Cough…..yeah…..I DIDN'T just not post a chapter for shy of a year... What do you mean?
Sasuke: You know that everyone hates you now, right? You'll get flamed to high heaven because you're irresponsible.
Me: Not my fault! I have a life!
Sasuke: The one that you spend role playing, or the one that you spend playing Final Fantasy?
Me: The other one. School, homework, church and stuff like that.
Sasuke: Whatever.
Me: Right, well, before we get started, there's a couple things that we'd like to say…
Sasuke: I love you Rank 96! You're not a fangirl!
Me: Well, yeah, that and the disclaimer, of course!
Sasuke: xpeachxmanglerx owns nothing related to Kingdom Hearts or Naruto, besides the occasional OC...
Giant Keys, Kunoichi, and the boy named Sky
"Unnnngggg" Naruto twitched slightly in his sleep as he felt a sudden wetness on his cheek. His eyes shot open to reveal a yellow dog, licking his face, "Woah!" He jumped, scurrying into a sitting position against a nearby crate. Once his surroundings came into focus, he sighed, "phew, you scared me there, buddy!" he laughed, patting the dog's head. It barked in response before scampering off through a nearby door and around the corner. Naruto blinked, "Huh?" He got up and ran off in the direction that the dog went, but when he reached the door, the dog was nowhere to be seen, "Too weird…" he muttered before realizing that he didn't recognize his surroundings. He looked out at a large courtyard with a decorative fountain at his end and a large bell/clock tower on the other. Lining the courtyard were small shops, but they didn't appear to be opened, "Well then….I'm definitely not in Konoha. That's for sure…" he thought out loud before spotting a sign near a large oak door above the fountain. Traverse Town: Second District, "Traverse Town? I've never even heard of that place before," As Naruto was finishing that thought, a dark pool appeared before him and out slunk a shadowy figure that possessed similar traits to a bug. Naruto's eyes widened in realization, "That's one of those things from my dream!" he gasped. The creature lunged at him and Naruto quickly evaded. This one was a lot more aggressive than the ones he fought before, though, "You asked for it!" he held out his hand and thought of the sword that he had used in his dream before feeling a weight in his hand. He looked over, expecting to find his blade but instead was holding, "A giant key?"
The key was about the same size and weight as the sword, but looked very awkward to fight with. The handle that he held was a dark blue while the shaft was silver to match the keychain shaped like a mouse that dangled off of the end of the handle. Naruto wouldn't have chosen the weapon himself, but it wasn't exactly a good time to be picky. He instead settled on the key and began to hit and slice at the shadows until they, like the ones in his dream, were reduced to wisps of curled smoke. Only, there was something else that emerged from these creatures when they were killed. The smoke would rise and dissipate, but occasionally, the smoke would curl up to reveal a glowing heart that floated up slower than the smoke, "A heart?" Naruto questioned the bizarre sight.
"Very good!" came a loud, high-pitched voice from behind him.
Naruto spun around and held his key up to defend himself….as if a giant key could protect him, "What? Who are you?" he asked the person, who turned out to be a girl standing on the ledge above the fountain.
"Me?" the girl flipped her short black hair out of her face before grinning slyly, "Why…I'm…" she did a series of impressive flips in the air, landing neatly on one knee in front of him. She straightened up and smiled, brandishing her medium-sized shuriken, "Yuffie! The GREATEST, most SKILLED kunoichi to ever live!" she introduced herself grandly, emphasizing 'greatest' and 'skilled', "And that!" she pointed at Naruto's key, "Is a keyblade!"
Naruto straightened up and looked skeptically at Yuffie's performance, "You don't seem all that special to me, I mean, my jutsu could wipe yours away," he said bluntly. Yuffie scowled.
"You, ungreatful--!" she started, lifting her shuriken, but stopped, controlling herself, "Anyway! That thing that you're holding, it's a keyblade. The heartless were after you because they want your heart, which, has to be pretty darn strong to land one of those," she pointed to the keyblade. Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"What the heck are you talking about?" he demanded. Yuffie sighed, shaking her head.
"This'll be easier with Leon…"she muttered, sighing sadly and looking up at Naruto, "Sorry, kid, but I have to do this…" she released a smoke bomb at Naruto's feet.
Naruto looked through the smoke, "Wait! Yuffie!" he called for the girl to come back and started to move, but sudden'y felt very heavy, "Yu…ffie…!" he breathed desperately before collapsing on the ground, still firmly grasping the keyblade in his hand. Before he passed out, he asked himself why he couldn't just stay awake for more than 20 minutes at a time.
