An "early" chapter 12 here fore you to enjoy.
"I wonder how long it has been since I have been here." the white haired mage known as Jiraiya from the legendary trio of independent mages, which recently had been cut down to two, asked himself. His gaze was firmly locked onto the building in front of him. A large three story building with a round, pointed dome on the top. On the top of the dome was a white flag billowing in the wind. The style of the building itself was very reminiscent of pagoda like buildings as each floor was smaller than the one below it. The roof was covered in extremely long, arching, red colored tiles with simple curved protrusions jutting upwards. The floor below the dome at the top bore a flag with the guilds symbol held up by two large poles. The entrance was similar to the dome shape on the summit and above that was the guild's name, Fairy Tail, topped by a protruding, stylized heart shape and flanked by two carved fairies.
The large guild hall of Fairy Tail was truly a sight to behold. It was probably the most notable building in the town of Magnolia.
Jiraiya rubbed his chin in thought "Yes, it must be close to two decades since I've last been inside the building itself." back then Minato had accompanied him on his travels, after Minato had learned his magic from Hiruzen-sensei. Minato back then had merely lacked more experience in real combat situations. Unfortunately independent mages didn't get the best kind of jobs since the bulk was distributed to either a guild the client deemed best or a local guild sometimes clients even sent their requests to multiple guilds to increase the chance of the request being accepted as quickly as possible. However occasionally multiple people from different guilds would end up accepting the same request causing quite a bit of strife as they tried to settle who had more of a claim on it. Generally however sending multiple guilds the same request was frowned upon unless it was incredible urgent or a request from the council concerning a bigger threat.
Since up and coming independent mages had difficulty getting the juicy jobs they could request to accompany a guild mage on one of their requests provided that both the guild master and the person going on the request agreed to it. Despite that Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had become known as mages on the level of Saints, something which mages that were not affiliated with a guild rarely accomplished. Hiruzen Sarutobi had been the one to introduce their team, back when they were still young, to Fairy Tail. His old teacher had favored Fairy Tail's philosophy of viewing each member as part of an extended family. He had valued the sense of camaraderie the guild had become known for. At the time Fairy Tail had been under the leadership of their second master Precht Gaebolg. Jiraiya and his teammates had forged a friendship with Makarov Dreyar and his team. Coincidentally Makarov had also been the one to become the third master of Fairy Tail and he was also a fan of Jiraiya's novels.
Jiraiya was fairly confident he could convince the old man to let Naruto accompany on of his children on a request.
'The brat certainly did everything I asked without much complaining.' the white haired man thought to himself. He had given the son of Minato tasks that would have the average person complain endlessly but the kid took it exceptionally well 'Have to give it to the brat he has an exceptional amount of self-control.' since the kid had done everything so well he decided to let him have a bit of fun and let him go on a request and at the same time teach him the value of friendship, camaraderie and teamwork. What better way to do that than to ask the guild whose quintessential virtues were exactly that?
Hopefully it would also get Naruto to open up more. The blonde spoke when Jiraiya adressed him but seemed quite tight lipped in regards to his past. The boy seemed to be a master in the art of saying a lot of nothing. It always seemed like he said a lot but it was never actually anything of value. Sure Jiraiya could force the blonde into telling him more but that was not the way to go. Naruto was already pretty unforthcoming with any information about himself, as it was, pushing him would close Naruto off even more. If he wanted Minato's son to realize his mistakes Naruto would have to open up on his own.
Jiraiya pushed the large, round door open, revealing the interior of the first floor of Fairy Tail.
The first floor looked like a lunch hall. Long wooden benches, tables and chairs were scattered across the ground floor. The floor was a wooden, parquet floor. To the side there was a request board with various requests tacked to it. At the side of the request board was a bar with a few waitresses with one being a particular young, white haired one with blue eyes.
There was also a pair of wooden stairs with the first leading up to the second floor and the other leading down to the basement of the building.
All over the ground floor were a various number of people seated at the tables. They talked to eachother, drank various beverages, smoked, argued, ate. The atmosphere was so refreshingly inviting and honest that one could really mistake Fairy Tail for a giant family.
When Jiraiya entered the guild a few eyes turned towards him, some of the older members seemed to recognize him as they lifted their kegs of beer in greeting with a welcoming smile on their lips. The younger members or those that had never met him gave him curious stares when a young white haired woman, who looked very much like the young barmaid, approached him.
