Naruto POV

I couldn't help but sigh appreciatively to myself as I sipped the drink the silver haired girl (Mirajane apparently) had set down on the bar in front of me. The drink was odd, foamy and delicious and a bit bitter, but pleasantly fizzy. I felt so much more at ease now that I'd talked to Sasuke and made sure he knew where we stood. I heard a squeak beside me as the chair near me was pulled out and my sister dropped heavily into it, a confused frown on her normally smiling face. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself 'Alright Naruto, you need to try to help her figure out whatever is wrong. Big brothers are supposed to be wise and philosophical, and have majestic flowing white beards, wait…that seems…not right. What the hell is in this drink?'

I grinned at my sister encouragingly "Anything I can do to help?" She worried her lower lip and looked pensive for a moment 'Damn, she doesn't feel like she can tell me things. I should be more affectionate so she knows I care.' I threw an arm over her shoulder and dragged her closer to me for a hug. "Its ok Nami, Im here for you, you can tell me anything." She looked a bit guilty. "Well earlier when we met Lucy, she seemed so nice. But I really wanted to cut her in her stupid face." I blinked. Well that was…venomous. I tried to nod sympathetically while slowly removing my arm and sliding away. "I can see why you'd want to…cut her in the face." I slid as far back in my chair as I can go 'Good god, my big brother knowledge doesn't cover this, shes totally crazy.' She growled (yes ACTUALLY growled, to be honest it was adorable) with frustration "I just don't see why everyone thinks Lucy is so great, just because shes so perky and sweet, bouncing all over the place, everyone watching her so intently with their stupid red and black eyes!" Red and black…oh "Nami" I said hesitantly "Is this about Sasuke?"

She glared at me cutely (good god my baby sister was incapable of any sort of menace) "Why would you assume that? I didn't say anything about Sasuke staring at that bimbos giant cow chest!" I slid farther back in my seat. 'I'm not safe! Abandon all hope!' "Nami, Sasuke doesn't think of Lucy like that. He was probably assessing if she was a threat to us." She snorted derisively "I saw exactly what he was…assessing. He must have been afraid she was hiding some kind of weapon under that ridiculously short skirt." I VERY carefully patted her on the shoulder, I was careful to move very slowly. I had a sneaking suspicion and sudden movements could get me hurt. "I just had a talk with Sasuke and I promise he doesn't think of Lucy like that." She looked at me suspiciously "He doesn't." I shook my head "Not at all. Guys tell each other stuff like that. He would have mentioned if he thought she was pretty."

She worried her bottom lip for a moment and then looked at me. "I was just being really crazy wasn't I?" 'God Yes!' "God no." She shook her head "No I was. I don't even know why. I just saw Sasuke looking at Lucy's chest and I just wanted to claw her beady little eyes out!" She flushed and looked embarrassed "I mean I was really mad at her." I suddenly realized what had happened 'Oh! Nami's never been jealous before. She has no Idea how to handle that emotion and it must be stronger since it took so long for her to feel it. It probably doesn't help that shes pretty slender and Lucy is VERY curvy.' I though very carefully about how to phrase the next thing I said. "Nami what you were feeling was jealousy. Its when a person has something you want. You thought Lucy had Sasuke's attention and you wanted it. People can get pretty crazy over jealousy especially if its about a person."

She looked pretty troubled. "Will this happen every time I see Sasuke looks at a pretty girl?" I shrugged "No Idea, everyone is different, sometimes people are insanely jealous of the people they care about all the time, and sometimes they aren't. For you it could be that you're just a jealous person or this could be more extreme since its your first time really feeling something like this. I wouldn't worry about it, just try not to stab Lucy with anything and we should be fine." I hated seeing my sister so upset about anything but I couldn't really help with her new emotions, I could barely handle my own most days, especially with all my odd feeling since getting the keyblade. Still I had to do something to help her, she was my sister and she needed me. I couldn't just abandon her when she was hurting. I gathered her back into my arms and held her. "I promise we'll get a handle on your emotions, and I have just the thing to help. I turned my head to call to Mira "Bartender, you guys have any Ramen?"

