A/N: Hey everybody, SilentFang here droppin a new story on you all! Don't worry, I'm not replacing "The Behemoth" or anything, I just wanted to get this out of my head. It just popped in when I was dragged on an unexpected road trip down to Florida with a few friends of mine for a week (which is why it's been taking me so long to update lol) and I wanted to get this hashed out before I go back to work on that. I'll probably only update this once every two or three chapters of "The Behemoth" is released.

Anyway, The pairing for this is a small harem. The amount of girls and who are in it is secret for now and most of the relationships might take a while to develop, just a warning.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Fairy Tail, or any other series mentioned in this story.

X775

"Oi, sensei, I'm here for today's lesson!" A small boy of about eight yelled as he ran up to an absolutely titanic bonfire that was located several miles away from a large village. He was a little short for his age, had blonde hair with blue eyes, tanned skin, and sharp triangular shark-like teeth with slightly thinner, longer canines. The boy was wearing a baggy dark red shirt with the sleeves being long enough to cover half of his hands and went down to his knees showing that it was too big for him, black cargo shorts that went to just below his knees, wooden geta sandals, and a long slightly feminine looking black scarf that dragged on the ground wrapped around his neck. "Come on; stop being so lazy you damn crispy lizard! Don't make me start eating you again! You know I will!"

The gigantic ball of fire that the boy was yelling at seemed to shift a bit before completely standing up, showing that it was in fact a living creature. It was over 100 feet tall and had four stubby limbs complete with claws, giant wings coming out of its back, sharp triangular fangs like the small child in front of it, empty eye sockets and two horns on its head. Overall, it looked like a giant flaming animal skeleton… but in truth it was the great dragon Atlas Flame, or Atlas for short.

"Alright, I'm up Naruto. Calm down so we can begin." The dragon chuckled at the now named Naruto who was bouncing in excitement.

"Okay sensei. I'm just excited since I mastered the last technique you showed me while I was training last night! See, check it out!" He turned away from his dragon master and held both of his hands out. They turned a bright green as small orbs of the same color lazily floated out of them. "Honoryu no Hotarubi (Blaze Dragon's Firefly Light)!" he waited for the orbs to get a fair distance away before the green light in his hands turned into a soft orange color. "Honoryu no Hidaruma (Blaze Dragon's Fiery Doll)!" every ball suddenly glowed an angry orange before simultaneously exploding in a huge burst of flame. He turned back to his master with a face-splitting grin. "How was that? Pretty awesome, right?"

The dragon watched with a critical eye. "Indeed, that was very well done. You are coming along just fine in your dragon slayer arts Naruto." In truth, the burning dragon was floored. Ever since the amnesiac Naruto had first wandered into the clearing Atlas Flame lived in two years ago, bloodied and barely dragging along the dead body of what was assumed to be his mother, the dragon had felt that he was something special.

Naruto's magical reserves had been enormous for a child his age, and his physical capabilities were abnormal as well. He decided to teach him Dragon Slayer magic since he knew that his old friend and fellow fire dragon Igneel along with a few other dragons around the world were teaching children their magic as well… but the blonde has surpassed all expectations.

Naruto was nothing short of a prodigy. He had learned and mastered the basic Roar, Fist, Claws, and Wing attacks that every dragon slayer knew within a few days of seeing them. Atlas Flame was sure that his student was well ahead of any other dragon slayer child out there. At this point, he was sure that his student could beat any low B-class mage at this age. He couldn't have asked for a better student.

There was a very strong latent energy source inside of him as well, Atlas could sense it. It was darker than eternano and didn't feel completely human— and if the dragon was being completely realistic, neither did Naruto— but that didn't stop him from teaching the blond child. Whatever the energy was, it wasn't magic… or at least it didn't work like magic since he couldn't get Naruto to access it like one would their magic container. It was already confirmed that the boy inherited it from him mother, since when the blue eyed boy first arrived, Atlas could feel corpse giving off the same energy only much stronger, so it couldn't be too bad… and since it didn't interfere with his magical studies, the dragon put it in the back of his mind as something to investigate later.

Looking at his student the dragon cleared his throat before explaining the next move to his student "The next technique I will be teaching you is the Honoryu no Taika (Blaze Dragon's Conflagration). Watch closely Naruto…"

"Wait sensei, before we start," The child interrupted "I want to ask you a question that I've been thinking about for a while."

Stopping his demonstration, the flaming lizard looked at his student. "Yes? What is it?"

"Well, why are you called the Blaze dragon instead of the Fire dragon? Wouldn't it make more sense? Does that mean that there are other fire dragons out there?" he asked with a tilt of his head. The inquiry caused the dragon to pause for a moment. He didn't think his student would pick up on that.

"Indeed" Atlas nodded "There are in fact other fire dragons in the world. The reason why I am called the "Blaze Dragon" is because there is one who defeated me in battle. You see Naruto, there is more than one dragon that corresponds to each element, but the only one who has the right to use the element's actual name is the strongest of that element. Every other dragon of that element must use alternatives."

Pausing to see if the blonde understood, he continued his explanation "For example, I know of four dragons alive today who use the water element; Oceanus, Triton, Leviathan, and Watatsumi. Since Leviathan is the strongest of them, only she has the right to use the title "Water Dragon" in her attacks, while Oceanus, Triton, and Watatsumi must use "Sea Dragon", "Rain Dragon", and "Tidal Dragon" respectively."

