Alright, like I said, here's my Naruto X Anime's crossover, Anime's Apart. It's somewhat of a Kingdom Heart's crossover, only instead of Disney worlds, it's using anime worlds with Naruto as the one who travels to them. Those who've read my prequel know I've asked for input on skills that Naruto (and his 'team' who you'll see next chapter) will pick up and use. Since no one was told the team, feel free to add more ideas after you've seen who they are.

Please note, that I picked Naruto characters for his team. That's for plot mostly, as well as giving some fun skills to the characters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Or Kingdom Hearts. Or a Keyblade. Or...well, any of the anime's in this crossover. Regardless, I hope you all have fun with my story.

Naruto: Anime's Apart

Dive into the Heart

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately…like, is any of this real, or not?"

Slowly opening his eyes, he slowly blinked as he tried to take in his surroundings. He was underwater, light barely reaching him as he felt like he was being dragged into the depths. Yet he was relaxed. This was supposed to happen.

As he felt something press against his back, he closed his eyes and winced as he lurched forwards. When he felt his feet touching the ground, his eyes slowly opened. As his eyes opened, they widened as he realized he was standing in water, his mind recognizing the area around him as Nami no Kuni, the Land of Waves.

Slowly raising his eyes, he stared at the back of someone's head, the sun behind his head causing him to squint as he tried to make the person out. Thankfully, a large wave came up in front of them and shielded the sun which allowed him a good look at the back of the boy as a friend. Recognizing him, he called out to him happily, until he realized that the wave was getting unnaturally high and was coming straight at the two of them.

Shouting louder, his voice seemed muted, though the boy did turn around. As the boy held out his hand, the wave crashed on them and once more he was underwater. Blinking and shaking his head, he was more than somewhat surprised to see his friend standing resolute in the water, the colossal crash not having fazed him in the slightest. Once more, a hand was extended to him, waiting for him to grab hold.

Pushing against the waves, he reached out, stretching every limit he could imagine to reach him. For a brief moment, he was out of reach, almost like he was taunting him. Then, his hand gripped his friend's, and he was pulled forward.

Dragged by his hand, he burst out of the water and found himself somewhere else entirely. If he had to try to place it, it would be in Konohagakure no Sato, his home of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Turning to what he figured was the east, he smiled at the familiar heads of the Hokage Monument; the memorial for the four strongest ninja in the village who'd passed on. As he looked up, a small figure fell from the clouds among a shower of meteors, heading at high speeds towards the ground below. Taking a closer look at them, his eyes widened in confusion.

It was a boy with blond hair, an orange/blue tracksuit with a white high collar, a cream colored pouch on the back of his belt, and a blue hiate on his head. Despite not being anywhere close to him, he knew that the hiate had a metal plate with the leaf-like symbol etched into it, as well as three whisker-like marks on either cheek. And were his eyes not closed, he knew that they would be a sharp blue.

He knew all of this, because he was looking at himself.

Slowly stepping forward, he narrowed his eyes as he got closer. If he was falling from the sky, how was here standing here as well? What was going on? How could this be-

Any more thoughts he might've had were cut off as his foot no longer took touched ground and he found himself falling forward. Falling head first, he glanced at where his feet had once been and found a chill running down his spine. The ground was no longer ground, it was the sky. Somehow he had stepped into the middle of the air and was now in the same position as the falling him had once been.

Surprisingly, he was once more relaxed. This was supposed to happen. Closing his eyes, he waited to wake up. That's what normally happened; you fall in your sleep, then just as you hit the ground you wake up.

Only that didn't happen. When he hit the ground, the ground gave way like water and he was once more launched into the depths of his underwater bane. Looking down, he blinked as the darkness seemed to become more and more solid. When he slowed down, he slowly began flipping around until his feet were 'down' and pressed them down. Amazingly, there was solid weight under his feet. Searching the darkness, he found no light around him at all. Deciding to 'explore' he took a step forward and jumped as the darkness exploded outward into balls of light that scattered. Beneath his feet, the ground began taking shape as a golden floor began forming.

The floor was golden, having an image of a sleeping girl with pigtails. Curious, he examined it a bit more and found that there were a few other girls on the platform, as well as a pair of cats, and a man wearing very stylish clothing and a mask over his face. While everyone else in the picture appeared to be sleeping, he couldn't make heads or tails of the man in the picture. If he was like the others though, he was probably just as 'asleep' as the others.

"So much to do, so little time…take your time, don't be afraid."

Naruto looked up into the darkness, unable to see the person who was speaking to him. Reaching to his kunai pouch, he flinched when he realized it was gone. Reaching behind his back, his equipment pouch was gone as well. Frowning, he realized that he was effectively defenseless and not alone.

"You are never defenseless." The voice said, making Naruto shout as he jumped. Apparently the voice was able to read his mind. "You merely need to be taught to utilize your strengths…"

Naruto blinked, pointing randomly into the darkness. "Oi! Who the hell are you?! And what are you talking about?!"

As he asked this, three scrolls slowly fell from the sky and gently touched down on the glass. Now curious and a bit lost, Naruto looked around warily. Slowly, he moved towards the first one and began inspecting them slowly. There was no way to open the scrolls, with each being a different color. The first one he inspected was a dark red, with the word "Caged" written on the binding. The second was a forest green, with the word "Mind" on its binding. The final scroll was white, and had the word "Sky" written on it.

"Choose your companion…and choose your foe."

Naruto blinked, staring up into the air. Chose a companion, and a foe? What kind of confusing explanation was that? Sitting in the middle of the three scrolls, he hummed as he thought about it. Glancing between the three, he glanced up at the sky again. "Can I at least get a peek into them?"

Getting no reply, Naruto pouted and shook his head. Looking between the three, he thought about the three. He didn't know anything about them, what was in them, or anything else. However, the voice had clearly said that choosing one would be a companion, and one would be an enemy. That was worrying, but he could take on whoever it was. The question was, which would he choose?

