Chapter 11
Castle Clashers
Toothless circled the barrier of chakra that the Kyuubi had created, firing plasma blasts at it in order to create an opening, but it was no use.
"Oh great, we can't bust in..." Konan grumbled.
"We can't give up, we have to save Naruto!" Ichigo protested.
"But there is no way in!"
I can help you.
Ichigo looked up at the sky, "Huh?"
I can transport you into that boys subconscious, but I don't have enough power yet, so I can only send one of you.
"Ichigo" Konan put a hand on the swordsmans shoulder, "Go save him! If anyone can snap him out of it, its you." she said with a smile and Ichigo nodded.
Okay, good luck Ichigo.
In a brilliant flash of golden light, Ichigo was gone.
OOO
The spiky haired boy was in what resembled an abandoned factory room with a gigantic jail cell in front of him. He slowly walked up to it, but fell backward in shock when the Kyuubi slammed on the bars violently with his claws.
"What are you doing here trespasser, and just how did you get in here in the first place?" the demon bellowed.
"Where is Naruto?" was all the swordsman said.
"Hmhmhm, he is merged within me, I have control now!"
"Well give him up!"
"Hahaha, you think you can tell ME what to do? You're quite cocky, little boy. I'm afraid there is not a thing you can do to stop me!"
"Listen you bastard, I don't know why the hell you suddenly decided to take full control of-" Ichigo was interrupted by an evil laugh from the fox.
"I'm afraid you are mistaken, Naruto GAVE me control!"
"Bullshit!"
"Hmhm, its the truth. Don't think so highly of yourself, I have no reason to lie to you, I could even KILL you if I wanted!"
"Well then you must've talked him into it!"
"Wrong again little boy, he willingly climbed inside my prison and told me to destroy Crisis at any costs and to not let ANYONE stand in his way!"
"That cant be! Naruto would-"
"You must not know him as well as you think." the demon chuckled a little, "Whenever Crisis is even MENTIONED, I can feel the rage and anger within him. All it takes to really send him over the edge is Crisis himself saying anything about you."
"Me...?"
"Indeed, you seem to be the one who Naruto's morale is tied to. Combine that with his hatred for his arch-enemy and you have a ticking time bomb of turmoil. Now leave Naruto's subconscious at once, or I'll make you wish you never came here in the first place!"
"I'm not leaving without Naruto!"
"Very well, if it will get you to scram, I shall let you speak to him." the Kyuubi begrudgingly obliged and Naruto slowly rose out of his head, he then picked Naruto up with a tail and set him on the ground. From outside, Naruto reverted to his 6-tailed form.
"Naruto!"
"What the...? Ichigo? How did you get in here?" Naruto was weak from the constant pain he had suffered while fused with his demon.
"That doesn't matter, you have to get back in control!"
"I can't do that, Crisis needs to pay for everything he has done."
"Listen up Naruto! You are being an idiot for doing this!" Naruto was a bit surprised at his friends change in demeanor. "Always letting your anger overpower you when Crisis is even brought up, its ridiculous! Keep this up and it could kill you! You and I, along with the others, that includes Konan who is out there waiting for you to return to normal, will take him down together as a team! You don't have to do this alone or have to prove anything to anyone!"
"But I don't want anyone to get hurt by that monster ever again!"
"Get over yourself Naruto! People are gonna get hurt if they just charge headfirst into battle with only their anger carrying them! As a team, we stand a helluva better chance against him!"
"I...y-you...you're right Ichigo." Naruto said and stepped out of the cell, outside he reverted to his 4-tailed form.
Congratulations, Ichigo
In a brilliant flash of light, the swordsman was transported out of his friends subconscious and stood by his side, the ninja no longer using any of the demons power.
"He did it!" Konan happily exclaimed as Toothless landed right behind Ichigo and Naruto.
"Konan!" Naruto exclaimed and the blue-haired ninja embraced him.
"Hm, you snapped him out of it Ichigo. While it makes things a lot easier, it would have been interesting to take on the monster himself." Crisis said.
"Oh you'll wish you did, Crisis!" Ichigo exclaimed and held his sword out in front of him.
"It wouldn't be because that there's four of you, would it? Because you must've forgot I dealt with over 20 of you beings."
"Well YOU must've forgot that I managed to hold you off!"
"But that was in your evil form, wasn't it Ichigo?" the swordsman gritted his teeth, Crisis was correct.
"That doesn't matter now, Crisis!" Naruto growled and created many Shadow Clones behind his group.
"Ah, now that you mention it, I have never fought you in your simplest form, my former henchmen." the Dark Earthling taunted.
"Your words no longer bother me, Crisis!"
"We will see if that confident attitude still holds water after I deal with your friends here."
"Can it, you freak!" Konan exclaimed and tossed some kunai made of paper at the humanoid, but they did just about as much damage as you would expect from something made of paper.
"Is...is that all you can do?" Ichigo asked, staring at the ninja with a bored expression.
"Well...um...YES! I have power over paper, okay? It may be lame, but it does have its uses!" Konan stammered.
"Like what?"
"Like...JUST LISTEN! Pain and I did a lot of training after that whole thing with Crisis and Discord and we got some kickass combo moves!" Konan exclaimed with a popped vein. (by 'training', she means 'a dream I had')
"Well your husband isn't HERE, now is he?" Naruto yelled angrily.
"Naruto?" Ichigo exclaimed, both at his sudden change in attitude and the fact that he was now monochrome.
"Why is a talon sticking out of your back?" Konan pointed to a large yellow eagle claw on the ninjas upper back, touching his shoulder.
"I dunno Konan, why don't you give it a papercut?" Naruto yelled.
"That wont be necessary." a voice said and a creature seemed to fly right out of the blonde-hared ninjas back. He was a kind of serpentine dragon with the head and right horn of a goat, the tail of a sea serpent, the right leg of a dragon, the left leg of a horse, the right arm of a lion, the left arm of an eagle, the left wing of a bat, the right wing of a pegasus, and the left horn of a deer.
