A Serendipitous Key of Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or Shonen Jump.
-Omake-
Naruto walks through the murky swamps of Dagobah, reaching an opening for him and R9-D9, pronounced Arkyu-Deekyu. "I know R9. I'm alone now."
"Do not fret young one. Master Jiraiya is always with you," says a familiar voice. Naruto turns around and sees his former trainer, the spirit form of Jedi Master Kakashi.
"Kakashi, why didn't you tell me Darth Vader was my father? You said he betrayed my father, but you lied." Naruto isn't angry with him, but he is virtually upset.
"I technically didn't lie." Kakashi takes a step to the side. "Your father was seduced by the dark side. Once he took the name Darth Vader he stopped being Minato Skywalker, which was the good in him. So what I said was true, from a certain point of view."
"A certain point of view?"
"Perspective controls people's emotions. Naruto, imagine if I told you the truth; your father became the Sith Lord who ruled the men who burned down your foster parents and ordered the destruction of an entire world... You would have felt so upset you may have fallen to the dark side yourself. Even more, you would have tried to bring him back and lost your life in the process."
Naruto's eyes narrow with sadness. "Kakashi, you're asking me to kill my father."
"I too tried to bring him back; I thought there was good in him too, but it was too late. That's why I sent you here, so you can become stronger than your father."
"... You know, he mentioned something too; there's another Jedi. But my mom's dead right?"
"He meant the princess." This takes him by surprise.
"Wait, so Sakura is Force sensitive too? How is that possible?"
"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves," says another voice. He turns around to see Jiraiya in spirit form coming forth. "You might think we're lying to you, but this is all true. You just have to look at things from a certain point of view."
Naruto looks between them with narrow eyes; he's starting to think they're screwing with him. Kakashi then says, "So you see, it's just how you look at things."
He's not convinced however. A hunch hits his mind as he asks, "So, then can you tell me if Sakura and I are related? We kind of already made out."
Their smiles drop. The silver haired Jedi then says, "Oh, right. Umm..." He gives a pregnant pause. "Yeah man, she's your sister." Almost immediately, the blond Padawan is grossed out.
"Sorry about that we are."
The XIV Keyhole: Naruto in Wonderland
It's been a day since Naruto fought with Donald and Goofy against the Heartless in Traverse Town. After coming to terms with the fact that they're a duck and a dog, Naruto heads out on the Gummi Ship together to find the next world. He makes haste; the longer he waits around the sooner Akatsuki and that other group get to their goal. We come to our heroes out in space, coming to a nearby world.
"There's a world!" Donald shouts out, pointing over at the nearest planet before them.
"Finally!" Naruto groans, glad to finally get out of his seat and move around. If only Yensei could get him Keyblade Armor he'd be able to survive the vacuum of space. He can't even figure out the controls to watch tv.
Donald lands the Lego ship just under the atmosphere. Once clear, the impatient Keybearer jumps out with his two compatriots. The world hoppers float gracefully until eventually reaching the bottom of what looks like a building. How they entered it they don't understand, but it's just something they accept; mostly because they don't have a choice.
Goofy is the only one to suffer an unfortunate fall, while the others stand tall looking around for anyone. Naruto notes a door and opens it, only to be annoyed; there's a smaller door behind it. He pulls that, coming to another smaller door. This repeats over and over until he stops to a small opening.
"... Really?" He and the others crouch down and crawl through, unfortunately having to pull Goofy in since he's bigger. Then they notice a new issue; they're trapped in a room. It's shaped like a kitchen, with the only door accessible past their point being too small for them.
"Who the heck would use something this small?" Naruto asks looking at the cartoonishy door.
"It's not that; you're just too big."
All three back away in shock, Donald shouting, "Wah! It talked!" Indeed, the doorknob has a face, and speaks out to them.
"Could you be quiet? Woke me up from my nap."
"Good mornin'." Goofy politely greets him, while the doorknob yawns and prepares to go to sleep.
"Wait! How do we go through you?" Naruto asks, though realizes he sounds kind of dirty.
"Table has stuff to shrink and grow." These are the doorknob's last words before it goes to sleep. Naruto stands back up to reach the table, and picks up a bottle and some bread. He takes a sip, and immediately shrinks down to the floor.
