Chapter II: A Strange Encounter.

~Tala's POV~

"Hey are you ok?" I woke up to hear voices asking me annoying questions. I mean there was no way I looked ok. "Oh you're finally waking yup. Kakashi Sensei the blue haired girl is awake!" The blue haired girl? Really that's what he just called me?

"Yes Naruto I can see that. Try to keep it down." The guy known as Kakashi said. Rising up out of bed I took in my surroundings. By the looks of it I was in a hospital room.

"So how ya feeling?" A blond haired boy with bright big blue eyes in an orange and black outfit asked me. He had on a black headband with a weird symbol on it.

"Um yeah I'm fine but um where exactly am I?" I asked the two strangers. The Kakashi guy had one eye covered along with half his face. He also wore a headband with the same symbol; thou his was slanted at an angle. He wore a green vest and blackish blue pants, had knuckle gloves like mine and wore weird blue like sandals. But the weirdest thing was his hair. It was silver and it looked as if he had stood upside down on a tree to get his unique hair style.

"You're in the Leaf Village where else!" The blond boy told me and by that answer I could tell he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

"The Leaf Village but there isn't such a place in Shibuya." I told them and at that the blond kid gave me a weird look with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Shibuya? I never heard of that. How about you Kakashi Sensei?" At that I got up out of bed as I recalled what had happened back home. I was no longer in Shibuya that much was clear. But if I wasn't there then what had happened to my home, mom and friends!?

"How did I get here? Where did you find me? Was there a boy with me?" I asked all at once to the guy known as Kakashi.

"Whoa take it easy. Naruto here find you in the training grounds. As for if there was a boy Naruto seemed to only bring you here so no; and how you got here well, your guess is as good as mine." This was just great not only was my home gone but I was alone. Could this get any worse!? "Let's start off with the basics, for starters you can tell us your name."

"I'm Tala, Tala Higerashi, I'm 15. I come from Shibuya and have no clue how to get back." I told them

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you Tala."He said with a big smile. "This is my sensei Kakashi. So um now what Kakashi Sensei?"

"Why don't you take Tala around the village Naruto? I'll go and talk to Tsunade." And with that Kakashi left leaving me with Blondie.

I followed Naruto out of the hospital as he was talking about the village and pointing things out to me that he liked and places he went. Though it all seemed kinda like a dream I couldn't concentrate on what the guy was saying. Everything here was strange. There were no cars, roads or buildings like in Shibuya. The houses and stores all blended together with yellows, reds, tons of green, browns and blues. Almost everything here looked the same.

Even this ramen shop Naruto took me to which was called Itch-rock-cu or something like that. He ordered me a bowl and surprisingly it was delicious. Naruto was already on his third bowl when I had just finished my first one. Then he had a fourth one too. I couldn't help but stare at the guy. Where did he put it all?

"There you are I've been looking everywhere for you!" I turned in my chair to see that it was a girl with short pink hair and emerald green eyes.

"Oh hey Sakura," Naruto said with a noodle hanging from his mouth. I giggled as he slurped it up. "What's up?"

"Lady Tsunade wants to talk to the new girl," she said as she turned towards me. "I'm Sakura Haruno."

"I'm Tala, Tala Higerashi." I replied back. She smiled at me before turning back to Naruto.

"Now Naruto!" damn she sounded scary.

"Ok Sakura I'm coming gee chill out." Naruto said as he paid for the meal. He had a frog money pouch. It was pretty weird for a dude to have a frog seeing as how I thought it was cute but whatever. No sooner than we left the ramen place these people who were jumping from building to building where heading towards a large building which was also the tallest one in the village.

"Hey Shikamaru what's going on?" Naruto called to a guy with dark brown hair that was done in a pony tail style.

"Huh oh it's just you Naruto." The guy named Shikamaru said with a lazy tone. "The Black Ops found a spy on the outskirts of the village. We're taking him to the Hokages office." A spy? Where in the world was I? "Huh, who's this?" the guy said as he looked at me.

"Oh this is Tala she's new here." Sakura told him.

