Okay, this is going to be the end of this damned arc, because I am going to be honest, I hate this Arc really badly and I want this to get over with, WAY too long I have this story on hold and for that, I apologize.
Anyway, if you are an average Naruto/Fairy Tail crossover fan, you might've gone across Helghy's Reading: Shadow Of Fairy Tail story which has been catching up to my story. Because many fans seem to be actively like this, I see I got myself a fanbase on this that still want this story to be active.
So because of this, I am going to try to put more effort in this story, also, for anyone who keeps asking about the pairings of this story, I am still not going to tell much, not now at least.
Now, let's get to the next chapter.
Hours earlier
Seashore Galuna Island
The night on the island still was being accompanied by the wild cloud of black smoke that was being viewed by some spectators who were on the sea. It was being observed by the pirate crew that 'voluntarily' had brought Erza to the island and now were awaiting her return to the ship with her people who she was retrieving from the island.
The captain of the ship, a man who had sailed the seas for a long time, was the only one who was still on deck while his crew were given the time to rest. For he had witnessed the numerous explosions that happened on his watch.
"Captain."
The pirate captain turned to see one of his men walk up to him. "What's the matter?"
"What do you think happened up there?" The pirate asked his captain, still some fear present in his voice that was understandable. "You think it was the curse?"
The captain on the other hand sighs and began. "No, I don't think it was a curse, I think it was never to begin with."
The pirate looked at his captain with shock. "Huh?"
"I don't think it was a curse on that island, boy." The pirate captain said as he sighs while pulling out his tobacco pipe. "I think we're witnessing something else. As a matter of fact, I got a question for you."
"Uhm, sure." The young pirate was confused but complied. "What is it?"
"What do you smell?"
"Huh?" The pirate raised his eyebrow at his captain's question. "What do I smell?"
"Yes, what do you smell, boy?" The captain said turning his one working eye to him with a glare and warned. "And don't make me repeat that question."
The young pirate raised his nose up and sniffed a couple of times and said plain honest. "I smell the seawater, that's all, why?"
"You landlubber. I don't smell seawater." The captain said what he was smelling. "Its gunpowder."
"Gunpowder?" That was not what he was smelling, has the old man gone senile?
"Yes, gunpowder, explosives, dynamite. That's what you see coming out." The captain said looking at the continuing smoke. "And my guess from that smell, it's the one type of powder I haven't reeked in years."
The young pirate got curious and asked. "What do you mean?"
"Boy, I've sailed these seas for a long time and I have made many journeys. From the large Bellum lake to the western parts of the Pergrande docks, and I can tell you that I've met all kinds of pirates, thieves, crooks, drunkards and bastards a pirate of my lifetime could come across." The captain began to recollect his old memories of his younger days and wasn't shy to share them with the young kid. "Yet, there's one place where even hardened pirates like myself would not dare cross."
The young sailor got lost in the old man's rambling. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the Shinobi Continent, boy. This type of powder I smell comes from that place." The captain said as he took a good sniff from the smell. "It took me a while to remember that apart smell, a good piece of explosive work, I might add."
"The Shinobi Continent? Isn't that a myth?" The young pirate asked clearly having no knowledge of it. "I never heard of a place like that."
"That's because it's been isolated from the rest of the magical world for a long time. As I can recall, it has been like that for decades, so long that the years go by, the little the knowledge about them is kept." The captain told him, knowing very few who had true knowledge of its existence. "Only ones who know truly either are those high peckers of the government, or old timers like myself."
"So why are telling me this?" The sailor asked the old captain. "You didn't tell that Fairy Tail girl, and you didn't even bother telling us."
"Because, I've got a feeling that some nasty things are going to happen," The bearded man said. "And the moment we leave this island with those Fairy Tail mages, some things happened that are best left unspoken."
Next morning
With day just coming back up, two figures were already seen walking their way back to the old temple, with one being less willing to go there. That person being Toby, who was tied up in a rope and being escorted by Naruto who stood behind him.
The walk was silent as they both said very little ever since they left the camp that was still being asleep. That was until the mage began speaking;
"You're Naruto Uzumaki, right?"
Hearing that, Naruto just nodded and replied. "Yeah."
"I heard about you." Toby said not turning his head around as he kept on walking. "You are a pretty well known member of Fairy Tail, rumored to be on the same footing as Erza Scarlet and Laxus Dreyar, you're more famous for your abilities of Sealing Magic. But..."
"That's not what you're asking, so spit it out already." Naruto said having little attention for this mut.
Fear had been infecting the dog-boy's genes as he was visible shaking as he continued to talk. "... But you're something else. You hold a secret. Your identity-"
TCHK!
Toby's feet got tripped over by Naruto's foot on purpose to make him face plant directly to the dirt floor.
"Hey, what the-Ugh!"
Toby protests got chocked out as he felt a painful amount of force pressed against his throat. Almost unable to breath, his eyes widened while Naruto had his knee on breathing pipe, close to snapping his neck.
"Now, I have no time for you to stall me up while your ice friend and his rogue buddy still running free," Naruto said in a more interrogative way of speaking as he was close to Toby's ear. "So tell me now what their plan. NOW."
"They're not friends!" Toby protested strongly. "You've got the wrong idea-UGH!" Toby's words chocked out again as he tried regaining some oxygen to his lungs.
Naruto had put more pressure on his neck. "I don't care for that, tell me now what I want to hear. Don't. Make. Me. Repeat. Myself."
