Chapter 5 - Present
"What do you mean you didn't go on any jobs?!"
It was one of the two representatives of the Magic Council that were sent to investigate the activity of Naruto's private odd jobs business. He could not believe that after a whole month, Naruto still hadn't gone on a job.
Naruto's eyebrow twitched.
"Look, buddy, there really were no requests. I've done everything I should have done! I rented this damned building for a shitload of money in the middle of Magnolia where there are a lot of people passing by every day and I also got an awesome signboard! I got rather famous after disbanding Eisenwald too so there is no explanation as to why no people entered my shop!"
The Magic Council employee B palmed his face with both of his hands.
'Is this guy, by chance, an idiot?'
"Why did you even choose Magnolia in the first place?" employee B asked.
Naruto scratched the back of his head.
"I heard how mages have always been very popular in Magnolia..." he trailed off.
"Didn't you try to think of the reason why are mages so popular in Magnolia? It's because of Fairy Tail, the guild that is widely acknowledged as the strongest guild in Fiore. Why would people send requests to you instead of Fairy Tail?"
"Plus," employee B couldn't help but snicker "no-one in his right mind would enter a shop with that kind of signboard hanging above!"
A vein started to throb on Naruto's forehead.
"What's that supposed to mean? What's wrong with the signboard? I'll kick your ass, bastard!"
Employee A panicked and sent a deathly glare to his colleague before stammering quickly to Naruto:
"What he was trying to say is that nobody knows that your name is Uzumaki! You are a relatively new famous wizard so you should have written your nickname on the signboard - 'The Raven'. That way, some people would have certainly come, out of curiosity if nothing else. That weird orange colour is also...rather unusual..." he said and couldn't help a small chuckle after the last part.
At that moment Naruto finally understood why nobody was stepping through the door of his shop.
'No wonder people were not coming. It's because they didn't know my real name!'
Naruto may have matured a lot since the tragic end of his life but he was still clueless about other aspects of life. He didn't know how to sell himself, he had no experience in the art of commerce. He was glad that he finally realized what was wrong but the attitude of superiority of the two men was pissing him off to no end. The two employees of the Magic Council were suddenly assaulted by a powerful feeling of oppression.
"I know I'm dumb when it comes to many things not related to fighting...but if you think it's wise to come and speak patronizingly to a mage who single-handedly disbanded an entire Dark Guild, you're even dumber than I am."
His eyes became pitch black and the magical pressure he was emitting spiked. The two men involuntarily fell to their knees terrified. He grabbed them by their neck and the two felt like a chicken that was about to have its head chopped off.
"If I wanted, I could beat the shit out of you and no-one would stop me. You think I give any crap about you being from the Magic Council?"
He slammed their heads against each other and then threw them through the window, breaking it into pieces in the process.
"Learn some respect!"
Now that Naruto no longer cared about making himself pleasant for other people, he wasn't going to accept anything similar to what Sakura used to do to him in the past. No-one had the right to treat him as if he was a dirty rag or disrespectful.
'I'm not taking any shit from anyone. Not anymore!'
He had lived his entire past life for others and he ended up dying a meaningless death. He was not going to make the same mistakes now when he got a second chance at life. He was going to live for himself.
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Almost 2 years after the Strauss siblings joined the guild
"WHERE IS LISANNA?" Mirajane screamed in the middle of the guildhall and kicked a chair to the other side of the room where it smashed against the wall and broke apart.
The previous day, Natsu found a very large egg with an odd, dragon-like pattern on it. Thinking that it was a Dragon egg, he decided to hatch it and Lisanna eagerly offered herself to help him with it. The two children worked hard on making a hut for themselves in a half-joking half-serious play of a married couple expecting a newborn child and they were so exhausted at the end that they spent the night sleeping in it. But Mirajane didn't know that so she was worried sick about her baby sister. Lisanna was very young, in Mirajane's mind anything could have happened to her.
"Oi quit with the ruckus, will ya?" a Macao said in annoyance. He was a middle-aged man with slicked-back blue hair and a thick moustache.
It was like pouring oil on a fire - Mirajane blew up:
"Shut up you old geezer! Lisanna is missing!" she yelled and jumped on the table breaking it in half and throwing to the ground both Macao and his drinking partner Wakaba.
From the other side of the room, a red-haired girl that looked like she had been itching from the beginning for a fight yelled:
"NO, you shut up, skinny bitch!"
Mirajane quickly retorted:
"What was that, you dumb cow?"
The two girls were looking positively murderous. They were on the brink of starting a massive brawl.
It was just then that a voice came from the entrance of the guild:
"I...certainly didn't expect to see that..."
Recognizing the voice without even seeing the one who talked, Mirajane's face became as pale as a sheet and then quickly turned beet red, mortified in embarrassment. When she spoke next, her voice was very high-pitched and she stuttered:
"N-Naruto-san?!"
