//------------------------------// // B-but it's not fair! // Story: Naruto: Chronicles of a swirly sky // by SilverShield //------------------------------// Hello Every pony! I've finally come around to finish this chapter sorry for the delay but I was sidetracked with school and stuff, Also I had to come up with a design you'll see in a bit, hope you guys like this one! Like & comment please. As Naruto got closer he could see the distressed look on the innkeeper's wife as she talked to one of the pegasus guards. Naruto walked faster to reach them while channeling his chakra to his ears still unsure of the effects of channeling mana through the body, as he neared the gates he managed to begin hearing the conversation. "-please Mr. Guard you have to do something, she's too small to be out by herself" the mare begged to the armored stallion who shook his head at her and answered. "Listen lady, I already told you we dispatched what forces we could to search for her, we cannot send any more soldiers without lowering the gates security and we need it" he told her in a serious manner while narrowing his eyes in annoyance "If the guards find her they will bring her here but we cant spare another soldier". Naruto reached them at last and she took notice of him "Mr. Nataro! did you by chance see Apricot around while you were outside, she left to collect some flowers but she hasn't come back in hours and it's getting dark" she asked him with a very concerned look in her face while the guard rolled his eyes at the display. Naruto shook his head "Sorry Mrs. but I didn't see her on my way back" he said and immediately noticed she was about to cry, his old heroic instincts kicked in and he immediately said "but don't worry I'll go look for her I promise I'll bring her home safe" he said giving her a smile that glinted his teeth like his old big eyebrowed friend back in Konoha, he tried to give a thumbs up but well, he didn't have any fingers in his hoof. "Thank you so much please get my daughter safely home she went to collect flowers in a field that way" she said as she pointed towards some hills close by "she never delays this much, i fear something bad happened to her please hurry" she begged Naruto who placed a hoof on her shoulder and nodded reassuringly before taking of towards the hills. "Kurama I need your help, access my senses and tell me as soon as you notice anything" Naruto said while he an towards the place the Innkeeper pointed to Kurama nodded and began working its chakra through Naruto's senses. Naruto reached the place and found nothing amiss however Kurama immediately noticed something was wrong 'Over there Naruto, the grass is disturbed there and I notice the scent of both a pony and a snake of some sort' he said and Naruto turned his head and noticed the flat grass as well he took to follow the trail as fast as he could. Dashing up and down several hills Naruto followed the indications of Kurama, he was getting closer to the mountain range and he begun remembering the warning of Arcane Tome, what if one of the beasts of the mountain took the little Apricot, it had to be related to a snake, he had no idea what a manticore was but he the way Arcane said it, a manticore was the least of his concerns, a chimera would make more sense as it was part snake, though he didn't know what part. Naruto steeled himself as the scent got stronger, he was gaining terrain fast and he was preparing, at worse he would have to face a dragon... a ryu from his old world was a creature of legend whose roar could split the sky and call down storms with its voice, if this held true in this world then Naruto had one chance to grab the girl and leave as fast as he could, he might have to enter his Chakra-Sage mode for that though. Shaking his head Naruto pushed the more pessimistic thoughts a side as he dashed to reach the girl, the scent was getting stronger and according to Kurama it was deeply mixed with fear but he couldn't smell blood, that was good so far as he was getting closer to the source. Naruto noticed a cave the side of a rocky mountain, the smells came from there "so whatever it was it took her back to it's cave, at least its not too big" he says to Kurama as he notices the entrance to the cave being around two meters in height. Naruto noticed the cave had no smells coming from it and Kurama told him that the scent of the little pony and the snake had left at different intervals, that meant that Apricot had managed to scape and the creature followed her, Naruto nodded and jumped down the mountain to reach the place the scents were coming from. Naruto finally reached the site and almost froze at the sight of both the creature and Apricot, the creature was indeed a snake, a cobra it seemed, it was big, too big perhaps, it was brown with a creamy underbelly completely covered in thick sharp scales, two horns curved upwards from the cobra's dragon like snout, the fangs were