//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Lost Soul of The Uchiha // by BronyOfSteel //------------------------------// "Wow you sure are a scary guy Mr. Uchiha!" said Pinkie Pie giggling as she continued to bounce around the ninja. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone faint from just looking at somepony!" After the introductions between Itachi and Pinkie Pie were finished, the trio had set off into town. The looks the group were getting as they proceeded through Ponyville weren't helping Itachi's mood and he admittedly might have been glaring with a bit too much intensity when the group stopped to say hi to Fluttershy. The young Pegasus had passed out on the spot when the first thing she saw after turning around to respond to Twilight's greeting was Itachi's gaze. "Well Pinkie Pie, I have had plenty of practice." He said chuckling darkly to himself. "Perhaps it'd be a good idea to deactivate my Sharingan." "Shari-what now? That sounds like something you'd get if you were sick." Twilight said looking up from Fluttershy whom she was currently trying to wake up. "You don't think my eyes look like this naturally, do you?" He said pointing to them as he deactivated his Sharingan. Twilight watched as the three marks around the pupil rotated as they faded along with the blood red coloring leaving Itachi's eyes with simple dark irises "S-so those are your normal eyes?" stammered out Twilight amazed at what she had just seen. Itachi nodded as he knelt down next to the unconscious pony "Yeah these are my natural eyes, but I usually just leave my Sharingan activated. This is Fluttershy right? One of the two you said found me and carried me back here?" He asked as he placed on hand on her forehead. "Yes, she and Rainbow Dash were the ones that found you." Ruined my well thought out plans for that day too.. "So wait, why'd you have your Sharingan activated?" "Besides to scare ponies? It allows me to see chakra and increases my perception, I was checking to see if I was under some sort of illusion earlier guess I just forgot to deactivate them." He said as his hand began to glow with green energy. Itachi had never been very good with medical ninjutsu but he could at least bring someone back to consciousness by disturbing their chakra sufficiently. "Chakra?" "The mixture of physical and spiritual energy present in all living beings, you probably have a different word for it here." He answered as Fluttershy began to stir. "Twilight, I can see you have quite a lot of questions for me, but I'm not really in the mood to be answering them all at once. Considering I can't really think of a way to compensate you for letting me stay in your home, hows about you pick a time and we can sit down and I'll answer all your questions. Does that sound like fair payment to you?" "Sounds like a deal to me." Twilight said smiling; she was already beginning to formulate a list of questions for him. "Uhhhh what happened? I was buying some food for angel when I heard Twilight, so I turned around and…." Fluttershy said rubbing her head as she sat up, stopping suddenly as she opened her eyes and noticed Itachi kneeling next to her looking at her with concern. " Y-you're the one Rainbow Dash and I found on the road." "Yeah I am and I owe you two my life. Though I suppose scaring you half to death isn't the best way to show my gratitude." Itachi said smiling. "It's quite alright; I've never been the bravest of ponies. What's your name? We never did find out." "Itachi Uchiha. And if there's anything you or Rainbow Dash need please let me know, I pay my debts, especially ones of this magnitude. " He said, standing up from Fluttershy's side. "I'll remember that, thank you." She said, continuing to avoid Iatchi's gaze. "Oo! Oo! Fluttershy you should see who would win in a stare off! Your 'stare' against his Sharingan-thingie!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly continuing to bounce up and down. "Ohhh no I couldn't do that, you know that I can't control it. And I have no reason to use it on him." "Awww spoil sport!" Pinkie said, and finally stopped bouncing. "And besides Pinkie, I've seen both. If they went at it, we might be here for hours." Twilight said. "Probably, depends on which one of us would have to blink first." Itachi said looking around at all the ponies around the four who were still staring at them. "Twilight I think it'd be a good idea to hold off on that tour until later." Twilight looked around noticing the looks they were getting as well. "Agreed." "Well Twilight, it was nice to see you but I have to get back to Angel, he doesn't like it when I'm late with his lunch. Oh and Mr. Uchiha, it's good to see you're alright." Fluttershy said as she turned to leave. "OK bye then Fluttershy!" Twilight said as the Pegasus began to head off to her home, followed closely by Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie Pie where are you going?" "Oh I'm going to help Fluttershy with feeding her little friends! But don't worry I'll see you later at Mr. Uchiha's welcoming party!" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing off in the same direction as Fluttershy. "Wait, what? A Party? But I wasn't …. " Itachi's voice just trailed off as the pink pony just giggled and continued bouncing away. "Don't worry, nopony can understand her, you're not the first to be confused by Pinkie, I know I still am." Twilight said laughing slightly at the confused shinobi. The two then continued onwards to Rarity's where even outside they could hear somepony fussing over something or other. Twilight and Itachi shared a look as Twilight pushed open the door. "Hi there Rarity! Oh sorry are we interrupting you?" Standing in front of Itachi and Twilight was a white unicorn with her back turned towards them whose horn was glowing as she was finishing some stitches on a dress set on a pony shaped mannequin. "Oh no dear I'm just finishing up these last few details, I'll only be a minute. What is it you need?" Rarity asked as she continued working. "Oh well it's not for me it's for our new arrival here." "New arrival? You don't mean.." Rarity said as she turned around to face them finally and noticed Itachi. "You're the one Dash and Fluttershy found on the way into town right? My name's Rarity, it's a pleasure to meet you." "Itachi Uchiha, and likewise." He said inclining his head in greeting. "So what can I do for you Itachi?" "Well I'm in need of some replacement clothing for some that I lost earlier, and Twilight told me you were the best one to go to." "Well she's quite right, do you have anything in mind?" "Yes actually, do you have a pencil and paper? I can give you the design right now along with all the measurements if that'd be helpful." "Well of course that would, but surely you can't mean you plan on designing it all right now?" The look on Itachi's face told her otherwise. "Well then here you go." She said handing over a sketchpad and a pencil. "Let me know when you're finished or if you have any questions. In the meantime Twilight darling there's a few things I wanted to get your opinion on with regards to the Grand Galloping Gala…." The two ponies hadn't been speaking for more than a couple of minutes when Itachi was finished. As he handed over the sketch pad, Rarity's jaw almost dropped through the floor. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked. "No, no of course not, but you did ALL this in a couple of minutes?" Curious, Twilight looked over at the sketchbook, on the page was an incredibly detailed drawing of what seemed to be a large coat at three different angles, you could even see the individual stitches in the drawing. Also along the side were the colors he wanted and a list of the necessary materials and measurements out to 3 decimal points of exactness. "Yeah, sorry if it's a bit rough, the pencil tip broke off halfway through." Rarity just kept looking dumbstruck, then suddenly swept off to her shelves to see if she had the materials. As she was sifting through her inventory Twilight leaned over to Itachi and whispered "You did that on purpose didn't you?" "Perhaps. No one's ever accused me of not being thorough." He whispered back as a faint smile appeared on his lips. Twilight started smiling too as she noticed he had reactivated his Sharingan. "Well I have all the materials necessary for it but are you sure you want these colors? They just clash so much with the purple you're already wearing." Rarity said as she returned levitating the cloth she was going to work with over to a nearby table. "Yes I am sure, the colors are pretty important to me they were traditional wear for my clan." Itachi said. "Well if you say so, but before I get started could you come over here and tell me what you think about the stitching on this dress? You do seem to have a pretty good eye for design." Rarity asked, indicating the magenta dress she had been working on when Twilight and Itachi had entered the store. Twilight sighed as Itachi acquiesced to Rarity, going over and pointing out all the problems that still plagued her work. As she sighed she looked out the window and saw Spike sprinting up the road towards Rarity's looking distressed. Twilight stepped outside the shop as she yelled "Spike!" getting the young dragon's attention. Spike ran up out of breath "Twilight! I'm so glad I found you, is Rarity in there?" "She was last time I checked like 5 seconds ago. Why? What's wrong?" "Rainbow Dash said there's a manticore heading for Sweet Apple Acres, fast! And she needs your guys' help to stop it before it hurts somepony!" "Does Applejack know? She's got to get out of there!" "Yeah but you know how she is, she won't abandon her apple