Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Pokémon. Man if Pokémon were real this world would be so much more messed up than it already is man… can you just imagine? You think schools are dangerous now with kids bringing weapons once every blue moon? What do you think would happen if a kid's pet could burn the school down in thirty seconds or cause an earthquake at will?
And that's just one example.
No way. Fuck that.
Chapter 10: Natural Selection
"Okay, so tell me you've got that. Review time. What's particular about Celadon City's Gym Leader?" Janine asked Naruto as they walked down the sidewalk of a very large and beautiful city. Instead of the buildings just being solid grey, they seemed to be in multitude of colors in the downtown area. It was fairly entrancing for someone that knew nothing of cities being this large.
Naruto counted amongst the people that knew nothing of cities being this large. So many big skyscrapers, and so many people packed together. For a city that was at the edge of a forest it was absolutely massive. The biggest commerce-generating town in Kanto.
"Why does it matter to you so much that I know all of this?" Naruto asked, wondrously taking in the sights while eating a huge bag of chips that he had purchased from a vending machine nearby earlier, "You've been shoving this crap into my head since we saw the sign of the city. Why don't you take the Gym Leader Challenge if you know all of this stuff?"
Janine wanted some of Naruto's chips too, but she'd lose a finger trying to go for any and she knew it. And he called her greedy, the little glutton. Ignoring that, she gave her reasoning though, "There are a few reasons I can't take on the Gym Leader Challenge. It's a combination of things."
Such as the point of her parentage making it unfair to do so, and the fact that due to aforementioned parentage she wasn't on good terms with most of the leaders; the past incident with Misty a clear example of such. She didn't have anything against the one in this town though, so that was something to look forward to.
"And since I can't do it, and you said you wanted to do it I'm making sure I don't have to watch you lose to one by making sure you're ready. That's my responsibility. I'm sure your sensei would thank me for it." Janine asserted, getting a roll of the eyes from Naruto. Jiraiya didn't know jack about Gym Leaders. How that old pervert figured he'd be fine in Kanto without Naruto at his side the blonde didn't know, "Besides, this is the first Pokémon Gym you're actually challenging where you have a type advantage!"
Contrary to what one would think after watching him fight, Naruto understood type advantages, because he had been made to after his episode in Lavender Town with the ghost Pokémon, but it hadn't been like type had mattered too much before. Apparently in Cerulean City he had been at a horrible disadvantage, and in Vermillion City while Sazakumoru had the advantage over Surge the little Cubone hadn't had enough training for it to matter.
Apparently he did this time. And Janine was rather excited about that. With good reason as well, because he had been winning again and again against Gym Leaders by nothing more than the skin of his teeth, even with direct help from her one time. Maybe this time it could actually be decisive?
"It's going to be easy." Janine insisted, rubbing her hands together mischievously as she continued to walk along the sidewalk, plotting the battle plan for taking on The Celadon City Gym, "All you have to do is bust out Ranbouen the second the battle starts and it'll be-." She noticed that when she reached to the side to try and be sneaky and grab some chips that not only did she miss the bag, she missed Naruto altogether.
…Because he wasn't there anymore. Apparently she'd gotten too caught up in the fiery splendor that was going to be Ranbouen's crushing victory over the Celadon Gym Leader for Naruto's tastes and had decided to try his luck exploring on his own for a while.
There was no way he left without her sensing him go. But more importantly he had just ditched her! He said he'd never do that!
Where did he go anyway? He didn't know anything about the city.
"Damn you Naruto!" Janine shouted, disturbing some of the people walking around her before she stalked off, trying to think of places that would attract Naruto's attention.
XxX
(With Naruto)
Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap.
Bleh, Naruto had taken more than enough of hearing that. Nothing but 'Celadon Gym this' and 'Celadon Gym that' ever since the city had come into sight. He hadn't had to listen to that much lecturing since he had left the Ninja Academy, and he still wasn't a fan of any of it.
Janine never noticed him leave. From his experience with Iruka, people that gave long-winded explanations got caught up in the sound of their own voices and made it literal child's play to sneak away from them.
And it wasn't like he didn't notice her trying to pilfer his damn chips. She should have gotten her own bag when they stopped.
He had plenty of places to hide from her too while he got to do what he wanted; training in the tranquil woodland areas that surrounded the outskirts of Celadon City. For a place that was so industrialized it had a great natural balance. Well kept forest roads that moved seamlessly through the trees without disturbing a thing. His hat was off to the city planners… if he wore one of course.
And that meant that he could use the controlled wilderness to work.
With the use of a Kage Bunshin per Pokémon, Naruto was spreading his focus out today. Due to the fact that they were just more fragile versions of himself, Naruto had two clones wage a mock one-on-one battle between his Cubone Sazakumoru and his Hitmonlee Fukigenko to get the little one some more much needed experience fighting.
"Rolling Kick!"
"Bone Club!"
Both Fukigenoko and Sazakumoru met in the middle and clashed with a wide swinging spin kick and a slam of a bone that stalemated, giving no noticeable advantage to one or the other at first. Eventually the reverberation of the power shots landing and hurting her hands got to Sazakumoru and she dropped her bone to the ground before she started to cry.
Fukigenko and the clone that had been in command of him both watched this uncomfortably as the clone rubbed the back of its neck sheepishly, "Uh… does that mean we win?" He asked, getting Fukigenko to palm his face and shake his head.
"Aww…" The clone that had been directing the little Cubone walked over and picked her up while she kept crying. It wanted to tell her that she needed to toughen up, but it just didn't have the heart to, "It's okay Saza-chan." If anyone knew what it was like to come up short, it was Naruto, and he wasn't really big on letting others beat themselves up over it. That meant that his clones weren't either, "Fuki's not really the best sparring partner for going easy."
The eyes of Fukigenko's turned in his best mouthless expression of a scowl, and he stomped his foot harshly on the ground several times for being called out on not having sparring etiquette. It was true and he knew it, but that wasn't his fault. A fight was supposed to be a fight. He was a fighting Pokémon. Next time Naruto should pick a better partner.
Fukigenko's Naruto-clone jabbed him on the shoulder subtly to get his attention and made sure that Sazakumoru and her Naruto-clone weren't looking their way before giving the Hitmonlee a silent thumbs-up before dispelling.
A little ways off another clone of Naruto was with Ranbouen, and he wasn't having much fun even though the fire dog was as energetic as ever at getting to be out and about.
"Keep that nose of yours primed Ranbouen…" Naruto warned, his eyes darting all about as he and his first Pokémon walked carefully through the trees, "We already know that she can be anywhere…" Naruto-clone had suggested a game to help Ranbouen's ability to track instead of just working on his fighting skills. He had enough work on that, "Just be cool."
Ranbouen was cool. He was cool as he sat and watched his master's chakra doppelganger look around as if he were paranoid. But his eyes were locked on the tree directly behind Naruto-clone as he watched the newly added Misdreavus of the party emerge from it and position herself right behind the clone's ear where she then shrieked at it.
Naruto-clone jumped ten feet in the air, and landed to turn and glare at his little banshee of a Pokémon, She was then thoroughly rewarded with red energy orbs of fear from Naruto that flew into her mouth.
"Shujinken (Tricky Mistress)… seriously. Stop doing that." Having received her nourishment from scaring the crap out of Naruto's clone, all Shujinken did was snicker at the clone and float around it playfully as it walked over to Ranbouen who hadn't been surprised at all, "…When you notice the thing that we're looking for you have to let me know that you did. So that stuff like that doesn't happen."