She seemed to be a bit taller and older but she had the same white hair and blue eyes. Contrary to the shorter hair of the girls younger sister this girls hair was done in tied in a high ponytail by a massive dark ribbon while a single strand of hair covered her forehead.
She wore quite a revealing goth outfit. A dark, skimpy, sleeveless shirt adorned with light curved motifs on her chest, a pair of leather shorts held up by a studded belt with a demonic looking buckle and thigh high boots with stiletto heels, each adorned by a flower on their upper parts. Wrapped around her right wrist was a demonic looking bracelet shaped like a demonic arm and on the middle finger of the hand on her right arm was a small ring. Her nails were painted with a dark nail polish.
It didn't take much brain power to correctly place this girl as a more 'rough around the edges' girl, heck the girl oozed the bad girl vibe. She definitely looked like she didn't mince a word and once she adressed him his thoughts were confirmed.
"What'cha doing here old timer? If you are looking for the old people's home it's not here." the white haired girl smirked, arrogantly at him obviously amused by her jibe
Inwardly Jiraiya shook his head in amusement. Fairy Tail still had the monopoly on the crazy members and he couldn't blame the girl for not recognizing him. He had never been part of any guild and it's been a long time since he did any active mage stuff, instead he had focused on his job as an author.
The white haired barmaid rushed from her position at the bar next to her older sister "Please try to be nicer, Mira-nee... at least when we have a guest." the younger girl asked her older sister, obviously annoyed by her lack of respect. Mira gave her sister a shrug not interested in her sisters attempts to correct her attitude.
The younger girl gave a small bow "I'm sorry for my sisters attitude." she quickly apologized "My name is Lisanna Strauss. Is there anything I can help you with..." she was obviously fishing for his name
"Haha." Jiraiya chuckled loudly gathering more attention "I am glad that you are asking." His white mane whipped wildly through the air as he followed with an, in his mind, awesome dance "From the coldest mountains to the hottest deserts my name is known. I make woman faint at the mere sight, men admire me as much as they are jealous, babies stop their crying in my presence. I am the mighty, the gallant, the awesome Jiraiya-sama!" he finished with his left arm stretched out in front of him and with his right arm pointed backwards.
People reacted in various ways to him. Those who knew Jiraiya laughed at his antics, those who didn't were asking themselves 'Is this guy serious?' some looked like they didn't quite know what to think and then there was Mirajane herself, who looked absolutely livid.
Apparently when Jiraiya had stretched out his hand he had copped a feel of her growing bust.
"Not bad. In a few years those are going to be grade A." Jiraiya praised with a perverted giggle and Mirajane scowled darkly in response to that.
A purple aura of magic began to surround Mirajane "You fucking pervert." she growled and sent him flying with a high kick that shattered a few tables when Jiraiya flew through them.
Unfortunatly this also had the effect of spilling more than a few drinks of some of the people sitting at said tables.
"Oy!" one of the members roared in indignation at his spilled drink and gave the person next to him a punch to relieve himself of his anger. The hit person retaliated with a kick sending the first one flying into another one. Lisanna only sighed at her guildmates antics but at the same time a smile graced her lips. In less than a minute a full blown barfight had broken out. Mugs and people went flying. Tables and benches were destroyed. It was pure chaos. This rambunctiousness was truly the spirit of Fairy Tail and it had not changed one bit since Jiraiya had been here the last time.
Eventually a dark shadow spread across the hall along with an opressive aura.
"What is all this ruckus about?" the shadow rumbled in a deep voice as instantly everyone halted the fighting and cowered in fear "I don't pay attention for five minutes and you children devolve into a bar fight." the large shadowy being shrunk down to a small, old, blading man "Now how did things start this time?" the small man asked with fake annoyance
Before anyone could answer Jiraiya sprung next to the old man "Yo! Long time no see Makarov." he greeted the smaller man with a big grin and the small man returned the grin with one of his own
"Jiraiya you decrepit fool. I haven't seen you in forever." Makarov laughed in amusement
"Don't call me decrepit you barmy old man. I'll have you know I am still in the prime of my life." the white haired man responded with a smirk "Also don't be too angry with the kids. Kinda my fault that a fight broke out." Jiraiya laughed loudly without any hint of embarassment "I accidentally groped the chest of the white haired goth girl."
