Jinchuriki Training Field

On the field, the Mane Six were sparring with Naruto. The girls were in Version 1 state yet couldn't land a single hit on Naruto.

"What's the matter girls? You're a bit slow today." Naruto taunted the girls. Naruto threw a kick at Applejack's head who then blocked by holding up her arm to block.

"No, nothing like that." Applejack stated as she deflected Naruto's leg away. Naruto then back-flipped away from the girls. Rarity then summoned three cranes.

"Ladies, I need your help." Rarity said to her contracts.

"Yes, milady." Michiko said to Rarity. "Get ready sisters!" Rarity and the cranes summoned fans with different designs on each. They then crossed their hands while Naruto got ready for whatever they would throw at him.

"Wind Style: Four Corner Tornado!" Rarity and the cranes shouted as they made a slash movement with their fans and created a giant tornado. The tornado raced towards Naruto who stood his ground. The tornado engulfed while the girls watched. When the tornado dissipated, the girls were alarmed to see Naruto had disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Rainbow Dash asked. Pinkie Pie's tail then started twitching. This got everyone's attention as they ran away as they could before Naruto came down from the sky and punched the ground with a solid hit while in Version 2 state.

"It appears that I missed." Naruto stated as he meant to hit Applejack.

"Nice job Pinkie Pie. If your Pinkie Sense didn't kick in, ah may have been takin' a long nap." Applejack said.

"You're welcome AJ." Pinkie Pie said with a smile.

"So, you predicted my location with your Pinkie Sense? That's very smart of you." Naruto complimented Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie grinned. "Now, let's continue." Before they could, Spike came running.

"Stopppp!" Spike shouted as he stopped by Naruto and was out of breath.

"What's up Spike?" Naruto asked.

"It's a letter from Princess Celestia." Naruto got a letter from Spike. "Probably a love letter or something for Kokuou." Naruto joked as he opened the scroll but when he read the letter, his eyes went wide and was stunned.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Girls, go to the house and tell the others to come to the library immediately." Naruto said as he ran off. The girls were very confused.

"What's up with him?" Michiko's sister asked.

"I don't know but we better go find the others." Twilight suggested. Spike and the girls then went to the house.

*Episode Title: Massacre of Sunset Town*

The team arrived at the library to see Naruto sitting at the table.

"Naruto, what's going on?" Kurama asked. Naruto looked at the team and opened the scroll. He put his hand on a spot on the scroll for a hand. After channeling some of his energy, a manifestation of Celestia appeared.

"Hello everyone." Celestia said as she greeted the team.

"Hello Princess Celestia." Twilight greeted the Princess as she and the rest of the Mane Six bowed.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Shukaku asked impatiently. Celestia's face then turned serious and the team could see it.

"I'm going to cut to the chase here." Celestia said to the team. The team was ready. "An entire town was destroyed last night." Everyone became surprised by the news. "Unknown entities arrived and killed all of the citizens." The Mane Six's faces were of pure terror and shock while the Jinchuriki's eyes went wide.

"Ki-killed?" Fluttershy asked as she was shivering.

"Yes. I'm sorry to be the terror of bad news but that's what happened. They struck without warning and basically destroyed everything in sight." Fluttershy then held onto Kokuou and started crying. Kokuou couldn't blame her. She never knew that someone could be that cruel to kill innocent lives. Guess the idea of murder was not seen very often by others in this land.

"But who would do something like this?" Kokuou asked.

"Right now, we have no suspects. Sunset Town is a very small town, smaller than Ponyville. I don't see why anyone would target it."

"Could it be bandits? Bandits would usually target small areas to pillage them." Gaara suggested.

"We do have bandits in Equestria but they don't go on killing sprees."

"Where is this town?" Naruto asked.

"In southern Equestria near the border of the Badlands."

"You think it was Garble and his cronies? They might have been upset by our actions and took their revenge on the closest pony village they could find." Naruto asked Kurama.

"Possibly. What do you want us to do?" Kurama asked the Princesses.

"I want to send a small team to go investigate this town and back up the Royal Guards I sent there earlier. See if you can find any leads on who may have done this."

"We'll go!" Rainbow Dash said exuberantly.

"No, we have no idea who did this and we can't risk losing the Elements of Harmony." Kinkaku said.

