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Internal Affairs

Talpa extracted the two blades from his waste and tossed them forward, where in midair they morphed into two elephant sized King Cobras. The massive hissing snakes darted forward at high speed, Gildarts leaped over the first snake's diving bite attempt and roundhouse kicked it in the back. The snake flew across the ground before violently slamming into a wall. The force of the collision created massive cracks across the entire wall. The second snake spewed a stream of poison at Gildarts, who dodged the corrosive attack and the snake's attempt to bind the S-class mage with its tail. Gildarts flipped the script on it, grabbing the cobra by the tail, spinning around rapidly in circle, and sending it crashing into the first snake just as it recovered.

Talpa leaped in the fray, unsheathing two more blades and unleashing a spinning slash to bisect Gildarts at the waist. Gildarts bend backwards at a nearly impossible angle to avoid the attack, and tried to sweep Talpa's feet out from underneath him. The armored Warlord back flipped to avoid being tripped up and put some distance between the two of them before stabbing his blade into the ground. For a second nothing happened, but the Gildarts heard a rumbling sound coming from underground and he leaped high into the air to avoid a geyser like blast of venom shooting up through the stone floor. Talpa attempted a sneak attack from his blind spot, but Gildarts caught the double slash with his left arm.

"Ah! What is this!" snarled Talpa as Gildarts blocked a follow up strike with his left forearm.

"This arm isn't my real arm." replied a grinning Gildarts.

Gildarts nailed him in the chin with a right handed uppercut that sent Talpa flying straight up into the air, "That's my real arm!"

Gildarts suddenly appeared in front of Talpa as he reached the apex of his flight and delivered an armor cracking punch with his left arm that sent Talpa hurtling back towards the ground where he crashed violently, getting buried under tons of rubble and debris.

The orange haired mage smirked at the sight below him, "That's my new arm. Any questions?"

The rubble and debris piled on top of Talpa corroded away into dust as the armored dark warrior emerged from the ground. He starred upon Gildarts with glowing red eyes that combined with the silver faceplate, made it difficult to even recognize the face as Naruto's anymore.

"You are quite formidable. Join me and I will make you a general in Zeref's army and grant you a taste of power unlike anything that you've every experienced!" offered Talpa.

Gildarts hadn't even been paying attention, muttering to himself as he scribbled away notes on a map he pulled out of nowhere, "Huh? What were we talking about?"

Talpa snarled at him, "Fool! Witness the true might of my power! Come forth spirits of the netherworld! Lend me your power! Dynasty shoulders arise and serve your master!"

Dozens of apparition like being shimmered into existence in the air above above Talpa. Each was dressed in violet priest-like ceremonial robes with ornate red necklaces around their necks. They possessed no legs, their bodies below the torso formed a ghost tail. The dynasty warriors rising from ground appeared to be shadow soldiers decked out in a blue and gray armor in a similar style to Naruto's own. They were armed to with spears, scythes, chain-sickles, tridents, and various other bladed weapons. About two dozen dynasty warriors stood in front of Gildarts while close to forty nether spirits hovered overhead when it was all said and done.

"Well aren't you just full of surprises." commented Gildarts offhandedly as he flared his magical aura again.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

While the battle between Gildarts and Talpa raged on in the real world, a separate set of foes went toe to toe in the recesses of Naruto's mind.

x-x-x-Naruto's Mind Scape: A Short Time Ago-x-x-x

"Where are you! You can't hide forever!" called out a figure shrouded in darkness as he streaked through the sewer like caverns that were the mental defenses of one Naruto Uzumaki. For every step the man took, the tan stone of the ceiling and walls he passed by turned to black and the water on the sewer floor turned into a dark purple acid like substance. His eyes lit up as finally found a door on the left hand wall.

"Ah finally! This is where you've been hiding! I promise this won't hurt...too much!" cackled the man as he opened the door and was enveloped in a bright red light.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"What the hell..." muttered the dark haired man as he sat up after regaining consciousness. "What happened...Where am I?"

