Ch 12
We didn't even spend two days in Slateport before heading back to the village. My hand healed nicely and while Wally's hands had been shredded, and thus his treatment had been a bit more delicate, they were bound and we were cleared to run home.
A week passed with some minor missions that I don't remember, and some training with Team Kakashi that seems now to have been inconsequential. I'm know they were good times, but I can't recall exactly what we did. I know they took off for a mission to escort a delivery of Pokemart cargo from Rustburo to the Leaf village the day before I met Team Magma.
It was my turn to water the berry grove, and I did so diligently while May and Wally sparred. Wally's hands were finally recovered, and he was getting back into the swing of his Taijutsu tutoring. He was making strides, but he wasn't ever going to be strong at it. Taijutsu is brutal, and Wally could be conniving, or perhaps clever is the right word, but he didn't have that sinister urge it took to really beat someone senseless.
As I finished up, I set the watering can down, and sighed with relief. Working up a sweat was all well and good, but watering plants wasn't exactly thrilling like Taijutsu training. A finger tapped my on my shoulder, and I schooled myself before turning around to face Steven-sensei. "You're gonna have to try harder to scare me now," I said with a smirk.
He grinned, and his eyes had this evil glint. "I'll do that," he said, "but later. We've got a mission. Let's go downstairs, yeah?"
We followed our sensei down at a brisk pace, and into the hokage building's courtyard. The Third Hokage stood there, waiting for us and smoking his pipe. When we approached he nodded his head to us, "This team has been doing a lot of good work for the village, and I would have liked to give you a break, relatively speaking, by putting you on D rank missions, but something's happened that you are uniquely suited for."
He puffed his pipe, "Throughout the Land of Fire are various shrines that honor the spirits of nature, the shrine at Mt. Chimney, to the west, is particularly valued due to the difficulty to reach it. A gang that normally operates out of the Land of Sound, Team Magma, has infiltrated our country and has taken the shrine over by force."
The Third Lord began to walk in a circle around us, "Seeing as how you have so expertly dealt with Team Aqua, I can think of no team more qualified to deal with Team Magma," he dumped the ashes of his pipe out on the ground, and continued, "I'll not be sending you in alone, naturally. I would also like for Team Asuma's adaptation to Pokémon training be evaluated. Two birds, one stone."
"They'll do great!" May cheered, then after looking around, "Where are they?"
The Third Lord smiled, and said, "You'll find them waiting at the village gate. Steven, I trust you know the way from all your travels?"
Steven-sensei dipped his head in affirmative. "I'll guide the assault."
The Third Lord harrumphed, and waved us away, so we ran. We didn't even really slow when we reached the gate, Team Asuma just caught up with us and we were on our way. Chouji Akamichi ran by my side, keeping up with me while chowing down on a bag of potato chips. "That's… impressive," I said, "how fast can you go without the chips?"
He gave me a look of pure bewilderment, "Why would I run without chips?"
I didn't really have an answer for that, so I let the comfortable silence resume. We ran the entire day, took a break at dusk, and then ran some more. Around midnight, Asuma handed out soldier pills to perk us up, and we approached the base of Mt. Chimney.
It stuck out of the landscape, a single mountain, surrounded by plains, with a constant stream of smoke coming from its top. Steven-sensei stopped, and faced us. "Mt. Chimney was made by Pokémon, and recently has become habited by them again. It looks like it's about to erupt, but it won't. The smoke comes from the lava that Fire Pokémon use to keep themselves warm. It's not dangerous unless you fall in it," he paused, "Please don't fall in the lava, yeah?"
Ino Yamanaka laughed nervously, "Wait… seriously?"
"Oh yeah, the lava is real," Asuma chimed in, "Just stay away from it and you'll be fine. What I'm more worried about is the jagged path up. It's got a sixty degree slope. Be careful to only use the large boulders on the way up, the rest of the rocks will slip under your feet, and carry you down in an avalanche of lava rocks."
Steven-sensei stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The Geodude and Numel that live here like to smoothen out the lava rocks until they're like river rocks. Very interesting phenomenon."
