Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and Naruto are works of their respective creators. I do not own or gain profit from this story.

Yeah…I've got no skill in regards to giving titles to the chapters, but I felt like this fit.

Anyways, sorry that this chapter took longer to update than the other ones. I don't tend to think of what's going to happen per chapter, but rather per arc. So if I wanted to start writing this chapter then I at least wanted to know what I wanted to play out and how this section was going to end.

I was also considering the teammates and I'm happy to say that I've finally decided on what is going to happen. This took a lot of time because many of the characters have stories of their own that I want to play out and keep for upcoming arcs. Biggest thing I had to consider was the seven year gap in the anime/manga. Did I want Naruto to age or go to the island? Who did I want to keep on the island? Etc. etc.

This chapter goes into more detail about Naruto's magic. It's sort of an "intro" into this arc. It's doesn't follow the canon story line, but it doesn't disrupt it either. Think of it as a my own mini-arc inside the anime. I think having to come up with this on my own was the difficult part.

Chapter 4: One…is the loneliest number

It's been two weeks since Naruto had joined Fairy Tail and things were running pretty smoothly. He'd gotten to know some of the guild members rather well and had managed to snag a few simple town requests to get himself better acquainted with his new surroundings. Although Evergreen and Bixlow how been rather cool to him since they found out it'd been him to capture Laxus.

Master Makarov had allowed him to sleep in the guild's basement while he tried to save up enough jewels to rent out an apartment. Apparently Fairy Tail used to have a boy's dormitory, but the building had been destroyed due to the some of their more rambunctious tenants. Namely Natsu and Gray. Now all they had were the girl's dormitory while the men just rented apartments, although some of the girls like Lucy opted for cheaper facilities outside the guild.

'Her rent's 80,000 jewels a month and she thinks that cheap?!' Naruto thought to himself, '100,000 jewels for the dormitories?! Good grief…Then again, this guild's pretty famous, the requests come by the hundreds.'

He thought back to the times that he would just wander from town to town and test his luck at finding the remaining six Primordial Spirit Keys or a decent paying job. Typically he'd usually just stay at a hotel, a friendly townspersons house, or the occasional tree branch. It worked well for him. Unfortunately it also meant Naruto had been living paycheck to paycheck and didn't have any savings to rent an apartment immediately after joining Fairy Tail. Orphan to wandering mage wasn't exactly a high income career choice.

Luckily Master Makarov had offered to let him stay in the guild basement in exchange for helping Mirajane run the bar. It wasn't going to be much longer before Naruto has saved up enough to get a place of his own. He'd already contacted a landlord that owned a cottage near the edge of town, just near the forests, and he'd told Naruto he'd hold the place for another month.

'I'm probably going to need a team if I want to do the higher paying jobs,' he thought to himself, as he wiped down one of the barstools while Mirajane cleaned the counter in front of him, 'but who's not already in grouped up?'

It was the early morning and the rest of the guild would probably be arriving within the next hour to search for job requests for themselves.

"Hey boss! Where do you want me to put these beer kegs?"

Looking up at whoever called him, Naruto saw one of his clones had returned from the market errand he'd sent him on. The clone was currently wheeling in about ten kegs on a large wheelbarrow and was waiting for him to answer.

Naruto pointed over his shoulder. "Just put three behind the counter for the evening rush and the others down into the cellar." The clone nodded at him before doing as he was told.

Mirajane had been ecstatic to learn that he was capable of clone magic. She'd immediately put up a chore list for him to do that ranged from shingling the roof tiles to clearing out the drunks that couldn't manage to get home on their own. This was usually just Cana though.

The clones weren't really for battling purposes, other than to cause distraction or gather information from a safe distance. They could only take one solid hit and they couldn't summon any of the Spirits without the key, and Naruto wasn't about to trust any of his keys to a clone that could vanish if it accidentally tripped on a step. In theory he could make countless clones, but each only had a fraction of his magic to maintain itself, and Naruto's ability to power his spirits was lessened accordingly.

