Shatterpoint III. Picking Up The Pieces
I woke up, vision blurry. And somehow still extremely tired.
“Ho.… she?”
“...ku… ay?”
“Sh..e...ine...re…”
And went back to the cold comforting darkness.
When I next opened my eyes, it was to a white room, bright lights and a rather comfortable bed. I tried sitting up, but my whole body ached. It didn’t hurt, but it just felt really sore. What had I been doing last night?
Thinking on a groggy brain wasn’t exactly helpful, but at the very least it gave me a reason to focus my thoughts. Breathing deeply, I cleared my mind in an effort to remember what had exactly happened the day before.
I instantly regretted the fact that I remembered.
Celestia. Twilight Sparkle. Princess of Friendship. Student of Princess Celestia. My eyes turned wet, but I quickly rubbed them dry.
Why was I even concerned with the fact that I was replaced by some no-name unicorn that was clearly inferior to me?
“Glad to see you up and awake.” A voice broke me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw Kakashi-sensei leaning against the door, hands folded across his chest as he looked at me. We looked at each other silently for a while, before he sighed and walked over, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“So, how are you feeling?” He asked.
“I..” I tried replying, but my throat felt as dry as sandpaper. Swallowing my saliva, I tried again once my throat had moistened up enough for me to properly talk. “I don’t know.” I replied truthfully. In all honesty, my emotions were really in a mess, and the fact that my mind wasn’t as sharp and my body was aching all over was not exactly helping either.
“I see,” Sensei replied, “do you want to talk about what happened?”
Truth was, I don’t even remember what happened last night. The only memory I had was of Shiratama berating me for not being a proper spy, that stupid entry in the diary and me venting my anger at that stupid training dummy.
No, there was something else. Last night, when I was so angry, I had a faint memory of a rush of power. I had done something, only to blackout immediately afterwards.
“I can’t remember.” I rasped in reply.
“I see.” Kakashi-sensei nodded. I kept an eye on him, but he was way better than I thought, I just couldn’t seem to get a read on what he was thinking at the moment. He seemed so calm and casual.
“What happened?” I asked, before coughing a bit. Kakashi-sensei handed me a glass of water silently, which I quickly gulped down. It was a refreshing feeling, and my throat now feels a whole lot better.
“The two boys found you collapsed in the middle of training ground five.” Sensei supplied as I drank. “And to be honest, you had made quite a mess there.”
I opted to stay silent, curious as to what had happened.
“One practice dummy ripped to shreds and the whole ground around where you were laying on shattered into bits.” Kakashi-sensei said. He eyed me. “Anything to say for yourself?”
“Uhhh… Late night training?” I replied sheepishly. It was the best excuse that I could come up with on the fly.
“Training normally doesn't end with that much bruises on your arms and feet.” Sensei deadpanned, “and they don’t usually end with you collapsed on the ground either.” He fixed me with a piercing stare. “It’ll be easier if you tell the truth, you know?”
It would be. I could tell him that I was a magical unicorn from another world whose parental figure had abandoned. I could also tell him that I was a spy for one Orochimaru. Only problem was that the former would have me labelled as insane, the latter would get me killed.
Still, I couldn’t exactly lie. Nor could I brush him off. Not to someone like Kakashi-sensei.
“Sorry sensei, I was venting out some steam.”
“Was it your father?”
“Pardon?” A flash of panic rose within me.
“I went to see your father yesterday, and then the boys find you collapsed in our usual training ground with bruises over your arms, a shattered training dummy and the ground broken around you the next day.” Kakashi-sensei looked at me. “One can’t help but think that there is something related between the two.”
I had to defuse this situation, and fast. If sensei was suspicious of me and Shiratama, the least I could do was to at the very least bring the focus off of my superior.
“No.” I replied flatly. “this had nothing to do with him.”
“You sure?” Kakashi replied, shrugging. “Well, then what was it about?”
I pulled myself up into the sitting position, using the time taken to properly consider my position. It was evident that sensei would not be denied the truth of the matter, but neither could I just tell him.
I need to divert his attention with another topic, one that was as real as it was impactful. But could I? It wasn’t something I had ever wanted to share with him. But now that I was at a risk of jeopardizing Shiratama and myself…
I had to do it.
I took a deep breath, and looked sensei in the eye, hoping that my facial expression was as somber as possible. For a brief moment, I seriously contemplated telling him about what happened.
I opened my mouth and promptly failed to get any words out.
Sensei looked at me, sighed and stood up.
I stared after him, then whispered. “Please don’t tell Shiratama-san.”
He hesitated a little when opening the door, but walked out nonetheless.
Kakashi was at a loss.
He had always thought teaching three genins would be easy, take command of them and guide them to their fullest potential. Just like Minato-sensei had done for him.
He had not expected this to be so difficult. One of his genins suffers from a desire to be noticed and another was obsessed with revenge. What was worse was the unhealthy rivalry that the two had when they first joined. However, the last member of his team had been very effective at playing mediator between the two.
