Back again with another new chapter!

Though I'm a little uneasy about the large amount of dislikes. I'd assume its about the Anthro, the Sex tag, or people just don't Naruto for whatever reason.

I say that because even though I have all these dislikes, 8 atm, I've yet to get a review or even a PM about why they dislike it. Which is kind of annoying. So at this point I'm just going to assume it has to do with the Tags/Crossover material.

Anyway, Disclaimer is on the first chapter, yadda, yadda, yadda.

~X~

*twitch*

He knew that they'd be confused by his appearance all things considered. It's not exactly like he looked like anything they've probably ever seen before. Much more nowadays, than he was before coming here.

*twitch*

He was fine with that, really he was. It was to be expected, is all.

*twitch* *poke, poke, tug*

Yet, he was sure he could do without the prodding going on.

*twitch* *tug, tug, poke*

His eyebrow twitched once more, before his eyes fell on the pink and butter colored ponies who were currently having their way with his body in every non-blood pumping way possible.

They had moved from the forest scene to the Apples home, and had taken positions in the living room, everyone seemed to get in a half circle around the revealed blond, with the apple thief in a comfy chair in the center of the half-circle. Going from left to right clockwise from the blond's point of view were: Applejack, Big Mac, Granny Smith, Twilight, empty seat, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and another empty seat. With the order of furniture being: a two seater, rocking chair, three seater and two-seater couches. Anyone under the age of 15 was sitting cross-legged in form of the middle three seater, going in the order of: Apple Bloom, Spike, Scootaloo then Sweetie Belle.

"You guys have got to try this, it's soooo~ interesting!" Pinkie said excitingly, as she proceeded and continued to pull at one of his tails, watching as it extended abnormally so. She twisted and turned in place, tail in hand matching her movements, before she spun and wrapped herself up in the orange fur like some sort of fur paper towel roll. Her eyes seemed to peek out of a small dark, open section in the wrapped tail.

"He, he, heh~" She giggled in glee.

"Oh my, this feels just like Angel's." Commented the animal caring pony, as she prodded Naruto's rabbit ears. She seemed to slide her hands over the fur for a moment, making the blond in the chair feel strange, before she reached the base causing him to freeze up for a moment before he seemed to lose all tension in his body.

"Mmmmmm~" He let himself fall into this strange bliss from having her rub the base of his ears before he realized where he was and put a stop to the current ministrations on his body.

"Okay! That's enough! Let's get to the questions! Shall we?!" He seemed to squeak, as he ducked away from Fluttershy and pulled at his tail. The action causing it to unravel at high speeds, sending Pinkie off into a crazy spin Pinkie giggling the whole way through before falling perfectly into a seat by Rainbow Dash. The blue furred Pegasus smirking at the spiky haired blond's discomfort, in amusement causing him to scowl at her. The others chuckled at the interactions going on before Fluttershy took the seat between Rarity and Twilight, looking sheepish. Though he took notice that Rarity seemed to still be examining him for some reason.

Though he didn't know why, he felt like he knew her from somewhere and the idea of her figuring out whatever it was she was looking for filled him with dread.

"Okay so now that the body demonstration is over can we please get on with this-" He began before he was interrupted by Twilight.

"Wait! We still have to wait for the princess's reply!" The book mare interrupted with a raised hand, asserting herself as attention in the room fell on her.

"The who?" The blond questioned with a tilt of his head, one ear flopping to the side with the other up. Those in the room took his question in stride with Twilight offering an explanation.

"Princess Celestia, my mentor, also one of the rulers of Equestria," she added helpfully. The blond mulled over this info for a moment before retorting with another question.

"Wait you said she's "one" of the rulers of Equestria. Whose the other?" The dual tail having thief asked, said tails moving with interest. He'd met a few princesses before, but she made this one sound really important. Twilight was about to answer his question, but instead she was interrupted by another voice in the room.

"That would be us," answered a soft, yet powerful, voice. The blond turned his head to take notice of a new pony in the room.