"You lucky dog. How were they?" the third master of Fairy Tail asked with a perverted look on his face and everyone could not help it but to feel embarassed for the two perverted old men
"Don't say another word old man or I will break your legs." the white haired goth girl, known as Mirajane Strauss, threatened. A dark glint lit up in her eyes, promising pain.
Jiraiya wisely kept his mouth shut so as to avoid the womanly, or was it girly, fury of Mirajane.
"So what brings you here Jiraiya?" Makarov decided to ask "You haven't been here in forver. About twenty years if I remember correctly. You had young Minato in your company back then, didn't you?" Makarov gave a heavy sigh "I heard what happened. A true hero but very tragic to lose such a promising young man at such a young age."
"I couldn't agree more." Jiraiya stated nodding his head solemnly in agreement "Actually I am here to ask a favor of you."
"A favor you say." Makarov stroked his mustache "Well then follow me to my office so we can have a bit peace and quiet." he then adressed the rest of the room "As for you others, I expect you to clean up here."
"Yes, master!" the collective voices of most guild members rang out, filling the first floor.
Jiraiya followed the smaller man up the first flight of stairs to the second floor where a young blonde kid, not much older than Naruto, was sitting by himself an annoyed look on his face. He followed Makarov up the second flight of stairs to the third floor of the building where Makarov's office was located.
"So how do you think master knows the old man, Mira-nee?" Lisanna, the young barmaid, decided to ask her tomboyish sister who gave her a pointed look
"What do I care how master knows the old pervert." Mirajane grumbled angrily at not having gotten to beat up the old man further for groping her
"Don't act so prudish sister. I know you are not that innocent that a simple grope, especially an accidental one, would bother you." despite Mirajane being the older sister Lisanna was the more wise of the one and their brother Elfman...well he was Elfman.
"It bothers me because it was a filthy hold man." Mirajane grumbled angrily "If it had been a good looking guy that maybe would have been okay but not a guy like that Jiraiya."
"So you don't wanna know how master knows Jiraiya?" Wakaba Mine asked as he took a puff of his pipe
"You know Wakaba?" Lisanna asked with curiosity and the man nodded as he exhaled a plume of smoke
"It's not a surprise that young mages like you don't know anything about Jiraiya. The man has been focusing on his writing career for quite some time now." Waka explained knowledgeable an unnoticeable blush on his face "But back in the day Jiraiya used to be part of a legendary trio of independant mages with all of them being around the level of the Wizard Saints in strength."
"No way. That old man as strong as a Saint?" Mirajane asked with a voice full of incredulity
"Indeed." Wakaba confirmed and a few more of the younger generation had been listening as well "I don't know if he still fights at that level but he used to be really strong. The team later disbanded when one of the three went rogue."
"So the old man is strong, yeah?" Natsu Dragneel, the pink haired dragonslayer of Fairy Tail, roared in excitement as his fists ignited with orange fire "I so want to fight him now."
"As if you could even touch him flame head." Gray Fullbuster, the boys 'rival' retorted
"Say that to my face you stupid stripper." Natsu replied hot-headedly
"I said you couldn't even touch him fire for brains." Gray responded with a fat grin
"Gray your clothes..." Lisanna decided to remind the boy who had a bad habit of stripping without knowing it, especially when he was involved in a verbal spat with her 'husband'
Gray looked down at himself and saw that he was in his underpants "Ahhhh!" he cried in dismay "How did that happen?"
Natsu laughed loudly at the Ice Make mages misfortune "Hahaha! You stupid exhibitionist."
"At least I can ride a train without puking my guts out." Gray said with a smirk
"Well at least I don't strip all the time."
"You already mentioned that you idiot!"
"No, you are the idiot!"
"Boys..." Lisanna tried to defuse the situation but the two simply continued to bicker
"Let me take care of that Lisanna." Mirajane took a step towards the two boys and flared her purple aura "Shut up you two!" she ordered them causing the two to fearfully cower in front of her might "That's better." she smirked victoriously
The small man sat down at his desk and looked intently at the white haired author "So what kind of favor do you want to ask, old friend?"
"I've recently taken someone under my wing and I would like for him to gain a bit experience and learn about teamwork by accompanying one of your kids on a request." Jiraiya explained and Makarov looked a bit surprised
"You've taken on an apprentice? I didn't think you would after you focused more on your writing career." a small giggle escaped Makarov "By the way how is your next book coming along?"