"Hey, kid, wake up!" Yuffie's voice commanded, "Come on, the gas wasn't THAT powerful!" Naruto opened his eyes to see Yuffie shaking his shoulders and feeling a tight constriction around his torso. He looked down to see that he was tightly tied with rope. Looking back up, he saw Yuffie smile happily, "Finally!"
"Why did you tie me up?" he demanded angrily from Yuffie who had backed up by now and seated herself in a chair nearby, "I didn't do anything, so why did you bring me here?" he continued to ask questions while observing his new surroundings. He appeared to now be in a hotel room with a bed and table along with a few chairs. Yuffie sat next to the bed where another boy was lying, looking unconscious. Behind her, leaning against the wall was a tall man with brown hair and a scar across his face. He was wearing an awfully grim expression, and had a large sword at his side. Naruto heard the boy on the bed him emit a groan and Yuffie bent over him, "You okay?" she asked.
"I guess…" The boy murmured back.
"Those creatures that attacked you guys are after the Keyblade. But it's your hearts that they really want, because you two wield keyblades," Yuffie explained quickly.
"I'm…so glad that you're okay, Kairi," The boy replied in the same drowsy voice.
"Kairi?" Naruto and Yuffie both asked together, "Who are you talking about? I'm the great ninja, Yuffie!" Yuffie explained for the second time that day. Naruto and Yuffie looked at each other before Yuffie turned to the man against the wall, "I think you might've overdone it, Squall…" she said regretfully. The boy sat up and the man leaning on the wall straightened up and walked over to Yuffie.
"That's Leon…"he corrected her monotonically.
The boy swung his feet over the edge of the bed and looked around at Naruto who raised an eyebrow and followed where he looked until both of their eyes rested on the keyblades that were propped up against the wall, "The Keyblade…" the boy said.
"Yeah, we had to get them away from you to shake off those creatures…" Yuffie explained as she walked over to untie Naruto, "It turns out, that's how they were tracking you."
Naruto stood up and stretched, "Why'd you tie me up?" he demanded again.
"Go sit down," Yuffie told him and pointed to the bed. Naruto sat down next to the boy and crossed his arms.
"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," Leon continued, picking up from where Yuffie had stopped, "But it won't work for long," he paused and took the other keyblade into his hand, "Still, it's hard to believe that you, of all people, were chosen," he sliced through the air with it and the keyblade flashed white before reappearing in the brown-haired boy's hand. Both he and Naruto were taken aback by it, "Well…I suppose beggars can't be choosers," he added and handed Naruto his own keyblade.
"Why don't you start making sense! What's going on here?" the boy beside him asked.
"Yeah, what?" Naruto chimed.
Leon and Yuffie sighed before looking at each other, "You two know that there are worlds out there other than your own, right?" Leon asked them. The brown-haired boy nodded, but Naruto's eyes widened.
"What, really?! There's places other than the hidden villages?!" he asked excitedly.
"You didn't know that?" the boy asked him. Naruto shook his head.
"No surprise," Leon said, "It's supposed to be a secret. That's because they were never connected until just recently," Leon explained, "You see, when the heartless started to appear, everything changed.
"Heartless?" Both boys inquired in unison.
"The ones who attacked you, remember?" Yuffie asked. Leon nodded.
"Those without hearts," Leon explained.
"The darkness in people's hearts—that's what attracts them," Yuffie said.
"And there is darkness within every heart," Leon added.
"Freaky…" Naruto commented. The boy nodded. Suddenly, Yuffie turned to face them.
"Hey, have you heard of someone named Ansem?" she asked.
"Ansem?" Naruto repeated questioningly.
"Yeah, he was studying the heartless and kept track of all of his research in a report that he put together," Yuffie said.
"Well, where is it? Can I see?"
Yuffie shook her head, "Nope! It's pages are scattered all over the place!
"Scattered! What do you mean, scattered?" Naruto asked.
"To many worlds other than this one," Leon said.
"Then what's the point of talking about them?"
"They explain almost every question that you have right now," Leon replied simply, "Including that," he pointed to Sora's keyblade, "The 'key'."
"Oh!" the boy said, "So this is the 'key'!"
"Exactly!" Yuffie said
"The heartless have great fear of the keyblade," Leon continued, "That's why they'll keep coming after you…No matter what."
The brown-haired boy sighed sadly, "I never asked for this…" he muttered, looking at the keyblade in his lap.
"Sounds really irritating to me. Even more than Tsunade-baa-san," Naruto made a face as the superstitious Hokage's cackle swam through his head, causing Naruto to give a little shiver.
Yuffie looked at the two of them, "Well, the keyblade chooses its master…And it chose YOU."
"So tough luck," Leon chimed flatly.