'What was I thinking of just now?' he thought as he swept some dirt under the seats when Mirajane wasn't looking, 'Oh right! Teammates!'

From what he'd seen the better paying jobs were typically outside of the town and usually done in teams because it was usually more difficult or dangerous. Naruto had asked Master Makarov if he could take a larger out of town assignment on his own and been told that since he was still new, it would be better if he waited a while before attempting solos.

"Good morning!"

Naruto looked up to find Levy standing at the entrance with Jet and Droy following closely behind her. He'd originally thought of asking her to team up, but was disappointed when Mirajane had informed him that she was already teamed up with Shadow Gear.

He gave her a friendly goodbye and raised an eyebrow as he noticed the looks of longing coming from her two teammates as she made her way towards the request board. Naruto leaned on his broomstick as he eyed them.

'Yikes…they're more like her fanboys than teammates.'

More members walked in, some yawning and wiping the sleep from their eyes, and others headed straight to the bar for Mirajane to take their breakfast orders. She made a small nod with her head when he saw her looking, silently asking for some help.

A golden magic circle appeared to his side and a clone shimmered to life. Pointing over to where Mirajane stood to direct his copy, the clone saluted before heading over.

A teenager wearing a skin tight black body suit with silver linings running along his arms and legs appeared at the entrance. He did an elegant leap into the building before pirouetting towards the jobs.

'Vijeeter Ecor. Dancer Magic,' thought Naruto as he thought back to the member registry Master had lent to him, 'Capable of enhancing allies and decreasing foe powers with his movements. Not bad. Kokuo can already enhance though so maybe it's just a little redundant to be teamed up with him. Plus that outfit's kind of hard to look at.' Vijeeter had bent down to pick up a fallen request, pulling his suit into a wedgie. Naruto recalled a fellow orphan that he used to hang out with as a child, Rock Lee, aka Bushy Brows due to his ridiculously thick eyebrows. As they grew older, Rock Lee had gained an obsession with peak physical performance and had exchanged all his clothes for a skin tight green outfit, similar to what Vijeeter was currently wearing.

'Eww…' Naruto thought with a shudder.

'Who else have I got?' he continued as he looked back at towards the entrance. A blonde dark skinned girl walked in wearing an orange cat hat. 'Ooo…orange…bonus points! Lets see, I think her name is Chico=C=Hammit…weird name.'

Naruto watched as she sat at a table with a man wearing a dark maroon jacket and sunglasses and began conversing with him. 'Legend of City Magic. Gathers the wandering soul from around Magnolia and can command them to do battle for her. Drawback, if she steps out of the city then the souls will leave her in order to remain in the town.

He frowned at this. Naruto wasn't one to judge someone based on their magical preference, but this seemed rather limiting if he wanted her to be a teammate. 'Guess she's a no too. Making a living is possible with the in town requests, but I need to be able to travel if I want to search different areas for the keys….NEXT!'

Naruto sighed to himself. 'I wonder if it's appropriate to ask the Master if he's up to go on a mission with me? He's small, I could just put him in my travel pack.'

Mirajane was his first thought when he considered teammates. Watching her in action was both terrifying and amazing. She had clearly already forgiven Freed after their fight, but you could still occasionally see the green haired man flinch and rub his shoulder when she walked by. Unfortunately, she'd declined his request, stating that she was very happy being the barmaid. Apparently she was also pretty well paid, Erza had told him that anything regarding how the guild runs to job requests usually ran through Mirajane unless it specifically needed the guild Master's attention.

He'd also asked Erza if she wanted to go on missions with him, but she'd told him that she was already on a team with Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and that little cat creature. 'What was his name? Some kind of emotion. Sad? Nah, that can't be it. Jubilee? Nope, I'm pretty sure that's a comic character. Happy?...Maybe.'

She'd invited him to go with them on the mission to take down the dark guild Oración Seis, but declined when he found out it could take several days that he needed to find a place to live. Besides, it was a four guild alliance against one dark guild. What could possibly go wrong?

