Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter 5:

Mirajane clicked her tongue at the utter devastation Fairy Tail caused during last night's celebration and uncontrollable partying. It wasn't anything new, and the woman really should not have expected any different...but the responsibility of starting the cleanup always fell upon her thin shoulders once the dust settled and everything was said and done. Whenever the first signs of sleep began to affect the reveling mages, Mira always made sure to start winding down their excitement before eventually heading off to her own place for a good night's sleep.

Someone had to be the responsible one in this place. Goodness, she was only nineteen but acted like a den mother to the guild. Something she actually co-shared with Erza, but the redhead did not actively work within the building, and therefore the eldest Strauss usually ended up being the dependable one in such a situation. Her former rival was known to occasionally relax more than she usually allowed and let loose when she was in a particularly good mood. This happened to be one of those times, meaning she was alone in being in charge that day.

She wasn't complaining though. Mirajane loved her life and job, and wouldn't have had it any other way.

...

...

Okay, perhaps there were a few things that the young idol dearly wished could be different. But you couldn't change the past, and the enthusiasm all the Fairies shared always helped bring a smile to her face regardless.

Mira picked up the ends of her dress and twirled around a few unconscious bodies lying upon the wooden floor with practiced ease, occasionally grabbing an empty glass or dirty plate on her journey to the bar. She would start, the other waitresses would join in as they started their shifts, and once her comrades awoke from their (mostly) alcohol-induced slumber they would blearily join in the cleanup. It was an old routine by now.

The silvernette found Lucy seated at a stool slumped over the bar, arms and breasts acting as a cushion against the firm foundation of the counter. The blonde would occasionally release a cute little noise and mewl which caused Mirajane to grin; near her was an empty bottle of sake that the model remembered bringing out at Cana's behest. Considering how nervous the Beast was about drinking last night, and the slight smell of alcohol on Lucy's breath when Mira leaned in, it was likely she only had a few sips of the beverage after some urging.

And so that also meant...

Was Lucy a lightweight? How endearing.

Looking around, the girl failed to see the likeliest culprit behind her friend's drinking but knew she had to be somewhere within the building. However, she did pick out others, all sporting some sort of bruising or other sign of battle. It was a given here in Fairy Tail. They were a great big family, but like all families they were prone to fighting with one another.

There was Gray (sans clothes) curled up in a corner. Natsu was snoring away on the remains of a table that was folded over from impact. Her brother was half seated upon a stool, with Jet and Droy lying unconscious around his form. Bee was seated rather calmly on the floor with his back against the wall; Mirajane had no idea if he was awake due to his sunglasses but the large man had yet to move as she made some noise once in awhile.

Ah, and there was Makarov. Levy. Mickey and Bisca. Macao, Wakaba, and Happy. Alzack and Max. So on and so forth, until her blue eyes finally centered upon two sets of vibrant red at the far end of the room. Curious, the woman set a glass of water near Lucy for when she awoke before stepping out from behind her bar. Her heels clacked sharply in the near silence of the guild.

As the Strauss drew closer to the benches, it was to the discovery of a curious sight: Gaara was awake and sitting upright while reading a book. Erza was there, miraculously without her outer layer of armor, surrounded by plates covered in cake residue and an arm stretched out in front of her as she slept against the table. The piece of furniture was obviously broken, bent inward at the middle where a medium-sized jagged hole now rested. Something interested had happened and Mirajane sadly missed it.

Gaara turned a page before looking up, wide green eyes neutrally looking at the woman before he nodded his head as a sign of acknowledgment. "I'm surprised to see anyone awake at this hour," she said after arriving behind her slumbering friend.

"I do not sleep much." Or at all, really. Although the former jinchuriki could now rest without losing control to a homicidal tanuki, old habits die hard. Besides, the darkness gave him time to himself.

"Oh...what happened here?"

"Erza-san is a...sore loser."

Mirajane giggled lightly before she began to collect the plates nearly burying her female friend. "I could have told you that. She does have a temper. But this is far more cake than I'm used to seeing. What set her off this time?"

Gaara stood and began helping her collect the dishes after closing the novel and slipping it inside his vest. She smiled gratefully at the gesture. "While Erza-san may be a sore loser, it does not help that Naruto is someone who himself has difficulty losing. Somehow they started a game of rock-paper-scissors and it only escalated. Every round, Erza-san grew more frustrated and ordered more dessert each time."

"And that's why the table is broken?"

