Reflection
Part 1
Summary: This follows 'Trouble'. Naruto and the gang arrive in Shinobi City for Naruto's first gym battle. Will he win on his first try or lose and be given a chance at a rematch. Read and find out.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
The trio sighed in relief as they crested a small hill where the tree line opened up to reveal a city about double the size of Moon City. This was Shinobi City, a place that was supposedly named after a certain high-ranking ninja or something or other. There was a gym here and that's all that mattered to the young Naruto.
It has been a difficult two days of walking. They've headed for Honey Town after leaving Moon City with Shinobi City as the destination. On their way through the forest route, a Pokemon crossed their path. It turned out to be a female Ralts, thanks to the info on Hinata's Pokedex. The Hyuga jumped to the chance to catch it and called out Spray, and after brief battle, the Feeling Pokemon was her's. When they reached Honey Town, Hinata named her new Pokemon, Kunoichi. While at the Pokemon Center, Hinata picked up the schedule for all the Pokemon contests of the season. The first contest was to be in Oasis Town in two weeks. It turned out that Oasis Town had both a contest hall and a Pokemon gym.
"We've made it," his sister groaned and she hiked her bag higher on her shoulders. This dislodged Sunset the Vulpix, who had been napping on top if it, and send her tumbling over the blond girl's shoulder and into her arms with a yelp. "Oh, sorry."
Sunset glared at her then used Ember on her face.
Returning the little red fox back into her Pokeball, she turned her attentions back to her brother and Hinata. Naruto sucked in a deep breath and shook his head. With a quick minute of standing there, they marched down into town. Their first stop was to be the local Pokemon Center where they could get cheap food and get their monsters treated. After resting their tired feet a bit, Naruto would go to scope out the gym, while Naruko and Hinata scoped out the shops.
After some aimless wondering, they found the Pokemon Center. At least, Hinata did. The bright red roof should've been a dead give away, but every building in that part of the city had a bright red roof. It was the giant sign that got Hinata's attention. Once they were inside, the Nurse Joy and Chansey behind the counter only confirmed it.
Pokemon Centers were some of the most important buildings for a trainer. They offered free beds and care for Pokemon, and cheap, but delicious food. Without these establishments, the culture of Pokemon training and coordinating would be doomed.
After the Pokemon nurse at the counter confirmed that all nine Pokemon were healthy and uninjured, they headed for the bank of pay videophones to make some calls.
"Hi mom!" the twins grinned when their mother's face appeared on screen.
"Hey you two! You made it back to civilization!" she greeted with a sigh of relief and a smile. "Alright! What town are you three in now?"
"Three?" Naruko questioned.
"Shinobi City," Naruto answered.
"What?! You went through Honey Town and didn't call to let me know that you two were okay," Kushina looked hurt.
"We're sorry mom," they lowered their heads.
"Its okay you two. I'm just glad that you're safe," their mother smiled. "So you caught anything new?"
"Yeah!" they snapped together.
"Han, say hi to my mom," Naruto brought out his Pichu.
"You too, Gloss," Naruko unleashed her Glameow.
Their mother's eyes shined, "Wow, you two, nice ca-"
"No one is answering at home," Hinata interrupted as she came back to the Uzumaki twins and noticed who they were talking to. "Hello, Ms. Uzumaki. How're you doing?"
"I'm alright, Hinata," the adult on the screen smiled. "The reason no one is answering is because they're all at the grand opening of another restaurant."
"Oh," Hinata didn't sound surprised.
"Cheer up and show me your starter, girl." Hinata did as told and called out Spray. "The water-type, Piplup, good choice."
"Th-th-thank you," the Hyuga stuttered.
"Don't be bashful," Kushina commanded. "So, is there any more?"
"Yeah, there's more," the blonds boasted. Naruto let his Luvdisc free and Naruko did the same with her Magikarp. She struggled to lift the big fish into the camera's view.
"This is Flo!" he held his Luvdisc in his arms.
"This is… ugh… Serpent… Gah!" Naruko collapsed under the weight of her fish. "I'm okay."
"This is Kunoichi," called out her Ralts.