She was tall, being somewhere between Big Mac and Applejack. Adorned on her lean, yet surprisingly muscled figure was a Dark blue, light blue and black Qi Pao, with a black spot on it near the hip with a crescent moon held within. the sleeves of the garment came down to her wrists, and the collar stopped at the half-point of her neck. Dark mulberry blue fur, dark blue flowing ephemeral hair and a dark blue tiara to match the Qi Pao on top of her head and the matching footwear (* if you want a REAL good idea of what she looks like, I posted a link down below in my author's note, it's exactly what I love to imagine these two look like anthro-wise). With a dark, almost unnaturally so, horn and large feathered wings, this was a being he could tell was powerful.

...He wanted to fight her so badly, it hurt.

"And who are you?" He was blunt and straight to the point. This being commanded power and recognition, if the fact that everyone else was bowing to her was anything to say about the situation, then this had to be one of rulers of Equestria.

"We are Princess Luna, Princess of the Moon." Luna announced to him, her eyes taking in his form with a quirked eyebrow in interest.

"So I take it your sister would be this Princess Celestia and that she would be the Princess of the Sun?" He question, though he was pretty sure they came in a matching set. At her confirming nod, he set himself back into his seat, mind reeling at this being before him.

So ponies had this kind of potential did they?

"When young Twilight sent the letter to our sister, she delegated us to come in person to review the interesting figure described in her letter. Now as we stand before you, we can't help but think that the letter doesn't do you justice." She added, before greeting Twilight herself.

"We're sorry our sister could not attend young Twilight, but as you know there are usually all sorts of matters to be dealt with during the daytime. So in consolation we volunteered ourselves for the task," Luna made clear, to the Element of Magic.

"O-Oh no problem! I honestly wouldn't want to take either of you away from something important if possible," she offered as she removed herself from her seat and gestured to it with for the alicorn to take.

"Tis no problem young Twilight. Please don't move yourself on our accord, we're perfectly fine with just standing." She shook her head in dismissal. The blond in the center seat had the strangest feeling this scene would get old and quick.

"But I insist!"

"Fear not, we are perfectly capable of standing"

"I can easily sit on the floor with Spike and the others! Really!"

"It's fine young one"

"But-!"

"No problems are to be had"

And he was right. He sighed, he didn't need this right now, much less when he had to go and get things for his extended stay here at the Apples's house in the guest room.

Kami, he just realized that Jackie is going to have a field day with that.

So with a few gestures of the hand, a small orb floated above his palm. It radiated a soft yellow glow, with small form of a circle expanding and constricting on itself within. With a small flurry of the hand he sent it sailing into the couch Twiight, Rarity and Fluttershy were occupying, causing it to glow before it expanded to include an extra two seats length of cushion.

The debating alicorn and unicorn took notice of this, before looking to the irritable expression on the blond mismatched being.

"Is that good enough?" He asked with some snark, though he got a punch in the arm from AJ for it. Watching as the two from before investigated the couch before sitting, though he noticed Princess Luna's eyes snapping to him for a second in concentration before she nodded, he sighed and went about bringing up the main event for the evening.

"So before all this extra stuff happened..." He trailed off, waiting for somepony to pick up with a question. Everyone seem to think of some form of question they wanted to ask, sans Granny Smith who was fast asleep in her rocking chair by this point. It was Spike who asked the first question.

"Well, what are you?" And the first question of the evening was one he was expecting, and had an answer to.

"Hmm, how to explain this..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What happened to me? Why do I look like this?"

"Did you...No it's impossible for you to know, even if you look so much like him."

"What are you talking about? What AM I?!"

"Do you not know of what you are?"

"I'm human!"

"...Not anymore, what you are..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, to put this into simple words, we're called the Uniques," he said simply. He watched as they looked confused with Pinkie Pie raising her hand eagerly.

