Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of The True Dragon!

EDIT: Due to some consideration I have changed Natsu's name to Natsumi in both this chapter and the first and it will stay like this for now on.

Now with that said I would like to also thank everyone that's liked and reviewed this story and hopefully you'll enjoy it down the line. This chapter was a bit short, but I felt it covered what I wanted the most.

With that, Enjoy!

The True Dragon

Chapter 1: Dad's Friend

''So...you're an old friend of my dad's and he's asked for you to watch over me in his steed?'' Natsumi asked which Naruto just nodded as he inhaled the night air. The two had traveled away from the grassland plains and settled in small clearing in the woods. Naruto knew he had too clear up the brats skepticism about him otherwise he would be bugged to the point of ripping his hair out!

The two sat across from one another with a small campfire in the middle. Little Natsumi had been surprised when the strange blond guy gathered up some wood and with a wave of his hand made the wood catch ablaze! For her it took some effort to use her Fire Dragon Slayer magic and even her father would show some form of spark when making a fire for the both of them. Yet this strange guy didn't show anything!

He just waved his hand and conjured fire!

Naruto noticed her looking at him as if he was some type of mystery to be solved and he rather didn't like that he liked his privacy thank you very much. So he gave a small grunt and addressed Igneel's kid, ''I ain't gonna bite you kid, now do you have anything else to ask me?'' he knew she did I mean who in their right mind wouldn't? Suddenly being met with a man who was acquainted with your father and tasked with watching over said child was one thing. Yet the fledgling didn't know who he was nor what he really was tasked to do specifically.

Natsumi just grumbled a bit at being called a kid before speaking, ''Well you say you and my father are friends, but you aren't a dragon! Plus he's never mentioned your name, Na-Nawuto?'' the blond felt a twitch in his brow when the brat pronounced his name. ''Dad never mentioned you before and besides how exactly will you be doing to help me anyway?'' Naruto just glanced at her before raising his hand. In a small flicking motion of his middle finger a small hole shot through the flames between them before it hit Natsumi.

''Itai!'' Natsumi yelped as she was sent to the ground she began rolling in the dirt as she rubbed furiously at the red mark on her forehead. Only to stop and pull herself up to glare at the blond who didn't seem the least bit effected by her glare. He was too busy nonchalantly digging into his ear with his pinky.

''What the hell was that for?!'' she yelled making Naruto raise an eyebrow before a smirk made its way onto his face.

''Oh? Language young lady! Igneel didn't tell me you were a spitfire as well.'' here he frowned as a thought made its way to his head. ''Come to think of it your father didn't tell me jack shit! Stupid old man!'' he muttered under his breath and before Natsumi could protect her father's honor Naruto vanished before appearing infront of her with a finger pressed firmly on her lips. She was left frozen in place as the blond man's eyes rooted her in place.

''Anyway enough with that, first off, the reason I did that was to correct you on my name, it is pronounced Naruto. Secondly, I don't feel the need to explain myself to a child like you the only thing I was asked to do was to raise you. Your dad asked me to help you and I will, but beyond that little girl is entirely up in the air.'' here he narrowed his eyes and took a sense for her level of power only for his eye to widen.

'For fucks sake Igneel, if you're gonna raise a kid raise it properly her level of power is down right pitiful!

''Shut up! I bet you're not that strong! I bet I can even take you down in one hit!'' Natsumi said slapping his hand away. The blond felt his brow perk as the pinkette growled at him, her words and brashful behavior sent a flash to the past to the blond. It was only a split second, but the image of a young spiky blonde haired boy fighting a man with gray gravity defying hair with one eye. The boy's statement echoed within his mind and sent a wave of nostalgia and pain through him.

'I don't care who you are! I'm gonna clobber you!'

'Heh ironic, but okay I'll nip this little problem in bud right now.'

The blond felt a smirk crawl up on his face and the smirk unnerved Natsumi for reason. ''Oh? You think you can take me down in one stroke? Alright then let's make a deal, if you can take me out in one hit you will never see me again. However if you can't then you will be stuck with me until I see fit that you are capable of holding your own. So how bout it?'' he leaned in his smirk turning downright terrifying. ''Wanna risk it girly?''

Natsumi felt a shiver go down her spine and for a moment she felt a strange sense to not question this guy, but puffed her cheeks and glared back at the blond. There just wasn't no way she would lose, this guy didn't have the scent of a dragon and just wreaked of iron which was odd and books!

She hated books!

''Hah! You got it I'll take you out in one hit! That will show dad I'm strong!'' she said fist pumping the air as Naruto remained silent. Observing the girl with barely concealed amusement and yet cynical glee.

