300 AS: October 20th
He sat back in his chair, a frown on his face as he watched what had apparently happened only three days ago. He tightened his fist thinking about what this could mean, did someone know what he had been doing there?
The TV changed to a scene of a man wrapped in a cocoon of rope, hanging down the side of a five story building, the reporter continuing to explain.
"-Witnesses say that they saw Professor Kenzel hanging down the side of a building by a rope, which had been tied around his whole body. Witnesses immediately called the police and in a few minutes they had taken him down.
"When an officer Jenny had finished untying him she had found a tape recorder in his coat pocket. As for Professor Kenzel he had sported multiple bruises, and cuts on his body as well as a broken arm. Taking him in to the nearest hospital the Officer Jenny went back to the police station to listen to the tape, here's what it said."
The screen turned black showing only subtitles as it began to play. The man snatched his drink away from his Pumara standing beside him, anger beginning to rise up within him, how had this all happened?
His eyes stayed on the TV the sound of footsteps started before a male voice spoke.
"Make sure the recorder's on alright? This should be it."
A few seconds later sounds of wood breaking in erupted, the voice of Professor Kenzel came next, "W-What are you doing in my home? I demand to know the reason for this in-" It sounded like the male had punched him stopping his talking.
"Son of bitch!" He cursed smashing his fist on the table next to him. Hopefully that bastard didn't tell them where any of the other bases were, Ruby league was practically next door to Edo.
If that motherfucker spewed where he was then they would come after him, this dumbass was going to ruin the whole operation.
"All right old man what kind of connections do you have with the Trauma organization?"
"Why you insolent child, you come into my home to ask me such ridiculous questions? I ought to have you arrested!"
"Kenzel-san don't make this harder than it has to be, the Dracass you had told me everything about you and what you did. You sent that team after us to kill us and retrieve her, why is she important? Do you have other Pokégirls that you're experimenting on?" A female voice was the next to say something. He widened his eyes, so there were two people that knew about professor Kenzel and from the sound of it with the san suffix it was probably some tamers born in Edo, but from the way they spoke most likely not in that town.
Who knew what he had been doing there? And where were they now? The two people in the tape continued to interrogate Kenzel, while he continued to deny which only served him more beatings, for two minutes it had gone in this fashion.
"-Stop stalling old man we both know it was you that sent those Trauma members after us."
"What makes you think that I would ever associate with the Trauma Team organization, I have lived here my whole life and am happy where I live, and I wouldn't change it for anything-" The sound of a punch came next, after that what sounded like a chair falling over, the professor grunted.
"Fine; if he isn't gonna talk I'll beat him until he does." He heard sound of more punches, glass breaking and the professor pleading for him to stop. The suddenly a disturbing crack sounded off, he guessed that it was Kenzel's arm that had been broken.
"A-Alright I'll talk! Please stop!" Kenzel pleaded, "Spill it then old man."
"I-I've been a member of team trauma for five years now. Th-the Dracass you mentioned was the main thing we were working on, I'm not sure why, the boss doesn't tell me everything." He explained.
"Where's the place you experimented on these Dracass?" The female voice asked.
"It's beneath the gym. I was told to evolve the Dracass's into Dronza..." He grew quiet before it sounded like someone kicked him, "What for old man? What's the reason for it, I thought Dronza's would've turned on their tamer's but one of the truama guys had a Dronza wrapped around his finger, what's the deal?" The male asked.
"Don't fucking say it." He cursed glaring at the screen.
"... Mind control." He whispered.
ARC II
... Three Months Later...
301 AS: January 5th
She stalked closer to the pack, merely five feet away from her, crouched low in the snow. She bided her time and waited for the right moment to strike. Watching how they moved, what their main focus was on, and which direction they were looking. When they least expected it then she would strike, wait for their guard to lower, none of them knowing that they may as well be dead.
Feline eyes analyzed each one of them, which one was the smallest, biggest, weakest, or fastest. Knowing the situation gave you the opportunity to prepare yourself for it, and plan what your actions will be.
The feline breathed cold air... a month and a half ago she never thought she'd be here, and in that time was some strange kind of hell.
That was the most accurate way to explain it, not the people; she meant the new training she was introduced to. She honestly didn't think a human's training regime would tire out a Pokégirl, but then again these people could hardly be called humans, training on things that made her hurt physically, emotionally, mentally, and everything in between. From what they said they've been traveling for about five months now.
Not only was the physical training that Naruto's creative mind came up with making her sore and hurt that she felt like a walking injury, but also there was the mental training Hinata would have them do, meditating for hours on end that left her wanting to just do something but couldn't, and if that weren't bad enough they banded together to train them on being stronger emotionally, such as preparing them for something traumatizing and expecting them to analyze the situation and figure out how best to handle it, Naruto's clones and Henge technique played the scenarios.
And even when they were not training ninja seemed to be always analyzing things and finding a means to use it as a way of training, or some sort of exercise.
This was one of them.
She rushed out of the bushes, the sounds of her steps on snow alerted the five rabbits, startling them for all of a second before they fled, away from the hunter she chased after them, maneuvering herself around the dead trees she saw them just a few feet from her, the middle one gaining her focus.
She cursed these damn weight seals, making her slower than she was, it just wasn't fair. She pushed herself to keep up with the largest rabbit which she had underestimated in terms of speed.
The four rabbits on the side of the middle one were swept away by someone else, a blur going by her vision. She opened her mouth and pounced on the rabbit that was her focus, her mouth wrapping around its neck and with a rough twist snap its neck.
Skidding to a stop in the snow she frowned seeing her rival wearing only a gi sitting on a branch with four deceased rabbits in her hands, the higher Pokégirl smiled down at her, while she tightened her fist. Damn it if Naruto and Hinata hadn't said not to use techniques while hunting then she would have gotten all of these rabbits in no time.
She held up the four rabbits with a grin while the Pokégirl on the ground had only one lone rabbit hanging from her mouth.
"Still a little slow Yue-chan." She called down to the younger, which by young she meant the latest to join, something she officially declared that she liked since about four months ago it was her that was the weakest one in the group.
"She's still faster than me." She muttered to herself spitting the rabbit into her hand the Cheshire looked at it with distaste, 'Hinata and Naruto won't be impressed with just this.' she scolded herself, after Naruto and Hinata had gone through all the trouble to save her when her Tamer died she couldn't even repay them with some food.
Kiya jumped down with silence that she'd been trained to do, if not for the snow she would have landed without a sound, she smiled peacefully at the feline. While a rival, she was also a friend.
"Don't worry about it Yue-chan, you can try again the next time we hunt." Kiya soothed the Cheshire Pokégirl, she in return nodded.
If she looked to any other Kitsune on this planet most likely she would see some horny, poorly-trained fox, a Pokégirl she would have looked down on. Not this one, not with master Naruto and Hinata as her teachers, and while she normally looked down on the sometimes brainless Kitsune Pokégirls, she accepted equality with this one.
Yue wasn't blinded by her competitiveness with the girl, she knew that Kiya was skilled enough to have earned the rank of one of the alpha's in their group, despite her being one of the first Pokégirls to join the group. She was grateful to spend such time with her.
When it happened Kiya was the first Pokégirl to sympathize with her when she had trouble keeping up with the ridiculously hard training Naruto and Hinata had her do, she comforted her when they trained and helped her along. She was like a sister and yet the girl you wanted to surpass for being better than her, that was their bond.
Naruto and Hinata were amazing, she couldn't even explain them, how they seemed to harbor such power and yet smile at her and call her a friend, picking her up after falling down and encouraging her to continue.
The Dracass, she was like a role model, the type she liked. The strong and calm aura around her, the way she carried herself was why she looked up to her and someday hoped to be able to hold her own against the Pokégirl.
Kiya nodded, "Let's get the chow back to the group." She said before grinning, "Hopefully we'll get an award out of it." She grinned with that lecherous look she would get.
Yue rolled her eyes, 'Although there are times when I wonder how she could ever be taken as a serious threat.' She thought to herself as they proceeded walking back, Kiya doing a small skip with a wag of her tail with every skip.
She didn't look that dangerous with that smile, but she had seen how serious she could get, and exactly how strong she was despite the lack of techniques she possessed, it showed how much Naruto and Hinata were good Tamers.
