Shinobi of Equestria

by Fan of Fanfics

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own MLP

The gathering of shinobi went fairly smoothly, with a few exception. Team Guy was more than happy to attend. Even Neji was glad to agree. It was a much needed break from missions and training. Not to mention, it got Guy and Lee off his back, as the two had decided that they could not attend a birthday party without bringing a gift, and immediately rushed off to find the perfect one, leaving he and Tenten alone with the Equestrians. It seemed Tenten found herself a fan in Rainbow Dash, who had stars in her eyes from hearing about the Weapon Mistress' skills. After informing the two where they were going to meet, they began the hunt for the rest of the guests.

Next up, Team 8. Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. They knew they would have to finish quickly to be able to find the rest of the guests. But fate rarely works well with one's desires. “PUPPY!” Kiba turned and was immediately knocked aside by the strange, pink-haired girl. Gaining his bearings, he raised an eyebrow as he noticed Akamaru on his back, tongue out with a dumb look on the canine's face. This was likely caused by the fact he was getting the best belly-rub of his life. “Aweeee, you're just a big sweetie-pie, aren't you? Yes you are. Yes you are!” Hinata glanced to the side to notice Shino's bugs going absolutely crazy.

“Shino, are you okay?” she whispered, the living hive nodding.

“My insects...they like her...” The way he said it confused his female teammate, until she noticed a few of Shino's bugs land on her outstretched hand and arm, and with a gentle grace she stroked their backs, whispering to them. While the more elegant-looking friend of hers looked ready to be sick, the girl with the yellow dress and pink hair seemed perfectly content. Before they could ponder what was going on, a pink blur shot by and whisked the new girl away, but not before placing hand-written notes in the hands of each ninja.

“A birthday party for Naruto, huh?” Kiba muttered, reading the invite which explained to meet in the Hokage's office for their transportation, whatever that meant...

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Damn it, Ino, would you calm down???” growled Shikamaru, as the blonde struggled to break free from the grasp of the shadow-user and their Akimichi companion. He sighed as Ino just continued to struggle. “Troublesome.” The moment she had seen the purple-haired girl again, Ino practically exploded. If there was one thing his teammate was good at, it was holding a grudge. And it looked like, after Ino made yet another comment regarding Rarity's fashion sense, the other girl wasn't much better.

“Rarity, it's over, you already dealt with her once!” Twilight tried to reason, using her magic to force the struggling fashionista to hold still. It wasn't going well.

“I'll rip every single hair out of that bleached mane of hers!” shrieked Rarity.

“BLEACHED!” screamed Ino, actually wrenching free for Shikamaru for a moment, and almost doing the same from Choji. It took a partial expansion from Choji and a Shadow Possession from Shikamru to once more root her in place. “Let go of me, so I can tear this bitch a new one!”

“Oh, it! Is! ON!!!” shouted Rarity, breaking free from Twilight's magic, surprising the other unicorn and Ino, who's eyes widened as Rarity leapt at her. Deciding it would be far less of a pain to just let the two fight it out, Shikamaru and Choji both decided to get the hell out of Dodge just seconds before a flying kick came crashing into her stomach. “Ha,” she laughed, before being tackled to the ground by the ninja-girl. The two were rolling and flailing, an almost cartoonish cloud of dust kicking up around them, obscuring all but a few random flailing limbs and the occasional curse.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy stated with a gasp. “I know Rarity had a large vocabulary...but I never realized how large...”

“I haven't heard her this angry since the spa changed the recipe for their facial masks...” Twilight agreed.

“Who cares?” asked Pinkie, looking somewhat annoyed. A strange look on her face if they had ever seen one. “We need to get moving so we can get back to Ponyville and set up the party.” With a look of determination on her face, she sprung into the air, before swan diving into the big ball of violence. And was promptly ejected, a dazed look on her face as she landed at the feet of her Pony friends. “I feel like I just drank an entire barrel of hard cider...” she elaborated, eliciting giggles from the others, despite everything.

Turning toward Shikamaru, Twilight cleared her throat. “Excuse me. Sorry about our friend here, but would you all mind coming to the Hokage's tower when this skirmish is finished, and bring them with you?”

“What's the occasion?” asked Choji, who upon mention of the word party had been imagining all sorts of great party snacks.

“Well, we're the delegation from Equestria, and we are looking for people who want to come to a birthday party for Naruto. The Hokage gave us your names and photos because she thought you might like to go.” Sighing, Shikamaru shrugged.