My sister looked a bit confused at the apparent segue "I know you're a ramen lover, but I don't think it'll exactly help me handle my emotions. I'm sure its good but I can think of anything THAT delicious." She smiled a bit as Mira brought us over the bowls and I glared at her. "Under no circumstances will you disrespect ramen, ramen is the way and the truth. You'll understand once you've tried it." She rolled her eyes a bit (apparently being real makes teenage girls a little snarky, go figure) and dipped her head down to take a bite of her noodles. And froze. Her eyes widened and she stared off into space, nearly slackjawed in her rapture. "This…" I nodded wisely "It is." She stared at me. "I… feel like a real person. Kairi cant be more real than I am if shes never experienced this." I inclined my head to her sagely.

We sat in silence, just eating and enjoying each other's company. "Naruto?" I looked over at her "Yeah?" She looked at me strangely, her expression was odd and a bit sad "What does it feel like to have a purpose?" I was a bit confused "How do you mean?" She chewed her lip for a moment "Well, when you lived in your village your purpose was as a protector, you were a shield for your people, no matter how badly things got you always knew who you were fighting for and why you were there. I never had that." I mulled that over for a moment "It's…simple. But it's also very hard." She looked a bit confused at that, I felt like I shouldn't tell her what I meant, that I wanted my baby sister to stay as innocent as she was now forever, but innocence and ignorance aren't the same thing, and this might be something she'd need to know one day.

"When you have a purpose, when you fight for something else, something bigger than yourself it's always easy to figure out what you're supposed to do. But sometimes knowing what you need to do and being able to do it are two different things." She looked troubled "I'm not sure I want a purpose, then." I smiled at her as we sat together and at our ramen "As long as I'm around the only purpose you should have is to be happy. I'll take care of all the hard stuff." She gave me a soft smile, and everything was right with my world.

Sasuke's POV

I tried to keep my mind on more productive things, sitting and spinning my wheels was not my style and it bugged the hell out of me. This guild hall was way too damn happy...just...too damn happy. Not that I am against happy but the problem with this is that I am too tense right now to relax, one of our own is missing and all these people can do is relax. We're only hanging around here just to sap off information from this Shizuo person...who vanished some time ago and I was beginning to fear we were abandoned. I was sitting at the bar, nursing a drink and my own thoughts when I felt something strange pass around me...a force, an energy of sorts. It was lucky my eyes went up when they did, what I saw was a woman with long brown hair about to take a drink and froze...didn't budge from her spot...nor did gravity kick in with her drink frozen midair. I stood up from my chair and looked around: it wasn't just her, everyone but Naruto, Namine, Donald and Goofy suddenly froze stiff. The two blondes stood from their chairs and looked around, Donald and Goofy had tensed up as well.

"What's going on?" Donald squawked, moving around the guild hall.

"They're frozen..." Naruto said, poking one of the members with no response.

"So I wasn't imagining things..." I mused, "I felt an energy current pass through, did anyone-"

"I felt it," Naruto answered, Namine shook her head no. Goofy did as well, though Donald nodded his head.

"I kinda felt something strange too..."

"What happened to them?" Namine asked, looking around the guild hall. Her answers came to her in the form of a dainty laugh, it was strangely echo-like and was ringing from outside the guild hall. We all drew our weapons and spun to the door. No one had stepped into the guild hall, but there was clearly someone unwanted outside. I nodded to the others and we slowly walked to the door, pausing for a moment...I raised three fingers and began to lower them down slowly, once I lowered them all down we kicked open the door and headed outside.

Outside was just like the inside, everyone on the streets was suddenly frozen in their spots. It was hauntingly eerie how devoid of sound everything was, our own breathing felt amplified beyond normal and our footsteps echoed on the stone walk. We looked around for the source of the laugh and yet we couldn't hear anything. Anything else I mean, for a moment we all thought we imagined it...

"Look out!" Goofy's voice called out, I spun my head around in time to see a ball of black energy crash towards us. I rolled out of the way just as it hit the stones, blasting debris up into the air that froze as soon as it reached it's height. I blinked at the oddity of such a sight before my eyes locked onto the individual who cast the spell: the same woman who was on Aloha Islands.

"You..." I growled.

"Me." The woman answered, "I am Ultimecia, the Witch of Time."

"Where's Sora?!" Naruto roared, Donald and Goofy nodding with his statement.

"Sora is in my possession," she smirked, holding her hand out to charge a spell. "So unless you want him harmed you will do as I say..."

"You think you can blackmail us?!" I challenged, tightening my grip on my blade. "You will regret it if you try..."

"Big words from someone who has...oh, nothing." The woman gave such a smile that it made me want to rip it right from her face. "I'll give you Sora back...if you do something for me."

