Author's note: My apologies once more for the delay! I didn't mean to leave you all hanging for more than two months, but I'm hoping that starting this year the updates for this story should be more regular. I basically wrote this in one sitting to finally have an update ready ^^; Once more my apologies for taking so long; wasn't my intention!

Thanks to the following reviewers: swordsmanwielder; PinkiePieParty122894; leighd1314; Weebio; rntobi; jessicachitwood95; Pen-Woman; Iraheta 127; JaiJayce; riddletharaIts;

Warnings: Pokémon battle

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

Recap of the previous chapter: Naruto is ready to take on the third Gym. When entering it, he encounters Kiba from his hometown.

I hope you'll like this chapter!

Chapter 12

"What are you doing here?" Kiba exclaimed, equally surprised.

Naruto, who'd been taken aback to see someone from his town here, quickly gathered his wits at the incredulous tone. "What do you think I'm doing here? I'm here to challenge the Gym, of course!" He waved at their surroundings. "What else would I be doing here? I'm not here to gawk at the walls!"

"You realise you need to be a Trainer in order to challenge the Gyms, right?" Kiba asked blankly.

"Dude, I am a Trainer! Why else would I be here?" Naruto retorted incredulously. Did people just enter this Gym all willy-nilly for Kiba to react like that?

"You actually need Pokémon to be a Trainer, though," Kiba insisted. "And you never got your Starter Pokémon, I remember that!"

"I never got my Starter, no, but I did get a Pokémon of my own a little while ago and now we form a team with others!" Naruto grabbed Mimikyu's Pokéball and threw it in the air. "Here, if you don't believe me, this is my first Pokémon!"

"Mimikyu!" Mimikyu's cry bounced between the walls as he landed neatly in front of Naruto, holding himself up as tall as he could – which wasn't very tall, of course, but it was the thought that counted.

Naruto could feel Mimikyu tense up when he caught sight of Kiba, but he remained standing in front of the blond, not even flinching as he stared up boldly at Kiba.

Kiba for his part widened his eyes to the point they appeared to be the size of saucers. "You've got a Mimikyu as your Pokémon?" he asked faintly, shuffling nervously with his feet.

"Yeah, and a couple of others," Naruto confirmed, smiling when one of Mimikyu's shadowy tendrils casually waved back and forth.

"Why do you have a Mimikyu as a Pokémon?" Kiba demanded, looking anywhere but at Mimikyu now.

"Because Mimikyu and I decided to form a team after we met," Naruto replied, though he had no idea why Kiba was asking these questions.

Sure, it probably wasn't every day that a Trainer without an official Starter Pokémon wanted to fight the Gym Leader, but what was his deal about Mimikyu being Naruto's first Pokémon? That was just how life had played out and so far he and Mimikyu made a pretty good team.

"You still have your Growlithe?" he asked when Kiba just kept staring at him.

Mimikyu had shuffled next to Naruto now; one shadowy arm coming to wrap itself around Naruto's ankle as Mimikyu looked around curiously, taking in their surroundings.

Kiba shook his head and started to grin, linking his hands behind his head. "Nah man, Growlithe chose to evolve a few years ago; he's become an awesome Arcanine now!"

"Guess that means you can't carry him around any longer then, huh?" Naruto snickered.

When Kiba had first returned to their town after he'd set off on his adventure, he had one of the smallest Growlithes Naruto had ever seen. The small Pokémon had usually been spotted, either sitting on top of Kiba's head or being carried by the boy. With him being Arcanine now, though, he probably wasn't that small anymore – unless Kiba somehow managed to possess the smallest Arcanine in history as well.

"Nope, those days are over," Kiba chuckled. "Although Arcanine still occasionally tries to climb on top of me. That only works when I'm sitting down, though."

"So how long have you been working for this Gym?" Now that Naruto thought about it, it had been quite a while since he had last seen Kiba in their town, but he had chalked it up to them just missing each other every time. It wasn't as if Naruto had visited the town every day after all.

