First to adress some things. To those saying Naruto should just kill Jiraiya. I would advise to pay a bit more attention to what I've written. I'm quite certain I've mentioned that Jiraiya has tied the secret to a Organic Link magic(mistakenly called Living Link magic by me) with himself as anchor. That means should Jiraiya befall something Naruto's secret gets out and his ass is busted.

To adress Dragonelete. Organic Link magic is called that because the anchor for the magic is a living person(or in the instance of the Thunder Palace its an attack reversal on a living person) not because it is tied to the life of the person. Yes, the death of the person will trigger it but so will other states a person is in. For example in the case of Oracion Seis Zero got out despite all of the Oracion Seis just being knocked out. So unconsciousness will trigger the magic as well. In this instance an 'unnatural' state like a coma would trigger it too.

Aside from that to those that are questioning why Naruto is going along with it, I will spell it out. BLACKMAIL. Jiraiya can completely prevent Naruto from accomplishing his goals by revealing his secret. I've placed more than a bit of importance on Naruto having a goal. Naruto said that without his goal, purpose, ambition however you want to call it, he feels like a dead man walking, a living corpse. If his 'secret identity' gets out he will be pretty much unable to complete his goals. That's what he wants to prevent at all cost. Which is why he is going along with Jiraiya.

And lastly. On the character of Jiraiya. Yes, he comes across quite unfavorable but a lot of it is from Naruto's point of view who doesn't have a favorable opinion of Jiraiya to begin with so of course that is going to slant things in a certain way. Jiraiya is genuinly concerned for Naruto and wants to help set him on the right path. He is quite agressive, forcefully and seems pretty annoying in his methode. This is because just like Orochimaru he is noticing the similarities between a young Orochimaru and Naruto. He feels that if he doesn't force Naruto to abide by certain rules he will just get lied to, just like Orochimaru lied all the years. Until their falling out Jiraiya considered Orochimaru one if not his best friend so that hurt him quite a lot which is why he doesn't want Naruto to go down the exact same path. However aside from forcing Naruto to abide by certain rules he does give the boy a lot of leeway by letting Naruto insult him and talk back to him at his leisure because he knows that forcing Naruto at every opportunity will yield bad results.

That's all for those that are interested in that kind of stuff. If you read all that you can now enjoy the next chapter.

Naruto took deep breaths to calm himself. Jiraiya had put him in a rather precarious situation. To teach him the importance of working together and all that nice stuff he had decided to ask the guild master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar, for a favor. This favor was him getting to accompany a Fairy Tail mage on one of their official requests and work together with them to solve whatever it was they were tasked to do.

However Jiraiya had not exactly been consciously aware of his 'bad relationship' with Fairy Tail. About half a year ago he had carried out experiments in Narcissus trying to find a way to resurrect Zeref so he could kill him again. Of course at that point he had not yet known that Zeref was still very much alive.

He had chosen Narcissus because the town was rather large, the people were haughty and unforthcoming to outsiders and merchants frequently went in and out of the city. It had been a truly perfect set of conditions or so he had thought.

The mayor of the town had actually not been as popular as he wanted to be. He had used a lot of bribery and favours to get elected into the position despite his more portly appearance, something which was considered an absolute travesty among most of the people living in Narcissus. So he had spent a considerable amount of money to hire a mage from one of the most well known and reputable guilds in Fiore which consequently was Fairy Tail. If he had been shown to be the one that was responsible for solving the strange activities in Narcissus the good reputation he would get would assure him a reelection. As far as Naruto had heard the mayor had indeed gotten reelected even before the official election.

But Naruto was digressing. The mage the mayor had hired had been one Erza Scarlet who, after those events in particular, had been nicknamed 'Titania the Fairy Queen'. As soon as Naruto had laid eyes on Erza he had been drawn to her beauty. One, if not the most, striking feature of Erza was her long scarlet hair. The color red had always fascinated Naruto all his life because it was the same color as the hair of his mother who had used all her willpower to bring him into the world despite the complications she experienced during his birth. That act was something he valued above all else and it had been the reason for his borderline obsession with the color red.

During the time of the request he had spent a lot of time with Erza and had courted her. Her past had been just as miserable as his own. She had been kidnapped and taken from her home village to work on a certain tower as a slave. This had been instigated by a cult of people that were following Zeref and were trying to resurrect the black wizard as well. After having suffered at the hand of one of Zeref's machinations as well he was even more determined to go through with his effort. He wanted the man to suffer as much as everyone whose life had been ruined at his hands.

Unfortunately Erza had found out about his hidden experiments in the sewers of the city. After a duel, which he had lost, their ways parted. She had been left with the impression that she had killed him. Obviously that had been a falsehood but it served well to get all the law enforcers of his back.

