Honestly, it's been a very… very long time since I wrote anything on this story, so I apologize ahead of time for the massive freakin' delay. Life, work, college and plot bunnies (those damnable critters are nearly impossible to kill) have a tendency to come up in the way.

Anyways, so lots of stuff happening the Kingdom Hearts. Finally, we get a fucking release date! Honestly, I wish that they had stuck to the 2018 year for release, but at least we're getting KH3 early next year!

As for the worlds, well I wanted to include Frozen into the KH2 storyline, but I'd rather wait and see what KH3 does with it, so that is no longer on the list of choices sad to say. And the ending of that reveal trailer…. "Bolin crying mode" WWWWHHHHYYYYY?! Not our bae! Not the awesome, badass heroine we got to play for the first time in the series! That had better be a damn trick or something along those lines Nomura!

[Exasperated Sight] Well I can tell you this, there's no way in hell am I letting that happen here, unless there's some damn good explanation behind that bullshitty move.

So on to the chapter that I hope you guys will enoy.

Chapter 2 – Some Fragmentary Passages

-The Castle that Never Was; Where Nothing Gathers-

Xemnas had gathered the members with the exception of Xion due to unique circumstances, and disclosed something that would've been kept quiet, however Vexen was frantic upon speaking with him about a sudden burst of energy that had existed for but a second until it disappeared without a trace.

"I'm sure many of you are wondering what exactly this meeting was called for."

He looked to the members who paid attention, though some of them were in their own thing. Roxas was still confused from what occurred back with Xion and Axel, Larxene was reading Marquis de Sade with a rather bored expression on her face, Marluxia was trimming a plant for whatever reason, Demyx playing on his Sitar as usual and Lexaus was doing one of those puzzle cubes.

He continued on knowing that what he said next would grab their attention, "We have had an intrusion within the castle as of late." Now he had their attention.

Xaldin looked up to the top throne, "Care to enlighten us as to who it was?"

It was Vexen who spoke up next with some papers recording some sort of data, "We're still investigating as to who it was, but for a brief moment sometime around when Axel returned with Xion, an unknown energy signature showed up on the castle's sensors, but then it disappeared within a second later."

The other members looked to Axel who was stumped, "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't see anything outta the ordinary. I just went back to my room after I got back." He honestly just wanted the day to be over with given that Roxas and Xion were both not quite in their usual cheery moods, and the former was giving him the cold shoulder, which rubbed him the wrong way for some reason…he felt like crap to be honest, and the thing was that he shouldn't…

Vexen cleared his throat to get the attention back on him, 'I get no respect here…', he thought before he continued on with his findings, "Continuing where I left off…" He grumbled, "…I attempted to try and recreate something similar in nature to the event, however I found that every time it failed. Whatever made this energy is clearly in the realm of beyond our comprehension."

Demyx raised a hand like a kid in school, "Yeah, um for those of us that don't speak geek, what does that mean exactly?"

An annoyed voice spoke up, "It means that whomever or whatever made the energy surge is a being that has obtained power above that which we can't even imagine." Saix explained to the slacker.

'Sheesh, even when he explains things he sounds like he's got a stick up his ass.' Demyx thought to himself, though he had a feeling that a few others felt the same way.

Xemnas addressed the rest of the members with a warning, "As of now, we must be on alert to whatever that occurs within the castle that appears out of place or strange. Not when we are this close to our goal, everyone is dismissed to continue on with your duties." The Organization members teleported away to their own destinations.

Marluxia was rather intrigued, "Well, it seems that things are about to get interesting."

"Who knows which of us will get lucky to come across the next incident." Luxord flipped his cards within his hand.

Xigbar let out an exasperated sigh, "And here I wish I had both my eyes…oh well, I'm a crackshot anyways, won't be a problem for me to spot things."

"Somehow I get the feeling that more chores will get stacked up for me because of this." Lexaus murmured to himself.

All of the members save for Xemnas, Vexen, Zexion and Saix were gone, as they had something else to discuss.

The main matter with Xion and Roxas.

"Xion was all part of our plan. To be able to use the power of the Keyblade."

"She exceeded our original expectations. And was able to receive Sora's influence…more so than Roxas, his own Nobody."

"We had her confine a portion of Sora's memories about his identity…and, as long as we continue to expose her to Roxas…Sora should never awaken. So, we're still preceding with the original plan."

