I do not own Fairy Tail or Naruto.

"I'll never forgive you, Jellal! I'll put an end to this!" roared Erza as she stormed out of her jail cell. She raced down the hallway, swiftly cutting through the guards that attempted to stop her. She paused to take her bearings as she entered a darkly lit hallway. Noting that the hallway sloped downwards, she turned to backtrack when the stench hit her. It was the thick, cloying odour of blood; lots of it. She grimaced and entered the hallway warily, thinking it might be worth investigating. At the very end of the hallway, in a filthy, rusted cell, lay a still, bloody body.

Erza quickly strode forward, breaking through the bars with a few swift slices, and quickly brought the body out of the cell.

"Hey, can you hear me?" she called, shaking the man as she checked his vitals. A faint, almost imperceptible heartbeat pulsed beneath her fingers. She grabbed him and quickly brought him out of the hallway, back to the bright lit corridor. As she did so, she noticed the numerous injuries that covered his body.

"Tortured…." she whispered, immediately flashing back to the past when she too had been badly tortured. "If this is your fault, Jellal…." she growled as she strode forward. "You're going to wish you were never born."

It was late afternoon when the man awoke. He opened his eyes to see the warm sun shining through the window, illuminating the room. He was lying on a soft, comfortable bed in a rather fancy-looking hotel room.

Slowly, he sat up, wincing a little. His body was covered in bandages, although most of his injuries were completely healed. He was just getting to his feet when the door opened and a red-haired woman walked in.

"….Mom?" the man asked in a strangled voice. She blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered and walked over to him. As she did so, the man got a better look at her. While she did resemble his mother, he now noticed that she was young; probably about 18 or 19 years old. She was also heavily bandaged, but nowhere near as much as he was.

"You better stay in bed," she advised, looking him over with a critical eye. "You've been unconscious for several days now, and a lot of those injuries are pretty deep." The man shrugged aside her concern.

"I heal pretty quickly. Who are you? And how did I get here?" he asked. She sighed and sat down on the opposite bed.

"What do you remember?" she asked. The man frowned, thinking back. At last, he spoke. "I remember being tortured by this guy named Jellal…." he began, noting her stiffening at the mention of Jellal. "He was trying to get me to power up this lacrima of his to resurrect a wizard, but I would never give my power to someone who would mess with the dead. I was there for a long time...maybe three or four months. The days kind of blurred together, so I don't remember all that much."

"I see. Jellal was trying to resurrect the black wizard Zeref with the tower, and for that he needed a large amount of magical power. You must have a lot for him to consider torturing you that badly," she noted. "In order for the spell to work, he needed a sacrifice and a large amount of magical energy. He got the energy from manipulating the council to fire Etherion on the tower, which turned out to be made out of lacrima. For the sacrifice, he kidnapped me. I broke out and found you, and my friends came to rescue me and we stopped Jellal, but the battle caused too much damage to the tower and the magic began to escape. Somehow, the magic was redirected and we all survived. We brought you back to our hotel and you spent the last three days unconscious." The man frowned, carefully processing her words.

"Why did Jellal kidnap you?" he asked abruptly. The woman stiffened and looked away, a troubled expression on her face. The man winced, sensing he had touched a sore point and quickly changed the subject.

"Ah, never mind. You don't have to tell me," he said sheepishly, scratching his head self-consciously. "But you still haven't answered my first question. And where are we, exactly?"

"Oh! Right. My name is Erza Scarlet and we're at the Akane Resort," she smiled, holding out her hand. The man returned her smile and shook her hand.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."