Masters of the Flame
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to the sound of a rhythmic beeping noise, only to snap them shut as the light was a bit too bright for her at the moment. Slowly reopening them as to allow them to adjust to the light, the cyan Pegasus glanced at her surroundings, finding herself to be in a hospital room. She then became aware of the sounds of hushed voices coming from close by. Turning her head to face the group of voices, she set her gaze upon her friends.
"Hey guys." She said, her voice weak and a bit hoarse. The group immediately turned their attention on to her.
"Rainbow, you're awake." Said Twilight, relief flooding her voice. The five ponies rushed to her, spilling out the customary questions of how she was feeling and if anything still hurt. After answering them and getting some water down her throat, she began asking the other ponies some questions of her own. After they had been answered, she asked the one question nopony wanted answered.
"So guys, what's the damage?" At this, everypony went silent. "Guys, say something. How bad is it?" Twilight was biting at her lower lip, Applejack had her eyes glued to the ground, Fluttershy was barely holding back tears, Rarity was shuffling nervously while looking away, but it was Pinkie's look that scared Rainbow the most. Pinkie Pie's normally curly hair was falling flat, and her entire body seemed to be a few shades darker. She was giving Rainbow a sorrowful look that was only adding ice to the pit of dread in the pegasus' stomach. "Girls, you're scaring me. P-please tell me how bad it is." Rainbow however, knew the answer, but she was still desperately trying to cling to any scrap of hope she could. Finally, Twilight spoke.
"You're going to be alright, Rainbow, mostly that is. Your back is going to have some scars, but your wings, they...they... I'm so sorry, Rainbow." And with that, everything, every dream, every ambition, everything seemed to shatter before Rainbow Dash's eyes.
'My wings are gone.' Every dream and fantasy of joining and flying alongside the Wonderbolts shattered like china hitting the floor.
'My wings are gone.' Her training had become meaningless. All her tricks and stunts were now utterly worthless. All her work and effort into making her dreams reality crumbled to dust.
'My wings are gone.' Her job as a weather pony. Her house in the clouds, the very sky itself was forever taken from her. Never would she feel the wind through her mane as she blazed through the skies. Never again would she feel the softness of the clouds as she slept. Never again would her body feel the speed and rush it constantly craved.
'My wings are gone.' She turned her neck to look at her right wing, and saw that while it was still attached to her body, it was tightly wrapped in bandages. The worst part was, she couldn't feel any pain from the burns.
"Why am I not feeling any pain?" She asked, her voice quivering.
"You're on some strong painkillers. It seems you managed to sleep through the usual side effects of dizziness and delirium, which is why you're coherent right now." Secretly, this relieved Rainbow, she had been scared her burns were bad enough to destroy her sense of touch in those areas.
"I-is there any way to fix them?" At this question, Twilight lowered her gaze.
"No. The burns have destroyed your wings to the point where they'll never regrow their feathers. I'm sorry, Rainbow, I'm so so sorry. This was all my fault. If I had done better I could have convinced that dragon to leave, I'm a horrible friend."
"No you are not, my faithful student." Everypony gasped and looked to the doorway to see princess Celestia walk into the room, both Naruto and Sasuke following behind her.
"But it is my fault. I was in charge of the group, and my failure at diplomacy cost Rainbow Dash her wings." Said Twilight, unable to look at her mentor in self shame.
"No Twilight, the blame for this falls squarely on my own shoulders. I put you into a situation you were not prepared for."
"Can you fix Rainbow Dash's wings?" Twilight asked her teacher, hoping that the sun goddess would be able to do something to help her friend.
"Though at the moment I cannot, Twilight, I will do all in my power to find a way. At this point in time however, I can do no better than the doctors here."
"There's still a chance right?"
"Yes, though I can make no promises, my faithful student." Celestia then approached Rainbow Dash. "I will not ask for forgiveness Rainbow Dash, for I deserve none of it. My decision cost you too much for simple words to even begin to repair. Know however, that I will do everything I can to find a way to return your wings to you, even if I have to give up my own to do so." Then she turned to Naruto and Sasuke. "I owe you two an apology. You were right and like the foal I was today I heedlessly ignored your input. I could have listened to your suggestions, but I had assumed your plans were to use conflict over diplomacy to get the dragon to leave. You were right Sasuke, I didn't trust you two, and I'm truly sorry." With that, Celestia bowed low to the two humans.
"While I accept your apology princess, words aren't going to fix Dash's wings." Said Naruto as he turned and headed out of the room. "I'll come back to visit later Dashie." He said just as he left the room. Celestia for her part could not help but wince. she could tell that Naruto's formality with her had meant she had lost respect in his eyes, and it hurt her more than a physical blow.
