Demon Slayer Chapter 1

"You still haven't told me who you are."

White hair falling just beyond his waist, spiky all the way through, hanging over the scroll he carried on his back. It shifted as the old man turned his neck to spare a moment to take a glance at him. He'd been with the man for nearly two weeks now, and the repetitive noise of his wooden sandals every time he took a step was really grating on his nerves. "Yes I have. How could you have forgotten my greatness already?"

Naruto returned a sour look at Jiraiya's devastated expression. His introduction had been great alright, posing and spewing out both his name and title, something about frogs. "That's not what I meant."

"Oh-ho ho!" Jiraiya's attention was diverted from the blond just as fast as it had originally came to him, a grin forming on his face. Naruto followed his line of sight, past the unnatural steam exhausting itself from the man's nose, right at the passing blonde woman. A sleeveless, dark blue shirt came over her honking breasts and covered her stomach, contrasted by the short cut white skirt and finished off with a pair of heels. "Now that's a looker!"

She reminded him of the girl Jiraiya had over in his hotel room a few nights ago.

Even from the fair distance between them, Naruto could still make out the underside of her cheek along with the fact that she wore pink.

A small, refreshing breeze blew past them as she rounded the corner.

They were frilled, too.

Jiraiya slammed his fist into his open palm. His lips had morphed into a determined frown. Before Naruto knew it, the man was gone, last seen pushing through the crowd and rushing around after the blonde woman.

It was the fourth time he'd done that.

"Tch." Naruto moved onward.

A guild. A mage's guild. That's where Jiraiya was supposedly taking him. He didn't really mind, it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. Maybe he shouldn't trust the old man, maybe the old man would turn out to be an enemy, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't have a problem beating the geezer if he needed to. Naruto was confident in his ability to sense magic, and Jiraiya didn't have even a smidgen of it.

The whole situation was weird. He'd gone to sleep that night, thrown the dodgy blanket he had over himself, and the next morning he'd woken up with Jiraiya peering down at him. The one who'd raised him—an obnoxiously large beast with nine tails—was no where to be found. Even with the equally obnoxious and large amount of power he had, Naruto couldn't sense it at all. Without a word, he'd disappeared.

Naruto didn't really know how he was supposed to feel about it. He didn't feel sad. He couldn't. He'd tried to make himself cry over it when he was having trouble falling asleep, but it never came. Anger, frustration? Those came much easier. How dare that bastard leave him alone, without even bothering to say goodbye on top of that.

He could have at least written a note.

Maybe not.

Someone ran into him—hard. He hadn't seen them, probably because of the mass of people, or maybe it was just because he wasn't paying attention. Either way, he was on his ass within the next moment. "Oy!"

"Aah?!" Spiky pink hair and a white scarf, that's what stood out about him the most. Were those supposed to be scales? "Who the hell are you?!"

"That's my line!" Naruto sneered as he picked himself up, ramming his forehead against the pink-haired little shit's the moment he was able. "Are you blind or stupid?!"

"What was that, Sunshine?!"

"You're deaf too!"

"I don't want to hear that from a midget!"

"We're the same height, idiot!"

"Oh yeah?" The blind and deaf boy reared his arm back, his fist spontaneously combusting into a brilliant flame. "Then what about this!" Naruto's jaw cracked open as the burning fist soared towards him, taking it all in his mouth before snapping it shut. "Uwa!"

He didn't hold on to it. The hand was ripped from his mouth not a moment later.

Naruto burped. "Oh man that was good." He grinned at the shell shocked expression he received. "Got any more of that stuff?"

"Naruto." That voice was much more familiar. He didn't know whether he should be surprised that Jiraiya was already back or not. Was that blood? Undoubtedly his own. "Oh? You made a friend."

"No." The blond felt irritated at the assumption, pointing his index finger at the girly-haired boy. "There's no way I can be friends with someone who knocks people over then picks fights with them!"

"What was that?!"

"You wanna fight?!"

"Bring it on!"

Jiraiya sighed.

Naruto stared at the note with thinly veiled annoyance. I left, it said bluntly, much to his chagrin, there's only one guild in Magnolia. Ask around, you'll find it.

