Ch 2

I'd fallen asleep a bit nervous that I'd roll in my sleep onto Katon, but when I woke up, he was standing on my chest, staring out my window into the sunlight. I fidgeted a bit, and he hopped to my shoulder, and then onto my bed. Excited chirping cut through my morning grog, and I sat up. Today was my first real day as a ninja, and as a pokemon trainer.

I stood up, and offered my hand out to Katon, who jumped on. When I held my hand up to my shoulder, Katon transferred, and I was off to the races. The only bathroom was downstairs, so I thundered down, turned on a hairpin, dashed through the dining/living room, and into the bathroom just before my father. "Hey!" he cried as I shut the door behind me.

Katon wasn't a fan of the faucet, but I needed water to brush my teeth, so I only splashed my toothbrush before I actually started. I was pumped, and Katon fed off that through our new bond, so as I brushed like a madman, Katon started to puff out a bit and gave his reflection the best game face he could manage. Serious as he was, he was so small, and it was kinda hilarious. When I spat out my toothpaste, Katon fired off a few embers.

I left the bathroom cackling, and then sprinted back upstairs, but not before listening for my father's reaction. "Why is the mirror all scorched up?" he asked, "It wasn't like this when you moved in, was it?"

Upstairs, I dropped Katon off on my desk, and discarded my pajamas. I pulled on some of my matte black pants, and reached for one of my t-shirts, before ultimately going with a light chain shirt. Next, I pulled a black, long sleeved shirt that zipped up the middle and bore a modified red leaf ninja insignia on both my shoulders. Where the normal leaf swirled into the center, mine had a pokeball print, which seemed odd because nobody used pokeballs in the Great Nations, but hey… where don't pokeball prints end up, am I right?

In my closet, above the hangers, was this shelf that I kept all my other clothes on. I threw a pair of combat padded orange shoes and gloves over my shoulder, and grabbed my favorite beanie. Katon chirped at the sight of it, so I tossed it to him, and enjoyed the sight of him circling around it as I pulled on my shoes and gloves. Finally, I grabbed my beanie and pulled it on. It totally hid my hair, and had two parts, the first part was this black headband lookin' part with a red pokeball print, and the rest of the beanie was white, long enough that it fell back over the bandana a bit, with spikey bits at the end.

Katon chirped and hopped excitedly. I held out my hand, but he bypassed it, and leapt right up to my shoulder. "We're ready," I said, and turned around.

My parents were standing behind me, in matching robes. Mom pulled an orange knapsack with a snap on, over the shoulder strap out from behind her back, and held it out to me. She stepped up to me, threw the bag part over my shoulder, grabbed the other end, and clipped it together over my chest. On either side of the clip were slots that opened with buttons like I'd seen so many of the ninja in this village wear. She pointed to them, "For your pokescrolls," she explained, "and we made sure it's packed with kunai, a few shuriken, and healing berries for Katon."

She hugged me hard, and my father gave me a thumbs up from over her shoulder. He left, and Mom let go, but not before saying, "Oh, and May is outside waiting for you. Hurry along."

I pushed past him, and ran out of the house, sure enough, there was May, with a fanny pack that appeared to be the same brand as my own bag. "Hey there neighbor!" she exclaimed, "We've gotta got meet with Wally, and then we'll head over to the Academy, okay?"

She hopped onto my roof, so I followed, but I asked, "Who's Wally?"

We started leaping along the buildings, and while I had to keep my eyes on May's feet to stay on course, May smiled at me, "Oh! Yeah, so in the Land of Fire, newbies like us are called Genin, and they train in groups of three with a sensei, or teacher. Wally is the last of our trio."

I nodded, and May sped up, so even though I wanted to keep asking questions, I had to completely focus on keeping up. We went north for a few blocks, before turning west for a bit longer. Eventually we came upon a giant circular building with a lime green roof with only one story, which even though it was short, seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in the mass of apartment complexes and shops that surrounded it. May knocked on the door, and then took a few steps back to stand next to me. "Oh, uh, by the way," she said, "I know Wally can look a little… strange, but he's totally healthy now, okay?"

When the door opened, a pale boy stepped out and closed it behind him. His skin sharply contrasted with his lime green hair, which stuck out in all directions, but his eyes sparkled with a life I would not have attributed to a person whose skin was nearly translucent. He wore a light gray shirt with sleeves that fell well past his hands, and pants which matched his hair color. "You must be Brendan," he said with a faint smile, "I'm Wally. It's nice to finally meet the son of Norman."

I arched an eyebrow, "Yeah, well pretty soon people will be remembering him as my father."

He pointed a sleeved hand at Katon. "Is that your Torchic?"

I nodded, "Meet Katon," and looked to Katon, "Say hi, buddy."

My starter tilted his head and chirped. I smiled, "I think that's as much as you're gonna get."

