THE POKENINJA, ADVENTURES OF THE MAELSTROM POKEMON

'Normal speech"

"Tailed Beast speech"

Pokémon attack names

"Inner thoughts"

"Translated Pokémon speech"

"Translated Pokémon thoughts"

[Pokédex Entry]

Chapter 21: Getting a Feline Tagalong

On their way to Nimbasa City for Ash's next gym badge, the gang decided to take a break and eat lunch. Ash and Iris were eating sandwiches made Cilan while Naruto and a few other Pokémon were eating Pokémon food on the grasslands with Axew and Tepig playing nearby.

Naruto walked over to Ash's backpack and took out a soda pop which he drank in order to sate his thirst after the meal "Ahh, now that hit the spot,"

"Hey everyone, come over here!" Naruto and the others turned to see Axew and Tepig standing next to a tree surrounded by bushes, calling out to them.

"What's up with you two?" asked Ash confusedly.

"Maybe they found something," said Cilan.

They walked over to the tree and peered through the bushes only to be surprised upon what or rather who they saw.

"No way, it is…it's Meowth from Team Rocket!" said Ash as they looked at the Scratch Cat who was lying on the ground unconscious.

"Then that must mean they're hanging around here," said Iris.

"I don't think so Iris, I don't sense anyone else aside from us," said Naruto.

"Same here," Kurama spoke up to confirm.

Cilan knelt down to examine Meowth "Something's definitely wrong, there's no doubt that Meowth needs help and fast!"

Cilan and Iris worked together in treating Meowth by providing nutrition and medicine with Ash, Pikachu and Naruto standing nearby watching. It took a while but Meowth finally regained consciousness and sat up from the makeshift bed they had made earlier for him to recover on.

"Ugh where am I?" Meowth's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing them and jumped backwards "Ah, what are you twerps doing here?!"

"Aside from helping you, we were wondering the same thing Meowth," said Naruto.

"That's right, so what are you and Team Rocket doing?" Iris looked at Meowth apprehensively.

Meowth frowned upon hearing what Iris said "I'm not a part of Team Rocket anymore!" the gang was surprised with what Meowth had just said.

"Really? What happened?" Ash asked curiously.

"Nothing, just dropping. Thanks for getting me back up to speed, I owe you guys one," Meowth turned to leave only for Naruto to stand in his way.

"Oh no you don't Meowth, you haven't fully recovered so you need to rest," said Naruto.

"Okay, if you say so," said Meowth before sitting back on the ground with Ash and the others.

"So what happened that you ended up being exhausted like that?" asked Cilan curiously.

"And why aren't you with Team Rocket?" Ash added in his question.

"Well you see…we were in the middle of a top secret mission, but I messed up bad and almost got myself caught. Word got out to the boss of what happened and he kicked me out of the team. Afterwards, I wandered throughout the region until I finally passed out from hunger and exhausted, that's when I woke up and found you guys helping me," said Meowth.

"That's the truth?" asked Iris skeptically.

"Believe you me, I feel a lot better lying,"

Cilan looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking to Ash and the others "You know…I think we should take Meowth along with us," the group looked shocked and a bit skeptical from his suggestion.

"You think so?" asked Ash.

"Yeah, Meowth is the only Meowth in the region. Wandering off alone won't be safe,"

"You twerps don't need to do that, I don't wanna bother you anyway," said Meowth.

"But you might collapse again, since you haven't recovered completely like Naruto said," said Iris.

"Iris and Naruto are right," Ash turned to Meowth "Look, do you promise not to do anything bad when you're with us?"

"Like I said before, I'm not in Team Rocket so I don't need to do anything bad anymore. Are you really saying that I can come along with you?" said Meowth.

"Well we're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt," said Naruto.

"Then it's a deal! Not only will I not drag you twerps down, I'll do my best to help you out," said Meowth happily.

Later on, the group now with Meowth in tow were walking through a forest path towards their next location.


"So you guys are on your way to Nimbasa city for your next gym battle right?" asked Meowth.

"That's right, and I already got three gym badges," said Ash.

"Wow I expect nothing less from a cool trainer and his powerful Pokémon,"

"Sure you do," muttered Pikachu, clearly displaying his distrust for Meowth which is understandable considering his past interactions with him.

Suddenly Axew ran ahead of them towards the other side of the path much to their confusion.

"Axew, what are you doing?" asked Iris confusedly.

"I saw something shiny," said Axew.

