Ch 26

When I got home the night after I'd escorted the sand ninja out of the village, I opened my desk drawer again, and pulled out Zabuza's scroll. I didn't summon the Executioner's blade, but I did read up on it. The blade was designed so that even if it broke, it could be repaired with the iron in blood. This was not just a sword designed to behead people, it was a sword for full sale slaughter.

I put the scroll down and meditated on it. I knew what it was to want to kill someone, sure. But that sword presented a dark path for its user. Did I want to be the Red Demon? My gut reaction was no, but Steven-sensei's words stuck in my head, calling me back to why I'd originally kept the blade: It's better to have and not need than to need and not have. I put the scroll back, and slept on it.

The next day, I pulled out the scroll again, and read up on the scroll's techniques. After Kakashi-sensei finished my speed training, I left to a different part of the forest, and tried out a few of the scroll's techniques by using my chakra to form an ethereal incarnation of the Executioner's blade. It came naturally. So practicing with the scroll was added to my routine.

A few days later, something happened by the river that ran through the village. I heard something about a missing-nin rolling through the village, looking for someone, but nobody would tell me who. Kakashi-sensei missed our training session, so I figured it was bigger than I was allowed to know about, so I sought out Steven-sensei. His Metagross found me first, however, and picked me up, flying me over to the village gate. Wally and May were standing with him. "What's going on?" I asked.

"The village asked us to go on an important mission," Steven-sensei explained, "But we're not going. As Brendan pointed out to the village elders, we are technically mercenaries, and we don't have to take any of the jobs that they assign us. Brendan, of course, was advanced to chunin, and I feel we're sending the proper message to the elders by taking a vacation in celebration."

"Really?!" Wally exclaimed, "That's awesome!"

Steven-sensei narrowed his eyes, and glowered at him, "None of you will be excused from your training, of course. Especially not those of you whom are being remodeled for losing in the preliminaries, yeah?"

"Oh no," Wally whispered, "I'm already falling apart."

I took a look at Wally. Whenever he moved his hands, despite his long sleeves, I noticed the missing gouges of flesh from his knuckles, and the scars racing up and down his fingers. He'd have to been training taijutsu to do that to himself. Wally had never by any means been fat, but his face was a bit thinner, the muscles on his neck more pronounced.

Steven-sensei smiled, and said, "Don't worry. They have ice baths and steam baths where we're going, so you'll recover faster."

"Oh thank god," Wally sighed with relief.

"Of course, I'll be running you twice as hard," Steven-sensei teased, "but hey, you'll be too tired to care."

Wally stepped behind May and squeaked. Steven-sensei pointed down the road in front of us and declared, "To Lavaridge town!"

We ran with our fastest pace to the west. Around dusk we reached Mt. Chimney, and then went a little to the south. While most of Mt. Chimney was surrounded by plains, the south had a forest nearby, and when we reached it, we took a moment to marvel at it. The trees were gigantic, green, and full of life, despite the sooty air, and each tree had a lantern hanging from one its branches, lighting the forest floor.

Steven-sensei allowed us to walk through the forest, enjoying the rest the walk provided, and taking in the sights. The father towards the center of the forest we got, the more lanterns we found. Finally, in the center of the forest, was a clearing, inside which a town had been built. "Welcome to Lavaridge," Steven-sensei said, "I've got rooms for us at the inn."

The inn was about three stories tall, with this beautiful tiled red roof, and it built into a square around a hot spring. As we walked in, a woman in a kimono approached us, bowed, and said, "You must be Steven Stone and party. Your rooms are ready."

May hummed her appreciation, "Fancy…"

Each of us had our own room, every one of them the size of a respectable bed room, with a futon, robes, and towels for the spring. The woman handed each of us a bell. "We will have an attendant outside of each of your rooms, ring your bell, and food will be brought to you with the utmost haste."

With that, she left, and Steven-sensei turned to us. "Well then, I'm retiring. Wally, you should too. May, Brendan… enjoy the springs, you've earned it."

