Demon Slayer Chapter 4

A cave.

That's what he was supposed to call it, right? He'd never been in one before, the demon who'd raised him had been way too big. The only sound echoing around the huge space around them was their footsteps and the burning of the equally gigantic torches. It was like the entire place was made for giants—well, he supposed it probably was, just judging from the thing scaled earlier.

"Did you hear that?"

"That's the third time you've asked that, Natsu."

"But," Natsu stopped, tilting his head and sniffing the air. "There's something here."

"Yeah." Naruto glanced back to give him an annoyed expression. "That's what we came here for."

"No, I mean here."

He would have questioned the dragon slayer, but perished the thought when something slammed down in front of them—something big; big enough to shake the entire cave with its weight. He didn't get to dwell on its size for long, having to raise his arm in defence as its fist crashed down on top of him. The ground beneath them cracked and splintered, a crater forming as the blond held his ground against the demon's immense strength.

Flipping his arm, Naruto gripped its flesh and wrenched his wrist to the side, sending the monster soaring into the side of the cave. The wind around them blew uncontrollably from the large object moving so suddenly and quickly.

The itch at the back of his head had returned.

"Naruto?"

"Just stay there. I'll handle him."

"Handle me?" The demon was picking itself up, using the cave wall behind it as leverage. Naruto blinked as he moved towards it, he didn't know they could talk. They didn't have mouths. Its tone was rough, booming through the cave and bouncing off the walls. "Thousands just like you have tried over my hundred years of life, none have succeeded in even scratching my hardened skin. What makes you think you stand a chance?"

"I don't really know." Naruto couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he stared up at the twenty foot tall demon, huffing and glaring back down at him. "I did something before, took something for myself. Now it's like I'm invincible, it's a really good feeling." He came to a stop not far from the giant monster. "I'm going to do the same thing to you too."

Without any further word, the demon rocketed its arm straight for Naruto, only for the blond to move out of the way just before it would have collided with his face. Immediately moving in to make use of the situation, the demon slayer mimicked the demon's attack, a colossal amount of white flames roaring out from his fist, screeching and crackling as it rushed over his enemy's large body.

The inferno dwindled down, the demon's giant, charred and deformed body toppling and uprooting some of the cold, hard ground as it collapsed with a resounding thud.

"So much for that skin of yours."

Naruto chuckled to himself. He'd always worked so hard to get stronger, he trained every single day, constantly searched for fights with those stronger than he was in order to improve. Even still, he'd felt like he was rapidly beginning to fall behind everyone else his age.

Not anymore.

He had no idea what was happening to him, but he was going to ride it out for as long as he could, he was going to take more and more for himself. Planting his hand on the just about deceased and horribly burnt demon, he began inhaling once more. The same feeling engulfed him again, filling him up, his magic brimming with energy.

The itch faded the more he consumed.

When he was done, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, burping proudly. Turning his head, he smirked at Natsu. "Where are the rest of them?"

Natsu had never felt anxious around Naruto.

Until now.

Only a little.

He wouldn't ever admit it aloud. Something about the blond was different; Naruto continuously stomped any and all of the demons that Natsu was able to track with his nose, every instance being quicker and more devastating than the last. It was shocking; he'd felt like he was just beginning to get stronger than the demon slayer, only for this to happen and for him to keep defeating monsters that Natsu couldn't even compare to, one after the other.

Their next encounter was with two of them.

Naruto rushed in front of them without saying a word, dodging their attacks and snatching their arms, flipping the monsters above his head and clapping their spines together with a booming crack.

The smile that stayed on the blond's face was disturbing.

"Where to next?"

"Uh..." Was he supposed to tell the truth? That there weren't any more left, that he'd already killed them all? Naruto was overly excited, and Natsu didn't know how he'd react. "There's none left."

"What do you mean?"

"You got them all." He answered. "All of them."

"Really?" He sounded disappointed. The smile had disappeared from his face, instead replaced with a confused frown. "But that was only, what? Eight? There has to be more down here."

"There isn't." Only? Natsu hadn't even been able to fight one of them on equal footing when he'd had his chance at the train station, and some of the ones down here had been bigger, stronger and faster than what he'd had to deal with. His guild mate sighed as the dragon slayer balled his fists, blurting out what was on his mind without thinking about it first. "Fight me!"

Naruto blinked. "Right now?" A challenging smirk spread across his face, that was a look that Natsu was much more used to seeing. "Sure."

Natsu charged. He'd never thought much with his other fights with Naruto, they'd usually just run at each other and clash head on.

Not this time it seemed.

Naruto remained in his place, fist cocked back.

Before Natsu even managed to reach him, the blond threw his arm forward. Fire exploded from his enclosed hand in a wave, rapidly expanding and washing over the dragon slayer in only a mere moment. It was a strange feeling, it wasn't something he'd felt since before Igneel had left him.

