> A New Chance for Happiness > by deathstalker982 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Beginning Anew > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naruto Uzumaki was known as many things in his life, from when he was young, and people thought him nothing but a monster, the Kyuubi in human form and the one who killed a large portion of the village of Konoha in an attack on the night of October the tenth, to as he was known later in his life, a stupid knucklehead, a fool, and a loser. People never really expected the boy to succeed in anything, and though most would now deny it, many had hoped that he would die early on and rid them of the Kyuubi once and for all. Yet with all that the boy still grew up and did what most would consider possible of him, he not only succeeded in mission after mission that would have challenged a full team of jonin, but he also became a hero to many, starting with the people of Nami no Kuni, and then the other places he went, and everyone couldn't help but put their faith in the boy. There was a problem with the boy though, while others might consider him a hero, and a success in every sense of the word, and he would even claim out loud that he was a success, after his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, whom Naruto thought of as a brother, left the village, Naruto would always consider himself a failure for not stopping him and for not realizing how much his friend had been struggling with what Sasuke's brother had done to the rest of his family. He would later consider himself even more a failure for not being there to help his teacher Jiraiya when he had gone to find out about Akatsuki, a venture that led to his death at the hands of the leader of Akatsuki, Pein. Though even if the boy considered himself a failure, he always tried his best to do what he felt he should, no matter if it hurt him. A great example of this was when he confronted the man Pein, who killed Jiraiya. He admitted to wanting to kill him, but he also remembered Jiraiya's words on how there was too much hate in the world, and how he wanted to change that, and instead let the man go. He made Pein realize what he was doing was wrong as well, and caused the man to sacrifice his life in order to try and put right what he had done wrong. Now, staring down a revived Madara Uchiha, who was strong enough that he, while not at full power because he couldn't access all his techniques while revived as Edo Tensi, had been holding off the entire might of the Shinobi Alliance, and was now fully revived, Naruto was contemplating what would be the right thing to do now. There was only one way he could think to stop the man in front of him was to do something that would undoubtedly kill him. Suddenly Madara's revived form burst into black flames hot enough to reduce the area around Madara to ash in minutes, and everyone on the battlefield turned to see Sasuke, flying high on an ink bird made by Sai, with his left eye in its Mangekyo Sharingan form streaming blood. “Don't get too cocky, relic of the past!” He shouted at Madara as he stared down at the man who caused all of the problems his family had experienced. “Sasuke, it's pointless to just throw jutsu at him.” Naruto Shouted up at him. Then turning to where Madara was he saw that the man hadn't moved. “Why did he close his eyes?” Naruto wondered out loud, but before he could figure it out Madara spoke up. “I should say that.” Madara said, as the flames around him started to fade as they were absorbed into his body without harming him. “You're just gravel to me.” he just stood there now, as if there was nothing that could bother him. At that moment, Naruto decided to go for his plan, thinking that this really was the only thing that could be done to stop Madara after all. As he prepared to give his life he spoke to Kurama, who had been listening and agreed to his plan. “I'm sorry I couldn't free you Kurama, but this will kill me , and with the seal...” He didn't get to finish his sentence, as Kurama spoke up before he could, saying “It's alright kit, I've had a long life already.” while thinking “and the more I look back on it, the more I regret not fully believing in father when he told the other bijuu and me that wee should always stick together and try to find true peace.” Naruto, who had been unable to here Kurama's thoughts, smiled, and thanked the bijuu once more, before he charged at Madara, and unleashed one of the two things he had been keeping secret until now. Nine golden chains, like those his mother had been able to use, sprouted from his back, tearing through his shirt, to wrap around Madara before the man could react, or they were only able to wrap around Madara because he let them. Madara ignored the chains for only a moment though, as when they finally encircled him, the chains started to sap his chakra from him, though at a very slow rate, and he couldn't break or absorb them, nor could he use his own chakra to break them. “What have you done?!” Madara shouted at Naruto as the boy finally reached him and started to slowly do a sequence of handsigns that no one but the four Edo Tensi Hokage recognized. Madara was struggling to move, to do something other than just sit there. The good thing in Madara's mind was though he could not move, nor could he use jutsu to escape, he could still use the Rinnegan to absorb any jutsu 'besides these damn chains' he thought, and heal any wound he got with the amazing healing skills he received from stealing Hashirama's cells. Before Naruto could answer him both the Third and Fourth Hokage shouted at him. “Naruto stop!” “Don't do it!” The Fourth and Third yelled at him, but Naruto only sighed as he continued to slowly go through the handsigns for the Jutsu, not wanting to make a mistake with it, then spoke, saying “I can't hold him for more than five minutes with the Chakra Chains, I'm not that good with them yet, and he can still use the Rinnegan to absorb all other jutsu. This is the only way to stop him, and I'm the only who knows the jutsu and has the ability to cast it. It takes a living soul to use.” At that the entire Shinobi Alliance was staring at him with shocked expressions, and all could see that though he was speaking calmly, Naruto