"What the HELL?" Ichigo exclaimed, having never seen such a mash up of creatures before.
"What's the matter, Ichigo Kurosaki? Surely such a brave soul as yourself, wouldn't be scared of the mere spirit of chaos!" the being taunted.
"What did you do to Naruto?" Konan asked with a glare.
"Hahaha! I just gave him a little mind screw, but he shouldn't be TOO different! What do you people call him, a blonde bitch or something like that?"
"Leave immediately, Discord." Crisis ordered.
Ichigo looked at Crisis in complete shock. "Discord? Does that mean the Darkness took your true form and-"
"Oh no, no, no, Ichigo. Crisis' true form merely shares the same name as me, Discord is a GOOD word for a villain after all! Its not like he can transform anyway, he needs the 3 Cores in order to do that now. You see, when that girl defeated him, his power was sealed away by a force that not even the Darkness can break!" Discord explained.
"And that would be that girl, his sister, wouldn't it? Britney's form contained some of her power, correct?" Konan concluded.
"Bingo!" Discord said, teleporting next to the female ninja and putting a talon atop her head.
"Get your freaking hands off me." Konan grumbled.
"Discord, leave immediately." Crisis repeated.
"Oh Crisis, Crisis, Crisis." Discord said, teleporting above the Dark Earthling and flicking him with his tail. "That was from my TAIL-FIN." he said and made a creepy face that rapidly flash colors.
"What made you think you could intrude?"
"Intrude? Crisis, you don't OWN these guys, they aren't your property." Discord said and quickly stamped 'Property of Nobody' on Ichigo's, Konan's, Toothless', and Naruto's foreheads with a stamper, the imprints quickly faded. "I understand you have quite a history with Naruto and Ichigo, but they are fair game for anyone here. Pride? Fair game." Discord created a small figure of the creepy child. "Psyca? Fair game." he created a small figure of the demon. "Babbling Fish? Fair game." he created a small figure of the shark, then smashed all 3 figures together into nothingness.
"Babbling Fish is here?" Ichigo exclaimed.
"Scared of a little shark, you pussy?" Naruto taunted.
"He sure is, Ichigo, I could bring you right to him if you'd like." Discord teased.
"I have plans for that one, Discord." Crisis said.
"What? Are you going to corrupt him?" he asked, turning his head 180 degrees to face him.
"I can't take much more of this freak!" Konan grumbled and looked at Toothless who nodded. The dragon reared up on its back legs and blasted Discord with a ball of plasma.
"That was not bad dragon, not bad at all." the chimera said, slow clapping. "Mind trying that again?" he said, holding up a target.
"Don't do it, its clearly a trick!" Konan warned, but Toothless didn't listen, but instead of firing plasma, he fired bubbles. Konan and Ichigo just stared at the dragon in disbelief, Konan bugeyed and Ichigo sweatdropping.
"Are you fucking joking?" Naruto sneered, crossing his arms.
"Nice change, don't you think?" Discord said.
"You are one fucked up creature!" Ichigo shouted, pointing at Discord. "I would rather take on Crisis than a freak like you!"
"What a hurtful thing to say!" Discord taunted with a sad face. "If that is how you really feel, then I'll let you have your wish. As a bonus, I'll have your dragon breathe plasma again. So long everyone!" and with a snap of his finger, Discord teleported away.
"Man that guy was weird." Konan said with a sigh.
"Get over it." Naruto ordered.
"Discord was correct, this is the Naruto I am most familiar with. This is how my pupil acted." Crisis observed, also trying to egg Ichigo on.
"If this is one of your attempts to get into my head, its not gonna work, Crisis!" Ichigo said with confidence and sent a horizontal slash of energy at the Dark Earthling. Crisis didn't move a muscle as the blade slashed him clean in half, but he just regenerated.
"It must be, as you have forgotten I can not be killed by such a simple assault."
"Then how about an assault like THIS?" Konan said with a sly look on her face, and Crisis was bombarded with plasma by Toothless from up above. This reduced Crisis to large dark particles, but he still recovered.
"Now I can see why this guy was such a pain in the ass." the ninja grumbled.
"Quit your complaining! You guys just suck!" yelled Naruto, Crisis smirked at this, seeing his pawn was turning against his friends once again.
Konan gritted her teeth and yelled right back at the ninja with angry bugeyes. "That wasn't complaining you-!" she stopped, remembering this was Naruto she was addressing and that Discord had changed him.
"Damn it. We NEED Naruto for this!" Ichigo said with a sigh.
"Yeah, because you all are WEAKLINGS!" he shrieked.
This is when Konan noticed something else different about him. "That's odd...Naruto would have at least used SOME of his demons chakra by now..." she pondered this for a moment and figured that Discord must've inadvertently altered the Kyuubi's personality when he changed Naruto's.
Ichigo had thought of something as well; trying to use Naruto's newfound character to their advantage. "Alright Naruto, if we are so weak, why don't you a go at Crisis?" the substitute Soul Reaper said with a smirk.
Naruto built up a Rasengan. "That's the smartest thing to come out of your mouth, you clingy obsessed loser!" Ichigo grimaced, blue lines ran down his forehead and he sweatdropped, its been a long time since he heard THAT one. Naruto charged fiercely at Crisis and slammed the orb of chakra right into his chest, sending him spiraling backwards. Crisis sunk into the ground and rose out behind Naruto, but the ninja swung his arm backward, holding a kunai. The Dark Earthling caught the appendage with a tendril and broke it. Ichigo used this time to strike, and he swiftly swung his sword horizontally at Crisis' neck, figuring he would not be able to react since he was dealing with Naruto, but he was wrong. Crisis grabbed Ichigo by the feet with tendrils and threw him up and over the back of him, the swordsman landed hard on his back.