She remembered when Kiya had held her own with the Dryder for a little while, making sure to lure the Dryder away from them, something she didn't think she would see, Kiya had demonstrated extraordinary skill before Tashira assisted Kiya in killing the Dryder after she had gotten Yue and her wounded Tamer away from danger.
Hinata had done all she could to fix their wounds... However her Tamer's wounds were too severe.
After Naruto made sure that they were far enough out of danger he went to help Tashira and Kiya eliminate the feral Dryder.
Did they win? They still had the head to prove it.
The Cheshire wondered about their state of dress, why their Alpha's wore training clothing... At the time all Naruto said was that they had been caught up with other matters and they had no money to buy anything more.
They planned on cashing the bounty on the head, but Hinata and Naruto swore that they wouldn't go to the city until the pain of losing her Tamer had healed.
Yesterday, Yue told Hinata and Naruto that she was fine, her wounded heart healed, and she was ready to travel again.
She probably wouldn't have made it this past month and a half if not for Hinata, Naruto and their Pokégirls.
"Geez not much fruits in winter is there?" Naruto asked, sitting down with the bottom of his shirt pulled out serving as a bowl and in it was a collection of berries he had managed to find around the area, without much effort he tossed a raspberry into his mouth, he glanced to the many other piles of other types of berries he managed to find in the bushes around.
The meat boiled in the pot, the cooking supplies which had come from Yue's previous Tamer with her permission.
And Breakfast was almost finished, the fire thanks to Kiya's ember technique. Hinata had managed to find some plants that would do well for seasoning, Naruto walked over dropping in berries for experimental seasoning as well.
Tashira looked to Naruto, his face breaking into a grin, "Berries are good for you." he said, shrugging Tashira stirred the pot.
Turning to Hinata he asked, "So how is she?"
Hinata stared at her pokedex.
CHESHIRE, the Mischievous Cat Pokégirl
Lvl: 14
Type: Near Human Animorph (feline)
Element: Psychic
Frequency: Rare
Diet: human style foods
Role: spy/courier used in various League agencies
Libido: Average/High
Strong Vs: Fighting, Poison, Psychic
Weak Vs: Bug, Dark, Ghost
Attacks: Fade, Teleport, Scratch, Kitty Litter, Fury Swipes, Lick, Disable, Confusion, Double Team, Dream Time
Enhancements: Psychic talents (Chameleon, Teleport, Aura Sight), Enhanced Speed(x2), Enhanced Hearing(x3), Night vision, Flexibility
Evolves: Shadowcat (Dark Stone)
Evolves From: Catgirl (Psi Crystal), Kunoichi (Cat E-Medal)
Cheshires are mischievous feline Pokégirls who like to be mysterious and play pranks, and thanks to their Fade and Double Team abilities, this is rather easy to accomplish. Despite their pranks or perhaps because of their powers, it is infuriatingly difficult to pin anything on a Cheshire. In fact, some people refer to Cheshires as the "Spic'N'Span" Pokégirl as their public reputation is always clean; though a more popular and apt nickname is the "Teflon" Pokégirl, as she may stick to something, but mysteriously, nothing can stick to her.
If she evolves from a Catgirl, she is usually more prone to pranks, while a Cheshire evolved from a Kunoichi is more likely to act mysterious.
Cheshires have catlike ears on their heads and very long prehensile tails, usually 15" to 18", though some tamers swear that their Cheshire's tail has been much longer than that. Most domesticates will grow fur in patterns that cover most of their bodies, save their breasts, groin, hands and face. This fur is usually either pin- or tiger-striped, and many tamers swear that the Cheshire can change her pattern from one to the other when they aren't looking, but these are dismissed as irrational as the claims that a Cheshire's smile can remain in midair long after she's left or been returned to her Pokéball.
Cheshires usually retain the same hair and eye color they had in their previous evolution, though sometimes, their hair color changes to purple or blonde while their eye color may turn red. Their height may change, but only slightly and these changes are generally mild, only one to two inches taller than before.
In stark contrast to their otherwise mischievous nature, Cheshires also have a charitable nature, as they've been seen helping abused or mistreated Pokégirls with Dream Time. Some have even gotten their own tamers into trouble by kidnapping or freeing said Pokégirls; though most take a more legal route and have their tamers challenge the offender for the Pokégirls.
Though their skills do allow them to evade attacks rather well, Cheshires don't do well in direct combat. Most work better as couriers, spies, decoys or as saboteurs for the enemy. Not surprisingly, this caught them a bit of flak following the Sukebe War, but like all accusations leveled at them, the blame couldn't stick for long. When a Cheshire does fight, she usually lets her opponent wear herself out and uses Disable and Confusion against opponents who cannot be easily tired.
Cheshires have an ongoing rivalry with the Kunoichi as their area of expertise is similar. Whenever a Cheshire or a Kunoichi notice the other in hiding, they will do their best to scare the crap out of the one hiding. Oddly, if they meet openly, they will remain openly civil, but will usually slip in a few snide comments about the other. If both are working towards a common goal that is not competitive, they will work together incredibly well, but once the goal is achieved, their antics will return to normal. One female tamer, Miyuki Chang, even became notoriously good at accomplishing everything she set out to do because she had both a Cheshire and a Kunoichi in her harem.
Cheshires have a unique trait: Taming cycles above Level 2 affect them as if it were only a Level 2. This can be quite frustrating for the more despicable tamers who want to "wipe the slate clean" by using a Level 5 Taming Cycle. There are some theories about why they are immune to the higher taming cycles, though the strongest theory is based on their access to the Dream Time ability.
Whether it's because of their immunity to the higher taming cycles, because most aren't actually evil or perhaps because of their Fade ability, Cheshires haven't been seen in anti-league organizations like the Limbec Pirates or Team Rocket, and though the accusations of such do exist, they just don't stick.
One surprising fact that came to light only through time was that a Cheshire's tail indicates her affections more than her words. Those she finds appealing will find her tail rubbing against them, while those she is in love with or bonded to will find her tail wrapped around their waist or draped over their shoulders.
"Four levels." She replied with a smile scratching the top of Yue's head beside her, she felt her tail rubbing against her not denying the affection.
Naruto grinned, "Great job Yue!" he congratulated making Yue blush, "Thanks."
While the training may have been ridiculously difficult it all evened out when she received their praise, when it happened she felt that it was all worth it. Tingles ran throughout her body when she felt Hinata's fingers scratch the back of her ears.
"Foods done." Tashira spoke, Kiya jumped off the branch from the tree above with a yip.
"Finally! I'm starving!" She squealed.
Tashira scowled, "Wait your turn or I'll bite of that wagging tail." She warned, looking over to Hinata she fixed her share first.
"Tashira-chan you shouldn't tease people." Hinata smiled, Tashira smirked. After serving Hinata and Naruto the Pokégirls served themselves out, even though Naruto and Hinata said that they didn't care if they ate last it was the Pokégirls that insisted on it and maybe even have threatened them a little.
Kiya's tail bushed out and stood on end, "Ooh its good!" She moaned the warmth of the food warming up her body, taking bite after bite Yue stared at her.
"Kiya, you mind closing your mouth?" Tashira 'suggested'.
Kiya's tail wagged back and forth answering for her saying she didn't want to, but did so nonetheless.
Although Tashira could understand why she was eating so viciously, they'd usually have a couple hours of relaxation after eating before they went into meditation and then trained, Kiya looked to her tamer, "Naruto when are we leaving?" she asked a smile on her face, even her dirtied tail seemed to just vibrate in excitement.
Yue raised a brow, weren't they going to train first like usual? She looked at Tashira seeing that she too seemed more relieved than usual, so naturally she waited to hear where it was they planned on traveling.
Naruto gulped down a mouthful, looking at the jittery Kitsune, "After meditating, if we just go running right after eating we'd all get sick."
Kiya leaned over closer to him, "But we're still leaving today right? We're not going to be training right?" She pestered, another reason why she wanted to make sure they were leaving today, she knew that they weren't training if it was so.
Naruto sighed, "Yeah Kiya, we're still going to Pola Glacier to get you girls checked in a Pokecenter. You girls are overdue for one anyway." he answered.
Kiya squealed some more, finally a place where she would have a bath, some place to pamper her in some way, sure they might get shots or tests but that was a small price for being able to bathe.
Yue tilted her head, "Pola Glacier? Isn't that where the Shelaya Mountains are?" She asked, Hinata nodded her head, "Yeah that's it."
