//------------------------------// // Luna's ability // Story: Akatsuki in Equestria // by chaos2012 //------------------------------// music link Luna charged at Itachi, her horn glowing brightly as she shot a beam of magic at him. Itachi barely moved his head, allowing the blast to harmlessly pass by as he slipped out several shuriken stars and threw them at the approaching alicorn. Luna quickly shot out a cluster of her own magic beams, each one precise and hitting the shuriken out of the air before they came close to her. Before she could see however, Itachi dashed her direction with a Kunai clenched in his mouth. Quickly summoning her blade, the princess brought it forward and clashed against the cold steel. Jumping forward, Itachi swung his head and slashed his blade sideways as Luna swung upward, the two weapons sparking as they clashed against each other. Even with such a small weapon, Itachi was blocking the princesses long sword with no trouble. From the corner of Itachi's eye, he noticed the incoming guards of Luna's, their horns all glowing and ready to fight. Looking back at Luna, he jumped up and spit the Kunai at Luna, making her fall back to block it. Eyes going back to the guards, he dropped down into the center of them and readied himself. Night Shine was the first to charge him, his horn forming a magical whip and snapping it at Itachi. The sharingan user didn't have to move, since his eyes could easily judge the movement of the long weapon. Just as the tip came snapping at him, he shifted his head down just enough for the whip to graze a few loose strands of mane from his head before charging the awestruck unicorn. Without a moments hesitation, he brought a hoof up to land a quick punch into the captains face, but his strike was stopped by a small patch of shield made my one of the other guards. "Hmm, quick move..." Itachi muttered, "But a foolish one." In the blink of an eye, Itachi slipped a Kunai with an explosive tag from his sleeve and stuck it into the side of the barrier. Night Shine noticed the end of the tag sizzling, giving him an odd feeling creeping up his spine. "Both of you, scatter!" Following his orders, all three lunar unicorns jumped back, but to their shock Itachi didn't move. The next moment, a bright explosion illuminated the spot where the soldiers were, engulfing the dark pony with it. Luna sat in shock at the act. "He... He just killed himself. Why?" Suddenly from above, the sound of hooves clopping together caught the princesses attention. Looking up, her heart skipped a beat at the sight; Itachi was above her, completely unscathed. His bright eyes stared down at hers, making her blood run cold. "What's going on, he was just caught in that blast..."she stuttered to herself. "Fire style; fire ball jutsu." A large ball of fire erupted from Itachi's mouth down at Luna, shocking her out of her daze. The princess quickly teleported herself out from beneath the blast before it crashed into the dirt. Reappearing to the side, she watched as Itachi landed back onto the ground and looked her way. The black shape of his Mangekyo stood out among his blood red sharingan, sending a small chill down the princesses spine. Confused at what had actually happened, she looked back towards the clearing smoke from the bomb tag and noticed something odd; a log with a white piece of paper was inside the crater instead of a body. Knowing what she was looking at, Itachi gave her the answer she wanted, "substitution jutsu. Replacing my body with another object." He stopped speaking when he noticed the sound of charging hoofsteps, seeing the trio of guards charging him once again. Seeing this annoyed the akatsuki member. He put his hooves together followed by the sudden blur from behind him, revealing itself to he two shadow clones of himself. The guards eyes went wide in shock as the two clones suddenly charged them. "Watch out!" Night Shine yelled out as he jumped to the side, dodging the first clone as it came down of the ground. The lunar stallion spun around and shot a blast of magic at the clone, but its speed was too fast, ducking under the attack and came at him with a Kunai. Whiplash quickly formed a shield around his captain to protect him, but before he could set the spell the second clone jumped at him and imbedded a blade into the unicorns knee. "Whiplash!" Moon Lit yelled out at his injured Friend. Before he could run to help him however, that one clone dashed at him faster than he could even see, wrapping its hooves around his neck and throwing him to the ground. Not giving the shocked unicorn a chance to recover, the Itachi clone slammed his hoof into the ponies knee from the side, cracking the joint instantly. Night Shine was in shock; they had hardly begun fighting, and in just minutes, this pony had easily taken on several members including himself with ease. Angered, he quickly shot out a stream of magic, which was luckily fast enough to strike the second clone, forcing it to disappear. His victory however was cut short when the other clone swung a hoof around and struck him in the back of the neck, knocking him out instantly. Luna winced as she saw the quick mix of events play out in front of her. The sound of her soldiers scream out in pain, seeing them easily overwhelmed by this dark pony. Her blood began to boil as she turned, glaring back at the real Itachi standing in front of her. "How dare thou hurt my guards!" "Your guards were interfering with the fight between us..." Itachi coldly stated. "I would have preferred it they had stayed out of it from the beginning." The lunar princess bared her teeth in anger. "Whatever your goal in our world is, I will not allow it to continue any longer!" Bursting off the ground, she swung her head forward and released an arc of magic. Itachi jumped to the right to evade the incoming swinging aura, landing on a rock and jumped off it towards the princess. Pulling out another Kunai, he brought it forward to strike, but was caught off guard as a column of Earth exploded up from beneath him and made impact with his midsection. Luna forced the column higher up as it lifted her opponent, preparing to slam him back down and- Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke. "What!?" Luna gasped. She couldn't believe that was a clone too, since... "No." Flipping back to her soldiers, she saw the other clone standing there, but realized it was never a clone; that was the real Itachi. Somehow when making his shadow clones, he mixed himself into the group in such a smooth motion that she was unable to even see it. "His skill is beyond that of the other pony I have ever fought." Luna said to herself. Itachi stared at her, almost as if to taunt her at showing his pure talent in deception. Being placed as a captain to the secret police in