Author's note: I am posting on time! You should be worried now :)

Thanks to the following reviewers: PinkiePieParty122894; leighd1314; JaiJayce; Pen-Woman

Warnings: Gore; drama; suspense; violence; you're probably going to not like me after this chapter

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 it!

Chapter 26

The boulder was pushed aside.

It was a realisation that stole Naruto's breath. His torch light was aimed straight at the entrance of the little cavern and where he was supposed to see the big boulder, nothing but gaping darkness greeted him instead. How was that possible? He hadn't heard the boulder moving at all and such a large object couldn't have been moved without making noise. Who had even managed to move it? And why? Had it been a Steelix? A Graveler? A Golem?

No, he realised worriedly. If it had been one of them, the boulder would have been pushed inwards in the cavern, not to the side. Any Pokémon trying to enter from the corridor would have to push the boulder forwards, not sideways. Yet the boulder had been pushed towards its original place before Naruto, Toxtricity and Lucario had combined their strength to move it in front of the opening.

Something moved in the corridor, disrupting the beam of the torch.

Resting his hand on the Pokéball with Vaporeon, he breathed quietly out of his mouth, trying to figure out which option would be the best: launching an attack or trying to flee. The beam only revealed a shadow lingering in the corridor but it couldn't show which Pokémon was lurking there. Vaporeon would be his best choice if he decided to launch an attack, because most Pokémon he had encountered so far had been the Rock Type, but if this Pokémon was an Ursaring he would need Lucario.

The light beam was disrupted completely.

Naruto's brain seemed to flatline instantly when he raised the torch higher. Higher and higher the light beam crawled but it never landed on the hulking form of a Pokémon. Instead another Trainer stood in the opening of the cavern, blocking it.

A Trainer with his head angled impossible to the right, showing off glimpses of bone sticking through the paper thin skin. His face was nothing but a mottled mess of black and blue; pus mixing with blood. One eye was mangled to the point of being unrecognisable, indistinguishable from the darkness surrounding the Trainer. The other eye stared at Naruto and the Trainer raised his right arm. His arm was hardly better than his face: it had several missing chunks, showing the whiteness of his bone, as if something had torn pieces from it.

His breathing was ragged as he started shuffling forwards, stretching his bitten arm out to Naruto. His only arm, Naruto realised as terror settled in, filling his veins with ice. Because where the Trainer's left arm was supposed to be was nothing. Nothing but a bleeding, torn stump, half cauterised, but still dripping blood.

"H-help m-me," the Trainer gurgled; bubbles of blood escaping him with each syllable.

Naruto stumbled backwards, fear so overwhelming it stole his voice, but the Trainer followed him deeper into the cavern until Naruto ended with his back against the wall.

"W-why w-on't yo-you h-help m-me?" the Trainer whispered, hacking up more blood. His remaining eye flashed with anger and he spat, "M-m-my b-bag was g-go-good e-enough!"

Naruto shook his head horrified and made to dash to the right, but ice cold fingers grasped his neck and dug straight into his skin, cutting off his air. Naruto gasped and was instantly hit by the awful sickening stench of blood. He kicked out, viciously aiming for the Trainer's leg, but instead of buckling, the Trainer merely tightened his grip even further until dark spots started to cover Naruto's vision and stupidly he wondered how it was even possible to see dark spots when it was already so dark in the cavern.

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe, he was running out of air, and the Trainer just kept tightening his grip, tightening, tightening until something gave underneath his fingers and Naruto's scream died in his throat. His lungs burned, his limbs turned weak, senseless and –

"Mimikyu!"

Naruto shot up, gasping, and instinct had him quickly reaching out to grab Mimikyu before the little Pokémon could topple off him. Vulpix yelped, digging her claws into Naruto's stomach which while painful did help shredding apart the last vestiges of his nightmare. He took in several gulps of ice cold air, letting it burn his lungs and being grateful that it had just been a nightmare.

An awful, horrifying nightmare the likes of which he hadn't experienced in years, but a nightmare nevertheless.

"Vaporeon?" Okay?

