Demon Lacrima
Chapter 10: More Faces
by DeathGodSlayer
Naruto exhaled loudly in exhaustion, his head burying in the pillows of the bed in his new accommodation while at Ozaru.
His body ached in exhaustion from the night's training with Roshi. He was expecting to learn a series of Magic spells, as Hades always said that control over the Demon Lacrima came from an extensive knowledge and understanding from a variety of magical abilities.
What he got from Roshi was intense physical training, lifting heavy boulders, to scaling the side of the mountain, to sparring with the older man at full force without the aid of magic. Then Roshi would tell him to stop and meditate, focus his mind and concentrate beyond any height he had ever previously reached. Constantly alternating between the two, physical and mental training.
When replaying the instructions back in his mind it didn't sound as difficult to him. But he had experienced it. Roshi's meditation training was sitting on a slab of stone which was balanced on top of a large stone spike metres above the ground. Perfect stillness and balance was needed in order to maintain it up there whilst meditating.
What made it difficult was that his muscles twitched constantly and rapidly due to the intense physical training moments beforehand, and his blood rushed around his body rapidly, pulsing and creating an obstacle in maintaining balance, then suddenly having to switch back to physical training again in an instant, Naruto sighed loudly. He began to wonder if this was even possible to complete.
'I can see why Roshi has given me this training. Becoming strong in both mind and body, the body becoming strong enough to contain the Lacrima's power, the mind becoming strong in order to repress it's influence on me. Smart training, and definitely will be effective, but can I accomplish it?' Naruto wondered, laying on the bed.
He looked out of the window in his room, the bright sun had passed halfway through the sky. 'It's already past midday. I've only slept for a couple of hours.' Naruto noticed, feeling the growling in his stomach, his body craved energy. 'Best go get some lunch.'
"Midnight," Naruto approach the black/white haired boy, who sat alone at a table in the farthest corner, his feet up on the table. Naruto sat next to him, putting his plate of food on the table, he looked around briefly at some of the guild members, some were giving them wary stares, but soon stopped and carried on with what they were doing. "We may have been accepted into the guild, buit we haven't earned their trust yet."
"We'll have to do something grand in order to completely gain their trust. But the question is what can we do?" Midnight replied with a bored sigh, his eyes half open, his head tilted back to stare at the ceiling.
"Good question." Naruto nodded, replying in a whisper, taking a bite out of his food. It was a simple sandwich, something he could make quickly from the guild's kitchen. "We'll know when the time comes, but most of the guild members don't seem to be too hostile, like Kaito, Cross and Ball. I think it would be best if we use them to find out more information about this guild and the other Light Guilds-"
Naruto was interrupted by the sound of a large bell ringing from somewhere within the building. He saw how the faces of the guild members lit up upon hearing the sound. "I wonder what the bell signifies?"
"It means Alaric is back!" Ball suddenly shouting from the table two tables down, waving them over for them to hurry up. He himself soon hurried out of the guild building to the front gardens along with the other members of the guild.
Naruto and Midnight looked to each other in confusion. "Alaric?"
The guild members surrounded around the the front gates of the guild, seeing the silhouette of the approaching person. Their faces barely able to contain their excitement.
Naruto and Midnight moved to the front of the crowd, finding themselves standing next to Cross, who was leaning against the wall on the outside of the guild building, a smile on his face as he watched the horizon. "Say Cross, what's so special about this Alaric?" Naruto inquisitively asked.
Cross continued smiling, his eyes moving over to Naruto in acknowledgement of the question before moving back t the horizon. "Alaric is one of our S-Class Mages, along with Jio, Wise, Tsubame, Ruby and myself. He's very nice to speak to, and he never looks down on people. But the types of missions he takes makes him gone for months at a time, without word or acknowledgement that he is still even alive. Of course, I doubt he can actually be killed." Cross chuckled lightly.
'So he's strong and reliable.' Naruto nodded to Cross' explanation. 'Well let's see what I have to put up with...' Naruto added to his mental thought as the person got closer and closer.
