Usagi: WHO WANTS PIZZA?

Zakura: WHO CARES?

Usagi: …I do. Well then…. WHO WANTS A NEW CHAPTER OF DOH?

Zakura: that's more like it.

Usagi: good. I've been working on this for quite some time… it as a battle scene in it, which is why it was harder than the rest. It introduces some new characters and reintroduces some old ones… and one very important one.

Sora: the title was kind of a spoiler…

Usagi: it is…. If you think about it. And it introduces another shadow to the story!

Sora: why are you so damn obsessed with shadows?

Usagi: oh you'll like this one, don't worry.

Sora: I will?

Usagi: of course coughnotcough

Sora: …

Usagi: enjoy!

Chapter 8

Return of the Demon Kings.

"So…how long was it since you noticed this thing was following us?" Riku asked.

"I could smell him soon after Kyuubi attacked, he was probably following us above ground" Zexion explained. "His sense of smell probably isn't as good as mine, but I'm sure he must have sensed that I was around, or he wouldn't come after us."

"And do you honestly think he's going to fall for that?" Riku asked again, pointing to a box on a stick, with a sea-salt ice cream inside.

The party was hiding out in the bushes next to the box-trap, waiting for the shadow heartless that apparently had been following Zexion.

"Trust me, this is a shadow we're talking about, they're not the brightest of creatures" Sora said. "As for the ice cream… heartless love sea salt ice cream."

"All of them?" Riku asked.

"Yes, at least the ones I saw in the Castle that Never Was back then" Sora assured him.

"I still think it's the lamest trap ever" Riku said, just as he said that however, a shadow heartless bounced out of a nearby bush, straight for the ice cream and before it knew what was happening, it was trapped under the box.

"You were saying?" Sora asked.

"That heartless are even dumber than you" Riku added.

"Hey!" Sora protested as Kairi and Zexion walked up to the box.

Kairi lifted it slightly. "So… This is Ienzo?" she asked.

"What's left of him" Zexion said, and knocked the box out of the way.

"Hey, are you sure it's smart to let it out?" Demyx asked nervously.

"Don't worry, he's harmless" Zexion said, looking at his heartless who was still happily eating the ice cream bait.

"Just be careful he doesn't swallow that ice cream stick" Sora said, just as Ienzo spit the empty stick into his face.

"I don't think that'll be much of a problem" Zexion said.

"And you think this thing is going to help us find this so called "heart" of the Netherworld?" Etna asked.

"I still think we should find Laharl first, if something is threatening his Netherworld surely he would want to save it" Flonne said.

"You can stop looking, Love-Freak" another voice said.

The party (and the bijuu and the shadow) turned around and saw the young overlord standing on the roof of Nekomata's house.

"Laharl! You're okay!" Flonne said happily and was about to run up to him before Sora grabbed her hand.

"Wait Flonne, something's not right here" he said.

"What are you talking about? He looks unhurt to me" Flonne said nervously.

"Of course I'm unhurt, I'm the Overlord, it takes more than some mangy fox to harm me" Laharl said smirking so widely Sora could see his sharp teeth even from his standing point on the ground, but that didn't bother him (thanks to the transformation his teeth were equally sharp). What he was looking at was Laharl's eyes, yellow eyes.

"He's a heartless!" he yelled, Flonne quickly took a few steps back and everyone around them readied their weapons (except Ienzo the shadow who hid underneath the box again).

Laharl's heartless sighed. "And I was hoping we could do this the easy way…Nah, who am I kidding? Bring it on human-boy" he added, and as he drew his sword, Kyuubi came out of a portal.

"Oh no… this is going to get ugly" Shukaku said.

"I guess all we can really do is fight together and hope for the best" Nekomata said.

The three tailed demons started transforming;

Kaku was surrounded by clay and returned to his blue badger-form.