"Ooh, ooh ooh, what's a Unique?!" She asked with excitement he was sure was unnecessary, but he went with it.

He thought about the best way to explain this, before nodding to himself and answering.

"We're kind of different in the way that we're made up of all kinds of parts. I've honestly not sure about all the combinations there are, but I'm one example." He explained with a wave of his hands over his own form, from his head to his feet.

He took notice of the fact that Twilight was currently writing stuff down in a notepad, and when she noticed him staring she eagerly looked up with sparkles in her eyes.

At least he knew where she got her name.

"This is all so fascinating! I've never heard of your species before! Are there more of you?! What types of magic do you use?! Do you use magic?! Wait that's a silly question! You just did a second ago! So what was it you did to the couch?! What..." She just rambled on and on, that he felt himself getting lost in her pace. His eyes zoned out on him, before he was snapped back into focus by Twilight having her muzzle covered, politely mind you, by the princess's palm. Blinking the librarian brought her eyes to the princess, who smiled at her, before she blushed and slowly covered her face with the notepad.

"Sorry!" Her voiced muffled slightly by the notepad, with those around her chuckling, with Spike rolling his eyes.

"Geez Twi, way to geek out at the guy," he said, as Apple Bloom and company giggled to themselves.

"But it's so interesting! He's a species that's never been documented in Equestria before!" She whined.

"Well that would make sense, considering I'm NOT from Equestria, that's for sure," the blond thief said with as much casual finesse as one talking about the weather, though there was a imperceptible bitter undertone to it. He saw the others nod.

"So you're from like the Austallia Outback?" Pitched Rainbow Dash.

"Possibly from somewhere in Prance?" Rarity took her own dig at the answer, while still inspecting him.

"Possibly from the Echo Lands then?" Luna herself questioned, hand to her chin in contemplation.

He shook his head in the negative to all those places, but made a mental checklist to go and possibly travel this world's existing continents/countries, but time to get back on topic.

"I guess I should have been more clear with that," he said as he scratched the back of his head,"I mean't that I'm not native to world that would contain Equestria or any of those places that could be found on this planet, so to speak."

"Yeah, see Twilight of course he's not documented he's not..." Spike trailed off, before they all turned and looked at the blond with wide eye expressions. He gave them a confused look, wondering what all the hub-bub was.

"Wait so you're saying you're an..." Rainbow Dash started, but Pinkie beat her to the punch.

"Alien!" She squealed with glee.

The blond couldn't help but wonder what that term meant, but taking into account what was the topic from before it must of meant what he said he was.

"Ooh! Do you have like a space ship?! What planet do you come?! Ooh, have you ever been to Jupiter, Mars?!" The baker asked excitably. She got right up in his face with her questions, snout close to his face in an invasion of privacy he wasn't comfortable with. It must have shown, because Applejack pulled back on Pinkie's tail.

"Alright, alright calm down Pinkie, let 'im explain," The farm mare said, giving him a look. He sighed in relief, but went back to the question at hand.

"I never said I was from space. When I said I'm not native to this world I meant this universe, sort of." He gave a sort of wavy motion with his hand.

"But that can't be true, there are no true records of spells like that in Equestria! Not even evidence of such a thing existing!" Twilight exclaimed, all the while not noticing Luna looking away while scratching her cheek.

"That would make sense since if you even wanted to find such a thing like that you'd probably have to venture into the more...dangerous portions of Everfree to find something like that," he stated, all the while looking slightly downcast by that fact. Applejack took notice but kept it to herself for when she questioned him on her own later.

"So you came here in one of them, portals of dimensions and such?" Big Mac saw fit to get the train of questioning back on track. His question bringing the attention of those in the room back onto the blond in the center. He nodded, but actually looked more uncomfortable from before. The princess and farmers took notice of how his eyes dulled for a moment.

"Yes I did, when I was extremely young to be exact, me and...me alone." He answered softly, eyes seeing off into the distance for a moment, before he shook himself of the melancholy. Though now he had all of their attention.

