Fairy Tail, Naruto 1. Demon of Fairy Tail

**What's up everyone. I'm surprised how many people voted for this crossover this fast. There were a lot of votes, so people, here you go. I hope you like this version of a Naruto Fairy Tail crossover. There are a couple of darker things though in this chapter that some people might not like. But that's why this fic is rates M instead of T. So if you don't like it, read another story. **

**Anyways, enjoy the story. Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or Fairy Tail. I'm just not that cool.**

**Begin!**

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**Chapter 1: The Demon of Fairy Tail**

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"Woooooooow…" Lucy looked around her in awe. "This… this is really Fairy Tail." Her eyes gleamed with wonder. She was standing at the entrance of the famous mages guild, Fairy Tail. She had tried so hard to finally make it here, and now that she had finally set her eye upon what she had dreamed of as a child, it was even more amazing than she had imagined it would be.

Her heart threatened to burst from her chest. She had never been this happy in her life. She could barely even move her legs she was so overcome with joy.

Mages of every level littered the halls of Fairy Tail. They stood together, standing as one as Fairy Tail had based themselves on. Everyone was smiling as if they had been friends their entire lives. They chatted meaningless conversations with each other, laughing at one another's stories.

Too the far right was a large bar filled with Fiore's finest alcohols. Lucy gapped in awe as on one of the bar stools sat a long-haired brunette woman who was drinking from an entire keg. On left, Lucy saw a very large man preaching about how real men should be while flexing his insanely large muscles. Sitting a few stools down from the brunette woman was a boy about the same age as her new friend Natsu. He had black hair, and no shirt.

She turned around when Natsu patted her shoulder. She only saw his back however as he began walking toward the middle of the guild hall, a big goofy grin on his face.

"SUP! Everyone! Guess whose back?!" He shouted to everyone. They all turned to Natsu. "It's me, the one and only, the great Natsu!"

"Heard you made quite the ruckus out there Natsu. Try to keep the damage minimal next time alright." A buck toothed man smirked before he got a kick to the face that sent the man flying into a table on the other side of the guild breaking it.

"The hell did you say to me Krov?!" Natsu shouted out while Lucy was in the back trying to calm Natsu down. Krov apparently got back up on his feet looking just fine, nerve vein shown on his forehead.

"Don't shoot the messenger idiot! It was just a rumor! I should kick you ass right here and now for that." He said cracking his knuckles only to receive a punch to the face.

"Bring it you old fart!" Natsu yelled. At those words, everyone started to join in on the brawl. Tables and chairs were being overturned right and left. Glasses were being flung everywhere shattering on impact.

"Shut the hell up retard. You're gonna give me a headache." Lucy turned only to blush at seeing a basically naked black haired boy in front of her

Natsu pointed at the boy and glared while having his other arm in a headlock with Krov. Lucy saw that there was fire practically spitting out of his mouth. "What'd you call me bastard!" Natsu shouted getting in the naked teens face dragging Krov with him, "I don't take kindly to people who can't even dress themselves."

"What?" The boy finally looked down, noticing he wasn't wearing anything. "Ah, crap!" he said getting a punch to the face.

"Take that you bastard! Umph!" Krov finally got out of the headlock and punched Natsu in the stomach sending him flying after the half naked teen.

"Natsu, you bastard!" Gray yelled, only for said boy to collide with him making both of them hit the dirt.

Pretty soon their antics had caused a brawl to start between every member of the guild. The big man from before picked up both Natsu and Gray, slamming them into each other and then tossing them across the room. The brunette chucked a now empty keg that she was just drinking from, smashing three people at once. Natsu and Gray jumped up from the rubble of their previous flight, both attacking the large man. The girl at the bar looked up at Gray.

"Gray, your underwear." She said annoyed. Gray looked down.

"Crap! Not again!" He said looking both left and right for his clothes when he saw a laughing Natsu twirling his underwear on the end of his finger. Then Gray noticed that Lucy was right next to him. "Miss, would you mind letting me borrow your underwear?" He asked, completely serious.

"Hell no!" Lucy yelled, hitting him in the face with a wooden beam. He went flying backwards into a wall to the left of the guild. Lucy looked on, awe-struck by how fierce these guild members were. Just a moment ago, they were all laughing together, and now they were just beating the crap out of each other.

"Who are you? Are you new to the guild?" Lucy turned to the new voice behind her. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.

Her idol, one of the most famous, and sexiest, females of Fairy Tail, Mirajane was standing right next to her with one of her usually beautiful smiles on her face. Lucy had idolized every centerfold picture of Mirajane there was in the magazines she read. Mirajane was the most beautiful woman she had ever laid her eyes on.

"M-Mirajane-san!" Lucy exclaimed, unable to speak anything else.

Mirajane laughed, closing her eyes she gave a smile, "Don't worry, it gets like this occasionally. Especially when Natsu and Gray are together. Those two have been at it forever."

"Don't you think that you should stop this though? It's getting a little out of control." Lucy said. Mira smiled.

"This? Don't worry about it, this happens all the ti…." CRASH! Mira was unable to finish her sentence however as a stray body from the still ongoing fight flew and hit her right into her causing her to crash into a table. "Besides it's kinda fun." She said as her soul looked like it was about to leave her body

"Mira-san! Don't die!" Lucy shouted, looking horrified. A second later, Mira got back up and Lucy saw that her smile still remained, even though blood was flowing down her face.

"I'm fine! Happens all the time, this is nothing." She reassured Lucy.

"A-are you sure? That looks kinda bad…" Lucy observed. Mira waved her hands dismissively.

"I'm fine. Anyway, as I was saying…" Though poor Mira was again interrupted, but this time it was a loud voice coming from the back of the guild.

"Enough!" A low voice rumbled, stopping the fight instantly. A humongous black shadow in the shape of a man with two horn-like growths came out from the back of the guild. The shadows head reached the ceiling.

"He's huge!" Lucy shouted, her eyes almost popping out of her head. Mira just laughed.

"Oh hello there master! I didn't know you were still in the guild." Mira smiled. The giant looked down at the bartender.

"Oh and what is this?" The giant growled out, his eye's laying on Lucy. "New recruit huh?" The giant then began to decrease in size, and the black shadow started to dissipate. Soon, there was an extremely short old man standing in front of Lucy, with his hand raised in a mock salute. His balding white head was covered with a silly looking orange and white-stripped pointed hat.

"Hey there, I'm Makarov, the master of Fairy Tail. Nice to meetcha." The old man greeted. Then the old man back flipped onto the second floor. He hit his head on the railing, but got up and acted like nothing happened. "Everyone!" He shouted angrily, getting everyone's undivided attention. He pulled out a stack of paper from his pocket, and started to wave it in front of them for all to see. "You've done it again fools. Look at these documents I received from the council.

Everyone looked down in shame. "Cana!" The heavy drinking brunette from before looked up. "You drank every last bit of wine from that tavern and then charged the bill on the council!" Makarov looked over to the large man that threw Natsu and Gray. "Elfman! You beat up your client because he said men were better off learning than being big strong idiots!"

The large muscle man looked down. "He insulted my manliness." He spoke, much quieter than before.

"Loki… Flirting with council member Elder Reiji's granddaughter. A certain talent agency charged us for damage compensation too." Loki just sweatdropped.

"Gray." The still unclothed boy looked up at the master. "Good job sweeping out the smuggling organization, but you walked around the town naked afterwards. And ran away after stealing underwear that was being dried." Gray scratched his cheek, embarrassed.

"And Natsu…" Natsu rubbed the back of his head, still laying on the floor from the fight that had happened. "You destroyed the Devon Thief family, but also destroyed 7 other houses that belong to the townspeople. Leveling a historical clock tower in Tully Village. Burning down a church in Freesia. Damaging parts of Lupinus Castle. Nazuna Ravine Observatory collapsed and thus stopped operations. Destroying half of Harujion's Port." Natsu looked away, angry at his mistake.

_'Most of the articles covered in the magazine were done by Natsu, huh…' _Lucy thought. She looked around at the guild members who were being yelled at, feeling slightly depressed. They all seemed pretty mad at themselves for their mistakes. She was about to say something, but Makarov beat her to it.

"Arzach. Levi. Kulov. Reedus. Warren. Visca. Etc…" The man continued as he stared down angrily at the guild members. "And where the hell is Shinobi?! He finished his mission perfectly and then destroyed half castle he was working in!" Everyone turned their head and looked in a corner. Lucy couldn't see the man but heard him.

"…Everyone else was destroying things in their missions…. I thought I would try to join in." Came a monotone voice. Makarov glared at the man before lighting the pieces of paper on fire.

"Forget the council members, who cares?" Lucy looked up, rather surprised. Every guild member looked up at their master, Natsu ate the burning paper as the master threw it away form him. "Who cares about the damn council?" Every member except for Lucy shouted.

Makarov grinned, looking at every single member with a look of pride. "Listen up you delinquents. The power to overcome reasoning, is born from reasoning. Magic is not a miracle. When the spirit flow within us and the spirit flow in nature connect, they form an embodiment for the first time. You will need a strong mentality and a lot of concentration for that. I mean, pouring all of your sould into whatever you do is the magic. If you keep worrying about the watchful eyes of the higher ups, your magic won't improve. Do not fear the fools of the council. Do whatever you think is right!" He shouted with his hands in the air. "That's the way of the Fairy Tail Mages!" The entire guild then erupted into cheers as they started to celebrate once again.

Lucy smiled. This really was a cool place. She could really get to like it here.

* * *

Things had finally calmed down. Everyone went back to talking and laughing with each other. Natsu was basically eating the guild out of house and home. Cana had gone back to drinking, her face now slightly flushed. Elfman was flexing his muscles, talking about how manly he and his muscles were. And Mira was sitting next to Lucy on the bar stools while Lucy went through some paperwork.

When she had finally finished, she handed it to Mira, who through the papers. Once she was done, she smiled. "Ooh, a Celestial Spirit mage. We don't see too many of them anymore." She said. "Great! Everything seems to be in order." She placed the papers onto the counter, and then took out a stamp. "Alright, where do you want the guild symbol and what color do you want?"

Lucy stretched out her hand. "Pink, and on the top of my hand, right there." She said instantly. Mira stamped Lucy's hand, bringing it away after a moment to show the brand knew symbol that proved you were a mage of Fairy Tail.

"Congratulations Lucy." Mira said brightly, "You are now an official member of Fairy Tail."

Lucy looked at the symbol on her hand with fondness. She turned to where Natsu was stuffing his face. "Natsu, look!" She held her hand out. Natsu turned to her and kinda blew her off.

"Great Luigi, good for you." He said her before diving back into his food.

"It's LUCY!" Lucy shouted, glaring daggers at Natsu.

Next to here, Mira laughed whole-heartily. "You'll get used to things here pretty fast, Lucy-san." Lucy looked over to Mira, her previous anger forgotten.

"You think so?" She asked.

Mira nodded. "Absolutely." Smiling at the girl. Lucy then looked around the guild hall at the many different people who were there. It seemed like everyone was happy and having a great time. Her eyes then fell upon an oddity. There was a man who was sitting in the back of the guild away from the others. He was dressed very strangely as well, black clothing and what appeared to be grey chest armor. His arms were covered in metal arm guards and black gloves. He was wearing what looked like sandals that had spikes. She saw that he had pouches on his back-waist to carry his things. On his shoulder, there was an orange tattoo of the guilds symbol telling the world he was from Fairy Tail. On his back, Lucy could barely make out a short blade of some sort. It looked like tanto from what she could tell from it. The thing about him though, is that his face was completely covered with a black facemask. Across his eyes though there was a metal headband that also had the mark of Fairy Tail in the middle of the plate.

On top of his head though, looked like there was a cat of sorts. But this cat looked a little different from normal cats. This one resembled Happy in some sort of way. The fur was black, but around his mouth it was white. The cats fur extended up to his head so much that his fur was sticking out and had formed into what closely resembled the shape of a pineapple. The also cat wore what looked like to be a green vest that had pouches in it.

When the man noticed Lucy staring at him, he lifted his head towards her and nodded in her directing, as if to greet her. She blushed slightly at being caught, and nodded back to him.

"Ooh, already swept off your feet by someone?" Mira's voice rang out from beside her. Lucy let out a small 'eep!' and turned to Mira, her face as red as a tomato. She started to wave her arms around crazily.

"No, no, no! It's not like that really!" She shook her hands back and forth then looked down, embarrassed at being caught staring at someone. "He's just kind of mysterious, sitting there all by himself."

Mira nodded, "Yep, he's always like that. He keeps to himself, and no one has ever seen his face, though he's been with us for such a long time. Six years I believe. He never really talks about himself too much. All that we really know is that he is a ninja of sorts." Lucy looked over to Naruto nonchalantly while Mira talked about him. He had gone back to staring at the walls of the guild. Mira eyes showed a sad expression. "Despite being so quite, he's a pretty pleasant guy. He does have that monotone side to him though. But the important thing is that he takes care of the other members. I kinda wish that I knew him a little better actually to be perfectly honest." Lucy looked at the saddened Mirajane.

"Then why don't you?" She asked raising an eyebrow, confused as to what could be holding the beautiful woman back. Mira just sighed.

"I've known Shinobi for so long." She stated, "It's just so weird to go up to him and just have a normal conversation with him. I feel bad that I haven't really tried to be open with him in all these years." Lucy looked up and saw that a few of the mages in the guild had listened in on their conversation. Most just scoffed and blew off what Mira had said, but a few had sadden looks etched on their faces. "But he's not the easiest person to talk to though. He only talks when talked to and usually it's only a few words. No more than necessary."

"Sounds like that's just an excuse though." Lucy sad.

Mira looked down at her feet in embarrassment. Wanting to get of that awkward subject she remembered something. "Oh!" She started. "There's another thing. He never takes any mission over a high C rank, low B rank." Lucy looked at Mira in surprise. "I honestly think that he could take a higher mission, but down on paper, he's only ranked a C-class mage.

_'Well that's kinda lame…'_ Thought Lucy. She laughed awkwardly. "But he looks so professional, how can he be that weak of a mage?" She asked. Mira shrugged.

"I don't know. I honestly think he is stronger, but since he's so mysterious, we don't have anymore information on him than that." This really piqued Lucy's interest. If there was one thing that Lucy loved the most, it was definitely a good mystery.

"The person who know him the best though would be Cana." Mira said pointing to the woman who was drinking an entire barrel full of alcohol. "Rumor has it that he trained with her for her S-class exam." This shocked Lucy.

"How did she do?" Mira blinked.

"She did amazing. Honestly I was so surprised at how strong she had gotten in that time. Shinobi probably is only a C-class mage cause no one knows about what he can do. Not even the master knows." She said. Lucy couldn't wrap her mind around that. This Shinobi character was definitely hiding something and she was the one who was going to find out what.

"So…. What's the deal with the strange cat on his head?" She asked.

"Oh! That's Shikamaru." Mira said pleasantly, "He's kind of lazy, but he's nice too. He's exactly like Happy though. He can talk and fly as well." Mira laughed as Lucy stood there shocked that she had seen another talking flying cat. "He's actually quite intelligent too. But Shinobi has apparently trained him pretty well from what I have seen."

"What do you mean?" Lucy said confused at what the girl meant. Mira smiled and pointed at the pair as she held up a glass.

"Watch this." She said before chucking the glass at the man. Lucy gapped.

"What are you doing?!" She half yelled half asked. Mira just pointed at the man. Lucy continued her gaze watching the glass fly towards the blonde until it was about to his face until Shikamaru knocked the glass away with his tail without ever looking up or opening his eye. Lucy stood there in shock. Mira just laughed.

"That always happens. I don't know when it was that we started to notice that, but they always have their guard up. I think it's kind of cute really." She said with a smile before sighing. "I really wish that we knew more about him."

"Then why don't you go and talk to him." Came a voice from behind them. Both girls jumped in fright and turned around only to see that Master Makarov was seated on the table top right behind them.

"Master!" Mira said with her hand over her heart. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." Makarov just brushed her off.

"If you really want to get to know somebody," he started, "Then you have to talk with them, no matter how many times it takes." Lucy looked at the master.

"Then why don't you talk with him Master." She asked.

"Cause I know all I need to know about him.." He replied closing his eyes. "I know that he would protect this family of mine until his dying breath." Both girls just stared at the old man. "And that is really the only thing I care about. He is my child along with you two you know." Both Mira and Lucy looked at the master thinking about what he had just said. Lucy then steeled herself.

_'Well, if I'm going to join this guild, I might as well get to know everyone.'_ She thought. "Excuse me guys, I'm going to talk with him." She said as she turned around and headed in the man's direction. The Master then looked at Mira, expectation in his eyes. Mira just blinked.

"I think I'll let Lucy go this time. When I see him next then I'll talk to him myself Master." She said smiling a little defensive. Makaov just grunted in acknowledgment closing his eyes as he took another puff from his pipe.

* * *

Shinobi sighed, leaning back in his chair and placing his feet on the table in front of him, slightly disturbing his napping partner on the top of his head. He was bored and he really wanted to go and take a mission. On his missions, though extremely easy, he would take that time to explore new and different areas to see what the world had to offer. Many times though it would lead the man into trouble which was 'troublesome' according to his furry companion on his head. Also he would take that time to train as well to make himself stronger. He was by no means weak, but he felt that it was always better to be safe than sorry. The time he was gone was never long though. He was only gone for most about 1-2 weeks tops. He wanted to make sure that he was at the guild as much as possible so that just in case something happened, he would be there. It was silly of him to think that way. Too many of the mages here were high class and didn't need defending, the Master was here most of the time anyways. But he knew that a well thought out plan could take out even the most powerful of people with simple tactics. That was drilled into him at a young age. Naruto rubbed his side in remembering a couple of past events.

He couldn't leave though. A new member of the guild had just arrived and Makarov had asked him to stay a little while longer. He wouldn't say no to the old man either. If it wasn't for him, Shinobi wouldn't be here now. He wouldn't have his family. This was his family too and he was going to do anything required of him to make them happy.

"Would'ja stop moving around already Naruto? Your making me dizzy." Said the voice above him.

"Then you can find someplace else to sleep you lazy fleabag." Naruto said in a monotone voice. Shikamaru really had been a blessing in disguise to the man when he had found him years ago. Shikamaru was really the only friend that he had in the entire guild where he could somewhat open up and be a little of his past self.

"If I wasn't here, then you probably would've been hit by that glass dumbass." The cat said once again resting his head down and closing his eyes.

"Remember who taught you how to do that shit?" Naruto said, "And how many times have I told you not to call me that here in the guild?" Shikamaru grumbled.

"Troublesome… Speaking of troublesome, here comes something that looks troublesome." Shika said. Naruto expanded his senses outwards and noticed that the new recruit was headed his way amidst the fighting of the guild dodging table, chairs, and bodies. Once she reached him she stuck out her hand and smiled at Naruto warmly.

"Hi there! My name is Lucy. It's nice to meet you." She said. Naruto didn't move for a moment causing the girl to feel a little awkward for still having her hand out in the air. Shikamaru opened one eye to look at the girl before closing it once again. Then Naruto moved his feet to the ground, stood up and looked down at the girl. Lucy saw that the man stood around 5'10" 5'11". His body was lean and muscular from what she could tell. Then the man put out his hand and gave the Lucy a firm handshake.

"Shinobi…. Nice to meet you." He said with little emotion in his voice. Though Lucy did notice that it sounded like someone her age though. After the greeting they both stood there awkwardly looking at each other…. Well Lucy supposed that Shinobi was looking at her, at least his face was in her general direction. She started to shuffle around nervously her arms behind her back.

"Umm…." She voiced out.

"Is there something that I can help you with Lucy-san?" Shinobi asked with his emotionless voice, causing Lucy to become even more awkward than she was before.

_'What's with this guy?'_ She thought before taking in a breath readying herself. "Well since I am new I was wondering if I could get to know the guild a little better you know?" She said with a smile on her face. Shinobi continued to be silent in front of her. "I-I was hoping that we might talk… You know… to know a little about each other?" She asked hopefully. At this point she was quiet nervous of the man. Mira was right, he hardly spoke at all. Just when she was about to 'say sorry for bothering you', Shinobi beckoned her to the seat right next to him.

"Would you like to sit down?" He asked getting a smile from the blonde girl. Nodding her head she allowed him to pull out a seat for her and scoot it into the table for her.

_'Well at least someone in this guild is a gentleman.'_ She thought as she watched him take another seat right next to her.

"Would you like something to drink?" He asked. Lucy just shook her head.

"I'm fine thank you though." She smiled before looking to the side of his head seeing a swishing tail going back and forth. "So is that a cat just like Happy?" She asked. Shinobi nodded his head a little causing the cat to grumble on his head.

"Introduce yourself Shika." Shinobi said. Shikamaru grumbled.

"Do I have to?" He drawled out, "She's a woman, that means she's troublesome." Causing Lucy to get a tick mark on her head crying out, "HEY!" Shinobi's response was just a flick of his head causing the cat to come crashing down on the table. Grumbling and rubbing his head he stood up in front of the girl.

"Troublesome." He said. "My name is Shikamaru. It's nice to meet you although you're probably going to be troublesome in the future." The cat said with his paw out waiting for a handshake. Lucy still had her tickmark on her head but shook the cats paw regardless.

"Why do I hate all the talking cats that I know?" She mumbled to herself though Shinobi heard her.

"You get used to them I guess." He said, "Shika and I didn't get along for the first little bit that we were together. But now he's the friend that I trust in the most." Lucy smiled at that.

"Umm… I know that this might be rude, but how do you see with that headband around your eyes?" She asked. Naruto could tell a couple people heard the question and leaned in a little closer to hear what the man would say.

