A Serendipitous Key of Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Naruto.
The Sixth Keyhole: Vs. Akatsuki
"HYA!" Taijutsu Jonin specialist Might Guy strikes a stone boulder, which shakes with nothing else to follow up. Though he does notice a ripple around it. "A barrier."
"That must be what that is for." His most fable apprentice Lee looks up at the hole above them. "What is that?"
"It looks like a keyhole," says fellow member Tenten looking at it. "What kind of fuinjutsu uses a keyhole?"
"But the scent brought up here..." says the other member Neji as he looks to the ninken Pakkun on his shoulder.
"Well, looks like you guys made it before us." Guy looks aside to see who it was, grinning at the sight of Team Seven and Chiyo.
"You're late, Kakashi."
"Had a bit of trouble on the way," he replies as he and the others step onto the water.
"Naruto-kun! Sakura-chan!" Lee says seeing his friend/rival and crush together. "What's with your clothes?"
"I took a level in badass," Naruto tells him as he looks up at the keyhole. Thinking, he remembers something like that in his training.
"Well, I'll be leaving. I'll only get in the way if I stay," Pakkun says before disappearing into smoke. Before he does, Kakashi thanks him for his hard work.
"Right, first off we deal with this barrier," Guy says staring up at it. "Any ideas Kakashi?"
"No. This one's new to me," he says looking at it. It looks as if it's made for a key. That's when it hits him. "Naruto, can you-"
"Yeah." He walks up to it, summoning the Keyblade reversed to how he usually holds it. "Yensei said that the Keyblade could open any locks shaped like a keyhole, so this means..." He points at the keyhole. Light swirls around the tip and fires, piercing the hole. A lock sound echoes from it, and the hole vanishes along with the rest of the barrier.
"It's gone!" Neji remarks in shock.
"I got this then." Sakura rears her fist back and jumps at the boulder.
"Get ready! We'll go in a button hook formation!" Kakashi shouts, just before she shatters it to pieces. Light pierces into the cave, giving them a decrepit view of what's inside. As the remains fall around them, the eight man team enter into the cave. There two figures stand waiting for them, Deidara and Sasori. Between them Gaara's body rests, setting off red flags.
'Sasori... It really is you.' Chiyo fears.
Naruto burns with anger seeing Gaara's body lying unconscious. His eyes gather tears trying not to believe in what he sees. Even though he survived, he believes Gaara could survive miraculously. But seeing him like that, he's beginning to think it may not be true. "You bastards! I'm going to smash you to pieces!"
"Loud huh? Yeah, that's our Jinchuuriki," Sasori says as he narrows his eyes towards the blond.
Naruto grips the Keyblade, before remembering his training. He should never let hatred get the best of him; should the darkness in his heart take over he would never be able to save anyone. The Keyblade wielder draws out shuriken as the members of Akatsuki converse about art, preparing to throw them at any moment.
Deidara gets up on his clay motion bird flying away with Gaara's body in its mouth. Naruto throws the shuriken as it gains altitude, but each are blocked by Sasori's tail. "You're my opponent."
"Fat chance." Naruto chases after the fleeing Gaara, but is stopped when a couple of Heartless stand in his way. "These guys again?"
"Naruto, we'll get Gaara back." Kakashi tells him as he, Gai and Tenten chase after the airborne ninja.
"Please..." His eyes turn back to the Heartless, more of which appear within the cave. The Keyblade wielder recognizes them as Soldiers, Shadows, Bandits and Large Bodies appear. "Everyone, focus on Sasori. I'll handle the Heartless."
"So that's what these are..." Tenten questions looking at the dark monsters. Neji can be seen using the Byakugan scanning them, and can tell only that they have bodies made of complete darkness, save for the Emblem Heartless which have a darkened heart inside all of the shadow.
As Neji questions what exactly it is they are, Naruto goes to work cutting them down. Tenten also watches him battle, curious as to how his weapon is cutting through them like paper even though it's obviously blunt.
Tenten, Neji and Sakura turn their attention to Sasori as Naruto fights. Chiyo, her eyes never leaving him, says, "Prepare yourself. Sasori is an expert at puppetry. Even the form you see before you is a puppet he wears as armor."
"It is?" Sakura asks. Chiyo then takes out several kunai, using them and controlling them through chakra threads to cut away Sasori's cloak to fully reveal his puppet body.