"I agree. Twilight, you and your friends are the only ones who can wield the Elements. There's a possibility that whoever did this may have used the massacre to lure you there and kill you." Celestia said. The Mane Six never thought about that.

"Then who will go?" Gaara asked.

"Team Foxes and Team Monkeys will go." Kurama suggested.

"Kurama, you can't be serious about bringing Spike there!" Rarity shouted.

"Spike will be a lower risk of being attacked. Almost all of Equestria knows who you six are and we can't risk your safety. Besides, Spike is a messenger. If we encounter trouble, we'll contact Celestia for more help." Kurama said.

"Princess Celestia, what do you think?" Applejack asked.

"I know I don't want Spike to be hurt but Kurama is right. We need someone who will relay messages to me if urgent." Celestia said. "Team Foxes, Team Monkeys, I am sending you to Sunset Town to investigate this crime. Help the Royal Guards find any clues. If you encounter any hostile, detain them if necessary. Use force if you must." The seven bowed. "I wish you the best of luck." Celestia's manifestation disappeared and the scroll closed back up.

"Everyone, we must get ready."

1 hour later

Team Foxes and Team Monkeys were at the outskirts of town. They had packed some supplies and Kinkaku carried the Bashoshen just in case. The rest of them team wished them good luck.

"Make sure you come back alive, you hear." Gyuki said to them.

"Got it." Kinkaku said.

"Spikey-wikey, please be careful." Rarity said as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.

"I will Rarity." Spike said.

"Naruto, you protect Spike or we'll hunt you down and hurt you really BAD!" Twilight threatened. "Okay?" Twilight said in a normal tone.

"Got it." Naruto said, a bit shaken.

"We better get going." Kurama said.

"Later everyone." Roshi said as the investigation team walked off.

"Bye!" The Cutie Mark Crusaders shouted.

"Don't break your back, Roshi!" Pinkie Pie shouted. Roshi's back winced a little and he rubbed it. He didn't want to say anything vulgar so he gave a thumbs-up as he kept walking.

"Good luck guys!" Rainbow Dash shouted. Team Foxes and Son Goku gave a thumbs-up as well as they walked off.

Mission Log:

Gather Information about the Massacre at Sunset Town

Objective-Find clues as to who instigated the massacre. Any hostile responsible should be detained if necessary.

Ranking-Possibly Rank A or S

Later

The seven heroes headed through the trees at fast speeds. Naruto was anxious to get there.

"If we keep up the pace, we'll make it there in no time." Naruto said as he was ahead of the others. Naruto looked back at Spike who looked a bit upset. "What's the matter Spike?"

"Nothing's wrong Naruto."

"Spill it Spike."

"I'm just sad that innocent ponies were killed. I have never heard of that before." Spike said.

"Spike, back in my world, people take advantage of those who can't defend themselves. We have to fight to protect those in danger." Naruto clenched his fist. "Even if they're not part of the same country." Naruto's anger at the thought of innocent people being killed made his stomach boil and he entered initial form. Kurama grinned. He was still the hyperactive boy he always knew. He then saw an apparition of the Sage of Six Paths around Naruto.

'Sage, you still live on in this boy.' Kurama thought. Later, they knew their current speed will delay their arrival. To make the travel quicker, Kurama and Son Goku transformed and the team traveled on them.

3 hours later

When they arrived at the town, they were shocked by the devastation. The houses and stores were ranscaked and destroyed completely. Ponies were lying dead in the middle of the streets with deep gashes and cuts across their bodies. Naruto's mouth was open with shock. He's seen criminals kill the innocent before but not on such a horrible scale. Whoever this did this makes the Akatsuki look like petty criminals.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Kinkaku asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto said.

"Don't worry. Whoever did this will pay." Son Goku said as he went towards the town. The others followed after him. As they came close to the entrance of the town, they came upon a group of 12 guards.

"Halt! No one is allowed to enter!" The guard said.

"Don't worry. We were sent here by Princess Celestia to help you." Naruto said before he reached into his back pocket. The guards thought he was pulling out a weapon until they saw a letter. Naruto then gave the letter to the guards. After they read the letter, they understood. They let the heroes walk into the town. Kurama walked towards a dead stallion.

'They didn't even stand a chance.' Kurama thought. Kurama noticed the cuts on the stallion. They didn't appear to be made by a blade or a dragon. In fact, he had no idea what could have made these marks.

