Here we are with Chapter sixteen, where thing start getting sinister and Thorn finally steps into the light. This won't end well.

Have fun!


Chapter 16

"Oh come on Riku!" Hunter pleaded as he was dragged along by the silver haired teen. The two of them were just leaving a castle that was made of living silk and entering a garden with lakes of what looked like wine (or blood, it was hard to tell) and trees that emitted all manner of exotic perfumes.

"Just five more minutes!" now Hunter was digging his claws into the ground, forcing Riku to really put his back into pulling him along.

"I think you've had quite enough 'rest' for the time being Hunter."

Several tired looking demonetts appeared in the doorway, waving goodbye. Hunter had just enough time to make a 'call me' sign before he was dragged through a dark portal. The nonsensical realm of the Warp was instantly replaced by the small square space of DiZs libratory.

"Hunter" speak of the devil "when I gave you your mission in the Elemental Nations I expected results. So far I have been less than impressed."

"A lot of things happened." Hunter protested as he got back up. "Hey Naminé." he gave the girl standing in the corner a smile and a cheerful wave.

She returned the smile then tilted her head to one side in confusion "Is that...lipstick?" Hunter blushed and wiped the lipstick smudge off his cheek.

"Hunter!"

He turned back to DiZ, who was getting more angry by the second. "I hadn't exactly had an easy time! Literally everyone I've met so far has tried to kill me!"

"I can't imagine why." Riku muttered just loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Hunter ignored him and carried on "I've been blown up several times, crushed, stabbed, sealed, attacked by my own blasted Nobody and...I got you're stupid info." He reached into his pocket and took out a small disk. "Copied direct from one of the Organisations ships." DiZ didn't apologise, he just raise his one visible eyebrow a little.

"You were on one of their ships?" Riku asked.

"Yeah. It was fun. They were building a Death Star." Hunter marched up to the collection of computer screens that took up the rooms right corner and-

"No! Hunter wait!" yelled DiZ and Riku together.

Too late, he put the disk in and after a seconds pause the lights al went out.

"I think it may have had a virus on it." said Hunter, sheepishly.

The screens came back to life suddenly and displaced a dancing red doodle creature singing in a loud and annoying voice.

"DO YOU LIKE BUTTONS!? WELL HERE'S A LITTLE BUTTON!"

"I can't shut it off!" DiZ yelled over the 'music'.

"GIVE IT A PRESS AND IT SUBSCRIBE YOU TO MY CHANNEL!"

"Looks like Nobodies have a sense of humour after all." said Riku.

"NOT ONLY THAT BUT HERE'S A LITTLE SECRET!"

Part of Hunter's memory kicked back in "Oh, I remember this. Naminé, cover your ears!" She did so, and just in time.

"PRESSING THE BUTTON WILL LET YOU HAVE A RUB OF MY CHEST! RHUBB MA BOOOBIES! RUBB-"

The rest was mercifully cut off when Riku yanked the plug out of it socket.

DiZ approached the now inactive computer and took the disk out "It will take time for me to purge the virus from the system. And Hunter" Hunter, who'd been trying to slip out unnoticed, stopped in his tracks and turned nervously to face DiZ. "I still want this information and since you've caused this trouble..."

"Oh, I'm not going to like this am I?"

In the Hidden Leaf, Tsunade's office.

Tsunade had been a ninja for most of her life, in that time she'd been on more missions than she could count, fought in a world war, become the greatest medic nin on the planet but never in all her years had she heard a crazier story than what Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had just told her. Other worlds, a space ship battle, it all sounded like something from a fantasy. If it weren't for Kakashi backing them up she would have said they'd all gone mad. Apart from team seven and their teacher, the sensei's of all the other genin were present, along with Jiraiya and Shizune.

"And it definitely wasn't an illusion?" she asked.

Kakashi shook his head "No. I've been caught in plenty of genjutsus in my time. This was real, no question."

"Well, this does clear a few things up." said Jiraiya. "Hunter is a being from a whole other reality. It explains why nothing we've used against him has been effective and why his powers seem so impossible."

"That woman...Candy. She said he was ...heartless?" said Ino.

"A Hearltess." corrected Shizune "Like those things this Pete character summoned."

"One Hunter was bad enough, but a whole race of them. I don't like the sound of that." said Guy.

Naruto leaned back in his chair, not understanding why everyone was so worked up "Oh how bad could it be?"

"It's a total disaster!" Tsunade yelled, surprising Naruto so much he fell backwards off his chair. "Hunter has upset the balance of power in the world by his mere presence." she continued in a calmer voice "So far he hasn't inserted himself into the nations politics but what if he does? Nothing we, or anyone else has done has been able to stop him, hell, last night he absolutely trounced both the Hidden Clouds jinchuriki single handed. The nation that gains Hunters loyalty could very well become unstoppable." She paused for a moment to let the effect of her words sink in "And if there are more like him, then there's a greater chance of that happening."

"So what do we do?" asked Sasuke.

Tsunade laced her fingers together and closed her eyes in thought "Knowingly or not Hunter has become the single greatest threat to peace in our time." she opened her eyes again "And we have to destroy him."

Back with Hunter

"I hate this job." After ruining their computer system DiZ had ordered Hunter to go out into the worlds and find another system capable of decoding the Nobodies files. Seeing as how he didn't know where to start DiZ had 'kindly' given Hunter a list of suitable locations. He was currently at location one, the 'Walled City' which as the named suggests was a sprawling city divided up by three sixty meter high walls arranged in three rings.

Hunter was currently on top of the second inner wall, looking down at the city below and wondering how he should approach this situation. His train of thought was interrupted when a shadow fell over him, wiping out the evening light. He turned round and found himself face to face was an absolutely colossal humanoid. It was a head taller than the walls with no skin, just muscle and bone with great clouds of stem rolling off its body.

"...what in the ever-loving..." he began, then he noticed the creatures hand poised inches away. "Don't you dare!" the thing flicked him right off the wall. Hunter was sent shooting down with the force of a cannonball until he crashed into a house below, demolishing the structure entirely. By now he was very annoyed and it only got worse when as soon as he finished cleaning himself up he was hit by a hurricane force wind that messed up his hair and cloths again.

"GrrrrAAAARRRRGGGHHH!"

Several terrified screaming people ran past. He grabbed hold of one of them and asked "What's happening?"

The woman he was talking to was about thirty with brown hair and so afraid she could hardly think. "It's the Titans!" she screamed at him "T-they broke through the wall! They're going to eat us all!"

Hunter looked at her quizzically "...Titans?" then a shadow fell over both of them as the woman stared up in horror. Hunter turned and saw another huge humanoid looking down at them. It was way shorter than the last one, only nine meters high and also unlike the other titan, it had all its skin. It didn't look very intelligent though, its facial expression was something akin to a drunk and its head was a little too large for its body. It was also completely naked and had no genitals, like a giant malformed Ken doll.

