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Naruto Loops

1.1 (Valentine Meiken)

"My name is Naruto Pennington, and I enjoy working with my adoptive father, Ty Pennington. I like construction work, and shortening the time it takes to do anything. I hate taking longer than the barest minimum to do anything. My dream is to marry a heiress from every country in the Elemental Nations, and make my clan the leaders of all the world."

Kakashi looked at him. "Ty Pennington... Sounds familiar." He muttered.

In the middle of Wave Country, Zabuza and Haku were blinking as a strange man left after building them a decent sized house where they had been planning to stay for the duration of their mission... within the hour that they were going to get something to eat.

"How the hell did someone manage to do it that fast?" Zabuza muttered, noting that it wasn't just a wooden hut, it was a passable long-term home.

"I don't care how, he's managed to import a television for us!" Haku called from inside, for Zabuza to hurry inside.

1.2 (Valentine Meiken)

Tamaki looked at the piece of paper she'd been sent, apparently by Sasuke, a pair of cat ears perched on her head as she went to the very recently vacated Uchiha district, walking to Sasuke's door.

"H...nnn..." Sasuke stated, his eyes going wide. She was meant to be in Sora-ku, she was not meant to be in Konoha, carrying luggage.

"I was sent a message saying that you'd need someone to help you out with problems with your family..." Tamaki announced, Sasuke's eyes constantly looking towards her head, and the cat ears.

"Yes... My family was killed in very suspicious circumstances." Sasuke continued, trying to figure out how she could be there.

"Well, Me and Nekobaa are going to be moving in with you then, help you with the recovery..." Tamaki announced, hugging him, "I'm sorry I wasn't around for you when it happened."

Several years later...

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like cats and Tama-chan. I hate my brother, and what he did to my clan. My dream is to marry Tama-chan and have her help me restore my clan to greatness."

Everyone looked to see Sakura pass out on the floor, Kurama and Naruto sporting identical foxy grins at how well it went, simply forging a letter from Sasuke, saying that he'd had a crisis in the family, and wanted her companionship.

'Next loop, want to find some way to prank Sakura into thinking Sasuke likes bisexuals?' Kurama offered.

'Not happening, ero-kitsune!' Naruto retorted.

1.3 (OracleMask)

The sound of stampeding ponies wasn't unusual in Ponyville, but the usual timing of it caught Twilight's attention right away. She and her friends had handled Nightmare Moon a few days ago (it was Pinkie's turn to defeat non-looping Nightmare Moon, and her plan had somehow resulted in the redeemed Princess Luna having to eat her way of an enormous caramel flan). All six had agreed on a baseline loop, and that meant Twilight knew for a fact that the next stampede wasn't due for days.

"The orange! THE ORANGE!" cried the stampeding ponies as Twilight went to see what the problem was.

It was a little obvious: a utter horde of identical orange pegasus ponies swarming the town. Twilight frowned: she knew who that was, and also she knew that he barking knew Equestria was supposed to be a sanctuary loop!

Naruto better have a really good reason for panicking all of Ponyville.

Naruto had a horribly good reason for panicking all of Ponyville.

As soon as the Kage Bunshin spotted the sparks Twilight had sent up to get their attention, she'd been dog-piled and practically dragged bodily to where the original was waiting. She'd just opened her mouth to ask what he'd been thinking when Twilight found herself being desperately hugged.

"What happened?" Twilight found herself asked.

"It's...you remember back when the last Crash happened, right?" Naruto explained, "And how it got most of the loops a new looper or two?"

"Of course," Twilight replied, "We got three."

Even though they were talking, Naruto kept watch on their surroundings. It was like he expected something horrible to jump out and attack them any second. Twilight had never seen Naruto so on edge before...no, wait, she had. But not since the first time they'd met, right before they'd proven themselves as a sanctuary by using the Elements of Harmony to banish his teammate Sakura to the moon.

It gave her a terrible sense of foreboding.

"Three? Lucky you," Naruto said, "We only got one - Inari-chan was really surprised a loop as old as ours got any newbies at all."

Twilight nodded, though at the same time she went over a mental list of villains from Naruto's loop. Surely having one of them start looping was the reason Naruto was so tense. Which one, though? One of Akatsuki? Or maybe Madara? Whoever, it was, it had to be someone really -

"And while Inari-chan was busy telling me we finally, finally had a new looper...Sakura found him first."

Twilight instantly discarded her mental list.

"Mulberry," she swore, "Is he..."

"Look for yourself," Naruto answered grimly.

Naruto pulled a copy of Harry's invisibility cloak off a pony standing behind him, and Twilight's heart sank. The pony in question was standing upright, but his eyes were vacant. Whoever it was, their body was perfectly healthy but their mind was definitely not at home.

The silver mane, mis-matched eyes, and scarecrow cutie mark just made the sight that much worse.

"Put the cloak back on," Twilight said, as gently as possible, "We'll take him back to the library, and I'll see what we can do."

The air in the library was a whirlwind of books and devices. Some came from the shelves, or zipped up out of the basement laboratory. Most of them came straight from Twilight's subspace pocket.

