Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own MLP.
Outside of Konoha's ninja academy, a large area was blocked off from both student and civilian. Though still, many an onlooker stood absolutely shocked and mystified by the strangeness and beauty that lay before them. Several shinobi moved around, following direct instructions from the white-haired toad sage. From placing seal tags and scrolls across the area and scrawling seals directly into the earth itself, the group had made a massive array. Every now and then, the seals would glow with a purple aura, in a pulse-like rhythm, which Jiraiya noted. He also noted they weren't collecting near enough energy to try and reopen the door that Naruto had been lost behind.
Unfortunately, it would have to do. His seals were just taking what was there, and there wasn't nearly enough left after this long to fully collect. But with what he understood about the seal holding the Kyuubi in his Godson, he could in theory focus his own chakra into them and have them act as a filter, of sorts, converting his chakra into a match, or at least a close approximation, to whatever form of power this was. Naruto's seal could purify Kyuubi's demon chakra and convert it into his own. He had to hope he could do the same.
Overlooking even Jiraiya, stood Sarutobi, his eyes hardened, his Hokage's hat shadowing his gaze. This had to work. If Naruto was alive, he needed to get him back. Who knew what fate had befallen the boy. For once, the council seemed to be on his side, the shinobi side due to overwhelming like for the boy, the civilian council because they were certain it was the nine-tails plotting something and the elders...well, they couldn't let the idea of someone else taking possession of the village's Jinchuriki slide. Despite the reasons, next to nobody was fighting him on this, and that meant he could devote his entire attention to it.
“Alright! Clear out. We're gonna try it.” The shinobi nodded at Master Jiraiya's orders, stepping clear of the massive array. “And get the civilians out of here.” Once his commands had been met, the seal master began channeling as much chakra as he could, beginning to flow it into the numerous seals, which glowed blue as his energy began to activate the array. But it wasn't taking on the purple hue that the other energy did. And already he was beginning to tire. This was taking a good deal out of him.
Deciding on a different approach, letting the seals try to convert his chakra, he instead tried to use what he knew about elemental chakra, and tried to get a feel for the differences in the two energies. This was going to be much harder, as he had to try and mold his chakra into matching the secondary power consciously, rather than the seal doing so automatically. The power that had sucked in Naruto was strange, though. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something wrong...
“Sensei, you need to feel this...” Sarutobi raised his brow as Jiraiya ceased flowing chakra into the seals, motioning for the Hokage to take his place. Tentatively stepping forward, the Third crouched and began to feel the energy they had captured. Jiraiya hadn't been joking. He wasn't sure how, but this power was very familiar to the aged shinobi, and he knew why. Immediately, he called on his ANBU to retrieve for him...some chakra paper.
It didn't take long for the ANBU to return, and Jiraiya placed the paper atop the seals they had used to collect and store the strange, lingering power. Once more pouring his power into seals, Sarutobi, let out the barest amount of the collected energy, letting it flow into the paper and confirming the Hokage's suspicions.
The paper began to wrinkle, before splitting into three parts, one part bursting to flame, one crumbling to dust, and the third and final part becoming sogged. Jiriaya's eyes widened. So that's why it felt strange. Whatever this power was, it wasn't chakra. But that being said, this strange energy seemed to somehow mimic each nature of elemental chakra at once. Sarutobi luckily was more advanced than his student in this case, having mastered all of the element natures. Creating four shadow clones, each taking a place around the seal array, they again tried to focus their chakra through the seals. But this time, each clone attempted to convert the chakra into one of the elements, with each clone's element different than the others and the original.
Sweating profusely, the biggest issue for the Hokage was not converting his chakra to the elemental chakra, but rather merging them all together. Usually, this required a bloodline, but by separating himself into his clones, he could manipulate it much easier. Still though, it was no easy feat. But it was beginning to work, The elemental natures of the chakras began to merge into the captured power, causing all the seals to glow with a purple aura, brightly.