Looking between the three, his eyes shifted slowly between them as he thought it over. The "Sky" scroll made her nervous, though it didn't help that he'd just fallen from the sky. The "Mind" scroll wasn't bad, but it just sounded so…boring. He could almost feel himself banging his head and getting bored out of his mind. The "Caged" scroll though sounded interesting. Having someone caged as his companion? Maybe red was part of it, which meant it was red and caged? The only thing that was red and caged that he knew of was the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Fox, which was sealed in his gut.

Making his decision, he put his hand on the red scroll and nodded. It glowed white faintly, which made him smile slightly. Walking over to the white scroll, he gently flicked it to show his rejection of it. A black aura covered it, and it began slowly burying itself into the glass floor. The green "Mind" scroll, surprisingly, slowly began falling apart and floated out into the darkness. Naruto tilted his head, watching it go.

"…what happened to that scroll? Is that person going to be okay?" Naruto asked, inwardly questioning why he thought that the scroll was a 'person'.

"They will…if you can pass the next tests."

Naruto flinched at the voice, not liking the sound of that. For some reason, he felt that if he failed these tests, a lot was going to ride on him and his current choice was going to affect a lot more then he currently thought. Still though, he was Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato and like hell he was just going to give up because he was nervous about a choice he'd made. He'd made his choice to be his own kind of ninja and had stuck to it, he'd chosen to help people who needed someone to be there, and he was going to make it through this too.

Stomping his foot, he prepared himself to shout his proclamation of victory. Before he could, he realized that he'd just stomped his foot on glass. Glancing down, the cracks from his foot spread rapidly and shattered beneath him. Shouting loudly, he fell again. This time though, it wasn't into darkness, but towards another glass pane. Staring down, he took in the image with curiosity.

The image was of a red haired girl with pigtails similar to the blond he'd seen in the golden platform, far more clear to his sight then the previous pane. She was wearing a school girl's outfit, and was holding a folded paper fan in her hands. Next to her, a young boy with red hair as well, a cloak, and a staff in his hands as he looked at her with a smile. Around her was a very, very large group of girls that all in their own way looked quite happy. Curiously, everyone's eyes were open on the pane except for the first girl, who appeared to be asleep.

Landing softly, he looked around again. As he did, he noticed a shadow on the ground. He'd thought it was his own while he was falling, but as he was clearly seeing, it wasn't. Looking up, he scratched his head in confusion. When he looked back at the shadow, he jumped again as the shadow began rising up.

"There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, curling his fingers into fists. The shadow was small, almost cute looking. With his current disadvantage, he wasn't too sure he – Naruto rolled his eyes at that thought, his lips curling into a smirk. Disarmed? Disadvantaged? That was how he lived, that was usually how his fights ended up being, and he'd still beaten many stronger foes.

As the shadow lumbered forwards, Naruto rushed it as well. Since it was a creature actually smaller then him, he found himself enjoying the fact that he was more than capable of punting the small creature into the air with a single kick. "Well, that was easy." He thought to himself, only to have the creature roll to its feet and come after him again. Rolling his eyes, he once more attacked it, getting no resistance from the small shadow. With only a few more hits, it crumbled into small shimmers of light, causing Naruto to blink. "…well that's new."

"Look out, behind you!"

Whipping around, Naruto cocked his leg back and kicked the shadow harshly against the face and sent it flying over the edge. Seeing more shadows rising up to come after him, he punched the next one that came to close through the head and used his knee to knock over another that got to close. Despite being in a hostile environment and having no idea where he was, Naruto was bouncing on his heels, grinning like a fool as he shadow boxed the air in a 'come at me' motion.

To his surprise, the shadows apparently decided they'd had enough. Slipping into the ground, the platform he was standing on suddenly began to be completely encompassed in it, dragging him down through the floor. Struggling and shouting as it pulled him under, he flinched when he found that when he'd been 'pulled through', he was falling…again.

"Okay, falling is now my worst enemy." Naruto muttered, not liking how many times he had fallen already.

Once more, after falling a bit, he was able to see the next platform. This floor was something strange to him, having never seen anything like it. The grey floor stained glass platform formed a picture of someone he swore he knew. The person in the image was only a shadow at best, but from what he could see it was definitely a girl with short hair. Surrounding her was a set of four other circles, most of which had cracks on them. At the top and bottom of the platform were two more circles; one of them was shadowed like the five girls, though there was a red colored glass in the background. The other had a glowing bright blue colored glass and was colored in. Once more, he found himself looking at a mirror image of himself.

Looking up, he blinked as a circle of light lead him towards a set of pane glass stairs. Shrugging, seeing nothing wrong with this scenario, he briskly walked up it. As he did so, he realized that the first platform he'd been standing on was actually a pillar, as well as the second, and the one behind him. The spotlight in the sky was helping him see much more clearly some of the things going on, and he greatly appreciated it. Upon reaching the first pillar again, the voice spoke, making him somewhat less pleased with the light that was helping him see.

"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."

Glancing behind him, he blinked as he realized that his shadow was indeed much longer than it once was. Worse still, it was rising out of the floor like the shadows before it. Seeing how it was his shadow though, he was a bit more spooked and took a hesitant step back as he watched.

"But don't be afraid. And don't forget…"

Naruto's eyes trailed up the figure's body, causing him to wince as he watched the gargantuan shadow glare down at him. Now that he was taking the time to pay attention, he noticed that it had yellow eyes, and was staring with a hollow, heartless look on its face. Pulling back its fist, its hand glowed with a shadowed purple aura as it punched at him. Dodging deftly to the side, Naruto smirked as the giant was slow, which allowed him more than enough time to dive back in and start punching the fist as much as he could. Smaller shadows popped out to fight him, but he was more than able to send them back. They were puny and slow compared to him.

When it punched a second time, and he pulled off the same results, he was beginning to feel confident. This was what he was fighting? He could take this on any day. As he thought this though, the pillar shook, causing him to fall flat into a pool of shadows. Flinching, he struggled to rise as they began enveloping him. Staring around, he noticed another pool not far away.