Without warning, something jumped out of the bushes nearby and grabbed Axew before stuffing him into some sort of pouch. Naruto took note that this Pokémon bore resemblance to scraggy except that it was taller, wore a yellow baggy hooded mask and its lower body are covered by loose yellow skin resembling baggy trousers which Axew is currently caught in, and at the end of its tail is a single red scale. The Pokémon turned around and ran off.

"Hey come back here with Axew!" Iris shouted angrily as she took off in pursuit.

"Come on guys, let's go after them!" said Naruto before running after them with Ash, Cilan and Meowth following him

The group chased the unknown kidnapping Pokémon all the way to a rocky area as it ran into a wooden hut and slammed the door shut.

The Pokémon then called out through the door, making Naruto narrow his eyes in anger.

"What did you say?!" Naruto growled in anger and was about to move in regardless of the threat, but Meowth stood in his way "Get out of the way so that I can teach that guy a lesson in pain,"

"You can't, unless you want Axew to get hurt!" said Meowth, Naruto gritted his teeth in anger but complied nonetheless.

He and Meowth relayed the message to Ash and the others with the former wanting to do the same thing like Naruto almost did earlier. Next thing they saw was what appeared to be Dragon Rage fired by Axew breaking a window from the hut.

"I hope Axew is alright," said Iris worriedly.

"I'm sure he's fine Iris," said Naruto despite feeling the same way.

"We need to find what Pokémon he is," Ash took out his Pokédex and inputted the data as the handheld encyclopedia displayed the information, the group took note that the Pokémon wasn't wearing a hood and it sported a red crest on its head which looks similar to a Mohawk.

[Scrafty, the Hoodlum Pokémon and the evolved form of scraggy. Scrafty can use powerful kicks to smash through concrete blocks. To protect itself, Scrafty can fold its loose skin around its waist]

"So that's how scraggy would look like when he evolves," said Ash.

"But it looks different form the one on the Pokédex," said Iris.

Meowth then piped up "You can leave this to me, when it comes to negotiating, I'm the best there is!"

Pikachu looked at him with doubt "Oh really?"

"I see what Meowth is talking about, this way we can find out why Scrafty kidnapped Axew," said Cilan.

"Well it makes sense since Meowth and Naruto can communicate with any Pokémon, so it just might work," said Iris.

"Speaking of Naruto, I don't see him here with us," said Ash, everyone looked to see that the white fox was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did he go, do you think he went to save Axew?" asked Cilan confusedly.

"I'm not sure, anyway Meowth should go and find out Scrafty's demands," said Ash.

Okay, you got it!" Meowth went to speak with Scrafty when the Pokémon poked its head out from the door, it took a couple of minutes before Meowth returned with a small frown on his face.

"So what were Scrafty's demands?" asked Cilan.

"Well the things is, Scrafty wants to use a trainer's Pokémon to go into battle next time. So if you comply with its demands, it will release Axew completely unharmed,"

Iris became very angry upon hearing that "Say what now?! How dare that Pokémon act so selfishly?"

"But who are we supposed to battle with and for what reason?" asked Ash.

"Scrafty didn't give me a clue about why it wanted that," said Meowth.

"Why would I battle without knowing the reason for it? It doesn't make sense,"

"You're right, but think about Axew. We need to come up with a plan," said Cilan.

"Then Pikachu and I will go and scope out the area to see if we can find a way to sneak in and save Axew," said Ash.

"No need for that, I've already finished scouting the place," Naruto landed nearby and walked up to them much to their surprise.

"Naruto, where have you been?" asked Iris.

"I wanted to rush in there and save Axew, but Kurama persuaded me to take a page from one of my old friends and check out the area before planning up a strategy," said Naruto.

"You may not possess the Byakugan like your friends Neji and Hinata, but your shadow clones can gather a large amount of information just as much," said Kurama.

"Yeah…" Naruto felt the pangs of pain in his heart for the friends he was forcefully separated from but quickly perked back up.

"So what did you find out?" asked Iris.

"I discovered that the hut only has one window which is broken thanks to Axew's Dragon Rage attack, so we can use that to sneak inside and grab Axew,"

"Then all we need to is somehow lured Scrafty away from Axew while we move in to rescue Axew, but the question is how?" said Cilan

"I have an idea! Since Scrafty is the evolved form of scraggy, I'm sure it will be distracted when I bring scraggy along with me," said Meowth.

"Sounds like a tasty recipe, that will definitely work," said Cilan.

"Are you sure that this plan will work?" Iris was rather skeptical.

"Of course, it always pays to have a backup plan in case the initial plan go wrong," Meowth spoke with confidence.