"Do not insult me, Ichigo, you can not sneak up on me." Project Nai wrapped his tendrils around the duos bodies, intending to drag them down with him, but was ambushed by Toothless, who pounced on him from behind. The Night Fury then blew a stream of plasma right from Crisis' head all throughout his body, burning him to nothingness. Toothless then grabbed Konan with his tail, threw the ninja on his back, fluttered a little, and swooped down at Naruto and Ichigo, grabbing them with his claws, then took off quickly. Konan looked back at the summit as the dragon ascended and saw no trace of Crisis, but she knew for sure he was still alive.
"I don't get it..." Ichigo said to himself.
"What DO you get?" Naruto sneered. Ichigo gave his friend a mere glance, angry that some freak show like Discord was capable of messing with his best friends mind so effortlessly.
"What's the problem, Ichigo?" Konan asked.
"Aside from that maniac Discord, I don't get CRISIS!"
"What do you mean exactly?"
"Every time I've come across him, he's just not as...malicious. When he first shown his face, he could've easily absorbed Pit, but he didn't. Well, I didn't think much of it, but now he let Naruto and I get away? There is no way in hell he would let that happen! There just HAS to be something going on here!"
Naruto scoffed, "Hey you useless reptile, why don't you let me off here so I can stop listening to this guys monologues!"
"There's got to be a way to change you back, Naruto!"
There is a way to break Discords spell. He will snap back to normal if you can jog a powerful memory deep inside of him.
"A powerful memory...?" Ichigo repeated.
"Did she stutter or something?" Naruto snapped at him.
"What kind of memory could bring him back, though?" Konan tried to think of something that Naruto would be very sensitive about, but the best she could come up with was Crisis or Ichigo, and they didn't work before. Toothless growled, catching Konan's and Ichigo's attention, because below them was a large castle and a fierce battle was taking place at the top.
OOO
"Oh man, this is gonna SUCK!" Marth groaned.
"Well there's not much we can do to avoid it, so suck it up and fight your hardest." Uryu said and began shooting arrows at their corrupted teammates. Ritsuka put up a large black barrier in front of himself and the others, blocking Uryu's attacks. Edward charged at the barrier, figuring he could shatter it with his strength, but, of course, he was knocked right back with a large black sphere from Lucario.
"You don't charge in like that, dumbass." Jenna sneered.
"Its not gonna be easy to get through that barrier you guys, could take awhile." Bender said, smoking a cigar.
"Shut up!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Hey, bite my-" Bender's head was suddenly knocked off by a missile from Vroom-Vroom. "Damn it!"
"Okay lady, lets do this!" Victini exclaimed, the crest on his head blazing with fire.
"Um, yeah..." Serena wasn't so confident, nor was she enthusiastic. Enigma ran through the barrier and knocked Serena to the ground with a sweep kick. "Okay, this guy is going down." the Vexians demeanor quickly changed and her arms glow black.
"Yeah, lets do it!" Victini flashed a victory sign at Serena. Enigma was suddenly picked up with sand and repeatedly smashed into the ground as more and more sand crept up and covered him. Serena glanced over at Gaara, who was nearby, a bit irritated that he stole her target.
The ninja didn't seem to notice or care. "Sand Bur-" Enigma burst out of the sand, having turned into Shukaku Gaara when he was under the control of the Darkness.
"Oh great, HIM again..." Serena rolled her eyes. not too thrilled about having to face Gaara again.
Toph was sending black boulder after boulder at the heroes, but DK shattered each and every one with ease. Shadow simply teleported to the other side of the barrier and snapped his fingers, knocking Samantha into the barrier with a small explosion of purple and blue chaos energy. Jenifer held out her arms, her hand turning into a black dragons head, and fired a black beam from it, but Shadow teleported to the other side of the barrier, causing the attack to slam into Celebi, knocking the Pokemon to the ground. Then, Jenna's summon burst out of the ground on the other side of the barrier and breathed out a stream of lava. Ritsuka disabled the barrier, so the lava would rush toward the other heroes, while Samantha got herself, and the other evil heroes, out of the way using black UFOs.
"Oh heck no!" Manaphy exclaimed, and sprayed a constant stream of Hydro Pump water, which managed to dissipate the lava due to the Tail Glow boosts he used. Ratchet pulled out a gun with a spinning buzzsaw sticking out of the barrel, and hundreds of little buzzsaws flew at the Darkness' pawns at every angle.
"That's gotta smart." Billy said. Ayamne nodded, turned into her powered-up form, and sent many huge shurikens at their enemies in addition. Celebi did something unexpected, he went back in time to the point before Jenna's summon ambushed them. The nature of the dimension prevented time travel, and not even the Darkness could fully bypass that rule, this allowed his sister to bend the rule as well, turning Celebi good.
He looked around in confusion, wondering what he was doing with a bunch of evil good guys. "Uh-oh!" before he was about to be crushed between Jacobs huge hands, Shadow teleported him to the other side.
"One down...twelve to go..." Edward grumbled, running up to Enigma and kicking him under the chin.
"Get away, prettyboy, Victini and I know just how to beat him." Serena said.
"Um, you didn't do anything." Victini pointed out.
"I told you about his power-negating...power."
"Yeah, that's true, but you didn't do any of the fighting."
"I did, I just didn't win."
"I know you didn't, but I did."
"Don't get cocky, I can kill you ya know."
"No you can't, I'm too strong and cute for you to kill."
"I don't know about that."
"What? You think I'm weak? I'm the spirit of victory!"
"No, I don't think you're cute enough to not kill. Seriously, are those wings on your rear?"
"Well, they are wings, but they aren't on my rear. They are on my legs! They are just really teeny, like me!"
"Okay, then you must have thunder thighs."
"Can someone as small as me even HAVE th-" Gaara smacked the duo away with a Shukaku arm, sick and tired of listening to them. He sent out a bunch more from his gourd, wrapping Enigma up in a ball of claws as the copy tried smashing away at them with his tail, but it was no good. Spines stuck out of the ball as he fired them in a failed attempt to break out.
Victini pointed at the sand prison. "It looks like a Ferroseed!"