"Now what do we do?" Spike asked. Before they could respond, Naruto came to a house. The door appeared to still be a bit intact. Kurama kicked down the door right off the remaining hinges and walked inside.

"Kurama..." Naruto scolded his Biju.

"What?" Kurama asked. Kurama looked for anyone and heard some crying. They walked down to the basement and saw a stallion, a mare, and a filly cowering in the corner.

"Hello." Naruto called out to them. They looked at the team and were really scared now.

"Are-are you going to eat us?" The little filly asked.

"Of course not. Why would we do that?" Naruto asked as he took a knee to be at the filly's eye level. The filly could see some trust in the young Jinchuriki and walked up to him despite fear from her parents. "What''s your name?"

"Magic...Star." The girl quietly said.

"Okay Magic, tell me what happened here." Naruto said as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"I can answer that." Another pony said. It appeared that several citizens must have survived the assault. "They were looking for a very powerful stone."

"A stone?"

"Who might you be?" Son Goku asked.

"I'm the mayor of Sunset Town. The stone that they were looking for is said to hold immense power." The mayor explained.

"Immense power?"

"Yes, it should not belong in the hands of evil."

"Hang on. Before you go any further, who did this? If you survived, then you should know who attacked." Spike said. Magic Star got a piece of paper and a pencil and drew quickly. After a minute or two, she showed Naruto the drawing. When he looked at it, he was surprised. What she drew was a scorpion with a demonic-looking face. The way she drew it, the eyes of the demon was almost staring right at him.

Outside the House

Naruto and Kurama were outside looking at the drawing Magic Star drew while the others inside were interviewing the survivors.

"What do you make of this, Kurama?" Naruto asked.

"A scorpion by the looks of it." Kurama said.

"How can a scorpion do all of this? It doesn't make sense."

"This world does have its secrets." The Royal Guards came.

"What's the problem?" One of the guards asked.

"We found some survivors and one of them drew a picture of the alleged attacker." Kurama then showed them the picture. "If she is correct, then this scorpion is behind it."

"A scorpion?"

"Survivors? Where are they?"

"In the basement. Find out what else they know." Two guards then went into the basement to talk with the survivors. Kurama then turned to the other guards. "Guys, see if you can find any trace of where these scorpions went. I take it you know what kind of tracks scorpions leave?" They gave him a look that said, 'We know about scorpions, sir.' "Good, then go look for clues. Do not engage them if you find them." The Royal Guards then left.

The Cellar

"Now tell us, what happened." Son Goku asked.

"It was at sunset yesterday." Magic Star's father said as he reminisced about yesterday. "We were all enjoying the day when suddenly a stallion we knew was stabbed. We were in shock when we saw that a giant scorpion had done it. It turned to us and said in a creepy voice "Hello there.". It sounded female and when she looked at me, the only thing I could see was death. Suddenly, eight other scorpions came and out of all of them, there was one that stood out. You can feel the stench of death from him. He barked out orders to destroy everything in sight until they found the stone. Before the female scorpion could kill us, a stallion tackled her and ordered us to run. As we ran, we heard his screams of terror. We managed to find a cellar and hid from the attackers. We've been here ever since, afraid that they were still lurking about."

"Our friends, our family, our lives were destroyed in that one instant." The mayor said gloomily.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Spike said to the mayor.

"Hey, what is this stone you spoke about? What's so special about it?" Kinkaku asked him.

"This stone is said to be a key to evil." The mayor quickly explained.

"A key?" Roshi asked.

"According to my grandfather's stories, an old stallion gave it to the first settlers of Sunset Town right at the end of the reign of Discord. He wanted us to bury it so no one could find it. He said this with his own words, 'This is more than any ordinary stone. This stone contains part of an evil far worse than Discord. If this were to be used, this evil will destroy Equestria.' They didn't even doubt him. When you look at the stone, you can sense someone is staring at you. Someone...that's what to destroy you. They decided to hide the stone with each generation keeping watch over it. No one knows who this stallion was that gave us this stone."

"So they attacked the town to find the whereabouts of this stone?" A Royal Guard asked.

"Yes, but they have no idea that I'm the new keeper of it. They wanted to find any clues on how to locate it."