"I have trained myself to be able to not rely on my eyesight alone to maneuver myself around in daily life." He stated.

"Umm.. Ok…. Why?" She asked, it kinda sounded stupid to her though.

"It's helps hone the senses so that you will never fall into an enemy trap or be sucker punched in the face." Replied a sleeping Shikamaru. "The bastard made me do the same thing for a long time before he let me take off that damn thing. It was a drag." Lucy looked at the cat in awe, then back at Shinobi.

"It's actually a common thing to do where I come from." He said to try to clear up why he would still do such a thing. It made sense to them, why not everyone else?

"So Shinobi-san, where are you from?" She asked curiously.

"I am from a village that's called Konoha in the Elemental Nations." He said, Lucy now furrowing her brow in confusion.

"Elemental Nations?" She repeated softly, "I've never heard of such a place. Shinobi nodded.

"I wouldn't expect you to, it's in a very distant land that's very far away." Lucy nodded in understanding.

"So what did you do there?"

"I was a ninja for my village." This got Lucy's attention.

"Really?! A ninja?!" She asked. Shinobi just nodded. "That's soooo cool! I've never met a ninja before." Just then she heard a snort coming from the sleeping cat on the table. "You gotta problem with me kitty?!" She yelled at the cat with her fist raised. Shikamaru just sighed.

"Troublesome." He said going back to sleep.

"Forgive him. I have tried to instill manners into him, but he has been stubborn of late as you can see." He said getting a small giggle from Lucy.

"It's fine. So tell me more about being a ninja!" She said excitingly. "What did you do?!"

Naruto began to then tell the blonde-haired girl about what it meant to be a ninja and the different things that they did. He of course toned it down a lot. A ninja's business wasn't a pretty thing, especially the area that he was in. He then learned a little bit about her. That she was a celestial mage, she loved to read, and that her goal was to become the greatest celestial wizard in the world. They spent the entire day together just talking, though they didn't realize it. Everyone was just staring at the duo talking. This was the longest that the guild had ever seen Shinobi talk. Naruto's boredom was long forgotten and Shikamaru finally got to sleep a little longer.

* * *

Naruto was in his usual spot of the guild the next day, feet propped up on the table with his chair leaning back. His conversation with the celestial mage yesterday had turned up some unpleasant memories from his past that he never could get over. He sat there thinking about many different events.

_Flashback no Jutsu:_

_A six year old blonde boy could be found digging through the dumpster in the back of a restaurant looking for a decent meal that was edible. He wore a filthy white shirt that now was a disgusting brown and green from being overused and never being washed. It was full of holes and the shirt was possibly twice as big as the boy. He had a pair of overused shorts as well, holes adorning all sides of the cloth. No shoes, the boys feet were basically black from all the dirt and grime he goes through. He had blonde hair that was matted down, tangled in knots and smelled just like that dumpster. He had vibrant blue eyes and three lines adorning each side of his cheeks. The boy was obviously malnourished and one could see bruises and scars lining his body. Had one had a look underneath his so-called shirt, one would be able to see scars all over with the word 'DEMON' etched into his upper back. That had been one of the boys most painful experiences that night_

* * *

_Flashback in a flashback no justu._

_The blonde haired boy was running for his life throughout the streets of his village. No one was going to help him, he already knew that. He just needed to keep ahead of the group before they tired out and gave up on the 'demon hunting' as they called. October 10__th__, every year, the villagers would gather around with fire and pitchforks to go after and hunt the so-called demon._

_The boy turned into an alley he thought was cleared, only to be punched backwards by what he thought was a ninja. A chunnin if he had to guess. The rest of the mob chasing him caught up and bound the boy._

_"P-p-please! Don't hurt me anymore." He begged the mob. One man came up to the boy with hatred in his eyes before turning the boy around and taking out a kunai that he had borrowed from a ninja_

_"Don't hurt you anymore?" The man growled out fury in his eyes as he heated the kunai. "Why shouldn't I? You took the most precious thing away from me you monster." The kunai was now glowing red with heat. The man then started to brand the boy on the ground dragging the kunai along his skin. The boy screamed and screamed until his voice went horse as the tears were running down his face from the burning of the flesh that the man was inflicting on the child. He struggled desperately to get away without any luck though. "You want me to stop?!" He roared out, "THEN GIVE MY DAUGHTER BACK TO ME DEMON!" With that the entire crowd started to cheer as they saw the boy writhe in pain. Acid was then brought out and dragged across the letters that the man had carved on the boy to cauterize the wounds. The villagers knew about the boys crazy regeneration rate, but if they were to seal the wound before his body could, those marks would be left on the boy forever._

_After using the acid the rest of the crowd then began punching, kicking, biting, stabbing, or doing anything they could possibly do to humiliate the boy. After an hour of beating, the boy looked like a charred corpse on the ground. Both his arms and legs were contorted in angles that they shouldn't have been. Some people might have wondered how he was still conscious. The chunnin that stopped the boy in the beginning came and bent over the boy looking him in the eyes before holding up a syringe._

_"I made sure that you would feel every bit of that demon." He said before urinating on the kid, then dragging him over to a dumpster and chucking him inside. He didn't need the ANBU or the Hokage to be finding the boy in that state in the middle of the road. Wiping his hands off on his jacket before walking away._

* * *

_End Flashback in a Flashback no Jutsu_

_That was a little under a year ago. The boy had been kick out of the orphanage after he managed to heal himself up a little after that. Doctors and nurses wouldn't see him, but for some reason, he would always recover very quickly from almost every incident that would happen. Everything except for the scars that the villagers gave him. He was alone, and the boy knew that. Only three people in the entire village could he even consider as human being to him. The Hokage, the two ramen makers at his favorite ramen stand. They were all very kind to him. _

_"Naruto Uzumaki." A voice said behind him causing the boy to jump in fright in the dumpster. "You are coming with us" He looked back and saw three men in cloaks wearing blank white masks that had the word 'NE' writing on it. Naruto wasn't the smartest child in the world, but he knew that if he went with these people, he might not come back alive. So nodding his head he started to get out of the dumpster, until he chuck a ball to the ground and a cloud of smoke appeared. Then he took of like a bat out of hell running away from the men. He had been saving that smoke bomb for a situation like this one. He had stolen it off of a chunnin that was kicking the crap out of him awhile back. Pushing that thought aside, he focused on paths that he had thought up of in the past year, for when demon excursions would occur. After about 5 minutes of straight sprinting the boy slowed down looking for his pursuers. Seeing no one he bent over panting and sweating heavily, regaining his breathe. Once his heart rate was under control, he stood back up only to feel a chop hit him on the back of his neck. Then all he new then, was darkness._

_The boy woke up with a jolt as he inhales some substance, coughing loudly the boy's eyes raced around the room in panic. Trying to get up he found that he was bound to a steel chair with ninja wire wrapped around him tight. He saw that there was a single light above his head and the rest of the room was shroud in darkness. He saw one of the ninja who captured him holding some smelling salts in his hand before putting them away._

_"H-HE-!" WHACK! He was interrupted with a brutal punch to the face almost causing the boy to fall to the floor. "FUCK!" Cried out the boy in pain, as the ninja reeled his fist back for another punch until a hand was held up in the air. The ninja froze in place looking at the man holding up his hand._

_"That's enough for right now." He said as the ninja bowed and disappeared into the shadows. The man walked forward coming into the light. Naruto saw that he was old. Used a cane to walk around. He had bandages going around almost his entire body and face. He saw that he had an x-shaped scar on his chin. He wore a white shirt, with a black or dark grey robe over the top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder. "Hello Naruto Uzumaki. You may refer to me as Danzō." He said calmly looking at the boy._

_"W-w-what do you want with me?" Naruto asked fearfully. The man just stared at the boy emotionlessly._

_"I want you boy, to become the greatest shinobi that this nation has ever seen." He said getting a confused look from the boy. "You have the greatest power known in the land inside of you. I am going to make sure you know how to use it jinchūriki. You were made into a weapon, I am going to fine tune it into the greatest in existence. This village will never know war again with your power present boy. I don't care what Sarutobi says, you will become great." He finished as he started to walk away from the boy back into the darkness. "Begin his conditioning." He said out loud. Naruto was confused until another fist hit him in his face. Then a few ninja came out of the shadows and started to pummel the helpless boy._

* * *

End Flashback no Jutsu

Naruto remembered the next several years during his service for ROOT were excruciating. They had literally beaten the pain out of him. He now almost felt nothing if someone hit him. They trained him long and hard, to the point where everyday the young boy would pass out from exhaustion, only for the next day for them to start with his training regimen again. They were extensive and particular in the things that they taught him. They focused most of his training on taijutsu and kenjutsu. Leaving out ninjitsu and genjutsu. They taught the boy how to sense and dispel a genjutsu, but nothing else. The only things that they taught in ninjutsu was the substitution jutsu, henge, and kage bushin. They also taught him medical ninjuttsu. Danzō was no fool. He knew that there were sealing methods to disturb the chakra flow from the bijū that resided in the boys body. So he had him hone his skills so that if he was ever injured, he could deal with the problem swiftly. No they focused mainly on honing his demonic chakra. Getting his body used to the poisonous chakra. They trained long and hard to the point where the boy could easily pull out three tails.

The one thing that didn't quite accomplished with the boy, was his emotional conditioning. The boy was stubborn and strong willed, but that is mostly in the past. At the time there were signs that he still had some emotional values still set in place and that they still hadn't broken him. He was close and they probably would've succeeded if it wasn't for a person who Naruto regarded as a father.

* * *

_Flashback no Jutsu:_

_Naruto Uzumaki – 10 years old_

_Naruto, or Kitsune, as root had given him the name, was tied up and bound so that he couldn't move. He shifted his joints left and right to get a feel on the knots set in place. They were good. He couldn't even dislocate his shoulder to try to escape._

_"Don't even bother with it gaki." Came the voice who was carrying him into a room before chucking him on the floor. Whoever this man was, he was dangerous. Kitsune hadn't even heard the man sneak up on him. Naruto waited patiently to see if there was some sort of opening of anything for him to read off of. He was rolled over and finally he saw who his captor was._

_"Jiraiya the Sannin." He said slowly. "Why have you captured a fellow Leaf ninja like myself?" Jiraiya looked down at the boy. He wore standard ANBU armor and a fox shaped mask. He reached down to remove the mask. The boy held still as if to let the man do so, before the sannin's fingertips glowed blue and touched the mask._

_The mask gave a fizzle and a pop, before Jiraiya had pulled it off of the boy. "Come on kid. I've been doing this stuff since you were conceived on the kitchen floor. A little shock seal isn't going to mess with me." He said now looking at the blonde-haired blue-eyed boy. "You've been a hard one to track down Naruto. Took me a good 2 years to find out that you were actually still alive, and another 2 to actually set this little meeting up between us." Naruto frowned at that information._

_"So the mission that I was assigned to was false?" He stated. _

_"Oh no. That mission is very much real, think of me though as a little detour. Danzō-jiji thinks he's got everything in secret, he's not the only operatives that he has hidden in Konoha you know." Naruto's eyes widened slightly, but enough for Jiraiya to see. Danzō-sama was compromised. He had to alert him at once. "So after this meeting are you going to report me to your leader?" The Sannin interrupted the blondes thoughts. "I'm taking a huge risk here gaki, compromising my position in your little illegal organization. Just to talk with you."_

_"Why?" Asked Naruto, "Why would someone like you want to talk with me? Is it because of the Kyuubi?"_ _Jiraiya's eyebrow rose._

_"A little talkative there for a ROOT agent aren't you gaki?" Jiraiya chuckled, "That's alright though, that just means that Danzō hasn't completely broken you. And he told you about the fox huh? Of course he did, he's Danzō for crying out loud. I would be disappointed if you weren't able to use some of the Fox's chakra by now." Then Jiraiya proceeded to set up a seal array around the room. Once done the symbols glowed and then went dark. He smiled at the boy. "Silence seal, and a protective barrier. No one can go in or out of this seal. Fuinjutsu kid, I'll teach it to you sometime. Now lets get these bonds off you." He said leaning down to cut through the thick rope. As soon as he was through, Naruto leapt grabbing his tanto, added some wind chakra to the blade and made a swing for the Sannin. _

_Jiraiya didn't even blink as the sword came at him, only his hair on the left side of his face grew straight out and hardened blocking the blade. Using one hand he hit the boy in the chest hard. Naruto staggered back slightly, shook off the hit and started for the Sannin again before he felt his entire body feel like it had just become cast iron and dropped to the ground. He struggled desperately to get on the ground but he couldn't move his limbs more than an inch at a time. He heard a chuckle above him._

_"Gravity seals gaki. They're pretty useful. I thought you guys in ROOT were supposed to be smart. I mean don't get me wrong kid, your good. Had you been properly channeling that wind chakra of yours properly, you would've most likely gotten through my own little jutsu there, but kid, there's a reason why I'm still an active ninja at my age." Naruto still was struggling on the floor. He tried to access the Kyuubi's chakra to capture the Sannin, but noticed that he couldn't. "Trying to use the fox? Don't bother, I screwed up your chakra network also when I hit you. I'll take it off of you later, but right now let's be a good little gaki and listen."_

_"W-what do you want with me?" He puffed out taking deep breaths. Jiraiya smiled._

_"What do I want? Well it's pretty simple really. I want to train you." He said. Naruto stopped struggling when he heard this. For what purpose could a man of this stature want to train him for. He didn't understand._

_"Why?" Was the only thing that Naruto said. Jiraiya sighed._

_"Kid. I've made some terrible mistakes in my life. I personally wanted to take you in to be my own son when you were a boy." Naruto's eyes once again widened slightly. "But the damn council wouldn't let me. Looking back, honestly I should have just said fuck you and be done with it. And when I had heard you had just vanished, I went crazy. Now four years later I find you in a pretty hard-ass organization. Kid, you don't know how to be human." He finished._

_"I don't understand." Naruto said processing the words that were spoken to him. "I am human. The demon is just sealed inside of…" He was cut off by the Sannin._

_"I don't mean that kid. Please, give me some credit. I know the difference between the two of you." He said waving a hand back and forth. "No, what I mean is that you don't know how __**be **__a human being. You've spent about half of your life just either surviving in the streets or surviving in your training. Do you know why you do these missions that Danzō sends you on?" He asked seriously_

_"For the preservation and protection of the Leaf Village." Naurto answered like a robot. Jiraiya nodded._

_"That's right, and do you know what this village is filled with?" He asked while Naruto stayed silent trying to figure out the meaning of the question. "It's filled with human beings. You don't even know about the thing that you are trying to protect gaki. All you know are just the things that you are ordered to do. Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like if you were just an ordinary citizen of this town. If you could switch places with anyone of them, what you would do. You've seen them on the street acting out their carefree lives. Haven't you ever wondered what that would be like." Naruto thought about that for a minute._

_"No." He stated simply as Jiraiya fell on his face in surprise. "Maybe at one point in my life, but since I have been an active agent, I have no need of such trivial thought." He state emotionlessly._

_"You say that," Jiraiya grinned, "But your body language says differently kid. Subtlety gaki, it's a thing." He then stood up and stretched his arms. Kid, you haven't been robbed out of your free will for right now, but if you want to keep who you are, whenever you have a longer mission, come to this place." He set a sheet of paper down in front of the boy. "I will be there whenever you need me. Think about what I said though. You'll thank yourself later in life if you do." He said before disappearing in front of the boy only for seconds later to notice that the pressure from the gravity seal had been taken off as well. Naruto got up, stretched out his senses in the room making sure that he was alone. He looked down at the piece of paper that was left for him. He picked it up and headed out the door. He started to walk towards his original destination, thinking about what the white-haired man had said the entire mission._

* * *

End Flashback no Justu

That had probably been one of the best decisions that he had ever made before in his life. The Ero-sensei let him be somewhat of himself. At least as much of himself as he could, being trained by root and all. But he didn't stop there, he taught him many different types of ninjutsu. The Yondaime's famous _'Rasengan'_, _'Needle Jizō', _he even let him sign the summoning contract with the Toads of Mount Myōboku. The thing that really excited Naruto though, was fuinjutsu. He excelled in it and soak up everything that Jiraiya had taught him. As a present for his 12th birthday, he gave him the scroll containing the famous _Hiraishin no Jutsu_ .

Honestly though, Naruto was grateful to both Jiraiya and Danzō. Jiraiya for saving himself from well… himself, and Danzō for training him in different arts of the shinobi. As terrible of a program ROOT is, they produce elite shinobi.

"Umm… Shinobi-san?" Asked a timid voice from his side. He poised his head in the persons general direction. He knew it was Mirajane, but just to let her know that he was paying attention to her, he turned his head.

"Mirajane-san." He said, "What can I do for you today." He noted that the girls heartbeat was faster today. It seemed like she was nervous about something. Many in the guild acted jittery when he was around, but Mira seemed like she was used to his behavior by now.

"Umm… I was talking to Lucy-chan…" She said quietly, "And I heard that your favorite dish is ramen. So I decided to make you a bowl." She said placing the bowl in front of the ninja. Shinobi looked at the bowl before turning his head back up to the girl. There was an awkward silence between the two of them from awhile.

"Umm… heh heh." Mira started nervously, "Well I might…" She stopped when she saw the man get up on his feet and bowed slightly to the woman.

"Thank you very much Mirajane-san." He said, "You are right, ramen is my favorite dish, so I thank you very much for being generous and making me a bowl." Everyone around the guild looked at the two in shock. They had never seen Shinobi act like this before. Mira's cheeks went slightly red before smiling.

"Your welcome Shinobi-san….. M-maybe when I have a little more time, we both can sit down to a bowl of ramen then?" She asked a little shyly. Shinobi just nodded his head towards the girl, getting the girl to smile a little more. Nodding back she rushed back to the kitchen to fulfill more of the guilds orders. Naruto stood there for a second thinking about what had just happened. Shikamaru was on the table, his tail swishing back and forth, one eye open.

"What's up with people now. I liked it better when you didn't talk to people. Talking to people is such a drag." He said before closing his eye. Naruto didn't know why Mira made the sudden decision to talk to him, but he didn't mind it. Maybe talking with her, he might just feel a little less guilty about what had happened 2 years ago.

* * *

_Flashback no Justu_

**_'I might have figured that Danzō-sama would have done something like this.'_**_ Naruto thought as he squared off in front of the leaf shinobi squad in front of him. They were obviously ANBU themselves. There were three of them. One had a bird mask while using some kind of crazy fuinjutsu that came off of his arm. Another had a cat mask, she had purple hair. And the leader of the group had a dog mask on, and gravity defying silver hair. Naruto looked at the three with some worry. These three were good. His ROOT team had already failed and fallend in battle. Naruto held onto the package of vital information that he had to get to Danzō. The other two ROOT operatives knew the importance of this package and sacrificed their lives so that Naruto might be able to make it. But it looked like they were about to have died in vain. Naruto thought that he was being deceptive with his emotional control, but it looked like Danzo had figured him out._

_"I couldn't believe it when I heard it." The leader of the group said taking off his mask._

_"Taicho?!" Said the cat-masked female operative before the man held out his hand to stop her._

_"Kakashi Hatake." Naruto said evenly, "Why have you apprehended me and eliminated my team. We are both Leaf shinobi." Hatake scowled at that._

_"No Uzumaki-san, we are not both Leaf Shinobi." He said, "You are a ROOT operative and do not answer to the Hokage or the 'Will of Fire'." Narrowing his eyes he said, "You have become a monster Uzumaki-san! Your father would have been ashamed at what you have become!" He growled out. _

_"Everything I do is for the sake of the village Hatake-san. It is for the safety of the human lives that live in the village." He said calmly his guard still up._

_"Human lives?" Hatake laughed angrily, "You are just an ROOT figure. You don't even know what it means to be human anymore. I gave you the chance to save your comrades, but instead, you left them to die without even so much as to blinking. A friend of mine once said, 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.' You Uzumaki-san are worse than trash." Kakashi's tightened his grip on his tanto. "I'm sorry Uzumaki-san, but I will not let you tarnish the name of your father because of what you have become. NEKO!" He shouted out as the cat-masked female leapt out with her katana drawn. Clones came from her body to confuse the boy, only to disappear in a cloud of smoke in the boy's vision. Naruto threw his tanto above his head and felt the katana hit his tanto hard. _

_Quaking underneath the strength of the ANBU, Naruto reached inside of himself and shot out a red-cloaked claw behind him, swiping away the bird-masked ANBU. Then Naurto felt something was off in the area around him. Neko gave one final push against the boys sword to throw him off balance she jumped back away from the boy. Naruto looked up and saw Hatake's Sharingan out and spinning widely. Naruto had never had to do battle with a Sharingan user, but he knew he would be at a disadvantage here. He went to move before the area around him glowed in a seal array. He tried, but couldn't move his feet. They were planted firmly in the ground._

**_'A trap seal?!'_**_ he thought as the air around him became distorted._

_"I'm sorry Uzumaki-san. I failed both you and your father." Kakashi said sadly, "I hope in the next life you might come to forgive me. __**'KAMUI'**__!" He shouted out before Naruto slowly disappeared into the vortex. Then everything was quite for a moment before Hatake sighed as he brought his headband back down over his eye. Seeing the stack of papers on the ground, he picked them up. "Let's return to base camp. I'm done with this." He said leaping off into the branches, his teammates following him._

* * *

End Flashback no Jutsu

"Hello Shinobi-san, Shikumaru-san. How are you today?" Asked another feminine voice.

"I was fine until a troublesome woman decided to disturb my rest." A certain cat grumbled out. A tickmark formed from Lucy's head.

