Blake vs. Dokukage! Will Blake be able to keep his lead against the skilled ninja, or will a seasoned veteran like Dokukage be too much for him to handle?

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Indeed, as we all know, ninja are far better than ordinary people, there is really no comparison.

Aquahaze675: Dokukage does do a little bit of that. But the reason he doesn't explain his strategies will soon become clear.

Rus4408: Well, Blake is certainly going to do his best, maybe he will win.

KedharS: He's really going to need it, Dokukage isn't someone to trifle with.

Pokemonking0924: We'll have to find out, he's definitely got some stuff planned.

Thunder Fire: If he didn't come prepared he woulda been steamrolled lol.

Hpntheman: Where do you see him being arrogant? He's panicking like hell.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 543

Dokukage stared silently at his Kagemusha, bound up by the Snivy's vines and dripping with acid. The picture of cool, serene grace, he calmly assessed the situation without batting an eye.

Like hell.

Fuck, fuck, who the fuck uses fucking gastro acid?! Fuck that's so fucking stupid! Dokukage was internally screaming behind his mask. He absolutely had not seen that coming. Who the hell would do something like that?! Certainly, as a ninja, he made a point to always be prepared, but he had never even considered the fact that someone would use such a niche move like that.

Dokukage was an excellent ninja and the pride of his village, praised by his entire clan as the consummate shinobi, the zenith of what it meant to be a stoic, emotionless tool.

But the reality was he just had an absurdly good poker face. Oh, sure, he was the second-most talented trainer to come out of his village, and he had the skills to back up the attitude he carried, acting like he had everything planned out, but the truth was for all his skill he was still just a human being at the end of the day. Even he had felt like pissing his pants facing a team of Shadow Pokemon in the first round, who the fuck wouldn't?! Knowing what destruction they were capable of!

But as a ninja Dokukage had learned long ago to not let that part of himself show. If he revealed just how much he was freaking out, his opponents would capitalize on that panic and the mission would be a failure. Even if his opponent was someone like Blake.

Someone like Blake. How the FUCK did someone like Blake actually catch him so off-guard?! It was beyond belief. No, no, don't let them see you sweat. When a shinobi loses his cool, that's the end of the line. You didn't get this far to let everything fall apart just because your opponent's opening strategy got the better of you, now is the time when you show them what you're capable of! The pride of your entire village is riding on this!

While on the surface there was no difference, internally Dokukage was quickly calming himself, thinking up a course of victory. This whole match had been rather off, starting with that berry. That fucking tenga berry who would do something like that?!

No, no, it's fine. He'll use a move to attack, and when he does, I'll order Kagemusha to hit that Snivy with a sucker punch. She can only withstand so much, after all.

"Tara, use leech seed," Blake ordered. Tara spat some seeds that hit the bound Golisopod, the seeds burying themselves deeply in Kagemusha's armor, sprouting out and beginning to drain the pokemon's health.

"I see. So your plan is to drain Kagemusha's health with that," Dokukage said. Use a fucking attack move so I can hit you with sucker punch! Stop being such a disagreeable little shit! He wanted to scream instead.

But he had to keep his cool. That was vital when it came to being a ninja. He thought back on his days of training, and the words of his sensei.

"Remember, Dokukage. A shinobi must be a pillar of cool professionalism. They cannot let their emotions show on the surface. Even if the earth were to open up and swallow your pokemon whole, you must not lose your composure. You must be like Sasuke, always in control of yourself. Not like Naruto. If you Naruto when you're supposed to Sasuke, you're going to have a bad time."

That shitty otaku geeeezerrrr! Don't use fucking manga as your training model you piece of shiiiittt! Dokukage screamed internally.

"Kagemusha!" Dokukage ordered. "X-scissor."

"Golisopod!" Kagemusha roared, flexing his muscles, his armor straining against the grasping vines. With two swings of his claws he shredded the grass away and lumbered towards Tara, preparing to strike.

"Tara, dodge and use coil," Blake ordered. Tara ducked under the pokemon and coiled up into a tight ball, increasing her accuracy along with her special stats. As she moved past him, the sprouts from her seeds began to sap some of Kagemusha's health.

We'll have to use a move that she can't dodge, Dokukage understood. This isn't his specialty, but… "Kagemusha! Use bug buzz!"

"GOOOOOOOOL!" Kagemusha unleashed a deafening chitter that caused Tara to stumble back and clutch her ears, the pokemon wailing in pain. Blake winced and held his ears as well, staring in shock as Dokukage seemed completely unaffected by the screeching echoing off the skyscrapers.