The two stood up and kept a distance from one another, Natsumi taking a stance as she readied her Fire Dragon Slayer magic. Burning embers of magical power began to form as the girls fists lit ablaze as her black eyes began to smolder with raw untamed draconic magical power. Naruto on the other hand stood aloof with an impassive expression, hands in his pockets he didn't show a sign of worry nor any emotion for that matter as the girl powered herself up.

''Here I come you bastard!'' readying her body Natsumi dug her feet into the ground as the blonde just watched her with raised eyebrow. ''Well? I'm waiting.'' he certainly didn't have to wait long as Natsumi kicked off from the ground. Natsumi sped towards him like a raging bullet her right hand curling into a fist as fire engulfed her tiny fist. Her speed was good for her age and the normal mage would have had trouble following her.

Problem was though...her enemy wasn't a normal person...by any stretch of the word

''Karyū no Tekken!'' she pushed forth swinging her fist to sock Naruto in the face and the blonde just stood there watching as her fiery fist came towards him. He glanced toward Natsumi's face her grin of triumphant thinking this would be easy. Oh he was going to enjoy wiping that smirk off her face.

Bam!

The two stood stone still Natsumi in the air with her fist connecting with Naruto's face smoke engulfing the area of impact. Naruto's body on the other hand was stone still and hadn't moved an inch, now Natsumi would have noticed this if not for the fact she felt pumped that she had given the blonde a good hit.

That is until she felt pain in her hand...

Lots of pain!

''I-Itai!'' she whimpered at her hand what the devil had she hit a steel wall?

''Ara? Is that all you have little fledgling?'' before Natsumi could comprehend the pain and allow it to reach her brain she heard that damnable voice! She looked up only to see a sight that made her blood run cold. As the smoke cleared it revealed Naruto in all his glory the flickers of Natsumi's flames hadn't so much as harmed his clothing in the slightest and on his face where Natsumi's fist had hit dead on between his eyes.

There was no injury, no sign of blood or broken cartilage or even a slight tinge!

Absolutely nothing!

Naruto's brow perked at Natsumi's pained expression as she drew her fist back revealing not a single sign of injury. He hummed as the girl cradled her hand and felt a small frown come on his face.

'Hm good thing I softened my outer exterior otherwise she would have lost that hand...'

''W-what the hell!?'' the pinkette growled in frustration and pain with a tad bit of a wounded pride. How could she have been hurt by trying to punch someone? Her dad made her training by punching boulders twice of three times her sizes until they shattered. But when she hit Naruto dead on it was like she was trying to punch through pure steel!

Seeing this Naruto sighed before closing the distance between him and the kid which got her attention but as she was about to pull away he gave her a firm glance. ''Stay still you've just sprained your wrist is all nothing major. Give me your hand and I'll take care of it...'' the girl hesitated before ultimately giving him her hand. She was surprised though when she didn't feel any pain of sorts from his grip. If anything she felt only the slight tinge of tenderness and care that which her father would show. Then suddenly she felt a warm feeling hover over her hand and she opened her eyes slightly to see Naruto holding her hand in his left and his right hand which was glowing a mystic green color was hovering over her wounded hand.

Incredibly Natsumi felt the pain begin to go away until she couldn't feel any jolts of pain in her wrist or the numbness in her fingers. Only a warm fuzzy feeling in her hand. She watched in silent awe as the blonde inspected her hand hand before nodding to himself before he met her gaze. ''Your hand is fine now'' Then that insufferable smirk made its way on his face making her awed expression quickly die and being to be replace itself with frustration. ''So what have we learned today girly?''

''Grrr...Not...to question you again..'' she mumbled looking away from the blond trying in vain to hide her embarrassed flush, but the blonds sensitive hearing caught it and nodded. Then his smirk turned downright demonic as he laid his hand on the girls head and made her look at him. Thus the poor girl bore witness to his terrifying grin that would have made full grown men shit themselves.

''Good! Because now you are going to be my cute little student until I deem you strong enough to be on your own, so be prepared for tomorrow. For you will be entering your very own personal hell.''

Now maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her or maybe it was the overwhelming fear Natsumi felt, but she could have sworn Naruto's face resembled a demon for a second. It was also that day that the Daughter of Igneel threw away her pride and...

Whimpered...

