PROLOUGE:
THE OPENED DOOR
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Kabuto pushed his glasses up farther on the bridge of his nose. Orochimaru looked at him, his face smug.
"Oh yes, Kabuto. I am perfectly prepared." He turned back to the seal he had written in his own blood, its sinister characters smeared across the entire expance of the floor. The smell of it was sickening.
"After this jutsu is completed, the entire Leaf Villiage will be at my disposal. In fact, the entire world will be at my fingertips!" He cackled gleefully. He licked his lips. Sasuke wrinkled his nose. He still hated it when he did that.
"How can you be sure it'll work?" he asked, crossing his arms skepticaly. Orochimaru looked at him.
"Sasuke, you still dont have faith in me after all this time?" He smirked. "Hmmhmm...well, soon you will. Both of you take your places, we are about to begin."
The two sound ninja took their places on either side of the seal and bit their thumbs, drawing blood. They placed their hands down.
Orochimaru grinned.
The fat scientist cackled loudly.
"HAHAHAHA! It is almost done!" His latest creation stood before him, finished to the last detail.
"Oh, wait!" he leapt forward. After a few moments, he stepped back.
"There! Perfect!" He set the red paint aside. The gleaming red letters "Dr. Eggman" shone proudly from the stand.
"Impressive, dont you think?" He commented to a nearby robot.
"Sir, you commanded me not to think." The robot replied in its flat voice. Eggman rolled his eyes.
"Oh well fine. Whatever. Prepare to activate it!" He stood proudly on the edge of his observatory balcony, excited like a boy with a new toy. He lost his balence and nearly fell off.
"WAAAAAGH!!" he yelled. "Dont just stand there you idiot get me up!"
The robot moved forward and grabbed his master by the seat of his pants, and lifted him (rather undignified) back to the floor. He dropped him. The relative silence was broken by a tearing sound.
Eggman lay in a heap on the floor for a moment, then leapt up.
"What do you think you were doing you bolt bag?! You could have picked me up by my shoulder or my arm or something!"
The robot, who was standing inoccently holding a piece of the Dr.'s trousers, replied:
"You told me to pick you up; you never specified how."
Dr. Eggman sighed, irritated, and snatched the piece of clothing from the robot.
"I am changing clothes. THEN we will begin!"
Xemnas looked over the charts. He smirked slightly, confident he had made the correct calculations. His followers were pitiful; they could never handle the truth.
He walked over to a huge cylinder. Blinding white light glowed from deep within it, steadily growing brighter. He crossed his arms and waited until it pulsed steadily, the light throbbing like a giant heartbeat. It consumed the room, until there there was nothing but the light. Xemnas could feel the power flowing through him. He could sence time and space swirling about him like currents of the purest water.
Soon, very soon all will be ready.
Hazel grinned.
"We made it!"
Kierriadon smiled and shook his head. "After nearly getting discovered by chosen ones, and you got shot by a guard by mistake."
Hazel frowned and rubbed her upper arm tentively. "Well, it wouldn't have been fun if we didn't have a little trouble." Sighing, she looked around.
"So, this is your dad's ship?" Kierriadon said, looking up at the nearly decayed vessel. It used to be a magnificent ship, long ago. It was medium sized, but just by looking at it even Kierriadon who had rarely been on the sea could tell it was extreemely fast.
"Yep. The old Duchess." Hazel hopped up the rigging, moving quickly to avoid breaking the old ropes.
"What happened?" Kierriadon asked, following her up to the crows nest. Arrows stuck out everywhere. The ship looked like a pincushion, and burn marks showed where most of the arrows stuck out.
"I guess the new captain just wasnt as good as dear ol' dad." Hazel said, standing in the crows nest.
"You dont know?"
"No. After my father died the crew decided that having a woman, especialy an elven woman on board was too bad luck."
"Oh."
After looking around the deck for a while, they wandered below. Piles and barrels of treasure lay everywhere, tarnished by the sea air.
"I can't believe all this is still here," Hazel said. She picked up a scepter that lay in the hand bones of the former captain.
"So he found it, did he?" Hazel chuckled.
"What?"
"The Scepter of the Gates," Hazel held up the golden object. A large, white stone sat atop the scepter, inside a cage of twisted gold. Various gems adorned the thing, but the white stone shone as if it possesed a light of its own.
"The what?"
"An ancient treasure. It was said to have the power to open gates to other worlds. The first mate was obsessed with it and naturally went after it when he became captain..." She trailed off. A loud throbbing rang in their ears. The white stone began to glow.
