As the whistle of the Magnolia train bound for the port of Hargeon blasted out, signaling the train's departure, Naruto couldn't help but grumble to himself. "How did I get roped into escorting the newbie?"
Said 'newbie' couldn't help but sigh at his grumblings. "First thing's first. My name is Lucy, not newbie! Secondly, Natsu and Happy were supposed to come with me, but Natsu's still in the infirmary after you roughed him up yesterday!"
At least the other blonde had the courtesy to look embarrassed. "It's not like that was my intention… How was I supposed to know he had taken such a thrashing from that other Dragon Slayer? Besides, there are plenty of other members that could have come along, but Erza-nee specifically told me to come." So cold of you, big sis. I just got back, and you're already sending me off again.
As the ride continued to drag on, Naruto suddenly realized how tense the atmosphere had become, and he was at a loss as to why. "Oi, Lucy." The way she started in her seat, Naruto couldn't help but notice her discomfort. "Something wrong?"
Now it was Lucy's turn to look embarrassed. "I dunno. I guess I just feel a little awkward." She watched as Naruto stared out the window, a knowing smirk on his face. "Hey, if you're gonna be jerk about it, then don't ask!"
"Two years." He said, as if he were discussing the sunny day, or the passing trees.
"Two… What do you mean by that?"
"I've been gone for a little over two years. I decided to get out in the world on my own, have some time to myself."
Realizing that the unfamiliar, returning guild member was tossing her a line, a chance to get to know him other than through the hearsay of the guild, she grasped onto it eagerly.
"But why? From what I saw of the other members of the guild, you were really popular. Why leave that?"
He grew very still, and after a few minutes, Lucy wondered if she had asked the wrong question.
"To mourn…" He finally said, just as she had begun to give up on any more conversation. "… and to become stronger."
"Mourn? Why would you need to…" She paused as she recalled how sad Mira had seemed when she had spoken about Naruto's leaving the guild, and the reverent, respectful tone Elfman had used when talking about him. "Did… did it have anything to do with what happened to Mira and Elfman's sister?" When Naruto's head jerked to face her, surprise written on every feature of his face, she couldn't help but know that she had hit the mark.
"I'm sorry!" She stated swiftly, her hands waving in front of her, as if she were trying to pull her question out of the air. "I shouldn't have asked that…"
Naruto smiled softly at her downcast form, her head hanging down. He reached out and gently ruffled her hair, an odd motion that Lucy wasn't prepared for, yet she found it oddly comforting; like an older brother was trying to calm her, as opposed to a man she had just met the previous day. She wasn't sure what it was about the young man sitting across the car from her, but he seemed to just exude some strange aura, like he was trying very hard to make her happy.
"Don't worry about it." He said after he was sure Lucy had cheered up. "I've had two years to mourn for her, and I had my training to take my mind off of it."
"Which brings me to my next question!" She interjected swiftly. "You said that you left to become stronger, but from what everyone at the guild said, you were already crazy strong when you left! Is it even possible for you to get stronger?" At Naruto's look of confusion, she felt the need to elaborate.
"Master said that you were stronger than him! And Erza said you were one of the strongest wizards on the continent!"
She lost sight of the blonde wizard as they passed through a tunnel, but the darkness couldn't mask his laughter, and she could almost feel him smirking from across the car. As the light flooded back into the car, her suspicion was confirmed as the blonde made no attempt to hide his mirth.
"Did the old man really say that? He must have been drunk. Either that, or he wanted to scare you." He stopped as he chuckled again. "Erza-nee is a little bit biased, I would say. She has seen first-hand what I am capable of when I'm at my most powerful, but that's not something I'm capable of doing at will."
"… huh? What can't you do at will?"
"Oh, right, you're new! Did anyone already talk to you about my magic?" When the young girl nodded the affirmative, explaining Mira's explanation, Naruto smiled. "That's all she said? Erza probably sent me with you so I could explain myself to you, then, as opposed to all the he-said-she-said back at the guild."
