A Tale of Tails, Sunsets and Burned Bridges

by Ozone31

Flight Of The Hawk: Pt 1

(Xeno-Terra, 20 years before the events of Trust Between Outcasts)
(Third Person POV)

Jonathan H. Lupercal was sitting out on the porch of his small, wooden cabin on the edge of a large forest. This area of woodland dominated a majority of the Tornado Isle, one of the seven islands that made up the the Storm Archipelago, an island cluster, off the coast of one the world's massive continents-Ark.

'Old Johnny', as he was called by most of the other islanders, was in his mid-seventies, with patches of grey infringing on the edges of his mop of hazelnut-brown hair. He was a big man, despite his age, widened shoulders and chest with a slimmed down waist and hardened stomach, his bulging muscles were clung-to by a thin black t-shirt with a grinning white skull on the front. He wore a pair of white trousers and black dress shoes that contrasted each other well, while a belt with a silver skull as the buckle looked a tad out of place. His bright grin was outlined by a greyed, scruffy moustache and beard combo. Darkened, sky-blue eyes squinted out at the world, trained on his youngest grandson specifically.

"What ya' doin' over there, O?" he laughed, as the boy punched that same tree for about the hundredth time. His attention span and patience were astounding, since he'd been sitting there for about fifteen minutes watching this display, before finally getting bored and decided to ask his offspring's offspring why he was trying to teach a tree the meaning of pain.

"I'm practising!" Oscar Lupercal, a twelve year old boy with nothing but a sense of determination, advanced combat knowledge and bloodied fist, was currently propped up against the tree he'd been beating in for the past quarter-of-an-hour, breathing heavily and looking at the blood-stained tape that covered his right hand. His dark blond hair, streaked with red, was hanging down over his emerald green eyes, concealing the small tears that were forming due to the pain. His light grey hoodie and and blue, denim jeans stuck to his body as sweat coated his skin. His old, red running shoes showed clear signs of their age, covered in scrapes and faded, it was amazing that they were still holding together. Hooked onto his plain, old belt was a green cap also heavily worn and had patches of faded colour, however the Lupercal family crest, a grey, snarling wolf's head, still grinned menacingly at any who dared mock its family name.

"Practising what exactly?" Jonathan asked as he slowly stood up and made his way over to his tired pupil. "Being an enemy to nature?"

"A move, a punch that'll show my dumb brothers and that kid in the village *pant* that I can fight!" The old man smiled. The trio of boys in his care had always referred to themselves as 'brothers', despite one of them being a cousin to the other two. It was reassuring that the family spirit was still going strong, even after all the loss it had gone through.

"Got any plans as to what this 'punch' should do, or even be called?" Xeno Terra was no stranger to supernatural feats. It was once said that a man had split a mountain in two with a poke and there were many recorded moments of other such abilities and occurrences.The history of the Lupercal family alone held records of quite a few people capable of wingless flight, several who could breath fire and Old Johnny himself could lift a battleship above his head without breaking a sweat.

So it was more than possible that 'something' could happen.

Right?

---

(Kurama's POV)

I leapt to the side to avoid having my head squashed between a wall and Kyuubi's fist and retaliated with a swift leg sweep to his feet, removing their connection to the ground, putting my opponent on his back.

"Armament Jutsu!" With those words said, I coated my forearm in a layer of chakra, so potent it caused the skin to turn the colour of pure lead, as it formed a firm shell around my raised fist. I brought my fist down in an attempt to crush my opponent's head into the ground, but he rolled out of the way at the last minute, so instead my fist hit the ground directly. A meter wide crater was created in the cobblestone floor, looking at it made Kyuubi falter slightly.

"What was that?!" He snarled, bearing fanged teeth in anger. I'd surprised him.

"Something to make the trees break" I grinned, letting the armament fade from my arm. "And your'e just another glorified plank of wood that's in my way!"

"Well this tree is fighting back!" With a roar he re-entered the second Nine Tails cloak state, creating a small shock wave in the process.

I was just able to dodge a furious tail swing, meant for my head. In my retreat I bumped into Sunset, who was breathing heavily and had a look of fear in her eyes, Sundown had also taken on the second Nine Tails State. We stood side-by-side about a meter in front of the school's, newly widened, front entrance. We'd been trying our hardest to protect the students of the school, by keeping the fight away from the school as all of the staff and pupils were still within the main hall.

"Looks like were at the end of our rope Kurama." Sunset said, already taking on a defeatist tone.

I had no time to really respond as our enemies both fired blasts of concentrated chakra at us and the school. I barely reacted in time:

"Wind Style: Tornado Wall!"

The wall of air tore into life, the rushing wind moved so fast it was visible. The chakra blasts hit the wall and were dispersed by my own, furiously whipping chakra. I was pretty worn out by this point, I'd used up most of my chakra and after taking a particularly strong punch to the abdomen I was finding it hard to breath.

