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Yes ..." A breathless blushing Jellal gasped. Almost in a trance he pulled Naruko gently into his lap. No one noticed, but as he ran his fingers through her hair proceeding a kiss the red tips in her hair flaked away ...
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Makarov nearly fell off the counter in shock when a group of people loudly skidded into the guild, "Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Juvia? I'm glad you guys got back. You managed to return a month before the Grand Magic Games-" Makarov sweat dropped when he saw a poor battered and bruised Loki being dragged by the ankle behind Lucy. The spirit was barely conscious and that may have only been because he was quite cold from the ice ring around his neck. "Ummm ... is he ok?"
Lucy sighed, "I checked. He's fine, but right now we need to get to Naruko. Where is she?"
The urgency in Lucy's tone made Makarov deeply concerned, "She, Lexus, Jellal, Gajeel and Elfman left a while ago-oh! You only have a month to train for the Grand Magic Games-"
"That's not important! Naruko is in danger because of her magic! She will die!" Lucy yelled. Everyone in the entire guild fell silent ...
Makarov nodded quickly, "I gave them a mission to the little music village just west of here-"
Juvia's eyes lit up, "I know what village you mean! It's right on the water downstream, but going on foot will take a few days."
"We don't have days." Lucy pondered. "Happy, take Natsu and go ahead as fast as you can. When you get there get Naruko away from anyone you don't like seeing near her."
"Right!" The blue flying cat grabbed Natsu by the collar as he raced outside and they flew off.
"Ok ... Juvia, if we used our chakra to stand on you can you take us there using the water?" Lucy asked curiously.
"I can try." Juvia said determination in her eyes.
"Alright! Gray, grab Loki! We're going!" Lucy exclaimed as she gave Makarov and the others there in the guild a silent nod promising to take care of Naruko before she, Grey and Juvia raced to the water.
"Why do we need him?" Gray asked wondering why Loki, who was draped over his shoulder, had to come too when it might be better for the spirit to rest back at the guild.
Lucy watched as Juvia melded with the water in the lake and tried standing on the ripples, "Ok! This'll work!" She said and dragged Grey onto Juvia's form. Once Juvia started moving at a very fast speed she bothered answering, "errr ... how to put this? You know how most mages are perfectly fine if they run out of magic?"
"Yeah, why?" Gray asked getting a sinking feeling.
A glazed look came to here eyes, "Well with Naruko it's different. Her magic is tied to her blood so if she runs out she's in danger, but that's not the problem-"
"How is that not the damn problem?!" Gray yelled, but was promptly sprayed in the face by the pissed off rain woman under his feet for yelling at Lucy.
Lucy smirked at her protective girlfriend's actions before turning serious, "Some people build their magic to the point where they level up or gain something and that's where the danger is for Naruko. Her magic will want to level up, but it will become unstable and she will die because of the tie to her blood. The only way to allow her body and magic to grow together is to make bonds with her, as the book put it, matches. The matches, which can vary in numbers, have magic that will act like puzzle pieces to help her magic stabilize when a bond is made.and you need all the matches for her to live."
Gray paled, "So how do we know who is a match or how many there are?"
"That's why I sent Natsu ahead. The only blood mages who ever survived had a dragon slayer as a match. Dragon slayers can tell when someone is their mate's match and considering how Natsu acted around you and Loki you may both be matches." Lucy explained.
The ice mage tightened his grip on Loki, "How is a bond made?"
"Please say sex."
A vein on Gray's temple pulsed in anger and he glared at the perverted spirit he was carrying, "You're awake? I thought you passed out." Gray muttered a little annoyed that he was carrying the spirit who apparently recovered enough to be listening, alert and looked fine. He considered making Loki stand on his own, but then he remembered that Loki hasn't had any chakra training and would probably fall straight through Juvia so he begrudgingly held the spirit.
Lucy rolled her eyes at her perverted spirit's comment, "Loki isn't too far off, but sex can only be used to strengthen a bond not make one. If sex is used before hand her magic will attempt to lock on, but will only make a physical bond. That goes against the matches' whole purpose, which is to stabilize her magic. Only a ritual can create the right bond, but if the blood mage doesn't know it, they'll act on instinct, which means they'll usually just have sex because they misinterpreted the desire for a bond with ... well a desire for a bond."
"If you wanted Natsu to check who's around her does that mean she's not drawn to only her matches?" Juvia asked.
Lucy frowned, "No. According to the book, which was written by a mage who could do nothing to save his blood mage friend and dedicated his life to helping blood mages, it's not that simple. She'll search for a bond wherever, but if she relies on sex or has sex with the wrong person can become unstable. Dragon slayers can accidentally make things worse since they are driven by instinct and make the same misinterpretation-"
"Wait! Why are you so sure Naruko is going through this transformation thing right now?" Gray asked getting worried.
The celestial mage pondered trying to recall the exact things mentioned, but to be sure she unsealed several papers that had information taken straight from the book, "I didn't notice her hair turning red, but there was something that made me worry. It was not about Naruko."
Gray twitched, "You don't remember what it was-gah!" Gray glared at the rain woman who yet again sprayed him.
"I remember it, but it's hard to explain and may be nothing. It wasn't a simple trait and I wasn't too worried at first, but it's best to be safe ... it was something slightly odd-ah ha!" Lucy flipped over a page and held it so Gray could see it. "The thing was more about the bond with the familiar. It's easy to forget because we know Naruto's familiar as Minato, but the familiar is still tied to Naruko. Remember when Minato turned mostly into vapors, but kept his eyes?"
