-1A/N:Sry guys that this was late. High school caught up with me. Pretty hard with double AP Bio every day. Next chapter less action, riddles, a little bit of puzzles, etc. I think this chapter sucks as its all action, which gets boring and repetitive, but it was needed.

Chapter 3 of Legend of the Twilight Warrior

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. Rated M for profanity and violence.

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

Jutsus(not magic spells)

Flashback

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Only the foolish try to impart wisdom, trying to look wise-

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Last time: Naruto felt himself be once more compressed and he found himself on a series of platforms connected by a rainbow-colored pathway, like the one he woke up on during the Awakening.

He heard a voice yell," Let the Trials begin. Day one of seven starts now!"

Inner Instincts Revealed!

In front of him he saw, were three weapons. A wooden sword, a shield made of petrified wood, and a black staff with a small crystal on top.

A booming voice said," Choose one for the task."

Naruto pondered his choice,' Hmm, if I have to choose one then lets see. A shield is an unconventional weapon for offense, It would be useless to me, if I had to fight something. Its only good for blocking and running. Not to mention the weight would hold me down.

The sword would be a good weapon, if it was sharp enough, and if I knew how to use it. Unfortunately, I don't, and just hacking and slashing will tire me quickly. Also, I wouldn't be able to kill or destroy the enemy. It wouldn't be deadly, as a sword should be, I'd merely use it as a club.

Hmm, now that staff seems very useful. I can hit enemies quickly with it, and its easy to carry on my back. That crystal will also be useful since it will amplify my magic to do more damage. Not to mention I can actually use it since those lessons Jii-san gave me a year ago.'

Flashback

"Man, I'm bored Jii-san. I don't get to play with anybody and you spend all day doing paperwork and meeting with the diplomats and clan heads. I don't have anything to do. Give me something to do, to learn anything, please!", pleaded Naruto.

The Sandaime sighed," Naruto you know I can't abandon my duties. I'm the Hokage, I have to do this stuff, or else the village will fall apart. Hmm but then again, I had been thinking about training you to use a staff. You don't do much all day so I might as well teach you the Sarutobi clan style. I doubt you'll learn much though as it will take you a few years to become efficient in it. Is that ok?"

"Ya, that's great. I bet you I'll learn it in three years time and be better than you Jii-san. I will even improve on it," exclaimed Naruto with a grin.

Sarutobi chuckled," Now now, lets not get ahead of ourselves, lets first get you started."

Flashback End

Soon after he had picked up the style with gusto, spending all day training. His stamina had started to grow from that point as he trained everyday and became proficient in the Sarutobi clan style.

Naruto hesitantly reached out and quickly pulled up the staff out of the ground. When he pulled it out, the other weapons disintegrated and blew away from an imaginary wind.

He gave a few test swings getting a feeling for its weight. He then placed it in his right hand, his left hand ready to grip it and block at a moments notice.

The voice spoke up once more," Your goal is to defeat all of the enemies at each platform. When you do, the path to the next platform will appear. You are to reach the final platform and claim a second item. On three, you will start.

1,2,3, GO!"

As soon as the entity said go, Naruto gripped the staff in his hands diagonally from his body.

In front of him a pool of darkness bubbled, and a shadowy creature rose.

It seemed to be humanoid, only it was hunched over. It had small fat, pointy hands with sharp claws. It had a fat abdomen, and its feet couldn't be seen as they were partially still in the pool of darkness. It was a purple black color and had yellow, glowing, circular eyes. It had two antennas on its head. It was short and looked at Naruto malevolently. Its face was however expressionless.

'Is this…a heartless?' was Naruto's thought on the creature.

It stood there, staring at him, before it lunged at him, it making the scratching noise he heard earlier.

Naruto held it off with his staff, but the momentum knocked him down, onto his back. Naruto suddenly reacted with instincts he didn't realize he had.

He put his foot on its stomach, moving his head from its hands that reached for his face, and he kicked it off of him. It flew back a few feet before it stood looking at him. Naruto watched as it circled him like a predator.

