Chapter 2: tree degrees of separation
The pink-wearing girl looked down at the older boy, a confused expression on her face, one that quickly vanished into one of worry for the teen's wellbeing, he had just washed ashore while unconscious "um, are, are you ok?" she asked as she approached his unconscious frame, crouching down, and moving the blond's shoulder, trying to stir him awake.
"Star! Staraptor" a large bird of prey called out in the sky, a chimp whit a flame coming out of where its tailbone should be grasped whiting its talons as it flew towards the lab where it had escaped from.
"I guess we should be heading back to the lab, but, we can't just leave him here right?" the girl questioned the small penguin that was standing nearby her.
"Plup, plup, Piplup!" the diminutive creature called out its name.
"Right" the girl responded to the Piplup that was nearby "we should just tell the professor about him, he'll know what to do," she said before standing back up and grabbing the blond's arms, and whit great effort dragging him a little bit further away from the shore so he wouldn't fall back into the lake, and drown "alright Piplup, let's go" she called out to her new friend, grabbing her yellow bag, and hurriedly going towards the lab.
XxX
Flashback; 3 years before Naruto's disappearance
A younger Naruto missing his trademark whisker-like scars was peaking his head out of the door as he saw his father speaking whit a young woman whit chocolate brown hair that was wearing the Galaxy Survey Corps uniform, it wasn't the first time that he'd seen her, she'd come by every once in a while to buy some of his fathers wares, mostly evolutionary stones he noticed, but also some of the weirder things that were only found in space-time distortions.
"Thanks again for your patronage" the older blond said to his most frequent customer.
"No, thanks to you for the wares " the girl responded before she caught Naruto looking at her, and flashed him a wide smile "hey there, no need to be shy," she said whit a small wave, before crouching down to look him in the eyes "I'm Akari, what's your name?"
"I'm Naruto," the small blond said softly, a bit nervous at the presence of this new person, who wouldn't be, the aura that radiated off the satchel on her back was one of pure power "thank you for buying from our store Akari-san"
"As I said, you don't need to thank me, you guys have a really nice selection of products," she said whit a small smile as she reached into her satchel, and pulled out a small 3 colored sphere that had a metal band diving the white bottom of it from the black and yellow striped top half that had a small steam exhaust hole at the top, a stone lock shutting the two halves together, it was an ultra ball Naruto realized "say, Nauto, do you like pokemon?" the girl asked a slightly melancholic smile on her face.
"Yeah! I love pokemon!" the mostly human boy said, no longer as apprehensive of Akari, how couldn't he, they were his family after all.
"Great, then I need you to do me a favor," Akari said "look after this little guy for me alright?" she told him, handing him the ultra ball, and once Naruto touched it he could feel the presence, and emotions coming off of it, resentment, anger, malice, and hate so intense it made the emotion-sensing boy almost puke, however before he could give the ball back to its original owner, she was already back on her feet, and walking away, waving back at the father, and son duo over her shoulder "See you both later!" she said, but that never happened, because that was the last time he saw Akari.
XxX
"One thing is for sure," a tall man whit silver-grey hair, mustache, and muttonchops said to the pink-wearing girl that had first noticed Naruto "anything can happen, so if you ever need anything just call, and we'll see what we can do"
"Wow thank you so much," the girl said ready to get on her bike, before remembering the blond she had left in the forest for the first time after she had decided to tell Professor Rowan about him "um, well, I'm sorry to ask for help so soon, but there's an unconscious blond guy wearing old clothes near the shore of Lake Verity, he appeared just after the legendary pokemon you mentioned disappeared," the black-haired girl said "I wasn't strong enough to drag him here by myself so if you could help him id really appreciate it" the girl finished her request for help.
"Don't worry Dawn, I'll see to it that he's taken care of, I'd be worried if something were to happen to him as well afterall" the pokemon expert said before looking at his assistants who nodded in return, 2 of them going into the forest towards Lake Verity in order to look for the boy.
XxX
Flashback/Narutos nightmare; the day of Naruto's disappearance
Chaos, that was the only word that could describe what had just happened, one moment the family of four was eating dinner in order to celebrate Naruto catching his first pokemon, the next a space-time distortion appeared, one that summoned angered pokemon to right outside of the family's home, gouts of fire, torrents of water, and surges of electric volts rendered the home Naruto had spent most of his life into ruins.
