• Published 12th Mar 2013
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Visual Prowess - UgalaaWriter



During The Fourth Great Ninja War, Sasuke is transported to Equestria. Longer summary in description.

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Twilight Sparkle's Experiences In The Elemental Nations- Part Two

Twilight Sparkle was surprised by how eagerly Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami responded to her question. Inari practically slammed the table as he jumped up and confirmed her question.

“Know him? He’s a hero!” Inari shouted, and Twilight backed up, more than a little nervous with the current situation. Tazuna laughed and watched how fired up Inari got whenever someone had anything to ask or say about Naruto- ever since he’d saved the Land of Waves, the boy practically prayed to him like he was a God, sometimes.

“A hero?” Twilight asked, and Inari nodded furiously again, before Tazuna sighed- he saw the confusion and the lack of knowledge right across her face. He’d told the story multiple times, but it seemed that he was going to have to tell it again. Tazuna rubbed his face with his towel and then put it down on the table, pushing his bowl away. He turned to Twilight, who started to listen intently as he began his tale.

“Exactly three years ago, this country was in a state of ruin. Everyone was incredibly poor and no one was able to buy food. Inari’s father was alive back then. When he stood up to the man who was making the land poor, Gato, he was killed- in front of everyone. Inari started being sad right about then. He’s a happy kid now, but… not before Naruto, he wasn’t.” Tazuna took a break to get up, and get sake from the kitchen, and even though he could see a little bit of anger on his daughter’s face for bringing out alcohol around Inari, he didn’t care.

Whenever he really thought of Kaiza, he had to take a drink.

He poured himself a shot into a glass and set the sake back on the table.

“So, Inari was very depressed, and never got along with anyone. He always thought that there were no such things as heroes, because the only one that he knew died. You should’ve seen him- hell, you should’ve seen all of us. You saw how happy this Land was? That would’ve been impossible back when Gato was in control. He controlled a wealthy shipping company and had the money to hire many soldiers- and as such, he ruled with an iron fist while he was here.”

“So, with everyone starving, and with no help from anyone else coming in, I left on my own, sure that I could go a village and manage to get some help that would remove Gato from this country- and give the people the power to make the country prosperous again- as it has become, since then. Everyone can eat now, and we’re recovering our economy better than ever. Our population is growing and we’re having to build more because of it- that house I was working on today is an example- I’m taking up carpentry even though I’m a master at bridge building.” He stopped to take another shot, and Twilight listened intently to the story.

“So it was around that time that I left the land to go look for help, and after a little while, I found myself drunk at the gate of the Leaf Village. I requested help in getting home- basically, bodyguards until I got back to the Land of Waves. You see, our country was so poor that we could not even afford to pay a ninja village to come clear out Gato- all I had was the money for a C-rank mission. So, when I left, I had three shrimps who I thought were worthless, and one jonin ninja who knew what he was doing. It turns out it was their first C-rank ever.”

“Naruto Uzumaki, Haruno Sakura, and Sasuke Uchiha helped save this country- under the leadership of Hatake Kakashi. Everyone around here knows their names because of what they did for the land. When they came, they battle ninja that Gato had hired- and defeated them, and chased off all of the mercenaries too. But, because of the courage and the stubbornness that Naruto showed, it gave hope to the people, and they came to help when Naruto and Kakashi were at their weakest and could no longer really fight.”

Twilight couldn’t believe that Sasuke had once helped people. He sounded like he’d once been a lot better than the Sasuke she knew him as- hateful, angry, and brooding.

“So, there’s a very large bridge from here to the mainland. It is not named the Sasuke Bridge, or the Sakura Bridge, or the Kakashi Bride. No, it’s named the Naruto Bridge, because along with helping the Land, he was the person that brang the hope back to the people that live in this Land now- and without him, we’d still be depressed and starving under Gato’s rule.”

Tazuna finished his little tale and poured himself another shot- still thinking of Kaiza and how unfortunate it had been for him to die, like that. He had liked the man, and had been a good, close friend to him- and while he’d been alive, he’d been incredibly good to Inari.

“So yes, I know Naruto. Everyone in this village knows Naruto. He’s a savior.”