That was it? He crumpled up the paper and carelessly tossed it across the room, ignoring the smoke it emitted after the fact. Almost two weeks and the pervert couldn't even finish the job, dumping him in the town alone instead. Not even a little bit of money was left for him.

He could've at least told him the name of the stupid guild.

Naruto pondered over whether he should actually bother to find it, just to get on Jiraiya's nerves. "Geh!" He grabbed his blue backpack from beside his one-night bed and slung it over his back. There was nowhere else for him to go anyway.

He'd make sure to steal Jiraiya's money when he saw him next.

Now that he thought about money, he realized he didn't have any. Not a single Jewel. His head snapped over to the door to the room. There was no way he was able to pay for the night he'd spent there. Maybe Jiraiya had paid it for him.

Absolutely not—he was as cheap as he was perverted.

"Damn it."

Naruto pushed open the window. There was a ledge outside, angling downwards heavily. No one would be able to stand on that. He knew he was up on the highest floor, the fifth, but climbed up onto the windowsill regardless.

He had an idea.

Slipping out the window, he kept balance by propping his hands up on the windowsill behind him. Across the street from the inn was a shop, two stories high with a billboard on its roof. Out the front was a girl beckoning customers inside.

Naruto leaned forward and pushed off, barely standing as he slid down. His knees bent, legs extending near the edge and giving his body flight.

Somewhere up there he began to question the success rate of his idea.

His body punched a hole through the billboard, slamming into the hard roof and rolling until he collided with the stone parapet.

He rolled over onto his side. "Ugh." Grunting and groaning, bones cracking as he picked himself up.

The blond tilted his head up—the billboard had been set ablaze, its thin steel supports bent and losing under the pressure. It would collapse on him if he didn't move out of the way.

Naruto slapped his palm on top of the parapet and hauled himself over. He heard the resounding crash of the billboard as he landed on the street, wincing and trying to ignore the sharp pain that shot up his leg. Either the people populating the area hadn't noticed him leap from the roof, or they were too preoccupied with what he'd left behind. Either way, he was using the chance to escape taking responsibility.

"Hey!"

Was that for him? He didn't stop to take a look, weaving through the mildly populated street, taking the first right he was given the chance to, down an alley.

Naruto began to slow his pace as the exit got closer, throwing his hands behind his head and looking to the sky. Around the corner was freedom as far as he was concerned, now that his temporary caretaker had bailed.

It was noticeably less populated than yesterday—well, it was still early in the day, Naruto wasn't even normally awake just yet. The blond had already spent the majority of the day before exploring Magnolia, so rather than continue that course of action he held up the first person that would listen and questioned them on the guild's whereabouts. Despite it apparently being the only guild in Magnolia, it wasn't until his third attempt that he managed to grab a hold of someone who knew what he was talking about. Even then it was just a general direction, and she couldn't tell him anything about the guild when he'd asked.

That or she didn't care to.

Straight down the main street, past Cardia Cathedral, she'd told him. He knew what she was talking about, he'd been to the cathedral the day before. Massive building, right in the middle of Magnolia. Couldn't miss it if you tried. It helped that everyone who he'd spoken to had told him that it was somewhere he had to visit, like it was some sort of tourist attraction for their town.

Right at the end of the main street was where he found the guild. Fairy Tail, written in bold block letters above the wide open double doors, its insignia displayed higher up on the building.

What a strange name.

Did fairies even have tails?

Name aside, the guild was producing a lot of noise—cheering, shouting, arguing, bashing and crashing. Anyone that walked by the guild could easily see the mess on the inside, broken tables, chairs, mugs and bottles strewn about all over the place, but not a single one of the occupants seemed to care. Rather, they completely ignored him as he made his way inside, continuing to joyfully punch each other in the face.

What kind of place had that old bastard told him to go?

"Yo!"

"Ah?" The man was small—so small, in fact, that it was hard to call him a man. If not for his mustache, balding head and aged face, he was practically a six year-old. He'd never met an adult who didn't tower over him, it was a strange feeling to have the roles reversed. The old man was wearing orange too, what a great guy. "You're tiny."

"Not one for first impressions huh."

Naruto frowned at the midget's quick quip. He bent down to his level. "So? Who are you supposed to be?"

