Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
October 13, x788.
"What are you thinking, Sasuke?" Rika asked with a smirk playing on her lips while watching Sasuke gape at the towering tower that served as the Fairy Tail guild hall.
Currently, the group who returned from the Village Hidden in the Leaves was standing outside the entrance of the guild hall. And like so many before him, Sasuke was dumbfounded at the sight of the metal tower that Alfonzo designed back when Phantom Lord, more specifically Gajeel, destroyed the original guild hall.
Pairing that with the long trip from the village, his surprise was more than expected. On top of that, seeing the metallic surface of the tower shining under the light of the moon and stars made the guild hall look quite mystifying.
"It's…" Sasuke muttered.
Seeing Sasuke was searching for the right words to describe the sight in front of him, Rika's smirk widened. Like Cana, she also enjoyed Alfonzo's juvenile sense of humor. So, she was hoping that Sasuke would say what just about everyone else said the first time they saw the guild hall.
Unfortunately, Naruto and Jiraiya did not come with them when they left. Jiraiya had not made all his preparations yet. Otherwise, there would have been three new members of Fairy Tail today, instead of just one. On top of that, Rika knew she definitely would not have to wait so long for the words she was looking forward to, as Naruto would have said them immediately.
"It's huge…" Sasuke continued. "Very large and imposing."
"That's what she said." Alfonzo said as soon as Sasuke's words ended.
Sasuke immediately snapped out of his revelry and snapped his head in Alfonzo's direction with a scowl on his face. In response, Alfonzo only shrugged with an uncaring expression on his.
"You already know you have to choose your words carefully around me." Alfonzo said in reply to Sasuke's glare. "It's not like this is the first time you've heard me say something like that, after all."
"Pfft!" Rika snorted while covering her mouth with her hands to stifle her laughter.
Sasuke's head immediately snapped in Rika's direction after hearing her. He had just remembered that Rika was the one who asked him to put his thoughts into words. And that was what led to Alfonzo having the chance to make his extremely juvenile joke.
"Hahahaha!" Rika laughed uproariously after seeing Sasuke's face. "Don't' look at me like that, Sasuke. I asked you what you were thinking. I didn't tell you what to say."
Sasuke turned his head away after hearing Rika's response to his anger. And although he knew what she said was correct, that did not mean that he accepted it.
"Anyway, let's go inside." Alfonzo said while shaking his head. "You need to see Ur, Sasuke. She'll have to add you to the guild's roster and give you your guild hall permissions.
Nodding in response, Sasuke walked behind Alfonzo as he approached the sliding doors. Naturally, Laki, Wendy, Carla, Saeko, Rika, Shizuka, and Miyuki followed them shortly afterwards. And as soon as the guild hall's doors opened, the group saw exactly what they were expecting to see.
"*Sigh* Brawls like this really make me feel like I've come home." Saeko said with a smile.
After speaking, Saeko [Requipped] a wooden training sword into her hands. Then, without another word, she dashed into the guild hall to get her fill of controlled violence. Meanwhile, everyone else walked in calmly, their feelings mirroring Saeko's. Though, they were not as drawn to committing acts of violence.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, who had never visited the Fairy Tail guild, despite coming to visit Magnolia in August for Amar'e's birthday, was dumbfounded once again. Although he had heard stories from the Fairy Tail wizards, it was still surprising to see so many people fighting like this in person.
"Remember, if you don't intend on getting involved in these brawls, you need to keep your head on a swivel." Alfonzo said as he deftly avoided the ongoing fight. "for now, I'll take you up to see Ur so she can register you."
"O-Okay." Sasuke replied while looking around.
"Something feels off, doesn't it?" Rika asked while tilting her head from side to side in thought.
"What do you mean, Rika?" Shizuka asked in a curious tone. "There's a fight going on in the guild, what could be wrong?"
"Lici hasn't thrown herself at Alfonzo yet." Rika said while cupping her chin with a contemplative expression on her face. "Plus, I can't hear Natsu shouting, either."
"Oh, now that you mention it…" Shizuka muttered. "I don't hear him, either."