"No, but I do believe that is a part of the reason."

As they walked away, the first of the patrons began to groan and wake up, clutching their heads or other body parts depending upon how injured they were. More and more began to stir until finally the legion of Fairies was up and about, slowly recalling what led to their current predicaments.

Likewise, Killer Bee rose up and stretched without problems, cracking his neck before looking around and surveying the guild. He hadn't had this much fun since his little enka stint in the woods with Master Sabu-chan and Ponta before that Kisame fellow from Akatsuki showed up to cause problems. The Kumo nin had met a slew of interesting people here in Magnolia and, although none of them were rap aficionados like himself, some of them tried at least.

That Elfman fellow kept calling him 'super manly' and wanted to learn. It hadn't gone so well and all the drinking didn't help, but Bee had still enjoyed himself. He helped said mage to his feet when Elfman tried to stand and nearly tipped over. His bloodshot eyes and sweaty hair made the Fairy appear sickly and ghoulish as she looked over the darker-skinned male. "N-no hangover?...that's-urp...that's quite manly..."

"Moderation is the key, y'see."

Elsewhere, a certain brown-eyed Requip mage was wondering why her body felt so sluggish and slow despite not drinking any alcohol during the festivities. Slowly sitting up in her chair she felt her chest scrape against the table and Erza looked down in surprise. The metal shell she was used to wearing was missing; although not a cause for alarm, the breastplate acted heavily like a security blanket for Erza and to not have it equipped was strange. Instead her torso was merely covered in a long-sleeved white dress shirt with a ribbon tied in a bow at her throat, the clothes she usually wore underneath...although lately she felt the need to try something else.

Was this the change? Because the Scarlet had meant in shirt choices, not completely removing the armor. Besides, she could always just put another one of her armor plates on if the feeling of exposure became too much. And also...why couldn't she remember the cause behind it?

Ignoring the hole in the clearly broken table, Erza blinked and smacked her lips. There was nothing but the taste of sugar in her mouth. The buxom woman dearly needed to brush her teeth.

Someone groaned and a hand rose from opposite her from underneath the table. Moments later it was followed by a head of spiky yellow hair and blue eyes, as Naruto got up and pulled his chair up from where it had been knocked over sometime during the night. His headband had fallen around his neck at some point, and his jacket was missing.

"What the hell?" he mumbled before looking up, meeting Erza's sight before glancing down at the center of the table.

Then it all came back.

They couldn't remember how the juvenile game began but it had gotten so out of hand that by the end of it Erza was steaming mad, having bet and lost all her pocket money. But her unwillingness to give up until the redhead won and the amount of cake fueling her body even saw her lose her custom Heart Kreuz armor piece to the blond.

She had stood up, punched right through the table, and then promptly crashed from the combination of her emotions and the falling sugar high. Her forehead hurt a little bit too where it hit.

With a grunt Naruto turned away from the bleary knight and ducked underneath again. But when he resurfaced, he was joined by the softly grinning Cana Alberona who, for all the massive amounts of alcohol she consumed, only had a mild hangover to show for it. He was lifting her by the scruff of the neck which...Erza found incredibly odd considering she barely ever wore something with a collar to do so.

"Give me back my coat."

"No."

Blinking again, the Titania indeed realized that Cana's torso was cloaked in the striking orange and black of their comrade's jacket...naturally left unzipped to make space for her generous bust.

"You tricked me."

"You put your jacket up instead of money. Your fault. This thing is actually pretty darn comfy even though it's all beaten up; no wonder you never take it off."

Naruto growled before rubbing his face. "Fine. Another round of cards. Money against the coat."

The Card Mage tapped her chin thoughtfully before shaking her head. "Yeah, nope."

Pouting, the blond opened his hand and dropped Cana with a squeak. "I will get it back, just you wait. That's a pretty special jacket to me and I never go back on my word. But so long as you take good care of it I won't mind too much. For now. "

"What...did I miss?" Erza eventually asked.

"Cana cheated at poker. I don't know how, but she did."

The female's slender hand rose up from beyond the edge of the desk and waggled its forefinger. "You're a soooooore loser! Unnatural luck can only get you so far~!" the brunette supplied before hiccupping, her arm vanishing yet again.

"Totally cheated. She must have done something to the deck."

"Yes, well." Erza then cleared her throat, disliking the way her body still felt drained. "Notify me when you next play again. I too wish to earn back my breastplate."

