Chapter 10:The Battle of Canterlot Begins
As I was lying in that field of battle, dead soldiers and my destroyed art all around me, I pondered why my behavior of late has been so unusual.
‘Back in Konoha, the world was violent, cruel and murderous. I managed to uphold my code of morals. I never killed a defenseless soldier or a civilian. But here, in this peaceful world, I’ve broken both rules. Is there a connection? Or have I just become another senseless killer without ideals?’
While I thought about it, my vision began to blur from the pain in my leg. Then, almost instantaneously, my vision was gone, and I fell asleep.
- - - - -
When I awoke, I was on a bed in a small room. There were fish hung up on the walls to dry, and I could hear seagulls outside. There was a window only a few inches above me, but I couldn’t sit up to look outside. My leg was wrapped up with white cloth.
I layed there for a few minutes before Kakuzu came in with a platter.
“You’re awake. Good. That means the surgery went well.”
I was shocked. “What surgery? What are you talking about? Where I am I?”
“You are in the home of a fisherman that we discovered when Kisame and myself dragged you off the battlefield. We came upon this house and put you in the bed. As for the surgery, your leg wasn’t completely severed; so Tentacle Stitching wouldn’t have worked.”
“What about the pony who lives here?”
Kakuzu laughed. “Oh, he’s in the ocean. Probably feeding the fish breakfast, by now.”
“Never mind the fisherman, then! What about me? How long will my recovery take?”
Kakuzu brought the platter with soup and water over to my bed. “I’d say at least 2 weeks. But it will go even quicker if you eat this soup. I mixed some calcium-building vitamins into it. It will speed up your bone’s repair. That, and plenty of sleep with minimal movement might make your recovery last only a week.”
I blinked. “What do you mean a WEEK?! There’s a full-blown war going on! I need to get out there and help!”
“First of all, war hasn’t been declared....yet. Second of all, there are only four rulers in this world. You killed one of them all by yourself; a rookie no less! Third, even if you could participate in the conflict, it wouldn’t help. All of your puppets from the Samurai Performance were destroyed.”
“Oh, no! I forgot about that! She really did destroy all of them with that red-sphere of energy!”
Kakuzu nodded. “Now rest. I was ordered to stay outside and guard you until you were alright. Kisame joined the others in the fight.”
“Who? Our group was supposed to go to Applewood, though?”
Kakuzu shook his head. “No, Pain ordered them to ignore that target and rally to him. Since Kisame, myself, and you separated from the group, Pain deemed us too weak to continue without support. They are on the way to him and his team, but they had already traversed a large distance. It will take them almost 3 days to get to Canterlot.”
With that, he walked out of the room and closed the door.
I wondered about what everyone was doing, and how I couldn't help. Eventually, I just decided to follow Kakuzu’s advice, and rest.
- - - - -
“Watch your flank, soldier! They’re still coming!” Screamed a Royal Guard pony.
Sasori and Deidara had jumped off the owl, onto the ground, as Deidara’s owl rammed into the guard barracks; luring every guard out into open conflict.
“Relax, my man. I’ll take care of these chumps.” Said Deidara.
“You know you can’t do it alone. Let me help, you.”
Deidara glared at his partner. “I can do it myself, alright? Sheesh!”
“Fine. But as soon as you get into trouble, don’t expect me to join in. You’re acting a lot like Hidan; and you hate him.”
“Gah! Alright! You can take that half over to the east. I’ll take this half over to the west.”
Sasori nodded. “Sounds good to me. Now let’s show them the true meaning of our art.”
Deidara had already prepared some clay while he was flying on the owl. He formed it into two snakes that went slithering towards the ponies.
“Gah!” Said one of the guards, “What are those things? They look like snakes, but-”
The guard was cut off as the snakes reached him.
“Katsu!”
The snakes detonated, leaving a small crater, and no trace of the guard and some of his companions surrounding him.
Deidara then began preparing more clay. “Now, see if you can stop me from destroying the rest this city just like your friend!”
Deidara then turned and ran down the street; lead a group of the guards away from Sasori. As he did so, about half of them stayed; and turned their attention on the other artist.
“Playtime is over!” Said one of them.
“Oh,” Sasori replied, “you have no idea how right you are.”
Sasori removed a white scroll with red accents from his robe. He unravelled it, then the smoke surrounded him. After it dissipated, the summoned object could be seen: a puppet wearing a brown robe with grey fluff around the robe’s collar.
Sasori smiled as the puppet appeared. “Behold! My finest piece! Collecting this one took a lot of patience and finesse. The 3rd Kazekage!”
The ponies were confused. “What’s a ‘Kazekage’?” One of them asked.
“I don’t know; I’m just as confused as you are.” Replied another.
Sasori’s expression changed. “Whether or not you know my art is inconsequential. What is important, is that you die!”
Sasori extended chakra threads from his horn to the puppet, then sent it towards the group of guards. While it raced towards them, a large claw appeared from under the sleeve of the puppet’s right arm.
The guards noticed immediately. “Get out of the way! That things’ gigantic!”
The soldiers scattered as the claw swung, and missed. As they recovered, they drew their swords from the sheaths at their sides.
One of the pegasus guards saw an opportunity to charge at Sasori, blade pointed towards him.
“Ha! It will take much more than that pitiful attempt, I can assure you!” Said Sasori.
He pulled the 3rd back in front of him just as the pegasus reached him. As he did, the iron claw blocked the pegasus’ blade.
Sasori smirked. “Now, now. Not so hasty!”
The puppet overpowered the pegasus, then hit him hard with the blunt side of the claw. The pegasus flew back towards his comrades.
“Are you alright, soldier?” Asked one of the guards.