So the great problem, beyond the fact that he was supposed to work together with a mage form Fairy Tail, was that the mage would be Erza Scarlet herself, the one woman who had seen his face and knew his name while also knowing of his 'secret identity'.

So if she saw him or knew of his real name it was very likely that he either would land in jail or on accounts of how Erza and he had parted would be killed by her.

He would have loved to blame Jiraiya for being wilfully ignorant but Naruto couldn't do that. Jiraiya had proven himself to be a very scatterbrained person especially when it came to a pretty face. The old pervert merely had, somewhere down the line, let that tidbit of information slip from his mind while dealing with what he called 'research'.

Still he was utterly unprepared to face Erza.

He could see her standing in front of the trainstation. Her scarlet hair had grown a bit longer than before and she herself had gained a bit more height as well. The attire she wore was different from the last time he saw her as well. She now wore a complete body armor over her upper body. He could clearly sense the impatience that was radiating from Erza. The way she tapped her armored foot on the ground made it pretty clear that she was tired of waiting for him.

Well he had been staving off the meeting for as long as he could so no doubt she was impatient. He just hoped that his manual way of concealing his identity worked.

All he had done was wear a large, beige, full body cloak over his long sleeved black shirt and his matching black pants. With a bit sleight of hand stuff he would be able to keep his face hidden in the shadow of the hood that was attached to the cloak.

Naruto took a last deep breath before he stepped towards the scarlet haired woman.

"Finally, there you are." she said with annoyance freely flowing into her voice as she spied the person that was supposed to meet her here.

He thought that she was a lot colder and more strict compared to the last time he had seen her.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you?" Erza asked with a frown as she gave the teenage boy in front of her a good look. He was a bit taller than her but other than that she could not make out any important features. He wore a concealing cloak that didn't allow her to discern any of his physical features "I know that master has allowed you to accompany me but being late to a job is just plain unprofessional. If you had been any later then even with you having master's permission I would have left you here."

Naruto shrunk a bit under her harsh glare. This Erza was decidedly more distant. The events of the day of their parting had hit her more than he had thought. It made Naruto feel worse than he already was feeling.

"I'm very sorry about that." he apologized, hoping that she did not recognize his voice "I did not pay attention to the time. Please excuse my tardiness." he gave a slight bow in the hope that it would appease her

Erza gave a curt nod however she seemed to be a bit taken aback by the speed at which he apologized "Alright, but see to it that it wont happen again." she said and decided to impart some of her wisdom "If you want to become a respected and professional mage you should never be late for a job."

Inwardly Naruto rolled his eyes but smiled at the same time "Yes, thank you for sharing your experience with me Scarlet-san. I will heed your words."

"If there is something you need don't hesitate to ask." she informed him "Also just call me Erza. Since we will be fighting alongside eachother there is no need to be so formal with me."

"Alright then, Erza-san." he tried to remain polite so as to not rouse any suspicion on her side. Since Erza didn't seem to object any further to his way of adressing her she seemed to be okay with it.

Erza gave the hooded boy a scrutinizing look. Somehow she felt as if she was supposed to know him from somewhere. His voice sounded eerily familiar but she could not quite place where it was that she had heard it. Erza was jolted from her thoughts as the train personal were informing them that the train would be leaving Magnolia towards Onibus soon.

"Come." she ordered and picked up her heavy pack which seemed to be filled to the brim and then some more going by the way it was bursting at the seams "The train is going to leave soon." Whatever she wanted to ask him she would get to do during the train ride.

Naruto followed the scarlet haired woman silently.

They entered the train and sat down opposite of eachother.

Naruto didn't feel good the way Erza was looking at him. Her stare was intense, it was gauging him, as if she thought he might be hiding something or like she was trying to discern something about him.

'She couldn't have realized who I am, could she?' the blonde thought with slight amounts of panic

"So what's your name?" Erza decided to ask her companion who seemed to be quite fidgety. Was he nervous about going on a request? Was her presence the reason for his nervousness? Was she somehow intimidating him? A myriad of questions flooded her mind but she thought to start with one of the simplest "I can't keep calling you 'you', 'you there' or 'hey you' all the time. We are going to be working together for some time so knowing your name would be imperative for a good working relationship."

Naruto nodded, that was impeccable reasoning from her. If she had found out who he was he couldn't simply refuse to tell her his name to do so would put their continued relationship for this request in jeopardy. However at the same time he could not tell her his real name. He had to think of a some sort of alias or handle and he didn't have much time for this to boot.