'There,' he thought, before he closed the distance between the monster. He stabbed with the end of the staff right into its ribs. A sickening splurge sound erupted from it and some drops of its essence dripped to the floor. It twitched and stopped its annoying scratching sound. Naruto jumped back in surprise at its next actions. It dropped to the floor and somehow merged with the floor becoming a shadow. It roamed the floor rapidly, and Naruto watched unsure of what to do. He stood ready to attack or defend.

For a few moments it moved around. Then it came out of the shadow in front of Naruto. Its yellow eyes stared at him hungrily. When he locked eyes with it he heard something in his mind speak.

'Hearts! Hearts! Give me your heart! Let me feast on it and devour you!' it somehow spoke into Naruto's mind.

'This means it is a heartless. Dang, this is going to be annoying to beat. I don't remember Kenshin saying anything on how to kill it, and my attacks only make it drip that black liquid. Other than that, no sign of it tiring or dieing is there. I think even if I attacked it, it wouldn't be gone for real, it would only be temporarily. I need to find a weakness. Wait, could there be something in the weapons I was given the choice to use, that defeats these? Could it be they are the secret weapons to beating this challenge? Well, only one way to find out.' he thought.

Naruto took the staff and reversed it so the crystal part was facing the creature. He quickly stabbed it at the heartless but it dodged. Swerving to the side it attacked him. With two rapid slashes it leapt forward at him trying to impale Naruto on its claws. Naruto quickly backpeddled as it tried to kill him.

After it attacked, Naruto went under its claws and stabbed it straight through the chest. He then pulled it out and kicked it before he started to hit it rapidly with the staff.

He felt his brain start to formulate strategies and combos. Something in his brain awoke and his instincts surged helping him fight. He back handed it with his staff before hitting it on the head. Then he started doing a couple rapid hits before kicking him in the stomach. Right after that he did an impaling motion and shoved his staff all the way through it before kicking it while it was impaled. He saw it gush the black liquid as he beat it. When he thought it was enough he pulled his staff out and then he fell down panting.

The size of the heartless was diminished, but it showed no signs of weariness, injuries, or anything else.

'Dam it. Its still alive and has no sign of losing. I can't kill it with just the staff then. Now what else can I do. Wait a minute, I can still use the energies I used in the alleyway. Even the entities said I can do that. Hmm, how can I call on that energy though. Last time it happened because I was very angry. I wanted revenge any way possible. Maybe if I call up on my bad memories then I can use that energy. Now lets see.'

The heartless turned into a shadow and roamed the floor.

Naruto meanwhile recalled the bad memories he had.

"Get away from my children you monster," screeched the villager.

"Next time you come near my stall, I'll burn you on a stake you monster," said the merchant.

"My mommy told me to stay away from you. Go away you bad meanie," said the blonde girl.

The villagers in the marketplace glared at Naruto as he walked through there. Their cold stares and looks of hatred and disgust.

With each passing thought, his rage grew. Normally he would try to calm himself down, but this time he let his rage consume him. He tried to get even more angry. He brought up memories of all those nights with no parents or family. He called up those sorrowful rainy times when there was nobody for him. He recalled the memories of wanting to destroy or kill someone. He brought up his feelings of hatred for the villager.

The heartless was about to attack him, when Naruto's form erupted in dark flames. Around him the dark energies frightened the heartless. In its mind a feeling of extreme danger loomed. It crept backward in fear of the awesome power. A creature of darkness feared only another powerful denizen of darkness, and a keyblade.

When Naruto opened his eyes, he noticed himself engulfed in the darkness. He smiled wickedly and tried to memorize the feeling so he could call it up more easily in the future. This must be darkness energy. He would hope calling up light energy was this easy.

The darkness once more changed him, his entire hair darkened and lengthened. His eyes became a deep amethyst purple. His teeth elongated into fangs, and his finger nails morphed into claws. The darkness wrapped around his staff and flames appeared on it. They melded with it and colored it black. It became stronger and the crystal had a murky black substance in it.

Naruto stared at the trembling creature and with an experimental hit to the head it died, its head exploding in a flourish of black liquid.

What caught his interest though, was the pink glowing heart that rose up from the heartless.

