//------------------------------// // Finding a Balance // Story: Friendship Contract // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// It had been a rough two months for Naruto. Sure it had started out pleasantly enough, being invited to Canterlot Castle and all. He had met up with both princesses and Twilight had presented his training schedule for the next three years. They had planned to teach him Yin release and Yang release, the essence of earth pony and unicorn techniques. Pegasi techniques would have to wait, as even the Princesses were uncertain of how to go about drawing in the appropriate nature chakra. Yes they had in fact determined that pegasi, despite being the most energetic of ponies (Pinkie Pie not withstanding) somehow manipulated natural energy on an instinctive level. It gave them their weather manipulation, limited invulnerability, and ability to defy normal physics in flight. As drool-worthy as those abilities were, especially flight, both Alicorns were at a loss for teaching Naruto, so they put off that training until later. Instead they began with Yang release, which is why Naruto found himself dragged to a remote field, far from civilization. In the distance he could see the Ixion. "Now then. A quick introduction to Yang release." Celestia said, drawing Naruto's attention away from the boat. "Yang energy is the energy of life itself. It exists within every cell of every living thing. Life energy can have many effects, from augmenting muscles, to repairing injuries quickly, to causing nearby living things to grow at an accelerated rate. It is particularly abundant in earth ponies, which is why close contact with earth ponies leads plants to grow rapidly." "In the case of Ninja, yang energy is forced out of your cells and combined with your yin, or mental energy. This mixture of energy is called chakra, and it is neutral unless altered by genetics or manipulation. Again, in the case of earth ponies, the chakra they create by mixing their yin and yang energies takes on a more potent effect than their pure yang energy, thus Yang Release." Naruto scratched his head, pondering the implications for a moment. "So, you want me to convert my chakra into this 'yang chakra', giving me super strength and farming abilities?" Naruto summarized. "Something like that." Celestia smiled. "We've discovered that wood grown from chakra can more easily be summoned, so we are going to be building the Ixion mark II out of chakra grown wood. Your first task is to supply the wood." She said, rolling a single apple towards him. "Best of luck!" In a flash of light the Alicorn was gone, leaving Naruto to stare blankly at the solitary red orb. Several minutes passed before the blonde boy could even register a response of "What?". O~O~O~O~O Naruto spent weeks sitting on the ground with a seed in his palm, focusing inwards on his chakra. He knew what he was doing was nothing like the 'wood release' technique, as that involved creating trees and wood from pure chakra. He was trying to force life into an object, the essence of Yang techniques. In this case it happened that the recipient of his gift of life would use it to grow into an apple tree. That is, if he could get the technique to work. He inwardly grumbled about Celestia and her teaching methods, surely she had more advice than 'take this apple and grow me an orchard.' Still, he worked away at what he thought was the right path towards eventual success. 'Yang is the power, yin is the intent, together they make chakra. If I want to blow an air bullet, it's the yin that determines the form, and the yang supplies all the force.' He pondered, turning the seed over in his hands. 'So by willing the energy to make the seed grow, I'm already failing, as the yang energy gets mixed with my intent, and becomes regular chakra.' Grimacing he continued that train of thought. 'Earth ponies naturally use yang energy when farming, because they are overflowing with the stuff. As soon as they try to do it consciously they create chakra, so why does it still work for them?' 'Yin is governed by thought, so I can't think about it. I need to mold my chakra, and then just... let it flow I suppose. It can't be that easy though, can it?' He pondered, pushing chakra out of his hand as if he were making a Rasengan, only not consciously spinning it. It flowed out of his palm in sufficient amounts to be visible, a blue flame of energy, flickering into the air. Sadly this did nothing to the little seed, and he closed his fist in frustration, flopping down onto his back. "Having fun?" Came a cheerful voice from behind him. Raising his gaze he saw Celestia had returned to the clearing. "Fun? You dump me in some clearing in the middle of nowhere, with an apple and orders to 'master yang release chakra', and call it training! You're the worst teacher ever!" He yelled, leaping to his feet. "It's been weeks and I STILL get headaches trying to figure out this Yang energy and Yang chakra nonsense!" "Oh, is that all? Yang energy is one half of chakra, Yang chakra is chakra molded to resemble yang energy. If you combine Yang energy and Yin energy you get Chakra. If you combine Yang chakra and Yin chakra you get... something amazing." Celestia said. "Amazing?" Naruto asked skeptically. "It's like those combination elements that some ninja are famous for. You mix chakra 'A' in one hand and chakra 'B' in the other, and you get an interesting result." The Alicorn said cryptically. "So are you any good at Yang release then? I know you can do