He was lean and tall, roughly a few inches taller than Naruto. His entire clothing consisted of white, with the exception of his blue near knee high boots. A long white cloak with it's hood up, covering his blue hair and face. Red fabric laced over the cloak in areas, including a vertical streak on the hood and down the bottom half on the cloaks ends, around the wrists and three red belts over the front of his chest. Underneath the cloak he wore white gloves, but also had a red turtle neck shirt covering his entire neck and almost his chin. On his face were red markings, two triangle shapes under each eye and a tear drop on the inside edge of his left eye, accenting his golden eye colour.
"Alaric!" Ball yelled out eagerly upon seeing the man approach the guild.
"Hey Ball, how's that Magnet Magic coming along?" He responded in a calm voice, as relaxed as possible, he formed a small smile on his face before turning to his Guild Master Roshi. "Master Roshi, Tsubame and Master Dofuwa aren't too far behind me, there should be here soon." Alaric's comment only alighted the guild's spirit further.
Alaric looked around the happy faces of Ozaru with a small smile, his eyes setting on Naruto and Midnight, approaching them without a care. "Two new members. Welcome to Ozaru, I am Alaric Kaizer, and you are?"
"Naruto Namikaze." Naruto pointed to himself. "And this is Midnight." He then directed his hand towards the black/white haired boy standing next to him, who was looking rather bored of everything that was happening.
Alaric nodded in return, retaining his small, humble smile. "Naruto, Midnight, you will both be valuable members to our guild."
"Alaric, fight me now, man!" Ball shouted at the top of his voice, shifting to a battle stance.
"I'll have to pass, Ball. I'm saving my energy and strength, maybe some other time. Besides, you know I don't condone to meaningless, senseless violence." Alaric replied over his shoulder, before squeezing through the crowd and walked into the guild, no doubt going to unpack in his room.
Naruto watched Alaric head into one of the corridors of the guild until he disappear out of view. 'So he's a popular pacifist, but there's something not right about his magical aura. I'll have to keep my eye on him...'
"Master Dofuwa..." Roshi welcomed the equally aged man back to Ozaru. He stood a head taller than Roshi. With long silver hair and a long beard to match. Most prominently, his face had a cross shaped scar going over both his eyes, causing his eyes to remain squinted. On his feet were iron boots that went up to the knee, wearing a block full body suit underneath. He wore similar iron arm guards on both arms, covering his forearms. And on his right shoulder only was an iron shoulder pad, Ozaru's insignia stamped onto it. "and others." Roshi looked to the two people accompanying the elderly man.
One was male, standing at roughly the same height as Dofuwa. With tan brown skin and wild spiky white hair, with two long bangs hanging down both sides of his face. His green eyes were devoid of emotion, with a large scar going across the bridge of his nose. He was dress in white, with four diamond shaped black marks around the collar of his low neck shit and two black bands around the shoulders.
Next to him was a girl with bright blue eyes and blue hair to match, wearing a very reveal red chirt with the middle bit cut out and two strings leading into her tight shorts. With the right leg having no pants leg at all and the left reaching down to her knee. On her feet were large orange boots, she stood there with a confident smile on her face.
"Tsubame? Ruby? You've returned." Roshi looked at the two of them in surprise.
"Yes, I was returning from my mission and I stumbled across Ruby walking back as well, so we walked together until we found Master Dofuwa." The male, now identified as Tsubame replied.
"And I'm quite tired from my mission, so I'm going to get some shut eye." The girl, Ruby added, walking into the guild's building.
"Very well." Roshi nodded, allowing her through before looking towards Dofuwa. "Dofuwa, there is something I must discuss with you in private, shall we take our leave?"
"Yes, I'd also like to sit down for a moment." Dofuwa's voice was strong and stern, but his face held a confident smirk on it. Roshi and Dofuwa both left and entered the guild. The members of the guild soon headed in after them.
Naruto caught from the corner of his eye the stare Midnight was giving Tsubame, he recognised it. 'He's using Scan.'
"The common courtesy in this guild is to not use that magic against your comrades." It appeared even Tsubame had realised what Midnight was doing, looking over to Midnight with a frown.
"And who are you to order me about on what I do with my magic?" Midnight replied in annoyance, his own eyes setting to a glare.