"Nice Pokemon," Kushina smiled then turned her attention back to her son. "Naruto, seriously, a Luvdisc?"
"Sorry, Mom," he looked down at lap and returned Flo to the Pokeball. "It was the first thing that bit the bait when we went fishing in Moon City. And it being my actual first time fishing, I got excited and so I just caught."
"Hmm," his mother only nodded.
"Besides, I'll train Flo here to be super strong," Naruto looked back up at the screen with a smile.
Kushina couldn't help but smile as well, "Yeah, I know you will. So how are Cherry and Sunset?"
"They're fine," Naruko got back to her feet after returning Serpent as well.
"Cherry's the sweet one, but she does have a temper, while Sunset is a bit mischievous," Naruto grimaced.
"Okay, just make sure you take baby steps in your training and respect your Pokemon," their mother advised. "You meet any new trainers while traveling?"
"Yeah!" the trio nodded.
"You get into any battles?" Kushina leaned closer eagerly.
"Yeah," Naruko muttered. "We faced some trainers at the wharf in Moon City and just today after leaving Honey Town."
"Didja win?" After only getting nods as answers, she added, "Hinata, you make yourself useful?"
"Uh-huh…" was all Hinata said before she was pulled away by Naruko, who was saying something about going shopping.
"Meet any other classmates yet?"
"No, not yet," Naruto sighed. "So mom, you know who the gym leader here is?"
"You said you were in Shinobi City?" his mother asked. "Where'd the girls go?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "They went shopping."
"Okay. Shinobi City…" she muttered to herself as she wondered off-screen, vanishing from view. "Now where did I put that handbook?"
He blinked and stared at the excellent view of the kitchen. From the looks of things, his mother was either making poffins and Poke-blocks for her Pokemon, or cookies for the lab staff. And just as he was starting to get bored, his mother's Starmie drifted into view.
Of all Pokemon, Naruto and his sister found Wish the Starmie the creepiest. There was no face, no eyes or mouth. It just floated around with its red, multifaceted gem flashing or glowing. It was bigger then they were… it was still bigger then they were.
"Wish?" he called out through the mic.
The large purple starfish froze, then face the screen and drew in close until the screen showed only its large red gem, flashing in a hypnotizing pattern. Han stared for a minute before turning his head away, looking dizzy. Naruto shook his head and pushed the dizziness away, then knocked on the screen.
"Wish, stop that," he commanded. "It's giving me a headache."
"Wish!" The giant starfish was shoved aside and his mother reappeared on screen. "Okay…" She flipped through a book, which he assumed to be the league handbook, and studied a page while mumbling to herself. "…Kakashi…"
"…Scarecrow?" he muttered blankly.
"That's the gym leader's name," Kushina informed him. "Kakashi Hatake." She went silent for a while. "He has no type preference, from what I can remember. He's pretty smart. Since you don't have any badges yet, he'll hold back in your battle… but that doesn't mean that he's going easy on you."
"You know him?" Naruto wondered curiously.
While they knew their mother was a trainer, she rarely mentioned any of the people she had met on her travels. She would talk about her journey with her Pokemon and all the battles they were in together, but she rarely talked about other trainers. They had never given it that much thought because she would always get them so wrapped up in the stories, but somehow they knew she was leaving something out.
"He was an acquaintance of mine a long time ago," She replied, "when he was a bit older than you and Naruko."
"Okay Mom. Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind," Naruto noticed a message at the bottom of the screen. "Almost outta time, bye."
"Do your best and take care of your sister and Hinata," she smile and waved. "Be a gentleman and go help your girlfriend and Naruko with their shopping, bye"
Naruto groaned as the screen went black with a click, "Not you too."
He sighed and recalled Han, who was sitting on the shelf of the pay videophone, and stood up. After quickly getting two rooms, one for himself and one for Naruko and Hinata to share, he walked out of the Pokemon Center and towards the shopping district.
