Author's note: Throwing in another beloved character in this universe - well, beloved to me anyways LOL

Thanks to the following reviewers: PinkiePieParty122894; swordsmanwielder; jessicachitwood95; leighd1314; Weebio; Iraheta 127; Pen-Woman; JaiJayce; SarahNThatcher; Kalos

Warnings: Canon typical violence

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto owns it. I also don't own Pokémon, that belongs to Satoshi Tajiri and The Pokémon Company.

I hope you'll like this chapter!

Chapter 15

Toxtricity stalked towards Naruto and the latter only just now realised just how tall the Pokémon was even with his slouched posture. He was nearly as tall as Naruto was, which was a realisation Naruto really did not want to have when the Pokémon in question was aiming right for him!

Naruto fumbled with his Pokéballs, his mind blanking on him as panic threatened to sink its claws into him, but then his attention was caught by something behind Toxtricity and he gasped aloud. Red light filled the hallway and something heavy hit the floor, making it quake underneath their feet. A low rumbling groan like rocks slammed together shook the building and Naruto's eyes widened when he realised which Pokémon had just entered the scene.

A Golem.

Toxtricity's attention immediately swivelled away from Naruto and he hissed enraged when he spotted the newcomer. Another bolt of lightning cleaved the air in two, but unlike with Sakon, Golem didn't even flinch when it hit him. As a dual Rock/Ground type, any electric attack would just slide off him immediately, turning him into the perfect counterpart for Toxtricity. Toxtricity appeared to realise this quickly, because his next attack was a poisonous purple cloud shot straight at Golem. It hit the large boulder like Pokémon near his face and while he shook his head, rattling the nearest wall, he didn't look that affected by it either. Toxic might poison him slightly, but with how sturdy his body was, it wouldn't be enough.

"You couldn't have used him quicker?" Sakon snipped, hurrying to get behind Golem.

"How about you didn't have to immediately dive into this shack?" his partner snapped right back. "Golem, use Smack Down and get rid of that thing!"

"Maybe you should have been quicker!" Sakon sneered, but the rest of his jeering comment was swallowed up by Golem ripping off a piece of the staircase and throwing that straight at Toxtricity.

The piece of wood Golem had swung at Toxtricity hit the Electric Pokémon straight into his chest and the force threw him backwards into the wall right next to Naruto, a winded snarl escaping him. Toxtricity threw the wood right back at Golem, but predictably it didn't leave any impression and Golem simply retaliated by ripping out a whole piece of floorboard and launching that straight at Toxtricity.

Naruto ducked, but a sharp edge of the board still caught his cheek and he couldn't supress a hiss when stinging pain instantly bloomed. He swiped his fingers across the smarting cut, grimacing when something sticky coated his fingertips. This deep into the house and with Toxtricity no longer using any electric moves it was too dark for Naruto to see anything but the shape of large objects being hurled at Toxtricity – and by extension, himself – but the sticky sensation confirmed that he was indeed bleeding.

"Come on, you can't even take down a measly Toxtricity?" the man called out peeved when yet another piece of wood came hurtling straight back at Golem, who simply smashed it to smithereens underneath his feet.

Golem grunted angrily in response and started throwing wood quicker at Toxtricity in response, shifting his large form constantly to prevent Toxtricity from fleeing away. Toxtricity, for his part, was holding up quite well, but with no way to actually launch any attacks that could hurt or delay Golem, he was basically fighting a losing battle. There would come a moment when Sakon's partner would switch tactics or Toxtricity would become too exhausted and Naruto wasn't prepared to wait for that moment to arrive.

As Toxtricity blocked yet another piece of wood, punching it away before it could actually hit Naruto in his chest, Naruto threw two of his Pokéballs out into the fray. Twin beams of red light instantly lit up the dingy hallway, making the two men shout in surprise and Toxtricity freeze, a warning rumble vibrating in his chest.

"Vaporeon, take down Golem with your Water Pulse," Naruto ordered. "Mimikyu, use Shadow Sneak on the Trainers!"

A quick chirp was all that Vaporeon uttered in acknowledgement of the command before a forceful blast of water hit Golem straight into his face, making him yowl so loudly, it sent tremors through the walls – or whatever remained of them after his enthusiastic use of them for his Take down attack. The jet of water was so powerful it forced Golem several steps back before he tripped and landed heavily on his back, shaking the earth. His Trainer barely jumped aside on time, nary avoiding getting steamrolled by his own Pokémon, but Mimikyu was there already, black tendrils almost invisibly in the night.

Almost.

Sakon and his partner screamed in terror when large swaths of shadows lunged upwards from behind them, slamming them straight into the ground. The shadows slid right across them, pressing them down firmly as they struggled while Vaporeon shot off two more Water Pulses followed by three Water Guns to get Golem completely out for the count.