"Oh, I see… So what's the name of the current Fire Dragon then?"

"His name is Igneel. We fought each other for the title when the previous Fire Dragon, Xiuhcoatl died many centuries ago. I remember that in the times before Lord Xiuhcoatl's death, Igneel was called the Inferno Dragon. Every dragon wielding the fire element— there were seven of us at the time— was called forth at once to take place in a battle royale to decide who would take the previous Flame Dragon's place. Eventually it was only Igneel and I left on the battlefield."

"Although he and I are equals in raw strength, I have more magical energy than him and more variety in my attacks, since he always preferred brute strength while I prefer finesse and technique… but to us Fire dragons that means nothing since we can eat each other's flames. Since we could not use our magic and our physical capabilities were evenly matched, our battle eventually became one of attrition."

Listening attentively, Naruto felt the need to ask "So, how did you lose? If you were even wouldn't the fight have been a draw?" he tilted his head to the side. If magic wasn't an option and they were the same in pure stats, how did his sensei lose? At the very least he should have been able to pull off a draw.

Nodding, Atlas flame responded "Normally yes, but remember Naruto, my body is mostly made out of inextinguishable fire. Whenever Igneel's stamina was low or he got too injured, he would eat the fire my body constantly produces to heal himself… quite an easy feat since we were locked in close combat. Eventually after many days of fighting I ran out of stamina and my body gave out from exhaustion, Igneel was the victor since he could constantly refuel when he got tired. Due to my loss, Igneel was crowed the new Fire Dragon, while I retained my title as the Blaze Dragon."

Naruto nodded while rubbed his chin in thought. "Does Igneel have a dragon slayer child too?" the child asked.

"Yes… yes he does… the child's name is Natsu Dragneel…" Atlas drifted off at the end of his sentence. Now Naruto was mildly confused. He could understand knowing that Igneel had a child, but how did his sensei know that child's name? And why was it spoken so warmly and with such… nostalgia? Filing that line of questioning away for later, Naruto grinned widely and punched his fists together while igniting them with his bright orange flames.

"Alright… I have the names of my two targets!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Targets?" The flaming dragon looked at his student in confusion.

"Yeah!" the kid shouted with a face splitting grin "I'm going to beat the crap out of this Natsu guy and his dragon Igneel! Then I'll show everybody that you're the best fire dragon in the world! After all, if your student could beat up the current Fire Dragon and his student, wouldn't that mean that you're better than him?"

Atlas Flame stared at his student for a long while before bursting out into laughter. Naruto could be pretty damn interesting when he wanted to be… not everybody had the balls to outright say they were going to defeat Igneel, and even fewer could pull it off, especially if they were human. But despite the admittedly shaky logic, he could see determination in those cerulean eyes. "Come; let's get started on today's training. If you're really set on fighting Igneel then you're going to need to learn all you can." He turned and started to walk away with is student following, cheering and raving about how he was going to kick Igneel's ass.

The flaming dragon tilted his head to the side slightly so he could observe Naruto discreetly. 'Show everybody that I'm the best fire dragon in the world huh…? The sentiment is much appreciated Naruto, but I'm already…' Shaking his head and refocusing on reality before he could complete his thoughts, the dragon focused on teaching his overly excited student.

X779

A now twelve year old Naruto was walking down the streets of the Sun Village with a small red haired girl next to him. The village itself was humongous; everything in it was several hundred times bigger than anything a human could use. It made sense seeing as the normal inhabitants were giants. Naruto himself was one of only two normal humans that lived there. The other was his best friend Flare Corona, the girl he was walking with, who was two years younger than him.

Flare was wearing a simple dark red dress that went down to her small calves. She was pale and scrawny for her age, but not enough to seem unhealthy. Her dull maroon hair was tied in a single braid that was at mid-back length. She had dull brown eyes with bags under them and walked with her head constantly tilted to the side and a nervous look on her face. She clutched a small plushie that looked like Naruto in one hand, and the real Naruto's arm in the other.

"W-what does the Eternal Flame want with me?" She asked with a small stutter as she gripped her friend's arm tighter. Flare had been abandoned in the forest near Atlas by her abusive father three years ago, so she always had a hard time conversing with people. Even Naruto, the person she trusted most could barely get her to relax. She was kind of… obsessed with him though, seeing as he was the only person she knew who ever treated her with kindness. Well, that wasn't exactly true, the giants in the village were all very kind despite their stature, but it was hard for a little girl to be friends with someone three times her age and over 100 times her size; especially one with severe anxiety and sociophobia like Flare.

"Eh, I don't know. He just asked for you." The blonde responded. Over the years he had grown a bit, now at the height of 5'3" and had very well developed muscles for someone his age. He had progressed greatly in his magical and physical studies, and was sure that while he couldn't outright beat one, he could at least hold off an adult S-class mage.

Naruto was still wearing the outfit he did as a child, the only difference being that the scarf dangled near his ankles now instead of dragging along the ground and the shirt looked like it actually fit him now, although it was still pretty baggy.

