Fairy Tail, Naruto 1. Prologue

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

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**Prologue **

"Dad, you never told me why I don't have a mother? Or why don't I look like you?"

Kurama, the nine-tailed fox demon who stood atop the pedestal of strength, sat in calmness on top of a boulder overlooking the town below them. He was the king of all demons and lived supposedly in solitude within in the mountains. He was the most powerful demon in the land and nothing came close to his power, not even his own siblings.

The demon was dressed in an elegant yakata, knitted with the finest silk. His wild fiery hair was cascading till his back and tan skin that had no blemishes. His amber eyes gleamed with amusement as well as boredom. "Well for one, you're not really my child seeing as I didn't help create you. Secondly, you've no mother because your mother is dead and I have no wife."

"But surely I must have a mother? I can't come out of nowhere, can I?" The blond child tilted her head in confusion, her sapphire eyes bored deeply into the demon's. The demon growling in frustration, shaking his furry head at the blonde, who giggle. He gave her a sharp look and she kept quiet, waiting for him to start explaining everything to her.

"Well, of course you didn't come from nowhere. I found you in the ruins of one of the villages that my brother has destroyed. You know I was searching for things to steal instead of finding some useful things, I found you instead. Yes, I found you in the arms of the woman, who could have been your mother."

"What's she like, my mother?"

Kurama sighed. "She's a fool but a smart fool. She begged me to raise you, knowing that I'm a demon, knowing that I'm the king of all demons. She was smart to ask me because I would make you better than any mortal in this world, through I could have simply burned you alive. Yes, she was very brave. Just so you know, it will be the first and last time that you'll ever learn a demon taking care of a mere human. Now this is the last time I'll answer that question."

The girl nodded somberly. "So I'm human, not a demon like you. I'm one of those disgusting humans that you despise so much. So…why do you raise me knowing what I'm?"

"Well, you interest me, brat." The demon smirked.

Naru snorted. "Yes, but why teach me? Why raise me? Am I not one of those humans that disgust you?"

Kurama raised his eyebrow, before he rubbed his chin. "Dragons has taught humans magic along with the Gods so, I thought why not demon teaching a human in magic? And I wanted to see if I could implant my teachings to a human. Will they make the same mistakes like the rest of the humans or not? Until you, I've never found the right student until you. I could have abandoned you as a young baby but I had to take pity on you because you lost your parents to my brother, although it doesn't help that I saw the strength that you can have."

Naru was confused at this reasoning. "Strength? What's so important about me having strength?"

The demon deadpanned. "I'm the King of all demons so of course, no student of mine will be weak. They'll be powerful in both physical and mental, a perfect representation of the King of Demons. You're going to prove those ignorant dragons and gods wrong about whose magic is more powerful."

"So is that the reason why you make me learn those horrible subjects? You just want to show off to the ignorant dragons and gods?" She deadpanned

"Yes." Kurama chuckled. "That and I don't want you to end up like their disgusting students or the vile humans in this world."

"Why do you think those humans are disgusting?"

"They destroy everything in their path, gaki." He gazed coldly at the small town below them. "Trees, flowers, you name it and they will destroy it, not caring about the consequence. This is why most true demons struck terror to humans. We remind them of what the sinful deeds that they've done. Remember what I told you about nature?"

"Nature must have balance because if there's no balance in nature then life as we know it, is gone." She said somberly. "Humans, dragons and even demons will be overthrown with this change and it will cause so many deaths. You say that more deaths is pointless, although it will be hilarious, pointless but completely hilarious."

"Yes, it'll be very hilarious." Her father flashed his canine teeth at her. "Just imagining their deaths makes me smile."

"You know Dad, when you smile like that, you're plain old creepy." She deadpanned. "You sure that you aren't a dog demon in disguise?"

Her father glowered at her, causing the blonde to quirk her lips into a smile. It's always entertaining to insult her father by comparing him to a dog demon. Just to see her father's face turn red was worth any punishment she gets. Then again, she doesn't blame for being pissed at being compared to a dog demon. They were after all vile demons, always finding new ways to cause trouble.

She shivered and scrambled up to the boulder to sit beside her father. Why must they live in the coldest part of the mountains? Leaning against her father's chest, she stared at the village. It was a village filled with humans. Humans, who will try to harm her father if they ever see him. A foolish thought. No one can harm a _true_ demon, not even a dragonslayer or a godslayer, as her father will proudly say. Humans don't have the strength or the knowledge of demons, he said. They don't have a clue about what makes us tick as her father always say.

"Father, why do you consider those disgusting humans weak? I mean beside the fact that they don't have the strength or knowledge to hurt a demon. What are the other reasons? " She tilted her head at him. "Humans must have some strength."

"No, those disgusting humans are weak." Her father spat. "They die easily and do not have the strength that we have. They scramble to power, allowing it to cloud their judgment. They lust for things that they will never have. However, their greatest weakness is their emotions."

"Why is it their greatest weakness?"

"They let their emotions cloud their judgment, brat." He gave her a dark look. "Many wars were cause because of their emotions and families have died because of these emotions. All of those wars wouldn't have happen if they didn't allow their emotions to control them. This is why demons do not allow their emotions to take control of us. This is why I always tell you not to ever let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"I know." Naru lowered her head to face him. "I'll never let my emotions to cloud my judgment. I'll not be like the other disgusting humans."

"Good because no child of mine will be weak or disgusting."

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"Okay brat, this is the last test. Remember all the numbers and strokes; you have them all committed to memory. Mess this question up and I'll make you do four hundred push-ups again." Kurama said to his adopted daughter. Naru rolled her eyes at the fox demon before, narrowing her eyes at the paper at hand before biting on the pencil. Reading the question, Naru immediately started writing the answers before pausing. She glanced at her adopted father, who gave her a blank expression. Gulping, Naru finished the answers to all of the questions.

Naru bit her lips and watched as her father scanned at her answer. The blonde licked her lips as her father's tails flickered, waiting for him to respond to the answers that she given.

"Excellent." The fox demon said as he lay down on his fours. "You've proven to me that you aren't a dunce like I thought. You have finally mastered the art of multiplying and dividing. Now, if only you can show me that you won't be so greedy as humans usually are."

"Yes father, I'll prove to you that I won't be so greedy as the disgusting humans usually are." She stared coldly at the town below. "I'll prove to you that taking me in as your child is not a mistake."

"I hope so." Kurama said, staring at her. "Now, let us get to the more fun part since the tedious task is done. I'm going to teach you how to use magic."

Naru grinned at this news. She had heard so many tales about mages from her father and the fox demon never failed to end the story with him scaring them or burning them along with their village/town with the flick of his tails. As a result, Naru had build up an obsession with fire along with destruction. Kurama always burned a few trees to satisfy the girl lust for it.

"AWESOME!" The blonde bounced up and down. "So what're you going to teach me first?" Kurama narrowed his eyes at her, causing the blonde to blush. She quickly turned her face expressionless. The fox demon nodded and gathered a decent amount of magic into his jaws, before concentrating with nature itself, gathering the nearby elements into his claws. A pretty blue flame soon came out of his claws. He soon released towards the direction of the mountain, grinning at the sight of the hole in the mountain.

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Naru gaped at the hole, leaning in to have a better look of it. Kurama growled at his daughter, who merely stared at him with a sheepish look. Having lived around that expression gave Naru's emotion of fear to-be nonexistent.

"How many times have I told you, not to loose control of your emotions." The demon snarled. Naru licked her lips and hesitantly nodded her head at him, causing the demon to give her a small smile.

"Now then, back to your lesson. The most basic demon attack is in the claws. These attacks are usually given the name scratch. It's primary that you mastered it, not only in form but also in precision. I don't want you ending up weak because I was foolish not to make you perfect it, like those…"

"You mean those disgusting dragons?" Naru asked, finishing her father's sentence. Kurama nodded. Having given Naru a brief description of the species around, he had unintentionally given Naru the habit of calling anything weaker then him as disgusting. This brought so much pleasure to him.

"Yes, like the dragons…now as I was saying, if you master the basics of magic then you'll find it easier to do demonslayer magic. Being the King of all demons, I don't only have fire in my arsenal but, also wind so, I'll also teach you some wind magic." The fire demon said. Naru nodded.

"So how do I do it?" the six year old asked. Kurama held up his paws as if he were gripping something. Flames soon erupted from his paws.

"When drawing up flames, you must first draw upon the magic power within your body, which we will work on before we even do the flames. Now then, you concentrate on your surroundings; drawing the natural energy from nature, mix those two gather and you'll have your flame."

He threw the fire to the tree and Naru watch in fascination as the tree burned up.

"Your ability to master these techniques along with my other attacks, will make you one of the strongest mages in all of Earthland."

"So father, how do I draw on my magic power?" Naru asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Sit."

Naru nodded, knowing that it's best to listen to the fox demon especially, when his tone becomes even more forceful. Naru sat down, cross-legged, on the dirt and looked up.

"So what do I have to do now?"

"Breathe slowly and clear your mind of your thoughts, Naru." Naru closed her eyes and exhaled. Kurama nodded his head in satisfaction as the girl repeated the action many times before speaking again.

"It's important that you know what magic is." Her adopted father said gravely. "Magic is the physical embodiment of the spirit and it is stored within a separate system. When the physical spirit of an organism connects with the spiritual flow of nature, the spirit forms Magic. Magic is the product of the connection. Only ten percent of the world's population is able to use Magic, this is because it keeps the balance between ordinary people and those with Magic. It takes an enormous amount of concentration and mental ability to use Magic. Mages can learn multiple styles of Magic, but it is noteworthy that many Mages have natural affinities for their own Magic style. Fortunate for you, I know many styles of Magic." Kurama muttered at the last part. "Being alive for so long is a blessing in disguise."

Naru concentrated deeply on the action of drawing out any magic power she could find, sweat forming on her face. She searched for something, anything that would feel different from inside of her body. Nothing. Not even a funny feeling. Maybe, she was doing something wrong. Was it possible that she shouldn't try to find it? Perhaps, she needs to envision it.

She focused on her physical spirit, imagining it to be a huge ball of thread in her mind's eyes. She imagined herself picking a thread that was her spirit and allowed it to go through the needle. Naru felt herself being flooded with magic power...it was...overwhelming, but in a good way. She looked at her hands and observed the burning flames. It didn't feel painful, if anything it felt tickles.

"You've done well for your first try." Naru smiled at this. "However, this just means that I've now more expectations for you to master my magic, brat."

"Yes, Tou-san."

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_**Thank you for reading!**_

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_**I would love to hear your thought on this chapter**_


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**Author Note: I want to thank OBSERVER01, Guest, god of all and HybridRinnegan34 for reviewing the last chapter and for everyone, who added this story to their follows and favorites.**

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Naru sat on the edge of the cliff, mesmerized by the specks of buildings decorating the snowy ground. As far as she knew, she had always lived with her surrogate father in the imposing mountains. Never once going to see the small town, which lay, beneath her father's domain. She remembers the uneventful day where she asked her father to observe the humans.

Let's just say things didn't go well.

One does not simply piss a demon and get away with it.

Truth be told, she feared a very cross Kurama more than the end of the world.

His anger would be the cause of an apocalypse.

When she is older, she looks back and realizes with sadness that her father's anger wasn't the worst thing but she is six years old and had just asked her father the one topic that he hated. But she is only six and she doesn't know better. Walking back to their cave, the young girl sighed before she rubbed her bruise hands.

The demon tapped her on the shoulder, giving her a raise eyebrow. He gave her the bear she had hunted before shaking his head. "I see no reason for you to stare at those disgusting humans. I'm more interesting then them, brat. Any demon is more interesting then those disgusting humans! There is nothing to learn about them besides the fact that they don't care about the environment and have disgusting customs."

"But I know so much about you and demon's customs but I know very little about human's customs. I don't know anything about these disgusting humans." Naru said.

The demon rolled his eyes. "There's nothing for you to know about them, brat. They're disgusting and that's all you need to know about them."

Naru glanced at the village and than to her father. "But why're they disgusting, father? You never told me, your reasons for saying these things! I mean…they can't be all that bad, can they?"

"They can't be all that bad, huh? Well, Naru, they're that bad! Did you know one of the mages murdered my parents! A mage tried to recreate us and have tried his hardest to control us!" Her father growled and slammed his fist against one of the larger rocks, causing the mountain to tremble. "It's because of that disgusting human, they imagine us to be some kind of hideous monster, who have no regards of people's live! They tried to kill many of our kids because of their foolish fear! Yes, they're that disgusting!"

Kurama took several calming breaths and stared down at his quivering adopted daughter. He looked at his lair and then to the blond-haired girl, before gesturing for her to follow him to his lair. She hesitated before following her father while trying her hardest to conceal her curiosity and excitement. Not once did he ever allow her to come here.

Gems, necklaces and other valuable items decorated the dark lair, a reminder of the things the demon has done in his long life. All of them were impressive, each one of these things belonged to a lord, a king, a duchess and a lady. However, only one stood out in her mind. It was a sliver necklace with a red whirlpool sigma. Something about this necklace seemed so familiar. She shuffled closer to the necklace, longing to hold it, to have it…

"…Naru!" Her father snapped, stopping her from her tracks. "Don't touch that necklace!"

The blonde blinked her eyes and slowly draws her hands away from the necklace, walking towards her father, who stood in front of a pit. He shook and motioned for her to look down at the pit. Sapphire eyes widen at the sight of the many skulls and fangs lying on the ground.

She knows without a doubt those are demon's remains.

"W-What happened here?" she stuttered. "W-Who remains are these and how did this happened?"

"I wasn't always the King of all Demons, Naru." She shivered at the coldness in her father's tone. "Before I was King, I was just a little kit just like you. I had a family whom I loved more then anything in the _world_. I had siblings and a mother and father as well as a couple of servants. My family was a very happy family. Our family was filled with so much love and joy." He sighed. "However, that all changed when I met that disgusting_ human!_"

"Father, what happened?"

Her adopted father stared down at the fangs before looking at her. For the first time in her life, Naru could see the emotions her father was currently feeling. Tears were streaming down her father's face and his jaw was set, reminding her of the time he had threatened to burn her because she didn't take a bath. The demon brought her closer to him, stroking her long blond hair with his claw-like fingers.

"I was a fool, Naru, that's what happened." He whispered. "I trusted a disgusting mortal. I told that disgusting mortal everything about my family, thinking that my parents were wrong about mortals. I should have listened to my parents about trusting mortals!" He growled. "Thanks to my idiocy, my parents paid the price. I came home from my usual hunt and found him murdering my mother. That disgusting mortal not only murders my parents but also tried to murder my siblings. Do you know why he murdered my parents?"