The boy nodded in understanding, "Yeah, I guess so…" he looked up, "But how did all of this happen? I was in my room and…!" his eyes widened in realization and he let out a little gasp, "Wait a minute! What happened to my home?! My island?! Riku…! KAIRI!" He shouted their names in panic, looking back and forth.
Leon closed his eyes and shrugged, "You know what? I really don't know…" Leon replied, a hint of sadness ringing in his normally indifferent tone of voice. The boy sighed at the answer, his sensitivity to the present situation shining through.
Naruto looked at him and smiled, "Hey…" he started. The boy looked up questioningly, "There's no use in being sad now. Riku and Kairi…they were your friends, weren't they?" he asked and Naruto received a nod, "Well, I'm sure that they're just as worried about you right now as you are them. I know that I miss my friends, but I also know that I'll see them again eventually…if I try my hardest, I mean," he said, and then thought about it. Wow…that was actually pretty deep!
The boy smiled softly, "You know what…? You're right. I should look on the bright side! I'll find my friends, I just know it!"
"That's great! You know, we could go together! It'll be faster, and not as lonely as it would be alone!" Naruto replied happily and held out his hand for the boy, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!(1) I'm going to become the greatest ninja ever some day, believe it!" The boy flashed Naruto a wide grin and took his hand, shaking it,
"That's a great idea, Naruto! I'm Sora!" he introduced himself, "And sure! We could help each other along the way!" Naruto let go of Sora's hand and burst out laughing.
"Sora? Your name is 'sky'?" he chuckled. Sora frowned.
"What do you mean? Does it really matter?" he challenged.
Yuffie interrupted with her laughter, "Settle down, settle down!" she laughed and Leon harpooned the cheery mood with more of his cynical words,
"Sooner or later the heartless will find you. You'd better prepare yourself."
"Prepare myself?" Sora asked.
"To fight for your life," Leon replied, "are you ready?"
Sora and Naruto exchanged glances before saying together, "Ready!" A smirk curled onto Leon's lips as he turned to Yuffie,
"Yuffie, let's go join Aerith. She should be there by now with the other visitors," he said, but stopped at Yuffie's fearful expression,
"Leon!" she cried, pointing at a heartless soldier who had just appeared behind him. Leon took up his gunblade and sliced through it. He looked back to Yuffie,
"Yuffie, go!" he commanded urgently. Yuffie darted to the door and opened it just in time to smash what looked like a duck against the wall in a burst of white feathers. A brown haired girl about Yuffie's age poked her head into the room,
"Yuffie…?" she said questioningly. Yuffie grabbed the girl's hand and led her out of the room as Leon prepared to jump out of the window with his sword. Naruto and Sora nodded to each other.
"HAH!" Naruto cried, leaping out of the window after Leon. Sora followed suit and once they were on the ground, their keyblades at the ready, they watched Leon slash through more of the soldier heartless, their armor making clanking sounds as they hit the ground and turned to smoke as the other heartless did, leaving their armor to fade away afterwards. Occasionally, a heart would rise out from the helmet amidst the black smoke. Naruto went to slash a nearby heartless with his keyblade, but Leon stopped him with a shout,
"Don't bother with small fry, find the leader!" he instructed as he knocked off a few more heartless. Once the way was clear, he took off through the doors that Naruto had gone through when he first arrived, "Let's go!" he cried out after him. Sora and Naruto obeyed, following Leon closely and occasionally eliminating a heartless of their own as they charged through the second district and entered the third. Sora and Naruto stayed close to each other, back-to-back as a circle of heartless threatened to close in around them. A bullet of fire passed through the shadows from Leon's gunblade. Just as Sora and Naruto were about to split apart to fight their own battle, a wail was heard from above. The two looked up to see two figures falling from the sky. Naruto quickly registered what was going on, being the ninja that he was, and seamlessly evaded while Sora stood, frozen to the spot as the two people landed on him, revealing themselves to be a white duck and a black dog…thing? They groaned, on top of Sora who was knocked flat and his keyblade slid out of his hand and onto the ground in front of them. The duck and dog gasped together,
"The Key!" they cried in unison.
"Sora! You've gotta get up!" Naruto cried, defeating a heartless as he did so, "there's a whole bunch of heartless around here, and they're coming quick!"
Sora and the other two people stood up. The duck had a very sour expression on his face as he pulled up a staff and the dog frowned in determination as he held up a shield. The dog stood almost two feet taller than the duck on its back legs, making Naruto marvel at it even further.
