A Serendipitous Key of Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Naruto, or other Shonen Jump characters, themes or such and such.
- Omake -
"She's the ice queen cause she got the land froze. Snow be piling up from her emotions we knows."
"What are you doing?"
"Singing about Frozen to Trap Queen."
"Well stop it. I'm sick of it."
"Which one?"
"BOTH!"
"Well, I can stop singing, but don't you know about the next world they're going to?"
"Uh oh." The editor storms out the door.
"Hey, get back here! I need a beta!"
The XVI Keyhole: Journey of the Frost
Naruto wanders a wasteland of... Wait, is it a wasteland? He can't even freaking tell. All he sees is darkness overshadowed by a floor of light. He takes a moment to think about where he is, before a thought hits him. He speaks out, only for nothing to come out. He realizes where he is; turning down he sees he's standing on the platform he gained his Keyblade in. It's the Station of Awakening.
What is he doing here? Why can't he still talk? And why is Hinata among the people on his platform? Before he only saw himself, the nine beasts and his friends Sasuke and Sakura. And they're still here.
"Naruto-kun." He flinches; something spoke to him. Actually spoke. It wasn't some guy putting words in his head or whatever. Someone, a girl, is talking to him. "Naruto-kun, it's me."
He's beginning to recognize that voice. Hinata? "Yes, it's me. I can't be there with you anymore. I've... I've lost."
Lost? Lost what? "Goodbye." Wait, Hinata!
Naruto looks around trying to catch her. She unfortunately is nowhere to be seen. He makes a sudden turn, and sees a little girl about the same age as Hinata. He notes her vibrant red hair, but before he could reach out to her she fades away. With a smile as a parting gift.
The nine beasts down below glow brightly. From the platform arises the golden form of a nine-tailed fox. Kurama?
"Naruto! Naruto, wake up!" Naruto blinks, awakening to the real world. "Time to get up."
"Huh? Donald?" Naruto moves off his bed and uses magic to assemble his clothes on himself. "What's up?"
"We're almost to the new world," he explains, heading off to the control deck where Goofy is driving. "And clean up your ramen cups."
"Don't eat 'em then!"
The sun blazes in the distance revealing itself to the world. The trio of Naruto, Donald and Goofy look on at the beautiful daybreak. The dog man says, "Well that's nice."
"I wish we'd know what world we were entering this time, or atleast a name," Naruto speaks while he watches the ship take a diving turn into the atmosphere. As they do, it becomes increasingly obvious how cold and white it has become. "Yeesh, it got cold."
"Must be winter!" Donald reasons.
They soon enter the world, traveling through the stratosphere into the white darkness. The sole silver light from the overhead moon gives them a view to the glistening sparkles from the sheets of white. Naruto can't help but gush. "Wow. It's so beautiful."
"Yeah." Goofy gives his agreement as they hover over the frozen lake. The ship beams them down and returns to orbit. "Uh oh. We could fall!"
"Don't be ridiculous-UWAH!" Donald flips first, followed by a guffawing Naruto who drags down Goofy with him.
Naruto pushes himself up, immediately seeing his clothes have thickened and changed shape. The cold doesn't affect him as much as it did. "Oh good."
"Good thing I have feathers," says Donald as he grabs Naruto to pull him up. The trio then skate over to stable land, or more specifically the land featuring the towering castle overshadowed by the moon. The ground squishes under their feet as they move onward, the snowfall pelting them rapidly.
"This is some strong weather coming down on us." Goofy looks around with a frown, worried about getting too cold until they get somewhere safe.
Eventually they reach the town, where everyone seems to be struggling with the cold. Naruto approaches an old woman. "Hello, ma'am? Do you know where this is?"
"Oh? You came to Arendelle without knowing it?" asks the woman with worry.
"Arendelle huh?" Naruto looks around at the frozen landscape. "So, this is Arendelle. Does it snow often here?"
"No, this is summer." That surprises all three of them.
"Summer? This much snow in summer?"
"That's because of Queen Elsa." She sounds fearful. Fearful, and disappointed for some reason. "She suddenly unleashed her ice powers, and sent the entire kingdom into an eternal winter. We're all stuck in the cold until she unfreezes it all."