"I forgive you as well. The consequences of your decisions that you now have to face are penance enough." Said Sasuke, and left the room as well. Celestia rose from her position after Sasuke left, seeing that that was the best she was going to get from the two, and headed out the door.
"Do you think she'll find something? She didn't sound all that confident." Asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight bit her lower lip in thought.
"I'm not sure Rainbow, but if anypony can do it, it's Princess Celestia." Replied Twilight. Soon, everypony began to leave, being unable to stay as they had family and things to take care of. Fluttershy was the last to leave, and before leaving, she embraced Rainbow's prone form.
"I'm sorry." Was all she said, and rushed out the door, sobbing all the way. After everything was silent, only when she thought she was alone did Rainbow Dash cry, and cry hard.
Two days. Two days had passed since the dragon event, and not one of Rainbow Dash's friends were doing well. Twilight was tearing her library apart, hunting down anything, any measly scrap of information, even if it was just rumour or conjecture, anything at all that could help Rainbow Dash. Spike was being constantly cooped up in the library for several reasons, Firstly, he was helping Naruto take care of the unicorn as she worked herself ragged, and secondly, since Spike was the catalyst for messages between Twilight and Celestia, he was not to go anywhere in case the solar princess found anything regarding treatment for Rainbow and sent her findings via letter.
Applejack could barely focus on her work on the farm. She could barely buck all the apples off their trees, and could barely focus when hauling them away. More than once she had been too deep in thought to mind her surroundings, and painfully collided with something, or had misjudged her bucks and injured her legs. Rarity could hardly work at all. She was too deep in worry for her friend to find any sort of inspiration or even motivation for her work, the cut the dragon had given her was healing well, and would not leave a scar, and she hated it with all her heart. If she could, she'd trade places with Rainbow any day, as those burns wouldn't have crippled her, and the measly cut on her side wouldn't have stopped Rainbow Dash in the slightest.
Pinkie Pie had lost much of her bubbly cheerfulness. She still smiled, though they were small things, unlike the ear to ear grins she usually wore. She still laughed, though they were quiet giggles that ended in forlorn sighs. The biggest thing though was that in her current state, Sugar Cube Corner lost it's cheerfulness. She couldn't make the customers smile, and the general atmosphere of the bakery had darkened. Fluttershy however, was the worst of the five. She had locked herself in her cottage and had only come out to feed and care for her animals. Nopony had seen fur nor mane of Fluttershy in town at all, and those who had passed by her cottage and had seen her out and about with her animals had noticed her eyes were puffy and tear stained. Naruto was doing everything he could to help his friends out, whether it be helping out Spike in cleaning the library and getting Twilight to eat something, helping out in any way he could at Sweet Apple Acres, and helping Pinkie out with her baking. Sasuke was helping Rarity at the Boutique, cleaning the place and helping keep Sweetie Belle entertained and out of trouble. The two humans however, were avoiding going back to see Rainbow Dash.
It wasn't that Naruto didn't care, he cared a great deal, he just had no idea what he could do for her. He couldn't just go in, say hi, and let loose some speech about not giving up like he usually does in these situations. Naruto wouldn't deny he was an idiot at times, but even he knew that this wasn't something Dashie could just get up and brush herself off from. Naruto knew that without wings, she'd never fly again, and flight was mandatory to achieve her life's dream. He also couldn't just go in and tell her that the princess would pull through for her and find something, Celestia had not sounded sure that she'd find anything at all. He didn't want to build up false hope for Dashie, only to have it all torn down around her. Such a thing would crush her. Naruto knew he couldn't do anything to help her either, and that infuriated him more than anything else. Friends mattered deeply to him, and the fact that there was nothing he could do to help Rainbow recover from this hurt, a lot. Kurama's chakra was a powerful healing force, but it couldn't reverse the damage done by the flames. She'd still bear the scars of her burns, and her wings would still be ruined. Currently, the blonde was heading over to Fluttershy's, having gotten wind of her current state. Walking across the bridge running over the creek outside the cottage, Naruto soon came to the front door of the pegasus' cottage. Three knocks later and the door was soon answered by Fluttershy's pet bunny Angel.
"Hey Angel, how's Fluttershy doing?" A loud wail followed by muffled sobs coming from upstairs was his answer. "That bad, huh?" The rabbit just gave a deadpan stare, causing Naruto to sigh. "Look, I'm no good with these kinds of situations so I'm just going to be straight up with you. I can tell that Fluttershy needs a friend right now, and unfortunately everypony else is beating themselves up over Dashie, Fluttershy included. So since I'm the only one who can or will right now, I'm gonna go cheer her up. You gonna stop me?" Angel stared up at Naruto for a bit, wearing his usual stern face, then opened the door wide and beckoned Naruto in. Naruto took his sandals off when he entered and headed upstairs, following the sound of Fluttershy's crying. Upon coming to her bedroom door, Naruto sighed and went completely still, pulling the energy of nature into himself.
