Author's note: Finally after a too long delay I have the next chapter ready! I'm so sorry it took me so long to finish this; life's been pretty crappy at times, which makes concentrating on this story more difficult than expected. So many apologies for taking so long!

Thanks to the following reviewers: Fenix Fuego; PinkiePieParty122894; swordsmanwielder; Kalos; Elsyra; leighd1314; JaiJayce; Weebio; Iraheta 127; SarahNThatcher; rntobi; Pen-Woman; Lover of Emotions

Warnings: Hm, nothing in particular.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it. I also don't own Pokémon, that belongs to Satoshi Tajiri and The Pokémon Company.

Brief recap: Naruto and his team end up helping an older lady with collecting the Berries. As thanks Naruto gets a Pokémon egg.

I hope you'll like this chapter!

Chapter 11

If the egg had eyes of its own, it would no doubt be returning the heavy stare Naruto was currently levelling at it.

After gently having rejected the older woman's offer to spend the night at her Berry tree farm, Naruto had set up camp in a field just outside the small town. He'd been lugging the egg around with him the entire time while he went about setting up the tent and putting together a light dinner. Now the egg was resting in the middle of a pillow close to the small fire he had going on.

Naruto sat with his legs crisscrossed; his chin supported by his hand as he stared at the egg bemused. He had no idea what he was going to do with the egg. It wasn't that he was completely clueless when it concerned Pokémon eggs. He knew they required a lot of heat in order to properly mature and that it was best to keep them surrounded by the energy of other Pokémon. Depending on which Pokémon was carried inside, the hatching could happen shortly after receiving the egg or it could take a very long time. Naruto had once heard that the longer an egg took to hatch, the more rare or the more powerful the Pokémon in question would be as the longer hatching time indicated a large power reserve. Whether that was true or not, he wasn't certain. It could easily just be a tale to rouse people's interest in working with eggs.

The blue spotted white egg didn't tell him which Pokémon it contained, though, and as he had never personally come across a Pokémon egg before, he couldn't even hazard a guess as to the identity of the baby. Who knew how long it would be until the egg hatched? It could be in two days, it could be in a week, a month or maybe even several months! What was he going to do?

He couldn't abandon it. Even though the egg had been given to him quite unexpectedly, he couldn't possibly leave a defenceless egg to the mercy of nature and the Pokémon roaming around. How was he going to carry it around, though? He'd been carrying it in his arms the whole time until sitting down for dinner, but that had been a rather clumsy affair. His heart had nearly leaped straight out of his chest three times when the egg had almost dropped out of his arms. He couldn't risk the egg breaking before it was time, but holding it the entire time didn't seem like such a good idea either. Never mind the possibility of tripping or dropping the egg and damaging it like that – having Pokémon battles or even simply training his own Pokémon would be a tad more difficult if his hands were constantly occupied.

"What am I going to do with you?" he pondered aloud.

A shadow momentarily blocked the flames and Naruto turned his head, watching Pidgeotto hop closer to the egg. Vaporeon was dozing right next to Naruto's left leg, keeping himself as far away from the fire as possible. Mimikyu and Vulpix were curled up together with Mimikyu's large stuffed head resting against Vulpix' flank. Vulpix' eyes were half-lidded, but at the sound of Naruto's voice the tips of her ears twitched faintly and one of her tails flicked briefly against the grass. Mimikyu was still wide awake, but seemed content to rest against Vulpix, which made Naruto quite happy to see, considering how shy and almost scared Mimikyu had been of other Pokémon for a while.

"Pidgeotto?" Eat? Was Pidgeotto's dry suggestion.

"We're not going to eat the egg!" Naruto hastily rejected the idea when Vulpix started raising her head. "This isn't food, there's a baby inside!"

Pidgeotto cocked his head to the left and stared sceptically down at the egg. "Pidgeotto, Pidgeotto." See no baby.

"Well, trust me, I've been carrying the weight around the whole time," Naruto huffed and straightened up a bit, crossing his arms. "There's definitely a Pokémon inside."

Pidgeotto uttered an odd huff sound before hopping back to his original place, where he continued to devour the remainders of his berry.