"What is that?" Kierriadon looked at Hazel, holding his hands to his ears. Hazel had her hands to her ears as well.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." She said as the throbbing got louder. Kierriadon grabbed Hazel's hand.
"We have to get out of here!" But his words were lost in the blinding and deafening light and throbbing.
Voices rang through their heads as the two elves were thrown into white nothingness.
Goofy!
Sora!
Donald, No!
Eanaru!
Sakura, where are you?
Sonic!
Then there was nothing.
CHAPTER ONE:
LOST
Naruto moaned and rolled over.
"Uunh, my head is killing me..." The blond haired boy suddenly bolted upright, the headache instantly forgotten.
"SAKURA! KAKASHI SENSEI!" he yelled, staring around. He met the eyes of a tall, brown eyed lady. He stared at her. Her ears came to a point, and her clothing looked exotic but simple. Her arms were crossed. He continued to stare at her.
"Bout time you woke up," She said.
"Who are you? Where's Kakashi sensei!?" Naruto leapt up. The lady blinked at him.
"I dont know who you're talking about. All I know is that neither of us know where we are or how we got here, and that we both seem to have lost someone." Naruto looked at her.
"How do you know that?"
"Because you have the same look on your face that I did when I woke up."
Naruto became silent.
"I'm Hazel Storm." the lady finally spoke. "What's your name?"
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto informed her. "Hey...why are your ears pointed?"
"I'm half Elf." The lady- Hazel, said, brushing her light brown hair behind her ears. There was an undertone that Naruto couldnt identify, but he ignored it. "And whats with the flourescent orange jumpsuit?"
Naruto hooded his eyes.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Trees swayed in the breeze and a few birds flew chirping through the clearing the two lost travelers sat in. Finally, Hazel stood.
"So, what do Kakashi and Sakura look like?"
"Huh?"
"Just sitting here isnt getting us anywhere," Hazel said.
"Oh, right!" Naruto put his hands in his pockets. "Uh, Kakashi sensei has a mask, and wears his forehead protector over his left eye. He's about as tall as you," Naruto noticed for the first time how tall Hazel was "And he's usually reading a pervy book. Sakura is about my age and has pink hair and the prettiest eyes and-" He cut off suddenly. "Anyway she's not that special." He finished, blushing. Hazel's eyes twinkled but she stayed silent. "I lost Kierriadon. He's a little taller than me and has one green eye and one brown eye. Brown shaggy hair. He's an elf too so just look for someone with pointed ears."
She sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Right, so lets go find out where we are..." Hazel trailed off and spun around.
"What?" Naruto said.
"Come on out." Hazel ignored Naruto. The bushes behind them rustled and a tall boy in his late teens walked out. He had brown shaggy hair and blue eyes. His face looked like it was made of stone.
He looks like Sasuke, Naruto thought to himself. Hazel and the stranger stared at eachother, not breaking eye contact.
"Who are you?" Hazel said. The young man remained silent for a moment, looking the two over. Hazel had her hand on the pommel of her sword.
"Heero Yuy." He stated. "Where am I?"
"That's what we'd like to know!" Naruto said, crossing his arms. Hazel's grip on her sword loosened but she didnt take her hand off it.
"I'm Hazel Storm, and he's right. We're as lost as you are."
Heero remained tense. Who are these people? I dont have time for this. I have to find Relena. Suddenly the bushes across the clearing exploded in a flurry of leaves and a blue smudge shot across the grass. Naruto yelled in suprise. The thing stopped short in front of them. It appeared to be a big blue...something. It wore red shoes with golden buckles, and it looked up and spoke to them.
"Have you guys seen a red echinda with seven chaos emeralds? Probably beating somthing up?" Hazel, Heero, and Naruto stared at it.
"What the heck are you?" Naruto asked. The blue creature turned to Naruto.
"I'm a hedgehog! My name is Sonic, and I'm lookin' for my pal Knuckles. So have you seen him?"
"You dont look much like a hedgehog." Heero commented, noting the huge blue spikes and long legs on Sonic. Sonic frowned. "Well neither do you, but you still havent answered my question."
Heero 'hmphed' and crossed his arms.
"No, we haven't seen him. Have you seen a tall girl, with blonde hair?"
The group shook their heads.
"We all seem to be lost." A voice from the trees turned all their heads and the leaves rustled as the owner leapt from the trees.
"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto yelled happily.
"Glad to see you too, Naruto." Kakashi looked around.
"So none of us know where we are, do we." Hazel crossed her arms.
"Yeah."
Two more voices approached them.
"The last thing I remember is typing a code into an old computer ," one of them was saying.
