Natsu Dragneel


 * The title of this article is sometimes called Natsu Dragonil.

Natsu Dragneel (ナツ ドラグニル, Natsu Doraguniru) is the main male protagonist of the series and a member of the Fairy Tail Guild.

Appearance
Natsu's most prominent features are his spiky rosy-colored hair and his scaly white scarf that he has had since a young age, and which may have been given him to by Igneel. Natsu has a scar on the right side of his neck which may be the reason he wears his scarf almost all the time. How he got the scar is yet to be revealed. He has no separate eye color, his eyes instead being solely the color of his black pupils, and his body is toned but not noticeably muscular. His member's stamp is located at the top of his right arm, just below his shoulder.

Throughout the series, his outfit is almost always that of a sole black waistcoat with gold trimmings over his chest with no shirt underneath, short white trousers that go down to his knees and sandals along with his trademark scarf. He rarely dissents from this attire, even wearing it when going into snowy mountains. His clothing also seems to have a remarkable resistance to the flames that can spout from anywhere on his body, but this may be because of his magic that allows him to be resistant to any type of flame.

Personality
"Bring it on! One on One!"

- Natsu's dangerously playful nature

Natsu has a carefree and reckless nature and, despite his constant in-fighting with other members of the guild, is a fiercely loyal friend. He has a particularly close, and competitive, relationship with fellow members, Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet. A simple character, he thinks things through in a straightforward manner that can get to the crux of the problem fairly efficiently and can aid him, usually accidentally. Even when faced with obvious or previous hostility, he rarely holds a grudge or negative feelings towards an enemy - usually seeing the good in them. For example, he defeated and quickly trusted Kageyama and despite Laxus Dreyar threatening to destroy the town he believed that Laxus was only bluffing, and didn't want to. However, this is not a ubiquitous feeling as he can direct considerable fury at an particularly evil enemy. He suffers from motion sickness from all modes of transportation, including trains, boats, and carriages. It is to the degree that he can get sick from even looking at a mode of transport or thinking about it. Natsu's motion sickness even goes as far as him getting sick from anyone carrying him causing many characters to wonder if he considers them vehicles. The only "person" that Natsu can freely travel with and not get sick is Happy.

"Happy is not a vehicle!"

- Natsu's reasoning for his lack of motion sickness with Happy

Natsu tries to constantly prove his strength to others. In the past, he has challenged both Erza and Laxus to a duel only to be defeated. This need for showing his power is common in the series. For instance, after getting beaten by Wally in their first encounter, Natsu thinks about nothing else but getting his revenge. Or after getting eaten by Fukurou, who is later beaten by Gray, Natsu wants to go back and fight him again. Due to his reckless nature, any combat Natsu involves himself in usually ends with widespread destruction. In spite of this, Natsu shows great wit in battle, quickly identifying his opponents' weaknesses, and forming strategies to block the plans of his enemies, even at times defeating enemies with just his wit and trickery without throwing a punch, such as against Toby. Natsu also seems to be very stubborn, never admitting defeat.

Happy
Often considered his "partner", Natsu and Happy are best friends (and have been for life quite literally in the case of Happy) and back each other up whether in jokes or battles. Although arguably labelled as transport, Happy isn't considered transport to Natsu hence being flown around by Happy doesn't invoke his motion sickness.

Lucy
Despite knowing each other only for a short time, Natsu quickly considered Lucy Heartfilia his friend and formed a team with her. She often acts as the butt of Happy and Natsu's jokes but she is able to silence Natsu, similar to Erza, if she is annoyed. He cares about her as equally as his other friends, threatening to burn Phantom Lord to a crisp if she was in any way hurt.

Gray
Natsu and Gray have constant fights, ranging from pillow fights to magic ones. Even though both say they're not friends, they often look out for each other in battles and respect each other's strength. Whenever Gray and him have trouble deciding who won, they call on Lucy, who is for the most part, able to calm them down. Although they often renounce each other being friends, Natsu and Gray get enraged if one another get hurt; Natsu got especially angered when Gray tried to sacrifice himself.

Erza
Natsu was fearful of Erza, along with Gray, when he was younger and this extended into his later years. They seemed to have a fairly good relationship in the past as, according to Erza, they used to shower together. He often picked fights with her, getting beat fairly quickly. He also keeps this trait into later life when he only agreed to help Erza if she agreed to fight him. Regardless, he is great friends with her. When Gérard made her act uncharacteristically and cry he got highly enraged and fought him; he even maintains this as a grudge when Gérard reappeared. Furthermore, he was tearful after saving her when she tried to sacrifice herself during the Tower of Paradise arc.

Guild
He shares the same comradeship with the guild members as they do each other and considers them all friends, even when they are bringing havoc to the guild, as in the case with Laxus Dreyar. His dedication to his guildmates and his guild is strong, preventing the deaths and self-sacrifices of several members, including Macao Conbolt and Gray. He also gets angered by anyone using Fairy Tail's name insultingly or in a way that could taint it.