She shook her head.

"He murdered them because he believed, by murdering as well as drinking their blood, he will get immortality." He spat, throwing one of his precious jewels towards the pit. "Well in the end he did get his wish, he did become immortal but I'll show him the price of destroying my family." He grinned manically. "You, my dear child, will be someone who will be strong enough to defeat _him_…that is if you prove to me that you aren't going to end up like _him_."

Naru clenched her hands into a fist and gave a curt nod to her adopted father, holding back her biting comments. Is this the reason why he hates those disgusting human? Is this why he didn't have the same beliefs as her? All because of one disgusting human. Did he really think she would betray him? She loves her father and will do anything for him. If he asks her to hurt herself, she will do it. And if he truly wishes her to revenge his parents then she will.

"Now, let's go get lunch." Her father said, telling her that this matter is closed. "I've still got some of the bear you caught. Perhaps, it's time you learned to cook."

"I don't want to eat bear." She said, looking at her father. "I don't want to learn to cook, Tou-san. All I want is to learn more about those disgusting humans."

"You still want to learn more about those disgusting humans, after all I told you? Knowing more about them will be your downfall. You will end up as weak as them because your curiosity got the better of you." Her father growled. "No student of mine will be weak! And this certainly means, you aren't going there!"

"How do I become strong if I don't know anything about my own species?" she crossed her arms and slammed her foot on the ground. "How can I know how disgusting they are, if I don't know anything about them? And you are always telling me to go experience the outside world but how can I do that, if you won't let me!"

She flushed deep red and put her hands on her face, waiting for the ground to swallow her. Never did she yell at him about this. Yelling at her father was basically asking for a death sentence because no one shouts at the king of all demons. She glanced at her father, who still had the same monotone expression. There was no twitching, lips curling or any subtle clue about how he felt, there was absolutely nothing. This is bad! Now she has no way to decipher her father's plans.

"How can you know how disgusting they are if you don't know anything about them, huh? I can see your point, brat." He chuckled darkly and looked at her with his stilted eyes. "Very well, you may visit this vile village but, come back before dinner time. Consider this your reward for doing so well in all of your lessons."

Naru blinked and bowed at her father, who simply turned away from her and took the hint to be quiet. Kurama took a couple of jewels before displaying them in front of Naru. The blonde got the hint and took three gold coins and one sliver coin. Kurama nodded approvingly and placed the jewels back in the sides. Naru placed the coins in her pocket and walked out of the hole. Kurama followed her, looking perplexed at the sight of Naru gazing down at the village with a thoughtful look.

"Father, would it be possible if you could accompany me to the edge of the forest? I've…no idea where it is." She admitted. Kurama chuckled before swinging the girl onto his shoulder. Naru giggled at this action, eyes gleaming with mirth and confusion. "Father, why did you do that? I thought you said it's unbefitting for a demon to give piggyback rides."

"We're going in my demon form, brat." He growled. "And I'm not having you climb onto my shoulder in my human form ever again. I still haven't fully recovered from when you kicked me in the eye. Now close your eyes!"

She shut her eyes and waited in baited breath, waiting for her father to tell her that it's safe to open her eyes. Light radiating during a demon transformation is harmful. Not harmful in the physical sense, where you can feel the pain and wait for it to fade. No, it's harmful in the sense that it can make even the sanest person, the maddest person alive as her father always warned her. It's for this reason only that Naru had never seen her father's transformation.

"Can I open my eyes now, father?"

"Yes." He said. "Now, I will carry you to the edge of the forest, there's a trail leading to the mountain's base there. Honestly, you would you would have learn how to travel in this mountain."

"Well not all of us have lived as long as you, Dad." Naru huffed. Kurama smirked widely at the blonde's annoyance before jumping down to the forest. Naru clung to her father's fur, screaming as he stomped down some trees. Must this brat scream? Then again, it wouldn't be so fun to terrify his adopted daughter. Kurama reached the edge of the forest, laying down on the crush trees and rolled his shoulders to get his daughter off his shoulder.

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Kurama watched from the edge of the cliff as Naru walked along the path leading from her home in the mountains. She had never left the safety of their home due to the fact she was too young to be able to take care of herself and would be easily misled. Kurama didn't like the idea of her becoming like the blasted mage who had murdered his family. These humans may make her like _him_ and he certainly doesn't want to regret teaching her. Just the mere thought of her becoming like _him_ made his blood boil. However, Naru proved a point. He's always telling her to experience the outside world but he wasn't allowing her by cooping her in this place. Besides, the girl would also gain some experience in learning about her species, eat some human food rather than the fruits and herbs she always bring from the forest in the summer and the bears in the winter.

Naru was currently dressed in a pair of blue shorts and an orange shirt that Kurama took from a travelling hiker's daughter after scaring both the hiker and the daughter, both of whom had fainted. Luckily for Naru, he gave his daughter the girl's red sandals, keeping her safe from the hard ground. Kurama chuckled at his demonslayer as the girl stared at the frozen river, not looking at least one bit cold. She will never get cold because he trained her in his form of magic however, it may look weird to those disgusting humans. He shrugged. Naru is just proving how superior his magic is compared to their magic. The girl was the first demonslayer…demonslayers are not weak. The demonslayer of Kurama, especially.

The red-fur canine growled in thought as he looked in direction of where he had buried his own parents.

"I wonder how she would have turned out if my brother haven't destroyed her village and killed her parents." He sighed. "She probably would have become foolish and greedy like the other humans. Through I wonder if it was a good idea to give her this opportunity?"

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After the trek down the mountains as well a half an hour walk along the path through the forest at the base of the mountains coupled with following the path towards the town, Naru was feeling rather bored. When will she reach…? Never mind, it seemed like she reached the place. She stopped in front of a sign before her and looked up at the wooden sign.

"Brina Town." The girl read. She observed the scene before her. Brina was a large town filled with so much snow covering large houses, not that Naru had ever seen a house but she was taught about things below the mountain.

_Houses are the disgusting human's homes just like your home is the mountain,_ Naru thought, remembering her foster father's definition. Well, he had went into a rant while explaining, saying things about how they were destroying the environment and all that type of thing but, she had been too tired to remember the whole rant and definition so she just summarized it as their home. Naru observed the town and saw the houses were made of the same design. Big wooden houses with large, glass windows and brown tile roofs.

_I wonder how they are able to do build something like that. Tou-san never really explained it to me. _Naru thought before entering the town. The blonde walked along the road, ignoring the odd looks the adults were giving her due to her choice of clothes. What was wrong with the way, she dresses, she doesn't know! She sighed. Humans were just too problematic, as her father will always tell her and she finds herself agreeing with him.

As Naru thought about this, she found herself hitting something hard. She rubbed her cheek and looked up to see she had hit a boy around her age with a slightly tan complexion. He had dark blue eyes and spikey black hair that had a bandanna wrapped around his forehead. He wore a dark sleeved long shirt and black trousers.

"Watch where you're going!" The boy growled, looking at her with irritation.

"I would if someone hadn't been in a hurry." She roared, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. "How am I suppose to watch myself if there are so many people here!"

The boy arched his eyebrows at this and retorted. "I think that will be pretty easy to do! I mean I can easily do it!"

"If that's the case then why did you bump into me then!" She countered causing the boy to scowl at the blonde, flushing deep red at this remark. "See! You've no comment, meaning I win this argument about how it isn't easy to watch yourself in a place with a lot of people!"

"Yeah, at least I wear clothing suitable for the winter!" The boy frowned noticing the furrowed eyebrows of the girl. "Come on, you had to have notice how your clothing doesn't suit the weather? Don't you feel cold?"

"No, I feel warm actually," she put her hands into her pockets and stared at the boy. "Why should I feel cold? The weather isn't cold!"

"You're weird."

Naru scowled, turning her body around to start walking away from the boy. The Demonslayer of Kurama isn't weird! They are just more superior then the disgusting humans in this village! Who needs long sleeved clothing when the weather was perfect the way it was! Only these vile humans need such clothing! Besides, demonslayers are much more politer than the humans in this village.

"Wait! Would you like to play with me?" The boy asked stopping her in her tracks. Naru turned around facing the boy who stood there in embarrassment and raised her eyebrows at him, causing him to look down at his feet. "It's just that most of the kids here aren't really friends with me because…they only want to be in my good books because of who my father is."

"So?" She crossed her arms, looking at him with annoyance. "You called me an idiot! And a weirdo."

"So? I think you're not feeling the cold is kind of weird but it is also so cool." He grinned. "I've never seen anyone, who could walk in the middle of the snow in a pair of shorts! I bet your parents didn't have to yell at you to put on a jacket or a sweater!"

"No, they didn't." She admitted, smiling fondly as she remembered her father ranting about how humans are weak for wearing such a long sleeved clothes in winter. "Tou-san thinks it's stupid for me to wear a jacket or sweater when the weather isn't cold."

"I wish my mother is like that." The boy quickly made a high-pitch tone, imitating a woman, whom Naru presumed is his mother. "Gray, you must wear long-sleeved shirt at this weather! If you don't wear it then you're going to get sick!" he snorted. "I love her but I hate wearing long sleeved clothes!"

"So about the game?" She asked returning the topic about the game at hand. The boy, Gray grinned, taking her hand onto his and promptly ignored her as she yelled at him to stop pulling her. She is the demonslayer of Kurama! Not some kind of doll for him to order around! When he lets go of her hand, she was so going to murder him for not listening to her orders! When she orders something, they must do it!

Okay that isn't true but when she says something they must at least hear it.

"WE'RE HERE!" The boy crackled in delight. "Now, we can play tag for as long as we can!"

"Tag?" Naru frowned, tilting her head at him. "What the hell is tag?"

He gawked; looking at her like she was some kind of crazy person and she huffed, crossing her arms at him before shaking her head and smiling apologetically at him. Kurama always told her to be in her best behaviour, meaning don't ever act like a little kid in front of these people as it doesn't show you're the best person and Naru knew she must never forget her demon father's words. She looked at him expectantly, shifting from one foot to another.

"So what is this game of Tag, huh?"

"Oh right, well tag is basically a game where you have to run away from the person, who is it." The boy explained, smiling widely at her. "Then if the person, who is it, catches you and says tag then you're it. Got it?"

"I think it is easy understand."

"Do you understand or not?" He tapped his feet impatiently, looking at the snowing playground with longing. "Because I can explain it again if you want."

"I understand!" She growled. "Of course, I understand what the game is about!"

"Good! Because you're it!" The boy yelled, tapping his hand gently on her shoulder before running away from her. She grinned impishly, finding herself chasing the dark-haired boy all over the town. Kurama was wrong about human children. They weren't as disgusting or ill behave as he thinks they are…if anything they are completely free. Unlike her. They don't have responsibilities to be the perfect daughter or demonslayer, which she has. These human kids aren't caged with these responsibilities. She shook her head at her thoughts and increased her speed, intending to catch up with the black-haired boy.

She grinned at the sight of the familiar dark-sleeved shirt and spiky black hair. Crouching, the blonde got ready to pouch on the boy and jumped on him when he had stopped to turn to look at her. He yelped, falling down to the cold ground with Naru straddling his hips. Everyone stopped walking staring at the two young kids and giggled at the pair of them, muttering to each other about how children can be a handful.

"You cheated!" He accused, looking up at the twinkling eyes of the blonde. "I want a rematch!"

"The only way you can do a rematch is if you catch me!" Naru said jumping off from the boy's stomach before helping him to stand up. "And catching me won't be that easy! I'm faster than you!"

With those words, she giggles and runs away from him, never turning her head to see if he was chasing after her. Later when she is older, she will miss these times but for now the feel of the wind blowing against her face and the overwhelming scents of the vile humans around her made her giddy and made her feel like she is the most powerful person in the whole wide world. For a brief moment, she wants to capture how happy she was.

"OW!" The boy yelled. She stopped running, turning around to look at the boy only to find him giving her a cat-like grin and before she realizes he tags her, saying she is it. She pouts, calling him a cheater but only to have him smiling at her and saying how she had also cheated on the game as well.

She opens her mouth to protest but only to have her stomach rumbled in protest causing her to flush deep red, wishing for the ground to swallow her up. She hears laughter and looking up, she sees the black-haired boy laughing at her. She scowls, ready to yell at him for being inconsiderate but closes her mouth when she sees the teasing glint in his eyes. He offers his hand and she takes it, smiling at him.

"It seems like you're hungry."

"Yeah like my stomach didn't give you a damn hint that I was hungry." She retorted, looking at her stomach with loathing. "Now it just means I have to go home to my Tou-san."

"…Or you could come and have lunch with me and my Kaa-san," he shifted his eyes away from her startled look. "It just seems like you're really hungry and my house is nearby."

"I don't know." She says, looking at the mountain with worry. Her foster father will be furious if she doesn't come back home before dinnertime, which will be as soon as the moon was up. If she makes him furious then this poor village will be the one to pay the price and she doesn't want that to happen. However she couldn't argue when she saw the pleading in his eyes and reluctantly she agrees to it.

"You'll love my mother's cooking! She makes the best food around here!" He takes her hand and proceeded to drag her to his house, grinning as he speaks about his mother while she rolls her eyes at his fondness of his mother.

* * *

Gray's house was small and cozy, having a roaring fire near the living room, which made the room, feel a little bit hotter than the outside. The walls around her were painted a beautiful shade of red and the furniture were all white reminding her of the snow outside of this house. Pictures filled the shelves; many of them were of Gray and two young people, whom she presumes are his parents.

"KAA-SAN I'M BACK!" The boy roared, taking off his shoes as he shook his hair to get rid of the snow in his hair. Naru hesitated debating whether to follow the boy's lead in taking off her shoes before deciding it will be best to follow his lead.

"How many times have I told you, Gray not to shout inside the house!" A young woman said, coming from the kitchen. She looked similar to Gray, having the same eyes and hair colour as the young boy beside her. Shaking her head, she waved her spatula at him. "Honestly! I haven't raised you to be some kind of caveman! And why were you so late? I nearly called the police because of how late you were!"

"Kaa-san…"

"Don't Kaa-san me!" The young woman looked down at her hands. "I was worried sick for you! You're never this late from coming home! I thought that you might have been kidnapped or worse!"