"Oww, this is awful!" Lila groaned. She hated moves like this.

"It seems that since Golisopod can't hit Tara with any of his close-range attacks, he's resorted to using an area attack instead since it will at least hit, even if his special attacking stat is so low," Akira noted. "Although Tara seems to be withstanding it well, even with her weakness to Bug type moves. It must be the buff from coil."

"I'm surprised, look at Dokukage," Dakota said, lowering one hand from her ear to point at him. "That bug buzz is painful even all the way over here, and yet he's just standing there like it's not even affecting him. I guess as a ninja he must be able to endure stuff like that."

Yeah, no, what the fuck are you talking about?! My ears are fucking bleeding here! Dokukage wanted to scream at the announcer. What the fuck do you think ninja are, huh?! Because we fight in the darkness of the night we train our hearing to be much better than a normal person's, this is fucking agony! Do you know how much fucking work it is to look like this is nothing?! Don't just brush it aside with an 'oh he's just a ninja of course it's not a big deal' you fucking insensitive shit!

"Tara! Use leaf tornado," Blake ordered. She was doing a good job of withstanding this attack for now, but she wouldn't be able to keep that up forever. He needed to stop the Golisopod and shut it up, and with her special attack boost Tara could do a lot of damage.

"Snivy!" Tara opened her mouth and held out her hands, sending a torrent of wind and leaves swirling at the slow, shrieking Golisopod.

"Gol!" Kagemusha groaned, the leaves cutting him up and the wind pushing him backwards. But even though Tara was boosted, Kagemusha was just that much stronger of a pokemon, quickly regaining his bearings and lumbering forward, even though he was a lot slower than the Snivy. His armored scales were sliced up and leaking blood and he was breathing hard, he had already reached a point where he would retreat under normal instances.

Just a little more, Blake noted. "Tara! Use leaf tornado again!"

"Sni!" Tara nodded, preparing another tornado. That was the opening that Dokukage had been waiting for.

"Kagemusha, sucker punch!"

"Gol!" Kagemusha shot forward at high speed, raising his claw and lunging at Tara, hitting her in the stomach hard.

"Sni-!" Tara choked out, hitting the wall hard. She fell forward and face-planted on the ground, panting, her body badly battered.

"Tara!" Blake cried.

"Sni…" Tara tried to pick herself up, but she was badly weakened.

"Oh, no," Lila said. "She was doing so well earlier, too…"

"She was strong," Dakota said, frowning, "but apparently not strong enough."

Akira agreed with Dakota. When Tara could keep her distance, she was fighting toe to toe with the Golisopod. But it had taken just one good hit from the pokemon's massive attack stat, and now it looked like she was down for the count. Even with the health she was recovering from the leech seed, her health was too weak.

"Now, x-scissor," Dokukage ordered.

"Kagemusha!" Dokukage roared, raising his claws, still moving slowly from the paralysis. But compared to Tara, whose bleeding body was so weakened that she could barely move, it was fast enough.

"Tara!" Blake shouted. "Use leaf storm!"

"Sni… vy…" As Kagemusha dropped his claws to strike, Tara tilted her head up weakly and began to glow green.

"It's her overgrow," Akira gasped.

Tara opened her mouth, and a massive wind blast of slicing leaves engulfed Kagemusha, knocking him backwards. The tornado roared through the city and slammed Kagemusha against the steel buildings, which surprisingly stood strong against the armored pokemon, showing just how hard and sturdy the battlefield was. The windstorm kept howling and finally flung the Golisopod against the ground, the pokemon letting out a weak chitter as his legs and claws fluttered around before succumbing to his pain and losing consciousness.

"Whoa!" Lila gasped. "Golisopod is unable to battle! So Snivy is the winner!"

"Wow!" Dakota agreed. "I'm surprised! Blake didn't just win the first exchange, he took out on of Dokukage's strongest pokemon!"

"But it's not over yet," Akira said, throwing a wet blanket over the two girls. "Dokukage's certainly got something planned for this."

Oh, come on! I mean yeah, losing Kagemusha isn't going to hurt my strategy THAT much since he can't use baton pass, but come on! He had to faint that quickly?! Fuck! Dokukage complained as he recalled his Golisopod. "Not bad."

"He did it!" Ayame cheered. "Way to go, Blake!"

"Interesting…" Kanou said, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Woooo! Yeah! That's what we're talking about!" Andy cheered as well.

"Of course, with my strategizing it was easily going to go this way," Cynthia smirked, puffing herself up as Sango rolled her eyes.