large but they didn't seem to drip venom, its eyes were the most disturbing thing though, a sickly yellow iris and a slitted pupil swimming in a sea of a red sclera, and these eyes seemed to be present in the cobra's hood, the tip o its tail resembled a rattlesnake but instead of the rattle it were various dark brown spikes. Apricot herself seemed to be struggling to run to no avail as her legs were paralyzed in stone, part of her tail and face were also covered in the stony skin, seemingly the cobra had the power to petrify her, Naruto remembered Arcane's bestiary and immediately knew what this overgrown snake was. "A Basilisk..." Naruto whispered making the beast turn towards him and throw itself at him with blinding speed Naruto barely had time to dodge as the creature rammed its head against a stone, the basilisk hissed at him rattling its mace like tail, and opening its hood, Naruto closed his eyes to prevent petrification, however the snake tossed itself at him, he managed to jump evading the ramming basilisk once again, Naruto was inexperienced fighting with his new body so he had no idea how to actually deal with the aggressive cobra monster but to dodge its attacks. Naruto circled the beast carefully so as not to see the eyes in the hood however he could feel the basilisk's magic penetrating his skin slowly and turning it to stone gradually, Naruto cursed as he dodged the creature once again, barely escaping as he was slowed by the petrification. Naruto knew he was in trouble, apricot was scared and crying o the half of her face not yet turned to stone, and he could feel his body being turned to stone slowly in spite of not looking directly at the basilisk's eyes, the magic it irradiated was strong, no wonder it didn't have poison, it didn't need it with petrifying magic this strong, Naruto cursed once more being forced to dodge as the gigantic cobra tossed its body at him once more. Naruto was too slow next time however as the creature managed to hit him with its mace like tail, tossing him to the ground, where the creature encircled him and opened ts hood trying to petrify Naruto as fast as it could, Naruto was desperate he could feel the strong muscles of the snake preventing him from moving properly and his skin turning to stone in spite of him closing his eyes. Naruto begun think why the basilisk could turn things to stone by looking at them, and he thought back to his old friend/rival's sharingan/rinnegan and how it could force people to genjutsu even if they didn't stare at the eyes straight, it worked because sasuke forced his chakra into another person using his eyes as conduits, perhaps this basilisk was doing something similar, hwo to counter act it was the problem, he could shut up or flare his chakra as this was not magic and it would not do much, and his magic was mostly unknown to him so how to deny petrification he wondered. Then it came to him as he was petrified to the neck, Arcane told him all magic was the same, just channeled differently, perhaps he could connect to the magic the snake was putting on him and turning it to a different incantation would work but how was the question. Naruto concentrated to try and feel how the snake's magic felt in comparison to his own and how to take it for himself, it was hard and his face had mostly turned to stone by then, but as the stone skin was about to cover the very tip of his horn Naruto found the connection, and his horn glowed a brilliant orange. All magic is the same, all magic is connected, what is important s how this connections work and how can one manipulate this connection between all beings, not only magic but chakra shared the same connection, so it was beyond just magic, it was the connection of all life, a harmony in and of itself, Naruto took this connection between his magic and the basilisk's magic and took it for himself, undoing what the basilisk had done. An explosion of energy threw the basilisk off Naruto, burning at the creature's scales as Naruto seemed to never have been turned to stone, his opened eyes were glowing with a golden orange fire and his horn was ablaze with the golden orange light, Naruto lowered his head pointing at the creature with his horn and kicked at the ground as he rammed the basilisk as the serpent had done to him before. The surprise on the basilisk's face was short lived after Naruto pierced it's thick scales with his blazing horn, ripping off a couple of the serpent's bone plates, the basilisk soon retaliated slamming it's spiked tail on where Naruto was standing being surprised as the pony was enveloped in a golden orange blaze and stopped the mace with one hoof effortlessly. Naruto turned around and said to the near petrified filly behind him "Hold on for a second Apricot, I'll set you free after I deal with this overgrown snake" he said and turned his neck once more facing the serpent his now golden eyes ablaze with determination "Now you, you