Luckily for them, the Naruto swarm had gotten more than Twilight's attention. As soon as they'd heard the story, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had vowed to search the ends of the world for any other loopers that might be lurking around. Anypony around who had any skills that might be of help would be tree-sent. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were on damage control from the stampede.

Almost before they'd gotten Kakashi into the security of the library, Twilight had begun firing diagnostic spells left and right. Just as Twilight had feared, the loop resets had already wiped away all traces of whatever had been done to him.

Naruto couldn't remember any specifics either. He'd been 'preoccupied'. And then the biju bomb he'd launched reset the loop, and that's when they'd discovered that Kakashi was gone.

Well. There clearly wasn't a physical reason for it. All of Twilight's diagnostic spells told her that a healthy, normal – aside from the chakra system – pony was standing in front of her. So the cause had to be psychological. Unfortunately, it would take one of their best telepathy-users to figure out if there was anything of Kakashi left to be salvaged...

"Huh. I've never felt anyone willingly lock their mind up like this before," Chrysalis said.

...Or maybe it would just take a Changeling Queen, waving her glowing horn over Kakashi's head, to suss out the problem. Twilight immediately dropped thirty books on the different kinds of mind-manipulation magic, blinking in surprise.

"He locked his mind up?" Naruto exclaimed, wings flaring in surprise.

Zecora, who was consulting some books on brews and potions, looked quite pleased with the diagnosis.

"That matches my suspicions perfectly," the zebra said, "Indeed, I believed it as soon as I saw inside this tree."

"You've seen this before, Zecora?" Twilight asked.

She was impressed. Not to mention embarrassed that she hadn't thought to ask Zecora first about the problem, just because she'd assumed it was some kind of spell or something...there was probably a letter to Celestia in there somewhere.

"A ninja of the Leaf I have been before," Zecora replied, "Though I was not a healer then – I was fighting a war. When a ninja is faced with a reality deemed untrue, the blame will fall to an enemy genjutsu. Is this not so? Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes were wide.

"You're saying Kakashi-sensei thought he was under genjutsu? This whole time?"

"He still does, if I am not mistaken. Or would the gods not act if his mind was truly taken?"

...Eeyup, definitely a letter to Celestia. 'Being older doesn't mean somepony else doesn't have good sense', something like that.

"But that means we have to convince him he's not in an illusion...which is exactly what he'll expect an illusion to say, right?" Twilight's eyes darted back to her books.

"I've got something that might work," Naruto mentioned.

He'd gone from nervous and jittery to completely at ease after hearing Zecora's explanation. Twilight could only suppose that Naruto was more comfortable getting the bad news from a fellow ninja – insomuch as Zecora qualified.

"I'll need an extra pair of...hooves, though," Naruto added, looking down at his hooves in mild annoyance, "Zecora, do you know any chakra transfer techniques...?"

Silver Spoon trudged through the Everfree Forest, tired but wary as she followed the map that Miss Twilight had given her of the safest path to Miss Zecora's hut. This loop she was a Zebra filly, with silver stripes instead of black ones and a weird Zebra cutie mark that only vaguely resembled her spoon.

Traveling to Equestria hadn't been easy, although the option to come to Ponyville at the speed of Sonic Rainboom had been available. Something about a visiting looper who was in a bad state. But since none of the other fillies her age were Awake, and Silver Spoon figured what she'd learned so far in medical alchemy would be foal's play to the stuff Miss Twilight and the others could do, she'd turned down the offer.

It was a decision her sore hooves were really regretting at the moment, but after almost two months of nonstop travel it was finally almost - !

Silver Spoon squealed as something closed around her back hoof and yanked her into the air. Her hooves flailed wildly for a good minute before she realized that it wasn't a monster looking for a filly-sized snack that had gotten her. No, the culprit was a simple snare, and now Silver Spoon was dangling from a tree like a piece of fruit. Still, it was just a regular piece of rope, and it only took the filly a few minutes of really awkward wiggling around before she could transmute one of her bracelets into a knife to cut the rope with.

Miss Twilight hadn't said anything about traps, but after thinking about it made sense to Silver Spoon. Anypony who lived in a big, scary, monster-filled place like the Everfree Forest would want to set up defenses against being gobbled up. It made perfect sense. Silver Spoon kept thinking that until she landed back on the forest floor - and shrieked as the rope snare hidden underneath the first snare promptly hauled her back into the air.

"My apologies for the lack of warning," Miss Zecora said as she poured a cup of tea for the bedraggled filly that had finally made it to her hut, "Though I disarmed all the traps my guest laid this morning. I thought he spend the day in meditation, but instead he practiced his trap replication."

Silver Spoon glared daggers at the door to Miss Zecora's hut. After she'd cut herself down from the second snare, the rest of the trail had been filled with pit traps, tripwires rigged to drop nasty things on her, and other things disguised as traps to trick her into falling into all the real traps.

She had only gotten a glimpse of the offender: a regular pony with a silver mane like hers. Miss Zecora had said something to him that Silver Spoon hadn't heard clearly, though it sounded like she was scolding him, and the pony had disappeared into the trees without a reply.