"Well, that's not disturbing at all. So this thing is a Ti-" Hunter trailed off when he noticed that the woman was no longer listening as she was too busy having a breakdown."...ok, never mind." There was a loud thud as the giant reached down to grab them and Hunter caught hold of its hand. "Ya know, where I'm from it's considered rude to eat people!" he swung the monster round in a circle then launched it into the air before blasting it with several dark bolts. It disintegrated before it hit the ground.

"Ha! That's what you get for...for..." Hunter was cut short when he saw another Titan off in the distance, and another, and anther. As his supernatural vision expanded out it revealed more and more, like the city was infested. "... Chucklefucks. Annnnd now I've got to clean up this whole mess." With a single bound he launched himself twenty meters into the air, as a dark aura began to glow around his body he jammed out his arms and yelled "Dark! Bolt! STORM!"

Back in the Hidden Leaf

"Mmm! Delicious!" declared Naruto as he scoffed down his fourth bowl of ramen.

"Do you even bother chewing at all?" asked a dismayed Sakura.

Kakashi hummed in agreement. He was really starting to regret offering his team an 'all you can eat' lunch.

"We should be out looking for Hunter." said a sour Sasuke, who hadn't even touched his food yet.

"That would be pointless" Kakashi noted "he could be anywhere in the world. Any world. And I can't believe I just said that."

"Yeah, this whole 'other realities' thing is...a lot to swallow." Said Sakura.

"I'm ok with it." said a cheery Naruto as he finished his bowl.

"I doubt you even understand it idiot!" Sakura shot back.

Kakashi sighed as he paid Ayame and Teuchi for the food and he and his genin left the ramen bar. The instant they stepped outside they all froze. Hunter was waiting for them, but he looked different. He wore a blue scarf and had an odd, blank expression.

"What the...Hunter!?" yelled Naruto in surprise.

'Hunter' didn't respond, he just cocked his head to one side.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, then charged right at him ignoring cries of warning from both his comrades and teacher. Instead of landing a blow as he intended however he passed right through him like he wasn't even there.

'A genjutsu!' he thought 'Ok, then where's the real-Ooof!'

The 'genjutsu's scarf suddenly came to life and seized hold of him, coiling round his body like snakes, trapping his arms.

"Sasuke!" with a cry Naruto leapt forwards to help his friend, only to have Sasuke thrown at him, the two ending up in a heap on the ground. "Aw come on Hunter, fight fair for once!"

"It's not Hunter." said Kakashi.

Naruto looked confused "But he is! Just look at him Kakashi-sensei!"

"Listen to him Naruto! Hunter can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. This guy hasn't said a word yet!" Naruto looked back at Hunter and finally noticed that something was...different.

"Well if he's not Hunter then who is he!?" demanded Sasuke as he got back up.

"Thorn!" Everyone looked to the left to see Tsunade approaching, along with Jiraiya. With a swirl of leaves several ANBU ninjas appeared surrounding Thorn. "That's your name isn't it? 'Thorn'." Tsunade repeated.

Thorn didn't answer her.

"Hmm? Granny what's going on?" asked Naruto.

That was when more ninjas arrived, teams eight, ten and team Guy along with their sensei's. "That was fast." said Sakura.

"All the weird stuff that's happened lately has done wonders for our response time." said Shino.

"It's a total drag." groaned Shikamaru, who been in the middle of his mid-morning nap.

"Good, you're all here." said Tsunade "Well, to answer your question Naruto a few days ago team eight were perusing Hunter through the forest outside the village. They lost him but on their way back they encountered someone else who looked almost exactly like Hunter only he called himself 'Thorn'."

"Yeah, and he gave us one hell of a smack down too!" said Kiba "My bruises still have bruises!" Akamaru gave a bark of agreement.

"You obviously have a connection to Hunter." said Jiraiya "Are you a Heartless too?"

No answer.

"Hey...I recognise that symbol." said Sakura "It's the same one the nobodies had. That's what you are isn't it. You're a Nobody."

"Yes." finally Thorn spoke. He sounded almost like Hunter too, but his voice had a creepy lack of emotion. "You've done better than I expected. I didn't even have to give you the answer."

"Don't mock her!" Rock Lee spoke up in defence of his crush.

"I'm not." Thorn continued. "You still don't impress me though. 'Heartless', 'Nobody'. You know the words, but not the meaning. You understand nothing."

"Well then help us understand." said Ino "What do you want here? Why are you in our village."

"I think I know." Everyone looked at Neji. "He's here to steal Kekkei Genkai. That's why he raided the Hyūga clan archives. He's probably done the same in other villages to, or is planning to."

"Yes." Thorn replied, surprising everyone. "I crossed whole realities and put several vital missions on hold all to steal the genetic trait of a clan of inbred mutants." Neji clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger "In case you can't tell, that was me mocking you."

That was when Neji lost it. With a yell of anger he charged at Thorn, shooting past the ANBU ninjas before they could stop him. He was a moment away from landing a palm strike when he suddenly faltered and crashed into the ground, coming to rest at Thorn's feet, screaming and clutching his head in pain.

"What the?!" Naruto looked on in horror.

"I never discard useful information." Thorn looked down at Neji was an unnerving level of dispassion. "When I was in you archive I found out about your clans Caged Bird Seal. Learning how to activate it was easy."

An ANBU ninja leapt in and brought Neji back behind friendly lines over to Hinata. "Lady Hyūga, can you stop the seal?" he asked.

She nodded and made the hand sign her father had taught her. This was the first time she'd been grateful for her father teaching her about the seal. Neji stopped screaming but he still looked pained.

"Just what the hell do you want!?" demanded Naruto.

"What you have."

"Stop being so cryptic." said a very angry Tsunade "I've had enough of you and Hunter only giving us half answers. So here's what's going to happen here, I'm going to ask you some questions and you are going to give us a yes or no. If you don't then" she cracked her knuckles "we'll take you apart."

Thorn didn't say anything for a moment, but then he gave a single nod.

"Alright. Mizuki's disappearance. Was that you?"

"Yes."

Naruto looked confused. This was the first he'd heard of Mizuki since the day he'd beaten the basterd to a pulp so long ago.

"Is he alive?"

"No." Thorn noticed Tsunade wince "He'd already told me all he could. There was no reason to keep him alive. He would have been a" he gave Naruto a sideways glance "liability."

She mentally filed that look away for later "Ok, now what's your connection to Hunter? You look like you were printed from the same mould. Are you his brother?"

"It's complicated. We are more than kin. And less than kind."

