A/N: SO, FUN THING ABOUT UZUSHIO.
No one can agree on whether it was destroyed in the 2nd or 3rd Shinobi war. Apparently it was destroyed when Kushina was a child. Logically, considering she fought in the 3rd war as an adult, unless that was a really REALLY long war (at least 10 years?) it should have been destroyed in the 2nd. Except a LOT of people think it was destroyed in the 3rd. I have no clue, but I always thought it was the 2nd great war, and that's what I'm sticking with. Not that it's super relevant in this chapter, but meh.
Also, as a fun author headcanon (since it comes up in the chapter), due to the lack of information from Hiro Mashima, I like to believe that Natsu and Zeref were born on the summer and winter solstices, respectively. Though, obviously Natsu isn't in any position to know this at the present, I figured I'd just say it here. Historically speaking the solstices were revered as powerful days, and I just like to think that in a world of literal magic they'd have a lot of magical significance as well, especially for any children born at the peaks of the solstices.
Mavis is spring equinox fite me. I just love the idea of that symbology between her and Zeref. ALL THE SYMBOLOGY. Also the fact that Spring comes before Summer, and she created Fairy Tail which Natsu joined later (Summer coming after Spring, continuing the flourishing that she put in motion) AAAAAAAAA I LOVE ALL MY HEADCANON AND SYMBOLISM YOU GUYS.
So yes. Zeref, Mavis, and Natsu were born on the Winter, Spring, and Summer equinox/solstices in my headcanon, since birthdays haven't been given for any of these characters.
AND THAT'S THE REAL REASON I DON'T SHIP NALU! WE NEED AN AUTUMN BIRTHDAY FOR NATSU'S S.O. SO I CAN CONTINUE MY THEME HERE YOU GUYS!
But really I just think they make better friends than they do lovers. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER NATSU AND LUCY.
Okay that's enough author note from me. Thanks for reading!
Natsu tries not to think it too loudly, but being on the other side of escort missions is a lot more fun. Sure, it doesn't happen too often, cause it's pretty rare to get a job like that outside a yami guild, but sometimes there'll be stuff like busting smuggling rings or intercepting, like, thieves or something.
And maybe sometimes there'll be other reasons, but either way it's a lot more fun than walking around, slow as a snail, while some old drunk stinks up the entire road!
Natsu's pretty sure he couldn't smell a stink bomb under all the alcohol, even when he shifts formation to try and stay upwind; it just doesn't go away!
"So," Naruto starts, "are there lots of bandits b'tween Wave and Konoha?"
Tazuna uncorks his sake and takes another long drag, and Natsu fights not to wrinkle his nose in disgust. Kakashi answers after a moment.
"Wave isn't too far away, so it's unlikely we'll see any on the road - bandits avoid the areas closest to the hidden villages. However, Wave itself used to be a protectorate of Uzushio, and after they fell in the second war the country never managed to fully establish any military or protective forces of their own. There might be some attacks once we cross the border, though even bandits are rarely desperate enough to attack a shinobi team. Essentially, we're hired as a deterrent, and rarely actually fight on the lower-end C-Rank escorts. Ne~?"
"Whaaaa?! We aren't gonna fight anyone at all? What kinda mission is this! That's not a real job!" Naruto crosses his arms, humphing, and Natsu groans.
"Can't we at least walk faster then?" he mutters, and Kakashi laughs.
"Maa, Natsu-chan, it's quite rude to rush a client! And of course it's a real job, someone's paying us to do it after all~"
Natsu's pretty sure that moving a little faster wouldn't rush anything; with how tall the guy is his legs could definitely handle it, if he weren't so drunk.
Natsu decides that he really really doesn't like escorts.
But if it's really so unlikely to run into bandits on the road here… He breaks formation, ignoring Kakashi's considering hum, and moves to walk next to Naruto. "So how many instant ramen did you manage to fit into that pack of yours?" He asks with a grin, and the blond trips. Natsu catches him by the arm as he sputters.