The last thing he remembered was opening the door, then the bright red light, and then absolutely nothing. He took a look around his surroundings and found nothing of familiarity. He set on a slightly inclined portion of a rocky slope. The temperature around him was both hot and humid. A gray smoke seemed to be swirling around through the air as he felt slight trembles coming from underground. The smoke made visibility further down what he now believed was a mountain. He stood up and looked up the incline and quickly corrected his previous assumption, he standing just below the summit of a smoking volcano.

"So maybe this one has some serious mental defenses..." he muttered to himself.

Suddenly a cloaked figure shot out the volcano and blurred down the side of it, tackling the man and pinning him up against the rocks with a kunai to his neck. The hood of the cloak suddenly blew back from a burst of wind, revealing the snarling form of Naruto.

"You certainly managed to do a lot of damage while you were running free. Thankfully you opened that door, allowing me to regain some semblance of control. I still can't wake up for some reason, and you have the answers, so start talking." ordered Naruto.

The man burst out in ruckus laughter, "Fool! You have no idea! Absolutely no idea of what you're dealing with!"

"Somebody body snatching fool is trying to take my body. I'm driving you out!" snarled Naruto.

"You're much too late! Your body already belongs to lord Talpa!" declared the man before he seemingly dissolved into nothing.

"Son of bitch! He was only the distraction!" cursed Naruto before he too vanished from sight.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto reappeared where he thought the caverns of his mental defenses should be, but he found nothing of the sort. Gone was the power plant basement like caverns that were the remnants of the seal. He now stood atop the outer walls of what on the surface appeared to be the palace of a daimyo. The main palace building was black in color and reached up over a dozen stories high into a dark ominous sky. The walls of the compound were sandy white with an ornate greyish blue trim. Naruto leaped down onto the sandy ground of the outer courtyard and a squadron of dynasty soldiers shot up out of the sand to confront him.

"Some welcoming committee..." snarled Naruto as he created a few dozen shadow clones to even out the numbers.

Leaving his clones to deal with the dynasty warriors, Naruto leaped ahead to the inner courtyard, only for a horde of nether spirits to come flooding out of the main tower to impeded his path.

"I don't have time to deal with your bullshit! Armor of Wildfire Dao Jin!" A familiar red glow engulfed Naruto as the armor formed around his body piece by piece, starting the legs, followed by the hands wrists and arms, then the torso and finally the headpiece appeared in his left head before he placed it on himself. He quickly withdrew his dual katanas from the sheaths on his back and the blades became engulfed in flame as he leaped into the air and started slicing and dicing his way through the nether spirits. The half of the horde not under direct assault, began a unintelligible chant and there eyes and bodies glowing with a dark purple energy before they fired a massive blast together at Naruto. The red armored ninja mage managed to keep the attack at bay while shielding himself with his blades before summoning a burst of strength to deflect the blast away from him. It carried off to the right and destroyed the center of both the inner and outer courtyard walls.

"Enough of this! If you won't come out and face me yourself, I'll blast you out!" roared Naruto as he stuck the hilts of the katanas together at their ends before raising them up behind his head as the blades glowed with energy. "Flare Up Now!"

Naruto swung his weapon forward and unleashed the massive red crescent wave of energy. The remaining spirits were obliterated by the blast as it carried on to the tower and cleaved the building in two. However, the building didn't collapse, it simply repaired itself as if nothing had happened.

"What the hell!" exclaimed Naruto.

A silhouette of Talpa's head appeared in front of the palace, "I've more important things to do than crush the insignificant pest that once housed this body. Face the wrath of one of my Netherworld generals, the Dark Warlord Sekhmet!"

Talpa's eyes glowed and shot a beam of light red energy at a point on the roof. The energy collected into a ball that formed into the man Naruto had pinned down in his mind earlier, decked out in the armor of Venom. Talpa's silhouette vanished, leaving the netherworld general behind. The Dark Warlord flung one of his six blades into the air, controlling it with a whip of red energy as he swung it around over his head before flinging it at Naruto.

"Snake Fang Strike!" As the blade approached Naruto it unleashed several jagged arcs of reddish orange energy that surprised the blond as he was focus on the blade. The energy attack nailed him in the chest, driving him into a courtyard wall, where the rubble collapsed on top of him.

"Your quest end here!" declared Sekhmet. "Prostrate yourself before my master and perhaps you can join the ranks of his netherworld spirits as reward for providing your body as his new vessel. That is if your are not foolish enough to continue your useless struggle! Mwahahaha-huh?"