Vaporeon butted his hand cautiously while Pidgeotto twittered quietly behind Naruto, brushing his wings across Naruto's neck. Naruto wanted to reassure his Pokémon, especially when he felt Lucario and Toxtricity sit up as well, but his tongue was numb and he started to shiver, pressing Mimikyu closer against his chest.

Mimikyu uttered a confused noise, but not even a couple of seconds later Naruto felt his shadowy tendrils close around his shoulders, Mimikyu's stuffed head bumping against his chin, in an attempt to comfort him. Vulpix, having noticed his shivering, buried herself against his stomach after crawling into the sleeping bag, offering her natural body heat.

"Just a nightmare," he muttered, though it had been years since he last had had such a realistic nightmare.

It had felt so real … He touched his throat, recalling all too well how tight the dead Trainer's grip had been. It had really felt like he couldn't breathe at all and he swallowed; his stomach churning so badly he feared he was about to throw up.

He had no idea how late it was, whether it was morning or night, but he doubted he would be able to go back to sleep. Not when he could still see the dead Trainer coming at him every time he closed his eyes.

'Something is nearby.' Lucario's soft comment flashed through Naruto's mind, which did absolutely nothing to help him calm down.

"Close?" Naruto whispered; his heart starting to beat quicker.

'Quite,' Lucario answered, which definitely wasn't reassuring at all.

There was a boulder in front of the cavern's entrance, though. Even if Lucario was right – and Naruto had no reason to doubt him when he sounded so certain – the Pokémon would just be in the corridor. There was no way for the Pokémon to have entered the cavern as long as the large boulder was blocking the entrance. The boulder was also so large and heavy there was no way for a Pokémon to have been able to move it without alerting Naruto and his team.

He knew all that, yet his stomach kept churning uncomfortably and he knew he wouldn't be able to be at ease until he had checked the boulder was still in place.

Placing Mimikyu next to him, he softly urged Vulpix to move aside and searched for his bag. When his fingers bumped against the familiar fabric, he grabbed his backpack and dragged it closer to him, rummaging quietly around in it until the back of his hand brushed against his torchlight.

"Mimikyu?" What doing?

"Just going to check the boulder," Naruto mumbled and unzipped the tent as silently as he could, crawling out of it.

He was aware of the others following him out of the tent and for a brief moment he was distracted by the ice cold air smacking him in his face. He hadn't realised just how warm he had become, surrounded by his Pokémon until he had left his tent. It made him want to go back into the tent and just bury himself amidst his Pokémon to warm up again.

Ignoring the way his cheeks and nose were starting to sting with the cold, he pressed the button on his torchlight, activating it. The beam flickered once, twice, before it steadied and he pressed his lips together, cursing silently. He would have to change the batteries soon it seemed. With a bit of luck, the torch would give out when he was finally outside or at the very least if he was in a cave with luminous stones.

Feeling Vulpix lean against his leg, Naruto aimed his torch at the boulder, ready to give it a quick glimpse and then get on packing up his tent.

The boulder was pushed aside.

The boulder was pushed aside and the beam of his torch illuminated a hunched form, catching onto something metallic. A Hypno stared wordlessly at Naruto; its pendulum swinging three times before the tool stilled. The Hypno only turned around and left just as silently when Toxtricity started hissing in warning and Vulpix started to growl threateningly.

Even with the Hypno gone, Naruto still remained frozen. The sight of a Hypno right after waking up was already disturbing enough, but who had moved the boulder? More importantly, why hadn't he heard the boulder moving? Even caught in the throes of his nightmare, a giant boulder moving to the side should have woken him up!

"Did any of you hear the boulder moving?" Naruto asked, pushing the question past his numb lips.

"Vaporeon." No.

"Pidgeotto!" Not a sound!

The others also gave a negative answer. Naruto wasn't going to lie: he was becoming quite freaked out now, even with his Pokémon hovering protectively around him. A boulder of that size should have made noise when being shoved aside! How come it was even pushed aside to its original place when any Pokémon strong enough to move it should have normally pushed the boulder into the cavern? There was no way for a Pokémon to push the boulder aside unless they were present in the cavern with them.

Instantly Naruto swept his beam around the cavern, up and down, left to right and right to left, front to back and front again, but nothing. Only his Pokémon were present with him, watching him with worried eyes. It was possible that a Ghost Pokémon was present here, but were they strong enough to move an entire boulder without making noise?