'That must be the tainted heart that Kenshin spoke of. If it is though, then why isn't it disappearing. Wha.. wait, its coming to me.' he thought,

Indeed, the heart was coming to him rather than rising and disappearing to god knows where. It was coming closer and closer until the heart got sucked into the staff's crystal.

'Ok….I'll worry about the repercussions and meaning of that later , for now its time to party and kill the rest of these fiends, if there are any. No telling when I'll run out of this energy or reach my limit.' thought the young blonde.

Across from him, where the platform should ended, a rainbow colored path materialized. It was going straight across to another platform.

Naruto walked over tentatively, and he touched the shimmering pathway with the butt of his staff. A tap tap noise resounded and the pathway seemed solid.

'Well, it seems solid, but I don't wanna take the chance it vanishes after a few steps. Well, only one thing to do, I'll across and only look up,' thought the jinchuuriki.

He took a deep breath and taking a running pose, he ran across the bridge. When he didn't plummet to his doom he started to relax. That is until he heard a distinct cracking sound reverberate from behind him. He turned around and saw that the pathway had cracked slowly and was continuing toward him.

'Aw shit', is what went through our favorite protagonist's mind. Naruto ran like hell was upon him. The thing was, if he didn't make it, he wouldn't even reach hell, he'd merely fall endlessly.

The cracking was soon upon him and he could see the floor in front of him crack.

'This may be it', he panicked. He surged all of the dark energies through his body and jumped forward releasing it all at once. A sonic boom sound came and he flew forward above the cracking pathway. Just after his feet left the floor, it broke and fell in to the endless pit.

Meanwhile, Naruto's jump had carried him across the remaining distance to the next platform. He saw the edge and as he fell onto it he rolled. A narrow swipe aimed for where his head was barely cut some strands of his hair.

Naruto saw six heartless in front of him and he saw one of them was about to gouge his eyes out. He used his staff and hit the back of the shadow's leg and caused it to fall forward. As it fell forward he stood up and brought his knee up to its head. A sickening crunching sound was heard as the heartless's skull was crushed.

The remaining five jumped into action dashing at him. Naruto reacted to one that swung its claws at hit and ducked. It used its left leg and tried to kick Naruto's head off. Naruto grabbed it and with a bit of his strength he threw the heartless into another that was coming at him. As they crumpled onto the floor, another heartless leapt up and tried to kick Naruto.

The soon to be keybearer spun his staff like a shield and thereby he blocked the kicks coming at him. He then used his staff to block the strikes coming at him. When the heartless tried to attack him with a strike, he'd block it by hitting the heartless' arm or leg.

After a couple of strikes, Naruto noticed another one sneaking up on him from behind. He planted his staff into the ground and used it to lift himself into the air above the heartless' strikes. The two heartless hit each other in the face. Naruto jumped off his staff and picked one up with his claws before he punched it in the chest. Then he flexed his claws and he started to impale it on his hand. After shoving his hand into the shadow's chest, he pulled it out holding a glowing heart. The heart once more entered his staff.

Naruto suddenly counted in his mind and remembered he forgot one. Suddenly, Naruto jumped forward and turned around seeing the forgotten shadow slash his arm. The wound cut his arm as he turned around, spilling blood everywhere. It started to hiss however and close as it somehow healed from the darkness energy. It was however soon forgotten as the shadow pressed its advantage leaping forward its head nearly touching Naruto's and its legs dug into Naruto's body. Its arms were about to slash Naruto into two ribbons. Naruto slammed his head into the shadow's, an audible crack reverberating, and he elbowed the shadow in the face. Its grip loosened on Naruto, and Naruto threw it off of him before spearing his staff into the shadow. It gurgled for a second before dieing.

Turning around, he saw the other three shadows he had injured, had formed a team and were roaming the floor. Naruto leapt forward and swung his staff across the floor just as one jumped up off of the floor. It was hit in the neck by Naruto's attack. Two were left. They leapt at him slashing and clawing him with their arms. Naruto dodged and weaved his way around the attacks. Seeing an opening, he ran in front and did a roundhouse kick impacting with the shadow's head. Its face imploded and it squirted the black liquid onto Naruto's clothes, coloring part of it black.

