Chapter Eight: Training and Trading.
"Full Restore...check, antidotes...check, revives...check."
With only two days before the actual tournament began, steel type specialist in training Hyuga Hinata sat quietly at her desk while she marked off certain items on a list.
"A few X Speed...check, A few X Attack...check, and last but not least, do I have Full Heal...?" Hinata thought long and hard about the last item on her check list.
Mentally slapping herself, Hinata frowned a little. "Oh, I knew I had forgotten something," she thought to herself.
Hinata peered down at her turquoise colored Pokétch on her wrist—class would be over in about five minutes. As of now, Professor Orochimaru was giving the class a lecture about the legends of Reshiram and Zekrom.
"In the beginning, both Zekrom and Reshiram were once a single powerful Dragon Pokémon used by twin knights in order to create the Unova region by Arceus' orders. However, the brothers each sought something different in life,"
Sitting atop his desk, Orochimaru read his lesson directly from an old text book that was on the verge of falling apart. Held together by nothing but tape and paper clips, he continued to read aloud. "Truth for the older brother and ideals for the younger—and they began to argue, and then fight, over whose side was right. The single dragon, in response, split into two Pokémon: Reshiram, who sided with the older twin, and Zekrom, who sided with the younger twin."
To the left of Hinata sat of the professor's, Frost. Frost was particularly interested in his father's lesson. He took notes on almost everything his father had said that day. Out of curiosity, Hinata briefly peered over her should to see what Frost had written in his binder. Frost kept everything in his three ring note book fairly organized, and currently, he was doodling on a separate piece of paper of himself as a king, complete with a crown and scepter, and two servants who resembled Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee bowing down at his feet.
"The two dragons were equally matched as they battled and neither conquered the other. As a result, the brothers set aside their differences, and equally declared there was no right side, either. Yet, the sons of the heroes resumed the fight, and Reshiram and Zekrom destroyed the region with their fire and lightning powers. They subsequently disappeared afterward..." Orochimaru closed the book he held in his hands. "Some claim that the dragons took the form of harmless statues until one day, the two noble trainers return amongst the living, and battle one last battle in the ruins of the ancient castle.
"Be sure to study this lesson closely, class." he added. "There will be a test next Thursday. But until the time being, class is dismissed."
The bell rang letting out all of the students. That is, all except one, who happened to be the boy Hinata admired more than any other student: Namikaze Naruto. While everyone exited the class room, Naruto decided to take things easy and sleep until class was over. Apparently, this young trainer was having an amusing dream about being in a Pokémon battle.
In his dream Naruto was the age of sixteen, and had graduated from the academy. After conquering the entire Unova League, there was but one final battle to determine which trainer would battle against his father Minato. On the left side of the stadium stood Naruto with the mighty Zekrom in front of him inside an ancient coliseum. The fans of the crowd cheered loudly for the blond trainer. Across from the field, Naruto was facing another powerful trainer, Uchiha Sasuke, who controlled Reshiram.
"Now Reshiram! Use Fusion Flare!" Sasuke exclaimed.
Reshiram's tail began burning red as he roared, firing an enormous fire ball straight towards Zekrom.
"Counter with Fusion Bolt, Zekrom!" Naruto shouted.
Zekrom's tail begin glowing blue as a ball of electricity formed in his mouth. With one mighty blast, a giant electro ball was sent soaring across the field and struck Reshiram directly. However, Fusion Flare had hit home as well, bringing Zekrom to his knees.
"Zekrom, are you all right?" Naruto called out his partner. Zekrom's eyes flashed open and he stood with another roar.
"Alright! We're still in this! Now Zekrom! Use..." Naruto was just order Zekrom to use another attack, when he heard someone's voice echoing through his head.
He was hearing a Kiba's voice calling out to him, telling him to wake up. The coliseum around him, Reshiram, Zekrom, and the older version of Sasuke vanished from sight as Naruto began to awaken. As Naruto slowly opened his eyes, and looked around him, he spotted Kiba and Lee hovering over him.
"It's about time Naruto," Kiba said. "I thought you were never going to wake up."
"Oh, uh is class over already?" Naruto yawned/asked him.
"Yes, I was thinking the three of us should train together." Kiba answered. "You know, for the tournament?"
Naruto yawned again, but smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." he stood up from his desk and stretched his arms into the air. Then, he noticed Hinata walking towards the door with some of the other students.
"Hinata would like to join us?" he asked her before she left the classroom.
Slightly surprised, Hinata turned around to face the golden haired trainer, her face heat up slightly.
"Uh, I have something to take care of right now." she answered, quickly, and then left the classroom before Naruto could ask her any more questions.
Naruto looked surprised. "Oh, okay." he called after her. "Maybe next time."
Oh, I really hope I didn't blow my chance... Hinata thought as she rushed down the hallway clutching her books to her chest.