was both sad, and at the same time, hopeful. “He has to be stopped and I can't let him kill anyone else, there have been way too many deaths as it is. Goodbye.” and with those words he finished the last handsign and called out “Fūinjutsu: Shiki Fūjin!” At that moment, a demonic looking being came into existence behind Naruto. It was faded, as if it wasn't really there, but even if faded it was visible enough to see what it was. Long white robes hung around the figure, a being with long spiky white hair. It's face was evil looking, a being with sharp teeth and purple skin, and in it's mouth it held a dagger. The being reached out a hand through Naruto and reached into Madara grabbing and yanking out his soul, then doing something shocking, reached its hand over to where Obito lay, and yanked the soul out of the Black Zetsu. Then pulling its hand back and through Naruto, who had an intricate seal appear on his stomach, over top of the Hakke no Fūin Shiki that was already there. Naruto's Chakra Chains faded and Madara fell to the ground, dead, as did the form of the Black Zetsu that now lay beside Obito. Naruto also fell over, though he was still breathing. Many shinobi and kunoichi ran over to him, the first one there being The Fourth, whose form was crumbling. “Sorry.” Naruto said. “Looks like the Shinigami is taking your soul back as well, dad.” It was then that the gathered shinobi saw that Naruto was right, the four Hokage were starting to crumble away as if the Edo Tensi had been broken. Before anyone could say anything to either Naruto or the four Dead Hokage, Naruto spoke up, smiling that he had seen the entire shinobi alliance working together in the joint effort to stop Obito and Madara. “I'm happy to see that Ero-Sennin's dream has finally been achieved.” And with that, Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who had become a hope to the entire world, was no more. Dividing Line Naruto woke up to see a sea of nothing stretching as far as the eye could see. He couldn't see anything in the blackness, and he was alone. He didn't even sense either Kurama or Madara within him. He was alone... Sighing Naruto sat down and then laid on his back. “So this is how I will spend the rest of eternity, huh... Man Kami must hate me, to leave me all alone in.. wherever this is.” “I don't hate you Naruto.” A sudden voice startled Naruto into jumping up and spinning around. He stared at the figure before him. The figure was indistinct, as if he were looking at it through a very thick pane of frosted glass, he couldn't identify whether it was a man or a woman. As the figure spoke again, Naruto realized that the voice was odd as well, sounding as if it were a great many voices, both male and female, all talking at once, but without making it unintelligible. “You are my Child of Prophecy, the one I sent to make sure the world would finally know peace and to get rid of all the hate, and you did as well as anyone could hope to do. You are the first of many I have sent to try who has succeeded in finding a way to not only find peace for the world, but to male that peace last a long time, and the only one who freed the world of its hate, if only for a time.” Naruto stared hopefully at her. “I really did it, peace will really last?” he asked. When the figure nodded it's head, Naruto smiled, only to frown as another thought came to him. “What's happened to Obito?” He asked, thinking back to what had happened during the fight, and the fact that Obito had finally realized what he had done and had stopped. “Obito sacrificed his own life to grant everyone who died all over the Elemental Nations in the past three days new life.” The figure told him. “You and he are considered heroes throughout the entire world, and the villages have agreed to work together from now on to make the Elemental Nations a less hate filled place, and the Bijuu have agreed to help.” At that Naruto realized something, and so he asked. “What about Kurama and Madara, what happened to them, and what happened to the four Hokage?” He looked around, as if expecting to see them somewhere nearby. The figure seemed to shake it's head, as far as Naruto could tell, and said “Kurama has been sent back to your world, both the part you contained, and the part your father contained, he has been given a chance to live with the other bijuu as Hagoromo had wanted them to live, though all of the bijuu will only live another 50 years. As for Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama, and Hiruzen; they have been given the chance to go to paradise.” Naruto was glad that the Hokage could finally know peace, he had not been happy when he thought they had been taken by the Shinigami, and he was also happy that Kurama would get the chance to be happy with his siblings for a time. He was even happy for Madara, even if the man had become disillusioned with the world after his younger brother died and he found out the truth about the Sage of Six Paths and of the Shinju. Then he caught something. “What about my dad?” He asked. “That will be up to you.” the figure stated, looking at Naruto, and he could hear the hint of a smile in the many voices. “You have a choice, as you weren't supposed to live as you did, nor were either you or your parents supposed to die so young. As you have succeeded in completing the prophecy, I will give you the choice of either moving on and going to paradise, or getting a chance at a new life in a new world, and I will also send your parents to that world.” Naruto was stunned, and couldn't help but wonder what could happen in this new world. “If I do accept,” he started to ask “If I do, would my life be like, and would I remember any of my old life?” “No, you wouldn't remember your previous life, at least not until a certain time, and then only a part of your past life.” The figure said, the hint of a smile back in it's voice. “As to how your life will be, you will be happy, though that is not to say there will be strife. You will have a good, long life if all goes as planned, and even have a wife and children, but there is no way to tell how the future will go, not even for me, only how it is most likely to go.” At this Naruto looked up shocked. “How can you not tell how the future will