//------------------------------// // Ponies Parties and Preliminaries // Story: Friendship Contract // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// Neji stared down the force assembled before him. He did not dare make a move as he weighed the odds, even as a red haired kusa ninja grabbed Sakura and leaped her over to the tree house. Karin quickly removed the kunai that remained in the pink haired girl's arms and legs, before offering her arm to the girl. "Bite down, just like before." She urged, and the Konoha genin obeyed. "What you tried to do here was low, Neji." Naruto said, stepping forward from the assembled forces. "You would not have gotten that scroll if not for Lee's help." Neji replied, feigning a calm he did not feel. "I'm willing to bet Lee didn't help us out expecting to get a scroll." Saskue said, stepping up to Naruo's side. He still felt weak, and didn't want to use his new seal until he stopped craving it, but he could still fight. "Regardless, you owe your safety to our team." Came the voice of Neji's female teammate, sporting a bruised forehead. "And for that I'll give you the opportunity to leave, and the chance to seek your ticket onwards in this exam elsewhere. Who knows, this forest may have sleeping babies you can rob, or old ladies you can mug." Naruto called, seeing Neji flinch in anger once again. "Neji! Master Gai would be disappointed, betraying allies when it becomes convenient is not how we act as Konoha ninja!" Lee called, rushing to his teammates side. "You've wasted enough time here Lee. We only harm Konoha by letting weak genin reach the finals, I suppose I can stick to my original plan though. I look forward to facing you before the entire village." Neji said snidely, and the team turned to leave. "Should we really just let them go?" Sasuke said, still feeling the urge to fight. "Lee did help us out, it would have sucked if those sound ninja interfered with the sealing." Naruto said. "Besides, I hope one of us gets to fight that jerk in the finals, like he said." They were soon joined by Karin, and a now healed Sakura, and began discussing their next course of action. They agreed that Twilight would take their latest scroll to Ponyville as well for safe keeping, and then plan a party for Sweetie Belle getting her cutie mark. The genin would continue on to the tower, and Karin would turn herself in for interrogation. Despite what she had taken part in, Naruto was hesitant to leave her alone with someone like Ibiki, but the others insisted that as long as she cooperated nothing that bad would happen. The group of ponies and genin made decent time, marching as one large group caravan. The ponies had insisted on staying, since the genin couldn't leave to go to Sweetie's Party, they'd have to have it at the tower. Sasuke idly wondered how those running the exam would take it, but decided it would be nothing if not entertaining to watch. Naruto had clones running ahead to scout the area, and through cooperation with them they avoided any traps. There were not ambushed, though probably on merit of being such a large group, Pinkie had pulled out her 'instrument' and was giving the group marching music. It was nearly dusk when they reached the tower, putting them a day ahead of the deadline. The scrolls were opened and Iruka appeared, shocked to discover four genin and nine ponies staring back at him. He quickly explained what was to happen next, which included giving the genin team a room to stay in, which Pinkie Pie immediately left to set up the party in. They explained about Karin, who offered her absolute surrender and cooperation on one condition. "I'd like to attend their party first." To their surprise Anko agreed to 'supervise', and demanded that they move the party from their room to the cafeteria. Pinkie obliged, and a liberal application of the party cannon later, things were getting into full swing. Vinyl Scratch once again agreed to DJ, setting up her sound system in the corner. Pinkie also set up a karaoke machine, so Sweetie Belle could show off her talent. Anko was caught trying to spike the punch, but stopped when Applejack offered her a case of hard apple cider. She exclaimed watching several ponies do a dance routine to a karaoke song that she'd genjutsu less surreal. As the party wore on, other genin teams arrived to see what was going on. The party was soon joined by Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, who reacted in different ways. Hinata immidiately grabbed a cinnamon bun and began talking with several of the ponies, Shino remained his aloof self, but seemed to be holding a quiet conversation with Glimmer. Kiba tried everything he could think of