[For the Viewers Benefit]

"Big boys."

"Normal Boys."

'The thinking boys.'

"Magic speakin' boys."

"A heart is one's truest weapon…"

The first thing a pajama clad youth noticed was how cold his feet suddenly were, and how bright it was outside his eyelids, blearily opening a pair of deep amethyst eyes he immediately shut them.

Rolling across a giant stained glass floor the youth groaned as the pain hit his eyes, from a birds eye veiw it was a beautiful piece depicting a summer afternoon, a mountain range and forest in the background with two tall figures in the foreground, one man and one woman, with their arms around each other's shoulders.

Returning to the host of this dream we find a fair skinned young man, perhaps just entering his 20th year, he had shaggy black hair that stuck in any which-way direction given its bedhead state, and three slim lines running from his jawline to his cheekbones on each side of his face.

Pulling himself into a sitting position he looked around with a squinted gaze, brushing his hair back with a hand and frowning, "Goddamn…" muttered the young man as he forced himself to stand, regardless of how tired he was.

"Why does weird shit keep happening to me?" Weird shit indeed, for this was not the first time our protagonist has come upon such situation, but that is a story for later.

"Fear not, child. Take your time… and choose your path." Three pillars sprouted from shafts of light, atop each pillar was an item.

The first, was a shield, something admittedly he didn't see often in his line of work, a dark red kiteshield with an oddly stylized heart on the face.

The second was a sword, though unlike any he'd really seen before, in place of a single edge it had two edges and a horizontal guard, it was roughly 1 metre in length, give or take some, and bore a similar stylized heart on the pommel.

Finally was what could only be described as a wand, the same heart rested atop a small wooden shaft, wrapped in fine looking leather.

"Follow your heart…"

"Right, sure. I'll have to remember to not drop acid with Kakashi again." Rumbled the youth as he strode towards the sword and grasped it firmly, the weapon itself seemed to come alive for a moment as he felt energy flow from it into him and vice versa.

"As one chooses, one must also give up… what would you sacrifice for offence?"

The remaining two pillars shot towards the middle and stood roughly a foot apart.

"Here's an idea, Menma. Why don't you go out with Kakashi for your twentieth! It'll be great, since I've got a meeting tomorrow I can't exactly show up with a hangover, but he's on holiday for the moment!" Menma mocked his father's words with a frown, "Bah, never again I say, never!"

As the youth animatedly talked to himself Menma shooed the wand away, seeing no real use in it. It banished itself in a shower of sparkles, ugh, and Menma heard the random voice speak once more.

"Equip as you are, now you must take your first steps." Three black blobs began to grow across the stained glass floor three small impish creatures with misshapen antennae appeared from the blobs, they each had a pair of large yellow eyes and small twitching hands.

"Now that's just adorable." Menma admitted to himself shamelessly, a grin on his face as he sat on his calves and held out a hand to the nearest creature, "C'mere buddy, who's a cute lil' fella, you are."

Each of the small creatures wobbled forward, the first to reach his hand bumped at the appendage with its face before nibbling at one of his digits, "Heh, friendly lil guys aren'tcha?"

The other two Shadows, sensing the lack of danger apparently, sidled up against the youth as he sat with his legs crossed and pat them interchangeably.

"The Heartless are creatures of the Darkness they hunger for hearts."

"Yeah whatever, these lil guys ain't so bad." Menma waved off dismissively, one of them hopped on his back and crawled to sit on his shoulders, grinning to himself he grabbed the last two and carried them in one hand whilst holding the sword with his other, "C'mon lil fellas, you're comin' with me."

[Drive Unlocked; Anti-Form]

Passing through a door Menma noted his little friends didn't appear to have traveled with him, frowning he looked back to the door only to see it sink into the platform.

From a birdseye view this platform showed a rendition of himself sitting on a throne, a storm of white and greys spiralling below his feet and a swathe of dark clouds above him, the in the piece though, he looked quite content.

Menma however looked a little ruffled, "Oi, this is my weird acid-trip dream, gimmie back the small guys." As though called through some eldritch ritual six eyes opened in the shadow cast by the youth, his frown was slowly replaced as he looked at the six golden orbs, little antennae poking up from the shadow.

"Alright compromise it is."

"One must always be ready to fight the Darkness, in all of its forms." Sleek creatures of with an almost metallic sheen to their skin appeared in twisting brambles of white and grey, the creatures bounced idly from one of their long slim legs to another, their hands were bound in black bands, their heads had long zippers across their 'faces'.