"Hm, I started around a year ago?" Kiba tilted his head to the left and flicked his eyes up to the ceiling as if he was calculating the time. "Yeah, has to be a year already by now. I met the Gym Leader again at a local tournament and we got talking. I was really impressed by her skills and she offered me a job here, so of course I took it!"

"So will we have a match before I meet the Gym Leader?" Naruto asked curiously.

Depending on when exactly Growlithe had chosen to evolve, his match with Kiba might be doable or it might turn out to be a complete nightmare.

"Nah, I'm not on the roster for the actual Gym battles this week," Kiba said, shaking his head. "I'm working behind the scenes so to speak, so I'm going to explain how this Gym works."

"It's not just simply defeating a couple of Trainers and then the Gym Leader?" The previous two Gyms had involved puzzles of sorts before he could meet the actual Gym Leader, so it didn't come as a surprise that this Gym worked in the same manner.

"Nope, well, not in a sense," Kiba said and jerked his thumb at the door. "You see, our Gym Leader is fond of quizzes and loves testing us about our knowledge. Once you go through that door, you'll have to answer four questions. Each time you'll be given two options to choose from. If you choose the wrong answer, you'll have to battle one of the Trainers present here. If you manage to answer everything correctly, you'll advance straight through to the Gym Leader."

"So if I make a mistake, I'll have to battle a Trainer," Naruto said slowly, tapping his lip.

He wondered whether he should risk answering some questions wrongly. It would allow him to get some practice in already so to speak and figure out which of his Pokémon, aside from Vaporeon, would be the best choices for this Gym.

"Yes, but I have to warn you, if you pick the wrong answer and you lose the battle, you'll have to start all over again and the questions will be different," Kiba said warningly. "There's no picking up where you left off. You lose, you have to start all over again."

"But if I win the matches, I just continue on to the Gym Leader, right?"

"Yeah, but keep in mind that you won't be allowed to heal your Pokémon before you meet up with her in case you have to battle some of the Trainers here," Kiba said and shrugged. "So if you have to battle all four of them, you don't get a chance to heal and you just have to battle our Leader no matter the state your Pokémon are in."

Naruto stared at him. "That sounds … a bit brutal," he remarked carefully.

Didn't most Gyms have the option to temporarily leave to heal your Pokémon before you met the Leader? Or at the very least use your own Potions on them?

"Yeah, she's a tough one," Kiba said wryly. "She once told us that just because her Gym is the third one in line doesn't mean she has to hold back. She considers this a way for Trainers to discover whether they have what it takes to go all the way up to the Elite Four and the Champion. After all, once you challenge the Elite Four, you don't get a chance to visit the Pokécentre either."

Suddenly battling all the Trainers here didn't seem like such a good idea after all. He didn't have issues perse with having to start anew, but he also didn't want to push his Pokémon to their very limits. If they got hurt badly by the time they reached the Gym Leader, she would wreak havoc on his team and he would have to start all over again.

"Suppose you can't tell me whether the questions are difficult or not?" Naruto grinned crookedly.

"Nah man, can't say anything," Kiba grinned and rested his hands on his hips. "So did you get scared yet or are you going to continue?"

"I'm not backing down. I'm here to win that Badge," Naruto said firmly and called Mimikyu back in his ball.

Kiba's grin widened. "Well then, I suggest you walk through that door and discover for yourself whether you have what it takes to defeat our Gym Leader."

His eyes flicked towards the swathed egg against Naruto's chest. "By the way, you want me to keep that egg safe for you in the meantime or …"

"No, I'm good. I can hold onto it," Naruto assured.

"All right, enter through that door whenever you're ready then." Kiba offered him a wave before he walked back the way he had come, disappearing around the corner.

"Okay, let's do this," Naruto muttered and took a deep breath, marching over to the door.

He just had to answer four questions; should be easy enough, right? How difficult could they truly be for someone who had spent a lot of time with a Pokémon Professor? And if he answered wrongly, well, they would just have to deal with it and hope the Trainer didn't have too many Pokémon to defeat.