-Twilight Town; The Old Mansion's Basement-

Riku arrived back with a hair sample that he got one of Kairi's hairbrushes, to his bit of dismay and feeling weird about in the process, but if Naruto was telling the truth, which he wasn't entirely sure about that, then Kairi had a brother that she had no idea existed. But then there was the manner of how this came to be, which confused him.

DiZ had explained that Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness quietly helped Maleficent take over Hollow Bastion her original home before she arrived at Destiny Islands and was taken in by the mayor. He had a feeling that Namine had an idea how it occurred…

Naruto was simply talking with Namine about whatever it was while DiZ sat at the computer already scanning the hair that Naruto provided them with. Naruto looked over to DiZ, "Hey, you are gonna destroy that right?" It sounded more like an order than a question if anything, though he doubted DiZ was bothered by it.

DiZ spoke without taking his eye away from the computer, "If your claim is to be true, then you needn't worry about it. All material is destroyed once the experiment is over, it's standard procedure with scientific methods of this nature." He turned his head slightly to see Riku return, "Ah, good, you're back. Place the sample and the table for scanning, once there the process will take some time."

Riku did as told, and simply waited for the results to show up, though Naruto seemed to be a little impatient, "So what all can I expect to show up in that place, where things go bump in the night?"

Riku turned to face Naruto, "The Realm of Darkness is filled with a lot of things that you wouldn't find anywhere else that exist here in the other worlds, things don't appear to be what they really are, Heartless watch you almost every step of the way, waiting to get the jump on you. The environment is mostly a massive cavern and there is no sky, unless you count the small parts that show off the dark colors that make it up. Whatever memories you have my end up coming after you, and distorting your vision, time has no real meaning in there. It could feel like a few hours in there, while days or even weeks have gone by out here, so try not to stay too long in there."

Naruto so far wasn't too terribly worried, in his forth strongest form, he was fast and could outrun even the Raikage at his top speed, and he moved at the speed of a lightning bolt's return stroke with that Lightning Armor Jutsu of his, though Naruto was capable of keeping up with Kaguya's own eyes, which themselves wereable to perceive events beyond what common sense would allow. But it was the whole, time distortion thing that he was worried about, if, no; when he found Aqua, how much would've passed by out here, days? Weeks? Years even, which more than likely happened with Aqua?

"Well most of that stuff ain't no problem for me, though that time thing's gonna screw me over if I don't get her and get out in time." Naruto scrunched his face up the feeling of displeasure visible to all.

"It's a pretty big place and finding her may not be the easiest thing." Riku warned him. He thought what he was doing would help them later in the future, but he didn't want to give his hopes up because of how the Realm of Darkness was so vast, though Naruto seemed to not worry too much as he thought he should've been. "You don't seem as worried as I thought you would be."

"Eh, it shouldn't be too much of a problem I think I can find her pretty fast if I can sense her." His Six Paths Sage Mode could ensure that he could find almost anyone, and if Aqua was the only person other than himself in that place, then she'd be a pretty big shuriken in a kunai set, something you couldn't miss even for a monkey.

Riku raised an eyebrow, "Something up your sleeve?"

"Something like that…" Naruto just gave a cheeky smile.

"Tell and not show? Heh, that's a new one."

Namine tapped Naruto on his shoulder, grabbing his attention whom turned around now saw that she was handing him a picture of three people crowded into the shot, "These were the three friends that I told you about. I hope this helps you out a bit." It held two teens and a kid, the kid looked very much if not an exact copy of that Roxas kid that he saw in the alleyway when he first got here, he gave off a friendly atmosphere much like himself and an oddly familiar presence like Hashirama's. The two teenagers next to him were around his own age, the boy in the brown hair had a sense of humbleness and a yearning for more strength to protect his friends and the innocent, and the girl who was more than likely Aqua held a compassionate and kind demeanor that she wouldn't let any harm come to anyone, regardless of the circumstances or the incident. He turned over the picture to see that their names were written on the back of their faces: Terra, Aqua and Ventus. So, the kid was Ventus, and the other guy was Terra.

"Thanks, Nami, I appreciate it, I should be able to find her soon, though can you give me a way to it?"

