I have ideas for future chapters, but I'm getting lazy… like I said in the last chapter… But, I got the next chapter up! Enjoy!
An Official Battle between Childhood Friends
Sakura was starting to get nervous when she entered the contest hall. She could see the other coordinators with their Pokemon. The slightly advanced Pokemon intimidated her a bit. She looked around for her best friend, but couldn't find her.
"Good luck, Sakura-chan! We'll be rooting for you!" said Naruto, and glomped her from behind, which just earned him a punch in the face from Sakura.
"Thanks Naruto," said Sakura, after punching him. She looked around for a while, and spotted Ino coming in the contest hall.
"Hey, billboard brow! Ready to lose?" taunted Ino.
Sakura twitched and retorted, "I'm the one who should be saying that, pig!"
"Whatever. Let's go, or we're gonna be late." Ino grabbed Sakura's arm and dragged her off.
"What a drag. We'd better find some good seats. Come on Choji." Shikamaru then lazily walked off. Choji, Naruto, and Sasuke followed.
When Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, and Choji sat down in their seats, the contest was already starting.
"Alright people! Are you all ready to see some great appeals?!" shouted Tsunami, the announcer. A huge wave of cheers was heard after Tsunami's entrance.
"So, let's start! First entry!" announced Tsunami. The first and second appeals came and went, and soon, it was Ino's turn.
"Let's give it up for our third contestant, Ino Yamanaka!" yelled Tsunami, whose voice was followed by cheers from the crowd.
Ino skipped on stage, did a small curtsey, and threw out her Pokeball. "You're on Chikorita!" she shouted.
The Pokeball opened and a cute Chikorita, along with swirling colorful petals came out. Chikorita landed lightly on her paws, and bowed.
"Chikorita, use vine whip to push yourself off the ground!" commanded Ino.
"Chiko!" Chikorita's used her vines to balance herself in mid-air.
"Now, use razor leaf!" Chikorita started spinning in mid-air and releasing leaves everywhere, making a leaf tornado.
"Petal dance, Chikorita!" Chikorita then started throwing out pink petals. Now, the tornado contained a flurry of pink petals and green leaves.
"Finish it now!" commanded Ino. The small grass-type Pokemon then pushed itself higher in the air, and used its vines to arrange the leaves and petals very quickly. Then, she used more vines to outline the leaves and petals as a picture of a flower.
Then, Chikorita slammed down her masterpiece on the ground, retreated her vines, and lightly landed in the middle of the "flower". Ino and Chikorita bowed together, and cheers erupted.
"That appeal must have taken a very long time to master! Let's see what the judges have to say," announced Tsunami.
"That's a great appeal!" said the first judge, Anko.
"Chikorita and Ino must have put a lot of effort into this. Great job," commented Tsunade.
"That's such a beautiful appeal!" said Nurse Shizune.
"Thank you Yamanaka-san. Now let's bring on our next contestan!" yelled Tsunami.
Ino walked back to the contestants' lounge and saw Sakura ready to greet her. The pinkette held out her hand. Ino smiled and took it.
"Nice job, pig. You must've trained your Chikorita well," congratulated Sakura.
Ino kept smiling and said, "Thanks. Hopefully you'll make it to the second round, billboard brow."
"You're not the only person who's been training, Ino-pig," said Sakura.
Then, the two of them turned their attention to the TV screen. A while later, Sakura was called up on stage.
"Watch me closely, Ino. You'll see I'm not weak anymore," thought Sakura.
"Now, welcome our next contestant, Sakura Haruno!" announced Tsunami. Again, cheers erupted from the audience, with Naruto's voice being the loudest.
"Go, Sakura-chan! You rock!" the hyper blond shouted. Sakura jogged on stage and took out Torchic's Pokeball. She twirled around once, reared up, and threw the Pokeball.
"Torchic, take the stage!" Sakura yelled as she threw the Pokeball.
"Alright, Torchic, use Double Team!" commanded Sakura. Sudenly, a lot of replicas of Torchic appeared in a circle.
"Now use Ember!" continued Sakura. All the Torchics jumped in the air, and shot Ember attacks, getting the fireballs to form one huge fireball. The fake Torchics disappeared and Torchic geared up for the finale.
"Torchic, finish it!" Torchic dove down into the fireball, and kept diving down, bringing the fireball down with him. Then, he blew out a huge column of fire towards the ground to stay in mid-air.
"Ooh's" and "aah's" came from the audience. Then, Torchic blew the column of fire towards the roof. The fireball came crashing down, and finally, sparkles flew in all directions. Torchic was in the air once again, and he landed safely, with sparks all around him. The crowd cheered madly after the appeal was done.
"Wasn't that awesome? Let's see what our judges think," said Tsunami.
"I'd say that was a really fiery appeal," commented Anko.
"A very unique appeal. It has good use of Torchic's attacks," said Tsunade.
"That was amazing. The fire worked really well," said Nurse Shizune.
"Alright, now let's bring out our next entry!" announced Tsunami.
"Sakura, I never knew you could do something like that," said Ino while hugging Sakura back at the coordinators' lounge.
"I told you, I've grown," replied Sakura as Ino released her hug.
"But you'll never surpass me," boasted Ino.
Sakura twitched and replied, "Well, we'll see."
