Chapter seven is done! I hope you all enjoy it and I'll begin work on the next chapter shortly.
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto or Pokemon)
Stopping in front of her hotel room with her arms full of shopping bags Audrey had a big smile spread across her lips. At first she attempted to open the door without putting anything down but a minute of struggle later had her slipping the bags on her right arm off so she could grip the handle. Once the door was cracked open she took a moment to pick her bags up again before backing into the door and into the hotel room. "Sorry for taking so long" Audrey apologized with her back still turned to most of the room. Turning around she kept her eyes on the door as she used her foot to close the door.
"I went shopping and got a little carried away. Did anything happen while I was gone?" she asked as she turned around. What she saw was Naruto sitting on the bed in his shorts with a towel draped over his damp hair from his second shower he just finished a few moments ago. Next to him Zorua laid on the bed's edge with an irritated look on it's face, it's fur puffier than normal. After getting covered in mud like that it couldn't escape having shampoo put in it's fur as the others all ganged up to hold it down and clean it. Flopped down on one of the pillows Petilil was all but sleeping after everything that happened and standing in front of the bed next to the blond was her prinplup.
"Eh, well" Naruto started when Prinplup lightly elbowed him in the side and gave him a quick glance. "Oh! Nothing really interesting happened" the blond blurted out with a nervous grin as he looked up at the ceiling and started to slowly kick his feet as they hung over the edge. Telling her what happened might not be the best idea.
As he was hoping she wouldn't ask any further a familiar annoyance perched itself on top of his head. "Murkrow" the black bird intoned as it brought it's wings to it's sides and stared at the new face. It found this lot interesting enough so it decided to tag along, whether they wanted it too or not.
"Guah, get off of me!" Naruto told the thing as he and Prinplup went about shooing the bird away. Taking off from the blond's head to avoid their flailing arms Murkrow glided over to Audrey before circling her once and landing on her shoulder.
"Why hello there Murkrow" Audrey greeted the pokemon with a smile, her head turned ever so slightly to giver her a better view of it. Turning her head back to the annoyed blond, "Did you make another friend while I was gone?".
"It's not my friend!" Naruto growled out as he and Prinplup glared at the black bird.
"Really?" Audrey asked her face showing her surprise. "It certainty seems to like you. Isn't that right Murkrow?" she said turning her attention back to the bird. She would've tried to pet the thing but her arms were still full. "How did you two meet?" the professor asked, her head still turned towards Murkrow and thus missed the panicked reaction from Naruto and Prinplup.
It wasn't that he was scared of telling her what happened, he just didn't want to get Prinplup in trouble for something he did and so he racked his mind for a way out of this. Fortunately a glance at her arms gave him an answer to their problem. "You said you went shopping. What did you get?" Naruto asked the woman as he hopped off the bed.
"Oh I'd nearly forgotten!" Audrey admitted with a bit of embarrassment. At hearing the question she started bouncing on the balls of her feet before quickly leaning down to but the bags on the floor. With her no longer being a still perch Murkrow fluttered up and flew over to the bedside lamp to rest on. "I noticed that you only had one set of clothes so I ran out to pick you up some more" she told the boy as she opened up one of the begs for him to look in.
Naruo was, for lack of a better word, simply stunned by the sight of Audrey's gift. He could count on his hands the number of times someone had done something so nice for him and most of those could be attributed to the old man. "These" the boy began as he reached in and gently pulled out a dark blue shirt with a patter on the chest that looked like the top half of Prinplup's pokeball. "Are for me?" he asked as he turned his sight from the shirt to the woman kneeling in front of him with a big grin on her face.
"Of course it is" Audrey told him. "Though" she began as she looked at the many bags again. "I didn't exactly know what you'd like, so I kind of went a little overboard and grabbed just about everything they had" she admitted with a slightly goofy smirk at her own actions though it quickly vanished when the young boy wrapped his arms around her.
"Thank you" Naruto told her not in an overly excited or energetic tone but rather a soft and quiet one. Audrey's widened eyes slowly softened as they turned to best look at the blond hugging her. Slowly she brought her arms up and, gently at first, returned the boys embrace.
After that the rest of the afternoon went by normal enough. They talked about everything and nothing, she watched him play with Zorua and Petilil and found herself giggling at their antics when Murkrow got involved, they'd gone out to get something to eat when they got hungry, and then spent the majority of their time after that watching TV while resting on the bed. Now she stood on the balcony in her light violet pajamas, the sun having set a while ago and staring out at the lights of the city with her phone held up to her ear.
"I'm sorry to say but we looked time and time again, but" the man on the other end was telling her and an uneasy feeling took root in the pit of her stomach as he spoke. After giving pause to think of how best say it "There isn't anywhere on the planet that matches the place he described".
"I see" Audrey responded. It's not what she was hoping to hear when she answered her phone. What was she going to tell him? Was she suppose to say that his one doesn't exist?
"Miss" the operator said gaining her attention again. "I'm sure that you weren't expecting any of this when you came across him. If it's too much for you we are fully prepared care for him and in the worst case scenario even find him a new home" the man informed her.
Hearing this Audrey's lips pressed into a thin line as she thought about it. She'd already set her scheduled back a day. Her carer just started, could she afford to be set back any further? Could she even help him if she did?
She turned to look back into the room Naruto had already fallen asleep on the bed. He'd been so happy when he pulled out a grey pajamas she gotten for him and his grin was so wide when he found the sleeping cap, it was designed after a pancham and made it look like he had small round ears poking out the top of his head with a small tuft of hair between them. Zorua, Petilil, and Murkrow didn't have any pokeball so the three of them were sleeping along side him in one way or another. Zorua was curled up between his right arm and his chest, Petilil was sharing his pillow as it snuggled up to his face, and Murkrow had decided that his chest would make the perfect nest for it. Seeing them all like that brought a smile back to her, "Miss? Are you still there?"
The sun had started to climb it's way over the horizon as the morning rays started to filter into the room. Normally Naruto would be woken up when the sunlight became to annoying for him to stay asleep, but this morning was different. "Mur" Murkrow called out as it flew over and plopped down on the blond's face and was shortly back in the air after he shot up into a sitting position and flailing his arms about. Petilil had woken up from this as it went tumbling off the pillow and onto the mattress and Zorua shot up with a yelp at the sudden movement.
"Guah! Stupid bird!" Naruto told the thing as he tried his best to keep his eyes open in order to glare at the pokemon now perched at the end of the bed. The three of them were all glaring at Murkrow for waking them up but ultimately decided it wouldn't be worth it to get back at it right now.
"Did you sleep well?" Naruto heard Audrey ask and turned his head to see her sitting out on the balcony. She had her back mostly turned to them as she looked out at the city but it wasn't hard for him to see that she'd already changed out of her pajamas so she must've gotten up some time before him. His response was cut off by a yawn but she more or less understood him.
"Naruto, I've been thinking" she began, her back still turned to the boy. "It may take a while for you to find your home" she told him, her words heavy for him but he did his best to shrug his disappointed off. "And I have a lot I need to do. I can't stay here much longer if I want to stick to my plans" she said as she stood up from her chair. "Until we find your home do you want to come with me?" Audrey asked him as she turned to face him with a bright and hopeful expression. After a moment of silence Naruto's sleepy face split into one big grin. When he does get home he's going to have quite the story for the old man.