9 Nine Tails 9

Disclaimer: I don't want to put a disclaimer because I don't want to say that I do not own Naruto or Pokémon in any real, legal or official way.

…

…

Oh…

Chapter 1: The Situation Is Like This

Hundreds of questions and hundreds of doubts, and not enough answers.

It was what Naruto felt at the moment and he knew that it would stay that way for quite the time. But he had to concentrate and try to solve the most important ones before anything else, otherwise not a single question would be solved.

He moved aside all those thoughts to stare at the current sunset setting over the horizon, staring at the artwork that was ethereally painted in the sky. Ah, how he loved orange…

"I don't know what you humans see of special about a sunset. I mean, it's just a huge gas globe getting away from our view" Kyūbi muttered, resting on the grass. To any outsider hearing the odd duo, it was nothing more than a yip and a growl, but to the blond it was a well-formulated sentence. How Kyūbi could communicate with him without the need of actually talking was one of the questions he wanted to answer.

"I guess that watching the sunset is one of the things that come with human nature" the shinobi said. His thoughts then moved to another question that could be answered right now. "By the way Kyūbi, why haven't you escaped by now if you are now free of the seal?"

At first, Kyūbi seemed surprised by the inquiry, and answered it with a question of his own: "You think I would abandon my Jinchūriki and jailer while he was in a moment of difficulty?" the silver fox sounded sincere about its feelings, but any sincere intention the fox had said on its question vanished when Naruto looked at said creature straight in the eyes.

"Believe me I tried" this time the Kyūbi did answer sincerely "But even now we are still linked. When I realized I couldn't really go away from you, I just wandered around. Besides, putting up with you is not that bad as it was in the beginning"

It was true for both of them that after Naruto took possession of the mythical Bijū's Chakra in the Moving Island of Kumogakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Clouds), the blond began to try to talk with the Nine Tailed Demon Fox as equals without any kind of friction. They clashed a lot (really a lot) on their different points of view and ideals, but the war forced them to cooperate to obtain a goal. Begrudgingly both teamed up, and before they both knew it, the shinobi could actually pull a decent conversation with the fox. Of course they had a long way to go in the friendship department, but as the war extended and they fought together, Naruto and Kyūbi started to value more their connection (not that they would openly admit it. Not even the slightest hint) and talked without problem. Now even if this new problem appeared, they wouldn't break into a fight.

"What do you mean we are still linked?" The blond voiced his intrigue.

"Your puny little mind wouldn't understand it if I explained…" the fox sighed in disillusion. Naruto was about to retort with his own comment until he realized that arguing with Kyūbi wouldn't bring him any benefit.

"Then show me, oh great Demon Fox" the shinobi added the title sarcastically.

"With pleasure" the silver fox responded before inclining its head in a mock reverence. The blue-eyed ninja grunted in response before he let himself be dragged to his mind by his pseudo-prisoner. His body vanished and his sight became enveloped by a blackness he grew used to, before fire suddenly lit in some torches positioned on the walls of a long corridor with golden pipes as ceilings and a red carpet covering the floor. Naruto then materialized at the side of the silver fox, and both began to walk calmly towards the end of the corridor.

What the shinobi found was something that he more or less anticipated: the golden-bar jail that housed the former gigantic fox was ripped apart, but instead of just setting the Bijū free something else had appeared. Seven different colored pillars stood inside the broken jail, each one positioned at the sides of the room. Every pillar had a kanji carved on the middle of their length; the kanji inscribed being a different number according to the pillar's color: the sandy yellow pillar had a 一, or Ichi (one), while the red pillar had a 四, or Yon (four). Even weirder than the pillars and their numerology was the chain that protruded from each one and that extended towards the center of the room. At the very center point, the seven chains were attached to a dog-sized crimson and black collar.

Intrigued by the artifact lying at the center of the room, Naruto picked it up and saw that the collar had carved numerous kanji, symbols and lines. Realizing this was the new seal formula that let Kyūbi reside outside of his body, but kept the fox tied to him, the shinobi did not dare to damage it or modify it in any way, so he left the collar where he picked it. He then went outside the broken jail, where the silver fox had been waiting for him.

