DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, FAIRY TAIL, OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

I'm sure you're all wondering how I could do that to Gajeel. I mean come on, what a moment, right? At least he saved Jiraiya, so who knows what repercussions that'l have. Anyways, latest chapter here, lot's of tears, as you'd expect. With that, read, review, and as always, enjoy!

Chapter 27

"Why is it that I get a bad feeling every time we're summoned to the Hokage's office?" Natsu complained loudly as he walked with his hands behind his head.

Gray, who was walking next to the fire dragon slayer, shrugged. "No idea, man."

"Ah, come on, you guys are probably overreacting," Naruto said, waving a hand. It had been the blonde who'd awoken the three wizards that morning, delivering the news of Tsunade's summons. "Granny's probably just assigning us a super difficult mission only for people of our abilities!"

"Yeah, that's it," Laxus rolled his eyes. Gray chuckled at that, being the only one with high enough intelligence to recognize the evident sarcasm in that statement.

"Hey, what do you think Gajeel's up to?" Natsu asked.

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted. "Probably having fun on some top secret mission since Grandma Tsunade wouldn't tell us about it."

The four proceeded through the tower until they came to the Hokage's door, which was immediately opened by two ANBU that stood outside. The four shuffled in and were greeted with an overwhelming wave of heavy emotions that none of them were used to on a daily basis.

Tsunade had her hands clasped in front of her as she conversed in low tones with two small toads that occupied her desk. One was green with tufts of white hair sticking up around his scalp. The other was purple, with curly hair forming a small afro. Both stood on top of the wooden surface with their backs turned to the door. Behind Tsunade, Shizune looked like someone had just walked over her grave, nearly crushing Tonton with her tight grip.

Off to the left, seated on a windowsill was Jiraiya. He had a solemn, dejected look on his face as he stared out the glass panes. His shoulders were slumped, and his left arm was secured in a sling against his chest. Next to him, a large toad sat with its back against the wall. At the sound of footsteps, Jiraiya turned his head and formed his mouth into a hard line when he saw Naruto and the three wizards.

The last person in the room was confusing, to say the least. Seated in a chair to Shizune's left was a bound and blindfolded individual with long black hair that fell down his back in a ponytail. If the new arrivals didn't know any better, they'd say that the three others were torturing this guy before they'd arrived.

Naruto visibly brightened when he saw Jiraiya. "Pervy sage! You're back! How'd the mission go? And what's wrong with your arm?"

Jiraiya glanced down to his left arm, shrugging at the sight. "Just a dislocated shoulder, I'll be fine, kid."

Naruto's bright mood quickly turned sour at Jiraiya's low tone of voice. Naruto had never seen this side of Jiraiya before. The Sannin was always so uplifting and happy, albeit perverted. This was nothing like he should be, and it made Naruto uneasy.

Laxus jerked his head to the bound and blindfolded individual. "Why's he here?"

"Itachi Uchiha," Tsunade spat with venom, "is here to provide us any and all intel that he has on the Akatsuki. The hospital has released him, which means that we can extract information by any means necessary."

"As I've said before, Lady Tsunade, that won't be necessary," Itachi said in his soft, monotone voice.

"We'll see about that," Tsunade said, narrowing her eyes at the bound Uchiha. It was almost like she actually wanted Itachi to resist so that she could take out her frustrations on him.

"Who are these two geezer frogs?" Naruto asked, fighting back a laugh.

"Naruto!" Tsunade chastised. "These are the two great elder Sages of Mount Myoboku, Lord Fukasaku and Lady Shima."

"Oh! Are these those two geezer sages that you said trained you, pervy sage?" Naruto asked, turning to Jiraiya, who looked as if all the color had drained from his face in fear.

"What?!" both elder toads exclaimed in anger, facing their student with fierce glares.

After a few seconds. They cleared their throats and turned back to Lady Tsunade. "Yes, well, now that Naruto-boy is here with Gajeel-boy's friends, we can begin," Fukasaku said.

"Gajeel? How do you know Gajeel?" Natsu asked, looking at the small elder toad with suspicion.

Tsunade sighed. "Natsu, hold your questions for now."

The fire dragon slayer did as he was told, though he didn't like it. He was starting to think that the uneasy feeling that he'd felt on the way over here was proving to be for a reason.