Fluttershy curled herself up on her bed, sobs escaping her throat, and shudders wracking her form. It was all her fault, Twilight had a plan, and she ruined it because she was afraid, and now because of her cowardice, Rainbow Dash was in the hospital and would probably never fly again. Twilight had said that she was a horrible friend, but she was wrong, Fluttershy knew that she was the horrible friend in their group. What kind of friend runs and hides when her other friends needed her? What kind of friend only acts when her best friend gets crippled for life? Fluttershy was broken from her train of thought when she heard her door open, and felt a familiar wave of comfort wash over her, though she completely fought it off. She didn't have to look behind her to know who was entering her room.
"Go away, Naruto." She said, and heard him sigh.
"No. You're a complete mess, Fluttershy, you need a friend right now." He answered.
"I don't deserve a friend, Naruto. It's my fault Rainbow Dash will never fly again. If I hadn't been such a coward, my best friend would still have her wings, but instead I had to be the frightened little filly I always am, and look what happened." Fluttershy buried her face into her pillow, crying into it. She flinched when she felt Naruto's fingers begin running through her mane.
"Fluttershy, everyone deserves to have a friend, no matter who or what it is. So you made a mistake, so what. Everyone screws up at some point. You have to stop crying about it, and instead learn from your mistakes." Naruto then began to rub behind Fluttershy's ear, causing her to lean into his hand as he did so.
"Yes, but my mistakes got Rainbow Dash crippled, Naruto. She'll never fly again now, and it's all because I'm a worthless coward who's scared of her own shadow." Fluttershy then brought her face out from her pillow. "Everypony was right about me, I was just a hindrance."
"That's not true, Fluttershy." Said Naruto, sitting down on the bed, beside the pegasus' prone form. "Just because you made a mistake, just because you let your fear get the best of you, does not mean you're a hindrance, nor does it make you worthless. I don't care what anypony else says, you are not worthless, and you are most certainly not a coward." Fluttershy turned her head to gaze at Naruto.
"How so? If I remember correctly I just hid the whole time, doing nothing while my friends tried and failed to get that dragon to leave."
"Oh? Then who was the pegasus that charged at that dragon, fully intending to give him a piece of her mind. Couldn't have been you, you're a coward, and a coward always runs away when things get dangerous." Fluttershy looked away in mild embarrassment.
"Well, yes, I did charge out like that. It's just, he hurt Rainbow, and when I saw that, I didn't want him to hurt anymore of my friends. It doesn't matter anyway, I still had to be saved in the end." At this, Naruto smiled.
"So? The fact is, you still were willing to fight for your friends, and that makes you no coward." A few more tears fell from Fluttershy's eyes.
"It doesn't change the fact that I'm worthless, Naruto. It took my friends getting hurt for me to do something. I couldn't even go up the mountain, you had to carry me all the way up, and all the way to the mountain to begin with. Only somepony as weak and worthless as me would need to be carried." Naruto responded by picking her up, and hugging her.
"That doesn't make you worthless, Fluttershy. You just needed some help, and I was more than happy to help you. You were scared, so I did what I could to make you feel better. That's what friends are for. When you're scared or alone, your friends are supposed to have your back and support you, because they know you will do the same for them. Just because you needed help from your friends, makes you in no way worthless." Slowly returning Naruto's hug, Fluttershy held herself closer to Naruto, crying into his shoulder. When her crying finally stopped, she brought her soft teal eyes to face Naruto's flaming gold eyes, eyes that looked like they belonged to a dragon. Those eyes however, did not pierce her very being with terror, these eyes banished all her fears and sorrows. Soon she felt the comfort of Naruto's presence begin to ensnare her, and this time she didn't fight it.
"Thank you Naruto, but still, it's all my fault. I got Rainbow Dash crippled. It still doesn't change the fact that even should I learn from this, it still won't give her wings back." Naruto sighed at that.
"I know, but you can learn from your mistakes so that something like this never happens on your watch again." Fluttershy cast her gaze downwards in shame.
"How can I? I'm not strong like everypony else, and I'm not much of a fighter. How can I protect my friends if I'm so weak?"
"You just have to protect them with everything you have. A friend of mine once told me this, a person, or in your case pony, is only truly strong when they fight to protect those precious to them. If your friends are precious to you, then fighting for them will give you the strength to protect them." Fluttershy thought about it, and slowly a smile crept over her lips.
"I think I get it. Thank you, Naruto, for helping me through this." She said, and began to let herself slip into the comforting presence of Naruto's sage mode.