The first room he walked into was very sober. The walls were a beige colour, the floor was made up out of dark tiles and two doors were opposite him. One door bore the sign A while the other had the sign B in the middle of it. In the middle of the room there was a small screen placed upon a white pedestal. Curiously, he walked over to it and after briefly hesitating, he touched the screen carefully.

It instantly lit up underneath his touch and text started appearing, as if someone was typing it out in real time.

HELLO TRAINER. PLEASE READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY AND CHOOSE THE CORRECT DOOR. GOOD LUCK!

QUESTION: WHICH TYPE IS THE FOLLOWING POKEMON?

A picture of a blue, amphibious, octopus-like Pokémon was shown on the screen. It had a yellow jagged eye mask-like marking and cyan eyes. In the picture the Pokémon was captured mid-swimming; its ferocious eyes locked onto something in the distance. Although Naruto hadn't had any personal experience with the Pokémon in question, because they didn't appear near his home, he recognised the Pokémon as a Grapploct. He had only seen them in pictures before and in television shows occasionally, but that was about it. All he knew was that they could be quite vicious if provoked.

Underneath the picture two options were displayed. Option A stated Water/Fighting while option B stated Fighting. So the possible answers were linked with the signs on the doors. He had initially thought that he just had to give the answers on the screen and depending on the answer, a Trainer would challenge him to a match or not. Instead he would have to pick the door depending on what he considered to be the correct answer. The Gym must be bigger in depth than it looked like from the outside if they managed to build several rooms inside of it.

Studying the picture of the Grapploct, he twisted into the direction of the door with the sign A. Grapplocts were often find near or in the water and it had the form of an octopus; it made sense then for it to be both Fighting and Water, just like his Mimikyu was both Fairy and Ghost.

As he started walking into the direction of the door on the left, however, something in him started to hesitate and he halted, nibbling on his lower lip. He couldn't exactly explain why, but something in him held him back from approaching the left door. Pursing his lips, he turned around and went back to look at the picture. Fighting or Water/Fighting? If it spent a lot of time in the water, didn't it make sense for it to be partly a Water type?

The strange feeling of doubt persisted however and after puffing out his breath, he switched sides and walked over to the door bearing the sign B. He dawdled for a bit longer right in front of it, before quickly pushing the doorknob down, opening the door and letting it swing open.

No Trainer present to challenge him.

"A Fighting type, huh?" he muttered to himself and shook his head. He wouldn't forget that titbit anymore after this.

The second room was an exact replica of the first one, down to the signs etched into the middle of the doors. Once more the screen lit up underneath his touch.

PLEASE READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY AND CHOOSE THE CORRECT DOOR. GOOD LUCK!

QUESTION: DOES EEVEE EVOLVE INTO UMBREON THROUGH THE USE OF A DUSK STONE?

Option A listed YES, while option B listed NO. This time Naruto didn't even hesitate and went straight for the door bearing the B sign. Just a few months ago he had read an article about the various ways to evolve Eevee and he remembered that Umbreon was one of the few evolutions of Eevee who couldn't get acquired through the use of a Stone. Instead Eevee had to be trained during the night and the Trainer had to have a strong friendship with Eevee in order for the Pokémon to evolve into an Umbreon.

As he touched the screen in the third room, he absently wondered what the Trainers in this Gym did when they didn't have anyone to challenge. Did they just stay in that room the entire day, waiting for someone to mess up? Did they keep themselves occupied with something until the door opened? He was almost tempted to choose the wrong answer, just to sate his curiosity, but his drive to show that he knew Pokémon well was stronger. Besides, if he wanted to take on the Gym Leader and have a chance at defeating her, his Pokémon needed to be as well rested as they could be.

PLEASE READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY AND CHOOSE THE CORRECT DOOR. GOOD LUCK!

QUESTION: HOW MANY WEAKNESSES DOES THE FIRE TYPE HAVE?

