//------------------------------// // Getting Into A Groove // Story: Friendship Contract // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// "Were you surprised? Huh? Huh? Were you?" Came the energetic voice of a particular pink pony. The library had been decorated with festive streamers and a banner reading 'Welcome to Equestria Naruto!'. There weren't many others present, for which Naruto was grateful, just Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Applebloom. There were two others Applebloom's age, probably the friends she mentioned, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, as well as a baby dragon named spike. Having all of ponyville come to check out the 'interesting new creature' up close would have made for quite the awkward party. Naruto simply nodded dumbstruck to the question, and was quickly hustled inside for cake. He had never been to a party before, especially not one held in his honor. His birthdays were always spent hiding from festival goers, knowing that for some reason the villagers tended to be extra violent towards him on that particular day. Yet here these ponies were, throwing a party just for him, just for showing up uninvited into their lives. He bit back tears as he lunged forward, throwing the pink pony into a hug. Pinky merely giggled and grabbed the other ponies into a group hug around the child. Soon enough the party got into full swing. He was introduced to the other young ponies, and quickly added them to the growing list of 'Friends I've made since arriving in Equestria'. He spoke more with Applejack, learning about all the hard work that went into working on her family's farm. It sounded kind of fun actually, and learning she could kick apple trees hard enough to knock healthy apples loose left him in awe of her strength. All the baked goods present were made by Pinkie Pie of course, and though he had little to compare them to, he found them all delicious. As the evening wound down however, he found himself faced with the prospect of going home. He knew he couldn't stay here all the time, the Third kept a close eye on him, and would no doubt worry. At the same time he felt more welcome, here among the ponies than he ever had anywhere else. Deciding to bring these thoughts up with his friends, he was surprised to find them all smiling back at him. "Well of course we don't expect you to spend All of your time here." Said Twilight. "Yeah, but you can still come visit any time you like! I'm sure we can all teach you plenty, and it's only proper to come visit your friends right?" Pinkie chimed in. "There'll always be plenty of food here for ya sugarcube." Added Applejack. "And I'll no doubt have time to make you new outfits." Said Rarity. At this Naruto was ready to break down crying again. These ponies showed him so much kindness, he wouldn't need to be alone anymore. No more hungry nights, no more ragged clothing. "I have nothing to offer in return." He said quietly, staring down at the wooden floor in shame. "Part of being a good friend is showing kindness to others. We'll take good care of you, we'll help you achieve your goals, and all we ask is your friendship." Fluttershy said quietly, moving forward to embrace the poor child. "All you have to do is be a good friend, and if you don't know how... We can help teach you that too." "Now, I believe you said we have a contract to sign?" Said Twilight, bringing out a scroll of paper. "It may not be official, but we can certainly try and see if it works." On the contract, in elegant script, was written: We who sign this contract swear to be the best friends that we can be. To care for, to teach, to help and to protect each other to the best of our ability. We agree to accept each other's faults, and never take for granted their virtues. With some semblance of ceremony each pony stepped forward to sign the contract, with Naruto at last stepping forward with reverence to scrawl his name at the bottom. With that done they said their goodbyes, Naruto agreeing to try summoning Twilight Sparkle in the morning, so they could hit Konoha's library. With a series of five handseals, and a good chunk less chakra than last time, Naruto put his hand to the floor and disappeared. It was a quick hop out of the nearby library window and a 5 minute walk to his appartment. With a grin he hung the contract on the wall near his bed, the names serving as a reminder, until he could spring for a decent camera for a photo. He fell asleep still smiling, one thought circling his mind. Friends. I have friends O~O~O~O~O Morning broke and Naruto woke with the same grin he had last night. Quickly grabbing his new clothing and pulling them on he ran through his new 5 favorite hand signs. He concentrated on his new friend Twilight, pushed his hand to the floor, and promptly disappeared. In a puff of smoke he found himself suddenly standing in the library, where he had left the night before. His arrival caused Twilight to poke her head out of the kitchen area, "Oh, Naruto? I thought you were going to summon me?" "Gah! It didn't work! The contract must not work!" He cried, suddenly distressed. "I figured this might happen, no matter how 'official sounding' we make it, it's still just a piece of paper. There really is no reason it should allow people to move between worlds. There must be something special about those contracts that ninja use." Twilight said, trying to calm Naruto down. "That must be it! I'll ask the Old Man! He uses summons, he must know!" Nartuo said, quickly flipping through signs and disappearing once more. Once more in his appartment, the young Naruto bolted from his home and into the streets. Ignoring the glares and a few curious glances he dodged and weaved through the streets and into the Hokage's building. Upon entering, he quickly took to the stairs, ignoring the receptionists as they insisted that the Third was far too busy to see him. Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork as he heard his secretary shouting for someone to stop. He knew exactly what it meant, as his personal guards had yet to react, and braced himself for the coming storm. Were he larger the doors to his office may have slammed open from the force of Naruto running into them, as it stood the boy barely budged the heavy wooden doors and slipped inside with a sheepish grin. "Hey Old Man!" He called, running up to the Hokage's desk. "Hello Naruto, what brings you here today?" Sarutobi inquired, it really had been a while since he had checked in with Naruto, but the boy seemed to be doing quite well, he even wore seemingly new clothing. "Old Man, I made friends! Lots of them!" He said, failing to contain his excitement. An eyebrow rose at this, and the Third prompted the child to explain. "I was reading, in the library, all about how awesome you are! And then I was like, I could be an awesome Hokage if I was like you! So I tried getting summons of my own. But when I tried instead of bringing something to me, I got brought to them!" He said startling the old man. Such an event was not without precedence, Jiraiya himself had done something similar and wound up with the toad contract. Still for it to happen to Naruto. "And what kind of summons were you brought to?" Surely he couldn't have found the toads as well, that sort of thing would be far too coincidental. "Ponies!" He shouted, nearly causing Sarutobi to fall from his chair. "They're the coolest summons ever! One of them can do magic! Not even like Ninja techniques, actual magic! And this other one knows Karate, and can fly faster than sound! And all of them are really really nice!" He yammered on, the Third Hokage partially tuning him out, until he gathered his senses and interrupted. "Can you summon one for me?" He asked, and Naruto's face fell. "That's the thing, Twilight made up a contract, and she's super smart, and we all signed it, but it doesn't seem to work. It just keeps sending me to them." He said sullenly. "We were hoping you'd know what to do, since you can summon monkeys." "Naruto, the secrets for making a summoning contract are a very closely guarded secret, only a few summon clans still know how to make them. Toads and Monkeys in particular. If the ponies don't have a contract already, I'm not sure if you'll ever be able to bring them to the elemental nations." Naruto's face fell completely at that point. "That being said, I shall ask the monkeys what they know, and if they'd be willing to trade for a blank contract. In the mean time, tell the ponies to search on their end, there may still be a contract there. And I encourage you to spend time with your summons regardless, even if they can't help you in battle, there is likely much that they can teach you." The Old Man finished with a grin. Naruto looked up suddenly and beamed at him, before preparing a summon once again. "Outside please Naruto, it wouldn't do to have you pop back in here once I'm gone for the night." Naruto grinned sheepishly and bolted from the building, finding a nice location to disappear. O~O~O~O~O There was another poof of smoke and Naruto popped into Twilight's library. He quickly informed her of the plan, and she sent a letter to Princess Celestia, asking about a possible summoning contract. She explained that she had sent one before, saying she had befriended a human, and the Princess had been thrilled that another human had come to Equestria at long last. That being accomplished, Twilight insisted that if Naruto was going to visit regularly that they set up a schedule. Soon they had come up with the idea, that on even weeks Naruto would spend Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays working with Applejack in the morning on her farm, and afternoons with Twilight getting a basic education. Tuesdays and Thursdays he would work with Rainbow Dash on his speed and learning Karate in the afternoons, with mornings spent either helping Rarity dig for gems, helping Fluttershy with her animals, or Pinkie Pie at Sugar Cube Corner. On odd weeks of course, they would swap schedules. With that overly complex schedule complete, Naruto poofed out once again, and quickly ran to the Library to fetch books for his study sessions. Once at the library, however, he was faced with an old adversary. The librarian looked up from her desk as a customer entered, only to scowl when she saw who it was. Someone had seen fit to dress the demon in human clothing, but at least it no longer smelled. The creature seemed to have a determined look on its face, no doubt it wanted to mock her by reading human