Tilting his head as he listened, Ranbouen then gave an affirmative nod to let Naruto-clone know that he had indeed understood. He got a pat on the head that got him to start happily panting and he began walking with the clone as Shujinken rested on the Growlithe's head. It was probably time to go find the original.
Meanwhile with the original Naruto, he was busy inspecting his newly evolved Cloyster now that he had the time to do so.
For the longest time Naruto just stared at the open shell of Hogohei and at the smirking dark face within before he finally got his stones up and yelled as he let loose a haymaker. Hogohei merely closed his shell and let Naruto's fist bounce off of it basically harmlessly… for him. Naruto damn near broke his hand and he didn't even budge the bulky water Pokémon.
Shaking out his busted fist, Naruto was then greeted with the smug look on the open-shelled face of Hogohei, "That didn't hurt at all did it?" Hogohei's head inside of his two shells shook for a no, "Didn't think so." He cracked his fist and took a step back for a charge, "Alright, let's see how tough you really are now. Let's fight." Hogohei's shell immediately closed and he launched himself at Naruto for a Tackle, leading with his horn. Naruto had to leap aside or get smashed by 300 pounds of Cloyster shell, "Whoa! Is that how we're playing this?"
That was how they were playing that, because Hogohei then launched the sharp horn that stuck outside of its closed shell in a Spike Cannon attack. Once again, Naruto dodged it and watched it impale itself through the trunk of a tree.
A shocked Naruto turned his head from the sight of what could have been him back to Hogohei who had his shell open and had the good nature to look sheepish as a new horn immediately replaced itself just over his hidden head. Naruto shrugged it off though. Hogohei barely knew his own body. Pokémon puberty was potentially violent. Who knew?
"…We can work with that." Naruto said, dismissing the fact that he had almost died a grisly death, "Come on. Keep going. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto made several clones that jumped all over Hogohei's shell trying to futilely beat their way through it once it shut once more, "Damn I need a better idea. I'm never getting through that thing."
"Heave-ho Boss!"
Naruto quickly realized what his clones were doing and rushed over to help them pick Hogohei up. The madly grinning Naruto brigade proceeded to hurl Hogohei through the air and sent him crashing into a tree that was felled by his weight and the force of his impact.
Hogohei's shell uprighted itself and opened up to reveal a rather stunned Pokémon. Apparently Naruto could find more creative ways to rattle up what was inside of his defenses instead of trying to force his way through them. Good luck with doing that.
"Good!" Naruto said as he walked over to Hogohei and his clones dispelled, "I wonder how well you could take an explosion." He thought aloud as he pulled out an explosive tag and stroked his chin, "You want to try that next?" He asked before Hogohei leaned in front of Naruto and blocked a blunted arrow that released a minor amount of powder from the head upon contact.
"Hm, your Cloyster seems rather loyal to you, even with abuse like that. You even considered placing it within an explosion."
Naruto peeked around Hogohei's body and spotted the person that had fired the arrow at him from the nearby road.
It was hard at first to find the person that did it, but it became rather obvious after a second glance. There was a small caravan of people carrying some kind of carriage that he figured royalty would be carried in so that they wouldn't have to walk with normal people, and with the curtain to it drawn open Naruto saw a girl slightly older than him sitting inside in seiza holding a bow.
She had neck-length dark hair with a red hairband and wore an ornate yellow kimono with orange autumn patterns adorning the bottom and white tabi socks. She was also glaring at him for what she believed was going to be abuse of his Pokémon.
"I wasn't abusing Hogohei." Naruto replied confusedly, picking up the arrow from the ground. His fingers stroked the head of it and his hand went numb. Weird, "It was training. He just evolved and I wanted to see what he could do before I'm supposed to fight the Gym Leader here." He scratched his head with his free hand and looked around, "My other Pokémon are around here somewhere."
A bit of a smile came to the lips of the girl being carried by the people, "I don't think the Celadon City Gym Leader would fight a person that can't find their Pokémon… and your training involves causing explosions around your Pokémon? Tell me how that wouldn't be torturous. I watched your Cloyster destroy that tree."
The arrow broke in Naruto's hand due to the tightening of his grip. He didn't have anything to say to that person. First of all he would never do anything that he didn't think his Pokémon couldn't handle. Second of all it wasn't any of her damn business.
"Maybe you want to see what it's really like when I get tough?" Naruto said, with Hogohei actually willing and able to back up what Naruto had to say as he didn't particularly like Naruto's ability to raise Pokémon being questioned. It was insulting to Hogohei too, to say that he couldn't take a bit of a beating. He could totally survive one of Naruto's explosive tags going off.
The girl merely put her bow down and looked away from Naruto towards the front of her caravan as they began to move again, "No, I don't humor aggressive people that think that pure force is all it takes to make a successful trainer." She then curtly closed the curtain to her carriage, abruptly ending the conversation on her terms.
Naruto bit his tongue, if only because he wasn't going to outright attack someone that wasn't willing to fight him as well for no reason. And besides, what did he care what some prim little noble-looking chick thought about him? She didn't know anything at all. Nothing about him and definitely nothing about what his team was capable of withstanding.
"Sure." Naruto said rudely, giving Hogohei a few reassuring pats on the shell as the group moved away, "Whatever you say princess. I'm so sure someone that won't walk through the forest on their own feet can tell me all about personality. I don't need to say anything else to tell you what I think that says about you." He recalled Hogohei to his Poke Ball and threw his hands behind his neck before beginning to walk away, "I wouldn't want to battle you and make you break a nail anyway."
He didn't even turn back around, but he heard the curtain to the carriage draw open and the footsteps of the caravan cease. Naruto almost started chuckling. His well-harnessed ability to pester others into action would always get him by somehow.
The hard eyes of the girl in the carriage were fixed on the red spiral mark on the back of Naruto's clothing as he ambled away seemingly without a care, "If you really are looking for a battle, follow this road until you reach the end of it." She said tersely, "I don't wish to harm your Pokémon just because of your ignorance, but some lessons must be hard taught I'm afraid."
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto said without turning around to face her again as he walked further into the woods, "Maybe I'll drop by after lunch. My Pokémon are probably hungry by now… what with my abusive training and all. He could feel the killing intent being thrown his way and he absolutely loved it, "Later princess."
With a huff, the girl swiftly closed he curtains again and the caravan went off to carry her to her destination at the end of the road while Naruto went to collect the other Pokémon that he had left to train with his clones. It was chow time.
XxX
(A Little While Later Celadon City Gym)
In the back of the facility there was a very lush and beautiful garden meant for relaxation and serenity… and for target practice as well apparently because it doubled as an archery field. Each targeted bullseye had an arrow right in the center. Even the ones swinging freely from branches weren't missed at all.
A quite angry noble girl was trying to compose herself, but could only think of shooting that jerk kid from the woods nearby. An attitude like that didn't become her at all. She was supposed to be calmer than that. A Gym Leader had to be calmer than that.
"Still being as perfect as ever aren't you Erika?"
A peaceful smile came to the girl's face before she lowered her bow and arrow and turned to greet her guest, "Janine." She turned around and found the female ninja in question looking at her amusedly with a smirk on her face and her arms crossed, "It's been a long time. Eight months. You have a job here you've taken?" She conversed in a friendly manner.
"No, I'm done with that for now… mostly." Janine walked over to her and jumped over the fence that cut off the archery section from the rest of the garden to get closer to the girl, "Unless there's something you want to hire me for."
"You don't do assassinations do you?" Erika replied, half-jokingly. She'd be lying if she said that there wasn't some appeal to the thought.