Naruto made some sort of noise and he pulled his hitai-ate back to its proper place and wandered away, likely to go meet up with his own guildmates while planning revenge. By now Cana had taken his former seat and was watching the shinobi walk off, head propped up by her hands and a smirk on her lips. She seemed entirely too pleased with herself. "I still don't know him very well, but Naruto doesn't seem like the type of person to roll over and give in." Her brown eyes flickered over to Erza. "But he should have realized how bad an idea it was to go up against a Card Mage in a card game."

Intrigued, Erza's normally strong demeanor was replaced by a curious, cat-eyed, and more timid woman. It was something they did not see very often unless the redhead felt entirely out of her element. In fact the Alberona had not seen that expression on her friend's face for a few years now. "...did you actually cheat?"

"Well now...do you want to know the truth? Or would you rather win your armor back?"

Cana's smirk grew toothier as the strongest woman in the guild and a rather terrifying individual altogether shivered under the decision and bit the tip of her thumb. Eventually, Erza Scarlet looked back up and shook her head. "I believe I'm good."

"I figured. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling thirsty and I see Mirajane's back at the bar."

Cana quickly shuffled away, readjusting her new coat and its lopsided sleeves. In the lull Erza decided to clean up a bit before assisting with the post-party cleaning. In a flash of magic, a toothbrush dropped into the redhead's waiting palm before she stood to walk off towards the bathroom. Hopefully she could get there before the rush of recovering partygoers jammed it all up and she was forced to wait.

And if not? Her comrades were always exceedingly willing to let her get in there and do her business so long as she asked nicely enough. Nicely, and with a polite, firm voice.

The walk back to Balsam was a quiet but faintly tense affair. The three boys were the liveliest of the bunch, talking with each other about the experiences in Magnolia as well as Naruto's 'fun' during the master's meeting. The blond was in a dour mood though, still fuming over his loss to that damn alcoholic, but Gaara's claim of the Magic Council backing them in their apparent guild crisis lightened his temper a bit.

"Why did you agree so easily though? Except for that one guy who said he'd help us out, the rest of them sound like it's barely on their list of things to do." It didn't make much sense to Naruto. They had an enemy who knew them but not vice-versa. They should have been out...I don't know...following in Jiraiya's footsteps and searching out information. They'd already done so by alerting Fairy Tail and the other guild masters but the Konoha nin felt like there was so much more to be done.

Gaara though, he always had a logical reason. "This is not the Elemental Nations. Our names do not carry the weight they once did. Our intel on this world and its environment, even after the few months of living here, is still sorely lacking. I understand that lingering and waiting for things to fall into place is difficult for you...but here in Fiore, it is currently the safest route." The redhead turned his face to look at his friend. "I suggest we continue shoring up the defenses of the guild and expanding our network. Despite our experience, we are the novices here. The power of magic is just as extensive as chakra; however there are things even we will have difficulty against. The seals of Dark Unicorn, for example."

Naruto and Bee shared a look. The larger man gave a swift nod before the Nine-tail's jinchuriki sighed and nodded as well. Gaara was the one who had the experience. He knew the ins and outs of leading on a daily basis. Naruto may be the leader, but he had learned it was foolish not to listen to good advice when it was given.

"Alright, we'll do it your way. I suppose it makes sense. We don't have any leads anyways."

"Thank you," Gaara said simply. He was actually quite proud of his very first friend. He was much more tactical and prone to planning ahead, a far cry from the young boy who was so focused on breaking the sand-user from his tanuki form at the Chunin Exams that he completely disregarded a landing strategy while both were exhausted and falling from hundreds of feet up.

"Urg..." Lucy groaned from where she sat glued to Naruto's back. "Don't talk so loud..."

In that instant a teasing grin spread across the ninja's face despite the situation. "Is this going to be common occurrence or something whenever we return to Balsam? For wanting to toughen yourself up, you sure have no problem taking the easy way out. I mean, you barely drank anything-"

A fist slapped into the side of the boy's head although the hit was ineffective. "Shut up! Don't be rude to the delicate lady! And it's common sense, training when you're suffering doesn't create progress!" Lucy then groaned again and clutched her head. "I can't wait to get back to my bed...just let me die..."