Naruto turns to Donald and Goofy, getting into a huddle. "So, what do you think?"
"Sounds like a tyrant to me," Donald says.
"Gawrsh, I don't know," Goofy states, seeing something may be up that they aren't understanding. "We should look around for the Heartless first."
"How about this?" Donald proposes an idea. "We look for this queen and ask her to stop the snow."
"Wouldn't that be muddling?"
"Goofy, get it right!"
"Actually, that sounds like a good idea." They both turn to Naruto. "We'll get her to stop the snow and get info on this world! Worse comes to worst; she might be in league with Maleficent."
"Alright, so that's the plan." The trio then turn to the old lady, seeing more people walk by. Donald then asks her, "Where is she?"
"She fled; went straight for the mountains."
With this information Naruto, Donald and Goofy take off calmly to the mountains. Though this involves walking across the solid lake, so they take the long way and head into the forest. Shortly along the way, they see some Heartless walking along a path of footsteps.
"Well, found the Heartless." Naruto summons his Keyblade, the blade's beacon beckoning the black beasts. He notes they're the Darkballs, Shadows and Soldiers classes.
Naruto uses Blizzara, which cuts through a Shadow and a tree. The tree collapses on top of a Soldier coming after Goofy, leaving him to fend off a Darkball coming at him from above. Two tackle Naruto from behind, causing him to slam into a tree. He holds onto his damaged and now bleeding jaw.
"Naruto!" Donald uses Cure on him, healing his injuries. Unfortunately his rashness causes him to drain his mana and get hit by a Shadow's claws.
"Donald! Goofy!" Naruto grabs Goofy and slides closer to Donald, using Reflect to form a barrier and blockade their assaults. "Why are these guys so tough? We've fought them before!"
"It's like they get stronger with each passing world!" Goofy mutters, looking over seeing the barrier beginning to fade.
"Reflect!" Naruto shouts, causing the barrier to release a stream of light to repel the black demons. "We got a chance!" He then releases a Wind Raid, causing his Keyblade to slice apart the Shadows and Soldiers. The Darkballs come together and charge Naruto, who raises his Keyblade to block the first one. The second comes at him from above, but Goofy jumps in time to knock it aside. The third is repelled by Donald's staff.
"Now!" Donald shouts, causing the blond to toss the Heartless over to the one Donald was facing. Goofy rushes in and hits the Heartless into trees, causing them to bounce among them rapidly like pinballs. Using the last of his magic, Donald shoots a Fira spell to blast them apart; the spent duck drops.
Naruto turns over to the last one, but it bites his arm before he could make a response. He cries out in pain, before elbowing the Heartless' left eye.
"Naruto!" Goofy comes in with his Goofy Tornado and tears it to shreds.
With the last of the Heartless down for the count, Naruto sends his sword away while resting on a tree clutching his bleeding arm. "This is gonna be hard."
"Naruto, are you okay?" Goofy asks him as he and Donald go up to the guy.
"Let's get going. It's not good if we stick around, or else more will show up." Naruto casts Cure on himself, closing up his wounds. "What were they after anyway?"
"Look!" Donald points to the snow, where there's some unidentifiable footprints. "They must have been following someone."
"Then that's what we'll do. There might be more." Donald follows after the tracks, with Goofy and Naruto trailing after.
After passing through the frosted trees, they soon come upon a shack. The duckman spots the tracks end at the shack. Naruto then asks, "What now?"
Before they could make any movement, they spot someone stepping out of the shack to enter a nearby stable. She's a pretty girl with long strawberry-blonde hair wrapped in twin braid ponytails, dressed in a Bunad of medium size and light blue skirt and a magenta bonnet, and she carries with her some items including carrots. Naruto looks at her boots and wonders if they're hers.
"You think she might have been the target?" asks Naruto looking on at the stable.
"Even if she was, why bother following her?" Donald asks holding his arms as the cold starts to affect him. "We destroyed the Heartless so she might be safe."
"We might as well ask her. She might know something about the queen."
