A/N: Just to clear up any confusion, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are somewhere around 12-13 years old during the prologue and initial interludes. In the main story, they are somewhere around 17-18 to keep them in line with the other Fairy Tail characters.

Thank you for all your reviews. They are much appreciated.

Chapter 2 - The Passionate Pink-haired Types

- 1 -

Year X784 - Hargeon Town - Room 13 of the Sunny Fish Inn

The scheme sounded so simple it could be summed up in three words: recruit Lucy Heartfilia. But in reality, it was far from simple. This particular scheme had required weeks of research and planning not to mention all the long and arduous days of preparation and rehearsal. And it was all for this upcoming moment mere hours away. So far everything had gone surprisingly smoothly but everyone involved was still on edge. This was because Phase 2 would mark the culmination of all their hard work. The scheme may have taken weeks to prepare, but it would only take a few seconds for them to win or lose Lucy's trust forever.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura all still sat at the table in their spacious room on the second floor of the Sunny Fish Inn. The room was comfortable and was currently lit by the afternoon sun shining in through two large windows; windows that overlooked the busy streets below.

The chest of supplies that Sakura had prepared earlier had long since been emptied and now served as her glorified footrest as their meeting continued.

"Okay Naruto, let's go over it again just so we're clear," began Sasuke.

"For the thousandth time, I know what I'm supposed to do," Naruto whined. "Go to the slave ship, take out all the slavers, then replace them with my clones." Currently, Naruto's spiky hair was colored pink. The result of some 'Color' magic they had bought at some magic store somewhere. He was also garbed in the disguise that Sakura had prepared for him: a black, orange-trimmed vest with matching mage robe bottoms and a white scarf with what looked like scales painted on it.

"And the stamp," added Sakura. "Make sure you and all of your clones are stamped with this." She pointed to two identical rubber stamps sitting on the table. One of them was for Sasuke. The other was to be used to mark Naruto and his clones with a masterfully forged Fairy Tail insignia."

"Yes, I know."

"And make sure it's somewhere she can see, like on your neck or the back of your hand or something."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Naruto in his best mocking tone, "I was gonna put one on my left butt cheek and moon her when she arrives."

Sakura frowned. "Naruto, this is serious. I didn't waste a month of my life just to screw this up when it counts."

"I know, I know," said Naruto with a placating gesture. "Just trust me on this one. Have I ever let you guys down before?"

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked to each other, collaborating to come up with some huge screw up of Naruto's in the past. Surprisingly, they couldn't come up with anything. Naruto, despite his brash tendencies, was very good at what he does.

Naruto put on his usual grin, the one that made it so hard for anyone to really doubt him, or be angry at him, or dislike him in any way. "Didn't think so. You guys should just concentrate on your parts in all of this."

Sasuke sighed. "All right then. Sakura, are you clear on your job?"

"Yep," said Sakura. "Mine's easy. What about you?"

"Just try not to hit me too hard when the time comes," said Sasuke. "Make it believable, though."

"Of course," said Sakura, "who do you take me for?"

Sasuke stared down at his own disguise. He hadn't put it on yet but it consisted of a single pair of black and grey boxers. "You're sure about this disguise?"

"Positive," confirmed Sakura, a hungry gleam suddenly growing in her eyes.

Sasuke was still skeptical. "Just these? Nothing else?"

"Just those. Oh, and a stamp on your right chest." Her smile was kind of scary. "I can help you put it on if you'd like."

Sasuke glared at her. "You couldn't come up with anybody else for me to impersonate? Someone less... naked?" Sakura's attempt at an innocent look answered the question for him. "You know I'm going to get you back for this eventually, right?"

She smiled. "Do your worst," she said.

Naruto glanced at a mechanical clock hanging on the wall. "It's almost time, you guys. We should get started."

"Any questions before we go?" asked Sasuke as he stood up from their meeting table. Sakura and Naruto both shook their heads and stood up with him. "Good."

"Oh and Sasuke," said Naruto as he snatched up one of the two rubber stamps sitting on the table.