History
It is unknown what became of Natsu's biological parents. Igneel, the fire dragon, discovered Natsu in the forest and raised Natsu as his own child, teaching Natsu how to write, speak and use the powerful magic style, Dragon Slayer, a style said to be originally developed to intercept dragons. However, at a young age on July 7, seven years prior to the main story line, Igneel disappeared, leading Natsu to arrive at Fairy Tail, perhaps by way of Makarov. Thus far he has met two other Dragon Slayers, Gajeel Redfox and Wendy Marvell, whose dragons also went missing on the exact same day as Natsu's.

He joined the guild at an unknown time, but it is sometime after the arrival of Erza Scarlet. Natsu when he was much younger, found an egg in a forest. He thought this was a dragon egg, and tried to raise the egg so it could hatch. With the help of Lisana, Natsu was able to hatch the egg. The egg Natsu had found contained Happy, who Natsu thought was a dragon. Natsu was the one to name Happy.

Macao arc
Natsu is first introduced suffering from his motion sickness after riding a train to Hargeon. The train stops, and Happy gets off but Natsu's dizziness give him little time and he is forced to ride the train twice. In Hargeon after receiving a tip that his missing foster father, Igneel, may be in the town he instead comes across an narcissistic impostor, the fire mage Bora. Mistaking him for the real Igneel he had rushed forward in hope to see him but instead quickly left dejected when he realised it was not him. For such a response, he gets attacked by Bora's legion of female fans and is given Bora's autograph. Through these antics he saved a travelling mage, Lucy Heartfilia, from the influence of Bora's illegal Charm magic which makes anyone not knowledgeable of the magic become infatuated with the user. In thanks, she pays for him and Happy to eat and rambles on about her ambition to join a famous guild. They tell her they're looking for the fire dragon Igneel which she responds by saying that a dragon would never be inside a town; much to her surprise, this had not previously dawned on them. She goes to leave but Natsu feels he needs to repay her and offers Bora's signature which she dramatically refuses.

Later that night, Natsu overhears that Bora is masquerading as a member of Fairy Tail and quite literally gatecrashes the party on his boat, but since it is a vehicle he quickly gets motion sickness. Happy rescues Lucy and when his transformation wears off she finds her keys and summons the Celestial Spirit Aquarius whose powerful wave of water washes the boat ashore. The rocking stopped, Natsu regains his vitality and smashes the skulls of two goons sent to attack him and declaring that he is from Fairy Tail and does not recognise Bora. Bora hopelessly attacks with his own fire magic which Natsu merely gobbles up before firing out his roar of fire and strikes Bora down. Natsu then goes on the rampage, destroying a majority of Hargeon's port and has to flee when the military arrive. Happy runs with him and he drags along Lucy, telling her that if she wanted to join Fairy Tail that she follow him.

Sometime later they arrive at the guild and Natsu immediately starts up a fight that swiftly evolves into a full scale brawl. This is eventually stopped with a yell from Fairy Tail's Guild Master, Makarov, who then reads out a list of various complaints from the Magic Council about the guild members. Makarow, however, burns the document, throwing it to Natsu to eat, and gives them an inspiring speech. Natsu feasts on a fiery meal before going up to the request poster for a new misson. Romeo, son of Fairy Tail's Macao Conbolt, worries about his father's lack of return to Makarov within Natsu's earshot but Makarov tells him to go home and wait for his father patiently. Natsu smashes the request board, perhaps in response to this, and leaves to find Macao in the mountains. Lucy comes with he and Happy, and they soon have to start walking through a snowstorm when their cart driver announces he can go no further. Natsu, shouting for Macao, suddenly gets attacked by a Vulcan before it runs past him and kidnaps Lucy who is inside her Celestial Spirit, Horologium. Natsu, chasing after the Vulcan, rapidly catches up to him but slips. Regaining his composure, he demands the "monkey" tell him where he hid Macao; the Vulcan seemingly complies, pointing him in a direction, but Natsu gets pushed off the side of the mountain. Happy saves him, and when the two return to the Vulcan's cave Natsu mistakes Lucy's Celestial Spirit Taurus for another monster and sends him flying. He soon does the same to the Vulcan who is then revealed to actually be the man they're looking for, Macao. Macao almost falls off the edge of the cliff; it takes the combined efforts of Happy, Natsu, Lucy and Taurus to pull him back up. Once up, they discover he has a serious wound and Natsu resorts to the extreme of burning the wound shut, potentially saving Macao's life. They then return to Magonlia, the town the guild is located, and bring Macao to Romeo.

Daybreak arc
After Lucy gets settled into her new home, she finds that Natsu and Happy have shamelessly invaded it. While she scolds him, Happy sharpens his nails on the wall, distracting her from Natsu who peeks at her writings. She dives for them, keeping them away from Natsu, and demanding that they leave which Natsu refuses. Giving up, she offers the two a cup of tea and teaches them about Celestial Spirits from Lucy when she summons Plue. Plue apparently suggests that they should form a team which Natsu agrees to and so in turn does Lucy. Their first mission to steal a book involves its owner hiring a blond maid which makes Lucy think Natsu tricked him.

