A/N: I'M SO SORRY FOR HOW LATE THIS IS! I pulled crazy overtime last weekend, and only barely got this written on Wednesday. But both my beta readers have had schedules as crazy as mine, so it only barely got edited now! I'm working on Chapter 21 as we speak, so it should be out by Monday at the latest, and we'll be back on schedule from here on out.

Hopefully.

Anyway, to guest reviewer sung7, that was a mistake on my part! I don't know if it's canon or fanon that Deliora is one of Zeref's demons, but I DO know that I've read so much fanfic regarding Deliora that I actually forgot that in canon Natsu didn't have to fight him, cause Ur's magic had already killed him! So Deliora and Lullaby were the two demons I was talking about, and the reason it was plural. I'll go back and change that line to say 'even one of Zeref's own demons' or something similar in a bit. Thanks for pointing that out, it was a goof on my end!

Anyway, thanks for reading, and sorry again for taking so long!

The sheer ice of Kakashi's voice cuts sharp as Gray's when the teasing has gone too far and Natsu's genuinely hurt the other mage; like Erza when she shuts down all emotion and just moves, the kind of fury where things are said that can't be taken back, and friendships take weeks to settle back to normal afterwards.

Kakashi could tell the same thing Natsu did, that Tazuna was trying to convince the children to continue the mission, and he's incandescent. It only takes a quick glance to realize that the subtleties of the old man's situation completely passed Naruto and Sasuke by, though Natsu thinks it's less that Sasuke couldn't figure it out for himself and more that he doesn't care to, he just wants to continue the mission. Both he and Naruto protest Kakashi's command, one louder than the other, but it's Natsu Kakashi looks at, and the Dragon Slayer feels so out of his depth.

Kakashi tends to treat Natsu just like another member of his team, despite knowing the pinkette was considered for being allowed to take S-Rank jobs once, but it's blatantly obvious now, that the man never forgot. Not with how he's looking at Natsu as though he can guess every thought going through the Dragon Slayer's head and doesn't like any of it.

Squaring his shoulders, Natsu turns to face Kakashi directly. He always misses his team, his family, and now more than ever because if they were here they could find a way to help Tazuna without resorting to murder - he knows they could; but even if this team isn't his team, it shouldn't be impossible. He takes a deep breath, and meets the older man's eye.

"No."

Naruto's protests cut off suddenly, and Natsu feels Sasuke's eyes boring into him, but he doesn't look away from Kakashi. The sensei's lone eye narrows sharply.

"I wasn't asking, Natsu."

It's unsettling, how all that sadistic cheeriness is gone, and in this moment Kakashi feels more like the enemies Natsu's fought before than the allies he fights with - cold and withdrawn, and every inch of him ready to attack.

Natsu wonders if Kakashi would actually attack him, or if he's just expecting more enemies to appear.

It's unsettling that even his instincts can't say for sure, but for all the things Natsu can be accused of, cowardice isn't one of them. He lifts his chin and glares back at the older man.

"I know you weren't. But I don't care! Maybe Konoha is a yami guild, but Fairy Tail never was! You might be willing to turn your back on him, but I'm not! Even if what he did was wrong, he's not the only one suffering! How can you just ignore that?!"

"Gato is said to be one of the richest men in the world. He won't stop at hiring a couple chunin, he's got the money to hire far more powerful shinobi. This is a mission that needs an elite team, and I will not endanger your lives out of something as stupid as pride-"

"IT'S NOT ABOUT PRIDE!" Natsu stomps forward, standing on his toes to glare into Kakashi's face. "It's about doing the right thing! I've taken worse odds, and I know my limits! I may not have all my old strength but fighting is about more than raw power and you know that! If we leave now NO ONE else will help him! I can't accept that!"

Kakashi sighs, putting his hands on Natsu's shoulders. He glares, but settles back onto his feet as the man speaks. "You're reckless, Natsu-san, but you're experienced. Experienced enough that I probably could trust you in a higher-level fight, I won't deny that. But I think you forget that your current teammates aren't like the ones you used to have. They don't have your experience. I'd be sending fresh genin into a fight with nuke-nin jonin. If anything went wrong, that would be on me. I won't take that risk with my team. I refuse to watch my students die. It's not negotiable, Natsu-san. We're leaving."

"I-is this because I froze? Because I wasn't as fast as Sasuke-kun or Natsu-kun?"