"Whoa! Naruto really did shrink!" Goofy says seeing the blond swordsman no bigger than his boots.
"Which means the bread must grow!" Donald realizes, before picking up the bottle to sip himself.
Goofy follows suit, and all three now stand small enough to enter the door. Naruto then reaches out to open the door, only to annoy and harm the knob. He says, "Knock it off! I'm locked!"
"What?!" This annoys Donald, who wonders why he bothered telling them to shrink if he's locked.
"Geez, you're much more annoying than she was. Here." A key then magically appears on top of the table. Naruto shrugs before jumping up to the top using his magic to enhance his abilities. He then kicks the key down and pulls off crumbs of bread. As Donald and Goofy dodge the key, Naruto jumps down floating using Aero.
"Alright, let's go."
"Why didn't you just use your sword to unlock him?" asks the talking duck.
He simply shrugs. "Meh. I was going up to get some crumbs in case we need to get bigger later on, so I was like 'might as well'."
Goofy chuckles before lifting up the key, and uses it to unlock the lazy door. They then pass through, entering a vast jungle of weirdness and wonder. "What to do... What do you guys think?"
"Hmm..." Donald thinks of where to go next.
"Hey look!" Goofy points up ahead at a ruined section of the forest. They see a huge opening with claw marks adorning trees and the ground itself. "Something dangerous must have happened. Could have been the Heartless."
"Probably." Naruto surmises, jumping on a mushroom plant and checking the claw mark. "It doesn't look like a Heartless, unless it's one of those big ones."
"Maybe it's cause we're small," says Donald looking around. "Let's follow that destruction!"
"Let's go!" The trio head off in the direction of the ruined.
As they continue, night falls overhead. Along the way, they spot a piece of paper floating through the wind down before them. Goofy reaches out and falls, before Naruto catches it with his Keyblade. "What's this?"
Donald looks it over, frowning when he can't recognize the language. "What kind of writing is this?"
Naruto, holding the paper upside down now, drops his hand down which allows Goofy to get an offhanded look at it. "This is just the weirdest world ever."
"Hey wait!" Goofy takes the paper and stands back up, before holding it to them. "Donald, you got any ice?"
"Hmm..." Donald makes a crystal ice shard and hands it to Goofy, who holds it in front of the paper. "What's this about?"
"Oh!" Naruto realizes what he's doing, seeing the words through the glass are reversed. In the end, the words were just backwards. Being a little dim he would never have noticed without Goofy. "Thanks Goof!"
The blond swordsman then reads it aloud.
"'And, hath thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy."
The three look to eachother in confusion. Eventually, Goofy asks, "What's a Jabberwork?"
"Jabberwock!" Donald corrects.
"Slain... Sounds like someone killed something," Naruto says, though this is just a guess. He doesn't understand the poem that well. But that much he does get, as well as this; this is an incomplete poem. "Think it has anything to do with the Heartless?"
"Oh, why hello there." The trio move to the edge of their nerves the moment they hear someone speak. A short look around lets them see a mouth of teeth bouncing up and down on a tree. "This is just one full day of surprises."
"What the heck is going on? Am I dreaming?" Donald hits Naruto on the top of the head. "Ow! What'd you do that for?!"
"Of course you're not dreaming!"
"Oh, hold on." Two eyes poof into appears, rolling until focusing on the trio of misfit heroes. The rest of its body poofs into existence soon, revealing itself to be a black and blue furred feline. "And what manner of creatures are you?"
Naruto scuffs. "That's allot of talk coming from a cat."
"I am a Cheshire Cat, if you please," he replies, lifting his tail to tip the top of his head like a hat. "Have you come the same way as Alice?"
"Who?" Goofy asks.
"Just tell us what this weird place is!" shouts the brazen white duck.
"You mean to tell me you journeyed into Wonderland without knowing of this place? Just like Alice and the shadows." Upon mention of the shadows, the heroes glance to eachother. "You would do best to be on your way unless you can fight the way he did."
"Now you're not making sense. Tell us what these shadows are!" Naruto says, holding up the Kingdom Key.
"Very well. You may be able to help that poor girl." The cat disappears.
"Where'd he go?" After the latest question of the blue eyed swordsman, Donald quacks wildly when the Cheshire appears behind them.