Rather than thinking too hard about, Hinata continued to walk towards her dorm. When she arrived, the dorm was fairly quiet, which of course meant that her roommates weren't there. Smiling, Hinata took the advantage of this moment to sit down her backpack, as well as her books. With only a couple of days left, the only thing on Hinata's mind was getting prepared for any setbacks that may come her way. However, it wasn't Hinata who was entering the tournament, but rather her self-made alter ego named Tenshi Hana.
Tenshi Hana fearless trainer who battled with great skills and confidence. All of which Hinata seemed to be lacking in recently. Tenshi has long curly emerald green hair, and hazel nut colored eyes. She wore a sapphire halter top, and over it she wore a silky thin strap white dress that stopped just above her knees, along with a pair of white Capri pants, gold hoop earrings, two golden bangles on each of her wrists, and a pair of flat matching trainers.
Hinata took one last look into the mirror making any last adjustments if necessary to her attire. Perfect, she thought with a smile.
Before heading to the stadium, Hinata, or Tenshi in this case, walked to Apotos. Here, she would purchase some Full Heals. The local store was managed by an academy student with fiery red hair named Iris. Iris' Pokemon, also hung out during her shift, and would also help customers look for specific items.
"I haven't seen you around here before..." Iris said as she placed Hinata's items in a small paper bag. "Are you new student at the academy?"
Now realizing that she still wore her Entei pendant, Tenshi answered, "Not exactly. I'm a trainer from Black Academy here to participate in the tournament."
Iris smiled at her. Even though Black Academy were rivals of White Academy, she was still polite.
"Good luck in the tournament," she replied handing Tenshi her bag of Full Heals.
Returning the favor, Tenshi gave a small a bow before receiving her purchased items, and heading out the door of the shop. From there, she found a nice quiet spot on a local beach to train her team. Tenshi released her Pokémon from their Pokéballs. Expecting to see Hinata, Shieldon, Magneton, and Steelix appeared before their trainer happily. However, once the trio of steel type Pokémon noticed that Hinata wasn't dressed as her usual self, they gawked at her in confusion.
"Don't worry," she reassured them. She lifted the green wig from her head as proof to her partners. "It's still me, but I'm trying a new approach to battling."
Although skeptical at first, Hinata's Pokemon gave her an approving nod to show that they understood what she meant.
"This looks like a great spot to train," A voice said.
Hinata readjusted her wig of costume. From behind one of the thick palm trees, she spotted Naruto, Lee, Kiba, and their Pokemon approaching her. But before the three of them went to train, Kiba suggested that they should stop by the shop in Apotos for TMs.
"Let's see..." Kiba reached into the large bag of items he'd purchased earlier. "I think I'll use this one of Eevee, and this one on Blitzle...oh, and this one looks it'll be perfect for Akamaru."
Naruto and Lee watched as Kiba pulled out nearly all of the TMs from the paper bag. Rather than spending his all of his allowance on TMs, Naruto selected a few items that could be of use during and before and after the tournament. Lee, on the other hand, purchased some special martial art sashes for his team. In fact, Raichu was wearing her special pink Focus Sash as if were a bow on her tail.
"Okay Blitzle," Kiba held up a brown earthy colored TM to Blitzle's forehead. "Get ready to learn Earthquake!"
The disk began to glow as Kiba spoke. Once the light subsided, Kiba pointed his mahogany Pokétch at Blitzle to scan him. A small pop-up screen indicated that the scanning was complete. As soon as Kiba read over the small list of Blitzle's moves, he frowned.
"That can't be right," he tapped his Pokétch. "Blitzle's moves are exactly the same..."
"Uh…maybe Blitzle is unable to learn Earthquake?" Naruto said, and Kiba just shrugged it off.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter." Kiba replied with a smile. "I still have a lot of other TMs to use."
"Oh, do you mean the same TMs that Aipom is making off with?"
Kiba looked at Lee who was pointing to a purple primate-like Pokémon with large ears, a cow lick hair style, and a long tail with a strange hand-like tip, which was being used to carry Kiba's TMs away.
"Hey!" Kiba shouted, and chased after it. "Get back here!"
Before climbing any further up the tree, Aipom glanced at Kiba and stuck out its tongue. Kiba glared at the oddly colored primate, and then chased after it with his Pokemon. Above, Aipom curiously tested some of the TMs for itself. If one TM was not of its interest, Aipom would simply toss the TM aside, and Kiba and his Pokémon would catch them.
"Let's help them out," Tenshi whispered to her team. "Shieldon, use Ancient Power on that tree!"
Following the command of his trainer/parent, Shieldon body began to glow white as he created a silver energy ball in front of his nose. Shieldon then launched the ball at the tree, splitting the trunk in half instantly. This of course had caused Aipom to jump from his current tree to another. Along the way, Aipom dropped the rest of Kiba's TMs, which Lee and Naruto caught before they hit the ground. Before commanding any of his partners to attack, Kiba pointed his maroon Pokétch at the wild Aipom. Apparently, Aipom was a male, and his known moves were Nasty Plot, Brick Break, Acrobatics, and Rain Dance.