Option A stated three while option B stated two. Naruto stared at the screen, mentally listing up all the types and their relation to Fire. Clearly Water was a severe weakness, that was a no-brainer; it was one of the main reasons he was so glad to have Vaporeon as a team member. There was Ground too, that he knew for certain. Was there a third one? Ice? No, while Water was a severe weakness, Ice was weak against Fire, so that couldn't be it. Steel, Bug and Grass obviously were all weak against Fire. Fire was neutral. Dragon while it could be powerful wasn't a severe weakness for Fire either. What else? Fighting? No, not a severe weakness. Normal wasn't anything out of the ordinary either. Flying, Poison, Electric, Psychic … No, no, no and no. No notable weaknesses for Fire, even if they could be a pain in the arse to deal with.

Ghost? Hm, not necessarily. What else was left? Dark nor Fairy were real weaknesses either. Had he missed a Type? Normal, Fire, Fighting, Water, Flying, Grass, Poison, Electric, Ground, Psychic, Ice, Bug, Dragon, Ghost, Dark, Steel, Fairy … He counted them all on his fingers, mumbling soundlessly to himself. Was he missing a Type? Oh!

He smacked his fist in his open hand. Of course, Rock! How could he have forgotten Rock when he had literally taken care of an Onix before? Was Rock a severe weakness for Fire, though? It was kind of linked to Ground, no? And Ground was a weakness, so that stood to reason that Rock would also be a weakness for Fire. That meant that Fire had three weaknesses instead of only two?

He stared at the screen for a moment longer before resolutely walking over to door A. When he stepped through this door, he drew to a halt when he realised the décor wasn't entirely the same anymore. The screen on the pedestal was still in the middle of this room and two doors were still present, but they were completely blank, not displaying any sign whatsoever.

A tad confused, he made his way over to the screen, glancing at the doors. This was the last question, no? So how was he supposed to know which door represented which answer? He assumed the order of the signs would still be the same, but what if it wasn't? It would be incredibly frustrating to know the answer, but choosing the wrong door on accident. Hopefully the screen would give more information.

ONLY ONE MORE QUESTION STANDS BETWEEN YOU AND POSSIBLE VICTORY. SOLVE THE RIDDLE, STATE THE ANSWER ALOUD IN FRONT OF THE DOORS AND THE RIGHT DOOR WILL OPEN FOR YOU. GOOD LUCK.

"A riddle, seriously?" Naruto groaned dismayed and rubbed his forehead.

Why not simply have another question, even if it was more difficult than before? Was he even good at riddles? Well, he guessed he was about to find out.

Apprehensively he turned back to the screen, watching the riddle appear.

I AM THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING AND POSSESS ALL YET FEW DO KNOW ME. WHO AM I?

Naruto stared at it for a little while before throwing up his arms in frustration. Was the Gym Leader serious with this riddle?! What kind of riddle was that?! How could anyone even hope to find the correct answer with basically nothing to go on?

"Does anyone even ever solve these riddles?" he muttered darkly, scowling at the screen.

Was it meant to be solvable even or was this the type of riddle that nobody could ever answer correctly?

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Okay, getting worked up wouldn't help him at all. Yes, the riddle was frustratingly vague; yes, this sucked, but he hadn't come all this way just to give up now. He needed to think carefully about it. There was no time limit as far as he knew, so he didn't have to rush either.

So, what could he garner from the riddle that might help him? It was about a Pokémon, obviously. Kiba had said that the Gym Leader liked to test people's knowledge about Pokémon, so after three questions it was only logical that the riddle would also be about a Pokémon and not a person.

It was a rare Pokémon apparently. It had to be, because the riddle stated that few knew about them. So that meant that this Pokémon was either a Legendary or a Mythical Pokémon, right? He nodded slowly to himself. It had to be either of those two, because most Pokémon were fairly well documented by now. That already significantly reduced the amount of possibilities, but the group of Legendary and Mythical Pokémon wasn't that small either.

What else? The beginning of everything and possess all … What did that mean? The beginning of everything – could that refer to Arceus? Everyone believed that Arceus had created everything, after all. So Arceus could be the beginning, but what about the second part, possessing it all? What could Arceus possibly possess?