"Wasn't the reason you got fired from Team Rocket because your plans went wrong?" asked Iris.

Meowth looked flabbergasted before slumping to the ground with a black cloud hovering over his head "Touché,"

"Ooooooh, that burned…badly," said Naruto with a smirk while Kurama and Pikachu laughed at how right Iris was.

"Chin up Meowth, we need to go on with the rescue plan," said Cilan.

"Let's do this then! Scraggy, I choose you!" Ash took a Pokéball from his belt and threw it to call out scraggy who immediately used Headbutt on Meowth but it was avoided just barely "Scraggy, Axew is in trouble, I need you and Meowth to distract Scrafty while we go and rescue Axew,"

"Okay Ash," said Scraggy.

"Next, Snivy, I choose you!" Ash threw out another Pokéball to call on Snivy who immediately use Vine Whip to smack Meowth in the face much to Naruto and Pikachu's amusement "Snivy, Meowth is no longer with Team Rocket. He's on our side now,"

Snivy was both surprised and a bit doubtful about the news "Really?"

"That's right, so let's get going Meowth,"

"Sure, just leave it to me," Meowth groaned in reply from the ground.

Later on, Ash, Pikachu, Naruto and Snivy were perched on top of a cliff while looking down at the hut and through the window where they could see Axew tied up on top of a table.

"I just received a memory from my shadow clone, Scrafty has taken the bait and is currently outside the hut and appears to be demonstrating some moves to Scraggy," said Naruto.

"Okay, then you and Snivy should get in close and wait for the signal to grab Axew," said Ash.

"Got it, Snivy I need you to climb on my back and hold on tight," said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto," said Snivy.

She jumped onto Naruto's back before he leapt off the cliff and silently landed on the roof thanks to his past training in stealth. He walked to the edge of the roof and poked his head though the window. Axew saw him and was about to call out when he saw Naruto placed a paw on his muzzle as a gesture to remain quiet for now to which he complied. Axew looked to the side for a moment before nodding to go ahead.

"Okay Snivy, now's our chance," Naruto whispered out.

Snivy immediately summoned her vines as they stretched towards Axew and tore off the ropes before wrapping around and bringing him over to where they are.

"Thank you Naruto and Snivy!" said Axew happily.

Naruto simply smiled in return "It's no problem little buddy, now let's get you back to Iris,"

Ash and Pikachu saw that everything went as well "Okay Pikachu, it's your turn,"

"Got it!" Pikachu jumped off the cliff and made his way towards Scrafty.

Meowth also saw that Axew was safe and made his move "Wow, you guys are really getting your grove on an-SCRAFTY WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE!" he pointed at a random for Scrafty to look before grabbing Scraggy and hightailing it out of there. Scrafty turned to look inside the hut only to see that Axew was gone, which enraged him.

Pikachu approached Scrafty with a smirk in his face "Hey you! This is for kidnapping my friend!" then he launched a Thunderbolt to knock him out before running back to the group.

"Axew are you okay?" Iris hugged the young dragon Pokémon worriedly for Axew to nod in affirmation "I'm so relieved, thanks for saving Axew everyone,"

"It's no problem at all Iris," said Naruto with Snivy and Scraggy agreeing with him.

"She's right you guys, now Snivy and Scraggy, return for a good rest," Ash held out the Pokéballs and returned Snivy but Scraggy avoided the beam and hid behind Meowth much to their confusion.

"What's the matter Scraggy?" asked Naruto.

"I'm worried about Scrafty," said Scraggy.

Then they heard a growl and turned to see Scrafty glaring at them before taking the hood off to reveal to reveal its face and the red crest on its head.

"So you show your true face!" said Iris.

Scrafty chanted its name a few times as Naruto and Meowth listened to what it said before relaying the message to Ash and the others.

"Scrafty is saying that we only beat him because he underestimated us, so now he challenging us to a battle that if we lose, then we have to help it out," said Meowth.

"Something it could have done from the very beginning instead of kidnapping Axew," said Naruto with a small frown.

"Then in that case I'll have a battle with him," said Ash before taking out a Pokéball from his belt "Tepig I choose you!" Tepig appeared on the clearing before spouting flames from his snout.

Scrafty started off by dashing towards Tepig before rearing its head backwards in preparation for a Headbutt.

"Tepig, dodge to the right and then use Tackle!" said Ash, Tepig jumped sideways right as Scrafty brought its head down only to miss with its attack, then he charged forward and slammed into Scrafty's gut with enough force to send it skidding back a bit.

