"Are you sure the cave is around here?" Gaara said unsure of his friends directions.
"Yeah I'm positive it is should be in this area actually." Naruto said looking for the entrance to the cave that they were in search of.
Their ninja senses tingled and they had to dodge a bunch of little senbon like projectiles. They turned to see what had attacked and saw a yellow animal that looked like a cross between a cat and a porcupine. Naruto was in the process of scanning it with his Pokedex when something rustled in the bushes behind it.
A man probably in his late teens to early twenties emerged from the shrubbery. He wore black pants, a black long sleeved shirt with a big red R on it. To complete the uniform he wore forearm length black gloves, black knee high boots and a black hat.
"Well well well looks like more idiot trainers that think they can play hero and rescue the others have come before Team Rocket." the Rocket grunt arrogance coming of the man in waves.
"So you've been kidnapping people? What do you do with them?" Naruto asked.
"Well since you two are gonna be our prisoners I might as well give you advance warning. All of us Rocket members here have been capturing any trainers that come by and steal their Pokemon and then giving them our boss to be sold at ridiculous prices or use them as our own!" at the end of his speech the man let out a maniacal laugh.
Naruto and Gaara looked at each other and chuckled this fool had no idea who they were. They were killers trained from and early age, but they were not just killers they were two of the best to have been. So they decided to knock the fool out. As the man feel to the ground Naruto grabbed the mans Poke ball and returned the Jolteon.
"So what do you want to do Naruto?" Gaara asked. Though the younger of the two had held a higher rank back in their old world he valued Naruto's input greatly.
"I say we go in there use non-lethal force and knock out all the Team Rocket guys, release any of the captives, raid the place for anything useful or interesting, then finally drop these little baddies off in the closest town." Naruto said as he bent down to strip the man of anything dangerous or important.
"Shouldn't we just kill them it would be much easier." Gaara said.
"We have a new life Gaara why should we? We have clean slates here no one knows that we are trained killers. Why put blood on our hands in this world when we had bathed our bodies in it in our old one." Naruto spoke.
"Indeed." was Gaara's short reply.
Gaara waited for Naruto to finish looting what he could from the man. He managed to get three used Poke balls, seven Poke balls, one great ball, and a few hundred in cash. Plus he found a map of the base and a card key labeled cells. He assumed the key was for the prison cells by the label.
"Alright let's tie this guy up and head into that cave and take care of these losers." Naruto said as he sealed the loot into a unused scroll.
"So Gaara what kind of Pokemon are you planning on training?" Naruto said as he tried to make small talk.
"I don't know I really didn't look into it too much." Gaara answered.
"Wait didn't you read about them at the library in the lab?" Naruto said as they now entered the cave.
"No I was more focused on the information on the culture, history, and economy of this place."
"Well maybe you could try for a ground or rock type Pokemon since you are fond of using sand and earth jutsu."
"Indeed they would probably easier to train since I know how to manipulate those elements."
The two moved through the base with efficiency not once being sighted. They were phantoms as they moved. A few Rocket members had ended up being knocked unconscious, bond and striped of all their personal effects with the only exception being their clothing.
Naruto figured that they should leave the uniforms on them so that the police could identify the group immediately. So far they had not passed any holding cells. Naruto briefly wondered how big this cave was.
But as they progressed they noticed that instead of the caves rough walls and floor started to become a grey metal. The sound of people moving about was heard by the two boys so they continued walking until the came to the source. In front of them a large two level warehouse with tons of cages containing Pokemon of many different species.
Suddenly an idea came to mind and he voiced it to his partner in crime. Gaara just chuckled what he was about to do was a classic Naruto strategy. He waited as his partner though of a way to go about initiating his plan.
He just watched Naruto grin as he called out his Gyarados and commanded it to use Earthquake. Sure the move could likely cause the ceiling to collapse he didn't care it caused a mass panic for the Rockets. Then someone caught sight of Gyarados and triggered the alarm locking the warehouse down.
