Hinata Chronicles Chapter 48, a Naruto + Kingdom Hearts Crossover fanfic

Hinata Chronicles Chapter 48: Break Time!

At the burst of green flames, some of the group stepped back, but everyone tensed, thinking that the witch-turned-dragon was going to get back up. But after a few moments, as the fires continued to burn and nothing happened, they began to relax. The group watched as Maleficent's dragon form burned until there wasn't anything left; not even embers or charcoal dust.

"It's finally over. . ." Leon muttered.

"Indeed," Red XIII said as Kakashi nodded his head in agreement.

"Thank goodness," Aerith said, a hand to her chest in relief.

"Woohoo!" Yuffie shouted jubilantly, making some of the group turn to her with wide eyes, startled from their individual thoughts.

"Yeah!" Snow agreed, a grin on his lips. "For a second there, I thought she was gonna get back up again. But you guys really pulled it off and finished her for good!"

Naruto felt himself swell with pride. "Heh, thanks" he smirked. "I knew that we coul-! Hey!" he suddenly yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the other blonde. "What're you saying? That we couldn't have beat her?!"

"Well, yeah," Snow confirmed with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "Sora beat her dragon form too and she still came back. From what I've heard of his second journey, Maleficent sacrificed herself to make sure that Sora and his friends wouldn't be hindered by a whole hoard of heartless in defeating Organization XIII," he explained.

"But as you saw," Leon interrupted before an argument could begin between the two. "The heartless didn't defeat her. Instead, she took control of them and began rebuilding her dark army."

"Which we stopped," Xion added in. "Pete's gone too. Right, Naruto?" she asked, turning to the Nine-Tail Fox container. She sweatdropped when she noticed that he was having a glaring contest with Snow.

"Naruto?" she asked again. No response.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked, trying to get his attention. He didn't look away nor did he give any sign of acknowledgement. She sweatdropped at how intent her boyfriend was.

"Snow, stop it," Aerith tried, but the brawler didn't look away either.

Sakura rolled her eyes, starting to walk over to them. "Ugh," she grumbled, hands clenching into fists as she neared the two. "Honestly..." With that she raised both of her fists, one aimed for each of them.

"BAKA!" she shouted angrily, pounding the tops of their heads with her fists. Everyone winced and the Committee members looked a little worried as well.

"Ow!" Naruto and Snow yelled, their glaring contest abruptly and harshly ended with no clear winner. They held their heads in pain, trying to soothe the poor lump that had formed.

"What was that for, Sakura?!" Naruto yelled, irritated and glaring at his pink-haired (and sometimes very scary) teammate.

"Naruto, you idiot! You should have listened when you're being asked a question!" Sakura reprimanded, a hand on her hip and her face fierce and annoyed by his immaturity.

Fortunately, the two teammates' yelling was loud enough to cover Snow's own voice as he muttered a few curse words, a gloved hand rubbing his aching head.

"Snow!" Unfortunately, Aerith, being the motherly person that she was, was able to hear these explicit curses and she came up to heal his head while scolding him as well.

Shikarmaru sighed, a hand in his pocket. "Troublesome," he muttered, lifting his head to look at the clouds in the sky. Everyone was sweat-dropping at the comical scene, though some like Shino and Leon hid it well.

"Anyways!" Xion yelled, catching everyone's attention and stopping anymore future arguments and mishaps. "Naruto, is Pete gone?" she repeated her earlier question.

"Of course!" Naruto confirmed, giving her a thumbs up. "That fat tub of lard was barely able to touch me, even!"

"That's great news!" Ino said. "Now, this world can't be overrun anymore!"

"Well. . . " Naruto trailed off hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck. Everyone turned back to him, eyes curious and some narrowed in suspicion. "I sorta just left him tied up in the room we fought in," he confessed.

"Naruto!" Sakura growled.

"Hey hey!" Naruto objected, hands up in a pacifying gesture. "He was unconscious after I was through with him! And remember, I left him all tied up. He couldn't escape that even if he woke back up" he defended himself.

"Alright," Leon said, gaining everyone's attention. "I'll send some people to go and fetch him. We'll have him locked up so he wouldn't be able to go anywhere and I'll also send word to King Mickey about what happened here. Pete was originally from his world, so it's best that they properly put him to justice." he explained.

"In the meantime," Aerith said, coming up after healing Snow's bruise. "You should all rest and relax for a while. Healing magic and your healing jutsus," she nodded to Sakura and Ino, whom both smiled back. "As well as potions and ethers, can only do so much. The body still needs to rest after having gone through that much stress."

"Yeah!" Yuffie agreed. "I can even show you guys some of the best places we've got here! Think of it as a Grande Tour of Radiant Garden!" she said excitedly.

"Sweet! I've been wanting a proper tour since we got here, but we couldn't cause of the war going on and fighting those data members of Organization XIII." Naruto said as he then turned to Hinata and smiled. "Actually this would be perfect time for a date." He thought as he blushed a little. Hinata smiled in return, though she did give him a curious look for his blush.

"Alright, time for me to check out this world's weapon shop!" Tenten eagerly said with stars in her eyes.

"But Tenten, you still have the Organization weapons from before." Shino reminded her. "And since we're not done finishing all the Organization's members, yet, you're going to get some more."

"So?" Tenten deadpanned, causing everyone to sweat-drop. "I want me a gunblade!"

"Nevermind," Shino muttered as he palmed his face.

"YOSH!" Lee blurted out as he turned to Snow. "SNOW, MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND, I MUST SPAR WITH YOU TO SEE WHO IS THE BEST MARTIAL ARTIST OF BOTH OF OUR WORLDS!"

Snow gave him a cocky smile and cracked his knuckles. "Why not? I could use a good spar," he responded.

"Lee, don't you dare use the gates during the spar!" Sakura warned.

"And don't use any magic, Snow." Aerith added with a meaningful look.

"Alright, alright," Snow and Lee said in semi-unison.

"Do not worry, my youthful cherry blossom," Lee declared, ignoring Sakura's wince at his affections. "THIS WILL BE A MOST YOUTHFUL AND FRIENDLY SPARRING MATCH!"

Kakashi, on the other hand, disappeared from everyone's sight as he took out a scroll. "Time to fulfill Lord Jiraiya's mission," he said as he giggled pervertedly.

Turning away from the puff of white smoke, Aerith then noticed something on Sakura's gloves and Ino's sash. "Hmm? You girls never told me you had slots for Materia."

"Materia?" Sakura and Ino asked, giving her a confused look.

Aerith nodded. "Yes. Placing them in the slots of certain accessories or armor allows the wearer to use magic and other abilities. If we go to a Materia shop, I can explain further," Aerith offered.

Sakura and Ino looked at each other. They turned back to the magic user and nodded with smiles, eager to be able to use magic. Aerith smiled kindly and led them down the street, the two girls following behind.

"Hmm..." Choji contemplated, munching on his chips. Shikamaru looked away from the clouds to raise an eyebrow at his teammate. "I think I'm going to try out the food they have here. I might even ask for their recipes to share with the rest of the clan!" he decided before turning to the lazy genius. "Wanna come with?"

"Nah," Shikamaru answered with a lazy shrug. "I want to find a nice spot for cloud watching and a nap. I might come and join you later, though."

"Sure!" Choji agreed.

Shino suddenly started sending out his bugs again. They flew out in small swarms, not too vulnerable a size, but also not too big that'll terrify the residents and call out a bug-infestation.

"Shino, what are you doing?" Kiba asked, seeing some of the bugs fly away.

"All I'm doing is breeding more insects," Shino plainly explained. "I'll need to make some that are resistant to darkness."

Kiba sweat-dropped along with Akamaru. "I'll leave you to it then." He then started to stretch his limbs. "Now, what to do?" With Akamaru loyally at his side, the two started to wander off in search of something to do.

"Come on, Tenten," Yuffie said to the bun-haired weapons expert. "I'll show you the Weapons shop around here. The triplets might even have a sale today." With that, she headed down a street, Tenten following enthusiastically behind.

"Hmm. . . That dark castle looked interesting from the Bailey. . ." Sai thought as he wordlessly began to walk down another street. "It'll make a good addition in the sketchbook, though probably not as good as that Kingdom Hearts moon from when we fought Saïx."

"Hmm. . ." Xion said, a finger to her chin and facing the sky in contemplation.

"What's on your mind, Xion?" Hinata asked.

"Eh, I'm trying to think of something to do during this break," she replied, looking away from the clouds to give her fellow keyblade bearer a shrug.

"Oh. Hmm. . . Wanna come with us?" Hinata offered, not noticing Naruto worried glance at how his chances of a date with just him and his girlfriend were slipping away. "We can probably come up with something together."

"Ah, no thanks," Xion said with a sheepish smile, having noticed Naruto's look. "Besides," Here, she lowered her voice and whispered to Hinata. "Isn't this a great opportunity to spend some quality time with your boyfriend?"

Hinata blushed but her pale eyes did brighten up at the prospect.

Pulling back with a successful smile, Xion said, "Alright, see you guys later." She turned to another street.

"Nanaki," Leon said to the quadruped next to him. "Think you can gather a team to go and get Pete? Oh, and try to see if you can find Maleficent's cloak. If you do find it, bring it here and we'll try and destroy it."

Nanaki nodded. "Right. The restoration would be to waste if she came back," he agreed. With that, he ran off.

As everyone began to go their separate ways, Cid called out, "Hey, wait a minute, folks!"

They all paused and looked back at him, most giving him questioning looks.

"You kids are forgetting something," Cid said.

"And what would that be?" Hinata said, a curious look in her eyes.

"Munny," Leon answered, arms crossed.

Xion suddenly bonked her head in realization. "Oh that's right!" she exclaimed. "I knew I forgot something before we came here."

