Why hello, readers! Ino's POV again. I find her fun to write because she's…normal-ish. She's judgmental and flighty like many teens, truly loves her Pokemon, and is learning that what she learned in school does matter even when she's done. Granted, I much prefer Sakura to her, but I think I do a good job being fair and not bashing her. Except in one or two instances, maybe. This chapter is where she gets her 2 - 3 paragraphs of background, defining character info, as Sakura had in the Zabuza gym battle.

I've also made a decision on where the story will go for the next few chapters…one of the things that will happen is that the group will meet a trainer (or two) who will hang with them for one or two chapters and then probably be never be seen again. Probably.

I could very easily make up a character to fill this part, but I'd like to shake things up a little and take one from you guys, honestly because I love looking at OC Pokemon trainers on DeviantART, so why not try it on this site as well? Drop off a description of some OC of yours in a review and I may just select yours to be this new character. Some requirements: they can't have a legendary Pokemon, they can't be the child or relative of any national champion, or have more than four badges from any region. Point being, make them a person and not a Sue, 'kay?

Engage Chapter Fourteen.

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July 5th, 7:34 PM

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When she was a child, playing with blocks and watching Barney movies, Ino had made decisions about where she'd go in life: she would own a herd of Mew and fly them around the world to show off how pretty they were, then become an astronaut and talk to an Arceus in space. They'd have tea time together and start a dress-up club on the moon, no boys allowed. Then she'd be a Pokemon trainer. Or a coordinator. Or just a lady in a flower shop who owned Pokemon. Or a trainer. Or both. Or none. Or an artist.

Ino had always known what she wanted, and had always been determined to get it. She'd been determined to take cookies from the jar her parents hid from her, she'd been determined to win her first battle in her first Combat class, and she'd been determined to do out with Sasuke Uchiha. The first two had been completed. Most others in her life had been completed, actually. It was just that last one that evaded her, and mostly because the object of said goal was a moody bitch anyway (a gorgeous one, though.)

People sometimes acted like her knowledge of herself, her willingness to go after what she wanted and take no prisoners, was arrogant. Or something like that. But Ino had never cared what others said about her. In fact if they said something about her, she was sure to say a dozen things back at them, from newly-begun rumors to screams across hallways or even in people's faces.

Ino was a tough chick, and boys had always liked that. Everyone but Sasuke Uchiha, the most beautiful and the most dark boy in the entire town. She wanted him, tried to get him, and never could, mostly because the guy himself was a moody prick. But that was okay. She'd get him one day. She may not shine academically, but she could show him she was a competent Pokemon trainer. He appreciated that. She was the perfect situation to make him appreciate it. Even taking Sasuke out of the equation, this was nice. This made her smile.

Joining this group had been the right decision. She knew it and delighted in it. These other four kids who she'd known for years and years were some of the greatest companions of any kind she'd ever had. Not like she'd say this aloud or anything. All this was strictly private stuff, off of everyone's gossip radar but hers.

She had never been on a Pokemon journey before, and now she was realized, heavily, that reading about it and hearing about it in school for years was…okay it helped, but it wasn't the same. Camping out every night was turning out to be a lot more fun than the whole survival junk teachers tried to make it out to be. Yeah, they had to bathe in rivers and be out in nature, that was true. ("Oooh, nature, we're all gonna die!") But teachers were right about one thing: new trainers went through emotions like kids went through toys.

There wasn't really a set path through these hills so the six of them just kinda made their own way, and on the way, they did everything from climbing trees to whooping out exclamations of freedom to rolling down hills to yell at passing Stantler to sit on rocks and sigh and even once cry because home was so, so far away. Everyone did all these things except Sasuke, who got so far as smiling when the rest of them rolled down the hill, but that was progress for him, so it was just fine.

One more thing the teachers got right was that Pokemon were like people in a lot of ways. One of them was that not all of them could be friends, and the worst example of this was Sakura's lovey-dovey Squirtle, and Hinata's maniac Dratini.

They didn't do much but glare at each other, usually. But four days after they'd left Kiri, the six trainers were making camp at the side of a little creek on a flat grassland, and some violence broke out. It was evening. Squirtle and Dratini were sitting on the edge of the creek, sipping water with Naruto in between them, who was filling a water bottle. Out of nowhere, Naruto's legs became a battlefield as the two little Pokemon weaved in an out of them, bit and scratched and hissed at each other, and turned Naruto's regular jeans into tattered, uneven shorts. His blood turned the water red.