"Nope. I'm a thief." Janine gave the girl a quick hug that was returned before looking around the garden, "Ahh, youth management of a Pokémon Gym… it gives me some hope for my own future." She quipped, "I just thought I'd pop in and see a friend while I'm around looking for something I lost. I thought I might find it here if I waited around long enough."
Erika frowned and led her off of the archery grounds to have a seat on a bench within the garden, "If it's your father I'm afraid that the next time he shows his face in this Gym it will be the first time since all of the… unpleasantness began coming to light." She sighed and smoothed out the dress of her kimono, as she looked down at the ground, "I am very glad that you were able to extricate yourself from all of that before it was too late. I would hate to have to consider you anything less than a friend."
"You and me both…" Janine said quietly and the two simply sat there, not saying anything to one another for quite some time. It was far from uncomfortable though, "…I'm going to stop him you know. I'll get him, and I'll make him go home. Fuchsia Gym needs its leader back, even if I have to force him to do it."
"Koga is still the Fuschsia Gym Leader only because the combined organization of Kanto Gym Leaders that could take the position away from him has been split in half." Erika stated, putting a hand on Janine's shoulder, "As of now the leaders of Fuchsia, Vermillion, and Saffron have gone dark and are considered to be conspirators in Team Rocket's conspiracy. Perhaps you can convince your city to take control of the Gym from him."
While many Gyms had been founded by the people that ran them years and years ago, they became the focal points of wherever they had been set up. Towns with Gyms began to bustle and boom much more than others that didn't with clear results.
Gym Leaders were influential and were more or less the city bigwigs. They were well-paid from victory in many high-stakes battles, and in some cases like Erika they were treated as nobility for their prowess. Celadon City saw her as something of a princess, or the closest thing to one that existed on that continent.
The non-trainer populace and pretty much even lesser trainers fell into step and deferred to the Gym Leaders… with results that often weren't so great. Being a Gym Leader pretty much gave you a license to do whatever you wanted as Pokémon battles could get wild, destructive, and costly.
That clearly led to an abuse of power here with Janine's father and Lt. Surge, as well as Saffron City's Gym Leader if that person was indeed called as well. That was a danger, power was a corruptive thing. And the power that being a Gym Leader granted could easily be used to try and achieve one's dreams, no matter how nefarious those dreams could be. There was no test of one's morals to be a Gym Leader.
Janine let out a bitter laugh and shook her head, "Who'd replace him? No one else is close. They know it, that's why I have no support at home to have it happen." A Gym Leader was effectively a mayor in the premises of their towns. They were the ones that the people looked to for leadership and to handle what was important. That was why it was so mind-blowing that Erika was one, "I'd make a crappy Gym Leader anyway. You're only fifteen and they gave it to you back when you were my age. You're making me look bad you know."
Erika gave Janine a few pats on the lap to get her to cast out all of the pessimism, "I'm certain you're being too hard on yourself. Your confidence in yourself seems to come and go. You always believe so strongly in yourself and your abilities until something along the topic of Fushcia Gym comes up." Then her self-assurance just flittered away.
The blame would have to go to Janine's upbringing if Erika had to label something to blame. Koga was an oppressively harsh taskmaster. This much was evident for years, even when the two were younger, when Janine was eight and Erika was eleven.
"Heh… well my belief is going up today, because a friend of mine is going to be coming here to battle you." Janine tried to change the subject before realizing something. A pout came over her face when she remembered the unknown whereabouts of said friend, "…If I can find him. His name is Naruto."
Frowning at her friend, Erika thought of something else related to battling that Janine had reminded her of, "I am afraid your friend will have to wait for me to deal with a more pressing challenge first. I intend to teach a disrespectful trainer a much needed lesson sometime today."
Ooh. Someone had actually pissed Erika off enough that she was willing to fight just like that. That never happened. As a matter of fact, normally if one were to look for her at that time of the day they would find he in the center of the Gym sleeping while sitting up. That was how easy-going she usually was.
Of course, if she watched Erika battle someone else first she might wind up seeing something that she could later use to help Naruto during his battle… not that he would need it if he was smart enough to heed the advice she'd been shoving into his head all morning long.
A woman in a maid outfit arrived on the scene and bowed to Erika, "A young man has issued a challenge to the Gym my lady. He's waiting on the field right now. I believe he's the boy you informed us to keep an eye out for."
A gleam appeared in Erika's eye as she stood up and dismissed the maid. A battle was forthcoming, "Can I watch?" Janine asked, pointing towards the Gym, "I want to see you fight mad for once. You never do that."
"I'm not angry. I'm just filled with what I believe is righteous intent." Erika said in reasoning correction before beckoning Janine to follow with a smile, "And of course you can watch. Now then; should I paralyze him, poison him, or put him to sleep?"
"I'm always partial to a good poisoning, you know that."
XxX
A yawn escaped Naruto as he sat on the floor of the wide open Gym and looked around. Much like Brock's Gym and Misty's Gym the place was acclimated to suit a certain type of Pokémon with all of the different kinds of trees, bushes, and grass as well as the skylight that brought in sunlight onto the entire Gym floor. It was a lot like the city he was in with regards to how the environment balanced out within civilization. Once again, impressive.
He was ignoring the lot of glares that came from the other underling trainers that populated the Gym. Most of them were the same people from the entourage that the girl in the forest had carrying her to this location and they seemed to be trying to make him spontaneously combust with their eyes.
Uzumaki Naruto wasn't a brain surgeon by any stretch of the imagination, but by now he was well aware of the fact that he had goaded the actual Gym Leader of this city into a fight outside of the confines of the actual Gym before he knew who she was.
It was sort of redundant when he sat down and started thinking about it since he was going to challenge the Gym Leader anyway. In his defense he didn't know that the girl was the Gym Leader, and even with that aside in this case all roads led to Konoha so to speak, so it was harmless as far as he was concerned.
"It's a very calming atmosphere isn't it?" Hearing the calm female voice of the girl that had shot the blunted arrow at him in the woods, Naruto hopped up to his feet in alarm only to look across the intended battlefield at his intended opponent, sitting properly in the grass without a care, "I take pride in the effect that Celadon Gym can have on hostile people. It is rather hard to stay angry in this place."
"I do like your Gym." Naruto admitted openly, bouncing on his toes and trying to get fired back up to fight again, "I don't like you though. So let's do this already, dattebayo."
"Why the rush to battle?" The same way Naruto got pleasure from antagonizing her subtly in the woods, Erika got a bit of a kick out of getting Naruto to gnash his teeth impatiently. It definitely put a smile on her face, "You're already here and neither you or I are going anywhere. Why not get to know each other a bit? My name is Erika, and as you've probably long since guessed I am the Celadon City Gym Leader. It is rather brave of you to accept my challenge even with that knowledge."
"I'm not afraid of a fight and I'm not an abusive trainer, that's all you need to know." Naruto decided to state flat-out, "I love my Pokémon. They've saved my ass so many times since I came to Kanto, I'd never hurt them. I just want them to be strong because we get into a lot of danger. My friend is after someone that's supposed to be dangerous and I promised her I would help her no matter what."
Minor vulgarity in his language aside, Erika didn't see any deceit in Naruto's eyes or in his posture, defensive as it was.
Wow… the Gym really did have a calming effect.
"Boo… come on Naruto. Say something stupid and make Erika mad again like she was outside. You didn't even make her yell at you."
Naruto turned towards one of the trees in the Gym and found his travelling companion sitting up in a branch and waving at him with her legs crossed, "Janine?" She gave him a toothy grin in response, "What the hell?"