About 3 years ago a little before Flare arrived, Atlas Flame had started losing energy. He couldn't move around as much and the lessons started getting more and more infrequent as the dragon's mobility dropped until he eventually stopped moving altogether to save energy. The lessons stopped until about once or twice a week during this time, and on July 7, X777 they stopped. Atlas told him it wasn't due to his mobility, but that it was an important date for dragons and left it at that. He then decided to stay in his giant bonfire disguise and watch over the village.

When Naruto asked what was happening, he was told not to worry about it, but of course, he still did. Atlas also requested that Naruto not tell anybody in the Sun Village about him being a dragon, and to refer to him at the Eternal Flame when around the villagers and that his magic was the result of being blessed.

Once again he was given no explanation as to why, and it pissed him off.

Arriving to the sight of the disguised Atlas Flame, Naruto separated himself from Flare before walking a few feet forward and calling out "Oi I brought Flare-chan like you wanted!" he called out.

"Yes, indeed you did." The giant fireball responded "Flare Corona, please step forward."

The trembling redhead did as asked, moving closer until she was partially hiding herself behind Naruto. "Y-y-yes, w-what do you n-need of m-m-me Eternal F-Flame-s-sama?" the shy girl asked with an extremely prominent stutter. She hated talking to new people… well, the Eternal Flame wasn't exactly a person but you get the point.

"Ever since you were discovered and rescued by Naruto, I could tell you had more magical potential than most children your age. Not as much as Naruto when he was your age, but still a large amount. I understand that you already know the basics of Hair Magic, correct?" Upon seeing her shaky nod, he continued "It would be a waste for such an ability to waste away in the mundane… and so, I shall bless your hair with my flames. Use them well."

Before the redhead could register what she was told, an enormous ball of flame shot up high into the sky before dropping and landing directly on her, engulfing her in a brilliant orange glow. She started to writhe and scream in fear, but a hand placed on her shoulder stopped her. Looking over, she could see Naruto holding her shoulder comfortingly with a small smile on his face.

"It's okay Flare-chan… just relax, the fire won't hurt you at all. Just accept it and it'll be over in a few seconds alright?"

Nodding at her friends' advice, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As soon as she calmed down, the inferno surrounding her body condensed into an orange glow before disappearing in a flash of orange light and small embers. When the light died down, Naruto could see the changes his sensei's blessing had left on her. Her once pale skin had regained a bit of color and was now a soft peach. Her brown eyes had changed to a bright red and her dark maroon hair had lightened to a vibrant crimson.

'W-wow' Flare thought as she focused on her magical energy 'Is this what a blessing from the Eternal Flame feels like…?' She could feel how much larger her magic container had gotten, and she could feel the power coursing through her veins. 'Is this how Naruto feels all the time?' she asked herself as she glanced at her only friend. She blushed a bit when she saw that he was staring at her with great intensity.

Little did she know, Naruto wasn't staring at her, but her now bright red hair. The color was the exact same as that woman… the last time he had seen such a wonderful shade of red was when Atlas Flame helped him bury the body of who he assumed was his mother. Unbidden by him, memories that weren't his own seemed to invade his mind. A searing pain seemed to slam into his skull out of nowhere, before it became too much… and he blacked out.

When he opened his eyes, he found that was walking through a room he had never seen before. It was dimly lit with torches along the walls and was filled with large cylindrical glass tanks that all had a luminescent green liquid in them. On the top of each tank was a long, almost organic looking pillar made from dull brown stone that stretched high up and connected to the ceiling.

He eventually stopped in front of one of the tanks and observed the person inside. It held the form of a sleeping woman with an attractive face, long black hair, and two large golden horns that pointed upwards slightly protruding from the sides of her head. He could see that she was missing more than half of her body, with only her head, upper torso, and left arm being visible. The rest was being slowly "grown" in the tank for lack of a better word.

He could see his reflection of the glass, except it was not his preteen body looking back at him, but the image of his possible mother. She had long mid-thigh length vibrant red hair and slightly glowing venomous green eyes with slit pupils. She was wearing a black knee length cheongsam with dark red accents and a chain design going around the waist in the same color and an ouroboros symbol over the left breast. Covering her lower body were red Chinese martial arts pants that were slightly baggy and dragged along the ground behind her heels which were covered in black slip on shoes. The scarf that Naruto always wore was wrapped loosely around her neck and went to right below her butt. On her back was a large claymore sword and he could see she was carrying a small silver haired baby in her hands.

"Observing Sayla again I see…" He heard another voice approach from his left "You always do this for a few hours every day. Why is that?" Turning, he could see another woman approaching him with a small smirk on her face.

The woman was a bit shorter than the red haired woman, but had much larger breasts and a curvier figure. She was wearing a royal blue leotard with golden accents on the top that accentuated the generous amount of cleavage she was showing. Covering her arms, neck, and shoulders was a striped purple jacket, and she had a cape that split into four tails going down her back. Her face was covered with a silver helmet that had a large black gem on the forehead and exposed her onyx eyes and mouth that had black lipstick on her full lips. There were two long wing like pieces of dark green hair on both sides of her head, coming out of an opening in her helmet.

There were two things about this woman that told him she was anything but normal. The first was that she had scaly claws in place of normal hands and bird-like feet complete with razor sharp talons. The second being the horrible feeling he got from her. The amount of energy this woman was unconsciously releasing in spades... it surpassed anything he had ever felt, even Atlas Flame. And then there was the feel of it. It was just… wrong. Like it shouldn't exist naturally in the world. It was just so thick and evil, completely unlike eternano. And the thing that scared him was that he had felt the same exact energy flowing through him even though he couldn't access it… but what he was feeling from this woman, hers was much darker and felt denser than his.