It turned out this was the looper everypony had been worried about back when the loop started. As Silver Spoon had thought, they hadn't needed her help with that after all. But he was supposed to be staying with Miss Zecora so he could rest, meditate, and work on healing his mind after whatever happened (Miss Zecora had given Silver Spoon a look that told her she really didn't want to know what that was).

Instead he was trapping the forest in a mile radius around Miss Zecora's house and patrolling like he expected to be attacked by all the monsters in Tartarus any second.

"The words 'paranoid' and 'ninja' are often synonymous, but this behavior is certainly anomalous," Miss Zecora added, "My words he once heeded, but of late no longer. I fear his defenses against others will only grow stronger."

Silver Spoon spent three uncomfortable days thinking about what was going on. Miss Zecora had told her that Kakashi was a new looper too, and she could definitely empathize with suddenly looping and finding out how everypony you thought you knew so well were like completely different ponies.

But after three days, Silver Spoon had had enough of the tense atmosphere surrounding Miss Zecora's hut. Time and again, she saw Miss Zecora try to offer help to the guest looper, and every time she was being ignored. Some how, some way, Silver Spoon was determined to do something about this.

"Excuse me," Silver Spoon called up into the tree where she could see Kakashi lurking today, "Can you come down here for a second? I need to talk to you."

Much to her surprise, he did so. But the cool indifferent gaze in his eye - the other was closed for some reason - made her nervous.

"...W-Well, Miss Zecora said you're a new looper," Silver Spoon managed, "I just started looping recently too. I was wondering...if you wanted to talk about it - "

"No."

With that curt reply, the ninja pony returned to his tree. Silver Spoon gaped, surprised at getting such a rude response.

And then she got mad.

So, Kakashi didn't want to do this the Pony way, did he?

Silver Spoon was sprawled out on her stomach, panting hard. Not far away was Kakashi, who had managed to sit up for a few seconds before he gave up and flopped over on his side. Both of them were also covered in a mix of mud, twigs, and tree sap, and the crater they were lying in was full of torn-up trees and broken pieces of giant spoons.

At some point during the fight he'd set her mane on fire. She'd retaliated by giving him a black eye over his Sharingan.

And ten seconds after both of them had fallen over from exhaustion, they'd started laughing.

Now they were chatting amicably, while Miss Zecora (who had made some disapproving noises but was otherwise smiling quite a bit herself) got to work growing new trees to fill in what had once been one of the densest, darkest parts of the Everfree Forest.

It wasn't very long before a frantic Naruto and Miss Twilight arrived on the scene.

" - must be awkward, being different species all the time," Kakashi was saying as they arrived.

"Yeah, but I do like learning new languages," Silver Spoon admitted before realizing they had an audience.

Kakashi tried sitting up again, failed miserably, and settled for weakly waving a hoof before Naruto latched onto him in a hug.

"...Sorry I'm late."

There was a pause.

"I was busy fighting a baby zebra, but I eventually won."

"Liar," Silver Spoon giggled.

"Well, Zecora's told me that your chakra pathways have successfully stabilized," Twilight Sparkle said, "It should be safe to go ahead with the immersion therapy now."

Kakashi wasn't entirely sure what he was doing here. In fact, if it weren't for Naruto and Silver Spoon hemming him in on either side, the Jounin would've swapped himself with a log and headed back into the depths of the Everfree Forest minutes ago. Well, assuming the swap worked, because this pony body made jutsu very troublesome. Hand signs needed fingers. None of the ponies or Zecora would be able to address the problem, since it wasn't like any of them started out using fingers.

At least he'd been able to work on his taijutsu - Silver Spoon was actually a great help. She'd been taught to fight in the same loop she'd learned her alchemy powers, and her vast experience with relearning how to use all her skills when her body changed was invaluable.

Silver Spoon, Kakashi had decided, was certainly best Zebra.

Unfortunately, Silver Spoon didn't know any jutsu and so she couldn't help with that. Ah, well, the jutsu situation was something time and more experience would fix. Naruto had been...looping, as they all called it, for a long, long time. Clearly he was fine, so Kakashi would be fine too.

Instead of saying any of the things he was thinking, Kakashi did his favorite eye-smile (noting sourly that it really didn't work when he wasn't wearing his mask) and casually replied, "Ah, immersion therapy?"

"We'll start off small," Twilight Sparkle said, nodding and turning to a nearby tree, "Fluttershy, can you come out please?"

Kakashi looked over just as a pegasus tiptoed out from behind the tree. He had just enough time to marvel at how much the 'shy' part of her name suited her before a goat bleated somewhere and the whole universe went sideways.

And pink.

" -ashi? Kakashi!"

Kakashi came back to himself, belatedly realizing he was on the ground with several worried ponies standing over him.

"He's coming around, give him some air!"

"...What happened?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto, who had ignored Twilight Sparkle's instruction to get back, sighed heavily.

