Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Anything I write in this story is purely from my thoughts

Chapter 25

*splash*

A hilariously large wave splashed from the sea onto the relaxing beach-goers. A bunch of complaints rose up from the group, but the loudest one came from a certain blonde Celestial Spirit Wizard from Fairy Tail.

"Hey!"Lucy yelled at the offender who just happened to be her two obnoxious teammates. "Can we just relax in peace!"

Natsu and Gray didn't listen as they now got into an argument that scaled up into a full-blown fight.

"Boys, what did I tell you about causing trouble while we are here?" Erza said in a dangerously calm voice.

As always that did the trick, as the two quarreling boys were kneeling on the sand submissively in front of the S-class wizard.

"But we're at the beach!" Natsu said, gaining some sort of courage. "We're supposed to be having fun!"

Gray slowly inched away from the dragon slayer wanting nothing to do with him if ever Erza would start getting angry.

"Natsu, you can have fun without getting in the way of other people, y'know," Naruto said after sipping from his drink.

"He's right, you two," Erza nodded.

"Then, there must be something we could do today," Natsu wondered aloud childishly.

"You're right," Erza stood up from her beach chair. "How about we play some volleyball."

Natsu stood up breathing fire up into the air. "Yes! I'll smoke you all!"

"You realize some of us will be your teammates, right?" Naruto stood up stretching; he seemed keen on the idea as well.

And so, the Fairy Tail Wizards had gone and found themselves a ball and a court where they could play. Luckily for them, the resort had their own facility.

They had a divine time as they played.

The ball went back and forth not touching the ground once. And I tell you, with these Fairy Tail Wizards on the court, things had gotten a little excessive. You could see it from the ball. With how hard the players struck it, it's a miracle that it hasn't popped yet

The game went on for the rest of the afternoon. It squeezed the wizards up with their energy that even the two troublemakers of the group were keeping it quiet for the time being.

At the end of the day, the group had separated to explore the massive Akane Resort.

Erza was relaxing in the room with a smile on her face. It was a nice change of pace from the fast-paced life of a guild wizard.

But then, her hand twitched. She broke down into cold sweat as flashes of a horrible past entered her mind followed by a familiar voice.

Erza... In this world, freedom is merely an illusion...

She woke up with a start. She was drenched with droplets of sweat.

"It was only a dream…" She muttered to herself looking down at the globules of water that formed on her arms.

She heaved a sigh and got up from the beach chair in the balcony of their room. She made her way to the bathroom to wash her face.

After splashing herself with water, she stared at herself in the mirror. 'It's been a long time. Why am I seeing this only now?'

She shook her head and her body glowed momentarily. In a second, she was now wearing her standard armor. "I am more at ease in my armor after all."

"Erza~~" Lucy came knocking into their room.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" She chimed. "Did you know there was a casino downstairs? Do you want to check it out?"

"I am not fond of gambling myself," Erza answered. She raised her hand up in the air and twirled around, once again changing. "But I wouldn't mind looking around. This would work right?"

She struck a pose. She was now wearing a fancy ball gown.

Lucy sweatdropped at the redhead's pose. "Casual clothes would be fine," Lucy said.

"Fufu If I'm going to play, I'm going all out," Erza said with a smirk on her face. "Now, let's go!"

"Great!" Lucy said, leading the way. "You have to see. Naruto is on a roll down there."

AKANE RESORT CASINO

*sigh*

Naruto stared boredly at the screen of his slot machine. Now that he wasn't a minor, he decided to try out what this gambling thing was all about and why the Old Lady Hokage was addicted to it. He first tried the poker table and put one cocky rich baron in his place. After a few rounds, he left everyone at the table, staff included, dumbfounded. The staff was sure he was dealing the cards fairly for everyone, yet how was this boy, barely legal enough to gamble, was destroying everyone.

Anyway, he stood up and decided to try the slot machines this time before he hit the buffet. On his way there, he ran into an excited fan. This particular fan was ecstatic once she found him with the same result as her. She brought out the same book that he gave Lucy. She made Naruto sign the front page.

After that was done, she squealed in excitement and ran away presumably to brag to her friends.

Naruto scratched his head in confusion. He thought back to the book he owned. There was an 'about the author' page in the back of the book and he remembered a grainy picture of a spiky-haired blonde that looked eerily like him, except for the pair of glasses that were on the author's face.

