Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Naruto

"Hi"-Normal speaking

'Voices in my head'-Normal thinking

'Demon'-Voice of Destiny/Heartless/Greater Being/Kyuubi speaking/Jutsu

'Mind Demon'-Greater Being/Heartless/Kyuubi thinking

Chapter III

Shattered World

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Naruto heard crashing waves and blowing wind as he opened his eyes. He was standing on a windswept beach on an island. The sky was dark, filled with black storm clouds. Naruto knew they were anything but normal.

"What the hell?!" a strangely familiar voice spoke up.

"Hey what just happened?" another voice, this one female that Naruto recognized, said.

"What the…? Where am I, un?" said another, unfamiliar male voice.

Looking behind him, Naruto saw five other people, most of which he was at least acquainted with, and most of whom were pretty confused as to their location. To his left in front of him was the women he remembered from the chunin exams, Anko Mitarashi. Next to her was a girl he immediately recognized. Hinata Hyuuga. In front of him to his right was a tall man with blue skin in a black cloak with red clouds, a massive sword in wrappings on his back. Kisame Hoshigaki, as he recalled. Next to the shark-like man was someone Naruto had not seen before. He was also wearing an Akatsuki cloak, though he had long, platinum blonde hair that reminded Naruto of Ino. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that his voice was obviously male, Naruto would have thought he was a girl. It was then that everyone noticed everyone else.

"What the…Kisame? Why are you here?" the blonde asked.

"Deidara? I have no idea? Wait, aren't those Konoha-nins?" Kisame replied.

"Hey, aren't you Hinata Hyuuga? Oh shit! Akatsuki!" Anko said as she drew a kunai.

"Calm down everyone. There's a reason we're here" a calm voice said from Naruto's right. Naruto turned to see someone he knew for sure would be here.

Itachi Uchiha.

Everyone else turned to see the renegade Uchiha.

"Itachi? Do you know why were here? Wait! Why's the Kyuubi junchuuriki here too?"

"We're here, because we've been called here" Naruto said.

Itachi nodded. "And I take it you recognize this place too, Naruto?"

"So you had that dream too?" Naruto asked. Itachi nodded again.

"Um…can SOMEONE explain what the fuck is going on? Are you saying were going to have to work with those two?!" Anko yelled.

"We'll explain later," Itachi said, "we have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment" Naruto nodded. His heartless sense had been going off for a while now.

Glancing around, they saw they were surrounded by dozens of Shadow heartless.

"Wha…what are those things?" Hinata said.

"Heartless" Naruto said, knowing his kunai would do little good.

"Huh?" the blonde, Deidara asked.

"Their hostile" Itachi elaborated.

"Well, not for long" Anko said, drawing some kunai.

"Anko, wait!"

The kunais went flying, and went right through the heartless. Everyone but Naruto and Itachi looked on in shock.

"As I was saying," Itachi continued. "They can only be harmed by chakra. In other words, a chakra based weapon or attack"

"Chakra based weapon, huh?" Kisame grinned as he drew his sword. "No problem" he said while Hinata assumed a Jyuuken stance.

Naruto cursed, wishing he still had that sword. Then he realized something. The power he had felt. The power that had defeated the Sasuke-heartless. He could still feel it. He could feel it in his hand, pulsing, begging to be released. Naruto decided to do just that. He opened his hand, as if grasping a sword, and then, in a flash of light, he was.

Examining the sword, he realized what the voice had meant when it called him 'Key Wielder'. The sword had a gold, pentagon-shaped guard, not unlike the sword the boy from his dream had been holding in the engraving on the platform, but apart from that was far different. It was longer then the boy's, practically a nodachi. The blade was far more elaborate too. The outside of the blade was shaped like a large cleaver with long etchings and saw-like edges that reminded Naruto of raging wind. On the inside, near the guard, were five spike-like protrusions that pointed back towards the hilt. At the end, on the inside on the blade, was a design that looked like the Rasengan, from which, three white scythe blades emerged, pointing at three different angles. On the end of the chain on the hilt was a spiral identical to the one on his coat. Only one thought went through Naruto's head.

'Sweet!'

