> Friendship Contract
>  by Demeristraz
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Seeking Summons
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A 6 year old Naruto walked slowly down the streets of his home village. Home he thought, As if it's ever felt that way. Even with his eyes cast downwards at the rocks he kicked along, he could feel the glares of the villagers around him. For as long as he could remember, he was always hated, thrown out of stores, treated to hostile glares and muttered curses. There were few places he could find edible food in the village, and fewer he could other necessities. The clothing he wore, what little he could piece together between outright refusal or inflated prices, was worn and frayed and hopelessly unstylish.

Glancing up at the nearest store he found his eyes drawn to a rack of masks. One drew his attention, it was white with red markings, like the dramatic heroes from kabuki plays. He always loved the fire festival, every year the streets would fill with vendors and music, great stages would be erected and actors would perform the epic stories of Konoha's most famous shinobi. In truth Naruto learned more of Konoha's history by sneaking off to watch those plays than he ever felt he would from a book.

His musings were cut short as the store owner noticed him. The man rose from his seat behind the counter and emerged to greet a potential customer, however, upon seeing who it was, he instead gave a familiar glare and made to shoo Naruto away. When the boy did not immediately flee the owner scowled, resisting the urge to shout insults. Noticing potential customers avoiding the boy he decided perhaps bribery might rid himself of the pest. Grabbing the mask that held Naruto's attention, the owner tossed it towards him, "Go on, get out of here, you're bothering the customers!" he shouted, Naruto broke from his stupor and snatched the mask up, bolting down the street as if the owner might change his mind, and call him a thief.

Only upon reaching the bench at the end of the road did Naruto stop to take a better look at the mask, it was indeed painted to match Kabuki style face paint, with lines of red accenting a pale white face. The bottom of the mask tapered into a long, narrowed nose, while the top had two triangular ears. All in all it reminded Naruto of a fox, and seemed to still hold him in an alluring trance. Turning it over he quickly attached it to his face, noting how it did nothing to stifle his vision. As he got used to the fixture he noticed several other children playing at a nearby park, and on impulse he made to join them. Nearly halfway there, however, he was stopped as a glass bottle broke before him.

A man, drunken by the look of how he walked, stumbled out to block his way. Muttered curses about foxes flowed from the man in slurred speech as he staggered threateningly towards Naruto. The street immediately lost all hints of life, the noise of the marketplace died as villagers all turned to watch. Seeing that nobody would come to his aid, Naruto fled away from the man, darting around thrown objects to the best of his ability. The crowd rose in front of him, unyielding to his desperate escape attempts, seeking to intimidate the mask-laden boy into facing the drunken assailant. Undeterred Naruto ran on, dodging and ducking around legs and carts, around corners and up steps until the cold glares of spectators gave way to surprised gasps, angry shouts. Fear clouding his instincts Naruto darted into the closest building, letting the door shut behind him and basking in the cooler darker safety of the interior. 

It took a moment for Naruto to come to his senses, as adrenalin left his system he noticed the building he was inside was filled with books and scrolls. The Library he thought, like many buildings in Konoha it was an unexplored mystery to the boy, as often as he attempted to cross the threshold to the treasure trove of information within he was turned back by the hostility of those who manned the desk. Today, in the setting sunlight Naruto noticed the entryway was unguarded, and driven on instinct he decided to make the best of his sudden change of luck. Darting forward he made for the darker sections of the library, and quickly hid among the books as the sole occupant of the library emerged to check the door.

There was a single tense moment as the librarian cast his gaze about to look for visitors, before he shrugged and returned to his desk. The threat passed, Naruto began to search about for something interesting to occupy his time with. They could throw him out when he was inevitably caught, or when he finally succumbed to hunger, whichever came first, but in the mean time, he would get his fill of the whole Library experience.

Mask still attached to his face Naruto scurried between shelves, seeking out copies of the stories told in the theater productions he adored. Finding many such books in the history section, he delighted in finding one of his favorites. It was an epic tale, written about the third Hokage, back in his prime, and though the tale was long, and the words were complicated, he felt he owed it to his grandfather-figure to commit the tale to memory. He disregarded the obvious embellishment, hanging on to every inspiring word as the Hokage battled against impossible odds, with his faithful friend and summon, the monkey boss Enma standing beside him. When the story was done, and the two heroes had triumphed, Naruto was left with one undeniable impression. He wanted to be Hokage someday, and to do so, he'd need a really cool summon.

A new fire lit underneath him, Naruto scoured the library for any information on summons. Since it was a civilian library, the information was limited, but from what he could gather, he puzzled out needing three things to summon. One, he needed to be able to use chakra, a lot of it, but being only 6 years old, 'a lot' meant different things than it did to an experienced Ninja, or even a rational adult civilian. Two, he needed a contract, which to Naruto simply meant he needed a piece of paper saying "let's be friends" that both parties could sign. He felt that part was rather silly, to his knowledge children didn't sign anything when making friends, but either way, wouldn't that mean he needed to find a talking animal to sign it first?

After a bit of searching, Naruto decided the third part covered that, five hand seals, while channeling chakra, will call the summoned animal to the summoner. A few more checks in a few more books and Naruto discovered basic instructions on the five required hand signs, Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. Some more digging, in a book for civilian children looking to become ninja, and Naruto set to work trying to coax out his chakra.

It wasn't as difficult as the book made it out to be, after settling down and truly focusing, with the single-minded determination that he Would be able to summon, and he Would pull it off that very night, Naruto found himself immersed in a truly immense amount of chakra. Pulling out of his trance he noted for the first time that the sun had gone down, he had spent hours in his research, the librarian had gone home, and Naruto was locked in.

Steeling himself for what he was about to do, Naruto cleared an area around him, and meticulously went through each hand sign a number of times, just to ensure he had it down. Once that was done he found a blank piece of paper, and drew up a 'contract' for whatever he summoned to sign. By 6 year old standards it was airtight, and would hold up to any amount of scrutiny. To anyone else it simply read "I, _______, to swear to be best friends with Naruto Uzumaki, and agree to help him become the best Hokage ever. This includes allowing Naruto to summon me so I can help him when he needs it, as long as I'm not busy and stuff. In return Naruto will help me out and be a good friend as well."

Convinced that this was the best contract ever, and that he had everything ready, Naruto strapped his mask on tight and called up his chakra. Remembering the book said he'd need to use a lot, he pushed as much as he could into his hands as he made the five hand signs. With the last hand gesture done, he pushed his hand to the floor of the library, and with a cry of "Summoning Te-"

Naruto was gone.
> Not What Was Wanted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Naruto's enthusiastic cry was cut off as his mouth was invaded by a sudden influx of pond water. Struggling against the sudden surge of panic he managed to find purchase for his feet on the muddy ground, and push himself to shore. He flopped down on the grass beside the heavily disturbed pond, dimly noticing his fox mask float over to join him on the side of the pond, pushed up to him on a wave caused by his thrashing. 

His contract was wrecked, he knew without looking, not that it mattered, he could draw a new one. His clothing was in an even worse state than it was before, now muddy and wet and scummy from the pond. Worst of all he felt overwhelmingly tired, perhaps using all of his chakra was a bad idea. Oh well he thought The grass is comfy enough. And with that last coherent thought, Naruto fell into blissful unconsciousness.


O~O~O~O~O~O

The sun rose at precisely 7 am, with day and night controlled by living deities there was no need for daylight savings times or adjustment of schedules. Keeping to one such schedule a pink haired pegasus rose to the sound of singing birds, stretched her wings and legs out, and set about feeding the vast menagerie of animals that inhabited her property. As she fluttered through her home, dropping seeds and veggies for her tiny woodland friends, she found herself humming along to the bird's choice in music. Today it was "Smile smile smile", a song which her pink friend was credited for composing on a whim, and was often caught singing as she paraded through town.

Finishing indoors she headed out back to refill the bird feeders, before tending to the pond to feed the fish. As she neared the water feature in her back yard, however, she noted its state of disarray, worried that some animal from the forest had fallen in she galloped towards it, and caught sight of the most unusual of creatures.

Whatever it was, it was a mess, between dirt and pond weeds, it was tough to make out exactly what the creature looked like. It appeared to be wearing clothing, old and worn and dirty as it was, which caused the pegasus to pause. What sort of non-pony wore clothing? What sort of creature got dressed up just to wander into her back yard?

She crept closer to investigate, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding as the creature gave a small snore, letting her know it wasn't dead. It was small, not only short, probably as tall as Applebloom if it got on all fours, or up to her wings if it stood on hind legs, like a dragon or a diamond dog. It seemed too thin, like some of the animals that she woke up every spring.

Noticing the dirty blonde mane on its head she ruled out 'dragon', although it seemed to have whiskers, which confused her even further. She stopped in her assessment, noticing the mask that was on the shore of the pond next to it. It was dirty, and still wet from the night before, but she could make out the general shape and recognize that it was usually white with red markings.

Sudden realization hit Fluttershy with a gasp, she recognized the mask from old pony-tales she had read as a filly, tales of trickster foxes who would change their shape and play jokes on ponies. The tales cautioned that while the foxes could often seem mean, to those who proved themselves worthy they made wonderful friends. As a filly Fluttershy would often dream of meeting one, finding the concept of any sort of woodland critter alluring, let alone magical ones. Everyone always assured her that kitsune didn't exist though, but what else could this creature be? Pondering for a moment, Fluttershy quickly found the obvious solution, Twilight would surely know.

With a quick look around to ensure the creature would be safe, and a quick prayer that it didn't run off before she returned, she galloped off into town to find her bookworm friend.


O~O~O~O~O


Twilight awoke to rapid pounding on the library door. Slowly opening one bleary eye she cursed her mentor for raising the sun at such an hour. She was up late the night before, as usual, reading a thesis on 'Extra-dimensional Influence on Pre-Nightmare Equestrian Culture'.  It was interesting, to say the least, that there was so much evidence to suggest that much of pony culture, from language to cuisine, was influenced by cultures in other dimensions .

Still, she paid for her late night enthusiasm as she trudged down the steps to answer the door. It was an unexpected surprise to find that the source of the racket was a usually timid Fluttershy. 

"Twilight," she yelled, as much as Fluttershy could be expected to yell, "You must come quick, I've made a tremendous discovery!" Seeing Twilight's obvious shock, she quickly amended, "I mean, if you aren't busy with anything..."

Twilight took a moment to reboot, "What is it exactly you've found?" She asked, not in the mood to look at another 'rare' example of a brown bunny with white spots, as opposed to the normal white bunny with brown spots.

"It's a kitsune!" she gasped out, her excitement mounting with each moment, until she quite nearly rivaled Pinky on a slow day. "I woke up this morning and found it napping by my pond! It must have fallen in during the night!"

Twilight arched an eyebrow at this. "A kitsune?" A nod from Fluttershy. "You're certain?" Another enthusiastic nod.

"I don't know anything else it could be." This got Twilight's attention, nopony knew more about animals than Fluttershy. With a shrug she turned to gather a few choice books into her saddlebags, and the two set out towards the yellow pegasus' cottage as she tried to describe her find. "It's small and thin like it might not be really healthy. I think it walks on its back legs, like spike. Only it doesn't have scales, or fur, and it wears clothes. But it does have a mane, and whiskers on its face like a fox. And it even had the mask nearby, like the ones they wear in the old pony-tales."

The more she described the creature the more perplexed Twilight became, unable to picture in her mind anything from her books that fit the description. The fact that it walked on its hind legs alone ruled out most species she could think of, even spike would eventually grow into being quadrupedal given time.

Soon enough they reached the cottage and went right around back to the pond, and sure enough the strange creature lay there snoozing away like Rainbow Dash on a summer afternoon. Twilight took a moment to look it over, finding it exactly the way Fluttershy described, right down to the muddy mask a few feet away. "Should we move it inside do you think?" Twilight suggested, already running through the steps she had read for identifying wildlife.

"Maybe... Um maybe we should... Um wake it up?" Fluttershy seemed quite nervous at the prospect. What if it got angry at being woken up? What if she blew her chance at befriending a real live kitsune?

"Hmm, I suppose if it really is sentient that would be the simplest way to find out what it is. The clothing suggests it should be able to answer questions." Twilight nodded to herself, Occam's Razor after all.

With Fluttershy cowering behind her, Twilight stretched a hoof out to nudge the creature awake.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto stirred to the feeling of something nudging him, already dreams of befriending fierce dragon summons and becoming the youngest Hokage at the age of 6 were vanishing into a morning fog. He could hear voices nearby, perhaps the morning librarian had found him? They likely wouldn't be as gentle as whoever was poking him was.

Come to think of it, the voices sounded rather young, and rather feminine.  Chancing opening his eyes he quickly squinted them shut once more, as bright morning sunlight poured down upon him. He definitely wasn't inside anymore, Duh he thought I'm laying on grass, and the wind is blowing on me. With a quick reprimand for not being 'ninja' enough he opened his eyes again and sat up.

The world around him was certainly not the world he knew. He had spent his life in Konoha, and had grown accustom to trees, but the ones before him, while presenting an intimidating forest, were just too small to exist in the land of fire. Above him was a clear blue sky, with perfect little clouds that hung still despite the wind. Around him was an abundance of wildlife, seemingly uncaring that a human lay among them. And behind him was a picturesque little cottage straight from a fairytale.

"Are you okay?" A girl's voice asked, presumably the one who woke him up. Perhaps it was whatever he summoned? He brimmed with energy at the prospect. Did it work? Did I get something cool? Like a dragon? Or a Tiger? He turned around quickly towards the sound of the voice.

"Yeah, I'm-" He never finished his sentence, all thought was cut off and replaced by the urge to leap ten feet in the air yelling "Horse!"

The urge overtook him, despite how 'un-ninja' it might be, and he screamed, and leapt, and fell right towards the pond once more. He never quite made it, instead being caught by some unseen force, and gently lowered back to ground by his possible summon. He groaned inwardly at that, his super awesome ninja summon was a horse, a tiny, purple horse. Still, they wouldn't be his summon if he blew his shot at befriending them, and it was better to have a summon than to not have one. Even if it was girly right?

Interestingly enough, "How did you do that?" Was the thing his brain decided to fixate on, despite all the questions that buzzed through his head. This produced a slight giggle from the horse in front of him.

"Have you never seen unicorn magic before?" Twilight asked, trying her best to appear harmless, realizing how much she startled it before.

"Unicorn." Naruto blinked a few times and stared into space for a moment. Magical Talking Purple Unicorns. My summon is Magical Talking Purple Unicorns. "No, I have never seen unicorn magic." He answered after a moment, just now noticing there was another horse attempting to hide behind the purple one. This one was yellow, with pink hair that reminded him of that little girl he had protected from bullies. He smiled at that memory before noticing. "You have wings."

"Oh um... Yes... I am... um... I'm a pegasus pony." She stepped out from behind her friend, head angled away from him and partially hiding behind her hair. She seemed terrified, as if any sudden movement on his part might scare her away.

"So there's different types of... ponies?" He ventured, thinking perhaps a contract might be worthwhile after all, flying was pretty cool, and magic seemed like it could be useful.

"Yes, the three most common are unicorns, like myself who can do magic." She demonstrated by levitating his mask over to him. Definitely useful he thought to himself. "Pegasus ponies who can fly and manipulate the weather." Admittedly, also very cool. "And earth ponies, which have neither a horn or wings, but are really strong."

Naruto sat pondering this for a moment, girly-ness aside, they might be useful summons, and they seemed nice enough. At the moment he might sign the contract just to have them as friends. There's a thought... I've never really had friends.

"If you don't mind us asking... we've never seen anything like you..." The purple one ventured.

Naruto's eyes shot open, and he hopped to his feet, putting his fox mask on in the process. The pegasus darted back a few feet startled, and he inwardly winced at that. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the next Hokage!" He cried, striking what he thought was a very cool pose.

> Just What Was Needed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was silence a moment. "You're name is... Uzumaki?" The unicorn repeated.

"Just Naruto is fine." He beamed at her, and she smiled back. Even the yellow one gave a slight smile.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is Fluttershy" the pegasus gave a slight wave.

"So, you're a... Hokage?" She asked. To this he replied with fervent head-shaking.

"Nah, Hokage is the best ninja in the village." He clarified.

"So you're a Ninja!"

"Ah, not yet, I have to go the academy for all that first. But I'll be great at it, I can already use chakra, that's how I got here." 

"Chakra?" Twilight was now quite confused, she had heard of 'spiritual energy' before, but was unaware anything could 'use' it. Perhaps he really was a kitsune?

"I think what Twilight means is... um... we are both ponies... what are you?" Fluttershy asked quietly, her voice almost lost on the wind.

"Oh, I guess I'm a human?" Naruto ventured, scratching the back of his head. It seemed rather obvious to him, but his village always treated him differently...

"A human?" Twilight paused a moment, running through lists of both real and mythical creatures. "Never heard of them..." Her eyes took on a sudden gleam, she had found something new to study. "I have so many questions for you!"

"Um, if you don't mind, perhaps we could get Naruto cleaned up while you ask?" Fluttershy ventured, noting how absolutely messy the 'Human' was. She was slightly depressed that it wasn't a kitsune, but Humans might be just as magical.

The other two nodded and made  their way into Fluttershy's cottage, Naruto answering questions to the best of his ability. "Are you male or female? How old are you? How did you get here? What's a Ninja?"

"Uh, in order, Male, 6 years old, I was trying to summon a friend. Ninja are really cool warriors that protect the village from bad guys. They can do these really awesome techniques, like throwing fireballs, and they get to rescue princesses from danger and everything!" At that answer he got odd looks from both ponies. 

"They sound a lot like the royal guard." Twilight pondered out loud. "My brother, Shining Armor, is the captain in Canterlot."

Fluttershy made a small 'eep' noise and turned to her friend. "You never mentioned you had a brother."

Twilight blushed a little at that, but pressed on with her questions. "What exactly is a summon?"

"See, some ninjas have this contract, where they can call really cool friends from anywhere, whenever they need them. I figured, if I wanna be Hokage, the best of the best, I've gotta have the best friends on my side. So I used the technique without having a contract already, to go looking for them." Naruto said, his logic in his mind flawless.

Twlight actually beamed at that. "Well, if you're looking for the best friends ever, you've come to the right place."


O~O~O~O~O


Bath-time sucked. It was something Naruto always hated back in the orphanage. The matron would always scrub too hard, the water was always too cold, and the soap always had a bad smell. Once he moved out he grew used to having cold showers, as the landlord could never be trusted to actually keep the hot water on.

This time, however, the tub was filled to the brim with steaming hot water and sweet smelling soap bubbles. There was even a rubber duck floating about on top. The only problem was, since he was a 'colt', Fluttershy's nurturing instinct overwhelmed her shyness, and the two ponies insisted at least one of them make sure he bathed properly.

Despite protests and struggles, he was quickly stripped down, and with a soft glow from Twilight's horn, he was unceremoniously upended into the tub. When he surfaced gasping for breath, for the second time in 24 hours, Fluttershy set about meticulously scrubbing the dirt and filth off of him. Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

Pushing back the embarrassment the two made small talk as Naruto relaxed to enjoy possibly his first hot bath. "You really don't have any fur at all." She commented as she scrubbed the child's back.

"Nope, that's why all us humans where clothing I guess. That and it'd be terrible to see all those old guys running about naked." He shuddered a little at that thought.

Fluttershy seemed a bit worried at this. "You never go without clothes? Ponies only wear them to do something fancy, especially around ponyville most of us are naked all the time."

Naruto fought down the blush, realizing that naked ponies are just normal ponies, how weird would it be to see a pony in a Jounin flak jacket. Before he knew it, bath time was over, and he rose from the tub to dry off. Fluttershy hovered around him, preening like a mother bird as he wrapped himself in towels. "I know a bit from going to the spa so often with Rarity, she would be better if you wanted  a makeover though."She replied when he mentioned her talent at it. He flinched at the thought of someone painting his nails or putting makeup on him.

Looking around the room at last, he noticed the lack of clothes. Although his mask was sitting shiny on the counter. Catching his curious gaze Fluttershy trotted out of the room and called out to her friend. "Twilight! Are you done washing his clothes?"

"Uh, yes and no!" Called back a worried voice. The two of them, Naruto wrapped in a towel, went out into the back yard, where Twilight stood over a barrel of soapy water. "I tried this spell for doing laundry, I've done it hundreds of times for bed sheets and the like, but this time, his clothes just... fell apart." She looked ready to cry at her failure, but before either of them could move to comfort her, she suddenly shot up with an idea. "Rarity! Rarity will be able to fix your clothing I'm sure."

"Hold on!" Naruto called out, as the two began to walk towards town, bundle of scrap fabric in tow. "I'm not going anywhere dressed in only a towel!"

Fluttershy leaned over to whisper something to Twilight, who looked thoughtful a moment, before nodding and facing Naruto. "I have just the thing." With another flash from her horn, Naruto's towel became a very fetching suit. "It's only temporary, so we'll have to hurry along."

Naruto nodded, and ran to keep up with the two ponies as they made their way into town.


O~O~O~O~O


The trip into town was relatively uneventful, they caught Naruto in awe of the scenery, and Twilight took time to explain how weather worked in Equestria. Naruto of course nodded along, understanding only every 5th word or so. To summarize, pegasi make clouds, push them where they want them, and make it rain where rain is needed. It seemed like a very cool job to have.

They described their friend Rainbow Dash a lot in their explanation, everything from being super fast, incredibly agile, and the most loyal friend they could ask for. Everything about this pegasus screamed 'Coolest summon ever.' With a summon like that, Konoha may not laugh at him for having pastel colored talking ponies as allies.

Reaching ponyville, Naruto braced himself for the stares that often accompanied large crowds. However, instead of the usual glares of hatred, or cold indifference, he was met with open curiosity from the local pony population. Once again he berated himself for his stupidity, nobody here knows why the village hates me. Instead of keeping his eyes on the ground, he forced himself to look up and around, taking in all the colorful sights as many ponies looked on in wonder at the sharp dressed whiskered creature.

"We've got to hurry, she'll have sensed us by now, and we can't afford to be side tracked." Twilight called rather urgently over her shoulder, Fluttershy nodded and began to trot faster, Naruto was now working quite hard to keep up.

"Who are we trying to avoid?" He called, seeing a building called 'Carousel Boutique' up ahead, which he recalled as their destination. 

Whatever answer Twilight may have given was cut off with by a very large "GAAAAAAAAAASP~!"

Whipping around so quickly he nearly fell over, he realized that the source of the noise was a pink pony with massively curly pink hair. "Ohmygoodness I got the feeling there was somepony new in town, although not really somepony new you know? And I wondered what it could possibly mean so I came to see Twilight to ask her and here she is and here You are and this must be what it means, somepony who isn't a somepony!" Naruto quickly realized the gasp must have been her preparing the speech, as there was no way any normal creature could talk that much on so little air.

"Uh, hi Pinkie, this is Naruto, he's a Human, and we're taking him to Rarity's to get him some new clothing." Twilight said, as if this sort of thing happened all the time. By the way the crowds just sort of looked the other way, that may be entirely true. "Naruto, this is Pinkie Pie, she's the best baker and party planner in Equestria."

"Um... Hello?" He ventured, unsure of how he was supposed to react. Although his stomach reminded him he hadn't eaten in quite some time at the mention of 'Baker'. "Wait, you found us based on a feeling?" He asked, as the pink pony began bouncing along beside the trio. She has as much energy as I do, maybe more.

"Yep, it's my Pinkie-Sense, it tells me all sorts of things, even Twilight can't figure out how I do it though." She giggled a little at this, as Twilight grumbled something about 'unscientific'. Again Naruto's mind filled with ideas for using a Pinkie-Sense to save the village.

He was snapped out of his latest daydream as they finally reached the doors to the Boutique, and Pinkie Pie excused herself to go 'prepare' something.

"Hello Rarity!" Twilight called as the trio entered the shop, "I have a bit of a special request for you."

From the back room another unicorn emerged, this one with a pristine white coat and perfectly styled purple hair. "Of course darling, I'm always willing to do a favor for a friend." Her eyes moved from Twilight over to the smaller form of Naruto. "My my, what is this? Wherever did you find such a creature."

"Hi there, I'm Naruto, I'm a human!" He called, wearing his usual cheerful expression, eyes closed with hand at the back of his head. It still felt odd, having to explain that he was a human, but he supposed if he summoned any of them to his world, they'd be doing the same thing.

"Well hello there, Naruto, I didn't mean to sound rude of course. I assume from your attire that you need a new wardrobe?" She glanced over at a blushing Twilight, as the lavender pony floated over the bundle of scraps.

"This is what he was wearing when we found him this morning, I tried washing them but they just fell apart." She shrugged, letting Rarity take over the levitating as she inspected the cloth.

"And it's no wonder, darling these are hardly fit to be used as rags, whoever gave these to you should be ashamed!" She cried out, already laying on the theatrics as she tossed the scraps into a nearby trash-can.

Naruto simply looked down ashamed, "It was all I could afford, nobody else would sell me anything." He knew his clothes were bad, but hearing it from someone else really stung.

"There there, I didn't mean anything against you, of course. But you mean you purchased your own clothing?" The white unicorn inquired. To which Naruto nodded.

"But you're just a colt... what about your parents?" Fluttershy asked, gently nuzzling the side of the child's head.

"I've never had any, I lived in an orphanage until about a year ago, but they threw me out. But the Hokage gave me my own apartment to live in." He brightened at the end, and the ponies present gave half-smiles at his enthusiasm, while sharing knowing looks.

"Well then, let me grab some fabric and we'll see what we can put together for you. I've never made clothing for a human, but you may be just the inspiration I've been looking for." Rarity smiled and marched off to the back room, Twilight followed after her, and almost immediately began a hushed conversation.

"Is it... really bad where you live?" Fluttershy asked quietly, trying to understand why a child would live on his own at such a young age.

"Oh no, Konoha is great! We have the strongest ninja, and the best food!" He said, trying to reassure his new friend.

"So you get enough to eat?" She said, noting again his rather thin limbs, and remembering how his ribs showed in the bath.

"Well... I can only really afford cup ramen most days, but that's okay because I really like it." He said. "And Ichiraku's makes the best ramen ever, and the owners are really nice to me."

"What about the other places, are the owners not as nice?" She asked, delicately trying to assess the problem.

"Well, they usually charge a lot for food, or the stuff I get is expired. Some of the meaner owners throw me out when I try to go in." He said, looking down at his feet. Fluttershy could tell he was trying once again to find a silver lining.

"Naruto! Could you come in here? We need you as a model!" Came the voice of Rarity from the back room. Fluttershy went along with him, and pulled Twilight off to the side for a chat while Rarity busied herself with measuring tapes and pins.


O~O~O~O~O


It was several hours later when they left Rarity's shop. He now wore dark blue cargo pants, or at least as close to cargo pants as a 6 year old could describe. With a blue T-shirt and orange hoodie over top. rarity protested the color choice, but Naruto insisted those were his favorite colors, and eventually the unicorn relented. On the back of the hoodie was a dark red spiral pattern, which had sparked an interesting conversation.

"Of course I can put that symbol on the back, but what is it for?" Asked Rarity, hard at work over her sketches. Trying to design based on a child's interpretation of human fashion was quite the challenge.

"The old man told me it's a symbol of my family, Uzumaki mean's whirlpool, and I've had it on my clothing for as long as I could remember." He said, drawing a rough approximation of the spiral on his own sheet of paper.

"So, it's kind of like a cutie mark?" Twilight ventured, receiving only a confused stare from Naruto as a result. "Every pony, once they reach a certain age, gets a mark on their flank, which represents their special talent." She gestured at her own flank, to a six point star surrounded by six point stars. "Mine represents magic for instance, although I didn't realize how it represented it until recently."

"Wow, so you're a magical unicorn who's special talent is magic?" Naruto asked excitedly. This whole summoning thing was getting cooler by the moment.

The conversation on cutie marks continued for quite some time, while Rarity went to work on the clothing. The one major thing he learned from the whole experience was that Twilight was smart, really really smart. Like, had read and memorized an entire library, or maybe even two. The fact that she lived in a library made it even cooler.

They eventually made their way into the marketplace to grab lunch, an activity suggested quite loudly by Naruto's stomach. Twilight laughed it off and suggested they go visit Applejack's stand, since he of course couldn't come to Equestria and not eat an Apple family apple. Soon enough they arrived at a cart filled to the brim with apples and apple-based baked goods. What Naruto now recognized as an Earth Pony stood out front calling out to customers to buy her wares. She wore a Stetson on her head, and spoke in a strange accent, but what really caught Naruto's attention was she was Orange. Bright glorious orange!

He was quickly ushered forward and introduced, before being told to take a seat on a nearby picnic table. Twilight and Applejack got into some sort of deep conversation, with Fluttershy nodding along, when suddenly a smaller pony, about his height when standing, came trotting over with an entire pie. "Here ya go!" She said, beeming towards Naruto, "Sis says ya can eat as much as ya like!"

Naruto smiled back, and noticing a lack of cutlery, shrugged and dug in. It was good! Better than ramen even! Well, maybe not Ichiraku's but the instant stuff definitely. He would have said as much, but that would have required him to stop eating, as soon as he finished one dish, the filly would dash away and bring back another for him to eat, chatting away the whole time about anything and everything.

He learned about the general layout of ponyville and its surrounding features, including sweet apple acres, where she lived with her family, and the everfree forest, where the world worked like it was supposed to in Naruto's opinion. He also heard a rather embellished and enthusiastic tale of the filly's sister and friends defeating  some kind of ancient evil. Finally he heard the long story about the filly and her friend's struggle to find their cutie marks. "Ah guess humans don't get cutie marks huh?" She said, looking glum at the end of her story.

"Nah, but I know what mine would be." He said, pushing aside his last plate of food. "Mine would tell the entire world that my special talent is being Hokage." He said with a grin, causing the filly to look up with a confused expression. "The Hokage runs the entire village, he makes sure everyone is safe and happy, and everyone respects him." The filly had to smile along with him at that, his enthusiasm was contagious.

"Alright Applebloom, time to get back to work, Naruto has to get going now." Applejack called from the cart, with a small 'nice ta meet you' the filly got up from the table and joined her sister. Seeing Twilight and Fluttershy waiting, Naruto ran over and the trio began walking once more.


O~O~O~O~O


"So where are we going now?" he asked, as they headed for the outskirts of the village. Ahead he could see several clouds floating about, closer to the ground then he'd ever seen them.

"Well we figured you'd met the others, so we'd introduce you to Rainbow Dash now." Twilight said with a smile. Up ahead something shot through the air in a blur, expertly darting between the clouds while pulling loops and barrel rolls. With a final loop the blur darted towards the ground, pulling up at the last second and skidding to a stop before the group. The dust slowly cleared to reveal a cyan pegasus with rainbow colored hair.

"That was So COOL!" Naruto yelled, eyes wide and positively buzzing with energy. The pegasus before him gave a chuckle and walked towards the group.

"So this is the 'human' you found huh? The way Pinkie described him I didn't expect him to be this adorable." She said, using a hoof to mess with his hair. "I figured he'd be at least 20% cooler than this."

This got the expected rise out of the boy, and he began shouting about all the cool things he was going to be able to do in the future as a ninja. Dash just laughed it off and the group headed back into town. Soon the two got into a conversation about just 'How cool' Rainbow Dash really was. "So you can really fly faster than sound?" He asked, after she told him the whole Sonic Rainboom story.

"Yep, takes me a bit to get going, but when it happens, BAM! Fastest pegasus alive." She boasted, causing Naruto to grin even wider.

"So you can sneak up on someone, really really quickly, while still being absolutely silent?" Naruto asked. Dash had to stop to think for a moment at that, and glanced over at Twilight to check. Twilight shrugged and nodded, suggesting that the idea definitely had merit.

The 'discussion' went on until they reached town, with such intellectual topics as "Who'd win in a fight, you or a giant robot?" and "Do you think you could beat up a dragon?" The answer to the first was a resounding "Me, hooves down." and to the second "I probably can't, but Fluttershy told one off once." Which prompted another round of questions much to the yellow pegagus' embarrassment. 

"Sure, she told the dragon to stop being a bully, and it broke down crying and apologized. She also once stared down a cockatrice, which can turn you to stone by looking at you. And she can take down a bear, empty hoofed, something I'd have trouble with, and I'm a black belt in karate." Dash elaborated.

"Sometimes you have to be a little rough with something, to get it to calm down and listen, but once you get through to them, they can become good friends." Fluttershy said, which to Naruto somehow made perfect sense. He added learning to 'tell off dragons' to his list of things to learn while in Equestria.

Speaking of 'while in Equestria', he had to figure out how long he'd stay here. He couldn't keep living off of his new friend's generosity forever, but at least he could visit from time to time, and summon his friends if they signed a contract with him.

So lost in thought he didn't notice they were entering the library until he stepped through the door to the sound of

"SURPRISE!~"


> Getting Into A Groove
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Were you surprised? Huh? Huh? Were you?" Came the energetic voice of a particular pink pony. The library had been decorated with festive streamers and a banner reading 'Welcome to Equestria Naruto!'. There weren't many others present, for which Naruto was grateful, just Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Applebloom. There were two others Applebloom's age, probably the friends she mentioned, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, as well as a baby dragon named spike. Having all of ponyville come to check out the 'interesting new creature' up close would have made for quite the awkward party.

Naruto simply nodded dumbstruck to the question, and was quickly hustled inside for cake. He had never been to a party before, especially not one held in his honor. His birthdays were always spent hiding from festival goers, knowing that for some reason the villagers tended to be extra violent towards him on that particular day. Yet here these ponies were, throwing a party just for him, just for showing up uninvited into their lives. He bit back tears as he lunged forward, throwing the pink pony into a hug. Pinky merely giggled and grabbed the other ponies into a group hug around the child.

Soon enough the party got into full swing. He was introduced to the other young ponies, and quickly added them to the growing list of 'Friends I've made since arriving in Equestria'. He spoke more with Applejack, learning about all the hard work that went into working on her family's farm. It sounded kind of fun actually, and learning she could kick apple trees hard enough to knock healthy apples loose left him in awe of her strength.

All the baked goods present were made by Pinkie Pie of course, and though he had little to compare them to, he found them all delicious.

As the evening wound down however, he found himself faced with the prospect of going home. He knew he couldn't stay here all the time, the Third kept a close eye on him, and would no doubt worry. At the same time he felt more welcome, here among the ponies than he ever had anywhere else. Deciding to bring these thoughts up with his friends, he was surprised to find them all smiling back at him.

"Well of course we don't expect you to spend All of your time here." Said Twilight.

"Yeah, but you can still come visit any time you like! I'm sure we can all teach you plenty, and it's only proper to come visit your friends right?" Pinkie chimed in.

"There'll always be plenty of food here for ya sugarcube." Added Applejack.

"And I'll no doubt have time to make you new outfits." Said Rarity.

At this Naruto was ready to break down crying again. These ponies showed him so much kindness, he wouldn't need to be alone anymore. No more hungry nights, no more ragged clothing. "I have nothing to offer in return." He said quietly, staring down at the wooden floor in shame.

"Part of being a good friend is showing kindness to others. We'll take good care of you, we'll help you achieve your goals, and all we ask is your friendship." Fluttershy said quietly, moving forward to embrace the poor child. "All you have to do is be a good friend, and if you don't know how... We can help teach you that too."

"Now, I believe you said we have a contract to sign?" Said Twilight, bringing out a scroll of paper. "It may not be official, but we can certainly try and see if it works."

On the contract, in elegant script, was written:

We who sign this contract swear to be the best friends that we can be. To care for, to teach, to help and to protect each other to the best of our ability. We agree to accept each other's faults, and never take for granted their virtues.

With some semblance of ceremony each pony stepped forward to sign the contract, with Naruto at last stepping forward with reverence to scrawl his name at the bottom. With that done they said their goodbyes, Naruto agreeing to try summoning Twilight Sparkle in the morning, so they could hit Konoha's library.

With a series of five handseals, and a good chunk less chakra than last time, Naruto put his hand to the floor and disappeared.  It was a quick hop out of the nearby library window and a 5 minute walk to his appartment.  With a grin he hung the contract on the wall near his bed, the names serving as a reminder, until he could spring for a decent camera for a photo. He fell asleep still smiling, one thought circling his mind. Friends. I have friends


O~O~O~O~O


Morning broke and Naruto woke with the same grin he had last night. Quickly grabbing his new clothing and pulling them on he ran through his new 5 favorite hand signs. He concentrated on his new friend Twilight, pushed his hand to the floor, and promptly disappeared.

In a puff of smoke he found himself suddenly standing in the library, where he had left the night before. His arrival caused Twilight to poke her head out of the kitchen area, "Oh, Naruto? I thought you were going to summon me?"

"Gah! It didn't work! The contract must not work!" He cried, suddenly distressed.

"I figured this might happen, no matter how 'official sounding' we make it, it's still just a piece of paper. There really is no reason it should allow people to move between worlds. There must be something special about those contracts that ninja use." Twilight said, trying to calm Naruto down.

"That must be it! I'll ask the Old Man! He uses summons, he must know!" Nartuo said, quickly flipping through signs and disappearing once more.

Once more in his appartment, the young  Naruto bolted from his home and into the streets. Ignoring the glares and a few curious glances he dodged and weaved through the streets and into the Hokage's building. Upon entering, he quickly took to the stairs, ignoring the receptionists as they insisted that the Third was far too busy to see him.

Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork as he heard his secretary shouting for someone to stop. He knew exactly what it meant, as his personal guards had yet to react, and braced himself for the coming storm. Were he larger the doors to his office may have slammed open from the force of Naruto running into them, as it stood the boy barely budged the heavy wooden doors and slipped inside with a sheepish grin.

"Hey Old Man!" He called, running up to the Hokage's desk.

"Hello Naruto, what brings you here today?" Sarutobi inquired, it really had been a while since he had checked in with Naruto, but the boy seemed to be doing quite well, he even wore seemingly new clothing.

"Old Man, I made friends! Lots of them!" He said, failing to contain his excitement. An eyebrow rose at this, and the Third prompted the child to explain. "I was reading, in the library, all about how awesome you are! And then I was like, I could be an awesome Hokage if I was like you! So I tried getting summons of my own. But when I tried instead of bringing something to me, I got brought to them!" He said startling the old man.

Such an event was not without precedence, Jiraiya himself had done something similar and wound up with the toad contract. Still for it to happen to Naruto. "And what kind of summons were you brought to?" Surely he couldn't have found the toads as well, that sort of thing would be far too coincidental.

"Ponies!" He shouted, nearly causing Sarutobi to fall from his chair. "They're the coolest summons ever! One of them can do magic! Not even like Ninja techniques, actual magic! And this other one knows Karate, and can fly faster than sound! And all of them are really really nice!"

He yammered on, the Third Hokage partially tuning him out, until he gathered his senses and interrupted. "Can you summon one for me?" He asked, and Naruto's face fell.

"That's the thing, Twilight made up a contract, and she's super smart, and we all signed it, but it doesn't seem to work. It just keeps sending me to them." He said sullenly. "We were hoping you'd know what to do, since you can summon monkeys."

"Naruto, the secrets for making a summoning contract are a very closely guarded secret, only a few summon clans still know how to make them. Toads and Monkeys in particular. If the ponies don't have a contract already, I'm not sure if you'll ever be able to bring them to the elemental nations." Naruto's face fell completely at that point. 

"That being said, I shall ask the monkeys what they know, and if they'd be willing to trade for a blank contract. In the mean time, tell the ponies to search on their end, there may still be a contract there. And I encourage you to spend time with your summons regardless, even if they can't help you in battle, there is likely much that they can teach you." The Old Man finished with a grin.

Naruto looked up suddenly and beamed at him, before preparing a summon once again. "Outside please Naruto, it wouldn't do to have you pop back in here once I'm gone for the night."

Naruto grinned sheepishly and bolted from the building, finding a nice location to disappear.


O~O~O~O~O


There was another poof of smoke and Naruto popped into Twilight's library. He quickly informed her of the plan, and she sent a letter to Princess Celestia, asking about a possible summoning contract. She explained that she had sent one before, saying she had befriended a human, and the Princess had been thrilled that another human had come to Equestria at long last.

That being accomplished, Twilight insisted that if Naruto was going to visit regularly that they set up a schedule. Soon they had come up with the idea, that on even weeks Naruto would spend Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays working with Applejack in the morning on her farm, and afternoons with Twilight getting a basic education. Tuesdays and Thursdays he would work with Rainbow Dash on his speed and learning Karate in the afternoons, with mornings spent either helping Rarity dig for gems, helping Fluttershy with her animals, or Pinkie Pie at Sugar Cube Corner. On odd weeks of course, they would swap schedules.

With that overly complex schedule complete, Naruto poofed out once again, and quickly ran to the Library to fetch books for his study sessions. Once at the library, however, he was faced with an old adversary. 

The librarian looked up from her desk as a customer entered, only to scowl when she saw who it was. Someone had seen fit to dress the demon in human clothing, but at least it no longer smelled. The creature seemed to have a determined look on its face, no doubt it wanted to mock her by reading human books for a while. With a sneer she rose to throw the brat out, but paused as a second person entered the library. Hatake Kakashi.

Naruto paused, flinching as the librarian stood to no doubt throw him out. But he noticed she stalled as a man walked in. Seeing his chance, with the librarian frozen in inaction, and the man caught up reading a little orange book, he darted into the library and quickly set about gathering books. They were texts mostly, history and geography, and instruction manuals for aspiring ninja, things that wouldn't exist in Equestria. Settling on a stack of about 6 heavy tomes he darted back over to the front desk to check out, praying his luck would hold out.

The librarian looked down at the pile of books in front of her, her mind rebelling against allowing the child to have anything at all, let alone her precious books. "I'm sorry," she said, grin plastered to her face and sounding insincere, "You don't seem to be in our records, you'll have to apply for a library card, which could take about two weeks." The man with the orange book raised a single visible eyebrow. It was quite obvious the lady knew exactly who the boy was.

"I'm sure that won't be necessary, I'll just check these books out for him. I'm certain that they'll get back on time." The man gave a smile with his one visible eye. Noting the horrified expression on the librarian as she froze up, Naruto took his chance and darted out of the building with his books, a small "Thanks!" Cried over his shoulder as the door swung shut.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto quickly fell into the routine set out for him by his new pony friends. He adored his time spent with each of them. Twilight was a patient teacher, and even with his endless energy he still learned the important parts of his lessons. Rainbow Dash would give him constant pointers on his stances, between doing her duty as weather-mare. Naruto became enraptured with watching her fly, and vowed to find a way to join her in the clouds. On Dash's days off she would have him running around a track, constantly working on both his sprinting and endurance.

Time on Applejack's farm was hard work, but he slowly grew in strength until he could keep up with the rest of the 
family. He started out with Applebloom, picking up fallen apples and putting them into baskets. Once he was strong enough he began moving the full baskets, his goal was to one day pull carts like Big Macintosh, or be able to kick apples out of the trees.

Gem hunting with Rarity was rewarding in different ways. He had to do all the work of course, digging through dirt and rock, and pulling the cart to and fro, it was back breaking, but oh the gems he uncovered. Gemstone's were plentiful in Equestria it seemed, and the loot from those days was divided between herself to use in her latest fashion lines, and Twilight as food for Spike. Upon learning that dragons ate gemstones like candy Naruto reassessed the value in having them as his summons, not that he'd trade the ponies he'd found for the world. Occasionally he would be given a gem as a reward for his hard work, which he would bring to the Hokage in exchange for spending money.

Also on the list of things to do for Rarity was learning more about human fashion, in particularly ninja garb. After being tossed unceremoniously from Ninja outfitting stores for asking too many questions, he spent a large portion of his spending money on a camera. With said image recording device in hand he went on a spree, catching pictures of every ninja he could find, from Genin to Jounin so that Rarity had better ideas of what kinds of things Ninja wore. The added side effect of having a camera was a large group picture of Naruto and his pony friends, now decorating his bedside table.

Baking lessons with Pinkie Pie were fun, often he was left to tend the counter, apparently the novelty of a human server was good for business. They would occasionally take a break to play harmless practical jokes on some of the local ponies, Naruto was constantly impressed by the pink pony's stealth, and made to emulate her on every prank run. When asked if she could 'teach' her pinky sense, she said he needed to trust his instincts, regardless of how silly those instincts might be. It seemed simple to Naruto, but putting it into practice was ridiculous.

Sessions with Fluttershy was comparatively peaceful, often spent feeding animals and learning first aid. He got to witness 'the stare' in action, and while he appreciated how useful that would be in a fight, like pinkie-sense, he could admit it was beyond his grasp.

The routine continued, with occasional breaks or special events, and soon months then years had passed. Naruto celebrated his birthdays for the first time, as well as the birthdays of his friends. He got dragged into helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders in some truly wild adventures. He grew into a strong, healthy and intelligent child. But through all of this they found no trace of a summoning contract. The Monkeys, when asked, refused, stating Konoha had no techniques worth trading for.

Before anyone knew it, Naruto had spent nearly two years in Equestria, only returning to Konoha once in a while to sleep or check in. Until at last Naruto was 8, and it was time to go to the Academy.
> Horsing Around in School
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Now you're sure you have everything?" Twilight asked, the Naruto in front of her was a far cry from the child who had arrived only two years earlier. His body was no longer scrawny or malnourished. He was well groomed, wearing dark blue sandals, dark blue cargo shorts, and dark blue gloves. His shirt was a dark orange, with a long orange jacket over top. The outfit wasn't ideal of course, it had taken a lot of convincing to get Rarity to agree on the colors. Twilight had learned as much about the ninja world as he had over the past two years, and insisted that Orange colors would get him into endless trouble, but in the end his stubbornness won out.

The other suggestions for his outfit were luckily passed over, things like having fake wings, or a horn on a headband. Other ideas were to incorporate his six best friend's cutie marks onto his jacket, which was promptly vetoed in favor of his clan symbol.

"We should go through the list again. A set of 10 blunted training kunai, and 20 training shuriken?" She listed off.

"Got them here, weighed and tested, to make sure they are accurate, and my name is engraved on each one." He replied on autopilot, he had been through the list twice already.

"Boxed lunch that Applebloom packed for you?" She read off, ignoring the look of boredom from Naruto.

"Yep, all my favorites." He patted the box attached to his right hip.

"Emergency first aid kit that Fluttershy packed?" She said, small smile on her face for reminding him yet again.

"Yes, yes, I've had it on me since the quarry incident. I swear, you help the CMC try for their blast mining cutie marks one time and suddenly I'm treated like an accident prone idiot." He grumbled, the small yellow metal tin was attached to his belt across his back, it even had little pink butterflies on it.

"Can I go now?" He interrupted, before she could get into the break-down of what went into the first aid kit. "I'm going to be late on my first day." He knew she hated the idea of being tardy for everything.

"Okay, good luck, have fun, and no pranks! Remember we're going to Canterlot on the weekend, Shining Armor agreed to let you shadow him for a day!" She called as he ran through his favorite hand signs and disappeared. 


O~O~O~O~O


Appearing in his bedroom in Konoha he took a quick glance at the clock, since Equestria's sun was controlled by a princess getting the times to match up was kind of tricky. As expected he was about 5 minutes behind schedule, so he took to running most of the distance. After years of routine exercise the run to the academy was nothing tough, and he had barely gotten winded by the time he arrived.

The two year extended absence helped curb the hatred of the general populace, although showing up at the academy quickly blew some of that away. Already murmurs of ' It's really back' and 'They're really letting it be a ninja?' started up among some of the parents. The children, catching the emotion behind the muttering gave Naruto curious looks.

"Oi." Came the rather loud cry of a boy behind him, he had brown hair and red facial markings, with a grey furred hoodie. "You new here too? I'm in Iruka's class. Name's Kiba."

Naruto instinctively responded with a fist bump, rather than a bow or handshake, but the boy didn't seem fazed. "Yeah, I'm Naruto, first year, Iruka as well. You from a clan?"

"Heh yeah Inuzuka, I haven't got my dog yet, but I will before I graduate, what about you? You smell kind of like horses." He said, leaning in and sniffing like a dog would.

"Well its better than having dog breath. I'm an Uzumaki, last one if I've got it right. Means you probably have an advantage over me right? I'm no civilian, but having ninja parents must help." Naruto grumbled, despite all of his physical and intellectual training over the past two years, none of the library books available to civilians had anything on chakra or how to use it, barring the whole 'find out if you've got it.' The only reason the summoning technique was there was because it's generally assumed most people can't do it.

"Yeah, I'm the son of the clan head, so I get a bunch of special training, already know a bit of the family taijutsu." The boy bragged, as the two headed for the classroom. "I hear there's going to be a lot of clan head's children in our class, seems like everyone was trying for kids around the same time right?"

"That likely has to do with recovering from the 9 tailed fox attack." Said a boy in monotone as they approached the classroom. it was hard to make out much about him, between the massive coat and sunglasses.

"Uh yeah, that makes sense." Naruto stalled, before remembering Pinkie's advice about making friends. "I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, are you in this class too?"

"I am Shino Aburame, I am in Iruka's class as well." He nodded, and opened the door for the other two boys.

The class was mostly empty by this point, there were a couple other children present, nobody obviously recognizable to Naruto. He hadn't spent much time in Konoha lately, and had rather given up on making human freinds for a time. There was one girl with pink hair, it reminded him of Fluttershy, and he subconsciously touched the tin on his back with a smile. He made to go speak to her, until he heard her speak to the girl beside her.

"That's the one, the guy my mom warned me about." She whispered, gesturing in his direction.

"Yeah, mine too, she said he'd try and befriend me, and then do terrible things when I least expect it." The other girl whispered back.

Naruto flinched, the two years away had taken the edge off of his immunity from this sort of stuff. He made for a seat near the other two boys, and waited a few minutes before the last of the students trickled in. Eventually a brown haired scarred man and a shorter white haired man entered the room, and introduced themselves as Iruka and Mizuki, respectively.

After a quick role-call, where Naruto memorized any important names, they started right in on a history lesson. "Who can tell me when Konoha was founded?"

"Boooooooooooooring! When do we learn how to be Ninja? This is a Ninja academy isn't it?" Naruto called, to the amusement of some of the students.

"Uzumaki, despite what you may think, knowing the history of your village is an important part of being a ninja." Iruka glared at the child, he knew coming into this that the boy would be a problem in his classroom.

"I already know all this sensei! All of this is available in the library. The civilian library, where anyone can go and look it up? I'm here to learn the stuff that isn't in the civilian library." He said mater-of-factly. 

"Well good for you, but we don't get into actual ninjutsu until third year. We will start on taijutsu practice twice a week in the afternoon later this week, and do throwing practice once a week." Iruka replied tersely. "If that schedule is too slow for you I'm sorry, but if you know all of this already I expect top marks from you."

Naruto fumed but returned to his seat, four years of this, and he'd learn next to nothing, if it wasn't necessary to become a genin he would walk right out this moment. Still it was necessary to sit here, at least for the tests, and he really should attempt to make human friends. If the civilians wouldn't talk to him maybe some of the clan heirs would.

Lunch came slowly, and with the bell the students scrambled out into the school yard to fight for a spot in the shade, Naruto, by virtue of taking the window outside, was first to the big tree. Settling down with his box of food he waited a moment as the other students burst out of the doors, seeing the looks on some of the students was priceless. He waved over at Kiba and Shino, and the two were followed by two other boys.

Shikamaru was an interesting guy, in that he ate his lunch quickly and lay down to watch the clouds. Chouji was rather large, but he was an Akamichi, which meant he needed his weight for his clan techniques.  Shino simply sat near the tree, seemingly talking to the ants, and Kiba kept up conversation, pointing out the classmates and what he could tell about them by smelling them.

"Your lunchbox also smells like Horses." He said, gesturing at the blue box with three apples on the lid.

"Ponies" Naruto mumbled between bites of food. It was foreign stuff to those present, sandwiches and pastries instead of the usual rice and meat.

"Why does it smell like ponies, and don't you eat Meat?" The other boys glanced over at this, and sure enough there was no meat present in Naruto's lunch.

"Eh, I don't really have a taste for it." Naruto shrugged, still not letting them in on the big secret.

"Right, well... Who's Applebloom? What kind of name is that anyways? She's a civilian right? Probably a farm-girl, who raises ponies, and wants her big strong Naruto to teach her ninja tricks." He snickered, waving a hand-written note in front of the boys. Naruto made to grab for the note but Kiba jumped backwards with it. 

"Naruto, Best luck at your Ninja school today, ahm shore you'll be the best in the class, what with all that studyin you do all the time. Maybe you can teach the CMC to be ninjas like you. Lots of love, Applebloom." He taunted.

Naruto grinned at the opportunity to fight, seeing the ribbing as the good natured challenge that it was. He quickly dropped into the stance that Rainbow Dash had taught him, it looked odd but the straight jabs and strong kicks of 'Pony Style' was surprisingly effective. He figured he could incorporate any advantages the academy style had, such as the actual use of chakra. It was frustrating that it would be years before they threw chakra use into the style, if they really did at all.

Kiba dropped down low, into the more dog-like fighting style his clan was famous for and lunged forward. The other students made a ring some of them thinking they were serious egged them on, the others seeing the grins just watched with smiles of their own.

Kiba lunged again, Naruto took a great leap into the air, rotating out of Kiba's reach and spinning into a heel kick to the side of his opponent's head. Hoof to the head! he thought, pulling the kick enough that Kiba took a tumble but didn't break any bones.

"Alright, alright, break it up you two." Came the voice of Iruka as he pushed through the crowd. Kiba popped back up onto his feet, rubbing his temple as he fist bumped Naruto. "There is to be no fighting on academy ground without instructor supervision." he glared at Naruto specifically.

"Ah c'mon sensei, it wasn't a real fight honest, we were just roughhousing, sizing each other up ya know?" Came Kiba's response, but he fell short when the glare was turned on him.

"Since its almost time for taijutsu practice anyways, everyone line up. We're going to have a quick set of matches to see where all of the students are." He called out, the Naruto's classmates rushing over to quickly line up beside him.

"Sensei, isn't that, once again, blatant favoritism for those with ninja family?" Called Naruto.

"Or any family at all?" Jeered a black haired boy at the end of the line.

"What's that supposed to mean." He glared at the boy.

"Oh I think we all know, you don't have anyone to teach you, even Iruka sensei refuses. You're just a civilian here, a well read civilian, but compared to someone from a clan like the Uchiha, you're just the strongest ant." The boy walked forward into the ring, showing off the insignia on his back to his adoring fans. "Iruka, let me start things off by facing the orange loser."

Iruka looked torn for a moment, but seeing Naruto already entering the ring he decided to allow it. "Alright, taijutsu only, I'll step in if I feel it's getting overboard."

The two combatants stared each other down across the yard, the other students watched in eager anticipation. "You know Sasuke," Naruto began calmly, settling into a stance. "You shouldn't mock someone for being an orphan." Iruka flinched a little, remembering his childhood.

"Face it loser, if you come from nobody, you won't ever be anybody." Sasuke dashed forward, flowing into the uchiha's famous style, a style that relied heavily on the sharingan as a crutch. Information like that was conveniently available in the civilian records, if you could read between the lines.

"Intercepting fist." Naruto commented idly, dodging strikes and backpedaling slowly around the ring. "An Uchiha style designed to counter attacks using the sharingan to react rapidly and predict movement."

"Shut up!" Yelled Sasuke, angry that his attacks weren't working, each punch was easily blocked or dodged as his opponent continued talking.

"Without the sharingan the style is vulnerable to attacks too quick to react to. While most users of the style would train their reaction speed, Uchiha tend to rely on the fact that they will eventually gain their bloodline limit, in the mean time they go on the offense, meaning the #1 cause of death among Uchiha genin is..." Naruto paused as the furious Sasuke swung with a hay-maker right. Naruto dropped to the ground on his hands, quickly spinning the rest of his body around as Sasuke stumbled and fell forwards. "Over-extending in taijutsu." He grunted, using the full force of the rotation to land a double-foot kick on Sasuke's ribs with enough force to knock apples from a tree.

The crowd was silent as the Uchiha was sent sprawling out of the ring. Even if he somehow got up from such a hit, the fight was over, Naruto won. Sasuke was in for a set of bruised ribs, it would have been worse if he hadn't been airborne, most of the force had been dispersed to send him flying, rather than being concentrated on his ribs.

Naruto calmly got up and dusted off his hands. He was a little upset with himself, for goading his classmate into that sort of thing. Part of the reason he did so, admittedly, was his rude words about the value of family, there certainly was value in having a family, but it wasn't what Sasuke seemed to think. Mainly he tried to draw attention to Sasuke's anger problem, had this not been a friendly fight, that sort of thing would get him killed.

Iruka was giving him an odd look as he stepped over to where Sasuke lay panting. The black haired boy growled at him, warning him to stay away, but Naruto had done the same sort of thing, tending to the injuries of a manticore before, an injured 8 year old was hardly terrifying. "Shut up." Growled Naruto back, pulling the yellow tin off of his belt. "I've been kicked like that dozens of times, this stuff helps a bunch."

"Why..." Growled Sasuke, still fuming from his loss no doubt.

"An eternal rivalry over a single academy match seems silly doesn't it? I don't have a family, but I do have friends, and I wouldn't mind one more." Naruto said quietly, laying out cloth bandages before him, and coating them with a medicated balm.

Sasuke eyed the incredibly girly set of items for a moment, before relenting and raising his shirt. "More items from 'Applebloom'?" He asked, hissing he exposed his already bruising chest.

"Fluttershy, actually. She won't let me go anywhere without it, just because I got knocked off a cliff due to my own explosion, one time." Naruto responded jokingly.

Sasuke let out a sigh as the bandages wrapped around him. "You're a very odd person, you know that?"

"I'm very odd for a pony as well, for what it's worth." Naruto replied, grabbing new ' friend's ' arm and hoisting him to his feet. Sasuke just shook his head, passing it off as more madness of the orange variety. The two of them retook their position in line with the other students as the fights continued, occasionally mentioning flaws they saw in their classmate's styles.

"Kiba's getting too low to the ground." Naruto muttered.

"It's his family style, once he starts using chakra his spine will adjust to compensate for the changed center of gravity." Sasuke replied, as if it were obvious.

"In the mean time he's weak to overhead strikes, just like you have the issue with speed." Naruto rebuked.

"You keep bringing that up." Sasuke growled.

"It's better to acknowledge these things and work around the weaknesses. Would you respect me more if I just agreed with everything you said." Naruto casually replied, watching Kiba easily take apart some civilian kid's 'style'.

"Hn," was the eloquent response from his black haired friend.

School continued that way for the remainder of the day, nobody else was severely injured, and the instructors promised to actually start 'teaching' the academy style of taijutsu two days from now. The bell rang and the children headed for the door of the school.

"Hey, Sasuke, one more thing." Naruto called as Sasuke prepared to leave. "Your clan is famous for having tons of techniques, do you think I could borrow some books on chakra manipulation? To read ahead?"

Sasuke shook his head at that "You really are a bookworm you know that? I'll see what I can get, my dad is kind of uptight about that sort of thing, if he found out I gave anything to a non-clan-member he'd rip me a new one."

Naruto shrugged and thanked him anyways, they said their goodbyes and Naruto raced home. Once inside he quickly performed his only technique and left the Elemental Nations for Equestria. Sasuke was wrong about one thing, Naruto did have a family, and they waited eagerly to hear about his first day of school.


O~O~O~O~O


It was late, the sun was down, and the moon cast barely any light upon the village of Konoha. It was hardly a high class stealth mission, but the boy in question took his orders seriously. Nobody was to see him do this, nothing about this was allowed to link back to her. If he was caught, she would deny any involvement and he would take the full punishment, and he'd take it gladly for all the kindness she gave to his family.

Reaching the unassuming door to the apartment, the ninja lay a rather large package on the doorstep. Knocking twice he quickly dashed away into the darkness. Nobody was home to hear the knock, the target was still far away, celebrating his first day of school, but in the morning he'd leave his apartment to discover a vast collection of books on chakra manipulation on his doorstep. His grin in school that morning was almost enough to make a certain girl faint.

> Royal Rumble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Naruto was psyched. Someone must have heard him asking for books on chakra usage, as he awoke this morning to a very large package of texts. Already his inner Twilight was giggling away looking at titles such as 'intro to chakra' and 'Five steps to better chakra control', as well as interesting titles like 'a genin's introduction to sealing' and '10 techniques all genin should know'.

As much as he wanted to crack them open right then and read all day, he really shouldn't miss his second day at the academy. Writing a quick note he summoned the stack of books of to the ponyville library, and took off for class. As he ran he idly wondered who had left him the books, there was no note, so they wanted to remain anonymous. They likely came from a clan, so it was possible whoever left them was worried their clan would be upset, most clans in Konoha took their secrecy seriously.

Deciding on a course of action as he entered the academy grounds he sought out the closest classmates. "Shino!" he called, and the stoic boy nodded in response. "Thanks, for helping me towards my goal." 

His classmate seemed caught off guard a moment, before nodding warily. "I appreciate our friendship as well." He said, in his usual monotonous voice.

'Probably not Shino, but it's still worth doing.' Naruto thought, heading off to find others. Thanking the others didn't get results either, just some odd looks from Chouji and Shikamaru. Kiba's response was "Hey, if you need me to kick your ass, you can ask any time."

"Yeah right, I must have kicked you in the head too hard, you don't seem to remember yesterday right." Naruto muttered as they headed towards class, Sasuke fell in beside him as they neared their room.

"I looked into those books, my dad said I wasn't ready for them yet." He grunted, obviously distressed by the fact. "He said if I was a prodigy like my brother, I'd have full access by now."

"Ouch, that's kind of harsh isn't it?" Naruto said, "I mean even if you can't use them yet, the knowledge could help in the future."

"Hn, my brother snuck me a book on chakra last night anyways." He shrugged, "You can borrow it when I'm done."

"Heh, thanks but I'm covered for now. Your brother seems like an alright guy though." Naruto commented.

"Yeah, he gets all the praise from dad, but it doesn't get to his head. He's a good guy." Sasuke nodded, heading over to his seat.

Naruto took a quick glance around the room, seeing his spot from yesterday occupied, he shrugged and headed over to an open seat. There was a girl beside him, a Hyuuga, 'Hinata' he remembered from yesterday's roll-call. She seemed nervous, looking away and blushing as he sat down next to her.

'She's just shy' he thought, 'kind of like Fluttershy.' Smiling at that he tried to make small-talk. "Hi there, I'm Naruto!"

"Oh um... hello... I'm Hinata..." She said, still looking down.

'Painfully shy, too bad I don't have any fluffy animals, or baby dragons.'  he thought. "I saw your fight yesterday." He began, noting her freeze up and start to shake, 'uh oh, bad move Naruto.' "I mean, you did great! I'm sure once the class rankings come up you'll be high up on the girls side." he back-pedaled.

"I didn't do that great... I froze up a few times, and missed some openings." Came her almost silent response.

"Meh, as long as you know what went wrong, you can work on fixing it. The crowds can get to the best of us though." Naruto said, trying to comfort the poor girl.

"How do you deal with it?" She muttered, causing Naruto to pause.

"Well... When I fight, I picture it's just me and them, nobody else is there, nobody else is watching. I picture that something important is riding on this, that if I lose, my friends get hurt."  He said, causing her to look up.

"Doesn't that put more pressure on you?" She asked, her voice a little louder.

"Maybe, but it's at that point, when the pressure is on you, and you're fighting for someone else, that I find my biggest source of strength." He said, unknowingly inspiring those listening in on his words of wisdom.

"Aren't you worried though? About hurting your friends during practice?" Hinata asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, you really did a number on Sasuke!" Came a rather loud voice from over his shoulder, one of the civilian girls.

"Nah I always pull my punches in sparring matches, and guys like Sasuke can take a hit or two. Besides, I patched him up after and we're friends now." He replied absentmindedly, a bit irked at the interruption.

"How does that work? You make friends by kicking them in the chest?" The same girl replied snidely.

"Friendships are based off of respect, I had to show that bastard I was worth taking seriously before he'd listen to what I had to say. Once I did I patched him up and now we're on good terms." Naruto nodded at his own logic, so what if some girl didn't understand, it made perfect sense to guys like him. "And as for hurting people, Hinata, your family's style is called the gentle fist for a reason right? Your hits might hurt, and they might disable your opponent, but if you avoid strikes to the vitals you're less likely to cause any lasting damage than anyone else here."

The girl brightened quite a bit at that, and gave a determined nod to herself. "Oh, and one last thing, in case it was you... Thanks, for supporting my dream." He smiled at her, and to his surprise she went into a dead faint on her desk.


O~O~O~O~O


The rest of the week went about the same as his first day. Naruto blatantly ignored most of the academic lessons in the mornings, annoying the instructors but answering any questions sent his way perfectly. During taijutsu practice he quickly rose to the top of the rankings, helping Sasuke and Kiba overcome their weaknesses by deliberately exploiting them every time they fought.

Despite learning the academy style, Naruto found it inferior to his 'pony style' and mainly stuck to the forms taught by Rainbow Dash. He also found his throwing abilities were lacking, as ponies had no use for chucking kunai and shuriken during their daily lives. Although, when called out on it by some of his friends he found the opportunity to have a bit of fun with them.

"Alright alright, so I can't throw a kunai worth a damn, I'll get better."He muttered to his friend's good natured ribbing. Iruka was calling them all together for 'dodging' practice, which involved playing dodge ball with hard rubble apple-sized balls. He grinned a little as the game progressed, making no attempts at throwing, but dodging everything fired at him with ease. Soon enough it was Kiba Sasuke and Chouji on the other team, with only him remaining on his.

"Wanna see something cool?" He asked casually. "Check this out!" He tossed three of the balls into the air and leaped back. Dropping down as he did the first day of class he lashed out with three quick kicks, sending the balls rocketing towards his opponents and nailing each of them dead on.

For the most part the class was stunned at the display. "What the hell man, you can't hit the broad side of a barn with a kunai but you can kick a ball and hit a bullseye?" Kiba groaned from the ground.

"When the hell would that ever be useful?" grumbled Sasuke, to the laughter of Naruto.

"Anymore bizarre talents?" Iruka asked, half jokingly.

"Anyone got a rope?" Naruto asked, trickster grin on his face.


O~O~O~O~O


While learning at the academy was slow going, after class he was quickly put on a second curriculum by Twilight. By the end of his second day Twilight had skimmed the entire collection of books and come up with an optimized list of things for him to learn.

"First things first, the trick to using chakra seems to be in forcing it to flow out of points on your body." She gestured to a rather well drawn picture on a human, front and back, with little points all over it, making it resemble a sort of constellation. Pinkie had contributed by drawing a rather silly face on it of course. "The book recommends trying to get a leaf to stick to your forehead to get a feel for it, then working up to sticking yourself to surfaces. I think, if we have time, you should work on getting a leaf stuck to every point."

Naruto nodded at this, if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. If he was going to be Hokage, he needed to learn everything he could.

"From there, we move on to 'Tree walking' which is basically sticking yourself to any vertical surface, and boosting your jumps with bursts of chakra out of your feet.  Then, we move on to water walking, which is releasing continuous streams of chakra to stay buoyant." She added, moving down the list.

"Doesn't your 'could walking' spell work like that?" Naruto asked, prompting Twilight to go off into a tangent.

"The cloud walking spell applies a continuous field around the hooves, or feet, of the recipient. The field extends out and meshes with the latent magic in pegasi-formed clouds, allowing ponies to walk on them. The same phenomenon occurs naturally with pegasi, their passive magic matching with that found in clouds."

"So if I could form a cloud using my chakra instead of pegasi magic, could I then walk on it by water walking?" He asked, genuinely excited by the prospect.

"It would be a lot more complex then water walking, but it is theoretically possible. It'd only work on clouds you make with your chakra, which you'd have to learn how to do. You wouldn't be able to walk on pegasi-made clouds, and they wouldn't be able to walk on yours..." She trailed off, already scribbling away on another scroll with the possibilities.

"Anyways, first things first, leaf sticking right?" He said, letting her get to work on the possibilities. 


O~O~O~O~O


It took a day worth of work before he could get a leaf stuck to his forehead, but from there the ball started rolling. Within the week he was able to stick leaves to each of his chakra points, and had even begun to try floating them all an inch above his body simultaneously.

"You look ridiculous, you know that?" came Twilights voice from beside him on the train. They were on the train to Canterlot to visit her brother.

"This is harder than it looks." He muttered, cloaked in a shroud of tiny leaves, all creating a human shaped shell as they floated around him on a shroud of chakra. The whistle blew as the train pulled into the station, and Naruto let the leaves drop. The two of them got off the train, amidst the odd looks that Naruto was now used to. "Where are we meeting your brother again?"

"He should be up ahead, I can't believe it's been 6 months since we last saw him."

"I certainly can!" Came a voice from up ahead, Shining Armor strode out of the crowd to meet them.  "Hello Twi-Twi, Naruto, been busy I see."

"Hello big brother, I'd love to stay but I have an appointment at the royal archives. I'll catch up with you over dinner?"  Twilight said, already moving away from the pair.

"With the Princesses this evening, they've been eager to catch up with you two." Her brother nodded, letting the lavender pony dart off into the crowd.

"Ready to go catch bad guys colt?" the white unicorn joked, ruffling Naruto's hair with a hoof.

"Ah c'mon, you say that every time, but nothing bad ever happens in Canterlot." Naruto grumbled but fell into step beside the larger pony.

"That's only because we do such a great job. Sis tells me you're on your way to being quite the ninja." The two made small talk as they did a patrol around the city, eventually reaching the warehouse section of the city.

"So what's the game today Shining?" Said Naruto, nearly bouncing with energy. After hanging around with Pinkie Pie he no longer considered himself hyperactive, but he was still eager for action.

"Nothing serious colt, just gotta talk to a foreman about some things. Silver Bullet says there's been a lot of accidents around here lately. There's talk of everything from curses to gremlins, but it's up to us to get to the bottom of it." the unicorn said, leading them towards a building in the back. Several large workponies stepped aside for them as they approached.

The foreman was a large pony, built like Big Mac, with a dark rust colored coat, his cutie mark was a large wooden crate. "Didn't expect them to send the captain of the guard over a few accidents." He grumbled as they entered his office.

"There's been over a dozen in the last week. You haven't had any in the previous 6 months before that. I'd say that's more than a few accidents." Shining Armor said, walking up to the desk with a stern look.

"What do you want me to say? It's not like I'm working the boys too hard, nothing has changed lately. Ropes keep getting worn through, cogs keep getting jammed with debris, wheels are breaking off. The whole darn yard has become a disaster waiting to happen, I've got my best boys checking for safety constantly, but for every three disasters we avert another one happens anyway." The foreman ranted away, pulling out stacks of disaster reports.

"I'm not here to blame you over this, I'm just looking to get to the bottom of these incidents." Shining Armor assured him, and the foreman calmed down a little.

"Well you're in luck, there's another shipment from Cloudsdale today, those accidents are always the hardest to prevent too. A darn shame, as when liquid rainbow gets dropped it goes up with a bang." 

"Liquid rainbow?" Naruto asked, having never heard of the substance.

"It's pure light, pegasi use it for special occasions, but it's really volatile. Canterlot castle keeps a supply of it for celebrations." Shining Armor filled him in.

"A supply that went missing a week ago, that's why we keep getting more. Although we dropped the last four. Between that and how darn odd some of my workers have been acting..." The foreman grumbled.

"You dropped four shipments of the stuff? How is this area not a smoking crater? And what do you mean odd?"

"It's just stress probably, and I'll count us lucky that the explosions have been mild." The foreman said dismissively, and the two investigators left his office.

The two camped out in the warehouse district for a few hours, talking to some of the workers and asking questions. All of it added up to what the foreman had said, there had been a lot of accidents, mostly involving the cloudsdale shipments, but surprisingly few injuries. Checking the shipping logs Cloudsdale confirmed they had sent rather large amounts of liquid rainbow each time.

Soon enough the shipment had arrived, three large crates supported on clouds floated over to the loading area of the warehouse, and a team of pegasi hooked up each one to a crane. Gently the cranes swung into motion, an earth pony pushed a leaver and the first crate, covered in warning labels was lowered to the ground. The tension in the area was easily visible on the sweating faces of the workponies.

Naruto and Shining Armor, however, noticed a few who backed away from the area, and even more worryingly a twisted grin appeared on the crane operator's face, before quickly becoming one of shock as the crane malfunctioned, swinging the crate into a nearby building. Shining Armor reacted quickly, throwing up a protective pink bubble over himself and Naruto as a prismatic flash appeared with a deafening crack.

The ponies present scrambled to put out the multi-colored fires as Shining lowered the shield to help. The ponies who had backed away before seemed less shaken by the incident, Shining noticed, and the crane operator was nowhere to be seen. The foreman approached, looking upset yet resigned to the fact that this was bound to happen.

"The operator? That would be Fork Lift today, he's a good stallion, hard worker. I dunno where he ran off to." He supplied when questioned.

Shining Armor pulled Naruto off to the side shortly after. "That explosion was far too small for a shipment that large. So the question is, where is the rest of it going?" Naruto nodded, and the two went over to inspect the other crates. Sure enough, in one of the smaller crates, beneath a pile of grain, was a large sealed barrel of liquid rainbow. "Where was this crate going?" he demanded, a shaking workpony backing away slowly.

"C-c-crabby Cake's bakery!" He whimpered under a glare that could put Fluttershy's to the test.

"Naruto! Let's go! If this has been happening for several shipments, I don't want to know how much of this has been stockpiled." He shouted, the boy quickly leaped onto his back as they took off into town.

"What was that spell you used earlier?" Naruto asked, as they made their way through the crowded streets of Canterlot.

"That's the 'Personal Space Bubble'. First spell me and Twilight invented together, it lets in only what I want it to." He explained to the child on his back.

Naruto closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He already had chakra projection all around his body down to where he could sustain a one inch field, maybe he could solidify it like some kind of cloak or armor? Or he could extend it out farther, and create a bubble, like Shining Armor did, to protect his friends. Twilight would know, since she helped design the spell, and knew more about chakra.

Soon enough they arrived at the bakery, Naruto's trusty steed burst through the doorway, causing those present to dive for cover as he leapt the counter, heading for the basement. The basement was dark and damp, with crates of flour and sugar stacked along the walls, at the far end of the room stood an earth pony with a brown coat. His cutie mark was a crate on a see-saw. "Fork Lift I presume?" Shining Armor growled, Naruto slipped from his back into a fighting stance.

"You're too late, the liquid rainbow was moved from here already, you interrupted this time, but we already have enough." The stallion hissed, his voice seemed unnatural, almost clicking as he laughed. The stallion turned to leave, running for the loading area stair, but Naruto charged him, excited to finally take down a bad guy. Seeing he was being pursued Fork Lift turned and tossed a glass bottle towards Naruto, who barely had time to notice it's polychromatic contents as they started to glow. With a muffled swear Naruto grabbed hold of his chakra and pushed, forcing as much as he could out of his body while chanting 'Solid Solid Solid!' in his mind. There was a deafening crack, and his world went white.


O~O~O~O~O


"Honestly brother he's just a child! You shouldn't have brought him with you once you realized the danger." The first thing Naruto became aware of was a voice. "I'm surprised he wasn't hurt worse."

"I got a little carried away, that's all. And look how quickly he's recovering, is that normal for a human?" Came a deeper voice.

"Did the guard end up catching Fork Lift?" Twilight asked, trying not to dwell on the recovering child.

"That's the thing, they found him in his house, bound and gagged. It looks like he's been there all week. He said his marefriend did it to him, the marefriend nopony's ever met." Shining Armor shook his head in frustration.

"I likely won't have a lot of time for the next few weeks. Not until we get to the bottom of this. "

"I'm certain you'll figure this out promptly Shining Armor, dependability runs in your family." came the familiar regal voice of Princess Celestia. Naruto chanced opening his eyes to see he was in one of the castle's many bedrooms.

"And I'm glad to see you are awake Naruto, you missed dinner." She continued with a small smile as Twilight moved to fuss over the child.

"I'm sorry, I got caught up chasing bad guys." Naruto said with a cheeky grin.

"I'm certain once you graduate I'll be hiring you regularly to protect this city." She smiled, "I still have not found a contract, but once either of us does, I'll be happy to speak to your Hokage. In the mean time, best of luck with your studies."


O~O~O~O~O


The rest of the weekend was taken up with recovering. Despite orders from Twilight to stay in bed Naruto continued practicing on the Personal Space Bubble technique. "The trick is maintaining contact with the technique. In your case the technique is fed through your skin, which makes it like armor, but not an actual bubble." She explained, showing him the spell a few times, making it a few different sizes, even expanding it out so that it formed a hemisphere across the floor.

"That's it!" Naruto cried and leapt out of bed. "I'll keep contact through my feet, and build it up from the ground like a wall!"

Twilight had to laugh at his enthusiasm. "It's easy to suggest it, but doing it is another thing, you should probably try and master tree walking first. In the mean time, keep working on that 'Shining Armor' technique, it's worth using in taijutsu."

Naruto laughed and rubbed his nose cheekily, "Alright, 'Shining Armor' technique first, then I'll work on the 'Twilight Bubble' technique.


> A Year of Walking Forward
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Naruto lay on the ground panting, looking up at the light that filtered through the treetops. The apples that hung in the branches taunted him, reminding him of his continued difficulty with the supposedly 'easy' chakra control exercise. Easy for genin though it may be, Naruto had been working on it for months now. He could boost his leaps with chakra now, allowing him to better keep up in his spar's against the flying Rainbow Dash. He could run or walk up any vertical surface, and even stand on one for hours without tiring. What he attempted to do now was do it subconsciously, a skill that usually took years to master. To be able to act and fight on a vertical surface as well as if it was the ground. That was the goal, and he never went back on his challenges. 

As he attempted to catch his breath he thought back on the last few months. There had been good parts, his human friends grew closer every day, his training was progressing ahead of Twilight's schedule, to nobody's surprise but her. Pinkie Pie had gotten hold of the sealing book, and some of her creations so far had been... questionable. His work with the Apple family stepped up, and he now hauled apple carts with Big Mac, as well as picking Apples without a ladder as practice. Rainbow Dash had tried explaining weather manipulation to him, but he was stumped at the whole 'Let your chakra flow into the water vapor, then pull it into a ball.' phase of cloud making, she made it look so easy.

His 'Shining Armor' technique now actually shone when he put enough chakra into it, becoming a visible shroud of blue over his outfit. At full power he could now take bucked apples without flinching. The 'Twilight Bubble' technique was more difficult, so far he could form the armor on the soles of his feet, and extend it outwards, but at the moment that could only serve as foot mounted shields.

He had gotten bored at the academy and snuck off to watch some of the older classes try out the academy ninjutsu. The clone eluded him, he had no idea where he'd even start with that sort of technique, the substitution technique likewise was mind boggling. To this day he still didn't know if he had to set up a log in advance, or if Konoha ninja had a natural summoning contract with a dimension of firewood. He had tried describing the technique to Twilight, but got as far as 'You teleport, like you do, except you leave an object of similar mass behind, that temporarily looks like you.' before her eyes crossed and glazed over.

The transformation technique he had down in a matter of hours. It seemed rather straight forward to him, he simply turned on the armor, grabbed hold of the chakra and yanked it into position. The longest part of learning it was figuring out how to change the color and texture of the chakra. When he was done he could finally say he could become a pony. It was uncomfortable, and it hurt his back a lot to do it, but it was fun to see the reactions of his friends. That Applebloom attempted to seduce him was a memory he was going to keep locked away for quite some time.

But for all the sunshine in Konoha, when it rains, it really pours.,,,


O~O~O~O~O


"Hey, Naruto." Sasuke called after the bell rang. "You've been working ahead on chakra right? Have you gotten to tree walking?"

"Yeah, I started a few weeks ago, I can run and walk, my concentration isn't enough for standing still longer than an hour yet." He said, walking with the black haired boy out to the academy yard.

"You're insane you know that, most genin would call that good enough and move on."

"Most genin aren't cut out to become Hokage." Naruto gave his usual reply, every time someone noticed something weird about him. Sasuke once caught him by surprise with a direct axe kick to the head in a sparring match. He succeeded in dazing the blonde and injuring his foot. When Iruka mentioned most chuunin would be K.O.ed from such a hit, Naruto shrugged and gave his standard answer. It was becoming so common most people in his class began thinking it may be possible.

"So I'm supposed to just run at the tree, and try and stick myself to it?" Sasuke said, sizing up a medium sized tree in the yard.

"I've got a better way." Naruto said, approaching the tree, to a mumbled 'I figured' from his friend. "Lay down, lift your legs and put your feet against the tree. Channel chakra until you feel it pushing against you, then slowly lower the amount until the pressure stops." The boy did as instructed, and after a few minutes he nodded.

"Now, try and pull yourself up so that you're standing." Naruto instructed, and with a grunt Sasuke wobbled up off the ground.

"It's hell on the abs huh? But it's the easiest way I've come up with, and the fan girls will love your six pack." Naruto chuckled as Sasuke wobbled. "If you think you've got it, now comes the hard part. Memorize the feeling, remember exactly how much chakra you need, then cut the flow to one foot and take a step."

Naruto watched in amusement as Sasuke fell a few dozen times. At least he wasn't having Naruto's problem, blowing up a few apple trees did not go over well with the Apple family. Soon enough he was halfway up the tree, and getting higher with each attempt. 

"You'll have to start from scratch tomorrow, but it'll get easier each time you try it." He called, noticing it was getting late. "Let's call it a day, we can see if any of the others want to practice this tomorrow."

Sasuke flipped off the tree with a grunt and fell into step beside him, cradling his abs as he did so. "I told you man, they don't mention in the book just how hard it is to 'stand' horizontally. If you want a real workout try touching your toes a few dozen times while tree walking." Naruto reached behind him and pulled out his first-aid kit. "You know you use this more than I do right? I should have Fluttershy make one for you. It works as a deterrent, before I do anything stupid I think, 'Will I have to use the kit?' "

Sasuke accepted the muscle cream that was handed to him, shaking his head at the orange boy as he found himself doing more and more often lately. "You just don't use the kit because somehow you can take a hit from Chouji without rolling on the floor for a while groaning." Naruto laughed recalling when Kiba did exactly that. "I still don't know how you do that, but I'm definitely going to figure it out."

"If you see me using it at full strength it'll be obvious, so you'll just have to try even harder to hurt me." Naruto joked, putting the muscle cream back into his pack. He noticed they had entered the Uchiha complex, and it was eerily silent. "What the hay Sasuke, does your family not believe in 'night life?' they should put a night-club in here, I know some sick beats that could help with the attitude."

Sasuke ignored the now commonplace jab at his family's attitude. "It's usually not this quiet, I hope I didn't miss a meeting or something."

Glancing around Naruto spotted a few Kunai lodged in a nearby fence and paused in step. "This your families idea of decorating?" he said gesturing to them.

"Those shouldn't be there." Sasuke whispered, moving forward in a panic.

Naruto grabbed him by the arm. "Nope. Nope nope nope, we are Not going in there."

"But my family!" Sasuke urged, trying to pull away.

"We need to get help Sasuke, there is something seriously wrong here, and no matter how talent we are, we are just academy students." Naruto urged, pulling him towards the entrance of the compound.

"You can go get help then, I need to make sure my family is okay. Go get the police." Sasuke yelled, now frantic with worry.

"Your family is the police, I'm going to get every damn ANBU I can find, and you are coming with me, if you don't you'll just be one more person to rescue." Naruto grunted, sticking his feet to the ground and pulling Sasuke along.

"I'm afraid the two of you won't be leaving." Came a calm voice from ahead, a young boy in ANBU gear stood before then, sword out dripping blood.

"Itachi!" Sasuke cried, now trying to run towards him, Naruto kept his grip firm, sensing something off about the situation he reached into his pouch of 'party supplies' that Pinky prepared. He mentally went over the labels on each compartment, 'Cupcakes', 'Welcome wagon', he hesitated on 'Party Cannon', before stopping on 'Fireworks: NEVER USE'. Out came a single kunai with a custom explosive tag on the end. "Where's Mom and Dad? What happened to the family?"

"They needed to die, Sasuke." Itachi replied calmly, and Sasuke stopped struggling in shock. Itachi's eyes turned red and began to change. "You need to join them now."

"Yeah Right!" Naruto yelled, diving in front of Sasuke and throwing the Kunai. "You need to taste the Rainbow Bitch!"

Caught off guard by the sudden movement Itachi's sharingan followed the trajectory of the Kunai as the tag on the end ejected one metric litre of liquid rainbow right in front of him. He had a moment to ponder how a liquid could retain individual bands of color as it travelled through the air, before it became far too bright to ponder at all.

Not staying still to watch the show, Naruto grabbed Sasuke once again and ran for safety. Out of the compound with dust from a rainbow colored mushroom cloud behind them they bolted into the merchant district. The first to find them was the strange one eyed man he remembered from years ago, the two of them collapsed upon him, exhausted and traumatized as he whisked them away into the night.


O~O~O~O~O


The next few weeks were hard on both of them. Sasuke had lost his entire family that night, including his beloved brother who had fled into the night, now a wanted criminal in his home village. For all that he tried to withdraw into an emotional shell, Naruto was there to drag him out. He would try and push the blonde away, but any attempts at fighting quickly turned good natured, and even when Sasuke won, he still lost.

"Aren't you going to say I told you so?" Sasuke asked, as the two sat skipping stones.

"If I was going to, I'd save it for special occasions. I say it enough around you that it'd lose meaning." Naruto joked, another stone failed to skip and sank with a 'sploosh'.	

A joke about Naruto's continued inability to throw a good shuriken died on Sasuke's lips. "The first time we met, I mocked you for being an orphan. You told me I shouldn't joke about losing family."

Naruto paused at that. It did seem foreboding, when he stopped to think about it. "Truth is, I never really liked my family all that much, my dad was never satisfied, I was never enough like Itachi for him." Sasuke continued.

"I'm glad you aren't like Itachi, as much of an asshole as you can be, at least you're loyal. I'd take a loyal friend over a traitorous super-ninja any day." Naruto said, laying back to look at the setting sun.

"It still hurts though. No matter how much I wanted my dad to be off my back... now that he's gone... " Sasuke said, chucking another stone.

"They were still family, it's always going to hurt to lose them, same way it'd hurt me to lose any of my friends." Naruto sat up, grabbing another stone and once again failing to skip it. "I never had family to lose, but I wanna believe my friends come damn close."

"It won't hurt to lose Itachi." Sasuke muttered darkly.

"He's no longer family, in your mind anyways." Naruto shrugged. "But hey, if you dislike your family so much, there's 
always more room in mine."

"I'm not sure I can handle having a brother again." Sasuke said, getting up to leave.

"Yeah, besides I'm nothing like your last one." Naruto said, following his friend.

"That's a damn good thing."


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto groaned and stretched his muscles, slowly trudging to the Apple family farm for dinner. It had been a rough few weeks, getting back into the swing of things, but he took it upon himself to walk Sasuke home each day, keeping up with the inane chatter, never letting the boy freeze over. Besides it was good training to dodge his fan-girls every day.

Most day's they'd stay after, with a lot of his friends working on chakra usage. Hinata confided in him early on that she knew the secret of his 'Shining Armor' technique, although the nearly swooned at hearing his name for it. She expressed some frustration that pushing chakra out of his chakra points at the same time she tried pushing it cancelled her gentle fist style, but resolved to find a way around a newly discovered weakness. It seemed she had taken his earlier advice to heart.

Kiba continually prattled on about how he'd have his companion dog by the start of their next year, due to how well he was progressing. His mother was apparently impressed with his scores, at least the non-academic ones.

Shikamaru watched more than he participated, he would inevitably do quite well on each of his attempts. It was quite obvious the boy was more talented than he let on.

Chouji could be motivated into working harder than anyone present when bribed with cupcakes from Naruto's party supply pouch. The existence of such a pouch brought great amusement to his friends, and he had to bust out the welcome wagon to show everyone. When Kiba was doused in cake batter, Naruto merely shrugged and said "Tradition".

Inquiries regarding the 'Fireworks' label had Sasuke blanche and attempt to hide, until Naruto put his foot down and informed them it was for 'S Ranked Missing Nin Only'.

Some of Sasuke's fan-girls attempted to join in their training sessions, much to the dismay of many of the boys present. It seemed Naruto's pariah status was effectively nullified by the last Uchiha's royalty. Naruto welcomed them with open arms, and sent them home that day with aches in muscles they didn't know they had. After that first day none of the fan-club returned, having been instructed that they would participate, or be asked to leave.


O~O~O~O~O


Eventually their first year of the academy drew to a close, everyone involved was satisfied with their marks, a third of their class (all civilian children) dropped out to pursue civilian careers, and four months of summer loomed ahead of the group.

Naruto began to spend most days in Ponyville, sticking to a summer curriculum put together, not surprisingly, by Twilight Sparkle. Within days of work he finally perfected the 'Twilight bubble', although Pinkie Pie still called it the 'Sparkle Sphere'. The first time he demonstrated it Applejack laughed and bucked him down the main street of Ponyville. Naruto emerged unharmed, but now knew how it felt to be a hamster.

It took a few more days of work but he eventually managed to make a bubble big enough for several people or ponies, although he was nowhere near the level of covering entire buildings like Twilight could, or all of Canterlot like Shining Armor could supposedly do, though he resolved to keep working at it, being able to shield all of Konoha would be awesome, if only to see the looks on an invading army's faces.Speaking of, things in Canterlot had calmed down, but with barrels of liquid rainbow still missing, the nobility there was walking on eggshells.

Upon demonstrating the ability to have a full fight with Rainbow Dash while sticking to a wall, Twilight checked tree walking off of 'The List' and they moved on to water walking. What followed was a very wet series of months.

Lessons with Pinkie Pie now included tutorials on sealing, the pink pony seemed to have an unusual grasp on the nature of time and space. Between the two of them, they still didn't know how to summon something across dimensions without Naruto carrying it himself, and attempts to summon Pinky by summoning himself while she rode on his back failed miserably.

Time with Rarity quickly became a game of "Would a Ninja be caught dead wearing this?", while she was quite talented, her understanding of human culture was lacking, and 8 times out of 10 the answer was 'Absolutely not'. Understandably, considering Naruto's sense of fashion, this did not deter her from insisting he try them all on. Naruto was often sent on errands, trading the plentiful amounts of Equestrian gems for money through the clever use of the transformation technique, and then purchasing all sorts of items from around town.

No stone was left unturned as Rarity investigated the items procured by Naruto. Clothing was analyzed and deconstructed, the fabric was inspected to microscopic detail and compared to that available in Equestria. 

Rainbow Dash stepped his training up, which usually involved dive-bombing him while he tried water walking. Once he became competent enough to stay buoyant and still dodge, she merely laughed and called up a fog bank, then continued harassing him. Upon washing up on shore when Twilight came to check on him, he let out a gasp for air "Swooping... Swooping is... bad."

It was through doing this he first learned to predict her attacks by sensing the change in air currents, the impressiveness of this skill was lost on him in the frantic attempts to stay dry and unbruised. These evasion lessons were quickly taken over by Pinkie, who decided such a fun game should not be limited to Naruto's time training. So Naruto soon found himself dodging random cupcakes and apples as he walked through the streets.

It was standing in the fog on that water, waiting for Rainbow Dash's next assault, when the idea occurred to him. He slowly activated his 'Shining Armor', letting chakra leak out uncontrolled, and feeling as it mixed into the fog. As he did so he found he could 'feel' where Dash was coming from, it wasn't perfect, the mare was faster than he found reasonable, but combined with his practice predicting attacks he found dodging that much easier. By the end of the session the entire fogbank was saturated in his chakra, and, remembering Dash's words of advice he reached out to it.

In one single motion the fog bank was pulled into a big white fluffy ball that he held over his head. Naruto had made his first cloud.

> A Summer Breeze
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The rest of the summer passed without incident, and with a single minded focus Naruto mastered water walking, which is to say he could now go toe to hoof with Rainbow Dash on the surface of the reservoir. His trick with the cloud was practiced until he could lift a chakra induced fog by standing on water, and pull it into a cloud at a moment's notice. The cloud part wasn't a very useful trick at the moment, he could carry it around with him like a balloon, but neither he nor any pegasus could stand on it, much to Rainbow's dismay, as he had taken to leaving them in very enticing napping spots.