Gray shivered in fear at that memory, "Yeah ... creepy."
"Well he didn't always have the ability to control Sin to that degree, but then he lost control to a point. When Minato tried to follow Natsu that one time and he couldn't, that could be a sign that Sin was getting more powerful. Sin's power reflects that of his master and, like the mage, it reacts on instinct during this time. Sin let Naruko be alone with Natsu so a bond could be formed. If that's true then she could have been at this transformation stage for a while. I only hope I'm wrong."
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Natsu smelled an alluring scent and his eyes became dazed, "Happy, down there!"
"Got it!" Happy steered himself towards the lakeside house with the dock jutting out into the water and dropped Natsu. Happy was going to follow Natsu, but was tackled by something. "Ah! Help!"
"Calm down. It's just me."
Happy blinked and looked up to see his fellow flying cat, "Lily?" Happy smiled and turned to look for Natsu, but gaped when he saw that Natsu didn't even stop to help him.
Instead Natsu raced into the door of the house so fast that he didn't close the door. Poor Happy turned bright red at what sounds and sights were revealed with the door being open. Heated moans spilled out of the doorway and it was easy to see a very naked Naruko surrounded by her equally naked lovers.
"Natsu! Wait, Lucy said-" Happy stared in shock as the pink haired dragon slayer just stripped and joined the orgy by latching onto Naruto's breast with his mouth. "Natsu!"
Lily stopped Happy from moving to get Natsu, "Don't bother. They can't seem to hear us."
"What do you-" Happy's eyes lit up when he saw the gruesome bloody wraith float towards them. "Minato! You need to stop this-" Happy looked shocked when Minato, the overprotective father, simply shut the door. All the noise from the steamy activities in the house disappeared implying that a silencing seal was in place, but now they could hear Minato muttering curses.
"He doesn't have control anymore." Lily said.
"You don't understand!" Happy cried shaking the black and white exceed. "Lucy told us Naruto's life is in danger! They're coming now!"
"From the guild? Lucy should explain before we do anything." Lily asked seriously as he shifted into his battle torn, which was that of a tall human sized version of himself.
"Yes! They sent us ahead to get this under control!" Happy said urgently.
"Right! If they want to move fast then they'll come by water." Lily exclaimed as he flew up into the and over the river a ways until he spotted Lucy, Gray and Loki riding Juvia on the water moving fast. "Grab on!" He called down catching their attention. They grabbed onto the large exceed, even Juvia, and was pulled up into the air.
The second their feet touched the dock Lucy ran up to Sin who placed the scythe at her neck in a warning, "I know you can hear me, Sin. The bonds won't work that way. In order for Naruko to live a ritual needs to be done!"
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"Almost there." Danzo growled. "I'm running out of men." He commented a little annoyed that only three of his ROOT agents still traveled with them.
Hiruzen winced as he disturbed a bad injury on his back, "That's going to happen when you send them out as distractions-gah!"
Danzo watched in horror as his partner in crime began crawling at his face, "Hiruzen! Stop-" Danzo and his ROOT agents jumped back as blood and beetles poured onto the former kage's hands. By the time Danzo tried to grab his accomplice's blood soaked wrists it was far too late. Behind the bloody hands were empty eye sockets. Only bits of the actual eyes remained though they were being eaten by the beetles.
"Where are you going?!" Hiruzen screamed as he felt Danzo pull away.
Danzo scoffed, "You're a liability now." He said coldly before jumping into a tree with every intention of abandoning Hiruzen.
"I have the research!" Hiruzen smirked as he heard Danzo stop. "I even have a byakugan in a seal on me." He could almost hear Danzo scowl as he weighed the pros and cons of dragging a blind man along. A smirk came to Hiruzen's lips as Danzo could be heard jumping back to his side and helping him find his way.
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Jiraiya glared as the Danzo he was fighting popped in a puff of smoke revealing a ROOT agent, "You shits just keep on coming, don't you?" He barely dodged as the agent charged at him.
Once the agent got too close Jiraiya was going to kill him, but paled at the sight of 3 explosive tags strapped to the agent's back. Mere seconds before the massive explosion a swarm of insects made a wall and blocked him. He was still sent flying by the force of the blast, but he was alive.
"That was close." Shino said as he and several ninjas dropped down from the trees.
Jiraiya coughed up some blood, but stumbled to his feet. The same could not be said for the agent who was still alive, or the upper half was, "Why are you here?" He asked as the burned agent screamed in agony and flailed on the ground.
"My father managed to put bugs in Hiruzen's wounds. The eggs should hatch soon and we'll know where they're going." Shino said seriously.
Instead of charging in a random direction the team waited for Shibi's insects to come to Shino. They waited with only the sounds of the agent's pained gagging on blood and writhing to be heard. A few people wanted to just put an end to the man's agony, but Jiraiya didn't care. It wasn't until the agent tried dragging what was left of his body, leaving a trail of blood, guts and pieces of charred skin, towards Jiraiya that someone ended him with a kunai to the head. Soon after a swarm of blood soaked insects found them.
"They're almost to Magnolia." Shino reported and they quickly had to race after Jiraiya who was determined to cut off the two traitors before they found Naruko even if it required actually cutting them up ...
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Naruto's eyes opened weakly. She saw the blurry visages of her friends including Lucy who she was laying back on. The blurry form of a knife held by Lucy came down passed her vision and she felt the bite of cold metal against her throat followed by a gush of warmth ...