"Oh quite well." Jiraiya nodded excitedly 'Oh yes, the story about a young, gallant mage rescuing a princess and seducing her with his charm writes itself nearly all on its own.'
'Now, maybe I can somehow incorporate a character like that Mira girl.' giggling perversely to himself 'I know. A tough, foul mouthed demoness comes to claim the life of the princess but the young, valiant mage defeats her and binds her to himself as a slave.' he inwardly salivated at the story 'Oh yes, just perfect.'
Jiraiya then ripped himself out of his brainstorming and focused back on his old friend, Makarov.
"Alright so are you going to help me with that favor?" the white haired man asked and Makarov nodded, "Under one condition."
"What kind of condition?" Jiraiya doubted that Makarov would ask for anything too unreasonable. A preverted grin slipped on Makarov's face "I am going to get a pre-release copy of your next book."
Jiraiya laughed boisterously at the request "Of course. Consider it done." the white haired mage smirked at his old friend
"So what kind of strength level would you put your young protégé at?" Makarov needed to know what kind of mage he should ask if he or she were willing to take another person along on the job.
Since Naruto had defeated Orochimaru and from the reports on the battle in front of Crocus it was obvious that the blonde mage was quite powerful "S-Class level I would say." Jiraiya answered and Makarov's eyes widened "Really? How old is he?"
Jiraiya thought back to the letter he had received from Minato telling him that his son was going to be born soon. That was at the end of september year X766. With Naruto being born not much later in the October of that year.
"He is fourteen." Jiraiya concluded after the short calculation of the boys age.
'That is a year younger than even Erza. He truly must be a prodigy.' Makarov noted with a hint of awe
"Well then there is not much choice. Currently we have just three active S-Rank mages." Makarov stated "Gildarts our most powerful mage has begun the one hundred year quest not too long ago..."
"WHAT?!" Jiraiya exclaimed in pure shock. The one hundred year quest was a request that has not been completed in a hundred years since it was first put up for completion. Hundreds of mages had failed at the quests sheer difficulty. Only the person that actually undertook it got to know what it was about and was sworn to absolute secrecy. Until now every single person that had attempted to complete the quest had failed.
"Really, that quest? I knew Gildarts was never the most responsible but to actually attempt the one hundred year quest..."
Makarov laughed at Jiraiya's reaction "I know but it just fits Gildarts to attempt something like that. Besides, you are forgetting, this is Fairy Tail you are talking about, Jiraiya."
"Too true." Jiraiya agreed with a smile "You were always the craziest around."
"The S-Rank mage with the most experience aside from Gildarts would be my grandson. You saw him briefly on the second floor." Jiraiya realized that Makarov was talking about the annoyed looking blonde "But he is rather difficult..." the old man said with a sigh "If he takes a request he either goes alone or takes his own personal team the 'Raijinshuu' and he doesn't take particularily well to outsiders or newbies." Makarov gave another sigh at his grandsons behaviour. The boy was quite far from what a Fairy Tail mage was supposed to be.
'Seems Makarov has his own blonde problem child.' Jiraiya thought in amusement at the similarity of the situation with him and Naruto
"So only our last S-Rank mage is left. She is young, only a year older than your apprentice and has not been S-Rank for that long. Her name is Erza Scarlet. Even though she is young, she is quite talented and very dependable. I doubt she is going to cause too much of a ruckus if I ask her to take your apprentice along. I think she even registered an S-Rank request about half an hour before you arrived. She was going to pack her things since she missed the train. I'll just call her in and inform her about your request. Tell your apprentice to meet Erza at the Magnolia Trainstation in about one and a half hours."
"Perfect." Jiraiya nodded in an appreciative manner "Thanks again. I'll be on my way then and going to inform my apprentice about the situation."
Jiraiya turned and left the room however Makarov shouted one last reminder about the pre-release book after him.
"Oh, I completely forgot to ask about what his apprentice's name was." Makarov gave a nonchalant shrug as he pulled out a familiar book with an orange cover and giggled quietly to himself "You are truly a genius Jiraiya."
Naruto was pacing nervously in the room Jiraiya had rented for the reminder of their stay in Magnolia town. Truth be told he felt entirely uncomfortable in this town. This mostly had to do with the fact that this was the town Fairy Tail was located in which meant there was a chance Erza was in town. If Erza caught sight of him she would either massacre him or get him thrown into jail. Both were prospects he wanted to avoid if possible. To top it off the old pervert had not even told him why they had come here, much to his annoyance.