"Yea, well all I see you doing is resting you lazy-ass cat!" She yelled out as animated lightings came out of her mouth.

"I am well Lucy-san." Shinobi said politely, lightly smacking the disrespectful cat on the head. "I take it your mission retrieving Macao was successful?" He asked getting a surprised look from the girl.

"You knew?" She asked wide-eyed. Shinobi nodded.

"Yesterday when Natsu stormed out of the guild hearing that Macao still hadn't returned to the guild, it was only logical that Natsu would go look for him. Then seeing your reaction to how Natsu grew up from Mirajane, I was guessing that you would have gone with him as well since I did not see you in the guild after that." He said getting a look of respect from the girl for his detective skills. "Plus, when you came in through the door, Macao was drapped over Natsu's shoulder." He finished getting Lucy to fall on her face.

_'What a way to ruin a story.'_ Lucy thought before she got up again.

"So how was the mission?" He asked, getting a small surprised look from the girl before she sported a huge grin. She went into every little detail about the mission and how they had defeated the Vulcan who had possessed Macao. Naruto sat there listening to every word she said, along with a certain feline who had one eye open. When she was finished she noticed that Shinobi had his hands placed together underneath his chin supporting his head as if her were thinking. "I am surprised." He said after awhile. Lucy's eyes brightened.

"I know right?!" She said excitingly, "Who knew that he was so strong to defeat 19 of those monsters?"

"Not about that." Her trail of thought was interrupted by Shikamaru, "He means that he is surprised that Macao didn't beat them all." Lucy just stared at the cat in shock before looking at Shinobi who just nodded in conformation.

"B-b-but why?" She asked, "Natsu struggled against only one of those things before taking it down."

"The only reason why he probably struggled was because that beast had more power because it was in Macao's body." Shinobi said, "Macao is much stronger than that. He could take on a small army of Vulcan's if he truly wanted to." Lucy's eyes widened. "Macao is not only a very powerful mage, but he also has much experience. This is why I said that I am surprised that he was taken over. Even then, he should have been able to fight off the possession spell that Vulcan used." Shinobi finished.

"He's right." Shikamaru agreed, "Macao is one of the more experienced mages the in guild. It's surprising to see that a monster like that was able to take him out." Lucy felt a little bad for the guy.

"Hey now." She started waving her hands in front of her, "Don't you think that you're being a little harsh?" She asked them.

"No." Shikamaru said. "It's either be harsh and see the real picture, or be sympathetic and let people die." He finished getting a sort of nervous look from the celestial spirit mage. Shinobi sensed her apprehension.

"By the way, how are things coming along with you and your spirits?" He asked getting Lucy to blink before gaining a huge smile.

"Great!" She exclaimed before forming a sad smile on her face. "But after seeing how powerful both Natsu and Macao are, I am feeling like I am a little under qualified to be in the guild." Naruto looked at the girl.

"Then get stronger." He said causing Lucy to look up at the ninja, obviously not expecting that answer. "If you feel like you're not a good enough mage, get stronger. It's as simple as that. That's what both Natsu and Macao did. All members of the guild need to train every once in awhile to keep up their skills and become stronger." Lucy smiled softly at that. It was true, if she didn't want to feel like a burden anymore, then she was going to have to become stronger. Getting fired up, she was about to yell out something about getting stronger until she heard, "If you want, I could help you become stronger." Shinobi said getting an exasperated sigh from his feline companion. Lucy turned her head toward the ninja.

"Huh?" Was her initial response.

"I said, if you wanted, I could help you get stronger." Lucy looked at the ninja, never having imagined that he would have offered something like that. But thinking back on it, he was only a C-class mage. He wasn't really that powerful. Shikamaru must have seen something in her face that was reading this expression.

"As troublesome as it is," Shikamaru said, "Shinobi here is actually a great trainer. He was the one who got Cana ready for her S-class exams the last time around…. He was the only reason why she stood a chance actually." He finished before getting cuffed by the ninja. "What?! I try to help and here you go hitting me. You know what fine!" Wings grew from his back, "I'm going to go watch clouds then." With that he flew out of the guild leaving both Shinobi and Lucy there at the table.

"…Sooo…. Did you really train Cana for the S-class exam?" She asked curiously. Shinobi sighed.

"I gave her some advice in the beginning, then she demanded that I train with her. So yes, I guess I did a little." Lucy thought about his offer. She knew that Cana was a strong mage. She had read about some of the things she's done in _Sorcerer Magazine_. Well she had to start somewhere didn't she? She then grinned.

"Alright Shinobi-san, your on!" she said confidently, "I want you to make me the strongest you can." Shinobi grinned underneath his mask.

"Very well Lucy-san. I will meet you tomorrow morning then at 7:30 for your first day of training ok?" He asked getting a nod from the girl. Then digging through his armor he pulled out a book. Handing the book over to Lucy, she looked at him confused.

"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja?" She asked. Naruto nodded.

"The other day, you had mentioned that you had a passion for reading. I was wondering if you could read this and tell me what you thought of it." He said. Lucy felt something go off inside of her as she listened to what the ninja had said. He had actually listened to her. Something that apparently wasn't very common around here. Looking down at the book she noticed the authors name and gapped.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO READ THIS BOOK FOR YOU PERVERT!" She yelled chucking the book at the blondes head only for it to get scooped up by a tail from a cat. That didn't deter Lucy though. She then started shaking the man back and forth. "AND HERE I THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING A GENTLEMAN AND ONE OF THE MOST NORMAL GUYS IN THE GUILD, BUT IT TURNS OUT YOUR JUST A BIG FAT PERVERT!" She continued yelling at the man, who looked like his soul was starting to leave his body. Shikamaru, as amused as he was watching his partner get throttled like he was, decided to step in.

"Calm down Lucy." He said getting the girl to look at him. "This book is different from the rest of those books. It's not perverted at all like the Icha Icha series." The Icha Icha series had been published and was well known throughout the entire or Fiore. It was a very successful perverted series that was written a sage name Jiraiya. For that reason, Lucy recognized the author. Still not believing the cat she marched up to him.

"And why should I believe you?" She asked anger still in her eyes. Shikamaru sighed.

"Because that book was written by Shinobi's sensei." She blinked, "It was the very last thing that he gave him before he never saw him again. The fact that Shinobi is actually letting you read it is a huge deal. This book is like a treasure to him. This is the only copy that was ever made." He finished holding out the book with his tail as Lucy took the book away and stared at it.

_'This book… is like a treasure to him?'_ She thought as she flipped through some of the pages. _'And he's letting me read it?'_ She blushed a little at the thought before turning back towards the man who was now on the floor, soul still leaving his body. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Shinobi-kun!" She cried out picking the man back up. Shinobi slightly shook his head while rubbing it with his hand.

"It's fine." He said, "I suppose, it's a normal response for a woman when she see's that author." Lucy blushed a little at the way she reacted. "I have a mission that I must do now, but I will stop by your place tomorrow at 7:30 for training ok?" He asked, getting a small nod from the girl, he beckoned Shikamaru to him and both of them left with a request in his hand. Lucy just stared after him, then a the book in her hands. She then let out a squeal of joy at the thought of reading this new book and ran out the door of the guild, book in hand. She never noticed the glare that she was getting from a certain brunette who was now chugging 3 barrels of alcohol at once.

* * *

The next morning came quickly as Lucy's alarm rang out causing the girl to stir from her sleep. Reaching over she shut off the device, letting out a large yawn while stretching out her body. _'Man, I'm tired._' She thought to herself. She hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before because she was up reading the book that Shinobi had lended her. It was amazing well written which surprised the girl seeing who the author was. This Naruto character was amazing. Almost like the perfect hero to her. He just never gave up looking for a way to break that curse. Lucy got up and went to the bathroom turning on the shower she stripped down and got in. After washing up she wrapped a towel around around herself before walking into her room where her eyes bugged out.

"MY ROOM!" She yelled out as she saw both Natsu and Happy pigging out on her furniture. Giving the pair a crescent kick to the faces, she yelled, "WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" Both cat and man rubbed their faces

"Owww…. Cause Mira told me that you got a new place…" He said Lucy still growling at him.

"She told you?" She asked, "So what?! Does that mean that you can just come in like that?!" She yelled pointing her finger at him, "Don't you know the phrase 'A hedge between keeps friendship green?! What you did is trespassing! A crime! You lack morals!"

"Hey… That hurts my feelings…" Natsu said.

"I'm the one being violated here!" Lucy replied. Getting ready to throw the dynamic duo out of her house she heard a knock at the door. She stomped to the door already irritated by one house guest. "WHAT?!" She yelled out swinging to door open widely. Shinobi stood there quietly for a second with Shikamaru on his head, before she recognized him.

"Is this a bad time?" He asked getting the girl to blush at her reaction.

"NO!" She yelled out, "Nononono! I'm sorry, but I just have an idiot in the house. Please come in." With that they both walked back in the house. Reaching the living room Natsu was exploring Lucy's new place before looking up.

"Shinobi?" He asked surprised. "What are you doing here?" He asked as Happy began to offer Shikamaru some fish. Shinobi was about to answer the boy when all of a sudden Lucy ran into the room grabbing both Natsu and Happy by their necks before shoving them out the door.

"Wellit'sbeengreattoseeyouguysolongf airwellwe'lltalklater!" She yelled out so fast that Shinobi could hardly understand what she said. Natsu on the other hand didn't get any of that before the door slammed in his face.

"…..Well that was rude." Natsu said to the door.

"Aye!" Said Happy.

"Whew!" Lucy let out a sigh, "Finally they're gone." She looked up only to see that both Shinobi and Skikamaru looking at her blankly. "Sorry about that." She said lightly blushing. "I don't really want anyone to know that I'm getting training. I want to surprise everyone with my abilities." She said wincing a little bit. "Is that ok?" She asked hesitantly.

"We're fricken ninja." Shikamaru said, "Deception of one's strength is a basic ninja skill. It causes your opponent to let their guard down and it gives you an easier time to take down a tougher opponent." Shinobi nodded in agreement. Then a thought came to Lucy's head.

"Wait." She said, "So does that mean that you're really not a C-class mage then?" She asked. Shinobi just turned around and walked out of the room.

"Let's get started he said." Leaving the girl in the room confused.

* * *

Soon Lucy found herself in the clearing of a nearby forest. She was a little nervous to say the least. She wondered what the man had in mind for training her magic. Mostly though she was giddy at the thought of being some powerful Celestial Mage, well known and famous throughout all of Fiore. She giggled at the thought of that until her thoughts were interrupted by the ninja in front of her.

"Alright." He said, "First off, I need to see how strong you are to begin with. We'll start with a light spar." Lucy nodded excitingly pulling out her key before Shinobi stopped her. "Without your spirits."

"What?! Why?!" She asked shocked that he thought she was going to go into battle without her friends.

"While it's true that celestial mages invoke powerful contracts with celestial spirits, what good is it if your celestial spirit can no longer defend you?" Lucy tilted her head in confusion. Shinobi sighed. "The main weakness of Celestial Mages is are that most of the time they can't defend themselves and rely too heavily on their spirits." A light clicked in Lucy's head. "For example, " Shinobi continued, "Before you came to our guild, I heard that you had your keys taken away from you and Natsu-san had to come and rescue you, is that correct." Lucy looked down ashamed.

"But that wasn't m-.." Shinobi held up a hand to stop her from continuing.

"I am not saying this to demean you or your abilities by any means." He said, "I'm just stating facts. If you were physically stronger or more adept to fight, you could've taken your keys back without any hassle whatsoever." Lucy thought about the comment for awhile before nodding her head.

"Yea, I guess your right." She said scratching the back of her head sticking out her tongue slightly.

"Also," Shinobi started again, "It also says what kind of Celestial Mage do _you_ want to become as well." Lucy once again stared at the ninja in confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"How do you view your Celestial Spirits Lucy?" Shinobi asked. "Tell me, are they just a source of your power that you can call upon? Or are they something else?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" She asked, "My Celestial Spirits are my friends. I would do anything for them." Lucy was a little angry at how Shinobi was already judging her. Maybe this was a bad idea to come out here. Shinobi just stared at the girl for a minute.

"Congratulations," He said getting the girl to blink, "You just passed my first test."

"What?" She asked.

"I wanted to see what your spirits meant to you. If you had said that they were only your tools or something along those lines, I wouldn't have trained you." He said getting Lucy to go wide eyed. "Celestial spirits are special beings, but that doesn't make them any less of a living thing that us. Lucy-san, your goal out here is to be able to establish a connection with your celestial spirits stronger than you can ever imagine. A celestial spirits power can also be affected by the power of the summoner as well." Lucy just gapped at Naruto, she had never heard of that before. But it all made sense. "Someone once told me," He continued, "That those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. Lucy-san, I will make you strong enough so that you will be able to battle alongside your friends. If someone steals your keys again, you'll be able to kick their ass and take them back yourself." Shinobi said passionately. Both Lucy and Shikamaru just stared at the man.

"What a drag." Shikamaru said with a sigh, "I knew that being in that guild was going to affect you sometime. Your getting too emotional now. Troublesome. I liked it better when you were as stiff as a board." Lucy just giggled.

"Anyways," Shinobi said getting back on topic, "Lucy, I want to see the way you fight, so we are going to have that spar." Lucy nodded getting herself in what she thought was somewhat of a guarded stance, her hand on her bullwhip. "Shikamaru." He simply said.

"Man, do I have to?" He asked whiningly, "I would prefer to just sit here in the grass and watch these clouds." He said looking back up at the sky.

"I could be training strictly you." Shinobi said getting a shiver from the cat.

"Damn sadist." Shikamaru mumbled getting up and walking across the clearing across from Lucy.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" She yelled, "I'M NOT FIGHTING A CAT!" Shikamaru just rubbed his poor little cat ears.

"Damn woman. This is why fighting women are such a drag." He said.

"Lucy-san, I personally trained Shikamaru in combat so that I don't have to worry about him if we are in battle. Shikamaru." He ended. Then the cat standing before her fizzled out and in its place stood a man around her age. His face looked like it had on an irritated expression. He has fairly long jet-black hair tied in a spiky ponytail, narrow brown eyes, There were studs now in both of his ears. He was wearing a green flak jacket, along with a black long sleeved shirt paired with matching pants and sandals, and green lined mesh armor on his wrists and ankles. On one of his sleeves, there was the same headband that Shinobi had over his eyes, but it looked like the headband was sewn into the fabric. He also was equipped with a tantō, horizontally strapped onto the back of his flak jacket via a brown strap. He wore a belt with some bags attached to it around his waist. Lucy just gapped at the man in front of her.

"Shikamaru has learned an advanced type of Caster Magic call Transformation." Shinobi said. "It will be easier for you to fight his when he isn't a tiny runt." Shikamaru let out a tisk for the comment. "This will help me evaluate your skill in combat. Defense only Shika." Shinobi finished.

"Tch… How troublesome.." He answered.

"Ok Lucy-san." Shinobi said, "Please attack him…. And anything goes." He finished jumping off to the side of the clearing letting the two in the middle have their space.

"That may be a fancy transformation," Lucy said confidently, "But your still a cat. You better be ready." Shikamaru just looked at the girl lazily before huffing and turning to the side putting his hands in his pockets.

"Whatever, just hurry up and attack." He said getting the girl to growl at him.

"FINE!" She yelled out grabbing her whip and flicking it out at him. The transformed man lazily dodged the attack by jumping over the whip without even taking his hands out of his pockets. Lucy once again struck, only the Shikamaru to lazily dodge once again. As this went on, Lucy just got more angry at the 'cat', and started to swing her whip wildly at him.

"Damn…It….You…Stupid….Cat…. HOLD STILL!" She yelled out, with every word swing her whip around madly at Shikamaru.

"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru sighed, "Why would I do that? I don't want to get hit with that. Maybe Happy was right. Maybe you really are stupid." He said causing the girl to go into a mad frenzy of whipping and cursing. On the side lines, Shinobi was carefully studying her movements.

_'Other than being very accurate with that whip, there's not much to it. She knows nothing of physical combat.'_ He sighed before clearing his voice. "Disarm her." He said. Before Lucy knew it, Shikamaru grabbed the part of the bullwhip when she had swung it and gave a sharp tug.

"H-H-HEY!" Lucy cried out as she stumbled forward and fell on the ground. "What'd you do that for you damn cat?!" She yelled out as Shikamaru threw her whip away.

"Shinobi wants you to attack me in hand-to-hand combat now." He said simply, Lucy looking at him blankly before registering what he had said.

"I can't do that!" She cried out, "If I couldn't hit you with my whip, how the hell am I suppose to hit you with my hands?!" Shikamaru just shrugged.

"Dunno, don't care." He said simply.

"Shikamaru, light offense." Shinobi said. Lucy was startled when Shikamaru started dashing towards her. Taking a large swing, Shikamaru threw a right hook at the girl only for her to dodge it. Shikamaru brought up his knee to hit the girl in the gut, but Lucy once again dodged it by flipping backwards.

_'Now this is interesting.'_ Thought Shinobi as he leaned in placing his hands together watching the fight escalade. Granted Shikamaru was taking it easy on the girl, but Lucy was pulling some surprising maneuvers out there dodging his friends fists and feet. After awhile though, he saw that Lucy was tiring out quickly, that's when he held out his hand.

"Stop." He said causing Lucy to fall to the ground panting for her life while Shikamaru just huffed and put his hands back in his pockets. Shinobi came out to them in the clearing.

"That was better than I had hoped." He said causing the panting girl to look up at him. "Your accuracy with your whip is impeccable."

"But…pant..pant… I didn't hit him once with it… ." She huffed out.

"That's just because Shikamaru is faster than you." Shinobi replied. "You also let him get in your head and lose any bearing of the fight that you were in. Shikamaru has a unique hand-to-hand style. It's meant to aggravate the enemy so that they are bound to make mistakes. By constantly looking bored and uninterested in the fight, this causes the enemy to stop thinking clearly, leaving openings for him to exploit on. Now your hand-to-hand is terrible." Lucy sweatdropped.

"You could've been a little nicer about it." She pouted.

"I have a combat style though that I think you will excel in though." He said getting the girl excited. "The thing that surprised me though, was your acrobatic skill and ability to dodge." Lucy gained a victorious smirk on her face.

"HA!" She yelled pointing at Shikamaru, "Take that you damn cat!"

"Tchh… You do realize that this was only a light spar don't you?" he said causing Lucy to blink, "And the fact that it was hand-to-hand, that's my worse combat ability you know." He finished with a smirk of his own when he saw the girl squatting on the ground pointing her fingers together crying anime tears.

"Enough." Shinobi said getting both of their attention. "This was an evaluation for Lucy-san. For now, we will start with physical conditioning. Then Lucy-san, I will show you a proper way of fighting and introduce you to some katas." Lucy blanched.

_'Physical conditioning?!'_ She thought worriedly. She could have sworn that she saw Shikamaru flash her an evil smirk. Naruto took out a large scroll from behind him and unfurled it.

"What is that?" Lucy asked curiously as she saw the symbols on the scroll. They weren't any like she had recognized.

"This, "He started as he started tracing his finger across the different symbols reading which on he wanted, "Is a sealing scroll. Think of it as a little longer way to do requip magic." He said finally finding the one that he wanted. He placed his palm on the paper and let out some chakra, causing there to be a burst of smoke. Lucy let out an "eep!" in fright. As the smoke cleared, she saw that there laying on the paper, was another scroll. Picking up the scroll, Naruto handed it to her. "I want you to study this. These are the katas and different techniques that you will be learning." Opening the scroll, she looked at it and saw that there were pictures of certain stances here and there. But everything else was covered in those strange symbols.

"But how can I read this? I have no idea what it says." She said expectantly to the ninja. Shinobi shrugged.

"Get Levy-san to help you out with that part. I don't have time to do that." He said. A tickmark formed on Lucy's head.

"What the hell kind of teacher are you?" She yelled pointing at the man before he grabbed her wrist. "Huh?" She said. A light then glowed from his hand. She yanked her hand back and saw another one of those weird symbols on her wrist before the light died down and the mark disappeared.

"What was that?" She asked in wonder.

"Let me see your other wrist." He said. Silently she held the other out and he placed another symbol on it. Then he did the same on her ankles. She still could swear that Shikamaru was snickering at her behind her back. When he was done with the marks, he stood back and put his hands in a weird symbol. **_"FUIN!"_** He said causing the symbols to glow on her body.

_'They're beautiful.'_ She thought at she stared at the symbols until she felt a huge weight being placed on her body and she fell like a stone to the Earth. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!" She cried out, Shinobi walking up to her.

"Gravity seals." He said simply, "Right now you are around 3 times your body weight." Her eye's bugged out. "First we will start you off with a light jog, then push-up, sit-ups, pull-ups. Then we'll have you run through the first of the katas. Up on your feet Lucy-san." He said. Shikamaru couldn't hold it in anymore, he just started busting up laughing at the poor girls predicament. She shot him an evil glare for laughing at her misfortune.

"You too, **_'FUIN!'_**" He yelled out. Shikamaru just blinked at he registered the words and let out a yelp as he too fell to the Earth, causing a crater to be formed.

"Ha ha. Serves you right jerk." Lucy said sticking her tongue out at him. Shikamaru, grumbling curses under his breath shakily got up to his feet, only to fall down again when his transformation let out.

"Damn." He said, "Everytime he adds a new weight, I can't concentrate on the transformation anymore." He grumbled to himself.

"That's enough you two." Shinobi called out, "Unless you want to double your workload, get moving." Both grumbling, they both started out jogging. Shikamaru guided Lucy on the path that they were to take.