Yue had a weird aura radiate off her from hearing it, her whole body looked like she wanted to say something but even then she was hesitant to ask.
"Why now do you want to check us into a PokéCenter?" Tashira asked suspiciously, they seemed pretty good without it.
Hinata looked at her in disbelief, "Tashira it's been five months, and even before then none of you were checked into a PokéCenter. Naruto-kun's right you are overdue for one." She replied, Tashira had a scowl on her face.
The Dracass having a slight fear that involved PokéCenter, "Will they give us any needle injections?" She muttered.
Hinata blinked, "Maybe, why are you afraid of needles?" She asked with a small smile.
Tashira turned away, "Tch."
Yue looked up at them.
"Naruto, Hinata when we get there would it be possible if we could climb those mountains and get an Ice crystal?" She requested hopefully, Naruto and Hinata looking at her surprised.
The reason why she wanted to was because her previous tamer liked to collect evolution stones, but unfortunately he had only managed to collect two, one which was lost upon the chaos of the Dryder, and the other he had used on her. She wanted to collect any evolution stone she came across out of respect to her previous Tamer.
"Sure." Hinata nodded, right then she seemed ecstatic.
"And exactly how far is this place?" Tashira asked after drinking the broth within the bowl, Naruto was right those berries were a good mix.
Naruto smiled at her, "It's about 30 miles from here up North."
He didn't think it was that much of a big deal, messenger Shinobi were able to run for days on end if they needed to, and with Naruto and Hinata's increased endurance it would work out, while it wouldn't be easy they should be able to make it by midnight at the least, in the morning at the latest.
... Although then again, they were all held down by these weight seals, admittedly that'd take them longer... At least four hours longer.
The three Pokégirls seemed to deflate, "Of course." Tashira muttered.
Naruto waved his hands, "Don't worry, we'll get there in six, seven hours tops, we'll all run there. Check it, run until we're tired, then jump tree to tree, run and keep the pattern going, it'd be a good workout!" He compromised, setting the three into groans.
Kiya's tail lolled to the ground in misery, her ears lowering, she didn't know exactly how far the place was.
Hinata's smile deflated, while she may have more endurance that didn't mean it was necessarily as high as Naruto's, "That doesn't sound fun." She muttered sadly.
Hinata looked to Tashira, "Eat up Tashira-chan. When we get to running every couple hours I want you to fly for an half an hour before running again." She explained, Tashira's expression growing even more frustrated.
After all running was never easy for a dragon Pokégirl, and she was still an amateur at flying. Hinata knew that the weather was too cold for it to be comfortable for Tashira to fly, which was also why she wanted her to do so, so that she wouldn't be caught off guard if she needed to do so in this weather.
Tashira looked defiant, "And if I refuse?" Hinata smiled, "Then I won't do that thing I do for you every few other nights." She could see Tashira's face break into little pieces, it was a low blow and four out of five of them knew it, her shoulders stiffened, she pushed passed it and boldly shrugged, "I can deal with it."
Hinata's eyebrows raised before looking at her, lavender against red Tashira narrowed her eyes, "Is that so?" Hinata asked suspiciously.
"That's right." Tashira confirmed.
Hinata smiled, "In that case I won't have Yue join-"
Tashira shrugged, "Tch. Big deal."
Hinata continued, "And, I'll stop doing that special thing on those certain nights." She said, Naruto groaned uncomfortably. Yue looked at Naruto in confusion, Kiya giggled watching Tashira's expression cave in.
Kiya turned to her tamer, "Hey Naruto? What thing is she talking about?" She asked figuring if anyone knew it would be him, he lowered his head, "I don't want to say." He muttered.
Tashira glared at Hinata, ever since she learned it there was no way she'd have Hinata stop, hell she didn't want to have Hinata stop doing that thing whenever they had sex on the first threat either. She'd sooner die than give those three things up, admittedly she did enjoy when occasionally Yue joined as well. She'd rather have spent time alone with Kiya in her sugar rush back when she went through Yue's Tamer's bag and found sugar packets.
Tashira stared at her tamer, "Why?" She asked wanting to know why she tortured her so, Hinata smiled, "It makes you look so cute." She gushed, Tashira continued to stare at her, "You're evil." She accused.
Every few other nights Hinata would do that thing with Tashira, and then the next time it would be with Yue. Later on when it came back to Tashira she would perform that special thing she had just began to use. Then the next week she would have a taming session with her harem, and in the future those that will come to join as well.
"Thanks for giving me the idea Naruto!" Hinata chirped.
Naruto sighed, giving a reluctant nod.
Yue seemed interested, slightly confused and hurt that she didn't know, "What thing?" She asked looking from Tashira to Hinata waiting for an answer, what was the special thing that Hinata was talking about, yeah Hinata had performed that thing she did occasionally, but she had no idea what they meant when they were talking about special, she was completely lost.
Hinata patted her head with a blush, "Maa maa Yue-chan, I was going to use it on you when you least expected it, I'll show you after your checked out of the PokéCenter." She said, Hinata's eyes bore into her, "But only if you don't teleport when we're running." She said, Yue slowly nodded.
Naruto turned to Kiya trying to sneak up behind him, "And don't try to go back into your pokeball." Kiya whined in misery, "NNarutooo! Why do we have to run?" She whined.
Tashira crossed her arms, "Surprisingly I agree with Kiya."
Naruto stared at Kiya in confusion, "You're the one who wanted to get their sooner, so we're running."
Kiya pouted, "I wanted to leave today not get there today. Hah!" She laughed in victory.
"You're still running." Naruto replied causing Kiya to freeze, turning around her muzzled-face glared at him, her tail standing on end, "I'll stop doing that-"
"No." Naruto interrupted letting her know that she wouldn't be able to squirm out of this, but then when had she even been able to? Kiya's tail waved viciously, "Mmmnnhhhnn!" She whined crossing her arms, "What's your hurry anyway." She huffed.
Drinking down the rest of his soup he answered, "If what I read in this pokedex is true, then there should be a village near Pola Glacier about five more miles down, we can cash in the bounty on the Dryder there." He explained.
Kiya looked hopeful, "Do they have hotels there?" She asked, Naruto shook his head bursting her hope bubble, "Nah, they have a PokéMart, we'll buy your clothes there, along with some supplies." He answered.
Yue smiled and Tashira smirked, "Weapons/Clothing, the next best thing." Tashira and Yue muttered simultaneously.
Naruto grinned, "That gives me another idea, while we're getting one of those crystal things for Yue we can get a few extra to sell or trade!"
They were so close to the border that divided the Ruby league and the Opal league, just as a precaution Hinata had read up some basic details on the league, and for one anyone born in the league was only a tamer if they were seventeen or older, of course this didn't apply to them since they were only passing through Ruby league, but it'd raise some questions seeing two fourteen year olds walking around with a pokedex and a couple of Pokégirls.
If that didn't raise any unwanted questions, then their dressing certainly would, it wasn't every day you see teens geared up for battle and their Pokégirls in dirtied training Gi's. Bringing his hands together he muttered something before being covered in smoke, his height growing significantly taller.
Best to Henge into an Eighteen year old just in case.
... Six Hours Later...
After so many grueling hours of traveling through five feet of snow they had managed to reach the PokéCenter, it had been around seven at night when Naruto and Hinata had checked the trio of Pokégirls into the place, some taking longer than others Yue being the first to be released. Kiya had been the next to be released after a bath, a physical and a flu shot. As for Tashira she seemed to receive three times as many shots, making her curse her horrible luck.
The NurseJoy was somewhat skeptical when she saw three Pokégirls come in wearing nothing but a training Gi, after she had given each of them the standard physicals and check-ups she gave them the option of buying clothes since there wasn't a place to buy clothes for at least another ten miles and in this weather she doubted they would last that long, the PokéCenter had a large closet full of clothes in case a tamer needed to buy any right away.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not sure if we have the money on us to buy any clothes." He thought to himself out loud.
The NurseJoy waved her hand, "That's no problem; I'll just take it from your bank account." She compromised, Hinata and Naruto blinked, staring at her in confusion.
"Bank account?" Hinata asked, the NurseJoy looked at her oddly for a moment before nodding her head.
"Yeah, as a tamer your paid 9,000 SLC ($90.00) every week. Of course they wouldn't be able to pay you personally, so they put the amount of money under your name." She explained.