"Well that's just perfect," Shikamaru sighed, "scary rock avalanches and lava."
I shrugged, and started up. I leapt from boulder to boulder, slowing my pace considerably, and picking my way up. Steven-sensei hopped on his Skarmory's back and glided out ahead of me. "Cheater!" I admonished.
"Are we racing?" May asked.
Wally and Shikamaru let out equally world-weary sighs. About an hour later the ground evened out to a mere thirty degree incline, and the smooth stones filtered away, revealing bedrock. Steven-sensei stopped and held his fist over his right shoulder, so when we reached him, we stopped. About a hundred feet away from us was a ridge with stairs carved into it. He said, "Just over that ridge is the shrine. Brendan, send Jiton over while camouflaged and give us the lay of the land."
I summoned Jiton, and formed out link. He floated over the ridge and out of sight, camouflaged. "He's there, but I can't tell what he's seeing," I said.
Steven-sensei nodded, and instructed, "Close your eyes."
When I did, I saw through Jiton's eye. I counted three men and one woman in matching red uniforms with a specialized "M" logo on their chests, and little triangular black horns on their hoods. But just in front of the shine were two people with specialized uniforms. One was fat. Like really, really fat. He kept his hood down, and if it weren't for his hateful beady eyes his smile might have been pleasant.
The other specialized uniform was a lithe woman with pink hair, purple eyes, and beige horns on her uniform's hood. She was staring off into the distance, seemingly disinterested in everything that was happening.
I pushed Jiton to look inside the shrine, but the fat one began to follow Jiton, despite his camouflage. "We're not alone," he said, "hehehe… wonder who's watching."
Jiton panicked, and sped back to me, not that I had a problem with that. "Four Grunts, and two admins for sure," I said, "but they got something going on inside the shrine I couldn't see."
Steven-sensei pointed to the right, "Our Team will go right, hit them on that side," he looked to Asuma, "You guys take the left. Jonin on admins. Genin subdue grunts and investigate the shrine."
"You heard him," Asuma said, and swiped his arm out through the air, "Scatter."
With all speed possible, we ran up the side of the ridge, and then ducked behind the rocks we found on top. I hid shuriken in my beanie, drew a kunai, and summoned Suiton. I nodded to Steven-sensei, who waited for Wally and May to get ready, and then charged the fat admin.
May and Wally sped out after him, and I picked up the rear. Steven-sensei disappeared from view and flickered back into sight behind the female Admin, with a knife to her neck. Wally peeled off to the right, and engaged the grunt there, while May leapt up, and brought her fists to bear on the remaining grunt.
The fat admin turned to me, "Told you we weren't alone Courtney, hahaha."
The woman grunted, "You know… I gathered that Tabitha."
I threw my kunai at Tabitha, but swatted it aside with a chakra charged hand. "Gonna have to try harder than that squirt," he chuckled.
Asuma appeared behind him with trench knife kunai combinations ready to swipe, but once again, Tabitha blocked the attacks with his hands. "Tabitha Akimichi!" Asuma exclaimed, "Never thought I'd run into you here."
Somewhere beyond the shrine I heard Chouji call, "Uncle Tabitha!?"
Battles were hard enough without family drama, so I disengaged, and ran in front of the shrine, Jiton over my shoulder, and Suiton by my left leg. A man in a Team Magma trench coat stepped out of the shrine. He had red, slicked back hair, thick glasses, a slight smirk, and the demeanor of a teacher who was about to lose his shit. His expression was schooled, and his mouth didn't move much, but he still managed to seethe, "Who are you?"
At my mental command, Suiton shot a stream of water at the man's chest, knocking him over. I grabbed my shuriken, and pinned his sleeves to the shrine's wood flooring below him. "Better question is who are you? Are you like Archie?"
That got a hateful stare, "I'm nothing like that simpleton! I am the great Maxie, of Team Magma! I will lead humanity into a golden age of expansion and growth! I will take the power of Pokémon and use it to better the lives humanity!"
