A/N: (30.08.12) This chapter will be a designated birthday chapter since August 30 is my birthday! :D I'm trying my hardest to make up to those who have been waiting for these past 2 years for updates in my fanfics.
Oh my, where are my manners? It seems to me I have forgotten to dedicate the previous chapter to my followers. This chapter is dedicated to goofy96, Felineguardian, The Keeper of Worlds and zarethuzumi. I hope all of you will enjoy this chapter so happy reading!
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei and Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix.
In an underground lab filled with mysterious knick knacks and such…
"You're still at it?" Axel asked incredulously as Vexen continued working with the endless test tubes and wires in the laboratory, "Jeez, don't you ever get bored just sitting there and doing the exact same thing for the last oh I don't know THREE MONTHS?!" Vexen looked up from his mish mash of gadgets before rolling his eyes at the red-head.
"Ya don't like it, get out." Vexen replied, slowly filling one green test tube with a sticky solute. "Idiots like you won't understand what geniuses go through." Axel pointed a finger at his forehead and pretended to shot himself.
"Better to live a sane life instead of a mad scientist." Axel muttered. The door beside him opened automatically as Demyx walked in to the lab.
"Why is it that whenever I come here the layout seemed to have changed?" Demyx scratched his head and noticed Axel next to the door. "Hey Axel! Are you teamed up with Vexen or something? Every time I come here you always seem to be here…OW!" Axel's knuckles dug into Demyx's forehead as he tried to squirm away from the deathly pain.
"Oi, did you remember what I asked you last time?" Axel hissed as he let go of his grip on Demyx. Demyx gave him a confused look until he remembered.
"Ahhh, Roxas? I think he's here today." Demyx beamed as he stretched his arms out. "He should have finished the other task last time, so should we go see him now?" Axel nodded as Demyx headed out of the door. Axel was about to leave when he turned towards Vexen.
"By the way, I hope you won't be too carried away with that messed up whatever that is experiment of yours," Axel warned as he let out a sigh while adjusting his hood, "besides, there will be an extra mission for those who don't listen to Xemnas." Vexen returned a death glare as Axel smirked and left the lab. Che, you won't even understand how this is going to turn out… A smirk plastered on Vexen's face as he continued with his experiments.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Back towards former Team 7's training grounds…
"Aww man, I can't believe throwing knives and ninja stars is that difficult!" Sora gasped for breath. "I wonder how Yuffie could throw that huge shuriken of hers..."
"it's no different than practicing your numbers or letters," Shikamaru let out another yawn, "It shouldn't take up a lot of energy to pick them up."
"Well, I'm trying my hardest here!" Sora hauled another shuriken at the tree trunk. "Man, I miss using my keyblade, if only it would appear!" The shuriken managed to pin itself on the trunk but slid down.
"Well, Sora's improving a lot!" Sakura tried to be positive, "but it shouldn't take you this long to get to this stage." Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Is it the way I'm holding it or throwing it?" Sora inquired as he tried lifting the kunai only to find it feeling a lot heavier than an anchor. "Man, how do you guys even lift this up?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as Naruto walked towards Sora.
"You have to hold it like a regular knife, dattebayo." Naruto reached for his kunai and demonstrated. "See? Hold it like a regular knife and it should be no problem?"
"Yeah but this thing feels like then thousand anchors in one knife…" Sora muttered as he tried to javelin the kunai at the tree trunk.
"Really? This feels as light as a feather…" Naruto tossed the kunai up into the air and caught it again. At this point, this is going to be real pain to try and train this guy.
"I feel like we're getting nowhere," Sakura sounded worried as she turned towards Shikamaru. "Do you have any idea how we're gonna be training him?" Shikamaru gave a yawn before a small smirk tugged his mouth.
"That, I've already prepared." Shikamaru continued his smirk.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Near a forested covering…
"You sure you wanna do this?" Kisame asked as he and Itachi grabbed two random shinobi. "Honestly, this will drain our chakra if we go with this plan…" Two blood-coloured eyes shot at him as the latter Akatsuki member made a hand signal.
"Either follow up the plan or I can put you out of misery." Itachi coldly replied. "We should get this done along with this." He pointed at the container next to Kisame. Inside, a dark mixture of indigo-black and flashes of light blue was swirling and causing the container to move.