For the past month he had been doing menial labour and other humiliating and degrading things. A lot of the things he did basically amounted to community service with a few exceptions. Helping the elderly, picking up trash, moving stuff. The whole package. The stupid pervert claimed it was supposed to teach him humility and gain an appreciation for the lesser things and less fortunate people but honestly Naruto knew better. These boring, dreary and incessantly grating tasks were simply part of the old mans scheme to punish him. He had to give it to the old man. He knew how to disguise his revenge perfectly and it wasn't anything he could claim to be overtly punishing. It was merely a supreme pain in the butt to deal with nothing but trash for the last month. He had not even been allowed to use the slightest bit of magic except... He shuddered at the memory. No magic made it all the more frustrating for Naruto and it wasn't even like he could do anything about it. Jiraiya was a man of his word. He had promised that he would redeem Naruto and that is what the man would do. He had made no moves to reveal the secret to anyone however he had promised that if Naruto stepped out of line even a single bit his secret would be spilled. Of course he had also played with the thought of killing Jiraiya to get rid of him and keep his secret safe but apparently the guy had known that he had contemplated his murder and promised him that in the event of his death his secret would be spilled as well, Living Link magic would ensure that.
Naruto fell back down on the hotel bed. It was not up to the same standard as the bed in Mercurius but at the very least it was better than cold, wet and muddy ground. In the wake of his impromptu rest he had suffered from a horrible flu for a few days, something he didn't want to repeat.
At the very least it had given him enough time to sort through all of the memories he had gained from old snake face. It seemed that he didn't even know all that more about Zeref than what he had revealed during their first meeting. Two of the three cornerstones of the Balam Alliance, Grimoire Heart and Tartarus, were looking to 'revive' Zeref. What their exact purposes for that were Orochimaru didn't know. Without his inclusion into the Balam alliance as perhaps the most notorious independent dark mage of the current time they had not been particularily forthcoming with information. In fact the only person Orochimaru had directly met were Brain and someone nambed Cobra, from Oracion Seis. Since Brain had asked Orochimaru to implant dragon lachrima into Cobra. Dragon lachrima were a very rare and consequently expensive type of lachrima that granted the person in whose possession they were similar abilities to that of a dragon slayer. There still was a huge discrepancy between a natural dragonslayer and an artificial one but artificial dragonslayer were not to be underestimated as they had easier acess to the higher tier dragonslayer powers than a natural trained slayer had.
Aside from that Orochimaru had no worthwhile information for him on Zeref. Interestingly enough Orochimaru had declined to be part of the Balam Alliance because he thought that using Zeref as a crutch was entirely unbefitting of supposedly the strongest dark guilds. That they should rely on the merits of their own power instead of the relics of a long lost age. It was a profound statement one would not expect from someone like Orochimaru but the mans pride in his own abilities refused to let anyone be a crutch to him. This was why he often got rid of people just to make a statement 'You can be replaced. Don't think for one moment that you are important.' was what he told people. Of course he did have favorites like Guren and Kimimaro but both of them had been utterly fanatic zealots to the man.
Naruto gave small sigh as he turned on his side. Suddenly Jiraiya burst into the room.
"I have good news brat!" the old man shouted excitedly
"They have finally decided to castrate you for the good of humanity?" Naruto snarked he was not at all happy with the current situation and he made no effort to hide it
"Haha. Very funny brat." Jiraiya responded in a deadpan with a roll of his eyes "No, you finally get to go on a request, get to use magic and all."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the old pervert. That seemed unlike Jiraiya's previous behaviour.
"So what's the catch?" the blonde inquired carefully as he thought back to the last time Jiraiya offered him something 'to good to be true'
"I'm wounded brat." Jiraiya clutched his heart in mock pain "Don't you trust me?" the perverted old man asked with fake sadness in his voice and Naruto stared blankly at the man.
"The last time you told me I could use magic you hired me out as a male stripper for a womans birthday party." Naruto responded with gritted teeth as he remembered that particular event. There was a fine line between enjoying carnal pleasure and the kind of sexual humiliation Jiraiya put him through "I had to use illusions to make them think I was older than I actually was or you would have landed in jail, you old idiot, for prostituting a minor. Do you have any idea how it felt to be stared at like a piece of meat by women more than twice my age? With their grubby hands all over my body." Naruto shuddered at the memory. If at least those women were hot. It was kind of shallow to complain about that but since they hired him as a stripper he was in the right to at least complain about it.