"Kyouka-sama" The woman whose body he was in nodded respectfully to the now named Kyouka "I just can't help it… she is about the same age as little Kurama-chan here even though the circumstances of their "birth" are different. This is the first time I've seen another one of us being born. Even though Sayla-chan looks older physically, they will be the same age… that means that Sayla-chan and Kurama-chan will most likely start learning to use their curses around the same time when their cores stabilize. I want them to have a bit of familiarity before that time comes… what better time to start than when they're both babies right? Although Sayla-chan is technically still in the womb." He finished with a chuckle.

"I see… that is a good reason" Kyouka nodded as she too stopped to look at Sayla. There was a slight tension between the two of them before she spoke up again. "Kushina… it has already been two months since he was born, and one month since Maou-sama gave the order. We cannot put this off any longer or it will be dangerous for him."

Letting out a shuddering sigh, Kushina looked down at the sleeping baby in her hands before nodding "I-I understand Kyouka-sama… but you can see my reservations with this. He is only two months old… must he really be tuned so early on? I was able to wait at least eight months before I needed it." Kushina finished. She could remember the agony she had been under when her demonic core was tuned… it exceeded any pain she had ever felt. And they wanted to do this on an infant? On her son?! It would kill him!

"Yes, all demons need to have their cores tuned or they become volatile and have a chance of self-destructing. Normally we would wait about five years before starting the process, and start training a little after, but in truth, even you had to be stabilized early. Remember, you were not born a demon Kushina, so your core is more unstable than someone like me who was born from one of Lord Zeref's books."

She looked at the red haired woman before continuing. "You were a dead human brought back to life by Keith's necromancy and transformed into a demon through my power, you were extremely volatile. But the circumstances of his birth" she pointed at the small bundle in Kushina's arms "make the risk of him exploding even more of an issue than you were since the eternano and demonic energy are clashing within him."

Yes… Kushina remembered, she was fatally injured when her town was destroyed by the demon Jackal when he was learning to use his curse. She had already been three months pregnant at that time and was at deaths door… but she was still trying to protect her unborn child. Keith, who had been watching over Jackal at the time, felt her immense magical powers and decided to bring her back to life when she finally died. She was a bit put off to find that she was a corpse, but as long as her baby was okay then she didn't care.

Neither of them expected that the child was going to be a miscarriage and the unborn child inside of her would be revived as well.

When she woke up, she was strapped to a lab table and Kyouka was standing before her, telling her that she was going to be an experiment to see how well a revived person could take being forcefully transformed into a demon. Surprisingly our of 99 other revived corpses, only she took to the transformation effortlessly… and to a lesser extent so did the fetus inside of her.

Her transformation had as side effect that turned her nine month pregnancy into a ten month one, and one month after she gave birth she had to have her demonic core stabilized. They later found out that her son was born as a half-demon instead of a full one due to her previous human physiology, meaning he had both a demonic core and eternano container, and that the two energies were reacting violently towards each other since the demonic core was unstable.

Biting her lip, the green eyed woman looked at her child tearfully before handing him over to Kyouka "Please… take care of Kurama-chan. I don't think I'd be able to take it if he died…"

"Of course Kushina." The clawed woman said as she turned towards her laboratory where the tuning would take place. "I'll take good care of little Kurama. You can come pick him up when it's all over." Kushina turned back to watching Sayla so she could get her mind off the undoubtedly painful process her infant child was bout to go through.

She wouldn't see her son again in over five years.

When Naruto awoke, he found a worried borderline panicking Flare looking down on him as his head rested on her lap. He could feel the worry emanating off of Atlas Flame as well. Sitting up and rubbing his temples with a groan, he looked around and saw that barely any time had passed since his vision started.

"N-Naruto are you okay?" the ten year old girl asked. Standing up, he looked at her and patted her head while giving her a strained smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine… I must have been pushing myself too hard during training again and exhausted myself. Come on, let's go to back to the village." Flare stared at him a bit before giving a hesitant nod and following him back towards the giant village.

'What the hell was that?' Naruto thought as he and Flare walked along the forest path. 'Kushina… that's the woman I was carrying when Atlas Flame-sensei first found me. Why was I seeing her memories? According to that other woman Kyouka, Kushina was a demon so there is no way she could be my mother… right?' thinking back on what he had observed in the vision he frowned a bit 'She did have a son, but his name was Kurama and he looked nothing like me… ugh, this is so confusing…'

Feeling someone grab his hand, he looked down and saw Flare staring at him worriedly again. "Naruto… are you s-sure you're okay? You're being really quiet…"

Pausing to look at her, he gave her a warm smile and intertwined his fingers with hers before pulling the girl into a gentle hug. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired. Thank you for worrying about me Flare-chan." He kissed the top of her head, making the small redhead blush and stutter a bit. As he was enjoying the moment with his best friend, the sunny blond picked up a strange noise coming towards them… it almost sounded like…

"MOVE!" Naruto shouted suddenly as he pushed Flare away from him before jumping backwards. Three spears of pure white ice impaled the ground where they once were. The temperature dropped rapidly and the ground and the surrounding forest were flash frozen by the same white ice that had almost killed him and his companion.