"Tala? I think Lady Tsunade said something about someone new in town."

"Yeah that's why I'm here to take her to Lady Tsunade," Sakura said to him.

"I see well I better get going. I'll see you two there then." With that he was gone. This place just gets weirder and weirder. People can run on roof tops and poof and disappear.

"Come on Tala we better getting going as well. Naruto you can just stay here," She said to him as she grabbed my arm and lead me to the Hokages place.

When we got there some lady in black with short black hair came to door and told Sakura to wait outside. As I entered I noticed piles of papers stacked everywhere un-neatly on the desk in front of me. Behind the desk sat a woman who looked to be in her twenties with blond hair that was put in a weird sort of pig tails. It wasn't the normal kind. She had light brown eyes and wore a green like jacket with a grey short sleeved shirt that had a black belt.

Looking around the room I saw Kakashi and some other guy with long silver hair and bright light blue eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes I had even seen. He wore baggy blue jeans with a black shirt and a white and yellow sleeveless little jacket. Two people in white animal masks were holding his arms behind his back.

"Now then you must be Tala," the woman behind the desk said as she rested her chin on the top of her hands. I just gave her a simple nod yes. "I see. I know of your situation. This boy here do you know him?"

"Excuse me?" I was confused I was sure she was going to say I wasn't welcome here or something along those lines.

"Kakashi told me you had asked about a boy that was with you. But I see that this is not him. He refuses to tell me the truth."

"I have told you the truth. I'm not a spy I don't even know what I'm doing here!" the guy told her as he struggled against the two animal masked people. His voice was smooth and very handsome.

"Then explain to me young man just what you were doing on the outskirts of this village!?" Tsunade yelled as she rose to her feet; banging her fist down on the desk. She was someone you defiantly didn't want to make angry. I looked over at the guy as he was about to answer when the door flew open. It was the women from earlier.

"My lady there are weird creatures running around outside! Our weapons don't seem to work!" the short haired woman replied. Tsunade seemed to be taken back by this change of events.

"Kakashi take your team and get Gai. Make sure to pass long this message to any ninja in the area to get their asses moving!" With that Kakashi did the poof thing and was gone. Tsunade walked over to big glass window in front of her and looked over the village. I wasn't sure what she was seeing but I knew what those creatures looked like.

Without a moment to waste I ran out the doors; no one seemed to notice. If these were the dark creatures from Shibuya then maybe they had followed me here to this world full of…..Ninjas? She defiantly said ninjas. Anyway pushing that aside for later I rushed out of the Hokages place and came face to face with dark little beings. Before I could think of what to do next they jumped me.

I was covered in black things with yellow eyes until the same light I saw in the darkness repapered. Expect it wasn't a light like I thought it was; it was a weapon. It was shaped sort of like a key. The end of it was like a circle covered in white like wings with gold ones at the bottom. The handle was blue and it had a keychain in the shape of a gold and white star.

From the handle it had gold on the left and whitish-blue on the right till you came to the middle of the blade. There the two colors change sides and the whitish-blue formed to look like wings like at the bottom. Then the top had gold and the key part was in the shape of a whitish-blue wing with gold on the top. It was magnificent. I had never seen such a weapon.

With the weapon in my hands I slashed at the evil little black things killing them in their steps. But once I had slain them, little lights came from them. But when I took a closer look I had realized they were hearts. Whenever I killed one a heart would fly up into the sky. Just what the hell had I gotten myself into?

~Riku's POV~

I watched as the girl ran out of the room. The others seemed to not to notice as the doors slammed behind her. I had no idea what was going on or why these people thought I was a spy. Maybe it had something to do with the guy in the black hood that I was after in the woods where I woken up. But I doubted it.

I was clearly in another world but one I had never been to. It was somehow different than the others me and Sora had went. Tsunade was clearly their boss here in this world and I watched as she moved away from the window to look back over at me. This was clearly not my day.

"You say you are not a spy and yet what are these creatures that are attacking our village?"

"Their called Heartless and I'm not a spy. Look if you would let me go I can help you," I said to her. She seemed to ponder that as she looked me up and down.