big stupid lizard, I've had my share of giant snakes my whole life, and while you are big you are not even half the size of the large ass snake I killed when I was 13, so take this as a lesson" he said gripping the mace like tail of the confused Basilisk. Almost immediately the serpent was pulled by the tail and smashed against the floor or some rocks, the punishment was felt heavily by the creature as the impacts even managed to break a fang, a horn and some of his back spikes, as well as crack some bone plates, the serpents was tired when Naruto uttered "Don't prey on little ponies unless you're ready to confront the big consequences, you puny worm" with that the basilisk was wary of the blonde unicorn once again as Naruto begun concentrating energy on his horn. The magic-chakra mixture flowed into the tip of the horn and swirled around before being compressed into a glowing white orb that seemed to be containing a tornado of swirling energy the sphere began sparkling little white stars and Naruto finished making the jutsu, he then yelled "Starlight Rasengan!" and he then rammed the sphere into the belly of the basilisk not only giving knocking the snake unconscious immediately but flinging it away with such force that the large creature slammed into the mountain on the distance and seemingly landed in it's own cave where the impact caused the entrance to crumble and close itself Naruto dusted his hoofs and cracked his neck then he concentrated and the blazing aura dissipated and he sighed knowing he had to train hard in his new pony form, since he actually was forced into his chakra sage mode to survive this encounter, though it was cool to be able to connect to the basilisk's magic and take it over, he really shouldn't have gotten to that point so easily. Naruto turned and looked at the shocked filly behind him half turned into stone already he got closer to her and touched his horn against the stony skin in her forehead his horn glowed that golden orange once again and the stone began dissolving back into skin, soon after the little yellow pony was freed of her stone prison and she was still gaping wide-eyed at him and what he did. "H-How did you do that Mister Naruko! that was so cool and awesome! I've never seen anyone overpower a Basilisk even the guards back home have to go in group to repel one from the city much less defeat a basilisk one on one so... effortlessly! it was awesome" she yelled as she broke out of her stupor however one thing bothered Naruto immensely. "Oh for Kami's sake! I just saved your life and not even you can pronounce my name correctly! what the heck!?" Naruto yelled to the heavens before putting his head on the ground and covering it with his front hoofs, his non-corporeal partner laughing his ass off at the new pony's misfortune however he was taken back to rality as he heard the voice of apricot. "Well you cant exactly blame us Naturo, your name is not common nor is it easy to pronounce, you should change it to something easier to pronounce, what does Nakuto even means?" she asked to the groveling unicorn. "It is an awesome name it means Maelstrom a swirling vortex in the water of awesome power-ttebayo!" Naruto yelled at her form his weird position whining about his awesome name after beating a basilisk gave the litle pony beside him a weird impression to say the least. "Well if you want to keep some semblance of your name, why not change it to something like swirl or whirlpool" she then noticed something as Naruto's cape slid off slightly from his battle "how about Star Swirl you know considering your cutiemark" she finished in a rather nonchalant way. Naruto took a few seconds to process what she just said and then took a couple more seconds after that "What!? I got a butt tattoo?!" was Naruto's yell as he stood up and turned looking at his flank. Indeed in his flank was proudly emblazoned a design that wasn't there before, it consisted of 4 silvery blue stars of varying sizes all connected by a dark blue spiral. "Holy Ramen! i do have a mark in my butt!" he said looking at the spiral mark and then looking at Apricot "I'm not calling myself Star Swirl that's the Girliest Name I've heard!" Naruto huffed indignantly making Kurama laugh his as off in his mind. "But why not? it seems perfect for you" the little yellow filly asked as Naruto began walking her back to the city. "Just because no! It sounds too girly! I need something with more I don't know... coolness!" Naruto rambled "Like Maelstrom Galaxy or Whirlpool Star, or Spiral Constellation, or my actual name Uzumaki Naruto Dammit!" Naruto whined as he moved towards he city while making sure nothing happened to Apricot. "Yeah I'll just call you Star Swirl" deadpanned the filly as Naruto stumbled and whined. "B-but it's not fair!" Naruto cried to the laughter of both his tenant and the filly he was in charge of, he just wished the was ramen in this world to soothe his pains.