His laughter soon turned to shock, as rays of red light started shining through the cracks of the rubble on top of Naruto moments before the blond burst forth his armor pulsing with the blink of an eye he reappeared right behind the dark warlord.

"Blazing Dragon!" roared Naruto as a bright red-orange flame engulfed the blades of his dual katanas. A left hand slash raked across his foes abdomen while simultaneously Naruto also executed a right handed slash across his chest. As his enemy twisted around from the blow, dual crisscrossing slashes raked across his back sending him propelling upwards into the air. Naruto then reappeared in the air directly above him, his ignited blades held crossed above his head. He swung the blades down, unleashing a spiraling dragon-headed blast of fire directly at the agent of Talpa, sending the Venom armored warrior crashing straight through the wall of the complex and smashing through several floors before he crashed somewhere near the bottom of the tower.

Another horde of nether world spirits flooded out of the upper levels of the compound. They began to chant again for several seconds as they became enveloped in violet auras of energy. After they finished chanting they raised their arms up and fired beams of energy at the dark warlord. The energy washed over his body and he and the armor began to feed off of it.

"Yes, grant me more power!" bellowed Sekhmet as his body healed and armor repaired while the spirits filled him with more and more energy. Naruto shielded his eyes as his foe's armor suddenly flashed with a bright red light.

Sekhmet was on him bring one of his blades down in an overhead strike. Naruto blocked with his left Katana before following with side slash with his right. The netherworld general leaped back to avoid the blow, creating some distance for Naruto to counter with a follow move. The blond brought both his katanas parallel to his left side and executed a double slashing attack.

"Yoko Giri! (Demon Fox Slash!)" Twin red lines of energy emitted from Naruto's blades as he executed the slash. Sekhmet managed to bring up two of his blades in front of him in a defensive position to block the attack, which sent him skidding back a few feet, but no worse for wear.

"Is that the best you can do?" mocked Sekhmet. "Then allow me to show you true power!"

The Netherworld General unsheathed to the blades at his sides, while commanding the other four sheathed on his back telepathically. The all floated into air above him, connected by a red strand of energy in his hand. He mimicked his previous attack, instead now there were six blades whipping around instead of one, "Six Blade Style: Snake Fang Strike!"

All the blades shot forward releasing even more powerful arcs of violent energy, the Naruto jumped into action to avoid. However, with six attacks instead of one there were just far too many attacks to avoid. Just as he was about to be struck from a four different directions, a vanished in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a kage bunshin that had survived the battle with the dynasty warriors and was lurking in the shadows. A few more replacements with the other two of three remaining shadow clones and Naruto was clear of the assault. The armored blond was also fed up the bastards trying to take over his own body. With a mental command from Naruto, the final clone attacked Sekhmet from his blind spot. The dark warlord was caught completely off guard as a Rasengan plowed into his chest and sent him crashing through a third story wall of the tower.

"This is my mind, my body, and my domain! This all ends right here, right now!" declared Naruto as he sheathed his blades ad leaped back down to the walls of the inner courtyard. The Wildfire armored blond raised his hands up above his head and gained an intense look of concentration and small red ball of light began to slowly swirl into existence in the air above him. The energy continued to collect and take shape and the swirling picked up speed. The form of a crimson rasengan about five times the size of Naruto came into existence, the sphere of fire containing the swirling energy gave it the appearance of a miniature red sun.

"Wildfire Rasengan!" Naruto swung his arms forward and the attack launched forward right into the heart of the complex. Sekhmet had just reemerged from the hole he'd been knocked through to come face to face with his incoming demise.

"Oh shit..." the stunned spirit muttered in shock just before he was vaporized by the heat of the attack. The attack glowed with a bright red light before exploding, enveloping everything in a furious red-orange flame.

X-X-X-X-The-Real-World-X-X-X-X

Gildarts stomped his left foot on the ground, using his crash magic to send a fissure through the ground that wiped out four of the dynasty soldiers as the fell into a deep schism. Before the others could even blink, he was right into from of them, using a dissassembly spell to reduce the remaining warriors to nothing but chunks of armor on the ground. The orange haired mage paid no mind to the netherworld spirits and their chantings, instead charging to take out their summoner. After winding for an earth shattered haymaker, Gildarts suddenly halted in his attack as Talpa suddenly collapsed to his knees grasping his head and the Netherworld spirits all suddenly vanished.