The pair waited for all the Rocket members to advance upon them so they could finish them all quickly. Soon there was a sea of black and red in front of them. The Rockets spotted them and then two burly looking men who were likely their leaders stepped forward.
"Who are you fools?" one of the men spoke.
"Naruto and Gaara who are you two?" Naruto said.
"I am Genghis and this is my brother Khan. What are you boys trying to accomplish here? Surely you can't think that you can hold your own against my 50 or so men?" Genghis spoke.
"Your right we can't." Naruto said as he returned Gyarados to his Poke ball.
"I see but since you are here why don-" he was interrupted.
"Your right we don't think we can beat you and your men…Because we already know we can win." Naruto said as he grinned.
"Foolish boy you'll regret coming here." this time Khan was the one to speak as he rushed forward to punch the blonde.
Naruto just grabbed the mans punch and then hit the mans elbow breaking the bone. He then threw and uppercut as the man tried to bend forward to cradle his arm but was hit upwards instead breaking his jaw. Everyone of the Rockets watched in shock as the co-leader of this base was knocked out cold.
"KHANNN!" Genghis screamed as he watched his brother hit the floor and not stir.
"Fucking bastard. I want these two dead the one to deliver the finishing blow will receive my personal recommendation for a promotion!" exclaimed the burly man.
With these words the Rocket members each brought out all of their Poke balls and unleashed a couple hundred Pokemon. The Pokemon were ordered to take down the two humans in front of them no matter what. The Pokemon then charged at the two boys but were thrown back by a wave of sand.
"Gaara remember non-lethal only." Naruto said as he began to collect nature's energy.
Gaara just kept blasting waves of sand in the direction of any attack. He was only waiting for Naruto to finish entering his sage mode so they could go on the offensive. Though he did use this time to knock out the weaker Pokemon of the horde. He saw Naruto open his eyes and then sent a wave of sand in a straight line through the middle splitting the group into two smaller armies.
Naruto took one side and swiftly went about knocking out the Rocket members so he could use their Poke balls to return the Pokemon. But on several occasions he would have to knock out a Pokemon. He still had a little less then half of the Rockets to deal with.
He looked over his shoulder to see how well Gaara was doing and saw he was more than halfway done as well. He had to return his attention to himself however when a hulking blue Pokemon tried to throw a heavy glowing haymaker to his face. He ducked it and hit it in the stomach forcing to drop to its knees before hitting it in the back of the neck with a chop.
Several more minutes and the group surrounding them was defeated. Naruto and Gaara had only broken a light sweat but it was sweat nonetheless. Facing several hundred animals who could manipulate elements just as well as ninjas and had hardy enough bodies that would only require a day or two of rest to heal them, was definitely not something they would like to try again so soon.
Naruto created a dozen clones to go around and loot the grunts and return the fallen Pokemon back into their balls. While he looked around he saw that the man named Genghis was nowhere in sight. Until a shout of Hyper Beam alerted the two of the attack.
"You may have beat my men and brother but I am ten times more powerful then all of them!" Genghis shouted as he stood on the second level with 3 Pokemon.
Naruto pulled out his Pokedex to scan this new threats. "Nidoking: The Drill Pokemon, It is recognized by its rock-hard hide and its extended horn. Be careful with the horn as it contains venom." it said about the purple Pokemon.
"Rhydon: The Drill Pokemon, Protected by an armor-like hide, it is capable of living in molten lava of 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit."
"Kangaskhan: The Parent Pokemon, The female raises its offspring in a pouch on its belly. It is skilled at attacking using COMET PUNCH."
Naruto closed his Pokedex and put away while simultaneously grabbing Gyarados's Poke ball and throwing it. It came out with a roar like always and looked at its opponents. Looking back at Naruto it nodded and waited for its orders.
"Alright my underlings this Pokemon in front of you is our enemy. It is a three on one battle so defeating it will be easy. Now all of you rush at it and use Focus Punch and continue to us it until that thing is on the floor." Genghis ordered.