Or had it been the mysterious Pokémon that had approached him before? He hadn't been able to see it back then either, so it was possible that it was here again. Why would it have moved the boulder, though? And how had it done so without making any noise?

"Mimi, Mimikyu," Mimikyu muttered uneasily. Something nearby.

"The Hypno perhaps," Naruto muttered; his grip tightening around the torch.

Was Hypno going to try to put him to sleep? Was it waiting right outside the cavern until Naruto dropped his guard? It could wait for a long time then, because after seeing the boulder pushed aside – just like in his nightmare, don't think about that – he was beyond tense and nowhere near ready to drop his guard.

'Feels darker,' Lucario denied, which was the last thing Naruto wanted to hear right now.

Great, fantastic, some kind of Dark Pokémon was apparently lurking around. Was it the one who had moved the boulder then?

"Does it feel hostile?" Naruto asked quietly, barely moving his lips.

"Mimikyu, Mimi." Doesn't feel nice.

There was a difference between a Pokémon not coming across as nice and it actually being hostile. Should they try to wait out this Pokémon and hope it would get bored? Not exactly a plan Naruto was fond of trying out. Without knowing who this Pokémon was, trying to wait it out might even be a worse idea than attacking it straight on.

'It's coming closer,' Lucario warned, tensing up right behind Naruto.

"No real choice then," Naruto muttered and readied himself. "Warn me when it's about to appear," he whispered to Lucario.

Dark Type Pokémon were weak against Bug, Fairy and Fighting Types. He had two out of three Types in his own team, so the second the Pokémon would appear, Naruto would let Mimikyu launch an attack. Lucario would act as backup just in case Mimikyu's attack wouldn't be enough. He dearly hoped it would be, because having to call in Lucario as backup would mean that the Dark Pokémon was too strong, which was something he did not want to think about.

The atmosphere was charged with tension and he pricked his ears, trying to pick up any sound that would indicate the Pokémon was coming closer. He couldn't hear anything, except for the by now familiar noise of Rock Pokémon clashing into each other, but he trusted Lucario to keep track of the Dark Type.

'Now!'

Naruto whipped his torch at the cavern opening, revealing a dark mass and a bright blue eye which narrowed dangerously.

He didn't recognise the Pokémon at all and for once had no interest in getting to know it either. "Mimikyu, Dazzling Gleam now!"

"Mimi!"

Immediately a bright, dazzling light filled the cavern, aiming straight for the Dark Pokémon hovering right in front of the opening. The Pokémon released a horrendous snarl when Dazzling Gleam hit it in the chest area. It curled up into itself before the bright light of the Dazzling Gleam started degrading when a dark reddish wave hit it, aiming right for Naruto.

Naruto's eyes widened but before he could try to duck or jump out of the way, something else intercepted the dark pulsating wave and the force behind the clash sent everyone flying. Naruto fell back against his tent, groaning when it collapsed, the tent poles hitting him on his head. He caught Mimikyu and Vulpix before they could fly over him and smack into the wall and Vaporeon ended up rolling against his leg with a surprised yelp. Pidgeotto screeched in outrage, his wings flapping furiously, while Toxtricity and Lucario ended up somewhere nearby with a muffled grunt.

The torch was rolling across the ground and one of Mimikyu's shadows shot out, snatching it up and handing it to Naruto. Naruto thanked him by patting his back and aimed the torch at the opening, needing to know what on earth had just happened.

Whoever the shadowy Pokémon had been, it was gone now. No matter in which direction Naruto aimed the torch, the shadows created by the light were just that: shadows. Not a hulking mass of a Pokémon preparing its revenge or the start of a new attack.

"It's gone?" Naruto frowned, sitting up and bracing his free hand against the collapsed tent.

'The Dark one is gone, but the other one is still here,' Lucario replied and his footsteps neared Naruto.

Don't see anyone, Toxtricity hissed.

There was indeed nothing to see, but now that Naruto concentrated, he could feel a pair of invisible eyes staring at him from somewhere near the left.

"Are you the one from before? The one who helped me with those cans?" he asked cautiously.

Really, though, how high were the chances of two invisible Pokémon deciding to help him out in this mountain?