"No! You stupid boy! This body is now mine! No!" growled Talpa.

The armor started to glow red and steam as if was being overheated. The possessed body of Naruto rolled back and forth along the ground. Talpa struggled as Naruto momentarily to retook control of his body. Naruto's body rose to its feet making the brief the moment of control count as he formed a triangular symbol with his hands and a blue aura sprung up around his body, "Shadow Secret Technique: Prism of Three!"

Gildarts shielded his eyes from the bright flash of light caused by the technique. When he brought his arm down from covering his eyes, he found three Naruto's place of the one previously standing there. The stood in a circle, facing each other with the one closest to him still suited up in the Armor of Venom.

"Having my body isn't enough."spoke one of normal Narutos.

"With the years of training put in and all the techniques I've mastered you'll never be able to tap into my full potential." added the other.

"Fool! Even in you are momentarily free, your power in your current form still pales in comparison to mine!" retorted the Talpa possessed Naruto.

"I guess we'll have to do something about that!" announced the two Narutos. "Armor of the Torrent/Halo! Dao Shin/Rei!"

The flashes of green and blue light enveloped the pair and granted them the powers of the Armors they called upon.

"Give it up boy!" snarled Talpa. "Even with your Armors, you are still no match for me."

'He's right. At normal strength, he stomp him no problem, but both Narutos are still weaker than him.' thought Gildarts.

"Who said we were done?" quipped the Naruto in the Halo armor.

The Naruto in the Torrent Armor smirked, "As we stated before, you know nothing about my true potential. There's an old technique I picked up several years ago while out on a training trip. I was just never able to put into practice due to special conditions until now."

Standing side by side the Naruto pair gave each other an affirmative nod and grunt as the paced off a few steps away from each other laterally. They then struck a pose that Gildarts recalled seeing long ago.

"He learned the fusion dance from the Metamoran tribe?" blurted the orange haired mage in surprise. "I thought only they could do it because of their body structures all being almost identical...Of course! Ha! He's the only person in the world who could benefit from fusing with him self!"

The pair performed a strange set of poses and movements, complete with a chant that ended with their index fingers connecting together.

"Fu...sion! Ha!" The moment their index fingers connected, they were enveloped in a bright pillar of energy.

"This is amazing..." muttered Gildarts in slight awe.

When the brightness of the light subsided it revealed Naruto, dressed loose white pants with a dark blue sash around his waste. His shins, ankles and feet were covered in a golden armor. His arms up to the shoulder were covered in same style of armor as his legs. A dark blue vest with orange padding around the shoulders and neck hung on his torso, leaving his bare chest exposed. His spiky blond hair locks stood on edge with a single lock dropping down in front of his face. A white aura coated his body, constantly giving off blue sparks of electricity.

"Armor Fusion Mode: Hiraishin!" announced Naruto. "It's over for you Talpa! You picked the wrong mage to try and possess."

Talpa was unfazed, "It will take more than a silly light show and parlor tricks to defeat me. You have inconvenienced me at best. Are you really going to fight me boy?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes before turning and vanishing in a flash in the opposite direction. Before Talpa could begin to gloat, he was suddenly struck by a white blur from behind. He looked down at his arm to find a piece of the armor missing. Out of nowhere the blur hit him again, and the armor covering his entire left arm was gone. He was hit again and again and again, each blow taking away a piece of the armor. After the last hit he stumbled backwards and fell on his ass.

This time Naruto stopped in front of him, his body twitching and vibrating rapidly as the electricity sparked chaotically around his body with the white aura. Suddenly he vanished again and all Talpa saw was four white flashes as he knocked up in the air and hit three times, taking even more of the armor off before he landed back on the ground.

'Interesting outcome. I figured fusion of armors would create a sub element armor of some sort. Instead it's given him some kind of speed magic.' observed Gildarts.

