XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chapter Four
Stop the desert tide
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was midday; hot and arid. A lone figure trekked through the dunes, heavily clad in clothing that would have been tagged inappropriate considering the climate of the area.
It spoke volumes of the scorching heat that the man's tears; which were usually seen flowing relentlessly down his face, were nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, the great lug of a man surged forward; undaunted, approaching the only structure in the entire desert with a weary but anticipatory edge to his stride.
"This is it", he smiled grimly, diverting his blindfolded eyes to the small slip of parchment in his hands. (You are probably wondering how it was even possible for him to see anything at all through his blindfold, but it is rumored that it had something to do with wind magic, although, what that something was, I can't exactly say).
The building the man now stood before was an abandoned one - run down, with a missing roof and rotted walls. It stood alone amongst the dunes; it's once luxurious courtyard cracked now and caked with sand - and looking at odds with the rest of its surroundings.
A simple stone archway was all that remained of the roof; signaling the position of the main entrance. Upon the arc was an inscription - an unreadable one - and an image depicting two oval shaped almonds. The entire place seemed to pulse with a negative aura, so much so that it noticeably distorted the very air around the house. Nevertheless, if the visitor noticed it, he didn't appear very bothered. He strode through the worn doorway with ease and bellowed throatily at the top of his lungs. "I am here! I have followed your call and come forth to arms! I have arrived to fulfill the mission! I will stop the desert tide!"
All was still within the ruined building for a moment, but then there was movement from within the deepest, most rotted part of the ruins. Emotionless teal eyes blinked once, then twice, from a spot even the sunlight failed to reach.
"You have come". A voice slithered across the room; reeking of malevolence.
The visitor didn't falter. He took in the sight of the faceless eyes before him, seemingly untroubled with the fact that they had just materialized from thin air.
"Are you the client of this mission?", he queried, "The one who will pay me the million jewels?"
Teal eyes flashed his way disinterestedly, "Yes."
The blindfolded man grinned, a wave of tears finally rolling from beneath his blindfold. Raising his hands to the open sky, he cried out, "Great Phantom, may your name be praised! How long have I searched for a mission with a pay worthy enough for my services?". He looked once again at the being hidden in the shadows, "What is this that I must do?"
The voice slithered through the air once more, though this time with the tiniest hint of anguish to it, "You are here to help me disprove my existence."
The tears kept streaming, as if the huge man hadn't just taken a long trek through the desert, "Disprove your existence?"
"Yes", came the simple reply, "I wish for you to kill me."
For the first time since he departed the Phantom Lord guild, Aria of the wind was rendered speechless. Even his legendary tears were ground to a halt.
"K-kill you?"
"Yes."
"To help you disprove your existence?"
His reply was a slow nod; the eyes bobbing up and down.
"What does that mean?"
Grains of sand skittered across the floor, despite there being no wind to actually move them.
"Because I will kill you otherwise if you don't. To help me disprove my existence, you have to show me that you cannot be killed by me."
"But what happens if I do kill you?", Aria's jaw clenched worriedly, "How then will I get my pay?"
There was a pause, and when the voice responded, Aria couldn't tell which it held more; pride or sorrow.
"No one has been able to kill me so far. No one can disprove my existence."
The wind mage hissed in frustration. Evidently, this was another hoax mission. The client had no intention of paying and didn't even have the money to do so in the first place. Suddenly, a dangerous kind of restlessness settled over Aria's face. He had been disappointed one too many times. He was in desperate need for money, and he didn't travel fifty miles away from home - all the way through a freaking desert - to listen to the rubbish some rebellious recluse was spouting!
"You've made a grave mistake", he finally commented, allowing one last bout of tears as he tore the blindfold away from his face, "You have no idea of whom you just challenged. I am Aria; member of the once renowned element four. I control the very elements you take into your veins."
His revealed eyes glowed unnaturally; a crisscross of scarlet in lifeless orbs.
"You've just challenged magic of a level you certainly cannot comprehend. Be prepared. Wind magic: death space zero."
There was a great tension in the atmosphere as Aria's magic sprung to life. All was quiet in the rotted shack until a voice like whispered death sliced through the air.
"Desert funeral."
The grains of sand rose to life.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"What is this?"
Naruto jumped out of his reverie, turning his head to stare at the woman poised some centimeters below him, "What?"
He had been thinking of something only just a few seconds ago - something ominous. However, now that he had been interrupted, he couldn't remember exactly what.
Samui huffed, a bit irritated that the man hadn't been listening to her. "What's this?", she repeated, gesturing with her finger towards a part of the wall.
Naruto's gaze followed her arm (he stopped a bit to stare at the wonderful view of cleavage first) and then brightened in excitement, "Oh! It's something I noticed in some of the other guilds the pervy sage and I visited. It's like a hall of fame; to recognize all the masters of a guild, both past and present."
