A/N: Hey there! Wow it's been a long time, well you see, I hit a massive writer's block and lost the will to write. I ran out of ideas for this and The Namikage was received half as well as I thought it was, but then an Idea sprung to mind, it involved Erza and how I could school her, and all of a sudden BAM! just started typing and here we are. Anywas, the poll, well alot of Mage on that list will make appearances soon, so everyones a winner :D So without further ado, I give you a new chapter!

Demon Lacrima

Chapter 9: Scan

by DeathGodSlayer

"And now your training begins with one magic." Roshi had both of the up early, as the sun began to break into the sky and brighten te night sky into a pale light blue. "This magic... through it I offer you the ultimate advantage in battle before the battle even begins."

This sparked Naruto's interest, now focusing completely on Roshi, looking across, even the stoic and emotionless Midnight seemed a little bit more interested in what Roshi had to offer.

"Scan." Roshi spoke the single word, confusing Naruto greatly until Roshi continued. "The magic shared between all the members of Ozaru. It will give you the ability to discover an opponent's magic, it's use, it's strengths and it's weaknesses without even ushering a single word to one another."

Roshi found that both boys looked at him disbelievingly, possibly thinking in their heads that no magic like that could exist. "Perhaps a demonstration is in order..." Roshi looked across to Midnight, his eyes flared open for only the briefest of moments as he gazed intently at him. "Your magic is called Reflector. It grants you the ability to reflect, distort and twist magic and objects. Given you the ability to even refract air and use it as a weapon. It's main strength is it can work as an Antimagic, nullifying an opponents atatcks be redirecting them elsewhere or even back at them. Another strength is that it strengthens massively at night. During the day you do not only have to bend the magic or attacks, but also the light bouncing off the objects, at night that light isn't as strong or is non existent. It's weaknesses: it can't be used on sentinent creatures. You can only refract one thing at a time in one small area, meaning you can not simoultaneously attack and defend. And finally, when used against materials with elastic properties, the magic is nullified, as elastic can already bend and twist in any way." Roshi concluded, staring rather nonchalantly at the seemingly infuriated Midnight, who was defiantly angry that his magic's secrets were being spilled.

'Impressive...' Naruto thought after Roshi had concluded his little speech on Midnight's magic. 'It really is a massive advantage in battle. Master Hades will be pleased if I learn it.' Naruto concluded, if he was going to play the Ozaru member for almost half a year, he might as well soak up all the information and magic Ozaru is going to offer him.

"So how do we learn it?" Naruto asked in interest, this wasn't going to be an easy magic to learn, but mind, no magic ever is. He remembered when he first began to learn chaos, having to correctly create the eaxact ratio of Light:Darkness in order to create the attacks.

"Send magic to your optic nerves. And then you must open your mind's eye..." Roshi spoke cryptically, explaining further when he saw the blong and black haired boys reactions. "Relax and open you mind completely, allow new, unseen information to come in freely. Then focus on the single indivdual with such intent, that you can see the magic within them." Roshi finished quickly, turning around. "Members are told no more than this. You must do the rest on your own and prove your potential as a mage." Roshi said with his back turned to them, he walked away from the both of them, re-entering the guild, leaving the two boys to begin their attempt to master Scan.

"Who knew this would take so much out of you?" Naruto panted heavily, his hand resting on his knees, just barely being able to keep himself up. He stared down at the grass and earth underneath him, he and Midnight were training at the back of the Guild, a slow river flowed through the guild's garden, boulders were situated in random places around the place, but the ground was mainly covered in a moss green grass. Trees grew around the garden, but l;eft it exposed for the sun to break though over it. "Open your mind's eye. What does that even mean?"

"It means that you focused on nothing but the target for Scan." Midnight replied to Naruto's question, even if Naruto had planned for it to be rhetorical. Midnight stood upright, not like the blond he was training with. Midnight still breathed heavily, but he didn't show his exhaustion as much as the blond did.

"I know, but how do you do that? How do you relax your mind, but at the same time focus intently and concentrate on one thing?" Naruto asked again, looking towards Midnight for any possible answer.

"I don't know..." Midnight replied uninterestedly, looking over his shoulder as he heard the door open and a presence lean aainst the framework of the door.