to get Anko to part with some of her cider. The sand siblings arrived soon after, to investigate the source of the noise. They were caught off guard when the moment they entered the room began to cheer. It had been agreed upon that since they were celebration not only Sweetie's cutie mark appearing, but also the passing of the second test, every genin present was a guest of honor. Kankuro was a little annoyed that his presence was met with cheers of "na na na na na na na na CAT MAN!" by several of the younger ponies that ran about underfoot, but was willing to ignore it to enjoy the food. Temari quickly went to join the line for Karaoke, and was approached by Rarity about 'Suna fashion'. Soon enough they were discussing all sorts of trends, and Rarity was taking down information on the blonde girl's sizes. Gaara was overwhelmed. The room was filled with other genin and brightly colored ponies, the music was loud and the singing was admittedly quite good. He sampled some of the food and found it quite enjoyable. He was at a party. A party thrown, at least partially, for him. He was broken out of his thoughts as he saw one of the ponies, a small white one with a horn, climbing up on the table. He'd seen the larger ponies giving food or drink from the tables to the smaller ones all night, but this one seemed determined to get some for herself. Sure enough the pony in question slipped, and began to teeter towards the edge of the table. She let out a squeak as she fell out over open space. Without realizing what he was doing the little white filly was caught in a cushion of sand, and floated over in front of the red haired boy, who gave her a curious look. From the other side of the room Temari's blood froze. It was such an enjoyable night, and now Gaara was going to ruin it. The singing would turn to screaming, there would probably be a stampede, and she'd likely never get those amazing clothes. All because of her socially awkward little brother. "Thanks!" The little filly chirped happily. "I guess I should be more careful!" She noticed the boy stayed quiet, so she decided to continue. "Your cutie mark is on your forehead? That's kind of cool I guess, better than your flank, since humans always wear pants. What's yours mean?" Gaara was again caught off guard, a feeling he didn't quite like, and he moved to touch the tattoo on his forehead. "Love... It means love." He said, almost whispering. "That's really cool! Love is such an awesome talent to have. I just got mine today, my special talent is singing." The filly yammered on, not noticing the odd look the red haired boy now had. "I'm Sweetie Belle by the way, what's your name?" "Gaara..." Said the human. "Well Gaara, it's nice to meet you! I should go tell my sister I made a new friend!" she said, turning and hopping off the sand cloud and trotting merrily across the room while Gaara was stunned by her comment. "A friend..." He whispered to himself, absently grabbing another cup of punch. The party wore down a few hours later, leaving several of the ponies behind to pack up. Apple Bloom was left trying to play peace-maker as Sweetie and Scootaloo argued over which of their human friends was cooler. "Gaara's brother wears make up and cat pajamas!" Scootaloo said, stifling a yawn. "Lee's teammate is a huge meanie!" Sweetie Belle countered sleepily. "I'll bet Lee can run even faster than Applejack!" Scootaloo said, not able to suppress the yawn. "Gaara can probably make the coolest sandcastles ever!" Sweetie said, blinking a lot. Within moments the two were asleep, alongside Apple Bloom, under one of the cafeteria tables. O~O~O~O~O The next morning arrived and team seven took their time getting up. This was their day of rest before whatever the next phase of the exams were. Gathering their things they went down to the main hall with minutes to spare before the deadline. Shikamaru and his team were already there. "Hey, you three missed a great party last night!" Naruto called out to them. "We heard all about it from Pinkie Pie, she set up her welcome wagon at the entrance of the tower." Chouji said, pulling out what may have been his last bag of chips for the competition. "We pulled Ino out of the way of the confetti cannon though." "Why'd you do that?" Naruto whined. "It was full of cake batter!" Ino looked more than a little upset. Sakura shrugged. "It's tradition. Ready for the next round Ino?" she asked, actually pleased that her old friend was present. "If I have to fight you it'll be an easy win, forehead." Ino replied, more on instinct than with any malicious undertones. They were interrupted again as the doors opened for a final time. Neji and Lee walked in, followed by