Demon Lacrima

Chapter 14: At the Sidelines

Arc: Tournament of Mages

by DeathGodSlayer

The world seemed so much smaller from this new height, yet still he couldn't be found anywhere. The wind blow through his long spiky yellow hair as he stared over the open air balcony of the humongous airship.

'Naruto... it's been two weeks since you left. How are you doing, have you become stronger. Have you gotten any closer to achieving THAT goal?' Zancrow thought solemnly as he stared at the ground below him, standing at the very edge of the balcony, against the railing in order to get the best view of the world below.

It was a rare moment indeed, one of the very few times Zancrow would drop his deranged, psychopathic maniacal side allow a new personality to show. One of care, thoughtfulness and worry. Only two people had every caused this side of his personality to surface. Naruto and Meredy. They were the only ones.

He heard the door to the balcony open behind him, but he didn't turn to greet whoever had entered, he remained still, staring at the ground below. Even when the sound of footsteps echoed over the whistling wind he still didn't not move. He remained thinking about Naruto, about when he would return.

"I miss Naru-nii too..." That was all he needed to identify the person without even having to look at them. Only Meredy called Naruto 'Naru-nii'. Her voice had switched once again, it was an empathic voice, drastically different from her scared or robotic tones.

"At least you still have Ultear within the Eight Kin..." Zancrow responded with a heavy sigh, but in a quiet tone. "We are above the other members of the guild, so they do not approach us out of fear, only doing so when absolutely necessary. Even within the Eight Kin; Rustyrose is a Narcissist, just because Naruto is the only one out of the eight kin who actually managed to beat him once in a fight he thinks he's better than everyone, so he annoys me. You can't approach Azuma without want a sparring battle from him. I can't understand a single word Kain says, and Caprico is always so busy running the lower ranking members of the guild, Ultear may call herself the eldest, but it is Caprico that makes this guild function as it does."

A sad expression grew on Meredy's face as she quietly listened to Zancrow's breakdown of his opinion of the other members of the Eight Kin. Slowly, she moved towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist to form a hug from the side. Zancrow remained unresponsive, not moving into the hug or trying to break the contact, he only continued to stare at the earth below. "You still have me..." Meredy mumbled from his side. "And you could try speaking to Ultear, she's really nice."

"I don't trust Ultear." Zancrow responded quickly and bluntly, unsurprised when Meredy's body jolted away from him, his eyes darted over to the pink haired girl, who stood glaring at him in anger and confusion.

"How could you not trust my Ultear?" Meredy asked in anger, performing one of her patented personality switches. Her defensive side only showed when Ultear was involved, becoming unwilling to speak to anyone until they had resolved their negative feelings about Ultear.

And it caused the grin to grow once again on his face. 'If only you knew, Meredy...'. Zancrow thought with the sickest grin on his face, he knew what happened the day he, Ultear and Kain found the young Meredy. It was Ultear's plan after all to raze the village to the ground, but he would never tell Meredy that. "It doesn't matter, what did you need me for, or were you just coming to observe aswell?" Zancrow chuckled maniacally once again.

"Master Hades sent me to find you, he says he has a mission for you." Meredy mutter out quickly, not meeting Zancrow in the eye, looking annoyingly at the ground below.

"Finally!" Zancrow laughed loudly in glee, already making his way towards the door. "Being locked in this airship is making me claustrophobic!"

Zancrow gleefully pushed the doors wide as he stride into Hades' throne room. Walking down the long corridor of bones and making his way towards where his Master sat. "Master Hades. You have a mission for me?" Zancrow yelled loudly as he approached the aged Guild Master, his psychotic grin ever present on his face.

"I do, Zancrow. One of great importance to our guild." Hades replied in his stoic and stern voice, the one he would always use when he spoke to Zancrow, like partially scolding a child, yet at the same time praising him.

And the news of the importance of the mission on made Zancrow even more excited, faint black smoke began to seep through his breath with every breath he took. "What's the mission?"

"The mission will greatly improve the relationship between Grimoire Heart and Tartaros, thus it is imperative that you succeed and show your true strength, Zancrow. Do not forget that." Hades' eyes narrowed, silently cautioning the boy on the price of failure. "A team of Dark Guild Investigators have recently begun to track ours and Tartaros' moves more exclusively, more obsessively if you will. You are tasked in destroying said team, leave nothing of them to be discovered, Zancrow. Wipe them from the face of this Earth."