Naruto looked up from his feet, leaning against the door was none other than Kaito, his left leg cross over his right, arms crossed and his left shoulder pressing against the door frame. He smiled knowlingly towards the two of them, and was failing in trying to supress it.

"I know what you're thinking. How the hell am I suppossed to open my mind's eye yet at the same time focus so strongly on one single thing? Scan is horrible to learn, but it reaps the best rewards once you've got it down." Kaito laughed, moving closer towards the two of them after closing the back entrance door into the guild behind him. "I'm sorry to say that you won't be recognised as full members of Ozaru unless you master Scan, it's more of our mark than our guild insignia."

"Well we're getting there." Naruto stood up straight, to meet Kaito at nearly eye level, Kaito was still a good few inches taller than him. Naruto's eyes squinted towards Kaito, focusing and locking on to him. "Your magic, it's like reading from a text, but it's too blurry to comprehend, like trying to read it in a fog."

"Good progress. And to answer your question about my magic, perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Kaito smiled, bending down, he brushed his hand across the floor, moving any dust and debris, he picked up a pebble, barely half the length of his thumb. He placed it on his thumb and flicked the pebble towards Naruto.

Naruto smirked as he watched Kaito. A pebble? Just what was he playing at. Naruto played along to Kaito's little game, he allowed the pebble to hit him in the stomach.

Naruto's smirk turned to an expression of shock. His body rocketed back upon impact with the pebble, launching him across the garden Naruto came to a halt by crashing into a large boulder, the surface of said boulder cracking and breaking under the weight of Naruto's impact.

'What the hell was that?' Naruto stared at Kaito, then looking towards the pebble that Kaito flicked at him, it lay in between his legs. 'It was as if I was struck by a train. Does he possess some kind of Earth Magic?' Naruto went to pick the pebble up. Whatever Kaito did had faded, he picked it up easily and held it in his hand.

"I use a Weight Magic." Kaito explained in an almost bored tone, but a cocky smirk was presented across his face. "I can freely manipulate the weight of any non-sentinent material, organic or inorganic. Once I touch it, I can even change it's weight while it's in mid air. I can make a pebble as heavy as a mountain, as you just saw. Or I can make a boulder as light as a feather, observe." Kaito moved to a boulder just shorter than him, gripping his hand onto it he lifted it without problem with one hand, even moing to balance it on his little finger. He leisurely tossed it into the air, he clicked his fingers, if only for emphasis. The boulder plummeted back down to Earth, shaking the ground they stood on as it landed.

"But you can't use it directly on humans," Midnight pointed out, not liking this guy's smug attitude about his magic. "My magic is the same, but I can manipulate the space around my opponent to inflict damage."

Kaito looked over to Midnight with a frown, before performing a very fake smile. Midnigh'ts breathed heaved, his entire body tensed up in pain, his body fell forwards towards the ground. Midnight just holding his head and upper body off the ground with his arms. 'What is this? I thought he couldn't use his magic on sentinent objects like humans!' Midnight gritted his teeth, struggling against the increased weight his body was now under.

Kaito walked across to Midnight, squatting down just in front of him. He tapped midnight on the shoulder, an action which confused both Naruto and Midnight. "Your clothers are nonsentinent materials." Naruto's eyes widened to Kaito's statement.

'Ingenious, he can make a pebble weigh as much as a mountain, but still have it move at the speed of a pebble being thrown. And he can change the weight of a person's clothes, crushing them under the fabric. What a dangerous magic...' Naruto stared in wonder, this magic was something to note. Master Hades might be very interested in the capabilities of this magic.

Walking away from Midnight, Kaito spoke up one last time. "Remember, Scan offers you an massive advantage in battle, it tells you the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents magic, you can play to their weaknesses, and keep them from playing to their strengths." Kaito closed the door again behind him. Leaving the two new members alone.

On his feet quickly, Naruto rushed over to Midnight, helping him up, other than a bruised ego, Midnight seemed fine.

Inwardly Midnight's mind was racing, that guy controlled the weight of his clothes in order to inflict damage directly onto him. 'I wonder, is it possible for me to do the same thing with my Reflector?'