Shukaku created a shield of sand around him and as it dissolved a large tanuki with purple markings around its eyes appeared in his place (note: does not look like the Shukaku in Naruto, since I made a new design for most of the others, I gave him a new one too. DEAL WITH IT).

Nekomata got surrounded by a mist of darkness, and transformed into a big black and white cat; her wings grew way larger too (Does DEFINITELY not look like the Naruto-Nibi.)

"Well this is going to be great, you three will make great vassals once you turn heartless" Laharl said.

"Don't count on it! No one gets to touch a hair on Nekomata on my watch!" Shukaku growled and stood up protecting between Nekomata and the two heartless.

"Idiot, you're one of the weakest bijuu, so in truth it should me I who should protect YOU, if I felt like it that is" Nekomata said.

"This is no time to be fighting between ourselves" Kairi warned them. "We must stay together."

The bijus cast a glance towards Kyuubi, who was simply growling at them.

"Got it!" the three said at once, it was apparent that they weren't thrilled on facing their fallen king one by one.

Kyuubi was tired of staring at the other animal demons and charged towards them, fangs bared.

Laharl too jumped down from the roof of Nekomata's house and faced Sora, who had summoned both the Kingdom Key and Oathkeeper.

"This wouldn't happen to be about the chicken now would it?" Sora asked.

"That too" Laharl said and attacked Sora with a sword that was almost as big as the Overlord himself, Sora blocked it with the Oathkeeper. "Also I just generally like to beat people up."

The bijous were having a struggle of their own, basically just trying to dodge all of Kyuubi's attacks, occasionally trying (and failing) to attack.

Nekomata tried showing of her rather unusual talents, opening a third eye on her forehead she summoned several partially solid ghosts to her side.

Some of the ghosts tried to attack Kyuubi but the fox seemed to find them nothing but a minor annoyance, he grabbed one of them and ripped it to threads. The remaining ghosts dispersed.

"Bloody cowards!" Nekomata yelled after them, before being knocked out by one of Kyuubi's tails.

"Nekomata!" Shukaku yelled and ran up to her. "How dare you attack a lady?" he said to Kyuubi.

"Well in all honesty she DID attack him first" Kaku said.

"Who's side are you on?" the tanuki asked.

"Can these guys go two minutes without bickering?" Riku asked.

"Well no. This is actually an improvement from earlier when we'd just fly at each other's throats instead" Kaku said. "Like that" he added, pointing towards Shukaku and Kyuubi who seemed to be just rolling around, each trying to throw in a punch/bite at each other.

"It's just like watching you and Sora" Kairi added, Riku just glared at her.

"Maybe we should help him out" he said, drawing Road to dawn.

"I'm on it" Kaku said and ran towards the fox and the tanuki, closely followed by Riku. Kairi and the nobodies decided to join them as well.

Meanwhile Sora was still struggling against Laharl, being assisted by Etna and Flonne, only the ex-angel wasn't being of much help.

"Laharl stop it! Don't you realise you're fighting your friends?" Flonne yelled.

"You're not really helping Flonne" Etna said, blocking one of the heartless' attacks. "Finally, a chance to beat up the prince! And since it's for his own good I won't even get punished for it".

"Wouldn't be too sure about that dood, don't forget who you're talking about" one of the prinnies said nervously.

"Think, he must have some kind of weakness" Sora said.

"He does, but Nekomata is knocked out" Etna said.

Sora just looked at her confused.

"I'll explain later" Etna said, throwing her spear towards Laharl, who blocked it with his sword. (And because I am not in a fight and therefore have good time I can tell you this: Laharl's weakness is pretty ladies.)

"You might as well give up, you can't defeat me any more than that shadow hiding under that box over there can" Laharl said.

At the corner of his eye, Sora was sure he was Ienzo peek out from underneath the box and stick his tongue out at the heartless demon, before disappearing under the box again.

"At least I'm not the one hiding in a box" Sora muttered, out loud he said "We're not giving up this easily Laharl, its about time you witness the true power of the keyblade."