Wally deflated and returned to his room, so May and I went to ours, grabbed our towels, and went back to the lobby. On one side of the lobby was a pink flap concealing the entrance to the female side of the hot spring, and on the opposite side was a blue flap concealing the entrance to the male side. I dashed through the blue flap, disrobed, tied my towel around my waist, and looked at my bag. I didn't want to leave it just anywhere, so I took it into the spring with me.

The hot spring had a bamboo fence dividing the male and female sections of the spring, luxurious soaps lined one of the walls, incense burned vanilla, but the best part was that the spring was open air, so I could see the stars, and I gasped at the sight of them. So many more were visible without all the lights of the village, and the view was magnificent out in the country. I summoned Suiton, and we got into the spring.

I pressed my back to the bamboo fence, Suiton sunk to the bottom, splayed out on the rock bottom of the spring, and we both let out a relaxed sigh. "That you, Brendan?" came from over the wall.

"Wassup May?" I called back.

She giggled, "This is pretty great. Beats helping with reconstruction."

"You see the stars?" I asked.

She gasped. "Wow. You know, I get it. My mom told me these springs have magic powers of recovery and restoration, and I didn't buy it, but I can see it now. This place is perfect."

"Suiton's hanging out on the bottom," I said, and reached through our bond, drinking in her sensations, "Apparently it's even better at the bottom."

"For water Pokémon, maybe," May chortled, "Don't go take a nap down there yourself."

With that, the conversation died. It wasn't like we didn't want to talk, but we were entirely content to just sit there for a while. A few minutes later, May knocked on the wall, grunted a goodbye, and waded back through the water towards her room.

I waited a bit longer, and was about to leave when a blonde woman entered the male section of the bath. She had her hair done in two pony tails, a purple diamond tattooed onto her forehead, and based on her rosy cheeks, and slurred speech, "Whaaat? Thererere's a boyy in hurr!" she was drunk.

"Ma'am… this is the male section of the bath," I said, and Suiton raised a wall of water between us, "You should go find someone who can take care of you."

She walked through the water wall, knocking it down, and over to me, "Did Jiraya send you?!" she demanded, "because you'd think he'd have learned after the last time."

The water had left her clothes sticking to her skin, and she was voluptuous, to put it lightly, so I averted my eyes. "This is the male section of the bath!" I shouted, "You're peeping on me lady!"

A woman with short, black hair, a piglet in her arms, dressed in a conservative yukata ran into the baths, horror plain on her face, "Lady Tsunade!" she shrieked, "This is not the female section of the bath!"

I picked Suiton up by her shoulders and held her so she blocked my maleness, and ran out of the baths, "You guys can have it!"

When I reached my clothes, I realized I'd left my bag back in the baths. "Suiton, go grab my bag and run back."

I pulled on my underwear and pants without drying, waited for Suiton, and we sprinted back to my room. Once I was inside, I locked the door behind me, used the robe to towel off, and looked to Suiton, who was smiling at me in the corner while making these odd popping sounds. I reached out through our bond, and realized that she was laughing at me. I recalled her to her scroll and hit the sack.

A knock on the door woke me up. I grabbed my toothbrush and answered it. Steven-sensei handed me a piece of paper, with exercises, sets, and reps on it. Skarmory stepped into my room past us, and he said, "Skarmory will keep you honest. Get your training done today. What you do after that is on you. I'll be with Wally all day. Tomorrow you three are testing yourselves against a friend of mine named Flannery."

He left in a poof of smoke, and I turned to Skarmory. "Vacation did sound too good to be true," I mused, and it clicked its metallic beak at me.

I got through my morning routine with all the speed I could muster, and left my room with Skarmory in tow. May was waiting outside with Aggron beside her. "I was thinking we could train in the same area," she said, "If you're not against it."

I pointed my arm down the hallway, gesturing for her to lead the way, which she did. We left the inn, I hurried us past the drunken blonde woman, and headed just north of the forest. "This works for me," May looked back to me, "How about you?"

I looked at the paper, and it included the usual speed and strength training for my kenjutsu. "Sure," I turned to Skarmory, "Did you bring what I need?"