'I'll have them help me snoop around tomorrow in return for carrying their purchases…"
The next afternoon, the trio sat in the stands of the Shinobi City Gym. Han was on Naruto's head, almost blending in perfectly, and Cherry on his lap. Gloss was on Naruko's lap and enjoyed being petted by her trainer. Spray was held by Hinata in her arms and Kunoichi on her shoulder, and were looking towards the battlefield. There was a challenger waiting for the gym leader to appear. The gym was a bit plain, like a normal Pokemon training facility or an abandoned office building. White pillars decorated the corners, a plain field painted on the dirt floor, the old bleacher, restored and padded for comfort, on one side for an audience. The most eye-catching feature was the mirrors. There were mirrors on the other side of the field, the ceiling, the hallways, and the doors. Heck, there was even a disco ball hanging from the gym lobby's ceiling. Apparently, there wasn't much to do in this part of Shinobi City, so the gym leader allowed anyone to watch trainers trying for his badge.
On a bulletin board in front of the gym, Naruto noticed the rules posted for all challenging trainers. The gym leader only accepted one challenge a day, which was obvious, and all challenges must be scheduled in advance. The gym leader also had the right to refuse a challenger if they were sore losers or if they were just plain jerks.
"This should be good," Naruto said in anticipation. "If only the gym leader would show up."
"Dang, he's late," Naruko agreed in frustration. "Hinata, you might be able to get some ideas for the battle stage of your contests by watching this battle."
"Yup," Hinata eyes lit up with motivation.
A few minutes later, the gym trainer who also seemed to be the gym's secretary, and was assigned to be the referee, stood up from the desk chair he was sitting on and kicked it back. As the chair rolled towards the wall on its little wheels, the gym leader walked in through the automated sliding mirrored-doors on his side of the field.
The man was tall with spiky silver hair, an eye-patch with the league emblem stitched on it, and a midnight blue scarf wrapped around his neck and mouth. He wore a forest camo combat shirt underneath an opened black trench coat, fingerless gloves, also branded with the league emblem, and light gray pants. The combat boots matched the coat. He seemed to look bored as he slouched his way over to his end of the field. A Granbull walked at his side and took a seat at his feet when he stopped.
"So this is the guy that Ms. Mitarashi has a crush on?" Naruko looked over the gym leader.
"I think so," Hinata replied lowly with her eyes glued on the silver-haired man.
"Maybe we should try and set them up on a date or something." The girls agreed with Naruto's suggestion.
"Finally," the challenging trainer, a boy a few years older than the trio, said in obvious irritation. "Can we start now?"
"Remember the rules I mentioned yesterday?" the gym leader countered blandly.
"Yeah! Of course I do!" the trainer growled.
"Okay, then let us begin," Kakashi answered with a yawn. "Good luck kid."
The teenager immediately started with a Nosepass, a statue-like rock-type with a big orange nose and two floating rocks on its side that seemed to work as both its arms and hands. Kakashi unleashed Lucario, a black and blue, hard skinned fighting canine. He then pulled out an orange book and started reading.
"What is he doing?" Naruko muttered in surprise.
"He always does this," a green haired girl sitting behind them explained, her eyes glues to the battle. "He doesn't need to see what's going on. He commands his Pokemon without having to stop reading. It's awesome! I wish I had his skill."
"Weirdo," Naruto mouthed to his sister and 'girlfriend', as he pointed at girl.
"I know," the girls mouthed back in unison.
Down on the field, Lucario easily thrashed the Nosepass. The trainer retaliated with a Grovyle, which Kakashi quickly countered with a fiery Arcanine. Even Grovyle's speed couldn't save it from defeat. The boy, getting frustrated and desperate, brought out an Azumarill. The gym leader recalled his Arcanine and after taking some time to think (or finish the page he was reading), summoned… a Ditto.
Naruto and Hinata grimaced at the sight of the pink blob. Naruko looked just plain disgusted and ready to throw up. It looked like either chewed gum or misshapen gelatin dessert…
The Ditto eyed its opponent, then it transformed into a replica of the Azumarill with puff of smoke and a "poof". The looked almost alike, except the only differences were the pale coloration on the transformed Ditto and its Ditto face was still plastered on it. Then the battle began.