"My name is Tsubame, and I created the magic you were just trying to use on me." Tsubame introduced himself more formally. "I know how to lock people out so they can't see my magic, is that why you couldn't get a clear view on what my magic was?"
Midnight's growl answered for him, it was the truth, Tsubame's magic had remained a complete blur to him, he couldn't get a lock onto what he could expect from him, or how to defeat him.
"I created Scan, so I know more about everyone than anyone else possibly could. No secret is safe from me." Tsubame continued, his eyes flickering over to Naruto for a second.
And Naruto didn't like it, the look that Tsubame had sent him, it was like he knew everything about his past, and what he had done to get where he was.
"Maybe this will teach you not to use Scan against your comrades." Tsubame spoke, a small rock rose next to him. Hovering in the air without a care.
Midnight smirked, he could easily reflect the rock with his own magic. He stood still with confidence, awaiting the attack.
The rock shot like a bullet, hit Midnight directly in the chest, Midnight coughed violently, spluttering as he dropped to his knees, holding his stomach in pain 'Why? I had set up Reflector's barrier around me. Why did it still hit!'
"That is my magic, Program Thought. It never misses, do well to remember that." Tsubame spoke emotionlessly, walking past the floored Midnight and into the guild.
Naruto stood still looking at the floored Midnight, a smirk of his own grew on his face. 'This guild...' He thought with an amused chuckle. 'It's just full of surprises.'
"So we've finally been invited to partake in the Light Mages Tournament, and it is upcoming quite soon as well. This is quite fortunate." Dofuwa smiled with a small chuckle, sat on the opposite side of a table with Roshi on the other side. Sipping a herbal tea whilst conversing about the tournament. "It seems we have Makarov to thank for that."
"Those were my thoughts as well." Roshi replied, taking a quick sip of his tea before continuing. "Only eight guilds are entering this year, and we have eight slots to fill. I haven't made any decisions yet on who we should enter, I waited to hear your verdict first before making any brash decisions."
"Yes, you never had a general's mind, Roshi, not like mine anyway. You are too in love with the concept of peace to plan something out like this." Dofuwa chuckled lightly again, he and Roshi had created this small guild together. With his battle intellect, Roshi's compassion and both of their abilities together. They shared the title of Guild Master of Ozaru, yet Roshi took on the more formal side of it, doing the paperwork and recruiting, Dofuwa himself preferred to be out in the field amongst his guild members, performing missions like them. "Just leave this with me, I'm more equipped for it. I'll pick the perfect team to combat any threats the other guilds will have."
"Very well, I trust you completely, Dofuwa. I've known you my whole life, I know you'll pick an extraordinary team." Roshi smiled, his face still stern but more relaxed, he sipped on his tea again.
"So the two new boys, who are they?" Dofuwa asked with interest, he saw them both standing with the rest of the guild members upon his return to the Guild.
"The one with the black and white hair is named only as Midnight, Naruto had informed me that he chose that name because of his love for the moon and stars, it is all he goes by now apparently. He uses an interesting magic called Reflector, he can bend, twist, distort and reflect any object aside from sentient object by bending the light around them." Roshi explained the first one, seeing Dofuwa's nods.
"I see, very interesting indeed, and the other one, the blond?" Dofuwa asked about the second one, he could see something strange about him, he had an aura around him similar to Roshi's.
"His name is Naruto Namikaze, he uses two magic apparently, Storm God Sayer, a combination of Lightning, Water and Wind. And another known as Chaos, another combination magic between light and darkness, creating a black light as it were." Roshi explained Naruto's abilities, noting the risen eyebrow on Dofuwa's face.
"God Slayer magic. I thought that magic was forgotten, replaced when the easier Dragon Slayer magic to learn appeared?" Dofuwa asked in interest, more to himself, but Roshi was still able to hear it.
"There's something else you should know about him..." Dofuwa looked back up to Roshi, who's expression and hardened. "He's wields the 'Nine-Tails' Demon Lacrima."
"Incredible..." Dofuwa's body leaned backwards in silent surprise. "The most destructive spell, causing the earth to split apart, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tsunamis, Hurricanes. They ability to create all them locked inside a boy with already tremendous power. You certainly know how to find them, Roshi." Dofuwa chuckled, lightly shaking his head in amusement. "First Han, then Gaara, and yourself, that's four of the Demon Lacrima. What fortitude this guild has with making so powerful allies."
