Daily Life of an Equestrian Ninja

by PianoPony


Chapter 23- Cutie Marked for Disaster

Chapter 23- Cutie Marked for Disaster

The next morning…

Naruto stretched his limbs as he slowly woke up, pushing away the covers of his bed in Carousel Boutique’s guest room, where he had made his temporary home for the past few weeks. He got up to a sitting position, rubbing the sleep off his eyes, and then turned to look down. The nine-tailed fox was lying on the purple, round carpet next to the bed, but he seemed wide awake by now. He looked outside the window at the blue sky.

Contemplating whether to say anything to him or not, Naruto stared at him for a minute or so. Then, to his absolute shock, the fox turned towards him. “Good morning,” he said in a low-tone growl. He didn’t sound sarcastic in the least.

Naruto stared at him, blinking and slowly processing what it just said. “Umm… Good morning?” he replied hesitantly. “Why is he being so polite?”

“Just because I feel like it,” the fox said. “I can hear your thoughts,” he then reminded the blond human upon seeing his surprised expression.

“Umm… Is something wrong?” the ninja asked, worried about his behavior despite what transpired between them last night.

The fox took his time answering, still gazing at the clear sky outside. “It’s… Nothing,” he finally said, but still seemed to be deep in thought. Naruto felt that the fox won’t appreciate it, to say the least, if he kept trying to extort more information from him, so he just left it at that for the moment.

*****

After the very brief conversation, Naruto got dressed and retracted the fox’s chakra back inside him. He then brushed his teeth and headed downstairs to eat breakfast. By that time, Sweetie Belle was probably already at school, so he only expected Rarity to be there.

“Morning, Rarity!” the ninja called as he entered the kitchen. His eyes promptly widened in shock as he saw himself eating breakfast. “What the hay…?”

“Morning, me!” Naruto waved while taking a bite of toast. He was still wearing a pajama, and was sitting at the table in front of a large plate of salad and omelet.

“Good morning, Naruto… Again,” Rarity said, arching a brow in surprise.

“So… What’s going on?” Naruto asked, having a hard time processing all this after just waking up.

“I would like to know that myself. Did you not use that ‘shadow jutsu’ of yours?” the white mare inquired.

“No, I didn’t. Unless I somehow used it in my sleep,” Naruto replied, quite confused.

“Yep, you were asleep when I appeared, so I just got ahead and had some breakfast,” the Naruto at the table smiled.

“You know, even if you eat, I’ll still get hungry!” Naruto frowned. “Sorry, clone, but your time is up,” he said as he made a hand seal. “Release!”

Rarity stared at Naruto, Naruto stared at Naruto, and Naruto stared at Naruto. This kept on for a while, until Naruto finally burst. “Why aren’t you disappearing?!”

Naruto shrugged, and continued eating. Naruto got pissed off. “That’s it. You’re going the hard way then,” he said, promptly smacking him upside the head.

“Ouch! What’s your problem?!” the clone yelled as he got up and was about to strike back, when his fist was frozen in mid-air, encased by a light blue aura.

“Boys, boys. There is no need to fight amongst yourselves!” Rarity smiled. “I can simply make another meal. Now, apologize to Naruto, Naruto.”

Naruto frowned at Naruto, who frowned back. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

Naruto nodded. “I guess it’s okay.”

Rarity smiled and released the spell. “Good. Now that it is all settled, I shall make—”

She got cut off when a loud explosion sounded in the room, accompanied by a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, stood four Naruto’s in the room. Two of them were wearing pajamas, the others Naruto’s outdoor clothing.

“This isn’t good,” the original Naruto summed up the situation concisely.

*****

“Fascinating…” Twilight muttered as she examined from all angles one of the pajama wearing Naruto’s, who was sitting on Rarity’s fainting couch.

“So, they all appeared without Naruto even making those ‘hand seals’ of his, right?” the purple Unicorn reconfirmed with Rarity, who stood behind her. The latter had called Twilight and Spike over as soon as it became apparent that Naruto was not in control of the situation.

“Well, yes. At least, that’s what Naruto claims,” Rarity said, looking at the original Naruto, who stood next to her. The other two Naruto’s were sitting on the floor nearby, bored out of their minds.

“Yeah. Plus, I can’t make them disappear,” Naruto added.

“Make sure you write everything down, Spike! This is invaluable research material about the magic of ninjas!” Twilight called over to her little assistant, who was sitting next to one of Rarity’s dressing tables.