Twilight had nothing to really say to that, and slowly the gears in her mind turned as she thought about what that could mean, then- were Sasuke and Naruto once part of a team? What had happened to them? Sasuke had seemed to angry when he’d yelled at, well nothing, but when he yelled at whatever was reminding him of Naruto to stop talking about Naruto. Twilight wondered how deep their relationship really ran and how well they really knew each other.

But she knew that no matter how much she wondered, it would never be the same thing as just going and finding Naruto and asking him, finding out what happened. He might’ve hated Sasuke, but she thought that above all, he wouldn’t hate her for knowing Sasuke. She was still treading on thin ice here as it was- she knew that the people of this world were dangerous, but she didn’t know how dangerous they were. She’d only seen a fraction of Sasuke’s combat ability, and Twilight wondered whether or not everyone was like that here, or whether he was on the weak side of the spectrum or the strong side of it.

So, in the end, after all the thinking, there was really only one thing for her to ask.

“Is there any way that I can go and meet Naruto myself? If he’s such a great savior, then he may be able to help me with my problem.” Twilight said, and Tazuna nodded as he set down his sake bottle, and moved out of his chair, stretching his old bones before dropping back down and answering her question.

“As far as I’ve heard, he still lives in the Leaf Village. He’s a very important man. He doesn’t have much time, so whatever you have to ask- it has to be important. He will not turn back someone in need, but his time is very valuable these days, and he cannot have it wasted.”

Twilight nodded.

“Where is he, then? Is he nearby?”

It was now that Tazuna and Inari laughed.

“No, you’re going to have to travel to reach him. He lives in the Land of Fire- which is near here. In the heart of the Land of Fire, and its source of all its great military might, lies the Leaf Village. He lives there. I promise if you go there and ask for him, and your need is great enough, he will either send someone to save them, or do it himself- which would probably be the worst thing for whoever’s messing around with your world, lass.”

“Why would that be? Is he really that strong?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Some people think he’s the strongest shinobi of this generation. He and Killer Bee practically won the war for us with their Tailed Beasts.” Before Twilight could ask another question about that, he interrupted her. “Anyway, the point is that he can probably help you, and I know where you can go to meet him. I can give you directions and tell you where to go- though I’m not sure you should go alone, because even though we just won a war, people are still the same as ever, and bandits and highwaymen could get you on your way there.”

Twilight nodded, a little surprised that these humble people knew someone who was apparently such a great person. She spoke up as he was about to say something else.

“I may not look it, but I can defend myself. I know combat magic and short range teleportation as well as cross world teleporting, now, at least. I’m fairly sure that I could defend myself if I went to go see Naruto in the Leaf Village. I’ll leave tomorrow. Which way do I go?”

“Calm down, calm down. You’re so excited to go see him. Things must be really bad where you’re from.” Twilight didn’t say anything, but decided to answer.

“It’s not that they’re completely terrible, it’s just… I think Naruto can help. The person that came to my world from here, I think that he knew Naruto.”

“That’s easily possible. Naruto does know many important, powerful people- and he is now important and powerful himself. Tomorrow, Inari will take you to the Great Naruto Bridge, and we’ll give you a map and help you with directions, but from there, you’ll be on your own.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. She’d go and see what she what Sasuke had really been like. He had always confused her, and now she could finally find out what had made him that way, the Sasuke she knew. She suspected that he hadn’t always been like that- it was fairly obvious, actually. No one becomes bitter at birth. There had to have been something…

They finished up their chatter and talked a bit more, and cleaned up after dinner, but Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about Naruto and how he was related to Sasuke- and vice-versa. Even as she fell asleep, both excited and a little worried about the next day, the thoughts never left her head, and she continued thinking about it, even in her dreams.

_____________________________

Twilight Sparkle woke to the sun rising- and it glared into the house and the mat she was laying on. She kicked the covers off of her and rose up- still not used to the sun rising by itself. She knew that it was normal here, but to her… she shook her head and snorted, and walked out of the room that the small family had kindly provided her with.

She walked out into the kitchen and was surprised to see everypony already awake. Apparently, people got up early in this house to work. Inari was already waiting for her, and he was holding some white thing with a black triangle in the middle. It looked like food. He gave it to her wordlessly with a smile, and she grinned back before taking a bite, levitating it with her magic. She swallowed her food before she turned and grinned, thanking him for the food.