He smiled at the memory of the first time he spoke to Lucy before she left.

Flashback

It was the two days after the Fantasia Parade and Naruto had been given Levy's stamp of approval to leave the infirmary. Currently Naruto was sitting at one of the tables closest to the bar and enjoying a breakfast of broiled fish, rice, and miso soup. Mirajane had agreed to put ramen on the menu soon after he'd started crying and begging when he found out it wasn't available. Elfman had called him 'unmanly.'

"Hi!" said a voice behind him, turning around and swallowing a mouthful of fish, he saw a pretty blonde girl smiling at him.

"I'm Lucy. You must be Naruto right?" she asked.

Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Naruto smiled back and stuck out his hand for a handshake. "Yeah, nice to meet you. Wanna sit down?" He gestured to the seat in from of him.

"Thanks," she said as she took her seat, "So I just wanted to say thank you for helping us out. I'm pretty surprised you were willing to join the guild in the middle of a battle."

Naruto laughed. "Well, you guys certainly left an impression. Honestly, I made a pit stop to join another guild before coming here. I think they were called Mermaid Heel."

"Eh? But isn't that an all female guild?"

"Yeah…I didn't know about that," he scratched his chin as he thought back, "All I really remember was someone screaming 'NO MEN!' when I asked to join. Next thing I know I'm hanging upside down from a tree in wearing a pink ball gown and high heels. Upside, I was able to pawn the dress for like three days worth of food."

Lucy laughed at his story. She looked down and noticed the three keys hanging around his neck and pointed excitedly. "You're a Celestial Spirit Wizard?!" she pulled out her ring of keys and began speaking rapidly "Me too! Which ones do you have? I've managed to find six of the gold zodiac keys and four silver keys. There's Aquarius, she's a little mean, but that's okay. This one's Taurus, he's a pretty perverted bull, but he's super strong. This one's Loke, cool story with him, he was actually-"

"Woah woah woah," he shook his hands to stop her, "I'm not a Celestial Spirit Wizard."

Removing the chain with his keys over his neck, he placed them on the table for better inspection. "See? Not gold or silver. They're black keys."

"I've never seen Celestial Spirit Keys like these before," she said, inspecting them closely.

"That's because they're not," replied Naruto, taking them back, "They're Primordial Spirit Keys. It's similar to Celestial Spirit Summoning in certain aspects, but different in others."

"How so?"

"Well for one thing, although there are only twelve gold keys, you have a large variety of silver keys that serve different functions. It's just a matter of finding them. Only nine Primordial Spirit Keys exist and only one mage can exist that is capable of using them at a time."

"Really? So if anyone else finds the other keys they won't be able to use it?" she asked.

"Pretty much. The key would either remain inert or if it's a volatile spirit, possibly even harm them. The nine spirits are intrinsically linked and they will only allow for one summoner at a time. The only way for someone to summon my spirits is if I release my position or if I die, but the keys would just scatter themselves and need to be found again."

"Wow! That's pretty amazing. You're pretty much unique mage then if only one can exist at a time? Bummer though, I wish I could summon your spirits just to see what they're like," Lucy ended glumly.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," said Naruto, trying to cheer her up, "On the upside, regardless of how many you can summon at a time right now, you pretty much have the potential to summon more and more the stronger you become."

"Well right now my best is two Zodiac keys, maybe three silver keys, but I'll get stronger soon. You mean you can't do multiple summoning?"

"Well sort of. It depends," he lifted Kokuo's key and pointed to the symbol 'V,' "See that? That stands for five. I am only allowed to summon up to the number nine if I wish to maintain control. I don't know what happens if I summon over that, but I'm pretty sure it's not a good thing."

"Interesting…" she said more to herself than him, perking back up she smiled at him, "Well, I hope we can do some jobs together soon. Are you sure you don't want to go on the mission with us? Erza told us she'd invited you."

