughly embarassed "But you seem so unapproachable. Since you were so occupied and all I somehow didn't dare to talk to you but I really want to know more about you."
Naruto released a chuckle at that "I guess that is what happens when you spend so much time leafing through these dusty old books." he rubbed his blonde hair "But I suppose a break like this is very much welcome."
Hisui eased a bit up but she didn't manage to say anything. The silence reigned supreme between them.
"You may ask whatever you would like to, Hime." he permitted her but the girl was unable to decide between any of the many questions that were on her mind "Just ask the first thing that comes to your mind." the blonde encouraged her
"Where do you come from?" she blurted out and looked expectantly at the blonde boy next to her. She noticed that his expression fell slightly and seemed less bright than before.
"I was born in Konoha." he answered with a sullen expression as he remembered the town he was born in
Hisui gasped in shock "T-the ghost town?" It was no secret what happened all those years ago.
"Ah, yes, that is what it is nowadays." he noted wryly "After the Crimson Massacre."
"I'm sorry for bringing that up." here she was trying to have a conversation with the boy that had rescued her 'And the first thing I do is bring up something horrible like that.' she berated herself as she burned with shame
"Don't be. I had left the village long before the village was destroyed." he lied, well in some way it was the truth. Naruto Uzumaki had left the village years prior to its destruction and the Crimson Reaper had returned that one day to destroy it.
"I wasn't exactly well liked by others and so I decided to leave the village."
"Why weren't you liked?" she quickly covered her mouth after the words had escaped her. She knew that she shouldn't have asked that question. It was very likely a private matter and even if she was curious it was insensitive of her to pry like that. However it seemed as if Naruto had no problem talking about it as he promptly answered her question.
"The day of my birth one of Zeref's demons attacked Konoha. Elathan, the Demon of Eclipse. That day my father sacrificed his life to kill the demon and save everyone else. My mother died not long after I had been born from complications. I was raised by Sarutobi the old village elder but as he was once again in charge of the village he didn't have very much time for me. While some initially regarded me with scrutiny because of the ill fated timing of my birth they still treated me like a normal child, however I always had quite a lot magic power even as a child but no experience in controling it." Hisui listened intently to the tale of his childhood "When I experienced strong emotions my magic just reacted and a lot of unfortunate accidents happened. One time a large treebranch fell on top of a kid because my magic broke it. These accidents kept happening and eventually I was seen as a source of bad luck and misfortune because these people had very little idea about magic and so I was collectively ignored, turned into a non-existence."
"That's horrible." Hisui commented deeply upset by the story "You are such a nice guy, it's just not fair that you were treated that way."
Naruto gave her a shrug that didn't really help to reassure her that he was okay.
"It's in the past, I'm over it." he told her and while she was not happy with that explanation all she could do was accept it.
They stayed silent for a while until Hisui decided to steer the topic of their conversation to something else.
"Also..." she gained his attention, his blue eyes focused completely on her "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving me from that Bora guy." She bowed her head in deep gratitude only to feel his fingers touch her chin as he lifted her head back up which caused her to look back into his deep blue eyes.
"Don't bow your head like that. It makes me uncomfortable that a beautiful girl like you is lowering herself like that for a deed that is not worth mentioning." he smiled at her which caused her face to heat up once more with a red flush "Besides you did quite well yourself in resisting him. It speaks of quite the talent for magic."
Hisui's eyes widened in shock "Me? Talent for magic?" she repeated and rapidly shook her head "No, that's impossible. Never once in the History of Fiore has there been someone with the ability to use magic in the royal family." At least as far as she knew "Papa certainly doesn't have any and I don't remember Mama having the ability either." It was just impossible for her to be able to use magic "Besides shouldn't I have exhibited earlier signs if I was adept at magic?"
"Not neccessarily." Naruto said "Magic is the physical embodiment of the spirit. When the spirit of an organism connects with the spiritual flow of nature, the spirit forms magic as a product of the connection." the blonde explained "As an embodiment of our spirit a persons magic, at least before they have received any formal training, is strongly influenced by emotions and believe. If someone with an aptitude for magic were to be in a stressful situation where they were in danger their body would release a burst of magic of that person's most natural form of magic. However just as strong feelings can cause magic to burst out of a person so can strong feelings and believes keep a persons magic locked in." he pointed at Hisui "You have all your life lived in the believe to be unable to use magic, that it was impossible for you to have the ability. This subconcious believe kept your magic locked away until you directly came in contact with it in the form of Bora's Charm magic. The touch of foreign magic on yourself forced your own magic to fight against it even if you did not know that you possessed a talent for it." He extended his hand towards her "Here take my hand."
