Dozens of bright yellow eyes glinted in the shadows, belonging to the large pack of timberwolves slowly slinking through the dense foliage of the forest. The seven wooden bodies creaked with every cautious step that they took across the ground. Under the low hanging sun, the faint light gave perfect cover to the beasts.
The wolves were double the size of the average pony, making them formidable killers to anything that happened to fall in their wake. Stopping at the edge of the forest, they peered through the leaves at the single pony that was walking away. They eyed the ignorant pony with murderous intent, noticing the black cloak that draped over its body. Several members growled as they began to take steps out of the bushes, but stopped at the sound of a commanding snarl from behind.
Shoving the smaller wolves aside, the alpha male walked to the front, causing them to cower down out of submission and fear. At over four times the size of a large stallion, the timberwolf leader was perhaps one of the most deadly individual creatures in this region. His raw power and speed allowed him to hunt on his own when he had to, not having to rely on his subjects to bring him a meal. At other times, it did enjoy being in the presence of the others during a kill to prove its power to them.
Looking at his next meal The alpha salivated, it's wooden jaw becoming soaked with saliva. To it's surprise, the pony stopped walking and turned around to stare straight at them. It's face was littered with piercing that filled the bridge of its nose and running up to its eyes. It's ears also had a large number of black piercings lining the outside. Even to the wolf, the strange pattern in the purple eyes of the pony sent a chill through the bark of it's skin.
The pony stared blankly at the wolves in the trees for a moment before choosing to speak. "You should come out, creatures. I know that you have been following me."
Despite not being able to speak, timberwolves have the ability to understand a certain degree of language from other creatures. Knowing that they were no longer hidden, the leader emitted a low growl, signaling some members to his right to go out and take down the pony. Lowering their heads in preparation, three wolves burst through the trees, their long legs pumped rapidly as they closed the distance between them and their prey.
Pain sat still, allowing the creatures to come close to him before focusing the chakra in his horn. "You animals do not know the power that I hold." In the next instant, a powerful shockwave burst out from his horn, striking the wolves with the force of a locomotive. They barely had time to howl out as their bodies burst into hundreds of splintered pieces.
The alpha wolf stared in shock as he watched his comrades body parts scatter across the grass before the unicorn as it sat in its same spot. The ponies unemotional face stared blankly at the pieces of wood that fell before it before returning its gaze to the members still in the forest. "You should all leave while I still let you. If not, you shall experience rue pain."
If timberwolves had any form of blood, it would be boiling with hatred inside of the pack leader. Running forward itself, it barreled towards the standing unicorn before it. Baring its teeth, it bellowed out a loud roar as it came closer. It then noticed the pony lift its right hoof off the ground. Suddenly, a thick black bar slid out from the sleeve that draped its limb, falling into the grasp of the hoof. Pain threw his spear blade at the large wolf, but missed as the beast jumped to the side.
The wolf landed in the dirt, it's eyes glaring with anger at the pony that tried to strike it. Digging it's clawed paws into the ground, it charged at the pony and leapt into the air, its mouth wide open and teeth ready to bite down on flesh. To its surprise, the pony sat still until the two of them were only two feet from each other. The purple eyes of Pain opened even wider than before, followed by a blast of force that launched the wolf thirty feet backwards and crashing into the ground, shattering on impact.
The remaining wolves trembled in fear at the sight of their pack members being blown apart by this odd pony. Never before had they seen their leader even slowed by a pony, let alone obliterated like they had just witnessed. Turning tail, they sprinted as fast as they could back into the depths of the forest, yelping into the darkness of the trees.
Pain shut his eyes and turned back to the direction that he desired. "Troublesome animals." he muttered to himself. He had grown tired of the wolves after they had stalked him for the last hour. Now that his little annoyance was behind him, he continued on back to the field to meet up with the rest of the Akatsuki.
After another ten minutes of walking, he saw the small group of cloaked figures all gathered together. As soon as he approached, they all turned and stared at him. "So, you finally decided to show up." Kisame sneered.
Pain didn't even turn to look at him as he came into the circle, "I come when I choose to come. You should learn your place and not accuse others of being on time."
