Ditto!
Part III
Naruto grinned broadly as he strolled out of the pokémon center and into the streets of Shinobi Town. He followed the main street to the edge of town and then headed east to the stream. Once there, he released Typhoon into the stream and sat down on the grassy bank where he released Bolt and Demon. And then he pulled out a fourth pokéball.
There was a flash of light and then a fourth creature appeared. Its fur was shades of light brown. It had a brushy fox-like tail and a fluffy ruff of fur around its neck. The small four-legged monster had long, thin ears and large dark eyes that stared up at him timidly.
"Hi!"
The eevee's ears twitched and the fluffy creature tentatively approached him. It sniffed at his knee before timidly creeping into his lap. Naruto tried not to let his teeth show in his smile, as wild pokémon found teeth bared for any reason to be a sign of aggression, but it was very hard not to.
Eevees were one of the most sought-after species of pokémon because they had the potential to evolve into so many different things. Exposing an eevee to a fire stone would result in the fire type flareon. A thunder stone would create the electric type jolteon. And a water stone would create a vaporeon, just like his mother's Uzu-chan.
But…evolution stones were expensive, and he already had water, electric, and fire type pokémon in Typhoon, Bolt, and Demon. That still left four other possible evolutions to choose from. If an eevee was taken far to the north to one of a few special locations, it would become the ice type glaceon. Or if an eevee was taken deep into one of a few special forests, it would become the grass type leafeon.
Traveling to a far-north country like the Land of Iron or the Land of Snow just to evolve one pokémon seemed rather silly to Naruto. And besides, Typhoon could be taught ice-type attacks. A leafeon was much more tempting as, if he remembered right, there was a special mossy stone tucked away in the Forest of Death in his native Land of Fire. But…that place was still far away from where he was now, and there were several gyms in the way of getting there.
That leaves two possibilities that might happen before I get to the Forest of Death, he thought as he stroked the eevee's soft, fluffy fur. Espeon the psychic type or umbreon the dark type…
Psychic types were powerful, and in the past before dark types were discovered, they were the heavy favorite for any trainer. When dark types were uncovered and studied, it was found that they were fully immune to any kind of psychic assault, and overnight they tilted the balance of power. While dark types were vulnerable to bug and fighting type pokémon, they were great slayers of ghosts and psychics—two of the hardest types to defeat.
"I think I'll call you Shadow," he decided, scratching the eevee behind one ear. If he turns out evolving into an espeon I'll just rename him something a bit more appropriate…but I hope he'll grow up to be an umbreon.
The eevee—Shadow—accepted this with a happy squeak.
"Now let's meet everyone!" Naruto said cheerfully. "That's Bolt, and Demon, and Typhoon." With each name, he pointed at the pokémon that it belonged to. "Everyone, say hi to Shadow!"
Bolt waved cheerfully and chattered something welcoming. Typhoon bobbed in the stream and waggled his fins. Demon…started to growl.
"Hey, be nice!" he scolded the vulpix as his new eevee burrowed deeper into his lap to hide from the aggressive monster. "It's much better to make friends than enemies, you know."
Demon turned up its nose at him and curled up on the grass to go about ignoring everyone else.
"Brat," Naruto muttered. "Don't mind him," he advised Shadow. "He's always in a bad mood."
"Naruto?"
The blonde boy snapped his head around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. A few yards away stood three trainers around his age. And he knew all of them; they'd been in his class.
There was Sai, the class weirdo. He lived with some creepy old man named Danzou who had lost an eye and an arm in some kind of accident with wild pokémon. The pale, dark-haired boy had rarely said a word in school unless a teacher had called on him. He'd mostly spent his time staring blankly as he listened or doodling in one of his notebooks. Although, sometimes for no reason that anyone could see, he would just smile this creepy fake smile. Nobody really talked to him and he really didn't seem to talk to anyone, and that worked out just fine for everyone involved.
Then there was Sasuke of the esteemed Uchiha clan. He'd been an okay guy when he'd been younger, but after a while he'd gotten all anti-social and brood-y. Sasuke's older brother, Itachi, was something of a prodigy, and had taken over the family gym in some distant city at a ridiculously young age. Itachi got all the attention and praise in the family and Sasuke felt overlooked. He'd become obsessed with surpassing his older brother as a pokémon trainer and getting the recognition he thought he deserved from his parents and relatives.