"Sigh, you can never chilax, do you?" Kisame rolled his eyes before he made an identical signal with his hands. "Alrighty, whatever you say Itachi." Itachi continued to silently glare before both Akatsuki members began infusing their chakra into their targets.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Former Team Seven training grounds seem to be rowdy today…
"Hey you guys!" Sora turned and a saw a girl with twin buns carrying a large black duffel bag over her shoulders. She was wearing a white long-sleeved mandarin-collared top and wine-coloured pants. "So why did you want me to come here again? I don't even understand why you need me to carry all this stuff..." She dropped the bag that almost shook the entire training ground. Wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead, she gave a wide grin.
"I hope you didn't bring everything..." Shikamaru said as he tried to lift the bag off the ground, to his dismay, stuck like glue. "Yappari, man this is so troublesome when a girl can lift more things that a guy can..."
"It's called training, lazy bum." Naruto said, unzipping the bag. "Woah, you stored all of these into your scrolls?"
"Heh heh, they don't call me the weaponry mistress for nothing." The girl let out a cheesy grin. "So why do you need all this stuff?"
"We're training our newbie friend here." Naruto slammed his hand on Sora's back. "He's gonna be a shinobi just like everyone else..."
"Except, he sucks at using kunai knives and shurikens." Sakura added. "So I thought it might be a lot better if you showed him some other weapons."
"Huh, seems like you got a lot to work on, my friend." The girl lifted a mace from the bag. "Oh I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Tenten."
"I'm Sora." Sora extended his hand as they both shook it. "Why are the kunai and shuriken so hard to use? It's really difficult to throw them!" Tenten raised her eyebrow before she whipped the mace around her hands.
"Hmm... what type of weapon do you normally use?" Tenten asked while throwing the mace up in the air and caught it once more. "If you're not used to throwing kunai and shuriken, you must be one of those sword fighters..."
"Well, I've been using a Keyblade to fight when I was in the other worlds," Sora tried the same hand gesture as before, "but it didn't appear this time... I guess it's somewhat similar to a sword." Tenten stopped twirling her mace and dropped in on the ground.
"Long, medium or short sword?" Tenten asked while she began to rummage through the bag. "There are long katanas, short daggers, medium double edged katana..."
"I feel bad for whoever is gonna date her..." Naruto whispered to Shikamaru. "That's a lot of weapons..." If you say it too loudly, it'll be troublesome just to save yourself from her wrath. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"Isn't the katana what the samurais used?" Sora asked. "I did train with one when I was training under Shinpachi..." Who the hell is this Shinpachi guy? Naruto wondered while playing with the grass.
"Then this should do the trick." Tenten tossed a sheathed katana at Sora. "Why don't you do some practice swings and try chopping those three dummies over there." She nodded her chin towards the three worn scarecrows bearing the henohenomoheji faces kids would draw using hiragana characters.
"Man, it sure feels really strange not using the keyblade again," Sora unsheathed the katana and sliced the air with it. "Sure feels nostalgic to be using this again..." He gave the katana a few swings before he raced towards the scarecrows. Raising his katana, he let out a loud roar and swung it down through the scarecrow. The poor worn scarecrow, along with his face split cleanly in half, collapsed with bits of hay flying about. Shikamaru let out a low whistle.
"So you did have formal training after all..." Naruto clapped his hands in delight, "You managed to slice it with one swing!"
"Heh heh, I guess I did learn something..." Sora sheepishly rubbed his hand behind his neck. "This actually feels a lot better than the throwing knives..."
"You can keep that if you want since I have more at home." Tenten tossed some senbon and scrolls on the grass. "But I'm pretty sure that one of you forgot to tell him something..."
"Like what?" Donald asked as he and Goofy arrived with a medium container. "We brought lunch here! Oh and here's your instant ramen..." Goofy tossed the pre-wrapped ramen cup at Naruto.
"Did you train him straight away with the kunai and shuriken?" Tenten asked Shikamaru. He let out a yawn and gave her a lazy stare.
"Aren't we supposed to do that?" Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "It was troublesome when he couldn't even lift up a shuriken," Tenten gave a dead-pan stare before smacking her head.