The large blue stallion glared at Pain, but chose to hold his tongue out of respect to the figurehead of their organization. Itachi chose to speak up as he saw Pain without a partner.
"Where is Konan?"
"We chose to separate and search more areas for information."
Sasori looked up into the sky when he noticed a shape coming towards them. "It looks like she is here as well."
Dropping down to the ground, Konan folded her wings to her sides and approached the other members. Deidara noticed that she had an almost sorrowful look on her face as she came forward. "Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?"
Konan lifted her head and glared at the blonde maned Pegasus, "You should mind your own business, Deidara."
Deidara lifted an eyebrow at her reaction, "What is your problem? I can tell that something is nipping at your ass. Hmm."
At that moment, Tobi stepped forward into the center of the circle, his eye beaming through the hole in his mask as he stared at Konan. "you act as if you encountered something strange that is bothering you."
Konan furrowed her brow, recalling the place she just left.
---
five hours earlier
Flying through the sky, Konan looked around the land as she past through the center of did appreciate the wings that she had, allowing her save chakra by not having to create paper wings. Flying southwest from where she left Pain, she now found herself over a large desert region.
Stretching for what seemed like miles, the bright sand and stone ground raced below her as she flapped her wings, pushing her further into this barren area. She began to believe that she was going on a pointless scouting mission for whatever could be useful for the group. Frowning to herself, she prepared to turn around and head back to the meeting spot, but caught the glimpse of what seemed to be buildings in the distance.
Curiosity coming into her mind, Konan banked downward towards the ground, leveling out as she approached the ground. Continuing to fly, she began to pass over what seemed to be a large apple grove, trees lined in perfect columns around a road that passed directly through the center of it. She watched the trees suddenly stop at the outskirts of the oncoming village.
Dropping down to the sandy ground, she folded her wings to her sides and chose to continue on foot... Or hoof for that matter. From what she could tell, most of the buildings were all made out of wood, giving the impression it was older despite the structures looking new. Before she came into the town itself, a voice shouted to her from the side, "Howdy, stranger! What brings you to here?"
Konan turned to see a golden colored pony trotting up to her wearing a brown leather vest. Under the brown hat it wore it had a two toned orange mane coming down, identical color to the tail on its behind. Not wanting to act suspicious, she nodded as the pony approached, "Hello there. I was just passing through here."
A bright smile spread across the ponies face, "Well ya came to the right town to stop by. Mah names Braeburn, and welcome to Appleloosa!" he shouted out as he pointed to the town behind him.
Konan lifted an eyebrow and looked to the town Braeburn pointed at. She was perplexed by the sound of the name of the town. 'They name after fruit?' she then looked back to the smiling pony. "So what is this place?"
"Why, this here is the finest place this part of Equestria fer apple farming. This town was built..." Braeburn paused and gave a small chuckle,"Here, why don't ah show ya a tour of the town before ah start ramblin'. Come on." Turning, he trotted on down the road into the town.
Konan was hesitant at first, but decided to just follow along. She knew that if she just started searching around the town, the citizens may become suspicious of her actions. Following another around for a small tour would give her a way inside to look, as well as possibly learning some things from this pony. She saw that most of the citizens were dressed in a fashion similar to Braeburn.
As Braeburn continued to ramble on about the history of how this town came to be and the different things to enjoy here, Konan just followed along and looked around for anything that could lead to information on something useful. After a small time, though, she began noticing several things about this town that was interesting. Most of the ponies walking around seemed to be so happy; younger ones were running around giggling as they kicked a ball around. The older ones. Casually walked in and out of different shops that lined the streets. Some even danced to music that was being played for them.
In every village in her own world, no outsider shinobi could walk in without others becoming suspicious of them being a possible spy or threat. The head leaders would have sent their own shinobi to check them out for information. Even inside of a single village, tension was always felt between different clans that resided their, arguing who should have more control or power than the others.
Here, not only did this Braeburn fellow not question who she was, he actually invited her inside as if she was an old friend. Even more than that, but most of the other ponies she passed by would smile at her, also welcoming her to their home. 'Do none of them worry who I could be? They act as if there is nothing to ever worry about.' she thought to herself.
"Hey Braeburn!"