"Makarov, the guild master of Fairy Tail."

"That was a bad joke."

"It wasn't a joke, boy!."

"Yeah right." Maybe he was going a bit far, the small old man's magic trumped his own by leagues. The difference was terrifying—were all the other guild masters like this as well? "There's no way someone that short can become a master."

"Hah!" Makarov bellowed. And just like that, Naruto felt like his efforts to get under the old man's skin had been effortlessly discarded. "Wandering into a guild you've never even seen before and insulting the master, unbelievable! You've got guts if anything, a shame I can't say the same for that brain of yours."

The blond twitched. "Ah!? You tryna pick a fight?"

"No, no." The guild master waved his hand in an effort to placate him. "But, when Jiraiya told me you were coming, I expected you to be a bit taller."

"You know that perverted frog?"

Makarov's right eyebrow quirked up. Did he find something funny? "Of course I do! He used to be a member of this very guild."

"Ooh?" Naruto let his eyes travel around the building, from the flying table introducing itself to an older man's face, over the awesome foursome who'd tangled themselves in a mess of their own limbs, to the two who were cheering everyone on with a pile of Jewels stacked in front of them. He deadpanned. "It's actually not very surprising that he came from here..."

"Well?" The blond flinched at the master snapping him out of his mutterings. "What are you going to do now?"

An unintelligible sound escaped his throat.

What was he supposed to do? He hadn't really thought about what he was going to do once he got to the guild, he'd only really moved toward it in the first place because Jiraiya had said that was where he was taking him—should he have told the man no? Maybe he could have looked for the monster that abandoned him instead, but it wasn't like he had any clue how to even start. There was also the fact that when the beast didn't want something to happen, it didn't.

Except for when Naruto accidentally destroyed their hideout last year.

"Uh-"

"You!"

It was moderately familiar.

Naruto's attention scrolled over to the entrance to the guild. Between him and it was a kid about his own age, black-haired with a stupid face.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you." He lost an article of clothing every time he took a step forward; his jacket, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, until he was stood directly in front of the blond in nothing but his boxers, pointing an accusing finger. "You're the one who took out the billboard earlier!"

"Ah?" He remembered. It had almost killed him. "I don't remember doing anything like that, though."

Dark blue eyes. His stupid face was in front of the blond now, he was definitely looking for a fight. "Liar!"

"Oh yeah?" Naruto grinned and moved in to challenge his opponent for the personal space. "How are you going to prove it?"

"I'll kick your ass!"

"Come on then!"

That was a nice breeze.

A common warmth returned to his hands as a mist began to emanate from where his challenger had slapped the bottom of his fist into his palm. Both parties made their move, but before they could get anywhere worthy of note, they had both been split apart and raised up in the air.

Naruto stared at the thing attached to the back of his shirt—an arm? Makarov's arm, extended unnaturally to hoist the two of them up a good couple of meters from the floor. "Uweh, that's so weird."

"You think so?" The master had released him, letting him land back on his own two feet. "Gray." Makarov started, almost chidingly. "Put your clothes back on."

"Eh?!"

"It's too early in the morning for kids to be fighting in here!" Even if he was only ten, Naruto was bigger than Makarov, but he didn't think he'd be able to make the same jump that the much older man did—from the floorboards right up onto the bar in one effort. "Gray! It's your job to introduce Naruto to everyone."

"Are you kidding me?"

"I'm counting on you!"

Cana and Gray were both a year older than he was, making him the youngest in the building.

It got on his nerves.

It didn't help that Gray was also a couple of inches taller.

"So what magic do you use Naruto?"

There was the question, finally. It was surprising to him that the three of them had been talking for as long as they had without bringing up magic. Naruto gave the brown-haired girl his attention, he wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity to brag. He'd always been told he should be proud of his magic. The back of his hand floated over the table they were seated at, palm opening and a small ember igniting itself into existence, swirling and expanding into a neat little sphere of white fire. "Demon slayer magic."

"Ooh?" Cana leaned over and grabbed a closer look. "Where did you learn that?"

"A demon taught me."

"A demon?"

"Yeah, a big one." He spread his arms out to display how big he was talking. "A really big one. He had nine tails too."