"Do I really look like him?" He said to himself.

He just shrugged it off. "Maybe it was just a case of mistaken identity," He said with a nervous laugh.

Well, that was just one encounter with his growing fanbase in Fiore at the moment. There were a lot of bolder fans that did things that I need not get into in this story. The odd thing was the fangirls would somehow stop themselves in a cold sweat. Whatever scared them, it flew by Naruto's head.

Anyway, as I said, here was Naruto sitting at the slot machines looking bored. A crowd had been gradually growing behind him watching him play.

*DING DING DING*

"No way! He won again!"

"Who is this guy?"

"Hey! He's the same one from the poker table!"

Even though he was bored with what he was doing, the blonde couldn't help but smirk. Deciding he had enough, he carried the buckets of chips he had earned from his night of gambling. Honestly, he didn't know what to do with all the money he got. He already earned enough money from the missions he regularly goes on, so all this money was unnecessary. Although, he had more money for ramen now...Yeah, that's a good idea.

Currently, he was leaning on the desk waiting for his money to be given. His lips were visibly drooling from his daydream.

He was broken out of his thoughts when a hand tapped him on the shoulder, which was followed by a voice calling his name. "Naruto-sama? Is that you?"

He shook himself back to reality and wiped the drool from the side of his lips. '-sama, that means,' He turned and to his surprise it was that girl from the Phantom Lord Guild, the one from the Element Four.

"Ahhh, it's you! You're from Phantom Lord!" Naruto exclaimed as she recognized the girl, but he couldn't quite remember what her name was, so he said. "Uhhh, what was your name again?"

"It's Juvia, Naruto-sama," She introduced herself. "And yes, Juvia was from Phantom Lord, but now that the guild was disbanded, Juvia is an independent wizard now."

"Ahh I see," Naruto nodded. That was an underwhelming reaction, but in reality, Naruto was reeling in a nosebleed. The girl was wearing a blue dress that hugged her figure very well, accenting her bust and behind.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed something shining on the girl's impressive bust. It was the Fairy Tail Emblem attached to a golden chain.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "So, you've become a fan of the guild? Or would you like to join?"

"Yes, very much so!" Juvia nodded eagerly. "Juvia saw how friendly everyone in Fairy Tail is, and you know, Naruto-sama is there…"

Naruto thought for a second. "Well, I personally don't mind you joining. You don't seem to be a bad person."

Juvia smiled brightly. "So, Juvia has a chance?!" Unbeknownst to the blonde, her question held more meaning than the Ex-Phantom Lord Wizard was letting on.

Naruto shook his head. "It's not for me to decide." This made the blunette deflate. Seeing the reaction though, Naruto immediately went for the save. "Although, Master isn't super picky about who he lets into the guild. I suppose you should try your luck and talk with him."

Juvia clasped her hands together. "Yes, Juvia will do that!"

As the two wizards were conversing, a very massive, tall and muscular young man entered the room. He had overly large arms and hands appearing even larger compared to his extremely thin legs. He had mildly long dark hair and possessed two prominent bangs curving outwards on the front, framing and partially covering the upper part of his face. He had dark eyes and a wide, rectangular face, with a flat nose and a noticeably prominent jaw. His left eye was covered in a simple, dark eyepatch, held up by an extremely slim rope, with a thin scar emerging from under it and going down diagonally on his cheek. His massive jaw was obscured by an armored metal plate, bearing lines of studs on its upper edges and two side protrusions jutting upwards, plus a set of teeth-like ornaments, overall resembling a skeletal jaw. The top of his head was covered in a light cloth wrapped around it, tied on the back, where a pair of long wrappings were left hanging over his neck, with another one hanging on the right of his face; such headgear bore a great resemblance to a turban.

The man obviously didn't belong in this place. He certainly was exuding a creepy aura, which was ignored by the guests of the resort as they were minding their own business.

This particular man stood at the doorway scanning the room for his target until spotted the blonde who was talking to Juvia. He recognized him and promptly walked towards them.

"Where is Titania Erza?" The newcomer asked without regard for the two's ongoing conversation.

"Excuse me, mister, but He and Juvia are in the middle of a conversation," Juvia told the man intruding in their 'alone' time, the nerve of this man!