* * *

"Ugh…." Groaned Lucy as she let her head fall on top of the bar, "Damn sadist." She grunted out. She had barely made it through that workout. Light training her ass. That was hours on end of torture.

"Oh my." Said Mira, "Lucy are you ok? You look exhausted." She said her voice filled with concern. Lucy just smiled at the barmaid.

"I'm fine Mira. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Mira just looked at her before nodding her head. A thought came to Lucy's head. "By the way Mira, do you know anyone named Levy here?" She asked.

"Levy McGarden?" Mira replied smiling, "Yea her and her teammates just came back from their mission. They're right over there." Lucy followed her gaze until she saw a girl with blue hair hanging our two other boys. Her hair had the top cut short and the bottom longer, and was tied up with a colorful bandana around her head. She was wearing white shorts with a short sleeveless orange shirt with a black vest over it.

The boy next to her was a slim young man of average height. He had a sharp face, a prominent, flat and defined nose pointing downwards. He was wearing an open, light-brown coat with yellowish fur trimmings on its edges and sleeves, which reached down below his elbows. Below it was a high-collared purple shirt, with its collar mostly left open, which was sometimes seen left hanging over the checkered belt below it, with a rectangular buckle, and others tucked inside the buggy dark pants covering Jet's legs, in turn tucked inside dark boots. The most distinctive piece of his attire was probably the fancy, extremely high hat matching his coat, with a large brim and fur trimmings over its entire length, at regular intervals, plus a large furry ball on its top.

The other boy that was there was a tall, slim young man with black hair kept in an unusual, distinctive hairstyle, with a tuft of hair on top of his head jutting upwards and then curving frontwards,. His hair extends in a rounded form on his forehead, and was cut on both sides of Droy's head in a spiraling motif. He had dark eyes and thin dark eyebrows pointing downwards at their outer edges. He was wearing a simple white shirt, green checkered pants, and dark shoes with lighter soles. He also was sporting a pair of distinctive belts crossing his chest, each passing over one of his shoulders.

Lucy looked back to Mira, "Thanks Mira." She said waving to the barmaid and making her way over to the new girl. Limping slightly due to the gravity seals that were still on her she made her way and tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Um… Excuse me." She said to the trio gaining their attention. The other blue-haired girl lit up.

"Oh your that new girl who just joined? Lucy right?" She asked getting a nod from the girl. "Nice to meet you." She said with a smile. "I'm Levy, and these two guys over here are Jet and Droy." She pointed to the boys over her shoulder.

"Nice to meet you." Jet said smiling.

"Wow your cute." Hearts started coming from Droy's eyes. Lucy waved at the two.

"It's nice to meet you too." She said smiling. Levy then got up.

"So what can I do for you Lucy?" She asked. Lucy then took out a scroll from her pouch and handed it to the girl.

"I was told that you could help me translate this scroll. It's in another language and I can't quite seem to get it." She said.

"Really?!" She cried out excitingly, "I would love to! Wow this sounds fun!" She took the scroll from Lucy and unraveled it out on the table. She gazed at the characters on the paper for a few seconds before she showed a confused look on her face. "Lucy…." She started, "Where did you get this scroll?" She asked.

"Shinobi-san gave…eep!" She clasped her hands over her mouth quickly. Damn it, she wanted to keep that a secret. Levy's, Droy's, and Jet's eyes all bugged out at her answer.

"No way." Jet said, "You actually talked to that guy?" He asked. Lucy just looked at him.

"Of course." She replied, "He's really not that bad of a guy, just really quite that's all." She said. Levy looked at her.

"Wow." She said, "I can't believe that he gave you this." She furrowed her brow. "But where did he get this. I have never before seen these symbols before in my life." She said.

"So does that mean you can't translate it?" Lucy said dejectedly. Levy shook her head.

"Of course I can! It's just that I'm just surprised that he had something like this. By the looks of it though, it looks like it's some sort of manual on a fighting technique." She looked at Lucy, "Why would he give you something like this?" She asked. Lucy shifted around nervously.

"Listen, you gotta keep this a secret if I tell you guys ok?" All three of the group nodded their head. "Shinobi-kun is training me to become stronger." She said getting shock looks from the three.

"He's really training you?" Droy asked, "But he's not even that strong. He's like a C-rank mage or something like that." Jet nodded his head in agreement. Lucy looked down embarrassed.

"If he's only a C-class mage, then I must look pathetic." She said, "That damn cat of his whipped my ass left and right today." All three blinked at the blonde before falling over hard. Lucy puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "It's not that funny guys!" She cried out

"Haha, you mean that Shikamaru, haha, beat you in a fight?" Jet laughed out. Lucy got a tick mark on her head.

"Well, if I had my celestial spirits, then it would've been a different story." She yelled out. The three started to calm down from their little laugh.

"Then why didn't you?" Droy asked still chuckling.

"Shinobi said that there might be situations where I can't summon my spirits, or if I get my keys taken away from me." Lucy replied.

"That actually makes snese." Levy said nodding her head.

"So Shinobi said that I should learn this style of fighting to defend myself. The only thing is that I have no idea what it says. Shinobi said he was too busy to translate, so he suggested that I come talk to you about it." Levy's eyes shot out wide.

"He suggested me?" She said with shock. Lucy just nodded her head.

"Yea…. Why what's the big deal?" She asked.

"Well, you see…. No one really knows anything about him." Levy said. "It's just surprising that he knows anything about me."

"Yea, we're not even sure if he really likes the guild or not." Droy said.

"I think he does." Lucy said surprising the trio. "Earlier today he said to me something pretty profound. Like 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.' I don't think that he would have said that if he didn't think this guild was his comrades." The three looked at Lucy and blinked. Their respect for the ninja rose just a little.

"…I had no idea." Levy said quietly, both Jet and Droy nodded with her.

"You should come with me sometime and try to get to know him." Lucy said getting surprised looks from the three. "I think it would be good for you guys to actually get to know the real Shinobi." All three looked down.

"But, we've known him for so long." Levy said quietly, "To just get up and say hey, lets hang out, it's kinda weird don't you think?" It was true, Shinobi had always really been in the guild since she got there, but she hardly even heard the guy talk. He was always in the back of the guild just silently looking at a wall or out a window. She had heard that he wasn't that great of a mage, but that really didn't matter to the girl. She was nervous though, the few times that she talked to him. It was more apprehension more than anything though. He was never rude to her, and settled some of the disputes at the guild….Well that wasn't right she laughed in her head. There was that one time when both Natsu and Gray were at each others throats again throwing punch after punch at each other. Shinobi just cam in the middle of them, picked them up and placed them away from each other. Everyone at the guild that day were shocked at his actions. Then Shinobi continued to show both Natsu and Gray how to execute a proper punch and kick. The entire guild at that point face-vaulted on the floor. Lucy shrugged.

"Better now than never right?" Lucy asked, "Come on, I'll get you guys to meet him sometime. He has a lot more of those scrolls too from the looks of things." This peeked Levy's interest a little. Thinking about it, looking back at both Jet and Droy, who both just smiled and nodded, she turned back to Lucy with a grin of her own.

"Alright, we're in." She said smiling, "Now, lets get this thing translated then!" She said putting on her gale force reading glasses, all parties gathered around her and watched her use her magic to find out what kind of techniques Shinobi used.

* * *

**End**

**By far the longest chapter that I have ever written. I appreciate your guy's votes, and this is the winner of the poll. I hope that you guys like this little rendition of the Fairy Tail Naruto crossover. If not, meh, just move onto another story. I was going to keep going with this chapter actually until the beginning of the Lullaby arc, but I wanted to consult with you guys once again about the fighting style that Lucy uses. I want her to be hitting and smacking people left and right with her spirits, so let me know what you guys think. I have one in mind, but it might just piss people off, so I thought I would get some other ideas.**

**As for the parings right now, just in case you couldn't tell, Naruto and Lucy. But I'm planning on making this a multi, so I'll put up a poll to see who else should join. I'm only going to add like 2 more girls though to the pairings. **

**As for the beginning of this story, I will have to say it does resemble another writers beginning, but only until Lucy introduces herself to Naruto. I asked the writer if he was cool with that, but he never responded to me. I think he might have stopped using this site. Anyways, everything after that though is my work. **

**I really appreciate those who have reviewed my other stories, I hope this is living up to your expectations. Please no flames on stories. Suggestions are always welcomed though. And one other thing, if you're a guest on the site and ask a question in a review, I can't message you and answer that question. And I'm probably going to forget to answer your question in these little things at the beginning and end. So just login and review or pm me. **

**Also I know that Kakashi hadn't learned Kamui until Shippuden, I just kinda sped up the process of his training in that regard. It's fanfiction guys, not factfiction. Anyways.**

**Beta is needed for this story as well if anyone is interested. I got one for Shinobi turns Pirate. Anyways thanks a lot guys. I hope you liked it, now I have to get back to my lame studying life. Later.**


	2. Eisenwald

**Sorry guys that I haven't updated in awhile. I got some major flames from a couple of people when this story first came out that I got pissed about and said screw you for awhile. They were of course from guests and didn't have the balls to sign in and review. Guys honestly, if you don't like the story, guess what, you don't have to read it. It's fanfiction for a reason. Anyways, that's the main reason I have been gone, also I have been stressed out with studying. Enough about that though, I'm sure you guys want to get onto the story. Thanks for those who reviewed though and voted on the poll. I think I will leave it up for a few chapters just to see what's up. I think I know how it's gonna go though with how things are coming. So without anything else, I give you chapter two.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail. **

**PS: Shout out to Mzr90. He's the only one out of everyone who reviewed who decided to throw out a fighting style for Lucy. One of the one's that he chose, I decided to go with. I might get some crap for it, but hopefully it makes sense.**

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Eisenwald**

* * *

"Is it a treasure map?! A hidden fortune?! What secret does the book have?" Yelled a rather fat mustached man whose body was halfway hanging out of the wall. In front of him in his grasp, he held Lucy, both her arms tweaked behind her back in an angle that was rather painful. The man behind her twisted her arm a little more causing Lucy to grit her teeth in pain. "Say it!" He yelled twisting her arms even more. "If you don't say it, I'll break your arms!" Trembling, Lucy grit her teeth again to bear with the man's hold before she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Bewee!" She said causing the man behind her to be filled with rage.

"Behave yourself brat!" He yelled twisting her arms even more. "That is my book!"

"ARGH!" Lucy cried out in pain.

"I made Kemu Zaleon write it! So the secret of the book is my property as well!" Lucy still just stood there withstanding the pain, thinking about how she could get out of this situation. Her eye's widened at a thought.

_'That could work.' _She thought.

* * *

_Flashback no jutsu_

_It had been a few weeks since Lucy had begun training with Shinobi and Shikamaru. She could literally feel herself getting stronger with each passing day. The harsh tasks in which Shinobi made both Shikamaru and her do were no longer a huge deal. Sure they were still hard as hell to accomplish, but her body was getting used to the rough treatment. She would still never win whenever she would spar against the damn cat, but that was because he had years of training on her, while she only had a few weeks. She was getting better though at being able to last longer against him. There were even a few times that she had managed to trap the cat, but somehow, every time, the cat managed to make an escape from her. _

_"That's enough!" Came a voice off to the side of the clearing. Standing up, Shinobi came out to where both Lucy and Shikamaru had been sparring once again. Shikamaru transformed back into his normal form._

_"Lucy," He started, "You've been fighting differently than you usually do. Why?" He asked the girl. Lucy gave Shinobi a shy grin._

_"Well, I finally got that scroll you gave to me translated." Shinobi's eyebrow rose in his mask._

_"Oh?" He questioned. Lucy just smiled at him._

_"Yea, and from what Levy-chan and I saw, this fighting style you wanted me to learn is based on precision right?" She asked rhetorically before continuing, "It said that there were like 361 kind of points on the body. There was a picture of it and everything. Anyways, when these points are struck, it said that it would do a lot of damage. So I memorized when some of the locations of those points and I have been trying to hit Shikamaru in one of them to see if I could us that to my advantage." Shinobi just nodded in understanding._

_"Troublesome blonde baka." Muttered Shikamaru. Lucy gained a tickmark on her head._

_"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU DAMN CAT!" She roared, her head growing 10 times her body size. Shikamaru sighed._

_"Even if you hit me in those spots, it wouldn't do anything to me." He said dully, "You need to use chakra to make it effect me." Lucy cocked her head to the side in confusion._

_"Chakra?..." She questioned the word before widening her eyes. "That's right! I remember there was mention of using that in the fighting style." She paused thinking about it, "So what is it? How do I use it?" She asked._

_"You can't." Shikamaru drawled out, "The only person on the planet who can use it is Shinobi here. I am actually surprised he chose this style for you." Lucy looked at the ninja only to receive a nod in confirmation._

_"WHHHAAAATTTTT?!" Lucy shrieked. "THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT IN ME TRANSLATING THAT DAMN SCROLL? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY HOURS LEVY-CHAN AND I POURED INTO THAT THING!" Freaking out that everything was now ruined. All of her time and hard work gone. Shinobi just held up his hand to get her to quite down. _

_"Shikamaru." Shinobi said looking at the cat, "You know better than to antagonize Lucy." Shikamaru gave him a sly smirk before lying down. "But Shikamaru is correct. You will not be able to use chakra like I do with this fighting style." Lucy looked up at him, her face was now drenched with anime tears now._

_"Then why did you give me that scroll?" She asked crying. Shinobi paused for a moment, thinking about what he was going to say._

_"Lucy," He said, gaining her attention, "What do you know about magic?" Lucy cocked up her eyebrow at the question._

_" Well, magic is the physical embodiment of the spirit. When the physical spirit of an organism connects with the spiritual flow of nature, the spirit forms magic as a product of the connection. Only ten percent of the world's population is able to use Magic." She said like she was reciting it from a book. Shinobi just nodded his head while crossing his arms._

_"That's right. It takes an enormous amount of concentration and mental ability to use magic. To utilize magic, a Mage must use Magic Power. Magic Power is the source of power for all Mages It is composed of Eternano. Every Mage has a container inside their body that determines the limits of their Magic Power. In the case that it becomes empty, Eternano comes from the atmosphere and enters the Mages' body and after a while, their Magic Power is returned to normal." Lucy nodded her head at the ninja's explanation. "I explain this to you, because this is very similar to the power that I use, chakra. The main difference is that I cannot absorb Eternano from the atmosphere." Lucy looked at Shinobi confused._

_"I don't understand. Why not?" She asked._

_"Using chakra involves using the physical energy as well as the spiritual energy of a persons being. If I use too much, then I can potentially die from exhaustion." Lucy's eyes went wide._

_"Then why would you use chakra in the first place?!" She asked/yelled at the ninja. _

_"Because that is how I learned. Simple as that." He stated causing Lucy to blink. "But chakra and magic run closely hand in hand. This style that I gave to you, it inflicts internal damage through attacking the body's Chakra Pathway System. The same principle can be said with mages though. Instead of a Chakra Pathway system present, there is an Eternano Pathway System or Magic Pathway system. The 'Gentle Fist' allows the user to disrupt the flow of magic coursing throughout the body. Fighting with this style also injures the organs, which are closely intertwined with the area of the network which has been struck. The user of this style surgically injects a certain amount of their own Mana into the opponent's Eternano pathway system, causing damage to surrounding organs due to their proximity to the Eternano circulatory system. Even the slightest tap can cause severe internal damage." Lucy's eyes widened at the damage that could be inflicted upon an opponent. "For that reason, this style is known as the 'Gentle Fist'." He finished. Lucy looked down absorbing everything that he had said. _

_"Show me." She said as she looked back up at him, determination filling her eyes. Shinobi nodded._

_"Shikamaru." He said. With that Shikamaru transformed back into his human form. _

_"What a drag." He said dully, "Do we really have to do this." Shinobi said nothing as he came up to the lazy cat. Filling his fingertips with chakra, he placed two fingers on a point of the cats right arms._

_"FUCK!" Yelled out Shikamaru as he recoiled back holding his arm in pain. Lucy just stared at the two._

_"Uh…. What did you do?" She asked. Shikamaru was now muttering curses in the background about troublesome people._

_"Exactly what you're going to do." He said. "With that little tap, Shikamaru can no longer use his arm for a period of time." Lucy's eyes widened as she shot another look at the cat seeing it was true. Shikamaru was rubbing his arm trying to get feeling back into the appendage without success._

_"Whoa…" She said quietly._

_"Those 361 points or nodes on the body are known as Chakra or Eternano points. Each point is a checkpoint along the pathway's system, effectively shutting down the body." Shinobi said. Lucy thought about his words before a thought came to her._

_"Wait… So Shinobi-kun." She started, "You already know this fighting style?" She asked. _

_"No." He stated shaking his head. "I know the basic principles behind the 'Gentle Fist', but I do not practice it. It does not flow well with the way my body was trained." _

**_'How the hell was his body trained?'_**_ Lucy thought. __**'What does that mean?' **__She was interrupted in from her thought process when she caught what looked to be a pair of sunglasses. She looked at them before getting a large smile on her face._

_"AAAAAIIIIEEEE!" She shouted out holding the glasses to her large assets as if they were the last thing she had ever owned. Shikamaru just glanced up from still massaging his arm before sighing and returned to his own physical therapy. Shinobi just smiled lightly in his mask._

_"I'm glad you li—URGGGG?!" He exhaled as Lucy bowled into him giving what Shikamaru thought was a solid 10 flying glomp. Granted, it was the first flying glomp that he had seen, but hey, that's what it looked like to him anyways._

_"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyouth ankyou!" She said over and over again as she was now laying on top of him and effectively suffocating him with her large tracks of land. Shinobi started flapping his arms like a bird trying to get away from the dangerous girl. Shikamaru looked up once again and sweat dropped._

**_'Well, I guess that's one hell of a assassination technique.'_**_ He thought before taking pity on his friend. "Hey woman!" He shouted out getting Lucy's attention, "Get your overly large breasts out of his face and stop suffocating him!" Lucy looked down at the man who was under her and gasped. Turning a bright red, she jumped off the ninja whose body was still lying on the floor, which the occasional twitch coming from him. _

_"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!" She said over and over again to Shinobi while bowing over and over again as well. Shikamaru went back to his arm._

_"Troublesome." He muttered. Lucy went to the downed ninja and tried to help him up, but he was heavier than he looked. Stumbling around her shoulder came in contact with his face. Lucy blinked as she felt something moist on the face-mask. Looking down she saw that her shoulder had red liquid on it. A few seconds went by while the cogs in her head turned before something clicked._

_"Shinobi-kun." She started, "You're a pervert aren't you?" She asked with a slight grin. __**'Hah, at least I know that some people think I'm hott!'**__ Naruto stumbled up, getting himself situated on his feet at last. He coughed out a slight embarrassment._

_"Well….. I'm glad you like them." He said causing the girl to smile. _

_"Like them? I love them!" She shouted, "I've been trying to save up and buy these for months! How did you know that I liked this exact pair?" She asked._

_"The few times that you have invited me into your house, I saw a magazine that had these sunglasses turned to it. It was on your desk each time I had come in, so I assumed that you wanted this particular kind." She smiled before getting a worried look._

_"But this is way too expensive!" She said, "I can't possibly accept these." Shinobi raised his hand once again silencing her._

_"There is more to it than me just giving you these sunglasses. First off, yes I can just give them to you, because you are my student. You have worked hard and have earned them." He said getting a small blush from the girl. Shinobi really didn't give out too many compliments, so the fact that he had said this made her extremely happy. "Second, put them on and push out a little magic from your body." Confused, she looked at the glasses and shrugged. She put them on and pushed out a little magic before gasping._

_"W-what is this." She asked in awe. Looking at the ninja, she saw there were hundreds of intricate lines outlining his body with bright points adorning the lines._

_"These are all the Eternano points that run in the body. Right now you are seeing my chakra, but if you look at Shikamaru," He said pointing at the cat, "You will see his magic running through he body." She followed his finger and saw that it was true. Except with Shikamaru, there was a point on his arm, which was darker than the rest of the other points. _

**_'That must be where Shinobi-kun hit him earlier.'_**_ She thought before taking off the glasses. She turned to the ninja and gave him a beautiful smile. "Thank you so much Shinobi-kun. I will treasure it forever." Shinobi nodded._

_"Those sunglasses are meant only to be a guide for right now." He explained. "Regardless, if you strike your opponent with the 'Gentle Fist', you will deliver great damage to them. Those glasses are meant to give you a general idea of where the nodes on the body are most common." Lucy nodded, happy that she had received the unexpected gift in the first place. "Those sunglasses though, are yours, and yours only." He said getting a confused look from the girl. "I placed a seal on the side of those glasses, mixed in some of your blood so that they will only respond to your unique body signature. No one else would be capable of using those sunglasses." He explained._

**_'Uhhh,,,, that's kinda creepy…. But sweet nonetheless.' _**_She smiled, "Thank you Shinobi-kun." She said softly._

_"Now, lets get back to your training." He said, "Shikamaru, is your arm better now?" Shikamaru looked at the ninja._

_"Ye… I mean no. Sorry. Gotta wait for a little bit more." He said a little nervously. Shinobi just stared at the cat._

_"Alright then." He said, "I guess I will have to quadruple your training load though tomorrow so you can get caught up." Shikamaru's eyes widened._

_"Well looky here." He said moving his arm in a circular motion, "All fixed…. Damn troublesome ninja." He muttered out that last part. Shinobi smirked under his mask. _

_"Revert back to your normal form Shikamru." He nodded and a second later, he was a cat again. Lucy looked up at the ninja. "You can put those glasses down for now Lucy. Now we are going to be working on your targeting. While in battle, you are going to be aiming at specific points on the body that are constantly moving around. So we are going to train you by trying to hit Shikamaru while he dodges your attacks. After that, we are going to be working on your control of releasing your magical power from your finger tips." She nodded and got in her stance and squared off against Shikamaru. "And while your doing that, I'm going to be throwing a blunted kunai at you every so often as well." She blanced._

_"WHATTT?!" She yelled out getting out of her stance._

_"You need to be aware of your surroundings." He stated simply, "I guess I could always increase the amount of kunai to 10 at a time." Lucy just paled._

_"Hehe." She mumbled out nervously, "No…. One is fine." She said turning around again to Shikamaru. Shinobi smiled sadistically underneath his mask._

_"Begin." He said._

* * *

End Flashback no Justu

"URGHHH!" She said. _'Come on Lucy!'_ She thought. _'Concentrate, let the magic form out of the finger tips.' _She rotated her wrist around so her fingers could barley touch the skin of the Duke behind her before she grinned. _'Perfect.'_ She thought before getting a howl from the man.