"I was spending time with a new friend." Gray admitted, pushing her forward for his mother to see. Naru wanted to slap the boy on the head for putting her in this situation but kept her temper in check. If her father hadn't told her once but a thousand times, it was that she must never let her emotions take control of her judgment. He always told her how it was a human's weakness to let their emotions control and not a demon's one. This is why he told her to keep her emotion in check and think things through because it was the way of a demon and she is the adopted child of a demon.

"A new friend?" The young woman stared at her, smiling widely at the pair of them. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Gray's mother but of course, you must know that, seeing as my son had just called me Kaa-san or Misaki!" she babbled, causing Naru to inch away from the young woman. "And it is so good to actually meet a friend of Gray! He rarely brings his friends around! Especially girls! And you're just so adorable! What's your name?"

"My name is Naru Uzumaki, Misaki-san and it is very nice to meet you." Naru said, giving a small polite bow at the young woman in front of her. She wanted to tell the young woman, she isn't friends with Gray because she just met him but, she kept her mouth shut. But only for one reason. Her father. Kurama always told her, no matter what the species is, you must always be polite, especially if they are older than you. No child of his won't be without manners and won't be outshone in manners by those beneath him as he always says. In this case, it was the young woman in front of her and she knows if her father was here, he would say she had proven to him that she isn't as rude as he thought.

"Cute and polite!" Misaki said, beaming at her. "I wish Gray can be like that to everyone else! Could you give my son a few pointers in being polite? Goodness knows, it'll be useful for the guest that comes to our house."

"KAA-SAN!"

"What!" She holds her hand up defensively. "I'm only stating the truth!"

Naru bit her lips, hoping it would stop her from laughing at Gray's pouting expression but found it hard not to laugh at his expression. The same can't be said for his mother, who is giggling and teasing at her son for pouting at the pair of them. She watches in discomfort as the woman hugged her son, tickling him till the point the boy is laughing. For a brief moment, she wonders if this is what it is like to have a mother. Is a mother someone who teases and worries about you constantly, who makes you your food and cuddles you? Because if that's is truly is the case, then she is missing someone great. Her father makes her food but only because she is too young to cook however that will change tomorrow as he is planning to teach her how to cook. He doesn't cuddle her because he sees it as too soft and a weakness. He teases her but doesn't worry about her because he knows she is his child and will not do anything stupid.

"Now, before the three of us have lunch, there is something very important for the two of you to do." Misaki said, grinning at the two of them. Naru arched her eyebrows while Gray turned pale and was inching away from them. "The two of you are going to have a bath!"

"B…But Kaa-san, I already took a bath yesterday!" His mother crossed her arms at him. "Please! I don't want to take another bath!"

"Gray Fullbuster, you'll take a bath or else!" He opened his mouth to protest but closed it at the sight of the sharp look from his mother. "Good! Now, Naru-chan here will take a bath first while you help me set up the table!"

Gray frowned and nodded at her before walking towards the kitchen to start setting up the table, which left the two females alone in the room. Misaki turned towards her, smiling and grasping her hand leading her towards the bathroom, ignoring her complaints about letting go of her hand. It seemed like Gray inherited his skill of not listening to anyone from his mother and it must be something she had to get used to if she ever plans to visit them again. If she is allowed anyways.

_I wonder if human baths are as strange as Tou-san says it is,_ Naru thought as the woman babbled about where the soap and shampoo is. Yes it must be if it had strange words such as soap and shampoo.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Naruto came to the conclusion that human's baths were strange as well as fun. She got to splash around in something called a bathtub. They had a strange liquid, which was able to clean her hair and this strange liquid made her body smell so good. Although it smelled good, she could tell by the scent that it wouldn't be a good thing to eat.

"I've never smell this good before." She had said when she sniffed herself after she washed herself from the soap. She was given a strange tool, which Misaki call a toothbrush and learned the toothbrush could clean her teeth with this minty thing called toothpaste.

"Naru-chan, I've brought you a new pair of clothes to wear!" Misaki said, coming inside the bathroom with some clothes. The young woman gave her a fluffy piece of cloth. "You just have to wear them until I wash and dry your clothes, which might take a few hours but I hope you don't mind."

"Thank you, Misaki-san." Naru said. The young woman smiles warmly, closing the door and leaving her alone in the bathroom. Standing up, she started to toy around with the fluffy cloth, musing over what happened over the past day. Humans aren't as disgusting or selfish as her father says they are. These two people were offering her things that they didn't have to do like a bath, if it had been anyone else then it would be different scenario. Yet, she just got to know them so it might be them deceiving her. Her father always tells her about how appearances were deceiving and this might be no different.

She looked down at the clothes Misaki gave her, picking up one of them. Her lips twisted into a scowl at the sight of a long flowing shirt. Was this one of those dresses her father spoke horribly about? It must be because it fits his description about how girls can never run freely in those dresses and how inappropriate it is for one to run in it. Could she tear the dress to make it suit her needs? She shook her head, remembering her father's words.

_Demons will not destroy the things that aren't theirs, we may steal and lie, do horrible things but if we are borrowing something then we must treat it as if it is like our own, Naru. Failure to do that makes us even worse than the other species._

With that thought, she reluctantly puts on the dress and puts her hair into a braid, knowing how her father will be furious if she doesn't come back home without her hair being done properly.

The last thing she wants is her father's fury on her.

* * *

"So Naru-chan, where do you live?" Misaki asked, taking a small bite of her chicken while Naru clumsily took a bite of her chicken. The blonde looked up, frowning at her. "…It's just that I have never seen you around here before. Have you just moved here?"

"No," the demonslayer answered, looking at the mountains lay outside the window. "I live in the mountains with my Tou-san. We lived there for as long as I could remember."

Gray's eyes widen at her words and spluttered. "Y-You live i-in t-that c-cursed m-mountain!" he jerked his finger towards the mountain that stood promptly in front of the window. "Is your father crazy? The mountain has a demon living there! Everyone in the town says the demon living there hates humans and will burn any human in its path! No one who goes to that mountain comes back here alive!"

"Gray-kun, manners! You shouldn't say these things to her!" His mother said angrily. "The mountain isn't cursed! Your father and I told you that so many times!"

"But Ji-chan says there is a demon living there!" He said childishly.

"Your grandfather hasn't been the same since your grandmother's death." She sighed. "Honestly, I shouldn't let you spend so much time with him if he tells you such stories."

"But Kaa-san." He whined.

"If you believe in demons so much, why don't you ask Naru-chan if she has seen a demon." His mother shook her head and muttered to herself. "I should talk to Tou-san about keeping his ridiculous stories to himself."

"Hey Naru, have you seen a demon in the mountains that you live in?"

The blonde frowned and immediately shook her head, causing the boy to pout and his mother to smile in triumph. Lying to them was easy. It makes her feel slightly guilty yes, but it was easy and it was for her father's own good. If these people knew that her father is the demon, who lives in the mountain than there is a good chance they will try to hurt him. She doesn't want that to happen. He may often insult her, deny at times she is his daughter but he cared for her, treated her like his own and to babble her mouth away is not the honorable thing to do.

"So Naru, is there anyone else who lives in those mountains beside your father and you?" Misaki asked, leaning forward.

"No, it is just Tou-san and me." She answers, taking a small sip of the apple juice that Misaki had poured for her earlier. "If there was anyone living there then Tou-san would have left the mountain." She looked wearily at the mountains. "Tou-san despises crowds, and to him if there is three people in the mountain than it is already crowded so he would leave."

"How about school? You do go to school, don't you?" Gray asked, frowning at her.

Naru snorted at the absurdity of the question. "School? I've never been to school and will never go to school. My Dad sees no point for me going to school when he's perfectly capable of teaching me."

"Is he a good teacher, your Tou-san?" Misaki asked, picking up her plate to put into the kitchen.

She frowned and remembered all the lessons her father given her. He taught her great many things such as Math, History, Science and other boring subjects as well as teaches her magic. He tries to make them fun because he knows that the both of them don't have a great attention span and can easily forget things. To fix that problem he tries to make it memorable to her. He makes History like a story and does fun things with her in Science. In Math, he tries to make it suit their situation; through he often gives her test in it.

In the end, she loves the way he teaches her.

"Yes, he's a wonderful teacher to me." Naru smiled softly, looking down at her hands. "I've never had any other teacher but him, so I won't know the difference but to me, the way he teaches is memorable."

Misaki nodded happily and started humming a tune as she starts putting the rest of the dishes away. Naru couldn't help but smile at the hum, tapping her foot at just the mere sound of it. It felt nice to talk to people, who didn't always mock her. She loves her father, don't get her wrong but he just takes it too far at times.

"If you don't go to school then how do you make friends?" The black-haired boy questioned, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Make friends?" She shook her head at the notion. "I don't need friends."

"Everybody needs a friend that's what my Dad says. He says the most lonely people are the people without friends." Naru frowned causing Gray to shake his head. "You must have one friend right?"

Naru shook her head, looking bewildered at the idea of having a friend. A friend means that you trust them not to betray you and that's a silly notion as her father always lectures. Everyone will betray you, be it your brother or your husband as he always says in a grave tone. The only person you can trust is yourself is what he rants to her. Don't trust demons, dragons or humans. Especially humans. Her father always stresses about the human part. She frowned when Gray gave her a determined look.

"You know what? I've decided you're my friend!" He said, grinning triumphantly at her. "And nothing you're going to say is going to change my mind!"

Naruto blinked. "You're crazy, you know that right?" she shook her head at him. "You can't randomly decide that I'm going to become your friend. Have you ever thought that I don't want to be your friend?"

"Then do you want to be my friend?" He asked, giving her a boyish smile.

Naru hesitated. Does she want to be his friend? Her father told her time and time again that she should never trust someone. She stared at his hopeful dark blue eyes and gulped. Trusting him, wouldn't be so bad? And having a friend…it won't be so wrong, right? Just as long as she doesn't trust him, full-heartedly then it will be all right. She nodded her head and gave the boy a grin.

"I guess, it won't be so bad having you as a friend." Naruto said nonchalantly. The black-haired boy smirked, causing her to chuckle.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Naru stood in front of her beast of a father and the demon narrowed his eyes, observing the blonde. She shifted under his knowing gaze, trying her hardest to show no emotions to him. Kurama sighed and ruffled his daughter's hair, giving her a barely noticeable smile but a smile nonetheless. The blonde tided her hair before staring at her red-furred father.

"How was your trip?"

"It's fine." Naruto answered curtly. "I've learned a lot of things about those disgusting humans."

"Oh? What have you learned? Tell me, brat." The demon ordered. Naru nodded her head at her father.

"I learned that their food are quite delicious and their baths are very strange. Did you know that the water comes out of a huge bowl thing? Also, do you know human mother's babble too much? Or those humans believe silly things? And that human kids likes to play a lot of games? Or that some of them asks too much questions?" Naru said blankly, crossing her legs as she sat down in the ground.

"Humans are generally quite curious beings, who ask too many questions." Her father's eyes glinted in amusement. "Is there anything else?"

"I…might have made a friend with a human! It just happened Tou-san, I swear. I really didn't mean to make friends but…he was so nice to me and so was his mother." She looked down at her hands in horror. "I couldn't really see them as disgusting humans. I'm sorry Tou-san for this."

Kurama sighed. "I shouldn't expect that much from a human, really." He said tiredly, lying down on the floor. "Humans are always disguising their true nature, brat, don't forget that. Also a word of advice, you shouldn't always think humans are always nice-"

"I know Tou-san and I'm sorry for thin-"

"But, it doesn't always mean that all humans are disgusting." Kurama admitted grudgingly, glaring at his adopted daughter for interrupting him. "Every species has its good sides and bad sides. Even the demon has it bad sides. It's just that humans show their bad sides more often then not."

Naru beamed at his words and run over to hug the demon. Kurama stiffened at this contact before slowly relaxing into a hug. He looked down at his adopted daughter, laughing inwardly at the irony at his situation. If any of his siblings sees him like this, they will say that he was growing soft.

"Maybe, I'm growing soft for my age." Kurama said darkly.

"What did you say, Dad?" Naru asked, looking up to stare at her father. He smiled widely at her. The blonde immediately stopped hugging him and step away from him. She knows very well that smile meant that she's going through hell.

"Tomorrow, you're going to have a full day committed to your hand-to-hand combat."

"Damn you, Tou-san!"

* * *

**Replies to reviews:**

**OBSERVER01**: I'm glad that you find this interesting so far and I hope that this chapter was also interesting for you.

**Guest:** I have plans for Naru to join Fairy Tail but she won't meet Natsu for a long while as for her not being arrogant and more stronger, well you just have to wait and see. She will meet Gaara and the other characters from Naruto but I don't know if I would make Gaara have a crush on her.

**God of all:** I'm glad that you found the last chapter great and I hope that you found this chapter great as well.

**HybridRinnegan34:** I'm glad that you think it is a great story and it is a great start to a good fanfic. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

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	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**A/N: ** **I want to thank yaoi-freak2580, Starlight149, Dark. CHAOSRABBIT, Pain4ever, itachisgurl93, tukiko and OBSERVER01 for reviewing the last chapter, and for everyone who added this story to their follows and favourites.**

* * *

_(A year and half later)_

Seven-year-old Naru Uzumaki was crouched down on the bush, narrowing her eyes as she stared out at the scenery in front of her and clutched the bow and arrow in her hand. This is the first time her father allowed her to go on a hunt by herself. A fact she feels happy about because it is a sign of her father was starting to see her as a responsible person.

He always moans and complains about her being reckless. Always does he try to drill in her head about how she should be different from the other mages. The difference between a demonslayer and a dragonslayer and godslayer is that they know how to observe the weakness of their enemy. To immediately fight someone is foolish as he always tells her. You must always observe them first so you can find their weakness and use it against them. This is one of the best ways to win a fight, besides taunting them as he says.

If all that doesn't work then you must improvise but never loose control of your emotions.

The wood creaked and she tightened her grip on her hunting weapons, waiting patiently for the animal appears. It wasn't long before a rabbit appears in front of her, nibbling on the grass. She lined her arrow to her eyesight, pulling the bowstring back and waited for the perfect moment to shoot. She closed her eyes and breathed. One wrong move and the rabbit is gone, making her get into trouble with Kurama. Another creaked and Naru released the string, waiting anxiously for the arrow to hit the rabbit. It wasn't long before she heard a squeal, telling her that the rabbit is dead.

Standing up, she walked towards the deceased rabbit, picking it up with her bow and took it out of the arrow, tying it up with the bundle of rabbits she had killed before heading home. Looks like she has proof to her father about how she isn't as reckless as he thinks she is. She knows after that small accident with her magic, her father started to believe she is a reckless girl. It wasn't like anyone would have noticed it.