"You saw Fluttershy is what happened," Konoha's Number One Surprising Ninja said, "This happened before too, right after we first woke you up."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" a voice that Kakashi was unfamiliar with cried from somewhere in the background.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Fluttershy dear," another new voice, this one much more prim and proper, answered. "Now hold still, this spell will change the color of your mane for a few days..."

"Fluttershy's mane," Naruto added quietly, "Is bright pink."

Just like Sakura's hair.

"...Immersion therapy, huh." muttered Kakashi.

It took two weeks before they saw solid signs of progress. The color-change spell had started fading after the first week, very slowly shifting Fluttershy's mane and tail back to its normal pink during the course of the second one.

Rarity, on Naruto's advice, had changed Fluttershy's hair color to a vividly bright red. The color didn't suit Fluttershy at all, but Kakashi seemed to relax more with the red than he did with Rarity's original choice of peach.

The ninja had gotten a little twitchy once Fluttershy's natural pink-ness started becoming visible again, but Fluttershy's kind and caring self didn't change even though her mane did. Finally, it got to the point where Fluttershy was completely pink again and Kakashi didn't react to her at all.

Everypony had been patting themselves on the back, but the next step would be much harder. Ponyville had many ponies in various shades of pink, including Pinkie Pie herself. Pinkie Pie had accidentally proven that Kakashi would need more help by setting him off herself when the urge to throw his 'Welcome to Equestria/Hooray for Being a New Looper' party overwhelmed her better judgement.

Luckily, Konoha's Number One Confusing Ninja had come up with a plan of his own. It was based off a prank Naruto had done to the Unawake Kakashi more times than he could ever remember. It only seemed fitting to use to help the Awake Kakashi now.

"YOSH!"

Kakashi...stared. Fluttershy had asked if he could get something from the shed (if he wasn't busy, and didn't mind the walk), but he couldn't remember what it was. Not after seeing...this.

"Eternal Rival! I am here to deliver a most Youthful Challenge!"

Kakashi was fairly sure he'd seen this pony before, too. Even after extended Fluttershy exposure, the other shades of pink still set him off, but Kakashi could have sworn he'd seen this pony around. Mostly peeking through Fluttershy's windows at him.

The jumpsuit and bowl cut were nostalgically familiar, and Kakashi's reply was automatic.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Yosh! A most Hip and Youthful reply!" 'Pinkie Gai' announced, "As expected of my Eternal Rival! Now, accept my Challenge!"

"...What challenge?" Kakashi asked, warily.

Pinkie pulled a large poster from nowhere.

"Pin the Tail on the Pony! And if I cannot beat you at it, I will make one thousand balloon animals!"

"I still can't believe this worked," Twilight said, looking around Fluttershy's lawn.

'Pinkie Gai' had challenged Kakashi to one party game after another. Then to a cupcake-eating contest. Right now they were doing a dance battle. Somehow in the middle of this, other ponies had arrived from Ponyville and the whole thing had turned into a full-fledged Pinkie Pie Party.

Naruto's grin had gone from 'smug' to 'foxy' sometime around the limbo contest.

1.4 (Berryc100588 and Conceptualist)

"Kakashi-Sensei? What did Sakura actually do to you that made you lock up like that?" Naruto asked.

"I don't want to talk about it. It's still too distressing." Kakashi responded.

Naruto was bored. Very, very bored. He had awoke a week earlier than normal, and immediately started on a prank for graduation. Unfortunately, that meant playing things baseline for a while. Fortunately, he was not the only one bored out of his mind.

"Sasuke..."

Sasuke sighed and turned to his bored teammate. "What is it now?"

"What do you think Sakura did to Kakashi?" Naruto asked.

"Do you really want to know?" Sasuke deadpanned.

"Nope." Naruto started to twirl a kunai. "But I'm bored and filled with morbid curiosity."

Sasuke glared with all the force his eyes could muster. As he was a many times over master of the sharigan, that was quite a lot of force. "Naruto. Just drop it."

Naruto ignored Sasuke's glare with a dispassionate huff. He then started to stare off into the middle distance.

Sasuke let loose some killing intent. "Naruto. Don't do it."

"Do what?" Naruto gestured to rest of the room, pointing out the lack of new forms of entertainment. "I'm just sitting here, playing with my kunai and wow that did not sound right."

"No kidding." Sasuke snickered.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." A heavy sigh issued from Naruto. "Well, what's the plan for the rest of the loop? After graduating, of course. I already have plans for that."

Sasuke pulled a scroll out of subspace. "Lets see... Sakura has called dibs on Orchimaru again, I'm going for joining Akatsuki early, and right now you have another week of baseline Ninja school to pull of that prank. Which you haven't told me about yet."

Naruto grinned. "All I will say is that it involves whipped cream and tree sap."

"And no one else Pinged. So we might have some stealth loopers, but that's it," Sasuke finished.

"So... Sakura is Awake?" Naruto asked. "I'm gonna go ask her what she did to Kakashi." Naruto vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"... for the record, I did warn you not to do it."

Naruto walked up to Sasuke's house. A defeated look had settled onto his face. It spoke of horrors that were said to be unimaginable. It spoke of terrors that made the things that go bump in the night run and hide. It spoke of the worst. Possible. Thing.