"Your welcome, Fluttershy." Answered Naruto, and began stroking Fluttershy's mane once more, eliciting a pleased hum from the pegasus. The two stayed like this until Naruto's sage mode deactivated. Fluttershy then had her head gently lifted by Naruto's hands so that their eyes were once again meeting, and with his thumbs, he gently wiped away the last bit of moisture from around her eyes.
"Yup, just as I thought, you're much prettier when you're not crying." He said with a grin, causing Fluttershy to blush.
"I-I'm not that pretty." She said, averting her gaze in embarrassment. Naruto squinted his eyes, focusing on the pegasus.
"Hmm, while I do admit you're more cute than pretty, you're still very pretty, Fluttershy." This just caused Fluttershy's blush to intensify. Soon, Naruto released her head, and got up off the bed. "Now then, how 'bout I make us something to eat. You got everything for ramen?" Getting her blush and embarrassment under control, Fluttershy smiled.
"I'd like that, and yes I do. I wanted to try making it for myself." Naruto smiled at this.
"Well then, you just sit back and relax, Fluttershy. Naruto Uzumaki makes the best ramen in all of Equestria."
"You're the only one who makes ramen in Equestria." Remarked Fluttershy, causing Naruto to laugh, and herself to giggle.
Sasuke sighed as he was heading to the one place he didn't want to go to, the hospital. He most definitely did not want to visit Rainbow Dash, but the wary looks he was always getting from the other mares was driving him up the wall. It wasn't that he hated Rainbow Dash, far from it. Rainbow Dash was one of the three ponies out of the six he knew that he'd definitely call friend, the other two being Applejack and Twilight. The problem was he had no idea what he could say to lift Rainbow Dash's spirits without building false hope. What could he even say to make her feel better.
'What am I going to say? Hello Rainbow, sorry about your wings, wish I knew what it was like to be crippled so I could relate. Yeah, that would go over so well.'
Sasuke could see that Rainbow Dash valued her wings on the same level he valued his Sharingan. Granted, there was a time when he had been going blind, but that was fixed when he transplanted Itachi's eyes into his own sockets. Rainbow Dash didn't have a sure fire way to get her wings back. Well, that wasn't exactly true, there was one jutsu he knew that could help, but he had nearly forgotten it. He had only seen it when he was a kid, and that had been a long time ago. With another sigh, Sasuke banished that train of thought, and soon was entering the hospital. After checking in with the front desk, Sasuke headed to Rainbow Dash's room. When he got there, the first thing he noticed was that Rainbow Dash was asleep. The second thing was that he wasn't the only one deciding to visit the cyan pegesus. Sitting beside her bed was a burnt orange pegasus filly with a fuchsia mane, and amethyst eyes, who Sasuke remembered was Sweetie Belle's friend Scootaloo.
"And why are you here and not in school?" Sasuke asked the filly, causing her to jump in surprise.
"I, uh, um, I... Please don't tell Miss Cheerilee." Scootaloo stuttered.
"You still didn't answer my question." Replied Sasuke, who moved over to a free chair and sat down. "She your sister or something?" That caused Scootaloo to smile a bit.
"No, though that would be awesome. She's my idol. When I heard she was in the hospital from Sweetie Belle, I had to come see her. What happened to her, the doctors won't tell me anything." Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose, this was a question he did not want to answer.
"She and her friends, along with myself and Naruto, were tasked by Princess Celestia to get rid of that dragon two days ago. Long story short, Rainbow here was struck by dragon fire and we were unable to stop it. Naruto had his hands full with Rarity, and I was bowled over by Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Her wings were burned to the point where she'll never fly again." Scootaloo had a look of devastation on her face at the news.
"Is there anything the doctors can do?" She asked, and Sasuke shook his head.
"No. All they can do is make sure the burns heal properly." At this, Scootaloo began to cry. There were no loud wails, only quiet sniffles and sobs, but there were more tears than such whimpers had any right of producing, and Sasuke couldn't help but remember the day when he had cried like that. The day he had learned the truth of his clan's massacre.
"Is th-there an-anyth-thing an-anypony c-can do?" Scootaloo stuttered out between sobs. Sasuke had to look away from the crying filly, seeing her in such a state was bringing back painful memories.
"The princess is looking, but to be honest, I doubt anything will be found. In my experience, if something that could help existed, everyone would know about it." The orange filly stopped her sobs, but the tears still flowed from her eyes.
"What about you? You and Naruto have magic, right? Don't you guys have some kind of spell that can help her?" Scootaloo's question felt like a blade ramming itself through Sasuke's chest.
"No, we don't." And the lie he told felt even worse. Sasuke could take no more, and rose from his seat to leave. On the way out, he suddenly felt a weight on his leg, and upon looking, saw it was Scootaloo clutching herself tightly to it.
"Please mister human, if you do find a way, you'll help Rainbow Dash, right?"