Kiba smirked as he remembered one of Asuma's lessons on TMs. During a rainstorm, or in this case Rain Dance, Thunder, one of the few TMs Kiba purchased for Blitzle, has perfect accuracy. At that same instant, Kiba pulled out an empty Pokéball, and chucked it at Aipom. With only seconds away from a new partner, Kiba smirked as he imagined Blitzle blasting his opponents away with the all powerful Thunder attack. However, his fantasy was cut short by a passing Bronzor, who was sucked into the empty Pokéball instead of Aipom. The wild Bronzor didn't put up much of fight. In fact, it was almost as if Bronzor wanted to be captured and trained. The ball shook a couple of times before settling down completely.
"Aww man…" Kiba's face fell as he watched Aipom fled into the opposite direction of him and the others. From there, he approached Bronzor's Pokéball and held in his hands, and looked at it. "Looks like I'm stuck with you…"
Aipom may have fled from Kiba, but his efforts were cut short by Steelix, who used Flash Cannon to attack Aipom. A silver ball of energy formed at Steelix's mouth. The ball then turned into a silver beam and was then fired it at Aipom. After taking on the sheer force of the attack, Aipom fell from the tree branch he was on, and was on the verge of hitting the ground. Tenshi took the advantage of this moment to toss a Pokéball at the purple primate. After shaking a few times, the Pokéball eventually settled down, officially making Aipom part of Tenshi's team. Steelix slithered over to the Pokéball, grasping it with her powerful jaws. From there, she lowered her head, and dropped the Pokéball straight into Tenshi's hands. Tenshi thanked her enormous steel-type snake with a warm smile, and a pat on the head.
Back with Naruto and the gang, Kiba was still sulking about the Aipom that had gotten away. Kiba released the dual-type creature from it's Pokéball, and stared at it. Bronzor stared back at him with same hard stare.
"Look Kiba, if you really want to get rid of Bronzor, I'll take it off your hands." Naruto said, breaking the silence.
Kiba looked up from Bronzor. "Okay," he replied. "But in return, I want you to trade me your Gengar. He's pretty powerful from what I've seen."
"Huh?" Naruto looked at Kiba with wide eyes. Even if Gengar was difficult to control, he was still the power house of Naruto's team.
"No way!" Naruto sated firmly as he crossed his arms.
"You can't be serious!" Kiba shouted at him. "Gengar doesn't even listen to you half the time!"
Glaring at Kiba, Naruto was about to shout something back until Tenshi approached them holding the very Pokéball that contained Aipom.
"Excuse me," she spoke softly. "But I was wondering if you wanted to trade your Bronzor for my Aipom?"
Completely forgetting about that he was in middle of an argument with Naruto, Kiba asked, "Really?"
Tenshi simply nodded while Kiba responded by getting a head start on the path leading to the nearest Pokémon center dragging Tenshi with him. Simply shrugging at each other, Lee and Naruto followed their hasty friend/classmate back into the town of Apotos.
"Are you ready?" Tenshi asked. She was standing on the left side of the trading machine with Aipom's Pokéball.
Standing on the opposing side, Kiba nodded. "You bet."
By Kiba placing Bronzor's ball into the machine, the trade had officially started. The trainers watched as the phrase, "Let the trading begin!" flashed onto the machine's screen. From there, the Pokéballs suddenly vanished, and the silhouettes of the Pokémon could be seen passing one another. Once the shadows arrived to the opposite ends of the machine, the screen flashed "Trading has been completed!" Kiba and Tenshi were free to claim their new partners.
"Alright!" Kiba held Aipom's ball high into the air with a wide grin one his face. "Aipom, your officially part of team Inuzuka."
After placing Bronzor's Pokéball in her brown messenger bag, Tenshi looked up only to notice Naruto staring at her. She smiled at him warmly. As a result, Naruto's cheeks flushed with color as he grinned back at her.
"My name is Rock Lee," Lee replied as he stepped in between the two them taking Tenshi's hand into his own. "And you are one of the most beautiful trainers that I have ever seen. Would do me the honor of going on a date with me?"
Naruto felt his eye twitch a little. He, as well as Lee and Kiba had just met this girl and Lee was already asking her out on a date?
For a moment, Tenshi looked surprised. But then she said, "Sorry, but my team and I have a lot training to do."
"Oh, I see." Lee released her hand, still smiling. "No problem."
The three boys parted ways with Tenshi and went resume their training on the beach.
"You know," Lee said as they headed towards the beach. "I get the feeling that this year's tournament is going to interesting."
Noticing Tenshi from the corner of his eyes, Naruto grinned to himself. Oh yeah. This is going to be one interesting battling competition.
A/N: So far, there is a tie between Jolteon and Leafeon on the poll. For a little while longer, I'll leave the poll up. By the next couple chapters, however, the poll will end.
It seems like Hinata has planned to enter the tournament as her alter ego Tenshi Hana. Speaking of which, the tournament has been arranged to take place in the next chapter. And like I said before, other characters will appear from the opposing school to the north, which none other than Black Academy.
Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone.
