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Chapter 28: "Tower of Heaven"

(Year: X784)

Gaara's sand platform landed on the edge of a small island. Said red-head was sweating and breathing heavily at the effort he put into flying them to the island in time. All three jinchūriki looked up from the edge of the island to the massive tower at the center of it. The Tower of Heaven was perhaps the tallest building they had ever seen, rising dozens of stories into the sky.

"Good work, Gaara," Naruto acknowledged his longtime friend.

"Thanks…" Gaara kneeled over and placed his hands on his knees.

Fu gently placed a hand on his shoulder, "You gonna be okay, huh?"

Gaara nodded, "I just need a minute to catch my breath."

Naruto gave the red-head a glance, "Wendy doesn't have a minute. I'll head in, and you can follow me when you're ready."

"No," Gaara quickly righted himself and shook his head, "I won't let you go in alone."

"Gaara," Fu's voice gained a warning tone, "You can't push yourself too much."

"If worst comes to worst, I can use my magic," Gaara argued, "Lead on, Naruto."

Nodding, Naruto led his two friends to the entrance of the tower. There were a few guards at the doors, but they didn't last long. Naruto dropped them in a second. Normally, he would consider using a more stealthy approach, but Jellal already knew that he was coming. Being stealthy would only put Wendy in more danger if they got found out.

With a grunt, he kicked the doors to the tower with as much force as he could muster. The result was the doors exploding open and flying off of its hinges. The broken bits of wood and metal crashed to the floor, scaring the guards and cultists near the entrance of the tower.

Naruto raised his headband and allowed everyone to see his devilish eyes, "You have one chance to run, you sorry sacks of shit. Anyone that gets in my way won't be killed, but you're going to wish you were dead."

Ignoring their basic survival instincts and moving on their stupid faith of Zeref, the cultists rushed forward with their weapons pointed at the jinchūriki. Gaara scoffed. Fu burst out laughing. Naruto just stepped forward with black wind swirling around him.

"Have it your way, morons."

With a swing of his arms, Naruto sent out a large push of black wind and sent all of the cultists flying around, smashing them into the walls. After a few seconds of this, the wind died down. All the cultists collapsed onto the ground bloody, broken, and concussed.

Naruto ignored the downed cultists and stepped into the tower. Gaara and Fu were right behind him ready to storm the Tower of Heaven. None of them were aware that they were being watched by more people than just Jellal.


"Uggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!" Natsu groaned as the boat came to a stop with a bump against the shore. He pulled himself out of the boat and onto the dry dirt. The dragon slayer then began to kiss the unmoving ground, "I. Hate. Vehicles."

"Stop whining," Gray jumped out of the boat with a bit more grace, "This was the fastest way without Juvia wasting a ton of magic."

"Waaaaaaahhhh…" Natsu pushed himself up to his hands and knees, "I'll kick your ass…once I stop baby barfing…"

"Natsu, now's not the time for theatrics!" Lucy shouted at her pink-haired friend, "We have to save Erza and Happy!"

"What?! What happened to them?!"

"They were kidnapped, you idiot! That's why we were chasing those guys!"

"I thought that we were chasing them because they put a gun in my mouth and shot me!" Natsu was instantly reenergized, "Let's kick their asses!"

"Juvia believes that we might have competition with that."

The other three mages gave Juvia a curious glance. Gray was the one to speak, "Why do you think that?"

"Because the Unstoppable Sword, the Unbreakable Shield, and the Bug Bomb are already entering the tower," Juvia pointed up to the tower. The others looked to where she was pointing to see that she wasn't lying. All three aforementioned mages were walking through the destroyed entrance of the Tower of Heaven.

"Why are they here?" Gray's eyes narrowed.

"That blocky bastard must have pissed them off too!" Natsu decided.

"No," Lucy shook her head, "That's probably not it. There could be many different reasons. They're known to hunt down dark guilds after all."

"We should ask them!" Natsu rushed forward to the entrance of the Tower.

"Wait, you idiot!" Gray ran after the Dragon Slayer, "We need to be careful! We don't even know what this place is!"

Lucy sighed and glanced at Juvia, "Well, there goes my hopes for sneaking in subtly."