As they arrive in Shirostume town Natsu complains of hunger and goes to eat before their mission whilst Lucy goes off elsewhere. Natsu and Happy are shocked when she returns to find that she's adorned in a maid outfit when they had only been joking about it. Regardless, they make their way to the client's house, where Kirby Melon details their mission and stuns the three of them with the announcement that the reward has increased ten times in number. Impassioned, they had towards the mansion where Lucy attempts to get hired by Duke Everlue. After she is rejected for being too ugly, they resolve to sneak in to the mansion via the method of Happy flying them to its roof and Natsu melting a door's window and letting them in. Quietly, they move around the mansion until they are confronted by Everlue's other maids who Natsu instantly deals with. They then discover the library and after a quick search Natsu locates the book DAYBREAK. Natsu is about to burn it when Lucy snatches it from his grasp as she sees it is a book by the famous author, Kemu Zaleon, and begs for him to let her keep it. Just then, Everlue literally dives up from the ground, having previously held back to see what they had been up to, and calls on the Vanish Brothers to deal with them. However, Lucy declares that their is a secret in the book and runs off, asking Natsu to buy her time; Everlue says he will go after her and Natsu tells Happy to follow them while he deals with the brothers. A short fight later an underestimated Natsu defeats the brothers and holds onto the head maid when she begins to move. Consequently, when Everlue summons this head maid, who is actually the Celestial Spirit Virgo, he gets pulled through the Celestial Spirit world back to the Human world. Lucy shouts for him to deal with Virgo while she defeats Everlue; he complies, delivering her a powerful blow.

Lucy makes them return the book to the client where he finds out the truth about the book, to whom the book was meant for, and decides not to take payment for the job since they did specifically complete what was asked: "destroy the book". They begin to walk back, Natsu realising that Lucy's earlier protectiveness was because her writings were a novel she was creating, explaining her knowledge of books, and she shouts at him not to tell anyone.

Lullaby arc
Natsu returned to the guild and gets into another fight with Gray, but Loke warns them that Erza has returned from her mission and they comically pretend to be good friends. Much to their chargin, Erza forces Natsu and Gray to go a mission with her.

When Erza finally arrives at the train station Natsu issues her an ultimatum that he'll only go if she fights with him when they return; she agrees. On the train, Natsu gets his usual motion sickness and Erza, in an attempt to make him feel better, knocks him out. The other members start to discuss their mission but in the process forget to wake up Natsu, leaving him on the train. Kageyama, a member of the Dark Guild Eisenwald they were discussing, sits next to him but since he was unconscious he lets him be. However, Kageyama attacks him and the two get into a fight with Natsu getting the upper hand when the train stops. During their fight, he notices the Lullaby flute and before the train starts to move again, jumps out into a carriage right into Gray and Erza.

They return back to the train station via the carriage, causing Natsu to get motion sickness again, and needing the assistance of Lucy (who is considered transport) to drag him to the station. Although denied entry, they enter regardless and are confronted by the members of Eisenwald at the station platform. Upon hearing Kageyama's voice again, Natsu is suddenly revived and saves Lucy from being harmed by one of Kageyama's attacks. Erza then orders him and Gray to go after Erigor and they two agree split up to find him. As he looks, he starts to destroy the walls to find him besides the fact that doors were right next to him. He then is attacked by Kageyama and after they exchange blows, he quickly overwhelms him and questions him on the whereabouts of Erigor, just as Erza and company arrive to question him on how to dispel the barrier of air around the station. However, to everyone's surprise though, Kageyama is suddenly stabbed in the back by one of his own people. Natsu, in a rage, attacks the assassin and tries to save Kageyama.

He and his team are then freed from the wind wall by Lucy's new Celestial Spirit Virgo; she apologizes to Natsu for her past fight with him and he forgives her. Natsu then uses Happy's maximum speed to go after Erigor. After he runs into him, the he proves himself powerful enough to evoke Erigor's Storm Mail spell. As the wind armor causes Natsu's fire to be put out and stop him from punching Erigor, Natsu becomes angry enough to where his fire becomes hotter. Happy, noticing the increase in the fire's temperature and power, breaks Natsu's final straw by telling Natsu to let Gray fight Erigor instead since he can't win. This sends Natsu into a rage where he was able to defeat Erigor.

As the others arrive, Kageyama steals the Lullaby flute and goes to the Guild Masters meeting. He is stopped from saving Makarov by other Guild Masters and Makarov convinces Kageyama to give up. With this, Lullaby turns into a huge monster and Natsu teams up with Gray and Erza to take it down. Unfortunately, Natsu destroys the Guild Master meeting place in the process.

Galuna Island arc
True to her word, Erza begins her fight with Natsu but just as it warms up Erza is arrested for property damage amongst other crimes. To prevent him from recklessly going after Erza, Natsu is literally transformed into a salamander and stuck under a glass. However, it is revealed that it was actually Macao who had transformed himself to give time for Natsu to smash into Erza's court hearing, crudely dressed as her, and proclaim that he is actually Erza which results in them both being imprisoned for a short time.