It was then that Naruto noticed something else; the heartless seemed to suddenly be wary, almost afraid of this weapon. Naruto adopted a wicked smirk, and flew into them, hacking through the Heartless, the masses of darkness dissipating with each blow.

Itachi watched the Junchuuriki fight his way through the heartless.

'So that's what that voice meant. And if I went through the same thing he did…then I should be able to…' Itachi concentrated, and in a flash of light, he was holding a key-like sword as well.

It was slightly shorter then Naruto's, but still longer then the boy from his vision. The guard was identical, except it was a slightly darker shade, while the blade was far different. On the outside, it formed a curved blade reminiscent of a raven's wing, with etchings that could also make it seem like a mass of black flames. On the inside end, where Naruto's had the orb with scythe-like blades, was another, smaller blade that extended back from just behind the tip, to roughly a third of the way down the sword. It was semi-transparent and had the likeness of smoke. It reminded Itachi of the Susanoo for some reason. At the end of the chain on the hilt was an emblem in the shape of the Mangekyou eyes. But what Itachi found most curious was the small piece of metal which protruded from the lower, inner side of the guard and curving slightly upward, and right where his index finger could reach it. And running along the back side of the blade was long thin tube that seemed to emerge from the blade itself.

'What could that be for?'

A thought suddenly struck Itachi, a memory of his defeat of the heartless-Mikoto, or rather the way he had defeated it. A sword, that shot a blast of energy. Recalling that, Itachi pointed the sword at one of the heartless, and squeezed the switch.

The effect was immediate.

A thin line of red chakra-like energy lanced from the tube at the end, spearing the heartless before dissipating an instant later, along with the heartless, which disintegrated.

Smirking, Itachi dived into the melee. He couldn't have his comrade have all the fun.

Meanwhile, Kisame was hacking through the Shadows, his Samehada making short work of them. Hinata was having similar success, her Jyuuken easily dispatching any of the heartless. Anko was having more trouble, not having any weapons or styles that used chakra directly. She still had other things to rely on however. Running through handseals, she breathed deeply.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" she called out as she shot a giant fireball at a group of shadows, the flames easily incinerating them, as well as opening up a path for everyone to regroup. Forming a circle, the six shinobi fought off the dark creatures. But even then, there were just too many.

"Damn! There's too many of them!" Kisame yelled. "You got any ideas Itachi?"

"I do!" Anko said as she bit her thumb and ran through seals. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" she yelled as she slammed her palm on the ground.

Nothing happened.

"What the hell? Why didn't anything happen?" Anko asked.

"Hm. Well we are in another dimension. It would make sense that our summons would not be of any use" Itachi said in his usual calm tone, as if they weren't in the middle of a life-or-death situation.

"Wait, what?!" Anko yelled. "What do you mean we're in another dimension?"

"We don't have time for this!" Deidara yelled as he put some clay from his pouch into the mouth on his right hand.

"Please work, un" he whispered as he threw his arm out, the piece of clay turning into a massive clay bird, in front of three shocked, and three not-so-shocked, on lookers.

As the three Akatsuki members jumped on, Itachi turned to the others.

"Get on!"

Not really complaining at the moment, Naruto, Hinata and Anko leapt on too, and the bird took flight.

"Eat this, bastards!" Deidara yelled as he threw another clay bird. This one hit the spot they had just occupied, obliterating the heartless in a massive explosion.

As they circled the island, Deidara turned to Itachi and spoke in a whisper, Kisame leaning in to listen.

"Itachi. What are you thinking? Aren't they our enemies? Why not leave them behind for those things? I understand Naruto since we need him but why the other two?"

"Because they aren't our enemies anymore," Itachi replied. "We've been brought here for a greater purpose. We have a task to accomplish, and besides, I have a promise to fulfill"

"Wait, what do you…?"

"Later. We have things to do right now" Itachi interrupted and turned to Naruto.

"If this is indeed the place from our dream, then the boy we're looking for must be here somewhere. We need to find him"

Nodding, Naruto turned to Hinata.

"Hinata, can you use your Byakugan?"

"H…Hai," Hinata answered as her eyes activated. "What does he look like?"

