Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

Notes: (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a short story which follows "Falling Down".

I hope that you enjoy it!

Forest of Death

Part I

Naruto paused at the top of the hill, and studied his view of Senju City. While Saru City had been on the small side with few tall buildings, Senju City was huge with towers that seemed to touch the sky. Even though evening was fast approaching, the city was aglow with lights.

He rubbed Bolt's ear as the pikachu danced around on his shoulder, trying to get a better view, before continuing on. The city looked close, but it was so big that it was probably an illusion. If he wanted to get there before it got too late and the pokémon center closed, he had to keep going.

It had been several months since he'd gone to Myouboku Town and had his world turned upside-down and shaken up. When he'd gotten off the painkillers, his mother had had to leave. He took a few weeks to train out in the mountains before challenging Jiraiya for the Toad badge. By that time Sasuke and Sakura were long gone to some other city, he hadn't paid attention to where. Naruto barely got out of the mountains before the start of fall.

And now he was close to Senju City and his sixth badge. Upon hearing that he was going there, Jiraiya had taken him aside to give him some inside information. The physical description of Tsunade Senju made Naruto roll his eyes, but the rest sounded useful.

"She's drawn some hard cards in life, and has terrible luck. Heck, the gambling world calls her the 'Legendary Sucker'! When you get to Senju City, if she's not in her gym, check the gambling halls and bars and don't leave her alone until she agrees to accept your challenge. I'd suggest you make a bet with her to entice her…but your mother would kill me if she found out, so don't do that."

His mother… The whole time that she'd been with him in Myouboku Town after his father's identity had been revealed, it'd been like she'd been bracing for some explosion. She'd almost seemed relieved to be leaving when it was time for her to go. But Naruto had never gone off on her; he was more baffled by what she'd done than angry.

Naruto still wasn't sure what to think about his father. It should be this awesome, cool thing. Except…he kind of wished that he'd never found out—that things were the way they were before. He hadn't told Sakura or Sasuke or anyone else anything about it yet.

When Naruto reached the city and found a lighted map sign, he found that Senju City had three different pokémon centers. He'd thought Saru City was big for having two, but Senju was clearly much larger. Picking the one that looked like it was closest to the gym, he set off in search of a nice warm bed to sleep in for the night.

On the way, he passed a giant department store dedicated to pokémon. Then there was the massive contest hall, the biggest he'd seen so far. And then he passed several gambling spots with slot machines, pachinko parlors, and roulette wheels.

"Senju City is many things," Jiraiya had told him before he'd left. "Those who love pokémon know it as a great place to shop, a place to enter contests, a place to challenge a gym. But to those who love to gamble, Senju City is the next best thing to heaven."

Naruto sighed. Man, if I have to find this Tsunade lady in a gambling hall, I'm going to be looking forever! Maybe I should've picked another gym…

Finally, after what felt like hours of walking, he came to the pokémon center that he'd chosen. It was fairly busy on the ground floor where most business took place. But the top floor, where the bunk beds were, was quiet and surprisingly empty.

He selected a bed, dropped his bag on it—

"Naruto?"

The blonde boy flinched and spun around to find Kiba peering at him from the bed on the other side of the aisle.

"Kiba? You're here too?"

"Yeah," the Inuzuka grunted as his growlithe popped out from under the bed. "Hey guys! Guess who else showed up?"

Naruto turned and looked around, expecting to find Shino and Hinata nearby. He found them, but Sakura and Sasuke were there too. It was almost a class reunion. Only Sai, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino were missing.

"You finally got out of Myouboku Town?" Sasuke snorted, peering around his golbat, which hung from the bottom of the bunk above his bed. "Took you long enough."

"Shut up," Naruto muttered. "Hi Sakura-chan!" he waved. "Hi Shino! Hi Hinata!"

Sakura nodded to him as she read a book with her cherrim in her lap. Shino adjusted his shades (why he wore them inside at night was a total mystery to Naruto) while his ninjask clung to his shoulder. Hinata peered over the edge of her upper bunk along with an adorable pink clefairy and timidly waved back to him.

"What, did you have trouble in Myouboku Town?" Kiba asked with a frown.

"No," Naruto answered. "I just wasn't in any hurry."

"Did you lose the first time?" Kiba smirked.

"No," Naruto growled and flopped down onto the bed that he'd claimed. "Like I said, I wasn't in any hurry. I already got my license confirmed, so it's not like I was under a time limit anymore."

Bolt hopped down from his shoulder and made himself comfortable on the pillow.

"Congratulations on your license," Shino remarked stoically.

"Thanks," Naruto sighed as he yanked his shoes off and made himself comfortable. "So, have any of you guys met the gym leader here yet?"

"No," Kiba grimaced. "Every time we go to the gym, she's not in. Shino and Hinata and I were thinking of going someplace else. We've been trying to make our challenges for almost a month now!"

"We might as well leave too," Sasuke muttered.

"But we've only been here a week and a half," Sakura protested.

"No sense in wasting time here if the gym leader's never around," the Uchiha replied with a careless shrug.