It had been a normal training day when the accident happened. Kurama asked her to burn one row of tree with her magic and she had accidentally burned nearly a section of the forest near their home. It's his fault anyways! He knows she hadn't yet perfected the move he taught her! Yet he _ordered _her to do the move.

If he hadn't ordered her then the section of the forest wouldn't have burned. It isn't like she forced him to fix the forest or put an illusion in it. He could have let her go get the water to stop the fire instead of disguising it while stomping on the fire. A stupid move on his part. The demon should have known the fire would have gone to his fur as well. Just because he is a fire demon, doesn't mean his fur isn't completely immune to being burn by her magic.

_Instead he says it is my damn fault for putting too much magic into the attack,_ Naru thought grumpily, walking on the stone. _And now, I've no choice but to show him I'm not as reckless as he believes._

Like that would ever happen, he still thinks she is three years old.

She closed her eyes.

For being an all-mighty demon, her father is quite blind to the fact she is seven and not the three year old, who always cries for his help. Unlike then, she is quite capable of hunting and taking care of herself. She may not be biologically a demon but it doesn't mean her mind isn't like one. She is capable of taking care of herself as well as a demon child.

She sighed, knowing just how unlikely it is for her to show it to him.

Looking at the trees, Naru smiles softly. The burn marks on the trees tells her she was getting closer and closer to going back home. What will her father say when he sees the rabbit she brought? She jumped up onto the trees, skipping every other tree so to get to her home faster. Would he be happy she actually done what he said to do? Yes, he would. He will probably say she isn't a dunce as he thought she was before giving her a lecture on nature. She stops jumping, looking down on the ground, admiring her father's spell work. Her father's spells works faster. A couple of months ago, this had been nothing but ashes. Now it has plants growing and soon flowers will bloom. She grins and jumped down, running towards the cave that is her home.

She smiles widely when she saw her father standing there with his arms crossed at her. There was no smile or emotions but she lived around him long enough to know, the tapping of his feet meant he is impatient to know of the result of her hunt.

"I see you've been successful in your hunt, Naru," He said as she puts the bundle of dead rabbits in the ground. He unties it and picks one up, observing it before commenting. "Excellent shot…perhaps you aren't an idiot or as reckless as I thought you are."

"That's because I'm not an idiot," she puts her finger nails in front of the bundle of wood that her father gatheredand immediately a small burst of flames erupted from her nails and she immediately puts her nails into the wood, grinning as the fire lit in the woods. This was the one spell she has never had problem controlling through the others had caused some close calls.

Then again, this spell isn't really destruction.

"Very well we'll pretend you're not an idiot but what about being reckless?" Kurama said, raising his eyebrows at her as he gestured towards the section of the forest that was still recovering from her mistake.

"Alright I'm a reckless person, who should have paid attention to my surroundings." She admitted reluctantly. "And I should actually listen to you about not being reckless."

"Good." Her father said, staring at her. "Now, I want you to punch the tree four-hundred times before kicking another tree with the same amount of time. After that you're going to do ninety push up as your warm down."

The blonde sighed and got on her way into doing the punches. She wanted to complain about the unfairness of her doing the exercises but knowing the punishment she would get if she complained wasn't worth the whining.

She wished that she had a normal father when it came to punishments.

* * *

**Brina Town- The Town Square**

Naru rubbed her forehead as she sat on the steps of the town hall, waiting for Gray to come to their usual meeting place. It always surprises her how her father had always given her permission to go down to the town to meet with Gray. She thought he hated humans too much to even think of allowing her to visit them after the first time but he proved her wrong.

This goes to show that she doesn't even know her own father as well as she does. There were so many things she didn't know about her father, like his past or the siblings that he loved so much. All she knew about him was that he was king and that he was the strongest demon in the world, as well as the most prideful demon she knows. Through she hasn't met many demons.

A pity because she was curious about them.

She smiled at the sight of Gray running towards her with a ball on one hand and for a brief moment

"Naru!" he smiled deviously and she immediately knows that he is in that mood. He threw the ball at her and she rolled her eyes, jumping to catch the ball before smirking at the scowling boy, saying once again he will one day catch her off guard and like always she will tell him that it will be a million years before he can do it. This had been their tradition for the past year and half, a tradition that she enjoys.

She smiled softly as she remembered how this started for them. The two of them had been walking towards Gray's favorite ice-cream store when a ball was hurling towards her and it would have hit her if she hadn't heard it coming but of course she heard it. So like any sane being, she catches the ball and hurls it back to the gawking boy who threw it to her but as that was happening, her friend was gawking at her. So as soon as the guy finished apologizing, Gray had immediately asked her how did she do it.

Of course, her being her she tells him that she is always on guard for these things.

A lie of course but, he doesn't need to know that.

"I'm really going to catch you unaware one day!" Gray declared as they walked towards the park.

Naru grinned and answered. "Not going to happen, Gray! You need to be unpredictable if you're going to catch me unaware!"

"I thought that was unpredictable!"

"Really, Gray? Really? That's unpredictable." she deadpanned. "Because I'm certain that even a plant could predict that you were going to do that."

"You're just being mean."

"I'm never mean!" She said, crossing her arms at him. "I've you know that I'm a lot nicer than some of the girls you go to school with," she scowled. "Honestly I can't believe girls in your town are that horrible!"

"They aren't that bad." Gray said, frowning at her. "Sure, they can take it too far but I mean they aren't that horrible."

The blonde crossed her arms and snorted. "They accused me of flirting with you! Flirting with you! I don't even know what the hell flirting is and don't let me get started on the fact that they called me some dumb girl who didn't know my place!" she growled. "I'm a hell lot smarter than them you know! But what really ticks me off is how they said that my father is a beggar because of the fact I told them that my father and I live in the mountains! Beggar! Gray! Beggar!"

"It's because they don't really know you and because they are jealous." He said, trying to calm her down. "And besides if you've kept your mouth shut then they wouldn't have said those things to you."

"I'm not going to keep my mouth shut when they told you why some ugly blond is following you when in actual fact you were dragging me to your home!" she crossed her arm. "I'm not going to keep quiet when someone calls me ugly! I don't like being considered ugly!"

"Naru, they were just jealous of you!" He said, shaking his head at her. "They're just jealous that they don't have your life!"

She furrowed her eyebrows and asked. "Who told you this?"

"They told me of course!"

Naru sighed and shook her head at him. They were lying to him about being jealous of the fact that they don't have her life because those girls don't look like they liked the outdoors. Seriously wearing a dress, skirt everyday as well as some fancy sandals is not some kind of evidence No, there was another reason but for the life of hers she can't think of a reason.

If she only has a solid good idea on the reason why they said such horrible things towards her but of course, she doesn't come down to the mountains that often for her to meet those horrible girls. Only once a week, maybe if she is lucky it would be twice a week but it really depends on her father's mood.

She frowned as Gray babbled to her about how his week had gone while they walk towards his favorite cafe. Her father had been in a bad mood lately, always yelling at her and grumbling about that _man_. Through she wonders why he is now thinking about the man so often. It had been years since it happened and through the man is now immortal; there is no way of finding him. She sighed. Sometimes she wonders if her father is truly as sane as he says he is.

_I train you so that you'll defeat Zeref for he is the one who had murdered my parents! You'll show the world just how strong a demonslayer is and what happens when you betray the King of Demons!_

Those were her father's words when she asked him a year ago on why he trained her so vigorously and why he wanted her to be much stronger than any of the dragonslayers and godslayers. This is as he always reminds her one of the main reasons why he expects her to be perfect. Not just because he adopted her but because of what the dark mage had done to him.

A demon must never let his emotions control them, hence the reason why he won't go after Zeref and expects her to. If her father goes after him then he will go to an undeniable rage, destroying everything in his path and that's the last thing he wants. Her father loved destruction however he doesn't want to cause a crowd of humans chasing after him. Since Zeref has done her no wrong, she won't go to that rage and this is why he expects her to defeat him.

He really gives her a lot of pressure.

"Naru!" The blonde blinked her eyes at the sight of Gray looking at her with concern. She finally noticed that they were inside his favorite cafe and were now standing in front of one table.

"What?"

"You've been staring out of space for the last five minutes! Is something the matter?" the black-haired boy asked as they took their seats. She looked down at her hands, suddenly wishing she could tell him about the pressures her father was giving her to master his spells as well as to defeat the man who did him wrong. She wanted to tell him about the demons and how they were really true, yet she knows she can't tell him.

He finally outgrown the stage of believing in demons, thinking that it is pretty stupid for demons to exist and will scoff if someone speaks about them. Instead he finds it illogical and makes it a point in telling her so, half-year ago she was happy about it because he won't question her about how there should be proof of them existing but now…she hates it. Now, it just means she can't tell him about the demons because he will just laugh them off. She couldn't really tell him how her father had such big expectations for her, because of the fact he wouldn't get it. His father didn't have such big expectations for him, well not like hers at least.

But maybe she can give him a half-truth instead.

"Naru? What's the matter?" he repeated his question again. "You've never been this quiet before, you usually say a couple of words that tells me you're listening…but you're being so out-of-space today."

"It's just my dad, Gray," she put her head on her hands. "He's just putting pressure on me to do better in my studies."

"So does my dad but it never makes me react like this."

"Yeah well, my dad wants me to show something to his _friend_ when I'm older_._" He raised his eyebrow at her sarcastic tone and she shrugged her shoulder at it. "I don't know what it is but he said that I'll know when I'm older what it will be…problem is I don't know a lot of the man to even have an inkling on what to do."

"How would you know then?" he asked. "If he didn't tell you much about the guy then how are you supposed to know what to do to fulfill his wishes!"

The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sighing at her best-friend's words. She wished she could actually tell him the truth about how her father actually wanted her to avenge his family but she can't. Gray wouldn't understand the reasons or believe them; he might even think she is crazy for saying these things.

The last thing she wants is for him to think she is crazy.

"Naru, do you think it will be cool to be a mage?" Gray suddenly asked, snapping her from thoughts.

The blonde blinked and answered. "Well I think being a mage has it uses, why?"

Her friend seemed more interested in playing with his drinks then answering her question, making her frown. He rarely does this and when he does…well it was worrisome. The last time he did something like this was when he had an argument with his father about spending time with his grandfather. She frowned at this. Was it possible that he got into another argument with his dad again?

Knowing Gray, that was most likely.

"I told Tou-san that I wanted to become a mage instead of having his job as a blacksmith." Naru arched her eyebrows. "And of course he didn't take it too well! He said that being a mage wouldn't do me any good! He said that I wouldn't have any future in it!"

"So, what's the problem?" She really didn't get what the problem is.

"He says I'll be terrible mage! He says that I won't do well in that career!"

The blonde groaned and rubbed the sides of her forehead at the loudness of her friend's voice. Why must his voice be so damn loud? Didn't he understand that when he raises his voice at her that she gets a horrible headache? No, of course not! He doesn't observe the fact that she gets these headaches.

Why was she friends with him again? He was fun and everything but he never considers her feelings when it came to the loudness of his voice or not yell at people. Through he did defend her against those girl's comments and he didn't pressure her with his questions. Although he can be idiot at times, like forgetting what day it is and other such things.

"…What do you think?"

She blinked her eyes, realizing he was asking her opinion on what his father said. She sighed at this, not knowing what to say. Her father words about how human mages are terrible and horrible still rings through her mind, yet she knows she can't say this to him. It might end their friendship and she can't let this happen because, she was still curious about humans and the fact he is her only friend.

Guess it was time for her not to see it through a demon eyes, but through the eyes of another specie.

"I think he could be wrong about you being a terrible mage," he grinned at her words. "However he can also be right."

"What! Why!"

"Because for you to prove to him that he's wrong then you'll have to learn magic and work very hard on it." Naru answered truthfully. "Tou-san always says you can be all bark but if there's no bite then you're simply dreaming."

"I don't get it."

"Basically, what I'm trying to tell you is that you have to prove to your father that he's wrong about you." He blinked his eyes at her. "That's the only way I know, that will keep his mouth shut."

"But for me to do that, I need to learn magic." Gray said, grimacing at her words. "And there're very little mages in our town, and the ones here aren't even that strong."

The blonde shrugged her shoulders at his words, giving him a small frown. He's right about the town mages, they aren't strong in their magic nor were they that smart through they weren't completely dumb. She wrinkled her nose at this. Yes, they weren't the smartest people and they did have horrible manners, also they seem almost always drunk to her however, they weren't horrible people. They did help the people in this town when asked; through they liked to be paid by them.

She sighed.

"Maybe when I'm old enough, I'll go find a powerful mage and asked them to train me." Gray said, snapping her from her thoughts.

"And how do you know if they're powerful?" Naru asked, frowning at him.

"Well, won't it be obvious?"

The blonde narrowed her eyes at her friend's words before shaking her head at him. Of course, Gray would think it is obvious because he thinks by seeing those mages that it is easy to spot. However, her father always told her that appearance can be deceiving and the best example he gave was Zeref and her mother. Through, he never explained why he thought her biological mother was strong or what she did to prove him wrong.

After all, she died just after giving her to him.

She shook her head at this thought. Why was she thinking about her mother now of all times? After all, it has been nearly eight years since her mother died and Kurama raised her. She was technically the woman who gave birth to her but, she wasn't her parent and the same can be said for her biological dad. Kurama was her parent and he was the strongest person, she knows.

To be fair, she doesn't see a lot of strong people in this place.

"…Well, why do you think it won't be obvious?"

The blonde blinked her eyes and said. "What?"

"Were you paying attention to what I was saying?" Gray asked.

"If I said yes, I would be lying."

Gray sighed and she shrugged her shoulders at him. He can't really expect her to listen to him when she had so many things in her mind as well as, being bored. She frowned. She really should work on her attention span, especially when she is talking to Gray since, he really expects her to listen to him when he talks.

Maybe, she should do that trick that her father does when he is pretending to listen.

Yes, she should do that next time.

"Hey, do you want to play a game?" Naru asked, changing the subject.

The grin on his face was all the answer she needed and she smiled widely at him.

Really, she should spend less time with him.

* * *

The wind tickled his hair and the feel of the grass on his feet was great as well the warmth of the sun. Today was going to be a great day with his adopted daughter gone but that is what Kurama wished to think. He didn't miss his student and ward, no nor did he miss the awe in her eyes as he teaches her magic. He didn't miss her measly attempts in hiding her anger when he insults her nor did he miss her complaining when he makes her do a lot of exercise.

