Opening Note

Personal Comments: This was all written up before I even started posting, so any real delays in the posting were caused by circumstances. Anyways, here's where the ninja explore their surroundings, which I tried to do reasonably well. I don't have a set time period for this story yet, though at the moment I am working the angle of "after Fantasia" and "before Oracion Seis", as that's the only part of Fairy Tail that has anything remotely resembling a time skip, and I'd prefer to be able to work with the likes of Juvia and Gajeel rather early on.

NOTE TO REPEAT READERS: I re-uploaded the previous chapter, I can't believe I forgot to proofread it.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Fairy Tail, nor any of the associated characters

When they had first gained consciousness in this world, they realized they had all been knocked unconscious in the first place, presumably by the force of the transfer. Madara, Sasuke, and the others- they were all gone, even the girl Sakura had brought with her. Kakashi had been the first to note a possible reason for it- that their cloaks somehow afforded them a special protection against the gate's energies.

The Raikage had immediately insisted for Hinata to scan the area, and scowled when she flinched before complying. After a moment, Hinata was able to confirm various animal and plant life non-native to any place she had been, as well as unusual chakra among the animals. When she had first made note of this, Raikage again asked her to "just get on with it!"

Hinata was terrified of this man- for obvious reasons, from Naruto's point of view. He was huge, he was powerful, and he had ordered her death when she was a child. He said nothing at the moment, merely glaring at the giant, as Hinata gave her analysis. "W-well... I can't see chakra too clearly, but... the chakra here seems... more freeform, more unrestrained. If I had to put it into scientific terms... they have chakra, but if they have a system for it to flow through, it's not nearly as complex as it is for any chakra-capable animals I've ever seen before..."

The Raikage merely shrugged this analysis off. "Alright then, why don't you go look for signs of a town or something?"

Hinata blinked for a moment before apparently seeing one. "Th-there's a town, but..."

Before she could finish her pause, the Raikage interrupted her with a snarl. "Out with it, woman! Ancestors help me if you keep that up!"

Naruto stepped between Raikage and Hinata, apparently quite angry. "Stop it. She's a capable ninja, so back off."

The giant man scowled at the brat in front of him. "What, you think I have to listen to you because you're some "chosen one" or because you have a stronger Bijuu than Bee's? Get real! I can defeat Bee, you can't be that much harder!"

Naruto had to resist the urge to slug the man- letting go of hatred was harder than it looked. "You don't have to listen to me, but I'd appreciate not having to use force to get you to stop upsetting her."

Raikage rolled his eyes. "Hey, if she never took emotional training, that's not my problem, that's hers!"

Naruto was about ready to explain the real reason she was so terrified, but Hinata grabbed his arm. "Please... Naruto, don't... I'll get over it eventually. Just... don't fight. I don't... want you to get hurt."

The blond suddenly had a flashback to his fight with Pain... her fight with Pain, and blushed. "Hinata..."

Bee, who had been silent up until now, broke into a huge grin. "Aw, look, they like each other!"

Naruto's face lit up even faster than Hinata's, and was just as crimson. Matsuri, who was also being quiet, glanced at Gaara, but sadly he didn't look back at her. Sakura rolled her eyes at the two and broke up the entire topic. "Hinata, the town?"

She blinked for a moment. "Right... there are humans there, and I don't see any non-humans. Most of them are civilians, but there's a great concentration of chakra-using humans in a castle to the back... the amount of chakra in there... most ninja can't even compare. Whoever they are, they're powerful."

Temari thought about something Hinata had said earlier. "If the animals are more "unrefined", than these chakra-users are like that too, right?"

Hinata shook her head. "The town's pretty far away, I can't see details like that from this distance... something else I noticed was that the cultural style of the town is different than anything I've ever seen... nothing like the buildings in Konoha, or any of the surrounding countries."

Kakashi decided to take initiative before Raikage got even angrier, if that was possible. "Where exactly is this town, Hinata?"

Hinata pointed in a direction- compass directions would do no good here, they didn't even know what the time system was like. "Th-that way, about four kilometers."

Kakashi nodded. "Alright then... Naruto, Sakura, and I will scope it out. Anyone else good at infiltration?"

