A/N: To those whom have reviewed and shared their feedback of the story, I would like to thank you all. Also, please be sure to read, review, and support this story, as well as ones made by my friend pain17ification, the original author of this story who allowed me to continue it.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Kurama Talking/Techniques"
(Translations and A.N. Numbers)
[Scene Shift]
Chapter 3: Rough Playtime, part 2
Naruto, Aqua, Buzz, Potato Head, Hamm, Rex, and Slink dived into a bush to avoid being spotted as the sun started to rise and people would be waking up to go about their day.
"So...why'd this chicken man Al snatch your buddy?" Naruto asked as the group hid.
Buzz growled, "Wish I knew...but we need to pick up the pace!"
"Buzz...that whole "freeze" rule isn't something we can do something about. I get why that frustrates you, but no need to be reckless."Aqua said.
Buzz glared, but sighed, it was true, the group needed to avoid being spotted by humans...otherwise, they could easily be snatched up and claimed by another kid or tossed out in someone's trash can or something. Then they'd never be able to save Woody and get back to Andy's house before he returned from Cowboy Camp.
Naruto hummed, looking over the post-it note that served as the map to their destination, not a very good one, but it showed their destination's location at least. Then he nodded to himself and walked off. "Be back, guys...need to try and see if something could work that'd be able to help us get there sooner real quick." he said.
Aqua frowned at that. What was he up to? Deciding to follow her new friend, she found him with his back turned to her, hidden from view by a couple trash cans.
"Kumenjū Sowaka! (nine masked beasts Svāhā)" he said as if announcing a command.
"What're you doing?"
"Gah!" Naruto cried, leaping into the air, startled. Then whipped around and saw who was addressing him.
"Oh...Aqua-chan. Sorry, you startled me."
Aqua crossed her arms under her breasts, eyeing Naruto curiously. "What're you up to, Naruto?"
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well...once, I was sent to a sort of distorted mirror dimension-version of my world and I faced an alternate version of myself there, I...he...er...that other me...man trying to figure out how to put that was confusing for a second...anyway, the other me could create entities through the use of chakra, called them the 'Nine Masked Beasts', or 'Kumenjū'. One of them, Suzaku, was a bird, a big one too."
"So you figured if you could do the same thing, you could conjure this Suzaku bird and have us all ride it straight to Al's Toy Barn." Aqua said, realizing what he planned.
Naruto looked down and heaved a sigh, "Yeah...that was the idea, but I just can't get it to work! And I don't know why! I'm doing everything that other me did!" he growled, frustration evident.
Aqua exhaled deeply through her nose and shook her head haplessly with a small, amused smirk. It wasn't a bad idea, far from it, if it worked. "I get it, Naruto, but you've never tried that yourself before. Idea's good and the intentions are easy to understand, but no need to be so hard on yourself for it."
Keeping his eyes fixated on his feet, the blond nodded, "I know...I just...I don't want to let anyone down...not again..." Naruto said, starting to shake.
Aqua winced at that. Let anyone down again...Naruto didn't have anything left since the Darkness swallowed his world. He was terrified of failing anyone else that was counting on him because of that. While fear was one of the emotions the Darkness thrived off of, she would be lying if she said it didn't make sense as to why that was. It was obvious to anyone that knew what to look for that the people he cared about were his life and protecting them was his purpose.
And the Darkness had stolen it all from him.
Small mystery why he didn't want to let anyone down.
As she was about to comment on that, a small group of of the basic, imp-like Heartless appeared in front of them. What was surprising was they were the same size as the two keyblade-users themselves were.
"Great...Heartless." Aqua muttered, arming herself with Stormfall. To her surprise, Naruto was grinning drew Kurama, quickly giving a metal apology to his friend and likewise hoping that this didn't worsen the keyblade/biju's condition from Sasuke's Heartless.
"Hello misplaced aggression!" the blond whooped.
Ooooh-kayyyy...that cleared up whatever questions she had about why her fellow Keyblade bearer of the Light was glad to see Heartless.
"Aqua-chan...don't get involved unless it looks like I need help...I need to vent, and this'll be a good way to showcase that fighting style I came up with...needed to test out my brainchild, anyway!" Naruto grinned.