Due to Erza's arrest being a mere formality, Natsu and Erza are soon released. Natsu once again tries to fight Erza again but is swiftly defeated with one blow. Natsu then tries to pick a fight with Laxus Dreyar but is prevented from doing so by Makarov who says he isn't allowed up to the second floor "yet". Later on, Natsu breaks into Lucy's apartment (again), much to her annoyance, and tries to persuade her to go on a S-class mission, 'The Cursed Island', with him and Happy; she initially refuses but then agrees when she notices that the award includes a Golden Key. Unable to find someone to ferry them across, Natsu falls on the idea of swimming to the island but is soon stopped when Gray appears. Just as they begin to fight, one of the sailors who previously refused notices their magic and agrees to sail them across. Natsu then quickly knocks Gray him out and drags him onto the boat. The sailor leading then suddenly disappears just before a tidal wave shipwrecks them on the island's shore.

With Gray now agreeing to help them they go to their client, the mayor of the island, to find out about the curse affecting the inhabitants. Initially asked the impossible task of destroying the moon, they resolve to explore the island the next morning. In the forest they are confronted by a gigantic mouse, which they quickly defeat, and find a ruined temple. Natsu then stamps on the floor of the temple which causes it to crumble apart sending them hurtling down into a large cavern containing a frozen demon Deliora and the mages Yuka Suzuki, Sherry and Toby.Gray tells them that they are going to stay put until the Moon comes back out and Natsu instinctively falls asleep at this news. Night soon arrives and they discover that the purple moonlight is hitting the frozen Deliora; they run up the surface to investigate and discover a ritual to free Deliora. Natsu, enraged by Reitei Lyon's command to Toby and the others to destroy the village, jumps out from hiding and attacks but is quickly stopped by Lyon's ice magic and pushed down a hill by Gray. Natsu returns back up the hill to find a beaten up Gray and carries him back to the village. The village is then attacked by Lyon's mages who use deadly poison to try kill everyone, but Natsu stops a large chunk of the poison with his Gleaming Flame attack. Natsu then gets in a fight with Yuka the Surge and Toby, and after a short fight defeats Yuka and tricks Toby into paralyzing himself.

The next day, Erza arrives and Natsu reappears alone going into the temple from earlier, breaking the ruins to try tilting the temple so the moonlight won't reach Deliora. He then starts to fight Lyon, but is interrupted by Gray who tells him that he'll fight Lyon instead. Gray attempts to use the powerful spell Iced Shell to kill both himself and Lyon but it stopped by a punch to the face by Natsu. Enraged at being ignored by Zalty, he chases after him and falls into another fight. Their battle leads into Deliora's cavern where Natsu is shocked to find that Deliora's frozen prison is melting. Natsu eventually finds a way around Zalty's Time Arc magic and punches him away just as the ritual for Deliora's revival is complete. However, it is then revealed that Deliora had actually been long dead. They then realize, thanks to Erza, that the ritual had nothing to do with the villager's demonic transformations but that it was instead excess Moon Drip magic creating a barrier around the island, making the moon look purple, and making the villagers forget that their demonic appearance is actually their true appearance.

Phantom Lord arc
As they return from their S-rank mission, they find the guild destroyed. They learn from Mirajane that it was their rival, Phantom Lord. Natsu argues with the master telling him that they should fight back, but Makarov decides there is no point getting angry with someone who attacks an empty guild. This all changes when they discover the heavily injured bodies of Shadow Gear's Levy McGarden, Jet and Droy nailed to a tree. Declaring war, they rush to Phantom Lord's guild and directly attack its members. When Makarov leaves to crush Phantom Lord's leader, Jose Porla, Gajeel Redfox joins the fight; he initially fights with Elfman before Natsu takes over and the two dragon slayers have a fairly equal fight. However, the fight soon turns sour and they are forced to retreat when Makarov falls from above after having lost his magical power. Just as they are about to leave, Natsu overhears Gajeel and a member of the Element 4, Aria, saying they had captured Lucy. He kidnaps one of Phantom Lord's members, burning him until he told Natsu where Lucy may be: Phantom Lord's headquarters. Natsu sprints to it, shouting Lucy's name, and leaping in the air and capturing her as she deliberately fell from the headquarters' tower prison. Seeing as they were at the headquarters Natsu wished to continue the fight but a insist Happy and a tearful Lucy made him reluctantly agree to retreat.