"Mimi, Mimikyu?" When coming out?

"No idea," Naruto sighed and scratched the bridge of his nose. "Could be in a couple of days already, could be longer, I don't know."

The old lady had had the egg in her possession for a little while now, but Pokémon eggs needing buzzing energy, which wasn't something she could easily provide. Her grandson hadn't left behind any specific information regarding the egg either, so Naruto was going into this completely blind.

"Vulpix, Vulpix, Vulpix?" Keeping it?

"Yeah, can't exactly leave it behind," Naruto replied and pursed his lips. "I just don't know how to carry it around without accidentally damaging it."

If he knew for certain that it would hatch in two days, he could just carry it around and be extra careful when moving around. With no way of knowing when it would hatch – seeing as he had absolutely no clue which Pokémon was inside – he needed a long term solution that would both keep the egg safe yet free up his hands as well.

"Maybe the backpack?" he muttered and eyed the bag in question, which looked significantly emptier without the tent and the cooking supplies.

He dismissed the idea as quickly as it had come up. The egg would fit inside now, but where would he keep his tent and his supplies then? It wasn't as if he was planning on camping out here forever! No, the backpack was out. What other option was there still?

"Mimi, Mimikyu?" Me carry around? A couple of Mimikyu's shadowy appendages slipped from underneath his costume, waving in the air. They had Vulpix eyeing them for a moment, before relaxing again.

"That's very sweet of you to offer, Mimikyu," Naruto smiled, "but I don't want you to tire yourself out."

Frankly, he wasn't certain whether Mimikyu's shadowy limbs would be able to handle the weight of the egg for long. Perhaps for a short while, but it wasn't a doable option for long. Not to mention, his Pokémon shouldn't have to lug the egg around with them, that was his job!

"Vulpix, Vulpix, Vulpix!" Drag around on leaves!

Naruto grinned. "Don't think there's a leaf large enough to act as a sleigh."

Although it would be a comical sight, to have the egg be balanced on a big leaf while he dragged it around like – huh. A leaf, hm?

He leant forwards just enough to grab a hold of his backpack and drag it towards him; the rustling noise making Pidgeotto jump in surprise and having Mimikyu titter in amusement. Digging through the spare sets of clothes – hm, he would need to do laundry soon – he chased after a particular item that he could have sworn he had stuffed in the bag before he left home. It should be long and broad enough to safely carry the egg; if this option would also fail, then Naruto honestly had no idea what to do anymore.

"Aha!" he exclaimed in triumph when he fished out the long, dark blue scarf that mum had given him many years ago.

It was so long that he could wrap it around his neck five times and still have plenty of cloth to spare. When he'd been a kid still, the ends of it had constantly drooped around his ankles even when his vision had been obscured because of the many layers. Laying it out flat against his lap, the width was broader than his two hands combined, which meant it was long enough to be safe for the egg!

Underneath the bemused gazes of his other Pokémon, Naruto looped the scarf around his right shoulder, across his chest and underneath his arm. He did this a couple of times, leaving the cloth loose enough but not too loose, before tying the edges together. Having done this, he reached out for the egg and carefully lifted it from the pillow, placing it within the layers of the scarf. The egg was wrapped up in the scarf now, resting against Naruto's chest.

He balanced the egg with his hand for a little while before he slowly, tentatively removed his hand from underneath it. Just as slowly he lifted both arms in the air before lowering them again, trying out several gestures and moves to check whether the egg would remain within the improvised sling.

It did.

Naruto sighed out in relief, lowering his arms. It worked! He could carry around the egg in a sling which would keep his hands free! This way the egg would be safe and it would be surrounded by body heat, which was one of the most important ways in order to hatch it.

"All right, this should work," he said satisfied and shivered when a gust of wind blew past them.

Pidgeotto ruffled his feathers, sliding closer towards the fire while even Vaporeon looked up, slightly frowning.

"Guess it's getting kind of late," Naruto mused, looking up at the night sky, where hundreds of stars were twinkling like glowing pin pricks.