Tenten, who was attempting to clean the cake batter off of her. Shortly after, Kabuto entered, also doused in batter but looking more sheepish than anything else. Team seven was treated to cold looks from Neji, a nod from Lee, and a grumble about 'pink pincushions' from Tenten. After a quick speech from the Hokage, they were informed that there would be a preliminary round. The electronic scoreboard whirred to life and selected the first two names, both Naruto and Sasuke had their fingers crossed hoping for Neji. The genin moved to the stands to spectate, along with a whole host of ponies that Naruto summoned up, knowing they wouldn't want to miss this. Naruto asked the Third if he should summon Celestia to watch, but he replied that it wouldn't be wise to waste the chakra, if he didn't plan on using her to fight his opponent, the genin present all sweat dropped as Naruto seemed to consider it. From up on the stands Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo began arguing once more about their favorite humans, aside from Naruto of course, he was the best as Apple Bloom constantly reminded them. Kabuto took the opportunity to quit, saying that he was too exhausted to continue, and the board began to randomly select their opponents. First up was Sasuke, versus some Konoha genin named Yoroi. The Uchiha boy merely shrugged and hopped down into the ring, feeling a little more rested than he had the other day, and raring to go for a fight. As usual, the occasion called for prefight banter. "So, what's your gimmick?" Sasuke asked casually, as the referee got into position. "My what?" The boy across from him asked. "You know, most genin here have a single trick that they're relying on to get them through the exams, for some reason most genin don't tend to diversify." Sasuke said, shrugging as some of the genin in the stands blushed. "You'll see firsthand soon enough." He said, signaling that he was ready. The referee backed off, and Yoroi charged in, hands out as if to grapple. A quick check from Sasuke's sharingan showed that they were charged with chakra. Sasuke shook his head in disappointment and drew his sword, watching as his opponent immediately leapt away. "Honestly, this is embarrassing. You really don't have a way to deal with weapon users?" He asked calmly as he now chased his opponent around the room. "You figured what? You'd make chuunin because against taijustsu specialists you have some sort of trump card? You don't even have some clever way of closing in on long range specialists do you? Lets test that theory." He leapt back, sheathing his sword and pulling out a brace of four kunai. Sasuke sighed, seeing his opponent revert to his original tactic of 'run head long at the opponent.' With a careless toss he threw the kunai, watching with disinterest as they stuck into the ground when his opponent dodged. Raising a chakra laced hand upwards he let fly with the forked lighting. Rather than letting all the chakra go in one burst he poured on the energy, letting it flow out like a Tesla Coil through his opponent. He kept it up for about ten seconds, before cutting the flow and returning to the balcony. "I feel cheated, why couldn't I fight someone competent." He asked, leaning against the railing. "Sasuke, what is that on your shoulder?" Kakashi asked, only now noticing his student's new tattoo. "Ah right, we should have briefed the Hokage on what happened in the forest huh?" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "Probably, but we got distracted with that party. We can do so after this, Karin should be done in interrogation soon." Sakura replied, watching Shino win an easy match against Zaku, and Kankuro decimate another 'gimmicky' Konoha ninja. Kakashi was totally lost, not knowing who this Karin even was, but figured the Hokage already knew what was going on. His desire to go check in with the Third was quashed when Sakura's name came up on the screen. "Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka." "You ready to do this Ino?" Sakura asked, having leaped down into the ring to meet her opponent. She was sort of looking forward to this fight. Ino had been her closest friend for a while, before they had a falling out over Sasuke. In all honesty Sakura hadn't thought of that crush in a long time, working alongside the boy and earning his respect had left her realizing he wasn't some prize to be won by looking pretty. Ino gave a condescending snort, "You really let yourself go haven't you forehead. Look at you, you've gained weight, you cut your hair, your clothing is a mess, and you don't even wear makeup. It's like you've given up on winning Sasuke all together. I guess some girls just aren't