Kankuro shook his head. "I can do small stuff, like organizations... but a town? I'd be better off walking in there under a Transformation."

Kakashi's eye wandered down the list of candidates, and each one gave their own excuse- Temari's, predicatably, was "combat specialist", and Matsuri was a "capture specialist" (Kakashi noted with amusement that Gaara must have brought her along to comply with Naruto's wishes of wanting Sasuke alive). Gaara himself did not wish to leave his team behind, so the only people left were the Raikage and Bee, as well as Konan.

The Raikage snorted, and gestured to his half-naked body with his one-and-a-half arms. "I couldn't do a Transformation if I tried! Not to mention that my specialty lies in fighting, not spying! That's why I have other ninja do that sort of thing!"

Naruto actually found himself agreeing with the Raikage on this matter- a Kage had subordinates to make up for any weaknesses he or she may have. Bee shrugged. "Same here, I make war, not love... ...on second thought, count me in!" While Kakashi assured him that he wasn't necessary, Naruto was silently thankful that he didn't bust out that god-forsaken thing he called "rap" in this serious situation.

Konan seemed thoughtful. "I... could be of use, but I won't be of as much help as I would be in a situation with far less restraint being called for."

Naruto smiled. "Help is help! Besides, you could help with the plan I have." Konan nodded, and moved over to Naruto's side.

Kakashi nodded at Hinata- he knew her skills well enough, since he had made sure to do the research as Hokage before going on this mission, and she'd be better off here warning of impending attacks. He did the same to Tenzo- the man was ANBU, and his specialty was more anti-ninja than anything else. "Alright then... let's go!"

- - -

Naruto was sad that he had to remove the piece of metal that signified his allegiance to Konoha, but it was rather necessary. While their clothes weren't that suspicious, the three of them wearing the same symbol would signify that they were a group- and if a group that wasn't locally known were to appear suddenly, law-enforcement might decide to pick them up for questioning.

Naruto didn't need to replace his headband with anything- he didn't wear it off-duty, so he was used to it. Sakura, however, was wishing she had remembered to bring an alternative hair tie. Kakashi replaced his standard forehead protector with a nondescript black eye-patch, which Naruto and Sakura recognized from that time he pretended to be a jester in a circus, and then he reached up to his mask, quite slowly. Naruto and Sakura's heartbeats began racing- their breathing all but stopped as they saw the fingers inch nearer and nearer to the tip, ready to tear it off...

And then Kakashi spotted somebody wearing a similar mask entering town from their hiding spot. "Oh, hey. Looks like I can get away with it after all." Naruto and Sakura almost fell over from the sheer force of the disappointment. Konan had to try not to giggle, something she had not felt the need for in a long time- somehow, she was reminded of the good old days...

As for their clothes, Naruto only needed to take off his jacket to complete the transformation into a normal looking human. Konan was... shocked, to see him wearing naught but a t-shirt under it. "Don't you... wear armor?"

The blond shrugged. "I've never needed it. I'm a fast healer, regardless." Konan made a mental note to get him some armor sometime soon, regardless of whether he wanted it.

Sakura felt like she didn't need to make any further changes to her appearance to fit in. Kakashi felt the same- leaving only Konan. They stared at her rather... provocative outfit. She stared back. "What?"

Kakashi averted his gaze- he really didn't know how to break it to her. "Ah... well... that kind of outfit isn't the kind a civilian normally wears..."

Konan blinked for a moment. "Ah... I suppose you're right." She concentrated for a moment, and her clothes turned into sheets of paper- after rearranging themselves a little, the pieces of paper turned into new clothes; they were now a dark-blue t-shirt with black, tight jeans, which somehow accentuated her 'assets' even more. At the same time, she let her hair down, letting it cascade behind her back.

Naruto blushed- to say she looked attractive was... putting it mildly. He was thankful that she was too old for him ("for now", Jiraiya's voice echoed in his head, which led to said voice being whacked), because he still had to sort through what was going on with Hinata- he most certainly did not need any distractions from the Hyuuga. Sakura, he had given up on- that she would try to use his love for her like that was...