Looking down the path, he could see the silhouette of a man leisurely making its way towards them. Even from this distance, he could feel the monstrous amount magical energy that the man had. It wasn't as large as that demon woman Kyouka from Kushina's memories, but it was damn close… about as large as Atlas Flame's reserves from a few years ago.

"Oh, you dodged it… not bad." The man said as he stopped a few yards from him and Flare. "I honestly thought you wouldn't have survived that." He finished with a lazy drawl.

The man in front of him was tall and well-built and seemed to be in his late thirties or early forties. He had dark eyes and black hair that was partially slicked back, but still left a few spiky strands of hair free so it had a semi-messy look to it. He had some stubble covering his chin and a large scar that went diagonally from the center of his hairline to below his left ear and he had silver earrings in the shape of crosses in both of his ears.

He was wearing a silver breastplate that gleamed in the sunlight and had the words "Absolute Zero" over the left breast, a black shirt with a gray fur collar underneath that, and dark brown pants tucked into leather boots. He had two round pauldrons on his shoulders that were colored dark blue and had a golden symbol of what looked like two crossed hammers on it. For some reason, seeing that symbol made the blonde's head hurt, but he ignored it in favor of watching the man in front of him.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Naruto asked harshly. He could already tell he was no match for this man at his current level, so the best he could do was fish for information and escape while protecting Flare.

"My name is of no importance." The man said. "What I'm here for is to exterminate the demon taking residence in this village." He finished with a smirk.

"Demon…?" Naruto muttered confusedly. "There are no demons here. If there was I would have known."

"Oh, but there is… in fact, I can feel its magic all over you." The black haired man replied before looking at a terrified and trembling Flare. "I can feel it all over her too… but the signature surrounding her is much more recent. Tell me girl, have you been fraternizing with demons? If so, I'll just put you out of your misery right now." Gathering magic into his hands, he sent a wave of ice at the still immobile Flare. Before it could reach its destination, a wall of bright orange fire blocked it and cancelled it out.

"Oi, if it's a fight you're looking for, I'm right here you damn bastard." Naruto growled out. Looking over his shoulder slightly he addressed his friend. "Flare-chan… I need you to listen to me carefully." Seeing he had her attention he continued "Go back to the Eternal Flame… tell him what's going on here then get to safety. No matter what happens don't look back. Keep going and find a safe place to hide okay?"

"B-but I-I can fight too!" the little redhead stated finally finding her voice. "I'm strong! You said so! I-I won't leave you h-here a-alone!"

"Yes… you are strong Flare-chan. But this man is out of your league. Hell, he's out of my league. Besides, I'm not going to really fight… just distract him long enough so you can get away. So don't worry; I'll be right behind you."

"…You promise?" the girl asked after a moment of silence.

"I promise. And you of all people should know I don't break my promises."

"O-okay." The redhead agreed before turning around to run back towards the enormous fire who could hopefully help.

Clearing his throat and bringing Naruto's attention back to him, the armor wearing man addressed them again "Have you said your goodbyes?" he asked mirthfully.

"Shut the hell up. What happened to the giants in the village?" Naruto asked.

"I froze them. We can't have a bunch of giant demon worshipers walking around now can we? That's just plain dangerous. The only ones left are you and the girl…" Holding his hand out flat in a vertical position, he extended his arm out straight towards the direction Flare went in. "But pretty soon, it'll just be you." A gigantic amount of magical energy flared and his arm was covered in a thick sheet of white ice "Ice Block…"

Widening his eyes, Naruto jumped in the way of what was sure to be a very strong attack. His orange flames were already covering his body, flickering angrily has he charged up his own technique in response. "Like I'd let you! Honoryu no… (Blaze Dragon's…)" the preteen drew his arm back behind his head as far as it could go, a trail of fire following the movement.

"Pheasant Beak!"

"Kyokaen (Mirror Flame)!"

The armored man released a thin vertical pillar of ice that grew to a humongous size in seconds, before taking the shape of a pheasant in flight and rushing towards the flaming boy. At the same time Naruto threw his arm forward, conjuring a spiraling wall of intense flames that was the same size as the ice sculpture. The two opposing elements collided with a resounding boom and clashed for a few seconds before cancelling each other out in an explosion of cool mist and warm air that covered the both mages.

The two combatants stared at each other through the aftermath of their clash, one smirking and the other lightly panting before the older man started to chuckle, before outright laughing. "I was right about you! I've killed men more than three times your age with that technique and you matched it in an instant!" his smirk turning into a full blown smile, he continued "I wonder how much more you could take."

Getting his breath under control, Naruto pointed both of his hands towards his foe with his middle, index, and thumbs extended in a gun shape "Honoryu no Higan! (Blaze Dragon's Fire Gun!)" several small bullet shaped fireballs shot from his fingertips at an alarming pace, all headed towards the man in front of him. Each small bullet exploded on impact, kicking up a cloud of dust and blocking his target from view.

Once the attack ended, the dust cleared showing the man was completely unharmed. "Not bad kid." The black eyes man said before he suddenly disappeared from his spot. Catching a scent, Naruto looked above him and saw his opponent dropping down with both hands extended "But not good enough!" Another wave of ice was sent careening down at him.