"C-Cant B-B-Breath!" Toby pleased for his life. "P-Please…"
Naruto sighs as he released his prisoner from his grasp and forced him back up before slamming his body against a tree hard that hit the back of his head to it. Knocking the mage out unintentionally.
"Ugh, great, now he's out cold." Naruto groaned to himself as grabbed the unconscious mage and threw him over his shoulder so he could carry hm to the temple. On the way he began muttering to himself.
"I need to work more on my enhanced interrogation techniques. Be lucky you're still breathing, dude, after the people you got yourself into, I don't take much chances."
"THAT SHIT!" Ao shouted in anger as he kicked the tent in after finding out what happened in their sleep, with everyone awake, they saw there were two people missing, one of their own, and one prisoner.
Chōjūrō again tried to be the peacemaker by waving his hands around.
"Come on, no need for this anger-"
"That boy has a lot of nerve," Ao states, who was still injured from his previous fight, was boiling in anger at what he just discovered. "Thinks he can take charge and decide what to do and go off with a prisoner without any notice?"
For the others, they had different feelings about it, for the only other captive, Sherry kept herself really quiet, having just woken up from whatever sleep she could've made in her short moments that she wasn't crying underneath that bag, fearing that she might find herself a cruel fate under these Shinobi.
The other two, Utakata and his student Hotaru, they had different opinions. For the bubble-pipe smoker, it didn't seem to bother him at all the moment as he kept himself to smoking bubbles. While Hotaru was more of the concern to the situation, but didn't have the courage to speak up about it.
So it was Tayuya who was left with her opinion and had a bit enough of the old man's constant shouting and decided to speak up about it.
"Can you calm the fuck down for a bit? It hasn't even been ten minutes that we've woken up and you already are starting to give us a headache." She told him straight up. Getting a glare directly from the older man.
"Watch your tone with me girl, or you'll regret it." Ao warned her. "No respect for your elders, not one bit."
"Like I'm going to give my respect for free, you old fuck." Tayuya mouthed back at him with an equal glare. "I've been making sure you were not bleeding dry here, and I have yet to hear a thank you from your shit-talking mouth."
"Now listen, you harlot"
"Who are you calling a harlot-"
"ENOUGH!"
The shout scared off all the birds that were residing in the trees and flew in their packs away. That shout happened to come from the least expecting person to be interrupting the conversation. Chōjūrō seem to be having enough with this bickering and began.
"This arguing isn't helping anyone, except for attracting unneeded attention. Like it was instructed to us, to conceal our presence from the local population, like the Mizukage said, Ao." Chōjūrō brought up the mission's instructions up, and the orders.
"... Fine." Ao said stepping back and maintained his concerns. "Still, we don't know where Uzumaki is with our prisoner. Don't tell me he's gone of without backup?"
"What if he did? He can handle himself." Tayuya replied. "This last guy, Kenji, If I'm correct? Is he really such a big deal?"
"Kenji Sotoki, is not a guy to be underestimated, he's shinobi-material through-and-through. A perfect creation of the Blood Mist' past." Ao said and added in shame. "... And my former student, who was one of the best back in the day."
The silence of the camp could be heard when the wind brushed through the tree leaves.
"I took him in as a student after his parents got killed just a week before he graduated from the academy. I knew his parents so I decided to teach him and his team as my underlings. He was a talented boy who had such great potential, being granted the rank of Chunin at the age of thirteen, and becoming a Jounin at eighteen, everything went well until..."
Chōjūrō was hearing this for the first time from his master, who never spoke about anything personal up easily, by this he asked.
"What happened?"
"The Civil War happened. Under the Fourth Mizukage, unrest reached its boiling point and the internal powder keg exploded, with its first conflict being with the Kaguya Clan, who waged war against the village and the state itself." Ao began talking about his own experience of that time.
"The Kaguya Clan…" Tayuya muttered, she thought back to how she knew one former comrade of hers who was from that clan in her earlier days serving for Orochimaru.
'Kimimaro's clan.'
"Their uprising was put down quickly, with reports that I've read of piles of bodies of dead Kaguya clan members being assembled at various villages. By then every clan that contained a kekkei Genkai was now under the suspicion across the whole country and the Hidden Mist, fearing for similar uprisings that created a hysteria that ultimately resulted in the massacres of the Gekkei Genkai clans," Ao said with a shaking head. "For example, the Yuki Clan for the longest time had been a long ally of the Hidden Mist and fought alongside us for decades, yet they fell under the hostility and were targeted and massacred by the blood-lusted mobs."
"And your student, Kenji, was amongst those who lead those massacres, right?" Tayuya asked the two Kiri nin. "That's what you told me."
"Yeah, he was," Chōjūrō reluctantly nodded. "He joined in on those purges very early one."
"How early?"
"He was the first one to kill a household of Kaguya clan members." Ao revealed to them with a grimacing face. "I was out on a mission with a different team when I got word that the Purges began, with my own student apparently cutting the youngest child's throat before throwing her in the sea with the rest of her family." Revealing one of the many atrocities his own student did with his own hands.
That thought made shivers to even the two young Shinobi who did not dare to think further on it.
"I spare you the further details he did as a ANBU commander, it's for the best." Ao said, not wanting to recall those reports. "But I will say that he has tasted more blood that a normal human being should have. Having left a trail of blood across the Land of Water - I'd even say he's a wolf in human skin that is just thirsty for blood."
"Sounds more like you're calling him a demon." Tayuya reacted to Ao's description of his former pupil0
"Yeah, I get that. Honestly, it's easier to say that people who are this bad are demons, but I would be a fool for saying that." Ao said narrowing his eye.