"He's a little younger then you and me, and he has spiky brown hair and blue eyes. He might be holding a sword similar to mine and Itachi's"

Hinata nodded and expanded her range.

"N-Naruto-kun! He's down there!" she spoke a second later, pointing down to a clearing on top of the island.

Deidara looked to Itachi as if looking for confirmation of what he should do, to which the Uchiha merely nodded, giving him a look that said to listen to her.

Nodding back, Deidara guided the bird to the left, heading for the clearing while the others looked to it.

"Hey, I think I see him" Naruto yelled over the wind rushing past them.

"Deidara, get us down there!" Itachi said/ordered

"You got it"

But as they descended, Naruto noticed something odd, which suddenly turned to fear as he realized what it was.

"Wait, what is that?" Kisame said, pointing to the large vortex on the edge of the cliff that seemed to be sucking up everything in front of it.

"I don't know," Naruto grimaced, "but it's sucking us in!"

Everyone else was soon inclined to agree as the wind around them suddenly picked up, even though they had almost stopped moving.

"Damn it! What is that thing?!" Anko yelled over the wind rushing past them.

"Don't worry! As long as the bird holds up, I can get us out of here!" Deidara yelled back.

That was when the clay bird broke apart.

"You were saying?!"

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Inside the vortex, it was what Naruto could only describe as pure darkness. They seemed to be falling down a great spiraling tunnel, a tunnel of pure darkness. They were all falling together, but that didn't seem to do them any good.

"What the hell is this?!" Anko yelled.

"I don't know but-" Itachi was cut off as something happened. He felt something, and Naruto felt it too.

The power. The power within them that they had both felt, and had manifested itself in the key-like swords they were holding. The power, and they themselves, were being called. Slowly, each of the others felt it too, a pull, a tug, like they were being drawn towards something.

Each one of them looked to where they were being drawn, further down the dark tunnel. Then, down the black tunnel, so far that they were hardly able to see it, a light appeared. Not like a light at the end of the tunnel, but a single point of light, shining at them like a star in the night sky.

As if on que, Naruto and Itachi felt their power resonating with the light, and their swords began to glow, letting off a low ringing sound. They seemed to gleam with silver light, which soon spread to their wielders, bathing them in that same light. Their four companions look on, awestruck.

Then, the swords let out an even greater light. From their hilts, they shot out tentacles of light. Naruto's shot out a line to Hinata, then to Deidara. Itachi's went to Anko, then Kisame. As they were linked to the swords, the four shinobi began to glow with the same light as Naruto and Itachi. Then finally, the swords shot out a final light, linking each other together.

'Wha… What is this? This… This power…' Naruto thought as he looked at his weapon, shocked at what he felt from it. The feeling… It felt like… pure power. Neither good nor evil. Simply… power. A power that could give life, or take it away. A power that could crush a world to dust, and breath life into another. Then, almost intuitively, Naruto knew what to do.

His face steeled into conviction, Naruto looked to Itachi, who's face was in an identical expression. They nodded to each other, and pointed their swords at the point of light. In response, the weapons shined even brighter, and the ringing intensified. Then, they shot out a beam of pure silver energy. And it was not like the beams shot from Itachi's sword either. The beams lanced out slower, but still quite fast, and did not dissipate. Instead they continued reaching out, until they seemed to blend together as they reached the far away light.

As they reached the light, the glow around Naruto, Itachi and the others intensified. They grew stronger and stronger, until all six of them were nothing more then gleaming silhouettes of light. Suddenly, all six silhouettes seemed to lose their cohesion, and shot forward as six large beams. The beams that had been Naruto and Itachi were the biggest and shot out ahead of the others beams as they began to converge. The beams that had been Hinata's and Deidara's twisted around and merged with Naruto's, while Anko's and Kisame's joined with Itachi's. Finally, the two massive beams joined each other, becoming a single massive beam of light that shot forwards even faster towards its destination.

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"Ugh… What happened?" Naruto asked to no one in particular as he opened his eyes, slowly knocking the sleep from his eyes.

As previous events resurfaced in his memory, he got up to try to look around. Or at least, he tired to.