"Do you understand now?" the vulpine Tailed Beast asked.

"Yes" the ninja said, although he still had many more questions without answer. The seal formula however, solved some questions like how Kyūbi was out and yet still tied to him, and why the fox could communicate with him telepathically, but it still didn't explain, for example, why the Bijū lost so much Chakra.

"Good, then let's get out of here. This place doesn't exactly brings me memories that I'm fond of" the comment the fox made snapped the blond out of his thoughts.

"Me neither" was all Naruto said before the broken golden jail, the piped ceiling and the red-carpet floor all vanished in darkness, and his sight was again on the forest clearing he woke up. It was now night, and a full moon rested proud in the star-lit sky.

"So what do we do now?" the fox inquired. In this type of white light that came with night, the fox's silver fur looked like it was glowing.

"Well, if we want answers then we have to ask people that know something about the topic, and for that we first need to search for a town or a city… whichever appears first" Naruto added as an afterthought.

"So search it is" Kyūbi replied. The fox then started flexing its legs and tails, and turned its head to snap some neck bones.

"Not actually" the blond stopped the silver fox's jogging dead on its tracks.

"Why not? You do realize you are contradicting what you just said?"

"Yes I do" the shinobi nodded "But first I want to check my abilities to see if something has changed" the blond gave his reasoning "And you also need to check what you can do with your little cute body" Naruto smiled with humor at the remark. He was getting Kyūbi for that 'puny mind' comment.

"…I hate you, but you got a point. This body isn't what I'm used to fight with"

Both had no problem with doing physical work at night, as they had before in the war, so they searched for a clearing or anywhere that suited their training needs. They wandered aimlessly through the forest for about fifteen minutes until they found the clearing they were searching for: it was wide, around two hundred meters by one hundred meters, and it also had a waterfall with a lake below that ended in a river, which was even better for him.

Getting ready, the blond did some jumps and jogged a little. Then Naruto went to one edge of the clearing and began to race through the length of it. The ninja ran from here to there, jumping and twisting and flexing to test his physical state. Kyūbi also stretched and ran across the clearing in an evaluation of the physical limits of its vulpine body.

Naruto's speed and reflexes were unaltered, at least according to himself. That was a relief, since for most of his engagements in battle he relied a good part on his physical prowess. The blond continued to self-evaluate himself until he was satisfied with the tests, then moving to the next vital point of his abilities: Jutsu.

He went to find Kyūbi, who was still running across the camp with as much energy as a dog away from the kennel, and then stopped in front of the Bijū to halt its racing.

"What do you want?" the fox asked, his mood somewhat sour due to the interruption of its race.

"I just came to tell you that besides physical tests, you should also check if you can also do anything Chakra-related, like an attack or something"

"Fine" the fox grunted "But let me finish my 'I'm-free-of-my-longtime-prison' moment"

"Sure" the shinobi said, not really caring about the vulpine Bijū's antics. Eighteen years on a prison with almost no mobility must be a boring time, even for a Tailed Beast. That didn't include the periods when Kyūbi was sealed into Uzumaki Mito (who had a very large life by the way), and the period when the fox was sealed into his mother, Uzumaki Kushina… that was a long time indeed.

So he proceeded to move to the Jutsu segment of his evaluation. Before that, however, he needed to verify his Chakra hadn't suffered any alterations in this whole mess. So he stopped running, got down into a lotus position and focused on his interior. Naruto didn't close his eyes, however, because he didn't need meditation right now. When he felt something lightly warm that flowed all through his body, he concentrated it on one spot in his stomach, and when the shinobi felt a pulse, unleashed it all outside of his body. Naruto's body was then covered in a hue of a remarkably blue color, but after a second it faded away with the same speed it had appeared. This whole process was for him to accurately measure his Chakra reserves.

Compared to his pre-accident reserves, this quantity was minuscule: well over a fifth of what his total amount of Chakra used to be. Nevertheless, compared with the normal standards, his actual reserves were similar to those of an experienced Jōnin. With his reserves dwarfed to this amount, his control over Chakra would have also slipped a notch or two, but nothing disastrous. It meant that he'd have to practice again his lower Chakra techniques, which for some people wasn't that bad, but for him was a real pain in the ass.