"Well I won't give up," Naruto declared. "I'll find the gym leader and make her take my challenge no matter how long it takes!"

"Whatever," Kiba muttered. "Tell me, is that freaky vulpix of yours any closer to being tame?"

"Yeah, Demon's much better now." Naruto answered. "And don't call him freaky!"

Kiba relaxed back onto his own bed. "Compare him to any other vulpix and he's freaky."

"Well…your face is freaky!" Naruto shot back. "What's with your family and tattoos?"

"It's a sign of family pride," Kiba barked back. "It shows that we are Inuzuka! And we aren't afraid of anything! You're just jealous because you have those lame kitty-whisker scars and not cool tattoos."

Naruto growled. "Kiba—"

"If you two get us kicked out with your fighting, I'll have Pinky double-slap the both of you!" Sakura threatened.

Both boys cringed and turned away from one another.

"Whatever," Naruto muttered and went about getting ready for bed. I'll be the first one to find Tsunade and get her to fight me and I'll be the first one to walk off with the Leaf badge! So there!

Tsunade kept her full focus on the spinning wheels of her slot machine.

Clefairy… Clefairy… …Gengar.

The busy blonde woman cursed and dug around in her pocket for another gambling token. But all she came up with was some pocket lint. Snarling, she turned to the dark-haired young woman with the spoink in her arms.

"Shizune, lend me some money, will you?"

"No," Shizune answered with a frown. "I know I'll never get my money back, Tsunade-sama." Then she whispered: "If only the money-lenders could figure that out…"

"What was that?" Tsunade snarled at her subordinate trainer.

"Nothing, Tsunade-sama," Shizune sighed.

Tsunade stared at the younger woman, then glared at the offending slot machine before getting up and storming off.

"Where are we going now, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked politely as she followed.

"To a bar," Tsunade replied. "Tonight seems like a good night to get drunk, don't you think?"

"No, I don't. Tsunade-sama, what if some trainers come to challenge you and you're hung-over?"

"Too bad for them, then," Tsunade snorted. "Let's go!"

She was done with dealing with the endless stream of dumb punks that were after her gym's badge. She wasn't about to quit, though; that would cut off the salary she drew as a gym leader, and that money was the only thing keeping her afloat. As long as Pokémon League officials didn't find out what she was doing, everything would be fine. And she knew she wasn't likely to be investigated—the Senju name was her greatest shield.

I need to get wasted, Tsunade thought grimly as she marched towards her favorite bar with a very reluctant Shizune in tow. I need to, otherwise the nightmares will get me…

Minato muffled a yawn as he picked his way through the Forest of Death outside of Senju City along with a squad of police officers. When he'd been called away from Myouboku, they'd done this same search and come up with nothing. Then he'd had to do some interviews and official appearances. And now there was a new lead, a specific location within the forest, and so he was back with Kyuubi pacing alongside him and Kiroi on his shoulder, ready to light the way with flash if necessary.

I need a vacation, he grumbled to himself. One long, uninterrupted vacation…with Kushina…and Naruto, if he'll have me. A nice, private place with a beach, maybe…

The lead officer held up his hand and they all came to a stop. In the very dark, almost silent forest, they could hear voices somewhere up ahead. They spread out and closed in on the voices as stealthily as possible.

In a moonlit clearing, they found a group of shady characters clustered around a few campfires in front of a scattering of large tents. They wore uniforms—gray trench coats over purple-hued camouflage pants with armbands that had bore the musical symbol of the eighth note. Minato recognized the signature look.

Fantastic… Henchmen of Team Sound… Just what I wanted to deal with…

Team Sound was a pack of thugs. They committed crimes with pokémon—they raided warehouses where pokémon merchandise was stored, they used illegal methods to capture wild pokémon, and there were reports of them stealing the pokémon of innocent trainers. If they had any goals beyond mid-level mischief and crime, law enforcement hadn't heard about it. No Team Sound grunt that was caught ever gave up any real information and usually managed to get out of jail quickly, either due to escape or some legal maneuver.

Minato hung back, leaving most of the work to the police. Most Sound grunts weren't much of a challenge, and the numbers were about even so his assistance probably wouldn't be needed. He wouldn't step in unless one of the grunts proved to have a monster or two strong enough to be a serious threat.

At first, everything went fairly smoothly. The police officers burst from the trees, ordering the grunts to surrender. The thugs were obviously startled and it didn't look like they were going to put up a fight…

…But then some people came out of the tents.

Some of them were clearly Team Sound commanders; criminal trainers who were much more dangerous than the average grunt. Others weren't members of Team Sound at all. They wore black trench coats over black pants and armbands with red clouds on them. And whoever they were, Minato could tell that they were bad news.

He, Kyuubi, and Kiroi moved in to back up the police—

Without a word or warning, the strangers with the red clouds sent out a flurry of powerful pokémon—Minato noticed a nidoking, a rhydon, a crobat, at least two gyarados, a gengar, and a dusknoir—and attacked the police officers.

Not the police officers' growlithe and houndour.

The police officers.

And then the dark night dissolved into fire and explosions.