Bringing up the pervy sage again brought back painful memories for Naruto - of a simpler time when all he'd cared about was training and scouring the globe. Well, those days were gone now. He squashed those feelings down before they could make an appearance on his face. There was no need making his friends even more worried than they already were.
Samui, meanwhile, was looking around the place skeptically, "I notice with some dismay that our hall of fame is simply the section of the wall situated behind the bar."
"Hey! I took the time polishing this part of the wood, you know", Naruto griped, automatically falling into a pattern he was getting quite used to, "Maybe next time, when something like this comes up, you can be the one doing the polishing. Help me with that parcel next to you, okay?"
The woman raised the article up to her leader, who didn't have a hard time reaching for it despite being balanced precariously on one foot atop the mini-ladder.
"What's that one for?", she wrinkled her nose in confusion, "I already see your goofy face up there on the wall."
Of course, the blond's ever grinning mug was already hung up for all to see upon his newly established wall of fame. Naruto would have been content with it that way if that was the only reason he had gotten it built.
"This is for the first guild Master", he smiled, ripping a picture frame away from the parcel, "It's only right that his should get to come before mine."
"First guild Master?", Samui, and Kyo - who had just wandered out of the pantry - croaked aloud.
Naruto frowned in irritation, "Of course there's a first guild Master. Didn't you think of that when I announced that I was the Second?"
"Oh", Samui continued nonplussed, "So then, who's the First?"
Naruto grinned and revealed the picture, hanging it on the wall to the left of his, "Jiraiya the legendary toad sage - founder and first guild Master of the Toadstool guild!"
There was silence for a moment; silence that was eventually broken by a nasally voice. "Oi, what makes you think I'm gonna let that stand, un?", the voice declared.
Naruto groaned and closed his eyes. Of all the decisions he'd taken in his life, inviting Deidara to join his guild was turning out to be the most stupid one of them. Seriously, he was beginning to hate his own recklessness. He never should have even freed the crazed artist from his prison cell.
Turning narrowed eyes on the man, he glared at the former captain of the detention corps who was seated at an end of the bar, playing with a bit of clay in one hand. The other arm - which was withered and darkened - he had immersed in a large jug of water.
"What do you mean?", he growled.
"What do I mean?", Deidara parroted, almost toppling the water jar in his ire, "We haven't even accepted you as our guild Master yet, and there you are appointing a second one - without our rightful consent! What the hell happened to voting and stuff?"
"The pervy sage is the founder of our guild, stupid", Naruto glowered, "He should be the one who even appointed me! He was the first guild master back when the guild was only a two-man guild!"
Samui and Kyo stopped short.
"By two-man guild, you mean back when the both of you were still wandering the countryside, Naruto-sama?", Samui inquired.
"Exactly!", the man growled.
The two cringed again; this time, in remembrance of the prisoner they'd met on Yoshino only a month ago.
"Do whatever you want, Naruto-sama", Samui sighed at last, walking across the hearth to plop on a couch; "It is your guild." She then withdrew a book; signaling an end to her own part in the discussion.
Kyo glanced at her once before turning his eyes to his leader. "But you know what - I'm starved!", he declared, abruptly changing the topic to fit his desires, "Isn't there something to eat around here - apart from instant ramen and sake?"
"Don't you dare touch my ramen!", Naruto hissed, his features darkening considerably, "How do you even expect to eat when you don't go out on enough jobs?"
"Naruto-sama", Samui pointed out coldly, "You do realize that the reason we don't go out on any jobs is because there are no jobs to go out on?" - and it was true, the mission requests board was empty and would probably remain like that for quite some time. The only article on it was the only article that came with it; which was a blank piece of parchment that had a red line cut diagonally across its length. No one ever talked about it. At least, not to their leader's face.
"What do you mean?", Naruto huffed, "I've been getting as much work as I can for you guys."
"You mean the menial get-at-most-a-hundred-jewels labor you have us doing most of the time, Naruto-sama?", Samui frowned, "Those things don't exactly count as jobs. In fact, no mage should ever be required to stoop that low."
"Seriously, boss", Kyo added, "We can't keep going on like this. If we don't get real missions soon, this guild is gonna fall apart!"
"Where do you want me to get missions from?", Naruto sighed, dropping to the ground and stowing the ladder in a safe corner beneath the bar, "The Council collects mission requests and allocate them to the legal guilds - in accordance with their strength and popularity. Guilds like ours have no hope of ever receiving missions from the Council."
"Well then, how do dark guilds get their requests?", Samui proffered.
"Dark guilds?"
"We have to start from somewhere", she shrugged.
"Oh, that's pretty easy", Kyo replied, "The Council only collect missions on the right side of the moral scale so there is a huge surplus of demand for mages who are willing to do dirty work. There's an underground network, you see, one that allows dark guilds to receive and carry out jobs - those that are unacceptable to the Council."