"Weren't you the one saying that Blake was going to lose because his opponent was a ninja?" Sango asked, sliding her eyes over to her. Cynthia glanced away.

"But his Snivy is in bad shape," Kate noted. Buzzkill she might have been, but she was right. Dokukage's Golisopod wasn't able to keep fighting, but it didn't look like Tara was able to keep fighting, either. She was probably down for the count.

"Go, Venomark," Dokukage said, throwing out his next pokeball. The pokemon that emerged from it was another bug, this one with a long body that was a deep, vibrant magenta and fuchsia. She shifted and scuttled forward, her antenna twitching as she approached Tara.

"Dokukage's next pokemon is a Scolipede!" Lila noted.

"A Bug/Poison type!" Kate gasped, cheering a little even though she should have been rooting for Blake. She couldn't help herself. "That's not very good."

"Tara, come back," Blake said, knowing there was no chance for Tara to defeat that large bug in her current state, if she even could in her prime health. He held up his pokeball to retrieve Tara.

"Venomark, use pursuit," Dokukage ordered.

"Scol!" The Scolipede shot forward, her speed unbelievable considering her great size and her tiny legs, as many of them as there were. She pulled her body back and lunged, hitting Tara before she could be called back to her pokeball.

"Snivy!" Tara cried in pain, the last blow too much for her to withstand. She hit the ground hard and cried out in pain, crumpling up and losing consciousness.

"Tara!" Blake cried.

"Snivy is unable to battle," Lila said. "…But she really tried her best. Scolipede is the winner!"

"You were amazing, Tara," Blake said, recalling Tara to her pokeball. "You take a nice break. You did your job, we'll handle the rest somehow."

If Blake could keep trading pokemon for pokemon like this with Dokukage, he could win. The problem was, he doubted it would be that simple.

I need to keep him from setting up his basic tricks, Blake understood. Taking care of his Golisopod was only the first step in winning. What was really dangerous about Dokukage was how easily his pokemon could switch out for each other and how much of a risk it was to his own team. It was like his pokemon each had to run a relay against Dokukage's whole team by themselves. There were a few ways he could think of to prevent Dokukage from using baton pass, but…

That Scolipede certainly knew it. He expected that most of the shinobi's pokemon would.

My best strategy… first thing to consider is that that's a Poison type pokemon, Blake understood. Which means he would probably be dealing with poison. Almost definitely. Blake took a breath to calm himself, he was already starting to panic, even though things were going better than he expected. He somehow just couldn't stop that shiver. Don't worry, don't worry…

"Cory, go," Blake said, sending out his next pokemon.

"Crawdaunt!" Cory growled, raising his pincers and clacking them threateningly, glaring at the Scolipede.

"Cory, start with taunt!" Blake ordered.

"Toxic first," Dokukage ordered. Venomark reared back, lifting up the front part of her body so she towered over Cory, and spat a stream of poison at him.

"So fast!" Dakota gasped.

"Even faster than when he attacked Tara," Akira noted.

But Cory's speed was nothing to laugh at, either. The water pokemon jumped out of the way of the spray of venom, glaring at Venomark and waving his claws at her to get her to attack.

"Good, that means she can't use status moves anymore," Blake said, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "So no poison, no stat buffs. But we can't get ahead of ourselves, that pokemon's still going to be a problem with that speed!"

"Crawdaunt," Cory nodded in agreement. He was as surprised by that Scolipede's speed as Blake was.

"Scolipede are pretty fast, but that one was faster than normal," Akira noted. "And being a bug, that means it has an advantage against Blake's Dark type Crawdaunt."

"Status moves are not the only method of raising a pokemon's stats," Dokukage stated. "Venomark, use megahorn."

"Scolipede!" Venomark lowered her head, her horns sharpening as she shot at Cory, running even faster than she had been just a few moments ago.

"That Scolipede's ability must be speed boost!" Akira realized. "So that's how her speed keeps increasing!"

"Speed boost? You mean it's only going to get faster and faster?" Lila gasped. "Whoa, with a team using baton pass, that's an incredibly dangerous ability, right?"

"Dokukage really brought out the big guns after losing his Golisopod," Dakota nodded in agreement. "Will Blake be able to handle that?"

Blake wasn't sure if he could. But he knew he wasn't about to let Cory lose in terms of speed. If that megahorn hit, it would do a lot of damage!

"Cory! Use aqua jet!" He cried.