"YOU WENCH!' He cried out grabbing his injured wrist. Lucy took this opportunity to jump away from the man. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" He demanded. "My wrist is numb!" He cried out. Lucy frowned.

_'That should have shut down his arm.' _She thought before sighing. _'Looks like I need to work on my control more.' _Grabbing her keys, she held one of them in front of her. "The tables have turned huh? If you give me this book I might forgive you." She finished holding the book close to her. The fat duke just grinned.

"Ah Ha!" He said, "Stellar Spirit Magic huh? Boyoyoy. You're a fan of literature, yet your using that phrase incorrectly. You should say 'The table have turned' only when your position has turned from a disadvantage to an advantage." He laughed. "Anyhow, you won't be able to surpass my Magic Diver just because you got lucky." With that he dove into the ground causing Lucy to become on full alert. The Duke continued to attack Lucy proclaiming what a piece of crap book it was, while Lucy defended Kemu Zaleon stating that the Duke had threatened him to write the book.

Happy had just arrived to hear Lucy's accusations. "Threatened him?" He asked to himself. The Duke continued to attack the girl, but Lucy was holding him off.

_'Amateur.'_ She thought, _'I can tell from a mile away where he's coming from.'_ She held up the book in front of her. "But that is not what Kemu Zaleon wanted to leave behind in this book. The real truth is something else." She stated. Happy was quivering in anticipation.

"Wh-what is it?" He asked. While the Duke just looked pissed.

"WHAT?!" He shouted.

"That's why I won't give this book to you! You don't have the right to possess this!" She shouted as she got into an unfamiliar stance.

"Umm… Lucy." Started Happy, "If your not planning to call one of your spirits you might just want to give up. You know your kind of pathetic." He said.

"Your kinda pathetic." Lucy mumbled to herself.

_'Crap!' _Thought the Duke, _'If the book is passed onto a mage inspection from the council…. I'm doomed!' _He started to sweat. "NOOOOOOOOO!" He yelled out pulling out a key. "OPEN! A door to the virgin!" He yelled out, both Happy and Lucy shocked at what was happening.

"NO WAY!" Shouted Lucy as a behemoth of a woman in a maid costume suddenly appeared from beneath the floor. The Duke ordered the spirit to retrieve the book, but to everyone's surprise, Natsu appeared above her still hanging onto her shirt. Regaining their bearings, Natsu took care of the behemoth, while Lucy used her whip to grab the Duke. The whip wrapped around his chubby neck and she yanked the fat man towards her. Running towards him she extended her hand back. "Shōtei!" She yelled out as she used the heel of her palm to hit the man in the center of the chest. Blood came from the mans mouth as he slumped over to the side, his body twitching occasionally. Lucy just smirked at she looked down at the man.

"Whoooaaa…." Happy said as he looked at the downed man. "I'm surprised you were able to take him out with you being so fat and ugly." He stated.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Lucy shouted as Happy floated away.

* * *

**Fairy Tail Guild Hall**

Back at the guild, Naruto found himself in an awkward situation. For the last two hours, he had been sitting there, with Shikamaru resting on his head. The awkward part was that a certain guild hall barmaid was in front of him…. And she would not stop talking. Naruto had no problem conversing with people for such lengths of time (though still uncomfortable for him), but the girl wouldn't even stop to let him answer or respond to any of the things that she was saying. She had been talking the entire time since she had first sat down at the table where he was at and didn't even stop to take breaths half of the time. It was quite impressive really…. Well it was impressive for the first hour, then the second hour just got annoying. Every once in awhile though, she would pop him a question where he could answer briefly.

"Are you even listening to me?" She as shyly, but Naruto knew that look. It promised pain if he answered incorrectly. Naruto just nodded his head.

"You were talking about how Wakaba needs to go outside if he ever wants to smoke and how inconsiderate it is of him to not think of other." He replied in his monotoned voice. Mira would then beam him a smile that made the heavens open, and then continued talking rapidly. Occasionally stopping to make sure the ninja hadn't fallen asleep behind his mask.

This went on for another hour or so before she got up. "Thank you Shinobi-san for listening to me for so long." She said giving him another smile "I'm sorry if all I did was bore you out of you mind." Shinobi just shook his head.

"It's fine Mirajane-san." He replied. "The conversation was….. intriguing?" He questioned to himself. Mira giggled.

"I hope we could do this again sometime soon if you don't mind that is?" She asked hopefully. The truth was, she was surprised with how she acted with the ninja. She realized that she took up most of their time in the conversation. But she was nervous. When Mira gets nervous, she talks…. A lot…. So she talked about everything that she could possibly think of that was weighing on her mind. To say the least though, it was refreshing. Even though she didn't learn much about the man in front of her, she was content with their talk.

Shinobi just nodded his head indicating that it would be fine. Mira gave him a huge smile while clasping her hands under her face. "YEAH!" She cried out before rushing back to the bar to attend to the duties that she had failed to do while she was talking. Naruto just gazed at the retreating figure for a moment.

"That was beyond troublesome." A lazy cat said without even opening his eye. "Why are they trying to be all friendly all of a sudden? They never tried this hard before." He said. Naruto just shrugged.

"Who knows. It kind of feels nice I suppose." Naruto said getting a snort from the cat.

"I want my quite life back….. This is such a drag." He said going back to sleep. Naruto sat there in silence for a few minutes thinking about the things that Mira had talked with him about. To say the least, he did learn a little more about a few of the members there in the guild. It was informative. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he included himself more in the guild. He never minded playing the back role. He loved his family and he didn't need the recognition behind doing amazing things. He just wanted to protect them.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when a hot bowl of ramen was placed in front of him. Staring at the bowl, he then looked up at the barmaid who was simply glowing. "This is for taking time to listen to me ramble on. It's on the house." She said with a wink. Shinobi bowed his head.

"Thank you Mirajane-san. But you do not need to-" He was interrupted by a finger being pressed against his lips surprising the blond. He definitely was not use to physical contact.

"None of that now." Mira said poutingly. "This is my way to thank you and your going to accept it whether you like it or not." She said finishing with a smile. Shinobi just stared at the girl for a moment, before bowing his head once again.

"Thank you Mirajane-san." He said taking the bowl in front of him and the pair of chopstick to the right. He split the chopsticks and his hand started to slowly travel up to his face-mask. Everyone in the guild hall became deathly quite as they watched the ninja's hand start to travel to his face. The closer it got, the more anxious everyone was to see what the ninja was hiding under his mask. He fingers touched the material. Mira gulped in anticipation while others eyes were bulging out of their heads.

**!SLAM!**

"WE"RE BACK EVERYBODY!" Came a shout at the guild hall door. Everyone's head whipped around to see who it was, finding it was Natsu, Happy, and Lucy coming back from their mission. Then everyone realized what they were missing and whipped their necks around so fast back at the blonde, there were a few cracks that were heard. They found that the blondes mask was still on, but the bowl in front of him was empty.

"Thank you Mirajane-san." Shinobi said, "That meal was delicious." Everyone's eye's bulged.

"SO FAST!" They all cried out

"Look at what you did you bag of hot air!" Cried out Gray as he chucked a chair at the firebreathing boy, causing the teen to be blown back out of the guild via chair only for him to come back rushing back in, flames spewing from his mouth.

"What the hell did you do that for you streaker!" He yelled out lunging at the half naked teen trying to pummel him into the ground. Soon the entire guild-hall was once again brawling with each other. Lucy just stepped through the door frame and sighed.

"I swear, I joined a guild with a bunch of lunatics." She said to herself holding her hand to her head. She glanced to the back of the hall and gave a let out a soft smile. Shinobi was once again in the back with that blasted cat. She made her way through the fighting zone, surprisingly dodges most of the attacks that were thrown at her. "Hello Shinobi-kun." She said brightly as she reached the ninja, "How are you today?" The ninja looked up at her.

"Did you just come back from a mission?" He asked. Lucy nodded at the question before she saw Shinobi bring his hands up in a dreadfully familiar sign. _**"FUIN!"**_ He said as Lucy fell a familiar pressure come over her body, then she dropped to the floor like rock.

"WHAT THE HELL YOU DO THAT FOR BASTARD!" She yelled out struggling to get back up on her feet. _'Damn!'_ She thought, _'This is way heavier than the last time.'_ The ninja in front of her just shrugged.

"I'll take the seals off every time you go on a mission. But whenever you get back, you should start using them again." He said. Lucy grunted as she slowly brought herself up and in the chair that was next to her.

"So that's why I felt I could move a little fast on the last mission." She said. Shinobi nodded his head in confirmation.

"While on missions, you are expected to perform to the best of quality." He said, "Also, many times you'll find that missions often change parameter throughout the duration of the mission. Remember Lucy," Shinobi's voice became serious causing Lucy to blink. "Anything can happen during a mission. You must always be prepared for what's to come." Lucy slowly nodded her head thinking about what he had said. A few minutes of silence passed the both of them before Naruto stood up. "I will pick you up tomorrow at 7 for training." He said as he started to turn to leave. Shikamaru glanced up and started to get up as well.

"U-umm…." Lucy mumbled. Shinobi turned around.

"What is it?" He asked looking down at her. Lucy fidgeted around a little.

"Do you mind if I tell you about the mission that I just came back from?" She asked hopefully. She was still a little nervous to ask talk with him about these simple things. Yea there was that first time they had met, but since then, all they ever talked about was training and how she could become a better fighter. She just wanted to talk to him normally, besides, she wanted to brag to him how she took out that fat old Duke without even calling out one of her Celestial Spirits!

Shinobi and Shikamaru just looked at her. _'She completed her mission didn't she?'_ Shinobi asked himself, _'Then why does she want to talk about it?'_ He had seen and heard other mages in the guild go on about their missions, but that was just to brag about how 'awesome' they thought they were. Lucy to him didn't seem like that type of girl. The only other time he saw that missions were brought up were if there were changes made throughout the mission. But looking at her face, it seemed like this was important to her, so he simply nodded and sat back down causing Lucy to squeel and start talking about the moment that she stepped out of her house with Natsu. Shikamaru just shrugged.

"More time for me to sleep." He muttered to himself as he laid back down on the table.

* * *

**A Few Hours Later**

It was official… All girls had the ability to talk without stopping for as long as they wanted. Granted everything that Lucy was telling the ninja was interesting. But it really could have been summed up in about 5 minutes. Who? What? When? Where? Why? And How? That's all he really needed to know about the mission. Lucy though, was describing everything in great detail as if she were literally trying to put him in her place throughout the entire mission. Then she started saying things about every little emotion that she was feeling…. Honestly, If Naruto had even half of the emotions that Lucy apparently, he would probably explode from information overload. Also, it seemed as if his assumption of her was off, Lucy loved to brag about herself.

"And then we just left." She cried out, "No reward money at all!" There were times in her story where Shinobi was amused by the way the girl expressed herself though. "Then we found out that they were actually extremely poor and were only renting that house to keep up their appearances." She mumbled before looking back up at the ninja. "So what do you think?" She asked. Shinobi hesitated to see whether or not this was a question that he was going to be given the opportunity to answer.

"Adequate." He said causing the girl in front of him to glare at him.

"Adequate?!" She cried out. "I totally kicked that guys ass and you tell me that I only did adequate?! I didn't even need to use my celestial spirits for it." She yelled.

"And that's why I say adequate." Shinobi said causing the girl to look at him weird. He sighed. "Being strong on your own is good, it can save your life in fact, but remember the strongest mages are those that work in teams." He said.

"Teams?" Lucy asked staring at the ninja. Shinobi nodded.

"Why do you think that the mages in the guild travel together or form their own teams with one another? This is just in case something happens, we know that someone has our backs if need be." He said.

"But Shinobi-kun." Lucy started, "Your not on any team. You usually do mission on your own." Shinobi chuckled causing Lucy's eyes to widen. That was the first time that she had ever heard him laugh in any sort of way. Shinobi looked to his right and started scratching the head of the cat he was looking at getting a small purr from the little creature.

"I trust Shikamaru with my life." He stated, "He is my teammate. He is my family." Lucy slowly smiled at the little scene that was unfolding in front of her. It was nice to see her teacher have a soft side to him. "That is why, " He started again gaining the girls attention. "Tomorrow, we are going to start working with your Spirits as well." Lucy's eyes widened. "You are going to learn their strengths, weaknesses, and start to develop a bond with them so that they too can trust you out in the battlefield." Lucy just nodded her head excitingly. Man she couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when they found out that she could stand up for herself.

Looking up she saw another familiar face that she had been meaning to talk to. Raising her hand she called out, "Levy-chan!". Said girl, surrounded by her posse, looked up and smiled at seeing her new friend waving her over. She started walking over only to see whom she was sitting next to. Her smile faltered a little as she became nervous, but already being committed, she continued walking over with her two friends.

"Hi Lucy-chan! Shinobi-san. Shikamaru-san. How are you?" She asked politely. Lucy smiled at the girl and giggled. Shikamaru gave a wave of his tail to acknowledge their presence. Shinobi bowed his head.

"McGarden-san, Droy-san, Sarusuke-san." Shinobi stated quietly, "It's good to see you." He said getting a surprised reaction from the trio. That was basically the most they ever heard Shinobi talk, and the fact that he had said it was good to see them, was amazing in itself. Levy was the first to recover.

"Thanks Shinobi-san." Levy said quietly, a little embarrassed, "It's great to see you as well."

"Shinobi-san…." Groaned Jet, "It's Jet now. Not Sarusuke." Shinobi just did as he always did and ignored his comment. While Jet groaned again in the background, Droy laughing at his misfortune, Levy and Lucy just giggled.

"So how was the mission?" Levy asked. Lucy smiled.

"It was good," She said, "Even though we didn't get the reward for it." She muttered, but the girl next to her heard.

"What?" She asked, "That was a ton of money though. I was jealous that I wasn't able to go on it." Lucy smiled softly.

"Well, my teammate is a blockhead." She replied, "Even then, it just didn't feel right I guess to collect the money." Lucy said. Levy just looked at the girl before nodding her head slowly understanding a little. "But you would have loved the mission though!" Lucy picked back up excitingly. "You see, there was this book….." And once again she went into the story of how her last mission went.

By the end of it, Levy was staring at the girl amazed. "Wow." Levy said, "I didn't know Celestial Spirit Mages were that strong without their spirits." She said, both Droy and Jet in the back paying attention slightly nodded. Lucy gave them a grin.

"Well I can't take all the credit here." She said before pointing at the ninja next to her. "Shinobi-kun here is the reason why I was able to do the things that I have done." She said proudly. All three looked at the ninja in confusion.

"But I don't understand." Droy said, " No offense Shinobi, but your not all that strong. Your what a C-class mage or something." Getting an elbow to the gut.

"Droy!" Levy snapped.

"What?!" He replied, "It's true isn't it?" He asked getting another elbow to the gut. Turning around she gave the ninja an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about him." She said scratching her head, "Sometimes he just doesn't know when to be quiet. Anyways, I was talking to Lucy-chan over here, and she said that you had an amazing book that you let her read." She said excitingly. Shinobi turned his head over to the blonde girl, who began to nervously shift in her seat. He sighed.

_'I guess it's to be expected.'_ He thought, _'I never did tell her to keep that book a secret after all.'_ Looking up he just nodded his head to confirm the girls question. Now it was Levy's turn to shift around nervously, her face getting a small red hue to it.

"Well…" She said her index fingers poking at each other. "I was wondering…. If maybe you could let me read it as well?" She asked hopefully. "You see I love books! And with the way Lucy-chan built up the story for me, I just can't handle it. I have to read the book, so please can I borrow it." She said, hands clasped in front of her face, which was a few inches from Shinobi's mask. Ironically, her eye's were huge and her lips were quivering.

_'Damn.' _Shinobi thought, _'And here I thought there were no damn Jutsu's. Stupid 'puppy eyed no jutsu'.'_ After a few awkward moments of his own personal space being violated, he sighed and just nodded his headgetting the girl in front of him to let out a squeal before holding his hands in front of him literally jumping up and down.

"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyou!" She cried out. Lucy just smiled and came up behind the girl and patted her on the back.

"You see Levy-chan, Shinobi-kun is-…" She stopped when she felt she had hit Levy a little too hard due to her weights, causing her to be propelled forward into the ninja causing the both of them to crash onto the ground.

"LECY-CHAN!" Three voices cried out simultaneously. Once again the guild stopped their brawling and stared at the scene in front of them. Droy and Jet had looks of horror on their faces. Lucy had a large blush on her face. When both the downed victims opened their eyes they immediately noticed their position. Levy was straddling Shinobi on the ground, her lips were pressed firmly against his through his mask. Immediately Levy jumped back and began bowing profusely.

"I'MSORRYI'MSORRYI'MSORRY!" She yelled over and over again frantically.

"HAHAHAHA!" Laughed an old Guild Master on top of the bar. "Looks like Shinobi-kun is more of a player than Loki here isn't he?" He shouted out to the guild. Everyone was still shocked at what had just happened.

"SHINOBI!" Came two voices in front of him. Both of them had fire in their eyes and were coming at him while cracking their knuckles.

"How dare you take advantage of Levy-chan like that!" Cried out Droy.

"Yea!' The agreement came from Jet. Shinobi just looked at Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru." He said seriously getting the cat's attention, "Plan Beta, sigma 23." Getting a nod from the cat, a magic circle came from under the cat before a large fish, 4 times the size of the cat, appeared in his hands.

"Here catch!" He said throwing the fish at the two who put up their hands to catch the offending object. They looked at it for a second, shocked that they were holding a fish. Getting their senses back, they tried to drop the fish, only to find that they couldn't.

"What the hell?!" They cried out at the same time. Shikamaru smirked.

"HAPPY!" Shikamaru cried out getting the blue cat's attention. "These two have a huge fish and they aren't sharing it! Help me get it from them!" He cried out pointing to the two dumbfounded boys.

**_*ROWR!*_**

A crazed Happy came at the two boys claws ablazing, clawing and biting at any part of their bodies that he could find.

"OW! Dammit Happy get off!" Yelled Jet trying to push the small feline back.

"Not the face Happy! Not the face!" Cried out Droy dodging the small cats attacks.

*Slash*

"AHHHHHH!" Screamed Droy. The entire guild started laughing at the site of the two teens getting turned into mincemeat by the small blue cat, that almost no one noticed the absence of a certain ninja and his cat.

_'Hmmmm.'_ Thought the guild master as he looked around for the two.

Levy hadn't moved from her spot since she had apologized. A large blush could be seen on the girl as her eyes glazed back thinking about the memory. Lucy looked at her friend and gave a small frown. _'Maybe I shouldn't have said anything.'_ She thought. But she wasn't the only one who had noticed Levy. A certain brunette grinded her teeth as she once again poured down a keg of alcohol down her throat.

* * *

**2 Weeks Later:**

_'Pervy old man.'_ A certain ninja thought as he sat in a train heading to Clover Town to complete a request that Master Makarov had given him. On his head, like usual, was Shikamaru, his tail swishing back and forth in front of the ninja's face. He closed the book in front of him and got up leaving his cabin to go use the restroom.

* * *

"Lullaby?" Questioned Gray as he, Lucy, Natsu, and Erza sat in a cabin onboard a train that was headed for Onibus Town

"The Lullaby… Is it some sort of magic that can put people to sleep?" Questioned Lucy. Erza looked down at the floor.

"I don't know…. But since it is sealed, it probably contains some powerful magic." Both Lucy and Gray paused to think about what they had just been told. Lucy looked up and saw someone familiar pass by and blinked.

"Shinobi-kun?" She asked quietly getting everyone's attention. Shinobi barely heard his name and turned in their direction.

"Shinobi?" Question Gray as Shinobi walked towards them and bowed.

"Hello Fullbuster-san, Scarlet-san, Happy-san, Lucy-san." He said respectfully. "I assume your traveling on a mission together?" He asked. Erza just nodded her head.

"Yes, yes we are. I've recruited both Natsu and Gray because they are formidable mages for the task at hand in which we have to face. Lucy came along because I am assuming of Natsu, but from what I have heard she is a formidable opponent as well." Shinobi nodded at this as Lucy just sweat dropped at the rumors that were being spread about her.

**"****_Kai!"_** He whispered, Lucy then found herself a lot lighter and easier to move. Shooting him a grateful glance, she scooted over a little closer to Gray she patted her seat.

"Come on Shinobi-kun," She said getting an eyebrow raise from both Gray and Erza, "Come sit with us." Shinobi thought about it for a moment before nodding his head and sitting down.

"Why are you traveling this way anyways Shinobi?" Gray asked curiously.