"Er..." Erza noted his hesitance. Her companion seemed to be not quite confident but that was to be expected. Master Makarov had informed her that the apprentice of Jiraiya didn't really have much experience with official jobs so his first one being an S-Rank one would certainly cause him to be uneasy. While she didn't doubt the kind of skill the boy had because to do so would be to doubt the word of her master but he couldn't continue to behave in this way. Also she didn't like it if people took too long to answer her "Spit it out. I am not going to bite you. Being indecisive like that isn't good." Erza urged the boy while fixing him with a stern stare

"Of course, sorry." Naruto quickly apologized, if she somehow believed him to be shy then he could make use of that "I am..." he trailed off before he suddenly had an epiphany as he remembered something his teacher, Sorin, had told him once. It was bout one of the first Blood Mages in history, Alucard. Reportedly he had been called 'Master of a thousand styles' for the innumerable amount of magic styles he had been reported to use.

However that could have never been confirmed as Alucard vanished and had never taken an apprentice so the famed Blood Mage's knowledge never managed to be passed on to the next generation.

"Call me Thousand Master." Naruto nodded at his choice, yes that would work quite well. Erza raised an eyebrow at him "Thousand Master?" she chuckled "Quite arrogant for a greenhorn to be calling himself that." Either he was shy and arrogant which seemed like a strange combination to Erza or he had said that in an attempt to impress her.

"It's not arrogant." Naruto tried to state in a quiet voice so as to make himself seem meek and shy "I am a master of a thousand different magics." he elaborated and Naruto could feel the scepticism that Erza was oozing.

"Quite a boast. Then maybe you can demonstrate some of that skill on this job." she requested, interested to see if her companion was really capable of doing as he said he could

Naruto nodded wordlessly at Erza. The boast had not been quite true. He easily knew more than a hundred different magics but a lot of them were useless to him in combat or were Holder style magics which required an item to use. He never really used any Holder type magic because using them was too much of a hassle. He would end up filling his requip space with all sorts of junk to use a magic that was inferior to the corresponding caster type magics anyway. It was simply not worth it. So about fifty, or so, percent of the magic styles he knew were Holder. The other half were caster type magics but many of them were useless in combat or seemed just plain ridiculous. Something like tear magic and egg magic was... The less words he spent on that the better. And then there were magics which just plain didn't fit him. Supporting magics like Muscle Speak or Dancer, pretty much those that relied on him having allies that could benefit from the effects of the magic. He definitely wasn't a support type oriented mage.

"So what is your real name?" the scarlet haired girl asked him there were some magics who preferred to be known by certain nicknames or aliases and then there were some who were only recognized by their nickname. For example Natsu Dragneel one of their more eager and hot-headed members, both literally and metaphorically, was being called Salamander but people didn't tend to recognize him by appearance or actual name. They merely recognized him by his unique type of magic and nickname.

"..." her companion didn't give an answer he remained silent beneath that shadowed hood of his, something she found quite intriguing. She didn't quite know how he did it but despite the lighting of the room being quite well he somehow was able to completely conceal his face with the shadow cast by his hood.

'Maybe it's some kind of magic cloak?' it was quite possible that it was a unique or specially crafted magic item that allowed for this trick to work. He still didn't answer her question "So you aren't going to tell me your name?" she eyed him carefully, annoyed that he wasn't answering her

Naruto shook his head "Sorry but I don't like telling people my name... they get unreasonable expectations of me when I do." his acting was certainly impeccable. With a bit of uneasiness in his voice she seemed to be accepting of that explanation but her curiosity was certainly not sated.

"Who was you father then?" she decided to ask him and he seemed to shift uncomfortably in his seat

"If I told you that the whole point of not telling you my name would be negated." he seemed to be somewhat amused by that and she realized her mistake herself

"Sorry, you are right." she apologized as the atmosphere turned awkward and silence filled their compartment. The 'Thousand Master' didn't seem to be very forthcoming with information about himself. It seemed to make him downright uncomfortable to talk about anything that got close to it.

"So are you concealing your face for the same reason then?" her faceless companion nodded and she could only wonder who he really was beneath that shadowy hood and that false name he had given her but it was not like she didn't know how to deal with that.

"A lot of people would have likely taken offense with a stance like that. Not giving out your name or showing others what you look like speaks a lot about a lack of trust but I guess you are a lot like Mystogan in that regard." she thought of her enigmatic mage that had been part of their guild for quite a while now

"Mystogan?" Naruto repeated questioningly he had never of anyone going by that name

"Yes. He joined the guild not too long ago but he is really secretive." Erza elaborated and she wasn't the only one wondering who exactly was behind the mask of the mage named Mystogan "He is only ever in the guild to pick up a request and he usually puts everyone asleep with Sleep magic while he is in the guild. Before he put everyone to sleep he used to wear this dark blue cloak, a dark blue bandana and a green mask. I don't know if he still does since everyone tends to be asleep." she described her strange and enigmatic fellow guild member "Also his body is wrapped in bandages."