Scrafty recovered and then lunged at Tepig with its right knee glowing orange and striking out, but Tepig darted to the side for Scrafty to miss and land on the ground where yellow electricity crackled around the knee, causing it to flinch in pain from the damaged received.

"Now use Ember!" said Ash, Tepig started shooting sparkles of flame from his snout and inflicting damage on Scrafty. The hoodlum Pokémon held its paws close together as a blue orb of energy forms between them before it reared back and threw it straight at Tepig.

"That's Focus Blast, Tepig jump backwards and then use Flame Charge!" Ash called out quickly, Tepig complied with the command and successfully evaded the incoming projectile then he dashed forward quickly while covered in flames and slammed hard into Scrafty before it could put up a defense, knocking it to the ground with swirls in its eyes.

"It's our win," said Ash.

The group waited for Scrafty to wake up, and when it did, Scrafty started crying much to their surprise.

"Why is Scrafty crying?" asked Ash.

"Surely, it wasn't because it lost was it?" said Cilan who was just as confused.

"But why would it go through all of this?" said Meowth.

"But if we leave, then it might to the same thing again," said Iris.

"Then we just need to know its reason despite winning the battle," said Naruto with Scrafty looking at him in surprise.

"You mean you'll help me?" it asked with hope.

"It all depends on why you did all this,"

Then Scrafty proceeded to tell his story with Naruto and Meowth listening attentively and began to see why it did all that.

"So that's why," Naruto muttered out loud.

"So what did Scrafty say?" asked Ash curiously.

Meowth was the one to explain "It turns out that Scrafty got kicked out of its own den, so it went to ask for help from Beartic, Scoilepede and Darmanitan but they all refused help it. So when it saw us, Scrafty got desperate and kidnapped Axew just to get our help,"

"But if you had just come up to us and asked, we would have been willing to help, which is what we're going to do," said Ash.

"You mean you'll help?" asked Meowth.

"It's a given after hearing Scrafty's story," said Naruto.

Scrafty proceeded to lead Ash and the group along with Scraggy who remained out of his Pokéball through the rocky terrain towards where its former home used to be.

"So do you know what kind of Pokémon took your den, Scrafty?" asked Ash.

Scrafty pointed upwards for the group to see a Pokémon currently perched on the roof of a cave. It is a vulture-like Pokémon with brown feathers, it has black eyeliner-like markings, a long brown tuft with a bone in the middle extending from the back of its head, and it wears large jaw bone with sharp teeth like a skirt.

"Who's that Pokémon?" asked Cilan curiously.

"I'll use the Pokédex to check it out," Ash took out said device and used it to scan the Pokémon as it spoke out.

[Mandibuzz, the Bone Vulture Pokémon. Mandibuzz swoops down from the sky, attacking weakened Pokémon. It builds its nest out of bones it collects.]

Ash looked thoughtful for a moment for turning to Scrafty "Why don't you go talk with Mandibuzz?"

Scrafty nodded in affirmation and climbed up to approach it when Mandibuzz took to the air and formed a black sphere with one of its wings before launching it at Scrafty, knocking it down to the ground much to the group's surprise.

"That isn't good, Scrafty is still weaken from the fight earlier before," said Cilan.

"Then Pikachu will be the one to go," said Ash.

"You got it Ash," Pikachu got ready to go when Scraggy spoke.

"No, I'll be the one to go! That bird has hurt my friend and I'm not going to let her off so easily!" said Scraggy angrily.

Naruto relayed the message to Ash who nodded in understanding "Okay then Scraggy, I'll be choosing you!"

"Remember to stay focused during the battle," said Naruto.

Scraggy nodded in affirmation before ascending towards Mandibuzz who launched another Shadow Ball but he jumped to the side to evade the attack. Mandibuzz's beak glowed as it dove to use Pluck, Scraggy recalled his training with Ash and Naruto as he waited for Mandibuzz to close enough, then at the last moment he jumped backwards only for Mandibuzz to end up getting its face stuck in the ground and struggling to get out.

Scrafty suddenly called out to Scraggy "Use the move that I taught you!"

"Got it!" Scraggy leapt at the immobile Mandibuzz as he spun around once and lashed out with an orange glowing knee strike to send it flying into the air before crashing to the ground knocked out.

"I saw Scrafty using that move before," said Ash.

"That's Hi-Jump Kick!" said Cilan.

"Scrafty showed Scraggy that move when we were hanging out back at the hut," Meowth explained.