"Wha-No-Natsuuuuuuu! Don't say it like that! There's other stuff in here than just ramen!"
Natsu very much doubts that, and makes sure his grin shows it. "Really? Like what?"
"Uh…" Naruto blushes a bit and crosses his arms. "I fit a change of clothes!"
Natsu snorts. "One change of clothes, twenty cups of ramen?"
"...I could only fit sixteen…" Naruto looks so embarrassed to admit it, and Natsu chuckles as he throws an arm around the blond's shoulders.
"Honestly with a pack that size, I'm impressed you managed that many. Cup ramen takes up a lot more space than packaged ramen after all!"
"As if I'd use that stuff! Nothing's as good as Ichiraku's, but- but that's a mockery of ramen! It doesn't even have anything in it, it's just broth and noodles! No way!" he shakes his head vigorously, horrified, and Natsu grins.
"Well, if you're lucky, they'll have a ramen stand in Wave and you can get some real noodles."
"You think ramen tastes different in different countries?"
Natsu hums consideringly. "Well, Wave's gotta be called Wave for a reason, right? They probably have lots of fresh fish, so they might have more seafood options than Konoha…"
Behind him, Natsu hears a cork pop and the swishing of liquid, and grimaces.
What's he trying to do, break Cana's record?! M-maybe I should ask what his pack is filled with! It's like he's got an infinite supply or something!
Naruto doesn't really know how to respond to Natsu's thoughts, because fish isn't really something he's had on ramen before and he's not sure if he'd like it, but if he doesn't say something then Natsu might move away and his arm's so warm-!
"Uh- um- what sort of fish could you put on ramen, anyway? I don't think I've seen any at Ichiraku's, unless you count the, heh, naruto…"
Natsu blinks, turning to look at him and Naruto nearly falls out of step at how close he seems.
"I never realized! You're named after a ramen topping, huh? Your parents must have known your destiny…" he grins widely, and something in Naruto aches, but… not in a bad way.
No one really talks about Naruto's parents, and Jiji said they were good people and good shinobi but that's it, he won't even tell Naruto their names, and lately, he sometimes wonders if it's a lie, if they were just people who didn't want him, who abandoned him after the kyuubi was put inside him because they didn't want a monster for a son-
But Natsu just says it so casually, like the fact that they named him Naruto meant they knew he'd love ramen, or that maybe they loved ramen and wanted to share that with him, like there's no way they could have been anything but awesome people and-
"Wha?" Natsu drops his arm, pulling away to look at Naruto, and his back feels oddly cold now, as the pinkette gives him a worried look. "Did I say something wrong?"
Naruto scrambles for something to say. "N-not at all, ehehehe, I was just… uh… wondering what Natsu's name meant? Since we were talking about mine and all!"
"Ah, really?" Natsu turns back to face the road, lacing his fingers behind his head. Naruto tries not to be disappointed, and moves to walk next to him again. "Natsu just means summer, so it's not too original. Loads of people have a name like that, all seasonal and stuff. That stripper-pervert would joke sometimes that it was a lazy name, like the parents would be like, 'quick, what season it is we'll just name em after that!', but really, he doesn't have room to talk, his name is literally just a color, and not even a cool color, but gray! The most boring color ever! Like, at least if it were blue, it'd match his jutsu, I actually called him Blue for like, a week, until Erza came back…" Natsu shudders, curling in on himself a little as they walk, and Naruto has no clue who this 'Erza' person is, but they must be super-strong! Even Kakashi-sensei doesn't get Natsu to shudder like that!
Though Tora does… But even Sasuke admits that Tora's a demon, so Naruto doesn't think she counts.
"So your birthday's in the summer then?" Naruto blurts out, before he can stop himself. They're not supposed to talk about stuff that would let people realize Natsu is a different person from Sakura-chan, and everyone knows she was born in spring, b-but! Tazuna's not from the village so it should be okay!
Somehow, he can feel a scary presence behind him though, and Naruto makes sure not to look at Kakashi-sensei.