"I still have something in reserve, but I need a second when Kyuubi isn't focusing on me to use it." In my mind I was desperately trying to come up with a good plan to give me time, but we lacked the numbers to pull anything off. Sunset seemed to read my mind on that, placing a hand on my shoulder and smiling.

"You're not on your own here Kurama, I'm here with you." Her smile was contagious, quickly spreading onto my face as well.

"We can help to!" A voice yelled from behind us. Turning around we saw Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Applejack running towards us, the former two still had their wings and they were all still influenced by the elements magic, despite the fact that it had been an hour since we'd been separated from our darker halves.

"No!" Sunset quickly shouted back, trying to stop the three. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost my friends after just making them."

"Are y'all sayin' we can't handle this?" Applejack asked, with a tone of mock-offence. "Ya don' have ta' worry Sugarcube, we can help."

"Applejack's right Sunset. And besides, even if we thought we couldn't deal with this, we'd help anyway." Twilight nodded, backing up her friend. "We want to help."

"But this is really dangerous! You could die!" Sunset yelled, causing her new friends to flinch, before growing quiet and afraid again. "Why would you put your lives on the line for someone like me?"

"Because that's what friends are for." The four girls looked at the source of that statement. I was still holding the Tornado wall in place, now with an almighty grin on my face. "And I have an idea" I let the jutsu go, leaving just enough chakra to keep it stable.

I walked over to the group, with a plan in mind, I began giving instructions:

"Twilight, Rainbow put one of your hands on Sunset's shoulders." They looked at me a bit sceptically at first, but still complied. After they'd done that, I looked to Sunset, "Hold out your hand, I'm going to release some of my chakra that's still in you." I'd left a majority of my chakra within the seal, knowing that if I removed too much at once, it could kill her.

"What good'll that do?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. In response I did just as I said I would and cloak of dark orange chakra formed around Sunset and the other two, like a shield.

"That has a continuous connection to the large collection of my chakra that's still in the seal, so it shouldn't run out." Shaking off a quick bout of dizziness I began to search around the 'Valley of Peace' with my chakra.

"Whoa..." Rainbow grinned, as she looked at her hands to observe the reddish energy that surrounded them. "I feel like I could take on every soccer team in the world right now."

"This energy...its so warm." Twilight muttered to herself, ogling at her body just as Rainbow was.

"Not to sound like... well, Rarity." Applejack began, looking for the best word to describe a whinny baby. "But don' Ah get a glowey, red cloak, thing?" Her question made me grin even wider. I walked over to her, unaffected by her slightly un-trusting look.

"Tell me farmer-"

"Applejack"

"Gesundheit. When you took this form, did the world all-of-a-sudden get louder? As if everything started talking?" After my quick apology and questions, Applejack gave me a strange look.

"How did y'all know?"

"It doesn't matter" I dismissed her question and held out my hand, palm up. "All that matters is that you can. Hold out your hand."

Complying with my request, Applejack placed her hand atop my own. I then let my chakra connect with the active magic within her and held up my other hand, index and middle fingers raised. Deep in the middle of the Valley Of Peace, two figures suddenly 'poofed' out of existence. A second later a massive power boost overcame my body and I knew Applejack felt it too.

Red shading formed around my eyes, with three small spikes at the top points. Applejack's eyes also became shaded, but it was coloured apple green, and it sprouted out all over her cheeks and nose with plant-like shoots and roots. Opening our eyes, we'd both developed toad-like pupils with orange irises.

"Whoa Nelly, what they hay is this?" Having the massive system of nature energy shown to you must be pretty eye-opening, but we didn't have time for Applejack to gawk at all the energy around her.

"Its Sage Mode we don't have time for you to get used to it." I said, allowing some urgency to filter into my voice. "Just use it to sense your enemy's intentions and attack when they leave themselves open." Applejack snapped to reality and nodded

"With that done." Sunset put in. "What's the plan?" It was clear that she was still unsure about bringing her new companions into battle with her. I went to her and put a hand on her head.

"Just remember what I taught you and-" Addressing all of them. "Cover each other's backs. I'll separate Kyuubi from Sundown and leave her to you guys." With that I walked over to the fading wall of wind and tossed one of my Kunai into the ground. "Now" I whispered

My third and final clone appeared next to me, using the Flying Raijin Jutsu. With him he brought the most, unbelievably, painful noise ever heard by the four girls. The noise was being emitted by a massive, spinning, shuriken shaped mass of chakra.

"Is that..." Sunset breathed

I didn't give her a chance to finish that sentence, as I took the Jutsu in my own grasp and with a roar of:

"WIND STYLE: RASEN SHURIKEN!" I threw it.

Author's Note:

One more to go, then the Fall Formal 'arc' is over.

I'm gonna try and slow down a bit, since I was told (a while ago now ) that my pacing was a bit too fast. So I hope I can do that well.

Next we can see the extent of what Kurama's training did for both him and Sunset and if AJ can handle Sage Mode.

MLP:FIM is owned by Hasbro
Naruto is owned by Kishimoto

See ya later