Back at the guild, Natsu consoles a depressed Lucy, telling her that Fairy Tail is her "home". The guild begins to quake and they go outside to see a gigantic walking building: Phantom Lord's headquarters. It unveils its powerful Jupiter cannon which is barely prevented from annihilating the guild thanks to Erza. Jose warns them that another such blast will be fired unless Lucy is given to them but every single one of them adamantly refuses. Resultantly, Jose tells them to shiver in 15 minutes of fear as it reloads. Natsu declares that he'll smash it before this happens; Happy flies them to the building but just as he is about to destroy it he is confronted by a member of the Element 4, Totomaru. Totomaru's element relating to fire, he is able to control any type of flame and causes grief for Natsu before he figures out how to overcome Totomaru's control and destroy the cannon the moment before it fires. Enraged, Jose orders for the walking building to transform into a gigantic mage; the transformation process caused it to temporarily turn into a vehicle, invoking Natsu's motion sickness, and Totomaru almost strikes him with his Rainbow Fire before the arrival of Gray and Elfman finish the Phantom member off. Happy rushes outside to see what has happened and informs them that the building has become a mage and is about to unleash a massively destructive spell. They agree to split up to find the source of the magic, and Natsu meets the strongest of the Element 4, Aria. Natsu is dominated during the fight and nearly loses his magic via Aria's Void; he is saved by Erza who defeats Aria in one blow. Erza collapses from exhaustion moments before Jose announces (via loudspeakers) that they have captured Lucy. Erza shouts for Natsu to untap his hidden power and protect them all. Natsu, inspired by this, discovers new found determination and flames forward until he smashes through a wall and saves Lucy being impaled from one of Gajeel's daggers. The two Dragon Slayers then begin their lengthy fight. Although equal at first, Gajeel takes the upper hand when he eats the metal tiles and restores his health. This abruptly changes when Natsu gets to eat fire thanks to Lucy's Celestial Spirit, Sagittarius, and he simultaneously defeats Gajeel with his Crimson Fire Dragon's Fist and destroys his guild. Natsu falls due to fatigue but stays behind in the guild as Happy takes Lucy back to Fairy Tail. Natsu questions Gajeel about where he learnt his magic; Gajeel replies from the metal dragon Metalicana who disappeared, similar to Igneel, on the date 7/7 X777.

Whilst reconstructing the broken guild, Natsu carries a great deal many more wooden beams than necessary and indirectly challenges Gray to carry as twice as many who accepts and does so for a short second. Erza calls on them to stop messing around before Loke gives Gray Lucy's keys (which she had lost when she was caught the first time). Natsu, Gray and Erza decide to go to her house for a short break but find that she has left to go home. They rush to her house and are relieved to discover that she was only going to see her mother's grave. When they return, Natsu ponders what expression Lucy would have if he made her butt hurt; he never follows through with this as he struck by a chair thrown by an enraged Erza. Her fury is directed at Laxus who derides the weakness of Shadow Gear. Natsu throws a fist at Laxus who effortlessly dodges and then leaves with the affirmation that he will make the strongest guild. Erza tells Natsu to leave him, and then proposes that herself, he, Gray, Lucy and Happy should do a job together: attack an illegal magic school. While doing the job they destroyed half a stretch of road.

Loke arc
Natsu and the others went to help a theater house by becoming actors for a play. However, Natsu's and the others' destructiveness caused the play to become apparently ruined, but, to their surprise, it became a hit anyway.

Later, Natsu and the others went to a Japanese-themed town and after defeating some troublemakers in the area decided to stay in the town for the night. During their stay, Natsu, Gray, and Erza got into a serious pillow fight. Gray apparently won but Natsu wouldn't accept it so the two of them called on Lucy to decide for them but got scolded by her instead. He later searches through the town for Loke who had suddenly left Fairy Tail.

Tower of Paradise arc
Upon discovering that Loke is a Celestial Spirit, Natsu expresses his desire to be able to summon a dragon, claiming he wants a way to test the extent of his Dragon Slayer magic. When Loke gives Lucy the tickets to a resort where he had previously reserved rooms for himself and his girlfriends, Natsu joins her, Erza, and Gray in a break from the jobs assigned at Fairy Tail. After spending a day of relaxation at the resort with the other members of the group, Natsu tries his luck at roulette in the casino, but is attacked by Wally in the middle of the game, who tries to kill Natsu by firing his gun into his mouth.

After the abduction of both Erza and Happy, Natsu, incensed by Wally's attempt to kill him, assists the others (with the newly arrived Juvia Loxar) in tracking Erza by using his sharp sense of smell to follow her scent across the sea to the Tower of Paradise, despite getting a bad case of seasickness on the team's voyage. Upon arrival, the team uses Juvia's oxygen bubbles to sneak into the Tower's basement through an underwater tunnel, and Natsu's desire for an open fight is fulfilled when they are challenged by the guards there. After meeting up with Erza, Natsu rushes off on his own to find Happy, and get his revenge on Wally.

After finally arriving at Miriana's room, he tries on a cat-themed costume head but finds that it is stuck. But when Wally tries to ambush him again, he is saved by Miriana, who believes that he is a real cat, and doesn't want Wally to hurt him. He is nearly killed again when Wally convinces Miriana that he is not, in fact, a cat, and the two attack in tandem, but he is saved by Happy's return. He ends up defeating both mages by using a joke-move, the "Ultimate Strike: Kitty in Pain" to invoke Miriana's pity and make her release him from his bonds, allowing his magic to return and beating them with a single attack using his Fire Dragon's Wing Strike.

