Author's note: I had wanted to update more, but the inflammation I somehow ended up with said no. At least I got this finished. My goal for the upcoming week is to update both Never Again and Rise and Fall; let's see if I manage it.

Thanks to the following reviewer: Pen-Woman

Warnings: Nothing really in particular

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 54

After Nurse Joy healed his team, Naruto returned to the hotel he had spent the night at before. By the time they left the Pokécentre, the sky was starting to darken; it wasn't fully evening yet but there was no point in leaving for home now. Even with the transport method Naruto had in mind, it would take a couple of days at least before they would reach his hometown; departing when evening was about to fall was just silly.

"That look on your face tells me your challenge was very successful," the proprietress of the hotel smiled when he walked into the foyer. She was seated behind the desk; the glow of her computer screen reflected in her pair of glasses.

"My team won, yes!" Naruto replied excitedly. "I didn't think we would manage to solve the challenge but we did it!"

"Congratulations," she told him warmly. "Will you be challenging the Elite Four next?"

"That's the plan, yes, but before that I'll be going home first," he answered and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we'll be spending the night here; I don't see the point in leaving now when it'll be dark soon."

"Best to get some rest first," she agreed. "Doesn't matter how strong your team is or how recently they were healed. Rest is necessary for everybody. Have you eaten yet, dear?"

"No, I haven't thought yet about what to eat," he admitted sheepishly.

Numel raised its head, blinking sleepily at him. The Pokémon was back in front of the fireplace; Naruto wasn't quite certain whether it had ever left its spot, come to think of it.

"I've got a menu you can choose from," she said to his surprise and opened a drawer, riffling through it. "It's not anything fancy, I'm afraid, and it doesn't have as many dishes as most restaurants do, but it's something I offer."

"You're doing the cooking too?" he asked surprised, approaching the desk.

"Hm, with the help of Mr. Mime," she confirmed with a smile and placed a flyer on the desk, shoving it towards him. "Sometimes when my son is in town, he helps out too but he's busy with his job now. You can take the menu with you to your room if you'd like, dear. There's a phone there that you can use to call me when you're ready to order."

"Thank you," he smiled, accepting the menu.

She waved a wrinkly hand. "No need to thank me. Go on, I'll hear from you when you're ready to order. Congratulations again on winning the Gym battle!"

"Thanks!" he said again, grinning this time.

With the menu in his hand, he made his way upstairs back to the room he had rented the evening before. The room was just as orderly made up as it had been yesterday and he placed his bag on the bed, together with the menu. He wasn't particularly picky about what he was going to eat and he doubted his Pokémon were either, so after a quick perusal of the menu, he picked up the phone and gave his order through.

"Everybody, you can come out," he called out after putting the phone back down.

"Pidgeot, Pidgeot?" Pidgeot asked curiously, stretching out his wings by flapping them a couple of times. Going eat?

"Yeah, I just gave our order through," Naruto confirmed, rolling his shoulders. "The owner said it should all be ready in less than half an hour."

"Mimikyu, Kyu?" Mimikyu looked around curiously. Staying night?

"Yes, tonight we'll be staying here," Naruto answered, glancing out of the window when his ears caught a soft 'plink' sound. It was raining softly; the tiny raindrops leaving thin rivulets behind on the glass once they gathered together. "Tomorrow we'll go back to the previous town where we'll take the Corviknight Express to return home."

When he had walked around town before, he had noticed that this place didn't offer the Corviknight Express. It made sense, of course, considering this wasn't the size of a large city but it did mean they would have to return to the previous city. He had contemplated flying back with Pidgeot but they were a long way from home and he didn't want to tire out Pidgeot by undertaking such a long journey for the first time. The Corviknight flying for the Corviknight Express were trained in taking on long flights and could handle them, so he didn't feel guilty about using that service to return home.

"Mimi, Mimi, Kyu," Mimikyu remarked, using his shadows to climb onto the bed. Long time since home.

"Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Naruto smiled, drawing the curtains partly. "We'll visit the others when we're back home. That way I can ask the professor where we have to go next to battle the Elite Four."

'Master not know location?', Toxtricity hissed surprised. He was wandering around the room, taking in the landscape paintings and the large bed.

Vaporeon chirped in surprise, jumping on the bed, curling around Mimikyu. Ninetales followed them gracefully; her large bulk covering most of the bed. Lucario seemed content to stand at the foot of the bed; his ears occasionally twitching.

"No, it's not revealed to anybody unless you complete the Gym Challenge," Naruto explained. "Think it's to prevent Trainers from challenging the Elite Four if they aren't ready yet. So yeah, we need to speak with the professor in order to find out how to reach them."

It made sense, he supposed. He doubted the Elite Four wanted to be overrun by hundreds of Trainers who might not even get past the first Pokémon of the first Elite Four member. They would only be wasting time in that case. The only ones who knew their location were the professor and the Gym Leaders.

'Elite Four will be interesting,' Lucario remarked; his eyes glittering.

"No doubt," Naruto agreed, grinning. "I believe we're ready, though. You managed to defeat the last Gym and according to the hotel owner barely any Trainer even reaches this Gym."

"Ninetales, Ninetales," Ninetales said confidently. Ready, will win.

The others cheered or chittered in agreement; their spirits high.

Naruto just chuckled, shaking his head. At least there wasn't a shortage of self-confidence in his team.

"Thank you for the flight," Naruto thanked the owner of the Corviknight Express and paid him.

The older man smiled and tipped his hat before departing with his Corviknight.

Turning around, Naruto uttered a quiet sigh upon taking in his home. Dead leaves had collected at the front, having turned brown and mushy because of the snow. A bunch of flyers stuck half out of the mailbox; some of them lying in a heap underneath the mailbox. The grass in the front had naturally grown quite a lot; he didn't want to know how overgrown the back garden had become.

He shivered when he entered the house; it was basically as ice cold inside as it was outside. He hurried to turn on the heating because he wanted to spend at least today and this evening at home before they would leave again to wherever the Elite Four were stationed. A quick check of the kitchen cabinets revealed he still had some packages of ramen stocked, so he knew what he was going to have for dinner. For lunch, maybe he could just buy something from the local supermarket? They weren't going to stay long here, so there was no point yet in going grocery shopping.

After exchanging his shoes for a new pair, he left the house to heat up again for the first time in months and made his way to the professor's lab, excited to see both her and the Pokémon he had sent through to her. He was especially curious to find out how Snorlax was doing.

Shizune greeted him with a surprised, but happy smile when he walked into the lab. "Hey there! Did you finish the Gym Challenge?" she asked, clenching a bunch of files against her chest.

"Yes, we did!" Naruto confirmed happily. "We actually just got back home; I figured I would visit you all while my house heats up again."

"Yes, I can imagine how cold your house must have been," she smiled sympathetically before jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "The professor is in the back now with the Pokémon."

"Okay, thanks!"

As Shizune continued her trek to wherever she had been going before he had walked in, he went to the back of the lab, which led to a giant field. Even though he had visited her often before, had even spent many days helping her out, he still had no idea how extensive the property actually was. It was certainly extensive enough that he had yet to encounter the borders.

"Camerupt, be careful before you flatten the smaller Pokémon!" Tsunade could be heard before he even saw her and he grinned amused.

She was standing a short distance away from the door with her hands on her hips, surveying the many Pokémon meandering around.

"Looks like Golem were brought back to their Trainer then?" Naruto spoke up lightly when he failed to catch sight of the Golem who had nearly wrecked her lab before.

Tsunade was visibly startled and she whipped her head around; her brown eyes lighting up when she saw him. "Brat! I hadn't expected to see you here already!" she exclaimed, turning around fully. "So I take it you completed the Gym Challenge?"

"Yep, we got back just now," he replied, closing the distance between them. "We defeated the last Gym a few days ago."

"Congratulations, not many succeed in that," she smiled, crossing her arms underneath her bosom.