I could see Naruto shaking from anger, he didn't like the odds that were against us: neither did I really. This witch of a woman was seemly reveling in all the power she had over us...yet, I had saw it...just briefly...there was something she did when she spoke about Sora. Neither of them didn't see it, they weren't honed to it like I was...but I had to be sure. I sheathed my blade and motioned for the others to lower their weapons. "She's right guys...she holds the power here with Sora all locked up."

The woman's smile infuriated me even further but I had to play along and keep it on the down low, once she started to speak I had all the answers I needed, "Good boy. Sora stays all locked up in his cell unless you all can do some favors for me..."

Now it was my turn to smile, "Gotcha."

In a flash I drew my blade, rushing to her and slashing at her: Ultimecia's eyes widened as she moved only inches out of the way before my blade got close enough to slash her. The others of course were horrified, they assumed I had blown their chances at getting Sora back...their minds would change soon enough.

"Teme!" Naruto yelled, "What are you-"

"She doesn't have Sora." I cut him off, "Think Naruto, she said he was in a cell...a cell? With Sora? His Keyblade can unlock anything, you think a simple cell will hold him? She's bluffing."

The others had the lights in their heads go on at this point, once they realized this they held their weapons at a more battle ready stance. All except Namine of course, she had no weapons or fighting skills that I am aware of enough to hold up against this witch. I feared for a moment she may run once we called her bluff, but instead she began to hover in the air for a moment and let energy charge up in her hands. Energies around us shifted and formed as arrows of darkness formed in the air alongside her, my eyes widened at the amount of arrows forming and I pointed to the guild hall.

"Namine! Get in the guild hall!"

"No! I can't leave-"

"You can't help us out here, you'll only get hurt or in the way!" I said, perhaps slightly more gruffly than I wanted but I couldn't have it helped: she needed to understand she would only be a target in this situation. She looked hurt beyond belief, but she did what I asked...though I had a feeling I would be targeted for this afterward. But she was Naruto's sister...I had to keep her safe no matter what, that was the extension of what we were. I am not sure why I answered Naruto the way I did when he asked me about Namine...perhaps I wanted him to feel some happiness, make him think I have a bond with his sister and that I am save-able. Maybe I am deluding myself into believing a fantasy that I had no business putting any stake in. It doesn't matter, my ways are my ways...after this I am back on my path to my revenge...even if a part of me...just felt tired of it all.

I banished my thoughts as Ultimecia's spells were ready, I grimaced, we were in for a rough fight right now...this would take everything we had to defeat this 'witch of time'. Good thing too, cause I needed something to hit: bring it.

Naruto POV

I had to give it to Ultimecia, this was legitimately one of the most annoying fight's I'd ever been in. I had grown up fighting NINJAS who weren't this much of a sneaky pain in the ass to fight. She kept suspending her force bolts in the air to flock at me when I crossed a specific path, I just couldn't avoid the damn things. I saw Sasuke barely avoiding Ultimecia's ridiculous dive bomb tactics and almost got gutted by a stray force bolt that blasted through the bar behind me. We were going to owe our new friends in Fairy Tail a hell of a dinner to make up for all the damage this fight would do 'Time to stop messing around' I summoned Never Again to my hand and suddenly everything slowed down. I felt the bolts become less worrying, the dive bombs more obvious. I felt my pulse crackling through my veins as my muscles raced with power.

I could see Ultimecia's moves like they were under water, she shifted in midair during an attack to change direction and I watched her fly slowly towards me. I couldn't help but smirk as I reached up to grab her wrist and fling her sideways into the wall. I would have worked, too except her outline just shattered into a fine mist of razor sharp glass. The glass flung itself at me and ripped at my clothes. Cursing I flung myself back, I was just getting so damn angry. How dare she do this to me, how dare she say she had a member of my family. How dare she stand against me. If I had my way when I was done she wouldn't be able to stand at all. Never Again. She had apparently cloaked herself when she made the damn glass outline and gone in the other direction. Sasuke had managed to see her coming with his Sharingan and slipped gracefully to the side at the last moment.

I felt the air disturbed behind me and flung myself to the ground as about fifteen of those magic missile things flew over my head. I flung myself snarling at her from behind and her form dissolved into smoke. Breathing some of it in made me light-headed which made me even angrier. I snarled in rage and threw myself forward faster than I'd known I was capable of only for my foot to drop into a small furrow that had been hidden with magic. My ankle snapped and I roared with fury. I was going to kill her. I'd kill her for what she'd done. Kill her for Sora, Kill her for Kairi, Kill her for Namine. Kill, Kill, Kill.