Following Gérard's beginning of the Paradise Game, Natsu tries to cheat by using Happy's magic to fly to the top floor directly, but is intercepted by Fukurou. Natsu tries to fight him, but Fukurou takes advantage of his motion sickness to incapacitate and then swallow him, thus absorbing his Dragon Slayer abilities. But the final stages of absorption are stopped by Gray, who, in a rage due to Erza's condition, defeats Fukurou with a Septuple Combo, freeing Natsu from his stomach. With the help of Happy, Natsu flies up to the higher regions of the tower and arrives just in time to save Erza being absorbed by the Lacrima crystals. Natsu, infuriated by Erza's uncharacteristic behavior thanks to Gérard, attacks him and after a long battle, in which Natsu gets a huge power burst from eating the Aetherion, eventually defeats him. Despite this, the Aetherion explodes into a huge whirlwind that threatens to kill all within it. Erza tries to sacrifice herself by absorbing herself into the Lacrima crystals but, after seeing her funeral in her mind, wakes up to find herself in Natsu's arms, saved from the tower.

Natsu sleeps for three days straight, temporarily waking up after Gray insulted him, and then feasting during the night. He sets off his own brand of fireworks in farewell to their previous enemies, Wally, Miriana and Shou.

Fighting Festival arc
Natsu returns from the tower to find the guild rebuilt and two new members: Juvia and Gajeel. Provoked by Gajeel, he started a huge fight with him and the other members. Later, he started to suffer some side-effects from absorbing the Aetherion, during his fight with Gérard. He left for home but instead he slept in Lucy's bed.

During the Festival, Natsu was still dozy as Evergreen froze the girls competing in the Miss Fairy Tail contest. Laxus along with his bodyguards, the Raijinshuu, announced his "Fairy Tail battle", threatening to kill the girls unless everyone joined in, effectively making them hostages. Natsu suddenly became revived and was back on his destructive feet. He leapt forward and attacked Laxus but a quick electric shock from Laxus dealt with Natsu. However, he was swiftly back on his feet and sprinted to fight but was unable to leave the guild due to Fried Justine's enchantment which was the same case for Gajeel. He then tried to free Erza with Gajeel by heating her up. Inadvertently, they succeeded - Erza punched them both for their carelessness and then ran out to fight. Her reappearance in fight came in tandem with the arrival of Mystogan. Despite Makarov's worries, Natsu still had faith that Laxus wasn't going to harm the people but this was soon proven doubtful as, Laxus threatened to destroy the town, by activating his Hall of Thunder, in response to losing his hostages after Evergreen's defeat at the hands of Erza. Levy pipes in, saying she can break the barrier and eventually manages to do so allowing Gajeel and him to enter the battle.

Natsu eventually manages to make it to where Laxus is hiding, at Caldia Cathedral, and just in time to see Mystogan's true face. He then challenges Laxus, but Laxus is indifferent to him; he soon starts to take him seriously as Natsu manages to score a few hits. As Erza goes to deal with Laxus' Hall of Thunder, Natsu chides at Laxus not really wanting to carry out his plan and just wants his grandfather to give in (who Laxus doesn't know has fallen sick) as well as having faith Erza will stop his spell despite Laxus' constantly thinking otherwise. Natsu's faith is proven as they see a report that the Hall of Thunder has been stopped due to Erza and the recovered Fairy Tail members. But, now he must face an enraged Laxus as he goes berserk. Natsu holds his own for a few moments but is soon overpowered. Gajeel then joins in (both aren't too happy about the team up) and tag team to fight Laxus. After a few assorted combos of Metal and Fire dragon techniques, Laxus gets up unimpressed and ready to finish things up. Laxus release a lighting version of the dragon slayer roar move both inflicting massive damage and rendering both unable to move. Laxus attempts to use the extremely powerful Fairy Law to kill everybody but the attack fails. Fried, who was watching the fight, explains it is because Laxus' heart doesn't see the Fairy Tail members as enemies. Laxus vows to change the guild but then Natsu gets up ready to stop him and show him his comrades are precious to him. Natsu is then beaten into the ground by Laxus but he keeps getting back up. Laxus is about to kill Natsu with another Lighting Dragon move but Gajeel absorbs it by using himself as a lighting rod. Finally, Natsu comes back with a flurry of Fire Dragon moves in a eight-hit combo defeating Laxus. Natsu stands and yells at the top of his lungs.

After the fight, most of the members were in recovering after the brutal beating they had taken, Natsu included, who had his mouth bandaged so that his speech was quite muffled. When Laxus showed up to see Makarov, Natsu yelled (his muffles translated by Gajeel) at him that he didn't consider the two-on-one as a fair victory, and that he wanted a rematch with Laxus. However, instead of the usual comeback, Laxus merely waved after the guild without facing them, earning him a confused glance from Natsu. Despite his injuries, Natsu takes part in the Fantasia parade in a fire-blowing float. Next week, Natsu's injuries healed, he confronted Makarov about Laxus excommunication but it stopped by Erza. When Lucy worries about her lack of money Natsu suggests they take a job making her weep in joy. The next day they, along with Happy, Erza and Gray are about to leave to take a job to find and capture the escaped convict Velveno. Lucy suddenly darts off - confused, the others follow her but find that she is okay and had almost literally defeated a whole guild by herself.