“Well, if it gets me away from missions and training for the rest of the day, I can't say no,” he announced, and Choji nodded as well. As the rest of the girls, and Spike, left to find the rest of their intended guest, Choji and Shikamaru sat next down next to a tree.

“Betcha 500 ryo Ino beats the new girl,” the Akimichi announced, pulling out a snack. Shikamaru shook his head.

“No way,” he replied. “You didn't see what this girl did to Ino the last time.” As he said this, he pulled out his wallet and reached in to grab his wagered cash, sitting it down between them as Choji did the same.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Hey Izumo...Kotetsu...good to be back.” The two gate guards looked up with a smile.

“Sakura,” they greeted, the pink-haired girl signing back in. “So how was your mission? Not too much trouble I take it?” Sakura just giggled.

“Not really. Just a couple thugs here and there trying to cheat or steal. A genin could have handled it. But I'm not complaining. The festival had great food, and plenty of fun games.” The Hokage's apprentice had been assigned guard duty for one of the more popular stands at a festival in one of the surrounding towns. Every year it seemed to get vandalized or robbed, so this year, the owner decided to hire a shinobi guard to keep an eye on everything.

Sakura made her way, leisurely, into the village. First thing first, head back to check in with Lady Tsunade, then maybe a trip to the Hot Springs...after ensuring that Jiraiya wasn't perving around the area...again. She sighed. Without Naruto around to pester the toad sage, the white-haired self-proclaimed Super-Pervert was free to spend all his time spying on the girls around the village.

“Hopefully that Ino girl doesn't rough up Rarity to badly.”

“Honestly, I'm more worried that Rarity might seriously hurt blondie.”

“Oh, they'll be fine. We just have a few more people to collect.”

“Ah just hope Naruto don't find out what we're doin.”

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she ducked behind a building. Peaking out from behind the sign, she noticed that this group were staring at several pictures and notes on her friends. And they were mentioning hurting Ino. And it had something to do with Naruto. But these girls, and the young boy with them...they didn't look anything like S-class criminals, like she had heard...But something wasn't right...Naruto was gone on long-term diplomatic mission, from what she had heard. Whoever these people were, they obviously didn't know if they were worried about him finding out. Time to find out what was going on.

“Find out about what?” she demanded, stepping out and catching the attention of the strangers.

“And you are?” Twilight inquired.

“As if you don't know,” Sakura scoffed. “Sakura Haruno. I used to be teammate to the blonde who you're hiding all of this from.” Suddenly, Sakura was caught off-guard by a mass of darker-pink hair shooting into view from beneath her field of vision.

“You're one of Naruto's friends? That's GREAT! You have to come with us.” As Sakura wrenched her grip from that of Pinkie Pie, rather surprised that she was snuck up on by someone who had been moments ago right in front of her, Twilight began looking through the list of photos.

“Sakura...Sakura...no, you aren't on our list. But if you are Naruto's teammate then you've got to come.” Sakura raised a brow.

“Not on your list? How did Ino make your list and I didn't?” It was then that the younger boy with them spoke up.

“Whoa, look at the size of her forehead...” he whispered to Twilight, not realizing that Sakura's trained ears could easily hear what he was saying. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike all began taking steps backward as the sour expression hit her face and her hands balled into fists, something Twilight's guide to human body-language pointed out was a sign of anger and aggression. Knowing she was in the middle of town was the only thing that kept Sakura from really letting the kid have it, but that didn't mean he wasn't about to get a piece of her mind.

Spike yelped in surprise as he was lifted off the ground quite unceremoniously by the pinket. “Listen, pipsqueak, you're on thin ice. Don't push me-ahhh!” Sakura was suddenly thrown to the side by Twilight, whose hands were glowing with magic and her eyes glowing like fire as she gently lowered her assistant to the ground, dropping low and putting her arms around him.

“Are you alright, Spike?” she asked, showing the same concern as an older sister, or a mother. Before the baby-dragon could respond, a chill ran down their spines as with horror they saw Sakura pick herself up, cracking her knuckles dangerously. Fluttershy let out a Squeak and ducked behind Rainbow Dash. Sakura suddenly slammed her fist into the ground. While it wasn't nearly as strong as she could potentially make it, the punch cracked and shook the ground as though an earthquake had hit.