orchard." "Well then we've got to get going now!" Twilight said urgently turning to go back into Rarity's "I'm sorry Itachi but me and Rar- wait, Rarity where'd Itachi go?" "I don't know he was looking out the window at you and spike when he suddenly asked me where Sweet Apple Acres is, and once I told him, he said he had to leave and shot off." Oh boy... Twilight thought to herself getting the feeling that this just got a whole lot more complicated. Itachi jumped from roof to roof in Ponyville heading towards the Everfree forest, hoping to catch that manticore thing before it got to hurt anyone innocent. He normally wouldn't have gotten involved in such a thing, but he no longer had to keep up the facade of the dispassionate evil outcast he had worn for so many years. And besides Itachi thought to himself as he reached the edge of the town and bounded off into the trees of the forest I owe these ponies a great deal, it's the least I can do to try and repay them for the kindness and generosity they've shown me. "For the last time, Applebloom ya can't stay out here wit me and Big Macintosh, it's too dangerous!" Applejack said, exasperated, she was already high stung enough what with the huge vicious monster that was heading for her farm, and her little sister trying to help her and Big Mac fend it off wasn't helping. "But sis it's my home too! I wanna help!" Applebloom protested "No you're not and that's final, now get back to the barn before Ah' drag you up there myself." "It's too late!" Big Mac said looking over into the forest where the crashing of a large animal could be heard, and it was growing louder with every passing second. "Applebloom get behind us and stay low!" Applejack shouted as she and Big Mac got ready to fight whatever came out of there. Guess we'll have to do this without the others she thought to herself as the manticore burst out of the treeline. "Wait, whats that?" Big Mac asked. A lone figure had just flickered into existence between them and the manticore in the middle of the field separating the Everfree forest and Sweet Apple Acres, it made no movement to avoid the charging beast which suddenly stopped as it approached the figure, wary because the figure's sudden appearance, the beast wouldn't attack for now. "I know who that is! That's the one Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash found the other day! But what's he doing awake and more importantly what the hay is he doin' trying to take on that thing singlehandedly?" Applejack said. "I don't know sis but he better get out of there bef-" Before Big Mac could finish his sentence the maticore had struck out impaling the human in front of them through the torso with its tail. "No..." Applejack breathed as she watched the scene in front of her. She looked over at Applebloom, worried about her sister seeing something like this, there were tears in her sister's eyes as Applebloom looked at what had happened and her face looked as if she was about to cry. "Well at least now I know it's perfectly capable of killing." Said a voice from behind them. All three ponies turned to see the human they had just watched get stabbed standing before them, looking past them at the manticore and its supposed prey. "But, But how are you- we just saw you." Applejack stammered out in disbelief at what she saw. All Itachi did was incline his head indicating they should look back the beast behind them, as Applejack turned around she saw the impaled body of the being standing next to her dissolve into a flock of crows. "Genjutsu." He said simply "An illusionary technique, I needed to see what it was capable of and so placed a clone in front of it." As Itachi had neared the border of the Everfree Forest and Sweet Apple Acres, he began to evaluate the situation. Coldly analytical when it came to combat he decided it would be better to gauge the abilities of the manticore and also to see if it was truly bent on killing everything before it. And so utilized his genjustsu to create a clone while he watched from the outskirts. He now knew that it was most certainly capable of killing, and that it used its tail primarily for that purpose, perhaps that information would be of use later. Itachi began to walk forward, advancing into the field towards the manticore which had restarted its charge towards the group. "I'll handle this, just stay back and watch, it'll be over quick." "Hey now wait just an apple pickin minute here mister Ah'-" Applejack started to say before she was interrupted by her brother's hoof on her shoulder "Applejack I think it's best if we just listen to him, he sure seems to know what he's doin." Big Mac had been around the block a few times in his life and he had seen the look Itachi had in the eyes of only a handful of ponies, all of which were in the royal guard, it was that dispassionate battle hardened look. Big