Talpa looked upon Naruto with a befuddled expression as the blond had stopped once again to loom over him. Everything had happened so fast, it hadn't really registered that he was getting picked apart. He remained in the same state of shock and confusion as Naruto cocked his right fist back, lightning sparking violently around the limb as it suddenly blurred and vibrated. He brought the arm forward and delivered so many rapid punches it was as if he was drilling through the armor. The left arm soon joined the right and Talpa let out a roar of pain as he was forcefully expelled out of the body. Black smoke poured out from the mouth of the possessed body as the fused warrior brought his assault to an end.

Talpa's voice was nigh but a whisper, "I'll be back for you boy..."

The black smoke then dissipated into nothingness. The fused Naruto stood and looked down at himself strangely, "I feel kind of funny..."

Another bright flash of light emitted from him and he reverted back to two unarmored Naruto. Blue flashed of light covered each of them and they merged back into the Naruto on the gorund who was only clothed in a tattered pair of pants.

Gildarts chuckled as he strolled over to his unconscious friend, "Well, that was easy!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The defeat of Talpa ended the curse on the Island. Gildarts took a few more days to make sure the taint had been purged before departed the island with a still unconscious Naruto. Over on Galuna Island, Natsu and company had broken the curse of that island as well. However, the completion of the S-class job came with an immediate reminder of how much trouble they were in courtesy of Erza. Natsu's spirits were momentarily lifted when they arrived at their get away ship.

"Wow! We've got a pirate ship!" exclaimed Natsu as he and Happy looked upon Cana's ship with stars in their eyes.

"With a real hobo!" added Happy as he glanced at Virgil.

"Hey!" indignantly shouted Virgil.

Cana whacked Natsu across the back of the head, "You mean I've got a pirate ship. And you wreck one piece of wood and you're walking the plank."

Both the dragon slayer and cat saluted her, "Aye, Mam!"

"I thought you said Naruto was going to be here..." muttered Gray.

"He must be down below." replied Cana with a shrug.

As Natsu, Happy, Lucy, and Grey went around to explore the ship, Cana and Erza made their way down to the lower deck to see if Naruto was there. They found him still in his weakened state on the bed in the captain's quarters with a note stuck to his chest.

Erza picked up the note and read, "Possession and severe Dark Magic Exposure, should be fine with bed rest. Where did he go?"

Cana shrugged, "The old guy must have dropped him off before moving on."

The revelation of the 'old guy' being on a job with Naruto quickly clarified how he had somehow reached his poor state of health. A quick mental note was made by Erza to chew out Naruto once healthy and Gildarts the next time she saw him for returning the blond in such poor condition.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

At the Era site of the Mage Council, Ultear had returned from her escapades on Galiluna to reconvene with Siegrain. The councilman was especially interested in her battle with Natsu.

Ultear rubbed her swollen cheek, "I wasn't using half of my power, but he's still pretty damn talented. He'll only keep getting stronger with every challenge."

"That child of Igneel, just as I..." Seigrain suddenly paused and looked up as his eyes dulled for a moment. "Oh. It seems your favorite mage has finally acquired one of them."

Ultear gave him a blank look, "Huh?"

Seigrain grinned, "A piece of that magic has been awakened, and you know the only guy who can do that. Why do you like that guy so much anyway?"

She shrugged, "He's interesting. I want to see what would happen to a guy like that if he managed to complete the set. His magic could possible rival his without being as pure as the brat you're so fond of."

Seigrain shook his head, "The Dragon Prince may suit your needs, but the child of Igneel must keep on burning for the sake of my dream..."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It turned out that Naruto would require more than some extended bed rest. On the return trip to Fairy Tail, the blond would only awaken for very short periods of time. Cana, Lucy, and Erza kept close watch over him in shifts. He would be awake and barely coherent enough for one of the girls to feed him before he passed out again. His body seemed to be weakened and drained of energy and on the night before they arrived he developed a high fever. Gray carried him back to the guild, using ice magic to keep him cooled. On their return they discovered that Phantom had attacked and damaged their guild building, but since no one was harmed in the attack, cooler heads prevailed concern for Naruto's well being took precedent.