Heat.

He'd fought many mages and monsters that used fire as a weapon, and it had only ever served to feed him. Even Naruto had never been able to do anything even remotely close to this before now.

Creaking his jaw open, he inhaled. Naruto's flames tasted different—brimming with magical power, easily filling and powering him up, but there was something else in there, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It didn't belong there, whatever it was, that much he knew. It was a complete flip of who Naruto was, it made it hard and almost disgusting to swallow.

"Thanks for the meal." He slammed his fists together. "Now I'm all fired up!" Bringing his hands to his mouth, curling his fingers to act as a funnel, he breathed out all the fire he'd been building up. His roar was big, bigger than anything he'd ever released before and it raced towards the blond with much more speed than it usually had behind it.

Naruto burst through the torrent of white and bright orange flame, balling his fist and giving the dragon slayer a heavy right hook to his cheek. Natsu's head snapped to the side, his vision soon filled with the cave floor as it had a rough meeting with the rest of him.

Naruto crouched down, a faux apologetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"I hope you choke on your tongue."

Natsu wanted nothing more than to wipe off the stupid smirk that emerged on his face. "That's no way to talk to the guy who just beat you silly."

"You're exaggerating."

"I'm surprised you know what that means."

He ignored the jab at his knowledge, beginning to pick himself back up. "Rematch."

"Read my mind." Naruto sounded just as excited as Natsu felt. "Don't cry about it when you lose again."

He did lose again.

And again and again for the fights that followed.

Naruto was pleased with himself the entire trip back to Magnolia, poking fun at Natsu as he did his best to not bring his last meal back up. Due to the incident at Oshibana, they'd had to trek back to Kunugi before having to wait just over an hour for the train at two in the morning. It wasn't attacked this time, something that the blond was mostly glad for; he was still buzzing, he wanted to fight some more still. There was a handful of mages on the train, but none of them had stood out as very strong.

He wouldn't have to wait long, Mira had challenged him to a fight before he'd left, it didn't matter that it was early in the morning.

While Natsu had gone back to the shack he shared with Happy to sleep, Naruto marched onward to the guild, raring to go. There was no doubt in his mind that she'd be there, most likely asleep among a pile of other guild members.

He kicked the double doors down, his flames igniting and rising up around him. "Mira! I'm ready for that fight you promised!"

Surprise struck his face. Instead of the wrecked guild he was expecting, it looked like it had just been cleaned, the floor almost shone in the light. There was no heap of sleeping or unconscious mages, and definitely no Mira. No, rather than what he wanted, he was lucky enough to be greeted by two old men, one seated up on the bar with his legs dangling, the other staring at the blond with amusement.

Makarov and Jiraiya.

His flames died down, a disgruntled noise escaping the back of his throat.

"Expecting someone else?"

Maybe he should have tried to sense who was here first, instead of sprinting and letting his excitement get the best of him. "Where is everyone?"

Makarov hopped from the bar. "Gone home." It took his little legs many strides to reach Naruto. When he did, he looked up and offered a small, bitter smile. "They don't need to hear what we have to discuss."

"Discuss?" Naruto looked back and forth between the two much older men. "Discuss what?"

"Your future." This was the point that Jiraiya decided it was best for him to insert himself into the conversation. "I warned you before I left that you would be stepping into a new world—it's not literal, but I wasn't making a joke either." The two older men were almost always jovial, joking around and having fun, and he had seen their serious sides when the time called for it, too. Despite that, he'd never once seen them seem so grim and straight-faced before.

It made him feel awkward; out of place, like he didn't belong in the room, as if someone older and more responsible than he was should be in his shoes instead. "What do you mean?"

The sage continued upon the blond's prompt. "There's a very powerful guild that exists, a dark guild. They go by the name Tartaros."

"Yeah I've heard of them."

Well it was more of a question of who hadn't heard of them. Alongside Grimoire Heart and the more recent Oracion Seis, Tartaros was one of the most powerful and influential dark guilds, ruling over a large chunk of less powerful dark guilds. Sometimes, you'd hear news of one of the smaller guilds attacking another guild that worked under Grimoire Heart or Oracion Seis' (and vice versa), and people would fear a retaliation that would spark a large-scale war, turning them all into collateral damage.

"They're all demons."

"Huh?"

He did hear that right, didn't he? Jiraiya had said it so easily that the statement had almost flown completely over the blond's head.

"It's not common knowledge. In fact, only the Magic Council, Makarov, myself and now you are privy to that information."

Naruto frowned. "If it's so secret, why are you telling me?"