"Oh yes, I remember. That was hilarious." Jiraiya laughed hysterically before it trailed off into a perverse giggle "And the research I got from that was top notch. You are a gold mine boy. If you keep providing me with excellent inspiration like that my next book is going to break the sales chart, again." Jiraiya then seemed quite smug "Besides, I knew you cared about me. Your selfless action kept me out of jail."
"I didn't do that to safe you. Stupid old goat." Naruto responded annoyedly. The man was so infuriating, "I did that to save my own hide. Who knows if you wouldn't have spilled my secret to reduce your jail time or if it wouldn't have gotten out if you were incapacitated in jail."
"Yes, yes. Just tell yourself all that. I know that you are warming up to me brat." Naruto groaned in infuriation and took deep breaths to calm himself. The man was worse than the worst disease he could imagine.
"So about that request. What is it about?" the blonde mage finally decided to ask his 'mentor'. Naruto still felt disgusted to think of Jiraiya that way but he was still forced to tell everyone that asked that he was.
"Oh, yes. Right, right." Jiraiya was reminded what this conversation was supposed to be about "For your information this is no trick. This is a legitimate request handed to a guild."
"Ahuh." Naruto said eyeing the man suspiciously "And how did you get access to a 'legitimate guild request'?" Naruto decided to ask clearly not believing the white haired mage "Did you add thievery to your long list of undesirable traits?"
"Don't act smart with me brat." Jiraiya scoffed in retaliation of the accusation "The ladies desire me more than is healthy."
"If by desire you mean detest then I would be inclined to agree." Naruto responded dryly as his lips quirked in a smirk "Now get on with your explanation old man. But perhaps you already need help getting it on."
"Tch. I don't get an ounce of the respect I deserve from you." Jiraiya complained with a pout "Besides what would a virgin brat like you know about getting it on anyway."
"Well shows what you know, old man." Naruto responded with a smirk "I am not a virgin."
The white haired man was now openly gaping at his young protégé "What? When? How?" was Jiraiya's incoherent reply. Why had he not known about this? Had one of the women gotten a bit more touchy feely than she was supposed to? Had his blonde haired 'apprentice' been seduced, had he been seduced. He needed to know all the juicy details about that "Tell me all about it." Jiraiya instantly had his notepad out, pen ready to write everything down "How was it? Who did you do it with? It was the princess wasn't it?" he giggled as he asked that, furiously scribbling something down "Did you make her scream?"
"As if I am going to tell you anything about that. However, no, it wasn't Hisui-chan." Naruto frowned angrily. He had enjoyed the night with Erza very much and that everything had ended the way it had left him still bitter. Maybe if he had lied to Erza about him being the instigator of it all... it would probably have not changed anything at all but he did let his pride control himself back there. In typical villain manner he had laid all of it bare to the valiant heroin and they had duked it out.
"You aren't going to get a word about it out of me." Jiraiya would have to be content with his silence.
"Come on. You can't do that to me Naruto. You can't leave me hanging like that." Jiraiya pleaded with the son of Minato hoping to coax some information out of the boy but the boy remained stone cold. Jiraiya gave a dejected sigh before a devious smirk formed on his face "Well, I knew you were a virgin after all. You just made all of that up."
Naruto rolled his eyes "Really old man? Trying to goad me into telling you stuff by appealing to my pride and demeaning my sense of truthfulness?" the blonde shook his head as he clicked his tongue "You are making it too easy old man. You can't trick me like that."
"Ahh, of course you are right." Jiraiya admitted "You are much too clever for me Naruto." the white haired man praised him "Too bad you wont tell me all about how you made that girl moan your name." the old man sighed dejectedly as kept piling on the praise
"Just give up old man." Naruto sighed in exasperation at the old mans behaviour "Trying to inflate my ego so I'll brag about it wont work either."
"And now we ended up getting sidetracked... again." Naruto reminded the white haired author as he fixed him with a stern stare "Now tell me about the damn request, okay?"