go?” he asked, shocked, after all, this was Kami, the god of all, if Kami didn't know, how did the world ever survive? “I have given humans and all other life free will, they can do as they choose, but it is hard to predict how humans will act, so even I can only guess” Kami said, not unkindly. Naruto accepted that, then sat there and thought on what his options were, but one thing kept popping into his mind; he would one day have a wife and children. Naruto was always afraid, after learning about Kurama, that no one would ever care for him enough to marry him, and when Hinata confessed to him during his battle with Nagato, he never got to tell her how he felt because of all that had happened since, and he ended up dying before he could even fully come to terms with her confession. With that thought in his mind he turned back to Kami and smiled. “I want to have a new life.” > A New Life > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naruto Namikaze lay on a bench in the park trying to get his thoughts in order. His life so far had not been the best. For the first four years of his life, Naruto had been a happy child with a loving family. His mother, Kushina, was a successful, if minor, actress, someone who was a somewhat popular television star. Dispite being only a minor success, Kushina seemed to be very happy with how her life was so far, and had even turned down a couple offers to star in actual movies, because she wanted to stay where she was and spend time with her family whenever possible. His father, Minato, was the owner of a small restaurant, a ramen place that was kind of out of place in the town of Ponyville, which was in the United States, and therefore not many were used to the Eastern dishes that Minato served there. Dispite this problem, Minato was very successful, his restaurant being frequented by many people from all over town, and it was even where he met Kushina, who happened to love the ramen. They lived in a nice house near a park where Naruto had loved to play as a child. But all this changed on the night of Naruto's Fifth birthday, when his family had come home from celebrating his birthday to find a man had been robbing their house while they were out. The man had immediately drawn a gun and shot his parents. Naruto had been too shocked to move, but the robber had not shot him, but instead had seemed horrified at what he had already done. Both had been to shocked to move for a good five minutes, and by that time the police had shown up, as a patrol car had been only a block away, and the officers arrested the man and took Naruto to the police station to ask what happened, as well as to help the boy get through the fact that he had just watched his parents get shot. The next day the officers who had found him took him to the orphanage, as Naruto had no other family left. They let him get settled in, but it would be a long while before he would ever get past the fact that his parents were dead, and before he expected to wake up and find out all that happened since was just a horrible dream. Naruto did eventually get past the fact that his parents were dead, and moved on somewhat, though it took him two years. He spent the next nine years of his life growing up in the orphanage. The orphanage wasn't really that bad, but it was overcrowded and poor, and that meant that whatever money the orphanage had was spent on food, clothing, and shelter for the kids, leaving precious little left over. What was left was usually spend on trying to get all the orphans to go out and experience life, though there was almost never enough money to take them all on whatever trips they had planned, so they almost always had to ask one or two of the children to stay behind so that they could take the others. Naruto would usually volunteer to stay behind, because he never liked to see others sad or disappointed. The few workers at the orphanage were always grateful for this, but it also made almost all of the kids ignore Naruto because he just wasn't with the rest of the group as often as everyone else. Though that wasn't to say that everything had been bad for him since his parents had died. He made a few friends, such as a girl a year older than him who had come to volunteer at the orphanage every now and then. Rarity was someone he enjoyed talking to, at least when she was not going on about fashion, which he really didn't care for, and he also liked how she seemed to truly care about how the orphanage was doing, rather than just helping out for something else in return, as a few did. The only problem was that at school, which they both attended the same school, she seemed like an entirely different person, and he felt to scared to approach her and talk to her. Another friend he had made, or rather a person who had made themselves his friend, was a girl named Pinkie Pie. The girl , in his opinion, was the most annoying person he had ever met, but also one of the nicest and most honest people he had ever known. She reminded him a lot of his mother, but without the fiery temper that his mother had. She always seemed to want to make others happy, and he had been grateful for that on more that one occasion. One of the most memorable times was when the power had been cut during a school assembly back when the two were in the first grade. Naruto would never admit it, but he had been scared of the dark since the day his parents died, and when the assembly hall power cut and the room was plunged into darkness, Naruto had panicked and almost had a panic attack at school, but Pinkie had just started to make jokes and, having brought a flashlight for some reason, began to make faces and shadow puppets, and just goof around. Naruto, along with everyone else in the assembly hall, had been grateful that the girl had done so, as it stopped the younger kids, and those who were scared of the dark, from panicking and causing some kind of injury. Naruto was never sure whether it was the flashlight or what Pinkie had been doing that had kept him calm, but he was extremely grateful for it either way. The final person he knew well enough to call a friend was another orphan, a little girl around seven years old that he considered his little sister, named Scootaloo. Scootaloo was a young