As part of his routine he improved his ability to fight in heavy fog cover, seeing as he now could produce one on relatively short notice. He made note to look up other water based abilities when he had the chance, since he seemed to have a talent for them, or quite likely the fog thing was dumb luck.

Attempts to stand on his clouds failed miserably, no matter how Twilight described her cloud walking trick Naruto couldn't replicate the results with chakra. He would gather chakra into his feet, and 'connect' with the cloud, feeling the energy disperse into the gaseous body, but the moment he put more than a quarter of his weight on to it he fell through. Rainbow Dash suggested he try laying down on it, to distribute his weight. This lead to him belly flopping into the ground, which she found hilarious. His response was to place chakra-made clouds in prime nap locations, and then laughing as she fell right through them on attempting to land. Just as chakra wouldn't help him walk on pegasus made clouds, chakra made clouds disregarded pegasus magic, much to the annoyance of the weather ponies sent to disperse them.

Twilight's response was to shrug and suggest that magic seemed to be stronger than chakra, and even if he weighed the same as a pegasus, it didn't mean he could cloud-walk like one. Naruto had a minor tantrum at that, and struggled for a few more hours, before agreeing to put the project on hold, much like finding a summoning contract.  Twilight offered to let him experience the cloud-walking spell, but he declined, adamant that he'd do it his way.

As much as Naruto was tempted to ask Saskue for some actual technique scrolls, of which the Uchiha clan was likely to have many, he didn't want to intrude on their friendship so much so suddenly. Saying "Hey Sasuke, since your dad isn't around to say no anymore, can we raid your library?" seemed rather crude, at least at this point. Perhaps after they became actual genin.

Summer quickly ran by, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were set on a new project, trying to build a flying boat for some reason. Naruto pitched in with the physical labor, once again causing much jealousy with his opposable thumbs. When asked how they'd get it airborne they would simply shrug and say "Pinkie Pie", as if that was that answer was self explanatory. Rainbow Dash changed the meaning of 'training' once again, to include mocking his attempts at standing on his clouds. Rarity was being Rarity, now insisting he take pictures and measurements of his friends so she could make them clothing.

Twilight had him convinced that the 'intro books' were no longer going to cut it. Frankly he was shocked they had lasted this long at the rate Twilight burned through them, although Naruto took 'Mastery' to a whole new definition. Between her and Pinkie Pie they had run out of things to try with the basics. Twilight had memorized every chakra point on the human body, and was attempting to locate ones on ponies, and Pinkie had run out of things to do with basic storage seals. 

Although her latest invention, the Gatling-party-cannon was impressive, he doubted there'd be a time she'd need to set up 100 parties a second. Upon seeing her reach an entire arm-length into a 10 inch bag saddle bag, and pull out a whole trombone, he decided getting her new study material was imperative. There was no way that sort of thing should be possible.

Questioning Twilight Sparkle's ability to teleport was like running head long into a dead end, complete with migraine. Questioning Pinkie's ability to teleport was met with ignorance that she even did blatantly defy time space in her movements.

So, it was with one month left in summer vacation that two bored ponies flung Naruto back into the Elemental Nations to procure more interesting literature. His first stop of course was the Hokage. "Well Naruto, I haven't seen much of you lately, how has your training been going."

"It's been great old man, my friends have helped me out a lot, I've already got two techniques down, three if you count the transformation one from the academy." He beamed at the shocked old man.

"That is quite impressive Naruto, most academy students don't graduate with anything but the basic three." The Third was thrilled, discovering that world of creatures by accident had been a tremendous boon for the boy's growth, not only did it take him away from the hatred of the villagers but it brought him the nurture he so desperately needed as a child.

"The thing is, we've run out of things to learn, the only reason we got as far as we did is because some anonymous person left a pile of books for genin on my doorstep." Naruto complained, folding his arms over his chest. "The academy doesn't teach anything for those who received outside training, if it wasn't mandatory I doubt kids from clan's would attend."

Sarutobi sighed, "It wasn't always mandatory to attend, but the civilian council thought it would be best if our education for ninja was standardized."

"That's unfair on so many levels. Clan kids have to waste their time on this, while civilians have to fight an uphill battle for decent marks. It's a waste of time on all fronts anyways, I'm top of my class and practically self taught!" Naruto complained, hanging around Rarity did have its advantages.

"Not everyone has your drive Naruto." The Hokage countered.

"But I do! I should be rewarded for working this hard, not forced to wait while my classmates catch up. No offense to them, I enjoy helping them get stronger, but I want to learn more at the same time." Naruto verbally lunged.

"Very well," The Hokage relented, pushing a book of chakra control exercises towards the child. "These should keep you busy for a while I think."

"I've read it, and mastered each activity." Naruto said, pushing the book back across the table. "And by mastered, I mean I can float a leaf off of each chakra point on my body for a straight hour, simultaneously. I can fight to my full potential on a vertical surface and stick instinctively. And I can do the same with water walking."

The Hokage was dumbstruck, those were feats that most genin never bothered with, citing them taking too much time, though the boy in front of him was complaining of having time to kill. "Alright, this is usually only done as a side project for most genin, but I think you may enjoy it." This time he pulled out a genin's guide to sealing.

"Also read it, and I can draw a storage seal in my sleep Old Man. Isn't there anything else? I know you can't just give me technique scrolls, but I know most of the clans have their own, is there anything you can give me on creating my own techniques?" Naruto pleaded, he didn't want to be tossed out empty handed.

"Hmm, you said you know two techniques other than the transformation technique?" The Hokage asked curiously.

"Yeah, but both of them are just throwing pure chakra around, and I've reached a point where that isn't good enough." Naruto said glumly.

"Shape manipulation is only half of designing a technique Naruto, the other half is nature manipulation." Seeing Naruto's confused expression he elaborated.

"Ninja can convert their chakra into elements, which is what allows them to spit fire, or water, or mud, or gusts of wind. Nature manipulation is what allows this to happen. Though we don't usually teach it until upper chuunin or jounin levels." The Hokage continued.

"But then how do most ninja get to run around with awesome techniques before that?" Naruto asked.

"Thats why there are hand signs Naruto. Most ninja have at least one element that comes naturally to them, which means they need only go through the motions, and the chakra will do the rest. If they are using a technique that isn't their element, they will need to focus on changing their chakra first, which is a jounin level thing to do. Mastering an element involves being able to mentally change your chakra element without using hand signs, and most ninja only ever master their natural element."

Naruto blinked a few times, trying to digest the information. "But if I naturally have an alignment, why would I want to master it? Wouldn't techniques of that element come naturally anyways?"

"Picture your chakra as a reservoir, 90% of it is pure chakra, 10% of it is elemental. Now when you use an offensive technique that requires elemental chakra, you force your chakra through a hose at your enemy. Only the elemental chakra is hitting your enemy in this case, the other 90% bleeds out into the air. Now someone who has mastered the element has a converter on their hose, as the chakra flows out it becomes 100% elemental, with none of it wasted. Mastery is easier for elements you are naturally gifted with because it is simply converting your pure chakra to match your elemental chakra." The Hokage came out of lecture mode, pleased to note that Naruto looked thoughtful.

"So when can I learn nature manipulation?" was the obvious question, and the Third had to ponder it for a moment. While he didn't want another Itachi on his hands, Naruto seemed to have an earnest desire to learn, and seemed to be a well adjusted boy all things considered. 

"Alright, I'll tell you what, I'll help you get started on Nature Manipulation, on a few conditions." The Third Relented. Seeing Naruto nod he gave them, "One: No skipping classes at the academy. I don't care how boring they get, or if they are teaching nothing new, or how much more interesting self study is for you, going to the academy and being a student is important."

Naruto took a moment to consider Twilight's childhood, then quickly agreed, socializing was very important. "Two: You will not teach this to the other students, even if they happen to master everything you have so far before they graduate. I'm trusting you with this Naruto, you and no-one else."

Naruto agreed to that one as well, knowing his classmates likely wouldn't really be interested in such advanced stuff yet. "Three: You will not show off this knowledge. I know you're good about this sort of thing already, as I haven't heard word from your instructors about you knowing any techniques. The desire to show off is a flaw for ninja, and I don't want to have the council at my throat for teaching you this." Naruto had to grin at that, recalling stories of a certain blue unicorn who loved showing off. He nodded and the Hokage sat back, and reached into his desk once more.

"This is special paper Naruto, it will show you your strongest affinity when you channel chakra through it. To find out if you have a secondary affinity you'll need to master the first, and as determined as you are, I don't predict you reaching that point before graduating." Naruto took the paper and, receiving a nod from the Old Man, channeled chakra through it, immediately the paper split down the middle.

The Third looked on in surprise for a moment, before regaining his composure. "Wind is a very rare element in Konoha, my son is proficient at it, but he is away from the village, I can give you this guide but I find having a living tutor is preferable. I'm sorry Naruto, but with this, like in many things, you are alone in your trials."

"That's alright Old Man, I've got my friends, even if they don't know it, they are all the help I need." Naruto rose from the chair and took the small guide that was pushed to him. "One more thing Naruto, this was written by a student of mine in his youth, it's mostly ideas for pranks, but I'm sure you'll get a kick out of reading it."

Naruto picked up a worn looking book, the title on the front read "Sneaky Uses for Everyday Seals by: Jiraiya" With a grin he thanked the Old Man and took his leave, certain that his four legged friends would be satisfied with the new reading material.


O~O~O~O~O


Pinkie Pie loved the book, which should come as no surprise, and immediately set about having Naruto fill endless amounts of 'Battery Seals', which were simply seals that stored chakra to be used to power other seals. They were ordinarily used for delay functions, but Pinkie used them in lieu of being a ninja herself. So Naruto spent a few hours at sugar cube corner a few times a week, filling seal after seal to the brim with his chakra, unknowingly giving Pinkie enough juice to power a weapon of mass destruction over the course of his last month of summer.

Some of the pranks in the book were already discovered from tinkering, for example the time delayed water bomb, which combined a timer seal, often used as a fuse for exploding tags, attached to a storage seal full of water. While hilarious as a prank, Pinkie had already made use of the combination for her 'firework' tag, replacing the water with unstable liquid light.

The book did however contain several new seal ideas, such as trip-wire seals and exploding tags. The later came as 
some relief, as prior to this Pinkie had it in her head that you need to seal an explosion in a storage tag to create one. It also contained the formula for gravity seals, which increased an object's weight. Sadly preliminary attempts at an 'Anti-gravity' seal fell short, especially after Rarity chased Pinkie away from Opalescence, catching her chasing the cat with buttered toast and glue, shouting "For Science!"

For Naruto it was a month of hard work and frustration, he sat in quiet meditation most days, feeling his chakra flow, and trying to isolate the feeling of 'Wind' within it. The guide was less than helpful, barring instructions to feel where his chakra differed, and try and get his chakra to mimic the anomaly as it left his body. The goal was for him to be able to run his chakra through a leaf and have it split as if cut. Not surprisingly Pinkie Pie was less than helpful, suggesting he create 'Big chakra scissors' to do so, thus defeating the purpose.

Figuring this exercise was largely existential in nature, he began asking ponies what they thought 'Wind' felt like. What he got in response was a large pile of adjectives, ranging from "Freedom, and Awesomeness, to Comfort and even Adventure." It was actually Applejack who came up with the most philosophical response.

"Wind is change sugar-cube. It's the one thing in the world that won't stop moving. Yah can catch it in a breath, and hold it for a moment, but soon enough yah gotta let it go. When the pegasi or birds go flyin', it's not them controllin' the wind, it's them ridin' it, lettin' it push them out of its way. Ah've seen wind grind huge rocks down into sand, seen storms drive a flimsy piece of hay half way into a living tree trunk. Wind is always movin', and always wearin' things down. Just like life's always changin', and we'll be worn down to make way for the future some day." She said, gazing over the apple orchards at sunset, Naruto followed her gaze as she spoke, and he spent a moment to appreciate how one family of ponies, over many many years, had changed so much about the land they worked. Sweet Apple Acres really was a place all on its own.

It started off slowly, Naruto sat meditating on what he had learned about wind. He focused inwards, on the feeling of his chakra flowing through him. 'Always moving' didn't help, his chakra flowed through his body at a leisurely pace unless directed, the same as any ninja. He tried to feel for 'changing' feelings, 'moving' or 'grinding' would work too. As he focused on searching for these things he felt it, for the first time, a quick rush through the area he focused on. It was like watching an empty tube and suddenly seeing Rainbow Dash rush through it at top speed, for a moment he thought he hadn't seen anything. So he sat, mind focused on the exact same position and waited, sure enough a few seconds passed and 'woosh' another rush of chakra.

He was elated to finally have a lead, but at the same time dismayed, the thought of controlling such a thing seemed an insurmountable obstacle, until he remembered AJ's advice. Focusing once more he placed a hand, palm out, pointed towards a lose piece of paper a few inches away, then waited. He felt it again, the rushing sensation that exemplified 'wind' in his mind, and tried to follow it, to predict where it was going. After about an hour of concentration he finally acted, shifting the flow and letting the wind chakra flow down his arm and out the points in his palm.

Naruto opened his eyes, the paper had moved three feet.

> Cloud Watching
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Naruto's second year of school went by quickly, with the only major change being Kiba's new companion Akamaru. The dog was friendly enough, and added another dimension to their sparring matches, but silently Naruto thought Angel Bunny could beat it in a fight at the moment. His grumbling about Kiba's new dog lead to a 'Find Naruto a Pet' day with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was, as with most endeavors with the three fillies, an epic failure. Although in hindsight Naruto didn't think a baby manticore would make a good pet anyways.

As the months rolled past Naruto was continuously hard at work with his nature manipulation. After getting a feel for what his wind chakra felt like, a feat that took months to get consistent on its own, he began attempting to convert chakra as it flowed from his hands. It was a process that was beyond troublesome, but inspiration came when he attempted to explain his problem. "It's like, trying to make sticks thin and pointy, when all you have is other sticks to work with!" He said, falling back out of his sitting position and looking up at the clouds.

"You've got other pointy sticks to start with right? Just use those to sharpen the others." Came a voice in response. "You know I liked it more when you risked getting soaked when you screwed up." Rainbow Dash flew down to sit next to him.

"That won't work, I can't hold the wind chakra in one place long enough for it to do the work, just like you can't hold the wind." Naruto grumbled, ignoring the cyan pegasus' ribbing.

"I can hold the wind." Dash replied smugly, "I mean, you aren't as awesome as me, but I thought you'd have figured this out at least." With that she leapt into the air and began to fly in tight circles until a small twister formed a few feet from him. "See? All that wind in one spot!"

Naruto sat upright with a massive grin. "That could work! I can spin the wind chakra, and then run the normal chakra over it, and grind it into more wind!" Rainbow Dash gave him a blank look at his explanation.

Ignoring the look Naruto settled down to focus once more on his latest task.


O~O~O~O~O


More months passed and the academy students finished their second year. Naruto and Sasuke headed out to the lake to throw stones, an act that had become a monthly tradition. "My dad taught me how to breath fire here." Sasuke said as he tossed a rock, getting it to skip 6 times.

"That's a weird bonding moment to share, but then again, ninja families right?" Naruto shrugged, throwing a stone of his own, it skipped three times, still an accomplishment for the orange child. "Wait, you can breathe fire already? I can barely shoot off gusts of wind, and it takes me up to a minute to get a decent amount together!"

Sasuke chuckled at his friend's dismay. "It's a technique idiot, with hand signs. I doubt I could just start belching flames over lunch one day."

"Yeah, and send your lunch to Celestia." Naruto joked, more to himself than anyoe.

Sasuke passed it off as more pony weirdness. "Someday you're going to explain where you go all the time, and who these friends of yours are."

"Someday you'll get to meet them, I have no doubt about that. Speaking of, your clan doesn't have a summoning contract does it?" Naruto ventured, seeing his friend shrug.

"Ah, I don't know, nothing in my main family, that's for sure. I feel kind of bad, rooting through the things of people I never really got to know. I think, if they left a will their stuff should go to children, or brothers or sisters, but then I realize that they're all gone as well. It sucks to know that I get this stuff, not because I deserve it, or because I'll make good use of it, but because I'm all that's left." Sasuke idly tossed another stone. "It's a lot of pressure, like all the dreams of my clan that never got fulfilled are on my shoulders now."

"I think, those that truly considered you family, their only dream for you is to lead a long and satisfying life, and maybe give them some adorable grandchildren. Those are the only family worth listening to anyways." Naruto joked to lighten the mood.

"Whenever I do this though, whenever I relax or have fun, a part of me thinks 'I should be training hard, to kill the man that did this to my family.' " He tossed another stone, this one too forcefully, and it sank right away.

"You are training hard Sasuke, and if you do decide it is your duty to kill him, do it for the right reasons. Killing him won't bring any of your family back." Naruto said, trying to push his friend off this line of thinking.

"But killing him will prevent him from taking my family away again." Sasuke said, almost too quietly to hear.

"Just remember, as great a ninja as you will be, we are still human first. We are not tools, we are Konoha ninja." Naruto said, as the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

"The best kind of ninja to be." Sasuke grinned.


O~O~O~O~O


The summer was once more spent in Ponyville, keeping up with his physical routine while working away at nature manipulation again. It was helping the CMC with their 'flying boat' idea that gave him his next inspiration.

"Gah, I just can't get it to work right!" He cried out, not for the first time, as he sat near the construction site. "I spin the wind chakra, and use it to grind a bit of neutral chakra off into thin sharp piece, making it wind as well. But it's too slow, I either get a tiny trickle, or I save it up slowly for a burst, but in a fight both of those are useless." He moaned, flopping down on his belly in the grass.

"Yer idea jus' ain't efficient enough then," Came Applebloom's voice from the construction zone. She had on goggles and a hard hat, and was hard at work cutting boards. "See here? Ah've gotta cut boards into thin strips, jus' like you do, and I've got a table saw tah do it. The way you're doin' it, is kinda like this." She said, pushing the wood towards a single spinning saw, and having it slice a thin strip off the end. "If Ah wanted ta be more efficient, ah'd do this!" she said, pulling a few levers and setting up more saw blades an equal distance apart from each other. This time, the wood was pushed forward, and was immediately sliced into four equal strips.

Naruto pondered for a moment, a grin slowly creeping onto his face. "Thanks Applebloom, this might work, you're the best!" He shouted, already running off to try once more.

"Wasn't he supposed to be helping?" Called Scootaloo from the top of the nearby scaffolding.


O~O~O~O~O


Soon enough summer turned to fall, and school began again. This time, being third year, it brought with it two new 
techniques, each of them causing a major problem in the sanity of two different individuals.

"What the hay! I can't get this stupid clone technique to work! This has to be the most useless technique ever invented anyways. I mean really, any idiot can tell by looking at one that it isn't real." He muttered, waving the excess smoke out a nearby window once more.

"Especially yours darling, they appear to be in... less than perfect health." Commenter Rarity idly as she eyed the pale imitations that flopped about on the floor.

Twilight came over and poked them with a hoof, noting the jelly-like consistency. "They aren't supposed to be solid, are they?"

"They were like rocks before, believe me this is an improvement. Maybe I should switch to practicing the replacement technique for a bit." He said, dispelling the failed clones once more. As he did so Twilight began to twitch.

"That ability makes no logical sense at all. I mean you do the hand signs, and visualize a direction, which I can understand as that's kind of how teleportation works... But where the hay does the log come from, and why does it look like you for a bit?" She asked, already working herself up into a rant, Naruto merely shrugged and popped over to the other side of the room. Leaving a log behind him.

"Beats me, but some stories say you can get the logs to have exploding tags on them, or smiley faces painted on them. Then again there are stories of ninjas transforming into throwing weapons and being flung at enemies." Naruto said, walking up to the log and tossing it outside, Twilight had already confirmed through experimentation that it wasn't the same log used each time, the good news was the CMC had ample wood for their construction project now. 'Just how big is that boat going to get?'

"Neither of those examples seems feasibly possible." Twilight stated, trying to calm down and not go 'lesson zero'.

"I'm sure that's what went through their opponent's minds as well." Rarity commented idly, still working away at one of her projects. "Have you attempted to make the clones like balloons? It occurs to me that you are filling them up with chakra, when all you need is to create a shell."

Naruto contemplated that for a bit, before getting back to work at it, Twilight busied herself with pushing the smoke out of the open windows.


O~O~O~O~O


The months continued with Naruto working away at each of his projects, making decent headway on all but the cloud-walking fiasco. On a whim he learned to use the transformation technique on others, and got a very large kick out of giving Sasuke a very impressive handlebar mustache via pat on the back. His classmates had a mixed response, between laughter at the Uchiha's expense, and murderous rage at the 'orange menace'.

His wind manipulation got to the point where he could jump higher than anyone else in his class by forcing wind chakra downwards with each leap, as well as being able to maintain a rather forceful gust from most parts of his body.

Sealing lessons with Pinkie were like trying to learn the slang of a language he did not understand, but through sheer force of will he at least learned how to use tags she provided him.

It wasn't until spring arrived that he made a leap towards his goal of walking on clouds. He had taken the day off school, with permission from the Third, to participate in his fifth Winter Wrap Up, which fell on a school day this year. Convincing the Old Man that his summons actually did control the weather, and thus the seasons in their world took quite a bit of effort.

He was assigned to snow shoveling duty with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo, while getting better at flying every day, was still not capable of flying for long enough to help in the air. As they worked Naruto happened to look up to see a grey pegasus with blond hair bounce off of a cloud and tumble into a snowbank. "How does that work? I thought pegasi can pass right through clouds if they want to?"

"They have to punch through a cloud to go through it, clouds are too solid to just sort of float through." Scootaloo said through the shovel clutched in her mouth.

"That's not how clouds work, how can water vapor impede a full speed pegasus, magic or not?" Naruto said, tossing another shovel full of snow into the cart.

"Maybe that's why your clouds suck?" She snickered, and flew up to grab a smaller cloud. Bringing it down she showed him in detail. "See, it's not just water vapor floating in air, we can actually grab hold of it, you move it around like a unicorn would."

"It keeps its shape." Naruto noted as the filly jumped up and down on the cloud. When Sweetie Belle moved to poke it, rather than phase through it, as Naruto expected, the cloud actually repelled from around her hoof, leaving a hole in the cloud, but not dispersing. "It's not like a balloon either, there's no real shell to it... It's kind of like... Cotton?"

Scootaloo nodded, "That's what we're told to visualize, lots of fibers of magic bundled together. That's what makes it strong enough to stand on, or hold gallons of water if we want a raincloud."

"Couldn't Dash have told me earlier?" Naruto muttered, to Scootaloo's amusement.

"Dash isn't the best at describing this sort of thing, she just does what she does on instinct. Besides, didn't Twilight offer to let you use the cloud-walking spell?"

Naruto blushed, not wanting to admit that he turned the offer down because of a tantrum. Instead he tried reaching out to create a new cloud, properly this time.

"Oh no yah don't, you ain't ditching us with tha work this time, tha cart is full, get pullin'!" Shouted Applebloom, breaking his concentration.

Naruto shrugged, and made note to start practicing once again later on.


O~O~O~O~O


The rest of the year passed quickly, with Naruto's clone technique becoming a joke between his friends. By the last day of class his clones had become 'passable', they still rippled instead of dispersing if they were touched, and if he got them to move they would 'slosh' with every step, but considering they were generally used as a "Can the student use chakra" test, the instructors were willing to let it slide.

Naruto's pranks, with the help of Pinkie's mad genius, became more and more outlandish as the months wore on. At one point, seals written in invisible ink were placed all over the classroom, with remote triggers attached all over Naruto's body. On the chalk board was written in big letters "THE WORD OF THE DAY IS 'CHAKRA'!" For the entire day, whenever anyone would say 'Chakra', a nearby seal would eject confetti and streamers with the sound of party favors playing.

Naruto's work at making 'Proper' clouds was progressing slowly, given the poor quality of Dash's advice, and Scootaloo's lack of experience making them. But he firmly believed he'd have it done by the time he graduated.

The 'Twilight Bubble' had reached the point where he could turn it on at a moment's notice, and he had learned to walk with it on, much like a hamster in a ball. His 'Shining Armor' was as good as he was likely to get it at the moment, even Hinata admitted it was beyond her ability to close any of his chakra points when he had it on full blast. That and it apparently hurt the girl's eyes to look at when it was even half strength. Instead of letting it get her down, she showed him how she had begun working on a separate clan style in secret, which involved coating her hands in chakra, much like Naruto's 'Armor'.

Sasuke had taken Naruto's previous challenge of "Make me use my technique to its fullest, and it'll be obvious how it works" with enthusiasm, and in their private spars had begun throwing fireballs at inconvenient times. Naruto noticed how tired the boy was after only a few techniques, which got the two discussing whether 'fire' was Sasuke's primary element.

"I was never tested, it just seemed to run in the family, so my dad decided I should learn this technique. He was actually disappointed it took me so long to learn it." Sasuke shrugged. The two were headed for Saskue's apartment, understandably the boy had moved out of his empty house right after the incident. "I guess it makes sense though, if my primary element is something else. I guess I'll look through my Massive library of techniques and see what elements come easily to me." He grinned, getting a kick out of how Naruto would grumble at the mention of his library.

"You seem bored lately, ran out of books to read?" Sasuke noted, usually Naruto's mind was on a million things at once, but today he seemed subdued. 

"Eh, I've got a lead on getting this really cool technique working, but that's all I'm really working on at the moment." Naruto admitted, while he'd never shown the techniques to his friends, they all knew he had aces up his sleeve, and knew better than to call him out on it, seeing what he could do with basic tricks like the transformation technique.

Sasuke mulled it over a bit, before reaching into his backpack. "I found this the other day, it's nothing special, just some crappy C-rank wind technique..."  He tossed the scroll at Naruto, acting like it was no big deal.

"You're a good friend Sasuke." Naruto nodded, and pocketed the scroll for later.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted in reply.


O~O~O~O~O


If year three was a blur, year four was what Rainbow Dash looked like after pulling a sonic rainboom. The scroll he got from Sasuke was great, a simple technique called 'Drilling Air Bullet', where he would shoot a lung full of air in  a ball towards his target. He quickly realized that the Hokage had been right about nature manipulation, his work with the wind element allowed him to convert chakra directly into more air, letting him pressurize the ball further, giving him more range and force. Accuracy was his biggest problem, and it quickly became a test to see if he could hit targets without obliterating the area around them.

His work with cloud shaping was still slow going, but he received regular advice on how to improve. His original attempts using 'fibers' of chakra fell apart immediately under their own weight. "You want fibers Naruto, tiny little fibers, not ropes." Was Dash's brilliant advice.

Working downwards he got smaller and smaller until he started working on a cloud the size of an apple. It took six months, but he finally presented his results to Rainbow Dash, and was met with approval. "Grab it" She said, and he did, holding a cloud firmly in a chakra coated hand. "Now squeeze it." He hesitated, then applied pressure, feeling the cloud give slightly, before springing back into shape. "Pull it apart." She ordered, and he did so, dividing the mass into two equal parts, and seeing them remain stable. "Now put them back together." With a certain amount of pride he reformed his original apple sized cloud. "Great! Now, make a hundred of those, and you'll have a real cloud." She joked, leaving  Naruto to ponder the long road ahead.

His accomplishment was still celebrated, of course, and within a month he was able to form a sizeable cloud within 10 minutes. Cloud walking had now become about as difficult as water walking had been when he first started training on it, attacks from Rainbow Dash included. When everyone else in his class were preparing for their final graduation exams, Naruto put the finishing touches on his latest technique, including using wind manipulation to guide the cloud where he wanted while he rode on top.


O~O~O~O~O


The sun was bright over Konoha on the day before the genin exam. Sarutobi sat in his office, working away at paperwork, his eternal enemy, when a voice from the window called out to him. "Hey, old man!" The Third sat up, glancing about his office for the expected orange-clad academy student. "Out here!" Came the voice from behind him, and so the Hokage turned around, and gazed out over Konoha, and upon the sign of Naruto, standing outside his office. On a cloud.

"Think the Monkeys will want to learn this technique?" He said with a grin.

> Responsible Use of Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Naruto sat in the Hokage's office, across the desk sat an old orangutan in ceremonial robes, between the two sat the Third Hokage. Under normal circumstances, Naruto would offer his total respect to the orange monkey, but negotiation was no place for fanboy-ing. "So, this cloud walking technique is legitimate? You can make a cloud, ride on it, and control where it goes?" The old monkey said, his voice old and hoarse. Naruto nodded, keeping the stern expression on his face. It was like playing poker, the few times he had played with the ponies he had done alright, he knew that Dash would go in on even terrible hands, that AJ couldn't bluff to save her life, and that trying to read Pinkie caused migranes. He was rather certain that Twilight could count cards, but couldn't prove it.

"I have everything you need to know about the technique right here." Naruto said, patting a scroll on the desk. "Anyone who works hard enough should be able to accomplish what I did, given these instructions."

"And all you ask in return is a blank copy of a summoning scroll?" The old monkey said, stroking his long orange beard. "I suppose that can be arranged. The art of creating these scrolls is a well kept secret among summon clans. I expect that, in giving this to the leader of your summons, you  impress upon them how important this is. I suppose it is best that I take this offer, before the toads get wind of this and start making competing offers."

"You may not know this, but among the monkeys there is the story of Wukong, the first monkey to travel to the land of ninja. He was the first to bring back ninja techniques to the clan, and among the techniques, only his ability to fly on clouds was never mimicked." The old monkey pushed the scroll at his side forward, and with a nod from Sarutobi, the exchanged went through.


O~O~O~O~O


The royal chambers of Canterlot Castle was filled with familiar faces when Naruto arrived, floating down into the doorway on a single-person cloud. He held aloft the scroll, to the cheers of every pony present, and with a bow lay it open at the feet of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. "You have worked long and hard towards this day Naruto. You have learned many lessons from all of us, lessons on love and friendship and family. You have grown strong, not only in body and mind, but also in heart. It is an honor that I sign my name upon this scroll." Said Celestia, to the cheers of everyone present.

Luna then stepped forward, "We have not met many times in person, young human, but I have heard much of your triumphs. From both your friends, and my own sister's opinion, you exemplify the traits we hold dearest to us as ponies. It is an honor that I sign my name upon this scroll."

They ceremony continued, with Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Big Macintosh, and Shining Armor all adding their names to the scroll. When at last they came to Naruto, Princess Celestia stood forward once more.

"Today marks the very last day that you are a student, but as I told my faithful protégé before, in life we never truly stop learning. Even when you are as old as I am, there are things in life that continue to surprise me. Tomorrow marks the day you take another step towards your goal of being Hokage, and it is a step you take with us beside you. Tomorrow marks the first day you live as Uzumaki Naruto, first summoner of ponykind." Naruto signed the scroll with enthusiasm, and Pinkie Pie fired her cannon.


O~O~O~O~O


The sun was just rising as Naruto, still buzzed from the party the night before, climbed to the top of the Hokage Monument. With a few hand signs there was a poof of smoke and a moment later a pink pony and cyan pegasus emerged. "Wowiee! This is Konoha? It's way bigger than Ponyville, are you sure it's a village?"

"Pinkie! Focus! Do you have the stuff?" He called, getting her to come up off of her perch on the Third Hokage's giant stone nose.

The pony nodded, pulling a scroll out of... somewhere, and unsealing numerous items. "Alright, first, sugar in the inflatable pool! Add the pink food coloring and then the water." Naruto called, already inflating the rubber device to hold the mixture. 

Pinkie got to work, dumping bags of sugar into the pool and as Dash mixed franticly, Naruto set to work generating big pink cotton-candy clouds.  Within an hour they had at least a hundred, floating aimlessly about the Hokage's heads. "Step two, get the chocolate!" He called, they didn't have long before he needed to get to the academy.

The sugar water was quickly replaced with a mixture of chocolate and water, which Naruto used to fill up the pink clouds that Dash brought over. "These should last about 6 hours before they start raining, just in time for you to celebrate passing the test." Rainbow Dash said, as they filled the last one.

"Great, school starts soon, I've gotta get going." Naruto said, forming a normal cloud for himself to ride.

"That's fine, I'll have these babies set up in 10 seconds flat. Pinkie, stop eating the clouds and get this cleaned up, you know where we're meeting?" Dash called, pushing the first cloud out over Konoha, close enough to the ground to be obvious, but out of reach of any ninja. 

"Yep yep, I'll sneak on over to the roof of the academy, where you leave your cloud, and summon the others before noon." The earth pony nodded, quickly switching into a Konoha style flack jacket.

"Where the hay did you get that?" Naruto yelled, already drifting away from the cliff.

"Rarity made them for all of us! Dash! Put yours on too!" Pinky yelled, said pegasus was already a multi-chromatic blur over the skies of Konoha.


O~O~O~O~O


The academy was just filling up as Naruto arrived, dropping off the roof to meet his friends. "Oi, Shikamaru! Good day for cloud watching right?" he joked, walking up to the group. The entire academy was already a-buzz with theories about the weather.

"Troublesome, I knew it somehow had to do with you Naruto, only you could be this ridiculous." Shikamaru sighed, leaning back against a nearby fence.

"They look delicious." Chouji commented, looking up at the one hanging over the sparring ring. For a moment Naruto thought he saw it wiggle.

"Ready for the test?" Said Sasuke as he approached, too cool to be early, even on test day.

"Yeah right, I spent more time planning the celebration than I did studying." Naruto joked as they headed inside.

The classroom was not what they expected, written on the board in Massive letters was "THE SECRET PHRASE IS: NARUTO YOU PASS!"

"This again?" some of the students muttered, looking around carefully for hidden seals. Sasuke got a twisted grin on his face and wandered over to Naruto's seat, where he sat without a care in the world.

"So... what happens when someone says 'Naruto you pa-" He was cut off by Naruto leaping from his seat to put his hand over the black-haired boy's mouth.

"Shh shh shh, I don't have the trigger this time, 'she' does, and she gets bored really really easily." Naruto urged, pulling his friend down into the seat next to him.

Sasuke shook his head and leaned back to wait for the last minute rush of students.

Naruto idly peered out the window into the academy yard, noting with a small grin the occasional flash of color between the bushes, all of them seemed to be wearing Konoha flak jackets.

Soon enough Iruka and Mizuki entered the room, and the class quieted down. "We'll begin with the written test. This is to test your knowledge of what you've learned over the past few years, this includes questions on history and theoretical knowledge. You have one hour, you may begin when you receive the test."

Ten minutes into the test Naruto raised his hand, "Yes Naruto?" Iruka asked, already flinching in preparation. 'Activation phrase said, 3...2...1...' With yet another cacophony of party favors the room was lit up in an explosion of confetti 
and streamers. Everyone in the room was inexplicably left wearing party hats, and a large banner over Naruto's seat read 'First One Finished'.  A pink haired girl wearing a lime green party hat looked ready to throttle him, so with a sheepish grin, Naruto bolted outside.

Stepping out into the sunshine he glanced up at the rooftop, with a soft whistle several heads poked over the side. "What did they think?" Called Sweetie Belle.

"Not very impressed I think. We'll have to step it up a bit. Is the target practice area prepared?" The three smallest ponies nodded franticly. "Everything is ready. Are we doing anything extra for the taijutsu spar?"

"Nah, just stick to the plan, did you get her to agree?" He asked, noting there were other students slowly coming out. Three more fervent nods told him what he needed to know.

"Alright, gather around!" Called Iruka as the students lined up. "We'll be doing the throwing weapon  accuracy test now, in alphabetical order. Shino Aburame!"

"Hey no fair! N comes before S!" Came a shout from the roof tops, followed by sounds of a scuffle and rapid whispering.

Iruka cleared his throat and the stoic academy student stepped forward, taking the offered weapons. Flinging the first one he hit a little low on the target, firing the second one off he landed a little too high. His third toss landed dead on, causing a loud 'pop!' as confetti flew out the top of the training dummy's head, giving off the shape of a '1'. The shock was enough that even the usually stoic boy jumped a little. Many of the students laughed at that, and as the line went on every student laughed as they scored bulls-eyes.

Sasuke was the first to hit 10 out of 10 bulls-eyes, with each successive one the display became more eccentric, until the 10 was shot out in fireworks, to the sound of epic music, with sparklers springing out around the dummy. Iruka had a bemused expression on his face, and would occasionally shoot looks at Naruto, who had a face like Applejack trying to lie.

Naruto managed to score a decent 7 out of 10, and soon enough they gathered for the sparring match. "Alright, the objective is to last 5 minutes against Mizuki in the ring. Bonus points are awarded for landing a hit on him before the time limit, but you only need to last the full 5 minutes to pass. You can use chakra, but no techniques are allowed, including the academy three."

Once again they went in alphabetical order, until at last it was Naruto's turn. Iruka was chanting 'This is his last day, let it slide' in his mind, over and over, as loud speakers appeared on the rooftop and a track with a strong beat started playing. As the orange boy walked forward a female voice blared over the speakers "F-f-fillies and Gen-gen-gentlecolts!"

The class laughed as Naruto struck a few poses, a few of his friends cheered, as well as some voices from the roof. Mizuki immediately leapt to the offensive, and Naruto appeared to dance out of the way, his movements followed the beat of the music, but Mizuki couldn't seem to land any solid hits.

This continued for the full 5 minutes, with Mizuki getting more and more angry and violent as the time went on. At the 5 minute mark the music cut off, and Naruto took a bow for his audience, to the applause of several present. "Well done Naruto, but why didn't you try to land a hit on Mizuki? You never went on the offensive."

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, I guess I was having too much fun, sorry."

The class was lead inside for the final test, one by one they'd be called into a separate room to demonstrate their grasp of the academy's three staple techniques. Several classmates crowded around Naruto, asking about the jokes and the music, to which he denied any involvement, which nobody bought for a minute. Several of the students asked about the strange pink clouds, but the only thing he'd say is, go outside right after the test, you'll definitely want to see the finale.

On the rooftop of the school several ponies gathered around for last minute preparations. "Alright, it's almost time. Dash, get into position! Twilight, power up that spell, it's gotta hit everyone!" yelled Pinkie, practically vibration with enthusiasm.

Finally it was his turn to perform, and looking at the clock he rushed through the motions. The moment he entered the room he was a blur of motion, within seconds he had copied himself, become a perfect replica of Iruka, and then replaced himself with some kind of extra-dimensional slab of mahogany. Returning to the front he looked at his teacher expectantly, ticking down in his head. '5, 4, 3'.

"As much as I dread what will happen when I say it..." Iruka paused, seeing the boy in front of him vibration on the spot. "Naruto... You pass!"

With a whoop Naruto leapt out the window to join his friends and immediately pointed upwards. From a position high above Konoha Rainbow Dash dove, becoming a blur as she shot down towards the village, with a window rattling 'BOOM!' an explosion of color expanded from the center of town as she proceeded to spell out "NARUTO PASSED!" in rainbow font over the Hokage's monument.

The moment the Sonic Rainboom went off, the cotton candy clouds all over the village began raining chocolate down upon the populace. Chouji laughed and ran to the nearest cloud to get some, followed shortly by a crowd of pastel colored ponies.

The final stunt was provided by Twilight, as with a final surge of power, every man woman and child in Konoha found themselves with very stylish handlebar mustaches.

As Naruto, now with facial hair, rolled on the floor laughing at the sheer awesomeness of his graduation prank, his friends gathered around with mixed reactions. Many of them were laughing along with him, Kiba watched with mirth as Akamaru chased about Sweetie Belle in the chocolate rain, while Rarity chased them both yelling about getting messy. Chouji and Pinkie had a contest to see who could drink the most from the closest cloud. Hinata stroked her temporary mustache in shock as she leaned against Fluttershy for support. Shikamaru watched Rainbow Dash reshape the sky to be more 'festive' with a serene smile on his face.

"So... Ponies huh?" Sasuke said, rocking a rather long and curled mustache.

"Yep, told you I'd introduce you some day." Naruto said, gasping for breath.

"Yeah... Think the council will get pissed off?"

"I'm counting on it." Naruto grinned.

"Give them hell" Sasuke grinned back.


O~O~O~O~O


"He's only been a genin for a few hours and look what he's done!" Shouted one of the civilian council-women. "That boy is a menace!"

Understandably, the female population of Konoha was far more upset with the incident than the male side.  The lady in question now sported a very large, very bushy, unruly pink set of facial hair. Idly, Naruto wondered how difficult it would be to change the spell to 'fu manchu'.

His job, at the moment, was to sit on this bench, listening to council members bellyache over 'damages' and 'long term effects' and pretending to care. The last part was the hardest thing he had done as a ninja to date. Meanwhile, his friends, both pony and human, ran amuck in Konoha, causing who knows how much more trouble that actually Would have long term effects. He would be worried about that, but worry required far more effort that he could possibly spare at the moment.

"What does the brat have to say for himself?" Sneered a balding man, who leaned over the orange boy to appear intimidating. Naruto wanted to ask whether he had the mustache before the spell, as it looked good on him. He wanted to say the man would probably look great with a pompadour. He wanted to ask if they thought he'd been spending too much time with Rarity.

Instead he simply said, "I swear on my honor as a ninja, this scale of celebration will never happen again." 'If I must celebrate, I will endeavor to out-do myself.' was the implication of that sentence, which seemed to be lost on the civilians. Many of the ninja present snickered, including one in the corner wearing a face mask. It was the man with the orange book, Naruto noted. He seemed to have cut slits in the mask to let his large silver mustache sprout through like some kind of plant.

Eventually the council wore itself out, and Naruto was left with the task of fixing the mustaches, which amounted to 'wait four more hours', and he was left alone with Sarutobi in his office. "Quite the celebration you threw for yourself, Naruto." The old man had a genuinely happy expression on his face.

"This was easier than making an appointment to see you." Naruto shrugged. "Besides, the party doesn't start for another two hours, training ground 7, you're welcome to come if you like."

"Ah, I'll be certain to stop by then. In the mean time, you should probably summon the pony boss, the three of us have something to discuss." The Third said, putting his hat on and ensuring he looked presentable. "That is, they will fit into this room, won't they?" He thought, recalling the size of Gamabunta.

"Of course of course," Naruto said, performing the technique.

There was a massive poof of smoke that filled Sarutobi's office, and slowly drifted out of the window. "Hark! For what purpose hath thy princesses been called forth from our homelands! Show thyself enemies of ponykind and face the wrath of the heavenly bodies!"

"Luna! Indoor voice please!" Came a softer voice, as the smoke cleared to reveal two radiant winged unicorns. The smaller of the two mumbled a soft 'Sorry Celly, I forgot.' and turned to face the desk.

Sarutobi shook himself from his stupor and began what would be a very long, very boring diplomatic talk. It was nearly an hour later when the focus turned back to Naruto. "I am not certain how best to say this. But I vowed that Naruto would learn the truth the day he became a genin. There is a reason that the civilians dislike you Naruto. It isn't a good reason, and it has no basis in rational thought, but it does stem somewhat from truth. You were born on the day the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, Naruto, the only child born on that fateful evening, this you may know. You were also told your parents died, facing down the beast and protecting this village. What was not told to you, or the children of your generation, was that the fourth Hokage could not kill the Kyuubi, he could only seal it away, in a newborn baby."

"Me," Naruto whispered, as Luna placed a comforting wing over his shoulder.

"Yes, the villagers see you, and are reminded of everything they lost. But what they should see, what I see, is that you are a hero to us all. Every day you live you protect this village by holding the Kyuubi imprisoned." The Hokage said, trying to get Naruto to look up.

"So, having this much chakra, and the speed at which I heal..." Naruto said.

"Yes, both symptoms of your condition. The fourth created a brilliant prison, and the Kyuubi's power, given enough time, will all become yours." The third explained.

"Did you know?" Naruto asked, looking up at Celestia, prepared for a horrified or disgusted expression. Instead he found a look of pure kindness, one that would not be out of place on a mother.

"Of course I knew Naruto, I felt it the moment you entered Equestria, but I knew you were not to be feared the moment I lay eyes on you, and trusted Twilight's judgment even before that. I know you are no danger to any of your friends Naruto, we all know." She said softly, both her and Luna moving to embrace the child.

"Do the others know? Twilight? Fluttershy?" Celestia nodded.

"I informed them all, and the first thing they asked was if you were at any risk. They wished to know if they could use the Elements of Harmony to get rid of the monster. Fluttershy even wanted to give it a stern scolding I believe. Believe me, if I knew for certain you would be safe, the Kyuubi would already be enjoying life on the moon." She joked softly, as Naruto calmed down.

"You don't hate me?" He asked quietly, returning the embrace.

"Of course we don't hate you, we are your friends, we signed a contract remember?" Celestia smiled.

"Now come along, I don't usually stay up passed sundown, but I wouldn't miss this party for the world." She said, and Luna offered him a place on her back.

"Just this once." She assured playfully, as he climbed aboard.

Celestia turned to the Third Hokage, and gave him a look. 

Sarutobi smiled softly, and climbed onto her back. There was a party to attend.

> A Night to Remember
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The party was just warming up when Naruto and the Third Hokage arrived, everyone, pony and human alike, bowed as they made their grand entrance, the ponies in respect to the princesses, and the ninja in respect to the Hokage. Hopping down from his steed, Naruto broke away from the crowd that surged forward to question Sarutobi, and set about finding his friends.

The ponies had really outdone themselves, there were large canopy covers set up over picnic tables laden with cakes and apple products, lights and lanterns were strung overhead illuminating the dusk for the partygoers. In the back Naruto spotted a stage where a familiar white unicorn with neon blue hair was setting up her equipment for music.

The first of his human friends he saw was Hinata, sitting at one of the tables with Fluttershy sitting nearby. As he approached, however, he noticed neither of them were talking. "Hey, Hinata! Fluttershy!" Naruto called as he approached. The two of them looked up at his voice and smiled. "I see you two have met!"

"Oh um, yes..." both of them stammered, and looked away.

"Right..." Naruto paused, it made sense in hind sight, quiet + quiet = a whole lot of quiet. "Have you had a look around yet? Pinkie Pie's parties are legendary back in Equestria."

"Well... I can't stay long... I'm expected home within the hour." Hinata said, looking quite sad at the fact.

"Ah, that's too bad, tell your family they're all invited to join in, there will be plenty of food and music and dancing, and I think the princesses want to meet as many clan heads as possible, away from the civilian council." Naruto rambled on about the merits of 'Apple family apples', and why she should try Pinkie's carrot cake, but Hinata had begun to feel faint at the mention of dancing. Fluttershy noticed and stepped in to steady her, which the girl was thankful for.

"Anyways, I'm glad you showed up, even for a little bit, congratulations on graduating Hinata, I look forward to working with you in the future." He smiled and waved, rushing off into the growing crowds.

Up ahead he heard a crowd of people hanging around one of the food canopies. "Animals cooking food? Is that some kind of joke? Must be a ninja thing. I hear they're minions of the demon brat, this whole damn party is to mock us for making him a genin."

Naruto slowed at hearing those words, the conversation from earlier still fresh in his mind. He really didn't want the ponies to be hated because of him. "You guys are nuts! There are Akamichi in there, which means the food must be good. I dunno about you but I'm gunna get some before it's all gone." He lightened at hearing a few of the civilians agree and move to join in on the party. Hopefully there were more people like that those looking to cause trouble.

Taking a risk he entered the tent himself, and made his way over to the back where a crowd was gathered. Pushing his way through he found himself faced with an amusing sight, there were ten Akamichi clan members, including the clan head himself, sitting right next to his son. They were furiously at work stacking empty pie tins in front of them, while a large portion of the Apple family dished out pie after pie.

Naruto chuckled a little at the sight, Chouji was a simple boy, a lot like the members of the Apple family, good food and good company went a long way to earning a good friend of the Akamichi clan. Seeing he didn't need to play peacemaker here, Naruto grabbed an apple turn-over and moved along.

The next crowd he came across much more quiet than the previous, the Nara clan had come to the party en-mass and currently looked on as Shikamaru sat across the bench from a familiar lavender Unicorn. The two of them seemed to be deeply involved in a board game of some sort, and one of the older men, Shikamaru's father most likely, seemed pleased with how it was progressing. Deciding he had nothing to add to that sort of atmosphere Naruto continued.

Kiba and Sasuke were mixed in among the Inuzuka clan, as they crowded the large kegs of cider, Rainbow Dash and a few other ponies were among them, all sharing stories. "-Was like the size of a house, sitting there snoring away. So I walked right up to it, and gave it the hardest kick of my life, and told it to wake it's scaly behind up!" Those listening leaned in as she took a drink. "And then it finger flicked me right out of its cave!" The crowd burst into laughter as she continued the story, Sasuke and Kiba slid out to join Naruto.

"Dude, this explains the smell." Kiba said, sloshing his cider mug. "This is good stuff, wish we could drink for real though, we're genin now!"

"There'll be time for that when we're older Kiba, I'm in no rush." Naruto shrugged.

"Honestly man, how long have you known these ponies, some of them remind me so much of you it's scary."Kiba said.

"Nah, Naruto is weird for a pony, right?" Sasuke joked.

"Seriously, you guys aren't going to go after me about it being girly or anything? I mean the boss summon is a pair of Alicorn princesses." Naruto said, surprised at the lack of jokes on the subject.

Kiba laughed even louder and leaned on Naruto, "Man, I don't care if you have to wear a tiara and brush their hair every night before bed, you'd better do it if it means brining them around more often. Those ponies are awesome!"

"They taught you how to fight right?" Sasuke grunted.

"Yeah, they practically raised me since I was six." Naruto shrugged.

"Then they're cool by me." Sasuke shrugged as well.

Kiba grabbed another mug off a table and forced it into Naruto's hands. "A Toast!"

"To the Magic of Friendship!" Naruto called, only to have Kiba throw an empty mug at him.

"Now you're pushing your luck Orange!" Kiba yelled back, "To graduation!"

The three raised their glasses, and the Inuzuka clan howled along with them.

Naruto wandered off around the time Sasuke got Rainbow Dash talking about lightning. He found it amusing that every pony he came across had a Konoha style flak jacket on, Rarity must have been working hard for this. Up ahead, towards the sound of music, he heard the standard sound of arguing.

"Nuh uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uh, I'm gunna be the Hokage, my grandpa is right now, there's no way he won't give me the hat!" Cried a voice from ahead.

"Yeah right, Naruto wouldn't lose to a stuck up shrimp like you! Yah have ta work ta get the hat, Naruto told me himself." That sounded a lot like Applebloom.

"Naruto's a nobody! There's no way some guy I've never heard of could be Hokage!"

"Say that again! Ah'll buck yah over that there mountain!"

"Whoa, easy there you two!" Naruto rushed forward to intervene. "You shouldn't be fighting, it's a party!"

"But he called me ah mule!" Applebloom said, looking up with her puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sure it was a misunderstanding right?" Naruto turned to look at the boy causing trouble. The kid had a ridiculously long scarf and... something... on his head.

"What's wrong? You mad that you have such worthless summons? At least with donkeys you could quit being a ninja and become a merchant, since I'm going to be Hokage anyways." The brat said arrogantly.

Naruto had to quickly lift the kid up by his shirt to keep Applebloom from kicking him senseless. "Put me down! Do you know who I am? I'm Konohamaru, the Hokage's grandson!"

"I don't care if you're the first Hokage reincarnated, you're being a spoiled brat!" The crowd that had gathered went silent suddenly.

"The title of Hokage is passed down to whoever is deemed most worthy, it has nothing to do with lineage. If you want to be Hokage you have to be strong, you have to be smart, you have to be willing to risk your life for each and every one of your people. And most of all you have to work!" He said, still letting the shocked boy dangle.

"But Ebisu said he'd show me the shortcuts."

"There are no shortcuts, do you think anyone would respect you for being given something on a silver platter?"

"N-no?"

"Do you want respect?"

"Yes!"

Naruto let the kid go, watching him stand up and dust himself off. "I'm gunna work hard, I'm gunna earn that title, and I'm going to take that hat from you one day Boss!" he shouted, a look of determination on his face.

"I look forward to you trying."

The situation defused shortly after that, although he felt certain that Applebloom and Konohamaru would never see eye to eye.

Ahead on the left was a shop booth, Rarity's no doubt. Judging by the crowds, her outfits were as popular with human as they were with ponies. "My goodness, such exquisite fabric! Oh and the designs, they are simply marvelous, do tell me you have my size." Came an extravagant voice from inside.

"Oh but of course Madame, I can have anything you like custom tailored in minutes! You have a good eye, this dress is all the rage in Prance at the moment, it's a fashion capital you know." Rarity definitely seemed to be doing well for herself.

"It seems the Daimyo's wife has become quite taken with the party." Sarutobi said, coming up beside Naruto as they passed by.

"Oh my, I'll take one of everything on this rack, they are simply gorgeous, and the Jewels! I cannot believe I'll be able to tell dignitaries my wardrobe was designed by a unicorn! You simply must send along anything else you design, it wouldn't do for anyone else to be more stylish." The lady within the stall yammered on and on, but Rarity took it with a grin, odds and ends floating around as she adjusted each outfit to fit her customer.

"Naruto!" Came a voice from up ahead, revealing a different white unicorn.

"Shining Armor! You made it!" Naruto called, running up to meet the pony halfway.

"Of course, both Princesses are here, it is my duty to enjoy the party almost as much as them." He said, nodding as the Third Hokage caught up.

"Old man! This is Shining Armor, he's the captain of the royal guard, and sort of a mentor to me." Naruto said, introducing the two.

"Honored to meet you sir. Naruto I wanted to introduce you to somepony, this is Princess Mi Amore Cadencia, my fiancée." He said, gesturing to a pink Alicorn that emerged from the crowd.

"Please, just Cadence is quite alright, it's a pleasure to meet you Naruto, I've heard a lot about you." She said.

"I wish I could say the same." Naruto smiled, before giving Shining Armor a look.

"I've been super busy with my duties lately, there have been more odd incidences around Canterlot, and now the wedding is coming up in a few months..." Shining Armor said, backing away slowly.

"Months? Shining Armor do tell me you've told Twilight, surely this isn't the first any of us have heard of it."

"Ah, well, I was going to tell her tonight, but I haven't seen her and we are about to leave..." He stumbled, Naruto was now closing in on him, and cracking his knuckles. "I was going to send a letter..."

"A letter!" it was Cadence who stepped in this time. "So help me Shining Armor if you tell your amazing little sister about our marriage through a LETTER..."

"Alright alright I'll go find her right now." He cried, taking off into the crowd once more. Cadence shook her head and followed after.

"Poor guy." Sarutobi said, shaking his head at the unicorn's misfortune.

"He gets caught up in his work."


O~O~O~O~O


The night wore on and the party continued, Naruto participated in a few games, even sitting in the dunk chair on a dare from his friends. He danced a little, enjoying the rave music put on by ponyville's resident DJ. Eventually everyone went home, and the party was shut down, the morning found many humans waking up in a now empty training field, wonder about the events of last night.

The week that followed was spent better introducing his summons to the village, Fluttershy was a welcome volunteer at the animal clinic, Rarity received requests in the mail through Naruto, Pinkie and Rainbow dash played a few pranks, and AJ and Naruto took to doing laps of the village in the morning.

When the day finally came for team selection Naruto was running behind schedule. "Applebloom I told you, I don't know how you or Pinkie even expect to get that boat of yours airborne, I'm not the person to ask about this sort of thing."

"But this is all ninja mumbo jumbo, isn't it? You're a ninja, you're supposed ta know this sorta thing." She whined, keeping pace with him as he made his way into class.

"I'm not a sealing expert though, the best I can figure, make two big clouds and tie them to the ship using enchanted rope." He said, desperate to end the conversation.

"Do yah think Twilight can do that?" She asked, eyes hopeful.

"I don't know, go ask her! Honestly what do you need a flying ship for?"

"We're gunna be sky pirates!" She said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But... there's nothing up there to steal from..." Naruto said, now halting his forward momentum.

"Who said anything 'bout stealin'?" She said, before poofing back to Equestria.

"Honestly what does that filly think pirates do?" He muttered, finally entering the classroom.

"I haven't the foggiest." Came Iruka's deadpan response from the front of the room, along with a few odd looks from several jounin. "Now that everyone is here." He shot a look at Naruto, who bolted for an open seat. "We can go over team assignments. Team one..."

Naruto tuned him out, waiting for his name to pop up. "Team seven, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno!" He heard, and looked over at Sasuke.

"Who?" he asked, and Sasuke shrugged.


O~O~O~O~O
	

Three hours later, Naruto, Sasuke, and the pink haired girl now identified as Sakura, sat in the classroom... still...

10 minutes into their wait Naruto had leapt onto the ceiling and unsealed a pack of cards from a carefully hidden seal. "Cards anyone?" He asked, Sasuke shrugged, Sakura looked on incredulously.

"What the heck was a pack of cards doing there?" She asked, coming over to sit down.

"I have cards hidden all over town," Naruto shrugged, "In case of a card emergency."

"And this counts?" She said, absently taking the hand dealt to her. The two boys shrugged.

One hour in and Naruto was reduced to making idle chatter. "So we drill this hole, like 10 feet into the solid rock, we've got this wheel hooked up so the four of us can turn it. It's slow going but we get it done. Then Scootaloo runs off and comes wandering over with this stick in her mouth."

"Raise," said Sasuke, half paying attention to the story.

"So I take it from her, and she says its tnt, and I've gotta put it in the hole. Easy job right?" Naruto continued, pushing a few more chips into the middle of the floor.

"So I lean down, put it into the hole, and just let it drop."

"What happened?" Asked Sakura, not really looking up from her cards as she pushed a few chips in.

"Turns out that nice safe shock-resistant tnt stick, was actually a stick of dynamite. The stick hits the bottom of the hole, and the nitro goes off, sending me and about a ton of rock on an express trip to the bottom of the quarry."

Sasuke gave a snort at that, after all these years he finally heard the full story behind why he carries that first aid kit.

Two hours in Naruto got fed up, and unsealed some sort of contraption near the doorway. "If he's this late, he's getting the welcome wagon." He replied to the odd look from Sakura. Sasuke just smirked.

Ten minutes later Kakashi opened the door to the classroom, and looked down to see a strange box playing music. A few seconds later he was covered in cake batter.

"The cake batter is in the confetti cannon." He said calmly, looking over the genin he's be working with.

"It's tradition." Sasuke stoically replied.

"Right, meet me on the roof."

> A Test of Character
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Okay, let's start with introductions. To make things interesting, why don't you introduce each other. Pinkie, you go first, introduce blondie." The jounin said, eye-smiling at the trio.

"Fine." Sakura muttered, still pissed about the three hour wait. "What should I say?"

"You know, Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies, Dreams for the future?" Kakashi said.

"This is Naruto, he likes loud noises and bright colors, and probably shiny objects too. He dislikes people who mock his ridiculous 'ninja' summons. His hobbies include playing pranks and being annoying to the respectable people of Konoha. And his dream for the future, as farfetched as it is, is to become Hokage."

"Alright, why don't you go next Sasuke, introduce the pinkette."

"This is Sakura... I think." Sasuke shrugged.

"Is that it? What about Likes or Dislikes?" Kakashi prompted.

"Likes should be obvious, she wasted four years of her life trying to become a ninja just to get me to notice more than her terrible habits." He snickered.

"Love and tolerate." Naruto muttered.

"Dislikes? I don't know, how about putting more time into training than doing her hair each day? As for hobbies, stalking habits aside, probably insulting honest people to make herself feel better. Dreams I don't think would be appropriate to discuss, there are children present." Sasuke said.

Sakura looked heartbroken. Naruto shook his head, he really should tell Sasuke off for being mean, but even his patience was wearing thin with the girl after 3 hours.

Kakashi sighed, another dysfunctional team for him, oh yay. "Last up, Naruto, introduce Sasuke."

"This is Sasuke, the 'last' Uchiha, he likes training and looking cool. He dislikes people who kiss ass or obsess over names, as well as people who don't take being a ninja seriously. His hobbies include skipping stones and even more training. And his dream for the future is to help the Uchiha name rise from the ashes." Naruto said simply, shocking Kakashi and Sakura.

"Right well, tomorrow there will be a test, 6 am sharp at training ground 7, if you fail I send you back to the academy. Don't bother eating breakfast, you'll just throw it up." The jounin said casually, before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"He didn't tell us anything..." Sakura said, still looking lost.

"Well, I'm starving, Ichiraku's here I come, who's in?" Naruto said, forming a cloud in front of him.

"You're buying this time." Sasuke said, walking over to the edge of the roof.

"I'll pass... I'm on a diet." Sakura said quietly.

"What? Seriously? Ichiraku's even has a vegetable based broth because their number one customer is vegetarian." Sasuke said, giving the girl a questioning look.

"Ramen still has way too many calories." Sakura shrugged.

"You do know, that ninja's metabolism runs an average 2.6x the normal rate to produce chakra, right? Twilight did this entire study on me when I was 9. That means a girl your age, if you maintain the level of physical activity standard for a ninja in training, you need a minimum of 5,000 calories a day." Naruto said, now sitting on his fully formed cloud.

"Even if you never train, any diet you are on is only limiting your ability to produce chakra." Sasuke added in, already leaping to the next closest roof. Naruto floated the cloud along to follow him. Sakura hesitated a moment, mulling over what had been said, before taking the stairs down to street level, and walking to the ramen stand.

She found the two boys engaged with wolfing down bowls of ramen, Naruto was already on his third. "Why are you two so hard on girls being ninja?" She asked, sitting down at the empty stool next to Sasuke.

"I have nothing against girls being ninja. Sure Konoha doesn't have any decent ones, but I spent part of my life in Equestria, and the difference between here and there is night and day." Naruto said between bites.

"Equestria, that's where all your little ponies live right? Figures you were raised by animals." She smirked, as her own bowl of ramen arrived.

"It's a matriarchal society there, the girls rule, they make use of male strength, and they treat them with respect, but the gender ratio is heavily skewed towards females. The thing is though, the girls there are strong, way stronger than the ones in Konoha. Before you say it, I don't mean physically, I mean their character is strong." Naruto said, ignoring the attempts to make him angry.

"Konoha has plenty of strong women." Sakura maintained, "Like Tsunade, she's one of the strongest ninja Konoha ever produced."

"And she left." Sasuke noted, before returning his attention to his bowl.

"The fact that everyone acts shocked when ONE of our top 10 ninja is a girl just proves the point. I've done my research, you're playing into exactly what Konoha expects of you. You do the bare minimum training, you look pretty and learn genjutsu so you won't have to get dirty, you learn medical skills so you can patch up the men after they do the fighting. When you get into a fight you try your best to survive until your teammates can come fight your battles for you." Naruto continued.

Sakura was fuming. "What are you trying to say? That I shouldn't bother being a ninja? That I'll just be a burden?"

"I'm saying, break the stereotype, grow a backbone, find a real reason to fight. If you want to be a medic, don't become one because it's what you're expected to do. If you want to get strong, train hard, get dirty, sweat a little, bleed once in a while. If you want to be a ninja, then be a ninja." Naruto shrugged, finishing his last bowl. "This one's on me." He said, putting money on the counter, and rising to leave. Once out in the street he did five hand seals, and disappeared.


O~O~O~O~O


He arrived in Equestria near Fluttershy's cottage, moving up to the door he knocked twice, hearing the sounds of animals moving about inside. Soon enough the door cracked open, and Fluttershy poked her head through the doorway. Seeing him she smiled and invited him inside for tea. They made small talk for a while, before Fluttershy touched on what was wrong.

"I said some things today, to the girl who's supposed to be my teammate, that were rather unkind. I feel bad about doing it, but it's something that needed to be said, her life could depend on it." He sighed,  rubbing his forehead. "I don't want to stop her from being a ninja, if that's what she wants, but it's a dangerous job. She's been at this four years, and still won't take it seriously."

Fluttershy leaned forward to nuzzle the distraught boy, "Sometimes we have to be assertive, there are some times where it is important to put your hoof down, when something really matters." She whispered as he returned the hug. "It may seem to be an act of cruelty, when you do something like that, but when it is for their own good, it is truly an act of great kindness. If it's really her life at stake, you're doing the right thing, but from here we can only hope she will listen."


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke arrived at the clearing at exactly 6 am, to see Sakura waiting patiently. The girl looked like she had a rough night, her hair was a mess and she had neglected to put on makeup.  She tensed as he approached, as if resisting the urge to shout out to him as he took a seat across from her.

"Clouds don't hang that low Naruto, you may as well come down." He said casually, as the blonde haired boy leaped down from his perch.

"I was going to anyways, I brought lunch!" He said, brandishing a picnic basket.

"It's 6 am, isn't it a bit early for lunch?" Sasuke said, seeing Sakura fail to react to the bait.

"Yeah, but Kakashi said we shouldn't eat breakfast so..." He trailed off, waiting until the smell of fresh food got the best of all three, and they dove in.

It was 10 by the time Kakashi arrived to the field, seeing his three genin once again playing poker. "So then I was like 'Look here, I don't care how bucking runny it is, hand it over with all speed.' so the stallion turns around and pokes his head into the back, and makes this disappointed noise. Then he turns around with a glum look and says 'The cat's eaten it.'"

Kakashi cleared his throat to interrupt the story, and gave a small wave.
"Hello Kakashi! We were on the subject of deliberately wasting someone's time." Naruto said cheerfully, and the jounin had the good grace to appear sheepish.

"Well let's get started then." He said, feeling any excuse about his lateness would worsen the situation. "The sooner we finish this test, the sooner we can have lunch." He gave an eye smile.

"But Kakashi, we already ate lunch." Said Sakura, noting the twitch her teacher gave.

"Right well, if you'll follow me."He turned and lead them towards a large wooden wall with a doorway in it. "Usually I'd give you the same test my sensei gave me, but the Hokage has suggested something a little more inventive this time. Ahead of me is a maze, you are to get to the middle, the first two there win. You are not allowed to go over the walls, and you are not allowed to leave the maze, if any of you break the rules all of you fail. Understood?" Seeing three hesitant nods he allowed them to step forward. With a final gesture he lifted his headband, and the three genin collapsed to the ground.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto stepped forward into the maze, leaping to the side as a wall rose up, separating him from the other two. "See you in the middle I guess!" He called, before heading in to the labyrinth. Traps sprung up as he ran, all of which he dodged with only minor injury, up ahead he could see the first clearing. It was a small apple orchard, and in the middle stood Kakashi. "First one here I see, the real test begins now." He said, barring the way deeper into the maze. "Why do you want to be ninja Naruto?"

Naruto paused, not expecting a question instead of an attack. He wanted to shout the same answer as always, but something made him hesitate and think it through. Why did he want to be a ninja? When he could easily go live in Equestria, he could even keep the contract, and visit Konoha from time to time. 

"Honestly, spending so much time around ponies, it becomes easy to see how flawed humanity is. We have so much violence, so much hate and cruelty and death, for such hollow reasons. I asked them once why they accept me, why they'd agree to come to the elemental nations, knowing what awaited them there. 

It was Celestia who told me, 'Naruto, to look out over Equestria and see all ponies at peace is common, I can wake up every day for a thousand years and see the same, and indeed I have. But you humans, while you are capable of such great darkness, it makes those full of light shine all the brighter. You are so full of hope, so full of all the virtues, and I have faith that you will change your world. It will be a struggle, but I want all of my little ponies to see what it's like, to take a world like yours, where violence is the norm, and see it at peace. I cannot think of a more beautiful sight, nor a more worthy goal.'

I'm going to do it. I don't know exactly how, but being a ninja is just the first step to becoming Hokage, and becoming Hokage is just the first step to bringing peace to this world, even if it's just for a day."

Kakashi was silent a moment, and from that distance Naruto could not make out what his reaction was, before he nodded once and vanished in a poof of smoke.

Several minutes passed as Naruto evaded more complex traps, before coming to a fork in the road. In both other directions many traps were triggered, and the walls were littered with kunai and shuriken. Checking the ground for footprints Naruto took off in the direction they were going, stopping in horror as he rounded a corner. Sakura lay on the ground ahead, bruised and bloody, with several kunai still lodged in her.

"N-naruto?" She said, cringing as she twisted to face him. "I hurt myself on some of the traps, it doesn't seem to be too bad, but I'm definitely out of this race."

Naruto took one quick look at the path ahead, the route forked, but left alone Sakura wasn't going anywhere, if he left her here he'd definitely win. Sure she was hurt but it was nothing fatal, Kakashi would step in if she was in any danger. Knowing immediately what to do, Naruto walked forward with purpose.

He pulled his trusty first aid kit, yellow with pink butterflies, off his belt and began cleaning and bandaging her wounds, she winced a few times as he pulled out the kunai and disinfected a few cuts, but surprisingly did not complain. "I can do the rest myself you know." She said, reminding him of their race.

"Yeah, but I've been doing this for years, besides, leaving you hurt would be a totally jerky thing for a teammate to do." He replied, finishing up the last bandages and helping her to her feet. Nodding, the two each took a different turn at the fork, not needing to look back to know the walls closed off behind them. 

It was nearly an hour before Naruto finally came to the final clearing at the center of the maze, it was wider than the others, a sky full of storm clouds loomed overhead. He was the first one of the three to arrive, but he was not alone. "Naruto, I'm glad to see you are relatively unharmed." 

"Old man?" Naruto asked, "What are you doing here?"

"The Daimyo insisted we come speak to you at once. He has an offer for you."

The official looking man at Sarutobi's right stepped forward. "My wife has become quite taken with your summons, and has insisted I make you an offer for the contract. I know how attached you are to them, so I have prepared a suitable offer. If you pass ownership of the contract over to my custody, the Hokage has agreed to name you his successor, you will be privately trained for the next five years by the best tutors available, and take up the hat when the Third retires. You will be the youngest Hokage in Konoha's history."

Naruto was struck dumb. There it was, everything he dreamed of, he would be properly trained, the hat would be his. All it meant was the loss of his closes friends, his surrogate family. Within the span of a second the face of every pony he knew passed through his mind. This was his dream, many years ago, but things had changed, he had a new dream now.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'll become Hokage my own way, with my friends beside me." Naruto said.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Sarutobi said with a grimace, and Naruto's world went black.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke entered the maze and was immediately separated from his teammates, it wouldn't be much of a competition, he supposed, if they all took the same path. Although he supposed running the entire maze, neck in neck with Naruto would be entertaining. A kunai whizzed by his head. Especially with the traps.

The first clearing loomed ahead, and among the apple trees stood their aloof teacher. "First test!" he called, bringing Sasuke to a stop and into a ready stance. "Why do you want to be a ninja?"

Sasuke smirked, "If I were still a child, I'd tell you it would be to make my family proud." He called out, moving forward into the clearing. "And I'd be a fool, chasing Itachi's shadow, hoping my father would someday look past him. If not for my friends, I'd probably tell you it's to get revenge for what he did. And I'd be an even bigger fool, chasing Itachi's shadow once more, this time with the ghosts of my family at my back. So I walk another path now, with nothing ahead of me but the road I choose, and nothing at my back but my friends. If at some point Itachi stands before me, I'll fight to protect whatever new family I've found along the way."

Kakashi was silent for a full five minutes before he disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sasuke walked forward.
Coming upon a fork in the road he noticed the multitude of triggered traps, and more than a little amount of blood. Around the corner he spotted a familiar head of pink hair, and a nostalgic yellow box. Figuring Naruto must have dropped the box for Sakura he moved forward to help her up. "You should go." She muttered as he pulled the metal from her body. "If you leave me, you can still win."

"I'm not as good at this as Naruto, so you'll have to sit still." Sasuke said, ignoring her.

"Why are you doing this? Aren't you worried I'll just get up and compete with you later?" She said, wincing as he applied the disinfectant.

"I don't mind a little competition, its why the orange wonder and I are such good friends, it's a constant challenge trying to keep a step ahead of him." He said, wrapping the wounds. "Besides, I'm not about to abandon teammates, regardless of circumstances."

Helping her to her feet the two split up at the nearest cross roads, Sasuke was off running before the walls behind him could even close, Naruto was ahead, and regardless of what he said, he hated losing.

The final clearing loomed in sight an hour later, and Sasuke burst into it with vigor, Kakashi stood before him waiting patiently, Naruto was nowhere to be seen. A deep rumble sounded from the clouds overhead as Sasuke slowed to a walk, a masked Anbu leapt into the clearing and kneeled before the jounin. "Sir! Itachi has been sighted near our Northern Post Station!" The Anbu said.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth that Sasuke was moving, he pumped chakra into his legs, preparing to jump the wall, only to hesitate at the last second. Was he ready to do this? What would he do? Leap the wall? Then what? He's have to leave the village, likely without permission. The test wasn't over until Naruto or Sakura arrived, if he left did they all fail? His legs trembled beneath him, he wanted so much to go and find Itachi.

Why?

Why did he need to find him? He told himself he didn't want revenge. He told himself he would walk his own path, but he wanted answers, he wanted to know why. And he would get answers.

As soon as the Anbu brought him in for interrogation.

He turned back towards Kakashi. "You can go, I'll wait for the others." And then his world went black.


O~O~O~O~O


Sakura steeled herself and entered the labyrinth, jumping slightly as the walls closed up to separate her from her teammates. Taking a moment to psyche herself up she steeled herself. She had been up late the night before, coming to terms with what Naruto had said, and harsh as it was, she'd needed to hear it. With determination she strode forward into the maze, and narrowly dodged the first trap.

It took fifteen minutes to reach the first clearing, but she had only a few scratches on her, opting to avoid or disable every trap she could spot, and clumsily dodge the ones she couldn't. Walking among the apple trees she tensed as Kakashi suddenly loomed in front of her. "Why do you want to be a ninja?"

That question cut deep, and Sakura had to steady herself to prepare her answer. 

"I'll admit it, my reasons up until now have been stupid and childish. I've wasted four years on an endeavor that would never pay out. But I've made my decision, I'm going to be a ninja, not a 'kunoichi', not the girl Konoha expects me to be. I refuse to be some two-dimensional fashion accessory, thrown onto a team to act as cheerleader to the heroes. I'm going to be strong, as strong as Tsunade, strong enough to be one of Konoha's strongest ninja, and I'll break the nose of any guy who acts surprised that a girl could do it. 

I'm going to be strong of body, strong of mind, and strong of character. It's a long time overdue, but this is my first step on the path to being a ninja, and I'm going to gain momentum, so you'd best get the hell out of my way!" She was shouting by the time she was done her response, and with that first step forward Kakashi poofed out of existence, leaving the path before her clear to take.

She soon found herself at a fork in the road, and raised an eyebrow at the state of it, every trap in the area had been set off, as if a rampaging bull had torn through the area. Kunai littered the walls and the floor was cratered and scorched. Around the corner lay a familiar orange shape, battered and bruised and in some places bleeding. On the back of his belt she noticed a yellow box, the first aid kit he'd used on Sasuke once.

A part of her wanted to laugh at his misfortune, but that part was tiny compared to what it would have been yesterday. She was a ninja now, in her mind, and he was a teammate, the one responsible for her change. As much as she would have liked to continue on through, she owed him too much to simply walk away.

"Up and at 'em!" She called, pulling the kit off his belt and kunai out of his back with a distinct lack of empathy.

"Ow, careful there, I bruise easy." He joked, as she made a small pile of the metal instruments nearby.

"I swear you must have been trying to catch all of them without using your hands. How did you even set off that many traps?" She lectured, almost laughing as he pouted like a child.

"It was sort of a chain reaction. Anyways, you can just leave you know, I can fix myself up from here." He said, gesturing at the path ahead.

"Hell no, Sasuke's probably in the lead now, but I'm finally taking this seriously, winning by default is way too lame of a first win." She said, offering him her hand. He took it and they both approached the crossroads. She walked on with confidence as the walls closed up behind her.

About an hour later the final clearing loomed in sight, Sakura brightened as she entered, looking around for either of the boys. A thunder crack sounded and she stifled an urge to jump, the clouds overhead seemed out of place. Before she could ponder the odd phenomenon more, movement drew her attention to the middle of the clearing.

"Sweetie I've been looking everywhere for you!" Her mother, what was she doing here? "You can stop all this nonsense right now, I need you at home!" She called, slowly running over.

"Mom? What are you doing? This isn't nonsense this is my genin test!" Sakura said, moving closer to the woman.

"Your father and I have the most wonderful news, we've found you a husband!" She said, grabbing her daughter's hand and pulling towards a nearby exit.

"A what!?" Sakura yelled, trying to pull away.

"Oh come now don't be like that, it's more like a fiancée sort of deal, you won't be married for another 6 years. But sweetie he is such a catch! He's polite, and well mannered, and better looking than that Uchiha boy as well!" Her mother continued to gush, the doorway was looming ever closer.

"Mom I... I'm not sure about this." She said, her will faltering. "If I leave now, everyone fails, Sasuke and Naruto and I will go back to the academy! Can't this wait a few minutes and then we can talk?"

"He's so excited to meet you! I told him all about you, but of course I left out the whole ninja thing, his family dislikes ninja, so you'll have to give up on this little venture. But they're filthy rich, you'll have everything you could ever want, and you won't have to lift a finger."

With a final tug she pulled free of her mother's grasp. "Are you even listening mom? And what the hell is this about me not being a ninja?"

"Oh please darling, they won't send the last Uchiha back to the academy, and frankly that other brat should never have graduated. And don't worry I told his family you were at civilian school, you're smart enough go with a little fib aren't you? I mean you certainly don't look like a ninja, look at how nice you keep your hair. Oh but we'll have to fix it up before you meet him, it's in shambles after this-"

"ENOUGH! I'm not going with you mother, I'm going to be a ninja, if some guy doesn't like it, he can take a hike." Sakura shouted, backing away from the older woman.

"Sakura, be reasonable, this is your future you're throwing away here." She pleaded.

"No, this is my future I'm embracing, you are just in my way." Sakura said, firm in her decision. She felt proud of herself for putting her foot down, for only a moment before her world went black.


O~O~O~O~O


Kakashi looked down over the genin who lay on the grass. "How long until the genjutsu wears off?" Came a voice to his left.

"It shouldn't be much longer. I must admit, this is an odd way of testing graduates." Kakashi said, as the Third Hokage stepped up to the flimsy wooden wall. The three children would occasionally twitch with phantom pain, or speak out loud, but none woke up before the proper time. The whole time this was going on Kakashi kept his sharingan eye on them, allowing him to alter his end of the illusion in response to their answers.

"So they all pass?" The third said, hearing Sakura give her final response.

"Honesty, Kindness, and Loyalty. Not what you'd get from most hidden villages." Kakashi remarked.

"Times are changing." The Hokage said, leaving the jounin to announce the results to his new pupils.

> Canterlot Clone Wars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"This was a triumph." Said Kakashi, as his students rose groggily from the grass. "I'm making a note here, huge success." He turned another page in his orange book as the children rose to their feet.

"What the hay was that all about?" Naruto grumbled, "Was I dreaming?"

"It was a genjustsu." Sakura supplied, sitting upright.

"Indeed, and you should all know you talk in your sleep. Good news though, you all pass!" He said cheerily.

"Yay." Came Sasuke's sarcastic reply.

"It was the Hokage's idea anyways, he mentioned you three reminded him of the Sanin, the team he trained, and I wondered out loud how similar you really were. This test was to determine that." The jounin supplied, seeing confused faces.

"Honesty, Kindness, and most importantly, Loyalty. The village gave their best to the Sanin, they helped make them the strong ninja that they were, and it turned into a disaster.  Orochimaru betrayed us, and is now feared for his cruelty. Tsunade turned her back on the village her family made, and gave up healing. Jiraiya, while I want to say he's still loyal, as he runs Konoha's spy network, he abandoned his other responsibilities. The three of you have potential, this test was mainly to see if you had the strength of character to persevere." Seeing his three students looking contemplative, he decided to continue.

"The council wanted me to hold back on you. Sasuke, they seemed afraid you'd leave to seek your brother when you were strong enough, and seemed quite confident you'd fail. They'd rather you stay here where it's safe, and restore your clan. Sakura, your mother believes if you were not trained, you'd tire of being a ninja before you got to doing dangerous missions. Naruto..." He paused, seeing the grim expression on the blonde boy's face.

"Regardless, you've all proven that their fears are unfounded, and the Hokage has given me permission to train you to your true potential." The three smiled up at him. "Of course you may not still be smiling when you see what that entails.


O~O~O~O~O


The next morning Naruto woke up early and jogged to the north gate of Konoha to start his morning run. To his surprise he found Sakura waiting for him. "I remember you said you did this in the academy , I wasn't sure if you still did." She said, seeming unsure of herself.

"Yeah, I usually do a lap of the village each morning, you're welcome to join me." He suggested, and she nodded and walked over to join him. Before they could begin, Naruto ran through a few hand signs and in a puff of smoke an orange pony appeared.

"Hey there AJ, ready for our run?" Naruto asked.

"Sure am! The running of the leaves is in three weeks, I'm gonna beat Rainbow Dash by a mile this time." She replied, before turning to look at the pink haired girl.

"Sakura, this is Applejack, AJ this is Sakura, she's my teammate along with Sasuke, and she'll be joining us for this run." Sakura nodded dumbstruck, still unsure how to deal with the sight of talking animals.

"Alright then, try and keep up!" the pony called over her shoulders as the three set off at a brisk pace along the inside of the village walls.

An hour later they slowed to a stop at the top of the Hokage monument, and sat down to drink some water. While Naruto and Applejack seemed a little winded, Sakura was dead on her feet.

"Y'all right there sugarcube? Yer redder than Big Mac and puffin like a coal train." Applejack said, trudging over to give the girl a bottle of water.

"You do this run... every day?" She asked between pants, quickly draining the bottle of the precious cool fluid.

"Sure do! We used to hit the trails around Ponyville, but the change of scenery is nice. Side's these trails are practically built for running, only makes sense we put them to good use." Applejack said, taking a seat beside the girl as Naruto moved off to do some more exercises.

"You're like the pony version of Naruto you know that?" Sakura commented idly. "I mean between the orange, and the blonde hair, and the ridiculous stamina and upbeat attitude..."

"Yeah, that boy is practically family already. He's helped out around the farm enough to earn it." AJ replied, turning to look out over the village.

"Good job today Sakura! We'll keep at this for the next month or so, till you get used to it, then we can work on your speed." Naruto said, and Sakura couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into.


O~O~O~O~O


"Wallflower this is Blondie, come in Wallflower, do you read me? Over."

"Yes."

"Wallflower you're supposed to say over. Over."

"Oh um... sorry... this is Wallflower, I read you Blondie. Over Over."

"Just one over is fine. Just wanted to let you know, Duck-butt has the target moving towards you. Over."

"Stick to the assigned names please Blondie."

Terror filled Tora as she tore through the underbrush of a Konoha park. She had been enjoying a nice nap in the grass when suddenly a colossal ball of fire came careening towards her. In her blind panic she did not notice the yellow pony laying in wait for her until it was too close to do anything. Tora looked up and locked eyes with the pink haired pony, and her attempt at freedom was brought to an end.

Team seven had been training together three months now, taking D rank missions three times a week on average. Naruto took it upon himself to enlist his ponies in helping, more to get his team familiar with them than because of the difficulty. Although he had to admit Applebloom's carpentry abilities were top notch, it was a wonder that the filly still hadn't gotten her cutie mark by this point.

The cutie mark crusaders were helping team seven repair and paint an old fence, much to Sakura's chagrin as Applebloom marched about giving 'friendly' advice to the pink haired girl. Naruto, as he worked, inquired about their boat.

"It's not a boat, it's a ship, and at the moment it's still grounded. Twilight says she can enchant the ropes for us, but it'll only last a few hours without her there to maintain it, and we can't convince her to join the crew. She says if we found a gemstone big enough she could enchant that, and we'd only need to recharge it like once a month, but even Rarity's never found one that big." Sweetie said, her face was screwed up in concentration as she levitated tools over to Naruto. Scootaloo kept snickering as she brought the necessary items to Sasuke in a fraction of the time.

The rest of their time was spent on training. True to his word, Kakashi's idea of a hard day's work was brutal. Within months Sakura was well on her way to catching up to the boys, who had their own projects to work on. A quick test revealed Sakura's element was Earth, and that Sasuke's was actually Lightning. Naruto learned the theory behind enhancing his weapons with wind chakra, which did little to improve his accuracy.

It was Sasuke who gave Naruto the idea for his next project. About two weeks into their training sessions, Sasuke was asked what he wanted to learn, and without much hesitation he brought up swordsmanship. Kakashi quickly agreed he'd be suited for it and Sasuke was given a training sword to use in their spars. That it was made to be blunt didn't stop him from infusing it with lightning chakra against Naruto. The challenge to truly injure Naruto was ongoing, and neither Sasuke or Sakura had figured out how his Armor technique worked.

Naruto was fiddling with a kunai during his downtime between spars. Curious Kakashi came over and the two got into a discussion. "I'm trying to get the wind chakra to make a kunai into a full sized sword." He said simply, at the moment he had given the knife the length of a short sword, which he demonstrated by swinging it lazily at a nearby tree. "Right now it's sharp and long, but it isn't like a real sword, it wouldn't be able to parry Sasuke."

"I don't think it's possible Naruto, you need to have a base to work from, eventually stacking chakra on chakra causes it to collapse, which is why you can't get the length any higher. I could get you a sword if you are interested." His teacher replied after giving it some thought.

"Nah, swords are too bulky to carry around, besides you've given me an idea.  I've stacked chakra on chakra before, it's how I developed the Twilight Bubble technique. You have to make sure each layer is really dense and solid, but it can be done." Naruto shook his head and stood up, once again picking up his kunai. With great concentration he focused on pushing raw chakra into the blade, coating the metal and extending, as if making a barrier outwards from it. When he was done he held it stable, and knocked it against the tree. It was blunt, but solid enough to keep its shape.

"It'll probably take me a while, but I should be able to make this smaller, and then layer the wind chakra over this for sharpness." He said with a grin. Kakashi was dumbstruck, the orange boy was truly full of wonders.

The end of the three months saw Naruto completing the technique. It took a moment of concentration, but he could now push neutral chakra up the kunai as a base at the same time he breathed wind chakra over it, forming a decently functional sword on a moment's notice. When he completed something similar with shuriken, he and Sasuke decided to see who's latest technique was more destructive.

The tops of three closely packed wooden training dummies fell to the ground as a single shuriken passed between them. "Ha, check it out, three with one tiny little shurieken." He bragged. Sasuke smirked and stepped towards another target. Taking out two kunai he began charging one with chakra. In a blur of movement he threw both, the first going above the target, the second struck the first and changed its direction, leaving the charged kunai lodged behind the dummy.

"That's a great trick, but you missed the target." Naruto taunted, as Sasuke moved a hand forward and poured on the chakra. There was a loud crack and a flash, leaving the smell of burnt wood and ozone, and a hole right through the dummy. "I positively charge the first kunai, and set it up behind the target, then negatively charge my hand. The lightning jumps out to my kunai, frying anything on the way." He grinned, trying not to show how much the technique took out of him. "When I get stronger, I should be able to throw several kunai, and use forked  or chain lightning to hit multiple targets."

Sakura was a little disheartened to be left out of the two boy's technique arms-race, but took pride in the rate she was catching up physically. Already she could keep up with Naruto in his morning exercise without too much trouble, and she was even beginning to land hits in their sparring matches, though she had yet to actually injure the blonde. At first she thought it was terrible how vicious Sasuke could be to him with his electric training sword, but a few haymakers that left no marks or bruises and she understood the desire to make the blonde boy yelp.

Eventually they found themselves in the Hokage's office, returning Tora the cat to the Daimyo's wife once again. As she smothered her precious pet the team turned to leave, but the Hokage interrupted. "Actually Naruto, I'd like to have a word with you." The others shrugged and moved out of the office, leaving the boy alone with Sarutobi.

"I've been keeping correspondence with Princess Celestia lately and we have come to some form of agreement. Equestria has a very large archive on spells, and you have already proven the ability to replicate various effects using chakra. She has agreed to let us have portions of the archive, on the condition that we reciprocate. Because of this you will be leaving on a mission to Canterlot to help with security during the royal wedding. " Naruto was dumbstruck.

"The Royal wedding? As in Shining Armor and Princess Cadence's Royal Wedding? That's my job? This is the coolest mission ever! Wait, this is Equestria, why would they need ninja protection." Naruto said, calming down.

"You may have heard there have been... disturbances, around Canterlot recently. Celestia believes those responsible may attempt something during the wedding ceremony. This is of course only part of it, we are getting a good deal of knowledge out of this trade, so Celestia asked for one other thing. 'Give Naruto something he would find useful' I believe were her exact words." The Hokage reached into his drawer and pulled out a small scroll. "This was originally kept in the forbidden scroll, as most jounin lack the chakra to make decent use of it. It's commonly used for scouting, but I think you'll find it has many other practical aspects."

Naruto took the scroll reverently, anything in the Forbidden Scroll must be awesome, I mean the scroll has Forbidden in its name. "Thanks Old Man, I'll make good use of it I promise."

"You have till tomorrow, then you must get to Canterlot. I suggest you get to work learning that technique."


O~O~O~O~O


It had taken most of the night but Naruto could now say he had a new favorite technique. He had read the scroll quickly and pushed himself hard to have it down by the time he arrived in Ponyville. He took the train with his closest friends, all of them were psyched for the wedding. As expected, each of them had been roped into doing something for the wedding.

The city was already under heavy guard by this point, a magical pink barrier covered the entire city, with pegasi and unicorn royal guards patrolling the streets.

"Big Brother!" Twilight called, out, rushing forward to greet the white unicorn.

"Twi-Twi!" He called, and the two bounced about like little foals. "I'm so glad you are here, planning this wedding while keeping up with work has been a nightmare."

"Well no more worries about that, I'll help with the patrols, and Twilight and her friends will make sure this wedding goes off without a hitch." Naruto said, striding forward to hoof bump his mentor.

"Thanks, all of you, I've got to keep the barrier up, in the mean time, see what you can find around town and report back in the evening. You mares should go find Cadence, I'm sure she'll have directions for the wedding preparations." He said, and the group nodded and broke apart.

Naruto quickly made a cloud and went skyward, it was so much more exciting to do so in Canterlot, sharing the skies with pegasi and other weather patterns. Not sure exactly what he should be looking for he resolved to just watch for any suspicious behavior. "Well, it was designed as a scouting tool..." He murmured to himself, before making his new favorite hand seal.

Dozens of orange boys dispersed among the city, leaping from roofs and walkways, and scaling walls for better views. The royal guard was caught flat-hoofed at first, but several of the clones quickly calmed them down. Each of the clones found a suitable spot, and settled down for a very long stakeout.

It was almost dusk when one of the clones vanished, reporting the unusual activity to the original Naruto. Some 'off-looking' ponies had met together in a park and exchanged a package, one of them leaving with it and entering the basement of a rundown shop.

Naruto quickly sent a clone to tell Shining Armor, and headed for the store himself to investigate. The shop itself was closed, and seemed to have been for quite some time. Around the back alley there was a storm cellar, which opened after a quick lock picking. The basement was dark, but Naruto could easily make out where the shady pony had gone in the dying light. Several piles of rock and dirt littered the basement floor, and a hole opened up into descending darkness.

Naruto silently slipped into the tunnels, sending out clones to mentally map them as he snuck deeper and deeper into the tunnels beneath Canterlot. The caverns were lit with the occasional lantern, lit by an eerie green fire, and occasionally Naruto would see dark shapes move ahead in the darkness. He was startled by a memory of one of his clones, the one sent to Shining Armor, being knocked out by Princess Cadence. Deciding it was time to leave he turned back towards the surface, but quickly found he was surrounded.  One by one memories of clones being subdued filtered into his mind, as the looming shapes closed in on him.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto was quickly bound with some sort of biological green rope. He suppressed the urge to ponder where it came from. After a short trip being dragged behind  several black pony-insect hybrids, with compound eyes, transparent wings, and gnarled horns. He was unceremoniously tossed into a small hole in the wall.

One of the creatures remained behind to guard him, and Naruto tool a moment to go over his new memories. The creatures didn't seem to ever speak, either they couldn't or they didn't need to. Their features reminded him of his talks with Shino at the academy, about how hives of bugs functioned. If he had to guess these things were drones, working for a queen, likely somewhere in Canterlot already.