Trying to move his left arm, Naruto found that some large, warm mass on top of it. And as he tired to move the rest of his body, he realized this thing was it was draped over his body. Trying to knock the rest of the dreariness from his eyes, Naruto focused on the dark, navy blue mass of what appeared to be hair over his face. It was then that his ears picked up an obviously feminine voice mumbling something. A voice emanating from right next to his ear.

"Mm… Naruto-kun"

Naruto's face immediately turned bright red as he realized what this warm and …comfortable?… mass was.

Slowly turning his head to the side, Naruto came face to face with the sleeping form of a certain dark-haired girl.

"Hinata…?" he slowly breathed out, wondering if this was some weird dream.

'And a nice one too'

Naruto's trepidation of being in such close proximity to the mysterious girl was replaced with confusion as he wondered where the heck that thought had come from.

'Well… this is kind of nice I guess' he began to think in agreement. Her body held a kind of warmth that Naruto had never felt before (something understandably, having never been in a situation anything like this one), and it did feel nice. That, and he could also feel her… well-endowed… chest against his body. And that did feel really…

'GAH! Bad Naruto! You've been reading too much of Jiraiya's porn!'

Banishing those thoughts from his head, Naruto instead found his attention drawn towards Hinata's face, and the soft, content smile on it.

'She looks so peaceful'

That was when, with their faces just inches apart, and Naruto's face still red, that Hinata chose that moment to slowly open her eyes.

When her eyes opened, they instantly widened. Though the two of them simply stayed motionless, Hinata as she seemingly was still processing what was happening or trying to discern whether this was a dream or not while Naruto was still frozen with trepidation, recalling what had happened when he had gotten anywhere within Sakura's 'personal space'.

"…"

"…"

It didn't last long.

"AHHHHH"

Hinata's face instantly turned red as both of them seemed to almost teleport away from each other, Naruto sitting semi-upright with his hands in front of his face while Hinata was on her knees, both profusely apologizing for what had happened, seemingly convinced that it had been each their own fault.

Naruto was apologizing because he knew that the last time he had ended up within three feet of Sakura when she had woken up, she had pummeled him mercilessly, and was sure that Hinata might do the same.

Hinata on the other hand, was merely following her shy and always apologetic nature, fearing that Naruto would hate her for that.

After a few seconds of this, both terrified shinobi began to realize they were not being yelled at/pummeled.

Lowering his arms, Naruto looked over at Hinata, who herself seemed to realize that neither seemed willing to take action against the other, which Naruto guessed warranted a bit more casual apology.

"Uh… Sorry about that" Naruto said meekly, scratching the back of his head as he averted his eyes from Hinata in his usual fashion.

"Oh… um, No that was my fault. I landed on top of you" Hinata replied just as softly, her own eyes averted in an apologetic manner.

Naruto wasn't quite sure how to respond to this situation, and neither was Hinata, as neither had been in a situation quite like this one before. Naruto's previous dealings with girls his age (namely Sakura), he had been completely beaten up for what seemed to be the smallest infraction. And Hinata had been almost the same way, only it came more naturally to her and her fathers cold and berating nature had only caused this to fester and grow. They had never really been in a situation where the person they were apologizing to took fault for themselves.

"Well… uh…" Naruto tried to come up with some kind of rebuttal to Hinata's apology, trying to come up with an answer of what to say. "I guess it's neither of our faults. I mean, we were knocked out when that vortex spit us out so neither of us could know what was happening, right?" he said with a half-hearted chuckle, still somewhat fearing being beaten up.

"Oh, well… I guess you're right then" Hinata said with a similar meek laugh as the blush on her face began to fade (as did the redness on Naruto's).

"Yeah…" Naruto trailed off as he suddenly remembered that there were other things to worry about. "Hey, where are the others?" only for both of them to hear a soft, almost meek voice in an accent that none of them expected to hear.

"Uh… A little help here?" came Itachi's meek (WTF?!) whisper from under Anko, who was laying on top of him in a manner similar to how Hinata and Naruto had ended up, though with one major difference.

Judging from Anko's er… movements… she was in the middle of a very… 'active' dream, that and the grin on her face as Itachi tried desperately to remove her arms from around his neck.