girl who had a disability that made her much weaker than most her age, but she still loved sports and wanted to be an athlete herself. Scootaloo would usually stick with Naruto whenever she could, which meant that, often times, she would often volunteer to stay behind on the trips that the orphanage had to leave some behind. The girl was a big fan of the three Elites of the Wonderbolt Academy, an academy dedicated to helping young people master extreme sports. The two would watch the sports tournaments to see the Wonderbolt Elites perform. But the reason he was lying on a park bench had to do with something that had recently, he had heard the head of the orphanage talking to another worker there that they no longer had the funds to continue to support all of the orphans they had. They would have had to either start to skip meals, or get rid of some of the orphans, and Naruto, being the kind person he was, ran away so that the other children in the orphanage didn't suffer. He could camp out in the park for a few weeks, and when a couple of kids had been adopted, he would come back. And so now that left him, alone in the middle of the night, staying on a park bench thinking about the many things that had happened in his life. There was a sudden movement out beyond the wall of the park and Naruto jumped up, suddenly worried that someone had come to mug him or something, but a fog seemed to seep towards him as he slowly moved towards the exit to the park. As he made it to the entrance, he saw Scootaloo looking up and down the street, and as he wondered what she was even doing out there, she spotted him and called out “Naruto!” She ran up to him. “What are you doing out here Scoot.” he hissed at her, using the nickname that she didn't let anyone but him call her by. “I was trying to find you.” she said, seeming sad. “You never came back after you went out, and everyone at the orphanage is wondering where you are.” At that Naruto looked guilty, maybe it would have been a better idea to tell someone, or at least leave a note, rather than just leave without telling anyone. “You always come to this park when you want to go somewhere to be alone, so I went looking for you.” At this Naruto had a bad feeling, and asked “Did you happen to tell anyone that you were going to go look for me?” As he asked, the girl looked down in guilt. Naruto just sighed, and thought that maybe he should take Scootaloo back and stay at the orphanage for the night, he would tell the head of the orphanage in the morning what he planned to do. “Come on, lets go home Scoot.” he said, and took her hand. She agreed and started to walk with him, only to freeze, Naruto had stopped too, but only for a moment, and in that moment he noticed that a fog, thin but prevalent, seemed to have appeared within the last few seconds. He wondered what was going on, and then noticed that Scootaloo wasn't moving. “Scoot.” he said, trying to get the young girl to respond. When that failed to get a response, he took his hand from hers and got in front of her, waving his hand and calling her name quietly, not wanting unsavory people to here and come to see who was talking. When even that failed, he tried to shake her, only to find that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even move her an inch. He was about to start panicking when he saw a bright flash from the park. Looking at Scootaloo one more time, he decided to see if whoever made that flash would be able to help him find out hat was wrong with her. He ran back to the park entrance and saw two girls, one was sitting on the ground and looking around confusedly, while the other was sitting up on a stone column smirking down at her, The girl on the ground he vaguely recognized as the new student that started at school two days ago. “How did I get here?” he heard her mutter to herself. The other girl spoke up then, greeting her with a simple “Good Evening.” and for some reason sounding rather smug. “Who are you?” the girl, he thought her name was Twilight, asked, while looking up at the girl on the column, and now that he thought about is, how the heck did she even get up there? “I have many names.” the girl up on the column said. “But you may call me Luna.” Naruto was thinking that the girl seemed very cryptic, and he wondered what was going on. “I can sense your emitting a powerful aura. Surely your spiritual energy was recently awakened.” At this Naruto was very confused, spiritual energy? What was this person talking about? “What are you talking about?” the Twilight girl asked, unknowingly asking the same question that Naruto was asking himself. “Simply put, you are the only one not paralyzed by my spell.” 'So that's what happened to Scootaloo' Naruto thought as he continued to listen in on the conversation going on behind him. The mysterious Luna girl carried on, oblivious to the fact that Naruto was there. “Something only possible if you are protected by your spiritual energy.” At this Naruto wondered if he also had this spiritual energy, since he wasn't frozen like Scootaloo was. “So you're the one who paralyzed Pinkie and Spike.” Twilight asked, seemingly very calmdispite the fact that it seemed some people she knew were affected. Naruto also caught that one of his friends was possibly in danger from the Luna girl, and he felt himself start to get angry. Suddenly he fell to the ground and gripped his head in pain as he saw images of himself, but he was somehow different. Then words and phrases came to him as well. He was standing in the middle of a forest clearing with what appeared to be a girl. The girl spoke, and he heard “When a person has someone to protect, that is when they become truly strong.” Another image popped into his head, one of him talking to an odd man with silver hair and odd eyes, but the him in this vision was older then he was now. The him that was not him spoke to the man, saying “That's why we endure... We are Ninja. I will never forget. And anyway, that wound means that my friends are still inside me. The real friends are not the ones I created in my dreams not to get hurt… That would be erasing the real ones. It can work as a curse but I don't care… I want to keep the real Neji here!!" Naruto's head stopped hurting and he slumped