Author's note: Finally got around to finishing this chapter, sorry it took me so long! I'm aiming to have an update ready for Never Again next week, hopefully.

Thanks to the following reviewers: PinkiePieParty122894; Pen-Woman; Shadowdrg; Sebby-chan3000

Warnings: Dual pov; drama; suspense

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 56

It didn't tend to bother with humans. The couple of interactions it had had with them in the past hadn't been pleasant to say the least. It was the sole reason why it avoided the humans as much as possible. They couldn't try to hurt it if they couldn't see it.

Sometimes, though, a human would attract its attention. It didn't happen often and most of the time its interest didn't last long either. There were so many other things to discover in the world, why would it restrict itself to a mere human only? Occasionally, however, a human was interesting enough to keep its attention for a longer period of time.

Such a human was the blond Trainer it had encountered in a forest some time ago. The Trainer hadn't been able to see it naturally, but it had been able to see the human clearly. It had been quite funny to see the Trainer look so confused, unable to locate it. Even the Trainer's Pokémon had been unable to sniff out its location, which had been quite funny! Truthfully after that forest encounter, it hadn't thought it would come across the human again.

That had been until it had found the human again, being attacked by a Tyranitar. It normally didn't bother helping out humans, was perfectly content to keep to itself, but seeing the human trying to lure Tyranitar away from his own Pokémon had spurred it on to seek out the Trainer's Pokémon so that they could help him out. The Pokémon had managed to take down Tyranitar but by then the human had ended up severely injured, making his Pokémon shed tears over him.

It recalled hovering in the air, watching those Pokémon cry out for their unconscious Trainer while blood had poured out of the hole in his stomach. In an impulse it had brought a Blissey to the Trainer so that Blissey could heal him. It hadn't known for certain whether that would work but Blissey were known for healing humans occasionally. It had disappeared before the Trainer could wake up; the interesting scene had been long finished by then. With nothing else to amuse it, it had left the forest, eager to find new amusement elsewhere.

It had come across the blond Trainer once more some time later, completely lost in the mountains. It had thought it so fascinating to see how the Trainer had actually accepted the presents it had given him, because it had been so certain its gifts would be rejected. The human had been trapped in a dark cave and had been rather frightened; the Trainer had had every reason to refuse everything it had offered to him, with the human being unable to see it.

It supposed that was one of the reasons why it had grown so fascinated with this Trainer in particular: it saw how gentle the human treated his Pokémon and how friendly he was to complete strange Pokémon as well. Even when he had been attacked by other Pokémon, he had never treated any of them with contempt or hatred in his heart. It could appreciate that. Not many humans were capable of treating everybody with kindness.

After it had sent Hypno to deal with Darkrai's nightmares, it had had to flee the mountain when the cave had been about to collapse. It had lost of the Trainer for the most part then, even believing he had died in the mountain after all until it had seen him travelling on a road some time later. The sight of the Trainer travelling had made it happy for reasons it couldn't quite comprehend. Perhaps it was because the Trainer offered a lot of amusement? Maybe it was because it was nice to see a human with such a pure heart still, one who remained kind even after all the hardship he had gone through?

It had considered showing itself to the Trainer but it was just so much fun to witness the human being so confused whenever it interacted with him! He had such amusing reactions and could pull such funny faces! It had a lot of fun playing with the human so for now it was unwilling to completely show itself just yet.

It wasn't as if it was purposefully going out of its way to track the Trainer down. All their meetings had been purely coincidental – just like their latest meeting now was. It had been teasing a group of Kingler when the presence of a small boat had attracted its attention. It had been ready to dismiss the presence of the boat until it had recognised the Pokémon wandering around on the deck. The sight of Vaporeon, Toxtricity, Ninetales, Lucario and Pidgeot had made it perked up and all its interest had instantly shifted from the heavily annoyed Kingler to them because it had realised who was operating that boat.

Throughout the day, it had a lot fun teasing the Trainer's Pokémon, flicking water at them in irregular intervals and watching them grow confused about it. It couldn't help but giggle every time Vaporeon would twitch his tail in bewilderment or Toxtricity would whirl around baffled, swishing his tail back and forth as he attempted to figure out where the water was coming from. As the day went on, though, the weather grew worse until rain started pouring down and the Trainer's Pokémon secluded themselves in the cabin of the boat. It pouted, floating above the boat as it steadily made course in the same direction. It was disappointed that the Pokémon were no longer on the deck; it hadn't even been able to see the Trainer because he had remained inside the cabin the whole time. It had caught some glimpses of the human occasionally through the window, but that had been all.