"Why's that?"
"Because he's no demon - he's a Shinobi - a human being - just like us."
BUMP!
That sudden sound made the three jumpy and turned to that unknown sound, and began to calm down once they saw it was just the other prisoner who fell to the ground.
"Hmmmph…" Sherry was heard moaning through the gag.
"Its nothing, just the bitch falling over." Tayuya said putting back her kunai and seeing she was exhausted and asked. "Guess she's exhausted, do we have some leftovers from yesterday's stew?"
Chōjūrō answered. "Yeah, we have, hey can you guys-" He turned around to the other two and noticed they were….gone. "Uhm, where are Utakata and Hotaru?"
"WHAT! They're gone?" Ao turned around saw their places were empty. Leaving the three by themselves.
"Where are they?"
"That's the obvious question, dingus." Tayuya said finding it frustrating that she's yet again by herself playing nurse with these two. "I figure out your friend with the bubbles left and the quiet girl followed him."
"Why would he - Oh, I know why. We need to stop them-ugh!" Ao grunts in pain and held his chest as he was gestured to sit down by the blue haired swordsman.
"You two are still in need of recovering. So don't try anything." Tayuya told them, looking for a brief moment back at the mountain and her mind was making up in one sentence.
'You better finish this fast, Naruto.'
Temple
Underneath the old temple, just where the support pillars were located, Natsu was seen walking through the dark room, full with both energy to empty up and anger to leash out.
"You bastards try to revive this monster, killed the old man's son and try to destroy the village!" Natsu's body got fully flamed up with his hands covered in fire. "I'M ALL FIRED UP!"
BAM!
Beginning his rampage, Natsu began destroying the support pillars of the temple and with minimum effort crushed bit-for-bit, the old standing infrastructure of this standing building that stood here for generations in a few simple seconds.
"I'M GOING TO TEAR THIS BUILDING DOWN!"
Temple
Sitting down in the old throne, Lyon and the mysterious Zalty were there as they listened to the only person of the team coming back, Yuka, explained what had happened.
"So it appears that your friends have been defeated by the outsiders." Zalty's face remained unchanged with his smile. "First Kenji's people, and now yours have fallen victim to them."
"Sherry...Toby…" Lyon said those names before asking the kneeling Yuka. "Are you sure about this? That those who you recognized with those headbands were Shinobi?"
Yuka confirmed with much distaste. "Unfortunately, yes. I've tried to track them down, but I cannot locate them anywhere."
Lyon, while not showing it in front of everyone, was conflicted inside on this news. He wanted to fulfill his vengeance against the beast that ruined his life, but he didn't want the lives of his friends to be put at risk for it.
"Guess this is the risk of working with Shinobi, I see." Zalty expressed with a chuckle that did not land right with the two other wizards.
Yuka especially who worded out his anger. "What's so funny about it?"
"Oh nothing, I just see the results of a predictable outcome that would eventually would've happened." Zalty said turning from Yuka to Lyon with the following remark. "Apparently, your friends got themselves against a Hunter-Nin team."
"Hunter-Nin?" Lyon questioned, not liking the sound of that.
"Shinobi who hunt down rogue Shinobi and kill them, with their accomplices too, of course." Zalty answered with a smile. "They're known to never rest until they have confirmed that their target is deceased. And most likely theirs were Kenji and his team you hired."
"And you just tell us this now!" Yuka screamed at the masked man, clearly angered at not being told this information earlier. "Our friends are now possible dead, because of you!"
"It's not because of him, boy." That came from Kenji who entered back in the hallway, interrupting the conversation, he went straight up and told the blue haired mage. "If I were you, you'd turn to your friend."
"What?!" Yuka turned his head towards in shock to the ice mage. "What is he talking about, Lyon?"
Zalty chuckled and explained. "What he means is that master Lyon here had full knowledge of the danger of working with the likes of Kenji, unlike how rogue mages are arrested alive by the Magic Council, the Shinobi take no chances and terminate anyone associated with him."
"You're saying that…Lyon!" Yuka turned right to his friend and in such anger he demanded. "You didn't even bother to tell us these things?"
Lyon was not prepared for this situation and his words would come up short.
"I'm sorry, Yuka, but to achieve the goal, we needed to-"
"The hell with the goal!" Yuka shut it down. "We all agreed to come together to avenge our families by reviving Deliora so we can destroy it. We did not agree to this!"
SWOOSH!
UGH!
SLAM!
Yuka's words chocked as he found himself slammed against the ground, with his head hitting the floor really hard, knocking him out instantly. It was Kenji who had knocked out the blue haired boy with his hand around the boy's throat.
"I'm getting tired of your complaining, kid." Kenji said while standing up over the unconscious wizard and kicked his head to the side, so his neck was exposed to the former ANBU commander whose bloodlust wasn't fulfilled yet.
Lyon did not like where this was going and called out. "Leave him alone."
"Don't think you got the authority to command me, boy." Kenji scoffed at the ice mage before turning back to the knocked out Yuka. "If you want to fulfill your goal of avenging your dead master, it's best to get rid of your baggage that's slowing you down."
"They are my friends, they're not baggage. And I told you to stay away from him!" Lyon raised his voice up. "Step away from him."
Kenji just didn't do it and was about to say something back to the kid who in his eyes was becoming less helpful to him, and opened his mouth.
CHK!
