A Serendipitous Key of Hope

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Naruto.

The Fifth Keyhole: Battle in the Sand

Naruto rises up from bed, before quickly throwing on his clothes from yesterday. Despite it gaining some cuts and burns from the session with Kakashi-sensei, it has managed to repair itself overnight. The magic Yen Sid infused in his clothes makes this possible, since normally it would take clothes of material specifically designed to take in chakra to have a similar effect. Though he doesn't know that, only remembering that the old man enchanted his clothes into this design when he outgrew his usual outfit.

After getting dressed, he rushes out the door and summons the Keyblade, locking it with his key weapon. 'Love this thing.' He grins as he makes his way to the Hokage's main office.

Along the way, who would happen upon his path but his old teacher and big brother figure Iruka. "Iruka-sensei!"

"Naruto!" Iruka waves to his former student, whose sudden appearance actually shocks him. "Haven't seen you since last night. You still owe me for the ramen. And don't say that it's a teacher's job to treat their student; that doesn't work anymore."

"Damn." The blond Keyblader turns over to the tower. "I'll treat you back when I get back from my next mission." He passes by him, making it to the tower.

"Yo, Sakura-chan!" He shouts out to his only female teammate, noting her waiting for him outside of the building.

"Naruto... You're early for once." Sakura looks at him in surprise. A part of her wonders if he really has matured, if only a little.

"Save that for the one eyed scarecrow." He laughs at the joke on his sensei's expense.

"Good point..." Sakura says while sighing and shrugging. "He probably got some weird excuse about a black cat being in the middle of the road."

"Not this time." They fall forward in shock at Kakashi's statement. "Looks like I'm getting better at this."

Naruto stands up stretching. "You're early..."

"What, and lose face so Hokage-sama could get angry at me?" He puts his book away and glances upon him. "Besides, this gives us time for your explanation."

"Wow, you're all into that aren't you..." Naruto mutters, adjusting his slightly hitai-e. "Well, after I left with the old pervert... You know, this is actually kind of long. I'm gonna need a seat."

"And privacy." Kakashi looks around. "It's never good to talk about certain things, even in the safety of ones village."

"Gotcha." Naruto goes inside the building with them, before finding a chair to sit on. "There we go. Now, anyway after we left the village we went through some training. Eventually, some guy in a black coat attacked us and kidnapped me." He pauses slightly, contemplating whether to let them know about the Kyubi being taken from his stomach. Without further thought he continues. "I woke up I don't know how long later in a forest surrounded by monkeys, and had to drag myself to the nearest village. I was really tired and weak so I had to rest and regain my strength."

'Tired and weak... Maybe...' Kakashi eyes his stomach thinking about the seal.

"When I got strong enough to leave the village, I got attacked by some black monsters. Sensei showed up in time after I drove them off, and took me to this place outside of Konoha. I then ended up in old man Yensei's palace, who trained me for the rest of my time. I learned all types of magic spells and fighting moves that I'll be using from now on!" Naruto flicks his fingers, conjuring flames. "Came with a price though..."

"Price?" asks Sakura, being silent for his entire story.

"He said there would be a side effect; now I can't use chakra." Naruto waves his hand, blowing away the flames.

"No chakra?"

"What?!" Sakura snaps. "Why would you do that?! Isn't your dream to become Hokage?!"

"I can still do that!" Naruto gets out of his seat. "I'll be the world's first magic using Hokage, and surpass the others!"

"Naruto, you said you can't use chakra..." Kakashi speaks up, grabbing their attention. "What about that?"

"That what?" He then flinches when he realizes what he means. He then realizes he'll have to tell the rest of the story. "Well, the truth is... That guy, he took the Kyubi."

Now it's his turn to look surprised. "He extracted it from your stomach?"

Sakura looks over at Naruto, already worried about him. She knows about the Biju inside of him from Tsunade, and fully understood the hardship Naruto had to undergo as a child. She also knows that Akatsuki is after him for that. Though a part of her is glad that they won't be targeting him any longer.

"I think that's why I was sent there." Naruto looks down to the side. "Jiraiya wanted me to learn a new power so I could save him. I'm going to use this power to stop Akatsuki and save all the Biju."

