Twilight Sparkle had been training for a day or two now, but she’d already made considerable progress on the spell. Her horn struggled to hold the magic- a glowing, ivory light that sparked every few seconds. Since the spell was so powerful, she was still having trouble controlling it, despite her great talents with magic. Still, she’d gotten much farther, and she was more than proud of herself.
Once again, she lost control of it, and she let the magic go, rather than teleporting- the white sparks exploding into a show of colors directly above her head that slowly faded into nothing. Every time she did it, the room was lit up- the colors were incredibly bright and of every shade and variety, and she closed her eyes every time she let it go, as to not blind herself. She sighed as she calmed down- her horn was sore.
It was something that she hadn’t felt for a long time- a deep aching, from the center of the bone-like material that protruded out of her head- but it was there. She could clearly remember her last bad horn-ache had been when she was a filly- and still much weaker at magic than she was now. Horn-aches were usually caused by overworking of the wind and the horn- and trying to master such an extremely difficult spell like this one, she wasn’t exactly surprised she was getting one, either.
It was good that it wasn’t too bad of a horn-ache, though- the worst ones had unicorns losing control of their powers and shooting off spells in random directions. No, this was a minor one- just some pain whenever she tried to use her horn, but she knew it would fade in a few days. For now, though, she sat down on the floor of her room and breathed, taking a break.
It was exhausting practicing like this- she’d try the spell once or twice, and, at least momentarily, her energy would be depleted. So then she’d have to wait for a few minutes for her stamina to return, and in that time, she’d drink some water and eat some daisies- both of which she had huge proportions next to her. Then, in a few minutes, once she’d felt she’d rested enough, she’d try again- and, infallibly, lose control and let the spell go again.
As she felt her control slipping once more, she closed her eyes and pointed her horn upwards, and let it go- and even with her eyelids closed, behind them, in the darkness, she could still see little flashes of light. That’s how bright it was. A few moments later, she sighed, and opened her eyes, and waited a few minutes.
Twilight hadn’t talked to Naruto since the first chat they’d had. The ANBU had simly given her ample supplies every day, and then left her to her training. She’d heard huge booms, coming from far away from the village- and figured it was Naruto training. She actually wanted to take a break, and go see what he was doing, but not only was it probably dangerous to even be close to him while he was training, she really wanted to both master the spell, and help Naruto take Sasuke back.
She’d had a lot of time to think about it since he’d told her their history.
In the end, she thought that she sided with Naruto. She knew that he probably wouldn’t kill him, and Twilight had seen the way Sasuke acted, more than once. She thought that he needed to be returned home. He was more than unstable- he was angry, hateful, spiteful, and incredibly sad and depressed, inside, even if he didn’t show it.
From what she’d heard from both Naruto and Applejack- and their stories seemed to connect fairly well- even if Sasuke’s past had been traumatic, he was wanted really badly in this land- and he’d committed several heinous crimes that needed to be punished. Sasuke had shown her, even if in the tiniest of shades, that life wasn’t all black and white, but she was still very much in the white. She felt that justice needed to be served- and while she would definitely not be the one fighting, she’d be providing the travel.
That didn’t mean she didn’t feel terrible about it, though.
While Twilight was doing what she thought was right- and what she knew needed to be done, she couldn’t help but feel bad about it. Even if Sasuke had commited all of these crimes, she had known him much longer than Naruto, and she felt that Sasuke really was her friend- even if he didn’t consider her one back. She had learned a lot about friendship since Princess Celestia had given her the assignment to go to Ponyville and learn more about it.
And ever since then, she’d cherished friendship more than she’d realized.
But it had to be done, and she wasn’t going to quit, even if Sasuke was her friend.
So that meant more training.
Just as she was about to start trying to cast the spell again, somepony knocked on the door, and interrupted her concentration.
An ANBU walked in, and she stopped. It was either more food, or something important.
“Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you,” the masked-man said.
Twilight raised her eyebrows. She didn’t expect him to request her to come discuss something- she figured that both of them were too deeply involved in their training. But if it was important enough to warrant him calling her, then she’d come.