"Of course she does; she lives here right?" Goofy reasons, kind of rare for him actually.
Naruto steps forward and opens the door to the stable, just as the woman was coming out. "Oh, sorry! I was just leaving," she tells him.
"No, actually, I was hoping to talk to you," Naruto says, garnering her total attention. "My friends and I are looking for the queen."
She immediately goes on the defensive, her eyes betraying what calmness she's faking. "W-Why? You're not with Weaseltown are you?"
"Who?" Naruto looks aside seeing someone else in the stable. He's a male standing slightly taller than Naruto, with unmanly blond hair, dressed in the same Norwegian style winter tunic the woman seems to own. "Who are you?"
"I'd like to know that too."
The three end up in a stare off with one another. It feels rather intense for the two males. "Naruto, how's it going?" Goofy calls out.
"I'll be fine. We're working out a deal." He's totally lying; this could go anywhere. Though as he turns around he sees the look of shock on their faces. "What?"
"What the heck are they?" she asks him.
"Oh that's Donald, and the tall one's Goofy."
"Okay, but WHAT are they?" asks the big guy.
Naruto takes a moment to think, his brain sizzling. "I think Goofy's a dog, and Donald's some kind of duck. I don't know why he's a duck either."
"Hey, I heard that!"
The girl shrugs, easily going along with the weirdness of the situation. "You know, after seeing my sister change the weather, I think I'm a little more open to things that don't make sense."
That immediately causes Naruto to face her, bright blue skies meeting one another. "Your sister has ice powers too?" It then hits him. "Your sister's the queen?!"
"Oh fudge." Naruto grabs her shoulders with joy.
"That's great! Then you can help us tell her to stop this snow!" She and her friend face eachother, expecting him to be after Elsa for nefarious purposes.
Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy stand by on the sidelines as Naruto gets himself in another person's problem again. "There he goes again getting into someone else's problems again. We're never gonna find the King at this rate."
"I don't know; it's not too bad. We are stopping the Heartless," says Goofy as he 'thinks' back to all the things they've done together. "Besides, he doesn't even know about that." The goofy dogman then realizes something. "You know come ta think of it, we don't know much about Naruto either."
Naruto walks over to Donald and Goofy. "Okay, here's the plan. Donald, you go back to Arendelle and try to keep it warm. Goofy and I will help these two reach Elsa in the North mountains."
"Hey, why am I staying behind?"
"Your magic's better than mine right?" Flattered, Donald goes along with his suggestion. "We're counting on you to protect these people."
"Got it!" Donald heads back to Arendelle.
"So uh, why couldn't Donald come with us?" Goofy asks. He feels there might be more than just that.
"Sven can only pull four people."
"Who?"
"Kristoff's reindeer."
"Oh! But wait, I'm bigger than Donald. Shouldn't he have stayed?" Naruto walks away back to Anna and Kristoff. Honestly, he didn't think of that.
Together on Kristoff's sleigh, they head out into the night with Sven the reindeer dragging them at full speed. Kristoff is driving, Goofy is on Sven, Anna is beside Kristoff and Naruto is sitting on the supplies in the back. As they go by, yellow eyes watch them in the shadows.
Kristoff then asks, "So what's your story," of Naruto.
"Well, Goofy, Donald and I are... Let's just say we're on the other side of the world." He winks at Goofy, who doesn't get it. "We're on a search for these ladies called the Princesses of Hearts."
"Gee, I thought we were trying to find the King."
"Huh?" Naruto turns to Goofy. That's the first time he's heard of their intentions.
"What about you?" Goofy turns to Kristoff.
"I'm an ice collector."
"Yeah, that sucks right now." Naruto seems to have dropped what Goofy said to focus in on that. He may have to go to Donald for the lowdown. "And you?"
The question drops over to Princess Anna. "Well, as you know, I'm Elsa's sister. So you know, I'm the princess of Arendelle."
"So then you know about her powers right?"
The bubbly princess shrugs to that. "You'd think so, but no. She kept this all a secret from me, and I can see why. But she could have still let me know; we're sisters."