"I think you should enter both of them in the tournament, so we can properly assess their power." Roshi suggested to the other old man. Who nodded in agreement.
"Yes, I believe that is wise. Adding Jio and Cross to them, that's four. Now to just decide on the final four members." Dofuwa smirked, began to contemplate the perfect team that Ozaru could enter...
"Now that all of you have arrived we shall begin!" Dofuwa bellowed from on top of the balcony with Roshi, directing his voice to the summoned members of Ozaru Guild below. "As you may know, the Light Mages Tournament is upon us, for years we have been overlooked by our fellow Light Guilds, but now our time has come! We have secured an entry for participation in the tournament. Ozaru being one of the eight guilds participating."
"The Light Mages Tournament, what's that?" Naruto whispered to Kaito quietly, not trying to arouse suspicion.
"It's basically a fighting contest, guilds under the council's influence battle it out in a massive battle royale of sorts. There's a prize at the end for the overall winner, and it always looks good for the guild as well. There's always 64 competitors, it started off with a guild being admitted three mages, then went up to four mages to participate, then it went up to six and the final four slots were auctioned off for guilds to get more members in. Sounds like a lot of fun to be honest, but Ozaru have never been admitted a place before." Kaito replied enthusiastically, looking around Naruto found excitement in every Ozaru member's face.
"Dofuwa and I have selected an unique team to combat in this tournament, in order to showcase our strength to the entire continent, letting them see Ozaru's true strength. These are the people we have chosen:" Roshi coughed quietly before opening a scroll, no doubt containing the list of participants.
"Jio Freed." Jio remained unresponsive at the call of his name, yet others cheered in his place, placing their full faith in the teenager.
"Alaric Kaizer." Alaric smirked at the call of his name, similar to Jio, members of Ozaru screamed and cheered in agreement to the Masters' choice.
"Cross Biancina."
"I shall do my very best." Cross smiled warmly, as once again Ozaru erupted in cheers for the selection.
"Spika Futomomotarou."
"Very well, I will serve to the best of my ability." A girl with brown platted hair and hazel eyes responded, she wore a simple maid's outfit, complete with a purple bow in her hair. There was a gold ring tied to a piece of black thick string around her neck.
"Naruto Namikaze." Naruto's looked quite muddled at the mention of his own name, he hadn't been in Ozaru long and they wanted him fighting in a tournament that obviously held a lot of importance to this guild.
"Ponzu Lilith."
"Excellent..." A bespectacled girl with long oddly styled blue hair that wrapped around her body with blue eyes to match rubbed her hands together devilishly, her eyes darting over to Cross who now looked rather uninterested with what was going on. Her attire was very reveal, her hair covering what the skin tight black clothing did not. She had a black tattoo on her left thigh, with her Ozaru insignia marked on the centre of her forehead.
"Midnight." Unlike Naruto, Midnight was unfazed at the mention of his name, if anything, he appeared ready for the fights right now.
"And Kaito Yuria."
"Yes!" Kaito fisted the air in excitement, obviously the most pleased out of all eight for his selection.
"Ball Entotsu will also be accompanying us in case anything goes wrong and one of the participants are not able to fight." Roshi added at the end of naming the eight participants.
"Ha!" Ball exclaimed loudly. "Suck on that Tsubame and Wise, you won't even remotely considered for the tournament, obviously this means how stronger I am than you!"
"Ball!" Dofuwa yelled in annoyance. "Tsubame and Wise were not chosen because they are too valuable to be taken off the rota of Ozaru members available for mission requests will this tournament takes place. They are both S-Class mages, unlike you Ball, you are more dispensable! And remember this Ball, Shuri, Kujaku and Jin are still away on missions, your chances would have been even slimmer if they were here!"
"Ouch Master Dofuwa, no need to school me..." Ball mumbled quietly, moving back into and hiding within the crowd.
"As joint Master of Ozaru, I will be taking command of Ozaru while Roshi takes the participants to the tournament!" Dofuwa proclaimed widely. "Let us wish the best for our participants. I know you will bring pride and honour to the name Ozaru!"