One of the two creature twitched angrily as its zipper drew open, revealing a matte black orb within its 'mouth' a zig-zag pattern across the centre of this orb, making it look something akin to a teeth-line.

"Huh… funky." Menma commented, one of the two creatures - the one whom had yet to move beyond its idle bouncing - seemingly stared directly at him. The one whom had released its zipper lunged at Menma, he thrust a palm forward, striking it and seemingly dazing it. "STOP!" His booming voice echoed across the dreamscape.

The creature leaned back in on itself, "The hell you think you're doin' boy!? Hmm! Spazzing out like that, have some fuckin' respect!" The creature seemingly melted in on itself and lost all rigidity, Menma blinked for a moment as another swathe of white and grey brambles swept across the creatures limp body.

When it dissipated Menma was even more surprised to see that the creature was seemingly turned into clothes.

Menma staked his sword into the ground and picked up the Dusk's remains, it left behind a long jacket with a thick zipper, a symbol just like the one on the creature's head dangling as the zip-grip.

Menma pulled the jacket on over his light blue t-shirt and felt it tighten and loosen around his body, digging through the pile a pair of gloves with the same black bands around the fingers fit snugly over his hands, though he still retained full movement in his fingers.

He swapped out his pyjama pants for the long metallic silver trousers that hung baggily around his ankle, a belt seemingly sprouted from nowhere and clipped around his waist.

He did this all whilst the other Dusk bounced idly and stared at him.

Menma pat down his new jacket and smiled, it fit like a dream. Going down only to elbows but falling to his knees in length, obviously he didn't zip it up as that would be stupid given the current climate of the situation but as far as dreamed up outfits went this was pretty good stuff.

"Oi, you." Menma said, pointing at the remaining Dusk, "You're comin' with me." The creature slinked after him as he strode past it, his bare feet still annoyingly cold against this floor, a long staircase was his next foe, this time though several dozen Dusks and Shadows began to pour of out seemingly the air.

"Alright… I guess talking is over?" Menma readied his blade and let out a slow breath, "Not the same model I'm used to but it'll do." Slowly and methodically he moved the blade in a circular motion, after images began to blur against his movement he held the sword horizontally and then, in seemingly one step, moved through the entire staircase each Shadow and Dusk popping into the abyss they crawled from seconds later.

The friendly Dusk launched itself against his jacket and seemingly melted into it, giving it a hood and scarf, the upper half of the Dusk's skull became the hood whilst it's body went limp and almost fused into one long length of cloth.

The Shadow's in his actual shadow still blinked in sync whenever he deigned to look at them.

"As you see, not all problems can be solved with words or commands."

"Or by making them into clothes." Supplied the young adult with a chuckle, the final stage was completely blank, as though it had yet to be made.

"Go onwards, Scion of Twilight. Be the bridge between the worlds and their clashing ideals. Take your throne in the calamitous mid-way point."

"This is a really intricate dream." Menma admitted to himself, "Sure, I accept or… whatever."

"Fantastic. It is done, we look forward to your accomplishments. Awaken Scion, for the worlds require a shepard, this shall be a test. Shall Light succeed? Shall Darkness? Or will it be the Balance?"

Menma felt weightless all of a sudden as the floor beneath him slowly began to fill in as his view blanketed in, light and then darkness as his consciousness returned to his physical body.

Keyblade Graveyard

Menma awoke with a start, as he did he was immediately greeted with what could only be described as a wasteland, he sat up and groaned. "You know when a dream ends, that's supposed to be just it, the ending." He dragged himself up and noticed his feet weren't as cold.

"Oh neato, sneakers." He noted with a hum, the same silver-grey as his other clothes. "Gotta say, scarring that Dusk into a pile of clothes was a good idea."

Standing up Menma looked around, key shaped swords as far as the eye could see, "Sweet mother of me…" Muttered the young adult.

He looked around and approached one line-up, pulling a random key out of the ground and feeling it in his hands, it felt… dead. For lack of a better word, typically one wouldn't associate life with a weapon, but these items felt especially void of existence.

Menma tossed the key over his shoulder and looked for another, this time a long sleek silver key, the same result, he frown and ran a hand over the blade, inspecting it with a more critical eye, it had chips and cracks across its entire being, he swung it and it fell apart in his hands.

"Hmm…" Menma walked up and down through what appeared to be some mass gravesite and fiddled with or bothered one key or another.

"Is this just a wasteland?" As those words left his lips Menma felt a presence, he turned and saw his Shadows pour out of the one he cast and nibble at the blades, Menma knelt down and rubbed the head of one.