His senses warned him and Kenji quickly pulled out his sword and turns to the entrance as he just narrowly blocks something thrown at him.
CLINK!
Just in time, a kunai that was heading for his head, got blocked in midair by the former Hunter-nin who's reflexes still were sharp as the wind. If it weren't for that, his scalp by no doubt would be shredded in two.
Lyon quickly got off the throne and stood guard. "What's the meaning of this?"
A chuckle escaped from the mouth of Zalty who stated. "It looks like our fight with these Shinobi will begin sooner than I'd expected."
Lyon turned his sights on the dark hallway and before he knew it, a kunai had nearly missed him and slightly cut his cheek before striking right behind him int the throne.
Then five more flew out of the dark hallway and not one hit any of the three individuals standing their ground, it was then that the Ice mage heard something behind him and saw it came from the kunai.
It had a paper explosive that was burning.
Kenji quickly shouted. "GET DOWN!"
BOOM!
All five thrown kunais exploded the next moment, with the one that hit the throne exploding into pieces while sending Lyon flying forwards as the dust clouds of the fractured walls settled in the room. Creating a scene of confusion.
"What is- What is this trickery!" Lyon said standing back up, he stood up and began demanding.
"Whoever it is that threw those explosives, show yourself!"
CLANK!
CLASH!
CLANK!
A second kunai landed right close to Lyon's feet as he could hear what sounds like a fight., with it sounding like metal clashing and kicks that he could figure out pretty much a fight was happening. Before he could react, Kenji landed just in front of Lyon who would witness the fight first hand.
Holding his sword, a silent Kenji held his ground and awaited his opponent's next move, and it did not take long before he quickly turned around and blocked another attack by Naruto who held his kunai knife in his hand and began fighting with their blades to try and gain the upper hand over one another.
The fight was one of intense pressure, for both men who knew with one mishap, it would be over for them.
Dodging the sharp metals of each other's blades, narrowly near misses and the occasionally snaps of hair and cuts of skin were the closest what both sides could do to one another.
The dust cloud that had covered the room went away just as quickly when it arrived, it showed the state of the room as it was, with the four walls that surrounded the room being dealt a great amount of damage, with debris crumbling down.
CLASH!
The sword and the kunai connected and the silent grinding of the two metal tools sounded like nails scratching a chalkboard, even with that horrible sound in their ears, the two Shinobi were too focused on their survival rather on their hearings.
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events. A Shinobi fight, a rare encounter to see." The mysterious wizard Zalty, seems to be the first one to be giving his initial reaction to this. "Watch master, I promise you this will be interesting.
Lyon just looked on and did as he was suggested, and watched the fight unfold.
CLASH!
The two blades clashed again as Kenji managed to gain an advantage over Naruto and began trying to lay a hit on Naruto who began to dodge the sharp sword as fast as he could.
SLASH!
Kenji had tried to lay a hit on Naruto's head, but this time Naruto grabbed it in midair with the palms of his hand, to which he quickly took his chance and high kicked his feet right into Kenji's face.
"Ugh!" Kenji was sent on his back and dropped his sword and was forced to go with hand on hand combat, to which Naruto went straight on the offensive with a series of attacks.
First going at it with his fist right for the face followed by two kicks, all three got blocked, but the last kick did send Kenji back a few feet back as the kick was powerful enough to hurt his arm.
The Kiri nin landed on his two feet and blocked another foot kick laid by Naruto with his arms crossed, stopping the hitting streak of the former Konoha Shinobi. Ending in yet again, another struggle over each other with their hands locked in.
"Let me stop you right there, boy." Kenji sneered at the one-eyed blonde. "Once I am done with you, you'll be sleeping with the fishes."
Naruto grunts. "We'll see that, bastard."
Then before another word could be uttered out of anyone's mouth, the floor underneath them began to tremble, and before they knew it, the whole room with the already damaged room began tilting to one direction, as if an earthquake was happening.
"What the-" Lyon held onto something and wondered. "Why is the building shaking!?"
Naruto could already figure out what was happening. Yet before he could say it, the floor next to them broke open with flames being fired out of it, forcing Naruto and his opponent to jump away from each other.
Kenji took out some smoke bombs and threw them in the room, covering the room yet again with smoke.
Coming out of the hole where the flames previously was, Natsu jumped up high after destroying many floors to reach up this level and began coughing at the unusual amount of smoke that was around him.
"Strange, lots of smoke, yet no fire." Natsu said looking around to look for a fight. "Alright, you bastards, show yourself so I can kick your assess!"
"Allow myself." Zalty said using his magic to force all the black some out.
FWOOSH!
In a split moment, all the smoke disappeared and it showed that the only persons who were left standing in the throne room, were Natsu and Zalty themselves.
"Who are you?"
"Well, well, well, if isn't the Salamander of Fairy Tail, nice to meet you finally, I should've known you would make your move very quickly." Zalty said smiling with the current situation. "Unfortunately for you, Master Lyon has found himself to be absent to be present here."
Natsu looked around and saw that the masked creep was right, except for the two mages, Toby and Yuka who were found laying unconscious against the wall behind them, it was himself with this green haired masked individual.
"I must say, I was enjoying your guild mate's fight just moments before you interrupted their fight."
"You must talk about either Gray or Naruto." Natsu said, before getting back on track. "Anyway, I now ruined your plan, I just destroyed the building's pillars, so no moonlight for your plot to revive Deliora, so you can forget about that!"
*Laughter*
Zalty's response to that was just sheer laughter, as if he didn't seem to care about the fact their plan had been given an obstacle. Instead, he seemed to be more amused by it.