"Dratini! Dratini, no!" But seeing as Dratini wouldn't listen to her trainer, Hinata had to return her, and missed once before she succeeded, firing a pointless red laser at Naruto's legs that made him jump at the feel of it.

Squirtle jumped into the pond immediately and kept only his eyes out, staring balefully at the place he'd just been fighting. Sakura stomped down from up the hill where she'd been folding laundry and grabbed Squirtle right out of the water.

"And just what the hell was that, mister?" she said in his face. Squirtle squeaked and didn't say anything. "Look what you did to Naruto! Look at his legs!"

"Look at my pants! He turned them into shorts!"

"Naruto, I'll give you some money to get some new ones when we find another town—don't you try to wriggle away from me!" she snapped at Squirtle. But he wasn't wriggling away; he was pulling on her shirt, trying to pull closer to her, and he was starting to cry on top of that. Ino was on the phone with Chouji, but ignored him for a minute to smirk as she saw the pinkette's anger melt. No girl could resist a bawling, cute Pokemon like a Squirtle. She ended up just sighing and carrying her clingy water-type up the hill to sit by the embarrassed Hinata and tell her everything was fine.

"Chouji, Sakura's lovebird Squirtle and Hinata's Dratini just mauled each other and scarred up Naruto's legs like a Glameow's scratching post. What? No, I totally should have gotten a picture with my phone! Augh! Oh, hey, how long are you and Shikamaru staying in Kiri?"

Things were peaceful. She hadn't expected that when Sakura suggested they all travel together. They weren't peaceful all the time, but sometimes. And it was a pretty sweet deal.

"Hey. Hey, look!" It was Sakura's oh-so-beautiful voice, interrupting her conversation.

Ino sighed and looked and followed where Sakura's slim finger was pointing. Up in the sky were two Flygon. The one on the right had a man riding on him.

"A Flygon! Two Flygon! I gotta meet that guy!" Naruto splashed out of the creek and started running, waving his arms.

"For God's sake," Sasuke snapped irritably. But he didn't do anything about it. He was too busy feeding Cyndaquil, his new biggest fan and most adorable thing ever, in Ino's opinion.

Then both Flygon started turning towards the group and lowering. Squirtle yelped, "Squi-irt!" and stood in front of Sakura with his arms out to the sides protectively.

The pinkette smiled, "My hero," then picked him up by the tail to run towards Naruto with him. The rider-less Flygon came nearer to her and started screeching at her before it even landed. Squirtle yelled at it and fired a Water gun attack. The Flygon was splashed hard in the face and whirled around in the air before going right back to screeching as though nothing had happened.

"Shade! Leave them alone, I'm coming!" shouted the man from the other Flygon's back. He flew right over Naruto and landed in between the two trainers. By now Sasuke was slowly walking over, too. Ino couldn't stand to be left out on this. She released Teddiursa to guard their belongings and pulled Hinata down the hill to see this, too.

"Can I battle one of your Flygon, please?" Naruto asked when the gust from their wings died down. "Charmeleon and I have always wanted to fight a dragon-type. I fought my combat class teacher's Altaria in ninth grade—"

"A battle right now? Are you insane?" the man said. Ino hummed appreciatively at the man's appearance. Even without the purple vest and silly goggles on his blonde head he was dang handsome. "What the hell makes you think now's the time for that?"

"What the hell's your problem?" Sakura said defensively. "If you're in some hurry, you could at least say so."

Ino had always been the first to get dibs on new info or gossip of any kind at school, and out of it was no different. She easily picked up on the fact that Sakura had been acting strangely friendly with Naruto lately. She clicked her tongue slyly.

The man stared at them like they were all total retards and then said, "Oh. Tenth graders graduated, like, last month, right?"

"Two weeks ago in our town." Sasuke supplied for him. Cyndaquil was hiding behind his ankles.

"Oh. Oh, sorry. If you were locals you'd know the summer flood is coming. This plain will be an ocean for miles and miles. Unless you guys got a couple big water-types you can ride it out on…"

Squirtle said, "Squirtle," and Sakura said, "No."

"…Yeah, no." The man said. "You need to go straight west." He pointed towards the setting sun. "Don't stop till you hit Haru-kishi. It's the only hill on the whole plain, it's own little mountain, a mile across. You won't miss it. Shadow, Shade! Let's move! We still have the third sector to cover."

He started to take off right then. Ino waved at him, smiling, and called, "Thanks! We'll head out first thing tomorrow!" That comment made the rider gape. He almost flipped in his seat on the Pokemon's shoulders, and that threw the Flygon's flight off so much Hinata screamed and dashed back, thinking it would fall on her.