Bee laughed and Lucy made a halfhearted attempt to lash out at him, nowhere close to touching the Kumo jinchuriki. Didn't they understand the pain she was going through? How could they not be suffering as well? It was so unfair! Damn that Cana for goading her into drinking that, that booze! It tasted horrible but to be polite she had two small saucers, one with Cana and then another when she was properly introduced to Levy! She'd never drank before...but for a first time it shouldn't have been so terrible, right?

Was her constitution really so pitiful? This was so unfair!

~0~

Back in Magnolia Mirajane stared at the nearly empty bottle of Rose Vineway Sake, the alcohol she'd handed over when the buxom card-user ordered something to share with Lucy as a sign of camaraderie. It was a rather pricey vintage and incredibly potent. The waitress should have paid more attention originally, as she'd believed it was another brand and had been too busy to fully check. A minor mistake, but one that apparently had a major consequence.

No wonder poor Lucy was out like a light after just imbibing a small amount. Only someone who abused their liver daily like Cana stood a chance at remaining coherent. Oh well, nothing that could be done about it now.

Besides, it looked like Cana owed her a lot more Jewels than first thought. The Alberona always made good on her debt...even though it usually took some time for her to scrounge up enough cash before once again building up another tab. No worries though. Mirajane would collect, one way or another.

~0~

The rest of the trip to Balsam was completely uneventful. Lucy was gone the moment they came upon the guild building, shutting herself in her room to continue her recovery with the express orders to please be quiet. The others, lacking the need to recuperate, just spread out to try and do any minor repairs that could be found.

Two days later saw them trying to move furniture into the building. The guild was finally beginning to take proper shape; once they had some goods stocking the shelves, Kage Beast could finally open its doors to the public like the other groups tended to do.

Now they just needed to find more members.

Five days after the party saw Lucy once again meditating in the clearing with a watchful Bee studying her progress. The young blonde still had a long way to go before she reached a perfect state of detachment but at least she had a closer link to the magic flowing through her veins. Yet, all the euphoria she felt from her initial discovery as well as the fun of Fairy Tail's party was beginning to fade, with the more harshness of reality setting back in. Bee claimed she was still making progress but the pretty summoner was not very convinced.

She couldn't help but begin feeling slightly inadequate though, since the amount of magic channeled all at once was...rather pitiful.

Seeing her face tensing in a frown, the Kumo jinchuriki sighed and shook his head. "Ya gotta let the resentment go."

The busty girl clicked her tongue, immediately falling out of her dazed condition. "I know!" she stated rather sharply before running a hand through her faintly sweaty hair. "I know. But...seeing the control and amount of energy you all have...is disconcerting, you know? I understand that you three have tons more experience than me but..."

"You're doing fine!"

Lucy shrieked and bounced in her spot, heart suddenly going a mile a minute behind her large chest. Naruto had popped up out of nowhere and him speaking in her ear nearly caused the Earthland native to have a heart attack.

"DON'T DO THAT!"

But Naruto just laughed. "So how's the training going?"

"Good/bad," both Bee and Lucy responded at the exact same time before looking at each other. "The little lady feels she's still the same. Yet Killa Bee keeps telling her that opinion is lame."

Lucy pursed her lips and stared blandly at her teacher and his admittedly lame rhyme before turning back towards the curious blue-eyed ninja. "Despite what he thinks, I don't believe I'm gaining anything else after the initial discovery."

"Welp, that's why I'm here. Training is well and good, trust me, I know it well. But a little variety keeps the body guessing. What you need-" Naruto pointed at the top-heavy Heartfilia, "-is to start finally getting proper experience."

Brown eyes grew wide before snapping over to Bee, who looked intrigued by the declaration. "Wait, are you saying-"

"Yup! All you've done so far is work at the restaurant, and while it was good at getting your feet wet, I think it's time for you to do something harder. The job will be something bigger, something to really challenge you. I'll be along as well in case there's something you can't handle but that's highly unlikely."

Lucy quickly hopped to her feet and brushed off the butt of the workout jeans she'd taken to wearing whenever they were out in the forest. "When are we going?"

"As soon as possible, if you want."

"Then I'll go get changed!" Her excitement was growing at a rapid pace, and wasn't dampened in the least when the blonde male called after her to say it would be unnecessary. As the girl rushed back towards the city regardless the two males followed after her at a much more sedate pace. The container of the Eight-tails had re-strapped the docile Samehada to his back while Naruto threw his arms behind his neck and walked along. The grass softly crunched underfoot before Bee quickly ran a finger across the bridge of his nose.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

The younger ninja's mouth quickly stretched into a wide grin despite himself. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The light just so happened to glance across the Kumo native's sunglasses at that moment, causing them to glare ominously. "Looks like Number Nine can be a bastard just fine. Well, better you than me once she figures it out." Naruto simply chuckled but didn't say anything else.