He tried to remember what mum had used to tell in her stories before he went to sleep. Legendary and Mythical Pokémon had always fascinated mum and she had hunted down every scrap of information she could find about them, even copying information by hand if she hadn't been allowed to take the book with her. She had talked about Arceus before, mentioning how he had come into existence out of nothing and had created everything around them. She had never mentioned anything about him possessing a lot of something, though …

Did that mean that Arceus wasn't the right answer? He fit the first part, but he couldn't find a reason why he could fit the second part as well. Which other Legendary or Mythical Pokémon did he know that could fit the description?

Kyogre? Definitely not. None of the stories ever mentioned that Pokémon being the beginning of everything; if anything it was more likely to bring about the end. Groudon was the same. Rayquaza? No, while super ancient, he didn't fit the bill either. Celebi? Mum had said that Pokémon could travel through time, but travelling through time wasn't the same as being the beginning of everything. Lugia? No, no, that Pokémon couldn't be it either.

Who else could be the beginning and be in possession of all – whatever all was?

He started pacing back and forth, lacing his fingers together behind his back. "We've got Arceus, who's the beginning of everything," he muttered to himself, "but is he in possession of all? Not that I know of. Who else is there?"

Who else had mum talked about during those evenings? She'd talked about a Pokémon coming into existence through an experiment, right? Who was it again? Me- Mew- Mewtwo? Right, Mewtwo! But all she had told him was that this Pokémon was so powerful that nobody could even attempt to catch it. Nothing about being the beginning of anything.

He slowed down, an idea slowly unfolding. If Mewtwo had been the result of an experiment, that meant he had to have been created from something, or more accurately someone else, right? And who had given the scientists the necessary material? It had been another Pokémon, he knew that, but who …

Mew.

Of course, it was literally in Mewtwo's name! Naruto could slap himself. Of course the one who had led to Mewtwo's creator could only be Mew! But almost nothing was known about Mew. Only that it might have once lived in a jungle somewhere far away. That it was a Mythical Pokémon, precisely because very few people had ever witnessed it – and none of them had actual proof. Even the scientists had to make do with material they had come across; as far as Naruto knew, none of them had ever met Mew in real life. Or if they had, they had kept quiet about it.

Could that be it? Could Mew be the solution? If they had used DNA of Mew to create Mewtwo – could that refer to the beginning of all? But possessing everything … What did that even refer to? Moves perhaps? Could Mew learn every move?

"This is so confusing," he muttered and paused in front of the screen again, rereading the riddle.

Arceus or Mew? Who was more likely to be the answer?

"Mew?" he mumbled and squeaked when the egg suddenly dipped forwards, making him catch it quickly before it could break. "Don't scare me like that," he scolded and swaddled it more thoroughly this time, keeping one of his arms braced underneath it.

"So Mew or Arceus?" he contemplated, staring unseeingly at the screen.

He didn't think there was any other Legendary or Mythical Pokémon that could even fit the first part, let alone the second part, so now he had a choice to make. Either Mew was the answer or Arceus. Who would he go for?

Both had some sort of tie to being the beginning of something, but which one was more likely to fit the second part?

"Well, here goes nothing," he mumbled and walked over to the doors.

He paused in front of them, positioning himself right in the middle. Glancing up, there was nothing visible to indicate that there was a camera or any other device hung up that let others overhear him, but perhaps such a device was simply hidden within the walls?

"The answer to the riddle is Mew," he said aloud, hating how his voice turned a bit shaky near the end.

He had honestly no idea if he was even on the right track with his thoughts, but he had to give an answer. If it was wrong, it was wrong; they would just have to deal with the Trainer then before challenging the Gym Leader. At least he would still have answered three out of the four correctly.

A bit nervous, he watched the door on the right swing open soundlessly. Swallowing he walked over to it, peeked through the door opening and –

Was met with a relatively big battlefield in the middle of a huge room. The ground was sandy, some boulders casting shadows across the floor. The ceiling was quite high, making him worry a bit that this meant the Gym Leader had some sort of Flying Pokémon. Oh man, if she had a Pokémon like Charizard, he might be in big trouble. He wasn't sure if Vaporeon could match up against a Charizard already.

Wait, a battlefield … That had to meant …!

