Shinobi by Trade, Mage by Design

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hey all. What you're looking at is my inaugural work of fan-fiction on this site; I feel like this has been a long time coming for me. After reading some wonderful works in this crossover section, I myself was inspired to write my own Naruto/Fairy Tail story, one that I hope will be unique amongst the plethora of stories in this section.

Acknowledgements: The respective wikis for these two awesome series, and the people behind them. I honestly learn so much when I visit those websites; they provide great insights into a lot of things, and are a great help for a guy as obsessed with details and particulars as I am.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

Prologue

"NARUTOOOHH!"

"SASUKEEEHH!"

Two angry voices, one tainted with a seemingly unending hatred, the other hoarse with indignant exasperation, yelled out, echoing throughout the Valley of the End. A clearing separating Hi no Kuni (the Land of Fire) from the bordering Oto no Kuni (the Land of Sound), it was highlighted by a gigantic rushing waterfall interposed between two incredibly large statues hundreds of feet tall that were of two of the most powerful shinobi to have ever lived: Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.

On this day, the two shinobi who fought at this very spot were, while not yet fully mature, easily the two most powerful shinobi alive, following in the footsteps of their transmigrant predecessors. After all, they had just defeated the progenitor of chakra, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and saved the world.

Except, that was not enough for one Uchiha Sasuke.

Haggard in appearance, the last Uchiha stared down the young man who was his rival, the one who he had deemed to be the final obstacle in his latest professed goal of revolutionizing the Shinobi world. His clothes, which were once pristine, were now torn and covered liberally in splotches of blood — blood which had belonged to both him and his opponent. His cadet-gray high collared shirt with the classic Uchiha fan on the back was hanging out haphazardly, the Sound-style purple rope belt and blue cloth around his midsection having gone missing as a result of the intensity of their last clash. His dark-blue pants, though, were still in one piece, although they too were in fact slightly worn.

Due to his chakra depleted state, his right eye was now a coal black, what with his inability to maintain an activated Sharingan. His left eye, which was the unique six-tomoed Rinnegan granted to him by the Sage of the Six Paths, was closed since he needed to conserve his energy. The reason for this was, given how new the eye was to him, he was incapable of deactivating it at the moment. The left side of his face was swelling up thanks to his taking one hell of a beating from his ferocious opponent. His hair was in its usual spike-backed style, though his bangs had now lengthened to the point where they framed his face along his jawline.

While they both fought at this site once before, the reason behind that clash paled in comparison to this; where before it was all about Sasuke (seeing as how he had defected from Konoha), now their battle concerned the potential future of the Shinobi world (although the argument could be made that this fight, too, was about Sasuke, seeing as how he had initiated it). Not even Madara and Hashirama's fight held as much importance for the world's population at large, though, since it had only concerned who would become the First Hokage upon Konoha's founding.

Sasuke knew that if he wanted to achieve his latest goal, he'd have to... kill a certain man. Indeed, there was only one person between him and his own personal revolution.

Uzumaki Naruto.

The jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko, Kurama, was in just as bad, if not worse, shape than his wayward rival. His forehead protector, which he had taken to wearing with great pride over his forehead, was inadvertently discarded, lost in the mayhem of their melee. On top of that, the jacket portion of his signature orange and black tracksuit was beyond repair, completely destroyed as a result of their incredible clash. The only garment he was wearing on his upper body was a long-sleeved fishnet-style mesh armored top, which was frayed at the sleeves, leaving them to end at his forearms. His orange pants were just as scuffed up and plastered in blood and grime as Sasuke's blue ones were.