Deciding it was worth seeing what he could glean from his captors, Naruto leaned forward. "Just what are you anyways?" He asked, as his guard turned to look at him. The creature seemed to ponder a bit, before nodding and becoming encased in a cocoon of green energy. When it dissipated he was left looking at a nondescript earth pony mare.

"We are a changeling, what are you?" The mare asked.

"I'm a human. Can you change into anything?" Naruto asked, mind already working furiously to work out the ramifications of this.

"Any pony we can see yes." The changeling said.

"What is your plan here in Canterlot?" Naruto asked.

The changeling was silent a moment, and Naruto was worried she had wizened up and would remain silent. "Changelings feed on love, there is more love in Equestria than anywhere we have been before."

"So why the sneaking around? Like you said there is plenty of love here, what are you trying to accomplish." Naruto said, he was confident he could break his bonds with wind chakra, but he wanted to wait for the opportune moment.

"The queen will overthrow the princesses, she will rule Equestria and provide all the food we could ever want." She responded.

Naruto sighed, they were walking in circles. "How do you usually get love?"

"A changeling drone will find a pony in love and wait for it to be... indisposed, and then impersonate it. Then we spend the day with the pony's lover, and feed off of the emotions." His captor responded.

"And I suppose you don't care about the results of your little one day stand?" Naruto said, rhetorically.

"There is usually some confusion, but by then we have moved on."

"Don't you get sick of always moving on? Don't you wish you could stick around? Live their lives? Make friends? Don't you wish you could go a month without wondering where your next meal comes from?" Naruto asked, picturing how horrible an existence it would be, to impersonate someone else just to feel affection. 

"The hive sustains us, we have all we need." Came the stoic response.

"You refer to yourself in plural." Naruto noted.

The changeling nodded. "We are all connected, we have individual opinions, but it is the opinion of the hive that matters. You speak to both this one, and every changeling."

"What does the hive think about this plan? Do you think a hostile take-over will bring any good?"

"The hive is in majority for the action, we have been in a state of famine for many years. The queen is young, and not used to ruling."

"If the hive was in majority against the action?" Naruto asked, slightly hopeful.

"The queen's decision still stands, although the hive's opinion may change her mind."

"If you had the chance for a pony to fall in love with an individual, would you? Could you live your entire life on the love of one pony?" Naruto asked.

"The hive believes this to be foolish, no pony could love a changeling, only the ponies a changeling impersonates. Changelings have the collective acting experience of generations."

"What do you think? As an individual, do you think you could act like yourself? Do you think changelings could live among ponies in harmony?" Naruto pressed, seeing the pony infront of him hesitate.

"This one... believes that is a utopian dream. Changelings cannot love. Changelings cannot sustain each other. Ponies would never love something that cannot love them back."

"You expect me to believe that after generations of acting knowledge you can't show affection? You can't show Kindness, or Generosity, or Honesty or Laughter or Loyalty?" Naruto said, again prompting the changeling to pause.

"Such actions cause no effect. Changelings cannot sustain Changelings."

"You need ponies to survive. There may not be any magic in your love, or there may be magic that you just can't use, but I don't believe you are incapable of love. You must care about eachother's well being, and about your offspring." Naruto insisted.

"We do care about our continued survival as a species, and we offer our younglings kindness and nurture." She admitted.

" I think you, as a species, are gifted. You can be whoever you decide to be. I think you should try being yourself, I think you can find a pony that loves you for you, I think your entire hive could, given the chance. Ponies don't get power out of love like you do, they wouldn't care that there is no magic in it. That seems like a better life doesn't it?"

"The hive... The hive rejects this."

"How much of the hive?" Naruto asked.

"The majority."

"Is there a minority to believes me?" Naruto pushed.

"Yes."

"That's all it takes. I encourage them to try it. Think of a name. Think of who they want to be, and be that pony, instead of trying to be somepony that already exists. If they stick with it, they'll find love, even if it's just the love of a community. Like you said, Equestria is full of love. Ponyville alone has enough of it to last me a lifetime." Naruto said.

"This one will consider your words." Said the changeling, reverting back to its true form, and turning to guard the cave once more. Naruto watched for a moment, seeing the light from the lantern sparkle across the cave walls. Naruto settled back to continue waiting, it seemed the invasion wouldn't start for a while anyways.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto awoke to the sounds of explosions, and cursed himself for falling asleep. With a flare of chakra the bonds holding him were torn to shreds, and he sprinted out into the tunnels, heading towards the echoing sounds. As he approached he picked out the sound of malicious laughter and blasts of magic. Rounded a corner and barely managed to duck a blast from a very angry Twilight Sparkle.

"Twilight!" He yelled, trying to get her to calm down.

"Naruto! It's Cadence! She's evil!" Twilight cried, nearly hysterical. She fired another shot at the cave wall, where a reflection appeared to be laughing at her. The wall collapsed under the force of the impact, revealing a very worn and battered pink Alicorn. Twilight growled and lunged, only to be intercepted by the blonde boy.

"Calm down Twilight, the Cadence you saw was an imposter, this one is real, and she's probably been stuck down here for days." Naruto said, restraining his friend.

"Naruto? Twilight!" The Alicorn cried, rushing forward to embrace the two, tears in her eyes. "That imposter is going to do something awful to Shining Armor, I just know it."

"I know what they are planning, we have to go and stop that wedding, I'll explain the rest on the way."

The three made great time reaching the surface streets of Canterlot, which was fortunate as the wedding was already underway. Upon reaching open air Naruto took to the sky, urging the two ponies to interrupt the ceremony, while he went to provide the royal guard with reinforcements for the impending battle.

Reaching the top of the tallest building Naruto looked up at the barrier, hundreds of Changelings filled the air with buzzing, several bashing away at the steadily weakening defense. With a crack the barrier began to crumble, and the changelings began to dive for the streets.

With a hand seal a flood of orange cascaded down the walls of the tower like a waterfall towards the rest of the city, and the battle was joined. The shadow clones were an incredible boon to the orange boy, providing an effective way to use his chakra reserves over a large area without collateral damage. On their own each of the three hundred clones he made would last an hour if they avoided using chakra. Simple things like wall-walking took seconds off their life spans, kunai laced with wind chakra, to cut the bonds of captured royal guards, took minutes.

A direct hit would dispel a clone, the Shining Armor technique could soak a hit, but using it to that level took five minutes off the lifespan of a clone for every second it was on. In a brawl like this the clones didn't bother, with orders to subdue with as little harm as possible, they took to the streets in droves, an endless swarm of orange clashing with an endless swarm of Changelings.

The Changelings began losing ground almost at once, each individual no match for a human proficient in hand to hoof combat. But one of their biggest advantages was their mental link, buzzing away at the back of their minds. A single good idea was picked up and broadcast to each of them, allowing them to adapt at alarming rates. Soon enough the entire army changed tactics, and transformed into nondescript ponies. What was at one point a swarm of invaders, now became a stampede of civilians. As the clones struggled to keep tabs on their enemies they were quickly hit from blind spots and dispelled.

Forced onto the defensive many clones took to the air, some dispelled themselves creating clouds for others to use as platforms. From their vantage point they played spotter roles, marking ponies that attacked clones as bad guys for others to take down. Another quick strategy change had Changelings disguised as pegasi dive bombing the cloud formations in large numbers, only to be met by under powered air blasts from clones standing on building tops. Pegasi and Changelings alike soon learned that Canterlot had quickly become a no-fly zone.

The battle continued to rage on as more and more Changelings and clones were flung into the fray, until at last there was a surge of light, and Shining Armor's ward returned with a vengeance. Met with an unyielding wall of force the Changelings were blown away, becoming little specs on the horizon within seconds. The clones slowly dispelled themselves, group by group, as the original Naruto made the walk to the Cathedral to meet up with his friends.


O~O~O~O~O


The next day was spent in a rush as new wedding plans were made and the city was cleaned up. With the threat now believed to be over the entire city was in high spirits as they celebrated the wedding of one of Equestria's most famous couples. Naruto stayed for the festivities, enjoying the company of his friends and giving the couple his fondest wishes. With a few days remaining before he was expected back in Konoha, he decided to take the train back to Ponyville for a while with the others.

When they arrived at the library they found a rather large crate waiting for them. "My faithful student Twilight Sparkle, It has come to my attention some of my little ponies have been seeking a gemstone for enchanting. This was found while excavating the caverns beneath Canterlot, and while it's worth as a gem is little, it's value in holding enchantments should be suitable for your needs. Give my best wishes on their upcoming adventures."

Inside the crate was a massive crystal. It was an ugly thing, with smaller crystals branching out from a central stone at irregular angles, but for what it would be used for it didn't need to be pretty. Twilight immediately began blabbering away about the possibilities, apparently a stone like this could hold more than just a simple flight enchantment.

The two of them set about moving the stone to the construction site, where the fully built ship now waited for them. Even having helped build the thing Naruto was impressed by its size. While he knew nothing about ships, the boat had three masts, with the middle sporting a crow's nest and flag with the Cutie Mark Crusader's emblem. A steering wheel sat at the back on an upper deck, the lower deck held enough room to run about on. The front of the ship had an ornately carved Alicorn rearing up, it vaguely resembled Rainbow Dash, except with a horn. 

Naruto created a few clones to help Twilight load the stone onto the ship. It would need to be placed down in the hold, and then connected to a series of complex enchantments. Before he could climb aboard himself, he was interrupted by a voice to his side.

"Greetings!" He turned to see a coal black unicorn with teal hair and green eyes. "You are the one they call Naruto yes? This one is called Glimmer, and would like very much to make your acquaintance."

Naruto tried to fight down a grin, but failed. "Hello to you as well Glimmer, I take it you are new to Ponyville?"

She nodded, seeming a bit unsure of herself. "This one has recently moved into a house nearby, and is wishing to acquire... friends."

"Well, I'll just tell Twilight where I'm going and leave her to her work. I think you need to meet Pinkie Pie, she loves to meet new ponies." Naruto said with a grin, sending a clone towards the ship and guiding the unicorn back towards Ponyville.


O~O~O~O~O


The time-frame of the mission came to an end, and soon Naruto was giving his report to the Hokage. He included Glimmer's presence in the report, and upon consulting Celestia, they decided a 'wait and see' attitude was best. As Naruto had put it, it only takes a few willing to try new things to start a change.

Once the debriefing was finished, Naruto met with his team. "Thank goodness you're back Naruto, we were getting bored." Sakura moaned, Sasuke for his part seemed neutral on the subject.

"Kakashi said once you're back we can start doing the occasional C rank. We're starting on that tomorrow, so be ready to leave the village." He said, trying to hide his grin.

Naruto's enthusiasm was less discrete. "It's the rest of the world that needs to get ready for me."

> Catching A Wave
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Team seven, reporting in for a C rank mission." Kakashi stated with boredom, his three students behind him countering it with enthusiasm.

"Are you certain Kakashi? It's only been a few months since they graduated." The Hokage cautioned, Iruka was at a nearby desk and appeared worried.

"Nonetheless, all that stands between them and becoming chuunin is combat experience, and we can't get that painting fences, can we?" Kakashi casually replied, waving off their concerns.

"Alright then, team seven, meet your client." A rather scruffy man walked in, reeking of booze and wobbling slightly. "This is Tazuna, he needs protection from bandits on his way home to the land of Waves, and protection while he finishes a construction project."

"Will we be expected to help on the project?" Naruto asked, already picturing having to build another boat.

"Hah, as if a shrimp like you knows anything about hard work. I can't believe I'm paying this much money for a bunch of kids." The old man grumbled.

"Just make sure he completes his project in one piece, you can leave whenever you're ready." The Hokage said dismissively, not wanting a brawl to start in his office. The team, having everything already packed, decided to leave right away, preventing Tazuna from hitting yet another bar. Soon enough they had reached the village gates and finished the sign-out procedure. Naruto took the quick opportunity to create a cloud and begin floating down the road.

"Naruto, perhaps you should come down here and protect your client?" Kakashi called up to him.

"Ah c'mon Kakashi, I'm keeping a look out from up here, I can see way farther than you guys at the moment." Naruto called down to them. Tazuna grumbled about the insanity that was ninjas, and took another swig from his flask.

"You know, if you call up some of your friends, and a cart, we can get there much quicker. Walking at civilian speed kind of sucks." Sakura called next, sending a sheepish look at her irritated client.

"I don't like using them as work horses, Big Mac's the only one who'd go for it, and he'd be busy with the fields right now anyways." Came the voice from the cloud.

"You know, for such an energetic kid, he certainly has the 'I'm lazy' thing down to an art form." Sasuke commented as they continued moving along the road at a moderate pace.

"For what it's worth it takes a slight amount of concentration to stay up here, so if I fall asleep you'll know it! Don't act like I'm napping!" Naruto called down.

"If you're going to talk to us, come down and do it, your shouting is just going to attract attention!" Sakura replied, causing Sasuke to facepalm at the hypocrisy.

The group continued on their journey for about three hours without interruption, their trip would skirt around Konoha's border posts, meaning an increased chance of bandits, but the group felt confident in their abilities. There road took a gentle turn up ahead, angling itself towards the border of the country of Wave. In the distance Naruto was one of the first to spot an oddity. Grabbing a spare piece of paper he wrote a quick note and tied it to a kunai, then dropped it to the ground below. Sakura gave a quick glance up, then bent to grab it reading the hastily scrawled message, and passing it to Sasuke.

"Puddle, 500 meters, no obvious reasons for it being there. Trap?"

The two genin glanced at their jounin who nodded once and resumed walking at a casual pace. Sasuke waited until they were close to the puddles before nonchalantly dropping a kunai to the ground. Tazuna grumbled about clumsy children, and stupid clouds, before taking another swig of booze. The procession passed the puddles in silence, tensing as they left their sight, and whirling around into action as two splashes signaled the attack.

Two men in matching outfits rushed from the water and dashed for Kakashi, between them a deadly bladed chain stretched out to embrace the jounin. A moment before they were in reach a kunai shot from above, the wind enhanced blade cleaving the chain in two. "Hah, how's my aim? I can't hear you, I'm too busy being awesome!" came a shout from above. The two assailants leapt back and were immediately beset upon by the other genin, leaving Kakashi to watch the client, much to his chagrin.

Sasuke lunged into melee drawing his chokuto and easily parrying the bladed claws on his target's hands, they exchanged a few blows before Sasuke leapt back and jumped forwards into an overhead strike. His opponent parried with both arms, but caught a numbing electrical current as a result. Rather than stay in close range against the swordsman with unusable arms he leapt back several times to recover. Sasuke smirked at his opponent. "Just." he said, raising his arm. "As." he cried as it crackled with electricity. "Planned!" He called over crack and boom of a thunder strike tore forward through his opponent and on to the prepared ground kunai. The target wobbled a moment, singed and sparking, before toppling over in a heap.

Sakura was having more trouble with her opponent, the claws he was using were usually used to deal shallow cuts, which just screamed 'poisoned'. Wary about even a glancing blow, Sakura was limited in her ability to deal with such a challenge, while she had gone a long way from where she was when she graduated, she had yet to progress to the level the boys were at.

Luckily she had air support, and every time the man closed in for a shot he was forced away by a peppering of air bullets. She was forced back once more, and Naruto chose that opportunity to drop to the ground. Running forward quickly he called his chakra to his feet, bringing up a full 6 meter wide bubble of chakra around him that started rolling with his movements. A bright flash and boom alerted them to Sasuke's victory, but Sakura's opponent took that moment to lunge forward. The claw was less than a foot from her when Naruto's chakra passed through her, allowing her presence and rejecting the poisoned metal, with the force of a rolling boulder the assailant was pressed flat against the dirt road. Sakura was swept up in the movement and quickly tripped Naruto, causing the two of them to roll off the road and crash into a tree in a heap.

Kakashi could only shake his head at the blonde's antics, as much as Sasuke was cold and calculating in his fighting, and Sakura had the foundation of a solid ninja, Naruto was... unpredictable at best. His abilities were powerful, but in the sense that most ninjas were not used to. It made him a force to be reckoned with on the battle field, but as Sakura was quickly learning, working alongside him was a tricky thing to do. Shrugging off an approaching headache, Kakashi set about rounding up the unconscious assailants, 'chuunin' he noticed, and after making sure Sasuke wasn't to overzealous with his lightning, tied them to a tree for interrogation later. Until they woke up, Tazuna could start off story time.

It was a good twenty minutes of guilt tripping later that Tazuna finished his sob story about his village and family, about Gato the evil mastermind and his evil henchmen sent to stop the bridge from being built. By the end of it, predictably, Naruto was in tears, vowing to put a stop to the suffering of Wave, singlehandedly if need be.

A short discussion later and the team agreed to continue the mission, and Kakashi did something surprising. Kakashi summoned a dog.

Naruto freaked out upon seeing it, complaining that he had never been told about the summons before, and asking the summoned dog a ton of questions. Kakashi cut him off rather quickly, "He's the fastest way to get a message to the Hokage requesting pickup for these two, so quit pestering him and let him get to work."

"What!? No way is he the 'fastest' way to do anything. I'll take care of this." Naruto objected, performing a summon of his own, the smoke cleared to reveal Rainbow Dash in all her polychromatic napping glory. The entire group facevaulted, aside from Tazuna who immediately began mocking Naruto for having girly summons.

The client's laughter quickly woke up the pony, who grumbled a moment before turning her attention to the blonde. "Oh, Hey squirt what's happenin'?"

"I need you to run a message to the Hokage, he's back that way, in the village, highest room of the tallest tower." He said, pointing in the general direction of Konoha.

"No sweat, I'll have it done in 10 seconds flat!" She said, giving him a hoof bump and rocketing away at speeds that quickly silenced the client's laughter. He was still dumbstruck 10 seconds later when she skidded to a halt in front of the group. "Ah... you forgot to tell me the message." she admitted, causing those who had only recently picked themselves off the ground to drop once more.

A few minutes later the group was back on the road, Tazuna noticeably quieter towards Naruto. "So, those horses of yours..." He began.

"Ponies." Naruto corrected, still relaxing on a cloud, but quite a bit lower to the ground this time.

"Right, ponies." The man cringed a little at saying it, "Are they all that fast?"

"Nah, Rainbow Dash is pretty special, there are ponies with all sorts of special talents though. I can get Applebloom to look over your bridge designs when we get there, if you like." Naruto said jokingly, his whole team snickered picturing the little pony lecturing the old drunk on proper weight distribution on load-bearing beams.

"She a bridge building pony?" Tazuna asked, confused at the very idea of such a thing.

"Nah, but she could probably build a halfway decent one with her four hooves and a bucket of nails." Naruto replied.

Shortly after the conversation stopped, they had reached the water's edge, and would have to wait for a boat to come by from here. Naruto drifted up on his cloud to look around, but couldn't make out much from the fog. Shrugging, Naruto floated down again, in time to take a seat in the boat. No sense wasting chakra when he could hitch a free ride.

The other side of the water was much the same, only a lot more wet. The road wound through swampland, thick with fog and scattered with puddles. Naruto had opted to stretch his legs for a bit, and took up position near Tazuna as they rounded another bend. This time it was Kakashi who noticed the attack before anyone else. "Down!" He called grabbing Tazuna and pushing him to the ground.

The entire team dropped to the floor, just as a massive cleaver sailed passed, imbedding itself in a tree up ahead. "Sharingan Kakashi, no wonder the demon brothers were defeated so easily." Came the voice of a man up ahead, a tall figure landed to stand on the handle of his sword.

"Actually, I didn't have to lift a finger. Looks like that's going to change though. You three protect the bridge builder, this one's mine." Kakashi said, lifting his forehead protector and leaping forward to engage the target. The man in question made a few hand seals, and a thick fog rolled in to block out their vision.

"You wound me Kakashi, acting like you don't know who I am." Came the voice of their target from every angle.

"I'll do more than wound you Zabuza. I know who you are, I just don't really care." Came Kakashi's voice in reply.

It was only years of experience training with Rainbow Dash under the same circumstances that let Naruto sense what was happening. In almost slow motion he could feel the mist part, a large disturbance coming in a downward arc to his left. On instinct he raised a shield around the group, pulling up all the chakra he could in a moment's notice, with a wave of relief he heard the great sword clang against the barrier, and with sickening dread he heard it pierce right through. It was like the shattering of glass, the barrier was cleaved through and dispersed, only serving to lower the momentum of the blade as it travelled towards Tazuna. The noise was enough to draw Sasuke's attention, as he leapt forward with blade in hand. His swing was enough to make the ex-mist ninja lean back to dodge, but he quickly moved to counter.

Naruto leapt forward to follow through, quickly blowing a kunai into a blade and parrying the cleaver. He was horrendously out matched in strength, and slid a few feet on the muddy ground, but Sasuke managed to get out of the path of the missing nin's sword. Naruto  noticed where the blades touched they overlapped by an inch or so, and dared to think maybe his wind element was cutting the massive sword. When he heard again the crack of glass he immediately forced his Shining Armor into a blaze of glory as his sword winked out and a fist collided with his face. Even with everything he had going into his personal defensive technique, he felt his cheek bone crack under the pressure, and Naruto went airborne.

Luckily in the two seconds this took to occur, Kakashi had closed in on Zabuza and managed to stab him in the back, sadly the mist ninja managed to replace himself with a water clone, and the group was left back at square one. The genin moved their defensive formation to cover for their teammate as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Good news, I now know how your Armor technique works." Sasuke snarked, pulling the orange boy to his feet and glancing around warily.

"That's wonderful, I'll throw a party for you later. I'm getting sick of this fog." Naruto replied, already seeping chakra into the moisture. It was already saturated, he noticed, so rather than try and overpower it, he simply shaped it, funneling it up into the sky, Sasuke grinned and began leaking out chakra of his own. Soon enough the fog had lifted enough for them to watch their teacher fight, if it wasn't clear from earlier how horribly out classed the genin were, this would squash all doubts.

The jounin's battle had taken them out onto the lake, but within moments it became clear Zabuza had the advantage, in a series of moves he caught Kakashi in a water prison and created several water clones to finish off the genin. Kakashi urged the three to retreat, but Naruto spared his teammates a quick glance and noticed neither of them were scared, after a brief huddle they broke forward, Sakura rushing out to engage the water clones. Sasuke handed Naruto a kunai and dodged passed the clones that made to grab him, throwing a windmill shuriken at his true target, the real zabuza that held Kakashi imprisoned. Zabuza batted away the first one with his sword, but was caught off guard by the second one hidden in the first's shadow. With no way to bring his sword back to block he jumped over it, leaving him exposed as Naruto flung his kunai.

Zabuza smirked as he tossed his sword, bringing his arm around to reach through the hole in the blade and catch the kunai. It had been a cleaver plan, but he had beaten their gambit. If he had eyebrows they would have risen when his hand closed around the kunai handle, every hair on his arm stood on end. Sensing chakra skyward he glanced up, at a very low hanging, very angry looking storm cloud.

"Cra-" KABOOM! A massive bolt of lightning shot down towards the highest, and most positively charged point on the water. Zabuza was sent reeling from the shock, his pulse racing and nerves tingling, he was certain he was burnt in several places, singed in several more. Worst of all he had lost his concentration on the water prison, and now had to face a vengeful Kakashi. He struggled valiantly but was eventually overwhelmed by the Konoha jounin, and was put down by several needles to the neck, courtesy of a friendly neighborhood hunter ninja.

Naruto was already outlining plans for the celebratory party after their first 'boss fight', when Kakashi passed out from chakra exhaustion, his response was to change the theme of the party to 'get well soon Kakashi'.

> Clash on the Big Bridge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Big Mac was summoned to help carry Kakashi the rest of the way to Tazuna's house. Naruto spent most of the trip regaling the large workpony about their latest conquest. The others on his team expressed concern over their jounin teacher, but Naruto waved it off as chakra exhaustion. "I've done it to myself dozens of times while training, Fluttershy knows how to deal with it, I'll call her when we get him to a bed."

Upon reaching the small cottage on the outskirts of the village, they were ushered inside by a young lady who introduced herself as Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. With Kakashi safely tucked in to one of the bedrooms, Big Mac left and Fluttershy arrived, leaving the three genin to plot their next moves in the living room.

"So what do we do for now? Kakashi will be out of it for a few days right? Maybe we should have done more to help in that fight." Sakura said, looking rather concerned.

"I wasn't too keen on any of us getting close to Zabuza after that first disaster." Naruto grumbled, rubbing his mostly healed cheek.

"Nothing you had would stand up to him? I was beginning to think that armor of yours would never crack." Sasuke smirked, joking to cover his worry.

"I've got to stop relying on it really, it's a bad habit. Even at full strength it isn't impervious, what really bugs me though is that he broke the Bubble and my Wind Sword. I'm going to spend a lot of time making those stronger now." Naruto said, actually looking depressed.

"So what about Gato?" Sakura said, trying to get everyone back on topic. "With his trump card down he's going to get desperate to stop the bridge being built. Do we train up for when he attacks? Or do we help with the bridge, to push the timeframe forward."

"I don't know why you bother. You can't beat Gato, he's too strong!" Came a voice from the stairway, a young boy sat there giving the group his best glare.

"Kid, Gato is an untrained business man and an unmitigated coward, he isn't strong in any sense of the word. Just leave it to the heroes, this village will be free of him before you know it." Naruto bragged.

"There's no such thing as Heroes, you're only going to die, just like every other hero." The boy said, tears forming in his eyes.

"If that's the case, why don't you just run to Gato now? It's hopeless isn't it? Your grandpa can't win right? Maybe if you sell him out to Gato you can get a reward." Sasuke said, getting an elbow in the ribs from Sakura for being harsh.

"The difference between a hero and a villain, is at some point in everyone's life, they get a choice between doing the easy thing, and doing the right thing. At some point you have to decide what is important, where do you draw the line, and when you do, you either stand up to guys like Gato, or you cower away and become as bad as him for letting it happen." Naruto shrugged.

"The whole village let it happen. Gato killed my father right in front of them, and the whole damn village let it happen!" Inari yelled, turning around and rushing up the stairs.

The trio shared a sigh, and turned back to their planning.

"I guess it comes down to who do you think needs more time to prepare?" Sasuke said, plotting and scheming had become his thing during the past few months. "Our teacher is out for a few days at least, so we may want to delay helping on the bridge until he's awake. If Gato sees the project pick up speed he may attack right away."

"Um... I don't mean to interrupt, but Kakashi is awake..." Came a quiet voice from the doorway. "I wouldn't let him get out of bed, for his own good of course... but he says, 'Zabuza isn't dead, but it will take a while for him to recover.'" Fluttershy said, looking up at the genin for their reactions, which were understandably bleak.

"Well, that changes things, we need to push the bridge along. Gato won't attack until Zabuza is up, and Kakashi will get better quicker." Sasuke said.

"And how exactly do you three kids expect to speed up the bridge? I've been losing workers left and right since Gato started attacking, I'll be lucky if we're done within the month at this rate. If you went after Gato right now, maybe I could convince the villagers to start helping again once he's gone, but as long as he's still there,  I'm hopelessly understaffed." Tazuna said, leaning on the doorway to the kitchen.

"I can clone myself like one hundred times, if that helps." Naruto deadpanned.

"Well, you and I are going to have a long night kid, it's time for a crash course in bridge building."


O~O~O~O~O


The next morning found the trio being led to the bridge. They had argued about who should stay behind to guard the house and those inside, before agreeing that a few clones could do the job just fine. They passed through the village along the way and Naruto found it hard to focus on the job ahead.

"You're such a bleeding heart Naruto, you can help the village when Gato is taken care of." Sakura said, putting a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder.

The bridge itself was honestly quite impressive, a creation of steel and concrete that stretched out over open water. Down below several small boats floated, sinking foundations to build upon as workers lengthened the bridge from above. "Alright kid, you know what to do, disperse and go get to work." Tazuna said to the blonde, before gesturing at the other two genin. "You two are on guard duty, the attacks usually come from land, so staying back there is fine." He gestured aimlessly at the land behind him.

A massive cloud of smoke appeared as the bridge was flooded with a swarm of orange boys, they all scattered across the bridge with cries of enthusiasm and grabbed tools. The groups quickly found their niche, able to walk along the underside of the bridge to eliminate the use of scaffolding, and forming lines to pass tools and supplies to more qualified workers. The original Naruto paused, and then summoned Apple Bloom, he figured she'd at least get a kick out of seeing the bridge being built.

"Naruto! Ah did it! Ah Really Did It!" Came the call of the excited filly as she hopped around Naruto.

"Calm down Apple Bloom!" Naruto called, grabbing her by the tail before she could hop off the edge of the bridge.

"Whoa!" She cried, suddenly looking down at the water far below. "What the hay am I doin' all the way up here?"

"We're on a bridge. Now what's got you so excited?" Naruto asked, pulling her back onto safe footing.

"Ah got mah cutie mark! I did it!" She said, turning about to show it off. Sure enough, there on her flank was a bright red apple, with a hammer and saw crossed underneath it. "Isn't it cool? I finally got mah cutie mark!" she continued bouncing.

"That's great Apple Bloom! How did you get it?" Naruto asked, causing the filly to calm down again.

"Celestia came by ta see tha ship! There was this big ceremony, and she named the ship for us, and wished us the best of luck on our adventures. The next thing Ah know, Ah've got my cutie mark for building it!" She said proudly.

"Well, we always figured your talent was building things, so it's about time this happened." Naruto chuckled.

"No way! You knew? Why didn't ya tell me?" Apple Bloom said.

"We tried! I mean really, you fixed up that old tree house of yours, and you built that stage for the talent show. You've got more skill with a hammer than anypony I've ever seen!" Naruto said, seeing the look of realization come over the filly.

"So what about your friends? How are they taking the news?" Naruto said, changing the subject.

"They're happy for me, but I can tell they are a bit jealous. They've started working even harder at it. Scoots is eager to fly the ship when Twilight is done enchanting it, if Twilight ever decides its 'good enough'. She's also been getting karate lessons from Rainbow Dash." Apple Bloom said with a grin. "Sweetie has been writing a lot, and hanging out with Lyra. I hope she doesn't hate me now that I'm not a blank-flank like her."

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you, both of them will always be your friends. Tell Scootaloo I'd love to spar with her sometime, and Sweetie Belle I can't wait to hear what she's come up with." Naruto said, giving Apple Bloom a reassuring pat on the head. "Now, why don't I show you around the bridge."


O~O~O~O~O


The days passed quickly, and Kakashi was finally allowed out of bed by Fluttershy, on the condition that he take it easy. He agreed with the plan of pushing the bridge along, figuring it would force Gato into making a move. So far a few thugs had come by to intimidate the workers, but were quickly dealt with by Sasuke and Sakura before they could so much as pop a clone.

It was two days since their arrival that Fluttershy came to Naruto with a plan at sunrise. "Twilight spoke to Zecora about one of those books you gave her." The quiet pegasus said, "There should be some herbs around here that can help with recovering chakra."

"That sounds awesome, we can definitely speed up Kakashi's recovery with those. Where should we look?" He asked, already getting ready to face the day.

"Well they only bloom during the early morning, so we'll have to go now if we want to find any." She whispered, not wanting to wake the other genin. Naruto was almost out the door alread.

They walked in companionable silence for about a mile, until they arrived at a clearing, and set to work gathering laves from small flowering plants. About twenty minutes later they were interrupted.

"Ah, hello. I didn't expect anyone else to be here." Came a soft voice from the edge of the woods. Naruto looked up to see the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on. "I suppose you're collecting herbs as well?"

"That's right, is a friend of yours hurt? We've my team has been chasing off thugs all week, but I know things in town are rough as well." Naruto said, placing another handful of leaves into Fluttershy's saddlebags.

The girl eyed the pony with interest as she bent to pick a few leaves. "I don't approve of what he's done to this town." She said softly.

"I don't think anyone with a heart could. It's not the money, or the material goods he's taken from them that's so bad, sadly there are plenty of people like that in the world. What makes him a total monster is, he's taken the people's hope." Naruto said, picking another leaf. "Anyone who works for that guy is just as bad."

The girl gave a barely noticeable flinch. "Even bad guys have dreams you know. Some of them are quite worthy too."

"If you start with a worthy dream, but sell yourself to get it, you're no longer worthy of having such a dream." Naruto said, rising up and leading Fluttershy away.

"What is your dream then? What do you work towards, that you wouldn't give everything to achieve?" The girl asked, seeing him leave.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I'm going to become Hokage, so I can protect everyone who's precious to me, and bring peace to this struggling world. If I threw away my precious people, if I fed into this senseless violence and suffering, it would be worthless to achieve my dreams. I'll do this the hard way, or not at all. And there is no way I'm going to let myself fail." Naruto said, walking back towards the cottage.

"Such a strange boy." Fluttershy whispered, and Naruto fell flat on his face.


O~O~O~O~O


Days passed and the bridge was at 80% completion. Naruto had worked hard but the chakra toll had caught up with him. Kakashi was fully recovered, and had given Naruto permission to sleep in that morning. The rest of his team was at the bridge when Naruto awoke to sounds of a struggle. "Leave my mom alone!" came the cry of Inari, Tazuna's grandson. Naruto leaped out of bed, grabbing his gear quickly and heading for the door.

"Hey bro! Check it out! The kid want's to be a hero!" Came laughter from downstairs, "Show him what we do to heroes, we only need the mother."

"I don't want to hurt anyone." Came a monotonous reply.

"Dude, what's going on with you? I told you to kill the stupid animal, not have a staring contest with it!"

"I want to go home, and rethink my life." Said the same monotonous voice, followed by the sounds of a door shutting.

"Weak! You're weak! When I tell Gato you bailed on us we're going to hunt you down you hear me?"

Naruto burst down onto the main floor, catching the remaining thug by surprise. "What? Gato said the ninja would be at the bridge!"

"Gato says a lot of things." Naruto replied, angry at himself for almost letting everyone present get hurt. From the corner of his eye he saw Fluttershy was still there, shaking with fear in the corner of the room. Inari stood before his mother, kitchen knife in hand. The thug before him drew his sword and lunged, narrowly missing the orange genin. Naruto darted around him, sticking a tag to the man's chest as he passed.

"You wouldn't dare, you'll bring the house down on top of everyone!" He shouted, sweat running down his forehead. Naruto made a hand seal and the man screamed.

The tag made a muffled pop before unsealing its contents, several gallons of sticky taffy. The swordsman soon found himself disarmed and pinned to the floor in a sticky sweet mess. "Fluttershy, you did great, but you can go home now if you want to. Inari, you and your mother need to get into town and find somewhere safe." Naruto said, quickly making a few more hand seals.

With a poof of smoke, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stood before him. "Uh, I only called for Rainbow." He said, giving Pinkie an odd look. 

"I know, but my Pinkie sense told me I was needed, and I brought a bunch of those battery seals, so I can call in the cavalry." The pink pony grinned.

"Fine, go into town with Inari and his mother, get whoever you can to help protect it in case Gato's thugs attack, but please try to stay safe." Naruto sighed. "Dash, I need to get to the bridge in ten seconds flat."

The rainbow pony grinned. "Hop on!"

O~O~O~O~O

Sasuke was having a bad day. It started out alright, for the first time in weeks he wasn't woken up by Naruto at an ungodly hour, and today would be a slow day at the bridge without him there. It wasn't until he reached the bridge that things went south. With Sakura left to protect the bridge builder, he was caught up in the fake hunter ninja's trap all by himself. 'This doesn't seem physically possible.' he thought to himself, as he glanced at the mirrors around him. 

The hunter ninja could apparently manipulate ice, it was rare but not unheard of, some ninja clans up north did that as a staple of their ninjutsu. That the hunter ninja could fit himself inside a mirror too thin to hold him was another thing all together. Again, Sasuke was willing to suspend his disbelief, he himself could eventually call upon a bloodline rumored to have caused the first Hokage to curse the heavens about 'the most broken ,reality hacking bloodline to ever exist.' That quote was copied in golden lettering upon the walls of some of the clan's hidden chambers.

What really pissed him off, was that the ninja could apparently replace himself with any of his reflections within the mirrors at a moment's notice. Reflections. Not even physical things, simple creations of light projected upon polished frozen water molecules. Sasuke himself was wary of even using the replacement technique, for rumors of some sort of extra-dimensional mahogany demon that took a piece of your sanity each time you used it. At least mystic space logs had mass though, the technique that shamelessly abused reality before him was starting to grate on his nerves, and also fill him with needles.

He wanted to say it was watching the movements of his opponents that triggered his bloodline to awaken, or seeing the swarm of needles closing in on him for the kill. He wanted to say it was his enemy that caused his life to flash in front of his eyes, and for his eyes to turn red as he watched it happen in slow motion. But the truth was, it was a blue and orange and rainbow colored blur that smashed through one of the upper mirrors on the prison, that he watched in slow motion as it landed on the bridge. It was in excruciating detail that he saw the four legged speed demon land with enough force to shatter the concrete of the bridge, and then see the polychromatic dust cloud float upwards in a mushroom pattern. It was like moving through molasses, as he grimaced and raised his arms up to protect himself, as sound finally caught up to its arch nemesis, and the reverberating 'BOOM' blew the ice prison away like an opera singer in a greenhouse.

He stumbled to his feet to see Naruto get off his mount, and give it a hoof bump as it unsummoned. He wanted to yell at the blonde for being so risky, he wanted to rage at him for nearly throwing him off the bridge, he wanted to joke about how Naruto would probably fixing the bridge's first pot hole. Instead he shook it off and pulled out a few of the more irritating needles.

"You do realize, the hunter ninja was inside one of those mirrors." Sasuke said, moving forward as Naruto climbed out of the crater he had made. "I thought you had something against blowing people to bits."

"Aw c'mon Sasuke, you know it's never that easy to win. We still have to posture and brag, and the bad guys have to monologue, and we have to give our inspiring speech..." He trailed off, seeing a hand reach out of one of the larger ice fragments.

"Seriously, like, literally inside the mirror? Twilight would have a conniption if she were watching this. This breaks how many laws?" Naruto said, seeing the hunter pull his entire body out of a shard big small enough to wrap a belt around.

"He can substitute with any of his reflections, while he's inside the mirrors." Sasuke smirked, knowing Naruto would be as pissed about that as he was.

"Ow, my sanity points." Was the orange boy's response.

"So what's the plan? He thinks fire won't work." Sasuke said stepping forward.

"Shall we redefine 'fire' for him?" Naruto finished, getting behind him.

A few hand sings later and a grand fireball roared across the bridge. A wall of ice rose up in front of the hunter ninja. "I told you before, that won't-"

With a louder roar a massive ball of wind tore into the fire, the resulting heat was enough to vaporize the water and throw the masked boy backwards from the backdraft. Naruto squinted past the fire. "Going... going... Gone! Ring out! Nicely done Sasuke." He said, giving his friend a friendly fistbump.

"It's only temporary, what kind of ninja would let falling off a bridge into the turbulent water below stop him?" Sasuke replied, but returned the gesture anyways.

"Not a very good one." Came a stoic reply from their right. Their adversary had returned, a little singed, but stood proudly upon another plank of ice.

"How is it floating?" Asked Sasuke.

"Stop pointing these things out! My sanity can't take much more!" Naruto cried.

They were both interrupted by the sound of birds coming from across the bridge. "Master Zabuza!" The masked ninja cried and rushed towards a dimly glowing light. The fog cleared to reveal the sword wielding ninja completely disabled, and Kakashi closing in for the kill with a fist full of lightning. At the last moment Naruto turned to look away, as the hunter ninja leapt forward, and took the blow for his master.

"Haku..." Zabuza said, still pinned by many dogs. "You should have ran. I'll soon succumb to my injuries anyways."

"Then I shall continue to serve... In the afterlife." The masked boy replied.

Their touching display of loyalty was interrupted by the sounds of clapping at the far end of the bridge. "How wonderful, such a lovely display of affection between master and servant, reminds me of so many plays. It's only a shame they didn't kill you first, but at least you spared me the need to pay them."

"Gato, I presume." Said Kakashi, stepping up to block the man and his many followers from reaching Tazuna.

"That's right, I'm here to see the job finished myself, I figured a hundred men could do what these two failures couldn't." The short man replied with a sneer.

"Naruto, those wind shuriken would be useful here." Sasuke muttered.

"I know... but I don't really want to kill them." Naruto said, caught up for the first time in his  beliefs.

"They're bandits, the punishment for that is death. Even if capture them alive..." Sasuke said.

"We can drive them off..." Naruto suggested.

"Back into wave? Or into the ocean so they can drown at sea? Even if they go somewhere else, they just become someone else's problem."

"Damn it Sasuke what do you want me to do?" Naruto cried.

"Make it as quick and painless as possible, then work at fixing all the terrible things they've done. We're pruning dead branches here." Sasuke said, drawing his sword and reactivating his newly acquired sharingan.

The crowd had begun to move forward, and had taken less than ten steps before an arrow landed before them.  The thugs paused to look for where the shot came from, until one of them pointed up. "There! Up in the sky!"

A massive ship dove from the cloud cover, flying through the air on a pair of bright orange wings. On board, holding on for dear life, was most of the population of the village, as well as several brightly colored ponies. Apple Bloom scurried about securing ropes as Scootaloo manned the helm, the steering wheel had been altered so that when airborne the wings on the boat moved when she moved her own. Towards the front middle of the ship Sweetie Belle stood on a box, shouting orders to her impromptu crew.

As the ship pulled out of its dive it swooped over the bridge, between the ninja and the mob of dumbstruck thugs. "Ready the cannons on the port side! Fire all batteries!" She yelled and the villagers ran to obey. Several wooden panels on the side of the ship dropped down, and odd looking cannons were revealed, with a tug of their fuse string blasts of purple energy shot forward, striking at random in to the crowd. This was the last straw for the mob, who's morale broke and they began to flee. The cannon fire continued and barely 10 of the original hundred men escaped into the woods.

With a flap of her wings Scootaloo maneuvered the ship off the bridge and down onto the water. The ninja and genin ran down to the shore as the villagers lowered the gangplank and moved out to greet them. "Captain Sweetie Belle of the E.S. Ixion, reporting in!" Came the voice of a little white filly, as she strode down the plank. Kakashi noticed the reverence an respect the villagers were giving the little filly.

"Sweetie Belle, excellent timing, I love the ship. But what are you doing here?" Naruto said, rushing forward to see his friend. She immediately dropped the formal attitutde.

"Isn't it great? Pinkie said you were calling in the cavalry, so we volunteered to bring our ship! Twilight really set us up! Scootaloo makes a great helmsmare, doesn't she? She got her cutie mark on our first voyage a few days ago!" She said, jumping about in excitement. Naruto looked up and sure enough the little orange filly was proudly sporting a ship's steering wheel over a pair of stylized wings.

"I knew I'd get my cutie mark for flying." She said with a smirk.

"So what happened to the thugs you blasted?" Kakashi interrupted, genuinely curious about the boat before him.

"The cannons are hooked up to the central magic crystal." Sweetie said, remembering what Twilight told them. "I can change them to cast different spells that are already enchanted to the crystal. We used the teleporting one, to move the bad guys into the jail."

"The brig!" Corrected Apple Bloom from somewhere on deck.

"Right, well, we'll need to relieve you of them. " Said Kakashi with an eye smile. The little filly captain nodded and the villagers stood aside.


O~O~O~O~O


It took quite a bit of discussion, but the villagers agreed to keep the captured thugs in an old prison that had fallen out of use during Gato's reign. Many of those working for the man had done so out of desperation, with Gato being the only job in the region that paid good money for quite some time. They would serve a few years before rejoining the community and their families.

Gato himself was publicly executed, a fact which never reached the pony community, but failed to bother Naruto as much as expected. He himself was not present at the execution, instead he lead a large team of clones to raid Gato's 'fortress' for resources the town could use. The newly elected mayor of the village gladly accepted what he could find, and vowed to put it towards restoration projects.

With more than enough volunteers now working to complete the bridge, Naruto found himself with enough time for one more project.

"Stallions and Mares, Fillies and Gentle-colts, I stand before you not as your summoner, but as your friend. I have come across a village that had, until recently, lost all of its hope. Until recently they had been locked in a desolate winter, with no hope of recovery. Their town is run down, their food supplies are at an all time low. I ask you now as a friend to help me welcome back spring for them, I ask you, as one village to another, to help them get back on their feet, and find the same spirit that exists within the community of Ponyville."

A resounding cheer went up through the population of Ponyville. And with a massive poof of smoke they all were brought to wave. It was hard on Naruto, to sustain this many ponies, but so long as his chakra was not used for anything else, he could keep it up for a day of work. 

Pinkie Pie had confided in him that it took way more chakra than she had been expecting to summon the 'Ixion'. Apparently summoning inanimate objects, those not carried by the creature you're calling upon, took exponentially more chakra. It would take a week of storing chakra, like he had with Pinkie Pie, or tapping into a larger source, before he could summon the ship and its crew again.

He looked about as the ponies scattered about the village, already at work clearing debris and repaving roads. Earth ponies plowed fields and planted seeds, unicorns worked with pegasi fixing damaged buildings. Soon enough the villagers who hadn't gone to work on the bridge joined in alongside them. He noticed Glimmer working alongside a few other ponies, it seemed she had really been accepted into the community, he could only wonder idly if there were others like her among those summons hard at work.

By the time the day was done, the village looked brighter, and full of even more hope. and the bridge was a few stones away from finishing. They woke at dawn the next day, prepared to place the final stone in the bridge and be on their way. There was little ceremony to it, although they did agree to name it the 'Great Naruto Bridge', for all the orange ninja had done for their community.

With the sun still rising over the horizon the team started their journey home, Naruto already relaxing upon his favored vapor-formed chariot. Sasuke gave a few complaints about not flying the Ixion back to Konoha, but Naruto promised him he'd use the ship in whatever stunt he pulled after becoming chuunin.

> Road to Higher Rankings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Team seven made great time getting back to Konoha, reaching the gates with enough time to spare in the day that the genin were given time off. Kakash went to file the official reports, and request that the mission be made at least 'A' rank. Naruto decided to check on his friends on the other teams, Sasuke and Sakura excused themselves, citing other responsibilities.

Taking to the air, Naruto floated over the training grounds, looking for familiar shapes below. The first group he spotted was team 8, and he swooped down to greet them. "Kiba! Hinata! Shino!" He called, dropping down off his cloud when he was 10 feet from the ground. 

"It's rude to watch people training, Naruto." Kiba growled, catching Naruto offguard.

"Oi, you aren't still mad about that time I replaced Akamaru with Pinkie's alligator under a transformation technique, are you?" Naruto said, scratching his head.

"Even I must admit I found your reaction to that humorous." Said Shino.

"Kiba's just been working hard on his clan techniques. We've heard that the chuunin exam is in Konoha this year." Provided Hinata, trying to diffuse the sudden tension between Naruto and her teammate.

"Relax dog-boy, I was just stopping by to tell you guys I'm back from my first C rank mission."  Naruto said, to mixed responses. Shino welcomed him back, Hinata congratulated him on the milestone, and Kiba scoffed.

"We've been on three in the time you've been gone. I even took down fifteen bandits myself." He boasted.

Naruto ignored him, trying not to think of what 'take down' meant to the boy. "Ah well, you know how missions can be, you leave on a C rank, get attacked by chuunin level missing ninja, and then have to face an A rank and fake hunter ninja. Suddenly the mission is A ranked, and you have to bring a hundred thugs to justice just to get a bridge done." Naruto shrugged. "That sort of thing takes a bit of time to accomplish."

Hinata's face filled with a mixture of worry and awe, Kiba seemed to get even more angry, Shino was Shino. It was their sensei who broke the silence. "Lying about missions is not a good habit to get into Naruto, I seriously doubt even someone as irresponsible as Kakashi would bring genin along with him if the mission became A rank."

"A condescending attitude is the sign of a bad teacher, and I don't appreciate being called a liar. Nor do I appreciate you slandering my teacher, considering you just made jounin yourself." Naruto bristled, he was used to getting attitudes like this from civilians, but to consider someone he may fight alongside would act this way.

"Kakashi is a pervert, that spends more time with his head in a book or staring at a monument, than he does training his students. Everyone knows that." Kurenai countered.

"A true ninja looks underneath the underneath. If I wanted abuse I'd talk to civilians. Have a good day you three." Naruto said, turning and hopping back onto his cloud.

The next group he dropped by was team 10, as a joke he fiddled with his cloud, making it resemble his own head as he floated over their training ground. Even from up high he could swear he heard Shikamaru grumbling about 'troublesome blondes'. Drifting down until his cloudy visage could easily be seen grinning down on them, he paused for a moment. Sure enough, "Naruto! I know it's you up there, get down here." Came the voice of their female team member.

A messy blonde head of hair popped out the side of the cloud. "Oh, Hey again! I'm sorry I forgot your name."

"Ino! It's Ino Yamanaka! How can you keep forgetting who I am?" She shouted up at him. "Anyways, get down here you're being rude."

"Alright alright, calm down." He muttered, hopping down from his perch. "I just wanted to say 'hey, I'm back from my C rank mission.' "

"Yeah, and we've done two while you've been gone. What took you so long." Chouji said, stepping forward.

Naruto had to twitch at that. "The mission got bumped up a few ranks, the old fart we were escorting had a hit out on him." He shrugged. "Where's your teacher anyways?"

"We're a pretty laid back team, most days we just do teamwork exercises then go to get barbeque. Anyways, you really just got back now? I bumped into one of your summons the other day." Shikamaru said, from his spot in the shade.

"Oh yeah? Which one?" He said, genuinely confused.

"She was grey, with blonde hair and... weird eyes." He gestured weirdly around his head. "I found her asking my family's deer for directions. I think she was trying to deliver something to you?"

"Ah, that'd be Derpy, she's a bit odd but a good pony, thanks I'll go find her." He nodded to the trio and poofed out to Equestria.


O~O~O~O~O


Ponyville was the same as it always was, as Naruto set about finding the mailmare. He wasn't searching long when he heard "Naruto! This One was wondering when This One would see you again."

Recognizing the speech pattern, he turned to greet his latest friend. "Glimmer, great to see you again. How are things, are you adjusting to Ponyville?"

"This One has found everything desired within the confines of this village. This One has made wonderful, accepting friends, who even now share with This One their love." Glimmer said, falling into step beside the boy.

"That is great news, I'm certain there would be room as well, if you have family that wished to join you. " Naruto said knowingly, seeing the unicorn turn her head to the side and look away.

Up ahead he saw just the pegasus he was looking for leave a bakery, muffin in tow. "Derpy! Hey! I've been looking for you!"

"Naruto! I've been looking for you too!... but I forget why." She said, looking glum. 

"That's alright, I'm glad you made it back to Equestria alright, I heard you were in Kon-"

"Glimmer!" Derpy yelled, dashing past Naruto and glomping the coal black unicorn, much to the latter's embarrassment.

"I heard you were in Konoha." Naruto continued, as the grey mailmare continued to nuzzle the overwhelmed not-a-changeling.

"Oh, that's right! I have a package for you! Sorry I didn't get it to you right away, I couldn't find you and the two-horned unicorns wouldn't tell me where you were." She said, turning to rummage through her saddlebags. "Nope, Nope, Not it, Oh a muffin, Nope, Nope, Nope." She said, throwing packages and letters out of her bag, which Glimmer struggled to catch in a pile for her. "Aha! Here it is, no charge for postage, sorry again it's late."

Naruto took the offered package and thanked the mare as she took to the sky again. Glimmer ran after her, levitating the mail she had left behind. Shaking his head Naruto left Equestria, and went to find a spot to open the package.


O~O~O~O~O


The package was covered in nondescript brown paper, bound with ordinary twine.  Naruto sat on the top of the Hokage monument, looking it over. "To Naruto Uzumaki" was written on it in block letters.	He had no idea who would have sent the package, but decided to open it anyways, whatever he was expecting, this wasn't it.

It was a box, dark lacquered wood with a stylized D on the top. Sitting next to it was a note:

	Naruto,
I've been hearing a lot about you lately, rumor has it you are one interesting person. That's a good thing, I like interesting, ordinary is so boring don't you think? It always pays to think outside the box, and I think you are someone who really appreciates that. You are an element of Change, Naruto, much like me, and like the elements of Harmony, we should stick together, so I've decided to keep an eye on you. You won't understand this gift at first, but I'll be seeing you soon enough.
D.

Puzzled by the odd note, Naruto opened the box. Inside sitting in the middle of a red velvet cushion was a single marble eye. As he gazed into it he got the unmistakable feeling that the eye was looking into him. He made to shut the lid of the box, but before he could do so, the marble eye blinked, and was gone.

Not knowing what to make of it, he put the note into the box and brought it home.


O~O~O~O~O


As months passed and nothing happened to Naruto, the mysterious package was pushed to the back of his mind. Questioning Derpy gave no results, as she simply picked up the package from the mail station. Training continued, and soon enough the time for the chuunin exams rolled around.

Kakashi arrived late to the meeting as usual, none of the jounin present expected otherwise, although some were annoyed. "This brings us to our final order of business." he leveled a glare at the tardy jounin. "Nominations."

"It goes without saying, my team will be entering." Kakashi replied evenly.

"Your team hasn't been out of the academy for more than a year! I know entering while it's in Konoha will be safer, but honestly-" Kurenai's objection was quickly cut off.

"I know your opinion of me. You think I'm unfit to be a teacher right?" Kakashi replied.

"This isn't a personal attack on you, people die in those exams." Kurenai argued.

"Ninja die every time they leave the village. I have confidence that I trained my students well, they are all gifted ninja and will pass with flying colors. That's all there is to it."

"Yosh! Then I shall enter my youthful team in these exams as well! I have no doubt that mine shall triumph against the team of my hip rival!" Came the boisterous voice of Gai.

"I believe mine are ready as well." Came Asuma's relaxed response.

Everyone's eyes turned to Kurenai, and she felt pressure on her to say something. She knew what they were thinking, 'She was the only jounin instructor from this year not nominating her team?' 'Did she not train them? Simply because they all have clans?' 'She's a genjutsu specialist, she must not know anything else to teach.' "I nominate my team as well. They are all talented clan heirs, they will do fine."

The look she received from the Hokage made her cringe. It was one of crushing disappointment. "Very well, your nominations are all accepted, the exam begins in one week."


O~O~O~O~O


The cutie mark crusaders were in Konoha for the day. They had begged and pleaded with Pinkie until she used one of the chakra batteries to summon them. She was already at work creating a gateway so that other ponies could do it without pestering her. It was bad enough that Derpy would fly in all the time to ask to get summoned, and then get distracted by the baked goods present at her work.

Naruto had the week off, as the chuunin exams were coming up, and was spending the day hanging out with Konohamaru and his two new classmates. The two trios had serious friction, with Konohamaru and Apple Bloom butting heads over almost everything, eventually Naruto got them to agree on playing hide and seek, and it was Naruto's time to find them. Finding Scootaloo was easy enough.

"What the hell? What's this stupid looking horse doing here?" Came a voice from a nearby alleyway. Naruto ran forward to investigate.

"Who are you calling a stupid looking horse you make-up wearing idiot?" Was Scootaloo's oh so diplomatic reply. There was a reason Sweetie Belle was captain and not her.

Naruto rounded the corner in time to see the two begin fighting, and actually had to laugh at the sight of Scootaloo holding her own for a few seconds, she had really taken Rainbow Dash's lessons to heart. Still, the foreign ninja was a genin, here for the chuunin exams, and it showed as he quickly closed in with a right hook she had no chance of dodging. Naruto moved to intercept but was beaten to it by a green blur.

"Please calm down my youthful friends, your flames of excitement, though admirable, are likely to draw unforeseen consequences." Said the boy. He was wearing a green spandex suit, and had a hideous bowl cut hairdo, with massive eyebrows.

"What the hell, do you want some too?" Said the boy in cat pajamas.

"Kankuro, enough." Came a calm voice from a nearby tree, a redheaded boy with a large gourd on his back.

"Yes, brother." Kankuro replied, voice now shaking with fright.

"Hey! Sorry about all this, she's my responsiblity. We didn't mean to go picking fights, right Scootaloo?" Naruto said, rushing forward. The filly had the good grace to look ashamed.

"Yeah, sorry about bumping into you." she said.

"This is your... summon?" The redhead said, eyeing the creature carefully.

"That's right. I'm Naruto, I'll be in the chuunin exams in a few days."

"I am called Gaara. Mother has taken an interest in you Naruto, don't drop out of the exams, or I'll have to come find you." With that the boy turned and disappeared in a swirl of sand.

"Thanks for stepping in, I'd hate for Scootaloo to get hurt." Naruto said to the green clad boy. Odd looking though he was, he knew better than to judge on appearances, and he seemed to be a good person.

"I'm Lee, and I am impressed by her courage and enthusiasm, I take it she is attempting to become a ninja summon?" The boy replied.

"I would, but I don't seem to have any chakra, Celestia isn't certain any pony does." Scootaloo replied, looking down.

"Fear not my little pony, I have become the ninja I am today without the use of any chakra at all, and using purely taijutsu I shall become an even greater ninja than I am today by merit of hard work!" The boy was shouting by the end of his speech, drawing the attention of most of the market.

Scootaloo, it's worth noting, had a bad habit of hero worship. "Teach me! You can teach me to be a ninja! Like you! I'll work super hard I promise!"

The boy was struck speechless for a moment before recovering with even more enthusiasm. "Yosh! Let us be off then, Master Gai will no doubt have a training schedule for you to start on while I am in the chuunin exams. It will be tough, but I'm certain you'll become a ninja to make ponies everywhere green with envy!"

Before Naruto could get a word in edgewise, the two were off in a blur, leaving a dust trail down the market road.


O~O~O~O~O


At long last the day had arrived, Naruto and Sasuke stood ready outside the academy. "You know, the CMC once suggested I try and tame a Cerberus as a pet." Naruto said, seemingly out of nowhere. "I only mention it because they suggested I could keep it in a spare room in the academy. Sweetie suggested I name it fluffy, as if that would make it nicer."

Sasuke shook his head, now familiar with the CMC and their antics. "Beast taming?" He suggested.

"Nah, they just thought I needed a pet. I mean even Princess Celestia has a phoenix." Naruto laughed.

Sasuke actually looked envious about that.

"I do have plans to see if I can wrangle a timber wolf next time zap apple season comes." Naruto continued, Sasuke nodded like he understood even a fraction of what had just been said.

"Hey guys, we ready to do this?" Sakura shouted, running up to meet her teammates.

"You cut your hair." Sasuke noted.

"Yeah, it's been a long time coming huh?" Sakura joked.

"It looks good." The boy said, not giving any emotion behind the comment. Sakura did look good though, the months of hard work had really developed her body from scrawny teenager to lean fighting machine, the hair was the last thing between her old self and the soon-to-be chuunin.

The entered the academy together, Sasuke's eyes picked up the genjutsu immediately, and the trio quietly slipped past the crowd to the upper floor. Coming face to face with the bowl cut boy from a few days ago. "Guys, let me introduce you to Lee, a personal hero of mine." Naruto said with a bow to the green clad boy.

His teammates were used to the odd behavior, the boys teammates however, were not. "How can this idiot be anyone's hero, he was dead last in his class and can't even use chakra."

"And yet he's here, taking the chuunin exams, an I'm sure he'll kick some major ass, against ninja that don't have that handicap." Sasuke said, catching on to what Naruto meant, and nodded his head to the boy as well.

"You're his teammate, and you put him down like this? Who are you to say stuff like that, you probably have one special skill you rely on, probably throwing weapons judging by the storage scrolls you keep on you. When you hit an opponent who negates that, then what? People like you shouldn't harass people like him." Sakura added in, giving the green boy a full bow, which caused little hearts to appear in his eyes.

"Maybe she doesn't have the right to say it, but I do, Lee is a loser, he is fated to lose, just as prodigies like me are fated to win." Said Lee's long haired teammate. "It disgusts me to see the last Uchiha reduced to such a level."

"If you mean I'm not like my brother, I'll take it as a compliment. The good thing about being the last Uchiha though, is that I can do as I please, say what I please, and respect who I please. I've got no strings to hold me down. You, I don't respect people like you. I can tell from your attitude, you have talent, and you think that it makes you better than everyone around you. You think its Fate being cruel, that someone so awesome is stuck in a branch clan, where the main branch can make you bark like a dog." Sasuke said, putting on his best disgusted scowl.

Naruto shook his head at his friend's antics, he was a good guy, but he could be such a jerk sometimes. Sure what he said made sense, but putting it that way was just going to start a fight. "I look forward to fighting you, Sasuke Uchiha, one prodigy to another." the Hyuuga said through clenched teeth.

Team seven moved away, and headed over to the door to the first exam room. Kakashi appeared to give them a last minute pep talk, and then the way was clear. Naruto gave Sasuke a small smirk, and then transformed into him. Sasuke shook his head at his teammates antics, and then transformed into a copy of the blonde.

The trio entered the room, and Naruto, in disguise, was immediately glomped by Ino. "You made it! Long time no see cutie!" She squealed, pressing up against it. The grin on his face seemed disturbingly out of place to the real Sasuke.

"Ino! I didn't know you cared!" Naruto replied with a smirk, letting the transformation drop. This got a few laughs out of their friends, as Ino sputtered in disbelief.

"You guys should quiet down, some of the other contestants are getting annoyed." A silver haired boy  said, stepping towards the group.

"Like I care." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

"That's a good attitude to have, you must be confident. This is my seventh time taking the exam, they really aren't designed for support types like me, but I have plenty of information on them. I keep them on these Ninja Info Cards." He said, pulling out a deck.

"Do you have a catchy song about them?" Naruto asked, again for no apparent reason.

"No. It never occurred to me to make one." Kabuto deadpanned. "If you agree to help me out, I'll share some info with you."

Team seven did a quick huddle, then decided since Kabuto was a Konoha ninja, it was worth making the deal.

"I want info on Gaara, from the Suna team." Naruto said. Kabuto flipped over a card and showed a multitude of impressive stats, from several A rank missions completed to interesting details such as "Has never come back from a mission hurt."

Sasuke went next "The Hyuuga, on RockLee's team."

"Let's see, Neji Hyuuga, Branch Family, lots of C ranks completed, hailed as a prodigy in clan techniques, he's the nephew of the clan head. Not much more info on him it seems, clans tend to be protective of this sort of thing." Kabuto said.

Sakura opted to save her question for later.

Neji stepped forward, to question the silver haired genin. "I don't speak for my team, but I'll take any info you have on Naruto Uzumaki."

Kabuto shrugged and pulled up the card. "Naruto Uzumaki, clanless. Several C ranks, an A rank, and an S rank? That's a surprise. Several defensive techniques, mastery of air element, capable of flight? Holds a summoning contract." Kabuto gave the orange boy an appraising look, Neji looked murderous.

"How does a clanless loser accomplish all of that?" he asked, narrowing his white eyes on Naruto.

"Ask your teammate, it's no real secret." Naruto replied.

Sakura next asked about competing teams, and who would be a good target, which prompted a small scuffle with a sound team.  A scuffle that was witnessed by several teams.

'Naruto is here, good, I am interested to see if he will validate my existance.'

'An Uzumaki... A real live Uzumaki...'

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Came a voice from the front of the room, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. "The First Exam is beginning now, there will be no more fighting or I'll throw you out. Everyone line up and take a number, the first exam is a written test!"

Naruto's confidence evaporated like a cloud in a heat wave. He was doomed.

> Complications and Setbacks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Naruto sat in silent contemplation as Ibiki, Konoha's head of the Torture and Interrogation department, explained the rules to the test. Ten questions, one hour to complete them, start with 1 point, lose one for each question wrong, lose two for each time caught cheating. Naruto groaned and put his head down, Twilight Sparkle would kill him, but in the past few months he hadn't been keeping up with the book work. The test before him was nothing like the genin exam, he doubted even Sakura could answer some of them with ease, still he only needed one answer to pass right? As long as he didn't get a zero, his team could continue.

He glanced over each question, searching for one he may know the answer to, but no luck. Everything here was beyond him. Calculating the flight path of a kunai thrown with x force from y height with a wind strength of z in a 64 degree south by southwest direction. Who the heck could do that? That sort of thing comes with instinct on the battlefield. He mentally grumbled before considering his other options.

He could cheat. He needed a solid answer to one question, and he was damn sure there were people in the class already doing it, in fact...

'Thump' a kunai imbedded itself in the paper of a boy down his row. "Numbers 33, 65, and 87. You are disqualified." Ibiki shouted, and the team was 'escorted' out of the exam room. Naruto started to sweat at this, he didn't want to get his team disqualified, but it was that or wait for the final question, and that was likely the same as all the others. Still, if he was going to cheat... An idea formed in his head, which he quickly planned out and began to concentrate. This would need to be done quickly.

The examiners shot to attention as the exam hall filled with smoke, with narrowed eyes they noted the room had gotten a lot more crowded, specifically with many copies of Neji Hyuuga. One stood behind the seat of every genin in the room, aside from Neji himself, and gazed over their shoulders at their tests. Many genin covered their work, others, like Naruto, quickly dispelled their peeping clone. Within seconds the pressure cooker of a room became a riot.

The room filled with even more smoke as the clones struggled with the actual genin, when every clone had disappeared, sakura and sasuke's being last with a knowing smirk, the genin began to complain. "How is that guy not disqualified!" "That was the most blatant thievery I've ever seen!" "You can't tell me that only count's as one offense! I could just punch out the guy next to me and take his test if that's the case."

"Shut up!" Came Ibiki's booming response, silencing the room. "I have reason to believe those clones did not belong to that genin. Likely they were used by someone who wanted to both gain answers and have him disqualified. For that I commend the one responsible. However, since I have no proof either way, you should all continue working, there is only 30 minutes left in the test." His glare booked no room for argument, and the genin returned to work.

Naruto was busy sorting through the memories he'd gained from his stunt, a little sad that Neji was not disqualified, but relieved that bushy brows would continue on as well. Most of what he got as far as information goes was bits and pieces, his teammates helped fill in the gaps, immediately knowing only one person who'd spam clones as an answer to everything. With their help he put together four of the simpler questions, and decided to wait for the final question.

The final question was a disaster. Choose to take it and risk being a genin forever, or go home and try again next year. Already hands were being raised around the room, faster and faster as the hysteria mounted. Finally Naruto put his foot down. "I don't care. Give me that question if you think it's so scary. I might fail, I might be a genin forever, but that just means I'll be the first genin to ever make Hokage." He yelled, stunning the room into silence.

"You've got guts kid, but-" CRASH! Ibiki's response was cut off as a black shape came flying through the window, unfurling itself into a banner proclaiming 'The Second Exam's Super Sexy Instructor Anko Miterashi!'. The woman responsible struck a pose that had many males in the room drooling.

"You're way too early." Ibiki growled, "I haven't even given the final question yet." he turned to look around the stunned room. "Anyone else quitting? No? Fine, you all pass, get the hell out of here." He turned to walk away.

"Hey what about the last question?" someone yelled.

"That was the last question, sometimes you have to risk your life on a mission where there's not enough info. This whole test was on information gathering, seeing if you could gather knowledge without the enemy knowing it. But sometimes that just isn't enough." He grumbled. "Now get a move on, the second exam starts soon."


O~O~O~O~O


Team 7 stood outside their gate to the massive forest, training ground 44, 'the forest of death'. Naruto had summoned some of his friends to let them know he passed the first test, as expected Twilight was furious with him for cheating, even though it was part of what they were being tested on.

Upon seeing the upcoming testing area, they all quickly agreed it was 'the everfree forest x100', aside from Dash, who insisted it would be just like a Daring Doo novel. Despite this, Twilight and Applejack insisted they come along for this leg of the exam, and Dash did too, only after leaving to get her Daring Do costume. Naruto had to admit it went well with her flak jacket, Rarity had probably made it for her as well. Fluttershy had fainted upon seeing the warning signs on the gate, Rarity had grimaced at the thought of all the filth contained within, and Naruto insisted upon keeping Pinkie as a trump card.

"Alright, we have three days to find another team, take a heaven scroll from them, and get to the tower. I memorized the map, we should be near a river, which will likely draw a lot of teams in, but also be heavily trapped. The alternative is making our way towards the tower directly, as we get closer the odds on finding a team get higher." Sasuke said, as they waited for the gates to open. They had decided on the 'buddy system' with Dash supporting Sasuke, AJ supporting Sakura, and Twilight supporting Naruto.

"Let's get close to the tower and set up a base of operations." Sakura agreed, getting nods from those present. With that, the buzzer went off, and the team shot into the forest. Years of competing in the 'running of the leaves' and various 'iron pony' marathons helped the ponies keep decent pace with the genin, and within an hour they had gotten far enough in to slow down.

"Oh man this place is so cool, this is just like the jungles in Daring Doo. Do you think there's giant tigers? Or Pony-eating plants? Oh, or quicksand, do you think there's quicksand?" Rainbow Dash rambled on as they hiked farther into the underbrush. Working with the ponies meant they couldn't use tree walking to go quicker, so the trio agreed to find a clearing and set up their base at the edge.

It was four hours in to the first day that they finally spotted a usable area, a wide clearing giving room for AJ and Dash to maneuver, either on the ground or in the air. Naruto called up dozens of clones to saturate the area in traps, while the others worked on building a shelter. There was some argument among the team as to what a 'shelter' entailed, Twilight could call up many amenities with her magic, but they would no doubt draw in predators, human or otherwise. Instead they stuck with the basics of digging out a hovel under the roots of a massive tree, and lining it with sleeping mats and hay for resting.

Naruto was soon finished with the traps, and came to sit with the others around a small cooking fire. "Alright, I think we should keep the scroll in Equestria, for safe keeping." The others gave him an odd look. "There's nothing in the rules that we have to keep the scrolls on us the whole time. We just need to have them when we reach the tower right? I doubt anyone here can take our scroll from Twilight's library." With some discussion they agreed to it, and Twilight left and returned without the scroll.

"I think we should break up into teams and scout the area, don't fight any teams you find, but see what you can see. Keep anything useful in mind, same teams as when travelling sound good?" Sakura suggested, already getting up with Applejack in tow. "Not that I dislike apples, if that's all we have for the next three days, I wouldn't mind catching some fish."

"Right, me and Twilight will head north then, meet back here in two hours?" Naruto said, already standing to leave. He paused a moment, remembering he should explain the safe routes through his traps. That being done, the six broke off and went their separate ways.


O~O~O~O~O


Sakura was the first to find anything useful, reaching a shallow river and setting up a fishing pole. She could have used kunai, like a proper ninja, but she felt like taking a small break after working so hard all day. With a smile to the pony next to her, she let the line out into the water, hooking up a bell to let her know when she caught something. Within minutes she got a bite, in more ways than one.

Two attackers leaped from the underbrush, darting in towards the seemingly unaware pair of females. As the first closed in on the pony, he was caught off guard by a pair of hooves suddenly connected to both a pair of strong legs, and his chest. He was flung back towards the tree line as the orange pony pulled out a rope.

The second attacker closed in on Sakura, leading the two into a rather intense close combat fight, with the assaulter swinging out with a pair of kunai. Sakura back peddled as she dodged, closer and closer to the river, counter her steps she began water walking once the river was underfoot. Her assailant made a misstep, his right foot falling into the water and causing him to lose his balance, Sakura capitalized with an uppercut, and the second boy was out cold. With both stripped of supplies and left tied to a nearby tree, the bell rang signaling a bite on the line.

Disappointingly neither Kusa boy was carrying a scroll, but Sakura and Applejack returned to the shelter with their spoils anyways.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke and Dash stuck to the treetops, the latter flying along keeping pace as they looked down for any unsuspecting prey. Well... Sasuke looked for prey, Rainbow was recounting the play by play of the latest Daring Doo novel, which sounded similar to the stories his brother used to tell him before bed. His musings were cut off by a scream from below, and he made to creep closer to investigate.

The prismatic pony had no such hesitation, and dove down through the foliage before he could urge her to wait. At her cry of "What the Hay is an Ursa Minor doing here?" Sasuke leapt down to join her. Surely enough it was not an Ursa Minor, he'd heard the stories of how massive bears made out of stars actually existed in Equestria, and this was merely a common brown bear. A common brown bear the size of a two story house, but a brown bear none the less.

Rainbow dash dove in at it, delivering hard hoof kicks across its face and sides, as it turned and tried to swat her away. Sasuke drew his sword and charged it with lightning chakra with a hiss, rushing in to support his winged friend. With a flip and a bounce off of the bear's right arm, as it came around to swipe at the cyan pegasus, Sasuke launched himself to head level, and brought his sword down on the creature's neck. The blade failed to cut deep past the toughened hide, but the shock of the lightning chakra passing into the beast sent it into a daze, in a heartbeat Dash was there grabbing Sasuke's arm, and tossing him skyward. The genin reached the peak of the toss, and let the downward momentum flow into a heel drop, slamming down with concussive force upon the bear's skull, sending it down for an early hibernation.

Rainbow Dash's cheers of celebration were lost on the boy, as he spotted the object of the bear's wrath. A red headed girl from kusa was half hidden under the roots of a tree. "Are you alright?" Sasuke said, berating himself for spending too much time around Naruto. He should have asked about the scroll first.

"I have an earth scroll." The girl practically whispered in response, shocking Sasuke. "I got separated from my teammates. I don't... I don't want to die for this stupid exam, just take my scroll." She was practically in tears as Sasuke drew closer. He had no idea how to deal with a crying girl, and sparing a glance at his pegasus companion, neither did she.

"Take it easy, I don't need an earth scroll anyways. I'm Sasuke by the way." He said, trying to force a smile onto his face. He really really hated when girls started crying.

If anything this made her eyes widen with fear and caused her to look around, as if they'd suddenly be attacked for him saying his name. She seemed to calm down after a moment. "You're on the team with the Uzumaki aren't you? Please, can you take me to him? You can take my scroll, as a backup or something, I just need to speak with him."

The sudden request caught him off guard, and he found himself nodding dumbly along with it, whatever the odd girl wanted, she seemed to be harmless. He quickly took her scroll and bound her hands, the standard action for taking prisoners, and she held no objections. Within moments the trio were headed back to the base camp.

The others were back when they got there, Dash was already bragging to Applejack about taking down an Ursa Minor, much to Twilight's dismay. "Oi, Sasuke, when I said 'bring back anything useful', this isn't what I meant." Naruto joked, seeing the prisoner.

"I can be useful Uzumaki, I promise!" The girl said, suddenly looking terrified.

"Okay... What exactly is going on?" Naruto asked, motioning for them all to come sit by the fire.

"Are you really an Uzumaki?" The girl asked quietly, when they were all seated.

"As far as I know. I never knew my parents, every time I ask who they were I just get vague answers, but I've had this last name all my life, why?" Naruto asked.

"When Uzu was destroyed, the Uzumaki clan was largely wiped out. Those that remained were scattered across the countries like nomads, eventually the name sort of... died out. But I remember my mother telling me I'd inherited special chakra from the Uzumaki. That makes us distant relatives. It makes me Karin Uzumaki." She said softly.

"Family? You're my family?" Naruto asked, stunned by the revelation. He never expected to find actual relatives, especially not in here in this forest.

"When I was a child my village was wiped out. I managed to survive because I could sense them coming, but I was left an orphan. I was taken in and trained as a ninja of Kusa after that." Karin said.

"She's lying." Applejack deadpanned. "Not about bein' family, she's as much your family as Braeburn is mine. If I had to venture, I'd say she's never been to Kusa."

The girl seemed to hesitate a moment, "Fine. I was taken in by a monster, he trained me to be a ninja and he sent me here on a mission. I never thought I'd find another family member."

"What mission?" Sasuke pressed.

"I can't tell you. I don't know for certain what he wants, but we need to keep moving, and split up. I'll go with Sasuke, you two go another way, and we can meet at the tower. I'll turn myself in, I'll tell everything I know to Konoha, we just need to get to the tower." She pleaded.

"I'll take Karin with me." Naruto said, and Karin exhaled in relief. "She isn't lying.  This is important. If whoever this 'monster' is has plans for Konoha we need to report it. If that means we fail the exams we can try again next year."

His teammates shared a look and nodded, the camp was quickly disassembled and the ponies unsummoned, they would need to travel quicker than they could keep up with. In minutes the team scattered, darting into the forest towards the tower. Twenty minutes in, Karin slowed to a stop with Naruto. "We should be safe now." She said, catching her breath.

"Just a few minutes ago we were all in danger. What's going on?" Naruto asked.

"You were in danger as long as you were with him." Karin answered cryptically.

"What's going on? Why is Sasuke in danger?" Naruto demanded.

"He has plans for him, he won't kill your friend, but he'd kill you if you were there when he showed up!" She said, quickly getting hysterical.

"I have to go help them, they're my teammates, they're my family!" Naruto said, trying to push past the girl.

"And you're mine! I can't stand to think of losing you when I finally found family again. Please, don't do this." She pleaded. Naruto ignored her and leapt off into the encroaching darkness of dusk, she shook her head and followed after.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke was on his last legs, whoever this grass ninja was, he was no genin, everything he had pulled on him had been dodged with casual ease, as if he was simply being tested. His red eyes spun franticly attempting to keep him just a single step ahead of certain death as his sword clashed in sloppy parries against his opponent's blade. A blade that had been regurgitated from the man, as if he were a circus performer.

Sasuke had never liked the circus, too many creepy people like this guy, and clowns, clowns were evil. It's amazing the thought processes that can occur when fighting for one's life, probably caused by too many blows to the head. Another such blow followed and Sasuke found himself dazed against a tree. The grass ninja grinned and lunged forward, exposing two elongated fangs. 

Panic overwhelmed Sasuke, he didn't want to be a vampire. He still had nightmares after the time Naruto stole his shirt and covered him in glitter. That stuff was nearly impossible to get off, and acted like catnip for fan girls. He had sparkled in direct sunlight for almost a week. Regrettably he lacked the ability to fight any longer, and pain engulfed him as the teeth punctured his neck.

A loud whirring noise interrupted his final train of thought as one of Naruto's wind expanded shuriken tore through the canopy and the grass ninja like a metaphorical sharp thing through a metaphorical soft thing. Too many hits to the head indeed. The opponent, however, turned out to be a replaced mud clone, as had been the case for the entire fight so far.

"You alright Sasuke?" Came the boisterous voice of Naruto, hopefully a shadow clone since he was giving away his position.

"Wooden stake to the heart!" Came Sasuke's less than coherent response, as he finally passed out from the pain.

The clone who shouted burst immediately, and the grass ninja was assaulted by three more very deadly wind shuriken, he dodged nimbly to the side, not noticing the faint purple glow upon the metal. As the ninja continued on his course through the trees, attempting to find his elusive prey, the shuriken changed direction, curving, turning, even stopping and reversing as they homed in and harried their target. From a nearby branch Twilight Sparkle sweated with concentration, her horn glowing in a soft light as she directed the assault on the enemy ninja.

Naruto, seeing the target bat away his most deadly technique, and having no desire to go toe to toe with the grass ninja using his wind blade, decided to bring out the big guns. With a massive flare of chakra he performed the summoning technique, just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

"What Manner of Creature Doth Threaten Mine Adopted Foal! Speak Cretin! I Shall Suffer No Cowards Within Mine Presence!" Came the voice from the smoke. Naruto quickly filled her in on the situation, as he had been filled in by Karin on the way. "Loathsome Snake! Show Thyself At Once! There Shall Be No Occasion Tonight For Thou To Spread Thy Poison!" She turned, glancing calmly into the shadows of the forest. "Night Is Our Dominion, Shadows Shall Offer You No Harbor." A forked bolt of lightning shot from her horn, decimating several branches as it passed through towards the forest floor.

Naruto leapt down to where Sasuke was laying, quickly checking his friend over. He appeared to be fairly hurt, and running a fever, the bite mark was already bruising. In the background he could hear the fight going well for Princess Luna, her booming voice ever present among the sounds of a violent storm. Karin leapt to the branch, supporting a tired looking Sakura. "I fixed her up as best I could." She said, still looking guilty.

"Can you do the same for Sasuke?" Naruto asked, he'd be angry with her later, they needed to survive the night first.

"Chakra based healing only lowers the chance of survival. That bite mark will turn into a seal, which will naturally store a portion of all the chakra he produces. It increases recovery time slightly, but gives him an extra fuel tank for emergencies." Karin explained having seen notes on the seal working as one of Orochimaru's personal medics.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Sakura asked. "Aside from the low survival rate I mean."

"It does things, to the subject's mind. It makes the user more aggressive and temperamental, it makes them fixate on something that bothers them and obsess over it. Eventually, those that use it too much, go insane." Karin said.

"And then require a 1000 year vacation on the moon to calm down. The Nightmare works in similar ways, and I have felt the effects first hand. While it has been sealed away within me, not a day goes by that it does not tempt me with its release." Luna said, approaching the group. Orochimaru had fled into the night, his task having been accomplished.

"Can the elements of harmony seal this away as well?" Twilight asked, having teleported from her hiding place nearby. 

"We shall have to wait until the foal wakes up, but it definitely merits an attempt." The Princess nodded, and together the group left to find shelter for the night. Luna again impressed them all, when in a display of earth pony magic twisted a large tree into a building similar to Twilight's library, with room inside for all of them.

"While my sister and I are strong enough to move the heavens, we did not neglect to study the magic of our people." She replied, seeing their dumbstruck faces. "The moon is already high in Equestria's sky, I shall safeguard the night here, until dawn."

Dawn came far too soon for those in the tree, and though Naruto was tempted to summon Celestia to watch over them, he instead decided on summoning several ponies, to prepare for the day ahead. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were present, all wearing the elements of harmony ,that they had fetched the night before. 

Twilight had come up with a barrier spell, and confirmed with Pinkie Pie that it would work on ninja seals. As long as Sasuke didn't purposely break the seal from the outside, whatever mind altering properties existed within the seal would remain locked away. The seal itself was inspired by Luna, who gave Twilight pointers based on the flaws she found on her own self imposed prison. In her case the Elements of Harmony suppressed the Nightmare enough for her own will to hold it down. All those present agreed that the will of a 12 year old human, even one such as Sasuke, was not enough to have faith in. The design Twilight came up with was elegant and effective, and would require the full force of the elements of harmony to apply.

Sasuke lay on a mat before them, making good progress in recovering. At Karin's warning that he'd be quite violent upon awaking, Naruto stood inside with the ponies, to subdue his teammate if needed. Karin stood on hand for medical treatment, in case something went wrong.

Sakura was outside on guard duty, while she was worried about both her teammates, she had confidence in their abilities to sort it out. With her were the cutie mark crusaders, who tagged along to see the elements in action, but were forced to wait outside. At the moment  they were bickering among themselves about Sweetie's continued lack of a cutie mark.

Almost simultaneously two things happened. A team of sound ninja leapt from cover to attack Sakura, and a massive wave of malicious chakra poured out of the tree behind her. "We're here for Sasuke Uchiha." Came the gruff voice of the bandaged genin ahead of her.

Sakura dropped into a taijutsu stance. "Come and take him."

> Worth Fighting For
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The bandaged genin exploded into action, rushing headlong at the pink haired ninja, arm cocked back to swing. Sakura responded by closing the gap and engaging him in a close combat battle, dodging and feinting in attempt to land a solid hit. In practice she was the middle ground between Sasuke's speed and Naruto's endurance, but in raw strength even Kakashi had moments of envy. Her opportunity came as Scootaloo joined the fray, sweeping in low with a double back kick to the enemy ninja's shin. He dodged, but the distraction allowed her a quick palm strike to the head, which was quickly followed by a combo of strikes to his upper torso, the finale, a leaping round house kick to the head, was blocked by the strange device on his arm.

All at once a sense of vertigo overwhelmed her, and she had to jump back to regain her bearings. "This device produces a sound, so high pitched you cannot hear it, but it effects your inner ear, with a little bit of chakra, you lose your balance." He said, likely grinning against the coverings on his face.

"It's a stupid policy, to tell the enemy your tricks." Sakura grunted, as the ground steadied underfoot. Scootaloo got into position next to her, ready again to be of assistance.

"Zaku, take out that damn orange thing, it's getting in my way." The bandaged man grunted, again darting towards Sakura, who was hard pressed to defend while focusing on her balance.

The other male genin, Zaku, dashed in to strike at Scootaloo, who put up a valiant effort in keeping pace with him, Gai's training sessions had already begun to pay off. She leapt airborne, little wings giving her hang time as she prepared for a drop kick, at the same time Zaku brought his plam out towards her, and she noticed the glint of metal in his palm. "Decapitating Air Wave." He said with a twisted smile.

With a blur of movement Scootaloo found herself being pushed down towards the ground, at the same time a blast of wind scoured the trees above of leaves. The blur turned out to be a ninja in green spandex, with one hand gently placed on Scootaloo's head, and the other clutching the genin's arm. "Well done so far my little pony friend. Let us show these sound ninja our flames of youth." He said, giving her a quick thumbs up and smile.

He rounded on the genin in his grasp, as Zaku moved his other arm into firing position, and immediately dodged and countered, leading into a several hit combo. He finished with a jumping straight kick to Zaku's chest, sending him crashing into the foliage at the end of the clearing. Scootaloo looked on with starry eyes.

Sakura fought passed the nauseating effects of her opponent and countered a barrage of punches with a sweep kick, which the bandaged genin quickly leapt over. He underestimated her speed, however when she decked him with a haymaker before he could turn around. He landed with a thunk, sliding down a now cracked tree to lay next to Zaku.

"Dosu, quit messing around, turn up the volume and lets finish these guys." Said the female of the group, throwing a barrage of needles at her opponents, Sakura tried to retaliate with shuriken of her own, but her vision went crazy the moment they hit her hand. At her feet she noticed bells attached to the needles. Ahead of her she got the blurry image of Zaku, raising both arms towards the two genin and filly.


O~O~O~O~O


"Ah wish we could help." Apple Bloom said, seeing Sakura and Scootaloo working hard to defend the tree.

"I know, but we'll get in the way if we try and help either group." Sweetie Belle said, watching as Sakura suddenly backed off.

"This device produces a sound, so high pitched you cannot hear it, but it effects your inner ear, with a little bit of chakra, you lose your balance." The scary looking human said.

"That's it!" Sweetie Belle said, leaping up and heading for the tree house.

"What's it? We ain't s'posed to go in there!" Apple Bloom said, following the white unicorn filly inside.

"You know how I've been taking lessons with Lyra? On music?" Sweetie Belle said, as they snuck about the edge of the room towards Pinkie Pie's saddle bag.

"Yeah, yer tryin' ta get yer cutie mark in singing right?" Apple Bloom replied quietly as they scooted along the wall.

"Well she was teaching me about harmonics, how certain sounds can complement each other, making them stronger. We also learned about Distortion. That's when a sound interferes with another and cancels it out. You can also use one sound to overpower another." Sweetie Belle said, rummaging around in the saddlebags.

"So what?" Apple Bloom said, coming over to help.

"Help me find a set of speakers, and a microphone. Pinkie has all of her party supplies in these seals, but they should be labeled." Sweetie replied. The two of them worked away at sorting through piles of papers, ignoring the battle that raged within the room. At last they found one labeled 'sound system', and rushed outside with it.

A quick application of some chakra from a battery seal, and several speakers and a microphone appeared. "How do ya know what kind of sound to make?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I don't, but I haven't been taking lessons for nothing." Sweetie Belle said, turning on the mic and cranking up the volume. What followed was a song so truly amazing that those present would swear it was the greatest song they ever heard, and to this day only a rough tribute to its glory has ever been recorded. The sound waves immediately overwhelmed those produced by the bells, and even those generated within the sound gauntlet.

Freed from their sound based afflictions, and inspired by the amazing music behind them, the two genin and a filly rushed their attackers, Lee ducked the first, and then leapt a second barrage of compressed air. Now in close combat he let fly with years of speed training, raining blows on his opponent while deflecting any attempts at aiming the deadly pressure cannons at him. In a display of brutality he bent low, sending a kick to Zaku's jaw, and leaving the boy airborne. In a blur of speed he leapt up behind the boy and wrapped him in his arm bandages, then spun the captured genin into the ground, leaving him buried head first in the mossy loam of the forest floor.

Scootaloo, not to be out done by her latest idol, rushed the female sound ninja. The filly struck with several leaping strikes, dancing around rather clumsy attempts by the genin to hit the smaller target. The girl leapt backwards, pulling out more needles as Scootaloo was forced on the defensive, dodging the sharpened instruments.

Without the aid of his sound gauntlet, Dosu was heavily outmatched. Sakura closed in with a flurry of sweeping kicks that had him hard pressed to do anything but back peddle. With a cry Sakura lunged with a right hay maker, charging chakra to her fist like she had practiced, as expected Dosu blocked with his gauntlet. There was a reverberation of sound heard even over the music, as Sakura released the chakra, shattering the delicate components within and knocking everyone in the clearing off their feet.

"Enough!" The female sound genin yelled over the noise. "Take the damn scroll, we've had enough. Let's go guys!" She said, tossing a while 'Heaven' scroll to the floor of the clearing, and helping a still dazed Zaku to his feet. The three of them beat a hasty retreat into the forest, just as Sweetie Belle's song finished.

Before Sakura could collect the scroll, another blur shot forward, revealing Neji, who scooped up the scroll and put it into a pouch. "Good work Lee." He said calmly.

"What the hay do you mean good work? He was just helpin' us out! Give us back that scroll!" Apple Bloom shouted at the white eyed thief.

"You would have lost that fight if not for Lee's assistance, we'll take this scroll as payment." Neji said coldly.

"Why of all the no good low down double crossing..." Apple Bloom began, storming forward. She was halted when a kunai drove itself handle deep into the dirt before her. Neji's other teammate made herself known in one of the upper branches.

"You should consider yourself lucky we don't eliminate you while you are weakened. I wish to... humiliate your teammates in front of all of Konoha, not in some dark forest where no one would see it." Neji continued, leveling a glare at Sakura and the ponies.

Sakura's hand twitched, a strong part of her wanted to pound the thief's smug face through several trees. Her inner voice spouted obscenities at his entire lineage, her blood boiled as thoughts of grabbing him by his ankles, and beating his scrawny female teammate with him filled her mind. She had won that fight, had protected her friends and won their place in the next round, and now that was all taken away. She wanted to yell and scream and shout, and so she decided to act a little rashly for once.

Neji turned towards his female teammate, taking the scroll and tossing it towards her "Seal this in one of your scrolls." he called, turning back around to face the pink haired genin. He was confident Lee would stop her if she chose to act with his back turned.  He failed to notice Lee was busy giving advice to the little orange summon. So when Neji turned around, he was met with a gloved fist, flying with enough force to break his nose.

Neji went flying backwards off his feet, and while the shock lasted Sakura pulled her legs up, before vaulting off his stomach an diving for the scroll. A hail of kunai struck her, just as she pulled the scroll lose to her, but she managed to protect any vital areas on her body. With no course of action left she drove her forehead down upon Tenten's, and tumbled out of the tree.

"You've made yourself a serious enemy." Came Neji's voice, sounding wonky through his broken nose. "I was willing to let your team walk away from this, but we will take that scroll from you, here and now, and you will not be advancing past this exam."

Sakura flinched, from where she lay on the ground, curled protectively over the white scroll.

O~O~O~O~O

Sasuke awoke with a surge of chakra that nearly knocked over everyone present. It was a dark purple color, and swirled around him like a living creature, lashing out at nearby objects. "Sasuke... are you alright?" Called Naruto from a safe distance.

"I've never felt better." Came his response, the grin on his face suggesting otherwise. He turned to face Naruto and the 6 ponies present, red eyes spinning lazily as dark markings began to crawl across his skin. "This much power... I could do anything I want with this much power. I could kill him... I could kill him so very easily."

"You don't want to kill him, remember? Not unless he comes after your family again." Naruto reminded him, already getting ready for the fight he knew was coming. The ponies took a step backwards, as Twilight encased them within a shield.

"My family is Dead! He murdered every single one! I'll never hear my father tell me he's proud of me, because my Brother took him away!" Saskue yelled, bristling with the urge to fight.

"Get a hold of yourself Sasuke, that isn't you talking. I thought you were stronger than this!" Naruto taunted.