"I was using the Keyblade to unlock a keyhole and free the King but..." they trailed off as they entered the clearing.
"Who are you?" Sonic wanted to know.
"I'm Sora! This is Koul Inashi." A boy and a young woman stood before them.
"We're a little lost. She's looking for her husband Eanaru, and I'm looking for my friends Donald and Goofy. Have you seen them?"
As expected, everyone shook their heads. Sora sighed.
"Hang on, did you say something about a Keyblade a second ago?" Hazel said after they had all introduced themselves. Sora nodded. Hazel pulled a golden scepter out of her pack.
"This is the Scepter of the Gates. It's been fabled to have the power to open gates between worlds. Kierriadon and I were holding it when we were whisked away." She looked at everyone else.
"What were the rest of you last doing?"
"Kakashi sensei and I were trying to stop Orochimaru from creating this transportation jutsu!" Naruto said.
"Orochimaru is this evil guy bent on destroying our village, and he was using forbidden spells to open a porthole." Kakashi explained to the confused group.
"Well I was fighting Dr. Eggman! He's a mad scientist, and he was making this big machine to transport instantly between worlds," Sonic said.
"Dr. Eggman?" Hazel and Naruto said in unison. "What kind of a name is that?"
Sonic shrugged. "I think it's pretty stupid too, but that's his name."
"I was typing a pass code into an old weird computer." Koul said thoughtfully. "It might have been an old transporter...there was a legend about some weird power it possesed, but noone believed it."
"I believe what happened was all these people opened the same Porthole." A new voice broke in on their thoughts. A pale, dark haired man sat on a stump. He hugged his knees and sat hunched and staring at them with his huge dark eyes.
"Who are-"
"Please, no questions yet. I find it distracting." The man stared at the stump between his bare feet.
"So far we know for sure of two people working on this, separately then but possibly together now. However I have reason to believe there may be a third party involved."
He pulled a small piece of candy out of his pocket and sucked on it thoughtfully, still staring into space.
"The porthole is essentially a rift in space and that was designed to pull a person through and instantly expell him or her on the other side at a specified location...however it seems that it has gone awry." He looked up at them, fixing them with his weird stare. "Mere chance has allowed this to occur: the act of all of them creating this hole in space and time changed the fabric of reality enough to create a twist, or a knot. It's amazing the laws of physics still apply, come to think of it."
"What makes you think that?" Kakashi inquired. The man looked up at him.
"Kakashi, do you believe in Shinigami? Gods of death?"
Kakashi blinked in suprise at the odd question.
"Well, I never had reason either way. Why?"
"Because a shinigami, one named Ryuk, explained to me all this in explicit detail. He seemed to get quite a chuckle out of it, which makes me wonder, but it is all we have to go on for now."
He turned to Hazel.
"You're right. That scepter is a Gate, or connected to one in some way. Let me see it."
Hazel handed him the object. The man looked at it intently.
"Uh, gonna tell us your name now or what?" Hazel asked. "You seem to know ours."
"Hm? Oh yes. You may call me L." Hazel exchanged looks with Heero and they both raised their eyebrows.
"Yes...very interesting." L handed it back to Hazel.
"What you have is a keyhole. Sora, take your Keyblade and see what it does."
Sora pulled out a giant key. It instantly pointed toward the scepter, the end of it glowing.
"You see it wants to lock it, but it is unable to. The lock has been separated from the door."
L stared back at the stump.
"The Porthole will have two openings: the one we came through, and the one Dr. Eggman, Orochimaru, and the possible third party created."
Sora looked at L.
"What's going on?" he asked. "How do you know all of this? And if you know this much, tell us where our friends are!"
L looked at him.
"I already told you: Ryuk the shinigami told me. And I'm getting to that." L pulled another piece of candy from his pocket and held it between his fingers.
"I believe that your friends are with the enemy."
"What?!" Naruto cried.
"What lead you to think that?" Heero asked.
"I think I see." Kakashi said. "We all fell, or appeared, or whatever, in the same general area. If the others were here, they'd have met up with us already. They must have gone through the other opening of the Porthole."
L nodded.
"Correct."
"Fine then." Hazel said. "So now what? How do we find them?"
"First we should find out where we are. How many worlds have been crushed" he broke the small candy "together in this knot." He ate the candy.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Sonic, since you're definetly the fastest you scout ahead, around, anywhere. See what there is to see."
Sonic nodded. "Right!" He sped off, a blue blur on the landscape before vanishing out of sight.
"Now what?" Naruto said.
"Now we wait." Kakashi pulled out a book and began to read.