She put the large brown tome down onto the floor and followed the man up the familiar stairs that led to the Hokage’s office. It was silent, and Twilight was wondering what could be important enough to have him talk to her. Over the past few days, she’d realized how important the man was, even if he didn’t act like it. He was, in a way, as she’d thought before, similar to Princess Celestia- only, he didn’t raise the sun. But he was still a savior and idolized in both the Land of Fire and in Konohagakure.
As she reached the top of the stairs, and the ANBU opened the door- and then disappeared, just as quickly, she stepped inside. Twilight shook her head as she did so. She still didn’t understand how all shinobi were able to do that- simply hide and disappear as if they were never there. Even if she’d had her eyes on them the second before- if she wasn’t watching them when they moved, she had a chance of losing them.
If she didn’t know better, she would say they were using an amazing invisibility spell.
Twilight closed the door behind her, and looked forwards at the exhausted Naruto that was practically passed out in his Hokage chair. There was another Naruto, a clone that was working on the paperwork, and didn’t look to be affected by the exhaustion that the real Naruto faced. She knew that this was because he’d probably created the clone before he went to train. Twilight was smart, and she learned from her surroundings. She’d only seen shadow clones used a few times before, but she’d already mostly learned how they worked.
“Hello, Twilight,” Naruto said, panting, as he rested, “how are you finding the village?”
“Well, since I spend my time in this huge building all day, I couldn’t tell you. I haven’t really been out to see what you’d call the village- but, my first impressions before I visited you the first time were fairly good. It looks like a great place. I noticed that the ground seemed… dug up, for lack of a better word. Is there a reason for that? There’s still a lot of construction going on, too. I thought that the village was already built.”
“It was,” Naruto answered, “but it was destroyed not too long ago in its entirety in an attack from an organization of missing-nin. It’s been a huge undertaking, but we’re nearly complete on repairs- and then we’ll be done with the whole business. It was hard rebuilding the entire damn village from scratch, but we had a few people who could help more than usual- especially a guy I know that can create wood out of chakra- and he was one of the biggest helpers. I’m just glad it’s all over, honestly.”
“That’s good,” Twilight said, and Naruto nodded.
“What did you really call me for, though?”
“Blunt, and to the point, huh?” Naruto asked.
“Well, I was in the middle of practicing the spell you want me to master so much, so yeah, to the point.”
“Really, I just wanted to ask you how your training was going. How close do you think you are to mastering the spell?”
“Fairly close. I can hold it and add more power to it- which means carrying more individuals along with me. We can probably go tomorrow, if you wanted.”
“Then that’s when we’re going. Are you sure you can take three?”
“Three? I thought you’d be taking more with you,” Twilight asked.
“No. You’ll only have to take me with you, and take me back with Sasuke after I beat him. That’s all we’re going to need. You’re just going to have to tell everyone to stay out of the way when we get there. I should be able to handle him on my own- though it’ll be hard.”
“Oh… well, I figured that you were going to take more. We could go right now if you wanted to.”
“Wow, really? I didn’t expect that. Well, I need the day to rest, so, still, tomorrow is the day that we’re leaving.”
Twilight nodded, but looked confused as he held up a hand and formed a spinning blue ball of… something. Chakra, she remembered it was called. He did it only with a single hand, though, and looked very happy with himself for it- as if he’d managed a great feat. Twilight was completely drawn by the ball- she couldn’t stop staring at it. It was really interesting, and in a way, beautiful. Naruto grinned as he held it in his right hand.
“What is that?” Twilight asked. She had to know.
“That is Rasengan, my father’s jutsu. I’ve finally mastered it.”
“It looks… potent,” she said. Naruto nodded.
“It has extreme power behind it. I worked really hard to learn it the first time.”
“I’m sure you did,” Twilight said, eyeing the blue ball with interest.
“How exactly does it work?” She asked.
“It’s really just a mass of chakra, compressed into a dense, high-speed, powerful ball that drills and spins into whatever you push it against. I can dig into trees with this and leave huge gaping holes in the bark. Usually if I hit someone in the body with this it’ll drill into them for a few seconds, and then it’ll send them flying away. “
Twilight winced. “That sounds… painful.”