Wally flicked his wrist, and showed me a pokescroll. Unlike Katon's, this one was two colors, purple and pink, with a logo cut right down the middle, equal parts third eye and full moon, "I'd like to introduce my pokemon, if that's okay, then."

The scroll unfurled straight down, and white smoke billowed off the paper. When the smoke cleared, a Ralts was hiding behind Wally's right leg. "Meet Gen, like Genjutsu," Wally said.

May bounced excitedly. "Hey! I'll let my partners out too, and we can walk them to the academy, it'll be like a pokemon parade!"

She pulled out a black scroll with a white crescent moon, and summoned a Poochyena, "Meet Chuckles!"

Chuckles ran around May in a circle, and turned to Wally, before opening its mouth and barking this high pitched noise that was uncannily similar to a chuckle. Then May pulled out a second scroll, this one purple, with a complete third eye logo, summoning a Spoink. "And we can't forget Pogo, can we?"

Katon leapt down to the ground, and the pokemon started running around each other in a crazed desire for discovery. As they swarmed about, May and Wally leapt up to Wally's roof. I followed, and the pokemon were right behind me. May pointed to a square, orange building, several stories taller than its neighbors, with red roofing. "There's the Academy, Brendan," she said with a devious smirk, "Race ya!"

Before she'd even challenged me, she'd taken off, and Wally wasn't far behind her. Clearly this was not an uncommon occurrence. I funneled chakra to my legs and exploded from roof to roof after them. Three leaps in, I passed Wally, who wailed something along the lines of "Waaaait!" but May was four blocks ahead of me.

Two blocks later, May was five blocks ahead of me, and Chuckles and Pogo passed me up. Katon managed to get to my shoulder by the time May reached the Academy, six blocks ahead of me. I landed panting, and marveled at May's speed. "How'd you get so fast?"

She smacked her fists together. "I'm a Taijutsu specialist. Don't worry, soon enough you'll be so used to eating my dust, you won't want to go a day without it."

I laughed until Wally landed, and we entered at the same time. Professor Birch was waiting for us inside, with a cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip, and gestured for us to follow him. He led us to a classroom, and waved at the seats. May took a seat at the front row table, pulled out the chairs on either side of her, and smacked on their seats. Wally and I shared a look, I shrugged, and then we sat down where she wanted us to. Katon hopped onto the desk and bounced in place.

"Wow," Wally marveled, "You've only known Katon for what, a day? And it's already reflecting your personality. Amazing."

I looked at Katon, and he spun around to look at me. "What?"

May giggled and started to pet Chuckles, "Pokemon become like their trainers through a mystical bond we don't quite understand yet, and you and Katon are already on the same page. It's really cute."

Katon looked at May, then at me, and shook his head. "Couldn't have said it better myself," I said and leaned back into the chair.

Professor Birch cleared his throat. "Okay, so now that that's out of the way, let's talk about why you three are here. Pokemon haven't been a regular sight on this continent in over three hundred years," he paused to let that sink it, "but now they're appearing all over the Great Nations. Lord Hokage, the top ninja if you will, has hired you three, whom have been deemed to be at least of Genin skill level, to catalogue which species of pokemon have made their homes in the Great Nations,

"And to train other genin to incorporate pokemon into their fighting styles," the professor paused again, "and that's going to be a lot of what you do. When you are not with your sensei on a mission or out cataloguing, you will be training with the other genin of your year. Does that make sense?"

I chewed on that for a moment, then snapped my fingers with an idea. "Hey, is there a kid who dresses up in orange in our year? Yellow, spikey hair?"

The professor sighed, "That would be Naruto Uzumaki, trouble maker extraordinaire, and yes. He's been assigned to Team Kakashi. Do you want to be assigned to that group?"

My blood started pumping at the idea of working with somebody able to make that many shadow clones. "Yes."

The professor guffawed, and said, "Okay… remember, you asked for it."

He reached behind the instructor's podium, pulled out his satchel, and opened it. "Welcome to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, you're officially ninja, and with that honor, come these headbands."

He set a headband with the pokeball-leaf combo logo in front of each of us. I tied mine around my bag, while May tied hers around her waist, and Wally looked at us, and then the headband. "Don't they go on your heads? Guys?"

"If you want it to," May nodded.

"Meh," I responded.

Wally sighed, and tied his where it was "supposed" to go. "Okay. So, we got our headbands. Are we going to meet our Jonin sensei?"

Birch waved him off. "He's outside, and I have one more thing to give you."

He reached into his bag again, and pulled out three square pieces of metal. He set the squares on our desks, and flipped them over, revealing glass screens. "These are top of the line from the Kalos region," he said, and touched the glass, which morphed to show a picture, "touch screen pokedexes. If you have it on your person, it will record the pokemon you encounter. Just remember to keep them charged, okay?"