"Aw crap, it was a trap!" Naruto realized, pulling against the shadows as they once more began trying to drag him through the floor.

"Don't be afraid…"

"It's a little late for that!" Naruto mentally shouted as the shadows began crawling over his face.

"You hold the mightiest weapon of all."

Naruto certainly didn't feel like he was holding onto any uber cool weapons like that. Especially with how the shadows were currently taking him down. Shadows. Of all the things to be beaten by, he had to lose to something as wimpy as shadows.

"So don't forget…you will be the one…"

"The one to what?!" Naruto shouted, reaching his hand to the sky as his vision was blinded and all went dark.

Slowly, Naruto sat up in his bed and yawned. Rubbing his eyes slowly, his mind went over the dream he'd just had again. It had been very strange, and it had felt very real. Now though, he was safe in his bed, and he was calmly getting ready for the day.

It had been a few days since he and his team had come back from Yuki no Kuni, the Land of Snow. Or, Haru no Kuni, the Land of Spring after he and his team had taken down the evil dictator and helped turn on the generator that allowed the country to be free from the cold that had plagued it. There was even going to be a movie that showed their skills and would make them all famous beyond their wildest dreams. He just knew it.

Cracking his neck, he rolled his shoulders and grabbed his weapons pouch. Making sure it was very secure, and then tying his kunai pouch firmly to his leg – he didn't want to be without them again – he made his way to where his team would meet. Apparently the dream had spooked him a bit more then he'd expected. Not that he was worried; he was still more then capable of defending himself with his fists too.

Thinking about the dream again, he slowly slapped his face and shook his head. It was quite obviously a dream in hindsight, since if he'd been in the real world, his first instinct when seeing a giant behemoth of darkness would have been to spam Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) and then get to where its face was so that he and one of his clones could form a Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere) and smash it against his face. He was almost certain that if he'd done that the shadow wouldn't have stood a chance against his awesome moves.

Tying his hiate tight, he opened his door and paused. Glancing back into his room, he felt a strange feeling in his gut. Something like a foreboding, ominous feeling in his gut.

"…I bought expired milk again didn't I?" he said to himself, scratching his cheek nervously. After his last encounter with said expired dairy, he had taken quite a bit more care to prevent himself from drinking it.

Shrugging, he closed the door behind himself and made his way out. The moment his door closed, a cloaked figure emerged from the shadows of his back room, eyeing the door he'd left from.

"What an interesting child. Still naïve, still but a child. No matter. This world has been connected by to the darkness, and with no one to protect it, it too will fade."

Making his way through the city, Naruto stared up at the sky as he walked, hands in his pockets as he made his way to the meeting spot. There were clouds building a bit to quickly for his liking, looking like it was going to rain or storm at some point. Naruto had rarely seen it rain in Konohagakure, the last time being when the village had attended the Sandaime (Third) Hokage's funeral. It had been tragic to see him go, and he'd been as sad as anyone else there.

Shaking his head, he focused ahead. In the distance, he saw Sasuke and Sakura standing on the bridge waiting for him. Smiling widely, he waved to them as he ran up. "Hey guys!"

"Hey Naruto." Sakura said cheerily, waving back with a small smile.

"Hey." Sasuke said, giving a small nod as his simplistic greeting.

Naruto grinned at the two of them, chuckling as he leaned against the railing. "So, what're we doing today?"

"Resting." Sakura replied, waving her finger at Naruto. "You know the rules. Any mission outside the walls of Konoha requires a minimum of three days before another can be taken. Detoxing from the adrenaline and getting your head screwed back on so it doesn't fall off during your next mission is important."

"Not to mention you can learn new tricks." Sasuke said, idly letting his Sharingan flash to life for a second before it faded. "Heh, on our last mission, I barely had to use my Sharingan. I'm getting better and better every day."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, though it was all in good fun. He was still working on figuring out how Kakashi's chidori (thousand birds) technique worked ever since the man had attempted to explain it to him. Attempted being the key word. Meanwhile, Sasuke was running around with the technique like it was second nature, and had landed the first solid blow that ended up crippling the dictator Dotou enough for Naruto's rasengan (spiraling sphere) to break through his armor and kill him.

"Besides, Kakashi-sensei won't be around for another while either since he takes his days off very seriously." Sakura said, nodding to herself as though she had said something profound. They all knew what he'd be doing, and none of them questioned it.

"Hm." Naruto rubbed his chin, thinking out loud. "…do either of you guys know anything about chakra control techniques? I mean, besides water walking and tree climbing?"

Both of them stared at him, clearly torn between being confused and awestruck by his question. Naruto, admitting a fault? No, with the way he'd said it, he had something else on his mind. "Um…why do you ask?" Sakura said slowly. Knowing Naruto, it was likely going to be something stupid, but it couldn't hurt to hear him out.

Surprisingly, it wasn't as dumb as they thought it might sound. "Well, after the Chunin Exams, I went to find Tsunade-oba-chan with Ero-sennin. He taught me some stuff, but before he did I thought he was going to help me with my chakra control, like he had before the Chunin Exams. I figured that there might be some other awesome stuff ninja's could do, like fire walking, or maybe air walking. Can you imagine that?"

His teammates glanced at each other, thinking over what he'd said. It did make sense that there could be other ways to train their chakra control, but neither had heard of many if any. While his ideas sounded silly, especially since they'd never heard of anyone walking on air or through fire before, they were bored, and it sounded like a viable way to spend their time. There was always the usual plan of hang out until Sasuke got bored and left to train which lead to Naruto and Sakura splitting off to do their own things. With this though, everyone won.

"Well…it would be pretty neat." Sakura admitted. Thinking it over, she figured the best plan she could think of. "I figure if we get some books on chakra control, or even chakra theory, we might have a chance of learning some new techniques that might be viable chakra control techniques."

"I know a few shinobi stores that sell them." Sasuke said, remembering seeing a few books in their rather limited section. "It's only theory though, since a ninja's jutsu are secret after all. Theories though are less restricted. Plus, we can come up with our own ideas on how to use them."

