Natsu Dragneel


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

Natsu Dragonil (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. His name, Natsu (夏) means "summer" in Japanese.

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 is probably why 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. He suffers from motion sickness from all modes of transportation, including trains, boats, and carriages. Along with his partner, Happy, a magical cat, he is first introduced in the manga as searching for his missing foster father, Igneel.

His strength and reputation as one of the strongest fire mages has made him one of the more prominent members of Fairy Tail. Erza states that Natsu's true power is in a slumber state and has yet to awaken. With self-belief, Natsu will one day become stronger than Erza. It has been shown that Natsu's power exponentially increases in conjunction with his emotions, evident from his fight with Eligor and Gazille Reitfox.

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. His dedication to his teammates and his guild is strong, preventing the deaths and self-sacrifices of several members, including Macau Convault and 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. Natsu also seems to be a sore loser, never admitting defeat. Whenever Gray and him have trouble deciding who won, they call on Lucy, who is for the most part, able to calm them down.

Early 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. Thus far he has only met two other Dragon Slayer users who like him, learned it from a dragon that disappeared on the same date.

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.

Intro arc
Natsu first appears looking for his foster father, Igneel, alongside Happy but instead he finds a narcissistic fire mage. During his mishap, he meets a young sorceress, Lucy Heartphilia. After thanking them for helping her, she feeds them and explains to Natsu that the fire mage was using unlawful magic. He later thanks her and leaves with Happy.

Later, he finds that the fire mage has been using the Fairy Tail name and captured a number of girls to trade-off, Lucy included, and he goes to save them revealing he is a Fairy Tail mage and a user of Dragon Slayer magic. After saving the girls, Natsu invites Lucy to join Fairy Tail.

Macau arc
After Natsu returns, he immediately sparks a huge fight, namely with Gray, and master Makarov has to stop it. He then hears that fellow Fairy Tail mage, Macau, hasn't returned from a mission so he goes of in search of him with Lucy. As they arrive at the mountain, they get into a fight with a Balkan which turns out to be Macau. They save him and bring him home to his son.

Daybreak arc
After Lucy gets settled into her new home, Natsu invades it demanding to have fun. He then gets to learn about Stellar Spirits from Lucy when she summons Plue. Plue then gives him the idea to form a team with Lucy and she agrees while they go on a mission to steal a book.

As he arrives at the employer's house, Natsu sends Lucy into the mansion of the Duke in disguise of a maid. After she is rejected for being too ugly, Natsu sneaks in the mansion and soon gets into a fight with the Vanish Brothers. After battling them, he comes out victorious only to be attacked by the Duke's huge maid. He soon is summoned to the Duke via the maid's key command and finishes the fight with Lucy.

After he finds out the truth about the book, he returns it to the employers, to whom the book was meant for, and decides not to take payment for the job. He explains this because he didn't do what he was hired for and that the employers wouldn't be able to pay them anyway.

Lullaby arc
Natsu returned to the guild and gets into another fight with Gray, but Loki warns them that Erza has returned from her mission and they stop. Much to his chagrin, 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 Eligor 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 Eligor, 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 Stellar Spirit Virgo; she apologizes to Natsu for her past fight with him and he forgives her. Natsu then uses Happy's Max Speed to go after Eligor. After he runs into him, the he proves himself powerful enough to evoke Eligor's Storm Mail spell. As the wind armor causes Natsu's fire to be put out and stop him from punching Eligor, Natsu becomes angry enough to where his fire becomes hotter. Happy, noticing the increase in the fire's temperature and power, breaks Natsu'd final straw by telling Natsu to let Gray fight Eligor instead since he can't win. This sends Natsu into a rage where he was able to defeat Eligor.

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.