all three specialties to some extent, like any Alicon can, but wouldn't somepony like Applejack be a good tutor?" Naruto asked, rising to his feet. "There are many reasons why Yang release is sometimes referred to as 'Light Style'. The sun is the ultimate source of all life. If you wish to grasp the idea behind Yang chakra, consider how the sun behaves. Does it push its energy into the plants? Does it even direct its light towards the earth? Even when using their chakra, earth ponies effect all of their surroundings, not just the desired plants. You must be like the sun, and simply radiate." Celestia said, once again leaving the blonde boy alone with his thoughts. Settling down once more into meditation Naruto focused on molding chakra. Generally it was a practice that came naturally to ninja, by the time they exited the academy any student could call upon their energy source at will. Now here he was, a chuunin, trying to go back to the beginning and isolate his yang energy. It was an exercise in frustration, as every bit of physical energy that left his cells immediately mixed with his mental energy and became chakra, dissipating back into the separate parts once he dismissed it. Deciding to start small he held up his index finger and focused chakra into it. Closing his eyes he opened his mind up to the feeling of chakra running through it. He moved from the main coils downwards, gradually narrowing his focus until he reached the cellular level. It took hours of intense concentration, but eventually he had isolated a single cell within the tip of his finger. From there he drew his chakra back, using it to 'observe' as he tried to force the yang energy out of that single cell. Again this met with dead ends, as mentally willing the energy out caused it to mix with the mental energy that drew upon it. Recalling Celestia's advice he simply stopped and waited, using his chakra to observe. It took thirty six long hours of simple observation, mentally staking out that little cell before he began to feel it. He went to sleep after that, unsure if what he was feeling was a result of a lack of food, water, and sleep. In the morning he began again and sure enough it was there, like the most gentle of breezes, his yang energy brushing against the formed chakra. The clearing erupted into noise as Naruto celebrated his first major victory in conquering the technique. O~O~O~O~O Despite that minor victory, it was a full six months into training before Naruto was able to get a real sense of his Yang energy. He had expanded his senses to where he was aware of every cell in his body while meditating, and could feel the physical energy leaking from his cells. Along the way he acknowledged that with no way to force more out, and no way to really direct the pure energy, he'd never be able to do what earth ponies did naturally. So instead he began attempting to change the nature of his chakra to match it, much like he did when molding wind chakra. Another three months of work and Naruto stood proudly, watching his hand as it glowed with a brilliant light. Being called 'Light release', Naruto latched onto the idea that if Wind chakra should blow, Yang chakra should feel like the light of the sun on your face. Getting the chakra to 'radiate' was the hardest part. Still, impressed by his own progress, Naruto held his shining hand up to the apple seed on the ground, and watched with a massive grin as the tree grew to full size over the course of five minutes. A flash from behind him signaled Celestia returning once more. "I see you've made progress." She said, glancing from his glowing palm to the tree behind him. "Excellent, you've unlocked the secret of Yang release, and you've started on its first application." "What are the other ways to use it?" Naruto asked excitedly. "What you are doing when using Yang release is essentially sharing your life with something else. Thus there are three categories of techniques. What you just did is an example of Animate to Animate, or living creature to living creature. Growing plants with your chakra is a basic example, it can also be molded into medical techniques to improve their effectiveness, although I doubt that sort of thing will interest you." "Why do I have to use it in medical techniques to heal people? I thought this was pure life energy." Naruto asked. "Plants are designed to take in energy from the sun, animals are not, and thus a technique must be used to force the energy into them. It's the same with the second category, Animate to Inanimate. Can you think of a ninja technique that gives life to a non-living thing?" Celestia asked. Naruto screwed his face up in concentration, thinking over his experiences as a ninja. "Puppet techniques?" "No, I've heard of those techniques and like the name suggests they are merely constructs that are controlled remotely, not given lives of their own. I suppose a technique could be made to give them sentience using Yang chakra, though it would be temporary unless the life force was gifted, and that would likely kill the user." Celestia pondered, shaking herself out of the tangent. "Oh!