"Yes." Sasuke heard someone say, and with a start, realized it was him. Scootaloo clutched his leg tighter in a hug, then let go.
"You know, Rainbow Dash is lucky to be friends with a human, you're pretty awesome." With that, Scootaloo left the room leaving Sasuke alone in the doorway.
'Am I really?' He thought to himself. Leaving the room, and closing the door behind him, Sasuke left the hospital and headed to the Boutique to clear his head. The trip back was uneventful, and as soon as he was in his room, Sasuke sat down on his bed, thinking about the events that had transpired earlier. Sasuke knew he could easily remember the jutsu, but doing so would force him to remember the one member of his family he missed the most, his mother. It was a pain that he wished to avoid at all costs, as he had never gotten over his clan's massacre, despite the reasons that made it necessary. However, could he really let a friend be crippled to avoid the pain of his past? The dark part of him wanted to leave Rainbow Dash crippled as to spite Celestia, but that desire was adamantly crushed. Soon, Sasuke realized the right thing to do was to face what he feared, and remember the jutsu. However, the fear of the pain said memory would bring was holding him back. Soon though, his thrice damned conscience won out, and Sasuke prepared himself to face something that he had been burying for most of his life..
Sasuke heard the door of his family's home slide open, and upon looking down the hall, confirmed his suspicions of who it was.
"Big brother!" He shouted in excitement as he ran up to Itachi, impacting into his older brother with a tackling hug. "Your back early. How did the mission go? Did you beat any bandits? Did you get any new jutsu?" On and on the questions poured from Sasuke's mouth, not giving Itachi any form of reprieve to answer them.
"Sasuke, that's enough. Your brother is probably tired from his mission." Said the two brothers' mother Mikoto as she came out from the kitchen.
"Mother's right, Sasuke, I am a bit tired from my mission. I'll tell you all about it at dinner though." Said Itachi in his usual calm voice.
"Aww." whined the young Uchiha, but eventually relented, and released his older brother from his hug. After Itachi had retired to his room, Sasuke was sitting on the couch with a despondant look on his face.
"Sasuke, whatever is the matter dear?" Mikoto asked, concerned by her son's mood.
"I want to be strong, strong like big brother, but I can barely do a fireball jutsu. I want to learn something that Itachi , no, the entire clan doesn't know. Maybe then big brother will notice me more." At this, Mikoto paused, then a small smile crept onto her lips.
"Well Sasuke, what if I told you there was a jutsu I know that no one else in the clan can do?" At this, Sasuke's eyes and expression brightened.
"You do? Teach me, mom, teach me." Mikoto giggled a bit at her youngest son's behavior.
"All right Sasuke, come with me. It's in the clan's jutsu vault so we'll have to go there."
"But mom, you said nobody else knows the jutsu. If it's in the clan jutsu vault, shouldn't that mean that everyone in the clan knows about it." Mikoto just smiled.
"Precisely Sasuke. A lot of clan members know about the jutsu, but none of them know how to perform the jutsu, not for a lack of trying though. No one's been able to figure it out, thus, no one knows how to do it. Even Itachi tried learning it, but even he couldn't figure it out." Sasuke's eyes widened at this. A jutsu that even Itachi was unable to learn? The prospect of learning such a jutsu both excited, and scared him.
"Mom, just what is this jutsu?" Sasuke asked, and Mikoto smiled.
"A good question Sasuke. The answer is that the jutsu is a medical ninjutsu that can heal any and all burns, no matter how damaging or debilitating." Sasuke visibly balked at this.
"A healing jutsu? But mo~om, I wanted to learn something like an awesome fire jutsu, not a healing jutsu." The little boy whined. Mikoto's smile never left her face.
"Oh come now, Sasuke, medical ninjutsu are highly valued, because not everyone can learn them. And this one is something that many medical shinobi would kill to get their hands on. Burns are a very common debilitating injury, Sasuke, and while normal medics can usually heal most burns, some are so bad they can't do anything. That's where this jutsu shines, for no matter how bad the burn, no matter how ravaged the body, this jutsu can heal it like it had never happened to begin with." Soon the pair reached the Uchiha clan's jutsu vault, a small, non descript looking building. Mikoto put her hand on the door, and instantly several dozen seals flared to life, glowing a faint blue, then returning to black before fading. The sliding door then moved aside on its own, and Mikoto beckoned her son inside. The interior of the vault was filled with shelves of jutsu scrolls and precious clan history. Mikoto navigated through the labyrinth of shelves, and soon found what she was looking for.
"Aha, here we are." She said, and pulled a small scroll off the shelf. Upon receiving the scroll, Sasuke opened it to see something he wasn't expecting.
Understand the body, burned by fire's wrath,
a basic skill of the healer's path.
When what is thought as different, turns out to be the same,
ignite it into a healing flame.