'Save them?'

"Kakashi-san!" Before they could converse more about it, Shizune stops before them. "Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan; I was hoping to find you here waiting to report. Team Seven has a mission."

"A mission?" Naruto gets excited. This will be his first mission since he left the village and trained with Yensei and the pervy sage. Getting into the action will be great for showing off his abilities. "Alright, where are we going?"

'Well, he still hasn't changed there...' Kakashi sighs.

"Akatsuki has attacked Sunagakure. They've taken the Kazekage Gaara." Hearing her, Naruto's enthusiasm drops slowly along with his expression knowing exactly what's going on. "Your mission is to reach Sunagakure, report back anything you find out to us, and then support Suna with anything they need."

'Already getting straight to it...' Naruto looks at his hand. He would have his first strike against Akatsuki and saving the Jinchuuriki and the Biju.

"Well, it looks like we have our mission set. You all know what to do." Kakashi disappears in a shunshin.

Naruto grins at the thought of being on a mission again, but deep inside he's truly worried about Gaara. If that man was behind the kidnapping then Gaara could already be losing his Biju right now. He's already prepared for travel, as he's carrying his tools and wearing all he needs to wear. Added to the fact the Keyblade doesn't take up space he can go right away. So he goes straight to the village entrance to await Kakashi and Sakura, the latter of which is already gone.

After only a few minutes of waiting, Team Seven gathers. Kakashi says, "I hope you're all ready for this. It'll be a three day trip."

"Let's make it two and a half." Naruto nods in agreement, taking a step out of the village.

The team of three take off, moving like the wind towards the land of sand. Along the way they meet up with Temari, who they tell of the situation before bringing her along.

Though it is a long trip, the four reach Sunagakure in two and a half days. A Suna Jonin awaits them. "Oh, Temari-san was with you? Good." The Jonin leads them towards a hospital. "We have something to tell you."

"Is it about the Kazekage?" Temari asks, being as serious and formal as she can despite being scared.

"Yes. Kankurou-san went after them and was caught in the enemy's poison," she says, causing Temari to worry even more. "Even worse, we have no way of neutralizing it."

The blond Jonin clenches her fists tightly. Sakura places a hand on her shoulder, saying, "Let me examine him."

She goes inside to see to Kankurou, while Naruto looks off into the distance. Kakashi notices this, saying, "Naruto, you coming?"

"Just go, I'll wait out here," he replies, his eyes turning stern and serious when he notices someone walking by. As they go inside, Naruto follows after the person. They walk into an opening, where the mysterious shinobi turns to face him. "To think the Heartless problem is getting this bad."

The man explodes into darkness, transforming into a Heartless; this one resembles an Arabian thug what with its bandanna over the head and the cutlass it holds. "An Emblem Heartless. Looks like a Bandit."

The Bandit lunges at Naruto swinging for a decapitation, but he ducks underneath and summons his Keyblade. He stabs it in the air before throwing boomerang style cutting it in two. "Well, if it's just an Emblem Heartless then this world isn't as dark as he said."

Naruto returns the sword before going back to find the others. Inside he sees Sakura coming out with an old lady. "What's going on?"

"Sakura extracted the poison from Kankurou's body, and now they're going to gather herbs for an antidote," Kakashi tells him.

'Wait, if she extracted the poison then why... Forget it.' Naruto shrugs ignoring the logic behind that. "So then when she's done we can go out and save Gaara right?"

"First..." Kakashi turns to the other guards in the room. "What came of the pursuit of Akatsuki?"

"Kankurou-san went after them alone," says the guardsman Baki.

"Then we've already lost them..." The cycloptic Jonin thinks of another idea. "Take me to where they fought; there may be something I can use."

"Don't bother..." Kankurou rises up from the bed. "There were two enemies. One of them abducted Gaara so follow his scent. Even if they were to split up, one of my puppets got a bit of the other's clothing so use that."

"Good..."