Naruto was now staring with his jaw dropped in shock and amazement at what he was hearing and seeing. Itachi Uchiha… the man who had completely massacred the mighty clan of Sharingan wielders, and the greatest Konoha nuke-nin other then Orochimaru himself… was shivering in trepidation because he had ended up in a very compromising position with a girl. And was his face red too? Hinata was merely wondering what the heck Anko was doing, having not been as well acquainted with the Uchiha.

"Seriously… a little help?" Itachi said again glancing to the two of them while trying to pry himself from Anko's grip.

Naruto shock had now been slowly transformed as he realized the implications of this… and started snickering. His prankster mind had already found the scene to be extremely funny, and it was all he could do to not completely burst out laughing and rolling on the ground. Hinata too giggled slightly as she began to figure out why Naruto found it to be so funny, and found that so did she, though to a far lesser extent then he did (both conveniently forgetting that they had been in a similar position not five minutes before).

Itachi on the other hand, was not amused.

"This isn't funny you know!" he growled as he sent them the patented 'Uchiha Death-Glare, or at least as well as he could with the flushed and embarrassed expression he had on, which toned down it's effectiveness by a very high amount.

"Oh but it is… Itachi-kun" Anko purred, her eyes still closed as she made to tighten her grip on the dark-haired teen, something that made Itachi completely forget about the two that were watching them with barely veiled amusement.

"W-Wait a minute. Y-You were awake? This whole time?" he said with a slight stammer, desperately trying to keep his composure. In all his time as the stoic, emotionless ANBU/S-rank nuke-nin, there remained only one person that could ever get under his skin like that. And that was the girl on top of him smirking down at him like a stalking predator. Itachi was currently very thankful for the cloak that covered him, as well as the high color that at least partially covered the redness on his face.

"Yep" Anko chirped as she finally got off of him and onto her feet. She chuckled as she saw Itachi get to his feet, still doing his best to send an effective scowl at their 'audience' who was still snickering at him.

"Oh come on. I know you liked that" Anko continued in a low, seductive tone as she suddenly wrapped an arm around Itachi's shoulder.

Naruto on the other hand, started wondering if he and Hinata had missed something along the way. Seeing the infamous Itachi Uchiha squirm like that was certainly hilarious, but he was still curious as to where this all started. And why Itachi didn't try to refute Anko's statement.

"Anyway," Itachi spoke up, trying to change the subject, "Where're Kisame and Deidara anyway?" he finished as he started looking around, getting a feel for where they had ended up. The four of them were in an alleyway in some kind of town or city. It seemed to be nighttime, as they could make out the street lights outside the alley, illuminating the streets beyond in a sickly orange glow.

'Where are those two?' Itachi's answer came sooner then he thought actually.

"OI! Get this walking sushi bar off me un!" came the semi-muffled voice of their other blonde companion from behind them, prompting the four shinobi to turn to it, and start their snickering again.

Apparently, when the weird vortex had spit the six of them out, they had landed in pairs in some fashion. Though while the first two had landed rather gracefully, with the lighter of the two on top, with Kisame and Deidara, their landing had been a little… harder.

Itachi and Naruto chuckled while Hinata giggled and Anko started flat out laughing at the sight of Deidara desperately trying to push the still-sleeping form of Kisame Hoshigaki off of him. Not only had he had the misfortune of landing in a large puddle with the massive shinobi on top of him, but said shinobi also happened to have landed on his back, meaning that the massive zanbatou hanging from it was being jabbed rather painfully into Deidara's… well Deidara in general actually. Then there was the fact that the blonde's face was being used for a makeshift pillow for the shark-nin, along with his hair that Itachi knew smelled like dead fish. Add in the fact that Kisame was still asleep (with a comic drop of drool hanging from his open mouth). All in all, it was not a pleasant experience for the former Iwa-nin.

"Okay okay" Itachi said as the four of them approached the final two members of their new team. "I'll get him up"

With that, Itachi knelt down right next to Kisame's ear. Before doing anything, he glanced to his three observers.

