//------------------------------// // Those butt tattoos // Story: Naruto: Chronicles of a swirly sky // by SilverShield //------------------------------// Hello every-pony! here is the next chapter, I hope this one brings a bit more light on Naruto's situation at least concerning the location since I believe the time period was clear in the previous chapter but anyway lets continue with the story why don't we? Naruto depressingly trotted forward on the dirt road mumbling under his breath a thousand curses and making threatening promises, to whatever god there was out there. "Stop your incessant whining Naruto, I already told you that you have to get used to this new world and that includes its food sources, besides you can always make some ramen yourself its not like its such a complicated dish, its just an over rated soup" came the words of Kurama as he covered his ears from Naruto's dumb food related monologue. Naruto gasped "How dare you! ramen was a gift of kami! it was the single most delicious food there was, besides all I know how to make is a basic vegetable ramen because ayame-neechan didn't want to teach me any recipe that wasn't healthy" Naruto huffed with indignation "anyway how far are we from the nearest settlement, I've yet to accustom myself to walking in hooves, though it is comfortable i don't want to walk all night" Naruto asked his fox friend as he kept moving down the road. Kurama consulted the memory of the map Naruto saw in the book "Mmm well not too far really i think if you hurry up you´ll make it before sunset, just take the next exit to the right" the fox said while looking at other areas of the map. Naruto nodded and he saw the exit a little down the road, as he neared the town he noticed some clouds and some shadows flying around them "So those are Pegasus huh? no wonder I didn't see a single cloud in the road they only bring weather to towns and especially towns with crops" Naruto noted as he saw some clouds raining on top of the farms but being just comfortably shady in the other areas of town. Kurama then thought of something "Hey if this is a mixed town unlike the previous earth pony based village then maybe there will be some unicorns, you could learn to use their witchcraft don't you think?" Kurama asked of Naruto, trying to make his host and friend (reluctantly) more adapted to this new world. Naruto thought for a second "You know that might not be a bad Idea but considering what we learned from the books I'd say they probably don't call their abilities witchcraft and it was mostly bias from the writer, maybe they call it something differently like chakra or jutsu hopefully" Naruto thought. "Lets try not to jump to conclusions and subtly try and make them tell us what it is and then teach it to you ok?" answered Kurama to Naruto's thoughts. Naruto nodded and noticed as he got closer to the center of the town that there were a few buildings floating in the air that appeared to be made of clouds "They build their houses with clouds? I wonder if it's a resistant material?" Naruto thought. Once in town he turned his side to side discreetly so as to check on every pony that passed to see if anyone was a unicorn, after a few minutes he noticed that even though Pegasus lived here the streets had nothing but earth ponies "mmm I wonder why?" in that moment an rather young earth pony with a light yellow coat and reddish brown mane was looking at him making Naruto slightly uncomfortable with her large green eyes "Can I help you kid?" he tentatively asked. "Why are you here mister unicorn? I thought yer caravan had left yesterday with our food?" the young filly asked with a strange but adorable accent and that answered Naruto's question immediately Unicorns did not live here they sent caravans for the food tribute and the last one already left, the pegasus probably lived here because they helped maintain the field with more frequency that the unicorns came "did they forget ye sir?" the big eyed earth filly asked again. "No little one, they did not forget me I'm not part of them I'm just a wanderer and not part of the Unicorn kingdom though I am searching for the unicorns could you tell me where did they go?" Naruto said to the little filly. The filly nodded and pointed Naruto to the east wall where he could devise a wooden gate that was being closed "They left that way mister but they are closing the walls already 'cause the sun's going down so you should find somewhere to sleep till t'morrow" she said while pointing then to an inn next to the gates "but travel thought the forest can be dangerous I reckon tha best way ta meet them unicorns would be to wait net weeks caravan mister" she said to him. Naruto nodded to the little filly and reached a hoof under his cloak into the saddle bags, he took a nice sized gem and offered it to the little filly noting that by coincidence the gem was an emerald the same color as the fillies eyes "Thank you little one take this with my appreciation, look its the same color of your eyes" he said with a smile that curved his eyes much like his previous gray-haired sensei. The little filly's eyes grew twice as big surprising Naruto who thought she was already as adorable as possible "Really!? thank you kind sir you're nothing like the meanie Unicorns that come here sometimes thanks!" she grinned and pulled on his hoof "here! the Inn is run by me parents" she said with a smile took