"It's great that you learnt a new move, Scraggy," said Iris.

"Thanks for teaching my little buddy a new attack Scrafty," Naruto smiled.

"It was no big deal," said Scrafty.

Normally things would have ended happily like, but what the group didn't expect was for Mandibuzz to be the one crying its eyes out in front of them.

"Now why is Mandibuzz the one crying his time?" asked Iris confusedly.

"Might as well ask it," said Meowth, then Mandibuzz told him the reason why "Mandibuzz said that it used to leave with its friend but they had a fight which led to it getting kicked out and it had nowhere to go,"

"And that led to Scrafty getting chased out of its own home," said Naruto with Scrafty nodding in agreement.

"But what was the reason for the fight?" asked Meowth, Mandibuzz spoke again this time surprising "I hate to break it to ya but if you've and ate your friend's food without permission then that's definitely a bad thing," Mandibuzz bowed its head in shame.

"Kinda reminds me of when that impostor went around the village dining and dashing before eating your favorite instant ramen which you were saving up. It angered you to the point that you tapped into my chakra and used the Shadow Clone jutsu to hunt the guy down and beat him to a pulp. One of the funniest moments of your life," said Kurama with a chuckle.

"More like one of the worst days of my life," Naruto grumbled, he had been looking forward to gorging himself the instant ramen that he had been stockpiling and that faker had the guts to eat them all up.

"Tell you what, I'll go with you so that you can apologize to your friend," said Meowth much to the surprise of Ash and the others.

"Then I'll come along too," said Naruto.

Later on, they were led to where Mandibuzz's friend built their nest on the edge of a cliff, as Mandibuzz carried some fruits with Naruto and Meowth escorting it.

"Excuse me, can we talk?" Meowth asked placidly, when the other Mandibuzz saw the first one, it angrily shot a Shadow Ball at them, Naruto quickly reacted by jumping at the projectile and using a half powered Rasengan to deflect it.

"Calm down, we just came here to talk!" Naruto called out, Mandibuzz landed before them while still glaring at the other Mandibuzz.

"Yeah, Mandibuzz even gathered fruit so that it can make up for what it had done, it really wants to move back in with you. So can't you let bygones be bygones?" asked Meowth.

Mandibuzz was surprised to hear that and could even see that it's carrying fruit to replace the ones it ate before.

"I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive, after all Mandibuzz is your friend right?" asked Naruto.

Mandibuzz was silent for a few moments but it nodded in agreement to Naruto's question much to the happiness of the other Mandibuzz.

"So you'll bury the hatchet?" asked Meowth hopefully, Mandibuzz nodded again with a smile with the group looking with relief and approval.

After all that, it was sunset and the group were resuming their journey to Nimbasa city.

"I have to admit Meowth, you and Naruto really worked things out," said Cilan.

"Yeah, I wouldn't know how things would have gone if you two didn't help out," said Ash.

Meowth looked a bit embarrassed "Aw shucks, you're making me blush!"

"You're a really cool Pokémon…so I've decided to catch you!" everyone were shocked upon hearing what Iris just said. Then she took out a Pokéball and threw it at Meowth as he got sucked into the capsule. The Pokéball rocked back and forth with everyone watching but then it opened up to release Meowth before the capture was complete.

Meowth glared at Iris "Let's get one thing straight, I don't want to be anybody's Pokémon! And no twerp is ever going to catch me!"

"Okay sorry," said Iris.

"Okay, but even so I going to help you guys,"

"Yeah right," Pikachu looked at Meowth with a deadpanned expression.

"Then let's get going," said Ash with the group continuing on their way, along Naruto was currently glancing at Meowth.

"Naruto, I'm sure you noticed it too right?" asked Kurama with a small frown.

"I know Kurama, Meowth is right about one thing…he definitely feels a lot better lying. Like I said before, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but when he does otherwise, that's when I step in," thought Naruto.


This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, the group found Meowth who reveals that he's not a part of Team Rocket anymore and even helps resolve some problems involving several wild pokemon. However Naruto and Kurama knew that Meowth was lying thanks to their shared ability to sense negative emotions but decided to keep silent and wait until the right moment to act. Read and Review as always.

Review Replies

Edmonton58: Ash's canon pokemon would evolve in this story so be sure to look forward to it.

Shadow fire dragon scythe : Naruto would be able to use his techniques but there's sure to be limitations which will be revealed later in the story.

Rubius: He might get it, though in a way you might not expect it.

Suntan140: I'll be including the movies too.

This is Hussbek from Ghana.

Signing out.