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A/N: Sheesh... Dad seems to be under the impression I can't watch a movie and write at the same time (which... I can't...) so blame him for being late-ish. I've been juggling five million things at the same time, so this one's a little shorter than usual. *sigh*

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Chapter 24: The Man with the Red Spiral Eyes

The four keyblade masters and the blond ninja boy charged through the town, making for the strange-shaped building. Heartless attacked and exploded on every side, taken out faster than sight either by Kyuubi and Neko, or by the ninja’s throwing knives and stars.

“I can’t believe this!” the ninja boy shouted. “I took out the leader! Why are they still coming?! What the Hell are these things, anyway?!”

“I guess the Invisible wasn’t the leader at all,” Halo said, dragging along poor Mia (who was already running out of breath). “What do you think is controlling them?” She had come to the conclusion that something had to be directing their attack. They were all making for the weird building in the center of town.

“Largest,” Kyuubi grunted.

“No matter how big they are, I’ll thrash ‘em!!” the blond declared confidently. “’Cause I’m Naruto Uzumaki--BELIEVE IT!!!”

Neko made a face at Naruto’s back (being at the rear of the party to deter any attacks from behind). She didn’t like this kid. His abuse of the term ‘believe it’ reminded her of a certain girly clown she’d once met. Hmm, now that she thought about it, girly clown didn’t have a very good ring to it… What about gay clown? She giggled to herself maliciously. Gay clown, gay clown, she thought in a singsong voice, Axel’s a girly-a**, gay clown! She’d call him that next time she saw him, as well as breaking his nose--what was that?

She stopped dead and looked around. The rest of the group kept going, taking no notice of her, but she didn’t mind. She’d track ‘em down again.

She looked around, making herself completely aware as her father had taught her.

Aha. Not even a ninja could hide from a vampire.

Neko looked over her shoulder at the tree behind her. “You gonna just hang out there and be all stalker-ish, or are you gonna come out and say hi?”

There was a pause and, from out of nowhere, a boy about Naruto’s age appeared. He had dark hair and dark eyes and a sort of ‘holier than thou’-esque expression on his face that Neko instantly despised. He wore a white-grey robe-thing, the top of which was left open to expose his chest, the bottom held closed with a simple rope.

“Hi,” he grunted with a slight sneer.

Neko looked him over. Sexy abs--she had a weakness for a man’s bared chest--but otherwise, not really her type. Not that, you know, she looked at every guy this way… She had a feeling that this kid had been told so often he was hot that he really knew it.

Never mind that, though. She wasn’t here to sight-see. She narrowed her eyes. He wasn’t wearing one of those ninja band thingies, but he was too good not to be a ninja.

Before she could ask anything further, shadows rose out of the shadows on either side of her. The boy made a dismissive gesture. “Kill her,” he said with an air of command.

As if listening to him, the Shadows sprung.

The girl smirked to herself. Throwing orders around, was he? Well, he might be good in that respect, but she was better.

She jumped and spun at an angle, summoning her keyblade at the same time. The giant pair of scissors slashed quickly through a bunch of them. She landed on her left hand and continued to spin like a break-dancer, slashing through the rest of them and landing on one knee. She looked up at him and gave him a sneer. “So you’re the one pulling the strings. Didn’t know humans could boss the Heartless around like that.”

He stared at her, black eyes searching. “Who are you?”

“Me?” she rose, cracked her neck, and smirked her evilest. Her eyes pulsed a little bit. “I’m your worst nightmare, kid. I’m pissed and I’m hungry. Give me a reason to eat you, please.”

He didn’t seem fazed in the slightest by Neko’s reference to eating him. He simply stared, sizing her up as if wondering how best to kill her.

Neko lifted her keyblade and pointed it at him. “If you’re making these heartless attack innocent people, then I have to stop you!”

The black-haired boy raised his eyebrow. “With that? It’s a giant pair of scissors.”

Neko felt like a blood vessel was about to pop. “A giant pair of scissors that’ll be rammed so far up your a** that you’ll be able to cut paper just by swallowing!!”

Probably one of her best threats to date, she thought to herself, smiling a little.

There was a quiet moment.

He vanished.

Neko sensed his motion and back-flipped as he attempted to strike her from behind. She landed behind him and slashed, but he whipped around and caught the shaft of her blade. He shot forward and jammed her elbow into he stomach. She stumbled backwards, more alarmed and winded than injured, but it left her open.

A sword shot from nowhere. Like a fish, the blade shot forward and slashed through her arm. She hissed in pain, slamming her hand to the deep gash. Blood dripped out, fell to the pavement, and sizzled angrily in the sunlight.

The vampiress took a few steps back as her shoulder briefly dissolved into smoke before reconstituting himself into a completely whole arm again. “Hokay. You’re good. I’ll give you that.” She jerked back and waved her blade in a circle like a pirate she had seen in a movie once, holding two fingers in a claw-like position. “Wanna mess with me? Let’s dance, baby.”

“You’re irksome,” the black-haired man snarled, moving his katana so he was in a fighting stance.

“Takes one to know one, you… you…” she groped for an appropriate insult. “Thing.” Oh, well. She’d exhausted her good ones so far.

“I’m wounded,” he snorted sarcastically.

They charged for each other. Their blades clashed, a fact that the man seemed somewhat confused by.

However, it didn’t last for long. They fenced faster than most people’s eyes could see, attacking, switching places, ducking, spinning. His attacks were as accurate and as potentially deadly as a laser shot, hers wide, powerful, sweeping, and easily able to devastate anything in their wakes.

No ground was gained or lost on either side, neither party was giving way.

Something happened.

His eyes turned red. Extra black dots appeared around his pupils, creating a strange spiral pattern. There was a force like an explosion and Neko was blown back wards. She dug a hole at least half a foot deep digging her feet in to stop herself from hitting the wall behind her.

“I grow tired of this,” he snarled. He put his katana away and made a few symbols with his hands. He spread his feet apart and grabbed his right wrist with his left.

A white light began to gather in his hand. A strange sound also began to gather, quiet at first, but grew louder as the light grew brighter and his hand actually literally began to spark.

It sounded like a hundred birds singing.

“CHIDORI!!” he shouted, and he charged forward straight at her.

“Neko!!” The shout came from around the corner. She blinked.

The boy had vanished into thin air.

“Wha?” She looked around, blinking wildly, expecting him to jump from a bush.

Mia stumbled around the corner, panting. “Thought you’d died…” she gasped, nearly falling over. “Went poof… Wha hoppen?”

Neko blinked. “There was a guy controlling the Heartless. He just went POOF! Like what Magical Trevor does to cows, you know?”

“Magical who…?”

“God, whatever world you came from is pathetic. Doesn’t even have Magical Trevor. You’re pathetic, too, you know that?”

“I know,” Mia admitted, hanging her head with a nervous laugh.

Neko bent over. “Come on. We may as well catch up the quick way.”

Mia blinked.

“I’m giving you a piggy-back ride, stupid, enjoy it while it lasts.”