No he didn't miss her one bit.

Okay, he was lying but he will never tell the brat that he missed her.

He narrowed his eyes when he heard a crunch in the branches. He sniffed the air, grimacing at the scent of the sand. Of all his siblings that have to come here, it had to be the most annoying and weakest one of them all. Through he was grateful for this sibling because, if it hadn't been for him then he would have never gotten Naru. So maybe, he had to be polite this once to him through it curious him to know why he is here.

"I see you haven't left this place yet, Kurama." The arrogant voice said. "I think it has been nearly fifty years when you decided to live here."

Sighing, he turned around to look at his youngest sibling, who had a haughty smirk on his face and was crossing his arms at him. He raised one eyebrow at his younger brother, not bothering to hide his own curiosity from his brother. It had been nearly sixty years since he last saw his youngest sibling and he didn't change that much, through it was his humanoid form.

His youngest brother appeared in his late teens, having sandy-brown hair and yellow eyes. There were so many marking on his body and a single tail could be seen. He smirked at this. His youngest brother was still weakest among them but then again, he won't become any stronger. Not if he didn't take the time to practice his magic again and with worthy opponents.

"What brings you here, Shukaku?"

His younger brother sighed and mockingly said. "I can't visit my dear favorite brother?"

"No, you can't." He said dryly. "When you visit, it means only two things and that is you want me to help you cause destruction or, you want to borrow my jewels since you spend so much of yours."

Shukaku smirked at his words and said. "Well, if you would…"

"No, you still owe me money."

The younger demon shook his head at this before sighing. "I'm not here for money actually," Kurama looked surprise at this. "What! Do you really think I'm always here for money or destruction? Do you ever think that I just want to visit my darling older brother because I actually care for him?"

"If it were any of our other siblings then I wouldn't be so doubtful," Kurama muttered. "However it's you then yes…you are not someone who actually deeply cares for our family."

"Maybe I've a change of heart."

Kurama raised his eyebrows at him and the younger demon sighed before taking a seat on the forest. "I've some news to tell you, news that I believe will interest you." His brother smirked. "You see I heard…" he sniffed the air and growled. "Why is there a scent of human here? Is there a human living here, Kurama! You said that it won't do us any good to mingle with humans!"

The red-haired demon grimaced at this. Why did he forget that Naru's scent is deeply embodied in this forest? If his brother knew he had taken in a human child then he would find the child before murdering her. Naru was quite strong for a kid her age however not strong enough to handle a real demon yet, and definitely not yet ready to handle a fake one. In a couple of years, she may be able to handle his youngest brother but not now.

"Well! Do you have a human living here!"

"No, I don't have a human living here." He crossed his arms. "Do you really think I'll bring a human to my own home! Have you forgotten what they did to our parents!"

"I was too young, remember Kurama?" he flinched at this reminder but his brother continued. "I would think it would be a amusing if you brought one here, even more so if we teach them our skills." His brother shot a bloodthirsty look to him. "I mean imagine the mayhem and mischief we can do if we raised a couple of human brats. So much beautiful blood will be spilled…"

"And we'll have a bunch of humans in our tail and thus we'll be hunted again."

"The minor details." His brother said, waving his hands lazily. "…In fact, that's why I took in a human kid."

"W-WHAT! YOU DECIDED TO TAKE IN A HUMAN CHILD!" Kurama snarled, grimacing at what the outcome might be at his idiotic brother's decision. It's one thing for him to take in a child, but it is a whole another thing if his youngest brother takes one in. His brother had no regards for people's life; only caring about murder and anything else that is as equally horrible. If he took a child in then he'll teach him the wrong things.

The child could end up mentally unstable because of him. The child may use the spells to destroy an entire village because he thought it'd be fun, since of course his younger brother said it's a good thing. He grimaced. If anyone asks him who taught him that magic then the boy would have no choice but to answer a demon, which will ruin any chance of freedom they have.

It seemed like he'll have to figure out how to fix this problem.

"Surprise, right? Well, I've a good reason for taking him in, besides of course the destruction and mayhem bit." Shukaku said, flickering his tail around. "You see, his father asked me to take him in. He said he wanted to have one child, whom he could see that was strong to defend his village before taking him back to said village."

"And you agreed because of that!" He snarled. "I thought you know better than that! You know how horrible the humans can be!"

"I know but he offered me a wonderful sum of money…and it wasn't like he knew I was a demon." He chuckled. "Besides, I thought it would be the perfect idea because what better way to take revenge then, to use one of their own against them."

"It'll backfire on us, Shukaku!"

"Perhaps, perhaps not but we shall see in the next couple of years after all we still have another seven years before our favorite meeting." Shukaku said, rubbing his clawed finger on his chin before musing out loud. "I wonder how the child will react when he sees I'm gone. Will he cause murder like I would or shall he follow a different path?"

"It doesn't matter, he'll do horrible things like you." Kurama muttered.

"We just have to wait and see if he actually does," he smirked. "After all, you of all people know how humans are a fickle like that, when we thought we figure them out…it turns out we didn't."

Kurama grimaced at his words. His youngest brother may be the most reckless out of them all but there was no denying his words about that through, he hoped Naru wouldn't use his teachings for the wrong things. He didn't want her going around causing mindless destruction like his youngest sibling or be greedy like Zeref.

He also didn't want her to make his mistakes when it came to trust through, from the looks of things with that boy Gray, and yes it is going to happen. It might not be this year then it will be in the years to come, after all, humans can't be trusted. For their greediness and selfishness knew no bounds in his opinion.

"If this is why you've came here to tell me then leave, Shukaku." Kurama said icily. "I'll not punish you for taking in a human child through, if he causes any destruction in my territory then you'll bet your sorry ass that I'll be the one to murder you."

His brother gulped and nodded his head vigorously at his words before saying. "Well there's something else, I wish to tell you! Something that might interest you and needs your attentions."

"Oh? What's it?" Kurama asked, raising his head to look at the birds that were chirping.

"It is to do with the fake demon that the disgusting mortal had made." Shukaku admitted, giving him a serious look. "I heard rumors from the villages and from the other demons that his first demon Deliora is coming here…villages have been destroyed and by the looks of things, it'll be a matter of time before it comes to the village and perhaps to your home, and by the looks of it, he will be here in a weeks time."

Kurama growled at this piece of news and his tails flicker, causing a whole row of tree to be smash and the ground to rumble but he didn't care. Deliora that was the demon made by the one man who betrayed him and the one demon he could never faced because of his anger. He could go and kill that demon before it comes here, could question him about the whereabouts of his master however he can't do it. His temper was great when it comes to them and if he evens go close to the demon then he will destroy everything in his path.

He couldn't do that because he'll have a bunch of humans gawking at him, and then one of them will be foolish to even try hurting him, which will make him unleash his temper on the village. He can't have that can he? No, he can't so he will have to think of something else entirely. He could send Naru to defeat the fake demon through; she won't be strong enough to kill it. He grimaced. What can he do? He doesn't mind if the village gets destroyed, there were just a bunch of stupid humans after all.

He sighed.

He'll just have to let the demon destroy the village and make sure Naru doesn't go down there when it comes. He smiled. The only way to do that will just make sure she has some more of his torturous training and then everything will be find. He'll even improve on her hand-to-hand combat if that was the case. Goodness knows the girl needed more training in that area, since he can defeat her easily and that was no good. Yes, she needed more training in a lot of things.

Yes this was the best course of action.

"Well, what do you plan to do Kurama?" Shukaku asked, smiling.

"Leave the fake to do what it pleases." Kurama answered. "It's been awhile since I've seen destruction and he'll be my source of entertainment…however if he comes back here after that night then, you can bet your ass I'll handle it."

"You're going to let the human village fall." Shukaku grinned. "I wish I'll be here when it happens…I want to hear their cries when they see just how hopeless they're against a fake demon."

"I'll find a way to show it to you then." Kurama said dryly.

Shukaku grinned maliciously at his words and without a second word; his brother left him alone in the forest with nothing but the scent of his sand to tell him that he had been here. The fox demon looked down at the small town, smiling as he hears their laughter and joy. It has been so long since he saw destruction…the last time being when his youngest brother destroyed Naru's home and nearly succeed in killing her mother.

She along with her husband have been the only humans, he saw that could destroy Zeref's demons easily through they stood no chance against Shukaku's power.

If Naru was anything like her parents then, with this magic, she'll be able to kill his youngest brother in a couple of years time.

He grinned.

Oh he can't wait to see her strength when it comes to that.

* * *

**Replies to reviews:**

**Yaoi-freak2580:** I'm happy to know that you like this story and I hope you like the wait for the next chapter.

**Starlight149:** I'll try to update as fast as I can next time.

**Dark. CHAOSRABBIT:** I'm glad to know that it's a great fanfic and yes Kurama is very cute for putting up a tough guy front and yes he is a big softy but, only when it comes to Naru. As for Jinchuuriki gather together, well that may happen and it might not happen. I'm glad to know that Naru and Gray were cute.

**Pain4ever:** Thanks for the advice on making demons that give regular trouble and I think I'll put that to effect when Naru is older and leaves Kurama. Yes, killing a dragon is nearly impossible without DragonSlayer, Godslayer or weapons that can pierce through their scales. I hope that this chapter was good.

**Itachisgurl93:** I hope that this chapter was interesting.

**Tukiko: **I'm glad to know you enjoy my story and I hope that this chapter was good. Thank you for believing I'll get a lot of reviews for this fanfic. I really hope so.

**OBSERVER01:** I'm glad to know you like the fact that I introduced Gray before Deliora attacks his hometown.

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**

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**I would love to hear your thought on this chapter**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**A/N: I want to thank OBSERVER01, yao-freak2580, tukiko, BalancedHex1232, Pain4ever, Sharkdude5, headboard for reviewing the last chapter and everyone who followed and added this to their follows and favorites.**

* * *

Naru had a bad feeling when she woke up this morning. She had the feeling, something dreadful was going to happen, but she didn't know why she felt like this. She just knew something horrible is about to happen and it wasn't by her father's nasty grumbles, through that helped too.

No the bad feeling came from the nature around her.

All the animals living here were restless, running and hiding as the night draws near and when she asked her father why, the answer was that they knew danger was near. He never told her what kind of danger it is, which frustrates her because she thought he would tell her these types of things. When it came to danger, her father always tells her what it is even if it doesn't really involve her.

She sighed as she climbed up the rock that overlooked the town, thinking to herself that her father must have a good reason for not telling her what the danger is. He must have because he always teaches her about what to do in dangerous situations and other things like that! She shook her head at this thought. Yes, her father must have a very good reason for not telling her what the danger is.

He just has too.

Naru held herself still when the ground trembled. She frowned and turned around to look at Kurama, who seemed to busy eating the rabbit she had cooked. If that wasn't her father then what was the cause? It wasn't long before she hears a sound of a terrible roar and sees the unnatural dark clouds. She looked down to the town, frowning as the tiny figures of people screamed while others go out of their houses to see why these people were screaming.

What the hell was happening?

She looked towards the other mountain and her eyes widened at the sight of a massive creature heading towards them. It was dark blue and had a humanoid body with scaly hands and had the feet of a large bird. She twisted her lips at the sight of its disgusting teeth. What the hell is that ugly thing? Her eyes widen when she saw the horns on his forehead.

"The creature name is Deliora," Her father said, taking a seat beside her. The fury in his eyes and the nasty smile on his face told her that her father was in a seriously bad mood. "I've known it was created quite some time ago but I've never seen quite close. Looking at it now makes me see how savage the creature is."

"Can you tell me what species this Deliora is, Father?"

"He is a demon created by _Zeref_." His eyes hardened as he looked at the demon. "This _fake_ demon along with its brethren were created by the darkest mage in the whole world. These are just one of the creatures I wish for you to kill, for they're a mockery of a demon."

Naru gaped at her father and turned her head wildly to look at the fake demon. So this was one of the demon her father had told her about. This was a creation of the disgusting human her father spoke with anger. This was one of those things her father expects her to kill.

How the hell can he expect her to kill something so big!

The sudden sound of a building falling down and the huge bright beam hitting one of the mountains brought her back to reality. This fake demon was destroying the balance of nature. Her eyes widen at the sound of people crying and to her horror, she could see speckles of many dead bodies lying in the ground. Those humans were dead. Fear gripped her heart as she realized something.

Her friend was down there, she realized. His home was being attack by a fake demon. This town may be filled with disgusting humans but there were three disgusting humans she did care for down there. Her best friend and his family. She gulped, realizing that her best friend and his family were going to die because of the fake demon attacking their town.

She had to save her best friend and his family. She didn't care about the other disgusting humans, they can die for all she cares but she cares if Gray and his family dies.

So with that thought, Naru jumped down from her rock and run towards the path that takes her to the town. She stopped when she saw her father standing in front of her. His eyes held no emotion but the way he crossed his arms and tapped his feet impatiently told her he was angry with her. She didn't care about his anger. She only cared about saving her friend.

"And where do you think you're going, Naru?" Her father asked.

"You know where." She gritted her teeth. "You know damn well where I'm going!"

"Humor me."

The blonde clenched her hands and said, "I'm going to save my best-friend and his family, maybe even kill the fake demon if I can."

"No, you won't do either of those thing," Her father said calmly, through the sudden quake informed her that her father was furious with her answer. "You're going back to the mountain and sleep."

"No!" Naru said, stomping her feet. "I won't do that! My friend and his family are down there! They're going to die if I don't save them Father! They'll die!"

"So what if they die?" her father crossed his arms at her. "Why should I care if they die? They can die for all I care but I care if my student goes and get herself killed!"

"I'm not going to die! Father, let me go down there and save them!" Naru pleaded. "I need to save them! I won't save the other disgusting humans except them! Please, just let me go there and save them!"

"No!" Kurama snapped. "First of all, you're not strong enough to kill it! You can wound it but you can't kill it with your current strength! Second of all, you're not emotionally ready to fight against that demon just yet!"

"I'm emotionally ready to fight against that demon!"

"Not the way I see it." Kurama picked her up by the collar, carrying her towards their part of the forest. "The fact that you're yelling at me tells me that the moment you see the fake, you're going to charge recklessly towards it."

"I won't!"

"I'm not taking the chance of you getting yourself badly injured because you let your emotions controlled you," Kurama said calmly, putting her down on their forest's ground. "Besides, this will teach you how humans that don't have strong magic can't kill a fake demon."

"Oh and does this teach me also that a demon doesn't care about their friends, huh!" Naru spat. "Do you mean to tell me that a true demon won't ever save their friends if they are in danger!"