“Got it! Appear without hand seals… Don’t disappear…” he muttered as he wrote on the scroll he brought along with him.

“Magic of ninjas? She can’t be serious…” Naruto mentally face-palmed.

“But do you have any idea what could have caused this?” Twilight asked, looking at the Naruto sitting in front of her.

“Nope,” he replied. “I don’t have a—” he got cut off by a cloud of smoke appearing all around him. When the smoke vanished, he emerged as a pony. “Clue,” he finished, his expression showing just how confused he was.

“I think I see it,” Twilight grinned, looking at his flank.

“Twilight, are cutie marks usually glowing?” the original asked, looking at it. As soon as he said that, the glowing stopped, returning the Ramen cutie mark to normal.

“No, they don’t,” Twilight answered, rubbing her chin in thought. “Maybe this has something to do with being a ninja?” she pondered. As she said that, the same thing happened to one of the Naruto’s in the back of the room.

“Well, everything that happened until now does look like it’s related to what he can do as a ninja,” Spike agreed with her.

“We should examine the magic levels inside Naruto’s body,” Twilight suggested. “Maybe that would shed some light on the situation.”

“Rarity, can you help me out?” the purple mare turned to the alabaster one. “You have a keen eye for this sort of things.”

Rarity nodded. “Alright, I shall do my best,” she replied. Her horn then lighted up, casting magical light on the original Naruto.

“What are you doing? I can’t see anything special,” Naruto said, baffled.

“Yes, only Unicorns can see what this spell shows,” Twilight replied, as she and Rarity started examining the image of Naruto’s body.

“Hmm… There are three different kinds of magic in Naruto’s body,” Rarity said, all the while continuing to cast the spell. “If I had to color them, they would be blue, red and green. Actually, together they create quite a beautiful image…”

“Not only that, but they’re incredibly strong,” Twilight added, looking up at him. “Their total is easily over twenty times the amount most ponies have! Spike, make sure you write all that down!”

“You’re the boss, Twilight!” Spike called as he continued summarizing the findings.

“The blue magic seems to flow all around Naruto’s body,” Rarity said, looking carefully. “Especially to those fascinating human hooves of his.”

“They’re called hands,” Naruto reminded her. “And I don’t think that’s magic. According to what you say, that’s probably my chakra.”

“The red one…” Rarity continued. “It is concentrated on your stomach, but it is also leaking into the blue one. Any idea what could it be?”

“Uhh… Nope! Not at all!” Naruto quickly exclaimed, looking away. Needless to say, he could perfectly guess what it was, and it was obviously unrelated to the problem at hoof.

Rarity shrugged before continuing. ”I do not think that’s the cause of the problem, anyhow. I presume the green energy is. It seems to be flowing into your body from the outside at great pace, then mixing with the blue energy, and partially transforming into it. Whatever could that be, Twilight?”

Twilight merely stared at Naruto, her muzzle agape. “I can’t believe it! He’s collecting magic from the outside! I’ve never seen that happen before!”

Then, as if on cue, another puff of smoke occurred, and this time the original Naruto turned into his pony form unintentionally.

“Well, now it’s obvious!” Twilight smirked. “Look at his cutie mark, Rarity!”

“Oh, my! You are absolutely right, Twilight!” the fashionista mare replied, seeing the glowing cutie mark, and the green energy entering Naruto’s body through it. “It is as though his cutie mark is causing all of this… But why?”

“I think the green energy from the outside is overloading him with magic, but I’m not sure why the cutie mark is acting like this,” Twilight said, still sounding deep in thought. “I need to go to the library and see if there’s any information about this.”

Just then, Naruto’s cutie mark started glowing again, as well as the one of the two other transformed clones. Then, with four puffs of smoke, appeared more Naruto’s, one next to each of the four already present. Each clone appeared in their original’s form, so now there were six ponies and two humans. Four wore pajamas and four wore Naruto’s outdoor clothing.

“This is incredible! They’re multiplying exponentially!” Twilight called, grinning in excitement from ear to ear.

“Uhh… Isn’t that kinda bad? Won’t they cover up all of Equestria eventually?” Spike asked in worry, arching a brow at the librarian.

“Don’t worry, Spike. He’ll need to multiply about twenty more times for that to happen, and the more he multiplies, the longer it should take for the next time to occur,” Twilight explained. “In fact, if my extrapolation is right, then that should take at least five years, so we have nothing to worry about.”