the rest of the way to the ground 'What was that, I don't even recognize whoever those people were, and who is this Neji person anyway?' Naruto was too confused to think right then, but his head suddenly snapped up as he saw his friend Pinkie, whom he hadn't even noticed get there, get thrown over 30 feet both away and up, and instincts made him try to get up and throw himself at the girl to try to save her, but he couldn't even get his feet under him, and Pinkie landed hard on the ground. “Pinkie!” that was a shout from Twilight, who had been nearby and was running up to try to help Pinkie. Twilight reached her and gently lifted her up, trying to see if she was injured. “Please, stop hurting her! She didn't do anything to you!” She shouted into the air, and only then did Naruto notice that Luna was now flying with a pair of star-like wings and a tail, all made out of some kind of energy, coming out of her back. Luna sad something then. “Don't you see? That girl should be severely injured from being thrown that far, but she's only unconscious. Her spiritual energy protected her.” Naruto was relieved that his friend wasn't hurt that bad, but he was still struggling to get up, because it seemed like some oppressive force was trying to keep him in place. Luna continued again, still unaware of him ever being there. “That only means that she too bears a spirit of harmony.” This confused Naruto, as he had no clue what a Spirit of Harmony was. “But unlike you, I feel that she is more connected to her element. For that reason I will harvest her spiritual energy first, and then you!” At that moment, Naruto broke free of whatever force was holding him in place, and charged forward. He was running entirely on instinct right now and as he jumped at the odd winged girl that called herself Luna, and as he shouted at her a ball of some kind of rotating energy formed in his hand. “I'm not letting you hurt either of them you crazy spirit vampire lady!” he thrust the ball of energy in his hand forward, and it some kind of barrier around Luna. While Twilight seemed shocked at his sudden appearance, Luna seemed to take it in stride, and only muttered “Pathetic.” before a force smashed into his side, and that was all he knew. > A New Purpose > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna stared down at the boy, wondering where this odd person who had some spiritual power had come from. It was obvious that he was not one of the elements, as from what she was told by the one who had informed her of her powers in the first place, all of the Bearers of Harmony were female, and this boy was clearly a male. She also was curios about the boys odd spell, the spell that, even when unstable and at a much weaker power than it should, would have broken through her shield if she had allowed the boy to continue attacking. Then there was what he had said, was he just a simple bystander who had seen what was happening and decided to interfere, and if so, could she somehow get him to work for her. After all, the figure who had told her of her past life had mentioned nothing but the fact that her sister had sent her to the moon with the power of the Elements of Harmony, and not that anyone else helped her, which meant, in her mind at least, that someone with powers could be useful to helping her take down the elements, even if by some miracle she failed to harvest their energy tonight. She would also admit to the fact that the bit of her mind that wasn't consumed by a burning need for vengeance for what was done to her in a past life still thought like a normal highschooler, and she thought that perhaps the boy was cute, if only the school uniform he wore was a little better to look at, then he may even look handsome. This part of her mind was silently praying that she would get the chance to learn a little more about the boy, as even if her mind had been consumed with the idea of revenge, a small part of her still believed what she was currently doing was wrong, and just wished that she could be a normal girl who wasn't the reincarnation of what was essentially a minor god. She then let the thought go; looking back at the girl who was a Bearer of Harmony, she decided to taunt her to try to get a reaction out of her. “Foolish, that boy should have realized that it is worthless to challenge me.” she stated, trying to get Twilight to react, as well as to get the small thoughts running through the back of her mind at bay, whether they were thoughts of how the boy had almost hurt her, or her thoughts on the boy personally. “Now, I shall take care of you and your friend.” Twilight had been shocked by the appearance of this person who she vaguely recognized from the past to days as the boy who had spent quite a bit of time with her new friend Pinkie, and wondered exactly who he was, and why he had been able to get here when Luna had said only those who had spiritual energy could even get close because of the spell that she had put up before bringing Twilight here. A sudden thought occurred to her, flitting through her mind for the briefest instant 'could he be a Bearer of Harmony as well?' before she dismissed the idea, as Celestia had said that the Bearers were all female. Then she heard what Luna was saying about the boy, and started to worry. 'Is she really that powerful that she wasn't even worried that he might hurt her, and that guy actually knew some spells, if that doesn't hurt her, then how am I supposed to beat her?' she thought, starting to panic at the thought that she was way out of her league right now. Luna's next words then got through to her, and she closed her eyes and started to mutter to herself. “No... Pinkie is the only one who approached me, the only one who talked to me...” Suddenly she realized that if she didn't do something, then she, Pinkie, and the boy would most likely be killed. If she ran, she may be able to escape, but that would mean leaving behind her friend Pinkie, and also the boy. They had both come to rescue her, even when it meant risking their lives and putting themselves in danger. She couldn't leave them alone to face this crazy Luna person on their own, so she made up her mind. “Pinkie is my friend! I won't let you hurt her!” she shouted out, in all honesty more