"Mhmm." She held her hand out in concentration to give him a dark corridor, Naruto looked at it and decided to sync the Kamui up with it, so he could get Aqua and himself out if they were in a jam, as he walked towards it, Namine spoke one last time before he entered, "Wait. Here." She handed him two pitch black coats for some reason, "Uh…what are these Nami?"

"They're coats that the Organization uses to protect themselves from fading away and to keep them safe from the darkness when they use the corridors. One for you, and one for Aqua. I know that you may not need one, but…" Naruto placed his hand on her head and gave Namine a small peck on the top, "Thank you, it's good that you're think about these things, something that mom seemed to do a lot back then."

Namine looked up to him with smile, "Thank you."

Naruto took the cloaks and sealed them into a storage scroll in a containment pouch on the back of his belt loops. "Well, I better get going, see ya later Nami."

"You too."

DiZ spoke up again without looking away from the computer, "The results should be ready when you return." He was engrossed with what exactly was coming up as he had never seen genetics like these strands before.

Naruto walked through the corridor all the way and disappeared into the darkness, and it closed behind him..

-Naruto-

He finally arrived out of the corridor which gave him a really strange feeling, he found himself standing on a grey rock that was consisted of mostly smaller pieces all clumped together. The 'sky' if it could be called that, was consisted of purple and red clouds that seemed to give it a hellish look. The rock formations seemed to almost be alive with lights here and there sprawled all over the place, down into an endless abyss. There were some parts that held what appeared to be flames of black and purple, almost reminiscent of the Ameterasu flames; something he really wish he had.

"Alright, time to get to work."

Already trying to draw in the Natural Energy of this place, he found that it felt 'tainted' to say the least. It would no doubt take a bit of time to purify the energy to make it more along the lines of the energy he was used to, luckily the way the toads had trained him to filter out the negative parts of Natural Energy. As he focused on his Sage Mode, he became more aware of the negative emotions surrounding him, no doubt the Heartless smelt him and were hungry for a fight.

'Not two minutes and you're already popular in this version of hell.'

'Knew this was coming, though I was hoping to keep a low profile until I found her.'

Naruto knew what was trying to come up behind him and threw a few shuriken to the rear. As he turned around he saw that it was one of the Shadow Heartless -a name which he still thought was lame- that Nami told him about. The Shadow was already 'in the ground' when the shuriken hit their mark, "Well this is gonna be more annoying than I thought." Keeping an eye on the Shadow as it crawled like underneath him, the creature emerged from the ground in front of him, poised to strike at the ninja, but he wasn't really concerned as he stepped back before the claws could reach their mark.

"This thing is dumber than dirt." Forming a Rasengan, he hit the Heartless dead on as the Jutsu obliterated the creature in one hit, though what was the most intriguing and weirdest thing, was that a glowing and sparkly looking red heart just emerged from the remnants of the body floating up into the sky and disappearing in a flash of light, "Well that wasn't completely weird and out of the ordinary."

'Since you're so enamored with the death of that thing, you should probably get back to what you're really here for. There's no telling how many days have already gone by back outside.'

Kurama wasn't wrong on that count. Time flowed very, very different paces in here than out there, as did his own reality. He looked around him to see multiple pairs of eyes eyeballing him from the rock formations, no doubt more Heartless -a name which he still thought was lame- converging on his position after what he just did, his Senjutsu senses showed that they were slowly manifesting from the flames and other places, though he didn't want to stick around for enough to overwhelm him to show up. But there was one signature completely different from everything else in this place, alive and untainted, "There you are." But it was far away from his own position, "This'll take some time."

'Just don't die in this place, I'd hate to wake up in hell. Wake me when you've got something interesting to kill.'

'Love you to, Furball.'

Dashing off to his target, Naruto rushed past the growing horde of Heartless that suddenly developed a fear for the ninja for what he just did that only a select few could do with a Kayblade, although they weren't fully aware of the one in the black coat that arrived to see what just happened.

"You were not part of the original design..."

-Later-

Naruto now found himself staring at the ruins of what used to be a large castle, surrounded by rundown buildings that floated around it.

'Remnants of what once was lost.'

This was what Nami was telling him about. The worlds that fell to the Dark World that Sora restored, but somehow because of how long they'd been trapped here, they left an imprint on the Dark World and became a ruin that remained regardless of coming back.

