Hello, again.
This time, Team 7 will be taking a bit of a backseat to Pinkie primarily. The key words here are, and in this order, Tree of Harmony and Gaara. Pinkie will be playing a big part with both, but that doesn't mean Rare and Jack won't have significant parts as well. Pinkie is just a part of both.
Perspective: Rare/Pinkie, Jack/Pinkie
Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.
Welcome to the world, Krystal/Game on, Sandy.
Rare was humming as he worked on another order of clothes, this time from Ino's father, Inoichi. It was meant to be a gift to his wife for their anniversary, but Rare didn't quite care. He was making outfits with class, and it was for Ino's family this time as well. He could honestly care less if they were gifting it to Kami, he would've done it either way.
Just then, the door bell rang, signaling a potential customer. "Rare, your girlfriend's here. Get going on your break. It'll be waiting for you once you get back."
"Okay. On my way." He responded as he set aside his tools for later. Arriving to where Ino was waiting, he kissed her knuckles before kissing her on the lips. "Hello, beautiful. How have you been this fine day?"
"Good, all things considered." Ino replied, smiling. "But better now that I'm with you, handsome. Although I do have to ask, when did you manage to get that little number ready?"
She was referring to Rare's current clothes, which were different than what he had on before. This time, while still keeping the color scheme, it was more akin to formal samurai clothes than a regular kimono. (Basically, combine kimono with KHBBS Terra's outfit, minus the armor)
"Oh, this? I was trying something out for a male counterpoint to what I gave you and the other girls. Although I still need to work a bit on making it combat ready like yours, since this is still a more formal style after all." explained Rare as they moved out to Ichiraku's for lunch. However, this time, the route to there was somewhat crowded, so they had to take a detour. "Your team hadn't gotten a C-rank yet?"
Ino shook her head. "Teams 8 and 10 are both holding back a little longer, although it might have something to do with Sakura having Sunset on her team, while neither of us have ours. But that could just be me."
They laughed some at that, overall happy to be together.
Coming close to their destination, they saw things were a bit crowded around the square they were having to pass through. However, unlike the other route, this one had shinobi working to redirect traffic and hold people back, catching their interest.
Moving forward through the crowd, Ino caught a glimpse of rainbow-colored crystalline gleam and said to Rare, "You're gonna want to see this."
Reaching the front, the two saw one of the strangest sights ever: a crystalline tree, made out of multiple types of crystal/gems at that, was growing in the middle of the square's small park. That's also when they noticed Team 8 was there as well.
"Hey, guys." Ino said, turning them towards the two newcomers to the scene.
"Ino, Rare. Just in time." said Hinata. "For some reason, the sapling showed up this morning, and while it does show signs of being a tree beyond the obvious, but it's more crystal than actually alive. Combined with the fact it seems to be made of multiple different types, and we got something really strange going on."
"I'll say." Rare said, coming closer to the sight. "It looks like there's ruby, sapphire, emerald, lapiz, opal, and diamond. And that's just from a naked and ignorant perspective at that."
"So what gems are really used in it?" asked Ino.
Rare reached forward to see what his abilities can tell him, however, when he touched it, he jumped back as if burned.
"Rare? What happened?" asked Ino, concerned.
"I'm not sure yet." he answered, staring at it before turning to her. "But I have an idea on how to find out. I'm just going to need one of my brothers. If it reacts to one of them, then we have a lead."
"So you want me to try touching the shiny tree and see what happens, Rare?" asked Pinkie, having literally popped out of nowhere right behind Rare, startling everyone except said boy.
Rare nodded. "There is more to this than we know, brother."
"You mean besides the fact that this is the very spot where the Harpy Incident was ended?" Pinkie asked, not caring for an answer as he skipped forward and touched it himself. But instead of it 'burning' like with Rare, his expression turned solemn as he spoke. "You saw it as well, didn't you?"
At Rare's nod, Pinkie continued, "The moment Sun steps back into Konoha, we're doing what we can to protect this."
"Just what are you talking about?" asked Hinata and Ino, wanting to know just what was going on.
"We didn't actually split from Naruto like we thought." said Pinkie, earning gasps from the bystanders. "The Kyubi actually took pieces of him, made copies, and gave them enough power to be actually people, while Naruto was sent elsewhere for his safety. Unfortunately, we won't be able to see him in this life at least."
"This tree is actually a last gift of sorts from the Kyubi, as a monument to Naruto for us." said Rarity.
Pinkie's face them turned happy. "So it looks like I've got a bigger party to make today than originally planned. Kohana Asami's daughter was born just a few minutes ago, so I got a baby shower to get ready."
Rare gasped at that, since his former boss was actually Asami's father, Kuzo, and the woman was expecting for a quite a while. "That's great! She figure a name yet?"
Pinkie shook his head. "No she didn't, last I check. But if you just give me a bit, I'll let her and our brothers who are still in town know about this. Who knows, she just might name her daughter Krystal, which would certainly go well with this. Oooooh, that can work."
He then ran off, leaving Rare, Ino, and Team 8 to start setting up security around the 'tree.' However, once he arrived at the last stop on his list, which was Sweet Apple Acres, he found Jack on his way out with a package.