Toxtricity – who had stood numbly next to Naruto after Vaporeon and Mimikyu had joined the fight – hissed in excitement suddenly and stalked forwards. Mimikyu looked up, apprehensively raising two more shadowy tendrils in the air as a threat, but Toxtricity ignored him; his black irises completely focused on the two struggling men. Having a hunch as to what Toxtricity wanted to do, Naruto took a step forwards, attracting Mimikyu's attention.

"Mimikyu, it's okay. You can pull your shadows away," Naruto said while Vaporeon pranced around Golem's unconscious body, appearing quite pleased with himself.

Mimikyu looked uncertain, but after an encouraging smile of Naruto he pulled back his shadows and shuffled to the side. The second his shadows disappeared beneath his costume again, Toxtricity launched two more lightning bolts, which shot straight through the two men, making their bodies spasm with pain as they babbled something indescribably.

Toxtricity's eyes gleamed viciously and he raised his hands into the air again. Was he planning on sending two more Sparks straight into them? They might not survive that! While Naruto couldn't really care what happened to these men after they had attacked him and tried to steal Riolu, neither did he want Toxtricity to be locked up if people found out he'd severely hurt or even killed two humans.

Even if it was in self-defence, the people in charge of those facilities might not look at it like that and Toxtricity didn't deserve to be locked up simply because he'd been provoked.

So, realising this was probably one of the stupidest moves he could ever pull around a Pokémon like Toxtricity, Naruto rushed forwards, throwing himself right in front of Toxtricity, hiding his view from the two groaning men.

Toxtricity instantly bared his teeth, another sharp hiss like a kettle – only much more terrifying – filling the air between them. Move.

"No, sorry, I get why you want to do this," Naruto said rushed, knowing he only had a couple of seconds at most before Toxtricity might throw him aside, "but they aren't worth it, trust me! If you maim them badly or even kill them, they're going to lock you up in a facility for dangerous Pokémon and do you really want to be locked up because of them? They're not worth it!"

Another hiss, punctuated by a bitten off snarl. Attacked me!

"I know, I know, and you're right to defend yourself, but if you hit them again, they will get seriously hurt and the facility people will show up to take you away," Naruto said forcefully. "You really want to be locked up because of these two? You might never be free again!"

Toxtricity narrowed his eyes, his gaze shooting back and forth between the two nearly unconscious men and Naruto. Vaporeon and Mimikyu hovered at Naruto's sides now, their eyes fierce and determined as they stared at Toxtricity, silently daring him to attack again. If Toxtricity did decide to attack, Naruto would have no choice but to jump away and call his Pokémon back before making an attempt at fleeing. Vaporeon especially would be vulnerable against Toxtricity and with the large Pokémon knowing Spark and Toxic, that put him at least several levels higher than Mimikyu. Naruto had seen just now how ferocious Toxtricity could be and he wasn't about to risk any of his Pokémon in a fight directly against him.

Toxtricity bared his teeth, appearing quite vexed, but stalked deeper into the hallway, away from Naruto. He breathed out slowly in relief; thanking Arceus that Toxtricity at least could be reasoned with. If he hadn't been willing to listen …

"What on earth happened here?!" The shocked voice of Officer Jenny rang out, followed by an equally shocked bark of her Growlithe.

Naruto winced, dragging a hand across his face. Well, this was going to be interesting to explain.

"We have collected their Pokéballs; we will deliver them to the centre once we're finished here," Officer Jenny announced, watching a cousin of her storing the men's Pokéballs away in a secured container. "It doesn't appear that they will suffer any lasting effects of the attack. The nurse said we can take them away once we're ready."

The dark haired man nodded calmly. "You can take them to the precinct when you're ready here. I will follow as soon as I finish the witness' statement."

"Yes, sir," she smiled. She nodded at Naruto before joining her two cousins and her sister in order to take Sakon and his partner to the precinct.

The dark haired man turned to Naruto and offered him a kind smile. "There wasn't a third person helping them out, you said?"

"No, only the two of them," Naruto confirmed, studying the man carefully.

He had introduced himself as Detective Uchiha Itachi, arriving at the scene after Officer Jenny had called for backup. They were currently seated in a large tent as a couple of other officers walked around what remained of the house now. The doorway was broken at the left side from where Golem had fallen and nearly the entire floor in the hallway had been ripped out, with one of the walls following the same fate. The lights the police had set up in order to conduct their examination only made the place appear even eerier than before; the windows and open door looking like creepy eyes and a gaping mouth.