Serena had no idea what he was talking about. "I don't know what kind of seeds have spikes...I'd say it looks like-"
"SHUT UP! I don't BLAME Gaara for trying to kill you! And I'm not just talking about the redheaded one here." Edward yelled with a popped vein.
"Hn." Gaara had tuned them out, focusing on the enemy inside. "Perish!" he crushed Enigma to bits with the much more deadly coffin, killing him for sure.
"Ohhh, what happened last night?" Enigma asked, pretending to be dazed.
"Just transform into someone." Serena told him.
Meanwhile, Kyle and DK were duking it out against Lucario, who had ran at them for a hand-to-hand combat battle.
"He's more durable than before." Kyle said, seeing Lucario take a punch from DK to the face, and getting up as if nothing happened.
"Monkey, cover me." the Vexian said, DK frowned at him, he was a gorilla, which was totally different. Kyle started charging up his Charge Shot attack, while DK kicked Lucario into Ritsuka's barrier with both feet, and then grabbed him by the neck. Lucario rapidly kicked the ape in the face, but DK held on, he had stamina just as high.
"Throw him this way." Kyle ordered, having built up a black sparking comet of energy in his palms. DK did so, and Kyle blasted Lucario with a full Charge Shot, knocking him right off the castle as well. However, Diddy Kong flew out and caught Lucario, throwing him back toward the duo and challenging them as well.
"Time to turn things up." Kyle said, and turned into his second form. "I assume that other monkey is your friend?" DK nodded in confirmation. "Well you need to take on my friend while I take on yours. You may be big, but I got a summon just his size." DK paused for a moment at this, then pounded his chest in readiness. The ape charged at Lucario, jumped in the air, and smashed the Steel/Fighting-type with a barrel. He wasn't going to give the Pokemon any leeway, and grabbed him by the feet, spun around and around, and let go. This sent Lucario flying off the edge of the castle. Diddy would have gone after him, but he was too busy with Kyle's Metal Beast Summon. Samantha sent some black UFOs after Lucario, but DK destroyed them with coconuts that were fired from a wooden bazooka-like weapon that he pulled out. The tie-wearing primate peeked over the edge of the castle, and was shocked to see Lucario running straight up it. The humanoid jackal delivered a swift uppercut to DK's jaw, then knocked him backward with a Shadow Ball. Kyle's Metal Beast had a tight grip on Diddy, Kyle mimicking the motion of a chokehold to keep the monkey immobilized. Diddy managed to pull out a Peanut Popgun and fire at the Vexian, but Kyle swung out his tail in front of him, which his summon imitated, breaking the peanut with its strength. Diddy decided to pull out a banana peel and toss it at Kyle, the raven-haired boy saw no threat in the oversized trash, but he fell on his face as soon as the peel landed on him. This proved to be more useful than he thought, because his summon copied his every move, it fell forward too, right off the edge of the castle, with Diddy still in its grip. It crashed into the ground, hard, killing the giant monkey due to the impact, as well as the summons large weight. Kyle quickly desummoned his ally, not wanting to kill Diddy again, and the hat-wearing simian flew up to him on his jetpack, back to his normal size and self. Diddy noticed DK was in a scuffle with Lucario, pulled out two popguns, and blasted the Pokemon with a barrage of peanuts. While this did little more than annoy the jackal, it did distract him, allowing DK to knock him off the castle with a wind-up punch. To be sure he wouldn't come back, at least not as his evil self, Kyle leaned over the edge, holding himself securely with his large claws, and fired a grey-white beam of energy from the orb on his chest. This pushed Lucario downward even faster, also hurting him along the way, and the aura-user was killed the instant he hit the ground. Lucario ran up the wall again, this time however, he was back to normal.
At the same time, Bender and Sasuke had managed to draw Vroom-Vroom and Jenifer out of the barrier, and Kimimaro joined the fight.
"So, are you gonna DO something this time?" Sasuke asked Bender.
"I dunno, maybe, if I feel like it. Are you gonna stop crying this time?" the robot snapped back.
"Can it, the both of you." Kimimaro said, blocking spear-covered punches from Jenifer with bones in front of his arms, and shooting finger joint bullets at Vroom-Vroom.
"Alright, I'm not about to let you one-up me, Kimimaro." Sasuke said, and withdrew his sword.
"Have you figured out a weakness to that barrier?" Edward asked L, and the detective shook his head.
"No. Not outside of directly attacking the boy who set it up."
Spyro walked up to them with an idea, "I could try flying over it."
"Hmm, that might work..." L wasn't confident that the barrier could be breached like that, but its not like he had any better ideas. "Give it a try then."
Spyro nodded and took to the skies. They were prepared for an aerial assault though, Samantha sent out black UFOs, and Isa took out a humongous rocket launcher.
"No problem." Spyro said, and spat out fast fireballs at the UFOs, while staying on his toes, so he could maneuver out of the rockets path if they were fired. The UFOs shot blue laser beams that dissipated the Superflames, but Spyro surrounded himself in a shield of electricity, striking and blowing up the UFOs with bolts of lightning. Isa fired, sending tons of large homing missiles at the dragon, but Ratchet countered with a mass rocket massacre of his own, the RYNO, blowing up each and every one of the OCs rockets, as well as any straggling UFOs. Isa and Samantha then decided to pursue the other heroes on foot.
"Thanks, Ratchet. I owe you one." Spyro said, and rapidly used Comet Dash in order to avoid any more midair scuffles, but Ritsuka extended the height of the barrier up to the dragons location, causing him to crash into it.
"So you're telling me that only guys who can teleport can get through that?" Sasori exclaimed.
"Quit complaining, I'll go in and kill that cat-boy." Shadow said, ready to use Chaos Control, but L advised against it.
"Do not try that."
Shadow turned to the raven-haired boy, he hated being told what to do, even if it was by the only one in his group that he had any respect for. "And why not?"
"Because you'll get jumped, you buffoon!" Celebi told him.
"A 'buffoon'? Really?" Manaphy sneered at the Grass-types horrible insult.