Those four lines Had Sasuke completely stumped. Where were the hand seals, the instructions, the diagrams?
"What's this? I thought this was supposed to be a jutsu not a riddle." He said, causing Mikoto to giggle.
"The riddle is the jutsu, Sasuke. It requires no hand seals, and all you need to do is understand the riddle to be able to perform it." Replied Mikoto. With a huff, Sasuke began puzzling over the riddle, but he couldn't make any sense of it. With a frustrated sigh, the young Uchiha rolled the scroll up and handed it back to his mother.
"I'm completely stumped, mom." He said, slight shame colouring his tone. Putting the scroll back on the shelf, Mikoto knelt down and embraced her youngest son.
"Now now, Sasuke, there's no reason to be upset about it. There's no shame in admitting there's something you cannot do. The jutsu isn't going anywhere, so take all the time you need. Besides, you don't need to learn this or any unique jutsu to get noticed. You're Itachi's little brother, and although he doesn't say it, you are his entire world. There is nothing he loves more than you." She said, as mother and son shared a comforting hug.
Sasuke was snapped back into reality when he felt a pair of forelegs wrap around him in a hug, opening his eyes, his vision was obscured by alabaster white fur. Immediately he noticed the moisture around his eyes, and realized he had been crying.
"Are you alright, darling?" Rarity asked, worry evident in her tone. She had walked by Sasuke's room, and had noticed him crying when she looked through the partly open doorway. Sasuke trembled, every fiber of his being demanding him to shove the unicorn off of him. He was an Uchiha, his pride demanded he not be seen as weak.
Well to hell with pride.
Wrapping his arms around Rarity, he pulled her closer and continued to cry. It felt like someone was stabbing at his heart repeatedly with a white hot blade. All the while, Rarity continued to hold and comfort him. Admittedly, she was a bit unnerved to see Sasuke so... vulnerable for lack of a better term. He had always carried himself with confidence, and a fieriness that bordered on anger. To see him crying like this unsettled the unicorn mare greatly. She and her other four friends had been distancing themselves from Sasuke after what he had done to the dragon, but looking at him now, Rarity felt like this was her fault. Had their fear of Sasuke hurt him this badly?
"Sasuke, I know my friends and I have been... keeping our distance from you, and I would like to say I'm sorry. I didn't realize how it was hurting you. I'm sorry we let our fear get the better of us." She said, only for Sasuke to stop her.
"No." He responded, his voice cracking slightly. "No, that's not the reason for this, though I'll admit it has been getting to me." Sasuke then paused, and began pulling himself together. After he was sufficiently calmed he continued, his voice a bit more level. "The reason for all that, was that I was just remembering something rather painful."
"Do you want to talk about it, Sasuke?" Asked the unicorn, deeply concerned for the human's wellbeing. If that memory was enough to bring Sasuke to tears, it must have been pretty bad. Sasuke however, shook his head in the negative.
"No. This is something that is not meant for you or anypony to hear." This answer scared Rarity slightly, and her mind was whirling to figure out what had Sasuke so distraught. "However," Sasuke began, releasing Rarity from his embrace, and shifting to get off the bed, causing Rarity to let go of him as well. "some good news came of this. I know a way to help Rainbow Dash." At this, Rarity went silent, her jaw unhinged and eyes wide.
"Y-you can? You honest to Celestia can?" She managed to stutter out. Sasuke nodded.
"Yes, though there's a problem. The jutsu we need is encoded in a riddle that we need to solve to figure out how it's performed. The first part is simple enough, but the second part is what's holding the secret, 'When what is thought as different turns out to be the same, ignite it into a healing flame.' If we can figure that part out, we can heal Rainbow Dash." At this, Rarity let out a happy squeal.
"This is wonderful news! We have to tell Twilight, no doubt she can figure it out.." She exclaimed.
"No, she can't help, not with this. This is something from my world, Rarity, and as such Twilight would know next to nothing about it." That caused the unicorn to cease her merriment.
"Curses, you're right." She said, her words accompanied by a very unladylike groan, but then perked up a bit. "Still, doesn't mean we can't tell her that we have something. You coming, darling?" At this, Sasuke shook his head.
"No, you go ahead. I'm going to try figuring this out." Rarity nodded, and headed for the Golden Oaks Library Twilight was going to love the news she was bringing.
Princess Celestia snarled as she threw another useless book across the room. She had torn through every book she could find containing healing magic, but nothing she found could heal the damage of Rainbow Dash's wings.