An Awake Sakura, proving once again why there is a syndrome named after her.

Naruto muster up the energy to ring Sasuke's doorbell. After he opened the door, Sasuke asked "Was it as bad as what I think it was."

A mumbled "Uhun" was Naruto's answer.

"Do you need booze?"

Naruto nodded.

"How much?"

"Lots. She decided to demonstrate. On herself."

Sasuke peered at his emotionally scarred friend. "How in the name of the Log does that work?"

Naruto stared. He stared into Sasuke's very soul. "Booze. Now. And she has clones. She keeps a large supply of clones of herself in her Subspace Pocket. Like the kind you see on Kamino, not the Ninja kind. Rows and rows of Sakuri, floating in giant test tubes and waiting for her to pull one out and start experimenting on it."

Sasuke had a strained smile, like he aattempting to look on the bright side in the middle to the night."She sounds like she is reining herself in well. That used to be clones of us instead of her."

"I know. Don't care, still fricken creepy. Booze. Now. I have memories to drown."

1.5 (Leonite)

Sometimes loops could have interesting variants. Sometimes loops could give new people for you to meet.

Naruto sighed. "I hate playing the supporting role sometimes," He muttered. He and Yu stepped into the Liquor Store. "I mean... we both know she's probably dead."

And sometimes Yu ended up playing host to an utterly bored first generation Looper like Naruto. It always amazed him how someone could be so blase about the pain they're supposed to feel in their role. "Just be careful. A Shadow will confront you with the truths that you don't want to hear." Yu said... but something seemed off. Teddie was with them, that wasn't it. Sakura had replaced Chie, so he was not looking forward to fighting what would most likely be Mara... but Saki's voice hadn't echoed out at all. And then a dark, distorted chuckling sounded out as both Yu and Naruto turned. A yellow eyed Naruto, dressed in Naruto's standard outfit rather than the school uniform he was wearing right now, stood before them.

"Yeah she's totally dead, and who cares?" Shadow Naruto said.

"T-Two Naruto's?" Teddie asked. Usually Yu would have replied with a snarky comment... but something about this Shadow seemed more off than usual. Aside from anything else, he hadn't had a fused loop where the first generation was part of his team.

"After all, I shouldn't care at all. I'm immortal, I'm above their stupid laws, morals and decency." Shadow Naruto continued.

Naruto snorted. "Please, I get an earful of this from Dark Naruto, you aren't revealing anything new." He insisted.

Shadow Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Of course, I fail to realize that in the process I've been more depraved than Sakura ever was." Naruto winced. "I've killed more people in one loop than Madara or Obito could hope to with the Moon's Eye Plan, all in the name of fun." Naruto growled a little at this point, his fists balled up. "And I've never regretted it."

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled "That's not true."

"Of course it is!" Shadow Naruto said, a big grin on his face. "I am you after all. All these dark secrets, these simple loops, all these times torturing Kakashi-Sensei even when it went too far, watching as Konoha burned. I enjoyed it. You enjoyed it -tebbayo." The grin shrunk down to just a simple smirk. "The villagers were right. I'm a monster, worse than they think the Kyuubi is!"

"Don't you dare say that!" Naruto growled out. His eyes were red, and slitted, clearly angry enough to call on Kurama's power.

"Naruto don't!" Yu yelled out.

"Why shouldn't I?" Shadow Naruto shouted back at his counterpart.

"You don't have any right to! You can't understand what it's like because you're not me!" Naruto clasped a hand over his mouth in shock, but by then the damage was done. Shadow Naruto chuckled... and then started to fully laugh.

"Not anymore I'm not! I can't believe you were that stupid!" the Shadow declared, turning into liquid as hundreds of shadows gathered to him... too many, he's growing too fast!

"Outside, now!" Yu shouted. Him and Teddie ran as Naruto shook his head before he followed them out, the haunted Liquor Store crumbling around them As the three emerged, a tremendous roar bellowed out as a tremendous beast emerged. It looked like Kurama with all nine tails, but as if he had been skinned, a person chained to each of the tails, letting out an unholy wail as they did. Half or a stretched out orange spiral mask covers the shadow's face, it's other revealed eye showing the cris-cross of Sage Mode and Kurama's Chakra. It was surrounded in a hazy shroud of red chakra, skin constantly regenerating, only to be eaten away, the claws slick with blood.

"I am the Shadow. The true self," Shadow Naruto rumbled out. "I am one of the first, the greatest of them. They should all bow down and do what I want to do, for I am a god to them. I will kill you to make sure I can be me!" Yu gripped his sword and looked at Naruto... who trembled, gripping his stomach in pain. The Shadow was formed from the emotions of a first generation looper, and that looper could barely stand. Yu grunted as a card spun in his hand, this would be a rough fight.

Sakura stared down at the rope. The useless rope that had been severed by the portal into the TV world. "Damn it, a new realm filled with the manifestations of the human mind? That's pay dirt... and I'm missing it." She , she just gazed at the TV... and then stumbled back. She could sense a tremendous power, an extremely powerful killing intent. It was like the time that she had experimented on the Hyuuga to see if they could awaken the Rinnegan... without letting Sasuke or Naruto know about it.