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, smacking himself for not seeing the obvious. "Clone techniques!" "Indeed. Aside from the normal clone and the shadow clone, all clone techniques involve giving 'life' to an inanimate object. Mud, water, and rock clones for example, wood clones as well I'm told. Each of them disappear quickly though, if not made by someone experienced with Yang release." Celestia smiled at her student. "Why doesn't that apply to a shadow clone?" Naruto asked, a little disappointed, that technique was one of his favorites. "Do you know why the Hokages have deemed that technique forbidden?" Celestia asked. "Because of the chakra cost?" Naruto replied. "Partly correct. What conditions can lower the chakra cost of a technique?" She quized. "Chakra control, and having an affinity. But how can you have an affinity for that technique, it just requires raw chakra." Naruto asked. "Have you ever seen that seal used in any other technique? Shadow clones are one of the few recorded Yin-Yang release techniques. Yin gives form to nothingness, creating a new body entirely from chakra, and Yang gives it life allowing it to act independently. Not having an affinity for one of those multiplies the chakra cost by tenfold, not having either makes that one hundred times. The fact that you can create so many means..." She trailed off, seeing the shocked expression on Naruto's face. "I have both affinities? I can do Yin-Yang techniques?" He asked with glee. "You are truly an Alicorn of the human world, born few and far between. But it will be many years before you are ready to even try techniques of such magnitude, especially since most examples have been lost to history. Now, enough distractions, what would be the final type of Yang technique?" Celestia asked, causing Naruto to look lost for a moment. "The answer is technically the same as the first, Animate to Animate, however in this case you are giving that energy back to yourself. Your muscles run on Yang energy, which is why physical exhaustion can lead to chakra depletion, and vice-versa. If you give your muscles Yang chakra to run on..." She trailed off, walking up to the apple tree that Naruto had just grown, and gave it a light buck. The tree promptly uprooted and flew across the field. Naruto adopted his fox-like grin. O~O~O~O~O 'You know kid, you were supposed to be learning to draw on the fox's power during this little training trip.' Came a much unwanted voice in Naruto's head. 'Who gave you permission to speak?' Naruto demanded, halting his training. 'Ouch, words can hurt you know. I'm just reminding you that if you were following the advice of your teacher, you'd be working on controlling that little furball's power.' 'And I'd likely be rampaging across Equestria right now. I'm not an idiot Discord, all it would take is you suddenly surging the rate of the chakra transfer and I'd go on a berserk rampage.' 'And it'd be the funniest thing I've seen in months. C'mon kid I'm on your side remember? We've been over this.' 'You're only on MY side because anyone else would throw you out the moment you set foot inside their minds. You're here to watch the destiny of the elemental nations play out, and you don't care who's perspective you watch it from.' Naruto could almost hear the grin on Discord's face. 'But since you're my only window into this little show, you need to survive until the end. After all, what kind of jerk stops a good story before the conclusion? That would be something the Fox would do.' 'The answer is No Discord. I'm getting my own strength, even with the fox turned to stone by you I won't risk the safety of my teammates for a power boost. If you're here to watch then stay quiet, or I swear I'll find a way to throw you out of that seal.' 'Wish granted kid.' O~O~O~O~O The halfway point of his training trip had come, and he was forced to halt his training in Yang chakra. So far he had mastered the water clone, creating it with raw yang chakra, with unintended results. With limited mental energy to draw on the clone refused to take on Naruto's image beyond basic shape. Instead he was left with a human shaped mass of water that could move and fight and think like him. It couldn't use techniques, molding chakra was a staple of the Yin-Yang release shadow clones, but what it could do was reform. Naruto was shocked the first time he learned of that trait, having punched the head of the clone hard enough to disperse it into water drops, and watching with glee as it grew back. There was a downside of course, as reforming rapidly expended the clone's energy source, so they were far from indestructible. Still they made excellent sparring partners, as they didn't stop fighting when they lost an arm, leg, or head. Shadow clones continued to blow up in his face. Eventually he conceded that without the appropriate mastery of Yin chakra, and then the skill to combine the two in a delicate balance, he'd never move beyond the 'Shadow clones for dummies' version of the technique found in the forbidden scroll. His favorite application by far was his new version of 'Shining Armor', which made the name far more literal. The technique now involved flooding his body with his own Yang chakra, much like he did when calling on the fox's chakra, and letting it flow about an inch out of his body, like the fox's cloak. Rather than the blue glow he had before, he now shone with a brightness that was hard to look directly at. Rather than just providing an 'ultimate defense', the Yang chakra boosted his physical abilities to new levels, allowing him to run faster, leap higher, and generally be stronger. It also helped to repair muscle damage, allowing him to train his muscles faster to gain strength when not using the technique. The downside of course, was even with his jinchuuriki levels of chakra he could only sustain the form for twenty minutes, up from a mere five when he first started using it. This