A giant man with blue skin and sharpened teeth held up binoculars to his eyes. He looked over to tower in the distance, "The jinchūriki arrived. They're entering the tower. Oh, and we got some unknowns following them. Let's see…pink haired guy…black haired guy with a scar on his forehead…and two girls with giant breasts. Hehehe. You know, that's something I always wondered about this world. Why do all the women here have giant boobs? Not complaining or anything, but does magic make their boobs grow huge or something?"

Itachi rolled his eyes, "Focus, Kisame."

"I am," Kisame lowered the binoculars, "Just voicing a question. Not a lot of variety in body types in this world."

"Kisame…"

"Fine, fine," Kisame rolled his eyes, "I recognized their guild marks. Fairy Tail."

"Yes. I remember reading the reports on them. Did one of the women have red or white hair?"

"Nope."

"Then they aren't one of their 'S-class' mages," Itachi noted, "The pink haired man is the Salamander, though. He is a Fire Dragon Slayer."

"Dragon Slayer?" Kisame grinned, "That's interesting."

"It is," Itachi agreed, "But they're not part of the plan."

"And what is the plan exactly?" Kisame questioned.

"We need to take Naruto Uzumaki out," Itachi said with determination lacing his voice, "With his control over both the Kyūbi's chakra and his Sky God Slayer magic, we need to trap him and deal with him in an enclosed area. This tower is the perfect opportunity to do that."

"Yeah, I get that," Kisame stroked his chin, "Still don't get how people from our world can use magic while people from this world can't use chakra."

Itachi nodded, "That's something that we'll need to research, but that's for another time. Right now, we need to work together and take Naruto down. We can use the Tower of Heaven itself. It can absorb someone with great magical power and use them to resurrect another person. While that happens, the seal should weaken, and the Kyūbi will be released. My Sharingan and Samehada will control the Biju and then we can use it to subdue the Ichibi and the Nanabi. Kill three birds with one stone."

Kisame gave Itachi a side glance, "And who will be resurrected? Your brother?"

Itachi was silent.

"Don't think I haven't noticed how you've changed since he died," Kisame mentioned, "I have no idea what your relationship with the brat was, and I don't really care, but it did affect you. Blood is pretty thick. It had to hurt that you couldn't even bury his body. Weird that it disappeared, no?"

Itachi still did not react.

"Perhaps you want him to be the one to kill you?" Kisame suggested, "That way, you don't have to go blind or have that sickness of yours catch up to you."

"Enough," Itachi finally spoke.

"Alright, alright," Kisame snorted, "I'm done messing with you. Truth be told, I don't really care. It doesn't matter what your motives are. You're one of the few people I know that I actually like. So I'll help you. It's an added bonus if we manage to catch three jinchūriki at once."

Itachi nodded, "Thank you."

"But I should remind you," Kisame pointed to the giant sword on his back, "Samehada can't absorb magic. Now I'm strong enough even without her, but this does give them an advantage."

"I know. Don't worry, it won't be an issue."

"If you say so. Come on, we should go before they get too far into the tower."

"Right. One second…" Itachi quickly bit his thumb to draw some blood and ran through a few hand signs for summoning. After slamming his hand onto the ground, a small crow with a single red Sharingan eye appeared. The crow quickly flew off into the distance, "Just in case."


Jellal smiled as he eyed the four different projections in front of him. Naruto's group and the Fairy Tail mages had already entered the Tower of Heaven. The strangers that Jellal didn't know were now approaching the tower as well. Finally, it seems that Erza had escaped the dungeons by attacking an arrogant Shô, "It seems like everything is falling into place."

Han turned away from the projections, "Then I suppose that we should get to work. All three of you, time to move."

"Hoot!" Fukuro saluted, "Hai!"

"Hahahahaha!" Vidaldus Taka stuck his tongue out, "This is gonna rock!"

Ikagura blushed and covered her cheeks with her hands, "Oh, the chance to work with Han-sama…This is a dream come true. I must make sure to kill all before my path to make sure to live up to his expectations."