"What?" came the muffled reply. Sasuke was busying himself with his clothes, taking off his shirt and pants and throwing on the pair of black boxers over top of his own red-cloud design ones. Sakura stared drooling at him through the entire process.

"You know this isn't gonna work, right?" Naruto grinned and tossed the stamp over to Sasuke.

Sasuke grinned back, catching the stamp and marking himself with the Fairy Tail insignia over his chest. "Oh yeah?"

Naruto didn't actually have any doubts about the plan. This was just one of the good luck rituals he performed before each mission. So far it's cost him well over five million Jewels out of his own pocket but hey, it's never failed him yet. "Two hundred thousand Jewels says that by the end of the day, we'll be Lucy-less and you'll be groveling at my feet, apologizing for messing up so badly."

"You're on, punk."

- 2 -

Sasuke was the first to leave the room. He left wearing nothing but his disguise-boxers, a long coat over top of it, a hat, and a pair of sunglasses. He looked terribly suspicious.

Naruto was still in the room with Sakura giving him the final pointers on where to stamp the Fairy Tail insignias on his body.

"So you have to put yours on your right arm, just below the shoulder. No, not there. Here, let me do it." Sakura grabbed the stamp from him and punched it into his right arm, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary.

"Ouch!" complained Naruto. He flinched and as he did, he just happened to catch a glimpse of pink from outside the window. "Whoa! Hey look, Sakura, He's got the same color hair as you. Pink hair is pretty rare, isn't it?"

"Huh?" Sakura casually glanced out the window then turned pale. "Oh god, this can't be happening."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Jeez, it's one other person with pink hair. It's not the end of the world."

"It's him!" said Sakura. "He's here. What is he doing here? He's going to ruin everything!"

Naruto stared back out the window again. The pink-haired person he spotted was far off into the distance, walking casually down the street towards the Inn with some kind of flying cat creature floating beside him. "Huh? What about him?" asked Naruto.

"Are you blind?" replied Sakura. "He's the person you're impersonating right now."

Naruto took the time to glance down at his current outfit, then back out the window. "Oh," he said, dumbfounded. "That's not good."

Sakura began rapidly pacing the room. "If he meets up with Lucy, this whole thing will be all over. What do we do, what we do, what do we DO!" She was suddenly shaking Naruto in panic.

Naruto struggled to get her off. "Can't we just beat him up and hide him or something?"

Sakura pondered this, then shook her head. "It's too risky."

"Is he that strong?" asked Naruto.

"Well, he is a Dragon Slayer but that wasn't my point," said Sakura. "If you fight with him, your disguise would be destroyed. Sasuke isn't here anymore. And I sure as hell can't take him out or my relationship with Fairy Tail might get ruined. Plus, we don't have any time to fight with him anyways. Oh god, why here? Why now?"

"Calm down," said Naruto.

"CALM DOWN?" Sakura began pacing the room again, panting. "Calm down. You're right... I need... to calm... down."

"Uh Sakura, are you okay? I'll go bring Sasuke back. You wait here. We'll think of something together."

"No," said Sakura suddenly finding her resolve. She gripped Naruto's shoulders with both hands. "There's no time. If we miss this chance, it'll be all over. You go to the slaver ship like we planned. I'll... I'll handle this."

"Sakura, if we just-"

"Please!"

Naruto looked at her. She had a fierce determination in her eyes. Naruto sighed. "All right. I'll leave it up to you," said Naruto. Then he smiled wryly. "But a hundred thousand Jewels says you'll screw up as badly as Sasuke does."

She grinned back at him. "Five hundred-thousand!"

Naruto frowned. "C'mon, Sakura. I have money but not that much money." When she pouted, he sighed again, helpless against her puppy-dog eyes. "Fine, you're on." he finished, no doubt in his mind that by the end of the day, he would be completely broke for the first time in his life since his short stay at Love and Lucky.