books for a while. With a sneer she rose to throw the brat out, but paused as a second person entered the library. Hatake Kakashi. Naruto paused, flinching as the librarian stood to no doubt throw him out. But he noticed she stalled as a man walked in. Seeing his chance, with the librarian frozen in inaction, and the man caught up reading a little orange book, he darted into the library and quickly set about gathering books. They were texts mostly, history and geography, and instruction manuals for aspiring ninja, things that wouldn't exist in Equestria. Settling on a stack of about 6 heavy tomes he darted back over to the front desk to check out, praying his luck would hold out. The librarian looked down at the pile of books in front of her, her mind rebelling against allowing the child to have anything at all, let alone her precious books. "I'm sorry," she said, grin plastered to her face and sounding insincere, "You don't seem to be in our records, you'll have to apply for a library card, which could take about two weeks." The man with the orange book raised a single visible eyebrow. It was quite obvious the lady knew exactly who the boy was. "I'm sure that won't be necessary, I'll just check these books out for him. I'm certain that they'll get back on time." The man gave a smile with his one visible eye. Noting the horrified expression on the librarian as she froze up, Naruto took his chance and darted out of the building with his books, a small "Thanks!" Cried over his shoulder as the door swung shut. O~O~O~O~O Naruto quickly fell into the routine set out for him by his new pony friends. He adored his time spent with each of them. Twilight was a patient teacher, and even with his endless energy he still learned the important parts of his lessons. Rainbow Dash would give him constant pointers on his stances, between doing her duty as weather-mare. Naruto became enraptured with watching her fly, and vowed to find a way to join her in the clouds. On Dash's days off she would have him running around a track, constantly working on both his sprinting and endurance. Time on Applejack's farm was hard work, but he slowly grew in strength until he could keep up with the rest of the family. He started out with Applebloom, picking up fallen apples and putting them into baskets. Once he was strong enough he began moving the full baskets, his goal was to one day pull carts like Big Macintosh, or be able to kick apples out of the trees. Gem hunting with Rarity was rewarding in different ways. He had to do all the work of course, digging through dirt and rock, and pulling the cart to and fro, it was back breaking, but oh the gems he uncovered. Gemstone's were plentiful in Equestria it seemed, and the loot from those days was divided between herself to use in her latest fashion lines, and Twilight as food for Spike. Upon learning that dragons ate gemstones like candy Naruto reassessed the value in having them as his summons, not that he'd trade the ponies he'd found for the world. Occasionally he would be given a gem as a reward for his hard work, which he would bring to the Hokage in exchange for spending money. Also on the list of things to do for Rarity was learning more about human fashion, in particularly ninja garb. After being tossed unceremoniously from Ninja outfitting stores for asking too many questions, he spent a large portion of his spending money on a camera. With said image recording device in hand he went on a spree, catching pictures of every ninja he could find, from Genin to Jounin so that Rarity had better ideas of what kinds of things Ninja wore. The added side effect of having a camera was a large group picture of Naruto and his pony friends, now decorating his bedside table. Baking lessons with Pinkie Pie were fun, often he was left to tend the counter, apparently the novelty of a human server was good for business. They would occasionally take a break to play harmless practical jokes on some of the local ponies, Naruto was constantly impressed by the pink pony's stealth, and made to emulate her on every prank run. When asked if she could 'teach' her pinky sense, she said he needed to trust his instincts, regardless of how silly those instincts might be. It seemed simple to Naruto, but putting it into practice was ridiculous. Sessions with Fluttershy was comparatively peaceful, often spent feeding animals and learning first aid. He got to witness 'the stare' in action, and while he appreciated how useful that would be in a fight, like pinkie-sense, he could admit it was beyond his grasp. The routine continued, with occasional breaks or special events, and soon months then years had passed. Naruto celebrated his birthdays for the first time, as well as the birthdays of his friends. He got dragged into helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders in some truly wild adventures. He grew into a strong, healthy and intelligent child. But through all of this they found no trace of a summoning contract. The Monkeys, when asked, refused, stating Konoha had no techniques worth trading for. Before anyone knew it, Naruto had spent nearly two years in Equestria, only returning to Konoha once in a while to sleep or check in. Until at last Naruto was 8, and it was time to go to the Academy.