"It works like this: I'm a takeover mage. Just like the Strauss siblings, I have multiple forms that I can access. However, unlike them, each of my forms has three stages of power."
"Stages? How do you mean?" As a holder-type mage, the tiny nuances of the many, many, many, different ability-type mages was still a bit over her head.
"Well… Oh, I've got it! Think of each of my forms as a suit… Sort of… Anyways! There are three different ways for me to wear each suit. I can simply drape it over myself, resulting in what I refer to as a 'Cloak.' This would be considered the weakest stage, however, as the cloak covers my body in a layer of pure Ethernano, which can be pierced by higher level magic."
The second stage, the one I used when fighting Jose, allows me to essentially merge myself with the 'suit' and take on the properties of the form. This is what Elfman and Mira are capable of with their own magic. This is a far more powerful and versatile form, allowing better manipulation of the forms' powers. It is also more durable, since my body will take on the qualities of the form itself, as opposed to wearing it like armor."
"Geez." Lucy said in wonder. "I didn't realize that takeover magic was so complicated."
"Well," Naruto replied. "It usually isn't. My form of takeover is a form of Lost Magic, passed down through bloodlines. Before me, my mother had it, and it passed to me when I was born."
Just as Lucy was going to ask him to continue, the train came to a halt as it pulled into the Hargeon station.
"Looks like we're here. Are you ready to go?" Naruto asked expectantly.
"Sure! I just hope this job won't be too difficult for me." She responded as the two made their way off of the train, into the crowds of people waiting to board.
"Eh, I'm sure you can handle it just fine. After Erza told me about how you took down that Vulcan on Mount Hakobe with just your pinkie, I doubt some petty thieves will give you too much trouble."
That's not exactly what happened… Lucy thought to herself with a sigh.
As the two navigated the winding streets of the port town, Lucy found herself thinking of the first time she had visited the city.
As she turned to ask Naruto about his third stage of takeover, she found that he was nowhere in sight, leaving her completely alone on the empty street.
"Naruto?" She called out nervously. Where the heck did he go?
"Well, well, well. Look what we got here boys. A pretty girlie, all by her lonesome, running the roads." She heard voice call out, followed by a round of snickers as a dozen people, mostly younger men around her age, seemed to crawl out of the shadows and alleyways of the deserted street."
The man she assumed had spoken first was of average height and build, with dark hair and a scar running through his left eye. "Come on, girlie, don't you know the streets are dangerous for a girl walking all alone?"
Lucy tried to back away from the steadily approaching stranger, alarm bells going off in her head.
"St-stay back!" She warned them, gripping the keys at her waist. Thank goodness Loke found my keys for me, because these must be the guys I came for, but I wasn't expecting the thieves to try and rob me!
She felt her progress backwards interrupted as she felt her back come into contact another warm body. Turning, she found herself facing another stranger.
"Oh-ho, you should be more careful, girlie. Don't you know there's thieves around here?" He smirked evilly as he reached to grasp Lucy's shoulder, only to cry out in pain as he was felled by a swift kick between his legs.
"I said stay away from me! You creeps don't know who you're dealing with!" She shouted, angered by their assumption that she would just let them rob her. She pulled a key from her belt with a flourish and a smile at the remaining goons. "Open: Gate of the Golden Bull, Taurus!"
With a flash of light and a puff of smoke, the surrounding thieves found themselves facing a massive creature that appeared to be a mix of a man and bull. It bellowed out a loud, resounding 'moo' as it flourished its large double-headed axe. "Don't you worry, Miss Lucy! I'm not gonna let nooobody touch your nice body but me!" The bull brought its axe crashing down to the street, tearing the cobblestone asunder as a shockwave tore through the ground, sending three of the thieves flying, before he moved after the others.
As the remaining thieves scrambled for cover, the leader found himself wrapped head-to-toe by the whip of the girl he had tried to mug. "Going somewhere, you creep?"