"OH YEAHHHH!" Zancrow screeched in hysterics, black fire erupting from his body, engulfing the room in scorching heat as the boy laughed his psychotic laugh before calming down, a blank, confused expression suddenly appearing on his face. "Wait, so how will this increase the relationship between Grimoire Heart and Tartaros?"

"You will be working with one of the members of Tartaros' most powerful team; The Four Horsemen." Hades responded bluntly, not fazed by the reaction presented by Zancrow.

"One of The Four Horsemen? Seriously?" Zancrow asked almost nervously. He remembered meeting them for the first time, even by his standards each one was intimidating. He remembered the fight they got into with them. Even with Seven members of the Eight Kin of Purgatory, The Four Horsemen still managed to overcome them, when Naruto joined in at the last moment, the tides were changed only slightly before the fight was stopped by Tartaros' Guild Master and Hades. "Which one?" He asked almost nervously to his guild master.

Hades sighed quickly, before speaking. "Each one of them is shrouded in mystery, known only by codenames and aliases. You are to be working with The Red Horse, War."

Zancrow's face faltered at the news. He had thought he was a destruction loving psychopath until he came up against War. But for some reason he couldn't stop the mad grin growing across his face. "Excellent! War and Fire make a good combination!"

"Good, your mission begins immediately we are nearing your drop off point." Hades responded quickly, ushering Zancrow away to begin the mission.

"Master Hades." Zancrow remained unmoving as he looked up at the aged man, the grin fell from his face once again. A sentence of advice from the person closest to him continued to repeat through his mind. 'Work on your Flame God Slayer, and at least consider picking up a second lost magic soon.' The more he thought about it, the more it could benefit him. "What it be possible for me to begin learning a second Lost Magic?"

Hades looked down at the blond haired boy from his high throne. "Succeed in your mission, and we shall discuss the matter further..."

Blue eyes fluttered open slowly, the light blinding her eyes as it had been a while since they had opened. "Whe-Where am I?" Mira spoke quietly, as if just asking herself, she was in a tent, staring up at a bland yellow tent roof.

"The infirmary." She was surprised when a soft, yet masculine voice replied, her eyes looked to the left of her, and instantly her eyes narrowed slightly. For smiling widely at her was the person who put her in this infirmary bed, Cross Biancina. It was he that she would met when she regained consciousness, not her brother Elfman who was at this tournament as well. "You've been unconscious for a while now, it's already midday."

"What are you doing here?" Mira asked weakly, yet attempted to spit her words out at him. His smile condescended her, almost patronised her. It annoyed her greatly how he just sat staring at her with a smile on his face.

He was about to answer when a blissful sigh came from behind him, she saw a young nurse behind him, around the same age as them with brown hair and a brown pair of eyes to match. Her head rested in her hands as she stood looking blissfully and longingly at Cross. "He hasn't left your side unless he absolutely had to since the moment you were brought in here yesterday." She sighed out as she continued to smile blissfully at the light white-blue haired boy. "You got yourself one hell of a boyfriend there. I hope I'm lucky enough to find a boy like him one day." She sighed once more before leaving the couple together, the hardcore Mira left with a flustered, embarrassed look whilst Cross just smiled nervously, a small blush on his own face.

"You really stayed all this time? Why?" Mira asked quietly and curiously, looking at the boy weirdly, they knew nothing about each other, yet he stayed a whole day by her side it seemed.

"I had no intention of hurting you, nor did I take any joy from doing so. But I have been specifically chosen by Master Roshi and Master Dofuwa to compete in this tournament. I can't just give up, I have to push as far as I can." Cross replied with a small smile on his face, his light blue eyes locking with hers.

"But what about the second round and your match?" Mira asked quickly, had he dropped out because he felt bad that he hurt her, if that was the case why didn't he just let her continue on?

"The second round starts tomorrow, I am fighting the one named Iwazaru Kashikoi. Another female..." Cross spoke the last two words almost dejected, annoyed at the fact.

"I've heard that she is in fact quite strong. You shouldn't underestimate females so easily." Mira's eyes narrowed scornfully at the white-blue haired boy.

"You misunderstand me." Cross spoke quietly, shaking his head slowly. "I do not underestimate or undervalue female strength, quite the contrary, I consider females to be stronger than males. Yourself for example, the last person to be hit by 365'000 Burning Eyes was unconscious for two weeks, yet you awoke within one day. You're obviously very strong."