Kakashi sighs again at Naruto's hesitant question, letting go of Natsu's shoulders and walking past him. "No. You did well for your first live-combat, Naruto-kun. You may have frozen for a couple seconds, but you did gather yourself and move. That sort of reaction… it's not unheard of, among fresh genin. Especially when the fight is entirely unexpected, instead of prepared for in advance. There are just some risks a good sensei shouldn't take with their students if they have any other choice."

Sasuke opens his mouth to respond, then takes a deep breath. Whatever he was going to say, he clearly rethinks it but continues to speak regardless. "If you're that concerned about enemy shinobi, we can have ground rules. But I won't run away from this mission."

Kakashi looks between the three of them, deliberately skitting his gaze over Tazuna. Natsu wonders what he sees. No matter what Kakashi says to him, if they quit now it's obvious Naruto will blame himself. Sasuke will be furious. Natsu will too, for different reasons.

Team 7 is so new, so young, Natsu's pretty sure it's as obvious to Kakashi as it is to him that backing out of the mission will shatter whatever teamwork they've managed to scrape together. He wonders what Sakura would have said here, wonders if she'd agree with them or with Kakashi.

Sensei sags, though the defeated line of his shoulders doesn't quite hide the fury still bubbling under the surface. Natsu gets the feeling he doesn't plan to forgive Tazuna any time soon. "Ground rules, then. If I tell you to run, not a single one of you will question me. You will turn and flee without hesitation. If I tell you not to interfere, if I tell you not to do something, you will listen. If I give you an order, no matter how pointless or confusing it seems to you, you will obey instantly. If at any point you ignore me, we will turn around and leave if I have to knock you all unconscious, tie you to a sled, and drag you back to Konoha. Are we clear?"

Naruto bobs his head so rapidly it looks about to fall off, even Sasuke offers a curt, "Yes, sensei."

Natsu nods when Kakashi looks his way, and the sensei snorts. "Oh no. I'm going to need verbal confirmation from you, Natsu. Just to make certain you're not lying to me."

Joke's on him, cause Natsu's lied to the face of scarier people. So he straightens up, looks the man in the eye, and says without hesitation, "Of course, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi narrows his eye suspiciously, but Natsu fully intends to obey every single one of those rules - as long as he agrees with the orders.

It's not lying, just conditional truth-telling and always works better on people who haven't known him long enough to realize just how little care he gives to authority in general - Kakashi nods in satisfaction, and turns to offer a truly terrifying glare onto Tazuna.

Natsu won't even argue the man deserves it, with how satisfied he looks that they've decided to support him. He's done all the wrong things for all the right reasons and for all that Natsu will support his cause, Tazuna shouldn't look so pleased when half of Team 7 doesn't even realize what they've agreed to do.

Gato doesn't sound like the kind of person who'd give up and have a change of heart just because he got beat in a fight, doesn't sound like the kind of person who'd leave Wave alone if they kicked him out, and Wave itself doesn't sound like it has the resources to arrest him. Not without someone else's help, and that's what Tazuna is trying to avoid.

If there's a way to fix this without killing the man Natsu sure as hell can't see it, but he's going to keep looking. For the sake of the two twelve-year-olds on his team who haven't realized what they just signed up for, as much as for himself. He's seen death, fought against enemies where the stakes they put up were their own lives if they failed, but it's not the same.

Natsu wonders, if it comes to that, whether it's better or worse that the rest of Fairy Tail won't be there for it.

They wouldn't reject him for something like that, he knows beyond any shadow of a doubt, but he wonders if it would hurt them to know.

"Well now, Tazuna-san," Kakashi says deathly soft, "Get up and lead the way. And do pick up the pace. Hmm?"

Tazuna wisely doesn't say anything, just gathers his own pack and starts walking. Natsu swipes his and Naruto's off the ground, handing the latter out to the blond as they all fall into a protective formation, Kakashi at the back, Sasuke at point. Naruto hesitates a moment, looking at Natsu, before walking to Tazuna's other side. Natsu sighs, resigned to a boring walk in formation.

At least they're moving faster than before.

Kakashi would like to pull out a book. Not necessarily to read, with a legitimate threat out there he'd hardly drop his guard like that, but he prefers when his enemies underestimate him. And so many people, when they see him casually reading porn, tend to think he's gotten arrogant with his fame. But if he even pretends at casualness, he gets the feeling his students won't take this as seriously as they should.

He's pretty sure Natsu-kun was lying out his ass earlier, but if he was Kakashi couldn't catch a trace of it, and that puts him nearly as on edge as changing mission parameters.

He wonders if, despite everything, they still managed to underestimate their wild interloper.