That wasn't the answer Tsunade was looking for but there was something else she wanted to know "Alright next question. Over the past few months there have been some...odd occurrences. Strange people walking the streets then vanishing when followed. Are they yours?

"Yes. And I'm afraid that's all we have time for."

"You're not leaving." moving faster than the eye could see the ANBU ninjas appeared all around Thorn, trapping him in place with their swords. Then he just walked right through them like a ghost.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm done hiding in the shadows." Everyone got into combat stances, drawing various weapons and charging up their chakra. "Hunter made friends here. I've made friends too."

There was a blast of dark energy and the ANBU team were sent flying, then they disintegrated one by one as they fell. Tsunade's expression of anger turned to horror as the perpetrator stepped forwards, coils of dark power rolling off his body.

"Orochimaru." grunted Jiraiya.

The Snake Sanin was back, with his arms fully healed, that same evil grin plastered on his face. "Well, hello old friends. So good to see you all again. And so soon after our last encounter to. Isn't it grand?"

"Oh no, not him again." Sakura still hadn't gotten over the last time she and her friends had run into the creepy snake man in the Forrest of Death.

"Hmhmhm. You really should try this Dark Power Tsunade. It does wonders for your health." Orochimaru conjured a ball of darkness in his hand so everyone could see.

'That's the same power Hunter has!' Tsunade thought with mounting panic. 'If he's become anywhere near as strong...'

BOOM!

Her train of thought was interrupted by an explosion off in the distance.

"And now the time has come to finish what I set out to do so long ago." the snake sanin continued. "The destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

"I don't bloody believe it!" that was a voice everyone recognised. They turned round and sure enough, standing on top of a building above them was Hunter.

Roughly an hour ago, with Hunter

"Those ungrateful, pig-headed, trigger-happy, TWATS!" he ranted to himself. Once he'd blasted away all the Titans (well, most of them) instead of the overwhelming gratitude he'd been expecting the locals had decided to shove a bunch of cannons in his face. Things got worse when he insulted most of the senior officers and asked this girl called Mikasa if she was single. She'd instantly tried to cut him in half and he had to admit the look on her face when her swords shattered was hilarious. After laughing off everything else they could throw at him he'd told them to go 'plug that hole in the wall', given them all a two fingered salute then teleported away.

Now he was on another world in the middle of the ocean. He'd soon found that he could, surprise, walk on water, and that if he got up enough momentum he could skate along at very high speeds. He was currently on course for the nearest collection of Hearts he could detect, hoping that he would find civilisation, preferably advanced civilisation.

He stopped just a few miles off shore when he could have sworn he heard something like thunder or fireworks going off, then there was a whistling sound and...

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

"Snap!" Hunter was nearly blown out of the water as several explosions went off around him. "What the...What. The. Snap?" What Hunter was seeing right now just wasn't making sense to him. Several people were charging towards him, skating across the water much like he'd been doing but that wasn't what bothered him, nor was it the fact that they were all female. What he was having trouble accepting was that they were wearing ships, or parts of ships like battle armour.

"What manner of lunacy is-" BOOM "OUCH!" he took a cannon shot to the face. Several miniature World War Two fighter planes started flying round him like hornets, shooting him with tinny bullets and occasionally dropping bombs. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Who the hell is flying you anyway?!" He jumped up and grabbed one of the planes out of the air and looked inside the cotpit. Inside was a tiny anime fairy, and she didn't look too pleased. He saw he hands moving on the planes controls and guessed what she was going to do next."No." too late, she opened fire, unloading her mini machine guns right into Hunter's face.

He chucked the place away "The Warp made more sense than this place! OW!" another cannon blast hit him in the chest, followed by several torpedoes. "Will you all STOP SHOOTING ME!" finally having had enough Hunter dashed forwards, tripping up one girl, leaping over another. He passed between two who tried to shoot him but he dropped into a skid at the last moment and they ended up hitting each other. "Ha!" he said while looking back over his shoulder "That's what you get for-" SMACK.

One girl had gotten in front of him while he wasn't looking and punched him in the face. Hunter was flipped backwards but his forward momentum kept him going. He skipped across the water, coming to rest in front of another girl, the most heavily arm of the bunch having six triple gun turrets and a...parasol.

"Alright lady, give me your best shot!" Hunter challenged without thinking. At once all six of her guns turned to aim at him. "Why did I say that? Why in the hell did I say that?"

BADDOOOM!

Hunter sank right to the bottom of the ocean and sat there as several curious fish swam past "I think DiZ is trolling me."

Sometime later

"I can fix this!" Hunter insisted franticly.

He was now in world number three and things were going about as well as you'd expect. First he'd appeared in the middle of an off limits military base and when he'd refused to leave the guards had tried to arrest him. This had of course lead to a fight in which Hunter had been shot at with guns and mortars. Once they realised that wasn't working on him they'd retreated and called for the 'Alchemists'. That was when things had gotten weird.

The Alchemists as it turned out were people in this world who had their own brand of magic. They were powerful and driven but they weren't prepare for an enemy with 'real' magic and almost total invulnerability. One at a time Hunter had caught them all in blizzard spells, imprisoning them in ice up to their necks. Well, all save one. The last alchemist was unusual, a young disembodied spirit possessing a suit of armour. Hunter had tried to use a screwdriver to tighten up his bolts and prevent him from moving but he'd gotten his lefts and rights mixed up and had taken the poor boy apart.

"I can fix this!" he repeated as he rapidly tried to put the armour back together. The arrangement of limbs was completely wrong, making the armour look like a metal spider. Hunter scratched his head and tried again. This time he got the arms and legs in the wrong sockets. "Aw, I'm great at taking things apart, why can't I put them back together?" he moaned. He turned to look at one of the alchemists, a short (did it just get colder in here?) blond man in his twenties who had a mechanical arm and leg. "Do you have computers in this world?" he asked.

The alchemist blinked a few times "Com-what? What the hell are you talking about you raving...?" that was when he noticed that Hunter was no longer listening, he was looking at the ground and clenching his fists. "Hey! Are you even listening to me man!?"

Hunter threw back his head and yelled "FFFFFFFFUUUUU-"

Several minutes later

"Why didn't I just do this in the first place, why, why, why WHY!?" After throwing a colossal tantrum and breaking part of the city he'd been in Hunter had left and jumped through as many worlds as he could until he found somewhere that had a decent level of technology. He didn't know where he was as the room he was in had no windows, just banks of modern computers in seemingly never-ending rows. The actual decoding was going very slowly for a number of reasons but the main one was that the Nobodies data disk was both more advance than the machines decoding it and it was from a whole other reality. It was basically like trying to run Crysis on the Enigma Machine.

"Grrr this is taking forever!" the progress bar on the screen in front of him reached three percent. "Right, screw it. I'm going to have some fun."