- 3 -

Approximately two years ago, Illen had sent his three young apprentices on a special kind of mission. They were each to join a famous guild within Fiore as part of their 'magical' and 'moral' education. Not only that, they had to stay at the guild appointed to them for an entire year. Their goal was simply to fit in and learn all they could from the guild they joined. Sasuke was sent over to Blue Pegasus. For some reason, Naruto got stuck with Love and Lucky, a merchant's guild. And Sakura, she was sent for a year to learn from Master Makarov and Fairy Tail. When the year was up, they were all to take some ridiculously long mission that sent them somewhere far away so that they could meet back up with Illen in Crocus.

In truth, Sakura had loved it over at Fairy Tail. She had made a lot of good friends and fit in perfectly with it's slightly eccentric mages. She was reluctant to leave and deep down she knew that Illen probably wouldn't even have cared if she stayed at Fairy Tail or not. But in the end, she loved Naruto and Sasuke more and that was what brought her back to Terrible Consequence after the year was over. She imagined that Sasuke and Naruto had to face similar feelings and, in the end, they returned as well.

The experience, if anything, had deepened the bonds between the three of them. In fact, Sakura had noticed that all of Illen's lessons had this added strange effect of uniting Sasuke, Naruto, and her against all the world around them. The more Illen taught them, the closer they grew, the more they trusted each other, the more smoothly they worked together.

This was why she couldn't screw this up. Naruto and Sasuke both trusted her to do her part and so she definitely would. But that didn't mean she couldn't be nervous about it.

Sakura stood all tensed up on the inside of the entrance to the Sunny Fish Inn. Carefully, she slid open the door just a crack and peered outside. And there she spotted him in the distance, the famous Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail, Natsu Dragneel and his adorable sidekick Happy, respectively walking and flying down the street towards her. She promptly slammed the door closed again, breathing heavily.

The Innkeeper at the reception area eyed her questioningly. "Umm, miss, are you-"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Sakura. He did.

She took in a deep and steady breath and pushed her nervousness aside. Straightening out her orange summer dress, she then allowed herself one final stretch and willed a wave of perfect bratty confidence and arrogance to wash over her very soul. For now, she was no longer the Sakura Haruno of Terrible Consequence. She was back to the Sakura Haruno of Fairy Tail (though truth be told, there wasn't a lot of difference). And this Sakura was out for blood!

- 4 -

Naruto left through the back entrance of the Inn, so as not to be spotted by the mage he was currently impersonating. But as he walked, he couldn't help but feel this strange sensation at the back of his mind. It felt like he was being watched. He looked all around himself but aside from some glances from random passing people, he couldn't for the life of him find the reason for the uncomfortable feeling.

"Maybe I'm just hungry," reasoned Naruto to himself. Doing his best to ignore the creepy feeling, he headed towards a nearby convenience shop just across the street. As soon as he entered, the feeling disappeared, confirming his suspicion that indeed, someone was watching him. Since he was in the shop anyways, he bought a cup of instant ramen, had it prepared, then left the shop with it in hand, instantly feeling the 'eyes' back upon him as he stepped out the door. Naruto looked around again but like before, he caught nothing even remotely suspicious. So he just continued on his way, slurping up his ramen as he walked.

On his way to Hargeon Port, where the slaver's yacht resided, Naruto made several stops into different shops and stores. At first, it was just a test to see if he was going crazy or not. Then eventually, it would become a sort of game. If he went into a shop and went out the back door, for example, or if he disguised himself in something, the creepy feeling would disappear temporarily until he walked far enough along the main road towards the port. Naruto did this a total of five times before whoever was watching him caught on and he started to feel the 'eyes' even if he did try something sneaky. After visiting about ten or fifteen shops in total (Naruto had lost count) he gave up on losing the feeling completely and just continued straight towards the port.

When Naruto arrived at the port itself, it was eerily quiet save for the cries of the gulls overhead and the splashing of the waters below. It was odd. The port was normally thriving with life. There should have been several ships being loaded and unloaded at any one time. There should have been laughing children running amok in play, getting scolded by their mothers. There should have been merchants advertising their wares with hoarse voices while customers argued back with slanderous words. But now, there was none of that. Instead, all he got was the same prickling feeling that somebody was watching him.

Shrugging, Naruto stepped out onto the wooden docks towards the single yacht floating in the harbor.