Gildarts had already sent word back to the Master before their arrival. The Master to one look at the ill blond and escorted Gray, Cana, and Naruto to an old acquaintance of his who lived out in the forests east of Magnolia, Porlyusica. She's a healer who lived in recluse from humans, inside a tree house in the forest. From the moment they entered she began pestering them about how soon they were going to leave. Having Grey lay Naruto down on one of the beds, she quickly got to work trying to diagnose the problem. The three waited patiently as she administered various spells and concoctions to Naruto.

The old pink haired healer had just finished mixing some herbs into a solution before pouring it down Naruto's throat. After a moment, she checked his pulse before frowning at him and smacking him across the back of the head.

"Hey! What was that for! He's your patient!" shouted Gray.

Out of nowhere the healer picked up a broom and smacked him across the back of the head, "The stupid boy was already weakened from the possession and his body's exposure to the dark magic flooding his system. Instead of purging it from his system, he kept the poison magic and is integrating it into himself. His body was too weak to do so, so it was tearing itself apart in the process of healing and integrating the foreign magic all at once."

"So, what's the course of action?" asked Master Makarov.

She waved her hand dismissively, "I'll isolate the foreign magic until his body recovers, then it will do the rest on it's own. Now, go home."

Cana had enough of her trying to kick them out, "Now listen here, lady..."

Master raised a hand to silence her, "We'll get out your hair."

She merely glared at him, "What are you waiting for! Go on! Get!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

As Naruto lay recuperating, oblivious to the world, Phantom guild had struck again. Wrecking the guild wasn't good enough for them, so this time they brutally assaulted Jet, Droy, and Levi. The hung up their beaten and bloodied bodies up in the middle of Magnolia town for all to see. Lead by their infuriated master, the Fairy Tail mages stormed the Phantom Lord guild to send them a painful message about hurting their nakama. As the two guilds battle, an enraged, gigantic Makarov heads up ahead to personally battle Jose, the Master of Phantom Lord. Jose quickly reveals himself to only be an illusionary copy of himself using the Thought Projection technique, with his real body located elsewhere. The initiator of the guild war also informs Makarov that a battle between two of Ten Wizard Saints would cause too much damage and that the entire guild war was just a distraction and bonus to his true goal. He'd sent two members of Phantom Lord's Element 4, Juvia and Sol, to capture Lucy. He tricks Makarov again by creating Thought Projection of Lucy and with Jose's distraction, Aria of the Element 4 managed to drain Makarov of his magic with a Metsu spell. Chiding Makarov for not knowing who she really is despite being a member of his guild, he has Arai toss his weakened body into middle of the great hall stopping the battle. With their Master rendered unable to use magic, The Fairy Tail Mages retreated back to their guild with Master Makarov joining Naruto under the care of Porlyusica.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Upon his return to Phantom Headquarter, Jose made his way to Lucy's prison cell to pay her a visit, "Hello, I am Jose Porla, the Master of Phantom Lord. Sorry about tying you and up and putting you in this uncomfortable cell, but you are our captive after all."

"Don't try to place nice with me! Untie me now! You're the one behind what happened to Levy and the others!" shouted Lucy.

Jose shrugged uncaring, "There were merely casualties of war. No need for you to endure the same rough treatment. If you promise to behave during your stay with us, I can put you in a nice luxury suite."

"I don't care about any suit! Why did you attack Fairy Tail!" demanded Lucy.

"The attack itself was merely a bonus. Our true purpose was to capture a certain individual." informed Jose.

"Who would you go to all this trouble for!" yelled Lucy.

Jose just stared at her blankly as if she were an idiot, "Are you daft? Who else but you, the heir to the wealthy Heartfilia family. Did you reeally think you could hide yourself away iin obscurity?"

Lucy was stunned, "How did you know?"

Jose continued to chide her, "Running away from home and taking such low-class and dangerous jobs, those are not action befitting one of the daughter of one of the richest men in the country. You had to have known your father would eventually hire someone to find you?"

Tears started to form in Lucy's eyes, "My father would never have me captured!"

Jose waved his hand at her dismissively, "It's only natural for a father to search for his beautiful daughter."

"I'll never go back home!" cried Lucy.

Jose rolled his eyes, "You truly are a troublesome girl. Cry all you want, I'm not letting you go."