Fukasaku picked up a small stack of papers, and laid them out on Tsunade's desk. They were sketches, hand-drawn, six in all. Each was a different person, but five of them had some of the same distinguishing features. Namely all of the piercings, as well as spiral-patterned eyes. The sixth was of a woman, but she didn't possess the same eyes.

"These are the seven individuals we were forced to fight," Fukasaku said.

Tsunade raised a brow. "Seven? There are only six pictures."

Jiraiya nodded to the toad next to him, who opened its mouth impossibly wide. As it stuck its tongue out, a body similar to that of the sketches emerged. It had the same piercings, and its eyes were a purple spiral pattern as well.

"So you managed to defeat one, then?" Tsunade asked.

Jiraiya nodded. "The leader of the Akatsuki calls himself Pain, but he is really Nagato, one of my former students, and the bearer of the Rinnegan."

The Toad Sage walked over to Tsunade's desk, beckoning everyone closer. They all clustered around the desk to get a better look at the six sketches as Jiraiya pointed to the far left one first. "This seems to be the main Pain. Its powers are unknown, but it's the body of Yahiko, another of my students. At first, I thought that Yahiko had killed Nagato and taken his eyes, but then Gajeel, with his astute sense of smell, made the discovery that each of these bodies are dead. Somehow, Nagato is able to manipulate them to do his bidding."

Pointing to the next two, a Pain with long hair that hung down its back, and another taller one that had similar features to the first. "These two also have unknown powers, but we have deduced that one of them most likely has the ability to revive the other bodies, as I'll explain later."

Jiraiya then moved his hand to the bald Pain. "This one seems to be mechanical. It can split its body apart into explosive machinery and launch it at an opponent."

Next, Jiraiya's hand hovered over the last Pain, the broad-shouldered one. "And this Pain has the ability to absorb both chakra, making ninjutsu useless against it. Gajeel managed to kill it three times, but due to one of the others' abilities, it was revived and came back to fight each time."

Lastly, Jiraiya picked up the sketch of the woman, shaking his head slightly in disappointment. "And this is Konan. She was the third student out of that group. She has the ability to split her own body apart into paper. She can also turn these slips of paper into bombs, which she used against us as well."

"I see," was all that Tsunade said.

"I don't," came Itachi's response from next to them.

Completely ignoring the Uchiha, Natsu and Gray both slammed their hands on the desk at the same time. "That doesn't explain where Gajeel is!" Natsu yelled.

"What the hell happened to him?" Gray asked loudly.

Tsunade dropped her head. Just before she spoke, Jiraiya cut her off. The Toad Sage's expression could only be described as regretful and filled with sorrow. "Gajeel...he...he didn't make it."

The room became deathly quiet. The sound of one small insect could have filled the void of utter silence that had been draped over the room like a blanket. Natsu had half a mind to laugh and say that the old man was joking, but one look at the Sannin's face completely destroyed that notion.

"What?" was all the fire dragon slayer could manage.

Jiraiya placed his one good hand on Natsu's shoulder. He looked between the three wizards with an apologetic expression. "He...he's gone. I'm sorry. He stayed behind and sacrificed himself to save me. I can't imagine the pain that you're all exper-"

"You left him to die, didn't you?" Gray asked, his voice deep and accusing.

Jiraiya looked down to his feet. "I-I tried to get him to save himself, but he wouldn't listen."

"Shut up!" Natsu yelled, smacking Jiraiya's hand away. "You left him there to die! You're the reason that he's dead!"

The fire dragon slayer reared a fist back and clocked Jiraiya on the jaw. The Sannin's head snapped to the side, and he stumbled backwards, stretching his hand out to brace himself against the wall. The punch hurt, and it might have cracked his jawbone, but at least it wasn't imbued with fire.

Natsu turned and stomped towards the door. As he pulled it open, Tsunade yelled, "Where do you think you're going?"

Natsu turned around, the others finally seeing the tears that were streaming down his face. "To find my friend."

"He's dead, Natsu," Jiraiya said quietly.

"NO!" Natsu shook his head, his anger soaring even higher. The room started to heat up as flames began to emanate from Natsu's palms and shoulders.

The extra heat was quickly balanced out when Gray exploded in power as well, the tears evident on his face as well. "We're going to find him. Come on, Natsu."