"Listen that was a long time ago, and the portal closed by the time I could go by myself to check it. Surprisingly even portals of dimensional magic aren't invincible to the flow of time," he made a show of nonchalance, though a few in the crowd were more onto his previous expressions.

A hand raised, by the butter color pony snapped them all out of the current topic.

"Um, if you wouldn't mind, but earlier you used magic on the couch..." she trailed off leaving the topic to be discussed. His eyes brightened on the new topic, but his eyebrow rose as he took notice of Twilight now wearing a pair of glasses with a notepad and pen in hand. Eyes on him, waiting for him to explain in full detail most likely.

"Well yeah, the thing with Uniques, or Faye, is that our bodies are different from others, when it comes to magic at least." He answered, as he lifted his arm up. Quickly an assortment of lines rushed up the limb, most of them straight with some curving in different directions.

"Unlike Earth ponies whose magic is in their muscles and groundwork, Pegasi with their wings and bones, unicorns with their horns or even zebra's with their shaman magic, Faye don't run on the same rules of magic. Our entire bodies are conduits for magic and we base most of our magic around the Crystallization of Concepts." He explained, as he tapped the side of his pants leg with his line filled arm. From the brief contact, they watched as a blue caricature of lighter color tone than his jumpsuit, blinked to life.

"Fascinating!" The lavender unicorn squeaked out in an awed fashion, as she begin to take note after notes while looking towards different parts of the blond's body.

"Like I was saying, Crystallization of Concepts is a sort of magic extraction ritual born of Unique bloodlines," The blond continued as he reached within his jumpsuit, before he pulled out a weird plate tied to a cord on his neck.

The plate was blue, with teal accents and an yellow orb in the center of it. The yellow orb itself was seemingly crystalline in nature, with a symbol of a spiral made from what looked like small, teal-colored dust particles. Next to the orb were two small markings. One a three pronged, gold lightning bolt, with the other a crimson crossing of curvy lines; like a stylized X with a curvy line in the center.

The room became aglow in a soothing gold glow. Those in the room seemed to relax almost immediately in the radiance of the plate's core. Eyes closed and leaned forward, the group of many were washed over with comfort and loss of tension before said feelings left all to soon, in their eyes.

The blond allowed his arm to stop glowing, before watching as the group re-orientated themselves with a grin. hey blinked for a few seconds before sending him questioning stares.

He continued to grin as he explained.

"We infused, transcribe and designate attributes of abstract, physical, metaphysical and even spiritual make. Like..." He dug around in his pockets for a minute before retrieving a clear glass container, "this." He finished before an array of lines shot up the arm with the bottle in it before the bottle glowed for a moment, along with the blond's own body.

The second the glow stopped, the others bore witness to the blond's new look.

"Ooooh~" Pinkie jumped up, before inspecting the blond. Twilight seemed to sit there for a moment before she seemingly teleported to his side, eyeing his new feature. Pinkie waved her hands from the other side of the blond, watching it from one side to the other. Just as she was about to try and push her hands together, she found resistance and let out a confused hum.

"Hmmmm?" She sent him a questioning look, he elaborated.

"I'm currently using the concept of transparency, Pinkie. I ain't no ghost nor am I untouchable"

"Ohhhhh" She drawled before continuing on with her previous practices. Everyone else in the room sweatdropped.

"So as you can see, this is one of the ways my magic works," he added. He looked to his left, and felt more sweat build as he watched what couldn't have been any less than 10 papers full of notes,, back and front, at Twilight's right side.

She was finishing up the eleventh and starting on the twelfth.

At this point he was sure that the sparkles he saw from before were now frickin' stars at this point, in the form of her Cutie Mark. He'd best wrap this up before this crazy mare got any ideas.

"So any questions? It's getting late and I'd like to go back and get some things for my extended stay here at the Acres." He explained, as he turned away from Spectacle Sparkle towards the rest of the group. They seemed contemplative, yet it was Rarity who posed the last question for the evening.