“Yeah. I’m glad I finally learned how to do it one-handed, though. I used to have to summon a clone to do it. Not anymore. This should make my other techniques easier.”
“A lot of the techniques from this place are pretty interesting. For the short time you’re there, I think you’ll think the same about Equestria.”
“It sounds pretty cool,” Naruto agreed, “I’d like to see it. I really hope that we don’t damage the surrounding terrain too much in our fight, but that’s probably inevitable, unfortunately. Still, though. It’ll always be interesting to visit a new place, even if the real reason I’m coming there is different. After I beat Sasuke, and take him back, maybe you can take us every once in a while to visit or something.”
“I think my mentor Princess Celestia would like to meet you. In a lot of ways, she’s like you. I’m sure she’d connect with you, Naru-“
She cut off her own sentence as she looked in interest to the door, which was opening.
Inside, walked a young woman- a fair-skinned woman with long, midnight blue hair, that trailed down her back like a beautiful, curling waterfall. She wore a large jacket that covered most of her torso, and arms, and trailed slightly past her hips. Under her jacket she wore a fishnet that covered up skin and had a headband around her neck. Her eyes were strangely amazing- blank, but somehow more striking because of it. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was blind or not. She wore short blue pants with a holster strapped to one leg and had black sandals on.
“Twilight, meet Hinata-chan. Hinata-chan, meet Twilight. She’s from where Sasuke is. We’re leaving tomorrow, to go get him.” Hinata didn’t return Naruto’s gigantic grin, but she nodded to both of them, and then glanced over at Twilight, staring at her with the blank, white eyes that all Hyuuga possessed.
“I’ll be coming with you, right, Naruto-ku-“
“No, Hinata.”
There was dead silence as he uttered the words. For some reason, it seemed so much more intense than it was- if he didn’t want her to go, and he was Hokage, then she wouldn’t go, but Twilight could tell there was more to it than just that.
“You’re going in to risk your life,” Hinata said, fury becoming evident on her face, “and you don’t want me coming along t-“
“YES! That’s just the point, Hinata! I’m going there to risk my life. That means you’d be going there to risk your life, too. This isn’t the Fourth War; you don’t need to risk it needlessly. This is my problem. I’m going to handle it. No one knows Sasuke better than me; no one can even fight Sasuke besides me and maybe the stronger Kages- honestly, probably only the Raikage could manage to take him down- and that’s with him dying, too; both of them dying.”
“But I can do it! I can go there, take him back, and we can make him see the error of his ways… and then, my promise to Sakura-chan will be complete. My promise to Sasuke will be complete, too. I’ll finally have done what I told him I’d do all these years- take him back to the village, even if I have to break his legs and arms.”
Hinata was silent for a moment as she glared at her fiancée, and then turned away.
“I just got you, Naruto. I’m not giving you away so easily. I’ve loved you for years- and you’ve only just returned that love back. I-if you don’t come back… I don’t know what I’ll do. You have to come back, Naruto. You have to.”
There was more silence, again, in the room. Naruto didn’t seem to know what to say to that, or do, besides nod, and Hinata glanced back with a smile- a warm, joy-filled expression of her love. She walked out of the room, and then closed the door.
“So that was Hinata, huh?” Twilight asked.
“Yep, that was Hinata,” Naruto said, with a grin on his face. Only a few moments in her presence, and already, he seemed much more relaxed and less serious than before. He leaned back in his chair as his clone continued to work.
“That’s all I really had to tell, really… you can leave now, if you want to,” Naruto said.
“Oh, alright. I think I’m going to go visit Sakura. I have a few questions to ask her.”
“Oh, about what?” Naruto casually asked.
Twilight winced as she thought of it. Sasuke’s arrogant, prideful voice- and then he was right, and oh, Twilight remembered it- the heat of it, even behind the thing called Susanoo or whatever- fumbling at Fluttershy’s flaming, melted wing, as they desperately tried to fix it- but, really, all they could manage to do was lessen her pain. She later lost complete control of the wing- not only was it limp, it was essentially dead weight. She’d never fly again.
“An injury my friend had, back in my world. We couldn’t fix it, but I was wondering if Sakura herself or someone else she knew could.”