Once he got acknowledgment that Aqua would stay out of the fight, the Uzumaki rushed forward with a grin. Key in hand, he rushed to the first Shadow and disposed of it with a rushing slash that cut right through it. He ignored it fading away and turned his focus to the next target. He kicked off the ground and performed a perfect flip before slamming his weapon downward with the flat of the blade, mimicking Tenten whenever she wielded one of her kanabo clubs.
The strike crushed the second Shadow, resulting in it exploding into a dark mist. His battle mentality made him continue his assault and he tossed the keyblade upward so that he could grab the chain. With it in hand, he channeled chakra into it and swung the whole weapon like a bladed whip. Due to the chakra coursing through it, seeing as Kurama's origin as raw energy incarnated and granted sentience, as well as Asuma Sarutobi's teaching him chakra channeling manipulation, and because of what his mother was famous for by creating chains of solidified energy from her body, the chain stretched outward and allowed the blade to strike a Shadow about twenty (tiny due to his shrunken size) feet away from his position.
With three Shadows down, he pulled the blade back to him and regained his grip on the handle while retaining the length of the extended chain. This time he used the chain itself to strike the next Heartless, making it so that the links wrapped around the Shadow's neck. When it tightened enough, he swung it again and forced the Heartless to fly with it. The helpless Shadow was forced to become nothing more than a makeshift "weight" to the flail Naruto had his keyblade mimic.
The Heartless crashed into another and both dispersed while the final Shadow lept at Naruto, intent on raking its claws into the blonde Uzumaki. As it flew through the air, Naruto retracted the chain to its default length and shifted the grip on his handle into a reverse so that the guard was directly in front of his knuckles. As soon as the Shadow was close enough, he roared out a battle cry and punched forward. With the guard acting like a brass knuckle, the Shadow was struck hard enough to send it flying back and crash into a tall (to the tiny Key Bearers) patch of grass. The force ripped out a couple of blades before the Heartless finally dispersed, leaving Naruto standing alone with Aqua.
"Phew," he sighed out. "I really needed that..."
Aqua stared at what he'd done. What in the?! Using the keyblade as much to bludgeon like a club and the chain as a whip as well as cutting and slashing with it like a traditional sword. Not to mention he even used the hand guard like brass knuckles...she'd never seen anything like it!
Her friend walked over to her as she gawked at him. "Well, Aqua-chan? As a keyblade master...what'cha think of my creation?"
"Wha...how did...ok...what was all that?! I know I wanted you to come up with a tricky style to fight with...but that?! WHAT inspired you to make a style like that?!"
Naruto grinned, "The fact that the actual blade isn't the only part of a sword, and unless you know how to utilize all of it, you can't say you're a sword master." he said.
Aqua frowned in concentration, "Hold on...I wanna burn that saying into my memory..."
Naruto smiled, amused that Aqua took what he'd just said seriously. It didn't surprise him, she was a sword-user herself. But dang! What he'd just told Aqua sounded like something he could easily picture as being something Tenten would've said!
Naruto slightly deflated at that, thinking of that made him miss his world and the people he cared about. The memories were bittersweet, he'd never stop caring for his precious people, but the fact that they were gone forever was agony!
Aqua, noting his mood shift, winced. Thoughts of home...she could see it in his face. She could tell that Naruto had learned early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you were alright, you usually could try fooling yourself that things weren't so bad. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain. But for now the best he could do was to keep moving. Don't get bogged down. Don't think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when he didn't feel like it. Especially when he didn't feel like it.
But no false smile would keep his mind off the loss of his world. Best give him something else to think about right now.
"Surprised you could move like that in your armor, Naruto." the bluenette said, catching his attention. His eyes showed he understood what she was doing and was grateful for the distraction from his painful thoughts.
In a flash, he hit his armor's activation/deactivation function of the armor's left pauldron and in a flash of light, he was in the attire that proved he'd only just barley escaped that war he was in before his world was devoured, it was so damaged. Black sandals that left his toes and heels exposed and worn soles led up to tattered orange pants, an orange and black jacket riddled in cuts and tears, a slashed up black shirt with a mesh armor shirt under that, seen through the damages."Well...my normal clothes are pretty thrashed." Naruto said, summoning his armor over himself again.
Aqua frowned at that. True...she'd almost forgotten, and she made a note to need a way to fix that for him. But at least Naruto was himself again right now. Then she noticed something and narrowed her eyes at what had just spawned.
One last Shadow.