That was about when he heard the maniacal laughter from behind him. Naruto sighed and dutifully turned around.

Sure enough, standing there with a newly buffed head was Bora and behind him were about thirty huge and angry looking men. Some of them cracked their knuckles, some waved around heavy looking clubs, some whipped around chains, and they all had grins far too knowing to be friendly. Arranged rather neatly in a semi-circle around Naruto, they all slowly closed in on him.

"Well, well, well," said Bora menacingly. "What do we have here? I almost didn't recognize you with that pink hair of yours." He laughed again. "Not that it will do you much good once I do to you what she did to me." There was real bitterness in his voice when he mentioned who Naruto assumed to be Sakura.

"Bora," said Naruto, scratching his head. "I thought we told you to... you know... fuck off? You should have listened to us."

"Ooh, big words coming from a dead man," said Bora, feigning shock. "As you can see, you are severely outnumbered, out-armed, and outwitted. And after I deal with you, your friends are next! Especially that pink-haired one. Haha, I'll be sure to enjoy my time with her."

Anger flared deep inside Naruto at what Bora implied. Nobody threatened his friends, especially Sakura, and got away with it. For just a moment, he could feel a dangerous power welling up inside of him and he wanted nothing more than to grab hold of Bora and rip him to bloody shreds, limb from limb. For the third time since he came to this world, he could feel the Kyuubi from within him tearing at whatever kept it locked inside. But Naruto struggled against it. He reminded himself over and over that this anger wasn't his. It wasn't his at all. He brought his hands to his forehead and when he saw his reflection in the water, he saw his eyes flashing back and forth from it's usual blue to the red slits of the demon fox.

It was getting harder to control it. Much harder.

"Haha, what's the matter?" mocked Bora. "Scared you little shit? You should be." He and his men inched ever closer.

Bora's last insult almost got to him. Almost tipped him over the edge. But Naruto finally regained his control and composure. The intense anger within him had disappeared again but just like last time, he was left with a throbbing headache. And the moment he looked up, the glare he gave to Bora and his men chilled them to their very souls. "Damn, that was close," said Naruto. "If it came out again... shit, it's scary just thinking about it."

Bora and his men all looked confused. "What the hell are you saying? Are you going mad?"

"Ouch! Just be quiet for a sec will ya? This headache is killing me," said Naruto as he turned around, trying to rub the pain away from his forehead. "Hey you guys, just finish it," he said afterwards, though nobody knew who he was talking to. "And bring them into the ship when you're all done."

Before Bora could even react, he heard the sounds of fists hitting flesh all around him and turned around just in time to catch one to his face himself.

Naruto glanced back just to make sure there weren't any complications. There weren't.

His plan had worked perfectly. Naruto had left two or three pink-haired shadow clones in each of the shops he visited as soon as he realized he was being followed. He gave his clones direct orders to follow his followers, so to speak, and so they did. Now, all of them stood over the unconscious and battered bodies of Bora and his thirty men.

Naruto smiled a cocky smile. "And I didn't even have to use any magic."

"Uh, boss," said one of the clones. "Don't we count as magic?"

Naruto rubbed his forehead again. "I hate you guys sometimes."

- 5 -

The door to the Sunny Fish opened loud and wide, revealing Sakura standing there for all the world to see. In this case, the only ones who happened to notice her were Natsu and Happy, both looking equally surprised at the sudden revelation.

Natsu smiled and waved ecstatically.

Sakura, with a single-minded resolve, sprinted towards them.

Happy turned tail and fled the other way.

"SAAKURAAAAAAAA!" shouted out Natsu.

"HAAAAAPYYYYYYYYY!" shouted Sakura in turn.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Happy.

Natsu watched as Sakura sped past him towards Happy, who was flying as fast his little wings could take him down the street. As she passed, Natsu ran after her, flames of excitement literally burning in his eyes. Happy, realizing quickly that Sakura was gaining on him, decided to start flying upward instead of forward. Unfortunately, this brilliant strategy came a little too late and Sakura managed to pounce on the flying cat and snuggle him back to the ground.