The match-up wasn't as even as they had expected. The Ditto copied all moves that the foe threw at it. But it was at a higher level than the water Pokemon. It was faster and stronger. When the attacks did land, it wasn't even fazed by them, because of its high stamina. All those high stats gave it the advantage and it won without the gym leader having to take his eyes of the book.
"The winner of this battle," the referee pointed a flag at the reading man, "Gym Leader Kakashi."
The stands erupted in a wave of applauds and cheers.
"Man, this guy's good," Naruto said nervously.
"Yeah. This is gonna be fun, little brother," Naruko smiled. "Owww!"
Naruto pulled on one of her pigtails, "I'm the older one, remember, and this isn't gonna be fun."
"You can do it, Naruto," Hinata said, trying to motivate him.
"Thanks, Hinata," Naruto smiled as he scratched the back of his head.
Naruko just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
The gym's audience started to leave, now that the battle was over, but the gym leader seemed to not even notice. He was still buried in his book. The man's eyes never left the book as he commanded and switched his Pokemon around through the battle.
With intense curiosity, Naruto walked down out of the bleachers, into the field and over to the still-reading man. Naruko and Hinata were right behind him. The Granbull at the gym leader's feet made them feel cautious. The long fangs on its lower jaw looked sharp and unpleasant. And painful. But what was so amazing about the book that he had to read it during a battle, seriously?!
"What are you reading?" Naruto wondered.
Kakashi looked up from his book and studied him with his only visible, than noticed the two girls behind the boy. "Um… How old are you?"
"We're eleven," Naruko answered before her twin could.
"Okay, then I can't tell you what I'm reading since you three aren't old enough to know about it," the gym leader replied.
The trio sighed and Naruto peered at the book's bright orange cover. There was a red circle with a line going through it and a warning to stop anybody under the age of eighteen from reading it on the back cover. The front cover had the title, 'Make-Out Paradise', and drawing of a man chasing a woman.
Then Kakashi added, "What happened to your faces?"
"An accident when were little," Naruko cut in again before Naruto could answer.
Back home in Konoha Town, everyone knew the story of how the blond Uzumaki twins acquired the whisker-like scars on their cheeks. But that didn't stop anyone from picking on them for it. But ever since they had set foot in Shinobi City, the twins felt every curious stare aimed at their cheeks. The stares even frightened Hinata. Gym Leader Kakashi was the first person to ask them about it, and they knew that he wasn't going to be the last one to do so.
"I see you have Pokemon with you," the gym leader noted upon noticing the Pichu riding on his head and the Vulpix at his feet. "Are you interested in acquiring my badge?"
"Maybe…" Naruto answered, trying to not to sound as nervous as he was.
"What? Maybe?" Naruko bopped him on the head. "Of course you're interested in the badge."
"Fine," Kakashi shut his book with a snap and slipped it into an inner pocket of his coat. "How many badges have you collected yet?"
"None," he Naruto replied as he looked down in embarrassment. "You see, this is the first gym in my journey."
"Hmmm…" the man understood. "How many Pokemon do you have with you?"
"Just three," the boy answered.
"I see…" Kakashi nodded. "Alright, if you'd like to compete for my gym badge, here are the rules that we'll battle by: I will limit myself to only using Morpheus, and you may only use any two Pokemon. So don't blow it, but if you do, I could let you give it another chance in a week, if you want."
"Morpheus?" the trio blinked.
"My Ditto," the man explained. He scratched his covered chin thoughtfully. "I don't think I have anything scheduled for tomorrow except for my daily morning visit to my favorite diner. Talk with Tenzo and he'll set you up with an appointment to battle me tomorrow."
With that, Gym Leader Kakashi walked away with his Granbull at his side.
The trio stared after him until he vanished through the sliding doors.
"Great…" Naruto grumbled.
"Wow, he's a weird one," Naruko commented.
"Uh-huh," Hinata agreed.
"So you want to challenge him for the badge? And you can say that again."
The three young trainers yelped and turned around, with Naruto dislodging Han from his head and almost tripping on Cherry, and saw the trainer who acted as the referee for the gym battle. He seemed to be the same age as Kakashi and almost looked just as bored. He had short brown hair that spiked a bit at the top and dark, almost black, eyes that gave Naruto and Hinata the creeps and sent a chill down Naruko's spine.
