(Reupload of Red Joker 042 story back in 2018)
I Am Your Father
"Who...am...I?" a lone, starving and tired boy thought as he sat down at the base of a tree, deep in the woods as his vision was black and blurry.
X700 Orphanage, Rulid Village, Worth Woodsea, Fiore
As far as he could remember, his first memories were at the orphanage in Rulid village in the middle of the largest forest in Fiore. He was left there on their doorstep on October 10th of X700 and that was his birthday, not uncommon among orphans but he always felt something was different about him. Like he wasn't normal. And truth be told, he certainly was anything but normal among the rest of the children around him.
The orphanage could attest to his abnormality. He hardly ever cried or played with toys, he always seemed distant and detached like a lone cloud from other children in the sky. Another weird thing is his magic. Magic wasn't unusual but it sure was weird when a 3 year old could give off waves of it unconsciously, was something really really odd to find in children and the caretakers were either fascinated, frightened or a mixture as they peered over at the wonder boy every now and then.
When the boy was growing up he was setting milestones at 18 months when he could speak properly to adults and other caretakers, who were wide-eyed at that. By 3 years old he was able to read, then at age 4 he was reading books on magic and it's properties at a small library that the orphanage visited every Saturaday. The librarian could not have been more shocked or almost a bit scared at what he was able to do.
She was an old lady who thought she had seen everything when the guild wars had raged but seeing a toddler read textbooks for adults and actually understanding what the words meant, while also pulling out different textbooks related to whatever fancied him. It shocked her and impressed her to the point where she would allow the child to borrow books, a privilege usually given to adults who could be more responsible and they all gathered around when he was doing something, and just kept a little bit of distance when he wasn't because it frightened them a little. It was too unnatural to be real.
Perhaps it was because of that, they never noticed how other children would pick on him and push him away from their groups. The boy couldn't understand why that happened but realised that they couldn't understand things at his level and that was the reason for it. For that he would usually just head off on his own and ignore them, there wasn't anything he could do about it so why bother? Children could be the most cruel beings at times because they didn't know what they were doing was wrong.
The other children saw the boy getting lavished with attention every library visit when he would get special treatment and would be allowed to take books home with him, the other caretakers usually gave more attention to him because they would always say how he was "special" and "better" than the other children, and naturally that caused them to get upset and resent the boy quite a lot.
That boy's name was Naruto. Just Naruto. He was just a boy with black hair, blacker than the night sky but the strange thing about him was emerald-green eyes. To the outside world, the emeralds in his eyes would be dull and toneless. Like they were hollow on the inside but when he found a book on magic or something that grabbed his attention then they would shine up like someone lit a candle inside it and almost sparkle with radiance.
X705 Park, Rulid Village, Worth Woodsea
"So Magic is created from Ethernano's, a type of particle stored in the bodies of mages. So what's inside me is ethernano, how do I get it out to use magic? It says it's "instinctual", I don't know what that means" Naruto read out loud from a book and felt a few particles buzzing around him and tried to vibrate his hand and tense it as hard as he could, but after a few seconds he stopped and continued reading. He was 5 years old at this time and was sitting underneath a tree in the corner of the park while the rest of the children were playing in the playground.
He didn't fit in, or rather the others didn't want him to fit in. Well, he couldn't do anything about that so he ignored them in turn and continued reading and learning about his unique powers.
"Hey freak!" a snide voice called out and Naruto just ignored it and turned a page on the book.
"Instinctual, magic has to be awakened before you can learn a type of magic. "A type", only one? That seems silly. Wouldn't it be better to learn more, or even the basics of other types to have more attacks? I'll look into that once I actually can unlock magic myself. The next page should give the answers" Naruto read out loud before a hand shot out and grabbed the book from the top and in a flash, the book was hoisted from his grip and out of his hands.
"HEY! I'm talking to you, FREAK!" an 8 year old boy yelled at him. What made him so damn special? Thinking he's too smart and better than them, he'll show him.
"Give that back!" Naruto snapped and tried to jump up and get the book back but the older and taller kid just held it up out of his reach. "Aww, does the freak want his book back! You're such a nerd" he taunted and Naruto gritted his teeth and was about to try again before he felt someone punch him right in the gut and he choked on his own spit before doubling onto his knees in pain and he spat out a little saliva mixed with blood.
"Hehe, don't get cocky you little runt" another voice laughed as Naruto turned around behind him to see 3 other 8 year olds come out from behind the tree and the four of them boxed him from all sides and Naruto just snarled in anger. What was their problem?
"What's this for!" Naruto yelled in anger.
"Tch, all the teachers and heads of this place keep going on and on about how smart and special you are. Well you're not special! And it's time someone taught you to respect your betters, someone get his lunch money" he snarled back and one of the kids held him from behind with his arms stuck and the other two fumbled Naruto's pockets and pulled out all the meagre money he had while the first one just looked at the book.
"Magic: The Journey of Infinite Possibilities" he read out and laughed, "Man you sure are a freak! You want to learn magic! Have fun getting killed in a guild war! Besides, if anyone's got magic it's us! We're just as special and just as great!" he snapped and slammed Naruto's face with the book and Naruto struggled to avoid it but was held in place and choked on his own saliva again and glared back at them angrily.
"Don't damage the book!" Naruto snapped at him angrily and tried to struggle even more but was held in place with help from all three who had to restrain him properly. "Hehe, why is it valuable?" he asked and looked for a price tag.
"It's a library book! I got it on loan and if it gets damaged or lost, I'll have to pay a fine or be banned from the library" Naruto told him and he just laughed. "We'll then, it's a shame because I think it might just be worth something. Guess you'll just never get it back again, freak!" he laughed and Naruto lunged forwards right at him, momentarily overpowering the three holding him back and the bully was stunned and tumbled over backwards but the other three managed to get a grip on Naruto again.
"You little brat! You got dirt on my clothes!" the bully snarled as he dusted his clothes off and punched Naruto right in the stomach but Naruto didn't let the pain get to him and just stared angrily at the tormentor who just smirked as he got an idea.
"Since you damaged what's mine, I'll do the same!" he grinned and tore a page clean off from the book and Naruto was wide eyed as he saw the page rip clean off and hit the ground, right into a patch of mud and soil and the bully dropped the book into the mud and stamped on it with the sole of his foot. The last legible words on that page was, "Magic can awake in times of rage..." but Naruto didn't see it.
"STOP THAT!" Naruto yelled and the three almost lost a grip but held him properly.
"Hehe, and why's that. You mad because I ripped your book? You mad because you won't be allowed to take books anymore? Heh, just goes to show that the library won't want you anymore, and no one will ever want you, that's why you got ditched here after all, freak!" he laughed and the last straw finally broke.
"Just shut up" Naruto whispered and they all turned to him, they could feel a change in the air, a different aura surrounding their victim and felt a shiver go up their spines.
"What did you just say?" the bully growled and grabbed Naruto by the hair so that the could look eye to eye, but when they locked eyes all the bully could see was not the usual dull green that would sparkle around books, but a blood red eye with a circle around the pupil.
"I said, SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled and as he said those words a black and golden-white aura started to condense around him and the other three let go in fear and started to back away from him.
"W-what's going on?" one bully asked. "I don't know!" another one replied.
"H-hey, we should get out of here" the third one suggested and they all nodded fearfully.
"H-here, take it!" the bully said and threw the book back but missed and it fell into a pond of water that was behind the tree and the aura around Naruto thickened to the point where the air was almost saturated with magic and the bullies shivered as they saw the aura spiking around Naruto.
"Why you! RRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Naruto gave out a roar and the aura exploded in one burst and the children were blown back as a small explosion occurred where they were standing and the sudden burst attracted attention from the supervisors who found four 8 year olds knocked out, each with broken legs, arms and concussions as they were flung into the sides of buildings, trees and bushes and Naruto who fainted from exhaustion in a small crater.