Turning to the rest of her friends, she gave them all a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry about that, guys," she lamented. "I forgot that the currencies between the two worlds are completely different. If you guys are going to buy anything, you're going to need this world's currency since they won't take yen," she explained.

Xion looked to Leon and Cid, a hopeful glint in here blue eyes. "Cid do you think you can convert yen to Munny for the time being? Or at least loan some to them. I've only got 2000 from all those Heartless," she asked in a pleading tone.

Cid and Leon looked to each other before looking back to the ex-Organization member. "Well. . . " Cid responded, a hand to his chin in thought. "While I can't really convert them since we're not on a trade system with their world, we can probably lend a few thousand for the whole lot from our savings."

"It's the least we can do for helping us," Leon agreed.

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed. "Heh," he thought bashfully. "Didn't think of that. How could I bring Hinata on a date if I don't have any of this munny for it?" He heard the Fox snickering in the back of mind, but he chose to ignore it.

"Come on, you lot," Cid told them, walking back to HQ. "We'll divide some of the Munny in headquarters and we can even put your yen in the safe for security, if you wanna. We can't give you a whole lot 'cause we still need some for the reconstruction, but I'll see how much we can lend."

"Wait a minute," Hinata said, a thought suddenly coming up in her head. "What about the others like Sakura, Ino, and Tenten? We should bring them some, too, since they're going to the shops."

"Aerith and Yuffie can cover for them," Leon explained. "Now, come on."

Everyone followed inside and some of the Munny was distributed. Xion gave Naruto some of her own Munny, winking and whispering a good luck for his date. Naruto blushed a bit in embarrassment, but thanked her and gave her a thumbs up. With that, everyone left on their separate ways.

Naruto and Hinata were wondering around as they were enjoying each other's company. Around them, some buildings were being repaired after being destroyed by heartless.

"Man that was one crazy war," Naruto commented. "Especially that battle with Maleficent."

Hinata nodded in agreement. "It was, but it did show something for all of us."

"What do you mean?"

"We all have grown stronger in different ways. Remember when we first got here?"

Naruto chuckled a little as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, we were barely able to hold off normal Shadow heartless. And now. . ."

"We were able to stop the heartless from overrunning this world and hurting everyone," Hinata finished with a smile.

Naruto smiled back at her. "You're really cute when you smile."

Hinata then giggled a little. "Why, thank you," she said, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

Aerith was good friends with the store owners and they left the Materia cabinets unlocked so she can give the two girls behind her a proper explanation and a closer look. When the store owners heard that they helped with taking out the heartless army, they even provided a discount.

The Materia in question were all different sizes, ranging from being the size of a marble to nearly a tennis ball. There were five basic colors with many shades in-between. They all seemed to give off a faint glow that reminded the kunoichi of chakra when it was released subtly.

As Aerith was placing the colorful spheres carefully on the counter's tablecloth, she explained, "Materia is condensed, crystallized Mako. Mako is the essence of a world in liquid form. Because the essence of a world is made up of light and dark, so can the Materia. Materia can be made naturally, like how the crystals in the canyon are formed, but these 'Mako Springs' are hard to come by and, like other natural minerals, take a very long time to form. They are more powerful than these artificially-formed ones, though."

She began to organize the Materia into simple groups, mostly by color. "There are five basic types of Materia and they each grant a certain ability. Magic, Command, Support, Summon, and Independent; green, yellow, blue, red, and purple, respectively," she further explained pointing to the indicated groups of each type. "Each one gives a different ability to whoever wears them. However, some of them also affect your own strengths and stats, like your speed, by either enhancing them or reducing it."

Picking up a pale yellow sphere, she said, "Command Materia allow you to perform a move that you probably wouldn't have been able to do before. This is a Manipulate Materia, it allows you to briefly take control of your opponent's movements, though it'll take your concentration and you can only use it on a single person and when they've already been weakened."

Placing the Materia down, she then picked up one of the few red spheres that were there, "Summon Materia are really hard to come by. We only have one, Phoenix, and it's only used in extreme emergencies. This is because they allow you to summon a creature that'll team up with you and aid you. So far, Cid has been the only to have been able to use the Phoenix summon and it was only when the Heartless first overtook our world."

Here, she took on a sad look before she shook it off and continued, "Anyways, these also take up a lot of your energy. This one summons a Chocobo and its partner moogle."

"This one," she said as she picked up a light purple one after placing the summon Materia down. "Is an Independent type of Materia. They all vary in abilities and aren't really categorized into the others. This one is called Enemy Away and acts like a repel for monsters, though it's weaker against Heartless and Nobodies. This other one here," she indicated with a wave of her hand to a dark purple one. "Is called Speed Plus and, like its name suggests, gives you a boost in your speed." With that, she put them back down.

"The blue ones," she said next, "Are Support Materia. Theses allow you to link the Materia you have equipped with your weapon or armor and each other. This one, Added Effect, adds a chosen status to your weapon(s), giving you a chance to inflict that status to your foe with every hit. It also makes you resistant to the same chosen status if you equip it to your armor."

"I know you'll love these ones," she said with a smile as she indicated to the largest pile on the counter, full of green Materia of different shades. "These are Magic Materia. They let you use all sorts of spells; Black and White and Status-inducing. The one you saw me use to erect that shield was a Barrier Materia, a White spell," she said, pointing to a yellow-green sphere.

Pointing to a dark green one, she expained, "Black spells include Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, like you've seen Xion and Hinata use, though they trained to be able to use those attacks without having to equip Materia."

Next pointing to a light green sphere, "I think you'll mostly be interested in these kinds since they heal yourself and others. Be careful, though. Magic Materia are the most draining and are the most likely to affect your strength and other stats."

Sakura and Ino listened intently and, noticing that she was finished, the blonde ninja asked, "Aerith, what's with the different sizes, anyways?"

"Oh. Well, if you continue to use a Materia, it can grow and become stronger in its effects," the mage explained. "Except for Summon and Support, Materia can 'level up' so to speak with continued usage until it reaches a Master level, where it can't level up anymore. The spheres increase in size as a result, but when they are about to be equipped or already are, they shrink to fit the slot size."

Aerith paused and glanced up to the ceiling in contemplation before looking back to her current charges. "I think that the both of you should start with the low-level Materia first so that you can adjust to using them. The higher leveled ones are harder to control unless you've used them already," she explained, to which both girls nodded.

"Now, girls," she finished with a kind smile and a small wave to the assorted Materia. "Why don't you have a look and pick the ones you want? It'll be my treat. If you want to find out which one does what, you can use these," she said and indicated the color-coded charts near the register.

With that, Sakura and Ino eagerly set to browsing through the wares.

"Find any that you like?" Aerith asked after a while.

"I would like a Restore, Heal, Revive and Barrier Materia." Sakura said, remembering what Aerith used during the Heartless war. She looked back at her gloves as they both had slots for three Materia each.

'Maybe I should get an offensive one as well. No good being useless if you've run out of magic and chakra,' she thought as she continued looking. 'The Earth one can help with my aim since my regular chakra punches almost always go all over the place and I don't want to harm my friends. Aerith said that Added Effect can help with resistance and some of those Heartless cast poison or sleep spells.'

Her decision made, she looked back to the mage. "I'll also take the Earth and Added Effect Materia, if you don't mind, "she said.

"Not at all," Aerith replied with a kind smile. She separated the requested Materia and began to place the others back into their containers.

Ino looked uncertain, biting her lip as she looked through the charts. Her sash was only able to hold three Materia, limiting the amount of abilities she could add to her arsenal. She looked back up to Aerith as she placed the extra Earth Materia away. "I know I want the Cure and Esuna, but I want a Materia that will stand me out from Sakura. We both may be Medical Ninjas, but still…" Ino explained.

"Well then Ino, what else are you good at? Aerith asked.

"Well. . . Poison. Is that a Materia?" Ino asked.

"Yes it is. Let me show you to it," Aerith answered as she guided Ino to it.

"Wow!" Tenten exclaimed as she and Yuffie entered the Weapons shop. Her eyes sparkled at all the shiny weapons, most of them new and unused.

Yuffie giggled next to her at the weapon expert's enthusiasm. "Hey Huey, Dewey, Louie!" she greeted with a wave at the duckling triplets behind the counter. They each wore a simple sweater and matching baseball cap, but in different colors to differentiate between the three; red, blue, and green.

"Heya Yuffie!" they greeted in perfect unison.

"Who's your new friend?" the one in red asked.

"This is-" Yuffie turned to show the girl to the little ducklings, but when she looked, the other ninja was missing. She quickly found her admiring and inspecting a sword rack. She sweatdropped at the sight before turning back to the triplets. "That's Tenten. She's a weapons expert and we wanted to check in the shop's wares. She'll probably buy quite a few, but thankfully that war with the heartless outside the walls pulled in a good amount of Munny."

"That's great!" the one in blue exclaimed happily. "Cause we've got a sale going on right now."

"Only for today, though," the one in green reminded them. "So make sure you don't take too long!"

"Sure thing, boys," Yuffie promised, giving them a grin and a thumbs up. She turned and went to help Tenten, who had already moved onto display case full of grenades, bombs, and other exploding gadgets, and also to make sure that Tenten didn't make a mess with her drool.

Somewhere else, Kakashi was on a roof with the scroll.

"Lord Jiraiya better give me a decent pay. Although. . ." He undid the seal to reveal a large box. "Now another world can enjoy the wonders of Icha Icha!" He pervertly giggled again as he went to find a bookstore.

Meanwhile in the rest of world. . . .

Naruto and Hinata were hanging out around town, finding someplace to eat. They avoided any fancy ones they found not only because of how expensive they were when they took a peek at the menu, but also because Hinata was modest and didn't really want too fancy a date.