"That is indeed a very secretive person..." Naruto found himself agreeing with that. People like that usually had something to hide. Obviously that was the same reason he was hiding his identity.

Erza's lips quirked ever so slightly "So don't worry I'm used to people like you."

'Perhaps,' he thought 'Erza is still like I remember her to be.'

At first Erza had seemed rather cold and distant but she did seem interested at getting to know a bit more about him, if only so that they would work well together on this job. Overall she seemed much more used to these kinds of jobs than when he had first met her on her first solo mission.

"What kind of request are we going on anyway, Jiraiya never got around to tell me." the blonde asked his red headed companion

"It's an extermination mission in Hagure. We'll just take this train along it's course past Onibus, Kunugi, Oshibana, Clover Town and exit in Dragora. Then it's about one to two hours walking in southeast direction until we are in Hagure." Erza explained immediately as if she had recited it from somewhere which wasn't too far off. With an hour to spare to prepare for the request she had devoted some time to mapping out the route they would have to take.

"And what is it that we have to exterminate?" the blonde inquired further

Extermination requests were usually for dangerous animals and if it was an S-Rank one then it would have to be in the leagues of wyvern who were distant cousins of actual dragons hence why they were so difficult to deal with.

"Let me check." she pulled out a folded piece of paper which Naruto assumed was the request "Hm... it doesn't specify much but apparently we'll have to take care of demons."

Inwardly Naruto groaned 'Is this some kind of cosmic joke. First Erza and now demons?' he gave a small sigh "So it just says demons?" Erza nodded in response "That's not really helpful." Naruto muttered.

There were two types of demons. The first type was the peaceful variant. They behaved just like humans and had human desires. The only difference were things like unusually colored skin, horns, hooves and the like. These kind of demons usually formed small tribes that mostly kept to themselves.

The second type was the more malicious variant, the kind you frequently found in stories and there were plenty of demon species which could qualify for an S-Rank extermination quest.

'At the very least it's not one of Zeref's artificial demons.' the demons Zeref had created back when he was active were undubitably dangerous. The large ones, like Deliora and Elathan, when not stopped had no problem razing whole towns in a matter of hours. If it really had been one of Zeref's creations there wouldn't have been a request to be sent in the first place.

So it stood to reason that it would have to be one of the more malicious but naturally occuring demons and it had to be a species that did not revel in pure wanton destruction.

'Just great. There are still quite a lot like that.' despite their designation as more malicious, compared to their peaceful cousins, not all of them liked to randomly destroy and kill every human that got into their sight. Some reveled in unusual forms of torture others used humans as a form of sustenance. There was a myriad of possibilities for the commonly referred to as 'evil type' demon to not kill or destroy.

"Don't fret we'll take of the problem in no time." she tried to reassure her companion who seemed startled by her proclamation and looked at her in confusion. How she could tell all this despite his face being hidden she didn't care enough to know "Well you looked quite concerned..." she elaborated to deal with his confused state

"Oh, no. I was just thinking what kind of demon would qualify for an S-Rank request."

"Ah, I see." Erza responded "So do you know a lot about demons?"

"Yes, quite a bit." Naruto answered. With his grudge against Zeref he of course had delved deeper into finding out more about demons. It also helped to have quite a bit of knowledge on them from people that had encountered them.

"That's reassuring." the scarlet haired woman stated "Usually Mirajane takes care of all the requests that deal with demons but since this was an S-Class one she wasn't allowed to take care of it." After Erza had been promoted to S-Class over Mira last year her rival had become a whole lot more aggressive in their duels and had continously been trying to test herself against Erza. However the way Erza saw it Mirajane would surely end up being promoted during this years S-Rank trials although Erza saw Mystogan as an equally likely candidate to get promoted "I usually take care of a lot of subjugation missions. Putting crime organizations and bands of dark mages down. So I don't have an incredible amount of experience dealing with demons."

"So why does Mirajane take care of all the requests that deal with demons?" he decided to ask. He wasn't quite sure but he thought he had heard about another female mage that had a similar level of popularity to Erza but since he didn't tend to follow the gossip about mages all too much he did not know a lot about her.

"It's not really my place to say." Erza kept quiet. It wasn't her right to divulge private information about someone else just like that.

"That's alright." Naruto accepted the answer he had been given since it was unlikely that he would get the information out of Erza.