A circle of orange flames gathered around the preteens feet before he slammed his fists into the ground "Honoryu no Hibashira (Blaze Dragon's Fire Pillar)!" as the name suggested, a pillar of fire shot straight up into the air, colliding with the ice attack and once more cancelling it out.

The middle aged mage landed on the ground and waited for the mist to clear. As soon as it did, he took a look around and found the blond missing.

"Oho… it seems like he went after his little friend. Now that won't do… that won't do at all." The man finished as he made his way to where he could sense both children's magical signatures in the same leisurely pace as before.

"Flare!" Naruto called out as he burst into the clearing panting hard. Looking around frantically, he saw that she was sitting next to Atlas Flame with her arms wrapped around her knees. Rushing over to her, he picked her up off the ground before grabbing both of her shoulders. "Flare, we need to get out of here right now! That man… there's no way I can defeat him." And it was true. In both of their brief exchanges, Naruto had used up a good chunk of his magical energy, especially during the first clash. And to make matters worse, the Higan Naruto used had absolutely no effect, even after he charged it with as much power as he could.

Naruto knew that he was outmatched in the beginning, but that small exchanging of moves showed that comparing himself to that man was like holding a campfire next to Atlas Flame.

Hearing a whooshing sound, he once again threw the redheaded girl forward before a blinding pain emanated from his torso. He could see a blood-soaked ice pike on the ground a few feet in front of him, and looking down he saw a giant hole in his chest that punched through his right lung. Falling to his knees, he looked behind him to see the ice mage from before standing at the entrance to the clearing with a malicious smile and an outstretched arm.

Coughing out what seemed to be a river of blood, he looked back to his friend who had a horrified look on her face as she stared back at his now blood covered visage. "F-Flare… r-r-run." he wheezed out before collapsing into the dirt.

Snapping out of her shock, the girl ran towards her friend before sliding on her knees and shaking him frantically "NARUTO! NO, NO, NO NOT YOU TOO!" she cried out as tears flowed from her eyes. "You can't leave me, you can't! You said you would never leave me alone again!" Unwanted memories stated to flow into her mind. Memories of her mother's murder by bandits, her older sister running away without her, her father's abuse and abandonment, and the feeling of having nobody around to want her assaulted her mind.

Those memories came to an abrupt halt when a boot-clad foot impacted her head and rattled her brain as it sent her flying across the clearing, rolling for a few feet before sliding to a stop. Coughing a bit and slowly getting up, she could feel blood flowing from a large gash on her temple. Trying to stand again, she let out a pained scream when two thin spikes of white ice erupted from the ground and pierced her hands, holding them in place.

The middle aged man watched her suffering with a neutral face, as he started to walk towards her, but stopped when he felt a hand on his ankle. Looking down he could see a wheezing and barely conscious Naruto lying in a puddle of his own blood, with more of it pouring out of his mouth glaring at him with all of the hatred he could muster. Such an intense glare would have intimidated even the most hardened of men, but unfortunately for Naruto, it had no effect on the mage in front of him.

"You're still alive." The man stated as he looked back into the blondes eyes "Your tenacity is impressive but…" the man kicked the blonde's hand off of him before lifting up his other foot. "It's also quite troublesome." As he finished his sentence, the raised foot was brought down mercilessly, stomping on the hole that went through the preteen's lung. Naruto's eyes widened and he arched his back in pain. The agonized scream that wanted to rip its way out of his throat was stifled by the large amount of blood that was forced out of his lungs, and he was once again kicked, this time in the side, the force sending him to the center of the clearing right next to the disguised Atlas Flame.

Wheezing, Naruto used the last of his strength to plead to his master. "Sensei… p-p-please… s-save… her." Feeling the dragon's magic build up, he slowly turned his head towards Flare, who had passed out from the pain a few moments earlier.

The black haired mage was standing above her holding a sword made of ice, and he was about to stab the girl right through the heart. As he was about to bring his blade down, the ten year old was covered in a brilliant orange glow before a large fireball engulfed her form, forcing her attacker to take a step back. When the fireball disappeared, Flare was nowhere to be found, and her magical signature could no longer be felt.

Letting out one last shuddering breath at the relief that flowed through his dying body, the boy uttered a quiet thank you to Atlas before finally letting his eyes close…

Only for them to fly open once more as he felt more pain rip through his chest and an unbelievable amount of dark energy flood into his system. It was heavy and dark, but it also felt familiar in a way. He could feel the wound on his torso stitch itself back together painfully, a sinister black energy with a green outline leaking out as it healed. Unknown to him, his hair lightened from its usual sunny blond to shining silver and his irises turned a glowing venomous green with a deep black slit for a pupil.

'This energy…' the older man thought as he observed the transformation with wide eyes 'this boy wasn't taught by a demon… he is a demon!' thinking back to a conversation he had many years ago he recalled some important information 'Come to think of it, this is around the area where Kyouka told me that Kushina-senpai died and her son's energy signature disappeared. He must be…' his thoughts were interrupted when he saw the boys' body start to stand, his head lowered and eyes shadowed. He could see his shoulders shaking a bit before he threw his head back and laughed hysterically in a warbling voice, like it couldn't decide on whether to settle on being human or demonic.