“It’s good!”

“Thank you.” Tsunami said, and Twilight realized that she had been the one to make it. She thanked Tsunami for her rice ball meal, and soon enough they all left the house, Tsunami the only one that was staying behind. Tazuna went to the construction site, telling Inari to be fast about showing her where the Great Naruto Bridge was, and once she was on her way, to get right back here and start working again. He nodded and Tazuna walked away, leaving Inari to his important task.

In Inari’s pants he had a couple of maps, and he pulled them out and began explaining the geography of The Elemental Nations to Twilight as they walked. Luckily, no little girl pulled on her hair this time, and after ten or so minutes, they were completely out of the village. Soon after that, they were walking through marshy, wet plains, with small copses of trees and miniature forests around. They passed through several of these as Inari talked.

“So, here’s the Bridge,” he said, pointing to one long, thin line that dragged from the island they were on to one large, massive spanning continent, which was split up into a bunch of smaller nations- the largest of which, Twilight noticed, was the Land of Fire. Other huge ones included the Land of Wind, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Lightning. He explained to her a basic route that a lot of traders took from here to Konoha and back, and what would be safe.

“So, if you just go like this- and this is similar to the way my grandfather went when he went to the Leaf Village for aid, then…” Inari showed her a basic route that she could pass through as they got closer to the Naruto Bridge. She continued to nod, paying all of her attention to the paper. She knew that it was important that she knew her way around in this world. So far, she’d met nice people, but she knew that it wouldn’t always be that way. Last night, in her room, she’d practiced her magic and the spell using the brown tome that she was carrying in a bag that they had given her before she left.

She’d have to practice it every day, but even in only a few days, Twilight was almost certain that she’d master the spell. She had already used it correctly once to travel between worlds, but using a spell of that magnitude and power was much different than using it and being able to control it- which was what she wanted to be able to do. Even from far away, as they approached it, Twilight gasped as she saw the Bridge.

Great really was the right word for it, she idly realized, as she stared at the great work of architecture that Tazuna had apparently led. The planks were massive and stretched across a huge gap. It seemed to go on forever, although Twilight knew it ended- it was just a really long, really wide bridge. On the top, a sign proudly displayed the title of ‘Great Naruto Bridge’ and Twilight realized how thankful the people of the nation truly had to be to name a great thing like this after one person. It only made her more excited to meet Naruto.

Eventually, they were standing directly in front of the Bridge, and Inari waved her goodbye as he walked to the village. Twilight watched as he walked away slowly, observing him for several minutes as he slowly strode out of view. She turned back to the gigantic woodworking masterpiece, and stared across it. It was then that she realized she was now alone in this world- and that no one was going to save her if she got into trouble.

She took a deep breath, and took her first step onto the wooden bridge. It felt smooth on her bare hooves, and she shuddered before taking a few more steps, the sounds of her hooves on the bridge being much too loud for her liking. With how much the clop of each hoof echoed throughout the mostly silent air, she thought that everypony for miles around would be able to hear her, but she continued forward, nonetheless.

A few more steps and she slowly grew bolder over time- and she was soon traversing the bridge at a steady canter. She plodded along happily across the massive bridge- all the while appreciating the work for what it truly was, and how huge it really was. Her bag flapped a bit and smacked into her side after every few steps when she started to speed up, but she ignored it. It didn’t bother her.

It took her a little under an hour to pass the bridge completely- and she realized how huge it really was, then. It was a bridge that spanned part of a sea. Even if it was a fraction of the ocean, she realized that the bridge was more than a mile long and simply kept going, stretching on and on until it had finally hit the Land on the other side. She took her first step off the bridge and looked back at the great wooden monument as she did so.

Maybe one day, she’d come back, and visit Inari and Tazuna and Tsunami again, but for now, she had somepony she had to meet- well, not really a pony, but… she had a meeting to get to. Nodding firmly to herself, she set off again, leaving behind the behemoth bridge in her wake. She’d taken her first step on the way to the Leaf Village, and now she was in the Land of Fire, traveling towards the Leaf Village to meet somepony who could help her-no, help Sasuke.