"Well... damn that would've helped us when we were in Opal League." Naruto muttered, they've been Tamers for about five months now... so how much money did they have exactly? His brain short circuited trying to add up the numbers in his head, which ultimately failed.
"We'll buy some clothes." Hinata spoke for Naruto.
Ten miles further they had reached Rubop Village.
Kiya pulled at the uncomfortable itchy and thick sweatshirt with a grimace on her face at the restricting clothes, she chucked it to the side as it landed on the ground with a light thud. Weather be damned she didn't like these clothes one bit, her fur was perfectly capable of keeping her warm.
Hinata looked around the village, which didn't actually seem like one if she hadn't read about this place beforehand she would have thought that this place was a small town... well whatever was smaller than a town but bigger than a village anyway. Other than the collection of houses there were many stores, and a station near the center of the place.
Hinata looked at it, it wasn't exactly a train station, and there wasn't any water here so that just left a station that had transportation by air. She could see large balloon-like things on the top of a takeoff platform, any Tamers or tourists in the area were surely going to be riding on it tonight, and there were no hotels. Aside from cabins and houses that belonged to people who lived here there was just crappy rental apartments so spending the night wasn't an option for anyone who could avoid it if this village wasn't of any significance to them.
Now that she thought about it why did people live here? Food and supplies must be a pain to ship here, and the weather constantly bearing down on them didn't help. Yue tugged at her sleeve looking at her quizzically while the rest continued to walk ahead of them.
"Hinata what's wrong?" She asked in her usual respecting voice, Hinata looked around before her blue eyes looked back at Yue's purple ones. Yue's dark purple striped fur hardly see-able in the amount of winter clothes she wore, the only parts of her you could see were her eyes and her uncovered tail, her scarf covering the bottom of her mouth.
"Nothing's wrong Yue-chan." She replied with a smile, "I was just thinking about how it was like for the people here." She answered.
"Yo Hinata! We could use some of your awesome eyesight for directions!" Naruto called to her over the sudden wind picking up. They had to find a place to collect the money for that Dryder, they didn't know how much money they had so they couldn't just go to a store and hope that they had enough to buy their Pokégirls clothes. They couldn't just buy any kind, they had to get ones that fitted them and was also useful for combat.
An hour and a half of walking in the deep snow in the middle of the night they had found an averaged size building, Hinata pointed to it nodding her head as she did, "Looks like this is it." She said.
"Good." Naruto muttered, looking around he could see a few construction Pokégirls clearing the street of the feet of snow, they shouldn't be able to see them. It'd be odd to go in where someone could see them take out a Dryder's head from a scroll, unsealing it Naruto's stomach turned seeing the Dryder's head as he caught it.
"Come on let's get this over with." Tashira growled in annoyance, the weather was starting to get to her.
Naruto stared at the head, "Were we suppose to turn in the whole body?" He asked wanting to make sure they wouldn't get half of the bounty, Kiya shrugged her shoulders a frown on her face as she pushed her hands into her armpits for warmth.
"You got the crystals?" Naruto asked turning toward Hinata, she supplied him with six small hand-sized blue glowing crystals, the other one Yue had sealed in a scroll she kept on her person, and the Kitsune cautiously took a few steps away from Hinata.
Tashira rolled her eyes, "It's a water stone that makes you evolve into a Hoarfoxx, not an Ice crystal." She sighed.
"I don't want to become a Hoarfoxx!" Kiya snapped, before pouting, "Just in case." She muttered looking warily at the crystals Hinata stared at her.
Naruto shook his head before he walked into the building, the others following.
At the front counter there was a snow bunny giving a mercenary something, Hinata would assume that they were doing a trade perhaps supplies for money, or medicine either way it didn't concern them, walking pass him he left, the snow bunny writing something down on a check board before looking up at them.
"Uh excuse me lady, are we able to collect a bounty here by any chance?" Naruto asked.
The Snow bunny smiled, "Why yes people can collect bounties here." She replied, she looked at the group with a peculiar face, "Are you two hunters?" She asked.
Naruto's brows rose in confusion, he had read a little bit about hunters but not enough to hold a conversation about the subject. If this was going to be a discussion about hunters it would certainly make her suspicious of why he wouldn't know such basic information, all he knew was that they killed Pokégirls with bounties anything else about them was alien.
"No, why do you need to be a hunter to collect a bounty?" He asked slightly worried.
She shook her head, "Not necessarily, it's just hunters are the most common that's all." She replied, Naruto's tense shoulder's relaxed, a small opening to change the subject, he took it before the hunter subject progressed.
Trying not to be awkward Naruto dropped the Dryder's head on the counter, "Well in that case could I collect a bounty on a Dryder please?" he asked casually, Tashira refrained from palming her forehead like she usually did whenever Naruto did something idiotic.
The Snow bunny didn't seem to understand for a moment, her mouth slack jawed and her eyes staring at the head, after a while she said something, "Oh my, this is a Dryder." She muttered as if she needed to say it out loud to make herself believe it, she looked at Naruto, then to the Pokégirls that were here with him and the female tamer.
They were a good catch, but nothing to awe at, "You two must be very talented Tamer's to be able to defeat a Dryder." She said.
Hinata shook her head, "Thank you but we're actually still beginners, we were just lucky to have caught her off-guard." Hinata replied.
"I wish I had a Tamer with such luck." the Snow bunny looked distant for a bit before picking up the head cautiously, "Okay I'll go have my tamer fill in the necessary data. It shouldn't take too long, but give it at least three hours. The money should be in your account by then, I'll need your 'dex to pull up your information"
Naruto grinned as he nodded and handed it over before she turned to the back door.
"Jake! Wake up you got work to do!" She yelled carrying the head into the back she disappeared, the group sweat dropped when they heard sounds of a guy falling and then whining before the Snow bunny returned leaning on the counter.
"Is there anything else you need while you're here?" She asked, Hinata stepped forward.
"Yeah,where can we sell these evolution crystals?" Hinata asked dropping the crystals on the counter, this time Tashira did palm her face as the Snow bunny did another episode of amazement at the amount of crystals.
It would take three hours she said.
They couldn't buy anything real expensive for now, they'd have to spend the money that was already under their name that accumulated for the past five months, which Hinata had added up to 194,900 SLC ($1,949) individually, 289,800 SLC ($2,898) all together. If she took the time to think about it, being a tamer sucked when it came to getting paid.
An average tamer would only get paid 38,400 SLC ($384) every month? That was cutting the salary of a Shinobi by two-thirds, how the heck does anyone here have the money to have their Pokégirls checked into a PokéCenter, buy clothes, buy food, and weapons? Just all of that would bring all the earnings down to nothing, if anyone asked her she'd say that they were getting underpaid.
Every minute a Tamer is traveling they are out in the world where there were dangers of all sorts, a world where any second they could be killed. If they managed to survive a month they get paid with only that much?
"So are we going to have to go over the mountains to cross the border because that sounds like a long ass journey." Tashira mentioned looking over the snow covered mountains through the harsh windy snow-fall.
Yue shot her a dirty look for cursing in the presence of their Tamers. Naruto glanced at the Dracass before taking up a thinking pose.
He looked into the distance where the vision faded into the white snow, anyone who knew about this place knew that if someone ever decided to cross the border then they had better bring some thick clothes, lots of food, and supplies because of the deep snow, the harsh winds, and not to mention the dangerous Pokégirls that could be hidden up there.
"Hmm... sounds like a good time to test your flight in the wind ne?" He thought out loud, as if weighing his options, Tashira's face lost color at the thought of it. He continued to walk with a hand cupping his chin, "And here I was thinking about giving you guys a reward for all your hard work, but if that's what you really w-"
"No!" Tashira, Kiya, and Yue interrupted in haste.
"Naruto give us the reward! Tashira doesn't know what she's saying!" Kiya cried latching herself onto her Tamer, her muzzle digging into his chest.
Tashira growled at the small Kitsune.
Naruto laughed as he patted the top of his alpha's head, "Alright."
Yue's shoulders relaxed.
"Naruto-kun, don't you think you should tell them about the reward?" Hinata asked nudging his shoulder, blinking for a bit he thought about it?