"You ditched me you jackass!" Janine yelled, throwing an acorn at him, "I knew you'd come here eventually, and then I should have known it was you that upset Erika too… but I told her I've got my money on you so you'd better win this battle."
So this was the Naruto that Janine had told Erika about outside. Interesting. Why was she with him? And was she the friend that Naruto said he was going to help? If that was indeed the case she could definitely identify a dangerous person that Janine had openly expressed interest in pursuing.
Well now she had a new reason to battle Naruto. If he thought he could help Janine overcome her father and all of the resources that Team Rocket had at their disposal she would definitely be testing that mettle herself. As a friend of the kunoichi she had to make sure of such. It was only right.
As the observational young Gym Leader was trying to ponder just how Naruto figured into being friends with someone such as Janine, Naruto's attention had momentarily been captured by Janine's presence, "I ditched you because you were going off like a broken record! You had been talking about the same thing over and over since breakfast! I know, I got it! And if anything this Erika person started the whole thing between us. She shot an arrow at me and accused me of abusing my Pokémon."
A dry look was pasted on Janine's face as she looked from Naruto to Erika who seemed to be in deep thought, too deep to listen to the conversation going on between the two of them, "Okay, I can see that happening. Erika doesn't look it, but she's kind of spacy. Just ignore it… don't let it get to you." That girl seriously held a grudge like a wet match held a flame, "Erika wake up!" She yelled when she saw her friend about to nod off to sleep.
Erika snapped out of her self-induced daze and returned to attention, "Oh my… I'm sorry for that." She said, rather embarrassed at almost falling asleep in front of a new person.
'She seriously needs to stop working the powders into her arrows. The Sleep Powders are seriously doing a number on her…' Janine thought to herself with a facepalm before returning her attention to Naruto, "Remember how to beat her okay?"
A belligerent Naruto stuck his tongue out at Janine and held up a Poke Ball, "I know, I know. You only said it like three hundred times." Even he wasn't that vacant-minded.
Seeing Naruto pull out a Poke Ball, Erika reached for her own and allowed it to expand in her hand, "Well I guess the quickest way to determine what kind of person you are is to battle you. May I have someone referee the bout for us? Not you Janine." She added quickly before Janine could jump down and take the reins of judging the bout.
While Janine pouted from her spot in the tree at having he services turned down, one of the attendants of the Gym stood between Naruto and Erika on the sidelines of the open field, "This battle will be a series of one-on-one battles with each trainer only able to use three Pokémon each to a finish. Absolutely no substitutions can be made on either side for the duration of the battle."
The temporary referee looked toward Naruto to see if the Gym's rules were up to par for him and his intended challenge to the facility. She of course got a nod from Naruto who didn't particularly care what terms he had to fight under, and she knew that the rules were just fine with Erika because they were the standing rules that she set.
"Very well. Challenger Naruto vs. Gym Leader of Celadon City, Erika. Begin!"
Erika was the first to throw her Poke Ball and begin the festivities, "Your first opponent will be Weepinbell!" From the Poke Ball emerged a creature with a yellow bell-shaped body that had wide, gaping pink lips at the bottom and a root hook at the top of its body. It had two leaf-looking appendages on its sides, "Choose your Pokémon and we can start."
"Ranbouen go!"
Upon the sighting of Naruto's Pokémon of choice, Erika thoroughly frowned. The energetic Growlithe looked around, panting excitedly. Erika could not say that she shared that sentiment with the puppy. Up in the tree she looked at a smugly smiling Janine, "I suppose this is why you were so confident in your friend to win?"
"It was one reason, yes." Janine admitted shamelessly, "You could just give him the badge and we could all go get dinner somewhere."
Erika's frown turned into a bit of a challenging smile that kept its noble appearance, "That wouldn't make me a very good Gym Leader would it? You act as if I haven't dealt with fire-types in the past. Weepinbell greet our new friends with Razor Leaf."
The Weepinbell shrugged its leaf arms and started throwing multiple smaller, sharp leaves across the field, making a wall of projectiles that flew at Ranbouen with intent to cut and scar.
That was a pretty well spread out attack. A conventional attempt to dodge would have failed miserably… if that indeed had been what Naruto had planned on. It wasn't. He decided that the simplest way to his target was an obvious straight line, and Ranbouen was his heavy hitter, "Flame Wheel!"
Ranbouen sprayed flames from his mouth as he charged down the Razor Leaf barrage and the Weepinbell before the fire covered his body and he broke into a fast roll. He incinerated the leaves without them cutting into him and rolled straight ahead, burning a trail into the ground until he slammed right into the hapless grass-type.
A cringe came from Erika as she watched the specs of flame fly through the air as her Weepinbell was brutally knocked away by Naruto's counterattack, "I figured you would play it safe and try to stop my leaves with a distance attack or simply try to evade it. I had no idea you would utilize Flame Wheel, or that your Pokémon even knew it."
Things had not started well for Erika with Naruto pushing straight through her opening attack and inflicting heavy damage right off the bat. But she wasn't giving up. She had moves for just such a scenario. All she had to do was let things transpire until it was time to act.
Naruto saw the Weepinbell get back up and sicced Ranbouen on him without haste, taking advantage of the obvious type superiority, "Flamethrower!"
"Weepinbell use Knock Off!"
Erika had that counter prepared from the moment Naruto had taken the upper hand. The second Ranbouen's mouth opened for him to begin inhaling air to exhale for the Flamethrower, Weepinbell's top root extended quickly and nailed him under the chin, snapping his mouth shut and canceling the attack.
The hit dazed Ranbouen and he snorted fire involuntarily from his nose as opposed to his mouth and growled at Weepinbell before moving towards him to attack again at Naruto's behest, "Ember!" A faster attack instead of a stronger one to ensure a greater chance of it landing.
"Razor Leaf!"
The fire pellets and the massive amounts of bladed leaves created a mid-air inferno that Ranbouen used as cover to get closer and ensure that his next issued attack would have absolutely no chance at missing or being evaded.
A sly smile came to Erika's lips, "Wrap." The great aim of her Weepinbell's top root was paramount as it shot out again and wrapped around Ranbouen's neck as it began to tighten and strangle him, "If he can't breathe he can't create fire."
It was all a matter of neutralizing her enemy's ability to use fire to their advantage. Naruto had an easy Pokémon to handle in that regard. Now if he had a Magmar she probably would have had Weepinbell surrender because there would have been no chance of victory.
Getting his Growlithe choked to death was not an option for Naruto. But surrender was still far from his mind. Ranbouen was tough, and he could work his way out of that, "Bite!" And Ranbouen didn't let Naruto down. He was smart enough to walk forward to provide enough slack in the root around his neck to the point where he could wriggle it around his mouth where he snapped down harshly on the appendage.
Erika's Weepinbell pulled his root back and cried out in pain at the uncalculated counter that had injured its root and a moment later found an angry Growlithe in his face, looking none too pleased at getting choked so viciously.
Naruto was none too pleased by it either, and let that be known in only so many words, "Flamethrower!"
Ranbouen inhaled deeply and this time wasn't stopped before he let loose a harsh stream of fire from his mouth and fully engulfed Weepinbell in the burst. After a moment the stream subsided and Ranbouen hopped away, still growling on guard at his downed opponent.
Weepinbell was in no fit condition to fight, covered in burns, even with a small flame still burning away on one of his leaf appendages. Erika quickly recalled her beaten Pokémon and reached for another Poke Ball. She hadn't expected her Weepinbell to win, but she had anticipated that it would have been able to weaken Ranbouen more.