"Um… Yeah," Naruto squeaked.
The brown-haired man - Tenzo-shook his head and beckoned for them to follow. "Let's see if there's any time slots open for you."
The gym trainer led them through the same doors that Kakashi had went through to disappear earlier and down a hallway. The hallway had no decorations, no paintings, no potted plants, no murals on the walls. Nothing whatsoever. Some of the florescent lights seemed to be flickering and ready to give out. They walked past a few doors until they reached the only glass sliding door. The room they entered seemed to be an office, since there were two desks in it, that were buried in old newspapers, take-out containers, fast-food wrappers, and other less identifiable paper. Just like the hallway, the room had no décor. The only good thing about the room was the view through the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
"This room is a mess," Naruto said in disgust.
"I know," Tenzo agreed as he pulled a binder from underneath the garbage.
"This whole building needs a woman's touch," Hinata studied the room.
"The gym leader needs a wife," Naruto commented. " Or at least his mother."
This caused all four of them to burst out laughing.
"Okay, okay," Tenzo flipped through the pages until he came to the proper date and handed it over to Naruto with a stub of a pencil. "Here you go."
Naruto frowned upon seeing the page. The entire morning was booked with other things, including the trip to the diner that Kakashi had mentioned. Only a few hours in the afternoon were available. He toyed with the pencil for a while, unable to decide.
"Just going to the diner, my butt," Naruto grumbled in annoyance. 'If I don't make it, I get another chance next week. So… why not?"
Impulsively, he signed his name in the slot for one-thirty in the afternoon, and handed the binder and pencil back to Tenzo.
"Alright," Tenzo nodded and put the binder away in a desk drawer and threw what was left of the pencil in the garbage. "We'll see you tomorrow… if you don't get cold feet."
"Don't worry, I won't," Naruto said with fire in his eyes. Han squeaked and Cherry barked to back him up.
Tenzo held in a laugh. "Then, don take it to hard when the gym leader, Kakashi, wipes the floor with you. Learn from your loss."
Naruto stuck his tongue out at the gym trainer and left the office and gym with the girls in tow.
'We'll see what happens tomorrow!"
Naruto tried not to look visibly nervous as he stood at the challenger's side of the field and waited for his gym challenge for the badge to begin. The bleachers, which were packed-full the day before were empty, except for Naruko and Hinata, whom were cheering for him. And Kakashi was already an hour late for the scheduled battle.
"Um… Tenzo, where's everybody?" he asked the referee, who was sitting in the same black leather desk chair from yesterday on the sidelines.
"The trainer from yesterday was a punk, so Kakashi made sure that the battle was publicized to embarrass him in front of all the local trainers and Pokemon fans after he'd lost," Tenzo replied as he munched on his snack of a large bag of salt and vinegar flavor potato chips and a six-pack of soda. "He likes you better, so no public humiliation for you… yet. But at least you've got your two cheerleaders over there.
"My sister will wring his neck if he tried to humiliate me in public, that's her job," Naruto shared a laugh with him. "So you know he likes me because he doesn't feel like embarrassing me in front of a crowd?"
"Yeah, there's that," Tenzo bobbed his head, "and he seemed to be very interested in you and your sister's last name. I think he even might have looked up your trainer information… well, at least what little there was."
"I know there ain't much, since I've just started my adventure five days ago," Naruto shrugged. "When I talked with my mom on the phone two days ago, she said she knew him when they were both younger."
"Oh, really?" Tenzo emptied the bag and the last can of soda, and began scrutinizing the young trainer. "That is very interesting. Kakashi doesn't ever talk about his training adventures before I met him."
The doors on the other side of the field opened and Gym Leader Kakashi walked in and approached his side of the battle field, still being followed faithfully by the Granbull.
"You're late!" Naruto screamed, pointing a finger accusingly at him.
"Yeah!" Naruko agreed from the stands.
"Sorry, sorry," Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "I was helping this old lady with her groceries and…"
"Liar!" Tenzo cut in. "You're so full of it, you know that?"