The fire and ice wizards turned to leave, but were halted by the appearance of Kakashi in the doorway. "I can't let either of you do anything rash."

Jiraiya glanced over to Tsunade. "I could lead a few squads in a rescue operation."

Tsunade shook her head. "I can't authorize that. We don't even know if Gajeel is alive or not. We don't even know the abilities of three of the remaining Pains. Not to mention an entire village at his back. I'd be starting another Ninja War."

"Then start the fucking war!" Natsu roared, his entire body going up in flames.

At that, Tsunade's temper broke. Rising to her feet, she cracked the table with the hand she slapped onto its surface. "Enough! I am the Hokage! I have to decide what is best for this village, and that is not a war! I have allowed your outbursts because of the loss of your friend, but I won't tolerate any more! As long as you are members of this village, you will follow my orders and remain here!"

Natsu and Gray bristled at Tsunade's comments. None of the three blinked for what felt like hours because of the tension. Finally, when someone did move, it was Natsu. His right arm rose to his left sleeve, where he ripped off the engraved forehead protector. He tossed it onto Tsunade's desk and turned to roughly push past Kakashi, Gray hot on his heels.

Tsunade watched the fire and ice duo disappear before collapsing back in her chair. She buried her hands in her face and let out a massive sigh. It was clear that she blamed herself, just like Jiraiya did.

Laxus, who'd been silent this entire time, finally shifted, but only to tighten his coat around his shoulders. Shizune tried to catch his eye, but the slayer ignored her. Wordlessly, he turned on his heel and moved to follow his guild mates.

"Will you follow them?" Tsunade asked.

Laxus stopped in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder. As frightening as Natsu and Gray's power had been earlier, the two of them were nothing compared to the cold stare that resided in the lightning dragon slayer's eyes at the moment. Shizune blanched in fear, feeling as if she should run the other way.

Laxus said nothing, simply turning and proceeding out the door, his coat flowing behind him as he walked. Kakashi allowed him to pass before stepping into the Hokage's office himself. Closing the door, he placed his hands in his pockets and leaned up against the painted wood.

"This is going to be a problem."

Tsunade gave a harsh laugh. "Very astute observation, Kakashi. What gave it away?"

"Did you really let Gajeel go with pervy sage, Granny?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade shook her head sadly. "No. Gajeel went of his own volition. But that doesn't make his loss any less my fault. Had I not allowed Jiraiya to carry out this mission, none of this would have happened."

"Don't blame yourself, Tsunade. I'm the one who let the kid come with me. I could have ditched him on the way there, but I didn't. That's on me," Jiraiya said.

"I wish we could have told them the whole story," Fukasaku lamented. "They should know how their friend spent his final moments."

"It was a death befitting a true shinobi," Jiraiya said quietly.

Kakashi shook his head. "No. A death befitting a dragon slayer."

For the past few hours, Laxus had been feeling tremors under his feet. From his perch on top of the Hokage's faces, Laxus could tell that they'd been originating from the next mountain over. Natsu had been taking out his frustrations on the rock formation, and Laxus couldn't say that he blamed the guy. At least he had enough wits about him to not start a massive forest fire.

There was no telling what Gray was doing. The ice wizard had always seemed like the quiet type when it came to grieving, so he was probably stalking through the back alleys of the village. As for Laxus, he simply crossed his arms and stared at the setting sun. The wind billowed around him, stirring up the tails of his coat as he stood there, going over his thoughts of Gajeel.

These past few months, he and the dragon slayer had grown closer than ever. They'd formed a sort of begrudging camaraderie before the Grand Magic Games, but that had turned into genuine friendship when they'd arrived here.

The scuff of a sandal on dirt alerted Laxus to a new presence. Turning his head slightly, he saw Shizune out of the corner of his eye. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I thought you might like some company," she said, bowing her head slightly.

Laxus simply turned his head back around, returning to his view of the sunset on the village. By now, Shizune knew that because of Laxus' quiet demeanor, if he didn't directly voice his disagreement with something, he was fine with it.

Taking the silent invitation to join the dragon slayer, Shizune came to stand next to him. Neither looked at the other as they watched the golden rays shed light on the village. The Hokage's tower looked like the blazing orange center of the village from this standpoint.

"I'm sorry about...about Gajeel," Shizune said finally.