Garuna 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 Macau 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 Luxus Dreher 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 notices their magic and agrees to ferry 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 Yuuka, 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 Leon Reitie's command to Toby and the others to destroy the village, jumps out from hiding and attacks but is quickly stopped by Leon'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 Leon's mages who use deadly poison to try kill everyone, but Natsu stops a large chunk of the poison with his Brilliant Flame attack. Natsu then gets in a fight with Yuuka the Surge and Toby, and after a short fight defeats Yuuka 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 tilt the temple so the moonlight won't reach Deliora. He then starts to fight Leon, but is interrupted by Gray who tells him that he'll fight Leon instead. Gray attempts to use the powerful spell Iced Shell to kill both himself and Leon but it stopped by a punch to the face by Natsu. Enraged at being ignored by Urtear, 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 Zarti'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 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 Natsu and co. return from their S-rank mission, they find the guild destroyed. They learn from the other members that it was the rival guild, Phantom Lord. Natsu argues with the master telling him that they should fight back, but Makarov decides to just let it go. This all changes after Gazille, a Phantom Lord member and the only other known dragon slayer currently in the series, attacks three of Fairy Tail's members. Most of the guild members fight with the Phantom Lord's members until Makarov is defeated. It is then revealed that Phantom Lords guild master was jealous of Fairy Tail and used a mission request from Lucy's father as a way to earn money that they needed to surpass Fairy Tail. After Natsu rescues Lucy from being kidnapped, Phantom Lord's guild hall begins moving towards Fairy Tail and the two guilds begin fighting. As Erza gets knocked out while stopping the Jupiter cannon, Natsu disables the cannon by defeating the first of the Element Four, Totomaru with Gray's and Elfman's help. After defeating him and almost being defeated by another of the element four, it is revealed that Lucy was kidnapped again by Gazille. Natsu fights him and defeats him. After master Makarov returns and wins his own battle, Phantom Lord is defeated. Natsu then asks Gazille where he learned his dragon slayer abilities. When it is revealed that Gazille's master disappeared at the same time as Natsu's, Natsu tells Gazille to tell him if he finds out where either of their masters are. Lucy is then welcomed back by Natsu and the rest of the Fairy Tail guild.

Loki 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's later seen searching through the town for Loki who had suddenly left Fairy Tail.

Tower of Paradise arc
Upon discovering that Loki is a Stellar 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 Loki 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 Lluvia 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 Lluvia'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 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 Dragon Wing Strike.

Following Gerard's beginning of the Paradise Game, Natsu tries to cheat by using Happy's transformation 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 the Lachyrama crystals. Natsu, infuriated by Erza's uncharacteristic behavior thanks to Gerard, 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 Lachyrama crystals but, after seeing her funeral in her mind, wakes up to find herself in Natsu's arms, saved from the tower.

Fighting Festival arc
Natsu returned from the tower to find the Guild rebuilt and that Gazille had become a member. He then got into a huge fight with him and the other members. Later, he started to suffer some side-effects from absorbing the Atherion, during his fight with Gerard. He was in a non-stop sleep fixation. He left for home but instead he slept in Lucy's bed.

During the Festival, Natsu was still asleep but as Luxus announced his "contest" Natsu was back on his destructive feet. However, he was unable to leave the Guild due to Fried Justine's enchantment. He then tried to free Erza with Gazille but he heated her in an inappropriate area and Erza hit him for it. Natsu still had faith that Luxus wasn't going to harm the people but he was soon proven wrong as Luxus threatened to destroy the town. After which he charged to battle Luxus for his underhanded ways. Levi eventually manages to break Fried's barrier allowing Gazille and him to enter the battle. Natsu eventually manages to make it to where Luxus is hiding, at Caldia Cathedral, and just in time to see Mist Gun's true face. He then challenges Luxus, but Luxus is indifferent to him, but soon starts to take him seriously as Natsu manages to score a few hits. As Ezra goes to deal with Luxus' Hall of Thunder spell, Natsu chides at Luxus not really wanting to carry out his plan and just wants his grandfather to give in (who Luxus doesn't know has fallen sick) as well as having faith Erza will stop his spell despite Luxus' constantly thinking otherwise. Natsu's faith is proven as he see a report that the Hall of Thunder has been stopped due to Erza and the recovered FT members. But, now he must face an enraged Luxus as he goes to full power. Natsu holds his own for a few moments but is soon overpowered. Gazille then joins in (both aren't too happy about the team up) and tag team to fight Luxus. After a few assorted combos of Metal and Fire dragon techniques, Luxus gets up unimpressed and ready to finish things up. Luxus release a lighting version of the dragon slayer roar move both inflicting massive damage and rendering both unable to move. Luxus attempts to use Fairy Law to kill everybody but the attack fails. Fried explains it is because Luxus' heart doesn't see the Fairy Tail members as enemies. Luxus vows to change the guild but then Natsu gets up ready to stop him and show him his nakama are precious to him. Natsu is then beaten into the ground by Luxus but he keeps getting back up. Luxus is about to kill Natsu with another Lighting Dragon move but Gazille absorbs it by using himself as a lighting rod. Finally, Natsu comes back with a flurry of Fire Dragon moves in a 8-hit combo defeating Luxus. Natsu stands and yells at the top of his lungs thus claiming himself as "The Strongest in Fairy Tail".

