Chapter 22 edited
"What do you mean, hm, answer me you damned brat," Lucy demanded with a tick mark on her head as she looked at the boy who looked to be about Naruto's age, he had raven hair and a sour look on his face. He stayed silent however and continued to glare at her, Lucy looked at him carefully, "okay then, see you around, maybe," with that Lucy turned around and started walking away leaving the boy tied to the tree by her extendable whip,
"You're just going to leave me here?" she heard his voice yell from behind her, it was quite smooth but had a high pitch sound to it when he pronounced his E's,
"Yeah, I mean you're a strange boy who's been following me all day. You won't tell me who you are or why you've been following me, for all I know you could be sadistic creep trying to drag me back to your pit," Lucy called back as she walked away, just as she was nearing the exit she heard him yell for her to wait. Slowly turning around but staying near the exit in case he said something she didn't like,
"Sasuke Uchiha," he grumbled out and Lucy had to strain to hear him, she started walking closer to him,
"Say again?"
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," he said and then looked at her expectantly with a tired look,
"And you were following me because?" Lucy asked him, annoyed that he hadn't said so yet. Sasuke looked at her surprised for a moment before switching back to his ever so present glare,
"To observe," was his simple answer and Lucy got a tick mark on her head once again,
"Really I never would have guessed," she said sarcastically, "Why. Were. You. Observing. Me?" she emphasised each word and Sasuke's glare deepened,
"Because you're powerful," at this Lucy looked confused as well as concerned,
"Why does this matter to you?" she asked but wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer,
"Because if I'm going to achieve my goal I need power," he said slowly in a vengeful tone,
"If you think you can gain power just by stalking someone then you're stupid," Lucy said bluntly as she gathered her whip back up and stored it away before making her way out of the training grounds once again,
"Where are you going?" Sasuke yelled after her, he expected her to be impressed at his words or be flattered and offer to teach him,
"Home, I'm hungry and I'm annoyed because I've had a stupid little boy follow me around all day," was Lucy's reply as she walked away from the now fuming raven headed boy. On her way back to Kakashi's place Lucy thought about the look in Sasuke's eyes and decided that walking away from him was the right choice. With that look she didn't want to fuel his vengeful streak, maybe if he was looking for strength instead of power she would have hoped him but with the way, he said 'power' it was like he was hungry. Hungry for something that Lucy didn't want to serve to the table.
'If I bump into him again maybe I could help him out. If he asks instead of just expecting it, the brat,' Lucy thought to herself as she walked through the door of Kakashi's place and threw herself onto the couch,
"Hey Lucy," Kakashi said to her not looking up from his book, all he got in reply though was a loud groan, "what happened?" he asked and this time peaked at her from over the top of his book,
"I hate boys," was Lucy's reply and Kakashi froze in shock,
"Umm, wha-what do you mean?" he stuttered out, afraid of having any conversation with Lucy about his gender,
"They're just stupid, why do you look so pale Kakashi?" Lucy asked as she looked up at him,
"N-no reason," he said and cleared his throat, "so um, in what way are they stupid?" he asked hoping that this wasn't heading to where he thinks it is,
"A boy that looked to be about 10 years old was following me around today when I called him out on it because it was creepy he had the gall to be rude and disrespectful. The nerve," Lucy ranted on and Kakashi let out a sigh of relief,
'Thank god she isn't interested in boys yet, what am I going to do when she does like a boy?' Kakashi thought to himself as he watched Lucy talk about the rude boy from her day, 'worst case scenario I can just kill him and the problem goes away,' Kakashi smirked at his thoughts on how to solve this future problem,
"Hey, Kakashi," Lucy said loudly and Kakashi broke out from his thoughts,
"Hmm?" Kakashi grunted to let her know that he heard her,
"What's in that book that you like to read so much?" Kakashi once again froze, not knowing what to say to her,
"Nothing, it's really not that interesting," he said trying to be nonchalant, waving her off,
"But you read it all of the time, I never see you without it. So it's got to be interesting in some way," Lucy said and tried to take the book off of Kakashi,
"It's not interesting for children Lucy," Kakashi said as he lifted the book up and out of her reach and Lucy started to get suspicious,
"I read plenty of books that aren't interesting for normal children," she said slowly and Kakashi started to sweat, "what are you trying to hide Kakashi,"
"N-nothing, it's just an adult book that's all," Lucy froze and then put a disgusted look on her face,
"So you're the type to read that stuff in public huh," Lucy said accusingly and started to back away from him slowly. Kakashi realising what he just said tried to amend his mistake,
"N-no that's not what I meant," he tried to explain but Lucy kept inching away from him,
"You know what I should never have asked, umm I've got to go and uhm clean something," with that Lucy jumped up off of the couch with her face bright red and ran up to her room. Kakashi was sat frozen on the couch and had his hand out from when he attempted to put a hand on Lucy's shoulder, then he suddenly hunched his shoulders and had dramatic tears streaking down his face.