"This energy… it feels so familiar… I feel like I could kill anyone! Ahahahahahaha!" locking eyes with the man across from him, Naruto gave a cruel smile which was enhanced by his naturally spiky teeth before speaking again "And would you look at that, I already have my first victim!" Suddenly, the boy had crossed several yards in less than a second, his arm already covered in black and green energy coming downwards in a claw slash-like manner. The energy molded into the form of a pitch black snake with glowing green eyes and mouth.

"Ressenga (Falling Slash Fang)!" Naruto cried out with a manic grin. The attack collided with the top of the ice mage's head and slammed him into the ground violently, kicking up a large dust cloud. Crouching down, he lashed out with a rising crescent kick with the same black snake looking energy engulfing his leg "Gashokyaku (Rising Fang Leg)!"

When the kick hit, it sent the man high into the air in an uncontrolled flight. "Not so fast! I'm not done with you yet!" holding his hand out, a small black hole about two feet wide surrounded by three glowing green hexagons appeared before a large black chain outlined with green energy and a snake-skull looking head shot out at unprecedented speeds and bit the man around the torso. The dark mage's eyes widened at the fact that he could feel his magic being drained just from being in contact with the chain before it started to retract back to the transformed Naruto.

"Ahahahahahaha! And here's the finisher!" he laughed psychotically before sending a reverse heel kick up towards the sky, causing an immense amount of the black and green demonic energy he'd been using to shoot upwards in a condensed pillar "Take this! Jayoku: Hotenjin (Snake Wing: Crumbling Heaven Blade)!" The attack completely engulfed his opponent while continuing to rise into the air high above the clouds.

Looking up, he couldn't see anything left of his opponent but a few scattered ashes that were blown away in the wind. "Disintegration kill. Heh, nice." He chuckled before turning around and walking towards Atlas Flame's still prone form. He could feel the genuine relief coming off the dragon mixed in with curiosity and apprehension. He was about to address the flaming creature, but was interrupted when a large spike of ice erupted from the ground. Naruto leaned back to dodge it but still suffered a deep gash that went from his left hip to just below his right pectoral.

Spitting out blood from sustaining a critical injury once again, he fell to the ground and grunted as he felt his thought to be deceased opponent's heel digging into his back.

"Oi, oi… that was pretty dangerous… but it also confirmed my suspicions. Even if I've only seen it once, I'd recognize that dangerous curse anywhere." The turning his head so he could look over his shoulder, Naruto could see that despite a few scuff marks on his face and the fact that he was missing his breastplate, the ice mage was completely fine. "Black snake-like energy chains that slowly devour the eternano in the body leaving behind nothing but an empty husk. Black energy waves that disable the use of magic as long as it is in contact with your body… you possess Jormungandr, the anti-magic curse... as expected from my senpai's child."

Seeing the transformation recede and boy about to pass out from blood loss, the black haired man raised his hand and covered it with a sheet of ice and moved to touch the boy he had pinned down. "Just relax kid; I'll put you on ice for a little bit okay? Sayla-chan missed you dearly and has been quite lonely without her partner… and I'm sure Kyouka would like to have her little pet project back… so, let's go back to "Hell" okay Kuram- GAH!" he was cut off when the flaming skull of Atlas Flame rammed into him with enough force to make him fly to the edge of the clearing.

"Naruto, can you hear me?" The dragon asked desperately. Seeing a small nod, he continued at a hurried pace "It took all of this time just to work up enough energy to move. Even talking is physically taxing for me right now. I only have enough magical energy left to teleport you to safety… and even I don't know where you will end up. This is the last time we will see each other for a while, but do not despair! It is time for you to walk your own path in life! See the world! Experience your own hardships! Make comrades who you can trust with your life! Do not worry about Flare; she is safe and you will find each other eventually, I'm sure of it!" taking a break so he could get his panting breath under control, the dragon slowly turned his head to the recovering ice mage. "Our time is up… goodbye Naruto. I could not have asked for a better student... no, a better SON!" and with his piece said, he enveloped a now unconscious Naruto in his flames before, like Flare, he disappeared to parts unknown.

"Ah, he's gone. How disappointing…" Atlas heard the ice mage before him mutter before he shrugged. "Oh well, the news that Kurama's still among the living should be enough to get everyone worked up. And besides, my original target has finally shown himself… say goodbye, demon." Taking a deep breath, a pure white magic circle appeared in front of the ice mage's mouth before the released his magic in the form of a concentrated blizzard of ice and snow. "Hyoma no Gekiko (Ice Devil's Rage!)" he bellowed out.

As Atlas Flame could do nothing but helplessly watch the attack near him. 'Son of Igneel… please accept my student Naruto as this old spirit's investment towards creating a better future. He will definitely help with the trials ahead… I look forward to seeing the both of you again someday.'

And with that last thought… the great Blaze Dragon, Atlas Flame knew no more.

Sitting up and looking around frantically, Flare Corona took stock of her surroundings. She seemed to be in a typical infirmary setting with stone walls, a wooden door opposite to her, and a window to her right that gave her a view of a mountainous wasteland. Various kinds of medical machinery were hooked up to her body, and she could see that her hands had been healed and bandaged thoroughly.

Remembering what happened; she brought her legs up to her chest and cried. Her only friend was probably dead and the only real home she knew since her mother's death was frozen over… even if she found a way to return, it wouldn't matter, everything she knew was gone and she was alone once again.