When Naruto later came to, he had no idea what just happened but most of the children and some adults did. The bullies came to first and gave their first hand stories about how they were "attacked" for "no reason" by Naruto, who blew up the area and the book with his magic. As soon as that happened, word spread like wildfire about a child with red eyes and as all stories go it became greatly exaggerated to the point where everyone would back away slightly in fear from him like he could try and hurt them at any second.
Naruto tried his best to set the record straight, but everyone had already heard stories and accounts from the other children, added onto his already loner like stance and general low popularity meant that the scales tipped over to the other side and people believed that Naruto did "attack for no reason".
Naruto was outraged internally, but reasoned that any further outbursts of anger would just cement his "infamous" reputation even more and resolved to try and control his magic so that it didn't explode out of him again. He wanted to be happy, he could perform magic but the price wasn't a nice one as all it cost him was what could be a lifetime of solitude as people gave cold shoulders and backed away whenever he was around.
That saddened Naruto, as Naruto tried to show that he could control his magic but the people around him were having none of it. Naruto wasn't allowed back into the library, but fortunately he had borrowed enough basics and the librarian left the window open for Naruto to take the books he needed on magic. He resolved that this was out of necessity as he needed to know how to control it before it blew up in someone else's face and had managed to get a small measure of control and demonstrated that to the people around him. If they could see that he wasn't going to explode violently at people, and could actually control his magic then they would understand and see him as a young Mage in the making.
But sadly mages were almost non-existent in their small village and didn't have a great reputation as the village was once a casualty in a Guild War and the show of power had planted a seed of fear into their minds that Naruto couldn't erase from them. Every time someone would treat him badly with a cold shoulder or a hurtful comment he would try to show his control but they would flinch and run and there were a few times he was attacked by the parents of the children he hurt and defended himself with magic. But he lacked control and broke even more bones, ostracising him even further.
As a year passed, more and more people shunned him and ignored his existence. They didn't want to look at him since he hurt a group of "innocent children" according to how the story was fabricated and Naruto tried to deny it again but it was for naught. His own name became nothing, as people referred to him from Naruto to boy, then freak and soon a demon.
For they didn't know it yet, but his parents were something else entirely. He was the son of Zeref Dragneel and Mavis Vermillion and the fraternal twin of August Dragneel. That made him Naruto Dragneel.
His own name was actually one he decided himself, from one of the many books he read when he was 3. One of them was called "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Mage" written a long time ago by an obscure author when the guild wars started, the book was hidden in the back of an old shelf and barely sold at all but it was a jewel hidden in the haystack. About a hero who ended the Guild Wars that were raging on across the country.
He idolised the hero in the story, the one who managed to change the world, the man who ended the fighting, the one who everyone looked up to and appreciated and acknowledged their existence. He wanted to be that hero, he wanted to be Naruto and so he decided to make sure that he would live up to that name and called himself Naruto, and the orphanage eventually made that his name but now that had all changed. As a few months passed, the village's treatment of him had plummeted from bad to horrible and the injuries that he had caused on accident were starting to weigh down as the entire village was seeing him as a threat in the making, and no one was rushing to his side to back him up. He was all alone in this ordeal.
Then came the recent motion by the rest of the village, in fear of what he could do he was banished out of the place by the people and never allowed to come back. That suited him fine at the start, it wasn't like he had a nice time there. But after about a month, survival became much harder than he had anticipated before. He couldn't catch food, he had no knowledge on how to cook food and he had trouble finding shelter as he was constantly forced to leave any area he was in because somebody was coming by and threatened Naruto until he left.
Eventually Naruto came to a tree and sat there, his body was barely hanging on from starvation. "Why...was I...born?" he thought before he blacked out.
X705 Outskirts of Ruild Village, Worth Woodsea
By coincidence or fate there was someone else who was in the forest at the same time. He had black hair, pitch black eyes and wore clothes from over 300 years ago. A black robe with a white tunic and yellow linings. This was Zeref, the most infamous dark mage in existence.
"Someone's there" he thought as he could sense life coming from the clearing a few metres away. Normally he wouldn't go near them, and move onto the next forest but he could sense that life was quickly fading and made a split second decision. He would try to save that life, then leave before the Curse of Ankhseram burst forth and killed that person.
As he approached the person he saw a young boy, about 5 years old. He had black hair and his eyes were closed. His clothes were ragged and slightly in tatters and his body was thin. Very thin, like he was barely getting anything to eat.
At first, he was horrified at who could do that to a child but quickly replaced it with concern and tried his best to hold in Ankhseram's curse from flaring. He quickly realised that the boy's life was deteriorating and his pulse was weak. With what meagre magic he had, he used his Black Arts to strengthen the boy's body so that it could last a little longer. The more he rejected the cold nature of himself and cared about others, the weaker he became to the point where he was extremely vulnerable in his current state. He just lost Mavis, and the heartbreak that she might not have loved him was tearing him apart but he wanted to be better, for her sake and decided to go find food for the boy in the woods.
The job was easily done by letting out a controlled small blast of Ankhseram's magic and with it he killed a horde of wild boars and other animals. It as a shame that fruits tended to rot when he was near them because he needed nutrients but for now he just needed something.
As Zeref got back the boy's breathing was less laboured and colour on his skin had started re-emerge again. Using some wood that he sliced with a wave of magic, he created a pile of it and lit it on fire with Fire Magic and started to get a campfire going. Then he placed the animals on a spit and started to roast them, it wasn't perfectly done but it would do for now.
It was only after a few hours that the boy's eyes fluttered awake.
"Ugh..." Naruto groaned as he slowly picked himself off the tree and he opened his eyes to see a stranger that he had never seen before. He had black hair and black eyes, with a pale complexion and wore strange dress robes that Naruto could have sworn that he saw in a history book once before but his mind was too tired at this point to remember what it was as his stomach grumbled loudly in pain.
"So you're awake" Zeref said as he turned to Naruto, "Eat" he said and took a piece of meat and handed it to Naruto.
"Is it poisoned?" he asked tentatively. Zeref held in his indignation or else Ankhseram might flare again and replied evenly,
"If I wanted to kill you then I could have just left you to die of starvation" he replied carefully and Naruto couldn't argue with that grabbed a piece of meat and gave into desperate hunger and started to devour it like an animal, it was slightly charred and the meat was tough but at the brink of starvation he was happy to have something to eat at this point.
"Why?" Naruto he finished the first piece and turned to the stranger before immediately grabbing another piece that was offerent.
"Why not?" Zeref replied and Naruto stopped himself and handed the next piece back to Zeref.
"Here, I don't want to eat all of your food" Naruto said politely and Zeref smiled. "You'd rather starve than let someone else miss a meal?" Zeref asked amusedly.
Naruto was silent but Zeref just pushed the meat back to the boy and shook his head. Naruto wasn't going to accept someone else's meal, if he didn't get it then it wasn't his right and the stranger was the one who got the food, and was sharing it with Naruto, he didn't want to eat all of the strangers food and be in his debt.
"I already ate" Zeref stated, but that was a lie. He didn't need to eat since Ankhseram kept him alive for eternity.
"But your selflessness is admirable" he said with a hint of being impressed and Naruto went back to eating the food. "T-thank you" Naruto said happily to Zeref who did his best to remain emotionless.
"It was not a problem" he said, "Out of curiosity, why were you in such a state?" he asked. It was that question, he could say changed his life. If he had left and just forgotten about this then history would have taken a completely different course. Naruto would have just died within a few days and history would have taken a massively different course, but the smallest of actions can have the greatest of consequences in the future. Damn Butterflies.
"I was banished form my village" Naruto explained briefly and went back to eating and Zeref raised his eyebrow.
"Why were you banished in the first place?" he asked.