"I'm sorry, lady! I didn't know you were a wizard! We're just looking for a little money for our families, after that wizard fight a while back, most of our businesses got destroyed. We've got nowhere else to go, and nobody will help us…" He sat on the ground with a thud, ignoring the fact that he couldn't move well, wrapped as he was. "I know that we're wrong, but…"
Lucy was at a loss for words upon hearing the man's confession. You mean… these men became thieves because of Natsu's fight? That means that I'm partially responsible, too; I nearly destroyed the docks with Aquarius…
"Miss Lucy! I've apprehended the thieves. What do you want me to do with them?" Taurus called to Lucy, drawing her from her thoughts. Seemingly from thin air, Taurus had pulled a thick cord of rope, and was ready to tie all of the thieves he had captured up, but stopped when Lucy ordered him to let them go.
"Let them go? But they were-"
"You heard me, Taurus. Release them."
Despite his confusion at the situation, and his own misgivings, Taurus followed his orders. The people ran away quickly, melting away into the oncoming night, leaving Lucy alone with the leader of the thieves and her Celestial Spirit.
The thief was awe-struck by the unexpected turn of events, and even said so. "Why would you let us go? We're criminals! We've been robbing people for months now." He grew quiet at the pensive look on his captor's face. "I don't need your pity, girlie!"
"It's not that I pity you, you jerk!" She nearly shouted, startling him. "I was part of that fight, so I just feel a little responsible for your situation. That's all." She uncoiled her whip from his body, releasing him. As he rose to his feet, she tossed a wad of money into his hand. At his questioning gaze, she just smiled.
"If it's my fault that you're in this mess, than it's my responsibility to try and fix it. I know that this isn't a whole lot but-" She was interrupted as the man nearly teared up right before her eyes, shushing her with a motion of his hands.
"This is plenty." He whispered. "This is enough to move my family to another city. We could start over…" He shifted his gaze to her, and in the light of the fading day, she could see his face break into a wide grin. "Thank you, so much." With that, he dashed down the street, undoubtedly to gather his family together.
As Lucy smiled sadly at the fact that she had just ensured that she would have precisely zero jewel for her rent at the end of the week, a familiar voice called from above her.
"Good on you, newbie. That is what Fairy Tail is all about."
As the speaker plummeted to the street, landing in a crouch next to her, Lucy felt a mix of emotions as she recognized the voice's owner.
Naruto smiled as he came back up to his full height, before he found himself crashing into the side of the stone building, the heel of Lucy's boot leaving an aching mark on the side of his face. Geez, it's like Erza part two. He thought numbly as Lucy started to let into him.
"How could you just leave me all alone like that!? You big jerk, what if they had tried to kill me? Or worse!? I already had to deal with one psycho creep trying to enslave me, so what makes you think I needed a repeat?"
As she moved to hit the blonde again, she found that he was no longer where he had fallen, and instead was on the opposite side of the street, lounging on a pile of crates. The only thing signaling that he had moved at all was a cloud of steam where he had previously been. Wow, he's so fast!
"How did you get over there so quickly?" She asked in surprise, slightly annoyed that he had escaped her wrath.
"Magic." He responded cryptically. His serious face broke out into a grin as Lucy moved after him again, still bent on a little revenge for scaring her. He shot away down the street, laughing as Lucy chased after him.
"How are you even doing that?!" Lucy shouted as she ran. Naruto was bounding down the street, bouncing from wall to wall, roof to roof, bursts of steam discharging from his legs whenever he shot off again. It was clear that he was toying with her. No matter how much distance he covered, he was always remaining just out of her reach, like he was leading her along.
After another ten minutes of chasing, Lucy realized that they were now well past the outskirts of the city, and that she was very, very tired. She plopped to the ground with a groan, resting her back against a tree. "How can one person have so much energy?"
"Don't tell me you're done already?" Naruto said cheekily as he crouched down next to her. At this point, Lucy didn't even care about how he had managed to get behind her without her noticing.