"Yes, yes." Jiraiya grumbled in response "Don't get your panties in a bunch." he mumbled clearly annoyed that his 'get him to brag' strategy had failed as well "Well I visit my old friend Makarov Dreyar over at Fairy Tail for this request. Promised him I would send him a pre-release copy of my newest book." Jiraiya stated proudly "Get on with it, Jiraiya." Naruto urged impatiently because a horrible feeling was spreading in the pit of his stomach as he heard the words 'Fairy Tail'. His luck couldn't be that worse could it?
"Just calm down. Or the next thing I'll have you learn is patience and believe me you don't want to learn the way Hiruzen-sensei made me learn it." Jiraiya still remembered the painfull hours upon hours he kept falling from the small rock plate he had to balance on top of a thin rock spire
"At the very least you didn't steal it, that's more than I expected." the blonde commented amusedly, throwing another jibe at Jiraiya but inside of him that was another matter.
'Please let that have been everything. Please let that be the only thing he has to say about that.' the blonde pleaded as he imagined already the worst case scenario. Him having to teamup with a Fairy Tail mage and that mage being Erza. He could already imagine how that whole interaction would go.
'Hey, Erza. Remember me? Yeah, I'm that dark mage you had sexual intercourse with and who you thought you killed. Turns out I'm alive. Isn't that a riot?' and then he would suddenly find a large sword shoved through his chest or up the place where the sun doesn't shine (except if you used Illusion magic then you could actually make it look like that).
Now it was Jiraiya's turn to roll his eyes at the young teenagers behaviour "Hold your horses, kid." he told Naruto "Because you wont be going alone." These words instantly filled Naruto with a sense of horrible dread 'Oh please let it be anyone but Erza anyone but Erza.' he pleaded for everything that it was worth. Things couldn't just suddenly go down the drain like that. What had he done to... Okay he had done a lot to deserve getting screwed over but even something like that was just plain cruel 'Perhaps it wont even be Erza... Yes, it wont be Erza. Everything will be okay...' he tried to convince himself before his hopes were crushed by his own intellect 'No it wont be okay at all. Those idiots are of course going to share all about their adventures in their little club. There is no way Erza wont hear something about someone going on a request with the 'apprentice' of Jiraiya one of the strongest independent mages. He broke out in cold sweat. Everything was going to be over, everything was going to be over, all because of the old coot and his stupid redemption.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the agitated behaviour Naruto was showing before shrugging it off. Probably anticipation at getting to stretch his 'magical muscles'.
"Anyway. I want you to learn all about camaraderie, teamwork and friendship. Virtues that Fairy Tail praises above all else which makes them the best choice for this." Jiraiya stated clearly impressed by his own reasoning. He could just feel the man mentally patting himself on his back for this.
"So who will I be accompanying on a quest?" Naruto decided to ask hoping to at least somewhat alleviate his fears and suspicions. He could already hear the old man spell his doom, their combined doom. If he was going to jail he would drag Jiraiya with him. The man in his quest for redemption was still hiding and aiding a wanted fugitive even if everyone believed him to be dead.
"Well since you will be going on a S-Rank request the selection wasn't too big. Gildarts who would have probably normally accompanied you since he has the most experience is on the hundred year quest." Naruto looked briefly surprised as Jiraiya mentioned that fact before shrugging it off "Laxus, Makarov's grandson, is supposedly a difficult character since he doesn't deal well with outsiders and get this, he is blonde too." Jiraiya grinned at the younger blonde "Blonde teenage boy with personality problems... sounds familiar right?"
"Yeah sure." Naruto replied curtly. At the moment he didn't care for the mans stupid comparisons and comments, there was a lot more to worry about "Now who else is there?"
"Ah yes. You really lucked out boy." Jiraiya grinned a big perverse grin "The only S-Rank Mage left is Erza 'Titania' Scarlet. Red headed girl and totally hot." Jiraiya had seen her a few times in that gossip magazin Sorcerors Weekly. Even if he didn't care one bit for the drivel they wrote the cover girls and the photos they took of them were absolutely excellent.
Naruto blinked. He felt like he had swallowed a mountain, a mountain of ice. A horrible cold and heavy feeling was spreading throughout his body with his stomach being the starting point. He must have used up all the luck he had in Crocus. There was no other explanation for that. The silence was deafening. One could hear a pin dropping such was the extent of the silence.