"Master Makarov has asked me to deliver a package to him in Clover Town where the Guild Masters Conference is being held. I had to go to Sansa Town to pick up the item, now I am on my way there." He answered, Erza nodded her head in understanding.

"I see." She said more to herself. Lucy thinking about their own mission, chimed in.

"We're on our way to take down a dark guild Shinobi-kun." She said kinda nervously. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this type of mission yet, but she guessed that she was just going to go with the flow on this one. Shinobi just raised his eyebrow in his mask.

"A dark guild?" He asked getting a nod from the three companions, while another was sleeping somewhat peacefully on Erza's lap. She then proceeded to explain to the group about the dark guild Eisenwald and of the ace of the guild, Eligor. Explaining their mission, Shinobi thought about what they were going to go up against. But they did have three extremely talented mages. Lucy was still a little rough, but he felt like she could hold up her own in a battle.

"Do you require any assistance Scarlet-san?" He asked getting surprised looks from two of the three in their seats. Lucy actually looked slightly relieved that Shinobi was going to be coming with them.

_'Why is he offering? He's never offered before.'_ Thought Erza. "Why do you ask?"

"Dark guilds can be very powerful and they do not hold the morals of a normal light guild." He answered, "They will not hesitate to commit crimes such as killing or stealing for their own personal gain. You four are members of Fairy Tail." He said, "You are family." Everyone's eyes widened when he said that. "I would be willing to go on this mission if it meant to protect my family." Lucy smiled at that. Erza, Happy, and Gray were still shocked at what the ninja had spoken. He had never said things like that before.

Thinking about it for a moment, Erza looked up at the ninja, "Thank you Shinobi, but I feel like we will be fine without your assistance." Lucy's neck cracked as she whipped it around to stare at the red-headed girl. Nodding his head, he then stood up.

"Very well." He said, "I wish you luck on your mission and that everything will go well." With that he turned around and headed down the hall to the restroom. Lucy eye's followed him as he exited through a door.

"Why didn't you let him come with us?" She asked nervously to Erza. Erza looked at Lucy for just a moment.

"Shinobi is one of the guild most professional mages. I respect him greatly for his professionalism and his conduct. But…" She trailed of looking away.

"Buuut?" Lucy asked.

"But the mission we're going on is too dangerous for him." Answered Gray leaning back in his chair. "He would be a liability to the rest of us. We would have to constantly be looking after him. He just doesn't have the strength to match up to the mission."

"B-but Shinobi-kun is very strong! I've been trying to win against him in spars, but I have never won, even with my Celestial Spirits!" She blurted out causing the three passengers in their seats to look at her. Thinking about what she had said for a moment she then covered her mouth with both of her hands. "Eep!"

"What do you mean? You've been sparring against him?! " Gray asked incredulously. Hands still over her mouth, Lucy shook her head side to side frantically.

"Lucy." Erza growled out giving her a look of pain if she didn't come out. Gray was in the corner of his seat shaking with fear from the look, happy only that he wasn't on the receiving end of it. Lucy wilted under her stare.

"I-I-I didn't want to tell anyone until I was stronger." She said softly, "I actually have never seen Shinobi-kun fight. it's always against Shikamaru that I spar against." There was a silence for a minute before Gray started laughing his ass off.

"HAHAHA!' He rolled around, "You've been losing in a fight to a cat?!" He asked/laughed. Lucy's head grew 10 times her body size.

"IT'S CAUSE THAT DAMN CAT CAN USE FREAKING MAGIC AND IS A FREAKING GENIUS AT GETTING OUT OF SITUATIONS!" She yelled out. Erza on the other hand was quite.

"You said," She began getting both Gray and Lucy's attention, "That you have been losing to him even with your Spirits?" She asked, only getting a nervous nod for confirmation. "You have some of the Golden keys of the Zodiac though right?" Another nod came from the blonde.

"That's why I said that Shinobi was strong." She said, "I assumed so, because it was he who trained Shikamaru-baka." They felt the train stop and got up as they gathered their things to exit the train.

_'Could it be that he has been lying to us this entire time?'_ Erza thought forgetting about a certain fire breathing teen on the train as they made their way to the exit. _'Why would he do that though? It doesn't make sense.'_

"Man…" Groaned Gray, "This is too much for me to handle. I still can't believe it. I can't see Shinobi being strong."

"Well have you ever seen him fight?" Lucy asked. Gray looked up thinking about it. Besides just the brawls in the guild hall, no he couldn't. Even then, Shinobi never participated in the fights, only walking through without even getting hit.

"No." Erza said, "No one has. No one even knows what kind of magic he uses….." She paused, "But Master Makarov let him become a part of Fairy Tail, and if he trusts in Shinobi.. then so will I." She said, resolve coming in her eyes. Both Lucy and Gray smiled at that.

"Besides, you heard him." Gray said with a grin, "He considers us family." His fist came up as he put it in the air, "We might as well consider him family as well." Lucy and Erza both nodded vigorously at his statement.

"Umm…..Guys," A worried cat called out, "I think we forgot someone." He said as he pointed to the departed train. Everyone thought about what the cat had said before their eyes bulged out.

"NATSU!" They all cried out.

* * *

Naruto stepped out of the bathroom and headed back to his cabin, only to find an interesting scenario being placed in front of him. Half of the passenger seats were destroyed and there was a spiky black haired man that looked exactly like Shikamaru's transformed form yelling at Natsu.

"I'll fight you outside next ti… Hurffmm!" Natsu said as he threw up in his mouth. Then he jumped through the window and out of the train. Naruto analyzed the situation.

"Shikamaru." He said quietly, as Shikamaru disappeared from his shoulder. The black hair man sighed and turned around only to be confronted by Shinobi.

"What the hell?!" He asked looking at him, more specifically at the mark on his shoulder. "Where the hell do you damn fairies keep coming from?" Then seeing the flute on the ground he grit his teeth. "You've seen it too. That means your not leaving here alive buddy." He said as he made a dash for the flute. Right before he reached it though, he found that the flute had disappeared into his own shadow. "What the hell?!" He said. Looking up at the ninja in front of him, he saw that now there was a cat on his shoulder, his tail holding the flute. _'Shit!'_ He thought, _'I'm a dead man if I don't get that flute back.'_

"This item," Shinobi said getting the man's attention, "I can feel a dark presence around it. Meaning that this is not something that you should probably be in possession of." The man grit his teeth.

Shinobi getting ready to take him out sensed danger. He blurred out of sight, the flute dropping to the floor as a blade of wind came through and destroyed the spot where the ninja had been. Reappearing on the other side of the black haired man he looked past him and saw many more men present. One in particular stood out. He was extremely tall, lean-built and yet mildly muscular man with silver hair, which was held pointing upwards in spiky strands on top of his head, but hung down to the left of his face, and reaching down to his shoulders. His eyes were dark, and seemed to lack eyebrows. He had an elongated face with sharp features, and somewhat pointed ears. His eyes were circled by dark lines and each of them has a simple tattoo right below them, consisting of a pointed line going down vertically, crossed with two more, larger horizontal lines. The upper part of his body is similarly tattooed, but with much larger, intricated and blue-colored motifs, which take on spiraling forms, and adorn his shoulders, biceps, chest and back. He was wearing a Japanese-like outfit. He was wearing a long, worn hakama, below a darker, shorter cloth, held up by an even lighter and shorter one tied like a belt. He has a black scarf wrapped around his thin neck, with its edges hanging on his back and traditional geta sandals on his feet. The last thing that Shinobi noticed was a pair of distinctive dark gloves, each adorned by a light X on the back, and by bandages wrapped around his forearms.

The man walked forward slowly, picking up the flute. "Kageyama." He said gently causing the now known Kageyama to stiffen, "I'm thoroughly disappointed in you. You not only let another mage form another guild see the Lullaby, but you also let him take it from you?" He asked. Kageyama was now trembling in fear from the man. "Tisk tisk. What am I going to do with you?" He asked himself.

"Damn, this is such a drag." Shikamaru said. Cursing himself for dropping the flute, that was a rookie mistake. His senses should have told him to move regardless of being with Naruto. "That's Eligor, the ace of the dark mage guild Eisenwald." Shikamaru said getting Eligor to look at the cat.

"I see that you know of little old me." He laughed, "Well as much fun as it would be to dispose of you fairies myself, I have a strict schedule in which I do intend to keep. So in that case Kageyama." He said getting the man to stiffen. "Deal with them. And if you don't." His face morphed into an evil grin, "I'll kill you myself." With that he gave off a laugh and launched himself from the train with the rest of his men following.

Kageyama stood there in shock for a moment before laughing lightly to himself. "Looks like I got off easy there now doesn't it." He said turning to the ninja. "Sorry about it, but you heard the boss. You have to die." Giving the dynamic duo in front of them an evil grin.

"Shikamaru." Shinobi said.

"Tch… Troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled as he got off of the man's shoulder and got in front of Kagemaru who just stared at the small cat in front of him.

"HAHAHAHA!" He laughed out hysterically, "You can't be serious!" He laughed, "Your sending your cat to take me on?! HAHAHAHA!"

"Man… This is such a drag." Shikamaru simply said as he waited for his opponent to get himself organized.

"Well it's your funeral cat." He said as he moved his hands and slammed them to the ground causing a magic circle to appear. Both ninja's noticed that snake heads popped up from Kageyama's shadow and darted towards the cat who simply smirked as he disappeared into the ground. Kageyama's eyes widened. "He can use Shadow Magic as well?!" He cried as the snakes still dove to the spot where the cat was last seen only to be blown up. "What the hell happened?!" Kageyama cried out until he felt something coming out of his shadow, jumping back he covered his face, **_'Guard Shadow!'_** as a dome from his shadow appeared and protected him from Shikamaru's kunai blade launching at him.

When Kagemaru opened his eye's he no longer saw the cat that he was fighting, but himself, with another outfit on. "What's going on?" he asked shakily. Shikamaru looked off and let out a shrug.

"You know I have to thank you." Shikamaru said, "Already you've given me about 5 new idea's about how I can use Shadow Magic. Shinobi over there doesn't really know too much about it, only that it would have really complemented my fighting style, and he was right. "

It was true, out of all the clans in Konoha, the Nara clan was the most secretive out of them all. Even Danzo couldn't infiltrate their clan to record their clan secrets. Shinobi had only supplied the basics of what little he knew to Shikamaru about their jutsus, and the fact that Shikamaru got that far was impressive in itself.

"Well, I think it's about time we wrap this up." Shikamaru said bringing out his tanto and getting into a stance. Kageyama growled.

"Just because you looked like me, doesn't mean shit!" He snarled, "You're dead you hear me?!" Shikamaru had already started running at the man when he saw a magic circle appear at his feet.

_'Here it comes.'_ He thought. 3 shadow fists came out from the ground that would have hit Shikamaru if he hadn't transformed back into a cat. Spinning round, Shikamaru swung his tail around like a club and hit Kageyama in the face sending him flying.

_'What the hell was that?' _He thought. _'That felt like I was getting hit with a metal pole.'_ Still flying in the air he tried to orient himself before he stopped in midair. He looked around and felt his limbs were constrained by thin wire. "What the hell is this?" He cried out struggling against his restraints.

"Don't make it harder than it needs to be." Said a dull voice as Shikamaru walked up to the man placing a piece of paper down underneath him that lit up like a flashlight. "Your magic only includes you using the shadows from your own shadow, so with this you're basically useless." Kageyama grit his teeth.

"How did you do that?" He gritted out. Shikamaru looked up at the man.

"While you were laughing hysterically was when I set up the ninja wires. You were so focused on laughing, you didn't notice my subtle movements." He said with a smirk causing Kageyama to growl. "As for the rest, when I became one with my shadow I left an explosive to take care of those shadow snakes of yours, attempting to come from you behind. But since you defended adequately, I quickly transformed into my human for using transformation magic to confuse you even further." Kageyama's eyes widened. "Then I provoked you into attacking me, thinking that there was no way that I could possibly avoid your attack since I was coming from a frontal assault, then I transformed by into my original form and clubbed you with my tail in the direction of my trap." Kageyama's mouth hung open. It was such a simple plan, and like a chump he fell for it.

"But your tail felt like I was being hit with a steel rod." He said causing Shikamaru to smirk.

"Blame that sadistic bastard for making me train it up to be that way." He said while pointing at the ninja who was now walking up to the constrained man.

"Now," Shinobi said with a voice like cold steel, "You're going to tell me everything that is happening here right now." Kageyama's body began to tremble from the immense pressure that the ninja was giving off and let out a small whimper.

* * *

"Wooooowwwwww!" Lucy said with hearts in her eyes, "I think I'm in love." Lucy continued to watch the dark guild Eisenwald be demolished due to the one and only Erza the Titiana. Requiping lightning speed from her swords, to spears, to axes, she was cutting through her foes with the greatest of ease. "Whelp." Lucy said slightly stretching and grabbing one of her keys. "I might as well contribute to this fight a little." Happy groaned.

"Awww Lucy. Why do you gotta steal the show from Erza?" He whined.

"Damn cat." She said as she took hold of her key. "Gate of the crab. Cancer!" She yelled out thrusting her key out. There was a bright light that shone from the key growing large. When the light had died down everybody saw another person where Lucy was. He had black hair that was braided in red cornrows that ended in a shape that resembles crab's pincers He wore a blue striped shirt and dark trousers with two aquamarine stripes each side. In his pants there's a ring chain in the right pocket and a hairdresser tools' bag in the left side of his belt. He wore golden necklace in his hands were two pairs of Scissors. He wore sunglasses with green lens and there were six crab legs that appeared coming from his back.

"CRAB! CRAB!" Cried out Happy as he started salivating at the mouth.

"Do you want me to take care of these fools ebi?" He questioned his summoner.

"E-E-EBI?!" Said a shocked Happy, "What the hell is wrong with him?! Lucy you should send him back, you have no hope." The cat said dejectedly. Lucy just popped him one of the top of his head.

"Shut it." She muttered before turning to Cancer. "Come on Cancer." She said with a grin and getting in a stance unfamiliar to him. "We'll take them on together." Cancer just looked at his summoner like she was crazy.

"Ebi?" He said blankly. Lucy grinned.

"That's right Cancer," She said as she pulled out her own sunglasses putting them on, "You haven't sparred with me yet have you? Well let's get going!" She said while Cancer only nodded his head.

"Come on little lady." A creepy looking guy said with both of his hands up and in a squeezing position. "I want to see how sensitive those tits of your ar-… URRK!" He cried out as a whip latched around him and yanked him towards Lucy. Striking out, Lucy let out a series of thrusts with her fingers before the man was completely motionless on the floor. Everyone just gapped.

"W-what she do to him?" A random person asked. Erza even narrowed her eyes.

_'I didn't see what happened'_ She thought, _'What was that?'_

"Whatever, there's like 50 of and only her and her stupid crab. Come on guy let's go!" Another random guy said. The rest howled in agreement as they charged the duo and the cat.

"Cancer!" She yelled out.

"On it ebi." He said coolly as he snipped his way through different weapons while simultaneously stylizing their hair. Lucy dodged another attack lashing out her thrusts here and there paralyzing anyone who came within her reach. Standing back to back with Cancer, they were surrounded, Lucy let out a small breath slightly tired from the magic she was exerting.

"You've change ebi." Cancer said. Lucy smiled.

"I won't just hide behind you guys anymore. I'm going to be there fighting our battle together all the way." She declared. Cancer just smirked.

"Well alright ebi." He said charging out once again.

_Palm, thrust, kick, turn, dodge. Palm, thrust, kick, turn dodge._ The moves were becoming repetitious but it was effective against the small fry. Soon there was only one person left who had almost snuck up on her.

"Your in my range!" She growled out. "Two palms!" She cried out as two lightning fast strikes were made upon his body. "Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms!" The man's body was jerking uncontrollably throughout the entire combo. He fell to the ground body still twitch, but unconscious.

"Impressive." Erza said from behind her. "What was that?" She asked. Lucy took in many breaths.

_'Wow.'_ She thought. _'That move really does wear you down.' _She let out another breathe. "Eight Trigrams, Thirty-Two Strikes." She said. "It's the fighting style that Shinobi-kun is helping me out with." Erza nodded, not understanding the concept behind the style, but understood that it was dangerous.

"So that's the style that Shinobi uses?" She asked. Lucy shook her head.

"No. He said that this form clashes to much with the way that he fights." Erza nodded.

"Regardless it was impressive." She said, "Would you too like to have a spar when we return back to the guild?" She asked. Lucy blanched.

"HELL NO!" She yelled out. Erza looked around once again seeing that there were still many more opponents left for them to battle.

"Tch." She said, "This is taking way too long." As she used her magic to requip into her Heaven's wheel armor. **_"Tenrin: Sākururen Sōdo!"_**She cried out as the blades began to dance around her armor before being flung out at their enemies.

"AARRGGGG!" Many of them cried out only for Erza to launch another series of attacks at the men until only one was left. He looked around scared before he disappeared into the floor.

"Shoot." She said before turning to Lucy. "He might be heading to Eligor. Lucy, Happy, go after him!" She said getting wide eyes from both forced volunteers.

"EEEEH?!" Both Lucy and Happy said.

***GLARE***

"PLEASE!" Erza growled.

"Yes ma'am!" Lucy and Happy both said before running away fearing for their lives. Erza's armor glowed before she was back in her normal armor once more.

_'Driving the magical four-wheeled vehicle is really affecting me a lot'_ She thought as she panted heavily taking a knee. _'Natsu…. Gray… Lucy…. I'll leave the rest to you…. And Happy too.'_ She made that after thought before she was interrupted from her thoughts with another presence.

"I'm impressed." A voice said causing Erza to become on full alert whipping her neck back to see who it was. Her eyes widened at who was there.

"You…." She said in shock.

"I honestly didn't think that she would have advanced that far." A familiar cat said walking on the ground. "That just makes her more troublesome." Behind him was Shinobi carry what looked to be an unconscious man tied up in a thin wire over his shoulder.

"It was adequate." The ninja replied before getting a snort from the cat.

"Adequate my ass." He said, "I know your proud of her for being able to do a complete a technique as complicated as that." Shinobi remained silent as he walked over to Erza, dropping the body off to the side.

"What are you doing here?" Erza asked tiredly. Shinobi didn't say anything as he put his hands up in front of her. "What are you doing?" She asked a little angrily before she saw a soft green glow coming from his hands. Moving his hands from one side of her body to the next, the light slowly died down and he reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a spherical object handing it to her. She looked down at the object then back up at the ninja in front of her confused.

"Eat it." Shinobi said. Erza just stared at him for another few seconds before looking down at the object.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Just eat the damn pill troublesome woman." Shikamaru said, as he was busy binding up everyone who was on the ground in ninja wire. Erza gave the cat a light glare, but was too tired to really do anything about it. So she put the pill in her mouth, chewed it and swallowed it. Her eyes widened. The effects were instantaneous. She felt her magical powers returning to her rapidly. She stood up and looked at her own body.

"How do you feel?" Questioned the ninja. She looked at him in awe.

"I feel great." She said surprisingly, flexing her hands. "I feel like 70 percent of my magic has returned to me. What was that you gave to me?" She asked.

"Soldier pill." He said simply.

"Soldier pill?" She toyed with word. "I've never heard of any soldier having anything like this." She said before looking back at the ninja. "Does that mean that you were a soldier before coming to Fairy Tail?" She asked before realizing what she was asking. _'That couldn't be right. He would've had to be under 12 or 13. That's when he first joined the guild at least.'_ She thought. But then, how did he know about the pill he just gave her. Another thought went into her head. "What was that thing that you were doing with your hands earlier." She asked. Shinobi looked at her.

"Diagnostics." He said, "I was making sure you did not sustain any injury." Erza's eyes opened wide.

_'Is he a doctor then?'_ She asked herself before shaking her head. Figuring out the masked mystery in front of her could wait. She needed to get the citizens of the town out and away from the train station. Leaping up she started running to the entrance.

"ERZA WAIT!" Shikamaru yelled after the woman, but she just shook her head.

"I need to get the people out of here!" She yelled back.

"But you don't unde-" Shikamaru was interrupted once again by the woman.

"Lend a hand to Lucy, Gray, or Natsu. I need to get the people out of here!" She yelled out disappearing behind the door. Shikamru sighed.

"Now do you so why women are just so troublesome?" The cat asked the ninja. "We already know what the main target of their mission is." Shinobi shrugged.

"We need to get everyone out of here before the trap fully prepared. Come on Shikamaru." He said grabbing Kageyama and running farther into the train station to find his family.

* * *

Gray was running down the hall to the central plaza of the station intent on telling Erza the information that he had just found out.

_'Come on! Come on!'_ He thought, _'We can't be too late!' _But his thought process was interrupted when he saw two figures heading towards him. "What the?..." He said peering down the hallway seeing a familiar ninja and a flying cat right next to him. "Shinobi? Shikamaru?" He asked to himself before the two blurred past him, one of them grabbing his waist by the tail. "WHAT THE?! URRRGGG!" He cried out as he was jerked backwards and being dragged by the lazy cat. "Come on Shikamaru!" He cried out. "Let me go!" Struggling against the tail, which apparently had a tight grip around his waste. "I have to let Erza know about Eisenwald's true target." Shikamaru just turned his head to him.

"We already know about it." He said getting Gray to stop struggling. "Erza left to evacuate citizens before we could tell her though. We're getting all of you first so we can leave without anymore incident." Gray just grit his teeth in annoyance but accepted what the cat was telling him.

***WHACK***

"DAMMIT SHIKAMARU!" Gray shouted once again flapping his arms crazily. "If your gonna drag me around at least watch where you're going!"