didn't keep him from goofing off with it in celebration, leaping one hundred meters to scare passing pegasi, or throwing the original Ixion across the field, then running to catch it. A rather amused Luna arrived to draw him from his games, gazing in wonder at the once-barren field around him. From that little apple given to him a year ago, Naruto had kept to the task and grown an entire orchard of trees. At the far end she could see several ponies already at work under the vicious task-master Applebloom. She, like all of the former cutie-mark crusaders was finally developing into a mare, although she was still rather small by comparison. Their new airship was getting all the stops pulled out on its development. Sweetie would still be the captain of course, as well as Scootaloo at the helm and Applebloom their chief engineer. However, since the ship was grown from chakra, Naruto would be able to summon it more easily, allowing for it to be made bigger and badder. "Luna! I suppose it's time for my Yin release training?" Naruto asked, letting his armor die down and walking over to the darker Alicorn. "Indeed, we will be moving to a more suitable location." She said, getting a nod from the body, and the two disappeared in a teleport. They arrived in the entryway of a large building, built in a similar architectural style to the buildings of Canterlot. "Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns" Luna commented, leading him through a hallway. "I used to manage it, long ago. My sister changed the name after my banishment, I haven't changed it back yet. Although it may be time for it, seeing as how we no longer just cater to unicorns." They passed through an outdoor corridor and Naruto noticed several young ponies of all types gathered around an older unicorn. "We've begun expanding the ninja program, focusing on earth ponies and unicorns so far. Peagsi, taking in natural energy like they do, is a problem we are working around, with both Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts working hard towards an answer. Luckily they don't have that whole 'turning to stone' thing as a problem, but so far it seems that as long as they have an imbalance of nature energy to chakra their techniques will always fail." "Which means they need to boost their physical and mental energy to ridiculously high levels." Naruto grimaced. "And I thought our way of becoming a sage was difficult." He continued watching several of the ponies practicing techniques, and had to laugh as one of the earth ponies spat a seed at his opponent, which quickly grew into a swarm of vines that tied the filly up. Making a mental note to remember that technique, he continued following the Alicorn. "You are of course encouraged to give lessons, the advice of a real ninja would be wonderful." Luna smiled, getting an excited nod from Naruto. They rounded the corner into a grand hall with a table piled high with delicious-looking food, and the two sat down for lunch. They made small talk between bites, until Luna took a drink from her wineglass and smiled. "A noble attempt Rarity, but Chateaux Hoof-de-paw has a stronger licorice flavor." She called, and the room around them shimmered and disappeared. Naruto found himself standing at the entrance of an empty room, with Rarity and Twilight standing at the center. "You should feel proud though, not many illusionists can recreate tastes to the level where they can fool a wine taster. Until that point you had us both completely fooled." Luna praised, and the white unicorn beamed. "T-that was all genjutsu? All that food? I could smell and taste it, I felt full from eating it. I would have spent hours there and not even thought of breaking free!" Naruto said in horror. He had always hated genjutsu users who would create techniques that obviously couldn't be real, ninja would see through it immediately and break free. "True mastery of illusion comes from making your illusions indistinguishable from reality, even to the point where your victims do not want to break free." Rarity recited. "Rarity has been working hard at the Illusion school of magic, or 'yin energy manipulation'." Twilight explained. "I've been here as a teacher helping the new class of ninja-in-training." "Alright, so what are these school and what will I be learning? I've never been strong at Genjutsu." Naruto said, moving to sit next to the other unicorns as Luna explained. "The schools of magic we teach here are, Alteration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation and Illusion. You already know several techniques that fall into these categories, at least partly. Learning Yin release is all about manipulating reality, and mastering it and its applications will allow you to further improve these skills." Luna said. "We'll be skipping Illusion for you, as you say you have no talent for it. That aside, in Alteration you have your transformation technique, and Twilight tells me you can place it on others on physical contact. This is something we call 'polymorph', and with practice you should be able to apply it to weak minded opponents at range. It is a situational skill, as anything that will dispel a transformation technique will still apply." "Conjuration you're already rather adept at, what you call summoning we commonly refer to as 'calling', and it is a master rank skill. This can also apply to your ability to seal and unseal weapons, although the true boon to be gained here is 'creation'. Being able to create mundane objects from 'nothing' as it