She grasped his hand with hers and suddenly she was enveloped in a soft red glow. It felt strange, first cold and then pulsing warmth, sticking to her and enveloping her. He took his hand out of her hand and suddenly the warmth of the red glow vanished and suddenly she felt an inner warmth fill her as a soft green glow surrounded her.
"Wow." she marveled at the feeling the green energy provided her with.
"The first thing was my own magic which I used to draw your own out. What you are feeling right now is your own magic."
Slowly her magic faded and now she felt the inner pool of power in herself. She was quite interested in learning more about magic, about her magic, how to use her magic, which clearly showed on her face.
"Would you like me to teach you magic?" he offered and she felt some embarassment that she had been read so easily
"Yes, please." she said and Naruto took her hand
"Well then lets go to a place more fitting."
The pair left the archives behind them as they walked through the halls of Mercurius. Every time they passed a guard they would receive a kind smile or a salute.
Eventually they ended up on a rather large balcony which sometimes was used when larger congregates of nobles came for conferences or parties. The sudden cold air elicted a shiver from both of them but it was nothing they couldn't bear.
Hisui nervously looked around "What if someone sees us?" she asked with traces of fear in her voice "The royal family has never had a magic user because the two institutions of Royal Family and Magic Council are supposed to remain seperate. If word got out..." If the King or Queen were a magic user they would have to abide by the rules of the Magic Council in Era and this the Council might have the power to influence the Royal Families decisions on the other hand it might as well be possible for the Royal Family to use their influence on the Council to steer their decisionmaking.
Naruto placed a finger on her lips to hush her "Don't worry about that. Nobody will see us practicing magic. They will think we are merely talking to one another." he leaned forward and whispered into her ear "It will be our secret."
"But how...?" Hisui asked with surprise and wonder. A small shudder went through her body as she felt his hot breath on her skin.
"Magic." Naruto smirked at her and she giggled at his simple response "Illusion Magic to be specific. It's how I kept the crone of an archivist from eavesdropping on us. Otherwise she would have probably tattled on us already." Using some low powered Illusions was easy enough against those that didn't have any ability to use magic.
"Naruto-kun." she said aghast "It's not nice to speak like that about other people. Lady Arika is very nice."
The blonde gave a small sigh "To you and the King maybe but everyone else can attest to her unfriendly attitude." he said with a slight shake of his head "But that is not why we are here."
"I'm all ears, sensei." Hisui adressed him respectfully which earned her small smile
"Good, before I start to do you have any questions?" he asked and his student raised her hand
"Back then you mentioned something like natural magic. What's that?"
"I did mention that. Well natural magic is something most prominent in second and further generation mages. It happens in everyone but the aforementioned groups usually exhibit it the most. Simply put, for example, if both your parents were adept at using Ice magic then their child would have a heavy inclination towards ice magic as well. The childs magic would naturally have a cold feeling to it and in a situation where the life of the child is in danger the magic, on reflex, would conjure ice in defense of said child. In a case where both parents used different styles of magic usually one wins out. Like with genetics you might inherit the trait from either your mother or your father. Of course this phenomenon also applies to first generation mages. Each persons magic is somehow inclined to something specific, in these instances it is much, much harder to tell certain inclinations apart from eachother." the blonde explained and Hisui found it easy to follow
"Does that mean that someone that is better suited for ice magic can't learn fire magic or any other types of magic?" Hisui inquired of her teacher
"No, not at all. A child who inherited its parents magic can still learn any magic it would like to. There is no difficulty associated in transitioning from one magic style to one that is more opposed merely because of a natural inclination. Remember magic is the embodiment of the spirit. Someone that is a blankslate to magic has no problem learning one or the other type of magic. This only later on becomes a problem." he cleared his throat before continuing his explanation "What you suggested has become something of a more popular fallacy, especially because mages usually tend to focus on one style of magic and go with that one until they have mastered it. Since people think that they might have problems learning opposite styles of magic they end up having those problems. Can you guess as to why?"