Laxus said nothing, prompting Shizune to continue. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," came the swift reply.

Shizune took half a step back, surprised at the intensity of the refusal. She took the hint and turned to leave before Laxus' voice stopped her. "I'm sorry."

She gave a soft smile, the complete opposite of the hard frown that the man in front of her possessed. "It's fine. I know you two were close."

"It's not that," Laxus shook his head. "It's just…."

"What?" Shizune asked softly, stepping forward to grab one of his hands.

Laxus sighed, a growl forming at the end of it. "I'm the oldest. I'm supposed to protect these idiots, but I couldn't."

"You weren't there. It's not your fault," Shizune reassured.

Laxus shook his arm from her grasp, turning his back to her. "Yes it is. My whole life, I've been waiting to inherit the title of Master of Fairy Tail, but I can't even protect one of my friends. If we ever get back home, how am I supposed to look any of them in the eye knowing that I let one of their friends die under my watch?"

"Gajeel knew what he was doing," Shizune said matter-of-factly, a tinge of disappointment creeping into her voice. "And the fact that you don't know that means that you're looking for someone to blame, and you settled on yourself."

Laxus took a step forward, activating his power. Yellow lightning coated him instantly as he clenched up. "Dammit!" he yelled. As he did so, a bolt of lightning shot from his mouth and shattered a large boulder behind them into a thousand pieces.

As Laxus' power died down, he took in a deep breath when he turned back to Shizune. A single tear rolled down his cheek, traveling along his scar. Shizune nodded in understanding and stepped towards him. She wrapped her slender arms around his muscular frame and held him there as he returned the embrace.

Gray's anger had long since subsided. It had been replaced by a familiar emotion: remorse. It was something he experienced on two days out of the entire year, and now the number would probably increase to three. First his family and town, then his master, and now Gajeel.

Night had descended on the village, and a chill breeze had rolled in. Gray was only in a simple t-shirt and jeans, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he walked. His destination was unknown, and he couldn't see ahead of him, his eyes glued to his feet.

After walking for nearly an hour, a voice stopped him. "Hey!"

It sounded cheery, so Gray raised his head to see who it was. Tenten's smiling face greeted him from underneath a street light. Gray dropped his head again and resumed walking.

Tenten was hurt a bit by that. Something was clearly wrong with Gray, but she didn't know what. That didn't make his refusal to acknowledge her hurt any less. She placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to stop again. This time, he turned to face her, ready to hear whatever she had to say.

"Everything alright?" she asked.

"Fine."

That had gotten Tenten nowhere. Luckily, another gust of cold wind blew past, causing her to rub her arms and shiver slightly. "Aren't you cold at all?" she asked, noticing Gray's thin t-shirt.

"I'm an ice wizard. The cold doesn't affect me."

"Must be nice," Tenten said in envy, remembering several extremely cold mornings of training with Guy-sensei and her teammates. "Our team just got back from a mission and I'm about to deliver the report to Lady Tsunade, do you want to walk that way?"

Gray declined with a wordless shrug, turning to leave again, but Tenten grabbed hold of his forearm. "Seriously, is everything okay?"

"Fine."

"You know, if you don't talk about it, whatever it is will eat at you," Tenten said with worry.

"I said I'm fine!" Gray barked.

Tenten released his arm and backed up a step, her anger flaring up. "Fine, be like that. Asshole."

The kunoichi turned and stalked away into the night, with Gray going in the opposite direction.

Perhaps the person that needed the most help in this situation was Natsu. To him, family was everything. And to him, losing one of his guild mates was like losing a piece of himself. Gajeel had always been that sort of surrogate brother, just like Gray. Natsu and Gajeel quarreled from time to time, but there was never any malice behind it, not after their first fight when the iron dragon slayer was still a member of Phantom Lord.

As these thoughts raced through Natsu's head, he unleashed yet another punch into the rock face before him. The flame-imbued punch shattered a large piece of it, and the stones fell around Natsu as he collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily from the exertion of the past few hours.

His face was set in a permanent, angry scowl as he tried to stabilize his breathing. He'd used up a lot of power, but he didn't care. As far as he was concerned, the damned Hokage was lucky that he wasn't storming the Rain village by himself.

A rustle of leaves forced Natsu to turn his head. From the position on his back, he could see a pair of sandals approaching him, and he noticed that it was Kakashi. The Copy Ninja stopped a few feet away, his hands in his pockets.