worried about her new friend than the boy who she just met. As she felt the feeling of determination to stop Luna from hurting her friend, Twilight started to glow. From her room in the nearby apartment her family lived in, a similar glow lit up from the star shaped gem in her bag, and it launched out of her room and, passing through the glass of an apartment window, flew at her. The Jewel of Magic landed on Twilight's forehead, and the glow seemed to intensify. A magic symbol appeared floating above each of her wrists, and wristbands, purple in color, seemed to form under the magic circles. Then a helmet or crown of sorts started to form as well. The object was an odd design, being just a larger version of the Jewel of harmony with a sort of headband with odd protrusions and a figure that seemed to be the head of some kind of creature that resembled a horse on the lower half of the jewel, and a horn like that of a unicorn poking out of the center of the gem. “What's happened to me?... My body feels strange.” Twilight asked as the transformation finished. Looking down at herself, Twilight noticed that a tail of energy seemed to flow out from behind her, and that it resembled the color of her hair. Luna seemed to be a bit shocked when Twilight first started to transform, and when she had finished, Luna had a look of intense interest on her face, wondering whether she would get a fight now before she drained the two girls of their energy, “Hmm...” she hummed to herself. “This is unexpected, yet interesting. Now... Face me girl!” She was actually looking excited at the prospect of a fight with Twilight. Twilight just closed her eyes and raised a finger, saying “Fight you? Don't you see that fighting is never the solution...” Before Twilight could say any more, she was interrupted by Luna. “That's something that only cowards would say, but if you don't want to begin, I will!” She threw her hands up and formed a sphere of magic, before calling out “Spectra Convicted!” Many flying, blue flaming skulls with glowing aqua colored eyes flew from the sphere of magic in her hands and straight at Twilight and Pinkie. “No!” Twilight cried out. “What do I do now? If I escape Pinkie will receive all the damage.” Panicking even more than she had been a minute ago, she threw her own hands in front of her. “I can't allow that!” she cried. As the spell hit, a giant barrier seal appeared in between the magic and Twilight, blocking the spell just like Luna had blocked that boy's earlier. 'What?' Twilight thought, thoroughly confused. 'I did that? Now I understand the significance of magic. Yesterday night, after Celeste talked to me over the computer, I read a bit of the book she sent to me, and one of the things I learned is that the Powers of Harmony are based on how connected I am with my emotions. This is the key to using my power.' She sighed in relief that she was able to survive and not have either her or Pinkie get hurt the blast. Up in the sky, Luna seemed a little surprised that Twilight had managed to block the spell. “Hmm... It really is your first time.” She then scoffed at her earlier thought that the girl might have been a challenge. “I don't like fighting you in your current state, so I will give you a chance. I will let you attack me and I won't move... In fact i won't do anything.” Twilight was shocked, and started to think quickly, but she also had to ask. “Seriously? You're pretty arrogant.” Luna just scoffed at the girl, thinking that there was no way that a beginner could possibly even come close to breaking her shield. “I will give you one minute to try something. If you don't try you already know what will happen to you and your friend,” Twilight was still trying to figure out what she should do. 'I have only one chance, perhaps I should try the spell that I read at the end of the book. If it's as powerful as the manuscript says, not even Luna will be able to escape...' With that thought Twilight drew apon her magic, and her body started to glow with a light so bright that it was almost to painful to look at. “Hmm...” Luna hummed to herself. “It seems she finally decided to attack.” Calling out loud, Luna spoke to Twilight saying “Come on; show me what you got!” Twilight ignored her, trying hard to concentrate on remembering the way to cast the spell. 'Please, Elements of Harmony, for the saftey of my friend, my family, and even my life, help me.” As Twilight started to cast the spell, a rainbow colored light flowed from the bag in her room to where she was in the park, and circled around her. “What?” Luna asked, confused and shocked that Twilight knew that spell. “What's happening...” Her question was interrupted by Twilight, who called out loudly. “Thank you!” Her eyes started to glow and she was lifted off the ground. She focused all of her being on launching the spell at Luna, and she shouted out the spells name. “Friendship is Magic!” The multi-colored light launched from where Twilight was, and struck Luna and continued on to crash through the barrier that was the range of the spell cast by Luna... Dividing Line Naruto woke up with a start, and immediately tried to get up, only to collapse as his side felt as if it were on fire. He heard shouts, and looked up to see Twilight glowing with a rainbow colored light. She shouted something and the rainbow of light shot from her and smashed through the still flying Luna lady that had been attacking Twilight before he had been knocked unconcious by that blow. “What happened while I was out?' he wondered as the light dimmed, thinking that this was just crazy. He never expected that this would happen when he woke up and was now wondering what he wouldn't give to just ignore this and go home, but he couldn't just abandon his friend, plus he couldn't even really move right now, so he might be here for a while anyway. He saw the light slowly fading, and then saw the mist that had been around since right before all of this started start to fade. Twilight collapsed onto her knees as the light finally faded, and he saw the odd helmet/crown thing that he just noticed was on her head faded as well. “I... I... did it.” Twilight said, and she seemed as though she was going to pass out at any second. “Child, what you just did was