Naruto grinned widely, rubbing his hands together. "Alright! So, what's the plan?"

Sasuke glanced to Sakura, who gave both of them a small nod. "Alright, here it is. Sasuke, get the theory books. Naruto, you're coming with me to the library so we can check out some basic chakra exercises. As long as they aren't checked out, we should be all set." Seeing Naruto blink before getting ready to give a whoop of victory, Sakura quickly cut in. "I'm having you come with me because I need someone to carry my books. I'm not just checking out one or two you know. There's a lot of ways we can research this."

Naruto pouted, but then quickly brightened that the idea of spending time with Sakura regardless of where they went. Even a boring place like the library worked out for him.

Slowly picking his head off the table, Naruto moaned softly. "Have you found them all yet?"

"No Naruto. I haven't found the last two books, so be patient."

Letting his head hit the table, he sighed. He'd expected them to grab more than a couple of books, since it would give them more coverage of different techniques. What he hadn't realized was that Sakura was a bookworm; a serious, hardcore bookworm that had a nose for picking out many, many books teeming with information. Fifteen books later tough, Naruto was starting to see the problem with that plan.

He'd tried to look through one of them, but had quickly pushed it away and began banging his head on the table. When people said "theory" what they apparently meant was "complicated-as-hell" seeing how it used so many big words that his head began spinning. He just wanted to learn to do awesome stuff with his chakra, not get a headache from all the words he didn't know.

"Why does learning things have to be so hard?" Naruto moaned, turning his head away from where Sakura was at as he waited. Sighing, his eyes slowly scanned the room before they came across someone else he didn't expect to see.

"Eh? Naruto?"

"Kiba? What are you doing here?"

Kiba, one of his friends and classmates from when he'd been going through the ninja academy, held up a book. "I was picking up a book to see if I could help me and Akamaru learn a new combo technique. You?"

"I was going to get some theory books to learn some awesome skills, but…" Naruto said, motioning to the books behind him.

"Ah." Kiba said, chuckling at Naruto's predicament. "Well, it could be worse. You might actually have to read all of them."

"I totally could, but they're so boring." Naruto said, gripping his head and shook his head. "I mean, if I at least knew what the words meant then maybe, but they use big words that are totally useless. I swear, they just put the big words in because they want to sound cool and nothing else."

"Probably." Kiba shrugged. Pulling out a small blue book, he waved it in Naruto's face. "Luckily for me, I came prepared."

Naruto squinted, trying to figure out what he was putting in his face. When he finally saw it, his eyes widened as he realized what it was and sat up. "Where the heck did you get a dictionary from?" Naruto squinted, staring at Kiba with a frown. "And how the heck did you even get the idea to use a dictionary in the first place?"

"Hinata suggested it. There should be another one over there. I'd go get one before the last one is taken." Kiba said, pointing to where he'd gotten it a moment before. As soon as his hand was up, Naruto was out of his seat and stumbling to where the dictionaries were at. "…you're welcome."

"Eh? Kiba?" Sakura said, peeking her head out from the bookshelves. "What are you doing here? I thought…is that One Hundred Uses for Tree Climbing? I was just looking for that."

"Uh…" Kiba said, suddenly feeling like he was being stared down by a powerful hunter. Swallowing thickly, he chuckled nervously.

Meanwhile, Naruto made his was to where the dictionaries were at. Naruto hadn't thought of it before, but it was so obvious now. A dictionary would let him know what the useless words meant, which meant he'd be less bored by what he was reading. It would be tedious, but then when he'd been learning the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) it had taken time and he'd proven that he could do it given the opportunity. And for awesome flashy jutsu, he was more willing and determined than ever.

As he rounded the corner, he was surprised when he came face to face with another person who was now nose to nose with him. "Eep!"

"Eh? Hinata-chan, what are you doing over here?" Naruto asked, blinking as he took a small step back to give her some space.

"Ano…" Hinata fidgeted, glancing down at the book in her hands. "I was just going to check this out so I could get some work done."

Seeing her fidgeting, he put his hands behind his head and chuckled nervously. "No kidding? Same for me!" Noticing the book, Naruto grinned. "Hey, can you show me where you got that?"

Hinata blinked, hesitantly holding up her dictionary. When Naruto nodded eagerly, she blushed and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I can show you."

"Sweet!" Naruto shouted, ignoring the shushes from the librarian and her assistants as Hinata lead him to where they were at.

Seeing a lady with a couple of books for sale, Naruto quickly made his way to where the dictionaries were at. Picking up one, he flipped through it casually before nodding to himself. Turning to the lady, he quickly purchased it and all but skipped back to Hinata.

Hinata, not realizing Naruto was going to come back to her, was a bit caught off guard by his return. She glanced away nervously, she fidgeted with her book in hand as she tried to think of how to ask her question without offending the boy next to her. It was a bit difficult, despite how laid back he could be, and she didn't want him thinking poorly of her.

Noticing the way she was glancing away, Naruto was surprisingly quick to explain. "Kiba was over by our table, so I figured we could head there together so we can meet with our teammates."

Perking up slightly, Hinata nodded with a small smile. "I see. So, your team is here?"

"Yeah. Well, Sakura-chan is. Sasuke snuck off to a pawn show or something." Naruto said, scratching his cheek. He'd honestly forgotten where Sasuke had gone, but he didn't want to admit that. Shrugging, he put his dictionary away as he remembered all the other books Sakura had picked up. "I'm just glad Kiba pointed me your way now. Having a dictionary might mean I'm not going to be bored and annoyed by the big words that I don't understand."

Hinata smiled, understanding some of where Naruto's mindset was going with that. He wasn't the best at understanding big words and things of that nature, but as he was showing he wasn't going to let that hold him back. If anything, it made him more determined to figure it out.

A second later, Naruto and Hinata came to their meeting place and blinked together at the sight they returned to. Sakura was chasing Kiba – remarkably quietly – around the table as she tried to get the book Kiba had away or something like that. They didn't understand what Sakura was thinking, but neither was really looking to get between the two of them yet.