"Ah, you don't know half of what is going on here, do you, boy?" Zalty said to the Fairy Tail wizard. "Your generation is so naive to know what has really been going on behind the screens, even at this moment you are blind to see what is happening."
Natsu had no idea what this man was talking about. "What are you rambling about, bastard?"
"Lyon, and his friends, are just pins in a scheme." Zalty told him with a chuckle. "Unfortunately for you, I have to refrain myself into telling you."
"Don't talk games with me, buddy!" Natsu shouted angrily as he jumps up in the air with a fist full of fire. Intending to fight this prick right here, right now.
"You're going to tell me what's going on here, even if I got to beat it out of you!"
Zalty chuckled and replied. "It would be my please, to see you try."
Meanwhile
Erza, Lucy and Happy were running through the woods with haste, trying to get as fast as they could to the temple.
"Why did Gray run off on his own? We could've gone as a team." Lucy asked running behind Erza. Puffing and huffing from the uphill running. "Erza?"
"No time to talk, keep running." Erza ordered as she was still in her knight armor and kept on running, while Lucy sighs in defeat and tried to keep on with her. Happy on the other hand was just flying casually next to her.
"Feeling tired, Lucy, or do you want to avoid a fight?" Happy teased her.
"S-Shut it, cat!" Lucy shouted back before running faster to catch up with Erza, while Happy smiled at his trick working, knowing well that it only was said to encourage her.
Then the flying stopped his flight when he saw a tree knocked over and some bushes damaged, it did not look abnormal to him witnessing it, but what did cause him to stop was the weird feeling that he was getting from this damage.
He was about to check it out until-
"Happy, stay with us!"
Happy turned away and flew right back to the others, flying as quick as he could to catch up with them, if he'd stayed longer, the flying cat would've noticed he wasn't the only flying creature that was there.
A flock of crows flew out of the bushes and then flew back and walked right back into the bushes that was leaking something liquid.
It was blood, and it was trailing back to the body of one of the dead rogue Kiri nin whose body was surrounded by dozens of crows, trying to pick the scraps from the feast they were having of the still warm corpse.
A disturbing image that would've stayed on the cat's mind if he saw this.
With Gray
Having reached back down to Deliora's freezing state, the ice mage had to check out if the monster was resurrected, luckily it wasn't and he saw that the Moon Drip wasn't touching the ice.
"I can only figure out who was responsible for this," Gray muttered as he pretty much knew who it was. "I owe you one, Natsu."
Reaching for the ice, he needed to confirm for sure what the state was off the monster that had destroyed many innocent lives, including that of his late master, Ur. who sacrificed herself into protecting her two students.
Himself and Lyon, the later who chose revenge over respecting his master's wishes.
"Let's see." Gray said. His bare hand touched the cold ice, he began feeling the magical power that covered the special ice magic that held this monster for ten years. It took a moment for the young ice mage to comprehend with what he just discovered.
"I see, I guess I don't have to worry about it." He smiled as he felt relieved. "Thanks, Ur."
He stepped back and took one more look at the monster, knowing now what his master had done all those years ago.
"Okay, now to find the others."
Rumbling!
That came from up from the temple as pebbles fell down to Gray and he pretty much guessed what was going on.
"Hold on guys." Gray said as he began running up, trying to help out.
Meanwhile
The amount of tunnels that were on this island lead to any place not even the natives had any knowledge of, not even when it leads to an underground river that was clean blue as that of the sea.
Surrounded by the ground, there was still water that was to a foot's level and footsteps could be heard that was mixed with water being splashed.
From one of the three entrances, the girl known as Hotaru came out running at first, having followed after her master, Utakata, she lost him in the tunnels and was trying to find him again.
"Master, Master where are you?" She began calling him out. "Master!"
BANG!
Then an explosion between the last two entrances happened and boulders erupted out. This was Hotaru's cue to try and hide behind one of the big rocks that were near her and see what was going on.
Out of the new hole, jumped a wounded Kenji who was still holding on his sword with his face against the entrance, followed by Lyon who was trying to be his backup. The corporation on the other hand did not really brew out.
"I told you to stay out of my way, boy!" Kenji warned the ice mage again.
Lyon replies. "Hey, this guy is ruining my plan of revenge, I-"
"I don't give two fucks about your petty revenge for your dead master!" Kenji snarled at him with his sword pointed at him again. "The last thing on my mind is that sob story."
Lyon gave an angry look at him and said. "Better put that sword away from me, now…"
FWOSH!
While the two argued, another kunai with an explosive tag was thrown at the two opponents that forced them both to jump backwards into the lake before t exploded in front of them.
BOOM!
The two just got on the water, with Kenji standing over the lake while Lyon froze the water under his feet for him to stand on it, they faced the entrance where the kunai came from.
Naruto walked out of the dust with his own kunai knife that he still had and was looking at the two persons he had been chasing after.
"This ends here."
Running through the hallways, Erza, Lucy and Happy entered the throne room, that partly was destroyed when they arrived.
"Wow, a fight must've happened here." Happy commented on the damage. "I'd say either Natsu or Naruto."
Lucy was astonished by the damage and then spotted something to their right against the wall.
"Look!"
Laying there, a tied up Toby and Yuka, both knocked out and with their heads laid against the wall.
Erza went on to check on them and looked in their eyes.
"They're out for a few hours. But they'll be fine." Erza told them and stood up. "We need to find Naruto and Natsu. Something's going on here-"
BANG!