As I threw forward again I heard a high, sweet voice scream at me to stop. I ignored the voice, I didn't have time for things like that, things that weren't destroying my enemy. Which is why it was pretty damn surprising when I slammed into a barrier of gleaming golden chains. "Big brother!" I froze. My mind was starting to clear, the chains had cleared my mind as I'd touched them. Nami's voice brought me farther back into my own mind. "Please" I heard her begging "I need you to snap out of this" I shook my head sharply to clear it. This was wrong.

This wasn't how I was supposed to fight. I turned to see my little sister with tears coursing down her face. I couldn't believe I'd done that. I'd been the one to make her cry. I had never wanted to do that. I turned to her and smiled kindly. "I'm ok I think, I'm calming down." I couldn't help but notice the twinkling black light fade from the stone on Never Again. I was in fact so calm, there was nothing I could do to get past the chains when Ultimecia flashed forward to kill my baby sister.

–

Namine's POV

I remember thinking why I could sense such a strong rage coming from Naruto...the Kyuubi should have been gone from him. Or, I never sensed the Kyuubi once since Castle Oblivion. I assumed it at that point to be gone forever, yet, now as I stare at my brother giving into the rage I only once drew about I began to have a great fear that a creature such as the Kyuubi would never truly be gone. Even as my brother began to calm down a question of 'how long' popped into the back of my mind, how long before this would all happen again? I admit at the time it probably was not the best time to stand and muse on a future that has yet to happen, especially not in the middle of a fight. I learned that quickly as I realized Ultimecia was charging at me, I took a few steps back trying to move out of the way...

and then I saw a flash of yellow and silver swing out in front of me and blast the witch back. She bounced on the floor and clutched at her sides. As I saw the weapon retrieve back to it's master I relished in the familiar sight of a the very weapon that defined a 'Keyblade'.

"Sora!"

I would come to learn later from Sora that we were apparently not too far from each other, he was blasted off to the edge of the town while we landed smack dab in the middle. Yet I cared not for those details as Sora caught the Keyblade back in his hand, leaping down from the building top and landing on the ground. The witch slowly stood back up to her feet as Sora assumed a fighting stance.

"Had enough yet?" he taunted, the witch's face grew furious as energy built into her hands. "Alright then..."

Sora took off into a run, Keyblade at the ready, Naruto broke into a run as well and the two of them swiped forward with their blades seconds before Ultimecia attempted to cast her spell. She stood there for a moment as her body registered the Keyblades attack on her, she fell to her knees as small dark flecks around her floated up into the sky. Even as she looked up, even as time slowly returned back into it's normal state, I didn't like the smile on her face. "In the end...time reclaims everything..."

Her body burst into flecks of darkness as time returned to normal, shouts from the villagers were now heard as people rushed outside and saw the damage around the area. I could see Fairy Tail rushing outside as well, the man known as Shizuo as well was suddenly shocked by everything going on.

"What the hell happened?!" He turned over and saw Sora being greeted by Donald and Goofy, Naruto clasping his shoulder as well. "Huh? The kid...but how...eh, whatever, a load off my back."

Shizuo turned over to me and suddenly I felt like I was staring into the eyes of a monster, "Huh...seems the item is working fine..."

Item? I mused on that before Sasuke suddenly stepped in between the two of us, the dark haired man seemed to be staring him down.

"Seems you have no reason to be here after all."

Shizuo scoffed in his direction, "Yeah...fine, whatever. You guys laugh up your little victory now. Things are gonna be changing soon enough."

That last sentence caught the both of our attention, I noted Sasuke's hand going for his blade...as if he was going to attack him right there. Shizuo spotted this and waved his hand at him, "Relax...it's a good thing. Trust me, there's going to be some changes around here and if you're tough enough you may make it through."

"What changes are these?" Sasuke challenged.

"Those men in black coats you fear Namine?" I jumped at the mention, "They won't make it through them...the whole universe is going to change." he gave a sigh, "well, time to move I suppose. No reason for me to be here."

I know for a fact Shizuo was deliberately avoiding the disapproving and concerned stare of Mirajane as he passed her, he seemly paid her no mind as he continued on their way. Sasuke waited until he was gone before he turned over to me, a concerned expression on his face.

"Men in black...?"

"Organization XIII, I told you about them...remember?" Sasuke's eyes lit in recognition, giving a nod.