Up in her room, the Lucy's face was still red, 'Kakashi is a total pervert, reading that stuff in front of people what is he thinking? At least he's not stripping like Gray, or making stupid innuendos like Cana but reading porn out in the open?' Lucy's face flushed bright red once again, she was always very shy when it came to this stuff. Lucy may wear revealing clothing, she's even seen Gray naked before (who hasn't) but she's never had a boyfriend or even a first kiss, just a couple of dates. 'I'm never going to be able to look Kakashi in the eye again,' Lucy thought embarrassingly before grabbing her pillow in a hug and shoving her face into it, hoping to hide how red it was.
Time skip next day
Lucy quietly made her way down the stairs hoping to sneak out the door unnoticed, she was still embarrassed about yesterday.
"Lucy, want some breakfast?" Kakashi asked as he saw her walk past the kitchen quietly and Lucy jumped in surprise at his voice,
"No, t-that's okay I was just leaving," Lucy said not looking Kakashi in the eye before racing out of the door,
"O-okay," Kakashi said quietly in the now empty house before looking down at the kitchen table with a frown.
Lucy ran the entire way to the dango stand to get some sweet tea, her face was still bright red as she sipped her tea but she was pulled out of her thoughts by someone calling her from behind,
"Hello Lucy, nice to see you again," looking behind her she saw Kurenai and Asuma walking towards her,
"Hey, Kurenai, Asuma, are you guys on a date?" she asked then mischievously, knowing that if Mira could see her she would be proud. Both of them blushed faintly and stuttered out a reply,
"N-no we just b-bumped into e-each other on the w-way," Kurenai said waving her arms out in front of her. Asuma cleared his throat,
"What about you? You looked kind of flustered when we came in," Asuma stated and Lucy flushed red again. She played with her fingers as she whispered her reply,
"I just found out what Kakashi's always reading," Lucy's face got red as Asuma let out a loud laughed and Kurenai giggled a little bit, "I'm so embarrassed I wished I'd never found out," Lucy cried out and put her hands over her face,
"You know instead of being embarrassed you could think of this as an opportunity," Asuma said as he sat down next to her. Lucy took her hands away from her face and looked at him confused, "you know, to mess with him, publically embarrass him. That sort of thing," Lucy suddenly smirked and threw down the required money to pay for her tea and ran out with a quick thank you.
"Kakashi is going to kill you," Kurenai said to him after Lucy left,
"I know, I'm already regretting it," he groaned out and turned to order some dango.
Lucy wondered just how much those books meant to Kakashi, she was laughing to herself as she ran through the village, thinking of everything she could do all of the new possibilities. Lucy wondered if she should tell Naruto as well because he comes up with great pranks but decided against it. Kakashi already had his hands full with her, she didn't want to give the guy a stroke or something.
Once Lucy got to the front door of Kakashi's place she made her face go slightly red again and started acting the way she did before to keep him from being suspicious. Walking inside she found Kakashi in the lounge room reading his perverted book and flushed for real this time, sitting as far away from him as she could on the couch she got out her own book and started reading. After a few minutes, Kakashi looked up and noticed Lucy sitting on the far side of the couch. He scrambled to sit up properly and made sure to hide his book behind his back, although it was pointless because she already saw it, "Lucy, you're back. How has your day been?"
"It was okay," she said not looking at him, Kakashi sighed,
"Lucy, we should talk about this," Kakashi said and Lucy turned towards him,
"What do we need to talk about? You're a pervert, end of the discussion," Lucy said and turned around so that her back was facing him so he couldn't see that she was trying to hide a smile. Kakashi dramatically hunched his shoulders and tried to explain,
"It's not a dirty book, it's a masterpiece," at this Lucy cringed for real,
'just how perverted is he?' Lucy thought to herself, "sure," she drones out in disbelief,
"I'm serious, it's a piece written by one of the legendary Sannin of Konoha. He's a true artist," Kakashi said as he pulled out the book and help it up,
"Prove it," Lucy said bluntly,
"W-what?" Kakashi replied dumbly,
"Prove that it's not a dirty book and read some of it, out loud," Lucy said and turned around to face him. Kakashi's face started to turn red underneath his mask and Lucy caught sight of it. She smirked and pressed on, "come on if it's really a masterpiece you shouldn't keep it to yourself,"
At this Kakashi started to sweat, "it's still not an appropriate for kids," Kakashi tried,
"Is it violent?" she asked him,
"N-not really,"
"Is there swearing?"
