//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Lost Soul of The Uchiha 
// by BronyOfSteel 
//------------------------------//

Over the next two weeks Itachi became a normal part of life in Ponyville, he was one of the many faces ponies began to associate with their normal routines. He spent his days usually helping somepony with a task they just couldn't do on their own, but sometimes he would disappear for while out to the lake in the middle of the Everfree forest to train. His nights were usually spent with Luna, helping her with the political problems that cropped up, or just simply being there for her. Occasionally he would spend his night helping Twilight with her studies, surprisingly he could translate old Equestrian with his Sharingan.



Itachi awoke one morning a lot later than he usually did, he had been up particularly late helping Luna with a problem with some council or something like that, didn't matter who they were politicians were all the same and just as easy to figure out. As he rose from his bed he noticed something was missing, his headband. Surely he put it on the table like he always did? A quick inspection of the room revealed it was nowhere to be found. He then stepped out from his room, leaving his coat behind as it was supposed to be quite hot today.

"Hey Twi, you have any idea where my headband is? I would've sworn I left it on my table last night but it's not there now for some reason."

"I have no idea. I've been gone all morning trying to help get ready for the gala. Why were you out so late?"

"I was busy helping Luna with her speech to the Manehatten city council. So no one's been here except me and Spike?"

"Not unless Spike let somepony in."

Itachi's expression immediately changed to one of extreme annoyance. He now knew exactly what had happened.

"Uh oh, you're not gonna do anything too permanent to him are you?" Twilight asked concerned seeing the look on Itachi's face.

"Nope, just gonna scare the scales off of him. Excuse me I'll be right back." He said forming a single hand seal and vanishing in a plume of smoke.

Spike was currently trying to get out the back door with his bowl of gems as quietly as possible. He had heard Itachi wake up and he didn't want to be around when the ninja figured out what he had done. The dragon slowly shut the door and turned around to head off to Rarity's with his bowl of delicious gems. Upon seeing Itachi standing behind him Spike nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I-Itachi! What are you doing out here?" Spike said in a strained voice, feeling as the blood drained from his face. Itachi looked as angry as he had ever seen him, and his Sharingan wasn't helping.

"Oh nothing much, just wanted to say good morning. Say, that seems like quite the bowl of gems you have there, where'd you get them from?" His glare seemed to penetrate through Spike. The dragon noted Itachi could be quite intimidating when he wanted to be.

"Oh these? Well they were just lying around the library and so I decided to grab them as a snack!" Spike was sweating bullets; it was a horrible excuse. Both knew there was no way Spike would leave ANY amount of gems just laying around.

Itachi just continued to look at him until Spike cracked. "OKAY OKAY! Applebloom and the others came over this morning and said if I let them into the library for five minutes they'd give me all these gems. I had no idea they were going to take your headband!"

"Uh huh, sure." Itachi's gaze didn't really change, showing just how much he believed him.

"Honest! I didn't notice they had taken it until they were running out!"

Itachi continued to glare at him for a few more seconds before his expression finally softened."Ok fine, I believe you. Did they say anything about what they planned on doing with it?"

"Yeah I think they said something about needing it for show and tell."

"Thanks. Keep the gems and tell Rarity hi for me."

"H-how'd you know I was going to Rarity's?" Spike asked in disbelief.

"Oh please Spike, where ELSE have you ever gone in your spare time?" Itachi said smiling as he walked off towards the school.

Within three days of Itachi's return he had encountered the group known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who seemed to be on the warpath to talk to him about what his cutie mark was. Upon discovering that humans simply don't have any, they then showered him with questions. Foremost they had wanted him to show them his 'magic' as they called it. After telling them it wasn't magic it was ninjutsu, he had produced a shadow clone. Of course after that they then wanted him to teach them how to perform the jutsu. Knowing it was impossible to teach them but not wanting to ruin their hopes, he told them that only someone who wore his headband could perform the technique. When asked to let one of them wear it, he apologized, saying that one had to earn the right to wear a headband like his and that the only way to earn it was to take it from him. Immediately after saying that he used the replacement technique, leaving behind a note saying "Sorry, maybe next time." This then began a competition of sorts as every day afterwards they would try to take his headband from him and every time he would vanish leaving behind a note saying the same thing.