"No, I was told that very few Trainers actually reach the last Gym."

She nodded. "A lot of Trainers tend to give up around the sixth or seventh Gym. The eighth Gym is notorious for being difficult to beat."

Naruto figured it was mainly the challenge itself that was difficult to beat; with a decently strong team Kakashi's team could be handled pretty well. The challenge itself, though … Man, that had been tricky to solve!

"How are things here?" he asked, glancing around the field.

A Meowscarada ran past them, chasing down a Bayleef while a Banette was giggling in the shadow of a tree; its eyes glittering as it stared down a Morgrem who was less than impressed. A Marowak snuck past them, its gaze fixated on some Sandshrew. More Pokémon, both airborne and ground bound, meandered, walked, ran, flew and swam around; their voices filling the air. Even with some squabbles amongst them, the air was light and free despite the overcast sky. Naruto had thought for a while now that while a professor had a lot of responsibilities, being able to spend time with so many different Pokémon must be very nice.

"They're good," Tsunade smiled. "Some arguments here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. We didn't have any unwelcome visitors either so far."

"That's good to hear," he said relieved.

The earth started to tremble then, for some reason, and he blinked confused, looking around until –

Snorlax was basically stampeding to him, followed by Nickit, Tropius, Cubone, Axew, Geodude and surprisingly enough even Zweilous. Snorlax especially looked excited, which wasn't that odd considering he had trained with them before while the others hadn't had the chance yet.

"Hey guys!" Naruto called out, before Snorlax managed to pick him up in a tight hug, causing him to wheeze.

Nickit chittered in reproach, making Snorlax look contrite before putting Naruto back down on the ground.

"I'm glad to see you're all doing great," Naruto grinned. "You're having fun here?"

"Cubone, Cubone, Cubone," Cubone chirped happily. Lots of fun here!

"Tropius, Tropius," Tropius agreed with her. Big field.

"Why don't you get to know each other better?" Naruto suggested, releasing the others from their Pokéballs.

"Snorlax!" Snorlax waved at them enthusiastically. Welcome!

'Good seeing you,' Toxtricity hissed, surprisingly agreeable.

"Nickit, Nickit?" Nickit questioned curiously, making an attempt to paw at Mimikyu's cloth before he shuffled out of the way. Real cloth?

"Mimikyu," Mimikyu answered warily. Yes, real.

"Go have some fun together while I'll talk with the professor," Naruto instructed them.

Zweilous regarded them all with blank eyes but he didn't have a dangerous stance, so Naruto felt fairly confident in leaving the rest with him. If Zweilous had eaten other Pokémon, Naruto was certain Tsunade would have told him about it. Zweilous appeared a lot calmer as well, so perhaps spending time here at the lab had helped him?

Tsunade seemed to have read his mind because she murmured, "They'll be okay with him; he's grown a lot calmer since you transferred him." She beckoned for him to follow her back into the lab, which he did.

"So what are your plans?" she inquired, sitting down behind her desk and gesturing at the chair across from her.

He sat down and rubbed the back of his head. "Taking on the Elite Four; we'll either leave tomorrow or the day after that. How do we get there? It's not indicated on the map."

He had studied the map on his Pokédex several times but no matter how much he zoomed in or out, there was nothing on the map that referred to the Pokémon League with its Elite Four.

"No, it only shows up on the map after I put it in. Give your Pokédex, I'll update your map," she said, logging into her computer.

She linked his Pokédex with a cable to the computer and called up a program Naruto didn't recognise. As she started to type a string of commands, she began to explain.

"I'm not going to lie, it's not easy getting there. You'll need to take the path north from your house and follow it until you reach the lake on the end of it."

"The one with the boats?" He furrowed his eyebrows, vaguely remembering that particular lake from when he had come across it a few years ago.

Never having had any reason to go near that area, he only knew of the lake because he had lost his way once and had ended up there. He had wondered who those boats belonged to, but hadn't really put much thought in it. Back then he had just been glad to have found somebody who could point him the way back home.