"Nah," Naruto replied, waving her off, "I really need to find a place to live. Master's been nice enough to offer the basement, but I swear there are rats down there. Plus I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time until the ceiling caves in on me cuz of all the fights that happen at the bar."

"Well good luck," Lucy said, she pulled out a paper and pen, "This is contact of a man that's renting out a nearby cottage. Pretty affordable, I just wanted something closer to the guild." She handed him the paper with an address.

"LUCY!" yelled Natsu from the doorway, "WE'RE LEAVING!"

"Coming!" she yelled back. She got up and turned back to Naruto, "It was nice meeting you!"

"Likewise."

End Flashback

"Love Rival and Gray-sama are not back yet?"

Turning towards the bar at the weird question he saw Juvia drinking a juice and Gajeel munching on a loaf of bread. Naruto had already met Juvia and was aware that she used water magic with far more versatility than Isobu. She seemed like a decent girl, if a bit Gray-obsessed, but from what he's been told she was a pretty capable mage as well.

Naruto felt something warm in his chest. Looking down, he found that it was the Sanbi's key heating his skin.

*What is it?* he thought to Isobu.

*Well…umm…I just thought J-Juvia would make a good teammate,* Naruto heard in his head.

*Really? I mean she can do a bunch of other stuff, but I've pretty much got you for water magic don't I?*

*Yeah, b-but her spells have a wider r-range of effects, plus she c-can turn into water,* replied Isobu, *You won't need to w-worry as much about her getting hurt. Juvia is strong, and kind…..loving….pretty.*

It was pretty clear that the spirit was talking more to itself than Naruto at this point.

*Umm…okay?* thought Naruto, before turning back to his sweeping and looking at Juvia.

'Hmmm….maybe,' he thought, Naruto watched as Gajeel called his clone for a refill, 'Gajeel Redfox. Iron Dragon Slayer Magic. From what I hear he was pretty much the big baddie from another guild for a while and was considered an S-class mage before transferring. Solid powerhouse fighter, more brawn than brain, but seems like an alright guy. He'd make a pretty good teammate for offense and defense. I wonder how well he'd do as a teammate. Wait a second…isn't he the other guy that ran me over with Natsu?"

"Naruto!," called Mirajane from behind the counter, "You can leave now if you want. Just leave me two clones just in case."

"Yosh!" He saluted her before going to put the broom back into the closet.

Naruto stood in front of the request board as he scanned for job requests that were in areas he hadn't been to before.

'Hmm…lets see,' he thought to himself, 'Master was nice enough to ask anyone to contact me if they hear anything about the other keys, but I can't just sit around and let them do all the work.'

"Oi! Naruto!" said a female voice behind him, turning he saw Cana walking towards him, "You've been standing there for fifteen minutes now. We don't need another Nab in the guild."

"Shut up Cana!" yelled a large dark man in a poncho and a rather unfortunate bowl haircut.

"Hey! I'll shut up when you get your lazy ass in gear and finally pick a request," she yelled back, Cana jabbed her thumb behind her to point at Naruto," Naruto's only done jobs in town these past two weeks and he's already outpaced what you've done in the past year!"

"I told you!" yelled Nab, "I'm looking for jobs that only I can do!"

Cana turned back to Naruto, waving Nab off while rolling her eyes. "His idea of a job only he can do is easy but high paid. If that existed than I'd have snagged that so fast I'd have beaten Jet's speed record. So what you looking for?"

"Just other jobs in the town," replied Naruto, "I'm only about 30,000 jewels short of getting the cottage."

"30,000? That's it?" she asked, "Why don't you take an out of town one? Two low level requests should bump you up pretty fast."

"Yeah, I'd do that, but Master said he'd much prefer out of town quests to be with a team if you're new to the guild. No team, no travel." Naruto sighed, "At least for a little while."