The Kingdom Key glowed and transformed into a black scary looking keyblade.

Sora most definitely understood his nobody's choice of keyblade, the Oathkeeper was great when it came to magic, and Oblivion automatically increased the bearer's strength, together the two keyblades were a perfect match, but would it be enough to defeat the heartless of the Demon Overlord himself?

Laharl for sure didn't seem to think so.

"So your toy can transform, so what?" he said. "I was considering turning you into a heartless, but I've seen your heartless form and it's useless, so I think I'll just kill you instead" the demon said, and charged at Sora.

Sora was ready, he used the keyblades as a shield and used the Oblivion Keyblade to hook on to Laharl's gigantic sword and threw him out of the way, the demon tumbled and fell into a bush.

"What's wrong Laharl? Is that sword a little too big for you?" Sora asked.

"Shut up!" Laharl yelled and turned towards the giant fox, which was still fighting the others. "Hey dog-breath! Get finished over there and help me!" he yelled.

Kyuubi growled, obviously not happy about being called "dog-breath" but still seemed determined to carry out the order.

He grabbed Shukaku (who was the nearest) by the tail and threw him towards the others.

"Kairi! Riku!" Sora yelled.

"Worry about them later, HE'S COMING THIS WAY DOOD!" one of the prinnies yelled.

Sure enough, having knocked out the tanuki, Kyuubi turned and started moving towards Sora, Etna and Flonne, plus the prinnies who were cowering together behind them.

"You will pay for that" Sora said.

"And what are you going to do about it kid?" The fox asked, laughing evilly.

"You…can you talk?" Sora asked.

"Of course I can talk! I'm a demon heartless! I'm not like any of those worthless shadows you've been hanging with" Kyuubi said. "And that's not all I can do". He charged up and a gigantic fireball flew out of his mouth towards Sora and the demons.

"WATCH OUT!" Etna yelled, she caught one of the prinnies and threw it at the fireball, the prinny exploded as it hit the fireball and disappeared.

"Nice hit" Sora said, a bit shocked at how the prinny had just blown up.
"DOOD!" another prinny yelled.

"Hey, it was either him or all of us" Etna said.
"She was female dood" the prinny added.

"I don't care" Etna said.

"I hope you've got more of those things since blowing up prinnies is one of my favourite pass-times, second to roasting my enemies, like you" Kyuubi said.

"Then you're going to love this" Etna said, she grabbed the prinny that had been complaining earlier and threw it directly at Kyuubi's face.

"And that's what happens to complainers" Etna said to the remaining prinnies, who were too scared to say anything.

The explosion didn't seem to do much damage, but it didn't pass unnoticed.

"That HURT!" Kyuubi yelled. "For that, I'm gonna roast you first."

"Make sure it's painful!" Laharl yelled.

"Okay…so much for not being punished for it" Etna growled.

Before she even had time to think about escaping, Kyuubi ran around her and stepped on her tail.

"Oh it'll get painful alright" he said with a smirk. "And you two stay out of this, that goes for the prinnies too" he added as he used his tails to grab on to Sora and Flonne so they wouldn't interfere. "I want you to watch this, so you can see how you're going to die later.

"Etna! Don't hurt her!" Flonne said, struggling to get free from the fox's grip, but the tails were extremely powerful, she might as well be pushing on a brick wall.

The remaining prinnies decided enough was enough, and ran for it.

"Looks like this is it" Sora said. "But if I may say one thing she should be glad Kyuubi didn't decide to turn her into a heartless".

"Really? I don't know what you are talking about" Laharl said. "Just finish…what's that sound?"

Everyone silenced, even Kyuubi turned around to see where the sound came from, it sounded like the engine of a space ship…or a gummi ship.