"Gyarados use Ice Beam like you did in Pewter City!" as soon as the order came the Pokemon began use the attack to make it look like he was trying to attack the Pokemon. But he was just leveling the playing field. Naruto didn't know if Gyarados could defeat all three of the Pokemon in a straight out battle of strength. He continued watching until he saw the floor covered with a sheet of ice.
"Gyarados switch to Hydro Pump and attack for real." Gyarados then became very accurate and started to blast the three with water until they were soaked to the bone.
"Alright guys I want a triple Hyper Beam from all sides." Genghis ordered.
His three Pokemon then surrounded Gyarados and began charging their strongest attack. The three Pokemon then roared as they were ready to fire the attacks. They leaned forward to shoot the highly concentrated energy and released it. Naruto just waited for the right moment while up on the balcony Genghis smirked he knew that he this battle won.
"Gyarados hurry and use Earthquake!" Naruto shouted.
The Pokemon slammed his powerful tail into the ground and the place shook once again. He hoped that this place would hold until they at least got out. Though he was worried about the side effects of the attack it threw the three firing the Hyper Beams to lose the stable footing required for Hyper Beam. The beams of energy dissipated after a second or two.
"Gyarados spin an use Ice Beam." It spun and began firing its attack.
"You three dodge."
The three Pokemon managed to avoid being directly hit by the attack just barely escaping damage. But something was wrong they seemed to be moving slower than they should have been. Then he caught the light reflecting off of his Pokemon like shards of glass on them.
"Shit, but how did the attack freeze them when it didn't make contact." Genghis said aloud.
"Because they are still soaked in water which boosted the chances of the Ice Beam being able to freeze them. Gyarados end this with multiple Dragon Pulses!" Naruto ordered.
The monster did as it was told and began to quickly charge and fire his strongest dragon type attack at the trio. The balls of energy made loud booms as they collided on the semi-frozen Pokemon. The damage done all they had to do was wait for the dust to settle. But when it did it showed how all three of the opposing Pokemon were KO'ed.
"Shit return! This isn't the last you'll hear from me boy I'm gonna hunt you down and destroy y-" he stopped talking and fell forward off of the balcony.
With him out of the way it now showed that Gaara had made his way up to the second level and chopped the man on the neck knocking him out. He gave Gaara a thumbs up and then walked over to the man looting him as he had done to all the previous Rockets they had encountered. This guy had more stuff than the other members likely due to his position. He finished sealing the items he had acquired and looked to see Gaara coming towards him along with all of his clones.
"So now we need to find all of the people that got captured and let them look through these cages for their Pokemon. Do you mind trying to find them Gaara?" Naruto asked his friend.
The boy nodded and headed off to find the captives. Naruto then turned to his clones to see that they had a bunch of stuff in their arms telling them to put it down in front of him he began to search through the goods.
He separated the items into piles of; used Poke balls, empty Poke balls, potions, food/snacks, money, and miscellaneous, and evidence and important things.
He pulled out his other scrolls and then unsealed them so he could put the stuff he previously looted with similar items for easier access. He finished and sealed everything up in his scrolls except for the files, just in time to see Gaara followed by twenty or so trainers.
"So you found them. Good alright everyone go around this area and find your Pokemon. Don't try to take any that aren't yours or you'll end up being dressed in a Rocket uniform and turned into the police along side them." the group nodded and dispersed to look for there Pokemon.
"Didn't you take Pokemon that aren't yours?" Gaara asked.
"Yeah but I'm giving them to Prof. Oak since he can help them if there is anything wrong with them." Naruto answered.
The whole process of finding them was tedious since the warehouse was full hundreds of Pokemon. But the trainers had managed to do it. When they regrouped Naruto saw that there was still a few dozen that were still in cages.
"Alright since you guys are here how about you guys help bring all of the Rocket member in this base to this room so we can tie them up and take them to town." the trainers once again accepted the task and moved about the base trying to find any Rocket members that were knocked out.