What he'd really like - aside from turning straight around and wrapping his precious students in soft blankets, far from enemy jonin until they're actually ready for it - is to sit down and have a serious conversation with Natsu, because it's one thing to hear the idle boasting of someone in consideration to be listed as S-Rank, and another entirely to see the way he moved in a real fight.

Kakashi is pretty sure Natsu detected the movement of the Demon brothers before he did - he was suspicious of the puddle from the beginning, and he doesn't think Natsu caught on to that, but the pink-haired child reacted to them quicker than Kakashi. Not even a quarter of a second more, maybe, but that sort of instinctive awareness of his surroundings, of enemies and allies and things-out-of-place - it's one thing to hear him claim himself as an S-Rank threat, and another entirely to see what that could mean.

In Sakura-chan's untrained, civilian-born body, there's no doubt he'd lose in two seconds flat if Kakashi took him even half-way seriously. But his instincts, his reaction speed, his quick and easy analysis of the battlefield…

Compared to their team spars, all of it increased.

Kakashi would quite like to know why his unusual fourth student has been holding back, in all honesty. And sooner, rather than later.

But everything he's seen of Natsu's character make it quite obvious that he's not a threat now, and Kakashi will have to wait until they're safe to have that discussion.

His fingers twitch towards his vest, and Kakashi mournfully returns them to hovering above his kunai pouch.

Can't set a bad example for the kiddos, after all.

The silence is creepy. Tazuna ain't a fool, he knows the shinobi're on high alert now they know the threat, but seein' those children suddenly quiet and focused… He thinks of his little grandson, so quiet and sullen these days, when he's not spittin' mad, looks at these children who just an hour ago were chattin' like best friends - Well, the brighter two, anyway - now staring around with severe looks, wound up tense like coiled wire.

Tazuna almost feels guilty for it, he's an honest enough man to admit that. But as unsettling as it is to see literal kids lookin' all soldier-like, they're trained for it. Way they moved when those two masked guys attacked is all the proof he needs for that. And he's got a family to protect, a country to save, he's not about to let guilt stop him.

To his right, he sees pink hair swishing back and forth with their brisk pace, swinging around the slight girl's shoulder. He wouldn'ta thought a girl that tiny had the strength to knock a big man like himself on his back the way she did. He wonders if it's a special shinobi trick.

He wonders if he's gonna have her blood on his hands, by the end of this.

He knows Gato, as well as any man could not in his employ. Rich and tyrannical and stingy is what he is. Gato'll hire the cheapest he can guarantee results from.

The two he already hired didn't work though, and Tazuna wonders if Gato will simply go for more, or for better.

He can't help but wonder what sort of awful things have happened to that girl, too. The Jonin, Kakashi-san, acted like she was the most experienced out of the three children, and Tazuna knows the evils humans can inflict on each other well enough to have nightmares of that little girl being assaulted and abused, because what else could give her the drive and experience the two boys equally her age lack?

There was nothing cautious about the way she threw herself at that enemy, nothing but sharp edges and determination, and Tazuna hurts to think of what must have happened to her. About what sort of world even the grand shinobi village of Konoha can offer its little girls, that she should be so reckless and unhesitating.

And everyone else treated it as normal, the other boys, the sensei, when any decent man should be able to look at that and know how wrong it is.

He wonders if anyone's ever even cared to look into her homelife, and decides he doesn't want to know the answer. Perhaps to shinobi, stuff like that makes the kids stronger.

Scoffing in disgust, he drags up his bottle of sake.

He can't think about this anymore, or he's going to dig himself an even deeper hole with the sensei, and quite possibly lose the only hope of saving his people.

Even if it makes him feel like scum, just one more person in that girl's life who ignores her issues to further his own goals.

It must be true, what they say.

Desperation makes monsters of even the best of men.

Natsu stares in horror, gut churning, and he can already taste bile in the back of his throat.

This-

No. No, he was supposed to be free of this, he was supposed to be free this can't be real this can't be real please please oh kami-sama please-!

"Natsu-kun. I would like to step foot in Nami sometime this century. Please get in the boat."

He stumbles back, he can't, he can't, they told him they didn't use trains he thought he was free, that he wouldn't have to deal with that while he was stuck here-

If I have to be stuck in another world without any of my friends the least they could to was spare me the transportation!

"Natsu, if you don't get in the boat we're turning around."

Natsu chokes on bile, rapidly throwing one hand over his mouth and trying to swallow it back down before he makes a mess over himself. He wants to scream about how low that is, it's practically cheating, but if he opens his mouth right now he's just gonna puke.

