Ch 1

Everybody knows about ninjas. They rule the world. Five Great Nations, with five kage, and a delicate balance of power… blah, blah, blah. Point is: ninjas are everywhere, but very few people, at least when this story starts, knew about pokemon trainers. Pokemon hadn't been a problem for the Five Great Nations in a very long time, and so the need for pokemon trainers had been minimal.

But Pokemon were making a comeback, and so the Five Great Nations looked to other continents, continents that had always been dealing with pokemon, for help. That would be where I come in. My name is Brendan, and yes, my father is Norman, the famous Jonin Pokemon Trainer. He's an ass, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

This story starts with me, in the back of a wagon, a moving wagon to be specific. It wasn't that big of a wagon, but all of my mother's furniture and plush poke-dolls were stacked around me to the degree that even though the wagon did not have walls, I could not see sunlight. "This does not seem safe!" I called out for the billionth time.

"I was given every assurance for your safety!" my mother called back for the billionth time.

At some point between the harbor, and wherever I was, I'd fallen asleep, so I had no idea how long I'd actually been in there, but it had to have been at least a few hours. And given that I had no maps or knowledge about the Land of Fire, there was no telling how much longer I'd be waiting for what seemed like my inevitable death by plushy suffocation. A wailmer plushy stared at me with beady eyes, mere inches away from me, and I decided that it would make the perfect pillow, so I tugged at it, and the entire poke-doll superstructure wobbled dangerously.

My mother's voice drifted through to me, with only a slight tinge of annoyance, "Oh, will you quit it? I can see the gates to the village now. Ten more minutes, tops."

When my mother got quiet, I heard the village. Sounds of shop keepers bellowing about kunai sales, people laughing, and if I strained myself, I could hear sandals meeting roof tiles. There was no mistaking that: this was a ninja village, but I couldn't see anything, it was maddening. Eventually the cart stopped, and I started to shake with excitement.

Two Vigoroths leapt from the front of the cart, and began to pull furniture away. My excitement was leading to spasms, and my elbow caught the Wailmer doll, knocking it out of place. Everything began to wobble, but for a brief moment, I saw starry sky between two pieces of the living room sofa. Instinct kicked in, my chakra flowed to my feet, and I pushed off the cart, through the hole, and into fresh air. I couldn't help myself, "Woohoo!"

I landed just in front of what I assumed to be my house, funneled chakra into my hands and feet, and leapt up to the side of the building. I stuck, and moved up the side until I was on the roof. All the other houses nearby were about the same height, so I got a good view of my block, but the next street over were apartment complexes that blocked the rest of the city from my view.

The first thing I noticed about what I could see is that no two blocks shared the same color roofing panels, they were all vibrant colors, but weirder than the bright colors in the "hidden village" was that every building appeared to have plumbing, water, and electricity, but the pipes, wires, and drains were built on the outside of the homes.

I leapt across the street, run up the side of the other buildings, and when I reached the top I saw the entire village was built in the same manger. For as far as my eyes could see was this sea of haphazard buildings and color that if I hadn't known better might have been a slum instead of the world capital of military might. But the pure size of it was stunning all on its own. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was no village, it was a thriving, though hodgepodge, metropolis. I turned around to go back down, and saw four faces carved into the mountainside.

I'd like to think that it was because of that sight that I was so easy to sneak up on, but there was probably a real gap in skill level between me and five ninja who flickered into existence all around me. "Who is this?" one of them demanded of another.

"Maybe he's working with Naruto," another spat, "Let's take him in, and hand him over to Ibiki."

A sixth body flickered into my view, mere inches in front of me, but I didn't need to see his face to recognize the man who wore that crimson vest with extra scroll pockets. My father, Norman, shouted, "This is my son, he just got here tonight, he couldn't have met Naruto or know about the Sacred Scroll," he held out his arms in a protective gesture, "Let's get a move on, we haven't checked the forest."

The five unknown ninja flickered out of sight, and my father craned his neck over his shoulder so he could speak to me, but didn't look at me. "Get back to the house, I'll catch up with you two later."

Before I could respond, he'd flickered away, and I groaned. I hadn't seen the jerk in two years, and he hadn't even bothered with pleasantries. Bastard. With two leaps, one to my roof, and the other to the ground, I was back with my mom, and the cart was empty. She smiled, "What did you think?"

I walked past her into the house, and spat, "Dad says "hi.""

Mom rolled her kind eyes, followed me in, and gently pushed me through the hallway, up a set of stairs, and stopped me just in front of the door at the top. "This is your room. Go set your clock, and get into something nice, we're having dinner with the neighbors."