She had wished to make Naruto's first victory over her choice of Pokémon a pyrrhic victory; that Ranbouen would have been so beaten up in round one that he would have been an absolute nonfactor for the rest of the battle, "It seems I chose the wrong Pokémon for that." She didn't know that he would have used a Growlithe first when she picked her Weepinbell though, "Let me try this again. Are you going to switch him out?"
"Hell no." Naruto said, getting a bark of agreement from Ranbouen, "You're not going to land any of those attacks like that again. He's not even hurt either." In a display of his health, Ranbouen shot a burst of fire into the air in a showy display to not underestimate him, "Bring it on!"
It was time to use her most rugged battler out of her current party, "Deal with Tangela next." Erika challenged him as she released her next Pokémon; a Pokémon Ranbouen's size with a body comprised of countless blue tangled up vines keeping its real body entirely from view emerged with feet that looked like red shoes. Through the vines a look of intent was visible on the face of Erika's Tangela.
"Flash!"
A quick blinding light hit everyone looking at Tangela in the eyes, as if a professional camera's flashbulb had gone off right in their faces. Both Naruto and Janine had to turn away and blink the tears out of their eyes and Ranbouen was seeing stars and dark spots.
Still though, Naruto didn't let up a bit with his aggression after having seen what Erika could do when given a bit of an opening. Not again on his watch, "Flame Burst!" Ranbouen fired a ball of fire from his mouth at Tangela only for her to dodge it due to his affected aim. Even so, the fireball hit the ground and burst into many smaller balls that littered the field and continued to bun as a trap.
'Even with a lack of vision he was trying to corral Tangela to make her an easier target. I see. Not a bad move.' Erika thought to herself before initiating her plan. For all that fire advantage there was something that his little dog just wasn't going to dodge, "PoisonPowder!"
Tangela's vines began to shake and quiver, causing obscene amounts of shimmering dust to fly into the air all over the field. Erika moved her position to sit underneath the thick leaves of a tree so that she could avoid any effects herself.
Naruto did the same, running beneath the same tree that Janine had taken a seat on the branches of to observe, "Ranbouen can't leave the field or he's disqualified!" Naruto cried out worriedly. He couldn't recall and substitute him either or else that would be construed as surrender of the round, "How bad is this powder stuff?" Would it be worth losing his most dominant advantage of the battle?
The rest of his Pokémon with the exception of the largely untested and untrained Misdreavus he had recently captured were inadequate in fighting grass-types to say the very least.
Janine knew that to, and with a concerned look on her face as she knew something about poison attacks, she didn't mince words, "You need to get him out of that powder as fast as you can. If you're going to keep him in you'd better end this fast."
Erika's attempt to indirectly defeat Naruto's Growlithe should have been something she'd prepared him for, but even if she had, what would Naruto have planned to avoid it?
"Ranbouen, Dig!"
A visibly struggling Ranbouen quickly dug himself a hole in the field, saving himself from the rain of powder. But Erika was not concerned. Poison was poison, and it was only a matter of time at that point.
Even when Ranbouen popped up beneath her Tangela and flung her into the air with his head leading. Tangela hit the ground and popped right back up, the thick vines spacing out the damage she would have taken from the impact, "It's only a matter of time now until your Growlithe feels too faint to continue. I'll help it along if that's what you want me to do."
Naruto narrowed his eyes and issued his next command, "Flame Wheel!" Even if Ranbouen was going to lose, he was going out with a bang. Engulfing himself in flames, Ranbouen rolled swiftly towards Erika's Tangela only for it to miss. Nimble little thing.
Janine noticed from her catbird's view that Ranbouen hadn't stopped and was rolling toward the hole that he had just dug. Her eyes twinkled when she saw him fall into the hole. Erika's Tangela had moved towards the other end of the hole.
And right on cue Ranbouen's rolling, burning form sprang out and plowed into Erika's Tangela. She was completely stunned. Naruto had trained his Growlithe to execute two attacks at once, combining Dig and another attack with a fire element. She wondered if he could do that with other things, but it was irrelevant at the moment because her Tangela had been thoroughly beaten, thus Erika recalled her.
"Return Ranbouen!" But not before Naruto did the same first, both disqualifying their Pokémon from the contest, "Good job. We're still up." He said as he looked through his choices for who to use next, 'Hogohei would lose, Sazakumoru would lose, Ranbouen's eliminated already, I don't know how much damage Fukigenko could do to a grass type with his kicks… so I guess I have to use Shujinken.' Naruto grabbed his choice of Poke Ball and looked at it intently, "I'm gonna need you to be serious for a bit, okay Shuji-chan?"
Since he couldn't get any answer from the inside of a Poke Ball, Naruto released his Misdreavus who floated in the air with her normal impish smile on her face. That didn't reassure Naruto any, but he believed that Shujinken was a good girl… err, Pokémon. She just liked to play. He was quite certain that when it came time to fight she'd show him something special.
Erika was ready with her third and final Pokémon that she finally released after Naruto had sent out his own, "I know how to deal with a ghost Pokémon. Show him what I mean Gloom." From her Poke Ball emerged a creature with a small blue body with a large rust-colored flower atop its head covered with white spots. Drool dripped from its mouth and it had both of its eyes closed as if it was asleep, "Sunny Day."
Gloom's body glowed orange for a second before the sun seemed to intensify overhead. Not cool, because Naruto knew for a fact that the sun had moved out of being in an overhead position a long time ago. Yet there it was in all of its blazing yellow glory shoving its light right through the skylight and drenching the interior of the Gym.
Naruto had to squint it was so bright in there, "Gah, what's with the light? We could already see everything. There aren't any shadows in the whole Gym for Shuji-chan to use." He then noticed that being stuck in the unforgiving sunlight was making Shujinken uncomfortable, "Shuji-chan?"
"Ghost Pokémon are weaker in the glaring sunlight." Erika commented for Naruto's benefit. It wasn't like it mattered now, he couldn't switch his Misdreavus out or else he would forfeit the round without so much as a fight.
"No way, we train every morning! She was fine then!" Naruto argued, but his eyes couldn't unsee that Shujinken was indeed having trouble, "She never seemed like it hurt to be in the sunlight."
Janine understood though, and it was pretty devious of her flower-arranging old friend to go for it. She liked it though, "There's a difference between regular morning sunlight and the hard high noon, sweltering summer desert sun that Erika just had her Gloom call upon. Ghosts really can't deal with that." It was why they never came out in the daytime. In sunlight they were uncomfortable, but in a sunlight like the one they were involved with it was energy consuming.
More indirect fighting. That method had already gotten rid of Ranbouen in the last round, and now Erika was working it on his Misdreavus. This really was a Gym Leader. How like a ninja to find an alternative path to victory.
Naruto wasn't a fan though. But his opinion meant nothing, especially to Erika at the moment, "Mega Drain." From the center of Gloom's flower came a green beam that struck Naruto's off-guard Misdreavus, "Gloom isn't hurt, but this is meant to deal you damage instead."
"Confuse Ray!" From the center red orb of Shujinken's necklace she fired a red beam of he own that cut through the center of Gloom's Mega Drain beam and struck her, confusing her. The end of the energy draining attack gave Naruto an opening to look around for a way to fix things for his combatant, and eventually he spotted one that was perfect to allow her to get out of the sun, "Shuji-chan, go into the hole that Ranbouen dug to rest for a bit! I'll tell you when to come on out!"
Having not noticed the holes in the ground that had been created by her fellow Naruto party member, Shujinken shot Naruto a seemingly grateful smile before diving down underneath. She couldn't dive through solid objects to take cover or come up through the ground in places bathed in sunlight so it was much appreciated.