He shook his head, and created five clones to assist them, who transformed into people of varying ages from back home, dressed in a composite of clothes they had witnessed from the short time they'd spent watching the gates from the trees. The youngest clone was Inari, in similar clothes to what he was wearing while he repaired Konoha, with a slightly more complicated design. Older than Inari was Konohamaru, wearing his ever present scarf; the one in the middle of the age-group was Naruto's father, Minato, dressed in casual clothes as Naruto was. Kakashi was surprised at how spot-on Naruto's impression of the man was, while Sakura was left in the dark on the man's identity. Konan, on the other hand, found him to be quite handsome, though she kept that bit of information to herself. The eldest two were the Third Hokage, wearing what they thought were casual robes dyed in his signature red and white, and Tazuna, wearing the same outfit as Inari.

Kakashi was quite impressed. "I see... creating clones that work in pairs of young and old. You continue to surprise me, Naruto."

Sakura blinked for a moment. "Pairs? But... there are five clones."

'Minato' gave a grin quite similar to Naruto's own, but his voice was far smoother- only now did Kakashi realize that Naruto had, indeed, inherited personality traits from his father. "Well, I've been dead since Naruto was born, so of course you don't really know who I am... I- or, rather, the person I'm impersonating- am Naruto's father. I'll be partnering with him, and Konan can come if she wants."

The pinkette was... quite surprised, to say the least. "Wait... when did Naruto find out who his parents were? And how can he..."

Naruto gave a sad smile. "Let's... just get going. I'll tell you later."

- - -

They split up into multiple groups- Naruto and Konan with 'Minato', 'Inari' with 'Tazuna', 'Konohamaru' with 'Granpa' (Naruto was told the man's name was "Sarutobi Hiruzen" for the purpose of furthering the disguise; Minato's last name- and thus Naruto's-, Namikaze, was given to him as well), and Sakura and Kakashi went off by themselves.

Naruto had decided on checking out the great building in the back of the town, while his clones would check out different sectors- Inari and Tazuna would check out the working section of town, while Konohamaru and Hiruzen would investigate the residential district end. Sakura and Kakashi had decided on the merchant district, and Kakashi ordered them to contact the others at set intervals through radio ear-sets. Thankfully, even technology worked when cloned, so the clones could report in without dispelling themselves.

The group of three approached the near-castlelike building rather casually, looking at all of the other buildings while chatting with his 'father' and Konan- the woman seemed quite interested in the man's identity. "Naruto... who is... was, your father? It feels like I should know him."

The whiskered boy gave a sad smile as he recalled the events leading up to this. "He was Jiraiya's student, like you and me. He became feared as the most powerful ninja in Konoha, and then... he sacrificed himself, so that the rest of the village could live... that I could live. Still don't know about Mom, though,I'll have to ask sometime..."

Konan was able to piece two-and-two together; it wasn't very hard. Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage? She looked at the clone impersonating him, who caught her staring and gave her a grin. She managed to divert her gaze before she blushed- it had... been quite a while since she had interacted with anybody on such a friendly basis. It had been a while since she had allowed herself to do so; she couldn't have been too much older than Naruto was now. The Fourth Hokage... even if he were still alive he'd be younger than her. Had it seriously been that long since she had thought about these kinds of things? That she was blushing from the gaze of men so much younger than her? She looked down at her choice of clothes- they were clothes she had seen a teenage girl wearing. Her mind was definitely locked as "teenage", despite her maturity. Or... was it because that she knew that it was Naruto behind that grin? That made her blush deepen- he was still an actual teenager! And she was older than his father! Nothing of the sort could possibly happen between them!

"Konan... you're going to become quite the woman. Come and see me when you're eighteen, alright?" She suddenly realized with horror that Jiraiya had intended on having a relationship with her once she was "old enough". She wasn't anything like that, she couldn't do that to someone much younger than her! ...She glanced again, this time at Naruto, the ninja who she could see both Yahiko and Nagato inside of- the two men she had loved more than anything, the reasons she was here and not mourning their loss. She realized with a start that she had changed her pace and was now equal with Naruto instead of his more adult clone, but thankfully Naruto didn't notice.