"The Highwind!" Sora said, and sure enough, the multi-coloured space craft suddenly cut trhough the dense clouds and few towards them. As soon as it came within firing range it started shooting towards Kyuubi's body, careful not to hit Sora or the demons.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Laharl said. "Have it your way, I'll be back!" he said, and both heartless disappeared into portals, making Flonne and Etna fall to the ground.

"Phew, that was a close call" Etna said. "Now where did those darn prinnies go? They're in for some beating!"

"Good to see you're doing okay" Sora said, smiling nervously as the gummi ship landed behind them, and Mickey came out quickly followed by Donald and Goofy.

"Sora! Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, but how's Riku and Kairi?" Sora asked, looking over at where Shukaku was, the tanuki struggled up to his feet, allowing Riku, Kairi and the rest who were under him come out.
"We're fine, luckily there was a small hole in the ground just where Shukaku landed" Kairi said.

"That's a relief, I'd hate to be the one who had to tell your mother if something happened to you" Mickey said. "Speaking of which…"

"I'm in trouble now, aren't I?" Kairi asked, gazing over at Zexion.
"Hey, this was your idea from the start. Don't blame me" Zexion said.

"We'll talk about that later, right now it seems your friends need some help" Mickey said, as Nekomata and Kaku started waking up too.

"Ow, I hurt in my eight tail, and I only have seven" Kaku groaned.

"I must have gotten hurt harder than I think, I see a giant mouse" Nekomata said, staring at Mickey, as all three demons reverted to their humanoid forms.

"Hey, no eating! He's a friend" Sora warned her. "These are our friends, Donald, Goofy and King Mickey. Meet Kaku, Nekomata and Shukaku."

"Then I take it that big fox must have been Kyuubi…and Laharl?" Goofy said.

"Yup, I'm afraid we came too late to save him from turning into a heartless" Sora said sadly.

"And what's that?" Goofy asked, looking at Ienzo who had just decided it was safe to get out of the box.

"Oh, I totally forgot about him" Kairi said and picked up the shadow. "Guys, meet Ienzo."

"Ienzo? You mean that's Zexion's heartless?" Mickey said. "That's wonderful! That means there's a chance he can get his heart back, if we tell Nanami that surely she won't be as mad at you for running away".

"We're not telling her!" Zexion said.

"But…" Mickey started.

"No buts! She doesn't need to know who I am, at least not before I DO get my heart back" Zexion interrupted. "I know Larxene told her how it MIGHT work but I don't trust her."

"Then what if we went to see Vexen? You and him were old friends weren't you?" Kairi asked.

"Yes, but where do we find HIM?" Zexion said.

"You know… I have an idea" Axel said.

"Oh hurray, we're saved" Riku said sarcastically.

"Just hear me out okay? We don't know where Vexen is but we know where Kyuubi is…well kind of, and who follows Vexen around? At least the last time we saw him?" Axel asked.

"Marluxia and Larxene?" Demyx suggested.

"…Them too, but I'm talking about Buxyuki! Kyuubi's nobody! He and Kyuubi have an inner connection so if we catch the heartless THAT might lead us to the nobody!" Axel said. "Its genius! Got it memorized?"

"It's crazy! And I told you I don't want to hear that line ever again" Riku said. "We're talking about Kyuubi's heartless here, who just five minutes ago tried to kill us all, and roast Etna alive, why would HE join us?"

"Because we can help him get his heart back?" Axel said.

"It doesn't look like he's very interested" Sora said. "But he still needs to be stopped, same goes for Laharl and Deym, or the Netherworld is in big trouble".

"Then it's decided, first we stop the heartless, then we could go look for Vexen and the gang" Mickey said.

"It won't be easy to defeat Kyuubi, even with all of us…now where are those morons?" Nekomata asked.

Before anyone got time to ask who "those morons" were, a large tidal wave suddenly appeared.

"Oh no! Not Deym again" Demyx said.

"Don't worry, it's not him" Nekomata said in a bored manner.

Sure enough, someone was riding the wave, but it wasn't Deym. As it came closer it became gradually smaller until a surf board slid across the ground.