"I get that," Cana nodded in understanding, "My first out of town quest had actually been with Natsu. It was a simple spy mission to find illegal fishing in a protected area and contact the authorities. Natsu got so excited when we found the fishermen that he attacked and caused more in damage than the quest was worth. Ended up paying damages and I've refused to go on missions with him since."

Naruto laughed. "Well I'm so broke that I can't afford to cause damage."

"In that case, I'll team up with you."

He immediately stopped laughing. "What? Seriously?"

"Sure, why not?"

"But I heard you've been in the guild longest for our age group. I kind of assumed you've already got some sort of team or system down."

She shrugged. "I take the occasional mission once in a while, but I have enough to live pretty decently. You know those guild action figures and souvenirs we sell?"

Naruto nodded. Master had him do a photo shoot to get his measurements for his own action figure.

"The female action figures tend to sell a lot. Right now I think either Erza or Mirajane have the highest sales, but about two years ago my action figure sold the most and is still the highest record we have."

"Oh that's cool. So you live off the residual checks?" he asked, "How'd you get the action figures to sell so well?"

"Yep, enough to last me a while," Cana took a swig from a flask he didn't notice her carrying before looking him dead in the eye in all seriousness, "I slipped the doll maker some money to make my figures have removable clothing and be anatomically correct."

"Anatomicically corr-" he paused as he let that information sink in. Naruto looked at what Cana was wearing. Tight brown short pants….and a blue bikini top. His face heated up and he was pretty sure that he was turning read. "Umm…uh….well…"

"GAH HAHAHAHAHA!" She cracked up and pointed at him, "You believed me?! Ahahahaha!"

He crossed his arms and frowned at her. "Well you made it sound like it was true."

"Hahaha!," she continued, wiping the tears from her eyes, "Nah, I've just got a decent amount of money saved up from when I was younger before coming to Fairy Tail. I ain't rich, but it's enough to support myself for a few years and can offset how much I spend by taking a job every once in a while. I figure it's time to actually get out of this town."

Cana offered her hand. "So what do you say? Teammates?"

Naruto smirked before taking her hand. "Teammates."

"So you have any other people in mind or we going to do a dynamic duo kind of deal and let the rumors about our naughty out of town affairs fly through the rumor mill?"

His cheeks reddened slightly at her candor, but figured he may as well get used to it. Embarrassing person in this manner seems to be her thing. He recalled seeing her grab Lucy's breasts at one point to compare.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure yet," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head, "I need people that are okay with traveling to the further job requests. I've actually been considering Juvia and Gajeel. They're pretty new to the guild also and from what I've seen it's pretty much just the two of them most of the time."

"Yeah…a lot of people are still iffy about Gajeel because of the Phantom incident. Juvia was part of Phantom Guild too, but she wasn't the one to attack the guild hall. He's an okay guy though. Other than Natsu, he tends to just ignore everyone else," Cana added, "Upside, they've worked together before and clearly they're loyal to whatever guild they're in if they'd risk an inter-guild war just because their master said so."

Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Come on," she said, "Let's go ask them." Cana hadn't even made it two steps before the guild doors bust open.

"WE'RE HOME!"

Team Natsu had just arrived home and Juvia had started crying so much at the safe return of her Gray-sama that her tears flooded the entire hall. Everyone had yelled at Gray to calm her down so that they could get the party started from their safe return.

Everyone in the returning teams was pretty banged up and all looked as though they could all use some rest, but they just pushed through and partied on. They had even managed to snag a new member into the guild. The Sky Dragon Slayer, Wendy Marvell. She was a young girl with a talking cat like Happy, and long dark blue hair.

Natsu was currently regaling the story of the defeat of Oración Seis' deadly weapon, Nirvana, at his hands. Gray was currently trying to get Juvia to let go of him, while Erza went to inform the Master the details of the mission.

"Naruto!"

Cana had been explaining what a few of her cards were capable of doing for him, while drinking a barrel of liquor attached to a rather long tube when Lucy interrupted them.

