There was a moment of silence while a boy with shockingly bright pink hair walked into Fairy Tail. The door swinging shut behind him with a crash, a couple people muttering worriedly at the threatening aura being given off by him. Then the tension broke, "Yo guys! I hear this a pretty good guild and I've been looking for somewhere to hang out" The boy had a grin that could rival a shark, and already his presence had caught the attention of a veteran member. "And why should we care Pinky?" came the yell from another boy in nothing but a pair of shorts which looked like they were going to be removed as well. The pink haired boy immediately spun to face the challenger "its salmon you thick… Why the hell are you naked?"
"What do you mean naked" The boy looked down "GAH! Not again!", a chorus of insults trailing him, mostly stating "Goddamnit Gray, you make us all look bad" running off to find clothes that he had 'misplaced' hours ago, the first boy just snorting at him "Anyway is there any kind of test or what? Do I fight your strongest member?" A derisive laugh could be heard from the floor above, "No of course not, nothing like that, might I ask your name?" The question came from a tiny man dressed in a cape and suit that would have looked smart if not for the huge barrel of wine resting on one of his shoulders. "Oh I'm Natsu" the boy replied cheerfully, "Ask what magic he uses Gramps" came a yell from the bar"
"I WAS GETTING TO THAT YOU BRAT" the little man yelled back, surprisingly loud for such a small person, "anyway could you tell us your magic then Natsu?"
"Yeah I'm a… uh fire mage" the hesitation not going unnoticed, however the old man decided to let sleeping dogs lie. "HAH" came a shout from the back of the bar, a newly clothed Gray running in "that'll make fighting you even easier hothead!" Natsu simply raised an eyebrow in amusement "thought I didn't need to fight anyone? And what makes you think I'll be an easy fight?" The boy grinning with an arrogant smirk "Because of this! ICE MAKE – LANCE" several spears shooting towards Natsu, "GRAY! DON'T ATTACK A POSSIBLE NEW MEMBER" shouted the old man, ready to block the attack. "Don't worry old man" interrupted Natsu, "this looks fun." He then directed a look at the incoming spears, "Ignite" he stated, almost bored. The spears lit on fire, melted, evaporated and then even the steam vanished. "C'mon snowflake, give me a challenge" Natsu grinned at the ice mage in front of him getting more and more pissed. "That's it newbie I'll teach you! ICE MAKE – CANNON" drawing a couple gasps that he went to such a powerful attack already, "This guy really knows how to push Gray's buttons" came a mumble from a man heavily chain smoking in the corner. Gray then fired, confident he would knock out Natsu in a hit, a cloud of dust flew up and Gray's grin grew wider. Then a sigh could be heard from the obscured figure, "Shame, seems like that was one of your stronger attacks, let's get this over and done." Gray gaped at a completely unscathed figure in front of him and for the first time took a real look at him. Natsu's clothing was plain, a black waistcoat over a red long-sleeved shirt, with its sleeves rolled up to the elbow, well-fitting leather trousers and a scaly white scarf tied around his waist. "Fall" said Natsu in his bored tone and Gray was forced to the ground, stuck there by flames on his wrists and ankles. Gray started flailing "Let me go you cowardly salsa dip!" Causing more than a few people to give him strange looks, "Do you surrender Ice Princess?" Replied Natsu, already knowing his answer, "NEVER" shouted back Gray. "Figured as much" said Natsu with a grin, then slammed Gray in the face.

Natsu turned back to the old man "Sorry about that" he said with a grimace, "I sometimes overestimate people's strength", but to his surprise the man simply laughed "Ahh don't worry about him, he's had plenty worse than that. In all accounts I am Makarov Dreyar, Fairy Tail's guild master."
"Rad, I guess you're the guy I talk to, to join?" Natsu said, visibly relaxed, he could feel the amount of power emanating from the Master now and got the feeling he wouldn't want to be around if anyone at the guild got badly hurt. "Most certainly boy, you look like you will fit in here perfectly, if you will, then go visit Mirajane, our barmaid. She will give you our guild mark and deal with the paperwork" at the mention of that the Master started chuckling darkly. "Cheers old man, this place looks like it's gonna be great."

"Hey are you Mirajane? The old man pointed me over this way to join your guild." Natsu asked, the woman he was speaking to looked up suddenly, slightly startled, she was in a long pink dress and had white hair down to the small of her back, a tiny ponytail dangling over her forehead. "Oh you want to join? How wonderful! I love it when we get new members and from what we saw before you look powerful." She gabbled out quickly with a smile, "Cheers" replied Natsu, but looked at her worriedly, her eyes had the look of someone suffering and something about her smile looked fake. "Are you alright there Mirajane?" he asked, again snapping her out of her reverie. "Oh. Ah. Yes of course! Where would you like your guild mark?" Natsu frowned but decided to leave her be, after all it's not like anyone here knew him yet or indeed trusted him. "I'd like it on my right shoulder please." He stated and she rushed off to grab the stamp, leaving him in a lull of sound for the first time since he turned up. "Hey there hot stuff" came a rather slurred voice "My names Cana, what should I call you?" The woman started tracing a finger down Natsu's chest "I'm uh Natsu" he replied, trying to pry her off "and you are drunk."
"Girls gotta live a little" she said giggling, but then a rather sharp voice cut her off "I would appreciate it if you don't manhandle the new members Cana." Mirajane was back, stamp in hand and now she was glaring at Cana with a look that could kill puppies. "Oh I didn't realise you had already claimed him Mira, I'll leave you two be." And then Cana drifted off with a huge shit-eating grin. "Anyway" stuttered Mirajane, flushed, "here you go." Once the stamp pulled away Natsu got a look at his emblem, the Fairy Tail insignia in crimson red, outlined in deep black. "Thanks a lot Mirajane, can you get me through all the boring stuff now?" He said with a grin, "Please. Call me Mira, everyone else does"
"'Kay Mira let's get the ball rolling."