“Easy there, Partner,” Applejack said, trying to diffuse a delicate situation. “They didn't mean anything by it...” Unfortunately, Sakura had no time to calm down, as Rainbow Dash took the quake as an immediate threatening gesture, an reacted the best way she knew how. She leapt at Sakura, trying to adapt what she knew about Karate for use in her human form. While it was sloppy, she was trying. Unfortunately, Sakura had trained with a Sannin the last few years, and it was only Rainbow's sheer speed which kept Sakura on the defensive. But all too soon, Sakura's temper wore thin, and she threw a powerful uppercut directly into the pegasus pony's stomach, forcing her to rocket backwards. Fluttershy an Pinkie Pie had to duck as Dash was sent shooting over their heads.

“Whoa, that filly packs a wallop!” Applejack whistled, before rushing in. Sakura blew a strand of hair from her face as the Farm mare raced toward her. Deciding that she'd had enough, Sakura brought her fist back and launched it forward. Her eyes widened in shock, however, as somehow, Applejack brought her hand up to block...and caught the punch, taking the full brunt of it with only the slightest show of discomfort. She was so surprised, in fact, that she didn't even bat an eye as she became surrounded by a glowing aura, as did Applejack. The two were immediately hoisted into the air by Twilight.

“Enough!” the unicorn mare shouted. “This whole thing is one big misunderstanding. And I'm sure if we all just calm down and talk about it, we can get everything sorted out. Pinkie? Let her have it.”

“Okie Dokey Lokie!” Pinkie replied, with a salute. Sakura braced herself for the hit, unable to dodge as she was being held in the air, completely immobile. Just as she prepared for the worst, all she received was a piece of paper being handed to her. Tentatively reaching out, she took it and began reading.

“You are cordially invited to Equestria to enjoy a birthday party for Naruto Uzumaki?” Sakura felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Oh, crap..You're the Equestrian Delegation!” Sighing, thankful that the girl at least understood, she lowered her to the ground.

“That's right. I'm Twilight Sparkle. This is Spike, that's Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. You'll meet Rarity later.”

“She doesn't have purple-hair and like to dress formally all the time, is she?” The Equestrians all looked between each other, before looking back to Sakura.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Ino's been an on-again, off-again friend and rival since we were little. She talked my ear off after you all were here last time,” she explained. “I'm not surprised she tried to start something...could you...please not tell Lady Tsunade about this?”

“Hey, secret's safe with us,” replied Dash, rubbing her ribs, taking note of her decent bust. “How do you humans deal with these lumps on your chest? Not very aerodynamic...and they make it really weird to move my arms.” Sakura just looked on with an awkward smile, not sure how to answer that question.

“Um...speaking of breasts, have you invited Master Jiraiya yet?” she asked.

“But Jiraiya is a male? Why would he have breasts? And no, we haven't found him yet,” Fluttershy said, at barely above a whisper. Sakura cracked her knuckles again, eliciting another squeak from the timid pegasus-turned-human.

“Is that so? Well, why don't you all finish up the rest of your list. I'll make sure he get's his invite...you can count on it.” Twilight sighed in relief.

“Thank you,” she announce. “We'll take all the help we can get. Come on, everypony. We just need Kakashi, an Iruka Umino, and a bowl of ramen to go, and we'll be all set to head home and set up the party.” Sakura smiled and waved, but in her head she was berating herself.

“Great, Sakura, just great. You attack a foreign delegation, you let a kid get the best of you, AND you forgot your own teammate's birthday. I'll have to make sure I stop and get him a something before I go nab the perv. Ugh, I was way better at controlling my temper before I started as Lady Tsunade's apprentice,” she thought, before with a sigh, she used the shunshin to disappear, heading for the shopping district. If what Tsunade told her was true, she couldn't exactly get him new clothes...so what could she buy for the blonde...

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Ok,” announced Twilight, her list at the ready. “We have Shikamaru, Choji, unconscious Ino (both Rarity and Shikamaru smirked at that), Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru, Shino, Guy, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Kakashi, Iruka, Shizune, and Lady Tsunade. We've got the Ramen. All that's left are-” Before she could finish, the door burst open, and Sakura walked in with a wrapped gift under one arm. The other was being used to drag Jiraiya, who was dazed and bruised, into the room by his hair. While the other Equestrians raised their brows at the Toad Sage's condition, all Twilight did was check him off her list. “Master Jiraiya and Sakura. Perfect timing.”