"I-I don't really know" Naruto said after a pause, why did this all happen to him? Well he should just tell the events and let him make his own interpretations because Naruto couldn't make any sense on why people acted so foolishly, "I had an accident and everything exploded and people got hurt, and then people started to be scared of me.They called me a demon and kicked me out" Naruto summarized shortly on the main events.
Was it magic?" Zeref thought, it was quite a while since he was this curious. Children at his age shouldn't be able to do such things with magic, it either showed that there was another circumstance or even more interesting, that the boy's magical container was already large despite his age.
"It should be clear with my eyes" Zeref thought and his eyes turned red with a circle around the pupil and gazed into the magic inside the boy. It was there, already accumulating at a surprisingly fast rate into his body.
He could have sworn that the magic looked familiar though, it was a unique shade of black. Black that was darker than the darkest of nights and then froze for a minute as he saw the magic accumulate into his own body. It was identical.
"I guess they really only hated me because I can do this" Naruto said and demonstrated by putting his hands together, from them two magical circles appeared and a black sphere had materialised in between and it was sucking the warmth out of the surroundings and Zeref paled. That was his unique alternate form of Darkness Magic, a step down from the Black Arts. "
W-what! How?" Zeref thought breathlessly.
"And I can also do this" Naruto said and the magical circles changed colour, from pitch black to a bright golden yellow, a colour of a girls hair that he could remember. The magic changed from a black sphere into a a shining white light that was in his palms and flooded the area with light and warmth flooded the area again.
He knew that magic, magic that could shine in the darkest of black. That was Light Magic, a step down from something he remembered and caused his heart to twinge. Mavis's Starlight magic.
"T-that's impossible!" Zeref breathed out loud as he started to stagger back and his knees gave out on him.
"M-mister, are you ok" Naruto said in worry and quickly stopped his magic,
"Here I'll stop the magic, I won't do anything. Please don't be angry" Naruto pleaded and Zeref felt his world collapse.
All the clues started to add up again, the boy's hair and face it was his. But his eyes, a green like the purest of nature, Mavis's eyes. His skin wasn't as pale as his was, they had a warm amount of colour like Mavis had. What is the meaning of this? He couldn't remember, well doing that with Mavis...other than the time in the lake, well he didn't exactly remember much from that time with her, choosing to suppress it all to run away from the pain but now...the time at the lake. He got her pregnant!
"I-I have a son" Zeref said out loud in a mixture of emotions, shock, fear, joy and was overwhelmed and then he couldn't hold it in anymore. The magic in his body was acting up again to epic proportions and Zeref started to fear greatly, he knew what was going to happen.
"RUN" Zeref yelled, "GET AWAY FROM ME! RIGHT NOW! RUN!" Zeref screamed in desperation and the boy faltered for a bit but it was too late.
"ARRGH!" Zeref yelled before black magic burst forwards from his body and waves of pitch black magic shot right at Naruto and everything around them. It quickly turned the grass a cold dead green, flowers started to wilt and wither and the tree before lost all its leaves and became twisted, black and dead. The magic rushed forwards and Naruto was hit right in his body and Zeref yelled out, "NOOO!" and Naruto collapsed.
"What have I done?" Zeref though as his magic stopped. "Curse you Ankhseram, how could you make me kill my son!" Zeref thought as tears started to roll down his eyes and his face and he collapsed onto his knees and yelled out in anger.
"RAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH-" Zeref yelled out in anger before turning back to his son's corpse which was starting to stir again-wait what?
"Ugh, that hurt" Naruto groaned painfully and Zeref stared at the boy, completely stunned.
"H-how?" Zeref thought before he saw Naruto pick himself off the ground and sat up again.
"Ow, it feels like my head was hit with a hammer. Why did you do that?" Naruto asked as he managed to stand up, albeit a bit shakily.
"H-How are you still alive?" Zeref asked, completely flabbergasted at the impossible just becoming possible.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked confusedly as he stopped shaking and Zeref didn't care anymore. Zeref decided not to count his blessings, thought it could be done by hand and rushed forwards and grabbed Naruto into a tight hug and felt tears roll down from his face once more.
"T-thank god you're alive" Zeref whispered and Naruto felt slightly weary and very confused but warm at the same time.
"W-what the heck? Why are you hugging me?" Naruto asked and wriggled slightly in his arms.
"Because I am your father" Zeref stated and Naruto's body stopped completely. Naruto was smart as well, he saw certain similarities between the two of them. They both had black hair, and a similar face as well. His hairstyle was also similar and that colour of magic, it was as black as his. But was it true?
At that point he didn't care, no one ever wanted him and he was told that no one would ever adopt a demon like him so for someone to actually want him, that warmed him more than the food ever did and he returned the hug as well. None of them noticed one lone woodcutter who had recognised Zeref and saw the whole scene play out, before running back to the village to report what he just heard.
"I swear I am going to kill that village" Zeref thought as he heard about what they put his son though, there would be nothing left of that place. Other than a pile of dead bodies and flaming ruins, he contemplated whether he should send one of the Etherious like Jackal to actually do that but held back on his idea. At least until they were far enough to do that.
They had sat down for a few hours and Naruto talked about his life that he led.
"So you're actually my father?" Naruto asked again.
"Yes" Zeref repeated again, Naruto kept asking that just to be sure that the answer didn't change or this wasn't some sort of dream.
"But you had no idea I even existed?" Naruto asked to understand the details of his life.
"That is true" Zeref said as well.
"T-then what about my mother? She had to know, right?" Naruto asked.
"She's dead" Zeref said sombrely, to everyone and particularly him Mavis had left this world. All that was left of her was her legacy, Fairy Tail and a son she probably never knew she had considering her current state. She wasn't "dead" in the conventional term, but it would be too long to explain that to Naruto.
"Oh" Naruto said and held his head down, for the mother that he never got to meet before.
"She was the single most amazing woman I have ever met, and you inherited her light based magic as well as my Black Arts. Light and darkness exists inside you" Zeref explained as Naruto gathered his light magic, his mother's light and clutched it tightly while feeling warmth from it and turned back to his father.
"C-can I go with you?" Naruto asked a bit nervously.
Zeref thought about that. He didn't have many companions, he had about 300 years of closing off his heart before Mavis appeared and she left as soon as she came. But Naruto was left of her. But how did he survive the Ankhseram's magic, was it a one-off or was he actually immune to it's effects completely? Was it possible that because Naruto was born from both carriers of Ankhseram's magic that he had some form of immunity or did he adapt from being in his mother's womb?
"I-it's too risky. My magic, it's not exactly like yours. It could kill you, I can't forgive myself if my curse killed you" Zeref finally said but Naruto latched onto his leg.
"Please don't leave me" Naruto begged and a few tears started to form.
"I-I-" Zeref thought before his thoughts were cut off.
"THERE HE IS!" one villager yelled, he was carrying a torch and pitchfork in his hands and slowly a group of villagers started to congregate around him and they all stared with glares at Naruto, who just cowered behind Zeref.
"So you really are a demon, boy. We shouldn't have banished you, we should have killed you then and there!" one spiteful villager yelled, his son's leg was in a cast for months and suffered a bad concussion and he was out for blood to get back that that boy.
"Excuse me" Zeref said coldly.
"I-I heard what happened, I was in the woods chopping some trees when I saw some of them were stone dead and I heard you" one villager said a bit nervously with a pickaxe over his shoulder, "That kid was your son. You're Zeref, the Black Mage! Then that demon who lived in our village was your son! We'll end you and your spawn today!" he yelled and got a cheer from the rest of them.
"So you're the ones who hurt my son" Zeref snarled as black magic started to swirl around his body and his eyes narrowed with red pupils.
"D-don't get scared, it's all of us versus one of him. Kill him first and then kill the boy, we'll burn him on a stake to purify our village" the leader of the mob said and that was all Zeref could hear before snapping completely and deciding to end them once and for all.
"Son, close your eyes" Zeref asked and Naruto obeyed and shut his eyes and the black magic around Zeref started to explode from him and he sent tendrils of energy at the crowd who doubled back but the energy quickly killed all of them in instants before retracting back to it's master. In a blink, almost all of them had just dropped dead like flies and the rest of them paled and suddenly realised what a bad idea they just had, this entire isolated community who knew almost nothing about mages was going to be destroyed.
"W-what are you?" the leader whimpered as he stumbled back and started to try and break into a run.
"I am death, destroyer of worlds" Zeref stated and that was the last thing the villagers heard before a torrent of black consumed them completely.
After that massacre was over, Zeref panted slightly from exhaustion. His current low powered state wasn't enough for this, he knew that the entire village must have known and they would have started to pack up once they found all the men from the village were killed and fled to other settlements. From there by word of mouth, they would spread the news of Zeref and his son and the child would be hunted down before he grew up to be a threat in their eyes.
"I can't leave him here now, people have seen him and identified him as my son. If I leave him, he'd be hunted down like an animal" Zeref said and growled at that last part. Did they have no humanity? He at least had a curse he could use as an excuse.
"Wait just a minute" Zeref said as he looked at the grass, in his rage he might have overdone it with his magic. He noticed that the dead grass extended to the end of the clearing, the clearing that Naruto was standing in. So...that meant that he survived again? The odds of it being immunity shot up drastically! But then he reprimanded himself for almost killing his own son, again.
"We need to go, now" Zeref sharply told his son who opened his eyes to his father's serious ones, he could hear more footsteps coming from other sides of the clearing who were running away to carry out exactly what he predicted and he gritted his teeth in frustration. If he was in his prime he could level this land but since he started to force himself to value life, his powers were severely damped as a result. If he chose to discard those values, then there was no telling what he would do with his son.
"So does that mean I can come with you?" Naruto asked again.
"Yes, you can-" Zeref said shortly and Naruto immediately latched onto Zeref into a tight hug.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou" he said repeatedly and quickly and Zeref was surprised but just patted him on his back, a little awkwardly.
Zeref just sighed and picked up Naruto and gave him a piggyback, at this rate they would make no progress. He needed to run, and needed to do it now to somewhere else away from their current location. Naruto had latched on tight and Zeref took a breath before he broke into a run and escaped the clearing leaving a trail of moulding corpses in his wake.
It was only after a few days of running that Zeref managed to get Naruto into a deserted cave deep in the mountains that were on the outer rim of the lands of Worth Woodsea. It would take a while for them to find him and his son Zeref thought and he let out a tired sigh. Wait, he can't keep calling him son. He didn't even name his own son.
"Son, do you have a name?" Zeref asked and Naruto nodded and pulled out a book from his clothes, it may have been in rags but the book was actually protected from the weather by them.
"Note to self: Make some clothes for him. Something black and maybe a little green or gold design, he's still my son" Zeref thought as Naruto showed him a book.
"My name is Naruto, I got it when I was reading this" Naruto said and Zeref took it and quickly skimmed through it. It was surprisingly thick, and a bit heavy and the words were a bit small. This book was meant for someone more than twice his age, if the content was any indication. But if he had learnt anything so far, it was that his son was unnaturally gifted at magic and intelligent but that made sense when both his parents were legends in their own right.
"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Mage?" Zeref read out loud as he looked at the cover of the book and then remembered something.
Flashback
"Mavis, what's that?" Zeref asked after he had explained some of the basics of his magic.
"Oh this, it's my favourite book. The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Mage" Mavis said cheerfully and Zeref slightly scoffed at the title, "It sounds ridiculous with the title but it was written by someone who wanted to do all he could for peace and to end the guild wars that keep raging on. You should read it sometime, sensei" she said and Zeref just ignored it and went back to his clearing to meditate for a while.
"Sensei, it's not a bad book at all" Mavis tried to push the book but Zeref just gave his usual blank stare, tinged with a little annoyance.
"Just leave me alone" Zeref stated plainly but that didn't stop or deter her at all.
"It's one of the greatest works of fiction. It's about a hero who continues to fight against the worlds beliefs of him, on top of the constant wars around the world. How he endures the ordeals and overcomes them all to protect those he cares about and create a better world for them. I think it's a great book, something that people in this era could learn a lot from" Mavis summarised the book.
"How foolish, sadly the real world doesn't work that way. Even if you end the cycle of pain, it will bud anew in another era, I know that for a fact from watching it happen" Zeref thought to himself.
"The hero has an interesting name, I'm not sure why but it's definitely unique. What do you think of the name, Naruto?" Mavis asked.
Present Time
Cave, Edge of Worth Woodsea
"How ironic, but then again he's her son" Zeref thought with a smile. "What's wrong father?" Naruto asked.
"Hm, oh it's nothing" Zeref said but Naruto looked curiously, "Well actually this book was your mother's favourite as well" he said and Naruto looked amazed as he looked at the book in a new light.
"Who was my mother?" Naruto asked and Zeref felt a pain in his heart again and clutched it as well.
"Naruto, please don't ask that" he whispered, "It's not that I want to hide it, but give me some time. Her death weighs me down to this day" he explained and Naruto just nodded after a pause, he was rather mature for his age, nothing like Mavis and Zeref felt another stab of pain inside himself.
Zeref couldn't bear it, the thought of the woman he loved more than anything but she didn't share the same feelings back, and now because of him, the woman he loved was in a fate worse than death. Naruto was better off without him explaining he was born out of wedlock from two cursed beings who paid the price of their own folly. Or rather he didn't want to tell his son of what they had done, to hide the truth because he deserved better. It would come back to bite him, but for now it was all he could do.
"Ok, father" Naruto said and Zeref sighed and ruffled his hair, he never thought that he would ever have such an opportunity in his life. To have a son. Was he even ready for a son? It wasn't like he had a manual for it, his own father died a long time ago and Zeref was barely able to manage his own problems let alone add to them.
But when he saw the spark in his son's eyes, he couldn't help but let go of his problems and sigh in contentment. He had a son, a whole list of opportunities had opened up for him. Sure he wouldn't be there for his first steps or his first words but he wanted to treasure every moment he had left with him before the curse warped his mind again.
But realistically, he also had to train his son. Not because he wanted to, and he doubted his son would object to training since he went on enthusiastically about learning magic but to also help protect himself from threats that could kill him. Not all the villagers were killed and soon the news would spread like wildfire, he had been able to isolate himself and people had long thought he disappeared but now they would actively hunt him down and everyone, from mages in guilds who took on missions to kill him to dark mages who would try and use his son as leverage to control him would try and hurt him.
"Naruto, how would you like to learn magic from your father?" Zeref said after he was brought out of his thoughts. Naruto had stopped talking about magic when he noticed that Zeref had zoned out.
That day was one of Naruto's happiest memories and he didn't let go of his father the entire night.
Zeref had to stay on the move completely, he couldn't take Naruto into his empire. If anything he had learnt so far was that he would quickly change into his more ruthless side if he approached Alvarez. That and if people there learnt of his son, they would immediately rope him in there and insurgents in his empire would paint a huge target on his son. No it was best to stay in Fiore.
He then wondered if he should try and use his Etherious demons but that was shut down since they had already proven that they were cold, ruthless and merciless to all around them and could easily turn on Naruto and kill him when his back was turned. His final order to them was to find him and kill him, while some demons would obey him it wasn't likely to be all. Then he would also have to deal with demons trying to take his son and his entire library easily could overwhelm him in his weakened state and he didn't know if he could control the demons in his state.
The Eclipse Gate couldn't be opened either, he'd need a Celestial Spirit Mage and all 12 keys again and that was near impossible to accomplish with his reputation. Anna Heartfilia was a lucky break for him who agreed to perform the Eclipse plan and he couldn't open it up again and interrupt the plan.
So his only option was to remain on the run, with his son. It wasn't easy but he discovered that his son had his mother's attitude and heart, shining everything with light but it was covered by the darkness of the father, his self-loathing and his philosophical ideas over the universe. That was all him, sadly.