Scowling when he followed Aqua's gaze, Naruto cast a wind spell, which swept the Heartless off it's feet and sent it tumbling. When it stopped, disorientated, the last shinobi walked over to the creature of living darkness
"And thus...the only thing beyond tree-walking Kakashi ever showed me..." Naruto said. Good thing Kurama was comatose right now!
Naruto then quickly extended his arms, shoving the keyblade in the area where, with a normal person, their butt hole would be.
The poor Heartless screeched like a boiling lobster as it was propelled up and forward by the sheer force of the "technique" of a sword being forced up it's backside and flew like it was shot from a cannon and flew until it smashed into a shaded bench a few feet away and faded into nothing at the impact.
"You...you just...goosed a Heartless..." Aqua said, palming her crimson face and shaking her head. "Whoever that Kakashi guy was, he had better be dead!" Seriously?! Even though she could see that it would really hurt a human enemy..."What kind of person teaches others that giving someone a bare-handed colonoscopy or prostate exam like that is a real technique and-or an example of acceptable tactics?!"
"A guy who reads porn in front of children...in public... before sticking his fingers up their butt." Naruto muttered, rubbing and scratching at his butt with a shudder.
Aqua stared at her friend, wide-eyed and slack-jawed in sheer horrified shock.
"Oh no, he di'int!"
"Oh yes, he di'id, Aqua-chan! After that, it hurt to use the bathroom for three days! It was horrible!" the blond shuddered.
Aqua growled. Ok...after leaving this world and getting back to her normal size, she was finding the nearest patch of darkness and forcing it to spit up this Kakashi guy, heart included so she'd have something to strike terror into, and kicking his ass! NOBODY got away with treating people she cared about like that!
Besides, as a woman, the idea of a perv and a pedo like that made her blood boil like lava flow! It had to die, and by her hand, for her to have any closure! The Darkness ripping his beating heart from his still-living body and devouring it whole was too merciful!
She looked at where that final Heartless had met it's death, shocked that, given how her former mentor, Eraqus, had at least partially ingrained his open aversion to darkness and his beliefs that it must be destroyed at all costs into his apprentices, she grieved that Heartless for it's method of demise, before she noticed what it had struck actually was.
"Is that a bus stop?" Aqua said, brightening.
"'Bus stop'?" Naruto repeated confused. The fact that chakra allowed for quantum-defiant actions had stunted most technological areas in his world, after all, and wasting time, effort, and resources on unnecessary advancement just to say "look-what-I-did" was pointless, annoying, and ugly.
"Public transit," Aqua clarified, and Naruto's eyes lit up. Transportation?! Given how they had to get to Al's Toy Barn to rescue Woody, that was great! Grinning, the keyblade bearers hurried back to the others and the news was very well received, the toys and two keyblade users rushed over to it.
Got there just in time, too. The doors had just closed after the last person and, apparently, this one was a little ahead of schedule since it just sat there waiting, something the group took advantage of.
"Get under it and hold onto the bottom!" Aqua instructed.
"But I won't be able to hold on! My arms are too short!" Rex cried.
"I've got a way to handle that! Just do it and wait for when we get close to Al's place!" Naruto said as the group did as the two reduced humans instructed, Naruto having to help haul Rex up to the underside of their ride before spreading out his chakra to magnetize seven individuals at once on his own wasn't easy, especially with the smell of exhaust and the way this metal monstrosity rumbled and vibrated, to make matters worse, there was Rex's uneven body type, Potato head's detachable parts, and Slink's to worry about. As he did that, Aqua aimed a Confusion at the bus driver to make him think of a detour that would only slightly delay the route while still taking them as close as possible as this particular bus could to Al's Toy Barn. Dishonest? She felt that way, but they did have a job to do. A minute later, the bus started to move and the group was off.
After about ten stops, the bus halted and announced they were as close to Al's Toy Barn as the route he was on would allow and at that, the toys and key bearers let go and Naruto kept the chakra flow to the group going and put it to another use before the seven of them made their way onto the sidewalk.
To anyone walking by, it was just a few discarded wads of paper that must have been blown up onto the sidewalk by the slipstream of traffic. Nothing noticeable or worth caring about to bother with. Even when they moved, people assumed it was merely the wind.
Heading over to another bush, the "scraps of paper" went into it before there were plums of thick white smoke and where the papers had been were the Woody Rescue Group.