Toxtricity was lurking right outside, eyeing the officers warily as they walked in and out of the dilapidated house, collecting whatever evidence they discovered.

Naruto had sort of expected the presence of Officer Jenny and her family members. Apparently the fight in the house hadn't gone unnoticed by the villagers and they had called the police for urgent help. Not entirely out of the ordinary and even welcomed; Naruto wouldn't have to worry about Sakon or his crony anymore.

What had been entirely unexpected was the detective's presence. He had shown up not long after Officer Jenny had secured the area and had guided Naruto to a hastily erected tent to ask questions about the attack. His long black hair was tied back in a low ponytail and he had a classic handsome look that no doubt would make many girls swoon. He appeared more fitting to grace the covers of model magazines than be out here at night, jotting down Naruto's statement.

There was also something quite familiar about his dark eyes and the shape of his face, but Naruto couldn't place his finger on why he seemed so familiar. Considering his good looks, he thought he would have definitely remembered someone like this detective if they had met before, but he didn't and it confused him a bit. Was the detective perhaps a family member of someone in Naruto's hometown? That might explain the familiarity.

"Are there supposed to be more?" Naruto questioned curiously when Uchiha was finished writing his answer.

"I wish I could give you an answer to that, but I'm afraid I can't," he said wryly. "As a matter of fact, this is the first time we even managed to arrest members of that organisation, so for all we know it's their modus operandi to attack with two every time."

"Organisation?" Naruto repeated befuddled. What kind of organisation?

One of Uchiha's Pokémon, Gengar, grinned widely, floating a bit behind his Trainer. The other Pokémon, an Alakazam, was listening to their conversation quietly, his gaze fixed and steady as if he was meditating.

Uchiha sighed softly and took a seat at the plastic table. It stood rather unsteadily in the uneven field, so Naruto did not dare to lean his weight on it.

"Yes, an organisation intent on collecting as many rare Pokémon as possible." His upper lip curled up slightly. "We know it's led by a man called Danzo, who reportedly is mainly interested in seeing how far he can push these Pokémon, but we never had any actual proof that can tie him to this organisation, let alone enough to arrest him. Tonight marks the first time we actually found members tied to the organisation, so thank you for that."

"Well, Toxtricity did quite a bit of work as well," Naruto said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "Will they even admit they know this Danzo guy?"

The meaningful look Uchiha exchanged with Gengar and Alakazam was already a good enough answer, but he still stated aloud, "We have our own methods of making people like them confess. We finally have an actual lead that we can follow now, so we're going to make use of that."

"I hope you can dismantle that organisation," Naruto said, wincing slightly when he brushed his hand a bit too firmly across his cut cheek.

The nurse had given him a quick examination, deeming the cut shallow enough that he wouldn't need any stitches. He only had to keep it clean and make sure it didn't get infected.

"That is our aim," Uchiha confirmed, peeking outside when the rain started picking up again.

It had petered out to a light drizzle in the time they had spent in the tent, allowing the officers to do their job without being impended too much, but the rain was clearly ready for yet another round of pouring rain, judging by the way the pattern was steadily picking up in speed.

Naruto muffled a sigh at the sight of the rain, illuminated still by the spotlights placed around the tent. Man, it was going to suck putting up his tent in this kind of weather. The house had been declared off limits completely this time and with the villagers' attention on the place now, he couldn't even attempt to sneak back inside. He would just have to hope that the wind wouldn't pick up too hard, lest he risked his tent being blown away.

"Are you staying at the motel?" Uchiha inquired curiously, throwing a quick look in the direction of the building.

Naruto couldn't help but snort, causing the other man to raise an eyebrow. "No, apparently the guy charges eight thousand per night. I don't have that kind of money to spend on a room, so I'll just use my tent."

"It looks like the storm might pick up and turn worse soon," Uchiha remarked critically, eyeing the steady stream of rain.

Naruto shrugged. "Well, don't really have a choice, do I? I'm not made out of money, so there's no way I'm going to spend eight thousand for just one night at a motel?"

"Eight thousand seems quite steep for a quiet town like this one," Uchiha commented, looking up something on his tablet.

"I asked one of the villagers about the motel; don't think the old man would lie about it," Naruto said, covering his yawn just in time. He had no idea how late it was, but given just how dark it had become and how long he'd been sitting here, it had to be somewhere around midnight by now.

With the adrenaline of the battle finally having faded away, Naruto felt a bone deep exhaustion settling in and he longed to just sink down in his sleeping bag and finally fall asleep. After what had happened tonight, he was more than ready for sleep to take over for a while. Finding a decent spot to set up his tent would be annoying, but nothing that could be done about it. He would just have to tough it out and hope that Mother Nature would have some mercy on him.