were." As a demonstration her horn flared, and an anvil crashed to the floor beside him. "Divination we'll skip as well, not many Unicorns get into that sort of field, as it mainly relates to spying on enemies. While it may be useful to a ninja, you don't seem to have any sensing abilities. Enchantment would also fall into the 'genjutsu' category, ensnaring the minds of your opponents, up to the level of domination that I believe your Yamanaka clan is famous for." "And of course Evocation, which happens whenever your chakra creates elements out of 'nothing'. Spitting fire, throwing lightning, blowing more than a lungful of air at once, all of this is related to the Yin energy portion of chakra." The lecture ended with Luna explaining exactly what his Yin energy should feel like, obviously taking a drastically different approach to teaching than her sister. "Yin energy, and Yin chakra by extension is often called 'Dark chakra'. The name gets blurred a lot, when people begin relating dark to evil, so by extension this kind of energy gets a lot of credit for terrible things. Where Yang chakra is bright and warm and radiant, Yin chakra is cold and writhing, and nearly impossible to pin down. It is the very representation of your mind, your thoughts, hopes, dreams and nightmares all give it form." O~O~O~O~O It was eight months before Naurto could reliably create Yin chakra, and even then he found the stuff difficult to work with. Where the Yang release came naturally to him once he found the trick to it, the Yin chakra was a constant struggle to keep control of. To make matters worse, without a horn, manipulating his new found Yin chakra externally was nearly impossible. There was a reason almost every ninja technique originates from their body. Still the next two months were spent finding ways to adapt Yin chakra into his arsenal, and he found several amusing results. First and foremost was the 'creation' techniques, allowing him a near infinite supply of throwing weapons, so long as he had chakra to spare. They weren't impervious of course, having about the same durability as Shadow Clones unless he was holding them, in which case they drained chakra as long as they touched something. The second bonus was his discovery of Yin chakra threads. Anchoring himself to something allowed for him to manipulate it from a distance, much like a puppeteer. Unlike a puppeteer he lacked the fine control to move delicate parts, but he also learned that tethering his techniques to him with a strand of Yin chakra allowed for telekinetic-like manipulation. His air bullets and thrown weapons could now track enemies. He spent days improving his range to where he could attach a line to an object up to five feet away, and then fling it through the air as a weapon. His Shining Armor took on a very different effect when infused with Yin chakra, projecting a passive genjutsu-like effect. As Twilight described it, "It's nearly impossible to look directly at you, my eyes just sort of... slide off of your body. If I didn't know you were there it would be hard for me to notice your presence, unless I had other ways to sense you." Naming the new variant the 'Cloak of Shadows', Naruto happily moved on to new techniques. Sadly teleportation was beyond him, it required such an impressive and precise understanding of both space and time that the barest fraction of Unicorns ever accomplished it, speaking volumes of Twilight's talent. O~O~O~O~O The last half a year was spent in a futile effort to combine Yin and Yang chakra, or at least use the two simultaneously. With no success at all Naruto was left adapting his fighting style to flooding his body with Yang chakra or Yin chakra, and switching between the two as needed. Both had a shared twenty minute limit, and each had their advantages in certain situations. With Yang release he had incredible physical abilities, and his offensive techniques were powered up to ridiculous levels. With Yin release he had incredible stealth and control, allowing him a near infinite source of throwing weapons, homing projectile attacks, and the ability to hide in plain sight. Best of all were his new Rasengan variants. Yang release Rasengans grew to beach ball size without any added chakra, and shone like a miniature sun, gaining the name 'Solar Rasengan'. They didn't burn or anything, but the craters they left were staggeringly impressive. Yin release Rasengans were impressive in their own way, still small but taking on an ethereal hue, and easily manipulated by his new Yin threads, granting them the name 'Shooting Star Rasengan'. He could currently hold six in orbit around him at once, and launch them at his targets with homing precision. O~O~O~O~O Naruto was the last to arrive back in Ponyville, sporting a new outfit as a gift from Rarity, who had grown to even more terrifying levels in her Illusions. At least once a day she would trap Naruto and test how long it took for him to escape. In the year and a half he worked alongside the two ponies, he had never achieved a time of less than fifteen minutes. Her eye for details made her both an excellent designer, and a terrifying illusionist. His new outfit was mostly oranges and purples, on the insistence of the royal sisters, and sported a solar/lunar themed yin-yang motif. Up ahead he spotted his two teammates, waiting in the middle of the Ponyville town square. Grinning he picked up the pace, he couldn't wait to find out what they learned, and get back to Konoha. Their village was in for one heck of a surprise.