And then there was the pink-haired, green-eyed Sakura Haruno. She was one of the prettiest girls in his year, and she was the smartest girl in class. The Haruno family was distantly related to the Yamanaka clan, but they were nowhere near as well-known or wealthy. As she was one of the few kids in his class that didn't come from a wealthy or privileged background, he thought of her as a kindred spirit of sorts. She would be the perfect girlfriend…
"Hi, Sakura-chan!" he grinned goofily and waved.
"What are you doing out here?" the pretty girl asked.
"Training," Naruto answered cheerfully.
"But…" Sakura frowned. "You failed the trainer's exam…again."
"Well…I got a probationary license from Professor Sarutobi," Naruto explained.
"Statistics state that trainers who gain probationary licenses have a less than forty percent chance of upgrading their licenses to full trainer licenses before their probationary period lapses," Sai announced.
"I'm totally going to meet the requirements for a full license in time, just you wait and see!" Naruto declared, shooting a scowl Sai's way.
Bolt immediately backed his declaration with some energetic squeaking and a shake of his tiny paw. In the stream, Typhoon made a leap from the water to cause a noticeable splash. Shadow timidly peeked around Naruto's torso at the newcomers. Demon snorted derisively.
Sakura cocked her head. "You have a pichu?"
Sasuke snorted. "A magikarp? How fitting…"
"Yeah, I have a pichu," Naruto grinned at the girl, ignoring Sasuke's comment. He shifted around on the ground so that he was sitting facing his old classmates. His pichu hopped up onto his shoulder. "Bolt, say hi to Sakura-chan!"
Bolt looked at the girl curiously, his large ears twitching.
"Aw, he's kind of cute—" Then her pale green eyes landed on the brown furball in his lap. "An eevee?! Where did you get that?"
"Upstream from here," Naruto answered. "There's this—"
"Oh he's so cute!" she squealed and snatched up the cute fluff-ball. "I wish I had one! He's so cuddly and soft…"
Shadow yipped in alarm and wriggled out of the girl's grasp and retreated behind Naruto.
"I only caught him yesterday," Naruto explained with an apologetic shrug. "He's not that used to people yet."
"Oh…" Sakura pouted. "A pichu, an eevee, a magikarp…that's three pokémon." She sent an adoring glance towards Sasuke, who ignored it. "Sasuke-kun already has four pokémon."
It really wasn't fair. Sasuke was handsome and rich, but he was a total jerk to all the girls who liked him yet they still chased after him. They found his anti-social behavior to be mysterious and intriguing. And of course Sakura was one of Sasuke's biggest fans.
"I have four pokémon!" Naruto informed her. He set Shadow aside and removed Bolt from his shoulder before carefully moving Demon into full view. The vulpix didn't try to bite him, but it did glare at the three new trainers that it faced. "See, here's number four!"
"That vulpix's coloration is all wrong," Sai immediately noted. "Did you dye it, or is it naturally defective?"
Demon took offense to this and had Naruto not clamped a hand over the fox's little snout, it would've spray red-hot embers on the pale boy.
"No, I didn't dye him, this is how he's supposed to look," Naruto said tensely. Note to self: do not insult Demon's fur color.
"Well," Sakura smiled hesitantly, "it's sort of cute…" She reached out to pet the vulpix, but Demon nipped at her fingers before Naruto could stop it. "H-hey!"
Naruto winced. "Sorry…he's not very friendly."
"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "Can't control your monster, Dobe?"
"I'm not a dobe!" Naruto protested angrily.
The Uchiha simply gave him a smug look.
"Sasuke!" Naruto growled.
"Naruto, stop picking fights with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura scolded.
Naruto pouted. "But Sakura-chan…"
"I shall go ahead to Shinobi Town," Sai abruptly decided, and headed off to the town alone.
When he was gone, Naruto looked to his two remaining classmates. "Why is Sai traveling with you guys anyways?"
"He left the same time as we did," the pink-haired girl explained with a shrug. "And it just seemed mean to leave him to journey alone… Besides, it's not like Sai is Ino-pig. Her dad made her promise to travel with Chouji and Shikamaru for at least a few months…and then I bet Mr. Yamanaka threatened those two to never let Ino out of their sights. It's perfect!" she giggled.
Naruto's shoulders slumped. Ino Yamanaka was Sakura's biggest rival for Sasuke's attention. With Ino stuck traveling with Chouji (who was slow) and Shikamaru (who was slow and lazy) it was unlikely that their two traveling groups would meet often on the road. Sakura would have her precious Sasuke-kun all to herself…
"Keh, annoying," Sasuke grunted in irritation and found a tree stump several feet away to sit down on. The brooding boy then released his four minions: a charmander, a larvitar, a shinx, and a zubat. "So, Dobe, have you challenged the gym leader yet?"