"What network is that?", Naruto pursued, now genuinely interested. He had never heard any of this in all his time with Jiraiya, although, in the pervy sage's defence, he really hadn't been paying much attention to the man's lessons either.
"He's talking about the Balam Alliance", Deidara interrupted, still cradling his withered arm in the jar of water.
"The Balam Alliance? I thought that was only a non-aggressive pact?"
"Che", the artist smirked, seemingly pleased with the fact that he had knowledge Naruto didn't, "Non-aggressive pact, my foot. How else do you think dark guilds get their funding? Or did you think everything they do is solely for their own nefarious benefits?". He leaned back on his stool, allowing his prominent lock of hair to obscure his face, "All popular misconceptions aside, what the alliance truly functions as is a sort of ranking system that distributes requests among the dark guilds. It is little known fact, but the true head of the alliance is not Grimoire Heart, Oracion seis or even those bitches; Tartarus. Instead, the whole shenanigan is run by a shadowy group known as the Balam Corporation - which is where the alliance gets its name. It was this organization I was investigating before I got thrown in the locker."
Naruto took some time to mull over this. If there was a powerful corporation that ran most of the underworld, then it was also safe to deduce that such an organization would have information that the Council didn't. Most notably; information on the underworld. Most possibly; information on a certain masked man. Naruto wasn't particularly keen on putting to bed with the likes the Balam alliance dealt with, however, if he could get his hands on such information...
"So, what you're basically saying", he concluded, reserving his thoughts to himself, "Is that if I want to be allocated requests on a regular basis, all I'd have to do is sign up with this Balam corporation? Tell me, what qualifications does one need to get into this alliance?"
Kyo shrugged, "Er... you'd have to own a dark guild for one. Seeing as you've already got that part covered - thanks to our little skirmish with the council", he hastily added, once he noticed the boss' look begin to darken, "I'm guessing that it would only be a matter of time. The Balam alliance usually finds you after all, you don't find them."
"Well, we can't wait forever for them!", Naruto grated, not exactly liking the idea of being infiltrated by any dark guild, "How do we get missions now?"
Another bout of silence fell over the group.
"Well", Samui interjected, rubbing her neck uneasily, "We could steal from other guilds?"
That caught Naruto's attention.
"I mean, most clients don't know the individual mages of a guild, right? If we steal a mission request and claim to be members of that guild, we can complete said mission and receive payment from the client, and none would be the wiser."
As Naruto mulled on the suggestion, Kyo and Deidara nodded their heads approvingly. It was the best plan they'd come up with yet.
"That's just dumb", Naruto declared, "We're a guild of mages not thieves."
The heavy book that Samui had been reading slammed into his face.
"Either way, we have work to do", Naruto continued, nonplussed; the tome sliding off his face, "The people in this town seem nice and I'm sure that they'd be more than willing to pay us for some cheap work if we ask nicely."
He pointed a finger at Deidara, "But no mischief making, and no destruction of any popular town relics either. I don't want to be chased out of this town like we were back in Freesia. You got that? Alright, let's go out fighting!"
His guild members groaned.
XXXXX
Azalea town was a small, archaic settlement, south of Freesia, which was located right at the jaws of the massive Azalean desert. It wasn't exactly popular. In fact, there were some maps that failed to mention it altogether. The place was usually avoided by tourists and travelers due to its proximity to Fiore's largest desert. However, after their short fix in Freesia (which was all Deidara's fault, mind you), they had needed a quick change of location. Azalea town had proven to be the closest.
"Yosh!", Naruto grinned as he smashed the guild doors open; dressed for a day in the sun. He had placed a straw hat on his head and had switched his sage cloak for a lighter, plain-orange vest with brown safari shorts and a simple set of slippers to match, "Let's go."
The rest of his guild members filed after him, none of them looking half as enthusiastic.
"Are you sure about this, Naruto-sama?", Samui asked un-easily, glancing down the rock formation they had settled their guild upon towards the town below. She was pretty sure that she would never ever get used to the idea of a mobile guild. Sage magic was incredible and all, but damn, if it didn't weird her out sometimes.
"What do you mean?", the toad sage puffed impatiently, "It's a small town at the edge of a desert. A d-e-s-e-r-t. You know, like in d-e-s-e-r-t-ed. What could possibly go wrong here?"
Samui decided not to debunk that logic. "I didn't mean that. I was referring to your condition."
But Naruto waved her off disinterestedly, "Come now. Come now. Let's go. Lots of people to meet. Lots of work to do."
The climb down the rock didn't take long. Soon enough, they were within full view of the town - at its very gates - after trudging across the sandy soil that made up the roads; and it was only then that they got their first good look of the place.