"Because, they'll be after you too now." Jiraiya's lips thinned, as if he didn't really want to continue with the conversation. Kneeling down, the tall man placed a hand on the blond's shoulder. "The situation is very complex, Naruto. There's a lot of things going on that you can't begin to understand yet."

"Yet? Why not" Naruto drooped his shoulder and shuffled Jiraiya's hand off of it. "And if not now, when?"

"When you're older." Naruto opened his mouth to interrupt, but was quickly beaten to the punch. "When you're stronger. When I believe that you can handle yourself, then I'll explain it to you."

It was all confusing for him. He'd been all set to beat Mira senseless with his new found power, and now he was being stared down by two uncannily very serious men. He wanted to complain, to shove them out of the way and instead look for the white-haired teenager, but something kept him still. What Jiraiya was saying was important, he just didn't know why or how. The way the man spoke, his stony expression, it kept the blond attentive. "And until then?"

Jiraiya's lips twitched. The flat look on his face disappeared, soon replaced with his much more familiar full-of-himself expression. "You'll be coming with me." He said, accenting his tone as he jerked his thumb towards himself, a wonky grin forming. "That's right. You'll be traveling with the Wise and Mighty Toad Sage, Jiraiya! It's an opportunity of a lifetime, millions of people dream about a chance like this every day!"

"Thrilling." The blond drawled sarcastically, shattering the sage's exaggerated efforts in a heartbeat. "Wait, travel?"

"Sounds great, don't you think?" The smirk on Jiraiya's face got on Naruto's nerves. He knew that that the blond wanted to travel, Naruto had told him several times before in hopes that he could tag along—the guild had provided him a lot of opportunities, but he often found himself returning to the same places most of the time. "You'll get to see a lot of new places, and I'll even teach you a thing or two."

It sounded too good to be true, but his heart jumped at the prospect. Jiraiya had already hooked the boy as soon as he'd mentioned travel. Over the years, Jiraiya had only visited a handful of times and never stayed for very long, so it did make Naruto question why he was suddenly so invested. He quickly discarded the thoughts, the man had laid out his reasoning already—Tartaros was going to be actively going after him now, and he wanted to be prepared for them.

Naruto beamed at the two of them. "When can we go?" The words spewed out of the blond's mouth faster than he had time to think. He blinked, wondering if anyone had actually understood the sounds he'd produced, should he repeat it?

"Now." Jiraiya gestured to the guild doors. "If you've got anything to pack, you better go grab it."

The blond grinned. He didn't have many things, and just barely got by in a dodgy apartment because it was cheap, he wasn't even sure he had a bag laying around anymore. Despite that, he busted out of the guild, excitement coursing through his system. It didn't sound like he would get so say goodbye to anyone, but that was fine, he'd be back one day, and he'd make sure to annoy Jiraiya enough so that they'd visit every now and then.

He didn't even know how long they were going to travel, he might be back quicker than he thought.

Jiraiya brought the doors of the guild together, slowly shutting them. He'd thought that he'd been moving past this, but here he was again, lying to a kid that didn't know any better. Had he not learnt anything from the past? It had never proved any positive results then, why did he think even for a second that it would now?

"Are you okay?"

"Fine."

He'd get over it. He always did. No matter how many times he'd had to make decisions for the supposed greater good, he got over it.

"I don't like it either." Makarov sighed, steadily strafing towards him. "But if small measures like these can help prevent that man from being able to roam free again, then we need to take these steps."

"Yeah, I know." Jiraiya stood up straight and composed himself. He knew exactly who Makarov was speaking about—the man represented all of Jiraiya's regrets, a constant reminder of his mistakes hanging over his head. The man was a warmonger, power-hungry down to his very core, and an extremely powerful wizard to top it off. Today, he was locked away inside Naruto, a child who resembled the man almost perfectly. It was a harsh irony for Jiraiya, and it stabbed at him every day.

The physical similarities between the two was another reason in swaying Jiraiya to lie to the blond. By keeping Naruto in the dark, they hoped to keep the man's influence over the blond to a minimum. Even while sealed away, Jiraiya didn't know what kinds of feats he was capable of.

"Don't get so down, boy." Jiraiya chuckled lightly, remarks like that always amused him. "You should be looking at this positively. It's almost like a second chance, no? A chance to fix past mistakes."

"I've already gone too far, made too many mistakes, I can't fix them."

"Perhaps not all of them." Makarov agreed. "But there are those you can fix. While you're still alive, you should do something about it."

"I know that." He'd promised himself long ago, that doing as much repairing and as much good as he can was what he'd strive to do for the rest of his life. Pulling his arms over his head, he stretched, his back cracking in response. "Well, I'll be going then. That brat has a lot to learn before I'll tell him anything."

"Take care of yourself."

"Don't worry about that."

Chapter 4 done!