On the board stood a blue haired demon wearing a bathing shorts, he had three fish-tails and a pair of horns on his head. On the front end of the board stood a half metre long blue fish.

"Hi dudes, what's up?" the demon asked.

"What's UP?" Nekomata asked, sounding furious. "I'll tell you what's up! While you were out…surfing or whatever… we were attacked! There was only luck that Kyuubi didn't murder us! Where have you been and where are Raijuu and Souko?"

"Geez, chill cat-girl. We were just trying to gather supplies okay? Raijuu and Souko should be here shortly" the fish-boy said. Then he spotted the keybladers and their friends. "Oh, you found the overlord's vassals? Is he coming to help?"

"The overlord has been turned into a heartless" Nekomata said.

"Oh" the fish boy just said.

"Aaaaw, this is bad" said the small fish on his surfboard. "NOW what are we going to do?"

Suddenly two more demons arrived on the scene.

A large weasel stormed into the area like a lighting bolt, on his back sat another humanoid, carrying a bag of what appeared to be pizza.

"What did I hear about the overlord getting turned into a heartless?" the weasel asked.

"Would you mind going a BIT slower next time?" the demon on his back groaned.

"You heard correctly Raijuu, guys, meet the rest of our little gang" Nekomata said. "The guy with the surf board is the tree-tailed shark Isonade, and his sidekick Samehada, this is Raijuu, the six-tailed weasel and Souko the four-tailed…er…"

"Cockatrice" the demon on the weasel's back muttered.

"A what?" Riku asked.

"The four-tailed chicken-snake" Shukaku said helpfully. "Glad to see you Souko, it's just not the same without you. When you're around I'm no longer the biggest freak around!"

"How good for you!" the four tail said sarcastically. "I am so glad my misfortune makes SOME of us happy."

"Don't mind them, Souko is the only demon Shukaku has been able to defeat in battle" Nekomata explained to the party. "They go on like this all the time. Shukaku loves to tease Souko, and Souko loves…well, when Shukaku's far away."

"Weren't there supposed to be nine bijuu?" Donald asked.

"That's right, but Gobi is injured and no one knows where Hachibi is hiding" Kaku said. "We don't want to know either.

"That is a pity, Nekomata is the strongest in our party but both Houkou and Orochi are even stronger than she is" Rajuu said, he had now transformed into a humanoid like the rest, looking like a young man with golden spiky hair, and six spiky weasel tails. "They could highly increase our chances of defeating Kyuubi."
"Just a question, but what will happen if we don't stop the heartless?" Flonne asked nervously.

"Short version: The Netherworld is doomed" Sora said.

Usagi: DUN DUN DUN DUUUUN

Sora: I think anyone who's played trhough Destiny Islands day 3 in Kingdom hearts should know what awaits the Netherworld if we don't catch those heartless FAST!

Usagi: Yup. So you better hurry up keybladers.

Sora: yikes…

Usagi: Now we finally have most of the bijuus introduced, except the dog Houkou (Gobi) and the snake Yamata no Orochi (Hachibi). I had some fun designing Samehada… He wasn't supposed to be any important character but he just turned out so cute:3 You can see a pic of him on my Deviantart Account (link in my profile) so we'll definitely be seeing more of him in the future.

Samehada: You don't say…all we've seen so far is me sitting on a surfboard, and I only got one line!

Usagi: aw…poor thing. (Pets Samehada and snuggles Ienzo)

Isonade: (flinch) you're not trying to steal my sidekick are you?

Usagi: no… of course not

Isonade: then why is there a giant aquarium behind your back?

Usagi: I want a pet dolphin!

Isonade: riiiight.

Usagi: Please review everyone! And the first person who complains that Shukaku, Nekomata and Isonade looks different from what they do in Naruto WILL GET THIS HOT PIZZA IN THEIR FACE! (Takes a burnt pizza out of the oven)