Hinata scanned the books Naruto and Sakura had gotten, idly wondering what Naruto was up to with them. Glancing at him, she bit her lip and tapped her fingers together for a second. Coming to the conclusion that Naruto wouldn't tell her if she didn't ask, she spoke up. "Um, Naruto-kun? What are you all researching? The different books you have seem a bit…diverse."

"Oh?" Naruto grinned. "Hehe, yeah, we're looking up chakra theory so we can see if we can figure out if there's any other chakra control techniques that we can learn."

Hinata's eyes scanned the books a bit more closely now, trying to remember which ones covered the subject Naruto had brought up. Seeing plenty of books that would cover it, she frowned as she considered how Naruto would look at them. Knowing that of his team, Naruto would have the most difficulty with the more advanced theory, she inwardly wondered why all the books Sakura had picked up were on advanced theory. Or rather, they were as close to advanced theory as one could get without actually getting their hands on some of the theories that jonin likely knew.

Seeing one of them that stood out in her mind, she quickly slipped between the fighting two and plucked it out. Backpedaling quickly to let them go back to fighting, she quickly handed it to Naruto. "Here Naruto-kun, this one should be a bit simpler, and it should give you some good tips on chakra control."

Naruto perked up at that, looking over the book eagerly. After a moment though, he felt himself resisting the urge to palm his face. The book seemed simple enough – Theories Among Kages – which sounded like a completely awesome in his opinion. The problem though, was that it was written by one of his arch nemesis', Ebisu.

Almost a moment after he thought this, his inner twitch dissipated in return for an eagerness. Ebisu wasn't all that bad, as he had taught him the water walking technique, which meant that the guy did know some stuff. So if he put his brain together and actually wrote a book that got published, that meant that something in there had to be worth it.

Thanking Hinata again, he completely missed how beat red she turned when he hugged her. Instead, he turned to his teammate and shouted at her to ignore Kiba and point him to the other books. This lead to Sakura yelling back, which lead to them both getting kicked out of the library. Naruto was lucky the librarian knew and liked Sakura, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten out with their books.

All in all, a good start for the day.

A couple hours later, Naruto slowly made his way to a nearby bench and sat down. Rubbing his forehead, he stared up at the sky cross-eyed as his mind tried to process everything that he'd read and had explained to him. It had clearly been too much for him to take in all at once, so the team had decided to split up and pick up again tomorrow.

Slowly pushing himself up a bit, he looked at the small playground he was near, smiling softly as he watched the kids playing. While he had some bad memories of the place, he was glad to see that other kids were having a better time.

Blinking, he noticed the sounds of someone scooting something across the ground and angry whispers. Slowly turning his head, he raised an eyebrow as he stared down at the cardboard box that was painted like a rock and was coming towards him. "…Konohamaru? What are you doing?"

"Ah, as expected of my rival!" A voice came from the box. Knowing what was going to happen, Naruto leaned back a bit as the box exploded outwards and the three kids that had been under the box. Konohamaru glanced to the box next to him, shaking his head as he spoke. "Udon, we still need to cut back on the powder."

Udon nodded, rubbing his nose as some of the smoke had gotten into it from their smokescreen. "Right."

Naruto, leaning forward, poked Konohamaru on his forehead and stared down at him. "Oi, what are you doing?"

Konohamaru recovered quickly, hopping to his feet. "Come play with us boss!"

Naruto hummed, rubbing his head and thought about it. Needing some way to detox, he grinned. "Eh, sure why not?"

The three kids cheered, and handed him a couple of paper shuriken before they ran off. Naruto, grinning like a fool himself, raced after them. Since he'd taught them a couple things, beyond his own jutsu, he was able to find them easily and ran around happily throwing his shuriken without any real care. He was having a great day, and was enjoying himself.

After running around for a bit, Naruto felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge. Slowing down on a rooftop, Naruto looked around in confusion. While he could hear the kids shouting at him, he was distracted. Not seeing anything, he turned back to the kids and started to apologize. Before he could say too much though, his eyes caught sight of someone he hadn't expected to see, and was likely the reason for his confusing hair raising feeling.

"Gaara?" Naruto said, blinking as he saw the red headed boy staring at him from the other rooftop. His clothes were different from the short-sleeved tunic he'd worn before; now he wore dark brown, long sleeved clothing that made him look rather cool looking out at him. He still had his hiate on the strap that held his gourd of sand on his back, which showed he was from Sunagakure no Sato, the Village hidden in the Sand. Which was why Naruto was confused. "What are you doing here?"

"My team was on assignment to come to Konoha." Gaara replied, his tone flat, but his eyes held a faint gleam of something Naruto couldn't identify. "I heard you playing, and wanted to speak with you."

"Oh." Naruto scratched the back of his head. Looking down, he chuckled nervously. "Hey guys, I'll be right back. Ninja business and all that."

Konohamaru pouted, stomping his foot and pointing at him. "You better not be getting secrets on how to become Hokage from this guy and not tell me!"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto said dismissively.

As he hopped across to the other roof where Gaara was standing, Gaara turned and began leaping across rooftops himself. Apparently Gaara didn't want to talk around the kids, which Naruto didn't care too much about. Where they talked wasn't that big a deal, and he could more than handle himself if need be. As they got further in, they eventually landed near an abandoned building close enough to the Hokage's Tower, where he finally stopped and turned to Naruto.

There was a short silence between the two, which make Naruto a bit more nervous. What was so important that Gaara had dragged him away? If he was attacking him, he probably wouldn't have run away from the kids; he'd pinned Sakura to a tree last time they'd fought, so why would he think twice about doing that again. Was there some secret mission that he needed him to do that only he could pull off? His expectations were all over the place, which made his expectations rise exponentially.

"…how have you been Naruto?" Gaara asked, trying to small talk a bit. He'd been trying it a bit more since they'd fought, and found he was slowly starting to get the hang of it.

"Eh? Um, I'm going good." Naruto said, smiling a bit. All his thoughts flew from his mind as he focused on actually talking.