*Flashback*

"Look it's not that bad alright!"

"Sakura... look at them. Neji can barely move, he looks more like a tree than anything else... and he's one of the lucky ones. I think Naruto is still looking for Hinata's ashes... there's nothing else left of her."

"Big deal, they won't remember it Sasuke. It's all in the name of glorious science!"

"You're no better than baseline Orochimaru!"

"At least I had some foundation for it! I had science backing me up, what he did butchered it. Don't you dare... Naruto... what are you doing?"

"..."

"Naruto?"

"Demonic Sage Art: Giant Galactic Rasenshuriken."

*End Flashback*

Sakura blinked as she tore herself away from the memory. All that was left in it was the sound of a shrieking bell before she awoke in Equestria, already on the moon. Naruto had avoided her since then and she couldn't blame him for it. She had tried her best to make it up to him, but when you are an immortal time may not heal certain wounds. But this presence... it felt the same, but twisted. Warped. "Naruto's gotten himself in trouble... he's gotten in trouble inside a world of shadows." She gazed at the TV. "Damn it... I don't want him to die this quickly. He isn't a ninja this time. He hasn't even been able to use Kurama." And while the other guy was one of the locals... she doubted even now that she could fight Naruto on her own when he was going that far.

She saw a glint of blue out of the corner of her eye... and then stared at her reflection in the TV. The reflection had changed. Unlike Sakura, who was dressed in her school uniform and a red jacket, she was dressed in her ninja garb. Sakura glanced around... it can't be a genjutsu. There's no chakra here, and no-one seems to be nearby. "Oh yes, boo hoo, Naruto shouldn't die, he's ruining my fun!" The copy in the TV mocked. "Who cares about his morals anyway? He shouldn't care about these things,, my experiments are fun!" Sakura stared at her doppleganger even as Shadow Sakura continued. "These loops are madness anyway, why is Naruto concerned if I'm a bit mad? That bitch wasn't even looping at the time!" The voice came out distorted. "All the boys and girls in the multiverse are mine to play with."

"Yeah, so?"

Shadow Sakura blinked. Sakura had clenched her fists at this point and glared at the shadow. "The point is that I'm a psychopath. A sociopath." Shadow Sakura insisted. "Sex and science are fun, it's the only way to do things!"

"And?"

Shadow Sakura stumbled at that. "W-well it means that I'm a monster to them all. Worse than Orochimaru ever was in any loop! Naruto will never forgive me even if Sasuke does!"

Sakura glared at her shadow counterpart... before she let out a sigh. "Yeah. You're probably right about that." She admitted.

"...what?"

"I couldn't handle the loops... so I went off the deep end. I went so far trying to find a way to cope, I went crazy... I think I'm still crazy." Sakura said as her eyes started to water. "I only have two or three consistent friends in the world and I've hurt them. All in the name of my own pleasure."

The Shadow growled. "That's not what you're supposed to do bitch! You should be denying me!" It yelled... she seemed to be losing her composure.

"Why should I? We both know it's true." Sakura said. "Sasuke has done terrible things himself, but Naruto hasn't. He finds ways to make sure he never needs to be the monster that he's been called, not unless we all agree. He might never forgive me... but that won't stop me trying. It's who I am."

Shadow Sakura opened her mouth as if preparing to let out a roar... and then closed it with a soft smile. "Yeah, I can't argue with that." She admitted... before dispersing into energy. A blue card floated out of the screen and into Sakura's hand. On one side a two toned mask was shown. On the othera large muscled woman, pin in colour and dressed in a red bodysuit. Her head is covered by a mask, half of it showing a calm looking version of her face, looking almost like Tsunade's does on the monument... and the other half is her in her mad scientist moods, a maniacal grin plastered on. The mask is pink on the calm side, and white on the mad side.

Sakura smiled as she heard a voice echo around her. "You have obtained the facade, the mask one wears to make it through the hardships of life. The persona Mochizuki Chiyome. Now go. Save Naruto."

With a grin, an actual, genuine grin one her face, Sakura leapt into the TV.

Yu narrowly dodged a blast of air from the shadow kitsune, grimacing as he noticed that where he had just been standing was shredded to dust. He had expected a challenge going into this, and had called in a few favors with Igor as a result, but not to this extent... he reached out his hand, a blue card appearing in it, only to shatter like glass as he grasped it. "Loki!" As he declared this, a man in a white robe blonde hair, pointed ears and purple skin appeared and nodded to Yu. The Persona who emodied the maximized Fool Arcana, symbolized in the Investigation team, leapt into the air and started speedily flying around the mouth of the monsterous shadow and covering it in heavy ice. Yu glanced over at Naruto. He had at least expected Naruto to still be able to fight and help him out, but Naruto looked busy enough as his seal glowed violently. Yu could only wince as the shadow opened it's jaw wide, snapping the ice off like it was nothing.

"You cannot stop me. I will steal from the other me the power of the demon he holds within, and I will take his place." Shadow Naruto rumbled out.