"Hey, I can Leaf Storm you into vapor!"
"Lets see you use that against THEM." Marth said, pointing at Vampire Lord and Darkrai heading toward them.
"This doesn't make sense, why is that barrier set up if everyone is just going to come right at us?" Uryu wondered.
"Perhaps it isn't them its protecting..." L hypothesized.
"Are you saying that huge door is what its REALLY for?" Edward asked.
"Its possible, but its just a theory."
"Then we just have to draw the rest of them out, and Shadow can take care of tha-" Suddenly, a banshee-like wail filled the area, shortly followed by a large ball of plasma that shattered the barrier, and set Ritsuka ablaze.
"What the fuck was that?" Jenna wondered, sounding nowhere near as surprised as one would expect from such an event.
"I don't know, but it took care of the other-" Rukia stopped, seeing a black serpentine dragon coiled up with a ring of spiked stones surrounding it. "Um, nevermind..."
The stones crumbled to dust, and the dragon, Rainbow Dark Dragon, uncoiled, revealing that Jacob and Toph were safely protected.
"Hmm..." Ritsuka looked at the evil duo, and then teleported near L and the others.
"Looks like your blocking wall is not as advanced as the other HUMANS claimed!" Zim said with an evil grin.
"But you didn't even do anything." Billy pointed out.
"SILENCE, Chickenfoot fleshling!"
"Man, this makes me glad that my brother and I went with the robot..." Rukia said with a bored expression.
"Hn." Byakuya had his attention toward the enemy, "Scatter." the blade on the elder Kuchikis sword turned into cherry blossom petals, and they went at each and every one of the evil heroes, surrounding them in a flurry of razor-sharp projectiles. However, each of them had a counter to the Kuchikis signature attack. Jenifer surrounded herself in a black crystal, Darkrai sunk into the ground, Toph surrounded herself in boulders, Isa put up a black electric barrier around himself, Vroom-Vroom endured it with his bulk, Rainbow Dark Dragon protected Jacob, Vampire Lord rapidly teleported, and Samantha sucked up the nearby petals with an invisible black hole.
"Hey, I'd recognize that move anywhere. That's Byakuya's!" Ichigo said.
"What a homosexual attack!" Naruto sneered, Ichigo and Konan learned to ignore him under this condition, as much as they hated shunning Naruto, they knew there was nothing they could do to change him back right now.
"Then it looks like this is our stop." Konan said, and Toothless threw Ichigo and Naruto up onto his back, swooped down at an angle, grabbed Isa and Toph, dropped them off the side of the castle, and blasted them with two balls of plasma. "Hardcore Toothless, hardcore!" Konan exclaimed in delight.
"Was that a shiny Charizard or something?" Celebi exclaimed, Toothless had pulled off the maneuver so swiftly, that nobody could really tell what had just happened. As Isa and Toph rose up to the roof of the castle on a large stone plateau, back to their normal selves, Toothless landed near the group after hovering above the ground for a moment.
"That's no shiny Charizard, its a black Salamence! Besides, if it was a Charizard, it would have fainted if that girl hit it with as so much as a pebble!" Manaphy said.
"Haha, Stealth Rock." Celebi added.
"This is Toothless, he's a Night Fury." Konan explained as she, Naruto, and Ichigo got off of him.
"Ichigo!" Rukia exclaimed, running up to him.
"Hey Rukia, nice meeting you here."
"Yeah, I-" Rukia noticed Naruto's dull appearance, "Um...why is he monochrome?" she whispered while pointing at the ninja.
"Ugh, this freak named Discord turned Naruto into a total asshole." Ichigo replied, aggravated at both the chimera and his friends new personality. The name 'Naruto' caused a few of the others to turn toward the new arriving heroes, more so than the name 'Discord'.
"WAIT! Discord is-"
"Different Discord!" Konan shouted.
"So this 'Discord' has the power to alter ones persona?" Ritsuka asked.
"That's not all, this guy can warp reality." said Ichigo, "However, that isn't the worst thing about him." Byakuya became intrigued, this enemy must be deadly if twisting reality wasn't his greatest feat.
"And what would that be?" he asked, not sounding interested due to his stoic tone of voice.
"His personality." Ritsuka, Byakuya, and Rukia visibly lost interest, making Ichigo sigh with a comical and simplistic expression on his face. "He is just such a...freak! He acts so...so...obnoxious, but he still comes off as just plain unsettling! And he changed Naruto's personality with just a touch! He-"
"Quit bitching about him!" said ninja yelled.
"Hmhmhm." Sasuke chuckled, "He doesn't seem so different to me." he said with a smirk.
"Wait! Sasuke!" Konan had a sudden realization, maybe HE could break Naruto out of this state!
"Say Naruto, you don't look much different since the last time I saw you. You know, when you went right off the deep end by joining Crisis!" Ichigo tightly gripped the handle of his sword, resisting the urge to cut the Uchiha to ribbons, he knew that Sasuke was their only hope for freeing Naruto.
"Hey Sucksuke, what the hell are you doing?" Kimimaro exclaimed, turning into his Curse Seal 2 form in order to dodge the black balls of energy that Jenifer was firing from her jetpack.
"I'll get her down." Isa said, and fired 7 rockets from a seven-barreled rocket launcher. Jenifer used her jetpacks high-speed to dodge them, but these homed in and destroyed it. Before she could hit the ground, Bender grabbed her and quickly choked her to death.
"And don't you meatbags complain about me not helping you!" the robot ordered, and pulled out a cigar from the compartment on his body. Gagagigo and Sasori took care of Vroom-Vroom, the lizard smashing him with a downward slam of his tail, and Sasori stabbing his scorpion tail all the way through. Vroom-Vroom had one last trick, and detonated, creating a huge hole in the castle roof and knocking Bender, Kimimaro, Gagagigo, and Sasori off the castle. Sasori shot out his scorpion tail, sticking it near the top of the castle wall, and pulled himself up with it. Kimimaro slammed into the ground with little trouble, and clambered up the wall with his reptilian limbs. Gagagigo gripped the side of the wall with his claws, slowing himself down until he came to a complete stop, he noticed that Bender wasn't trying to save himself, he was just smoking his cigar as if it didn't bother him, so the lizard caught him with a leap, landed safely on his feet, and was brought back to the top by a plateau of earth via Toph.