He looked around to see that the town was not all that different from those back home. Houses, a bazar, fountains, streetlights, etc. Gently dragging his hand over a building, he felt the dust and rotting of the place and wondered just what everyone was thinking when the end came for them and then coming back from the brink. Were they alone and on their own? Together with their friends and families? What of the animals? The birds signing, the dogs barking, the cats lounging… Did they feel the end coming? Or were they at least ignorant and went out peacefully?

"Here, too. Everyone in this world thought that they were safe."

Naruto heard the echo of the voice, "Uhm… hello…? Aqua, you there?" Either this was just another remnant, or his senses were being screwed with this place. But it couldn't have been the latter since he was able to feel the negativity of the Heartless.

"Not just the people… but the dog waiting for his owner… the cat curled up in her nook… So much life. Trees and flowers… There's no deeper sadness than discovering all that you knew is gone. The grief in this place is too much to fathom."

Trying to find the source of her voice, he found the location, but no Aqua. Just another remnant of what once was here.

"Dammit." Glancing back to the castle, he felt Aqua's signature in this place, far away from here. He ran full speed to the castle that held that haunted atmosphere, but all of a sudden, multiple Heartless appeared from thin air and took on new forms than the Shadow, "I don't have time for this crap!"

Naruto conjured up a Rasenshuriken to get rid of the small horde that ambushed hum and hurled it down below as he jumped above them to keep going, resulting in a part of the 'landscape' -if it could even be called that- being severed altogether. Arriving on the steps, he felt something, no… someone else watching him nearby. Slowly he came up to the doors and opened them to find himself now in the remnants of the castle, or just a really large and decrepit main hall with a broken mirror resting atop the balcony above him.

Deciding that enough was enough, he decided to call out his stalker, "Alright, come on out, I know you're there, jackass." That's when he heard the footsteps coming from up the stairs behind him, "You were aware of my presence, even in this place." The man, or maybe teen if he was guessing right, was in the same black cloak as the Organization and Sasuke-lite, which begged the question… "So, I guess me breaking into your overcompensating castle was noticed then, eh?"

The teen shook his head, "I am not part of Organization XIII." Naruto quirked an eyebrow in curiosity, "So, you're not a Nobody -which I think is another stupid name- then?"

"Correct."

"Then what are you?"

The teen brought out his hand and an ethereal blue blade was brought out from his hand, followed by another in the opposite, as he got into a battle stance. Deciding to see of his Kamui could let him slip through the attack, he shifted to the Mangekyo as quickly as he could, "Your death."

The cloaked teen dashed towards him with the blades held in a reverse grip. With a leap into the air, he twisted his body to bring the blades down to slice his target in an 'X' formation but he was stunned when he didn't see the appropriate response to such a thing…

"Was that supposed to do something?"

He looked up to see the strange eyes that were already there, he felt something shift in the air, "What…?" Suddenly the ninja backhanded him to the face through several walls that lead outside into a new area. All the cloaked teen could do was struggle to get up

Everything around them was like a kaleidoscope… reflecting everything around them in the distance. "Ok, this place just jumped straight to the weird as fuck list." He noticed that the hood had fallen off giving him a good look at the teen whom was currently nursing his more than likely broken nose, "What's the matter, can't take a little slap like that?"

'You might wanna stop taunting for a bit and get a look at his face. I'm sure you'll recognize the duckass hair style, and his face.'

Kurama was awake the whole time Nami had told him about what happened to Aqua and the others, and who was responsible. Narrowing his gaze at the teen, he focused and paid attention to his face… now he knew who he was after a bit of thinking as his eyes widened in realization, "You…" Naruto's voice was filled with disgust and loathing, "…you're Xehanort you little shit."

The now recognized young Xehanort stood up to get his bearings as he the faint sound of the crack of his nose was sat back into place, "I don't know who you are, but you're not in my plans." He knew what would happen given the ability he was given by his other self, but this whiskered boy was not within his plans. An unknown variable that needed to be eliminated effective immediately. When he first saw him, he wasn't so sure what was wrong with his eyes.

Blood red with a strange pattern inside; he originally believed that it was due to his unique presence within the Dark World, but then it caught it at the last minute that it shifted to a pinwheel of some type, which more than likely was the cause of him slipping through his attack.

Well he supposed he'd have to go for a different approach and see just what that ability could do exactly.