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'What am I going to do? Oh my god, he saw me acting like that... like a tomboy... like a monkey!' Mirajane thought regretfully as she followed Naruto outside the guild.
"Now I understand why they call you 'the Demon'!" Naruto joked and laughed lightly, only making the young girl's already existent blush becoming atomic.
Seeing her steaming silently in her embarrassment, he adopted a fake hurt expression:
"We haven't seen each other in like a month and I don't even get a hug? You're sooo mean, Mira-chan!"
It was like her embarrassment evaporated! Mirajane eagerly jumped into his arms squealing like a little girl and nearly made him fall on his back.
"Oh, you've gotten quite powerful, haven't you?" Naruto laughed and said pleasantly surprised at her physical strength.
He returned her hug and gently pet her on her head, making Mirajane's eyes half-close in content.
"Mou, Naruto-san, why did you have to leave Magnolia?! I missed you so much!"
"Oh shush, Hargeon is pretty close by!" Naruto said.
"But you're never there! I've been to your shop 3 times in the past two weeks alone, it was always closed!"
Following the Magic Council's employees inspection a month after opening the shop in Magnolia, Naruto realized the error in his ways and decided to close it. Rather said, to change his location. He rented another building in Hargeon Town and opened an Odd Jobs shop there. Hargeon Town was one of the most beautiful and most prosperous towns in the Kingdom of Fiore - but that is due to the profit it was getting from its fishing activities rather than magic as it was a port city. Upon careful consideration, Naruto decided to open a shop there due to 3 reasons:
1.There being very few mages and no other magic guilds, he would have no competitors. He was going to get all the future job requests from the townspeople who would rather come to his shop instead of travelling several hours by train to Magnolia and post their requests to Fairy Tail.
2. It was close to Magnolia. Ever since he decided to truly take care of Mirajane, Naruto quickly grew very attached to her too. He didn't want to set his shop to a city that was too far away from her.
3. It was a beautiful and peaceful old town. Naruto realized since he received this second chance at life that he rather enjoyed spending his evening in a peaceful environment, among simple and hardworking people. He had had in the Elemental Nations enough intrigue and danger for 10 lifetimes, not one. He wanted this life to spend it peacefully - as peaceful as the life of mage could be.
"Sorry, I missed you too, but it couldn't be helped! I received a personal request from the Magic Council. It was my biggest job so far, even bigger than Eisenwald's disbanding from nearly 2 years ago."
"Eh?! Then how come I haven't heard of it yet?!"
Naruto lightly flicked her on the nose.
"That's because it was not made public yet. I confirmed the completion of the job with the Magic Council only 2 hours ago then I came to see you directly. By tomorrow though, it should be all over the media, in all the newspapers and magazines."
The two of them began to leisurely walk by the riverside as they were catching up with each other.
"Well then, tell me!"
"NoPPPPe!" Naruto teased. "You'll get to learn about it tomorrow anyway."
"But I can't wait until tomorrow!" Mirajane whined and pouted.
Naruto inwardly cooed at the sight of her pouting face.
'Kami, isn't she just adorable? If I didn't personally see her break pieces of furniture in anger and bully 2 men old enough to be her father, I wouldn't believe she's nicknamed 'the Demon'.'
But that cute and gentle side Naruto was used to seeing was something Mirajane only showed in front of him and her younger siblings when they were at home. For the others, she truly was worthy of being called the Demon.
After a while of teasing and bickering, they stopped on a bench. Naruto took off his large travelling backpack and rummaged through it for a long while on purpose, just to see Mirajane's face scrunching in annoyance from losing her patience.
"Aha! I got it!" he exclaimed and fished out from his backpack a black silken box.
"Is this... is this for me?!" Mirajane said in wonder, her heart fluttering in excitement.
Naruto opened the lid of the box, revealing a black silken choker with a white pearl hanging from the middle.
"One of the youngest S-class mages in the history of Fiore and the shortest time to become an S-class after just registering as an official mage! Did you think I wouldn't buy a present for the person I care the most in this world?"
With her hands covering her mouth, Mirajane was speechless.
"Mira-chan... congratulations!"
When he said that, the girl threw herself in his arms, tears of happiness falling from her eyes.
"Thank you, Naruto-san! I love you so much!"
The hand that had been gently rubbing her back froze for a moment. But then, a soft smile appeared on his face and he hugged the little girl tighter to his chest.
"So I guess I'm forgiven for not being here to congratulate you last week when you officially became an S-class mage?"
"Only if you promise that you don't go for any jobs in the next 2 weeks," Mirajane mumbled with her face buried in his stomach, momentarily too embarrassed to let him see her crying face.