"Yes, lots of swearing," Kakashi shouted out in excitement, glad to find something,
"Oh really? At which parts?" at this Kakashi got red all over again, "pervert," Lucy scoffed and got up to go to her room trying to keep herself from laughing as she went.
All week Lucy had been making snide comments to Kakashi about him being a pervert, every time he tried to convince her that he wasn't she turned it back around on him. She could see that this was started to affect Kakashi, so she decided to ease up on him for a bit.
Lucy was also still being followed by Sasuke, it was rather annoying. It was times like these that Lucy wished that she knew how to cast Genjutsu. This was also attracting attention from girls that were apparently obsessed with him, they always gave her glares and sent her the darkest of looks but they never did anything because they had seen her walking around with Kakashi and sometimes Ibiki. There was one bleach blonde girl, in particular, that seemed to glare daggers at Lucy but Lucy always left her alone because she hasn't done anything more, yet.
Lucy's medical ninjutsu training had also improved if only slightly, she could now heel cuts and wounds that would usually require stitches. She would probably never be as good as Wendy but she could help in an emergency. Lucy always thought about what would happen when she finally returned home, would she still be able to use chakra? The only reason why she can still use magic is that ethernano is still produced somehow in the air but at such a slow rate that people are not born with it. It made her wonder if chakra was produced on earth land at all. Thinking about all of this made her look back at the conversation that she had with Crux a while ago, her body doesn't absorb enough ethernano for her to actively use in battle. It's causing symptoms similar to that of magic deficiency syndrome and it's concerning Lucy and her spirits.
Lucy has yet to figure out how to store ethernano into objects for emergencies, no matter how much she tried the ethernano would always be released back into the atmosphere. When Lucy told Ibiki of her problem he was worried because there is no way for him to help her with this problem, nor is there any way that nurses could help her either. Ibiki said that if it came to the point where it threatened her life he would have to tell someone about where she really comes from and that scared Lucy more than it should. What if Naruto found out that all of the stories that she told him were true if slightly exaggerated for dramatic effect. Would he hate her? Look at her differently? Not trust her anymore? Not to mention what Kakashi would do, he might have her locked up for being crazy or worse. Kakashi may also hate her for not telling him, he is pretty sensitive to the topic. Would the Hokage use her for some freaky war plan? Would Orochimaru piggyback a ride to Earth Land when she finally goes back? All of these thoughts plagued her mind and worried her. Kakashi was beginning to see the bags that had started to show up underneath her eyes and Naruto kept on asking her what was wrong. They were worried about her and she was lying to them. How would she tell them? Could she ever tell them?
Lucy shook herself of her drowning thoughts as she tripped over something, picking herself up from the ground she looked at what she tripped over and saw that it was actually a boy with black hair and looked a lot like Shikaku, lying on the ground, "I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she hurried out as she bowed apologetically,
"What a drag," the boy drawled out from his place on the grass, then sat up slowly like it took his whole being to bring himself to do it, "women are so troublesome," at this Lucy got a tick mark on her forehead,
"Oh really?" she rhetorically asked annoyed, the mini Shikaku didn't answer only turned his gaze towards the sky and stared at it dumbly, "I'm Lucy Heartfilia it's nice to meet you," Lucy introduced herself and stuck her hand out for him to shake it but he didn't, he only continued to stare up at the sky,
"Don't take it personally he's always like that," someone said from behind her and Lucy turned to look at a particularly plump boy that was munching on a bag of chips, "I'm Choji Akimichi and that's Shikamaru Nara, it's nice to meet you," Lucy smiled at him,
"Lucy Heartfilia," she said politely in reply, "wait you mean Nara as in Shikaku Nara?" Lucy asked and Shikamaru looked over at her,
"You know my dad?" he drones out and Lucy nodded,
"If I'm being honest I've only met him once but he seems nice, a bit obsessed with this game called shogi though," Lucy said,
"So you're the girl that doesn't know what shogi is? My dad mentioned you at dinner not too long ago," Shikamaru said,
"I should think so; I've never even heard of it until Shikaku tried to explain it to me. Don't really understand still,"
"What a drag, follow me," Shikamaru said and got up slowly before he started to walk in the direction of the town with Lucy and Choji following him. Shikamaru kept walking until he got to what looked like a traditional family home with a forest surrounding the backyard, "I'm home," he formed out as he walking through the door with Choji following him closely and Lucy was currently talking off her shoes in order to go inside.