Anyway, to the blond those Jutsu weren't that important. He could practice them later, but now one more thing had popped that Naruto needed to be certain he could perform before moving to Ninja Techniques: Chakra control, which was less Chakra-intensive than the techniques he intended to use.

The blond searched for a clearing like this one because he could train here in many ways, and Chakra control was one of them. The shinobi raced towards a particularly tall tree and sent Chakra at the soles of his feet.

Seemingly not caring that he was about to crash with the tree, Naruto did a low jump and proceeded to run along the tree's thirty-meter length defying the gravity laws known to the man. When the blond arrived to the top, he jumped to another tree and landed on a strong branch, then leaped to another and to another. The ninja jumped from branch to branch around the clearing, enjoying the wind hitting lightly his face.

Tree walking had worked, and that was enough for him right now: it was one of the simplest yet most useful Chakra control techniques existing, and while there were a plenty of more advanced techniques, it was all he needed to be sure the Jutsu Naruto considered vital would function correctly…wait. No. The Jinchūriki still had two more control exercises to do, but while one of these was another Chakra control exercise (even if more complex than tree walking), the other involved Elemental Manipulation instead.

With that in mind, Naruto dropped himself from the branch he was perched in and landed aside the waterfall's lake, sending Chakra to his feet and applying it with care. The blond then walked on its surface, again defying the physic laws someone that obviously didn't know ninja had invented. He stood against the waterfall, and extended his arms with the palms of his hands facing the falling water. The blond searched on his interior for a fresh, breeze-like sensation. When he felt it, Naruto drew it to his hands and pushed it outside in one go. The waterfall split horizontally in two parts. Satisfied, he stopped the flow of Wind Chakra to his hands, and jumped outside of the lake he was standing in, landing in a crouch. His exercises done, the shinobi could now move to test his vital Jutsu.

Being enough warmed up with all he did, he went straight to the point and moved two fingers of each hand to form a cross hand-seal. He then pulsed his Chakra and in a puff of smoke appeared two copies of himself. His first important Jutsu worked, but now that he had considerably less Chakra than he used to, the blond couldn't afford the luxury of making hundreds of Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) that didn't pity his loss of reserves and were still pretty high Chakra consuming. It was time to check his second important Jutsu.

Naruto made a shell of Chakra, filled it with said energy and made it spin, all in a subconscious level. The characteristically blue Rasengan (Spiral Sphere) materialized on his hand, and the still-Jinchūriki then sprinted towards a tree, slamming the blue sphere on it and causing instantaneous destruction to the tree's bark. The tree then cracked into two parts right where the Rasengan had impacted, proving the dangerousness of the attack.

While still in the war, the Rasengan was the only technique the blue-eyed ninja had the time to train and master to a higher degree, leaving as a result the fact that he now didn't need a clone to complete the Spiral Sphere. Most of his other important Jutsu were based on this specific technique, and thus his control over them also increased, but not in the magnitude the Rasengan had. For his third technique, however, he didn't want to slip up and have a destructive backlash as consequence, so instead of trying to perform a Fūton: Rasengan by himself, he used the help of one of the two Shadow Clones he had created, the other one watching from the sidelines, trying to pinpoint any mistake in the Chakra form/Elemental Manipulation technique and warn the users of it before it was too late.

The clone didn't need to, fortunately, because both Naruto and the helping clone knew what they were doing. The original blond shinobi was forming a Rasengan –the base of the technique– while the supporting clone added Wind Chakra to the blue sphere. The Rasengan then developed four small white protrusions that resembled shark fins, and began making a soft screeching noise. Naruto, not wanting to hold the technique for more than what was needed to, slammed the sphere into another tree, immediately splintering the tree and making bark and chunks of wood soar into the air.

The tree didn't even break like the other had with his normal Rasengan: all its unfortunate twelve meters of height were reduced to splinters proving that this technique was even more dangerous than the others.