Suddenly, from below the last shadow exploded upwards. Its claws slashed at Naruto's legs and it clawed them up pretty badly. Naruto however was shocked by the surprise attack and froze for three seconds, before he punched the shadow that was tearing his legs up. After it died, he stared at his legs and fell to the ground, as he felt the pain from the injury. His staff clattered to the ground. The hearts that all joined together into one big heart before entering the crystal of his discarded staff and glowing briefly.

It was mangled, and bleeding profusely. Naruto couldn't feel the pain, but he started to pant and he started to feel faint as his legs bled all over the floor. He started feeling woozy and he could almost tell that his face was pale. The blood pooled on the stones at Naruto's feet. His toes were unrecognizable and the muscle was visible. The blood gushed out but slowed down after the first twenty seconds. Smoke rose as the dark energies consumed his legs trying to heal it. His legs felt like they were being cauterized.

The pain made his eyes widen and he clenched his teeth as the pain increased. Soon, it was a full blown scream as he couldn't control himself. He could feel the skin reknitting itself, the muscle reforming, and the nerves reforming in certain areas, all raw with pain. Even the small amount of air and wind that had picked up didn't help, instead the wind made the wound burn more.

When it was over, after what felt like ages, Naruto saw it was all fine and fully healed. He also noticed his entire face was covered in a layer of sweat.

He lay there for a long time, what seemed like hours past. Later, he got up and placed his foot slowly on the smooth surface and winced in pain as the sore foot ached, although it was a small ache. He slowly achieved a level where he didn't throb as much.

Naruto limped across the next pathway, this time jumping up every step of the way, as this one was longer and farther. The pathway this time shimmered before magically disappearing inch by inch.

Naruto walked ahead onto the next pathway, and he was surprised by what he saw. There were little small creatures that were like witches, they were in an hourglass shape, however, at the top of the hourglass they had hair and a cone shaped hat, as well as they were round. They also spun around, but the most surprising thing is that they were flying!

As they flew around, they were all blurs of four colors, green, blue, red, and yellow. They flew so fast though, that you couldn't count them or see where they went, before another one took its place. Naruto found out the hard way, that they also seemed well-versed in magic. He found out by the flying mages suddenly being surrounded by frost/fire/lightning before the three elements hit him. The ice hit him first frosting his body, followed by a powerful fire spell melting the frost. Then, the electricity hit him shocking his lightly wet body.

Naruto stood up after the spells hit him and he glared, his visage darkening.

Naruto charged some darkness energy into his feet before somersaulting through the air, his staff held out after he somersaulted. As he floated in the air for a second, he searched for a target.

Looking at one particular Red Nocturne(all of these creatures will be referred to by their name), he held his staff out and smashed it into the creature's side, knocking the heartless into the ground. As it went down, he saw one of the Green Requiems use some sort of magic, and then a green light went around the downed Red Nocturne, healing it.

Naruto growled, and he saw that the magic using heartless were all starting to use their spells on him. Dodging to the side, he dodged a vicious Fire spell, before a Blizzara hit him in the back. Turning around he saw that a Blue Rhapsody was in a group using its magic as part of some sort of combination attacks.

Naruto thought to himself of a battle plan as he dodged the spells near him,' Fuck, this is turning out to be a really bad idea. I can't dodge the spells forever, eventually they will hit me and then they will keep using series of spells, until they finish me. I can't kill them either, as when I hit them, those green ones will heal each other. Unless, I can have one hit kills somehow, I can't survive. That is also not possible considering that I have to dodge so many spells at the same time. What can I do….Just what can I do….. Aha!

I can use magic. I was told what to do, all I have to do is use it. Once I take out those Green Requiems, I can eventually whittle down the rest of them. Now what was I supposed to do again, lets see, say the magic words, such as an element or an effect, charge some mana, and concentrate on it happening to the target, and then finally, release the energy. Ok so lets see, I guess that fire would work well on those ice wizards. Lets start and get the basics down.'

Naruto took a deep breath and suddenly stopped. He concentrated and thought of substituting mana with darkness energy. He concentrated his darkness energy into his hand and held it out forward. He then said," Fire." He imagined a big ball of burning flames appearing and surrounding the Blue Rhapsodys. He then released it all at once.