On one of the roofs in the Borough, Shikamaru was watching the clouds pass by, though they were few and misty. He kept watching them until he eventually fell asleep.

Nearby and below, Choji was enjoying a rather tasty meal from the local bakery. The owner was only too happy to feed the hungry shinobi.
Shino had taken to meditating on the roof of Merlin's house as he waited for his bugs to return after breeding. His legs were folded underneath him and his head was bowed slightly.

Kiba and Akamaru were still wandering around town, not realizing that a little blue creature was following him. Although, they did stop every now and then because some of the children wanted to play with Akamaru, who didn't mind in the least.

Xion walked through the city until she came across the Postern. She paused and looked across the platform and over the ledge to the houses below. The wind blew delicately up here, but at least it wasn't cold.

A puff of steam close to her head interrupted her thoughts, startling her a bit. Turning, she noticed that around the big copper pipe to her left, there was a narrow alleyway that dipped below, the rest of it covered in shadows.

Looking at it closely from where she was, Xion suddenly had a flashback from Sora's memories; there was a door down there and it led the Ansem the Wise's study. But more importantly, it led to his private computer.

"I wonder if his computer has anything about Terra, Aqua, and Ven. Or even Master Xehanort," she thought, walking towards the alleyway. "Or even why some members of Organization XIII are coming back in that other computer." She carefully descended down the large, uneven steps and briskly walked through the door, entering the Corridors.

Calling on Sora's memories of this place, she navigated her way through the hallways. Her footsteps echoed against the walls, louder than the rumbling of the pipes and the hum of the lights, creeping her out a little.

She eventually made her way down a side hallway that was brighter and cleaner than the others, pipes absent from the walls. It ended in a decorated door, slightly ajar. Xion paid no mind, however, thinking that one of the Committee members was here recently and simply forgot.

Opening it fully and passing through, she found herself in a large, round room. It was quite messy, books and papers on the floor and writings on the wall. To the side, there was a giant, rectangular hole in the wall that led to a dark blue hallway; a stark contrast from the warmer and rustier walls of the study.

Xion remembered through Sora that there was a picture of Ansem's apprentice, Xehanort, near the scientific lettering, but right now it was gone. She noticed that the broken glass containers were also missing and that the room had been cleaned somewhat.

Again, she shrugged it off, thinking that Aerith or some other Committee members had begun to clean this place up. She walked through the room, avoiding any other debris and even picking a book or two up and placing them on the crescent-shaped desk in the middle of the room. Soon, she found herself on the walkway surrounded by blue steel, the Heartless Manufactory ahead and below.

Xion gave a small shudder at the thought of the sheer number of Heartless that were electronically produced here. It was a wonder that Sora and his friends were able to defeat them all.

The computer room was the same as ever, though the glass window behind the computer looked a lot cleaner. Going to the keyboard, she pressed a few keys, opening up files and checking through them.

"Hello there," a voice suddenly sounded, startling Xion and making her jump.

Looking around, she asked out loud, "Who's there?" Her fingers twitched, ready to summon a keyblade should the voice turn out to be hostile.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the voice apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you. But this is a restricted area; only authorized personnel are allowed here. I must ask you leave, please."

"Uh. . ." Xion looked around nervously, trying to find the source of the mysterious voice, which sounded electronic and full of static. "I'm sorry, too, for being here. I just wanted to check on some stuff. But, uh...Where are you?" she asked.

"Oh, I forgot. I'm Tron, MCP of this network," the voice, now identified as Tron, replied.

"Tron?" Xion muttered as she tried to recall where she had heard that familiar name before. Her eyes brightened when she saw a memory of Sora wearing weird, blue and digital armor and fighting alongside a human-looking program in a blacklight-happy digital world.

"Tron?" Xion repeated, looking up and noticing the speakers in the corners of the room. "As in, the same Tron that Sora helped out to derez the previous MCP?" she asked.

"Yes, that's it. You know Sora?" Tron asked curiously.

Xion nodded her head, though she doubted that the program could see it. "Yeah, I know him," she answered. "I'm Xion."

"Hello there, User Xion," Tron greeted. "Are you a friend of Sora's then?"

"Er. . ." Xion was hesitant, knowing that the both of them hadn't actually met in person. "Sort of. We haven't really seen each other in a long time. I also know the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

"Alright then," Tron said. "A friend of Sora's is a friend of mine. I see that you've pulled up some of the older files. Are you looking for something?"

"Yeah," Xion answered, going back to the keyboard. "I'm trying to find some information on some people from a long time ago. And some more information on Nobodies."

"I can do a scan if you like," Tron offered. "Cid and I were working on upgrading the Claymore program. It's progressing well so far."

"But what if the Heartless do come back? Even if they're just the usual variety, the citizens might still get hurt," Xion argued worriedly.

"It's fine," Tron said, trying to ease her worries. "I can spare a moment. What is it that you're looking for?"

Xion hesitated again before relenting with a sigh. "Any information about some Keyblade bearers named Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, or Ven for short. Also, anymore information about Nobodies and how they're formed," she replied.

"Alright. I'll pull up the information about the Nobodies first since they're the most recent. You can look through those while I scan through the database's history and storage," Tron said.

Seconds later, some files appeared on the screen and Xion leaned in to get a closer look. Most of the information regarded the types and abilities of the lesser Nobodies. There was information on Organization XIII, but those were mostly on who was who and what was their power and fighting capabilities. Not too useful since she knew these already, especially about the other members of Organization XIII, but she continued to scan through the files.

Soon, Xion came upon a journal entry. It read:

~'So far, our experiments have been going excellent. I and my fellow colleagues have made great progress in our research.

From our results, we have concluded that the stronger the heart, the stronger the heartless produced. There is also the alternative condition in that if the heart is already very dark, an even more powerful heartless is born.

We have also taken into account the byproducts of these transmutations. We have before concluded that if the subject were to have a strong will, the body left behind in the process of heart removal will act and behave on its own. The power and strength of what we have dubbed, 'Nobodies,' is also determined through the power of the heart. Unfortunately, there is inconclusive data on the effects of a dark heart upon its nobody as it varies from strong and familiar to weak and unrecognizable.

We have tried a simple experiment of placing the pieces back together. We have started with a simple Shadow heartless and a Dusk nobody. Results have shown that, though these two creatures were formed from the pieces of the same person, they will not hesitate to attack one another.

We moved down the line of power to see if appearance is a factor in this equation, as both Shadow and Dusk did not even remotely resemble their former being; their Somebody. The closer we got to familiarity between the two, the results have become varied with no clear pattern. Some have even begun to cooperate with their opposite, though it appears that the Nobodies are usually the most in control. Most of the time, there is a brief moment of peace between the two, but then they will begin to attack each other. However, we have noticed a slight pattern in which one it is that would attack first.

I theorize that the reason the Nobody is the one to attack its dark counterpart is because Nobodies, like Heartless, could sense the heart, though on a duller scale. Placed in the same area, the Nobody was able to recognize that the Heartless in front of it was the one with its former heart. In their desire to feel emotions once more, to exist, the Nobody will initiate the battle in order to get their heart back.

So what does happen to the Nobody of a dark heart? And of those that have managed to retain their former appearance, is there a way to reverse it and place back into the shell, the taken heart? And if such a reversal were to be possible, will the restored person retain the abilities granted from being split into both a being of nothing and a being of darkness?

The goal of these experiments was to see if the restored Somebody was able to retain the nobody's and heartless' ability to travel through portals of nothingness and doors of darkness. Once it has been confirmed as possible, I will try my hand, as the saying goes, and the process shall be done upon me and the rest of my colleagues. With that, we will be able to finally open the doors to endless possibilities and more information on my sole goal: Kingdom Hearts. The heart of all worlds.

Now, our research is at a standstill. My next proposed experiment has been denied by Ansem, so now I must initiate one of my back-up plans. If all goes well, the mysteries of Kingdom Hearts and the heart itself will be solved'~

Xion stepped back, eyes wide after reading the entry. There was no name, but she had a pretty good idea of who wrote it. A beep above her snapped her out of her thoughts.

Looking up, she noticed a password program appear on the screen. "User Xion," Tron stated. "I was able to find this from the history pile, but I am unable to access it without the password."

"Don't worry, Tron," Xion said, stepping up again. "What's the name of the program, anyways?" she asked.

"It says here, D2D program," Tron answered.

"Hmm. . ." Xion put a hand to her chin in thought. 'D2D. . .That sounds familiar. . . Perhaps it means something.' Closing her eyes, she called up some more of Sora's memories. 'It's not the DTD; Tron has access to that already. But there's something else,' she thought.

The answer came to her as she recalled the writing on the wall in Ansem's study. 'Of course! The DTD stood for Door to Darkness and, if you replace word, to, with the number 2, you practically get the same thing.'

Opening her eyes in realization, she began to type on the keyboard. "Now what was that old password, again?" she murmured.

"Do you know the password, User Xion?" Tron asked.

"Not really," she replied. "But I have an idea."

'I just hope it works,' she thought as she began to type in the seven-worded password.

Hitting the 'Confirm' key, she crossed her fingers and waited as the computer began to process it. A 'Ding!' sounded and some programs opened and initiated.

"It worked!" Tron exclaimed. "Hold on, I'll bring up the most recently used one."

A few seconds later, a file opened up on the screen. "Room of Sleep?" Xion read aloud, curiosity in her voice.

"I'm not exactly sure what it is," Tron confessed. "But it appears to lead to a chamber deep beneath the castle. The door to the stairway is in front of the Manufactory machine. I'll open it and leave it open, though. I have to go, Cid is starting the testing soon and he'll need my help," he explained, sounding a little disappointed.

"That's okay, Tron," she comforted, hoping to make the program feel better. "The town's safety is more important anyways."