mac suddenly had the feeling that everything was gonna be fine, he felt like the guy in front of them could take on anything... and win. The manticore continued its charge, only fifty feet from them now, as Itachi closed his eyes concentrating. It got closer and closer finally when it was a bare 10 feet from them he opened them once more casting a paralysis genjutsu on the creature before him, it abruptly stopped. he then strode forward never breaking eye contact, speaking to it " I don't know whether or not you can understand me, but I'm sure you can understand what I'm saying with my eyes. Begone from here and never return to this place, or you'll have me to answer to... and next time I won't be so lenient." The creature for its own part was scared beyond all belief, in its entire life it had never seen a being with eyes that contained such power as the ones that now bored into its own. It had no desire but to run away from the eyes that now held it where it stood. Getting the feeling that his message had gotten across, Itachi released the genjutsu and the manticore immediately turned tail and ran back off into the forest. "Well now that's better, are you all alright?" He asked turning around to the three ponies who were all staring at him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Did I do something wrong again? "That...was...AMAZING mister!" The youngest one yelled out running towards Itachi and hugging his leg. "That was so cool how you scared off that manticore just by looking at it! What's your name?" "I-Itachi Uchiha." He was for the first time at a loss for what to do. All he knew was that the young filly reminded him greatly of his brother back when they were younger. "Well Itachi you have the thanks of the Apple family, mah name's Applejack and this here's Big Macintosh." She said indicating the larger red pony standing next to her. "And the little one who's trying to crush the life out of your leg there is Applebloom." "You're welcome. Sorry if I scared you all with my clone genjutsu earlier, I don't like going into a fight with no understanding of my opponent." Itachi said. "Naw it's fine so long as you're actually OK." "Applejack!" yelled a voice that all four were familiar with, they all turned to see Twilight and the other elements of harmony running up to them. " Are you all right? Where's the manticore?" "Relax Twilight, we're all fine thanks your friend Itachi here, he scared that beast off with just a look. Never quite seen anything like it." Applejack answered indicating the ninja. "It was SO cool!" Applebloom piped up. "Just a look huh? Pretty impressive." Said the blue pegasus, who was the only one Itachi didn't know the name of. "Hiya my name's Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and I were the ones who found you out on that road, you must be Itachi, guess I'm the only one you haven't met yet." She said extending a hoof. "Great to meet you. I owe you a great deal for saving my life." He said taking the hoof and shaking it. "So you really scared it off with just a look?" Twilight asked. "Well it was a little more than just a look." Itachi admitted. "Ahhh I see. Your Sharingan I assume?" He smiled "Good guess." "OMYGOSH you guys you know what we should do? We should have a double party! One to welcome Mr. Uchiha to Ponyville, and one for him saving Sweet Apple Acres!" Said Pinkie Pie excitedly. Everypony looked to Itachi for approval, "Sounds good to me. Just one condition, call me Itachi from now on, Mr. Uchiha sounds too formal." "YAYYYYY!" Pinkie Pie cheered as the group set off for Ponyville. For the first time in many years Itachi felt content. He had no idea what it was about this place that helped to lift the heavy darkness that had settled over him for most of his life, but he certainly did appreciate it as he was led off into town. Deep within the void that existed between worlds, a malicious presence stirred. Had it had a face it would've worn a mask of the deepest frustration. The manticore it had influenced to attack the feeble defenseless little town hadn't even managed to cause property damage, and it was quite pathetic for a being of its caliber to not even have accomplished that. It was however surprised at what had stopped it, the being that had countermanded its control of the beast was more adept in influencing minds that itself and was more powerful than the two princesses of that world combined. It knew now that being was the one whose arrival it had sensed. It would wait for now, biding its time until an opportunity arose, if there was anything it had learned in its many years it was the value of patience. It had gone by many names throughout its existence and worn many forms, but the latest had been Nightmare Moon when it had possessed that weak minded alicorn. It had plans, but for now it would just wait...and watch.