While Erika's Gloom continued to hurt itself worse and worse until it snapped out of confusion, a break in the shadows was just what the doctor ordered.
'That hole again.' Erika thought to herself as she got up from her place beneath the tree to direct Gloom's location, "Gloom stand here where you can keep both of the holes in your line of sight and aim." She then looked towards Naruto and locked eyes with him before speaking again, "Charge a SolarBeam and wait for his Misdreavus to come out."
'Fuck! Janine thought to herself. It wasn't her battle, but she had already picked sides and rooted for Naruto openly from even before the start, 'How does someone that falls asleep randomly battle so well?' She thought as pure light energy began to compound at the center of the flower on the top of Gloom's head.
Naruto's Pokémon was eventually going to have to come out, and Gloom's SolarBeam was fully charged almost immediately due to the blazing sunlight overhead, leaving no time for Shujinken to use the normal lag time between SolarBeam's charging process and firing the blast itself to leave the hole. She was trapped inside with no option to leave. The second she popped herself out of there it was going to be all over.
Naruto was a breath away from openly panicking with the sweat beginning to form underneath his headband on his forehead, 'What am I going to do, what am I going to do? If Shuji-chan comes out she'll get blown away, but all Erika is going to do is wait for her to come out.' He looked over at his opposing trainer and sweatdropped when he saw her sleeping only for her eyes to open when she felt him looking at her. How did she do that? He needed to learn how to do that, 'Damn it, we'll be here for the rest of the day until I make a move or surrender.'
Okay… for now things were fine. It was a stalemate. All he had to do was just hunker down and think of a way to counter. Erika's Gloom couldn't move without firing the SolarBeam, and that left Shujinken safe for the time being. As far as he knew there was no time limit, so it was just a test of patience and tactics. Just like shogi.
He hated that miserable game.
And apparently if Pokémon could play shogi, his Misdreavus wouldn't have had the patience for it either. Because Shujinken tried to make a break for it, flying out of one of the two holes as fast as she could.
Not fast enough to dodge a raging SolarBeam at all though.
"Fire!" Erika ordered the moment she saw the pink tips of Shujinken's hair tendrils. From Gloom's flower a bundled beam of white light that blasted Shujinken's form with all of the force mustered behind it, supercharged by the solar energy of the hot, hot sun in the sky.
The searing energy didn't stop at just hitting Naruto's Pokémon. It tore through much of the natural beauty of the Gym and in the aftermath of the attack revealed that it had ripped three trees in half, blew an entire wall out, and destroyed the glass of the skylight that fell freely onto the field.
"Shujinken!" Naruto shouted as he ran towards the hole that had been blown in the wall at the far end of the Gym, "No! Why'd you do that? I would have quit before letting that happen to you!" Reaching the farthest scene of the battle's destruction, Naruto looked high and low inside and outside for his little ghost.
Could a ghost Pokémon be killed? They could be hurt and badly injured like any other living organism, so they had to be able to die just like anything else as well. Just because they were ghosts didn't mean that they were undead or immortal right?
There wasn't any sign of Shujinken anywhere, but she had taken a direct hit from that SolarBeam that didn't slow down or break apart for a moment. From the power behind it, it had to have vaporized her…
Dropping to his knees, Naruto punched the solid ground as hard as he could and held a hand over his face, "Why did she leave the tunnel?" He muttered to himself quietly, "Why didn't she listen to me?" It was his fault she had been trapped down there, but disobeying him then wouldn't have fixed the situation at all, "I used her too soon. I've only had her for a few days."
A hand rested on his shoulder and Naruto turned his dejected view around to see that it was Janine, looking just as despondent as him, "Naruto… there's still one round left. Do you want to quit?"
Quit?
Not a chance in hell. Not now. Not after all of this.
Quickly wiping his eyes before anyone could see him, Naruto wordlessly shook his head and got back up before walking his way back to the center part of the Gym where Erika was still waiting, only now she was standing and bowing to him, "I truly apologize. As I said when we first met, I never wished to cause such harm to your Pokémon… but I am still a Gym Leader, and this was still a battle. If you're going to battle me for revenge, I won't fault you for such."
Naruto nodded without saying a word and held up his Poke Ball containing his Pokémon for his last choice, but before anything else could happen, from one of the holes in the ground flew out Shujinken who darted right at Erika's unprepared Gloom and unleashed a multicolored beam from her eyes that hit the grass-type flush in the body.
Erika covered her mouth to hide her stunned gaping expression and Naruto's jaw hung quite wide open at seeing his Misdreavus floating around Gloom's body, chattering her own name spiritedly because her use of Psybeam had just rendered Erika's last Pokémon unconscious with the mental blast.
"What the fuck?" Naruto screeched loudly and abrasively, "I thought she was dead! I saw her get hit! We all did! Somebody tell me what just happened! Do I owe the Shinigami a life debt now or something?" Did his Pokémon just come back to life?
The stunned referee realized that Gloom wasn't getting back up, and that was the third of Erika's Pokémon. That was the end of the battle, "The winner: Challenger Naruto!" She then ambled off holding her head. She needed a nap herself after all of that.
Janine's rapid footsteps preceded her reaching Naruto who was still looking utterly stunned as Shujinken flew around him doing victory laps, "I had no idea you'd taught any of your Pokémon how to do Double Team… you sly Move Tutor you. You should teach some of mine how to do that if you could teach her." The Shujinken that flew out of the hole first and got shot was just an illusion. A fake visual copy of the real one that remained underground.
"Double Te-… I didn't… wha-…" Naruto mumbled almost incoherently as he started walking forward like a zombie, "I just won… what the hell?" He looked at Shujinken who was hovering directly in front of his face at this point and reached out when the little banshee let him hold her up, "…Don't you ever… ever… ever do anything like that again… EVER!" He finished with a yell that blew Shunjinken's hair tendrils back, "How did you learn goddamn Double Team?"
Shujinken waited a second to let her hearing clear up from Naruto's shout before processing what he said and giving him a dry look as if to say, 'Seriously? You really don't know where I picked that up from?'
How could she not have picked it up? She'd seen him do it himself every damn day since they had first met. It was easier for a ghost Pokémon to understand the concept of Double Team than for other types with their spectral bodies.
Naruto walked over to Erika who recalled her Gloom with a sigh and looked over at the approaching ninja pair, "I concede defeat to you this time." She admitted before producing a badge in the appearance of a flower with rainbow-colored petals, "The Rainbow Badge is the prize for your victory. Due to the properties of the badge, Pokémon under your control will be enhanced by it like with the other badges."
"I can't take that." Naruto said with a frown, confusing Erika, "I didn't win that last battle. Shujinken beat you because you let your guard down after she disobeyed me and made everyone think she'd died." Misdirection was a battle tactic too, but it wasn't a good showing on him as a trainer that his Pokémon didn't listen to him and took things into their own hands.
In a real fight he'd take that win all the way to the bank, but this was an exhibition of skill. A contest with set rules and parameters. Rules that he felt he had violated. Damn him and his honorable streak.
"Your Misdreavus learned Double Team by your efforts either directly or indirectly, correct?" Erika asked, still holding out the Rainbow Badge for Naruto to take.
Furrowing his brow in thought and looking down at Shujinken who nodded to confirm this to him, Naruto carefully spoke, "…I think so?" The badge was then pinned onto the front of his orange summer outfit, "Hey."
"Then her victory was only due to what you taught her." Reasoned the elegant Gym Leader with a reassuring smile before bowing to Naruto again, under happier circumstances this time, "We met under unpleasant circumstances, but I would like to say that any friend of my little 'Nina is a friend of mine. I would like us to be friends as well." In response Naruto gave a bit of a bow in return.