Now back to training...
X705
"Now you know the basics of the magic, let's see you use it to make a spell" Zeref told him and Naruto nodded to his father and put his hands forwards.
"Hrggh!" Naruto grunted a little as he forced the ethernano in his body to form a pitch black magical circle with different spirals going around it as the spell was being modified and controlled through calculations by Naruto and Naruto took in a breath before pushing his power forwards.
From the centre of the circle, a small black dot was pushed out and slowly bit by bit several more black dots were appearing around that space and quickly condensing into a small sphere that expanded to the size of a soccer ball and Naruto let out a breath as he smiled at his success. His first spell.
"Congratulations my son, you just made your own spell" Zeref told him softly from behind him and Naruto turned around with a wide smile that warmed the Black Mages heart.
His style of teaching wasn't just to give a person every spell he knew, if someone wanted to truly become strong, then they needed to develop their own style and make their own path but he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of pride as he watched his son perform his first and his own created spell at the age of 6, no less. He knew that he shouldn't expect less of someone born from both him and Mavis, two unparalleled geniuses in magic but still, this was incredible.
" Dark Matter!" Naruto named his spell and the sphere shot forwards into a ranged attack at a tree and exploded with black light emanating from it and after the smoke and rubble cleared, there was a clear dent inside the rock and Zeref smiled at that. A basic ranged spell which could be used for mid- range offensive attacks, and if modified when he gets older could become seeking attacks. It was a good base to build on, something he knew his son purposefully tailored his spell to become.
"I-I did it!" Naruto whispered before breaking into a wide smile and he felt a pat on his head from his father as he looked at him with a smile.
"Yes you did, never doubt yourself Naruto. You're one of a kind, but more importantly you're my son" he said and turned to him seriously, "Now I want you to remember again, the spell you are using is derived from Darkness Magic, something that I have a great affinity towards and now it's passed down to you. I want you to remember one of the most important lessons in using Darkness Magic"
"You have to control yourself, and never let it control you" Naruto recited what his father had told him and he nodded.
"Indeed, it's a magic that derives it's power from negative emotions. Anger, hate and pain for a few examples. It can be extremely powerful, but if you fall prey to your own thoughts and lose yourself in those emotions then it will take over your thoughts. That's why you have to maintain complete control. And if you master that, then this is the result. Death Orb!" Zeref said and stuck his hand forwards and without even a magic circle, dark particles instantly gathered into a sphere that was the size of a beach ball and midnight black and shot forwards like a bullet.
The sphere dug right into the hole that Naruto's attack made before exploding violently outwards, obliterating the rock and the earth around it and left a crater in its wake and Zeref let out a pant but regained his composure in front of his son.
"Amazing" Naruto said breathlessly.
"You've still got a lot to learn, but I know that one day you will not only reach this level but go beyond and surpass me" Zeref told him and Naruto looked at him in shock, "Shall we continue?" he asked and Naruto smiled and nodded.
"Yes!" he told his father.
Zeref never taught him Living Magic, or the Black Arts. The power that cursed art could give was the worst thing to ever exist. Never in all of eternity would he ever wish for his son to suffer the Curse of Ankhseram. He taught Mavis the Black Arts and warned her explicitly what would happen, against his better judgement and the woman he loved was cursed with the same curse he had. That was never going to happen to his son, and he was not going to make the same mistake twice.
Light magic, which was Mavis's power, on the other hand was the last thing Zeref could do, he knew a few basics but Mavis learnt it probably after he left, perhaps during the Guild wars or before that and he was stumped on how to teach it. Nevertheless he made sure that Naruto practiced it, although his skill set was unbalanced towards darkness more than light.
X708
"Father, I want to show you something" a 7 year old Naruto called out to his father who had sighed, he had just gotten breakfast for his son and he was already too eager to keep learning, keep advancing and keep growing. Just like his mother. But then again, that was a good thing. In the real world, if you stagnate, you were as good as dead. In his case, he wished he was dead, although now not so much anymore.
"I'm coming Naruto" Zeref told him and saw that Naruto's eyes had turned into red pupils with a circle around them.
Apparently Naruto discovered that he could turn his eyes into that state at will like an on and off switch, something Zeref took a while to discover. He just knew that it came about when he was angered or pushed, neither of those happened in a very long time and eventually for curiosity's sake he found that he could see magic when he could activate it but he was interested, perhaps his son had found a different power in it that he had never found before, and the thought intrigued him a lot and impressed him a lot that his son found something else.
Could it be something unique to his son's genetics, or was it something that he too could do. But he was more fascinated in what his son was capable of.
"Father, my first discovery was that eyes allow me to see magic. I can see particles of ethernanos condense around people and collect around them and being absorbed through their skin and into their magical containers. But I think I found another thing my eyes can do" Naruto explained as his pupils widened slightly as he focused magic into them and around Naruto, solid glowing golden runes and characters started to appear much to Zeref's shock.
"Those are...ancient runes? Then is this Ancient Rune Magic?" Zeref thought in amazement.
Ancient Rune Magic was a offshoot branch from the typical Letter Magic and Jutsu Shiki. Instead of the usual written language used in Letter
Magic and kanji used in Justu Shiki, this utilised ancient scripture and a mixture and coalition of ancient historical languages to create a much more powerful style of magic. It was created to be primary used as a method of sealing since it's power would collapse in on itself and with anything around it, but it was capable of of infinitely more so. But the main problem was that you could learn the ancient scripts, but you'd have to make your own version of scripture and it was insanely difficult to materialise the different letters. That's why it was barely ever heard of outside, and few could perform this without lifetimes of training but it was possible to learn and create it by using what was needed to create it.
People just brushed this aside as a worthless art as Requipcould easily store items and fulfil what most people thought the basis of Ancient Rune Magic was and therefore making it obsolete but the few who did try and master this art knew that it's potential was near limitless.
"How?" Zeref asked breathlessly with awe.
"I used these eyes to condense the ethernano particles exactly the way I need them to create a seal" Naruto panted with a little difficulty as he swiped both of his arms in a circular motion until the bottom of his hands met. The hand on top had the index and middle fingers pointing upwards, while the other hand had the little finger and index fingers pointing downwards, that was Zeref's symbol that he used in his spells to focus his spells.
"Haaah! Seal: Rock!" Naruto said and the runes condensed around a small pebble on the ground and wrapped around it like ribbons dancing in the air until the rock was covered in miniature symbols and the ground below it had a rotating circle made of glowing symbols around it and in a shine of light that Zeref didn't close his eyes, not to miss the magic, the rock had disappeared into nothingness but on the earth below him was a circle in black ink made of runes and in the centre of the circle was the symbol for rock, Iwa.
"I can't do much other than seal, and I can't do much either since I need these eyes to use Ancient Rune Magic but I think I can turn this into so much more, what do you think father?" Naruto panted exhaustedly as his eyes turned back to sparkling forest green and turned to his father who was beaming with his first wide smile in years as he embraced his son and stroked his neat black hair. He crouched down and looked at him, black meeting green.
"This is amazing Naruto. Son, I'm so proud of you" Zeref told him and Naruto would remember that deep inside him forever.
Ancient Rune Magic wasn't exactly combat orientated but in the hands of the right mind, a simple seal could turn to be the turning factor in a fight and Naruto understood that well. The main problems was that he had to use his eyes, now dubbed . Using it was very taxing to his body as it drained quite a chunk of magic from his body, and hence his seals weren't something he could use at all times but it was something all the same. Zeref was a little disappointed as Naruto had sort of stole the books on magic, and heard of this style from a footnote and began working out a way to recreate it himself but then again...it was from that village so he was willing to let it slide.
10th October X708
"Son, I have a gift for you" Zeref said with a smile as he and Naruto sat outside in the cool grass and Naruto was sitting up straight as Zeref stood up with a smile.