"Demons don't have friends, brat," Kurama said, calmly. "We have alliances but that's the closest thing a demon can consider as friendship. The only people demon truly cares about are their families! demons will do anything for their families."

"If that's the case, then why do you care if I die then, Father! I'm not your biological child so why should you care if I die or not!"

"Because you're my student, brat and I don't let any student of mine die a reckless death." The King of Demons retorted, towering over her. "I also promised your foolish mother that I'll take care of you like you're my own and I swore on my throne on that promise!"

"And it won't be your fault if I go and save them! Or if I die because of that!"

Kurama's eyes flashed red and Naru gulped, knowing that her father was now furious with her words. She wasn't wrong. The ground started to tremble and two of her father's tails flickered, destroying a whole section of the forest just by his tails.

"Death isn't something you can speak so casually about, Naru!" Her father growled. "Dying for your friends is honorable to some species but to die because you're reckless isn't honorable! To even speak of dying shows me you're not ready to fight anyone!"

"And I can see you're just as what people described! A horrible monster that doesn't give a damn about the lives of people!" she snapped. "If I was down there, would you save me? Would you destroy the fake demon if it had hurt me! Or would you just sit there and watch me die then!"

Her father didn't answer but the look in his eyes told her everything. If she had been down there then he would save her because as much as he doesn't want to admit it, she was his daughter. She would have done the same for him and, that's why he should understand why she wanted to save Gray. He was her best friend and his family was like her second family.

His mother would always give the best of gifts to her and always tell Gray that he should learn some manners from her. She always speaks things to Gray's Mom that she couldn't tell her own father because he was a male and of course, a demon. Misaki always made her feel welcome and didn't treat her like some foreigner who shouldn't be here, like the other villagers.

The same can be said for Gray's Dad. He was different from Kurama in so many ways and yet they were similar in some ways as well. Gray's Dad always showed his affections to his son, giving him hugs when he was at home and was always playing with them. Not once did he ever say they shouldn't be playing like Kurama. Through he had a bad temper just like Kurama, yelling at Gray whenever he didn't do his homework or cause problems to his neighbors. But at the very least he didn't threatened to do anything to his son like her father.

Tears leaked out of her eyes when she heard the wails of the people down there. She doesn't know why she is crying. She doesn't know if she's crying for the soon to be loss of her friend and his family or, the fact she can't change her father's mind. She doesn't know why she is showing this weakness and she wished it would stop. She wished that the pain inside her heart would stop and that she didn't care about these people.

"I hate this!" She said out loud. "I hate the fact you won't let me go and save my friend and his family! That you're forcing me to let them die! I hate you for this!"

"You may hate me now but one day, you'll be grateful that I didn't let you do it! One day you will be so grateful that I haven't let you attack the fake demon at the skill level you have! You'll be grateful that I didn't let you do something so reckless!" Kurama spat. "Going to them is foolish! And I doubt even those human would allow you to do what you think you should do!"

She didn't say anything when her father left. All she did was curl into a ball and prayed that she would get some sleep. She hoped she could ignored their cries but, she knows she can't ignore them.

She can't ignore them when she knows her own friend and his family are about to die. She can't ignore them because she knows it is her fault they will die, because she has the strength to kill the beast through her father says otherwise. She wished she could help them but she couldn't help just can't do anything without having the approval of her father.

Naru knows she will feel guilty for this day for the rest of her life.

* * *

Naru never slept that night. The sounds of people crying as they die kept her awake and each time as a person cry, she wonders if one of them was Gray or his family. She thinks she heard around four hundred cries that night, matching the same amount of people that lived in the town.

She hoped that there are survivors in that town. She hoped that the survivors are people she knows, from the nice café owner to Gray. She really does hope Gray is alive and not dead but the chances of him being alive are unlikely.

Still she hopes he isn't dead.

She doesn't even want to imagine how she will react if she finds his body in the ruins of the town. She doesn't know how she could handle it if her best friend had suddenly leaved her alone. She always complains about the fact he never leaves her alone when she visits and how he doesn't understand her. But, the attack makes her realize something very important. Something her father isn't capable of learning and something she learned very important.

You shouldn't ever abandon the people you cared about or take them for granted.

She never realized it until last night but she cared about Gray. She always thought if he ever dies that she wouldn't feel much pain over it because demonslayers shouldn't care about these things. Demonslayers must never feel anything when it comes to humans as her father always say to her because this isn't the way of the demons.

It was true that it wasn't the way of the demons but she was human as well. She could deny it all she wants but it won't change the fact she has feelings like any human does. This was the main difference between a human being and a demon. A demon can always turn off his emotion at any given time but a human can't do it. You can't teach a human to do the same thing like a demon.

This was her father mistake.

"Naru, you can go down to the town." Those words snapped her out of her thoughts. "I'll allow you to see if there are any survivors, through the chances are low."

"Father?"

"Deliora had finish attacking the town six hours ago and left only three hours ago," Kurama answered, staring hardly at her. "I'm only allowing you to go there to see if any of those disgusting humans have survived."

"I thought you didn't care about those disgusting humans," Naru said blankly as she played with the necklace around her neck. "You were willing for them to die so, why do you wish to allow me to see if any one of them survived."

"Do you not wish to know if your _friend_ is alive?"

The blonde blinked her eyes and reluctantly nodded her head at his answer. She does want to know if Gray is alive. She wanted to know if her best friend had been lucky and survived. She wanted to know if he had any injuries. Wanted to know if he's going to be all right or if he truly as dead as her father believes he is.

She prayed fervently that he wasn't dead.

So with that thought, she grabs the shoes that had been present from Gray's mother and walks towards the path leading her to the town. She frowned at the sight of her father blocking her way. She opened her mouth to ask a question but closed it when she saw him raised his hand at her.

"Before you go down there, I want you to answer me three questions regarding something." She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms at him but he simply snorted. "What! I've given you permission to go down there so if you answer the question wrong then it won't affect you going there. I just want to confirm something."

"You promise you'll still let me go down there if I answer those questions?"

"I promise."

"Okay, Father what's your first question?"

Kurama stared at the necklace in her neck before shaking his head at her. Her frown deepened and unconsciously she starts fingering it. She doesn't know why now her father seemed to realize she had a necklace. She had been wearing it for nearly a year now. She smiled fondly as she remembered how she got the necklace.

The necklace had been a present given to her by Gray and his family when she had turned seven years old. It was a little bit big but it was the first gift given to her by them, and it doesn't help that it was very pretty. The silver chain and light blue crystal right in the middle of it. She didn't know how they could afford it or why they would give her something like this, but she was grateful.

It was after all the first time she had a present that wasn't from her father.

"Is this Gray boy precious to you?" Kurama asked, staring at her.

"What do you mean by precious?"

Shaking his head, the King of Demons sighed and rubbed his chin while she tapped her feet impatiently. "Let me rephrase this question, is he important to you?"

Naru licked her lips at this question. Is Gray important to her? Memories flashed through her mind and for a brief moment, she feels a startling pang in her heart. She remembers every argument they had, every insult they shoot at each other. But most of all she remembers how they defended each other every time from those accusations.

She wanted all of that again. She wanted to have their silly arguments again and insult each other whenever one of them do something so stupid, which he does most of the time. She wanted to have lunch with each other again. She wanted him to try and surprise her again.

With these thoughts, she knew what her answer was but she knows she can't ever tell her father the truth.

"No, he isn't someone important to me."

Her father nodded and looked towards the ashes of the trees that she had destroyed yesterday. "Do you like him?"

"He isn't terrible for a disgusting human," She said, blankly. "He's quite ok for a human as well as a good playmate but nothing else. He's a horrible friend if that's your question."

Kurama chuckled at her response and shakes his head at her, muttering some words but it was too low for her to hear. "My last question is this, how far are you willing to go for him?"

"W-Why are you asking me this? I told you that he isn't someone important to me and that he is a horrible friend but a good playmate! "

He sighed and responded. "Because he had to be something if you were willing to yell at me! He must be someone very precious to you because you never yell at me like this yet, last night had been the first time you yelled. You lost control of your temper and say some nasty things to me. That isn't like you. You aren't the type of person who does these things, yet when it came to the boy that changes. So tell me Naru how far are you willing to go for him?"

She faltered at this question. How far was she willing to go for him? Was she willing to disregard the beliefs of her father because of him? Was she willing to hurt anyone that hurts him? Was she even willing to choose him over her father? The last question was easy to answer because no. She knows that when it comes to her father that she won't ever pick anyone over him.

"I don't know," Naru answered, knowing that is a question she can't lie the answer about. "I just know this Father, I know that he and his family have treated me with kindness while the other villagers thought of me of foreigner who shouldn't be there. I know that if I have to pick between you and him that I'll choose you over him."

Her father raised an eyebrow at this response and stepped away from the path. She looked up at him in surprise but he simply gestured for her to go and check if there were any survivors. She smiled at her father and gives him a small peck in the cheek before running off.

If she turns her back then Naru would have notice her father touching his cheek with his mouth wide open and staring at her with soft eyes. But she will never notice this because she didn't turned her back once.

* * *

Kurama watched from the edge of the cliff as Naru walked along the path leading her to the ruins of the town before. She was an excellent liar however she wasn't good enough to lie to him. He knew from her actions the boy was important to her because she behaved even more recklessly than before. She was willing to disregard his words to save the boy. She didn't even care about her own life. This boy changed her whether she knew it or not and he doesn't know if the change is good or bad.

"_He isn't terrible for a disgusting human."_

That was Naru's answer about whether she liked the boy or not. His daughter may not have notice this but her eyes had softened as she answered. She considers the boy a great friend to play with and someone very important to her. He didn't have to see them interact to know how important he is to her. His daughter's actions alone speak about how important the boy is to her. She was willing to defy him for the boy and his family. This tells him that she cared for the boy a lot more than she was willing to admit.

He doesn't really care about that, seeing as she doesn't care for him enough to choose the boy over him and that is enough. If his child betrays him then it shows him that his thoughts on humans being taught by demons is wrong. It shows him that they don't really deserve to be taught their magic. However if she shows that she will pick him over the boy then, his thoughts are wrong. He doesn't like being wrong but with Naru, it was different.

Kurama liked her because she was different and he hopes she continues showing him that she is different from the other humans.

She just have to because he didn't want to have any regrets on teaching her magic.

* * *

Naru had always heard stories about what happens when a demon attack but she never really seen it up close. Not till today. The whole town was in ruins, from the homes to even the signboard. There was not a single building that has not been destroyed by the attack. She couldn't hear any heartbeats or any sign of life in this town. There was just absolute silence and her heart drops at this realization.

If there was no sign of life then that means only one thing. Gray and his family are dead. She drops to the ground, not flinching at the feel of the cold ground on her knees. Instead, she let herself cry for the loss of her best friend and his family but she cries mostly for her best friend.

She closed her eyes as memories flashed through her mind. She could remember Gray gawking at her when she admitted that she had never eaten an ice cream before. The look on his face had been so funny because she never thought someone's jaw could go low. Through her joy had quickly been short lifted when he announced that he was going to take her to get her very first snow cone. That got her annoyed since she hates being bossed around and the only reason why she went with him is because, he said it was tasty.

It wasn't.

She pushed herself to stand up before slowly making her way through the ruins of the town. Another memory rushed through her mind when she sees the ruin of the library. Gray always hated going to the library and would only go there when he had no choice but to do research on his homework. She found herself gulping as she remembers his constant complaining about the library and how she always tells him that he is just acting like a big baby.

A man's body was right in front of her. It was pale and his eyes were closed shut. She frowned and without even thinking, she runs towards the body with hopes that maybe the person is alive. She pressed her ears against his chest and swallows the lump being formed in her throat. This man was dead, no way about it. She sighed and leaves the man where she found it but not before saying a small prayer that her father taught her.

She continued walking through the ruins, trying to see anymore bodies and confirm their deaths. Through every body she sees is dead and she had no choice and accepts that each disgusting human she sees was dead. Her heart stops when she sees the ruins of Gray's house. Huge pile of rocks covered over each other and she knows without even looking that her friend and his family were dead. The chances of a normal human surviving over a piece of rubble like that are quite low.

"I've never really realize how wrong I was Gray until now," She whimpered, river of tears flowed out of her eyes. "I never thought that I would care for a human this much. I always thought that if I ever see a human die that I won't feel so affected because, demons don't let emotions care for them. I'm not a demon but a demon raised me and I'm sorry I never told you that! I'm sorry that there were so many things I lied to you about! But demons lie a lot and I think like one and act like one…most of the time."

Naru didn't expect an answer so she continues with her words. "B-But I realize something last night when I saw that demon attacked the village, that I'm not a demon. I can think like one and act like one but I don't have the heart of a demon because, demons don't care about friends. They care about their families but they won't care if a friend is attack! They abandon their friends when they think their life is endanger!"

She could almost imagine his response at her words. He would say something about how demons shouldn't be like that, about how they should care about their friends. Then he will go all serious on her and tell her that she isn't like that. He always says things like that and it always annoyed her because he always seems to think he knew her.

She wishes that he could say something like that to her.

"You know I always thought you were the most annoying guy because of the fact you always seemed to think you know everything about me." She clenched her hands into a fist. "You were also annoying because you always pushed me to do things I didn't want to do! Like that stupid snow cone! I knew it wasn't going to be tasty because of the damn fact it was a snow cone but no you just had to insist that it was delicious!"

She could just picture him laughing at her while she said this, which makes her tears flow ever harder.

"I fucking hate you for making me care! I hate the fact you had to die! I hate you for making me cry! The fact that you're dead makes me hate you even harder!" She slammed her hand on the ground. "Why the hell did you have to die huh? Why couldn't you be someone extraordinary huh? Or lucky! And why the hell does your death hurt me so damn much! I only knew you for a year and couple of months…I only knew you for a short time, damn it!"

She rocks back and forth and bit her lips in hopes that the tears would stop. She wanted the pain to go away. She wanted to turn her emotions off like a demon could but, this was her reality. She can't turn off her emotions like a demon. Because she isn't a demon. She's a human being, who is only raised and taught by a demon. It doesn't make her one.

"I never realized this until last night but I wished that I had spend more time with you! I wanted us to play those games again! I want you to come at me and try to find another irritating way of annoying me!" She gulped. "You know the only reason your tricks never work isn't because I was on guard or anything! It's because I could hear them from a mile away! Because if it had been another person then this wouldn't be the case!"