foolish.” a voice said, and both Naruto and Twilight snapped their heads up to see that Luna still appeared fine, despite the beam that had struck her. Twilight paled. “No... No it can't be, it was a direct hit...” she murmured, trying to figure out why her spell hadn't worked. Naruto was wondering what that light had been supposed to do, as it was obvious, from Twilight's reactions at least, that it hadn't done everything that had been expected. Luna looked down at the girl and she seemed to be annoyed more than anything else, at least from what Naruto could see from her expression. “I have no idea how you learned that spell.” she said, her voice back to the condescending tone she had using before Pinkie had interrupted them earlier. “But you need to study more. For it to work you need to reunite the five carriers of the other spirits, otherwise your attack will contain only your energy, and nothing else.” At this Twilight's tired tired and scared expression turned to one of tired confusion, and she said “But... I saw how the other energies came to me.” “Only so that you could perform that attack, but in order to obtain the necessary power you will need to have the others with you.” she stated, and Naruto was wondering why exactly this lady was explaining all this to Twilight, after all, wasn't she trying to 'harvest their spiritual energy', whatever that meant. “And... why... do I feel... so exhausted?” asked Twilight, so out of breath that she couldn't even string together a full sentence without gasping for breath. “Because of the side effect,” Luna said. “It took most of your power, also in your case, because you were the caster you also lost your transformation and now you are totally exposed to me.” At this Naruto finally figured out why Luna was explaining all this to Twilight, she had Twilight completely in her power, and could finish this at any moment. “What's more, you should know that spell would not have killed me, only blocked my spiritual energy.” “I... already knew that.” Twilight said. “It was never my intention to kill you.” Naruto suddenly felt like he would love to get to know this girl who seemed to value life even in the face of danger. Sure, a part of him really didn't want to forgive others, but he could never really hold a grudge, even against the man who had killed his parents, and to meet someone else who felt the same way, well, he was looking forward to talking to her if they made it out of this situation alive. “I just want to know, why are you doing this to us?” When Twilight asked that, Naruto began to pay close attention, wanting to know why this lady was acting like this. “Very well.” said Luna. “I will tell you. It is because of Celestia.” At this Naruto became even more confused, who was this Celestia person, and what did she have to do with Twilight or his friend Pinkie? “Celestia?” Twilight asked, and from the tone of her voice, Naruto realized that she knew who Luna was talking about. Luna nodded at the question in Twilight's voice, then spoke. “A person who knows about Equestria's kingdom, as she lived there, told me that in my past life as an Alicorn, Celestia locked me away in that world's moon.” This confused Naruto even more; Equestria, Alicorn, Past life? What was Equestria? What was an Alicorn? Was he also a reincarnation as well, was that what the flashes of memory meant? How the heck could someone survive on the moon? His mind was working ata frantic pace and he was so lost in thought that he almost missed what Luna said next. “Can you understand it? She locked away her own sister!” she was shouting by the last part, and Naruto was suddenly a bit bad for Luna. He couldn't imagine betraying his family, and he wondered what could have happened that this Celestia person would even think of doing something like that? “And even before that, all the inhabitants rejected my past life because she brought on the night.” Again Naruto couldn't help but feel sympathy for Luna, and for some reason, he suddenly felt a great pang of loneliness, as if he had never had anyone who cared for him, though he had quite a few people who took care of him throughout his life. “Lies” Twilight shouted, and Naruto felt that she seemed greatly offended by what had been said. “Celestia would never do such a thing without a reason. And if what you said is true, that happened in another world, so why are you taking revenge on us?” Once again Naruto felt he wanted to know more about Twilight, because this girl seemed unaffected by what she saw about the world, with all the generally bad people in it, and Naruto was wondering just how someone could stay that pure in the face of all that happened with the world in this day and age. “Because the person who told me all this also said that currently Equestria is in chaos because of a battle that happened there.” Luna said, and Naruto became confused again, what did a battle in another land that her past life lived in do to cause her to try to attack Twilight? “This prompted Celestia to send over not just the Elements of Harmony, but also the souls of all the inhabitants of her kingdom, so that in the future Equestria could return to its former glory and all who lived there, if they wished, could return to their world.” That caused Naruto to think really hard once more. Did this mean he was one of those who came from that land, and did he have power because of that? As he was thinking this, he noticed a young woman who looked to be about 20 walk through the entrance to the park, and stop. She wore a simple white tee-shirt and khaki shorts, and in her hands she helm a tiara that had a white unicorn horn in the middle of it. She looked around and saw him looking at her, and shook her head, indicating that he shouldn't let the others realize she was here yet. He just looked back at Twilight and Luna to see what was going on. As he had been looking at the woman near the entrance to the park, Twilight had asked Luna “What are you trying to say? That there are people here who used to live in that place?” “Exactly.” Luna responded. “And do you know what's even more important? The majority of them live in this city without even knowing what they were in the past, and my goal is to seek revenge on them all. But before