Three Naruto’s, two ponies and one human, got up at once. “I’m going to the toilet,” they all said together, then exchanged confused gazes, and raced upstairs to be first to relieve themselves.

“I’m going as well,” Twilight announced. “I’ll go to the library to look for some material and be back in a flash.”

“Can you take all the Naruto’s with you? Meanwhile, maybe I could help Rarity with… Stuff,” Spike grinned dreamily at the white Unicorn.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Twilight called and stepped next to him. “You’re coming with me, I need your help!” she called as her horn charged up.

“Hey, wait—” was all Spike could say before being teleported away with Twilight, leaving Rarity with five Naruto’s.

“So, now what?” the original asked Rarity.

“I’m not sure,” Rarity answered. “But it is clear that you cannot go outside without risking exposing your identity. I guess you will just have to stay here for now.”

“This sucks,” Naruto complained. “I was planning to start working on the Ramen stand, but I need Applejack’s spare parts for that.”

The front door then opened to the ringing of a bell, revealing said mare. “Howdy, y’all!” she called happily in her southern drawl.

“Howdy, Applejack!” five Naruto’s replied, much to the orange mare’s shock.

“Oh, good morning, Applejack,” greeted Rarity. “We were just talking about you.”

“By ‘we’ you mean… You and a bunch of Naruto’s?” she asked in surprise, looking all around.

“Yes, well. There have been… Ahem, complications,” Rarity smiled awkwardly.

“I can see that. Ya were supposed to come down to the barn to get yar parts, Naruto, so I was getting kinda worried. It ain’t like ya to be late,” Applejack smiled. “So, what are y’all up to making your clone doohickeys so early?”

“Yeah, I can’t really control it…” Naruto smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Then two of the clones and the original all transformed into their countering forms in three clouds of smoke.

“I see whatcha mean,” Applejack glared at the now human Naruto. “So, need my help bucking some clones?” she grinned, stretching her back legs.

“Don’t bother, they don’t disappear,” Naruto replied with a sigh, slightly worried. “Well, at least if we stay like this until Twilight figures out something, nothing too bad will happen.”

“Hey, be careful with that!” one of the clones suddenly yelled. Everypony turned their heads to see that the air started vibrating above one of the human clones’ palm. Then slowly, an unbalanced orb came into being, as if it was a floating ball of water, but glowing brightly in a bluish light.

“Hey! Don’t do that! That’s dangerous, ya know!” another clone called.

“I can’t control it, ya know!” the clone holding the unstable Rasengan cried, looking around for some way to get rid of the dangerous thing. However, since he generated it by himself, it was too unstable to keep holding onto or safely abort.

Finally, without having much of a choice, the clone settled for slamming the unstable Rasengan against the floor. This resulted in a bright, small scale explosion, after which a twenty inch crater was formed in the floor.

All eyes were locked at the crater for a few moments. The original Naruto then looked worriedly at Rarity, noticing her face was starting to get rather red. Her expression was starting to twist in fury, which she was clearly trying really hard to suppress. “Uhh… Really sorry about this…” he muttered, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He dearly hoped that it would be enough to pacify her.

“Woah!” Applejack suddenly cried. “What in tarnation’s wrong with your eyes, Naruto?!” she gazed up at him.

“Kyaa!” Rarity cried as she looked up at him, and nearly lost her balance as well. “I… I do say! They look like the eyes of a big, creepy toad!”

“Huh?” Naruto asked, confused. In response, Rarity floated out a pink hoof mirror from one of the drawers of a dressing desk and showed Naruto his reflection.

His eyes widened in shock. They were now yellow, and had a horizontal pupil. In addition, orange markings appeared on his face around his eyes. “No way! I managed to enter sage mode?!” he called in astonishment. “I didn’t even collect any natural energy!”

“What in tarnation’s ‘sage mode’? Ya turn into a frog or something?” Applejack asked, arching a brow at him.

“No offense, Naruto,” Rarity said. “But please leave this instant if you will turn into a yucky frog!” she cried. “I simply cannot stand them!” Applejack rolled her eyes at her in response.

“No, this is as much is goes,” Naruto assured her, but his mind was somewhere else. “Why did it happen now? I couldn’t do it before even when I tried it, and now it happens without I even planned to…”

Then he felt something that cut his line of thought. “Somepony’s coming here really, really fast!” he called, now being able to sense such things due to sage mode.