* * *

"Aww man. This is lame." Said a certain Dragon Slayer, his arms behind his head, "I was for sure wanting to at least find that Eligor bastard. Now I don't even know where I am." He continued walking until he heard footsteps. The next thing he knew he was grabbed by the back of his scarf and quickly dragged the opposite direction. "DAMMIT! LET ME GO! I'LL FIGHT ALL YOU BASTARDS! LET ME AT'EM!" He shouted as he was dragged down the hall.

* * *

"GEEZ!" Cried out a frustrated Lucy, "I mean, why are you so attached to me, you damn kitty cat!" She yelled out, only to let out a yelp when she felt someone pick her up. "WHAT THE HELL?!" She cried out as she looked at her kidnapper. "Shinobi-kun?" She asked as she looked around and saw another person. "Shikamaru? Gray?... And is that Natsu you dragging back there?" Looking around the ninja's shoulder, an angry dragonslayer could still be found cursing at his kidnapper.

"LEMME GO YOU BASTARD! YOUR MOTHER WAS A COW! YOUR FATHER WAS A TRANSVESTITE! I PLAYED BADMITTEN WITH YOUR SISTER!" Lucy sweat dropped at the teens attempt to taunt his supposed opponent before looking down and realizing her position. He was carrying her one armed bridal style, but because of this, his hand was tightly gripping her beautifully shaped ass. A large tickmark arose on her face.

"AHHHH! HENTAI!" She started to scream as she started bopping him on his head with her fists. Consequently, Happy, who was being dragged by his tail by the ninjas arm, came loose and landed on top of Natsu's head.

"Oh hey there Happy." He said looking up. "What are you doing there?' He asked.

Meanwhile, "LET ME DOWN! LET ME DOWN!" She screamed, while on every word she would hit him on the head.

"We need to hurry." He said causing the girl to pause for a moment. "If we stay in this building any longer then we're going to be trapped with no way out." Lucy's eyes widened at what the ninja told her, before narrowing her eyes and turning away.

"I bet that's just an excuse to cope a feel." She muttered causing the ninja to sigh. But now that he was thinking about it…. There was something enticing about where his hand was placed right now.

* * *

Erza looked at her bleeding arm while gritting her teeth. "What's going on?" She asked, "This station isn't their target?!"

"ERZA!" She heard a shout from behind. Turning around she found Shinobi and Shikamaru carrying the rest of her team to her.

"Damn." Muttered Shikamaru when he finally got to the woman and looked out at the giant tempest outside. "Looks like we're too late." He said. Erza looked at him.

"What do you mean too late?" She asked. Shikamaru sighed.

"I mean that this entire plan about Eisenwald broadcasting the Lullaby through the broadcasting system was a hoax." Erza's eyes widened. "Their plan was to lure us here, trap us and then head towards their intended target." Erza growled.

"Where is it?" She asked.

"Clover town." Answered Gray, "They intend to play the song and kill all of the guildmasters at the guildhall." Erza's eyes widened.

"You knew this already didn't you." She pointed at both Shinobi and Shikamaru who both just nodded. "Then why didn't you tell me earlier?!"

"Troublesome woman." Shikamaru sighed, "We tried, but you went rushing off to go evacuate the civillians before we even had a chance to tell you anything." Erza's cheeks turned slightly red at the implication of her own mistake.

"That's not important right now." Gray said, "What we need to do is get out of here. And with that…" He pointed to the barrier, "It doesn't look like we'll be going that way." Erza nodded her head.

"Yes. Anything that tries to exit the barrier…" She held up her hand, "Gets torn to shreds." Gray nodded her head as Lucy gasped looking at the wound. Shinobi took out a scroll, unfurled it, and released some chakra into the seal causing a small 'poof' to occur. Everybody watched curiously at what the ninja was doing. When the smoke cleared, it looked like medical supplies had just appeared on the paper. Grabbing some of the wrappings and disinfectant, he went over to Erza and gently grabbed her arm and paused for a second looking at the woman. When she realized what he was doing, she just nodded her head and sat down with him. He dabbed the chemicals with some cotton and went to work. Erza winced slightly as the chemicals burnt, doing their part in cleaning the wounds. Quickly wrapping her arm with bandages, he then put his hand in front of her arm, and once again, his hands started glowing a soft green. Everyone watched in fascination, minus Shikamaru, at what the ninja was doing.

"Shikamaru." He said getting everyone's attention. "Bring him up. We need to interrogate him to see if he know anything about this barrier." Shikamaru nodded before a magic circle appeared in his shadow, then slowly a body raised up from it. Natsu's eye's widened.

"Hey that's the guy who kicked me in the face!" He cried out. Gray snickered at the thought.

"From what I have gathered he is Eligor's right hand man. If anyone has information on this barrier, it would be him." Informed Shiniobi. The glow from his hands died down and he let out a small breath and shudder. Erza noticed but chose not to say anything, as there were more important matters to attend to.

"He's unconscious though." She said looking at the man, "He's useless to us." Shinobi didn't say anything as he walked over to the body, grabbing something else out of his side pouch. They watched him put something underneath Kageyama's nose before they saw him jerk awake suddenly surprising everybody. Shinobi stood back up.

"What did you do?" Gray asked.

"Smelling salts." Shinobi answered calmly, as he watched the man on the ground regain his bearings.

"What the-… Where am I?!" He said as he started to struggle from the ninja wire. "LET ME GO!" He shouted. He was then lifted up with one hand by Erza and slammed against the side of the wall, sword poised and ready to pierce in her other hand.

"I want the magic wall of wind to be nullified at once." She said with a cold glare that made Kageyama shiver. "You'll gain a new cut every time you say no. Understood?"

"U-u-und-er-stood." Kageyama coughed out as blood began spilling out of his mouth profusely. Erza in shock dropped the man, only to find a fat man halfway fused with the wall behind him, looking at his hand, which was covered in blood.

"KAGE!" Screamed Erza.

"Shit!' Said Gray.

"Kage! Hang in there!" Cried out Erza only to be shoved to the side.

"Move!" Said Shinobi forcefully pushing the girl to the side. Looking down at the body, he pulled out his medical scroll once again unfurling it. Looking at his supplies, he didn't see anything that would help him in this situation. "Shit!" He said quietly, "This is gonna suck for me later." With that he made a few hand seals and went to work, trusting in his teammates to keep him safe as he preformed this medical jutsu. Shinobi hated performing medical ninjustsu. It was always such a pain, and usually depleted a lot of his chakra reserves in the process. Regenerating bone was never an easy thing, and It looked like the man had stuck his hand through the back and severed some of the spinal chord. He hoped that none of the neurons in the area were damaged, for if they were, Kageyama was going to be losing some functional motor skill of some sort. If it was just bone, then that he could handle. Just increase the production rate of osteoblasts and accelerate there growth and it should be good.

Shinobi sat there for about thirty minutes, not making a sound until finally the glow from his hands died down and he let out a sigh. "He's out of danger." He said taking in some deeper breathes, "But still needs to see a proper doctor soon."

"What kind of healing magic was that?" Gray asked only getting heavy panting from the ninja. "Why didn't you tell us you could heal wounds like this?" He asked again. Shinobi just looked up at him.

"Because this is not what I specialize in." He said simply. "It takes too much of my energy to be able to heal wounds like these." He finished as he was wrapping Kageyama in bandages.

"What do you specialize in the Shinobi?" Erza asked, still curious about the ninja's abilities. Shinobi paused for a moment before thinking about whether or not he should answer them.

"Assassinations." He said simply, everyone going wide eyed at the teens response. Erza narrowed her eyes.

"What was that again?" She growled out as she guarded herself just in case something should happen. "You know that killing goes against everything Fairy Tail is about!" She snarled. Gray narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the ninja, but said nothing. Lucy was fearful, both of the fact that Erza might try and fight Shinobi, but also a little fearful of his nonchalant response to her question. Natsu just looked at the ninja wrapping up the injured man.

"This whole thing is such a drag." Sighed out Shikamaru getting everyone's attention. "You guys should listen more. He only said that he specializes in assassinations."

"That's still murder!" Growled Erza getting Shikamaru to roll his eyes.

"No it's not." He said, "He specializes in the field, it doesn't mean that he actively participates in assassinations. You people are so troublesome." Erza's eyebrow rose.

"How can you specialize in murder, but not participate in it?" She asked, her face still laced with suspicion.

"My body," Shinobi started, "Was trained to kill. It was honed and fine-tuned to kill in secrecy, in the shadows, in the dark. But I do not kill anymore and have not done so for many years. I still implement my training though to complete missions. Hiding in the shadow, disguises, deception." Erza noticed that he had said 'anymore' and was about to call him out on that when he stood up. "We can worry about this later, we have more important matters to attend to."

"As curious as I am about all this, I have to say that he's right." Gray said, "We still need to get out of here." Natsu started grinning like a mad man.

"Don't worry about it." He said getting everyone's attention. "While Shinobi was healing Kageyama, Happy and Lucy here came up with a great idea!" He grinned. Lucy smiled and nodded at the group before taking out one of her golden keys.

"OPEN! THE DOOR TO THE VIRGIN! VIRGO!" She thrust the key out in front of her causing there to be a bright light to occur. When the light died down she looked at the spirit. "HUH?!"

"How may I serve you mistress?" Came a gentle voice. There stood a maid with shackles around her wrists, short, pink hair, and blue eyes. She was wearing a typical black and white maid's outfit. While introduction were being made, Shinobi was having a heated conversation with his own partner Shikamaru.

Using his tail he swished it back and forth in a rhythmic pattern conveying his message to the ninja. _'What the hell are you doing? Why did you say that?' _Shinobi using one of his hands formed signs discreetly with his finger.

_'I don't know alright! I don't know why I answered their questions.'_

_'What do you mean you don't know?!' _Shikamaru's tail twitch irritably. _'After all this time your now being open with them? Why?'_

_'…. I don't know….' _Shiniobi signed.

_'I thought the whole reason why you have kept in the shadows all this time was so enemies couldn't plan their attacks accordingly against you.'_ Shikamaru's tail swished. Shinobi sighed.

_'Yea….'_ Shinobi was interrupted from his conversation with Shikamaru when he sensed a face in front of his own literally 2 inches away from his own. "May I help you?" He asked, a little upset that he was so distracted in his own conversation he hadn't noticed the girl with the chains pop up in front of him. She merely touched the sides of his mask turning his head back and forth looking at each side of his head. Shinobi sensed to ill will from the girl so he went along with what she was doing.

"Your spirit…" She said quietly, "Is so… beautiful my Lord." Shinobi raised an eyebrow in his mask when all of a sudden she pressed her lips firmly against his through his mask causing him to freeze up. All mages in the vicinity had their jaws on the ground seeing what the spirit was doing. Lucy was the first to recover.

"H-H-HEY!" She yelled while her face was a bright red. "I'm the one you should be listening to! We need to get out of here!" Letting go of the ninja's face she turn around to her summoner and bowed.

"Forgive me hime. Do you wish to punish this lowly servant?" She asked in what Lucy thought was somewhat of a hopeful voice.

"N-No. J-just get us outta here!" She said.

"Shame." Virgo replied, "As your wish hime." With that, a magic circle appeared underneath the girl and she began to tunnel under the ground. Gray just let off a whistle.

"I dunno." He started, "There might be some truth to what master said about Shinobi being a little player here."

"IT WAS A MISTAKE!" Yelled Lucy, only for her head to crack against the metal breasts of Erza.

"Well done Lucy." She complimented the girl. "Now lets hurry!

* * *

Once on the other side, they noticed that neither Happy or Natsu were present. Guessing that they already went ahead, the 5 members of the team, with one injured bad guy, went ahead and 'borrowed' a transport and headed on the railways.

"I'm worried about Erza." Gray said looking at their fast past that she was setting. "She's been running her magic like crazy for the many hours. I think she's on her last leg."

"She'll be fine." Shinobi said causing both Gray and Lucy to look up at him. "She had over half of her magical reserves replenished a little earlier. She should have enough energy."

"How did she do that?" Gray asked. Shinobi didn't answer anything as he looked off to the side and spread out his senses. "Tch… Typical. I wish you would open up to us a little more Shinobi." Gray said as he himself looked away. Lucy looked uncomfortable at the situation.

"W-why did you guys save me?" Asked a confused Kageyama, "We're enemies right?!" He cried out. "If your thinking about using me as a hostage to negotiate with Eligor-san…. It's a waste of time. He'll probably kill me out of principle for being captured by you guys." He sighed out.

"If you really want me to, I can end your life right now." Gray said causing Kageyama to sweat. "Life and death aren't the only two possible outcomes of a conflict right? You should live your lives more positively." He said.

"All life… " Shinobi said quietly though everyone could hear him clearly, "Is precious. No matter the circumstance. You should treasure your life and fight for it, no matter what." Then he became silent as everyone just stared at him.

_'Shinobi-kun….'_ Thought Lucy as the vehicle continued down the tracks.

* * *

"DAMMIT!" Cried out Natsu, "And after we just saved him too! How could he do that?" He asked stomping his foot down on the ground. Moments earlier, after Natsu had defeated Eligor, Kageyama had then stolen the flute and taken their magical transport as well leaving the mages stranded there on the tracks.

"That's not important." Erza said, "We need to hurry up and reach Clover Town before it's too late!' She cried out as she started running down the tracks. Everyone following her. Shinobi paused and looked at the battered man on the ground. He made a single hand-seal.

**_'Kage Bushin'_**

A clone popped into existence and proceeded to bind the man with ninja wire. "Catch up when you're finished with him." He said getting a nod from the clone before he too took off after the others, quickly catching up. Erza looked back.

"Lucy I must say, I'm quite impressed that you can keep up with us at these speeds." She said.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN!" She yelled out angered at the fact that they thought she was slow.

"We need to go faster. Can you keep up?" She asked getting a nod from the girl. Erza grinned, "Alright, let's pick it up a notch." With that the mages and the ninja ran quickly down the tracks.

* * *

"LOOK THERE HE IS!" Gray pointed out as Kageyama stood with the lullaby in his hands in front of Master Makarov.

"JIII-CHAN/MASTER!" All but Shinobi and Shikamaru cried out before an odd, short, bald, cross-dressing man held up his hand in front of them to stop them.

"Shhhhh!" He said quietely holding a finger to his lips. "The best part is coming up. Just watch." He said in a very flirty voice before looking at both Natsu and Gray. "Ohhh, you boys just look so delicious." He said blowing a kiss at the two who were overly freaked out.

"Wh-who is this?" Lucy asked slightly disturbed.

"Master Bob from Blue Pegasus!" Erza said.

"Oh my Erza-chan." Master Bob said with a hand on the side of his face, "You sure have grown into a beautiful woman." He said before looking at Shinobi. "Oooooo!" His eyes lit up. "The ever mysterious Shinobi-kun. What I wouldn't do to unravel your mystery cutie!" Though thoroughly creeped out, Shinobi bowed.

"Master Bob, it's good to see you again." He said.

"What's going on?" Everyone heard Master Makarov say. "Hurry up already." They all saw Kageyama trembling with the flute in his hands.

"NO!" Yelled Erza when another presence made itself known.

"Just stay quiet. This should be interesting." Said the older gentleman with sunglasses, causing the girl to widen her eyes at the man

"Master Goldmine from Quatro Cerberus." Erza said quietly before looking back at the master.

"Now." Makarov said with seriously. A thousand thoughts were racing through Kageyama's head at once.

_'I just need to play it.'_ He thought, _'Everything will change after that!'_ Makarov let out s sigh.

"Nothing will change." He said looking at the shocked Kageyama. "Weaklings will stay weakinglings together. But weakness is not evil. Since Human beings are weak creatures to begin with. Alone, you feel nothing but insecurity; That's why we form guilds. That's why we have nakama." Kageyama just stared at the old man in front of him. "We walk together in order to live a strong life. The clumsy will run into more walls than the others. And it may also take them longer to get there. If you believe in tomorrow and put yourself out there, you can naturally obtain your strength. That's how you'll be able to smile and live strong." Makarov gave him a knowing grin. "Without having to depend on such a flute of course." Everyone just watched at they saw Kageyama's shocked expression in front of Makarov. It wasn't until he dropped the flute in defeat did Lucy, Happy, Erza, Natsu, and Gray rush to the master.

"JII-SAN/CHAN/MASTER!" Came their respected calls. Makarov's eyes bulged.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" He screamed out before getting his face smashed into Erza's metallic busom.

"Master, you're amazing! Your words deeply touched me!" She cried out.

"OUCH!" Came the Masters reaction.

"Finally." Came Shikamaru's voice, "It's about time we finished this troublesome mission." Makarov looked up at the cat, then the ninja, which he was perched upon.

"Shinobi? Shikamaru?" He asked, "What are you guys doing here with this lot?" He asked pointing his thumb over his shoulder. Shinobi merely pulled out a small package that was wrapped in a brown paper bag.

"You asked me to retrieve this item for you master." Shinobi said, Makarov's eyes going wide with excitement.

"Y-Y-YOU M-M-MEAN YOU ACTUALLY GOT IT?!" He cried out. Getting the nod from the ninja he let out a girlish scream and snatched the book out of the ninja's hands ripping the paper off of the package, which revealed a book.

Icha Icha Baiorensu

"Oh my Maki," Master Bob said with his hand in front of his mouth. "Is that what I think it is?" He asked girlishly.

"Your damn right it is!" He cried out. "The newest Icha Icha edition signed by the one and only Jiraiya-sama!" Getting the rest of the guildmasters attention, they crowded around the book. Lucy looked disgusted.

"Bunch of pervy old men." She muttered, but she could have sworn that she saw Erza try to take a glance or two at the ecchi novel.

**"HAHAHA."** Came a voice out of nowhere. **"You mages have no guts!"** Everyone's eyes widened at the talking object on the ground. **"I can't hold it any longer." **The flute said, **"I'll just eat you all myself!"**

Then there was an explosion, a pair of enormous wooden legs struck down, clawed feet shot out to each side of the valley. Mounted to those legs was a gigantic body, gaping holes all through its middle, converging into a massively wide wooden chest. Two wooden arms stuck out from its shoulders, each ending in razor sharp claws. Then there was the twisted head stuck to the neck of the beast, three dark eyes glaring down at everyone, a long tongue licking its lips. Its long, pointed ears stuck out horizontally from its head, hiding just beneath a pair of giant horns, shooting into the sky.

"….Troublesome…." Muttered Shikamaru, as he looked up at the creature

"What the hell is that thing?" Yelled Kageyama.

Master Gold Mine seemed to have the answer as he replied. "That must be a demon from the book of Zeref."

Shinobi stood in the back behind his peers, as he raised his hands to form a simple hand sign. **_'Kage Bushin!'_** He muttered quietly, as four clones popped into existence behind him. Nodding to the four, they took off in their separate directions, already knowing their assignments.

"What… is going on? How could a demon come out of a flute?" Asked Lucy.

"That devil is the lullaby itself. Meaning, it's living magic." Shinobi said surprising everyone with the fact that he spoke. "It's living magic…. Zeref's magic

Gray turned to Shinobi "No way, Zeref's magic? You mean from ancient times?"

Grinning wickedly, Lullaby pondered over its new prey. **"So, which of you want to be eaten first? If you know you have a tasty soul, please, jump forward first!"**

Raising a fist, Natsu cried back angrily. "How about none of us! You wanna eat so badly? How about I eat your soul ya bastard!" Thinking about what he had said he turned to Gray. "Hey, you think souls taste good?" He asked.

"HOW THE HELL WOULD I KNOW!" Yelled Gray.

Shinobi turned from his position and saw a large gathering of people off to the side, all dressed in matching medieval knight outfits, flags upheld by a few of them with strange designs fluttering proudly above their heads.

"This guy isn't anything we can't handle! Men, onward with the attack!" The leader cried out

Letting out a loud cry, the men began charging. This managed to draw the attention of the titanic wooden beast. Raising a brow, the beast snorted. **"Not even worth my time. Disappear!"**

Taking a large breath, Lullaby exhaled and fired out a monstrous yellow beam of pure energy. It covered the distance from itself to the knights in a fraction of a second, hitting the mountain behind them causing it to explode violently, massive chunks of earth thrown everywhere. Shinobi felt the tremors of the blast hit their spot as well. Many in their own party had fallen over due to the destructive power of the blast.

Shikamaru analyzed their opponent before looking down at the ninja for disrections. Shinobi just shook his head. _'This beast has a lot of power. But we're in the midst of many different guild masters, so I shouldn't need to jump into anything yet.' _He thought looking around at the masters, _'They don't seem too shaken up at anything either…. I already did enough to where they should be able to wrap this up.' _

Hearing a cry of retreat, Shinobi and Shikamaru sweat dropped as the formally brave knights turned tail and fled. He couldn't blame them though. He guessed if he was as weak as them, he might be scared of the beast.

**"You know, I haven't eaten anything in couple hundred years. I think I'll just eat you all at once!" **Cackled Lullaby

"Natsu! Gray! With me. Shinobi you take care of civilians alright?!" She cried out as she shot forward requiping her armor. Just as everyone took off, Lullaby reared its head back and let out a deafening roar, the very air shaking with the power of the vibrations. Erza charged in, requipping out for the power of her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Shooting her swords, she let out a satisfied hum as she heard the swords cut deeply into the surface of the beast.