Oración Seis arc
As Lucy is short on paying the rent, Natsu, along with Gray and Erza, help her by taking jobs as waiters and waitresses in a magical restaurant. However, Natsu spends most of the time eating the food rather than serving it, and after all the work is done, supports a rather bloated figure. They return to the guild to find a drawing of the various factions of the Dark Guilds and the current strength of the Balam Alliance. Makarov then picked him and his team as delegates to go after the Oración Seis.

As he ventured to the meeting point, he met The Trimens and Ichiya Wanderlei Kotobuki who were Blue Pegasus' delegates. He along with Gray, is not impressed with them. Soon, they meet the Lamia Scale Guild members to join them and he becomes even more unimpressed in the form of two old foes and one of the Ten Wizard Saints, Jura Nekis. However, as he meets the Cait Shelter Guild member, Wendy Marvell along with her cat Charle, he gives an impression of recognising Wendy's name. Later, he runs out looking for the Oración Seis to take them all on one on one.

After the Oración Seis find them, Natsu is beaten by them and nearly killed until Jura Nekis arrived to save him and the others. As they discover Erza's poisoned state, Charle suggests that they find the captured Wendy, who is revealed to be the Dragon Slayer of the Sky, and Happy so she can save her. With this, Natsu runs off with Charle and Gray only to find and beat the Naked Mummy Guild. After discovering Oración Seis' hideout, Natsu goes on ahead while Gray fights Racer. As he arrives, Natsu is met with a shock that Gérard is revived. Natsu takes his time to take Wendy back to Erza so she can heal her. After Hibiki Laytis helps Natsu bring Wendy to Erza and she is healed; suddenly Nirvana is revealed, and Natsu rushes headstrong to stop Gérard. On his way he runs into Racer's personal guild Harpuia defeating them easily. Natsu then finds an unconscious Gray floating in a river and tries to help him, however when he gets there a raft pops up out of the water and Natsu's motion sickness takes over. As Gray was about to make a killing blow Lucy and Hibiki appear halting Gray as the raft comes to a stop Natsu who is still feeling the effects. It is revealed that Gray was actually Angel's Celestial Spirit. Lucy faces off against her but just as Lucy is victorious, rapids suddenly appear dragging Natsu along with Lucy both on the raft down the river and down a waterfall. He later wakes up on dry land along with Lucy to notice that Virgo has been taking care of them by treating Lucy's wounds and changing their clothes by her own will. Surprisingly Sherry who has murderous thoughts due to Nirvana appears suddenly and is about to attack Natsu and Lucy when Gray crashes in and holds her down, and Lyon shows up to be alive as well, making Sherry revert to normal. Natsu, along with Gray and Lucy are caught up in the activation of Nirvana's second stage; they are soon seen later climbing up one of its legs.

As Natsu's motion sickness kicks in, Happy arrives to help him so as he flies to stop Brain, Cobra takes to the skies as well to battle Natsu. As the two begin to battle, Cobra stays ahead of Natsu by reading his thoughts but Natsu overcomes this by fighting on instinct. Natsu becomes shocked as he realizes that Cobra is in fact, the Poison Dragon Slayer. However, he learns that he is actually artificial like Laxus so Natsu fights to defeat yet another artificial Dragon Slayer. After being infected with some of the poison, Natsu becomes enraged that Cobra considers all dragons extinct and he tries to defeat Cobra again with a huge roar that shatters Cobra's sensitive ear drums. However, Cobra survives only to be defeated by Brain. With this, Brain reveals he plans on using Nirvana to turn Natsu evil so he can serve him, but the timely arrival of Gray, Lucy and Jura save him. After Jura deals with Brain, Wendy and Charle arrive and heals Natsu's poison while temporarily curing him of motion sickness.

As the team is led into a trap by Brain, Natsu becomes enraged to see Jura nearly killed from defending them from it. When the seventh member of the Oración Seis appears to he, Gray, Lucy and Happy, Brain's staff Klodoa, Natsu is unfazed by the fact that he is a talking stick and waves around him demanding that he stop Nirvana. Klodoa, however, frees himself from Natsu's grasp and tells him of their plan to destroy Cait Shelter so Nirvana cannot be resealed. Klodoa then starts whacking then abruptly acting nervously (due to Midnight's defeat at Erza) as he tells that since all the Oración Seis members have been defeated a new side of Brain will emerge, codenamed Zero. This new personality then appears himself, Natsu commenting that Zero's magic feels disgusting, and attacks him when Zero easily smashes through Gray's Ice Shield. Zero dodges Natsu's attack and delivers a powerful one of his own, knocking Natsu down. After some encouraging words, Natsu wills himself back up and goes to the Lacrima #1.

However, Zero awaits him and the two battle feircely. Natsu even stops a spell Zero thought couldn't be stopped. Suddenly, Gérard appears giving a powerful magic blast to Natsu, shocking both he and Zero, the latter asking if Gérard had regained his memories. In fact, Gérard's memories have not returned, however he does remember Natsu's name and calls him the ray of hope. The magic blast was actually a powerful fire attack intended to give Natsu back his strength. Initially, Natsu refuses Gérard's help and even proceeds to attack him. Taking advantage of the situation Zero fires another spell at Natsu. Gérard defends him by taking the full force of the blast. This prompts Natsu to accept the Flame of Rebuke from Gérard to defeat Zero and receive a large boost in strength and speed.