Just a moment afterwards, Twilight and Spike emerged out of a bright purple flash that appeared at the middle of the room. “I’ve figured it out!” Twilight exclaimed happily and looked at Naruto.

“Uhh… What happened to your eyes?” she arched a brow at him.

“I’ll… Explain later. It’s a long story.”

“Twilight thinks this is a ‘Cutie Mark Magic Surge’, caused by Naruto’s new cutie mark,” Spike said. “Oh, hi Applejack,” he waved to her.

“How are ya?” Applejack replied heartily.

“Yeah, hi. But we have to focus here!” Twilight said. “According to a book I found, Cutie Mark Magic Surge is a rare phenomenon that occurs occasionally when young ponies obtain their cutie marks, particularly Unicorns.”

“But I’m not a Unicorn!” Naruto called. “I’m not even really a pony!”

“Yet somehow it had affected you. Now let me continue,” Twilight glared at him. “It causes them to lose control of their magic, and usually results in large-scale consequences. I also remembered in the library that it happened to me too!”

“And… What happened then?” Naruto asked, dreading her answer.

“I… Kind of turned my parents into potted plants and enlarged Spike enough to make him blow a roof through the ceiling,” she muttered very quickly, blushing and smiling sheepishly.

Other than Spike, every single being in the room stared at her in utter shock, their jaws agape. “It was only a minute before everything returned to normal, though!” Twilight quickly exclaimed.

“After Princess Celestia intervened,” Spike grinned. Twilight shot him a death glare. The purple dragon promptly turned away and started whistling innocently.

“Anyway,” Twilight looked back at the others. “The magic surge should pass by itself soon. When did it all start?”

“About two hours ago,” said the Naruto sitting on the couch. “I’m the first clone, so I should know.”

“Cool! Then you’re Clone-prime, huh?” Spike asked.

Clone-prime grinned. “Clone-prime, huh? I kinda like the sound of that…” he said to himself, rubbing his chin.

“Hey! Why does he get a title?!” another clone objected.

“Yeah! I want one too! How about… Naruto the first?”

“Because one, you’re not the first, and two, you’re not royalty!” Twilight replied, looking at him. Then she shook her head. “We don’t have time for this!”

The lavender Unicorn let out a sigh. “Naruto got his cutie mark about sixteen hours ago,” she said, putting a hoof on her chin in thought. “So both the response time and magic settling times are very, VERY delayed.”

“Any estimates to when he will go back to normal, Twilight?” Rarity asked. Clone-prime, as well as another clone in the back, then changed once more into their countering forms.

“I’m not sure… Could be anything between a few minutes to a few weeks,” Twilight answered grimly.

“Well, is there any way to hurry it up?” Applejack asked.

“I… I don’t really know…” she replied. “I guess we could try sucking the magic out of him, but we don’t really have any place to put it in…”

“Anyways, I’m not using magic for the clone and transformation jutsus. I’m using chakra,” Naruto reminded her.

“Then maybe the magic entering your body is forcing your chakra to come out, and it appears as jutsus. Or maybe the magic is causing your chakra to go haywire. Honestly, I don’t get it either,” Twilight sighed.

The cutie marks of all the pony Naruto’s in the area started glowing, and then multiple clouds of smoke appeared all around. The number of Naruto’s was doubled once again.

“Hey! I was in the middle of pooping! Get the hay out of here!” Naruto was heard yelling from upstairs, followed by the sound of a slamming door.

“I need to poop too, ya know! Hurry it up in there!” another clone replied. Everypony stared at the ceiling, faces red with embarrassment.

“Oh no… This is way too soon…” Twilight then muttered. Everyone looked at her with question marks on their faces. “The next doubling should be in an hour according to my calculations!” she cried out.

“What difference the time makes?” Applejack inquired.

“It means my exponential model is all wrong! The multiplication time is already stabilized!” Twilight called in distress.

Meeting with only confused expressions, Twilight sighed and began explaining. “The time it takes for Naruto to multiply is not increasing at all! At this rate, the clones will probably cover all of Equestria by this afternoon!” she cried.

Naruto gulped. “We need to think of something, quick!”

Everypony exchanged gazes, but it was obvious that no one had a magical solution up their sleeve.

“Maybe he should just use up all his chakra,” Pinkie suggested, suddenly appearing behind the Naruto who was sitting on the sofa. Every being in the room immediately jerked their heads to look at her, completely taken by surprise.