Sparking in an unnatural, almost ethereal way, warping the air above it, distorting it, the purple glow took on form, looking like a horse, in a way. But then, things got decidedly out of hand. The aura went from purple to white, blindingly white. As white lightning arced out from the large seal array, each of the clones were struck, dispelling them instantly. As Jiraiya rushed in to try and grab his sensei, the both were engulfed in a blinding light, which exploded and sent them flying. Each crashed into the ground, rolling and skidding, as the light they had created somehow collapsed in on itself, disappearing.
As the Hokage and the toad sage began to lose consciousness, neither saw what was left behind. If you looked very carefully, right at the exact point of implosion, you would see that anything behind it distorted, as if light itself was being bent around the singular spot.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Twilight gasped as her horn began to glow for a moment, before returning to its normal state. “What was that?” Spike asked, stopping his dusting of the library shelves at seeing the flash of magical aura. The purple unicorn blinked owlishly for a moment.
“I'm not really sure...maybe it's still reacting to Naruto somehow...”
“But it hasn't done that in weeks...” Spike pointed out. “Why would it start up again?” Twilight looked deep in thought, unable to come up with a good answer...or at least, an answer that didn't scare her. But deep in her mind, she had to wonder if her horn was perhaps reacting to something the blonde's prisoner was trying to do. After all, she and Naruto had a magically formed connection to one another through her world-bridge spell. Maybe she had connected to the demon as well. She shuddered, but tried to put the thought out of her head for now.
“I don't know. I think I'll head over to Fluttershy's to pay him a visit. You stay here and finish cleaning up, alright?” she asked, getting a salute from her assistant as she trotted out the door. Turning, the baby dragon sighed at the sight of the massive pile of books laying on the floor.
As she drew near Fluttershy's cottage, she began to calm down. The boy in question was out helping his mother feed the numerous animals that inhabited her cottage and the surrounding areas, under the watchful eye of Fluttershy herself. Calling to her friend, she watched the pink-maned pony jump in surprise. Giggling nervously, as she approached, Twilight got low to allow her surrogate nephew to climb up and take Spike's usual place on her back. “Sorry about that Fluttershy.”
“It's no problem,” the yellow pegasus replied with a smile. “In fact, I'm glad you're here. I was actually going to come ask you something.” Twilight quirked an eyebrow.
“Ask me what?”
“Well,” Fluttershy began. “Naruto's been doing fairly well in school, but there are some areas he finds himself needing a bit of help with...” Looking to the boy on her back, Twilight noticed him furrowing his brow and frowning. Twilight had to fight to keep from giggling at how cute the child was.
“Mooooom!” he groaned. “I can get it on my own!”
“I'm sure you can,” Fluttershy responded, never losing her quiet, but firm tone. “But just because you can, doesn't mean you should have to.” As Naruto crossed his arms and began grumbling, Twilight was actually surprised by what Fluttershy said next. “Now none of that, young man. Pride is one thing, but sometimes, asking for help is something we have to do.” Twilight had never heard her friend sound so...well, stern before. It really did sound motherly.
“I'd be happy to tutor Naruto, Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a bright smile. The pegasus pony's words reminded her of the time Applejack had all but insisted that she would completely harvest all of Sweet Apple Acres on her own. And that turned out to be a disaster. Maybe she'd get Naruto to go along with it if he heard that story. “What exactly are you having trouble with, kiddo?” Naruto again grumbled, but after a look from Fluttershy, he quickly answered.
“Well, I can talk and understand just fine...it's reading and writing that I'm having trouble with. It's way different than how we read and write back in the village,” he said, and Twilight nodded in understanding.
“Well, that makes sense. Well, I'm sure I can help you out with that, and anything academically associated.” Despite his child pride taking a hit, Naruto uttered a small thank you to the unicorn, leaning in and resting his head in her mane. “So how are you both doing?” she asked.
“Absolutely wonderful!” Fluttershy beamed. “He is a handful at times, but I love having him here with me.”
“Right here, you know...” Naruto protested at the 'handful' comment, earning giggles from the Mares. Stepping forward, Fluttershy nuzzled the face of her son.