"Good." Gaara said softly, slowly staring up at the sky. "Have you seen the night sky lately?"

Not expecting the conversation to take a sudden odd turn, Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"The night sky." Gaara said, slowly dropping his head and stared at Naruto. "I cannot sleep at night, so I have plenty of time to stare up at it. As I've done so lately, I've seen something rather disturbing." Seeing Naruto's interest was once more fully caught and invested, he explained. "The stars have been vanishing before my eyes, like their light was being snuffed out."

For a second, Naruto deadpanned at that. It didn't' sound like anything all that great, or anything he'd be interested in. Before he opened his mouth to ask why it was important, a line from his dream suddenly popped into his head.

"Keep your light burning strong."

"…okay. What do you mean? Are they, like, flickering or something? Or are they just…poof?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms and thinking as he thought about what all could do something like that. Lights could just go out, but stars? Those were supposed to stay on, not just randomly vanish.

"As I said, they simply are vanishing." Gaara replied, inwardly sighing in relief. He'd mentioned it to his siblings at one point, and while they'd seemed interested, none of them knew the night sky well enough to know what he meant. Even worse, they figured it was something to do with his insomnia. He'd been awake for longer than either of them, and he was more than stable enough to know the difference between sleep deprivation and reality. Apparently Naruto was less biased, and more…confused.

Naruto scratched his head, wondering how that had happened. Stars didn't go 'poof' like that did they? He didn't know, he'd never read up on stars before. Then again, he also knew that for the most part the stars just stayed where they were and lit up the night sky. He'd star watched a couple times, but he'd never really thought about what was out there, what could be out there. His mind was firmly placed on the ground, when his head wasn't in the clouds daydreaming.

"…I'll look into it." Naruto said after a moment, realizing he actually needed to know things about stars before he could help out.

Gaara nodded, glancing at the setting sun warily. "Whatever you do, do so quickly. With each sundown, I feel more anxious for it to be taken care of and finished."

Naruto nodded, glancing at the setting sun as well. Giving Gaara one more sidelong glance, he leapt to the roofs again and made his way towards the library. It was probably closing soon, but he needed to get some books – this time some that were more helpful and less complicated – so that he could catch up and learn about it all. He only got halfway there when a boom of thunder cracked through the air, causing Naruto to pause and stare up.

"…oh yeah, there's a storm coming." Naruto muttered, smacking his forehead. The storm meant he wasn't going to be able to even see the stars tonight, which meant studying them was going to be a bust. "Gah, I'll just look over some kids books and see what I can learn when the storm starts up."

Leaping again, he quickly entered the library. It would be open for a short while longer, which was more than enough time for him. The plan was simple; get the book, go home, read, relax, and then show off his awesome skills. He'd later be grateful he'd even had enough time to get to the library.

Because the world wouldn't last long enough for him to get home.

Having found nothing of use before the library had closed, Naruto sulked on his way home. He'd failed to get anything that could help him and Gaara, and it was frustrating. Sure the storm would block his view of the stars, but he still wanted to have the book to say he tried.

Rolling his eyes, he put his hands behind his head and hummed softly. "Maybe I can summon Gamakichi when I get back to the apartment. He might know something about all of this."

As a summoner, Naruto found that he usually didn't summon his little friends as much as he could've at times. Then again, the small toad in question was also the toad boss' son, so taking him away all the time might get dicey. Still, for something that sounded as important as this, he didn't want to take any chances; any help at all was better than no help.

Before he could get to far though, a particularly loud blast of struck behind him, causing his teeth to grind together as the wave of thunder rolled over him. Turning around, he froze as he saw something rather odd. Unlike normal lightning, which struck then left, this one was still there, and there was still power arching from it as it zapped the ground. Above it, hidden by the dark clouds, was a ball of shadows from which the bolt of lightning was emanating from. Dense as many people made him out to be, even Naruto wasn't so thick skulled to miss the implication of what was happening.

They were under attack.

Racing towards the lightning, his mind went over all the things that it could be. Enemy ninja? Friendly ninja gone rogue? Gaara using the Ichibi – no wait, that would've been a sand monster that appeared in the middle of town, so that one was out. Aliens? Naruto thought that one might've been kinda fun. Or worse of all, were the paranormal powers of the undead coming to destroy them all?

Naruto shuddered at that thought. Suddenly, he didn't want to know what it was. He just wanted to find it and beat it up till it left. A small part of his childish nature said that if he did that Tsunade-oba-chan would let him take over as Hokage, but she wasn't as old as Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage,had been. It might give him some good points to picking him as her successor though.

Once he got close enough to the light, he stared at it with a thoughtful hum. He had no clue what it was, or what he could do to it, but then he had a good way of checking it out as well. Crossing his hands in front of him, his fingers formed something akin to a cross-like shape as he smirked.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!" He shouted. Four clones appeared around him, each one grinning as well. Crossing his arms, Naruto watched as the four gave a loud shout and raced towards the light to see if they could figure out what was going on. If they were dispelled, Naruto would be able to see it and then could respond and fight back against…whatever it was.

As they got close though, Naruto found himself flinching in shock and somewhat in fear as he saw that the light was casting shadows on everything around it, and that from the shadows, black blobs were rising up. The very same ones he'd seen in his dream, complete with their beady, heartless yellow eyes.

The clones thought they could stand a chance, and one of them waved them on as he took them on. Punching and kicking, and even drawing a kunai after throwing a handful of shuriken, both the clone and himself were surprised to find that these shadows weren't taking his hits as bad as those in his dream had. In fact, any hit he laid into them with barely made them bounce back before they picked themselves up and began attacking again. And with the one hit limit on his clones, the clone didn't last all that long when one of the shadows struck his clone in the back and it dispelled.

Looking to the other three, they weren't handling themselves well either. They were close to the lightning, and were quickly finding that whatever it was that was in it was quite a bit more powerful then he'd thought as they were forced to dodge and weave to avoid being struck by a large hand of shadows. Naruto once more flinched, recognizing the hand as the larger shadow from his dream.