that, you and the other Elements of Harmony will feel my Wrath.” As she was saying this, Naruto saw the woman by the park entrance take the Tiara and place it on her head, before mumbling something and glowing slightly. As soon as Luna was finished talking, a figure that looked like a unicorn with wings appeared in between her and Twilight. Both the figure and the woman by the entrance of the park spoke at the same time, but Naruto only heard a voice from the unicorn with wings. “I will not allow it!” She shouted. Twilight seemed shocked, and Shouted out. “Princess Celestia!” “I'm sorry Twilight for arriving so late, but thank you for using your power, it destroyed the barrier that prevented me from sensing what was going on here.” Again both the woman by the gate and the winged unicorn, 'I guess that's what they meant when they called themselves ponies.' Naruto thought, spoke, and again sound only came from the pony. The others still hadn't noticed the woman still standing near the entrance to the park. “Celestia!” called out Luna, and there was a clear sense of anger in her voice. “Finally we meet! But why do you appear in your old form?” “Because you say your problems with me come from before we came to this world; then let us face them as we were before.” Celestia said, before the pony form charged and connected with Luna. As the pony form connected with Luna, her eyes became unfocused, as if she were unconscious, and then she glowed and vanished just like Twilight had appeared earlier. The woman then came over and helped Twilight stand. “Celeste!” Twilight cried, and pulled her into a desperate hug, showing how scared she had been that she might possibly die. “What did you do?” Before Twilight could ask anymore, the woman, Celeste, stopped her, and said “If you want to ask questions we should really get to somewhere less open.” She then walked over to Naruto, who tried to get up but still couldn't stand on his own because of his side. “Can you stand on your own?” she asked him, seeing he was clutching his side. “Not really.” he said, holding his side again. “Could you help me up?” She nodded and helped him stand, and he found he could walk without much trouble, but sitting down would likely mean he wouldn't be able to get up again without help, and then Celeste decided to speak. “I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I can't really answer them in this park.” Dividing Line After a small discussion, the group of three decided to get both Pinkie and Scootaloo, Pinkie still being knocked out and Scootaloo having fallen asleep as soon as the paralysis spell had been lifted, and took both of them back to where Twilight lived,once they got there Celeste used magic to make Pinkie, Scootaloo, and the boy who was Twilight's brother Spike to sleep, then Celeste tried to explain what was going on to Naruto, as well as finish her explanation to Twilight. “So let me get this straight.” Naruto said. “Most of this town is populated with people who are reincarnations of a group of sentient, sapient, intelligent horses, pegisai, and unicorns who all together call themselves ponies; who were sent here to save themselves from a mad, and extremely powerful, god. Twilight, Pinkie, and four others are the reincarnation of a group of ponies that wielded a power capable of stopping a god, and Twilight herself is the reincarnation of the student of a god. You and that Luna girl are both reincarnations of gods as well, but ones much weaker than the other god, and your past life was the teacher of Twilight's past life. You will now have to stay away so that Luna, who seems to currently be controlled by something, can't enter the city, which will give Twilight the chance to find the other four who wield elements. And finally, Twilight and the other five have to get ready to fight the mad god who practically destroyed the place that your past life ruled in five years time, but in the mean time they will have to fight monsters that are either given life by or controlled by the shards of crystals that used to be scales of the mad god. Oh, and neither of us have any idea why exactly I have spiritual powers either, but you want me to help. Did I get all of that right?” As Naruto spoke, his voice sounded just a little bit annoyed, and Twilight seemed worried that he would just brush off what was happening and leave, but Celeste saw a little bit of excitement as she nodded that he was correct, so wasn't all that surprised at what he said next. “Okay, I would have helped just to help Pinkie, but this also sounds fun!” At that both Twilight and Celeste blinked, and Celeste laughed at what Naruto said. When Celeste had finished laughing, she smiled and said “It's best that I go, remember that I have to stay far away from this city so that the spell will continue to work on Luna... take care of Spike, I left him sleeping so that he wouldn't see that I was here, Farewell Twilight, Naruto.” She then glowed briefly before vanishing. Naruto then spoke to Twilight. “I won't be able to get back to where Scootaloo and I live with this injury tonight, would you mind if I stay here for the night?” Naruto felt guilty, but there was no way he could walk all the was back to the orphanage while carrying Scootaloo, who he knew from experience would not wake up until late in the morning no matter what time she went to sleep, so he was stuck here. “I guess you could.” Twilight said, blushing slightly at the though of a boy staying over at her house. “But we need to find an excuse to tell my parents.” she said. “How about we tell them that you saw me get hit by a car and saw my little sister pass out, but that the driver had hit and run, so you helped me here, and offered to let me stay until your parents got home and could help.” Naruto asked. “I guess that could work.” Twilight said “Well, could you help me up since it wouldn't look very good if I were in your bedroom?” he asked, and Twilight blushed, but helped him up. “Thanks, I'll sit on the couch I saw in the other room until your parents get back. Though I think I might pass out before then.” he said, and she helped him to the couch. Naruto had one last thought before he finally passed out. What was he going to tell the orphanage head in the morning?