Ch 7

AN: another long chapter. It was supposed to be longer, believe it or not…

The next couple of days did not go well for Roxanne. After she cleaned herself up following our battle, she walked home, but right before she went into her door, she was ambushed by May. May trashed the interior of Roxanne's home, causing a panic, and then proceeded to viciously beat Roxanne herself down.

The next day, everywhere Roxanne looked, she saw Wally. Every time she saw him, she would dispel the genjutsu, and scan for his presence, but ultimately she couldn't find him. By the end of the school day Roxanne was nearly out of chakra, and looking a bit paranoid. As all of her students filed out of her classroom, she stayed there for a moment to rest. That was when Wally's efforts began in earnest.

Wally walked into her class, and challenged her to fight. Keep in mind that by this point Roxanne wasn't in the greatest mental state, so she just hurdled her desk and attacked, but despite Wally being right in front of her, she couldn't hit him. It was like he was a ghost, but so great was Roxanne's distress that she kept on trying.

After a minute had passed, someone tapped a single finger on her back. When she turned around, there was Wally, who punched her in the face. Roxanne hit the ground, and blinked the genjutsu out of her eyes.

It was eight in the morning, she had just stepped outside her house for the day, her pokemon were defeated, with each of her nosepass being used like chairs for Gen the ralts, and Tai the Shroomish, and then Wally crouched over her head, whispering, "I want to remind you that my genjutsu is the strongest the Hidden Leaf has ever seen in a genin. Ever. Do I seem ready for missions now?"

Wally took his badge, and left. We met at Old Lady Kanae's and the first thing May shouted when we walked through the door was, "A round of Wallys for the conquering heroes!"

We sat down, glowing with pride at our victories, and totally unprepared for what followed. Four Wallys arrived, and when we looked up Steven-sensei was the person holding the tray. He had a steely glint in his eye and a maniacal grin. "What you three did was outrageous, sneaky, and utterly uncalled for."

We started to sweat, Wally once again went paler than humanly possible, and then Steven-sensei continued, "I loved it. Exactly what ninja need to be, yeah?"

A collective sigh escaped us, and Wally's skin returned to its usual pallor. My head fell against the back of my chair, and I giggled nervously. May gave me a funny look, which made the giggles worse, so I looked away from her, to Wally who was subtly trying to shake his head, upgrading my giggles to a cackle. My head shot over to Steven-sensei and I said, "I –hehehe- I can't – haha!- stop! I'm so scared, cause like I don't know if you're messing with us or not."

He shrugged, "Whatever, just get it under control before we meet by the front gate in an hour. We have a mission, yeah?"

He flickered out of sight, I fought down the nervous cackle, and we enjoyed our Wallys. May summoned Cackle, and started writing on a napkin. "I'll make sure our parents know why we're gone."

She tied the napkin to Cackle's collar, and the pokemon ran out of the restaurant and out of sight. Wally set his empty glass down, "You think we'll be gone for that long, huh?"

"If we're leaving the village," May said, "it's a possibility."

May and I finished our drinks, I left a few crumpled bills behind, and we walked to the front gate. When we got there, Steven-sensei was leaning against the gate, holding Cackle with one hand, and petting him with the other. He set Cackle on the ground, and picked up a rucksack. "Ready to go?" he asked.

We nodded, and he took off at a run, so we followed. We travelled east until we came up on a city. This city had a few towers, one skyscraper, mostly residential buildings, and these beautiful, burgundy and white colored brick streets. Unlike the rest of the Land of Fire, this city didn't have a single pipe or electrical circuit on the outside. "This is Rusburo City," Steven-sensei said, "Home of the Devon Corporation, and where our mission begins in earnest."

In the northwest of the town was the aforementioned skyscraper. As we approached it, May snapped her fingers, and said, "I remember where this reminds me of… any of you ever been to Celadon city?"

"Celadon City?" Wally asked, "Is that outside the Land of Fire?"

"Across the western sea," I answered, "in the Kanto region. I've never been either."

"The bricks are green there instead of brown, but…" she paused, "I get the same vibe from this place, ya'know?"

Steven-sensei stopped in front of the building, took a deep breath, and then entered. "What's eating him?" I whispered as we followed.

Inside, on either side of the entryway, were lines of men and women in business suits that were clearly from the other side of the western sea too. Not many people in the Land of Fire, or any of the great nations, were employed by a corporation. At the end of the procession of sorts, stood a familiar, rotund man. I pointed at him, and said, "Dude from the forest."