"I figured as much. It's Hiruko," states the old lady.
"That's a good idea. Puppet masters are always in the open as they control their weapons," Tenten says as she prepares a scroll. "So then we bust open that puppet?"
"I could do it myself, but there's a chance he's upgraded the armor and made changes in the time he's had it," Chiyo tells her. After Neji asks her how she could know this, her answer is simple. "Of course I would know my grandson's abilities."
"Sasori is your grandson?" Sakura repeats.
"Sheesh, you're a broken record," she mutters, pissing the young girl off. "Only me and Sakura will go in. If there's too many of us, more than likely one of us will get caught in the traps. All of his weapons are laced with poison; the rest of you cover us when the body is destroyed and the real Sasori escapes. Let's go."
"Right!" Sakura and Chiyo go in to attack the puppet, who pulls off his mask revealing a trap that fires pins. They avoid them with ease, separating. Sasori then fires the big hand at Sakura, which splits apart to reveal weapons that fire in all direction. Sakura manages to avoid them all, taking the Akatsuki member and the others by surprise.
She and Chiyo then move in to attack Sasori, who raises his tail to impale her. Chiyo pulls back, revealing chakra threads that stall the bladed tail, leaving Sakura open to punch and obliterate the puppet with her punch.
The real body jumps out, to which Tenten throws her kunai and pierces the upper shoulder. "So that's what's going on. You were able to dodge them all because my grandmother was controlling you with chakra threads." Sasori raises his head, revealing his youthful appearance surprising everyone.
'That's Sasori's true appearance?' Tenten wonders.
"He's...so young?" Sakura questions.
"That's impossible. How are you still like that, so young?" Chiyo asks in a demanding tone.
Neji uses his Byakugan, shocked by what he sees. "He's a puppet." The others look at him in shock. "All that's left of him is his heart in the left lung."
Sasori holds up a scroll. "Since it's come to this, I'll use what I brought with me." He opens and unseals what's inside, which is revealed to be a single puppet.
Chiyo stares in shock at it, recognizes the person. "Sandaime Kazekage?"
"What?!" Everyone else exclaims. Naruto continues to fight against the Heartless, left with only two Large Bodies.
Chiyo then explains that the Sandaime Kazekage had disappeared over ten years ago, when Sasori defected. She then realizes that he killed him, cleaned him out and preserved him as a puppet like all his others, before mentioning this is the third time he's gone after those with the Kazekage title.
Sakura asks about this, to which she replies, "He was the one who worked with Orochimaru to kill the Yondaime, Gaara's father. And now the Sandaime and Gaara..."
"I wasn't involved with that. It was my subordinate," Sasori retorts. "Then again, him and I were partnered before in Akatsuki so we did do many things..."
Hearing that, Sakura gains a new determination to defeat him. Because if she can get answers out of him, she can learn more of Orochimaru, and thus, save Sasuke.
"Let's end this." The Kazekage puppet flies towards Sakura, at a speed even Chiyo pulling her away couldn't avoid. It summons blades along its left arm, but thanks to Tenten she uses a wire and a kunai to pull it back.
"Neji-san!"
"I know!" Neji goes after Sasori, but is blocked by a Large Body appearing in his way. He strikes it in the belly using the Juken style, causing it to tumble backwards.
Naruto finishes pounding down the last Shadow, turning over to see the situation. The Kazekage Puppet opens its left arm sending a flurry of hands after Sakura, while Sasori easily defends himself with dodging from Neji. Tenten is still holding the puppet back while preparing a scroll.
When the puppet releases a poisonous gas cloud that captures Sakura inside, he shouts, "Sakura-chan," before holding his hand forward. "Wind!" Wind collects in his hand before he fires it, blowing away the gas. There he also sees Sakura is being held by a wire and kunai, just like the puppet with Tenten.
Seeing it, he cuts through the wire with ease, before turning his attention to Sasori and the puppet. "You guys are after me right? Then why send small fry?"
"Having the Keyblade doesn't make you a threat to Akatsuki," is his response. The puppet arms fire a flurry of kunai at Naruto.
"Look out; they're poisonous!" Chiyo shouts.
Naruto swings, guarding himself from the knives using offensive strength. The force of his move blows away the kunai. One manages to strike his head, luckily only hitting his forehead protector. "Go!"