"Hey Lucy!" he called as she sat next to Cana's barrel, "You guys seem to have done well in the mission. You okay though?" He looked at her bandaged face and arms, but they didn't seem to really bother her that much. "Do you want me to heal you up?" Naruto asked, moving to pull out Kokuo's key.

"No, it's okay," Lucy replied, "I'm mostly okay now. We've got a few days to rest up so no need. Besides, Wendy's capable of Healing Magic, and she took care of the worst of our injuries."

"Really?" Cana asked, "But I thought legitimate Healing Magic was considered a lost art."

"Yeah, I can only really heal flesh wounds," added Naruto.

"It's her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic," answered Lucy, "She can heal poisons, illness, injuries, fatigue, and even stuff like motion sickness."

"Wow…" he replied, "She'll be really handy to have around."

"Yeah, we're really glad she decided to come with us to Fairy Tail," she said, before her smile widened further and an excited look crossed her face, "But that's not why I was looking for you. Check this out!"

Lucy rummaged around her side bag and pulled out three gold Zodiac Keys.

Cana took a swig before looking down at the keys. "I don't get it."

Lucy rolled her eyes before turning back to Naruto. "That's what I've been hearing from everyone. I figured someone that used summoning magic would appreciate how awesome this is."

"Woah! You got three of the Zodiac keys from this one mission?!" Naruto exclaimed. Lucy smiled, clearly appreciating the reaction. "How did you manage that? Even finding one is difficult and you somehow managed to track down nine total."

"One of the members of Oración Seis was a woman named Angel, she was a Celestial Spirit Mage as well, but she was horrible to her spirits," replied Lucy as she placed them back into her bag, "She'd use them like living shields and force them to fight amongst themselves. I mean, I know they can't be killed, but they still feel pain. She used one of her own spirits as a distraction and then blasted through it just to get to me."

Naruto frowned at how Lucy described that woman.

"Luckily when she was arrested her contracts to the spirits were broken," she continued, "It's one of the rules to maintain a contract with Celestial Spirit. Her three Zodiac Keys requested that I take over as their summoner, so now I have them." Lucy smiled, clearly happy at the turn of events.

"Well I'm really happy for you," said Naruto, smiling at her.

"Thanks, but I've actually got something for you as well. Picked it off Angel before she was taken away," Lucy reached back into her pocket and placed something on the table.

It was a black key with the symbol "I" etched into the handle.

"NO WAY!" Naruto screamed, causing a few partiers to look in his direction as he picked up the key, "You found one of my keys?!" He shook from excitement. Finding them was a long and difficult process and the fact that someone in the guild he'd just joined had managed to track one down made him ecstatic.

'I knew joining a guild was a good idea. More eyes and ears everywhere.'

"Cool," said Cana as she stood up and stretched her back out, "Whip it out and let's see what that spirit can do."

"It's not that simple," Naruto replied with a frown.

"How come?" Lucy asked, "I just summon and make the contract according to what days of the week they're available for summoning. Isn't that what you do?"

"Not really, I can summon at any point it's just that each spirit has a name. Like how my third key's spirit is referred to as the Sanbi, but his name is Isobu. In order to summon a Primordial Spirit, I must first earn the right to know his name so that I can speak it during their summoning."

"Earn?" asked Cana, "How would you do that?"

"Straight up fight? Test of wits? Working under pressure? Could be a variety of things. It depends entirely on the spirit involved. Failing a test usually means that the key will just scatter and find a new hiding spot, which means I'd have to start searching for it all over again."

"Wow. That sounds kind of tough," said Lucy, "I don't know if I'd be able to do that."

"Well, no time like the present, right?" said Cana as she walked around the table and clapped a hand down on Naruto's shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess. I hate doing this though," he replied, "Taking a test is one thing, but taking a test when you don't know what it could be nerve-wracking. Wanna come Lucy? I'll need to do this outside in case it's a particularly destructive spirit."

"I don't think I'll be much help, but sure," she replied as she stood up to head out the front door.