Leaving the machines to do their work Hunter portaled out to the Hidden Leaf, already planning a series of malicious pranks. That plan died the instant he arrived. "Oh snap." It was instantly obvious that the village was under attack. Again. Most of the buildings around him were either on fire, wrecked or both. Several Leaf ninjas were clashing with Sound ninjas and they were losing badly.

"Not good." Hunter dashed forwards, running over every Sound ninjas he came across as he homed in on a group of familiar Hearts. He stopped on top of a building overlooking a large group of people. All of the genin plus Kureni, Guy, Asuma and Kakashi were there along with Jiraiya and Tsunade. "I don't bloody believe it!" he declared as he arrived. Clearly a lot had gone on since he was last here.

"You're fighting someone else ON THE SIDE!" he continued melodramatically as he jumped down to ground level "Oh, and it would be with the snake man wouldn't it. What does he have that I...oh no." That's when Hunter got a good look at Orochimaru's Heart and he saw what had changed. "What have you done?"

"Oh come now Hunter." the Snake Sanin seemingly forgot about Jiraiya and Tsunade as he turned to face him. "Did you really think that you would always be the only one with this power?"

"You idiot." Orochimaru's smile faltered a tad "You absolute idiot! What the hell were you thinking! Do you have any idea what you've done to yourself!? And you." Hunter turned his gaze on Thorn "Why in the hell would you do something like this, you know what Darkness does to people Twilight!"

Ino gave a loud snicker "Your first name is Twilight? Pfffthaha!" several other had a chuckle as well.

Thorn glanced at her "Ino means Boar." that shut her up. With Ino dealt with he turned back to his twin "I have my reasons. What are yours?" with that Thorn vanished into a dark portal. Realising that he was now heavily outnumbered Orochimaru created his own portal, giving his former teammates a baleful look before disappearing.

"Oh no you don't!" Hunter lunged after him but the portal faded before he could reach it and he ended up crashing face first into the ground. "God dammit!"

"Well... when I woke up this morning I certainly didn't imagine this would happen." said Jiraiya.

"I never thought Thorn would go this far." Hunter muttered more to himself than anyone else. "What Darkness turned me...him...US into. What the hell is he thinking?"

"Hunter!" he looked up at Tsunade "I have had enough of you, Thorn and all of this craziness. So you are going to tell me exactly what is going on right NOW!"

"No." was his blunt reply.

Tsunade clenched her fists and started turning red in the face. Jiraiya started backing away, remembering painfully the last timer she'd gotten this mad. "What do you mean 'no'?" she hissed.

Hunter crossed his arms "I don't owe you any explanation. All I've done so far is save you backsides and in return you lot have tried to kill me."

"Save us!" Kiba almost burst out laughing "You're joking right? For all we know you caused all this!"

Hunter looked genuinely angry "Hey, I followed Thorn here. Not the other way round! This would have happened with or without me. Now do you want my help again or not?"

Tsunade looked like she was about to say no but then she let out a defeated sigh. "Alright...fine."

"Good, now the first order of business." Hunter closed his eyes and focused for a moment, then a green copy of himself stepped out of his body, much to everyone's surprise. "Alright, I need you to support these idiots while I hunt down Thorn and Orochimaru, got it."

Green didn't look too happy. "You can't fight them both at once man."

Hunter shrugged "Well I can but try. Here, take this." He threw something small to his clone, then departed.

"He's leaving!?" said Sakura in alarm.

"I'm right here." said Green "Fortunately for you lot I can be in two places at once." he looked out into the Village, scanning the area with his Heartless vision "Alright, he's what I see. There's two...make that three...people. There're made out of Data."

"Data?" Tsunade repeated.

"I...can't get a good read on them, they don't have Hearts but...I think they're leading the invasion."

Tsunade nodded. "Alright where are they." Hunter pointed in the direction of each of them. "OK, Asuma, you and your team go west, Kakashi and team seven will go north, Team eight and Kurenai that leaves you with the north-eastern commander."

"Hang on!" Everyone looked back at Green. "Something's happening on the east side."

On the villages eastern wall

"Pull back!" yelled one of the Leaf ninjas guarding the wall "Watch out for any-!"

"Fira!"

Part of the wall exploded into flames, consuming two people and sending another tumbling towards the ground. The three survivors turned in the direction of the voice and saw Thorn walking along the wall towards them. Two of them charged at him, kunai drawn and ready but Thorn easily dodged them buy unnaturally twisting his body. He grabbed one man's arm then kicked him in the knee, breaking his leg. He then delivered a chop to his throat, crushing his windpipe before throwing his body off the wall. The other man didn't last much longer, with a flick of his wrist Thorn sliced him in half with a jagged Tendril of Darkness.

The third and final ninja tried to run but he was blasted by a Dark bolt from Orochimaru before he could take more than two steps.

"Not bad." said Kabuto, who'd only just joined them after giving Thorn's commander their orders.

Thorn said nothing, he just looked out over the wall at the forest beyond. After about a second four blurs shot out from the trees and landed beside him. The Sound Four had arrived.

"You...absolute ...basterd!" panted Tayuya.

"Well,...at least we...phew, get to bust some heads now." said an equally tired Kidōmaru.

"No. You're all too tired. Go back to base and rest." Before any of them could protest Thorn opened up a large portal beneath them and they all fell in with startled cries and curses.

"They are definitely going to kill you for that." said Kabuto as the portal closed.

Thorn ignored him again and opened a large portal for the approaching un-dead horde, with the exit portal located inside the village itself.

Back with Green Hunter and the others

"Zombies." said Sakura, hoping she'd heard wrong. "He has a horde of zombies!"

Green shot her an annoyed look "That's what I said! Hunter's already heading that way, he'll handle Thorn and the snake man, that just leaves you the zombies."

"My team and I can handle them!" said Guy with his trademark grin.

Green nodded in agreement "Ok. These zombies were made by dark magic, not a virus. That means you won't turn into one if you get bit, but they are harder to kill. You'll have to hack them to pieces, the smaller the better."

Tenten smiled and unsealed a windmill shuriken from one of her scrolls "Not a problem."

With their assignments given the teams all departed, leaving only Jiraiya, Tsunade and Green.

"Tsunade, this battle isn't going to go well for us." said Jiraiya. "We haven't fully recovered from the last attack, and even with Hunter's help we're going to lose a lot of people."

Tsunade grimaced.

"Don't worry." said Green with a smile as he held up the summon charm the original had given him "I have a plan."

With Asuma and Team Ten.

"So where's our target?" asked Ino as she and the other arrived at their destination.