As the trainers did this Naruto and Gaara went up to the cages that still had Pokemon and returned them to the Poke ball that was hung on the cage. He would ask the authorities to return them to their trainers. But when Naruto was doing this he came across an Eevee that looked familiar.
"Where have I seen you before?" Naruto said aloud.
He then remembered and pulled out the flyer he took in Viridian City. The Eevee was the same one from the picture. Naruto smiled what luck that he had to find the Pokemon that was on the sign that he grabbed off the wall.
"Hey Eevee I'm here to help you get back to your trainer so I have to put you in this Poke ball for awhile, okay?" Naruto asked the Pokemon.
Eevee looked unsure for a while before nodding and letting itself be returned to its Poke ball. Naruto put this one in his pocket instead of a scroll since he was going to return this one personally. When he did he continued on his mission.
He was just about done when he saw one cage still had a Pokemon. He walked up to it he saw that it was a dark orange lizard with fire on its tail. It looked pretty beat up, he looked for the Poke ball that usually hung from the cage but saw none. This meant that it didn't have a trainer so what was he going to do.
"Hey little guy I'm here to help you, you look really beaten up. I need to capture you with my own Poke ball since you don't have a trainer, so that I can take you to town to get treated." Naruto said as he pulled out a Poke ball.
The lizard just stared at him. Naruto took this time to throw a ball into the cage but was blasted back by a stream of fire. The ball returned to Naruto's hand and looked to be melted so he dropped it.
"Hey I said I was here to help you so stop that." Naruto said as he pulled out another Poke ball.
This time the lizard just sat there, it had wasted the last of its energy on the other Poke ball. The ball hit and absorbed the Pokemon. It did the normal routine and stopped signifying it was captured. Naruto walked up to the ball and pocketed it, before heading to check on Gaara.
Gaara had been waiting for everyone to return after he finished getting the caged Pokemon out. He saw Naruto walking up to him and nodded. Now all they had to do was wait for the other trainers to drag in any Rocket members.
"So everything go okay on your end?" Gaara asked.
"Pretty much. Just found a Pokemon who was on a flyer I picked up in Viridian so now I get the reward. Also caught a lizard with fire on its tail since it didn't have a ball on its cage. It was pretty beaten up though." Naruto said.
"Hmm just like the old days. You just seem to attract the most unusual situations." Gaara said.
The two waited for the other trainers to come back with prisoners this time. It took an hour for all of the Rocket members to be dragged to the warehouse. Naruto thought about how they were going to transport all of the Rockets.
Looking around he saw a large net hanging from the wall. He had the other trainers help as he put the Rockets in the center of the net. Then he went to tie the net so that the Rockets couldn't get out and then called out Gyarados.
"Gyarados I need your help to drag these guys to the closest town alright?" Gyarados nodded at its trainer as he let him secure the net to his body.
"Alright anyone know the closest town from here?" Naruto asked the group of people.
"Yeah Vermillion City is the closest." a random trainer said.
"Alright Vermillion City it is then can someone lead the way." Naruto said as a few of the trainers took off in the direction of Vermillion.
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It was a weird sight seeing a group of twenty or so trainers and a Gyarados make their way into town in search of a Pokemon Center. The citizens of Vermillion thought it weird and the local law enforcement thought that they would likely have a situation on their hands. The big group had managed to make it the Pokemon Center without causing any trouble and Naruto was glad for that.
As soon as they entered the center all of the trainers made their way to the counter so nurse joy could heal their Pokemon. Naruto seeing how busy Joy was decided to lighten her load and wait until everyone was already dealt with before seeing her. He had Gyarados wait outside with Gaara as he went to the machine that would transfer the Rockets Pokemon to Oaks lab. He decided to call Prof. Oak before he sent him the Pokemon.
"Hello?" Oak asked as he appeared on the screen next to the machine.
"Hey Professor it's me Naruto I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" Naruto asked.
"Sure just let me know what you want and I'll see if I can help."
"Well Gaara and I took care of a little situation in Digletts Cave and ended up capturing a group of criminals called Team Rocket and-"
"Team Rocket they are notorious for stealing and selling other trainers Pokemon." Oak interrupted.