The floor in front of them exploded again and coming out were Natsu and Zalty, in a fight against each other. With Natsu landing in front of the other guild mates, while Zalty just standing on the throne.
"Natsu!"
The pink haired Fairy Tail wizard turned around and was glad to see his friends. "Hey guys, sorry for the mess, I've been in a fight with this prick." Turning back to his opponent who looked very relaxed to the current situation.
Erza reached for her sword. "We'll help out." Lucy was prepared to reach for one of her keys. With Happy flying high to watch.
The mysterious Zalty just chuckled and watched before saying. "Let's see what you got."
Walking out from another entrance was Gray who lastly joined.
"Gray!"
"Erza! Everybody!" Gray said turning to their opponent and asked. "I see this is our opponent. You guys seen Naruto?"
Erza shook her head. "No, was looking for him, but found Natsu instead, you?"
"No, sorry, but followed the sound of fighting and found you guys." He prepared himself to start running. "I'll go find Lyon, hope you guys can handle this-"
FWOOSH!
The crystal ball that flew over Gray's head hit and destroyed the two entrances of the throne room, trapping the Fairy Tail members inside the room with their only opponent.
"Sorry, Fairy Tail, but you're not going anywhere at the moment." Zalty said with his floating crystal ball. "Until, you beat me of course."
Gray grunted as he had no choice. "Fine, we'll have to fight this guy. You guys ready?"
"We are!" Erza/Natsu/Lucy shouted in agreement, ready to fight this guy.
Chuckling, Zalty knew he was going to stall this fight long enough, because he wanted to wait for the results of what he was waiting for.
And those results were quick to come to fruition.
Underground lake
CLASH! CLANK!
Hotaru watched on how the fight was continuing on, with the ice mage and the rogue Kiri-nin fighting Naruto on two sides, from the back and the front, having him outnumbered and trying to cut him down.
But that didn't seem to work out, as Naruto held his own and kept on fighting, even with the handicap of only one eye and being against two men, he still fought hard against them.
Naruto held his own while fighting head on with Kenji with his kunai knife against his sword, forcing the Kiri native to back down before getting an opening-
KICK! Naruto's feet strikes right into Kenji's knee before smashing his free fist right into his face, sending him several feet back into the lake.
"Ugh!" Kenji groaned in pain, having not yet recovered from his previous fight, he also seem to have underestimated the boy's strength, seeing he wasn't tired from the day-long clashes he had endured and wounds he had inflicted on him. Like the open wound on his shoulder that was shed blood in a small pace.
Still he was not failing, instead it felt like he was playing with them that could be best summoned up by how he was fighting Lyon. Of which, the ice mage tried to sneak on top him with an ice spell.
"Ice Make: Snow Dragon!" Lyon shouted by creating a huge ice dragon that was built out of the cold air and water and send crushing where Naruto stood with its whole weight.
Nearly exhausted, Lyon was covered in bruises, with Naruto having given him some unfair beating.
He was beginning to lose his patience and wanted to end his life and neared to unneeded recklessness that didn't soot well for the rogue Kiri-nin who needed a reliable fighter.
"Did I finally get him?"
"Not really, now."
Lyon's eyes widened where he heard that voice and began to slowly turn around, only for him to get struck in the face by Naruto who slammed his arm right against him and send him off. Sending the ice mage moving right to where Kenji stood.
As if he was mocking them, Naruto looked like he was doing alright at first hand, but that was far from the truth, underneath his mask, it was tempting to just spit the blood that was in his mouth right out, and the cuts he gained from the ice attacks and the sharpness of Kenji's blade did not help with show that he was running low on energy, especially when he's fighting against two opponents, even when they weren't working well with each other.
"You're becoming a nuisance to me, boy." Kenji said to the ice mage. "Tell me, why do I allow you still to be alive?"
"Shut up," Lyon spoke while getting back up from that blow. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here in the first place!"
It was here when a pebble happened to fall down Hotaru's hiding spot and it fell into the water.
SPLASH!
Kenji turned his head to that sound and immediately spotted the rock, and there was Hotaru. Who caught everyone's attention.
Naruto's eye widened.
Lyon looked confused. "Why is she here?"
A crooked growl turned up on Kenji's face as he sprinted right for the girl with the bloodlust he had.
"GET DOWN!"
Those words fell on deaf ears as Hotaru was petrified at the scene of Kenji coming right at her with his blade, ready to behead her.
"DIE!"
KICK!
That maniac's attempt was stopped by the appearance of Utakata, having intervened in Kenji's way of killing her by sending him back yet again to the water with an orange bubbled covered fist that his whole body was in a whole, tapping into his Tailed Beast's power.
Kenji landed back in the water, with his head now with an open wound, with a slash wound across his chest.
Standing back up, a more infuriated Kenji looked up to the now two opponents. With Utakata now standing in front of his self-declared apprentice who was too fear-stricken to move and couldn't even utter a word.
"M-M-"
"Don't, Hotaru, stay where you are, and don't move." Utakata said to her in a strict manner he rarely used. "Don't run, don't help, don't even say anything. Just observe at what you're about to see."
Hearing this, Hotaru nodded and stood there, watching how her orange covered master walked up next to Naruto who didn't seem to be fazed or shocked by his appearance.
"Your power, it's that of a Tailed Beast, isn't it?"
Naruto did not hesitate to ask about it straight away. To which the bubble maker wasn't shy to admit it.
"Yes, I do…" He took a look at the guy next to him and asked the following question. "Mine's Six, which are you?"