"I am not asking you," The man said, not even looking at Juvia. "I will not ask again. Where is Titania Erza?"

"And why should I tell you?" Naruto said.

"I have given my last warning," The man said and raised his hand, gathering magic on his palms.

"Look out!" Naruto screamed as a beam of dark energy from the mysterious newcomer's hand.

He tackled Juvia to the ground to avoid the attack. Whatever was behind them was obliterated. That was also enough to get the attention of everyone else, causing a panic.

"Ow…" Naruto groaned as he picked himself up to his knees. He opened his eyes and saw himself face to face with Juvia.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Juvia nodded. "Yes, thanks to Naruto-sama."

"Thank god," Naruto said. "The nerve of that man!" He declared closing his fist at whatever soft pillowy thing that his hands were touching. Man, was that soft…

"Ahn~~!" A strange noise moaned out when he did that, causing Naruto to look around.

"What was that?" Naruto looked around wondering what that was, but he didn't find anything remotely similar to what he heard.

He moved his hands again, and the weird sound came back. A chill ran up his spine when he realized what was happening. The last time he did this, let's say, it wasn't pretty.

His neck stiffly flexed and looked down, confirming his suspicions.

His face immediately, heated up as blood rushed to his face.

Contrary to earlier experiences, Juvia's only reaction was, "S-so bold…"

Immediately, Naruto shot up and sat a few feet away from the girl, apologizing profusely. "Sorry! It was an accident. I-"

"Ahem," The large man cleared his throat and looked away awkwardly. He too was affected by the unfortunate 'accident'.

"Will you stop this indecency and allow yourselves to be destroyed?" He ordered.

"Why are you after, Erza?" Naruto demanded.

"That is not your concern," The mysterious man gave out no information. "Now-"

Whatever he was going to say was left in his throat as he stopped talking and raised his hands to his ear, like there was a communicator or something.

"So, you found Erza?" He spoke allowed. "Understood, I will join you shortly."

He turned his attention back to the pair. "I have no more use for you," He once again gathered magic in his palm.

This time, Juvia reacted and stood up protectively in front of the blonde. "I will not let you hurt, Naruto-sama!"

Before Naruto could react though, everything went dark, like someone turned off all the lights.

"A genjutsu?" He wondered aloud. "Alright…"

He clapped his hands together and began agitating his chakra flow, the way Jiraiya taught him long ago.

"Gahhh!" Naruto grunted. "What kind of genjutsu is this? This is as good as Itachi's!"

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" The man's voice spoke, but Naruto couldn't see where it was coming from. "This isn't an illusion. Dark Moment takes away the light and leaves only darkness."

Naruto growled in frustration. Nothing he tried was working. Just then, water splashed all around him, and he was suddenly submerged under water somehow. "Weird. Was I near a fountain or something?' He thought.

He let out a bubble of water. He was slowly losing the short breath he had.

He panicked. He paddled his arms furiously around him hoping to get out of whatever body of water he was in, but he was going nowhere. He was only paddling in place.

At this rate, it didn't take too long for him to lose consciousness.

LATER

Is he going to be okay?

What happened to him?

You lady, what did you do to him?

Shut up, flame brain. She already explained herself!

The voices of his friends echoed like a blurry mess in his brain. Naruto's consciousness was slowly returning to him.

"Wait, quit it, you guys! He's waking up!" Naruto's eyes opened only to see Lucy and Juvia kneeling worriedly on either side of him.

He coughed twice expelling the water from his lungs.

"Wha-? Where are we?" Naruto croaked out.

"We're still in the resort," Lucy answered.

"What happened to me?" Naruto said, nursing his head. He could still feel his headache from briefly losing its oxygen supply.

Juvia looked down with a blush on her face and twiddled her fingers, "Uh...Juvia wanted to protect Naruto-sama, so Juvia pulled Naruto-sama inside her body and…"

He could feel blood rush to his nose. Three years with the Pervy Sage was enough to corrupt his mind enough to know the double meaning in the girl's words. Regardless, he stayed strong and fought the urge to fly back from a nosebleed.

"Th-thanks for the effort," Naruto said. "Just warn me next time, okay?"