So for a moment, Kakashi relaxed, allowing his team a modicum of freedom and independence. In doing so, however, he had failed to notice that Kyoku had issues of her own as well.
He needs to solve this, as soon as possible. But how?
Counselling was hardly an option. Kakashi was many things, but a counsellor? No.
He could send her to the Yamanakas, but considering how vehement Shiratama was against that, there was no way that that plan would fly, considering that parental consent for that point of approach was needed.
Then there was the matter of her father. It was a strange relationship that he had seen between Shiratama and his daughter. While he had never abused her, neither had he really cared for what she was doing all this while.
One such evidence was this very incident. Yesterday, Kakashi had visited Shiratama, informing him that his daughter had issues. On that very night, Kyoku had apparently left the house and got herself into her current state and from the looks of it, she was probably gone the entirety of the night. To Kakashi’s understanding, a normal parent would be worried about their child considering the circumstances but Shiratama was now. Even now, he was still in his office, blissfully unaware that his child was in a hospital.
Something was off.
Then there was what Kyoku had said.
Why would a child be so afraid to let their parents know something? Especially if that parent was a person who had saved her?
Something was fishy about this entire situation and Kakashi did not like it one bit. But even then, there wasn’t much he could do.
He needs more information, for one, and those would definitely not come easily. Not to mention that there were but two weeks left until the Chunin exams.
His genins would definitely be participating. They would probably fail, but the experience itself would be good enough for them. Still, with how Kyoku was right now, there was a slight chance that the event might be too much for her.
“Still, they are shinobi.” Kakashi sighed aloud. Why couldn’t all of these things ever be easy?
“I suppose I will leave it up to them.” He decided finally. After all, since one had to volunteer themselves to participate in the Chunin Exams, it would probably be the best course of action to let them decide themselves.
Still, it would not certainly hurt to figure out what was going on with his little genin.
“Looks like I’ll need to keep an eye on her.” Kakashi muttered.
I was discharged that very evening. According to the nurse, I was merely diagnosed with severe exhaustion in addition to the multitude of bruises that I had accumulated from the previous night.
Considering the time and my current state, home was probably the best place to be at the moment.
Unsurprisingly, Shiratama was home and true to his word, the cups were arranged in the manner that told me that there were no missions for the day. Guess we were really going silent for the time being in order to ward off suspicions. We didn’t talk much either, except for our usual pleasantries.
It was good enough, I suppose. It allowed me to at least keep what had happened last night as a secret.
The next day, I went to the training ground one hour earlier than our team usually meets up. The reason for it was simple.
I wanted to see what I had done with my own two eyes. And I was not disappointed.
Illuminated by the slowly rising morning sun, a small portion of training ground five was in a mess.
Off to one side, I could see the stumps of the training dummies protruding out of the ground. The shattered remains were nowhere to be seen, probably cleared up by the cleaning party. Then there was the upturned and shattered earth in an area roughly fifty metres wide in radius.
What had I been smoking that I could do this?
Two years, I had spent here, and never had I even felt the capacity to create this much devastation. Where had I gotten such power from?
So much power that I never thought that I had. If I had known, the things that I could have done.
I closed my eyes, thinking back to last night, as unpleasant as it was. What had been my trigger for my magic?
All I remember from the previous night had been the rush of emotions which I had felt. Still, the one thing I remember most vividly was that pure unadulterated anger that I had felt for Princess Celestia.
Could it be?
I focused on that anger within me. That vividly burning indignation against the princess, for what she had done to me, done against me and how she had forgotten me, only to replace me with another.
I shivered as I felt the magic within my mana pool respond accordingly, spiking as I growled aloud. It felt so natural, so right.
At that one moment, I felt as if I could do anything. Even return to Equestria and rip that fool Celestia to shreds.
But I kept my anger under control. Being ruled by magic was a one sure track to a quick downfall. Many a mage in Equestrian History had allowed their magic to rule them instead of the other way around. Legends like King Sombra, for one, a sorcerer king who became a tyrant, ruled by his own desires and Nightmare Moon, for another, a more significant tyrant from the dark ages who fought Celestia to a standstill and had to be banished to the moon.
I focused myself, channeling the mana brought forth by my anger into the palm of one of my hands. It glowed green, tinged slightly with black. Surprisingly, the process was smoother than I had thought it would be, considering the amount of mana I was handling now.
I gestured at a tree, forming a thought. A bright green beam erupted from my palm, blasting a good chunk of bark and wood off of it.
I smiled grimly. Who would have thought that the fact that Celestia replaced me would be the source of my power now. It would be challenging, trying to harness power in this way during battle, but that was something that could be solved with practice.
And the fact that I barely felt fatigue from that meant that my mana pool had definitely increased. I smirked as I considered that, before, I had actively shied away from using offensive magic, considering how much mana they would consume. Now? That might no longer be a problem. And if I could keep up this progress, I might finally be able to hit the advanced ones, like teleportation.
