Five years AK
Naruto sat happily swinging on a set of swings as he enjoyed his visit to the local playground. He didn't know why everybody would leave as soon as he got there or stay as far from him as possible. It made making friends somewhat difficult. Fortunately for him, Naruto had plenty of friends amongst the Heartless. The only unfortunate thing was that they didn't talk much.
A ruckus made Naruto look to his left, bringing his attention to a group of older children that hadn't noticed him. Hopping off the swings, Naruto meandered over to see if they wanted to be his friends. One could never have too many friends.
However, as Naruto came closer, he saw that the older boys were beating up a midnight-blue haired girl wearing a lavender sweater. Panicking, Naruto called out, seemingly to thin air.
"Sully!"
A five-foot tall Soldier Heartless with a green-blue body appeared in a swirl of black. The named Soldier greeted Naruto with a smart salute.
Naruto pointed at the bullies beating on the pretty girl. "They're hurting her!"
Understanding the order lying underneath the outburst, Sully summoned several more Soldiers, but a head shorter and with midnight blue bodies this time. Saluting, the squad of Heartless charged at the bullies, visors clanking with every step.
The bullies remained ignorant of the encroaching heartless until one, disturbed by the clanking, turned around and yelped in surprise. Turning, the bullies saw the charging Soldiers. Screaming in shock and fear, the bullies fled, leaving the girl huddled on the ground. The Soldiers, having chased off the miscreants, surrounded the girl and formed a perimeter as Naruto went to check on the girl.
"Hi there!"
The blue-haired girl looked up at Naruto hesitantly with big, pupil-less lavender eyes. She looked up at him and Sully with trepidation.
"Are you okay?"
The girl nodded slowly, still keeping an eye on the green-blue…thing with glowing yellow eyes. She was caught off-guard by the big smile as bright as his yellow hair that crossed his face.
"Awesome! Do you want to be my friend?"
There was a long moment of silence. Just as Naruto was afraid that the girl would say "no" just like everyone else he had asked, the girl responded with a soft smile.
"O-okay."
Beaming brightly, Naruto stuck out a hand to help the girl get up. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"
Blushing, the girl accepted the offered hand. "Hinata Hyuuga."
Pulling Hinata to her feet, Naruto and Hinata found themselves staring into each other's eyes. After a moment, they looked away with small blushes, though they didn't know why. As she turned back to Naruto, Hinata blinked as she saw something was missing. "Um…wh-where's your other f-friend?"
Naruto blinked. "Who, Sully? He's right…" The blonde went to gesture to the side, only to see nothing but an empty playground. Looking around, Naruto shrugged. "Eh, guess he wandered off. He does that sometimes." He pouted. "I hate it when he does it in the middle of talking."
Hinata couldn't help but giggle at Naruto's slightly annoyed expression. The laughter proved to be infectious as Naruto started to giggle before the two of them fell into full blown laughter. As the laughing subsided, the two five year-olds chased each other onto and around the various equipment that littered the playground.
From the trees around the playground, Fushin Hyuuga sneered as he watched the Hyuuga heiress play with the resident demon of the Fox's Den. Ostensibly, he was supposed to keep an eye on the heiress and protect her as chaperone and bodyguard. However, Fushin was secretly under orders from the Hyuuga clan council of elders to isolate the girl from her peers and to ensure that she remained weak to allow them to replace her with someone more…traditional than the progeny of the gentle and peaceful Hitomi Hyuuga.
Allowing the girl to be bullied and beat up was a perfect way to do so, so long as Fushin remembered to heal any bruises away. The girl was so passive that she'd never report the bullying for fear of causing a commotion. And then the damn fox brat had to go and ruin it. He'd have to do something about that. Fortunately, the demonic minions that the brat had summoned had returned to wherever they had been called from.
He smirked cruelly. The blonde baka would never be able to summon help if he was surprised from behind. Then, once the brat was disposed of, he could knock out the girl and use the memory seal the elders had given him. Once her memory of the day had been wiped, he could leave a lump on her head and claim that she had fallen and hit her head. People lost memories from head trauma all the time.
