Demon Slayer Chapter 3

Naruto woke up staring at the plain roof.

Pulling himself up, he took a look around, slowly breathing in and out. Beside the bed he was in was another, housing Natsu who'd spread himself out during his sleep, mouth ajar and a low, grumbling snore bumbling out of his throat.

He frowned, picking up the white pillow that had been behind his head and launched it at the dragon slayer's head.

"Buwah?"

Natsu shot upright, eyes wide and looking around frantically.

"Natsu."

The pinkette's eyes locked onto Naruto, some drool rolling down his chin. "W-what?"

"Where are we?"

Natsu took a more detailed look around the rather boring room. "How should I know?"

Naruto grunted and threw the sheets away before hopping off the bed. He was still in the same clothes he'd been wearing, though his beloved orange shirt was ripped and torn in obvious places.

Oh, right, he'd fought and almost died.

He lifted what was left of the shirt up and took a look at himself—not even a mark on him. It didn't seem possible, he remembered that he'd been barely able to breathe, it had felt like all of the bones in his body had been broken. And now he was perfectly fine, like nothing had ever happened.

Naruto turned his attention back to Natsu, he'd been about to die as well.

"You've got drool on your chin."

The dragon slayer scowled, wiping the fluid away with the back of his hand. "I'm getting out of here."

"You don't even know where we are."

Natsu pulled himself out of the bed, he didn't look any worse for wear either. "So? We still need to see the client."

Just as Natsu was finishing up his sentence, the door to the room had opened, a familiar face making itself known to them. "No you don't." Jiraiya's smile was half-assed and bitter, a tired expression adorning the rest of his usually carefree face. His geta clicked along the floor as he strolled into the room, a newspaper tucked under his arm. "The man who hired you, he was a friend of mine."

Natsu perked up. "Can you take us to him?"

"Not anymore." The old, white-haired man tossed the rolled up newspaper onto the bed Natsu had been sleeping in, the two boys coming to take a look as it was unfurled. The request Naruto had taken for them had been bundled in there but was pushed to the side as Jiraiya flicked through the pages until he found the article he was looking for, titled Brutal Murders in Clover Town, a small mugshot of a middle-aged man adjacent to it. "He died two days ago, before you'd even taken the job."

Naruto opened and closed his mouth at the information before pushing the words out. "How?"

"The same way the two of you almost did today."

"Today?" Naruto frowned. "You healed us from injuries like that in a day?"

"I didn't do anything." Jiraiya insisted, turning his head back over towards the door he'd left open. "You can come in Wendy."

A girl—a small girl, much smaller than him and probably four or five years younger. Her long, dark blue hair reached down to her waist. She blinked her inquisitive brown eyes as she peered into the room before taking her first step in, fiddling with the hem of her blue and yellow wave-patterned dress. "H-hello."

Naruto gave the white-haired man a flat stare. "No way."

"It impressed me too." Jiraiya admitted. "She stopped the both of you from dying and got you back into a functioning state in just under three hours." He pondered out loud for a bit. "Well, if you hadn't been pouring out so much magic into the air, maybe it would have ended differently."

"What do you mean?"

The toad sage—a title the old man had often and firmly reiterated whenever he'd said it wrong—shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "I've met numerous demon slayers like you in my years, but none of them were able to do anything like that. It was like your magic was trying to keep you alive."

Naruto swallowed the bitterness that arose in his throat, he didn't like hearing about other demon slayers, mostly because it always ended with him finding out they'd died early in life. His magic shared many similarities with Natsu's, but one of the ways they differed was that demon slayer magic hadn't been lost to the ages. There was a lot of documentation on the subject, something both Jiraiya and Makarov had tried to push him to read into. Because of that, many had been able to teach themselves and others how to use it, the only problem was that they would all wind up dead only years after beginning.

It got on his nerves a lot; he was confident that he wouldn't get consumed by his magic like many had, what bugged him most was the ones who'd been murdered. In the comfort of their own homes, out on jobs, even in crowded places, demon slayers had been killed all over the place without anyone showing up to point the blame at. It was like someone was hunting down and killing anyone who learnt how to use it.

Naruto felt like there was a giant target on his back.

Natsu's scrunched and focused expression brought him back to reality.

"There's something wrong with your face." The blond remarked.

"What?"

"You're concentrating." He moved his head out of the way of the flaming fist that came his way. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door."

"I'll kick your ass."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Now, now." Jiraiya firmly planted one hand on each of their shoulders. "I'm not going to let you destroy this room, it'll cost me a fortune."

"All the more reason."

Natsu grinned and spontaneously combusted. "Yeah!"

"No." Jiraiya reaffirmed his point, Natsu's flames slowly dying down against the dragon slayer's will, his face filling with annoyance and embarrassment as he tried to ignite himself once more. Jiraiya removed his hands and added a smug comment. "Good boy."

Naruto snickered.

"Shut up!"

"Well." Naruto ignored his fellow guild member's shout. "What happened to the monster that attacked the train? Did you kill it?"

