DO NOT READ if you haven't read Chapter 436 because this includes some pretty big spoilers. I haven't read the Fairy Tail manga but after catching wind of this, I just had to read the latest chapter.

Natsu's mother is still Tora but I've re-named his father "Kyo" after remembering "Hiro" is the name of the series creator. I've readjusted things to include a certain other member of their family as well. I was gonna write a story for the original Roots but after this revelation, that probably won't be happening. Trust Hiro Mashima to come up with something so FAB-FREAKING-TASTIC!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

Roots (REWRITTEN)

...June 21st, X346...

It was early in the morning as the annual Summer Storm rained heavily down on the family's farmhouse. Tora Dragneel screamed at the top of her lungs with her loving husband, Kyo Dragneel, by her side. Their firstborn son was sitting in the other room with their farm hand as they waited on the new arrival. The midwife finally told Tora to push and she did so with an ear-pearcing scream. Kyo dabbed a damp cloth over her forehead when she suddenly screamed even higher but was cut short by the sounds of a baby crying.

"It's a boy!" the midwife cried.

Tora shed tears of joy as her newborn son was handed to her and her husband. The child found comfort in his mother's arms and his wails turned to whimpers. Kyo moved the blanket from over their son's face to reveal his tuft of pale pink hair, just like his mother's. They called for their first child and a young boy, about 3 years of age, with silky black hair and a chubby baby face entered. He fiddled with his fingers as he approached the bed and hopped onto his father's lap.

"This is your new baby brother," Kyo said.

"What's his name, Papa?" the older son asked.

"Well, you were named after my grandfather so we decided to name the baby, if a boy, after your father's grandfather," Tora explained, happily admiring her newborn child "This is Natsu... Natsu Dragneel,"

The older brother peered at his new brother as Natsu's nose twitched before he sneezed.

"Hi... Nat-su... I'm your big broth-err... Zer-ef Drag-neel," the black-haired boy introduced himself.

Baby Natsu's tiny hands peeked out of his blanket and his little fingers wrapped around his brother's thumb. Zeref smiled at this minor action and the entire Dragneel family felt utter joy at their new addition.

...August 3rd, X349...

"Zeref? Natsu?! Where are you two?" Kyo called out as he searched the barn for his two sons.

There was giggling from the hay loft and he climbed the ladder to spy on the boys. Zeref was showing Natsu a book he had gotten with magical moving images. He was happily explaining it all to his younger brother but slammed the book shut before Natsu could touch an image.

"Don't touch, Natsu! This book is really old and del-ic-ate! The man wouldn't sell it to me until I double-dog-swore to take care of it!" Zeref proudly told him.

"Wow, big brother! You have the bestest stuff!" Natsu said, looking up at his brother with bright eyes "I wanna know about magic too!"

"Maybe when your better," Zeref told him.

Kyo sighed from where he hid on the ladder. Ever since Natsu was born, he'd been a fragile child; the first to get sick and the last to get better. Doctors said his frail health may have been caused by him being born 5 weeks early so his immune system wasn't really strong enough. Natsu would cough, vomit and his fever would go through the roof when his health turned. Kyo feared for his life but was just thankful for having both of his sons with him as well as a wonderful wife.

"C'mon, boys, it's time to collect the eggs," he said.

He climbed down the ladder and kept an eye on his young sons as they climbed down. But as Natsu began to climb down from the hay loft, he stopped. He was usually a very adventurous child who couldn't stop climbing over things so it was strange he'd suddenly be afraid to climb down the ladder. Kyo reached up and helped Natsu go down a few more steps before pulling him off the ladder and into his arms. He looked down at his son's pale face and red eyes. His health had turned again...

"Zeref, go tell your mother to make Natsu's bed and put on some chicken soup," Kyo instructed his older son "Your brother's health has turned,"

Zeref ran ahead to do so and his father began comforting the younger of the Dragneel brothers. Natsu whimpered and burried his face into his father's shoulder as Kyo carried him in the direction of their farmhouse at a slow-and-steady pace. When they arrived, Tora was already adding herbs to the chicken soup and Zeref had made Natsu's bed with the good bedsheets. Kyo put him to bed and Tora served him some chicken soup before Zeref got his moving-imagery book out again and told the story of the pictures.

...October 27th, X350...

Natsu coughed violently as he shivered under the bed covers. Tora was trying to comfort him by reading him an old fairytale but he wasn't listening. He was waiting for Zeref to return from his apprenticeship at a local magic goods store. Kyo was working out in the fields in order to bring in the harvest since Autumn had come. Natsu groaned as he rolled over in bed. He hadn't been well for over a year now and his parents were fearful for his life.