"Ahh Shikamaru, Choji this is earlier than usual what brings you here?" a familiar voice called out to them and Lucy rounded the corner that the boys had just gone passed to see who it was,
"Shikaku, it's nice to see you again," Lucy said once she realised who it was,
"Lucy, it seems like you've met my son," Shikaku said smiling and Lucy nodded her head,
"Dad, Lucy still doesn't know what shogi is," Shikamaru stated bluntly like it was going to explain their whole reason for being here. Shikaku nodded his head and got out a board and a wooden box and set them on the table.
"Let's teach her then," Shikaku states as he starts setting up the board and Shikamaru sits in front of him to start playing.
Fairytail POV (finally)
It's been 2 years and 3 months since Lucy disappeared and Natsu still hasn't stopped looking. He's officially taking a break from the team until he 'gets his partner back,' Happy spends all of his time helping Natsu or eating fish. Though both boys have eased up on the obsessive searching when Mira made a compelling argument of 'you don't want to look like Gray with those droopy eyes when you finally get to see her again, do you?' While Gray was not happy with this it did get Natsu to take shorter missions and start having full nights of sleep again.
Natsu walked into the guild and grabbed another job off of the board and went to Mira to get it signed off.
"Natsu," he heard a petite voice call out and saw Levy walking towards him with Gajeel in tow, "I might have found a lead on Lucy, may we join you?"
Natsu smiled his regular toothy grin, "Let's go," he shouted and ran towards the doors and headed towards the train station with a smiling Levy and grumbling Gajeel following behind him.
End Fairytail POV
Lucy was currently playing her first game of shogi against Shikamaru when Choji was sitting by and watching while eating bags of chips. Both Lucy and Shikamaru were struggling to gain the upper hand, Shikamaru had never played against someone like Lucy before and Lucy had never played period.
'Come on Lucy, you were trained by the Fairy Tactician, Fairytail's first master. However briefly, you can beat a kid at shogi. Let's see, if I move here I'll get taken by the knight, if I move here his bishop can move into check. I can see why a tactician would like these types of games but I'm not that type of tactician. I solve problems on the go not plan for war before the first battle takes place,' Lucy thought to herself sweating, 'for Mavis sakes, how can I beat a family of ninja tacticians at shogi?' Lucy then paused her at those thoughts, 'I'm not a ninja tactician, I'm a wizard tactician and I need to start acting like one,' with this in mind Lucy relaxed and made her move. Shikamaru was shocked to see her move, it was an obvious move that created a lot of possibilities for him.
Shikamaru quickly made his move and Lucy saw that he moved his silver general or Gin and attacked Lucy's golden general or Kin. Golden Generals were mostly used for defense while Silver Generals were used to attacking, 'he took the bait,' Lucy thought to herself but kept her face the same. Lucy almost laughed to herself when she realised what she was doing in the beginning since when do Fairytail members stay on the defensive? Never, they attack head-on, give it their all and end with a bang.
10 minutes later the game ended a d Lucy had her Pawns lined up in front of Shikamaru's King trapping him from moving while using her leftover Knight to place him in check, her Rook and Bishop placed in spots that would still place Shikamaru's King in check if he moved. Shikamaru was looking at the board in disbelief and so was Choji,
"I didn't even realise it was happening," Shikamaru said at this moment Shikaku walked in and saw the board,
"She beat you huh? How did she surround you like that though?" He questioned and all three boys looked towards Lucy,
"I decided to take a risk and disregard my defense pieces, when Shikamaru moved to take them I would then use my next move to place a Pawn in the correct spot before starting the process over again, he didn't even realise that I also placed my Knight, Bishop and Rook in certain places until I moved my last Pawn," Lucy explained her strategy and looked up to see the looks on the boy's faces, Shikaku looked at her, not in amazement or impressed at what she'd done but in curiosity. The disregarding defense was risky and not a lot of people would take the risk, despite the fact that she won all of her defenses was captured while Shikamaru had a majority of his pieces, just not in the right spot to do anything to prolong the game.
Not long after that Lucy noticed how late it was getting and decided to go back to Kakashi's place before he started to worry, he was kind of strange when it came to things like that. Like he wanted to say something but didn't, she never pried but it was starting to get annoying. Shaking herself out of her thoughts Lucy came back to an empty house and thought that Kakashi had gone on a mission so she didn't question it.