As if to answer her several nearby houses exploded into flames as several Sound ninjas appeared along with-

"There they are THERE! Go kill them all! *hurr* Burn their base! BURN IT! Plant the flag of chaos!" The commander was a giant of a man, roughly seven feet tall, but the power armour he was wearing made him closer to eight. His face was pale with white pupilless eyes, dark pulsing veins and a mouth full of sharpened teeth. His only weapon was a sword that was nearly as long as it's wielder was tall. It was covered in weird runes and emitted a faint purple glow.

"Well, this guy's...different." said Shikamaru.

"ATTTACCKKK!"

Over with Team Eight

"Fang over fang!" Kiba and Akamaru slammed into the sound ninja ranks, followed by Shino and Hinata.

"Wow! This is great!" declared Kiba as he dodge a sound ninjas counter attack, then the man was swarmed by Shino's bugs.

"Stay focused Kiba!" Kurenai scolded "We're here to eliminate a target, not fight a protracted battle."

"Do we know what we're looking for?" asked Hinata.

Kiba ran towards another group of Sound ninjas but was blasted back by some invisible force. The enemy nin started to pull back as a solitary black robed figure walked towards the genin and their sensei.

"I think I found him." groaned Kiba.

The figure took off their robe, revealing themselves to be a woman. She was tall and thin with pale skin and a bald head, yet she had a strange beauty that you could only get by being pure evil.

"This is all that stands in my way. I'm insulted." she said in a malice laden voice.

"You must be the commander." said Kurenai "Whoever you are, you've made a grave mistake attacking this village."

"Hm hm hm. My name is Asajj Ventress. And you" she took her two lightsabers off her belt and activated them, the twin red blades illuminating her in their ominous glow "you are all dead."

With Team Seven

"Well this guy wasn't hard to find." said Kakashi.

The four of them were standing at one end of a street, and a short distance away were a group of Sound ninjas lead by what could only be described as a nightmare. It had the shape of a man but was much taller, clad in a combination of black robes and dark metal armour. On its head it wore a crown/helmet and its face was completely obscured by an impenetrable darkness. In one hand it held a sword, and in the other a large flail.

"Is this all that you can muster against me?" it had a cold, rasping voice that held an unnatural quality. It set Naruto's teeth on edge.

"For scum like you, we're all it takes." said Sasuke.

The creature adjusted his grip on his sword, then made a motion to his subordinates. Without a word they retreated as the Witch King advanced "I will break you."

Over to Team Guy

"EAT THIS!" yelled Tenten as she unsealed and threw every weapon she had at the ravening horde. So far her and her team were having the 'easiest' time because while the un-dead were unsettling they were poor opponents. Guy and Lee were taking them apart with their taijutsu skills, braking bones with every kick and punch. Neji was having the hardest time, apparently the Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist style didn't work too well against non-living targets.

"This was terrible." said Guy as the last zombie fell. "I can't believe anyone would defile the dead like this. Most un-youthful."

"This is why I plan on being cremated." muttered Tenten as she twirled a kunai round her finger.

"We have company!" warned Neji. Thorn, Kabuto and Orochimaru appeared. They stopped a few feet away as the two groups faced off in a scene straight out of a spaghetti western.

"You go on ahead." said Thorn. "I'll handle them." the two ninjas left, leaving the Nobody behind.

"Four against one. If I didn't know better I'd say you were overconfident." said Guy.

"Ignorant fools. Fira!" Thorn threw a fireball, forcing the group to disperse.

Lee went in first, quickly closing in of Thorn and attacking with a cry of "Leaf Hurricane!" His kick passed right through Thorn, who kicked Lee in the back when he landed. Tenten pulled out a scroll and unsealed every weapon inside it at once, sending them hurtling towards Thorn. This barrage was about as effective as Lee's attack, worse actually because a lot of the projectiles nearly hit Lee.

"Sorry!" Tenten yelled apologetically.

Guy and Neji tried to launch a duel pronged attack but Thorn was ready for them. "Magnega." Thorns spell created a ball of energy that pulled the ninjas towards it, smashing them together before dissipating and leaving them in a heap.

"This isn't going well." said Neji.

"I'm more powerful than you." They looked up and saw Thorn was now standing right in front of them. Instantly Guy was up and pulling back his arm for a punch.

"Gravira." another ball of energy appeared, only this one altered the gravity around it making everything much heavier. Neji and Tenten were instantly floored, while Guy and Lee lost their super speed. Thorn raised his arm as Dark Tendrils began to coil around it. "Die now."

"Thundra!" Thorn was forced to jump back was a lightning bolt struck the ground where he'd been standing. "I'm not gone five seconds and you need me." said hunter and he dropped down next to Team Guy. The gravity spell ended and the ninjas all got back up.

"Perfect timing Hunter." said Tenten. Neji managed a quiet and unhappy 'mm-hum'.

"You guys go finish off the zombies. The Tin Man here is all mine."

Guy gave him a thumbs up saying "Show him the Power of Youth." before he and his team departed.

Hunter looked at Thorn with a sad expression "Why, why are you doing all this? I don't get ...me and you were...are the same person so how can you hurt all these people?"

Thorn shrugged "I don't have a Heart. I'm incapable of regret."

"It's dosn't have to be liek this." Hunter pleaded "You can stop this."

"So can you. One snap of your fingers and you can bring in enough Heartless to save this village. After that you can use them as an army to end all war in this world. Only that didn't work out too well the last time, did it?"

Hunter looked confused "What the hell are you talking about?"

Thorn didn't reply, he just drew a data card from his sleeve and threw it to the ground. It started to glow then began assembling a person out of data blocks. This data copy was a man with silver hair, blue eyes and one black angle wing sprouting from the right side of his back.

"Oh snap."

"Data Sephiroth. Terminate." On Thorn's order the Data copy came to life. Faster than the eye could track it shot towards Hunter and with a single swing of its oversized Masamune sword launched him high into the air before flying up after him.

Thorn watched for a moment, then continued on to his own objective.

Over with Tsunade and Jiraiya

"You're dead Sanin!" yelled a sound ninja as he attacked Jiraiya. This was a monumentally stupid move as the old man simply dodged him and delivered a crippling chop to the back of the ninjas neck.

"Thorn may have upgraded your bodies, but you goons are all still tenth rate." he said as he observed the pile of defeated Sound Ninjas behind him.

A short way away Tsunade punched her last opponent through a wall with one hand while using the other to break another ninjas arm before knocking him out. "They may be twice as strong but they're burning out twice as fast."

"A minor flaw." The two of them looked up and saw their former teammate emerge from a black portal "The next batch will be far superior."

"And I suppose your new friend told you that." Tsunade smiled smugly "Yeah, he seems really trustworthy."

Orochimaru let out en evil cackle "Hahahah! Do you really think I trust that empty freak!? Hahaha! The only reason I aligned with him was the power. This power!" He held up his arm, showing of the dark aura coiling around it. "With this Darkness, all my goals are within reach! All the justu in the world...why have that when I can have the knowledge of EVERY world!"