"As for Lici, she's on a quest right now." Alfonzo added. "She should be back the morning of the Harvest Festival, though."
"Oh, okay." Rika replied with a nod.
"And Natsu's probably at home with Lisanna." Alfonzo continued.
Hearing that, everyone's eyes lit up with understanding.
At the end of last month, on September 28, Lisanna gave birth to a beautiful little girl with pink hair and blue eyes the couple named Miyako Dragneel. And being half Etherious, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Irene expected her to be quite strong when she grew up.
With that realization, the ladies started chatting about how cute Miyako was while heading to their usual table. Meanwhile, Alfonzo took Sasuke towards the elevator so they could head up to Ur's office. However, before they could step inside the elevator, they were stopped.
"Alfonzo, you're back." Little Elicia, Maes and Gracia Hughes' daughter, said in a shy tone. "Did you finish your work at the Village Hidden in the Leaves?"
Hearing little Elicia's voice, Alfonzo turned around with a smile on his face. And when he saw the blush on her face, his smile widened.
Currently, little Elicia was blushing furiously while trying to be discreet as she stole glances at Sasuke. However, she was doing a poor job of that.
'Oh, this is gonna be fun.' Alfonzo thought to himself as his eyes flicked towards the bar where Maes was sitting with Gildarts and Gozaburo.
On top of that, Maes was slowly reaching into his jacket where his magic pistol was holstered while glaring at Sasuke with killing intent.
To make the situation even more complicated, Romeo was approaching little Elicia from behind with an apprehensive expression on his face. He had seen the moment when Elicia caught sight of Sasuke. And when he saw her cheeks flush, although he was unsure of why, it made him uneasy.
"That's right." Alfonzo replied with a nod.
"That's good." Little Elicia said while lowering her head. "By the way, who is this?"
It was obvious little Elicia was referring to Sasuke with her question. Sasuke, on the other hand, was standing next to Alfonzo with an impassive expression on his face.
'I almost forgot how early the girls in this world mature.' Alfonzo thought while watching little Elicia. 'Cana's crush on me started pretty early, too. Looks like Romeo is gonna have some stressful days in the future. At least this is probably just a passing infatuation for her.'
"Oh, this is Sasuke Uchiha, a Chunin from the Village hidden in the Leaves." Alfonzo said while placing his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Basically, he's equivalent to a C-Class wizard in the guilds. But he'll probably go up to B-Class by the end of the year."
Hearing that, both Romeo and little Elicia's eyes widened. They were not even old enough to start taking D-Class quests yet. Yet, a boy who was only a couple of years older than them was already C-Class.
"And Sasuke, these two are Romeo Conbolt and Elicia Hughes." Alfonzo said, introducing the two youngest members of Fairy Tail to Sasuke. "They're a few years younger than you, but don't let that fool you. They're both quite talented."
In response, Sasuke only nodded his head without a word. He was not interested in making friends, after all. In fact, the only reason he accepted coming to Magnolia to train was so that he could get strong enough to take revenge on the one who destroyed his clan, his brother, Itachi Uchiha.
"It's… nice to meet you." Little Elicia said shyly.
"Yeah, nice to meet you." Romeo replied with a hint of jealousy in his tone.
"*Sigh* It's nice to meet you, too." Sasuke said in a disinterested tone. Then, he turned to look at Alfonzo. "Can we get going already? I wanna get registered with the guild soon. Then, I wanna get some rest. That trip was pretty long."
Smiling wryly, Alfonzo nodded his head.
"Alright you two, I'll talk to you later." Alfonzo said. "As Sasuke said, I need to take him to see Ur."
"Oh, okay." Little Elicia said with disappointment in her tone.
"Tell us about your time away from the guild when you get back, okay?" Romeo said as he grabbed little Elicia's hand defensively.
At that moment, Alfonzo smiled, though it was not because of the way Romeo was acting. Rather, it was because of the way Maes' killing intent shifted from Sasuke to Romeo when Romeo took his daughter by the hand.