"You may want to stand back"

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, Naruto stood back, along with Hinata and Anko. Satisfied, Itachi leaned in close and whispered lightly into Kisame's ear, a whisper Naruto was pretty sure he would never have heard had his senses not been augmented by Kyuubi's influence over the year and a half of training with it.

"Fluffy wants to talk to you"

The effect was rather immediate.

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!! Where?! Where?! SAVE ME FROM THE HORROR!" Kisame screamed in a high-pitched voice as he leapt to his feet glancing around in terror, Samehada drawn and being waved around in random directions.

"It's okay Kisame. It's not here. The thing's dead remember?" Itachi said in a surprisingly placating tone, trying to calm the ex-mist nin down.

Kisame seemed to easily register Itachi's voice and seemed to calm down almost instantly, sending Itachi a very annoyed glare.

"You know I hate it when you do that"

"And that makes it all the funnier" Itachi replied with a small grin, something that had long been absent from his face. He had forgotten the last time he had had this much fun. All his time in the Akatsuki had been filled with darkness and brooding. He had never had much time or need for any kind of amusement outside of the occasional time Kisame did something funny. This was a welcome change. Thinking back, the time he had been asleep under Anko had been the first peaceful rest he had gotten in years, and he loved it. Thinking back, perhaps his experiences in the trials had done more then simply give him a revelation. It might have just put him on the path back to his humanity. Just maybe. But Itachi didn't care at this point.

"Well, now that we're all up, where are we, and who are you three, un?" Deidara said as Naruto and Hinata helped him up, gesturing to the latter two and Anko.

"Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto introduced as he extended his hand to Deidara as a handshake, something that confused the demolitions expert a little. He knew who they were didn't he? Knew that they were after the Bijuu sealed inside him right? Then why was he being so cordial to him? Just what had happened to him and Itachi? Deciding to dwell on that later, Deidara took the handshake. If Itachi was right, then he supposed they'd have to work together for the time being, and he'd never cared much for the organization anyway.

"Deidara. Iwa nuke-nin, un"

"Anko Mitarashi" Anko introduced as Deidara looked to her, "And that's Hinata Hyuuga" she continued, gesturing to the girl.

"H-Hi" Hinata greeted.

"Well, now that we're all properly acquainted, how about you two tell us what you know about this so-called mission of ours?" Kisame asked as he turned to Itachi and Naruto, a bit miffed at being left out of the loop.

"Hey," Hinata spoke up as she noticed something, "What happened to your swords?"

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he realized that she was right. The sword he had summoned on that island was gone. But then if he had summoned it, couldn't he summon it again? Extending his hand and concentrating, Naruto found that he could still feel that power. It was subtle, but it was still there. As he focused on it, Naruto grinned as the sword reappeared in his hand in a flash of light, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Itachi had done the same. A thought suddenly occurred to Naruto then. If he could summon it like this, and it had vanished when he had been knocked unconscious, maybe he could simply will it away when he wasn't using it. Focusing on what he wanted, Naruto's grin widened as the sword vanished in the same flash of light, then reappeared in the same manner as he willed it to return.

"Cool"

"Geez, what kind of swords are those?" Deidara asked, "I've never even heard of anything like that, though the summon thing is pretty nifty, un"

"Yeah" Naruto agreed as he dismissed the weapon, Itachi doing the same.

"So, are you going to explain what the hell we're doing here or what?" Kisame asked, a bit more annoyed at being ignored like that.

"Well um…" Naruto stumbled as he scratched the back of his head. He wasn't too good at stuff like this. "Uh… Itachi?" he glanced to the older teen, a silent request that he take over.

"Alright," Itachi agreed, "but we should start looking for that boy while I'm explaining. Chances are he got sucked into that vortex too, which means he should be around here somewhere" Naruto and Hinata nodded in agreement, the latter because she understood that this kid, whoever he was, must be important.

"What's so important about this kid anyway, un?" Deidara asked.

"You'll understand when I'm finished" Itachi answered as he began a narrative of what the voice had told him.

As Itachi explained, the six shinobi walked down the alley and into the street, glancing around for their charge.