It let out a couple hacking coughs, and spat up my weighted practice sword, along with the wrist and ankle weights Guy had suggested to Kakashi-sensei. I pulled on the weights, and picked up the sword. "Not bad," May remarked, "Not as good as Lee or me, but not bad."

Training was quiet with the exception of our grunts of effort. It took us about three hours to train, and we took two water breaks in that time, but by the end, we were splayed out on the ground, exhausted. Skarmory and Aggron left us to tell Steven-sensei. "How was that?" I asked, "Can I get invited to the Taijutsu club?"

May chuckled, "I'll talk to Guy when we see them next."

An inquisitive squeak came from above our heads, so I tilted my head up to see a pair of electric mouse Pokémon. On the right, by May's head was a red one with a tail patterned like a plus sign, a Plusle and on the left was a blue one with a minus sign tail, a Minun. Sparks of electricity ran along their paws like pom-poms, and they squeaked loudly with game faces on.

They leapt, and jabbed for our faces. May and I rolled away from each other and to our feet. "You got any pokescrolls?" I asked.

She nodded her head, so I backpedaled away from the two Pokémon. May summoned Pogo and Cackle. Cackle went for Minun with no reservations, fangs glowing purple with poison. Minun panicked, and got swept up, and thrown away.

Poison seeped into Minun, it slowed, and then jumped up and down, waving its pom-poms. Plusle glowed with blue light, generated a ball of electricity on its tail, jumped into the air, and flicked its tail, sending the Electro-Ball at Cackle.

Electricity ran rampant over Cackle's fur, and he fell over, swirls for eyes. May flicked her right wrist, sending a pokescroll after Minin for a quick capture. Plusle's blue light faded, and it turned to May just as Tiny stepped between them.

Plusle hit Tiny with an Electro-Ball too, but Tiny flicked it away. Plusle shivered, and May's second pokescroll reached around her pokeon to grab Plusle. Plusle was captured easily too.

I gave May my best golf clap. She smiled, and recalled her Pokémon. "These two are a pretty great combination," she held out the pokescrolls to me, "Pick one. That way we'll have a great combination."

"They're your Pokémon," I said, "You should keep them."

She shook our head, "You need an electric Pokémon to balance out your party," she insisted, "Take one."

I grabbed Minun's scroll and named him Raiton. May smiled, and said, "I'll name mine Sparky."

We went back to Lavaridge Town and explored. There was this herb shop that boasted bitter herbs, a heated sand therapy masseuse that we took advantage of, and even a tea shop. Guess where we hung out.

As dusk came, Wally stumbled into the tea shop. His face was severely bruised, eyes nearly shut, his knuckles were bandaged, and his legs wobbled. "You ok buddy?" I asked.

He sighed, "I did this to myself. Lot stronger now. Gonna look back on this as a good thing eventually."

May poked his forehead, blood leaked down his face into his eyes, and he suppressed a scream poorly. "What is he doing to you?" May asked.

Wally sat up straight, and like he was reciting a textbook, said "Human re-modeling is the process of turning a person's white muscle, which is used for explosive power, and red muscle, which is used for endurance, but isn't very strong, and turning both kinds into pink muscle, which is both strong and enduring. This technique has been passed to us by the vaunted Akisame Koetsugi, judo philosopher."

May and I shared a look, and then we offered him a tea. We headed back to the inn, and Wally got to use the hot spring after his ice bath.

The next day, Steven-sensei woke us up, and led us through Lavaridge to the center of town. There was a thatch roof built over a hot spring. This hot spring had rocks throughout it that stuck just above the water line like platforms, so I leapt onto one.

In the middle of the spring was a giant rock, and on it was a tall woman with long, red hair that shot out in a messy ponytail, resembling a volcano erupting out of the back of her head. She wore a black tube top, red pants, and fire danced in her hands. "I'm Flannery, your next test," she declared, "I haven't been a Leader for a long time, but know this…. I'm- I'm Fierce! My Fiery Pokémon and I will crush you!"

