Naruto x Fairy Tail: Fairy's Shadow

I have heard your voices! Yes, I will agree that the three most recent arcs, which were Shisui's S-rank mission Arc, Umbra Noctis and the Fairy Tail's fall arc are quite boring to read because nothing, and I mean NOTHING really happens. It's basically just a bunch of Slice of Life "here's an update on what's happening with the rest of the world" kind of arcs. It's ending soon at Chapter 78, which is where we will begin Volume 2 and the first chapter for the arc of Fairy Tail's return.

Up till then, here are what each chapter will cover:

Chapter 75 - First half of this chapter is basically an "update" of what's happened over an 8 month time-skip. The second half is to set up the "Attack on Fairy Tail" mini-arc for Chapter 78 and 79 which will lead to the heroic entrance of Fairy Tail in Chapter 80.

Chapter 76: Slice-of-life Chapter. Asuka Connell's birthday.

Chapter 77: Blue Pegasus comes to Fairy Tail to deliver news of Tenrou.

For those who want to wait and build up chapters for when Fairy Tail returns, or when Shisui returns, or for the first major fight between a Laxus and Shisui, I have updated the arc list in the auxiliary chapter so you can check which chapters to wait for.

Going forward though, in Volume 2 the pace will start to pick up because it's now mainly Fairy Tail arcs that I am covering, and all the setting up during the 7 year time-skip has been made!

"Normal Dialogue"

'Inner thoughts'

[Year X791]

~ With Fairy Tail ~

Eight months passed since the announcement of Shisui's death by the Magic Council.

The guild hadn't broken. That was something, at least. The Fairy Tail mark still meant something to those who wore it. No one had left Fairy Tail in the wake of Warrod's devastating news. No members had packed their bags and sought opportunities elsewhere.

But it hadn't grown either.

The guild hall still echoed with voices each day. Mission requests still came in, jobs still got completed, and jewels still found their way into the guild's coffers. From the outside, everything looked normal. Functional. Steady.

The problem was the stillness underneath it all.

Where there had once been a sense of momentum, of building toward something greater, now there was only maintenance. The guild was running in place, going through the motions without the driving force that had pushed it forward. It was like a fire that had been banked but not extinguished, giving off warmth but no longer burning bright.

Team Fairy Tail bore the most visible signs of this stagnation. Max, Bisca, Alzack, Jet, and Droy still possessed the strength they'd gained from Shisui's intensive training regimens. Their magical abilities remained sharp, their combat coordination still effective. When they took missions together, they completed them with professional competence.

But none of them had grown beyond that foundation.

The techniques Shisui had taught them were their ceiling, not their floor. They were coasting on past instructions, maintaining skills rather than developing new ones.

Clients had also begun to notice. The steady flow of high-ranked jobs that had once come to Fairy Tail had slowed to a trickle. Although they still received A-rank missions occasionally, enough to keep the guild's reputation from completely crumbling. But the premium assignments, the ones that paid well and built prestige, were going elsewhere.

Without an S-class mage, many potential clients saw Fairy Tail as weakened. Their respectable eleventh-place showing at the X790 Grand Magic Games hadn't been enough to restore confidence. In a world where magical guilds were increasingly defined by their peak strength, Fairy Tail's peak had been cut away.

The irony wasn't lost on Macao. They'd spent years rebuilding from the Tenrou Island incident, slowly clawing their way back to relevance. Just when they'd begun to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with again, they'd lost the cornerstone of that recovery.

Yet there was one exception to the guild's general malaise. Romeo Conbolt had become something none of them had expected: driven.

The boy who'd once been eager but unfocused had transformed into a relentless training machine. He arrived at the guildhall before anyone else each morning, already warmed up and ready to push his limits.

But it wasn't just training that set him apart. Romeo had begun taking solo missions despite being barely thirteen years old. The results spoke for themselves. His mission completion rate was flawless, his magical growth evident to anyone who watched him work. But the cost was becoming increasingly apparent.

Porlyusica had seen him more times in the past eight months than in the previous two years combined. Burns from pushing his fire magic too hard. Exhaustion from missions that should have taken days completed in hours through sheer stubborn determination. Cuts and bruises from taking risks no sensible mage would consider.

Each time, she'd patch him up with her usual gruff and stern warnings about reckless behaviour. Each time, he'd nod politely and return to training the moment he was cleared for activity.

Unbeknownst to Fairy Tail, changes were occurring beyond their immediate awareness. Twilight Ogre, the legal guild that had until recently existed in their shadow, was growing stronger. At least on paper.

Recent recruitment drives had brought several A-rank mages into their ranks, boosting their official capabilities and raising their profile with the Magic Council. Guild Master Banaboster had been making appearances at official functions, speaking confidently about Twilight Ogre's expanding influence and their commitment to Magnolia's protection.

What neither the Magic Council nor Twilight Ogre's leadership knew was the true nature of many of these new recruits. Dark guild infiltrators, carefully placed and expertly disguised, had been working their way into the guild for months. Their credentials were impeccable forgeries, their magical demonstrations convincing, their backgrounds clean enough to pass the guild's lacklustre scrutiny.

Their true goal was elegant in its simplicity: establish themselves within Twilight Ogre, then orchestrate a devastating attack on Fairy Tail from within Magnolia itself. When the smoke cleared, they would disappear, leaving Twilight Ogre to face the consequences of leaving Fairy Tail in ruins in an open attack.

It was a long-term plan, requiring patience and careful execution. But with Fairy Tail's strength diminished and their guard lowered by grief, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

For now, there was no open war. No skirmishes in the streets, no dramatic confrontations. The conflict only existed in planning rooms and whispered conversations.

Meanwhile, inside the Fairy Tail guildhall, streamers hung from the wooden beams in bright ribbons of pink and gold. Balloons bobbed near the ceiling, charmed to glow softly in the afternoon light. The long tables had been pushed together and covered with a cloth decorated with tiny fairy wings, and the air was thick with the warm smells of fresh bread, roasted meat, and something sweet baking in the kitchen behind the bar.

~ End of Chapter 75 ~

You can read advanced chapter on [email protected]/The_Editor982

I will be uploading 2 *Free Chapters* now to get the plot moving! This is not the second Bonus Chapter, nor is this the regular chapter upload. Tomorrow will be 2 more chapters: Bonus and Regular. Sunday will be another two more chapters (one more Bonus because i'm pretty sure we will hit 300 stones) so that we will get to Chapter 80 which is Fairy Tail's return by Sunday.