Getting into fighting rhythm, the blond and his clone began preparing their fourth most important Jutsu, and by far the most destructive. This time the second clone he had created also jumped into action to help create the technique Naruto had come to name Fūton: Rasenshuriken. Naruto himself made again a Rasengan while the other two Kage Bunshin pumped Wind Chakra in large quantities that the technique needed to be completed. This particular technique was the improved and augmented version of the Fūton: Rasengan, and had earned the place of the most dangerous between his Jutsu.

It was then that the Jinchūriki actually realized the amount of Chakra this was taking and how fast the Rasenshuriken was eating through his reserves. The math was not good. Suddenly, the shinobi let the base Rasengan fade, but his clones, having not realized that neither a blue Spiral Sphere was lacking, or the amount of Chakra the technique was consuming, kept pumping Wind Chakra to a now unstable structure of energy, and Naruto decided to dispel the Shadow Clones before they caused an extreme explosion.

When the failed Rasenshuriken was not fed with Chakra anymore, the shuriken-like body collapsed on itself due to the amount of energy it had. Instead of an enormous explosion of cutting air, the result of the aborted S-Rank Jutsu was a miniature tornado surging from the point where the technique was, throwing away anything it encountered. Still, it didn't last long and disappeared in a few seconds.

As Naruto stared at the place where the tornado dissipated, he thought about the cause of it. The shinobi's reserves had been downed to a third of his actual amount (Jōnin-level, he had to remind himself), and the Rasenshuriken wasn't even half completed. This meant that with the Chakra reserves the blond had been reduced to, he couldn't complete a Fūton: Rasenshuriken unless he wanted to end in the brink of death due to Chakra exhaustion, and now the Jinchūriki couldn't get support from his Bijū, since Kyūbi had also lost an abundant quantity of Chakra… even more than him, Naruto speculated.

The shinobi abruptly sensed something at his left, and lashed a kick at where he thought his stalker was. To his surprise, his kick was met with three silver furred tails that endured the contact. To the blonde's further surprise another two silver tails latched at his waist and threw him towards the lake. Instead of splashing in cold water, however, Naruto twisted in the air and ended standing on top of the liquid surface. He moved his eyes to land on his attacker, which was Kyūbi, its orange eyes staring at his own blue.

"What did you figure out you can do, Kyūbi?" If the fox wanted to spar with him it meant that it had found an attack competitive enough. The silver fox twisted its snout into what could be interpreted as a smirk, and just limited itself to say one word.

"This" the silver fox's vulpine cheeks expanded before letting free a huge amount of fire that came straight towards the blond shinobi. Naruto's eyes widened before clashing his hands together and moving his fingers frenetically to form hand-seals, yet the flames almost reached his body and a second later they engulfed the ninja entirely.

For a brief moment, Kyūbi became afraid that the attack had harmed his friend/jailer, but reminded itself that Naruto was no rookie, thus couldn't be caught in such a simple –even if surprising– attack. The fox's thoughts were proven correct when the flames dissipated a bit for the Bijū to see that in the spot the shinobi was seconds ago there was instead a still burning log that sunk into the lake, exuding smoke with a hiss because of the contact with water.

A twig snapped at Kyūbi's left, and the fox's highly sensitive ears pinpointed the sound to be five meters away. The silver fox had enough reaction time to lift two of its tails to cover its left side before a fist impacted them. The fist turned out to be Naruto's, who then lashed out a kick that Kyūbi met with another two tails. Another Naruto suddenly appeared at the fox's right side, trying to land a hit at the downed Bijū's unguarded side, which proved unsuccessful when it was met with another two tails.

'Damn those things are annoying' the shinobi thought referring to Kyūbi's useful nine flexible limbs that allowed the Bijū to multitask. By now, the fox's six battle-active tails were put together, raised protectively in an improvised but effective furry shield. But if you saw them in the angle the blond was standing, combined with the fact that its silver fur glowed a pale white in the moonlight…

"Heh" Naruto said amused "In that shield stance you took you look just like an onion…" he said to spite his pseudo-prisoner, but couldn't help to smirk widely at the implication.