She summoned a Torkoal, Numel, and a Camerupt. Wally summoned Gen, the Kirlia, I summoned Suiton, and May summoned Pogo. "Suiton, hidden mist technique!" I shouted, and she pulled the water from the hot spring into the air, creating a thick, hot mist, obscuring the field from everyone.

"Gen, link us up!" I shouted, and pulled on Suiton's bond.

As Gen linked us up, I used the Mist to locate our targets. we know where she is, but she can't see us! Wally exclaimed through the link.

Flannery's voice came through the mist like a megaphone, "Sunny Day!"

A yellow orb appeared deep in the mist, and pulse with light that dispelled Suiton's technique. Flannery's Numel revealed itself to be responsible. Torkoal stood next to it, but Camerupt was nowhere to be seen. "Shit!" I exclaimed, and then, "Water gun!"

Suiton shot a stream of water at Torkoal, but between the Hot Spring, and Numel's miniature sun, the water evaporated before it could reach it target. I funneled chakra to my mouth, and did the proper hand signs to turn it into mud. I shot a similar stream of mud at Torkoal, and even though the mud dried out, it still connected with the enemy Pokémon, or so I thought.

Fire flared out from the other side of my mud, and bore its way through my jutsu, dousing me in flame. When the fire reached me, it exploded with the force of an explosive tag, sending me backwards into the hot spring, and I panicked for a moment. Numel's sun was going to have to go.

I sat up, just in time to see Torkoal collect sunlight from Numel's sun, and collect it in a ball in its mouth. It spat the ball so it arched over Suiton, and when it reached the peak of its arch, released a powerful Solar Beam attack directly down. The move was super-effective, knocking Suiton out instantly.

Flannery was no joke, and it wasn't like I'd treated her as such, but I hadn't been ready by any means. "Get Numel!" I shouted.

Pogo shot a silver blast of psychic energy at the enemy Pokémon, and while Numel held its ground, only being pushed back a few inches, it didn't maintain its Sunny Day. A purple Halo of energy came from my right, colliding with Numel's head, and its eyes flashed with color, but it didn't show any signs of pain.

"Numel has its own tempo, it can't be confused like that!" Flannery gloated, "Sunny Day!"

I recalled Suiton, and summoned Raiton. "Wally, take point with Nin, May, combo with me!"

Wally recalled Gen, and summoned Nin, his Sableye, while May summoned Sparky. "Helping Hand!" May and I shouted in sync.

Raiton flashed with blue electric pom-poms, Sparky did the same, but red, and the two began to jump up and down, powering Nin up. "Now!" I shouted.

"Shadow Ball," Wally commanded, and then Nin collected three times the usual shadow matter.

Numel never stood a chance. This Shadow Ball hit it so hard, Numel was consumed inside the dark sphere, and carried out from under the thatch roof. "Raiton, get over by Sparky," I whispered, and turned to May, "Keep them safe."

Pogo got between the cheering duo and Flannery while I resumed the search for Camerupt. It was nowhere to be seen, but I noticed several of the hot spring's platforms had holes in them, leading to I didn't know where. "Take down Torkoal, I'll go after Camerupt."

As I jumped down one of the holes, the buzzing sound of shadow matter collecting filled my ears. Below the spring was an entire cavern, also filled with near boiling water, with multiple openings back up to the surface.

Camerupt was behind me, moving towards where I knew Lucky and Raiton were on the above floor. Mokuton and Jiton would get torn apart in this environment, and while Katon was a gamble underground like this, it was better than the sure weaknesses of my other two options.

I summoned Katon, and he pushed his chakra into me, so I absorbed his characteristics. The speed was incredible, so I drew my sword, and I funneled chakra into it to give it a better edge, and it lit on fire. I leapt up into the air, and Katon kicked Camerupt up at me, so I slashed, not doing much damage, but keeping it from ruining the above ground strategy.

Camerupt flared its nostrils at me, and the humps on its back erupted, sending a pillar of flame directly up, widening one of the entry holes to the cavern. Katon and I smiled, and I ran out onto the roof where there wasn't a hole. Camerupt lumbered beneath me, and shot the fire straight up.