"And how could you help us if our own weapons don't work?"

"If you would get these two to let me go I can show you." She told them to let me go and without hesitation I showed her my Keyblade.

"I see you hold a tremendous power. You have my permission to leave." I thanked her and went down to join her men in the battle only to find out there were girl's fighting as well. But one in particular caught my eye. It was the blue haired girl from earlier. I watched as she twirled and whirled her way past heartless after heartless. But her movements wasn't what caught my eye, it was what she was holding; a Keyblade.

It was similar to mine expect where mine was blue and red hers was gold and whitish blue. She had a wing at the top of hers like mine did. I didn't think there were any other Keyblade wielders other than myself, Sora and Mickey. A Heartless jumped at me making me snap out of my thoughts. Slashing at countless Heartless, more just kept appearing. I glanced back over at the girl and noticed that most of the heartless were headed in her direction.

Slaying every heartless that got in my way I made it over to where she was. She didn't look scared or freighted like I thought she would. Instead her face expression was light as if she knew this was the right thing to do and it made her feel happy. A silent smile played on my face as she reminded me of my friend Sora.

"What you so happy about?" The girl asked. Her voice was like music and honey rolled up into one.

"Just thought you could use some help," I said to her as I slashed at another Heartless.

"Ha thanks but no thanks I got this covered." Yeah she was defiantly like Sora. Smiling to myself I began to slash at more heartless until they were finally all gone. I looked around the village to see that all the fighting had stopped and everyone looked confused as if to realize the attack had ended.

The blue haired girl smiled as she pushed her hair back behind her ear. It was then that I noticed she had sparkling pink eyes. I was about to walk over to her when a big bang sounded and the ground shook. We locked eyes for a millisecond and ran towards the noise.

The center of the village was in ruins. Buildings were torn apart and the walkways were ripped apart as if some giant animal had dug its way underground and popped up to say hello and as if right on queue a giant two headed snake appeared; throwing a building over head. The people of the village were yelling and telling people to evacuate the area. Apparently the girl decided that meant her as well.

"Hey where are you going?" I asked as I grabbed her by the arm.

"Where do you think?" she said to me as I stared at her. "Look me and snakes don't get along alright. And besides what if there are more of them?" I let her go at that. She was right there could be more or something worse.

"Alright you go I'll take care of this! Just be careful."

"I can look after myself pretty boy!" she called me as she took off the way we had come. I was just about to rush in when, "Tala."

"What?" I asked confused

"My name, its Tala."

"I'm Riku." And with that she was gone.

~Tala's POV~

Well that was charming. Anyway as I ran back the way I had came I noticed Naruto running just up ahead. Clearly I was right; there was something else going on. Running as fast I as I could to keep up with him, I also noticed Sakura and Kakashi going where I had left Riku. Now that I thought about most of the ninja where in that direction so why was it just Naruto who was going this way?

Naruto had finally stopped as he pasted the giant north gates of the village. He seemed to be deciding on which way to go (or so I thought). When I had finally reached him I was out of breath and my guard was down. No sooner than I was beside him he had a Kunai at my throat making me fall to the ground from shock.

"Oh sorry Tala," He apologized as he put his weapon away and helped me up. I dusted myself off and gave him a "what the hell was that about," look. He didn't seem to get it as his right hand was on the back of his and he had a silly grin on his face. Sighing to myself I walked past him and decided to go left. "Hey wait where ya' going?"

"I'm going to see what you're after," I stated to him. He was silent so I took that as proof and kept walking.

"Wait so you saw him too?" He asked as he followed behind me.

"Well it was pretty obvious seeing as how everyone else in the village (including Riku) is fighting a giant two headed snake."

"Oh." Was all the poor boy said. I sighed again. Was this guy really that slow in the head? We didn't talk much after that as we walked past a stream of clear blue water and some fallen down trees. Then we were deep in the forest. I wasn't sure just how deep the forest was but Blondie was jumping from branch to branch on all fours like some kind of animal.