Jellal watched as they left. Once they were gone, he stood and moved to the cage that held Wendy. He sneered down at the little girl, "Everything is falling into place. Your fool of a sensei threw caution to the wind for you. How does it feel knowing that you're causing his demise?"

Wendy glared at him. She didn't say anything because of the gag covering her mouth.

"Oh right," Jellal removed the gag, "There—"

Wendy silenced him by spitting in his face.

"…you go…" Jellal slowly wiped the spittle off of his face, "And here I thought you were a nice little girl."

"I'm nice to my friends. I'm polite to strangers. But…I'm never nice to my enemies," Wendy's eyes showed a burning passion, "Naruto-sensei drilled that into me."

"Indeed he did," Jellal nodded, "I will admit that he trained you well, but it wasn't enough."

"I may not be strong enough to beat you, but…" Wendy gave a small grin, "Naruto-sensei can. You don't stand a chance."

"Oh really?" Jellal quickly grabbed Wendy by the throat and pulled her into the bars of her cage, "I think I do. Even if he's stronger than me, one threat against you would be enough to make all that power melt away."


Naruto was storming through the hall of the Tower of Heaven. Gaara and Fu were right on his heels. They had pushed through all the different cultists with ease. He didn't understand why Jellal didn't use any type of voice projection magic to contact him yet. The dark mage had to be planning something.

Just as Naruto was about to turn a corner, he saw a flash of steel being swung at his head. He quickly pulled out a kunai to block it. Just as he was about to do a follow-up attack, he saw who attacked him, "Erza?"

"Naruto!" Erza's eyes widened in shock, "Gaara…Fu…what are you doing here?"

"We're here to rescue my student, Wendy. That bastard Jellal kidnapped her," Naruto explained, "What are you doing here?"

Erza had to fight not to flinch under Naruto's crimson eyes. While she knew that the demonic eyes were the reason he hid them behind his headband, she'd never been on the receiving end of such a hateful glare from them before, "Jellal had me kidnapped as well."

"You? Kidnapped?" Fu blinked, "Were you drunk or something?"

"No, I…I just let my guard down around familiar faces. It won't happen again," Erza replied.

Gaara looked to Naruto, "This could work in our favor. Having Erza here strengthens our numbers."

"Right," Naruto nodded at the logic, "We can work together to take this tower down."

"N-No…I don't want you—"

"ERZA!" Natsu's voice called out through the hall

All four powerful mages turned to see another group of four easily recognizable mages approaching them. Seeing the rest of Erza's usual teammates at the tower made sense to the jinchūriki. Of course they would come after her if she was kidnapped. Erza did not looked pleased though, "What are you doing here?!"

"We followed you, of course," Gray looked towards the jinchūriki, "But why are you three here?"

All of the groups quickly shared their stories of how they got to the Tower. Once everyone was brought up to speed, Naruto gave Juvia a hard glance, "But what about her?"

Juvia flinched under the crimson orbs, "J-Juvia wants to join Fairy Tail…A-and F-Fairy Tail mages don't abandon their own…"

"That's right!" Fu quickly swung an arm around the water woman, "I like you already, and if Lucy and Gray are willing to forgive you, then I am too!"

Juvia blushed, "T-Thank you…"

"As nice as this is," Gaara interrupted the moment, "We really need to keep moving."

"Gaara's right," Naruto turned to face the hallway that lead to the stairs, "We now have a force to be reckoned with. It doesn't matter what forces Jellal has, we'll crush them together."

"No! You need to leave!" Erza demanded, "I'll save your student and defeat Jellal on my own! This is my fight, not yours."

"You're wrong," Naruto let out a growl, "Jellal made this my fight the moment he touched Wendy."

"Hell yeah!" Natsu nodded at Naruto's logic, "We'll get everyone back and then tear the tower down! Ha! I doubt we'll even have to pay for damages! But first…I need to find Happy!"

"Natsu, wait!" Erza reached out to try to grab onto the pink-haired man, but he already rushed off into the direction that he smelled Happy, "Damn it!"

"Natsu will be fine," Naruto noted as he began to step away as well, "Happy will help him catch up in seconds. We should start clearing a path."

