A God Amongst Men

The Phantom God

Most legal guilds didn't make much effort into digging out information about other guilds and the things that occurred within the world of magic. The act of information gathering wasn't at all at large within Fiore and mages fought many enemies they didn't know. For shinobi, Intel was something that was vital and important to the daily missions. The shinobi world was marred with secrets and all other dirty things - that is not to say that Earthland didn't have its secrets, it had, but not many ventured into the lands of the unknown to get Intel.

The magical library was a great source for information, but the only problem was that the information there was available to anyone who wished, and the problem with mages was that most of them only went ahead to the library when there was something that they wanted. But Naruto had learned in his past life to understand that every bit of information was vital, and needed to be kept even if it seemed trivial. He never wasted the opportunity to pick up any information that was available.

Another source of information for mages of this day was the weekly sorcerer, which gathered the latest information around the magic world. It mostly covered all good things occurring within the space of legal guilds, but there were still many things that happened outside of legal guilds. Naruto didn't depend on this magazine for information - he only bought his copy every now and then when things were a bit tight for his clones. Naruto found himself greatly amused when he saw an article that spoke about him. Of course they didn't know his real name, but nor had his clear image. He wasn't that much of a screw up to get everything about him out there to everyone while he was still conducting underground business.

The Phantom is title that the article called him. The name is what the dark circle was supposedly calling him since he had no name for them to use. It was alright, and a lot better than the names he was given and often called during the glory days. The change was nice. It was a little ironic and amusing that these evil people he hunted down, were now calling him a demon, or a monsters, simply because he turned everything to ash. Another irony in the name was that he had been invited at Phantom Lord. There was little chance that he may be the Phantom of Phantom Lord.

The idea was amusing. Naruto just wanted to see how much more of a guild Phantom Lord was since it was ranked as one of the strongest Guilds in Fiore and he'd come across two of its members when he was in his hunt, and they seemed to be on the same cause with him, although for different reasons. But they were doing what he thought to be good. Just to be sure, he'd decided to accept the invitation by the Guild master. Another agenda he had by even accepting the invitation was that he wanted information on the Magic Council members, which wasn't easy to get. But someone who was within the 10 Wizard Saints had everything he may need. In this case, the Guild masters.

Juvia managed a smile when she saw the person she was supposed to guide towards the real headquarters of Phantom Lord; he was sitting on a wooden bench under a tree while looking through magazine. There was a small cup on his tight side that he took up to his mouth every now and then to sip its contents.

She had come across that man a few weeks ago while she was on a job with Gajeel. They'd been requested to eliminate a dark guild which was causing trouble to some village. The guild was associated with Grimoire Heart, but didn't really contain as much as power as the real thing. By the time they got there, the entire Guild had been destroyed, and it was only Gajeel's keen sense of smell that they were able to catch up to Naruto. He wasn't far though, and didn't seem to be hiding his presence, as they found him meditating under a tree, and seemed to have been waiting for them.

Gajeel had been pissed because the blond had done his job, and Naruto did nothing to appease the man. What he did was make things worse by saying they could take the 'credit' for the destruction and he wouldn't say a word to anyone. Juvia had been the one to cool things down as she clearly recalled the features Master Jose had told the Elemental 4; he had been the person their master had told them to be on the lookout for and if they ever saw him, they should invite him to the guild.