I had to admit I was curious as to what made these ninja different from the ones in books I used to read. Here they could disappear without smoke bombs and jump high and on buildings and even in trees with effortless ease. Looking up at Naruto as I was running once again to keep up, I wanted to ask him something when a clearing opened up.

There was a waterfall and two statues with their hands in a prayer formation looking at each other. The waterfall was right in the middle of them. It was an incredible sight to take in. However for Naruto it seemed to pain him as he seemed down. I wanted to ask him if everything was ok. That was until some guy with long silver hair and orange eyes appeared out a portal made of darkness.

He wore a white cloak with black designs on it and matching black gloves. His face seemed familiar as if I had seen him before but I couldn't recall. Though that smile he had on his face reminded me of him; the guy with the yellow eyes. Without any introduction, Naruto charged at him. But there were ten Naruto's and one of him. I was confused. There wasn't that many of him before.

Naruto was fast but the guy with silver hair was faster. He used these red lasers, like light sabers out of his hands and slashed through all the Naruto's with blinding speed. They all made a poof noise until he came in contact with the real one. I rushed over to Naruto who was unconscious on the ground.

"So here's where you've been," the guy said with a gentle smooth voice. Even though it sounded gentle I could tell he was not. Not because of what he did to Naruto. It was the look in his eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked him as I stood in front of Naruto with my blade in hand.

"I see you hold the Keyblade Redemption." He said with wonder in his voice. His voice I also realized had no emotion to it. It was as if he was soulless. "Master Xehanort was right."

"Master Xehanort?"

"Ah that is right, you have no memories. We are no different." He said has he raised his hands to the sky as if there were some magical force he could pull towards him. "Both born from darkness and lost our memories. Tell me Tala, do you fear the dark?"

What the hell was this lunatic talking about? Asking if I was afraid of the dark; what kind of question is that. Without giving him an answer I charged at him. As I brought my blade down where he was, he was gone. He left a trail of black and white and before I knew it I was hit in the back by his lasers.

My body felt like I had been hit with a stun gun as I fell to my knees. My blade was still clenched in my right hand as I recollected my breath. This guy said we were alike and yet, he was better than me and faster. Looking over at Naruto I saw that he was beginning to stir. Rising back on my feet as I pushed away the pain, I readied myself for another attack.

"Hahaha all you Keyblade wielders are the same. Choosing light over the hearts true power." He said to me as he vanished once again. This time I made sure to keep up with his movements or at least most of them. I got a few hits on him and managed to block some of his blows. But it wasn't enough. As I turned around for another attack he sidestepped me and hit not once, not twice, but three times with his red lasers.

I cried out in pain as I fell to the ground, my weapon vanished. My entire body was in pain. It felt like I had got zapped over and over by a human sized bug zapper. The guy walked over to where I lay and kneeled down to say something in my ear. At the same time Naruto had finally come too and was making more clones of himself.

After that everything moved slowly and the sounds seemed to be on mute. The words that the guy had said to me just before Naruto attacked were replaying over in my head. If what he said was true….no it couldn't be true it just couldn't. Water was rolling down my checks as tears left my eyes.

"XEMNAS!" the sound was finally back as I realized it was Riku who yelled out. Naruto was on his hands and knees and the guy who Riku had called Xemnas was just about to end him before he came at him with his own blade.

"Riku, I see Sora isn't with you." Xemnas smiled at him.

"What the hell you doing here Sora and I defeated you!" Riku said as he pushed him back with his blade.

"As you can see you didn't. For now I am whole unlike your friend." He pointed to me as a portal opened up behind him. Riku rushed at him one more time but he was gone with the portal. Naruto got up on his feet and came over to me to see if I was ok.

I told him I was fine as I pushed away the pain and sat up. It wasn't until then that Riku gave me a weird concerned look. It was as if he was trying to figure out who I was and my connection to Xemnas. Thankfully Naruto saved me as he said I should get checked out by grandma Tsunade. With a simple nod yes, Riku and I began to follow Naruto back into the village.