"You're just as insane as ever." said Jiraiya. "Alright Orochimaru, dark power on not you are not leaving this village alive."

Orochimaru gave a chilling smile, then attacked, thrusting out his arm and launching three snakes from under his sleeve at Jiraiya. The old hermit dodged, then suddenly Orochimaru was next to him, kicking him in the stomach. Jiraiya was thrown back, crashing into a wall. Tsunade was stunned, Orochimaru had never been that fast before. She hit him with three of her super punches, one in the head and two in the chest. This should have broken every bone in his body, instead her 'super strength' barely did more than a normal punch. Orochimaru laughed hit back with a Darkness enhanced punch to her head that knocked her sideways followed by an uppercut to her stomach.

Jiraiya got back up and started making hand signs. With a puff of smoke four Shadow Clones appeared and as one they charged at Orochimaru. As they closed in the each began preparing a Rasengan orb in their hands.

"Reflect." They all hit a barrier of translucent hexagons that sprang up around Orochimaru. The snake sanin smiled at Jiraiya's stunned expression. "Impressive isn't it. It doesn't just stop attacks of course, it throws them right back!" Before he could move Jiraiya was caught in the shields explosion. The clones were all wiped out, while the original was blasted back several meters.

Tsunade had been caught in the blast to, but she had fared better than Jiraiya. She threw another punch but Orochimaru dodge her by leaping back, then he fired four dark bolts that grazed her arms and legs, forcing her to drop to one knee in pain. Before she could get back up he marched up to her, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet.

"Pathetic. You are all so beneath me now." he started to choke the life out of her. "Don't worry Tsunade. A least now you'll be able to see you lover and brother aga-arrck!"

Suddenly he dropped Tsunade. After rubbing her throat and looking up she instantly knew why. Two green spikes were protruding from his chest. The two sanin looked over to see Green Hunter standing beside them. He'd impaled Orochimaru on his tail.

"You lose this round." said Green, calmly as he pulled his tail free. Orochimaru staggered back, clutching at his chest in pain.

"You...there are...two!?" he rasped.

"Yeah, you ninjas aren't the only ones who can clone yourselves." Green cast a cure spell on Tsunade, then went over to help Jiraiya up.

"It...this is meaningless!" Orochimaru continued "My forces are...all over this village...with their power, they will-"

"Fail!" Green finished. "Thorn tricked you, you idiot. Asajj Ventress, Firavious Carron, The Witch King. Do you know what they all have in common? They all lost! That's what those copies out there are made from. No matter how strong Thorn made them they will always fail because that's what they're based on!"

With Team Ten

"YOU WILL PAY IN BLOOOOOOD!"

"Shit!" Ino swore as she ducked under Carron's sword. She, her teammates and sensei had been hitting him with everything they had but he was just shrugging it off. Trying to take over his mind had gone badly for her because his mind was just a mess and Shikamaru's Shadow Possession hadn't worked either because he was too strong for the justsu to work.

The worst thing though was-

"SMITE THE KHOOOORNE! Smite them MY GOD! We...we will be your FIST. And we shall take them by the THROAT! Yes! YES WE WILL!"

"Are you ever going to shut up!" yelled Shikamaru. This only attracted Carron's ire as the deranged replica kicked the boy square in the stomach, sending him flying back. He hit the ground hard, then was pulled out of the way by Asuma just before Carron could stab him while he was down.

"Taste the full power of chaos! Taste my magic and beg for MERCY!"

"Expansion Justsu!" Choji ballooned in size and started spinning on the spot. Once he had enough speed he launched himself at Carron, staggering the Chaos Lord.

"Gahhh! YOU WILL PAY!"

"This isn't work-woah!" Ino was cut off when Carron grabbed her leg and hoisted her up into the air.

"Ino!" cried a horrified Asuma.

Carron took aim with his blade "The sound of your DOOM shall ring in you skull! In your soul! And yours shall be the cries of-!"

BEEP BEEP!

Carron turned and was instantly run over by a large red truck that appeared out of nowhere. He dropped Ino, who was sent sprawling but considering how she was nearly eviscerated she couldn't complain.

"What the hell?" said a stunned Choji. His amazement grew when the truck transformed, becoming a humanoid warrior.

"You've picked the wrong planet." said Optimus Prime as Carron got back up.

"Our enemies hide in MHETAL BAWKSES! The COWARDS! The FOOLS!" Carron raised his blade high and charged at the robot. At the same time Prime unfolded his energon axe and ran to meet the deranged warrior. Prime and Carron locked weapons, both struggling for supremacy.

"No...We cannot lose, we cannot die! HOW CAN WE!?" then Carron's blade shattered and Prime's axe swept through his body, cleaving it in two. There was no blood, Carron's left side disintegrated into data with more data block flickering around his wound.

"B...bawkses." then the rest of him vanished.

Prime walked over to Team Ten "Are you alright?"

"Um...yeah." Asuma managed to say. "Er...not to be rude but, who are you?"

"My name is Optimus Prime. I was summoned here by Hunter to help protect this village." He put away his axe and brought out a blaster rifle. "We should move and finish off the enemies remaining forces. Roll Out!" then he ran off towards the sound of battle.

"Well, you heard him." said Asuma as he took out a new cigarette.

Shikamaru shot him a incredulous look "What? We took down our target. Mission accomplished already."

"The missions isn't accomplished until the last of these pricks are out of our village, now come on!"

Realising that he couldn't sit this out Shikamaru gave a sigh of "What a drag." before following his team.

Over with Team Eight

"Hinata watch out!" screamed Kurenai. The Hyūga heiress just barely dodged Ventress' blade, then was blasted back by a force push.

Team eight was not winning this fight. They'd quickly found out that Ventress' lightsabers could cut through just about anything, which made attacking a nightmare and defending outright impossible. Aside from her skill with her main weapons she also had telekinetic abilities that unlike jutsu didn't require hand signs to work. Genjutsu wasn't working either, probably because the replica wasn't a real person. All this combined to make one hell of a shinobi killer.

Ventress took another few swings at Hinata, then sensing Kiba about to attack from behind she spun on the spot and kicked him in the stomach as he leapt at her, winding him and knocking him back. Kiba was about to get up, only to find the tip of a lightsaber pointed directly at his face. Ventress gave him a sadistic smile, then prepared to deliver the killing blow. Just before she could strike Kurenai sent her staggering back with a kick to the face.

"Any time now Shino!"

Ventress looked over at the young bug tamer, who was down on one knee at the edge of the fight. "It's done!" he announced.

Ventress looked down a saw a horde of tinny beetles swarming up her legs.