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 Luxus showed up to see Makarov, Natsu yelled at him that two-on-one wasn't fair, and that he wanted a rematch with Luxus. However, instead of the usual comeback, Luxus merely waved after the guild without facing them, earning him a confused glance from Natsu.

Oracion Seis arc
After the Fantasia festival that Natsu took part in, Natsu is seen complaining to Makarov about Luxus' excommunication. Natsu decides that he and the others should take up another job again, but is stopped when Lucy runs off to save her father. He catches up with her, along with Erza, Gray and Happy, and together they return back to the Guild.

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 Oracion Seis.

As he ventured to the Blue Pegasus Guild, he met the four members of it to join them. He along with Gray, is not impressed with them. Soon, they met the Lamia Scale members to join them and he becomes even more unimpressed. However, as he meets the Cait Shelter member, Wendy, he gives an impression of recognising her name. Later, ne runs out looking for the Oracion Seis to take them all on one on one.

After the Oracion 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 Blaine's hideout, Natsu goes on ahead while Gray fights Racer. As he arrives, Natsu is met with a shock that Gerard is revived! Natsu takes his time to take Wendy back to Erza so she can heal her. After Erza is healed and Nirvana is revealed, Natsu rushes headstrong to stop Gerard. On his way he runs into Racers personal guild Harpuia defeating them easily. Natsu then finds an unconcess 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 is still feeling the effects.

Magic and Abilities
As one of the most prominent fire mages seen in the series, Natsu has shown exceptional and substantial strength in Fairy Tail. Natsu is well adept with his Dragon Slayer magic and makes use of its myriad of abilities in combat. Being taught by the dragon Igneel, Natsu also learns how to incorporate the flames he ignites into his fighting style, greatly increasing the strength of his blows. 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.

Fire Dragon Slayer: Natsu uses the ancient magic known as Dragon Slayer taught to him by Igneel the dragon; Seen as such, Natsu's magic revolves mostly around fire. It gives his body many of the aspects of a dragon. In addition, he can consume fire to regain any of his strength, though with the exception of his own flame. His hands and body are also fire proof like a dragon, and his lunges can exhales flame. He is also endowed with a much more powerful sense of smell than that of a human's which at times can have detrimental effects for him in battle.

His Attacks Include:


 * Fire Dragon's Roar: Natsu breathes fire at his opponents which transforms in a large fireball.


 * Fire Dragon's Talon: Natsu ignites his feet on fire to increase the power of his kicks.


 * Fire Dragon's Iron Fist: Natsu engulfs his fist in flames to strike his opponent, causing increased damage.


 * Fire Dragon's Wing: Natsu takes hold of his opponent and ignites his hands on fire as support to throw them.


 * 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.


 * Fire Dragon's Gleaming Flame: Igniting both of his hands on fire, Natsu simultaneously strikes his opponent.


 * Fire Dragon's Dash: Igniting both his feet on fire, Natsu uses them as support to launch himself at a target.


 * Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow: Lighting the tip of his elbow on fire, Natsu can boost the speed of his punch tremedously.


 * 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 Gazille Reitfox, and as an added result, had enough destructive power to destroy the entire guild building of Phantom Lord.




 * Kairyuu Guren Bakuenjin (Fire Dragon Crimson Exploding Flame 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 Luxus in chapter 126.

Dragon Slayer Mode: After consuming the highly powerful, yet unstable, Atherion, Natsu becomes covered in dragon scales and is given a tremendous power boost. The capabilities of this transformation made Natsu powerful enough to overwhelm Gerard, an opponent of the same magical class of the Ten Great Holy Mages.

Trivia

 * Natsu bares quite a strong resemblance to Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of One Piece, not only through looks but personality as well. Something many fans and reviews sites have taken note of.
 * Natsu means Summer, and Haru, the main character from Hiro Mashima's past manga Rave, means Spring.