"Yeah well we managed to take out all of the Rocket members in the cave and took all of their Pokemon from them to escape. I don't know what to do with them so I thought about sending them to you so you could study and care for them?" Naruto asked.
"Sure they might have somehow become corrupted working with Team Rocket so please send them over so I may have a look at them."
"Thanks." Naruto said as he hung up the video phone and started to unseal the Poke balls of the Rocket members.
This took a lot of time since there were several hundred Pokemon to send. As he sent them to Oaks many of the trainers who had received their healed Pokemon thanked him before they left the center. He was finished sending the Pokemon to the lab when he heard sirens and a booming female voice.
"We have you surrounded so return your Gyarados and lay down on the floor." ordered the voice.
Naruto went to see what all the commotion was about since it was his Gyarados. He exited the building and was greeted to the sight of the local police force with their Pokemon out and ready to attack. He looked to Gaara who was just standing there not knowing what was going on.
"Hey what's going on?" Naruto asked the lady with blue hair and the megaphone in hand.
"We heard that Team Rocket was in town and we believe this kid with red hair is with them since he has refused to return his Gyarados to his Poke ball." the officer answered.
"Well duh! The Gyarados is mine and that is my friend we helped capture those Rocket fools when we went to Digletts Cave." Naruto said as he returned Gyarados and walked over to Gaara.
"What?" the officer replied.
"Yeah we heard that people were disappearing in that area so we decided to have a look and found out that Team Rocket was capturing any trainers who came by and stealing their Pokemon and selling them."
"Do you have any proof of this?"
"Yeah we looked through the base after defeating them for any evidence to show to you guys so you could lock them up when we brought them to you." Naruto said as he handed her the all the evidence that he found in the base.
The lady took the files and skimmed through them making sure that it was true. She nodded and passed the files to another officer. She also ordered her men to grab the net containing the Rockets and haul them to the police building so they could profile each member.
"Thank you for saving all those trainers and capturing these criminals. My name is Jenny I'm captain of Vermillion's police force." Jenny reached out to shake his hand.
"I'm Naruto and this is my friend Gaara." Naruto answered as he shook her hand and motioned to Gaara.
"Thank you once again now I must be going have a nice stay in Vermillion." Jenny said as she took off to her headquarters.
"Well that was interesting." Naruto said.
"Indeed." was all Gaara said.
"Well I still have all of the Pokemon who were in the cages so let's go back into the center and get them healed up." Naruto said as he went back inside the Pokemon Center.
Naruto saw that all of the trainers had already left so he went up to the counter and unsealed the Poke balls. He called over Nurse Joy and spoke to her.
"Hey Nurse Joy can you heal these Pokemon and check to see if any off them has been reported missing by any trainers. We found them in Team Rockets possession and took them with us since they were in bad shape."
"Oh my that is terrible those Team Rocket fellows are cruel. Stealing Pokemon from their trainers, of course I will help you." Nurse Joy said as she loaded the Poke balls onto a cart and went to take care of them.
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"Okay there all healed and I have contacted all of their trainers and told them to come here to pick them up. Is their anything else that I can help you with?" Joy asked.
"Oh yes can you heal these three two of them are my Pokemon and the third is a missing Pokemon that I would like to deliver personally to its trainer." Naruto said and placed his Poke balls on the counter and showed Nurse Joy the flyer of the missing Eevee.
"Okay I'll find out who it was that placed that flyer up and find their location so you can return it." Joy said as she once again went through the employee only door behind the counter.
Naruto decided to sit down and get a little rest in. Gaara had gone off somewhere but he knew his friend would comeback. He closed his eyes and thought about what to do with the little orange fire lizard that he had caught. The thought of the Pokemon made him realize that he didn't even know what it was, so he pulled out his Pokedex and searched it up.
"Charmander: The Lizard Pokemon, From the time it is born, a flame burns at the tip of its tail. Its life would end if the flame were to go out." the machine said.