This late in the year it became dark sooner and the temperatures were starting to plummet to an almost uncomfortable level already. With dinner finished and the problem of the egg carrying solved, there was no real reason to stay outside here for much longer. The fire gave off some heat, but it wasn't enough to warm up all of them comfortably, so after making certain that the fire wouldn't accidentally spread, Naruto unzipped his tent.

"All right, who wants to go back in the Pokéball, who wants to stay out?" he questioned.

It probably wasn't very traditional to give his Pokémon that choice, let alone the fact that he actually actively kept them out of their Pokéball during the night, but really, what was traditional or conventional about them? He had started his journey at a later age, he didn't have an official Starter Pokémon and the Pokémon he had so far, he hadn't acquired in the usual ways of battling them. Well, except for Pidgeotto, he supposed, and watched the Bird Pokémon leisurely make his way to his Pokéball, letting the red light absorb him and return him into his ball.

Vaporeon hesitated for a moment, but then nimbly walked over to his own Pokéball as well, disappearing inside of it. That left Vulpix and Mimikyu – and the egg, of course, but the egg didn't count in this case – who simply meandered into the tent; Vulpix yawning loudly. Naruto smiled, not really surprised by the latter two's choice of remaining out of the ball. Mimikyu seemed to enjoy curling up against Naruto during the night – especially now that he was assured that Naruto wouldn't be scared off by the strange hollowness of his costume – and Vulpix seemed to prefer to spend the night curled up in a ball against Naruto as well, seemingly in an attempt to ward off the ever increasing chillness in the air.

If it got too cold, he would have to start thinking about spending the nights in a Pokécentre or a hotel, but he would cross that bridge when he got there. He maybe had another two or three weeks before the weather started to become too unbearable and by then they should be travelling through denser packed areas, making it easier to find a place to spend the night at.

After putting his Pokéballs – two filled, two empty – in their rightful place, Naruto closed the tent completely, using his torch to illuminate the small space. He shuffled over towards his sleeping bag, where on each side Mimikyu and Vulpix were already waiting patiently. For a moment Naruto pondered how he should do this with the egg, but then decided to remove the sling from around him, placing it delicately next to him. He made sure to keep it completely swaddled and then crawled into his sleeping bag, lying down on his side.

As soon as he laid still, Mimikyu shuffled closer to him, still rather shy, but nonetheless he burrowed himself into Naruto's stomach, lying directly underneath the egg. With Mimikyu lying underneath the egg and it being so swaddled in several layers of the scarf, there was no way for the egg to accidentally roll away tonight.

Naruto waited until Vulpix was doing plodding around in small circles, before dropping down with a sigh, curling up into the hollow of his legs, and only then did he click off his torch, letting darkness take over the tent completely.

"Good night," he muttered; the exhaustion of running around the farm finally catching up to him.

Mimikyu chirped a greeting in response and Vulpix hummed, curling up even tighter. They fell asleep like that, sharing each other's body heat.

They spent three days in the fields near the town, training and resting, taking advantage of the peaceful atmosphere clinging to this place. With each training session Vaporeon was growing more and more confident in his own skills until Vulpix barely even managed to set something on fire before it was instantly doused.

It wasn't as if all of Vaporeon's confidence issues were resolved already – how could it be when it hadn't been that long ago still when he had been rejected by his former Trainer? – but he was clearly improving, thriving underneath Naruto's praise and the other Pokémon's enthusiastic cheering.

It was this growing confidence of Vaporeon in his own strength that made Naruto eventually decide they were ready to move onto the next city. This one would have a Gym they would have to defeat and Naruto remembered it being a Fire Gym. With a Water Pokémon now being part of his team, in theory the Fire Gym shouldn't be too difficult, but Naruto was cautious. It was no exaggeration to say that Fire Types were far from a joke and possibly amongst the strongest Pokémon there were, purely because of how destructive their Type could be. It being the third Gym almost meant the Pokémon would be a lot stronger than the ones in the first Gym had been, which made sense of course, but it still made Naruto a tad nervous.