“Naruto, would you go and make sure Angle Bunny is eating all his food? You know how he is when it comes to finishing his plate before going to play,” she asked, and the blonde nodded.
“Mmkay!” Naruto said, sliding off of his surrogate auntie, and rushing off to find the bunny rabbit. Turning back to her friend, Fluttershy smiled.
“Now then, what are you doing here, Twilight? I thought you normally correct the shelves in the library about this time...” Twilight just smiled nervously.
“Well, my horn started reacting to something again...” she began, seeing Fluttershy's eyes widening and looking off in the direction the small child had dashed off too. “I'm not sure if it has anything to do with him, or the demon. I just stopped by to check and make sure nothing serious was going on. By the looks of things, we have nothing to worry about.”
“Well,” Fluttershy replied. “If it wasn't Naruto, what else could your horn possibly be reacting too?” Twilight shook her head.
“I'm not sure, but all the same, keep an eye out. If this is the demon's work, we'll write to Princess Luna.” Fluttershy gulped nervously at her friend's statement, but nodded. Hearing several crashes from the cottage, the two turned to see Angel dash from the front door, a badly beaten up child chasing after the white rabbit.
“Get back here!” he shouted, trying to rush after the bunny, but as he passed the two mares, his shirt was gripped in his mother's teeth, holding him back. He looked up sheepishly at Fluttershy, who simply rolled her eyes. Letting go of the blonde once she was sure he wouldn't run off.
“It's alright, Naruto. I'll take care of Angel later. Besides, you should go clean up,” she said. “I believe you made a promise to go over to Sweet Apple Acres later to help out for tomorrow...” Naruto's eyes widened. He almost forgot. Twilight raised a brow.
“What's tomorrow?” she asked, as Fluttershy did her best to brush the dirt off the blonde boy and get his clothing to look less disheveled.
“Tomorrow is the start of Cider Season,” the Pegasus replied. “It's the biggest time of the year for sales in the Apple Family. The money is what helps them get through the winter, and it's a big deal around here. Their apple cider is practically famous around this whole area.”
“And I'm gonna help them out!” Naruto announced, smiling brightly. “Apple Bloom and I are helping Granny Smith watch the stand and serve the cider.” He seemed so excited about it. The girls giggled, despite the serious topic they had been discussing just previously. Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a smile, before climbing onto Fluttershy's back, and the three began to head toward the Apple Orchard.
As they headed across town, the two had heard a rumble, and turned to the human child, who looked sheepish as he rubbed his stomach. “Did you not have breakfast yet?” When he nodded in the affirmative, Twilight shook her head. “Where do you and Pinkie put it all?” The blonde just shrugged. He couldn't help being hungry all the time.
So, they stopped at Sugarcube Corner to grab a snack from Pinkie Pie, who was always prepared to cater to the human boy's sweet needs, to which Fluttershy was thankful. She was thankful for all her friends, all the help they were giving, all the affection they were sharing with her adopted son. Of course, she could do without Naruto's aunties Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash encouraging his pranking habits. Heck the two of them had gone so far as to take the blonde under their wing. And Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara were his usual targets.
Granted, this DID help him get accepted much easier in school. And despite his inability to have a Cutie Mark, as a human, he was officially an Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader. Sweetie Belle even made him a cape...Rarity was apoplectic, unfortunately, but she forgave the Crusaders...eventually...
Fluttershy was brought back to the present at Pinkie Pie's shout of 'Camping Party!' The Pink mare managed to pull a tent from behind her back, from out of nowhere. Naruto, Twilight, and Fluttershy stared at their friend. “What?” she said. “I keep it in case of tent emergencies. And the start of Cider Season is definitely a tent emergency!” She just smiled and the three shook their heads. “I need to go pack some snacks, and then go get in line! Hey, I bet there are lots of other ponies who would wanna join in!” With that, she had dashed out of Sugarcube Corner, forcing the three to duck beneath her as she shot through the air, looking more like a Pegasus Pony than an Earth Pony.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
A kunai sailed through the air, entering the pocket of distorted air, disappearing for a moment, before sailing out the other side. A rock followed. As did many more random objects thrown into the strange hole ripped right in the empty space. The battered Jiraiya and Sarutobi were throwing several objects into the void, watching them disappear and reappear in space and time. “Why is it just spitting these back out?” asked the Anbu member. “The objects that enter are obviously going somewhere but why are they coming back?”