"So what's it like learning from a mage like Jiraiya?" Erza was curious as to what it was like to have an actual teacher for magic. Erza for the most part was self-taught. It would be interesting for her to hear how an actual apprentice had learned his magic.

Naruto would have loved to point out that Jiraiya hadn't taught him anything about magic but he had to keep the whole master apprentice thing they told everyone for cover going.

"Well that is difficult to answer..." more like he didn't have an answer to that question "It was certainly...interesting."

'Yes.' Naruto decided 'That is a good way to describe it.'

"He used a lot of roundabout methodes in his teachings." the blonde elaborated

"So does Jiraiya use as much magic styles as you?" Erza did not actually know what kind of magic Jiraiya used only that the man was a powerful mage

"Well he certainly has a wide arsenal of magic but he is more focused on word style magic." Erza looked a bit confused at that term "That means he focuses on things like Solid Script, Jutsu Shiki, Seals that kind of magic." he had never actually fought Jiraiya himself but there was quite a bit of knowledge on his fighting style crammed in his head

"Ahh!" Erza realized what he had meant. That would certainly make Levy happy to hear that someone could come so far with Solid Script magic. The upbeat girl would probably be quite happy hearing something like that "Do you favor word magic like that as well?"

"I am somewhat proficient in them but I favor more direct methodes of magic like elemental type magic." Erza was relieved that her temporary comerade seemed much more comfortable now than he had when they had started their train ride. Talking to him had really helped with that.

On the other hand Naruto was relieved that Erza apparently wasn't suspecting his real identity and was not fishing for any confirmation. He noticed that Erza seemed pleased with that shift in his attitude which was understandable. An unconfident mage could after all be disastrous on a difficult quest like they had to undertake.

"And what kind of magic do you use, Erza-san?" he inquired even though he knew what kind of magic Erza used.

"My magic is called The Knight." she explained and her companion interjected

"Requip style magic involving magic armors and weapons. Right?" she nodded

"Yes. You sure seem knowledgeable about magic." she praised him and Erza could feel a smirk beneath that shadowy hood.

"Naturally." he responded confidently. Since Erza believed that she had made him feel more at ease he could do away with some of his 'shy' front.

"Does that mean you can use it as well?"

"I can use it as well yes but it's not quite up my alley." he informed her "I rarely if ever use Holder type magics since I would have to clutter my requip space with too much stuff and The Knight is a hybrid type magic between Caster and Holder type."

The pair had kept talking to eachother for the rest of the train ride until they arrived in Dragora where they exited the train. Erza was standing next to him with her oversized, crammed to the brim bag on her shoulder.

"What kind of things did you cram into that bag?" since Erza was a master of requip magic her sub-space should be full of clothes and armors which meant there was no need for her to be packing any of that

Erza blinked dumbly "Why, food and ingredients of course?" she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

"Forget I asked." he muttered with a sigh 'What about a toothbrush, a sleeping bag those kind of things?' he asked inwardly but didn't voice his thoughts as the pair set out towards Hagure.

In the late afternoon they arrived in the small town of Hagure. The town wasn't incredibly large. If Naruto had to guess somewhere in the high thousands maybe scraping around ten thousand people. Nothing compared to large cities like Crocus whose population was somewhere around the million mark. In the distance there was a small shrine situated on an elevated part of the town.

"So what are we going to do now?" the younger of the two decided to ask his more experienced companion

"We are going to seek out our client and ask him for more details." Erza decided to inform her companion knowledgeably and turned to a brown haired woman that was about to walk past them "Excuse me Miss? Could you tell me where we will be able to find the mayor of this town?"

The woman smiled brightly at them "Oh you must be the mages from Fairy Tail then?" it was more of a rhetoric question but Erza still answered positively "Wonderful! Finally you are here. Maybe the horror will come to an end soon."

"What kind of horror miss?" Naruto inquired and the expression of the woman turned sour

"It's..." she rapidly shook her head. Her posture shifted and she seemed incredibly uncomfortable and a tad afraid especially when she noticed Naruto's shadowed face "I don't like to think about it... Nobody really likes to talk about it. You are better of asking the mayor. He'll be able to tell you the most."

Erza narrowed her eyes at the behaviour of the woman. The sullen, downward gaze, the withdrawn and protective posture. Something horrible had happened here in this town. Either someone the woman personally knew had been affected or the situation was much worse than the mission had led Erza to believe.

"So will you tell us where we can find the mayor?" Erza requested politely and the woman nodded

"Of course, excuse me for my silence." the brown haired woman gave a hasty apology with an added bow "If you continue to follow this road you will eventually come upon the town hall. You should find Mayor Mugo there unless he is out on some kind of business visit."