Azalea was a ghost town, if it was even good enough to qualify for the term. It was an exact replica of those towns you saw in old western movies only that it looked even more dilapidated and worn out than usual. The houses were mostly wooden shacks; weary with the years, that didn't even look like they could last all of five minutes in a sandstorm, and the roads weren't that much better either. As far as they could see, there wasn't even a soul in sight.
Samui sighed. Deserted. Trust Naruto to jinx their adventure before it even began.
"Uh, hello?", Kyo called out tentatively, walking towards the town square, his voice echoing off the lonely roads. The streets were empty. The trademark bar with the flappable doors was empty too. Even the windows and doors on all of the shacks seemed to have been bolted shut.
"What the fuck is wrong with this place?", Deidara hissed, already disliking the region due to the intense heat of the sun.
Kyo ignored him, choosing to walk closer to Samui instead. "What do you think happened here?", he inquired, "I haven't really heard much about Azalea in my travels. Has the town always been like this?". However, Samui's answer was just as unhelpful.
"I don't know", she muttered, tense.
They passed by an empty market stall which still had a small amount of vegetables displayed on its racks. Stopping his trek, Kyo paused to inspect a cucumber.
"They're all rotted", he announced, uneasily.
The tension amid the group tightened.
This is strange, Samui thought coolly, looking around her surroundings. What could have happened to the townspeople? Where had they all gone?
Sure, she had heard stories of magic experiments gone wrong and entire populations of people suddenly going missing, but this was the first she had seen of anything close to that description. Was that what had happened?
Her eyes narrowed as she inspected the bleak windows on the buildings around them. If she angled her head just right, over there, she could have sworn...
"Aaaoorghh!"
A zombie-like sound caused them all to yelp.
"Aoorgggh", Naruto groaned again, stumbling towards them, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, "The heat. I'm drying up. I'm so gonna diiiieee."
"NARUTO-SAMA!", Samui chastised, "What do you think you're doing?!"
"Was that why you hit me?", Naruto sobbed, rising from the ground and rubbing at the coconut-sized lump now growing out of his crown.
"Well, you did shock me", Samui huffed; her gaze shifting to one of concern, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah", Naruto gasped again, struggling to his feet, "I'm fine". He wiggled funnily, "Just a bit thirsty, nothing to it."
"What's wrong with him?", Deidara inquired, observing their leader.
"Aaooorggh", Naruto groaned again, "Nothing's wrong with me, you idiot! Just keep going!" He made to move again only for his eyes to roll up in his head.
"Naruto-sama!", Samui griped, slapping a palm to her forehead, "You idiot, Naruto! I knew you shouldn't have come along!"
"Whoosh an idiot?", Naruto moaned; his lips crumpled and his tongue all shriveled up.
"What?! What happened to him?!", Deidara asked again.
"Dehydration", Kyo sighed, "One of the disadvantages of being a toad sage. Boss is very prone to heat exhaustion. He loses his mucus layer film under intense dryness and ends up looking like that." He pointed at the shriveled up blond.
Deidara wrinkled his nose distastefully, "But I thought he breathed fire?"
Kyo glanced at the man as if he had something funny growing on his eyebrows. "Well, that is fire and this is heat.", he deadpanned as if that explained everything.
"Oi, you're not making any sense!", but they were interrupted by Samui who had begun lugging Naruto's almost-corpse through the sands.
"Woah, hold on! What are you doing, Samui?", Kyo yelped.
The blonde didn't answer. She dragged the man all the way up to the entrance of a particularly run-down looking motel and took a deep breath.
"Look, I'm only going to say this once", she spoke calmly, deadly intent flooding her words, "I don't know what you lot are doing, but as of right now, our master is in need of help. If this door does not open within the next three seconds, I'll take it as an act of war, and set fire to your entire establishment."
"Eih?! Samui, wha..."
"One."
"Hey, sis, have you gone crazy?"
"Two."
Kyo and Deidara grimaced.
"Three". The woman turned on her heels, "Kyo, fetch me a light", but the sound of approaching footsteps stopped them in their tracks.
"Please, that would not be necessary", a frail voice sounded, "We do not want any trouble."
From the alley behind the motel, a figure emerged. She was short and hunched and her fingers shook from where she gripped tightly at her cane. Her hair, which looked to have been a vivid shade of red once, now stood at a pinkish gray, and her face was warty and lined with the wrinkles of age.
"You do not realize why we are all indoors, right now", she spoke in a tired voice, "My name is Chiyo. I am the town leader. Something is coming, and if we don't get out of the streets now, we are all going to die."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(Council headquarters; Location: Unknown)
Lahar walked down the hallway, sighing in frustration as he perused the reports that had just come in from the naval division of the rune knights.