Naruto just glared at his counterpart. "Oh shut up already, you sound more cliched than Obito does!" He snapped.

Shadow Naruto snarled and swiped at Naruto with a claw... only for Naruto to leap into the air, narrowly dodging it. Yu felt glad that Teddie had seen it wise to flee the field before the fight, but this wasn't getting anywhere. Loki was surrounded in blue energy as Yu reached out a hand to him, before it shattered again as Yu grasped the air. "Isis!" A dark skinned winged woman embodying the Empress Arcana and Margret took Loki's place. She flew above Shadow Naruto as energy gathered on her... and then she let out a massive blast of green wind energy, powerful enough to tear people apart... and it had no effect on him.

"Seriously? Either of me will tell you, the wind is MY specialty!" Shadow Naruto stated, sending out another blast at Yu. Isis swooped down, pulling the silver haired teen out of the blast, although when you looked at her there were hundreds of small scratches on her back, she seemed to be leaking energy before shattering away. Damn it, he had specifically fused Isis to inherit wind skills purely because he lacked them. "You're more pathetic than he is! I've changed my mind, you're going to be sacrificed for my amusement-"

"CHERRY BLOSSOM HAND!"

A massive pink fist slammed into the back of the kitsune shadow. Before it could manage to regain it's footing Sakura, her arm glowing with spiritual energy, and Mochizuki Chiyome slammed their fists into its back as well. Shadow Naruto collapsed onto the ground as they did. Naruto and Yu gaped at the scene before Sakura yelled out. "Oi guys, are we going to waste this chance?" The two glanced at each other and grinned, even as Yu pulled out his sword and Naruto a kunai, the three rushed at him, heavy blade swings, fist swings and such landing into the shadow's body.

"No... I won't let this happen." The shadow roared. with a blast of energy the three were sent flying back a few feet, but stayed on them. "I refuse to be humiliated like one of the other me's prank-"

"Mada!"

"-victims" Shadow Naruto managed to say before a gigantic purple and black four armed flaming Persona landed on its back and knocked it to the ground again. Yu smirked as he still felt his bond with Yosuke strong even across dimensions. Said bond had become the Magician Social Link... with Mada at the end of it. "No... this isn't..."

Yu sighed. "Face it. You claim that you're better than the real you, but you sound like a cliched villain half the time." Yu commented.

"SHUT UP!" Shadow Naruto roared. More energy blasted off of him, sending Yu and Sakura flying this time, along with their persona. The shadow stood up as each of the bodies chained to it's tail (one of which, Yu noted, looked a lot like Sakura) opened their mouths as if in a silent scream. White energy filled them as similar energy. "I'll show you... Kyuubi Shadow Blast." As it spoke those last word, the nine points of white energy fired out, as did the main blast, as beams, the nine rapidly wrapping themselves around the main blast. Even as Mada raised it's hands and firing out four blasts of fire with Mochizuki ruching forward for another spiritual punch... the blast tore through them like it was nothing. Sakura's persona was consumed in the glow and power of the energy blast, even as Mada stood in front of it. The glow momentarily blinded the group... and then Sakura collapsed to her knees.

Mochizuki Chiyome laid on the ground. Pieces of spiritual energy, almost like data really, flickered about her. She had been lucky though. Mada's legs still stood for the moment, but the entire upper half had been obliterated. Soon the lower half simply evaporated into energy. Yu barely held himself up as he held onto the wreckage of the TV world Liquor Store. "Damn it." He muttered, even as Sakura gripped her fists and pulled herself up slowly, her Persona doing the same. A blast like that... of course Naruto would be the one to be able to surpass all of the regular Shadow selves.

Shadow Naruto laughed, a deep bubbling laugh. "Do you see now how pointless it is?" He asked. "When compared to someone as strong as I am you can never win. I will always rule supreme as the strongest Shadow and the strongest looper!" He declared as white energy started gathering again.

"Oh just shut up!" Yu and Sakura glanced over as Naruto leaped at his Shadow... an immense blue sphere in his hands and black slits on yellow eyes. "Sage Art: Giant Rasengan!" The ball exploded outward and sent Shadow Naruto into another one of the buildings, crushing it.

Sakura sighed as Mochizuki pulled herself up. "Ok Naruto, how are you in Sage Mode, and what took you so long?" She asked. Yu raised an eyebrow... he'd have thought the first question to be "How are you using Chakra?"

Naruto simply grinned. "This place reflects the human world... so I ended up figuring out that meant it would copy the natural energy too." He said. Whatever Sakura's retort would be was cut off as they saw Shadow Naruto start to pull itself up. "Shall we finish this then?"

"Yeah, this other you is getting really annoying," Sakura noted.

Yu simply smiled even as he reached out. "Then lets stop messing around. Izanagi no Ookami," He stated, crushing another card as a the masked persona in white with it's immense spear appeared.

Naruto grinned as he saw it. He held out a hand, a swirling Rasengan gathering in it. "Lets take him!"

"Yeah!" Sakura shouted. She looked around as if trying to find him... and she probably was, Yu noted. She lacked Teddie's special glasses.