“Like ‘Rasengan’, ‘Rasengan’, ‘Rasengan’!” she called, posing by raising her right front hoof forward while standing on her hinds. “Or maybe that ‘Big-Rasengan-with-rotating-blades-thingies’!”

“Pinkie, that’s brilliant!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I know, right?! Naruto’s spells are all really shiny!” Pinkie giggled.

“Yeah, about my ‘shiny spells’…” the original said, gaining everypony’s attention. Above his hand was floating a blob of chakra similar to a Rasengan.

“Gah! Not again!” Rarity shrilled.

Twilight quickly lighted up her horn, and a purple sphere appeared around the blob. “This should contain the explosion,” Twilight grinned. And indeed, shortly afterwards it exploded harmlessly. The Unicorn then stopped using her magic and the sphere vanished.

“Phew,” Rarity let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Twilight.”

“Uh oh,” another Naruto said, this time a pony. The clone quickly lifted his hoof to avoid causing even more damage to Carousel Boutique’s floor and held it upwards.

“No way! I can use chakra as a pony?!” the original shouted, stunned. The unstable orb was floating above Naruto’s front right hoof.

Twilight used the same trick again, and the unstable Rasengan’s detonation was safely contained. “We need to get all the Naruto’s to someplace they can cause a lot of destruction without anypony knowing,” she then said, after pondering how to implement Pinkie’s idea.

“Hey! Be careful with that thing! It’s dangerous!” one of the Naruto’s was heard yelling from upstairs. Twilight groaned in annoyance and teleported over there.

“So, does anypony have any ideas on how to get Naruto to expend his chakra?” Rarity asked.

“I know!” Applejack called. “I think it’s time to visit some good, not-so-old friends of ours.” She grinned at Rarity for some reason, much to her confusion.

*****

The sound of knocking echoed down a cave dug into the side of one of the mountains nearby Ponyville. “I’m coming! I’m coming!” an annoyed, raspy voice called in response, as its owner walked over to answer.

The wooden door at the entrance was then opened, casting bright light into the otherwise dark interior. It revealed the gray Diamond Dog inside to the purple Unicorn outside, and vice versa.

The dog narrowed his eyes angrily at the uninvited guest. “You! Pony! What are you doing back here?!” he demanded.

“Hello, Rover” Twilight smiled, trying to start things on the right hoof this time around. “I assume you remember us, so there is no need for any further introductions. We came because—”

Rover promptly responded by slamming the door in her face. It was momentarily afterwards engulfed by a light bluish aura and opened back inside, this time revealing a very discontent Rarity.

“Gah! M-M-Miss Rarity! W-W-Whatever… Brings you to our humble abode?” Rover asked very nervously as soon as he saw the white Unicorn, his ears drooping.

Rarity smiled. “Color me surprised! You do sound a tad more refined than the last time we met, but you should still know better than to slam a door at a lady’s face!”

“Y-Yes! Of course! Whatever you say, Miss Rarity!” Rover whimpered, taking a step back. “But what are you doing here?”

“As my good friend Twilight was trying to say, we require some assistance. We would like to mine at your caverns posthaste,” Rarity explained, smiling.

“No. We refuse,” Rover replied sternly.

“What did you say?!” Rarity demanded, drilling holes into him with her gaze.

“Our ears are still bleeding from all your whi— I mean, complaining! We, Diamond Dogs, refuse to ever take that risk again!” the gray dog explained.

“Well, unfortunately, you don’t really have a choice,” Twilight said, stepping next to Rarity. “If you won’t allow us to get in, we’ll just have to do it by force.”

“Oh really?” Rover snickered. “You and what army?”

Rarity and Twilight grinned to each other, and then stepped aside to reveal a thirty-two-strong brigade of Naruto ponies, grinning at the dog deviously. Some of them were kicking dirt around threateningly. Rover’s eyes widened, and his jaw and ears all dropped. “Oh… That army…” he gulped.

*****

The group had all entered the Diamond Dogs’ caverns and spread around, splitting into three teams. They then watched as the clones made Rasengans, and used them to dig around to get rid of the excess chakra in Naruto’s body.

“There are quite a few gems over there, Naruto,” Rarity said to a couple of the clones she was with. She marked a spot on the wall of the cavern with a stick.

“Got it!” a ponified Naruto called, and made a Rasengan on the hoof of another one. “This is awesome! I didn’t think I could make a Rasengan in my pony form!” he grinned as the orb was finished.