This was too good an opportunity to pass up.

A cloud of darkness hung over Lucy Heartfilia as she continued to pull the weeds from the Balsam garden. The knees of her pants and the gloves provided by the homeowner were caked with dirt, and a few stray splotches of soil darkened her skin and tight shirt. Her yellow hair was pulled back in a pair of loose pigtails. Little Plue trudged back and forth with the occasional plant in its 'paws', doing as best as it could to help its master, completely ignorant of the load of negativity bleeding off the young female.

Her teeth ground together as she neared the final portion of Mrs. Katroy's vegetable patch. For two hours the mage had toiled in the older woman's yard cleaning it up while Naruto was who knows where, probably laughing over her misfortune.

How dare he do this! Get her all worked up and then drop this bomb on her!

Chores! Labor! The sort of low-end stuff she never expected to do while in a guild! Yet Naruto claimed now that Balsam Village had a resident guild, the cheap missions were beginning to pop up on their doorstep. The bastard called them D-rank missions despite not having a proper label and then just left her, popping away in a cloud of smoke!

Grumbling and grumbling until finally the last unwanted sprout was plucked and thrown away in its proper receptacle, Lucy sighed and wiped away the sweat covering her brow. She then snatched the water bottle out of Naruto's hands the moment it appeared at her periphery, glaring at him from over the plastic just for showing up again. She gave the small amount left to Plue before standing up and taking a swing at the boy, who in turn took the hit just to let her cool off a bit. It barely hurt anyways...not like Sakura.

"You. Are. An. Ass!"

"Welcome to the big leagues!"

"You're still an ass! Where have you been?!"

"Out doing some work of my own. And trust me, I know exactly what you're going through. When I first became a ninja I'm pretty sure Kakashi-sensei made my team do like hundreds of D-ranks. Nothing but glorified chores...but we got paid for it." He then leaned forward and pointed at her. "You are so lucky I didn't see any missions involving a missing cat."

Lucy huffed and turned away, chest bouncing as she did so. "I'm a mage, not a ninja."

"And yet, the system here is essentially the same damn thing. You're a new registered mage, remember? Just like when our genins were put in squads. It's the perfect opportunity! I'll never get to teach my own team-"

"-so you're going to torture me instead?"

"For now," he said with another annoying smile. "Until we get some more people. Don't worry, we'll just be doing this for awhile. I'm not sadistic."

"Tomorrow I'm taking my own mission then," Lucy said resolutely with her nose in the air, "one that's not considered a errand."

"Sure. Go ahead. Until then..." From behind his back he pulled out a small packet filled with Jewels and another piece of paper. "There's more to do. I already picked up the reward so let's get to the next job!"

He turned on his sandal and started to walk away, leaving behind a distraught girl worrying over what was next in store for former noble lady such as herself. Pulling off the gloves and handing them to Plue so the summon could run over and return them, the buxom blonde sighed and began to trudge after her current partner. Lucy did say she would give 100% during her time here in the guild after all.

She was feeling pretty darn deceived at the moment though. Eh...she'd try complaining to Gaara and see if the redhead would pick on Naruto in turn for him doing so to her.

That caused the pigtailed blonde to giggle behind her hand and get a bit of pep in her step.

Later on as the girl was forced to walk four dogs at once (pulling her in every which direction), Naruto did another vanishing act and laughed over the Heartfilia persistently cursing him out. He sat in a nearby tree with a bowl of noodles just as he did during the gardening, watching the festivities from the safety of the leaves. No wonder Kakashi was such an asshole to Team Seven during his youth; this was totally entertaining!

A short update compared to what I normally do. Not much to say, really. And yes, I realize Lucy hasn't gotten Virgo. And won't be there for the Galuna key. And the whole thing with Leo. I've got all that planned for so don't worry.

*Ah, and some interesting news! I've finally got a video up on my Youtube channel, should you have an inkling of interest in that. I just sorta fool around in Minecraft with my buddy...but it's something. The production value is amateurish but hey, we're amateurs. So long as we keep at it we'll get better. And have more unique content.

So thanks for reading, or reviewing, or subscribing, or watching, or whatever else you feel like doing regarding my work. See you next time.