Buzz looked at himself, "How did you do that?"
Naruto smiled a bit tiredly after the group henge (transformation) and the way the group rode the bus this far, "Trade secret, Space Case. And as long as it's useful, who cares?" he said.
Aqua looked over at him, "Naruto...you look ready to drop."
"I can keep going..." Naruto insisted. Despite this, his body shook and he had to use Kurama as a makeshift cane to support himself until his knees gave out, but before he hit his head, Buzz grabbed him and pulled him up, "ok...so I'm a tiny bit tired," he relented with a sigh, "still...we've still got a job to do. I can rest after." he said stubbornly.
Aqua shook her head. He was a trooper, no doubting that, but even Naruto had to have a limit.
Buzz looked at the Uzumaki with respect in his gaze. This guy was just not going to let them fail to see their friend returned back home safely with them, no matter how far he pushed himself past the breaking point.
Still... "Get some rest." he said.
"Is that an order, Bubble Brain?" Naruto said, narrowing his eyes.
"Consider it friendly advice from a comrade you're helping." the space toy sighed. "Honestly, I can't stress enough how grateful I am that you're helping us, but no need to bleed your batteries dry."
"Fine." Naruto grumbled, and Aqua smiled at that.
"In that case, head there...it'd be dark enough to where the rules about us being alive won't matter too much." Potato Head said, pointing to a movie theater of all things.
The female of the group walked over and relieved the living plaything of the blond, "Fine...I'll get him there." Aqua sighed and, at his insisting and promising to explain later, carried Naruto on her shoulder like she would the corpse of a deer, "If we take too long, go on ahead. We've got ways to catch up." Aqua reassured, turning to Buzz.
Buzz frowned, but nodded. They'd made good time thanks to the bus and whatever Naruto and Aqua had done. But they couldn't take chances.
[Theater]
"So...why're we here?" Aqua asked as they slipped into a darkened room after the last usher had walked out of it and set him down, propped up against one of the seat legs. Getting in had required another joint henge on Naruto's part, so he was even more tired.
"We're not made of plastic, Aqua-chan." Naruto said, making her eyes widen in realization. Then she looked at him flatly. "Right...food and basic necessities."
"Think of it as foraging." Naruto said.
Aqua grumbled, but she saw his point. Unlike Buzz and the toys with him, they needed things like food and rest. "Fine...but why'd you insist on having me carry you over my shoulders the way you did?"
"If I did it piggy-back, my hands could've touched where they shouldn't with how tired and slumped I was." Naruto admitted freely.
Aqua blushed as she realized his point. So...he had insisted on that for the sake of being decent? She was glad for that.
Naruto picked up one of the ticket stubs on the floor and looked at it, "'Disney's Star Wars Original Trilogy Marathon'?" he read, looking to Aqua, who shrugged, then paled. A trilogy marathon?! This was bad!
The same thought seemed to have struck Naruto, but as he got to his feet, the door opened and people entered, filling the seats.
Crap! It was time for the movies' showing!
"So why's this trilogy marathon thing even happening?" someone asked above them.
"Hear Disney did this as a sort of homage thing since they bought out Lucasarts." they heard one of the patrons say above them.
Naruto and Aqua winced as the theater door shut and the room's lights dimmed. Looked like they were stuck here for now.
Hours later, once the films had run their course and everyone left, Naruto and Aqua hurried out after the last person, thankfully getting out. They'd spent a good deal of time eating things like dropped popcorn, trying to ignore the indignity of acting like mice or rats, but still, the movies hadn't been too bad.
Now they had more important issues to take care of, having to catch up to Buzz and the others, as by now, they must have left to continue their trek to the Toy Barn.
As they got out of the theater, however, they crashed into something and fell on their backs, paling as they saw it was a kid's leg. A girl's to be exact. She had dark brown hair, a purple shirt, light green shorts, and white shoes.
Just by looking, the two key bearers could tell she had a sweet, imaginative, and cute personality.
The pair froze in place as the girl looked down and her eyes widened before picking the two shrunken key-bearers off of the ground and she smiled.
"Hello. I'm Hannah Phillips." the girl said, then slipped off a backpack she was wearing and set it down. Unzipping it and depositing Naruto and Aqua inside before closing it and hoisting it back up over her shoulders.
Naruto and Aqua shared a quick, panicked glance at this development.
They were busted!