"I mean, I guess. I never really celebrated one, so I don't know when it is…" Natsu's brow scrunches into Sakura-chan's thinking face, and Naruto hasn't seen it much at all since… everything happened, not cause Natsu doesn't think! Natsu's definitely really smart, but he never makes the thinking face that Sakura-chan always does, and Naruto kinda missed it, because Sakura-chan is so cute when she's thinking things through and being smart and-
Naruto slaps his cheeks and tells himself to stop being ridiculous, cause it's been a month and he's gotten loads better at not mixing up Natsu and Sakura-chan. He's not about to lose all that hard work now!
He can't quite stop himself from sneaking glances, and he bites his lip to keep from interrupting, even though he really wants to ask why Natsu doesn't have a birthday and what he's thinking about because even Naruto has a birthday, and he's been alone for as long as he can remember!
He's just about to ask anyway, because Natsu's been quiet for ages now and the C-Rank really is way more boring than he ever thought it could be despite all the warnings and at least talking to Natsu is fun, when the pinkette spins around so sharp that his hair smacks Naruto in the face.
"Wha-?" He turns around too, and the first thing he sees is Natsu laying on top of that old drunk guy in the dirt. Then Natsu rolls off, shrugging out of his pack as he leaps to the side and everything's moving so fast-
Sasuke bolts past him, also not wearing a pack, and then Naruto sees the attackers. Two people, wearing creepy masks (and it's been so long since he's thought a mask was creepy, cause Kaka-sensei's is just normal now but there's something definitely unsettling here and Naruto isn't sure what's going on-!), swinging chains around as Natsu and Sasuke try and dodge while getting closer and closer.
Somehow everything feels so much faster than their team spars, like everything's rushing around him and Naruto tries to move but it's like being stuck in slow motion and his fingers get tangled as he tries to shrug off his pack a-and where is Kakashi-sensei he was just here-!
Sasuke pins one of the long chains to a tree with shuriken, while Natsu grabs the other just with his hands and pulls the guy off-balance, and Naruto always knew Sakura-chan was strong, and what is he doing, just standing here?! I SWORE! I SWORE I WOULDN'T LET MY TEAMMATES GET HURT BECAUSE OF ME AGAIN! DAMMIT!
An image, of Sakura-chan's wrists torn up and bloody because of him and he won't let that happen again-!
Naruto's pack hits the ground with a thump, and he runs forward, tripping over himself because his legs are sluggish and everything's still moving so fast - Sasuke kicked that guy in the face, and he can't even see Natsu anymore - panic bubbles in Naruto's throat because he was just here - but he can't let that stop him, he turns toward Sakura-chan's opponent-
Can't throw a kunai, Kakashi said that right? Don't throw your weapons if you aren't certain where your allies are b-but-!
Naruto drops to the ground and sweeps his leg - the weird masked guy trips but he doesn't fall and Naruto scrambles as the man turns to him, tries to stand but his balance is all wrong and now he really wishes he'd paid a bit more attention when Kakashi-sensei was trying to explain how his taijutsu was off but he wanted to learn cool techniques and wasn't paying attention and now he just wants to slap himself because maybe he could have done that better if he'd paid attention-!
Thin arms curl around the guy's neck before he can attack and Naruto sees a flash of pink over his head. He leaps to his feet and goes for a punch straight into the guy's stomach as hard as he can, and he sees Sakura-chan's arms clench tight and the man just… falls over? Making a weird sort of choking noise all the way down.
Sakura-cha- no, Natsu - get it together, dattebayo! - stands up, eyes narrowed, and for a second Naruto thinks he's angry but then there's a thump and a whirl of wind and leaves that always signifies Kakashi-sensei showing up, and when he turns around both the weird attacking guys are tied to a tree, Kakashi-sensei himself leaning against it reading a book casually.
"Ah-! WHERE WERE YOU?!" he can't help but blurt out, pointing, but Kakashi-sensei just hums and turns a page in his book.
Sasuke growls, stomping closer to them. "I had it handled."