"Oh my gawd Happy you're still so cute it's been too long!" said Sakura, rubbing her face against the top of Happy's soft and furry head. Her expression was one of absolute ecstasy. "How come you're still with that brat, Natsu? Why won't you stay with me? I'd love you soooo much."

"SA-KU-RA-LET-GO," said Happy as he struggled in vain to free himself from Sakura's vice-like grip.

"Sakura!" yelled Natsu at the top of his lungs. "I found you! This time I'll beat you for sure. FIGHT MEEEE!"

Sakura instanteously relaxed her snuggle on Happy, allowing him to just barely get away. He flew in the air well above Sakura's reach and stayed there.

"Fight me?" said Sakura, slowly getting up and brushing the dirt and dust off her orange dress. She turned ominously and faced Natsu directly. "Did I hear you right? Did you say, fight me, Natsu?"

Natsu, engulfed entirely by a burning aura of flame backed off ever so slightly when he saw Sakura's terrifying expression. "E-Eh?"

"Don't eh, me, Natsu," she continued, now slowly walking towards him. "We haven't seen each other for what, a whole year..."

"Sa... Sakura?" Natsu was fully backing off away from her now.

"...and the only thing you can think to say is 'Sakura, fight me!'?" With a single lunge, she did a somersault off the ground and connected a drop-kick straight into his face. Natsu went flying back and crashed roughly into the ground a few feet away.

Thanks to the flame aura around him, he was pretty much unharmed. But Sakura still currently scared the crap out of him. He nervously got up. "Sakura, what are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" She frowned and ran towards him again, this time jumping up to throw a knee into his abdomen. Natsu flew back yet again. "That isn't right either, idiot" she scolded. Then she walked up and gripped him by his scarf. "Would it kill you to say 'Oh Sakura, I missed you,' or 'Oh Sakura, we were so worried about you,' or anything other than 'Sakura, fight me'?"

"Worried? About someone like you?" said Natsu under his breath, looking away. Luckily for him, she didn't seem to catch this.

"Hmmmph, so much for our dramatic, heartfelt reunion," said Sakura before finally letting him go. She peeked down at him, though, to make sure he was okay and Natsu beamed up at her.

"Sorry, Sakura," said Natsu. "I just got really excited. We really did miss you, though." He pointed at Happy to indicate who he meant by we. "Everyone at the guild misses you too. You should come back soon, if you're not still on that mission. Even the old man is starting to worry."

Sakura's expression finally softened a little. "Natsu, what are you two doing here anyways?"

"We're here to see Igneel," replied Natsu.

"Igneel? You mean that dragon you told me about before? The one that you said was your dad?"

Natsu nodded, full of excitement. "That's him!"

Sakura thought for a moment, wondering if she had seen anything even remotely resembling a dragon during the couple of months they were here in Hargeon Town. Nothing really came to mind. "I've been here for a while, Natsu," she said. "I don't think I've ever seen a dragon."

"Eh?" said Natsu, confused. "But someone from the guild told me that there were sightings of a Salamander in this town. It's gotta be Igneel."

Sakura sighed. "Natsu," she began slowly. "You know dragons and salamanders are different, right? Plus, don't you know that Salamander is another nickname for you? "

Natsu's jaw dropped. As did Happy's. Sakura palmed her face.

"So we came all this way for nothing?"

"I'm afraid so," said Sakura. "You two should head back. If you go now, you should be able to catch the afternoon train."

"No way," said Natsu. "Since we're here, we're gonna go sight-seeing. Right, Happy?"

"Aye," replied the flying cat.

"Hey Sakura, why don't you come with us?"

"S-sorry," muttered Sakura. "I have something I need to do." Her mind worked overtime, trying to come up with something to get Natsu to leave town. Unfortunately, her last choice of words were poor ones.

"You mean that mission you're on?" asked Natsu. "Hey! Why don't you let us help you? Happy makes a perfect scout and I'll help you take out all the bad guys!" Natsu swung his flame-coated fists through the air as he suggested this. "Us passionate pink-haired types should really stick together!"

