Litte bit late but here is the update for the 200th review in my other story: Underneath the Underneath. Congrats to Vaughn Tyler for being the 200th reviewer! :D

I don't own Naruto… or Pokémon.


"Common Kyū-chan!" Naru raced ahead, her arms flying behind her and a grin on her face. Her Vulpix ran merrily along with her, "It was great to visit Mom and Dad, but we need to get back to Lavender Town," she shuddered at the thought of the tower, but shrugged it off, "After we visit Brock!" Kyū barked happily at the mention of the Gym leader's name, but trailed off nervously, "Kyū-chan?"

Kyū made a noise of warning to her trainer and Naru immediately stopped, "Kyū-chan?" she repeated, the Vulpix ran a little ways off the path in the forest to the steam that could just be heard through the trees, "Wait! Kyū!" Naru followed, unable to do anything else, as her first Pokémon charged through the ever thicker undergrowth of the forest.

Then another sound reached Naru's ears. It was a low sort of groaning. Naru ran faster; whatever was making that sound was hurt.

Kyū had stopped at the stream and was pawing the ground like she was worried about something, Naru came up after her and placed a gentle, calming hand to the fox's head, it took her less than a second to spot the Magikarp flopping tiredly in the too-shallow water, "I got it, Kyū-chan," Naru assured. Kyū didn't like getting wet.

"Hey little Magikarp," Naru approached the Pokémon carefully, wary of making any sudden moves, "How did you get here, hm?" she eyed the water. The stream wasn't deep enough for the fish-pokémon to swim in; it was barely deep enough to keep the poor thing from drying out. She had reached the stranded Magikarp, the water only reached her mid-calf, and as soon as she did the fish noticed her and relaxed. As if it knew she could help.

Naru frowned as she realized what this meant: this Pokémon was used to humans, thus it once had a trainer, and thus in no longer had one. The trainer of the Magikarp had abandoned his Pokémon to die in the middle of a forest where no one would find it! A seething anger boiled in her heart, but knowing that the Pokémon were sensitive to her emotions she reigned in her fury and focused her attention on getting the little thing some help.

"Hey little guy, do you think I could catch you and take you to a Pokémon Center?" she knew it would understand, but couldn't help but feel a little relieved at the exhausted nod of affirmation it returned, "Poké ball." The ball she'd grabbed from her pack opened and the red light surrounded the hurt Magikarp.

Kyū started pawing the ground at the bank of the stream again, sounding out a series of urgent yips.

"I know, Kyū-chan," Naru replied, placing the ball back in her pack, "We need to hurry."

She ended up running the rest of the way out of the Viridian Forest.

"I need… help," she panted at the desk of Nurse Joy.

"Oh dear," the nurse quickly found her way around the desk to help Naru into a chair, "What's the matter?"

"This Magikarp," Naru picked out the ball, "I found it abandoned in the stream while I was walking through the forest. There wasn't enough water for it to be out for very long and I have no idea how long it was there."

Nurse Joy looked as about appalled as she felt, "How could someone do that?" Joy grabbed the ball from the blonde, "Thank you for bringing it in, I'll fix it up as good as new. Do you have any other Pokémon that need healing?"

Naru shook her head, "My Pokémon are strong enough for the ones in the forest, I've been a trainer for about a year now."

Nurse Joy nodded and called a Chansey to her side to help her with the Magikarp.

After they were gone Naru, with Kyū resting around her shoulders, turned on the video phone and called home.

"Hello? Oh! Naru! Kyū!" Kushina grinned; Kyū yipped in greeting, "Where are you now?"

"Pewter City," she replied.

"Wow!" Kushina frowned, "You got there fast."

"Yeah, something came up, hey! Is Dad home?"

"No, he had a challenger today," Kushina replied, "Anything I can help you with, sweetheart?"

Naru didn't speak for a moment before asking quietly, "What kind of person abandons one of their Pokémon to die?"

Kushina didn't reply for a while, and a sad look passed over her face, "One that doesn't care about their comrades. Your father and I both know people like that. What happened?"

"I found a Magikarp in the middle of the Viridian Forest," Naru said, "Someone just left it there to die in a stream, that's why I got to Pewter City so quick."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Kushina frowned, "The sad truth is there are quite a few people who just thirst for power and don't care about what they do to get there, even 'sacrificing' a Pokémon like that."

Naru was quiet, thinking about Sasuke. He'd left on his journey the same time she had and she could easily see him walking down that path if he wasn't careful, "Thanks Mom."

"I love you, Naru."

"Love you too. I'll talk to you again soon," the screen went black and Naru walked back to the seats to sag tiredly into one.

Kyū made a comforting sound and rubbed her head against Naru's chin.

"I'm okay, girl," the blonde trainer sighed, "I was just thinking."

"Good news!" Nurse Joy was back, "the Magikarp is okay! It was exhausted, but other than that it was fine."

Naru jumped to her feet, startling Kyū, "That's great!"

"I'll trust it to you," Joy smiled, "Thank you for bringing it in."

Naru smiled, "Yeah."

"You take care of it, okay," Nurse Joy looked seriously at her and Naru only grinned.

"Of course!"

.!.

After finding a small pond nearby (one with enough water for the fish to swim in), Naru released the Magikarp from the ball. It swam around happily in the water.

"Hey little guy," she said, earning its attention, "What do you want to do now? I can take you to the coast and let you go free with your friends there," the Pokémon stopped swimming and sunk down into the water with depressed bubble rising from its mouth, "Okay, that's a no. Would you like to stay with me?" the fish perked up and seemed to grin at her, making excited sounds. Naru laughed, "Okay then! Welcome to the team! We'll have to get you a name, won't we?" the fish nodded happily.

Kyū barked happily and the Magikarp blubbered back in much the same manner.

"Alright you two," Naru grinned, her earlier depressing thoughts melting away as she saw the two Pokémon getting along, "Stop socializing! We need to get some things done, there'll be plenty of time for friend-making later!" Kyū yipped affirmative and Magikarp glugged an okay.

So with a new friend at her belt, Naru made her way to the Pewter City Gym to go and talk to Brock before heading off down the road again back to Lavender Town.


Well… the muses have attacked even though I do not have the time. I couldn't stop it until it was written so here you all are! Naru gets a new friend and there are a whole bunch of fun ideas flying around in my head with this one. Oh! And FYI: the Pokémon side will be video game (red/blue) based, manga based, and also anime based (varying degrees of the three will depend on my mood).

Another congrats to Vaughn Tyler for being the 200th reviewer in Underneath the Underneath!