"Maa, he wasn't aiming for you, Sasuke-chan~" sensei chirps, and puts away his book. "In fact, I'm quite certain he was aiming for our client. And how fascinating that would be, wouldn't you say, Ta-zu-na-san?"
Natsu's seen a fair range of emotions in Kakashi since he met the man, but he's pretty sure this is the closest the sensei has ever been to genuinely angry. He couldn't even say why he thinks that, since Kakashi looks the same as he always does, chipper and amused, but Natsu doesn't think he's wrong.
Maybe that Tazu guy realizes it too, as he fumbles with his sake and doesn't look at any of them as he stutters. "I-I don't understand…"
"Don't you?" Kakashi asks brightly, but Natsu can practically hear the threat under the question. "This is a low-end C-Rank escort. There might be some banditry, maybe, but what there absolutely isn't, under any circumstances, is enemy shinobi. So perhaps you could explain why Kiri's infamous Demon Brothers specifically targeted you first? Perhaps if they'd gone for me, I might have assumed they were just arrogant idiots trying to claim my bounty, and if they'd gone for my students they'd obviously have been trying for a hostage to press me into doing something. But they didn't. They went for you, the civilian, a man with no posted bounty, who makes bridges for a living. Nuke-nin of their caliber wouldn't go for you unless they were hired. So… let's talk. Ne~?"
Kakashi disappears, and reappears almost instantly, crouched in front of the client, wide smile splitting his face under the mask.
The client sweats, nervously grasping at his sake, before his entire posture just sags.
"Y-you're right… I knew there might be people hired to kill me… but you have to understand! Some time ago, a man named Gato came to Wave! He took over, killing everyone who opposed him, even publicly executing them to make sure everyone knew it was him, knew what he could do-! And he controls the water, all the boats that come in and out, all the trade, no one has money anymore! I was trying to build a bridge connecting Wave to the mainland, so he wouldn't have a monopoly on us anymore, so we could trade without him taking all the money for himself and leaving us with nothing! I gave you everything I had! And I didn't expect children, I swear, I didn't!"
The man sounds desperate, and Natsu thinks he isn't lying, at least about this 'Gato' and the kind of man he is. But as the client lifts his sake jar and takes a long few gulps out of it, an unpleasant realization settles in his gut.
"That's why you're drunk," he says, numbness crawling up his spine as he stares at the man. "Y-you knew… you knew you were under-ranking the mission. Maybe you didn't expect kids but you knew you were lying and and you deliberately stayed as drunk as possible because no one takes drunks seriously so if you maybe ranted a bit about people out to get you they'd just laugh it off, and it wouldn't be your fault if they didn't take you seriously, wouldn't be your fault the mission was under-ranked because you couldn't afford anything more-"
Natsu's not sure why it worked, since shinobi seem so paranoid, though maybe judging all of Konoha off of Inoichi-san and Kakashi and the Hokage isn't totally fair - across from him, Kakashi-sensei's lone eye widens, then narrows sharply, and Natsu gets the feeling some Administration chunin are going to get a very thorough chewing out.
Sasuke cuts in then, cold and angry. "After all of that, you even had the audacity to complain about us being given your mission? Hn." he scoffs, and Natsu can practically hear the unspoken 'pathetic' Sasuke leaves off.
Tazuna doesn't even look sorry. If anything, the old man has the audacity to look angry, surging to his feet and glaring at them. "That was literally all the money I had! Even getting ahold of that much was almost impossible! I couldn't do anything else!"
Konoha may be pretty much a yami guild, but a guild is a guild. And Natsu knows that's a lie. There's something he's not telling them, even now, after everything, and fire curls through him, so familiar-
Kakashi's hand comes down on his shoulder, and the sensation vanishes so quickly Natsu wonders if he simply imagined it.