"Robot, why didn't you try to recover?" the Duel Monster asked.
"Why would I? I was able to get away from all of you, plus, I wanted to smoke in peace, for once." the robot answered, continuing his smoke.
Vroom-Vroom drove up to him, "I don't blame you, getting away from these losers would bee a refreshment."
"But you exploded."
"I saved him from falling to his death." Jenifer explained, hovering over the hole with her jetpack on.
"Toothless, what do you say we take to the skies?" Konan said, hopping on the dragon in order to combat Jacob and his dragon. Toothless growled in agreement, and took off at a near 90 degree angle. The Night Fury fired balls of plasma at Rainbow Dark Dragon, but the serpentine dragon seemed to gather all the dark energy around it, and fired a black beam that overpowered Toothless' attacks. The evil dragon tried to hit Toothless with its continuous attack, but Toothless was too swift for it. Konan tossed some explosive paper kunai at Jacob, who was standing atop his dragons head, but Jacob caught them with a clap of his large hands, the detonation leaving no marks on him. Toothless tried firing plasma at him, but Rainbow Dark Dragon did a large somersault, avoiding the projectiles just as easily as Toothless avoided it's, despite being a much larger target.
"You two could use some assistance." Clank said, he and Ratchet flying with what looked like rocket boots, Spyro was with them as well.
"Yeah, we need to attack that guy with the large hands." Konan explained.
"Lets do this thing then!" Spyro said with confidence. Ratchet pulled out a rather stout weapon with a pinkish-white glow around the barrel, and fired it at Konan. Konan went bugeyed for a moment, but then caught what looked like a shield of energy that had the same color as the weapon's barrel.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Its a shield, it will also heal you a bit whenever something hits it." Clank explained as Ratchet shot one upward and grabbed a hold of it.
"Sorry that I can't give you one, Spyro." he said.
"Don't worry about me." the dragon said, and fired a brown diamond-shaped rock out of his mouth right at Jacob, but he held his hands out in front of him for defense, protecting himself from the green explosion. Spyro expected this, 5 smaller projectiles flew out of the explosion, whizzed right around Jacob, and crashed into his back, causing smaller green explosions. He toppled a bit, but easily caught his balance, Jacob then turned around when he heard a thunk behind him, it was Ratchet! Jacob slapped downward at the Lombax, but it turned out to be an inflatable decoy.
"Decoy Glove at its finest." the real Ratchet said, standing behind the evil hero. Jacob swung his fists backward without looking, but just hit Ratchet's shield. Clank tossed a blue orb that burst into a blue circular area, slowing down time for everyone and everything inside of it. Then, Spyro came down upon Jacob, encased in a sphere of rock with spikes on it. Jacob was unable to react fast enough to guard, and was crushed upon impact. Meanwhile, Toothless had kept Rainbow Dark Dragon occupied by firing plasma at it, while dodging its beams of darkness at the same time. The Night Fury swooped down and grabbed Jacob as soon as Rainbow Dark Dragon faded away. He set the human on the ground, and landed with Ratchet and Spyro.
Meanwhile, Darkrai, Samantha, and Vampire Lord were in combat with the rest of the gang.
"Huuuaaaaahh!" Marth held his sword up high, smiling with confidence, and dashed at Vampire Lord, but the Duel Monster dissipated into bats, causing the swordsman to crash right into the castle wall.
"That was a foolish move." L stated, Edward nodded in agreement. Billy took out a yellow egg with green-yellow stripes on it and hatched it, revealing a yellow monkey with pink bat wings and a pink devil tail.
"Go zap those bats, Recky!" he ordered. The monkey screeched in agreement and flew up in the air, then started spinning rapidly, creating electricity under itself, and flew in a quick zigzag pattern, shocking all of the bats. The flying mammals fell to the ground and reformed into Vampire Lord, the turquoise-haired vampire lying on his back. Uryu swiftly fired an arrow right at Vampire Lord's heart, killing him, but instead of rising back to normal in a pillar of light, the vampire rose up in a coffin, still under the Darkness' influence.
Billy snapped his fingers in disappointment, "I thought we had him! Wait a minute...I know how to really kill him! We need a cross, garlic, holy water, or a wooden stake!"
"What? That's just stupid! Why would any of that shit kill a vampire?" Edward yelled.
"Because it works on REAL vampires, not gay sparkly wannabees." Jacob said to the brunette.
Edward shot a furious glare at him, "SHUT UP!" he screamed.
"That just might work." L said, ignoring his easily-angered friend.
"How about that monkey?" Marth suggested, swinging his head toward Diddy, who was fighting Darkrai along with Kyle, Sheelah, Lucario, and DK.
"That'll do!" Enigma said, running up to them. He then turned into Diddy, took out one of his popguns, and tossed it to L.
"Now we just gotta widdle it into a spike..." Billy said, knowing it would be easier said than done. Jenifer sighed and extended the knives out of her knuckles with Knife Punch, she grabbed the gun, turned away from the others so they couldn't see her slightly blushing in embarrassment, and carved the handle to a fine point. The girl quickly regained her composure and, using her jetpack, dashed at Vampire Lord and swiftly stabbed him in the chest with the improvised weapon. This time, Vampire Lord rose out in a pillar of light, a sign that he was back to normal.
Meanwhile, Darkrai was completely immune to Diddy's projectiles, and would have no doubt laughed at his futile attempt if he was his normal self.
"I think we're gonna need more than snacks to put this guy down." Sheelah pointed out, and kicked Darkrai in the back of the head with both legs. The Dark-type, without even looking, knocked the marsupial backward with a pitch-black Dark Pulse, luckily, Kyle then quickly caught her by using Light Warp.