Taking a moment to gather herself, Lucy tried the indirect approach, "Can I use the bathroom."

Jose scoffed and pointed at a bucket in the corner of the cell while muttering, "How classic."

Lucy rolled her eyes, "It's so obvious, I wouldn't be able to catch anyone off guard with it."

Jose just stared at her blankly and continued to point at the bucket. Let out a huff of annoyance, Lucy stomped over to the bucket and squatted down above it. He let out a gasp of disgust and turned around as she prepared to use it in front of him, "I thought you were bluffing. You really are a shameless young girl. A gentleman like myself shall not be soiled by your presence!"

With his back turned, he was rewarded with a kick to the nuts.

"I guess sometimes the classics are best after all!" smugly stated Lucy. "See ya later!"

Running to the window and opening it, she finds that they are not close to ground, but ten stories above it.

"Foolish girl!" gasped Jose. "This is our sky prison! Ten Stories High! There is no escape!"

He shakily rose to his feet with a menacing smile forming across his face, "How dare you attack me after I've been so polite to you! I'm going to punish you and show you the true atrocity of Phantom!"

Lucy grinned at him before shrieking, "PERVERT!"

Jose made it three steps towards her before he was rewarded with a double kick to the nuts courtesy of Kyuubi and Mirajane. Lucy had been aware of their presence in the tower, her shriek alerting them of her position.

"Come on, let's get out here." said Kyuubi as she helped Lucy out of her restraints.

Mira gave the whimpering Jose one last kick for good measure before the three girls fled the tower.

"How dare those bitches do this to me!" gasped Jose. "I will make them pay!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Back at the damaged headquarters of Fairy Tail, there was a great sense of frustration. Everyone tended to both physical wounds and the emotional wounds of being forced to retreat. Those who could still fight were drawing up battle plans and arming themselves with weapons for another strike.

A great feeling of depression had come over Lucy. It was weighing down on her, all the things that had happened just because her father sent Phantom Lord after her.

"Hey it's not your fault! It's phantom's!" reminded Elfman.

"I don't know. Maybe it's best for everyone if I return home." muttered Lucy.

"Meh, being a lady doesn't suit you anyway." said Natsu.

Lucy shot him a look, "What!"

As if oblivious to the connotation of what he just said, Natsu grinned, "You fit in way better here laughing happily and going off on adventures with everyone! You want to stay here, so stay here! It's useless returning to a place that you hate. you're Lucy from Fairy Tail, this is your home."

Striking right to the heart of the matter, the truth of his words brought her to tears.

"Don't go crying n us now." mumbled Gray.

"He's right men are weak to tears!" exclaimed Elfman as he started to tear up as well.

Across the bar, Cana threw her hands up in frustration, knocking her tarot cards off the table, "This is no good, I can't find Mystogan anywhere. We need more people here. With Lucy as their target they will attack again for sure and we're already down too many people."

Giving up on her search, she turned her attention to Lisanna talking to Luxus on the Communication La'cryma, "Master is seriously wounded and Naruto is still recovering. We can't locate Mystogan, so we need your help, Luxus."

"Serves that punk and that shitty geezer right! Hahaha!" bellowed Luxus.

"Please come back immediately, it's an emergency." pleaded Lisanna.

"It doesn't have anything to do with me. Handle it yourself." retorted Luxus.

"You bastard!" shouted Cana.

"It's all the geezer's fault anyway. He started this mess, he should clean it up." countered Luxus.

Lisanna shook her head, "Actually, it's our comrade Lucy who is being targeted."

"Huh? Who is that?" muttered Luxus. "Oh that blond, big boobed newbie! I tell you what if she becomes my-"

Luxus was cut off as Kyuubi shattered the La'cryma, "It's useless listening to that guy spouting off a bunch of bullshit."

"We're here to fight too this time." declared Mirajane. "We don't need him."

Cana sighed, "I've taken into account having you two, but we still lost the Master. Having him around covers up for a lot of weaknesses. Even if Naruto isn't strong enough to take down Master Jose, having his endless supply of extra man power would tip it heavily in our favor."

"Right now the battle is even or slightly in their favor. With one more of our tops guns, we'd send them packing easy." added Lisanna. "And less people would get hurt on our side."