"Who are you to disturb this place?" Questioned a voice, Menma looked up to see a man in a long black coat, two silver draw-chains hanging down to his ribs, a hood disguising his person.

"I was brought here." Menma answered simply, "Don't worry though, I'm pretty sure I'll wake up soon."

"Wake up?" Questioned the man with a cocked head.

"Yeah, I mean I gotta give myself credit I'm way more creative than I assumed." Menma stood up and grabbed a random key the man's hand twitched as he did, and held it skyward, "These are pretty detailed."

"You think this is some kind of dream?" Questioned the man once more.

"Well yeah…" Menma turned to the man with a quirked brow, "I have a trio of lil' shadow ants, I have Dusks as clothes… and there are key-swords littered everywhere. This has gotta be a dream."

The man seemed to consider this for a moment, "How odd you are…" Observed the man.

"Yeah well this'll teach me do drugs, don't do 'em kids." Menma pointed at the Shadows who seemingly nodded in understanding before sinking back into the ground, Menma shouldered the large bandaged keyblade onto his shoulder and approached the man.

"What's your name?" Questioned the cloak wearer.

"Uzumaki Menma, eldest son of Uzumaki Minato and Kushina." Menma informed with a slight tilt of his head, he stood perhaps two or so metres away from the slightly shorter male, "And you are?"

"You may call me, Ansem." Informed the now named man with his own slight bow.

"Well, Ansem. If this isn't a dream, where am I?" Menma questioned.

"You are in a world called the Keyblade Graveyard, many years ago there was a great war between wielders of the Light and the Dark, nowadays there are few Keyblade Wielders left to push back the Dark. It would seem you are one such person, touched by Darkness." Answer informed, though his shoulders seemed tense as he spoke of the dark.

"Hmm? You mean the Shadows? I just didn't kill 'em is all, they're cute little things, felt bad." Menma admitted with a shrug, "I'm a grown ass man and I still don't like killin' cute stuff. Gotta work on it."

"You enjoy killing?" Ansem asked with a slight edge to his voice.

"Huh? Nah-nah, but it's my job. Lemme guess you've never heard of a place called the Elemental Nations?" Ansem shook his head so Menma continued, "Well that's where I'm from, people are either your average joe shmoe, and then you've got the people like me Shinobi, we're basically glorified mercenaries who run around spitting fire and controlling the tides. Most people would blow smoke up your ass about how great and just their village is but in reality everyone's the same, trying to get an edge over someone else with dirty tactics."

"It would seem you are not fond of your homeworld." Ansem suggested idly.

"Not so much, I just get… I dunno, bored?" Menma asked, more rhetorically than anything else, "I just feel like there's more to life then runnin' about doin' missions and getting paid. I don't really bother with people nowadays, my little brother thinks I'm being weird about it but in reality most of them end up dying so why bother investing in 'em?"

"That's a very… morose outlook." Ansem commented.

"Yeah well waddaya gonna do? Life begins just like it ends, I won't chew your ear off anymore though. You piqued my interest with 'other words', what kind?" Menma leant forward slightly, a simple tell that he was curious.

"Too many to list, too different to explain. It's more of a 'see and experience' sort of thing." Ansem informed, Menma nodded though he did have a slight frown on his face, "That being said… one touched by the Darkness such as you should be able to traverse various worlds with little issue."

"Oh really? How's that?" Menma was going to prod more but a book was thrown his way, dropping the Keyblade and grabbing it he looked it over, 'A Guide to the Dark Corridor' the book was quite thick, you could probably crack someone's skull with it.

"Before you're allowed to traverse worlds though, you'll have to prove you've the stomach." Menma had to leap backwards as Ansem leapt at him a wing-shaped blade staking into the ground where the Shinobi once stood.

"What the heck are you on!?" Snarled the Uzumaki with a scowl, "What kind of fuckin' random bullshit are you spouting? First you throw a random book at me, and then attack me?"

"I'm trying to confirm a hunch." Ansem said simply, as though that made it all better.

Menma frowned, "Fuckin' keys everywhere ya dickhead." Menma rolled to his left and grabbed a junk-keyblade he parried Ansem's attack and rammed his shoulder into the man's stomach, "This is now how adults handle situations!"

Menma dug his heel in and spun, his keyblade found purchase in the cloaked man's side though in a flicker of movement Ansem managed to right himself and kick the Shinobi in the jaw making him stumble, Menma slammed a hand into the ground and soared into the air he threw the junk-key at the other man with a snarl.