"...Because magic is the embodiment of the spirit and their believes influence that." she answered tentatively and Naruto smiled at her
"Exactly. People always go with a certain mindset towards achieving something even on a subconcious level so someone that learnt Ice magic believes themself to have problems learning fire magic and thus has those problems in the first place. Of course this can also be steered into a positive by going for complementary or similar styles of magic."
The green haired princess wished she had a notepad right now to write all this information down on.
"What magic will you be teaching me?" she was curious about what he was going to teach her
She received a grin in response to her question "I have just the perfect style of magic for you."
He held out his left hand with the palm facing up into the air. His right hand was balled into a fist and placed on top of the palm. Hisui noted the look of concentration on Naruto's face as she felt his magic gather in his hands. Seconds had passed until he removed his hands from one another. On top of his palm laid a small beautiful jade flower. Naruto handed Hisui the flower and she marveled at the construct.
"This type of magic is called Crystal Make. It is a type of molding magic which belongs to the greater group of Caster Type magics." he informed her as she held the flower in her hands and tried to take in every little detail, as if she were looking for a flaw.
"Is this real..." she trailed off, disbelieving that someone could be capable of creating precious stones out of nothing
"For the most part, yes." he explained "It's not true jade though. It's merely a magically created crystal that mimics the appearance. If you took this to some expert jeweler and had him appraise this crystal he wouldn't give you even a little bit of money for it because for all their likeness to real precious gemstones these constructs can still be distinguished from their natural occuring counterparts."
He clapped his hands pulling her attention back from the construct in her hands "Now then before I get into the exact details of teaching you the specifics of using Crystal Make I will have to bore you with the boring but necessary basics." he said jovially and suddenly a blackboard appeared behind him. Naruto suddenly wore a pair of glasses and had a long stick in his hands.
He pointed at the blackboard with the stick directing her attention towards it.
There was a drawing of a magic circle on the left side and on the right side there was a drawing of cards.
He adjusted his fake glasses "Now there are two great categories of magic. Caster type magic and Holder type magic. Distinguishing between these two types is easy. Holder type magics use an item as a medium or focus for a persons magic power. If you are not sure what kind of magic you are facing ask yourself this 'Does the person use an item?' if the answer to that question is 'No' you are dealing with a caster type. If the answer is 'Yes' the magic in question is a Holder type. Were you able to follow so far?" Hisui gave a quick nod and in response Naruto flipped the backboard "Now one might be inclined to ask, why tie your magic to something like an object which you might be able to lose or have taken away? The answer is versatility. In most cases, there are exceptions, a Holder type magic is quite versatile in its use. For example someone using 'Gun Magic' can fire lightning bullets and fire bullets whereas someone using a 'Fire type' 'Caster Magic' will only ever be able to conjure fire with it." Hisui nodded in understanding as she committed these facts to her memory "Of course 'Caster Magic' is not without its own set of advantages. The advantage it has over 'Holder Magic' is quality. If two mages of similar strength were to fight and one used 'Fire Magic' and the other 'Gun Magic' if the 'Gun Mage' were to use a fire attack the attack of the fire type mage would without a doubt be stronger. Now a quick pop quiz. What type of magic was the 'Charm' and 'Purple Flare' of Bora?"
"Um..." Hisui thought back to the vile blue haired man, as he cast the purple fire "The 'Purple Flare' was a Caster type magic." Naruto nodded indicating that her answer was correct and motioned for her to continue. Hisui tried to think back to the day she had met that man but he did not seem to have any type of item on him, just a surprising amount of jewelry "Caster type as well?" she finally guessed and Naruto shook his head
"Good guess but no. It is hard to tell since 'Charm' is a magic that requires a certain amount of subtelty but it, in fact, is a Holder type. The rings he wore on his hand were the medium for that particular type of magic." he corrected her "Sometimes it is hard to tell which magic is which if the item itself is not something obvious."
The blackboard flipped again and instead of displaying the first page again there was a third page.
"Caster Type: Molding Magic." Hisui read off of the blackboard and looked back at her teacher.