"I took a trial run a few days ago. I'm working on my strategy for my serious attempt," Naruto replied.
Sasuke snorted. "So you lost. Figures."
"Teme!" Naruto growled with a glare.
"Relax, Naruto," Sakura advised as she unleashed her own fledgling monster collection: a bulbasaur, a cherubi, and a wurmple. "I'm sure that you'll do better next time; it's not like there's a limit to how many times you can challenge a gym."
Naruto sulked by the stream, dangling his fingers in the water so that Typhoon could mouth them. Shadow had curled up by his side and seemed rather intimidated by the sudden explosion of pokémon. Bolt was cautiously creeping up on Sasuke's shinx, intrigued by the other electric type but wary from its intimidate ability. Demon was surprisingly still sitting in Naruto's lap, fur bristled and eying all the newcomer pokémon like they were dangerous enemies.
She doesn't think that I can do it, Naruto pouted as he watched Sakura fight her girlish fear of bugs to pet her giant caterpillar. His blue eyes shifted to the Uchiha who stared into the stream and distractedly patted his charmander on the head. He doesn't either. I'm still just the class screw-up. I bet they think that it'll take me a whole bunch of tries to get this gym's badge.
"Hey, Sasuke-kun," Sakura spoke up shyly. "Do you think that there are any nice little restaurants or parks in Shinobi Town?"
"I don't care," Sasuke grunted. "All that matters is the gym."
"I could show you around, Sakura-chan!" Naruto offered eagerly. "I've been in town for a while; I know where everything is. It'll be fun! …Just the two of us—"
"No thank you, Naruto," Sakura answered, pulling her cherubi—a cute little cherry with legs—into her lap.
"C'mon, Sakura-chan, it'll be fun!" Naruto pleaded with a grin.
"No, Naruto," Sakura repeated.
"But—"
"No means no," the girl cut in firmly. "If I go touring the town alone with you, you'll think it's a date, and I don't want to date you."
Naruto sighed. "…Okay."
He'd back off and wait for a while before trying again. If he kept trying, one day she'd catch on that he was loads better than gloomy, anti-social Sasuke. All he had to do was be patient.
It was so hard, though.
Bolt tried to befriend the shinx, but the black and blue pokémon had no interest in interacting with the pichu. It reminded Naruto of how he was with Sasuke. He repeatedly tried to make friends with the Uchiha boy, but Sasuke had no interest. So Naruto had decided to be Sasuke's rival…but that was going even worse than trying to be the dark-haired boy's friend.
"Well, we've got to get training!" Naruto abruptly declared. "Challenging a gym is serious business!" He waved to Sasuke and Sakura. "I'll see you guys around!"
He headed upstream, away from his old classmates. His little monster minions followed his lead, although Demon's cooperation probably had more to do with escaping the presence of so many other strange pokémon. Once he was sure that they had no audience, he got down to business.
"Okay, guys!" Naruto clapped his hands. "We've got some work to do!"
The day of his rematch at the Shinobi Town gym, Naruto found himself floundering. He still had no plan for taking Kakashi down, and with his battle appointment barely an hour away, he felt smothered by desperation. So he wandered the streets aimlessly, seeking some magical inspiration.
He wasn't going to use Typhoon again. While the magikarp had gained valuable experience, he hadn't worn down the ditto like Naruto had hoped, and there was no point in wasting one of his two fighters. He didn't want to use Bolt again either. With the ditto's limber neutralizing any chance for paralysis, there was no point in sending the pichu to lose again and take an even bigger hit to its morale. So that left Shadow and Demon.
Shadow would be a good first fighter. The eevee's tail whip and sand attack would lower the ditto's defense and accuracy and set it up for a strong possibility of defeat. But that would be useless if he couldn't get Demon to fight.
But how do I get Demon to fight for me? Naruto wondered glumly. He only seems interested in fighting me…
So far, all attempts at training Demon had failed. Scoldings were ignored. Bribery only resulted in the fox stealing the treat. He wanted Demon to see how much better and easier things would be if the vulpix worked with him instead of against him. But there was no way that Demon would see that if he didn't play along with Naruto's commands just once.
What am I going to do?
"Scaredy-cat!"