So engrossed was he in his planned homicide that Fushin never noticed that he was leaking a miniscule amount of killing intent. It was just enough that only a high-jounin level shinobi would be able to detect it.
A jounin, or a creature that had once been a jounin.
Sully, as the first of the Soldier strain of Heartless had been named (as Naruto had begun to call him Sol, then Solly before it mutated to what it now was), watched the blank-eyed man plotting in the branches below him. Sully was slightly different from most other Heartless. Having been exposed to the Kyuubi's powerful youki during his creation, he had retained most of his memories as a human, and some of his previous personality as well. As such, he was one of the more independent Heartless, able to think for himself. As all Heartless though, he was irrevocably loyal to Naruto.
Having felt the trickle of killing intent once the bullies had been chased away, Sully had silently ordered the other, lesser Soldiers to vanish to hiding places and wait. Then, as the status of being the only 'General' class Heartless allowed him, Sully summoned several Shadows, Neoshadows, Creeper Plants, and a single Possessor and ordered them to do the same.
As the two children had played on the playground, blissfully ignorant of what was happening around them, the Heartless had fanned out around the Playground and the surrounding forest. Slowly, but surely, Fushin was trapped, every possible avenue of escape cut off. Despite the "all-seeing eyes" of the Hyuuga clan, Fushin never even noticed.
As Fushin started to move towards the playing children, Sully gave his orders. As the Soldiers kept an eye out for passersby and the two children, Shadows and Neoshadows melted out of the shadows to surround Fushin. The traitorous Hyuuga froze in surprise at the sudden appearance of the Shadows, quickly assessing them as a possible threat. He didn't notice the vines that were tying him up until he tried to turn around and they gagged him.
As Fushin struggled with the vines summoned by the Creeper Plants, Sully landed on the branch in front of him and mentally summoned the Possessor. Fushin shuddered and shook violently as the Possessor entered his body before he stilled as his eyes became empty as it took full control.
Receiving the Possessor's silent report (it was far more efficient to use the short-ranged instantaneous transfer of information capable between Heartless than to use the possessed man's voice), Sully's glowing yellow eyes narrowed. This was something the Alphashadow and the Omegashadow needed to hear. Sending a mental ping for assistance, Sully soon got a response.
Before long, the Midnight and Crimson forms of Minato and Kushina arrived in a vortex of shadows and darkness. Receiving the report from Sully, the two looked to each other and nodded. This was something the Hokage needed to hear for himself. The Creeper Plants' vines withdrew at the Alpha- and Omegashadow's command, the possessed body of Fushin lurching as the Possessor took control of his motor functions.
Leaving Sully to keep an eye on the playing children, Minato and Kushina took Fushin with them to see the Hokage.
Hiruzen looked up as a portal of dusk and shade materialized in the middle of his office. Pressing a finger to his desk, the elderly Hokage channeled chakra into the intercom seal on his desk. "Kasumi, hold my appointments will you?"
A response came immediately. "Of course sir."
"Thank you." Looking up from the intercom, Hiruzen was surprised to see not only Minato and Kushina emerge, but a Hyuuga as well. Looking closely, he saw the dead eyes and jerky movements indicative of a possession. He looked at Minato and Kushina. "Care to explain?"
To his surprise though, it was the possessed Hyuuga that explained. The elderly Hokage cringed at the unnaturally echoing and raspy voice. "TrEaChErY. SuMmOn HiAsSsHi."
Cocking an eyebrow, Hiruzen once again pressed a finger to his intercom seal. "Kasumi, send for Hiash Hyuuga please."
"Right away sir!"
Before long, the intercom seal buzzed. "Sir, Hiashi Hyuuga is here to see you as requested."
Hiruzen nodded as he pressed the intercom. "Excellent. Send him in please."
The office door opened to admit Hiashi Hyuuga, the long, black-haired Hyuuga clan head and father to Hinata Hyuuga. He nodded respectfully to the Hokage before turning to Minato and Kushina. Noticing the possessed Hyuuga in the corner, Hiashi thought back to the first time he had seen their new forms.