"Yes." Jiraiya's lips twitched in an awkward angle. Sighing, he bent down on his knee, his black eyes staring directly into Naruto's own. "Naruto, there's something I believe you should know. Makarov thinks otherwise, but he's not here right now."

Naruto frowned. "What is it?"

"The monster was after you." He began. "It's a demon, an artificial one. It was made specifically for fighting demon slayers, something it does very well."

"Fake demons? Is that a joke?"

"No." Jiraiya pursed his lips. "The man who made them died twenty years ago."

Naruto butted in. "Them?"

"Yes, them. Used to be thousands of them, now it looks like there's only a few left."

"How do you know that wasn't the last one?"

"Because I'm smarter than you."

"That's definitely a joke."

Natsu's head exploded in a torrent of flame as he forced himself into their conversation, exclaiming and easily dragging their attention towards him. "If there's more of them, then our job's not done yet!" He grinned and smashed his fist into his palm. "Now I can get revenge on that bastard."

"No you can't." Naruto responded flatly. "He's dead."

"I can't hear you~" Natsu slammed his hands over his ears in an exaggerated manner, marching toward the door. "I'm going show these fake demons who's stronger." The dragon slayer spun on his heel, daringly pointing his index finger at the blond. "And I'm going to kill more of them than some lame ass demon slayer."

Something switched at the back of Naruto's brain, his magic was being challenged down to its very purpose. He sneered back. "Not a chance in hell."

There was no way he could let Natsu flap his gums so easily.

"You're going to fight them?" Wendy sounded flabbergasted at the prospect, meekly speaking up for the first time since her introduction. "Y..." She shuffled on her feet as everyone's eyes in the room homed in on her position. "You almost died just against one..."

Natsu looked like his pride had taken a hit. "You don't need to rub it in."

"I-I'm sorry!"

Naruto shook his head and brought his eyes back to Jiraiya, while said toad sage was standing up once more. "Do you know where we could find any of them?"

"I do." Jiraiya answered firmly. "Are you sure you want to go after them, Naruto? You may not realize it, but you'll be stepping into a new world, a world that I don't know you can survive. If you go, then you need to understand that there won't be any returning."

"You make it sound like I'm disappearing into another dimension or something." Naruto snarked. "Besides, I won't abandon a job just because I got a few bruises."

"Your ribs were sticking out of your chest."

"Doesn't matter!" He snapped back immediately. "I'm going to burn every last one of them until there's nothing left. That was the request."

Wendy was uncomfortable.

The night train to Crocus was lonely and quiet, even the usually talkative Jiraiya wasn't making a noise, choosing to instead stare out the window into the dark night. Wendy shuffled on her seat on the other side of the booth, she didn't know why he was taking her to the capital. He'd appeared at her guild just two days before, and he'd somehow convinced Master Roubaul to let her go with him.

They'd traveled a bit. Yesterday, they'd visited the home of someone who was apparently one of Jiraiya's older friends. He'd been home, all over it. Despite the old man turning her away from the sight, the small glimpses she got still plagued her mind. They'd stayed in the town overnight, only for her to have to heal two older kids and keep them from dying. She didn't know how she'd been able to do it, in normal circumstances there was no way she'd have been able to pull it off, especially considering how bad of a condition they were in.

"Was that really okay?" She broke the silence with a frown, fidgeting when his eyes slid over to her. "They would have died, and if there's more..."

"It's fine." His response was sharp and dismissive, unlike the smooth and almost gentle tone he'd spoken before.

She frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Wendy." A sigh escaped his lips, eyes trailing back towards the window. What was he staring at that was so interesting? "If he does ends up dying, a lot of future problems will be solved anyway."

"That's it?"

"I guess."

It was an old shack, that's how Jiraiya described it. He definitely wasn't wrong. The thin sheet that acted as a roof had caved in, the front door was hanging off its hinges, all of the windows had been smashed, yet the most eye-catching thing about it was that it looked like it half of it was missing.

"Let's go." Naruto moved forward, the shoddy stone trail they'd been following coming to an end just a few steps before the shack. "Try not to burn anything."

"Tell yourself that."

The place had an eerie feeling to it, like it had been there for hundreds of years. The floorboards creaked with every step they took. An assortment of tools was scattered around, a sickle, a hammer or two, screwdrivers—both flat and star. A set of saws with varying sizes were held up on a board by rusty and bent nails, large and small knives lying on the floor beneath it.

Naruto foraged. Jiraiya hadn't given much to go on, just the direction to go and what he was looking for. They'd only gotten lost once, it honestly surprised him it hadn't taken longer.

"There's nothing here!" Naruto threw his hands up in the air in exaggeration. Was Jiraiya pulling a prank on him? Telling him to run into the woods at night to an old shack? He scowled, annoyed. Any minute now, that old bastard was going to pop out from somewhere in a stupid attempt to scare him.

He didn't.

Not even a peep.

Just the sound of the wind blowing in the trees.

Then, a crash. Out of the corner of his eye, through the glassless window, he saw a flash of fire briefly rise.

"Whoa."