Naruto looks among the ninjas feeling a bit of hope coming up. With Kakashi's track dogs they can seek out Gaara no matter where he is. They're definitely going to save Gaara, and put a stop to Akatsuki. He'll worry about his task later.

Coming out of his thoughts he sees Sakura and the old lady have returned to create the antidote in the form of a type of tea. Naruto then sees the lady asking Kankurou about someone named Sasori, someone he believes is obviously the one he fought and not the one Gaara fought. If he's a puppet master like Kankurou then fighting him will be a bit of a challenge.

"Sasori of the Red Sand... If it's okay, I'd like to know more about the one who attacked," Kakashi says to the Sand ninjas.

The old lady, who Naruto hears is named Chiyo, tells him about Deidara and his claymotion bombs. She also mentions he was aided by strange demons with red heart symbols on them, something that instantly grasps Naruto's attention.

"So, Akatsuki is using Heartless after all..." he mutters, causing some of the group to stare at him.

"What was that?" Chiyo asks him.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. How's the cure coming along?" he asks, quickly turning the subject around to avoid answering.

"It's done." Sakura pours the medicine as tea, before serving it to Kankurou. "Drink it all down. The paralysis won't wear off for a while, so please get some rest."

"Alright, let's get to it!" Naruto steps outside stretching.

After some words are exchanged, Kakashi summons his ninken before leading the group out. Him, Naruto, Sakura and Chiyo head out following Pakkun and the others. They move fast ahead, leaving the desert to reach a forest.

Leading the group, Kakashi looks back to see Naruto. "Naruto, earlier you mentioned something about Heartless." He flinches at the response, realizing he heard him. He doesn't notice, but the old lady Chiyo raises her head. "What does that have to do with Akatsuki?"

Naruto weakly chuckles. "You heard that huh?"

"Naruto, what are you hiding?" asks Sakura, about ready to clobber him.

The blond warrior groans inwardly. He can't keep it a secret forever. "That's what those 'demons' are, the ones that attacked Gaara. But they're not demons. The Heartless are much more than that."

"What are they anyway?"

"Well, the Heartless are..." Naruto groans as he attempts to piece together the information Yen Sid told him. He's not really good at making an explanation for complicated things. "Hmm... I guess you can say they're the darkness in people's hearts turned into ghouls or something; I wasn't really paying attention to what Yensei said. What I do understand is that if they stick around any longer they'll destroy the world."

"Destroy the world?" Sakura repeats in shock. "You have to fight these dangerous things?"

"Pretty much." He shrugs. "No one else can after all, and the training to fight them made me stronger than I've ever been even though I can't use chakra anymore."

"How?" Chiyo's words grasps his attention now. "Regular weapons do not work on them without chakra."

"How do you know that?" She flinches, looking away when she realizes what she said.

Before he could question her, they stop up ahead in a clearing where someone in Akatsuki cloaks awaits them. His slick black hair, those Sharingan eyes, the lone ring on his left hand; Naruto instantly recognizes him as Sasuke's brother, Itachi Uchiha.

"You! Itachi!" Team Seven prepare themselves against the Akatsuki member.

Itachi glances over at Naruto, pointing at him saying, "You will come quietly to me, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Huh?" This confuses him. Why would they want him when they got Kurama? Putting that aside, he's obviously not going to let him pass to save Gaara. "Nice try; you're not getting me no matter what!"

'Akatsuki is still after him?' Kakashi wonders in his mind. He frees the Sharingan, saying, "Everyone, don't look into his eyes. Itachi is known to be excellent at Genjutsu, and if you're caught in the Tsukuyomi it's all over."

"Genjutsu... That's when he uses chakra to mess with the chakra in my head right?" Naruto asks before rushing in.

"Wait, Naruto!" Sakura calls out.

"That fool..." Chiyo speaks.

"Your Tsukuyomi whatever it is won't work on me like it did Sasuke!" Naruto draws a tanto from his pocket before slashing at him. But when he strikes, he notices something wrong. That's when he explodes, blowing Naruto back.

"A Clone Explosion Technique?" Kakashi says when the smoke clears. "Everyone, stay back!" He rushes forward catching Naruto, who flips off of him for the Jonin to throw shuriken at Itachi.