Eventually, they ran out of street, and they were at the front entrance. There was a large stone arch, and besides it was what appeared to be, at first glance, a guard's booth- and then they realized that it was actually a souvenir stand. Above the arch was a large sign that said "FAIRY TAIL" on it- Naruto noted that it was in an extremely standard code-language from his world, which was far more complex than the writing system they usually used, due to the usage of far fewer characters and yet far more possible sounds. It was pretty much used as a "minimal security" code. There was a man running the booth, who was looking at them expectantly. "Ah, hey there! You guys tourists? I haven't seen you guys around before."

'Minato' walked over first, with a smile on his face- Naruto was wondering if he should use his Sage mode to detect how many and how powerful the people in this place were, so he was rather distracted. Konan discreetly let loose a single sheet of paper before walking over to the stand herself and listening in on 'Minato's' conversation.

"Ah, yes! What is this place, exactly...?" He looked at the wares the man was selling- first and foremost, there were little statuettes of different people. They seemed more like fantasy characters than anything, as they were each dressed in different manners, with different personalities evident on their faces, as well as in their poses. One was a woman, clad in some kind of solid-armor he had never seen before, in a battle pose with a serious expression. Another was a black-haired guy, looking nice and comfortable standing in just his underwear; he estimated that there were at least 20 different characters on the stand, most of them rather young looking, though there was an extremely small old man sitting on his little platform, oddly enough priced higher than the other figures.

The man was quite amused at the question. "This? This is Fairy Tail! The biggest Mage Guild in the country! You'd have to be completely new to Fiore to never had heard of them..."

Naruto processed the information as quickly as possible. "Mage"- he had heard the term before. It was a broader term for such concepts as sorcerers and witches- people who used magic, fictional as they were. He had heard the term applied to ninja before, and he couldn't really blame people for thinking such things. "Guild"- an organization under whose banner people of the same professional trade gathered. So everyone here were people who could use "magic", for the purpose of making money, and were apparently quite famous for it considering they had their own figurine set. He was surprised that his years of video games were actually worth something! Internally, he was crying with joy. "A Guild? What kind of stuff do they do here?"

The man smiled- probably because he thought 'Minato' wasn't a TOTAL stranger to magic. "People hire us to take care of their problems- monster extermination, bandit protection, lifting curses, fortune telling, that kind of thing. If it's a problem that can be solved with magic, people can pay us to have it taken care of."

Again, Naruto was quick to process the information. Essentially, this "Guild" was like a miniature version of a Hidden Village- where the people who trained to be stronger than people who didn't bother with that kind of life came to earn money with their special powers, through helping people willing to pay them. "I see... I've seen a Mage Guild before, but... they were nothing quite like this."

The man laughed at Minato's expense. "Haha! Yeah, we're larger than any other Mage Guild in the country, in power, numbers, and as you can see, size of our base. You're allowed to go in if you want, but if you don't have money and you're not there to join, they might get mad at you."

Minato nodded at this. "Thanks! And I kinda don't have the money to spare at the moment... otherwise I'd buy some of these wonderful souvenirs you have here. Well, thanks for satisfying my curiosity! Naruto, come on, we don't have the money to spend here."

Naruto himself, while he wasn't required to listen to his "father's" conversation, had indeed been paying attention while analyzing the people in the courtyard and past the currently open doors. It seemed like a rather fancy place for the rough-and-tumble people who worked here, though there were some obviously gentler souls among them as well. The people here were quite varied, and this was coming from the guy who was used to the company of clan kids. He turned to Minato and nodded. "Alright, alright, I'm coming. Geez..."

The man laughed. "Kids today... am I right? You look a little young to be his father, though..."

Minato gave his own laugh, looking a bit nervous. "Ah... I'm told that I look a lot younger than I really am. It's a mixed blessing, to be sure."

