A/N: This chapter is mostly crack, because I'm about to make this fic go all serious on your ass! But, there are a lot of plot-related things, too.

"So... Where exactly are those two?"

"We've been waiting here for an hour, un."

"We can't just leave, because we wouldn't get your Charmeleon back."

"So, it's a giant dragon when it evolves?"

"Yeah... Charizard."

"Char-meleon!"

"What's it saying, Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"It's sayin' it wants t'go back home." Meowth told her.

"Well, that's not happening."

"Char..."

"So, do you like your Luxury Ball and Soothe bell?"

"Pei."

"Good... Now, I want you to do something for me. Got it?" Orochimaru asked.

"Pei."

Orochimaru opened the door of the cage, and let Pein out into the hallway. Jirobo, Tayuya and Kidomaru stood by his side in case anything went wrong. But, today wasn't a bad day for Orochimaru, and Pein wasn't going to disobey. The five of them walked over to the mirror that Sasuke had been using as a portal to the reverse world. But, this mirror could also be used as a reflective surface to look at oneself. Orochimaru stood by while Pein got his first look at his new form.

"Do you like it?"

Pein was too busy studying the mirror to reply.

"Not only do you look different... you'll be much more powerful, too. Care to come and see?"

At the sound of that, Pein turned to his new master, and waited eagerly to see what new powers he had gained.

"Hey... Sasuke?"

"What?"

"I know you want to kill Itachi, and I'm sure you have a good reason, bu-"

"Don't try to convince me otherwise, Sakura. My mind is made."

"I wasn't trying to. But, would you tell me what happened that night? You keep talking about a fire, but you never tell me the whole story."

Sasuke paused for a few moments, as if trying to decide if it was okay to tell her.

"Sit down."

"Okay, this is getting annoying. We've been waiting long enough, where are they, un!?"

"D-did they take your Charmeleon and run?" Konan asked.

"I'll blow them up if that's what happened."

"I'll help."

"Hello, there."

Deidara and Konan turned around to see Itachi come up behind them.

"Where have you been? You ditched us again, un."

"I was out getting another pokémon."

"What kind?" Konan asked.

Itachi released a pokémon from his belt to show Konan.

Name: Kisame

Species: Shark-man

Type: Water

Evolutionary chain: unknown.

This pokémon is very powerful, and has been mistaken for a legendary. The sword it carries is its greatest weapon, and can cause massive damage to opponents.

Stats:

(Lowest) 1-5 (Highest)

Attack: 5

Defense: 4

Special attack: 4

Special defense: 3

Speed: 3

00000000000000000

"A Kisame?! Wow! How did you manage to capture that?"

"It was a long, difficult fight. It was a worthy opponent." Itachi told her, putting Kisame back.

"So, you know about the fire, don't you?" Sasuke asked.

"Sort of. The fire was black, wasn't it? Sacred fire?"

"Yes. Itachi caused that fire."

"Itachi knows Sacred Fire?"

"Yes. He called it Amaterasu."

"The sun goddess?"

"Itachi used to be friends with all of the Sasuke around Konoha. Like a brother to us. He'd come see us every day, like we were his family."

"What about his parents?"

"I don't know. I never met his parents. I hardly knew Itachi. I was born just a few weeks before that fire."

"So, what happened?"

"First, one of our own went missing. Nobody knew what happened to him. Nobody asked questions, since we all thought he'd just left."

"Did he ever come back?"

"Itachi killed him the night he came back."

"With Sacred Fire?"

"No. On the night he came back, some of us were already asleep. It was late. Mostly the adults went to see him. I don't really know what happened during that. But, when I woke up, all the adults were crowded around him, and I went to see what was going on.

"Was he dead?"

"He was alive… dying, though. Itachi was standing over him like he was some sort of prey. That Sasuke's eye started bleeding, and he managed to get back up. Then, the two of them started fighting. That's when the fire started. It started on the ground between them, and just went everywhere. So many people got burned. So many died.

"How did you…?"

"Not everyone got hit. I got into a tree, which somehow managed not to burn down. That's where I watched Itachi stab that Sasuke. I watched him die. That fire didn't stop until everyone was dead."

"…Do you hear something…?" Deidara asked.

"Hm?"

Everyone fell silent, and quickly heard what Deidara was talking about. Footsteps were coming toward them, and it sounded as if the person was running. The noise stopped, and the three pokémon trainers found themselves face-to-face with Sasuke and Sakura.