Magic and Abilities
As the most prominent fire mages seen in the series, Natsu has shown to be one of the substantially strong members of Fairy Tail. Natsu is well adept with his Dragon Slayer magic and makes use of it in a myriad of different ways in combat. He incorporate the flames he ignites into his fighting style, greatly increasing the strength of his blows and movements. Natsu is an expert tactian in the midst of battle, able to change the tide into his favor by adapting to the situation at hand. He has a great deal of stamina; in the Phantom Lord arc, he participates in three battles in under an hour (although only winning one by himself).

Fire Dragon Slayer
Natsu uses the ancient magic known as Dragon Slayer taught to him by the dragon, Igneel. As such, Natsu's magic revolves around the usage of fire that can spout from any part of his body, and gives him immunity to any type of flame and allows him to spew fire from his lungs. This fire is exceptionally strong - the equivalent to a dragon's fire - able to even burn through metal. The type of fire can be changed, for example, it can be solidified to cling to surfaces. It also appears to give him immunity to cold temperature as indicated when he walked through a freezing snowstorm with little on and with indifference.

As with all Dragon Slayers, he can consume his respective element with the exception of that he is created (he can't eat his own fire) and he is endowed with a much more powerful sense of smell than that of a human. Although unclear if directly related to Dragon Slayer magic or simply a part of Natsu's brand of Dragon Slayer, the strength and heat of his fire can increase in temperature relative to Natsu's emotional state. Natsu subconsciously used this against Erigor, his flame's heat significantly rising as he got more and more enraged. This is also called the Flame of Emotion. Another possible Dragon Slayer trait is the ability to roar extremely loud like a dragon.

Dragon Force
A stupendously powerful state of Dragon Slayer where Natsu's strength and speed increase a hundredfold and dragon scales form on his face; his power is such that Natsu was able to defeat Gérard, a member of the Ten Wizard Saints. This state is first invoked when he ate highly unstable lacrima crystals infused with magic from the extremely powerful Aetherion satellite and again when he ate the Flame of Rebuke.

List of Spells

 * Karyuu no Houkou (Fire Dragon's Roar): Natsu breathes fire at his opponents which transforms in a large fireball.


 * Karyuu no Kagidzume (Fire Dragon's Claw): Natsu ignites his feet on fire to increase the power of his kicks.


 * Karyuu no Tekken (Fire Dragon's Iron Fist): Natsu engulfs his fist in flames to strike his opponent, causing increased damage.


 * Karyuu no Yokugeki (Fire Dragon's Wing Attack): Natsu takes hold of his opponent and ignites his hands on fire as support to throw them. (In the anime he cross his arms, ignites his arms, jumps, and then does a cross slash with two streams of flames.)


 * Karyuu no Kenkaku (Fire Dragon's Sword Edge): Natsu ignites his entire body on fire to charge at his opponent, and charge at them again to launch them high into the air.


 * Karyuu no Kouen (Fire Dragon's Gleaming Flame): Igniting both of his hands on fire, Natsu simultaneously strikes his opponent.


 * Karyuu no Enchu (Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow): Lighting the tip of his elbow on fire, Natsu can boost the speed of his punch tremendously.


 * Karyuu no Saiga (Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang): With his hand ignited and facing away from his opponent, Natsu swipes deeply into and away from his opponent.


 * Crimson Fire Dragon Fist: Lighting his hands on fire, Natsu will rapidly punch his opponent with his fists. Each punch causes a fiery explosion. This attack was used to defeat Gajeel Redfox, and as an added result, had enough destructive power to destroy the entire guild building of Phantom Lord.


 * Karyuu no Guren Bakuenjin (Fire Dragon's Red Lotus Flame Exploding Blade): After a series of attacks, Natsu finishes with a torrent of blade-shaped flames that strike the enemy in a spiral formation. Every time the enemy is hit with a blade, it explodes. Described as the ultimate Dragon Slayer technique, this attack is so powerful it has been shown to smash through dragon scales, which is known to have tremendous endurance capabilities. This attack was used to defeat Laxus in chapter 126.

Trivia

 * Natsu bares quite a strong resemblance to Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of One Piece, especially from personality and a huge appetite. Something many fans and reviews sites have taken note of.
 * His name, Natsu (夏) means "summer" in Japanese. Haru, the main character from Hiro Mashima's past manga Rave, means Spring.
 * Natsu is one of the representatives of Fairy Tail in the game Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen!, the other being Lucy.
 * Natsu may be over 80, despite how he looks, as demonstrated when he was unable to leave Fried's enchantment (it is possible that this could be a side effect of the Dragon Slayer magic, as Gajeel was unable to leave as well).
 * In the short-story version of Fairy Tail, Natsu was a spirit rather than human and had horns.