The shopkeeper seemed deeply amused by this. "Haha! I can tell what you mean, now I can't tell if Ms. Beautiful here is your lover or your daughter!" Konan blushed deeply at this, and was rather unable to form a response. How in the world could she be mistaken for this guy's daughter?! Sure, he was supposedly old enough to have Naruto as a son, but she was much older than Naruto! She blushed even more at the implications- this man thought that she could easily be Naruto's sister due to her apparent age... and people who were close enough in age to easily be siblings were close enough in age to be lovers... and he had stated she could easily be Minato's lover, as well, who couldn't be too much older than Naruto... She could almost feel the paper her clothes were made of threatening to catch fire. She was so caught up in her thoughts that 'Minato' was slightly dragging her away when she snapped out of it.

"Huh? What just..."

The 'elder' of her companions gave a soft chuckle as he let go of her. "I didn't take you to be the easily embarrassed type. Hinata does that sometimes, too- mention the wrong thing and she's out cold, her face completely red."

Konan tried to regain her composure, and decided to change the subject while making a mental note to talk to Hinata about Naruto sometime- if Hinata 'liked' Naruto, then she would do her best to get the two together and the blond OUT of her head. "The place seems... rather rowdy. Grown men, women, even teenagers, all eating and drinking like it's some giant tavern. There are all sorts of papers lying around on the floor, which advertise the jobs that they can take, which apparently are supposed to be posted on a board in the back."

They walked off to find someplace secluded for their report. They walked down an alley, where Naruto dispelled 'Minato', and then they turned on their transmitters. "Kakashi-sensei, Sakura. You guys there?"

He waited a moment, and then there was a crackling sound which signified that there were other people on the waves. "We're here, Naruto. Find anything out about that big building?"

Naruto nodded. "It's called a "Mage Guild". People who can use "magic"- or, if Hinata's right, chakra- go to the guild to take jobs that require their powers in order to make money. Like home, only on a much smaller scale. What about you guys?"

Kakashi spoke next- he was far more used to giving reports than Sakura was, despite being Hokage now. "The money system here is different from back home, but that's hardly unexpected. I doubt our cash will get us anywhere anytime soon... we might need to get jobs in order to work up the cash to go traveling from town to town. I doubt the Raikage's going to like that too much..."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the thought of the Raikage working for anybody besides himself. "This way or the highway... and roads are uncomfortable places to sleep on no matter who you are."

Sakura offered a third option that the Raikage might be more comfortable with. "We'd need to at least get camping supplies; this was supposed to be an assault mission, after all."

Konan pitched in her opinion. "I saw what some of those souvenirs were selling for, and the price of the meals inside the Guild itself... and a single job is more than enough to pay for a week's worth of meals for one person."

The blond boy supposed that could work, but then he remembered something. "Oh... wait."

The pinkette was obviously annoyed if her tone of voice was anything to go by. "Wait, what, Naruto?"

"I don't know how to break this to you... but one of the more common jobs that mages take is monster extermination."

Kakashi was taken aback. "Monsters? You're sure about this?"

Konan confirmed Naruto's information. "That's what they said... if they were normal creatures, I doubt they'd need chakra users to kill them. They had a job posted for the death of a "demon" that was worth more than a lot of the other jobs, so it's something that is rather high-priority."

Sakura was a little miffed, to say the least. "Well, isn't that just.... fine and dandy! Monsters! As if I haven't seen enough of those in my life..."

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah... I know what you mean. Yo, other mes, you there?"

Naruto flinched when he heard four voices speak at once. "I'll take that as a yes... Gramps, Konohamaru, you go first."

'Gramps' spoke for the two of them. "The town seems fairly uniform as far as class goes... there aren't any obviously poor or rich people about, and the houses don't vary in size and decoration too much, either."

Naruto nodded. "And you, Tazuna?"

Tazuna's gruff voice came over the speakers. "It's not a port town, but there is a river that goes through here that people use for transportation and fishing. It's probably not too far from the coast, judging by the boat traffic. I didn't see too many actual companies, I guess this is a merchant town more than anything."

Kakashi voiced his amusement over the situation over the radio. "You know, this isn't knowledge I'd expect from you of all people, Naruto. Guess Jiraiya taught you well."

The boy's embarrassment was evident over the speakers. "He... kinda made me pay attention to a whole lot of stuff while he was training me. I've been to towns similar to this, so I was able to recall the information that applied there."