Three months later

Life at Fairy Tail had settled into a routine for Natsu, but a nice one, he would get up about five o'clock, train for an hour or two, head to the guild, talk to Mirajane, fight with Gray and often take a job, rarely taking more than a couple days to do so. He was drinking his usual cup of coffee and chili when a scream could be heard from outside "EEEEEERRRRRZZZZZAAAAAAAA!"
Natsu started to get up but was stopped by Mirajane's hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry it's just one of our S-Class mages returning" Natsu nodded in understanding, "Like Sparks up there" he gestured upwards before giving the bird to where he knew the lightning mage was standing. A low growl emanated from up there but Laxus didn't make a move. "Well this one sounds like a handful." commented Natsu and Mirajane only smiled in agreement "That's one word for it". Natsu grinned, he had heard about Mirajane's rival in S-Class and from the tone of her voice it sounded like this Erza. 'Should be fun to watch' he thought to himself, but decided to say nothing. The doors crashed open with a bang, and silhouetted in the doorframe was a heavily armoured girl and a cart the size of a small house. "Jesus, what's she doing with that thing? Moving a whole village?" Natsu whispered in Mira's ear, causing her to giggle. "GRAY!" screamed the woman, "Yes ma'am!", Natsu snickered, "WHY DID YOU STRIP IN FRONT OF YOUR EMPLOYER THIS TIME!"
"I… I don't know Erza" he stuttered, but she was already berating the next member; Wakaba, Cana, Levy, Droy, Macao. Her gaze fell on Natsu "Oh who're you?" She asked, her question was innocent enough but there was an underlying threat of violence in her tone which pissed Natsu off. 'I think I'll mess around with her first' He thought. "I don't know. Who're you?" He replied with a smirk. Jaws dropped in the guild and Erza's face began reddening. "What do you think you are doing speaking to me like that?" She almost screamed, "Not too much" replied Natsu, still enjoying himself immensely, "I just don't respond well to people who command respect with brute force. And you have got quite the reputation for that." Erza was now deathly silent and many members were praying for the new kid's life. In fact the only ones who weren't were Mirajane and Laxus, who chuckled to himself, "Kids got balls" he muttered and headed out, grabbing a flyer. Mirajane simply sent a sickly sweet smile at her former rival. Erza stalked over and hissed in Natsu's face "I do not appreciate being treated as such." She barely held back her rage. A few members sagged in relief, if the kid apologised now the most he would get is a couple broken bones. "Then don't treat me that way either" calmly replied Natsu, pushing away her face with a finger. Wakaba fainted from shock and Gray watched from the side-lines, silently cheering that he could finally see Fire Breath get beaten up. There was an intake of breath, the guild was silent, and Erza's fist rocketed forwards with the force of a small freight train. And then it was stopped. The guild thudded to the floor in shock, Macao followed Wakaba's example and Mirajane laughed in delight. There was Natsu, with the most casual look in the world and had simply stopped Erza with a simple block. The shock stretched out for several more moments. Then the guild exploded with applause. "Free drinks on me guys!" Yelled Natsu and the resulting cheer shook Magnolia. Leaving Erza standing there looking like someone had found her off button. "The names Natsu by the way."

The sun had risen quite early the next day and as it drifted over the forests surrounding Magnolia it highlighted a large circle of destruction roughly two miles from the city. Suddenly a wash of heat shot out of the area, baking nearby trees to a crisp. Moments after a pillar of flame erupted from the circle, the size of three buildings side by side and stretched upwards out of sight. It remained for roughly forty seconds before it died away. But then more flashes of flame shot out in different patterns, blades of heat slicing through the ground like butter. The occasional flash of light waking even the heaviest of sleepers and sent all animals fleeing. Master Makarov frowned, the display of magic was staggering but he couldn't quite identify it. Finally something made up his mind for him. A ball of flame, the size of a small dog rose into the air, it began growing whiter and whiter and even so far away the heat began affecting the guild's master and soon he was sweating profusely. The ball was getting hotter and hotter and now was no longer a flame. The ball of superheated plasma began fusing the gas in the air together and if it wasn't for the sheer amount of magical energy emanating from the mage controlling this spell then most of Magnolia would simply be dust. Then a spell echoed out and it made even the Wizard Saint tremble "Fire Dragon's Secret Art: Helios' Conflagration of Seven Sins" the ball of plasma elongated into a blade and compressed smaller and smaller until it was the size of a normal sword. A human figure rose to where the blade was and grabbed it. The resulting attack was faster than anyone could follow and everything was silent until the entire area exploded. The area was blasted with heat and the fire roaring from the area filled the sky with light brighter than the sun. It was roughly twenty minutes before they died down and the master panted with effort. He had been holding away the spell with all of his magical energy and it was barely enough. He looked around in worry, Laxus was off on a quest, Gildarts was who knows where and Erza had left with Gray and a new member Lucy to investigate a dark guilds activities. Then he spotted Mirajane at the bar. "Mira thank god you are here brat. I know you don't do quests anymore but you are the only one remotely qualified to go near whoever cast that, please go investigate." Mira looked up in surprise, but nodded. "Of course master, I'll return as soon as possible."

Mirajane gasped in shock at who stood in the centre of the devastation, "NATSU?!" She screamed, he looked and waved, "Oh hey Mira, sorry I didn't turn up today, I needed to finish learning a move." She nodded dumbly, "That was you?" She asked incredulously, "Yup" he grinned, "It was a good work-out, I never get to use those levels of spells, no one survives the first stage of casting unless they are least SS-Class, or at least that was what Igneel told me." Mira could only gape, "I… Uh… Let's go explain to the master."