A fireball shot out of his hand, and it had a dark tint to it. As it grew in size from the influx of oxygen feeding its flames, darkness tainted it and it became purple colored. It enveloped the heartless clustered in a group near him. The heartless there all started to burn and the flames caused a mirage effect, the extreme heat causing the heartless to flee from the area. A resounding BANG came as the fire ball then exploded its flames erupting everywhere and spreading the flames to the crowd of flying heartless. A huge heat wave suddenly pushed past Naruto burning his open wounds, while a bright light shone at the center of the fire. As each heartless caught fire, it would fly fast feeding oxygen to the flames, and it would also make other heartless catch fire. Eventually, they would wither. The light then started to dim and die. All of the heartless, a crowd of numerous flying beasts, died and the hearts all floated before shooting towards his staff's crystal. They entered with a loud vacuum sucking sound.

Naruto felt drained after using the Fire spell, and had to sit down for an hour. After an hour, he felt his body was strong enough that he wouldn't die from an assault on him.

He went past the next pathway, proficient enough in using the darkness energy to enhance his movement, that the pathway hadn't even crumbled before he reached the next platform. He was surprised when he saw all of the heartless that were there. There were fourteen of the shadows that he had earlier fought. Then there were about ten wizards, three fire, three ice, three lightning, and one big one that was red.

The heartless all leered at him with their unusual yellow eyes. The shadow's hands had long shadowy clawed fingers. Naruto shivered imagining those claws tearing him apart. Their mouths opened and their teeths clicked making a scratching sound. They seemed to be looking at each other when they made the scratching noise. They pointed at him and at various points with their clawed fingers.

With sinking horror, Naruto thought,' Are…are they communicating? If they are, then this just went to a whole new level. Not only do they have a large group, but they can also formulate plans. Those flying wizards earlier were able to make strong combos with their magic, but now I have to deal with some close range shadows, and one huge wizard. Fighting mindless zombies is way easier than fighting intelligent creatures. Man, if I survive these Trials, then first thing, I am asking Jii-san a way to even the odds in a fight. One on three and up is so annoying as hell. Evening the odds would help me a lot.

Now lets see, how can I beat these guys. Hmm, maybe if I charge my staff with some darkness energy, and I attack, it should kill them easily with its strange properties.'

Brandishing his staff, he leapt forward and made a sideways swipe. The shadows backpeddled out of his range and cautiously watched him. They stared at him as if they were studying him for weaknesses. After a few seconds they made some sounds and the shadows formed teams. Five shadows would go with three magic users, one of each element. The last group however had only four shadows and the magic user heartless. They took places around him forming a triangle. The shadows all started chattering again, and suddenly they sprung into action.

Naruto charged darkness energy into his staff and watched as ninety percent went to his staff changing its structure. It grew darker and denser, and the crystal shone with a malevolent gaze, the crystal starting to become completely black. Two vine like things wrapped around it from bottom to top. The bottom end grew sharp and pointy like a spear. At the top near the crystal, two wings appeared that were small and a mix of gray to black.

A dense, dark purple aura appeared around the staff and then a suffocating presence exploded outward freezing the shadows in place. Naruto walked around and inspected the shadows and floating wizards for a second. "Interesting," he murmured. " If I concentrate the darkness energy to an object, it has a more profound effect, even transforming it. It even makes it light. The power is even transferred allowing an oppressive aura. Truly amazing. The pure theoretical applications are limitless. I should conduct further study."

Suddenly, he stopped mid sentence thinking,' Wait a minute, what the hell. Did I just act like some sort of, some researcher! Wow, I never knew I had something like that in me. I guess this is one of those things Opherus told me about, that I'd discover about myself. I can't wait until I find more cool stuff about myself( A/N:I can't remember if I put this in last chapter)."

'I ought to kill them quickly before they get break free of the aura.', Naruto quickly thought.

