Chapter 2

Natsu leaned against the wooden rail up the hill, staring at the sunset. He sighed at the thought of finding another bust, although he kept being optimistic, sometimes he just couldn't bear the hopeless feeling.

Finding Igneel... his foster father, he still remembered the day he was missing, he woke up in the morning that day and found he had disappeared, leaving only this scarf and nothing else. Therefore, finding Igneel had always been his mission, also his reason to get stronger, perhaps someday Igneel would return if he was strong enough.

"Natsu..."

Natsu glanced at the blue cat beside him, Happy, his foster son, one might wonder how he could have a cat as a foster son, well, Igneel wasn't exactly a human either, so, there was no much difference.

"Come, buddy, let's go home."

Natsu showed his usual grin at the cat, right now in his mind, he needed to get back to the Guild ASAP to kick that bastard to give him fake info!

"Don't you go to Salamander's party ship?"

His ears twitched at the voice from two women not far from him, they didn't talk very loud but his heightened sense of hearing was enough to pick it up.

Salamander... that was his title, though? Since when he had a ship?

"Nah... my friend told me not to go..."

"Why?'

"She told me that Salamander used some kind of charm spell to hook up the ladies, bad news..."

Charm spell? Natsu remembered about that nice blonde girl, Lucy, she said something about the Charm spell, but he couldn't remember it in detail, but Natsu was a fire mage, why would he use a weird spell? What's so interesting about hooking up with the ladies?

"Really? I can't believe a Fairy Tail mage would have done something that low..."

"Yeah, I guess because you are part of powerful Guild Mage, you can do anything you want, even tricking innocent people like that..."

The instant Natsu heard about this, he was immediately felt upset, a Fairy Tail mage was never do anything low, we wrecked the city or destroyed property sometimes, but we would never trick innocent people. These women, how dare they insult Fairy Tail like that.

"Hey, you..." Natsu glared at the girls, his hands crackled slightly, said, "do you have any idea what you just said?"

(***)

Sasuke saw the incoming fireball, he immediately jumped out of the way, the blonde girl behind him barely able to dodge it, she screamed and fell hard on the wooden deck, somehow hit the surface with her forehead and got knocked out in the process.

Bora the slaver, well, let's say he also unable to dodge the flame, and his fate was uncertain at the moment.

Sasuke stared at the pink-haired man, this guy didn't use hand seals just like Bora, possibly a mage too.

"He's lying, I never assume or pretend to be any mage, let alone part of any this Fairy Tail..."

"Then, why are you running?"

Was this guy had a looses screw in his head? He was attacking first, of course, any normal people would avoid the attack.

"If you have the guts to claim to be Fairy Tail mage, at least back it up with strength!"

The pink-haired mage inhaled a mouthful of air again until his cheek became puff, then he threw another fireball.

"Tch!" Sasuke twitched his lips, however, he dodged the flame easily, and the fireball crashed against the next ship.

"If you just calm down for a sec-"

"Rraaah!!!"

The pink-haired mage dashed, a flame burst from his fist, with anger masked his face, he was prepared to charge at Sasuke with no hesitation.

'Another foolish hot-headed?' Sasuke sighed, one idiot had enough to make him exhausted, let alone two?

The mage propelled his fist, his attack was basic, there was no strategy or deception, just pure offense.

'If I were a killer, you'll be dead right away,' Sasuke thought, then he laughed bitterly on the inside.

Sasuke avoided his attack, then with a simple movement, he nudged the mage's foot and knocked him to the ground.

The hard surface of the ship smacked the mage's head, but he didn't let out a groan, either he was durable, or he just simply too air-headed to feel any pain, in any case, Sasuke put his knee on the mage's body, he looked at the mage straight in the eyes; his Sharingan activated.

"Calm down, will you?"

Sasuke could see his Sharingan reflected on the mage's eyes, the once anger on his face all of a sudden subsided, the wild mage had been tamed down!

"Huh?" the pink-headed mage looked confused.

"Now listen to me..." Sasuke became to explain, and he showed the mage the rest of the slavers inside the cage, including their tools and equipment.

Thankfully, the blonde also woke up, and she confirmed Sasuke's words, the mage began scrubbing his head in embarrassment.

"Sorry!" he and his cat bowed their heads altogether, Sasuke waved his hand to indicate the matter was not a trouble.

"But you take care of all those slaves by yourselves, wow, you must be strong, are you a mage?" the blonde asked with curiosity.

"No," Sasuke replied blandly.

"She got that right, even though I also capable of defeating them, but I am a mage, however, you are not, that's pretty impressive!" the mage grinned with excitement.

"Natsu, we should apprehend the slavers to the guards..." the blue cat said.

"Right, hey, you uhh... what's your name again?" Natsu said.

"I haven't told you yet," Sasuke wore the deadpan, then said, "it's Sasuke."

"Sasuke, I am Natsu, this is Happy," Natsu pointed his finger at the blue cat, to which it replied with 'aye'.

"And I am Lucy!" the blonde chirped.

"Huh? Luce, you are here too?" Natsu glanced at her with wonderment.

"I have been here all the time!" Lucy exclaimed, "and it's Lucy, not Luce, I just told you!"

"But why? I thought you dislike the dude?" Natsu shifted his attention to the comatose Bora.

"Well, after you and I separated, I went to the park, and this scum approached me, however, he said something interesting, and I was hooked..." Lucy sighed.

"What was that?" Sasuke wrinkled his eyebrows, the girl looked smart, so anything that was offered to her must have been very important to her.

"He said he would invite me to Fairy Tail's guild!" Lucy said with anger on her face, then she said with a dispirited tone, "joining Fairy Tail was one of my dreams, they have earned, well, quite a reputation, but no doubt the best guild in Fiore at the moment."

"Now, I don't know if those rumors were true, to think people like him as part of Fairy Tail..." Lucy stared at Bora with disgust.

"Hey, he's not from Fairy Tail, ok?! I never meet him, or at least I don't think I do..." Natsu thought hard.

"Aye, I also don't think he's anyone from Fairy Tail..." Happy nodded.

"Huh? Why do you two think so?" Lucy glanced at Natsu and Happy with wrinkled eyebrows, meanwhile, Sasuke had understood it already.

Before Natsu could explain, there were noises of footsteps and commotions from the harbor, Sasuke predicted it should be the guards, they must have heard the trouble.

"Well, I'll leave them in your care, goodbye," Sasuke turned around.

"Wait, don't you want a reward?!" Natsu quickly stopped him.

Sasuke shook his head, he didn't have the intention to receive any reward when beating those slaves, then he looked at the wreckage beside this ship, almost bitterly smiled, he said, "I don't want to attract trouble."

Natsu and Happy followed his gaze, and instantly their expression became pale, meanwhile Lucy was astonished.

"Oh, crap, we are going to get thrown into the jail again! Time to crash, let's go Happy, Lucy!" Natsu began to grab Lucy's hand and Happy flew beside him.

"Huh?! Why are you taking me?!" Lucy screamed.

"You want to join Fairy Tail, right?! Then come with me!!!" Natsu grinned, then he showed a mark on his shoulder.

Lucy's eyes widened, it seemed she could identify the mark, then with boisterous laughter, she ran alongside Natsu and Happy, they actually disappeared faster than Sasuke.

Sasuke looked at their silhouette, giving a small smile, he said, "Fairy Tail, huh? Interesting..."