Ch 10

When we returned home, I stuck Zabuza's scroll into my desk, and rigged it with explosive tags unless opened with my chakra signature. The next couple days we were allowed to rest from all duties with the exception of maintaining the berry grove. Even though it was Wally's day the next day, all of us showed up and helped. We didn't talk about anything. There had been a lot of ways that mission could have gone south, but by the skin of our teeth and sheer audacity, we'd made it. It was good to just be around your friends.

Afterwards, when we went to Old Lady Kanae's, Sasuke Uchiha was waiting for us just outside, leaning against a pillar. "I heard you three like to come by here in the morning," he said, "Brendan, you and I need to talk."

"Let's talk over iced tea," I insisted, and stepped past him, "Do you like lemonade?"

He shook his head, "No, look, I'd rather we just talked."

We took a seat at our usual table, and May gestured for Wally to sit down. "One iced tea and three Wallys!" I shouted, and Sasuke and Wally both winced, one with rage, and the other with annoyance.

"Seriously guys?" Wally pleaded, "Can you not? Please? For me?"

"We could call them something random like…" May paused, "Arnold Palmers?"

"But that would be ridiculous." I interjected.

May nodded, "True. I shouldn't have even said anything."

The drinks arrived, and I took a sip of mine. "Cruel of you to even bring up the possibility."

We shared a laugh at Wally's expense, and then I turned to Sasuke, who took a sip of his tea. "What's up man? Shouldn't you be in the hospital? You were, like, dead yesterday."

"Haku was very skilled," he responded, "the wounds were very small, and after a trip to the doctor's they're all taken care of."

A shiver ran down my spine, "That was a rough bit. Sorry it went like that."

Sasuke shrugged, "It's all a part of getting stronger. Speaking of which, you and I need to find me a Pokémon. A strong one."

"All Pokémon can grow and become strong," I insisted, "That doesn't help me narrow down what you're looking for."

Sasuke leaned back in his chair. "I need something that is already strong when I find it, and will grow to be stronger than any other Pokémon."

"A pseudo-legendary," Wally supplied, "Those are one in a million."

"I'm a one in a million kind of guy," Sasuke retorted. "Where can we find a Pseudo-legendary Pokémon?"

"Actually, I know a place that has a Pokémon exactly like you're looking for," May said, "Shikamaru and I were planning on going later today. Meteor Falls. You two could come along with us."

I held up my glass and Sasuke clinked it. "We're in," I said and took a pull.

May threw a few crumpled bills on the table, and said, "Well then, let's go pick up Shikamaru. See you for practice tomorrow Wally?"

Wally rubbed his arms and moaned, "I can feel bruises forming in anticipation."

We went from Kanae's to the Nara compound. When we knocked on the door, none other than Shikaku Nara. Here for Shikamaru? Good. Get him out of his room and teach him something."

Shikaku disappeared for a moment, and then reappeared dragging Shikamaru by the jacket. "Get moving," the Nara clan head demanded.

Shikamaru dusted himself off, sighed, and said, "I had just fallen asleep… what a drag."

I rolled my eyes, patted his back, "We didn't say you couldn't do that… we just have some stuff to do before that."

Our group of four completed, we ran north, out of the village, and then went north west for a few hours. As we travelled, the forest began to clear away, turning to grass, but soon that too seemingly melted away in front of our eyes. Bare rock was all we could see leading up to a hilly area, and then craters in all over the place.

May stopped, "About fifty years ago, a really bad meteor shower hit what used to be a giant hill here. These rocks you see, and the cave network below them are all that's left. Rare Pokémon have made their home in the caves. Let's go."

After looking around for a moment, May ran over to a stream, and followed it towards the rocks. Sure enough, the stream lead to a narrow cave entrance, so one at a time, we slipped inside. It was a tight squeeze for a about twenty feet, but then it opened up into a massive cavern, with a giant underground lake, fed by three streams like the one we'd followed, and the northern section of the cavern had these giant natural steps carved into the side by what I thought would be water, but the streams didn't touch it.