"WHAT!" the downed Bijū barked angrily, loosening its tails in reaction, said limbs then twitching in response to the emotions flowing through he fox's body "Oh I'm so getting you bastard for that comment…" The moment of anger, however, had left an opening that the blond shinobi didn't waste. While the fox was focused on the original Naruto, who had done the remark, his clone had sneaked on Kyūbi's blind spot and tried to land a decisive blow.

The Bijū, although angered, hadn't dropped its guard at any time during the course of the battle, and as such wasn't fooled by the distraction its pseudo-jailer had made. The fox suddenly turned its body a full hundred and eighty degrees before expelling a huge torrent of fire to the surprised clone, who took copious amounts of damage and dispelled in an instant. The Kage Bunshin gone, the Bijū then dashed towards the original Naruto, its silver-furred tails posed as scorpion tails in a gesture that promised pain.

The shinobi didn't miss a beat and also raced towards the fox. When they got into fighting range, Kyūbi unleashed another set of flames that the blond sidestepped enough to avoid. Not satisfied with the results, the downed Bijū fired more bursts of fire straight to the blonde's face, this time wider so they could not be sidestepped. In response, Naruto threw himself to the ground just in time, as the flames passed a few feet above his head and he felt the heat waves.

Those weren't his ideal flames to be scorched with.

The shinobi then sprang back to his feet and ran towards the fox with more speed than before, intent on not letting Kyūbi fire more flame bursts. That wasn't in the Bijū's plans, however, so the fox prepared to unleash another blaze of fire, but Naruto arrived first attempting a punch at the fox's head, which in turn forced Kyūbi to abort the still-not-ready attack and jump away from the hit. The silver fox retaliated as it got into range of attack, using one of its always-useful tails to hit the blond in the temple. The attack landed, leaving a dazed Naruto in consequence. The Bijū tried to do a follow-up strike again in the temple, but this time the shinobi caught it with a hand, and pulled the limb, which made Kyūbi lose balance and in consequence be dragged straight towards its Jinchūriki, who prepared to punch the fox right at the head with his other hand. The silver fox tried to block it with its tails, but the limbs were met with air resistance they weren't strong enough to move in. Closing its vulpine eyes in expectance of the hit to land, Kyūbi was surprised when it didn't feel any pain. The Bijū opened its eyes to stare at Naruto's grinning face; one of its pseudo-jailer's hands positioned in a chop, touching lightly the fur covering its trachea and with his other arm in a grip around its neck.

"The spar's over" the blond told the fox. His pants were dirty with mud from when he had to duck in the ground, and had some small bruises that the shinobi ignored completely. Kyūbi just looked surprised and nodded slowly while the ninja released his grip on the fox's neck.

"Freakin' hell, Kyūbi, you were like a flamethrower trying to burn me to a crisp" Naruto said smiling amusedly.

"That was the idea" the fox replied with the most comfortable tone it was able to give. It made the blonde's smile drop a bit. The Bijū grinned lightly at the action.

Without ant forewarn, they broke into laughter and rested in the forestall floor of the clearing. Although they had just sparred, neither of them was really tired.

"So…do we now go to search for people?" Naruto asked, even if he was the one to suggest the idea.

"I guess"

Dawn was already beginning, the sun showing itself timidly over the east, its first rays hitting the blonde's face and the fox's fur tenderly. The new day renewed his vigor.

"Well then" the blond stood up in a flash, his motivation refreshed and ready to do about anything with new energy to burn. He stretched his limbs and cracked a few bones in anticipation. Kyūbi also stood up and prepared to run when the fox felt something getting inside and outside its body at the same time. It was an odd sensation.

"Wait" the downed Bijū said in a moment of sudden inspiration, trying to figure out what its vulpine instincts were trying to do.

Naruto was doing some warm-up jumps when his pseudo-prisoner told him to stop. The ninja did just that and was greeted with the sight of Kyūbi's silver fur glowing with even more intensity than in the spar, despite the sunlight becoming stronger and stronger. The blond watched in fascination as the fox's unusual glowing started to throw tiny sparkles while the Bijū remained as still as a rock, its also glowing orange eyes full of concentration.