“Maybe Tsunade. It depends on what the injury was,” Naruto said.
“Who’s Tsunade? I heard Sakura mention her, but… wasn’t she the Fifth?” Twilight said, unsure if her memory was correct or not. As smart as she was, she’d only been at this place for a few days at most, and she couldn’t be expected to remember every little thing.
“She was the Fifth, yes,” Naruto confirmed, “and she’s also the greatest healer in the world. She healed a lot of my friends that I knew over the years- sometimes, from injuries that would’ve crippled them and made them unable to do things for life.”
“What was the injury, how did it happen?” Naruto asked.
“It was, it was stupid,” Twilight said, “We were on a mission from my mentor, and ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, to tell a dragon to leave from where he was sleeping because he was going to clog up the entire sky with his smog that he was breathing out while he was napping.“
“Well, we went, and Sasuke went with us, because Celestia told him it was the only way that she’d help him to get home- which, in the end, after the mission, she gave me the book that taught me the spell, but I accidentally left Sasuke behind, and well… it’s not important to the story. Anyway, the point is, is that Fluttershy went to talk to the dragon, and was burned- she’s a Pegasus, and her entire left wing was basically melted. It’s almost like stuck together- her own flesh, as glue…” Twilight shuddered as she thought of it.
“It’s just terrible, really. None of the doctors were able to fix it, as far as I knew before I left Equestria.”
Naruto had stayed silent during the story, nodding several times. It did seem fairly terrible- flesh glued together, ew. He wasn’t a medical nin, but he knew that with so many fire jutsu around, it was impossible that there wasn’t a special way to deal with burns that med-nins knew about. The more he thought about it, the more sure he became.
“There are a lot of fire jutsu in this world, and many of them burn quite hot- probably as hot as a dragon’s fire. Some of them even have dragon in the name, after all. There’s basically no way that the med-nins don’t have some way to deal with that. It’s possible they have a way to fix it. It’s a good idea to go talk to Sakura about it.”
Twilight nodded, excited. Was it possible that Fluttershy’s injury could be healed? Even if it was only a small chance, she was going to take it. She knew that Fluttershy, even if she didn’t fly often, still felt terrible about losing the ability to fly- just as well, the natural beauty that she had once possessed was now ruined- and she knew that, even if Fluttershy was shy and usually didn’t care too much about it, that every mare cared about it at least a little- and losing it had to be tragic.
Twilight wasn’t the drama queen that Rarity was, or quite the natural beauty that Fluttershy was, but she knew that it would still be tragic and she would still be incredibly depressed if something similar had happened to her. And so, Twilight felt that it was only the least she could do to try to look for a lead with the extra time that she had in this world- that could possibly result in Fluttershy being healed.
The doctors in Equestria were good, and Twilight knew they’d tried their best, but they didn’t know everything- nopony did. Somepony else could bring something new to the table about Fluttershy’s injury- and maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to heal her.
With that in mind, she resolved herself to try. She owed Fluttershy at least that much.
“I’m going now. I’ll be ready tomorrow,” Twilight said to Naruto as she left.
“Good. I’ll be waiting. Don’t worry, I think they can help,” Naruto called to her as she left his office. Twilight nodded to herself as she stepped down the stairs.
She hoped that they could help, too.
It didn’t take her long to leave the Hokage Residence, and after that, to walk through the village. It still fascinated her, all of it- the entire place- the people, the culture, the art, everything and more, all things that she could learn from this place.
There were entirely different values here, and she knew that this society was a lot more balanced than her’s was- while hers was mostly positive, killing was somewhat accepted here, at least, in some ways- she knew that all shinobi killed, and that they were still accepted, and even hailed as heroes.
As she walked through the village, Twilight thought further about that. She supposed that that was because not of what they did, but the fact that they did it- that is, even though they knew it was bad, and it certainly made them feel guilty about it later, they went through with it anyway because their village and country needed them to do it. So, in a way, they were admired, both them and their courage, because of the hard decisions that they had to make everyday in the field- and everypony knew that if they didn’t do the right thing, some could die.