the green gem in her mouth as she trotted off. Naruto shrugged and followed the filly to the inn it was just a few blocks from where they stood before and while it wasn't a big building it seemed cozy enough. Once Naruto entered the inn followed by the filly the pony behind the counter raised an eyebrow, he was a brown earth pony with a slicked back dark brown mane and a thick mustache, he had on blue vest and a red bow tie "Apricot where have ya been filly? and who is this...Unicorn" he said the last part without emotions, no anger or mistrust just boredom of his presence. "Look papa! Mr unicorn gave me this!" She said holding the emerald "he got no place ta stay tha night, can he stay here?" the little filly said with a smile in her face, the elder pony looked over at Naruto and grunted a response. "Ye sure ye wanna stay in tis old inn sir Unicorn? sure there are fancier inns round town for ye kin, with bigger rooms ta boot, I could even take ye thar if ye wanted" he said narrowing his eyes fully expecting him to accept the better inns. "Nah thank you for your proposal but I'll be fine just give me a modest room I don't like too much luxury really it kind of makes me uncomfortable" Naruto said the last part partially covering his muzzle with his hoof "besides I need to find some things around town before I leave so maybe I'll stay tomorrow as well, otherwise this inn is conveniently close to the exit so it's all good" Naruto said with a smile. Mumbling a bit the elder pony shrugged and said "I s'pose tha Jewell is tha payment fer the room?" he said while trying to see how to take the Jewell from his daughter without disappointing her, when he heard a little laughter come from the robed Unicorn. "Nah I gave that to her because she helped me a while back the payment will be independent of that it was just a gift in appreciation" Naruto said with a smile as he entered further in the inn and handed the moustachioed pony a small bag full of bits. The Earth pony was surprised by all this, most unicorn were snobby and pompous, but this one was kind, generous and modest, perhaps he was different or not time would reveal more though so he just nodded and counted the bits, he then reached for a key to a medium sized room, it wasn't the cheapest one but not the largest either. "There ye go boy 3rd room to tha right, follow me I'll open it fer ye and help you settle in" he said as he walked to the room this being next to the stairs leading to the second story, directly opposite of the room was the kitchen Naruto noted. The pony unlocked the door and pushed it open with his hooves, once in Naruto noted it was a fair sized room with a good sized closet a large but invariable single bed and a nightstand with a lamp, it had a window with the curtains drawn on the left side of the bed, and a comfy rug decorated the floor, to the right of the entrance was a small open door leading to a private bathroom, and to the left side there was a mid-sized table "This is perfect it will do until I meet the Unicorns thank you" Naruto said as the innkeeper nodded. "Now the room has its own bathroom, the bed box has two drawers and there's hot water if you want to take a bath, it doesn't have a bathtub but the shower is big, breakfast is at 7am, meals are at 3 pm and dinnertime is at 8 pm, you can serve yourself to anything in the kitchen in the white freezer, you can.." he trailed off about the hotel but shut up as he saw Naruto take off his cloak, he immediately noted the lack of a cutie mark in the strange unicorn and was shocked "boy! ye ain't got yer cutie mark yet?! thought it was impossible at yer age!" the innkeeper said exalted. "A cutie what now?" Naruto said while the pony gave him an incredulous look and pointed at his blank flank Naruto took a few seconds to think about where he was pointing not getting what was wrong "Maybe he means the strange markings we've seen in the other adult ponies you know like he who has a scroll and a plume" was the input of Kurama. "You mean those butt tattoos? nah I don't have any of those dunno why everyone else has them though" Naruto wondered much to the brown earth pony's surprise "are they some king of ritual marking or something?" he honestly wondered. "A ritual ma... Where have ye been living boy!? in a cave?" was the stupefied answer of the innkeeper much to his shock though Naruto instantly answered with a short "yep" much to his eye-twitching surprise "boy yer seriously bonkers, listen well boy a cutie mark is yer callin in life what yer very special talent is and yer destiny how can ye not know that stuff?" he asked the grey unicorn. "Wait you're telling me that those pictures naturally appear once a per...pony finds their true talent? how is that even possible?" he said much to himself as to the stallion and Kurama, Kurama had no idea and apparently the earth stallion didnt either since he just shrugged and said. "It just is boy there ain't no logic to it" he said casually as if dismissing this ridiculous statement "Look I ain't got a clue on why ye don't know this stuff but if ye want ah can tell ye all ye want in detail but t'morrow cuz I'm tired and me wife is asleep from a while ago just sleep and we can talk 'bout it t'morrow" he said as he rubbed his forehead with his hoof and left. Naruto was confused and shocked "wait does that mean that that destiny bullshit that Neji spoke about is real?" Naruto asked