"Why ask?"
"Mine's name is Saiken, and he tells me you've got something that he scented." Utakata informed him about it. "So tell me, which one do you have?"
Naruto answered him then and said. "Mine's name is Kurama, Nine Tailed."
"You talk to him, much?"
"Not really, he's not the talking person at the moment, either that or the old fox is just sleeping now. Its one of the two."
"Yeah, we'll continue on that later." The kimono man said turning his eyes on their opponents who were still waiting there. "We've got a fight to finish."
"I agree." Naruto said, preparing himself for another fight with the two men who were still at bad terms of communicating and said out loud. "This circus has gone long enough."
Kenji stepped a few feet back and held his sword, standing dangerously close Lyon's back.
"I need blood..."
*SHINK*
This next move that Kenji made, got everyone's eyes to widen to what he had just done, something that didn't make any sense in a situation like this. Kenji had stabbed his sword through Lyon's back and it had come out through his chest clean, having taken the ice mage by surprise who even himself did not expect this treachery.
Kenji himself was just laughing, laughing at how he just stabbed his only ally in the room.
"You're no use to me anymore, boy."
Lyon was not prepared for this and dropped to his knees as he still on his ice, he was trembling in an uncontrollable pain he was suddenly given.
"Now, I think it's time for finally to play my calling card." The clearly unstable Kenji said before he kicked Lyon so strong in the gut that he was sent off to the other side of the lake.
CRUNCH!
Hitting his back against a wall, Lyon fell into unconsciousness, in the worst time possible as he was severely injured, and now easy prey to a monster.
"Now that magic using trash out of the way," Kenji said with a sinister smile. "It's time for us to fight like real Shinobi."
On the sidelines, Hotaru watched how the ice wizards was just thrown away and looked horrible wounded, so she knew she had to do something.
'I can't just stand here, he's going to die if those wounds aren't closed.'
As the girl was going on her own quest, nobody of the three Shinobi took a moment to watch what she was doing, instead they kept their focus on the fight. Kenji made the first move by making a tiger hand sign.
"Water Clone Jutsu!" Kenji shouted as five identical water clones appeared out of the lake and took the form of Kenji.
"I think I know where this is going." Utakata figured out their opponent's strategy.
Naruto took the moment to question. "Mind elaborating what his strategy is?"
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
That jutsu, was the next move that Kenji made, and in a spare moment the air got thickened with mist that was a specialty technique that was a normal calling card for Kiri nin. Having now the whole area covered in it, his strategy now was ready for completion.
"I think I know this strategy now," Naruto guessed, seeing where this was going. Still holding his kunai, he now was weary of his surroundings, now that he even couldn't see the guy next to him. He had to be extra cautious.
*Shuffe*
Naruto quickly turning around and was faced with one of Kenji's clones and didn't hesitate to slash right through the bastard's chest as it disintegrated back into water.
SLASH!
One of the Kenji clones hit Naruto from behind with his blade and made a clean sweep blow through his back.
The blonde's body fell down on his face, falling down, and when the body hit the ground-
POOF!
It wasn't Naruto, instead, it was a shadow clone. The water clone was tricked.
"Where is he?"
*Cling!*
SPLASH!
The water clone's head found itself flying off its body, leaving a pool of lake water as it liquid before falling down and becoming water itself again.
Behind it stood Naruto with his kunai knife, having been prepared for a scenario like this, he then took hiding in the mist itself.
Now he was also now lurking for his target...
Silently for his prey...
...
In the thick mist, Lyon was back to consciousness and realized just what happened, the pain in his chest prevented him from moving as he felt this unstoppable could shiver through his body, and to make things worse, the thick mist did not help into calming him down, not when he heard the sound of clicking.
That clicking turned out to be the sandal heels of Hotaru who finally reached to him and began to reach for something that caused him to try to focus his magic to defend himself.
"No, no, no, I'm not here to hurt you." Hotaru kneeled down to him and pulls out an unused pack of bandages and began putting it against his open chest to try to stop the bleeding. She would have to thank that girl Tayuya for giving her some of these first aid stuff.
"Hold on, okay?" She said trying her best. "Does it hurt there?"
"I'm...a bit okay," Lyon responded with a grunt as he still was trying to stay in consciousness, "He didn't hit my vitals, I think, just went clean through."
"Okay, let me at least clean it up then." She said dipping the bandages to try to absorb the flow of blood.
Lyon for the moment was still confused by this, why was she helping him?
Right now, the answers would for him be strange as he still was struggling to keep his eyes open.
...
Utakata was still in his Jinchuuriki form and was waiting for Kenji's next move, and wait long he didn't have to.
Three Kenji water clones jumped out of the mist, and for a moment with their blades, it looked like they were going to lay a hit on the Jinchuuriki.
With his gigantic red chakra covered hand, Utakata turned around and laid one massive hit.
BANG!
All three clones were caught in the hit and fell down the lake, splashing out of their short existence. This tactic seems to be rather like a fluke.
'This is way too quiet for Kenji, let alone he's being sloppy. Normally he could kill a whole team of Shinobi in less than a minute.'
Just then like a brick, it hit Utakata and he began yelling.
"Hotaru, look out!"
...
That yell made the Tsuchigumo to react and turn right back her head around, and was horrified to see it was Kenji with his sword over his head.
"Now I got you, wench!"
Instead of screaming or running like she always did, something made Hotaru at that moment to just sit there, with Lyon watching this half awake.