cut out to be a ninja." The referee began the fight and leapt away, already feeling the heat between the two girls. With speed far beyond what Ino was capable of, Sakura closed the distance into close combat. Ino was immediately on the defensive after quickly realizing how badly even a blocked hit stung. Still the blonde put up a valiant effort, and dodged a high kick with a nimble back flip. As Sakura moved to pursue she found herself caught on the floor. Looking down she saw a paper tag in the ground, right in the middle of her shadow. "Thanks, Shikamaru." Ino said, getting distance and preparing he signature technique. "This hardly seems fair." Sakura grumbled, trying to force her body to move, while her upper body was still in her control, everything below the waste was locked down hard by the chakra tag. "It was prepared in advance, it's no worse than an exploding tag you can buy from a store." Ino justified, running through several hand seals. In a surge of adrenalin Sakura punched downwards, using her chakra to shatter the floor around her. The tag ripped, freeing her from its influence, and she flipped up a broken tile in time to block Ino's chakra based attack. Still unconscious from her failed ability, Ino couldn't dodge when the tile was kicked at her by the pink haired girl, leaving it to shatter on impact and render her unconscious. Sakura returned to her spot on the balcony, to nods of respect from her teammates. The next match gave a humiliating loss to Tenten, as the weapon spamming girl was met with an opponent who negated long ranged attacks. The girl suffered a cracked spine from Temari, a wind user with a fan, and would have received much worse injuries if not for Lee stepping in to catch her. Shikamaru lazily outwitted the sound ninja Kin, and finally came Naruto's turn to face down Kiba. He leaped down into the ring, to the cheers of Fluttershy, Rarity, and the cutie mark crusaders. Fluttershy paused in her excited "yay~ and woohoo~'s" and noticed the lack of other ponies. She turned to ask Rarity about the missing friends. "Oh, I'm certain they're setting up for 'that' plan. This should be entertaining." Rarity said, moving up to get a better view. "So Kiba, want to do this one on one? Or are you going to bring Akamaru in on this?" Naruto taunted. "Hah, Akamaru and I are partners, 'unsportmanship' is an excuse for non-ninja." Kiba said, with his dog barking in agreement. "Fine then, Presenting the Hero of Ponyville!" Naruto said, posing dramatically. "Oh my, he isn't..." Apple Bloom said, leaning closer to the railings. "The defender of the weak, the protector of the innocent!" Naruto shouted, getting a few grins from his friends. "He is, he's really going to..." Scootaloo said, looking excited. "The preserver of the peace! The Mysterious Mare Do Well!" With a final cry and a poof of smoke, a single pony in a costume stood before the audience of genin, and took a bow. "A pony superhero? I'm so scared." Kiba taunted, and got into a stance. The referee checked that they were both ready, and began the match. Kiba charged forward, closing in on the costumed pony, attempting to knock it back to Equestria, and then finish off Naruto. Before he could get close, however, it vanished in a blast of purple light. He was forced on the defensive as a hail of shuriken came from Naruto, he dodged as best he could, but the small stars of metal changed their course, homing in on them with an eerie purple glow. Akamaru leapt into action, harrying the costumed pony around the arena as it teleported away, buying Kiba precious moments to evade the flying metal, while he dealt with Naruto in close combat. Finally having enough he dropped a smoke bomb, shrouding himself and Akamaru from sight. "I can't see you, but I can still smell you. Let's see how well you dodge!" Came a voice from within, followed shortly by a hail of metal. The Mare Do Well leapt in front of Naruto, there was another purple flash, and both her and Naruto began to dance. It was an odd thing to watch, and obvious that Naruto was following along with whatever the costumed pony did, but they were in the optimal position to dodge each weapon before they ever came into sight. Their routine ended as two Kiba's rushed from the smoke screen, bent low and running on all fours. Naruto and his summon broke apart, each dealing with one of the two opponents. Naruto kept pace, going blow for blow with Kiba one, while the Mare Do Well dodged with abilities unheard of outside of sharingan wielders. The two dog-like ninja both turned from their opponents, changing targets and spinning into an airborne drill. There was another flash of pink light around the caped pony, as