“I think I can explain, Inu...” Jiraiya replied. Turning to the crouched toad sage, the Anbu and the Hokage saw him scrawling out three circles in the dirt. Two small, and between the two, a larger one. Pointing to the first small one, he spoke. “This is basically a space-time jutsu, and much like any space-time jutsu, there are three layers. These layers are as follows. The first circle here, is us, our starting point.” Scrawling a few lines to connect the first small circle to the larger center one, he continued.
“The other smaller circle represents our destination point, our exit. The larger circle represents the path, carved through space and time itself. It is a place beyond them, that we or the object travel through, to instantaneously cut from the start point to our destination. The Summoning Jutsu works in this manner. But we haven't re-opened the exit point that Naruto had traveled to. Just the entry. So in other words, an object goes in, and gets momentarily stuck, unable to find an exit, and bounces back out through the same point it had gone in.” The explanation seemed incredibly simple. Kakashi knew that it was far more complex than that, but still, it was a very good way of explaining the principle.
“So we try again,” he said. “And hopefully manage to pierce through to the exit.” A hand on his shoulder and a shake of the head from the Hokage shattered his thought.
“It isn't that simple,” replied Sarutobi. “Space-time jutsu are very tricky. And we're not simply trying to break an exit. We're trying to break the proper exit open, the one Naruto traveled through. With as long as he's been gone, the scar left by the jutsu will still be there, but finding it and forcing it open from the inside will take a lot of time and experimentation with the strange chakra that originally activated the jutsu.”
“However, if the user of this jutsu knows we're trying to follow, and have gotten this far, they may in fact show themselves, trying to seal this 'door.” The new voice called the attention of the three shinobi to a heavily bandaged man walking toward them. “And this gives us the advantage, Sarutobi.” The Hokage frowned slightly.
“Indeed. We can prepare for their arrival, and all the while continue to try and find a way through. We need to get Naruto back...even if it's only his body.” Danzo grunted.
“Uzumaki should never have been let out of our sight. As the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, he is one of our most valuable assets. If any of the other villages learn of his disappearance, we will be seen as vulnerable.” The elder announced. While Sarutobi didn't agree with Danzo's reasoning, at least the old war-hawk was fighting for the same goal as he himself. The safe return of Naruto Uzumaki to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. By any means necessary. And he wasn't sure if it was because whoever responsible had discovered his status as Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, or perhaps...his parentage...Sure, Naruto was the spitting image of the Fourth, but children for years have emulated their heroes. Most would assume it was Naruto's choice to revere the Yondaime.
Either way, either reason was a grim choice, as the former would likely mean Naruto was being trained as a weapon, and the latter meant he was likely to be killed. He hoped Naruto was just taken through dumb luck, but he knew hope was a dangerous thing in times and situation like this. He stared into the pocket of non-space, bending light around it as though it were some orb of distorted wind.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Through that light and out the proper exit, Naruto raced around, catching apples as quickly as he could. His first Cider Season could be his last, if he and his extended family lost this contest. The other day, two Unicorns, named Flim and Flam, had arrived in town and made a lot of boasts, claiming higher efficiency and quality than even the Apple Family. This evolved into a contest, with the winner being named the only one allowed to sell Cider to Ponyville. And Naruto wasn't going to let the Apples lose their orchard. At the moment, he, Apple Bloom, and Pinkie Pie, were all catching the falling fruit, desperate to catch up with the Flim Flam Brothers' 'Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.'