The rider's face contorted. "Not tomorrow, you idiots! Pack up your stuff and go now! The rain'll start soon!"

"There's, like, two clouds in the sky…" Naruto said pointedly.

"In half an hour you'll either be in Haru-kishi or drowning! Go!" With a final screech, both of the man's Flygons kicked off the ground and headed north, across a sky that definitely had two or three clouds in it at most.

Ino shrugged and said, "The guy means well, but I'm not movin'. I've got my sleeping bag and my dinner set up already."

"You don't trust what he says about his own home?" Sasuke replied.

It felt good to have his eyes on her, she thought to herself. "Whatever he is, he's no weatherman." She said casually. "If I wake up tonight and see a cloudy sky, I'll wake up the rest of you and we'll walk to Haru-whatever."

"He was a policeman and obviously knows the land. I'd rather trust his experience than your opinion."

She frowned a little and added, "Hey, I'm just saying there's barely a cloud in the sky, and then this guy comes and warns us of a flood coming in half an hour? We'll go, okay? Just when it's not practically sunny out."

"We're all packing up and leaving now." Sasuke said flatly. "You're welcome to stay here and risk drowning to prove yourself wrong."

A slap across the face. Arrogant jerkface was good at that. She frowned and squinted meanly at him. "You wanna say something to me, you can at least say it politely. Pretend you're talking to Sakura or something." Oh, was she on a roll here! It couldn't stop with just that. "On second thought, don't. I'd rather not see your erection, thanks."

With that, she turned around and strutted back to the campground. She walked right past Sasuke without looking at him and didn't give a damn what any of them said or thought while she was out of range. Let them talk. She'd hear it all and know it all eventually. She climbed up the little hill and grinned at Teddiursa, sitting and nibbling an oran berry he'd found. "C'mon, you." She said. "Help me roll up my sleeping bag. We're heading off again."

Maybe a minute later, everyone else came up the hill and started gathering their things. Ino glanced up and saw everyone's faces: Naruto was irritated, Hinata, predictably bothered and almost ashamed-looking, Sakura, frustrated and confused, and Sasuke, frowning just a little. Which meant he was currently filled with either anger or embarrassment enough to choke a Wailord. The only noise in the cleanup was Naruto complaining that he only had one package of ramen left and one bag of Pokemon food and berries. All Pokemon but Teddiursa were returned and their balls clicked onto their respective trainers' belts. Ino proudly kept hers out. Whatever awkwardness they felt now would not conform her.

She looked up, the perfect comment for this awkwardsauce situation totally ready, but it died on her lips. In the two minutes it had taken for everyone to pack their backpacks and fold their newly river-washed clothes, the sky had been covered almost completely with grey clouds.

"That's impossible," Sakura said incredulously once she saw. "Rainclouds big enough to hold a flood couldn't form in—"

'What do I have to do to make you talk like a person and not a freaking book!' "Anybody remember which direction west is? 'Cause the sun's totally not there anymore to help me."

"I got a compass," Naruto offered as he fished it out of his backpack pocket. "Okay…okaaaay…there. Oh, right where that guy on a Rampardos is going." They all looked and indeed saw a chubby person in red riding on the shoulders of his Rampardos, westward. They walked swiftly in his direction.

The wind began picking up. The lock of hair over Ino's face whipped crazily. Teddiursa was grunting with effort at her side. She gasped and reached for his Pokeball. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Teddiursa! You're practically blowing away! Here—" And in that moment Teddiursa's Pokeball flew out of her hand. "Hey. Hey! Hinata, catch it!"

But Hinata didn't see it in time and it flew right over her head. "No! No!" Ino yelled.

"You can buy another one for him in Haru-kishi," Naruto told her soothingly, but it didn't soothe her at all.

"That's not the point! This is dangerous for him!" Ino grabbed her little bear Pokemon and held him tight in her arms. She felt his little claws poking into her skin as he held onto her. Which reminded her, great day to wear short sleeves. Sure, it was the middle of summer, but apparently she should have factored forty-degree winds into her wardrobe.

The trainers trudged on west and the sky only got darker and more ominous. They started running, and had to stop frequently for Hinata, whose athletic abilities left much to be desired.

On the third time she had to rest, Naruto hoisted her up onto his shoulders, on piggyback, much to her dismay. "Just hang on. We'll go faster this way." He told her.

