Disclaimer: I do not own Pokèmon or Naruto.
Author's Note: I would like to thank each and every person who followed and favourited this story.
Special thanks to Steel723, StraightRooster, Morpheusthedream, SifTheGreat, for taking the time to write a review. It means a lot.
The Pokemon Tournament held abroad the SS Rose, had begun.
Each and every trainer would fight tooth and nail to win the prize Neji had declared the winner would get.
And Hinata too would fight for vehemently for the alluring prize her cousin had managed to procure.
The ways of an Elite Four Trainer are still far above me.
Hinata thought, as she walked forward take her own personal token.
The rules of this Battle Tournament had been clear.
The trainers a participant would fight would be decided by their numbers. Although there were more than a hundred trainers abroad the ship, only about 50 had participated, a lot of them feeling intimidated by the presence of an Elite Four.
The group of 50 trainers had been divided into 5 groups comprised of 10 trainers each, and miraculously her, Sasuke, Shino and Kiba as well as Hanabi had been given into a separate group each.
In the end, out of the ten trainers in each group only one would be victorious and compete in the final rounds.
The second rule stated that trainers would be allowed only one Pokemon to battle. Not more than that.
Hinata had no qualms with that, as she currently only had one Pokemon in her possession, and she doubted anyone else had more than one.
Hinata saw that she was in the third group, her own number being 36, and she was to battle against the one numbered 35.
Hinata felt nervousness inside her stomach as she glanced at the large crowd concentrated around them, realising that each and every move, victory and defeat would be witnessed by them.
She took a deep and calming breath, and walked towards her own small stage.
This was not her first battle, and she doubted it would be her last.
As she stood waiting on her stage, she could not help but look at her friends.
Shino stood silent as ever, not a shred of a nervous expression on his face.
Kiba stood besides Akamaru, his Houndour, with a cocky grin on his face, as if nothing could defeat him.
Although Hanabi tried to look confident, Hinata knew she was only hiding it, and was actually quite nervous herself.
She saw Sasuke standing in another stage, a bored look in his eyes, his Victini jumping enthusiastically, warming up for the battle to come.
She could not help but smile the scene.
"Number 36, I presume?"
A voice cut through her thoughts, and she immediately turned around to face a girl her age.
Her most noticeable features were her platinum blonde hair tied behind her head in a ponytail, and her clear, light blue eyes.
Like Hinata, the blonde girl too was gauging Hinata from top to bottom, not feeling particularly impressed or intimidated by her, as Hinata noticed from her indifferent gaze.
Hinata frowned and nodded.
"Hinata Hyūga. Number 36. You are 35?"
The girl smirked at her, and pridefully nodded.
"Number 35. Ino Yamanaka."
Hinata nodded, no longer interested in any small talks with her.
She agilely threw her Pokeball onto the small arena, the ball spun in the air, and out came her immaculate white Vulpix, it's six tails curled magnificently.
An expression of surprise flashed over Ino's blue eyes, as she saw the strange anomaly.
Ino took out her own Pokeball quickly, as a Chikorita appeared out of it, the leaf over it's petite head waving around pleasantly.
Vulpix and Chikorita faced each other in the arena, an expression of seriousness in their eyes, reminiscent of the expression of their trainer's.
Many in the crowd noticed Hinata's strangely coloured Vulpix.
Several of the Female Trainers could not help but look at it adoringly, and the male trainers too had an expression of surprise over their eyes.
"Hey, look at that Pokèmon! I've never seen that kind of Vulpix before!"
A trainer standing amongst the audience spoke to another trainer. The other trainer who was addressed snorted in displeasure.
"Did you not notice it while we were having the Banquet? Or were you too engrossed in the food?"
He spoke with ridicule in his voice, as realisation flashed across the trainer's face.
Listening to him, several of the other trainers standing with them also began to nod.
In the small arena, Hinata, not wanting to waste any more time attempted a Preemptive strike, in order to gain the upper hand over Ino, as soon as possible.
"Vulpix, use Powder Snow!"
The Pokemon in question quickly opened her petite mouth wide, and a haze of snow no larger than a small breeze appeared around her, which quickly flew towards Chikorita.
Ino almost lost composure, and blurted out some near incoherent words which fortunately the Chikorita managed to comprehend.
"Chikorita, dodge! Quickly, dodge!"
Considering this was Ino's first battle, her inexperience quickly became visible to the world, and her Chikorita paid the price for her hesitations.
Although Chikorita had managed to quickly dodged most of the icy wind, a lot of it had stuck to her body, as she could not dodge quickly.