"Umm..." Not good, thought Sakura. Not good at all. Then, as she watched Natsu apparently spar with the air, a plan so brilliant and perfect forced it's way into her mind: offer to fight Natsu then beat the living daylights out of him. Okay, maybe her plan wasn't all that brilliant... or perfect. At least it was still a plan. Kind of. Suddenly, she started regretting not taking up Natsu's offer to fight before. Now she had to come up with an excuse to fight him again. And she sucked at making up excuses. Well, whatever. Master Illen had always encouraged them to take risks.

"So Natsu," she began. He stopped his weird imaginary sparring and turned towards her. "You said you wanted to... umm... help right?"

"Yea, totally!" responded Natsu. "You too right, Happy?"

Happy seemed to hesitate a bit before he swooped down back beside Natsu and said, "Aye. But no more hugging. Or snuggling. Or... cuddling." Happy shivered.

"Well..." said Sakura. "I could use the help."

"Yeeeaaaahh!" cheered Natsu and Happy together.

"But on one condition." When Sakura had their rapt attention she continued. "My mission is a super-dangerous one full of... crazy-strong monsters and uhh... lot's of fighting and other... exciting umm... stuff..." She was definitely not good at making things up. But somehow, it looked to her like Natsu and Happy hung on to her every word. She had no idea anybody could be so gullible and almost felt bad for them. Almost. "So... before I can let you help me. I umm... need to test you. Yes, that's it. A test."

Natsu scratched his head. "A test? What kind of test?"

"Fight me, Natsu," she said. "Let's see if you've gotten any stronger since our last one."

This was exactly what Natsu wanted to hear as his entire body erupted into flame once again. "I'm not the same as I was back then," he warned. "This time you'll be the one who'll get beaten up. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

- 6 -

On The Train

"Next stop! Hargeon Town."

The announcement rang loud and clear, waking Lucy up from her peaceful slumber. In her arms she clutched the latest copy of Weekly Sorcerer magazine open to a 12-page feature story on the ever popular guild, Fairy Tail. She yawned and stretched herself awake, nodding politely to the attendant that came to remind her that the train was only five minutes away from reaching Hargeon Station. From there, she planned to get off and explore for a bit before catching another train to Magnolia Town.

"Almost there," she mused to herself. "I'm one step closer to the guild of my dreams."

Interlude - The Other Terrible Consequences

Year X779 - The Streets of Crocus

Crocus, the 'Crown of Fiore', was a grand city that stood near the heart of the entire kingdom and it's nickname and honor of being Fiore's capital was earned for three reasons.

First, Crocus was where the King of Fiore, himself, resided. In fact, for as long as anyone could remember, Crocus had always been the home for the Kings and Queens who ruled over the land.

Inside the city itself was the royal castle in all it's majesty and opulence. It stood like a veritable fortress that overlooked the entire city from it's center and the castle's main tower, The King's Staff, was clearly visible from anywhere within the city limits as a beacon of wealth, prosperity, and hope for all of Crocus' citizens.

But even the King's Staff, a tower nearly twice as large as the building that housed the National Council, paled in comparison to each the three hundred towers that stood guard around the entire perimeter of the city walls. Appropriately known as The King's Swords, each of the monstrous towers along the city perimeter acted as a barracks that housed all of the men and women of the King's army and the city guard.

If you were to fly high in the skies among the clouds hanging over the sprawling city, you would come to understand the second reason for Crocus' nickname, as well. From above, the entire city looked like a giant crown resting upon the Earth Land.

Throughout the kingdom, Crocus had become a city known for it's royalty, prosperity, and military might. But it would not be the capital of Fiore if it didn't have at least one powerful mage guild to back it. So the third and most well known reason for Crocus' monniker was the single mage guild that dwelled within it's walls: Phoenix Crown.