____________________________

It was only after a few hours of silent, solitary travel did she really understand how huge the lands on these maps really were, and how long it would take her to get to the Leaf Village. It wouldn’t be an impossible amount of time or anything, but she knew that it would certainly be at the very least a few days, even though she wanted to be there now, already. She stopped to rest under the shade of a few trees, and she remembered that she had no food.

While she wouldn’t die without food for a few days, it certainly wouldn’t be comfortable, and Twilight wondered if there was any nearby food to be found. She was a pony, but even though she didn’t like referring to it, ponies had horse roots. She knew she could eat a lot of vegetation because of this. Hungry, she wandered off of the path for a while until she found a flower field of daisies- her favorite. She made sure to eat her fill until she stuffed herself, and then she must’ve plucked seventy or eighty of them and shoved them in the bag with her to eat while she was on her journey.

It didn’t even matter to her that they might get crushed by the book- she was just happy to have a food source that would allow her to eat without her having to worry every night about food. She knew that it would only waste more time as she tried to get to the Leaf Village- and she was happy that, at the very least, that particular problem was taken care of. Afterwards, she continued traveling west.

It was a few hours later that the sun began to set. It was nothing new to Twilight, but it still reminded her of how different their worlds were- on hers, the sunset was a controlled thing, as was the sunrise. It was something that she could depend on, always- Princess Celestia would always bring the sun to her ponies, and life to the land, and then she would allow the light to fade and night to come- if only because balance was needed, and there had to be some sort of order for their land to truly flourish.

Here though, in this world, Twilight Sparkle thought, it’s not the same. She knew that she couldn’t count on any variable being the same- and that sometimes things would change without reason. She hoped that she could handle it, because she knew that while she was decently powerful herself and she could take care of herself, she was always used to stability, and that was one of the things that this land apparently lacked.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, she stopped and tried to find a place to sleep. With night coming, she wanted a safer area to rest in, and Twilight walked around a little on the path, looking for a small clearing or spot that seemed better than the rest. It took her a little while, but she eventually found a clearing not too far from the path that was empty and seemed like it would be a good place to sleep. She put her bag and her tome down here and walked around in the forest that surrounded the clearing, gathering stones and branches, making a firepit from almost nothing fairly quickly.

She made sure to set wards- spells that would alert her if someone was trying to come into her camp, and tell her where they were so she wouldn’t be attacked during the night.

With that done, and a large, warm fire roaring in front of her, she turned to her tome, and picked it up again with her magic. She still had to practice the magic- she wasn’t going to get better automatically. Twilight was still a little angry that she’d left Sasuke behind- all because she’d been too new at the spell to take someone along with her. In a way, she wondered if it was for the best, though- this place seemed to have caused Sasuke nothing but a lifetime of anguish. She couldn’t understand how from what she’d seen yet, but she had a feeling that she’d understand fairly soon enough- and she was wishing she wouldn’t.

Her horn was surrounded in the bright, white glow again as she practiced the dimension traveling spell. It always put so much pressure on her body- and she winced as pain traveled from the tip of her horn all the way to the end of her tail. She blinked rapidly as she trained herself- trying to hold the power in the tip of her horn for as long as possible. When she no longer could, she released it, yelling in agony as she did so. It crashed into a tree near her and exploded- incredibly unstable when uncontrolled.

Twilight looked at the huge gouge in the tree that the explosion had caused, and was more than a little frightened. It hurt to cast, but only because she was so inexperienced- and she thanked whatever luck she had that she’d made it here the first time she’d used this dangerous spell. She let the pain fade from her body- she knew it was only a side effect of spell casting, she’d had this kind of pain before- and then she took a deep breath before she started to charge the bright white dangerous energy in her horn again.

She practiced this way until it became truly dark, and then she ate some dandelions from her satchel and fell asleep soon afterwards, staring into the warm, roaring fire.

______________________________

Twilight must’ve awoken at two, or three in the morning. The wards had gone off, and she had felt them. She turned around in the darkness- the fire had gone out a while ago, probably. Not even the ashes were smoking anymore, and the light and warmth was long gone, faded away. All that was left was the night. She could barely see or hear anything, but she had felt something from her wards, and she trusted her magic over her senses any day. She patiently waited for something to come out of the trees or to try to attack her.