Ansem parried the thrown weapon and tossed it aside, his foe landed softly on the ground, "This is ridiculous, fight with your Keyblade, Menma!" Ansem demanded.

"Literally how?" Menma questioned, "I dunno what I'm doing, I dunno why you're suddenly attacking me, but I'll tell you this… you pissed me off." Menma threw his whole body towards Ansem his hands sparking with energy, the man merely held out a palm as a glassy barrier formed in front of him, Menma's hands touched the barrier and he was immediately sent flying several dozen metres, he landed with a roll and a skin, his body battered and bruised from the rather serious fall.

"Something definitely broke…" He barely managed to get out as his breath was slowly coming back to him, his arms felt like they'd been slammed in an industrial press. His shadow seemed to extend for a moment golden eyes looked up at him before a mass seemed to emerge from within.

A black Keyblade-esque weapon grew from the darkness of his shadow, it had the tell-tale signs of being such a weapon but just seemed a little, lesser. The weapon itself seemed to be missing half directly down the centre.

It's guard was half of a fleur de lis, whilst the grip was covered in a soft dark red foam of some kind. It lacked a keychain unfortunately, but it'd do for now.

Menma grabbed the weapon and slowly dragged himself up into a standing position, "So, you can push my attacks back at me?"

"It's a rather simple thing to do once you know how." Admitted Ansem with a nod, "It seems you drew your Keyblade from the dark…"

"I guess my little pals didn't take kindly to you tossin' me about." Menma offered with a shrug as he shouldered the weapon,

"Tell me, say you got around to different worlds. What would you do?"

"Look around and see what they're like." Menma answered truthfully, before frowning, "You know typically people ask questions like that before they get all trigger happy and try to kill someone."

"I wasn't trying to kill you." Ansem defended lightly, "I was trying to see if you had what it took to draw your weapon… though it seems you were given one instead."

"You didn't even bother to explain how to draw one, ya dink." Menma scolded with a neutral expression.

Ansem seemed to still for a moment before he nodded, whether to himself or to Menma the black haired man didn't know, "I suppose so, you need to look into yourself, once you feel a… tugging you'll know what to do."

"Are you a teacher?" Menma asked abruptly.

"No. Why?"

"Don't be."

Closing his eyes Menma didn't see Ansem's reaction but quieted himself, he looked inward and felt something odd, he felt like he was getting… weaker? Lethargic even. Like something was sapping his energy, he tried to follow this sensation and felt something pressing against his chest, outwardly he gripped his jacket and a small well of light began to gather under his palm.

Inwardly he saw a vast tunnel of light within himself and stuck his hand directly into it.

Ansem saw the black haired man grimace for a moment before drawing a silver keyblade from his chest, it was much like the black one, though it seemed to be the other half. This half had the teeth, an ankh acted as the teeth of the keyblade the tail of the symbol directed to the fleur de lis guard.

The Keychain unfurled as the keyblade came to life in its master's hands, a manji swung from the base of the Keyblade, Menma seemed to catch on to what had occurred before Ansem did and spun both parts in between his fingers before slamming them together, a great explosion of black and white energy grey from the black haired man.

Ansem shielded his eyes as the influx of light made them sting.

When the fiasco died down Menma was revealed.

His previous long jacket now only went down his ribs and left his now black t-shirt to cover most of his torso alone. He baggy jeans now fell into a pair of silver plated boots, his gloves now were more akin to gauntlets with pale blue gems planted firmly over the back of his hands.

His hood and scarf remained the same for the most part, though the Nobody sigil at the top was seemingly scrubbed away leaving a twist of black and white in its place.

As a whole Menma's keyblade was far wider from edge to edge, at about 20 cm from edge to edge and now flattened substantially, the symbols remained in stack but now it appeared to be more swordlike, he looked at the weapon for a moment and muttered.

"Harmony…" like a father seeing his child for the first time.

Menma gave the weapon a few experimental spins before resting it on his shoulder and grinning, "So, how do I look?"

"Like a future Keyblade Master." Ansem said, an odd note of nostalgia to his voice, "I believe it best to leave you with an acquaintance of mine for the time being… he can help you master this craft."

"You are sending me so many mixed messages, Ansem." Menma said with a frown, tapping his keyblade against his shoulder, "You do know I'm a grown ass man, I don't need to be babied? You can actually talk to me in place of trying to, 'force me into drawing out my power'."

Ansem had the gall to chuckle at that, "I'll keep it in mind."

"Seriously though, that's nice and all but I'm goin' home for the time being. I can't just run out and leave everyone wondering where I am."