“Rasengan!” the other clone called as he smashed the jutsu against the gray stone, grinding a circle deep into it, until finally the colorful gems were released and fell down on the floor.

Rarity then levitated the gems to a diamond cart. “The gems we will find should be sufficient payment for allowing us the use of your caverns, don’t you think?” she smiled at Spot, one of the smaller Diamond Dogs.

“T-Thank you for your generosity, Miss Rarity!” he called in slight shock, his eyes sparkling at the sight of the shiny haul falling into the cart.

“Where next, Rarity? There’s still much more where that came from!” one of the several frog-eyed clones grinned.

Meanwhile…

Rover, Twilight, Spike and a few clones were practically digging a new cavern for the dogs using only Rasengans.

“Yeah! Go Naruto! Umm… Naruto’s,” Spike cheered enthusiastically, watching as each blue orb was digging deeper and deeper into the hard stone as if it was made of butter, sending little more than rock dust to the air.

“Spike! Don’t forget to document this!” Twilight called in excitement. “This is the first time we’ve ever seen Naruto use jutsus as a pony!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Spike said reluctantly. “But make sure to tell me if any gems come out! I could use a snack!” he said as he began writing once more on the scroll he brought along.

“Will do, Spike,” Twilight smiled.

“Hey! These are our caves!” Rover called. “Get your own gems somewhere else!”

Twilight shot him a death glare. Rover whimpered in fear. “I… I mean, if you don’t mind?” he added nervously.

“Don’t worry, Spike won’t eat much,” Twilight assured him.

“I won’t?!” the little Dragon cried.

In another Cavern…

“So, whatcha been up to till now, dogs?” Applejack asked, trying to strike up a conversation. The quiet cave, other than the sound of Rasengans ramming against the stone, was starting to get under her skin.

“Dig more. Get gems,” Fido, the large Diamond Dog replied concisely and dryly.

“Oh. Well, ain’t that… Nice?” Applejack replied awkwardly, looking away. She quickly realized that starting a conversation with him was probably a lost cause.

“Yeah! It’s so interesting! Can you tell us more?” Pinkie asked energetically, hopping in place in front of Fido. She probably thought the opposite of the orange mare.

“Is Diamond Dog life. We find gems, dig more,” Fido replied dryly, clearly not sharing Pinkie’s enthusiasm.

“But what do you do with them?” Pinkie asked further. “Do you eat them? Do you sell them? Do you build huge machines and do awesome battles with them?”

“We look at gems. Gems shiny, make good reflection. Fido sees handsome self,” he answered, surprisingly adding a small, haughty grin at the end.

“Oh, brother,” Applejack facehooved. “Naruto, are ya done yet?” she called, unable to take much more of this. “Uhh… I mean, Naruto brigade?” she revised, since there were ten of them there.

“Sorry, Applejack. I’m trying as much as I can,” Naruto said, while loading a Rasengan onto another clone. “We’ve all transformed into ponies and we’re using Rasengans as fast as we can, but we’re just not running out of chakra! We’d make bigger Rasengans, but the cave will collapse if we’re not careful.”

Then, all their cutie marks started glowing again. The caverns were then covered in smoke, and the number of Naruto’s doubled again.

“Yay! More Naruto’s!” Pinkie called happily, throwing her front hooves up to the air. Applejack and several clones facehooved again.

*****

“Well, this was a complete failure,” Twilight sighed. Everypony met up after the last doubling. They decided to leave the caverns and try to think of another idea. Needless to say, only the Diamond Dogs were satisfied, since now they had three more carts filled to the brim with gems, thanks to Naruto’s fruitless endeavors at ridding himself of his chakra.

“We’re… Uhh… Sorry this didn’t work out,” Rover called, barely even trying to mask his grin over the large, newly-filled wagon of gems next to him. He and the other Diamond Dogs were seeing the ponies — and Dragon — off from the entrance to the dog-made tunnel.

“So what are we gonna do now? There are sixty-four Naruto’s now,” Spike said, looking at the orange army all around him.

“Sorry, but that weird energy from outside is getting in just as quickly as we use our chakra,” said one of the roughly thirty frog-eyed Naruto’s.

Twilight then let out a sigh. “I didn’t want to do this… I really didn’t…”

“What do you have in mind, Twilight?” Rarity asked. “Please, don’t tell me it is anything dangerous!”