At the end of that thought, he spun his staff with one hand before leaping at his target. A shadow in front of him, part of the four shadow group. His staff was a blur as he hit the shadow with the side of the staff multiple times. As it hit the shadow, it sliced clean through its arms, legs, and finally its neck, right before passing through the abomination's body.
Naruto saw the heart as it flew like a shooting star to his staff's crystal, only this time it entered and it was gobbled by the black liquid in the crystal. The aura became stronger and some of the shadows that had started to move were once more frozen. However, the group near him of now three shadows and three wizards were snapped out of their stupor.

They charged him, and when Naruto looked into their eyes, he saw behind the façade of determination, pure fear. Fear of him. The fear of being destroyed into nothingness.

The fear shocked Naruto for a few seconds, for it seemed slightly similar to that of his own fears. A slash that cut off some of his hair strands, only a few strands of purple, brought him back to reality.

Once more, he felt a rush of exhilaration. Inside his mind he felt the thrill of battle awake within him. He grew aware of each enemy, even before they attacked, and fended them off. He mainly parried blows, and unlike before the stuff held steady, and he didn't feel winded from the force of the blows.

He finally saw his opportunity for attacking when a Blue Raphsody shot off an ice spell right at him. A shadow had also tried to attack him and cut him into ribbons. Taking advantage of the situation, he pulled off a spin kick at the shadow, into its chest. It flew backwards and soared into the ice spell.

The spell froze the shadow solid, into an icicle shape, before it crashed into the Blue Raphsody, impaling it. The icicle broke into many shards when it hit the ground. Naruto smirked at this. 'Four more of these shadows, and then its on to the next group', he thought.

Naruto suddenly, turned around and spun his staff with great speed. A fire spell hit the staff, but due to the spinning, it didn't reach Naruto. After fifteen seconds of spinning, the fire died down. However, now the remaining four heartless had surrounded him, and the other groups of heartless had mysteriously disappeared.

The shadows then charged at him, while one jumped at him and tried an aerial attack. The Red Nocturne, shot a fire spell at him, while the Yellow Opera, spun around before calling thunder upon Naruto. Naruto leaped at the air-born shadow and he did a bicycle kick, only he pointed straight up when he kicked. The kick sent it straight up into the thunder spell that hit the shadow. It then shocked the shadow, smoke rose from it slightly. Naruto then in midair, used his dark energy to teleport behind the shadow. He delivered a hard axe kick to it, sending it careening down into the ground. It landed with a boom, making an indentation around him, like a crater, but not as deep.

Naruto quickly somersaulted backwards and dodged the raging fire than ran across the floor, from the Red Nocturne. Using the confusion caused by the fire, a shadow phased into the floor and roamed behind Naruto. It then jumped and delivered a devastating spin kick to Naruto, sending him into the flames. The flames burned Naruto s he sailed through, but then, he was hit by a lightning bolt. The shadow then reappeared in front of him ready to spear him into the ground like Naruto had done to its comrades. Naruto however propped his legs up and kicked it away, before he jumped to his feet. While the shadow was down, Naruto dashed across and raked his claws into the ground, tearing the shadow into six pieces as he dashed past him.

Naruto breathed heavily, while he waited for any sign of where his other two foes were. The sound of something moving through the air at him very fast, alerted him to the approaching Yellow Opera. Naruto spun to the left and tried to use his staff to strike the speeding heartless. As it flew past him, he could feel the hairs on his neck rising, and despite his attack missing, he was still able to tip its hat onto its eyes. Naruto, leapt after the speeding creature, only to see numerous lightning bolts be shot out from the heartless around it, before all aligning towards him. Naruto teleported to the left, to the right, jumped up, and swerved around them. A few hit him and left holes in his clothing, along with matching bruises.

When the Yellow Opera took a quick respite from shooting at him, Naruto sped up and he appeared in front of it, before he started to slash at it with his claws. It would dodge the attacks, but then it forgot to watch out for Naruto's legs. He kicked it, connecting with its body, before teleporting behind him and tearing it in half vertically. Naruto, noticed several fireballs all around him, They were just floating, but he could tell they were hostile. Suddenly, they all lit up brightly, and seemed to shrink, before expanding and exploding. Naruto started spinning in the air and went faster and faster and faster. He pushed more and more darkness energy into his body to spin faster and faster. After a few seconds, you could see the air forming a sphere that seemed to shield him from the explosions. It had taken some damage and rippled, but then it held out.