It seemed that Jellal and Ultear had been spotted in the company of another unidentified Grimoire Heart member, only a few days ago - somewhere close to the former Tenrou Island region, but as usual, all had managed to evade capture once again. He was beginning to accept the possibility that, maybe, just maybe, the rune knights weren't exactly as competent as they had led themselves to believe.
Arriving at his destination, he sighed once more before tucking the report away in his robes. There was no need to be a bringer of bad tidings. Knocking slightly, he waited in vain for a retort and then pushed the door open anyway. He was immediately greeted to the sight of white tiles and washed floors.
"Lahar!"
The infirmary section in the Council HQ was rarely, if ever, used, so it was still a bit surprising to find more than a couple of these rooms to be occupied. Of course, he didn't need to ask why.
"Doranbolt. How are you doing?"
Doranbolt winced; touching a hand to his still bandaged head, and Lahar felt guilty for the small bit of satisfaction that cropped up seeing as the tables were now turned after his 'misfortunes' at Yoshino.
"Much better, although, it is my pride that has taken the worst blow", the man truthfully admitted, "I told them I was ready to leave but they wanted me to wait at least until I could teleport without going dizzy" He sighed and glanced up at his friend, "At least, tell me you brought some real food. The gruel that the squires keep serving is just plain horrible."
Lahar smiled sympathetically, "The gruel is good for you. It contains calories, minerals and vitamin supplements; just enough to ensure you make a quick recovery."
"I knew you'd say that", Doranbolt grumbled. An uncomfortable bit of silence succeeded his statement. They both knew that Lahar had something to ask, but the bespectacled man wasn't ready to voice his thoughts just yet.
"How are the rest?", the scarred captain finally conceded, disliking the silence.
"Shino's still unconscious", Lahar informed him, "Guy's much better, although he wouldn't be straining his back anytime soon. I'm not sure he is actually concerned about it though. He's already been apprehended twice while attempting to sneak off and run laps around the HQ."
/
"And Pakura?"
"Please don't ask", Lahar smiled wryly, "She's undergoing… a really bad hair day."
Dornabolt raised an eyebrow, surprised that his friend could even crack a joke. "Any other casualties?", he asked, instead.
"A few second degree burns, nothing serious. One man might have needed immediate resuscitation though. It seemed he got in the way of Pakura's magic."
"That's good", Doranbolt deflated, letting out a tension he didn't know he carried. He wasn't naive. He'd known that the capture of a criminal like Uzumaki Naruto couldn't have been accomplished without more than a few casualties. But to hear that there were actually no fatal ones? That was a good thing.
When it was obvious that Lahar wouldn't speak again, he began to get agitated until the rune mage suddenly announced.
"Do you think that the Council is hiding something?"
"W-what?!", Doranbolt started. He certainly hadn't expected that!
"The Council", Lahar repeated straight-faced, "Do you think that they are hiding something about Uzumaki?"
"W-wow", Doranbolt stuttered, "That's quite unlike you, Lahar. Why would you even think that?" And it was true. He was usually the one to second guess the actions of the Council (the failed Tenrou incident being his most notable achievement). However, to find Lahar also doing the same thing...
Lahar coughed awkwardly, "I don't know. It's just... Think about it for a moment. The Chairman is investing so many resources into capturing Uzumaki right now. We didn't expend these much resource when all those other dark guilds were running around unchecked. We didn't do so during the whole Lullaby incident either. It almost seems… it almost seems as if Uzumaki is being treated as a threat level equaling Zeref himself."
"But-but", Doranbolt struggled, "He broke into Yoshino, didn't he? And he tried to activate an R-system in Era!"
"But Jellal did just about the same thing too", his friend countered, "Shouldn't that make him on par with Naruto?" He then lowered his voice an octave, "Which also begs the question... The Council condemned Uzumaki for attempting to resurrect Zeref. Why would they do that when we all know that Zeref currently lives?"
"Maybe Naruto didn't know", Doranbolt argued weakly.
"He'd just been in contact with Ultear a few days before the Era affair. He had no reason to be ignorant."
"Well, what if he was trying to resurrect someone else?", the scarred man tried again, "Someone just as dangerous."
Lahar paused, "That well may be. But think about it, Doranbolt. How is it that the magic world had no information of Naruto until he just sprung up about one month ago? Dark mages don't just appear out of nowhere."
Doranbolt bit back his argument. There was some truth behind that assessment. Every dark mage had a history; they could all be traced back to a certain origin. Hades of Grimoire Heart was eventually revealed to be Purehito, who had once been a guild Master at Fairy tail. Jellal (or Seigrain) had been on the Council; after a supposed escape from the cult of Zeref wherein he'd lost his 'twin' brother. And Brain of Oracion Seis had been a maddened scientist who had always liked to practice inane magic experiments. Every major dark mage had a documented origin.
Which then begged the question; who was Naruto Uzumaki?