"Alright," Tron relented. "I'll open the door now. If you need anymore help, feel free to contact Leon or Cid. I'm sure they'll want to know about this."

"Hmm..."

"Is something the matter?"

"I. . . don't really know," Xion said, a contemplative look on her face. "But. . . I have a feeling that whatever's down there. . . should be kept a secret."

"Oh? You don't want to tell Leon and the others?" Tron asked, confused.

"Yeah," Xion decided. "If it's not too much trouble, can you not tell them about this? I have a bad feeling that the more who know about this, the more dangerous things will get."

A pause.

". . . Alright," Tron relented. "But be careful down there, okay?"

Xion was already making her way out of the computer room. "Okay, Tron," she reassured the program. "And thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. See you soon!" A window popped up on the computer screen. It read, 'PROGRAM START.' Afterwards, the computer room went silent except for the hum of electricity.

When she reached the bottom level, Xion stepped up and onto the glowing mark on the ground. She didn't have to wait for long as a large rectangle flashed on the floor in front of her. A whirring sound filled the air as motors that haven't been used in a long time set to work and opened the door.

As the doors opened, Xion could see that there were no stairs that lead to the floor seen below. As she judged the distance from her level to the one below, the doors finished opening and there was another brief flash of light, startling her from her thoughts. Looking back, a slope downward to the room had appeared.

"Well, that's convenient," she thought as she carefully made her way down.

It was dark inside, but from what little light she had, she could see that she was on a platform that lead to a walkway and the room was circular. She went to the platform's edge and, looking over, saw that it spiraled down and down and down.

Xion gulped at the dark depths before her. 'I'd hate to find out how deep this thing goes the hard way,' she thought as she went to the walkway and began to make her way down, staying close to the wall. The pipes and cables glowed as light pulsed through them, too low to light up the room.

It took a long while, but she eventually made it to the bottom. "Geez, how deep did they need this room to be?" she complained, looking up at the distance.

Turning around she headed to the door, which opened automatically at a certain distance. She had to blink her eyes a few times at the stark contrast of light and darkness before stepping through the door. Inside was a hallway that, as far as she could tell, was full of open doors, their digital locks smashed and broken. The floor was tiled, but it was covered in numerous scratches.

She cautiously trekked through the hallway, muscles ready to leap away and summon her keyblades at a moment's notice.

At the first open door, she found that inside was what looked like a cell. A small bunk looked to be roughly shoved to the side and there was a small, upturned desk next to it, one of its legs snapped. Shredded pieces of what was probably the bed sheet littered the floor. Above, the ceiling lights were broken and nonfunctional. Looking closer, there were even more scratches on the walls, most of them deeper than the ones on the floor.

Seeing nothing else, Xion moved on, peeking into the cells and finding the same results. She was very thankful that the place was empty of even Heartless.

As she moved down the rows of cells, she noticed that the mess in the rooms seemed to be getting worse. A glance to her right and she saw that there was no door to that room. Looking into it, she found the door, but it appeared to have been pierced through and then thrown away, smashing the desk into pieces. The chains on the door were snapped and the bars on the window were broken. The walls had burn marks and instead of just scratches, there were gouges in the walls, deep and long. The bed laid in two pieces on one side. The room next to it had the same results, though instead of burn marks, this one was full of puddles of dark water.

Xion tread slowly now in the hallway. Some of the doors were out in the open, crushed and bent at odd angles. She even found pieces of some of the doors; their edges burnt and charred black.

She then came across a section of cells that looked to be intact, the doors closed and the tile smooth and shining like new. "I hope there's nothing in these ones. . ." she thought with a gulp before slowly inching her way to the first door on her left.

She peeked through the window, seeing past the prison bars and she squinted to make out anything in the dim lighting. It was empty. Inside, the bed looked untouched, the sheets neat and made. The desk was also still standing next to it. Dust layered everything in this room.

The other rooms in this part of the hallway were no different.

At the end of the hallway was a door similar to the one that led this hall, though a bit different. It was decorated with black chain-like markings on either side. As Xion stepped in front of it, it opened and inside was a round room, dimmer than the hallway. The walls were decorated in the Nobody symbols, large and black, and connecting to each one were the same chain-like markings as on the door. There were panels missing from the floor, showing the pipes and cables below.

In the middle of the circular room was a throne, three spikes decorating the top, back edge of the seat. All the chains lead to this throne, none of them twisting in curves and crisscrossing into each other, but more like branching off of one another.

Xion could only see the back of the throne, so she was curious to see what it looked like from the front. As she walked closer, she noticed something sticking out a ways in front of the throne. She cautiously stepped ever closer, using the throne as a cover in case it was an enemy. Peeking out from behind it, she gasped, blue eyes widening into saucers.

"Aqua. . .?" her voice barely a whisper.

"Gah!" Snow yelled as he hit the wall. That was probably the third or fourth time his body had left a small dent in the hard wall of blue stone. Luckily not all the body-shaped dents were his.

Earlier, Snow led Lee to a place where they can spar without worry of hurting others or damaging property. They were in a section of the long and winding Ravine Trail, set in front of the castle. It was a safe enough place so long as they don't cause the walls to crash down and create a blockade. Snow wanted to go to the Great Maw, where the majority of the heartless were during the war, but Leon had told him that there may still be Heartless out there and besides, if the heartless decided to come in through the Ravine, they could stop them before they reached the residential areas.

In any case, he and Lee were having their little sparring match here in the Ravine. So far, no major damages have been made, though his aching back would beg to differ. Just a few minutes in and Snow realized that Lee was fast. Very fast.

Lee charged towards him as he was getting back up, aiming to kick him in the gut, but Snow saw that coming and quickly slipped out of the way. As the boy with the weird eyebrows left another dent in the wall with his foot, Snow took this opportunity to hook Lee's ankle with his own foot, a fist rising at his side.

Unable to stop his momentum, Lee spun into the dirt, face first. He didn't just lie there, though, and quickly rolled out of the way of the man's punch, which kicked up dust. Lee leaped away, giving the both of them distance for a small respite.

"You're pretty good," Snow complimented, back aching from having smacked into the wall.

"You, as well, my youthful opponent!" Lee yelled happily as he ignored the pain on his forehead, courtesy of landing on the hard dirt, or his sore foot.

They both sported bruises and they were both panting in exhaustion. Lee was fast and nimble, but Snow proved himself to be very difficult to defeat, having stayed standing up even after one of Lee's 'Konoha Senpuu' kicks. To anyone that knew him, Snow was like a tank, defensive yet very powerful when attacking.

He had to resist the urge to use his magic, especially his ice attacks in order to freeze the ground and make the shinobi slip, but he was a promise keeper and he had promised Aerith not to use magic. Lee also had to resist the urge to open a gate or two as when Snow managed to get a hit in, it hurt. He was definitely going to feel the blows to his ribs tomorrow and the rest of the day, even with Sakura's help.

At the thought of Sakura, his beautiful and youthful cherry blossom, he nearly lost himself to his imaginings, a lovesick grin working its way onto his lips. He quickly shook his head to dislodge those thoughts, however. He couldn't get distracted. He had to remain focused if he wanted to win; even if this was just a spar.

Across from him, Snow raised an eyebrow at the boy's behavior, but Lee just gave him a half-smirk, half-smile and shifted back into his battle stance. Though still confused, he smirked and also re-positioned himself into his own battle stance, fists raised and feet planted.

A few seconds later, the two hand-to-hand combatants leapt at each other and the match resumed.

Back in Merlin's house, Cid was at his computer, typing like usual. So far, the test for his Claymore system had proven successful, though the reaction time needed some work. He decided to have Tron work on that and instead turned to other matters.

"Gotta hand it to those guys; they really helped out here," he said, toothpick between his lips once more.

He finished typing and hit the 'Enter' button, turning towards a small machine nearby. Getting up, he walked closer as a small light lit yellow before the contraption rumbled for a while. Another light flashed green and a piece of hard paper popped out of a slit to the side. Cid grabbed it and, after inspecting it, placed it with others like it on the nearby desk.

They were membership cards to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, HBRC for short. It was violet with the picture of the castle of Radiant Garden in gold, and the acronym of the Committee in large, sky blue font below. The back was a fading purple reminiscent of the sunset, featuring a faded representation of the castle and the organization's name printed out in full and in white. 'Honorary Member' was above a white box, where a name was to be placed.

The similarities stopped there. In the white blanks were different names for each one; the names of the shinobi who helped them out.

Nanaki cautiously looked around the corner of the cliff wall at the edge of the Great Maw. Finding nothing, he stepped out and dashed to the entrance to the dark castle, Villain's Vale.

A coil of strong rope dangled from his jaws, given to him by Cid who said that it was enchanted with some magic that'll reduce the weight of whatever it's wrapped around. In this case, whomever.

Just as he was about to step inside dark castle, there was a sparkly flash nearby. Nanaki immediately tensed up, dropping the rope to land with a 'thud' and preparing his hind legs to pounce.

Before he could, however, a voice yelled out, "There you are!" It was cheery and a bit hyper. It was also familiar. Nanaki relaxed a little bit, but narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

The light dimmed to sparkles and in its place were three little people with wings, each one different from the other. They weren't the three good fairies that assisted Master Yen Sid, he wasn't even sure these three were fairies at all. One was blonde with bright blue eyes, an outfit that was similar to Yuffie's first one, and phoenix-like wings tipping the ends of a long scarf. The other was considerably darker with her black clothes, crimson eyes, grey-blonde hair, and bat-like wings. The middle one, looking more modest with her blue half-skirt and light clothing, was rather unique; underneath the bangs of her brown hair was one green eye and the other blue. Gold-tinted angel wings sprouted from a long, bound ponytail.