Simply put, Phoenix Crown was the most notorious mage guild in all of Fiore. Even Fairy Tail came a distant second in notoriety to Phoenix Crown. Membership into the guild had to be earned through incredible magic power, ludicrous wealth, and exceptional beauty. The result was a guild that was as vain and exclusive as it was powerful in magic. And there was never any doubt to it's power. Even the Mage Council stated that despite it's much smaller size, it's power rivaled that of Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. It had been theorized by popular scholars that should all the mage guilds in Fiore go to war with one another, the sheer amount of power, wealth, and influence commanded by Phoenix Crown would bring it out on top by far.

And so as they walked through the bustling streets of Crocus, Illen took the time to explain all of this to his new apprentices. He made sure that they understood how Phoenix Crown was the guild that was responsible for their slavery and that it was the guild that he was now going to completely and utterly destroy in order to collect his refund (with interest, of course).

"So, my new and shiny apprentices," said Illen before he reconsidered his words. "Well, maybe not shiny yet. Remind me to have you all bathed and appropriately dressed after we are done. But I digress, did you three have any questions regarding our current little field trip?"

"How!" asked Naruto, right off the bat. Just barely did he resist the urge to add 'you loony old man' to the question. "If this Phoenix Crown guild or whatever is nearly as strong as you say they are, how are you going to take them out by yourself?"

Illen made a face as he continued leading them down the crowded street. "By myself? Oh heaven's no! I never said I would be doing this all by myself, did I? Such a thing would be impossible, my boy."

Sasuke spoke up next. "But you said we would just be watching, didn't you?"

"Indeed I did," answered Illen. "And so you shall."

Sakura asked the obvious question that came next. "So there are going to be others working with you then?"

"Of course," answered Illen cheerfully, "two others, in fact."

"Only two? You really are a crazy old man," said Naruto, then added to his friends, "I told you we're going to die."

"That's 'Master Illen' to you, my boy," warned Illen as the group approached what looked like an aging tavern. "And you all shall be very much alive when we are through, I assure you. Now..." The four of them stopped at the door of a tavern named Luckless and Illen turned around to face them. "Wait here for just a moment. I need to make sure we will be in decent company."

Compliant, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat on the steps as Illen disappeared inside. At first, all was quiet. The quiet was soon followed by some muffled conversation. The conversation quickly escalated to something that sounded like a muffled argument then all of a sudden, loud and continuous crashing could be heard from inside. There was more yelling, shouting, crashing, and clanging, all of it muffled, of course, until finally it all subsided into a whisper of footsteps heading back towards the door.

The kids got up and just as they expected, the door opened and Illen greeted them.

"Ah, sorry for the wait, children," he said, motioning them inside. "Come in, come in. I'd like for you all to meet my friends."

The inside of the tavern was a mess, though none of the kids were quite sure as to why they were surprised by this. To their right was a man who they assumed as the tavern keeper, idly shaking his bald head as he polished a glass behind a long counter seated with stools.

To their left was what could only be described as The Apocalypse if such a thing were confined to only half of a tavern. It looked like a mixture of splintered chunks of wood and burning, liberally sprinkled with shattered glass and splotches of blood. Whose blood they could only guess at.

Illen, himself, took his seat at a single, perfectly unharmed, table at the heart of the tavern. On one side of him sat a huge, gaunt-faced man of round rippling muscle. On the other side, a brown curled beauty sporting an over-sized plated eye patch covering her right eye. For a moment, the three of them really did look like best of friends as they sat there oblivious to all the destruction around them.

"Now let me introduce you to Brutus and Beatrix, the other members of Terrible Consequence," said Illen when his three apprentices hesitantly took their seats across from him. "They will be the ones helping me on this task."

The kids first stared at Brutus. He was round, almost pudgy, but huge. And strangely enough, impeccably dressed, just like Illen, in a finely tailored black suit. When he suddenly glared at the three of them, the combination of his ugly face and his frown full of crooked teeth made them more than happy to switch their stares over to the person on the other side of Illen.

Beatrix also glared but it wasn't nearly as menacing as Brutus'. The single piercing eye they could see was blue and was framed nicely by her curling hair that was the color of almond butter. Her outfit was mostly white and didn't do much to hide her curvy figure. She also wore what looked like heavy plated gauntlets on each of her hands.