He also knows Kakashi is dead serious.

Breathing deeply through his nose, he all but sprints forward, because if he lets himself hesitate he's going to run and he knows it.

And Kakashi isn't Erza. He won't knock Natsu out and continue the mission. He'll abandon it, and Natsu can't accept that.

The boat rocks as soon as he puts a foot on it, and Natsu's stomach rocks with it. He all but throws himself into his seat, leans over the edge, and hugs the side of the boat for dear life.

The sooner they get moving the sooner it'll be over.

Right?

Then the boatman pushes off, and they're moving, and everything just shatters.

He can barely tell up from down, the pushing, rocking boat swaying as they move and someone is talking but he can't hear them, can't focus, can only feel the churning in his stomach grow and grow and grow-

And it practically explodes, it feels like, as he vomits, and he hopes he's still aiming over the side of the boat but he can't see straight enough to tell for sure, and it's gross, it's been so long since he actually puked from motion sickness, normally he's got enough control to keep the nausea from getting that bad, he hasn't puked since he was a kid-

He ignores the distant voice in his mind saying that right now he is a kid, physically.

He doesn't know how long the boat ride lasts. Couldn't even say what direction they were going, everything spinning and collapsing on itself and he pukes twice more, one time he feels someone touch him but it doesn't help just makes it worse and how does that work, please, just let him off-

Somehow, when they hit shore, he finds the strength to throw himself off the boat - the wrong side, apparently, because he splashes into water, but he doesn't care, he just wants off, and he takes a moment to just float on his back and wait for the world to stop spinning.

Someone says something, he thinks they might be asking if he's alright, or maybe if he wants help, he doesn't know, doesn't care, because he's free, and if he has to take a boat back he is going to stab someone-

He takes a deep breath, then straightens, glancing around before swimming over to the wooden walkways the others are standing on.

He pulls himself up easily, the world blessedly growing steadier every second, and shakes off as much excess water as he can.

"I can take my pack back now," He offers, but Naruto only hugs it tighter to his chest.

"A-are you okay?" The blond stutters, looking so concerned Natsu half-wonders if he split open his head on the side of the boat and is actually bleeding and just doesn't know it.

"Yeah? Of course. Normally Erza just knocks me unconscious so I don't have to deal with it…" He pulls his pack out of the blond's unresisting arms, slipping it on. "It's not a big deal. Let's just get where we're going, I'm starving!"

Everyone gives him incredulous looks, even Tazuna looking mildly horrified, and Natsu feels very confused. Clearly he's missing something, but he's rather used to that feeling by now, so… shrugging to himself, he just starts walking.

The others catch up and fall into formation, and they slowly leave the wooden village behind. Every step away from the boat is a notch of tenseness uncoiling from his spine, and Natsu is downright relaxed when Naruto jumps suddenly and throws a kunai, startling a white rabbit out of the underbrush. And for a moment, he mistakes the churning in his gut as leftover motion sickness, before his ears pick up a soft whistling sound underneath Naruto's apologies, and he throws himself down, dragging Tazuna with him, even as he hears Kakashi order the other two to do the same.

With a solid thunk a large sword sinks deep into one of the trees that line the road, a man standing easily atop the hilt as he glares down at them.

"Momochi Zabuza…" Kakashi mutters as he stands up straight, lifting one hand toward his headband.

The man radiates sadistic malice, voice practically a purr. "Copy-nin Kakashi… Hand over the old man, and I won't have to cut down your team to get to him."

A/N II: Poor Tazuna, coming to all the wrong conclusions about Natsu. But really, his POV happened almost entirely because I was like "Wow, Natsu as Sakura must look so weird to someone who doesn't know the situation there." And then Tazuna comes in like 'wow this kid is so fucked up'.

It might end up being a running gag. All the civilian clients think Sakura is being abused, but no, really she's just possessed.

Aka, this chapter can be summarized as:

Kakashi: Natsu might actually be more dangerous than any of us suspected… I'll have to keep an eye out.

Tazuna: These poor kids, that poor girl, I'm a monster for using them like this but I have no choice.

Natsu: OH GOD BOATS NO PLEASE NO IF ANYONE HAD MERCY THEY'D SPARE ME PLEASE JUST KILL ME NOW PLEASE SOMEONE ANYONE CAN WE HAVE AN ATTACK? RIGHT NOW? PLEASE? PLEASE I SWEAR I'LL DECLARE ETERNAL LOVE FOR GRAY IF SOMEONE SAVES ME RIGHT NOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

Naruto and Sasuke: … We never speak of this again.