*Kokuo,* Naruto mentally messaged, *Are there any rules regarding help to fulfill a test?*

*Nothing in particular, Naruto-sama,* replied the Gobi, *Primordial Spirits are team oriented by nature, either by working with each other or you, so we do not consider your accomplishments diminished if a comrade happens to give you assistance.*

*Just checkin', thanks!*

The three walked off to the side of the main walkway, towards the grass, before coming to a stop. Lucy and Cana stood behind him as he pulled out the new key.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

Both nodded.

None of his magic was required for a first summoning, as he was not bonded to this spirit yet, so he simply thrust out his hands with the key and the dark red magic circle appeared around it.

"Hirake! Ichibi no Tobira!" (Open! Gate of the One Tail!)

DING DONG!

Sand burst forth from the center of the magic circle and spun in the air in front of them before it started to coalesce into a more solid form. After a moment, a tanuki, about two times Naruto's height towered over them with its eyes closed.

Its flesh was made up of the sand that it had come from and a black band went across where its eyes were. Swirling black lines covered all over its body up to a tail that was nearly doubled its size and was formed into a scaly pattern. The creatures hands were large and meaty looking while its feet were also large, but stubby. It also had large pointed ears that were black in the interior. Finishing it off was a large jagged mouth that stretched from one end of its round head to the other, forming a rather terrifying grin.

"Uhhh…." said Lucy, as she eyed the daunting creature. She and Cana took a step back while Naruto took a few steps closer.

He clasped his hands together and bowed respectfully towards the creature.

"Great spirit, my name is Naruto and I am currently the one who seeks to unite all nine keys of the Primordial Spirit. May I please hear your name so that I can call upon you should the need occur?"

The creature stood motionless as it sat on its hind legs. Sand swirled slowly around it.

'Sigh…didn't think it'd be that easy,' thought Naruto, 'Just once I wish one of them would just gimme a break and tell me their name without any problems.'

"If you do not wish to surrender your name so easily, then might I ask for the task you have created so that I may earn it." He knelt to one knee and lowered his head.

"My name?" Said a deep rumbling voice. Naruto looked up to find that the creature had opened its eyes to reveal glowing yellow pupils staring back at him.

"You shall never know my name…"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. 'What?! He's supposed to give me his task!'

"No human shall ever know my name again!" the Ichibi's voice rose as the sand swirled around it moreso, "I'm free and I will never be bound to another human ever again! I have awakened and I shall not be put back to slumber! HAHAHAHA!"

It laughed madly as a tornado of sand encompassed the creature and blew Naruto back towards Lucy and Cana. All three tumbled back at the force of the blast and covered their eyes for protection.

They could see the silhouette of the One Tail in the center of the tornado and watched as its body began to dissipate and turn into sand as well before the swirling sand began to dissipate, flew into the sky, and vanished.

Naruto was panting as he sat on the ground trying to regain his bearings. 'What the hell?!'

"Ummm…"

He turned around to look at shocked looking Cana that was still staring at the sky. "Was that supposed to happen?" she asked.

Naruto looked down at his hand. Still clutching the rogue spirit's key. The "I" seemed to mock him.

"No….no, that wasn't supposed to happen."

AN: I'm not sure how many of you feel with me leaving out Naruto from the Oracion Seis arc, but I put a lot of thought into it. I was really adamant about not having Naruto be another member of team Natsu, and I felt like if I'd allowed him to join then there'd be no turning back. I also didn't want to kick out anyone on their current team. Considering they already had 4 Fairy Tail, 5 if you count Wendy, then it just felt a bit crowded if I added Naruto. The other guilds only had 4 at most.

Also, someone mentioned for me to avoid author's notes in the middle of the chapters as it can be a bit distracting. Sorry, I'll try to avoid those from now on unless absolutely necessary.

LASTLY! Anyone wanna draw a cover for me? I kind of want the 9 gate keys, the only requirement is that they need to have the roman numeral symbol on the handle section. I'll make sure to credit whoever. Please and thank you! =)