"We've got you now!" yelled Kiba. His elation waned when he noticed Ventress was still smiling. She fouled her arms across her chest then flung them out, creating a huge force shockwave that blasted back the insects and the ninjas in one go.

Hinata bolted back up, and immediately wished she hadn't. Ventress was right in front of her and she was now holding her lightsabers in a 'scissor' formation, ready to cut Hinata's head off. "How pathetic." she said with a sneer.

"FOOURRR!" Ventress looked up just in time to see a candy stripped broomstick hit her smack in the face. "Wow you have a hard head! I think I nearly broke my broom." said Candy Witch as she helped Hinata up.

All the members of team eight blinked a few times (including Shino but no one saw that because of his sunglasses), unable to fully accept the strange girl who'd literally appeared out of thin air.

"Hi there, I'm Candy." she said, pre-empting their questions "Hunter called, said you needed a hand here. Wow, I love you're world It's so awesome. You know this is the twentieth I've been to?"

"Hellllo." greeted an overeager Kiba.

Kurenai gave him stern look "Down boy."

"You!" They all looked over at the Ventress copy, who had gotten back up and was looking extremely pissed. "You will pay for that!"

Candy gave her her best 'Oh really' look. "You're going to 'make me pay'? You're a half assed copy of a wannabe sith lord!"

With a cry of rage Ventress charge forwards, bringing both blades down on Candy, who blocked her with her broom, then she levered the sith clone to her left and kicked her in the face. Ventress was stunned. She was a sith warrior, how could a little girl have laid a hand on her? Focusing her rage she launched another attack but Candy was able to block or dodge every swing of her lightsabers with ease, even avoiding her force blasts.

"Wow." breathed Hinata "She's incredible."

"Yeah." said Kiba in a dreamlike voice as he stared at Candy's chest "Real incredible." WHACK "OUCH!" Kurenai hit him on the head.

Ventress took two hits from Candy, staggering back in shock "How...I am Sith, how can I lose to you!?" she demanded.

"Well, you're not the first Sith I've fought. You guys do get kinda predictable after a while." Candy admitted "Course there is one other thing."

"And what's that!?" Ventress almost pleaded "Please I need to know. Tell me TELL ME NOW!"

Her rage returning she charge at Candy again. This time the young witch swung her broom in a circle and in an instant the gently wind turned into a gale, starting at Candy and blowing right at Ventress. The replica took two more steppes, then had to jam her blades into the ground to keep from getting blown away. She struggled to look up and through the wind she saw Candy holding her broom, charging it with lightning magic.

"You have no Heart!" Candy yelled at her, then she spun on the spot and swung her broom like it was a baseball bat. At the end of her swing a bolt of lightning burst from the broom's tip and blasted Ventress. She instantly let go of her blades and flew back, breaking up into blocks of data as she went before finally disappearing altogether.

"And good riddance." said Candy, wiping some dust of her skirt. She looked over at team eight, who were just staring at her open mouthed "Well, don't just stand there, we've still got work to do! Now where's that Hunter gotten to anyway? I've got a score to settle with him."

Over to team seven

"Rasengan!"

"Chidori!"

Naruto and Sasuke both hit the Witch King simultaneously but their attacks did little more than annoy him. He swung his flail, forcing the two of them back. Kakashi dived in, placing an explosive seal on the huge man's chest. It exploded but still didn't stop him.

"Fools! No man can kill me!"

Kakashi's eye widened in realisation. "Naruto! Hold him still!"

"Ok Kakashi-sensei! Multi-Shadowclone Jutsu!" At once twenty Naruto clones appeared on the Witch King struggling to hold him in place.

"Sakura!"

The pink haired kunoichi nodded in understanding. Readying a kunai she ran headlong at the restrained Witch King. Seeing her approach the Nazgûl managed to pull his sword arm free and as Sakura leapt toward him he lashed out, planning to stab her. At the last moment she made a hand sign and when the blade struck 'Sakura' vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log. That's when the real Sakura dropped down from above. The Witch King looked up just in time to see the kunai get plunged into his face. The shadow clones all dispelled and as team seven looked on the Witch King copy dropped to its knees and began to disintegrate.

He pointed at Naruto and said "Ile ianta a' du." before finally breaking up into data blocks.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." said Sasuke, sounding almost disappointed.

Sakura looked over at her teacher "Kakashi-sensei, how did I..."

He looked down at her with his trademark eye smile "Well, he said it himself. No man could kill him. So I figured..." he trailed off, letting his students work the rest out for themselves.

Naruto was of course the last to put two and two together. "HAHAH! I can't believe he was dumb enough to yell out his weakness liken that! What an idiot!" The rest of team seven all sweat dropped.

Their victory was cut short when with a crash Hunter fell right out of the sky , landing a few feet from them. He was followed by a strange man with one angel wing who fell right on top of him, impaling him through the stomach with a sword.

"Hunter! Are you alright!?" cried a worried Naruto.

Hunter shot him an irritated look "DO I BLOODY LOOK ALRIGHT! Oh shit!" Sephiroth lifted him up, then swung his sword left, throwing Hunter off and into the side of a building that partially collapsed on him. He raised his free hand and created a large ball of dark energy and threw it at where Hunter was buried, reducing it to rubble. He turned to face team seven, pulling his sword back for a Flash strike when Hunter burst out from the rubble and hit him with a flying rugby tackle. "You may look like Sephiroth." he pulled back his arm and created a dark bolt "But you're nothing but a pile of zeros and ones! Black Rasengan!" he slammed the bolt into the copies chest, through its body and out the other side. The clone lingered for a moment, then it deleted.

Hunter dropped to his knees, utterly exhausted. As team seven drew closer they got their first look at how much damage had been done to him. In addition to the hole in his chest Hunter had several puncture wounds all over his body along with sections that had broken off giving him the appearance of a damaged porcelain doll. All these injuries were leaking out Darkness like it was blood.

Slowly the wounds closed and Hunter got unsteadily to his feet. "That...really, really hurt. Ow."

"Are you ok?" asked Kakashi again.

"No, but I'll live. Now let's...oh no." Hunter's attention was caught by something off in the distance. The others tried to follow his gaze but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Oh please god no."

Back to the fight with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru hadn't said anything for a while, he just stood there as his unnatural healing factor closed his chest wound for him. Then all at once he started laughing "HahahhaHAHAHAHA! I don't need Thorn or his little pets! I have the power I need in my very hands!"

Green Hunter's eyes widened "NO DON'T!"

Too late. Orochimaru gave in to his new Dark Power and let it consume him. At once he was enveloped by a massive dark aura that exploded outwards, throwing back Green, Tsunade and Jiraiya. When they got back up, Orochimaru was gone, and in his place was a Heartless. An absolutely massive Heartless that took the form of a giant white snake with five heads. In place of fangs each head had the same jagged mouth common to most Heartless, along with the glowing yellow eyes and the Heartless symbol on the top of each head.