A fair-skinned, slender woman stepped onto the battlefield. Her black hair was long and untamed and her eyes were red, studying him carefully. She wore a red shirt with wide sleeves and white trousers; three Pokéballs hung to a belt around her waist.

She smiled faintly and beckoned him closer. "Congratulations, not many manage to solve the riddle," she said approvingly. "Not even one retry, your knowledge is impressive indeed."

"Ah, guess I just got lucky with the questions," he muttered, a bit embarrassed, and walked onto the battlefield, facing her.

So he had managed to answer everything correctly without having to challenge a Trainer once. That meant his Pokémon were still on the top of their game, but whether it would be enough to defeat her from the first try … They would just have to find out.

"My name is Yuhi Kurenai," she introduced herself. "I'm a Gym Leader specialising in Fire Types. My Gym might be just the third one, but that does not mean I will hold back, understood?"

"Wouldn't want you to hold back," Naruto stated firmly. How would winning from her prove anything if she held back after all? "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Well then, ready for a battle?" she smirked and already threw the first Pokéball into the air, not giving him any chance to say something.

The red light revealed a long, flat body dropping down onto the floor before it uncurled itself, rising up high in the air. The head and throat part were mainly a red-orange colour while dark brown sections covered its body. When the Pokémon rose up, it showed yellow rings on its underside.

A Sizzlipede. If Naruto remembered correctly, this Pokémon was Bug/Fire, which meant that his best bet for this one would be Pidgeotto. Flying was strong against Bug, so hopefully Pidgeotto would manage this one even if Sizzlipede was partly Fire.

"Pidgeotto, you're up!" Naruto called out and threw his own Pokéball in the air, careful not to jostle the egg against his chest too much.

Pidgeotto left his Pokéball with a loud screech, shooting into the sky immediately. His gaze fixated itself onto Sizzlipede who hissed and launched an attack instantly. A wheel of flames rapidly shot into the sky, aiming straight for Pidgeotto, who screeched once more and ducked sharply to the right; the flames missing him narrowly.

"Don't give Pidgeotto a chance to avoid, Sizzlipede!" Kurenai called out. She had her arms crossed and was watching Pidgeotto carefully.

"Hit him with a Whirlwind!" Naruto called out.

A Sand Attack wouldn't do any real damage, a Quick Attack would bring Pidgeotto in too close range of the fire, but a Whirlwind might just be strong enough to deal with Sizzlipede immediately.

Sizzlipede managed to avoid two Whirlwinds by throwing his body behind a boulder twice, letting the stone receive the brunt of the attack. He wasn't as fast as Pidgeotto, however, and Pidgeotto was quick to circle around, flying to Sizzlipede's half when the other Pokémon started burying his flat body underneath a gap beneath the boulder. Before Sizzlipede could fully disappear, however, Pidgeotto caught him by surprise and launched a new Whirlwind straight at his back. The attack whipped Sizzlipede from underneath the boulder, straight against the wall.

Before Sizzlipede could recover, Pidgeotto screeched almost triumphantly and launched two more Whirlwinds at the other Pokémon in quick succession, giving him no chance to escape. The mini tornados hit Sizzlipede straight into his belly, making him hiss loudly in pain. His stubby feet waved furiously in the air for a couple of seconds, his yellow eyes glaring up at Pidgeotto who floated high above him. Then Sizzlipede slumped forwards abruptly, out for the count.

Naruto whooped in excitement. "That was amazing, Pidgeotto!" he praised him and Pidgeotto flew a literal victory lap around the room, showing off the width of his wingspan.

It made Naruto laugh and even Kurenai was smiling faintly before she called her Pokémon back.

"Don't celebrate too early yet," she warned lightly and chose her next Pokémon.

That one turned out to be Flareon and after a short bout of hesitation, Naruto called Pidgeotto back. While Pidgeotto had had an advantage against Sizzlipede because of his Flying nature, he didn't have any real advantage against Flareon. Should he already put in Vaporeon? It would be a neat match in a way then, having two evolutions of Eevee battle each other but … He wanted to keep Vaporeon for the last Pokémon just in case the last one was even stronger.