Once there I noticed the town's people were already cleaning up the mess from the giant snake attack. As much as I wanted to ask Riku what else went down I knew that he would ask questions back by the expression on his face. So instead I looked around the village to see the damage collateral myself.

By the looks of it, it seemed that more than one attack accrued here. Naruto ran off in Sakura's direction, no doubt to ask what had happened in his absence. I was about to go follow him when someone else caught my eye. It was a boy with light gray hair that was in a messy style in a white button up shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

Running over to the boy I realized he hadn't noticed me. So I did what any other person would do, I slapped him in the back of the head making him say, "Owe," while rubbing his head while turning around to face me.

"Tala it's you." Was all my best friend had to say can you believe this guy of all the nerve?

"JOSHUA JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? HAVE YOU BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME?!" I yelled at him.

"There's no need to shout Tala. And yes I have. I've been looking for Neku. Have you seen him?"

"Why would I have seen Neku?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

"Just thought I would ask." He said with a smile, the nerve of this guy he makes me so…. "I see you got pretty banged up. You ok?"

"If-you-see-I'm-hurt-why-would-you-ASK-THAT?!" I said with my teeth grinded and my hand balled into a fist. Honestly what did I see in this guy to make him my best friend. "Anyway," I added once I cooled down a bit. "Why are you looking for Neku, where's the others?"

"Well I don't know where Shiki and Beat are. As for Neku, right after you disappeared I went after him. I made it just in time but then we got separated. I met Rhyme but…" he trailed off.

"But what?"

"Let's just say her memories are bit a scattered. She doesn't remember anything only her name."

"Wait how did you meet her if you're…."

"She's on another world prior to this one," Joshua stated. He laughed as he saw my expression. "You're probably wondering how I got here then, am I right?" I nodded yes to him as he smiled at me. Then a bright circle was beside him. It had points like crystals jetting out of it. "This is how I jump through worlds. It's my portal."

"How...When…..."

"I'm holding on to Rhyme's dreams for her." He said as if that was supposed to sum everything up. Somehow I found myself even more confused than before. And Joshua seemed to find that quite amusing. But what he had said about world jumping gave me an idea.

If that was a portal into worlds then I could find Xehanort and figure out what happened to my home among other things. Just when I was about to ask Joshua about all this Riku (who I had forgotten completely all about) came over and interrupted me.

"Tala who's this?" great just what I need another headache to deal with.

"This is..." I began.

"I'm Joshua a friend of Tala's and who are you?" Joshua asked Riku with that damn calm smile of his.

"I'm Riku," he answered back to my annoying friend. I was hoping someone was going to say more but they just kept looking at each other which I found to be a little awkward.

"Ok anyway now that that is out of the way, Joshua, you mind if I have a little word with you?"

"Sure dear." He said without moving.

"I mean in private!"

"Hehe whatever you say Tala!" Urgh I really can't stand him sometimes. Once we were alone I started to ask him if it was ok if we traveled together. However, his response wasn't what I had expected. Instead of saying sure dear he started laughing at me, like what the fuck man?!

"I don't see what's so funny here Yoshiya!" I called him by his true name while putting my hands on my hips.

"You don't have to ask Tala. You should know by now you can come along. I wasn't going to leave you here. And don't call me that."

"So you'll take me with you?"

"Yes dear, didn't I just say that?!" there went that mischievous smile of his again. I playfully punched him in the arm as he pretended that it hurt. Rolling my eyes at him I watched as the glowing circle thing (now known as his portal) had appeared at his side. "Alright before we set off I should tell I can't control where we will end up."

"That's fine I just want to get out of ninja world!" Joshua laughed at me again as his portal began to glow.

"Hang on don't think you're leaving me behind!"

"Oh your coming to Riku?" Joshua asked with that same mischievous grin. "Very well let's go." And so here I was portal-ling to other worlds with my best friend Joshua and some guy I barely knew. Well this was just going to be a blast. I just had to ask what else could go wrong. Sighing to myself I watched as the portal got brighter as the Village Hidden in The Leafs vanished before my eyes.

TBC….