Thunder boomed suddenly and Teddiursa squeaked in fear against Ino's chest. She realized that, being born and raised in a pet store, he'd probably never been outside for a rainstorm. "Teddiursa. Teddiursa, it's okay. It's just rain. It's gonna get loud, but just keep your cool. We're gonna get to this town—" Thunder boomed again and she couldn't finish.

"Where the hell is the town!" Sakura yelled to no one. "What's the use of warning us of a flood if we're not even close to the shelter?"

As her yells stopped and descended into panting, a whooping laugh was heard above their heads. The trainers and single Pokemon looked up and saw two men flying in the sky, one on the back of a Pidgeot and the other a Skarmory. The Pidgeot-rider's hair was whipping in the wind, and lord, did he have a lot of it.

"That's Neji!" she realized aloud. "He graduated last year, right? Hey! Neji!"

Neji looked down at them and as his Pidgeot lowered enough to be able to see them, his often-calm face broke into complete surprise. "Ino. Sakura? Hinata?" He stopped and tapped his Pokemon's head. "Pidgeot, use Tailwind on them."

Pidgeot screeched and dropped behind the six running trainers, its belly almost scraping the ground. It flapped its wings hard, forward, and a great wind pushed at the trainers' backs. They were running faster now. Ino tried to look back and thank him, but then decided it wasn't worth it. She was getting seriously tired. Oh, and of course, it was starting to rain, too.

"Hey! Sand attack!"

Out of nowhere, seemingly, sand rushed up into the trainers' faces and spattered on their clothes. Ino could barely see. She heard Naruto's voice, saying, "Lay off it, asshole!" and then laughter. She brushed sand out of her eyes and saw the Skarmory-rider had come closer and his Pokemon was using Sand attack on them. Freaking jackass.

Whatever. Haru-kishi was in sight! It was definitely its own little mountain like the Flygon dude had said. Thirty Wailord could have sat comfortably on the flat top of the hill. It had a big set of stairs carved into the hillside, leading right up to a group of comfy-looking houses. Ino could see tons of people already walking around those houses. The houses looked nice and modern, but on the other hand, she was soaking freaking wet and this was not good for her hair, or Teddiursa.

Neji and his Pidgeot flew out of sight once they all got to the stairs. It was a goddamn chore climbing all of them, and a miserable one at that, wet to the bone as they all were. Once they got there, Naruto literally flopped to the ground. Ino looked in his direction once, having completely forgotten he was still carrying Hinata. Talk about strength.

All of a sudden, the rain stopped pounding them. "Thank you, God." Ino moaned.

"Just me, actually."

She didn't at all feel like sitting up to see who "me" was, but Teddiursa kept trying to look around her arms to see who it was, so she looked just for his sake. It was a woman, maybe thirty years old, wearing a poncho. A Mr. Mime stood next to her, and above it, and all of them, was a glowing barrier that the psychic-type had made. The woman smiled. "I'm guessing a fellow with two Flygons warned you about the storm and pointed the way."

Someone said, "yeah," but Ino didn't bother figuring out who.

"Well, welcome to Haru-kishi." The woman said. "We're a pretty small, but well-protected place. Every summer we get a couple dozen trainers who need a place to ride out the summer flood. We've got lots of nice hotels for cheap, so come with me and we'll find you one."

"Excuse me!" Sakura called before the woman could take a step. She removed her backpack, panting. "H-How long will the flood last? Two days? Or three? We wanted to be in Saraku by Thursday."

"I don't think you'll be making it." The woman said, shaking her head. "A flood's not just a rainstorm, honey. Especially not in this area. Our summer flood lasts a month."

Teddiursa started crying.

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Hooray for no Pokemon battles this chapter (unless you count Squirtle and Dratini's bitchfight). Hey, you do realize this is life they're living, right? There's more to it than having battles every minute of the day. Sometimes they're just going somewhere instead of fighting. That's why this chapter isn't filler, because trainers would realistically do stuff other that battle, like eat, breathe, walk, get stuck in bad weather, like the rest of us. A lot of people apparently forget that.

This chapter was a lot of Ino's characterization. I see her as a big gossiper and one of those girls who's willing to reach out for what she wants. This could be admirable or annoying, depending on the situation. I saw her as slightly annoying, judging people in the first half of the chapter, and admirable in the latter half, soothing her scared Teddiursa and holding him to keep him from blowing away in the wind.

Okay, so those one or two OCs I asked for at the top of the chapter will be either residents of Haru-kishi or other trainers who got stuck there for the summer flood. On one hand, I prefer descriptions because it proves to both me and you that your character is worth looking at, but on the other, don't write me a book. Your OC will be present for all of two chapters. Probably.

Ta...Storm.