He and his team trained hard every day, but it wasn't as if his team existed solely out of Water Pokémon. Vulpix wouldn't be able to do much, her own Fire Type making her neutral towards her opponent. She was fast, yes, even shrewd at times, but putting her into the battles might drag out the fights, simply because of the lack of Type advantage. Neither Pidgeotto nor Mimikyu had a real Type advantage either. They would not be completely defenceless against a Fire Type, but they weren't like Vaporeon either, whose Water nature made him a veritable nightmare of Fire Types.

Just like during the first Gym, however, Naruto didn't want to force one of his Pokémon to carry the entire battle. Who knew how many Pokémon this Gym Leader would have? If it was just one, sure, Vaporeon could it all on his own. Maybe two would be doable either, though that would depend on which Pokémon they were. But three or more? That would probably be too taxing for Vaporeon alone.

His battle plan was thus to keep Vaporeon for the strongest Fire Type, who usually was sent out last. Mimikyu and Pidgeotto would take care of the others with Vulpix filling in if one of the others got hurt. Hopefully their training would be enough to prepare themselves for this Gym. It was only going to get more difficult from here on now, after all; the Gyms and the Trainers growing more and more difficult to beat.

That should be a terrifying thought, but instead Naruto felt excited, invigorated almost, at the thought of stronger opponents who were waiting for him. You could only get stronger by beating strong opponents after all!

His first destination when he arrived at the new city was to go straight to the Pokécentre to heal his Pokémon and return their energy. The city was definitely a lot busier and a lot more bustling than the quiet town had been and Naruto watched in awe how the tall buildings towered over him on each side of the roads. Wherever he looked he saw either towering apartment buildings or busy shops, where customers poured in and out of the doors. Small market stands lined up the main street with the owners clamouring for people's attention, trying to entice them into buying food, Battle items or even clothes.

A particular stand displaying warm sweets for both Trainers and their Pokémon attracted Naruto's attention instantly and his mouth started to water at both the sight of the colourful sweets as the delicious scents wafting from the treats.

If we win, we'll treat ourselves at this stand, he promised himself. After all, if they won now, they definitely deserved a treat for all the hard work they had accomplished so far.

The egg in the sling definitely attracted people's attention, but none of them stopped to bother him about it, which he was grateful for. Not that he didn't want people to talk to him, but he was feeling quite jittery at the moment, growing more nervous with each step that took him closer to the Gym, and he didn't think he could concentrate on any conversation right now. Would he ever grow used to approaching a Gym? This was his third one so far and he doubted he would. Well, that was normal, no? He couldn't be the only one to feel nervous when approaching a new Gym for the first time, even with how prepared he and his team were.

His feet came to a stop in front of a small staircase; the red steps leading up to a large hall. The sign displayed above the entrance announced in blazing letters that this was the Gym and Naruto swallowed, taking in the banners depicting streams of flames and fireballs. A Rapidash statue stood on either side of the entrance, the likeness of the Pokémon rearing up, kicking its front legs high in the sky while neighing soundlessly. The artist had done well to capture the fierce spirit inherent to the Ponyta line. Even the stone eyes looked incredibly fierce!

Taking a deep breath, he patted his Pokéballs, more to reassure himself than for any other reason, and walked up the steps. He pushed open the door, impressed by the heavy weight of it.

The interior wasn't anywhere near flashy as the Rapidash statues outside were, but it had a classic feeling nonetheless, with its pillars supporting the ceiling; its black tiles and the soft brown walls. The entrance looked out at a single door, behind which Naruto presumed the Gym Leader to be. The hall itself branched out into one corridor, disappearing behind one of the pillars. As he stepped fully inside, the door falling shut behind him, one by one spotlights on the walls turned on, making him blink.

In the distance a door opened and then footsteps leisurely made their way towards him, coming from the hidden corridor.

"So, a new challenger?"

A young man with a wild grin and even wilder hair appeared in the entrance hall; his hands nonchalantly resting in the pockets of his trousers. As he lifted his head to look at Naruto, Naruto's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Kiba?!"

The other man's eyes widened in shock. "Naruto?!"

AN2: So any ideas who the Fire Gym Leader might be? Also, who's looking forward to the new Pokémon games releasing in just a couple of weeks? (I still can't believe they actually named a Pokémon Lechonk)

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in my next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.