Their discussion was cut off by several loud banging noises that shook the guild.

"Shit! Everyone, that's coming from outside!" shouted Arzak from the entrance.

Everyone rushed outside to see what was going on. Their eyes widened and jaws all dropped in shock when the found the Phantom Guild Headquarters getting propelled by six mechanical legs, and heading right towards them.

"Their guild is walking..." mumbled a stunned Elfman.

"We are so screwed..." muttered Macau.

Ezra was at the front of the crowd, anxiously gritting her teeth, "I never even imagined the possibility of them attacking us like this."

Mirajane was right behind her, "What the hell are we going to do now?"

Kyuubi let out a roar of frustration, "DAMMIT! NARUTO! WHY AREN'T YOU HERE!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Back in her tree house, Porlyusica finished stirring up a medication and poured it down the throat of a sweating Makarov. Pressing her hand to his forehead, she felt his fever begin to break. Putting to down the tea cup with the medicine, she turned and frowned at Makarov before slapping him across the face.

"Rushing into things without considering your age." she muttered. "Look at you now, such a fool. If you don't try your best, you could really die like this."

Sighing, she picked up another cup to go and administer medicine to Naruto, but she found his bed empty. Looking towards the window she was almost blinded by a bright flash of light from outside. Taking a peek out the window, she didn't see any trace of him.

"I'm the one that does all the hard work and heals the boy, and then he runs off before he's full healed." grumbled Porlyusica as she walked back over to Makarov and slapped him again. "Rushing off before he's fully recovered. No doubt you've encouraged that type of stupidity. You're a guild full of fools..."

Although her words harsh, the look in her eyes conveyed her great amount of concern.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Atop one of the towers of Phantom Lord, Jose looked across the waters at Fairy Tail with no mercy, "Prepare the magical convergent canon, Jupiter. Command: Obliterate."

The front panel atop one of the towers flipped back to reveal the canon as it began to charge up with power.

Mirajane summed up everyone's collective thoughts as the canon started charging, "Oh shit."

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" yelled Erza as she rushed forward.

"What are you going to do?"

"She's using Ex-quip!"

"Holy crap! That's her Herculian Armor! Her strongest defensive magic!"

Erza stopped at the edge of the water, standing strong in her armor, "I REFUSE TO LET YOU DESTROY OUR GUILD!"

"Get out of the way! That thing can kill you!" shouted Mirajane.

Erza ignored her, remaining firm in her defense of the guild.

"It's ready, sir!" informed the canon operator with the Phantom control tower.

"Obliterate." coldly commanded Jose again.

Just as the canon was about to fire, the Fairy mages all felt something streak right past them. All the could see was the wake it left behind in the water and then a white flash that appeared below the canon before its barrel was suddenly knocked upwards. The blast fired off harmlessly across the skies.

The enraged Jose nealry popped a blood vessel as he caught sight of the figure that had stopped his attack. Down oon top of the water in front of Erza, stood Naruto decked out in his Hiraishin Armor, and he was pissed off. Most of the Fairy mages where a bit shell shocked by the sight of one of their S-class Aces showing up in such a dramatic fashion. Natsu was not one of them, the pink haired dragon slayer trembled with excitement because he knew it was finally time for some serious payback.

Naruto turned his glare he'd be sending at Jose, on his comrades, "What are you all standing there like a bunch of dumbasses for? Let's crush the pansy Phantoms!"

"Fuck yeah!" shouted Natsu.

This provoked a collective shout of, "HELL YEAH!"

Cana grinned as she looked around at everyone, with the confidence and fighting spirit of their guild restored, phantom didn't stand a chance.

"Happy!" shouted Natsu.

"Aye!" replied the cat as he sprouted wings, grabbed Natsu, and took off on a low fly across the water. In a white flash, Naruto appeared next to them, both slayers ready to unleash massive havoc on Phantom.

It's back! Been gone fromt his story way too long, got distracted by other projects. I'll try tighten up the update schedule, so it's not months until the next one. At least once a month updates. The main reason I updated, is that the Hiraishin Armor idea came to me and wouldn't go away. Anyway, drop a review and let me know of any other possible armor fusion combinations you can think of. I already have one other in mind for Wind and Fire.