Konan's gaze turned to what seemed to be another type of creature she did not recognize walking over to her guide. The apparent female also walked on four legs, but was shorter and much thicker built than the ponies that walked around. In its orange mane it wore a feather that stuck up above its head. She watched as this new figure and Braeburn chatted happily with each other for a short time before the newcomer turned to her. "Oh, who is this?"
Braeburn smiled, "This is Konan. Ah was just showing her around town." he paused and looked to konan, "Konan, this is Little Strongheart. She is a buffalo that lives 'round here."
Konan looked over to the buffalo and nodded, "Pleasure to meet you."
Strongheart gave a warm smile, "Nice to meet you too. Well, I have to go. take care Braeburn." turning around, the young buffalo trotted off.
Konan looked back to Braeburn with a hint of confusion, "Is she from another village?"
Braeburn was a little caught off by that, "Uh, ah don't know if ya consider tents a village, but yeah, she and her group live in the valley nearby."
"And you are at peace with each other?"
"Yeah of course. Well..." the farm pony scratched the back of his head with his hoof, "We did kinda have some trouble when we built here in the beginning, heh heh. No worries, we worked it out. In fact, we are good friends now."
Konan was amazed at what she had heard this pony tell her; how both groups were in conflict with each other, but were able to overcome their differences and be at peace with one another. In fact, if Braeburn had not told her that, she would have never even guessed that there was ever Any tension between him and the buffalo. 'This place has the ability to actually make peace with each other in such a short time, unlike my world.'
She looked around to all of the happy faces that walked around the town, enjoying the wonderful day with each other. It seemed that this world had reached something that she always dreamed that she could see happen to her home. Peace. A warm sensation spread through her body, bringing something to her face that she couldn't recall the last time having.
A smile.
---
Sasori gave a snicker at hearing the story from Konan. "So what about this little place made you go soft?"
I am just trying to say that this world does seem at peace. If we are trying to find a way home, we should try and not disturb the ponies that live here." konan replied.
Tobi grunted out of annoyance, "I already told you all, I do not care of what happens to the individuals in this world. My goal is to return back to our home and complete the plan there." he paused as he looked around. All the other members were here except for two. "where are Hidan and Kakazu?"
"How should I know? I'm not their babysitter. Hmm." Deidara sneered.
Kisame grinned as he imagined what the two of them were up to. "They probably decided to enjoy themselves and slaughter some of the ponies here."
Zetsu turned to his leader, "Should we wait for them?"
"No, I do not want to waste time waiting for them to show up..." Tobi paused as he glanced to each member in the clearing, "I want to hear what you have found out in this world."
Deidara frowned, "We did not find anything where we went. I wanted to fly..." he glared over to his red maned partner, "But someone did not want to."
Sasori glared at the blonde Pegasus, "We could have continued longer, but the bomb maker chose to try and kill a blue horse and got stopped by its friend. We had to go back because the two that escaped could have alerted the rest of their comrades."
"Heh heh. Me and Itachi came across that blue one in a small town north of here. She yelled at us saying how we wore the same thing as you. You failing to take her out caused us trouble." Kisame chuckled, knowing he was getting under the bombers skin.
Deidara glared at the tall blue stallion, "I would have killed her if her stupid friend didn't come and-
"Ah, I see. You were outdone by a girl."
Flaring his wings out in frustration, Deidara bared his teeth, "Watch your mouth or I'll make you into art! Hmm."
"Enough." Tobi shouted, "I can see that you did not find anything. Pain, what about you?"
Pain's stone like face looked to the masked uchiha, "I did not find anything as well."
Sneering at another failure, he turned to the cream Pegasus, "You already stated your failure, so no reason to speak." his comment brought a furrowed brow to Konan's face. Tobi then looked at his two toned assistant. "Zetsu has found something that could be useful to us."
The two toned pony stepped forward into the center of the circle. "Down in the southern region, there is a wasteland that has another type of strange horse. They seem to have black scales instead of fur, and all of them have bug like wings and horns." the white half said.
Sasori was puzzled by this, "What makes them important? I thought we were supposed to find large sources of power?"
There is one there that is much larger than the rest of them. It possesses much more power than any other thing i have seen so far in this world. It could help us with what we need."