"Mama! Papa! Natsu!" Zeref yelled as he burst through the front door.

"In your bedroom!" Tora called.

Zeref ran through the little farmhouse and rushed into the room he shared with his brother. Natsu weakly sat up in bed and his mother propped the pillow up for him. In his hands, Zeref held a yellowish-white envelope with the address of his workplace written in violet ink on it.

"Guess what came for me at work today!" he excitedly exclaimed.

"What is it?" Tora asked, although she already had a good sense of what it was.

Zeref sat on the edge of Natsu's bed and flipped the envelope over to reveal it was sealed in wax with the Mildian Magic Academy crest. They called for Kyo to join them and the entire Dragneel family sat on Natsu's bed as they anticipated the contents of Zeref's letter. With shaking hands, the 7-year-old boy broke the wax seal and pulled the letter out. He unfolded it and began to read:

Dear Mr. Zeref Dragneel,

We, the Mildian Board of Directors, were astonished by the depth and essence of your application essay entitled 'How Magic is the Key to All' on the subject of curing disease. We are sorry to hear of the state of your brother but we are proud to accept you as Mildian's latest student to begin this coming August. We believe your bright young mind might just be what Mildian needs and we anticipate your arrival.

Sincerely,

Chairman Amadeus Thryne of the Mildian Board of Directors

They all froze and stared at the acceptance letter. People from small towns like theirs never got opportunities like going to Mildian! They were too astounded to speak except for Natsu.

"You got in, Big Brother Zef!" Natsu exclaimed and hugged him.

"Well done, Zeref!" Tora congratulated him, joining in on the hug.

"We're very proud of you!" Kyo added.

Zeref blankly looked down at the acceptance letter before looking at his parents and then at his little brother. Natsu was only 4-years-old and had been sick effectively all of his life. The only real reason Zeref wanted to study magic was to cure his brother of the mysterious weakness that caused him to be so sick. But... He couldn't go as long as his brother was in such a terrible state.

"I can't go..." he said, looking down at Natsu "Not while Natsu's this weak,"

Natsu looked up at his brother and tilted his head to the side like a lost puppy before he began coughing. Tora held a handkerchief to his mouth and moved to be sitting next to him. Natsu coughed violently before it stopped and he leaned into his mother, completely exhausted.

"You go... Big Brother Zef... and you become a wizard... okay?" he said as Tora tucked him back into bed.

But before Zeref could answer, Natsu began coughing violently again. When their mother looked down at the handkerchief again, she paled and showed the old cloth to her husband. There was a patch of crimson red blood on it. Kyo went pale and took Zeref by his shoulders.

"Son, you need to run into town and get the doctor. Okay?" he said "You need to run! As fast as you can! Can you do that?"

Zeref nodded and ran out of the room, his acceptance letter discarded on the floor. Natsu began shivering and shaking and coughed up even more blood. Tora ditched the handkerchief and held a bowl up to catch her son's blood, which was fortunate because he then vomited. Kyo fetched water from the pump outside and soaked a flannel before putting it on Natsu's forehead to cool him down.

"Mama... I'm sleepy..." he whined.

"You can't sleep yet, Natsu, your brother's on his way with the doctor," Tora said, gently dabbing the wet cloth over his sweaty face.

Natsu groaned and curled up with his limp stuffed dragon toy in his arms. When Zeref did return with the doctor, he wasn't given very long as this was the worst anyone had seen poor Natsu Dragneel.

...October 31st, X350...

The wind was howling as the storm battered against their little farmhouse. Tora walked back and forth in front of the lit fireplace with her youngest son in her arms. Natsu rested his head on his mother's shoulders with his arms hanging limply and his hand barely keeping hold of his toy dragon. He'd been vomiting and the steady motion of his mother walking with him calmed him.

"Mama... I'm tired..." he whimpered.

"I know, dear, I know," Tora gently said, rubbing his back.

She didn't want him to sleep in fear that he may never wake-up. Kyo was sat at the table with his head in his hands as he tried to process the solemn mood that hung in the air. Zeref sat on the sofa with his knees to his chest. Natsu cried out when their was a huge clap of thunder that shook the house. Tora fell to her knees with him in her arms and she held him close. She'd refused to cry ever since it became obvious that something was wrong with Natsu. Ever since that first cold he never managed to recover from or the first case of infection, she had never cried. Tora refused to because her son needed her to be strong.

Kyo put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. He knelt down next to her and hugged both his wife and son. Zeref watched and tears began to form in his eyes. His mother... his father... they'd both taken in the fact that Natsu probably wasn't going to get better this time. But he hadn't... If there was a way to save his little brother, he'd find it! No matter the cost...