Naruto sidestepped his projectile. The mare do well, now slightly to the side of the drill's impact zone, gave a hard buck with both back legs, sending the genin out of his spin, and into the air. Naruto followed up with a few hand signs and a multitude of air bullets shot from his mouth, the airborn target was peppered by a multitude of aerial explosions. With a final flash of purple light, the Mare Do Well took to the air, flying up to catch her target and doing a quick loop, before slamming him down upon the floor. The other Kiba rushed over to him, reverting into a whining Akamaru as Kiba struggled to get up. "Alright, I give, I know when I'm beat. How did you do that though? None of your ponies can do all that." "It wasn't just one pony." Came the much unwelcome voice of Neji. "There were four, hiding behind that statue, the one that could teleport was swapping them out as needed." "Well thanks Neji, why don't you tell the other villages some more of Konoha's secrets. I'm certain they'd love to know our guard schedules and rotations while you're at it." Naruto called up to him, rather miffed that one of his cooler tricks was now ruined for all those present. Neji weathered the glares from several genin and jounin instructors, even the Hokage was giving him a disdainful look. "Such a foolish tactic doesn't merit keeping secret, any talented ninja could have figured it out. That Kiba could not just means he isn't worthy of continuing, and that your luck continues to hold out." Naruto only shook his head and decided to ignore the boy, instead gathering up the ponies and heading up to the balcony once more. Next up it was finally Neji's turn, but to the disapproval of many present, he was to fight Hinata. The two Hyuuga clan members stepped out onto the floor and stoically faced each other down. "You cannot hope for victory here." Neji remarked, as casually as if he were discussing the weather. "I have grown strong these past few months cousin." Came Hinata's reply. Though quiet, her words held a strong resolve to them. In the past few years she had truly come to embrace the creed of her clan, 'The lightest touch to bring down a mountain.' It was seeing this that her Father had finally begun to open up to her, and give her extra training. "You are favored by the clan for who you were born to, your place would be better suited to one of talent." Neji replied coldly, motioning that he was ready to the referee, who leapt back to safety. Both combatants activated their bloodlines and fell into a beautiful dance of exchanged blows. Although quick and graceful, making use of her flexibility, Hinata soon fell behind to Neji's direct and brutal application of the style, and when the two parted minutes later Hinata was worse for wear. "You know I disapprove of how the branch family is treated, when I am clan head I plan on removing the seals, why do you still reject my kindness?" Hinata gasped out, stalling to catch her breath. Since discovering the secret to Naruto's armor back at the academy she had worked hard in secret learning to do something similar. While she didn't have the chakra to maintain it like he did, she eventually learned to reopen her chakra points, a skill that would send her clan council after Naruto's head if anyone else were to learn of it. "This is our fate. To go against that is to lead our clan to ruin. If a weak heir like you becomes clan head it will only spell the end of our glory as a clan. I cannot have my freedom, just as you cannot become a strong leader. This is our fate." He replied, sinking back into the gentle fist stance. "Very well then, let us test our beliefs." Hinata said, settling into a strange stance. Her legs were together, leaving her teetering almost precariously, her arms were at her sides, bent 90 degrees at the elbow and hands clenched in fists. As the spectators watched a faintly visible aura of chakra began to coalesce around her hands. "Gentle Step." Where before their combat was one of grace and precision, Hinata's newly revealed style was that of a ruthless predator. As the name suggested she bobbed and weaved around Neji's strikes, often defying physics as she kept her balance while swinging her fists in wide arcing strikes. Her feet barely needed to touch the floor for her to change direction, always on the attack, every dodge flowing easily into a counterattack. Neji darted around the erratic girl jabbing with precision strikes while dodging the retaliation to the best of his ability, where one of the fists grazed his arm he drew back as if severely burned. Finally, as if in some unspoken agreement the two closed in with a simultaneous cry of "You are within range of my