He brought forth two orbs from his palms and threw them into the air to bring out the Spear Orbs, 'I need to see his limits.' Thinking to himself, he conjured up copies, four of them to be exact as that was his limit to come at him from multiple sides, meanwhile the ninja just stood his ground appearing unconcerned about the pressing attack that could potentially kill him, 'Is he really this overconfident in his abilities?'

His copies had conjured up Mega Flares to coincide with the Spear Orbs to inflict the most damage, but he didn't move from his spot. As the attacks collided in a large explosion that blew debris up into the air along with the Spear Orbs disappearing and copies dissipating, Xehanort wasn't sure if the ninja was still alive, or if he had just given away that he could slip through any attack.

Focusing his eyes on the spot, he saw there was now… nothing…?

"How did he—"

"Like this asshat!"

Xehanort suddenly found himself very hastily moving his jaw back up to avoid the full brunt of the uppercut. Either way, he knew he took a major punch, but dodged a completely shattered jaw that would've made him pass out from the pain. This boy was no amateur and he wasn't overconfident. He clearly had training at least on par if not more strenuous that he and Eraqus had to do in order to become masters.

Naruto knew that Xehanort was trying to draw out more Jutsu, and he didn't want to show off too much to the old… er, young bastard. So, deciding to use the Kamui again to confuse him, he dove into the ground only to be moderately surprised, and a wee bit scared that there was nothing beneath the stone structure they were on. Quickly thinking he moved back into the structure and placed himself right beneath Xehanort and pull a fast one like he did on Neji during the Chunin Exams.

Though he wished that the little shit wasn't so quick on the uptake. He felt his head move back at the last second, not that it saved him from getting in the punch, he just didn't shatter his jaw.

Kurama just watched as the whole thing went given how Xehanort was trying to drag more Jutsu out of Naruto, he felt it was necessary to keep as many cards that he had close to the chest, 'Just end it already!' Already getting bored from the pitiful performance he was giving, 'He doesn't even stand a hell's chance against you right now, and you're better off making sure of that!'

Naruto grunted as he agreed with his tenant, 'Might as well just kill him while I've got the chance.' Summoning a pair of Shadow Clones, he grabbed their arms as he twisted his body around to throw them straight at Xehanort to land a couple of extra hits. The first was blocked by one of the blades, but he managed to push him back while the second came down on top of Xehanort to bring an axe kick that he enhanced a bit with some Earth Style.

'Earth Style: Weighted Boulder Jutsu'

The force and weight of the kick sent Xehanort back down hard to the ground while Naruto brought forth a standard Rasengan to finish him. Unfortunately, Xehanort still had some juice left in him as he maneuvered out of the way just barely before the Rasengan drilled into his stomach. "You're not getting away!"

Naruto saw that Xehanort limped into one of those dark portals, but he was too late to sync it up with his Kamui before it disappeared, "Son of a bitch…"

'Told you to hurry it up, now he's gotten away some smidgen of info on you.'

'I know, but I doubt he'll be able to take us on the next time.'

'Don't be so sure about that. You never know what he might come up with on the next round.'

Naruto did have to concede the point; he had no idea what kind of plan Xehanort would have now for him. Whatever he tried though, he'd be sure as hell to stop it dead in its tracks.

"I need to keep moving, find a way outta this place." Glancing around he noticed all of the mirrors present were completely broken. Did Aqua do this? Or was it part of the piece that was lost and came in this way? He bent down to take one of the broken shards of the mirror and tried to place it back into the mirror, hoping that something would happen.

"Well shit, guess it was worth a shot." Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto turned his back onto the mirror, looking around for whatever way he could use to get out of this part of the Dark World, he was ignorant of the newly reformed mirror as an unknown force pulled him through the mirror, "Crap!"

As he came through the mirror, everything around him blurred and distorted his vison. Even his Sharingan couldn't see properly. It came to an end with the force that pulled him had stopped, only to come about into a combat stance to see… "There's no one here!"

All he could see was that he was now standing in a forest covered in dead trees and thorns that overgrew certain parts of it. He heard Aqua's echo once again, "No one can save you. And no one wants to."

That was weird, was she talking aloud to herself? Was she beginning to lose her sanity? Her will to keep going? Shaking his head, he needed to find her all the more so now, "Right, ok then. Onwards to and through the dead trees."