to himself but got an answer from Kurama "I doubt it, the simplest explanation based on what we just found out is that their tattoos show what they are the best at and they build their futures based on this special skill, and they just call it destiny besides, destiny is what you are meant to be not what the world dictates you will do like the fate thing Neji believed in" Kurama said "Thanks Kurama I guess I needed that" Naruto sighed as he went to bed. Naruto turned off the light and noted through the window how the Pegasus hit the clouds to make it rain and wondered what using magic would actually be like. The next morning came rather quickly and Naruto had barely slept at all, once it was around 6:30 Naruto got out of the room and headed to the kitchen where there was some people reunited in the table, there was the little filly from yesterday as well as her father the innkeeper, there was also a dark blue stallion with a spiky black mane with a ruby red streak sipping some coffee his eyes and mark hidden by the position he was in next to the owner and a light green mare with a pink mane her eyes were the same shade of pink as her mane and she had a cluster of white flowers as her cutie mark. He saw that a pale yellow pony with a messy reddish orange mane, her tail was just as messy and she had a black pot with steam as her cutie mark "possibly her talent is cooking" Kurama thought and Naruto reasoned the same since that's what she was doing. The fist to notice him was the innkeeper pony "Ah mister unicorn ye finally came out of ye room, good that e join us fer tha breakfast, this here be apricot Jam, me daughter" he said while ruffling the mane of the filly whom he met yesterday "these here be Endicott Bloom" he said while pointing to the green mare who nodded and smiled at him "and Ironblood" said stallion lowered the newspaper looking at Naruto with apathetic red eyes and nodded to him before he resumed reading his paper they both be livin in tha inn as guests and that over there be me lovely wife Ginger Breeze" he said as the cook turned and waved at Naruto with a warm smile even in her bright green eyes "I finally there be me Cocoa Butter at ye service welcome ta Starlight Inn and ye be?" he said while looking expectantly at Naruto. Naruto smiled and shook Cocoa's hoof "My name is Naruto Uzumaki glad to meet you all" he said and he didn't miss the strange look that passed through everyone's faces, even the inexpressive Ironblood raised an eyebrow. "Naru..what now? boy that be a mouthful ta say care to repeat that?" Cocoa said while Naruto just raised an eyebrow and realized from the way the ponies spoke that his name actually did sound strange. "Ehm.... just call me Naruto I guess" Naruto said and saw with a sweat drop how the other ponies were mouthing the name still. "Ehm alright Naru-toe? ye have a real odd name boy but anyhow lets get eatin fist and we can have our talk after" he said thankful that Apricot had not seen that Naruto had no cutie mark, she'd get traumatized since she was worrying about her own cutie mark. Naruto nodded and took a seat across Cocoa between Ironblood and Endicott Bloom, soon enough Ginger Breeze came with a few plates balanced and her hoofs, she took a paddle in her mouth and began serving everyone some very flat and folded soft breads that had had some kind of white cream and strawberries inside and a white powder on top, it seemed to be toasted as well, Naruto's curiosity gained the best of him as the sweet smell invaded his nostrils "mmm smells delicious Ms Breeze, what is it?" he said trying to dissimulate his curiosity. Ginger smiled and sad "Why thank you Narutoh its my own recipe of strawberry toasted pancakes but I doubt they are that uncommon surely you've seen them before right?" she asked the dark gray unicorn who shook his head but didn't speak since he had his mouth full "my how awful then by all means dearie take some more!" she said as she used he paddle to give Naruto a few extra pancakes who gladly took them and shoved prepared to eat them as well. After breakfast Endicott and Ironblood left the inn Naruto noted that Ironblood had an anvil and hammer for a cutie mark so maybe he was a blacksmith? soon Naruto's musings were cut short by Cocoa who harrumphed to call his attention. "Now boy i reckon ye have no idea of what a cutie mark is right?" Cocoa asked to receive a nod "well it be like 'tis, a cutie mark be a pony's talent not just any talent tough, but what yer best at in yer life!, it be the definition of yerself and boy if ye dedicate to its meaning i reckon ye be tha happiest fella ye can be" he told Naruto "nopony decides anothers destiny a cutie mark is the ultimate definition of oneself and nopony else get it boy?" . Naruto did get it with the help of Kurama, it was what they had believed before but they just got confirmation but then thought came to Naruto "And how can I get my cutie mark for example?" he asked Cocoa who just shook his head with a few chuckles. "Noone can give ye yer cutie mark ye have to discover it yerself, and earn it too, just do what feels nat'ral and ye'll find what it be" he said as he went upstairs leaving Naruto alone in the kitchen. With questions in his mind Naruto decided to forget about it and take a visit to the library, maybe there he'd find something about the magic of Unicorns that's not written by earth pony's calling it 'witchcraft'.