"That still doesn't explain all this." Naruto gestures to all the frost.
"Yeah, what made her go all ice queen?" This is Kristoff's joke.
"Well, today during the coronation, I got engaged. And she wouldn't bless the marriage just because I only just met Hans." That sets off a red flag in all the guys' minds. "And then she freaked out from the whole thing-"
"Wait, you agreed to marry someone you just met?" Naruto asks her, finding it hard to believe.
"Yeah, but then," and Anna goes back to explaining the fight she had with Elsa, as if the very thought of what she said earlier had not sunk it yet.
"Hang on!" Kristoff interrupts her incessant back and forth. "You mean to tell me you agreed to marry someone you just met that very same day?!"
"And it wasn't even a day was it? Probably like five or six hours!" Naruto adds.
"Can we focus?" Once again she attempts to turn the conversation around. "So anyway, she had the gloves on all the time so I thought she was just on about cleanliness, but that kept them in check!"
Now Naruto is more interested in Elsa. There is definitely something going on she's not telling or doesn't know. "So, no one knew she had powers?"
"No, hold on! This is a serious issue; I'd freak out too!" Naruto and Anna turn over to Kristoff. "I mean, I know you're a princess and all, but didn't your parents warn you about strangers?"
The princess could only narrow her blue eyes at him. "You're still on that? And besides, Hans is no stranger. Don't you believe in true love? In destiny?"
"You sound like a fairy tale," Naruto quips. "Now, back to your sister-"
"What's his last name?" Naruto sighs.
Anna scuffs. "Of the Southern Isles."
"That's a last name?" This is Naruto's input.
"Favorite food?"
"Sandwiches."
"Best friend's name?"
"Probably John."
"Eye color?"
"Dreamy."
"What if you get married and you learn something you don't like about him? Like the way he eats? Or the way he sleeps? Or how he picks his nose?"
"His what?" Even Goofy starts to pay attention.
"And if he eats them?"
"Excuse me, he is a prince! They're perfect, mature men who stand at the highest class of society; no way he picks his nose!" Anna's voice alters as she defends Hans. She then shakes her hand. "Anyway, it doesn't matter! It's true love!"
"It doesn't sound like true love to me. More like you saw the first pretty face who wanted to talk to you and held on tight."
"What do you know? You some love expert or something?"
"No!" He falters a bit, allowing her to smug. "I mean, I have friends who are."
"I don't buy it."
Naruto decides to sit back and let everything go. "I feel like I shouldn't be here." Goofy looks around as does their ride, the latter of whom slows down. Naruto notices too, as well as Kristoff who slows down the sleigh.
"What's that?"
"No, let's get back to that. I-" He covers her mouth. "What's going on?"
In the shadows of the night, the Shadows rise up ready to attack. "Uh oh."
"Go, now!" The sleigh picks up speed, traveling through the white track to evade the racing black monsters. "What are those?"
"Heartless!" Goofy shouts ducking underneath a Shadow jumping at him.
"What do we do?" Anna asks, starting to feel scared.
Kristoff takes out a wooden stick and lights it using his lantern. "You guys stand back."
"Wait, I can help!"
"Don't bother!"
"Why not?!"
"Because I don't trust your judgment!" Anna thrusts her head and neck back, appalled at his response. "Who marries someone they just met?"
"It's true love!" Anna picks up his guitar and slams a leaping Shadow. Though she also hits Kristoff and knocks him off the sleigh, forcing him to grab the dangling rope. Naruto grabs the fire stick. "Kristopher!"
"It's Kristoff!" Anna takes the stick from Naruto and lights a blanket on fire, before throwing it at a Shadow about to jump on Kristoff. As he pulls himself up he complains, "You almost set me on fire!"
"But I didn't!" He pulls himself forward, just as a Heartless comes down at him from above. Naruto calls up the Keyblade and knocks one back, taking both Anna and Kristoff by surprise.
"Why don't we fight back?" asks Goofy as he takes out his shield.
"What is that?" Anna points to the Keyblade.
"Long story!"
The ice maker grabs a bag and tosses it over to Goofy. "Hold those!"