I entered the room, and closed the door behind me. It looked just like my old room back in Goldenrod, twin bed, pokeball sheets, a small wooden desk chock full of ninja tools, a new clock was hung just above a full body mirror, a shelf for my books on pokemon, and my closet was filled with several sets of the same uniform. I discarded my black shirt and shorts, and pulled on a white v-neck.

In my closet were several pairs of black pants, baggy with lots of pockets, and since that was all I had, I pulled them on. I went over to the mirror, and looked over myself. My hair was short, black, and straight, my eyes were blue, and I was average height for a thirteen year old. The clock-face seemed to stare at me, so I pulled it off the wall, set it, and replaced it before going back downstairs.

Mom smiled, "Okay, let's go," she said with a hum, "I can't wait for dinner."

We stepped out, walked twenty feet down the street, and knocked on the next house's door. It opened almost immediately. A little kid with green hair opened the door, and looked us over. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Max!" a woman from inside the house reprimanded, "Is that any way to greet our guests? Guide them in and tend the pasta!"

Inside was a kitchen in upheaval, but not the bad kind, if that makes sense. There was food everywhere, and it all looked delicious. In the middle of the kitchen was a woman who looked frayed in every way my mother was always tightly wound. My mother's hair was always in a tight bun, but this woman's hair seemed to have a mind of its own, flowing about her in the steam, and where my mom's eyes were kind, this woman's were stark, raving mad with stress. "This is a bad idea," I whispered.

The woman turned her head, glared at me, and shouted, "Go upstairs! Meet May!"

I wanted to move, but her eyes contained a fathomless darkness that rooted me in place. I was nudged forward by something, and bolted up the stairs. Like my house, this one only had one room upstairs, and inside it was a girl.

May was a bit shorter than me, with brown hair that stuck down and out from her forehead to her shoulders, and her blue eyes were wide with confusion. She wore black biker shorts, with a red, collared shirt, and a pokeball bandana to hold back whatever hair wasn't sticking out its front. "Who… who are you?" she asked, "And why is there a boy in my room?"

I stood up straight, coughed, and said, "I'm Brendan, and there's a scary lady in the kitchen."

Realization dawned on her face, "Oh!" she cried, "You guys finally got here! That's great! Wally is gonna be so psyched! I'm May!"

She grabbed my hand, and vigorously shook it. "I gathered that." I said, resisting the urge to run away.

"So, um, I have this dream, of going out into the world, and meeting a bunch of pokemon, and making a ton of friends, and…" she paused either to take a breath or put emphasis on the next part, "I was hoping you'd be one of my first friends."

I blinked. "Sure. Is everyone this hyper in this village?"

May cackled, and scratched the back of her head, "Ohmygosh! I must have sounded so sappy right there! I'm just kind of excitable, I guess. Sorry for scaring you."

A moment passed, then she looked up at me, her jaw dropped, and she made a noise like I'd slapped her. "I'm supposed to be reminding my Dad, or Professor Birch, about dinner! I gotta go!"

She tore off like a hurricane, leaving me bewildered and alone in her room. Nobody was there, but I whispered, "This place is weird."

I went back downstairs, and my found my mother had been pulled into kitchen effort. Her eyes pleaded for aid, but May's Mom hadn't noticed me. "I'm gonna go help May find the Professor!" I exclaimed, and ran out the front door.

As I closed the door, I nearly ran into a thin, little man in a navy blue labcoat. "Are you Professor Birch?" I asked.

He shook his head, "His assistant. He sent me to tell May to pick him up at Training Field 3."

"You just missed her, but I'll go look for him," I supplied, grinning perhaps just a little too wide.

He narrowed his eyes, and pointed down the street, "Go that way, over the buildings until you come onto a clearing with three logs sticking out of the grass."

I waved, and ran off. The people in the Leaf Village were an eclectic mix of ninja in uniform, and pedestrians going about their business. Sometimes the two groups would mix in pairs, but mostly the ninja stuck to the rooftops and the pedestrians to the street. A few of the ninja gave me funny looks as I hopped from roof to roof, but none of them bothered me. Eventually the buildings stopped, and lush forest began.

Half a mile into the forest, was a clearing, with a stream running through it and three logs sticking out of the dirt. A rotund man in a white labcoat was perched on top of one of those logs, and a raccon-looking thing was nipping at his feet from the ground. I perched on a nearby tree branch, and called, "Professor Birch?"