"Okay, back at home you all know that their weren't many opportunities that we got to see things from above. So we're going to get some tickets to ride that big balloon-blimp thing!" Naruto grinned becoming giddy in excitement. He always wanted to be able to fly high in the sky, there was only one time he had ever gotten on any aircraft and that was on a mission saving princess Koyuki, he didn't get to enjoy it much then but now that the chance has resurfaced he wanted to get on it!
Naruto jumped around on the inside, "We should be able to get to the nearest town over the border in four hours, and once we're there we can check into that hotel you wanted Kiya!" Naruto explained, Kiya's eyes lit up.
Yue tilted her head, "Ride?" She asked wanting to know if Naruto had just said that their transportation was some kind of joy ride for his entertainment.
"R-really, you're not kidding this time? Thank you Naruto! That Nurse Joy was so rough on me I didn't get to enjoy it, she wouldn't even let me soak my fur! I can't wait to soak my muscles in a tub!" Kiya squealed jumping on Naruto from the side she wrapped her legs and arms around him and nuzzled into his neck.
Tashira looked skeptical, whenever Naruto gave them good news something bad always came right after that, she wasn't as air-headed as Kiya so she didn't get her hopes up, "There's something wrong isn't there?" She questioned accusingly.
Silence ensued after the question, Kiya's joyous face slowly dying as her relaxed body tightened.
Kiya growled.
Hinata laughed awkwardly, "The snow bunny said we won't receive the money until Eleven o'clock, which is three hours from now. With the money we have now we wouldn't be able to pay for it, so I'm afraid we're stuck here until then." Hinata explained with an apologetic expression.
"Ow!" Naruto yelped as Kiya bit him. Jumping off him she had a small controlled amount of killer intent leaking off her.
She poked Naruto in his chest making Naruto step back with a cautious and apologetic face, "You're a big meanie! You got my hopes up that we were leaving this place, but now I find out that we'll have to wait here longer? What are we going to do for three hours?" She vented, her head looking as if it had grown bigger, each of her teeth looking as sharp as her two fangs, fire practically burned in her eyes, her hair and tail waving menacingly in the cold wind.
Naruto shrunk big blue eyes staring at her innocently, "I'm sorry?" He said.
Kiya lunged at him, tackling him into the snow.
Hinata sighed before turning with a smile to Yue, "Well, I know at least two things we need to do."
TLTLTLT
Hinata dropped two piles of clothes in front of the cashier, Naruto doing the same with only one pile. There were only three kinds of clothing, a gray pile, a black pile, and a purple pile each of them were all the same kinds of clothing. Like their tamers, only getting one pair of clothes and having it ripped would come to bite them in the ass later, so getting multiple pairs was the smartest option.
"We would like to purchase these clothes." Hinata spoke despite not being able to see the cashier with the stack of clothes blocking her vision. If they didn't have enough money right now to buy all these clothes then they'd have it charge it of sorts, when the money was available the clothes should automatically be paid for.
This place didn't really have a weapons store; they'd just have to wait until they crossed the border to re-supply themselves. After they had left the store, they hurried and sealed the clothes before anyone could come by and see them.
Next they went to the nearest pharmacy store, Tashira had opted to stay outside along with Kiya who decided to keep Tashira company, of course with Kiya and Tashira being her big-sister figures Yue stayed as well, these were there reasons but Naruto and Hinata knew that they were all just scared to go near any type of medication, Tashira mainly because needles were in the store.
Hinata bent low looking at the labels on the medication lined up on the shelf. They couldn't just keep using basic first-aid medical kits to fix all their injuries, not to mention that they were running low on it as well. They decided that they needed something more than just gauze and ointment to patch up wounds.
Naruto stood behind her with his hands behind his head, "Ne Hinata why do they call these P-meds? What the heck's the P for anyway, isn't this medicine just as good as the ones they got over there?" He asked looking around.
Hinata glanced at him before looking back to the medicine, "Naruto-kun these medications are mainly used for Pokégirls. P-meds is short for Pokégirl medication. If we used regular human medicine a Pokégirl's body would reject it." She explained.
Naruto slowly nodded, "Ah, I get it now."
Hinata continued to look them over, some doses came in pills, and others were liquid, while other P-Med doses came in pressurized containers that were fitted with pressurized needle injectors. She had read that a container could hold up to fifteen doses of a particular P-Med, that would come in handy in the future when they were traveling.
The only problem was that these dispensers could only hold one type of P-Med at a time. If that was so then they would need to buy quite a collection of these.
"Hmm, "P-med dispenser can hold up to 15 doses and can heal minor scars, bruises, and scratches."" She read the description on a bottle. Shrugging her shoulders she reached out and grabbed ten bottles, dropping them in the cart she grabbed five more.
What else would be useful in case they got injured? She scanned down the aisle.
P-Med Basic: Heals minor injuries, can heal a Pokégirl who has been injured and can remove unhealed scars.
Price: 2000 ($20) SLC per bottle
P-Med Advanced: Heals severe injuries, heals a Pokégirl who has been injured and can regenerate small missing pieces of flesh and bone, such as digits or ears. Does not remove already healed scars.
Price: 5000 ($50) SLC per bottle
Hinata's eyebrows raised a bit, "Regeneration?" She whispered, she grabbed the bottle and looked at it, "Naruto come here and look at this!" She ushered, he turned to her curiously.
"Eh? What is it Hinata?" He asked walking up next to her looking at the bottle.
Hinata underlined the description with her finger, "Look, this medication can regenerate small missing pieces of flesh." She said in slight disbelief, Naruto's eyes widened suddenly growing interested; he looked closer to the bottle.
"A bone? Digits and ears? how does this work?" Naruto asked in confusion grabbing hold of the bottle Hinata looked at him trying to think it over, "Well their technology is more advanced than us, so I guess their medical knowledge is still much farther than we thought?" Hinata summarized.
Naruto looked skeptical, "Yeah but, they put regeneration in a can? Not even Tsunade could do this!" He muttered with narrowed eyes as it traveled down to the ingredients used to make it, "It would sure come in handy to learn how to make this ourselves." he said out loud, he tossed it into the metal wheeled cart they put their stuff in. Walking forward he grabbed about fifteen more bottles.
Hinata nodded her head, "We'll need to look into it that's for sure." She said, Naruto nodded his head. Turning back to the shelf she continued her scanning.
P-Med Max: Heals critical injuries. Heals a Pokégirl who has been injured and can regenerate larger missing pieces of flesh and bone, such as extremities or damaged organs. Does not remove already healed scars, however existing scars can be excised and healed, which requires surgery.
Price: 10000 ($100) SLC per bottle
Hinata's heart skipped a beat, 'So the medication before wasn't even considered that important?' She looked at this, more regenerative healing. She grabbed more of the particular medication, many of these medications could do things she didn't know they could.
Recover: Restores energy. This revitalizes a Pokégirl so that she can resume battling. It does not heal injuries.
Price: 2000 ($20) SLC per bottle
Recover Max: Heals all wounds and restores energy. This heals and revitalizes a Pokégirl completely. However, it does not alleviate any status ailments, such as Faint or Sleep.
Price: 50000 ($500) SLC per bottle
Hinata's eyes drifted to the price, the higher the frequency the higher the price went. If this was so then they had to be careful about which ones they picked, she couldn't choose recover max because of its high price, if she did she wouldn't be able to get any herbs or ointment.
She rolled her eyes, what was she thinking 'That's right stupid; we got the bounty for the Dryder. How could I forget? Stupid Hinata.' she thought to herself, mentally hitting herself for forgetting.
It was odd, the more the months went by the more she seemed to be thinking to herself. Like asking herself questions, encouraging or insulting herself, it was kinda weird, almost as if she were talking to herself. Shaking her head she returned to the task at hand and grabbed ten bottles of the two brands.
D-Tox: Cures poison; P-Med Burn: Cures all burns; P-Med Ice: Cures frostbite; P-Med Paralyze: Cures paralysis; P-Med All: Heals any status conditions. Hinata stared at each of them, each of them all useful for any future unpleasant events that may proceed in the future, her eyes eyed the Ice P-med that cured frostbite, this one would come in handy in the current weather right now, but all of them were good.
Hinata smiled walking up to the counter with a cart full of medicine, p-medication, ointments, and creams nearly going up to her Henge'd height. The male's jaw dropped just thinking how much that would cost.
Naruto and Hinata laughed as they exited the store, all the medication had been discreetly sealed into a scroll, the next moment Kiya and Tashira were glaring at the two, a trail of frozen snot running down the Kitsune's nose before she sniffled.