Puffing up its cheeks it floated idly in the air, bobbing along, until the rain really started pelting down almost hurting its skin. It dove into the water, enjoying the way all sounds became muted underneath the surface. It giggled as it jumped in and out of the water, dancing alongside the waves, which were growing bigger and bigger as the storm continued. The wind howled furiously, chasing the clouds across the sky and it chittered in awe when the moon briefly forced its way through the heavy cloud cover, allowing the waves to show how impressively large they could become. The way they made the boat rock back and forth wildly was fascinating and it tilted its head to the left, intrigued.

It turned upside down, chittering quietly to itself as it watched the water crash into the boat while the rain pelted down on the roof. The Trainer had really chosen a bad time to cross the water; where was he even going to? It whirled around, still hovering upside down, and peered into the darkness. It thought it could remember the sea leading to an island, but it wasn't certain. What even was the Trainer planning on doing there? Add more Pokémon to his team?

It squeaked when a massive wave suddenly threw it into darkness, blocking out the sky. It darted out of the way before the water could crash down on it and it stuck out its tongue at the wave, flicking its tail at it and chittering tauntingly.

Its chittering stopped abruptly when the giant wave crashed down on the boat –

And dragged it and its inhabitants down into the icy depths of the sea!

It cried out in shock and dove down, breaking through the ice cold surface.

It was still quite windy when Dan stepped outside the next morning and he quickly tied his long hair together, not wanting to deal with loose locks hitting his face. With how fierce the storm had been last night, he needed to check the beach first to inspect the boats lined up at the small dock. They had been tied to the dock with sturdy rope so they couldn't have drifted off, but they might have knocked into each other with the waves and the wind. If they were damaged, he would need to inform the League so they could send somebody to repair them. Trainers couldn't use them if they were too damaged after all. Sure, they were rather sturdy; they had to be considering how often they had to make the trip between the mainland and the island, but nothing was indestructible.

"Maybe they should make a move on with that train idea," he muttered idly, zipping up his jacket.

The League had been playing with the idea to set up a train connection between the mainland and the island, because that would be easier than to rely on boats. A lot safer as well, most likely, because train rails would be more sturdy in storms than small boats. The League Board was quite conflicted about the idea, however. The last Dan had heard something about the idea was that one half of the Board insisted on keeping the boats because it was part of the tradition and traditions should be kept. The other half of the Board were convinced it was time they let the past be the past and become more modern, at least when it concerned the mode of transport for the Challengers of the League.

Money wasn't even an issue, considering the profits the League racked in by broadcasting the most interesting battles between Challengers and the Elite Four. They could easily afford to pay for a new train connection; simply airing battles for a couple of months would most likely earn more than half of the expenses back.

How long had they even been considering the idea so far? Two years? Three years? Might even be nearing four years when he thought about it. Meanwhile the Trainers who wanted to challenge the Elite Four were relegated to either using the boats or using one of their own Pokémon to reach the island. It was quite frankly becoming a bit ridiculous because it shouldn't take so long to make a decision, but well, what did he know? He just took care of the upkeep of the island and helped out Trainers if they encountered bad luck on Victory Road.

Cupping his hands in front of his face, he breathed into them several times to warm them up. Dawn was just breaking, colouring the sky orange, purple and pink. He took a moment to enjoy the way the colours mixed together, how they chased away the midnight dark sky. It was still quite chilly and would remain so for a while longer, but that didn't mean the early morning sky wasn't beautiful.

Whistling, his breath escaping in tiny puffs of white, he made his way down the rocky path, wrapping his scarf tighter around his neck and tugging it a bit higher so it covered the lower half of his face. One benefit to heavy rain was how it made the sand firmer to walk on so he started lightly jogging the second he stepped onto the beach. He caught sight of the boats gently bobbing up and down next to the dock; they looked whole from this distance at least so that was –

What on earth?

He came to an abrupt stop when a Gyarados lurched out of the water all of a sudden, swimming closer to the edge of the beach. Dan eyed it warily, his left hand dipping down to his belt, ready to call out Luxray if the Gyarados turned against him. Gyarados tended to avoid the island because the sea was too shallow for a Pokémon their size. What was it doing here? Was it pissed off and wanting to work out its anger on the island? Yes, they were inclined to avoid the island because of the shallow waters, but when a Gyarados was pissed off, they didn't care about shallow depths, they just trashed around and destroyed everything in their sight.

Was it aiming for the boats? But no, it completely ignored the boats at the dock and slid towards the beach; its vicious eyes seemingly fixated on the sand. Dan took a couple of cautious steps backwards, holding his breath when Gyarados' eyes flickered towards him. They narrowed, glinting with viciousness, and Dan clenched his teeth, his hand closing around Luxray's Pokéball. Before he could unclip the Pokéball from his belt, however, Gyarados seemingly dismissed him and turned its attention back on the beach.