Tobi noticed one member sitting quietly to the side, eyes closed. "Itachi, you have been silent this whole time. Anything you have to add?"
The dark ponies eyes opened, revealing his bright sharingans, "Kisame and I found what could be our goal. In a place called Canterlot, I discovered that they have a beast known as Discord in stone held there. They say that this creature has unbelievable power."
Tobi was very intrigued at what he was hearing, "Where is this Canterlot place?"
"To the northeast from here."
The masked ponies single eye widened at hearing that. 'That is where I was. So, that place did have something very useful for me.' He looked back to the rest of the akatsuki. "Now, let us go and capture our goals."
"Who should go after what?"
Judging from what I was told by Zetsu, I want Kisame and Sasori to go to capture the beast in the wasteland. Pain, I want you and Konan to lead the strike on Canterlot and clear out the way to the beast Discord."
Konan gave a concerned look at the order, "What about the ponies that live there?"
Deidara raised his eyebrow at her reaction, "What the hell is wrong with you? You had no
trouble wiping out the leaf village. Why you acting all soft? Hmm."
"I'm just saying that if they are at peace, we should be careful how-
"There is no such thing as peace through love." Pain suddenly said. He turned to Konan, his eyes staring right at her, "Love breeds sacrifice... Which in turn breeds hatred. Living here will only cause pain to them, no matter what they do."
"Pain, I know it sounds unbelievable, but I assure you that this place has found-
“I think that your partner knows what he is talking about." Tobi interrupted Konan. Seeing the powerful rinnegan user agreeing with him brought some satisfaction to him. "Now, let's go."
Nodding in agreement, Kisame and Sasori took off towards their target south. The others prepared to start off before Deidara shouted out, "Hey, let us travel faster there." sticking his hooves in his pouches, he pulled them out and formed a small bird out of one of his mouths. Letting it fall to the ground, he put his hooves together, causing a large cloud of smoke to burst out from the bird. Once it cleared, one of his prized giant clay owls was standing ready for flight. "I would rather fly than walk. I'll give you a ride to save the time. Hmm"
The others began to walk towards the large bird, but Tobi then called out. "Not you, Itachi."
Itachi turned around, his cold gaze staring at the masked pony. "Is there a reason you are not allowing me to go? After all, I was the one who discovered this beast."
"I want you to go and find out what is keeping Kakazu and Hidan. If you have to, take out anything that gets in your way." Tobi looked up to Deidara. "You all head out. Go to Canterlot and take care of any troubling interferences."
Nodding, the bomber flew up into the air, his giant owl following suit carrying the other two members into the sky. After it left, Itachi looked back to Tobi. "Is there another reason that you are sending me away?"
The masked pony chuckled. "Itachi, you may fool the other members, but I know your true goal. If you could, you would do anything to get back to our world and trap me here."
Itachi eyes narrowed, "If I could I would have gotten rid of you years ago."
"But you can't, can you? Besides, you need me to help return back to our world if possible. And just to make sure you don't try anything foolish, I want to keep you in line by going to see our other companions."
The blood inside Itachi's veins boiled, but he kept his face blank of emotions. "Fine. I will go and see what they are doing." He then began to trot off before stopping and turning back. "Remember, if we do return back to our world, our deal still stands. You are not to touch my brother."
Tobi let out a cold laugh, "I wonder if you will last long enough to make it back." he glanced down to Itachi's hoof, noticing the traces of blood in the fur. "Judging by the progress of your illness, I cannot tell how much longer you may have."
Itachi turned his gaze forward again, not wanting to look at that cold hearted figure taunting him. Leaping away, his mind continued to flash memories of his past, images of the many things that he did to protect what he believed to right. Many times, he saw the face of the one he cared for most, and the one that he needed to be killed by.
Tobi watched as Itachi disappeared into the forest canopy. He turned to the final figure in the clearing with him. "Follow him, Zetsu. I want to know if he does make it."
"Do you really want him to die?" the white half asked.
"I am not expecting him to actually perish. He is still extremely strong, and I doubt anything here could defeat him. I just don't want him to interfere. If he does die, then no matter. He will be out of my way."