"Zeref... come here for a moment," Kyo said, reaching out to him.

Zeref got off the sofa and the family cuddled up on the floor in front of the fireplace. Natsu sat on his mother's lap but he slid off to be beside his brother with their parents sandwiching them in. With very little strength, he lifted up Zeref's acceptance letter.

"You should go, Big Brother Zef... this kinda opportunity only comes once in a lifetime..." Natsu whispered, his voice horse "I want my big brother to be a wizard! Then you can teach me!"

Zeref looked at his brother before enveloping him in a hug. Natsu was so frail he was scared of breaking him in two. Tora and Kyo hugged their sons and the Dragneels fell asleep in front of the fire.

...November 1st, X350...

The next morning, Tora awoke Zeref and Kyo with a high-pitched scream. In her arms was her 4-year-old son who had left them only a few years after being born. Kyo reached out to her to try to comfort her but she turned away from him, cradling her deceased child. Zeref looked on with a blank expression as he looked down at the acceptance letter in his hands. He shook as tears began to spill and he cried out his brother's name.

That afternoon, as their culture dictated, the family of the deceased followed as the coffin was carried through town to Memorial Hill, the local graveyard. Kyo was the one to carry the magically sealed wooden box that contained his son with Tora and Zeref following behind. When the other townspeople saw this, they too dawned black clothing and joined the funeral march. Tora held onto Zeref's hand tightly as tears ran down her face. Zeref would have complained that she was wearing her scratchy black lace gloves but he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice.

"Why?" he thought "Why did he have to die? He never did anything wrong... he didn't live long enough to get the chance. He was only 4-years-old! Why... Why did Natsu have to die?!"

Zeref put his free hand over his face as tears began to fall. He clenched his teeth and used the sleeve of his formal robe to wipe his eyes. He didn't understand why his brother had to leave them. Tora looked down to see the utter misery on her surviving son's face so she picked up the 7-year-old and carried him as they neared Memorial Hill. Zeref rested his head on his mother's shoulder as the gates to the graveyard neared. He didn't want this to be true, his brother couldn't be gone for good.

Kyo was one of the men lowering the coffin into the ground as Natsu was laid to rest. He remembered how Natsu would get distracted while he helped around the farm. Whenever it was his job to clean out rocks in front of the plow when they were plowing a field, he'd get distracted by the shape of the rocks and wondering what they looked like to him. Natsu rarely completed his chores around the farm but he did try his best. Knowing he'd never see his son's smiling face ever again, tears began to slide down Kyo's face as he lowered the coffin.

Tora watched with tears in her eyes as she thought of when Natsu used to help her with her cooking. He'd get muddy running around the herb garden as she picked mint, rosemary or even basil. Then he'd be her taste-tester when she used them in different food like soup, bread or even cake. Natsu always got a spark in his eyes when he ate her baked goods. To think she'd never see that look in his eyes again... Tora wrapped her arms around herself and fell to her knees.

Zeref stood beside his collapsed mother as he watched his father and other men of the town begin to fill in the grave. Natsu had always wanted him to study magic and become a wizard but how could he now? The only reason he had was to find a cure for his brother but it was too late.

"Natsu... I'll bring you back, baby brother," Zeref cried "I'll bring you back... I promise,"

Natsu's death destroyed the Dragneel family. They went from that happy farming family to a family consumed by mutual misery.

Tora became unstable and refused to eat or sleep. She'd go days like this until she collapsed of exhaustion and ate a small meal. But after finding her half-dead in the barn, Kyo had her sent to a care home when Zeref was 14 and had been working on the R-System. Tora became unresponsive and was declared catatonic. She didn't speak for a very long time.

Kyo attempted to keep the family financially afloat. But he had lost the spirit to tend to the fields or live stock. When he plowed, he expected Natsu to pop out from in front of him and ask what a rock looked like to him. Natsu's attempts to help on the farm normally hindered progress rather than further it but his bright smile made Kyo forget that it was work. When moving a small boulder from in front of the plow, he collapsed into tears. Eventually, he had to sell the farm and moved to a boarding house where he rented a room for himself and got work as a deliverer with a horse and cart.

As for Zeref... He followed his brother's last words to him and went to the Mildian Magic Academy. But with a new goal. Rather than researching into magically curing disease, he began looking for a way to bring back someone who was already dead. People were both in awe and horror of his ingenious ideas towards achieving this but the Board of Directors saw it as evil. The collapse of his family life merely fueled Zeref's desire to resurrect his brother... for his family's sake and for his own.