Naruto paused in his walk and spotted a pair of younger boys arguing. They were brothers or friends, and they'd gotten their ball stuck up in a tree. One boy was bigger and heavier than the other, and he seemed to be trying to get his smaller companion to climb up and retrieve the ball.
"It's too high!" the smaller boy complained.
"Scaredy-cat! Scaredy-cat!" the bigger boy taunted. "If that tree could talk, it would be laughing at you!"
"I'm not a scaredy-cat!" the smaller boy protested.
"Then prove it!" the bigger boy demanded. "Go get the ball!"
The smaller boy still looked nervous about it, but determined not to be the "scaredy-cat" he carefully climbed up into the tree branches and got the ball down.
Naruto watched the scene play out and then moved on. He thought long and hard…and came to a stop as an idea hit him. And then a hopeful smile found its way onto his face.
That just might work…
He turned and jogged towards the gym, finally feeling ready for the fight.
When Naruto arrived at the gym, he found an unpleasant surprise waiting for him. This time he would have a small audience; Sai, Sakura, and Sasuke sat up in the bleachers. If he had to have an audience, Naruto would much rather be watched by thirty strangers than three people that he knew.
"Uh…hi," he gulped. "What brings you guys here?"
"This gym permits outside observers. We are gathering information," Sai replied.
"Seeing what not to do is the best way to figure out how to win," Sasuke added with a smirk.
"Sasuke!" Naruto growled angrily, waving a fist.
"Naruto," Sakura said warningly. "Just relax and do your best. I'm sure that you'll do okay."
"You know these kids?" Tenzo asked form the crate that he sat on.
"Yeah," Naruto muttered as he took his place at his end of the battlefield. "I went to school with them."
"Ah," the older trainer nodded and went back to waiting.
Kakashi was late again. Naruto got the feeling that this was a regular occurrence as Tenzo wasn't the least bit bothered at the silver-haired man's tardiness. The young Uzumaki sighed and resigned himself to waiting.
A half an hour later, Kakashi and his faithful granbull arrived.
"Sorry I'm late," the gym leader cheerfully apologized. "I was helping an old lady cross the street when her meowth ran away and I had to go chase it down on the other side of town."
Naruto stared blankly at the man.
Tenzo muttered something under his breath that sounded like "liar."
"Let's get started," Kakashi smiled, removing the sphere that contained his ditto from his belt. "Have you captured any new pokémon since last time?"
"Just one," Naruto answered.
"Then the rules from before still apply." Kakashi set loose his ditto. "Pick your first battler."
Naruto set Shadow free and waited for the match to start.
Tenzo stood up from his crate, raised his hand, and chopped it down. "Begin!"
The ditto immediately transformed into a near-perfect copy of Shadow. And Shadow immediately lashed out with its first attack: stirring up the dirt floor with its tail and back feet and throwing the dust into the ditto's face. Naruto had the sand attack quickly followed up with a tail whip, and then it was on.
For every tackle, sand attack, and tail whip that Shadow dished out, the ditto tried to throw right back. But as Shadow had gotten the first sand attack in, the ditto's accuracy was poor and only getting worse. Copycat was tough, though, and was able to soak up the damage while still landing the occasional hit on its foe. And eventually Shadow collapsed.
Alright, Naruto gulped as he pulled out Demon's ball. Here goes nothing!
Once the vulpix appeared, it seemed very unimpressed with its surroundings. The little fox started to lay down, the clearest sign a pokémon could give of its refusal to fight. The ditto was too busy rubbing dirt from its beady eyes to attack, let alone change forms. Naruto hurriedly put his plan into motion.
"Giving up already?" Naruto snorted. "You're scared of a ditto that can't see? Geeze, you're a wimp!"
Demon snarled at him.
"Don't get upset with me," Naruto shrugged carelessly. "I'm just calling it as I see it. You won't fight a helpless ditto, so you must be a cowardly weakling."
Demon barked something angry-sounding at him.
Tenzo jogged from his spot on the sidelines to Kakashi's end of the field. "Should I…call it?" he whispered.
"Nah," Kakashi murmured back. "There's no rule anywhere against insulting your own monster."
"Okay," Tenzo muttered and returned to his referee post.
"Copycat," Kakashi called out. "Transform as soon as you can."
The ditto melted back into a blob from the eevee shape, but was still too busy trying to get the dirt from its eyes to take the form of a vulpix.
"Well," Naruto said when Demon's furious yips wound down. "If you're such hot stuff, prove it! Beat this ditto and I'll take back my words."