“I didn’t want to bother her with this, but the situation has grown out of hoof. I’m going to ask Celestia for her help,” Twilight replied with a grave expression. “Spike, take a letter,” she instructed the baby Dragon.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” she began dictating. “Yesterday, Naruto has acquired his cutie mark. And now, the cutie mark is causing the magic in his body to go haywire, and Naruto keeps multiplying, releasing dangerous jutsus uncontrollably. Do you have any remedy for this? We require your assistance as quickly as possible, Princess. Your faithful disciple, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Done!” Spike called, rolling the scroll neatly.

“Alright, send it,” Twilight nodded.

Spike took a deep breath, and then released green fire from his mouth, turning the scroll into smoke, which then flew away to the sky.

A few tense, silent moments passed, when a flash of light suddenly appeared in the sky above them, revealing Equestria’s high ruler, Princess Celestia. The large, white Alicorn descended to land on the ground.

“Hello, everypony,” she greeted. All the ponies around bowed, even Naruto. “I came as quickly as I could.”

“I’m deeply sorry for calling you out of the blue like this, Princess, but—” Twilight began.

“I understand the situation,” Celestia cut her off, nodding. “Magic surges on such a large scale could bring about much destruction, as you’ve experienced first-hoof.”

Twilight looked down shamefully. “There is no need to feel sorry for what happened in the past, Twilight,” Celestia smiled. “However, what we should concern ourselves with is the future,” she said, and then turned to look at Naruto with a more serious expression.

“Naruto Uzumaki, please step forth,” Celestia ordered.

“Yes, uh… Princess?” the original stepped forth cautiously.

“I’m afraid there is no easy solution for this problem. Your ninja abilities, combined with the surplus of magic in your body, could cause irreversible damage to all of Equestria and its inhabitants,” she said gravely.

“Then, what do you suggest?” he gulped.

Celestia sighed deeply, closing her eyes, before looking back at him. “You are hereby banished… To the moon.”

Everypony fell deadly silent, as the meaning of Celestia’s harsh words slowly sunk in.

*****

“I can’t believe you all did that without telling me!” Rainbow Dash grumbled, after the day’s events were summarized for her.

“Sorry, but we were in such a hurry, we completely forgot to tell you and Fluttershy about it,” Twilight apologized.

“Man, I totally would have joined Naruto! I’m so freaking jealous of him now!” Rainbow continued.

“I think going to the moon sounds terrifying,” Fluttershy shuddered.

“Actually, it was pretty cool up there,” Naruto said happily, looking at her. “I could jump so high! And you can see a lot of stars over there! It was really weird, but it was night on the moon, even though I could see the sun.”

“Really?” the yellow Pegasus replied. She seemed to have second thoughts regarding the moon, because of Naruto’s words. “Maybe we really should visit there one day,” she smiled. “I wonder how Angel will like it. He likes jumping around…”

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Naruto and Spike were sitting on a blanket on a hill nearby Ponyville. Rarity was laying on a sofa she brought with her just next to them, saying she did not want to lay on the grass. They were all basking in the last rays of sun for the day, gathered to watch the moonrise.

“But Princess Celestia sure have worried me back there,” Spike said. “I really thought she was gonna banish Naruto to the moon forever!”

“That just goes to show that Princess Celestia always knows what she’s doing,” Twilight smiled at him. “And besides, she never said ‘forever’, did she?”

“So how did ya get rid of all that excess chakra thingy, Naruto?” Applejack asked.

“It was epic!” Naruto said, beaming. “I made like the biggest Rasengan ever! I wish you could all see it! It even made a huge crater there!” he explained enthusiastically. “I waited for us to double again, and then all of us made one, huge Rasengan! We needed ten clones just to hold it with both hands!”

“Huh, so a hundred and eighteen times the power,” Twilight grinned. “I don’t suppose you could make it back here too?”

“No, because usually clones divide my chakra, not multiply it. Even if I tried to use all my normal chakra it won’t be even close to it,” he explained. “Anyways, I don’t know what happened with the cutie mark today, but I probably used enough chakra because after that it glowed for a little while, and then the clones vanished,” he pointed at the mark adorning his flank. “And then Celestia brought me back to Equestria.”

“So, how strong would you normally be, Naruto?” Rainbow inquired.