"Thank you miss." but the woman waved off Erza's thanks and smiled at the scarlet haired woman

"No, thank you. With you here peace and quiet should hopefully return to our town quite soon." the woman gave them another quick bow "I bid you farewell and goodluck on your quest, Fairy Tail mages." she gave a kind smile "I need to be on my way, grocery shopping for my families dinner."

The woman waved them goodbye.

"What a nice lady." Naruto commented and he honestly meant it. The woman seemed positively relieved by their appearance. Though it had not slipped his mind either how the woman had behaved when he decided to ask her more about the request they had accepted. Only the most oblivious person would have been ignorant of the womans frightened and subdued behaviour at the mention of the towns plight.

"Yes but this is not quite as simple as the request had made it out to be." Erza commented in annoyance. The actual information on the request which had been sent to her guild had actually contained very little information and had made it seem like a normal extermination mission. S-Rank, yes, but nothing that seemed extraordinarily difficult but perhaps that was because the request itself had been rather sparse with telling much about anything. There certainly had been nothing that indicated a townwide crisis. However Erza was determined to brave this added difficulty and it would be a good lesson for her companion that sometimes requests didn't go as expected especially when the client withheld information.

The two continued their way towards the town hall. They could feel the subdued and opressed atmosphere that hung in the air and seemed to weigh down the people of the town. Naruto also noted how people seemed to flinch whenever they took note of his shadowed face. Was a concealed face such a problem for the people of the town that they shirked away in fright or was it something else that was bothering them about his appearance?

Eventually they had arrived in front of the towns, town hall. It was an easy to recognize building. It was quite a bit larger than any of the other buildings around it. The building oozed a certain level of importance and expensiveness. Also to the side of the building was a small wooden sign which read 'Town Hall'. So even if the appearance of the building itself did not clue one in the sign would certainly inform anyone capable of reading.

"Seems like this is it." Naruto stated rather obviously it was not like he had missed any of the signs that this was the building they had been looking for

"Indeed." Erza commented curtly and gave the building an inspecting look.

"After you." Naruto urged Erza to go ahead. She was the leader of their two man cell since he was just an impromptu tag along with her guild masters permission. On top of that he had no experience going on an official request which gave Erza the leading position by default. Erza's armored steps rang out as she walked towards the fancy looking entrance to the hall. The door, which looked like it was made from mahogany, was painted in a white color with many different designs in gold added on top of that. However the gold didn't look like it was painted on but instead crafted onto the door itself. Erza pushed against the entrance and opened the door to reveal a large room. To the left side was a receptionist counter with one woman and one man in uniform seated at the counter. In the top left corner of the room was a pair of stairs going up on the opposite side of the room was a pair of stairs leading down. The middle of the room contained a large pedestal with a wooden podium while in each of the four cardinal directions around the podium were dozens of seats.

Naruto and Erza walked up to the counter and the two receptionists faces fell for a split second when they saw the face concealed by shadows before settling on a polite smile.

"Welcome to the Hagure town hall. My name is Eriko." the woman introduced herself with an upbeat voice before elbowing her co-worker when he didn't say anything

"Ouch." he rubbed his side in annoyance "Troublesome woman." he drawled and gave a small sigh "And I am Himaru. What can we do for you, strangers?"

"How were you able to tell that we are strangers?" the scarlet haired woman asked with curiosity

"Your clothes." Eriko giggled as she pointed at Erza "Nobody here walks around with armor like that." She would have made another comment about the girls companion but the guy couldn't have known about their town's problem.

"Now what is it that you are here for?" Himaru asked bluntly and Erza answered for them.

"We are here to speak to Mayor Mugo."

"So you are the Fairy Tail mages then?" Eriko decided to ask and got confirmation from Erza that this was the case "This is great. Mugo-shicho has been anxiously awaiting your arrival." Eriko informed them and gestured to the stairs in the top left "Take the stairs up, Mugo-shicho is already waiting for you."

Naruto and Erza climbed the stairs and were immediately greeted by the mayors office. It wasn't even behind a door. As soon as they were on the second floor the office seemed to begin. The whole room was covered with shelves of books and records. In the middle was a large wooden desk with a lamp and an endless amount of papers stacked upon it. Next to the desk was a wastebin that was already overflowing with hundreds of crumbled up papers. Behind the desk sat a middle aged man of medium height. The man had short black hair which was unkempt and he gripped a part of it with one hand as he stared in frustration at a piece of paper in front of him. A rectangular pair of glasses sat upon his nose and covered a pair of black eyes the same shade as his hair. Underneath his eyes were thick bags that revealed a noticeable lack of sleep.