It was hectic, running, and rolling away from the attacks was tiring him out, and then he saw it, the form of his mother, electric burns covering her frame, as she slumped against a rock, her eyes distant, and not quite focused…..she was dead, Naruto fell down to his knees catatonic, not being able to look away from her, it was horrible, he didn't want to see it, but he just couldn't look away, he heard a voice call out to him, and promptly ignored it, whatever it was it could wait, then he felt something or more accurately someone push him out of the way, as a ray of condensed frost slammed into Minato causing him to grunt in pain.
"D-Dad," the red-eyed boy said, his voice breaking "Mom is, M-m-Mom is dead"
"Naruto," Minato said through forced, and harsh breaths "don't let your pokemon out of their pokeballs, they'll only get hurt if you do" the man said before succumbing to his wounds in the arms of his son.
And at that moment something in Naruto snapped, bright crimson eyes turning hot pink as the blond screamed in anguish, sky blue psychic energy enveloping his frame, and dissipating the hydro pump, and flame thrower that would have killed him otherwise, however, as soon as the power came, it also completely left his system, making the blond more tiered than ever before, yet he could still see the pokemon who had destroyed his life so expeditiously, a flareon, jolteon, vaporeon, leafeon, and glaceon, speaking of, the grass type among them opened its mouth, and started to coalesce energy around it, an energy ball, before firing off the projectile at the mostly human blond.
However a white, and green blur stepped into the path of the attack before it could reach Naruto, its reward, being flung away into the side of a mountain, seemingly snapping its neck, and that was the last thing Naruto saw before he passed out.
XxX
"KIRARA!" Naruto shouted as he sat up in a cold sweat, scaring the assistant at his side half to death, not that Naruto really cared at the moment as he realized something was wrong, he wasn't at the shore of Lake Verity, the remains of his childhood home burning while his family lay dead around him, he was instead inside a room whit 4 white walls, and a brown door, some black-haired guy in a lab coat sitting nearby the bed he was on at the moment, his hanten neatly folded on a desk nearby "where the hell am I 'ttebayo?"
"Um hi, you're in Sandgem town at the moment, in a room within Professor Rowan's lab, you've been unconscious for three days" the black-haired man answered his question, but that answer just brought even more questions whit it, Sandgem town? Did he mean to say the Sandgem flats? "One of our newest trainers found you by the edge of Lake Verity, you should thank her if you ever get the chance"
Naruto's mind was racing a mile per minute, however before he could as any of them his vision suddenly blurred, and he went into sweet unconsciousness once again.
XxX
A couple of hours later
Naruto awoke to the smell of food, however instead of what he had been hoping, that being that this was all a very elaborate trick that his mind was playing on him, he once again found himself in the same room, the small window that he had failed to notice last time that he was awake, was open, letting the refreshing night breeze into the room, it was comfortable, this was perhaps the softest bed he had ever slept on, and he would have gone back to sleep under any other circumstance, however at the moment there were a few things he needed, information about what in Sinohs name was going on, and food, lots of food.
With those priorities set in mind, the blond got out of bed put on his orange jacket, and checked every single one of his pockets, to his relief everything was where he had left it, his, and Akari's pokemon inside of their pokeballs safely tucked into an inside pocket of his jacket, and the Kiridashi (small all-purpose knife) that his father had given him as a present in one of the pockets of his pants tucked away into its scabbard, it was a beautiful gift, a jet black handle whit a couple of red stripes along the sides of the scabbard, and a beautiful multicolored stone-encrusted into the back of the handle.
Putting away his knife, but keeping it whiting his reach should he need it, the blond walked out of the door only to see 5 pairs of eyes looking at him, then Professor Rowan spoke "hello young man, finally awake are you?"
XxX
Nautos current pokemon team: ? lvl.20, ? lvl.8
AN: woohoo, finally finished this chapter as well as most of the "intro" stuff, hopefully by the next chapter we'll have Naruto meet up whit our gang of heroes