As the attack subsided, Chikorita immediately stopped dodging and began to pant rapidly, minor burning wounds becoming visible all over it's body, the attack having been super effective against her.
Ino's breath hitched, as she looked a the condition that her Pokemon was suffering from.
She gulped nervously, never having seen her Chikorita getting injured, let alone fit a battle against another trainer.
Realising she was in a battle, she immediately regained her composure and pointed at Vulpix.
"Chikorita, use tackle!"
Chikorita ran towards Vulpix and quickly tackled it onto the ground.
The Vulpix gave a Yelp and fell backwards.
"Vulpix, Powder Snow!"
Before Ino could give another command, Hinata's voice cut through the battle.
Once again, Chikorita was bombarded with white icy winds at point blank range.
Chikorita, having been already injured before, was slower than before and could not escape the fire attack.
The result was set.
"Chikorita!"
The grass Pokemon gave out a sound of pain, before fainting in the arena, it's eyes swirling.
Hinata had won the battle.
With a downcast look on her eyes, Ino put Chikorita back in her Pokeball, and walked down the stage.
Hinata looked at Ino's back, and her eyes softened. Losing never felt good. Not to her, nor to anybody.
Hinata too walked down the stage.
"Winner, Hinata Hyūga."
A voice of announcement that she identified as Kō, ran through her group.
The Victor of each and every battle had been announced by Kō personally.
A slight round of applause was heard, as Hinata walked down the stage to stand victoriously amidst a cheering audience, though she tried her best to suppress her nervous blushing as much as possible at the praise being showered towards her.
She walked towards a corner, and stood silently, waiting for her next match to be announced, which they would be from now on.
Like that the battles continued.
One inexperienced trainer after another was defeated by Hinata, her own personal experience playing a large part in her consecutive victories.
The trainers she fought proved to be nervous and hesitant, did not share a deep bond with their own Pokemon, and lost their calm far too quickly. Qualities that Hinata had no problems against.
Winning One victory after another, she had managed to cause quite the discussion amongst the spectating crowd, many of whom looking at her with reverence and respect.
She had won every battle she had fought, and had gained the respect of the entire crowd.
Even Ino, who had previously looked down on her arrogantly, no longer had a shred of her previous pride, and instead looked at her with begrudging respect.
Before she realised, she had become the victor of her entire group.
"Hyūga Hinata, Victor of the Third Group, may now proceed to the finals!"
Once again, like many times before, Kō addressed loudly.
Currently, she realised was one of the three trainers who had managed to maintain an undefeatable streak in their individual group.
One of them was Shikamaru Nara, a strange pineapple haired boy, who seemed to know Ino well. Him and his Drowzee had been nigh undefeatable in their own group, of which Hanabi and unfortunately been a part of and had been defeated.
A Battle Genius, if Hinata ever knew one.
The third trainer to maintain an undefeatable streak was someone she had met before.
Sasuke Uchiha.
With his Victini by his side, displaying extremely powerful psychic abilities, had simply confused each and every opponent until the enemy Pokèmon had simply fainted by continuously hitting themselves instead of Victini.
The Victini required no other move, other than confusion, which left Hinata more surprised than ever.
She felt even more intrigued by the Uchiha and his Pokèmon.
Unfortunately, on the other hand, although both Kiba and Shino had managed to become the number one of their respective groups, they had both faced one defeat before, although they both had come out stronger than ever from that defeat, for which Hinata was eternally grateful.
Kiba and Shino were her friends, and she deeply desired to see them succeed in their endeavours.
Now, all of the matches had been finished, and besides her stood four of the Finalists, who had managed to secure the position of number one within their group.
All the trainers who had lost, now stood amongst the spectating audience, while Hinata and the other Finalists stood at the very centre of the arena, ahead of them stood Ko and Neji.
Hinata looked at her cousin, who began to speak with a slight smile on his face.
"All five of you have managed to defeat your opponents, coming out as the sole victors. For that, I sincerely congratulate all of you."
The surrounding audience gave a thunderous applause in response and Hinata could not help but smile a little, as a warm feeling arose in her heart.
Now, it was Kō who addressed them in a firm tone.
"The final rounds will now begin. All five of you will battle against one another. The one who comes out as the victor shall gain the prize."
Neji spoke up.
"Let the Finals begin."
Hinata took a deep breath and steadied herself.
She had reached the final rounds, and was determined to win. To prove herself.
X~~~X~~~X
Author's Note: I am pleased to announce that from now on Dragonborn shall be updated daily. I will try to keep the chapter length at 2K-3K as much as possible. Your Reviews are greatly appreciated.
Kindly Read And Review.
Lusalec.