So that left him with putting in either Vulpix, who didn't have any advantage with her Fire nature, or Mimikyu, who didn't have a real advantage either. Having Fire battling Fire would take too long, so he called out Mimikyu in the end, silently promising Vulpix she would have her moment to shine very soon again.

Kurenai raised her eyebrows when Mimikyu entered the battlefield and even Flareon seemed to frown. "Mimikyu, hm?" Kurenai said thoughtfully, which was at least a more reserved reaction than Kiba had given.

"Try to avoid the fire attacks as much as possible, all right?" Naruto instructed Mimikyu, who listened intently. "We might have to go with the tactic of wearing Flareon down before we launch a full attack."

"Mimikyu!" Okay!

Wearing Flareon down was easier said than down, however, especially when Mimikyu wasn't as fast as Flareon was and just narrowly managed to jump out of reach from the Embers and Quick Attacks Flareon launched at him. Naruto tried to speed up the process by having Mimikyu use Baby-Doll Eyes on Flareon to lower its attack, making it easier for Mimikyu to avoid the attacks, but this clearly was going to take longer than the fight between Pidgeotto and Sizzlipede had.

And then something happened Naruto really should have thought about.

Just two seconds of being too late to react and all of a sudden Flareon's Ember attack managed to hit Mimikyu near his lower left side. It set the cloth there aflame, making Mimikyu cry out in a panic as he hastily rolled back and forth across the ground, desperate to put out the fire. Flareon was uttering high pitched noises meanwhile, as if it was laughing at Mimikyu's panic.

When the fire died out, the yellow cloth was ruined in that place, unravelling at the seams and leaving a layer of dusty soot behind around the damaged area. Shadowy tendrils leaked out of the gap and Naruto noticed the very moment Mimikyu stiffened, looking down at his ruined costume.

Mimikyu's gaze fixed itself onto Flareon, who was still laughing, and the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

"Oh no," Naruto said dumbly, realising too late what was about to go down.

With something that could only be described as a vicious, furious war cry, Mimikyu launched himself at Flareon, scratching viciously at its face before several streaks of shadows sped towards Flareon from all sides, rising up before slamming down onto Flareon all at once. Flareon cried out and struggled free from the shadows, but before it could run away, another bigger shadow reared up from behind Flareon and covered the Pokémon completely, pressing it down harshly into the ground.

More and more Shadow Sneak attacks followed, landing on Flareon and keeping him down, drowning him underneath the bulk of the shadows until Flareon stopped struggling and fainted.

"Flareon? Are you all right?" Kurenai demanded, but Flareon didn't even twitch.

The Pokémon laid there limply as the shadows retreated one by one, clearly no longer up for battling. Mimikyu threw the fainted Fire Pokémon one more filthy glare before he shuffled his way over to Naruto, pointing at the torn cloth with a trembling shadowy tendril; his dark eyes turning teary. The contrast between the furious, hellbent on taking revenge Pokémon and the one in near tears now was rather jarring and Naruto felt Kurenai's stare on him.

"I know, I know," Naruto said soothingly and bent down to embrace Mimikyu carefully. "Don't worry about that; once we're done here, we'll get you everything you need to fix your costume, okay? It'll be all right, I promise."

"Mimi, Mimikyu!" Nasty Flareon!

"I know, but you beat Flareon, so you did an amazing job!" Naruto encouraged Mimikyu, who puffed out his chest in pride when he realised that, yes, he had won the battle!

Granted, it was mostly because he had become so pissed off that Flareon hadn't even had the chance to defend itself, but it was a win nonetheless!

"You've got some interesting Pokémon there," Kurenai remarked blankly before calling Flareon back. She muttered something to its Pokéball before unlatching the last one from her belt and throwing it in the air.

Her last Pokémon turned out to be Fletchinder and while that was better than an alternative like Charizard or Rapidash, Naruto didn't dare to relax quite yet, knowing that Fletchinder could still be higher levelled than his Pokémon were.

"Vaporeon, your time to shine, buddy," Naruto murmured and threw the Pokéball into the air as well. With a bit of luck Vaporeon would be the last Pokémon to battle before they were finished here.