The man had gripped a pen in the hand that was not gripping his hair and was furiously scribbling on the piece of paper in front of him "No, no, no. Not like that." he complained as he seemed dissatisfied with what he had written on the piece of paper and scrunched it up. He picked the ball of paper up and threw it into the wastebin although the man didn't seem to notice that the bin was overflowing. He immediately grabbed a fresh sheet of paper after having disposed of the previous one.

"Excuse me?" Naruto called out and the man was jostled from whatever he was working on. The man took a look at Naruto and Erza and his eyes lit up.

"Finally you are here!" he said in relief "You can't imagine what I've been going through." the man complained as he raised himself from his position behind the desk and walked up to the two mages and shook their hands "Ever since this whole thing started I've been having to deal with all kinds of added work." the man gave a tired sigh "I've been so swamped that I think I haven't slept for at least fourty eight hours or so. I've been keeping myself awake with a lot of coffee but I'm afraid I wont be able to hold out much longer." the man gave a weak chuckle "Let's get this over with then before I fall asleep standing. I welcome you to our wonderful town, Hagure. Well wonderful any other time of the year." he laughed at his own joke about the towns situation but neither Erza nor Naruto gave any indication that either of them was amused "As you can guess I am this town's mayor, Mugo. May I also know your names, Fairy Tail mages?"

"I am Erza Scarlet." Mugo's eyes lit up with recognition and the name and then turned towards Erza's hooded companion.

"Just call me Thousand Master." Naruto introduced himself quickly

"Are you a new member then? I don't think I have heard of any mage with a nickname like that." Mugo wanted to comment that it was quite the arrogant nickname but the mages would help his town and he had long accepted that mages, especially those from Fairy Tail were very eccentrtic but they had some of the best success when hired. Something which factored into his decision.

"No, I am an independent mage who has been allowed to accompany Erza-san on this job of hers for further experience." Mugo was quite a bit surprised but decided not to question it.

"You have undoubtly noticed that this town is much darker than it should be." Mugo noted and Naruto wanted to snort but surpressed it 'Talk about an understatement.'

"Yes, we have noticed as much." Erza confirmed and pulled out the job poster "The job mentioned something about demons but not about this." Erza swept her hand widely to mean the situation at hand.

"Yes, I am quite sorry about that." Mugo sighed heavily "I was pressed for time and sent the request out as quickly as I could but I wasn't able to include quite a lot about the towns situation. With all the added work I had to do I was just too busy. Again sorry about that."

"So what kind of demons are plaguing this town." Naruto inquired in the hopes of getting more information about what kind of enemies they could expect

Mugo took off his glasses and cleaned them "Well there are these small black creatures. They've mostly appeared at night when they are hard to see but sometimes they come out during the day as well. They are as tall as a child but their bodies are completely black and their skin seems like leather but covered in small tufts of fur. They also have these horns growing out of their head and these glowing yellow eyes. Oh and their ears are rather large and pointed." the mayor described the demons and Naruto failed to surpress his groan

"You are being plagued by Imps?" he asked pointedly if that was all then the mission didn't deserve to be S-Rank

"You know what these things are?" Naruto nodded in response. It was no wonder that a non mage had little to no knowledge about demons and monsters, they left those things to mages.

"Yes." Naruto replied and went into what Hisui called 'teacher mode'. He held out his hand with the palm facing upwards and used a bit of illusion magic.

Mugo recoiled slightly as a three dimensional replica of an imp appeared in his hands and rotated like it was some kind of informative presentation.

Erza saw the same but parts of the image were unfocused and blurry like she wasn't seeing it completely.

"Imps are one of the lowest form of the 'evil type' demons. They are malicious but rarely do they actually decide to directly harm someone, instead they cause a lot of trouble. Like breaking and destroying the possessions of people. Setting up tricks and traps that can cause quite a bodily harm. On their own they are weak." he pointed to the mayor "As you have mentioned they are as tall as a child, a small child even. This prevents them from exerting great amounts of physical strength. If they were to throw a punch, well you wouldn't feel much of it. For the same reason their stature prevents them from being very speedy. However their small size allows them to be quite agile in that they are difficult to hit back. Beyond that they possess a certain degree of aptitude with fire magic but sometimes..." the imp in his hand held a fireball in his hands which suddenly exploded leaving the projection unconscious "Imps don't have an incredible control over their magic that's why sometimes it fails and blows up in their faces which is the reason for their roundabout and indirect nature. Simply put they are super weak, if quite devious and even an average trained person without magic could take a single imp out on their own." the imp in his hand multiplied until there were many more "The problem comes that because they suck on their own they tend to gather in larger groups. Usually you will find them in groups between five and ten, causing all kinds of mischief. Rarely these groups can also be as big as fifteen to twenty in which case these imps are usually following an Imp Lord also called Greater Imp. These are a bit tougher because they have much better control over their magic but they don't pose that much of a problem either."