"I thought I told you not to burn anything."

"I didn't, idiot. Look."

Naruto rolled his eyes, walking through the half of the shack that was missing and out around the back. Natsu was crouched over a hole. "How'd you find that?" Natsu huffed through his nose and turned his head away. "What?"

"I tripped over it."

"And I'm the idiot?" Naruto smirked and moved the dragon slayer over, taking a look inside. Not much to see, after a bit the hole curved down like a slide. Well, there was only one way to go. "You should trip over stuff more often."

He grabbed the edges of the hole and slid himself in, letting go when he thought he was in a good position. The ride down was still rough, rocks and roots scratching and hitting him as he went. It started to get thinner as he picked up some speed, coming close to his chest. Then he was out, feet unexpectedly slamming into a hard floor. The blond grunted, thankful he hadn't sprained his ankle.

It was dark, much darker than outside. He could barely see his own feet.

His hands exploded into a white flame. Swiping his hands, the flame extended from his hands and traveled along the floor, splitting its tracks and spanning across the entire space to provide light.

"Oof!" Natsu had landed behind him, hopefully on his face. But he didn't turn around to find out, he was far more interested in what was in front of him.

It was the demon who attacked him—no, it was different. Bigger, stronger. He could feel it, he'd felt the same when he was getting his ass handed to him. He couldn't tell what it was exactly, definitely not magic though. He was very familiar with that, not this.

He wanted it.

The demon had to be at least fifty feet tall, unmoving, laid out with its back to the wall. Was it alive? He questioned himself as he began to scale it, using its bulging muscles as leverage. Natsu shouted something at him, but he didn't care to listen.

Naruto reached its face faster than he thought he would.

Now that he was here, gathering his thoughts, he took notice of something. An urge. It sat at the back of his brain, putting him on edge. It was like an itch he couldn't scratch at.

The demon's eyes snapped open and Naruto stared straight back at its horizontal pupils. It didn't move, not even when his hands came to rest on its large, thick neck, his mouth opening and his lungs inhaling as much air as it could.

No, that wasn't quite right.

What was he doing? He didn't know, it was like his body was moving of its own volition.

How long did it last? The time ticked by agonizingly slowly, but Natsu hadn't gotten impatient enough to climb up there with him yet, so it couldn't have been too long.

Naruto blinked, his arm coming up to his mouth as his body convulsed, hacking coughs onto his bare skin. He felt like he was choking on something. At least it didn't last long.

The demon's eyes were closed once again, only it wasn't giving off the feeling anymore. It was gone, vanished into thin air.

Naruto, on the other hand, felt fantastic. He felt like he was on fire, like he could take on the whole world if he wanted to.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"Is it dead?"

Natsu's voice echoed throughout the lit up space.

"Yeah." He hadn't yelled, but his voice still bounced off the walls around them. "Yeah, it's dead."

"Then hurry up and get down, we didn't come here for that."

Naruto shook his head. "Right." During his descent, he noticed something strange. The wall beside the deceased, giant demon was different. It was smooth, not rough and jutting out at every chance it had. His feet hit the ground once more, his eyes scanning as much of the wall as they could. It was at least as tall as the demon was, maybe bigger. It was hard to see that far up, there wasn't enough light.

Natsu had caught up to him, standing at his side. "What was that about?"

"I don't know." He gestured toward the wall with his finger. "Don't you think that's weird?"

The dragon slayer shrugged. "Sure. I'll go punch it down."

"Something that big? No way you can do that."

"Watch this." Natsu marched up to the door with confidence, an almost cocky smile on his face. His right fist exploded into a brilliant flame as he wound back his arm, rocketing it forward when he was close enough. It slammed into the wall with an echoing boom, the flame dispersing against it.

He hadn't left a single mark.

"Pff."

"Shut up!"

"Here let me give it a try." Naruto was still riding his high. In all of their fights, there had never really been a clear winner among either of them, their strength was probably as even as it was possible to get. Despite that, he figured he could do it.

Raising his fist, he sent his arm soaring toward the wall.

He didn't even feel the collision.

The wall just gave way, exploding into thousands of sizeable chunks, cracks quickly spreading up the rest of it and causing it to crumble.

"Holy shit."

"Yeah." Naruto stared into the massive corridor that had been on the other side of the wall, rubble falling and bouncing further into it. Strung up on the walls were large and burning torches on opposite sides, mirrored further down to light the entire corridor.

"How the hell did you do that?" Natsu's eyes were hard to read. Was he envious? Amazed? Maybe both. "You didn't even use any magic."

"How should I know?"

"You're the one who did it!"

"I did, didn't I?" He felt the smirk come back to his face, much more smug and teasing this time. "And do you know what that means?"

"W-what?"

"I'm stronger than you are."

"No way!" Natsu was flabbergasted, ears steaming. It looked like his head was about to explode.

It did.

"Yes way."

He couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he trekked down the corridor. Natsu's fuming didn't help in deterring his blissful mood.

"I'll kill you!"

"You coming or not?"

Chapter 3 done!