What if the balance was not as it seemed? What if the darkness was not truly wicked? And what if the light…wasn't as pure as we think?

(I don't own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts…damn! All that money… P)

The Dark and Misunderstood

Written by Kylekatarn77

Chapter One

A Word to Define It

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It was a dark night…

Within the village hidden in the leaves, all was quiet. There was no wind blowing through the leaves or across rooftop. Barely a whisper of a sound. All are asleep.

Well, except for one...

Uzumaki Naruto, who can be seen running from a small mob of people, shinobi and civilian, brandishing everything from small knives all the way up to a long katana.

"Let's kill him now! Then the Kyuubi will never arise again!" The Jounin shouted this war cry, and the mob roared in delight. "We've let him live too long!"

The boy in question didn't seem to be loosing any energy, never seemed to tire. His body held such stamina. He kept running, in his raggedy pants, torn shirt and sandals. He looked malnourished and half dead already. He couldn't understand why they always did this. Why ever year they always hurt him, and hurt him the worst on today, his birthday. Why he was alone, shunned, abandoned, insulted, and called a demon.

Suddenly, he tripped over a kunai that had just barely missed his foot.

"Yes, yes, we've got him! We'll be honored as heroes!"

Naruto started to get up, and then realized they were all around him, his escape cut off. He looked up, teary eyed and hurt. He searched for an escape. They were in an alley and he was cornered. No one was around to hear this, or help...though no one ever wanted to.

"W-why are you doing this?"

The Jounin looked down at the boy before him. His eyes were filled with malice, and an almost mad delight. "You're a monster and nothing but trouble! You killed my wife and I'll never forgive!"

Naruto gazed at the man desperately from a sitting position, one arm held up in defense. "But I haven't ever tried to hurt anyone, much less kill them!"

"Shut your mouth, you mangy beast!" The Jounin, Rokuza, swung down, burying the blade an inch into the arm before whipping it back out, blood dripping.

"Ahh!" he cried out, praying someone would help him, the blood flowing slowly. Naruto could see this move had incited the dozen others with the ninja. This was more serious than before. These weren't random drunks: these men were sober and meant to kill him. His only hope were the ANBU, who were nowhere in sight.

"Aw, are you in pain?" His tone was mocking, as if he couldn't believe he was talking to the monster before him. It was trying to put on such a convincing act. "Too bad. This is what you get for causing pain to all of us!"

"P-please...stop..." Naruto stared pleadingly at the crowd, who now looked even more bloodthirsty then before.

They raised their weapons simultaneously. Finally, this boy would be dead. "Die, Kyuubi!"

Naruto looked up in horror, eyes wide, gripping his wounded arm, as he cried out one last thing…

"But I'm not Kyuubi!"

Rokuza lowered his sword into the boy's shoulder and he cried out in pain. Blood gushed from the wound violently. Others jabbed kunai knives in various places of his body. His clothing began to stain with the red ooze. They grinned evilly, watching the demon boy suffer. Naruto screamed in pain, feeling the wounds grow in number and depth. He saw the world slowly grow dark as pain over took him, his last conscious sight the glee in their eyes as life left his…

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Deep in a darkened area, the only light emanated from a being that was trapped. It was old. For countless millennia it had lived. Through battles between heaven and hell, the stone age, dinosaurs, humans, aliens, nuclear holocausts, tiberium wars, and countless other threats to the world. And through each it had lived out its existence. Always the being had survived, always kept its rightful place on top, one way or the other.

Which only made this all the more absurd! After a lifetime that was eons in the making, it would be undone. And by thirteen humans, who could kill it while the prisoner could do naught but watch! The being raged. It couldn't stand for this! It wouldn't stand for this! It could feel the pain of every jab these villagers were giving to its container. If this kept up...his container would die. If the vessel died, it would die! It refused to just sit here and take that. But how to save itself?

The being went over its prison again, looking for some escape. In desperation it scanned the seal furiously, even channeled chakra into it…and then there it was. So simple, and yet the most brilliant mind in existence, trillions of years old, that had more stored knowledge then a hundred million generations of life all thrust together, had taken eight years to find it. Oh well, no one would ever know...or live to talk of it anyway. The being called upon the boy's mind so it could speak to him, pulled him deep within the recess of his sub-conscious.