"Naruto Uzumaki was sensei's son", Lahar enumerated quietly, "We knew Kushina-san died at childbirth but we never inquired much about the child, did we? Upon sensei's passing, Jiraiya-sama adopted the boy as his protégé and took him on a training journey around the globe."
"I see", Doranbolt nodded, "To decipher who Uzumaki really is... to know where it all went wrong... we'd have to unravel his past, and find Jiraiya-sama." He looked at his friend, "But that doesn't necessarily mean that the Council is hiding anything, Lahar. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't trust them."
Lahar just stared calmly at his friend and revealed a document from within his robes, "Jiraiya's last known location was somewhere around the capital of Caelum kingdom."
The other captain gasped, "But that's the territory of the Black Salamander!"
"Was the territory", Lahar replied ominously, "It was painstaking, but some news that the Council is withholding managed to reach my ears. The Black Salamander is no more." He ignored the pure look of shock on his friend's face and pushed on, "You understand now, Doranbolt. To know more about Naruto Uzumaki, to know anything of how he thinks, we have to start at his last known location."
The wind outside the window stifled.
"We have to start in Caelum."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chiyo-baasan's house was a run-down shack in the middle of town which exactly mirrored the condition of the others around it. Samui had pretended not to notice the numerous pairs of eyes that peeked at them from within the confines of wooden shutters as they made their way to the old hag's house – however, she had noticed; and she was curious. Nevertheless, she kept her curiosity at bay and followed hurriedly after Chiyo, deciding to tackle the matter when Naruto was in a somewhat stable condition at least.
"I hope this is not a trap", she warned, even as the old woman pushed the door to her home open. Chiyo snorted but didn't give any reply.
"Lay him over here", the woman gestured; not sparing them another glance as she disappeared somewhere into the din.
Samui grimaced as they followed after her. The entire house smelled of old lady and moldy carpets; something that when combined with the antique furnishings and moth-ridden cushions, didn't exactly make for a hospitable environment. They were out of the harsh heat, at least, and it was with a relief that Kyo dropped Naruto's limp form onto the sofa the woman had gestured to.
The group looked around the house dubiously.
"Fifty jewels says that the old bat has gone on to transform into some hideous demon from the books of Zeref and would be coming back here to gobble us all up", Deidara piped.
"Shut up, idiot", Samui hissed.
"I'm just saying", the artist responded, "But the first sign of trouble and I'm leaving the leader here. It's his fault he brought us out to the middle of a desert anyway."
"What are you talking about?", Kyo smirked, "If you hadn't destroyed that grotto, we wouldn't have needed to escape from Freesia."
"Yeah, but I didn't destroy the grotto, you know, I only redecorated it."
The sound of shuffling feet ended their squabble. Chiyo entered the room, watching them with hawk-like eyes. She passed by the nervous group and went to stand over Naruto, opening his eyelids to check his pupils.
"Right, excuse me", Samui began, "What exactly did you mean when..."
"He's dehydrated", Chiyo cut her off.
"We knew that!", Samui, Deidara and Kyo barked in return.
"His eyes are unfocused, so he's suffering from mild delirium too", the woman continued, as if not having heard them, "Best best is to give him lots of water and hope he gets better by nightfall. The heat should have gone down by then."
She tossed a pail at Deidara so suddenly; it knocked him off his feet.
"Blondie; go fetch me some water from the pot back in the kitchen. Second blondie, get over here and light the stove; I need to warm some soup. The other idiot can make himself useful by barricading the doors and the windows."
Deidara began yelling something in return but Samui cut him off, observing Chiyo with wary eyes, "You mentioned that something was coming a little while ago. What was it?"
Chiyo didn't reply, wandering over to a nearby cabinet to rummage through it.
"If you have a problem, you can talk to us", Samui continued, "We are mages..."
"And you think that would save you, would it?", Chiyo sneered, "Mages? Bah! My dear, do you have any idea how many mages have passed through this town already? Forty? Fifty? To stop the desert tide, they all say. And yet, not a single one of them has made it back successfully!"
"We are not ordinary mages", Kyo spoke up, "We are members of the Toadstool guild. If there is a problem, then we can deal with it. And we haven't heard anything about a desert tide either."
"Oi, I have no particular intention of helping this old bat!", Deidara growled.
"You think you can help, do you?", Chiyo snarled, looking at them, "You think you can stick your noses into business that is no concern of yours? Then why don't you look outside?"
Samui frowned minimally but decided to acquiesce to Chiyo's request. Walking towards one of the wooden shutters, she unhinged it from its clasp and glanced through the window. Behind her, the old hag had begun hassling her teammates, commanding them to barricade the doors once again. Samui narrowed her eyes.
"I don't see anything", she began, but then something caught her eye. In only the short time they'd been in Chiyo's home, it seemed to have grown darker outside; as if nightfall was steadily approaching. And it was barely even noon!