The man jiggled with excitement, and ran over to us. He bowed deeply to Steven, and then shook my hand vigorously. "I knew we were going to employ ninja trained by Steven Stone, but I never imagined we would be so lucky as to employ the ninja who drove off that Team Aqua thug!"

"Team Aqua?" Steven-sensei asked me.

I shrugged, and the rotund man remembered Steven-sensei. "Oh, of course… Team Aqua isn't very active in the Land of Fire as of yet… your father will explain everything upstairs."

We were led over to a door that opened up from the middle. When it did, it revealed a very small room with just enough room for us all to stand in together. Steven-sensei walked in, and motioned for us to follow. When all five of us were inside the room, the door closed behind us, and the room began to move up. "An elevator," I said, clicking my tongue, "I hear these can be dangerous."

"Nonsense," the rotund man declared, "This is a Devon elevator. We make only the best of technology or your money back."

When the elevator reached the top, the doors opened, and we filed out. The entire top floor had been converted into an office/exhibit. There was only one, albeit grand, desk on the far side, but to get there you had to walk past an entire museum's worth of rare stones and even a few fossils. May whistled, and then looked over to Steven-sensei, "Your dad owns all this?"

He turned and winked at her, "Well, maybe, but I'm the one who did most of the digging."

Just behind the desk was a man who looked a lot like an older Steven-sensei, wrinkles, and his hair wasn't quite so spikey. He stood up to meet us, and walked around his desk. "Good to see you son, but we've got a situation."

Steven-sensei nodded, and said, "Okay, let's fix it then."

Steven-sensei's dad looked over us quickly, smiled, and said, "You must be the three I've heard so much about. I'm sure you're exactly the ninja that I need. Please call me Mr. Stone."

Mr. Stone didn't wait for us to respond, and motioned for us to step over to his desk, upon which sat a map of the eastern coastline of the Land of Fire. He pointed to the nearby Land of Waves, and said, "Devon recently built its second outpost in the Great Nations here, we're calling this new city Slateport. It's the home of all our nautical technological research, development, and construction. Slateport is ideal because it's outside the Land of Fire, so it can trade with the other great nations without needing any treaties, but it's not so far away that I can't send in friendly ninja to protect our interests."

A hint of pride slipped into Mr. Stone's tone. "We're building a massive trading fleet there that is going to revolutionize this continent before Sliph even knows of its massive potential."

Mr. Stone frowned, and pinched his nose, "But we've hit a significant snag. A local mob boss's grab for power has gone spectacularly well for him. His name is Gato, and he's cut us off from Slateport. We built the city to be self-sustaining, so I'm not worried about it per say, but they need a prototype chakra radar system we developed here to ensure our ships aren't taken by any rogue ninja. Gato won't let us import the prototype without signing all of Devon over to him."

Anger shook Mr. Stone. "Gato. Swine. The people of the land of waves have a man named Tazuna building a bridge which could cripple Gato, but work has stopped recently. Devon won't be able to build another port for at least three years. I need my prototype delivered, and I need that bridge finished. Do you have any questions?"

"You said Gato is a mob boss," Wally whispered, "but you didn't say what kind of thugs he uses. Are they garden variety, ninja, pokemon trainers?"

"Excellent question, Wally," Steven-sensei declared.

Mr. Stone reached into his desk, and pulled out a poster with a familiar stylized "A" on it. "Team Aqua. They were after your Devon Goods, correct? Was that your prototype?"

Mr. Stone nodded, "Team Aqua is a group of radicals from across the sea. They claim they want to use pokemon to reshape the Great Nations to be more hospitable for water pokemon, but as far as we can tell they're just gangsters. They steal money, pokemon, and attack people who don't agree with them, or in some cases, wear the wrong colors."

"Is there another gang in the Land of Waves?" Steven-sensei asked.

"Team Aqua is feuding with Team Magma, another group from over the western sea. They claim to want to use pokemon to make the Great Nations more hospitable to people, instead of pokemon. As far as we can tell their main base of operation is somewhere within the Land of Sound," Mr. Stone responded, "but if Team Aqua sees you in a red hood, they'll assume you're with Team Magma regardless of anything else."

Steven-sensei picked up the logo, looked at us, and said, "I'm sure we can handle whatever they throw at us. Where's the prototype?"

Mr. Stone cleared his throat, and the rotund man carried over a familiar looking suitcase, which he handed to me. "We have the utmost confidence in you," he said as I gripped it.

With that, we left the building, and continued east, towards the Land of Waves. We ran for a long time, but stopped at the beach. Steven-sensei stopped just short of the shore. "I know you three can run up walls and trees… but can you walk on water yet?"