"I said no!" Erza shouted, "This is my fight! You don't understand! It's…very personal to me! You see…I was once held as a slave—"

"I don't care."

All of the normal mages were shocked by his words. Erza was so surprised that she actually took a step back, "W-What?"

"I don't care about your history with this place," Naruto paused in his trek, "I'm sure it was very traumatic and terrible for you, and for that, I'm a bit sympathetic. But I don't think that you understand something. Jellal. Has. Wendy. That is all that matters to me right now. Once she's safe, I'll listen to whatever sob story you have to tell me. But until then, I don't care. I'm going to save Wendy right now, before that son of a bitch does something unspeakable to her."

Once again, Naruto began to walk away. Fu and Gaara gave the other mages a quick look over. They all looked a bit pale. Part of Fu wanted to try to calm them, but she decided against it. Right now, Wendy's life was on the line. They couldn't stand around and wait. So, the couple quickly followed after their dear friend, leaving behind the mages to look on in surprise by the coldness that Naruto had shown.


"For the love of Kami!" Zancrow kicked the marble in front of him, "Work you stupid thing! Gah! Where's Ultear when you need her!?"

Bluenote watched with only slight interest from the bar. Utakata was even less interested to the point that he was just starring off into space. Hades, however, just rolled his one uncovered eye. The master of Grimoire Heart stepped forward and waved a hand at the marble to get it to show different images.

"Ultear is busy undercover at the moment, so I'll have to do for now," Hades mentioned.

"Ahahahahaha! Finally!" Zancrow jumped back from the crystal and landed on a couch, "Good, we haven't missed anything yet!"

"Indeed," Hades walked back to the bar, "This is very interesting. I wasn't expecting those strangers. Red clouds…How interesting."

"They are very strong," Bluenote mentioned.

"They better be considering who's in that tower," Zancrow looked towards his close friend, "Hey, Utakata, didn't you stay at that tower when you first got to Earthland?"

Utakata finally brought his attention back to reality and looked at the screen, "Did I? I don't remember…"

Hades snorted, "Yes, Utakata. You stayed in that tower for over a year."

"Really? I don't really recall that. All I remember was that it was cool and damp and nice…" Utakata paused, "But there was an annoying red haired girl that kept bothering me. Actually…that red-haired woman reminds me of her."

Hades nodded, "Erza Scarlet used to be a slave at the Tower of Heaven. Not counting the members of the Oración Seis who are more like slaves to Brain now, she was the only one to escape that fate...well, besides you, but I don't believe that you really count."

"I see…" Utakata continued to eye the images in front of him. Then, he realized something, "Ah…One of those cloaked guys is an Uchiha."

Hades raised an eyebrow, "Uchiha?"

"Yes," Utakata pulled out his bubble pipe, "They were a world famous clan that was almost wiped out. When I left my world, there were only two of them left. Interesting. The other one is an infamous shinobi as well. Both of them would be very effective at fighting jinchūriki. Perhaps they crossed the world border and are hunting us."

Zancrow gave his friend a look of curiosity, "You don't look worried."

"Whatever happens…happens…"


After getting over the shock over what happened with Naruto, Lucy had gently asked for Erza to tell her story. In a bit of a daze, Erza complied with the request. She went through the tale of her terrifying childhood being held as a slave in the Tower of Heaven, going through everything from losing her original right eye to her final confrontation with Jellal.

"I…I understand how Naruto feels," Erza explained with tears appearing in her real eye, "But I need to be the one to fight Jellal. I need to…"

The other three mages blinked when Erza froze. They followed her vision to see just why she paused. Two intimidating figures wearing black cloaks decorated with red clouds were approaching them. All the mages tensed as the men stepped towards them. The only sounds in the hall for a solid minute were the strangers' footsteps.

Eventually, the duo passed the group of mages and continued forward past them. After they were a few steps away, the shorter of the two strangers stopped. The taller figure paused as well while the shorter one turned around to show his gleaming Sharingan eyes.

Itachi stared at them, "You are allies of Naruto Uzumaki?"

The mages were silent.