"Strike Raid!" Naruto throws his blade, its boomerang style capable of tearing an opening. "Keep going Seven!"
"It's Sven!"
"That's what I said!" Eventually the reindeer leads them out the forest nearing a cliff. "Crapbaskets."
"Saw this coming!" Kristoff lifts up Anna and tosses her over to Goofy. "Though we might have problems considering all four of us."
"No no, this is good! Keep going Seven!" Naruto raises the Keyblade, calling wind to surround Sven. The moment they reach the edge Naruto slashes the rope tying the sleigh to Sven; the moment they jump the wind gives Sven an extra boost allowing him to take Goofy and Anna to the safety of the cliff just on the other side. Naruto and Kristoff jump off the sleigh making it over to where the others are.
The iceman looks down with a groan, witnessing his sleigh explode into flames. "Ah man. I just paid it off." The two men then assist eachother in climbing up. A sadden Anna approaches Naruto and Kristoff.
"I'll make sure to pay you back for everything," she tells them, looking down with guilt. "And, I'll understand if you don't want to help me anymore." The princess then walks away, heading further into the forest.
Naruto watches as she leaves, Goofy hanging the bag over to Kristoff. "So, what now? We still going?"
Goofy narrows his eyes. "Gawrsh Naruto, do you have to ask?"
Naruto laughs. "Just kidding! Like I'm just gonna give up! We need to end this winter and help everyone."
"Yup, you're right! I'm glad you think the same!" Goofy and Naruto follow after Anna. "Hey! Anna!"
Kristoff watches as the trio take off. Sven troddles over to Kristoff. "What? Go follow them?" He gives him the puppy dog eyes as if speaking. "I can live with that." His retort is a snort. "Sometimes I hate you." Sven grunts happily before going after Anna and the others.
Day breaks as they climb further into the mountains. Eventually they reach a forest where frozen droplets dangling around them. Anna comments on the beauty of winter.
"Yeah, isn't it?" Another voice can be heard, rambling further on in the background as they walk forward. They look around in search of who it was, before it makes a mention of yellow. "No, not yellow. Yellow and snow is gross."
They look back, and see a miniature walking, talking snowman. "Am I right?"
"Kya!" Anna kicks its head over into Naruto's arms.
"Hi."
"Okay, creepy." Naruto tosses it over to Anna.
"Ew, ew, the body!" She throws it on its body, who now stands with an upside down head.
"There we g-wait. Why is everyone hanging from the snow like bats?" From the voice its obvious to tell he's a guy.
"I gotcha!" Goofy picks up his head to put it on right, only for the snowman to walk away and the dogman to fall down. The head lands on top of his body properly. Naruto and Anna chuckle lightly.
"There we go. I'm perfect!" Anna digs into her bag taking out carrots. "It's like my whole life turned upside d-" She shoves the carrot into his face, though so hard half of it sticks out of her.
"Oops! Too hard! Sorry!" Anna promptly fixes his 'nose', pushing it back out from behind so it looks more snowman-like. Kristoff unintentionally laughs at her clumsiness. "Okay, let's start this over. I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs."
"Huh?" Naruto tilts his head at that statement. 'He's a snowman right? Wait, WHY is he a snowman?'
As he thinks that over, Anna opens her eyes wide remembering Olaf. "Olaf, I'm Anna."
"Okay, and who're the funky looking donkey and weirdo over there?"
"That's Sven and Goofy."
"Oh, okay. And who're the reindeer and dog guy?" Naruto and Kristoff narrow their vision at that response.
"... Sven and Goofy."
"Oh. OH, okay! Makes things easier for me!" Obviously Naruto can tell he's ignorant to the insult he threw, so he's gonna hit him later.
"So, Olaf. Did my sister make you?"
"Yeah, why?" As she and him talk, Naruto pulls off his wooden arm and bends it.
"Can you take us to her?"
"Yeah, why?"
"How does this work?" Olaf's arm smacks Naruto before the main body takes it back.
"Look, we need Elsa to bring back summer and she's the only one who can do it." Olaf becomes giddy at Kristoff's words. "What?"