I could try that later, now that I think about it. I still had the spell matrix memorized, it was just the matter of if I could cast it that was the problem.
That was when I felt a sudden presence behind me. Without thinking, I pulled my kunai from my thigh pouch and swung it behind me reflexively.
“Kyoku-chan! You’re ba- Argh!” Recognizing the voice, I stopped the blade just short of the blond boy that had appeared in my field of vision.
“Hey Kyoku…” Naruto mumbled sheepishly, definitely intimidated by my sudden display of ferocity. “Are you okay?” His eyes travelled to the blade that was mere millimeters from impaling his eye.
“Sorry Naruto,” I said as I stowed away my kunai, before holding a hand out to him, helping him up. Behind him, I could see Sasuke watching me with wary eyes.
“Uh, yeah.” Naruto laughed awkwardly as he accepted my help.
“So, what happened?” Sasuke finally asked as he gestured to the not so cleaned up wreck of a training ground around us. His eyes lingered a little bit on the tree that was missing a fair chunk of its midsection not too far off before he returned his gaze to me, a questioning eyebrow raised.
“I…” Should I tell them?...
No. I must not. Shinobis do not take kindly to spies, especially if they were loyal to the village. Naruto had a dream to become Hokage, there was no way that he would take too kindly to his teammate being a traitor. Sasuke, on the other hand, had even more reason to react negatively if I spilled the beans to them, since he had lost his entire family to his traitor of a brother.
A life of a Spy is to be truly alone. Those were the words that Shiratama had told me when I first came here. And I had been foolish enough to not take them seriously, having even thought that Shiratama was on my side, a thought that I had been proven wrong just mere hours ago.
In the end, there was only one way out, wasn’t there? I needed to please Orochimaru-sama enough so that I could rejoin the rest of the faction back in Otogakure. After all, there were no places here where I could safely reside within should someone know that I was from Oto.
People would want me dead, people who I had known and that… was a terrifying thought.
“I’m fine.” I lied at last. The two of them looked at me, concern and wariness within their eyes, or at least I think that was what I saw within those blue and black orbs.
“I see.” Sasuke nodded, before glancing at Naruto. “So, I was actually going to spar with the dead last here. Think you can keep up with us?”
“Sasuke, you bastard!”
“Sure,” I replied, somehow managing a smile. It was surprising, to be honest, it would appear that I had gotten familiar with this particular scene. It was as if I could always count on the two of them to always be at odds with one another
They were good kids, good friends, even.
I just hope that when the time comes, we would not have to kill each other. I would hate for that to happen.
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Wasn't sasukes brother who killed all the uchihas clan? or kyoku have more information about the betrayal of sasukes father that led to itachis genocide?
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Ah, good catch. I meant to write 'Traitor of a brother'. Sorry about that, must have missed that while proofreading it. Thanks!
Good chapter! 👍
New chapter, yeah!
Good chapter... Too bad she can't take therapy about Celestia, maybe later...
This is not going to end well
50 meters in radius!? No wonder Kakashi was curious about the situation, that's gigantic!
Oh, Sunset, everyone thinks they be the one to finally master Dark magic only for the Dark magic to master them and end up like Luna and Sombra.
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You sure it’s dark?
And here it is, another instance why i really do not like very premise of this fanfic. Ponies and Naruto just do not mix. Especially Konoha with it's veritable heap of inside and outside conflicts. This world is really antitesis of MLP and Sunset personally does not need anything enforcing points of view like "only loyalty you can expect from superior is sacrificing you for his grand goals", "everybody lies" and "gain power on any cost or you die, likely from being betrayed". Hell, only theoretically good place for her to appear by portal was Land of Iron. At least Samurai are more direct and less prone to intrigue.
I already half way expect Sunset to eventualy set this world burn and return to Equestria. And her trying to heal from trauma caused by ninja world would be interesting part.
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What else would you call magic that been infuse with negative emotion? Though it doesn't have to be Dark magic per say. All I was trying to say was Sunset was playing with a power that corrupted a Sorcerer King and a Alicorn, the very being she hopes to become, and expects to master/control it when all those that came before her failed or got corrupted.
Take what I say with a gain of salt though. I only say this from what little information Sunset gave when she was experimenting with this power in the chapter. We need more info to know for sure.
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Oh wait, the color
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Oh, you'll get it... in the next six or so chapters?
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Well, I'm not that good of a writer to cater to everyone's liking, but thanks for the honest opinion. It really helps when people actually say why they like or dislike something so that I could know whether I was writing well or not. Sad to say though, if you are looking for any vibes which 'mlp' gives off in this fic, you'd probably be disappointed for at least the first fifty or so chapters. After all, this fiction is anything but bright sunny sunshines and rainbows and the fimfics that it takes inspiration from is not the same too. Camaraderie and friendship would definitely appear though, but it would not be that obvious this early into the story. Regardless, thanks for your honest opinion, really appreciate it.
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Thanks for the support, glad you like it!
Relatable