At last it would escape its prison.

At last, it would be FREE…

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Naruto felt himself, flying through a small hall...no, a sewer. Water dripped around him, yet there were cracks in the walls, as if they were slowly coming undone. He soon arrived in front of an immense cage, with a peace of paper with the kanji for seal on it... He fell to the ground, then noticed that all his wounds were gone "H-how...?"

"Boy, I'm not going to sit here and let you die!" The voice startled him, and it was practically a growl.

Naruto looked up, alarmed. He could see no one there, yet there had been a voice: a deep one...full of malice and wickedness...

"W-who's there?"

"Fool..." Such ignorance. A child yes, but still, this boy angered the prisoner to an extent never before. It made itself known to the boy behind the bars, manifesting itself in swirling chakra. Naruto backed up. At eight, many things are frightening, but this apparition was terrifying.

"I frighten you? Of course...you're nothing but a mere child...Can't even fend off a couple of weak assassins!"

Naruto looked on, scared stiff by the talking chakra. "W-who are you?"

The manifestation spoke bitterly, growling. "You don't realize it do you?"

"W-what?"

It growled again, its chakra claws digging into the cold concrete of the prison. "You've never seen why others call you a demon, when it is really me who they are addressing, you idiot child! I, the nine-tailed fox! I, Kyuubi!" The cloud of chakra took form, glowing a blood red, and shaped eerily in the form on a large fox. Energy streams of chakra whipped around it in the fashion of angry tails.

Naruto looked up, confused. "B-but that's impossible. Kyuubi died. The fourth killed him." Naruto's face suddenly looked fearful at a realization "Then that means...when they killed me...I went to Hell!" His eyes darted across the room desperately. "Please, I never did anything wrong. I don't deserve hell!"

"Calm down brat. You aren't dead. I just saved your life as a matter of fact. You should be grateful, on your knees and bowing to me!"

"B-but how can I be alive when you're dead?"

"I am not, contrary to the popular belief." The beast snarled angrily, the lie of its defeat an ever-present insult it its pride. But soon, Kyuubi would fix that. "Those insolent humans, refusing to reveal my existence. They are foolish. They will one day die for it."

"W-what are you talking about?"

"You...are inside you're own mind, child. What you see before you is the cage in your body that wretched Hokage locked me in eight years ago!"

"Y-you mean..." Naruto froze, with a sudden horrified look of realization on his face. His body slumped, dread reading all over him, "Th-that he locked you inside of m-me?

"...I guess you're not as ignorant as I'd thought..."

"S-so that's why..." Tears slowly dripped from his eyes, out of sadness and terror. Every fiber of his being strove not to say it, to admit it was true…but he couldn't, "why they hate me, isn't it?

Kyuubi glared at him, nodding slowly. "Yes. Now stop this pathetic sobbing. Crying does you no good, boy." Naruto slowly stopped, then stood up looking around bleakly, wondering how things could get worse.

"So...what now? I'm about to die, which means you'll probably die with me..."

"Tch…I will not allow you to die...not as long as I am in here, no. I will give you some of my chakra, Child. You may use it to destroy them, but them only." Naruto looked up surprised. Sure, he had never liked the treatment he got, and less so now that he knew the reason he was the target of their hate, an unjust target, but...

"What? I don't want to hurt them!"

Kyuubi stared, surprised. He had expected an immediate yes to the offer. How could any human refuse his power? "Why refuse your chance for revenge? They called you a demon, so be it! Be the demon they always treat you as! Stop hiding your pain inside you, keeping all your negative feelings trapped around your heart. Let in your sorrow...your pain...and then turn it all into rage! Anger and rage, they can make you strong. They can release your full potential. Then...and only then...will you show them you're a force to be reckoned with. They would finally leave you alone. They would fear you. You could terrify them. You could destroy them!" Kyuubi's chakra flared, showing the full force of his power.

Within this space, his own head, Naruto Uzumaki was the first being in existence, apart from God, to feel the full power of Kyuubi. The entire, full, 100 limit that the fox had reached in its lifetime upon the earth. Had it not been within his own mind, the force would have killed Naruto instantly. Naruto look up at the monster before him, awed at the power the demon offered. It was planet shattering, and in a literal sense. All his dreams could come true with this power. No one could ever hurt him again…

Yet, he just stood there, wondering if becoming like the fox was worth it, if vengeance would be worth giving up what would probably be his humanity...