She could imagine him smirking and telling her in that annoying voice that he knew she was lying about being on guard the whole time. She cried even harder at this and fervently hopes that she would stop these tears before she goes home. A demon slayer mustn't show weakness and her crying to her father would show she is weak. He wouldn't care she lost her best friend and he would scold her for crying.

She cracked a sad smile when she thinks of Gray's reaction if she tells him this.

"You know Gray, I think the main reason why I never told you about the fact that I was raised by demon, isn't only because I was afraid of you telling someone, who might kill my father." Naru admitted, sniffing. "I think the main reason why I never told you about this is because I was afraid of how you would react."

"_Why the hell would you be afraid of how I react?"_ this would be Gray's response to her words if he were alive.

"I mean you always believed those stupid superstitions about how demons are evil and all that, which I can't deny but they aren't like what people imagined them to be." She looked up at the dark clouds that still loomed over the town. "They aren't really bad, they like destruction but they love nature and they always get angry if nature is no longer balanced. They give so much love...and they can be so lonely at times, like my father. He never admits it but I think he is lonely because of how far away he is from his siblings. And I think that's why he doesn't want me hurt, because I'm his only companion in this place."

Naru looked up to the sky and sighed.

"You know Gray I envied you! I envied how your parents can show their affection to you so easily while my father makes me guess if he was being affectionate or not!" She smiled. "That's why I always yell at you for complaining about your parents because at least they showered you with love and never makes you wonder if they were only doing it because they thought about it. At least your parents openly admit that you're their child, my father doesn't like to admit it!"

She shook her head at this thought.

"But you know what, even through I envied you and thought you were so annoying, I always thought that you were the greatest friend I could ever asked for." She hesitated, not knowing what else to say. "I-I mean you did make me do stupid things but, you always defended me and tried to cheer me up! And even through I didn't do the same and didn't see you so much, you still thought of me as a friend! And you know that you're my best friend! So as a friend I should tell you that I miss you, bastard!"

She knows he would never hear these words from her but she hopes if he was really listening to her that he was smiling down at her.

So with this thought she leaves the ruins of the town, but not without making a vow to become stronger. She will make sure she will never experience such a loss again.

* * *

**Replies to reviews:**

**OBSERVER01**: Thank you for telling me that it was a good chapter.

**Yaoi-freak2580:** I won't tell you if you're right or wrong about whether the child is Gaara or not and I'm happy to know you can't wait for the next chapter.

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**BalancedHex1232**: It's good to know this is an awesome story and I hope you like her reaction towards the attack.

**Pain4ever**: I'm happy to know that you enjoyed the chapter. It's good to know I've added my own originality to it because I was hoping it would be a little bit original and I really wanted Naruto to have some character development because I didn't want to make her seem boring or anything like that. We don't have much back story of Gray besides the fact his whole town had been destroyed so I thought, it would be interesting if we had a little bit more facts. Glad you like how you like the idea of childhood friends becoming lovers. I've been planning right from the beginning for Naru to think that Gray is dead and her reaction when she learns the truth.

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	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**A/N: I want to thank Guest, LoloLovesAnim, BalancedHex1232, FAN, Pain4ever, tukiko, Sharkdude5, Jirouto, headboy419, itachisgurl93 for reviewing the last chapter and thank everyone who added this story to their favorites and follows.**

* * *

Nearly five years passed since she lost her best friend and his family. Not a day past where she doesn't think about him and his family. It pained her to remember them but it was the only way she knew she was human. She visited the grave she made for him whenever she could. Every year, she told him and his parents about her training with Kurama. She told Gray about how her father was pushing her to train harder and about how now-of-days her father looks at her with proudness because, she had finally take some of his teachings to heart. She would tell him that she doesn't believe her father belief about how all humans are disgusting and how she finally realized that keeping her emotions in check wasn't as stupid as she thought it was. She told him it was because of him that she was now a lot stronger since he was the reason why she got stronger.

She told him this every year but only in the anniversary of his death. She knew it was a stupid ritual to have and that one day she must break this habit because habits could get a person attached and she can't get attached to anyone or anything. Not until she defeat Zeref. Not until she destroyed the _fake, _wretched demon, who destroyed this town. She couldn't forgive the demon nor could she forgive Zeref because it's his fault. He created the demon that did this. He's the one that caused their deaths. And he's the one that would pay for what he did. When she sees the bastard, she will kill him but it would be awhile before she kills him. She knew she wasn't strong enough to kill him. He was the only mortal capable of killing powerful demons and had very dangerous magic as her father warned her. He said it would be a good ten years before she can actually have the strength to kill him.

He told her that her current strength would only allow her to last about only one minute with him and even then he would be toying with her. When she was younger, it would make her furious to hear these words but now she was older and now she knew her father say these things to make her stronger. She took his criticisms to heart and does her hardest to improve on her mistakes because this was one of the best ways to improve her magic.

Like now, she was trying to improve on the newest spell her father taught her.

"**Kurama's Hosenka**," Naru yelled as she placed her hand up in front of the sections of trees in front of her. A dark red magic circle appeared and it wasn't a second later when a barrage of big fireballs came out of her hand. They flew in an unpredictable manner, a few of them going to the trees near their cave but the twists and turn almost made her think otherwise. Most of them actually came deathly close to her father but thankfully her father knew how to get rid of the spell.

"You've done well, Naru," Kurama said, inspecting the ashes of the trees she destroyed. "This time the flames were strong enough to actually make the trees turned instantly to ash, instead of burning for ten days and the flames are now going to beings with magic instead of instantly going to the trees." She nodded her head. "However, you need to put a little bit more power into them and try to vary the hardness of the flames. You need to trick your opponents into thinking the flames aren't as harmless as it looks, understand?"

"Hai," Naru said, staring blankly at her father's amber eyes. "I'll do as you suggest, is there anything else I need to do? And are you going to teach me anymore spells?"

Kurama stared impassively at her and reluctantly shook his head. "As far as I'm concern, you've no more spells to improve on…you've mastered almost every spell I taught you. The only thing you need to improve on is your hand-to-hand combat but that will come with experience."

She nodded and turned towards their cave. Experience huh? This was her father's answer on how to improve her hand-to-hand skills but how does she experience fighting? She had only ever fought with her father and even then she wasn't strong enough. The longest she could last with him was only three hours and even then he didn't fight her with his full strength.

When a demon doesn't fight you with full-strength then it showed they don't believe you were worthy of their strength.

"It has been nearly thirteen years since I took you in, hasn't it?" Kurama asked, staring at her thoughtfully before flickering his eyes towards the remains of the destroyed town.

"Well, I'm nearly thirteen years old if that answers your question, Tou-sama," Naru yawned, shifting to a lying position into the fur coats that her father gave them. "But you should know that since you were the one that took me in."

"And yet, you're still the immature brat that always hogs the furs," Naru sighed at the demon's words and rolled her eyes as the demon stared at her.

"I still have human qualities, Father and unfortunately for you and me, that includes liking anything that soft," Naru replied as she yawned out loud. "That's why when I was younger, I would always try to cuddle you whenever I was tired or cold."

"Good riddance you learn your lesson about cuddling me."

The blonde rolled her eyes at the demon and opened her mouth to tell him that he hadn't seemed to mind whenever she did it, but decided against it. Her father would deny about the fact that he hadn't scolded her for it, or found some excuse on why he allowed her to do it. It was stupid of him to deny but he wouldn't be him if he didn't deny it.

She rather preferred that side of her father; it made him seem so cute in her opinion. But she would never admit this to her father. After all, the King of Demons wasn't cute; he was supposed to be horrible, fearsome and ugly, definitely not cute. Demons aren't cute. This was what her father always told her when she had been younger.

She wondered if her father's siblings were the same as him. She wondered if they were just as stubborn and prideful as him. Were they as kind as him too? Did they hate humans just like her father or were they the opposite of him? She sighed. She would never know since Kurama hated talking about his siblings.

"Naru, what do you want to do for the rest of the evening?" Kurama asked, staring at her with curiosity. Naru blinked and blinked, unsure whether or not if the demon had honestly asked her about what she wanted to do for the rest of the evening. He never asked her about what she wanted. She always did what he wanted. Not once had he allowed her to do what she wanted.

"I want to play a game," Naru admitted, looking down at her hands in embarrassment while the demon arched his eyebrow at her. "It just that it had been so long since I played a game with someone, and we've never played a game since I was five. You haven't played any games with me since you started teaching me magic. When I played with you, it always felt that you actually cared for me, not that you don't now… but it isn't the same like before."

Kurama looked taken back at her reasoning and she wondered if he would comply to her wish for once. It was stupid of her to admit this to her father, but he asked her what she wanted and she wanted that. She wanted that feeling again that her adoptive father truly loved her. That he took her in because he wanted too. That he wasn't raising her because he wanted to use her to take revenge for his family.

"Alright what game you want to play?" The red-haired demon asked and Naru grinned at him, causing him to give her a sharp look. She immediately whipped the grin off her face and stared at him with emotionless eyes. Demonslayers weren't supposed to show emotions as her father said, and she was an idiot for forgetting it this time.

"Tag."

"Of course, the one game that always gave me headaches!" Kurama muttered but Naru could see the glint of amusement in his eyes. A memory flashed through her mind, she had been three years old when Kurama taught her the game. He told her that she couldn't possibly defeat him, and at that time she didn't understand why nor did she care. All she wanted was to have fun and to prove him wrong.

Of course, Kurama had tagged her less then she did but, to be fair to herself her father was born a demon and therefore had superior running speed and at that time, she had been nothing but a weak mortal, who couldn't run as fast as he could. Now, she had the perfect opportunity to get pay back for the loss nearly nine years ago.

With that thought, she tackled her father and yelled out, "You're it!"

Kurama's eyes widened at her declaration and as soon as he registered the fact that Naru had tagged him as well as tackled him without warning, he started chasing after the giggling blond. Naru smiled and laughed, twisting and turning through the forest as her father chased after her, swearing up and down at her about how she should have given him warnings about this. Her response to this was to stick out her tongue and run even faster, since she knew that her father would be furious with her for doing this.

No one stuck their tongue out at the King of the Demons and get away with it.

"Get back here, Gaki!" Kurama yelled as he jumped over the branches of the trees. Naru laughed even harder when she heard the sound of her father being smacked against the trunks of the tree. She had never felt alive before. She could hear the tweeting of the birds, the croaks of the frogs and other animals. She felt all of her blood rushing towards her muscle and heart as she felt her father coming closer towards her.

She really felt alive when she was running away from her father.

Naru couldn't remember the last time she felt this much joy and adrenaline. No, actually she could remember the last time she had these feelings. She had those feelings whenever Gray played with her, whenever he chased her through the streets of his village. He would always yell and declare that he would catch her, and like the girl she had been, she retorted that it would be a hundred years before he could do it.

She had been right and he had been wrong. Every time, she beat him in the game and he would always pout at her, saying in that annoying voice of his that she had only won by luck. She always told him that he was just jealous that he didn't have her skills and that he only wished that he was as fast as she was. He would scowl and say that she was wrong. To that, she would simply laugh and shake her head before declaring, that since he was the loser, he had to buy her lunch.

God, she missed those days and she definitely missed that dark-haired idiot. It had been nearly five years since he died and not a day goes past, where she doesn't think of him. She could hear his voice at times, swore that she saw him and his family in the forest and feel his touch on her hands but of course it wasn't true. They were figments of her imagination. He was dead. He wasn't coming back and nothing she does would bring him back.

Not even demon magic was capable of fully bringing back the dead.

She was brought back to reality when she felt her father tackling her down to the ground. She groaned and looked down at her clothes, grimacing at the sight of leaves stuck on her clothes. This was going to take a long time to clean! And her bastard of a father knew that she hated cleaning! With that thought, she glared at her father, who had an innocent smile on his face but that didn't fool her one bit. He wasn't in any way or form innocent. He was as innocent as the next demon.

"You did that on purpose, Tou-san!"

"You wanted to play the game of tag, didn't you?" Her father asked, raising his eyebrows at her in amusement. "And that does require your clothes getting dirty, so really this is your own fault and not mine!"

"You're the one that tackled me!"

"Because, you told me that you wanted to play the game!"

Naru opened her mouth to protest but couldn't find any arguments against that point. She was the one that did ask for this game, and that did mean that it was her fault that her clothes were dirtied. She groaned. She hated cleaning, especially cleaning her clothes. Kurama always complained about how no demonslayer of his would wear clothes that were meant for peasants or wore clothes that were dirtied. No, his demonslayer must have some class.

"Want to play another game of tag, Gaki?" Kurama asked and his eyes glinted in amusement when the blonde gave him a frosty glare. Like, she would be stupid enough to challenge the cheater again! No, she wasn't going to play with that foolish fox demon ever again!

So with that thought, she turned to Kurama and said in a firm voice, "I'm tired!"

The demon rolled his eyes at her and stared at her for a good ten minutes before shrugging his shoulders and started to walk towards the cave with, the blond-haired girl trailing after him. They walked towards the cave with silence. It was an unspoken rule that whenever they walk towards their home that they must be silent. She didn't know who came up with the rule but, she rather liked it. It gave her time to think and, she rarely had time to think. All she ever did was fight and train, not one time did she ever think about the trees since she was too busy training.

Maybe, she should ask Kurama about allowing them to have one hour where they could relax and think about everything. She nodded her head. It would certainly give her an excuse to relax and not train her body to the point, where she had magic exhaustion. Yes, she should suggest this to her father!

"…Naru, how would you feel if I left?" Kurama asked, breaking her out of her thoughts. Naru blinked and frowned at her father, who stared at her with an emotionless expression. Her frown deepened when she realized that they were home, but shrugged her shoulder at this before, staring at her father's cold eyes again. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not about leaving her. The smile on his face made it seem like he was just joking yet, the seriousness in his eyes made it seemed like he was actually going to leave her.

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Just out of curiosity."

Naru wanted to believe that he was just asking because he was just curious, but she would be a fool if she believed him. She had known him her whole life. He never asked things because he was curious. If he did, then he would have asked her a lot of questions. No, there was something to this. There was something that he was hiding from her. But what? What was he hiding from her? And what was he planning?

"Well? How would you feel?"

"I would be sad if you left," Naru answered, crossing her arms at him. "I would be pissed too, if you haven't given me a reason and if you had just left without any warning. I would feel hurt and abandon, because I would have thought that you wouldn't abandon a child of yours."

"I see, and if I did leave, what would you do?" Kurama asked, staring hard at her. "Would you commit crimes, or would you go around helping those pathetic mortals that you had been so desperate to help, a few years ago?"