Twilight didn’t approve of killing, either- she knew that nopony did from where she was from- but, over time, she’d slowly seen the need for it, even if she absolutely despised it, and it made her sick to her stomach. She didn’t think she could ever do it herself, but she could see the need for it- in a way, it was a necessary evil.
She’d still gotten the same distanced stares- people from far away, inside their houses, or down the street looking her way with undisguised curiosity. Some of them were more brave and stared at her as she passed directly beside them- they either didn’t fear her, or didn’t think that any consequences could come of it. Twilight supposed that she didn’t care about it either way- they weren’t actually doing anything to harm her, so they could look all they wanted.
She walked around for a while until she realized that she had no idea where she was going. She knew that the place was huge, and without directions, she wasn’t likely to find wherever Sakura was- the hospital, right? - Randomly, by luck. She eventually flagged down a passing shinobi who looked older and, at the very least, looked like he knew where he was going. He looked fairly strange compared to everypony else, though.
For one, his face was half covered by a mask. His mouth and nose were concealed by the black cloth, and only one eye was visible, because the other was covered up by his headband that he wore sideways- it didn’t seem to be the same way that everypony else wore it, as everyone else wore it on their forehead- meanwhile, his looked intentionally lopsided.
He had huge, untamed silvery hair- that jutted out wildly in all directions, defying both gravity and any sort of hair product that could be put to calm it somewhat. He was fairly tall and light skinned, where Twilight could see his skin, and had a similar outfit to the rest of the ninja around him that were in the village- with a flak jacket that was green and black pants with sandals, as well as a pouch and a holster.
“Excuse me,” Twilight said, and the ninja looked down at her, one eye widening in surprise for a moment before drifting back into the lazy stare he seemed to give everyone, “I’m looking for the hospital. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes. It’s down that street,” he pointed behind her, and Twilight looked as he did so, “and then you turn left, right, left, left, right.”
Twilight nodded each time as he gave the directions.
“Alright, I think I can remember that. Thank you.”
Twilight walked away, and Kakashi watched her go- before turning and walking more around the village. He didn’t go to the memorial stone; not after finding out what had happened to Obito. He was still sad for what happened to Rin, but he no longer went there. He just couldn’t, not anymore. Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets and walked away, wondering why there were talking horses inside of the village.
Twilight, a short while later, had arrived at the hospital. It had taken her a few tries- going back streets and then making a left instead of a right, but eventually, she got it. She now stood in front of a fairly large structure- towering, indeed, and still filled to the brim with people- mostly, those who had fought in the war and had received injuries that were truly debilitating. They were still trying to shorten the number of people they were housing, but only time would really help with that number.
Twilight entered the building and looked around. In some ways, it wasn’t much different than the hospitals where she came from- a lot of the building design was similar, and the colors inside, as well as outfits, somewhat, that the staff wore- but then other things were different. While people here apparently mostly healed with chakra, they still used tools a lot more than the doctors at home did- she hardly knew of scalpels or tweezers, and yet, here, they seemed a bare necessity at the very least.
She looked around in the waiting room for a little bit longer before approaching the desk. There was a bored-looking nurse there; it looked like running the desk wasn’t exactly her dream job. There weren’t many around the waiting room, but Twilight figured that she could ask first, because she didn’t have an injury, but she was just looking for someone. It took the nurse a few moments to realize Twilight was there before she leaned over the counter a bit and glanced down, and then her eyes widened in surprise.
“Hello,” Twilight said, though to the nurse, it probably sounded like a squeak, “I’m looking for a Sakura working here in the hospital?” The nurse worked her mouth stupidly, as if forming a few combinations of syllables was much more than her brain could handle. She’d heard gossip about a horse thing running around the village but she had no idea that it was actually true. She breathed a bit before she answered.
“Y-yes, actually. She should be somewhere around here- oh, hold on, let me see-“
She was cut off as the front door of the hospital was practically busted down as a few nurses ran inside with a person on a stretcher- who barey looked like he was even alive. Bloody wasn’t a term that held up to inspection- it was flowing like a fully turned on faucet from the guy. Twilight stared with horror as the medical team worked fast- and carted the guy down a hallway before turning. Soon, the desperate voices that had been listing his condition faded away as they traveled further into the hospital before there was again silence in the waiting room. Twilight glanced back up at the nurse.