"What took you so long?" She whined nasally.
Naruto scratched the back of his head laughing awkwardly, Hinata smiled, "This pharmacy was amazing, the type of medical supplies in there would be a medical-nin's wet dream. I'm sorry we kept you waiting Tashira-chan, Yue-chan." She bowed her apology.
Naruto went over to hug Kiya, unzipping his thick jacket he contacted her cold fur before he zipped back up the jacket with her in it to keep her warm, "The deposit should be complete Kiya, we can go now." Kiya's response was nuzzling into her tamer's chest.
Yue leaned forward in worry, "How much did all of the supplies cost?" She asked, Hinata smiled.
"Only 110,000 SLC ($11,000)!" She replied, Yue's jaw slacked at the unbelievable amount of money they used just for medicine, and clothes. Tashira groaned, confusing the Cheshire she asked, "What is it Tashira?"
Tashira's shoulder's slumped, "Hinata wouldn't have bought all that medical equipment if she wasn't planning on using all of it." She muttered, which sadly meant that the future held a lot of pain... for all of them.
Tashira fell to her knees, she stretched her hands to the sky, "Take me now." She whispered, Hinata patted the top of Tashira's head, "Maa maa Tashira-chan come on. Ny the time it's five in the morning we should be at the hotel on the other side of the border. All we need to do is buy some tickets." Hinata tried to calm her.
Xx
xX
300 AS: October 16th
She couldn't help but feel giddy, her whole being just squirming in excitement at the destruction of the place. Her neither regions beginning to soak her fur and her shorts, her eyes scanned the place that was now ruins, she couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about this place.
She shook the thought away and relished in the atmosphere of chaos, a cheery smile adorning her face.
"I have to meet the bitch that did this." She whispered to herself, whenever there was someone that was the cause of some kind of destruction, she knew that wherever he went chaos was sure to follow, and she wanted to be there to watch every little moment of it.
Jumping off the cliff she fell down to the ground near the place, a whole damn mountain collapsed! There was no fucking way that a mountain could do this on their own, walking through the ruins her eyes soaked in the sight of Pokégirl corpses around from the mountain collapsing on them.
She smiled to herself, her eyes looking around.
She stopped.
"Hmm this place looks familiar." She muttered to herself, her expression of ecstasy being replaced by a confused one, she looked at the sky in thought. Moments went by with her standing there until suddenly she snapped her fingers, "I recognize this place!" She chirped.
"Who would have thought that this was what they were doing in their spare time." She talked to herself, although it didn't really matter now that they were dead, for the past two hundred years, it would have been fun to ask them what they did.
She continued to walk around.
Xx
xX
300 AS: November 5th
"-With the shock of revealing the undercover Trauma Member John Kenzel, the professor in the town. After the incident there have been many other findings as well, it seems that a weapon and combat clothing store had been robbed.
"Street cameras picked up a black figure standing 6'0 ft tall, with gray spiky hair, his mouth and his left eye was covered. He wore a green vest and black combat pants. In the video he easily picks the lock to the door, he grabs as many clothes as he can, along with shuriken, kunai, senbon, and many blank scrolls, weapons that normally a Kunoichi would use. In a few minutes he leaves the area without a sound.
"A couple days later an Officer Jenny went to investigate but found no leads on where he could have gone, bringing her Growlie there was a shocking discovery that had the officer Jenny baffled. It seemed the male robber had covered himself in some foul stench too strong for a Growlie to ignore, with her sense of smell being useless they did not know where he had went.
"The next day a man had reported an incident, his name Katori Yawatega, manager of a hotel in the south part of the town. When checking through his security camera's he found one of them disabled in room 307, two Kimono's that were in that room were taken as well.
"Later that day a tamer, who had checked out earlier that day, claimed that his wallet had been stolen. What do all of these events mean? Were they just coincidental, or are they all related to something bigger?
"Furthermore deep in the south Edo Mountains a Tamer was in the area and had reported that an entire mountain had collapsed on itself. The Government of Edo had sent an excavation crew to check out the area. It turns out that the disaster had not been caused by nature, but instead someone had caused it, after a few weeks two male mutilated corpses had been found with the clothing of a Trauma Members.-
He broke his remote, his teeth gritting against themselves in anger. All because of that old son of bitch their whole operation was being put at risk! Now two little shits knew about what they were doing here.
"I want to know who the fuck these two little shits are! I want to know everything about them!" He yelled slamming his fist on the counter; dammit it was all because of that dumbass Professor Kenzel. He was stationed there to do experiments, and he couldn't even do that! They needed to find out about those two brats and kill them before it caused them some serious trouble; this was not going to mess with their plans!
"Don't you idiots know how important this whole operation is?" He asked, if their plans were ruined then they wouldn't be able to control those bitches that kept getting in their way.
"Calm down." A woman in her thirties ordered calmly, her eyes closed she pulled the cigarette away from her mouth and blew smoke.
The man in charge of this whole group turned to the professor, the brains behind all of this. She had black curly hair, and blue eyes, she wore a white lab coat like the one Professor Kenzel had worn.
"Instead of whining about that old fool Kenzel, why don't you think about our situation from a logical standpoint, so that we know what to do?" She spoke calmly with a sigh. She had never liked that old pervert to begin with, his execution was joy to her, but for that small enjoyment meant that without the knowledge he had it would set them back a couple months.
"Isn't that why the boss stationed you with this group Vanquentera (Van-qwen-tear-aa)? You're the one who's supposed to be thinking about what we do." A man on the opposite side of the table said with disdain. The woman glanced to the Asian man, pulling out her cigarette smoke came from her mouth, going over the table and into the man's face.
"That's right." She replied calmly with a smile.
"Edok!" He whispered harshly, insulting her in Thai.
"Chink." She taunted seeing him grit his teeth.
"Tao shut up." The leader of this whole group commanded, they needed to be careful with this whole thing and arguing wasn't going to help them. Professor Kenzel's assignment was simple, experiment, that was it, his group was small and hard to trace, but even he fucked that up.
They were different, a much larger group although of course it'd have to be in this large city, it didn't matter if it was in Ruby league.
He was the leader of their whole assignment here, the one who received orders from the boss and relayed them, the one who kept things in order. Took care of the money, made sure they had Pokégirls, took care of their locations.
An elder man sat silently, him being in control of the forces here, Trauma Tamer's, Hunter teams, search teams to find Pokégirls, undercover bounty collectors to fund their operation and the like.
Nisha Vanquentera, a half Native American, half African American. She was their professor, the one who conducted experiments and tests on the Pokégirls here, she was the smartest in their group. She held the same position as Kenzel; she wouldn't go as far as to call him her rival, merely a foolish foe.
The supplier, he took care of the shipments here. He supplied them with weapons, food, clothes, medicine, documents, technology, all of that.
Looking around he waited for them to quiet down before looking at each of them, "I want them dead." He growled.
Xx
xX
Present Time
Polass Town
"Are they asleep?" Naruto asked seeing Hinata leave the room.
"Yeah, Tashira and Yue were pretty exhausted." Hinata answered sitting down on the couch beside him, "What about Kiya?" Hinata asked, gesturing to another separate room, Naruto chuckled, "The only reason she's tired is because I made her stay up on the trip here." He laughed, Hinata smiled.
Her eyes traveled the room in all of its beauty, "So what do they call this room again?" She asked, Yue had told them but it continued to slip her mind, Naruto shrugged, "I think it's called a villa, I don't know it's supposed to be some sort of super suite I guess." He muttered before pulling up a bag full of scrolls, he dropped the bag on the coffee table.
"I guess now is the best time to give these another try." Naruto said, they didn't really like doing this while Tashira, Kiya, and Yue were awake, it felt safer to do this when on their own time.
Hinata nodded her head picking up a scroll she immediately went to work.
Naruto sighed unsealing another scroll he grabbed the nearest book from the sudden mountain of books, he flipped through a few pages reading the texts.
"It was complicated but I think that I've finally mastered gene splicing, the technology was more useful then I could have imagined, secrets and knowledge beyond this world's comprehension and with this I've successfully fused an animal with a human female. The proce-"
Naruto chucked the book over his shoulder in boredom, "Just another Pokégirl entry." He sighed, the book landing in the pile of open books behind him. Yawning he turned to the Naruto on the couch, "Find anything?" He asked, that one seemed to be quite interested in the book; maybe he found something involving dimensions?