After all the appeals were done, Tsunami announced, "Now all our appeals have been performed. Let's see which contestants get to go on to the next round!"
Sakura and Ino watched the screen closely, squeezing each other's hand for comfort. Pictures started appearing. Ino's picture came on second, but Sakura was worried that she might not be in the next round. Thankfully, she saw her picture when it popped up four pictures after Ino's.
"Yes! I made it!" shouted Sakura, jumping up and down.
"Congrats, Sakura," congratulated Ino.
Outside, Naruto was cheering, "Yeah! Sakura-chan made it! You rock, Sakrua-chan!" He was quickly silenced by Sasuke, who whacked him across the head.
"She actually made it," thought Sasuke. "Hopefully she'll win the contest too. Good luck, Sakura."
"All right, let's see who's going up against who," announced Tsunami. The pictures randomly sorted themselves, and it turned out that Sakura and Ino were facing different opponents in the first round.
"All right, the first match is up. Good luck, contestants!" shouted Tsunami, and she went off stage.
Sakura and Ino got past the first round, and the second round as well. Then, in the last round, the two of them got to face off.
"Hey, Ino. The matches were surprisingly easy, weren't they?" asked Sakura.
"Well, there're mostly rookie trainers here, so of course it would be easy… for me that is," boasted Ino.
"Just get on stage," said Sakura, twitching with anger.
Ino walked on stage, Pokeball in hand, ready to face her best friend. Cheers erupted as the last match proceeded.
"Ino, you might want to go all out on me," warned Sakura.
"Psh, please. As if I need to do that. I'll finish the match quickly so you won't be humiliated," teased Ino.
"Oh pig, you're so going down! Shannaro!" yelled Inner Sakura.
The match started and the two girls brought out Torchic and Chikorita.
Ino made the first move. "Chikorita, use vine whip to hold Torchic!" Chikorita got her vines out to restrain Torchic, but then, Sakura made her move.
"Torchic use Double Team1" A lot of Torchic replicas appeared, confusing Ino and Chikorita.
"Damn, which one is the real one?" thought Ino, frantically. (AN: Remind you of the Chuunin Exams?)
A second later, a Torchic rammed into Chikorita, hard. Ino lost a few points. Chikorita got back up and Ino shouted, "Use Sweet Scent!" Chikorita released a fragrant smell towards Torchic, making him lower his guard and his clones disappear.
"Now use Vine Whip!" Chikorita grabbed Torchic with the vines while he was off guard, and threw him in the air.
"Razor Leaf!" commanded Ino. Chikorita unleashed a flurry of Razor Leaves. The leaves hit Torchic un-mercilessly. Sakura lost some points for that.
"Torchic, burn those leaves!" Torchic, regaining its confidence, blew out an Ember attack, immediately burning the leaves around him.
"Now use Double Team again," said Sakura. Torchic copied himself again. "Peck!" All of the Torchics' beaks glowed. Then, they all lunged toward Chikorita, who was panicking now.
Before Ino could shout out an attack, the Torchics were already pecking Chikorita like crazy. Ino lost a lot of points. Chikorita was flown back by the impact.
Sakura didn't stop. "Torchic, Ember!" The fake Torchics disappeared, and the real Torchic blew out a powerful Ember attack.
"Reflect!" Chikorita turned the fire against Torchic. Sakura lost a few points for missing the target, but she suddenly smiled. Ino then realized that she made a big mistake.
The fire energized Torchic instead of hurting him, so then, Ino realized that she had just dug her own grave.
Torchic ran up to Chikorita and rammed it with a headbutt. More points were taken from Ino.
"Chikorita, Petal Dance!" Petals surrounded Torchic, both wounding him, and confusing him. Sakura lost some more points.
"Now Chikorita! Poison Powder!" Chikorita released some powder towards Torchic, who got caught in it, and was immediately poisoned. Again, Sakura lost a few points.
"Razor Leaf!" torchic got struck by the leaves again, and was blown back.
"Torchic!" shouted Sakura. Suddenly, Torchic glowed brightly, a sign that its Blaze ability has been activated.
"Torchic, Fire Ring!" commanded Sakura.
"What the-" thought Ino, confused. Torchic leaped in the air, and blew out a strong fire attack towards Chikorita, not hitting it, but making a circle of fire around it so that it won't be able to escape.
The audience murmured a lot of "wow's" and "cool's". Ino gritted her teeth, thinking of what to do. Meanwhile, she was losing points. However, her gauge was still higher than Sakura's.
"I'm not done yet!" shouted Sakura. Torchic ran into the fire, staying there. "Now, flamethrower!" Torchic unleashed a huge flame thrower attack at Chikorita while in the fire.
Chikorita was blasted back the fire. Chikorita went through the wall of the fire circle and still went on until it hit the wall. Even then Torchic didn't stop the flamethrower attack. Ino couldn't think of anything to do.
The buzzer sounded, Torchic stopped the attack, and Chikorita fell to the ground. The two friends turned their heads towards the scoreboard, and both their eyes widened.
Cliffie here! Well, like the past chapters, I'll want at least 5 reviews for this fic. Review, review, review! ^_^ (They make me happy… except for flames. Constructive criticism is accepted.) Sorry if the chapter was short for you guys... -_-"