2 Months Later

''So where exactly are we heading to now?'' Natsumi asked her blonde guardian/teacher as the two walked a dirt trail. The girl was in a pair of new clothes which consisted of a pair of black trousers and a red long sleeved shirt and a pair of sandals. It was thanks to Naruto that she was taken out of her tattered clothes, but how he acquired these clothes were strange. They had visited a small town and through it all the blond just bypassed a few groups of people that were dressed in royal clothing.

By the end of their stride the blonde somehow hand a wad of jewels in hand...

That was how she got her clothing and she was thankful as her tattered clothing was basically about to fall apart. But beyond that she was basically cursing the blonde for all he was worth as she was put through what he called training is what she would call torture!

These exercises he put her through were unlike anything Igneel made her do instead of increasing her strength, he made her run laps to increase her endurance and stamina. He said it had something to having to do with not stunting her growth with too much physical exertion or something. But those 'laps' were hellish on their own for she had to run 50 laps around a marked area he would make.

Beyond that he made her do things that made her nearly go to sleep. First, was something called Meditation which he made her do with him as a way to calm her overflowing magical power. She had questioned him as to what use this would have, but all she got was the first steps of controlling her power and making it so she wouldn't be a big ass target with a 'Come here and Hit me!' sign floating above her head.

Another exercise he had her do was at first something she had questioned to be impossible and asked if he was even sane for trying.

She received a big whelp on her head for that...

The exercise as he called it was The Leaf Concentration exercise. It was essentially for her to hold a leaf on her forehead for an extended period of time without holding it in place with your hands. Only using your magical power to direct it onto the leaf as a focal point, this proved difficult for Natsumi due to her energetic and explosive nature. And coupled with her fire affinity she always seemed to incinerate the leaf's faster then they would stick. However Naruto found a really good way to counter this...

Each time she began to burn a leaf Naruto would whack her on the head with a stick which resulted in a great many bruises and whelps and an increase in Natsumi's colorful alphabet.

However like the first, this exercise was sorely based on control her magical power at its core and to increase its control. But mostly from what Naruto said it was to make her learn to focus more and learn to not let her mind get distracted. After a month of getting beaten over the head with a stick she was able to actually keep it steady for a good thirty seconds before it either fell off or burned away.

Then there was the third exercise which she deemed to be the worst of them all not even her father tortured her this badly for this exercise was. To improve her mental strength's mainly in Strategic Combat. Which the only way she could hone this was through a 'game' as Naruto put it. This 'game' was called Shogi and she unfortunately had to face Naruto every time.

Even when the blond explained to her the rules and goal of the game she lost every single time Naruto was ruthless and merciless with her. But he corrected her on the mistakes she made and what she could have done in each turn. What moves she could have made to gain the advantage or even take out one of his own. It was a fairly complex game for her, but with Naruto's continued teaching she felt she was getting the hang of it.

That's basically all the two month's have been for her when she started traveling with Naruto. It's all her training consisted of was running laps, meditating with Naruto in the morning, before lunch and after supper. Doing the leaf Concentration exercise for 3 hours in-between breakfast, lunch and dinner and ending the night with a game of Shogi. Natsumi felt it was incredibly boring but she didn't want to experience the pain of the stick again so she kept quiet.

Although she did notice that her flames seemed to have gotten hotter before she couldn't burn much beyond a tree or two with the Karyū no Tekken. But now she not only was able to shatter a boulder 5 times her size, but was actually able to melt half of it. So maybe these exercises were helping her more then she would admit.

Naruto on the other hand glanced down at the gaki before speaking. ''Well we need to grab a few things for another part of your lessons. Unfortunately I don't have them on me, but I heard there was a small village nearby that has what I need in stock. So we'll be heading there and stay for he night and head back out.'' he said making Natsumi nod.

Glancing at the young fledgling Naruto felt a small headache begin to form. He was beginning to think of many ways of making Igneel repay this debt in many glorified ways that would have the old dragon cursing his name for generations. It wasn't to say he couldn't handle Natsumi because he could he already had her fearing the almighty Stick of Pain. It was just how much the gaki made him remember long forgotten memories that he had since kept suppressed.

It was bloody fucking amazing how this brat reminded him so much of another certain brash naïve idiot.

'Oh there I go insulting myself again...remember Naruto just don't answer yourself...you're not crazy.'

Then again who made a 5 year old run 50 laps around a large proportioned area of woodland filled to the brim with all types of predators every day?

'Ooookay maybe just a little...'

However as his mind went to her training Naruto had to sigh he was getting too old for this. He could really just write a book about his methods and make millions if he wanted too with the sheer crystal clear way he remembered every training method from his past. It's what he was using on little Natsumi which was helping her immensely due to her natural explosive nature. Since she was basically a ticking time bomb of energy coupled with magical power of the Dragon nature it was best in Naruto's opinion to make her learn self-control.