"How-" She paused for a deep breath, exhausted from the unexpected game of cat and mouse. "How are you not tired from all of that? How did you even do that?"
"I already told you: magic." The smug bastard even did a little motion with his hands as he said it, like it was some super amazing trick.
"I know it was magic!" She said as she half-heartedly swatted at the blonde. "But what kind? Was that like a partial takeover, like what Elfman does?"
Naruto gave her another smirk, which Lucy had just decided was his trademarked 'foxy grin' everyone talked about. "You're extremely perceptive. Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. I did a partial takeover on my legs, using one of my forms."
"That's so cool! Your magic seems really versatile. It's nice to see that not everyone in the guild can destroy entire neighborhoods just by sneezing." At Naruto's nervous chuckle and sideways glance, she corrected herself. "Most of the time?"
"Better." He said, chuckling at her look of disappointment. "So, do you have any other questions? We should probably head back soon, so we can talk as we walk." He said, helping Lucy to her feet.
"Sure that sounds like a… Wait, whaddya mean, 'walk?!'" She shouted, causing Naruto to shoot up into the branches of the tree in surprise.
Naruto made a placating gesture towards the girl, grunting in surprise when her whip came shooting after him into the tree. "Lucy!" He shouted as he dodged the leather cord. "What's your deal!?"
"You leave me alone with those thieves, and then you make me chase you around the city, and now you want to walk back to Magnolia?!" She growled, her whip snaking out after the takeover mage again. This continued for several minutes until Naruto decided to unbalance the Celestial Wizard.
"Oooh, no wonder you've got Natsu wrapped around your finger! I always figured he'd be into the violent, whipping type…" He said casually as he ducked beneath the whip, jumping from the tree to land in front of Lucy.
As she was about to strike at him again, she realized what he had said and dropped her whip as her face turned red in embarrassment. She moved her hands to cover her rapidly heating face, and Naruto could only laugh as she fidgeted nervously in front of him.
"I-I- I'm not… Natsu and me aren't – We don't…" She was drawn from her mumblings as Naruto ruffled her hair again, and she was reminded of his strange effect of calming her and the others from the guild.
"I'm only messing with you, Lucy." He said kindly, bumping his fist against her shoulder. "Don't worry, Natsu is clueless, and I won't be the one to tell him how you feel."
Lucy smiled at him. "You actually called me by my name." The boy shrugged in response.
"I figure if you're gonna act like a part of the family, I should treat you as part of the family. Now come on, let's head back."
"Alright… whisker face." She whispered, just loudly enough for him to hear.
He stopped mid-step, and turned back to face her. He smiled evilly, and she could swear that his teeth had grown larger and were sharp as razors. His eyes changed too; his pupils were slitted like a cat, although the color was still the same blue, and the marks on his face were darker and thicker, like someone had gone over them with a black marker.
"Whisker face?" He asked menacingly, and Lucy found she could only nod dumbly under the scrutiny of his eyes. Just as quickly as it had come, the change was gone as he smiled kindly at her. "I like it! Thanks, Lucy!" With that, he turned and began leisurely strolling down the path, leaving Lucy to lift her jaw off the ground after the blonde's odd display.
"H- hey! Wait for me, Naruto!" She shouted as she broke from her shock, chasing after the strange boy.
. . .
The night slipped away swiftly as the sun broke from beyond the horizon, shedding light on the forest path as Naruto and Lucy trekked back to Magnolia. The forest was silent, cool and calm as the first rays of light pierced through the canopy of branches overhead. Well, maybe not so much in regards to silent.
"Narutooo…" Lucy whined. "My feet hurt! How did you even manage to trick me into walking back to the city?"
In answer, Naruto just shrugged as he continued to lazily march onward.
"Hmph." Lucy pouted as the blonde rebuffed another of her attempts to guilt trip him into finding a way to make the trip easier. "Would you at least talk to me? Walking in silence is boring!"