The image of the imps disappeared concluding Naruto's lesson about these lesser demons.

"That's impressive." Mugo noted quite a bit amazed by the young teenagers knowledge and Erza could not help but agree that her companion was so knowledgeable. "You've been exactly describing what we've been experiencing from these Imps. They haven't caused an incredible amount of damage. Usually they just go around breaking things and the most damage they've caused to people were a few scrapes and an unfortunate person even received a broken leg but that was about it." the mayor explained before he seemed angry "Well with the exception that two nights ago they ignited a warehouse and just like you explained one of them must have knocked himself out with his magic because we found a burnt imp body in the remains when we managed to douse the fire. Although the imp was still alive despite the fire."

Naruto nodded "Imps are heat resistant they don't take an incredible amount of damage from fire. The reason their malfunctioning magic knocks them out is because of the resulting concussive force of the explosion."

"But these Imps are hardly your only problem are they?" Erza interjected before her companion once again decided to go into a lengthy explanation. While informative they were here to get information on their job.

"You are right, Scarlet-san." the Mayor was forced to agree with a grim expression "We don't exactly know when. Maybe it was a month or so ago but people said they felt uneasy, a strange feeling of being watched and threatened. This feeling was magnified at night and in shadowy places. We didn't know what it meant or where it had come from and even the Miko and the Shrine Elder were unable to provide any answers. Then about a week later these Imps appeared and began to cause problems around town and two weeks after that, last week, people began to disappear under mysterious circumstances. But only women were disappearing." Mugo gave Naruto a glance "That's undoubtly why some people have given your companion frightful looks. Currently the shadows are scaring them a lot and they try to avoid them at all cost."

Erza looked at Naruto and Naruto at Erza. They gave eachother a nod, silently agreeing that a lot more was going on in this town than they had thought.

Somewhere... something stirred. A bright red eye glowed brightly in the shadowy darkness around it and a malicious, fanged grin spread across the beings face.

"Yes, there is a vessel with much greater power in this town." the being commented to itself

Also as a small bonus I decided to add a Bestiary on top of the Spell Grimoire for those interested in that kind of stuff.

-Bestiary-

Imps – Evil demon type, Lesser Demon

Strength: Very Low

Speed: Low

Agility: Above Average

Endurance: Low

Intelligence: Above average

Magic Power: Average

Magic Control: Low

A lesser type of demon that is one of the weakest species of the 'evil demons' in existence. Their small stature precludes them from being physical powerful and despite having decent magical power their horrible control over it can cause it to malfunction. However these beings are quite devious and group together to avoid their low individual strength.

Imp Lord aka Greater Imp – Evil demon type, Lesser Demon

Strength: Low

Speed: Low

Agility: Average

Endurance: Below Average

Intelligence: Above Average

Magic Power: Average

Magic Control: Average

The Greater Imp is a variation of the Imp species. They are a bit taller and have a bit more strength and endurance than their counterparts but trade that off for some of the agility normal imps possess. The true danger of these Imp Lords however lies in the increase of control they have over their own magic compared to the normal imps. Imp Lords usually are leaders of larger groups of regular Imps.

Wyvern – Beast, Draconian

Strength: High

Speed: High

Intelligence: High

Agility: High

Endurance: High

Magic Power: -

Magic Control: -

Wyvern are a dangerous species of beasts that are distantly related to dragons. Their physical abilities are matched by very few beasts. However unlike actual dragons they are incapable of human speech and have no magic power at all but even despite their lack of magic they are formidable foes.

-Spell Grimoire-

Dancer – Caster Type, Support Magic

Dancer, as the name suggests is a magic based on dancing. The abilities of those the user considers allies are increased as long as they remain in a certain area around the caster. At the same time the caster has to keep dancing.

Muscle Speak – Caster Type, Support Magic

Muscle Speak increases the physical strength of the users allies however the user himself must possess a certain level of strength for this to be effective.

Egg Magic – Caster Type

Egg magic revolves around the use of eggs and allows the user to summon eggs for offensive and defensive purposes. However this magic is incredible inconsistent.

Tear Magic – Caster Type, Enhancement Magic

Tear magic increases the users strength depending on how much they are crying.

Warning: Tears may obstruct vision.

The Knight – Caster/Holder Hybrid Type

The Knight is a type of requip revolving around armors and weapons. The user requips sets of armor and weapons during a fight to grant them enhanced combat power tailored to match the situation at hand.