Chapter 12

Third POV

A pink-haired boy and a white-haired girl sat under a tree, talking to each other. A blue cat could be seen floating around them with wings, butting his head into their conversation every now and then with a same phrase.

"Natsu, you do realize why you and Gray are incompatible right?"

"Yeah, of course, I know Lisanna! He's ice and I'm fire! The elements don't match!"

"No, that's not-"

"MY FISH! NATSU!!"

""Be quiet Happy!"" yelled the two at the floating anomaly. The flying cat shrunk back in fear.

Before Lisanna could resume the discussion, she saw both of her older siblings heading their way to where Natsu and she sat at.

It was Mirajane and Elfman Strauss.

"Hey, you guys!"

She immediately stood up and ran to them, giving both of them a strong hug.

Mirajane returned the hug. She smiled before holding up a job request flier and showing it to her sister.

"S-Class quest! To slay The Beast! King of Monsters! Look at the reward! 3,000,000 Jewels!"

Lisanna grabbed the flier and looked at it, before turning to look at her sister, a bit worried.

"King of Monsters?! Mira-nee, won't Elfman-nii and I slow you down? You would be the only S-Class on this mission!"

Elfman perked up and puffed out his chest, appearing strong.

"Don't worry! We'll be fine! As the man of this house, I can promise nothing bad will happen!"

Natsu, concerned for mainly Lisanna's wellbeing asked Mirajane if he could be allowed to come, but Elfman stubbornly shook his head and said,

"We are fine Natsu. Thank you but you do not need to worry. I am the man of this house and I promise nothing will happen to them!"

Natsu knew how stubborn Elfman was about protecting his sisters by himself and only by himself and he could only nod in disappointment, still concerned about their safety.

"Alright, with that said, let's go you two!" Mirajane excitedly told them as she ran off clearly hyped to take down this S-Class job.

Elfman shortly ran up with her after fist-bumping Natsu.

Lisanna stood and smiled reassuringly at Natsu before saying,

"Don't worry Natsu. I'll come back safe and sound. Nothing will happen, I swear."

Natsu still worried for their group, nodded reluctantly.

"Stay safe, okay?"

Lisanna smiled and ran off to catch up with her siblings.

Natsu sat back down disheartened as he stared at her departing back, still stubborn to let them go off just like that.

Happy knew what his best friend was thinking of and could only pat his friend's back with his small hand (paws?).

He suddenly heard a cold, deep voice above him to his right.

"You should go and follow them Natsu. Trust your instincts."

Natsu looked up and was shocked to see the Elusive Eyes of Fairy Tail, Itachi Uchiha, suddenly appear right next to him, standing. His unique red eyes were was also gazing into the distant sunset.

Natsu stood up, shocked out of his mind and stepped a few feet away from the sudden appearance of Itachi. Happy also flew backwards, hiding behind Natsu's shoulder, peeking over and gazing at Itachi with a slack-jawed look.

Itachi was amused at Natsu's reaction and momentarily smiled at him before turning his head back to look off into the distance.

"It's nice to see you again Natsu." Itachi softly said.

Natsu dumbly pointed at himself and said,

"How could you even remember me? We never even talked! You always mysteriously appear here and there for a few seconds! And you went on one of those decade-class jobs two years ago!"

Happy wasn't planning on interrupting their conversation and continued to remain mute. Itachi scared him for some reason. It was probably the crows!

Itachi chuckled lightly before explaining,

"Well, do you remember the crow from 5 years ago?"

Natsu nodded, not ever forgetting the crow that brought him to Fairy Tail.

"Hell yeah, I do! The one with the strange red ey-"

Natsu stopped himself, before realizing there was a connection between Itachi and the crow that brought him to Fairy Tail. An enlightened look had appeared on his face.

"That was your crow! It has your eyes!" Natsu couldn't help but smile proudly at himself at his realization.

After his spark of knowledge, Natsu calmed down and was now confused about why Itachi had decided to come here to talk to him.

"You said something about me following them, trusting my instincts. I should go but Elfman wouldn't want that."

"And you wouldn't want to risk losing your family either, now would you? This is an S-Class job, Natsu. How many S-Class mages are there? And how many usually do come back from such jobs?"

'Risk losing your family'

Was all that was needed to be said before Natsu ran off to chase after the Strauss siblings.

He didn't need another situation like with Igneel.

He would never ever let that happen again.

---

Itachi POV

I shook my head in amusement at Natsu's quick temper.

It was a temper that brought early death to anyone but as the main character, he would be alright, no matter what.

I walked forward calmly before transforming into dozens of crows, flying fast to their job destination.

With Natsu into the equation, Lisanna would no longer be harmed but that would not prevent Anima from affecting the surrounding area and taking somebody.

I had bought Kamui precisely in order to siphon the magic energy from the surrounding area, thereby suppressing the opening of Anima.

Also, an alive Lisanna might change Mirajane's path of character development. I don't mind her current rude mannerisms so long as she knew her limits. However, a kind and mellowed out Mirajane is fine as well.

Well, I'll just see how it goes. My job here is to prevent Anima from opening and taking away a member of Fairy Tail.