"Rikku, Paine, Yuna," Nanaki greeted, nodding to each one respectively.

"Hey Red!" the blonde one, Rikku, waved enthusiastically at the quadruped as they floated closer.

"Sorry for bothering you, Nanaki," Yuna, the one with the dual-colored eyes, apologized, bowing for good measure. "But we heard that Maleficent was defeated and that her castle's free of Heartless. So we decided-"

"To tag along and find any treasure in here!" Rikku interrupted with an excited grin.

"Assuming it all hasn't been snatched up by Sora and that new group," the quiet one in black, Paine, reminded them. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I'm here to retrieve Maleficent's henchman, Pete," he replied. "Cid equipped me with this to make the job easier," he said after seeing their disbelieving looks, indicating the rope next to him with a paw.

"So you don't mind?" Yuna asked.

Nanaki shook his head, "No, not really. It would do good for some company, though, as I head towards the room he's knocked out in," he answered.

"Stay close when you can, though," the red-furred animal cautioned them as they went through the dark castle's gate. "We might meet some leftover heartless or if Pete managed to free himself."

Over the next hour or so, they trekked through the hallways, the Gullwings flying off in separate directions on occasion to find some treasure. Nanaki used his strong sense of smell to lead them to the same room that Pete and Naruto fought in. The villain in question was apparently awake, if his muffled curses and restrained motions as he struggled against the ropes keeping him tied on the floor were any indication. He stopped and looked up in horror once the ragtag group entered the room, however.

Pete froze in dread as Nanaki padded closer and he sheepishly smiled, or at least tried to around the gag covering his big mouth, at the quadruped. Luckily for Nanaki and unfortunately for Pete, the loop for the rope had already been done and all the HBRC member had to do was throw the loop over and around the henchman.

A toss of his head sent the looped end of the rope flying. Too bad that with Pete down on the floor, the rope fell short and landed itself around one of the villain's shoulders and over his head. Pete scrambled to get loose, to get away, but before he could do so much as pull a muscle, he heard the sound of guns cocking next to one of his ears. Glancing to his right, he found the brunette pixie on his shoulder, a mischievous glint in her eyes and a slight smirk on her face as she aimed both of her tiny guns right in the inside of his ear. The thought of a bullet, no matter how small, soaring right into his head made him freeze again.

Nanaki nodded gratefully to Yuna, who smiled back. Rope in his jaws, he pulled and the noose tightened around the portly villain. A grunt and he forcefully pulled Pete onto his back. Finding that, with the enchanted rope, Pete didn't weigh as much as he thought, about as much as a young deer, the red-furred quadruped began to drag Pete out of the room.

"We'll catch up to you later," Paine called afterwards.

"Yeah, we haven't explored everything here, yet!" Rikku explained cheerfully. "There might still be more treasure around here!"

"And don't worry about us," Yuna said, seeing Nanaki's worried glance back at them. "We haven't met any Heartless or Nobodies so far. And besides, we can take care of ourselves."

Nanaki gave them a long look before nodding and turning back to the task at hand. Leaving the Gullwings behind, he began to drag Pete back to Headquarters, ignoring the fat feline's grunts and worried whines as he did so.

Naruto and Hinata found a small restaurant where they enjoyed a nice meal. The food of this world tasted a bit different, but it was delicious and not too cheap. They both had some fun small talk as they ate. After they finished, they left to find something else to do.

"I'm really enjoying myself today Naruto." Hinata said as she cuddled into his arm.

"Me too, Hinata." Naruto said as he smiled down at her.

They were situated on a rooftop overlooking the rest of the town. The air was cool and there was a slight breeze. A few clouds whisked through the air above and the sky was colored in orange, pink, and purple hues.

Before Naruto could look back up to see that same horizon, Hinata opened her eyes and tilted her head to look up at him. Their eyes, bright blue and polished pearl, locked.

"Naruto. . ."

"Hinata. . ."

Their heads leaned in as their lips closed into each other. The kiss that followed may not have been different than the ones before, but neither minded as it still sent a wonderful sensation of love down their spines.

"These weapons are so cool!" Tenten exclaimed as she was given a free demonstration of the grenades in the test yard behind the weapons shop. "These are more effective than our paper bombs."

Yuffie chuckled a little at the weapon crazed girl. "Glad you like them. So, what are you gonna get?"

"I'm gonna get one of everything!" Tenten answered enthusiastically, a slightly manic smile on her lips. However, before she could grab any of the other assorted weapons, she caught Yuffie's worried glance at her pockets and remembered that it was the black-haired teen that was going to pay for all of this.

Biting her lip, she turned to the other ninja, "But only if it's okay with you. Some of these look kinda expensive anyways."

Yuffie nearly sighed in relief but held it in and instead gave a grateful smile to the weapon fanatic. "Okay, come on then. I'll show which ones are cheap, but still effective."

With that, she lead Tenten around the shop to the more cheaper items. While they weren't high-end like the ones they first saw, they still proved to be useful and powerful. After deciding which ones they were gonna take, they made their purchases and she stored them in a weapon scroll.
Included were: a handheld grappling device called a Hookshot, a willow bow that shot elemental arrows (limited by the amount of normal arrows in your quiver and your magical energy), twin scimitars with a sapphire encrusted in one of them and a ruby in the other, a pair of gloves called the Maverick made of black leather with metal plates on the knuckles, a red whip that ended in a gold colored, diamond-shaped ornament called the Red Scorpion, a mace that could send out its needles like homing projectiles with a push of a button, a machine gun that could shoot bullets made out of chakra if the actual bullets ran out, and a sleek red dagger aptly named the Assassin's Dagger. Her favorite choice, though, would be her own gunblade, called the Axis Blade. It was colored a light bronze, almost gold, and sleek black.

She considered about getting a wand called the Star Rod, which could shoot projectiles of light or chakra, but decided that it was just too sparkly for her tastes. The grenades, while more effective than paper bombs, were surprisingly expensive. She decided not to get those either.

Thankfully, they managed to have some leftover Munny for later. Yuffie then lead Tenten to the accessory shop nearby after giving their thanks to the three ducklings, who were glad for the profit and hoped that they come back soon.

The small bell above rang as they passed through the door to the accessory shop.

"Hey-" Yuffie began to say but was interrupted by a blue and white blur that nearly tackled her off her feet. TenTen froze in surprise next to her.

"Yuffie! Save me, I'm bored!" the blur, which turned out to be a boy, cried out.

"Nathan, get off!" Yuffie yelled, a little embarrassed.

The boy soon let go and stepped back. Now they could see that he looked to be a few years younger than TenTen, with bright, ocean blue eyes. He wore a blue cap backwards and sticking out of the opening was a jagged lock of dark blue-green hair that reminded her of a dragon's fang. He had on a blue and white hoodie (with dark blue markings on the ends of the sleeves) and khaki cargo shorts with a blue bubble pattern on the edges. His blue and white sneakers sometimes squeaked on the floor as he shuffled his feet.

"Fine then, reject my affections. I can just love me-self. So what're you doin' here, Yuffie?" Nathan asked, head tilted curiously. "I'd a thought that you'd be out there fixin' up any damage those Heartless dished out."

"Or she could just be here to buy stuff with her new friend," a deep and gruff voice sounded behind the boy. Looking over, Tenten saw a teen sitting behind the cash register, feet crossed on the counter.

He looked older than Nathan and had leaf green hair, part of it hanging in front of one of his eyes. It was highlighted with black that looked like veins, making that part look like a big, drooping leaf. He wore a long, green scarf that covered his chin and some of his mouth, the two loose ends hanging behind him to mimic a cape or something. Over a dark purple, almost black, long-sleeved shirt was a dark green sweater. He had baggy blue-green jeans and a pair of dark brown shoes. Almost like Cid, a twig was set in his lips, a single, surprisingly large and healthy leaf hanging onto it.

The uncovered eye was a dark green and seemed to stare right into her very being. It was unnerving; especially combined with his blank face.

"Oh?" Nathan finally noticed the other person that had entered the shop. "Well hi there!" He greeted cheerfully.

Glad for someone friendly, the weapon expert turned to the boy and smiled back. "Hi. I'm TenTen." she introduced herself.

"If you haven't figured out already, I'm Nathan," he introduced, indicating himself and then the dark teen behind him with a thumb. "The stiff stick over there is my older brother-"

"Falon," the teen interrupted, glancing a glare in his little brother's direction.

"She's from another world and helped us out with the Heartless invasion," Yuffie said.

"Really? That's just awesome!" Nathan said, looking to the bun-haired ninja with slight awe in his eyes. "Well, if that's the case, you guys must be loaded and want to spend it, huh? Huh?"

"Not too much, though," Yuffie replied. "We spent most of it in the weapon shop."

"Aw, nuts!" Nathan said, snapping his fingers across himself. A pout formed on his face. "Those three always get the good stuff." A grunt of agreement sounded from the teen behind him.

"If it'll make you feel any better," Tenten offered. "We'll buy some things from here, too."

In a snap, the apparent blue-fanatic was grinning again. "In that case," he said, a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Let me show you around! As I always say, what good is a shield if it only blocks the fist but not the blow?"

"But you don't always say that. That was just from a comic book you read," Falon grumbled in protest, arms crossed. "That's not even a good quote."

"Yeah, well, it's a good comic, so hah!"

Falon rolled his eyes, or eye, in response. "Idiot," he grumbled.

His brother heard it however. "Jerk!" he cheerfully retaliated.

"Loser"

"Meanie"

"You're immature"

"You're emo!"

Falon glared at the boy. "I hate you"

"Love ya, too, bro!" Nathan happily called over his shoulders as he directed, more like shoved, the two girls to the shelves at the opposite end of the room. The older brother only huffed and rolled his eyes in response.