"Where is this stone now?" Spike asked.

"On the outskirts of town. Sorry, but it will be hard to track. You need a map and I had to burn it so they couldn't locate it." The mayor said.

"We understand. You did the right thing. But...we'll handle things from here on out." Roshi said. The team then left the basement to discuss strategy.

"We'll split into a few teams. Naruto and Spike, you'll cover the west area. Kinkaku and Ginkaku, you'll cover the north. Roshi, you keep watch over the survivors. Me and Son Goku will cover south and east." Kurama said. "Find the stone. If you encounter the demons, let us know. And find those guards. They should have been back by now." They all nodded and split up. Without their knowledge, Samael was watching nearby. The guards that went to find any trace of the scorpions were being choked by the scorpions' tails and were unconscious.

"So, the Biju have arrived. Hehehe. Make sure they don't find the stone before we do." Samael said as he darted his eyes behind him to his followers.

"Understood." A male scorpion said. The scorpions let the guards go.

"Bye sweetie." A female scorpion said to the guard she choked as she and the rest of her brethren burrowed underground to go after Team Foxes while Samael went after Kurama and Son Goku. The guards were left to die.

"Guys...run." One of the unconscious guards said.

With Naruto and Spike

Naruto and Spike were searching around.

"Now, if I were a stone, where would I be?" Spike asked.

"We should have had Rarity here. She could have detected the stone." Naruto said.

"Guards, where are you!?" Spike called out. Nearby, two scorpions were right behind the two with their tails armed to stab them.

With Kinkaku and Ginkaku

*Naruto Shippuden-Fierce*

Kinkaku and Ginkaku were also walking when 6 scorpions were digging right behind the two. They were completely silent and thus they couldn't be heard.

"Kinkaku." Ginkaku said.

"I know." Kinkaku responded. Before the scorpions could kill the brothers, they evade the tails and get out of the way.

"Aw, we missed." The first scorpion said.

"Show yourselves cowards." Ginkaku said. The scorpions then emerged from the ground.

"Master Samael said we are not to let you get near the stone." Another scorpion said.

"Samael?" Ginkaku asked Kinkaku.

"So, you destroyed the town?" Kinkaku asked the scorpions.

"What does it look like, genius?" The third scorpion asked. "How did you know we were here in the first place? We were completely silent."

"We can sense negative emotions thanks to Kurama's power. We felt your presence the moment you were ready to kill us. Also, we found about your kind's tendency to kill people from behind. Face it, you fell for our trap."

"I see. Guess our ambush was a bust. Guess we have to do this the old-fashioned way."

"Enough talk ladies. Let's kill these two worms already. I'm sure they'll make an appetizing meal." The fourth scorpion said as a green poison dripped from her tail. Kinkaku and Ginkaku got ready to fight.

With Kurama and Son Goku

Kurama and Son Goku stopped walking.

"How long are you going to follow us?" Kurama asked as he peeked behind to find Samael standing there.

"Not long. I was planning to either capture you or take the stone from you. But it looks I might have to do both." Samael said to the two. Kurama and Son Goku turned around and looked in his eyes and could see only darkness and hatred.

"I take it you're the one that destroyed the town." Son Goku said.

"Yes, I did. Those ponies sure made a good appetizer for me and my kin. Ponies always taste better when they're afraid."

"You're sick and disgusting." Kurama said to the demon.

"Why do you defend these weak mortals, Nine-Tails? They're worthless; they can't even defend themselves."

"That's the point. Back then, we didn't care about mortals. We wanted to kill them all. But after we met our Jinchuriki, they taught us how to coexist with them. How to get rid of hatred. What you did to these ponies," Kurama narrowed his eyes. ,"is unforgivable."

"Try as you might, Nine-Tails. But you won't get rid of me that easily. Besides, shouldn't you check on your Jinchuriki and pseudo-jinchuriki? I don't think they're doing so good." Kurama was confused by what he said until he realized it.

"You don't mean..." Kurama said.

"That's right. Two down." Samael maliciously said.

*End Fierce*

With Naruto and Spike

The two Jinchuriki are then quickly stabbed by the scorpions before they could evade their sneak attacks.

Is this the end for Naruto and Spike?

Sorry if this chapter was short but the next one will be longer. I had to bring a filler chapter before the real action comes.