Even Naruto smirked within his own head. He had no idea of the capabilities of Kaito's magic, but Scan would have given him the opportunity to reveal all of Kaito's magic to him. At firct Scan had only interested him, but now he realised what a truly valuable asset a magic like Scan would be.

Roshi sat at his desk situated in a private room. His desk was low, and he had to sit on pillows instead of chairs to be able to use it comfortably. He had been raised in tradition and tranquility, and that was how he intended to live the rest of his life. Tranquil and traditional.

He frowened, however, as he looked at the paper in his hand. It was an invitation to this year's Guild battle contest. It was a tournament between guilds used by the light guilds as a way to recognise and understand that they were comrades even though they were from different guilds. This year was especially different, usually each guild could only enter three mages, but possibly through fear due to the rumours of an alliance being formed between three of the four most notorious Dark guilds. Each guild was given 8 slots to fill with mages.

And it was not all fun and games, a prize was given to the guild with the mage who finishes at the top. This year's prize was something known as the Phoenix Soulstone. An incredibly rare artifact that was said to bestow a great power onto whoever integrated it into their body. 'It must be some kind of artificial magic.'

Roshi knew who he had to thank for this invitation. Makarov had been pushing him for a few years to participate, and to persuade the other guilds to allow a completely unknown guild to participate. Finally Makarov's words had got through to them. But would Roshi actually participate in it?

Blue Pegasus, Fairy Tail, Quatro Cerberus, Lamia Scale, even Phantom Lord. They would all be participating in this event there was no denying it. And although Roshi fully trusted the strength and skill of each member of his guild. The numbers he had to select from weren't as high as the other guilds.

Roshi brushed away his reluctance with a shake of the head. He will enter Ozaru into this competition. His intention will not be to win, only to bridge the gaps of friendship between his guild and the other guilds, perhaps through their help his guild would be able to require more job requests.

'But who to enter?' Roshi asked himself thoughtfully, stroking his striking red beard slightly. His mages truly were excellent, each one a valued member in their own right. He thought of Makarov and his many mages of Fairy Tail, who would he be entering? Fairy Tail were obviously going to be the stiffest competition, something about that mark just made it's mages so strong.

'Erza and Mirajane will both be definates, luckily Gildarts has just left on a job request, but Laxus and Mystogan could still be available. Then there is Natsu, Gray, Cana, Elfman and Bixlow. And what about that new boy Makarov's been bragging about, Freed Justine, and what about Wakaba and Macao. There's too many mages to base a decent decision off.' Roshi thought humbly, he knew his guild was outclassed by Fairy Tail, if only for the moment.

Roshi took out a few sheets of paper and tore them into smaller fragments. Writing the names of all the mages in his guild down, he looked at each name, trying to created an eight man team out of them.

'Jio is essential. I have to enter him.' There was no doubt in Roshi's mind that he would enter Jio. 'And perhaps Cross, Kaito and Shuri, if he returns in time. Tsubame is returning soon, perhaps I should ask him to enter. And Wise, he'll enter anything if he has the chance to beat something up. Or Ruby, she won't say no, or Spika.' Roshi's mind suddenly clicked. 'Alaric! He should be back in time. And his magic is unlike anything I have ever seen before...' He remembered the first time he had seen the boy's magic, it was incredible. His mind began to relax. Picking up his pen again he reached for two free bits of paper.

Naruto

Midnight

He wrote the names of the two new boys down. They weren't full members yet, but it felt wrong to exclude them from the selection. 'I haven't seen what their magic is or what they can do, they may surprise us all.'

Roshi sighed as he placed the pen down, staring out of the small window from his sitting position he mulled the task over in his mind. It wasn't an easy decision to make. "He was always the battler out of us two. I need him to help me make this decision, but he won't return for a few more days."

"I think I have it!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, looking towards Midnight who looked back at him. Naruto focused on Midnight, but opeed his mind to all possibilities, information came flodding in about Midnight's magic, everything Roshi had said was written like text in front of his eyes. "Reflector is the only magic you possess." Was all Naruto could add to what Roshi had said earlier, and he didn't feel like repeating it.