It had been a meeting called amongst the heads of most of the major clans in Konoha to discuss the disappearances of several clan members who had ventured into the Fox's Den with hostile intent, including one branch house Hyuuga who had not inherited the family bloodline. The situation now felt very similar.
"This is Fushin Hyuuga, he is supposed to be watching my eldest daughter." Hiashi turned to the Hokage. "What has happened to my daughter?"
Hiruzen held out a hand, palm out. "Peace Hiashi, I got the story while waiting for you. Hinata is safe at a playground with Naruto, guarded by the Heartless."
"I see." It was barely visible on his features, but Hiashi was relieved. He turned to look at Fushin. "Would anybody care to explain this then?"
The elderly Hokage solemnly conveyed what they had learned from the Possessor's viewing of Fushin's memories. At the end, Hiashi's jaw was clenched in a visible attempt to keep his anger in check. As he fought his rage, Possessor-Fushin said something that caused his already boiling blood to turn to ice. "HiAsHi…ThErE iS mOrE…"
Hiashi looked on expectantly.
"MeMoRiEs Of ThE eLdErS…tAlKs Of YoUr WiFe…AnD pOiSoN…"
It looked like Hiashi was in danger of popping a blood vessel. Breathing deeply, the Hyuuga clan head addressed the Hokage. "If you'll excuse me, Lord Hokage, it appears that I have to clean house." He looked at Minato and Kushina with his white eyes. "I trust you know where Hinata's bedroom is?"
The two nodded, the Possessor having taken that knowledge from Fushin's mind. "Then please be sure to get her home by dinner."
Turning, Hiashi turned to leave, only to be stopped by the Hokage.
"Hiashi." The Hokage gestured at the still possessed Fushin. "Aren't you forgetting something."
Hiashi paused. "Yes. Do with him as you will. He is no longer Hyuuga." With that, the clan head left, formal robes swishing viciously around his ankles.
As the door closed, Hiruzen gestured to Fushin. "Minato, Kushina, could you…?"
Nodding in understanding, the two Heartless gave a silent command.
Fushin suddenly doubled over as a cloud of black poured from his mouth. As his faculties returned to him, the former Hyuuga whipped his head around to gawk at his sudden new (to him anyways) surroundings, eyes finally settling on the Hokage. The man froze like a deer in headlights.
Hiruzen stood and cleared his throat imperiously. "Fushin Nanashi, exile of the Hyuuga clan, you have been found guilty of conspiracy to murder. Your sentence is death. Do you have any last words?"
Eyes wide, Fushin tried to bolt, only to be flayed and dismembered by the Midnight and Crimson Heartless before he took more than a single step. Hiruzen stared down dispassionately at the remains and the resulting pink Heart. "I suppose not. Pity."
Sitting down, the elderly Hokage watched in interest as the Heart was engulfed in darkness before transforming into a floating torso with large, lamp-like eyes, one of which hung from the socket by a small chain. Shaking his head, Hiruzen sighed.
"Alright, this has been fun and all, but everyone needs to go home. I have to fill out the paperwork for this."
Bowing, the Heartless all left, leaving Hiruzen alone once more. Sighing deeply, the Hokage reached for the intercom to have his secretary bring him the appropriate paperwork.
He paused.
"Do we even have a form for this?"
AN: Well, another chapter, another strain of Heartless. Welcome to the family: the Search Ghost!
Also, I have decided that Minato and Kushina are too powerful to be even Novashadows, so I made up new classes for them: the Alphashadow and the Omegashadow and made Minato the color of the midnight sky to help differentiate him from other Heartless.
Cheers.
Also, for the most part, I will not be having any canon boss Heartless, as, with a few exceptions, the boss Heartless were all designed with a certain world in mind, such as the thunder dragon from The Land of Dragons (Mulan) and the earthshaker from the Pridelands (Lion King). As such, my boss Heartless will all be OCs.