divination!" Neji's hands flew in an absolute blur which somehow Hinata's right fist managed to weave through, getting in a single tap against her cousin's chest. With a cry a burst of blue passed through Neji, the foreign chakra damaged his insides as it passed, nearly blowing him off his feet, but he persevered through the pain. Having used the last of her chakra on that gambit, Hinata could no longer dodge what remained of her cousin's 64 strikes, and collapsed. Neji struggled to remain standing, to not show weakness in front of the spectators. He wanted to mock his cousin for her restraint, but if she had put more power into that attack, if she had more training and practice, he would have easily been blown away. As it stood, he dared not open his mouth for fear of coughing blood, and so he simply turned to walk away on shaky legs, as his cousin's friends came down to collect her. As the arena was cleared once more, Gaara and Lee were called up to fight, which lead to much cheering among two specific fillies. Gaara hesitated at hearing the noise, sparing a glance up at the white filly who called his name. "They are quite the embodiments of youthful vigor, don't you think? Let's do our best to give them quite the show." Lee said, giving a thumbs up and smile to the little ponies. Gaara, not knowing how to respond, gave a slight nod. The referee began the match, and the fight began. Team seven was in awe of the fight before them. For all that the last match had been graceful, this was like watching a clash of titans, fist and leg met with sand over and over, neither yielding as the minutes wore on. Eventually Lee took off his weights, and even Rainbow Dash began to cheer alongside her little admirer as the green boy reached ludicrous speeds. It was all for naught however, as even pulling all the stops, Lee could not even cause permanent harm to the red haired boy. Naruto noted that Gaara appeared to use chakra infused sand in the same way he used pure chakra, which made him grin a little at 'great minds think alike'. The crowd went silent, however, when Gaara's sand reached out to grab hold of a nearly unconscious Lee. "Waaaaaaaait!" Came a familiar voice. Surprisingly enough it actually made Gaara pause. "It's okay Gaara, the fight's over, you won!" Sweetie yelled, trotting down the stairs and over to boy, who lay on a pile of sand. "Gee you must have been hit pretty hard huh? You can take a hit like Naruto! You two would be good friends I bet. Don't worry though, you made it to the finals, I told Scootaloo you were cooler than Lee. I mean Lee is pretty awesome too, did you see how fast he was going? Of course you did you were fighting him, but you won right? That means you're cooler." The sand sibling's heart nearly stopped when the sand that reached out for Lee withdrew and instead picked up Sweetie Belle. "This is so cool! I'll bet you can make some pretty cool sand castles huh?" "Sand... castles...?" Gaara said. "Sweetie, are you sure this is a good time to be pestering him? He just won his match, give him some room to breathe!" Came Naruto's voice as he jogged over. Lee had been carted away by the medics, who said he'd be able to recover fully with a few days of rest. "Naruto Uzumaki, this is your summon?" Gaara asked, still floating the filly off the ground. "Yeah, that's Sweetie Belle, she's a great singer, and the captain of a flying ship, and a good friend as well." Naruto replied. "So you would fight me, if I attempted to harm her?" Naruto's eyes cooled drastically. "I'd do the same for all of my friends. You told me before that you wanted me to validate your existance." Gaara nodded. "Well I acknowledge you as a strong ninja, and if Sweetie says you're a friend, then I'd like to be your friend as well." "I have no friends." came Gaara's stoic reply, as he lowered a confused Sweetie to the ground. Naruto spared a glance at the other two sand ninja, "Like it or not, there are those who'd disagree." The arena was cleared a final time for a rather uneventful match with Dosu against Chouji, ending in a sloppy win for Dosu, with a shoddily repaired gauntlet. Sweetie was disappointed that she had no reason to sing an inspiring song for the large boy, although Naruto pointed out it may have been considered cheating if she had done so. Finally the Hokage called the winners down to discuss the plans for the upcoming finals, which would be held in a month. He explained the basic premise, and then had them pick numbers for their opponents. Sakura got Dosu, and Sasuke got Gaara. Naruto received the best news he'd had all day. Out in that stadium, in one month's time, for the entire village to see... Naruto would be fighting Neji.