"This wasn't supposed to happen." She snarled to herself, her frustration over recent events coloring her mood. "This was not how I saw it go, why did it go this way?" As she pored through yet another medical book, Celestia thought back to two days ago. When she had received word of the dragon, Celestia used a foresight spell to see the outcome of sending her faithful student to deal with the problem. She had seen the group fail for the most part, but when Fluttershy overcame her fear she was able to send the dragon away peacefully. Celestia decided to go ahead with the plan as it would be a good learning experience for both Twilight and Fluttershy. However, what had transpired that day was nothing like what had been foretold, and for the life of her, Celestia could not figure out why. The spell had been done perfectly, and had always been correct before, so why had it been wrong this time. With a frustrated growl, she cast the useless book away, and levitated another over. This hadn't been the first time she had seen such damage to a pony, but that had all been during the Discord war. This time, it felt like it was completely her fault. The sudden appearance of a letter pulled her from her thoughts.
'Has Twilight found something?' She asked herself, and unrolled the letter. Her eyes widened in astonishment as she read the letter. According to Rarity, Sasuke had claimed to have found something, but the problem lay in a riddle that needed to be solved in order to figure out the jutsu. Celestia could immediately see that she could not help with this, as the riddle most likely dealt with something from Sasuke's world. All she could do was keep going with her own search and hope that either Sasuke figured the riddle out, or she found something herself.
Sasuke sighed as he stared up at the starlit sky. He knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight; the memories of the past he had stirred up earlier in the day would haunt his dreams, and he didn't want to face the days when he had a happy loving family. Nightmares of his clan's death would be welcome; he'd had them so much that he was practically inured to them, but fat chance of that happening. He'd never had them since he forgave his brother. As if things weren't bad enough, he was still no closer to figuring out that damned riddle than when he started. On the plus side, Rarity's news of the jutsu had improved the mood of the other four ponies tremendously. With a huff of boredom, Sasuke continued wrestling with the riddle while his eyes bored into the dark sky above. Soon, though, boredom won out, and with a frustrated groan, the Uchiha sat up
" You know dobe, for someone trained by a spymaster, you suck at hiding." He said to a random bush beside the carousel wall. Naruto immediately poked his head out of the bush.
"How'd you know I was here?" He asked.
"Aside from the fact that you are the only other one here with chakra, you're a heavy breather." The Uchiha replied, causing Naruto to facefault. Soon the blonde had joined Sasuke on the roof of the boutique, and both were staring up at the endless expanse of stars above them.
"So, Sasuke, Sparkles heard from Rares who heard from you that you got a jutsu that can heal Dashie, that true?"
"Partly. I have the instructions for the jutsu. I just can't figure it out." He then told Naruto the riddle, and the two boys pondered it as hard as they could, or at least Sasuke was, despite being about to give up earlier. Naruto suddenly jolted out of his prone position, causing Sasuke to raise an eyebrow at his friend.
"Sorry Sasuke, Kurama was being difficult. He did say that the answer was something related to medical ninjutsu."
"Well that much is obvious, dobe."
"Anyway, I have to go help Flutters with a bat problem. Good luck with that riddle." And with that, Naruto leaped off the boutique roof, and headed to Fluttershy's cottage, leaving Sasuke alone to puzzle out the riddle. Sasuke went through every memory he had that had a relevance to medical ninjutsu. Kabuto, Sakura, Karin, no matter how hard he thought, there was nothing. Oh sure there were the usual medicines for treating burns, but there were no specific jutsus. Furthermore, mediums were used in medical ninjutsu for extreme injuries, but only for things like deep lacerations and punctures, not burns.
"Dammit," Sasuke swore to himself, "now I get why no one learned this jutsu. The riddle's so damn vague. Why can't it be a regular jutsu scroll where everything's labeled in order." Then it hit him like an anvil, That riddle was a jutsu, thus it still had to follow scroll structure, as the system had been around well before Madara. Jumping off the roof and onto the balcony by his room, Sasuke clambered through the window and hunted down quill and parchment. Upon finding the necessary items, Sasuke begsn to write.
"Jutsu name: Nameless, Rank: Unknown, Prerequisites: Anatomic knowledge, Handsigns: none, Affinity: Healing, Function: Heals any and all burns regardless of severity. If this jutsu required mediums it would be listed in prerequisites, but all I need is knowledge of pegasi anatomy. As vague as it is, the riddle would still have to make mention of any prerequisites, meaning this jutsu requires no mediums. This means the second part of the riddle is referencing one of two things, handsigns, or chakra, and this jutsu doesn't need handsigns. So healing chakra is what is being referenced, meaning that it is still fundamentally the same as neutral chakra, which means..." Focusing his chakra, Sasuke flipped through four handsigns, and his hands glowed with the light of healing chakra,
"Heh, who'd have thought stealing from Kabuto would prove so helpful." Sasuke said to himself, then refocused on the task at hand. Still maintaining the healing chakra, Sasuke began to add his fire element to it. The process was extremely difficult, with many failed tries, but finally, Sasuke's hands were cloaked in writhing teal flames. Nodding at his success, Sasuke kept practicing, and soon he was able to decently control the jutsu. "It'll have to do." He said, and immediately headed for his room, all the thinking he had done, and the chakra he'd expended had left him exhausted.