Catching a rock with his foot, Naruto cried out as he fell forward, flinging his apples into the air at Pinkie. Luckily, her tail twitched, letting her know they were coming, allowing her to catch them. Growling, Naruto got back up, grabbing his basket once more. Taking a deep breath, he tried to remember what he had been taught about Chakra in his short time at the academy. He hadn't been taught how to tap into it yet, but knew that it could make a ninja very strong and fast. And if they could tap into their chakra, than so could he. Reaching deep within, he opened his eyes, determined to win.
Within his seal, the Kyuubi, unseen and unheard by the boy, decided that if the boy wanted access to his chakra so early, than who was he to deny his container. A subtle burst of his own demon chakra, keeping care to remain undetected, forced Naruto's own to the fore-front, allowing him to utilize it. Whether he could control it...well, once his plans played out, he very well may be teaching the boy very soon. He just had to...persuade the moon princess to follow through with his plan. Whether she knew it or not.
Chakra began to flow, and Naruto could plainly feel it. It wasn't tight and controlled, but he could feel it in his muscles. His fellow Apple catchers stared at him as a slight blue aura permeated the air around the boy, extending maybe half-an-inch off the blonde's skin. So transfixed was she, that Pinkie Pie didn't even notice her tail begin to twitch as the apples began to fall. But Naruto, whose reflexes were heightened due to the permeation of chakra flowing into his muscles, moved twice as fast as he had previously, dashing to Pinkie and jumping on her back, his basket held high. He heard a small 'oof' from the mare as he landed on her, but she did congratulate him on the save. By this time, the other ponies had taken note of his increase in ability, and Fluttershy looked to Twilight nervously.
“Fluttershy, has this happened before?” the Unicorn asked, getting a shake of the head.
“No, but it can't be the demon,” she whispered back. “His power looks and feels different. When it's visible, it's bright red.” Twilight nodded, sighing in relief. If Chakra was anything like Unicorn magic, the color of it's aura was not something that could just be changed. From what Celestia had told her, Naruto could eventually tap into and channel his chakra, but it hadn't been expected so soon, nor was it known what the difference was between the demon and human variations of the energy.
“Look at him go!” cried Dash, from the treadmill operating the Cider press machine. “That kid is a natural athlete.
“Eeyup!” agreed Big Macintosh, himself quite impressed by the speed the small child was now using to dash from one point to another. His baskets were twice as full now as they had been getting filled, meaning he was also much stronger for the chakra running through him. This greater speed and strength allowed him to gather more apples quicker, which meant they arrived at Rarity, who was examining the quality, much quicker.
By the time the contest time had expired, all the ponies had dropped, exhausted. For Naruto, this was far worse. The small boy had not only tapped his chakra at such an early age, but made constant use of it for nearly twenty minutes. Most children didn't do more than feel out their chakra the first time, and didn't learn how to utilize it for practical use for weeks. Naruto felt so drained, he didn't even manage to stay awake for the end of the contest. The boy managed to walk over to Fluttershy, climbed atop her, and promptly passed out, his small form unable to handle such strain yet.
He would be told when he awoke that while the Apples hadn't made the most cider, the town had ruled that the Flim Flam cider wasn't worth even a single bit, and the two had been run out of town in humiliation. He was also informed that everypony had seen him use his chakra. He beamed with pride when Fluttershy and his adopted Aunts all showered him with praise.
Twilight, now that he had his chakra, wanted to help him learn to use it, both for his sake and for the sake of knowledge regarding humans. Rainbow Dash was envisioning taking the role of his personal athletic trainer. Pinkie Pie decided to plan a 'Congratulations on finding your Chakra' party. Applejack told him that after the great job he did, that she would gladly take him on as a hand at the orchard whenever she needed the help. Rarity decided to make him a new outfit, inspired by his performance, telling him he had to have new clothes to train. And his mother even made him another batch of Ramen, which the two shared with the other ponies. All in all, it was a good day.
From inside, Kyuubi sipped his tea, smirking. Only a matter of time now. Only a matter of time.
Chapter end