He heard chuckling from multiple sources. "Alright then- I guess we'll leave and find the others. We'll see how they find the idea of working for this "Guild"..."

- - -

The Raikage was, predictably, the first to find fault with the plan. "NO!"

Kakashi tried to appease the mighty shinobi- "But-" "NO IS NO, KAKASHI!" ...to no real effect.

Naruto wanted to know this man's reasoning behind his decision to live off of the land rather than see what this place was like. "Why not? It'd be a good way to earn cash, learn new things... we might even become more powerful! That's what Madara's here for, right?"

The Raikage, however, was still a stubborn man. "I'm the freakin' Raikage! Do you know what that means? I'm the most powerful! People are supposed to do whatever I tell them to do! If I tell them to jump, they ask "off of which cliff?" I'm not gonna reduce myself to some... rank and file Genin equivalent just because you said so! Hell, ESPECIALLY because you said so! I'm not stupid- I know that you're still a Genin! What you're doing on this mission- at this little meeting- is beyond my ability to understand!"

Konan sighed. "It's because he's the ninja who took down the man who defeated both Jiraiya of the Sannin and Salamander Hanzo- this man being the former leader of Akatsuki who was responsible for the destruction of Konoha by himself- a man that the entirety of Konoha could not defeat, including the former and current Hokage- by himself, without the beast inside of him doing any real damage, AND was able to, using only words, get said Akatsuki leader to kill himself and resurrect every ninja he had killed that day, AND gain the allegiance of the entirety of Amegakure, as well as make a certain member of Akatsuki defect from Madara in order to aid him. Or did your informants forget to inform you of these events, 'Lord Raikage'?" Her usage of the word "Lord" over "-sama" indicated both her sarcasm and her dedication to staying.

As the Raikage could only sputter in rage and embarrassment, Naruto turned to someone who he knew would see his reasoning. "Gaara? What do you think?"

Gaara closed his eyes to give the impression of giving a calm, calculated analysis, due to all of the emotion flying around- in reality, he thought it was just a plain old good idea. "We need money... we do not wish to resort to being criminals, nor do we wish to be vagabonds. We need a base of operations... we have no place we can call our own at the moment. We need to learn more about this world... we have a source of knowledge about this world inside of that Guild. I think that the choice is obvious- we join the Guild."

Bee smirked at his older brother. "Two out of three Kage agree- "Fairy Tail" is the place to be!"

The elder of the two scowled, but otherwise did not complain. "Since that is literally all but one of us has decided... it would probably be best if I go along with you to make sure all of you newbies don't screw this up!"

- - -

Ending note

Personal comments: I like this way of getting them to join a Guild rather than having someone invite them or something. Don't worry, you'll be seeing some Ninja VS Mage action soon; since they'll be joining the good guys rather quickly, I want to get the Fairy Tail VS Shinobi fights out of the way as soon as possible. And, uh... don't get mad at any curbstomping that may or may not occur ^_^;;;;;;

Also: I am LOVING how Konan is being characterized in this story. It just seems so...right. She really hasn't acted as a person in the longest time, so her social maturity ought to be far lower than her mental and physical maturity. Will we get actual Naru/Konan moments? Eh. I want to work pairing hints into the story, even if no actual pairings happen- like Fairy Tail is ALWAYS doing (seriously- the pairing chart is just so convoluted in that series). So Naruto having Hinata and Konan after him at the same time seems like a good idea at the moment, even if it never develops; Sakura may or may not find someone "special" who begins to replace Sasuke in her life, as well (candidate: Gray. He's the Sasuke of Fairy Tail, after all.). As for Gaa/Matsu... it's as natural to me as NaruHina XD

Translator's note: The original word for the magic-users is "madoshi", the "mado" being similar to "judo" or, for Naruto fans, "nindo"- it's supposed to bring to mind martial arts users with magic rather than, say, Gandalf the Grey or someone like that. "Madoshi" is out of place in the English-speaking world of Fairy Tail, though, so I thought I'd use "Mage" instead. Also, "Mage" instead of "Wizard" is easier on the mind's mouth.