"Ooh, that sounds amazing! I've always wanted to live in summer! Let's go!" Olaf then walks ahead leading them.
"Imma tell him."
"Don't." After Anna chastises Kristoff for trying to bring down the snowman's hopes, she and Naruto follow.
"Someone's gotta tell him." Regardless, they continue to push forward.
Along the way they come across frozen pikes aimed squarely at them. Kristoff then asks the more obvious question: "So, what's your plan for ending this?"
"I'm gonna talk to my sister," she replies.
"That's it? That's your plan?" He stops just in time to keep a spike from impaling his nose. Unfortunately Olaf's not so lucky, but then again he's a snowman.
"What'd you expect?" Naruto adds. "It's not like she has powers too, otherwise she'd end winter herself."
"So, you're not at all afraid of her?" Anna looks appalled at Kristoff's newest question.
"Of course not; none of this was on purpose." She then turns to Naruto as he and Goofy fix up Olaf. "But, I am curious about you Naruto. Where did you guys come from and what was with the giant key?"
"You mean the Keyblade?" Goofy blurts out.
"Shush!"
"Yeah that. What's a Keyblade?"
"To put it short, it's a magic sword that is used to save worlds." Naruto slaps his mouth shut.
Kristoff and Anna look back over at Naruto, with her asking, "Worlds?"
The blond Keybearer looks around for some sort of distraction, until spotting a glass castle not far from their position. "Hey, what's that?" He then flinches realizing how strange that it. "Wait, what is that?"
"That's Elsa's place!" Olaf takes them further, revealing a towering wall standing in their way. And without question, Anna starts to climb it.
"Get down from there. You can't climb that," says Kristoff.
"Says you."
Naruto gripes thinking about how he wishes he has chakra. Kristoff then goes, "How do you even know she wants to talk? Most people who run to the mountains are looking to be alone."
"No one wants to be alone, 'cept maybe you."
"So the reindeer that acts like a dog doesn't count?" Naruto asks, pointing to a confused Sven.
"I'm not alone; I have friends." Anna scuffs, remembering the love experts he brought up back during the sleigh run last night. "Yes, they count as friends."
Anna stops at a junction to catch her breath. "Please tell me I'm close. I need to hear those words." Really, she's not even halfway up.
"Do you need to hear those exact words?"
"Hey, guys?" Olaf comes back in waving. "Not that it might help, but I found a set of stairs leading exactly where we need to go."
"Oh thank goodness! Catch!" She loosens up and jumps off, and without hesitation Kristoff catches her. "Thanks. That was a crazy trust exercise." And even as she leaves, his eyes can't come off her.
Elsewhere...
"Fire!" Donald casts another spell to melt away most of the ice around the castle, though the white laced bird hangs both his head and arms in exhaustion. Even as the people of Arendelle cheer for his actions, and have gotten over the fact that he's a duck, they know it's only a temporary fix until Elsa can unfreeze everything.
"Naruto, Goofy, hurry up." Donald takes a seat on an unfrozen bench. As he does, he sees a man in a black cloak with red clouds walking by in the distance. He squawks loudly and chases after him. "Hey you!"
The man turns around, revealing himself as Deidara. "Oh, if it isn't Peking Duck? Where's Doofus and the Kyubi?"
"The who?"
"Oh, you don't know huh?" Donald quickly turns around, but gets knocked aside by a powerful hit and falls unconscious. Standing next to Deidara are two more Akatsuki members, a male with brown eyes and plaid, gray hair while the other has dark brown skin and green glowing eyes. "He must be here then."
"Great; he's here too!"
"Don't get too upset. This means that we can kill two birds with one stone." The trio look up towards the northern mountains.
Kei: That brings this chapter to an end.
Yusei: The heck are you? Where's Manabu?
Kei: Not important. Next time-
Yusei: No, this is important! Manabu's the main guy here.
Julia: He's gone now.
Yusei: WHAT?!
Lightning: Next time, Anna and Naruto talk to Elsa separately in an attempt to break winter, and then... well, you know the story.
Kei: It's not one hundred percent the same.