“Hmm…” Naruto pondered, since he never tried using all of his chakra in one go. “I guess if I really put my all into it, I could normally make one that would destroy a large building… Like your shop, Rarity,” he smiled at the white Unicorn.

“Please, do not make such horrible comparisons, Naruto!” Rarity cried, which made everypony burst in laughter.

“But…” Naruto began, uncharacteristically serious. “I still don’t understand how I could use sage mode all of a sudden…” he pondered aloud.

Other than Twilight, who had been explained this previously, everypony looked quite baffled. “It’s like a set of jutsus I can use by collecting natural energy from the outside in my world,” Naruto explained briefly.

“Ohhhhh…” they all said in unison.

“I’m not quite sure I could explain it, really,” Twilight spoke. “If only I knew more about chakra… I can’t even figure out why your cutie mark did what it did.”

“Don’t worry about it, Twilight. I doubt I’ll really need to use it here in Equestria,” Naruto smiled, and laid back on the cloth spread on the grass.

“So what can you do with that ‘sage mode’, Naruto?” Rainbow asked. “Except, you know, that whole frog eye thingy.”

“I can make really huge Rasengans, I can throw my Rasenshurikens… Uhh… Basically that and a couple more,” he said off the top of his head.

“So you made that moon crater you told us about with just one Rasengan, right? How big was it, anyway?” Applejack asked curiously, staring at Naruto.

“You’ll see,” Naruto smirked. “That’s why I told you we should all watch the moon tonight,” he chuckled.

“But what about the Royal Astronomical Forum?” Spike asked. “Won’t they panic when they see a new crater all of a sudden?”

“I think Princess Celestia will be able to come up with a decent explanation for this,” Twilight grinned confidently.

“Oh! Here it comes!” Fluttershy called as the lunar orb started to make its appearance above the horizon in the darkening sky.

*****

In a room of the observatory in the highest tower in the Canterlot Royal Palace, a group of several ponies, most of them middle-aged Unicorns, were taking turns using the large black telescope facing the moon outside, stunned expressions on their faces.

“Unless my eyes are deceiving me, I can see a new, large crater on the moon! By Celestia’s name, just how is this possible?!” a Unicorn stallion with gray coat and white mane cried.

“Quite!” a pink-coated Unicorn mare, with a short yellow mane called. “There have been no indications of asteroids in the area! Did somepony cause this artificially?”

Just then, the door was encased in yellowish aura and opened to the inside, revealing none other than Princess Celestia.

“P-P-Princess!” the gray Unicorn called, and bowed together with the others in the room. “What brings your highness here tonight?”

Celestia smiled calmly and paced towards the Telescope, taking a look through it at the lunar orb. “I assume you have all noticed the recent ‘changes’, correct?”

“Yes, your highness!” the pink mare replied. “We were just wondering whatever it could be…”

“Well, I thought watching that same moon for so many hundreds of years would get… Quite boring, don’t you think?” she asked the group. They all exchanged gazes, reluctant to call her out on how strange and random that reason was. “So I simply added a little something.”

“But, if I may ask something, Princess?” a yellow Earth pony mare with green swirly mane asked.

“Yes?” Celestia smiled at her.

“Why is there a whirlpool carved into the new crater?” she asked, turning back to look at the moon, now adored with a small crater on its top right side.

“It has quite the striking shape, don’t you think?” Celestia asked back, looking at the moon as well.

“How should we name it then?” the gray stallion asked, since most prominent lunar craters had a name.

“How about… The ‘Uzumaki Crater’?” Celestia suggested. “It means ‘whirlpool crater’ in a faraway language,” she explained.

The group all nodded. “That’s a great suggestion, Princess!” the yellow mare said.

“But… Won’t Princess Luna mind you did that to her moon?” the pink mare asked.

“I think her mind is somewhere else at the moment…” the white Alicorn grinned knowingly, looking up at the moon again.

*****

“He loveth me, he loveth me not…” Princess Luna muttered to herself in a daydreaming voice, magically picking petals off a white flower. She was standing on the balcony of her room, staring at the moon more deeply than she had ever stared before. Her usually dark blue cheeks were now painted crimson.

“He loveth me…” she whispered, and then froze when she noticed the flower had only one petal left on it. Looking around to make sure nopony saw what was going to happen next, she promptly threw it down from the balcony.

“Such a wonderful gift thou hast left me, Naruto,” she said to herself dreamily as she focused on the small, new whirlpool on the moon. “I cannot wait to meet thou… At the Gala…”