Minutes passed, and nothing happened. She was starting to think that it was all a dream or that she was just hallucinating when a dark figure in the night, much, much taller than she was came crashing into her camp, yelling like a madman. There were five others, who all did the same thing. She quickly realized how outnumbered she really was- but they were just bandits with clubs. She was a unicorn, and a trained student of Princess Celestia. She narrowed her eyes at the first man- who she could barely see in the dark, and lit her horn up, casting light across the entire clearing and revealing the bandits for what they were.

Six large, burly men, all equally dirty and stupid as they came, surrounded her with grins on their faces. Little did they know she actually had barely any valuables on her, but Twilight was more worried about her life right now than anything else. She charged basic stunning spells on her horn- designed to incapacitate the enemy, for a short period of time, and repeatedly fired them off, as the men got closer. A few got stunned right away, and all but one were disabled when the last one finally reached her.

He swung down at Twilight with the club, but she turned, and barely made the club miss her head, instead impacting in her side. She wheezed and screamed in pain- probably a broken rib or two, as the man swung quite hard- but before he could lift his weapon and swing it again, she teleported- putting space between them. She glared at him and fired a stunning spell- much more powerful than needed for the man’s size and weight- and watched as he fell with a loud cry. She turned and cast a large light over the campsite.

Six men were now on the ground, groaning, but she was in considerable pain. She wasn’t sure how she was going to do this, but she quickly dug a large hole in the ground- ripping large chunks out of the earth and tossing it into the forest, repeatedly. She had lifted heavier things before and as such, these chunks of dirt that were clinging together were, in comparison, nothing. She then admired her handiwork- a large, deep pit, and lifted the men and their clubs inside, making sure to drop them inside without cushioning the fall. She heard more groans of pain and she smiled in her victory, before walking back to the middle of the campsite, still limping and wheezing in agony from a broken rib.

She decided that she needed to set it more than she needed to do anything else right now, and she winced as she applied something similar to a healing spell with her body. It set the rib in the right place, though it did nothing for the actual pain- in a hospital, there’d be another unicorn there casting an anesthetic spell- and she wouldn’t normally feel it. She had no such luxury here, and simply had to deal with the terrible pain, starting to cry as she did so.

When it was done, she made sure to apply another spell that healed any internal wounds and bleeding she had. She moved very slowly and carefully- she’d just set her broken bone, after all. She got very close to her satchel and her tome that was still lying on the forest floor. She settled down against them, still in a fair bit of agony. She realized how cold and dark it was though, and knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep like this. She lit her horn up one more time, and gathered branches from the trees around the clearing.

She set it on fire with her horn- sparks of orange energy flying off before catching flame- and soon fell asleep the way she had the first time, to a warm, roaring fire.

_______________________________________

When she awoke the second time that day- to the sun shining down on her- she got up and did it slowly, still groaning the entire time. The agony and the pain were still inside her body- and she threw a hateful glare toward the pit that the men were still inside of. She realized how close to death she’d come last time- if she’d been hit anywhere in the head and lost control over her magic at any time last night, the man that made it to her would’ve ruthlessly struck her until she died. Twilight scowled- a rare thing for her to do- at the world.

This world was pretty cruel- they usually didn’t have crime like this where she came from. She limped her way over to the pit and gazed inside- seeing the six men and their clubs still trapped inside the makeshift prison. She called down to them as they groaned, barely conscious, and told them what she’d do if they tried to follow her.

“You lost. Don’t bother trying to follow me, or I’ll do something worse next time.”

The threat was false- Twilight didn’t have the malice or cruelty in her heart to do something that would make them truly regret attacking her- but the threat had weight at the same time because the bandits were the ones who didn’t know this.

Twilight ignored their apologies and cries for help as she gathered her supplies and left the campsite. Hopefully, they’d be rescued by someone in a day or two and she’d have a huge gap between them then. She realized that, no matter what, if she traveled a road in this world it was dangerous. Even a road that caravans and traders used to travel between cities or countries was still a road that could be attacked- no matter how ‘good’ it was.