So the three scoured the shelves and Tenten was surprised to learn that the bracelets and rings, while pretty, were actually imbued with magic that helped the wearer's resistance to certain types of attacks. Some even enhanced the wearer's own strengths and magical capabilities. All the while, Falon either watched them with his hawk-like eyes or played with the twig in his mouth. The two brothers did banter with each other on occasion, though; throwing insults back and forth like one would play ball in a game of catch.

Eventually, Tenten, with Yuffie's Munny, bought a pair of hair ties that can equip Materia, a couple of wristbands and bangles as well as a few rings. Their functions varied from raising one's defense to reducing ice damage.

"Oh yeah!" Nathan exclaimed as Falon began to tally up the costs. "We've got a sale for one of our latest products. It's a collar that'll let you equip up to. . . uh. . . " he turned to his brother sheepishly.

"Up to 3 materia," Falon finished with a roll of his eye. "We went over this already. You should know even, you're the designer."

"Yeah, well. . . " the blue-loving boy scrunched his face as he tried to think of a good comeback. Falon smirked. "Whatever! It's only 200 Munny for today and tomorrow. It's size is also pretty adjustable."

"Hmm. . ." Tenten hummed in contemplation. She then thought of Akamaru. "Sure," she agreed.

"Great!" Nathan said happily. "Wait here a few seconds. We've got a box of them in the back." He dashed off to the back of the room and through the 'Employees Only' door there.

Falon began to place their purchases in a bag. "When he says a few seconds," he started.

"Got it!"

"He means a few seconds," the older brother finished, face still blank as though this happened all the time. Tenten and Yuffie turned around to find the younger brother already zipping back to them, a red collar in his hands.

After purchasing their new accessories, they bid their goodbyes. Falon shrugged and went to count their profits. Nathan was more animated and waved enthusiastically with a grin on his face, telling them to come back soon.

Shopping done, Tenten decided go back to Merlin's house to wait for the rest of the gang and show off her new weapons. She also wanted to find Akamaru to give him the collar she bought for him. Yuffie agreed and said that Merlin had a training room and that she could practice in there.

So the two female ninjas went off on their way.

Sakura had just equipped the Materia to her gloves. "Whoa. . . this feels good." She said as she felt a small jolt of energy coming from her gloves and spreading throughout her body.

Aerith giggled a little as she paid the shopkeepers the total costs of the Materia bought. "Yeah, you'll get that feeling when you first equip Materia."

"You got that right," Ino said as she equipped her Materia to her sash.

"Wanna try them out?" Aerith asked after they finished.

"Sure!" Sakura and Ino said in semi-unison as they headed out and in the direction of Merlin's house, where Aerith said that he had a training room.

"Catch, doggy!" a little girl giggled as she threw a bouncy ball a distance away. In a pale blur, a large, furry dog streaked by and caught the ball in midair. Akamaru landed with a 'thump' and padded back to the small group of children near the entrance to the Marketplace, tail wagging.

Sitting on top of a stone ledge was Akamaru's partner, Kiba. He watched with mild amusement as his canine friend proceeded to give the girl a lick on the cheek before playing again. It was nice to see his pal act like a normal dog once in a while instead of the trained nindog that he grew up into. But still, he, himself, was bored and it would be kinda cruel to tear the kids' fun away, especially since they probably had to go through that trauma of being evacuated away from the Heartless earlier in the day.

Just as one of the little boys threw the ball with Akamaru giving chase, his sharp ears caught a faint noise. It sounded like something with long claws was skittering on the rock wall.

Thinking that it was a Heartless, Kiba spun onto his feet, stumbling a little before he remembered that he was on a ledge. Tensed, he looked around with sharp eyes. There was nothing on the ledge or on the nearby roofs.

A tug on his shorts snapped his attention to his left. Sitting next to his shoe was a blue creature. It resembled a weird combination of a dog and a koala with long, bat-like ears. Its large, black eyes stared back at him.

*blink*

Pause.

"Hi~"

"Ahh!" Kiba shouted and promptly fell off the ledge.

Thankfully, it wasn't too far down. But his back would argue that the rock floor still hurt. His crash landing attracted the children's attention and Akamaru bounded to his partner, sniffing him and giving him a lick in concern.

One of the boys, the one that threw the ball earlier, looked up and spotted something. "Look, guys!" he shouted, pointing at something on the ledge.

The blue creature that scared Kiba off the ledge, though the shinobi won't admit it, was laughing joyfully. It held its stomach with its blue forearms and rolled around a bit, its feet kicking into the air.

The strange being rolled out of their sight and the incoherent sound of grumbling quickly took their attention away as most things tend to do with kids. The big teen that let them play with his dog sat up, a hand rubbing the back of his head.

A girl named Meeshka walked up to the teen. "Awe you okay, mista?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kiba answered, giving a reassuring smile to the little girl.

"Aloha!" a voice shouted, startling them. In front of Kiba was the blue creature from before, having slipped everyone's notice.

Finally recognizing the creature as the one from the training Cavern, Kiba pointed at the thing, Akamaru growling at it beside him. "Hey! You're th-"

He was interrupted when, in a blue blur, the mutant koala leaped onto his head. Jumping off, it landed in front of the rest of the group of kids, ignoring Kiba's cry of surprise and Akamaru's bark. The blue thing then sat in front of the kids, giving them a grin before scratching behind one of its ears with a hind paw.

"Aw, it's a puppy!" the boy from earlier, Tez, exclaimed. Immediately, the children crowded around the (poor) blue 'dog.'

Recovering from being used as a stepping stone with a hand to his face, Kiba saw the commotion. Even Meeshka had joined the crowd, all of them poking, petting, and stroking the blue thing.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he shouted, trying to get their attention. Akamaru barked next to him. "That thing might be dangerous!"

They were, unfortunately, ignored as the children's giggles and astonished sounds continued.

Suddenly, a blue blur burst out of the crowd of kids, eliciting surprised shouts from them and causing a few to stumble backwards and fall onto the ground. A yelp from Akamaru and Kiba was shocked to see that the creature had landed on the nindog's backside like one would a horse. Akamaru began to run around, bounding and bucking, but the thing held on.

Kiba went to help his friend and calm him down as Akamaru tried to reach around his shoulders with snapping jaws. The blue thing suddenly dug its claws into Akamaru's back, thankfully not leaving any marks or drawing blood, but it was enough to make the nindog give a slight howl before racing off.

"Akamaru, wait!" Kiba shouted as he ran after them, trying to get the nindog to calm down. Behind him, the kids were either laughing or waving goodbye to the trio, not understanding the panic.

They raced through Marketplace, nearly crashing into a duck with a top hat and cane and the other residents of the town. Nearby, a scruffy dog with a white and tan coat and a red bandana tied around its neck seemed to raise an eyebrow at the scene, the small orange kitten next to it tilting its head. Along the way, Kiba shouted apologizes left and right.

"Sorry!" "Excuse me!" "Akamaru, calm down!" "I'll pay you back later!" "Sorry!" "Watch out!" "Sorry over there!" "Coming through!" "Akamaru, wait up!"

All the way, the evil koala held on, sometimes belting out great bouts of maniacal laughter.

Everywhere else. . .

Kakashi was still giggling like a pervert as he started selling some of Jiraiya's books to the bookstore. "The porn shall now be spread. . ." He muttered as the bookstore owner looked at him funny.

Kakashi just smiled to stave off any worries.

Outside and else-wheres, Sai continued to paint the Heartless castle from the Bailey. Shikamaru was still resting on the roof and Choji was still learning about the foods of this world. Shino was still meditating on Merlin's roof.

Any noise and commotion caused by a big dog with a blue thing riding it like a horse and the dog's human partner, wasn't heard or noticed to them.

The room was silent after that wisp of a whisper.

Xion continued to stare at the figure on the ground. It was the same one. The same one from the vision after the battle where Lee, Kiba with Akamaru, and Sai defeated Saix. The same one that fought the darkness known as Master Xehanort with two friends. Aqua. However, as her shock subsided, she began to notice some things.

First, was the lack of an actual body. This created a strange mixture of relief, worry, and confusion. Relief that there was no dead body in there, Worry for what had happened to the owner of the armor and keyblade, and Confusion as to why these things were down here with the Nobody symbol glowing on the walls.

Second, she noticed that the armor actually looked clean. There was no layer of dust like she would have expected, considering that this room was hidden deep underground.

"But. . . Aqua," Xion muttered to herself. "She couldn't have been. . ." She stopped the thoughts there, not wanting to think about that kind of a scenario.

Xion stepped out from behind the chair, or throne, and walked closer to the set of (apparently) discarded armor. She reached out, hesitant that it wasn't real and would just disappear. She was relieved when she touched it, fears of it being all a dream fading away.

Deciding that it didn't look good for it to just lay there on the floor, she picked up the pieces of armor and placed them on the chair, arranging them to look as though it was sitting. As she did so, the room began to light up, spreading from the throne to the walls and upwards.
She stepped back to admire her work. It looked better now. More honorable in a way.

She looked back to the keyblade, sticking to the ground like the other, rustier keyblades in the Keyblade Graveyard. She slowly reached out for the handle, more worried with it than with the armor. This was a keyblade. And keyblades, when not in the hand of their chosen wielder and in someone else's, would disappear.

Xion grabbed its handle and let out a breath of relief as the Keyblade didn't disappear. She tugged it out of the ground and brought it over to the throne, laying it against one of its arms.

She stepped back and looked at the whole thing with a semi-critical eye. A few seconds later, she nodded, satisfied. There. It looked complete.

"Sort of," she thought, thinking back to the woman that wore the armor and wielded the keyblade from the vision.

She stood in silence and in contemplation, trying to figure out just what all this meant. From the visions to the apparent revival of the other members of the original Organization XIII, from Chromoruxia's own Organization to this very room and the armor inside it. Are all these events connected in some way? And if they are, how? And what would happen next? What was going to happen to them?