"I can see that you think you are," Itachi noted, "But none of you really know him. Don't be fooled by the ideals you have in your minds. Naruto is a very dangerous monster, along with the man and woman who follow him. He needs to be stopped, and if you get in our way when we fight them, then we will kill you. This is your only warning."

A cold sweat broke out collectively among the mages.

With that, the Akatsuki members continued their trek down the hall before anyone could respond. Itachi wasn't done talking, however, "The same goes for the two of you hiding. Take care of your own business, but the jinchūriki are ours."

Once they were down the hall, the very terrified forms of Shô and a large man with metal covering his jaw stepped out of the shadows. Under normal circumstances, both Shô and the newly revealed Simon would have immediately begun the argument about what really happened during the slave breakout years ago at the Tower of Heaven. Now, though, they could only think about the incredibly dangerous strangers that they had just seen.

Even as the topic changed to the Tower of Heaven and the true nature of Jellal, the mages of Fairy Tail had deep thoughts in the back of their mind about just how well they knew Naruto Uzumaki. Considering what just transpired, the seeds of doubt had already been sown.


Naruto paused in his trek down the halls of the Tower of Heaven. He and his allies had made it several floors up the tower without meeting or being addressed by anyone, but it looked like that was about to change, "You feel that?"

"Yeah, I—Look out!" Gaara tried to move his sand forward to stop the figure charging towards them. The figure that they all recognized as Han quickly barreled through the sand before it could condense. Steam poured off of the older jinchūriki as his magic flared. A concentrated burst of energy quickly began to tear the wall of the hall apart.

Fortunately for the younger mages, they had prepared a defense and braced themselves. All of them managed to dodge the attack and came out uninjured. The same could not be said for the hallway, though. Both walls, as well as the floor and ceiling, were incredibly weakened and cracked by the force of the steam and magic.

Once the attack died down, Fu was the first to speak, "Number Five?! What the hell are you doing?!"

"My job," Han raised a hand and snapped an armored finger. Just as he did this, the walls on either sides of the jinchūrikis burst as two people pushed through them. A man that looked like an owl grabbed Fu and flew away on what looked like a jetpack. At the same time, a mage that looked like a rock star and carried a guitar created a musical wave that pulled Gaara away.

Naruto realized that he was alone, "Divide and conquer, Han? Good strategy, but those two don't stand a chance against my friends."

"I know. I haven't been hired to kill any of you," Han explained, "The amount of coin it would cost for me to cross one of my own is something only an entire empire could pay. But I am willing to inconvenience and distract you."

"Distract us?"

"Not my job to explain," Han held up a hand, "Wait for it."

Naruto didn't have to wait long as Jellal's voice projected through the Tower.


Natsu growled as he held a strange man with a body that could only be described as blocky. He quickly shook the man around a room that was decorated to wall to wall with cat furniture, pillows, and pictures. Millianna, the owner of said room, laid beaten near the two men. Overall, Happy couldn't really understand the situation.

"Natsu, what's going on?!" Happy questioned. The cat had only just awakened in the strange room and was extremely confused.

"These bastards kidnapped you, Erza, and someone Naruto cares about!" Natsu dropped the groaning Wally to the ground, "I wasn't in a mood to play around with them!"

"N-Naruto?" Millianna looked up at the man who defeated them.

"Yeah! He's my friend, and you're threatening his friend! That pisses me off!" Small flames burst off of Natsu, "Normally, I'd want a better fight, but I don't got time for that!"

"I…I don't know what you're talking about…" Wally forced himself to one knee, "But I refuse to be beaten. Not until we find paradise."

"Paradise?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, "What the hell—"

Happy let out a gasp, "WOAH! THERE ARE LIPS ON THE WALLS!"

The Exceed was right. Large lips appeared across the walls and the ceiling. They immediately began to speak.

"Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Tower of Heaven. I am Jellal, the master of this Tower. Right now, all the pieces in our little game have been set. Truth be told, I don't know how many different sides there are, but that makes this interesting. To the mages of Fairy Tail…to the independent mages I summoned here…to the strangers that have entered uninvited…I'd listen very closely, because I'm about to reveal the rules of the Paradise Game.