"Here it comes… Here it comes…" the fox said more to itself that to the shinobi.

Naruto also noticed that where pseudo-prisoner was standing, the morning's early sunrays were hitting the fox directly without interference.

"Here it comes… Here it comes…" the silver fox muttered again, this time with more enthusiasm "Here it comes… Here it comes the SolarBeam!" Kyūbi said the words instinctively, because there was no way the fox could tell what would come out of the strange but invigorating sensation.

The shinobi was startled when the vulpine Bijū unleashed a growl of exertion accompanied by a blast of energy resembling intense sunlight, which the blond sensed to be similar but not quite the same as Chakra. Naruto whistled in amazement when the yellow beam was shot at a speed most normal ninja would not ever be able to match, and tore apart trees and anything on its way. The blond realized after a few seconds that this was the energy that Kyūbi also used for the flamethrower attack.

The beam eventually faded, but not without first obliterating at least half a dozen trees.

"Whew!" the fox breathed in relief "It was hard to keep all that inspiration and focus, but damn if that thing wasn't kickass!"

The shinobi wholeheartedly agreed with Kyūbi's opinion, but that wasn't where his mind was right now. Naruto's interest was piqued by the interesting creatures that were showing up in curiosity because of the ruckus the Bijū had caused. Strange, he hadn't noticed them before, but it was probably since he was very distracted with training, Hell, even Kyūbi had managed to sneak up on Naruto, and the fox wasn't exactly a master of discretion. The blond wasn't either, but comparing them both was like an explosive-tagged kunai with a kunai without explosive tag: both were weapons and were thrown at the enemy, but with the difference that one would make a boom and then everyone would know that the kunai's thrower was around. After all, every time he used Kyūbi's help in an Infiltration & Sabotage mission back in the Fourth Great Ninja War always ended with him in trouble, Naruto remembered somewhat bitterly…

But these creatures were extravagant and interesting to say the least. The shinobi had seen many animals and even the powerful Bijū, but not anything like these ones: blue beetles almost four feet tall, with one long protruding horn that added one foot more to the total height, and with clawed arms and legs ready for a battle. Swarms of red-and-black ladybugs that were three feet in size, with round eyes and two black antennae, flocks of brown, small spiky-haired birds with red wings and some weird green spiders with red fangs and a small horn on their heads. Hell, Naruto even saw some things that looked like pinecones but were actually alive and moved, with eyes and all.

"Hey, Kyūbi, look at those things" the blond said with wonder in his voice.

"…and you should have seen when the beam kept its trajectory, thrashing everything on its way…" apparently the fox was too absorted with the attack it had unleashed a few seconds ago to notice anything.

The blond heard some high-pitched howling that this time caught Kyūbi's attention. The fox stopped appraising its sudden inspiration to join its pseudo-jailer's contemplation of the creatures. A group of small purple monkeys popped out of the forest and circled one of the destroyed trees. Even more unique than their purple color was their yellow faces, round eyes and big grins they all seemed able to contain inside their oval-shaped faces, and most of all, their tails that had at the end a round yellow hand.

Unfortunately, the duo's peaceful contemplation ended when one of the weird monkeys noticed the fox and the man staring at them. The ape then moved one of its round arms (it didn't have any visible fingers!) to point at them.

"Ooh! Ooh!" the yellow-faced monkey exclaimed, gesturing at the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo. The other monkeys conglomerated around one of the destructed trees, stopped whispering between themselves to look at whatever one of their fellow simians was signaling. All moved their heads and eyes in unison, and when they saw Naruto and Kyūbi, they did the exact same thing as the first monkey, and pointed their round arms at the duo.

"What in Kami's name are those things!" the Bijū asked on disbelief. Even the mighty Tailed Beast had not seen a creature like these ones.

"Forget that" the Jinchūriki responded abruptly "What the hell do they want with us?"

"…I don't know, but I don't have the intention to find out. Their tails and their faces are disturbing me" Kyūbi commented.