Or, at least that was how it had worked up until today. Honestly there wasn't anyone to get annoyed with except himself. They were just kids, what could he expect? As he approached the schoolhouse he could hear voices within, the door was wide open to help deal with the heat and Itachi simply entered and stood against the back wall, watching the fillies and colts show off what they had brought in. Eventually the Cutie mark Crusaders went up as a group, Applebloom was wearing Itachi's headband.

"Fillies and gentle colts! We bring you the most spectacular show and tell item you're gonna see today!" Scootaloo said dramatically indicating Itachi's headband. "This headband belongs to Ponyville's newest arrival, whom I'm sure you've all heard of! With his headband we're gonna show you all one of his 'ninjutsu' thingies!"

The class cheered after Scootaloo had said all this and intently looked at Applebloom to perform for them. Applebloom was as nervous as she'd ever been; it had been the general consensus between the other two that because she was the only one to ever see Itachi in action she should be the one to use it. She looked around the room nervously and that was when she noticed Itachi standing at the back of the room watching her. Applebloom saw as he smiled and nodded for her to go ahead. Still feeling like she was going to fail she went ahead with it anyways slamming her front hooves together and furrowing her brow in concentration.

There was a poof of smoke next to her and to everypony's surprise there was a second Applebloom standing there. Applebloom looked at her double in shock for a few seconds before looking back to Itachi who was lowering his hands from forming a hand seal. He looked at her and winked, still smiling. Instantly everypony was up at the front of the room poking the second Applebloom asking if she was real, which of course she responded, "Of course ah' am!" It was at this point Cheerilee decided it was time for recess, ordering the fillies out the side door to go play, or in today's case, surround the Cutie Mark Crusaders plus shadow clone and pelt them with questions.

Cheerilee turned to Itachi as he walked up to the front of the classroom. "They can't actually do that right?"

He laughed "Oh no of course not, kinda need these to form hand seals." He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers. "That's just one of my clones transformed to look like Applebloom."

She let out a sigh of relief "Good those three are enough of a hooffull without there being two of each. So you came all the way here just to do that for them?"

"Well, seeing as if they went through so much effort to get it I figured it'd be nice to let them be the center of attention for a while." He looked out at the playground, watching them for a bit. "Well I think it's time I got what I came here for. Have a nice day Cheerilee." He said as he waved goodbye and headed out onto the playground.

Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were busy basking in the attention from their success when suddenly the clone of Applebloom disappeared in a plume of smoke. "Well, well, well seems like I finally found you three." Said the owner of the headband they had taken earlier. Everypony turned to look at the shinobi that had just entered into their presence.

"Oh! Hey there Itachi!" Scootaloo said looking surprised at his sudden appearance. "You'll never guess what happened. Applebloom here used your headband and was able to do that technique you showed us!"

"Is that so?" He said looking over at Applebloom who was sheepish as ever. "She must be special, not everyone can use that technique."

"R-really?" Applebloom stammered out, completely confused.

"Of course, you think just anybody can use it?" He asked smiling. "Unfortunately as much as I'm sure you guys would love to run around with it. I'm going to have to ask for my headband back, it is quite important to me."

"Well alright then." Applebloom relented, trotting over to him while she untied the headband from around her forehead. As she was handing it over to Itachi she said a voice so quiet only the two of them could hear. "Thank you, ya know… for doing that technique for me."

"You're welcome." He responded in an equally quiet voice. Itachi then put on his headband and looked around at the assembled ponies. He decided he'd give them a bit of a show as he left and formed a ram hand seal and with a flurry of leaves vanished.

"Whoa." Scootaloo said, "Now THAT was cool."



Itachi appeared in the middle of Ponyville in the same fashion he had left the school. The first thing he noticed was that every pony around him was bowing in his general direction. What the? The only reason they would be bowing is….He spun around to find Celestia looking at him with great amusement. "Hello Itachi, I was just looking for you."

The two then entered somepony's house after Celestia had 'requested' they use it for a private meeting. Not that it was really a request if a powerful sun controlling god-princess asked you if she could use your house.

"So why are you all the way out here in Ponyville Celestia? If you wanted to talk to me you just could've just sent a summons."

"Well I didn't want to disrupt any plans you might have had for today."

Itachi just looked at her. he knew that wasn't the real reason. "You know if you wanted to talk to me without Luna being around you could've just ASKED, rather than orchestrating this entire thing."

"Am I really that transparent?" She chuckled.

"No, I did have the advantage of Luna telling me you gave her that assignment to talk to the Manehatten council." He said as he leaned up against a wall crossing his arms. "So what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well it's about Nightmare, is it truly gone?"