The pegasus stood up, shaking the dust off of himself. “Yeah, I think so. He just knocked the wind outta me tha-”
He was cut off as the 3rd Kazekage rushed towards him, and, in an instant, decapitated him with one swing of the claw.
The other ponies were stunned as the head rolled off the guard’s shoulders and onto the ground. The body soon fell to its’ knees, then fell over.
They looked over to see Sasori laughing. “Really now. If that’s all it takes to kill one of the soldiers of this land, Hidan could kill you all!”
One of the soldiers grimaced. “I don’t who this ‘Hidan’ character is, and I don’t really care! He can come and get some too, if he wants!”
This cocky pony ran ahead of his group straight at the 3rd Kazekage. The puppet raced forward to meet him, and their blades clashed. The guard looked back at his comrades.
“Quick! I’ve got his puppet caught! Rush the freak controlling this thing and get him back for Swift Speed!”
The guards looked down at their fallen comrade, then nodded towards their friend. “Right!”
They all rushed towards Sasori; blades out. As they neared the puppet, it’s left hand opened to reveal a rapidly-rotating buzzsaw. It blocked the ponies approach immediately.
“Did you really think it would be that easy? I’m no pushover; not like your pathetic friend over there, anyways.”
The guards didn’t care about the comment this time. They wondered how they would get past this strange being. It seemed it had weapons everywhere! What was next?
Sasori heard screams and explosions just down the street from where he was at. ‘Huh,’ he thought to himself, ‘it seems the other guards have caught up to him. Well, he could use my help, so I should end this fight quickly. Of course he isn't going to like it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.’
The 3rd Kazekage’s buzzsaw whirred even faster than usual, and cut apart the ponies’ blades in just a few seconds!
While the guards were stunned, the puppet struck all of them at once with the buzzsaw; making contact and ripping all of them to shreds.
“No!” Cried the last guard. “You’ll pay for that with your life!”
“I’ll tear you to shreds!” Said Sasori, as he swung the buzzsaw towards the last guard. It struck his side, and tore a massive gash into him.
He fell onto his side; blood spurting from his wound and his mouth.
“And now,” said Sasori, “you will fade into history.”
The guard’s eyes grew big as the iron claw came down upon him.
- - - - -
Another explosion came from a building to the guards’ right.
“Hahahaha! My art is making this city of yours look like a quarry!”
After Deidara left Sasori, he ran down the street throwing C1 birds at every building in sight. In just minutes, he left holes in almost every structure he passed by.
One of the pegasus guards tried to fly towards Deidara, but his captain pulled him down.
“No! You stand no chance against him on your own! We need to think of a plan of action before we strike!”
A unicorn suddenly spoke up. “Captain! What if we split into three groups? One runs straight towards him, the others run through the buildings on our left and right? We stand a better chance to catch him on one of his flanks that way.”
“Hmm, you may be onto something.” Replied the captain. “What the hay? We got nothing better to try! Let’s do it!”
He sorted the ponies into three groups of two. “Alright, split up!”
The ponies split up and ran different directions towards Deidara.
“What do you expect to accomplish? Even if you separate, my art will still find you!”
Deidara sent out a different kind of bird this time; they were slightly smaller than the old ones. These were his tracking birds.
As the guards in the street ran, they noticed the birds racing towards them.
“Look out! More of those explosive birds!”
The guards leaped out of the way; successfully avoiding the explosives.
“Whew, that was close! It almost go-”
*BOOM*
The bird had turned around and crashed directly into the pony; killing him and his partner.
“What?! How? I just saw them avoid the birds!” Said the captain.
At that moment, another bird came towards him and his partner.
They both leaped out fo the way, but the captain looked back to see the bird turning back towards him.
“I see now! These birds follow you! Don’t let it catch you! Trick it to run into something to avoid getting hit!”
As the last four ponies ran, Deidara sent out snakes to slither through the rubble and strike at the guards’ hooves. They hid under some rubble and waited for the second group to approach.
The captain saw them as they stopped, and tried to warn his men.
“No! Stop! He has some right under that rubble in front of you!”
The ponies were running too fast to slow down in time.
“Katsu!”
Just like the other two, these guards went up in the explosion, too. A leg fell in front of the captain.
“No! This is wrong! We should be defending our city! But we can’t even do that!”
Deidara laughed. “Defend your city against US? Hmm! You really don’t know who we are.”
Another bird appeared from Deidara’s hand and flew towards the captain.
‘Your highnesses,’ he thought to himself, ‘forgive me. I’ve failed all of you...”
The bird made contact with the captain.
“Katsu!”
- - - - -
Celestia looked out the Throne Room window as Deidara’s explosions continued to ravage the city.
“How? How could this happen? I was sure Luna and I had enough soldiers to stop something like from happening!”
Luna ran into the throne room at that moment.
“Sister! Two of these robed murders have made their way to our front door. I go to meet them. I shall smite them with mine power from the moon! I will return when I have finished.”
Celestia was about to say something, but a messenger ran into the Throne Room.
“PRINCESSES! IT”S JUST AWFUL!” He screamed.
“Calm down,” said Celestia, “please, tell me, what has happened now?”
“Princess Cadence.....”
“Yes? What about her?”
“Your highness.....she....she’s dead...”
Celestia and Luna froze. How could a princess be killed? They were the most magically gifted beings in their realm!
Luna broke the silence. “These beings shall pay! Their lives will be the currency!”
She flew out the door behind the messenger.
She flew through the hallway and finally out the castle’s main door.
There stood two of the Akatsuki waiting for her.
“Ah,” said Pain, “we’ve been waiting for one of you to show up.”