"Crawdaunt!" Cory nodded, covering his crimson scales with a veil of water. Moving much faster than Venomark was, he dodged to the side, the bug pokemon passing him without landing a hit. Cory turned and hit Venomark in the side with his claw, knocking the pokemon off-balance by striking her long body right in the center, Venomark rolling over. She quickly scurried up, though, and turned on Cory, preparing to strike.

"It seems that even with that speed boost, Blake's Crawdaunt is still staying ahead!" Lila cheered.

"That's good, because moves like aqua jet and sucker punch are good for dealing with speed," Dakota agreed. "We just saw that in action with Blake's Snivy getting pounded by that Golisopod in the last skirmish."

But Akira wasn't as optimistic as the other announcers, and Blake wasn't, either.

That Scolipede is really fast. If we use anything but aqua jet, there's no way we can keep up. We'll just be struck down. And aqua jet isn't strong enough to get through…

"Cory, return," Blake finally decided, raising his pokeball to recall Cory to his pokeball.

"He's calling back his Crawdaunt? Why?" Lila asked, confused.

"Maybe he doesn't think he can keep up?" Dakota wondered.

"It could be because he has to use moves like aqua jet, and he isn't sure if he'll be able to get through to that Scolipede," Akira reasoned. "One mistake, and that Scolipede's speed will overwhelm him. It's not a bad plan, but it certainly is a murky decision." Akira himself wasn't sure what he would do in this situation.

"So you retreat even with the advantage? Well. Venomark, pursuit!" Dokukage ordered.

Cory didn't want to run, he wanted to fight. Especially as Venomark hit him with a cheap shot as he was recalled. But Blake understood that wasn't going to help them win. Eventually, Cory would slip up, and getting hit by that megahorn…

Or am I overthinking things? I don't know… Blake shook his head, not sure even now if recalling Cory was the right choice. He had started out strong, but he wasn't sure if he could keep it going. "Okay, Ruru! Go!"

Blake sent out his third pokemon, Ruru. The spider pokemon landed on the battlefield and twittered, eyeing the other bug across from it.

"Oh?" Dokukage raised his eyebrow slightly. This was interesting. He was glad that Blake had switched out his Crawdaunt, the pokemon's priority moves were a difficulty. Meanwhile, Galvantula were strong, there was no doubt about that, but they weren't so strong that he couldn't deal with them. Especially not with Venomark's speed. The only problem would be paralysis, and the fact that he wasn't able to use status moves right now due to taunt.

"Blake's chosen to fight a Bug type with a Bug type!" Lila said.

"Interesting, I wonder how his Galvantula is going to match up against Dokukage's bugs," Dakota wondered.

"Ruru, use thunder wave," Blake ordered. If he was going to have a chance, they would need to slow this Scolipede down, big time.

"Venomark, run," Dokukage urged. Venomark, rather than using her incredible speed to attack, she decided instead to run in the opposite direction.

"Galvantula!" Ruru chattered, building up a current of electricity through her fuzzy body, releasing it in a shockwave of electricity. The wave shot across the battlefield, but Venomark had made the right call. Putting distance between herself and Ruru, the thunder wave instead hit the steel buildings, which served as lightning rods, drawing in the electricity and dispersing it harmlessly into the ground.

"No way!" Blake gasped.

"It seems Dokukage has got the edge here," Akira noted. "By taking advantage of the nature of the Steel Type battlefield, he's been able to nullify Blake's play. I don't think that was something Blake could have calculated."

"Yeah, really bad luck for him," Lila agreed sympathetically.

"It's not just about luck," Akira said, shaking his head. "A skilled trainer is someone who can take advantage of everything around them, making everything work in their favor. Dokukage was able to make the battlefield work for him, but Blake might not be at that level just yet. It's a difference in skill at this point."

Holy shit, that was lucky! Dokukage sighed in relief. He had been counting on Venomark to outrun the Galvantula's electricity, but it was a lucky break that the battlefield had absorbed the electricity instead. But he wasn't about to admit that, of course. "A true shinobi makes use of everything around him, even the terrain, in order to achieve victory. You must be vigilant, using moves like those without considering your surroundings."

Blake scowled. Dokukage wasn't wrong. The more he was fighting, the more he was beginning to question himself. And meanwhile, the ninja across the battlefield was the picture of composure. That only put more pressure. Dokukage was so calm, while Blake's heart was in turmoil… could he really manage to get through this?

Dokukage and Blake have had a few exchanges so far, but if Blake wants to stand a chance he really has to see deeper into Dokukage's strategies and figure out how to counter them! Will he be able to do it? Or will he be overwhelmed by the ninja?