Naru shrugged and answered, "I like the idea of committing crimes but it wouldn't me since, it would draw too much attention to myself and you told me that I shouldn't draw too much attention to myself. Besides, committing crimes would be just too problematic, so no I wouldn't commit crimes."

"Going around helping those pathetic mortals, that's what you would do if I leave right?" Kurama asked, staring hard into her blue eyes.

"No," Naru answered earnestly, absently-mindedly touching the necklace that her best friend had given her for her birthday a couple of years ago. "I wouldn't do that unless I get paid a lot of money, even then I would debate about it. Helping mortals isn't my thing, they whine and complain, and will treat me in utter disdain if they learn that my magic is demon slaying magic, or use me for their own gain."

Kurama quirked his lips at this response and asked, "Then what would you do if I did leave you all alone then?"

"I would travel the world, searching for clues on where Zeref is and murder the man for creating those despicable fake demons," Naru answered earnestly. "I might occasionally help a mortal but we have to see that, and I would deceive them for money but that's it."

"I see."

Naru nodded and was about to close her eyes, when her father asked. "Would you join a guild if I leave then? Or would you really travel by yourself?"

"I wouldn't join a guild," Naru answered automatically. "The mere idea of me joining a guild is laughable, they're filled with weak people and have a narrow idea on what is right and what is wrong."

"Really now? What makes you say that?"

"Well, I remember the stories that you told me about them as well as the mages that had lived in Brina Town," Naru answered, scowling. "The mages in Brina Town said that all demons were evil, and vile, that they have no ounce of sympathy!"

"And you think I'm sympathetic?" Kurama asked, raising his eyebrow at her.

"Well…no but you aren't evil and you aren't vile!" Naru answered firmly. "I think it's stupid of them to make such assumptions, since they haven't even met a demon and based it on the stories that they have heard!"

"Not all demons are like me, Naru," Kurama said, in a monotone and Naru grimaced at his words, knowing that her father was right about the fact that not all demons were like him. She had just been lucky that Kurama had chosen to be merciful that day. "Some demons would have killed you instead of taking you in like I did."

"I know but it doesn't change the fact that you took me in!"

Kurama nodded at her words and said, "Well I think that's enough discussion for one day, you should go and sleep! You'll have a busy day tomorrow."

"What are we doing?"

Naru frowned when she saw the flicker of guilt in her father's eyes and she wondered why her father was feeling guilty. He never felt guilty for anything. Not for not allowing her to go and save Gray, nor did he felt guilty for not saving her mother when he could. Yet now, he was feeling guilty. It simply made no sense to her, because he shouldn't ever feel guilty.

"You'll just have to wait and see, Naru," her father answered coldly and any thoughts, she had about her dad feeling guilty and hiding something from her was gone. This was the demon that raised her. This was the person, who taught her to be the girl she was now and this was the demon that never lied to her. Yet, she couldn't help but feel that he was lying to her about this. Lying about that he wasn't going to ever leave her but it must be her imagining.

Her father wouldn't leave her in this big ugly world.

As she closed her eyes and let sleep took over, she swore that she heard her father looking sad at her and whispered quietly into her ear. "I'm sorry, Naru about what I've done and what I would soon do to you. Just know that what I did to you, isn't by choice."

She wanted to ask him why he was sorry and what he was going to do that would make him say this but she was too exhausted from his training to ask. They had spent the entire morning and afternoon training, only taking rest whenever the two of them were starving. She couldn't ask him because her voice was hoarse, and she felt that her bones were heavy from sheer exhaustion.

She could just ask him at a later time.

She would ask him tomorrow about why he apologized to her and what he was about to do to her. He shouldn't apologize to her about his future actions to her. She knew that whatever he did was for a good reason. Everything he did was for a good reason. He had done everything for her, gave her food, taught her magic and protected her. If anything, she should be apologizing to him about how much of a burden she was to him. If he hadn't had to raise her, then maybe he would be closer to his siblings and he wouldn't have to hide her from them. It was her fault that he was so lonely and she would apologize it to him tomorrow.

Yes, tomorrow she would apologize to him.

* * *

When Naru woke up the next morning, she immediately noticed that something was wrong. It wasn't the lack of her father's body beside her that told her something was wrong. She was used to that. No, it was the fact that she didn't wake up to sound. To be more specific, she hadn't been woken up by Kurama's voice. The King of all Demons always woke her up from her sleep, telling her that she needed to train her magic. But today, he hadn't woken her up. Why? Why didn't he wake her up? What was happening? Did something bad happen? Had Kurama been killed by someone?

Naru shook her head at this thought and chastised herself for thinking such stupid thoughts. Kurama was the king of all demons, and that meant he was a very strong demon. He was strong enough to cause a Tsunami. He was also definitely strong enough to destroy an entire country. No, maybe she was wrong about something happening to Kurama. Nothing can happen to Kurama! He was the strongest, shrewdest, careful demon she knew. He wouldn't ever let himself get hurt or capture because, no one was capable of doing it.

So where was Kurama?

She flickered her eyes around the cave, hoping and praying that she could find some clues on the whereabouts of her adoptive father. The piles of fur were still there, her bow and arrows were still in the floor like she had left them, and there were a couple of jewels beside them, including a necklace…wait a second, there were jewels and a necklace! But the jewels and necklace were supposed to be in her father's secret stash! Naru frowned. Why was it here? Hesitantly, she walked towards the jewels and stared at them, debating on whether or not this was a trap.

Kurama had always warned her that if she touched any of his jewels without his permission, then he would murder her, student or not. But it was so tempting to touch them, especially since the jewels were all so brightly colored and shiny but she didn't dare touch them. It wasn't because she respected Kurama or anything, but because she knew that it wasn't hers. Kurama had taught her that she could borrow and not return it, but she couldn't outright steal it.

To her, it meant the same damn thing! And she wasn't going to fall for her father's trick.

"Tou-san, I'm not falling for that trick!" Naru yelled, looking wildly for any signs of her father. "I'm not taking your damn jewels or necklace! I'm better than that and you know it! So tell me where the hell are you? And what is the plan for today?"

Normally, her swearing would get a response from her father but this time, there weren't any response from him. The only sound she could hear was her own echo. Naru frowned and snatched her bow and arrow. Maybe Kurama was in the forest, fixing the damages that she had made from yesterday. Or hunting a couple of rabbits! That could explain why he hadn't answer her! But somewhere in the back of her mind, doubts began to form. Kurama could hear her voice from miles away. He always said that her voice was so loud that it could even woke up his youngest brother, who apparently slept like a log. Yet, he wasn't responding to her calls. It was almost like he couldn't hear them, but that couldn't be true!

It just couldn't, because if it was then that would mean that he was gone. And he couldn't be gone since he would tell her if he was leaving her, wouldn't he? She took a huge whiff of the cave, before dropping her weapon and falling down to the ground on her knees and had tears streaming down her face.

This couldn't be happening. This seriously couldn't be happening to her.

Her father had left her in the middle of the night by the smell of his scent. She didn't know when but she could guess from the scent that he had left, an hour or two after she fell asleep. He left just as soon as she fell asleep. Just as soon as he was certain that she wasn't fake sleeping again! Damn it, why would he do that? Why would he do this to her? Didn't he know that she needed him?

He knew that today of all days wasn't going to be the nicest day to her. He knew that today was the day where their whole lives had changed. Today was the day; she lost her parents and gained a new one. Today was the day she had been taken in by Kurama. Today was her birthday. She was thirteen years old today, and she had no one to celebrate with. Today, she had lost the most important person in her life.

It was finally official, she was now an orphan. She was someone that didn't have anyone important in her life anymore. She had lost her biological parents thirteen years ago. She lost her best friend and his family nearly five years ago, and now she lost the only family member she knew: Kurama. He was the one person, she expected to never leave her and yet he left her. He wasn't any better than any of the humans that he described. He had left her alone with no explanation, with no reason. She gritted her teeth at this thought.

She hated Kurama for doing this, despised him for leaving her alone with no reason.

Naru sighed and stared at the cave, curling her lips as she decided about what she was going to do now. She had no reason to stay here. She wasn't going to stay here in hopes that Kurama would come back, or go search for him. That was stupid thing to do, since she already knew the truth. She didn't have to search for Kurama to know that he was gone, that he wasn't coming back. The fact that his scent was fading was proof enough, the fact that he left a couple of jewels beside her bow and arrow told her everything she needed to confirm. He had left her, and he expected her to leave the mountain and begin journeying. To begin her hunt for the man that had murdered his parents and the man who created the demon that murdered her friend and his family.

She curled her hair around her finger and scowled. Was her father mad? Did he honestly think that she was strong enough to defeat Zeref? That was the most powerful dark mage that the human world had ever seen. He was powerful enough to kill two very strong demons, and her father expected her to start defeating him.

How could she defeat the most powerful mage in the world? She wasn't strong enough and she certainly had no experience in fighting guys like Zeref. She had no experience of fighting human monsters! And he of all people expected her to defeat him. But she didn't have any experience! He said that with her current strength that she couldn't defeat Zeref. She just wasn't ready for it!

She slammed her fist against the cave wall. The ground rumbled and a hole had been formed from where she had slammed her fist against the wall. This wasn't going to be easy! This was definitely not going to be easy! She can't defeat Zeref just yet. Not at her current strength. And she definitely can't defeat him without her father's guidance. Why did he have to leave her now? Why not when she was older or when she was ready? Was she even ready for this? Was she even ready to leave this mountain for good and start travelling the world?

She didn't even know the answer for that.

Naru stared at the bow and arrows and then at the jewels, frowning at the sight of them. Her father had left her the jewels and the necklace because he expected her to leave this place as soon as she had realized that he was gone. He expected her to use them wisely, expected her to start on her search of Zeref. Naru ran her hand through her hair at this thought, and pondered over seriously about doing that. Does she really go start searching for the strongest mage in the world? He could kill her at the current state she was in, and the last thing she wanted was to die.

Maybe, she should wait a couple of years before starting this fruitless search.

Memories flashed through her mind. Memories of Gray laughing with her, memories of Misaki teaching her how to do her hair and to cook her favorite food flashed through her mind. Memories of Gray's Dad ruffling her hair and teaching her and Gray about how to wield a sword also rushed through her mind, but what really drove her through the edge weren't those memories. The one that drove her through the edge was the memory of the village being destroyed. The memory of seeing those blocks of stone made her angry. The memory of Deliora attacking the village made her blood boiled and the urge to murder someone was strong whenever she remembered that night.

She wanted to murder Zeref, to revenge her father's parents and her friend and his family but she couldn't do it now. Zeref was way out of her league; it was a fact that she knew and it was a fact that she must changed. She would need to find ways to become stronger. Find ways in getting information on where Zeref may be, learn everything about him as well. She only knew as much as her father did, and that may be a lot but she didn't know what happened after the murder of Kurama's parents. Not because, Kurama wasn't willing to tell her but because, what her father did know after that fateful night, was based on rumors.

Kurama told her that she must never believe rumors until she saw it with her own eyes. He said that a foolish person would believe in rumors, and no demonslayer was foolish. No, she needed to learn about what he did after. She would need to trace his steps, if she ever wanted to learn about what he did. The question now, was how? How does one trace back his steps? The first place to go was the library, but the nearest library may be miles away and she didn't have time. Kurama would be pissed if she doesn't…

Oh, yeah, Kurama was gone and she was all-alone now. She could do whatever she wants now because he no longer had any control over her. It should make her happy to know this. She had always complained about how controlling he was, but to be honest all she felt was a gut-wrenching ache in her heart. It felt like nothing she would do, would ever heal the ache in her heart but she had to pull through this. Kurama would be furious with her if he knew that she was acting like a weakling.

A demonslayer mustn't act weak, mustn't show any weakness but there was no one here. No one to put on an act for and to be honest, she was tired of this stupid emotionless mask. She couldn't be emotionless. Definitely not in the past, and definitely not now when the only member of her family had practically abandoned her.

Which reminded her, what was she going to do with Kurama? Should she search for him or start on her search for Zeref? She wanted answers on why he left her in the middle of the night. Wanted to know why he hadn't given her any clues about him leaving her. But that could wait. That definitely could wait, because murdering Zeref was more important than anything else. The man had to pay for what he did to Kurama! To her! If it weren't for him then maybe she would have her best-friend and his family! Maybe, she would even have her own family! But she should also search for Kurama. After all, he was the demon that raised her, that took her in despite knowing that she might end up becoming the very thing he hated. Could she really abandon him on her search for Zeref?

She closed her eyes and made her decision.

Her father could wait, Zeref couldn't. She would murder the man, make him pay for every crime that he had done and reversed the process of his immortality if she could. She would destroy everything that Zeref had created.

She grinned wickedly at this thought.

Yes, what a better punishment to him then destroying everything he worked so hard to get. She had lost almost everything because of Zeref, so it was only befitting that Zeref lost everything that was precious to him. Besides, he was evil and vile. He had thrown nature at unbalance, so it's only fair that he had his punishment.

And she would be the one to punish him for his crimes.

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**Replies to reviews:**

**Guest:** Well, we'll just have to wait and see.

**LoloLovesAnime: **It's nice to hear that you love all three of my stories and it would be a while before Naru meets Gray. I hoped that you love this chapter.

**BalancedHex1232:** I'm happy to know that you thought the last chapter was awesome and that you thought Naru's reaction to the attack and it's aftermath was sad and interesting, I was hoping that I would get that affect. As for Naru's reaction, well you just have to wait and see.

**Pain4ever:** I'm happy to know that you thought I did great in portraying her conflict on her feelings, because I was hoping to get that affect. Yes, the last chapter was the start of where Naru's feelings developing to a different level and there would be more of that in the next chapter. As for Gray current thoughts on Naru's whereabouts, well you would find out the answer when the two of them meet again. This chapter would answer your question about Kurama leaving his student. It's good to know that you like the conclusion for the last chapter.

**Tukiko:** I would think about using the jinchuuriki transformation as demon mode as well as sage mode.

**Sharkdude5: **It's nice to know that you thought that it was a great chapter.

**Jirouto:** I'm happy to know that you thought that this was such a good story and I'm sorry if you cried writing this chapter, but it was really hard to control myself even when I wrote the chapter.

**Headboy419:** I think this chapter would answer your question about a time skip.

**Itachisgurl93:** Yes, Naru would have to keep living for herself and 'dead' Gray.

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**Thank you for reading!**

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**I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter.**


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Fairy Tail, Naruto, Adventure, Romance