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes shot open. He remembered the reason why Juvia had to resort to such measures was that they were attacked. And the reason was…

"Where's Erza?!" Naruto demanded his friends. "Is she okay?!"

His friends were silent. It actually happened. They couldn't believe it. Erza had been taken.

"They got Erza," Gray said. "They even got Happy!"

"I see…" Naruto's voice trailed off, but he just stood up and stretched. "Well, there's nothing we can do about that now. Let's go find her!"

The four gained determined expressions. "Right!"

"So, did anyone see which way they went?" Naruto asked.

They lost the determination they had, seeing as they didn't know where to start searching. But not Natsu...His nose twitched, and he picked up something very interesting.

"Their scent is still strong in the air," Natsu declared.

"Then lead the way!" Naruto said.

"Aye!" Natsu screamed, copying his little blue friend. "That blocky bastard is going to pay!"

SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST

"Urk…" Natsu croaked out.

"So much for all that bravado," Lucy shook her head.

Up until the boat, Natsu was relentless as a bloodhound in tracking where their attackers had gone. He even forgot that he had motion sickness in vehicles. He eagerly jumped on a boat that was conveniently tied to a small dock. The moment he realized he was on the little sea vessel, he regretted his decision.

Now, they were in the middle of the ocean sailing to a location that none of them knew really existed, and they didn't even know if they were going the right way or not!

"Oi, hothead, get a grip!" Gray demanded, shaking the dragon slayer like a ragdoll. "Are you sure we're still going the right way?"

Natsu raised his hand weakly showing the right direction.

"He's right," Naruto said, wiping his nose. "We're going the right way."

"How did you know?" Lucy asked.

"Uh, well, he's Natsu after all…" Naruto explained. "There's no one who rivals Natsu when it comes to tracking by scent."

Juvia swooned. "Naruto-sama is so cool."

"But he didn't even do anything…" Lucy sweatdropped. "By the way, what is she doing here?"

"Juvia wants to help Na-," She caught herself. "Juvia wants to help Erza-san as well!"

"Damn it!" Gray snapped. "I can't believe they took Erza!"

"How sad," Juvia nodded. "To think they were able to defeat Erza-san easily."

Gray glared at the Water Wizard. "There's no way in hell that Erza would lose. You don't even know one thing about her."

Juvia cowered behind Naruto. "I'm sorry…I didn't…"

"Woah, Gray," Naruto calmed down the angry Wizard. "This isn't the time for us to be fighting."

"Tch," The Ice Wizard clicked his tongue and turned towards where the boat was going.

"Why would they attack us, anyway?" Naruto wondered aloud. "Lucy, did they say anything about why they're doing this?"

Lucy got into a thinking pose, "They didn't say anything in particular, but what was odd was that Erza knew who they were."

"That is odd," Juvia said, recovering from Gray's cold comment. "Maybe someone from Erza-san's past?"

"That's the problem," Gray added. "Despite how close we are in Fairy Tail, no one knows much about Erza's past."

Everyone took that fact in silence. Well, everyone, except for Natsu who was groaning the whole time.

A few seconds later, Lucy looked up and saw something from afar and they were headed straight for it.

"Hey! Look over there!" She stood up abruptly, shaking the boat a bit, and pointed at the weird structure.

"Is that a tower?" Juvia asked her companions.

"What's a tower doing in the middle of nowhere?" Naruto added to the questions that none of them could answer.

AT THE FOOT OF THE TOWER

As soon as the boat docked, Natsu recovered from his seasickness. He instantly got up on his feet and blew fire from his mouth.

"Take that Gray," Natsu screamed. "We were-"

"Shut up!" Lucy socked him on the head. "We're supposed to be sneaking. And there are a lot of guards."

"Hey, Natsu, I bet I can take out more guards than you could," Naruto challenged.

"Are you kidding?" Natsu countered, this time keeping a low voice. "I can easily take out twice as many guards as you."

"A thousand jewels says, you're wrong," The shinobi got on his knees ready to pounce.

"Deal!" Natsu immediately accepted without giving it much thought.

"Do you even have any money?" Gray asked the dragon slayer.

"On three," Naruto signaled. "One, two, th- OW!"

"OW!"

Naruto and Natsu cried out. That caught them off guard that they didn't muffle their screams. Lucy and Gray immediately pulled Naruto and Natsu behind the rocks and held their hands over their mouths, before the guards could notice.