Naruto blinked. 'Is he for real?'
"I guess I got caught. Oh well, let's get this show on the road," the silver-haired man let out a long sigh and unleashed his Ditto. "Pick your first Pokemon."
Biting his lip, he thought about for a moment, and then made his choice. "Flo! Stand by for battle!"
"Are… you… serious…?" Tenzo asked, staring at the pink, heart-shaped Luvdisc hopping around in front of the boy.
"Of course I am," Naruto nodded. "This is Flo's first official battle, so I wanna see what she's got."
"O-kay…" Tenzo muttered and stood up from the chair, shoving the empty chip bag in his pocket, and kick it towards the mirrored wall again. "The battle between the challenger, Naruto of Konoha Town, and the Gym Leader Kakashi is about to commence. Begin!"
"Alright Morpheus, its show time!" Kakashi instructed and the Ditto transformed into a paler Luvdisc. It even copied Flo's hopping.
Naruto studied and watched his Luvdisc and the fake Luvdisc for a moment before making the first move. "Flo, use Tackle!"
The pink fish followed the order and hopped towards the opponent. If the field had a pool, this battle wouldn't have looked so pathetic. Not nearly as pathetic as Serpent's flopping around. But on land, this actually looked kind of sad. The transformed Ditto hopped in the same manner as Flo, then jumped out of the way when the Luvdisc finally reached it. Naruto then called for a Special Attack and ordered an Ice Beam.
The Ditto-disc dodged every move that was called out. Before long, Kakashi finally gave the order to attack and had Morpheus use Tackle. Flo managed to dodge the first few Tackles before finally getting hit with a powerful Tackle and being knocked unconscious. The end result was the same as the day before: Morpheus won and Flo lost.
"Sorry about that, buddy, but you did great," Naruto muttered to the heart as he returned the limp creature to its ball.
He had hoped that Flo would, at the very least, tire out the Ditto a little bit, and maybe cause it some damage. He could've used Cherry to wear down the Ditto, but he'd tried that, the fire fox would take it too far, since it had a tendency to get overly serious in battle. In the end, he decided to continue with his plan and called out his Pichu.
"Han! Stand by for battle!" Naruto unleashed the mouse. "Han, use Charm then Iron Tail."
"Morpheus, reset and Transform," Kakashi ordered calmly.
The Ditto went back to being a pink blob and transform with a "poof" into a pale copy of the Pichu in front of it. It still had the Ditto face. Han was unnerved by the transformation, but still put on the charming face and lowered the Ditto's Attack stat severely. The fake Pichu still managed to dodge the incoming Iron Tail and it countered with one of its own.
Naruto then ordered a ThunderShock and it hit, but the Ditto didn't seem bothered or hurt at all. Han was getting tired after so many missed attacks. So Naruto decided to try and wrap up the battle.
"Han, Thunder Wave!" Naruto ordered.
Morpheus just stood there and took the hit, but it didn't get paralyzed. This surprised the boy, who decided to go with something else.
"Han, Volt Tackle!"
Tenzo's eyes and Kakashi's visible one widened in surprised. But Kakashi recovered and had the Ditto use Iron Tail. The attacks collided and the resulting explosion sent both Pokemon flying towards the wall behind each trainer. They shattered the mirrors and fell to the floor. The fake Pichu got back on its feet immediately while Han lay there motionless.
"Battle over!" Tenzo called. "This means that the winner of the match is Gym Leader Kakashi!"
"Han, return," Naruto recalled the Pichu as the girls rushed to his side. "You did great."
"You were hoping to paralyze my Ditto?" Kakashi as he returned Morpheus back into its Pokeball.
Naruto nodded as he realized that the gym leader didn't bring out his book this time during the battle.
"Here's some information for ya. A Ditto's ability is Limber. It means that it can't get paralyzed by anything. Keep that in mind for next week… if you still want another shot at my badge. Same rules, unless you manage to get your hand on two or more Pokemon by then, which will need a quick rule change."
"Okay," Naruto mumbled lowly and walked out of the gym in a slow pace. Naruko and Hinata followed close behind with worried looks on their faces.
'I hope he'll be alright…'