Naruto watched around him, as dust clouds caused by the explosions of the Red Nocturne, obscured his vision. He however, kept spinning, and when he noticed the heartless, he suddenly stopped spinning. The momentum of his spin still kept the wind going and it was like a twister. Naruto grabbed it with his darkness energy and with great effort, he pushed and flung it at the Red Nocturne.

He floated for a brief three seconds. In that time, he saw the next group of eight heartless. The shadows all stood still before spinning around and charging at him. Their claws were outstretched, ready to cut everything as they spin.(Think the spinning move Hercules does, only claws instead of a sword)All of them came at him, attacking and spinning, each of them from a different angle, ready to rend him head to toe.

Naruto held his staff, and he charged darkness energy into it. A dark aura came around it, and he then spun himself around before releasing the energy however he left a connection at the tip of his staff. It exploded outward from the tip of the staff's crystal, like a whip of purple flames. Naruto maneuvered his staff and spun, cutting the five heartless in half. As each of them died, Naruto spotted the three remaining heartless. He grinned sadistically as he teleported between them. They formed a triangle formation and charged up strong spells respective to each of them. Naruto merely laughed evilly, and his eyes flashed purple. When they got ready to shoot their spells and they spun, Naruto used his staff's whip extension, and he cut each spell into two. The spells harmlessly went to the two sides of him. Then he jumped and cut the Red Nocturne in two vertically. He diagonally cut the remaining heartless with his whip.

When he saw the last group of eight heartless, he merely stood their and held his staff with one hand, before teleporting into the midst of them. The Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, and Yellow Opera, each shot a spell at him. Meanwhile the shadows leapt back and started to leap into the air. Naruto merely flicked his wrist and his whip cut the fire spell in half. He however aimed it that the fire would burn on the floor. The ice spell he cut and had it freeze the area that was near a few heartless. Finally, the last thunder spell, he merely cut it into eighteen harmless pieces really fast. He then leapt over the shadows and used his whip to cut the ground where the heartless where really fast. His whip of darkness energy cut deeply into the floor and even managed to sever three shadows into half. When he was done with that, he released the darkness energy's connection to the staff, and he threw his whip at the airborne magic using heartless. It flew threw the air like a boomerang before cutting into the heartless killing them. Naruto then looked and saw the remaining two shadows were in the flames.

'Time to start the real fireworks now!', thought Naruto. He then grinned evilly once more before holding his staff with both hands in front of him. He used some of his darkness energy and imagined a deluge appearing and killing the remaining two heartless. Instead of however, having it be a regular flood, he had it focused into one ray that had a lot of pressure in it. He took a deep breath before he whispered," Water." A feeling of pressure arose in Naruto's hands and he felt it needing to be released. With great effort, he held it out and let one hand grip his staff, while the other was held out in front of him. Then he released all the pent up energy, and water erupted forward. It shot out in a thin three inch cylindrical shaped blast, that was strong. When it hit the ground it carved out the floor. The heartless were no match for it and it killed them.

When he was done his hand fell to his sides, and he felt drained. Suddenly, he looked up and saw a sight that struck fear into his heart. A giant Blue Rhapsody was in the air flying at him. On top of it, was a shadow. This shadow was not like the others. It was taller, had red eyes, that you could make out from a distance, and it had even sharper claws. Its left shoulder was made of steel or some metal. Its arms had covering on it, and some sort of a fingerless gauntlet covered its hands, however it was spiked on the knuckles. Its legs were shimmering and had surges of darkness energy there. Overall it was an intimidating sight.

'Shit!', swore Naruto.' That thing is fucking huge. Not to mention that shadow on its head. It is even using darkness energy. Who knows what its capable of. Man, I'll have to make sure I'm careful or I'll just get squished.'

Naruto leapt back and held his staff in front of him in a custom battle stance. The shadow neared Naruto's position and it merely stood atop the giant heartless. The heartless reared its head back and its eyes shined with energy. It started to spin and ice formed around its position frosting over. The ice moved towards Naruto and seemed as if it would cover the entire platform.