Gray came in next, placing a fist on top of an open palm as he charged his ability. Thrusting his palms face out, he braced himself as hundreds of long frozen spears exploded out, shooting up and into Lullaby's torso. **_'Ice Make: Lance!'_**

Natsu, coming out of nowhere, arms ablaze as he shot into face of the thing with a mighty punch. **_'Salamander's Brilliant Flame!'_**

Struggling under the rapid succession of attacks, Lullaby tried to step back but couldn't move its feet. **"What the helll?!"** The beast continued to try to move

Erza tried to find the source of this. _'What's going on?! Why can't it move it's feet?' _She then saw some glowing symbols on the ground at Lullaby's feet. _'Are those…. Runes of some kind? But who could be casing them' _She asked heself. Turning her attention back to Lullaby, Erza flapped her polished wings as the monster lashed out with a massive arm, just barely missing her and turning the ground behind her into nothing but rubble. Natsu and Gray also dived out of harm's way as the arm swept around, trying to grab a hold of anyone.

"Oh!" Master Bob said, "Well look at that Maki. Who do you think is responsible for that." He said with a flirty smile. Makarov,, just shot a quick glance at Shinobi who was in the back, before turning back to see his children fight the demon.

**"You insects are really annoying!"** Lullaby growled

The three simply began attacking again, any visible part of the massive wooden body being targeted and slashed, stabbed, frozen or set on fire.

* * *

Shinobi was just monitoring the situation from behind the group just to make sure that everything was going ok. His clones had already gotten the civilians away so he just chose to stand back and watch what his fellow comrades could do. The next second he heard a scream coming from his right. Reacting to the sound, he shot off like an arrow to the source, seeing Lucy and Happy about to get crushed by some excess debris. Shinobi flickered into existence beside them, grabbing one around the waist, the other by his tail, before vanishing with them just before the large chunks of debris came down on their previous position. Landing a safe distance away, Shinobi placed them down gently and made sure they were ok.

"You ok?" He asked with general concern. Lucy felt something within her stir a little.

Seeing them nod, Shinobi stood up. "Don't worry, I wont let any harm come to either of you." He said with some emotion in his voice that cause Lucy to blush and Happy to get an-awe struck face on him.

* * *

**_"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"_**

Natsu unleashed powerful flames into the side of Lullaby, grinning as he saw large scar marks appear on the body of the gigantic beast.

"Ha! Your not very strong are you?! Your just a big bag of hot air"

**"THAT'S IT! YOUR DEAD!"** The Lullaby cried out in rage as his hands shot out flattening the forest round about the area. Dodging, Natsu landed on the giant's arm and began charging up it, rapidly drawing near to its furious face.

**_'Fire Dragon's Claw!'_**

Unleashing a devastating fire fuelled kick into Lullaby's face, the beast cried out in pain. **"Damn you!"**

**_'Ice Make: Geyser!'_**

Suddenly, a towering pillar of ice shot up from the ground behind Lullaby, striking from its side and piercing the demon through his body. Howling out in pain, Lullaby's massive weight forced it down onto the spike, impaling itself on to the ground.

"**THAT'S IT! YOUR ALL DEAD!"** He cried as he broke the giant ice spike and took a large breath. **"ENJOY MY SONG!"** Everyone tensed as they were prepared to hear the fatal attack, only to hear the sound of a slight wheezing noise. **"What's going on?!" ** The beast cried out. **"I can't play my song!" **

"I see," Master Goldmine said, "Because of all the attacks, the beast is so full of holes that it cannot produce a single note."

"You mean, it's a giant living flute that can't play notes?" Lucy asked. "…That's kinda lame."

**_"YOU! YOU WILL NOT MOCK ME!"_** The creature cried out as it unleashed a raging torrent of fire into the forest around, aiming at really anything he could hit.

**_'Ice Make: Shield!'_**

Gray smashed his hand together to produce a thick wall of ice in front of the bystanders, protecting everyone from the vicious flames. Lullaby was cackling the entire time as he watched his fire start to burn through the ice. But suddenly, the flames started to away over towards Natsu as the boy inhaled.

After managing to swallow the entire raging inferno, Natsu looked up at Lullaby, wiping his mouth. "Thanks for the meal, those flames were delicious! Ha-ha, now I've got a fire in my belly!"

**"Y-y-you're a monster!"** Lullaby shuddered in fear.

"HA! YOUR ONE TO TALK!" Cried out Natsu as he took off again at the beast. Lullaby struck out at the oncoming teen only for Natsu to dodge and land on its arm and started running along its arm.

**_'Requip! Black Wing Armor!'_**

Flying in for support, Erza swapped her Heaven's Wheel outfit for a much sleeker one. This armor was black with silver trimming that had silver crosses is several places. It had a revealing silver-edged breastplate and plates flanking her shapely hips that reached down to her waistguard. The waistguard leaves the front of Erza's body exposed, to the enjoyment of many perverted older men, but also the black bikini bottoms didn't help that much either. There were large plates also guarding her legs. She had two wings that have black metal 'arms' acting as the wings leading structure, but the parts used to fly were composed of a membrane-like material. Erza's hair was now tied in a simple ponytail.

Shooting past Natsu, Erza cut deep into Lullaby's side with a single swing of her magnificent sword, the demon opening its mouth in a loud roar of pain. Turning back, she saw Natsu nearing the head and cried out at him.

"NATSU!" She cried out, "DO IT NOW!"

**_'Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!'_**

Igniting both hands, Natsu brought them together, generating a massive fire ball bigger than his own body over his head. Jumping forward with a scream, he launched the massive ball of flame at Lullaby, the beast shrieking as it felt the ball slam into its chest, flames exploding upon impact. Not able to move its feet, the beast fell over on the face of the land, destroying acres of trees in the process. With a large groan Lullaby once again got back up. **"THAT"S IT! I'M NO LONGER GOING TO EAT YOU, I'M GOING TO WIPE YOUR EXHISTANCE AWAY FROM THE FACE OF THE PLANET!" **He cried out.

Eyes wide, Natsu took a step back. "Damn! This guy is tough!"

Nodding her head, Erza looked back up at the beast. "NATSU! GRAY! With me!" She cried out getting them to nod their heads as they lined up. Gray closed his eyes as he focused, Erza's sword began glowing as energy charged through it, Natsu brought his arms back behind himself. Then they all dashed forward and unleashed the power one last time into the howling demon.

**_'Ice Make: Saucer!'_**

"HrrrrAHHHH!" Screamed Erza.

_'__**Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!'**_

As the attacks connected, the beast let out a horrific wail in agony, its voice shattering as its body destabilized into millions of particles in the air.

"HAHAHAHA!" Laughed out old man Makarov, "What do you think?! Aren't they great?!" He continued laughing as he started to do his own little jig around the area. All the Fairy Tail mages were gathered around grinning like fools. Shinobi let out a small sigh and smiled underneath his mask. He leaned on a tree in the back letting his teammates enjoy their moment of glory. He was tired and he wanted to go home and sleep. He was low on chakra from using his medical ninjustsu. Damn! He hated using it, but the situation called for it. He let loose a sigh as to what his teammates had learned about him this mission. Keeping up this façade, especially on missions was exhausting. That's why he usually only worked with Shikamaru. He was a lot more careless on this mission though. He wondered why, what would make him do such a thing? He was pretty annoyed that this who situation happened in the first place…. Oh well, nothing that a little rest and relaxation couldn't fix. Makarov continued his dancing until something caught his eye, which caused him to blanch. The other old geezers looked at where he was looking and gapped.

"NUAAAH!" THE REGULAR MEETING SITE HAS CRUMBLED TO DUST!" They cried out in a collective manner.

"Man that thing is absolutely toast!' Laughed out Natsu. Yells and shouts were given as the Fairy Tail mages started to tremble in fear at having to repay the damage that they had caused.

"SHUT UP!" Came a shout. Everyone gapped at the source of the shout seeing Shinobi now standing with his fists clenched. "You yell at them like this is entirely their fault!" He shouted out in anger, "In case you old fools haven't noticed, there just seems to be a plethora of fricken guild masters here who supposedly have immense power. You all knew the destructive power of Erza, Gray, and Natsu. Yet you old bats did nothing. So don't take it out on them!" He shouted out, now panting a little after his short but vicious speech.

"Oh my…" Master Bob whispered, "That's the most I have ever heard him talk." The other guild masters who knew of the ninja could only nod in agreement. Shinobi paused for a moment thinking about what had happened before seizing up.

He bowed to the masters in apology. "Forgive me masters. I don't know what came over me." Makarov gapped.

"Shinobi-kun…." He said quietly, "What happened?" Shiniobi sighed.

"…. I don't know." He said, "Maybe I have just been spending too much time around Natsu." He said trying to lighten the mood a little and hopefully have the master just brush this little incident off.

"Alright then!" Makarov cried out in a cheerful voice. "From now on, you and Natsu are teammates!" He shouted pointing at the ninja who just stood still in shock for a moment.

"WHHHHAATTTT?!" He cried out. Makarov just dug his pinky in his ear making sure he could hear again,

"You heard me Shinobi-kun." He said, "I haven't seen you open up this much in well… forever. So it's decided. Effective immediately your going to be teamed up with Natsu until you open up a little more." He thought about what he had just said. "Or…. You show us your face under that mask. And I'm not talking about that other mask which you have under that mask you have on." Shinobi cursed under his breath. Shikamaru's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"….You mean we have to work…. Every mission…. With that hyperactive pyro?" He asked quietly. Then Natsu came in out of no where trying to put Shinobi in a headlock only for him to move out of the way.

"Alright Shinobi!" He shouted, "Me, you, Happy, and Lucy all partners! I know how to celebrate! Fight me!" As he launched himself at Shinobi he just sighed.

"Natsu, Gray said you were the weakest mage in the guild." He said, and with that, Natsu launched himself in a new direction at the black haired streaker.

"What'chu say about me bastard!" And with that they started throwing fists at each other.

* * *

That evening, the group of Fairy Tail mages were gathered around the camp fire. Natsu and Gray were pretending to be best friends because Erza was there, but behind their back they were furiously poking the crap out of each other. Happy was happily eating a can of tuna that was supplied by Shinobi. Shikamaru was currently in Lucy's lap, which normally he would have thought would be troublesome, but the woman had damn good hands when it came scratching his head. Lucy giggle silently as she felt and heard the feline in her lab purr loudly. Looking up at Shinobi she sighed.

_'He really has made me stronger.'_ She thought, _'But, still nowhere on the level of these guys.'_ She looked at her fellow mages thinking about the fight against Lullaby that they had.

"You did very well you know." Came Shinobi's voice interrupting her thoughts. She glanced up at the ninja.

"What?" She asked.

"The entire mission, you did very well." He said, getting the blonde to blush a little at his praise. It was rare for him to do so.

"I-I didn't do all that much." She said. Shinobi turned his head to let her know he was looking at her.

"Yes you did actually." He said, "You played a large role in this mission. If not for you, the fight with those other mages would have left Erza in a more exhausted state than she was. If it wasn't for you, we might not have gotten out of that wind barrier." Lucy was now burning up with the complements that he was giving her. "And the most important thing is…." He paused causing Lucy to lean in just a little in anticipation. "You gained an enormous amount of respect with one of your partners." Lucy looked back down to the cat in her lap smiling fondly at how Cancer had even commented on her change. Shinobi stood up. "Shikamaru." He said getting a groan coming from the girls lap.

"Do I have to?" He whined before getting up and hopping on his shoulder. Lucy gave the both of them a confused look.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"Out." He said simply causing the girl to sweat drop. "We'll be back in a bit." Came a late response. With that both Shinobi and Shikamaru walked off into the night. Makarov's eyes followed the duo carefully.

"You've been awfully quiet tonight Erza." He said to the red-head who was sitting right next to him just starring at the fire. "Something on your mind?" He asked. Erza bit her lip in thought.

"…..I learned a little about Shinobi-san today." She said causing the old man's eyes to open from their normally closed position.

"Oh?" He said. Erza nodded.

"He said that he specialized in assassinations." Makarov silently looked at the girl in thought. "But he said that he doesn't do them anymore. But…" She clenched her fist, "What if he still does Master? Do we really want to take that risk? You know that murder of any kind is not tolerated within the guild!" Makarov sighed.

"As interesting as that is my child, I must pose this question to you." He said getting Erza to look at the master, "When did you start passing judgment on a person before you even got to know them?" Erza's eyes widened. "Shinobi-kun's been with us for a long time, yet, no one has tried to get to know him besides a few of the members of late. With the way our guild is run, you wouldn't think that would be possible. Not to say that this is the guilds fault by any means, but Shinobi-kun has chosen this path for himself and I respect that…." He paused as he took another puff from his pipe, "I am not sure about everything, but I know for a fact that Shinobi-kun has sacrificed much for this guild."

"What do you mean Master?" Erza now thoroughly confused. What did he mean sacrifice?

"I can truly say that I trust Shinobi-kun with all my heart. If I didn't, I wouldn't have let him join the guild right after you did." He took another puff. "The things that you've seen today, or heard from him today, is the most that probably anyone has ever heard from him. And here you are passing judgment on just one of the things that he has revealed about himself. Things in his past, that he says he takes no part of anymore." Erza looked down slightly ashamed of her accusation. "You should know better than anyone my child, most people in the guild don't have a happy beginning, but that's why we stick together as nakama. So we can bring a brighter and happier future together." He smiled.

Erza thought about what the Master had said to her. Several minutes she was silent before she stood up. "I'm going to go talk to him." She said marching out of the camp in the direction that the ninja went. Makarov just let out a fond smile.

Marching a good distance out into the darkness, Erza let out her senses getting an idea of the area before hearing something a little farther out.

"FUCK YOU FAIRY!"

* * *

**A few minutes earlier:**

Shinobi and Shikamaru ran out a good distance into the field away from their companions. Shinobi felt the presence of their follower right behind them. Thinking it was a good distance away from the group he stopped and looked around.

"You know, i'm surprised you were able to cut through my wire." He said. Silence permeated the desolate area for a moment before he heard some chuckling.

"You know I'm surprised." Came the voice as he walked out into the clearing, leaning on his scythe, "I didn't think any of you fairies would have noticed me."

"What do you want Eligor?" Shinobi asked. "Your guild has been imprisoned and disbanded. There is nothing left for you." Shinobi got an evil cackle as a response.

"No. That's where you are wrong I'm afraid." Eligor put up his finger. "You see, there still is one thing left for me…. Revenge." He smiled wickedly. "You see, if it wasn't for you fairies, everything would have gone according to plan. I will make sure that every man, woman, and child from your guild crying in agony. Loved one's will be lost, and all of Fiore will burn. Blood will flood your guild halls as your fellow comrades weep for their deceased." Shinobi just looked at the man.

"I see." Shikamaru hopped off as Shinobi started reaching into his ninja pouch.

"You think I'm just going to let you attack?! You'll be the first to die Fairy!" With that Eligor stretched out his arm as a magic circle appeared before him and many large wind blades came blasting out of the circle at high speeds hitting the ninja. "Hmpfff. Pathetic." He said as he turned around to walk away only to hear something high speed coming at him. Quickly moving he barely dodged in time as a Shuriken sailed past him. A large cut appeared on his shoulder. _'What?! I know I dodged that! How did it hit me?!'_ He glared at where the weapon was hurled at him only to widen his eyes.

Shinobi laid the shuriken flat on him palm before exhaling a stream of vacuum-like chakra onto the shuriken in a pin-wheel like fashion, turning them into massive buzz-saws. _'He's using wind magic as well?!'_ Eligor thought as the ninja hurled the buzz saws at the man. **_'Bōfūi!'_** He cried out as he was encased in his wind armor, only for one of the shurikens to cut him deepingly in his side. _'How?!' _ He thought as his _'Storm Mail'_ disappeared from the pain. More shuriken came from behind curving around the man before catching him off guard when thin wires wrapped around him causing him to drop his scythe before he was thrown around at great velocity crashing into a large tree causing a crater to form around him. Looking over he saw a second ninja there manipulating small wires from his fingers. _'What kind of illusion is this?!' _More shuriken flew past him effectively binding the man to the tree. Blood flew from the man's mouth as the ninja grabbed his throat causing the man to gag.

"Your wind is very powerful, but you haven't mastered your control over it. That is why my blades are sharper than yours." Shinobi said. "So are you going to cooperate now?" He asked.

"FUCK YOU!" The man snarled in rage.

* * *

Erza bent down behind a nearby rock as she saw Shinobi apparently choking someone. Looking over she saw who it was. _'Eligor?!'_ She thought, _'What is he doing here?!'_

"You think this can hold me you stupid Fairy!" He shouted, "Watch th-?!" He froze as marking glowing markings started to spread across his entire body. When they stopped, they dimmed down and it looked like only dark lines had been tattooed across his body. Shinobi stepped back.

"I should kill you, you know." He said, he voice cold as steel as he pulled out his tanto. Erza's eyes opened wide. To hell with that! There was no way she was going to be a witness for an execution. She got up to make a move only to be held back by a tail. Angrily she looked back to find Shikamaru looking at her seriously, shaking his head he looked back at the scene. Erza, confused and pissed, grudgingly looked back at the ninja, appeasing the cat for the time being.

"I know what its like." Shinobi continued, "To kill so much that it becomes an addiction. My hands have been stained with so much blood, I am ashamed sometimes to even affiliate myself with my guild." He held up his blade to Eligor's throat, cutting it a little causing blood to run down his neck. Eligor gulped. "Why shouldn't I kill you?" He asked causing the man in front of him to sweat. "You yourself said you would going to flood our guild halls with the blood of our children, killing you would be the most logical choice in making sure my family stays safe." Shinobi shot out his killer intent at the man. Eligor's eyes widened in fear.

_'S-s-shit!'_ He thought, _'He really is going to kill me!' _Images of many different brutal situations fill his mind. _'! I can see my death! I-I-I can't take this anymore!'_ He thought visibly trembling. "P-p-please…." He managed to gasp out.

"You must be determined…. If you've already gotten that much movement back from my seal." Shinobi said toying with his tanto, not once letting up on his killer intent. Images of Eligor's mutilated body passed through Elifor's mind in flashes causing to man to tremble more and more with fear. Shinobi thrust his tanto at the mans neck spilling blood.

"NO!" Cried out Erza as she tried to rush out to save the prisoner only to once again be stopped by Shikamaru.

"Watch!" He said seriously, the tone in his voice could have cut steel. Erza stared at the cat before returning her gaze to the bound man. She noticed that the tanto hadn't gone straight through the mans neck, but only grazed the side.

"I will spare your miserable life tonight." He said in a cold voice, Eligor still sick with fear, "But if you ever make a move against my family, I'm not sure if I could stay my blade again." With that he pulled out his blade, flicking off the blood before returning it to his sheath. "The only reason why I have not taken your head tonight is because something that has been taught to me…." He said, Erza leaning in to hear a little better. "Joining this guild," He tapped his mark on his shoulder, "has taught me something which I deem precious. Life…. Every living being is precious…." He held up his hands in front of him. "I have taken so many lives, I'm not even sure if I qualify for being able to retain my own… But I was given a second chance. A chance to save myself from my own chaos. This is what I am giving to you Eligor." Eligor stared at the man in front of him. "I am still atoning for my own sins, it's time that you do the samw. Remember this night, the night that I held your life in my hands… And remember that _this_, is your second chance to redeem yourself. Don't waste it and don't make me regret sparring your life." With that knocked the man out and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Erza widened her eyes at what Shinobi had said. She looked over to where Shikamaru was…. Only to find that he had vanished as well. _'When did he….?'_ She thought. She was still for a few moments before getting up she started walking back to their camp. _'Shinobi….. Who are you?'_ She thought pondering the words in which he had spoken to his captive that night.

She got back to the camp, looked around, she saw neither ninja nor cat in sight. Makarov looked up. "Have a good conversation did we?" He asked. Erza turned to him, pensive about her thoughts.

"I-I understand a little more about Shinobi now master." She said quietly.

"Oh?" said Makarov. Erza nodded.

"Yes." She said, "….He was given a second chance…. And he's trying not wasting his." With that the girl went straight to her tent and disappeared under the flap.

Makarov stared into the fire a little longer before letting out a soft smile. "It looks like your finally believing in your family Shinobi-kun." He said to no one in particular.

* * *

**END**

**Well there you go people. I hope it's live up to expectation. Sorry once again for the long wait. To make up for it I wrote an especially long chapter for everyone. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I could give you all the excuses in the world, but what can I say, life in general comes and we gotta live in it.**

**So plans for the future, next chapter is going to be Garuna Island. I know I'm following cannon for right now, but in a chapter or two, I'm going to run off for a bit. I hope too many people aren't pissed about the whole eternano and chakra thing. I actually did quite a bit of research on the thing, so I hope it makes sense. **

**This is a multi pairing, just to let people know, but I am going to try to make it small. As of now, pairings are Lucy and Mira. I'm still working to see if I should go with Erza, Cana, Ultear, or Levy. Those are the other top choices in the poll so, try not to get hopes up. Oh and just because Virgo is infatuated with Naruto, doesn't mean that she's in the harem. I just plan to use her for some comic relief in the future chapters with some Ero- humor and her little fetishes. I blame personally the Kyuubi spirit for the way she acts, but I don't know how to explain that. Oh well. I'm going to try to put Shinobi in more embarrassing ero-situations just for the heck of it, just so you guy's know that pairings are set. So for the Levy scene, that might not matter in the future, just there for comic relief. **

**Anything else…. Still looking for a beta for this story, ummm… please no flames. Some person told me to F*** off in I think about 50 different ways cause apparently he's a freakin genius about how the Naruto world works, cause you know fanfiction has to follow Naruto worlds' rules, it's basically the law (laced with sarcasm to those who don't know). Doesn't really make anyone feel good you know. I will try to update my other stories soon. How soon, not sure, but hopefully within the next couple weeks. Studying sucks. **

**Anyways I gotta get back to studying so peace. Hope you guys like the chapter.**


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Fairy Tail, Naruto, Adventure, Romance