He turned to look at me. "You need to help me! This Zigzagoon separated me from my pokemon!" he pointed to a brown satchel on the opposite side of the stream, "Grab a pokemon from inside my bag!"

I ran around the circumference of the clearing, leapt over the river, and rolled to a stop just short of the satchel. The Zigzagoon turned to look at me just as I reached into the bag. I didn't find any pokeballs inside, but instead there were three scrolls. I pulled one out with a fire print on it, and unfurled it. The writing side opened away from me, and white smoke erupted from it.

The smoke blew away to reveal a tiny red and orange chick pokemon. "Torchic!" Birch exclaimed, "Good choice!"

I pointed at the Zigzagoon, and shouted, "Sic 'em!"

Torchic ran up, jumped, and scratched Zigzagoon with its right talon. Zigzagoon flinched and rolled away, "Press!" I hollered, and Torchic kept it up.

Zigzagoon rolled again, and then ran off into the forest. Torchic ran back over to me, and chirped excitedly. We locked eyes, and my heart tugged at my insides. I opened my arms and Torchic leapt up. It was weird, and awesome, and… yeah.

Birch made his way over to us, and pulled some glasses out from his labcoat. He peered at us, and said, "I've never seen someone bond with a pokemon that fast. Why don't you keep Torchic?"

"Really?!" I boomed, and then fought down the urge to squeal like a child, "I mean, thank you."

Birch flipped the scroll over, and pointed at the writing. "In the Great Nations, they don't use pokeballs, they use pokescrolls. They're super helpful."

He pointed to the seal on the paper. "You can read a lot about your pokemon here. Your Torchic is a male, with an Adamant nature, and likes sour food," and then he pointed to a blank part of the scroll, "and here's where you can put a nickname, if you so desire."

The scroll rod in the center had a pen, so I pulled it out, and wrote: Katon. "Fire style," Birch mused, "nice."

Katon chirped, and leapt onto the scroll, sealing himself away. The scroll rolled itself up, and I held it perhaps a bit too tight. "This is too cool."

Birch put an arm around my shoulder, and said, "Man… for you to pull of battling like that… you must be Brendan, Norman's son, right?"

A vein pulsed in my forehead. "Yeah. Really not psyched about it, but that's the way it is."

We started walking back to his house through the forest when we heard, "You're lying!" shouted from somewhere off to the right.

"We should get out of here," Birch said, "Something was going on today…"

The thought of my dad keeping me out of the fun got my forehead vein going. "Or we could go take a peek!"

I ran towards the noise, and Professor Birch wasn't far behind, whining about safety or something. The faster I moved, the louder the shouting got. Eventually I ended up on a tree branch, watching three people in the middle of a fight.

First there was some yellow haired kid in orange, and he was holding this giant sealing scroll, then there was this grievously wounded leaf ninja with a pony tail and a scar across his face, who was crying, and ultimately there was this guy with blue, shaggy hair, who was spinning this comically large shuriken. Blue hair shouted, "Iruka, you really believe that drivel? I was gonna spare ya, but I've changed my mind."

The giant shuriken began to spin, and blue hair dashed at scar-face. "You're finished!"

But before blue hair could strike scar-face down, the kid in orange dashed out from behind a tree and straight up head-butted blue hair off course, knocking the shuriken out of his hand. With all the spinning, the shuriken shot off into the trees, and cleaved the branch I was standing on from the tree.

I toppled forward, and Professor Birch caught me. "This is why I said we should be careful!" he shouted.

The kid in orange was way more interesting however. He pointed at Blue Hair and shouted, "If you ever lay a hand on my sensei, I"LL KILL YOU! BELIEVE IT!"

Blue hair swept a hand through the air in a swift chop. "I could destroy you in a single move!"

"Take your best shot," orange kid was like ice, it was giving me goose bumps, this was the strength of the Hidden Leaf, "and I'll give it back a thousand fold."

"Show me what you got!" Blue hair howled, with his hands at his side and his eyes closed in fervor.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" the kid shouted, and the clearing filled up with at least a hundred clones.

"That many clones… that's a lot of chakra," I whispered.

Birch's jaw dropped, "You got no idea. Those are shadow clones… fully realized clones, not just after images."

"Oh wow…" I trailed off, and the kid in orange proceeded to beat the living snot out of blue hair.

Birch guided me away. "Let's go have dinner, okay?"

So we left blue hair at the mercy of the kid in orange. I wondered what his name was.

AN: writing this story to keep writing while my actual book is getting read by beta readers. I know the story idea isn't terribly original, but if you could review my writing technique, please do.