The golden fox swiftly turned to size up its opponent. By this time, the ditto had cleared its eyes enough to see its new foe and transform into a copy. Looking at the grayish false-vulpix with the ditto-esque face, Naruto saw another opportunity.
"Hey, I think that that ditto's making fun of you!" Naruto teased. "I bet it got the face wrong on purpose to make you look stupid!"
Demon bared its teeth and looked about ready to use roar, but with the ditto's high level it would probably fail.
"You should give it a taste of your ember attack!" he suggested. "That'll teach it a lesson!"
The oddly-colored vulpix immediately sprayed the ditto with red-hot sparks of fire. The ditto squeaked in pain and retaliated with the same attack that had just been used against it. Instead of the embers doing damage to the true vulpix, it made Demon glow with a faint red aura.
It was Demon's special ability: flash fire. Instead of taking damage from fire attacks, which the vulpix would've been resistant to anyway was it was a fire type, the attacks were absorbed and used to boost the strength of its own fire attacks. Fire only made Demon stronger.
"I don't think that that ditto really understands your ember attack," Naruto remarked with a grin. "Show it ember again."
Demon lashed out with the attack once more, but the spray of embers was bigger and hotter this time.
"Copycat, wait—"
But Kakashi's warning came too late as his ditto mirrored the ember again, boosting Demon's fiery aura even more.
"No more embers, Copycat," Kakashi instructed. "Just dodge."
The damage was done, though. Demon's fire was even hotter and its next burst of fire left the ditto with bad burns that progressively destroyed its health. With its accuracy barely recovered and its defense still low from Shadow's earlier assault, Copycat was on the ropes.
"I think that one little quick attack should finish it," Naruto commented.
Demon sprinted in close and shoulder-checked the transformed ditto. The false-vulpix went tumbling end over end, its solid form starting to melt. After the stunning blows of many tail whips, Copycat really couldn't brace itself against physical attacks anymore.
"And roar!" Naruto commanded.
The golden vulpix let out a terrible sound and the ditto's transformation completely collapsed. Burned, beaten, and exhausted, the ditto looked like a giant, dirty wad of gum spit that had been spit onto the ground. Its last bit of fighting spirit broken by the terrifying roar, the ditto couldn't fight a moment longer.
"The ditto is unable to battle," Tenzo announced. "Winner: Naruto Uzumaki."
The gym leader quickly recalled the beaten ditto to its pokéball, just in case the vulpix decided to attack its defeated foe again out of spite. Naruto would've cheered and danced at his victory, but he was just so relieved that his manipulations with Demon had worked out, that all he did was grin like an idiot. With the rush of battle over, the heat of Demon's flash fire began to bleed off into the cool air of the gym, and the vulpix realized that it had been tricked.
"Congratulations," Kakashi smiled. "You won."
Demon turned and hissed and Naruto, its breath shimmering with heat.
"Hey, you beat the ditto!" Naruto grinned at the fox. "So I take back my words. You are now a cowardly weakling. You kicked butt!"
The vulpix hesitated, cocked its head as if confused, and then turned away from Naruto sulkily.
Kakashi Hatake strolled across the dusty battlefield and, upon reaching Naruto, passed the boy a circular metal pin with a tiny mirror set into it. "As proof of your victory, here is the Copy badge. Don't lose it now."
Naruto admired the silvery little pin with wide eyes. Two more of these tokens and his trainer's license would be permanent and secure. And a minimum of eight would qualify him for competition in all but the highest level pokémon league tournaments.
Achieving that level of skill and respect was his goal. He wouldn't be the class idiot with no father anymore. He would be a master-level trainer and maybe even the next League Champion of the Land of Fire.
Naruto pinned the badge to the inside of his black vest and grinned slightly.
One down, seven to go…
"You told him where to find that eevee, didn't you Sempai."
Kakashi scratched Pakkun behind the granbull's floppy ear and eyed his younger friend. "So what?"
"Since when do you give challenging trainers tips on where to find rare pokémon?" Tenzo asked as he polished the brightly-colored stone body of his sudowoodo. "Is it because you knew the kid's mother?"
"Hmm…" Kakashi closed his right eye and fingered the eye-patch that covered his left. "I know both of his parents. I learned a lot from them. I feel like…I owe them."
"Owe them for what?" Tenzo inquired.
Kakashi lazily opened his eye and stared out the window at the deepening night sky. "Wouldn't you like to know…"