"Right...I thought these guys were seriously underground though, how does Shizuo know about them?"

"I don't know..." I confessed, my eyes turning to where Shizuo had walked off, "There have been some strange things going on here Sasuke...things that I don't even know about. We need to be careful of Shizuo and anyone who knows him..."

"Agreed..." Sasuke nodded, "By the way, what item was he referring to?"

I admit I drew a blank when he asked me, "I...I am not sure, maybe he was just talking to himself...?"

"...maybe..." Sasuke didn't seem to convinced at this, his further musings were cut off when Sora suddenly appeared and pulled the two of us at his side in a one armed hug. I admit I lost my focus then too as I was glad to see Sora back and unharmed, perhaps maybe if I wasn't so distracted I might be able to have focused more on Shizuo's comment...and the item he was referring to. It was some times like these I did miss being a Nobody, I could at least be connected to Sora and be able to predict what could happen to him...not that those powers went away, but with my emotions now I can't take all those bursts of pure emotion like I could as a Nobody. Trying it last time had disastrous results on Sora's memory of Kairi, I couldn't possibly risk another damaged memory again...not when he seems to be finally healing.

"We found Sora," Donald had waddled over to us, "Should we be on our way?"

"Yeah!" Sora nodded.

"Wait, but...how?" I asked, "We dived through the portal, our ship is still on Aloha Islands, how-"

"Don't sweat it!" Donald reached into one of the various zippers in his coat and pulled out a blinking light, "I programmed the ship to follow this device should we ever go too far from it, it should be on it's way to us right now...hey..."

Donald looked at the light as if he never really noticed it before, touching a few buttons he turned the device on and a screen displayed, "That's weird..."

"What?" Naruto asked, we all huddled in a bit closer to the device.

"The ship says it's picking up something...a signal..." Donald investigated a bit further and frowned, "There is some sort of message it's picking up, I'm trying to see what it says..."

Donald's eyes scanned over the deciphered words before they suddenly widened even larger, "...Help...trapped...Sora?!"

"Huh?!" Sora shouted, grabbing the device from Donald's hands to look at before the duck took it back as quickly, "It's for me?! W-who is it from?!"

To my side I could hear Sasuke sigh, I turned over to him to see him fold his arms, "And so we go..."

Kairi POV

Ow. My head was killing me. I had no idea what that star shard thing was but it had apparently done something at least. I stood up and brushed myself off. I was on an island. That wasn't a great sign but I didn't recognize it and I'd been to all the Destiny islands so there was that at least. I pulled myself groaning out of the sand and brushed off my pink dress. I really hoped Sora was here. That lazy bum better not have made me come all this way just to have run off before I caught him. I heard a shuffling sound behind me and turned to look at who had made the noise. Three people stood in the sand watching me silently.

"Hi…" I said cautiously but with a friendly tone "Any chance you guys speak English?" The guy with the ponytail looked at me and tilted his head "Que?" The one with the gravity defying silver hair burst out laughing as the girl in purple angrily smacked him on the back of the head, muttering to herself (in english) about no good idiots before turning to me. "Sorry about him, he thinks he's funny. I'm Ino Yamanaka, this is Shikamaru Nara, and that's-" the silver haired man cut her off. "My name is Kakashi Hatake." His one visible eye seemed very worried, and just a little afraid. I smiled cheerfully to put his mind at ease, he seemed very worried for some reason. "Nice to meet you all. My name is Kairi Ogame. I seem to be a bit lost. I'm looking for a friends actually maybe you've seen him, about yay high" I held up a hand "Spiky brown hair blue eyes big goofy smile. Answers to Sora?" Kakashi shook his head. "Actually Kairi we've been looking for you. Though im surprised we found you so quickly." I was immediately cautious. Were they after my heart "Why were you looking for me?" Kakashis one eye was soft "Because Kairi…You're my goddaughter."

Hey Guys King here. Insanely sorry about how long this took. I've had a ton of things to do with my new job. But im back in my rhythm so expect the next one to be quicker. As usual I need reviews. They help me breathe. They give me inner strength. But really polls are still open for Naruto's love interest but are rapidly closing so get your votes in. Hope to hear from you guys and see you next time.

Michael Fri of Black Scepter here. Everything has gotten kind busy as of late, so this had fallen to the wayside for a bit. It took some time but we got things up and running, we got a lot of intrigue running around now and things only promise to get even deeper into the mystery. Stay tuned.