Hearing the door open she fearfully looked up and saw a tall muscular middle aged man with black hair and eyes, tanned skin and a thick black beard walk into the room. He smiled benevolently and spoke in a quiet voice that had a slight lisp "Hello there little girl. It is good to see you have finally regained consciousness."

Staring at the man for a few moments, Flare spoke up "W-who a-a-are y-you? A-and where am I?" she asked in a soft voice.

Chuckling, the man introduced himself "My name is Ivan Dreyar, and you are in the place I am going to make my future guild hall. Tell me child, what is your name? Where do you come from and how did you get here?" he asked gently.

"M-my name is F-flare. Flare Corona a-and I come from the S-Sun Village." She answered. When it came to the third question she began to sniffle and tear up once again and launched into the tale of what she remembered before waking up. Ivan listened to her story patiently, asking a bit about the man who attacked her and about Naruto before rubbing his beard and thinking for a bit.

"Indeed that is an unfortunate tale. It is terrible that one as young as you had to go through such a thing, and I am sorry about your friend." Going quiet once more, Ivan looked at the girl and gave her an offer. "Tell you what… if you really have nowhere else to go, how would you like to stay here and join the guild I am creating? You will have a place to live and I can help you with your magic since I am a very accomplished mage myself. I will even have some people on the lookout for your friend. They will definitely find him if he survived, and he could join us here if we ever do."

Looking at the man beside her bed with wide eyes, the ten year old girl felt more tears drop from her eyes and nodded before rushing forward and hugging him while thanking him repeatedly. She might not be with Naruto anymore, but at least she wasn't alone.

She never saw the absolutely sinister smile on the man's face as he hugged her back.

Feeling the bright light of the sun on his eyelids, Naruto slowly awoke to see he was staring at a wooden ceiling. Looking around with great effort he found himself lying on a very soft bed in a room that was sparsely decorated with furniture, but was absolutely filled with various potted plants and small trees.

The door to the room opened and a very old man carrying a wooden staff walked in. He had many wrinkles all over his face and an abnormally shaped head. He had light green eyes that were filled with wisdom and a bush of dark forest green hair on his head that made his head look like a tree.

Attempting to get up, Naruto was rewarded with a stab of pain in his abdomen and looked down seeing his entire torso and arms were bandaged up and had what looked like a light green herbal cream spread on them.

"Don't be in such a rush child… you were quite beat up when I found you. Quite frankly it's a miracle you're even alive right now with how much blood you lost." Picking the leaves off seemingly random plants, the old man put them in a stone bowl and poured a little water in before he took out a grinding stone and began to crush the ingredients inside.

"W-what happened?" Naruto gasped out. His chest was still in a lot of pain and his throat was incredibly dry.

"I was hoping you could tell me geheheheheh! It's not every day I find someone bleeding all over my garden you know." The old man answered mirthfully. "You have been unconscious for five days my boy. Whatever fight you were in that caused you to arrive here must have been one heck of a doozy!" he laughed before taking the concoction and walking over to Naruto so he could spread it over his wounds.

Flinching at the reminder of his recent defeat Naruto stayed quiet for the duration of the treatment before speaking up again when the man turned to leave. "Naruto." Seeing the raised eyebrow he got, he elaborated. "My name is Naruto."

Giving the injured boy a face splitting grin that showed that he had some missing teeth the plant looking man answered in kind. "It's nice to meet you Naruto-boy. My name is Walrod. Walrod Cken."

A/N:well, there you have it. The first chapter of Great Blaze. I wanted to try several different things with this, especially since the current Tartarus arc is bringing in quite a few new things.

If you haven't noticed, the timeline for this is technically after the Grand Magic Games. Atlas Flame has already met Natsu and gone back in time to found the Sun Village. When he met Naruto he was already dead and all that was left was his lingering spirit, which decided to teach Naruto his Dragon Slayer magic in order to help in the future. I made him best friends with Flare because for some reason I really love her character. The two were separated during Silver's attack on the Sun Village, which I also wanted to cover since it was never shown. The two kids will meet again one or two times before the GMG, so don't think I'm just going to have her disappear now that she's with Ivan and Ravel Tail.

Kushina is a revived human-turned demon that worked for Tartarus and was at one point one of the Nine Demon Gates before Silver took her place when she died. If she actually revived in Hell's Core or not is a secret for now.

On the topic of how Demons work, it was never really explained in the manga so I took a few creative liberties. Instead of an eternano container, demons have "cores" that power their curses. Said cores must be "tuned" due to the volatile energy that they produce, and may or may not eventually self destruct depending on how powerful the demon is. Higher demons like Marde Guille or E.N.D. doesn't have to worry about that, normal demons like most of the Nine Demon Gates have to be tuned before the five year mark after they are created, and artificial demons like Kushina (and later on, Minerva) must be tuned before the one year mark. Since Naruto was a complete abnormality and has two different energy cores, he needed to be tuned as soon as possible.

Yes, Naruto's Jormungandr curse is based off of Hazama from Blazblue with a few added effects and techniques of my own, while his Dragonslayer techniques will be taken from both the Mera Mera no mi from One Piece and several fire jutsu from Naruto.

Please read and review, I wasn't sure on whether or not to post this so any feedback would be much appreciated!

~SilentFang