“Would have been here sooner, but I still had to find a gift for Naruto...hey, by the way, why wasn't I on the guest list, Lady Tsunade?” The Hokage quirked her brow at the question.

“To be honest, I hadn't expected you back in the village so quickly. I told you after your mission you were welcome to stay for the rest of the festival,” she elaborated. “The last thing I needed was the Ponies searching for someone they couldn't find. I was informed by Princess Celestia what a serious business a Pinkie Pie Party is, and had I added your name to the list, she probably would have torn down the village trying to find you...” Sakura just turned to her fellow Pinket, who just looked back with an ear-to-ear grin and waved.

“So, when we travel to Equestria, we'll all become Ponies, right?” Kakashi asked, getting odd looks from those who weren't previously privy to that information. “Will we all be one kind of pony, or will some of us be different. I heard Naruto sent a report saying Gaara is a unicorn?” Twilight shrugged, her hands beginning to glow with her magic. The spell was getting easier, as was using her magic in general. No longer did she need to lace her fingers and focus so hard. It was almost like she was beginning to adapt the more time she spent as a human.

“I can't be certain, we still haven't figured out who becomes what, and why, just yet.” With a flash, the portal opened, and the Ponies made sure to usher in all the party guests first, some of whom were no longer so sure about this, before following themselves. One thing was for certain. Even if Naruto wasn't surprised, the party was definitely going to be interesting.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Naruto grumbled as he stalked through the mud, searching for a rare type of moss that Zecora needed for...actually, she didn't say what exactly she needed the ingredients for. Sighing, the orange pony pulled out the book, and rifled through to the proper page. And the warning.

Be extremely careful. Despite it's rareness and special qualities, the Cait Moss is extremely difficult to locate due to the fact that it is nearly identical to common moss.

Looking up from the page to the trees and rocks, he noticed that almost all of them had some form of moss growth on them. With a sour look, he tried to search the page for some way to distinguish the two species of moss from one another. “I can't believe I'm gonna say this...but this is a load of Horse-apples...”

Chapter end.

Author's Note:

Alright, next is the final part of the Birthday Bash, as well as the end of the 'Getting Settled' arc, and the beginning of a new arc to take its place. Some of you already have an idea about what it entails, I am sure.

Peace to all my Fans

Fan of Fanfics

Comments

[rikusorasephiroth]

Before I read this, is it Naruto or Naruto Shippuden?
...
Same goes for your other fic.

[Fan of Fanfics]

5114473 This one is set after the timeskip, but before Shippuden really kicks off, while my other fic is pre-series entirely.

[rikusorasephiroth]

5114489 I see.
I'll have to put off reading this for a while then.
I was asking because, while I did watch Naruto back when it first hit Aus, changing situations made me miss a bunch of crucial epiodes, and I only recently started getting back into it.
And because of OCD I'm getting the DVDs, and I've got another three or four to go before I start on Shippuden.

[sirraf]

it was obvious that it had to be shippuden from sakura cracking the ground with a punch. pre-shippuden sakura was next to helpless.

[kotor511]

5120500 That's a possible time indicator, and besides why would Rarity get in a hassle with 'little girl' Ino? The way I see it, the age difference between Rarity and Ino is about 4-6 years here, 16-17(Ino) to 20-24(Rarity) here
Who would expect Rarity to beat up a 12-13 year old Ino, that's child abuse. That would be nuts. So of course it's 'Shippuden'.
Another thing is, If it wasn't Shipudden, Applejack wouldn't have lusty dreams about Naruto, or develop a serious crush on him. Another indicator is Gaara being addressed as Kazekage, he didn't have that position in his early years.

By the way I congratulate the author for hitting all these characters spot on, how they would react to each other, Choji and Shikamaru betting on who of the furious chicks would win was priceless. Also Fluttershy tackling Kiba suddenly from Akamaru just to pet the dog, is exactly the same humor Shippuden had.

I remember the episode with that monk guy visiting the vilage, he was a cocky one and in almost zero time the situation escalated in a funny brawl, tipped of with Choji being called fat by that guy, which made him go rampage on the others, not caring for friend or foe.
Best part was when Rock Lee came flying into the hassle saying something like "You have a brawl? Why not invite me? Friend's brawling makes them bond in strong companionship, expressing their feelings through fists, and so he went crazy as well... AHA found the scene: