Hello.
Ok, to start of with. I'm not an expert on all things Naruto, or Kingdom Hearts so I may get a few things wrong from time to time. Should this happen then please let me know and I will correct any mistakes ASAP. Same goes for spelling an punctuation errors. No matter how many time I re-read these some still slip through.
Now that that's out of the way. This story is set just after Chain of Memories and during the Chunin Exams.
Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. Any songs (or parodies there of) are the property of their respective owners. Any guest characters (which I will not name due to spoilers, and because I haven't thought of them all yet) are the property of their respective owners. No animals were harmed in...no wait, that's not exactly...well...
On with the show.
People like to think that they know everything about their world. They're wrong. For a starter they all think that their world is the one and only when there are actually countless other worlds out there filled with wonder and magic and, in most cases, danger. One of the few things that all worlds share in common are the Heartless. Creatures born from darkness that lurk in the shadows, gathering strength, preying on the weak and vulnerable. Right now a large pack of Heartless are hunting in a world called Twilight Town. Unfortunately for them the prey they'd chosen are far from helpless.
On the outskirts of town, past the woods, a gang of Neo Shadows advanced on the large iron gates of the Old Mansion. They made it about three steps before they were cut down by a boy in a black cloak with shoulder length silver hair. More Heartless rose up out of the ground, surrounding the young man.
"That the best you can do?" he asked in a bored tone. The Heartless charged at him from all sides but he leapt up into the air, then sliced down at the attacking horde. The moment his sword touched the ground in released a magical shockwave that destroyed the rest of the Heartless.
"Riku." The boy turned and saw DiZ standing in front of the gate. 'When did he get here?' he wondered. "I see that the Heartless are beginning to take note of us." continued DiZ.
"No kidding. These thing just never learn."
"Riku!" Looking past DiZ Riku saw Naminé running out of the Mansion's front door and down to the gate.
Riku was about to say 'Hello' but he was interrupted by DiZ "Naminé! You should be inside helping to restore Sora!" He did not sound pleased.
Naminé stopped just short of the gate "Well...I, heard something and when I looked out of my window I saw Heartless...and the Riku...so I..."
"You wanted to help." said Riku. Naminé smiled at him and nodded.
"A fool notion." said DiZ. Riku glared at him but him didn't seem to notice. "Naminé you have no combat ability whatsoever. All you would have done is put yourself in harms wa-"
There was a loud thud as a massive Heartless dropped to the ground right behind Naminé. It was roughly the size of a bus with a long spiked tail, dark purple spines running the length of its back and chains wrapped round its front legs that ended in three pronged hooks.
'A Hunter of the Dark' thought Riku 'So that's what's leading the Heartless here!'
The Hunter looked from DiZ to Riku before setting it's gaze on Naminé. She tried to run as the Heartless advanced but she tripped on a stone and fell. Riku ran over to help her up just as the Hunter pounced. Riku lifted his sword to deflect the ...nothing.
Riku looked up at the Heartless and saw that it had completely frozen in place. It slowly leaned to the left and fell onto its side.
"DiZ?" Riku looked at the man questioningly.
"That wasn't me." he replied.
Both of them looked at Naminé. "Well...I could see the memories inside its heart so I...brought them to the surface."
The Hunters body suddenly began to fade, becoming a black silhouette. As the trio watched the silhouette began to change shape, shrinking and twisting until it resembled a human. Once the silhouette stopped changing it solidified. The transformation was over in seconds and the Hunter now looked like a male teenager, about the same age as Riku, with black spiky hair, pale skin and dressed entirely in black apart from the red Heartless symbol on his shirt.
"Very interesting." muttered DiZ.
The now human looking Heartless groaned and began to wake up. "Where...how...arrr?"
"It can talk?" said Riku, disbelievingly.
The Heartless looked up at them and jumped to its feet. "Who are you!? Where am I!?"
A black aura began to appear around its arms. Riku thought that it was about to attack until the Heartless started panicking. "WHAT IS THIS STUFF!? GET IT OFFF!"
"Compose yourself!" commanded DiZ "It will fade if you calm down."
The Hunter didn't seem too reassured but it stopped yelling and started breathing deeply. The dark aura faded.
"What...was that?" asked the Heartless.
"You really don't know do you?" said DiZ. "What is your name?"
"My name's...is...I'm..." the Heartless looked confused, then frightened as it realised it couldn't remember it's name.
"I see. Naminé restored your sense of self but not your memories."
"What do you mean 'restored'. What happened to me!? What's going on!? And for the last time WHO ARE YOU ALL!?"
"Well, let's see. I'm Riku, this is Naminé and DiZ. You are a type of Heartless. A Hunter in the Dark to be exact. When you became a Heartless you lost your identity until Naminé restored it."
The Hunter gave Riku a confused look before yelling "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! I'm clearly not a 'Hunter of the Dark'. I'm human!"
"No. You look human. Underneath you are still a Heartless."
"I AM NOT A-" the Hunter flung out its arms, accidentally firing two dark bolts. One smashed into the mansion's wall, blasting a hole in the brickwork, the other went through the open front gate and collided with a tree. Riku decided to draw his sword incase the Hunter attacked them again. The sight of the blade materialising in his hand made the Hunter jump with fright. Still unwilling to believe that he was a Heartless the Hunter put too much energy into the jump and ended up on top of one of the broken stone pillars that lined the way to the mansion's front door. He didn't stay up there for long, he lost his balance and fell off, crashing head first into the floor.
"Shouldn't I be in a lot of pain right now?" asked the Hunter as he got up.
"Heartless cannot be injured so easily." said DiZ.
"OK, maybe there's something to what you're saying." There was a loud creaking sound, followed by a crash as the tree that had been struck by the dark bolt fell over.
About half an hour later the group had relocated themselves to DiZ's laboratory/base hidden inside the Mansion. Between them Riku and DiZ explained to the Hunter about the Heartless, the Worlds and the Nobodies.
"I'm still having trouble ...dealing with all this." said the Hunter once they'd finished explaining.
"You get used to it eventually." said Riku.
The Hunter looked over at Naminé, who was standing in a corner, drawing in her sketchbook. "Hey, Naminé?" She looked up from her drawing at the Hunter "Don't suppose that you can 'restore' all my memories for me? Please?"
"Well...yes. But it would take time."
"Time we don't have." said DiZ, who was sitting in front of a bank of computer screens. "Sora must be your primary focus Naminé."
"Thanks for that DiZ. I feel so valued." The Hunter started walking towards the door but he was stopped by Riku.
"Hey, I know that you have no reason to stay but...we could really use some help here."
"You want my help...um...thanks for the vote of confidence but I have a world to get back to."
"And how will you find your world?" Asked DiZ, standing up from his chair and walking over to the Hunter "There are an infinite number of worlds out there, the odds of you finding yours are slim. That's assuming your world is still there."
"Well, what else am I going to do!? Besides I'm not entirely convinced that you two are the good guys. You've both got this...inky, black stuff inside you."
Both Riku and DiZ looked stunned "You can...see our Hearts?" asked Riku.
The Hunter looked sheepish "Er...yeah. I guess that's another 'Heartless' thing. I can see light there too though so I can tell you're not all bad."
"What about me?" asked Naminé.
"You...well. I...can't see...anything in you."
The sad look on the girls face instantly made the Hunter regret telling her that.
"Naminé is a Nobody, she has no Heart." said DiZ dismissively. Riku shot him another angery look but once again he was ignored. "This is what I propose." DiZ continued "If you help us against the Nobodies and Organisation Thirteen then I will assist you in finding your world. Deal?"
The Hunter thought about it for a moment. Everything this DiZ guy said was true, he had no idea how to find his world. And without his memory he had no idea what his life there was like. Hunter decided that he would stick around for a while and help. After all, this seemed like it would be quite an adventure.
"Ok. Deal"
"Excellent."
"You're going to need a new name." said Riku "If we're all going to work together we can't just keep calling you the Hunter of the Dark."
"How about just Hunter?" suggested Naminé.
"Hunter...I like it. Just a warning though, I don't cook, clean or fetch things like coffee and-"
"I can assure you that you will not be given any menial tasks." DiZ went back to his computer screens "There are a large group of Nobodies gathering on a world close by. It's called the Elemental Nations. Go there and find out what they are planning and put a stop to it."
"Aye aye captain." Hunter ran towards the exit but stopped after a few steps. "Umm...how do I get to other worlds?"
"You use a corridor of darkness." answered Riku "Just focus on where you want to go."
Hunter nodded slowly. "Ok, focus...Elemental nations...focus." A black portal appeared around Hunter and he disappeared.
Then he reappeared to the left of where he had just been. Only this time he was upside down. "Ouch!" he cried as he crashed into the floor.
Riku shook his head "Maybe I should help with this" he held up his hand. Hunter heard a strange noise behind him. Turning round he saw a human sized black hole had appeared in the wall.
"Nice. So all I have to do is step through that and poof, I'm there?"
"Exactly. Before you go take this." DiZ handed him a small black mobile phone. It had no brand name, and only one button. "This phone is one of a pair" explained DiZ, holding up the other phone "it will allow you to communicate with me here without having to travel back and forth constantly between worlds."
"Got it. Catch you guys later!" Hunter leapt through the portal, which instantly closed behind him.
"Do you think he'll be ok?" asked Naminé.
"He's a Hunter of the Dark. He'll be fine." said Riku.
'Fine' is probably not the way to describe the Hunter's current situation though. When he walked out of the portal his first thought was 'What are these white fluffy things?'. It took him a moment to realize that they were clouds. Looking down he could see what looked like a medium size town, Riku had gotten the location right but not the altitude.
"Oh thanks a lot Rikuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
The fall lasted for about ten minutes. Hunter eventually crashed through the roof of a building and all its floors until he finally ended up in the basement, lying atop a pile of debris.
"Mmmmm. Ok, not off to a good start here." He got up, dusted himself off and looked up at the hole he'd made in the building. "Hope no one asks me to pay for that. Now where's the exit." Off to the left of where Hunter was standing there was a staircase that lead to a door. Once he was out of the basement Hunter left the building, which looked to be a hotel of some kind. Several people ran past him, obviously going to investigate the commotion but none of them payed any attention to Hunter.
Now outside on the strangely empty street Hunter ran into a new problem, he couldn't read any of the signs on the buildings. "Oh, great. That's just...hmm." Hunter looked more closely at the sign on a store in front of him. At first the letters looked like random squiggles but the longer he stared at them the more they made sense. "Ichiraku's...Ramen...How am I...Is this a Heartless power?"
He didn't have much time to muse on his new ability. Several dangerous looking people, all armed with swords and wearing various animal masks suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surrounding him.
"Hold It right there!" commanded one who was wearing a tiger mask.
"Who are you, and how did you get into the village?" asked another who was wearing a cat mask.
"Ok, well...first up I'm not one hundred percent on 'who' I actually am. And I came from...erm..." he pointed up to roughly the same patch of sky where he'd appeared.
"Funny." said Tiger Mask. "Let's see how funny you are after the Torture and Interrogation Division are through with you."
Hunter couldn't help but smile at that 'Oh, I am going to have soooo much fun with these guys. Hehehehe.'