his old village, the Anbu Black ops at just thirteen years old, Itachi was perhaps one of the most skilled shinobi in secret and stealth combat in his time. Sighing, he brought out another Kunai blade from his sleeve. "It appears that you have failed to see a simple shadow clone trick, princess. Due to your mistake, your guards will suffer that fate." "No!" Luna screamed out, but it was to no use as Itachi slashed Whiplash across the neck. Blood squirted out as the pony thrashed about in agony, desperately trying to stop the flow but to no avail. Luna tried to run forward, but to her shock, she was frozen. Her legs were stiff as a board and would not budge no matter how hard she tried to move. "Wh-what's going on!?" She glanced down at her body, And in shock noticed how her hooves her actually locked into the ground, stone locked on her fur and keeping her body in place. "What? When did he do this?" She mumbled in utter confusion. Looking back up, Luna stared as Itachi turned his attention to the next helpless guard. "Now Luna, watch as you are the cause of their deaths." The screams of the other night guards rang out into the night as Itachi shoved his blade into them as well, sending a tremor of pain into Luna's heart. She was helpless here, doing nothing while her guards were being slaughtered in front of her. But as she tried to move again, she found it impossible to go and help them. All she could do watch in complete torment while all three of them slowly bled out, their life trickling into the dirt beneath them. It was like a living nightmare that Luna was having, unable to do anything while- Music link 'A nightmare...' The princess whispered to herself. She then looked back up to Itachi, who simply stared right back at her. She then looked down at her hooves, and remembered how he never did a technique for this in the entire time they fought. Not only that, but she realized she had never felt the stone grab onto her until she actually saw it. "Something's wrong..." She whispered to herself. At first Luna was horrified at the events unfolding, but the more the analyzed her surroundings, she felt something was... Off. Whatever she was experiencing, it was a similar feeling that she has seen for her entire life. Nightmares that ponies cannot escape from. All inside the mind. 'This isn't real...' She said to herself, 'it's an illusion.' She then realized this was the same technique he had used when she tried to strike him earlier; a power which warps the mind into believing something else is happening even though it is not. Almost like hypnosis, but much stronger. Luna then put everything together.. 'This is like the powers of nightmares over the subconscious, something I can manipulate.' Closing her eyes, Luna concentrated and focused her magic into her horn. The next instant, a thin wave of aura pulsed outward, surrounding the princess in magic and clearing the dark energy inside of her head. After a moment, she reopened her eyes to see the stone at her hooves had disappeared. Glancing back up, she still saw Itachi standing with the injured guards, but to her relief they were all alive. Smiling she trotted towards her foe. "It seems your power also involves tricking my mind. Very clever, but I can see through it now." Itachi's eyes opened slightly in surprise, noticing she wasn't under his power anymore 'She can break through genjutsu? Impossible.' In his time as a shinobi, he hadn't come across a person who could simply break through genjutsu by simply trying to fight it. Overtaking the mind, genjutsu cast a powerful illusion over the senses, taking control of the conscious and subconscious to create scenarios and feelings that are not real. With powerful enough use, ones mind can break from the stress it puts over it. While he hadn't used the tsukuyomi, his genjutsu was far beyond that of most shinobi, and only other high level genjutsu users could counter it. The akatsuki member looked down to the injured guards at his hooves, then back up to the princess. He had hoped after taking out the simple guards, using a genjutsu trick on the princess, he could easily torment her mind to the point where she didn't have the will to fight anymore. This change had made it more interesting for himself. "You have the ability to counteract the effects of genjutsu. I never expected that to ever occur in a place like this." "I am the princess of the night, and therefore I am dutied into overseeing the dreams of my ponies. The mind is a powerful object, and I have seen and felt the effects when something like this enters a ponies life. Now, while I could go on talking about my powers, I would rather punish you for the actions that have been done!" Pumping her wings, she burst off the dirt directly at him. Itachi blankly stared at the approaching princess, his Mangekyo sharingan eyes shining bright in the night. "I must say princess, you are truly different than the others I have seen here. From what I have seen, you have the power that could easily be within our organization... If you weren't so eager to rush into combat to die." Luna felt a nerve jump at those words, sending a sense of worry through her. Just to be cautious, she halted her approach and landed on the ground to keep some space between him and her. Taking a deep breath, Luna eyed the Uchiha cautiously for any sign of an attack. From what she had seen so far, his agility was far beyond any pony she had ever seen before. To rush in like she was just doing would certainly be foolish of her. He could easily be waiting to throw a counterstrike her way when she wasn't expecting it. "So, your ways of speaking to others are quite interesting. You assault my soldiers with no remorse of pain, and yet you give me praise for countering your evil magic. And you even warned me about a foolish tactic in fighting. Why?" The dark stallion sighed as he used his hoof to brush out part of his mane that fell in front of his eyes. "I was giving you credit for your ability to fight me for this long. Your guards lack the necessary skill to challenge me in any form of combat. You however contain quite a unique talent I haven't seen in a long time. And I warned you since I see it disappointing when talent is wasted upon beings that don't know how to use it. However..." His cold eyes lifted up to her direction, "Whether I warned you or not, the results will be the same. No level of power you possess is near enough to be considered in my league." In a small amount of truth, he was actually surprised at her ability to counter the few combo attacks he had thrown at her. Not only that, her strange power was also able to counter his genjutsu, something he has not experienced since he could remember. The alicorns speed and trained magic easily balancing with his in this fight. So far.