She groaned as she strode forward, carrying on.

It’d be a long day.

__________________________________

She took the map out of her satchel and looked over it while greedily stuffing dandelions into her mouth. She figured that she’d made good time yesterday and today, especially today, for traveling with a broken but set rib. She’d had to do everything more slowly. It was only midday and she was stopping for a large lunch because she’d left too early to have anything that actually resembled breakfast.

She looked at the road it was traveling- and saw how it whisked around and finally stopped at the Leaf Village. She figured that she was probably half way there. The world either wasn’t as large as she thought it was, or teleporting was cheating, because that’s what she’d been doing yesterday and today. She could jump forward up to a hundred yards- at least, where she could see- and then she could walk for a little while, resting herself, and then do it again when she felt she was strong enough that she was able to.

Using the short range teleportation trick so many times like that was effective for traveling but draining and tiring on a unicorn’s body, and now she was paying the price for it with her exhaustion. Still, as one of the most powerful unicorns- probably the most powerful, although she didn’t like to think about it that way, and didn’t like to brag about it- in Equestria, she knew that she could keep going like this for a long, long while.

Her magical endurance was off the charts, and more than one pony knew this- though Princess Celestia was one of them. If she didn’t have the magical endurance that she had, and had never trained herself to maximize and push it, she’d have never even been able to do things like lift the Ursa Minor. Twilight kept eating dandelions as she looked at the map. Yep, probably two more days. She wondered how she’d be greeted there.

It couldn’t have been as bad as Sasuke said it was.

She heard a hero lived there- that had to have made it a great place.

____________________________________

To say Twilight was tired by the time she made camp again that night would’ve been an understatement. Seeing how close she was at midday, she’d pushed herself the entire time the rest of the day, using short range teleportation as often as she could and then walking the rest of the way. Still, she now had a particularly large fire with her and she still had plenty of dandelions to eat. Even eating a lot every day because she was exhausting herself like this, the storage that she’d obtained would last her quite a while.

She was still practicing every day, and after only a day or two of practice, being the genius of magic that Twilight was, she’d nearly completely mastered it. The shining light on her horn was now completely focused and controlled; and it was rare that she lost control over the spell anymore. She knew that the very nature of the spell was chaotic- and, as such, she couldn’t expect it to ever be fully controllable, but how she had it now was good enough.

At this level of control, it would always get her to where she wanted to go.

She rested, and soon fell asleep afterward.

______________________________

Soon, after a day or two more of the, admittedly, monotonous routine that she’d been repeating every day, she was on the path that said it lead to the Village Hidden in The Leaves.

How was it hidden if there were maps to where it was? She didn’t understand.

As Twilight walked through the path, unknown to her, ninja, ANBU, and scouts of the village watched her closely, trying to determine if she was a threat or not. She turned once and was met with gigantic gates. It looked like a city more than a village, but whatever.

Twilight walked bravely, wincing a little due to her sprained rib that she’d been healing over the day or two since it had happened. The two chuunin that had guarded the gates for years- through attacks on the village and the destruction of the village, and even through a Great Shinobi War- met her, and looked at each other strangely before turning to her.

“Why is there a horse here?” One of them said.

“I’m not a horse, I’m a PONY!” Twilight exclaimed, and they seemed surprised with her outburst. She blushed, a little embarrassed by her temporary loss of control, but soon turned back to them and made her point quite clear. The two ninja- she assumed them as guards- seemed surprised, but listened nonetheless.

“I’m looking for a man named Naruto.”

They instantly dismissed her, and she hadn’t thought it would be this hard to meet him.

“Hokage-sama is a very important man, and he doesn’t meet anyone without appointments. The Hero of The Leaf doesn’t have time for nonsense; he’s a very, very busy man- though I doubt you know these things, because you don’t look like you’re from around here. Unless you have a very special reason, I doubt that he’d see you on such short notice. What is your reason for having to meet with the Hokage?”

“Do either of you know a man named Sasuke Uchiha?”

As both of the men looked to each other, and then to her, with disgusted expressions, and Twilight shrunk under their angry gazes, she knew that this was only going to get more complicated. One of the men sighed, and then began to speak.

TO BE CONTINUED