With a groan, Twilight dragged herself out of bed, and down the steps to the library. Morning was just reaching Ponyville, but nopony would begin to wake up until another hour.
"Sparkles, get back to bed. You are not opening one book for an entire day, you hear me." Unfortunately for her, Naruto was not a pony.
"But Naruto, I need to re-check the material. I could have missed something." She responded tiredly, punctuating her statement with a yawn.
"You've looked through everything in this library related to medicine six times now. If you've missed something, it's because you're too tired to catch it. Back to bed."
"I can't stop, not when Rainbow needs us the most right now."
"Dammit girl, you're doing more harm than good pushing yourself like this. You can't help dashie if you're dead on your hooves." The two continued to argue, but were soon interrupted by a banging on the door.
"What the? Who'd be here at this hour?" Asked Twilight. The pounding returned, louder this time. "We're closed, come back later." She shouted out the door. In response, the door was suddenly blasted apart by a beam of electricity.
"Well that's just too bad." Said Sasuke as he strode inside. "Now Twilight, instead of letting your jaw hang like a swing set, make yourself useful and get me every book you have on pegasi anatomy. I have some wings to restore."
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Jesus, has it really been nearly 2 months since your last update? Wow, last time I read a chapter of this, I was connected to a very crappy Wi-Fi connection in my English class.
Yay! Your back.
It´s great that you´re back!
I can´t wait for the next chapter.
Wonderful to know that this story is not dead!
2956580 now update again ye cliffhangin basturd
2955861
I know that feel bro.
2957136Crappy Wi-Fi connection, English class, or both?
IT'S ALIVE!
2957145
Both
Why do I feel that after Sasuke learns pegasi anatomy that he would first practice the jutsu on scoots seeing that she can't fly and when that is successful he goes to the hospital to do it to help rainbow get back on her wings and then sends a letter to celestia about it making celestia completely baffled at this kind of magic feat that nopony can do
when is the next chapter coming out?
Wow, wouldn't it be awesome if Dash's Wings would leave a fiery trail after they are healed? Wouldn't surprise me seeing as that Equestrians have no chakra and their inherited magic would surely react Tor Sasuke's healing flame.
2958415 Problem with that. The jutsu's designed to heal burns, thus it wouldn't do anything to Scootaloo.
I was honestly expecting Izanagi and Sasuke sacrificing one of his sharingan since he dosn't have both Senju and Uchiha DNA. Instead, random healing jutsu no jutsu!
Cool chapter :D
also, fak u cliffhanger.
2958510 lol i've only noticed it recently, but some people capitalize words that when placed in the grammatical order that they are should not be capitalized. It's hilarious(not really :/ ).
What I'm saying is that the 'wings' in your comment should not have a capital w, and the tor - which by the way probably should be to - should not either.
Also, while there is nothing wrong with how you spelled it, instead of inherited it should be inherent.
Two totally different things.
OMG IM SO SORRY FOR GOING GRAMMAR NAZI ON YOU HERE HAVE A HUG >( ^.^)> AND A BROHOOF /)
sorry dude, I just can't stop myself sometimes...
I knew it! Rainbow dash x sasuke!
naruto x flutters?
Would she really choose to trust in the foresight spell again after what happened to RD? My brain says no, what about yours?
it lives!! :D I've been waiting anxiously for this update :3
huh well then sasuke Get to it! And celestia is gunna have a lot on her plate if her visions of "canon" is all shes gonna see in her divination spells >w>
Eager for more.
I wonder how swarm of the century will go, Meat eating parasprite's? But I just can't wait to see how bridle gossip goes especially since Naruto know what its like to be an outcast and it would be funny to read what poison joke does to Naruto and Sasuke.
I must say the wait was worth it.
Good chapter with believable placed insight of their allover states.
I hope you had a good time whilst being cut off the internet.
Awaiting the next chapter.
Dragon
The only thing I can think of healing that's related to flames, is cauterizing.
*reads rest of chapter*
Hm, healing chakra infused with the fire element. I'd still try this on myself before anyone else.
Knife? *grabs knife* Knife. *pauses before cutting self* Wait, I don't know how to use chakra. *puts knife away*
Glad too see this isn't another Friendship Contract situation...
awesome
You know. The girls have gotten more of sasuke that eveyone else. Still since this was before the ending well you can guess. Stiil i dont know when you posted the last chapters and follow upt till Sasuke and Naruto's final clash.
Also Naruto and Sasuke are able to do Summons?
Finally the scenes with Naruto and Sasuke with Fluttershy and Rarity were really touching