"Ten years ago, a monster appeared in Wonderland and caused havoc. It was called the Jabberwock." Immediately a connection forms to the poem they just found, which begins to emit an unnoticeable shadowy aura. "It wasn't until someone came along and slayed it using a strange sword that things returned to normal. Afterwards the man left, and Wonderland was split between two kingdoms ruled by the Red Queen and the White Queen.
"Are you following?" The trio nod in response. The cat's body, save its teeth, eyes and strikes, slowly evaporate. "Good. Anyway, the balance between the two kingdoms was disrupted when Alice arrived, an outsider who found the poem of the Jabberwock. Someone has led her to believe that she can return home by collecting the pieces together, but alas... This won't do."
"What'll happen?"
"Her untimely arrival has also ushered in the appearance of the shadows, one of which threatened the queen. It won't take long for the Red Queen to put two and two together."
They soon realize what this means, as this Alice might be hunted by this queen. Naruto bites his inner lip and says, "Let's go guys. We gotta save her!"
"Now hold on a second!" Donald shouts, pulling Naruto away for a moment. "We can't just go around doing whatever anyone wants us to do!"
"Donald, you're talking about letting a little girl take the blame for something she didn't do! Don't you think that's wrong?" Naruto states, his logical conclusion keeping him focused on doing the right thing for her.
"Yeah, but we're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" Goofy tells the Keyblade wielder in the form of a question.
"Meddling!" Donald corrects the goofy knight.
"Oh right! And that's against the rules!"
Naruto looks over at them. He hasn't forgotten the rule Yensei gave him to preserve the world order by not interfering in instances without the Heartless, but he can't just let this happen. If someone's in trouble and he can help, he's going to no matter what. "I don't care about that. Besides, if these shadows are Heartless then we don't really have a choice."
"I guess..." Donald crosses his arms with a sigh.
"Where did Alice go?" Naruto asks the talking cat, who has left his last known spot. "Wait, where did YOU go?!"
"Up here." The cat reveals himself overtop of Goofy, seemingly resting on his hat. "If you seek the young Alice then I suggest going to the domain of the Red Queen. Go, if you can follow that is." And with that, the illusive feline disappears into smoke, moving backwards with teeth exposed as u like as the Grinch and fading just as quick.
"After him." The trio give chase, following the trail left by the disappearing smiler.
Eventually they come to a garden. It's an oddly shaped one at that, being more like a chess board than an actual garden. The floors are checkered red and black, with red ca...card armors wielding weapons placed on several portions of the blocks. It's rather queer when you think about it.
"Less of this world makes sense the more we travel through it." Donald complains even more as they walk into the garden, stepping onto the chessboard. Unfortunately, the moment their feet touch the red and black, the poem in Naruto's pocket begins to brim with energy. Shadows rise up from the empty black squares and face Naruto and his friends.
The black monsters jump them, who quickly proceed to fight back. Goofy bashes them aside using his shield while Donald strikes them down using Thunder and Fire. Meanwhile, Naruto kicks one Shadow into one of the card armor things, causing it to fall over. Its essence enters the armor, causing it to stand up and move. The other Shadows move over and enter the armors, taking control of them all.
"Uh oh." Naruto jumps to the side avoiding a swing from its ax, before swiping with his sword to cut into it. Unfortunately he's forced to a stop, unable to bring his key down any further. 'This is some tough armor!'
He's forced to back away, barely dodging a blade that cuts off part of his sleeve. He looks back seeing Donald and Goofy having similar problems. Naruto summons his Keyblade back and summons fireballs to blow them away. But almost immediately after they stand back up. "This isn't working."
"How about this! Magnega!" Donald uses a Magnet spell to force the armor together.
"That ought to keep them together. Let's go!" Together, the three heroes run off leaving the armor left the way they are. The heartless crawl out and disappear.
Naruto, Donald and Goofy continue until they crash comically into someone. She falls backwards, exposing her appearance as a big headed woman dressed in red hearts. "What the?!"
Naruto looks down at the woman, instantly thinking how bad this is. Her enlarged face burns red before she screams, "GUARDS!"
"Oh, this is bad." The trio stand up and run away from her. Guards show up before them blocking their path. "Naruto, Goofy, I think that was the queen!"
"Yeah, I got that," Naruto replies. "What now?"