"Yo."

Natsu managed to get his legs under him and turn to face the Hatake. "What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing. Just making sure that this rock is being destroyed properly," Kakashi said, motioning to the rock face that Natsu had done a number on.

The dragon slayer's eyes lit up with recognition of the humorous comment, but his mouth refused to form a smile. "I'm not done with it yet."

"I think you should be," Kakashi said lazily with a yawn. He glanced up to the moon that was now visible over the treeline. "I could see the flames from the Hokage's tower."

"Yeah, well, Igneel always told me to make them big," Natsu said.

"Your dragon?"

"My father," Natsu corrected.

"Well, I suppose I should be grateful that you're letting them loose out here instead of at an enemy village," Kakashi said.

Natsu grit his teeth. "Oh, their time is coming."

"Losing a friend is no reason to start a war," Kakashi said. "War takes more friends than it is worth."

Natsu scoffed. "What do you know about losing friends?"

Any trace of sympathy in Kakashi's face disappeared, along with his lazy eye. He was now set in an angry glare that he directed towards the dragon slayer. "More than you could ever know."

Natsu realized his mistake and quickly held his hands up apologetically. "I'm sorry I didn't mean-"

"It's fine," Kakashi said, his face instantly returning to his eye smile.

"Who were they?" Natsu asked.

Kakashi sighed. "Everyone. My father. My two teammates. My sensei. All before I was your age."

Natsu's eyes widened with instant regret for what he'd said. But judging from Kakashi's body language, he wasn't harboring a grudge, so an apology would do no good. "How did you deal with it?" Natsu asked instead.

"At first, I didn't. I was just like you are right now. I wanted to kill everyone that had caused their deaths," Kakashi said. "I fell into a dark place, but I was pulled out of it by three little Genin."

"Your new team?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah. Teaching the next generation allowed me to finally move on. I'm sure you'll find something different that lets you cope, but don't let it be at the cost of your own life. Gajeel would have wanted you to live."

Natsu allowed himself to smile for the first time in hours. "Thanks, Kakashi."

Gray was beginning to get thirsty after walking for so long. His stomach also growled at him repeatedly, as he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning. He was in no mood to deal with people right now, though, so he opted to continue his walk.

Finding himself in park that he imagined would be beautiful in the daytime, Gray sat down on one of the benches. The darkness that surrounded him was only kept at bay by another street light that was directly overhead. He sat for a few minutes, letting his mind run blank until he was disturbed by someone sitting next to him.

Turning his head, he saw Tenten with a look of remorse on her face. "I'm sorry," she said. "Lady Tsunade told me what happened."

Gray shook his head. "No. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"No, you shouldn't have," Tenten teased. "But I shouldn't have gotten angry with you for not telling me."

"No, you shouldn't have," Gray returned the jest, but without the accompanying smile.

Tenten laughed, a sweet sound that brightened Gray's mood a bit, though a smile still eluded him. He thought to himself, not for the first time, that he didn't deserve such happy people around him all the time. The morbidity of his life was not something that people should have to see all the time.

Tenten, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. She could tell by the way that Gray carried himself that this wasn't the first time that he'd grieved for someone like this. "He's not the first, is he?"

That simple question seemed innocent enough, but the underlying tones hit hard. Gray broke down right there, tears flowing from his eyes. He shook his head. "No. He's not."

Tenten placed a comforting hand on his back. "Who?"

Gray sniffed. "My family. My master. Her daughter. Now Gajeel."

It was then that Tenten realized what a broken soul she was attracted to. It seemed like everyone in Gray's life disappeared. Up until earlier today, his friends had been safe, but now they were starting to leave as well.

"You want to talk about it?" Tenten asked, with more tenderness than she had before.

Gray shook his head. "No. Maybe I'll tell you the story sometime, but I can't right now, okay?"

Tenten nodded as she rubbed his back, the action making her blush, but she knew that it was comforting him, so she didn't stop. Her fingers brushed over the muscles in his back as he leaned forward, allowing her more access.

She scooted closer to him and leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for several hours, into the small hours of the morning. Thanking her with a kiss on the forehead, Gray went back to his apartment to get some rest, leaving the blushing kunoichi smiling at his retreating form.