He looked back and smiled, "Nah, but his sexual descriptions of his creations are quite fulfilling." He answered throwing the book behind him he unsealed another pile of books from the scroll he had. Another Naruto yawned causing the one beside him to do the same, one of them chucking the book into the pile, "Alright I'm out." He sighed before dispersing, "Yeah me too." the second one agreed following the other clones example it dispersed.
All the other copies groaned wishing to get some sleep.
The original Naruto slumped in his chair looking over to Hinata and the little pile of books she had gone through compared to his, neatly placed in a pile off to the side.
Tilting his head he stared at her, "Anything?" He asked.
She slowly shook her head, eyes still on the book, "I'm sorry nothing Naruto-kun." She replied sadly, Naruto furrowed his brows, "Then why you reading that?" He asked. His pile was a large pile of books on the floor behind him, and she only had about ten of them beside her, if this kept up their progress was going to take a while.
"This man, Sukebe knew things centuries ahead of his world. He learned things in a decade that many couldn't throughout their whole life, he literally wrote the steps on how to mix genes, and fuse DNA." She explained in slight awe.
Naruto lolled back in his chair, "Yeah, but how's that gonna help us on getting back home?" Hinata softly closed her book and glanced to Naruto before unsealing another book. They had been doing this for quite a few times now, and it seemed like they only looked through half of the books in that base.
"Naruto-kun there's a good chance that getting back home will take a while." She said, Naruto chucked another book, "That's the motivation that makes me want to look through these and find a dimensional traveling entry." He replied grabbing another book.
Hinata looked at him with an odd expression, "Does that mean that you'll by-pass any other kind of information?" She asked.
Naruto shrugged, "Knowing how to create a Pokégirl won't really help me." He replied monotonously chucking another book.
"Naruto-kun, what do you plan on doing when we get back home?" She asked, it wasn't in the curious nature, more like 'What do you plan to do with your life if you keep this up?' type of question. Naruto chucked another book over his shoulder, a smile appearing on his face when he began to think about it.
"Well first I wanna go to Ichiraku's!" He grinned to himself at the thought of old man's miso ramen, Hinata closed the book and gave Naruto a serious look.
"Naruto..."
Naruto slowly opened his eyes and his grin dropping, hardly ever did Hinata call him by his name without his suffix, and usually it was when she was mad, sad, or serious about something. Naruto knew then that Hinata was asking a real question that didn't involve anything funny.
He sat up and really thought about what he would do when he got back, he would say that as soon as he got back he would rescue Sasuke and bring him back to Konoha. Then again did she even know who Sasuke was? Would she understand? Sure they were all in the academy together, but he couldn't recall the two actually even looking at each other, much less showing any form of acknowledgment.
An image of Sasuke with a dark smile faded through his thoughts.
Naruto's face darkened, "... I want to become strong... and kill that Orochi-teme, as well as those Akatsuki guys Jiraiya told me about." He replied. Hinata smiled, he was trying she knew that, but he just wasn't really thinking about what they could gain here.
"Is that it Naruto?" She asked, carefully Naruto nodded.
Hinata continued to look at him, "Naruto look at this." She said showing him the page on her book, words like obey, command, and control were the words that stuck out to him, "What do you think this is?" She asked, pointing to a drawing of a small cylinder like machine filled with water inside.
Naruto continued to look at the book, "I'm assuming that it involved the war Sukebe started." He answered.
Hinata nodded, "This book... Naruto this book holds information that people didn't think could exist. This book is about how he got each breed to listen to him, how he kept them under his command and how it is possible. It explains the working of the Pokegirl mind, and how he was able to use their train of thoughts to his advantage. This machine you see is how he had managed to clone breeds from a single cell, where in this thing it would grow and generate it's body into a living being." She explained, Naruto had his eyes narrowed as he looked at the well-drawn picture in the book.
It showed secrets that this world would really need, that book explained how to even control ferals where this world even after three centuries still haven't found out how to do so. Sukebe created millions of Pokégirls, he couldn't tame every one of them so he created Pokégirls that could, tamed them, gave them the knowledge to know how to control the feral Pokégirls.
"Naruto-kun the people here have technology, weapons, and medicine that we still have yet to find out how to harness, if Sukebe was far smarter than these people how do you think we'd compare? We have some of his knowledge here, and yet we're not learning everything we can from it. If we knew what Sukebe knew then we'd be able to help our world, our village Konoha further themselves. Hundreds of our ninja die and we don't always know how to heal them. This world could have done it with their eyes closed. In that store they managed to figure out how to create medicine to regenerate small parts of a beings body, only you and I have that ability in our whole village. Naruto-kun do you understand?" She asked.
Naruto furrowed his brows, "It'd take too long to read all the books that this old pervert wrote down, despite these books being step by step it'd take me years to finish." He argued.
"Naruto you have an advantage remember? Your Kage Bunshin experiences everything you do as long as it doesn't involve anything physical, if one of your clones read a book and dispersed all of the clones' knowledge goes back to you." She replied.
Naruto sat there in silence, he never thought of it like that. He wanted to get back home as quick as possible, continue his training with Ero-Sennin, and protect his village. Was that all he wanted to do?
Most of the things Iruka had taught them in class he had merely shrugged off, and yet because Hinata was listening at the time, she knew how to make exploding seals. She contributed to them a hell of a lot more than he did, yes being out here on his own got him to analyze things to a more detailed degree, but when it came to doing something to further themselves he had not helped. Hinata gave him weight seals, taught him leaf-floating, and realized the secret behind his Kage Bunshin.
She didn't need to have a teacher to further herself, any time when by herself she could train herself with her water affinity, sharpen her chakra control, and hone her attacks when it came to her family's Jyuuken.
What about him? What had he given her, he didn't exactly teach her anything, he didn't find out any secrets to her techniques. When it came to advancing his abilities he needed someone to teach him, he needed someone to explain the usefulness of a technique to him, he couldn't train on his affinity.
If he continued to do things the way he had he'd spend the next few months maybe even the next couple of years figuring out how to get back home, and when he finally did he'd be at the same level he was at now, not learning and picking up on things he could've where Hinata did. Hinata's experience as a Kunoichi will have far outclassed him by that time.
It was all because she actually took the time to divulge in any information she came across, listening to all Iruka had to teach, all her sensei had to teach, all the things the Chuunin exam had to teach, using all those experiences and knowledge to apply it to herself.
When it came to chakra, he surpassed Hinata. Although chakra alone wouldn't make him stronger, in a fight with Hinata would he win? If Hinata figured out a way to seal off his chakra for a longer period of time then what?
He finally realized what Hinata meant.
He stood up, "I understand." He finally replied.
He had them re-do it all, every single book he had merely glanced at in these scrolls. About five hundred clones sat on the roof of the building right now reading all the books he brushed off. Technically he was still behind compared to Hinata; she had completely read about fifty books in total since they first started doing this about two and a half months ago.
Each clone was reading a completely different book from one another; he was a slow reader already so it'd probably take all night for these clones to read the first chapter of their books. If there were a thousand copies of one book he'd be able to have each clone read a page and finish in a few minutes, he couldn't clone the book since he didn't know the words every book contained; this would just have to do.
Since it was three in the morning he wasn't worried about anyone seeing his clones on the roof reading, there weren't many living beings that were up that late anyway, and even more there were even fewer that had to go to the roof of a hotel this late.
Shino had once given him a lecture about how all animals followed the cycle of resting or something like that, how the animals that were awake in the day followed the rules, and the ones awake at night doing the same, he couldn't remember the lecture much but it was somewhere in that area, so everyone should be asleep.
He looked over to Hinata sitting down in her chair with hundreds of books stacked around her. Naruto tilted his head his eyebrows rising in confusion, he wouldn't be this surprised if it weren't for the fact that she was sitting with her eyes closed and no book in hand.
Naruto leaned forward in wonder, "Hey Hinata what are you doing? I'm going to pass you in no time if you fall asleep on me." He warned. Hinata smiled, her eyes still closed.
"I'm not asleep Naruto-kun." She replied softly.
"Oh, well then what are you doing?" He asked, "You may be ahead of me now, and you probably are a fast reader, but with my clones I'll have read more books than you by the end of the week." He grinned. Hinata continued to smile.