"W-what is that thing!" stammered Tsunade. "Did Orochimaru summon it? Where is he?"

"That IS Orochimaru." Both she and Jiraiya looked at Green with disbelief. "That's was happens when you use Darkness too much."

Jiraiya looked back at the towering hydra "Orochimaru...now the man reflects the monster."

Hunter appeared, running over next to them along with Team Seven. "God, he really did it!" he groaned. Teams eight and Ten arrived along with Candy and Optimus.

"That is one...big Heartless." said Candy.

"All of you listen." everyone looked at Hunter "Find everyone who hasn't taken shelter yet and get them out of here. I'll deal with this."

Tsunade looked from Hunter to the Hydra "Hunter, you can't-"

"He's a Heartless now!" He cut her off before she could protest "He's my responsibility! Now go."

"Unfortunately my time has run out." said Prime. "I wish you all the best of luck." then he turned back into his charm form, falling into Hunter's hand.

"Green, get over here." Hunter's copy nodded and walked over to his double, then he walking into him, merging the two back into one. "Candy, thanks for your help but you really don't have to stay."

She folded her arms defensively "Pfft, like I'd miss this fight for anything. Just one thing though." She walked up to Hunter and smacked him over the head with her broom.

"OWW!" What the hell was that for!?" he demanded while rubbing his head in pain.

"For teleporting me away last time."

Hunter grumbled something under his breath. "Ok, time to crank things up! Savage Claw mode!" Hunter ran at the Heartless, changing his arm into its claw form as he went.

Naruto suddenly had an idea "Hey Pervy Sage! Why don't you and Granny used you summons against that thing?"

Jiraiya very nearly facepalmed "Because we don't want a giant monster battle in the middle of the village Nar-"

Suddenly everyone besides Naruto froze. He blinked a few times, then he saw the ring covered in roman numerals around each of them. "Hey...what's going on?" he asked aloud.

"Hello Naruto." Naruto spun round and found himself face to face with Thorn. "I wanted to talk. Privately."

"Talk!" Naruto screamed at him "You hurt my friends, you attack my village and now you want to talk you basterd!" without thinking Naruto tried to punch him but Thorn's scarf came to life and wrapped around him, lifting him off the ground and holding him upside-down in front of Thorn

The Nobody tilted his head a little "One of ignorant of his own origins should not be so quick to insult another's parentage. Naruto Namikaze"

Naruto stopped struggling a blinked a few times "W-what did you call me? M-my last name is Uzumaki."

"That is your mother's family name." answered Thorn "Namikaze" he rotated Naruto so he was now right side up and facing the Hokage Monument "is you father's."

Naruto didn't say anything, he was to shocked. All these years he'd wondered about his parents, who they were and the answer had been almost literally in front of him this whole time. Thorn let him go and the boy dropped to the ground. "If you want to know more, look for me. I'll see you."

He began vanishing into a dark portal "No wait! Come back!" Naruto tried to stop him but he was gone before he could reach him.

That was when the stop spell ended "-uto...Hmm?" Jiraiya saw a change in his student, the boy seemed...shaken all of a sudden. "Are you alright kid?" some of the others started to give him concerned looks to but none seemed aware that they'd all just been frozen in time.

Naruto was quiet for a second, wondering if he should tell them. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

Over to Hunter

"Why. Won't. You. DIE!" Hunter complained as he hit the snake repeatedly in the head. The titan shock from left to right in an attempt to dislodge him but Hunter managed to hold on just barely. Another head surged towards him, jaws open forcing Hunter to leapt away. Instead of biting Hunter the snake sunk its teeth into one of its other heads instead.

"Ha! Take that you big dumb-Oofff!" Hunter was smacked out of the air by one of the other heads, sending him plummeting to the ground. Moments after he fell Hunter was smashed by two almighty blows from the monsters tail. He managed to get back up only to be whacked through several building by a tail strike. Orochimaru's Heartless opened all its mouths and started firing solid beams of dark energy at the spot where Hunter was, turning the area into a cauldron of flame and ruined buildings. Believing it had won the Heartless let out a roar of triumph.

There was a flash of light and the Hydra's middle head was sliced clean off, falling to the earth and disintegrating to Darkness. The other heads all looked inwards towards the remaining stump. Hunter was standing there, but he'd changed. Both arms were now Heartless claws, his mouth was a jagged line and a tail was hanging down from his lower back along with three spines running the length of his back.

"Grrrrr. Tear...you...APART!" he bellowed in a barely human voice. One of the other head tried to bite him but with one slash of his claws he cut it off at the base. He then leapt upwards, slashing through another head at the neck and blowing another two apart with two massive dark bolts fired from each claw. The final head snapped at him but he avoided it and shot back down towards the main body, slicing down as he fell. He hit the ground, and the Hydra split in two, it's body fading into oblivion.

Hunter didn't move for a while then he threw his head back and roared "RAAAAAARRRRRR! GRRAAA-Bawrrk!?"

Hunter staggered as a ball of energy hit him from behind and burst through his chest, leaving a gaping hole behind it. He turned his head and saw Thorn standing close by, still holding out the hand he'd used to fire the ball.

"I win this round."

Hunter gave an enraged roar, then like the Hydra he to disintegrated into Darkness.

Thorn folded his arms behind his back, then he surveyed the destruction around him. "Just as planned."

Twilight Town. DiZ's libratory.

"Still no word from Hunter?" asked Riku. DiZ's angry silence was all the answer he got. "What could be taking him so long?"

"I hope he hasn't gotten into trouble?" said Naminé. Still no response from DiZ.

Riku felt something move behind him. He spun round and- "Gahh!" behind him was a floating ball of darkness with two bright yellow eyes and a broken mouth. It looked a lot like a combo of one of the Dark Ball Heartless and a Possessor. 'How the hell did this thing get in here?' he wondered. Naminé gave a cry of fright and ducked behind some lab equipment while DiZ simply stood up from his chair and observed.

Riku drew his blade and was about to strike it down when it spoke. "Riku!?" he instantly recognised the voice. It was Hunter's no question.

"Hunter?" Riku asked as he lowered his blade.

Naminé heard what he said and slowly came out of hiding "Hunter is that you?"

"No, it's the only other friendly Heartless you know. Of course it's me!" Riku let out a tired sigh. Yeah, this was definitely Hunter. "Now can one of you please tell me just what on earth happened to me!?"


Well, that was interesting. Orochimaru gone, Hunter stuck as a 'ghost' and Thorn trying to get in our favorite blonde ninja's head. Oh what a tangled web we weave. And things will only get worse.

Until next time :)