"You know not to call me that…" Janine said with a glare that Erika returned with an innocent smile. She noticed a Cheshire-like grin on Naruto's face and decided to nip that in the bud right there, "I'm dead serious, do not call me that nickname Naruto. Call me Janine, that's all."
"Alright, alright…" Naruto said, holding his hands up defensively before snickering, "…'Nina…" Both Naruto and his Misdreavus cackled as they ran away from Janine's evil eye before she could try to do anything, "Aww, that name's so cute!" Naruto's voice rang out amidst his Pokémon's own laughter as he ran clear out of the Gym. He was going to the Pokémon Center post haste.
He was going to mess with her using that name until the end of time. Janine already knew it, "We're going to end up killing each other." She stated as if it were already written in stone, "He and I are going to kill each other before Otou-sama does or before his sensei returns. I just know it."
Seemingly taking the broken up state of her Gym well, Erika began walking with Janine towards the door after handing off her Pokémon to the underling Gym attendants to be taken care of within the facility, "Now, now. I don't believe it's quite that serious 'Nina." She said, eliciting another fierce look from Janine that she once again ignored, "Do you want to get dinner?"
Now that was an idea. She hadn't gotten to eat lunch because she had been looking around the city for Naruto. And Erika would obviously know where the best restaurant in town was, "Can I stay with you tonight in your awesome penthouse too just like old times?"
Erika smiled at her younger friend warmly in return, "Of course. I have the space, but what about your friend Naruto?" Putting up Janine for the duration of their stay was no problem, but having a boy in the midst was improper to say the least. She was a proper lady and had to appear accordingly.
This didn't seem to matter too much to Janine though, "He just won the purse from a battle with a Gym Leader. He's got the money to put himself up for a whole week at Celadon Hotel." And if he was too much of a tightwad for that he was good at camping out, "I haven't been here in forever. Tomorrow we need to hang out and-."
The two proceeded to chatter as they made their way out of the Gym and through the paved forest path back to town.
In a high corner rafter of the Gym, a small bipedal dark yellow Pokémon with brown armor on its chest, a long tail, and fox-like ears sat with its eyes closed, having overseen the entire battle as it had been dispatched by its master and staked out for days to do.
Its job now complete, the little Pokémon disappeared and used Teleport to leave the Gym without disturbing the attendants who were working to begin repairing the damage from Erika's battle.
XxX
(Saffron City Saffron City Gym)
Sitting in an empty white room, seemingly in a deep state of meditation, Sabrina's eyes opened and she smirked to no one in particular but herself, "Abra…" She said, and as if it had been summoned, the little Pokémon that had been spying in the Celadon Gym appeared from nowhere right in front of her, "Show me what you've seen."
Abra's eyes opened upon receiving the order and its eyes were glowing blue, as were Sabrina's eyes until the color suddenly shut off and its eyes closed back to their normally sleepy states.
Having received the information through the psychic connection she could establish with her Pokémon, Sabrina wordlessly dismissed her Abra so that it could rest. What a quaint little battle. On a lower scale than the one against Lt. Surge, but then again no one had been trying to kill the other. Erika always had been a goody-two-shoes.
There was a ruckus outside of her personal room, but Sabrina merely ignored it and returned to her meditation. It wasn't anything important enough to raise a finger for.
It steadily got louder and came closer before the doors to the room were thrown open, and four men using a karate gi and black headbands as their common uniform stormed inside, blocking her from being able to leave before a fifth man that looked less imposing but was clearly stronger than the rest entered.
He had spiky brown hair and sharp eyes, standing tall and muscular, but not so much that it seemed to get in his way like with the others. He wore tattered white karate gi bottoms and a black sleeveless shirt to go with a red band around his right bicep and a white headband on his head, "I want my Gym reestablished as Saffron City's official Pokémon Gym Sabrina." He demanded firmly yet coolly.
"Karate Master Kiyo, you barged into my room without knocking. How rude. What if I had been indecent?" Sabina greeted lightly with her eyes still closed, "I'm afraid I'm not going to do what you want though. I crushed you and your Fighting Dojo Gym by myself, so the city understandably decided to recognize my Gym as the official one in this city. You could always move and go to Johto. I hear they have a fighting Pokémon Gym there that you could try to take over from their current leader."
"It's a matter of honor, and of respect. I can't let you keep on doing what you're doing with those people… using this Gym's privileges." Kiyo said with his eyes narrowing on her form, "If you won't return Gym rights to me I'll take them just like you did. I've been training nonstop for the last year since you beat me."
A smirk came to Sabrina's face, "By all means, show me then. I won't even use my Pokémon against you and your own Pokémon. That would be overkill and I want you to have a 'fighting' chance of defeating me this time."
"If you won't use any Pokémon then neither will I." Kiyo insisted. He could battle evenly with his own fighting Pokémon and even defeat some of them in combat. He was confident in his own skills as a single combatant, even more than any of his underling trainers ever would be, "Let's begin." He said, dropping into a fighting stance and moving towards her slowly.
"Let's." Sabrina agreed, lifting a hand and pointing it at Kiyo. His body stiffened straight up while he remained standing, "What's wrong? I thought you were ready." She asked, feigning innocence.
Kiyo couldn't move an inch no matter how much his body tried to struggle. It simply wasn't listening to him, and his followers were horrified as he was lifted from the ground by seemingly nothing as a blue outline was visible around his frame, "H-How are you doing this? You can control living beings?" Only Pokémon had psychic abilities that advanced.
"It's admittedly more difficult than I thought it would be to restrain you. Your body is surprisingly strong. Lt. Surge should take his workout lessons from you. But-." Sabrina had a wicked little smile on her face as she opened her eyes to reveal them to be glowing blue, "-My mind is more powerful than your body."
With a push of her arm her telekinesis sent Kiyo flying clear out of the room, down the long main corridor that lead to her private room, and straight out of the front door of the Gym where he didn't stop for at least fifty yards, rolling violently like a ragdoll on the ground before coming to a motionless stop.
The frightened remaining martial artists looked back towards the young psychic woman who lowered her hand and returned to her state of meditation as they chattered amongst themselves, "I don't get it… I thought that the Leader of this Gym would be weak. Her underlings didn't even try to battle us when we came inside."
"My attendants didn't fight you because if they had you never would have made it here at all. You didn't honestly think my psychic-type trainers were afraid of fighting-types did you?" Sabrina interrupted after having overheard the muscleheads, "Even Kiyo, as strong as he truly is would have been winded upon making it to me. And I wanted the workout from him trying to defeat me. I have a personal trip I'm about to take and I needed the tune-up fight."
The doors to Sabrina's room then slammed shut, trapping the fighting Pokémon trainers inside despite their best efforts to yank the doors back open. As they focused on the doors they didn't notice that their Poke Balls were floating away from them until they were too far away to reach.
They turned around again to see Sabrina's eyes open with their blue glow once more, indicating that she was the one holding the doors shut with her personal psychic abilities, "…Kiyo will keep trying to defeat me as long as I allow him to fight another day, but you're all just plain weak and I have no respect for you trash."
Screams erupted from the inside of Sabrina's personal room, but the other trainers of Saffron Gym just deemed the upstarts from the nearby Fighting Dojo fools for believing that they could overcome Sabrina with brute force.
Kiyo would definitely need some new underlings after he recovered though. Even if the lot of this batch survived the lesson they were being taught, there was a serious doubt that they would ever want to challenge the true Gym of Saffron City again.