Naruto leapt into the dead forest as he maneuvered through the trees. The air was stale and had the slight stench of rotten leaves filled his nose; he shook his head while he grabbed onto a limb as he continued onwards, but he stopped when he saw a giant black hand coming for him, prompting the airborne ninja to test something out, "Guess now's the time to test out the Shuriken."

'Wait, you're not talking about that Jutsu? It's going to be a close shave.'

'Now's a good time as ever.'

Quickly using the Mangekyo along with the stinging sensation that came with it, he brought forth the Susanoo ribcage, and an arm, but he didn't manifest the rest of the body as he wanted to see just how effective he could make the Kamui Shuriken at this low of a level. The Susanoo's arm conjured up the pinwheel that showed in the eyes, he quickly threw it right at the hand to which lead to the Jutsu completely removing the hand and leaving its original owner a stump in place.

Naruto gave a sideways glance at said owner and saw a rather large Heartless that held a mop of tentacles that enveloped its head, along with a massive heart-shaped hole in its body, "How the hell do you even keep going?!" Seriously, this place kept surprising him one thing after another.

He did not want to get bogged down in a fight with these things mostly because he didn't wanna waste more time, so he sped past them through the forest in which he was able to make it to the edge of a cliff where a large dark waterfall dipped down into a pitch-black abyss. Naruto turned back to see the Heartless beginning to creep back up on him and looked around to see where else Aqua could have gone to, but his senses told him that he was getting closer to her.

"Hope there's fluffy padding down there."

Naruto braced himself as he jumped down into the abyss, along the way he saw multitudes of pieces of world remnants, Heartless attempting to snatch him up, and a variety of different colors that all eventually converged into a single blinding light that eventually overwhelmed him, "Oh, come on! Light! Dark! Make up your damn mind!"

The light faded with his vision returning to him, but he found things to be blurry for a bit before everything returned to normal, "Wow, this is… sucky, again." He found himself now in a cavern that held nothing but rock formations with bright neon blue lights dotting the place.

Noting that his Senjutsu was beginning to wear off, he quickly reached out once again to see if Aqua was any closer, and just his luck, she was close by. He took off running through the caverns, but he stopped as he felt that something was coming for him. Skidding to a halt, he looked around to try and find whoever it was; if it was Xehanort, the Heartless or anyone from the Organization, he'd be prepared.

But it was the moaning that encircled him that he couldn't make out was creeping him out, "Whoever the hell you are, fuck off! I don't have time for you!" Keeping his guard up he kept on his goal to reach Aqua. The further he moved in, the more sounds he could hear of a battle going on; to his luck he finally found her.

Aqua held some sort of Keyblade that was an overall black on the blade with some rustic colored handle and guard, but it was surrounded by a bright light that took the shape of a blade at least twice her height. Her back was to him while she faced off against what looked like a horde of Shadows all clumped together in some sort of tower, that acted like a snake.

"First impressions, here we go." He gathered up chakra for a Rasenshuriken to obliterate the Heartless 'tower' in one shot, "Hey, get away from that thing!"

-Aqua-

It felt like it had been an hour since she had last seen Mickey, since she helped him get the Dark Realms' Keyblade to lock the door. But time flowed differently here, and for the days she had been walking before stumbling upon the Castle of Dreams, it turns out that ten years had passed by and everything was not going well back home. After defeating the Demon Wave that separated her from Mickey and Riku, she had landed back on the island that she first met Sora & Riku to which as it faded, she went back into the darkness.

Not long after she continued onwards to wherever this path lead her to, and came face to face with the Demon Tower once again from the castle. This time it seemed to learn from its past mistakes in battle against her, however as she brought out her Bladecharge to cut the Tower down she could make out the sound of a high-pitched buzzing sound over the droves of Heartless shuffling around.

"Hey, get away from that thing!"

Taking her eyes off her enemy for a moment to see the source of both the voice and the buzzing. A boy that looked about her age in a black shirt with orange pants, and a large orb of orange with spinning blades emanating from the palm of his bandaged hand. Aqua didn't know who he was, but if he was telling her to get away, it was probably best if she did.

Aqua quickly ran back towards the teenager while he pivoted his body, ready to make a throw if she was guessing correctly, "Jump!" Ok, so jumping was clearly a good suggestion as he bent down to throw the spinning orb that went underneath her while she twisted her body around in mid-air to avoid getting clipped.