"Sure." Alfonzo replied, his smile widening once again when he saw Gracia holding a serving platter up behind Maies, before he and Sasuke turned around to enter the elevator.
*Bang!*
And just at that moment, Gracia, who had been working as a waitress in the guild hall ever since they came here from Crocus, hit Maes in the back of his head with the patter she had just been using to carry the order Gozaburo had just received.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.
October 14, x788.
The next day, at about 2 a.m., Naruto and Jiraiya were in Shirotsume Town. Having left the Village Hidden in the Leaves in the afternoon the day before, they made their way to Karakura Town on foot, arriving just before nightfall. Then, they immediately took a train to Shirotsume Town.
Arriving in Shirotsume just after midnight, they left the train station to find accommodations. Then, as soon as they did, Jiraiya left Naruto alone in the hotel, claiming that he had business to attend to in the town. However, Naruto had correctly assumed that he was only going out to be the Pervy Sage that he was.
Still, since Naruto wanted to be well rested for the rest of the trip to Magnolia, he did not protest, intending to get some sleep so that they could catch the train as early as possible once the sun came up.
"I just hope the Pervy Sage doesn't take too long and make us leave too late." Naruto said while lounging on his bed in the hotel room. "I wanna be able to enjoy the Harvest Festival tomorrow."
["Unfortunately, I don't think things will go the way you want them to, Naruto."] Kurama said from Naruto's mindscape.
"What do you mean, Kurama?" Naruto asked as his brows furrowed into a frown. "You think the Pervy Sage is gonna forget what we're here for?"
["Probably not."] Kurama replied. ["Rather, the two sources of hostility I'm sensing in the hallway are what I'm worried about."]
Hearing that, Naruto's eyes narrowed, as he went on high alert.
"Are they strong?" Naruto asked in a solemn tone.
["Very."] Kurama replied. ["If that pervert were here, it wouldn't be an issue. But even if I gave you as much of my magic power as you could handle, I doubt you could handle even one of them."]
"*Sigh* Of course they would show up when the Pervy Sage was gone.' Naruto said in an exasperated tone. "Well, I should at least set up some traps before they get here. And if worse comes to worst, I gave one of my Kunai to the Pervy Sage before he… left…"
Naruto's words trailed off at the end of his sentence when he sat up and looked towards his luggage. And the reason was simple. The kunai he just mentioned, a three pronged kunai with a [Seal] engraved into its handle, was lying on the dresser next to his and Jiraiya's luggage.
"Just great." Naruto said in atone filled with lament. "He left it here. Now, I can't even teleport to the Pervy sage if things get really bad."
["*Sigh* Despite his proclivities, he's usually rather reliable."] Kurama said exasperatedly. ["But when he starts thinking with the head between his legs, all that goes out the window."]
"We can talk about that later." Naruto said as he hopped out of the bed, ran over to his luggage, and rummaged through his bag before running over to the door and setting up as many traps as he had the materials for. "for now, we have to get out of this situation. Besides, By the way, why are people coming after me in the first place."
["Who knows."] Kurama replied. ["But like you said, worry about getting out of this first. You can think about that later."]
*Knock!* *Knock!*
Not long later, after Naruto got a few traps set up, the sound of someone knocking on the door could be heard. And although he was not able to set up as many traps as he would have liked, the few he did would have to do. So, he stepped away from the door, pulled out a few of his special three-pronged kunai from his weapon holster, and formed a [Rasengan] in his right hand.
"Who is it?" Naruto asked loud enough for his voice to be heard through the door.
"Who we are doesn't matter." An emotionless, male voice replied from the other side of the door. "All you need to know is that we've come for you, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Yeah, that's right." A second male voice, this one sounding much more frivolous, added. "So, just open the door and come with us. Because there's no way you're getting away from us."
"They really are here for me." Naruto grumbled as he tossed one of the kunai in his left hand out an open window, lodging its blade into the roof of a nearby building. Then, he raised his voice once again. "The door's open. Come in yourselves."
Then, without hesitation, the door was opened, revealing the two men who had been speaking from the other side of the door.