"Sogo: Tessasai!" Tenten opens her scroll over top of Sasori, sending a flurry of weapons down at him from above. Neji jumps away at the last second, letting them fall upon the missing ninja and the Heartless.
Sasori draws back the Kazekage puppet to guard himself, successfully protecting himself. "Nice try."
"Not done." Tenten pulls her sleeve up and ignites a tag on her wrist. All the weapons surrounding Sasori explode, rocking the cave's foundation. The smoke slowly clears away, revealing a dome of black sand. "What's that?!"
Neji peers inside. "He's still in there. His puppet... it's making this black sand."
"What?" Sakura looks at the dome, as it peels away to reveal both Sasori and his puppet. "He's still in one piece!"
"That's what protected him? But how? How could a puppet use a jutsu?" Naruto asks.
"Living Puppet; that's Sasori's specialty. He uses the body of living people and turn them into puppets, so he can use their techniques like they were alive," Chiyo explains.
"Time to take this seriously." The black sand forms into spears and blocks, which fire out at everyone.
"Dodge! Those are controlled by magnetic force, so metal weapons are useless!" Despite their warning, the attacks move at a fast pace. Neji gets to Tenten using Kaiten to protect her and himself while Chiyo summons two new puppets, one to send away Sakura while the other protects her with a chakra shield.
Naruto on the other hand has to strike away all of the ones after him. As Chiyo calls him an idiot for not dodging, he sends the Keyblade away before rushing in. The puppet grabs Naruto and flips him in the air.
"Naruto!" Sakura calls out before rushing in. The puppet gathers the sand in a giant block and throws it at her.
"Sakura-chan, punch it back with your monstrous strength!" he shouts while descending towards Sasori.
'Monstrous huh!?' Though pissed, Sakura screams, "Shannaro," before punching the block back hitting both of her targets. The hit is direct, but Sasori has it disperse into sand.
Naruto gathers light in his hands, which he uses to strike the ground and ricochet him after Sasori and the puppet. Once he closes in, he turns his body to avoid its blades, before elbowing it in the face in the air away from the puppeteer. He then holds a hand out to Sasori. "Fire!" A ball of flames blasts the Akatsuki artist. The blond then flips onto his feet.
"Amazing... Naruto's reflexes are much faster than before." Neji looks on in awe at Naruto's abilities, having witnessed his every movement using the Byakugan.
"That's right... He was even faster than Sensei back in training..." Sakura comments seeing him effectively separate the two.
Naruto looks up seeing the puppet fall. In a flash, Naruto summons the Keyblade and cuts it to pieces. "Now there's nothing to protect you anymore."
Sasori comes out from the flames, his cloak having burned away to reveal his true appearance. As Neji said, he's truly a man made puppet, what with his wire cable stomach, gyro blades on the back and the circle on his heart. "I can't believe this. None of them are ever going to let me live it down, that it took me this long to kill a bunch of kids and an old lady, and to capture the Jinchuuriki. That I would even need to use this technique sickens me."
Sasori draws a scroll from his back, summoning a vast array of puppets in black cloaks. "This army of puppets I took down a country with will be more than enough for you all."
"You wanna bet?" Naruto states before holding a sword stance. Darkness gathers around Sasori, causing a dark look to form in his eyes and a Heartless shaped like a lizard to form. 'Those eyes... The darkness in his heart is taking over.' "Everyone, stay back. I'll handle this."
"Are you crazy?! You can't defeat them all by yourself!" Sakura tells him.
"When there's an opening, go in and hold him down." Naruto summons a ball of fire over his head and launches it at Sasori and his army. It explodes with a wide splash radius, although a few puppets can be seen coming out relatively unharmed.
As this happens, Neji and Tenten get struck by an invisible force. The Hyuga looks using his 360 degree vision, catching the invisible Heartless going towards Chiyo and Sakura. "Sakura!"
They get blindsided by its swiping arms. It then grabs Chiyo tightening its grip on her. "Chiyo-san!" Sakura forces herself up to kick the arm of the Heartless loose. She then watches the wavy movements it makes before punching it forward, causing it to bust through the back of the cave and cause it to collapse from behind. The others dodge and avoid the falling stones large enough to flatten them, the light of day shining down upon them.