Mira's cheeks lightened to a faint pink glow once again, before shifting her face away from having to look at him. "When are you leaving?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"I will leave when my match starts and return as soon as it ends. I rather enjoy talking to you." Cross smiled another large smile, his eyes clenched shut.

Mira thanked silently that he closed his eyes when he smiled, so he couldn't see the blush intensify on her face as he spoke those words.

"Do not bother watching any of the fights that do not include an Ozaru member." Naruto spoke to Midnight as they sat in their shared room in Ozaru's tent. They were discussing the new rule of being allowed to watch the fights, and how it may help with their mission in taking down Ozaru. "We have to learn each of the Ozaru members' magics by watching them, so we can understand properly how they use their power, and develop effective counters to overcome them." Naruto detailed his plan to Midnight, this was the best action to take. The other guilds were just nuisances, they posed no real threat to Midnight and himself. Whilst they were held back by rules of the council. They were free to progress as far as they wanted in the darkness.

"Yes, we discover their weaknesses, it will making taking them all down easier." Midnight replied in agreement to Naruto's plan. "However, we must also found out the use of this Phoenix Soulstone they are rewarding to the winner of this tournament."

"Agreed, they have left it shrouded in mystery. I wonder, does this camp have a Communications Lacrima?" Naruto pondered the question. "It must do. In order to contact authorities in case something goes wrong."

"There is a Communication Lacrima." Midnight answered his question. "But it is guarded, we would have to make use of it when the coast is clear."

"Then I will use it alone, one person is less suspicious than two when we make our way towards it." Naruto responded, standing up and making his way towards the door. Halting just before it. "Midnight. Don't get kicked out of this tournament yet. If I've done my maths right, me and you will meet in a fight before the finals. Then we shall have our true battle." Naruto spoke before opening the door and making his way through.

Midnight remained unresponsive, only staring at the back of the blond mage as he disappeared out of the room. As the door shut, Midnight sighed quietly, before falling into one of his slumbers. This tournament was beginning to become an annoyance.

The camp had grown silent as the darkness of night crept of the town of Dawn. The streets that came from the organisation from the tents were empty. Naruto snuck through each street delicately, without making a single sound. Ducking around every possible corner he could. He had spent the earlier hours locating the Communication Lacrima, and the best, most secret route to reach it without being detected.

"Incredible!" Naruto's eyes widened as he heard the shouted whisper from up ahead, quickly he darted behind a tent, ducking behind it's sheets.

He carefully, peered around the corner, seeing what or who could possibly be around the camps at this time.

He was surprised to see the entire team of White Snake huddled around together with their Master Orochimaru. From the smiles of anticipation and interest on the faces of the members of the guild. Naruto could tell they were discussing something of great importance, but it appeared he had just missed the crucial part of information.

"So that is the use of the Phoenix Soulstone!" The Guild Master Orochimaru continued with interest shining in his tone of voice. "You have done well to collect this information team."

'Damn! I wish I had arrived seconds earlier, it would have saved me so much time for them to just tell me what the Phoenix Soulstone does.' Naruto cursed his tardiness in his mind, before continuing to eavesdrop on their conversation. 'Perhaps I could learn something more from them?...'

"And there is only nine of them in the entire world, Master Orochimaru. So how rare and fortunate it is that they are offering one out so easily at this tournament." The member with white hair, Kimimaro spoke in a stoic voice.

"Yes, as soon as I learned they were offering something like this I knew I had to enter White Snake. I had always heard stories and legends of the Phoenix Soulstones. How amazing that they were all true. White Snake's entry into this silly tournament was just a ruse in order to get close to that precious stone. Our plan to steal the Phoenix Soulstone begins in two days. Prepare yourselves, Kimimaro, Sakon, Jirobo, Tayuya, prepare for advancement in this tournament, we could still achieve it by 'honourable means' if you succeed in this tournament." The pale Guild Master chuckled darkly, a snake like tongue slithered out his mouth, licking his lips.

"Hey, Master. Isn't it funny that all these Light Guilds can't even tell that we are actually a Dark Guild?" The member, Sakon spoke with a scoff towards all the Light Guilds.

'A Dark Guild?' Naruto smirked in amusement as he heard the information. 'This tournament just got a lot more interesting, but I shouldn't bother with them now. I need to contact Master Hades...' He thought as he began to take a significant detour around the White Snake guild, just to be sure they would not sense his presence. He needed to get to the Communication Lacrima quickly, more had just been put at stake.