"Right, as you guys know it's time for the annual Light Mages Tournament." Makarov sat on a barrel with his guild members gathered in front of him. "Fairy Tail has one the past three in a row, so I'm looking to take a fourth." Makarov giggled childishly at the thought of winner for a fourth consecutive year. "This year's prize is known as the Phoenix Soulstone. Who knows what it can do, but it sounds pretty cool, so I want it."
The guild members laughed, chugging back alcohol and waiting for the announcement of the participants.
Makarov cleared his throat a little, silencing the guild before continuing. "This year's a little different. There's only eight guilds participating this year. So each guild can admit eight members to partake. So here's my choices. Erza... Mirajane... Natsu... Gray... Loki... Elfman... Jet and-"
"I'll take that final spot, Jiji!" Everyone turned in surprise, Laxus sat on the balcony of the S-Class Floor, grinning down at Makarov before he leapt off the second floor, landing in front of Makarov. "Is there a problem with that?"
"Well I had already chosen Cana..." Makarov mumbled quietly, Laxus and himself had been on weak terms recently, he didn't want to push his grandson away further, but Cana had admirable strength, one which he wanted to showcase to the other guilds.
"I can't afford to miss a chance to school a bunch of little guilds and show Fairy Tail's strength." Laxus laughed loudly. "So I'm gonna take that last spot gramps, don't be too sad Cana, I'll give you the stone when I win." He looked over to the brown haired girl, who rolled her eyes in annoyance, swigging back the barrel of alcohol again.
'Laxus... your missing the entire point of this tournament...' Makarov shook his head sadly, this tournament was about knowing your comrades, even the ones from other guilds. It wasn't about victory. The prize was just an incentive in order to give the guild members the drive to give it their all.
"Is my team ready?" Jose looked over to his team. Gajeel, Juvia, Totomaru, Sol, Sue, Bozo, however his eyes fixed upon his final member, who was insisting on hiding in the shadows for as long as possible. "Are you going to step out of there anytime soon?" He asked in slight amusement.
"I'm fine, just let me know when you're ready to depart." The voice replying was calm, collected and almost apathetic.
"Hey boss," Totomaru spoke out. "Hate to burst your bubble, but your missing one person, you're supposed to enrol eight members to take part in the tournament."
Jose turned towards the door, shrugging his shoulders lazily. "I don't need an eighth member, I have full confidence in you seven, your abilities are second to none. I'll just give that final slot to another guild who needs it more than me." Jose was completely confident in his team. "They've all probably brought spare members anyway."
A/N: Hey there! D.G.S here, I'm sorry this chapter was a little shorter than usual, I didn't really have much to write about, I knew where I wanted it to start and I knew where I wanted it to end, I just needed things to fill out in between.
Well we're officially starting a new Arc, I'm looking forward to it. Tsubame, Alaric, Ruby and Dofuwa were introduced, Alaric is the only one out of those three to NOT be in 666 Satan. And pics of them are on my profile if you want to check them out and get a better image of what they look like.
ANYWAYS, I reached Chapter 10! Which is fantastic, I had my doubts when I first started writing this that I would make it this far. But you guys have been great, honestly. 183 reviews is amazing, well for me anyway. Your feedback has been positive and complimentary, but also critisising my mistakes, which you should. If I've done something wrong or it doesn't make sense you should let me know, I haven't had any major flames, another plus, and basically I've been writing this and am going to continue writing this for you guys. I can't let you down when so many people are enjoying it. I only hope I can keep your interest.
IMPORTANT, on that note I am in DESPERATE NEED OF YOUR HELP! As you know there's this tournament arc coming up, and I need slots in the competition to fill. So if you have any OCs you'd like to see, you can have created them yourself or know of them from somewhere else, please tell me them in an review or PM so I can fill up mages in other guilds like Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Quatro Cerberus. Please it's really important and honestly I suck at making decent Ocs.
Anyways, I'm gonna take off for now, I'm trying to start a new story, but that can wait. And read The Namikage if you've got the chance or the time, it is written by me and you may actually enjoy it. I'll try set things off as soon as possible, next chapter will start the tournament and a very special character will make their debut as well. So until then :)...
D.G.S