"Yes, that one," she nodded. "Those boats are actually provided by the League. You need to take one of them and go west; you can't mess that up, you just need to follow the orange buoys. They've been tied from the dock all the way to the island you need to reach. You could try undertaking the route with a Water Type, but I'm going to be honest with you: I wouldn't risk it. The waves can be really tricky and it does take longer than a day to reach that place so your Pokémon might grow dangerously tired."

"I wasn't planning on having Vaporeon swim us there," Naruto said, shaking his head.

While Vaporeon might actually attempt to do so if Naruto asked him to, Naruto wasn't about to put his Pokémon through such a strenuous journey.

"Once we reach the island, is it pretty straightforward then?" he questioned.

"Pretty much," she replied. "You'll need to go through Victory Path, which consists out of a cave system - "

Naruto twitched slightly; the mention of a cave system hitting a bit too close to home even when it had been weeks since they had been trapped in that mountain.

"But even that cave system is pretty straightforward," she reassured him. "From what I've heard, there are only a couple of dead ends so there's basically one straight path to the Elite Four. The ones in charge of the cave ensure that there are always torches lit so you won't be going in blind either. You might encounter some other Trainers, of course, but there's a Pokécentre before you meet the Elite Four, so if need be you can heal your team before you challenge the first member."

"I'm going to guess you're not allowed to tell me what kind of Types we can expect?" he asked, a tad hopeful, sighing when she shook her head with a chuckle.

"No, sorry, I'm not allowed to do so. All I can say is that they each specialise in a Type, two Types at most," she answered. "You're going to have your hands full with them, though, so don't underestimate them. That never ends well."

"Wasn't planning to," he snorted, watching how she closed the program before pulling out the cable from his Pokédex.

She handed it back to him, tapping on the screen so that it lit up. "Here, you follow this water route until you reach this island," she pointed at a small green and brown square on the map, "from there you just enter the cave and follow the path all the way until you reach the exit. There are only two buildings: a Pokécentre and the League itself, you can't miss it."

"Okay, thanks," he muttered, studying the map carefully.

"Hey."

Tsunade waited until he looked at her before she told him encouragingly, "You can do this. If you can beat the eighth Gym, you stand a pretty good chance at defeating the Elite Four and the Champion too. Trust your team; they got you this far, I have no doubt they'll get you even further."

"I know, I know, it's just – I never even thought I'd ever get this far," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "It's still somewhat surreal, you know?"

His gaze drifted towards the field, where he could see Snorlax having a friendly spar with both Toxtricity and Lucario while Tropius and Zweilous seemed to be having a race. Ninetales was sparring with Axew, while Nickit, Cubone, Mimikyu and Vaporeon were huddled together. Pidgeot must have taken off into the sky because Naruto couldn't immediately spot him.

When he looked back at Tsunade, she was smiling warmly at him. "You're a great Trainer, brat, never forget that."

That evening he fell asleep in his own bed for the first time in months. Mimikyu was curled up in the crook of his arm while Vaporeon laid right across his legs on top of the blanket. Ninetales laid stretched out on his other side, being his own personal furnace even now that the house had warmed up to a decent temperature. Pidgeot had made a nest out of Naruto's clothes for himself near the window while Lucario and Toxtricity laid in a messy pile in the corner.

Before he closed his eyes, he looked at the picture on his nightstand, showing mum and dad laughing as they hugged each other. The curtains hadn't been closed completely; some moonlight poured through the crack, illuminating the photo frame. He smiled, curling his arm more firmly around Mimikyu, who chirped sleepily but didn't look up.

Mum, dad, we're getting there.

In the morning they would depart again and rent the boat that would take them to the Pokémon League. Their final challenge. They were so ready!

AN2: We're officially entering the last part of the story! Can't say how many chapters there will be in the final part, but hey, we've finally entered the last part at least :')

Fun question: Which Champion intimidated you the most throughout all the generations? For me it's definitely Red and Cynthia. They are brutal.

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.