"I believe I've got it as well." Midnight performed the same moves as Naruto, becoming fixated on the blond, but looking as if he was staring off into space. So much knowledge flooded into his brain. "There's Chaos, a Lost Magic also known as the Dark Light, a mixture of Light and Darkness. Then there's Storm God Slayer, also a Lost Magic, interesting. This Storm God Slayer, a combination of Water, Lightning and Wind Magic rolled into one, creating the Blue Lightning. I assume this was the magic you used back when we were at the village?"

Naruto frowned at Midnight, but nodded nonetheless, that was supposed to be secret, in order to not blow their cover.

"And there's something else." Naruto's eyes widened at Midnight's words, he may uncover he status as a Demon Lacrima wielder. "It's faint, and there aren't enough details, but there is a third magic within you. But it is being blocked by another source." His words intrigued Naruto, he had a magic before Hades implanted the 'Nine-Tails' within him, but ever since then it had been out of his reach.

Midnight squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at this mysterious third magic. Should the event come when Brain ordered he turn on Naruto and dispose of him, he needed to make sure their were no secret tricks up his sleeve.

Everything suddenly went black in Midnight's vision. Only one thing stood out. It was a face, uncanningly similar to Naruto's, but with longer blood red spiky hair, swept back, with a pair of blood red eyes to match set half lidded, but frowning as well. And a wide, disgusting grin plastered across his face.

STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!

The face roared at him at a tremendous volume, even though it was all in his mind, Midnight's body was actually blown back from the sheer volume. Midnight clutched his in pain, writhing in agony on the floor.

Naruto rushed over to aid the black haired boy, but when he arrived, he found that Midnight was no longer screaming in pain, but chuckling darkly to himself. He slowly raised himself to his feet, his hands dropping to his sides lifelessly, he looked up at Naruto, his eyes wide and iris shrunk, small veins appearing in his sclera. A Large grin was plastered across his face as he continued chuckling.

"I saw it, if only for a few seconds I saw it..." Midnight spoke quietly inbetween chuckles. "That power you have within you, it's earned you my respect."

"Is everything okay?" Kaito suddenly appeared at the door, no doubt hearing Midnight's screams.

"Yes, everything's fine." Midnight was first to respond, his dark evil demeanour had cooled to his usal bleak, emotionless visage.

"Have you mastered Scan then?" Kaito asked with interest, forgetting everything else he smiled widely at both of them.

Naruto and Midnight both looked towards Kaito with the same look, performing Scan at the same time. "You have two magics, that work well with each other. Heavy Metal Feather, your weight magic, and Iron Shell, an armour magic that encases you body entirely with heavy armour, which you use Heavy Metal Feather to alter it's weight and make it easier for you to move, but then can deliver powerful weighted strikes." Naruto spoke first.

"The magic is perfect for close combat, that is it's main strength. And can be used for surprise attacks like you did earlier with Naruto and the pebble. It's weaknesses, other than not being able to use it on sentinent creatures, is that it takes longer to configure a weght if you're trying to make a massive difference, for example, if you wanted to make a feather weigh as much as a two tonne boulder, it will take longer to do that than it would to change the weight of a ball to the weight of a chair." Midnight finished off, explaining the finer details of Kaito's weight magic.

"Excellent!" Kaito beamed at the both of them. "I'll let Master Roshi you have both mastered Scan." Kaito quickly looked up to the sky, his lower lip jutted out in interest. "Full moon tonight..." He mumbled to himself, but still Naruto and Midnight managed to catch it.

"I have a question." Naruto stopped Kaito. Who looked at the blond with readiness to whatever he was going to ask. "Why do none of you care that you know the strengths and weaknesses of each others magic? Shouldn't those things be kept secret?"

Kaito shrugged, not hesitating to answer. "It shows how relaxed we are around each other. We have nothing to hide from one another, and it's not as if we don't know their weaknesses as well, it's give and take. Ozaru is like a family, and family trust family with important secrets..." Kaito finished with a smile. "I'll go let Master Roshi know."

"You have mastered Scan, therefore you are both now recognised as fully fledged members of Ozaru." Roshi spoke sternly, but the smallest of smiles graced his face. He stood atop a set of wooden stairs, standing in between to flame torches. He had waited for this exact time, as he did with every new member to his guild. The full moon hovered above him, and when it was at it's highest in the sky, when its light brightens even the darkest of times, then he would accept new members into his guild. "Come now and receive the insignia of Ozaru."