"Exactly as I mentioned Crystal Make is a Caster Type magic and it belongs into the sub-category of 'Molding Magic'. It is a type of magic that allows the creation and molding of certain substances." Hisui paid extra attention as her teacher now went into the specifics of the magic she would be learning from him " There are two types of Molding Magic. Static which focuses on manipulating the environment and creating static objects."She saw him close his eyes and after a moment of a crystalline sword appeared in his hand "Like this sword." with a quick movement of his hand the sword suddenly shattered into thousands of small shards that were soon blown away by the wind
"The second type is Dynamic." Naruto created a small bird out of crystal which took to the air and flew away "This type focuses on creating animated constructs. They are not smart or in any way sentient and will at best fulfill the command given upon its creation. For a master of 'Molding Magic' this distinction is meaningless as they can create both Static and Dynamic constructs with the same proficiency but for someone that is just starting out to learn magic it is easier to focus on just one of the types until they have mastered that one." He peered past his fake spectacles into her green eyes "I'll leave the choice which of the two you would like to learn to you."
Hisui adopted a thoughtful look as she tried to decide between the two styles. Static sounded interesting but by merely forming items she would undoubtly arrive at a point where she would have to wield the items herself. She wasn't absolutely unathletic but in a situation where she had to beat somebody with merely her physical prowess she was likely unable to win. Thus the Dynamic style seemed to be more apropriate for her.
She nodded to herself as she had decided which style she would focus on.
"I would like to learn Dynamic Molding." she stated after minutes of mulling over the decision
"Alright then I will be teaching you Dynamic Crystal Make." Hisui was burning with determination to continue the lessons only to be sorely disappointed "But that will need to be left for the next time." His fake glasses, the stick and the blackboard faded away as if they were nothing more than air.
"But why..." Hisui whined and received a flick to her head "Oww..."
"Look at the sky." he smirked in amusement as she rubbed the spot that he had hit only to notice that the sky had turned dark
"Ohh." she replied with some embarassment. They had spent enough time outside that the sun had set. As she became aware of the dark sky she shivered from the cold air.
"Let's go inside." he ushered her back inside the palace "Dinner should be served soon."
"Naruto?" she asked elicting a questioning "Hmm?" from him "Where did you learn to teach like that?" Hisui had tutors for various things ranging from etiquette to economics but none of them had captured her interest quite like Naruto. If it were any other topic she would have, very likely, only remembered even half of what was said but even now she could almost perfectly recall everything Naruto had said in the last few hours.
"I had a good teacher." he responded with a chuckle 'More like the knowledge of one of the best magic teachers in Fiore helps in that regard.'
Sorin had not been the most friendly teacher. He had very often confronted Naruto with sink or swim scenarios which were undoubtly effective for him. His pure tenacity and drive made him preserve through the, often times, grueling training.
And that was Chapter 7. But wait there is more!
You even get a little christmas Omake. Happy Holidays.
-Omake-
"Do I really have to do this?" Naruto grumbled in annoyance only to receive a stern look from Erza in response
"Yes, yes you have to." she told him in a way that left no room for arguing which caused our blonde protagonist to release a sigh
"Alright, alright." he conceded and cleared his throat
He was dressed in simple Santa style outfit. Black boots, red pants, red coat with a white collar and cuffs and a red hat. His expression was one of dissatisfaction with a big frown.
He straightened his slouched back "We wish you all a Merry Christmas, or the equivalent of whatever holiday you are celebrating and we hope you all had a lovely time with your family and received lots of..." a wild red aura enveloped him "PAIN AND SUFFERING! HAHAHAHA!" Naruto cackled like a mad man until Erza hit the back of his head
The scarlet haired woman glared at Naruto. She was dressed similar to Naruto only in a set that was much more revealing.
"Do it properly or you wont get your present." she threatened him which caused Naruto to stop his mad laughter.
The blondes face fell "Alright, alright." he said as he rubbed the spot she had hit "No, need to get mean Er-chan."
"We hope you all had a lovely time with your family and received lots of presents."
Erza gave him a smile as she patted his head "That was much better." she praised him and leaned closer "And now you may unwrap...me."
"You seductress." he accused her with a grin on his face
He hoisted her over his shoulder, carrying her away.
"Hehehe. That kid is a gold mine." the white haired super perver Jiraiya cackled gleefully as he furiously scribbled in his notebook until a sword came flying through the air embedding itself in the mans forehead "Oww..." he moaned pitifully as blood dribbled down his face