The Uchiha throws a shuriken at an angle towards one, causing it to bounce and scatter them, leaving him without a blade to be touched. He then initiates a technique. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" Several fireballs shoot out before closing in on them.

Everyone jumps away from the flames. Kakashi lands, before noticing a larger fireball coming his way. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" It razes down a path, leaving nothing left in its wake. Though looking on Itachi notes one lone hole, and quickly steps back to avoid a fist to the face from Kakashi. He then grapples with him, using his eye power. "You..."

A few feet behind him, Kakashi rises up from the hole. "Naruto, now! Finish him off with my clone!"

Out from nowhere Naruto rushes fast towards them summoning the Keyblade. In a swift stroke he cuts through both the clone and Itachi in a stream of light, before coming at him from behind for a follow up strike. The clone expels into smoke before Itachi falls. Naruto steps away as he collapses on his back, blood coming from his wounds.

"Wow... He got him..." Sakura whispers from her hiding place in the trees seeing him defeat Itachi.

'That sword!' Chiyo widens her aged eyes in surprise to see the Keyblade, which disappears in a flash of light.

Naruto looks down at Itachi, noticing something wrong. "What is this?"

"This is definitely strange..." Kakashi puts away his Sharingan. Sakura and Chiyo come out to witness the body, to which the old lady gives her statement. "You know this person?"

"Yeah. He's a Jonin from my village, Yuura," she says, revealing the figure as a brand new person unlike who they were just fighting a moment ago.

"Was he a spy?" Sakura asks him.

"No... He was working hard for four years as a leader," Chiyo says.

"Then maybe he was just using the Henge," Naruto adds.

"No, the Uchiha have practiced and developed the Gokakyu. There's no way this can be done with a simple Henge... They may have someone excellent in techniques on their end," Kakashi reasons, feeling even more worried. "Even worse, this was all a decoy. The real Akatsuki are at their hideout; this was obviously a diversion."

"Damn it!" Naruto curses, knowing exactly what's going on now. "Then they're extracting Gaara right now."

"We haven't a moment to lose." The group takes off to their previous destination.

Elsewhere...

In a dark cave a multi-eyed statue exists. On its chest the Heartless symbol rests on it. Its mouth gathers energy from a figure floating in a sphere of chakra, Gaara. And on all but 1 of its fingers the members of Akatsuki stand with the Tiger seal.

"The jutsu has been lifted. Zetsu, dispose of the two used," says the leader with ripple eyes.

"Understood."

"Itachi, who were on your end? And how many?"

"One four man group; from Konoha, Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, and the Kyubi Jinchuuriki Naruto Uzumaki, and from Suna an advisor from the Sand Chiyo." Sasori flinches at the mention of his grandmother Chiyo.

"Is that so? Then the Kyubi Jinchuuriki has returned. We can finish what he failed to do years ago. Sasori, Deidara, get them when we're done. Make sure you capture that Naruto alive."

They continue to collect Gaara's Biju chakra well into the night, occasionally kept awake and slightly less bored by Kisame stating the movies he's seen and Zetsu making jokes. By morning the last of the demon's energy is extracted, taking the form of a spherical light. It collects the energy from the beast's mouth and enters its body, causing one of its closed eyes to open.

Gaara hits the ground painfully, demon chakra slowly dissipating from him. "And now, it is done."

Though as soon as he says that, his eyes glance over to a dark portal before the statue. There it shows a vision of a group of Konoha Shinobi standing before a cave covered by a rock. "They're here. Handle the Shinobi as I said, and the rest of you scatter."

Sasori then turns over to Itachi. "Jinchuuriki huh? So, what kind of person is he? So I know who not to kill..."

The Uchiha remains silent. "Itachi, tell him."

On his orders, he says, "He'll be the loud one."

"What?"

"What kind of description is that?" Deidara complains. Unfortunately, he disappears without another word.

The duo of Deidara and Sasori walk off the statue before going towards the shadow portal.

Kenshin: That brings this chapter to an end.

Yusei: Next time Sasori's final hour is revealed when he battles Konoha to capture Naruto.