Itachi looked out the window, trying to decide whether or not to tell her the truth."No its not. All I did was defeat it temporarily it'll be back, when I cannot say."

"So all you did was buy us some time."

"Well when you put it that way you make it sound like I didn't really do all that much." Itachi smiled. "But yes in essence that's all that came out of that encounter."

"Then I'll have to increase the guards that watch over Luna and-"

"Don't bother."Itachi interrupted "Nightmare won't be going after her anymore. It's got a slightly more important target now."

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't really think it was just going after Luna again that time did you? No, it had a different target in mind. As Nightmare put it 'Someone who's potential for destruction is far greater than any other being to ever walk this world'. I was the true objective of that whole thing."

"You were its true target?!" Celestia shouted in disbelief

"Well, I still am. But for a different reason this time and for an entirely different purpose. Last time it wanted to possess me like it did with Luna, but now it probably just wants to kill me."

"You don't seem all that concerned by it."

Itachi shrugged "When you face death often enough the prospect of it stops fazing you as much as it normally would."

"Then I'll have to have some guards assigned to you."

"No." He said flatly. Celestia was about to start arguing again when he cut her off "I don't want anyone else getting hurt on my account. Also it's easier to fight when I don't have to worry about others around me becoming possessed or something like that."

"Then what am I supposed to do Itachi? You're a friend of many ponies here including myself and none of us would want to see something happen to you." It was the first time Itachi had ever seen the princess with concern on her face. "…..You know she thinks the world of you, if anything were to happen….. I don't think Luna could take it."

"I know.." He said the weight of that knowledge rested heavily upon him. "I have no intention of dying, and I would NEVER want to hurt Luna in any way but if my life is the price required to protect you all I'll gladly pay it."

"…Why? Why are you willing to go so far for us?"

Itachi laughed "You should understand my nature by now. In life there are two kinds of warriors, those who use their power to take and control, and the kind who stand against them and the darkness they bring. Everyone fights for a reason, and in the two weeks I've spent here I've discovered that this world is my reason for standing against the shadow."

Celestia was speechless, to see this human who had only arrived here dying two weeks ago speak plainly about his willingness to sacrifice his life for them shook her to her very soul. Luna had been right when she had said they were very similar, the sacrifices she had seen him make for the sake of his little brother made her angry at herself for ever thinking ill of him.

"Itachi I've never seen Luna care for anyone like I've seen her with you, even before that whole incident with the moon she was quiet, soft spoken, and generally shy. Yet, somehow you get through to her in a way nopony else has ever been able to, even myself. Please… Take care of her, if there was ever anyone that'd I be willing to entrust my sister's well-being to it'd be you. My courage failed Luna all those years ago, I couldn't bring myself to face the problem head on and in doing so condemned my beloved sister to a millennium of torment." She looked directly at him now. "You're the bravest person I've ever met Itachi Uchiha, I know your courage will not fail."

"T-Thank you Princess, I know how much she means to you."Itachi truly was taken aback by her words. Luna meant everything to the princess of the sun and he was surprised Celestia was putting such trust in him.

There was then a flash of magic outside the house and a couple of seconds later Luna entered the building accompanied by a gruff looking guardpony. "Here you are sister, what're you doing out here in Ponyville?"

"I had some business to attend to with our friend Itachi. How was the council?"

"Not too bad. Itachi's advice, as always, was invaluable." She looked over to the ninja who was examining a small sculpture that was on a shelf. "So what exactly were you two talking about?"

"The future." Celestia said simply. The princess then looked over to the guardpony that had entered along with her sister. "Captain, I can see you have something to say."

"Forgive my intrusion princess, but there is a matter of great importance that you must know of." She nodded for him to continue. "I've just received some disturbing reports from outside Flillydelphia, apparently there's some kind of intruder in our lands."

"What?" Luna asked in shock. "An intruder?"

"Yes, milady. Apparently it was wandering the countryside around Fillydelphia when my men found it. They tried to apprehend it but the intruder proved elusive." The captain looked over at Itachi with apprehension for a split second before continuing. "Unfortunately my men didn't get a good look at the intruder when they encountered it. However, they were asked to deliver a message to an 'Itachi Uchiha'."

Itachi slowly turned to face him, his eyes already red because of his Sharingan, now they seemed to be glowing slightly increasing the intensity of his glare. "And what was that message?"

"That the legacy of the Mangekyō Sharingan has come to take its revenge."