"The rules are very simple. In the tower, there are two people who are candidates to be used in the process of resurrecting Master Zeref. Naruto Uzumaki and Erza Scarlet. If I manage to use either of them to bring back the Black Mage, then I win. If I fail, then you win. But things aren't always fair. You see, I have captured one of people that Uzumaki holds very dear to him, so he will charge up the tower without listening to anyone. From what I understand, the strangers and the Fairy Tail mages wouldn't like it if he confronts me on his own. So you'll have to stop him by force.

"At the same time, though, I have four pieces of my own that will be helping Uzumaki up the tower and working to capture Erza. You must get past them. At the same time, I don't believe that the Fairy Tail mages or the strangers will get along very well. So it will be a free for all battle. Isn't that fun?! We'll get to see whose desires are truly the strongest.

"There is one big catch, though. You see, as I speak, the Magic Council is voting on attacking us with the destructive satellite magic known as 'Etherion' which is capable of annihilating entire nations. I have no idea how much time remains. But when it hits, everyone in the tower will die. Thus, game over for everyone. That is all. I do hope you enjoy the game."

Natsu watched as the lips faded away from the walls and ceiling, "Well…I can't say that I really get what that's about, but…I do know that I just have to beat up Jellal. Nothing's changed for me!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy noted, "He should be at the top!"

"Then let's kick his ass!"


Yajima glared across the table at the other members of the Magic Council. He had been doing everything he could to prevent them agreeing to Siegrain's insane proposition. Firing off Etherion was serious business. What made it worse was the fact that Naruto and his friends were at the tower. Unfortunately, he couldn't reveal that as it would cause Naruto even more trouble.

That beautiful lass Marissa had explained the entire situation to him. He always knew that the youngster Siegrain and his lackey were trouble. Now, he finally had proof, but he couldn't reveal it. That Wendy girl could get killed if he made the wrong move. So unfortunately, Marissa had to stay out of this situation.

She did give him tips, though, on how to appeal to the agendas of each member of the Magic Council. Like his desire to protect Fairy Tail, each member of the council had something they wanted. Firing Etherion would only make achieving their own goals more difficult.

To Yajima's dismay, fear of Zeref and Siegrain's emotional appeals seemed to be getting the better of the other members of the council. More and more were starting to change their votes. It was only a matter of time before the decision to fire the magical weapon would be made. Yajima could only hope to buy Naruto and his friends enough time to get the girl and get far away from the tower.

Because, like it or not, Etherion was going to hit the Tower of Heaven sooner rather than later.


Naruto watched as the lips faded away, "Huh…I know you, Han. You wouldn't be willing to rick your life for this. So this Etherion thing must have some sort of catch."

"It does," Han admitted, "The tower will absorb the magic from the attack. Jellal will use that to power the tower and 'resurrect' his master."

"So that's why he infiltrated the Council," Naruto hummed, "Weird. I thought it would be for something more worthwhile."

"To be fair, this will ruin the current Council," Han mentioned, "Everything will fall into chaos, and I'll get a hell of a lot more work."

"True," Naruto accepted that, "From what Jellal said, you wouldn't be trying to stop me."

"Nope. But you won't have your friends as backup to save the girl," Han explained, "My men might not be able to beat those two, but they will be able to buy time for the real chaos to start. Then, who knows what's going to happen?"

"I see…and who are the strangers he mentioned?"

Han shrugged, "A crow and a shark. That's all I know."

"I see. Well, fine," Naruto quickly stepped past Han, "If I take too long, that bastard will hurt Wendy. Gaara and Fu should be able to handle themselves. They won't die, so I have to focus on getting to Jellal."

"You know that he'll threaten the girl, right?" Han questioned, "You won't have the chance to get a real fight."

"I know," Naruto admitted, "But don't act like Wendy will just lie around taking his shit. Don't forget…she's my student and a Sky magic user. Despite her appearance, she's more dangerous than most adults could ever dream of being."


Once again, thanks goes to Night Times for being the Beta for this chapter.

This is where things get a bit different. Only one of the fights in this arc will have the same fighters in it, and it will be under drastically different circumstances. Overall, I think that this arc will be even better than the last one.

I wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving...even those that don't celebrate it. Thank you for reading and please remember to…

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