"As if." Gray snorted. "In the first place, why would a demon teach someone how to kill them?"

Naruto insisted. "It's true!"

"About as true as you not destroying stuff in town."

"I'll hit you."

"If you can."

Okay.

The sphere of flame spread and engulfed his hand as he swung at the older boy. There was no way Gray could move to dodge it in time, they were seated right next to each other. Had it started to get cold?

Well, the potential burn victim didn't end up dodging it. Rather, he'd snatched the blond's wrist out of the air, his hand and the majority of his forearm getting caked in ice instantly upon contact.

Naruto heard a surprised guttural sound escape his throat, but he wasn't entirely sure that it had actually happened. Or he just didn't want to admit it.

"You're a demon slayer, right?" Gray's hand twitched around where it had gripped his wrist, a frown had come to settle on his stupid face. "Have you ever fought a demon before?"

"Ah-" No, he hadn't. Actually, he hadn't been in a fight before either. Before Jiraiya had found him, he'd normally just laze around until he couldn't stand the boredom any longer; then he'd start to carelessly throw his magic around and burn anything he could—the nine-tailed demon always refused to teach him how to use his magic, claiming that the blond had to teach himself, to create his own spells and techniques. He didn't think it was fair and had thrown plenty of tantrums in response, though with no success in the end. "No."

"Then how do you-"

"Ehh!?"

Another familiar voice, more annoying this time. He was all for recognizing vocal sounds today apparently. "Ah? You're-"

Natsu. That was his name, Naruto had learnt that yesterday. He hadn't changed clothes, his scarf, red jumper and lightly tanned shorts were still there, only dirtier. "What do you think you're doing here?!"

Makarov was stood beside the pink-haired boy, did he know what he had just done? Did he think it was funny? His face sure gave off that vibe.

Gray snapped before the blond had the chance. "Don't just walk in and interrupt people you stupid brat! I was just about to say something cool!"

Natsu sneered back at the ice wizard. "You can't say anything cool when you're half naked, pervert!"

The unknowing exhibitionist looked down at himself with shock, letting Naruto's wrist go in the process.

'Chance.'

The ice began to crack and fall away, Naruto's arm once again ignited itself as his fist crashed into the underside of Gray's chin, the Fairy Tail mage was temporarily gifted with flight before slamming back down on the hard wood floor.

Naruto got up off the bench and moved over with a smug grin. "It doesn't matter if I've never fought a demon before." He said. "I can still kick your ass without a problem."

"Oh? Are they going to fight?"

"Give him what for, Naruto!"

"You better not lose to a newbie Gray!"

Gray rubbed his chin as he picked himself up, scowling at the blond for the surprise attack.

Naruto had readied himself for the ice mage to make his retaliation. Instead, he got a face-full of flaming fist, one that he couldn't open his mouth to eat in time. The blond felt his head snap back and his ass collide with the floor.

"A fight?" Excitement? That was definitely what was coming from Natsu's tone. "Count me in!"

Naruto pushed himself back up onto his feet, there was no way he could be taken out by fire. Jiraiya had put a stop to their argument yesterday, but he wasn't there to stop them this time. This also meant it was another chance for him to eat more of Natsu's delicious flames.

By the end of it, the three lay on the guild's floor, heaving for air. Around them was a mostly destroyed building, tables, chairs, and even the bar hadn't been exempt from their brawl. Ice and two different colours of flames were spread around the immediate area.

At least some of the destruction had already been done by earlier fights.

"Natsu joined the guild earlier today, you know." Makarov? Naruto didn't have the energy to open his eyes and confirm his thoughts. Hearing that Natsu had reached a decision before him did get on the blond's nerves though. "Have you made up your mind yet Naruto?"

He found it strange that he wasn't being chewed out by the old man for making a mess of his guild. People were supposed to get angry when their stuff was broken, weren't they?

"Yeah." How long had they been fighting? It was difficult to form words through his heavy breathing and coarse throat. "Sign me up, ojii-chan."

Chapter 1 end!

This is an idea that I started to write over two years ago now, but I scrapped it because it was an almost exact copy of the manga with very minimal changes. Now though, I have a an actual story thought out, and I hope you will enjoy it!