Just watched, as something then happened-
CLASH!
SPLASH!
SLASH!
A moment of silence suddenly had taken over the room, with the mist suddenly started to simmer down in a fast rate, showing what happened to everyone in the room.
Lyon was just shocked at what happened, while Hotaru for some reason, had closed her eyes, and for no explainable thought, she said the following.
"Thanks, Naruto-"
Her eyes widened as she finally realized what had just happened. Naruto had pushed her out of the way...and had taken the sword for her. The long, steel blade had pierced through his shoulder, it's clean metal now dripping with his blood. Naruto's body trembled as he was beginning to feel the consequences of his noble action, his teeth clenching to stop a scream from escaping his mouth.
"RAAAAAAAAA!"
With a mighty roar, Naruto ripped himself off of the sword, loud, painful squishing and crunching noises filling the air. As blood squirted into the air, Naruto let out a yell as he took out a kunai.
SHHNK!
The swordsman gasped as Naruto slammed his blade into his chest, piercing bone and flesh just as he had just done to the blond.
The blood trailed from the man's chest to Naruto's blade, even over his own hand and arm, making small droplets, showing the end of his blood-inspired debauchery.
"H-How?"
Naruto responded by saying in his ear this thing.
"Your hatred for bloodline users, turned you into a predictable fool."
"Bastard... Ugh…."
Blood began to sputter out of the former Kiri nin's wound as it was lingering all over Naruto's clothing just before he fell back over and fell into the water.
His body soon began leaking the red liquid into the beautiful colored blue lake water. Ending his terror of hunting down Gekkei Genkai users.
Utakata was quick to run by and saw what the end result was off the fight.
"It's over."
With the Fairy Tail wizards, they were giving everything that they had into fighting this mysterious guy and were close to their breaking point as they were getting exhausted.
Erza was still in her normal armor but was bruised up a bit. As were Natsu and Gray who were bruised up more with their more aggressive attacks, while Lucy was just partly bruised up but was close to falling down from the pressure.
Happy just looked and asked concerned. "You guys okay?"
"This guy doesn't go down, its like he's holding back or something." Lucy said trying to keep herself up. "He's no normal wizard."
"Lucy's right, he's not just a small-time dark mage. He's something else." Erza agreed and was thinking of stepping up her game but asked her two other guildmates. "Natsu, Gray, what do you think?"
"I don't care if he's holding back," Natsu said with a fist full of fire. "He's annoying me, and that's reason enough for me to go through!" Not liking the fact he's been played with, he was not going to give him this win.
Gray was in agreement and just nodded, yet he still needed to find Lyon and stop him.
"Alright, on me we-" Erza was about to tell a different strategy until she saw Zalty put his hand up.
"I've had enough." Zalty said out to them with his satisfied grin. "It was an good fight, I say, you Fairy Tail Wizards are good, I give you that. But I don't have any interest on being this island anymore. With Deliora unable to be resurrected and master Lyon now taken out by your friend Naruto."
"What!"
"YOU'RE JUS LEAVING!?" Natsu shouted, understandably pissed off. "YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!"
"We'll meet again, one day. Good night." Zalty just chuckled and said his farewells before he disappeared, right before Natsu could attack him with his fist full with flames.
"H-He just vanished in thin air!"
Natsu looks around and began shouting in anger.
"Damn bastard, where are you!"
Erza sighs. "Give up, Natsu. It's over." She states to everyone with her arms closed. "If what he says is true, we've just completed the quest."
"But the moon is still purple," Lucy said to her. "So long that curse is still on, the villager's can't turn back to normal."
"We'll figure it out on our way back to the village." Erza turned to the boys. "Now first, we've got to find Naruto, obviously if its true, then sorry Gray." Knowing that Gray wanted to exclusively fight against his former friend.
Gray shook his head. "Its no problem, if Naruto beat Lyon, that's good by me." He starts walking down. "Now, let's find him and get this stupid quest over with."
"Agreed." Happy shouted to Natsu. "Come on, Natsu, let's find Naruto!"
Lucy was wondering. "Where should we even start looking? He could be everywhere at this point."
Underground lake
The water now was contaminated, not with long-lasting filth, but with blood, blood that was being washed out of the clothing by Naruto, who after having his arm being bandaged in, started to disguise any form of deadly combat away before he'd regroup with his friends.
Now with the others, Utakata was covering the body of Kenji with numerous amount of paint he was using to make seal signs for him to be sealed away, all while in front of Lyon who was witnessing all of this in front of him.
"I've heard about the Shinobi way of Life was deadly," Lyon said after what he had seen. "But I never thought it was this ruthless."
Hotaru who was healing the ice mage's back could understand what he was saying and responded to that.
"I understand that, yet, its normal for us, or at least the others, like Master Utakata and Naruto."
Lyon looked up at them. "I never expected that he was a former Shinobi, I heard he was a very liked member of Fairy Tail, but this, was unexpected from him."
Naruto squeezed the shirt of him that dropped the last drops of blood before he puts them back on with his coat over it. Then when he did that, he turned right back where the ice mage was and walked over to him.
The ice mage did not know what he was going to do, he thought he was going to be arrested for his illegal actions until he was told the next thing.
"You're going to listen to what I am going to tell you."
And with that, the situation on Galuna Island, came to an end.
FINALLY!
The Galuna Arc ended.
Don't worry, the aftermath of this arc will be part of a different chapter. Which I will be gladly working on.
Stay tuned, stay clean, and stay cool. Till next time.
Peace!