I followed the steps up with my finger, and found a small gap in the cavern wall at the top. "Bet you 500 ryu that we can find your pseudo legendary in that mini-cave."

I summoned Katon, and we set off to go up the steps, and we ended up running over the water to get there. Katon leapt onto my shoulder, and for a moment everything was fine. Then a spout of water caught me on the chin, knocking me off balance and into the water.

I thrashed about for a moment, and then swam to the top. I pushed my chakra into my hands and pushed myself back up to the surface. Katon was shivering, and soaked, so I recalled him to his scroll, and summoned Mokuton.

Mokuton eyed my feet, and then mimicked me seamlessly. He stood on top of the water, and stared down, like a child might stare through the window of a toy store. He pulled one of his paws back, pulling green energy with it. "There's a Pokémon down there!" I exclaimed.

A rock, about the size of my head flew out from the deepest part of the water, nearly missing my shoulder. "It's angry!" I exclaimed, and Sasuke and I separated so as to not provide a wealth of clustered targets.

"Should we go down there?" Sasuke asked.

"It's probably a water Pokémon," I fixed my beanie, "That'd be like a mouse walking into a cat store."

Mokuton hissed, and drew more green energy. Two rocks followed, each a little bit smaller than the last. I grabbed two shuriken and handed them to Mokuton, who threw them down. Something was moving down there in the sand, but I couldn't see just what, or how big it was.

Sasuke grabbed a kunai, attached an exploding tag, and threw it down. When the kunai touched the sand, there was no fire, but the force of the explosion sent the sand billowing in every direction, and a small blue Pokémon to the surface.

It was about the size of Mokuton, but blue, four legs, a tail fin, a dorsal fin on its head, and pointed, orange gills. "A Mudkip!" I exclaimed, "Dibs!"

Mokuton jumped, flipped through the air, and brought its tail to bear against Mudkip's head. Before the water Pokémon could return to its hiding spot, however, Mokuton swam below it, and kicked it back up above the water's surface.

I grabbed my pokescroll and unleashed it. Mudkip fought for a moment, but was captured. "So that's how you capture a Pokémon…" Sasuke mused, "It doesn't look that hard."

I nodded my head towards the steps, so we ran over to them, but where Sasuke ran up a few steps, I took a seat, and opened my new scroll. "Hey! C'mere so I can show you how these work."

He reluctantly turned around, and I showed him all the information the scrolls contained. As he stood up I named my new Pokémon Suiton, and then raced up the stairs.

The opening led to a small chamber, no more than twenty by twenty paces large, with support pillars in the corners, holding up a low ceiling. What immediately caught my eye was on the far side of the chamber, chiseled in stone, was the same crest that appeared on the back of Sasuke's shirt. I walked towards it, and touched it. The carving's edges were worn, so it was not a new addition to the chamber, but I couldn't tell just how old it was.

When I turned around, Sasuke's eyes had turned red, and bore a strange design with two dots. That had to be the legendary Sharingan, but more interesting was that his eyes darted from left to right like they were reading something, but all I saw was a wall with a carving in it.

He walked by me like I wasn't even there, and touched the crest with his hand. The entire cavern rumbled, and I asked, "You, uh, want to give me an update on what I can't see here?"

Before he could respond, a growl sounded behind me. Between us and the exit was a petit Dragon Pokémon with a large head. After a moment I recognized it, "Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon. There's your Pseudo legendary."

I pointed at it, and said, "Absorb."

Mokuton did his usual motion, but barely any energy escaped Bagon. "Crap. Grass moves don't really hurt Dragons."

Sasuke flew through some hand signs, and spat a series of small fireballs, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

The fireballs glanced off Bagon, whom if anything, looked more annoyed than threatened. "Fire style against a dragon… really dude? Aren't you supposed to be like the best of your year?"

"I don't know Pokémon, that's your job!" Sasuke accused.