"I'll show you my strength right now!" Sasuke yelled, lunging towards the blonde. They had had the foresight to take away any tools he'd have on him in advance, leaving the two only able to brawl with hands and feet. Even so the tree house took damage as the two boys went all out. Sasuke held nothing back, and Naruto knew he'd need to wear him down before the ponies could do their thing.

Sasuke cried out in rage as Naruto hit a wall hard and came back swinging, his Shining Armor taking the brunt of the blow. Focusing for a moment Sasuke pulled the miasma of tainted chakra around himself, gathering it together until it formed a cloak of armor around him. Where Naruto's armor was a sharply defined blue, a testament of its solid nature, Sasuke's was a polluted purple, and clung to him like shadows.

"I really hate those infernal eyes." Naruto muttered, knowing that Sasuke had just copied the basis of his technique. From somewhere outside music began, as the fight resumed in earnest. The two went blow for blow, wailing on each other and coming back for more like unyielding forces of nature.

Still, the black haired boy didn't possess Naruto's endurance, and after a very prolonged struggle, Naruto had him on the ropes.  The orange boy flew in with a flurry of hits that had Sasuke curling up to endure, when suddenly a loud "NOW!" pierced the air. Naruto jumped, just in time for a beam of solid light to slam into Sasuke like a train. His armor was ripped away an shattered like a physical presence, as the light pinned him to the far wall, before coalescing around his upper shoulder. With a final hoarse scream the light blinked out, and he slumped forwards, gasping for air.

"Thanks..." he muttered, as Naruto helped him into a sitting position, "I couldn't think straight, I wanted so many terrible things. I was willing to do so many terrible things to get them."

"It's alright now Sasuke, it's all sealed away, you never have to use that power again if you don't want to." Naruto said, trying to comfort his friend.

"I already feel the urge to use it, there in the back of my mind. I feel so weak without it now." He said, rubbing his neck where the seal was still sore. Karin brought over a mirror so he could look at it, while Twilight explained what was done.

"Karin explained how the seal works. It takes in a bit of your chakra over time, generally not a noticeable amount, but enough that when you need it, a sizable reserve of chakra is there for you. The downside is that the stored chakra is converted into something more... potent. You get a very noticeable burst of power when you use it, but it comes with a sort of taint that effects your brain chemistry. It'll make you more aggressive, among other undesirable traits. Cruelty, Deceit, Treachery, Greed. That sort of thing." Twilight said, letting Sasuke get a good look at it.

On his shoulder sat a rather intricate design, it was an ornate circle, with the phases of the moon arrayed like hours on a clock. In the middle was empty space. "I based the design off of suggestions from Princess Luna. When the seal is totally closed, as it is now, the inner circle is empty, as if it was a full moon. As you open the seal, more and more of the circle becomes shaded in, like what would happen during an eclipse. This allows for more and more of the chakra to enter your system, if you need it. Overcoming the urges that come with using the seal can be done, Luna technically has no seal on her taint, but keeps it suppressed through sheer force of will, as I believe you will be able to as well one day, so long as you take it slow."

Sasuke nodded, letting Naruto help himself up, outside the music had stopped. The group decided to check on the others, and as one headed for the doorway. They arrived outside in time to see Neji's teammate hit the floor, with a very hurt Sakura landing near her, clutching a scroll. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ran towards the group in a panic.

"Sweetie! Your flank!" Rarity gasped, upon the little white unicorn's flank was a bright pink heart, with ornate microphone inside.

"Never mind that! That white eyed boy and the girl just came and stole the scroll that Sakura worked so hard for!" Sweetie cried, urging for her sister to do something.

"Yeah, Sakura got it back but now she's really hurt!" Apple Bloom added.

"You've made yourself a serious enemy." Came Neji's voice, sounding wonky through his broken nose. "I was willing to let your team walk away from this, but we will take that scroll from you, here and now, and you will not be advancing past this exam."

Neji glared down at Sakura, who merely tightened her grip on the scroll and refused to give in, and activated his bloodline. Without having to turn around, he could now see what awaited him for that decision.

In front of the large tree stood 6 ponies, 3 fillies, and two genin. Behind them, clinging to every surface in the nearby forest, was an army of orange. "Neji!" came the booming cry of over a hundred Narutos. "You'll have to go through us!"

> Ponies Parties and Preliminaries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Neji stared down the force assembled before him. He did not dare make a move as he weighed the odds, even as a red haired kusa ninja grabbed Sakura and leaped her over to the tree house. Karin quickly removed the kunai that remained in the pink haired girl's arms and legs, before offering her arm to the girl. "Bite down, just like before." She urged, and the Konoha genin obeyed.

"What you tried to do here was low, Neji." Naruto said, stepping forward from the assembled forces.

"You would not have gotten that scroll if not for Lee's help." Neji replied, feigning a calm he did not feel.

"I'm willing to bet Lee didn't help us out expecting to get a scroll." Saskue said, stepping up to Naruo's side. He still felt weak, and didn't want to use his new seal until he stopped craving it, but he could still fight.

"Regardless, you owe your safety to our team." Came the voice of Neji's female teammate, sporting a bruised forehead.

"And for that I'll give you the opportunity to leave, and the chance to seek your ticket onwards in this exam elsewhere. Who knows, this forest may have sleeping babies you can rob, or old ladies you can mug." Naruto called, seeing Neji flinch in anger once again.

"Neji! Master Gai would be disappointed, betraying allies when it becomes convenient is not how we act as Konoha ninja!" Lee called, rushing to his teammates side.

"You've wasted enough time here Lee. We only harm Konoha by letting weak genin reach the finals,  I suppose I can stick to my original plan though. I look forward to facing you before the entire village." Neji said snidely, and the team turned to leave.

"Should we really just let them go?" Sasuke said, still feeling the urge to fight.

"Lee did help us out, it would have sucked if those sound ninja interfered with the sealing." Naruto said. "Besides, I hope one of us gets to fight that jerk in the finals, like he said."

They were soon joined by Karin, and a now healed Sakura, and began discussing their next course of action. They agreed that Twilight would take their latest scroll to Ponyville as well for safe keeping, and then plan a party for Sweetie Belle getting her cutie mark. The genin would continue on to the tower, and Karin would turn herself in for interrogation. Despite what she had taken part in, Naruto was hesitant to leave her alone with someone like Ibiki, but the others insisted that as long as she cooperated nothing that bad would happen.

The group of ponies and genin made decent time, marching as one large group caravan. The ponies had insisted on staying, since the genin couldn't leave to go to Sweetie's Party, they'd have to have it at the tower. Sasuke idly wondered how those running the exam would take it, but decided it would be nothing if not entertaining to watch. Naruto had clones running ahead to scout the area, and through cooperation with them they avoided any traps. There were not ambushed, though probably on merit of being such a large group, Pinkie had pulled out her 'instrument' and was giving the group marching music.

It was nearly dusk when they reached the tower, putting them a day ahead of the deadline. The scrolls were opened and Iruka appeared, shocked to discover four genin and nine ponies staring back at him. He quickly explained what was to happen next, which included giving the genin team a room to stay in, which Pinkie Pie immediately left to set up the party in.

They explained about Karin, who offered her absolute surrender and cooperation on one condition. "I'd like to attend their party first."

To their surprise Anko agreed to 'supervise', and demanded that they move the party from their room to the cafeteria. Pinkie obliged, and a liberal application of the party cannon later, things were getting into full swing. Vinyl Scratch once again agreed to DJ, setting up her sound system in the corner. Pinkie also set up a karaoke machine, so Sweetie Belle could show off her talent. Anko was caught trying to spike the punch, but stopped when Applejack offered her a case of hard apple cider. She exclaimed watching several ponies do a dance routine to a karaoke song that she'd genjutsu less surreal.

As the party wore on, other genin teams arrived to see what was going on. The party was soon joined by Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, who reacted in different ways. Hinata immidiately grabbed a cinnamon bun and began talking with several of the ponies, Shino remained his aloof self, but seemed to be holding a quiet conversation with Glimmer. Kiba tried everything he could think of to get Anko to part with some of her cider.

The sand siblings arrived soon after, to investigate the source of the noise. They were caught off guard when the moment they entered the room began to cheer. It had been agreed upon that since they were celebration not only Sweetie's cutie mark appearing, but also the passing of the second test, every genin present was a guest of honor.

Kankuro was a little annoyed that his presence was met with cheers of "na na na na na na na na CAT MAN!" by several of the younger ponies that ran about underfoot, but was willing to ignore it to enjoy the food.

Temari quickly went to join the line for Karaoke, and was approached by Rarity about 'Suna fashion'. Soon enough they were discussing all sorts of trends, and Rarity was taking down information on the blonde girl's sizes.

Gaara was overwhelmed. The room was filled with other genin and brightly colored ponies, the music was loud and the singing was admittedly quite good. He sampled some of the food and found it quite enjoyable. He was at a party. A party thrown, at least partially, for him. He was broken out of his thoughts as he saw one of the ponies, a small white one with a horn, climbing up on the table. He'd seen the larger ponies giving food or drink from the tables to the smaller ones all night, but this one seemed determined to get some for herself.

Sure enough the pony in question slipped, and began to teeter towards the edge of the table. She let out a squeak as she fell out over open space. Without realizing what he was doing the little white filly was caught in a cushion of sand, and floated over in front of the red haired boy, who gave her a curious look.

From the other side of the room Temari's blood froze. It was such an enjoyable night, and now Gaara was going to ruin it. The singing would turn to screaming, there would probably be a stampede, and she'd likely never get those amazing clothes. All because of her socially awkward little brother.

"Thanks!" The little filly chirped happily. "I guess I should be more careful!" She noticed the boy stayed quiet, so she decided to continue. "Your cutie mark is on your forehead? That's kind of cool I guess, better than your flank, since humans always wear pants. What's yours mean?"

Gaara was again caught off guard, a feeling he didn't quite like, and he moved to touch the tattoo on his forehead. "Love... It means love." He said, almost whispering.

"That's really cool! Love is such an awesome talent to have. I just got mine today, my special talent is singing." The filly yammered on, not noticing the odd look the red haired boy now had. "I'm Sweetie Belle by the way, what's your name?"

"Gaara..." Said the human.

"Well Gaara, it's nice to meet you! I should go tell my sister I made a new friend!" she said, turning and hopping off the sand cloud and trotting merrily across the room while Gaara was stunned by her comment.

"A friend..." He whispered to himself, absently grabbing another cup of punch.

The party wore down a few hours later, leaving several of the ponies behind to pack up. Apple Bloom was left trying to play peace-maker as Sweetie and Scootaloo argued over which of their human friends was cooler. "Gaara's brother wears make up and cat pajamas!" Scootaloo said, stifling a yawn.

"Lee's teammate is a huge meanie!" Sweetie Belle countered sleepily.

"I'll bet Lee can run even faster than Applejack!" Scootaloo said, not able to suppress the yawn.

"Gaara can probably make the coolest sandcastles ever!" Sweetie said, blinking a lot.

Within moments the two were asleep, alongside Apple Bloom, under one of the cafeteria tables. 


O~O~O~O~O


The next morning arrived and team seven took their time getting up. This was their day of rest before whatever the next phase of the exams were. Gathering their things they went down to the main hall with minutes to spare before the deadline. Shikamaru and his team were already there. "Hey, you three missed a great party last night!" Naruto called out to them.

"We heard all about it from Pinkie Pie, she set up her welcome wagon at the entrance of the tower." Chouji said, pulling out what may have been his last bag of chips for the competition. "We pulled Ino out of the way of the confetti cannon though."

"Why'd you do that?" Naruto whined.

"It was full of cake batter!" Ino looked more than a little upset.

Sakura shrugged. "It's tradition. Ready for the next round Ino?" she asked, actually pleased that her old friend was present.

"If I have to fight you it'll be an easy win, forehead." Ino replied, more on instinct than with any malicious undertones.

They were interrupted again as the doors opened for a final time. Neji and Lee walked in, followed by Tenten, who was attempting to clean the cake batter off of her. Shortly after, Kabuto entered, also doused in batter but looking more sheepish than anything else. Team seven was treated to cold looks from Neji, a nod from Lee, and a grumble about 'pink pincushions' from Tenten.

After a quick speech from the Hokage, they were informed that there would be a preliminary round. The electronic scoreboard whirred to life and selected the first two names, both Naruto and Sasuke had their fingers crossed hoping for Neji. 

The  genin moved to the stands to spectate, along with a whole host of ponies that Naruto summoned up, knowing they wouldn't want to miss this. Naruto asked the Third if he should summon Celestia to watch, but he replied that it wouldn't be wise to waste the chakra, if he didn't plan on using her to fight his opponent, the genin present all sweat dropped as Naruto seemed to consider it.

From up on the stands Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo began arguing once more about their favorite humans, aside from Naruto of course, he was the best as Apple Bloom constantly reminded them. 

Kabuto took the opportunity to quit, saying that he was too exhausted to continue, and the board began to randomly select their opponents. First up was Sasuke, versus some Konoha genin named Yoroi. The Uchiha boy merely shrugged and hopped down into the ring, feeling a little more rested than he had the other day, and raring to go for a fight. As usual, the occasion called for prefight banter.

"So, what's your gimmick?" Sasuke asked casually, as the referee got into position.

"My what?" The boy across from him asked.

"You know, most genin here have a single trick that they're relying on to get them through the exams, for some reason most genin don't tend to diversify." Sasuke said, shrugging as some of the genin in the stands blushed.

"You'll see firsthand soon enough." He said, signaling that he was ready. The referee backed off, and Yoroi charged in, hands out as if to grapple. A quick check from Sasuke's sharingan showed that they were charged with chakra. Sasuke shook his head in disappointment and drew his sword, watching as his opponent immediately leapt away.

"Honestly, this is embarrassing.  You really don't have a way to deal with weapon users?" He asked calmly as he now chased his opponent around the room. "You figured what? You'd make chuunin because against taijustsu specialists you have some sort of trump card? You don't even have some clever way of closing in on long range specialists do you? Lets test that theory."

He leapt back, sheathing his sword and pulling out a brace of four kunai. Sasuke sighed, seeing his opponent revert to his original tactic of 'run head long at the opponent.' With a careless toss he threw the kunai, watching with disinterest as they stuck into the ground when his opponent dodged. Raising a chakra laced hand upwards he let fly with the forked lighting. Rather than letting all the chakra go in one burst he poured on the energy, letting it flow out like a Tesla Coil through his opponent. He kept it up for about ten seconds, before cutting the flow and returning to the balcony.

"I feel cheated, why couldn't I fight someone competent." He asked, leaning against the railing.

"Sasuke, what is that on your shoulder?" Kakashi asked, only now noticing his student's new tattoo.

"Ah right, we should have briefed the Hokage on what happened in the forest huh?" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

"Probably, but we got distracted with that party. We can do so after this, Karin should be done in interrogation soon." Sakura replied, watching Shino win an easy match against Zaku, and Kankuro decimate another 'gimmicky' Konoha ninja.

Kakashi was totally lost, not knowing who this Karin even was, but figured the Hokage already knew what was going on. His desire to go check in with the Third was quashed when Sakura's name came up on the screen. "Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka."

"You ready to do this Ino?" Sakura asked, having leaped down into the ring to meet her opponent. She was sort of looking forward to this fight. Ino had been her closest friend for a while, before they had a falling out over Sasuke. In all honesty Sakura hadn't thought of that crush in a long time, working alongside the boy and earning his respect had left her realizing he wasn't some prize to be won by looking pretty.

Ino gave a condescending snort, "You really let yourself go haven't you forehead. Look at you, you've gained weight, you cut your hair, your clothing is a mess, and you don't even wear makeup. It's like you've given up on winning Sasuke all together. I guess some girls just aren't cut out to be a ninja."

The referee began the fight and leapt away, already feeling the heat between the two girls. With speed far beyond what Ino was capable of, Sakura closed the distance into close combat. Ino was immediately on the defensive after quickly realizing how badly even a blocked hit stung. Still the blonde put up a valiant effort, and dodged a high kick with a nimble back flip. As Sakura moved to pursue she found herself caught on the floor. Looking down she saw a paper tag in the ground, right in the middle of her shadow.

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Ino said, getting distance and preparing he signature technique.

"This hardly seems fair." Sakura grumbled, trying to force her body to move, while her upper body was still in her control, everything below the waste was locked down hard by the chakra tag.

"It was prepared in advance, it's no worse than an exploding tag you can buy from a store." Ino justified, running through several hand seals.

In a surge of adrenalin Sakura punched downwards, using her chakra to shatter the floor around her. The tag ripped, freeing her from its influence, and she flipped up a broken tile in time to block Ino's chakra based attack. Still unconscious from her failed ability, Ino couldn't dodge when the tile was kicked at her by the pink haired girl, leaving it to shatter on impact and render her unconscious.

Sakura returned to her spot on the balcony, to nods of respect from her teammates. The next match gave a humiliating loss to Tenten, as the weapon spamming girl was met with an opponent who negated long ranged attacks. The girl suffered a cracked spine from Temari, a wind user with a fan, and would have received much worse injuries if not for Lee stepping in to catch her.

Shikamaru lazily outwitted the sound ninja Kin, and finally came Naruto's turn to face down Kiba. He leaped down into the ring, to the cheers of Fluttershy, Rarity, and the cutie mark crusaders. Fluttershy paused in her excited "yay~ and woohoo~'s" and noticed the lack of other ponies. She turned to ask Rarity about the missing friends.

"Oh, I'm certain they're setting up for 'that' plan. This should be entertaining." Rarity said, moving up to get a better view.

"So Kiba, want to do this one on one? Or are you going to bring Akamaru in on this?" Naruto taunted.

"Hah, Akamaru and I are partners, 'unsportmanship' is an excuse for non-ninja." Kiba said, with his dog barking in agreement.

"Fine then, Presenting the Hero of Ponyville!" Naruto said, posing dramatically.

"Oh my, he isn't..." Apple Bloom said, leaning closer to the railings.

"The defender of the weak, the protector of the innocent!" Naruto shouted, getting a few grins from his friends.

"He is, he's really going to..." Scootaloo said, looking excited.

"The preserver of the peace! The Mysterious Mare Do Well!" With a final cry and a poof of smoke, a single pony in a costume stood before the audience of genin, and took a bow.

"A pony superhero? I'm so scared." Kiba taunted, and got into a stance. The referee checked that they were both ready, and began the match. Kiba charged forward, closing in on the costumed pony, attempting to knock it back to Equestria, and then finish off Naruto. Before he could get close, however, it vanished in a blast of purple light. He was forced on the defensive as a hail of shuriken came from Naruto, he dodged as best he could, but the small stars of metal changed their course, homing in on them with an eerie purple glow.

Akamaru leapt into action, harrying the costumed pony around the arena as it teleported away, buying Kiba precious moments to evade the flying metal, while he dealt with Naruto in close combat. Finally having enough he dropped a smoke bomb, shrouding himself and Akamaru from sight. "I can't see you, but I can still smell you. Let's see how well you dodge!" Came a voice from within, followed shortly by a hail of metal.

The Mare Do Well leapt in front of Naruto, there was another purple flash, and both her and Naruto began to dance. It was an odd thing to watch, and obvious that Naruto was following along with whatever the costumed pony did, but they were in the optimal position to dodge each weapon before they ever came into sight.

Their routine ended as two Kiba's rushed from the smoke screen, bent low and running on all fours. Naruto and his summon broke apart, each dealing with one of the two opponents. Naruto kept pace, going blow for blow with Kiba one, while the Mare Do Well dodged with abilities unheard of outside of sharingan wielders. 

The two dog-like ninja both turned from their opponents, changing targets and spinning into an airborne drill. There was another flash of pink light around the caped pony, as Naruto sidestepped his projectile. The mare do well, now slightly to the side of the drill's impact zone, gave a hard buck with both back legs, sending the genin out of his spin, and into the air. Naruto followed up with a few hand signs and a multitude of air bullets shot from his mouth, the airborn target was peppered by a multitude of aerial explosions.

With a final flash of purple light, the Mare Do Well took to the air, flying up to catch her target and doing a quick loop, before slamming him down upon the floor.  The other Kiba rushed over to him, reverting into a whining Akamaru as Kiba struggled to get up. "Alright, I give, I know when I'm beat. How did you do that though? None of your ponies can do all that."

"It wasn't just one pony." Came the much unwelcome voice of Neji. "There were four, hiding behind that statue, the one that could teleport was swapping them out as needed."

"Well thanks Neji, why don't you tell the other villages some more of Konoha's secrets. I'm certain they'd love to know our guard schedules and rotations while you're at it." Naruto called up to him, rather miffed that one of his cooler tricks was now ruined for all those present.

Neji weathered the glares from several genin and jounin instructors, even the Hokage was giving him a disdainful look. "Such a foolish tactic doesn't merit keeping secret, any talented ninja could have figured it out. That Kiba could not just means he isn't worthy of continuing, and that your luck continues to hold out."

Naruto only shook his head and decided to ignore the boy, instead gathering up the ponies and heading up to the balcony once more.  Next up it was finally Neji's turn, but to the disapproval of many present, he was to fight Hinata. The two Hyuuga clan members stepped out onto the floor and stoically faced each other down.

"You cannot hope for victory here." Neji remarked, as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

"I have grown strong these past few months cousin." Came Hinata's reply. Though quiet, her words held a strong resolve to them. In the past few years she had truly come to embrace the creed of her clan, 'The lightest touch to bring down a mountain.' It was seeing this that her Father had finally begun to open up to her, and give her extra training. 

"You are favored by the clan for who you were born to, your place would be better suited to one of talent." Neji replied coldly, motioning that he was ready to the referee, who leapt back to safety.

Both combatants activated their bloodlines and fell into a beautiful dance of exchanged blows. Although quick and graceful, making use of her flexibility, Hinata soon fell behind to Neji's direct and brutal application of the style, and when the two parted minutes later Hinata was worse for wear.

"You know I disapprove of how the branch family is treated, when I am clan head I plan on removing the seals, why do you still reject my kindness?" Hinata gasped out, stalling to catch her breath. Since discovering the secret to Naruto's armor back at the academy she had worked hard in secret learning to do something similar. While she didn't have the chakra to maintain it like he did, she eventually learned to reopen her chakra points, a skill that would send her clan council after Naruto's head if anyone else were to learn of it.

"This is our fate. To go against that is to lead our clan to ruin. If a weak heir like you becomes clan head it will only spell the end of our glory as a clan. I cannot have my freedom, just as you cannot become a strong leader. This is our fate." He replied,  sinking back into the gentle fist stance.

"Very well then, let us test our beliefs." Hinata said, settling into a strange stance. Her legs were together, leaving her teetering almost precariously, her arms were at her sides, bent 90 degrees at the elbow and hands clenched in fists. As the spectators watched a faintly visible aura of chakra began to coalesce around her hands. "Gentle Step."

Where before their combat was one of grace and precision, Hinata's newly revealed style was that of a ruthless predator. As the name suggested she bobbed and weaved around Neji's strikes, often defying physics as she kept her balance while swinging her fists in wide arcing strikes. Her feet barely needed to touch the floor for her to change direction, always on the attack, every dodge flowing easily into a counterattack. Neji darted around the erratic girl jabbing with precision strikes while dodging the retaliation to the best of his ability, where one of the fists grazed his arm he drew back as if severely burned.

Finally, as if in some unspoken agreement the two closed in with a simultaneous cry of "You are within range of my divination!" Neji's hands flew in an absolute blur which somehow Hinata's right fist managed to weave through, getting in a single tap against her cousin's chest. With a cry a burst of blue passed through Neji, the foreign chakra damaged his insides as it passed, nearly blowing him off his feet, but he persevered through the pain. Having used the last of her chakra on that gambit, Hinata could no longer dodge what remained of her cousin's 64 strikes, and collapsed.

Neji struggled to remain standing, to not show weakness in front of the spectators. He wanted to mock his cousin for her restraint, but if she had put more power into that attack, if she had more training and practice, he would have easily been blown away. As it stood, he dared not open his mouth for fear of coughing blood, and so he simply turned to walk away on shaky legs, as his cousin's friends came down to collect her.

As the arena was cleared once more, Gaara and Lee were called up to fight, which lead to much cheering among two specific fillies. Gaara hesitated at hearing the noise, sparing a glance up at the white filly who called his name. "They are quite the embodiments of youthful vigor, don't you think? Let's do our best to give them quite the show." Lee said, giving a thumbs up and smile to the little ponies.

Gaara, not knowing how to respond, gave a slight nod. The referee began the match, and the fight began.

Team seven was in awe of the fight before them. For all that the last match had been graceful, this was like watching a clash of titans, fist and leg met with sand over and over, neither yielding as the minutes wore on. Eventually Lee took off his weights, and even Rainbow Dash began to cheer alongside her little admirer as the green boy reached ludicrous speeds. It was all for naught however, as even pulling all the stops, Lee could not even cause permanent harm to the red haired boy.

Naruto noted that Gaara appeared to use chakra infused sand in the same way he used pure chakra, which made him grin a little at 'great minds think alike'.

The crowd went silent, however, when Gaara's sand reached out to grab hold of a nearly unconscious Lee. "Waaaaaaaait!" Came a familiar voice. Surprisingly enough it actually made Gaara pause. "It's okay Gaara, the fight's over, you won!" Sweetie yelled, trotting down the stairs and over to boy, who lay on a pile of sand. "Gee you must have been hit pretty hard huh? You can take a hit like Naruto! You two would be good friends I bet. Don't worry though, you made it to the finals, I told Scootaloo you were cooler than Lee. I mean Lee is pretty awesome too, did you see how fast he was going? Of course you did you were fighting him, but you won right? That means you're cooler."

The sand sibling's heart nearly stopped when the sand that reached out for Lee withdrew and instead picked up Sweetie Belle. "This is so cool! I'll bet you can make some pretty cool sand castles huh?"

"Sand... castles...?" Gaara said.

"Sweetie, are you sure this is a good time to be pestering him? He just won his match, give him some room to breathe!" Came Naruto's voice as he jogged over. Lee had been carted away by the medics, who said he'd be able to recover fully with a few days of rest.

"Naruto Uzumaki, this is your summon?" Gaara asked, still floating the filly off the ground.

"Yeah, that's Sweetie Belle, she's a great singer, and the captain of a flying ship, and a good friend as well." Naruto replied.

"So you would fight me, if I attempted to harm her?"

Naruto's eyes cooled drastically. "I'd do the same for all of my friends. You told me before that you wanted me to validate your existance." Gaara nodded. "Well I acknowledge you as a strong ninja, and if Sweetie says you're a friend, then I'd like to be your friend as well."

"I have no friends." came Gaara's stoic reply, as he lowered a confused Sweetie to the ground.

Naruto spared a glance at the other two sand ninja, "Like it or not, there are those who'd disagree."

The arena was cleared a final time for a rather uneventful match with Dosu against Chouji, ending in a sloppy win for Dosu, with a shoddily repaired gauntlet. Sweetie was disappointed that she had no reason to sing an inspiring song for the large boy, although Naruto pointed out it may have been considered cheating if she had done so.

Finally the Hokage called the winners down to discuss the plans for the upcoming finals, which would be held in a month.  He explained the basic premise, and then had them pick numbers for their opponents. Sakura got Dosu, and Sasuke got Gaara. Naruto received the best news he'd had all day.

Out in that stadium, in one month's time, for the entire village to see...

Naruto would be fighting Neji.

> A Friend Like Me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Team seven stood at attention in the Hokage's office, being stared down by Sarutobi. Understandably he was rather put out that they had waited this long to debrief him on the events in the forest. Having your head interrogator approach him after the exams with "Sir, we've gotten as much information about Orochimaru's plans as we were able. What shall we do with the girl?" gave him a heart attack for many reasons.

When he calmed down and sorted everything out, team seven was called to meet with him immediately, with threats to put Kakashi on D rank missions for the month if he was late.

"That's when I showed up, just in time to see Sasuke get bitten. I summoned Princess Luna, who managed to drive Orochimaru off, and we got everyone to a shelter." Naruto said, trying to keep himself respectful, seeing the old man was in no mood for otherwise.

"What measures were taken regarding this... cursed seal?" The Third asked, he had the notes from Karin's report, it was obvious she didn't know as much about the seal as desired. He also had information on the one Anko possessed.

"At Luna's suggestion Twilight, directing the Elements of Harmony, created a barrier. It works as a sort of valve, letting him control how much power he draws from it." Naruto explained.

"Why not use seal it away completely?" Kakashi asked. The Hokage had a good idea why, but left it to Naruto to explain.

"It's useless to assume Sasuke is never going to use the seal. Despite its negative effects, it is a power boost, and if the alternatives are 'use it or die' any ninja would make the same decision. This way he can not only work at building up a resistance to the mental effects, he can choose to use only as much as he needs to get by. Its... It's the same way my seal works." Naruto said, surprising everyone present.

"I figure it's about time everyone knew, I trust you two like family, Sasuke, Sakura. The Kyuubi attacked on my birthday right? It wasn't destroyed, it was sealed, inside of me. It has no influence on me mentally, but it's how I recover so quick, and have so much chakra. My seal works in similar ways to Sasuke's, only instead of taking in my chakra to charge, it constantly leaks chakra into my system. I can open the valve and let more in, theoretically, but that can have negative mental effects." He looked down, a part of him dreading their response.

"Wow, that... I guess that explains the villagers... sort of. They do know there's no mental effects right? I mean the Kyuubi wouldn't cause your special brand of insanity." Sakura joked.

"Heh, I guess we're in this together then huh?" Sasuke said, giving a slight smile.

"On that subject, I'd like you to meet someone while he's in town for the month. He should be able to help you start drawing out the Kyuubi's power. Before you object, it's the same thing you said about Sasuke, it's better to be able to use it if the situation calls for it, and you need to start building up a tolerance for it if you are going to eventually master it." Sarutobi said, leaning forward and handing Naruto a slip of paper. " He should be at this address tomorrow, you'll know him when you see him. "Kakashi, I expect that your other two students will both receive adequate training in the coming month."

"Of course, Lord Hokage, I had planned on alternating days spent supervising them, but I expect them to work on their own on the days I'm not there. I'll admit though, if Naruto is being trained by this other man, it makes things easier on everyone." He said.

"Also, the girl who turned herself in, Karin Uzumaki she's calling herself. She has applied for asylum here. Ordinarily we don't take in ninja from other villages, for political reasons, however as she is technically not a ninja of Kusa, and actually trained by a wanted criminal of Konoha, we have accepted on several conditions. For the next few months she'll be treated as a civilian, and be under constant supervision by one of the interrogation department. If she passes inspection we'll begin slowly giving her duties as a ninja." The Hokage said, making it quite clear he was being generous.

"I'll keep a close eye on her, Lord Hokage. She's my family after all." Naruto said, bowing in respect.

"I expect we will be discussing your family in greater detail soon enough. Now if that is all, I believe you have some celebrating to be doing." The Third said, dismissing team seven.


O~O~O~O~O


The next day Naruto arrived at the address given to him, confused to find it was a bath house. Entering the men's side he noticed there was only one other person present. He was tall with wild white hair that ran down his back in spikes, and wearing an outfit that reminded Naruto of kabuki performers. He would have been impressed, if not for the fact that the man was peeping through a hole into the women's side, giggling away while writing in a notebook.

"Hey!" Naruto said, walking up to the man. Getting no response he tried again. "Excuse me!" He called.

"Beat it kid, I'm busy." The man stopped giggling to grumble.

"Busy being a pervert." Naruto said.

"I'm not a Pervert, I'm Jiraiya, the Super-pervert." The man responded, shooing the boy away.

"Jiraiya, as in the one who wrote my favorite book?" Naruto asked, this got an actual response.

"Aha! A fan! Here, it's a copy of my latest work, go read it somewhere else and stop bothering me." The man said, handing Naruto a book from his pouch. Naruto figured it was another book on sealing, and decided to look it over.

"Hey! Wait a minute this isn't a sealing book, it's just a clopfic!" Naruto complained.

"What?" Jiraiya turned to look at the boy.

"A really bad clopfic as well." He complained, tossing the book back to the man.

"What the hell is a clopfic, and what do you mean mine is bad?"

"You know... That! That's a clopfic, and I know it's bad because..."  Naruto trailed off, swearing he heard a distant voice cry out 'Forever!'.

"I am not at liberty to discuss what may or may not be present in a small decorative box on the second lowest shelf in my friend's bedroom closet." Naruto finished, warily looking over his shoulder.

"Right, it's called smut kid, and someone your age wouldn't appreciate good quality if it bit him. Now why are you bothering me?"  Jiraiya was getting irritated.

"Eh, the Third said you would help me learn to draw out the Kyuubi's chakra." Naruto replied as if it was common knowledge.

Jiraiya flinched, the boy was a spitting image of his father, he should have recognized him sooner. "Never mind that, you're in the chuunin exams right? You said you read one of my books, which one?" The man said, turning away from the wall.

"Sneaky uses for everyday seals. The old man gave it to me, Pinkie loves it as well." Naruto said.

"Really? Pinkie? Anyways, yeah I wrote that at a fairly young age, was fairly popular among a few genin but never really made it onto the academy curriculum. How's your chakra control? With the fox in you it must be pretty wonky." Jiraiya said, trying to come up with something to teach the boy, anything to make up for the feelings of failure welling up inside him.

"It's not that bad actually, it was brutal until I mastered  leaf floating and tree walking." Naruto shrugged.

"Mastered meaning?" Jiraiya asked, expecting the typical genin response.

"I can float a leaf exactly one inch from every chakra point on my body without conscious thought, and I can fight on a vertical surface as well as a horizontal one. I can also do the same with water walking, and I can stand on clouds." Naruto summarized, which floored the Sanin.

"Run that last one by me again?" He asked.

"I can stand on clouds, look." He demonstrated, using the vapor from the hot spring. Soon enough he was sitting over the water on a soft poofie cloud.

"Can you hide in those?" Jiraiya asked, positively drooling at the applications of such a technique. "You can if your control is good enough, it's like being able lay down on water without getting wet. I still haven't gotten it down to where I can sleep on one though." Naruto shrugged and leapt down.

"Seriously, where'd you even learn that technique?" The hermit said.

"I invented it myself, took me years!" Naruto called down to him, the hot air from the springs was pushing him higher.

"But you're just out of the academy!" Jiraiya called up at him.

"I know! It took me the full four years of the academy to master this. What can I say, I got bored." Naruto shrugged.

"Honest question for you kid, how'd you like to be the apprentice of a Sanin?" He said, as the boy floated back down.

"Sure, but I'm sticking with my original team, you'll have to bug Kakashi for joint custody or something." Naruto said, landing next to the Sanin.

"Alright, I'll call up the contract for you." Jiraiya said.

"Contract?"

"The Toad summoning contract. You can't be an apprentice to the Toad Sage and not have a summoning contract."

"But I already have a summoning contract, I got it for trading the cloud technique to the monkeys." Naruto complained.

"You have the monkey contract?"

"No, I have a pony summoning contract." Naruto said, kicking off a very long-winded explanation about his life so far.

Several minutes later, he snapped a very dazed Jiraya out of his dazed stupor. "So you found these ponies by accident, and they took you in and raised you?" He asked.

"Yep, that's the gist of it. They're really not combat oriented, but I wouldn't trade them for the world." Naruto said, they had taken to actually using the hot springs as they talked. Jiraiya was wishing more and more he'd been involved with the kid's life earlier, such an interesting tale that it was.

"I don't blame you, good friends aside, you have a flying boat, and two Princesses that can move the heavenly bodies." Jiraiya joked.

"It's a 'ship'. So yeah, if you're the Toad Sage, I guess I'm the Pony Sage." He joked right back.

"Nah, you can't be a Sage till you've learned sage techniques. And before you ask, each group of summons has different ways of doing it, and gets different things out of it. I don't know where you'd begin becoming a pony sage. Still, there's things I can teach you, and I insist on teaching you them. No kid as cool as you gets to go without learning from a role model like me." Jiraiya said. "For now let's start with tapping that furry keg of energy in your gut. You need him to call in the big guns from your pony friends right?"

"Sort of, the Princesses are rather compact as far as heavy firepower goes, they drain me a lot, but I can manage. I've pulled a whole village of ponies out for a day, so I'd say my reserves are pretty deep. The Ixion, the airship, takes too much for me at the moment, but like the old man said, it's better that I have the ability to tap into this when I need it." Naruto shrugged. 

With direction the blonde was soon in meditation, and he felt his mind drift into his 'mindscape'. It was time to go talk to his prisoner.


O~O~O~O~O


Whatever Naruto was expecting upon entering his mind, the vault of the Elements of Harmony was not it. It was exactly as he remembered, complete with stained glass windows depicting the triumph of the Elements against various foes.

The door to the vault was marked with the same seal as appeared on his stomach, and seeing no other alternative, Naruto approached the door, and touched it. It swung open at his touch, and Naruto found himself in the royal gardens. Before him was a maze of hedges, which seemed to call to him, and within them was a very impressive sight.

The central clearing of the maze was massive, far bigger than it had any right to be, but considering this was all in his mind, he was willing to overlook that fact. What could not be overlooked, was the colossal marble statue of a nine tailed fox that sneered down at him.

"Impressive isn't it? Took me quite a while to get that look on him. Can you believe the big lug has been sleeping this entire time? Not enough anger in your life to wake him up." Came a voice from all around. With a flash a creature popped into existence upon the Kyuubi's head.  "I hope you don't mind I redecorated, it's not much but it's been the view for the past 1000 years, so it's kind of like home to me. That and your mind before was a sewer, talk about having your mind in the gutter."

"Discord!" Naruto shouted, recognizing the creature from the Royal Gardens, where he was supposed to occupy a spot as a decoration, much like the Kyuubi was now. "How are you possibly here?"

"Oh 'here' is a finicky term. This is just a copy of me, with a small fraction of my ordinary power. Like I said in my letter, I'm here to watch you, that's all." The Draconequus replied. "Now now, no long faces, I'm here to help!"

"Help me? What help could you possibly offer me, and why?" Naruto asked, warily.

"Would you rather deal with the furball here? You are the very essence of change Naruto Uzumaki. And change, is an element of Discord. It's my duty as your patron to look out for you. Just as harmony has its elements, discord has its own set as well."

"Elements of Discord? You can't be serious." Naruto said.

"Often I'm not, but in this case... Think about it this way, every world goes through periods of Harmony and Discord, Order and Chaos. When a regime is just, when things are stable and peaceful, all I do is pop up once in a while to shake things up, cause a little fun. I'm a necessary evil in a utopian society, discord is necessary for growth. Do you think anything would ever be accomplished if there was no struggle to it? But! When the status quo isn't working, that's when the elements of Discord really shine.

Your world is currently in harmony believe it or not. War and strife, murder and mayhem. It seems like chaos, but over all nothing changes! You want to bring peace to your world? A lasting peace like the world has never seen before? You need Discord!

Think about it, you change the rules every time it suits you, and you know it. I know about that changeling friend of yours, you think just anyone can turn an enemy into an ally like you do? You have a destiny kid, you are going to bring discord to this world, and it is going to be one hell of a ride."

"So that's it then, you come into my mind, turn the Kyuubi into a statue, and tell me you're just here to watch?" Naruto asked, skeptically.

"You've got some power in your corner now, some heavy ammunition up your camp. Just say the word and I'll juice you full of the Kyuubi's mojo. Of course it will still mess you up something fierce, I doubt you'll like looking in the mirror much." The Draconequus replied. "This big old fox isn't going to wake up while I'm here, 'believe it'. That leaves us to have a little fun with his toys, now get out there and give them a show to write in the history books."


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto woke from his meditative trance

"Everything alright kid? Soon as you have tapping into that power source down, we can work on your taijutsu, a ringer like you won't leave even the council any out on promoting you. Not to mention the money I'll be making on betting on you." Jiraiya joked before noting the look on his face.

"Kid, you alright? Talking with the fox wasn't so bad was it, I mean he's behind bars! He was behind bars wasn't he?"

"Yeah, the fox is there, but there's more than him in that prison. We need to talk to the Hokage immediately, and Celestia and Luna too." Naruto said, leaping to his feat, he immediately made a cloud and flew towards the Hokage's tower, Toad Sage in hot pursuit.

"Naruto!" Sarutobi shouted as the orange boy hopped in through an open window, followed shortly by his former student.

"Sorry old man, but this is an emergency." Naruto said, performing several hand seals.

"Naruto? What's the matter?" Came the confused voice of Celestia, as she and Luna joined them in the office. Jiraiya was suitably impressed by their presence, having heard stories of them already that day.

"On the Thirds advice I went into my mind today to visit the Kyuubi, so that I could learn to access its power, only I found a small problem waiting for me." Naruto said, seeing the curious looks from everyone in the room he mentally asked for a little bit of power, and allowed it to take over his vocal cords.

"Celly, Lulu! It's been a while hasn't it? Not nearly as long as last time of course, but then again the vast majority of me is still serving as a bird perch in your gardens." Came discord's voice from Naruto's mouth.

"I hope this is some kind of cruel joke Naruto." Celestia asked with a stern face, Luna as well seemed angry.

"Now now, don't take it out on the child, it's not his fault really, he was born an agent of change. This is just like how things were in Equestria, don't you think? I helped you take apart the old regime, burning away the underbrush so you could grow a stable controlled world for you subjects." Discord said.

"And then you turned around and tried to destroy that too. The question remains, what are you doing in that human?"

"The Kyuubi is taking an extended nap, I'm house sitting for him while he does so. As I've told the boy, bringing peace to this world will take such a drastic change that I'm on board just to see him do it. It's not like I have any better ways to spend the next 1000 years. And before you think of blasting me out of here with your little Elements of Harmony, remember I'm safely behind his little seal, opening this door will kill him."

"Is he going to gain your powers when he taps into the Kyuubi? Is it going to be you influencing him?" Sarutobi asked, having heard stories of the draconequus from Celestia.

"The power still belongs to the fox, I'm just acting as one half of a two part valve. The boy still has to ask for it, and I still have to give it. The most he'll get from me is a little bit of advice from time to time."

"Then I advise you do not listen to him." Luna stated, as the power cut off and Naruto was left in control of his voice box once more.

"I suppose this solves the 'getting power when you need it' issue, now it's just a matter of learning to control it." Jiraiya said, looking over the long faces of everyone in the room. "I suggest you take the rest of the day off, meet me tomorrow in the same place as today and we'll get started on your training."

Naruto nodded absently and hopped out the window, sailing away on a cloud in quiet contemplation.

With him gone, Jiraiya turned to the pony princesses. "While you're here, I have some questions. What do you know about sage arts?"


O~O~O~O~O


The month went quickly for Naruto. He met with his friends every three days, getting dinner and keeping up with what was going on in their lives, but none of them revealing the extent of their training. They would, of course, be competing against each other in the finals of course. 

His visits with Karin were always pleasant surprises, she often commented that she felt welcome within the village, but received some distain when she mentioned her last name. He felt guilty for keeping the reason from her, but she didn't seem to mind terribly willing to pass it off as her formerly being a foreign ninja. She also revealed that she was sharing an apartment with Anko for the duration of her 'probationary period', and commented idly that the two had plenty in common.

Jiraiya had Naruto begin working on water techniques, after Naruto managed to finally suppress his wind chakra enough to use his secondary element. So far he had only learned a water variation of the 'air bullet', but he had managed to alter it to where he could effectively spit clouds. At Jiraiya's urging he put off even attempting mastering his water element until the exams were over with.

With taijutsu he focused mainly on improving his speed and strength, after Jiraiya noted he had more than enough endurance. He stuck with his 'Pony Style' after Jiraiya tried to get him learning 'Toad Style' insisting anything the toads could do, his ponies could do just as well.

He tried getting Jiraiya to teach advanced sealing to Pinkie Pie, but he refused within an hour of attempting it. Instead Naruto was left as a courier for questions and answers between them, a frustrating experience, but one that would likely yield tremendous results.

Finally work with the Kyuubi's chakra was progressing slowly. So far he could handle small amounts with only minor violent tendencies, and a few odd conversations with Discord. Mostly he found it useful to tap into it for a quick surge to power high cost abilities, but he put off using it for sustained periods until he had more time to get used to it.

The strangest sight he saw all month was on one of his days off. The CMC and the Konohamaru corps had taken to one of the playgrounds near the academy to play. He sat in a nearby tree, planning the best moment to appear on the scene, when something unusual happened.

"Gaara!" Cried Sweetie Belle, running over to the redhead as he came walking down the streets, gazing out at the crowds. Upon hearing his name he glanced over at the little white unicorn. "Gaara, we're playing Sky pirates! You should come join us!"

"Sky pirates?" He asked, seeing the little pony beckoning towards her friends.

"Yeah! Me and Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are going to raid an enemy fortress for treasure, and Konohamaru an Udon and Moegi are the evil ninja that are trying to stop us!"

"I told you, Pirates are the evil ones, you're trying to steal our treasure!" Konohamaru corrected her, prompting a round of 'nuh uh/yeah huh' between him and Scootaloo.

"You can make a really cool sand castle for us to play in right?" Sweetie looked up at him with her best puppy dog eyes. Scootaloo dropped her argument and ran over with Apple Bloom to join him.

Soon enough the playground was dominated by a massive fortress of sand, built with the filly's constant requests of 'bigger' and 'spookier'. Konohamaru and his friends leapt across its walls tossing blunted kunai and shuriken at a Gaara as he rode on a 'ship shaped' cloud of sand along with the little ponies.

"Hard to port Mr. Gaara! Raise the shields, those land lubbers won't bring us down!" Sweetie Belle cried, as sand batted away the training weapons, the sand ship swooped down low towards the walls of the fortress. "Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, prepare to disembark, it's time we take the fight to them, the treasure shall be ours!"

With a group hurrah the fillies all leapt the 3 foot drop in dramatic fashion and went to wrestle the ninja-in-training. All six of them quickly falling into a giggling heap. Naruto took that moment to approach Gaara. "It's amazing isn't, how easily they'll accept someone as a friend. It's like they just decide they're going to like you, and there's nothing anyone can do."

"I don't understand why they like me." Gaara said quietly, still watching the group roll about on the floor.

"They don't really need a reason do they?" Naruto said.

"They wouldn't like me if they knew what I really was."

"And what's that?" Naruto asked, with genuine curiostiy.

"A monster."

"You seem to be trying pretty hard not to be, around your friends at least."

"I am, but it's hard."

"The fact that you are trying means you don't have to be a monster."

"Even so, a monster is all I am on the inside." Gaara said, shaking his head and disappearing in a swirl of sand.

Naruto stood in place a few moments longer, until the excited cries of the children dragged him into their game.


O~O~O~O~O


At long last the day of the exam had arrived, the stadium was packed with excited Konoha civilians and travelers from all over. Foreign dignitaries arrived en mass to witness the best of the best genin duke it out for their entertainment and the benefit if the villages they represented. Odds were given at 15 to 1 for Naruto winning his first round, with 100 to 1 on him winning the whole tournament. As well as his stats spoke for him, he was competing against opponents like the Hyuuga's prodigy, the last Uchiha, and Gaara, a boy spoken of only in hushed whispers in Suna. Jiraiya giggled to himself as he placed the biggest bet of his life, if only Tsunade could see him now.

Grabbing a bite to eat from a vendor he went to sit in his reserved spot. He'd be needed elsewhere no doubt, but after hearing a lot about this Neji kid, he wouldn't miss the first round for the world.

"Welcome to this year's Chuunin Selection Exam! Would the first competitors please enter the arena! I repeat, would Neji Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki please enter the arena!"

Jiraiya leaned back in his seat and sipped a cup of sake. "Show time!"

> Changing the Rules
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga please enter the arena." Came the voice of the announcer, echoing through the stands.  The Hyuuga genin moved for the stairs from the waiting area, Naruto simply vaulted the railing, spitting out a cloud to float on as he fell. He drifted down to hover about 15 feet from the ground, waiting for Neji to arrive.

Once the two were present at the center of the field the Referee began the match and leapt away. "Your progress in these exams is fated to end here Uzumaki." Neji called.

Naruto simply held up a hand, and hopped down from the cloud. Making a few hand seals he summoned both Royal Sisters. "Naruto? What is the occasion? Don't you think using both of us for this fight is a little bit... drastic?"

"Oh no, I didn't call you for that, I just figured you may want to watch the matches, there's probably room in the Hokage's box. I'd rather fight Neji alone anyways, it's not like he can win." Naruto said simply, and the two Alicorns nodded and took flight, enjoying the crowd's reaction as they circled the audience once, before landing next to the Third.

"I hope you don't mind we join you?" Celestia said, taking a seat on his right. Luna moved to sit between him and the Kazekage.

"Not at all, not at all. I take it you've been to these sorts of events before?" The Hokage replied, ignoring the wary look the Kazekage gave Princess Luna.

"We often hold flying competitions for Pegasi, and occasionally a magic tournament for unicorns." Celestia replied.

"Do your genin commonly waste chakra on summons to simply watch them fight?" The Kazekage remarked.

"Only the exceptional ones." The Hokage said.

"What do you mean I can't win?" Neji said, dropping into his family fighting stance.

"Just what it sounds like. You're a prodigy of a close range style, and nothing else." Naruto replied, casually hopping up onto his cloud and floating 30 feet above the ground.

"So what? You're just going to sit up there?" Neji asked.

"You're welcome to try and make me stop." Naruto replied, leaning back on his platform.

In the stands several spectators began to talk among themselves about the lack of action. "What's that idiot doing? He's supposed to be fighting isn't he?" Temari remarked, rather envious about the blonde's flying ability. Despite appearances she could only drift on wind currents.

"Troublesome, we could be here for a while. Right now he's proving a point. He can sit up there all day, and all Neji can do is throw kunai and shuriken till he runs out. Just one ability of his renders Neji as effective as an academy student." Shikamaru said, leaning on the railing.

"Uzumaki!" Neji yelled, having attempted several times to hit the drifting cloud with his throwing weapons.

"Hmm? Ready to give up yet?" Naruto called down.

"Come down here and face me! Where is the honor in this?" Neji was furious.

"Honor? That's a laugh, you put down your allies, give away their secrets to spite them, and force your teammates to betray friends, and you want to talk to me about honor? You aren't fit to be a Konoha ninja, just go home Neji." Naruto taunted, trying to get his opponent riled up. "Even if you won this fight, how would you deal with someone like Gaara? He can float around just like me, while trying to crush you with his sand."

"All you've proven is that we would reach a stalemate. I can't win while you're up there, but you can't win without coming down." Neji replied, seeing a flaw in his logic.

"Alright, since we've established you can't win, let's see if you can lose shall we?" Naruto said, dropping down from his cloud.

Neji quickly activated his byakugan, and flinched. "You leak chakra as Armor to reduce the force of impacts." Neji remarked. "It may blur my vision, but I've been training my whole life, I can close your points even without seeing them."

"Wow Neji, I think there's some foreign dignitaries in the audience that didn't hear you. You really can't keep a secret can you?" Naruto grumbled, as his opponent rushed him. 

In a flurry of movement Neji was upon his opponent, raining down blows upon him, he finished up a combo with a open palm thrust to Naruto's chest. The orange boy didn't bother to dodge, merely standing still and letting it happen, anchoring his feet to the ground to avoid being pushed back by Neji's final thrust. "Didn't hurt." He deadpanned.

Neji glared, seeing the shell of chakra around him damaged but slowly repairing itself. "My turn!" Naruto called, suddenly surrounded by a dozen clones. They rushed Neji, working in close coordination to strike simultaneously leaving Neji unable to block all of their attacks, they landed about three good hits before the original Naurto was forced back.

"That's not good enough!" Neji taunted.

"I can do a hundred if you like." Naruto countered, instead getting distance and summoning Twilight. "Let me give you a demonstration on long range tactics instead. Twilight! Lazy Spinning Top!" He called, pulling several Shuriken out, which Twilight began to levitate. As the audience looked on in anticipation Naruto blew wind chakra over each one until they became like half-meter-wide rotating saw blades. With a mental command the little purple pony sent the projectiles careening towards Neji, who dodged wildly, trying and failing to knock them down with Kunai of his own.

"How are you holding up?" Naruto asked his friend, seeing Neji was distracted.

"Not bad, it isn't as hard as lifting an Ursa Minor and a water tank full of milk, but doing several things at once takes a lot of concentration. Five is all I can do right now without my control suffering." Twilight said, making a face in her focus. "We don't really have to hurt him though, right?"

"Right, we just have to prove to the audience that we can if we wanted to." Naruto confirmed.

"Enough!" Neji yelled, as the blades converged on him. "Kaiten!" He roared, spinning in place and letting out his chakra, creating a deadly spinning dome of blue. Twilight's attack paused, before closing in and testing the defense. Sure enough the first blade to touch the barrier grinded against it with a whine before collapsing under the strain.

"He does know we can just keep the blades poised to attack when the defense ends right?" Twilight remarked dryly. Naruto shrugged, and Twilight moved the blades away, letting Neji come out of the technique.

"This is my family's ultimate defense. It creates an impenetrable dome of chakra around me." Neji said smugly.

"It's garbage." Naruto countered, watching with satisfaction as rage reappeared on Neji's face. "It only covers yourself, you have to remain stationary and on the ground, and you waste chakra filling the space between you and the outside of the barrier. All you're doing spinning in place and dumping precious chakra into the environment."

"This I came up with when I was still in the academy, and it beats your technique in several ways." Naruto taunted, surrounding himself in a Twilight Bubble. As a demonstration he changed the size, allowing it to surround Twilight, and drawing it back in. He moved about with it on, rolling it like he was a hamster in a ball, he turned it off and activated it while moving, and again while jumping. "Seen enough?"

"My techniques are not inferior!" Neji yelled, causing Naruto to sigh.

"Twilight, hit him." He called, and the barrage of shuriken resumed, sure enough Neji found himself surrounded and went into a Kaiten. Naruto closed the gap immediately, put his hand out towards the sphere, and pushed out with his chakra. When Neji finished spinning, he found himself in a bubble of his own. "Here, since you don't believe me, how about you take it for a test drive?" With a bit of concentration he shrank the bubble until Neji was forced into a curled up position, then called up several clones. With a solid kick the clones began to play a game of soccer.

The play continued until Naruto decided Neji was good and dizzy, and gave the ball a solid boot towards the wall. "Going, Going, Gone!" He called, cancelling the technique at the last second, and watching Neji slam against the wall. Seeing his opponent down and hurting, Naruto dismissed his clones and approached.

"I'm not fated to lose here..." he groaned out.

"Why are you so hung up on fate?" Naruto questioned, seeing how obsessed the boy really was.

And so began a very long winded life story, about a young Hinata getting kidnapped, her father killing the kidnapper, and Neji's father paying the price to avoid war. Naruto quickly grew pissed at the explanation. "Seriously? That's why you're some fate obsessed ass?"

"My father could not escape his fate, he was killed because he was born a few minutes too late." Neji said.

"Your father was killed to prevent a war! He died protecting his brother, his family, and the whole damn village. He died preventing Kumo from taking your bloodline you ungrateful jerk. Fate had nothing to do with it, it was a matter of duty." Naruto responded.

"What do you know! Your fate is to fail today Naruto, to fail as a clanless orphaned loser!" Neji yelled, lunging forward at the off guard blonde boy. "You are within range of my divination! 2 palms! 4 palms! 8 palms! 16 palms! 32 palms! 64 palms!" he struck Naruto with a flurry of hits, even as Twilight tried to pull him away, with the last few strikes Naruto's Shining Armor began to crumble, and his chakra points began to close. "128 palms!" Neji yelled with the strain, arms moving at speeds invisible to an untrained eye, pushing Naruto back into the dirt. Attack finished, Neji felt an force take hold of him and toss him unceremoniously into the middle of the ring, he let it happen, sure of his victory.

"I've sealed your chakra points, you can no longer use your techniques. You can no longer escape to the sky. This victory is mine, totally and completely." Neji grunted, pushing himself up into a standing position.

From where he lay on the floor Naruto grunted out three words. "Discord. Juice me." Orange chakra filled his body with a surge, along with the sound of laughter echoing through his mind. Naruto regulated the flow, pushing it out to re-open his chakra points.

"You should have seen the look on your face when he interrupted your little rant. You do know you're supposed to win first, and lecture them on their shortcomings afterwards right? Still, letting him see his best attack fail has merits on its own." came a now familiar voice.

Naruto sat up with a grunt, shakily getting to his feet and shaking off the stinging sensation left over from the attack. "I told you Naruto, you're fated to lose here. You can no longer use chakra!" Neji called.

"Neji..." Naruto growled. "I changed the rules!" the arena became flooded with Naruto clones. With a nod to Twilight, Neji found himself flung skyward, as a hundred Naruto clones peppered him with air bullets, knocking the boy higher and higher. At the peak Neji found himself face to face with Naruto, standing on a cloud. "You look like you could use a hug!" He said with a grin, before leaping out to grab the Hyuuga in an embrace, and driving them both head first towards the ground.

"Uzumaki! Orbital! Friendship! Cannon!" He yelled, driving them into the ground. Twilight reacted on instinct, slowing the two of them down before Naruto could inflict any serious harm on his opponent, shaking her head at the recklessness the Kyuubi's chakra inspired in the blonde.

The dust cleared revealing a grinning Naruto and barely conscious Neji. "How? How do you so casually deny fate?"

"There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. I'm going to change this world Neji, I'm going to change everything that tries to hold me back, fate be damned." Naruto said, as Neji passed out. The referee came over and declared him the winner, and Naruto found himself surprised by the roar of the crowd in his favor. Soon enough he found himself back in the waiting area for the contestants. Twilight had gone to the seating area with the other ponies.

"Not bad out there, think the judges will appreciate you playing with him?" Sasuke asked from the corner. 

"I certainly hope so. How's work coming on your seal by the way." Naruto asked, leaning on the wall next to him.

"Alright, it's kind of hard to get it turned on though. Better that then the alternative I guess." Sasuke grunted.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you the activation phrase!" Naruto explained, getting him an odd look. "If you say it while drawing on its chakra it'll open easier. Luna came up with it."

"And what, pray tell, is the activation phrase?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

"Moon Princess Power." Naruto replied.

"I'm supposed to say Moon Princess Power, in combat, when I want a power boost?" Sasuke asked evenly.

"Yell it, you have to yell it so that it'll trigger the transformation sequence." Naruto said.

"You're full of it Uzumaki." Sasuke grunted, moving away.

"It could save your life!" Naruto called after him, before bursting into peals of laughter.

The next match was Shikamaru vs Temari, which lasted an exorbitant amount of time. Luna looked on excitedly as she saw Shikamaru's technique. "Are you familiar with shadow manipulation?" the Hokage asked, not knowing much about the sister's personal magic.

"It comes with being a sort of... patron of the night. Shadowmancy comes naturally to me, that child is gifted, but he uses only one small aspect of its power, why?" She said, watching the battle closely.

"That sort of manipulation has long been lost to ninja I'm afraid. What you see before you is the basis of what the Nara clan still practice." The Third responded. "Still, he is quite intelligent in his use of it. I heard my son mention he is a strategic genius."

The match eventually drew to a close, with Shikamaru catching his opponent in a convoluted checkmate, and then forcing a dual surrender. The audience applauded politely, mostly glad that the round was finally over.

The next match was supposed to be Shino vs Kankuro, but the puppeteer bowed out immediately. "He is indeed skilled, but knows he isn't ready to become a chuunin, he only proceeded with the preliminaries to eliminate some competition." The Kazekage explained, getting a weary nod from the Hokage. If Shino was perturbed at losing a shot of showing off, he didn't show it. The next round however.

"What do you mean you quit too!" Sakura yelled at Dosu. The bandaged sound ninja simply shrugged off her verbal assault.

"I fought you in the forest with everything I had, you know all my tricks, and I assume you have some way of countering it?" He grunted.

"Yeah, I picked up some ear plugs, but still..." Sakura grumbled. Sure she'd now be moving on, but the crowd didn't get a chance to see what she could do now.

"The next match will be Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara." Came the announcement, and the two ninja stepped out into the arena.

"That is your son, yes?" Celestia asked, sensing something off about the redheaded boy.

"Yes, Gaara is quite the impressive ninja for his age, I'm excited to see how he'll compare to the last Uchiha." The Kazekage responded.

The match began with a roar from the cloud as Sasuke tossed a brace of kunai, each one intercepted by Gaara's automatic sand defense. As expected a wave of electrical energy did nothing to destabilize the wall of sand. Giving up on that tactic Sasuke drew his sword and dodged into close range.

Pouring on every ounce of speed he could draw upon Sasuke darted around the redhead. Striking away at every angle to keep the sand defense occupied. Spotting an opening he charged his sword with a hiss, and struck across the sand ninja's chest. There blade knocked Gaara backwards, creating a rough scraping noise as it dragged across his sand armor. Gaara was caught by a wave of sand, and quickly retaliated with another sent at Sasuke.

The last Uchiha darted backwards, deciding to step things up and try again. Focusing inwards he opened the first little bit of his seal, forcing a sliver on the moon to darken. In a rush of chakra and adrenaline he darted forward, catching Gaara with several more strikes before being forced away by a radial blast of sand and dust. The cloud coalesced into a ball of sand, completely encasing his opponent.

Sasuke approached it warily, and had to leap back when the wall closest to him spiked outwards. Deciding on the direct approach, he turned and ran up the coliseum wall, and prepared his latest technique. Along with speed this was what Kakashi had him working on all month, and it was now his strongest piercing technique. He sprinted down the wall, chidori in hand, sharingan spinning wildly, and slammed his arm right through the defense of his enemy. The piercing wail from inside sounded more akin to a wounded beast than an animal, and he retreated quickly, barely saving his arm from being crushed.

Elsewhere in the stadium a signal was given and a wide area genjutsu quickly put the audience to sleep. An explosion on the Hokage's box caught the attention of the ninja present, the Kazekage and his four guards leapt onto the roof, followed shortly by Sarutobi and Luna. "Go, sister, help the others, I shall aid the Third." She called, as a massive barrier sealed them off.

At the outskirts of the village the walls were rushed by a mixture of sand and sound ninja, several large snakes lead the charge, knocking at the walls. At the south wall, a white haired man stood with three massive toads, and stared down a three headed serpent.

In the stands the genin and their instructors sprung into action, fending off attacks from ninja hidden within the audience. Dosu had disappeared, and Kankuro and Temari had grabbed an injured Gaara and ran for the hills. Naruto noticed with some relief that all of the ponies had dispelled once the genjutsu knocked them out.

"Naruto! You Sakura and Sasuke go after Gaara, I'm certain he has a key role in this invasion." Kakashi shouted, as he and Gai fended off three ninja each.

The two present nodded and leapt into the arena to meet up with Sasuke, who already found himself fighting alongside the referee. Naruto pulled out the Kyuubi's chakra for the second time that day and called up the Ixion.

The ship took up half the length of the field, and caused many of those fighting to look down at it in amazement and curiosity, wondering what a ship would do lodged in a coliseum. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo lay on the deck groggily waking up from the summoning. "Why is the cider gone?" Mumbled Sweetie Belle as team seven leapt onto the deck.

"Avast Captain Sweetie, the village be under attack by scallywags! Raise the sails, we must go to its defense!" Naruto shouted, causing the three to leap up to attention. "We need to go after Gaara, he's hurt and somehow involved in this."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly nodded and ran to their stations. "We'll need a crew!" Sweetie said, turning to the team. Naruto made to summon a team of clones, but was interrupted.

"Team Gai reporting for duty Captain Sweetie!" Came the boisterous voice of Lee from over the side of the ship. Tenten stood at his side, hand over her face.

"Team 8 reporting for duty Captain Sweetie!" Kiba called next, landing with his team at Lee's side with a grin on his face. It appeared to him that Naurto hadn't been lying when he mentioned the flying ship. Hinata stood by him, looking about nervously. Shino... was Shino.

"Troublesome... Team 10 reporting as well." Came the rather reluctant voice of Shikamaru. Chouji was next to him and smiling, and Ino just looked lost.

"Permission to come aboard!" Lee yelled enthusiastically.

"Permission granted!" Sweetie yelled. "Report to Apple Bloom for assignments, Helmsmare Scootaloo, take us up!"

> Flipping Tables
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a flash of magic, a pair of massive orange wings appeared upon the sides of the Ixion. A single mighty flap and the ship went airborne. Genin scrambled about on its deck as it began to circle the village. "Hard to port Scootaloo, our quarry has been spotted heading for the north wall. We'll drop off team seven and then join the battle!" Sweetie yelled as the ship pulled into a swooping dive, the genin anchoring their feet to the deck with chakra. The ship pulled up in time for its hull to scrape over the treetops as they chased their prey out of the village.

"We'll take it from here, the rest of you go defend the village." Naruto called over the rushing wind, he and Sasuke approaching the edge of the ship.

"I'll stick with the ship, I'm no match for someone like Gaara." Sakura called, getting nods from the boys.

"I'll join you two, Kankuro is my opponent, after all." Shino spoke up, moving to join the other two genin at the side of the ship. With a parting wave to the crew the three leapt.


O~O~O~O~O


"So... After all these years we meet in battle once more. I finally get to correct the mistake I made so long ago, Orochimaru." Saruitobi said, staring down his wayward student. Beside him stood Princess Luna, looking less impressive in broad daylight.

"Luna, as always you are too impulsive." Princess Celestia called, from outside the large barrier.

"Go and help the other ninja then, I shall aid the Third in dealing with this serpent." Luna said casually, the area within the barrier beginning to darken.

"I could disable the barrier if you like." Celestia replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Do not bother, it is the snake that is locked in here with us." Luna said dismissively, and Celestia went out to aid the village.


O~O~O~O~O


The Ixion flew low over the village, cannons firing rapidly upon the invading forces, barrages of fire blew apart enemy formations, concussive bursts of lightning left enemies dazed and unconscious, and frigid blasts of ice trapped victims in makeshift prisons. On the deck Sweetie shouted orders, as Shikamaru played an advising role in their defensive plan. Kiba, Lee, and Sakura stood ready to repel boarders as the others manned the cannons.

The first wave was upon them within minutes of their assault, five sound ninja leapt from a nearby rooftop, clinging to the hull with chakra, and scaling the ship to the deck. The first to leap up was met with a spinning kick by Lee, and with a shout battle was joined. Kiba and Akamaru took two, tag teaming them and covering eachother's weaknesses in ways their opponents couldn't match. Within moments their opponents were unceremoniously thrown overboard, one of them bouncing painfully off a massive orange wing.

Lee's first opponent was sent flying before the battle could even begin, and his second barely lasted much longer, but for every squad of opponents struck down by cannon fire a few slipped past and on to the ship. The three konoha ninja kept pace, knowing the difference in the overall battle the ship was making every second it kept up the assault. Soon, however, it appeared the invaders realized the same thing, and ship was rocked hard when a truly monstrous summoned snake lashed out and wrapped the Ixion in a crushing embrace. In a rush the upper deck was flooded with ninja who used the serpent as a ladder.

Lee's response was a resounding cry, as his leg weights came off and his first three gates opened. In a flurry of speed the boarding party was decimated, their bodies rag dolling as they flew overboard. Lee collapsed near the stairs to the lower deck, his body unable to keep up with the strain. "There's more coming up! We need to get out of here!" Sweetie's voice rang out over the now silent deck.

"That snake is holding us down, we can't move like this!" came Scootaloo's reponse.

The silence was broken by Sakura, rushing up to the bow of the ship and the great snake's head. "GET!" she yelled, dodging a snap of its massive jaws and punching it between the eyes. "OFF!" She yelled again, another blow pounding its head. "MY!" she threw a kick, cracking the teeth in its mouth as its head was knocked sideways. "SHIP!" with a final cry and a chakra charged strike she delivered a punishing uppercut to the head of the serpent, the snake relented with a defeated roar, letting go of the ship and flailing around wildly before unsummoning itself.

"The ship's too damaged, we need to take it back to Equestria!" Apple Bloom shouted, running up onto the deck.

"If we're going down, we're taking something big out with us!" Shouted Sweetie Belle in response, gazing about over the battle field as they took to higher air. In the distance a massive hydra-like snake was wreaking havoc on the buildings of Konoha's merchant district, elsewhere giant toads fought other summons attempting to enter the village. "There! Prepare the prime cannon, fire everything we've got at that hydra!"

"There's enough magic on bored to fly for almost a month!" Scootaloo argued, turning the bow of the boat towards the rampaging monster.

"I know! But we won't be flying again anytime soon with this much damage. Charge the cannon and fire!" Sweetie Belle ordered. At the head of the ship, the ornamental Alicorn's horn began to glow. 


O~O~O~O~O


In the forests on the outskirts of Konoha, Naruto and Sasuke closed in on their chosen opponent. Shino had diverted from them, choosing instead to stay behind and fight Kankuro. Ahead in a clearing Gaara stood on a branch, leaning against a tree and panting as he was slowly engulfed by a monstrosity of sand.

"Gaara! We were getting worried about you, when you ran off like that." Naruto said casually.

"Never... Never has anyone made me bleed... I have killed countless ninja, survived hundreds of assassination attempts by my own village... never have I experienced this feeling." Gaara said, his voice barely keeping stable. Naruto flinched at the life those words revealed.

"You don't have to go through with his Gaara. Whatever the plan is, you don't have to fight your friends." Naruto tried to reason with him.

"I don't have friends. I am a monster! This is what I am inside, this is what I must become, to kill all of Konoha and prove my existence!" He roared, sand moving to engulf him further. With a shrill screech he lunged at the two Konoha ninja, now a monstrous tanuki of sand, lashing out with elongated arms and a tail. Each swat was strong enough to tear through tree trunks, and when Naruto tried to defend a single backhand cracked a Twilight bubble, shattering it against the tree twenty meters away.

The boys of team seven changed tactics, one gaining the enraged beat's attention while the other peppered it with attacks, switching roles as the monstrosity changed targets. With a furious roar Gaara's sand body swelled, and began firing air bullets at the surrounding forest, tearing small branches and bark from trees as they passed. Sasuke managed to dodge behind a thicker tree, Naruto took one to the chest and was rewarded with his Shining Armor, even at full power, being shredded like rice paper.

Naruto growled as he rose to his feet, for the third time today drawing on the Kyuubi's orange chakra, he drew a kunai and exhaled, forming a solid blade of deadly wind. Elsewhere Sasuke darted from his hiding place, his seal active to its first level. He too drew his sword, and with a hiss it sprung to life with lightning chakra.


O~O~O~O~O


Orochimaru was put on the defensive immediately, while Luna appeared to be weaker in the daylight, she was still far from a pushover. Still the Snake Sanin managed to gain enough breathing room to perform a technique that would change the tide of battle. With a long stream of hand signs three coffins began to rise from the ground. "I have some old friends of yours that would like to see you again, Sarutobi." He mocked.

"We must stop that third coffin!" The Third Hokage yelled, even as the first two rose to their full height. Luna immediately shot out a burst of lightning, which punched through the heavy wood of the coffin, obliterating the delicate ritual.

"The first two will still be enough!" Orochimaru growled, completing his technique, he drew two seal-laden tags and pushed them forward, reviving and taking control of the first two Hokages.

Luna noticed the grim look on the Hokages face, and reflected it on her own, sneering in disgust at the act of desecration. "Enough, Ye Thinks Thyself Powerful? We Shall Show Ye the Meaning of Such a Word!" She cried in a booming voice, even as a massive tree burst from the rooftops. 

Luna was unimpressed, being capable of such feats using earth pony magic. Instead she called in the newly formed shadows, and cloaked herself in their protective embrace. Where before she was a beautiful Alicorn, smaller and more delicate than her older sister, she now stood tall and proud, equally as beautiful but with an intimidating presence.

With a massive surge of magic the area within the barrier changed. Darkness permeated the air until the view of the outside world was cut off, replaced instead by a million pinpricks of light. "Behold my Domain! Compared to the Night Sky, Thou Art Insignificant, a Tiny Speck on the Surface of a Tiny Planet!"

The two reanimated Hokages rushed in to fight Sarutobi, their combat taking them into the branches of the massive tree, dancing in and out of close combat and exchanging techniques in the twinkling star-light.  Orochimaru made to attack his chosen opponent, and ran through appropriate hand seals to blow her away with a gust of wind, when he was suddenly forced to frantically dodge.

The sky was falling.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto and Sasuke fell into a groove, harassing and harrying their opponents around the forest, cutting and slicing away at any sand based appendage that rose to meet them. The beast still raged, and the environment around them was torn asunder in collateral damage. It had grown bigger, as time went on, now the size of a one story building, claws and tail swiping away with reckless fury. 

Naruto dodged another swipe, rolling to the forest floor as the tree he was previously perched on was uprooted from the impact. He rolled into another leap as the ground gave out from beneath him, revealing a deadly sinkhole that threatened to suck him in. On the other side of the clearing Sasuke parried with a fanged sand appendage that flailed wildly from where it was rooted in the ground. The ground itself was turning against the ninja, and they were racing against the clock to put down their opponent.

Already it had rooted itself, and refused to be moved any further. The ground had quickly become a sandy wasteland, with arms and claws like the one Sasuke battled against reaching up at them whenever they stood on a perch too long. The Tanuki's main arms, the ones attached to his body, would reach out and smash away nearby trees, the debris quickly dragged below the surface to deny the ninja safe haven. When Naruto or Sasuke moved too far out of the monster's reach, it would inhale sharply and pepper the surrounding canopies with lethally fast bullets of air.

The beast swatted away Naruto a final time, peering around in anticipation of Sasuke's responding attack. When none came it prepared to switch to long range. Dozens of mouths opened up all over its body, drawing gallons of air from the environment and saturating it with wind chakra.

In a near suicidal move, Sasuke leaped from his hiding spot among the debris and landed on the beast. With a few quick hand signs the last Uchiha blew fire into an inhaling mouth, and kicked off, letting the resulting explosion carry him far away. He was caught mid flight and pulled to the safety of the trees by his teammate, burnt and injured but wearing a satisfied smirk as he looked back at the crater left behind.

The smirk faded as the land heaved, and began to flow like rivers towards the center of the devastation.


O~O~O~O~O


Orochimaru dodged, like he had never dodged before as searing points of light fell around him. Each one plummeted at different speeds, plummeting downwards but never seeming to touch the ground. He had attempted an earth technique, and watched with morbid fascination as the stars tore through it without regard for its presence. The curious nature of the technique was ignored, he had to remain focused, darting in and out of the falling stars and again closing in on his prey. Each time he closed in she would disappear into the inky blackness that permeated the area. He did not know if she was teleporting or simply masking her presence, but as yet he had not been able to get in range to use his taijutsu or his legendary sword, and it was beginning to tire his patience.

Finally he managed to catch a break, finding a gap in the seemingly random pattern of falling death, and flipping through hand signs, a searing gout of fire flew from his mouth, closing in on the Alicorn Princess. She concentrated for a moment, grabbing the abundance of shadows and moulding it into a shape. The blast dissipated harmlessly on some sort of invisible mass before it could reach her. The mass then opened its eyes and roared.

The Snake Sanin resumed dodging, now realizing the mass wasn't invisible, it merely matched the scenery. It seemed to be a bear, the borders of its existence marked out by bright points of light upon an inky black backdrop. It stood several orders of magnitude larger than him, with massive fangs and claws of crackling energy. If Orochimaru doubted the ground was truly there anymore, seeing the odd behavior of the stars, the doubt was quashed when he felt the roof beneath him rumble with each step the creature took. The rumbling was echoed from behind him and to his right, two quick glances showed two more creatures, equally as big. A scorpion and a lion stalked towards him.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto sent several clones running with Sasuke to get him to safety, leaving him to shudder in terror at the monstrosity before him. Gaara had done some sort of ability that put him to sleep, leaving the beast within in total control.

It stood nearly as tall as the Hokage's tower, made entirely out of sand and chakra. Gaara stood atop its forehead, asleep and wobbling as the great Tanuki roared and cheered at its freedom. Naruto mentally ran through his list of abilities and the abilities of his friends for anything that could deal with such a creature. He drew a blank, only the Kyuubi fought on this scale, and he was certain the Tankui before him was already sealed. He'd have to wake up Gaara, but getting up there seemed impossible.

He was jolted out of his musings by a presence alighting on his branch. "Hello my faithful summoner, how fairs the defensive efforts?" Celestia asked, seemingly unphased by the monster before her. "I enjoyed your fight with Neji, although many feel you could have been less boastful."

"The goal was to show off why I deserve to be promoted, an inspirational struggle against overwhelming odds would have entertained the crowd no doubt, but that would have shown I can barely hold my own against a talented genin. Honestly I don't like being so hard on that guy, but he is a real arrogant jerk, and it's not like he's the only one to have lost his parents protecting the village." Naruto said, before remembering where he was. "Anyways what are you doing here? Is everything okay in the village?" 

"I completely agree, and will report as such to the Hokage." Celestia said, "Speaking of, Luna is aiding the Hokage, she asked me to help out as well, but everything seems to be well in hand. Aside from this of course. It is a Biju yes? Like the Kyuubi I believe. Not as well sealed as yours obviously."

"Gaara's up there, I need to wake him up to stop this thing. Think you can keep it from killing me while I get up there and smack him awake?" Naruto asked.

"I think I can manage." Celestia replied with a grin. "You may wish to look away though."

From the forest north of Konoha, the sun rose a second time that day.


O~O~O~O~O


Within the barrier Orochimaru was caught between a rock and a hard place. The rain of stars continued, seemingly doing no harm to the beasts that fought against him. Despite their size they struck with a ferocity matching the animals they represented, and even calling the two revived Hokage's back to aid him only allowed him slight breathing room. The Ursa was currently bound in massive roots, which were slowly being eroded by the astral rain, and the First and Second Hokage fought valiantly against the Scorpio off to one side.

Leaping away from another swipe by the Leo, he performed a summoning. "Orochimaru! How dare you summon ME for your pathetic revenge attempt!" Came a bellowing voice, as the snake boss himself rose to full height within the barrier. As large as the living constellations were, Manda towered over even them.

"Bring me victory and you may devour anyone you find within the village!" Orochmaru ordered, directing his summon to break the barrier from the inside, he had attempted to dispell the technique himself, but whatever Luna had done prevented him from communicating with his elite guard.

With a crash Manda threw himself at the edge  of the field, roaring as the falling stars seared his scales. With a swat of his tail he batted aside the Leo, and crashed against the boundary a second time. This time it broke, sending light into the arena and disrupting Luna's spells. The scenery faded, and with it the astral rain. The constellations roared feeling the light leech away at the magic holding them together. 

With a final surge they pounced, the Ursa ripping from his bonds to land on Orochimaru himself, the Scorpio and Leo each pinning a Hokage. As the light burned away at them the points of illumination collapsed inwards, becoming a black hole and drawing in their surroundings. The previous Hokages made no noise as they were drawn into the void, but Orochimaru screamed and struggled, his arms caught within the inescapable pull.

In a final act of desperation he spat up his sword, and with a sweep of his neck lopped off his arms, breaking free of the gravity well and darting at his former master. Catching him off guard he managed to run the Third through, not a fatal wound but he hoped the poison of the blade would finish the old man off. As Konoha ninja closed in on the group through the crashing barrier, his elite guard leapt to his aid and helped cover his escape. The invasion was a failure as far as he was concerned.


O~O~O~O~O


In the market district a happily rampaging three headed snake summon was suddenly struck by a little beam from a flying ship. A beam that marked the charging of a laser. Before any of its three heads could fathom what was going on a wave of force hit it, square in the neck where the three heads converged. 

Back, the force pushed it, passed the ruined market district. Back passed the walls of the city, passed the wrecked forest that it had rampaged through, passed the summoning sight where the little sound ninja had called upon it. On and on it tumbled as the beam continued pushing, until it rolled like a wound up ball of yarn out into the middle of a lake. The spell then dissipated, allowing it to sink to the bottom, where it disappeared in a puff of smoke.


O~O~O~O~O


In the forest North of Konoha the sun rose a second time. Celestia rose into the air, shining with a blinding radiance as she gathered power. The Tanuki raged, seeing a creature step forward to challenge his freedom, and made to swat the pesky little thing. In a single display of raw power a cone of light shot forward, engulfing the entirety of the mass of living sand.

In the forest North of Konoha stood a new monument, a Tanki the size of the Hokage's tower, made entirely out of glass. A redheaded boy stood napping on its forehead.

> Rest and Recovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Sweet Celestia..." Naruto mutters, looking up at the still terrifying glass statue, its arms outstretched and sneer still present on its face.

"Yes?" She said, floating gently down next to him. She was wearing that grin, as if she's just played some monumental joke.

"Gaara was up there!" He yelled, realizing the implications of what she had done.

"Oh he's completely unharmed I assure you." She says casually.

"How can he possibly be unharmed after all that?" Naruto gapes.

"I simply superheated all of the sand within the monster into glass, and then dissipated the heat by converting it back into light. All while redirecting any harmful effects away from the child. Or, in layman's terms... Magic." She said, seeming sincere, and yet Naruto could not shake the feeling she was being smug. "Shall we go and fetch the child?"

Naruto merely nodded along dumbly, and took a cloud up to the top of Konoha's latest monument. He could only imagine how the village would react to its presence, but at least there would be undeniable proof of his efforts to protect the village.

Gaara was, as Celestia said, unharmed, still standing in his sleep upon the forehead of the glass monstrosity. Naruto gave him a cautious shake, but he did not stir. "He likely has chakra exhaustion, and will not wake up for several days."

Naruto nodded to her, and threw the boy over his shoulder, they'd get him treatment back in Konoha. "Uzumaki..." Came a quiet mumble from the boy, apparently he had a bit of energy left after all. "How are you... so strong?"

"I fight for my friends, for my village, for all of my precious people, it gives me the determination to keep going, and in return my friends fight for me." Naruto said, floating down towards the ground.

"This world... will never accept monsters... like us."

"We don't have to be monsters Gaara, I've seen it, even you have been making the effort lately. I know it's hard but I believe you can do it. As for the world not accepting us, I plan on becoming Hokage someday, and then changing this world, so its a better place for everyone, even people like you and me." Naruto said. He was met with only silence, either Gaara had passed out, or he had no response.

Along the way back to the village he was confronted by Gaara's siblings, both injured but determined. "Hand over our brother." Temari said, managing to keep the trembling out of her voice.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "No. Your village has done enough don't you think? Between what you've done to him, and what you tried to pull today. I'm taking him in to get treated for chakra exhaustion, you're welcome to join me, since you both look dead on your feet."

"He's our brother, you can't expect us to just let him be captured!" Kankuro shouted.

"If you truly cared about him, as a family should, you'd let me take him. I promise he'll come to no harm, but if you wish to stay at his side, you can surrender as well. The battle is over, and it's a long way back to Suna." Naruto replied, moving once more towards the village. The two siblings shared a look, before relented and followed along.


O~O~O~O~O


A day after the invasion, a meeting took place in the council's chamber to discuss the state of the village.

"The Hokage, at this time, is still in the hospital, they have managed to treat his wound and slow the progress of the poison, but without someone as skilled as Tsunade present, hope of recovery is bleak. Thus is falls to us as the council to make decisions in his stead regarding how to proceed." Said one of the councilmen, to the agreement of everyone present.

"The damage to the village itself, as well as the number of casualties on our part is not as high as it could have been. The merchant district lost several buildings, the village walls will certainly need to be fixed, but all in all we got off lightly." another council member stood to give his assessment.

"On the political front, Suna has sent word that their Kazekage has been found dead. They claim Orochimaru impersonated him and ordered the attack." one of the councilmen added.

"A likely story." Scoffed one of them men. "More likely they knew going into this that Orochimaru was leading the way, but they kept this as a backup in case they lost."

"We have prisoners, do we not? The jinchuuriki and its siblings. Surely those are significant bargaining chips. I'd hate for Suna to get away with just saying 'Oops, our mistake', simply because we cannot retaliate." One of the council members grumbled.

"Executing them would cause more problems than it solved, and we lack the talent required to move the Biju to one of our own shinobi. The best we can hope for is to sell them back to Suna to ensure reparations are paid. Shall we move on to promotions? Although we only got through the first round we did have some talent shown." The obvious leader of the group said.

"First up, Neji Hyuuga, a real prodigy that boy, shame he was put up against the Kyuubi brat really, still his talent alone may warrant-" His thought was interrupted by the loud Bang of the doors opening. In strode Jiraiya, pushing a very weak looking Third Hokage.

"Need I remind you all... That the 'kyuubi... brat'... is the reason we are in this situation?" The third wheezed out.

"Lord Hokage! You should be resting!" One of the council members  stammered.

"Well he can't very well rest while there's a coup going on now can he?" Jiraiya remarked, the council reacted predictably to the accusation.

"We're merely acting in the villages best interests while the Hokage recovers." One of them said defensively.

"I notice there are no ninja clan heads present." The Sanin remarked, seeing the numerous empty chairs.

"We sent them the message, but they are likely busy with clan duties."

"No doubt you planned to make decisions on their behalf, and push them through while neither the Hokage nor the Clans can object. Talk of executing prisoners, and handing out military promotions, all of which is outside of your jurisdiction. The lot of you should be thrown in prison." The Toad Sage scowled. 

"Need we remind you all that Naruto Uzumaki, that is the Name of the Kyuubi's Container, proved to be a key player in the defense of the village. It was his summon that aided the Hokage in his battle against Orochimaru, and likely saved his life. It was his summoned Airship that helped to support our troops, and took down two of the larger summons, alongside many promising genin. It was he and Sasuke Uchiha, who fought against Suna's Jinchuuriki. It was his summon who defeated it, one of the biggest threats to this village, you can still see it from Konoha! 

And yet you all sit there bad mouthing him, speaking of denying him his due promotion, as if you don't all owe him your lives and livelihoods, many times over." Jiraiya growled out, honestly infuriated at Konoha's corruption laid bare before him. The Third Hokage remained silent, glaring at everyone present.

"As you say, Sanin, it was the boy's summons who did all the heavy lifting. I'm not certain we should reward the boy for merely calling upon the... ponies." Said one of the braver council members, smug look upon his face.

"Enough!" Called the Third Hokage, looking sad at the turn of events. "Anbu, arrest those present for treason. It is obvious that despite their claimed intentions, they serve only their own interests here."

There was much arguing and struggle, but within seconds the six present councilmen were detained and removed from the room, the Third was wheeled back to the hospital, amid a heavy attack of coughing. Tomorrow they would hold another meeting, this time in his hospital room, with all of the clan heads, and the civilian members who were not present at the unofficial meeting. Jiraiya could only hope it would go better.


O~O~O~O~O


Later that day Naruto stopped by the Hospital, to visit Gaara. They had a long conversation, sharing life stories, and Naruto now had a better idea of the redhead's life. It was amazing really, how similar their backgrounds were, it made Naruto wonder if every Jinchuuriki had such a life, if they were all tied together by their upbringing. It made him smile, thinking of how much his pony friends had changed him, and it made him sad to wonder what he'd be like without them.

He left Gaara to rest, promising to come visit again, and bring some of the ponies that wished to see him. They had discussed the Ichibi, the monster sealed within Gaara, and how despite the physical manifestation of it being glassed, it still remained within Gaara, alive and well, as Biju were indestructible.  Already there were talks of the Academy teachers taking a field trip to see the great glass Tanuki, and he was certain the ponies would want to see it as well. The Konohamaru corps and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were already arguing about what to name it.

On his way out of the hospital he stopped by the Hokage's room, noting that the security let him through. He was pleased to find that the old man was awake, and Jiraiya was with him. "Hey old man, how are you holding up?"

"Hello Naruto, it's good to see you, the village is abuzz with all your accomplishments during the invasion. I likely owe my life to Princess Luna, despite my best efforts I'm not as strong as I once was." The Hokage said, he spoke slowly, as if strained to do so, but made no sign that he wished to stop.

"I'm glad you're okay though, I'm not ready to take your hat just yet old man." Naruto said, approaching the bed. "I just came back from visiting Gaara, he's had a harder life than I ever did, but I wonder if I could have turned out like that."

"Jinchuuriki are often treated harshly by their villagers, often treated as pariahs, or forced to become living weapons." The Hokage admitted sadly.

"There are others then? How many? Where did they come from?" Naruto asked, and Jiraiya stepped in with the answers.

"The legend goes, that long ago the elemental nations was at the mercy of a terrible monster known as the Juubi. It would appear at random, destroying villages decimating the countryside, until one day a man stepped forward to fight it. He was known as the Sage of the Six Paths." Jiraiya spoke, as though reciting a bed time story. "Using his powers he fought the Juubi, and managed to seal away its power within himself, and then trap the Juubi's body within the moon. This lead to a long period of peace, until the Sage died of old age."

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on!" Naruto interrupted, "Sage of the Six Paths, Six, sealing away a being of chaos, and banishing it to the moon to bring about an era of peace? Really?"

"Yeah, what's the big deal kid, I'm not even done yet." Jiraiya said, ticked at the interruption. Naruto ignored him and summoned Celestia and Luna, as well as the Elements of Harmony. The hospital room was now a bit more crowded.

Naruto quickly filled them in on the situation, and Jiraiya repeated the story so far. Immediately the ponies saw the connection. "So this Sage of the Six Paths was like Celestia or Luna, able to use all six of this world's 'Elements of Harmony', to both seal and banish this world's 'Discord'." Twilight put together.

"Right well, on his death bed, the Sage split the juubi's chakra into 9 smaller parts, creating the tailed beasts. Since then they have appeared at random, attacking villages and sowing destruction, unless they are sealed within a Ninja." Jiraiya shrugged.

Naruto focused a moment and drew upon a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra, opening communication with the fragment of Discord within him. "You said I was an Element of Discord, right? Is that because I have the Kyuubi inside me?"

"Hmm, yes and no. Twilight is the Element of Magic, even without the tiara on her head. You were an Element of Discord even for the brief period before the Kyuubi was sealed, the furball is just the physical representation of it, and all of its power. Call it destiny that you were brought together."

"So this world has nine Elements of Discord running about?" Rainbow Dash asked, slightly spooked by hearing the Draconequus' voice coming from the blonde ninja.

"Yep, think of it as a mirror of your world. Where your world's spirit of Harmony split into 6 separate elements, in this world it was forcibly done to the spirit of Discord. All of the pieces are on the board now and the stakes are the fate of the world. A True wielder of Harmony, like the Princesses, looking to seal away Discord again, and keep the world the way it is. Nine Elements of Discord, altering the world around them. A True wielder of Discord, like me, looking to change the whole world." 

"So I should be looking for this true wielder of Discord then?" Naruto asked.

"The reason Celestia cannot use the Elements of Harmony, despite being a true wielder is because they are already bound. If she wanted to get the Elements back under her control, and use them herself..."

"I would have to sever the bond, which would kill the pony, and leave the physical representation available to bond to me. To even suggest such a thing is monstrous." Celestia finished for him.

"So someone out there is looking to kill all of the Jinchuuriki? To collect their power for himself? What about the true wielder of Harmony?" Twilight asked.

"He wants to keep the world the way it is, harmony for this world is currently perpetual conflict. Even during peace times there is death and murder, starvation and sickness. Discord must win for this to change, either for better or worse."

"So the only ones truly on my side are the other Elements of Discord?" Naruto complained.

"And your friends." Celestia said, as the ponies pulled him into a group hug.

"As I've said, the pieces are all on the board, and the first moves are being made on each side. This is going to be an entertaining game to watch." They were left with laughter, slowly fading into silence.

"Ahem." Jiraiya coughed, getting the attention of the ponies pressed in around his apprentice."Not to break up the moment, but my spy network has been telling me about several S rank missing ninja who have been inquiring about Jinchuuriki lately, all of them wearing black coats with red clouds." 

"You think they're these true wielders?" Naruto asked.

"More likely they are working for one or the other. I'm still looking into it, but we'll need to keep an eye out."


O~O~O~O~O


The next day Naruto met up with his team for missions, for the first time in over a month. There was plenty of work to do repairing the village. As they worked he informed them of what he had learned the previous day.

"So there's some big scary ninja in black coats and red clouds looking for you?" Sakura asked, shivering at the thought.

"Apparently, so far they're only looking for information, but whoever they work for, it means bad things for me." He shrugged, lifting another plank of wood. He had several clones out, helping them build a new building in the merchant district. With all the practice he had gotten in the past few years, carpentry was becoming a major part of his skill set.