"Lucario, this is your specialty." he said. The Pokemon knew he was referring to Fightings type advantage over Dark, and started hitting Darkrai with Aura Spheres. Darkrai held his hands in front of himself to block most of the damage, but it didn't help very much, Lucario was just too skilled. Lucario then slammed his hand into Darkrai's chest the moment he saw an opening, the Shadow Pokemon just fell to the ground, it was a direct hit. DK took out a barrel, ready to throw it at Darkrai if he was still the Darkness' minion, but it didn't matter, Darkrai just sank into the shadows.
"I know how to handle this." Ritsuka waved his hands, and knocked Darkrai right out of the ground with Rupture.
"Just like you did with Psyca!" Celebi exclaimed.
"And now...Absolute Zero." the area around Darkrai became surrounded in frost, the moisture in the air around him hardened into ice crystals, and the Dark-type collapsed, clearly dead.
"How did you know Sheer Cold?"
"It turns the temperature around my opponent to absolute zero, if it doesn't kill them due to the, as you said, sheer cold, the moisture in their lungs hardening into ice crystals will."
"How hardcore." Toph said with a grin.
Meanwhile, Rukia, Byakuya, the Cybernetic Ghost, and Zim were battling their last opponent, Samantha.
The Vexian sent out wave after wave of black UFOs, but they kept getting destroyed by Rukia's energy balls, Byakuya's cherry blossom petals, and Zim's ray gun blasts. Samantha fired a black beam of gamma ray energy, but the Cybernetic Ghost got in the way and tanked the atomotizing blast with no ill effects.
"This filthy human stands no chance against ME, not even when it tries to imitate alien ships!" Zim gloated.
"Then prove it." Rukia said, knowing not to judge a book by its cover after seeing what the Cybernetic Ghost can do.
"SILENCE!" the Irken yelled.
"Back away." Byakuya said, sensing a huge amount of pressure in front of them, Samantha had created an invisible black hole that was steadily getting bigger.
"Nobody dares tell ZIM what to do!" he yelled, "I suggest YOU back away!" Zim pulled out a purple orb with a blinking blue light on it, tossed it, and it exploded into a purple and blue black hole right where Samantha's was.
"That isn't good." the Cybernetic Ghost said. The two black holes tried to suck in one another, creating a tear in space-time that swallowed up Samantha into a dimension of pure chaos.
"What the heck?" Rukia exclaimed.
"EXCELENT!" Zim yelled, and the tear closed with a loud booming sound.
"Well its a good thing I didn't use my Rift Ripper, three black holes might have destroyed the universe or something." Ratchet joked.
"You shouldn't be gloating, RATCHET! It was ZIM who destroyed that filthy fleshling!"
"Um, I wasn't gloating. All I said-"
"SILENCE!" Zim shouted. Samantha finally appeared in a pillar of light, back to normal, but with an expression of pure shock on her face.
"Woo! Everyones back to normal!" Celebi cheered.
"What's bugging you?" Sheelah asked, hopping over to Samantha.
"I...I saw it." she said hypnotically.
"What?" Sasuke wondered.
"I saw...the Chosen One!" Most of the others were surprised upon hearing this.
"And why should we believe you?" Vroom-Vroom sneered.
"I awakened in a weird dimension, but it was only for a second or two, and there I saw a silhouette of a human in a crystal. The next thing I knew, I was back here."
"So the opening in dimensions must've killed you the instant it happened..." L theorized.
"So if the Chosen One is this weird dimension, why don't we just open it up again and get him or her?" Ayame suggested.
It isn't that simple.
"Its that girl." Billy pointed out.
"Someone give Captain Obvious a fucking eyepatch!" Naruto snapped, shooting a glance at the boy.
Oh...I see you haven't freed him from Discord's spell...
"Nobody gives two shits about Naruto." Sasuke said, crossing his arms.
"What were you saying before then?" Jacob wondered, agreeing with Sasuke.
Oh, yes, well...congratulations on finding the Chosen Ones location. I am sure that my brother is going to keep that dimension on lock and key, so to speak, but I KNOW you guys can get to it! You've made it this far, good luck! Oh, and please free Naruto, you heroes need all the help you can get, I have a feeling that my brother is going to make things rough for you all.
"You can count on us!" Victini assured, flashing the V-sign.
"So how do we go about 'fixing' this Naruto guy?" Enigma wondered.
"You can't fix what has always been broken." Sasuke muttered.
"Piss off, you egotistical prick!" Naruto snapped.
"Anyone up for just killing him?" Serena asked, looking around with her arms glowing black.
"How about I kill YOU instead?"
"Amazing comeback, did you stay up all night thinking of that? Maybe you thought of it during the day, the evening, or as soon as you got up. All I'm saying is that it was a really lame comeback."
"Yeah, it was like a 'I know you are, but what am I?' kind of thing." Victini added.
"If you want to change Naruto back, then you need to trigger a powerful memory!" Konan yelled above them.
Serena gave a half-hearted try, she hated Naruto either way. "Um...remember that time I made you go 6-tails? I think I threatened to kill your parents or something because you tried to kill Devin, I dunno."
The ninja stared her right in the face, mad beyond belief. "Piss off, Serena! You know what you're like? You're like that socially awkward, weird, unpopular girl at school who cant get a clue that nobody likes her, despite the fact that everyone else treats her like garbage! The only reason you have any friends at all is because Devin is too much of a pussy to hate anyone and doesn't have the spine to tell you how much you SUCK!"
Serena just looked at Naruto, completely at a loss for words, but the ninja just turned his back on her. The girl then looked at her arms, why weren't they glowing black? The more she thought about what Naruto had said, the more the pain in her chest intensified. Victini opened his mouth to give Naruto the roast of a lifetime, but Serena put a finger over his mouth and ran away as she felt some strange fluid building up in her eyes.
As Naruto begun to walk away, he ran right into a wall of sand that rose up from the ground.