Naruto and Midnight stood in front of the wooden stairs, the members of Ozaru huddled around them. The guild truly was small, he had seen Grimoire Heart, with hundreds of members, yet Ozaru only roughly around 25 present, with others still away on missions.

Naruto and Midnight both climbed the stairs slowly and carefully. Each step bringing them closer to their target objective. As they reached the top, Roshi nodded at both of them. "You have both mastered Scan much faster than I had anticipated. That is a good sign, I can see a bright future for Ozaru in both of you." Roshi's smile grew slightly, becoming more sincere, he revealed a member stamp. "Name the location on your body to be marked and collect your stamp."

"Right shoulder." Midnight spoke in a monotonous expression, turning his body slightly to the left so Roshi could press the stamp down hard on Midnight's right shoulder. It was a dark blue colour, the same colour he had seen everyone else's marks be. Nodding Midnight walked back down the stairs, being greeted as a brother among the guild members, like a brother who nhad been away for a long time.

"Left elbow." Naruto held his arm out straight, allowing Roshi to easily press the stamp of over joint, leaving the same blue guild insignia over his elbow. Naruto flexed his arm a few times before nodding to Roshi, he was about to turn when Roshi stopped him.

"Naruto, meet me in the mountains directly north north-east from this exact location in one hour. Your true training begins tonight." Roshi spoke in a hushed tone, making sure no one else heard their conversation.

Naruto nodded again faintly, before smiling and walking down the stairs. "Ozaru now has two new members!" Naruto heard Roshi address the guild from behind him. "And with it, we are one small step closer to realising our dream of becoming the strongest guild in all of Fiore!"

The members of Ozaru erupted with cheers and celebrations. Few remained calm, Midnight looked on impassive, looking as if he was not used to this kind of atmosphere. Jio Freed remained at the back, arms crossed looking intently at the members of Ozaru. Wise grinned and cheered, but not as ecstatically as others such as Ball and Kaito.

Naruto walked away from the scene after making his way through the crowd, the Ozaru members stopping him for the briefest of moments to welcome him as brotherly as they did Midnight. Once he passed the group Naruto smirked, it was a dark smirk. Things were going according to plan. 'To become the strongest guild in Fiore. A cute dream, from what I've seen it's a realisable dream. A shame I've got to destroy that dream really...'

A/N: Was that hope the wait? I hope it was. I'll clear a few things up now and save some questions.

Scan? WTF? - Well the thing is, during my writers block I played a hell of alot of Kindgom Hearts, seriously, 1, 2, BBS, 358/2 Days, just spammed them all really. And if you have played it, you've realised what a life saver scan actually is, well I think so, i like knowing how long it'll be before that bastard of a boss is dead. So that was a major inspiration for it, but I remember DBZ, Vegeta and Raditz and the like had scanners over their eyes, if I may *ahem* 'His power levels over 9000!' sorry, well I kinda mixed the two together and voila.

Phoenix Soulstone - It does have a use and it's a pretty funkadelic use as well, really looking forward to when whoever wins it uses it.

Alaric? Who the hell is that? - Alaric, full name Alaric Kaizer, is an OC character of my creation created specifically for a magic i can give him, me and Rinne-Kami made the magic together, because we actually live quite close to each other, no kidding, about 8 doors down, what are the odds. Anyway he's going to be fun, but he will definately not be a Gary Stu.

One final thing before I go? Sasuke? I had a request to add him to the fic, and now that I think about it, he could be a fun addition to the story line. I imagine him as a Demon Lacrima Hunter of some sorts, he heard about them himself and is trying to find them. I never really had a problem with him, in honesty the further down the plot it got the more I liked him, he was so stuck up and snobbish at the beginning and he is actually an mentally, emotionally troubled character, don't get me wrong I'm not some Sasuke Lover fan boy he can be an uber douche at times as well. Well anyways, I was just letting you guys know I might be adding him to the story.

That's about it really, so I'm off. I'll be working on a new chapter of both this and The Namikage (give the Namikage a read if you've got the time please:) ) and hopefully I'll see you soon.

D.G.S