"Naruto, go! We'll be okay!" Goofy shouts, before holding up his shield. The hesitant swordsman eventually decides to jump on his shield and catapults in the air to grab hold of the cracks within the castle walls. He looks down upon his buddies before using balls made of wind to jump away from the scene.
As he makes his getaway, he notes how Goofy and Donald are being taken away by the cards. He then notes his bleeding arm. 'Whoa! When did this happen? I thought I dodged that. But, they should be fine. They still have the crumbs that grow.'
Naruto then lands in another section of the garden, where he sees a girl in a blue dress. Using a small little brush, she paints the white roses red. He approaches her. "What are you doing?"
"Well you see the cards told me the queen hates white roses, so he told me to paint them red since he accidentally did it white," she tells him while working.
"Painting roses?" 'You know what, I'm over it.' "Whatever. Hey, do you know where prisoners go?"
"Prisoners? I wouldn't know." The girl dips her brush. "I just got here. I'm still trying to find my way out."
Way out? "Are you Alice?"
This garners the girl's immediate attention. "You know my name?"
"The talking cat told me you were here, looking for this." He pulls out his script of the poem and shows it to her.
"You have that too?!"
Alice takes the poem, which ends up shimmering with dark fumes. Four slips of paper fly out from her dress pockets in a storm. Alice loses control of the poem in her hands and attaches together with the slips in the air, causing a strange roar to erupt throughout the world.
A portal up above opens up, showing the corridors of darkness. Dark purple eyes can be seen glowing in the portal before disappearing along with the opening. The poem itself flies away into the hands of someone nearby. As the wind stops, Naruto questions, "What was that?"
"The poem of the Jabberwock did that?" Alice looks up and around, before she sees yellow eyes in the shadows up ahead. "What's that?"
"Ah jeez." Naruto grabs Alice and pulls her behind him, drawing his Keyblade. "Stand back." The Heartless rises up, revealing itself to be a ball shaped Heartless with tentacles shaped as its ears and tail. "Okay, that's new."
The Heartless rushes in and bashes Naruto, tanking him and his sword easily. He pushes Alice out of the way just in time, before slashing at it and picking himself up. He then forms frost around his key before slashing again, cutting vertically to freeze and split it in half. 'These Heartless are starting to get stronger.'
Naruto breathes a sigh of relief before sending his sword away, before turning to the girl. "You okay?"
"Oh, why yes. Thank you." Naruto looks over seeing the card guards moving their way. He pulls Alice aside hiding in the bushes. "Why are they after you?"
He remains silent instead of answering her, keeping his eyes on the guards walking by. One black jack says, "We have to find that other intruder soon! Otherwise the queen will have our heads as well as theirs!"
This agitates Naruto. Now he knows she plans to kill his buddies. 'Not on my watch!' "I have to go save my friends."
"What about the poem? I need it to get home," Alice tells him. As she does she notices his arm bleeding. She cries, "Your arm," before taking out a cloth to wrap around it.
"Thanks." As she treats his arm, Naruto begins to come up with an idea of what to do with the situation. Not only does he have to worry about something that may or may not have anything to do with that Jabberwock poem, but he also has to save Donald and Goofy from the queen and get this little girl home.
"I might as well start with that."
"Huh?"
"Alice, about that poem..."
…
A figure clothed head to toe in a black robe that hangs over his head, concealing all but his red and black eyes as well as purple gloves. He walks through the sea of concrete surrounded by grass and stone, before making it to an opening. There he spots a rickety table with an assortment of British dishes, kettles, cups and food. All on top of a tattered, purple cloth.
"Let's see..." He looks ahead at what he sees is a painting, of two characters plastered with fear. One is oddly human shaped with a strange and awesome looking hat, while the other is a brown hare. It reads, "'A very merry unbirthday. May the shadows become free from this way.' "How dull."
He holds his hand out before the painting, causing a shadow to illuminate from it. His eyes spin. "He better appreciate this. Deidara and Tobi should be done by now." The shadow rises, taking a humongous shape far beyond what he expected. A heart shaped emblem forms on its body.
Lucas: And with that, we finally end this chapter.
Yusei: What happens next?
Manabu: Donald and Goofy make a comeback and the last two pieces are found. Then comes the boss battle, and it's not who you think. And then you discover a certain secret about Wonderland from the past.