"Well that sucks. Any word on when we find out who's getting promoted?" Sasuke said, changing the topic.

"After that fiasco with the 'council' trying to usurp control, nobody wants to make any major decisions until either the Hokage recovers, or a new one is chosen." Naruto replied.

"Naruto! I have a letter for you!" Came a familiar voice, the orange wearing genin's eyes widened in realization.

"Derpy don't land there!" He yelled, but it was too late, the pegasus in question alighted on an unsecured beam above the team, which wobbled once, twice, and came tumbling down. With a crash a large section of the building landed in a heap, dispelling 15 shadow clones.

"You okay Naruto?" The grey pegasus called, hovering above the disaster area. Naruto groaned and created more clones, sending them to get to work fixing the mess.

"I'm fine Derpy, no one was hurt. What's this about a letter?" He asked. With a smile the mare reached into her pouch and pulled out a letter, disappearing as he thanked her.

"Who's it from?" Sakura asked warily, she had heard the results of his last mysterious package.

"Pinkie Pie..." Naruto replied. Sasuke immediately leapt away as if it might explode, and returned to work putting up a wall.

"I just saw her yesterday, couldn't she deliver this herself? That pony is so scatterbrained." Naruto grumbled, taking a seat and pulling out the letter.

Dear Naruto,

Sorry about the building, Derpy can be a bit accident prone. I just wanted to tell you I've been reading some of the Toad guy's work. No not that work, he's a terrible writer, I showed Twilight one of those books and she set it on fire! I've never seen her treat a book like that! Anyways, Apple Bloom says the Ixion will be grounded for repairs for a few weeks, if you can spare the time to go help her fix it she'd appreciate it. Oh and Rarity is designing a new outfit for you, for when they officially make you a chuunin. Flutters wants you to summon her sometime soon, I think she misses hanging out with you. And Rainbow Dash doesn't know what else to teach you, since you don't have wings. You really should get to work on learning to fly.

Okie dokie lokie, best wishes Pinkie PIe.

Naruto sat back with a sigh, folding up the letter and placing it in his pouch. Figuring he could get one thing out of the way right then and there, he summoned Fluttershy. The shy pony seemed a little startled by her sudden change of location, but calmed down upon seeing Naruto. 

"Hey Fluttershy, Pinkie just sent a letter, that said you wanted to hang out. We're just about done for the day here, so maybe the five of us can grab lunch?" He said, looking up at where Kakashi sat on the roof of a nearby building 'supervising' their work.

"That sounds lovely." Came her quiet response.

After a long lunch at Ichirakus, vegetarian ramen of course, filled with stories and laughter, the team returned to the construction site to finish up. Naruto had left some clones to work through lunch, and the building's frame was nearly complete. "Oi, Kid! We have a mission!" came a familiar voice.

"I'm on a mission you old pervert!" Naruto yelled back, causing everyone to look up at Jiraiya, where he perched on a nearby rooftop.

"Oh, um... you're the writer?" Fluttershy asked, as the Sanin hopped down and approached the group. She had met the man before, but hadn't realized he was the 'Pervert with terrible writing skills' that Naruto often complained about.

"Ah, are you the 'friend with a closet full of smut'?" Jiraiya joked, and was rewarded with Fluttershy letting out an adorable squeak, seizing up, and toppling over in a faint. "What? It's often the quiet ones." He shrugged at Naruto's glare.

"Well, you certainly have a way with the ladies." Naruto facepalmed. "I already told you, I can't say who has the collection, so let it drop."

"Not till you tell me which of those ponies is a better author than me!" Jiraiya argued.

"A school aged foal writing with its mouth is a better author than you!" Naruto argued back.

"I'll have you know I have thousands of fans all over the world." Jiraiya boasted.

"That just proves that thousands of people wouldn't know good writing if it bit them." Naruto countered. "Now, is there a reason you are bothering me and my friends?"

"I already told you, we've got a mission. We need to find Tsunade so she can fix the old man, and take the hat from him so he can retire. I know what you're thinking kid, you'll have to settle for being the Sixth Hokage instead, the old man can't keep this up." Jiraiya said. "Meet me at the East gate tomorrow morning, and be prepared to be travelling for quite some time. Tsuanade doesn't want to be found."

> Searching for Sanin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	They had left at dawn that morning, taking the eastern gate out of Konoha and heading towards one of the posts that bordered the village. They walked at a leisurely pace, in no rush, since they didn't know exactly where the Sanin was located. The sun trickled in through the canopy high above, a gentle wind rustled through the underbrush occasionally, and Naruto found the silence infuriating. "Oi, you old pervert! Haven't you got something I can be learning while we walk? I'm your apprentice, teach me something."

"I taught you plenty over the past month, cut me some slack, you're like a sponge when it comes to this sort of thing. How's your jumping doing? Since you can't fly like your winged pony friends, you have to-" He was cut off by the irritated voice of Naruto yelling down at him from a nearby cloud.

"I know, I know, I have to compensate for my lack of flight by incorporating leaping strikes, like the toads use. I've been practicing with Rainbow Dash, but honestly we both think it's kind of weird. Fighting someone mid air, when you can't control your direction is difficult." Naruto grumbled.

"The trick is to anchor yourself on your target, beat on them a bit, and then leap away when they gain the upper hand. You have an advantage, with those clouds of yours, acting as platforms for you to strike from and retreat to. How's your jumping height coming?" Jiraiya asked.

"I can hit 15 meters easily now, using wind chakra to boost my jumps. Can't you teach me a new technique? Something I can work on while we walk, you said this could take weeks right?" Naruto asked, bringing the cloud down to walking level.

"Fine, this is something my student taught me, took him years to create it, and me months to learn it. This, is one of the Fourth Hokage's signature techniques, the Rasengan." Jiraiya said proudly, forming a spinning blue ball of chakra in his palm. "It doesn't seem like much but-"

"It's pure shape manipulation, like my bubble and armor techniques. You just spin a bunch of chakra in your hand?" Naruto asked, excitedly.

"Yes its pure shape manipulation, a lot of techniques start out that way, and the Fourth never finished this one, but even still it has a lot of destructive force." He demonstrated by drilling the ball right through a nearby tree, creating a small hole at the entrance, and devastating the tree on the reverse side. "It's tougher than it looks to do it, only Kakashi and I know it right now. The first step to learning it involves water balloons though, so we'll have to wait till we hit the next town." He turned to see Naruto already filling a balloon from his canteen of water.

"What? I always keep a supply of balloons on me, in case of balloon emergencies." Naruto replied, seeing the odd expression on Jiraiya's face. "What's the first step?"

"Try and pop the balloon by spinning your chakra." Jiraiya said simply, leaving the two to walk while Naruto screwed up his face in concentration.

The silence dragged on for several miles, as Naruto continued to try and pop the balloon. Jiraiya figured it'd be weeks before he reached that point. "So kid, you got a girlfriend? Or at least have your eye on someone? Some of the girls around your age are real lookers."

"Not having this conversation with you, ya old pervert." Naruto grumbled.

"C'mon, you have to have noticed, unless you swing for the other team." Jiraiya teased.

"We are seriously not discussing this." Naruto deadpanned, returning his attention to the balloon.

"Oh, I get it, since you were raised by them, you're probably going for a little 'transformation technique' action. I hear you can use it to transform others, I wonder how your pony friends would look as humans?" Jiraiya joked, only to receive a water balloon to the back of his head. "Oi, what the hell! Now you need another balloon!"

Naruto shrugged and pulled another out of his equipment pouch.

Much of that day's journey went the same, with Naruto focused on the water balloon, and Jiraiya attempting to tease him. Naruto refused to give him the satisfaction of rising to the bait, but by noon he had nearly run out of water balloons, and not a single one was burst by his chakra.

The eventually arrived at a post station, a small village that held basic necessities, such as a bar for Jiraiya to gather 'crucial intelligence for their mission'. Naruto let him go, knowing by now his teacher's habits, and instead went to restock his supply of water balloons. Not knowing where to start he simply created a few dozen clones, and let them disperse into the town.

Naruto himself went up to the hotel room, intending to rest a while, and continue work on the new technique without the white haired man's constant teasing.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke sat in a small tea shop, eating lunch while waiting for Kakashi to come collect him. The jounin had said they'd go for some one on one training after missions that morning. It was coincidence he heard a passerby mention to a fellow chuunin, "Kakashi's been taken to the hospital, I can't believe someone that strong got into our village, security really needs to step it up."

"Can you blame them though? Look at the state the village is still in, they've been running the patrols ragged while the walls are being fixed." His companion replied. Sasuke heard no more of the conversation, quickly paying his bill and rushing for the hospital.

He found his teacher's room quickly enough, inside were Gai, Kurenai and Asuma, looking worried. His teacher lay on the bed, seemingly suffering from extreme exhaustion. "What happened? I heard you were attacked?" Sasuke asked.

Before he could get a response another ninja burst into the room. "Is it true? Did two S rank ninja in black cloaks with red clouds really attack the village? Is one of them really Itachi?" Sasuke was out the door before anyone could silence him, already sprinting down the hallways at top speed. Gai immediately left to follow.

He dashed through the village at top speed, stopping only when he found his target, Sakura and Karin sat in a tea shop, as they had every week for the past month or so. "Sakura, black cloak red clouds, they were just in the village."

The pink haired girl dropped her cup, and Karin perked up at attention. "We need to warn Naruto, they're likely looking for him." She immediately rose to her feet, Karin quickly joined her.

"I'll come along, I have a gift for sensing chakra, we'll be able to find him easier this way."

"Aren't you still on probation?" Sasuke asked.

"They can lock me up when we get back, this is the right decision." The two nodded at her resolve, and the three headed for the eastern exit.


O~O~O~O~O


At the post station Naruto sat resting in the hotel room, occasionally grumbling as his clones sent him messages. Jiraiya was at the bar, as he said he'd be, swooning away over some woman and getting far too drunk for a ninja of his caliber. He snapped to attention, however, when one of the clones burst, revealing a fleeting image of a black cloak and red clouds. Not willing to bet his life that they were here by coincidence, Naruto quickly made to flee his room, he needed to find Jiraiya and get out of there.

A knock came at his door shortly after, which opened for the two cloaked missing ninja, to reveal some strange contraption. With a whir it opened up and began to play music, Kisame began to bob along with the catchy tune, as Itachi leaned forward, trying to find an off switch. After a few seconds the music stopped, and the blue ninja turned to his partner. "Well, that was-"

With a bang one of the cannons went off, covering Itachi in cake batter.

Naruto hit the ground running, hearing the music playing from the room he just left via window. He knew exactly which bar the old man was in, it was just a matter of getting there before... A crash behind him told him it was far too late to finish that thought. Civilians scattered into nearby buildings, as the wall of the hotel room was blown outwards in a massive ball of flame.

"It was tradition!" Naruto yelled over his shoulder, as the two ninja hopped down into the street and began chasing him. As they got closer Naruto saw that one of them appeared to be blue, and hefted a large bandage-wrapped something on his shoulder, the other one, appeared to be Itachi Uchiha. "Ah Horseapples." Naruto grumbled, taking the next right turn.

"Surrender Naruto, we need to take you alive." Called Itachi, the two missing ninja had gained on him easily, and would soon be within striking distance.

"But that doesn't mean we can't cut off your legs, to keep you from running away." His blue partner grinned.

"Or, how about I go sit on a cloud, in the upper atmosphere, until you two get bored and go away?" Naruto taunted, leaping up a larger building, and spitting a cloud out to land on. His victory was short lived, as Itachi seemed to shoot black fire from his eyes, which clung to the cloud and began burning it away.

"Seriously? How is that even physically possible?" Naruto grumbled, leaping even higher and spitting a massive wall of clouds to cover him from the fire. Sadly the blue ninja from before would not let him escape that easily, and leapt off a nearby roof. With a swing of the bandaged tool he slammed the blond back down to the ground.

Itachi approached the collapsed orange clad ninja, who had broken several ribs from the impact. "You will come with us." He said, in that annoying monotone voice.

"Do you hear... Birds?" Naruto coughed out.

"Itachi!" The missing ninja turned, seeing his younger brother running at him with a fist full of lightning. The older Uchiha merely sidestepped, grabbed the younger sibling's wrist, and broke it, sending the boy to the floor in pain, next to his blonde teammate.

"In hind sight, drawing his attention was a bad idea." Sasuke grumbled.

"Stab first... yell at him after." Naruto agreed. "Jiraiya should be here soon at least."

Itachi glared down at his younger brother, sharingan eyes slowly morphing, "Sasuke, you'll never defeat me like that, you lack-" Salvation came in the form of a massive toad being summoned directly over the space previously occupied by the two rogue ninja. The dust settled, revealing he had predictably missed his targets, but Naruto and Sasuke were both safe for the moment.

The blonde pulled himself to his feet, helping Sasuke do the same, and the two leaped to the safety of the large toad. Naruto was about to berate his teacher for ditching him to go bar hopping when a cry of "Naruto! Behind you!" Caught his attention.

Jiraiya pushed the boys down, activating a technique that made his hair grow into a spiky wall that blocked a pressurized jet of water. "Troublesome Brat!" Kisame yelled, darting from his position towards the defenseless Karin. Sakura leapt forward, arm cocked back to deliver a haymaker, as the blue ninja charged forward, bandaged tool ready to swing.

With a sudden cry of "Dynamic Entry!" A blur of green shot forward, catching the shark man off guard with a kick to the jaw, which sent him flying into a nearby building. Gai landed on a rooftop, giving the 'good guy pose' to the two girls. "Sorry I'm late, I had to clear this mission, and my youthful team got ahead of me!" He shouted to Jiraiya.

"Kisame, we're leaving." Came Itachi's calm voice from yet another roof. "Sasuke, if you desire power, look under the tatami mats of the Uchiha shrine." His partner booked no objection to retreat, and the two darted out of the town.


O~O~O~O~O


Hours later Naruto and Jiraiya continued on their journey, Gai had taken Sasuke, Sakura, and Karin back to the village. They had explained hearing word of the two rogue ninja in Konoha, and had rushed to warn Naruto, a fact which relieved Naruto, as he was worried Sasuke was going seeking his brother out for revenge.

Jiraiya had apparently picked up a lead on where Tsunade was, and they'd be on the road for at least another week, which made Naruto glad he had picked up more balloons to practice on. He'd likely need them, as the Sanin was giving him even more grief, now that two girls had risked becoming awol to rescue him.

The fact that one of the two was distantly related to him just made Jiraiya's taunts even worse.

Eventually he interrupted the old pervert's talk of 'restoring the clan's pure bloodline' by asking about the seemingly impossible task he was performing. "What am I doing wrong? I'm just supposed to spin my chakra right? The balloon won't pop no matter how hard I spin it though." He demonstrated, holding the balloon in one hand and watching it stretch horizontally as the water spun within it.

"You're only spinning it in one direction, you have to do more than that, spin it as many ways as you can. It takes mental dexterity kid, you won't get it that quickly." Jiraiya said dismissively, as Naruto stormed off up ahead, grumbling about teachers who didn't give all the instructions at once.

"I'm still pissed though, those two goons from before totally ran me over! How am I supposed to compete on a level like that?" Naruto called over his shoulder, turning new focus on the first task.

"Those are S rank ninja kid, you're still a genin at the moment, a chuunin most likely when we get home with Tsunade. It's going to be years before you're on their level, and that's if you train hard." Jiraiya said.

"Then I'll train hard! I'm supposed to be your apprentice right? Step up the training, I can handle it."

"The biggest issue right now is that a lot of your training comes from the ponies, and a lot of it just doesn't convert well to non-ponies. Unless you suddenly sprout a horn or wings, their techniques and martial art styles are not very well compatible with you. That's why I'm trying to modify your fighting style." Jiraiya explained.

"Then I'll have Twilight look into spells she thinks I can mimic with chakra, like the bubble shield one I already have." Naruto shrugged.

"That's probably a good idea, word has it both Luna and Celestia used some really nasty ones during the invasion, but I doubt those would be within your grasp. In the mean time, I'll work at getting your taijutsu up to snuff, and your ability to strategize with those clones of yours. Once you get the hang of the Rasengan of course." He chuckled, seeing his student still struggling away at it.

Over the next few days they travelled about the countryside, stopping of course at every bath and brothel, looking for any sign of the missing Sanin. Naruto eventually got the hang of spinning the chakra in multiple directions at once. He had tried using a clone to assist him, but Jiraiya had quickly dispelled it, saying anyone with his level of control shouldn't rely on a crutch.

Bursting the rubber ball was the easiest part, once Jiraiya got around to explaining he'd need to make his chakra denser and spin it as rapidly as possible while still maintaining the multidirectional flow. For someone like Naruto, who'd worked with making his chakra nearly solid in the past for his techniques, it took less than a day before he obliterated the ball.

The final task, forming a shell around the resulting ball of energy, still eluded him when they arrived at their most recent destination, Tazuka town. The village held numerous casinos and bars, and was the most likely place in the area for Tsunade to be staying. That, and as Jiraiya pointed out, gesturing to a pile of ruins in the distance. It 'used' to have a castle.

The two of them checked into a hotel for the night, and began searching bars until at last they hit paydirt. Jiraiya made for her table, leaving Naruto behind at the bar. A few moments later, a girl, Tsunade's apprentice by the look of it, came over to join him.

"The two want to talk by themselves for a while." She said, giving him a shrug and taking a seat. "I'm Shizune, by the way."

"Naruto, what's it like, being her apprentice?" the blonde asked.

"A lot of dragging her home when she's had too much, and a lot of running from debt collectors. Still, it's the best medic training I could hope to ask for." the girl replied.

"I can't believe someone that talented wastes it drinking and gambling, there are people at home who need her, who depend on people like her to have their back when missions go wrong." Naruto grumbled.

"She's lost a lot to that village, her fiancée, her younger brother, she just can't take living there anymore." Shizune said.

"Bah, I know plenty of orphans, hell I'm an orphan myself, and I've had a rougher life than most people you could probably name. People die, it's part of growing up around ninja, but when they die in the line of duty, you should at least show them some respect, not abandon the village they loved to go drinking." Naruto said, getting up and walking over to the table.

"Who's the kid Jiraiya?" Tsunade said, giving Naruto a curious look as the kid sat at the bar.

"Don't tell me you don't recognize him Tsunade, he's another responsibility you ran away from." Jiraiya said.

"We ran away from, you were away from the village as well Jiraiya.  Don't pretend like you've been playing loyal ninja while I've been gone." Tsunade smirked.

"More loyal than you, at least." Came Naruto's voice, the blonde stormed over to the table.

"Oh yeah? Well only an idiot would be loyal to that village. It's taken everything from me." Tsunade grumbled. "And before you even ask, I'm not going back any time soon."

"The old man needs you to heal him, so he can finally enjoy his retirement." Naruto argued.

"The old man had it coming. Being Hokage is a death sentence kid, I'm not going back to Konoha." Tsunade said, slamming her glass down on the table.

"You're just going to keep running then? You're going to continue spitting on the dreams of your family? You're going to sit there, and mock the old man that taught you to be a ninja, turn your back on the village that raised you, and laugh at the oath you took as a healer? How many people do you think died in Konoha while you were out drinking all these years. How many people do you think you killed because of your negligence? How many people did you abandon?" Naruto asked, banging his hands on the table.

"Who the hell are you to criticize me?" Tsunade growled, getting up from her chair.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I'm going to be the next Hokage. I'm going to bring peace to this world. And I'm going to kick your ass if you don't go back to Konoha and heal your teacher!" Naruto yelled, staring her down.

Tsunade actually seemed shocked for a moment, before laughing in his face. "I don't know which of those dreams is stupidest, but if you want to fight, let's step outside."

> Promoting Positive Thinking
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jiraiya could only shake his head in exasperation as his apprentice and former teammate stepped outside of the bar. They were treating the situation like a bunch of school children having a fight in the schoolyard. His musings were interrupted as a purple unicorn appeared with a 'poof' in the bar. "Huh, looks like it's a little inaccurate." She commented idly.

"How did you get here without being summoned?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow at her sudden appearance.

"Oh, Pinkie finally perfected a permanent sealing array, using Naruto's stored chakra, to allow ponies to be summoned directly to him." She said with a smile, recognizing the man as Naruto's teacher."Now where is he? I've made several important discoveries I'd like to share with him."

"He's outside, fighting a very drunk and angry Sanin." Jiraiya deadpanned.

"Perhaps I should go get backup." Twilight said, hearing a crash from outside. "Or at least Fluttershy to patch him up. Be right back."

The pony disappeared in a poof of smoke, and Jiraiya stepped outside to see how the beat down was progressing. As expected Naruto had been knocked through a wall, likely by a single finger flick. He was still conscious and raring to go, mostly by virtue of his Chakra Armor trick soaking the brunt of the bone-crushing force. Shaking off the rubble the blonde leapt skyward, landing on a cloud and sending down clones to fight.

"And I'm back, I brought Fluttershy, why exactly are they fighting?" Twilight asked, coming out of the bar with her friend.

"Go ask Shizune if you want to know, I don't feel like explaining." Jiraiya said, gesturing at the worried looking woman. Fluttershy nodded and went to do exactly that.

"Meanwhile, what sort of discoveries have you made?" Jiraiya said, his interests peaked after learning exactly how smart the unicorn was.

"Oh! Well I've been running some tests on some of Naruto's chakra, comparing it to Magical energy in both unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies, trying to come up with some common ground to it." Twilight said, both her and Jiraiya wincing as several clones were destroyed in rather painful ways.

"And I've come up with some interesting results. It says in the books I've read that chakra is equal parts mental and physical energy yes?" She asked, receiving a nod from the Toad Sage. "Well I ran his chakra through a device used to measure magical ability, and got a positive reading. Also I compared the Chakra Circulatory System to the Unicorn Internal Leyline System, which is the system that supposedly conducts magical energy through our bodies. They are both very similar, and have similar effects on our bodies if blocked. There's been research to suggest that everypony has the system, but only unicorns, with our horns, are able to direct our magic externally."

Jiraiya coughed, interrupting her train of thought and getting her back on track. "So anyways, this put me on the theory that Unicorn magic is simply raw manipulated mental energy, but back when Naruto was a child I had him attempt to do several simple spells and he couldn't. Which means either the fact that molding chakra mixes both physical and mental energies prevents ninja from doing 'magic', or more likely a horn is needed to directly manipulate mental energy without molding it and directing it like ninja do."

"So all unicorns have mental energy? That's certainly an interesting finding." Jiraiya said, his apprentice had now begun throwing wind coated shuriken from the clouds down at his former teammate, to no real effect.

"Not only that, this project has been going on for a while now, under Celestia's guidance, and we've finally hit results. By following the books Naruto had from his academy days, we've managed to get unicorns to produce enough physical energy to mold actual chakra. You're looking at the first unicorn to graduate from the Equestria Ninja Academy." Twilight said proudly.

"That's great, but unicorns already had magic, is having chakra such a big deal?" Jiraiya asked.

"It doesn't stop there, since the theory is every pony has Leylines, or Chakra pathways, we dug a bit deeper, and found earth ponies naturally produce an abundance of physical energy. It took a lot of effort to get them to learn to properly mold it with mental energy, but when we did their natural abilities soared. Turns out your First Hokage isn't the only one who can grow trees with chakra." Twilight grinned. Jiraiya was dumbstruck.

"Next you're going to tell me the pegasi are natural sages." Jiraiya said, looking skeptical.

"I'm not sure about that, but the pegasi in the program are a weird sort of quirk. They seemed to have neither an abundance of physical or mental energy, but when we got them producing chakra their weather manipulation went crazy. Dash is still working on controlling it and it's been weeks since she got the hang of it." Twilight said.

"Wait, weeks? How long have you been sitting on this?" The Sanin asked, no longer really paying attention to the fight.

"Like I said the study has been going on since around the time Naruto showed up. We only started getting results in the past month or two. There were a lot of ponies in the program, and a lot really didn't get the hang of it, me and my friends are the first generation of chakra using ponies, so a lot of what we come up with is breaking new ground. As you can imagine doing techniques without hands for seals is quite difficult." Twilight said shrugging. "Some of the effects still can't be explained, like how pegasi normally make clouds, it definitely isn't physical or mental energy, and adding chakra to the mix makes it go haywire."

"Well Naruto will be psyched to hear it, you and your friends still sound like you have years of training ahead of you though." Jiraiya said, his apprentice had apparently had enough, and was now on the ground, beginning to form a blue ball of energy in his hand.

Tsunade seemed taken off guard by the partially formed Rasengan, and Naruto used the opportunity to rush at her. He stopped however, when a loud voice cut through the night.

"Enough! Enough of this pointless fighting!" A yellow pegasus pony flew between the combatants. "How dare you!" She rounded on Tsunade, having heard the whole story from her apprentice. "You are supposed to be a medic! The best medic to ever live! And you go around drinking and gambling and running away from your responsibilities?" She yelled, approaching the stunned blonde woman, who wondered if someone had spiked her drink.

"You sit here drinking and mocking the man who trained you. The leader of the village who raised you. How dare you mock that old man and everything he worked for, while he lays on his death bed and you don't lift a finger. How dare you betray the village that your family built like that. How dare you disrespect the village and the dream that your family died for, and turn your back on the things your precious people once loved most of all!" Tsunade was beginning to sweat, whatever this creature was, looking her in the eyes she found all of her responses, all of her excuses crumble away like the trash they were, and yet she could not look away.

"The Third Hokage wants to finally retire, as is his right after working so hard for so long. You should feel honored that despite everything you've done, and all the people you turned you back on, as a ninja and as a medic, the man who trained you still respects you enough to offer you that position." Fluttershy continued in a softer tone, as Tsunade began to tremble. "You know you'd make a great Hokage, even just by following the ideals of Dan and Nawaki."

"H-how..." Tsunade stuttered.

"I told her. I told her everything. She wanted to know why you were fighting, I had to start from the beginning for her to really understand why."  Shizune said stepping forward. "I believe in you too, you'd make a great Hokage, and I really think you need to stop running."

"I can't... Even if I wanted to I still freeze up at the sight of blood." Tsunade said.

"We can help, you have friends who can help, people who look up to you who can help." Shizune said, moving to embrace her teacher, who had fallen to her knees. "We'll take it one step at a time, but I know you can get past this."

The group eventually left the street as the civilians came out of their buildings to see what the commotion was about. At their hotel Shizune put her mentor to bed, while Jiraiya and Twilight filled Naruto in on their recent development.

"So the six of you can all use chakra now?" Naruto asked bewildered.

"It's been a long time coming, don't act like this just happened over night." Twilight said.

"But it is sudden to me, how come I didn't know this was going on?" Naruto complained.

"Celestia had it considered classified, we didn't want to get your hopes up. It's not like we're just suddenly developing new powers to keep up with the plot of some bad novel." Twilight said.

"Yeah, that would be kind of lame." Naruto admitted. "What can you do so far?"

"Personally? Not much at the moment, despite having a lot of mental energy, or magic, my physical side is lacking, so my actual chakra capacity is low. I'm working on the standard things to improve it, but at the moment I'm focusing on learning more useful magic."

"Fluttershy is determined to learn to be a medic, and her control at the moment is quite good. Applejack is having a riot being able to grow pre-existing plants, but it's nothing combat worthy at the moment. Rainbow Dash is having trouble with her control, any cloud she makes using chakra goes haywire and blasts anything nearby with lightning. Pinkie is being Pinkie, sticking to ceilings and charging her own seals now, she was actually one of the quickest to learn to mold chakra. And Rarity is in the same boat as me for the most part, her fine control using telekinesis is still better than mine, but her chakra capacity is nearly nonexistent." Twilight listed off.

Naruto sat back and sighed. It was a huge step forward, just at the moment it wasn't combat ready. Still they were the first generation of ponies to use chakra, he wasn't sure if changing Equestria like that was a good thing, but he somehow knew it would be important one day.

The group went to bed, they'd be returning to the village tomorrow.


O~O~O~O~O


Tsunade left her hotel room at dawn the next morning, she had a massive headache from her well deserved hangover, but the words from last night echoed through her mind. Whatever that flying pony had done, it made a hell of a therapy technique. "Where are you going?" came a voice from down the hall. She turned to see the blonde from last night, Naruto, sitting in the hallway watching her.

"You held your own pretty well last night, for a brat. Of course I was drunk, and holding back. Still, no doubt you'll be made chuunin when you get back home." She said, walking over and sitting next to the boy.

"It'll probably be you giving me the vest." Naruto commented.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for this sort of thing. Becoming Hokage is a huge responsibility. " Tsunade admitted. "I've been running away from even minor responsibility for years now."

"Well it's not like you'll have to do it for long. You're just holding it until I'm ready." Naruto said with a grin.

"You're really serious about becoming Hokage huh?"

"Absolutely, it's been my dream for as long as I can remember." Naruto admitted.

"I've heard about how a lot of the village treats you. You sure you want to put your life on the line for them?"

"They're good people, they don't understand that I'm not the Kyuubi, but they will, if I continue protecting them. Things will get better, I'll make sure of it." Naruto said, making Tsunade smile at his resolve.

"That technique you tried last night, the Rasengan. Show it to me." She said, watching the boy hold out his hand. With a look of pure concentration a spinning ball appeared, it lacked control, wobbling a bit and bulging out occasionally, but it was nearly stable. "Not bad, think you'll have it down by the time you get back to Konoha?"

"Three days? No sweat." Naruto bragged.

"Alright then, show me it mastered at the gates of Konoha, and I'll give you my necklace." Tsunade said, standing and heading back to her room.

"You never answered my question, where are you going?" Naruto asked again.

"Home." Was Tsunade's response.


O~O~O~O~O


The trip back to the village was blessedly uneventful. Naruto took the opportunity to summon his companions for the trip, and each showed off their budding ninja abilities.  

Applejack shocked Tsunade by planting an apple seed, and then growing it to the size of a sapling before pausing to catch her breath.

Fluttershy impressed the Sanin with her desire to learn medical skills, and got her to agree to begin teaching her the basics once they hit the village.

Rarity declined to come, stating she was hard at work designing Naruto's new chuunin outfit. 

Twilight did a standard demonstration of the 'clone' and 'transformation' technique, first copying herself twice, and then changing herself into 'the Great and Powerful Trixie' to everyone's amusement.

Rainbow Dash's demonstration left the most concrete impression.  She flew up about 10 feet and generated a cloud. Unlike most pegasus-made clouds this one was quite dark, and once she finished she flew for cover. As everyone present watched, it seemed to grow brighter, and begin to hum. As the humming reached a crescendo the entire thing burst, scattering the cloud and sending bolts of energy in every direction.

Pinkie Pie's own unique 'style' seemed to rely heavily on exploding tags of all sorts, from smoke to flash to confetti. She planned on incorporating more 'offensive' seals as she gained more chakra.

Once her demonstration was finished she got into a large discussion on summoning seals with Jiraiya, including theoretical seals used to bring people to a dimension temporarily, as well as seals to send someone back to their original plane of existence.

"Yeah, what you're talking about is theoretically possible. You mean like me bringing the brat to Toad Mountain right?" Getting a nod from the pink pony. "It takes a good deal of chakra, and you need to know the key to your world."

"Key?" Pinkie asked.

"It's the symbol at the center of the summoning contract, you need to take that and draw it in the middle of this array." He trailed off, seeing Pinkie pull the scroll out of her saddlebags. "Why do you have that?"

"Who else would Celestia trust with keeping it secret?" Pinkie asked.

"Right well... what you need to do..."

Soon enough the troupe had reached the walls of Konoha, and Naruto proudly held aloft a fully controlled Rasengan. Tsunade smiled at the boy, who reminded her so much of her little brother, and knelt down to place her necklace around his neck. She desperately prayed it wouldn't bring him the same luck it had her family, and sealed those prayers with a kiss to his forehead.

"Ready to take your place up there on the mountain?" Jiraiya joked as she took her first steps in the village in ages.

"I'm just holding the hat until the brat is ready. I'll be retiring before you know it." She said, returning his grin. Despite everything, it felt good to be home.


O~O~O~O~O


The Third Hokage's operation went without a hitch, the wound from Orochimaru's sword had been healed long ago, and only the poison remained. Without the fear of blood to hold her back, Tsunade's legendary control made removing most of the poison a rather simple matter. Both Sakura and Fluttershy were invited to watch, and spoke highly of their new role model for weeks later.

Naruto's first stop upon arriving home was to check on Kakashi and Sasuke. The former had recovered from the exhaustion and trauma caused by Itachi's technique, and the latter had a minor cast that would be on for a few more days, due to the accelerated healing done by medics at the hospital.

"Have you checked the shrine Itachi mentioned?" Naruto asked, as they sat by the pond in the Uchiha district, throwing stones like the good old days.

"I decided I'd wait till you got back." Sasuke said, tossing a stone that skipped eleven times.

"Moral support?" Naruto joked.

"Clones for trap checking." Sasuke deadpanned.

"Touché, shall we go now?" Naruto chuckled, and the two rose to investigate the shrine.

The shrine itself was rather plain, and apparently served no purpose other than to hide a secret room under apparently. Under one of the floor mats they found a set of stairs downwards. Beneath was a wall with strange writing on it. Sasuke turned on his sharingan as a hunch and began to read.

"The Uchiha clan is the best, blah blah blah, the Senju clan can't break reality like us, yadda yadda yadda, whoever designed this bloodline couldn't make up their mind..." Sasuke read.

"Really? Your clan has a secret wall devoted to bragging?" Naruto asked.

"Hold on, here's the good bit, to achieve the reality breaking power of the Mangekyo Sharingan, an Uchiha must first..." Sasuke paused to make sure he was reading correctly. "Kill his best friend."

"Dude... That sucks." Naruto was at a loss for words.

"Apparently using the Mangekyo Sharingan makes you go blind eventually too." Sasuke said.

"Yeah, I've heard that one before about doing other naughty stuff." Naruto snorted, causing Sasuke to punch him in the arm.

"Seriously, I wish I didn't know this stuff." Sasuke said. "What if I go nuts from the seal and try and kill you?"

"You know it's bound to happen at least once, but don't worry, I'll knock some sense into you when it does." Naruto shrugged. "You'd do the same for me."


O~O~O~O~O


It turned out Karin wasn't punished for going awol, to everyone's relief. Naruto caught up with her and Anko at a tea shop a day after he returned. Her probation had ended, and the psychotic special jounin had volunteered to take over the Uzumaki's training. "At the moment I'm trying to improve the range on my ability to sense people." She said, sipping her tea.

"That's a really useful ability, you'd make a great tracking ninja." Naruto commented.

"That's what everyone keeps saying, but Anko is also teaching me interrogation techniques. I want to see if I can use my chakra sense to detect lies." She added.

"Well keep at it, I was just going to go see how Tsunade is holding up." Naruto said, leaving the two to their tea and dango, and continuing on to the hospital.

What he saw when he arrived at her office was not what he was expecting. "Please please please please please~!" Came the voice of Sakura, as well as the much quieter one of Fluttershy, as both pink haired females bowed before a very irritated Tsunade.

"Hey grandma! What are they doing here?" Naruto asked, casually strolling into the room.

"I was hoping you could tell me? They're your teammate and summon. And don't call me that brat, I don't like feeling old." She replied, wishing she had a drink to help deal with the craziness of the situation.

"We'd like to be your apprentices... that is um... if you don't mind." Fluttershy said still looking at the floor.

"I already have an apprentice, I don't need two more." Tsunade grumbled.

"But Shizune has been with you for years! Surely she's advanced enough that you can accept new ones as well." Sakura countered.

"But um... whatever you want to do is fine." Fluttershy added.

"Fine fine, I'll train you both, be at the Hokage's office bright and early a week from tomorrow." Tsunade said.

"Why a week?" Sakura asked.

"Because new chuunin get a week off to celebrate." The Sanin said with a smile.


O~O~O~O~O


At long last the time arrived for the hat to pass to Tsunade. The entire village and both Celestia and Luna were in attendance. The ceremony was short and sweet, the Third himself was there to pass the hat to his beloved student, and as he expressed exactly how proud he was of her for coming home, she nearly broke down in tears. Sarutobi also took time during the ceremony to pass the monkey summoning contract to his grandson, Konohamaru accepted it with an unusual amount of grace and respect.

Once the formalities of passing the hat were finished, it was Tsunade's turn to announce the promotions from the latest chuunin exams.

"The exams themselves were cut short this year due to the invasion, but it is due not only to exam performance, but to action in defense of the village that I award the following promotions.

To Sasuke Uchiha, who faced great danger in defense of his village, and who's efforts aided in preventing the Ichibi from wreaking havoc on our village. I award you the merit promotion of the rank of chuunin.

To Lee Rock, who despite not making it to the finals, displayed great skill, strength, and willingness to sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds for the sake of the village. His actions aboard the Ixion prevented great loss of life and livelihood in the merchant district, as well as support to the ninja fighting on the ground. I award you the merit promotion of the rank of chuunin.

To Sakura Haruno, who displayed great strength and bravery, and also aided the Ixion in defense of the merchant district and support of our ground troops. I award you the merit promotion of the rank of chuunin.

To Shikamaru Nara, who's display of tactical genius both within the exam and during the invasion lead to many victories against strong opponents and superior numbers. I award you the rank of chuunin.

Last, but certainly not least, to Naruto Uzumaki. You personally, along with teammate Sasuke Uchiha, confronted the Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi in defense of the village despite knowing the danger. You delayed him, where teams of skilled ninja would likely have died. Your summons aided in the Third's fight against Orochimaru, and likely saved his life. They aided in the defense of the entire village from the airship Ixion. They aided in the eventual defeat of the Ichibi, a monument to which can still be seen behind me. You put up one heck of a fight in the defense of our village, and I wish I had been there to see it. Naruto Uzumaki I award you the merit promotion of the rank of chuunin."

To his surprise much of the village behind him cheered at the declaration, as the former genin marched forward to collect their vests. The five new chuunin turned to wave at the crowd, and Naruto's face suddenly sported a grin. From behind the cloud cover the Ixion swooped into view. "I'll see you in a week Tsunade." He called, as the cannons aboard the ship fired and the five chuunin found themselves teleported to the deck.

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinkie?" He called, seeing the pony standing within a massive array of seals.

"I think so Naruto, but how would a button even produce warm blueberry muffins on demand?" Came her response. The blonde boy facepalmed.

"Fire it up! You're all invited on a week-long celebratory cruise of Equestria!" He yelled, Pinkie grinned and placed her hooves on the battery seal beneath her. For a moment the entire ship glowed with massive seals, and then with a poof the ship was gone, ninja and all.

> Graduation Vacation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	

"Naruto! What the hell are you doing?" Sakura yells as the ship once more bursts into existence in mid air. It's a curious feeling being summoned, while normally it isn't noticeable enough to be a bother, when something as large and complicated as a ship full of people in motion the lurch is enough to throw the passengers to the deck.

"Welcome to Equestria!" He laughs, rising to his feet. "We have a week off, so I figure we'll cruise around and see the sights. "If you look over to the left you'll see Canterlot, where we'll make our first port of call, for a royal welcome."

The others on board rush to the side of the ship, looking out over gently flapping orange wings, at the majestic city in the distance. It's lit up in brilliant colors as the sun sets in the distance, and the view is flawless, not a single cloud out of position in the Equestrian sky.

Pinkie Pie began singing a song about being on a boat, as the awe wore off his human companions. The group dispersed about the ship, talking among themselves. Lee approached Scootaloo who was hard at work at the helm.

"Scootaloo my youthful little pony, it is good to see you again." 

"Hey Lee! I've been working hard lately!" She called, as the green clad boy approached. "Twilight nominated me for the second generation of the Equestrian Ninja Academy, I'm already ahead of some of the older ponies when it comes to fighting."

The two began a deep discussion about training habits, as the ship continued to soar at a lazy pace through the sky.

Shikamaru took up a spot at the bow of the ship, leaning back against the protruding figurehead and gazing up at the sky. He gave Naruto a nod as he approached. "You're a troublesome guy Naruto, whisking me off like this without warning. I guess this'll keep my parents off my back about more training for the week though."

"Ah, c'mon Shikamaru, this is an adventure! Don't be a drag!" Naruto joked, leaning on the railing near his lazy friend.

"Cloud watching here isn't a lot of fun is it?" He asked, remembering how 'controlled' the weather was in Naruto's stories.

"Not really, but you should try having a nap on one. I'll have Twilight hook you up with a cloud walking spell." Naruto said.

"We won't have to disguise ourselves as ponies will we? I don't think I'll make a good pony." Shikamaru said.

"I think you'd make a good deer Shikamaru. I'd make a good unicorn I think. Do they have deer in Equestria?" Sakura asked, joining the two at the bow.

"No disguises necessary you two, but you're more than welcome to try it out. As for deer, I don't know, I've met zebras and buffalo, but never a deer." Naruto said.

Sakura gave a laugh, and in a poof of smoke she was gone, replaced with an off white unicorn with pink hair and green eyes, still wearing the chuunin vest and Konoha headband. "What do you think?" She said, doing a quick spin, and nearly stumbling.

Naruto laughed and Shikamaru gave a small smile. "It's not bad, it takes a bit of getting used to, moving around like that though."

"You've done this before?" She asked, taking a few experimental steps.

"Of course, you don't practically grow up in Equestria without trying to be a pony... or a dragon, but I make a terrible dragon apparently." Naruto shrugged, performing the same technique and showing off his pony form. He could honestly pass as Applejack's twin brother, with his orange coat and short blonde hair. Apple Bloom shot him a quick glance and looked away blushing, returning to her rounds of the deck.

Both chuunin ponies gave Shikamaru a look, turning on the full effect of their pony-granted adorableness. "Fine fine, troublesome ponies." He grumbled, performing a transformation, and winding up a deer, like those his clan took care of.

"You do make a great deer!" Both ponies shouted in response, before falling into fits of laughter.

"What's going on over here?" Sasuke asked casually. He was already transformed, into a blue pegasus with the same black duck-butt styled hair. Which only served to encourage the fits of giggling. "Think I can actually fly with these?" he said, flexing his wings.

"Don't go jumping off the boat. I've tried before, but those wings are just chakra constructs, they won't support your weight. Pegasi have some weird magic that lets them fly." Naruto said.

"But isn't magic just mental energy?" Sakura asked.

"Not for pegasi, they don't use mental or physical energy in their 'magic', we're still studying it." Naruto shrugged.

Not to be left out, Naurto applied the same treatment to Lee, turning him into a green pony, complete with bowl-cut and eyebrows. The five were still laughing when the ship finally came to a stop at Canterlot, allowing them to disembark. Naruto lead the chuunin towards the castle, while Pinkie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders stayed behind to dock the ship properly.

Along the way they received many odd looks, not only for the vests and headbands, but also because of Shikamaru, who muttered a simple "Troublesome" but refused to drop the technique.

Eventually they reached Canterlot castle, the guards let them pass with a nod, and they were greeted by the Princesses themselves. "Welcome new chuunin of Konoha. We wished to throw a party for you, but seeing as we held the one for your genin graduation exam in Konoha, we thought we should hold this one here, in Ponyville. So please, enjoy the festivities, and make this a night to remember." Celestia said with a smile at their appearances.

The group was immediately intercepted before they could enter by an overly enthusiastic Rarity, who insisted they couldn't enter the party without clothes, nor would she allow them to dispel their disguises. Instead she molded her chakra, and performed a transformation technique of her own on each of them, adding clothing to their ensemble. When she was finished, each of the ninja repeated her results with their own transformation technique, apart from Lee of course who had Naruto do his once again.

Properly dressed in very sharp suits, with a beautiful dress for Sakura, the chuunin finally entered the party. It was a grand event, on the same scale as the 'great galloping gala', and the guests of honor were quickly separated in the crowds. Shikamaru was quickly inundated with questions as to what he was and where he was from. He eventually settled on telling them all he was a deer from 'Nara', banking on the fact that no one would call him out on the obvious lie.

Sasuke found out soon enough that even changing species he can't keep from gaining fan girls, and wound up spending much of the night dancing with members of the female population. He proved to be a 'natural' at dancing, after flashing his sharingan while watching some of the more talented dancers.

Naruto, predictably, hit the food table immediately, mingling away with the ponies with a comfort level gained from years of practice. He noticed Twilight off to one side of the room, and approaching her found she was speaking to several of the 'noble' ponies about the practical aspects of the 'Equestrian Ninja Academy'.

"It's not just combat abilities of course, there are uses for chakra that can affect every walk of life." She said, seeing her discussion had drawn a crowd. "For example, every bit of food you see here at this party was brought here within a single scroll of paper."

Naruto moved on, noticing the signs of Twilight building up speed for a rant. By the next snack table he spotted someone he hadn't seen in a while. "Hey Spike, enjoying the party?"

The dragon looked up from where he sat near a table leg, bowl of gems sitting to his right. "Oh, hey Naruto, I'm psyched to be here, I'm not usually brought to parties. Or adventures."

"Ah well, you're still young, especially for a dragon. You know Twi doesn't want you signing the summoning contract yet." Naruto said.

"I know, I know, but still, I always get to hear how awesome everything is second hoof, it kinda sucks." The dragon grumbled.

"Well, you're coming on the cruise right? That's bound to turn into some kind of adventure." Naruto joked.

"Yeah, from what they say, everything you get involved in goes way overboard." Spike laughed, seeming to have cheered up. "Hey, have you seen Rarity?"

"She gave me and my friends these outfits." Naruto said.

"Yeah, she's pretty awesome huh?" The dragon said, his eyes glazing over.

"Right, well, talk to you later little guy."

The night wore on, and eventually the party wound down, the guests of honor were all brought to rooms within the castle. Sakura left the boys to go to her room, and found it occupied by six familiar ponies. "Uh, this is the girls room right?"

"That's right! C'mon in sugarcube, we were just about ta hit tha baths." Applejack called, guiding the girl inside. Twilight looked over at her and floated up her copy of "101 things to do at a sleepover" with a grin.

The baths were enormous, a massive tub the size of a small swimming pool took up the center of the room. Pinkie Pie was at the taps, filling the tub with hot water and scented soaps, and giggling as bubbles threatened to spill over and flood the room. In the corner Fluttershy gave quiet squeals as Rarity floated hoof-a-cure instruments about her legs. The only one missing was...

"Geronimo!" came Rainbow Dash's voice as she did a single back flip and dove into the water from the ceiling. She surfaced laughing along with Pinkie Pie, and called out a challenge to the others.

Pinkie Pie ran up to the wall, and in a rather impressive display of concentration walked right up the length and onto the ceiling. "Sacagawea!" She called, dropping into a cannon ball.

Sakura decided not to waste the opportunity to unwind, and dropped her disguise to join them.

The next morning the six ponies and pink haired ninja joined the boys and dragon at the docks, all of them giggling away as if they'd been best friends forever. The boys had given up disguising themselves as well, and were back in their standard ninja outfits. "Alright, the itinerary for the trip is as follows:" called Naruto from the deck.

"From here we fly to Appleoosa  for a pie eating contest, and to watch the Buffalo's annual stampede. We spend the first night there. After that it's to Cloudsdale, to watch this year's 'best young fliers competition'. After that we spend nights in Manehatten. We have hotel reservations at 'Sleipnir's stable', dinner reservations at 'Horsey on Mane', and tickets to a production of 'The Sheriff of Trottingham.' After that our last three nights are in Las Pegasus, at the Bucephalus Hotel and Casino."

There was a resounding cheer of excitement as everyone boarded the ship, and with a single lurch it took to the air.


O~O~O~O~O


Appleoosa was a blast, Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee all participated, with Lee setting the personal challenge of "If I cannot eat 20 pies I will run the stampede route with the buffalos." He lost, and seeing the green spandex-clad boy keep pace with the buffalo chieftain as they ran the traditional route was something that would likely be talked about for years.

This year's best young flier competition was a sight to behold as both talented young fliers and the wonderbolts performed. Shikamaru enjoyed their trips to the weather factories, and managed to catch a nap on a cloud before the performance. Sasuke managed to have entire conversations with some of the pegasi on lightning and how to manipulate it.

In Manehattan they got to live the highlife, staying in the luxury suite of 'Sleipnir's Stable', who's rooms were as large as the royal bedrooms. At Horsey on Main they sampled the finest of Equestrian dining, and during the day the entire group broke up to go shopping. Sakura and the mares had a wonderful time, with Rarity promising she could modify anything Sakura fancied to fit a human of her size. The Sheriff of Trottingham had the whole group cheering and applauding, and more than once the group had to restrain Lee from interrupting the performance.

The last three days in Las Pegasus passed in a blur of partying and gambling. They managed to catch one of 'The Great and Powerful Trixie's ' shows, and Naruto filled the audience with clones, who proceeded to heckle her all night. The hit the casinos, and Naruto demonstrated an uncanny ability to win when it came to games of chance. Blackjack and Poker weren't his games, he'd lose as well as anyone else but when it came down to games like Craps, Slots, and even Roulette he'd clean the house out if left alone.

The sun was rising over the desert that surrounded the city of blinding lights, as the five humans gathered around a large seal prepared for their departure. It was early, far too early for the ninja present, who all wore sunglasses to hide the bleary eyes from too many all night parties. Each of them wore fancy clothing, the boys in suits, and the girl in a rather practical dress. The blonde was the only one grinning, holding twin briefcases full of gold coins having traded in his bits for the only Equestrian currency Konoha would take. The merchants in the village learned long ago that for Naruto the value of gems was greatly reduced, and would only give him paltry amounts of money for buckets full.

"Can we agree never to mention last night?" Sakura whined to the group present, her hair was a mess, and her dress ripped and dirty. The boys were not in much better shape, having become roughed up quite a bit the night before. Lee's suit was missing a sleeve, but he sported a rather shiny gold belt with an oversized metal, proclaiming him light-weight champion, and hefted a briefcase of his own.

"Aw c'mon Sakura, at least we can discuss it among ourselves from time to time." Naruto whined right back, suitcases jingling away. "I mean people are going to want to hear about Lee's fight, that diamond dog was intense! It knocked Sasuke through the stands!"

"There were people sitting there! You three jumping into the ring like that was reckless and stupid, you're lucky you didn't get thrown out." The girl grumbled.

"He called for any challenger, not our fault there were ninja present." Sasuke shrugged, still sore from the bruises.

"Let's just go home. I hate to say it, but I need a vacation from our vacation." Shikamaru grumbled, stepping onto the seal. The others followed, and with a rather large application of Naruto's chakra, the five humans disappeared.


O~O~O~O~O


The smoke cleared in Tsunade's office, she was there early expecting their arrival. An eyebrow rose seeing their state, Sasuke seemed bruised, Naruto was dirty, Lee was sporting the belt of a prizefighter, Sakura looked like she hadn't slept in days. Only Shikamaru appeared to be rather presentable.

"Bright and early as promised!" Naruto called, flopping a briefcase down on the desk before him. "A gift for becoming Hokage."

"We're only on time because Shikamaru found Sakura in time." Sasuke grumbled.

"I was the only human girl in Las Pegasus at the time, how in the world did you lose me for 6 hours?" She said, giving the boys a glare.

"Anyways, now that you're back, you're getting your first mission as chuunin. It's only for team seven, the rest can go... have a shower or something." Tsunade said, shooing Shikamaru and Lee out of the room. "Are you in any shape for a mission right now?"

The three gave each other a look, before nodding to the Hokage. "As long as we have time to stock up and change clothing." Sasuke said, still looking woozy.

Tsunade gave a short sigh. "Fine, the mission is an escort mission to the land of snow, so prepare accordingly. Kakashi has the details, he's supposed to meet you at the north gate in one hour, so you'll likely have half a day to prepare."

The three chuunin nodded, and darted out of the room, with all the speed their weary bodies had left in them. A shower and short nap sounded great right then.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke headed directly to his apartment, quickly taking a shower and changing his clothes. The port town they were heading to was several days away, there would be plenty of time to rest later that night. As he went downstairs to get some breakfast he was struck by sudden pain in his seal.

"I see it's already starting." Came a voice from a nearby doorway. There was a man wearing a thick cloak an Anbu mask leaning there casually. "Your seal isn't complete Sasuke, there is a pill you'll need to take to finish it. Think of it as a little incentive. Over the next month it will begin to break down, eventually causing your death. If you don't want that to happen, you'll need to seek out the one who gave you that seal."

Sasuke wanted to respond, wanted to demand to know who the mysterious figure was, but could barely stand the pain. "One month Sasuke, you have one month to decide if your loyalty to the village is worth your life."

The pain faded and soon Sasuke was able to stand once more. No longer desiring breakfast, he instead walked the journey to the North gate. It would be some time before his teammates would join him, but he would need that time to think.

Eventually his teammates arrived, still looking a little worn down, but at least they were now presentable. They seemed to pass off Sasuke's sudden brooding as a result of the final leg of their vacation, and settled down to wait for Kakashi. The last Uchiha wanted to ask his teammates what they thought of the situation. Naruto had been involved with all of his hardships from the beginning, and despite the common annoyance he'd likely hate the person he'd become otherwise. Even his struggle controlling his seal was made more bearable knowing the blonde was going through the same thing.

Before he could make a decision one way or the other, Kakashi arrived, and informed them of their destination, leading the way at a gentle-for-a-ninja pace through the forests. Along the way they would catch him up on their trip, aside from the time in Las Pegasus as agreed by the group. There was far too many embarrassing details for all of them. Like any true ninja, they would instead use those details as blackmail against each other.

That night they sat around a small campfire, discussing the mission coming up, as well as Kakashi's fears of what it may become. "Our mission is to protect Yukie Fujikaze, famous actor, as they film the latest in her 'Princess Gale' series of movies."

All three new chuunin grinned at having such a great first mission ahead of them. "I'm only telling you this because I believe you are all skilled enough to handle it. I have reason to believe that Yukie Fujikaze is actually Princess Koyuki Kazahana, rightful ruler of the land of Snow."

With those words began a very long story of one of Kakashi's earliest missions. At the end of his story, not a single one of them was willing to back down, despite the possibilities before them. They went to bed that night filled with resolve to protect their target, and if possible, restore peace to the land of Snow.

> A Cold Welcome
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


If anyone could manage to get in to see the 1pm showing of the latest Princess Gale movie they would have found themselves in a rather surreal situation. The theater was packed, every seat occupied by brightly colored ponies with copious amounts of drinks and snacks.  Naruto had bought out the theater for this showing, not a hard thing to do after using a small portion of his winnings from Las Pegasus. He himself sat in the middle of the theater with his teammates, enjoying the best part of the movie, where the Princess gives her inspiring speech against the bad guy, and her bodyguards get up to try a final time. The ponies loved it, it hadn't been hard to round up enough to fill the theater, and he reminded himself to do this again some time back in Konoha. 

Amazingly enough Kakashi still wasn't there when they leave the theater an hour later, and arrived at the meeting place. The ponies that decided to accompany them, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, drew a few stares from the locals as they loitered near a construction site waiting for him. As Naruto opened his mouth to complain about tardy jounins they were interrupted by Yukie, their escort target, leaping a nearby wall on a rather large horse, quickly followed by several armed guards on horses of their own.

It was Naruto who leapt into action first, quickly hopping onto Rainbow Dash and chasing after Yukie himself. Sasuke gave Sakura a quick gesture, and with her assistance was flung skyward, over several buildings and into the paths of the pursuing horsemen. With a flick of his wrists two kunai embedded themselves into the walls of nearby buildings on either side of the road, at chest level for those on the horses. Paying the boy no heed the men charged onwards, only to be blown off their mounts by a burst of lightning, as it leapt from the charged kunai through the pat created by the men in their metal armor.

Applejack took over as the horses continued to stampede, directing the horses away from scattering civilians and gradually slowing them down. Fluttershy took over once they were stopped, calming the spooked animals down.

Yukie charged onwards, unaware that the guards had been taken down, only desiring to escape from the crew that intended to lead her to her doom. She pushed the horse to its limits, feeling the road fly out from under her as she plowed forward, unheeding of those who would get in her way. "Hey there!" Came a bright and cheery voice from her left. To her shock there was a blonde boy in orange clothing riding along beside her, easily keeping pace with her via a cyan colored flying horse.

"I don't suppose you'll consider pulling over will you? I'm kinda supposed to be protecting you, and you're being rather reckless at the moment." He said casually, as this sort of situation barely phased him.

In her shock she forgot to turn her horse, and it skidded to a stop before a rather inconveniently placed pond, throwing her off towards the water. To her amazement the flying pony seemed to speed up, and catch her as if the feat was nothing of consequence, easily lifting both her and the blonde boy to the safety of a nearby roof.

"Now see? What kind of ninja would I be if I let my client get soaking wet, or hurt, on my first day protecting her?" The blonde boy said once they were both standing. He turned and gave the pegasus, which had Rainbow Hair she might add, a bump with his fist to her hoof, and it disappeared with a poof of smoke.

"Ha.. wha... the..." The actress was at a loss for words. She had seen ninja before, seen them manipulate the elements and leap buildings as if it were nothing. But this boy, this boy seemed to throw logic out the window and bend the very foundation of reality.

"Oh, that was Rainbow Dash, she's pretty awesome, she can break the sound barrier you know?" Yukie didn't know, whatever the sound barrier was it sounded impressive though. "Maybe she can be in your movie, Princess Gale and her Magical Rainbow Pegasus! I can also summon a Unicorn that does magic."

A part of the actress wanted to doubt that statement, but she knew it would lead to a demonstration, and she didn't think her psyche could take it right then and there. Instead she fell back on her instinctively prepared statement. "I'm not going to snow country."

The blond gave her a curious look and pondered for a moment, as Yukie prepared to get him with her pepper spray if he tried anything. "You'll have to take it up with your manager, but we're here to protect you regardless."

"I'm not going back to my manager either, I'm not ever going to snow country, for any reason." She maintained, her sanity returning with a vengeance. "No Ninja with bizarre tricks is going to stop me."


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke and Sakura were corralling the horses and helping the guards up. Apparently they had been chasing Yuki to retrieve her for their departure, and the two ninja had 'interfered'. The manager, Sandayu had waved off their apology, instead praising them for their skills, and being incredibly grateful for having such talented ninja on board for the filming. Considering who Yukie likely was, and the true objective of the mission, his praise and relief made total sense to the chuunin.

The ninja's interference had quickly gathered a rather large crowd all eager to see both ninja and 'Princess Gale' in person. Embarrassingly enough several children in the crowd asked Sasuke and Sakura for autographs, and attempted to pat Applejack and Fluttershy. Kakashi had finally shown up, apparently he had been busy with the crew getting their ship prepared for the voyage. He stopped to ask the two present chuunin where Naruto was, but only got a vague shrug in response, if he had indeed pursued the target on Rainbow Dash he should have been able to grab her and get back by now.

As if on cue a large flash of purple light signaled the arrival of a purple unicorn, who happened to have a frazzled looking actress on her back. "-ever ever ever ever going back there!" She shouted, before glancing around at her suddenly changed location.

The crowd, predictably, went absolutely wild, seeing their favorite actress appear out of nowhere riding a unicorn. A surge of children rushed forward for autographs, and to pat the suddenly nervous unicorn, while the director and Sandayu attempted to reboot their brains. Yukie went nearly catatonic, only muttering "m-magic u-unicorn." over and over.

Naruto appeared not long later, and was pulled aside to discuss movie possibilities for his summons. Rainbow Dash and Twilight both agreed to play parts in the movie, so long as they weren't needed for guard duty at the moment.

"Naruto, make some shadow clones and help load the ship, Sasuke and Sakura, get Ms. Yukie on board." Kakashi called to the group.

"Yes to the first, and yes to the second, but only so long as we take my ship." Naruto replied. Causing most present to facevault.

"Your ship?" Sandayu asked. Receiving a nod in response.

"It's faster." Naruto replied.

"It can fit all of us?" The director asked.

"Absolutely. It'll be a bit more cramped than we would be otherwise, but believe me you'll love the extra features if it comes down to needing it." Naruto said. Seeing Kakashi nod in agreement the manager and director consented, and Naruto ran out on the water and summoned the Ixion.

"Think it'll float?" Sasuke joked to his female teammate, as the ship appeared, causing waves to rock the nearby boats. True to his word it was about the same size as their original ship, if only a little bit smaller.

"It'll take a week to get there Naruto, are you certain you can hold it that long?" Kakashi asked, seeing the boy panting a bit after the summoning.

"Yeah, we have prepared chakra storage tags to act as stabilizers, something Pinkie came up with. I charged the beforehand so the ship will be good for a month." He said, before leaving sight to discuss the mission with the captain.

Sasuke cringed at their timeline, a week and a half to Snow Country, and a week and a half back. That left him a week to get the entire movie out of the way, before the seal started to kill him. At this point he wished he had made an excuse before leaving the village, but the shock had gotten to him, and the 'denial' phase hadn't  ended until just the other night. He'd have to hope the mission went smoothly for once, or that the 'one month' deadline was exaggerated, both things he wasn't fond of betting on.

Deep down he knew he could still say something to Kakashi, and they'd call off the mission. From what he'd said the actress would really need their protection, but Kakashi wasn't one to put a mission ahead of an ally's wellbeing. Still, with a heavy heart he decided to continue with the mission. 

The ship pulled up to the dock as the film crew, Yukie, the other actors and Sandayu gathered around. "Avast ye landlubbers, I be captain Sweetie Belle of the E.S. Ixion, and ye will refer to me as 'Captain Sweetie' for the duration of our trip, savvy?" Came a rather childish voice from the top of a lowered gangplank. Those present were dumbstruck that the ship appeared to be run by a crew of little fillies.

"It's good to work with you again, Captain Sweetie." Kakashi smiled at the little filly, as the crew walked past her onto the deck.

"Apple Bloom, show the guests to their quarters on the ship, Naruto, Twilight, can you two handle the loading?" The little filly began giving orders. Almost immediately the gear and supplies were levitated in a purple glow, and moved to the deck, where dozens of shadow clones quickly secured them to the deck or moved them to the cargo hold.

With Twilight working as a crane and Naruto serving as an entire crew the ship set off without incident. On Kakashi's suggestion they decided to keep to the water, leaving their wings as a trump card. Scootaloo proved to be an expert helmsmare even in ocean currents, and at her orders Naruto worked the sails.

Yukie almost immediately locked herself in her room, much to the dismay of the film crew, who wanted to go over their ideas for including Twilight and Rainbow Dash in the plot of the film. Kakashi managed to find Sandayu standing outside of the actress' door rather impotently. "Sandayu, I believe we need to have a conversation." he said, leading the man deeper into the ship.

"What can I do for you?" The manager asked.

"I need to know what your plan is, once we land in Snow country." The jounin said casually.

"Well we plan to begin filming once we reach the shore, likely taking us through the mountains and up to one of the local villages. For the most part we will likely be camping out, but I'm sure that won't be a problem." The man replied.

"Ah well, what are your plans if Doto realizes who Yukie really is?" Kakashi asked.

Sandayu immediately began sweating. "W-what do you mean?"

"I was on the mission years ago that got her out of Snow country during the coup. I recognized her the moment she started appearing in the movies. Now the question is, are you just being reckless here, or are you planning to overthrow Doto." The jounin stared the manager down.

"A-alright, the truth is I was her father's personal bodyguard, and I've been searching for the Princess for years. Conditions in the land of Snow are horrible, Doto is a tyrant in the worst sense of the word. I've started a rebellion, but right now they need someone to rally behind. They need their princess there, even if she's just a figurehead, she needs to be there for her people, and I need you to be there to protect her." The old man confessed.

"You have my word." Kakashi said, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "Together, we will see the princess on that throne."

"Spring will come to Snow country." Sandayu smiled.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke leaned on the railing of the bow, brooding over the coming month. It was difficult to think about, but once in a while a flash of pain from his shoulder would remind him of the impending deadline. 

"Seasick?" Naruto asked, seeing his friend looking ill. His face was pale and covered in sweat, and every so often he'd clutch at his shoulder.

"Not exactly..." Sasuke said, trying to figure out how he'd phrase the conversation. "There's something wrong with the seal."

"Should I call Luna? Or Twilight? She's on the ship somewhere I think." Naruto suggested, looking worried.

"Not the containment seal, the base one. It started to hurt the other day, and someone... I don't know who it was, but he said I'd need to seek out the one who gave it to me, to get medicine, or else I'd die within a month." He said, expecting a shocked silence from the blond. What he didn't expect is to be cuffed upside the back of the head.

"And you figured you'd just go out to sea and die? What the hay you jerk. There are people who care about you ya know." Naruto grumbled, now leaning over the railing with the Uchiha.

"That's just it, how can I betray the village, even if it is the only way to stay alive. Tsunade doesn't know about seals, and Luna and Twilight only built the containment one." The boy shrugged.

"Well we sure as hay aren't giving up on this." Naruto said. "We'll make it back to Konoha by the deadline, even if Rainbow Dash has to break the sound barrier with you on her back mid-mission."

"And then what? If I defect, I'll be a missing ninja, even if I do somehow escape the snake." He grumbled.

"We'll figure it out." Naruto said, with a finality that restored some hope in Sasuke. The two spent the next hour or so in silence, looking out over the ocean as the ship steadily sailed north.


O~O~O~O~O


On the last day of the voyage the crew stopped off at an iceberg, on the premise of doing some filming. They had written the two ponies into the script, and the new Princess Gale film now included her joining forces with the 'Twilight Princess', played of course by Twilight Sparkle, and her loyal guard 'Rainbow Dash' as herself.

The actors, ponies included, disembarked onto the iceberg, with team seven taking up positions to defend them in case of attack.

They had reached the scene where the group meets the 'Twilight Princess', as she ran through the valley of the iceberg, chased by fierce 'windigos', played by transformed Naruto clones. The actors easily slew the attackers in dramatic fashion, but were overwhelmed until the arrival of Rainbow Dash, in fake armor, arrived to save the day. Their victory is short lived, as the evil Mao arrives and strikes down Shishimaru, prompting a sad scene where the cast mourn the loss of their ally.

Twilight then explains her plight, how Mao has brought great suffering to the land of ponies, and forced the Princess into exile. She explains that she intends to fight the evil sorcerer, with her loyal bodyguard at her side, and bring peace to her land. The scene, however, was interrupted.

"Princess! At long last we meet again. You were but a small child when you fled from your home, chased by me. It seems only fitting I welcome you back, with open arms!" Called a tall ninja, revealing himself from the top of a nearby hill. At his signal two others rose from the snow, and prepared to attack.

"Get back to the ship, but keep filming!" Yelled the director, as the crew and actors fled for the ship. Naruto went to cover them, trusting Twilight to teleport the Princess once again. That accomplished, he rushed to aid Sakura in her fight.

Sakura's opponent was a standard 'big guy' complete with slow but devastating hits. Long range attacks seemed to bounce off him, meaning she'd have to close in to use her taijutsu. The brute of a man made that decision for her, launching a grappling hook from his arm that dragged her in. Taking advantage of the momentum she countered his punch with a haymaker of her own. The two blows met with a clash of chakra, as the strange armor he was wearing tried to repel her fist, but in the end the two were repelled, sending both into snow banks.

He was up before her, and rushed forward to continue fighting, confident that his armor would allow him to overpower her. He had to jump back as several wind enhanced shuriken the size of saw-blades  flew at him from Naruto. The armor deflected them all, but the snow ninja was forced back enough from the impacts for Sakura to regain her footing.

"That armor is more annoying than yours" She grumbled at the blond.

"He's using a machine, it doesn't count" He replied, spamming the area with clones to aid in the assault.

The ninja in question decimated them by the armload as he swing recklessly through the crowd. Attacks from all sides bounced harmlessly off of him, allowing for him to fight like a berserker, unlike the clones which were dispelled by mere glancing blows. Shooting forward the original Naruto drew a kunai and blew wind chakra onto it, lengthening the blade into a sword of wind. In a flurry of blows that left a faint humming noise from the impact he forced the large man's rampage to a halt. Naruto swung the blade down hard, forcing the ninja to block with crossed arms as the humming noise grew in pitch. He could almost see the chakra flooding into the area to counter the cutting force of the blade.

Her opponent reduced to a sitting duck, Sakura struck with a leaping strike, chakra enhanced fist coming down on the ninja's face. For a split second the shield around the ninja held, and then cracked from the blow, forcing the ninja down and back, carving a trench in the ice and snow.

"My nose!" He yelled, clutching the now very broken nasal passage. "I'll have your head for that!"


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke's opponent was the agile type, quickly darting about with ranged attacks, which the Uchiha countered with kunai and shuriken of his own. Closing in to close combat the black haired boy activated his bloodline, and delivered a series of blows to the pink haired girl. To his frustration the strange armor she was wearing seemed to soak the damage, and the ninja leapt back into long range.

Not caught unprepared Sasuke brought his right hand up and released the technique, sending a surge of lightning towards one of his previous kunai. The girl must have seen this coming, as a quick 'ice wall' technique soaked the majority of the impact, but knocked her away as it exploded from the current.

To his surprise she emerged from a snow bank sporting wings from her armor, and began to fly around harrying him with ranged ice based attacks. He managed to copy the technique with his bloodline, but quickly realized that for someone without either water or wind affinities it was merely a waste of chakra, and stuck to dodging and countering with shuriken.

Another volley of frozen sparrows was cut off, as Rainbow Dash, now sans armor, dove down and harried the airborne opponent with a flurry of blows. The ninja, unaccustomed to fighting other airborne opponents found herself out matched, and was forced to rely on her armor to take the brunt of the damage. With a spin she managed to throw the pegasus off of her, only to resume being assaulted from below by Sasuke's ranged attacks.

A volley of kunai with exploding tags forced her higher into the air, where she noticed a very large, very menacing looking storm cloud floating rather low to the ground, and beginning to hum rather loudly. Before she could react a final Kunai darted through the smoke bouncing harmlessly off of her armor. With a deafening crack and blinding flash, every ion in the overcharged cloud leapt to the positively charged kunai, regardless of the ninja that stood in the way.

A very singed ninja dove headlong into a rather deep snow bank, chakra armor sparking wildly, as Sasuke turned to his teammate and gave her a fist-bump.


O~O~O~O~O


Kakashi's battle against his old opponent was not going as smoothly, having no backup he found himself almost evenly matched against the fellow jounin. It wasn't an uncommon situation for the silver haired ninja, having become famous for copying his opponent's style and turning it against them, and right now was no acceptation.

"It's time we end this charade Kakashi, choose your weapon, the nest attack will be the last!" Nadare yelled across at his greatest adversary.

"Very well... I choose Narwhals." Kakashi said. Perhaps he had been spending too much time around Naruto, but the reality was he said that just to see the look on his opponent's face. And it was worth it, the enemy jounin blew his composure and dropped out of his posturing, sputtering for a few seconds to come up with a response.

He was so shocked when his opponent suddenly responded with "Very well, a majestic choice." that he nearly missed the first few hand seals, and hurriedly copied them in an attempt to keep up.

Sure enough once the technique was finished two truly massive horned whales made of ice rose from the depths surrounding the iceberg and leapt towards each other.  Not waiting to see which one won the confrontation, Kakashi ran, gathering his students as he did so. The cannons of the Ixion fired as they approached, teleporting the ninja to the deck as the iceberg sank beneath the waves behind them.

With a spin of the wheel Scootaloo managed to turn the ship to catch the wave, riding it towards the shore of Snow country. Kakashi absently giggled at the thought of using his new technique against Gai.

> Bringing the Heat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


It was morning when helmsmare Scootaloo pulled the ship up to the coast of Snow country, dropping the gangplank for the party of actors, ninjas, film crew and revolutionaries. A caravan of trucks met them at the coast, and a crew of clones took charge of loading the cargo into the backs, their trip would take them on a winding path through the mountains to a small village where they would work to finish the film.

The ninja took formation around the caravan as it crawled along, heavy snowfall threatened their visibility, and icy paths made some of the turns treacherous. There was another flash of purple near the middle of the convoy, and a struggling Princess Koyuki fell into the snow once more. Observing from the top of one of the trucks, Sasuke grumbled and handed a few folded bills to his pink haired teammate. "Told ya she'd try more than ten times." the girl smirked.

"Isn't that the definition of insanity?" Sasuke grumbled.

"And there she goes again." Sakura laughed, as the not so secret Princess once more bolted for the treeline.

"Naruto! Go get her yourself this time, I'm getting sick of this!" The unicorn yelled up at an innocuous looking cloud.

"Wrong cloud!" Rainbow dash called down, sticking her head out of the rather grey ball of vapor.

"I'm on it!" Hollered the familiar blond, zooming away on a snow cloud of his own. It was unusual, creating any sort of cloud in the northern environment made it grey like the ones high above, and frankly riding on it made his read end cold.

Sure enough he found the Princess not far away, struggling through waist high snow. "Where do you think you're going to go? All that's out here is ice and snow." He asked, as the Princess stopped struggling to catch her breath.

"Anywhere but where you're taking me. Doto is going to kill me! Don't you understand that? He killed my father, he took over this country, there is no beating him!" She yelled, throwing her anger into the snow around her.

"Doto is just a man, Princess. You don't have to be afraid of someone like that, he's just a bully, and bullies are only strong as long as people do nothing. You have four strong ninja here to help you, and an entire country willing to stand up to him. All they need is a princess worth fighting for." Naruto said, pulling her back to shallower snow.

"Doto will kill all of them, they're all just a bunch of fools. There is no spring in Snow country." She said, letting herself be pulled onto Naruto's back in her exhaustion.

"They're fools who fight for you. If you give the word, I'll happily be another fool who fights for you. You deserve to have a happy ending." The orange ninja said, climbing the incline back to the road.

They soon found that the convoy had moved on, leaving the two to catch up by following the path through a tunnel. Halfway through the ground beneath Naruto began to melt, revealing metal rails. "Train." Gasped the woman on his back.

"Train." Grumbled Naruto, picking up the pace as he heard the metal monstrosity enter the tunnel behind him. He knew what a train was, having ridden one to Appleoosa before many times, and he knew for certain there was not a technique he knew that would save his sorry hide if that train hit him. So he ran, he ran harder than he had in his entire life, legs pumping and lungs burning as the train bared down upon him.

"Why do you keep struggling?" The woman on his back sobbed. "Why can't you see it's hopeless?"

He didn't even consider dropping her to save himself, he would out run this train with her on his back, or he would die trying. "I don't believe in hopeless situations!" He yelled, putting on a final burst of speed as he cleared the tunnel.

He dove left as he reached the blinding light of freedom, seeing the caravan stopped off to the side of the road ahead. The train cleared the tunnel dangerously close behind him, sending the boy and the woman tumbling down a slope. The train screeched to a grinding halt not far further down the rails, just in front of the camp.

A beast of a man stepped out onto the top of the train, and pulled a megaphone and appeared to be gloating, shouting down at the camp about rather inane things like 'All your base are belong to us', or 'you have no chance to survive.' Naruto figured he'd probably hit his head rather hard, but judging by the megalomania rolling off the man in waves, he assumed that was Doto.

Which meant the massive force of armed men, likely wearing red shirts under their armor, rose up out of the snow to charge the train, it wasn't at all shocking that the train turned its weapons on them immediately. What was shocking, to all those present, was it never got a chance to fire.

It started with the front of the train, the very first car was engulfed in a purple glow as it creaked and then rose off the rails. It continued to rise as the second car joined it, followed by the third and fourth and so on. The cars with weapons on them soon found themselves tilted harmlessly away from the awestruck crowd, and even Doto found he was clinging to the car beneath him in panic.

At the center of the rebel army Twilight's horn shone like a beacon as she scrunched her face up in concentration. She had lifted Ursa Minors before, and floated one from Ponyville all the way to a cave in the everfree forest. A train was merely the next test of her abilities. A test she was acing it seems, as the entire train was now airborne. She sorely wished she had the strength to merely teleport it into the ocean. She was no foal, she knew what that man had planned for the rebel forces, but she would have to settle for derailing the train, and leaving the man stranded at the mercy of the ninja.

With a toss she did just that, dumping the train rather unceremoniously over the edge of the cliff face. Doto and the three ninja from before darted from the confines of the train and rushed the army, who at Kakashi's 'suggestion' broke and ran out of the area lest they become collateral damage. Each of the Konoha ninja took their opponent from before, not willing to mess with what works, leaving Naruto to face down Doto alone.

Rainbow Dash had taken a rather exhausted Twilight off the battlefield, it would just be Sasuke against the pink haired ninja from earlier, a rematch both were happy with. Once again opting to stick at long range she pelted the ninja with ice sparrows, flying out over the cliff edge and safely out of reach.

Without any way to reach his opponent, or surfaces to stick charged kunai to, Sasuke was now at a disadvantage. He resorted to some of his more devious tricks, like hiding shuriken in fireballs, and then hiding ninja wire on shuriken. He even tried hiding ninja wire on shuriken in fireballs, but anything that did hit the target bounced off harmlessly due to that infernal armor. He swore if they managed to salvage some of it he'd break it on principle... After they reverse engineered it, he amended. Flying was rather cool.

Still at the moment, both opponents knew this was a fight neither of them could win. "Naruto switch with me!" He yelled, breaking from his target and dashing towards Doto, who appeared to have been stuck in monologue mode the entire time. The blonde in question gave him a nod and moved to intercept the flying ninja that pursued the Uchiha. Off to the side he noticed Sakura's fight, and gave a small grin as she managed to dismount her opponent from a snow board of some kind, and then break it over his face.

Reaching the edge of the cliff face Naruto called up numerous clones, each one spitting out a cloud and hopping on, riding it up into formation around the soaring ninja. "Finally the first real test of the airborne portion of my pony karate." he grinned.

"You actually plan on fighting me with taijutsu? We're over a 300 feet above the ground! Are you insane?" His opponent yelled back at him. 

Naruto merely shrugged. "If I wasn't this would probably never work." With a tremendous leap he shot forward, attempting to grapple with his target. To his frustration the armor seemed to repel even a full body grapple, and he was forced to kick off and land back on another cloud. Undeterred he bounced off another series of the floating platforms, circling his opponent and darting in for quick strikes.

On the ground Sasuke was growing increasingly irritated by the man before him. "So you see, that is why I should have always been the true ruler of-" He was interrupted by a fist barely repelled from striking him in the jaw. "You attacked me mid sentence!" The man seemed terribly offended.

"In all fairness, gloating during a fight is rather stupid. I'm not sure why ninja's talk at all while fighting." Sasuke grunted, flipping away before the man could counterattack.

Sakura pulled herself out of yet another snow bank after receiving yet another counter from her brute of an opponent. "Okay seriously, that armor makes no sense." She grumbled. "I can see it generating a solid wall like Naruto does, but it doesn't. I can see it generating a field that repels all chakra but yours, but why does it work on shuriken? I can see it including an electromagnetic field to repel metal too, but I just broke a tree branch on it, and nothing!"

Her opponent seemed taken aback by her rant and stopped coming at her. "That and if it prevents us from striking you, then it should work the other way. When you punch me, it should be the barrier hitting me first, and we already proved the barrier is flexible, so your punches should be weakened, and I know I just felt your fist connect with me just there! Look, even now you're standing in the snow and the snow is touching you!"

"Uh... I'm not even sure the guy who designed these things knows how they work, to be honest."The brute of a man said, scratching the back of his head.

"I reject your reality breaking armor!" Sakura yelled, once more running headlong at her opponent.

Doto raised a single hand up and firing a massive jet of black ice and snow in the form of an angry dragon, in exactly the same way he had been since the fight began. "Can't you do anything else?" Sasuke yelled, dodging the umpteenth dragon sent his way in the past few minutes. Even dodging widely he was beginning to get frostbite.

"I can do it with my left hand too!" Doto yelled, firing off two at once.

"Your sensei must be so proud of you, taking over a country with only a single technique." Sasuke taunted, severely pissed now that there were double the amount of projectiles to dodge. In response he darted forward, forming a chidori and pushing himself to the very limit of his speed. As expected the man didn't even dodge, relying on his armor to soak the blow. And soak the blow it did, the round green crystal on the front receiving only a small crack from Sasuke's strongest piercing attack. With a backhand Sasuke was flung back into the snow, winded and running low on chakra, he still climbed to his feet in time to dodge.

He focused inwards, slowly drawing open the seal on his shoulder. At times like these he wished there was some sort of activation phrase, though he dared not try the one Naruto suggested. With his luck there was likely a dress stored within the seal somewhere, ready to poof onto him the moment he said the words.

Still soon enough he felt the now familiar rush of power flow through him, along with a surge of agression, and an idea sprung into his mind. Listening to the first idea that came to mind while intoxicated probably wasn't a wise decision, but he was in no state to argue. As the next rocket of ice and snow shot forward he darted around it, quickly closing the gap between him and Doto at speeds the man couldn't hope to follow.

With a leap and a roar Sasuke brought himself to head level, dodging over the final blast of ice and snow. Once airborne he ran through five hand seals, relishing the look of horror on the man's face as a massive black dragon of ice and snow tore forward, the force of the impact knocking the man back despite his armor, and sending him tumbling off the cliff. The black haired chuunin managed to utter a very weak 'yay' before collapsing on his face from chakra exhaustion, remembering why he had opted out of using ice techniques before.

The team's victory was short lived, as a very bemused Doto soon rose above the cliff edge, standing aboard the deck of a massive metal zeppelin. At once the Snow ninja broke from their fights, leaping onto the zeppelin as it climbed higher into the sky. Completely exhausted Sasuke could do nothing to prevent a grappling hook from snatching up Koyuki.

Naruto immediately went to ground, knowing he couldn't stand against four Snow ninja in chakra armor and whatever crew was flying that thing. He landed near Sasuke, as Kakashi and Sakura met up with him, Sandayu joined them shortly after, the old man in hysterics. "They have the Princess, what are we going to do?"

"We need to get back to the ship." Kakashi said, getting nods from Naruto and Sakura as they hefted Sasuke between them.

"Retreat? We can't just run away! They'll execute her!" The manager yelled.

"We aren't retreating." Kakashi said, leading the way.


O~O~O~O~O


High above the land of Snow, Doto brooded in his metal zeppelin. They had the princess, they could easily squash any rebellion that rose up now, by threatening to execute her. Infuriatingly the crystal she wore around her neck was a fake, the jounin, Kakasi, must have recognized it and swapped it out. Still perhaps he could arrange a trade, the Princess for the key, in the long run the crystal was far more important.

They were over the Rainbow Glaciers, heading towards Doto's castle, where the Princess would be secure in his dungeon. "Sir!" one of the crew interrupted, sticking his head in the doorway. "We're being pursued by a ship!"

"Impossible, we're inland, there aren't even any rivers nearby." He grumbled, rising from his seat.

"The ship sir, it's... flying!" The man said, getting shoved aside as Doto rose to the deck. sure enough the ship the ninja had used to get to the land of snow was pulled up alongside them, flying on a pair of massive orange wings.

"Avast ye scoundrels and curs! Ye have the distinct pleasure of being robbed today by the crew of the infamous E.S. Ixion. Prepare to be boarded!" Called a small unicorn from the side of the ship. Below her several planks dropped down, revealing a row of cannons poised to fire on the zeppelin. "Fire everything!"

A volley of Fire, Ice, and Lightning shot from the cannons, rattling the zeppelin and sending the crew scattering to keep it airborne. With a mighty leap the conscious Konoha ninja boarded the metal flying machine, and once again resumed their battle against the Snow ninja.

Sakura darted around the crew on the zeppelin, dodging as her opponent laid waste to both crew and machinery in his attempt to catch her. Leaping once more out of range she threw a single kunai with a tag on it, a blinding flash of light left her target stunned and in position. Overhead Rainbow Dash fought against the airborne ninja, dominating the air as a born flier. With a single hoof upside the head she had the ninja following her as they performed dangerous maneuvers around the flying machine.

From the Ixion Twilight carefully levitated ninja wire into position on the rival airship, creating a seemingly delicate spider web of strong thin metal and locking it into place just as Rainbow Dash shot through it in a display of acrobatic agility. The ninja trailing the pegasus was not so lucky, and wound up tangled within the wire, her armor humming wildly as it tried to force the strands away. Dash pulled into a loop, gaining speed as she turned and delivered a double hoof kick into the chest of the ninja, sending her out of the impromptu net and crashing down into her teammate.

The two fields around the armors touched, each one trying to repel the other with increasing levels of power until all at once the system failed cataclysmically, blowing the armor apart and damaging the engine of the zeppelin. The two ninja, injured and harmless but not dead, clung to the deck as the ship began to list to one side, and then plummet.

Within the hold of the ship Naruto was struggling. He was at the end of a narrow corridor, with Doto gloatingly standing at the far end, and Koyuki's prison cell right in between. Every time he would rise and charge at the man he would be blown back by that infernal dragon blizzard technique.

"Give up little ninja, the Princess is mine, and soon I will have the key to Snow countries secret weapon." and of course the villain took the opportunity to monologue.

Naruto rose to his feet once more, creating several clones around him. One of them stepped in front, and surrounded himself in a Twilight Bubble. The others gathered behind him, and began to roll the ball down the corridor. Predictably a blast of ice and snow came shortly after, buffeting the ball and threatening to roll it back down the hall. Only the clones behind it, all anchored to the floor and pushing slowly moved the ball forward down the hall.

"Why do you keep fighting? Why can't you see it's hopeless?" The man yelled, pushing more power into the technique. The steady pace of the ball's progress slowed, but it still steadily continued onwards. They passed Koyuki's cell, still making progress against the onslaught of the blizzard until finally, with several hundred clones behind it pushing, the bubble was nearly point blank with Doto.

"I don't believe in hopeless situations!" The real Naruto yelled, passing through the bubble with Rasengan in hand, slamming it into Doto's chest. The armor held, just barely, gaining several new cracks as Doto was knocked back from the force of it. At once the ship began to list to one side, and the Naruto clones got to work getting the princess out of her cell. The two managed to leap over Doto as he pulled himself out of the wreckage, and once on the deck of the falling ship a teleport spell from Twilight brought Koyuki to the Ixion.

A sudden jerk sent Naruto overboard, causing Twilight's spell to miss its target. He turned as he fell, intent on making a cloud for him to land on, but was quickly caught by Rainbow Dash who pulled him onto her back.

The Ixion made a landing on the frozen lake next to the zeppelin's crash site, a short walk away stood a small gazebo with a pedestal in the middle. "I remember this." Koyuki said, looking at the large prismatic pillars that surrounded her. "I remember my father showing me this, as a child. He said that spring would one day come to snow country."

Kakashi stepped forward, finished with his off screen battle, and handed the Princess her real crystal necklace. She clutched it tight, real tears welling up in her for the first time in ages, as she remembered the pride her father had spoken with. With the confidence of a ruler she stepped forward, "I do believe, spring will come." She whispered, and placed the crystal into the slot.

A loud humming rose up from the surroundings, as steam rose from the pillars around them. "A generator?" Sakura asked, dumbfounded that the 'spring' might be literal after all.

"Country wide climate control. Without magic?" Twilight added in, also perplexed as the ice and snow around them rapidly began to melt.

"No!" Came a shout from the wreckage, a very angry Doto stormed forward. "Where is the power? Where is the weapon?" He yelled, even as the lake beneath him began to thaw. He raised both arms towards the assembled group ahead of him, even as Twilight raised a protective bubble around them. On the deck of the Ixion the film crew watched with baited breath.

"Right here!" Came a cry from above, as Rainbow Dash swooped down from the sky, leaving a prismatic streak behind her. On her back Naruto leaned forward, arm extended like a jouster and spinning ball of energy in his palm, catching the light of the pillars and emitting a prismatic glow. "Sonic Rainboom Rasengan!" He yelled, as the pegasus instantaneously broke the sound barrier, smashing the ball of energy against the target.

The strongest chakra armor prototype stood no chance, it was obliterated as Doto was launched skyward, eventually coming to a stop several miles away in a conveniently placed pile of snow.


O~O~O~O~O


It took just under a week for the team to finish taking apart the old regime and placing Koyuki on the throne properly, a week spent recovering for Naruto. The diagnosis from the royal doctors was that the boy had suffered severe internal injuries from the force of rapidly accelerating to past the speed of sound, as well as breaking his arm in seven places from ramming it against something going at that speed.

As predicted the boy was conscious within the week, merely needing to keep from any strenuous activity and wear a cast on his arm for the next few days. No doubt this was due to the furball's influence, but it left the doctors absolutely perplexed. Kakashi forbade the boy from using the technique anymore, as much like his chidori the speeds required made the technique suicidal, not including the self inflicted damage.

Naruto tried to explain that it was the 'ultimate' assassination move, since they were moving faster than sound. An unaware enemy would be hit by the attack before they heard the boom. Kakashi swatted the boy on the head and replied with "That only works if you don't call out to your opponent first. You were lucky Doto was too shocked to take a step to the left or right."


O~O~O~O~O


Eventually things in Snow country were wrapped up, and team seven left with a complete mission, a set of autographs, and a possible trade deal for Konoha. Seeing his teammate rubbing his neck at increasing intervals, Naruto insisted they fly directly back home on the Ixion, which was unanimously accepted by all present. It took three days, as Scootaloo had to rest her wings and eyes each night, but they arrived back in Konoha before the month was out.

On their first day back Tsunade insisted she take a look at Sasuke's seal. She consulted with Jiraiya, Luna, and Twilight, but even with their combined knowledge they came up short. The seal contained an enzyme that affected the genetic structure of the bearer and Tsunade was no geneticist. Jiraiya could analyze the seal that contained it for years and come up with nothing. Luna and Twilight knew only how the magic barrier around it functioned. Without this 'medicine', if it really did exist, Sasuke was doomed.

Two days after their return the cloaked figure again came for Sasuke's response.

That morning Naruto went to an old tree in the Uchiha complex as planned, and found a note within. They had agreed on the way back that Sasuke would remove the note from the tree at 6am each morning if he was still within the village. Naruto immediately went to the Hokage.

"So, he's been 'kidnapped' has he?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm supposed to just take it on faith he was taken against his will? You know defecting, even to save your own life, is looked down upon Naruto."

"Have faith in me then. I'm a chuunin now, give me a team and I'll get him back." Naruto promised.

"Very well, you have one hour to gather a team of anyone available and pursue the kidnappers." Tsunade said, giving a small grin as Naruto immediately leapt out the window. Deciding to throw subtlety out the window he spammed the village with clones to ask anyone he could find for help.

Within the hour Naruto stood at the gates of Konoha, behind him stood Sakura, Lee, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Tenten and Karin. Only Shino was away with his family at the moment. "Naruto." Came a voice from the village. The blond turned to see Neji approaching.

"I wished to apologize for my previous attitude. My arrogance and devotion to the belief in fate had blinded me to the truth of things, which brings great shame to a member of the Hyuuga clan. I respect you as an opponent, and thank you for opening my eyes to some things. If you would have me, I'll gladly follow you on this mission." He said, reaching out to shake the orange boy's hand.

"Glad to have you aboard. Karin, Kiba, Neji, you three are our best trackers, take point. We're going after Sasuke, and we're going to bring him home." Naruto barked, seeing the 11 chuunin and genin present leap into position. "And I pity anyone who tries to stop us."

> The Sound of Battle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The group of eleven young Konoha ninja tore through the forest in relative silence, Kiba leading the way with his nose. "I see a group of 5 up ahead, they have a barrel filled with chakra, but it's so dense I can't make out what's inside." Neji called, as the group slowed down.

"I'm picking up six... no seven chakra signatures." Karin added, slowing to a halt to concentrate. "Two are coming from one body, the one in the barrel feels like Sasuke but... wrong, somehow. I'm also sensing Kabuto, from the exams."

"Are you sure she's reliable?" Ino asked, as the group exchanged looks. Naruto nodded and the team crept closer devising a plan.

"Alright Shikamaru, have any brilliant plans?" Naruto asked, knowing the lazy ninja would be able to come up with something. The boy in question crouched down and concentrated for a few moments, while the trackers kept an eye on their prey.

"You said there was backup coming?" He asked.

"Yeah, but they won't be here any time soon. Time is a priority here, we can't pursue past the boarder." Naruto confirmed.

"The team we are facing is probably used to working together. Best case scenario we split them up, and then use our superior numbers to take them down." Shikamaru said. "Problem is, if they know we outnumber them, they won't split up. We should send in half of our team first. The other half stays back to ambush."

