Hey!! I finally got over my huge writers block and got motivated once again to continue on with his fic!!! For now there will only be pokemon from the hoenn region and before. I didn't play the diamond or pearl games cuz I'm too broke to buy a DS. So all I can do now is try to learn the new pokemon on the internet!!! It's gonna take a while since my internet connection from home died. I have to go on public computers instead… but I'm trying my hardest!

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto and Pokemon, I could have bought a DS already.

--insert line here—

Chapter 4: Evolution: the seed grows

"Hey, are you sure you know the way, Naruto?" Sakura asked "you better not get us lost…"

"…OR ELSE!!!!" added inner Sakura.

Team NaruKuraSuke have been wondering around in the forest for hours. Naruto was in charge of the map, even though Sakura threatened to let Sasuke lead the way. The group has quickly wandered off the main path and is following Naruto's so called 'shortcut'.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. I'm strong enough to defeat most of the enemies in this area!" Naruto reassured her. Yes!!! I would fend off all the enemies and make loser Sasuke look bad!!!! Then Sakura-chan would like me better for sure!!!

"You're going to make us miss the ferry, dobe." Sasuke said matter-of-factly.

"Well, up yours, teme!!!!" Naruto gave Sasuke the paw (finger).

"Knock it off Naruto!!!!" Sakura kicked the fire Pokemon in the face.

"Oww… huh? What's that?" Naruto pointed at the round red and white object lying innocently among the grass. He walked forward and poked it. "Looks like a Pokeball."

Suddenly a red light surrounded Naruto, the ball burst open and the Vulpix was sucked in.

"Naruto!!!!!" Sasuke and Sakura rushed forward and saw the pokeball shaking from side to side.

"Naruto, you idiot!! Why did you have to touch every thing you see?" Sasuke picked up a rock form the ground and started to bash the ball open.

Poom!!! The pokeball exploded open once more and Naruto flew out, crashing into Sasuke and caused the two to topple over.

"G-get off!!!!" Sasuke shouted, blushing a little. He was not used to people being so close to him.

Naruto got up "Man that was dangerous!! Thought I was going to be caught!!!" Naruto said scratching his head.

Sakura examined the pokeball "but who would leave that here…?"

"Now's not the time. Look, the sun is going to set soon and the ferry departs at 6." Sasuke said.

"Hate to admit it, but you've got a point there." Naruto put the pokeball in his bag and the team hurried forwards.

Soon, they arrived at the thickest part of the forest. It was dark as the tall trees blocked out all the sunlight. They made a torch by using ember on a branch that Sasuke found on the ground. It might not be much but at least they could see what's right in front of them. They continued on until they came to a small clearing and decided to rest there for a few minutes.

"Sigh… when is this forest going to end?" Sakura complained as she sat down on the damp grass.

Naruto agreed and sat down beside her.

Sasuke remained standing. He was thinking hard. We've been travelling for a long time but we can't seem to get through… the image of the map appeared in his mind. We should have gone through the forest by now if that map was drawn to scale… Just then realization smacked him in the face. So that's why…! "Naruto!! Sakura!! Get up!! We've been tricked!"

"What do you mean, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked and stood up.

"We've been here for hours in this forest and yet we haven't encountered any other Pokemon. Don't you think it's strange? Forests are usually full of them. The only explanation is that someone scared them off and was deliberately trying to slow us down!!"

Sakura gasped.

"So now they could be waiting for the right moment to ambush!!" Naruto shouted. "Once I watched a movie where a group of friends were travelling in the mountains at night. They felt as if they were being watched. And then... they started to disappear one by one…" he finished quietly.

"Naruto, that's fictional! A made-up story. There's no way for it to happen in real life. People don't just disappear by themselves you know." Sakura walked ahead, ignoring the red pokemon.

"Hehe… I suppose you're right…"

The group continued to walk silently while waiting for their enemies to show up. Even Naruto stayed quiet, too quiet.

That hyperactive knucklehead should have broken into his screaming spasms by now… why is he being so quiet? Sakura turned around to check up on Naruto but noticed that no one was there. "Naruto! Quit playing around!!! Get your ass here right now so we could get out of this place!!" No one replied. "Naruto!!! I'm giving you 3 seconds before I beat you to pulp!!

"What a nuisance…" Sasuke shook his head slowly.

1!!

2!!!!!!

3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Silence. The Vulpix did not show up.

"Naruto?" Sakura started to get worried. What if what he said was true? So she hoped Sasuke would offer some comforting words. (Which probably won't happen anyways) "T-there's no way that people could disappear by themselves… right?" she asked weakly.

The reply didn't come.

Sakura, being really spooked out right now, turned to check if Sasuke was still there.

And he wasn't.