He had taught his son one of the essential basics in fighting, magic was limited. If you ran out of it, you were a sitting duck until it started to come back to you again and that could depend on any number of factors around you and would be a mystery. He wasn't giving his son that weakness as he taught his son hand-to-hand combat and also taught him swordsmanship with the basics from a bokken, a wooden sword and now he had something that he wanted to give his son.
" Requip" Zeref called out and in a flash of light, an object materialised from the air and as it gained form, Zeref grabbed it deftly from the middle and the object finally appeared in sight. It was a 0.6m katana and almost half Naruto's size as it shone in the night sky. It had a pure midnight black sheath and a black hilt with a blood red wrapping and an intricate, blood red design on the sheath as well and Naruto stared at it in awe.
"Have I really gone far enough in my skill with a bokken to use a katana?" Naruto immediately asked and Zeref just chuckled.
"You actually had the skill to use it a few weeks ago, I just wanted to wait for your birthday to give it to you. But if you prefer for me to give it to you at a later date-" Zeref smiled and Naruto stood upright again and immediately protested.
"Wait, I didn't mean that!" Naruto said quickly and Zeref chuckled again and handed the sword to Naruto who held it in a tight grip and unsheathed the blade to reveal what it looked like. The blade was unnaturally sharp, like it could cut through anything. The blade didn't look metallic either as it was pure midnight black but shone lightly as Naruto changed his grip. It was breath taking to look at. The sword itself was light, to the point where it could have been weightless but the sword just gave him a chill, it was just so eager to slice something.
"I think you've already analysed the important details" Zeref told him and Naruto looked up at him and payed attention to his father, "That sword is known as Murasame. A sword I forged quite a few decades ago. I tried to create a sword that could cut through anything without fail, a sword that would be able to kill me. But it failed as usual. That doesn't mean that the sword isn't an impressive piece of work, I spent decades more crafting it in hopes that it could do the job, it can channel large amounts of Darkness Magic with ease as well as Light Magic as well and it can also aid you in inscribing Ancient Runes and you know the basics of Requip so you know how to keep this on you. Be careful since it's quite a bloodthirsty sword, but with it remember one thing. There is nothing you cannot cut!" he told him and Naruto nodded.
He whispered to himself as he held the blade in his hands, "There is nothing I cannot cut" and that brought a smile to his face as he could almost feel the blade respond to that statement of the wielder as it shone in the blackest of nights.
They stood there silently for a minute as Naruto wanted to ask him something, something he wanted to ask for 3 years since the day he met his father but never had the courage to ask. He was afraid that his father wouldn't answer, or would treat him harshly for asking something like this, but he had to know.
"Father" Naruto said and Zeref looked at him, "Three years ago, that person called you the Black Mage. What does that mean? And also why did you design this weapon to kill yourself? How have you lived for so long? Why do people hunt you, and me as well for being your son?" Naruto asked and Zeref's heart almost paused as the questions came out.
For a minute, nothing could be heard but an uninterrupted silence that pierced through the night that not even the blade could cut until Zeref opened his mouth.
"I had honestly expected you to ask me this years ago. Why now?" Zeref asked his son who looked guilty.
"I didn't want you to get mad" Naruto whispered and Zeref sighed, for all of Naruto's skill and intelligence, sometimes it was easy to forget that he was still a sensitive child with a sensitive and delicate heart, who had been through a lot of pain from the constant solitude.
"Naruto" Zeref said and looked at him, "In my past...I did some bad things. I was angry at the world, I suppose I wanted to do something I knew I shouldn't do to save someone else's life. And the consequences were grave. I took out my anger at the injustice out onto the world and hence I was marked as a villain...I don't want to explain my lifespan, it's a story for another day and for centuries I've wanted to end the pain. But there were times when...I changed and took out my anger and inflicted a lot of pain. It's something I don't ever want to do again, ever since I met your mother...and ever since you came into my life, you're all that matters to me now, and I intend to make sure that I keep myself that way" Zeref told him honestly and the two shared a moment before Naruto hugged his father tightly and his father returned it.
"I don't think your a bad person, father" Naruto said, his voice muffled slightly and Zeref just chuckled sadly to himself.
"If only you knew just how much pain I caused, would you answer be the same?" Zeref thought as he embraced his son like it could be the last time.
Later, Zeref made Naruto promise that revenge against people who hated him wouldn't be the answer, he also didn't want his son to have blood on his hands like he did and make the same mistakes he did, albeit through a mind warping curse. He couldn't tell the full truth, or rather he couldn't bring himself to do so. Naruto was the one greatest miracle in his miserable life and he was selfish in not wanting to lose him so he lied. It wasn't like that one sin was going to damn his soul more than it already was.
X709
Zeref sighed as it was another day of training, he had taught the basics of all he needed to know and Naruto had been advancing by leaps and bounds on his own. The only restriction was his body which was still growing and had limited amounts of magic, meaning higher level spells were beyond his current reach but he was constantly training and getting stronger. A magical container was like a muscle, the more you used it, the greater it would grow and Naruto had never stopped pushing himself.
"Father, I've done it!" Naruto called out and Zeref kept his expectations ready, but no matter how hard he tried he was sure that his son was going to blow him out of the water.
"I'm here son" Zeref said and Naruto pulled up a stack of papers from the floor and Zeref sat down and read them but the first few lines caused his blood to freeze.
"Naruto, are you trying to combine magics?" Zeref asked carefully. "Yes" Naruto told him.
He looked at him seriously, "You are aware that combining magic is something extremely dangerous, and no mage has ever accomplished it. It's forbidden for a reason and combining magic can lead to disastrous consequences, so why are you doing this again?" he asked him gravely.
"I know" Naruto explained, "But can you please read through the entire calculations before you say anything?" he asked his father who blinked bit turned back to the papers and continued reading.
And the more he read, the more and more stunned he got to the point where he could almost swear his jaw could have been unhinged. His son, who was turning 10 in a few months had just written his first theory on magic, that could become a thesis.
"No way" Zeref thought as he checked each of Naruto's calcuations, Zeref got/(stole) books on Magical theory on top of what Naruto already took from the library years ago for his son's ninth birthday, but never in his wildest dreams could he have expected this from his son. Granted he wrote his first thesis when he was 13, this was unreal beyond anything he could have imagined.
"Ingenious, instead of trying to take one magic and then combine it to another, Naruto's concept is to materialise them at the same time. Obviously that means that you'd have to change the magic as a whole, which would be near impossible unless you were able to see the magic itself and make the adjustments on your own...that clever boy!" Zeref thought with a grin. In all his centuries, and his years of being able to see magic, this thought had never hit him even once!
The entire book was dedicated to one thing, combining light and darkness together, to find out what was beyond that.
"Naruto, polar opposites tend to react badly to each other. Generally they either cancel each other out or create a spontaneous release of energy as an explosion so what you're dong could easily backfire on yourself. You can't accomplish this until your Light Magic reaches a level equal to that of your Darkness Magic, and that is quite a gap" Zeref explained and Naruto nodded. It was true, his light magic was based on what he could discover on his own with trail and error but his father had guided him through learning Darkness Magic and could offer advice and help whenever he needed it.
"I understand" Naruto nodded his head.
"That being said, I am looking forward to the day that you do succeed in doing this" Zeref said and Naruto looked up at him in surprise, "If you are trying to do this, then only do it under supervision since it could easily backfire on you. Is there anything else?" Zeref said and Naruto's eyes lit up with joy.
"There's more, father!" Naruto said and pulled a new stack of papers and Zeref was mind-boggled at this point, just what kind of son did he and Mavis create!
"... Ethernano-Make Magic?" Zeref read as he skimmed through the next pile and his eyes were widened to epic proportions at his son's second theory! "Creating out of pure Ethernano? It would be mixed with a variety of different elements, similar to Etherion. But it would mostly depend on location, surrounding particles and much more. Something like this...it's never even been thought of before!" he thought in shock. If Mavis were here, she would squeal so loudly in excitement. Something like this was beyond fascinating.