"Shouldn't it be a bit more obvious to you?" She sighed as she threw more shuriken at the trunk, "The number one thing all ninjas are born with…"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Shikamaru flatly stated
"CHAKRA! Dude, you didn't tell them they need to infuse their chakra in these?" she twirled the kunai before striking it at Shikamaru's head, "god, sometimes you can be stupid, for a smart person like you…"
"Chakra?" Sora asked as he scratched his head, "What's that? Some yoga thing those gurus talk about?"Oi… what kind of universe are you from? Donald rolled his eyes at Sora's blissful ignorance. Sakura raised an eyebrow while trying to contain her annoyance. Unfortunately, Naruto did the opposite as his jaws dropped to the floor while his face drained of colour.
"Huh? I thought you guys should have chakra…" Shikamaru scratched his head.
"I told you…" Tenten clenched her teeth.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Meanwhile, in one of the dark alleyways of Hollow Bastion…
"Arrgghhh this is a lot harder than I had expected…" Yuffie threw her shuriken at the heartless, "I didn't think it would take that much energy to get rid of them, not to mention the Shadow ones!" Another clash rang as Leon raised his gunblade against the Heartless.
"Well you said you wanted challenge, so there you go." Leon smirked as sweat ran down his forehead, "man, this is becoming a workout now…"
"I expected you to handle this yourself," Tifa huffed as she rubbed her knuckles, "who knew you were just all talk and no show…" Leon glared daggers as he slashed his gunblade at the Heartless.
"Oh I'm sorry Ms. Macho…" Leon muttered and caught himself between two Gigas Shadow Heartless, "Since when did these heartless have backbones? The look more human now…"
"Stop looking at them and start slashing them!" Yuffie snapped and threw her shuriken again, "dammit, this is harder that I thought it would be…" A few white ghost-like figures started appearing alongside the heartless as they float towards the trio.
"Why do the nobodies have to show up now?" Tifa wiped her forehead, "Limiting the heartless has been bad enough already…" she smashed her fists into the nobody a few times before it disappeared.
"uh, guys, I think there's something wrong with the heartless…"Yuffie exclaimed, her voice filled with uncertainty. Both Leon and Tifa turned their attention towards what their latter comrade was fussing about.
At first, the Shadow Heartless looked like any other ordinary heartless. However, rather than the yellow blank-looking eyes, they were replaced with a glimmer of sea blue before flames appear in the eye holes. Soon, the Shadow Heartless was engulfed in a veil of blue flames as it began to mutate itself. Its body contorted as it grew in size, limbs doubling in length, antennae twisted into tight coils and claws forming dagger-like nails. Faint tattoo-like markings began encircling the body before a pair of grotesque claw-like wings shot out from the heartless back.
"Oh my god…" Tifa eyes widened as she tightened the gloves around her wrist. The hideous creature in front of them stared menacingly, its eyes burning with flames before it let out a gruesome scream.
"What in the world is this?" Leon face twisted into a disgusted look, "how are they able to do that?" I have a bad feeling this is getting even more sinister than before… Yuffie struggled as she held back the urge of punching someone, screw my ninja pride… this is getting too dangerous…
"We better retreat," Yuffie began as she slung the shuriken over her shoulder, "Come on! We can't just fight them without knowing what they're capable of…"
"What are you, a coward you rogue ninja?" Leon spat as his eyebrows furrowed, "This is bad… way too bad…" A hard hand gripped his shoulder as he turned towards his other comrade.
"Save your breath Leon, we should go now," Tifa muttered as she nodded towards Yuffie, "We're supposed to be scouting the area anyways." Leon let out a sigh before he rested his gunblade over his shoulder. In a flash, the three combatants swiftly left the area, not noticing the other heartless beginning to mutate even further.
A/N: Heh heh, things are starting to get really out of hand in the different worlds and universes. Are the heartless getting out of hand now that Vexen is sort of not in the right mind? Sora's training seems to be coming off on a rough start but let's see if there will be any improvements later on!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that I didn't confuse you too much. Argh, uni is starting very soon so let the Update Race begin! Thank you for being patient and following my fanfics during my long hiatus. Later days and signing out!