Despite her claim, the silence carried on for several more minutes until Naruto suddenly spoke from behind Lucy, startling her. How does he keep moving so fast?
"What were we talking about on the train?"
Before Lucy could berate him for surprising her, again, she paused as she recalled the subject of their previous conversation.
"I think you were talking about… suits? Three kinds of suits, and you were just about to tell me about the third one, right?" She pondered out loud. Naruto snapped his fingers in response.
"Yeah! Now I remember. Well," He began. "You remember how in my first two stages, I can either 'wear the suit' or 'merge with the suit,' right?" Lucy nodded, recalling the bizarre explanation.
"Good, good. Well in the final stage, which is the most powerful and destructive, I become the suit."
Lucy had begun nodding as he finished, but realized that she didn't actually understand.
"I don't get it. What do you mean you become the suit? How would that even work?"
Naruto paused, a thoughtful look passing across his face. "Give me a second." He said, shooting into the canopy in a burst of steam. After about a minute, he returned again, landing with a dull thud.
"There's no sign of civilization for as far as my eyes can see. So I guess I could show you what I mean, if that's alright by you." He said, his questioning gaze falling on Lucy.
Unsure of what to make of the prospect of seeing Naruto at his most powerful, at a level that made Erza (one of the strongest wizards Lucy had ever met) say that he was easily one of the most powerful wizards on the continent, she nodded slowly.
His smile flashed again. "Cool, cool. Just, uhm, try not to freak out, okay?"
She nodded again, a bit apprehensive now.
Naruto moved into an odd stance, spreading his feet shoulder width apart and bending at the knees. He took a deep breath before looking at her again. "So far, I'm only able to go into my second form in this state. Anything farther and… well, after that, I'm not in charge anymore. Sooo~, how do you feel about the color blue?"
Not really processing Naruto's full question, Lucy didn't have time to ponder his comment about control. "It's my favorite color." Naruto laughed at her response.
"Awesome! This should be pretty cool for you then!" He closed his eyes and brought his palms together with a resounding crash, the sound echoing through the trees. When he spoke, his voice had taken on a lighter, almost feminine tone. "Takeover: Nibi Soul."
For a moment, nothing happened. As Lucy was about to question Naruto, his body suddenly burst into blues flames.
"Naruto!" She cried out in surprise. Before Lucy could make any motion to help him, the ground beneath him shattered from the sheer pressure of the magic he was letting off, throwing her off her feet and uprooting several trees in the area. "Naruto?" She called out shakily.
The pressure continued grow as the flames grew brighter, and hotter, to the point that even from thirty meters away, Lucy feared she would be turned to a crisp. The trees closest to Naruto burst into flames as well, and the inferno he had become began growing in size.
As Lucy watched, awestruck, the flames began to take shape and change colors, some growing darker and taking on a black hue. From the massive column of flames, a massive clawed appendage shot forth, tearing into the ground and raking trees and dirt in its wake as an even more massive form pulled itself from the flames. Standing tall, far above the tree-line was what Lucy could only describe as an enormous cat. Made out of black and blue flames.
Lucy 'eeped' quietly in a mix of surprise, terror and awe as the massive beast turned its gaze upon her and seemed to study her as its two flaming tail drifted to-and-fro behind its form. Its eyes were two different colors, one green and the other golden yellow, and they were taking in the sight of Lucy as if she were an interesting new plaything. It spoke, and its voice was surprisingly feminine.
"Pretty cool, so to speak, eh Lucy?"
"N-na-naruto?" Lucy sputtered out in surprise. "Is that you?"
The flaming cat grinned, showing off sharp teeth as it did. "In the flesh, I guess you could say. What do you think, Lu-chan?"
"Wow." She said. (Very poetic stuff, no wonder she's a writer.)
"Hmmm, I figured you would think so. This is my second form, the Two-Tails, Matatabi. As you could probably guess, this form deals with fire. Each of my forms deals with different aspects of the world, such as how my first form, Shukaku the One-Tail, deals with sand. Do you understand now?" Unable to trust her voice, Lucy merely nodded. "Great! I'll release the magic now."