"That's fair." Ansem acquiesced, "To return home, merely think on it, envision it and call out to the darkness, it will guide you."

Menma did just that before snapping his fingers and envisioning his bedroom, a large black vortex opened before him, Ansem paused for a moment before commenting, "You're taking to this quite well…"

"I've spent a majority of my life playin' around with energy, Ansem. I know what I'm doing." And with that, Menma stepped through the Dark Corridor and disappeared.

Ansem frowned beneath his hood, "He didn't even tell me how to find him, some adult."

Definitely Not Konohagakure

Menma stepped out of the Dark Corridor and onto… a beach, in the middle of the night.

"Oh for fucks sake." Muttered the man as he palmed his face, his Keyblade disappearing in a flash of black and white, as it was no longer needed.

With a sigh he placed his fists on his hips and took in the area, "Hmm… no discernible landmarks or anything. It's too dark to really make much out anyway." Even the sand looked dark.

"Hello!" He called out, his voice carrying on a soft wind, Menma frowned at the eerie silence, he called up his Shadows the trio leapt to serve, "Spread out and see if you can find anything." The shadows nodded before seemingly splitting, the now-six units spread off in every direction available.

"Not even gonna question it." Menma said to himself as he crossed his arms, his face set into a facade of calm as he looked across the moonlit waters, "This place… it's like pure serenity."

"That's certainly one way of saying it." Admitted a voice, Menma turned to see a young woman with pale blue hair and positively sparkling blue eyes, Menma felt his breath steal away from him as he looked upon her, almost angelic in appearance.

She wore a bodysuit/leotard with shorts and skirt combo a pair of detached sleeves covering her forearms, armour-like bands holding said sleeves in place. Her skirt fell to her knees it was parted around her front, leaving her legs exposed but also mobile, she had thigh-high black socks on, and plated boots.

Menma was so enraptured with her gaze that he lost all higher brain function, he was literally lost in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Oh gods above they sparkled like precious sapphires! What in the hell was happening, his heart was beating like a jackhammer and he could hear the blood in his veins singing.

He opened his mouth to speak and failed spectacularly a few times before managing to reboot and woodenly offered his hand, "M-Menma! Nice to meet you." Why was he yelling!? He was totally blowing it, goddamn!

She actually smiled and laughed lightly to herself, a pleasant as wind chimes, "It's nice to meet you too, Menma. My name is Aqua… so what brings you to the End of Sea?"

"Apt name I suppose…" Menma muttered to himself, rapidly finding his composure, "Corridor accident it seems, I was talkin' to some fella named Ansem in the… Keyblade Graveyard-" He noticed Aqua's eyes immediately spring open fully at that and almost lost track of his thoughts again, "-Anyway Ansem and I have a quick talk before he tosses this-"

Menma produced his newly acquired guidebook on Dark Corridors and waves it about for a moment before tucking it back into his jacket, Aqua seemed to be absolutely hooked on this conversation.

"Afterwards he forces a tussle in order to draw this-" He produces Harmony garnering a few owlish blinks, "-And then sends me on my way, now I was supposed to go home. But apparently this bugger of a thing is a little trickier than I imagined."

Aqua tried to form words, looking much like he did a few moments ago before shaking her head, "That's one of the strangest awakenings I've heard about."

"Not even the strangest part." Menma admitted.

Aqua cocked a single blue brow at this, "Really?" She questioned, nay challenged!

Menma felt a smile grow across his face, something Aqua quickly mirrored, "Well I'll tell you all about it while I figure out how this thing works, then how about… lunch, on me?"

Aqua seemed to breath out a all of her muscles relaxed, it was now he noticed the heavy bags under her eyes, "That'd be really nice…" She looked out to the waters and frown softly, "I've been here… a while."

End.

If you liked it lemme know. If you didn't, tough shit. If you wanna see more or have any suggestion for worlds and places to visit, make sure to pop 'em in the reviews or send me a PM.

Also, before anyone asks about pairings or stuff like that. Don't get your hopes up, I kinda just let the story play out as I type. I'm less a direct writer and more a conduit. That being said, I think a lot of people can agree Aqua is pretty fakkin' great.

Raxychaz!

Keyblade Symbolism; to get ahead of comments.

Manji; typically associated with spiritual harmony and the alignments of the forces of nature; eg. Light and Dark.

Fleur de Lis; Associated with royalty but also to perfection light and life.

Ankh; used in ancient egypt as a symbol of life.

All in all the Keyblade is supposed to represent the duality of Light and Dark whilst also presenting it as a new way of life, thus why it is called 'Harmony'.