He turned his head, revealing a red stone set into his glasses, which began to glow. Another red light shone from within the shrine, where Maxie's Camerupt approached from. A beige shell covered it for a moment, and then it exploded out with the power of Mega-evolution. "This again?!" I shouted, grabbed Suiton, and retreated.
Camerupt, however, followed me out of the shrine, and unleashed a stream of flame after me. Jiton took the brunt of the heat for me, and fainted from the effort. I recalled him, turned so Suiton was facing our enemy, and shouted, "Water gun!"
Suiton shot a stream of water, but the water evaporated before it even touched Mega-Camerupt. This wasn't even fair. Camerupt, a fire/ground type combo, should have been incredibly weak to water attacks, but they didn't even reach him. I turned to run, knowing it probably wouldn't be enough, in time to lock eyes with Steven-sensei.
He glowed with green light, and pulled by a force I could not see he slammed into Courtney. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, I was facing Courtney, and Steven-sensei was staring down Camerupt. There was no mistaking it. He'd used U-turn, a bug type Pokémon move.
His Skarmory landed by his side, and he summoned Metagross. Courtney and I turned back to each other, both with looks of incomprehension. She asked, "Was that -?"
But I punched her in the throat, stopping her cold. As she grabbed her throat and struggled to breathe, I delivered a swift roundhouse to her temple, and she fell. When she turned back, she actually giggled, "You're… interesting. Target locked."
Sometimes people talk about other people having crazy eyes, and you don't believe them until you see them yourself the first time. Courtney was a nut job and a half. "Uh-oh," was all I managed.
Her numel charged to the rescue, throwing its entire body into a brutal take-down, leaving me breathless. "Turnabout… is fair play," she purred.
Suiton didn't wait for me to give it another order, she shot a third stream of water, this one blowing the enemy numel off me. I rolled backwards onto my feet, and dropped into a fighting stance. Before Courtney and I could begin again, Maxie and Steven-sensei's battle reached a fever pitch, with a psychic wave cascading out in all directions, flattening everybody.
I lurched up to a seated position to see Maxie, Tabitha, and Courtney assembled in front of the shrine, Tabitha carrying the fallen grunts in enlarged fists. Maxie snorted, "We'll retreat… for now."
He dropped a smoke-bomb, and when the smoke cleared, Team Magma was gone. Chouji charged into the smoke, "Uncle Tabitha? Uncle!?"
Asuma stepped up to his pupil's side and placed a hand on his shoulder, "He's gone Chouji. We've known for a long time. At least now we know who he's running with."
The inside of the shrine was ruined. None of the sacred scrolls survived, in fact, the only thing that survived was a painting of Groudon, climbing out of the top of Mt. Chimney. "So now we know what Team Magma's after," Wally muttered.
"Do you think Team Aqua is after the, ah, other one?" May asked.
"Do you think Groudon is inside Mt. Chimney?" I asked.
Ino pushed her way in front of the painting. "What's a Groudon?"
"A legend," Steven-sensei responded, "And it's not in Mt. Chimney. We've checked. This is an idle fancy, not a doubt in my mind."
I wasn't convinced, but I let it slide. I had bigger fish to fry. The run home was quiet, with the occasional whispered exchange, except for one actual conversation. Shikamaru started jumping next to May, matching her pace and arch between tree branches. "Are legendary Pokémon real?" he asked.
I slowed to stand on Shikamaru's side. "They're legends. If they do exist, they're not as powerful as the stories say," I responded, and May silently agreed, "What we need to worry about is Mega Evolution. Archie and Maxie have it, and Steven-sensei is the only other person I know of capable of it."
"What are you saying?" May asked.
I took a deep breath, "We need to stop going on these missions and train our Pokémon to be as strong as sensei's. We need Mega-evolution too May."
"Like you could master a jonin level technique," Shikamaru snorted, "that would take years."
I shook my head, "Naruto mastered shadow clones in one night. That's a jonin level technique. Why not us?"
Shikamaru and May gave each other a look, but couldn't come up with a response. You take even the small victories, right?