I slipped the pokedex into my bag, May held hers under her arm, and Wally slipped his into one of his sleeves. Now May was bouncing, "This is so exciting!"

The Professor smiled, and said, "Okay, with that, my part is done, I'll send your sensei in."

He left the room, and a tall, thin man, with spikey, iron gray hair came in. He wore a black yukata with silver linings, with one arm poking out of the center, resting in one of the folds of the cloth. From what I could see, under that he wore standard blue combat gear from the hidden leaf, but no hidden leaf headband. He smiled, and said, "Hey! I'm Steven Stone, and I'll be taking care of you guys."

He sat on the desk, and said, "Well, if we're gonna do introductions, we should do them right. My name is Steven Stone, and like you guys, I joined up with the Hidden Leaf pretty recently. I've got the headband somewhere, but I'm not used to it yet. I'm here to help you refine your techniques, lead missions, and give advice for when you're helping out the other genin squads, okay?"

He nodded to me, so I said, "I'm Brendan, and I'm going to be so great that people will forget my father's name."

Steven smiled, a pleasantly surprised smirk on his face. "Okay, we'll work towards that."

May stood up, and said, "I'm May Birch, and I'm gonna help me dad in his research while making friends with all sorts of people and pokemon."

When she sat down, Wally sighed, then he half stood up, and said, "I'm Wally, and I want to be strong for me and my pokemon, that's all."

Steven nodded, pushed himself off his desk, and walked over to ours. "Great, well, today we'll be going on our first mission while the other genin teams take their teamwork exams. The other genin teams are in the surrounding rooms. Brendan will be going to room 3 to meet with Team Kakashi, Wally, I want you to work with Team Kurenai in room 4, considering your family history, and May, you'll work with Team Asuma in room 2, okay?"

Steven opened the door, "Meet with your team briefly, and then meet me outside so we can begin. Congratulations, you guys are officially Team Steven."

And when Steven left, we looked at each other for a moment. "Team Steven, huh?" May remarked, "I like it."

Wally stuck his hand, palm down, over May's portion of the desk, and May put her hand on top of his. They looked to me, so I rolled my eyes, and added my hand to the pile. "Whoo," I said, dripping sarcasm, "Go team."

Wally frowned, and May laughed. She rustled my beanie and said, "Stop trying to be so cool, ya dingus."

That got me laughing, and we got up from the desk. I waved as I went through the door, "See you guys in a bit."

I walked past one door, and went into room 3. The door was a little open, but I didn't look up to see the eraser waiting to fall on my head. So as I stepped into the room, the eraser fell, bounced off my head, and backwards onto Katon. Three Genin were inside, first was the kid in orange, then was a girl with long pink hair in a red outfit, and in the back was a broody type with raven hair and a blue shirt. The kid in the back grunted with disgust, and the girl asked, "Seriously? This is our Jonin Sensei? He doesn't even look that much older than us."

Orange kid snorted, "What a loser!"

I grinned through the rage, and said, "Hi, I'm Brendan, and I'm not your sensei."

Orange kid leaned onto a desk, "Then what are you here for?"

I gestured to Katon, "I'm here to help you guys incorporate pokemon into your ninjutsu. When we're not on missions, we'll be training together. I'm excited about working with you."

The girl walked over to Katon and crouched down. "Wow, this little guy's super cute."

"Cute?" I asked, and Katon let out a devastated chirp.

I picked up the eraser, tossed it into the air, and as it began to fall, Katon bathed it in embers, which totally incinerated it, so only ash fell to the ground. "We don't do cute," I growled, "We're badass."

"Whoa!" orange kid exclaimed, "Hey, could you help me get one of those?"

"That's my job," I said through a fake smile, "but I should probably discuss all that with your sensei first, how much longer do you think Kakashi will be?"

"It's been hours," the kid in the back responded.

A new voice came from behind me, "Well, it won't be much longer, I assure you."

I spun around to see a Konoha jonin with gray hair that stuck straight up and a little to the side, a mask which covered all of his face except for his eyes, and his headband was tilted to cover one of those. "You guys starting fires in here?" he asked, "I kind of hate you already."

He looked at me, and despite the fact that the one eye I could see was giving me a happy vibe, his voice dripped with venom. "You must be Brendan, the third Hokage told me we'd be meeting soon, but not before tomorrow's training exercise. You can start with them tomorrow, at noon, once they've finished their training with me, understood?"

I saluted, and edged by him out of the room. "What a dick," I muttered, and I hoped he heard me.

Outside the academy, the rest of Team Steven was waiting for me, with a giggly atmosphere. "How is your team?" Wally asked as I came near.

"Buncha jerks," I declared with a shrug, "They'll come around."

Steven chuckled, "Okay then, without further ado, it's time for our first mission."

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.