Kyuubi realized it was pointless. The boy's spirit was hurt, and crushed…yet he could not bring himself to want to destroy the village. The fox realized it was time for plan B…though he had hoped for it anyway. Whether or not the boy accepted his offer, the end result would be the same.

"You cannot refuse...You cannot deny me life, and my rule…I have been trapped here too long…I won't take no for an answer...Naruto Uzumaki!" The red eyes on the beastly figure began to glow menacingly. The chakra that formed the beast slipped through the bars and circled the young boy. Naruto searched for escape, but it seemed there was none. He could feel the chakra envelope him, carrying Kyuubi's spirit.

Such power...and such bloodlust. "Please, this is more than enough. Stop!"

The fox creature grinned slyly, laughing maliciously. "Who says I care? I'll overload you to the point that the seal is finally broken! I'll be free...free once more...and then I will resume my rightful place as a total, supreme, undisputed power in this world!"

"Then, what… what'll happen to me?

"You…" He paused for a moment, and then sneered. "You will die." The chakra then entered him, attacking Naruto's mind.

Have you ever had that near death experience where your life flashes before your eyes? Naruto held his wide open, the harshest of memories piercing his skull. Villagers chasing him with weaponry, day in and day out, seemed to be the only things to remember, for he never recalled a time which brought him joy. Only pain and suffering...sorrow and depression. These were the only emotions he'd experienced in his life. And now...he was about to die...and he would never know happiness…

He could feel it. Naruto could feel every horrible moment, the pain from the fox's chakra, and he could hear nothing but Kyuubi's mad laugh. He could feel himself giving way, his heart flaring with pain, misery and suffering…

"No…" he thought. It couldn't end like this. His life, his dream for Hokage…all gone. He saw the world fall away. He, Naruto Uzumaki, was about to be no more…

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Suddenly, a black mass started pouring out from Naruto's shadow, long and dark from the light of chakra. Even as Naruto lost consciousness, his last hope that death would be quick, the black matter enveloped him, pushing away Kyuubi's chakra, and growing deeper and more solid by the second around Naruto. The fox grew wide-eyed.

"What...what is this?" He pushed more chakra, but nothing happened. He grew panicked, realizing this stuff was ruining his attempt, what could be his last. In a burst of anger, Kyuubi unleashed all his force. Every particle of his energy focused on the strange matter surrounding the child…but it appeared even his full power, power that could wipe out an entire galaxy, could not pierce it. The chakra was rebounded back into the fox, who stared in wonder, curiosity, and awe. Nukes, lasers, humans, animals, the Scrin, demons, angels, Tiberium, meteors…nothing before, no matter how powerful, or skilled, or wise, or numerous, could stand in his path. He looked on…

Then, it shattered out, in a burst of power. It swept over Kyuubi, slowly destroying the demon's chakra, his heart, his soul. The black mass slowly climbed up over the demon's body. Whatever the stuff was, it simply was unaffected by the power it consumed, even though the fox was stronger, much stronger.

"This...cannot be!" The monster began to struggle within the stuff's grasp. "You're nothing but a child! How could you possibly do this?! I am the most powerful being in existence!" Even as he spoke, he could tell the mass acted on its own, pulsing out from within naruto, driving over more of the fox, wiping away its existence, eating at his core.

There would be no rebirth, no afterlife whether good or evil. This was it, after all it had gone through, and Kyuubi would actually…die. He could feel the power, and as it wiped the last of him away, the fox came to a realization as to what this substance was.

He didn't scream, didn't yell, and didn't howl. Kyuubi, the lord of demons, master of Hell, spoke one word, the only word he could think of to describe this power the boy radiated. His eyes opened wide as he uttered the answer. Then, the burning mass of demon chakra was fully covered with the black energy. It ate away, until it was no more. Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest, wisest, wickedest, most powerful being ever to exist… was gone. The only trace that he had ever existed was the seal on Naruto's stomach, which disappeared permanently, and the one spoken word of Kyuubi's, which echoed in Naruto's mind, till it died out, the voice never to be heard again.

"Darkness…"

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The darkness was driven. Driven by the boys hate, his pain, sadness, and suffering. Yet it could feel Naruto collapsing, going unconscious. Soon, his hate would be gone, and then the darkness would run on whatever the boy fed into it. And the heart was at the moment usually kinder. The darkness didn't care. It only cared that at the moment, it was fueled by anger and hate. Whatever came later would come, but the darkness had orders to follow at the moment. With one last act, the darkness stretched out from Naruto, seeking a way out, to do its current job for the heart that had spawned it.

To hurt those who had caused Naruto pain…

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"Hoy...the demon's waking up... it isn't dead after all!" The villagers held their weapons up again, prepared to strike the demon down. It was hurt, weak, near death, and they had a battle-hardened jounin leading them. They were prepared for anything...but not this.

Naruto's body was not awake...yet it trembled, as the darkness sought a way out. It finally did, through the boy's hands, and slowly built itself up over the boy's body, hanging in midair.

"Hm...? What's this?" Rokuza held his sword, and examined the dark energy curiously. The boy's eyes snapped open, their color changed. They'd become a bright glowing yellow.

"So Kyuubi's deciding to show some power, eh? Bring it on, little demon-boy!" The mob roared in agreement with his statement.

But this power wasn't Kyuubi's.

Darkness suddenly poured from the dark mass. Lashing out like tentacles, it snagged Rokuza. His katana fell to the ground with a clang. He wanted to scream in fear, but nothing seemed to come out. No one came to his rescue, but merely stared at him terrorized.

"B-Boy! Ha-have…mercy! We'll do…anything you want! Anything!" The once strong willed man was pleading for his life at the mercy of a child. He felt the energy field get tighter on his body. He couldn't breath. He jerked his body around in desperate attempts to escape. But there was none. He couldn't even scream as the stuff consumed him, till there was nothing left, not a trace.

The darkness above Naruto then lashed out again, doing the same to all those around it. They tried to run, but were caught before they could scream as the darkness obliterated them as well. When all was done, it receded back into him, leaving him on the ground with his captors gone. His eyes closed.

Some hours later, a worried Sarutobi came upon Naruto with three trusting ANBU, and all wondered what happened to Naruto. Reports had claimed Naruto was pursued by a small mob, headed by a high Jounin… yet, Naruto was alive, merely unconscious, and there was no sign of anyone around. His clothes were bloodied up from a battle, no doubt, but all that remained were scars. Sarutobi picked Naruto up, and slowly left, wondering about the night's events.

It was a dark night...

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Preview:

Naruto: Hey, Kyuubi's gone. Really gone. I'm free! But, what's this black stuff where he used to be?

Darkness: …

Naruto: What are you? Are you going to hurt me too?

Darkness: …

Naruto: No...I can feel it…you're part of me, aren't you? And you want to help me.

Naruto: But…do I really want you in me?

Next Time: Crossroads of Destiny! Accept the Darkness Naruto!

Thanks. Give me your reviews, as I like hearing good n bad things from an audience. Know that the main pairing will be Naru/Hina. Sorry, I just like it. If I get a lotta complaints about it, which I hope you guys won't do, I'll explain why. There will be no characters crossovers, but this is a KH/KHII crossover in that I will include Darkness, Heartless, and the keyblade…and maybe Nothingness and Nobodies as well…

If anyone noticed, or guessed it, I'm adding Naruto's name to the end of the preview title for the next "episode", like Gundam: Seed does. I just find it cool, that's all.

This story was created while I was having an IM chat with Kamikon Wolf. She had some crossover ideas with KH and naruto which she asked me about. (When she types them up, or updates her current stories, please read, as they are of great quality.) This idea occurred to me while discussing my opinion on the true nature of darkness and light, which I will post at some point. In an act of help, she did an rp with me, in which I was Naruto and she did Kyuubi and the villagers. (Though Rokuza was my creation.) I then took that and wrote this. May all who ever enjoy this future story know that while I will try to type this out on my own, to show I can make my own story (coughs), let it be known that Kamikon Wolf is a parent of this story and shares half the full credit for its inspirations, first chapter, and conception. She was very helpful with the whole thing. Kind of like a sister, except she doesn't try to embarrass me or steal my car. Though…where I live I can't own a car yet…Lol. Well, I have horrible homework, and a life, but I promise no more than two weeks if nothing goes wrong before this is updated.

Thanks.

Ja ne!