"Hey, Jack." Pinkie greeted. "Where ya heading?"
"Howdy, Pinkie." Jack returned. "The Hokage's gettin' a visit from the Kazekage and his kids, and wanted some Cider as refreshment. Bringing some over after the helpers Ah have wer' set up."
"Mind if I come along?" Pinkie said, getting a shrug from Jack, saying "I don't see why not."
Smiling, the two soon enough arrived at the Hokage Tower, just as said family arrived as well. However, Pinkie stopped in shock at them.
"Uh, Pinkie..." said Jack.
"And I thought Mr. Ducky had issues I need to deal with." said Pinkie as he stared at the red-headed boy of the group.
Jack raised an eyebrow before he spoke to the newcomers. "Ah'm sorry 'bout mah brother, he can get like that sometimes."
"It's quite alright." the Kazekage said. "To be honest...it's actually kind of refreshing, not having to deal with sycophants or busybodies who seem to see just the title I currently bear. I'm sure the Hokage feels the same way."
"True, that." Jack agreed. "By the way, I'm Apple Jack, owner of Sweet Apple Acres, best crop of apples you can ever find. And this is Pie Pinkie, Konoha's party animal."
"You got a gig, I'll bring the jig." said Pinkie, bowing extravagantly to the foreigners' amusement. "Although I can already smell a potential one in the making."
"'Welcome to HappyLand'?" asked Jack, remembering Pinkie line that connected to Sasuke.
Pinkie nodded. "Sandy's got bags under his eyes, blood in his scent, and he's got a walking pile of sand hating the fact that it's stuck behind an incredibly faulty seal alongside a loony."
Jack winced while the Kazekage's group stiffened. "Ouch. No wonder you said he had more issues than Sasuke. But how do you plan on doing that once they return to Suna?"
"Oh, I'll think of something." said Pinkie, hand on chin to start figuring that out.
The Kazekage quickly cleared his throat to try and get things on track. "Uh, well, that does correlate to why we're here today, although we would prefer if you kept this to yourselves for the time being."
"Or I will kill you." came from the one Pinkie was talking about, only to get a response of "Game on, Sandy. I'll be getting you happy before you know it."
"Kankuro, Temari, Gaara." The man directed to the three. "Why don't you spend some time with Pinkie here? Have a tour of the place or something."
"Actually, sir." said Jack. "If you'd like, Ah'd be willing te spare a few apples from the Acres if they don't mind helping out a bit. We'd just have to drop off this Cider with the Hokage first."
That changed the man's mind fast. "On second thought, that sounds like a good idea."
With that said, the man and the package were dropped off with the Hokage while the five went over to the Acres to get started. Once they arrived, they came across the three chunins that Jack had gotten that day for help, but they were taking a break and eating some of the apples.
"Hey!" Jack called out, catching them off guard. "Ah didn't say anything about taking a break so dang early on the job, let alone that you could eat any of the apples without mah express permission."
They tried to turn it back on Jack, but he wasn't having any of it. "Get out, and expect to hear from the Hokage, ya yellow-bellied freeloaders!"
Next thing the Suna three knew, the chunins were picked up by some of the nearby apple trees and tossed out of the place without much thought. And those trees were noted to be at least about 10 ft away from them.
Jack then turned to them. "Okay, since they weren't willin' ter work for their reward, how about you three. Unless yer staying overnight, it's worth two D-ranks together if you do, alongside the apples Ah promised yer pops."
"Two D-ranks?" Temari asked, a bit stunned by that fact in particular.
"Eyup." Jack answered. "Just follow mah instructions, and once it's time fer you ter go, that money will be with the apples. Ah promise, but it'll most likely go up to a C-rank if yer staying longer than a few hours. Any questions?"
Even Gaara had to stop at that for a bit. A potential C-rank just for picking apples? It seemed incredibly crazy, but they had heard about him before so they knew that he was being honest about it. Even so, they had a bit of a hard time believing it, so they just went with agreeing and seeing how Jack would answer once it was done.
Jack then clapped his hands together. "Okay then, let's get started. Kankuro, Temari, yer on water. A couple of them in the back could use some. Gaara, baskets. Set them around a couple of the trees with apples on them. Once Kankuro and Temari are done with water, we'll show you a way to train using this that all of you could use. Yeh won't always be able ter rely on yer normal tools, so this is ter help devise other options."
"Over-reliance on a singular power/item leads to an early grave, which is no fun at all." quipped Pinkie. "Especially if said thing drove you to being alone beforehand."
That hit them harder than anything before, but managed to keep it to themselves as they started working, Jack handing a couple of buckets to Temari and Kankuro before leading Gaara to placing the baskets in the right spots. In the meantime, Pinkie remembered the baby shower and ran off to set that up.
Sorry if you didn't expect the Tree of Harmony coming, but the part with Kyubi was pretty much how I planned it, albeit with a minor detail or two switched. It just ended up that the Tree showed up as something useful, at least as a sort of monument, because they would need something to replace the Kyubi's power for later anyways.
Until next time. Please let me know what you think.