Right as Dan realised that Gyarados' mouth was nearly completely closed – weren't their mouths usually open? – Gyarados' head snapped down, his jaw fell open and something fell out of its mouth.

No, not something, someone, Dan realised with a start and started running towards the person before he could rethink his actions. A part of him was freaking out, realising he might as well have just painted a target on him by moving so quickly but he simply couldn't stand by when someone was clearly in need of help!

Gyarados simply turned around and swam away, returning to the deeper part of the sea.

Dan fell to his knees next to the person, quickly taking in how they looked. It was a young man, still; he couldn't be any older than twenty at best. His blond hair was plastered against his forehead; he looked quite pale but Dan couldn't say whether that was his natural skin tone or whether that was because of the cold. He laid on his side; his backpack keeping him from lying on his back.

He didn't appear to be breathing.

"Shit!"

Dan quickly removed the backpack, shoving it to the side, and rolled the man onto his back. In doing so, he registered two things: the young man felt ice cold to the touch and he was a Trainer, showcased when his jacket fell open, baring a belt filled with Pokéballs. Shit. He must have been making his way to the island in a boat when he had been caught up in the storm. His boat had probably lost the battle with the raging storm and he and his Pokémon had ended up in the water. No wonder he felt ice cold to the touch.

Dan had no idea why a Gyarados would decide to help out a Trainer when they were more likely to attack people. Maybe, somehow, this man had been incredibly lucky to encounter a mild mannered Gyarados, but that didn't matter. He needed to get the young man breathing again before warming him and his Pokémon up.

"Come on, can't give up now," he muttered and started doing chest compressions, keeping up a steady rhythm.

He paused and brought his ear to the man's mouth, trying to catch anything that sounded like a breath, even if it was a rattling one.

Nothing.

He took a deep breath and started pushing down on the man's chest again. "Come on, please start breathing again, please," he muttered, becoming more and more apprehensive the longer he did the compressions without any reaction. How long had he been in the water? If it had been for several hours, there was a chance that he wouldn't …

One of his Pokéballs rattled before Blissey got out of her ball, landing on the sand with an inquiring chirp. She hopped back and forth, waving her arms around when she noticed the unconscious man in front of her.

"Blissey, Blissey?" she asked anxiously. Help Trainer?

"Yes, please, I can't get him to react," Dan said, stopping the chest compressions and getting out of the way.

A part of him was wondering if they shouldn't give up when there wasn't any reaction so far, but Blissey was intent on helping the Trainer and she wouldn't do that if she thought he was a lost case – Dan hoped at least.

Blissey started fluttering around the young man, a gentle glow extending from her small hands which she aimed at the man's head and chest. She started humming, hopping from one foot to the other. Even though she had been a part of his team for years now, Dan still had no idea what exactly she was doing. He didn't know what made her capable of healing others, but whatever she was doing it caused the blond man to start cough up water out of nowhere; his whole body convulsing with the force behind it.

Dan rushed back to push him onto his side so that he wouldn't start choking on the sea water he was finally expelling. For a couple of seconds, eyelids trembled and a sliver of blue was visible, peeking up at him dazedly.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Dan asked worriedly.

The young man coughed up some more water before he stilled, unresponsive again.

"Shit," Dan muttered, feeling like he did nothing else but cursing since he had seen the Gyarados show up at the beach.

"Blissey, Blissey, Blissey!" Blissey said hurriedly. Trainer and Pokémon need warm!

"Yes, they do," Dan muttered and selected Machamp's Pokéball, eyeing the utter paleness of the Trainer's skin with growing apprehension. Yes, they had got him to breathe again but he wasn't out of the woods yet at all.

Machamp appeared with a low grumble, blinking when he saw his Trainer standing next to the blond man's prone body.

"Machamp, I need you to pick up this Trainer, okay? We have to bring him to our home so that we can start warming up him and his own team," Dan explained, getting up quickly.

Machamp grunted in understanding and bent down, swiftly picking up the blond man. Dan could have tried to carry him, but while the young man looked quite slender, his wet clothes definitely added more weight to him. Machamp was one of the strongest Pokémon in existence; he would be able to quickly carry the man to their home.

And fast they would have to be, because with how long the Trainer and his team had been in the ice cold water …

Dan truly hoped they weren't too late for them.

AN2: I have never even had Dan Kato appearing in my stories before, so hey, there's a first for everything! No idea how long this story will be in total, but at least we're actually in the final part now, so that's something.

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.