"So let me get this strait," Kisame said as Itachi finished as they walked out onto the dimly lit street. "We've somehow been sucked out of our own dimension by some god-like beings to help some kid they've chosen save this dimension from those weird creatures who are really the manifestations of a person's inner darkness called 'Heartless'? And those weird weapons you and Naruto have are somehow the key to all this?"

"More or less" Itachi's confirmed "though the last part is more of a feeling I had about all this. I'm assuming that their manifestations of whatever 'power' they gave us. The voice didn't tell me anything about what these weapons could be."

"Me neither" Naruto put in.

"Wait a minute," Anko spoke up, "why did they just give this 'power' to you two? If they want all six of us to protect him, why didn't they give it to all of us?"

"I don't know. Maybe they were limited as to who they could give it too, and just thought that Naruto and I could use it best" Itachi answered, "And are you sure you didn't pick up anything? Naruto and I can sense Heartless now, and I wondered whether anyone else had gotten it"

"Um… I think I can" Hinata said, "I didn't know what it was at first, but I think I was able to feel their presence when we were fighting them"

"Yeah… come to think of it, I think I was able to sense them, at least that they were there" Anko said.

"Me too, I think, un" Deidara agreed.

"Same here" came Kisame's answer.

"Well, I guess we won't know for sure until…" Naruto trailed off as his and Itachi's eyes widened. Their Heartless sense had just flared up. "You feel that?" he asked, glancing to his companions.

"Yep"

"Uh-huh"

"Mm-hm"

"Yeah"

Itachi nodded in agreement. All of them seemed to have acquired the 'Heartless sense' as Naruto had called it. He and Naruto summoned their swords while Kisame drew Samehada and Hinata assumed a Jyuuken stance. Deidara and Anko each drew a kunai as the other four took positions around them.

"Hey, what the hell? I can handle myself" Anko spoke up in indignation as Itachi and Kisame took a protecting stance in front of her, Naruto and Hinata doing to same for Deidara.

"Neither you nor Deidara have chakra based weapons. You'll be in a disadvantage in a close-quarters fight" Itachi explained.

Anko mumbled under her breath, accepting defeat as Itachi and Naruto took up stances with their swords. Naruto held his at his hip pointed to the side with both hands in preparation to swing while Itachi held his pointing forward, ready to use its ranged attack.

"They're here" Naruto spoke in a low voice as parts of the shadows around them began to rise and coalesce into about thirty Shadows. Naruto smirked. This shouldn't be too hard between the six of them.

Just as they were about to charge though, something quite odd happened. Suddenly, a trio of sharp reports reverberated around the empty street as three of the heartless suddenly disintegrated. Itachi could just make out, through his Sharingan, a small piece of metal infused with chakra impacting each of them at incredible speeds.

Deciding to capitalize on the distraction, Itachi began firing off shots from his sword, disintegrating more of the creatures. Naruto, Kisame and Hinata followed suit and leaped into the fray, dispatching the heartless with a series of sword and palm strikes. Meanwhile, the strange shots continued to come, destroying more of the shadows. Out of the corner of his eye, Itachi could just make out the flash of a red cloak darting about the roof tops.

'Seems like were not alone in this fight'

Itachi suddenly noticed that one of the heartless had gotten past his gaze and was rushing right at him. Itachi was about to bring his sword around to block the heartless before someone beat him to it. Itachi wasn't sure exactly where the man had come from, but he had quickly leapt in front of the Uchiha, easily dispatching the Heartless with an odd-looking longsword.

"Thanks" Itachi said, as he quickly examined his new ally.

He seemed to be Itachi's age, if a little older. He had dark-brown hair that fell around his head in spikes and he glared at the heartless through dark eyes. He was wearing a white tank-top over an unzipped black jacket with short sleeve shirt and a pair of black cargo pants and boots. Around his neck was a pendent that looked like a lion's head above a cross. The same emblem was embroidered on his left sleeve in red.

"No problem" the man answered as more of the creatures came at them. It seemed like they were the last of the heartless as the two of them easily dispatched them and found that Hinata, Naruto and Kisame had already dealt with the rest, Anko and Deidara looking annoyed at being left out.

"Thank you for your help" Itachi said as he turned to the man, his companions nodding in agreement.