"It's Naruto's birthday this weekend, I should do something for him," she said out loud and started making the preparations for it.
Time skip a few hours
Lucy heard the door open and walked out to greet Kakashi but when she did he walked straight past her as if he didn't see nor hear her. He looked worried about something and Lucy decided to leave him alone for the moment and went to make dinner. She decided to make simple rice balls and a pot of green tea.
"Kakashi, dinners ready," Lucy said as she knocked on his door once she had finished in the kitchen.
"I'll eat something later," Kakashi called to her through the door.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine, just not hungry," at this Lucy frowned. Kakashi usually didn't feel hungry but ate dinner anyway because he rarely eats during the day unless Lucy forces him too.
"Have you eaten today?" Lucy questioned through the still closed door,
"I said I'll have something later," Kakashi snapped slightly,
"Kakashi, we both know that I'll make you eat. So why don't you make it easier for the both of us and come down for dinner?" Lucy tried once again, but Kakashi didn't respond.
Lucy huffed and walked back down into the kitchen to grab a small plate filled with rice balls and walked back up to Kakashi's room. "Kakashi if you don't open the door I'll open it myself," Once again Kakashi didn't say anything so Lucy pushed the door open and it fell against the wall with a loud bang. Kakashi jumped up started, he was laying on his bed on top of the covers reading his perverted book, seeing this Lucy grabbed a rice ball and made her way over to him.
Kakashi started to back away slightly, at this point Lucy jumped towards him and tried to pull down his mask to shove the rice ball into his mouth, "eat it," Lucy yelled as she continued to try and Kakashi held her up at arm's length underneath her shoulders.
"I said that I'd get some later," Kakashi yelled out as he pulled his face away from her little hands. Seeing as this wasn't getting her anywhere Lucy reached up and smudged the rice ball into his hair. Kakashi froze for a moment before slowly putting Lucy on the ground before walking towards the door to his room. Lucy was confused when he stopped at the door but then suddenly she had a rice ball thrown into her face. Kakashi was standing beside the door with the plate in his hands and Lucy looked panicked, she started to inch away from him and screamed when he lunged towards her.
By the time they had run out of rice balls both Lucy and Kakashi were covered in rice and were breathing heavily. Lucy toppled over onto Kakashi's bed and Kakashi was lying on the floor, "are you okay now, Kakashi?" Lucy asked in between breaths,
"Mostly," he answered, "I want to tell you something though," he said and Lucy sat upon Kakashi's bed as he took a seat beside her, "It's how I lost my teacher and then did something stupid," Kakashi explained and Lucy listened intently at what he was about to tell her.
"It was during the nine-tail attack on Konoha, this was just over a decade ago, the fourth Hokage and his wife had a child on this day. Someone came and released the Nine-tails from his seal though, no one is absolutely certain as to who. Anyway, the fourth Hokage protected the village to the best of his abilities but it didn't look like the beast was going to let up so Lord fourth sealed the beast inside of his newborn son," Lucy looked shocked at this, Naruto is the Fourth Hokages, son? And people still treat him that way, "during the fight, Lord Third ordered all of the younger generations of ninja to stay out if the fight to protect the future of the village. Both the Fourth Hokage and his wife died that night, from sealing away the nine-tailed beast inside of their child. The Fourth Hokage was my Genin teacher and after this, I became umm resentful towards the third Hokage for ordering the young ninja away from the fight."
At this point, Kakashi paused in thought before continuing on, "someone got into my head and played on these thoughts, convinced me that it would be better if the third Hokage didn't retake the seat of Hokage. This person convinced me to conspire against Lord third and sent me and a couple others to assassinate him, I had a change of heart and told Lord third about what was going on," Kakashi looked at Lucy after telling her this and she looked at him in concern, which shouldn't of surprised Kakashi, "Lucy I need you to promise me to stay away from that person," Kakashi suddenly said and grabbed Lucy by her shoulders,
"Who?" Lucy questioned,
"Danzo,"
"The bandaged up elder?" Lucy asked and Kakashi nodded, "If he's really behind it then why is he still an elder?"
"That doesn't matter at the moment, just promise me you'll stay away from him,"
"Has something happened Kakashi?"
"Just promise me, Lucy," Kakashi stressed,
"I promise," Lucy said hesitantly, at her words Kakashi sighed out in relief, "we should probably clean up," Lucy said as she looked around and saw rice all over the walls and carpet.