"Ok, I promise!" Naruto said with a smile. "Now, come on, turn around. I want to see if it fits you!" he said and taking the choker from the silken box, he tied it around her neck. He came in front of her and praised her sincerely: "You're really beautiful! In a few years, I'll have to beat the boys with a stick to steer clear of you!"
Mirajane blushed prettily and smiled shyly at his words. She wanted to tell him that she'd never care about any other boy except for him but she knew that right then, in his eyes, she was just a little girl. She could only hope that, in time, Naruto will start seeing as a girl too, not just as a younger sister.
"There is one special thing about this choker though," Naruto said seriously. "This pearl is, actually, a lacrima that contains a very large amount of my magic power. You just need to pour a bit of your magic into is and the pearl will automatically throw a blast of magic that will destroy everything in a cone area of 15 feet in length front of you."
Mirajane unconsciously touched the small pearl hanging from her choker.
"But you do know how powerful my magic is so if you detonate this against another human at point-blank range, you could easily kill them. Don't use it unless necessary, when your life is in danger. OK?"
The girl nodded vigorously. She knew that it was a serious matter. On the other hand, though, she was even more moved that his gift was not only very beautiful but it was very thoughtful as well.
'Naruto-san really cares about me and my safety! Naruto-san is the best!'
"Alright, now let's go get your sister. I know where she is, I can feel her specific magic signature from miles away - there are only 3 Take Over mages in Magnolia: you, Lisanna and Elfman!"
"And when you go home tonight, make your luggage and your siblings' too. I'll take you three with me to Akane Beach for the next 5 days!"
"Yay!" she exclaimed and Naruto laughed at her childish reaction.
The 1-month-long mission he had done for the Magic Council was just a rewarding as it was time-consuming. Although the Magic Council was controlling and strict, it was not stingy with its rewards. For the mission that Naruto had just completed, he received 10 million Jewels as a reward. He had enough money to not need to work in the following month and even go on a holiday to the beach with Mirajane, Lisanna and Elfman.
Actually, from Hargeon's townspeople, he was only making around 250k Jewels/month. For a mage of his calibre, it was not much. It was just enough to pay his rent and live comfortably as a civilian but nothing more. In the end, there were no S-class missions from the people of the town and Naruto's Odd Jobs shop was still too new on the market for other people to send him S-class requests. The most exciting job request that he had got from Hargeon Town was from the Maire of the city, to protect a shipment during its stay in the port from a local band of pirates that were expected to strike. It had been an A-class mission, one that gave him as much as his usual monthly income. However, what really kept his pockets full were the occasional missions that he was getting from the Magic Council.
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"You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto said exasperated when he saw what was on the first page of the newspaper:
The Raven and The Demon, embracing each other by the river. More details about their relationship on page 5...
The magazines were even wilder, having articles with titles like - Take Over Demonic Duo getting lovey-dovey - and pictures of him helping Mirajane put on the choker that he had just gifted to her. They were making all kinds of speculations as to what's going on between the two of them, what's the nature of their relationship and "how did the Raven manage to tame the Demon?".
"I single-handedly resolved a very pressing matter of national security but this is barely mentioned on the 3rd page of the newspaper! Instead, it's gossip and tabloids that take the first page! Seriously people, get your priorities set straight!" Naruto complained. However, there was nobody to listen to him; he was currently alone, in the room that he had rented at an inn for the night.
The mission that rewarded Naruto with 10 million Jewels was to stop the slave-trading network between the Kingdom of Bosco and the Kingdom of Fiore. In order to do that, Naruto had had to kill more than a dozen of A and B class mages from a dark guild called Mephisto's Dark Wish and even one S-class mage from a dark guild called Death's Head Caucus which was infamous as the best guild when it came to the number of assassinations missions completed.
Slavery was forbidden in the Kingdom of Fiore but it was perfectly legal in Bosco, its neighbour. In the past few years, the Magic Council got wind of the dark guilds' activities in regards to that. In the beginning, they kidnapped people 1 by 1 as not attract any attention. But as time passed by, the slave traders got greedy and they finally planned on making a big "transaction". Naruto stopped a train that was filled with over 50 young women and was about to pass the border to Bosco. Innocent women that were going be sold in brothels or as sex slaves to some rich nobles.
Thinking of the atrocities that almost happened, Naruto had shown the slave traders no mercy. Mephisto's Dark Wish was annihilated. He had killed almost a dozen of dark mages and maimed just as many, with only a handful of them being left with no traumas for the Magic Council to interrogate and imprison them. The surprising part for Naruto was that he had been allowed by the Magic Council from the beginning to use lethal force if he deemed it necessary. The Magic Council wanted to warn the rest of the dark guilds in Fiore that they still were the most powerful in the Kingdom and that certain lines could not be crossed. Slavery was one of the worst taboos one could commit.