She turned to Chiyo swiftly, icicles in her gaze, "It's darker."
Kyo stopped short. Deidara did too.
"What do you mean it's darker?", the two asked at once.
Samui glared at Chiyo, deciding that an explanation couldn't wait anymore, "When we got here, the townspeople had already barricaded themselves in their homes. They seemed to have been in a haste too; leaving some of their goods and wares out in the open. But this isn't a strange phenomenon to you guys, is it? Rather, it seems to be the norm. What is coming?"
Chiyo remained silent, a dark shadow obscuring her features.
"Something has been going on in this town", Samui growled, "An occurrence that has been happening for far too long. The sorry state of your houses and crops are a dead giveaway. I agree that it is none of our concern, but you have no reason to hide it from us any longer. What is coming?"
The ground trembled at that moment; a slight tremor that they each of them felt underneath their feet. It was also dark enough now that they could notice it from within the home.
Chiyo sighed tiredly and then slumped on a sofa, looking even frailer than she already did. She frowned miserably; an action that made her look twice her age, and spoke in a low voice, "I never said I wasn't going to tell you, brat. Every once in a while, whenever the clock strikes twelve, the sand moves." She paused.
"It was unnoticeable at first, nothing too serious. Little grains of sand would move in sync with one another. However, over time, the sand has increased in strength. We used to be more than this, you know? A lot has been lost. Now; every day, when it is noon, the sand rises in the desert so high it can sometimes blot out the sun. And then, when it recedes, anything within its reach that isn't safely bolted down is dragged back to Azalea with it. You wanted to know what was coming? Well, that is what is coming, brat. The desert itself."
The members of the toad stool guild looked at her, shocked.
"That's not possible", Kyo piped, "at least, if it was, it can't be a natural occurrence."
"Is the desert alive or something, old hag?"
Samui didn't utter a word, her eyes still focused on Chiyo. The old woman matched her in turn, returning her gaze defiantly.
"You were a mage", Samui realized abruptly.
"Did you honestly think you're magic would work on me, girl?", Chiyo spat in distaste, "Don't make me laugh. I've seen much stronger telepaths during my time."
"Then why do you hate mages?", Samui inquired.
A million things seemed to flash through Chiyo's eyes all at once; however, before she could say anything more, the small house suddenly shook with tremendous force.
"What the -?", Deidara cursed.
"It is coming", Chiyo warned, from her spot on the couch, "The desert tide." She glared at the three mages once again, "I thought I told you to barricade the doors! Why haven't you done so yet?!"
Kyo and Deidara rushed to the front, suddenly very eager to wedge the lone entrance shut.
"Why are we wedging those doors?", Samui asked again, still keeping her gaze on Chiyo, "Isn't it just sand?"
Chiyo didn't reply causing the blond-haired girl to frown.
"Hey, hold on, sis", Deidara called, from his spot nearby, trying to slam the open window shutter close, "I think… un, I think there's someone outside."
"What?", Chiyo gasped, her eyes widening; breaking her stare down with Samui.
"Yeah, he's right", Kyo responded, also looking through the windows, "But there's more than one of them."
"No, it can't be", Chiyo shook her head, "All of the townspeople know! They won't walk out at noon! The desert will have them!"
"Maybe they are not townspeople?", Kyo shrugged, "We arrived at this town by chance, you know. Seriously, you guys should have a notice board put out or some other kind of warning because this is a pretty fucked up ordeal for a traveler to happen unto. Not that it is our problem anyway."
However, beside him, Samui gave a small gasp. "There's a child outside, Kyo! We have to help them!"
"A child?"
The building rumbled once again.
"Kyo, we have to help them!"
"Wait, what? You can't be serious!"
But Samui had already taken off for the doors.
"Samui, wait!"
XXXX
A sand storm had already begun brewing outside. Even as she kicked the doors open and raced out of it, Samui had to shield her eyes to keep from getting hurt by the gritty wind of sand. The sun was nowhere to be found. Instead, the day looked to be something much closer to mid evening, or early morning depending on how you looked at it. Despite of her uneasiness, the blonde mage didn't even bother chancing a look backwards at the desert. Whatever was coming from behind, she definitely didn't want to know.
"YOU IDIOTS! GET OVER HERE!"
The group of four she had called out too was stumbling around in the storm and had obviously not heard her. The wind picked up, throwing sand into her eyes. The ground shifted again. Samui felt her heart drop into her gut, even as she surged forward. If the storm kept up at this pace, then she doubted that Chiyo's shack would be able to survive whatever intended on coming next.
"YOU IDIOTS! OVER HERE!", she tried again.
Someone landed beside her with a whisper.
"Reducio".