"Who did your clothes? I find the design simple, but with your magic it could even be called mystic" She asked with narrow eyes. That sense of dread was back, and he wasn't sure why but he slowly started to get out of his chair.

"Well I made them using some fabrics I found lying around..." He turned his head to the side away from her, while she narrowed her eyes more and slowly stood up.

"Interesting how you can find fabric in Everfree Forest isn't it? Exactly how long ago was it that you made these clothes again?"

"Um around maybe some 6 or so years ago...." He trailed off, before recognition hit in both their eyes, before he made a dash for the door, Rarity hot on his heels.

"Get back here you rapscallion!" She hissed loudly, eyes blue flames of vengeance as he hooked it left and right to lose her around the living room.

"I'm so sorry! It was just an accident, I swear it!"

"You're going to be sorry, alright!"

Those not currently in a chase of cat and mouse, were left confused.

"What the hay is going on here?" Applejack supplied the question for the room, while they all watched the spectacle take place.

"Going by the current situation, we'd assume these two have some sort of history" Luna suggested as heads followed the two continue their chase.

"Woman how are you so fast?!" The blond shouted before ducking a mad tackle from the pristine mare.

"Orrraaa!" The Element of Generosity let out a battle-cry, Pinkie giggled.

The thief finally made it to the door, before saying his good-byes.

"I'll be back later Jackie, don;'t worry I'll be back by midnight., 'kaythankslater!" He rabbled out before shutting the door, just as a pair of glowing violet needles with thread attached sunk into the door.

"Grrrrr! I'll tan your hide for the humiliation!" Rarity growled/shouted at the door with a vicious expression, before she turned to see the group giving er wide eye stares. She blushed horribly, chuckling to try and detract attention from her previous...ahem actions.

"Rarity...What in tarnations was that?" Applejack couldn't help but ask, her mouth nearly gaping like everyone else's.

"O-o-oh....Umm, never mind what you saw just now," She shifted nervously, as the group's eyes became half-lidded.

~X~

Naruto, hood back on head, ran his normal paces, body back to normal, through the Everfree forest, mind on his current situation.

"So let's see, gonna be there for...how long?" He pondered out loud, as he absentmindedly hopped across the dividing river of Everfree. He kept his form high in the air, in preparation for the "shift", so to speak. He crossed the middle of the river, just over the obsidian stone, feeling a sense of familiar weight on his shoulders as he landed on the other side. He continued on his strides, as he did some math.

"So let's see, I usually take three apples from them every Tuesday. I started doing this well over 10 years ago. So 12 apples every month, over 10 years would be," he ticked his fingers off, " 144 x 10, so 1440 days...that's almost four years!" He exclaimed coming to a stop in front of a strange patch of very enclosed trees. The leaves were covered in spiral markings, yellow in color, and they shimmered in the evening sun.

The apple thief grumbled, hanging his head low, as he tapped a portion of forest floor with a line filled paw shape grove in it. The yellow spirals flickered to life as Naruto stepped into the opening now in the middle of them, the hole closing the second he made it to the other side.

He looked around his work shop, eyes working their night-vision taking in the set of shelves with various containers, benches by table's with incomplete projects on them, and the two pathways near the back of the 20 ft x 20 ft. space of tree clearing in a perfect square. His eyes lingered on the right path for a moment but he shook his head and took to the left one.

The passage led him to his "bedroom" of sorts. With there being compact trees for walls like everywhere else, the space being 15 ft x 15 ft with the same shape as his work area and a bed formed from hay, wood and some vines of the forest in the corner. There was a large desk by his bed, with a assortment of tools for his magic on top, and his sets of clothes/underwear he *ahem* appropriated, received or made himself or by his teacher. The floor was decorated in small amounts of scales, metal chippings/shavings (he'd need to pick those up), shells and even a wing of some creature he'd hunted before, but most importantly on the floor by his bed was a backpack of sorts.