Uchiha narrowed his eyes slightly before he smiled blandly and rose up, Gengar instantly floating a tad higher in the air. "Will you wait here for a little bit longer? I have to speak with someone."

"Erm, sure," Naruto agreed bemused and watched Uchiha step out into the rain, appearing wholly unbothered by the rain. His two Pokémon followed right behind him and curiously, Naruto rose up from his seat and peeked out of the tent. Uchiha was aiming straight for the small crowd of villagers which had gathered at the edge of the field. They were all dressed in rain coats, some of them holding up umbrellas as extra protection against the rain. Some of the villagers turned their heads towards the detective as he approached them, but he singled out one man in the middle.

From this distance and with the crowd mainly swallowed up by the darkness of the night, Naruto had a hard time trying to discern how the man looked like. There was definitely no way for him to overhear their conversation either, but whatever Uchiha was saying, it had the man first straightening up before he deflated just as quickly. He quickly bowed to Uchiha a couple of times before he dashed away, back to the village.

A bit puzzled, Naruto returned to his seat where he waited for Uchiha to show up again. Uchiha was smiling again when he entered the tent, but his smile was a little less bland and a bit warmer this time.

"Given how harsh the storm might turn out to be, it would be incredibly ill-advised for you to set up a tent outside," Uchiha told him. "You can spend the night at the motel instead; the owner is currently getting a room ready for you."

"I don't have the money for it, though," Naruto said perplexed.

Well, he did have the money, but if he spent it all on the room, he wouldn't have much left to buy food or medicine for the next two weeks perhaps. He wasn't willing to give up his food and potions money for a motel room!

Uchiha shook his head, slashing his hand through the air once. "No need to worry, it's all been arranged. The owner has come to realise that eight thousand is a too steep price for this area and will be adjusting his prices accordingly. He has agreed to let you spend this night for free, seeing as you were instrumental in bringing down two criminals and in ensuring that the locals no longer have to worry about the Pokémon staying in the house." The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

Naruto wanted to protest; he didn't want to take advantage of the motel owner like this, but truthfully at this point he just wanted to go to sleep and if that could happen in an actual bed with a real roof over his head that wouldn't be blown away by a simple gust of wind, then he wasn't graceful enough to refuse.

So he accepted the offer, but did refuse the umbrella held out to him – how would he even return the umbrella later on when he had no idea where Uchiha lived? – and ran out of the tent, through the field, past the crowd and down the street, aiming for the motel where warm light was pouring out one of its windows. He hesitated for a moment in front of the door, not entirely certain whether the offer of a free night was real, but decided that Uchiha had nothing to win by lying about it and so he opened the door, hurriedly stepping inside right as the first lightning bolt cleaved through the air, illuminating the night sky briefly.

Yeah, it looked like Mother Nature wasn't about to bring any mercy at all. Hopefully this wouldn't make the river flood the town completely.

The owner of the motel – an unassuming dark brown haired man, whose thin lips were pursed and whose nose was a bit crooked as if it had been broken before – guided him to the first floor, pointing out the room at the end of the corridor. The owner barely said a word, save for wishing him a good night, but Naruto couldn't find it in him to care about the lack of hospitality.

The room was calling out to him and a happy sigh left him when his eyes fell on the inviting bed. He rushed through the motions of brushing his teeth and cleaning his face and was even quicker to get out of his wet clothes, exchanging them for his pyjamas. He placed his bag with his Pokéballs carefully on the nightstand and bade them all good night before slipping between the sheets which felt pleasantly soft.

The sheets were quick to warm him up and it didn't take long before the comfortable warmth lulled him into a deep sleep.

Someone was watching him.

Blue eyes shot open as the back of Naruto's neck prickled uncomfortably with the heavy stare aimed at him. He laid with his back towards whoever was in the room and his gaze fell on his bag, wondering if he would be quick enough to make a grab for one of his Pokémon.

He'd forgotten to close the curtains before getting into bed and when lightening briefly cut through the air, it illuminated a shadow on the wall right across from Naruto's bed. The shadow danced as the other one moved quietly, before it was swallowed up when darkness blanketed the room once more.

His heart thundering in his chest, Naruto heard one of the floorboards creak as whoever was inside slowly made its way around the bed. Before his mysterious visitor could take another step, Naruto threw back the blankets, flicked on the lamp on his nightstand and grabbed Vulpix' Pokéball, ready to call her out.

White eyes with black irises regarded him with a curious glint and Naruto lowered his Pokéball stumped, one leg out of the bed, bracing the cold, the other one still curled half in the bed.

"Toxtricity?"

AN2: Yes, Naruto, who could Itachi possibly resemble? *hums*

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

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