"No problem, and he was the one who sensed your exit portal and told us where you were" he answered as a slightly older man jumped down from one of the roofs. The man was tall, taller then most of the others save Kisame. He had pitch-black hair that spiked out in all directions and came down over his forehead, as well as spilling off down his back in an arrangement that eerily reminded Itachi of Madara. His eyes were a dark crimson as well, in fact, were it not for the fact that they had no dots or tomoes in them, Itachi would think he was an Uchiha. His clothing consisted of a black body-suit held on by straps around his body. On his right hand was a black leather gauntlet and on his left was a clawed dark golden metal gauntlet. He also wore a pair of spiky-toed metal boots of the same color as well as a tattered crimson mantle. In his right hand was strange weapon the likes of which Itachi had never seen before. It resembled the hilt of the first man's weapon, but with three tubes emerging from it as well as strange carvings along it and an odd pendent hanging from the handle.

"Name's Leon by the way"

"Itachi Uchiha"

"Naruto Uzumaki" the blonde introduced as he rested his sword on his back.

"Anko Mitarashi" the purple haired jounin said with a grin.

"Deidara, un"

"Kisame Hoshigaki"

"H-Hinata Hyuuga"

As Itachi and the others looked to the cloaked man who had yet to say anything, he spoke in a monotonous voice that Itachi was pretty sure even he would be hard-pressed to match.

"Vincent Valentine"

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Well, there you go. Latest chapter of KOTH.

Yes, Vincent's here. More FF7/other characters will probably show up later.

And how many saw Deidara coming huh? Not many I'd bet.

As for why Itachi and Naruto are the only ones with Keyblades; 1. it would take way too long to write a 'dive to the heart' for each character and I wanted to move the story forward, 2. while all six of them have been chosen to guard Sora, Naruto and Itachi are special among them. Naruto has Kyuubi and Itachi has Mangekyou. Therefore, they could do far more with the Keyblades, and it wasn't like the Worlds could have gifted any of the others anyway. It's like Itachi said, they had to prioritize.

And yes, Itachi's Keyblade is also a gunblade. Nobody's done that before with a Keyblade and I thought it would suit him. As for why he's acting a bit OOC, well he did have that 'revelation' in his dive to the heart. Just as Naruto is acting a bit more mature, Itachi is becoming a bit more light-hearted. Don't worry, he'll still be his badass self, just not as silent (and Anko's interaction will help).

And some NaruHina and ItaAnko action too. Don't worry, it'll happen soon (I'm thinking by the end of the third world at most (at least with NaruHina. ItaAnko might happen more over time))

And on a final note, I need ideas for something. The first being that I always thought the Gummy ship designs were pretty stupid looking, so since I'm already planning on more crossovers in this fic, I'm thinking of Naruto, Sora and the others using a space-ship from another anime/game, and I need ideas. I already have some ideas, but I'd like some of your input as well.

The only restriction is that the ship has to be able to be effectively manned by a crew of, at most, six to seven. That means no giant battleships like the Archangel or Avalon. Just a small, high-speed ship with a small crew.

And also, I'm going to be planning a lot of the battles in the whole 'Advent Children/Matrix' style. And because of that, I think it would be extremely hard to include Donald and Goofy in any way that doesn't have them being knocked around like ping-pong balls (no offense to those who like them). So basically, I need replacements for them, but I can't think of who, so I'm asking for suggestions. They do have to be Disney characters, and one's that could be reasonable replacements for them. Donald and Goofy are still going to be in the story in their roles, they're just going to be staying on guard at Disney Castle and not accompanying Sora. So in other words, anyone who could be working as combat personnel at Disney Castle and could hold their own in battles like the ones I have planned (for example, Beast or Aladdin might work from a combat standpoint, but their not ones who could be closely affiliated with King Mickey).

Any suggestions on either of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Next Chapter: Naruto, Itachi and the others get acclimated to life in another dimension, Sora makes his debut, and giant heartless attack (and some other stuff too)

Anko: Whoa that's a big one

Kisame: Why am I always the one to get smacked around?

Naruto: So why does she call him 'Earl of Pudding'?

Leon: No idea.

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