We got back to the Hokage building, and found my father in talks with the Third Lord. When they saw us, they stopped talking, my father crossed his arms, and the Hokage said, "Report."
Steven-sensei bowed, and said, "Team Magma was run off. The shrine itself is intact, but the sacred scrolls within it were destroyed. Team Magma is researching the legendary Pokémon Groudon."
What I did next was not the polite thing to do, but I felt it was the right thing to do. "I could have stopped them if I knew how to use Mega Evolution."
"Absolutely not," my father interjected, "That is a forbidden technique. It could kill a genin like my son."
A fiery rage came alive in my heart. "I am not some regular genin."
My father chopped his hand down like an axe. "It's not up for debate Brendan. Maybe if you reach jonin…"
"Maybe?!" I shouted, "You don't think I'm can reach jonin?"
My father's face screwed up with incomprehension, "That's not what I said. I'm forbidding any genin from learning about Mega-evolution."
"That's not your call!" I retorted, "You're not my sensei, you're barely even my father!"
It looked like I slapped him, "What?"
"I almost died out there!" I exclaimed, "Not because I made a mistake, or Team Magma had an inside man… I almost died because I was straight up outmatched. I want to even the playing field. I won't let my absent father get in the way of that."
His eyes narrowed, "No, Brendan. Even if I wasn't your father, I'm Steven's boss, and Steven's your boss. I say no mega evolution for genin."
I was about to punch him, but May grabbed my fist before I could pull it back. "I understand where you're coming from, but you need to cool off," she insisted, "Take a walk."
I pulled my arm away from her, and left the building. I let my feet guide me, and I ended up in front of my desk, staring at the drawer with the scroll that Zabuza had given me. It took all I had not to punch holes in the walls, or outright plan an ambush for my father. Was this the rage Zabuza had talked about? It was powerful.
My thoughts began to race almost faster than I can relate through words. I needed a way to protect myself and my teammates from Mega Evolution, but I couldn't use Mega evolution. If my Pokémon weren't the solution, then I would have to be. If I could kill Maxie or Archie before they could use Mega-evolution.
I pushed chakra into the drawer's lock, disarming the explosive tags, and opened the scroll. I opened it, saw the seal, holding the Executioner's Blade, and continued. After the seal was a guide of sorts. How the sword worked, techniques for use, and how it would affect my body. "No time like the present," I muttered to myself, and rerolled the scroll.
On the way out of the house, my father waited by the doorway. "About earlier," he started, but I charged past him without a word or so much of a glance.
He didn't follow, and I took off. I only stopped when I reached Training Ground 3. It was midnight, I hadn't slept in just over two days, but I was determined to start, so I pulled out the scroll. At that moment Kakashi and Steven-sensei flickered into my field of vision. "You're not ready for that," Steven-sensei said.
"I need an edge," I insisted, and summoned the sword.
I don't know if it was that I was tired or if the sword was actually just that heavy to me at the time, but I couldn't even pick it up. "You're… not wrong," Kakashi said, and pulled a scroll from one of the pouches he kept on the back of his belt.
He summoned a short, straight, single edged sword with no hand guard, "I'll teach you to use this as a jumping on point if you put the big sword back where you had it."
I sealed the Executioner's Blade, and Kakashi handed me the smaller weapon. "That was my sword back when I was in ANBU black ops," he explained, "but I had some experience with this kind of thing even before then, haha."
I looked at the blade, and then back up at him, "When do we start?"
"Be here tomorrow at six am," Kakashi said, and flickered out of sight.
Steven-sensei patted my shoulder, and said, "You really impress me, you know?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Steven-sensei pointed the Zabuza's scroll. "That thing… is a bringer of death, plain and simple. Most people would have thrown it away. But you, you kept it."
"Does that make me a bad person?" I asked earnestly, "To keep something that's as evil as this sword?"
Steven-sensei absently fingered the blue stone he used for Mega-evolution that was pinned to his yukata. "I think it may be better to have something, and not need it, than need it, and not have it."
I nodded. "That… is exactly what I'm thinking."
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.