"On this mission, you will each be shadowing one of us," said Illen. The three kids blinked blankly in response.

"Oh, don't give me that look. This will merely be the start of your brilliant and thorough education as members of Terrible Consequence. You see, each of you have strengths that need to be enhanced and encouraged along with weaknesses that need to be to overcome. And so to start off, we will be the ones to teach you."

Both Beatrix and Brutus glared at this.

"Don't mind them. They're just a little bitter that they lost our little... argument. They'll come around."

More glaring ensued.

"Fine then! If you two are going to be that way I will skip straight to our assignments."

Pondering, pondering, Illen thought for a moment as his eyes wandered first to Sakura. "You, girl, are special. Gifted with strength and I'm sure once you're old enough, beauty as well. Such things are dangerous in the wrong hands. No, such things will be dangerous in your hands once we are through with you. Now, there is only one person here who I can think of to help you with such gifts. So Sakura, you will be shadowing..."

Illen looked to each of the companions at his sides. "Brutus," he finished.

Everyone except Illen seemed surprised by this.

"Brutus, you will teach Sakura all you know on the delicate and interesting art of... what is it that you called your art again, Brutus?"

In a snarl that didn't betray his looks. Brutus yelled out, "BRUTUS SMAAAAAAASH!" as little flecks of spit sprayed out from his mouth onto the table in front of them all.

"Yes, yes, wonderful," nodded Illen. "The delicate and interesting art of smashing. Learn it well, young Sakura. But between you and me, be sure to take your beauty advice from Beatrix unless you want to look like your smashing new mentor."

Brutus repeatedly thumped his fists into the table. "BRUTUS TEEEEAAAAACH!"

Sakura's heart sunk.

"As for you, Naruto," continued Illen, "Clearly you are as loud as you are obnoxious and you don't seem to be terribly clever either-"

"Hey!"

"Let's see if we can't beat some brains and sublety into that thick skull of yours, shall we? Beatrix, I shall leave him in your capable hands."

Naruto had, just then, decided that he didn't like Illen at all. Not one bit. And Beatrix didn't seem to react to Illen's order at all.

"So that leaves little Sasuke under my care." Illen grinned his creepy wide grin again. "And oh the terrible, terrible things you shall learn, my boy."

For the second time in his life, Sasuke felt truly afraid.

Interlude - The Other Terrible Consequences
- END -

A/N: Once again, thank you for reading. Any questions or concerns, please add them to your reviews.

So you may have noticed a few things about this chapter. Allow me to explain:

First of all, my goal is to make Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all strong without being overpowered. In my opinion, giving them their own unique strengths and weaknesses creates a more interesting and dynamic story overall than having insanely overpowered main characters. As for how strong they are compared to the Fairy Tail cast... I'll let the story show that.

Also, I haven't really decided on any pairings yet. There were a couple spots in this chapter where I could have easily added some NaruSaku moments or SasuSaku or even SakuNatsu. But I avoided them all like the plague. What do you guys think the pairings should be? Keep in mind that all the major characters in Fairy Tail will eventually make an appearance into the story and most of them will play a major role in the overarching plot that I have yet to introduce.

Glossary

Beatrix - A cameo from FF9 as one reader/reviewer has already caught on. I could have made another OC here but then I got lazy and Beatrix happened to have all the traits that I needed in a character so I thought 'hey why not?' I'm having her connected to one other character as well but that's fairly minor surprise for another chapter.

Brutus - An OC. I needed a generic brute type character in the story so here he is.

Crocus (updated) - My description of Crocus is completely made up since it was never really seen or heard from in the manga or anime. Also, there was a small typo when I first released the chapter. There are 300 towers along the perimeter of Crocus, not just 30. Magnolia Town has a population of around 60,000 and in my story, Crocus is at least twice the size of Magnolia.

Phoenix Crown - Another guild I made up. The name wasn't too important so I just picked something that had 'Crown' in the name. I was thinking FF9 when I put Beatrix in the story and at the same time I thought 'hey, Phoenix Down can be... Phoenix Crown and it sounds like a decent guild name too! Score!'