"Hey, Itachi… He's not going to try and kill you, is he?"

"Maybe."

"I'll handle this, un." Deidara said, stepping in front of Itachi. Sasuke really had no intention of fighting Deidara, especially since Itachi was no more than ten feet away. He rushed at Itachi, swerving to avoid the artist. However, Deidara didn't like being ignored. He threw a bomb down on Sasuke's feet, and watched him fall on his face. Itachi took this opportunity to put Sasuke to sleep, and save himself the trouble of battling.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled, rushing up to him. "Damn it… I told you we shouldn't just rush in…"

"Come on." Itachi said, reaching down for Sakura's hand. "We'll take him to a pokémon center."

"Wait, what?! He tries to kill you, and you want to heal him?!" Deidara yelled.

"We can't just leave him here." Konan told him.

"I do you a favor by tripping him, and now we're healing him. I really don't understand you guys."

"Let's take him, and deal with his murderous attitude later." Itachi said.

"Wait, what about Charmeleon?" Deidara asked.

"We can come back tomorrow." Konan said. "Maybe he didn't evolve yet.

"You so could not!" Eevee yelled.

"I find your lack of confidence in me insulting." Raichu told her.

"Well, maybe a lot of pokémon think you're hot, but there's no way you could get with a human."

"Wanna bet?!"

"We're pokémon, what should we bet on?"

"I'll bet my dignity."

"You've already lost that, so…"

"Hey!"

"Well, I guess all I want to see is you getting rejected. So, okay. Who are you going to try?" Eevee sighed.

"I'll try… Konan."

Eevee couldn't help but snort at his idea. Konan? Yeah, right.

"You're kidding." Yahiko said. "You must be."

"Nope. I'll do it."

"I'd like to see you try." Nagato muttered. "She'd never let you."

"Says you."

"This is gonna be fun." Nidorino said.

"Yeah… let's watch." Ivysaur agreed.

"Where is Konan, anyway?"

"The room over there."

So, the pokémon paraded into the room, and Raichu waited for everyone to take their seats.

"What's everybody doing in here?" Konan asked.

Raichu jumped up on the bed, and poked Konan in the arm.

"Oh… Hi, Raichu."

"This should be interesting." Yahiko muttered. "Does he honestly think she'd-?"

Yahiko stopped talking when Raichu decided to use Attract.

"W-wait! He's not allowed to do that!"

"I don't remember anyone telling him that." Ivysaur pointed out.

"Relax." Nidorino said. "Let's see how it goes."

Nagato and Yahiko shrank back in their seats when Konan was finally hit by Attract. Her face went blank, before turning into some kind of twisted look of desire.

"I'm scared." Eevee squeaked. Raichu looked over at the spectators, and gave them an 'I-told-you-so' kind of look. Yahiko was quickly fed up with this, and got up when Raichu began to unbutton her shirt.

"That's it." Yahiko growled. "Game's over, rat!"

Despite Nidorino and Ivysaur's attempts to restrain him, Yahiko marched all the way up to Raichu, and pulled him off the bed. Raichu tackled Yahiko, and knocked him into a nearby bookshelf, which quickly buried Yahiko under a mountain of paperback books.

"Stay out of this." Raichu huffed, jumping back up on the bed.

However, the noise from the collapsing bookshelf had snapped Konan out of her crush, and she was now wondering why Yahiko was under a pile of books, why her shirt was halfway unbuttoned, and why all the other pokémon in the room looked absolutely horrified.

"What's wro- AH!"

Raichu was unaware that Konan was no longer under his spell, and had proceeded to split the rest of her shirt open.

"Hey! What do you think you're-? WHOA!"

Konan decided that splitting her pants open was not going to be tolerated. She threw Raichu off the bed, and watched Nagato pin him down. Yahiko finally managed to dig himself out of the pile of books, and run out into the lobby. He grabbed Raichu's pokéball off of Itachi's belt, and put the overly excited pokémon back inside. He held the ball shut, and waited for Raichu to stop struggling.

"What the hell just happened?!" Konan demanded.

Yahiko handed Konan his cloak, which she was quite grateful for. She took her ripped clothes off, and brought them to Nurse Joy.

"Can you fix these?"

"Um… sure. What happened?"

"I don't even know."

Konan threw Raichu's pokéball back to Itachi, and slammed her door closed.

"…What just happened, un…?"

"I don't know." Itachi said.

A/N: Yep, time for this fic to get slightly more serious. Not much, though. Promise.