Tears began to fill her eyes and she collapsed onto the ground, shaking. "N-no way…" How could this have happened? Why? Why does this have to happen to me…? What do I do?

The sound of laughter came from the distance. Sakura stopped crying to listen. There it was, from behind that big oak tree. She wiped the tears out of her eyes and stood up. Nothing will happen if I sit here crying. It's up to me to save them!! Razorleaf!!! She launched two sharp leaves, both spun around the tree. "Come out!!! I know you're there!!!"

Three blue lights that resembled will-o-wisps glided out. They waited for the Oddish to scream and run. But Sakura stayed strong, immune to their intimidation.

"Looks like she figured us out" one of them said. They went into the torch light. A Shuppet, a Duskull and a Haunter.

"Give back Naruto and Sasuke-kun!!!" She shouted and tackled the Shuppet. It made no attempt to dodge, it simply faded a little when the attack made contact. Sakura fell right through.

What's going on? Sakura wondered. She tried again and the same thing happened. It's just like bunshin no jutsu (doppelgangers) but it doesn't disappear…hmm… bunshin…!! She gasped when she finally figured it out. "You're ghosts aren't you? Since I can't hurt you, you can't hurt me as well!!" she announced with a triumphant grin.

"Oh really now?" the Duskull said.

"If that's what you think then you're deeply mistaken!!!" went the Haunter. It charged up its shadow ball and blasted Sakura backwards. She skidded for thirty feet where the trees blocked the ghost pokemon's view. They moved forwards to get a better look on their opponent but were hit with a powerful razorleaf. The leaves knocked them back, sending them flying towards the oak and right through.

"grr" the Shuppet growled and attacked with confuseray. Sakura dodged it cleanly and attacked Haunter with absorb. It missed.

"I curse you!!!" Haunter flew forward and used… curse!!! The Haunter closed his eyes in pain as half its HP was sapped away by the attack. The same thing happened to Sakura. The Haunter re-opened it's eyes. "Every few seconds, the curse will take away your energy until there's none left!!!"

Sakura growled. I won't have much time left… I have to somehow defeat them in the shortest time possible!! She launched a few razorleaves, making them as sharp as she could.

"Heh. We won't fall for the same trick twice!!" They dodged.

"Who said that I was aiming for you?!" the razorleaf continued on and hit a few trees, cutting them down and revealing a small patch of sunlight. She winced as the curse took away more of her HP.

"The light!! It burns!!!" the Shuppet began to wail.

"Shut up, you idiot!! Light doesn't affect us at all!!" Duskull shouted at its comrade.

Sakura began to collect the sun's energy. The three ghosts attacked her continuously but she didn't move. She tried to block out all the pain and focused on collecting energy. Come on!!! Only a little bit left.

The three ghosts glided backwards and attacked with shadow ball! The sphere of dark energy travelled through the air towards the Oddish. "The final blow!!"

A little bit more… Sakura glowed white, her shape changed as she grew. There!!!! She released all the gathered energy and fired it at the ghosts. "SOLARBEAM!!!" the Solarbeam swallowed up the three shadowballs and hit the ghost Pokemon head on. They were blasted through the forest and out of sight. The bright light faded. And there stood the newly evolved Sakura. The ghosts' illusions lifted, revealing a beautiful sunset on the beach. She was standing at the edge of the forest with Naruto and Sasuke on the ground nearby.

"Sasuke-kun!!! Naruto!!" She rushed to them. Sasuke and Naruto got up.

"What happened?" Naruto asked slowly. He then realized that there was a Gloom standing in front of him. "Sakura? When did you-"

Sakura shot him a death glare

"N-never mind."

"There's the ferry. We better hurry, it's almost time for it to leave." Sasuke ran across the beach to the pier. Naruto and Sakura followed.

They handed over their tickets to the door-guy and boarded the ferry.

"Next stop, the Lilicove Harbor!!" went the PA system. The ferry set sail and carried team NaruKuraSuke to the Hoenn Region!!

And that's the end of that!!!...sooo the end of the chapter.

--uber long line here--

The following is part of authors note. Please don't kill off this story like what happened to my FMA one

Me: Soooo how was it? team NaruKuraSuke is gonna travel to Slateport by foot next!!

Naruto: What? We are?

Me: Yup and you're gonna go through the desert as well!!

Naruto: awww…

Sakura: Hey!!! why the hell did you turn me into a gloom for?!! I stink!!!

Me: hehe…

Sakura: -death glares-

Me: alright alright, I'll make you evolve again soon.

Sasuke: Why do I have such less screen time?

Me: err… Stay tuned to see what will happen next!! Some reviews will be nice :D

Now it's time for a poll!!

Should i…

Go into shippuuden and have Sasuke go with Orochimaru and let Sai in

Stick with team NaruKuraSuke

I'm leaning towards option 1.