She was now right in front of the boy who grabbed her by the waist without warning as he hastily shielded her from the explosion that followed suit from the orb he threw at the Demon Tower. Aqua closed her eyes out of instinct from all the dust and debris being thrown into the air as the end result; the boy brought her back around as he let go of her waist allowing her to see the aftermath of the attack: the entire area that the Demon Tower emerged from was obliterated entirely with no signs of it surviving such an attack.

"Well that did the trick." Her apparent helper spoke up behind her in satisfaction. Aqua turned to get a better look at her possible ally in here, which she found his eyes to be very strange, "Thanks, but who are you? And what type of magic was that?" She had never seen that before during her time under Master Eraqus' tutelage, and spending her time reading through the tomes and books filled with magic spells and charms.

He decided to oblige her, "Name's Naruto, and that wasn't magic actually, it's Ninjutsu."

Aqua found both answers curious, with his name meaning 'Fishcake' and what he just used… well she had never even heard of it, to which confused her to no end. She was about to ask another but then realized that she was being a little rude, to which she decided to give her name instead, "My name's Aqua, and it's nice to meet you, but… how did you fall into the Realm of Darkness? Are the world's in danger again?" She was anxious now. She helped Mickey to try and save the world's but for all she knew something else could have happened to the Realm of Light again, and to see someone else get trapped in this dark place was very disconcerting.

Shaking his head, Naruto explained a bit, "No, the worlds are fine, but I got in here with a bit of help, and I can get us back out of here." This stunned Aqua, "But, w-why would you come here in the first place? If you could escape here, why stay?"

Naruto looked her in the eyes, "I came in here to get you, Aqua…" Pointing towards her, "… you've been in this place for too long, and its high time someone came to bring you back home."

She wasn't sure just what all he knew, but he had to have known that she was in here from Mickey since he was the only person who met her down here, but on one hand she was touched that someone had come here for her. As Aqua was about to ask Naruto on the how they were going to escape, a dark moan could be heard from all around them.

Naruto had brought out a small knife of sorts while he looked around trying to find the source, "Dammit, that thing again?" She started looking for the source as well, though it looked like Naruto was family with it, "Have you seen whatever made that noise?"

"Nope, but I doubt it's here to make friends. Hell, I can feel that thing's negativity just bearing down on us." To her it sounded like he could feel the creature's presence altogether. All she could do was keep watch and be ready to strike while Naruto covered her back. "I'll throw up a Reflect to throw it off, while you—"

A chilling scream that made their blood turn to ice was heard as it grew closer, until it was too late. Naruto was the one who had to deal with it, but it was almost as if he was literally frozen… unmoving as she saw the one who made the scream: a phantom-like figure with blazing red eyes, and a body covered in grey rags came dashing towards him as it ran straight through her new friend and disappeared without a trace, "Naruto!"

Naruto fell flat on his backside as he began to hyperventilate a bit before she rushed to his side to try and help him off the ground, "Naruto, talk to me! Are you alright?" His eyes were wide in shock & fear with a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his forehead, "Y-yeah I-I'm alright, just… just need to get up…"

"You were frozen like a statue when you faced it… are you certain that you didn't know what that… thing was?" She wasn't sure what it was truthfully, she was only concerned about Naruto now. He shook his head, "No, I've never seen that thing, it was like a ghost almost. But… somehow, I felt that it was familiar, almost like I knew who it was, but I don't know."

Aqua had put her Keyblade away to help Naruto up as she slung his right arm over her shoulder while she took him by the waist to help him up, "We need to get out of here before it decides to come back."

Nodding his head, Naruto looked dead ahead of them, "Time to get the hell out of this nightmare." Aqua looked to him to see what he would do, but she gasped slightly as she saw his eyes change in the pattern from the three comas into a pinwheel of sorts. Looking ahead, she saw the air distort in a fan like motion that slowly but surely opened up a way… a way back into the Realm of Light. She was shocked at the display of his 'Ninjutsu' and could only gaze with her mouth slightly open in amazement, "This is… it's… how are you—" She gasped loudly as she looked at Naruto again, "Why are your eyes bleeding?!"

Naruto didn't deviate his eyesight for a second to explain, "Just an after effect." He tried to sound like he wasn't in any pain, but she wasn't convinced, "I know you're worried now, but let's do that after we get out of here." Aqua turned her attention back to the tear in the Realm of Darkness to see that he had opened up the way back for them both, "Let's go. It won't stay open for long." The Keyblade master started towards the tear with Naruto next to her as she could feel her eyes beginning to feel the sting of the light hitting her, after being stuck in the Realm of Darkness for so long.