Naruto used his head to quickly come up with an idea. He charged darkness energy all over him and once more he formed a whip, only this time two of them formed, one in each hand of his. Naruto grinned sadistically, as this time, one of them was made of purple flames, and the other of black lightning. He tucked his staff onto his back and prepared to kill the giant heartless. Naruto spun in midair and blocked the blast of ice that assaulted him. He then leapt over the chunks of floating ice and used them as a stepping stone. He leapt up high into the face of the heartless and with rapid attacks, he used his whip on the heartless' eyes, blinding it. Black liquid spurted outwards, and Naruto ran up its head. He stood on the junction of its body to its head and stared at the shadow. Suddenly, the shadow disappeared and reappeared before him in a second. It kicked Naruto in the chest making him fall backwards. Naruto was caught off guard and tried to use his whips to catch hold of something. He caught the huge hat of the heartless' hair and used it to swing himself up onto its hat. When he was up there, he spun the whips above his head before leaping up and throwing them at the heartless, straight down his head. They cut into its head but seemed to stay only stuck into his head. Naruto quickly pumped a lot of darkness energy into his hands and he then imagined great balls of fire raining down on the heartless. He yelled," Fire." The fireball was huge and once more grew in size and heat as the oxygen fed its fire. It struck the heartless head on and seemed to go right through it burning every wisp of it. It tried to use an ice spell to get rid of the fire but that failed. It died with loud inhuman shrieks. The shadow was nowhere in sight, but Naruto took his staff off his back and held it in his hand. He descended downwards and landed in the middle of the platform.

Naruto suddenly collided with the floor as the shadow appeared and gave a vicious roundhouse kick to his face. Naruto merely grunted before saying weakly, "How did you survive that? The fire spell burned the entire thing so fast, there is no way you could have escaped it."

The shadow chuckled," Although your magic is impressive, you'll have to get up pretty early to catch me. I am over three centuries old. I've seen a lot of tricks that foolish upstarts like you use. Its so sad it makes me angry that there is no one who can pass this stage. Now before we start this, I'd like to know the name of my next victim."

Naruto stared hard before saying," Uzumaki Naruto. Oh, and don't worry, I'll win this time."

The shadow smirked," The name is Jack."

Jack suddenly disappeared, an after-image remaining in his place. Naruto spun forwards as he dodged the slash from behind. The claw still managed to catch his left shoulder. Blood dripped as well as some sort of acid.

'Dam, his claws are poisoned. This is going to take some sort of miracle. After fighting all of those enemies, I am feeling tired, and little energy remains. I can't use any more spells or I'll just fall over dead. It will have to be a powerful single attack. I'll have to wait for the opportune moment.' Naruto thought in despair.

Naruto merely continued dodging for the next few minutes. He dodged every single slash at him, but he did not find a single moment to kill him. Suddenly, Jack said," Well, you have good reflexes, but now you will die. Its time to use my favorite technique."

He suddenly went through hand seals fast. Darkness energy was flowing all over him and it was sinking into the floor.

He yelled," Kuragari Jutsu: Yomi no Gosunkugi: Agari."(Darkness Art: Spikes of the Underworld: Rise)

The darkness energy formed spikes from the ground and they all rose at different angles around Naruto. They protruded from the ground, and in front of him. Every angle had one body part near a spike.
Then, Jack said," Kuragari Jutsu: Yomi no Gosunkugi: Senshi."(Darkness Art: Spikes of the Underworld: Stab)

The spikes then started to rapidly stab him. Naruto twisted his body and kept dodging the spikes as they came out of the ground at him. He started to charge all of the remaining darkness energy into his staff. Then he leapt at Jack, and using his staff like a sword, he swung it, releasing a large wave of darkness energy that went on forward shaped as an arc.

At the same instance as he swung, Naruto yelled," Hansai Nami."

The purple arc cut through Jack's body and Jack looked down in shock at his severed body.

He gasped," Well,…… never expected…..to see….that."

In four seconds he died. Naruto however was still caught by the few spikes, that were made by the remnants of darkness energy. They only got his leg, and his shoulder though. Blood squirted out, but Naruto didn't see that. The poison had knocked him out, and he was in la la land right now.