I was fast enough to dodge it, but Camerupt created a new hole, bringing all the water from the above spring down on its head. Katon and I leapt up through the new hole, and I cackled, "Two down! One to go!"

Flannery fell to a knee, and Torkoal retracted its legs and spun like a top over to Flannery, stopping to nuzzle its head into her hand. She looked back up at us, and declared, "We're not done yet! My might will overcome you!"

Katon and I fell into defensive stances. "Overheat!" Flannery cried, and Torkoal spewed a fireball the size of a house at Nin.

Nin phased through the ground, but behind him was Pogo. "Light Screen," May ordered, and Pogo created a shining shield in front of it.

The fireball collided with the shield, shattered it, and engulfed Pogo. When the fire faded, Pogo was still standing, but heavy burns covered its body. It wobbled and fell to a knee. "Overheat!" Flannery repeated.

The second fireball was only the size of a Snorlax, but it still engulfed Pogo again, who wasn't able to get another Light Screen up. When the fire faded, Pogo was on its back with swirls for eyes, but Sparky and Raiton were untouched. "Finish it Nin!" Wally cried.

Nin phased up through the ground behind Flannery and Torkoal with another giant Shadow Ball. The ghost attack slammed into Flannery and her fire Pokémon, carrying them both over to our side of the spring.

Everything went quiet, Torkoal was motionless, but Flannery managed to sit up. "Not bad," she coughed, then fell onto her back, "Who am I kidding? I never stood a chance. I was trying to be what I thought a leader should be instead of who I usually am."

I walked over to her, and offered out a hand, "Trying to use the hot water against water Pokémon is a bold strategy," I remarked, "it worked pretty well, if it weren't for that bottom cavern I don't know if we'd have been able to recover."

She grabbed onto my hand, and pulled herself up. "It didn't work well enough. I'll find another strategy."

She gave us our badges, recalled her Pokémon, and walked off with more than a slight limp. Wally, May, and I returned to Steven-sensei, who was waiting just outside. He smiled, patted Wally on the back, "Well done. Not good enough to end your remodeling, but damn good."

Wally began to shake again, and Steven-sensei guided us back to the inn. Outside of it was none other than my father. He opened the door, and shouted, "See? I told you they'd be here."

"I thought we'd reached an agreement Norman," Steven-sensei said through a fake smile, "I'm training Brendan, not you."

My father twitched, and turned around with a bigger fake smile, "I remember. Got some other people looking for you."

Might Guy and Baki of the hidden sand stepped out of the inn. "There they are!" Guy declared, "Of course May and her team would journey to a hot spring, not for vacation, but for the next step in their collective training. We look forward to joining you in your endeavors."

He gave us a thumbs up and his teeth glinted for a brief moment. Baki gave him a sideways glance, "Hokage has allowed us to train with you as a sign of our renewed friendship," he said, "We too are excited at the opportunity."

Steven-sensei did not release Wally's shoulders, in fact, based on Wally's renewed gibbering, his grip got tighter. "This one is undergoing some serious training, and as such, neither he nor I am at liberty to aid your teams, however, Brendan and May are more than capable of aiding you in your training."

Team Guy and Team Baki filed out behind their respective sensei's, and Norman stepped over to Wally. "I could help you with your remodeling, Steven, if it's okay with you."

Steven-sensei smiled so wide it made me nervous, and Wally went still as stone, "Well, having two people work the mechanisms makes the training more intense. How can I say no?"

Wally pleaded to me and May with his eyes, but we were too scared to move. "Mechanisms?" I asked, and clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Mechanisms," Steven-sensei confirmed menacingly.

Steven-sensei, Wally, and Norman left together, headed towards Mt. Chimney. May and I breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to the genin before us. "Dibs on Team Guy!" May exclaimed, and she and Lee high-fived.

I turned to the sand siblings and nodded, "That works for me."

All three of them were dressed very differently, but none of it was bad, per se. Temari had this lavender kimono, a light breastplate that didn't quite cover her cleavage, and a red sash around her waist. She smiled at me, and I smiled back.

AN: sorry it took me a day longer than usual. Promise ch 27 will be out tomorrow.