"Release." The cat said, and with a blinding flash of light, the cat and all of the surrounding flames resulting from the transformation disappeared, leaving Naruto standing at the center of the massive scorched crater left after his display of power.
"This stuff right here." He said as he gestured at the surrounding destruction. "This is why Erza said I'm not allowed to use my magic against our friends. So I limit myself to partial takeovers most of the time. Mira said I could go toe-to-toe with Gildarts without magic, right?"
"Yeah." Lucy said slowly, still reeling from the insane amount of power the blonde had put out with seemingly no effort.
"She must have meant without a full takeover then. I have to use combinations of all of my forms to go against Gildarts. The guy may be old, but he's certainly no slouch in a fight."
"Oh! That makes way more sense." She said, grinning in triumph after figuring out her own confusion. "But what about when Erza said that you were one of the strongest on the continent?"
Naruto frowned slightly at her question, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"What's wrong Naruto?"
And just like that, the frown was gone and he was smiling again, so quickly Lucy wondered if she had imagined it.
"There was one time, a couple years after we joined, when I was able to access my second-most powerful form, Kurama the Nine-Tailed Fox, in the third state. It only lasted a few minutes, but Erza told me that it felt like the whole world nearly bent to my will, if only for an instant." He shook his head, grinning. "I can't remember it very well, but I somewhat doubt her descriptive ability."
Lucy sat silent in wonder at the mere thought of what Naruto was suggesting. If this was only the Two-Tails, and each one is more powerful than the previous… Just how strong could the Nine-Tails be?
"So, what about your most powerful form?" She asked in a small voice.
"Huh?" Naruto asked, surprised at the sudden question. "What are you talking about? The Nine-Tails is my strongest."
Lucy cocked her head to the side at his clueless tone. "You just called it your second strongest like, two seconds ago!"
Lucy could have sworn that Naruto seemed to pale at the realization, but he just waved off her statement with another smile, although this time she knew that she saw something lying beneath it. Does Naruto look scared?
"If that's what I said, then it was just because I misspoke. Sometimes my mouth just goes off without the 'ok' from my brain, you know?" He said, chuckling. Any trace of the fear Lucy thought she had seen was gone.
Did I really just imagine it? Weird…
"If you say so, Naruto. Let's get back to the guild, we were only supposed to be gone for a day at the most, and I really don't want to have to explain the failure of the mission and why we ended up gone for three days. Not to mention that I can't even pay my rent now…" She said sadly.
"Oi, Lucy." Naruto called out as she turned to continue down the path.
As she turned back, she caught a small, heavy cloth bag in her hands as he tossed it to her.
"There you go. Your reward for completing the mission I gave the guild. Job well done." He said with a smile.
Looking inside the bag, she nearly fainted. "This has to be triple what the flyer said! And what do you mean you assigned the mission?"
Naruto chuckled as he strode past her. "Like I said, job well done. And yeah, I was the one who put in the request. I figured it would be good for you, to understand that as Fairy Tail wizards, our actions have far reaching consequences, and we need to own up if we cause a problem." He turned to face her, smiling as he continued walking backwards. "You did a great job, so there's your reward. Now, come on. Let's go home, I'm starving!" He turned forward and took off at a dead sprint, leaving Lucy in the dust.
"Wha- Hey! Naruto! Wait for me!" She shouted as she took off after him. Geez, how does Erza put up with having such a goofball as a brother?
A small, crystalline orb floated in the boughs of one of the few remaining trees, taking in the entire scene between the two mages. Far away on a remote island, at the top of oddly constructed tower, a man with blue hair and a red tattoo over his eye smiled slyly as he watched the scene play back on a similar crystal ball. And now I've found you, Naruto…
Little did Lucy know, in the days following their arrival back at the guild, she would see a side of Naruto and Erza that no one in the guild knew of.