"For land as valuable in trade as Wave," he starts, pulling Natsu away gently as he shifts to face Tazuna directly, "Konoha would have happily cut you a deal if you'd told them the truth. But you didn't want that, did you?" He tilts his head in a mockery of questioning, and Tazuna flinches. "You wanted, what? To hire a chunin squad to protect you and your bridge, and when Gato arrives to destroy it, get a free assassination out of the deal? Especially with as low-end as you paid for, they'd be fresh chunin at best, easily pressured into a civilian assassination, you thought? Maybe set yourself up as a hero to the people of Wave at the end of it?"
Natsu can't quite help the disgust that fills him at the thought of that. To prioritize your own desires over the suffering of your people? But something doesn't feel quite right about Kakashi-sensei's theory, because it's hard to tell under all the alcohol, but Tazuna didn't quite feel that disgusting to him and his instincts are so rarely wrong…
The old man proves him right, stuttering in fear. "N-no… no that's wrong! I never wanted to be a hero! This isn't for myself! I just want independence! For Wave! We're a valuable trade hub, we always have been! That's what brought Gato to us, but that's what brought Kiri before him! Before that war cost them their control… Everyone! Everyone else, always controlling us, owning us, and we just have to hope they're better than Gato?! That's it? I don't care who becomes a hero, or who gets the glory! I just want Wave to be free to govern themselves, make their own choices! We shouldn't have to be sponsored and 'protected' by whoever has the most power on any given day! S-so of course I didn't want to make a deal with Konoha! You would just take Gato's place, and just because you'd be nicer about it-!" he cuts off, panting, and Natsu winces.
He can understand that feeling. That desire to be free, to not answer to anyone else… That's what Fairy Tail is. Home and freedom and a place to belong and call their own. He understands so much it almost hurts.
Because it doesn't change the fact that Tazuna really was planning to pressure them into assassinating Gato. Pressuring a team of children into an assassination. And Natsu feels sick to his stomach because he doesn't know what to do.
Because Wave deserves independence, because freedom and choice are important and Tazuna really isn't doing this for himself, he's doing this for the good of his entire country and that matters.
But he's asking a team of children to assassinate a man, a civilian, which, in this world, means a non-combatant, someone who can't - and likely won't - fight back, and that's wrong. Maybe he expected that he could get Kakashi-sensei to do it himself, but Kakashi looks furious and Natsu doesn't think that's going to work, and Tazuna's staring at them, because he knows it too, knows he'll never convince Kakashi-sensei so he's begging a bunch of kids to choose to take an assassination job, convince their teacher to take an assassination job-!
Either they turn away, leave an entire nation to suffer and starve, or they talk their sensei into continuing, even knowing that they'd be guaranteeing someone's death-!
Natsu has no idea what to do, he's going to be sick-
"We're leaving."
A/N II: AKA, this is my headcanon for Tazuna's motives. Kakashi talks about how valuable Wave is due to their status as a trade hub in canon, and I was always like – if they were so valuable, why couldn't Tazuna make a deal with Konoha's administration? And I came up with a couple theories. The first, that Tazuna didn't even think about it, didn't realize it was an option, which feels… lacking. You don't choose to hire a mercenary without doing some research, even if you're desperate. After all, Gato has more money than he does. And mercenaries go to the highest bidder. The second, that such things would be managed by the Daimyo, and he either failed to convince the Daimyo or didn't try. But that felt lacking as well, because surely Konoha doesn't manage all their resources through the civilian courts, and could negotiate on their own for Wave. Right? So, we come to my third idea. That Wave is a valuable trading hub that is never independent. Someone else is always in control of Wave and they're tired of it. Enter Tazuna's plot. Trick Konoha into freeing Wave. Too bad for him, he's been taking large swigs of his alcohol any time uncomfortable topics came up, and Natsu may not have consciously paid attention to his drinking habits, but his gut is never wrong and his gut tells him something is off about his drinking.
I did my best to actually mention him drinking any time people talked too close to the truth. Sort of as a mini-foreshadowing. And Natsu calls him on it.
Yeah. Wave is gonna be a bit dark. Probably not darker than in canon, but at the least it will be on the same level. Just… in different places. Hope you guys enjoy it! Feel free to let me know what you think about my political machinations here…