That is before she accidentally obliterates a town or two...

Running laps helped burn off most of her excessive energy and from there the meditation would kick in letting her rest, but also make her learn to remain calm. To learn to have a level head and keep calm was the center part of what the meditation was for. But it was also used as a means to regulate her chaotic magical power and smooth out the kinks in her coils which would help it flow more easily. Because as of now she had too much magical power that her body couldn't hold and was leaking off her. To fix this he had to make sure she could started learning the first steps in controlling it before stopping that problem down the line.

Then the Leaf Concentration exercise helped with her control since it was nearly non-existent and she only relied on it by enhancing her attacks and never utilizing the element itself. Naruto thanked Kami that even in this time and era that while Chakra was forgotten and been watered down to this 'Magic' as people called it. Humans all carried the coils within their systems which helped Naruto immensely in further aiding in Natsumi's training.

Otherwise he would had to forcibly fix her coils from the mutations the human body has undergone over the many centuries. And that would have been painful if not outright killed her so he was thankful for that at least.

Finally came the one exercise he found the most joy in which was his now hobbies which was playing Shogi. Something he would play with Igneel from time to time being the only other being that actually knew the mechanics to the old game. It was a Strategy board game from his time that was fixated on honing ones analytic and tactical skills. Back then he didn't find much use it in, but over the year's he found some joy in it. He may not be on the same level as his old friend Shikamaru, but he could gladly say he was able to beat Igneel every single time!

But it served its purpose for Natsumi as a child Naruto didn't expect her to begin honing strategies or anything of the sort especially with her hot tempered nature. However it did make her stop and think which was crucial for her future as a Dragon Slayer. To stop and think on a battle plan while either on the battlefield or not could mean the difference between life and death.

Plus he found himself cackling in twisted glee at watching the girl go into a mental breakdown and scream at the board as if it was mocking her intelligence!

Still as he looked at Natsumi he felt a sigh come along the brat reminded him way too much about a past, his past to be specific, to be comfortable. It was like he was dealing with a younger version of himself only with pink hair and black eyes! That was like mixing his old teammates in one go-

'STOP! Stop right there Naruto Uzumaki, don't even go there!' he suppressed a shiver at that fleeting thought before stomping on that little thought out of existence. He had much more pressing and less insane things to deal with.

For instance his and his little protege's stalker...

He sensed it the minute made it's presence's came within his radius whoever it was had to be male from the sweat, and odor this guy gave off. Usually males generated more sweat and odor then a females body did and thus made them more easily distinguishable then females. However this person also had a particular smell of iron which only meant one thing.

This guy smelt of blood...

He'd chosen not to confront the person as of yet simply because he wanted to test out Natsumi's own sensitive nose, but unfortunately it would seem she needed to mature some before she smell something from a longer distance. When she grows older then her draconic attributes would also mature which would prove very useful in her future.

Scratching the back of his head the blonde let out a sigh, 'I'll deal with it later seems the guy chooses to keep a safe distance.'

Letting his eyes wander off he found his eyes catching in the distance their destination, ''Ah seems we've arrived, well come on brat.'' patting the girl on the back she gave a small grumble but followed him nonetheless. As they began to get closer Natsumi looked up to see a small overhead sign and she was able to read it through squinted eyes.

''Hm Rosemary Village? Strange name...''

The duo made their way into the village not seeing a shadowed figure watching them from the woods until he released a chuckle. Turning his head his eyes met with a purple robed figure who had his head bowed before the man.

''Get the troops ready, the village is ripe for the picking of bountiful slaves. The scouts have reported some influx of tourists so it's the opportune chance to go in now. So get everyone ready!'' he commanded and the robed figure bowed before his superior.

''It will be done, Master.'' and without another word the robed man vanished into the darkness leaving the man behind to overlook the village. Letting wisps of sunlight dawn through the cracks of forestry the sight of a golden knight-themed mask. The man himself was garbed in a suit of golden armor with a black fur cape draped over his shoulders. A purple crest was bared proudly on the back of this cape.

''Soon we will have you little rats, be proud all of you for in the end you all shall serve in the aid to the resurrection of the Great Lord, Zeref...''

Thus ends the latest chapter of The True Dragon sorry i it was a bit short, but wanted to build up to the next chapter. :\

Also anyone recognize this village? You must if you like a certain female mage that kicks ass and takes names on a daily basis.

Anyway I'm exhausted so I'm out constructive criticism is always appreciated.

With that TKOD is out!