"Naruto...that was unnecessary." The ninja turned around, then backed up against the sandy wall when he saw Gaara, who was scowling at him. "I'm not very fond of that girl either, but I wouldn't talk a comrade down like that, whether I like them or not."
Naruto didn't say a word, he was still looking at Gaara with fear in his eyes. Gaara knew exactly why he was so scared, "What's the matter Naruto, afraid to face the phantoms of your past?" And at those words, memories flowed through Naruto's mind faster than he could tell, but there was one particular memory that stood out, the one that brought him back to his old self.
OOO
"I don't want to fight you like this, but I have no choice! I just can't believe you would want to kill me Gaara! You are no different than Sasuke now!" Naruto shouted, now in his demon form.
"Enough chat! I will get rid of you! You are always in my way! Get ready to die Naruto!" Gaara yelled, Naruto now in his one tail form.
"So its true then...you really mean it. You really want to kill me. I always thought we would be pals forever, but I guess I was wrong." Naruto said, crying and suddenly being enveloped in black fire.
"GAARAAA!" he yelled in his 4 tailed form.
"Shukaku!" Gaara said and released his demon. Naruto began charging up a black ball near his mouth and then he ate it.
"Get ready for my most powerful beam ever you SOB!" Naruto shouted and fired a gigantic orange beam that completely enveloped Shukaku.
"Yes!" Naruto said. The camera panned out and there was only a few grains of sand visible from where the beam hit.
OOO
"GAARA?" Naruto exclaimed, shaken up.
"Of course! Gaara was where his life started to fall apart!" Konan inwardly exclaimed.
"Great, the loser is back to normal, now lets see what's behind that huge door that just opened." Sasuke said, pointing toward said opened door with his thumb.
"Agreed, this blonde-haired fucker doesn't need anymore attention." scoffed Jenna.
"Shut up, you guys!" Ichigo yelled, running over to his friend. "Naruto, is that really you?"
"Y-yeah...it-its me." he answered, shaken up and still staring at Gaara.
"What? Is there something on my face?" Enigma joked, having turned into Gaara.
"Quiet." the original sand user ordered. "Naruto, how does it feel facing me?"
"I...I..." Naruto started choking up, "Its one of the hardest things I've ever had to do!" he finally blurted out.
"Those last few moments of my life told me a lot about you and how much you have changed."
OOO
"Get ready for my most powerful beam ever you SOB!" Naruto shouted.
"What's he doing?" Gaara wondered, watching through his subconscious. "Hmph...its just his normal beam, he's just going to try and knock Shukaku out and ramble some more." the sand ninja assured himself.
"This beam is different, Gaara!" Shukaku subconsciously exclaimed as Naruto swallowed the black ball of chakra he built up.
"Then that means-!" Gaara had no time to finish his thoughts as the beam tore through his demons body, killing the both of them in a near instant. At that last moment, however, he realized that this wasn't the same Naruto who fought for the sanity of all of his friends, this wasn't the Naruto who tried his hardest to see the good in everyone, no, he was a completely different Naruto. He was serious, he wasn't afraid to go all out in a fight, and worst of all, he wasn't afraid to kill.
OOO
"Why, Naruto?" he asked.
Naruto could hardly face Gaara now, "Gaara...there is nothing I can say that could ever justify the reason I killed you!"
"Enough groveling, Naruto, I have no reason to pity you."
The blonde-haired ninja managed to muster up enough courage to tell Gaara just why he made that fatal mistake, "You...you just seemed so bloodthirsty! I couldn't let you go through the tournament like that, I didn't want innocent competitors to get killed! You made it clear that you were gonna kill me, so I knew our match would be one to the death. I never wanted to resort to killing you, I wanted to talk some sense into you, but you just abandoned our friendship right then and there! Having seen Sasuke go down the same path, I...I couldn't control myself!"
"Oh Naruto..." Konan desperately wanted to comfort him, but she knew this was something that had to be done.
"Is crybaby loser time over yet?" Sasuke sneered, showing zero signs of sympathy.
"I'm with this guy. If I'm gonna be doing nothing with you meatbags, I'd rather be doing it when you are getting your asses kicked." Bender said.
"Hn." Jenifer didn't really care either way, but she would rather be fighting than bare witness to this drama.
"Look, nobody said you assholes had to stick around!" Ichigo yelled, "Get the hell out of here if you are so damn eager!"
Vroom-Vroom aimed his turret at the swordsman, "So because we don't care about a sob-story about some whiney kid we don't even know, that makes us assholes? Amazing logic, you can go back to sucking his-"
Toothless roared loudly and ferociously, shutting everyone up. He hovered above the ground a little, then grabbed Ichigo, Konan, and Naruto in his claws and flew through the new passage before anyone had the chance to say anything else.
"Lets proceed." Uryu said, the heroes went on through, ending up in a large, circular, arena-like room.
"Yep, a dead end..." Konan grumbled.
Suddenly, a skyscraper-sized, dark-purple knight, a lot like the one Ratchet's group had encounterd in the castle, appeared in an expanding orb of light, encased in a barrier of electricity.
Enigma gulped. "Yep, our ends are gonna be dead."
"Damn, I think we're boned." sighed Vampire Lord.
"I beg your pardon?" Kimimaro said.
"In hindsight, maybe it was a bad idea to go inside a chamber that our enemy told us about..." Rukia murmured.
OOO
Four months? Eh, it could have been worse, right? RIGHT? You know, I was planning on making another Christmas Special, seeing all of the specials on the telly inspired me, but I still have some more characters to put in and some first-time interactions need to be done in the story itself. Next year I will probably make one, assuming I update enough!
The part with Discord and his TAIL-FIN is a reference to a Youtube Poop called "Squidward has Problems". And no, I do not regret adding Discord to this story. It was just a really funny coincidence that he shares the name of Crisis' true form, thus, I was drawn to look him up. Wow, posting that flashback from The New ISB made me realize just how much my writing has improved since then!