Then again considering his odd luck nowadays, who knew?

The mysterious Pokémon released a happy chirp in confirmation, which was okay, he supposed. At least this Pokémon had helped him out against the other unknown one instead of ganging up against him with the other one. It didn't explain how the invisible Pokémon had found him again, though. He would suspect the Pokémon had been following him all this time, but this was the first time in a while that he felt that gaze on him again, so the Pokémon couldn't have been trailing him the whole time.

"Thank you for your help once again," Naruto sighed and after placing Mimikyu and Vulpix on the ground, he stood up, rolling his shoulders with a grimace, and rubbed over his head.

The tent poles hadn't exactly been soft and he wrinkled his nose when he aimed the torch at the collapsed tent. This was going to be a pain to disassemble and get it back into his bag. It had at least broken his fall, so while he felt a bit sore, he could move around without too much trouble. He guessed he should be glad the tent had been there to act as a shield; the blast caused by the clash between those two attacks could have done a lot worse if he hadn't landed on his tent.

While Toxtricity and Lucario helped remove the poles and Mimikyu aided by opening the bag, Naruto set about folding up the tent, using the torch on the ground to guide him, though the tent wouldn't be as neatly folded as usual. With how worked up he felt, though, he wasn't in the mood to set up the tent properly again. There was no way for him to catch some more sleep, not after the appearance of both Hypno and the unknown Dark Pokémon. The boulder having been shoved aside without either him or his Pokémon having been aware of that happening didn't particular help either.

As he shoved the folded tent back into his bag, followed by the tent poles, he bit down on his lips as he wondered whether he really wanted to ask the question burning on his tongue. The invisible Pokémon was still here, seemingly content so far to just linger in the cavern, staring at Naruto. He didn't think the Pokémon meant him any harm, because his team while understandably wary wasn't acting that hostile towards the invisible Pokémon either. Of course there was still a difference between not meaning any harm and not doing any harm.

Pursing his lips, he rose up and turned in the direction he had last heard the Pokémon. "Do you happen to know who moved the boulder?"

The mysterious Pokémon chirped once more in confirmation, coming a bit closer judging by the way the air was disturbed.

"Was it you?" Naruto asked after a pause.

Without having a single clue who this Pokémon was – and the Pokédex had no idea either – it was perhaps inane to ask such a question, but if this Pokémon could turn invisible and was strong enough to interfere in a battle without any hesitation, couldn't it also have the means to move such a big boulder? If it had indeed done that, though, what was the reasoning behind it? It had to have known that removing the boulder would leave Naruto and his team vulnerable and so far the Pokémon seemed to have done its best to help him, not bring him into any danger.

Unless this Pokémon was indeed some kind of Ghost Type which had a very shrewd sense of humour and had thought it would be funny to see what would happen if it removed the blockage in front of the opening. Naruto had to remind himself that not every Pokémon used logic. Some Pokémon were easily capable of helping out people one moment, only to pull a prank on them or attack them the next. Wild Pokémon remained wild and thus unpredictable after all.

'Mwrp!' was the enthusiastic answer.

Naruto frowned. "Why did you do that?"

Before the Pokémon could reply – if it was planning to do that – the cavern started to shake, throwing everyone off balance and making Vulpix and Vaporeon cry out in shock.

"Just some Pokémon making a ruckus nearby," Naruto tried to soothe them, but an ominous sounding crack above him had him snatching the torch from the ground and aiming it upwards.

As he stared at the ceiling with a growing sense of dread, he watched how the cavern's ceiling cracked apart. First it was nothing but a small thin rupture, easily ignored, but the walls of the cavern started to shake once more and tremors caused the ground to rumble, nearly making Naruto topple over. Since they had found the cavern yesterday, they had experienced the occasional tremor before, but after all this time spent in the mountain, Naruto had grown somewhat used to the never-ending quakes. There was always some Rock or Ground Pokémon having a tussle with each other, so the shaking of the ground or the walls had become almost background noise by now.

He realised just how bad the quake was this time when a part of the ceiling suddenly collapsed, rocks shattering into dust. The tear in the ceiling kept growing, spreading out rapidly, no longer something that could be ignored.

The cavern was about to collapse.