As they stepped through they were unaware of the being that assaulted them earlier watching them as it muttered something in its bone chilling voice, "Brother…"

-Twilight Town; The Forest-

Naruto and Aqua both collapsed as they came back to the Realm of Light with Aqua still holding Naruto up, "Here, let me heal you. That couldn't have been painless." Setting him down up against a tree next to them, she rummaged through the medical pack she saw on his person to which she had taken some gauze out and used a bit of her magic to wet it as she wiped away the blood that dripped from his eye sockets, "When you use that 'Ninjutsu', do your eyes bleed all the time?"

Naruto stayed still as he knew better than to say no to a woman when they tried to help you patch things up, "Only when I use that too many times. Though to be fair I used the Mangekyo one too many times already, but I needed to find you as fast as I could, so I said screw it and went ahead anyway. I'm not leaving a friend to rot away in hell like that."

On one hand, Aqua was extremely worried about Naruto's future health if this was the result of using that too many times, while on the other, she was touched slightly from his words on why he chose to do something for her own wellbeing.

Staying in the Realm of Darkness for so long was not good for anyone. But then it was the last sentence that made her question him, "We're friends?"

After cleaning up his face, Aqua cast a Curaga spell on her patient to help him recover quickly while he gave an answer, "Yup, you did something for my sister years ago, and I guess that makes me in debt to you, though I'm pretty sure that makes us friends more than anything."

Aqua chuckled lightly at his words. He reminded her of Ven, but he was appeared to be more mature than him, "Well, thank you, Naruto." She stood up as she held her hand to help him up off the ground, "Although, who is your sister?"

Naruto took her hand, to which he noted even through her gloves that her presence was soft and comforting. He was able to get a better look at her now that they were back in Twilight Town, and she looked cuter in person than in the picture, "Her name's Kairi, and Nami -who's my sister- told me that you put some spell on her to send her someplace safe if she got in danger."

Thinking back to when she could've done that, she recalled a little girl that had given her some flowers after defending her from the Unversed with Mickey, "I remember her. She was only a little girl back then, but I remember."

"Had a feeling you did, though I think that calls for a thank you on my part."

"Oh, no it's ok, you don't need to THANK ME!" Naruto brought her into a hug as he swung her around in a circle as Aqua's voice raised to higher levels. She fought hard to keep her blush down which to no avail was going anywhere anytime soon. Ending the spinning hug, he put Aqua back while he scratched the back of his head, "Hehe, sorry 'bout that I just kind of do things like that without warning sometimes with cute girls." He fought to put his blush down, though he noticed she placed her hands around her face to try and cover up her reddened cheeks.

"N-no it's fine." She tried to change the subject, getting that old famialr feeling that he was going to ask her why she was covering up her face, like Zack did before, "It's just that I… ehhem…" Clearing her throat to regain composure and her voice, "… so who is Nami? I thought you said Kairi was your sister?"

Naruto had to think on how best to explain who Namine was, and hoe she was his sister, "Well, she's… actually, she can explain it to you better than I can. I mean I'm still trying to get used to the idea of all this Heartless and Nobody stuff since she told me." Naruto took her hand as he quickly guided her through the forest back to the mansion while her blush reignited just a tad.

NEXT CHAPTER: NOT A PUPPET

And done! I'm hoping that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I wanted to make it longer, but I feel like you guys deserved to get it as soon as possible so I edited it down some. If you guys felt that something felt odd, then I apologize and will do better. The next chapter will have some time with Aqua meeting the others in the mansion, catching up on events, etc.

Anyways, with all the stuff going on for Kingdom Hearts III I'm both hyped and heartbroken from one of the recent trailers! It can't be true!

Now with the reveal of Frozen to be featured in KH3, it will be striked from the list and I have officially decided to use the MCU for a bit in this story, though I won't say which film(s) as I want to surprise you guys.

So please, keep reading, reviewing, favoriting and following this story as well as my other stories on my profile.

And be sure to leave reviews as without them, I won't be able to become a better writer. Let me know what your likes and dislikes of the chapters are, so I can reduce the amount of disliking and increase the liking for my stories.

Until Next time :)