"H-hey." Jiraiya tried to rouse the blonde mage he had taken under his wing to steer on a better path. Naruto had suddenly gone completely silent. The boy did not move at all. He couldn't see the boy blinking or notice any form of breathing. It looked like he head turned into a statue or died standing.
"Erza Scarlet?" he muttered in a low, hushed voice and, in a way, that was totally atypical of him "DID YOU SAY ERZA SCARLET?!" the blonde roared
Jiraiya had never seen Naruto livid like that, stripper incident included. The boy had too good of a control on his emotions and now suddenly he was freaking out about being paired up with Erza Scarlet. Jiraiya smirked "I didn't take you to be fanboying about a girl like that." suddenly Jiraiya was grabbed by his red jacket and shaken violently
"Do you have any idea about what you did? Any clue at all what you just fucking did?" the blonde demanded to know
"I don't get what kind of problem you have with Erza?" Jiraiya replied in confusion and Naruto pushed him into the wall
"Use your god damn brain you idiot!" Naruto tried to calm himself down but it was working only very slowly. He felt the urge to slam Jiraiya's head into something hard and solid, like a brick wall, preferably in a repeated manner.
"It was in the news. Don't you read any newspaper?" Naruto tried to jostle Jiraiya's memory but the man still looked confused
"I don't know what you are talking about?" the man confessed innocently and Naruto gave a heavy sigh in response. It didn't really alleviate any of his anger but that could come later.
"Look who was it that 'killed me'?" Naruto put the words, killed me, as obviously as possible into airquotes. Slowly a look of dawn spread across Jiraiya's face "Finally your pea brain seems to get it. That's right Erza was the one that 'killed me' well thinks she killed me and everyone else thought until you found out." Naruto gave the man a pointy glare "If Erza sees my face or hears my name the whole gig is up. I get killed or put in jail and you are going down for aiding a criminal. Then you can say your whole repentance gig goodbye."
The blonde mage pointed out trying to drive the message home. Jiraiya was a man of his word. He said he would make Naruto repent and redeem him and he would stand by that even if he would have to 'bend' a few laws such as hiding and helping a criminal.
"That's not good..." the white haired man stated meekly and Naruto laughed a hollow laugh
"That is the understatement of the year." the blonde snarked angrily "Fairy Tail was a stupid idea in the first place." he finally had calmed a bit down "As soon as Erza catches word this whole house of cards crashes down."
"How was I supposed to know about that?" Jiraiya asked angrily giving the young boy a displeased look "It's not like you ever tell me anything about you, even if I ask you, you tell me nothing. It's not my fault that I didn't know about this. It's yours for not telling me."
"I don't tell you anything because quite frankly you have no need to know anything about me." Naruto spat out venomously "You are just a meddling old man that feels like he owes my old man or some other bullshit like that. You are not my father, Jiraiya. You are not a person I respect. You have no idea what I went through so don't patronize me." So much for trying out friendship and love and all that bullshit. Why couldn't have his father, Minato, been the one instead of Jiraiya. At least with Minato he felt like he could respect the man but Jiraiya was an entirely different matter.
The white haired man looked hurt for a second as he realized the grain of truth in Naruto's words but at the same time they made him angry "There you go again sounding like a brat. You have no idea what I went through. Mimimi. Oh woe is me. The world is so bad." the white haired man replied in an exaggerated mocking voice "Tough luck. Life isn't fair so suck it up. 'Sides I don't care if you end up getting exposed to Erza. You will accompany her and that's that. If you don't well then you get your sentence anyway, see if I care about extending my helping hand to you."
Naruto gritted his teeth. This was truly a situation between rock and a hard place. Jiraiya had him firmly in his grip with his secret he couldn't refuse the man. On the other hand seeing Erza again had a high risk of exposing him anyway. Either he risked the Erza route or the whole of Fiore would be on his ass and this time with no respite by having nobody know what he looked like.
"Fine." Naruto forced out with clenched teeth "Where and when am I supposed to meet her?"
Jiraiya quickly checked the clock that hung on the wall "Thirty minutes. Magnolia trainstation." Naruto gave a curt nod and packed the few things he would need in a back, which he slung around his back. Since he still had a bit time and he could make it to the trainstation quickly with a quick application of magic he still had enough time to enter a clothing store and buy a vastly reduced, since it was no longer winter, beige full body cloak. He hoped that this would be enough to keep his identity hidden from Erza.
-Spell Grimoire-
Empty this chapter.