"Good idea, but we're sending transformed clones first, wouldn't do to send people in to a possible trap." Naruto agreed, and began giving out orders.

Minutes later the six armed member of the Sound ninja team looked up suddenly, and signaled to his teammates. "You may as well come out, we know you're out there." He called into the trees.

In response Naruto, Kiba, Neji, Shikamaru, and Chouji leapt into the clearing. They had decided among themselves to lead with their more 'physical' members, for intimidation factor. They kept Lee in reserve as a trump card, and displayed Shikamaru to lure the Sound five into a false sense of security. Sure enough a quick order was given, and the largest member, a man named Jirobo, trapped the collection of clones in a massive dome of earth. There was a brief discussion, and the remaning Sound ninja fled, barrel in tow.

The moment they were gone a shadow shot from the underbrush, ensnaring the large Sound ninja and causing him to step away from the dome. "Shadow Imitation success." Shikamaru said calmly. On cue several wind enhanced shuriken shot from the nearby trees, personal beliefs aside, Naruto was aiming for a kill shot.

In a move that shocked all watching, the large ninja broke free of the hold through sheer brute force, and called up a quick wall of rock to protect himself. "I can't hold him!" Shikamaru called, leaping into the trees as the wall shattered outwards into a hail of jagged rocks. "He's too strong!"

"We're wasting time here, the target is gradually leaving my sight radius, and we don't want to rely on Kiba to tack them!" Neji called, preparing to step in.

"Leave it to me!" Chouji said, stepping in front of the Hyuuga. "You're one of our main trackers, you go with the others, I'll hold this guy off here."

"I'll stay too, we have the number advantage right? Two to an opponent will help our odds." Sakura said, taking a stance on the other side of their target. The gathered ninja all looked to their team leader, who gave a single nod, and in a flash they departed.

"You shouldn't have done that." Jirobo growled. "I could probably trash your entire team, what hope do you two have?"

"Please, you're just a mook with a bad hairdo, we'll have you beaten down in no time!" Sakura bragged, getting an enthusiastic grunt from Chouji, who finished his final chip and pocketed the bag.

"My hair? At least it isn't pink!" The orange haired man replied hotly, glaring at Chouji. "What are you laughing at you fat piece of trash?" With a sudden flurry of hand seals several balls of earth shot up and were quickly thrown at the two.

Chouji shot to one side to dodge, while Sakura rushed forward, punching through first one, then another ball with ease. She was forced to retreat, however, when the brute of an opponent lashed out at her, with a punch strong enough to crater the ground where it struck. She gulped a little, having only reached the point where she could do the same using chakra.

She was spared a follow up attack, luckily, when Chouji blitzed her opponent as a quickly rolling ball. Seeing it work similarly to Naruto's Twilight Bubble, she treated it the same, keeping an eye on him as he rolled around the clearing, clearing openings for him to attack. Spotting an opening she darted in, planted her feet, and let loose the strongest punch she could, hitting her opponent's chest hard enough to drive him back several feet.

Sadly this didn't seem to faze the man, and he sent her skidding into the dirt with a vicious backhand. Chouji was quick with the follow up, plowing into the best of an opponent at full speed while he recovered from overextending. With a shout the man took the full force of the impact, grunting in exertion as he slid through the dirt, gradually slowing to a standstill. Chouji kept rolling in place as black markings seemed to appear on the Sound ninja's body until with a sudden surge of strength the Konoha ninja was lifted into the air, and thrown unceremoniously at Sakura.

The two managed to scatter apart from each other and get back into a ready position quickly, noting that their opponent didn't follow through on the attack. "I can't believe I had to use the first level of the cursed seal on trash like you." He taunted.

Chouji said nothing in response, merely pulling a box containing a green, yellow, and red pill out of his equipment pouch, and eating the green one.

"Still eating huh fatty?" The Sound ninja taunted, causing Sakura to twitch at the hypocrisy. With an unnatural speed he lunged towards the two Konoha ninja, arm cocked back for another haymaker. Chouji darted forward, and in a move surprising Sakura, caught the larger man. Feet digging large furrows into the ground the two slid to a standstill, locked in a grappling contest. "How can trash like you, compete with me?" The larger man grunted out. "It was that pill wasn't it?"

Chouji's only response was to shove the man back, and follow up with a loud series of open palm slaps to the chest that sent his opponent reeling. With a final rush the genin grappled the Sound ninja and threw him over his shoulder. Seeing an opportunity, Sakura leaped, flipping over once, and delivering a powerful axe kick to the enemy's throat, sending the man down into the ground with even more force.

The two Konoha ninja stood back and waited, watching for any sign that their opponent was still in the fight. They got a fairly clear warning when a sudden surge of chakra flooded out of the crater. "Why..." came a rather deep voice, as a very different Jirobo climbed out of the hole. "You're nothing but trash. You're teammates threw you away to stall me. Why are you struggling!" He yelled, looking crazed.

"I've been called fat all my life." Chouji said, speaking for the first time the entire fight. "Growing up, my only friend was Shikamaru. When I entered the academy, things seemed like they'd stay the same. Naruto brought me out of that, he became my second friend, and helped me to make more. He made me feel welcome where I thought I'd always be different, and following him... I know I'll become the man I want to become. My friends are all here on this mission, even Sasuke, and I won't abandon them."

"We may be trash to you, but those who abandon teammates are worse than trash." Sakura said, stepping up beside the boy. Despite not knowing much about him, she was impressed so far, and made a mental note to hang out with him more once this had blown over.

Chouji reached into his pouch once more, and withdrew the yellow pill. Seeing it, the Sound ninja dashed forward at an inhuman speed, trying to interrupt the boy. Sakura moved to cover for him, as the pill was popped into his mouth and his right arm cocked backwards as if to punch. She darted in, moving into a series of punches and kicks that would break the bones of lesser opponents. Instead she felt like she was hitting solid steel as the demonic-looking man barreled through her.

She managed to roll with the impact and look up to see Jirobo close into striking range, just as Chouji's fist came forward...

And grew to gigantic proportions. Jirobo's forward progress was halted, then promptly reversed as a wall of flesh and bone sprung up before him. The impact sent him airborne and pushed him back out of the clearing and through several trees before stopping, leaving him to fly several hundred feet more on his own.

Sakura was left awestruck, in every fight she had seen of the boy's he'd only ever done his 'ball trick'. "Can you do that with any part of your body?" She asked, rising to her feet.

Chouji, for his part, turned beet red and began stammering, so she amended her question. "I mean like, both arms, and legs?" She got a nod in response.

"Only after using the yellow pill at the moment, I'm not that far along in my training." He admitted.

"What happens if you take the red pill?" She asked, knowing there was a third.

"I get a hundred times stronger... and then die." He replied.

"Oh... No red pill then." She agreed.

Jirobo crashed into the clearing moments later, spotting his quarry near the far end, with the meddling pink haired girl in between once more. With a roar he charged past the girl, and slammed a fist down on the overweight boy. He was furious when rather than a human paste, he was rewarded with splintering wood as his prey performed a substitution technique.

He was left confused when the boy reappeared, only to give a cheeky wave, and turn into the pink haired chuunin with a poof of smoke. Glancing over at the girl's former position he confirmed that it was a simple clone. Realizing he'd been had he looked around rapidly for where the major threat could possibly be.

His answer came in the form of a colossal foot stamping down upon him from above. Sakura had given the boy a boost upwards moments before, and while he wasn't as light as Naruto or Sasuke, he still managed to clear the treetops at the peak of his jump. When Jirobo rushed the decoy he left himself in the perfect position, and got to feel firsthand how it felt to be a cockroach.

And much like a cockroach, when Chouji's foot withdrew their opponent arose once more, looking injured and angry, not nowhere near as 'nearly dead' as he had any right to be. "I need to learn to use the gates or something." Sakura grumbled, leaping back to a safe distance from her opponent, who appeared to be frothing at the mouth. "Everyone has a suicidal power boosting technique but me."

The two boys immediately went at each other again, locking one another in grapples and throwing each other about like sumo wrestlers. Eventually Sakura got fed up and leapt to Chouji's side. "Enough! There is one time-honored, sure-fire way to defeat an opponent. Make him hold still, and whatever you do, look away afterwards, it makes it cooler."

Getting a nod from the boy she reached into her equipment pouch for what she'd need. It wasn't her style Normally she'd smack her teammates for suggesting it, but she was getting desperate, and knew Chouji would be going for his red pill any minute now.

With a final surge of power Chouji threw another massive fist, sending it careening through the air at speeds that would make meteors jealous. Predictably Jirobo caught the massive fist with both arms, digging in his heels and forcing it to a stop. "I will not be defeated by Trash!" He yelled, positively vibrating with uncontrolled fury.

As soon as the fist was thrown Sakura was running down the length of the arm, reaching the end within seconds. As Jirobo halted the appendage's advance she leapt over the knuckles and landed behind the Sound ninja. Ignoring the maddened yells she began sticking the back of the ninja with tags covered in seals, deciding to use all fifteen on the premise that overkill was better than under kill.

Stuck holding back the relentless force of Chouji's fist, Jirobo couldn't even turn to see what the pink haired ninja was doing. When the knuckles finally shrank and withdrew he turned to find the girl at the very far end of the clearing, ducking behind a fallen tree with hands over her ears. A quick look in the other direction showed the other Konoha ninja was doing the same.

The clearing was suddenly filled with an earth-shattering kaboom.

Both ninja took a moment to check that their opponent was truly dead before sitting down to catch their breath.

"We did it." Chouji said, pulling a new bag of chips from his equipment pouch.

"You did it, mostly. I was just support." Sakura grumbled.

"There's nothing wrong with that though, is there?" Chouji asked. "Without your help, I'd have probably used the red pill by now."

"I just really need to develop my own style I guess. I've been working hard, getting my strength and taijutsu up to where I won't be a burden, but compared to guys like you and Lee, my taijutsu is nothing." She said, laying back to look up at the sky. Tsunade had agreed to teach her, but she was mainly looking for combat skills, not medic techniques.

"You really think I compare with Lee?" Chouji asked thoughtfully.

"Well, in terms of collateral damage maybe." They both laughed, looking around at the decimated forest. "Should we go after the others?"

"You can go if you want to, I'm going to be suffering the after affects of the yellow pill soon, so I'll be no help." The large boy answered between munches of chips.

"Forget it then, we'll just wait for our backup, and direct them towards the others." Sakura said, already at work planning upgrades to her training schedule. She was struck by a sudden thought, thinking back to their fight. "Your family's partial expansion techniques work on the premise of momentum right? You swing while the limb is small and light, and once it gets up to speed you increase the mass and size. Do you think there's a way to increase the mass of a limb without increasing it's size?"

"Probably with an earth technique, or sealing." The boy replied. Sakura leaned back with a grin, if her theory worked, she may even beat Tsunade in strength one day.


O~O~O~O~O


"Neji, I wish to speak with you." Came Hinata's quiet voice as the team dashed through the trees.

"This isn't the best time is it?" He replied calmly, eyes still scanning ahead. While Kiba and Karin could sense their enemies, he had the job of leading the team around hastily prepared traps.

"I just wanted to know why you decided to volunteer for this." She said, eyes also active but finding nothing her cousin had missed.

"I was forced to do a lot of thinking, sitting in the recovery area after the chuunin exams. Your father came to me, and told me the truth of what happened to mine. Mostly I've realized that in my own arrogance I've filled myself with preconceptions." He said, leading the team left around another wire trap. "I convinced myself that things were as I saw them, and that they could not change. I refused to work towards any real goal, instead believing fate would hand me everything. It was weakness on my part, it just took Naruto to beat it into my thick head."

"And now?" Hinata asked, as they began closing in once more on their target.

"I have a goal now. If the branch members are fated to remain that way, then I will work against fate to unite our houses, and bring freedom to us all." He said, with determination that surprised Hinata.

"I would gladly work alongside you cousin." Hinata smiled.

"Damn it all, they're right on our tail, didn't Jirobo stall them at all?" Tayuya called to her teammates as they fled through the forest. Sure enough in visible pursuit were four of the five ninja that had attacked them earlier.

"You guys keep going, I'll take care of them." Kidomaru called, turning about and spitting a massive web between the trees. The pursuing ninja failed to adjust in time and crashed into it, becoming captured in the sticky webbing. Nodding, the other three sound ninja darted away, barrel in tow.

"You've been pesky little flies haven't you? Those bonds are reinforced with my chakra, you won't escape before my teammates cross the border with your precious Uchiha. Of course you won't be escaping at all, you're my prey, and you're at my mercy." He said, walking slowly towards the captured ninja as they struggled. "Any last words, little fly?"

"You talk too much." The response came from behind him, just as the ninja in his trap poofed into smoke. Spinning around he was met with a dozen rapid palm strikes from Neji that forced him back into the web. Reacting quickly he caught into the non-sticky strands, and scrambled up into the trees. "Hm, you have some kind of natural armor as well? Troublesome."

"That's my line." Called Shikamaru as the rest of the team assembled on the nearby branches.

"Not so fast!" Kidomaru called, spitting out a massive barrage of webbing at every visible ninja. He had to pin them down and retreat, there was no way he'd win against this many. The ninja all scattered, avoiding the webbing but finding it hard to maneuver with this many allies around.

"You guys go, I'll handle this guy. We don't have time to waste here." Neji said, once again closing in on the spider-man's location. The opponent focused his attention directly on the long haired boy, and spat a rapid volley of webbing at him, as the other ninja nodded and retreated. 

In a display of skill Neji managed to disperse the first volley of silk projectiles with well aimed gentle fist strikes, but was soon overwhelmed by their number and pinned to a tree. Not willing to draw the fight out Kidomaru quickly charged the silk produced by his salivary glands with chakra, and launched a deadly golden spear towards the immobilized victim.

It was intercepted halfway by a gentle fist strike from Hinata as she dropped from her hiding place. "I will assist you on this." She spoke softly, dashing into close range and dropping into a low stance. "Eight Trigrams! Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty two palms! Sixty four palms!"

With each call she struck, pushing the six armed boy back along the tree branch, and with a final strike shoved him through the trunk of the tree. Eyes active, she could see without turning that Neji had freed himself from the webbing. "Next time, you can be the bait." He said, picking strands of silk from his hair.

"Don't like being the damsel in distress?" Hinata smiled, genuinely ecstatic to be able to speak to her cousin without hostility for the first time in years.

"He isn't down. He has some kind of armor, like Naruto does, we'll have to overwhelm it. One hundred twenty eight palms should do it." Neji said, staring down at the dust cloud as it faded. Sure enough their opponent was still standing, shedding a layer of golden silk.

"He can produce silk from his sweat glands, as well as his salivary glands." Hinata noted. "It must be a voluntary reaction, an ambushing strike should also work."

With a nod both genin rushed their opponent, but were brought to a halt when a flash bomb went off at their feet. When it cleared the six armed boy had vanished to the treetops. The two Hyuuga took up a defensive stance apart from each other and waited. Seconds passed in an agonizing crawl, before finally a whistle signaled an attack.

From the treetops dozens of golden kunai darted from the treetops, precisely aimed so that neither genin could dodge. Almost simultaneously both konoha ninja began to spin, emitting chakra as they did so, and producing a blue dome of violently turning energy. The deadly swarm of kunai clattered to the ground uselessly.

Kidomaru was forced to dodge to another branch, as the moment the rotation stopped the genin put their momentum into flinging a kunai each. The sound ninja noticed with some discomfort that one had lodged where his head would have been, and the other in the space previously occupied by his heart.

Within seconds the assault of kunai continued, as both genin resumed spinning to deflect them. Kidomaru drew on the first level of his cursed seal and summoned a massive spider in the treetops above, which began to drop swarms of smaller arachnids upon the genin below.

"He's stopping us from spinning." Hinata said, using chakra to force the webbing off of her.

"We'll have to stop the spiders manually." Neji replied, both dropping into the stance for the sixty four palms technique.

The rain of spiders continued as both genin swatted them away at frantic paces, all the while dodging golden kunai that flung in from all angles. To Kidomaru's surprise Hinata was the first to break from her position, darting over to her cousin with reckless speed and catching a golden kunai out of the air. Neji paused in shock, having not seen that projectile until the girl had plucked it from the air.

With a nod to the Hyuuga heiress as thanks the two settled back into a rough stance, back to back this time. Kidomaru fumed, that reaction hinted that there was a blind spot on his targets, but with the two covering one another he was out of luck. The rain of spiders and kunai continued, and the genin easily kept pace.

Hinata concentrated hard on swatting the spiders, a small instinctive portion of her brain moved her body around the kunai, and screamed at her to knock away the kunai she knew Neji wouldn't see. Behind her Neji did the same, protecting the heiress from attacks aimed at her blind spot. As Hinata struck she began to focus more chakra into her strikes, extending the range of her gentle fist gradually, until it became thin sharp beams about a foot in length.

It had been something she'd been working on, a side project to learning the gentle step. Her father had acknowledged she'd never be as strong as Neji at the basic form, and so had opted to teach her in a different approach. This, however, had been her own idea, her own creation.

The technique was inspired by Naruto, like a lot of things she did, admittedly. During the exams he had pointed out the differences between the Kaiten and the Twilight Bubble. She had taken the criticisms to heart, especially about it being a solitary defense that left the user immobile. These two faults she had worked on for weeks in private, eventually reaching this stage in development.

Neji worked on autopilot, locating targets around them, assessing their threat levels based on speed and where they were going. The ones that he could dodge but would hit his partner had top priority, the ones that both could dodge had medium priority, and the ones that would only endanger him had the lowest. It was a repetitive cycle of moving and striking that left him in nearly a trancelike state, no longer actively thinking about his next move. It was a jarring experience to have his routine broken, not by some outside force, but because there were no longer any targets.

The rain of kunai and arachnids and silk hadn't halted, he noted, glancing about. There were still projectiles in the air, however anything deemed hazardous was stuck down before it could even reach the range of his strikes. Behind him Hinata danced, turning her body as her arms moved with fluid grace and flexibility. Each palm had a thin strip of chakra projected from it, and with each swing of her arm it cut a swath through the optimal number of projectiles. She worked around Neji, swinging at speeds the seemed to project a screen of chakra that no harmful object could pass.

What shocked Neji most was when they began to move. Slowly at first, but picking up speed gradually they moved out of the clearing of kunai-hell, and the protective screen moved with them. Hinata was panting hard by the time they reached the trees, and finally let the defense fall. "Take down the spider, it's heart will be on the upper portion of its abdomen." She gasped out, getting a nod from Neji. Being on a team with an Aburame was helpful at times.

Neji rushed up the tree and leapt into the treetops, arms working furiously to swat down attacks and cut through web traps. He reached the arachnid summons, and with a single leap landed on its back, jabbing a plam strike downward and stopping the creature's heart. "Neji!" He turned, just in time to catch the very tip of an arrow at the edge of his Byakugan's range. Throwing himself out of the way, he watched as the single arrow broke through a nearby tree, and sent the top half tumbling to the ground.

"Dealing with two Hyuuga at once certainly isn't easy." Kidomaru called, revealing himself from a distant tree. He had gone into level two of his cursed seal mode, and now wielded a golden bow and third eye.

Neji hit the ground with a roll. The arrow he had dodged was moving at such extreme speeds that anything less than throwing himself from the treebranch would have been fatal. Their opponent had some way to direct his arrows, making avoiding lethal shots even more difficult. Another arrow shot from the treetops, this time it was Neji who called out a warning to his cousin. She dodged, but still took a rather deep cut to her left arm.

Focusing on extending the maximum range of his vision he followed the guiding thread on the arrow. It would leave him open to attack, but he trusted his life to Hinata's hands. Tracing the line as quickly as he could he just barely caught a glimpse of their attacker. "Got him!" He called, locking onto their target. His cry was interrupted as Hinata knocked him to the floor.

He spared a moment to check on her, seeing she had taken a cut across her back in his defense. Biting back a grimace, he instead chose to rush the Sound ninja, intent to ending the fight. Kidomaru shot arrow after arrow at the oncoming genin, which Neji dodged and then cut the guide wire to protect Hinata. Finally dashing into close range he immediately dropped into a low stance.

"Eight Trigrams! One hundred twenty eight palms!" He cried crashing into the six armed man with the force of a tidal wave. Neji felt the armor beneath his strikes break bit by bit with each strike, giving out as he neared the end of his combo. With a cry of pain the Sound ninja flew off his branch and out over open air, reaching out to cast a web and escape.

"Not yet!" Came Hinata's cry as she lept over her cousin. "Gentle step! Roaring Lion Strike!" She cried, fist glowing with chakra visible to a normal eye. She brought the strike down on the ninja's sternum where it emitted a low growling noise and pushed right through what remained of his armor, sending him crashing to the ground below.

Hinata went limp from exhaustion, but was caught mid air by her partner. The two genin slumped down next to a tree, both exhausted from their fight. "Those were some pretty awesome moves back there." Neji said, attempting to break the silence.

"I'd be happy to show you in a spar sometime." Hinata said. She knew their spars in the past had been anything but friendly, but she was hoping to repair their broken relationship.

"I'd be honored." Neji replied with a small smile, the two of them relaxing to wait for their backup to arrive.

> Pursuit of Happiness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"We're closing in again, only the girl, Kabuto, and the one with two chakra signatures remain." Karin called back to the group behind her.

"We should try our luck at grabbing that barrel, there's only three of them and seven of us left." Naruto said, getting nods of agreement. Forming a rough plan the group moved to surround their targets once more.

"Damn, they're on us again!" Tayuya called out with a tinge of fear in her voice. "Even Kidomaru's webs didn't slow them at all?"

"The important thing is getting our cargo to the boarder." The masked man said, turning away from the approaching ninja, and grabbing hold of the barrel.

"Not going to happen Kabuto!" Naruto yelled, landing on the branch in front of the enemy. 

"Ah, Naruto, it's been a while hasn't it? I'll admit I didn't get to see much of you during the exams, although I heard about your promotion." Kabuto said, removing his mask.

"Too busy betraying the village and helping the invasion?" Naruto growled.

"I'll admit I had my part to play. Now step aside, Sasuke has betrayed you willingly, you won't be taking him home." Kabuto smiled, pulling a handful of scalpels from his pouch.

"Dynamic Entry!" The traitorous medic ninja was forced to dodge as a green blur shot forth, seriously denting the tree he had stood against moments before. For a split second he let go of the barrel, and it was engulfed in a purple glow and disappeared, replaced by a rather large pink ball with a candle-like fuse.

The sound ninja made to dart after the two attacking ninja, but paused when the ball began to whir to life, playing a catchy jingle as a pointer on the front began to spin. There were four icons on the front, a piece of bubblegum, a disco ball, what appeared to be a man scratching his back, and a rainbow colored skull and crossbones. The sound ninja all watched in horror as the jingle ended, with the arrow on the latter.

Even Naruto, who was a good distance away from the trap muttered a curse and ran for the hills, as behind him the ball went up in a prismatic mushroom cloud. The entire force of assembled ninja went scattering about the area, those in the know cursing a certain pink pony for her inventions.

Kiba, Ino, Pinkie Pie and the two-in-one Sound ninja were tossed towards a ravine. A quick pull of one of her scrolls had Pinkie unsealing her flying machine and swooping down to catch the allied ninja. "Should we leave him down there?" Ino asked, gesturing to where their opponent had fallen.

"I'd rather not, in case he comes back at an inopportune moment." Kiba said, clinging onto what appeared to be an oversized candy cane. From his perch inside of Kiba's jacket Akamaru barked in agreement. "Take us down Pinkie!"

The flying machine landed and disappeared back into the scroll with a poof of smoke. Before them, at the bottom of the ravine, stood Sakon and Ukon, cursed seal already active to level one. "Well now, Two ninja, a Pony, and a Dog. This should be an interesting fight."

Ino immediately moved back as their opponent rushed forward, taking up a defensive position and waiting for an opening to use her signature technique. Pinkie began rummaging in her saddle bags, sorting through scrolls for the appropriate weapon. Only Kiba and Akamaru met their opponent headlong.

Kiba quickly dashed in low, teeth sharpened and nails curling forward like claws. He lashed out the moment his foe was within range, swiping in strikes meant to eviscerate the man before him. He grinned as his opponent caught his latest attack, anchoring him in place as Akamaru, now transformed into a replica of Kiba charged in from behind.

To everyone's surprise two more hands shot out from the back of their opponent and caught that attack as well. "So that's what having two chakra signatures means." Ino muttered, now recognizing the sound ninja as two bodies in one. The boy and his dog managed to free themselves, just as Pinkie, now wearing strange boot-like gauntlets on her hooves, rushed in to attack.

The Sound ninja easily blocked the first attack, only to receive a painful shock in response. "Pony style: Joy buzzer assault!" Pinkie cheered happily, as the seals on her boots released charges of lightning chakra into her strikes. Forced to dodge every strike Sakon backpedaled looking for an opening to force the pony away. Seeing an overextended strike he lashed out, knocking the party-lover back just in time to once again fight the other Konoha ninja.

Rummaging once more in her saddlebag Pinkie pulled out yet another scroll, this time unsealing a large contraption that hung across her back. "Pinkie... what exactly is that thing?" Ino asked, despite the fighting going on her curiosity got the better of her.

"This is my Multi Elemental Capture and Throwback Device. I call it the Gummy instead." She said, giving the blonde a brilliant smile.

"Why a Gummy?" Ino asked, not understanding any of the description.

"Because Multi Elemental Capture and Throwback Device is too hard to say in normal conversation." Pinkie deadpanned.

"I mean why Gummy? That has nothing to do with what it is, does it?" The blonde said, trying to fight off a growing headache.

"Well, see how it kind of looks like an alligator? It reminds me of my pet, Gummy." Pinkie explained, as in the background Kiba was kicked into yet another jagged rock. Ino couldn't help but wince, knowing they should be assisting him.

"So how does it work then?" She asked, bracing herself for whatever techno-babble would ensue.

"Weeeeeeell~... See up here there are elemental capture seals, like this one the 'fire sealing method', all arrayed in a wheel. I just flip the switch here to the element I want, and 'Woosh' this thing will suck up any elemental chakra of that type, right out of the air. Then all I have to do is flip this switch here, and enable the 'Throwback mode', and I can fire similar techniques right back at the bad guys." She smiled.

"But this guy isn't using elemental techniques!" Ino shouted, getting odd looks from both Kiba and Sakon, before the two resumed fighting.

"Oh... Well I have some chakra stored up anyways, let's see if this works!" Pinkie called, turning the rig towards the Sound ninja and flipping a few switches.

Ino, suddenly realizing this was an untested invention, dove for cover.

"Okay! Throwback mode engaged, accessing reserve of Naruto's wind chakra, firing capacity at 20%, engage!" Pinkie cried, pulling the trigger with her mouth. The front of the contraption opened up, much like the mouth of an Aligator, and began to rumble. "Whoopsie, almost forgot to plant my hoooooooooves~!" She cried as a massive gale tore from the front of the contraption, tearing through several rocks and lifting the Sound ninja airborne, sending him flying down the ravine. At the same time the force of the blast leaving her device sent the earth pony flying backwards into the nearby river.

'And that was 20% capacity.' Ino could only think in horror.

With a poof of smoke bubbling up from the water Pinkie Pie rose to the surface, standing on the river with little inflatable water wings in the shape of ducks attached to her legs. "Water walking seals, pretty cool huh? They're precisely calibrated to release just enough chakra to keep me floating."

In the distance they could see Kiba had reengaged their opponent, who now appeared to be some kind of two headed red demon. Ino turned a little green at seeing Akamaru 'attack' his opponent with his urine. "Did that dog just...?"

"Yep!" Pinkie said, watching as a massive cloud of smoke rose up, and a giant white two headed dog appeared. "Ohmygosh it's a Cerberus! It's so cute! But it only has two heads!"

Ino facepalmed, cursing Naruto for leaving the pony with them. "That's obviously Kiba and Akamaru!"

"Oh, maybe I can be the third head then! I'll go ask him!" She said, hopping towards the sight of the battle. Before either of them could get there, the battle appeared to be over, as the massive wolf tore through their enemy, dividing him cleanly in half.

Kiba's celebration was cut off, however, when each half got up on its own. The wolf began to spin again, this time aiming for the one on the left as the two halves hid behind a rock formation. Seeing a chance, as each one began making hand seals, Ino ran through several of her own.

"Summoning technique: Rashumon!" came the cry of only Sakon, as placed his palm uselessly to the floor. Looking up in confusion he saw his brother making weird faces at him, instead of doing the technique. Before he could figure out why that was, a massive spinning drill of dog plowed into his cover, forcing him to flee.

Ino's technique broke shortly after, the amount of power running through her opponent was too much for her to keep a solid hold of. Kiba's technique ended, leaving the six combatants where they had started. 'Wait a moment, where's Pinkie Pie?' Ino wondered, glancing about for the random earth pony.

"Hiyah~!" Came a cry from behind the Sound ninjas, as the missing pink pony leapt from cover, swinging wildly at the two startled boys. Seeing an opening Ukon left his brothers body to merge with Pinkie, just as she triggered a little squirt flower, sending liquid into Sakon's eye.

"Agh! Lemon juice! What the hell? Who does that?" Sakon cried, rubbing his face.

"Go wash your eyes in the river." Ukon called, his head appearing next to Pinkies. "The rest of you, don't move or I kill the pony! We share a body now, I can kill her cell by cell, any time I want."

Kiba and Ino paused at the threat, looking at each other and trying to come up with a plan. "Oh cool now I'm a Cerberus too! Hey, are you thirsty? I sure am, we share a body now so you can have some too!" Pinkie yammered on and on, rooting in her bags as Ukon's face twitched in annoyance. Using the distraction Ino snuck away.

Suddenly Ukon's face started twitching for other reasons. "What are you doing?" He cried, looking down at the bottle of hot sauce with a straw in it. "How can you drink that stuff?"

"I do all the time, it's really tasty!" Pinkie said, noticing they seemed to share a sense of taste as well. "I bet I can drink the whole bottle in ten seconds flat!" She said, doing her best Rainbow Dash impersonation. Giggling she took another deep gulp as Ukon leapt from her body, coughing and spitting on the ground, trying to get the taste out of his mind.

"Sakon! The pony is insane, I can't stay in there!" He cried, stumbling towards the river, where his brother turned around to meet him. His eyes widened in surprise when Sakon stabbed him with a kunai before they could merge. From inside Sakon's body, Ino smiled, Sakon had been an easy target, washing his eyes in the river.

Seeing Kiba and Akamaru both in mid attack and closing in on her body, she smiled and counted down. '3... 2... 1... Release!' Sakon had only a split second to cry out in rage before two piercing drills barreled into him.


O~O~O~O~O


Shikamaru and Tenten landed near the female Sound ninja, and immediately got ready to fight as the rather irritated girl pulled out a flute. "I'll deal with you pieces of trash quickly, and then regroup with my team." She said.

"Like we haven't heard that all day." Shikamaru yawned. "Let's get this over with."

Tenten leapt into the trees, looking for a vantage point to strike from. In response Tayuya summoned three demonic figures to the branch in front of her. Raising her flute she played a short series of notes and the three puppets lurched forward to attack. To her frustration they barely moved three feet before coming to a halt. Looking down Tayuya noticed a shadow darting forward towards her and leapt backwards, grinning as she saw it reach a maximum distance, ten feet away from her.

'3...2...1... Kunai.' Shikamaru thought, just as Tenten leapt out behind the Sound ninja, unleashing a massive barrage of Kunai. Tayuya dodged the majority, using her metal flute to deflect those that would otherwise be lethal shots. Shikamaru held his position, noting the few kunai that flew over his head.

'3...2...1... Flash bang.' Right on cue a brilliant explosion of light erupted form one of the 'missed' kunai, filling the forest behind Shikamaru with a blinding flash. Using the split second of extra light he extended his shadow, catching the sound ninja as she tried dodging Tenten's follow-up.

'Checkmate' He grinned, seeing Tenten pull out the bigger weapons. With a poof of smoke Tenten spun mid air, gaining momentum and hurling a large scythe towards her target. The redhead made to dodge, just as a flash of light behind her caught her attention, sparing a quick glance downwards she noticed her feet were secured to the tree branch by shadows. A final swearword died on her tongue.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto, Lee, Twilight, Karin and Kabuto were knocked along with the barrel in the direction of the boarder. The purple unicorn dispelled upon landing wrong, and Naruto hoped she wasn't hurt too badly. Ahead he spotted the barrel falling towards the ground, and shot ahead of Kabuto to grab it. Before he could reach it a sixth sound ninja appeared, snatching the barrel from the air and darting towards Kabuto.

"Ah, Kimimaro, I wasn't expecting to see you." Kabuto said, standing upright and straightening his glasses.

"Orochimaru felt this mission was important enough for it to be my last. I am to ensure the Uchiha reaches him, no matter what." The new arrival said, eyeing the competition.

At some unseen signal Naruto and Lee both rushed for the barrel. Kimimaro intercepted both, keeping the boys away from the barrel as Kabuto dashed past them.

"Ah Karin! We were wondering where you had disappeared to." Kabuto smiled, light reflecting off his glasses. With surgical precision he darted past her defenses and struck her several times with his chakra scalpels. "I know you can recover from that, but only if you sit this fight out, be a good girl and stay down."

Darting back to the barrel he grabbed it and headed for the edge of the forest, the field beyond was in clear view. Kimimaro kept pace with him, deflecting attacks from both Naruto and Lee as they tried pushing past him.

With a sudden rush of speed Lee crashed into the pale boy with overwhelming force, sending him crashing through tree branches and out into the grassy field. Naruto took the opportunity to rush Kabuto, who threw the barrel ahead of him and caught the attack, using his chakra scalpels to deal minor damage to the orange genin's muscles.

Grunting in pain and leaping back, Naruto drew a kunai and blew wind chakra onto it. Kabuto stared him down, chakra glowing around his fingers as he pushed his glasses up with the base of his hand.

To the other side of the barrel Lee dropped his weights to either side of him and dropped into his taijutsu stance. Kimimaro fell into a stance as well, bones seeming to grow out of his body like skin.

"Sasuke! I know you're in that barrel! Naptime is over!" Naruto yelled.

The wooden barrel exploded outwards, an eruption of dark miasma like chakra pillared upwards, before drifting out and desecrating the field around it. From within the swirling darkness Sasuke Uchiha flexed his wings.

"You're too loud as always, Naruto."

> Crescendo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a loud 'Hiss' as Sasuke drew his sword and swung in a sudden blur of movement. It was only Kabuto's years of experience that allowed him to lean back from the blade, granting him a shallow cut to the cheek rather than a sudden lack of head. He leapt back several feet, still feeling the tingling sensation of lightning making his hair stand on end. "Well now Sasuke, this is a surprise."

"Really? Did you think I'd come willingly, after you offered up the cure so easily?" Came Sasuke's voice, distorted from the transformation.

"Honestly, we had hoped to get you across the border by then. You really should consider the offer more, we can give you so much power." Kabuto said, running a glowing palm over the cut on his face, which promptly healed.

"I'm going home." The Uchiha said, holding his blade out to the side as lightning arced erratically around him.

"I can't allow that." Kimimaro spoke up, he too holding a sword made of bone.

"That wasn't negotiable. it's taking all of my willpower not to kill everyone present. I'm going home." The lightning surged, and the hand-like wings on his back clenched in anticipation.

Kimimaro charged, darting in with precision strikes from his bone-sword. Sasuke kicked off the ground, and with a flap of the monstrous wings on his back gained altitude. A flick of his left wrist sent kunai hurling towards Kabuto, shortly followed by vicious bolts of lightning that crashed down upon the field.

Naruto and Lee both rushed Kimimaro, seeing Sasuke handling the traitorous spy. With wind-blade leading Naruto flowed into a basic attack pattern, which was easily parried by the more experienced ninja. He grimaced, noting the shallow scrapes left on the bone, where normal bones would be cleaved in two with ease. With a simple motion Naruto was disarmed, and Kimimaro poised for a lethal strike.

The blonde was spared impalement when the sound ninja leaned back, avoiding a projectile that coned the air around it and left a deep furrow in the ground for several feet when it landed. Another projectile, Lee's weights, Naruto now noticed, was launched at the bone user by way of spinning kick, this one was parried and actually managed to shatter the bone used.

Before the ninja could grow a new one the green clad chuunin was upon him. With the newly granted speed he rained blows down upon his opponent, easily slipping through the defenses of the white haired boy, and pummeling him back several feet. The assault was forced to a stop, however, when the Sound ninja suddenly sprouted spikes from his body. Leaping back to stand near Naruto, the two assessed the situation.

"He's not taking the hits like he should be." Lee commented, seeing the bones retract into the now shirtless ninja's body. "His bones are hard as steel, and he can probably move them to protect his vitals."

"He doesn't keep the spikes out all the time, so he probably can't fight well with them in the way." Naruto noted, seeing their enemy draw another sword. He paled watching the sight, some bloodlines were just too gross. "Sasuke will probably be our best bet, blunt damage and slashing damage doesn't seem to work, but he doesn't seem to have anything to defend against lightning."

With a flurry of hand seals a group of ten pegasi appeared behind Naruto. "Storm Herd formation!" he called over his shoulder, and the Ponyville weather team took to the air. Once several dozen feet up Rainbow Dash started calling out orders.

Over the field near the Land of Fire boarder, the storm of the century was brewing.


O~O~O~O~O


The chakra around Sasuke gave another surge as he swooped in close to Kabuto. The medic ninja was deceptively strong, and quite difficult to pin down with ranged attacks. Launching into taijutsu was reckless, a small part of his brain noted, but with the moon on his shoulder fully eclipsed, rational thought was taking a backseat to bloodlust.

His first few attacks were sloppy as he got used to the weight of the growths on his back, he hesitated to call them 'wings' as they seemed to be large webbed hands with deadly-looking finger nails. 'Why couldn't they be feathered. Black feathered wings would look so cool. Even if I only had one, although that would make it useless.' He inwardly moaned, wobbling slightly as he overextended.

His internal monologue was cut off when Kabuto capitalized on his unfamiliarity, striking several muscle groups with his glowing fingers. "I've damaged several of your muscle groups with my Chakra Scalpels. Using precise chakra control I can create fine blades that can cut only the specific tissue I desire, leaving the rest-"

"Shut up Kabuto." Sasuke growled, spinning on his heel and 'slapping' the shocked traitor away with one of his 'wings'. Grinning at the fact that the impromptu move actually worked, Sasuke flexed his muscles, finding them burning but still in working condition. Charging forward he again tried taijutsu, as the small portion of his mind found a wall to bang his head on, and slowly managed to adapt to the new body parts.

He lead with a right hook, letting the chakra that surged out of control flow out of his body through his fist. He connected with nothing but air, but a sudden burst of electricity forced his arm back towards him regardless. Smirking at the new discovery he cocked back another attack and let fly. 

Kabuto dodged franticly, it wasn't just a matter of dodging strikes anymore, seemingly every swing the Uchiha threw released a potentially deadly bolt of energy that left the air humming and reeking of ozone. 

Overhead the air rumbled as an abnormally large storm began to brew.


O~O~O~O~O


One of many Naruto clones monitored Sasuke's fight with passive interest. He had orders to dispel if anything major happened, but otherwise he was told to observe. So far Sasuke was looking like an electric eel with wings, and going to town wrecking all of the space that Kabuto didn't occupy at the time.

'Why does he get wings? I'm the one with the aerial fighting style.' The clone grumbled. In the background things were looking bleak for Lee and the original.

Lee was panting, a mean feat in and of itself, and Naruto wasn't far off. Everything they threw at Kimimaro seemed to bounce off harmlessly. Lee's more vicious combos were stopped by sudden growths of spikes. Naruto's swarms of wind enhanced weaponry were deflecting with careless swings of bone. Even swarms of clones firing air bullets from every possible angle seemed to only keep the Sound ninja relatively mobile.

On the plus side, they had forced the boy into using the first stage of his cursed seal. Although it didn't seem like a plus when the much quicker ninja grew spikes and began 'spinning' through ranks of clones at a time. It was a rampage that neither chuunin were able to slow, let alone halt.

"Perhaps I should use the gates, or the 'special pill', or both?" Lee said, glancing at Naruto.

The blonde boy cringed. He still had nightmares about what happened in that bar in Las Pegasus. Sure Lee had won that championship belt, after being knocked into a table of booze, but the collateral damage had taken a third of Naruto's winnings. Having a drunken Lee running around the battlefield would likely make the situation worse.

"No pills Lee, Gai said to only use them when you're fighting alone right?" Naruto checked, giving the green ninja an alcohol filled chocolate was like giving a child a roll of exploding tags. With a nod of agreement, Lee began the process of opening the gates.

A sudden cloud from dispelled clones appeared off to Kimimaro's left. He turned to look at it, heedless of the clones that leapt upon him with ineffective kunai and taijutsu. It drew nearer, surging towards him in a cone as the clones began to dive out of the way. He raised an arm to defend against whatever the new threat was, and was caught off guard by a bone breaking double fisted slam to his chest.

Lee chased after his foe as the ninja bounced across the ground, spiked body cutting yet another swath through the Naruto clones as they cried out in indignation. The assault continued, fists and feet slamming against spines of bone with enough force to leave slowly mending cracks.

With a growl Naruto began drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra, mentally bracing himself for the surge of negative emotions that followed. He could hear the laughter as Discord relinquished the energy, egging him on to take more and more. With a roar he crashed forward, his own clones dispelling to avoid the red tinged blur as he chased his prey across the field.


O~O~O~O~O


Kabuto flipped backwards from another surge of electricity, his skin tingled and fingers twitched in the charge of electrons that still hung in the air. He had attempted using the chakra scalpels on Sasuke once more, but each strike seemed to have diminished effect, and left his fingers twitching uncontrollably for longer and longer each time. Throwing a brace of metal scalpels from his pouch he watched as the Uchiha dodged easily, his red eyes still spinning, predicting every move.

A trio of kunai were flung in response, forcing Kabuto back even further, to his surprise the first kunai, which landed nowhere near him, was followed by a bolt of raw electricity. His eyebrows raised further when the bolt jumped from the first kunai to the second, and continued on to strike the third. He managed to tumble to the side, singing his leg as the chain of lightning passed by, and ducked a charge from Sasuke that threatened to take his head.

In a final desperate move, Kabuto threw a smoke bomb to the grass, and sunk into the ground. Sasuke responded by immediately flapping his wings, blowing the smoke away, but paused a moment when he realized his opponent was no longer there. That moment was all it took for two hands to reach up and grab his ankles, severing the tendons that allowed the boy to stand.

"You won't be walking any time soon, Sasuke. Why don't you just stop this tantrum and come with us? We'll even let your friends live." Kabuto said, moving back to a safe distance. Those wings of his had a bad habit of interrupting him.

"Don't..." Sasuke growled, rolling over on to his front. "Tell..." He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. "Me..." The wings on his back tensed, and gave a mighty flap. "What... to... DO!" He roared as he shot into the air, flapping slowly and hovering about ten feet up, legs hanging uselessly below him. The chakra that had been slowly ebbing away rose up once more around him, and the sky boomed in response.

The tense moment between the two opponents was broken when Kabuto was once again forced to lean back, a very battered Kimimaro flew past him, pursued by a green blur. As he turned to look where they had come from he was shocked to see a ninja, cloaked in a fine red haze, meters away from him, spinning blue ball of doom in hand. "Rasengan!" The traitor took the hit dead center, and was flung back even farther than Kimimaro, and landed in a heap.

"Naruto! That was mine!" Sasuke yelled, looking even more angry.

"I was aiming for the other guy, it was an attack of opportunity!" Naruto yelled defensively. "Besides, we need your help with the other guy, he's-"

A loud cracking sound preceded Lee flying past both ninja's vision, unmoving and hopefully unconscious. As both remaining Konoha ninja looked over, they witnessed a truly horrifying sight. The bone wielder had advanced to the second stage of his cursed seal, and now had a demonic appearance. His skin had turned red, six thick spines grew from his back, and a barbed tail thumped the ground, carving thick gashes in the dirt. On his hands were large claws made of bone, gleaming deadly sharp in the sunlight.

Kimimaro hunched forward onto all fours, and in a flash was upon Sasuke, who struggled to remain airborne under the sudden increase of weight. Naruto made several cones to carry Lee away, as Sasuke surged with lightning, getting s scream form the demon of bone as he leapt to the ground. Naruto's attempt to blind-side him was met with a casual flick of a tail, which sent him careening through the air several feet. The large gashes it left on the blonde's chest healed within moments.

Undeterred, Naruto bounced back to his feet and charged again, direct thrusting attacks meeting steel-like bone as bolts of lightning rained down from above. Again and again he was knocked away, only to rise once more as Kimimaro continued to change into a monster before their eyes. Plates of bone began to form across his body, bladed armor to protect his vital organs. Barbs of bone shot from his back towards Sasuke, trying to bring the airborne foe down to the ground. His tail took on a scythe-like quality, and began attempting to sever Naruto's neck from his shoulders with every swipe.

Naruto pushed himself further, drawing enough of the Kyuubi's chakra that it coalesced around him, and began to form a fox-shaped cloak. Throwing a large amount of his newfound power into another charged Shuriken, this one tore through the air and cleaved through the bladed end of their enemy's tail. Kimimaro roared with pain, his tail now a solid foot shorter at the end, and before he could react he was set upon by a very angry Naruto.

The physical blows, even enhanced by the Kyuubi's potent chakra were still not enough to do more than daze the berserk Sound ninja. Eventually, gritting his teeth in pain from the contact, Kimimaro grabbed both of Naruto's arms. Caught in a deadlock, Naruto could only watch in horror as Kimimaro's teeth lengthened into dagger-like fangs, and a new blade grew from the stump of his tail.

A surge of lightning shot from above, shocking both ninja painfully, but loosening the Sound ninja's grip on Sasuke's teammate. Naruto drew back and struck with a clawed open palm, the cloak responded in kind, and an arm of pure chakra swept the bone user away like a piece of driftwood caught in a wave.

Catching himself with clawed hands, the ninja, now more monster than man, slammed his arms into the dirt. From the earth all around him, large spines of bone began to grow, forcing Sasuke to fly up into the clouds, and Naruto to frantically dodge. The spines continued to sprout from the earth, shooting up into jagged, deadly trees of bone in like some kind of mockery of the wood release.  Naruto ran as razor sharp branches reached out to catch him, his instincts dropping him to all fours as the cloak of chakra swirled around him.

Suddenly the growth around him stopped, and Kimimaro removed his hands from the dirt. He darted into the bone-yard, the apex predator of his own overgrown jungle. It was time to hunt.

Naruto jumped as his instincts screamed at him, right over a wicked claw attached to the Sound ninja's outstretched arm. The momentum carried the monstrous boy forward, and he caught the trunk of a nearby bone tree, and continued the attack. Naruto continued to dodge, leaping from the ground to branches, even as they tore into him and were healed by the Kyuubi's influence. They exchanged few blows, each looking for a way to end the fight with a single hit, circling each other warily. 

Finally tiring of the chase Naruto forced himself to a stop, turning to face the oncoming sound ninja. Within moments a swirling ball of chakra, contained within a wicked claw of the red chakra, formed in his right hand. He swung, and Kimimaro dug his claws and tail into the ground to halt his forward momentum. By a matter of inches he managed to avoid the strike and leap back to a safe distance, watching with satisfaction as the deadly-looking claw of energy was driven into the ground.

The sound ninja's left arm swelled, the claws breaking off as bone poured from within, spines lengthening and twisting into a mighty drill that from fingertips to shoulder. He crouched, preparing to use all of his speed to run the blonde boy through with a single attack. To his surprise the boy hadn't moved since his last attack, his arm still resting palm down upon the ground beneath him. There was a small rumble as the dirt beneath Kimimaro's feet cracked.

With a roar that filled his ears a massive clawed hand of chakra erupted from the ground like a geyser, the ball of energy in its palm drilling into Kimimaro's chest with enough force to send him airborne. Higher he flew, above the tops of the bone trees as the whine of the Rasengan drilling at his bone armor blocked out all sound. He grit his teeth, pouring more and more chakra into repairing and reinforcing the armor, his life depended on it.

So focused was he on this task he spared no glance upwards. Within the storm cloud Sasuke Uchiha hovered, feeling the charged air around him as he drew in the natural electricity. He bit back a scream at the strain, as the entire storm lashed out at his body with every scrap of energy the pitch black clouds could produce, and instead focused on redirecting it. Again and again the storm boomed, striking the ninja with whips of electrons, which Sasuke caught and held onto like live wires, and bent them to his will. Below he could see his target, lifted airborne by Naruto's attack. Knowing there would likely be no other opportunity, Sasuke dove. 

It was like witnessing a thunderbird, as the winged Ninja emerged from the center of the storm. Electricity crackled around him so rapidly that he appeared to be made of solid light, the air around him was so heated by his very presence that he dove with a continuous thunderclap, as the rush of hot air expanded the space around him. In almost no time at all he closed the gap to the suspended Sound ninja, as Naruto fled for the hills far below.

Kimimaro watched in slow motion as the last loyal Uchiha reached out to his chest, where the bone was still knitting together from Naruto's last attack. The air around him hummed like a deafening chorus, as every scrap of energy around the flying chuunin desperately strained for release. His labored breath took in nothing but ozone from the air around him. With an agonizing slowness he watched as Sasuke mouthed the words "Fist of the Heavens" over the noise, and gently touched his chest. The entire force of the storm crashed through him and devastated the forest of bone below. 

Sasuke landed in a heap moments later, at the center of a fifteen meter wide charred crater in the middle of the new forest of bone. His wings disappeared as his seal forced itself closed, his chakra too exhausted to continue. Still unable to walk he knelt on the baked earth as Naruto stumbled over, also on his very last legs. Above the two of them the storm finally broke, and a torrential downpour of rain fell down upon them, causing the ground to steam.

The two sat in silence, feeling the rain cool them down, for only a minute, before Naruto began to laugh. It barely carried over the noise of the rain, but soon enough Sasuke was laughing along with him. It had worked, their crazy, suicidal, ill-thought out plan had worked. Sasuke was cured and stronger than ever, and they had stopped the Sound ninja before they left the boarder.

The laughter stopped when they heard another noise over the sound of the rain. A soft clapping echoed out through the macabre trees that surrounded them, and Orochimaru himself emerged from the darkness. "Well done Sasuke, you truly are the only one worthy of becoming my new body. I had hoped you'd come willingly, of course, but I sent some of my best ninja just to be safe. I suppose the saying goes, 'if you want something done right, do it yourself.'" He grinned maliciously.

"My sentiments exactly." Came a booming woman's voice over the rain. Tsunade, wearing her Hokage's hat, and Jiraiya both leapt into the clearing behind Sasuke and Naruto. "Orochimaru, this has gone on long enough. As your former teammates we should have put you down long ago."

"We're fixing that mistake here and now. Former teammate or not, you aren't leaving here alive." Jiraiya added.

The three stared each other down in silence, the torrential rain slowly pooling at the center of the crater, where Sasuke and Naruto were, admittedly, scared out of their wits. A single flash of lightning lit up the clearing, and Rainbow Dash swept down from above to grab the two Chuunin. The Sanin leapt into action.

> Grand Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


There was a sudden lurch as both Naruto and Sasuke were yanked into the air by a very frazzled looking Rainbow Dash. The sky boomed overhead and she spun, barely avoiding having her wings pierced by a volley of razor sharp kunai. They shot into the sky, charging through the sheets of rain that fell from the heavens, and landed roughly at the very edge of where the forest changed from bone to wood. Under the shelter of the ancient forest Karin tended to an unconscious Lee, and beckoned the three over to join her.

"What a nightmare, you totally owe me a preening for that, look at my wings!" Rainbow Dash protested, her feathers were out of place from the wind, and the rain made her look half-drowned and pathetic.

"You did great though, the storm is amazing, and you got Tsunade and Jiraiya to us in time." Naruto praised weakly from where he lay on the ground. "I'm out of chakra though, so it's up to them from here."

"I still can't walk." Sasuke grumbled, "and I'm running low on chakra myself. I think it'd be best if we just returned to the village. It's two on one for them anyways right?"

"I can probably heal you, Sasuke, but restoring chakra is another thing all together." Karin said, moving to check the two new arrivals over. "I've done what I could for Lee, he just needs to sleep it off."

With a few grumbles and complaints Sasuke was thrown onto Naruto's back, and Lee was draped unceremoniously over the remaining pegasus. The four ninja and the pony began a very long, slow, cold and wet walk home.


O~O~O~O~O


Thunder boomed as the combatants stared each other down. "My old teammates, so nice of you to come all this way just to see me." Orochimaru mocked.

"Enough of this. We aren't here for a reunion. You've been a twisted bastard for a long time, and we've overlooked it because of our past. But you've gone too far, attacking Konoha, trying to kill our teacher!" Jiraiya shouted over the rain, his expression serious.

"I've heard about some of your experiments. As a medic I can't stay idle while you torture and murder in pursuit of your dreams. Your death is long overdue." Tsunade said, her calm face belying her inner rage. She had spoken with Karin, intrigued by her natural healing abilities, that both woman had seemingly inherited from the Uzumaki clan. Eventually her knowledge of Orochimaru's projects came up.

"What would either of you know of dreams? Both of you turned your back on yours while I worked tirelessly towards immortality. For years you wasted your lives pursuing ridiculous hobbies and pass-times, while I only grew in strength. I have become strong in my absence, while your ties to the village have eroded the warriors you once were." Orochimaru taunted, beginning to make hand signs.

The other two Sanin followed suit, and with triple cries of "Summoning technique!" the three bosses of Toad, Slug, and Snake joined the showdown.

"So it has come to this at last." Gamabunta grumbled, his hand immediately moving to his tanto.

"At your side Milady." Katsuyu said, as Tsunade leapt to her head.

"Orochimaru!" Manda bellowed, towering over both Gamabunta and Katsuyu. "I see why I have been summoned. I will relish finally ending that pathetic toad, his death will serve as half of my 100 sacrifices this day."

With no obvious signal all three Summons leapt right into battle, Gamabunta drawing and resheathing his colossal blade in strikes invisible to the untrained eye. Manda dodged with all the grace of the king of snakes, and trees of bone collapsed around him.

The sky cracked again, and within the span of the flash of lightning Manda struck, forcing the Boss of Toads back through the deadly forest. Gamabunta grimaced as the bones pierced into him as his passage shattered the false plants, and strained his muscles to keep the Snake's mouth open.

Jiraiya took the opportunity to leap onto the head of the snake, rushing down its length to battle with Orochimaru alone. As soon as the slippery Sanin was in sight he launched into hand seals, an spat gouts of fire that vaporized the rain as they rocketed through the air. Orochimaru dodged with inhuman grace, his arms and legs and even his neck extending to strike Jiraiya from afar.

Both Sanin leapt airborne as Katsuyu attacked with a shower of acid, which coated the great purple snake and ate away at its hardened scales. Rather than risking landing on the serpent, both Sanin allowed themselves to fall to the muddy ground below. They were soon joined as Tsunade shot from the 'forest' arm cocked to deliver a deadly blow to Orochimaru's chest. He dodged by a hair's breadth, leaning back out of the strike, and then substituting with a large splinter of bone to avoid Jiraiya's Rasengan follow-up.

Tsunade kept up the pressure on the snake Sanin, forcing him farther and farther from the clashing titans in the clearing. Gamabunta had forced Manda back, and small slugs crawled across him, healing the minor injuries. They clashed, blade to fang, with strikes that put the bolts high above to shame in speed, as Katsuyu supported with gouts of acid.

Striking wide around the Toad Boss, Manda darted passed and closed in on the Slug summons, coiling around her and biting down. With a small shriek of pain the Slug burst into hundreds of smaller ones, scattering out of the crushing grip and filling the Snake boss's maw. Those caught quickly expended all of their chakra creating a thick adhesive mucous before dispelling. On the other side of the clearing the remaining slugs gathered together and reformed into a noticeably smaller Katsuyu.

Manda thrashed in rage as his mouth was sealed shut, and Gamabunta renewed his assault, forcing the serpent to dodge the deadly swipes of the Toad Boss's colossal Tanto. Katsuyu continued the assault of acid and eventually Manda surged forward in a pain-blind rage, darting past a sword strike and tackling into the toad. Gamabunta grunted with strain as his webbed feet dug into the swampy ground, grabbing hold of the horn-like projections on Manda's head and holding the beast in place. Jiraiya, spotting an opportunity, broke from the fight against Orochimaru and thrust a beach-ball sized Rasengan into the Snake boss's eye.

If Manda could speak the screech of rage would have deafened those present, as it broke from the Toad boss's hold and uncoiled Thrashing wildly around the crater he began slamming the soft ground with his head and tail, attempting to crush the impudent little human that dared wound him so. Not once in his pain addled state did it occur to him to swallow his pride and retreat.

Tsunade ran up the back of Gamabunta and leapt from the amphibian's head, approaching the snake from his new blind spot, and delivering a solid strike with all of her colossal strength. With a crash the serpent fell, finding itself impaled through the head upon a jagged spire of bone that remained among the devastation. His tantrum continued for a tense moment, until at last the coils of the former Snake Boss drew in around the pillar of bone and grew still.

"A fitting monument for the end of the Snake king. His tyranny at last comes to an end." Gamabunta grumbled, looking on as the rain poured down over the fallen snake. He raised the flask at his side in a drink to his fallen foe, a rivalry that spanned decades had at last reached an end.

Orochimaru raged from where Jiraiya was keeping him from assisting his summon. Manda had been a mighty tool, if expensive to barter the services of. In the end the serpent had chosen to remain at the Sanin's side not from loyalty, but from arrogance, and it had cost the prideful fool his death. The Snake Sanin himself considered retreat, but seeing both remaining Sanin relatively uninjured, he knew that option was off the table completely.

The remaining summons dispelled in puffs of smoke, they were tired and would be of little use against the small and slipper Orochimaru. Instead, Jiraiya and Tsunade prepared to face their former teammate alone.

"There won't be any holding back in this battle." Jiraiya said, summoning two old-looking toads to his side.

"Every blow will be fatal." Tsunade agreed, flaring her chakra.

"Only the strongest techniques will matter." Orochimaru called, running through numerous hand signs.

"And all of them will shake the earth and heavens." Jiraiya said, as both toads leapt up onto his shoulders.

"Jiraiya boy, are you sure you're finally ready to do this?" the toad simply referred to as 'Ma', asked.

"It's been a long time coming, he's been our responsibility all along." The toad Sanin answered as his eyelids took on a red hue and his nose expanded and became warty.

"I should have done this years ago Orochimaru, what's a few more years off my life to see you dead?" Tsunade said casually as the seal on her forehead flared to life.

"I'll show you the results of pursuing your dream! My ultimate technique lets me transcend the essence of serpents, and become a Dragon God!" Orochimaru shouted, as his body contorted and began to grow.

"Sage Mode!"

"Strength of a Hundred!"

"Eight Branches!"

From within the desolate bone-yard a massive eight headed serpent rose up, towering over the body of Manda. Eight tails thrashed behind it, carving the land asunder and ripping trees, both wood and bone, from the ground. With a collective roar the beast challenged all of creation to defy it.

The first head lashed downwards, fast as a strike of lighting, and decimated the ground around it. Tsunade dodged, and countered with a kick, the years of stored chakra surging through her powering her strength. The scales of the 'dragon god' cracked under the force, and a punch sent the beast reeling. A second head came downwards, maw wide and fangs dripping poison. With a casual gesture the legendary medic caught the strike, the ground buckling around her feet from the impact. Her hand dripped blood as she rested a foot on the serpent's lower jaw, wedging the mouth open, as a series of quick punches 'defanged' the head.

It reared back, hissing at the pain of losing its teeth, as another two heads moved in on her. Grabbing one of the dislodged fangs, as long as her arm and dripping purple poison into the puddles around her, she leapt into the air. A downwards kick sent the first head slamming into the mud, its eyes crossed from the impact to its skull. With a spin she threw the fang with all of her strength, sending it into the open mouth of the second striking snake, and lodging it firmly within its brain.

With that final head unmoving she leapt to its neck and ran towards the junction of the great beast, the three recovering heads behind her were slow to follow.

A head reared up and spat gouts of poison at Jiraiya, who darted among the cratered battlefield dodging the projectiles and other striking heads. From his shoulders Ma and Pa spat fire and oil into the faces of those who struck too close, the rain spreading the flames across the eyes of the furious snake. A quick genjutsu from Ma made one of the striking snake heads slam into the swampy ground in front of the Sanin. With a few hand signs the ground softened further, drawing the head into the muck where the neck thrashed in fury. Another set of hand signs and a stomp, and the ground hardened, trapping the head beneath the ground.

Two more heads struck at him, while the third remained behind, spitting globs of purple sludge. He leapt over the first, and punched the second aside, seeing the cracks in the scales as the natural energy around his fist do its job. Rushing the dazed foe, he drew several prepared seals and stuck them along the length of the head. A single chakra suppressing seal wouldn't hold the beast, but two dozen should keep it down.

The spitting head hissed and prepared another volley, as both Jiraiya and the toad elders made a rapid series of hand signs. With a deep breath, the volley of poison sludge was overwhelmed by a gout of fire, oil and wind. The firestorm shot into the serpent's open mouth, and reduced the head into a thrashing immolated husk.

The final head surged, and broke free of the ground, only to be met by a Rasengan bigger than Jiraiya himself. As it slumped to the ground defeated, he turned and ran to where the bodies joined, to meet up with Tsunade, and end this chapter on their lives.


O~O~O~O~O


Jiraiya and Tsunade stood upon the 'shoulders' of the great beast, behind them Massive spines rose up into the air, and beyond them eight tails continued to thrash. Three large heads turned to cast a baleful glare upon them. "This is over Orochimaru, your dream falls short, here and now, and we'll ensure your legacy burns along with you." Tsunade called, the markings that covered her body glowed in response.

"You have accomplished Nothing!" A voice roared from the three heads. "All that I have wrought upon this world cannot be undone. The scars will remain, and through them the people will know of my existence! Eventually one will rise to follow in my footsteps!"

As the remaining heads moved to strike, the two toad elders began croaking, casting them into a genjutsu. Suddenly the eight-headed serpent found all eight sets of eyes awake and aware, and every head trapped within the gates of a wall. "Genjutsu!" He hissed, the massive surge of chakra from the 'Eight Branches' technique threw his delicate control out of balance, and he struggled to dispel the illusion.

Within the circular wall stood a samurai in regal armor, hefting a large and deadly sword. Despite how he struggled he could not break free as the samurai strode forward, and he screamed in rage as one by one cleaved each head from his body.

"A poetic end, don't you think?" Jiraiya asked to his companion, as she hefted the ceremonial sword of the toads. Before them the headless remains of their former teammate fell to the ground, as the tails finally ceased their thrashing. In the sky above the rain ceased, and light began to shine down on the desolate ground below.

With the death of its controller, the great serpent glowed and cracked, as if burning away from the inside, and steadily the ashes blew away on the wind. Within minutes the body was gone, leaving the two surviving Sanin standing at the centre of a wasteland of ash and bone and craters. The spire holding the body of Manda remained a sole highpoint, towering up like royalty over a kingdom of death.

The two toad elders unsummoned, and the markings on Tsunade's body withdrew into the seal on her forehead. "Five years of stored chakra... who knows how many years off my life." She said, gazing down at her slightly withered hands. They would recover, in time, but she was certain she had aged years. "It was worth all of it to end that monster's madness."

"We have a village to return to Princess." Jiraiya said, gesturing towards Konoha.

"I hate you seeing me like this." Tsunade grumbled, falling into step beside her remaining teammate.

"You still look as beautiful as ever." Jiraiya said, for once not making any lecherous attempts.


O~O~O~O~O


The aftermath of the 'Sasuke Rescue' mission, as Naruto called it, was surprisingly light. To the ninja council, it was merely the response to another attack by Orochimaru, who orchestrated the kidnapping of their last Uchiha. Sasuke was found to be entirely not at fault, after blurring the truth a smidge, and after a brief stay at the hospital to fix his legs, was let off scot free. Well, mostly...

The moment he was released from the hospital a very irate cyan pegasus informed him that he'd be preening her wings for a month as payment for 'pulling their flanks from the fire.' When he complained about it not being Naruto's responsibility, the blonde merely shurgged and said "Summoner's privilege."

Naruto was reprimanded for overusing the Kyuubi's chakra, after it was discovered that doing so had severely strained his coils. He of course shrugged it off and escaped the hospital within minutes of being admitted. A gentle reminder that he had hit a solid object at the speed of sound and not only survived, but recovered in a week, kept the doctors off of his back.

Lee was recovering nicely from a concussion, and vowed to train even harder in the future.

Jiraiya and Tsunade both spent nearly a week in the bars, both mourning and celebrating, sharing stories of their youth and accomplishments.

Sakura had immediately cornered her teacher and demanded remedial lessons, the subject being Earth techniques.


O~O~O~O~O


"Kakashi!" Sakura called, finally tracking her teacher to the memorial stone. "You know a lot of techniques right?"

"Hmm? Oh, Sakura, we aren't meeting today, the boys are still recovering." Kakashi said, turning from the monument.

"I know, they fought a real monster on that mission, which is why I want to get stronger. Do you know of any techniques that increase your mass without increasing your size?" Sakura asked hopefully.

Kakashi pondered a moment, running through his mental library of stolen techniques. "I know of one, the increased weight is a side effect though, that most ninja struggle to work around, why?"

"I have this idea for a new fighting style, what's the technique?" Sakura asked, positively giddy at hitting pay-dirt.

"It's called the Earth Spear technique. You run earth chakra through either part of all of your body, hardening it but increasing its weight. The more chakra you put into it, the harder it gets, but the heavier it gets. When a ninja uses it to its full extent, even Gai couldn't manage a jogging pace." Kakashi replied.

"Teach me!" Sakrua's eyes lit up, this was better than she could ever have asked for.


O~O~O~O~O


A week had passed, and the boys had both recovered and begun training once more. Jiraiya had analyzed Sasuke's modified seal and came to a startling conclusion. Team seven gathered around to hear the news.

"The old seal worked a lot like Tsunade's, storing chakra over time to be used as a reserve for later. The added aggression is a result of chemical imbalances, as you know. The new seal, however, does a few things differently. Most notably, the pill you took was likely enzymes that the seal was specifically designed to absorb. Doing so cancelled the death sentence over your head, but also caused some odd effects..." The Sanin said, getting nods so far.

"Here's the weird part. Those enzymes naturally draw Nature Energy from the environment and store it within the seal." Seeing he had lost his audience he explained. "Nature Energy exists in all environments, and is produced by all living things. Part of becoming a sage is learning how to draw it in from your environment. Using a mixture of regular chakra and natural energy is what gives rise to sage techniques."

"Now the tricky thing is, natural energy is a mixture of thousands of types, so you normally have to be trained to draw in a specific one. The toads, for example, use special oil to help sages get a feel for a specific brand of energy, which gives rise to toad sage abilities, and appearance. Those enzymes in your seal? They draw in a mixture, unrefined nature chakra, so when you open the seal enough it will flood your system and change your appearance, but not in the right way. That's why you get weird hand/wings." He continued.

"Alright, so where did Orochimaru find these enzymes, there's got to be a large source of them, because each of those sound ninja changed in different ways." Sakura pointed out.

"Tsunade and her apprentices are going to make occasional trips to search Orochimaru's old bases, when her duties as Hokage allow her to. She offered for you to come along with her, Sakura." Jiraiya said, turning to the pink haired girl.

"In the mean time, you, Sasuke, have a tremendous opportunity ahead of you. Theoretically, if you use the seal enough, and focus on the nature energy, you should be able to isolate a pure strain and learn to draw that in on your own. It'll have limitations, more than most sage arts, but it does seem possible." Jiraiya concluded.

The three chuunin went back to training, each of them thinking of their future.


O~O~O~O~O


A month had passed, Sakura stood in an abandoned training ground, shattered rocks surrounding her. Her skin had taken on a dark tanned appearance, clashing heavily with her pink hair, but she had long ago cast away the importance of appearance for a serious ninja. She felt the flow of her chakra as it moved within her, isolating and converting it into earth chakra subconsciously. She felt the weight of the technique at its lowest setting settle on her, quickly becoming second nature, like a minor version of Lee and his ankle weights.

To her right a slab of solid rock rose up, and she met it with a punch. Mid swing she pulsed her chakra, and for the split second that her fist impacted the rock the weight of her forearm increased. The result was a massive increase in momentum, leaving the slab of rock to splinter on impact. The arm retracted, returning to its original weight just as quickly, as the pinkette ran through her entire taijustu kata, using the rock as a punching bag. When it was demolished she fell to the ground panting, as Kakashi entered the clearing.

"Looks like five hundred pounds is my limit right now." She sighed, as her teacher handed her a bottle of water. "I can go higher, but not within the timeframe of a single hit. I'd have to slow my strikes, and that would leave an opening. You're right though, defensively this technique is amazing, I can become as hard as diamond, but immobile."

"That's also its weakness remember, lighting techniques will punch right through you." Kakashi reminded her. "Now, I believe we need to gather to see the Hokage. We're already two hours late." He eye-smiled.


O~O~O~O~O


Tsunade grumbled as Kakashi finally decided to show up. It was bad enough that he had this terrible habit, but now he was dragging his students down with him. "I've called you here to discuss your plans for the future. Jiraiya has petitioned for a three year training trip to teach Naruto to better control the Kyuubi. I feel no need to hide from you the fact that this is also to distract the Akatsuki, who have began to move."

Jiraiya grinned, already planning trips to the most famous bath-houses in the land.

"I'll agree to this so long as we do the trip in Equestria." Naruto replied, causing the adults to look up in surprise. "With those seals Pinky created, we can all go there, and spend the entire three years training in peace. Akatsuki won't be able to find us there."

"I'll be going too, if that's alright." Sasuke added, getting a nod from Kakashi. "I need some time alone to train, and Equestria has plenty of open space, and friendly locals."

"And you, Sakura? I am officially offering you the chance to train under me, as well as a place on my team dismantling Orochimaru's old bases." Tsunade said, turning to the pink haired girl, who was looking quite disheveled from training.

"Thank you, lady Hokage, but I must decline." She said, to the adults shock. "I've found my own path to power, and I hope to pursue it in Equestria, like the boys."

"Well then, I still expect Fluttershy to arrive for her lessons, she will assist in the missions as well, as my apprentice." Tsunade grumbled. Getting frantic nods from Naruto. "Very well then, you're all dismissed for the next three years. Jiraiya, you can go with them or not, it's your choice."


O~O~O~O~O


The next day found the three chuunin gathered at the centre of Ponyville, each packed for a long journey. "Well, this is goodbye for now. Celestia has called me to Canterlot, she wants me to begin training on 'pony arts', yin and yang chakra it seems."

"I'm heading into the wilderness, some place with lots of rocks to continue my training. No doubt I'll stumble into something, knowing our luck on missions." Sakura said, smiling at her two closest friends.

"I'm headed to the far mountain ranges. Dash told me of her old friend Gilda, a griffon. She spoke of Highperch, their city in the mountains. It seems like a perfect place to train." Saskue grinned.

"If they don't kill you." Naruto snorted. "Good luck to both of you. I'll meet you back here in three years."

The three all placed their hands together, and then broke to walk their separate ways.

> Going to Ground
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had been a long two months.

Sakura had made camp in an empty field away from Ponyville, taking regular trips into town to resupply. The field itself was perfect for her training. Every morning she would power up her Earth Spear technique and start a workout routine that Lee and Gai would proudly endorse. It served a dual purpose, both toning her muscles like weight training, and helping her build up her regular speed while under the added mass. Every week she'd add on more push-ups, sit-ups, and laps around the clearing. 

In the afternoon she would use an earth technique Kakashi taught her to raise rocks from the ground as targets, and then demolish them all. An average ninja could punch with a speed of about 13 meters per second. With the average arm having a weight of 4.5kg a ninja could hit with a momentum of 58.5kg m/s. She had done the math while sitting in that clearing with Chouji.

With her technique she could enhance the weight of each strike before impact, bumping that 4.5kg to around 227kg, around half a ton. This made her punches hit with the momentum of 2951kg m/s, all with the hardness of diamond. Tsunade would be green with envy when her training trip was finished.  All that remained, in her mind, was improving her control over the technique. She needed to be able to activate the technique at a thought, both for offense and defense. 

Calming down from her work out for the evening, she pushed her chakra into the ground. The technique was one Kakashi had left her with before she began her trip. The 'Underground Projection Fish' technique was famous in Konoha for being as annoying as it was poorly named. She gave a grin as her practice with the technique paid off, and the ground opened up around her and she dropped into the dirt.

To her surprise she didn't go far before falling out into open air. Sometime in the previous day someone had dug out a tunnel beneath her campsite. She quickly righted herself, landing in a roughly carved mine, lit by the occasional lantern.

"Huh? Who's there?" Came a gravelly voice, as a humanoid figure lumbered into the light. "You there, pink skin? What are you? Why are you in our cave?"

It was a diamond dog, she recognized it from her time in Las Pegasus. "I fell in here by accident, I was just leaving." She said, remembering the thrashing the last one she saw gave her teammates.

"Nuh uh, you are trespassing, you are in trouble!" He shouted, simple language aside the sight of him looming forward was still intimidating.

"Trespassing? I was here first! I've been here two months and your cave wasn't here yesterday!" Sakura protested.

"Guards! Guards!" The dog yelled, rushing forward to grab Sakura with clumsy movements. 

Sakura cried out in frustration and belted the diamond dog down the corridor with a single fifty pound punch. Shocked at her success she was caught off guard as several dogs swarmed in from all direction, many wearing armor and toting lances. With a surge of confidence she charged them back, and began knocking them around the room with ease, pulling her punches so that she would bruise but leave no permanent damage.

When at last the scuffle ended she noticed a few growling beast-men rising to their feet. "Sit!" She yelled, and to her surprise each one shot up into a sitting position and whimpered softly.

"Will someone explain what's going on? Why did you attack me?" She demanded, as the roughed up crowd panted away.

"We were hunting gems. We send them to the Undermine. You were trespassing." One of the nearby dogs said, his speech was rough, and his voice gravelly, but it was simple enough to understand.

"I told you, I was here long before you. Camping up there!" She pointed to the roof.

"All underground is diamond dog territory." Growled one of the dogs, before whimpering under a glare.

Sakura sighed, it'd figure she'd stumble upon something like this. "Which way to the surface then?"

"We'll dig you a tunnel right away boss!" Yelled several of the dogs.

"Wait, boss?" She asked, seeing nods from the assembled dogs.

"The pink dog is the strongest, so the pink dog is the boss. This mining group is yours now." One of the nearby dogs said, his short spiked tail thumping the ground happily.

"Alright then..." Sakura pondered, this could help her training tremendously, so long as this 'Undermine' didn't catch on. "One of you explain how this operation is running, the rest of you, back to work." She ordered, and to her surprise the assembled dogs leapt to attention and scattered.


O~O~O~O~O


Another four months had passed, and Sakura was enjoying her new, rather cushy, lifestyle. 'Her' mine was in tip top shape, they exceeded their quota with every shipment and her dogs worked hard with her working along-side them. Rather than punching rocks all day, she helped with mining, working alongside the diamond dogs, punching out tunnels in the stone while hunting for rocks.

The work was backbreaking, and she loved every minute of it, pushing the dogs to follow along in her example. Eventually, though, like all good things, her time in the 'Ponyville mine' came to an end.

"Boss!" She looked up from the rough granite she was working her way through. Dense stuff, full of thick quartz crystals from cooling slowly. 'Scraps', the smallest dog of the mine was running towards her franticly. "Boss, Boss! The mine inspectors are here!"

"Inspectors! There wasn't a scheduled inspection!" She demanded, the dogs around her whimpering.

"It's a surprise inspection!" Scraps whined, getting a small pat on the head from Sakura.

"Well, best face the music." She muttered, heading out to where the tunnels connected to the main corridor to the Undermine.

When she arrived she noticed her dogs sitting obediently before several very regal looking diamond dogs, in gilded armor. At the head of the formation was a very well groomed beast of a dog, a doberman, that stood twice the size of any other dog present. "I am inspector Rex. Who are you? What are you?" he growled lowly as Sakura approached.

"I am Sakura Haruno, Boss of this mine." Sakura answered confidently, adjusting the gloves she still wore out of habit. Her technique made their protective qualities needless.

"You are no diamond dog pink skin. How can you be the boss?" Rex growled, the other dogs present looking between themselves and shrugging.

"I'm the strongest one here, I'm the boss!" Sakura replied, moving forward to stare down the intimidating inspector. To her surprise the inspector burst into a rough laugh, the dogs around him following suit.

"Strongest in a back of weaklings. Ponyville is for weak dogs. Weak arms. Weak legs. Weak minds." He grumbled, poking Sakura in the chest with each statement.

Sakura, having spent months alongside the Ponyville mining pack, was understandably quite pissed. Growling herself she shoved Rex back. "My pack is not weak! We've made every shipment, even sending more than required."

"You want to fight? Guards, take the pink dog down!" Rex barked, and the armored dogs leapt forward. To the pinkette's surprise, true to their word, the guards were several orders of magnitude stronger than the ones in the Ponyville mine. They fought with a noticeable style, and were at about a rank below the prizefighter in Las Pegasus.

Still, turning on her Earth Spear immediately, she managed to counter the first three attacks and send the dogs into a heap against the cave wall. The other nine would not be so easily caught off guard. The fourth dog to come at her was shocked when, pumping chakra into the technique, Sakura caught his right hook with her face. Unflinching she pulsed the technique and drove the dog skyward with an uppercut.

From there it broke down into a scrap heap as the dogs piled into the rumble, one after another. Each one sent flying moments later until only Sakura remained, dusting off her hands. The dogs of Ponyville mine howled with her victory against those dogs that called them weak.

"Enough. You are strong, but you are no diamond dog. You have been trespassing, and you will face punishment." He growled, as his guards picked themselves up. He flexed his muscles and crouched low, preparing to spring.

Sakura tensed, pushing her technique up to diamond levels of hardness, and bracing for the impact. In this state she was totally immobile, weighing over a ton, and braced for any level of impact.

Any impact, that was, but the one that hit her. If the guards were a tier below the dog 'lightweight champion of Las Pegasus', Rex was a tier above. With her weighing what she did, there was no motion from her, no flying backwards, no slamming into a cave wall or carving a trench through the floor. Even her feet remained in their exact position as the meaty fist of the diamond dog slammed into her. Every dog in the room looked on in anticipation as for a second Sakura stood, weathering the strike, until the technique faded, and Sakura slumped to the floor defeated.

"Fool. They don't call us diamond dogs for nothing. The earth is our home, we can punch through anything." Rex growled, before turning to bark to his guards. "Take her to the Undermine, the rest of you, back to work!"


O~O~O~O~O


Sakura faded in and out of consciousness throughout the trip, as the guards pulled her along in a mine cart. After hours of travel, taking them deeper and deeper into the depths of Equestria, they arrived in a massive cavern. It was as wide across as Konoha, and taller than the Hokage to the top of the cave. Around the edges were paths that lead off into caves, where the dogs lived, she supposed. In the very center was an arena, where they seemed to be heading.

Eventually they arrived at the edge of a large coliseum, which she estimated to be about the size of the one used for the Chuunin exams. Before them stood several large podiums, where three massive diamond dogs sat, glaring down at the approaching dogs coldly. "Speak!" Commanded the one in the middle, a Mastiff by the looks of it. Sakura had to stifle a giggle at the irony, despite the situation.

"This... Pink thing had taken control of the Ponyville mine. She's been trespassing." Rex said, tossing Sakura forward to her knees. The assembled dogs growled to each other, trespassing was one of the most serious crimes among their kind.

"Still...." the dog on the right, a wolfhound, said. "Ponyville mine has really stepped up their efforts lately. This one may have been a blessing for us."

"Send her to the pits then." The remaining dog suggested, he was a large Rottweiler, and spoke with a very deep booming voice. "If she wants to act like a diamond dog, she can fight out her sentence like one."

There were howls of agreement as once again Sakura was hoisted to her feet. She was dragged off to what was, surprisingly, a well-furnished room where a hot meal waited for her. "Rest now. Tonight you fight." Grunted the guard who had brought her there.

"What's going on? Why do I have to fight?" She asked. The dog growled lowly before turning to face her again.

"They treat you like a diamond dog. You fight until you lose. How strong you are determines your sentence." The dog grunted, and walked away.

Seeing no way out of the situation, Sakura tucked into the meal, and rested up. It would likely be a long night.


O~O~O~O~O


Living underground for six months had long since removed her from her dependence on a day/night schedule, so it was with some surprise that the guard arrived and informed her it was now 'night time'.

The arena was lit up with torches, and hundreds of diamond dogs filled the stands, howling and jeering down at the sole human. Sakura stood her ground as the three dogs from before, the leaders she presumed, took their place in very regal looking seats. "Tonight's entertainment!" Yelled the Mastiff, earning silence from the gathered dogs. "This... Pink skinned creature, wishes to be treated as a diamond dog!" Howls of laughter filled the air. "She will run the 50 dog gauntlet!"

The laughter died down, and a smaller dog, a terrier by the looks of it, stepped forward to explain. "You will fight 50 dogs of increasing strength, one after another until you lose. How many you defeat determines your strength, and your strength determines your punishment. Each dog on the list has defeated at least all the dogs before him."

"And if I beat them all?" Sakura asked.

"You won't." Growled Rex with finality. "I am ranked 5th strongest. The three council dogs are 4th, 3rd, and 2nd."

Sakura grimaced, fighting any of them would be difficult, fighting them all after beating 45 others would be impossible. Still, she nodded in agreement and the first dog was brought out. The heckling stopped when her opponent dropped with a single strike.

Thirty dogs in and the pattern continued, she had not yet even begun to push the limits of her recent training. From the frowns on the council's faces, they were not expecting this kind of showing.

Past the 30 dog mark they began to get stronger than the guards she had faced earlier. By dog 40 they could easily contend with the fighter that Lee only beat while drunk. Then they began pulling out gimmicks. One dog would tunnel around at rapid paces, springing out to throw rocks at her like a game of whack-a-mole. Others brought weapons like bow-staffs or tonfa. It was after dog 44, who fought quite well with two mining picks, had fallen unconscious, that Sakura knew she had reached her limit.

Rex leapt into the ring, to the silence of every dog watching. Sakura was exhausted, there was no way she could even bring her Earth Spear technique to full power, even knowing it wouldn't help in this fight. Instead she directed her remaining chakra downwards, and slipped into the earth.

Rex stood still, not moving a single muscle in his body as Sakura circled the dog from safety. Emerging from what appeared to be the dog's blind spot, she leapt forward, arm cocked back to end the fight in a single blow.

And was promptly backhanded across the arena.

"Foolish pink thing." Muttered a small, ancient looking dog wearing ceremonial robes, as he walked past. A Chihuahua, Sakura noted, trying to clear her head. "You see with your eyes. In the tunnels that is a crippling weakness." He spoke with clarity she hadn't heard in months.

"The criminal has lost, after forty four victories." Called the Mastiff from his stand. Rex returned to his position with his guard dogs. "I recommend four years as a prisoner, taking place forty four in our gauntlet."

"Three years, she has shown exceptional skills for a non-diamond dog." The Wolfhound grumbled.

"She is not a diamond dog, we should not hold her. Two years in the gauntlet." The Rottweiler growled.

"She pretends to be one of us, she should live out that lifestyle in the gauntlet. Three years." The Mastiff argued.

"Two years, in my service." Called the little dog from the ring.

"Master Patch!" the Mastiff yelped in surprise. "You have returned!"

"I have. I heard of an interesting creature that holds potential. I came to see her fight. I believe I still have a vote, if my place as number one still holds. I'll be happy to run the gauntlet once more if it is required." The little dog said casually, causing every dog in the arena to cower visibly.

"That won't be necessary. You wish for her to become your apprentice? Surely there are better suited dogs." The Wolfhound grumbled.

"I see potential in her. Two years and I'll have her strong enough to defeat Rex and 'punch the gate'. If I can, then she goes free." The minute dog said. "We shall see if Old Dogs can teach new tricks."

The council dogs agreed, and the audience dispersed. "Come now pup. We have much to do."


O~O~O~O~O


A day later found Sakura within a pitch black cave, miles away for the Undermine. "Um... Patch?" Sakura called into the darkness, wincing as her voice echoed in the looming darkness.

"Master Patch, or Master will do." Came the reply, also echoing beyond recognition.

"I can't see." Sakura complained.

"As I told you. Seeing with your eyes is a limitation you must overcome." The dog said. "Sit!"

Sakura did as ordered, and sat down cross legged on the cold cave floor.

"Now. Catch the stick." He called, confusing Sakura until a wooden cane was rapped rather harshly on her head.

"Ow! I told you, I can't see you, how am I supposed to catch it?" Sakura grumbled, as the dog let out a bark of laughter and swatter her again.

"It will be a long and painful two years if you can't figure that out." The dog taunted.


O~O~O~O~O


A week passed, and the 'training' continued. Within the first day she had honed her reflexes enough to grab the stick after it struck her. The dog merely laughed and told her such a talent was absolutely useless. Still, with time to think that evening, she pondered the old dog's words regarding her failed attack on Rex. Somehow the dog had seen her attack coming, and not with his eyes.

"Master Patch, you mean for me to see through the ground?" She asked.

"Correct. You must extend your very essence into the rock around you. Become the earth, and let the earth be an extension of you." He said, and Sakura smiled at the revelation, before being swatted once again on the head with the cane.

The week had granted results. She could now flow chakra into the ground and use it to detect where someone or something was standing. Still that gave her only the general idea of where the attack was coming from, and her grabs at the cane still relied mainly on luck. She got the impression the old dog had much better 'vision' than her, and was merely moving the cane around her grasping hand.

Still that seemed enough to move on to other annoying tasks. She was forced to stand on one side of the cave, dodging hard rubber balls thrown by Master Patch. In complete darkness the task seemed impossible, and she questioned exactly how she was to accomplish it. "Am I supposed to do the same thing I did with the ground, with the air?"

"Don't be silly girl, such a thing would exhaust you in seconds. The feet girl, 'look' for the feet. The base of every structure is on the ground. And all fighting styles have structure." He lectured, before the barrage of rubber balls continued.

From there she began picking up vibrations from each of the dog's steps, keeping track of his footwork and following his movements. The balls still hit, most of the time, but she was beginning to have a good idea of when they were coming.

It took two months of work before she had honed the sense to where she could pick up changes in pressure through her opponent's feet. It was in those minute details that she began to 'see' changes in stance as he threw the balls. The first time she leaned back and felt the gentle breeze of a ball passing before her face gave her a thrill beyond anything she'd ever known. The old dog kept her at it for another month afterwards, attacking her at random moments throughout the day, until she subconsciously kept the sense active at all times. Her radius wasn't large, merely fifteen feet, but it was a zone where she was confident nothing could surprise her in.

The next seemingly impossible task was for Patch to ask her to 'fetch'. Namely, go and bring him a Ruby. Infuriatingly enough the old dog refused to let her leave the darkened cave. Instead she began punching the walls, throwing chunks of stone at the dog's feet, asking if each one was a ruby. She could hear the dog's grin when he scolded her.

"The earth is an unyielding thing. Often times it is easier, when faced with something so stubborn, to work around it. Feel where the earth is softer, dig your tunnels there." He suggested, and Sakura did just that. Months passed, and after punching out a mile long network of tunnels she was growing frustrated.

"How am I supposed to know if I found a ruby?" She groaned.

"Sense it. Just as you found softer rock, search for the minerals that form a crystal." He suggested.

Extending her chakra farther into the rock she could see small clusters that lit up like stars. Working away at the walls of her cave she eventually uncovered several, and handed them to the dog.

"This." He said, holding out a gem for her to feel. "Is an emerald."

"This." he repeated, holding out another. "Is a topaz. Feel how they are different?"

He continued on, quizzing her by having her pick out gems from a pile. Then sending her to fetch specific gems from the cave. At long last after bringing him the hundredth gem he simply pat her on the head and gave a softly murmured "Good girl."


O~O~O~O~O


A year had passed into her training with Master Patch. She was now halfway through her allotted time for her training trip. What she had learned from the diamond dog was interesting, but not the useful skills she had hoped to work on. Still, when his obnoxious tasks allowed it, she worked on her Earth Spear skill, pushing it to new levels of hardness, and raising the weight she could throw around at full speed. With some effort she predicted being able to throw a one-ton punch by the end of his 'training'.

At the one year mark Master Patch woke Sakura up early, at least it felt that way to the exhausted girl, and brought her into a wide room. "Today we begin your hardest task. You will fight me." He said simply, and with that and a single sweeping gesture, a wall of earth rose up before him, and crashed towards Sakura like a wave.

Thus began several months of painful lessons, as Sakura learned that more than Rex's punches could hurt her through the Earth Spear technique. Not to say it wasn't useful, often times she would punch through the rocks hurled by the old dog, in an attempt to get close to him. For such an ancient looking diamond dog, he certainly was light on his feet.

At some point during their prolonged battle, which raged on between meals and bedtime for months on end, Sakura began instinctively dodging the projectiles made of denser rocks, and striking weak points where she could 'see' them. The battle that before was one sided, slowly tilted in favor of the student as her defensive abilities grew, and the strength of her attacks flourished.

One and a quarter years into her training with the master diamond dog, Sakura did something extraordinary. The cave, as usual, was flooded with her chakra as she dodged wave after wave of rocks intent on squishing her to paste. Her senses flooded her with information that her mind had long since adapted to translating. 

Step, step, dodge, punch, duck, step, dodge. She looked past the stones in front of her and watched as the pressure on the old dog's feet changed once more. An arm sweep down meant rocks from the ceiling, which she rolled forward to avoid. A grasping left hand up meant a spike of earth coming from her right, a quick jump to her left put her out of reach. Both hands moved inwards to his side, taking a stance similar to one she'd seen Hinata use in the chuunin exams, before using her Gentle Step. Sure enough both arms on the old dog shot forward, and a wave of loose earth rose up towards her.

Fed up with being knocked down, and left with no way to dodge, Sakura instinctively reached out to her chakra, already infusing the wave of dirt, and pushed down. With that single gesture she felt a clash of wills for control over the technique. It was like fighting against the earth itself, but with some extra chakra thrown in and a surge of determination she succeeded in forcing the wave back into the ground.

"Good Girl." Master Patch praised. "Now comes the fun part."

The attacks resumed at even higher intensity, and Sakura bit back a groan.


O~O~O~O~O


Two years to the day, Sakura was left standing in the middle of a crowded coliseum. The crowed looked on in excitement as the 'pink skinned thing' faced down Rex once more. Sakura drew a deep breath and pulled her Konoha headband down over her eyes. She would learn to use her new senses in combination with her sight given time, but for now it was one or the other.

The crowd held their breaths as the fight began, neither opponent making the first move. With a blur of speed Rex shot towards her, feet making heavy falls against the ground. With a small gesture and raw chakra control the ground shot from beneath his next step, sending him off balance and causing his attack to miss. Sakura let fly with a very satisfying 350kg kick, smirking as she could feel the diamond dog bounce along the dirt.

The crowd roared as Rex hefted up a rock twice his size and sent it soaring through the air at the Chuunin. Following the changes in weight distribution allowed her to predict the stone's flight path. Having chakra already filling the stone gave her crystal clear vision of it. Flattening her hand into a knife's edge, and hardening it, she swing downwards at a weak spot, cleaving the stone in two and allowing it to fall harmlessly to either side of her.

Rex was growing angry. 'Seeing' through the ground was a common miner's trick. Few had developed it to the point where they could use it in combat like he could, and only one dog had ever honed it to the depths the girl was displaying.

The battle continued, but Sakura continued displaying her calm confidence, and easily dodged, blocked, or outright ignored any attempts made by Rex to harm her. Eventually, left in an exhausted state, he yielded, having failed to even move the girl from her starting position.

The crowd went wild, and Master Patch stepped down into the arena to face the council alongside his latest student. "Well?" He asked, "Not bad for a blind old dog, huh?"

"She has truly grown strong. All that remains is for her to 'punch the gate', and her sentence is done." The Mastiff called, to cheers from the audience.