I shook my head. May scratched her head, stuck out her tongue out and said, "No."

Wally on the other hand, just stepped out onto the water. "It's not that hard. It's like solid objects, but you need to adjust your chakra a bit every second."

I stepped out onto the water, and for a second I was okay, then I began to drift down, so I ran forward a bit, and managed to get to the surface again. A wingull chose that moment to swoop by my head and fly away cawing in a way that sounded like laughing. Steven-sensei growled impatiently. "You two can practice on your own time."

He pulled out a pokescroll and summoned Metagross. "Step on," Steven-sensei insisted, "He'll take care of you."

May and I leapt on, and Metagross began to levitate just above the surface of the water. When Steven-sensei and Wally resumed running, Metagross tailed behind them. I gotta say though… that was so much fun. It was a mission, and I was supposed to be serious, but that's the only reason I wasn't whooping for the pure joy of shooting along in mid-air.

May on the other hand, did not care for subtlety or secrecy. "Whoooooooooo!"

Half an hour of that later, we reached land, and our run resumed. But where the Land of Fire and the ocean had been beautiful and sunny, the Land of Waves was covered in a thick mist that covered everything, keeping you from seeing anything unless it was a few feet away from you. That, naturally, impeded our progress.

We slowed to a walk, until we heard the sounds of battle. Steven-sensei held up his right fist, and we all stopped. We listened, and heard the battle coming from our right. I focused on the sounds, and heard the words "Believe it!" intermingled with the clash of metal.

I faced the direction of the battle. "I heard Naruto. That's team Kakashi. No doubt about it."

Steven-sensei took off, so we followed, and when he leapt into the trees we mimicked him. Eventually we came upon a clearing, and saw the battle. A mist ninja, judging from his headband, had Kakashi hostage in a sphere of water, while Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura surrounded an old man in a protective formation.

Steven nudged Wally, and pointed to the old man, "He's probably the person they're guarding. I want you and Gen to make him disappear," he looked to May and I, "I want you two to get the rest of Team Kakashi to a safe distance."

He jumped out, summoned a Skarmory, landed on its back, and began to circle the battlefield. Wally formed the ram hand sign, and his body turned to glitter before the wind seemingly blew him away. I looked to May and asked, "How should we do this? I don't think we should just run in there."

May shrugged, "Imma wait till the old guy disappears and then I'll wing it."

"Uh, failing to plan is planning to fail," I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes, "You sound like your dad."

My jaw dropped, "Oh no you didn't sister."

May pointed, "Old man's gone. Let's do this!"

She leapt into the clearing in front of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, and declared, "The cavalry has arrived!"

I followed, keeping my eyes on the two jonin. "Next time I get to come up with the plan. This plan sucks."

May pointed behind the three genin and shouted, "Full retreat!"

I rolled my eyes. "You can't be the cavalry and call the retreat! Oh… screw it… Run!"

Sakura stepped forward, "But Brendan, we can't leave Kakashi-sensei behind!"

"That's right!" Naruto declared, "A ninja never abandons his friends! Believe it!"

I didn't want to give Steven away, so I said, "Uhhhhh, trust me…" I said, and wiggled my eyebrows.

"What the fu-" Naruto started to ask, but he stopped and pointed behind May and I, "Who are those guys?"

We turned around, and found four members of Team Aqua standing between us and the jonin. Three were males in identical uniforms and in the middle was a woman in a crop top made around the Team Aqua symbol, long black hair with blue streaks through it, tan skin, and these blue pants that billowed a bit in the breeze like they were underwater. All of it came together with her look of disgust to create the image of a mermaid trapped on land who was not very happy about it.

A wingull flew down and landed on one of the Aqua Grunt's shoulders. That grunt pointed at me, and said, "Admin Shelly, that prototype is in that briefcase."

She pointed at me, and spat, "Grab the briefcase, kill the genin."

I summoned Yin and Yang, turned to May, and said, "Grab the case, and run. Naruto, Sasuke, protect May. Sakura, you're with me."

Sakura stepped up and summoned her pokemon. "I'll keep them at bay. You build Tantrum's echoed voice. Get where I'm going with this?"

The three grunts each summoned a poochyena and a wingull. Flower strutted in front of me and meowed. All of the Poochyenas stopped growling and focused on her. I trapped their feet with silk and turned to the Wingull.

While I had been focused on the Poochyenas, the Wingull had flown up on me, and one managed to get its beak around Yang. I drew three shuriken with the hand that Yin wasn't on, and riddled the Wingull with poison stingers. Tantrum raised its voice.