Naruto scanned every detail within the Communication Tent. Making sure nothing was recording the entry into tent, the communications or who was begins contacted. He found only minor devices, things that could be easily dismantled and replaced after he had finished with it. 'What trusting, simple-minded fools.' Naruto grinned as he placed his had on the Communication Lacrima, channelling his magic in. 'Contact Hades.'

"Naruto?" Hades face suddenly appeared within the Lacrima, affirming that a connection had been made. "What is the meaning of this? Why have you contacted me?" Hades asked angrily through the Lacrima.

"I'm sorry, Master Hades. But I need information, on the Phoenix Soulstones?" Naruto asked the aged man, if anyone knew about their use. It would be Hades, he was travelled, learned and full of knowledge.

"The Phoenix Soulstones? Why do you require such information?" Hades asked skeptically to the blond.

"Ozaru has entered a tournament of mages, I am one of the participants for them. The winner of the tournament receives the prize of one Phoenix Soulstone." Naruto quickly and briefly explained his situation to his elderly Guild Master.

"...An interesting development..." Hades suddenly spoke after moments of silence. Naruto could easily read the interest and surprise on his face. "The Phoenix Soulstones are incredibly rare and powerful magical items. There are only nine of them in the world." Hades began to explain the magical stones. "Each one is blessed with the power of a Phoenix; Reincarnation."

"Reincarnation?" Naruto himself turned to surprise. " That sort of power is held within those stones?" He asked in complete disbelief.

Hades nodded slowly, but affirmatively. "Yes, however, unlike a Phoenix, which is reborn from it's ashes each and every time it dies. The Phoenix Soulstones can only be used once, when all nine have been used. The Phoenix Soulstones suddenly all magically reappear in new locations, however it could take hundreds of years to locate of nine and use them."

"And how is it used?" Naruto asked with interest, the power to cheat death once. It was an incredible thing to hold in one's hand.

"Once the Phoenix Soulstone comes into contact of the DNA of a deceased person, their body is revived from the stone, in perfect condition. If they died of old age, they will be reborn young. If they die of disease, they are reborn immune. No matter how long the person has been dead, no matter how much the corpse has rotted. With just a single strand of DNA, it guarantees successful reincarnation." Hades explained the method of use, his hand gently stroking his beard as he spoke, most likely contemplating something of great importance. "That Stone would be of invaluable use to me." Hades mumbled to himself, however Naruto was still able to hear him. "Naruto, you must win this tournament and claim the Phoenix Soulstone they offer. That is your sub-mission." Hades ordered the young blond mage, who nodded in return.

"And what about the Dark Guild White Snake? They are here at this tournament, disguise as a Light Guild with intentions to steal the Phoenix Soulstone?" Naruto debriefed Hades on possible obstacles to his new mission.

"White Snake? They are a powerful Dark Guild, in fact, they were considered for the final place in the Balam Alliance should the talks with Oracion Seis fail. The Master, Orochimaru is a formidable man with incredible and dangerous man. After him, their biggest threat comes from their Ace, Kimimaro Kaguya, known as the Corpse Mage." Hades explained the Dark Guild to Naruto, who was surprised at the guild's actual strength. To be considered for the Balam Alliance. "Naruto, you must make sure their plan to steal the Phoenix Soulstone fails. Watch them, Naruto, and if they make any attempts to steal the stone, stop them."

"I understand Master Hades. I will not fail." Naruto spoke in return before ending the transmission. Resitting all the recording devices he left the tent. Making his way back towards the Ozaru tent.

His mind was plagued with thoughts based upon all the information he had received this night. 'If I stop White Snake from stealing the Phoenix Soulstone, I gain the trust of everyone at this tournament. And at the same time, I eliminate any possibilities of the stone being taking by conventional means other than winning this tournament. It's a win win situation for me.' The dark smirk began to grow on Naruto's face once again. This tournament had becoming very, VERY interesting...

A/N: HeyThere! DGS here saying thanks for being patient with the chapter update. I hope it lived up to your expectations. I decided to follow the advice given to me in Seimeisamarian's review and have an interlude chapter. What is happening between the first and second round, what is going on with Grimoire Heart. That was basically covered. I hope it didn't let people down, at least we found out some pretty neat stuff.

Tartaros and the Four Horsemen will begin to have larger roles in this story, when they are introduced is uncertain at the moment.

Next Chapter. Straight into round two of the tournament, should do a few battles of better quality this time. And Natsu vs Naruto is coming up so look forward to that.

D.G.S