Sora picked up his keyblade, "Let's do this!" he said and launched at the heartless with Naruto and the other two characters at his side. They continuously sliced through and defeated soldier heartless until they were all gone. Naruto heaved a sigh,
"Whew…That was a lot of heartless…!" he said, "I'm glad that's all that's left," the words had hardly left his mouth when the ground beneath the foursome shook violently. Out of the sky dropped five large pieces of armor: Two feet, a round body, and arms. All were equally empty and made a great crashing noise when they hit the ground. They barely had time to react when a helmet-covered ball of darkness dropped onto the assembled body and after a moment, two purple eyes glowed from inside of the dark helmet as the levitating suit of armor advanced on them. Naruto chuckled sheepishly, "Spoke to soon, didn't I…?" he asked before gripping his keyblade and rushing at the Guard Armor, Sora and the two others close behind.
((Peachey's bad at battle scenes -.-;;))
After the battle, Naruto collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. Fighting these heartless things was a lot more tiring than he first anticipated. His keyblade disappeared in a flash as he sat down. It looked as if the keyblade only appeared when it was needed. Sora, who stood beside him, panting, looked to the other two who had helped them fight the Guard Armor.
"So, you were looking to me?" Sora asked them, crossing his arms as his keyblade had also disappeared. The two animal people nodded,
"Uh-huh," they said. Leon chimed in, as usual,
"They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the keyblade," he explained. The dog-thing nodded and looked to Naruto and Sora,
"Well, hey, why don't you come with us, then? We can go to the other worlds together on our vessel!" he offered happily.
Sora's eyes darkened at the suggestion and looked down, "I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…" he thought out loud.
The duck smiled, "Of course!" he replied, with a wave of his hand. Naruto's face lit up,
"Sasuke and Sakura, too?!" he asked hopefully.
The duck nodded once again, "Sure, why not?" he replied. The dog tapped him on the shoulder,
"Are you sure?" he asked quizzically. He didn't seem very confident in the duck's responses.
"Who knows?" the duck replied in a low voice, "But we need him to come with us if we're gonna find the king!" he reminded the dog who nodded slowly in realization.
Leon looked at Sora who was still looking upset, "Sora, you and Naruto should go with them," he said, "Especially if you want to find your friends. Sora looked up slightly, and heaved a disappointed sigh,
"Yeah, I guess…" he said, still frowning, but the duck wouldn't have that,
"But you can't come along looking like that. Understand? No frowning. No sad face, okay?" he told Sora, smiling. The dog nodded happily, a chuckle escaping from his lips,
"Yeah, you gotta look funny! Like us!" he chimed after the duck. Naruto grinned and laughed a little bit,
"Yeah Sora! Chin up, everything'll get better, believe it!" he said to the other boy and gave him a pat on the back.
The duck pushed the dog out of his way, "That's right! This boat runs on happy faces!" he told Sora. Sora looked at him,
"Happy?" he asked and put a hand on his chin in thought before taking it away and smiling broadly. Naruto immediately burst out in a howling laughter. The face was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever seen! The duck and dog laughed as well. Sora frowned, annoyed,
"Whaaat?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's one funny face!" the dog choked out, his laughter beginning to subside. Sora grinned again, but normally this time,
"Okay, why not?" he asked out loud, "I'll go with you guys!" he decided. Naruto smiled,
"Same here! We're a team, believe it!" he said excitedly.
The duck cleared his throat and put his hand…or wing…out in front of him, "Donald Duck!" he said, introducing himself, the dog placed his hand over Donald's,
"Name's Goofy!" he said with a chuckle. Naruto grinned and put out his own hand,
"Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!" he grinned confidently. Sora placed his hand on top,
"I'm Sora," he told them simply. Goofy smiled and gave another chuckle. Anyone could tell that this Goofy was a particularly cheerful guy,
"All for one, and one for all!" he cheered. The laughter of Naruto, Sora, and Donald followed.
And for the first time since Naruto had arrived in this strange place called Traverse Town, did he feel the pleasant swelling inside of him that he knew was friendship. Comfort, security, hope, and trust were just a few of the things that Naruto realized were part of having a friendship. And those things were what he felt when he was with the people he loved; Sakura…Her smiling face flashed through his mind in remembrance. Sasuke, too, of course, he thought about. How could he forget either of them? They were a team and he missed them right now more than anything, but he knew that he would see them again, he just knew and felt it. And now, with three other people at his side, he was certain that he would see his friends again. Someday…someday soon.
(1) Sorry about making Naruto introduce himself in the western fashion. I just thought it was better suited here.
Me: Well, alright, then! I guess that's the end of chapter four! Whew, that took a while to write!
Sasuke: But….I'm not in it…
Me: Not yet, you aren't. Grow some patience, would you?
Sasuke: Grow…Patience…? Is that even possible?
Me: Yes, because I say so! Anyways, I hope all of you liked it, and I really am sorry for being so bad with updating...But fear not, for it is the summer and I hopefulyl have more time! Please, tell me what you thought of it! And any suggestions are welcome, just don't flame me, please!