"Here we go, check over for any need of repair, and bring stuff for the long haul." He stated as his eyes glowed as he looked over the bag. The bag was formed of fabrics of mismatched colors, stitched together by dimly glowing blue thread. It had a main portion with three separate smaller compartments, two on the sides with one in front. The bag was decently large, being about 2 1/2 ft tall and 1 1/2 ft across. On it was his spiral insignia, his mark, along with two small ones on its sides like the ones on the plate around his neck. On the two side pockets were runic circles, with a form of inscription on it with the caricature of a constantly swirling pattern colored dark teal.

Picking up the backpack, he went about taking up several tools from his personal desk (left side compartment of bag), and clothes (right side portion), the items seemingly disappearing into the depths of the not-so-big pockets. Though the last thing he picked up from the desk was a necklace with a familiar green crystal tied to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This necklace is nothing but a curse."

...

"Don't diss the title of Hokage!"

...

"This damn thing killed everyone I've ever loved! The title of Hokage is nothing but a title for fools!"

...

"I'll prove to you that being Hokage isn't just some fool's wish! When I do, you'll apologize to me and everyone who wanted the dream of Hokage!"

...

"Maybe you can break this curse."

"Thank you, Naruto."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He gave a sad smile.

"Sorry Granny. Guess that promise will never come through."

He moved on to the workshop section of his home, taking jars off his shelves and stuffing them into the main portion of the bag where they disappeared like the items before them. Once he finished clearing the space, he turned towards his last destination; the right "pathway" door.

He entered the pathway door, walking down the disturbingly long hallway before coming to enter the room proper. He took in the bare room, whose only furnishing was a pod by the back wall of the 8 ft xx 8 ft room.

He walked up to the pod, holding a hand to the opaque glass, before slid it over to the right side of protective casing to an insignia of the crimson symbol on his other things. The symbol glowed before the glass casing seem to dissolve outward. Inside were four things; A photo, a spear, irregular glove and a floating symbol. He took each item slowly and carefully inspected them.

The spear was light blue in color, with the bladed end having a barb of sorts. The shaft was covered in dark blue writing, with two small holes near the bladed end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What is it?"

"It's a weapon. A spear to be precise"

"Oh so this is going to be used for when we go hunting, huh?"

"That would be correct. From this day onward, it will be yours."

"...Why? All this time, all this training, all these techniques and secrets."

"..."

"I was just some random guy who...You didn't have to help me, you didn't need to give me anything, but you still did."

"...I'm different, not like others in...creation. I should have been a tool, a weapon. Something to be used and have no feelings attached, but I was shown kindness. A kindness and sense of family that no weapon should ever have the privilege-"

"Don't talk like that!"

"..."

"Don't call yourself a weapon! You're not a tool, nor are you something to use and throw away. You have feelings, a soul, a heart. You're no different than me or anyone else I've met. You're just like Haku...You both deserve to call yourselves living beings more than a lot of people I knew. So please, don't. I won't allow this man who I called sensei...this man who has done more in teaching me than almost every other teacher I've ever had call himself a weapon. Those who showed you kindness were great people, and you did the same for me."

"...hahaha. You're so much like the two of them. Thank you Naruto."

"Hehe~ I'll always remind you Yahiko-sensei. We're in this together, for however long that is."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He smiled sadly for a moment, before bringing the spear into the main portion of the bag, watching as it disappeared into the backpack's depth, shaft and all.

Next came the glove. It was irregular in the fact that it was missing the first two fingers, though with this piece he actually had all the facts about it. Unlike with the spear, he knew it's purpose. Potential Burst, a glove that was Dark orange in color with 4 sets of blue lines on its side. In the center, on the back of the glove, was a blue circle with silver edging around it.

He gave the glove another once over, before he stuffed it into one of his jumpsuit pockets. He picked up the photo, and let out a small humorless laugh.