Naruto rushes to them but gets blocked by the puppets in his way. Sasori comes at him from behind to stab him. Naruto quickly jumps to the left and swings, smacking the puppet man away. "Blizzard Edge." He swings, releasing a wave of snow that blows the puppets away. He then rushes towards the Heartless strikes with the Keyblade, sending it flying back to Sasori.
Sasori stands angrily, sending his army of remaining puppets at Naruto. "Stop." Naruto disappears in a flash, slicing through the puppets as he made his way towards Sasori. He reappears after four seconds behind the puppeteer, who explodes into several pieces. He then continues towards the Heartless cutting it down. The monster falls forward, missing Naruto.
Naruto looks back at the puppeteer, who rises slowly coming back together. He rears his Keyblade back ready to face the ninja. The Heartless picks itself back up, sparking with lightning between invisible and visible. Both charge at him, to which the others watching yell to warn him. In a split second reaction, he jumps upward letting the horn impale through Sasori's left chest compartment. Blood pours out from the compartment, causing the body to remain enveloped in darkness.
Before letting it go, Naruto slashes the creature's head off. The lizard falls back down, glittering in light as a blue heart flies from its body.
As everyone watches Sasori and the Heartless disappear, the others watch in amazement at Naruto's excellent performance. He takes in a deep breath before he looks over to the others. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, thanks Naruto..." Sakura says as he comes her way, his key shaped sword returning to wherever it goes. Even after seeing him in action before, she still can't believe this is the same Naruto who would get in trouble more than getting out of it. He really has grown since the time he and Sasuke faced eachother.
Neji approaches him. "Naruto, that is you right?"
"Yeah. What, do your eyes deceive?" Neji looks at his circular system using the Byakugan, being the only one to notice the change in his body as it lacks chakra. Even for a civilian they would have some form of chakra in their system if even a little. "If you're looking for chakra, don't bother. It's all gone, in place of magical energy called Mana."
"Mana?"
"I'll tell you later. We gotta see if Kakashi-sensei and the others got Gaara!" Naruto rushes off in the direction he remembers Deidara flew off in.
Sakura picks herself up about to go after him, as does Neji while helping up Tenten. Chiyo picks herself up looking over at where Sasori faded away, sighing.
"Sasori..."
Up ahead in the forest, Kakashi and Gai open up the clay head of Deidara's bird. Inside Gaara's body rests, until it's completely open and he falls out. Gai pulls him out from the clay and lays him on the ground. He places a hand on his sternum, his eyes widening. "The Kazekage..."
"What is it, Gai-sensei?" Lee asks.
"He's alive." The other shinobi look at Gaara as Gai helps him up.
"That's impossible..." Kakashi checks the boy's vitals, only to reenact the same confusion as earlier. He then notes that his breathing is starting to become more apparent, to the point where the Kazekage's eyes begin to shake.
Gaara awakens, sitting up shortly after crossing the boundaries of dreams and reality. "Where am I?"
"Sensei!" They look down the forest to see Naruto and the others coming. He sees Gaara and gasps, tears threatening to form. "Gaara!"
"Gaara?" Chiyo is just as surprised to see Gaara alive as well. For someone to live despite having the Biju extracted from their body is beyond her.
"Naruto..." Gaara speaks, looking up to his best friend. His heart swells with gratitude for his actions.
"I always believed, always believed you would be okay..." Naruto reaches out and hugs the red haired shinobi, despite the embarrassing show it's displaying.
"Naruto, I'm okay. You can let go now..." Gaara pushes the blond off. His friend wipes away the tears despite still being emotional. "What happened?"
"You got captured by Akatsuki," Naruto tells him.
Chiyo goes to him, checking his left shoulder. "It's gone... The seal is missing from you... They took the Biju from you."
"How? I mean, wouldn't he be dead then like you guys said?" Sakura asks with the utmost confusion.
'Something's not right here.' "Well, at the very least Gaara is safe." Kakashi eye smiles while patting Sakura's shoulder.
Elsewhere, Deidara pokes his head out from a while away watching the scene. His body is buried underneath dirt, having been hiding. 'Aw fuck! So no only is Sasori-san dead, but that guy is alive?! I'd better get out of here.' He vanishes into a portal of darkness.
Yusei: That brings this chapter to an end.
Manabu: Next time Naruto meets Sasuke.