Omake: Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou in Kanto 9: Celadon City
"I have seriously got to remember how to get to this continent later. Minato remarked to himself and to his squad that included Genma and Raido. They had gone to the largest building in the city, the Celadon Department Store, and ate lunch on the roof where there was a tremendous view of the huge city, "I'm seriously thinking about taking Kushina here on a honeymoon. A cruise and then a sightseeing trip around Kanto, just the two of us."
"Kushina hates ships." Raido commented as he sipped on a can of soda while sitting at a picnic table with Genma. Minato was over by the gated off edge of the building looking at all that he could see, "…And travelling in general."
"You haven't even asked Kushina to marry you yet and you've got the honeymoon planned?" Genma asked amusedly at their captain, "Minato-senpai you dog."
"Oh that's enough out of you two." Minato said, turning to give them a deadpan look before he thought about something else that he needed some input on, "Hey, maybe I should bring a Pokémon back home for Kushina to raise? You know, like a present. A pet."
"Give her a Voltorb. Those are fun." Raido sarcastically cracked, glaring at Genma who grinned and held up a Poke Ball containing his own Voltorb that he had been using to torment Raido since the day he caught it.
"Give her a Vulpix." Genma countered rather insightfully as he chewed on his senbon, "It's appropriate… kind of. And I think she'll get a kick out of it. Plus it's cute. What kind of girl wouldn't go for something like that? I bet a whole B-rank mission's pay that it'll get you laid on sight." Minato slapped him on the head so fast he didn't even see him move from his spot by the fence.
"You don't get to think about Kushina naked. That's for me to do." Minato stated firmly… because he knew what such a thing actually looked like. And it was indeed glorious. Kami he wanted to go home. He was not going to leave that bed with his girlfriend for a damn week when he got back to Konoha, war or not, "Get your own girlfriend."
"Alright, I will." Genma said as he rubbed his head where Minato hit him and stood up, "I'm going to go get a Kanto girlfriend… have fun sitting here with blue balls. You coming Raido?" He asked his two year elder teen as Minato silently bit back the urge to throw Genma off of the roof.
Raido just pointed to the still rather fresh scar on his face with no humor on his face whatsoever, "What girl am I not going to scare away with this thing on my face? This isn't a warrior's continent like the Elemental Nations. That kind of thing isn't cool here."
"Chicks dig awesome scar stories if you can back it up. Tell 'em you fought a Zapdos and lived. I bet that'll work."
"I just got hit by lightning from a Zapdos."
"But you lived. That counts."
"…I'm in. Later Minato-senpai. Sorry about your blue balls."
Ignoring his underlings leaving the roof of the department store to try and find themselves a lovely female or two to woo within the different floors of the building, Minato just sighed and kept staring out at Celadon City before he started banging his head on the fence, "Damn it, we need more money to get the rest of the supplies for the return trip. I want to go home…"
It would still be quite a while though, and he was settled in for the long haul of it all.
This had to be his karma for abusing the Hiraishin so much. But it was the coolest damn thing he had ever come up with! That was his right!
Even so… there had been a stretch of time after he created it where he wouldn't go to get a glass of water in his own home without using it to get to the cabinet to get a glass, to the sink to work the tap, and back to the couch that he had gotten up from to begin with.
He looked up in the sky and saw a black crow Pokémon, Murkrow circling him overhead and cawing tauntingly as if it could tell what Minato and the Konoha ninja's problems were. He was tempted to send his Noctowl up to battle it.
Yes, this was definitely karma.
Naruto's Current Pokémon Team
Ranbouen (Growlithe) Male
Attacks: Bite (Dark), Roar (Normal), Ember (Fire), Odor Sleuth (Normal), Leer (Normal), Dig (Ground), Skull Bash (Normal), Flame Wheel (Fire), Flame Burst (Fire), Flamethrower (Fire).
Hogohei (Cloyster) Male
Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Withdraw (Water), Supersonic (Normal), Clamp (Water), Ice Shard (Ice), Water Gun (Water), Swift (Normal) Aurora Beam (Ice), Protect (Normal), Spike Cannon (Normal).
Fukigenko (Hitmonlee) Male
Attacks: Double Kick (Fighting), Strength (Normal), Foresight (Normal), Rolling Kick (Fighting), Meditate (Psychic), Jump Kick (Fighting), Revenge (Fighting).
Sazakumoru (Cubone) Female
Attacks: Bone Club (Ground), Headbutt (Normal), Focus Energy (Normal), Bonemerang (Ground), Rage (Normal), Smack Down (Rock), Swords Dance (Normal).
Shujinken (Misdreavus) Female
Attacks: Growl (Normal), Psywave (Psychic), Spite (Ghost), Astonish (Ghost), Confuse Ray (Ghost), Mean Look (Normal), Psybeam (Psychic), Double Team (Normal).
Janine's Current Pokémon Team
Ariados: Male
Attacks: Poison Sting (Poison), String Shot (Bug), Scary Face (Normal), Fury Swipes (Normal), Bug Bite (Bug), Leech Life (Bug), Night Shade (Ghost), Spider Web (Bug), Flash (Normal).
Grimer: Genderless
Attacks: Poison Gas (Poison), Pound (Normal), Harden (Normal), Mud-Slap (Ground), Minimize (Normal), Sludge (Poison).
Zubat: Male
Attacks: Leech Life (Bug), Supersonic (Normal), Astonish (Ghost), Bite (Dark), Air Cutter (Flying), Wing Attack (Flying).
Venonat: Female
Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Disable (Normal), Foresight (Normal), Confusion (Psychic), Stun Spore (Grass), Attract (Normal), Double Team (Normal).
Pineco: Male
Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Protect (Normal), Selfdestruct (Normal), Bug Bite (Bug), Take Down (Normal), Gyro Ball (Steel), Bide (Normal).
Erika's Current Pokémon Team
Tangela: Female
Attacks: Ingrain (Grass), Constrict (Normal), Sleep Powder (Grass), PoisonPowder (Poison), Mega Drain (Grass), Growth (Grass), Vine Whip (Grass), Bind (Normal), Slam (Normal).
Gloom: Female
Attacks: Sweet Scent (Normal), PoisonPowder (Poison), Giga Drain (Grass), Cut (Normal), Bullet Seed (Grass), Sunny Day (Fire), Toxic (Poison), SolarBeam (Grass).
Weepinbell: Male
Attacks: Razor Leaf (Grass), Wrap (Normal), Stun Spore (Grass), Acid (Poison), Knock Off (Dark), Flash (Normal), Hidden Power (Normal).
Vileplume: Male
Attacks: Mega Drain (Grass), Stun Spore (Grass), Aromatherapy (Grass), Petal Dance (Grass), Sludge Bomb (Poison), SolarBeam (Grass), Hyper Beam (Normal).
Another battle, another badge… and another mounting threat coming right for the protagonist party. What a life. It reminds me of my life only instead of badges I collect college credits… and my fights don't have me hurling fire and pure energy all over… just my arms and legs.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed and will continue to do so in the future. I hope that I gave you a short little fifteen-to-twenty minute reprieve in your everyday life to just veg out a bit.
And now I have to go half-listen to a 3 hour lecture while I start on writing a paper that is due tomorrow and that I don't even have the book for that I need to cite sources from.
…I was thinking about writing a bunch of angry curse words here to illustrate my resentment, but why bother? Nobody cares. If I pull it off I'm the baddest man on the planet just like always, and if I don't it doesn't really affect you either way so that's that.
Kenchi out. The world, she is a knockin' at my front door.
And she's got a battering ram.
Later folks.