"What do you think?" Naruto asked.
"...Let's get to work" Zeref said with something he had forgotten for centuries, enthusiasm.
With the way his son was progressing there were days when Zeref wondered if Naruto could be the one to finally kill him but then put that out of his mind, despite what darker thoughts were brewing in there. He would never force his son to go through with that pain. Natsu was already going to kill him, and had the power of E.N.D. to do so and he didn't know about their brotherhood so Natsu would never have to live with any guilt.
But not ever part of life was perfect...
Whenever Zeref left to get wood or supplies in dangerous areas he would be extremely worried if Naruto was almost kidnapped or attacked when he was left alone in a cave. Sure he could fight but a few adult mages, but no child could handle more than that and he had to immediately rush over and save his son and then flee again. That had a cycle of repeating every few months and Zeref was always afraid that each time could have been his last moments with his son.
His son had suffered quite a lot of injuries and wounds during combat with mages trying to capture or kill him constantly and it was this training that paid off in great lengths in order to ensure his survival, Zeref knew that his son had already had his first kill and that was the most traumatising night that Naruto had ever suffered but his father was there with him through every second of it.
But Zeref did spend as much time with his son, just enjoying being a father. His birthday present, which was the day he arrived at the orphanage was October 10th and he assumed that was his birthday and his present was his sword. Next was a few books that Zeref had "bought", he wasn't going to tell his son he stole them. He would share Christmases, Thanksgiving with some turkeys that Zeref would take from farms, and many more things with his father.
All of that couldn't stop one thing.
A growing voice inside Zeref's mind, it was the Curse of Contradiction and it was warping his mind once more as he saw Naruto continue to get stronger and stronger with an unreal growth curve that stunned the Black Mage. Every day that voice would grow louder in his head.
A voice telling him to kill his son.
To kill him before he became a threat to him, a threat to his life and a threat to his plans. That voice was constantly buried down deeper and deeper in Zeref's consciousness as he furiously pushed it as hard as he could. He would never, ever, ever harm his son, the gods be damned. But Naruto knew none of this as he kept it buried deep within and kept his usual outward pleasant self for his son, but he knew that one day that part of him would soon emerge, until then he would do his best to make sure that his son was strong, even stronger than him so that at least he would live, while making sure that he gave his son the happiest life he could give him.
But like all times, they had to come to an end...
October 10th X710
"GET HIM!" a loud yell was heard as Naruto was surrounded on all sides by adults who had brandished out weapons at the ready, looking bloodthirsty and ready for the kill. It appeared that a group of mages were out to kill him and for good measure, they had hired mercenaries to help him. The bulk of them were waiting in the bushes in case Zeref showed up but they were all around him and Naruto was left to face three swordsman who were apparently the leaders of the mercenaries. Naruto had steeled his nerves as he drew Murasame at the ready, the blade was almost vibrating in joy at the chance to slice up more victims. His father would probably be on his way right now since Naruto activated an Emergency Seal that he kept on him at all times, and it was connected to his father.
He was panting a good bit since he had just fought off 3 mages and this was probably the last dispatch of fighters and Naruto was running low on magic and stamina, he needed to escape and quickly.
"HAAAH!" one swordsman yelled and slashed at Naruto's head with a broadsword but Naruto parried it with his katana and twisted it around him. The clumsy broadsword wielder was open but his allies weren't going to let Naruto use that opening as another attack came from two other swordsmen and Naruto rolled forwards to dodge that attack. The three charged again with their broadswords and Naruto held his katana in a tight reverse grip as he countered another slash from one swordsman and then ducked under it and knocked his feet over as he tripped and Naruto immediately responded to the downed swordsman with a slash from his katana that was blocked by the third swordsman.
"Damn, they've got numbers and it's annoying" Naruto thought as he fought, "They've got me surrounded, so I can't split them up and take them down individually. They're physically stronger than me so any strike I give is overpowered by them. But they don't have great teamwork other than to parry me when I'm doing an obvious attack and bail each other, maybe I can use that" Naruto was brought out of it by a slash from the third swordsman and he felt the blade catch him off guard while he was dealing with the other two and the blade had sliced into his left arm.
"GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Naruto yelled as he backed away from them and clutched his bleeding left arm. There was a wound, not too deep on his left upper arm but it was bleeding profusely and had torn the sleeve of his shirt. The swordsman was aiming to take his arm off but luckily failed.
"Hehe! So you can bleed! Let's see if we can paint this place with a demon's blood!" one swordsman yelled and charged forwards. He went in slightly crouched and Naruto realised that he was aiming to deal damage to his legs, leaving him a sitting duck but now he knew what he needed to do.
As he approached Naruto timed himself so that as the sword approached him, Naruto put his blade into the ground and quickly shot it upwards and to the surprise of the first swordsman, it drew up a clump of dirt and dust that hit him square in the face and blinded him.
"ARGGGH! My eyes!" he yelled as he dropped his sword, crouched down and clutched his eyes, desperately rubbing them as hard as he could to get rid of the dust, Naruto feinted a high slash to his head and the second swordsman immediately came in for a parry but Naruto just saw it coming and his sword changed positions underneath the opponents sword and in a swift flick the broadsword that was supposed to parry him was sent upwards, right at the first swordsman and sliced him deeply across his neck and chest.
Not wasting a moment, Naruto immediately kicked the body of the first swordsman at the second one who stumbled backwards at the body that was thrown at him and Naruto immediately turned to the third swordsman. They locked eyes and the swordsman charged forwards recklessly and Naruto held his blade at the ready and spotted a nick on the blade of the first swordsman and his blade almost vibrated as he tightened his grip on his sword.
" There is nothing that I can't cut!" the sword almost conveyed to Naruto as he charged forwards to meet the approaching swordsman, to his surprise but Naruto's eyes locked onto his target. The blade was slightly worn out from older battles and they had clearly been underestimating him, Naruto was going to show them how much of a mistake that would be as his sword flashed as he tightened his grip on the blade and held it to his side.
As the swordsman came at him with a downwards strike, Naruto immediately stepped to the side with his left foot forward to the right of the swordsman and slashed horizontally as hard as he could at the one spot and in a clash of steel, midnight black vs dull grey and the katana left only a small trail of black as the sword was completely shattered into two pieces and before anyone could react, Naruto reversed the grip on his katana and slashed in the opposite direction and cut right through the midsection of the swordsman in one swoop and he yelled in pain before hitting the ground.
"DDDDIIIIEEEEE!" the second swordsman yelled as he snuck up from behind and swung downwards right down onto Naruto's skull and Naruto instinctively reacted and ducked, and rolled backwards quickly, to the swordsman's surprise and went underneath his legs but in a flash Naruto got on his feet and slashed right at the second swordsman's exposed back and he choked out blood as his back was sliced by Naruto and fell onto the ground.
"HEY! We have to capture him! If we don't have a hostage then the Black Mage will kill us all!" the mage said as he emerged from the bushes and a bunch of mercenaries came out as well realising the desperation of the situation and holding up arms against Naruto who clutched his bleeding arm in pain.
"I've got to use my magic, against superior numbers I can deal with them" Naruto thought of a plan in his head and in a flash his eyes turned red and he looked down so none of them noticed his eyes change colour or his trap get planted.
" Seal: Trap Formation - Add Property: Delay 10 seconds" Naruto thought as golden writing appeared on the ground but none of them noticed that it continued around them until they were inside a circle of Ancient Runes but the people around him were getting ready to charge forwards and tear him apart. Naruto could feel a good chunk of his magic going right now, he had to end this quickly and escape.
" Dark Matter!" Naruto yelled as a black magic circle appeared from his free bleeding hand and a black orb the size of a baseball quickly formed and shot forwards at the nearest opponent who saw the projectile aimed right for his head and ducked under it, only to see Naruto had already tried to escape using that slip in their formation.