"So it's a fire type that could be good. I wonder if it can evolve?"
"Charmander can evolve into Charmeleon and then finally into Charizard." the machine said as it displayed pictures of the evolved forms.
"Wow that last one is awesome it looks like one of those dragons from those fairy tale books."
Naruto put the device away and continued to wait for Nurse Joy to return with his Pokemon. Several minutes later Gaara had returned with a Poke ball in hand and walked over to the counter and gave them to Chansey who delivered them to Nurse Joy. He then walked over to Naruto and sat down.
"So you caught a Pokemon?" Naruto asked.
"Yes." Gaara answered.
"What kind?"
"A ground type."
"Which species is it?"
Gaara didn't answer and Naruto couldn't see his friends face. So he had no clue about what type of Pokemon Gaara had captured. He felt himself grow frustrated because of this.
"Come on can't you tell me already?" Naruto asked in an agitated tone.
"Why?" Gaara said as he smirked at Naruto's impatience.
"Fine don't tell me. I won't tell you when I catch Pokemon either." Naruto childishly replied.
This caused Gaara to chuckle at his friend who still after all this time had managed to keep a little bit of his childishness. Through all his life he never knew anyone who was more hardy than Naruto. The boy just knew how to roll and absorb all the hits that life threw his way. This was one of the reasons why the boy garnered so much respect.
"It's a green Sandshrew." Gaara said Naruto pulled out his Pokedex again.
"Sandshrew: The Mouse Pokemon, It burrows and lives underground. If threatened, it curls itself up into a ball for protection."
"That Pokemon really matches up with you. Both of you don't like to be near water, you both have a ball like defense and both of you are attuned to the earth element. But why is it green?"" Naruto said Gaara just shrugged and answered.
"Indeed I relate to it very well that is why I found the urge to capture it. It is different than the norm like myself."
"So where do we go from here? Do you want to go deliver that stuff to Cinnabar and we can go deliver the Pokemon I have or what?"
"We'll have to see maybe that Pokemon's owner is closer than Cinnabar so we can go there first and then to Cinnabar."
"Oh yeah I forgot that I didn't know where the owner was." Naruto sheepishly smiled.
"So how are we going to get to Cinnabar it's an island so we have to cross the water?"
"Well we have my Gyarados who we can ride, or we can use the water walking skill. Which do you prefer?"
"Gyarados. I don't want to take the chance of running out of chakra and drowning in the middle of an ocean."
"Okay Gyarados it is."
"Here are your Pokemon. You were right that Charmander was in very bad condition but it will make a full recovery but it must take it easy, so no battles or training until it is fully healed. Also the Eevee belongs to a family in Fuchsia City." Nurse Joy said as she retuned both boys Pokemon.
"Thank you." Naruto said as they got up to leave.
"Your welcome please take care of the Eevee and Charmander."
"I will." Naruto said as the doors closed behind the pair.
Naruto pulled out the map from his back pocket to see where Fuchsia City was and noticed that if they travel south along the bay they would end up in Fuchsia. It was closer to them so it was now going to be there next stop. He folded up the map before turning to tell his friend the destination.
"Looks like Fuchsia is closer and will put us closer to Cinnabar as well. So your going to have to carry that pack for a little while more."
"That's fine this is nothing compared to the gourd I used to carry."
Naruto nodded and then the two made their way to the pier. The pier came into view several minutes later. He was just about to release Gyarados when someone shouted his name. Turning around he saw the person who called his name.
"Naruto what are you doing here?" the voice said.
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AN: Anybody care to guess who the voice belongs to? Well now Gaara has a Pokemon, and Naruto has another.
Naruto: Gyarados, Charmander
Gaara: Sandshrew(Shiny)
Kiba: Fearow, Growlithe(Akamaru)
Thanks to all those who reviewed and thank you for your Pokemon suggestions. I just want to say that Naruto will not have a Vulpix/Ninetails since I think that having one would make him remember the Kyuubi which although helpful was the root of all of his problems.