"…what the hell is going on here?" Naruto muttered, eyes watching as his clones found themselves being slowly but surely cornered to the point that even a near miss was fatal for one of his helpless clones.

"The darkness has come."

Naruto whirled around, ready to defend himself from the unknown enemy. Surprisingly though, it wasn't an enemy at all. "Sasuke? What are you doing here?"

Sasuke wasn't looking at him though, his eyes focused on the ball of shadows above the bolt of lightning. "So it's true, our world is already doomed."

"Uh, Sasuke? Hello? What's going on?" Naruto demanded, trying to get his teammate and best friend's attention. When Sasuke looked at him though, there was a darkness in them; anger, betrayal, and even a hint of fear. Flinching at the foreign emotions crossing his friends face, Naruto looked him over worriedly. "…Sasuke?"

"We need to leave. Now." Sasuke said, a circle of darkness rising up around his feet. The shadows began crawling up his legs, though Sasuke paid them no mind. "You can't fear it Naruto. We have to get through this…or we'll never get back."

"Sasuke what are you –" Naruto tried to step forward, but found that he too was surrounded by a ring of darkness. Eyes widening, Naruto struggled against it helplessly. Much like the darkness in his dream, it was quickly trying to consume him. Seeing that the shadows around Sasuke had almost completely covered him, Naruto shouted. "Sasuke!"

"I'll see you on the other side Naruto." Sasuke said as his form fading as he was pulled down into the darkness.

"No!" Naruto shouted, still struggling against the bonds of shadows.

As the shadows began reaching his head, Naruto's face morphed into a scowl of determination. "I can't lose here! Sasuke's in trouble, the village is in trouble, and I'm not giving up on this…so…EASILY!"

Pulling himself into a standing position, he shouted loudly in rage as he pulled against the shadows. A feeling of power surged through him, and the shadows seemed to suddenly push away from him. With a quick burst, Naruto felt himself become enveloped in light and the shadows vanish completely around him. Panting slightly, Naruto clenched his fists tightly, surprised to find that in his right hand there was something new. Looking it over, he raised an eyebrow at its appearance.

It was a sword of some kind, though it was the strangest sword he'd ever seen. It had a thick knuckle guard of steel that was oddly on either side of the blade, though the blade only had a single edge, and that had a bit more distance from his knuckles to the guard then he'd ever seen. The blade was made from a flat piece of bronze, the orange-ish coloring once more out of place on a blade. The final piece that confused him though, was that at the end of the blade it had an ax-like piece that looked like it had a crown taken out of the middle part, and was on the wrong side to have a blade seeing how it was on the blunt side of the blade. Holding it out, he heard a small jingle, and took note of a chain that was attached to the blade. Picking up the end part of it, he raised his eyebrow as he saw it was a metal plate with the symbol of Konohagakure etched into it; like his hiate, if the symbol was drawn sideways and was worn vertical rather than horizontal.

"Keyblade…Keyblade…"

Naruto stared up into the sky, blinking in confusion. Unlike the original voice from his dream, this one was more of a hissing noise. Whatever it was, this thing didn't like it at all. Smirking at the thought of whatever it not liking his new sword, he placed it on his shoulder and pointed at the sky. "Yeah, that's right, I have this…Keyblade…thingy. So ha to you and your shadowy butts!"

Almost as though it heard his insult, there was an earth shaking screech, followed by more shadows rising up around him. Yelping, Naruto swung the blade wildly in defense of himself. Shockingly, Naruto found that the blade didn't just go through it, it took it out and caused it to explode into little balls of light with small a small silhouette of a heart coming from it. Realizing that this 'Keyblade' could hurt them, he could suddenly see why they wouldn't' like it. Smirking, Naruto began laying waste to the shadows around him, getting used to the strange feeling of the blade in his hands.

As the last of the shadows was taken out, Naruto looked back to the lightning as it slowly began to die down. From the center of it all, the giant from his dreams began taking form. As the lightning disappeared, a whirlwind of shadows suddenly blew through the village, requiring Naruto to grip the roof with chakra to prevent being blown away. Covering his face with his free hand, Naruto blinked as he saw that the wind wasn't normal. Rather than just being wind, it was purple, and dark, with a feeling of something tainted that caused shivers to run up his spine.

As it died down, Naruto flinched and lowly looked around. The world as he knew it was falling apart, darkness enveloping the world around him and the giant shadow. Only a few buildings were left, and as he glanced back, he realized that he was actually only standing on half a building. The other half had been consumed during the whirlwind. Glancing upwards, his eyes widened further as he saw that the ball of darkness had become an ominous red hue, and was drawing in whatever was around it. In fact, Naruto swore he saw a few people being drawn into it.

Hearing a dark roar, Naruto returned his attention to the giant. Seeing it charging up some kind of purple-red energy, he frowned. Leaping off the building he ran around its feet as he swung his blade at its leg. Surprisingly, there wasn't much damage from his blade to its leg, though it was more then what his clones were doing. The howl of something rushing past him, Naruto glanced behind him with a raised eyebrow. The energy that had been gathered into the giant's chest exploded outwards and destroyed the building he'd once been on.

"Holy crap this thing can do that?!" Naruto shouted, running between its legs and getting behind it. Jumping upwards, he struck the giant in the back and quickly leapt away as it turned to face him slowly. "Man, this thing is slow, but it can take a hit. Come on you…Keyblade thing, put some effort into it!"

Seeing the giant pulling back his hand, Naruto blinked as he remembered it doing exactly that in his dream. Smirking, he slowly gathered himself up to jump. When the fist launched at him, he dodged back and let it strike in front of him. Skidding to a halt, he rushed forwards and began beating the fist with the sword as quickly as he could. With how much it weighed and how little skill he had in using it, it wasn't all that fast. Worse still, there were small shadows that were popping up around him as he struck the giant, probably coming off from where he hit them. Spinning on his heels, he smacked them back before going back to the fist.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Naruto chanted as he struck. Right before he struck the 'killing blow', the fist pulled back and his swing met only air. "Oh come on, coward! Get back here and fight like a man!"