"Ooh! Ooh!" the apes said at the exact same time. Then they shouted something that the blond and the silver fox registered as 'A-pam', and unexpectedly, the monkey group raced towards them, waving their tails in excitement.

The duo's eyes widened comically, and seeing the purple apes quickly approaching made them want to go away. In an attempt to slow down the purple mob, the fox grabbed one of the green pinecone creatures that happened to be passing by, and threw it with the help of two tails serving as catapults. The pinecone soared into the air and landed straight at a monkey's head. After the hit the pinecone creature rolled away, and the purple-colored ape stumbled and fell, before its lithe body was stomped by the rest of the running monkeys. In their exciting persecution of the shinobi and the fox, the apes didn't notice anything, thus leaving the dazed monkey behind, who at this point was now unconscious and with spinning swirls instead of eyes.

That was only one, though. They till had a dozen more monkeys chasing them, all shouting their 'A-pam' thingy and grinning at the duo.

Said pair just ran away from the apes like they had just seen the devil's face. Spiders…ladybugs…pinecones…birds… things blurred by as they sped up in an effort to loose the monkeys. Both raced through the forest until they overran the purple apes so much their shouts couldn't be heard. When the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo was sure they wouldn't be pursued anymore, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"…I think we just went through a really odd experience" the fox muttered.

"You think? Those monkeys freaked me out!" Naruto exclaimed "And why did you ran away from the monkeys?"

The Bijū huffed insulted, refusing to look at the shinobi "I already told you, those things disturbed me"

They had stopped in a dirt road that crossed the forest, and they followed it in hopes of finding a human settlement. After their persecution the duo needed some time to rest from the shock, so they continued walking calmly in silence until the forest thinned a little, and Naruto could see the outlines of a town.

"Hey, look Kyūbi!" the blond said with excitement.

"What?" the fox asked with intrigue. The Bijū raised its head to look straight ahead, trying to locate the source of its pseudo-jailer's hopeful humor. The silver fox managed to distinguish the outlines of some houses.

"Is that a town?"

"Hell yeah!" the shinobi responded, "A town means that we'll get food!" Naruto hadn't eaten anything since one day before his battle with Uchiha Madara, and that was three days ago. He was hungry as hell. Perhaps he could get some ramen…

"But food is not free. You'll have to pay and we don't have anything worth a cent" Kyūbi reminded him of reality as they ran towards the town. The sooner they arrived to civilization the better.

"…I could sell you" the Jinchūriki muttered dismissively loud enough for the fox to hear.

The silver fox just gave its pseudo-jailer a death glare, but didn't press the matter.

The forst thinned gradually as they got closer to the town. When they arrived at the town's outskirts Naruto saw a sign that he stopped running to read.

Azalea Town

Home of the Slowpoke Well

"Living Happily with Pokémon"

"What the hell is Slowpoke!"

"And for the matter, what the hell is Pokémon?" Kyūbi completed the phrase that the shinobi began.

The blond shrugged in response, not knowing what to answer but taking the initiative "We'll find out I we ask in the town" he finally responded. If they didn't found answers of any kind then at least they could search for food and money.

"Yeah" the silver fox agreed. The Bijū didn't have any kind of allegiance to anything or anyone in the Elemental Countries barring Naruto, but the vulpine Tailed Beast did want to know what happened to its former state of powerfulness, and how to return to that state. If there was a chance of doing so and at the same time stay outside of the seal (it was impossible to get out of the seal except for dying), then the fox would take it without hesitation.

So they entered the town, in hopes of finding answers.

What they would find was something not seen everyday.

A/N:

Wow. I didn't expect this kind of response for my first attempt at a story. 775 Hits in a week and two days! I'll try to update sooner rather than later, so don't worry about that, because right now (the mere beginning of the story) I have the next bunch of events planned out.

As you have noticed, the plot starts in Johto. This is because most of the stuff that gave shape to this story's plot is in Johto, and thus it's easier to write about this region than others like Kanto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh (even Unova. DON'T expect me to write about Unova). So I ask you to wait, because the story is just beginning to have sense.

Sincerely

My penname is on the left corner of the top.