The other two Wingull dove in so I threw the shuriken to divert them. As they peeled off to the sides, I refocused my aim on the wingull with Yang, and threw my last shuriken at that one. Yang started to fall, so I jumped up and caught him.

As we began to fall, the three wingull regrouped, kept their distance, and shot three streams of water at me. One of the beams caught me on my shoulder, and I spun on the way down. Just before they could fire again, Tantrum shrieked and the sheer force of the sound knocked the poisoned Wingull out of the air, merely interfering with the other's aim.

I did not land well, I rolled with the landing, which helped, but I rolled over a stone, which caused something to crack and pain to flood through my left side. By the grace of some greater power I was on my feet, but when I tried to take a breath I was confronted with such agony that I actually lost more air than I inhaled.

That stone must have broken my rib, and that meant everything from breathing deeply to using my core was a no go. The three grunts began to close on me themselves, but Flower stepped in the way, releasing the poochyenas.

I pulled an oran berry from my pack, cut it in half with a kunai, and slurped up its insides as fast as I could. The pain numbed, and I took a breath. Something wasn't right with the breath, but there wasn't pain, which was good enough in the short term.

"Gonna need you two to come through for me right now," I said, and shot poison stingers at the grunts.

The grunts fell over in pain, and their faces began to swell where I'd shot them. Before I could even begin to feel okay about my situation, teeth closed around my neck, and drove me to the left onto the dirt.

An enraged Poochyena was digging into my throat, and I could see in my periphery the other two were running around Sakura and Tantrum. Was that how I was going to die? By Poochyena? No. Hell no. Rage flowed through me, and into Yin and Yang, powering something amazing.

Yin tackled the Poochyna off me, shot it full of poison, and then began to spin a cocoon around itself. The silk began to glow, and then it turned purple. Yin evolved into Cascoon.

Yang, not to be outdone, began to glow a second after that, and evolved into Silcoon. For a moment everyone was still, watching the evolution take place, but then, silk exploded out in three directions from Yang, grabbing onto the nearby Poochyenas, and pulling them in.

As the Poochyenas got closer, Yang generated more silk, encasing them in miniature cocoons nearby. Yin generated silk which lifted it up off the ground like tentacles, threw itself up above the battlefield, ditched its appendages, and rained poison stingers down on top of Team Aqua's Wingulls.

Yin and Yang sprouted more silk to walk themselves over to me, and crouched over my chest. "Oh, we are so badass!" I exclaimed, and then the pain came back, making me regret it.

Shelly stepped up over me, Flower held aloft by her tail. "Neat tricks. Shame tricks don't work on me. I'm thinkin that your friends didn't actually retreat, and if I torture you a bit, they'll come out with that suitcase."

The mist ninja shouted, "You idiot! Get Tazuna! He's our number one priority!"

Tantrum screamed, knocking Shelly back, and Flower free. "How's that for tricks?" I wheezed.

I sat up just in time to see Steven-sensei swoop down, the briefcase in one of his hands, and order his Skarmory to grab Shelly. Skarmory flew off into the mist, and a few seconds later we heard Shelly scream and something fleshy hit the ground.

The hidden mist ninja snarled a curse, and said, "This is a disaster. Full retreat!"

And so he left and disappeared into the mist, taking the Aqua grunts and pokemon with him. "Gotta give you points for dramatic timing sensei," I groaned, "What kept you?"

Steven-sensei walked over to me, Yin and Yang moved away, and he felt my ribcage. "Broken rib. Easy fix. And I didn't intervene because that was Zabuza Momochi. One of the Hidden Mists most powerful ninja before he went rogue. More dangerous after. I was looking for a way at him that wouldn't compromise Kakashi."

He handed me a branch, "Bite this."

I bit down, and Steven-sensei pushed my rib back into place and I'm fairly certain that if he hadn't handed me that stick I would have bitten my own tongue off. He pulled an oran berry out of my bag and said, "This should actually do something for you now."

Naruto and Sasuke each offered me a hand up, so I took it, and asked, "How's Kakashi?"

Sakura jumped up and down, "Naruto and Sasuke did this cool thing with a fu-ma shuriken."

"Shadow Shuriken Jutsu," Sasuke said while rolling his eyes.

"Combined with Shadow Clone Jutsu." Naruto declared, "We got Zabuza to retreat!"

The wind carried glitter to us, and it collected into Wally. "Tazuna is safe nearby, let's meet up with him, and then we can go from there."

AN: writing this story to keep writing while my actual book is getting read by beta readers. I know the story idea isn't terribly original, but if you could review my writing technique, please do. Also, I like it when people have good stuff to say.