"Did you say something?" One of the guards asked his companion.

"No, I didn't," The other guard answered. "Must have been the wind."

"My nerves haven't been right since this morning," The first guard said.

"I feel you," The second guard answered. "It's probably cause it's coming down tonight. More importantly, let's get back to work."

"Right,"

Lucy and Gray sighed in relief. Their cover wasn't blown just yet.

As the guard's conversation died down, Lucy gave both boys a stern look. Was she the only one thinking rationally here? Well, there's Juvia, but she's nowhere to be seen, and she'd probably just support Naruto's decisions.

"What are you two idiots thinking?" she scolded. "There are a lot of them. You can't just force your way through."

Naruto and Natsu just acted like children who got caught doing something naughty.

"You, Naruto," Lucy continued. "You're supposed to be a ninja! Why didn't you think of the subtle approach? I understand Natsu, but you?"

"And you Natsu," she. then, turned to the dragon slayer. "Why must you force your way through? Remember, they're holding Happy and Erza captive. They could get in trouble if you do anything reckless!"

"Honestly," She held the bridge of her nose.

"Hey, has anyone seen Juvia?" Naruto asked. That whole scolding flew inside his ear and left just as fast as it entered.

"I was talking to you!" Lucy protested at her being ignored.

Gray shrugged. "Maybe she went back. Can't blame her though. She's not part of the guild."

"But the boat's still here," Naruto said. "She couldn't have swum back, could she?"

Before anyone could say anything, the water behind them bubbled and formed Juvia's head out of the water. This startled the four wizards, but they, fortunately, kept their cool this time.

"Juvia, where have you been?" Naruto asked.

"Juvia scouted underwater," The ex-phantom wizard explained.

"So, what did you see?" Gray asked.

"There is a different entrance from underwater," Juvia stated.

"Great job!" Naruto praised the girl.

Juvia smirked and got into Lucy's face. "The one that was praised was Juvia, not Lucy hehe."

Lucy just gave her a nervous smile. When did it become a competition for Naruto's attention?

"Anyway, how far do we have to swim to get there?" Lucy asked, changing the subject.

"It is probably a ten-minute drive to get there," Juvia answered. "It should be easy for you, yes?"

"That's impossible!" Lucy yelled when she saw the boys nod to Juvia's question.

"Then, please use this," Juvia held out her hand, and a water bubble formed on top of it. "This bubble will keep the oxygen in so you can breath underwater.

SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE TOWER

"Jelall-sama!" A long-haired man came running into a room containing a throne where a hooded figure sat.

"Erza has escaped!" He reported.

The man named Jellal simply grinned.

"I take it you already knew about it?" The guard asked, seeing his master's expression.

"But of course," The hooded man said. "Erza is an exceptional woman. I expect no less from her. This is just a game, though, and I'm curious to see who will win. Me or her?"

He began to laugh which echoed throughout the halls of the room.

UNDERWATER ENTRANCE

WOOSH

Five figures rose from the water. Four of them had bubbles over their heads. They entered a cavern with several floors made of wood like a dock.

One of them took off her bubble and tossed it in the air like a ball. "This thing is convenient even if it does look pretty silly!"

"Lucy did a good job of holding her breath when Juvia made her bubble a lot smaller than the others." Juvia teased.

"Hey!" The Celestial Wizard protested.

"What?" One of the guards upon the rafters spotted them upon hearing Lucy's voice. "Who's there?! Intruders!"

Natsu and Naruto looked at Lucy and shook their heads.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Lucy… You gave away our cover!" Naruto scolded in a teasing manner.

"It's not my fault! Juvia started it!" Lucy waved her hands in front of her.

The blonde shinobi just chuckled at her reaction.

He then turned towards the guards and cracked his knuckles. "Say, Natsu. Are you still up for the bet? Or did the water douse your flames?"

"The water is nothing!" Natsu challenged and ignited his fists to prove his point. "Ready to lose that money?"

"We'll see about that. Let's go…"

A/N: Sorry for taking too long. Life just got in the way. I'm sorry I forgot about this arc. I thought the Battle of Fairy Tail would be next, but it looks like this one comes first. Give it a couple or two chapters. Anyway, thanks for reading!