"This world just wasn't as curious about us, as we were it huh?" He spoke out loud to himself.

In the image were two beings. One of them was short, a child of maybe 10 years of age, with a blond mop of hair and 3 marks on each cheek. He was grinning as he held up a small crystal with glee. Next to him, giving an confused stare towards the front, was a tall man. He was slim and he had orange hair that came down his upper back in spiky waterfalls. He had black eyes, and his face bore no blemishes, along with which his face had two tear like marks going down from his eyes to his chin. Wearing dark maroon slacks under a crimson coat that was short-sleeved and that parted at the stomach region to reveal tan skin.

Naruto traced his hands over the image, before looking over to the symbol.

"Hello again, sensei..."

~X~

He'd made it back to the Apple home by the time night had fallen.

He leaped across the fields towards the porch before knocking on then front door. He only had to wait for a moment before the front door was opened by Big Mac. He was dressed for bed, but he was awake enough to acknowledge Naruto's presence and lead him inside the house to his abode for his stay.

Going up the stairs to a hallway and moving towards the back of the hall were the guest rooms. Along the way he assumed were the rooms of the siblings; Applejack's, Big Mac's and Apple Bloom's. Each had a mark in the form of their Cutie Mark, surrounded by a circle, with Apple Bloom's being empty of such a mark. The guest rooms, as there were two of them, had no such markings but had "Guest" printed above them, with the bathroom at the absolute end of the hall.

As he passed Applejack's room, he thought he heard a crack of sound but waved it off as her sleeping and continued on. Never noticing the emerald eyes that peeked out and followed him and Big Mac go down the hall.

*Yawn* "Well, here ya go fella, bed, desk and closet..." The red stallion listed off drowsily, eyes blinking and fading in and out of consciousness.

"Alright Big Mac, go get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning." The spiky-haired blond let him go off to his room before closing the door and collapsing into his bed.

"Weird being in a bed, that's not my own."

*click*

"I'd reckon it would be."

Naruto sat up and watched as Applejack stood in the doorway, dressed white tank top and short shorts. He took in the lean, muscular form of the 2nd oldest Apple sibling before getting back on track.

"What? Did you wait until I came back to honor our bet before going to bed, Jackie?" He grinned cheekily, at her with a subtle jab. She flushed slightly with a raised eyebrow, but not as much as normal, probably because she was in her own home and no one else was around he guessed. He watched as she shrugged, before walking over and sitting on the edge of his bed. He shifted over a bit before falling back onto the mattress.

"..."

"..."

"...Sssooo~ What's up?" He got out. The silence was uncomfortable, and he wasn't going to stew in that with another person in the room much less Applejack.

"We won, finally..."She started off, seemingly unsure of where to take the conversation.

"That you did, and as per our agreed upon bet, I'm your humble worker for the next 4 years," he listed out lazily. Though he did let out an amused snort at her choked up expression at the announcement of his long stay.

"Ya say what?!"

"Well yeah. I don't know whether you've been keeping count but every time I came here for Tuesday lunch," he caught her glare and waved it away, "I've only ever stolen 3 apples per trip, you'd think you of all ponies would notice first considering Granny noticed."

Applejack looked slacked jaw for a moment, before she bit her lip a bit.

"Ah'd been trying to stop you! Besides this started when we were youngin's, I can be allowed to have the benefit of the doubt when I''m chasing a thief in my fields."

He nodded to this, he'd allow that to slide, not like it was really important anyway.

"Ah didn't think we'd be keeping you for so long. Don't ya got like something back where you were....Which makes me wonder, where do you live?" She started off solemn before becoming curious.

"I could have sworn I told you guys this. Well I live in the deeper portions of Everfree. As in IN the forest, got a place and everything, pretty comfortable as far as things goes but I'm the only one who lives there now."

"...So when we were asking questions earlier and you said you had a teacher...He's gone isn't he?" She asked quietly. He didn't respond, but she didn't turn to look at him.