Vaporeon's cry when leaving the Pokéball was rather meek still and his tail swished back and forth as he studied Fletchinder wearily. Fletchinder for their part glared right back before spreading his wings and flying upwards.

"We trained for this," Naruto reminded Vaporeon. "Just like with Vulpix, remember? If you manage to hit him enough times with one of your Water attacks, we'll win. You can do it, I know you can!"

Vaporeon chirped quietly. He didn't sound as confident as Naruto would have liked, but perhaps if this match went well, Vaporeon would find his much needed confidence. They had the type advantage here, they could do this! Only one more Pokémon to go and then they would have their third Badge!

Fletchinder clearly wasn't about to make things easy for them. Right off the bat, Fletchinder attacked Vaporeon with a Peck, followed by a Quick Attack and even Acrobatics in rapid succession. Vaporeon managed to dodge the Peck, but the Quick Attack had him stumbling sideways and he shouted when he received the full brunt of the Acrobatics attack. With Fletchinder holding no item whatsoever, the damage they delivered to Vaporeon was quite massive, making Naruto flinch when the attack smashed Vaporeon straight into one of the boulders.

"Come on, Vaporeon, you can do this!" Naruto called out, balling his hands into fists. "I believe in you!"

Fletchinder chirped and maybe it was Naruto's imagination, but it sounded as if the Pokémon was taunting Vaporeon as they flew back and forth, calculating their next attack, no doubt.

Vaporeon stood up on shaky legs, taking a tentative step forwards.

"That's it, you can do it!" Naruto encouraged him. "Hit him with a Water Gun!"

What escaped Vaporeon's wasn't a simple Water Gun however. Instead it was a fierce pulsing blast of water that hit Fletchinder straight into their belly. Fletchinder squawked; the force of the water sending him crashing to the ground.

"That's Water Pulse!" Naruto gasped in surprise, trying to remember if Vaporeon had used that attack before during their trainings. He didn't think he had. "Do it again, Vaporeon! Hit them now they're down!"

He didn't have to tell Vaporeon twice. As soon as Fletchinder smashed into the ground, Vaporeon sprang forwards, sending another pure blast of water at the other Pokémon. It sent Fletchinder careening through the air, smacking their back forcefully against the opposite wall.

Their wings twitched, Fletchinder croaked in frustration, before sagging down completely.

"Fletchinder, come back!" Kurenai called out, which meant that –

That meant they had won!

Whooping in joy, Naruto rushed forwards, fell down on his knees and embraced Vaporeon firmly, remaining aware enough not to squish the egg between them. "You did it, Vaporeon! You won! We beat the Gym Leader!"

"Vaporeon?" We won?

Vaporeon sounded bemused, his tail flicking back and forth as he stared at Kurenai before gazing inquiringly at Naruto, who nodded with a wide grin.

"We did! We won from the Gym Leader! You did an amazing job!"

Pride flared up in those dark eyes and Vaporeon butted his forehead against Naruto's, clearly very happy with his first win.

"I knew you could do it!" Naruto gushed. "You were so amazing, you even managed to use a new move immediately!"

A gentle clearing of the throat had him looking up and flushing when he realised Kurenai was waiting for him to acknowledge her. He smiled at her embarrassedly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ah, erm, sorry about that."

"No need. Your Pokémon deserve the praise; they did very well," Kurenai smiled and reached out her hand to him. In the middle of her palm a Badge in the form of a blood red flame was revealed. "Take it, you have definitely deserved it."

"Thank you so – Huh?"

An odd cracking noise echoed through the space. He, Kurenai and Vaporeon all looked down –

Only to see cracks appearing in the eggshell, a bright light squeezing its way through the growing gaps.

The egg was hatching.

AN2: You mess up Mimikyu's costume, you get fucked up, simple as that. Any guesses which Pokémon will hatch from the egg?

Anyone playing Violet or Scarlet, what bothers you the most? I can't choose between trying to find all those damn stakes or the fact that we can no longer enter most houses to creep around and bother NPCs.

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 the 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.