"Naruto-kun I was only taking my time before."
Naruto looked even more confused, she wasn't reading so how could she not be taking her time? She raised her finger and tapped the side of her head; his eyes followed her fingers before it widened seeing the veins that popped out beside her eyes.
"I'm reading Naruto-kun." She repeated with a bigger smile at Naruto's face.
Naruto's face was frozen over in shock, was she really reading all of those books at the same time? He couldn't even read two lines at the same time, yet she must be reading over a hundred! His mouth opened in awe, was it all that meditation that had helped her do that?
"That's amazing Hinata!" He said before quieting down not wanting to wake up the girls.
Had she been doing that all in the past as well? Had she sometimes faked being tired and going to sleep earlier than him just so she could read all the books he had out without him noticing? The big smile on his face only furthered his own theories. If that was true then she had read far more than just fifty books, she could well be past five hundred, that included some of the ones his clones may be reading.
How many she actually read would only continue to be a mystery.
The five hundred clones aside, at least forty more clones were spread throughout the room organizing the supplies that they contained. One clone was focused on separating each brand of p-meds, herb, cream; healing salve and ointment from the collection they had gotten from the pharmacy.
Say that there were fifteen bottles of each type of medicine, the clone would take three from each of the brands and then seal it in a scroll for Hinata for when she was injured or took ill. Then the clone would take three more from each brand for Naruto, three more of each for Tashira and so on so that if there was a chance that they were separated the one that had all the medicine wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of coming to their aid.
Then came the clothes, sealing all the clothes in a second scroll. Weapons would be in the third scrolls, senbon; kunai; shuriken; and exploding seals. A few Gi's would go in their fourth, and possibly food for the fifth so that each one of them would have equal equipment, they were in charge of their own supplies, if lost then they'd have to wait until they bought more, that kind of thing.
There was another thing Naruto wanted to do, write down all his abilities. This way he would be able to see what he could work on, or in case if he came up with a cool jutsu then he could add it to the scroll where he had techniques written down.
He frowned at the last part involving techniques, or lack of it. He always depended on teachers, but now he needed to find his own way to expand his archive, he couldn't just keep on working on his chakra control; sure it helped increase the energy to a more defined degree, but...
Naruto's eyes widened, 'Expand my archive... Increase my energy.' he thought to himself.
He tapped his chin with his pencil, 'I wonder...'
He'll have to test it out at the next opportunity he got.
Xx
xX
Naruto's body became jittery, this weapon shop was far bigger than the one back in Edo league, he especially noticed the larger variety of weapons in this store as well. He flipped open his pokedex, looking at the amount of money he had in his bank account in the top left corner of the dex.
Grinning to himself he turned to the Pokégirl trio behind him, "Me, and Hinata will get the senbon, scrolls, kunai, and shuriken for all of us, anything that you girls wish to get personally feel free to do so." He explained, they each nodded in understanding before going off to different parts of the store.
Senbon, at least fifty for each, all they needed were five scrolls just in case they encountered other things in the future, fifty kunai per person, printing paper for more exploding tags, and a hundred shuriken for each of them. With all the basic weapons taken care of the browsed through the aisles from hammer's to guns.
Yet another thing that amazed him, they had managed to put an element into a mere see-through glowing bullet. Naruto tilted his head at all the different kinds of elemental shells, so this was what that Trauma member had fired at Hinata.
It seemed pretty useless if they weren't planning on using them, what would he need them for? An experienced Pokégirl could easily dodge and maybe even use it against them. With caution he picked up a white glowing elemental shell, from what the description said above the bullets on the shelf these were Futon bullets, not that they were actually called that but with the wind element in this thing that's the easiest word he came up with at the top of his head.
His eyes pierced the glass shell, looking into it seeing a calm swirling white wind in the bullet, he could practically feel the energy inside of it. He pondered something for a moment before grabbing four more, then four fire shells.
Just an entertaining thought, he was planning on doing it when they continued their training after leaving the town, but for now he'd just have to wait.
Looking around at all of the weapons he was somewhat reminded of Tenten with all of her freaky looking weapons she kept sealed in her scrolls.
Hinata walked up to the counter, having not forgotten about the future training with the Gi's, "Excuse me mister?"
The man looked at her, "Yes, what is it I can do for you?" He asked.
Hinata used her hands to paint a picture, "Do you have any Gi's with butt flaps? My Dracass has a tail and rips through the Gi, and then when she goes back to being human... well, you know." Hinata explained.
He stared at her, "It should be in aisle six, training gear for Dragon types." He replied.
"Thank you." She bowed.
Naruto continued on to the next aisle, scrolls that weren't blank. Instead these had information in them with titles on the scrolls. Naruto looked up, seeing Tashira standing in the aisle looking at a few scrolls herself.
He walked over to Tashira, "Find anything you like?"
She turned to Naruto seriously, "Yeah, although I'm not sure how to do any of these." She replied, Naruto followed her gaze onto the little introductory scroll on top of four other larger differently colored scrolls.
Picking up the little scroll he unfurled it.
Four Dragon Styles: Developed during the Sukebe War by four martial artists who's styles were similar in many basic ways, but different in deeper ways. Each style is based heavily in an element. The White Dragon is the Defensive Earth, focusing on healing and defense; the Black Dragon is the Wild Air, focusing on tearing the opponent and crushing them quickly; the Blue Dragon is the Calm Water, focusing on speed and balanced strikes; and the Red Dragon is the Passionate Fire, focusing on strength and throwing the opponent off balance.
There were four colored scrolls, white, black, blue, and red, each one of them showing the person or Pokégirl who buys it how to do it.
He looked up to Tashira in surprise, "You want to learn a fighting style?" He asked, slowly she nodded her head, "Hinata and I have talked about it, I told her how amazing her Gentle Fist style was and wanted to see if I could learn it, but apparently I'm not able to because I don't have the Byakugan, right now I fight without a specific pattern, or cycle just throwing punches and kicks when I see an opening.
"I still want to learn something that will help me when I fight. Knowing a fighting style would catch many of my future opponents off guard. Tch, but I don't know which one I should choose." Tashira growled, Naruto nodded his head as he absorbed all of what she told him.
"There's a problem with that though Tashira, even if you did catch the enemy off guard, these fighting styles seemed to be well-known if anyone can just come in and look at them. I got an idea though that would really catch your opponents off guard." He smirked.
Tashira raised a brow, "How?"
Naruto grinned picking up all of the Dragon fighting scrolls this store had to offer, "Tashira if you really want to learn a fighting style that can throw someone way off, you can create one no one has heard of, or mix many to make one. If you want to learn a fighting style, you could learn every one of these, and then mix all of them to make your own way of fighting. There are a bunch of people that do the 'what you see is what you get.' they don't know how to dig further into it, the more dedication and time you work on something, then the better it'll be!"
Tashira stared at him, "Damn." slowly a malicious smirk came to her as she thought about it seeing Naruto grin back at her.
"If this is it then go take these to the front where the rest of the stuff is." He said, Tashira nodding her head.
Turning back to the aisle his eyes scanned what he was looking for, 'There!' he thought in excitement, reaching out he grabbed a scroll, then a few others, he'd have to have Kiya, or Yue explain these to him. Like a child on Christmas day the boy walked to the counter.
Hinata's eyes widened, leaning forward to get a closer look at the scrolls that caught her attention. There was a scroll for the beginners, another for average, and the last for the advanced. Ever since she saw Yue attack using her weapon before the Dryder destroyed it, it had been on her mind.
She looked over to four maybe five other scrolls that she planned on bringing out for training later. Grabbing the scrolls she walked over to Yue, the last time they talked Hinata asked if she could teach her even if she herself was a novice.
Each of them dropped their supplies on the counter. The owner of the shop stared at the two tamer's in disbelief, skeptical that they would be able to afford it all.
"Is this everything?" He asked, Naruto nodded with a grin.
Naruto looked over the things they'd gotten, a slight widen of his eyes at a Katana with a black sheath lay on the counter, beside it laid a dark purple ninjato.
"Hinata I didn't know you knew how to use a sword?" He asked in surprise causing Hinata to blush, "I don't, Yue got these Kenjutsu scrolls to help teach me." She answered.
The man finished typing down the prices, adding it all up, "Alright guys that'll be 875,020 SLC ($8,750.20)."
Thank you Dryder.