"Fire… against a DRAGON?!" I retorted.

Bagon snarled, regaining our attention, and spewed blue dragon-fireballs like the ones Sasuke had spat at him, but unlike Sasuke's jutsu, these ones could hurt us. I rolled to the side, tossed Sasuke my last pokescroll, and shouted, "Wait for the right moment, I have to weaken it!"

"Keep him busy!" I shouted to Mokuton and grabbed Shuriken.

Bagon was shooting dragon-fire every which way, but Mokuton was two steps ahead of him at every turn anyway. I slipped some of my wire through the holes in my shuriken and threw them wide to each side of Bagon.

Just after the shuriken traveled past him, I yanked on the wire, pulling sending the shuriken around Bagon, where they caught themselves on its scales like anchors. I grabbed the wire, and pulled it up and over my head, dragging Bagon with it.

Bagon glanced into the roof, but really took a hit on the floor behind me, where his head shattered the floor. "Is it weakened yet?" Sasuke asked.

Bagon twisted, snapped its jaws shut around the wire, and set them on fire, so I let go. "That would be a no."

I summoned Yin and Yang, and said, "Restrain the Dragon."

Tendrils of silk reached out, and wove around Bagon, but those too caught fire. "Poison the dragon." I tried.

A few poison stingers found their way into Bagon's scales, and for the first time, it slowed down. It began to swell, and turn purple. It shrieked in pain, and I shouted, "Now, Sasuke!"

Sasuke used the pokescroll, and I recalled my Pokémon. The room was silent, but the anxiety was real. When the scroll let out a billowing cloud of white smoke, I sighed my relief. "Good stuff Sasuke."

Sasuke stared down at Bagon's scroll, and whispered, "I'll name him Avenger."

"Whoo," I said, deadpan with sarcastic jazz hands, "Now, let's got see how Shikamaru is doing."

We exited the chamber, just in time to see Rook, Shikamaru's Seedot, become enveloped in light and evolve into Nuzleaf. Shikamaru pointed to a floating rock that looked like a drawing of the sun, a species of Pokémon called Solrock, and shouted, "Seed Bullet!"

Five barrages of seeds glowing with chakra slammed into the Solrock, pushing it back. Shikamaru unleashed a pokescroll, and caught the Pokémon. Immediately after, Shikamaru collapsed backwards and declared, "That was such a drag."

May squealed with joy, grabbed Shikamaru, and began to shake him with excitement. "You caught two Pokémon all by yourself! I'm so proud of you!"

May continued to shake poor Shikamaru, and I saw his shoulders sag, and his eyes go all white. "May!" I reprimanded, "You're hurting him ya brute!"

Sasuke and I headed over, just in time to hear Shikamaru mutter, "All the strength of Chouji and all of Ino's energy. It's not fair."

"Did you find Bagon?" May asked.

Sasuke brandished his scroll, and May jumped for joy. "Say, Sasuke… do you know a Zinnia Uchiha?"

Sasuke flinched, "Why?"

May intertwined her fingers behind her head, "She's the one who showed me this place! Something about how the Uchiha clan used to raise lots of Bagon. She's special to me, but I haven't seen her in, like, forever!"

"There are only two Uchiha left, and Zinnia isn't one of us." Sasuke answered, "The rest have been dead for six years. I'm sorry."

May looked more confused than upset. "Oh. Well then, I'm glad I got to show you this place anyway."

On the way out of the cave, May pulled me aside. "What was Sasuke talking about?" she asked.

"You don't know?" I whispered, "my mom said that one of the Uchiha went crazy and wiped out everybody in his entire clan but his brother. Itachi only spared Sasuke six years ago."

"I met Zinnia two years ago," May insisted, "She was an Uchiha."

I arched an eyebrow at her, "How do you know?"

May blushed and was quiet for a moment, then she said, "She was special to me. I saw her Sharingan. There are no two ways about it. She wasn't massacred, but she was an Uchiha."

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.