Yu glared at the shadow. "Follow my signal Sakura. ZIODYNE!" He declared, a powerful blast of lighting striking out an instant and pushed it's way through Shadow Naruto, who roared in pain. "One!"

Sakura grinned and leaped towards the blast, her persona in tandem with her. Both arms were cocked back, aglow with blue energy. "Cherry Blossom Crash!" Sakura announced as the two super strong fists slammed into Shadow Naruto's face and caused it to slam into the building behind it. "Two!"

Naruto held out the orb towards Yu. "Hey, it's your loop... how about we finish this battle together?" He asked. Yu looked at Naruto and saw whatever darkness that had troubled him before gone... and smiled. He held out his hand and pushed energy into the orb... as did Izanagi no Ookami. The Rasengan started to spark and grow, taken on a sharp point at the top as they ran towards Naruto's Shadow.

It looked down and roared. "No!" As it swung a claw down, the attack deflected by Izanagi's blade. This leaft the two to rush at the belly of the beast.

"Take this! Rasenspear!" Naruto shouted as they slammed the pointed orb forward. The orb spun faster and faster as they did... and then it expanded, as if the spear made for a giant out of pure electrical energy had been pushed through Shadow Naruto, electricity arcing up and down it's body, each of the corpse like bodies exploding as the electricity ran down into the nine tails, turning into black ichor as Shadow Naruto roared out. Such was the force that Yu and Naruto were blasted back... only to be caught by Izanagi no Ookami. the two smiled as they glanced at the scene. Shadow Naruto raised a claw, as if attempting to get up once more... and then slumped as the big body turned into black ichor, pooling down at the bottom of the building and took the form of Naruto once more.

"Hey." Naruto stepped forward slowly. He panted... that obviously had taken more out of him than he'd like to admit. Shadow Naruto looked up at him. "I kinda get it now. There's always that temptation in me to abuse my power, to do things that no regular person should even think of doing. The part of me that doesn't mind if Konoha burns during one loop, that decided I was so bored with sex I'd try to go without sex. The part that terrifies anyone who doesn't loop... and some of those who do." Naruto held out his hand. "The part of me I don't like to be. But you're still me, and if I don't admit it... then I'll become bitter and fall into an obsession with the past like Obito.

Shadow Naruto let a small grin cross his face. "Yeah... try to tone down the power next time though. Who'd think that such a young looper can give it so much strength?" He pointed out as he turned into blue light... and with a flash, a kitsune appeared above Naruto's head, much like the shadow, but with the orange fur of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Each of the bodies had been replaced, each tail ending in a mask.

"Thou art I... and I'm diverting from the script," The persona growled out.

Naruto facefaulted. "Of course... as soon as I get something cool, it ends up being your new body doesn't it Kurama?" He asked.

Kurama just grinned. "Technically I'm the persona Kyuubi no Kitsune," He remarked as Naruto let out an anguished yell. Sakura smiled at the scene... before she walked over to Yu.

"Hey... thanks for letting him go through this," Sakura noted. "Naruto's been needing some help for a while... and there aren't many psychologists that help like this."

Yu simply smiled back. "It was my pleasure... maybe there's something to be said for it as a treatment for loopers too."

Time suddenly froze around Yu. This wasn't a new sensation, but he hadn't expected it... had he formed a social link with Naruto and Sakura?

THOU ART I AND I AM THOU. THOU HAST GAINED NEW BONDS THAT SHALL LAST BEYOND TIME AND SPACE. THOU SHALT BE FURTHER BLESSED WHEN F+FORMING PERSONA OF THE MAGICIAN AND CHARIOT ARCANA.

Well that explained it.

"So guys... where are we?" Sakura asked as time flowed forward again, still without the special glasses.

Igor shuffled the tarot card even as he heard the door being opened. "Ah, Mr. Narukami... welcome back," He stated.

Yu smiled. "I have to admit, you saved us today," Yu casually noted. Margret wasn't in the Velvet Room, as Igor had suspected that Yu would be coming in.

"Why whatever do you mean my boy?" Igor asked even as his grin remained on his face.

Yu just let his own smile match as best he could. "You don't have to hide it. Sakura just so happens to face her shadow when we needed help most?" He asked. "And she has access to God Hand right away? It's not hard to connect the dots Igor."

Igor, if anything, grinned wider. "You had a marvelous idea for Mr. Uzumaki... so I simply felt that perhaps Ms. Hanuro could do with the same treatment. The timing was simply a coincidence."

"Well coincidentally, I owe you."

Igor shook his head. "Let us just consider it paid for... after all, you and I both know it's not often I get to spend time with such marvelous and interesting guests," He insisted. Yu just smiled as he stood up and walked out of the Velvet Room.

1.1 - Ty Pennington is apparently a carpenter, with a tv show

1.2 - Where the hell had Tama been during Sasuke's baseline?

1.3 - Kakashi awakens, and getting therapy

1.4 - Sometimes, it better not to know, ignorance is bliss after all

1.5 - Sakura's recovery begins