“She should be around here,” the nurse said, and got up and left.
It only took her about five minutes. Later, the nurse returned- frazzled, but she seemed to be leading a half-willing Sakura by the hand towards Twilight. She nodded to Twilight, who smiled back, and then took her position at the desk again, grumbling about strange horses in the village. Sakura looked slightly annoyed, but answered Twilight anyway.
“Why did you come here?” Sakura asked, as she walked away, back to whatever she’d been doing before. Twilight decided to quickly follow- she didn’t want to lose track of her. Sakura walked pretty fast and barely gave her any time to catch up. She huffed and broke into more of a trot to keep pace with Sakura as she responded.
“Where I come from, the doctors are good, but not perfect. And my friend had an injury that they couldn’t fix, and I was wondering if you knew anyone that could fix it. Naruto said something about a Tsu-“
“Nade?” Sakura finished as they continued walking.
“Yeah, Tsunade might be able to help. What kind of wound was it?”
“It was somewhere between a third and fourth degree burn- see, it was dragonfire. She’s a Pegasus, and she got hit on the left wing with it, and it sort of… melted the wing together. Parts of the flesh are sort of cobbled together into a lump… it’s really painful, and not pretty, and she’s been pretty depressed about it ever since it happened.”
“Damn. That sounds pretty bad. Master might be able to help,” Sakura said.
“I hope so. Nopony at home could. They tried, but it was beyond them- not besides the fact that we had gotten there way too late, because it had happened while we were far away from a hospital. I was never the best at teleportation, even though my cutie mark is magic, and back then, I couldn’t teleport two ponies that far, only myself, and we had to walk… it just wasn’t a good situation for that to happen.”
“Yeah, I see what you’re saying. A burn like that, melting flesh together… it’s possible to fix it, but there’s no guarantee that we could- also, very, very painful to fix. And she had wings with feathers, right? There’s no guarantee that they’d grow back, either. We don’t have jutsu for that. For hair, maybe, but not for feathers. You ponies would have to come up with that part if you wanted her injury fully healed.”
Twilight nodded as they finally came to a stop when Sakura opened up a door and walked inside, leading Twilight along with her. Twilight entered the room and watched as med-nins wrote down notes from a board and listened to a lecture from a large-chested woman.
She had on a green coat and had blonde hair, with a rhombus- mark on the middle of her forehead. Without even trying, Twilight recognized her as the same person on the Hokage mountain- the Fifth Hokage, even if she was now retired. Many people in the group of students wrote down notes eagerly, and seemed in general just happy to be eable to learn from her.
Tsunade walked over from the students and looked down at Twilight.
“Is this the horse you’ve been telling me about?” Tsunade asked Sakura.
“Pony,” Twilight said, almost bored by now with correcting people. It didn’t seem that it would ever stop, at times- did they even have ponies here? Twilight assumed not.
“The Hokage asked me to look for you for help with a problem I have in my homeland.”
“Really, pony? And what makes you think I can help?”
“It’s a problem with a wound that we can’t cure. While I was here, I told Naruto about it, and he told me to look for you. Have I come to the right place?” Twilight asked.
Tsunade sighed and rubbed her rhombus shape on her forehead- remarking something about Naruto making deals on her behalf.
“It depends on what the wound is.”
Twilight spent the next few minutes explaining the wound in as much detail as she could muster while Sakura taught the class. By the end of it, Tsunade was nodding repeatedly, a plan rapidly forming in her mind.
“I might be able to heal it; it’s possible. It’d be pretty hard, even for me. When do you plan on taking me to do this?”
“In a few days, probably. You’ll be teaching here, right?”
“Unfortunately,” she said, glancing back at the class of med-nins, “yes. Just come here when you’re ready to take me. I’ll just grab supplies and we’ll leave.”
After that, Twilight told Tsunade goodbye and left, and eventually found her way back to the Hokage Residence- it was a lot easier finding her way to it than from it, considering that it was huge and she already sort of knew where it was.
When she got back, Twilight went to sleep in her room, and thought about tomorrow- and how she’d have to watch two friends nearly kill each other for past sins.
She just hoped that it ended well.