"Punch the gate?" Sakura asked her teacher.


O~O~O~O~O


"You have to be kidding me." Sakura said.

They stood at an old tunnel that connected to a wide, heavily guarded catacomb. Towards the surface patrols of armored and very serious looking ponies patrolled rigorously. Deeper into the depths she could see the tell-tale orange glow of fire.

"You want me to break into Tartarus?" She asked skeptically. The council members and Patch all nodded excitedly, huddled in the hidden passageway like a couple of children playing a prank.

"It's tradition, a show of courage and strength." The Mastiff, named Cringle, said.

"You aren't breaking in, just punching the gate." The Wolfhound, named Laddie added.

"It's the strongest thing ever made, trust me you won't even dent it, just go hit it as hard as you can." The Rottweiler, named Trundle said, pushing her towards the back of the cave. She nodded and all five of them took off running.

She came to a stop when the massive doors were in view, along with a three headed dog the size of a house. "You didn't tell me about this!" Sakura hissed, looking back at where her companions were now hiding behind another rock.

"It's another part of the test, you have to get past Tiny!" Master Patch whispered back.

"Tiny?" Sakura asked skeptically as the Cerberus turned towards her, hearing its name.

"It's just a puppy." Cringle shrugged.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura strode forward, and stared the middle head of the dog right in the eyes. "SIT!" She ordered.

And to the surprise of everyone present, the Cerberus did just that. "Down!" Sakura called, and the dog lay down, resting his heads on his paws and whining piteously.

Sakura stepped forward, and patted each head gently. "Stay." She commanded, and walked past.

Approaching the gate she noticed a series of marks in the lower corner. Upon closer inspection she realized they were dents, with names signed below in permanent marker. Sure enough "Patch", "Cringle", "Laddie",  "Trundle", and "Rex" were all present, with Rex's being the most shallow. Sakura cringed at the thought of being hit by any of the other dogs, if one of Rex's punches could hurt her so bad, and dent this gate so little.

Taking a deep breath she let chakra out into the gate, unsurprised when she felt no flaws or irregularities she could exploit. The gate seemed deceptively thin. Aiming for a spot a foot away from Rex's she took a step back and a deep breath.

Her skin took on a brown pigmentation as the Earth Spear activated to its lowest level. Giving her chakra a few test pulses she lined up her strike and threw her fastest haymaker, throwing in as much earth chakra as she could at the very last second.

"One Ton Strike!" She yelled, and with a resounding clang her fist punched through the gate. She fell back, dazed, as the other dogs ran forward to investigate.

"I just broke the gate..." Sakura said numbly, staring right through the hole. The other dogs nodded.

"That gate holds all that is evil at bay... and I just punched through it." She continued.

"You'll probably get in trouble." Trundle said, getting slapped upside the head by Patch.

"Don't worry, there are two backup gates behind this. Still... we shouldn't just leave this..." The old dog said.


O~O~O~O~O


Later that day, a pair of guards stumbled upon an interesting sight. "Looks like those diamond dogs were at it again." a pegasus grumbled, approaching the gate. Both he and his partner stopped dead when they noticed a fist sized hole with a name printed underneath. A piece of paper was stuck to the door with tape.

To whom it may concern,

Sorry about your door.

~Sakura.

Complete with a poorly draw pink stick figure giving a peace sign.


O~O~O~O~O


As the year of training drew to a close Sakura was the first to return to Ponyville, confident in her newfound strength and skill, and clutching a summoning scroll for the race that had gladly accepted her as one of their own.

> Touching the Sky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


It had been a rough two months for Sasuke.

The climate had grown colder the farther into the mountains he travelled, and as the altitude around him grew higher, so did the snow. He was now wrapped in heavy cloth, prepared by Rarity for just such an occasion, and still cringed as the biting cold slowly sank in. The snow he trudged through was knee deep, and he had long since given up using 'snow walking' to quicken his pace. He had no particular need for speed in this case, and exhausting himself travelling would lead to problems down the road.

Problems in the form of Yeti.

Despite all he had researched of this land before embarking on his journey, on the geography, on which plant-life were eatable, on the limited knowledge of Griffon culture, only a single line was burned into his memory on Yeti. 'Ferocious bipedal beasts that attack travelers in the mountains.-Mythological.'

Sasuke snorted at the thought. Apparently, this far into the mountains at least, they were about as mythological as the ice and snow around him. He couldn't go more than a few hours without stumbling into an ambush by them. At night he slept lightly in shallow caves, awoken at least three times nightly to defend himself.

Still he couldn't begrudge the constant practice, the Yeti were strong and ferocious indeed, but their minds were limited to those of a common wolf, base pack strategies only. Having learned that they lacked sentience he had quickly lost his hesitancy to 'dispatch' of the attackers permanently.

From above he heard the sounds of flapping wings, which had been following him for about a day. He had no doubt there was a griffon scouting party following him, he was aware that he'd be entering their territory any day now. Oddly enough they had finally seen fit to reveal themselves.

"What manner of creature are you? Speak or be considered food." The lead griffon, standing at least as tall as Saskue, demanded. It was a common custom for them to say such things. Griffons, unlike many other residence of Equestria, ate meat. It was a practice that caused most other races to think of them as barbaric, even though they normally stuck to hunting things like rabbits or the occasional Ram. They would ask this question of most that entered their territory, as a check for sentience.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha, a human." Sasuke replied, showing no fear and bowing low while keeping eye-contact, just as taught. The lead griffon adopted a thoughtful expression, as the others shifted nervously under the Uchiha's red eyed gaze.

"Are you by chance this 'summoner of ponies'?" The griffon asked, looking Sasuke over appraisingly.

"I am a friend of his. I've come to train among the griffons of Highperch." Sasuke replied.

"The mountain is ahead, the tallest one. You are welcome to try and climb it." The leader smirked, around him the other griffons laughed. "Only one pony has ever managed it, we neither know nor care how many died trying."

"And if I simply flew to the top?" Sasuke asked.

"You'd have your wings bound, and be forced to start over." The leader said, Sasuke could almost picture the sadistic smile. "Since you aren't even a pegasus... We might not send you to the ground so gently."

Sasuke nodded, and continued trudging onwards, to his surprise the crew of griffons walked alongside him. "You're an interesting creature. I've heard stories of this 'Naruto', and what he can do. It'd be a shame for you to be killed by yeti before we could see it for ourselves."

"I've encountered yeti on my way here. I've left fifty three dead in my wake." Sasuke replied casually, causing a low whistle from one of the smaller griffons of the group.

"Well, all the more reason to watch you closely. The name's Sterling, by the way. Captain of the Glint-wings." The captain said, leading Sasuke towards a towering mountain in the distance. It was a massive, jagged thing, erupting form the skyline ahead. Even from here he could see the entire thing was a series of sheer cliff-faces. There wasn't a single trail that could be easily negotiated to the top.

"I can see why quadrupeds would have trouble climbing this." Sasuke noted. "Have yeti attempted it yet?"

"No, they stick to raiding the smaller towns. Not all griffons live in Highperch cub, although more and more refugees arrive daily. The yeti are extending their territory, and we've been hard pressed to push them back." Sterling said. It was a long walk to the base of the mountain, and Sasuke made camp to prepare for the climb in the morning. The griffons decided to stay the night, and he shared his remaining supply of fresh rabbit and preserved oats and berries.

"Those talons of yours seem mighty useful. Our finest crafters aren't nearly so dexterous. Your nails aren't nearly so sharp though, how do you fight?" One of the smaller griffons asked. Sasuke smiled and gave the group a quick demonstration of 'human fighting styles', much to their amusement.

Sasuke slept well that night, and waking rested in the morning, began his climb. He opted out of using chakra, this was a challenge he would face with only his muscles and willpower, tricks like that would cheapen the experience.


O~O~O~O~O


The guards at the top of Highperch were shocked when three days later a very bloody, bruised and frostbitten hand grabbed the edge of the entry cliff. With a final heave, a very exhausted Sasuke pulled himself up onto the ledge, and fell asleep with a grin on his face. The guards, overcoming their shock and remembering orders to watch out for a 'human', quickly grabbed the boy and brought him inside to their healers.

Sasuke awoke the next day, bandaged heavily but still feeling energetic enough to get out of bed. He wobbled slightly as he stood upright. "Easy there darling. You're in quite the rough shape. Your body isn't built for this kind of climate, altitude sickness if I'm right. It'll pass." Came a soft voice as a noticeably more feminine griffon came into the room.

"Thank you." Sasuke said, sitting back down on the bed. He flexed each finger and toe, to ensure he still had function of them, and smiled at the results.

"Argenta dear, and Auric wants to speak with you when you are able." She continued, filling a bowl of water from a basin.

"Auric?" Sasuke asked.

"The current head of the griffon empire. We assumed since you risked death to get here, you had some reason to speak with him." Came the gruff voice of Sterling from the doorway. "I'll take you to him, when you're ready."

Finding the inside of Highperch to be far warmer than outdoors, Sasuke wrapped his bandaged body in a simple sheet of cloth, affixed his sword and belt to his waste, and followed onwards. As they walked Sasuke memorized all he could of the grand city with his sharingan, marveling at the detailed polished stonework.

Highperch, Captain Sterling explained, was actually a hollow mountain, the outside walls kept intruders out, while the inside walls were used for housing. Sasuke was awestruck looking out over the edge of the current level. To either side of him a stone walkway, big enough for five griffons to walk side by side, stretched in a ring around the empty space. Above and below these rings continued every ten meters, all the way from tip to base of the mountain.

There was, apparently, one set of stairs between each level, for the handicapped, but most griffons travelled within Highperch by flying from one level to another. Looking up he could see flocks of griffons leave through the top of the mountain. "Most things that fly can't handle that sort of altitude." Sterling explained. "That's why we like it here so much, it's a place built by griffons, where only griffons can survive. At least it was before you showed up. We'll see about that surviving thing though." His guide grunted.

Rather than climb the entire mountain once more to reach the palace on the bottom level, Sasuke was rather unceremoniously thrown into a chariot full of hay. The trip lasted minutes, with the human holding on for dear life as they plummeted nearly straight down to ground level. The sudden change in altitude made him even more ill, but after taking a moment to gain his bearings, the group pressed onwards.

They entered a large hall, where dozens of griffons sat on very plush cushions, lining either side leading up to one specific griffon on a much more regal seat. "I am Auric, King of the Griffon Empire. Speak human, so that we might decide what to do with you."

'Griffons seem harsh and uncaring at times, but what we perceive as cruelty and barbaric behavior is merely their culture's focus on discipline and honor.'  He recalled from the book. Bowing, as he had with Captain Sterling's group, he rose into a rigid posture, and began to speak in a loud clear voice.

"Auric, King of Griffons, I am Sasuke Uchiha, last of my clan. I have come to Highperch to train among the griffons, to gain strength and allies in the struggles ahead of me." He said, taking in the interested looks around the room.

"Sasuke Uchiha, last of your clan. Why do you seek power?" Auric asked, his gaze piercing into Sasuke's very soul. Unbidden the story of Sasuke's entire childhood rose to the surface, and as he recited it every emotion involved came flowing out. He spoke of being overlooked, for his older brother was stronger in every way. He spoke of persevering despite this negligence, of training hard each and every day to bring honor to his family. He spoke of his brother, who despite receiving all the praise of his family and village, was the only one to show him kindness and support, loving him for who he was. He spoke of gaining friends who would fight along-side him. Lastly he told of that terrible night, when his own beloved brother struck down his family, and cast himself out by fleeing the village.

The entire assembled group of griffons was moved by the story. To them the flock was everything, the betrayal of such magnitude, both in neglecting a cub in favor of another, and kin-slaying, was abominable. Many feathers were ruffled as Sasuke finished his tale, voice hoarse and cracked with emotion.

"Do you seek vengeance?" Auric asked, he alone showing no emotion from the story.

"No." Sasuke said, to the shock of everyone present. "I have found new family, whom I love and respect. Though the loss of my clan still haunts me, and I offer prayers to their spirits every night, I am unwilling to linger in the land of the dead. I seek power to protect my new found family, so this tragedy may never happen again. Should I meet my brother in the field of battle, I will do my best to end whatever madness has taken him, but I will not follow him into the dark."

"You are wise beyond your years." Auric agreed, softening his gaze. 

"I will tell you a story, passed down as a cautionary tale to our cubs as they grow. It is the tale of a nameless griffon, who came from a wealthy family. The nameless one was the younger of two siblings, but never begrudged his lot in life, rather he worked hard, and rose in rank to command a flock of one hundred griffons. His older sibling, he relaxed, knowing that in time his father would pass away, and he would inherit the lion's share of his wealth.

Time passed, however, and the nameless one's father began to grow fond of his youngest son, as tales of his prowess in hunting and defending the land grew more and more popular. The older son, seeing his father begin to favor the younger, tried everything he could to earn his father's respect once more. When all attempts failed, he did the unthinkable, he murdered his own father. Sadly he was caught in the act, and forced to flee into the wilds. The younger brother instead, inherited all of his father's wealth, but he could not let the murder go unpunished. Instead he gathered his one hundred griffons, each of them fiercely loyal, and followed his brother into the wilderness.

Time passed, and the griffons that followed the nameless one each perished, little by little, until only the leader remained. So deep seated was his need for vengeance, he paid no attention as everything he loved perished around him. Eventually he found his brother, and killed him, returning alone from the wilds, a different griffon than when he left. 

The council found him responsible for abandoning his post as a captain, and took away his inherited wealth. The council found him responsible for leading his flock to their deaths, and took away his rank and right to lead. In his madness he raged against the world itself, and even attempted to slay the king, believing he held the right to lead.

His wings were bound, and he was dropped from the top of Highperch. His name was stricken from every record, so that only the story of the Nameless One remains as a lesson to our cubs. This is what it means to Fall, to a griffon, Sasuke Uchiha. His brother was a kin-slayer, but in giving in to vengeance, the Nameless One became a far greater monster. "

The assembled griffons all looked down solemnly as Auric finished his tale. Saskue shivered, picturing himself succumbing to such madness. He wanted to believe, that if he met that alternate self he would put him down, to end such misery. Still it was a struggle Sasuke had dealt with ever since the incident. Ever y day he fought that little voice that told him Itachi was out there, living unpunished while his family writhed in unrest in the afterlife. "Are my family's spirits to never have vengeance?" He asked quietly.

"To believe in the afterlife you must know that it is a far greater place than this plane of existence. Do you believe your family still has interest in the affairs of mortals? Barring that, a true family would rather see you happy, than see their other son dead at your feet." Auric said wisely, seeing the struggle within the human. "The best vengeance is a life well lived."

"Now then, to training. Are you able to fly? I doubt there would be many a griffon willing to let you ride about upon their backs." Auric asked, changing the subject. The human before him was every bit as interesting as the tales of 'Naruto' his men heard from ponies.

"I can fly, for brief periods of time. I'm working towards improving the technique so it's more sustainable." Saskue replied.

"Work away then. You may stay in the barracks, and use its facilities as you see fit. I'm certain there are many who would wish to witness what you can do. When you have perfected this 'technique' come show me. We shall see if you have a single griffon bone in your body." The King of Griffons said, and with that Sasuke was dismissed.


O~O~O~O~O


At the six month mark Sasuke found himself once again sitting upon the roof of the barracks, feet from the very rim of Highperch. Snow settled down upon him as he sat in only a single sheet and pushed the cold away through chakra and force of will. It had taken a long time to adjust to the climate here, and even more to hone his body to where rapid altitude changes wouldn't render him ill. He figured that, in learning to fly, he would need such adaptations eventually anyways.

Currently he was in deep concentration, opening and closing his seal in an attempt to isolate the energies inside. That had also taken quite some time, learning to use the seal as not only a valve but a filter, allowing him to draw chakra or natural energy or both from it at any 'stage'. The bigger issue was dealing with the emotional backlash from opening the seal, but that had been offset by throwing himself into the disciplined lifestyle of the griffons.

They were much like Samurai, or Monks, Sasuke figured. They lived among other griffons, but secluded themselves from other races in Equestria, apparently Highperch had been fully constructed long before Equestria was even founded. Their approach to life was one of rigid discipline and a complex system of honor, where safety of the flock came before anything else. To them there was more glory in rescuing a fellow griffon from harm, than slaying a hundred enemies in times of conflict.

The griffons quickly put him into programs designed to even tempers and cool heads, teaching patience and control to more hot blooded cubs. Sasuke ran through these trials regularly, filling his body with the seal's rage and then tempering it with exercise and meditation, like a blacksmith heating and cooling a sword. The result was him reaching a state where a fully opened seal gave him only the equivalent of the adrenaline rush any ninja got when facing a strong opponent.

Still, today he sat upon the roof, surrounded in snow, in deep meditation, attempting to draw out only a single type of natural energy from the chimerical mixture inside the seal. He had been doing it each morning for months now, with limited success. The energies within were so mixed together that it felt like trying to draw only the water from sake while drinking it.

Luckily though, as he had predicted, Highperch had an abundance of natural energy within it. It was hard to notice at first, but after running the seal completely dry he began to notice a slight change in his '2nd stage' appearance. Not that running the seal dry was an easy task, it had been collecting energy since the middle of the chuunin exams, and meant eighteen solid hours of throwing lightning before it's stores gave out.

It seemed that in Highperch there was naturally more of one type of energy than the others, so that when it had just begun recharging, and had not reached a balance, the seal contained a majority of what he called 'Griffon energy'. So long as he stayed within the griffon city, he figured, his transformation became a lot more 'bird' and a lot less... whatever else made him look so hideous.

It wasn't good enough yet though, so instead he continued trying to isolate the 'pure griffon energy' from within the seal, which was still slow going. It was more like picking oil out of water, but still an absolute nightmare to do. So once again he sat, letting the seal pull natural energy from the air, which it only did when he remained motionless he noted long ago. Once he felt he had enough he opened the seal, and with intense concentration he drew only the desired natural energy from it.

The shift happened with agonizing slowness, as it would until he reached master in it, but when he finished and he rose to investigate he was pleased with the results. His wings were again present, now properly formed and came complete with golden brown feathers. His fingers had claws once more, and his feet had morphed into talons, yellow like the forelegs of the griffons, complete with sharp nails and the ability to grip things. His hair, which had always reminded Naruto of a duck's rear-end, now had a more feathered appearance.

Smiling he gave a tentative flap and rose several feet into the air, before he lost concentration and the effect ended. Sighing he sat down to continue collecting the energy. This didn't make him a sage, as Jiraiya had explained, the seal directed the energy directly into changing his body, leaving him unable to manipulate it into his techniques. He didn't dare try drawing in 'griffon energy' from the environment, having heard the warnings about turning into a statue. He was lucky Orochimaru had put a fail-safe on the seal to avoid that happening by accident.


O~O~O~O~O


Another six months passed, bringing him a year into his training trip. He had eventually figured out that it was easier to 'push' non-griffon chakra away from the seal's absorption effect than it was to concentrate on drawing only griffon chakra out of the seal. This way, when the seal was fully charged with only griffon chakra, he could get two hours of transformed time for every hour of sitting still, up to a maximum of eight hours of transformation time. He began a routine of placing seals on him as he slept, preventing any and all movement on his part until he flared his chakra. In the morning he would purge the unwanted energy from his seal and spend an hour or so in meditation, fully charging the seal.

From there he could draw out a steady stream of nature energy, either mixed with the stored chakra or not, and fly around Highperch training with his newly 'adjusted' body. As predicted by Auric, once he began doing more than 'sitting still' for his training, he quickly became the center of attention. His control over the seal's unstable surge of chakra allowed him to throw electricity into his strikes with ease. When he practiced his taijutsu the entire city echoed with thunderclaps.

Eventually he was brought before Auric to demonstrate his 'wings'. There was a great clamor as he did so, among the assembled group of griffons, and the Griffon King nodded, visibly pleased. "Very well, you have proven you can fly. Now you must prove you can fly well. You will join Captain Sterling's guard squad, they'll show you the ropes."

With that Sasuke set out on an entirely new mission. He joined their flock believing much of flying was instinctive, Sterling and his griffons quickly worked that belief out of him.

"Look there, cub, where are the air currents going?" Sterling asked, as they perched on the edge of a cliff.

"You're asking me to see the wind?" Sasuke grimaced, even for sharp eyes like him that was impossible.

"Not see cub, know! Wind behaves in set patters, you'll learn these patters, and eventually know where the wind is going just by looking at the world around you. Updrafts, downdrafts, tailwinds and currents. A weak flyer fights against the sky, a strong griffon uses every movement of the air to his advantage. In an aerial battle, weak griffons die." Sterling said. "Now, let's go flying, and you'll learn the hard way how the wind moves through the mountains."

It took several weeks of intense flight sessions, both learning weather patterns and flight formations, before Sterling was willing to take Sasuke on an actual patrol. They headed for Grandloft, a smaller perch for griffons, west of Highperch. They swept around the actual city and headed towards the rocky outcroppings to the south.

"Alright, listen up." Sterling called, the flock of five griffons and Sasuke gathered around. "This is a raid mission. Yetis have been assaulting Grandloft for weeks lately, lead by a truly massive one they named 'Shatterhorn.' We're going to give these beasts the old 'drag and drop', and see if we can't draw the big one himself out to fight. Either way, there's only six of us, so if things get rough we retreat."

Getting nods of agreement, the six took to the sky again, and began sweeping over the ground below. Sasuke, red eyes spinning, called targets, and in perfect synchronization they broke formation and dove. Before the yeti were aware of their presence, five were plucked from the ground by the griffon's powerful claws, and swept out over open air. Sasuke fell upon his target, his blade dug into the yeti's neck as lightning coursed through it. In a howl of rage Sasuke was swatted back, but with three loud thunderclap inducing punches the yeti fell to the snow unmoving.

All of the fliers took to the air once again, gathering into formation as the remaining beasts below howled and raged, throwing ice and rocks into the air. The flock swooped again, this time only succeeding in killing three of their targets, the remainder forcing the griffons away before they could be dragged over the edge.

There was a booming howl from below as a yeti the size of a house lumbered into view. At once it began chucking boulders into the sky with terrifying ease. Undaunted Captain sterling dove, raking a talon across the beast's face, and the rest of the flock followed. From out of reach Sasuke harried his target, lobbing kunai and shuriken as well as bolts of lightning down upon the beast. The other griffons worked in perfect synchronization, circling like wolves and attacking the beast's blind spot. Their assault continued until one of the griffons botched his dive, and was struck from the air by one of the beast's meaty arms.

Sterling dove to cover for the griffon as two others swooped in to pick him up. Sterling too gave a cry of pain as he was knocked from the sky, his right wing visibly broken. Sasuke charged down and began striking the yeti at close range, his lightning techniques drawing the creature's full attention now that he was in striking distance. "Get those two out of here, I'll cover our retreat!" Sasuke yelled over the noise around him.

Shatterhorn, noticing his prey escaping, grabbed a boulder and prepared to toss it towards the fleeing griffons. Sasuke swooped down right in front of the creature's face, and let loose a blast of lightning that both blinded and deafened the creature. He flew back as it thrashed, half tempted to continue the fight, feeling the thrill of the hunt filling his body. Shaking it off he instead flew after his flock as they retreated to Grandloft.


O~O~O~O~O


Days later, upon return to Highperch, Sasuke was again brought before the king. "We have heard of your battle against Shatterhorn."

"It was not my battle alone." Sasuke said. "My flock was heavily injured facing the beast."

"And yet you risked your life to cover their retreat." Auric said.

"It is the griffon way." Sasuke replied.

"They say you held your own against the beast quite well." Auric noted.

"Without my flock's support I would not have done so well."

"Were you not tempted to continue fighting, once your flock was safe? You could have ended the threat yourself, and saved many griffons." Auric asked.

"I was tempted, but the safety of my flock was more concerning. With two members injured, one unable to fly, I was needed to protect them." Sasuke replied.

"I wish to promote you, to a flock captain." Auric said, getting gasps from several griffons present. "Take your pick of rookies from the barracks while your old flock recovers. When Shatterhorn appears, you may fight him again."

Sasuke nodded and left, shooting straight up to the Highperch barracks.


O~O~O~O~O


A year passed with no sign of the colossal yeti. Sasuke trained his team hard, showing them the ropes as he had learned them, as well as team strategies developed by famous Konoha ninja. They built a strong synergy, and Sasuke quickly grew into the role of team leader. On their downtime Sasuke honed his skill with lightning even farther, developing several new techniques.

The first was an invisible current that could numb the muscles of his enemies. When hunting yeti this proved invaluable, as he could immobilize their prey as another griffon flew it off the cliff.

The second was an extension of Kakashi's chidori, lengthening the solid lightning into a blade up to several meters long. As he extended it farther the chakra cost grew exponentially, but so far he could use it as a ranged piercing attack in short bursts.

The third, and his most prideful accomplishment was thin needles of electricity that could be thrown like the metal counterparts. Like their physical counterparts they were used to immobilize, imbedding into his target and releasing steady current into the muscle groups, locking them down.

Ferrous, the second in command for his flock, found Sasuke perched on a cliff face, staring downwards with his eerie red eyes. "Greetings, Stormbringer, how goes the hunt?" The Uchiha had picked up the nickname among the griffons quite quickly, after waking the entire city with his taijutsu practice.

With a smirk Sasuke threw a single Kunai to the ground five miles below and turned to face his lieutenant. "What is our mission today?" He asked. Far below a griffon darted from cover, and snatched the impaled snow-white rabbit from the snow.

"We're supposed to investigate Icehold." Ferrous said, snapping out of his stupor.

"Yeti attacks?" Sasuke asked, heading back indoors to fetch his flock.

"Not in the past three months. Some eggs have gone missing though..." Ferrous replied.

Sasuke frowned. Every other griffon city was being attacked regularly.  That and Griffon eggs were more precious than gold to them, losing any at all was troubling.


O~O~O~O~O


Frosthold itself was in pristine condition, fitting with the reports that it hadn't been attacked in months. The regent of the city stepped forward to greet them, nervously welcoming them to his home.

"Why haven't you been attacked lately." Sasuke questioned, seeing the regent shake under scrutiny.

"Oh uh... well... we aren't sure exactly... but we know better than to look a gift pony in the mouth and all..." He replied, looking about nervously. Sasuke's eyes turned red to improve his intimidation factor.

"And the missing eggs?" He asked, seeing the regent flinch.

"W-what? Oh... those... isolated incident really... nothing to concern yourselves with." The regent said, backing up.

"How many eggs are missing Ferrous?" Sasuke asked, not turning his gaze from the cowardly griffon in front of him.

"Fifteen over the last three months sir."

"Fifteen eggs, is not an isolated incident." Sasuke said coldly. The regent refused to say any more on the matter, and their flock was left to 'investigate'. Turning up no conclusive evidence, they decided to stake out the city and wait. Sure enough a week after 'leaving' Frosthold, they saw a griffon fly from town in the dead of night. Following the figure silently the flock soon had him cornered in a narrow valley.

"What's in the bag, regent?" Sasuke called, landing softly in the snow behind the griffon, who let out a shriek in surprise. Dropping the bag a single egg rolled out of it. "What are you doing with the eggs?"

"T-the yetis, they leave our city alone if we give them an offering. I'm only doing this for the good of my people!" The regent pleaded, bowing low to the assembled group.

"Traitor! Kin-slayer! I should pluck every feather from your body you cowardly fiend!" Ferrous raged, lunging towards the whimpering griffon. Sasuke calmly placed a hand on his lieutenant's shoulder, stilling the griffon.

"Enough, it is not our place to dole out punishment. We'll take him before the king." Sasuke said, fighting to keep his calm.

"He needs to die for his crimes!" Ferrous objected.

"He will stand before the King, and the King will no doubt agree with you Ferrous. We will watch him Fall." Sasuke said, moving forward to subdue the wretched griffon, and carefully secure the bag of eggs. "It is our duty to bring the guilty to justice, not to bring justice to the guilty."


O~O~O~O~O


Two and a half years had passed , and Sasuke's command of his flock had become the stuff of legends among the griffon people. As the months passed he was given command of more and more, until he had his choice of soldiers to take in his flock. At long last the day came that Shatterhorn had once again revealed himself. At his request the King and his council left Highperch to witness the battle, as Sasuke lead a flock of ten against the beast.

The assembled army of griffons flew to the 'shattered ridge', where the last bastion of yeti in griffon territories. Their extended conflict would end here, with high hopes that Shatterhorn's death would drive the beasts from the mountain ranges. They hovered in the sky above the ridge, as even the boldest of yeti fled into the caves at the sight of the flock.

There was a loud booming noise that shook snow from the rocks, as Shatterhorn himself, large as a house, lumbered into view. Sasuke gave the signal, and he and his personal flock dove in to attack.

The battle was long and arduous. The griffons assaulted the beast with perfect teamwork, striking at weak points and drawing attention. Sasuke peppered the beast with hundreds of lightning needles, gradually slowing the movements of their foe. Finally, after many hours of fighting, Shatterhorn stumbled forward, panting massive clouds into the frigid air.

Sasuke darted skyward, as the attacking griffons all moved away from the exhausted creature. Reaching a peak height Sasuke turned, drawing on much of the seal's stored chakra as he dove at a vertical angle. As he reached a speed of nearly 200 miles per hour his body began to glow with crackling energy. Pulling up slightly he turned his dive into a swoop, passing over the ridge and delivering a deadly lighting filled punch into the head of his foe.

With the boom of a mighty thunderclap the snow along the nearby rocks vaporized, and Shatterhorn, mighty as he was, fell dead.

A resounding cheer went up as the remaining yeti all fled for the hills, and the griffons returned to Highperch for a feast. 


O~O~O~O~O


As the guest of honor, Sasuke was presented by the King himself a medal of honor, signifying him as an honorary griffon, as well as a familiar looking scroll.

"I took the liberty of sending a message to the Princesses of Equestria. It seems Princess Luna is quite interested in your growth as well, cub. She sent along this copy of the summoning contract, and explained how it worked. I'm certain many a griffon would be honored to fight along-side you again." Said Auric, getting a shaky, low bow from Sasuke in response.

"It is my honor to fight alongside you. I will do my best to uphold the griffon way." Sasuke said, accepting the scroll.


O~O~O~O~O


The three year training trip came to an end, and Sasuke was the second to return to Ponyville. His hair was wild and unkempt, and he wore little more than sheets of cloth wrapped precariously around him. He walked with calm confidence, and carried with him a contract to his now-extended family.

> Finding a Balance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


It had been a rough two months for Naruto.

Sure it had started out pleasantly enough, being invited to Canterlot Castle and all. He had met up with both princesses and Twilight had presented his training schedule for the next three years. They had planned to teach him Yin release and Yang release, the essence of earth pony and unicorn techniques. Pegasi techniques would have to wait, as even the Princesses were uncertain of how to go about drawing in the appropriate nature chakra.

Yes they had in fact determined that pegasi, despite being the most energetic of ponies (Pinkie Pie not withstanding) somehow manipulated natural energy on an instinctive level. It gave them their weather manipulation, limited invulnerability, and ability to defy normal physics in flight. As drool-worthy as those abilities were, especially flight, both Alicorns were at a loss for teaching Naruto, so they put off that training until later.

Instead they began with Yang release, which is why Naruto found himself dragged to a remote field, far from civilization. In the distance he could see the Ixion.

"Now then. A quick introduction to Yang release." Celestia said, drawing Naruto's attention away from the boat. "Yang energy is the energy of life itself. It exists within every cell of every living thing. Life energy can have many effects, from augmenting muscles, to repairing injuries quickly, to causing nearby living things to grow at an accelerated rate. It is particularly abundant in earth ponies, which is why close contact with earth ponies leads plants to grow rapidly."

"In the case of Ninja, yang energy is forced out of your cells and combined with your yin, or mental energy. This mixture of energy is called chakra, and it is neutral unless altered by genetics or manipulation. Again, in the case of earth ponies, the chakra they create by mixing their yin and yang energies takes on a more potent effect than their pure yang energy, thus Yang Release."

Naruto scratched his head, pondering the implications for a moment. "So, you want me to convert my chakra into this 'yang chakra', giving me super strength and farming abilities?" Naruto summarized.

"Something like that." Celestia smiled. "We've discovered that wood grown from chakra can more easily be summoned, so we are going to be building the Ixion mark II out of chakra grown wood. Your first task is to supply the wood." She said, rolling a single apple towards him. "Best of luck!" In a flash of light the Alicorn was gone, leaving Naruto to stare blankly at the solitary red orb.

Several minutes passed before the blonde boy could even register a response of "What?".


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto spent weeks sitting on the ground with a seed in his palm, focusing inwards on his chakra. He knew what he was doing was nothing like the 'wood release' technique, as that involved creating trees and wood from pure chakra. He was trying to force life into an object, the essence of Yang techniques. In this case it happened that the recipient of his gift of life would use it to grow into an apple tree. That is, if he could get the technique to work.

He inwardly grumbled about Celestia and her teaching methods, surely she had more advice than 'take this apple and grow me an orchard.' Still, he worked away at what he thought was the right path towards eventual success. 

'Yang is the power, yin is the intent, together they make chakra. If I want to blow an air bullet, it's the yin that determines the form, and the yang supplies all the force.' He pondered, turning the seed over in his hands. 'So by willing the energy to make the seed grow, I'm already failing, as the yang energy gets mixed with my intent, and becomes regular chakra.'

Grimacing he continued that train of thought. 'Earth ponies naturally use yang energy when farming, because they are overflowing with the stuff. As soon as they try to do it consciously they create chakra, so why does it still work for them?'

'Yin is governed by thought, so I can't think about it. I need to mold my chakra, and then just... let it flow I suppose. It can't be that easy though, can it?' He pondered, pushing chakra out of his hand as if he were making a Rasengan, only not consciously spinning it. It flowed out of his palm in sufficient amounts to be visible, a blue flame of energy, flickering into the air. Sadly this did nothing to the little seed, and he closed his fist in frustration, flopping down onto his back.

"Having fun?" Came a cheerful voice from behind him. Raising his gaze he saw Celestia had returned to the clearing.

"Fun? You dump me in some clearing in the middle of nowhere, with an apple and orders to 'master yang release chakra', and call it training! You're the worst teacher ever!" He yelled, leaping to his feet. "It's been weeks and I STILL get headaches trying to figure out this Yang energy and Yang chakra nonsense!"

"Oh, is that all? Yang energy is one half of chakra, Yang chakra is chakra molded to resemble yang energy. If you combine Yang energy and Yin energy you get Chakra. If you combine Yang chakra and Yin chakra you get... something amazing." Celestia said.

"Amazing?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"It's like those combination elements that some ninja are famous for. You mix chakra 'A' in one hand and chakra 'B' in the other, and you get an interesting result." The Alicorn said cryptically.

"So are you any good at Yang release then? I know you can do all three specialties to some extent, like any Alicon can, but wouldn't somepony like Applejack be a good tutor?" Naruto asked, rising to his feet.

"There are many reasons why Yang release is sometimes referred to as 'Light Style'. The sun is the ultimate source of all life. If you wish to grasp the idea behind Yang chakra, consider how the sun behaves. Does it push its energy into the plants? Does it even direct its light towards the earth? Even when using their chakra, earth ponies effect all of their surroundings, not just the desired plants. You must be like the sun, and simply radiate." Celestia said, once again leaving the blonde boy alone with his thoughts.

Settling down once more into meditation Naruto focused on molding chakra. Generally it was a practice that came naturally to ninja, by the time they exited the academy any student could call upon their energy source at will. Now here he was, a chuunin, trying to go back to the beginning and isolate his yang energy. It was an exercise in frustration, as every bit of physical energy that left his cells immediately mixed with his mental energy and became chakra, dissipating back into the separate parts once he dismissed it.

Deciding to start small he held up his index finger and focused chakra into it. Closing his eyes he opened his mind up to the feeling of chakra running through it. He moved from the main coils downwards, gradually narrowing his focus until he reached the cellular level. It took hours of intense concentration, but eventually he had isolated a single cell within the tip of his finger. From there he drew his chakra back, using it to 'observe' as he tried to force the yang energy out of that single cell.

Again this met with dead ends, as mentally willing the energy out caused it to mix with the mental energy that drew upon it. Recalling Celestia's advice he simply stopped and waited, using his chakra to observe. It took thirty six long hours of simple observation, mentally staking out that little cell before he began to feel it. He went to sleep after that, unsure if what he was feeling was a result of a lack of food, water, and sleep. In the morning he began again and sure enough it was there, like the most gentle of breezes, his yang energy brushing against the formed chakra. The clearing erupted into noise as Naruto celebrated his first major victory in conquering the technique.


O~O~O~O~O


Despite that minor victory, it was a full six months into training before Naruto was able to get a real sense of his Yang energy. He had expanded his senses to where he was aware of every cell in his body while meditating, and could feel the physical energy leaking from his cells. Along the way he acknowledged that with no way to force more out, and no way to really direct the pure energy, he'd never be able to do what earth ponies did naturally. So instead he began attempting to change the nature of his chakra to match it, much like he did when molding wind chakra.

Another three months of work and Naruto stood proudly, watching his hand as it glowed with a brilliant light. Being called 'Light release', Naruto latched onto the idea that if Wind chakra should blow, Yang chakra should feel like the light of the sun on your face. Getting the chakra to 'radiate' was the hardest part.

Still, impressed by his own progress, Naruto held his shining hand up to the apple seed on the ground, and watched with a massive grin as the tree grew to full size over the course of five minutes. A flash from behind him signaled Celestia returning once more.

"I see you've made progress." She said, glancing from his glowing palm to the tree behind him. "Excellent, you've unlocked the secret of Yang release, and you've started on its first application."

"What are the other ways to use it?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"What you are doing when using Yang release is essentially sharing your life with something else. Thus there are three categories of techniques. What you just did is an example of Animate to Animate, or living creature to living creature. Growing plants with your chakra is a basic example, it can also be molded into medical techniques to improve their effectiveness, although I doubt that sort of thing will interest you."

"Why do I have to use it in medical techniques to heal people? I thought this was pure life energy." Naruto asked.

"Plants are designed to take in energy from the sun, animals are not, and thus a technique must be used to force the energy into them. It's the same with the second category, Animate to Inanimate. Can you think of a ninja technique that gives life to a non-living thing?" Celestia asked.

Naruto screwed his face up in concentration, thinking over his experiences as a ninja. "Puppet techniques?"

"No, I've heard of those techniques and like the name suggests they are merely constructs that are controlled remotely, not given lives of their own. I suppose a technique could be made to give them sentience using Yang chakra, though it would be temporary unless the life force was gifted, and that would likely kill the user." Celestia pondered, shaking herself out of the tangent.

"Oh!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, smacking himself for not seeing the obvious. "Clone techniques!"

"Indeed. Aside from the normal clone and the shadow clone, all clone techniques involve giving 'life' to an inanimate object. Mud, water, and rock clones for example, wood clones as well I'm told. Each of them disappear quickly though, if not made by someone experienced with Yang release." Celestia smiled at her student.

"Why doesn't that apply to a shadow clone?" Naruto asked, a little disappointed, that technique was one of his favorites.

"Do you know why the Hokages have deemed that technique forbidden?" Celestia asked.

"Because of the chakra cost?" Naruto replied.

"Partly correct. What conditions can lower the chakra cost of a technique?" She quized.

"Chakra control, and having an affinity. But how can you have an affinity for that technique, it just requires raw chakra." Naruto asked.

"Have you ever seen that seal used in any other technique? Shadow clones are one of the few recorded Yin-Yang release techniques. Yin gives form to nothingness, creating a new body entirely from chakra, and Yang gives it life allowing it to act independently. Not having an affinity for one of those multiplies the chakra cost by tenfold, not having either makes that one hundred times. The fact that you can create so many means..." She trailed off, seeing the shocked expression on Naruto's face.

"I have both affinities? I can do Yin-Yang techniques?" He asked with glee.

"You are truly an Alicorn of the human world, born few and far between. But it will be many years before you are ready to even try techniques of such magnitude, especially since most examples have been lost to history. Now, enough distractions, what would be the final type of Yang technique?" Celestia asked, causing Naruto to look lost for a moment.

"The answer is technically the same as the first, Animate to Animate, however in this case you are giving that energy back to yourself. Your muscles run on Yang energy, which is why physical exhaustion can lead to chakra depletion, and vice-versa. If you give your muscles Yang chakra to run on..." She trailed off, walking up to the apple tree that Naruto had just grown, and gave it a light buck. The tree promptly uprooted and flew across the field.

Naruto adopted his fox-like grin.

O~O~O~O~O

'You know kid, you were supposed to be learning to draw on the fox's power during this little training trip.' Came a much unwanted voice in Naruto's head.

'Who gave you permission to speak?' Naruto demanded, halting his training.

'Ouch, words can hurt you know. I'm just reminding you that if you were following the advice of your teacher, you'd be working on controlling that little furball's power.'

'And I'd likely be rampaging across Equestria right now. I'm not an idiot Discord, all it would take is you suddenly surging the rate of the chakra transfer and I'd go on a berserk rampage.'

'And it'd be the funniest thing I've seen in months. C'mon kid I'm on your side remember? We've been over this.'

'You're only on MY side because anyone else would throw you out the moment you set foot inside their minds. You're here to watch the destiny of the elemental nations play out, and you don't care who's perspective you watch it from.' Naruto could almost hear the grin on Discord's face.

'But since you're my only window into this little show, you need to survive until the end. After all, what kind of jerk stops a good story before the conclusion? That would be something the Fox would do.'

'The answer is No Discord. I'm getting my own strength, even with the fox turned to stone by you I won't risk the safety of my teammates for a power boost. If you're here to watch then stay quiet, or I swear I'll find a way to throw you out of that seal.'

'Wish granted kid.' 

O~O~O~O~O


The halfway point of his training trip had come, and he was forced to halt his training in Yang chakra. So far he had mastered the water clone, creating it with raw yang chakra, with unintended results. With limited mental energy to draw on the clone refused to take on Naruto's image beyond basic shape. Instead he was left with a human shaped mass of water that could move and fight and think like him. It couldn't use techniques, molding chakra was a staple of the Yin-Yang release shadow clones, but what it could do was reform.

Naruto was shocked the first time he learned of that trait, having punched the head of the clone hard enough to disperse it into water drops, and watching with glee as it grew back. There was a downside of course, as reforming rapidly expended the clone's energy source, so they were far from indestructible. Still they made excellent sparring partners, as they didn't stop fighting when they lost an arm, leg, or head.

Shadow clones continued to blow up in his face. Eventually he conceded that without the appropriate mastery of Yin chakra, and then the skill to combine the two in a delicate balance, he'd never move beyond the 'Shadow clones for dummies' version of the technique found in the forbidden scroll.

His favorite application by far was his new version of 'Shining Armor', which made the name far more literal. The technique now involved flooding his body with his own Yang chakra, much like he did when calling on the fox's chakra, and letting it flow about an inch out of his body, like the fox's cloak. Rather than the blue glow he had before, he now shone with a brightness that was hard to look directly at. Rather than just providing an 'ultimate defense', the Yang chakra boosted his physical abilities to new levels, allowing him to run faster, leap higher, and generally be stronger. It also helped to repair muscle damage, allowing him to train his muscles faster to gain strength when not using the technique.

The downside of course, was even with his jinchuuriki levels of chakra he could only sustain the form for twenty minutes, up from a mere five when he first started using it. This didn't keep him from goofing off with it in celebration, leaping one hundred meters to scare passing pegasi, or throwing the original Ixion across the field, then running to catch it.

A rather amused Luna arrived to draw him from his games, gazing in wonder at the once-barren field around him. From that little apple given to him a year ago, Naruto had kept to the task and grown an entire orchard of trees. 

At the far end she could see several ponies already at work under the vicious task-master Applebloom. She, like all of the former cutie-mark crusaders was finally developing into a mare, although she was still rather small by comparison. Their new airship was getting all the stops pulled out on its development. Sweetie would still be the captain of course, as well as Scootaloo at the helm and Applebloom their chief engineer. However, since the ship was grown from chakra, Naruto would be able to summon it more easily, allowing for it to be made bigger and badder.

"Luna! I suppose it's time for my Yin release training?" Naruto asked, letting his armor die down and walking over to the darker Alicorn.

"Indeed, we will be moving to a more suitable location." She said, getting a nod from the body, and the two disappeared in a teleport.

They arrived in the entryway of a large building, built in a similar architectural style to the buildings of Canterlot. "Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns" Luna commented, leading him through a hallway. "I used to manage it, long ago. My sister changed the name after my banishment, I haven't changed it back yet. Although it may be time for it, seeing as how we no longer just cater to unicorns."

They passed through an outdoor corridor and Naruto noticed several young ponies of all types gathered around an older unicorn. "We've begun expanding the ninja program, focusing on earth ponies and unicorns so far. Peagsi, taking in natural energy like they do, is a problem we are working around, with both Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts working hard towards an answer. Luckily they don't have that whole 'turning to stone' thing as a problem, but so far it seems that as long as they have an imbalance of nature energy to chakra their techniques will always fail."

"Which means they need to boost their physical and mental energy to ridiculously high levels." Naruto grimaced. "And I thought our way of becoming a sage was difficult." He continued watching several of the ponies practicing techniques, and had to laugh as one of the earth ponies spat a seed at his opponent, which quickly grew into a swarm of vines that tied the filly up. Making a mental note to remember that technique, he continued following the Alicorn.

"You are of course encouraged to give lessons, the advice of a real ninja would be wonderful." Luna smiled, getting an excited nod from Naruto.

They rounded the corner into a grand hall with a table piled high with delicious-looking food, and the two sat down for lunch. They made small talk between bites, until Luna took a drink from her wineglass and smiled. "A noble attempt Rarity, but Chateaux Hoof-de-paw has a stronger licorice flavor." She called, and the room around them shimmered and disappeared. Naruto found himself standing at the entrance of an empty room, with Rarity and Twilight standing at the center.

"You should feel proud though, not many illusionists can recreate tastes to the level where they can fool a wine taster. Until that point you had us both completely fooled." Luna praised, and the white unicorn beamed.

"T-that was all genjutsu? All that food? I could smell and taste it, I felt full from eating it. I would have spent hours there and not even thought of breaking free!" Naruto said in horror. He had always hated genjutsu users who would create techniques that obviously couldn't be real, ninja would see through it immediately and break free.

"True mastery of illusion comes from making your illusions indistinguishable from reality, even to the point where your victims do not want to break free." Rarity recited.

"Rarity has been working hard at the Illusion school of magic, or 'yin energy manipulation'." Twilight explained. "I've been here as a teacher helping the new class of ninja-in-training."

"Alright, so what are these school and what will I be learning? I've never been strong at Genjutsu." Naruto said, moving to sit next to the other unicorns as Luna explained.

"The schools of magic we teach here are, Alteration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation and Illusion. You already know several techniques that fall into these categories, at least partly. Learning Yin release is all about manipulating reality, and mastering it and its applications will allow you to further improve these skills." Luna said. 

"We'll be skipping Illusion for you, as you say you have no talent for it. That aside, in Alteration you have your transformation technique, and Twilight tells me you can place it on others on physical contact. This is something we call 'polymorph', and with practice you should be able to apply it to weak minded opponents at range. It is a situational skill, as anything that will dispel a transformation technique will still apply."

"Conjuration you're already rather adept at, what you call summoning we commonly refer to as 'calling', and it is a master rank skill. This can also apply to your ability to seal and unseal weapons, although the true boon to be gained here is 'creation'. Being able to create mundane objects from 'nothing' as it were." As a demonstration her horn flared, and an anvil crashed to the floor beside him.

"Divination we'll skip as well, not many Unicorns get into that sort of field, as it mainly relates to spying on enemies. While it may be useful to a ninja, you don't seem to have any sensing abilities. Enchantment would also fall into the 'genjutsu' category, ensnaring the minds of your opponents, up to the level of domination that I believe your Yamanaka clan is famous for."

"And of course Evocation, which happens whenever your chakra creates elements out of 'nothing'. Spitting fire, throwing lightning, blowing more than a lungful of air at once, all of this is related to the Yin energy portion of chakra."

The lecture ended with Luna explaining exactly what his Yin energy should feel like, obviously taking a drastically different approach to teaching than her sister. "Yin energy, and Yin chakra by extension is often called 'Dark chakra'. The name gets blurred a lot, when people begin relating dark to evil, so by extension this kind of energy gets a lot of credit for terrible things. Where Yang chakra is bright and warm and radiant, Yin chakra is cold and writhing, and nearly impossible to pin down. It is the very representation of your mind, your thoughts, hopes, dreams and nightmares all give it form."


O~O~O~O~O


It was eight months before Naurto could reliably create Yin chakra, and even then he found the stuff difficult to work with. Where the Yang release came naturally to him once he found the trick to it, the Yin chakra was a constant struggle to keep control of. To make matters worse, without a horn, manipulating his new found Yin chakra externally was nearly impossible. There was a reason almost every ninja technique originates from their body.

Still the next two months were spent finding ways to adapt Yin chakra into his arsenal, and he found several amusing results. First and foremost was the 'creation' techniques, allowing him a near infinite supply of throwing weapons, so long as he had chakra to spare. They weren't impervious of course, having about the same durability as Shadow Clones unless he was holding them, in which case they drained chakra as long as they touched something.

The second bonus was his discovery of Yin chakra threads. Anchoring himself to something allowed for him to manipulate it from a distance, much like a puppeteer. Unlike a puppeteer he lacked the fine control to move delicate parts, but he also learned that tethering his techniques to him with a strand of Yin chakra allowed for telekinetic-like manipulation. His air bullets and thrown weapons could now track enemies. He spent days improving his range to where he could attach a line to an object up to five feet away, and then fling it through the air as a weapon.

His Shining Armor took on a very different effect when infused with Yin chakra, projecting a passive genjutsu-like effect. As Twilight described it, "It's nearly impossible to look directly at you, my eyes just sort of... slide off of your body. If I didn't know you were there it would be hard for me to notice your presence, unless I had other ways to sense you." Naming the new variant the 'Cloak of Shadows', Naruto happily moved on to new techniques.

Sadly teleportation was beyond him, it required such an impressive and precise understanding of both space and time that the barest fraction of Unicorns ever accomplished it, speaking volumes of Twilight's talent. 


O~O~O~O~O


The last half a year was spent in a futile effort to combine Yin and Yang chakra, or at least use the two simultaneously. With no success at all Naruto was left adapting his fighting style to flooding his body with Yang chakra or Yin chakra, and switching between the two as needed. Both had a shared twenty minute limit, and each had their advantages in certain situations. 

With Yang release he had incredible physical abilities, and his offensive techniques were powered up to ridiculous levels. With Yin release he had incredible stealth and control, allowing him a near infinite source of throwing weapons, homing projectile attacks, and the ability to hide in plain sight.

Best of all were his new Rasengan variants. Yang release Rasengans grew to beach ball size without any added chakra, and shone like a miniature sun, gaining the name 'Solar Rasengan'. They didn't burn or anything, but the craters they left were staggeringly impressive. 

Yin release Rasengans were impressive in their own way, still small but taking on an ethereal hue, and easily manipulated by his new Yin threads, granting them the name 'Shooting Star Rasengan'. He could currently hold six in orbit around him at once, and launch them at his targets with homing precision.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto was the last to arrive back in Ponyville, sporting a new outfit as a gift from Rarity, who had grown to even more terrifying levels in her Illusions. At least once a day she would trap Naruto and test how long it took for him to escape. In the year and a half he worked alongside the two ponies, he had never achieved a time of less than fifteen minutes. Her eye for details made her both an excellent designer, and a terrifying illusionist.

His new outfit was mostly oranges and purples, on the insistence of the royal sisters, and sported a solar/lunar themed yin-yang motif.

Up ahead he spotted his two teammates, waiting in the middle of the Ponyville town square. Grinning he picked up the pace, he couldn't wait to find out what they learned, and get back to Konoha.

Their village was in for one heck of a surprise.

> Things Change
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In a remote cave several shadowy projections gathered for their monthly meeting. At the head of the circle was a man recognizable only by his distinct ringed eyes. Gaining the attention of the group, the leader spoke. "Our first order of business, I'd like to introduce our latest member, Kabuto Yakushi."

There were some murmurs as a silver haired young man stepped forward. "I am glad to be of service, leader." He said, his right arm and face twitching slightly.

"What's up with that Un? I thought we had limited membership rings Un?" One of the figures spoke out.

"The rings are only important for sealing our targets. Kabuto has his own project to work on, and will be working alongside some of you to accomplish it." The leader spoke, getting reluctant grumbles of agreement. "That brings us to our second order of business. Kakuzu, you and Hidan are to continue collecting bounties, I want you to focus on those with physical bloodlines, and take samples before you turn them in."

"So long as it doesn't lower their prices." One of the figures said gruffly.

"Yeah, as long as I can sacrifice them, taking samples will be no problem." Agreed another.

"Deidara and Sasori, we are prepared to being our primary mission, go and fetch the one tailed beast." The leader said, turning towards two other shadows.

"Finally, I hate waiting." A hunched figure replied.

"Un." Was the grunted response of another.

"Itachi, Kisame, still no sign of the nine tails?" Leader asked.

"Wherever he went for the last three years, he wasn't in the elemental nations." Itachi said.

"I haven't been able to find him either." Zetsu added.

"Then right now he's a wildcard. Continue looking, until then approach Konoha with care." Finished with the briefing, most of the shadows nodded and disappeared. Only Kabuto, the Sasori, and the Leader remained.

"I see the you've moved up in the world, Kabuto." The hunched figure said, looking the silver haired ninja over. The occasional twitching that plagued the former spy disturbed him on some instinctive level.

"I have surpassed the snake in many ways, and gone down paths that even he dared not tread. Even my dream has become far greater than his could ever hope to be." Kabuto replied, pushing his glasses up his nose. Sasori gave a noncommittal grunt, and his shadow dispersed as well.

"I do hope for your sake that you keep your end of the bargain Kabuto. I do not understand yet why you are required, nor do I trust your presence." the 'Leader' spoke.

"So long as I have what I require." Kabuto shrugged, his shadow flickering out as well.


O~O~O~O~O


Their arrival back in Konoha had certainly turned some heads, most notably Sasuke's disheveled appearance. He had excused himself to get cleaned up, complaining of griffons and their lack of clothing. Sakura left to check in with her parents, craving a home cooked meal by her mother. Naruto, unsurprisingly, went straight to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand.

He was well on his way towards a new record for bowls of Ichiraku's Vegetarian Ramen consumed in one go when a cry of 'Cousin!' caught his attention. Looking up he spotted a rather grown up Karin sliding onto the stool next to him. "Did you just get back?"

He nodded, swallowing the broth in his mouth and nearly choking after spotting Karin's new outfit. "You made Jounin while I was gone!?" Naruto shouted, getting a laugh from the redhead and a few odd looks from the other customers.

"Special Jounin, head of my own hunter ninja team. Tsunade took me along on some of the raids on the snake's old hideaways. I got rather famous for my sensing abilities, spotting prisoners and ambushes, as well as tracking down escapees." She said, ordering a bowl for herself.

"What did you do with all of them?" Naruto asked, slurping through another mouthful.

"Depends really. A lot of the prisoners were just that, once we made certain they were healthy and not dangerous, we helped get them back to their old lives. Some of them had families, wives and children to get back to. Heck, some of them were children themselves. Tsunade took some of the tougher cases herself, as a pet project. This one girl, Isarabi has taken great strides towards recovering from her condition, you should meet her, she's an inspiration." Karin continued, telling him as much as she could about the bases they had raided.

Their talk continued as both of them continued to eat, Karin proving that appetite ran in the Uzumaki family. Eventually she rose from the booth. "Well, I'm going with Fluttershy to visit Juugo today, so I've gotta get going."

"Juugo?" Naruto asked, pushing back his twenty fifth empty bowl with a sigh, they didn't make food like that in Equestria.

"Yeah, he's Fluttershy's favorite patient, a real tough case too. I'll explain on the way if you want to join us." She said, beckoning him to follow. "Tsunade and Jiraiya both checked him out, and they know what the problem is, but there's nothing they can really do to treat him."

"What is the problem then?" Naruto asked, as the two walked towards the hospital.

"He's got this rare bloodline, his body naturally produces those enzymes that are in those cursed seals. So he takes in natural energy involuntarily, and he can shift his body into all sorts of monstrous shapes. If he goes for long enough without shifting, it tends to happen involuntarily, and he goes berserk." Karin explained, leading them around the hospital towards a wooded area nearby. Naruto noticed along the way that several seals were in place to maintain a barrier effect.

"And he's Fluttershy's favorite patient?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"Oh he's a real softy most of the time. He went to Orochimaru for a cure, because he hates violence and just wants to live in peace. When we found him he actually begged us to not let him out, for our own safety." They had reached a rather large fence, with several seal tags littering the wooden walls. Karin placed her hand on one and pulsed her chakra, unlocking the wooden gate.

"Fluttershy was on that mission as our healer, she's learned a ton from Tsunade. Anyways we let the guy out, and he went nuts, smashing through our best ninja in minutes, until Fluttershy just runs forward and stares him down. It was amazing, she just held his gaze and he stopped moving, and eventually he turned back to normal." Karin gushed, as a small clearing came into view up ahead. Naruto could hear voices.

"Angel bunny hasn't been eating well lately." came a soft voice from ahead.

"That's too bad, do you think he's sick?" A rather young sounding male voice replied.

"Oh I don't think it's that. He's always been a picky eater, and it's always a struggle to get him to eat when he'd rather be playing. I made a whole salad for him yesterday, and he wouldn't even touch it." Fluttershy said, laying in the grass and surrounded by animals.

"I'm sure he'll be okay. Just take away his snacks until he starts eating dinner. He'll eat when he gets hungry enough." Juugo sat against a nearby tree, looking at peace with the world as several birds sat upon him.

"We have visitors. You know Karen, and this is Naruto." Fluttershy said, standing up to greet the newcomers. Naruto gave her a hug, it had been a long three years.

"It's good to see you again Fluttershy, I've heard you've improved by leaps and bounds in your medical training."

"It's been very exciting learning under Tsunade." She agreed, turning towards the orange haired boy by the tree.

"It's nice to meet you Naruto. I've heard from Fluttershy that she practically raised you." Juugo commented.

"Ah, it's good to meet you as well, I hear you're her favorite patient." Naruto said amiably.

"Sadly, there's nothing really to treat. I'm okay with spending my life like this, if it keeps others safe. " Juugo said, holding a hand out for another bird to land on it. The group spoke for about an hour, keeping the subject matter light, and acting like new friends.

"I've been trying to convince him to come out once in a while." Fluttershy commented.

"That's a good idea, I'm certain between me and Fluttershy we can help you stay in control." Naruto said, giving the boy a smile, which was tentatively returned.

"I'll consider it." He said, and the group of visitors rose to leave.


O~O~O~O~O


Soon enough team seven was called to the Hokage's office to debrief about their extended training tirp. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kakashi were all present, looking over a written report that each chuunin had prepared before coming home.

"Hey, grandma! What's this about Karin making Jounin before me?" Naruto complained upon entering, the adults all gave him smirks.

"Special Jounin, she's one of the best trackers the village has seen in ages. Saved a lot of lives on our raids, and made them a lot quicker, which is good becasue someone else has been raiding them." Tsunade grumbled.

"Raiding them?" Sakura asked.

"We were lucky to get Juugo out when we did. A lot of the bases were looted for valuable information and genetic samples. Some of the prisoners with rare bloodlines that should have been there, based on the paperwork, were completely missing." Tsunade complained.

"Orochimaru experimented with genetic engineering, transferring and combining bloodlines and the like. He never did it to himself though, too much risk of instability for someone wanting to become immortal. That someone else is now apparently collecting his resources is... foreboding." Jiraiya explained. "This is all hush hush of course, but we think it may have something to do with Akatsuki. I spent a lot of the last few years monitoring my information network, and they are finally beginning to become more active."

"Well, so much for slow days of training. What else did we miss?" Naruto asked. Sasuke and Sakura both looked interested as well.

"Well, I heard you met Juugo. Isarabi, another one of our rescued victims, is planning on living a quiet life as a civilian. Everyone around your age group made chuunin at least, Neji, Hinata and Shikamaru made Jounin." Tsunade recapped.

"What? Neji?" Naruto asked, not very surprised by the other two.

"Yes, Neji. He's a very talented ninja, and his attitude and drive have both picked up in recent years. He's really throwing his support behind making Hinata clan head soon. She has become quite the force herself. Their clan has been thinking of changing their motto to 'Speak softly and strike to kill.' Shikamaru has been assigned diplomatic duty between Suna and Konoha, along with Pinkie Pie." 

"What!" Naruto yelled, if the other revelations were surprising this one nearly stopped his heart. "You let Pinkie Pie become a diplomat?"

"She took an interest in seals, and Jiraiya got sick of her, so we sent her along to Suna to learn some puppeteering techniques. She's been swapping sealing ideas with them for the past few years. Any and all ponies seem to be welcome there after Gaara became Kazekage."

Naruto had finally collapsed from the shock. "You need to work on your delievery." Sakura grumbled, kicking the blonde boy softly. It took a few minutes for him to wake up.

"Gaara beat me to becoming a Kage? Gaara? Really?" He asked, trying to imagine the disturbed boy being in charge of a village.

"He's made great strides in the past few years, most of his village no longer fears him. I think hanging out with that little unicorn helped his image plenty." Tsunade shrugged. "Either way, relations between our villages are at an all time high."

"Sweetie's been visiting him? I'm glad she wasn't hurt, I can't imagine pissing off Rarity these days. Anyways, I suppose it's our turn to explain the results of our training?" Naruto suggested.

"We've read your reports, those new summoning contracts are quite the boon, I'll have to talk to the bosses later. Other than that, there are a few things that caught my attention. Naruto, you say you've mastered Yin and Yang release?" Tsunade asked, and Kakashi's eyebrow rose.

"Not mastered by far, although Yang is farther along than Yin. For some reason Yin just doesn't respond as well as Yang does. Celestia thinks there may be something in my heritage that makes me stronger with Yang techniques than Yin." Naruto said, causing the adults to give each other odd looks. "Alright, spill it. You three know something about my parents, and I'm tired of you dodging the question."

"We were supposed to tell him when he made chuunin." Jiraiya shrugged.

"Yeah well, a lot happened to keep us busy. Now's as a good a time as any though. Naruto, your father is Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage." Tsunade said. Naruto promptly fainted again.

"Seriously, your delivery sucks. Should we get some chairs or something?" Sakura grumbled, Sasuke was struck dumb. Eventually Naruto woke up once again, and they began a very long and heartfelt talk about his parents. He learned of his father and mother's relationship, about his mother being the second jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, and about the Uzumaki clan's relationship to the Senju.

"So you really are my grandma, or at least a relative." Naruto joked, to Tsunade's annoyance. "Wow this is a lot to take in. How did my mother die? How did the Kyuubi escape that night?"

"Nobody really knows, the ANBU we sent to guard her were all murdered, and somehow the Kyuubi broke free. Both of your parents died trying to reseal it." Jiraiya answered.

"Do I have an inheritance or anything?" the blonde boy asked.

"Nothing really remains of the Uzumaki clan. Minato was an orphan, and being Hokage doesn't pay well enough for him to leave you any sizable fortune. We have some photo albums of theirs, but that's about it." Tsunade said sadly.

"Minato was my Sensei, I'd be happy to tell you what I know of him." Kakashi added.

"Back on the subject, your ability to use Yang chakra may be related to your family. The Uzumaki and Senju clans are close, and the Senji are said to have inherited the yang chakra of the sage of the six paths." Jiraiya said, excitedly.

"That's an old myth Jiraiya." Tsunade grumbled, but team seven was already listening intently.

"The legend goes, that on his deathbed the Sage of the Six paths used the tremendous chakra of the ten tails sealed within him, to create the nine tailed beasts. With his last moments he called his two sons forward to receive their inheritance. To the older son he gave his eyes, his yin chakra, and the ability to bend the tailed beasts to his will. To the younger son he gave his body, his yang chakra, and the ability to calm tailed beasts with his chakra. Thus started a feud between the brothers over which gift was superior. Legend has it that the older brother's family became known as the Uchiha, and the younger brother's family became the Senju." Jiraiya explained.

"The Uchiha believed it, or at least enough of them did to speak of it in the records." Sasuke commented thoughtfully. "Does that mean I should have been working on Yin release techniques?"

"Gee, that would have been nice to know BEFORE the three year training trip." Naruto grumbled, glaring at the adults.

"Yeah yeah, we screwed up hiding this from you all. But Minato had enemies, and we couldn't have you going around shouting your heritage from the rooftops." Jiraiya said, waving his hands defensively.

"Whatever, I'll teach you what I can Sasuke, and we'll see if you have talent for it. Luna will be thrilled, you're her favorite ninja for some reason. I'll focus on Yang chakra mostly, since it seems to be my strength either way." Naruto shrugged, getting a nod of agreement from Sasuke.

"I'll check the archives for any more information on it. Anyways, I've mastered my seal and my lightning element, developed several new techniques, and I have a good feel for 'griffon nature energy' for sage training, once it's safe to do so." Sasuke added.

"The toads refuse to let me borrow their stick, without it sage training is difficult. I'll describe it to your summon bosses if you like, maybe they know of something like it." Jiraiya said.

"Knowing my luck it's that same stick Patch was hitting me with for two years." Sakura grumbled. "I've mastered my earth element, and created an effective fighting style." She summarized.

"Really now, because your report here says more than that. And this one dictated by 'Master Patch' says even more." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow. "From what I've gathered you can hit harder than even I can, at full taijutsu speed. You can also fight blindfolded as well as most Hyuuga can, and use seal-less earth techniques. This last line is confusing, 'And about the gate, I take no responsibility, it was her idea and I had nothing to do with it.'"

Sakura visibly cringed. "They have two more!"

Any further explanation was cut off by an ANBU darting into the room. "Lady Hokage! A hawk just came in from Suna. The Kazekage has been kidnapped by a ninja wearing a black robe and red clouds. They're also requesting your medical aid for his brother and a pony who were poisoned."

"Ma'am, requesting permission to kick ass and rescue Gaara?" Naruto said, suddenly at attention.

"Granted, summon Fluttershy when you get there." Tsunade said, as the three bolted from the room.


O~O~O~O~O


Earlier...

"Na na na na na na na na Cat Man~!" Pinke called, following her 'practical sealing lessons' partner through the streets of Suna.

"Pinkie! Stop singing! I do not need a theme song!" Kankuro called over his shoulder, double checking the scrolls he carried. For all the pony's talent at sealing, it came with endless amounts of annoyance. Having the council decide he was the only ninja 'talented' enough to train alongside her was both a blessing and a punishment.

"But how will everyone know you're on the way to stop evil-doers?" The pink pony asked, hopping alongside the boy. She as well had her saddlebags filled to the brim with scrolls.

"They don't need to know, we're ninja remember? Now, you're certain they're this way?" He asked, that strange bird was still circling overhead, filling the sky with explosions. He was worried for his brother, but the pony insisted there was another bad guy around. He had learned long ago to both respect and fear her 'Pinkie sense'.

"Yep yep! There's a really bad guy over this way, and he plays with dolls too!" Pinkie called, causing Kankuro to sigh. No matter what they did or how hard he argued, she still insisted in calling his puppets dolls. With her help they were some of the strongest 'dolls' in the village, but still...

Soon enough they reached one of the village gates, and noticed the disturbing lack of guards. Approaching cautiously they spotted a hunched figure waiting in the shadows. Making a few gestures to his companion, Kankuro crept forward. Pinkie unsealed a small back-mounted cannon and took aim, firing a relatively quiet kunai towards the target. It exploded directly above the hunched figure in a shower of paper, and the target leapt back into the moonlight in surprise.

"Chakra suppression seals." a gruff voice commented, looking at the small confetti tags that now adhered to his cloak. "They seem harmless, but if I were a normal ninja you'd have severely handicapped me."

Kakuro attacked next, sending out all three of his favorite puppets to attack the figure, who chuckled quietly and avoided each one. "You have quite the bit of talent as a puppeteer. Sadly I practically invented the art, as well as building those puppets."

"T-that would make you..." Kankuro paused, as a metal blade shot from the back of the figure, striking each of the puppets in their vulnerable joints.

"Yes, Sasori of the red sands, at your service." The hunched figure grumbled. Batting away a counter attack as the bladed sections of the dismantled puppets launched at him. His gloating was cut off by the earth pony from before leaping in front of him with a rather large cannon covered in seals.

"Surprise~!" She called, pulling a trigger and splattering the master puppeteer's face with icing. "Whoopsie, had it set to cupcake!"

"Pinkie! Focus, we need to pull out the big stuff here, this guy is way beyond our level." Kankuro said, getting a hold of his fear. Somehow the presence of the pony seemed to take the edge off of facing down a legendary monster.

"Okie Dokie Lokie! Time for the Gummy mark 2!" She called, pulling out a large alligator-shaped contraption. Sasori glanced at the sky overhead where his partner was still fighting, decided he had time to play, and sat back to watch what these two odd characters could come up with. "Element set to water, Throwback mode engaged, chakra reserve accessed, output set to 40%. Plant hooves... Hydro Cannon!"

The strange contraption whirred and spat a torrent of water, dousing Sasori as he brought his tail forward to defend. Both combatants were pushed back several feet, but other than being rather wet, the puppet using Akatsuki ninja was no worse for wear.

"It's not very effective..." Pinkie grumbled.

"Enough of this, I'm using the prototype." Kankuro called, pulling an extra scroll from his back. It opened and a poof of smoke revealed a human shaped puppet. "Meet the Modular Earth-pony Chakra Hardened Assault Puppet. MECHA Puppet for short." The apprentice puppeteer grinned. Using wood grown by earth ponies had improved the ability for seals to harden the wood well past steel strength. Pinkie and him had spent months working towards building a puppet that could fight in close combat on top of regular puppet tricks and traps.

"I thought we were calling him the Chakra Hardened Ultra Can Kicker." Pinkie said, irritating Kankuro.

"I told you, we aren't calling a puppet this awesome Chuck!"

Bemused by their banter, Sasori struck out with his tail at the puppet, intending to dismantle it as he had the others. To his surprise, with an exaggerated movement for a puppeteer, the prototype leapt up and kicked the bladed weapon aside, suffering next to no damage. Another series of commands form Kankuro had the weapon dart in and begin fighting Sasori in a rather impressive display of taijutsu, for a puppet.

The 'Chuck' leapt airborne, and revealed a flamethrower in his right arm, spraying hot napalm down upon the sands of the desert, as the master puppeteer was forced to dodge. A retaliation from his Kunai launcher bounced harmlessly off a basic chakra sheild.

"I see, you specialized the arms, the left for defense, the right for offense." Sasori commented. Still, the Akatsuki member was the superior puppeteer, and as they locked once more in physical combat he managed to overpower the prototype and sever its right arm. To his amazement the remaining stump disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and a new arm took its place. It wasted no time in firing a pressurized jet of water that nearly split Sasori in two.

"Ah, the Modular part of the 'Mecha'.  I'm guessing you have several specialized limbs stored within the arm and leg sockets, which you can seal and unseal as needed. Ingenious, who came up with it?" Sasori asked, quite impressed by the ingenuity. He had left Suna behind because they lacked this kind of creativity.

"It was a joint effort." Kankuro admitted, causing Pinkie to snort at the unintended pun. "Pinkie is a sealing genius, but can't manage to control a puppet on her own yet."

"No fingers." the pony shrugged.

The battle continued, the prototype puppet pulling out every weapon it had against the master puppeteer. Shields, katars, kunai and needle launchers, fire water and wind jets, lightning charged tasers, even chakra-string guided rockets. The desert was awash with collateral damage and broken puppet parts by the time Kankuro ran out of options, and Deidara landed nearby on a massive clay bird.

"Play time is over." Sasori said, firing a volley of needles passed the crippled proto-puppet and hitting both Pinkie and Kankuro. "You two have a real talent, both for puppet control and creative thinking. If you somehow survive, I wish you the best in improving our art."

"Feeling woozie..." Pinkie stumbled, as the poison took effect.

"Gaara..." Kankuro called, seeing his brother draped over the back of the bird.

Several hours later, as both lay in a feverish state in the hospital, Pinkies body gave an involuntary spasm. The medics were perplexed as even unconscious the strange earth pony began to smile. 

> The Coming Dawn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were at the gates of Konoha before Kakashi had even left the Hokages office. Dimly the Jounin wondered if he was still considered the captain of their team. The chuunin were already packed to go, and immediately took off running in the direction of Suna, unwilling to wait for their perpetually tardy teacher.

Deciding that they weren't going fast enough, Naruto began to shine, picking up speed and pulling a head of the other two. Not to be outdone Sasuke removed the top portion of his rather ornate  Hakama, which he had picked out for both its style and functionality. His upper torso now bare, he began drawing energy from his seal, intending to fly towards the desert village.

"Hold it!" Sakura yelled, halting both boys. "Am I the only rational one on this team? You're really going to waste all your energy just getting to Suna?"

"Gaara has been kidnapped, even though he isn't a personal friend of mine, if they extract the ichibi he dies, and the bad guys get stronger." Sasuke said, giving Sakura a cold look.

"Not to mention there are poisoned people we need to help, Gaara's brother Kankuro, and a Pony, so either Pinkie Pie or Sweetie Belle." Naruto added.

"I know that, but the guys who took Gaara must be strong, we'll have a hard enough time fighting them without you two being exhausted. We'll run as quickly as we can, but no techniques, got it?" She demanded, putting her foot down on the matter. Both boys reluctantly nodded, but again took off at speeds most Jounin would be hard pressed to match.

They tore past a teahouse with such speed that Temari and Shikamaru both only had the briefest chance to glance up in confusion. When Kakashi came by at similar speeds minutes later, the Nara merely shrugged and went back to his tea.


O~O~O~O~O


The team, Kakashi included, made it to Suna in record time, and were quickly brought to the medical wing, where Kankuro and Pinkie lay on two cots, with various personnel fussing over them. "Eh? Who are you supposed to be? I asked for the slug princess herself, these are my two favorite students we're dealing with, I'm even willing to put aside my hatred for that pretentious know-it-all." Grumbled an old lady, sizing up the trio as they entered.

Naruto performed a quick summoning and Fluttershy appeared, loaded down with saddlebags of necessary tools. Upon seeing Pinkie laying sick on the cot something came over the Pegasus, and she stepped into the room boldly. "I need a bowl of hot water, and space!" She yelled, getting surprised looks from everyone present. "NOW!" She yelled, terrifying the people into action.

"Wow... Fluttershy can be really..." Sakura trailed off, not knowing how to describe the scene as the normally timid yellow pegasus ordered about the hospital staff.

"Terrifying? She's made adult dragons cry before when her friends are in trouble." Naruto said, causing all three to shudder.

"Heh, only makes sense that Tsunade is training a pony of her own." the old lady grumbled, watching Fluttershy get to work. "You're their summoner then?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you." Naruto said, "These are my teammates, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno."

"Never heard of any of you. I'm Chiyo, village elder of Suna, and formerly the villages Poison and Puppet expert." She introduced herself. "I've been training those two for about three years now. I was reluctant at first, since the pony is allied with Konoha. Old wounds are slow to heal after all... but seeing how unorthodox she can be with her seals... She's been a boon to both villages."

"I'm certain both of them will be back on their feet soon enough." Sakura said, comforting the old woman. "Once they are stable, we're going to track down the ones who took Gaara, and bring him back."

"Why would Konoha ninja care so much about our Kazekage? It should be our responsibility to track him down." Chiyo commented, looking over the group of Chuunin.

"He's like me. We had similar births, similar childhoods, and lately, we have similar dreams. I won't let those people kill him over something he has no control over." Naruto said, face set in determination as he watched Fluttershy get to work. Chiyo sat by in silence, wasting for news that her favored apprentices would be okay.

There was a rush of movement from one side of the hallway as a small white unicorn ran into the hallway. "Naruto!" Sweetie Belle cried, rushing over and talking the blonde boy. "Naruto he took Gaara!"

Naruto calmed the wailing unicorn eventually, she had grown in the past three years, still smaller than the other ponies but no longer so noticeably. "Calm down Sweetie and tell me what happened. We're going to bring Gaara back."

"I was on the roof with Gaara, he doesn't sleep so sometimes I keep him company. I've been learning from Rarity to do illusions, and he likes it when I use it to play music, he says it lets him talk to Shukaku. I was up there, playing a lullaby for him, when this big white spider jumped at me. The sand leapt to my aid, like it does for Gaara, and ripped the spider into pieces. I've never seen it be so aggressive.  When more showed up and started exploding, he shoved me inside." Sweetie said, her head buried in Naruto's lap. "It was like watching fireworks, but terrifying. I was so worried about him. He was only captured because he was protecting all of us."

"We'll bring him home Sweetie. We'll bring him home." Naruto said, stroking the little ponies hair.


O~O~O~O~O


It was several hours before Fluttershy emerged from the room, looking worn down from her efforts. "They're stable, and should wake up soon. The poison is a terrible one, our bodies can't seem to make antibodies against it, so any antidote will only work until its used up or metabolized. I've made three vials, but they'll only work for up to ten minutes each."

Nodding the chuunin each took a vial, and placed the securely within a sealing scroll, where they wouldn't become broken. Noticing that Kakashi had caught up with them, they moved into the room, information about the attackers would be important.

Pinkie Pie was still out, but Kankuro managed to come around for a bit. "Kankuro, the one who attacked you, who was it?" Chiyo rushed forward, coming to her apprentice's side.

"Red Sand..." He managed to groan out. Despite being cured the poison had done serious damage to him, and it would be weeks before he was fully recovered. "Went toward... River Country..."

"So, it really was my grandchild. Sasori of the Red Sand. He's a dangerous opponent, I'm coming with you." Chiyo said, turning to face the assembled team. "This is Sand's responsibility, as well as my own. I won't turn down your assistance, especially knowing its personal for you as well, but I'm not taking no for an answer."

Grudgingly they accepted her offer, and the five of them left Suna immediately, leaving Fluttershy behind to continue treating the wounded. They made good time crossing the desert, and were soon leaping from tree to tree the way all Konoha ninja were trained to. Kakashi and Sakura each brought a dog out to pick up the trail.

"Everyone, this is Jowls, Jowls, this is everyone." She introduced, as a large bipedal bloodhound emerged from the smoke. He gave a small wave, and turned to look at Pakkun.

"I didn't believe it when she told us, but your dogs are really tiny." He said, crouching down to get closer to the small ninja dog.

Pakkun blinked a few times, sizing up the other dog. "Yo, I'm Pakkun." He said, holding out a paw in the standard 'shake gesture'. Jowls did the same, and they both laughed and did some kind of silly hand shake.

"Right well, we're chasing two ninja and a prisoner, headed in this general direction. What do you smell?" Kakashi asked, getting the attention of the two dogs.

"Hmm, two people, one's masked really well, dirt and desert spices." Pakkun said, sniffing around the area.

"Other one smells like fresh clay." Jowls added. "There's also a smell of rust and oil. Doesn't smell alive though."

"That's them, give us a trail." Kakashi asked, and the two nodded and set off, Jowls baying loudly with enthusiasm until Sakura reprimanded him. A few more miles in and Chiyo turned her attention to the blonde boy.

"From the way you speak of Gaara, you're a Jinchuuriki aren't you?" She called ahead to Naruto, who was currently near the front of the group.

"And if I am?" He called over his shoulder.

"It's uncommon, for a Jinchuuriki to have such close bonds with others. Both your teammates and summons look upon you with kindness." Chiyo said.

"People often treat the containers like their prisoners. We are not mindless beasts or demons, the only monsters among us are the ones the villages create through their treatment." Naruto replied.

"To be honest, I was the one who performed the sealing on Gaara. I didn't want to, of course, but it was my duty to the village. I knew what kind of life he was going to lead, but I did it anyways." She said, getting a few looks of surprise from the group.

"Gaara is strong, he's overcome the hatred and fear, and become a leader. His hard childhood is more a result of the villager's scorn than any of your actions, though if you wish to apologize to him we'd best hurry up." Naruto said, picking up the pace.

They ran through the night, Chiyo insisting she could keep up with the younger ninja, and encountered no resistance until shortly after dawn, when they hit a rather large gap in the trees. Seeing a figure up ahead, barring the way, the team fanned out and landed several feet away. 

"Forgive me, ninja of Konoha, but in the interest of my mission, I must bar your way." Came the calm voice of Itachi Uchiha, cloaked in a robe with red clouds.

"Itachi!" Sasuke yelled, feeling foolish for not having something else to say in this situation. For all the thought he had given the situation over the years, he still didn't know how to handle his feelings over his brother.

"Hello again, little brother." The missing Uchiha said, looking Sasuke over. "I wonder how strong you've grown."

"You are no brother of mine! You are no Uchiha!" Sasuke roared, and for a split second his eyes caught Itachi smiling, as if the thought of being cast away pleased or amused him. Still, the last loyal Uchiha didn't break from formation, he wouldn't endanger his teammates over revenge.

"Do not look him in the eyes, even by accident." Kakashi said quietly, and his team of chuunin nodded. "If you're going to use techniques, do it from his blind spots. Watch your teammates for signs of Genjutsu and try to break them out."

Naruto was the first to charge in, a fact that surprised none of his teammates by this point. He seemed to shine and put on an extra boost of speed, closing in and trying to punch the Akastuki ninja. Itachi dodged, spotting the power behind each missed attack, and waited for an opportunity to strike back. He was forced to draw a short sword to block a hail of kunai from Sasuke, thrown with deadly speed and accuracy, but managed to keep his focus in the ninja before him. 

Sakura took a second to focus, and began manipulating the earth of the clearing, destabilizing Itachi's movements and launching the occasional volley of earth. 

Naruto was thrown off of the missing ninja, after Itachi caught a punch that left him cradling his arm in pain. The blonde genin backed off and swapped his strategy, allowing Kakashi to move into close combat. Focusing on his yin chakra he sank out of view, pulling a volley of shuriken out of his pouch and levitating them using chakra alone. With a few hand gestures he blew wind chakra over each one, expanding their radius to half a meter, and sent them towards Itachi.

The missing ninja leapt airborne to dodge, and was shocked when the shuriken veered off course, missing the blonde boy's teammates and circling back towards him. He continued dodging, all the while keeping up with Kakashi's taijutsu and being wary of sudden imbalances in the earth. Breaking off and making a few hand seals he spat a volley of small fireballs that exploded against the shuirken, reducing them to warped slag.

Throwing Kakashi off of him, he leapt back to avoid a pillar of lighting that shot from Sasuke's hand, and his sharingan eyes picked up on something from the very edge of his vision. It looked like a warp in the surroundings, ordinarily it would be difficult to focus on, but the chakra used in the technique made it shine like a beacon to his eyes. Deflecting a punch he caught the surprised boy's chin and made eye contact. "I can see you."


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto fell back with a thud as Itachi burst into a flock of crows and began circling him. 'Crap, genjutsu.' He thought, bringing his hands together to dispel the technique. After three attempts he conceded that the Uchiha prodigy was far better at creating strong illusions than he was at breaking them.

'Discord! Help me out here!', he'd learned from Jiraiya long ago that bijuu could break genjutsu placed on their hosts the same way a teammate could. Sadly, the spirit of chaos wasn't responding.

'Damn it Discord, I know you can hear me! Break me out!' He cried mentally as the flock of birds began throwing shuriken at him. 'Discord ,Kyuubi, let me out!'


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto was down, and not getting back up. Every member of their team had a way of spotting him when he was using Yin release, he should have known Itachi could do it too. Sakura leapt in to fill the gap as a taijutsu fighter, fighting her best against the sharingan user. Still the red eye's predictive capabilities were more than enough for the young man to avoid her attacks. The Uchiha attempted to catch her eyes several times during their fight, but was shocked each time to see her eyes closed each and every time, regardless of any attempts to surprise her.

His danger sense screamed at him to dodge, and he managed a substitution technique just as a beam of lightning pierced through his former position, impaling the replacement log and punching through, up to a single inch in front of the pink haired girl's face.

He took another moment to survey the battlefield. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi were before him, the old lady they had come with was near Naruto, who still lay on the floor. So far his attempts to delay them was a complete success. 

Rising to a standing position he palmed another brace of shuriken, preparing to begin the assault once more, when something caught his attention. Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke. 'It must have been that old woman' He thought, just as he heard movement behind him.

"Solar Rasengan!" a glinting figure shouted, slamming into him with a blinding ball of energy. The force of the impact drove him into the clearing between the rest of team seven, who waited anxiously for any sign he wasn't dead.

"My work here is do-do-done. You! Sa-sa-sasuke-ke. I'll see you-you-you soon." The missing ninja rose to his feet, twitching and stuttering violently, his voice becoming a warped mockery of the real thing. The twitching continued, growing more violent and disturbing until a massive cloud of smoke rose up, a sure sign of a technique dispelling.  When it cleared Itachi was no longer there, in his place was an unknown man of similar build, with familiar black markings crawling their way across his skin.

The man screamed as the he began twisting and deforming into the second level of the cursed seal. He was cut off before he could complete the change, by a spear of lightning through the heart from Sasuke. All those present shot him a surprised look. "What? Did you really want to let that happen?"

Several more crashes and screams from the surrounding forest cut off any responses. "You three, take Chiyo and go on ahead, I'll hold them off. We can't waste any more time here." Kakashi said, turning towards the source of the noise.

The three chuunin nodded, Naruto and Sakura made several hand signs and summoned reinforcements to help Kakashi. The smoke cleared to reveal Trundle, Cringle, and Laddie, the three Council Dogs of Undermine, standing before Sakura. "Help Kakashi, there are monsters coming." Sakura explained.  The three dogs grinned back at her.

"He smells like dogs!" Trundle commented, getting a smack on the back of his head from Cringle.

The smoke before Naruto cleared to reveal Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. "The six points of harmony are assembled!" Twilight said, before remembering Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy's abesence. "Well... four of us anyways."

"Follow Kakashi's orders." Naruto said, grimacing as the noises got closer. "Don't be reckless, those things are going to be dangerous."

"Relax, we'll have this taken care of in ten seconds flat." Rainbow Dash boasted, flexing her wings and pawing the ground. The rest of the ponies seemed just as confident in their abilities.

Pakkun and Jowls leapt from their hiding places, and directed the three chuunin towards their goal, with a final shared 'good luck' they leapt away into the trees. Just as several ninja leapt into the clearing from the other direction, all sporting a level two cursed seal.


O~O~O~O~O


"Ow!" Kisame grumbled, snapping out of his meditative trance. "Those bodies Kabuto provided us with are strong, but damn hard to keep control over."

Itachi, sitting next to his partner in quiet contemplation merely nodded. Standing up to leave. His partner followed, used to the silent treatment by now.


O~O~O~O~O


"We're getting close!" Jowls called, as they reached another stretch of land without trees. Sakura took the lead breaking into a run across the open land, if they were going to be ambushed again this would be the perfect location. She paused mid step as the ground beneath her foot felt odd. On instinct she pushed her Earth Spear technique to the max as a sudden explosion engulfed her.

"SAKURA!" Naruto yelled, trying to run to her aid, but held back by Sasuke. The smoke cleared slowly, revealing a solid black Sakura standing in the same position. Slowly her color began to lighten as the hardening effect of her technique faded, and she shook out the ringing in her ears.

"Pyrite that was close." She muttered, sending out her chakra into the ground and sitting down when she knew it was safe. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her heartbeat.

"Pyrite?" Sasuke asked, not daring to move around.

"Fools-gold, Diamond Dogs use it as a swear." She shrugged. "This whole field is full of explosives." She demonstrated, stomping the ground and having a pillar of dirt rise up, a strange white blob resting on top of it.

"How do they work?" Naruto wondered, tossing a kunai at the strange white object. The metal tool stuck in it, but there was no detonation. "Think it's a dud?" He looked at Sakura, who shrugged.

"Go poke it." Sasuke suggested, getting a look of terror out of Naruto. "Shadow clones moron, go poke it with a shadow clone."

"Ah right, human trap diffuser." Naruto grumbled, creating a clone and sending it over.

The clone hesitated, approaching a foot at a time, and eventually drew in close enough to touch the thing. "Hey! It feels kind of like packed dirt, like some sort of clay!" He called, poking the thing a few times. "It's shaped like some freaky looking spider, it's really ugly too." Suddenly the spider leapt upwards, wrapping its legs around the clones head. The clone, caught off guard, let out a girly scream as the construct began hissing.

Sasuke reacted on instinct, throwing a volley of lightning needles into the white blob that had engulfed the blonde's head. The hissing immediately stopped, and the clone was able to pry the now shapeless blob off of his face. Figuring they were now safe the trio approached with caution.

"It's obviously an earth technique." Sakura noted.

"They must have some level of sentience, being able to move around like that. Some sort of earth clone?" Sakura added.

Sakura bent to rub some of the clay between her fingers. "An exploding clone, using an explosive material as a base to make it more effective for less chakra."

"Sweetie said something about a white exploding thing didn't she? So this guy must be damn good with his explosives to take down Gaara." Naruto grimaced.

"And we're going to be fighting him on his turf, meaning he'll have the advantage for traps." Sasuke finished. "Well, we know lightning techniques work against him now, so I should be able to handle him."

"The other one is Sasori, my grandson. He's a puppeteer, one of the best that Suna ever produced." Chiyo added, emerging from where her and the tracking dogs had hidden.

"He uses poison on all of his weapons right? I should be able to deal with that, if an explosion can't get through my Earth Spear, I doubt his poisons can." Sakura said confidently, cracking her knuckles.

"What the heck do I get to do then?" Naruto grumbled.

"Play minesweeper?" Sasuke joked, causing Naruto to grin. The blonde boy leapt up and formed a cross seal.

A few seconds and several dozen explosions later, there was a clear and cratered path through the field towards their goal.


O~O~O~O~O


They met up with team Gai near their destination. Apparently they had mauled Kisame's clone so badly on sight that they didn't notice it was a clone, nor did they hang around long enough to be ambushed my ninja with cursed seals. The team immediately broke apart to remove the seals for the barrier barring the door to a colossal cave.

Once they were clear to proceed, Sakura took a step up to the door. Holding her hand up to the door she rested her fingers on it. In a display of force that left both Naruto and Sasuke terrified, she punched the massive stone without drawing her hand back, and still blew chunks of stone into the cave.

Sasori and Deidara had just finished the sealing ritual, and turned to face the three intruders.

"Knock knock." Sakura called, cracking her knuckles.

> Pony Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"This doesn't feel right, not having Pinkie or Fluttershy with us." Applejack said, glancing around warily at the surrounding trees. Around her the other ponies took up a defensive position, one worked out by Twilight in some of their numerous training simulations.

"I know, but we'll have to make the best of it. We'll stick with strategy 25, be ready to adapt as necessary." Twilight replied, mentally running through an assortment of possibilities. The terrible noises were drawing closer, crashing through the woods with thunderous roars and monstrous shrieks. The Diamond Dogs all burrowed underground, ready to ambush at any moment, and every creature in the clearing tensed for battle.

A single leaf fell to the floor, and the first enemy darted from the undergrowth. It was humanoid, vaguely, its body a warped and twisted mass of muscles. With a bellowing roar it charged forwards, running with the aid of two long arms. It's face was warped, a large nose and two slobber covered tusks adorning its face, and its hair wild and scraggly.

Kakashi was the first to overcome the shock value, intercepting what was quite likely one of Orochimaru's old Cursed Seal ninjas, and striking it several times with his skilled taijutsu. The monstrosity lost momentum, but barely seemed fazed by the assault, merely turning its rage upon the cyclopean ninja.

Before any of the summons could lend their assistance, two more creatures rushed forwards. The first seemed more at place by the seaside, with long, flowing limbs complete with suckers, as well as spines along the back like a sea urchin. The second was coated with a fine fur, in variations of stripes and spots, and struck with catlike grace and fluidity.

Applejack quickly lashed out with her lasso, wrapping the worn rope around the sea monster with dexterous tail movements. The foe slowed, but laughed mockingly, flexing its warped muscles as it attempted to break the rope. Surprisingly the rope held, and the orange earth pony tipped her Stetson forward. "Earth pony grown fibers." She commented, flowing even more of her natural Yang chakra into the rope. Much of her training, after learning to mix mental energy into her 'earth pony magic' was spent learning how to augment her natural earth pony talents.