"Everyone, get out!" Naruto ordered and grabbed his bag on his way out of the cavern, his team following him closely behind.

He shouted in surprise when the corridor started shaking as well and to his horror the walls began to crumble, jagged pieces of stone smashing apart against the floor and hitting the back of his legs.

"We have to get out of this corridor now!" he yelled and coughed when dust rapidly filled the corridor as rocks started crashing down right behind him.

He would call them all into their Pokéballs to keep them safe, but those Pokéballs were in the bag and even taking a couple of seconds to retrieve them all could be a few seconds too much. He forced his body through another burst of speed while his Pokémon rushed alongside him; the torch wildly dancing across the crumbling walls. A brief moment was spared to wonder where the invisible Pokémon was, but a rock landing right in front of him forced him to keep his attention on the corridor so that he wouldn't get bashed in the head by pieces of the ceiling breaking off.

His jagged breathing was swallowed up by the deafening rumbling noise of the corridor collapsing into itself as more and more rocks started crashing down. He had no idea where on earth they were running to, as long as it was out of this damn corridor!

Sprinting to the end of the corridor, he threw his body forwards when the corridor finally came crashing down completely, spraying dust and gravel everywhere. He landed harshly on the ground, his breath escaping him with a painful wheeze as he covered the back of his head, hearing his Pokémon cry out in shock or screech when they tumbled into the open space too.

When the dust finally seemed to settle and the noise of crashing rocks had died out, he pushed himself up, coughing when he inhaled some of the dust. When they finally got out of this damned mountain, he would never take water for granted again.

"Is everyone okay?" he rasped out, massaging his throat.

Fortunately he hadn't lost his torch this time, though it had cost the back of his hand to smash painfully against the grit covered ground. He shone the torch around him, trying to locate his Pokémon.

"Vulpix," was Vulpix' weak reply. All right.

She was near him, getting up on shaky legs. Right behind her Vaporeon stood up, sneezing several times.

"Vaporeon." Okay too.

Toxtricity's hulking form was right across from Naruto and he slowly rose up, hissing. Fine.

Pidgeotto was shaking out his wings furiously, hopping from leg to the other, while Lucario cautiously got up, his appendages twitching as he looked around him.

"Okay, so Vulpix, Vaporeon, Toxtricity, Pidgeotto, Lucario, you're all fine, that's great," Naruto sighed relieved, before he froze and he hastily started looking around. "Where's Mimikyu?"

"Vulpix, Vulpix, Vulpix," Vulpix answered worriedly. Was right with me.

But he wasn't. Only Vaporeon stood close to Vulpix and there was no sign of Mimikyu anywhere.

"Mimikyu?!" Naruto called out, trying to suppress the panic threatening to strangle him.

There was no need to panic when of course Mimikyu was nearby, why wouldn't he be when the rest of his team was …

But no matter where he shone the torch, he couldn't catch even a glimpse of Mimikyu's shadows or his costume.

"MIMIKYU?!"

A weak "Kyu …" had him whipping around, trying to locate where it was coming from.

"Mimikyu? Where are you?!" Naruto called out urgently, for once not caring about the wild Pokémon he might be potentially disturbing. "I can't see you!"

"Mimi …" Here …

Here? Where was here?

"Where is here, Mimikyu?" Naruto urged, dashing from one side of the room to the other one, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't catch sight of Mimikyu.

'He's here,' Lucario said.

"Oh, Lucario, did you find him? Thank Arc…" Naruto's relieved smile instantly vanished when he turned around and saw where Lucario was pointing at.

He was standing right in front of a large pile of rocks, which was currently blocking off the collapsed corridor.

The torch slipped out of Naruto's weak grip and his blood ran cold when he realised that not all his Pokémon had made it safely out of the corridor.

Mimikyu was still trapped in there – and Naruto had no idea how to get him out.

AN2: Man, this story is taking quite the angsty turn. Will they ever make it out of this mountain alive? That's for me to know and for you to find out.

On another note, does having picnics in Violet/Scarlet help with improving the friendship levels of traded Pokémon even if you don't have enough Badges? Or do they no longer work with the whole "you need that many badges in order for traded Pokémon to obey you" shtick?

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

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.