Naruto from his position stayed silent, and closed his eyes, mouth shifting to a frown.

"Now, Ah won't ask you to tell me what happened, Ah didn't know 'im and I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what you went through, but know this. You're not the only person in this house to have lost someone, we're all mostly familiar with it..." She closed her eyes for a moment.

"...It was your parents wasn't it?" He spoke up, still laid down on the bed, but his attention was on her. He watched her nod and say nothing else.

"Does it still hurt?" He asked.

"Of course it does, those were mah parents. Apple Bloom didn't even really get to know Ma or Pa before....they passed," She elaborated.

"What was it like to have them?"

"Huh?"

"Parents. What was it like having them?" He added.

"It's like...It's kind of hard to explain, but think of it like always having guidance." She supplied, as she gave him a look, "Ah don't understand, how can ya not know what parents are like?"

"That's because I've never had parents, or at least I've never met them."

He remembered the lonely days on swings watching as other kids were picked up by their parents, while she remembered his words from earlier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Listen that was a long time ago, and the portal closed by the time I could go by myself to check it. Surprisingly even portals of dimensional magic aren't invincible to the flow of time..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They stayed quiet, for a moment. Before both blonds sighed, with the spiky haired one getting up and stretching. He turned around and gave AJ a solemn expression.

"Look let's just drop it okay Jackie? I've learned to get over it, the past is in the past and no one can change it. Sometimes forgetting the past is our best option," he said. He'd long since given up on the idea of the past, long since turned his horrible feelings against himself. He'd just hope he'd been able to deliver the last promise he'd ever made.

She stared at him for a moment and hung her head with a smile, before getting up stretching and walking to the door, tail swishing with every step. His eyes watched as she came to walk past him to the door before she stopped at the door, hand on the knob.

"The past is always important Naruto. No matter how much we want to, forgetting the past is the same as ignoring everyone you ever knew. It may hurt, it may be painful, but the past helps to shape who ya are. We are who we are, and there's no changing that," she opened the door and took a step, but not before saying a final bit.

"And for what its worth, Ah do think you're a good guy, Sugercube. You stick to your guns and you've yet to go back on anything when it's come to your words with us and Ah really like that part of ya," her eyes went wide, "A-ah meant w-we! We really like that part of ya! A-ah, he he, G'night!"

He watched as the door closed after that statement. He stayed there for a moment, before falling back into bed. Letting out a sigh, he turned on his side to go to sleep.

"So what do you do when you don't like yourself?" He closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

He'd have to be ready for anything tomorrow.

Author's Note

And that's a wrap! I know that this feels like its emotionally going to fast, or to me personally, but remember that this IS going to only be 4 chapters...Maybe.

So yeah, here''s chapter TWO out of FOUR (It's looking like it might NOT stay that way but I'm going to wait till I'm finish with these four first before saying much more on that.

In better news, I got this out before a month passed, WOOT! So with this, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and leave a like and a comment, pls.

(1)http://tysontan.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Celestia-and-Princess-Luna-355580016

P.S. The last portion of this chapter was suppose to be FAR more comedic, than sad, but I remembered that AJ had questions to ask from the interrogation from before, and that shifted things.

P.P.S. Remember to leave some opinions on this please. It'd really help to have some constructive criticism

P.P.P.S. Tell me about the comedy, ya liked it, or maybe Naruto's current Backstory

Renewal: So yeah, this is the first chapter in which I made some additions, and changes to big time scenes. Those being that I've added memory portions to allude to some of Naruto's post-portal machinations, and relationships. There's a new defined scene with the spear, some small memory portions for the necklace he's received from Tsunade, and the revelation of his teacher's name!

Somethings I didn't do before because I wasn't thinking straight. Nothing really altered in the form of any present-day scenes, but I've tidied up some small errors and mistakes I've found in the paragraphs. Small spelling errors, extra spacing, etc.

With that Renewal of Ch. 2 is done and ready for press!

~NRK Out~