The sandstorm wavered. The wind stopped attacking her eyes. Samui took her arm down from her face to glance at Kyo who was now kneeling next to her; his left fist planted into his right palm with an index finger pointing downwards (the opposite sign of what he usually did). Looking down at her feet, she noticed that a wide-area magic seal had formed on the ground around her.
"I can give you some time", Kyo grimaced painfully, fighting to decrease the power of the storm in their immediate vicinity, "I'm not sure it'll be up to a minute though."
"That would be enough!", she responded.
Braving through the gritty shower once more, she raced towards the group, yelling every now and then as she did so. "OI, YOU GODDAMN FOOLS! LOOK THIS WAY!"
One of them looked up; a guy with reddish-orange hair tied up in a ponytail. He grinned as he saw her and nudged one of his companions; a woman with flowing green hair and an alluring figure that had no business trekking through a desert. Behind them and to the right, was a guy with spiky black hair who was desperately trying to shield the kid she'd seen earlier from the hazardous storm.
Samui blinked. Suddenly, the guy with the orange hair was standing before her, smiling disarmingly.
"Hey there, beautiful. You need some help?"
Samui glared at him; an action which made the man pale noticeably and cower away from her.
"You fucking idiots! Do you have any inch of sense? Get that kid out of the sands and come with me now! Something's coming!"
The man frowned at her, suddenly looking very serious. "How do we know we can…"
"Now", she hissed.
He gulped once and then was off to converse with his group. Within seconds he was back; the young boy carried unceremoniously under his arm.
"Lead the way", he nodded.
Samui turned abruptly; preparing to run back to the old hag's house, only to pale in shock. Far off in the distance, something was brewing. It seemed if the whole desert had come alive and had churned and twisted in on itself while they had been indoors. The dunes in the far off desert had risen to extraordinary heights, blotting out the sun. And coming their way, at incredible speeds, was what looked like a gaping maw of sand.
The man next to her saw it too and also paled, almost dropping his ward in his shock.
"Kyo, MOVE!", Samui yelled, rushing towards her partner. Kyo was still knelt next to Chiyo's house, looking ridiculously pale as he struggled furtively against the growing strength of the storm.
The orange-haired man was first to the shack, blitzing through Chiyo's door at near-mach speeds. Samui arrived next, giving way to let a weary Kyo in first, before turning backwards to glare at the other two lagging behind.
"Hurry up, quickly!"
It seemed that the spiky haired man had been injured sometime before they got here though. The green-haired woman struggled under his weight and it was all Samui could do to help her get the man through the door. However, just when she attempted to follow after them…
"Samui, get in here!", Kyo yelled weakly, "We have to bolt the door!"
The blonde looked down at her feet. One of her legs had been stuck in the sand. Desperately tugging at it, she tried to get it free only to realize belatedly that something seemed to have grabbed a hold of it beneath the sand. Speeding sounds alerted her senses and she turned, gasping in shock when she saw what looked like thousands of snake-like tendrils of sand, whipping towards the town at serpentine speeds; grabbing and latching on to anything they could find.
Samui looked at Kyo once and frowned, "You idiots, what are you standing around for? Get that door shut!"
She slammed Chiyo's home shut with more than a minor blast of telekinesis, and then she felt a powerful force tug the sand backwards, dragging her, wailing, back towards the desert.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
a/n: Ah (sits back while drinking a cup of coffee), cliffhanger. I'm starting to get pretty fond of these. Don't worry about it though; I doubt anything terribly bad will be happening this early into the story. Wow, it has been a long time, hasn't it? I hope there are still people interested in reading this. I've lost much of my interest in writing and stuff - probably because of the way things are going in life right now, or the fact that anime doesn't really appeal to me anymore. However, I still, as a fact, do indeed love Fairy tail, and I plan on seeing this story up to its very end for that reason only. A friend of mine has suggested I begin writing shorter fics and one-shots to rekindle my interest in writing (I admit, that sounds much more interesting than big-ass, intricate plot bunnies like this one) and I will be taking him up on that offer. So, expect some other work from me pretty soon. I even have an idea for a second, more humorous version of a Naruto/Fairy tail crossover.
Also, due to the fact that a long time has passed, I can't properly remember most or even any of the questions you guys raised last chapter, ergo, I can't particularly address them here. I do remember responding via PM to anyone who bothered to ask something (if I didn't respond to you, then, well so there), and I will be willing to do so again to anyone who is bothered or confused by something they'd read in this chappie or the others before. However, you have to leave your question in a review. Seriously. Don't PM me without reviewing first! That's just rude.
I think the current Tartarus arc in Fairy tail is okay (who else does?), and I find that I like Erza and Mira now even more so than I did before (Naruto is dehydrated at the moment, so I really don't have much to say about him). This chapter was shorter than the rest because I had to split it into two halves (or it will have been longer than the rest), and I find that I might come to appreciate this length of stories better in the future. See you around and please, leave a review.