"Not so fast!" a mage in the group yelled as a blast of fire shot forwards and Naruto instantly pulled his blade at the ready and it was covered in a black aura that enshrouded it completely.
"Nisshoku Tachikata! (Eclipse Cutter)" Naruto called out as Murasame slashed through the air and gave off a black slash that cut right through the flames and separated them to a gap wide enough to allow Naruto to escape between the two halves of the flame and he managed to escape their trap but the aura disappeared off Murasame.
As soon as Naruto was at the right distance, he noticed the seals glowing bright golden and almost blinding them as a bright golden Ancient Runes erupted from the ground and shot upwards and snaked around the area around them until it created a solid cube of writing in seconds. The people inside were about to try and break it but in another flash of light, the writing had turned into a pure solid golden barrier made of energy.
The people trapped inside pounded on the barrier wall but to no avail as even attacks didn't break it but Naruto knew better.
"It's only going to hold for a few minutes before it breaks from their attacks and I'm out of magic. I have to use this time to escape and get to father as fast as I can" Naruto thought as he stood up panting, sealing still took a good bit of energy and his eyes widened as a shadow loomed over him and he turned around to see a blade slashing downwards. He tried to dodge backwards but wasn't fast enough and Naruto yelled out in pain as his entire chest was slashed with a sword wrapped in flames.
"AAAAARRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Naruto yelled and fell backwards but managed to hold his feet steady onto the ground as he grounded his feet into the earth to help him anchor his position and from the bushes he saw a second mage emerge with a savage grin that sent a shiver up Naruto's spine.
"Surprise!" another mage yelled as he drew out a sword from a Requip space and slashed again at Naruto who rolled away from it but on his damaged arm which caused him a lot of pain, and struggled to get back up again.
"D-damn it. I got slashed right across the chest and the arm"Naruto thought as his thoughts were getting more and more light headed from blood loss and damage.
"Now, it's the end of the line for you. Any last requests?" the mage sneered as he held a flaming sword, the wound on his chest was cauterised from the flaming sword and his shoulder was still bleeding as well and Naruto stood up once more.
If this was the end, then he was never going to kneel to them.
"Go to hell" Naruto spat as he held himself tall and proud, he wasn't going to ever fall to people like them. People who ganged up with numbers, but worst of all people who wanted to hurt his father through him. That was something cowardly that he wouldn't forgive them for.
"As you wish" a cold voice said and the mage turned around to see something that would make even the manliest of men soil his pants.
An angry Zeref.
Or to be more precise, a Zeref with onyx black aura surrounding him that was completely enshrouding him and the mage stumbled backwards but couldn't even say a word as the magic immediately shot right through him and killed him instantly and then went for the people trapped in the barrier. The barrier shattered like glass instantly under Zeref's magic and the inhabitants were instantly killed. As for Naruto, the lightheadedness and Ankhseram's magic was too much and he felt his body wobble before falling over completely into unconsciousness.
Cave, Edge of Worth Woodsea October 10th X710
Zeref picked up his son's body and let out a breath of relief that he was just unconscious but his life was fading and slightly limp as he was bleeding profusely from a wound to his shoulder and there was a lot of damage caused from a cauterised wound to his chest. He had been gone for 5 minutes, 5 minutes to get a present for Naruto's 10th birthday and this happened.
" Kill him" a cursed voice whispered into Zeref's mind.
" NO!" Zeref thought and did his best to overpower the Curse, it was the curse making him think like this. He couldn't let the curse win, not now of all times! He was agitated and having his son's bleeding body wasn't helping at all and that loss of emotional control was what was letting his darker thoughts out to his mind.
"He will be a threat" the voice whispered again.
"I DON'T CARE!" Zeref thought back and did his best to silence the voice.
"He will die, as long as you love him then he will die, and you will kill him" the mental voice of the Curse of Contradiction spoke to him again before being silenced for good and inwardly Zeref had to admit that the voice was right, eventually a situation like this could occur again, and if the curse had more power over his mind then he would surely kill his son.
And that was if this life didn't kill him first. This was the closest to death that his son had been and he wasn't even an adult yet, the attacks on their lives were becoming more frequent and more large scale and this was starting to get to him. Zeref couldn't stop all these hordes and protect Naruto, and the more he tried to dip into his old power, the closer he got to the monster that was within him, and the more likely that he would be the one to snap his own son's neck.
There was no escape, no answer to how Zeref could save his son and live with him...unless?
"If I manage to separate him from myself, I can revert back and be in
control of myself. But it must be in a way that I cannot access him myself after I revert into a monster. And if I find a way to hide him, the focus will be back on me, but they all know his face, they'll hunt him as long as the name Zeref stays over this country, no the world!" Zeref thought and the answer to both problems was revealed as he quickly seized one of Naruto's experimental seal notebooks from his pockets and flicked through the pages till he found what he needed.
He then picked up a book from his pocket that he was planning on giving Naruto for his birthday, it would be his last and greatest gift to his son.
A book titled "Kurama".
"F-father, what are you doing?" Naruto asked painfully as he started to come to and saw that Zeref had taken him to their original secluded cave hideout and Zeref ignored his son and started inscribing ancient runes on the walls of the cavern. Zeref had taken the small book that he was planning on gifting and placed it in Naruto's pocket and Naruto felt something bind to him him but he ignored it and focused back on his father.
"Naruto, my son" Zeref said carefully controlling his voice unsure of how to tell his son what he was about to do but finally decided to be honest with him, "I can't keep this up any longer, how many times have you almost died! And it's because of me" Zeref said angrily at himself, who else could he blame for this misfortune.
"I'll...be fine" Naruto said as Zeref's Black Arts started to sew the wound shut, Zeref couldn't heal but he could come close to it, but for some reason his own body started to heal a little faster as the book in his pocket was doing something but he ignored it and turned back to his father.
"No, this-all of this. It can't work anymore. I-if this happened and you died, I could never forgive myself" he whispered and finished the last of the runes and placed the notebook back into Naruto's pocket before looking at his green eyes one last time, only they were no longer vibrant, they were dull like the day Mavis died.
"F-father, those are stasis runes? What are you doing?" Naruto asked worriedly.
"N-naruto, you may hate me for this but as your father in the long run this is for the best" Zeref stated in a toneless controlled voice and tried his best to stop tears from coming from his eyes. This hurt, it hurt so much. To have to part with his son, the single greatest thing that had ever been given in his long and miserable life other than Mavis.
"What?" Naruto choked as he tried to stand up.
"Those runes, they're designed to only be removed after a condition is fulfilled" Zeref said, "It will be removed when the world has forgotten about me. The runes are in perfect stasis so you won't feel any effects of age or anything of that sort" Zeref said and Naruto paled. Zeref was a part of the world, so if he forgot about himself, it either meant that he had amnesia and forgot about Naruto and couldn't hurt him, or he was finally dead.
"Father, don't-" Naruto said before he coughed out blood as his wounds were reopening, "Please don't do this" he whispered.
"Naruto, I know you don't want to be alone but after it's fulfilled you'll be able to be free from my shadow. You can make friends, get married, maybe even have children and grandchildren, and have a future. You could never have one if you were stuck on the run with me, how long would it be before you get killed, or before I kill you" Zeref lamented and added the last part in his thoughts and Naruto kept trying to crawl towards his father to the best of his ability as his body was still too exhausted from the blood loss and exhaustion.
"I don't want you to leave! I don't want a family if you're not in it!" Naruto yelled.
"I'm sorry, forgive me son. Remember this, I will always love you, Naruto" Zeref said and flared his magic as his eyes turned red in order to perform Ancient Rune Magic, " Seal: Stasis! Release Condition: World forgets Zeref!" and the runes around Naruto glowed bright black before Naruto's vision became black again. Just as he had met his father.