What about the other trio? Terra? Ven?. . . Aqua? What had happened to them? How did Aqua's armor make it here? What did the Nobodies have to do with it? As far as she and the others knew, the three were battling Master Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard.

As far as they knew. . . She suddenly shook her head, halting her thoughts. "The visions," she murmured. "There's still more. Six more, if my math is correct. We need to find out what happened. Maybe then, we could finally get some answers."

Nodding to herself in resolve, she walked to the door. Passing the chair, she paused and laid a hand on the back of the chair, just beside the helmet.

She looked down sadly at the armor and keyblade. They actually looked kinda lonely without their owner wearing and using them. "I don't know what happened," she said. "But my friends and I...We'll stop them. We'll stop any and all future plans of darkness. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. . . Chromoruxia. . . Akatsuki. . . Master Xehanort," her eyes narrowed at the name and at the pain he created between Aqua and her friends.

"We'll stop them. Any threat to the worlds. . .and Kingdom Hearts," she promised, to herself and to the armor and keyblade, feeling in her heart as though the owner heard it as well and supported her.

With new resolve, Xion walked out of the room. The doors slid shut behind her.
Xion made her way through the hall, once more carefully avoiding the debris from the damaged cells. The doors slid open for her and she found herself back in the deep, long spiral walkway. She paused to let her eyes adjust from bright to dark.

She gave the distance an exasperated look before sighing and beginning to head back up to the lab.

"Man. . . that was crazy," she muttered to herself, the silence of this place, even with the electrical hum, bugging her. "To think. . . Aqua's armor was down here. . . and her keyblade."

"I better keep this a secret from the others," she thought. "Don't want them all to worry about this."

It took a while, but she finally made it back to the platform with the ramp that lead to the lab. She was panting slightly by then and breathed a huge sigh of relief once she exited the secret passage. A flash behind her caught her eye and, turning, she saw that the door had slid closed and the seams disappeared.

She then made her way to the computer room and the hallways that would lead her back to Ansem's study.

Just as she passed by the room, a beep sounded, making her pause and look back into it. "User Xion," Tron's voice said from the speakers. "Glad to see you're back, safe and sound."

"Hey, Tron." Xion greeted, stepping into the room. "Thanks for helping me out here. How did the testing go, by the way?"

"It went well," the program answered. "The reaction time just needed to be adjusted, though. But it was quickly handled and the Claymore defense program is up-to-date."

"You didn't tell Cid or anyone else, did you?" Xion asked worriedly.

"No, I didn't. But are you sure you want to keep this a secret?" Tron asked. "It would be helpful to have more of the Users know about this."

"Yes," Xion answered with a firm nod. "I'm sure. They all already have other things to worry about, like rebuilding what was damaged in that war, and we can't lose focus now."

"Alright then."

"Thanks, Tron."

"You're welcome."

"It must be late. I'm gonna head back to the others. See ya," Xion said as she made her way out of the computer room.

"You as well, User Xion." With that, Tron left as well, the computer room falling silent except the low hum of electricity.

Xion entered the study, finding it the same as she left it. She carefully made her way to the door, picking up some of the books on the way and placing them either on the desk or on the bookshelf closest to her. She left the room, closing the door behind her and navigated her way through the Corridors.

Once outside, she paused. The sky was getting darker and the first few stars were out, shining brightly. Below, a few of the town's streetlamps began to light up. The breeze was cool and seemed to smell and feel of the approaching night.

She smiled slightly at the sudden peaceful and hopeful feeling that settled in her recently-uncovered heart. Xion then headed back in the direction of Merlin's house.

"Thanks for the business," Kakashi said to the shopkeeper of the bookstore, smiling underneath his mask. "My client will be grateful for this chance to spread his work."

"No problem, sir," the shopkeeper, a young man named Stro, said. "It's nice to help artists, painting or writing, get noticed."

"True, true," Kakashi said. Then he noticed from the nearby window that the sun was setting. "Well, I better go. It's getting late."

"Alright. Take care! And thanks for the books!"

"You're welcome," Kakashi said with a slight smirk.

He giggled to himself, thinking perverted thoughts and eliciting a confused look on Stro's face. He just waved it off and went outside. Behind him, Stro rose an eyebrow before shrugging it off as the masked man left. He then called over to his daughter, who was fixing some of the books in the back, to come to the front and help him classify the new books. After all, it's more orderly to figure out just which category these books would go to after they're first few weeks in the showcase shelf. And what better way to do it than to take a peek in them?

Outside, Kakashi was still giggling to himself at the books and how they would now spread to another world. A nearby streetlamp turned on, catching his attention and reminding him of the time.

"Well, better head back. But first. . ." he said to himself, noticing a commotion that was moving closer.

It was Akamaru with that strange blue creature from before riding on his back and Kiba running after them. The comical trio passed by him and he looked blankly after them.

"How Kiba gets into these kinds of situations, I'll never know," he said with a shrug and a shake of his head. Then he started to chase after them.

Lee and Snow were breathing heavily, most of their energy spent from the fight. Both of them were lying on their backs on the ground, facing opposite ways and the tops of their heads close. They had decided to end their spar in a tie, the both of them being equally matched in the end.

"Man. . .That was an awesome match. . ." Snow said, panting with a tired smile on his face.

"Indeed it was, Snow." Lee replied, breathless but with his usual smile on his face.

The two then sat back up and stretched their arms. Their joints creaked and groaned a bit in protest, but they ignored it and continued to get some feeling back.

"I think we better head back now. It's starting to get late," Snow said, looking at the color-changing sky.

"That would be-" Lee was about to say when he started to hear a large amount of barking coming from town.

"The heck!?" Snow exclaimed as the two quickly got to their feet. They then headed into town, their legs burning slightly from having to work some more.

Naruto and Hinata were about to head back to Merlin's place when they heard some commotion nearby.

"Huh?" Naruto muttered. Suddenly, coming towards them from around a corner was Akamaru with a familiar blue creature on his back. "That's-!"

"Somebody stop him!" Kiba yelled as he chased them..

Hinata quickly summoned out her keyblade and Naruto made some shadow clones. The shadow clones quickly formed a wall to try and stop the nindog in his tracks.

Hinata then pointed her keyblade at Akamaru. "Sorry about this Akamaru. Bind!"

Akamaru quickly stopped where he was standing. The blue creature was flung off of him and into the air.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered before he saw the creature getting closer. "Ah, crud." The blue creature then landed on the real Naruto's face, laughing like a maniac before starting to play with his face, though not scratching it.

"Get that thing off him!" One of the clones said. "Got it!" All of them said as they all dog-piled onto the real Naruto. There was soon a mass of orange, yellow, and blue in the middle of the street.

Hinata and Kiba sweat-dropped as Kakashi, Lee, and Snow appeared. They stared blankly at the comical scene.

"What happened exactly?" Snow asked.

"We were just playing around with the kids in the Borough when this thing showed up!" Kiba explained after getting his breath back. "Then it started to ride on Akamaru like he was a horse or something!" he exclaimed indignantly.

Akamaru, having been freed from the spell earlier, barked in agreement. "Yeah, we practically went through the whole town," Kiba said.

"Hey, I recognize it," Hinata said.

Kakashi nodded. "It's the same one we met in the Cavern with the training portals," he said.

"Oh, you mean Stitch?" Snow said.

"Stitch?" "It has a name?!"

"Yeah," Snow said. "He's always been really mischievous. From what I've heard, he's actually something called 'Experiment 626' and that he was created to be like that. I think last year, he reversed street signs, backed up sewers, and stole everyone's left shoe."

"But he's been getting better," Snow explained after seeing the worried look on everyone's, except Naruto's since he was still busy, faces. "The most he's done this year was scare some of the kids. And he doesn't really harm anyone. He can really pack a punch against the Heartless, too, so he's very helpful to the Committee when there's some around."

"Hah!" a shout from the side caught their attention. They turned and saw that a few of the Naruto clones had managed to pin Stitch face down with a clone to each paw. The others sweatdropped at the sight.

Snow sighed and walked up to Stitch's head. Kneeling, he spoke, "Alright Stitch. You had your fun. Now, are you gonna stop? It's getting kinda late and we're all tired."

Stitch seemed to actually pout at his fun being stopped. But after a moment, he nodded. "Ih," he said.

"Good," Snow then looked to the Naruto clones. "Can you let him go, now? When he says he'll stop, he will," he assured them.

Reluctantly, the shadow clones were dismissed in poofs of smoke. Stitch picked himself off and dusted his fur before looking up at the Snow with a weirdly sheepish and toothy grin.

Snow nodded in satisfaction before making his way to Merlin's house. "Alright then. It's late and I have feeling that Aerith's already back. She's probably worried about us," he said.

The ninjas followed after him, Lee pulling Snow into a conservation about their spar. Kiba and Akamaru kept a distance away from Stitch, who had taken to alternatively skittering along the nearby walls and crawling on the ground. Hinata and Naruto held hands and at the back of the group was Kakashi, who was silent and observing everything with a lazy eye.

It wasn't long before Tenten and Yuffie returned to Merlin's house.

"We're back!" Yuffie announced as she headed in with Tenten closing the door behind them.

Cid turned around as he finished whatever he was doing. "Well then, look who's back." He then smirked at the two. "Yuffie, Panda head."

Tenten went wide eyed. "P-panda!" She then blushed in embarrassment at the nickname. "It's Tenten. . ." She muttered as Yuffie and Cid started to chuckle a little.

"Ah, I'm just messing with ya." Cid said.

"He does that for an old crackpot." Yuffie snickered. Tenten now started to snicker at the name and Cid's jaw dropped. With a huff, he returned to his computer.