With a heave of her tail she yanked the ninja off its feet, pulling it in to a powerful buck from her hind legs. Launched airborne from the bone crushing kick, the cursed ninja was unable to catch its bearings before being tossed about again. Grunting, Applejack augmented her natural strength and was able to slam the monstrosity around the clearing, cratering the ground and cracking trees from the impacts.

The cat-like creature seemed to shimmer forward, closing the gap to the three unoccupied ponies with speeds they could barely follow. Rarity backpedaled, barely saving her hair from a series of swiped from the clawed hands. Twilight gave a quick shove with her magic, halting the onslaught by pushing the creature back a few steps. Rainbow Dash capitalized on the momentary vulnerability and swooping in to try her hoof at a melee fight.

While Naruto was quite talented at her fighting style, in the body of an athletic pony it became a thing of art. Rearing back on her hind legs she struck with swift jabs and strikes, making use of her hard hooves and powerful kicks. Her opponent quickly regained his footing, surprisingly able to keep up with the cyan pegasus's speed, and nearly landed a swipe across her face. With a flap of her powerful wings she took to the air, freeing all four legs for offensive purposes, and darting back whenever the audible sharpness of the claws signaled their approach.

As the two began to fight to a draw, more monstrosities burst from the underbrush. There were three, a scraggly looking weasel man, a hunched porcupine-like creature, and what seemed to be some sort of Owl type monstrosity. Twilight opened up with a volley of pure magic, frowning as the approaching attackers dodged around the crushing shots. Her horn visibly glowed as she called upon more of her power, centralizing her magic, infusing it with physical energy as well, and weaving it into an overpowered variant of a rather basic spell.

'Force!' She mentally yelled, letting a wave ripple out from her horn. Caught in a sudden wave of magic the trio of cursed ninja found their momentums suddenly altered, and were swept away in the unnatural pull. 

Talks with Celestia revealed that her magical talent, while prodigious, was nowhere near Alicorn level. In the past it had taken upwards of one hundred well trained unicorns to raise the sun or moon, which Celestia and Luna did each day and night. Twilight's power was comparable to 25 of those unicorns, so she was about a quarter of the way to moving the moon, a little more if she converted some of her magic into Chakra.

Compared to her magical reserves, her chakra reserves weren't much greater than her friends. Chakra was a combination of physical and mental energies, and her previous lifestyle left her lacking in the physical component. A rather tight training regiment had helped correct that over the past few years. Using chakra in place of her spells gave her more power, but slightly harmed her control.

Still, as horrific as these ninja were, they were certainly not the moon, and not even comparable to an Ursa Minor. It actually brought a smile to her face seeing them rag-doll around the clearing rather comically at her mental command. Cutting the flow of power to her horn she let the spell fade, and the ninja stumbled to their feet.

"Raaaaaaah!" The weasel man rasped, staggering upright and baring crooked yellowed teeth. He took two steps forward before his tail caught on something. Glancing down in confusion he noticed a paw-like hand reaching from the dirt, gripping onto the middle of his tail. Before he could react the paw retracted, yanking the appendage roughly into the ground and pulling the monstrosity off of his feet.

"Waaaaaaagh!" Trundle yelled, shooting up from the dirt and nailing the rodent-like creature with an uppercut to the jaw. "Huh," the Rottweiler said, scratching his head as his enemy slumped to the ground. "Thought that'd be more epic."

He was spared becoming a pin-cushion when another paw darted from the ground and pulled him back down. A volley of quills from the porcupine-like monstrosity sailed passed and embedded themselves to the base in a tree. The three dogs continued ambushing the attacking ninja in a similar manner, pulling them down into pit falls and traps, and striking with rather effective martial arts against their crippled foes.

The owl-like beast had somehow managed to slip passed the ambushes, and made a beeline for Twilight, who continued to shout orders to the group of ponies, and occasionally throw blasts of magic to support them. Before it could attack the unsuspecting unicorn, Rarity leapt in front of it. Drawing power into her horn she centered her magic on the oncoming beast, 'Lotus Eater Technique'. Her horn flashed once, and then there was darkness.


O~O~O~O~O


"You're awake!" A voice stirred him into awareness, he seemed to be laying on a bed, looking up at a white ceiling. A beautiful woman in a nurses outfit stepped into view, her hair reminding him of that odd dream he had just experienced. "I'll go let the doctor know, try not to move."

She disappeared from his line of sight, and he tried to sit up. It was no good, aside from his fingers and toes he couldn't seem to make his body respond. A few moments later the nurse returned, accompanied by a familiar looking silver haired man with one eye, wearing a surgeon's mask. "I see you've woken up finally. Can you speak?"

"What happened?" he winced a bit at how rough his voice sounded, probably from dehydration.

"You were brought in by one of the militia patrols, they found you being transported in a cage, along with several other ninja." the doctor said, "Do you remember your name?"

"I... everything is... fuzzy..." He muttered, glancing around at what he could see.

"What is the last thing you remember?" The nurse asked, her tone patient and comforting.

"I was attacking a group of ninja... no... one ninja and some ponies?" He said, glancing around the room once more. There were drawings on the far wall, colorful ponies drawn in crayons, they looked familiar.

"Some amnesia is to be expected, you suffered a pretty bad head and spine injury, but you should make a full recovery in a few weeks." the doctor said, giving him a small smile with his visible eye.

"I don't have amnesia, I remember everything!" he insisted, looking for support from the nurse. "There was a ninja, who looked like that doctor! And ponies, one of them looked a lot like you!"

"Often, when we lose our memories, our minds try to fill in the blanks with whatever is available." The nurse said, laying a comforting hand in his. "It could be that your mind is using the things in this room as projections."

"I... That can't be right." He said, looking between the calm doctor and the comforting nurse.

"Try going through your memories backwards. Let's see if we can find where the real ones end, maybe we can find your family?" The nurse said, settling down on his bed. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then began to tell her what he remembered.


O~O~O~O~O


The monstrous ninja stopped in his tracks, caught immediately in Rarity's illusion. It had been a bit of a struggle at first, but after the initial few seconds there had been no attempts to break free. From the beast's perspective, where he was now was preferable. It was now a simple matter to alter the projected 'reality' to cater to the ninja's responses.

The howls from the forest continued, and for every ninja struck down more flooded into the clearing. Slowly the combatants were forced towards the middle, covering for each other as more and more enemies ganged up on them. Kakashi had already brought down seven ninja, the Diamond dogs combined had done the same. 

Applejack finished throwing down her third ninja, and, reaching into her saddle bag, withdrew three apples. A light kick bounced the spherical red fruit onto the downed enemy's chests, and with a surge of Yang chakra they began to grow. Within seconds full apple trees shot up from the ground, their thick roots surrounding the ninja, driving down into the earth and pinning them there.

Rainbow Dash darted about the clearing, dodging ranged attacks from those attacking her, while swooping down to sneak attack those that weren't. Rarity caught another two ninja in her illusions, her mind rapidly adapting to the strain of maintaining several interactive ones simultaneously. Some of these ninja, she learned, were bloodthirsty monsters long before the seal was placed on them.

"Hold them off, I think I can do a mass dispel to force their seals closed!" Twilight called, falling into the middle of their new ring, drawing on a tremendous amount of power.

"Buck this! I'm giving them the new and improved 'Blazing Buccaneer'!" Rainbow Dash called, shooting up into the air.

Rainbow Dash was an interesting case, even among pegasi. Most had difficulties using chakra, given their rather symbiotic relationship with raw natural energy. Fluttershy was the exception, she had real talent manipulating chakra, which wasn't surprising given her rather unusual behavior compared to other pegasi. 

Their instinctive use of the energy gave them their weather control, augmented their strength to levels just below earth ponies, and made them damage resistant. Rainbow Dash took that to new levels, having a figurative well of natural energy within her at any given moment. It was her natural weather manipulation and near invulnerability that allowed her to punch the sound barrier without becoming a crumpled heap.

This also meant that in order to use chakra she'd need to push her mental and physical energies to enormous levels, all in order to achieve balance. Physically she had been working hard, running along with Applejack, rather than flying relying on her pegasi magic. Her naps were becoming more and more infrequent over the past few years. Mental exercises were a bit more of a challenge for the mare, but she had eventually taken interest in books on weather manipulation, after a certain Wonderbolt captain casually informed her about some of the 'cooler' things a pegasi could accomplish.

Pulling up to a decent height the rainbow colored pegasi began to work on picking up speed. Reaching into her natural energy well she felt the air move around her, pulling inwards on all of the oxygen of the environment. She continued flying, quickly compressing an aerodynamic cone in front of her, and dragging along a growing bubble of pure oxygen behind her. No longer was she a single pegasi, flying through the air. Instead she was a missile, a large shell of compressed air soaring through the air.

Coming into a dive she aimed downwards into the clearing, where dozens of misshapen humanoids rushed in towards her friends. The capsule dove with her, rushing towards the ground as she felt the familiar tug of brushing up against the sound barrier. Squinting through the tears in her eyes the cyan pegasus grinned, preparing for the final step of her technique.

"Kakashi! Shoot a fire technique into the air!" Twilight yelled, channeling the buildup of energy into a shield spell instead of her intended mass dispel, mentally cursing the pegasi's recklessness. The masked ninja responded by firing a Grand Fireball over the heads of the encroaching horde.

Seeing the flare ahead of her Rainbow Dash spun into a barrel roll, forcing all of the air around her body away, creating a vacuum around her body. With only her momentum to carry her she hit the fireball, the lack of air preventing the fire from reaching her body. To those outside the fireball appeared to become a ring that the pegasi shot through, before pulling back up into a steep climb. A split second later the mass of oxygen that tailed her hit the flame and went up with a teeth rattling kaboom.

The heat of the blast was felt even through several layers of Twilight's shield spell, which faded moments later. All around the group were burnt and singed ninja, gradually reverting to their normal human forms. "Looks like most of them are passed out, that fire must have sucked most of the oxygen out of the air." Kakashi commented, glancing around at the surroundings.

"Well duh! I aimed it overhead for a reason!" Rainbow Dash yelled, landing in front of the group. "A move that awesome is far too dangerous to be used directly on somepony."

"Your tail's on fire." Applejack commented, immediately deflating her friend's ego. The group chuckled as the pegasus franticly tried to put it out, before turning to put out the small fires that littered the area. Along the way Rainbow Dash explained the basics of her technique to Kakashi.

"So you draw in a lot of oxygen, and then use it to fan a preexisting flame?" He summarized. "Couldn't you just swoop over the enemies, and suck all the oxygen away from them?"

"We do that sometimes to stop forest fires when there isn't enough moisture on hand to make it rain. I suppose I should give that a try." She replied, already trying to work out the mechanics behind it.

Their conversation was interrupted as a trio of Diamond Dogs rose up from the earth. "Nice job wingly. Next time warn us." Grumbled Crinkle, his fur looking noticeably singed.

"We've got about a dozen of them under ground. You ninja aren't that good at fighting in dark confined spaces huh?" Laddie added, glancing smugly at his companion.

"Some of us are better than others. I'll admit your strategy is effective." Kakashi said, watching as the dogs opened up a hole and began hauling unconscious ninja out.

"I wish Pinkie were here, I'm certain she has seals to imprison ninja with." Twilight said, stacking the unconscious ninja together near the middle of the clearing, occasionally one would groan and Applejack would silence him with a quick kick.

Kakashi, who'd honestly been prepared to execute the lot of their opponents, stopped to consider things. It seemed that despite their abilities, the ponies were still relatively pacifistic in nature, focusing their attacks on subduing their opponents. Unwilling to break them of their innocence, he instead removed the entire tag of seals assigned to all Jounin for taking captives. They were expensive, and supposed to be used only for important missing ninja, but he was certain the Hokage would understand.

Soon enough they had about thirty ninja secured to several study trees, all paralyzed and with their chakra sealed. Content with a job well done they were about to sit back to wait for the Suna reinforcements to arrive, when a sudden explosion in the distance caught their attention. Thin black spires began to stretch up over the tree line, like some sort of warped reflection of a weed.

Kakashi's sharingan caught a glimpse of a large white bird flying up passed the towering mass, with several smaller flying figures in pursuit. "Those Suna ninja had better show up soon." Kakashi said, and the ponies nodded in agreement.

> Red Theater Act One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The massive boulder barring the entrance of the cave shattered with a resounding impact. Deidara nimbly leapt out of the path of some of the shrapnel, Sasori merely bocked several rock chips with his tail. At their feet lay Gaara, unmoving. The dust soon settled, revealing three ninja from Konoha, and an old woman.

"I would have thought Kabuto's fodder ninja would have delayed them more Un." Deidara said..

"That boy is as unreliable as they come." Sasori replied, that's why I told you to be prepared.

"Eh? What's Ino doing here?" Naruto asked, getting an angry look from Deidara.

"Idiot! That's not Ino, that's Deidara, the mad bomber. Didn't you read the bingo book?" Sakura yelled, bashing Naruto 'lightly' over the head for his comment.

"I've gotta admit, he does look kind of like a Yamanaka." Sasuke noted, grinning slightly as Naruto rubbed his head in pain.

"That's a guy?" the blonde boy grumbled.

Deidara mentally counted backwards from ten. It was supposed to help control his temper, but he always found countdowns more soothing than counting up.

"Remember, Sasori uses very potent poisons. You each have a vial of the cure, it will make you immune for 10 minutes, so try not to get hit." Chiyo said, stepping back to take a supporting role.

"That's sort of a general rule for any fight though. Hit them, don't get hit back." Naruto grumbled, further earning him another smack on the head.

The two groups stared off against each other, tensing for the initial burst of combat that always took place in high level ninja battles. It was a common way to size up opponents, testing their preparation and foresight. In a blur of movement Naruto shot forward, darting past several volleys of needles, all dripping in poison, and leaping over a few ground based explosion.

More kunai shot from Sasori, as his tail came around to pierce the Konoha ninja from above. Naruto stumbled, avoiding the kunai but quickly becoming pinned down by the tail. A burst of smoke revealed it to be a clone. A wind enhanced kunai swung by Deidara's head, narrowly missing as Naruto once again appeared, emerging from the shadows. The attack continued for a few seconds, the Iwa missing ninja unable to get a solid lock on the orange ninja's location, until the lens over his left eye kicked in, piercing the genjustu.

Sasori raised an arm towards the battle, but paused, unwilling to risk hitting his partner. As annoying as he was to work with, the organization needed him alive, and a single nick could leave the fellow ninja poisoned. Sasori was never one to create cures for his poisons.

Soon the other Konoha ninja joined in, rushing forward to support the blonde with more volleys of thrown weapons. Sasori blocked for his partner, raising his tail as a shield against the airborne metal. taking advantage of this, Naruto, who still seemed blurry to Sasori, darted in and grabbed Gaara. With a quick heave he tossed the redheaded boy towards his teammates, who caught him and backed away. A hastily created cloud allowed Naruto to rise up out of reach of retaliation.

Deidara grinned, his combat style was 90% preparation, and he had several backup plans in place. Making a single hand seal and yelling 'Katsu!', the newly rescued captive turned white and exploded.

"We replaced him with an exploding clone." Sasori explained, as Naruto looked on in horror. The smoke was beginning to clear. "I plan on adding that boy to my collection." His gloating was cut off when he noticed a suspicious lack of remains within the crater. "More shadow clones?"

Sakura dropped from her hiding place, within the stone ceiling of the cave, directly above their opponents. Sasuke's plan was for the clones to take Gaara away, and the real team seven to ambush the Akatsuki ninja when they focused on Naruto. Or better yet, have the clones draw one of them away. Sadly, it seemed Sasori had wised up to their plan. The puppeteer's danger sense, born from decades of hard fought battles, screamed at him to dodge. He did so, narrowly avoiding the roughly human shaped cannon ball that slammed into the ground beneath him.

The entire ground of the cave shook and cracked at the impact, upturned rocks near the epicenter joined in with the shockwave and threw the scorpion-like ninja a good distance away. Deidara stumbled from the vibrations, cursing as several of his explosive mines were knocked loose and revealed. With a few hand signs they leapt up, sprouting spider-like legs and began scurrying towards Sakura, the only enemy in reach. 

Sasuke dropped his transformation, the old lady disappeared in a poof of smoke, and leapt up just as Sakura hit the floor. From his position high above the rumbling he began raining lightning down on the explosive constructs, even as Sakura moved and gestured, forcing more to the surface with her bizarre earth techniques.

Catching Deidara's attention he tried to weave a simple genjutsu through eye contact, only to grimace as the strange metal lens on the Iwa ninja's eye seemed to interfere with it. A swarm of clay bats descended from the roof of the cave, homing in right on the Uchiha, forcing him to give up on the attempt in order to dodge. There must have been hundreds of them, swooping and chittering like the real things, breaking off to harass all three of the Konoha ninja, as Sasori joined in with even more needle spamming.

Sakura was the first to be cornered, cranking up the power of her defensive technique to endure the minor explosions. A small hail of needles bounced off of her harmlessly, and Sasori gave up, turning instead to harass Naruto. Said blonde ninja let his cloak of shadows drop, and leapt down from his perch as a dozen or so bats exploded into it. "Where is Gaara! What have you done to him!" Naruto yelled, throwing another brace of kunai towards the puppeteer.

"Like I said, he's already dead, I have the body sealed away in one of my scrolls. Given the chance I'll make puppets of all of the Jinchuuriki, and you will be immortalized in my art." Sasori replied, turning his attention towards him and firing a volley of needles from his mouth.

Dodging forward he mentally cursed, realizing he had set off a trap. A hail of kunai flew towards him in a screen, forcing him to backpedal away. Doing so, however, seemed to set off more traps, corralling him towards a specific point. The elaborate trap ended with a massive clay bomb, disguised as a stalactite. Seeing no other option Naruto jumped, easily clearing the entire height of the cave in a single leap, landing upside down on the roof. His sigh of relief was cut off when he realized that the five stalagmites surrounding him were also explosives, and a sphere of sharp needles was closing in from all sides.

Before the explosions could put him out of commission he was rescued by the timely arrival of a humanoid puppet, which swooped in and grabbed the ninja. Spinning about, the construct took the brunt of the needles with its back, before flinging Naruto free of the blast.

"Thanks for the save Chiyo!" Naruto called, getting a nod of acknowledgement from the old lady, who had finally revealed herself. She was their reserve fighter, using her puppeteering techniques to support the other combatants.

Spotting a break in the relentless assault on Sakura, she darted forward, her arm revealing itself to be a prosthetic limb, opening up into a moderately powerful chakra shield. The next swarm of bats that swooped in crashed uselessly against the barrier, the first few exploding harmlessly. The rest of them learned from their mistake, instead pressing into each other, creating a mass of clay against the shimmering blue shield.

Realizing what the Iwa ninja had planned, Chiyo closed her arm up, leaping backwards to get distance. Sakura followed her, raising several thick walls of earth along the way. The explosion blew through several layers of rock, but left the two women unharmed, and not a single bat remained in the air.


O~O~O~O~O


Sasuke was busy keeping pressure on Deidara, primarily sticking to ranged attacks. The missing ninja was a trap master, and given even a few seconds of breathing room he'd fill the room with even more. His attempts to engage the ninja in close ranged combat were often interrupted by pre existing traps and explosives, and he was now wary of closing in each time the Iwa ninja changed location.

So far though, his skill with lightning techniques gave him a strong advantage, allowing him to harmlessly diffuse the majority of Deidara's explosives. His sharingan spun wildly as always, helping him to predict flight paths and attack patterns, and even the shock of traps springing around him was lessened when you could view it in slow motion.

A white clay centipede shot up from the ground on his right, attempting to coil around him. 'He wants me to dodge left' Sasuke quickly deduced, instead deciding quickly on a different gambit. It would be risky, but it could end the stalemate. Rather than dodging, Sasuke threw a single lightning needle, with accuracy derived from hunting with the griffons. The clay insect wrapped around him tightly, but the needle flew true, embedding itself in the metal scope attached to Deidara's eye.

The Iwa ninja cried out in pain, yanking the device off of his face as it sparked wildly, then turned his attention back to his captured foe. "Katsu!" he yelled, willing the construct to explode. Instead it fell to the ground uselessly as the Uchiha pushed chakra into an electrical field around him. Locking eyes once more Sasuke quickly caught the Akatsuki ninja in a genjutsu that would take effect the next time the ninja blinked, and jumped away.


O~O~O~O~O


Another volley of needles shot from Sasori's 'mouth', prompting Sakura to leap into the way and harden, defending Naruto from the onslaught. As soon as the hail of metal ended, she stomped the ground again, causing the earth to rise up and grab at the front limb she could sense touching the ground. To her surprise it detached from the trapped section, the upper arm aiming towards the group and spewing poison gas.

It was Naruto's turn to defend the group, spitting a cloud against the encroaching haze. With practiced ease and wind manipulation he spun the crowd, trapping the gas within and sending it up towards the ceiling. Sasuke lept in to take advantage of the situation, landing precisely ten feet to the right of Sasori from Deidara's point of view, and began doing hand seals for the Grand Fireball technique.

The Iwa ninja, seeing his partner in trouble, moved to interfere, springing one of his remaining traps. From the cave roof a stalagmite detached, the newly revealed explosive weapon crashing down to the ground below him. To Deidara it would land right on top of Sasuke, thanks to a genjutsu causing him to see everything displaced ten feet to the left. In reality the explosive landed right in top of the puppet user.

Before the ninja could dodge, several slabs of earth rose up to box him in.


O~O~O~O~O


The dust began to clear, and Deidara managed to force himself free of the illusion. "Damn it Deidara, you broke Hiruko." Sasori called from within the smoke, his voice sounding cold and emotionless, no longer rough or gritty.

"Ah, sorry I broke your stupid doll. Un. I was caught in a genjutsu again. Un." Deidara called back, having the grace to look sheepish.

"Go play with your explosions outside then. I don't need your help for this, I'll just use the Third." Sasori said, stepping out of the swirling smoke. He was a red haired man, of no more than twenty years old, his frame thin and lean.

"Impossible! He looks the same age as when he left!" Chiyo exclaimed. "He should be much older by now."

"I've perfected my art, Grandmother." The missing ninja replied, unsealing a puppet from his scroll. "This is my greatest creation."

"The third Kazekage! It was you who killed him then?" Chiyo growled, the assassination of the Kazekage was one of the key factors starting the third shinobi war, leading to the deaths of thousands.

"I don't get it, he has a puppet based off the third Kazekage?" Naruto interrupted.

"The puppet IS the third Kazekage. Sasori killed him and turned his body into a puppet." Chiyo explained.

"And it grants me all of his powers. Behold, the greatest Kage in Suna's history." Sasori said, unsealing four blades from within the puppet. To everyone's surprise they began to float, effortlessly hovering near the puppet, as it mimicked Sasori's movements. Before anyone present could react the puppet was upon them, its swords swinging in wide sweeping movements.

Sasuke drew his own blade to parry, only to have it wrenched from his grasp by an unseen force. Sharingan spinning franticly the Uchiha dodged, the blades formed the semblance of a massive double sided sword, sweeping in broad strokes. As soon as he got used to the rhythm the blades broke apart, each one swinging independently of one another, attempting to strike down his foe.

Sakura leapt into the fray, trying to hit the puppet from behind. Sasori caught her movement, and a single blade broke away from attacking to block her strike. Turning, the puppet sent the blades after her, forcing her to back off from the relentless assault.

Sasuke took the moment of breathing room to recover his sword, testing a theory by charging it with lightning chakra. Closing in once more he again felt the pull on the metal, but it was now weak enough to overcome with his own chakra. "It's some kind of lightning technique, manipulating electromagnetic fields." he called, getting nods from Chiyo and Sakura.

"The third Kazekage was famous for his magnetic bloodline." The old woman said, her own prosthetic arm no longer functioning because of her metallic joints. Her puppets slumped off to the sides, equally crippled.

"Take this!" Naruto called from somewhere, he had slipped into his Cloak of Shadows once again. Four shuriken spun out of nowhere, covered in deadly wind chakra. They closed in on Sasori, wisely ignoring the puppet in favor of the more vulnerable prey. There was a sudden tug on the projectiles, and Naruto's already fragile control over Yin Chakra shattered. The spinning blades abruptly halted, before flying towards Sakura instead.

"Naruto!" She yelled, causing the blonde boy to wince. Backing off of the puppet she began to franticly dodge the blades of wind.

Sasuke leapt back from the puppet, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the blades he failed to parry. Taking a quick moment to mold chakra he shot fire at the shuriken, causing them to ignite and expand into flaming blades of death.

"Stop Helping!" Sakura yelled, throwing up rocks to try and slow the blades. Within seconds the fire had melted the metal into slag, and they fell uselessly against one of her barriers, no longer able to rotate properly. "Where's Deidara?" She asked, catching her breath.

"No doubt setting up something big. We'll just have to deal with it when it comes." Sasuke replied, once more moving to engage the third Kazekage. His sharingan was helping his swordsmanship improve by leaps and bounds. If he survived this encounter he'd be better with a blade than most ninja could claim to be.

Before the battle could resume, another scroll was opened from within the puppet, erupting into a swarm of full-sized swords. The blades shot into the air, hovering for a second, before raining down upon the arena, forcing all of the ninja to dodge frantically. When the rain finally ended the entire cave was littered with blades embedded within the rock.

Sasuke charged, once more clashing against the puppet, only to back off as one of the swords rose from the ground and took a swipe at him. In seconds several more joined the onslaught, until hundreds of them rose up into a deadly sharp column of metal that shot through the air. It curved and turned as it roared overhead, a churning maelstrom of clanging blades, occasionally sending down smaller swarms of blades at the ninja.

Sakura charged Sasori, figuring he was focusing on the technique and left vulnerable. Seeing her approach he redirected the swarm, and leaped on top of it with his puppet, the two riding a large blade through the air. Naruto followed, leaping skyward onto the roof and firing air bullets down towards the mounted ninja. A trio of blades responded, forcing him to dodge, and a poof of smoke signaled the arrival of reinforcements. Immediately the ceiling of the cave was covered in orange ninja, all firing air bullets down at the metal hulk.

The river of steel crashed against the roof, expanding outwards into a rotating grinder of swords that quickly culled the herd of clones, before reforming and chasing after the original who activated his Shining Armor. The glowing blonde leapt away from the initial volley, only for the swarm to catch up to him, carrying him away like the current of a raging river. A brilliantly shining sphere was the only hint to reveal that he wasn't immediately killed, and the swarm of blades continued its course around the room, pushing the ball of light along with it.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, this time with worry, quickly pulling up and throwing colossal chunks of rocks into the relentless torrent of swords. Sasuke did the same, throwing bolts of lightning into the monstrosity to disrupt the puppeteer's control of the electromagnetic field. Both were rescued several times from the occasional stray sword by Chiyo, who used her puppeteering techniques to pull them to safety.

With a deafening clang of metal the wave of swords crashed into the cave wall, pinning the sphere of light. Swords crashed into it, some bouncing off and clattering to the floor, while others missed and impaled themselves to the hilt within the rock around it. Naruto felt the 'Twilight Bubble' begin to crack under the repetitive impacts, even enhanced as it was by his rather potent Yang Chakra. Just as he felt the barrier giving in, he released his control on the outer edge, allowing the chakra to expand outwards with all of his force.

The explosion was breathtaking. A brilliant flash of light followed by bent and warped swords raining to the ground around Naruto. The ninja was tired but un-injured, an shakily rose to his feet. Sasuke and Sakura both leapt to his aid, taking up defensive positions before him. "Still no response from the furball?" Sasuke asked, slightly worried. It was disturbing to see the blonde boy tired.

"I don't know what Discord's problem is, but he isn't answering. I'm on my own for this fight." Naruto replied.

"He certainly picked a good time for a vacation. We'll deal with it when we kill these guys." Sakura muttered, cracking her knuckles. "Chiyo, you should retreat until we deal with that puppet."

The old lady nodded, seeing the wisdom in retreating for now. In all honestly she was shocked by the skill levels displayed by the Konoha chuunin, and felt confident leaving things in their hands for now. Her retreat was covered by shuriken from Sasuke, his eyes easily picking out projectiles from the third, and his lightning chakra allowing him to throw them safely. As soon as she had left the cave the roof shook, sending several rocks crashing to the ground.

"Well, seems like Deidara is finally ready. I hate being kept waiting. It only gets more difficult from here Konoha ninja, behold the Third's true power!" Sasori called, the massive collection of blades beginning to dissolve. Within seconds they had ground themselves down into dust, and the iron sand collected above both puppeteers.

"Oh dear Celestia, he's another Gaara." Naruto muttered.

The sand shot upwards, piercing the roof of the cave with a massive spire, before curving back downwards. Hundreds of deadly spears of metal rained down from above, shattering the roof of the cave and nearly impaling the trio of ninja. They all dodged franticly, narrowly avoiding the razor sharp metal strands, and the branches that seemed to grow outwards, trying to trip them.

Making their way to the center Sasuke pulsed outwards with lightning chakra, temporarily disabling the sand around him. Naruto followed up with a normal Twilight Bubble moments later, and Sakura rose from the ground to join them. Before them, from within the dense thicket of iron, the Third Kazekage once again willed its swords into the air. From high above there appeared to be a massive white dragon circling about, roaring occasionally down at its trapped prey.

"Shall I?" Saskue asked, gazing up into the light above as light filtered down through the metal canopy.

"He's probably prepared for aerial combat now." Sakura mentioned, she too looking up warily.

"Nothing he has can prepare him for me." Sasuke said confidently, summoning several griffons with a smug grin. "Listen up! I'm going to punch through the bars of this cage, follow close behind me. May our enemies lay in the earth forever!"

"And our allies forever soar in the sky!" The griffons all roared in unison, wings beating in anticipation. Black markings began to flow over Sasuke, as he drew upon the full supply of stored chakra. A shrug left the top of his robe to fall around his waist, and grand golden-brown wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. As the markings reached the full length of his body he began to crackle with electricity, forcing it outwards into a field around him that made everyone's hair stand on end.

With a roar he shot into the sky like a rocket, iron sand collapsing as it entered the range of his chakra. The griffons followed close behind, climbing rapidly as tendrils of razor sharp metal chased in hot pursuit. Breaking free of the lattice and into the open air the flock scattered, soaring away in acrobatic maneuvers to avoid the questing branches, while rolling away from explosive shots from the dragon that still circled far above.

Far below Sasori turned his focus away from the aerial ninja, that was Deidara's problem now. Instead he drew in a great ball of iron sand and launched it forward, lancing it right through Naruto's barrier and letting it sprout into a massive barbed mesh of metal.

Naruto and Sakura scattered into the rock-littered field, wary of the razor wire around them, ready to begin round two.

> Red Theater Curtain Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Naruto dodged franticly, leaping and tumbling away from sharpened spires of metal as they chased him around the former cave. Spears of iron lanced out at him from all directions, deadly blades erupted from underfoot, and everywhere he turned it seemed he was surrounded by deadly brambles of the poisoned sand. 

Sakura was faring better, her defensive technique had so far left her immune to the brunt of Sasori's techniques, allowing her to punch her way around the arena like a juggernaut, chasing down the puppet that was the source of all their misery.

Naruto drew more chakra into his Shining Armor technique. So far it had spared him from having the occasional nicks and scrapes of glancing blows turn deadly. Still, a direct hit from any attack would force him to use the antidote, and from there it would only be a matter of time until Sasori won.

The puppeteer was playing things safe, keeping his prized puppet out of Sakura's deadly reach and relying on long ranged attacks. Being a puppeteer meant he was a great multitasker, able to control dozens of branches of iron sand simultaneously, and use them to surround his prey. Even the Third Kazekage in his prime couldn't use his power to the degree Sasori of the Red Sands was able to, merely using his iron sand to simply catch and crush his victims.

Another barrage of sand spears shot towards the dodging blonde ninja as he strafed around the room, looking for a clear shot with a long ranged attack. Concentrating on his latest variation of the 'Twilight Bubble', Naruto willed the technique into existence, stopping when he formed a wall, instead of a dome. The wall of chakra took two hits before breaking, leaving him to dodge once more as even more spears shot out to grab or impale him. More walls sprung into existence slowing the rate of projectiles as he ran, jumped and tumbled around the room.

Changing tactics once again, a large portion of the sand shot skyward, only to rain down in a hail of poisoned needles. Naruto quickly threw up another Bubble, blocking the toxic rain from harming him, while Sakura instead dove to safety underground. When both emerged from shelter moments later the battlefield had changed once again, now being littered with deadly caltrops.

Leaping into the air Naruto spat a cloud to safely land on, and began peppering the area around Sasori with a barrage of Air Bullets using the lull in action to his advantage. Sasori, to everyone's surprise, shot up into the air as well, balancing precariously on an iron cord with a bladed tip. The Third Kazekage flew up to join him, and a whirlwind of iron sand began to sweep around them, blocking any and all projectile attacks.

Sakura remained stationary, planting her feet into the stone and focusing on her chakra. With a gesture she shot a small boulder towards the sandstorm, grimacing as a portion of sand broke off to bat it aside casually. Several more gestures followed, causing more and more rocks to erupt from the floor and crash against the wall of sand.

Naruto continued to dodge, using his air enhanced jumps and ability to form clouds to keep away from the whirling cone of certain death. Occasionally a jet of iron would lash out at him, demolishing a cloud and forcing him into the air, or coiling around him in an attempted grab. So far he was keeping up but each dodge was coming at a narrower margin, and the sandstorm only seemed to be picking up strength.

Suddenly the inevitable happened, the puppeteer, annoyed by the constant ineffective barrage of rocks, turned his attention on the immobile Sakura. With a casual gesture a tidal wave of sand broke off and crashed over her. Unable to dodge in time the girl chose instead to harden her defenses as the iron sand engulfed her in a crushing grip. The puppet of the Third Kazekage closed the gap, holding out a hand to better focus his chakra on the sand prison, intent to crush the Konoha ninja until she no longer had the chakra to resist.

Naruto panicked, changing his course towards his teammate to force the puppet away. This proved to be a mistake however, when another wave of sand came up to grab him. The orange ninja kicked off the next cloud hard, intending to jump clear of the strands of sand, but a single loop caught him around the ankle. A bullet of air severed the strand, but unlike Gaara's technique, the Third Kazekage could manipulate metal without contact. The strand reformed and was joined by several others, and Naruto quickly found himself bound to mid thigh in the crushing iron grip.

The blonde ninja bit back a scream of pain and flared his chakra, trying to concentrate enough to mold Yang chakra to bolster his defenses as the tendril began to swing him about. He spun about the room, whipped back and forth, through rocks and into walls, before eventually being slammed down onto the spike-laden ground. This time a cry did escape him, as the poisoned needles dug into his back, and the tendril of Iron tightened further.

"Kisame has the right idea. Akatsuki needs you alive, but you don't need your legs to live. I'll let you keep them though, I wish to make human puppets from each Jinchuuriki, it would be a shame to leave you permanently damaged."

Spikes of iron shot from the crushing tendril into his legs, punching through skin and muscles, leaving them mangled wrecks. Seemingly satisfied, Sasori turned his attention to Sakura, moving the sand so that it kept a solid hold on her while revealing her head and torso. "You've been quite the resilient pest, with your earth technique. A defense like that requires a whole other level of power to compete with it. For that I'll show you my puppet's ultimate technique."

The sand around his legs loosened, and fell lifelessly to the ground around him. Naruto let out a pained gasp, and quickly suppressed the pain. Reaching into his supply pouch he unsealed the vial of antidote, which came in a prepared hypodermic needle. His legs were mangled, and bleeding freely, so instead he jabbed the syringe into his arm, and pulled himself to his knees. It hurt to move, but Sakura needed his help.

The puppet of the Third Kazekage seemed to open up, the arms unfolding into two long, thin projections and the mouth opening wide. A large puck of metal floated out of its mouth, coming to rest across the distance between the arms. "This technique take's all of my concentration, I can't manipulate another scrap of metal while I do it. But the results make all of that worthwhile. By manipulating the electromagnetic field along these two rails, I can fire this one Kilogram shell at the speed of electricity. Feel honored to witness such a technique."

Sakura tried to move, but was barely able to gain any momentum at all. While her hits were stronger than any ninja she'd ever read about, her raw strength was still only high-Jounin level. Still she thrashed against the bonds, using even fractions of an inch to struggle towards freedom, slowly gaining ground against the now-inert metal. The humming noise emitted by the Third Kazekage reached a peak, and it prepared to fire.

A sudden twitch in the puppet saved the day, as the shot went wide by several feet. Instead of killing the pink haired ninja it blew passed her at mach 10, trailing a cone of fire behind it as it obliterated a large section of the cave wall and the forest behind it. Sakura let out a deep breath and continued struggling, as Sasori turned his attention towards the intruder.

"Meddlesome old woman. Are you really so eager to die?" The red haired puppeteer asked, staring down at the diminutive old woman. "If that's the case, I'll grant your wish."

Chiyo stared her grandson down as a swarm of sand emerged from the ground, anchoring her feet so she couldn't move. Her prosthetic arm was useless, as would be her puppets in this situation. She had emerged from her hiding place because she believed the other two ninja could win, given one more chance. If it cost her life to buy them that opportunity, well... she had lived a long time for a ninja.

Another metal slug was loaded into the rails, and the puppet began to hum once more, building power for the attack. Chiyo took a deep breath, prepared to face her death with eyes open, full of dignity. She was forced to blink spots from her vision when the area became noticeably brighter.

Naruto was in front of her, body shining with visible chakra, kneeling on the ground. His legs were in bad shape, even past the armor of chakra she could see the blood dripping onto the rocks. Still he ignored the pain and slammed both hands against the ground, bringing up a barrier in front of the two ninja. "Don't be a fool boy, I'm giving my life for you to have a chance at beating him, not so you can die alongside me."

"Nobody has to die today!" Naruto growled, pushing even more chakra into the technique. Several more barriers sprung up between them and Sasori, looking like walls of solid light. The hum increased in volume as more and more walls emerged, until eighteen barriers stood between the Third Kazekage and the two ninja.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, finally breaking free of her prison. She dashed forward, squinting against the light as she caught sight of him in abundant radiance. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, she could barely see, the light was overwhelming. She could barely hear, the hum of Sasori's ultimate weapon vibrating the very air around them. 

Step. Step. Step. Almost there. Five more feet. Three more feet. Turn. She roared, pivoting on her lead foot and swinging her right arm. Every ounce of control she could call upon forced chakra into her entire arm, reinforcing it to levels beyond even what she had managed those months before. Her fist shot forward blindly, arcing towards the shot she knew was coming.

Sasori fired. The slug left the puppet at mach ten, trailing a cone of fire behind it as it tore through the shields like rice paper. In not even a fraction of a second all eighteen barriers were gone, leaving a clear shot at all three ninja. There was a tremendous explosion, a cone of smoke plumed up from his enemies positions. 

He waited, eyes scanning for any signs of survival. There, movement, a blinding light shooting right for him.

The puppeteer leapt backwards, throwing his prized puppet in the way to block the attack. The tempered metal rods that were its arms crossed to parry the oncoming blow, already drawing more power to once again switch to using his iron sand. A grinding sound pierced the silence. Against the blinding light the former Suna ninja could make out Naruto, standing despite his injury, driving a spinning ball of energy into the crossed rails of the Third Kazekage.

Sand shot up from the floor like a tidal wave, rushing forward to engulf the stubborn Konoha ninja. It loomed forward, mere feet from the boy, poised to grab and crush him into submission, when he first heard it. A crack, soft at first, then deafening, as the puppet's last defense began to give. "Solar! Rasengan!" With a last shove the arms snapped, and the ball shot forward, grinding into the torso of his prized puppet. The sand wavered, and then crashed to the floor lifeless as the ruined remains of the former village leader flew back and crashed loudly against the cave wall.

Sasori was stunned. Not only had someone survived his ultimate attack, but his favorite puppet was beaten. Ruined. Pulverized beyond any hope of recovery. The smoke finally cleared, revealing his grandmother pulling herself from the metal restraints, and the pink haired ninja. She was panting, pale and sweating while clutching at her right arm. It was still dark, hanging heavy and uselessly at her side, and it looked as though she may pass out from the pain. Even from this distance he could pick out the spiderweb of cracks that crisscrossed the length of it. He had nearly shattered her arm.

"Sakura... That looks bad." Chiyo said, stating the obvious.

"Hn." The pinkette grunted, wobbling slightly from shock. "I wouldn't dare turn off the technique 'till there's a medic around. Who knows what'll happen."

"Will you be able to fight?" The old lady asked, impressed by the girl's perseverance.

"Better than that. I'm going to kick his ass." The girl boasted, seeming to stand a little straighter. 

"It has been a long time, since I have had to use the full extent of my own power. I will show you my greatest performance. Behold the Red Theater. Performance of a hundred Puppets!" Sasori threw off his Akatsuki cloak, revealing that he himself was merely a puppet. A scroll unfurled, sending a hundred puppets flying up into the air around the tired ninja. From his chest a hundred strings shot out, each one attaching to a single puppet.

"Sasori... What have you done to yourself?" Chiyo asked, pulling out a small scroll of her own.

"I have taken my art to its furthest level! In this body I do not age, I do not hunger, I do not feel pain. I feel neither pity, remorse or fear! I have become art itself, enduring, living on through generations as a glorious creation!" Above him one hundred puppets stood at attention, wielding various bladed weapons.

"You have thrown away your humanity. You are no longer my grandson, merely a puppet without a wise puppeteer. White Theater! Chikamatsu's Collection of Ten Puppets!" Chiyo called, revealing her own assortment of puppets.

"Ah, the first 10 battle puppets to ever be created. Chikamatsu was a true artist. I wonder how they'll fair against me. Come, let us see who's the better puppeteer!" Sasori taunted, and his hovering army desceneded.

"Mass Shadow Clones!" Naruto called, joining the fray alongside hundreds of orange clones. Sadly each one was as injured as the original, and their movements sloppy as a result. They were defeated in large numbers, only managing to destroy or disable a single puppet for every ten that fell.

Changing tactics he fell back, ordering his clones to begin throwing wind enhanced shuriken. The blades had greater effect, and Naruto dropped away from his clones, once more slipping into his Cloak of Shadows technique.

He felt the strain of the technique immediately, warning signs that he could only keep it up for another five minutes or so. Shrugging it off he attached a strand of Yin Chakra to five prepared shuriken, willing them airborne and directing them around the room. Rushing into combat he shot around the room, spinning and twisting around the wild attacks aimed at the dark blur. The blades rotated around him, lopping off wooden body parts as he darted past.

With a final spin he landed, letting the blades go flying off into the crowd. Concentrating he formed a Rasengan in his hand, mentally lifting it as he had the shuriken before forming another. When five spin in orbit around him he fixed his sights on Sasori, and charged once again.

His time was almost up, both for using his technique and the timer on the antidote. The battle needed to end soon, or else they'd all eventually die from the poison. Fifteen feet to reach the puppeteer. He's spotted, the puppets began to attack. Leaping the first, ducking two more. The first Rasengan obliterated the next one to get in the way. Two more flanked him. He leapt over the attack, sending two more Rasengan into their torsos, head shots didn't take the puppets down for long.

10 feet now. Sasori was beginning to move away from him. His control on the puppets was slipping in his panic. Three more attacks, all easily dodged. A tumble diagonally to the right avoids a brace of kunai, and brought him up right in front of a burly puppet. The fourth Rasengan blew it away.

Five feet. Sasori leapt backwards, blindly trying to evade the Jinchuuriki. Naruto leapt as well, kicking off a final puppet and soaring after the S-ranked ninja. His arm reached out, the Rasengan rocketed forward, like its namesake, shooting like a spinning ball of light towards the container lodged in his opponent's chest. Feet become inches, he's almost there...

The technique winks out.

Cursing. Naruto fell to the ground, too exhausted to keep up the Cloak of Shadows, and unable to control the Rasengan without Yin Chakra. Before he could rise, a dozen puppets pounce on him, pinning him to the floor with various sharpened weapons.


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto opened his eyes to a familiar sight. The Royal Canterlot Gardens stood before him, complete with hedge maze. Biting back a curse the blonde boy stormed forward, walking the marked path to the center of the maze. "Discord! You'd better come out her right now or so help me!"

"You'll what?" A taunting voice echoed from over his shoulder. Naruto didn't even bother turning around, instead looking up at the large marble statue of the Kyuubi. There were cracks running along its entire surface.

A pop and flash signaled the Spirit of Disharmony's appearance on the head of the massive fox. "What's your game this time Discord? I've been asking for your help all day and instead you let me nearly die, over and over! What happened to our deal?"

"You happened! I told you months ago that you needed to practice controlling the Kyuubi's power, but instead you threw a temper tantrum. 'I'll rely on my own power. I don't need your help. I'm not even going to acknowledge all the times you saved me from my own stupidity!'" He mocked, glaring down at the boy. "News flash for you kid. You. Need. Me. Period, end of story. Today has just been me teaching you a lesson."

"You were going to let me die to teach me a lesson!" Naruto yelled, his anger rising. The cracks along the Kyuubi began to pulse rhythmically with orange light.

"Oh no, not you. If I let you die, the story ends. Your friends however... They're out there fighting, getting hurt, possibly even dying because you aren't strong enough. Because you won't accept power when its offered to you on a silver platter! Your arrogance is making them bleed you stupid human, are you willing to throw it aside yet?"

Naruto grit his teeth. As much as he hated to admit it, perhaps Discord was right. The Kyuubi was a powerful weapon, one he had taken for granted even for things like his rapid healing. Refusing to use it really was a stupid idea. "Fine."

"Fine what?"

"Fine, I'll start training to use the Kyuubi's power after this mission."

"And?"

"And... I'd like to use some of it now... please."

"Wish granted. Now hurry along, your friends interest me, it wouldn't do to let you get too many of them killed."

"I won't forget this Discord." Naruto vowed, the surge of chakra from the Kyuubi amplifying his already present anger.

"Then I'm doing my job properly." The spirit taunted.


O~O~O~O~O


Sakura wobbled, taking a moment to catch her breath. Her right arm was useless, and keeping the technique going was not only taxing on her chakra reserves, but made it weigh several hundred pounds. He balance was off, her movements were sluggish, her vision was blurry, and she was forced to fight with her left hand and legs only.

That being said, she'd taken down fifteen puppets so far, and she had no plans to stop any time soon. Part of he wished she could summon Master Patch to deal with this for her, but there was limited supply of the antidote, and she couldn't risk getting the old dog poisoned. Instead she braced herself yet again as three more puppets swooped towards her.

The trio of wooden adversaries hesitated when the dog-pile on top of Naruto exploded outwards with a deafening roar. From the corner of her eye she could make out three red tails swishing back and forth in a crater. 'About time.' she thought, leaping at the stunned puppets and dispatching them with two kicks and a headbutt. It wasn't graceful, but the Diamond Dogs had a saying. 'There is no beauty in rock-slides, cave-ins, or earthquakes. That doesn't stop them from killing.'

Chiyo's puppets were doing the lion's share of the work after Naruto's heroic charge failed. Sakura had no doubt the blonde idiot was still alive, Sasori had claimed to need him alive and not permanently harmed.

Still, those 10 white puppets danced around the battlefield, bashing, crushing and slicing enemies to tiny pieces, seemingly with relative ease. It was really no wonder Chiyo was considered Suna's puppet master.

More roars signaled Naruto was going on a rampage, flailing wildly at the puppets that floated forward to stop him. Seeing an opening, Sakura began fighting her way towards Sasori. The puppets seemed to get stronger the more they defeated, as the puppeteer had fewer and fewer to split his attention on.

Twenty feet, two puppets dove down at her, bladed talons poised to tear into her. A white puppet spun past with a glint of steel, chopping both dolls in half diagonally. Sakura dove past the falling weaponry, punching another puppet into splinters as she rose to her feet again. Another five feet passed, another puppet hit the ground from a spinning kick. Two volleys of Kunai shot at her from ahead. A single gesture blocked them both with two raised stones, not slowing her momentum.

A moment later three kunai dug themselves painfully into her back. She stumbled, falling to a knee from the force and pain of the impact. Digging into her supply pouch she pulled out her antidote vial, proud of herself for lasting this long into the fight without needing it. Pushing herself into another sprint she shot passed two more puppets, leaping between upturned rocks to evade them as they turned to pursue her.

Sasori was only ten feet away now, and sent five more puppets in her direction. A chakra infused roar from Naruto sent everyone in the area flying sideways for a moment, and forced Sakura to grab hold of a rock to steady herself. Reaching out with the remains of her chakra she managed to catch Sasori's legs in a prison of rock as he climbed back to his feet. Before the Puppeteer could find a way to break out the pink haired ninja was already upon him.

The right arm of his puppet body shot forward, and Sakura caught the wrist, directing the tube that emerged from its palm over her shoulder as a gout of flame shot out. A sweeping kick shattered the wooden legs where the earth locked them down. A shoulder check sent the puppet into the wall and snapped the right arm off in her grasp. Behind her every remaining puppet in his control turned and rushed in to stop her.

His left arm came around at her. She grabbed it, palm to palm with her left. A jet of water shot out, met her impenetrable skin, and found nowhere to go. The arm exploded in a shower of water.

"We must all face the curtain with a bow." Sasori muttered, realizing his puppets wouldn't reach him in time.

Sakura, too exhausted to come up with a witty response, merely drove her good fist into the cylinder. At once each and every red puppet shuddered, and fell to the ground. 

It was over. 

They had won.

	
> Skies Over River Country
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sasuke exhaled, releasing the electrical field around him as the flock broke free of the metal lattice below. With a subtle gesture he banked right, leading his flock to circle warily around their airborne foe.

"I never imagined that my first fight against a dragon would be in your world, Stormbringer." Ferrous remarked, keeping pace with Sasuke, behind and to his left. In the distance a great white draconian figure swooped through the air, massive wing beats disturbing the currents even from afar.

"Our opponent is Deidara, an S-ranked ninja. Try to focus your attacks on him. Consider everything he throws at you to be an explosive, and I mean everything. He's missing his left arm, so use that to your advantage. The main objective here is to prevent him from bombing the ground where my teammates are fighting." Sasuke ordered, getting cries of affirmation in response.

The dragon banked sharply, turning so that its back was perpendicular to the flock of approaching griffons. Almost immediately Sasuke's eyes picked up smaller movements, and he signaled the others into evasive maneuvers. The flock broke formation as dozens of clay birds shot towards them, rolling and diving, using the natural wind currents to their advantage.

Sharingan spinning wildly, the last Uchiha of Konoha shot right towards the volley. He felt the familiar surge of adrenaline as he twisted and spun, narrowly avoiding brushing with the airborne explosives. The entire line of birds erupted into flames simultaneously, creating a wall of fire and concussive air that buffeted against the evading flock. Sasuke flared his wings, feeling the heat singe some of his feathers, but using the suddenly-expanding air to rocket forwards.

"He's detonating them remotely, but don't rule out that they won't explode when you touch them." He called. It would be unfortunate, as the Griffons didn't have any ranged attacks to deal with them otherwise, but even having Deidara waste time and effort attacking them would be a benefit. "I destroyed his scope earlier, without it I'm guessing his eyesight isn't good enough for long distance accuracy. As you get closer, be aware that it'll be harder to dodge."

The second wave of attacks were coming now, this time in two layers. If he dodged through the first, it would propel him into the second wave of explosives, likely just as they went off. Instead, the Griffons broke apart, half diving while the other half climbed over the volley. Several of the clay birds broke off to follow them, turning wide and roughly to follow after the well trained flock. 

Sasuke's hands crackled with electricity. Swiping twice towards the projectiles, two waves of lightning senbon shot forward. The first wall of explosives fell harmlessly from the sky, and Sasuke pulled up sharply, gripping one of the disarmed birds in his taloned foot. His wings flared outwards, catching the sudden gust of hot air as the second wave of birds exploded below. A quick glance assured him that the other members of his flock had evaded the rather slow-moving projectiles, and were falling in behind him once again.

Pulling his wings in, Sasuke launched into a steep dive, gaining speed as he closed the gap between him and the dragon. Even from such a distance he could make out the small black shape on the back of the clay monstrosity, no doubt preparing another barrage. Three birds shot towards him, larger and faster than the scatter shot from before. A quick roll to the right brought him past the first, but a curse was lost to the wind as he noticed it make a much tighter turn to follow him. Pulling up sharply he spun, using the momentum to peg each of the avian missiles with a barrage of lighting senbon, grimacing as they wobbled but continued to fly. A second spin and volley sent them free falling to the ground far below.

The remainder of his flock had closed in on the dragon, five Griffons circling the massive explosive beast warily. On its back, Deidara stood, head darting around quickly, single arm clutching something within the satchel at his side. Making another subtle gesture, Sasuke dove, feeling the wind whipping against him as he sped towards the Iwa ninja.

Deidara must have heard him coming, as the blonde ninja looked up suddenly, and whipped his arm out, throwing a large clay bird towards Sasuke. Wings flaring to slow his descent, Sasuke kicked out, sending the disarmed explosive from before into the one careening towards him. There was a muffled boom as both explosives detonated, the hot air buffeting Sasuke's wings as he rode it to safety.

"So I was right then. Your chakra is a mix of earth and fire. My lightning shorts out the earth chakra, taking away your control over it, but the fire chakra remains, so it's still explosive." Sasuke called, circling away from his opponent cautiously. "Still, a bomb without a trigger isn't very dangerous."

"How perceptive. Most ninja don't live long enough to really appreciate my art. I've had this chakra my entire life. Do you know how hard it was, getting through the academy when every technique I do explodes? Even a transformation technique becomes suicidal." Deidara laughed, grabbing more clay from his pouch.

"How do you explain the extra mouths though?" Sasuke asked. He knew Deidara was stalling, but this gave his allies time to get into position. It was a gamble of who benefited more from the extra time.

"They come hand in hand with the explosion release bloodline." Deidara shrugged. "But enough talk, let's kick things up a notch!" His hand whipped outwards, throwing a small, streamlined dragon towards Sasuke. Three Griffons shot in, trying to take advantage of the opening, but the great dragon that Deidara rode on spun, pulling the ninja out of reach and beating away the attackers with mighty wings.

Sasuke went into a dive, once again cursing as the mini clay dragon pursued with precision. It seemed the more chakra and detail Deidara put into his sculptures, the better their reaction times. Still, it was merely a sculpture, he doubted even Deidara himself had the same knowledge of aerial combat that even rookie Griffons possessed. Feeling a current of cool air at his left wingtip Sasuke rolled, pulling in his wings and shooting downwards as the explosive struggled to keep pace. Around him he could see his flock performing similar maneuvers, attempting to gain distance between themselves and the explosives.

He had to bite back a laugh as he noticed Ferrous spin past Deidara, narrowly missing the ninja's throat with his deadly talons, and forcing the Iwa ninja to fall to the side to avoid his own missile. Ahead he could see another of his Griffons heading perpendicular to him, and he made a few gestures. As the Griffon sped past, Sasuke charged up lightning chakra into his feet, a front flip brought him into position to plant a double kick to the back of his ally's pursuer. It struck with a thunderclap, disabling the explosive even as Sasuke pushed off of it, rocketing upwards. His ally grabbed his arm with a talon to slingshot him even higher, as his own missile crashed into the dud below.

No longer forced to dodge, Sasuke sized up the situation, taking note that Deidara's great dragon seemed to be spitting even more of the draconic missiles into the air. Reaching into his pouch for shuriken and wire, he gave a quick order to the nearest Griffon. "Dragon formation T, the little ones will tow the cable." The Griffon nodded, swooping off to relay the order to the others, as Sasuke let fly with the shuriken, pegging each of the homing dragons in the back. A quick tug ensured they wouldn't come loose.

Finding a rising air current, Sasuke rose high above the battlefield, grinning as the flock below continued to lead the projectiles on a merry chase. With each swooping pass the Griffons took around the dragon, the clay explosives that trailed behind wrapped the beast in more and more tangled wire. Gathering up his chakra to the point where he couldn't hear past the humming electricity, he finally let loose, bolts of lightning shot down the wires, disabling the smaller missiles and sending the great dragon into a downward spin.

Deidara grabbed hold of his mount tightly, cursing as he shook the tingling out of his body. With as much concentration as he could spare he forced more chakra into the dragon, trying to regain control of the thing before it crashed to the ground that loomed far below. His reserves were limited after such a prolonged mission, and losing his trump card would set him back even more. With a great mental heave the wings flared, pulling out of the dive into a steep angle as the wind buffeted the clay structure. As he strained to bring it out of the dive, he looked ahead, swearing as he spotted a glowing streak shooting towards him.

Sasuke shot after the falling dragon, unable to keep a grip on the wires as the massive construct fell. He let out a growl as he spotted it begin to move once more, bringing down the beast was a key part of the plan, he doubted Deidara would have much more left in him after that. Charging himself once more with lightning chakra, he angled himself to speed his descent, one hand gripping hard on the hilt of his sword. As he neared the same altitude as the Iwa ninja he righted himself, using the momentum to rocket towards the white dragon. 

His sword came free of its sheath with a snap and a hiss, lightning chakra running down its length and extending outwards. He focused, lengthening the blade even further as the target loomed ahead of him, and with a single sweeping strike he cleaved it, shoulder to hip, in two.

Deidara threw himself headlong over the side of his clay dragon, cursing the loss of his weapon but thankful he hadn't lost another limb. Fighting down the panic of freefall he drew one of his backup sculptures, throwing the large bird out so he could ride it to relative safety. The air shook from the impact as the two halves of his former mount impacted the ground below. The Griffons began to circle once more, and no longer possessing a distinct size advantage, Deidara began to worry. He banked sharply, avoiding a salvo of shuriken and responding with a barrage of sparrows. Twice the Griffons darted in with coordinated attacks, once even forcing him to jump from his perch and barely regain his footing. All the while he fled downwards, trying to reach the right distance from the ground.

A third time the Griffons attacked. This time Deidara made no attempts to stay on his bird, instead leaping into open air and pointing a palm downwards. A massive plume of smoke parted to reveal a statue of Deidara himself, as large as the Hokage's tower. Sasuke flew back warily, almost bracing himself for it to begin stomping about like some kind of colossus, but instead it gave a rumble, and began to expand.

He watched it happen, nearly in slow motion thanks to his Sharingan. The great clay Deidara expanded outwards, slowly, as if it were a balloon rather than an explosive. When it reached the breaking point it ruptured, like a deflating pool toy, rather than with fire or shockwaves. His eyes widened, picking up the bluish tinge of chakra permeating the air as the statue deflated. He could see it seep outwards, like a poisonous gas into the surrounding area. In a panic he dove forwards, towards the cloud as his flock circled about unaware of the danger.

At the very edge of the expanding cloud he sent out a pulse of chakra, unsummoning his allies before they could breath in the unknown substance. Holding his breath he dove to the ground, feeling the foreign chakra surround him. Gritting his teeth in preparation for what he was about to do, he placed both hands against his chest.

The world seemed to explode in slow motion. Grass, trees, rocks, the entire surrounding countryside broke apart bit by bit, dissolving into dust before his very eyes. Throughout the horrifying ordeal Sasuke continued to pump lightning chakra through his hands, back into his body. His muscles clenched, his nerves screamed in agony, and his vision crackled with bursts of light and color. When it finally ended he slumped to his knees, gingerly removing his hands from the burnt handprints on his chest, and wiping blood from his nose and mouth.

"That was C4. Microscopic bombs, so small and fast moving that just breathing them in sends them all over the victim's body. It's not my usual flashy style, but seeing a village swept away in billions of tiny explosions has a charm worthy of being called art all on its own." Deidara called, rising up from the ground. "Heh, electrocuting yourself to defuse the bombs, you really are a genius aren't you? I wonder though, how much damage you caused yourself, just to survive."

Slowly, body still twitching and vision still sparking, Sasuke rose to his feet, fumbling to grab his sword. "Are you really even capable of fighting? You could have just ran you know. I wasn't even intending to catch you in the blast, I just wanted to get rid of those pests."

Ignoring the conversation, Sasuke stood, leaning on his sword as the world around him spun. Slowly, steadily, with patience born from years of mastering his seal, he worked and tested his muscles. With deliberate motions, he took a step forward, noticing distantly that Deidara was reaching for his pouch. Another step, quicker this time, he could almost hear the sickening sound of the hand chewing the clay. Two more steps, he was getting there, not up to his full speed yet but certainly closing in. The hand was out of the pouch now, drawing back into a fist. Five steps, he was running, sword out to his side, ready to swing. The arm shot forward, throwing a clay spider towards him. He was already airborne, sword already coming down towards his opponent. 

A hand gesture, the spider grew in size, lashing out with eight thin legs to wrap around his torso. He was on his way down, prepared to execute the missing ninja, and win the fight. Another hand gesture, he smirked, he'd seen it enough throughout the fight to know the exact delay between signal and explosion. 
The spider began to glow, 1.68 seconds later it would explode. 

1.5 seconds, he landed from his jump, the sword was inches from Deidara's face.

1.3 seconds, Dediara dodged to the side, his head pulling away as the blade passed before his eyes.

1 second, the sword cut through the Iwa ninja's only remaining arm.

.8 seconds, momentum carried the two ninja apart.

.4 seconds, Sasuke tumbled to the ground, the explosive on his chest was almost too bright to look at.

.2 seconds, Deidara's arm hit the ground.

.1 seconds, the built up lightning chakra releases, flooding the explosive.

Sasuke took a deep breath, laying still as he tried to get control of the shaking. Reaching a hand up, he grabbed the dead explosive and threw it to the side, pulling himself into a sitting position. "You think this is it? That I'm done?" Deidara's voice snapped Sasuke out of his daze. To his side the Iwa ninja was lying on the ground, struggling to stand without the use of his arms. "I've dedicated my life to my art. My art... My art is an explosion!"

"You've got to be kidding me." Sasuke muttered, climbing to his feet as Dedara's skin began to darken.

"You, your friends, everyone around here. All of you will spend your final moments witnessing the greatest masterpiece the world has ever seen!" Deidara raved. He was beginning to grow transparent, thick black vein-like lines spread from his body, and were being drawn to the heart on his chest.

Gathering what chakra he could, Sasuke lashed out, hitting the strange smiling face over Deidara's heart with as much electricity as he could manage. Disturbingly, the process didn't halt, and the Iwa ninja began to laugh. "That won't work. There is no trigger to defuse. Once I've gathered enough chakra, I'll explode, and the entire countryside will go up in a blaze of glory!"

Cursing, Sasuke reached out and grabbed the black smiling ball, grimacing as it and the mass of black lines came free from where the Iwa ninja's body should be. Looking around quickly, he decided on the best course of action, and took to the sky.

It was tense, more-so than anything he'd ever been through. More than facing down Ibiki's final question, or Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. In his hand he held certain doom, not only to himself but his friends as well if he failed. As he shot skywards, he kept an eye on the explosive, timing the threads as if they were a fuse, trying to shake the feeling that the disturbing smile on the black mass was taunting him.

Mile after mile shot by, as he rose even higher. The ball continued to grow, expanding and bulging as the last of what must have been Deidara's chakra system collected into the center. When at last he saw it crack with shining light, he spun, throwing the bomb as hard as he could upwards, and pulling into a steep dive.

His wings held firmly to his sides, Sasuke was in complete freefall. The miles that had passed by with agonizing slowness now shot by  as he plummeted. He saw his peripheral vision brighten long before he heard the boom. The wave of force pushing him downwards even harder as the searing heat lapped at his heels. The ground loomed closer and closer, urging him to pull up and take his chances against the trailing wave of destruction. 

With a final prayer his wings flared to slow his descent, catching the wind and struggling for dear life to hold on. His scream was lost in the howling wind as the air buffeted against his wings, eventually breaking them from the strain. He spun, the feathered appendages flailing wildly in the wind as he tumbled end over end towards the ground. 

Mere feet from the treetops he was struck by a horizontal force that knocked what little air remained from his lungs. He glanced back, watching as the remnants of the explosion high above shook leaves from the trees below and sent branches flying like a horrible storm. High above the clouds distorted as the explosion vaporized the cloud-cover for miles around, and the hot air drew what remained upwards like a giant mushroom. He could only think, in his pain induced delirium, that it actually looked rather friendly.

"You know." Came the voice of the pegasus that carried him. "We have to stop meeting like this. Ponies will begin to start rumors."

"Could you imagine." Sasuke muttered. "Our fan clubs would join forces. Akatsuki would run in fear."

Chuckling slightly, Rainbow Dash slowed down, angling the two towards the ruins of the cave where the rest of team seven and the reinforcements were gathering. Touching down, Sasuke flopped forwards, the toll of the day truly setting in on him. It was agony to let the broken wings return to the seal, and likely would be to bring them out later, to have them healed. Rainbow Dash was already listing off books she could bring him, if he needed to stay in the hospital.

Naruto shot him a questioning look, glancing between Sasuke's thoroughly beaten form and the strange cloud formation in the distance. "He self-destructed." Sasuke muttered.

Naruto grimaced. "I hate when they do that."

"I've found him." Chiyo's solemn shout drew the attention of everyone present, just as Kakashi and the rest of the Ponies and Diamond Dogs arrived. The old lady reverently laid out a large scroll and unfurled it.

"If he's in a scroll that means..." Twilight trailed off, tears welling up in her eyes. Things like death were a fact of life, even in Equestria, but every death was felt with a much greater impact to the peace-loving quadrupeds. Especially when it was someone so young.

A plume of smoke later, and the body of the fifth Kazekage lay before the assembled group. Most looked down in solemn respect, even Sasuke, who didn't know much of the boy beyond his fights after the chuunin exams, still respected the young boy who'd become such a loved leader.

Naruto was openly crying, with the ponies moving to console him. The orange-clad ninja was quick to adopt people into his own makeshift family, and even after only a few conversations, he felt that Gaara deserved a spot on his family tree. 

The somber gathering was interrupted by Chiyo, who was staring down at Gaara's face. "I don't know if you ever could forgive me, for sealing the Ichibi inside of you. I knew, going into it, that it would make you a pariah, and deny you the chance to ever meet your mother. It was my duty to the village, and sometimes the hardest decisions are borne from conflict, between village and family."

Silence. Even the sounds of crying had stopped, as the old lady began her speech. "I can bring him back." She said, to no one in particular. "It was a forbidden technique, developed to give life to the unliving. It started as a way to turn puppets into real people, but it never worked. The technique can only give life to someone who by medical standards should be alive. No sicknesses, no injury, no reason for them not to be among the living."

"Like a Jinchuriki who's lost his Biju!" Naruto exclaimed, perking up immediately. "What are you waiting for?"

"It takes the life of the one who uses the technique." Chiyo explained.

Silence, once again. "I once took the life of a mother, and doomed a child, on orders of a tyrant Kazekage. I feel, it is only fitting, that I make amends by giving my own life for that of a true leader. I've seen him change, in these past few years. I've seen him rise above adversity, to continue living through such hard times when he was only a child. That's the kind of leader that our village needs." The old lady took a deep breath, and began making hand seals. Out of respect for her decision not a single soul present moved to stop her.

Sasuke watched in fascination, red eyes spinning as the old lady completed the lengthy set of seals. Sakura, cradling a badly cracked arm, gave him an odd look but said nothing. When Chiyo began to run out of chakra, Naruto stepped forward, offering his own.


O~O~O~O~O


It was two hours later when the reinforcements from Sand arrived to find their Kazekage unharmed, quietly talking to the Konoha ninja and their summons. The rejoicing was cut short, as the group paid respects to the elder Chiyo. The ponies in particular knew Pinkie would take the loss particularly hard.

The leader of the reinforcements approached Kakashi for a debriefing, both agreeing that the circumstances behind Gaara's 'miraculous' survival needed to be kept quiet. The rest of the report was rather standard. "One thing though. Some of the 'prisoners' you tagged were already dead..." The Sand Jounin gave him an odd look.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I know. But... Try telling the ponies they killed someone. I just don't have the heart."

The Jounin spared a glance over at the group of colorful ponies, who were clumped together, talking with the two that had followed his own group of ninja. "Yeah, I can see your point. Whatever happens to the prisoners, this is the last they'll hear about it."

"It's for the best." Kakashi said, smiling softly to himself.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash practically pounced on the yellow pegasus when she emerged from the group of ninja, along with Sweetie Belle. "You totally missed an awesome fight! We kicked major tail! They were all like 'Rawr, I'm a monster ninja!' and I'm like 'Oh yeah? Woosh! Pow!' "

"M-monster ninja?" Fluttershy stuttered, looking to Twilight for an explanation.

"Sweetie! I told you to stay in the village! What if we had still been fighting? Honestly, I know you are worried about Gaara, but we had things well in hoof." Rarity scolded, relenting only when her younger sister gave her the 'look'.

Fluttershy, broke away from Rainbow Dash's story to tend to Sakura, at Sasuke's insistence that his wings could wait. Surprisingly it was Sweetie Belle who was the first of the group to approach Gaara.

"Gaara! You're alright!" The unicorn shouted, rushing up to hug the Kazekage.

"I am indeed, thanks to my friends." He replied, patting the white filly on the head.

"I told you! Friends always come to the rescue. Especially ones like Naruto." She beamed, turning to sit next to the boy. "I wrote a new song for Shukaku."

"Shukaku... isn't with me anymore. He was taken away." Gaara replied, seemingly at a loss for how to feel about the situation.

"Oh." Sweetie was likewise confused.

"But. Since I've been with him since birth, I'm practically his best friend, and we have the same taste in music." Gaara added, smiling slightly at the Pony.

"So I can sing for you then?" Sweetie asked, grinning once again.

"Any time you like."


O~O~O~O~O


Two figures touched down in the ruins of their River Country base. Identifying each other easily by their black and red cloaks. 

"Both of them are dead then?" Kabuto asked, pushing his glasses farther up his nose while taking in the surroundings. "Pity."

"I was able to observe Sasori's battle. I'll relay what I know about the Kyuubi Jinchuriki's host and his allies to the rest of the organization." Zetsu replied, looking quite impassive about the events.

"Well, I've got what I came for." Kabuto shrugged, clutching the severed arm of Deidara in his left hand. "I suppose I'll be wearing this ring from now on?"

"Tobi will wear Sasori's old ring." Zetsu agreed, causing the Kabuto to chuckle slightly.

"He'll be disappointed that 'Deidara Senpai' is dead."

"'Leader' will probably pair him up with you then." Zetsu replied, sinking into the ground.

"I'll likely be in the lab for a few weeks working on this." Kabuto gestured to the severed arm. "But you know how to reach me."

With those parting words, the two ninja parted ways, leaving the shattered cave as if they'd never been there.
> Reflections
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hiruzen Sarutobi, former third Hokage of Konoha, took a deep breath as he stepped out of his family's home. He had been enjoying his retirement, content to live out the remainder of his days among his children and grandchildren. A small application of chakra lit the pipe between his lips, and the smell of fragrant tobacco filled the air.

"I take it you're accompanying me to the Fire Festival tonight? I am far from needing a bodyguard, even at my age." The Third called out as he approached the gates. A hunched, bandaged man emerged into view, cane clacking along the stone walkway as he moved. "Still, I wouldn't mind the company of an old friend. The festival is all about reflection, after all, and what are we but mirror images of the mentality of our time."

A ring of smoke puffed up into the air, causing the bandaged man to scowl. "I never understood that habit. You only push yourself farther into the grave, smoking like that. It's a bad habit for civilians, let alone ninja."

"I wouldn't have thought you'd be worried about my health, Danzo." Hiruzen replied, casually walking out of the gate, smiling softly as his old friend fell in step beside him.

"Differences in opinion." The bandaged man grunted, leaning on his cane as he kept up the leisurely pace. "That's all it's ever been between us. Both of us were mighty in our prime, both working towards the most noble of goals."

"Peace." The former Hokage supplied.

"Prosperity." Danzo countered. "It's not enough to merely exist in this world. Look around this village and tell me we aren't the best. That the rest of the world should feel privileged to follow in our example."

"Ah, but where is the fire in our arguments now?" Hiruzen chuckled. "We are no longer in positions of power. Merely old men bickering about a world we no longer understand."

"Nothing has changed. The world is still the same as the one we grew up in, only the violence and corruption is harder to see. It will be a long time before the world becomes anything I do not recognize."

"We should be so lucky if it does. I think a bit of change would do this world a lot of good." Hiruzen mumbled, packing more tobacco into his pipe.

"Change doesn't come without violence. Talk to the leaders of the world and they bluster and posture, humming and hawing and making excuses. The truth is the people in power enjoy it too much. What they all say, when it comes to negotiations, is 'Make me'." Danzo grumbled, the cane striking the ground a little harder as he walked.

"Perhaps it isn't the old men who lead that must do the talking then. The young who wish to see the world change have power of their own." The Third Hokage suggested.

"And make a world without us old men." Danzo stated.

"I'd like nothing better to leave behind for my own grandson, than a world that doesn't need people like us."


O~O~O~O~O


In training ground seven, two figures stood perfectly still, heedless of the world around them. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves and branches of the trees into a noise that filled the background with a dull roar. Sasuke Uchiha, red eyes spinning, stared down his opponent, a white unicorn who gazed back with equal determination.

Time ticked by, leaves fell off the branches and blew across the field on wind that rippled the grass with a gentle caress. 

Rarity blinked.

The world seemed to shatter around her. Fragments of light and color and sound rained down like jagged pieces of a stained glass window, spinning and falling into an endless void. In every shard he could see her opponent, sword drawn and dashing about, reflected a thousand times from all directions. 

It was nauseating, disorienting, unpredictable, and hopelessly unrealistic.

A burst of chakra dispelled the illusion, and Rarity threw herself out of the way of a swipe that came perilously close to her mane. "Honestly Sasuke, you're as bad as that 'Genjutsu Mistress' who enjoys growing trees. If your illusions do things that normal techniques can't, people will realize they are illusions right away and break free!"

"This is how ninja fight with genjutsu." Sasuke replied, sheathing his sword once again and returning to his starting position. "I've been over all the scrolls from my family library, all of the genjutsu are just like this."

"Then you'd better start making your own." Rarity insisted, stomping a hoof and turning to look away indignantly. She'd been trying for a while now, to teach the last Uchiha in 'yin' techniques. He'd taken well to several conceptual ideas behind Unicorn Magic, but still had the habit of associating illusions with the gaudy ninja-made techniques.

"Show me a chair." Rarity said, causing the boy to grimace and his eyes to spin once more. The unicorn gave him a moment to compose himself, and then blinked. One of the first lessons she'd taught him was to delay the activation of the technique to when the opponent wouldn't notice it activating, hence the split second of darkness when someone blinked. They'd had a good laugh at Naruto's expense when she described the boy's attempts at training himself to blink with one eye at a time.

When her eyes opened a single chair sat in between them. It was one from the academy, straight backed and wooden, with worn-looking joints and no arm-rests. "Good. Better than your early attempts. Simpler is better, trying to get delicate things like fabric and stitching will come later. I take it you're familiar with this particular chair?" She asked, circling the chair and looking for flaws. 

A quick glance confirmed that he'd created the bottom side of the chair properly. It was a rookie move, to save effort by not creating things that wouldn't normally be seen. Someone like Sakura would know in an instant of a genjutsu didn't account for the ground beneath her feet.

"I can make a chair just fine. Can we move on to more practical things?" Sasuke asked, interrupting her thought process. In response a kunai whipped towards his head. The dodging motion was instinctive, forged from countless hours of sparring and practice, he moved his head to the side just enough for the knife to miss by inches. 

'Don't throw yourself out of the way, let it miss by the narrowest of margins.' Kakashi's words were beaten into the heads of their whole team. They gave themselves more room to maneuver than most ninja, having seen firsthand how dangerous wind chakra could be. But the basic premise remained, throwing yourself around was the easiest way to be led into a trap.

"Was that real?" Rarity asked, forcing his attention back on her. He'd seen the knife up close for the split second as it passed by. Felt the wind against his face from its flight. Heard the thud of it impacting the tree behind him. Every sense told him the knife was real, and he came close to death just a few seconds ago.

"I don't know." Sasuke replied. Without turning around to look at the knife, he had no idea if anything his senses told him about it was true. He could probably have caught the knife, felt the weight of it in his hand, and thrown it back at the unicorn, only to hear her laugh as it vanished mid flight. That was the sort of power an illusionist had. That was what he was here to learn.

"Creating a kunai is more complex than a simple chair. Shape, color, texture, the way it flies through the air, how it sounds, how the wind feels when it misses, how it stings when it hits. You must account for the very definition of the kunai, bring it into existence within the shared reality you create between yourself and your opponent." Rarity lectured, pacing back and forth as she did so.

"Shared reality?" Sasuke asked. The white pony took her passions seriously, both fashion and illusions. Honestly sometimes dealing with her was as bad as Deidara with his rants about explosions.

"Reality is a philosophical thing. Everything you know about the world around you, you know from your senses. When you manipulate those senses, you manipulate reality. That kunai from before, you can't tell if it's real or not. If I killed someone with it, does that make it real? What about the person who dies, were they real or just another illusion. If I stabbed you with it, and you felt pain, does that make it real? In a well constructed illusion, there is no possible way to distinguish constructs from real objects. In a well constructed illusion, reality is what you make it."

She paused her rant, noticing the Chuunin was barely paying attention. "We'll end here for today. You must have a lot on your mind, given what day it is."

Sasuke nodded, thanked her for the lesson, and darted away in silence. Moments later he arrived at the side of the lake, on a dock that he and Naruto commonly skipped stones from. Today there'd be no throwing rocks, and the only company would be his memories. Slowly, with purpose, he formed several hand seals and raised his hand to his mouth. A great roaring fireball filled the sky above the lake.

He imagined the blisters on his fingers, the rough dryness of his throat, the stinging burns across his cracked lips. In his mind he could feel the hand of his father on his shoulder. "Well done Sasuke. To master this technique is proof of adulthood in the eyes of the Uchiha. From now on you'll wear our symbol on your clothing. Wear it proudly, your family will always be at your back."


O~O~O~O~O


The din of construction rose into the air over Konoha as the stands and stages for the Fire Festival took shape. It was a grand tradition, dating back to the days of the First Hokage, devoted to looking back at their rich history. It was a time of reflection, of looking critically at the world around you, as well as a modest amount of navel gazing. 

Every year, every citizen of Konoha would prune a dead branch from a tree and bring it to the grand bonfire. It would symbolize something that they regret, something irreparable or lost, and they would throw it into the fire. It was supposed to grant closure, to acknowledge their shortcomings and move on, and when the fires finally died they'd all take a pinch of ashes in a little pouch for good luck.

Naruto didn't have his branch, as he sat on a cloud high above the village, gazing down at the workers below. He had a plan to get one later that day, but at the moment he lacked the courage to go get it. Harder still was considering what regret he was willing to burn.

It wasn't that the blonde boy didn't make mistakes. He had plenty to choose from, even since becoming a ninja. The festival wasn't just about mistakes he made though, it was more about letting go of things beyond control. For a long time he'd hoped the people of Konoha would use it to burn away their hatred of him, and the beast he kept imprisoned. The Kyuubi was really just a force of nature, according to legend, and it would seem silly to find a fishing village that harbored a grudge against a hurricane even decades later.

He'd gone every year, usually with the Third Hokage at his side, for his own safety. The plays and productions of exaggerated historical moments were his favorite. He remembered being jealous of the children his age that got to be 'trees' during the famous battle of Hashirama and Madara.

Even more thrilling were the productions based on the Fourth Hokage. The battles against Iwa were usually performed by a tall blonde actor, usually a ninja under a transformation technique, cape billowing in some unseen breeze. Dozens of Iwa Ninja would rush the stage, circling the actor and reciting their lines. The actor playing the Fourth Hokage would give his grand speech, about Konoha triumphing against all odds, and the will of fire, and then disappear. The Iwa ninja would all fall over 'dead', and the actor would reappear on stage, explaining to the audience that he had moved too fast to see. 

The play was a crowd favorite. Minato Namikaze was easily one of the most loved of the Hokage, and his loss to the Kyuubi was almost unanimously the regret of those who didn't lose someone personally to the attack that year. 

'Minato Namikaze.' The name brought unfamiliar feelings to Naruto as he thought it over. He was his father. Naruto, the poor orphan without a family, was the son of one of the most loved men in the village. Naruto Namikaze. It was a hard concept to wrap his head around. He'd been told from a young age that he wasn't abandoned due to a lack of love, despite what many of the crueler villagers had said. Still...

Naruto Namikaze...

His mother, Kushina Uzumaki, had apparently died in childbirth. Nobody knew the truth. Nobody knew the real reason that she had died and the Kyuubi had broken free that night. Nobody really knew why the Fourth Hokage had to give his life to pass that burden onto his newly born son.

Naruto wasn't certain how to feel about that either. His own father was the reason he held the Kyuubi, the reason the villagers hated and feared him. The reason he was so neglected growing up, until he accidentally found Equestria.

"Oi, Naruto!" A voice brought him out of his own reflection, and he glanced over to see another cloud occupying the airspace. Perched across it was a grinning Genin.

"Konohamaru? What the hay?" Naruto asked, looking around in confusion.

"You gave this technique to the Monkeys right? Well you're looking at their latest summoner!" The child boasted, posing a few times before nearly losing his balance.

"Heh, I'd almost forgotten. How's that working out for you? The only Monkey I've met seemed rather stuffy." Naruto asked, turning to face the younger ninja as they sat in the sky.

"Nah, that's just the elders, the ones my age are awesome. Wei has been teaching me to fight with a staff, Wu has me learning all sorts of cool techniques, and Shu... Well Shu just takes me pranking a lot, but it's a good way to measure my skills. We stole three whole bottles of wine the other day!" He boasted, stretching back on his cloud.

"Ah well, a Monkey-summoning Monkey, who would have thought." Naruto laughed, causing the younger boy to frown.

"Yeah yeah keep laughing. I'm going to be Chuunin by the time the next exam is over, and probably a Jounin before you!"

"Better settle for Seventh Hokage, I'm going to be the sixth." Naruto replied, laying back to relax again.

"How are your summons doing? I see a few around sometimes, it's odd, the Monkeys don't enjoy coming here nearly as much." Konohamaru asked, after a few moments of silence.

"The Monkeys have had a  contract with Konoha for generations, the novelty hasn't worn off for the Ponies yet." Naruto shrugged. "If you mean the three you used to play with, they're all doing well. Can't really call them the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore, but they still 'crusade' regularly. Mostly it's get-rich-quick schemes they come up with."

"Any of it work?" Konohamaru asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Some. Beyond that, Apple Bloom is quite the builder, she's already consulting on designs for several major projects. Scootaloo still flies the only airship in Equestria, makes for a heck of a way to move cargo around. Sweetie Belle has become an Idol, her concerts sell out regularly."

"That's cool. You're going to the festival later right? I'm in one of the plays, playing the role of the Third Hokage in 'The Miracle of Bandit's Ridge'."

Naruto smiled, the title bringing back memories. "That's a good story. It's the one that got me interested in summons to begin with. I had no idea what I was doing back then, maybe it was dumb luck or the universe smiling on me." Laying back on his cloud he closed his eyes, feeling the nostalgia of the day. It hung thick in the air, as everyone in the village took moments throughout the day to contemplate the past.

He didn't notice when Konohamaru said his goodbyes, and floated back down to the ground to get ready for the evening.


O~O~O~O~O


The bell at the top of the door gave a small chime as another customer entered the flower shop. Ino was once again forced to spend her day off of training helping out with the family. Sighing she glanced up from the book she was reading, brightening immediately upon seeing who it was. "Sakura? I haven't seen you in ages! What brings you here?"

"Ah well, nothing in particular. I'm actually hiding from Naruto. He's got this 'no brooding' rule, and an uncanny ability to enforce it." Sakura grumbled, leaning up against the counter.

"Sasuke broods. You mope." Ino corrected, pleased to note some things about her old friend hadn't changed. "I suppose I can spare the time to listen though, for old time's sake."

The pinkette sighed, remaining silent for a few moments, before she placed her heavily bandaged right arm on the counter. "Do you think I'm pretty?"

Ino blinked, grinning slightly as she replied. "I don't swing that way Sakura."

That at least got Sakura to smile slightly, before continuing to frown. "Not what I meant. I mean like, objectively."

"Seriously? I mean, you're a mess right now. Your hair is atrocious, have you even been using conditioner? You've got bags under your eyes, and bruises all over. Your outfit is... practical at best. All in all you're the same as I've always seen you since you became a ninja, so what's the big deal?" Ino asked, seeing her former friend slump even farther.

"Harsh. Couldn't you have sugar coated it or something?" Sakura grumbled.

"If you wanted that, you would have gone to 'Mr. Optimism' himself." Ino shrugged.

"My arm is messed up." Sakura said, after a moment of silence. A tug at the bandages revealed the pale skin beneath. A myriad of fine scars crisscrossed the surface from finger tips to elbow. "I was lucky Fluttershy was there to fix it immediately, or I would have lost the arm. It'll still work fine, after some rehabilitation but..."

Ino simply stared, uncertain what to say. Sure scars were common among ninja. Some of the male population considered them cool, like badges of honor. Ino had seen far worse than Sakura's newly acquired ones, heck her father even worked with Ibiki, who's scars caused most seasoned ninja to pale.

"I know it's stupid, but I look at these scars, and think back to all of the things I gave up to get here. My hair, my makeup, my outfits. It all seems superficial. But there's more than that, I've lost friends, and free time, and I can't remember the last time I spoke to my family." Sakura said, still not taking her eyes off the back of her hand.

"I set out, after the academy, after our team passed our first test, to become strong. Plenty of girls in the academy wanted to be 'strong like Tsunade'. I wanted to become strong on my own, and have girls one day say they wanted to be 'strong like Sakura'. So I followed the boys. I trained with them, I sweated with them, I bled with them. I became one of the guys." She paused, taking a few breaths to calm herself.

"The nurses bandaged up my arm before I left the hospital. They assumed I'd be ashamed or disgusted by my scars. I realize now, I've been one of the guys so long that I just see them as cool. I see them as proof that I can punch the most destructive technique of an S rank Ninja and live." She laughed, the sound seeming hollow and out of place.

"I realize, I've been one of the guys so long, I forget how to be one of the girls." She shook her head, looking pitiful for the realization.

"That's stupid." Ino said, finally breaking her silence. "My mother used to say there was an infinite number of ways to be a girl. One for every girl in the world." Reaching out she grabbed onto her old friend's hand, pulling her around the counter. "C'mon, short hair is in this season, we'll pick a style for you. Then we need to go shopping for some more stylish ninja gear, practical as well of course."

Sakura smiled, for the first time in ages, shaking her head at her old friend's antics. "I missed you Ino."

"I missed you too, Sakura."


O~O~O~O~O


Naruto walked slowly down the streets of Konoha to his apartment, a cardboard box held in his hands. The world around him was tuned out as he thought over the box and what it meant. It was all that remained of his 'inheritance'. His parent's home was destroyed in the Kyuubi's attack, so suddenly there was no will, or last message from either his mother or father. A modest amount of money remained, neither parent was vastly wealthy. All he really received was what was picked out of the rubble in the aftermath.

It was depressing, but anything that could link him to his parents was more precious than gold to the blonde boy.

The door to his apartment swung open. Given the time he spent in Equestria growing up the place was rather empty. Often he'd return home after a long day and merely use the place as a safe zone, where he could pass between worlds in peace. He passed through the kitchen, with its outdated appliances, the bathroom which rarely had hot water, and into the bedroom. With a thump he flopped onto his bed, the box unopened, laying beside him. 

The light from the window cast on his bedside table, drawing his attention. He smiled, sitting up and stepping closer. There was a photo, taken with his first camera, a 7 year old Naruto stood surrounded by brightly colored ponies, his own orange clothing causing him to blend in. He was smiling, not the fake smile he used to put on for the Old Man or Ichiraku, but a great big vibrant smile that reached his eyes. Beside it was another photo, taken with his team. All three of them looked happy, and even Kakashi was smiling with his one visible eye. Hanging off to the side was a familiar white and red mask.

He laughed, seeing it again. Fluttershy had recovered it from the pond, and several other ponies pitched in to recreate it, this time in pristine white porcelain. They'd given it to him for his seventh birthday, the same day he posed for the photograph. It was the first time his birthday was ever celebrated, and not the subject of scorn or violence.

With a soft smile he turned it over in his hands, fitting the elastic strap around his head. It was tight, and the mask was too small for him now, but he grinned anyways, placing it back on the desk. Turning back to the box on the bed, his smile faded away.

"Penny for your thoughts?" A soft voice asked from the doorway. Naruto turned in surprise to see Princess Celestia herself giving him a gentle look.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, fingers tracing the edge of the lid absently.

"A princess knows when she is needed. Even if it's just for moral support." The Alicorn said, slowly walking over to sit next to the bed.

Naruto sat in silence a few moments, glancing down at the box. "Afraid?" Celesia asked, her tone comforting.

"A little. I know barely anything about my parents. There could be something amazing in the box, or there could be nothing. I'm trying not to be optimistic, but..." Naruto replied, fingers gripping the lid tightly.

"You know, I felt the disturbance the moment you entered Equestria for the first time. I was worried, until I received a letter from Twilight." Celestia commented.

"You remember it?" Naruto asked.

"I remember every letter from my faithful student... She was excited, understandably, about meeting a human for the first time, but what caught my attention most was how worried she was about you. She mentioned how hungry you looked, how you were dressed in rags when humans apparently never went without clothing. She relayed your stories of the villagers cruelty, as well as your obvious attempts at optimism. I believe, from that moment onwards, my student and her friends decided to do what Konoha would not."

"They really are my family, aren't they?"

"She triple-checked the list before sending you to the Academy, did she not?" Celestia asked.

"She only does that when it's really important." Naruto nodded, fighting back tears.

"You remember, shortly after your ninth birthday, your apartment was broken into?"

"They always trash it around my birthday, the reminder of the Kyuubi is too much for them." Naruto nodded. It was particularly bad that year, much of his furniture was broken, and the walls were covered in graffiti, he was lucky to be in Equestria when it happened.

"Twilight sent me a letter asking if there was a spell that could make you a pony forever. She didn't want you coming back here, to that sort of hostility and cruelty. Her friends talked her out of it, eventually, by reminding her of your dreams and ambitions. But you know, if it would have made you happy, we would have done it and welcomed you. You are family to us, Naruto Uzumaki, to Twilight and her friends, to my sister and myself, and anything inside that box can only add to it. You are wanted, and you are loved, and no matter what happens, you have an entire world on your side."

Naruto was crying when he finally pried the lid off of the cardboard box. The contents were packed with crumpled newspapers, and with trembling fingers he pulled out several objects. There was a mobile, for a baby, for him he dimly realized. Cardboard shapes hung down from a spiral of plastic, a fox, and ox, a beetle, a horse, a monkey, a turtle, a cat and a tanuki. He held it up and gave it a spin, trying not to think of the childhood he never had.

The next was a rusted, three pronged kunai. The paper seal tag was gone, probably lost to the elements, but the signature weapon served as a solid reminder of who his father was. "Do you resent him?" Celestia asked, seeing Naruto looking pensively at the knife.

"Not really..." The boy replied, after a moment of thought. "Considering everything that happened, that my own mother carried the Kyuubi before me, and the safety of the village was at stake. I respect him for having the courage to make the tough decision. If I was put into the same situation, I'm not certain I'd have what it takes to do the same."

Placing the knife on the bedside table with the photos, Naruto drew the final object out of the box. It was a photo, old and worn, showing a smiling couple. A handsome blonde haired young man held a happy redheaded woman in a loving embrace, while she in turn held a rather large stomach. "A family photo." Naruto said, letting out a laugh and sob at the same time, tears streaming down his face. "I'll put it with the others."

It was another two hours before Naruto emerged from the room, Celestia walking alongside him. Jiraiya sat in his kitchen, a hot cup of ramen in front of him, with another sitting to one side. "My biggest regret is not being there for my godson when he was growing up." His usual boisterous attitude was subdued, as he fingered an old tree branch that stuck out of his pocket. "I think it's high time I try to fix that, if you'll let me. Let's go to that festival, I'll tell you about the first day of training my Genin team."