Apparently deciding to do just that, the shadow slammed its other hand onto Naruto. Still slower than him though, Naruto was able to dodge the fist once more. This time though, Naruto wasn't having any of the giant's shenanigans. Running up to it, he ran up the length of its arm towards its face. Even though it obviously could tell what he was doing, its arm was stuck in the ground, and couldn't be easily removed. This gave Naruto all the opportunity he needed to start smacking it in the face and beating it up. Unable to take that many hits to the face, it soon lumbered back and let out an echo of a groan as it began falling back.

Almost as though it were reacting to the giant's defeat, the red orb in the sky began pulsating faster. The falling giant never hit the ground, as the suction became too great for it and it began rising upwards until it was absorbed by the light. Naruto on the other hand, had managed to find a doorframe that was still up and was holding on, if just barely, to the top of it. The rest of the building was being ripped away, and soon he could feel the doorframe itself rattling violently in response. Holding on with chakra was helping, but soon not even that saved him.

The entire doorframe was ripped out of the ground, with Naruto along with it. Letting it go, he struggled and fought against the whipping winds as he was dragged into the darkness.

"No…I won't lose!" Naruto shouted as he was enveloped by shadows once more.

Then, as though a silent command had been given, the world simply vanished, and was no more.

Two men were walking down the street calmly, occasionally looking up at the sky as they traveled to their hotel room. The two of them were vastly different in many ways, though some were more obvious than others. One was taller with black hair and red eyes, wearing a sleeveless black cloak and a red headband with similarly red metal framing his face called a happuri, with more red markings that covered said cloak with a sword strapped firmly to his hip. The other man was shorter, with blond hair and blue eyes, he wore a white cloak with blue markings covering it. While the shorter man was smiling, the larger one scowled, keeping his eyes forward while his companion occasionally searched the skies. With them, a small white meat bun-like creature with a red gem in the center of its 'forehead' sat on the smaller of the two's shoulder, smiling happily as they traveled, though it did frown slightly when its traveling shoulder stopped and pointed upwards.

"Oh, Kuro-puu, look!"

The larger man stared up at the sky, wincing as he saw what had caught his companion's attention. "Damn, there goes another one. They're getting faster."

The shorter man tapped his chin, thinking for a moment before speaking. "Do you think that anyone survived? I mean, we've seen more people showing up since we came here, so it wouldn't –"

"Don't get your hopes up." The tall man said, cutting him off. "We've seen people come here, yes, but that doesn't mean that we'll see anyone."

The shorter man frowned, inwardly wishing that his companion was more optimistic about what was going on around them. Granted, he was sure that after searching they'd find someone, there were several other worlds that had disappeared and they'd received no one who'd been strong enough to arrive.

Next to him, his little white meat bun companion suddenly perked up, eyes widening greatly as it stared at the sky. "Someone's arrived!"

Both men looked at the small meat bun, raising an eyebrow in surprise. The shorter of them smiled, gently patting it on the head. "Already? Wow, they must've been really strong to have gotten here so fast. Don't you think so Mokona?"

The meat bun, Mokona, shook its head. "I only felt them arrive. They must be close though, since my eyes got really wide again." Mokona said, pointing at its face and mimicked the expression it had just had. "I'm glad Yuuko let me sense when people come here. It makes me happy to know people are surviving the attacks."

Both of them nodded, sighing softly as they continued making their way through the streets with eyes wide open in attempt to see their newcomer. This didn't mean they would find them just yet, or even today. Depending on who it was, they might not even find them at all. It had happened a few times already, but they weren't discouraged. At least, they weren't yet.

"Has the Witch finally told us who we're supposed to be on the lookout for yet?" The taller man asked, gently tapping his sword with his fingers in aggravation. "We've been on the 'hunt' for weeks, and still we haven't come any closer to finding them. No one here seems particularly 'more unique' then anyone else."

"Ah, but they're all special in their own way." The shorter man said, smiling widely. "Like that one guy, who was flying around on his broom thingy. Or that other guy, who was skating around on his special shoes. Ooh, even that one guy who turned into a girl when he fell into the fountain! That was interesting. And –"

"Alright, I get it, there's lots of 'special' people here." The tall guy rolled his eyes. "Still, that doesn't mean that any of them are the ones we're looking for anyways. All we were told was to 'find the key, and bring it to her'. What kind of a key are we looking for, and why did she make it sound so…important?"

"Maybe because it is?"

"Maybe, but why?" Glancing at his companion, they stared at each other before looking away to continue their search. Neither of them had an answer to that question, and Mokona hadn't said anything about it either; just that it'd let them know when they found it. So far, no one that had come through had it, and neither had anything to give to get the information. Stuck, and searching blind, they continued onward.

So caught up in their thoughts, none of them noticed the red glow that shone down an alley they passed, or the blond haired boy who fell out of it.

AN: Well, one chapter and I've already destroyed the Naruto-verse. Personal record.

Of those mentioned. only two of them will be full time companions. The only hint I'll give, is that it's not the two at the end. Those two are from a different story line, ironically similar to what I'm doing in a way, which is why I used them at the end. Honestly, I wonder if anyone knows where they're from, so let me know if you do.

Also, as you can see, Naruto has the Keyblade, but it's not the one Sora uses. Why? Because. However, the reason behind giving it to him was two fold; he needs to lock the worlds to keep the Heartless at bay from taking them all over, and I wanted to draw the biggest bulls-eye onto his back I possibly could. And with the Keyblade, that's a pretty big bulls-eye for the Heartless to follow.

Finally, Sasuke choosing to do what he just did...explanation? You'll see. Should be a bit different, especially considering my timing. For those who don't know, the 1st movie was set before the Race Arc (where they fight Aoi), which is before the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. This means Sasuke isn't fully going evil, and he doesn't have 2nd level curse seal. That should make things interesting.

Till next time, where Naruto learns about my anime variant of Traverse Town, Guru out!