The door opened again, catching everyone's attention. Aerith, Sakura, and Ino entered with Sakura closing the door behind them.

"Hey guys!" Ino greeted with an enthusiastic wave. "Check out our Materia!" She then indicated the glowing orbs set into her sash. Sakura pitched in by showing off the Materia equipped to her gloves.

"Ooh, neat!" Yuffie said, taking a closer look. "I see someone's got a Poison Materia. That's a great one when you're wearing someone down."

"Thanks!" Ino said.

"What's this one?" Tenten asked, pointing to a slightly glowing green one set into Sakura's right-hand glove.

"That's an earth Materia," Sakura explained. "It'll help power up my own earthquake punches."

"Cool," Tenten said. "I've got some shiny weapons added in to my arsenal. Wanna try them out?"

"Sure!" both girls answered.

"You can use the training room Merlin's got in the back," Yuffie said. "The entire room is enchanted so that any attacks that happen in there won't affect the outside. At least, anything that can fit into the room; I don't think the wards could handle extreme ones. Here, I'll show you where it is." With that, she led the Tenten, Ino, and Sakura into one of the hallways.

"Has anyone else come back?" Aerith asked Cid.

"Nanaki came back wit' Pete a while ago," Cid answered, looking away from the computer screen for a moment. "Leon then left wit' them to the cells under here. Said he's got a few questions for the fatty. Either than them, no one else. Oh, and the message has been sent to the King, but Chip and Dale said that His Majesty was out busy with something. They said that when he comes back, they'll tell him." The mechanic and computer expert turned back to his coding.

Aerith went to the kitchen to whip up dinner. A few minutes later, Cid decided to take a break and help her, thinking that, after the big fight, they all deserved a feast.

As the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky, everyone began to pack up and head home. Or in the off-worlders' case, Merlin's house.

Sai finished painting the castle, giving it a critical eye before nodding in satisfaction (or some feeling close to it) and packing up his supplies. Shikamaru woke up from his nap as a nearby streetlamp turned on. He yawned and stretched his arms a little before, reluctantly, getting up. A quick glance to the sky and then he leisurely made his way to the others. Choji wrote down most of the food ideas he learned as he headed back to Merlin's.

On the roof of Merlin's house, Shino waited silently for his bugs to return. As a nearby streetlamp turned on, they returned, though slowly and in small groups. No need to cause a panic so late in the evening. When all his bugs were back in his body, he jumped down from the roof, landing nimbly on his feet, and made his way into the deceptive house. Who knew that it was so large on the inside?

Choji was surprisingly the first to make it back (though after Shino). When he followed the delicious smells, he eagerly decided to help out with the cooking. Aerith and Cid were happy for it.

Outside, Leon were just about to open the door when he spotted a large group coming down from another street. It was Snow, Lee, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba Akamaru, Kakashi, and surprisingly Stitch. He had wondered where the little monstrosity went.

"Hey Leon!" Snow greeted with a wave. Leon nodded and left the door open as he made his way in. The others followed in, Stitch taking to crawling on the walls once more.

Sai and Shikarmaru came in next, in that order. Hinata was getting worried after a while, wondering where Xion was. Soon, however, Xion entered the house.

Something was different though, she could see that. There was a slight faraway look in her blue eyes and she was quieter as she greeted everyone.

The door opening once more distracted her thoughts, however. The last one to return, Nanaki, padded into the (crowded) room.

"Hey guys!" Tenten shouted from the hallway, followed by Ino and Sakura.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Where were you guys?" he asked.

"Trying out my new weapons," Tenten answered.

"And our Materia," Sakura added in.

"Dinner's ready!" Aerith called out before any more questions could be asked.

Everyone filed into the dining room and settled themselves at the big table, which was loaded with more food than the last time they were here. The next few minutes were filled with the normal sounds of eating; utensils scraping against plates, cups being placed down, food being munched on and even the odd burp or two (followed by an embarrassed apology).

A moment afterwards, conversation took hold. The day's events were shared and news was exchanged.

"So you got some accessories, too?" Xion asked Tenten.

"Yup!" she answered. "Oh! That's reminds me!"

The weapon expert turned to Kiba. "Kiba, I've got a cool collar for Akamaru; it'll let you equip some Materia to him."

"And it looks stylish," Ino piped in.

"Really, cool! Thanks Tenten," Kiba said. Beside him and on the floor, eating from a separate bowl, was Akamaru, who had heard the exchange and barked happily.

"I'll lend ya a Fire and Steal Materia," Yuffie offered, fishing around in her pockets. "I usually have a spare or two, so no need to worry!"

So the conversations continued. Much laughter and snickering was shared at Kiba's and Akamaru's expense, and if not, smirks from the quiet people like Leon and Shino. Eventually, dinner ended and Aerith, with Cid's and Chouji's help, began to gather the dishes and utensils for cleaning.

"So what are you guys going to do tomorrow?" Leon asked, arms folded as he sat back in his seat.

"Go back to the Cavern and finish up training," Xion said.

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "We've got six more, and then we'll go back home and face Chromoruxia's Organization."

"Oh, you should all rest first," Aerith said. "It must not be comfortable to sleep in the cavern over there."

"Now that you mention it. . ." Naruto muttered to himself.

"We've got extra rooms here," Cid said. "They're mostly fer emergencies in case the residential area goes kablooey and there are lots of homeless people. Also fer guests if we get them."

"Well. . ." Xion was a little hesitant, worried about what Chromouxia and his cronies would do in their absence.

"Just for the night at least," Aerith insisted.

So the decision was made that the Konoha shinobi would stay a night in Merlin's house before heading back to the Cavern and finishing off their training. Some of them were still amazed that even though the house looked small and homely on the outside, it was huge and comparable to a mansion on the inside.

Before Xion headed off to sleep however, she turned to Cid who was also about to turn in for the night. "Cid, I forgot to ask earlier. But, where's Merlin?" she asked.

"He got a note from some ol' friend of his that wanted his help," Cid answered. "He didn't tell us who or what, but he's usually like that' the crazy coot."

"Oh, okay. Thanks," Xion said. "And goodnight." Cid returned it and they both left to their rooms.

Deep beneath the magical house were a bunch of cells. One cell in particular held a tubby, pathetic, evil henchman named Pete. He no longer had a gag to his mouth, but his hands were still tied and behind his back. The cell was also outfitted with magic wards, so he couldn't portal himself out even if he tried.

His feet were free though and he took to pacing around in his cell. In front of him and against the wall was a table with the three pixies from earlier on it. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were counting up and inspecting the treasure they had managed to find in the dark castle. Included were some accessories and low-level Materia.

The door down the hall opened and Leon entered, carrying a tray of food and tiny drinks. Rikku cheered and flew straight to the food as it was set down on the table and the other two Gullwings joined her after thanking Leon.

Leon nodded in return and sat on the seat next to the table, gunblade resting against him. Folding his arms, he kept an eye out on the prisoner and also glaring at him.

Pete already knew that Leon wouldn't let him out and was most likely down here to watch over him. The Gullwings were too busy on dinner and their treasure to care. Ears flicked down, he then decided to just sit on the cot next to him.

The smell of the food wafted over to him and he thought he heard his stomach growl. He glanced outside of his cell and was only met with a stern glare, making him flinch.

It was going to be a long night. . . . .

The next morning, everyone was up and about and getting ready for the day. Leon had returned earlier in the night as Yuffie took the next shift, followed by Nanaki. The Gullwings had teleported themselves to wherever they were staying after having finished their dinner.

Outside Merlin's house, everyone was reluctant to say goodbye. But the Committee was needed to continue the Garden's restoration and the Konoha shinobi needed to get stronger and save their world.

Tenten, Sakura, and Ino thanked Aerith and Yuffie for helping them get new weapons and upgrade their abilities. Snow and Lee fist-bumped and promised each other that if they met up again, they would spar and see if either of them had improved. Nanaki was giving advice to Kiba and Akamaru about the new Materia collar. Cid was thanking Choji for helping out with the meals. Everyone else was silent.

Xion stepped up to Leon. "Thanks Leon for letting us stay the night."

"No problem," Leon said with a shrug. "It's the least we could do for helping us out. Speaking of which," Leon then turned to Cid as he finished discussing some recipes with Choji.

"Cid, you said you had something to give to them?" Everyone turned to the computer expert with curious looks.

"Yep," Cid said as he pulled out a stack of cards from his back pocket. "I talked with Leon here about this and he agreed. Anyways, we've decided to give you folks these," He proceeded to hand out a card to each of the Konoha shinobi.

Xion recognized them immediately. "Membership cards!" she exclaimed.

"Wow," Hinata said as she flipped it over front and back. She looked back up to the Leon and the Committee, "Thanks Leon!"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Like I said before, it's the least we could do."

"We'll make sure to come back, then," Naruto said as he pocketed his own card. The others nodded.

"See ya soon, then," Hinata said as she and the rest of the slowly departed.

Xion lagged behind though, her thoughts drifting to the room she found yesterday. Leon noticed and came up to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you're going to get left behind," he said, voice tinged in concern.

"Oh, well. . ." Xion hesitated, wondering if she should tell him about the room and its contents. She decided not to. "Well, I guess I'm worried that the world barriers would come back up again and we won't be able to visit."

"Hmph," Leon said as he released Xion's shoulder and folded his arms. "We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other," he said.

Xion smiled, a memory that wasn't her own popping into her head. "How did I know you were going to say something like that?" she said with slight sarcasm.

Leon raised an eyebrow but smirked and gave the ex-Organization member a slight push in the direction her friends had taken. "Go," he said simply.

Xion nodded and waved at the rest of the Committee, who waved or nodded back. She ran to catch up with her friends as they headed back to the Caverns.