Author's note: I can't believe we already reached forty chapters for this story, holy shit. Thanks for still sticking with this story!

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

Warnings: Nothing 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 40

Soft knocking roused him from a deep sleep. He blinked tiredly, befuddled at first because where was the knocking coming from? It took him a couple of seconds to realise that no, he wasn't in his tent, he was in an actual bed in an actual room with an actual roof above his head and that the knocking was coming from the door obviously.

Right, he was at the Pokécentre and he had requested dinner before he had fallen asleep. A quick look out of the window showed that several hours had indeed passed by, leaving the sky a deep purple. It had begun raining softly; the steady gentle plic-plic sound of the rain hitting the glass working hypnotically.

Vaporeon chirped confused and Mimikyu mewled questioningly when Naruto carefully worked himself free from the pile his Pokémon had formed around him. Ninetales opened one eye, her tails twitching faintly, before she arched her back and yawned, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The others stirred the moment Naruto's feet hit the floor. Pidgeot fluttered his wings, snapping his beak a couple of times while Lucario and Toxtricity rose up, looking alert.

"Probably our dinner," Naruto explained before either could start worrying and walked over to the door.

Chansey stepped back when Naruto opened the door and gestured at the cart in front of it. Six bowls were stacked neatly on top of each other with a bag of food for his Pokémon right next to it. His own dinner was waiting underneath a metal lid. There was also a bottle of milk, a bottle of water and a bottle of juice; right, he had forgotten to specify which drink he would like. Ah well, it was fine.

"Chansey!" Chansey presented the cart with flourish and bowed slightly. "Chansey, Chansey, Chansey!" Leave cart outside when finished!

"I will, thank you, Chansey," he said and Chansey smiled, offering another quick bow before it ambled away, back downstairs or wherever its presence was needed next.

After dragging the cart into the room he closed the door again and turned around to meet the very interested and very hungry gazes of his Pokémon. He snorted amused and opened the bag.

"Dinner's here," he announced and started filling the first bowl.

Five minutes later everyone was enjoying their dinner. Naruto's dinner consisted out of mildly spicy noodles which were quite delicious, leaving a mild burn behind on his tongue which he soothed with some milk. Sleeping had chased away most of the lingering exhaustion but the spiciness of the noodles helped subdue the last remains of the coldness that had still clung to him. He would definitely be spending the night here as well; a good night's rest in the warm, safe environment of the Pokécentre should be enough to get him back on his feet completely. There was no point in travelling when it was night, especially in an environment rich with Ghost Pokémon. The last thing he needed after today was yet another Ghost Type trying to suck out his energy.

"You all did a great job today," Naruto told his team when they were nearly finished eating.

They all preened in their own way, but Toxtricity's gaze was sharp when he asked, hissing lowly, 'What happening to that Trainer and Duskull?'

That attracted the attention of the others and they all looked at Naruto in unison, who sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"When you guys were getting healed, I talked to someone who's going to look into it," he explained. "I don't know exactly what he's going to do, but he is going to investigate what Yakushi is actually doing."

'Not accident,' Toxtricity hissed and his tail started to swish agitatedly.

"I agree with that," Naruto admitted. "I doubt that at his level Duskull would wilfully ignore him. The lights going out was also just a tad too coincidental, especially considering they almost immediately went back on after you defeated Duskull."

It wouldn't surprise Naruto at all if the reparations of the infrastructure were merely an excuse. If Yakushi did this on a regular basis with other Trainers, it was likely that he turned off the lights on purpose to give himself some plausible deniability if something happened to the challenging Trainer. Why else would the lights suddenly go back on the moment Duskull had been defeated? They never went out again after that either, not even during his battle with Orochimaru.

Naruto didn't like thinking the worst of people, but he wasn't naïve either. Not everybody was good; there were a lot of bad people out there and he seemed to have had the misfortune to run into one of them. Well, Uchiha was going to deal with it; it was no longer Naruto's problem.

"We'll spend the right of the night here," Naruto went on and finished his noodles. "There's no sense in going out again when night has fallen so we might as well stay here. We'll leave tomorrow morning."

"Mimi?" Where to?

One of Mimikyu's shadows was not so subtly inching towards Ninetales' bowl where there was still a little bit of food left. She snorted quietly and used her snout to push the bowl closer to Mimikyu, who mewled a thanks at her before diving into her bowl. She flicked one of her tails at him, gentle enough that it only made one of his fake ears wobble and then wandered over to Naruto, curling up around his feet.

"The next Gym if possible," Naruto replied and placed his own empty bowl back onto the cart before he bent down and pulled his bag towards him. "We only got two more Badges left. We're so close to reaching the Elite Four, I honestly can't believe it!" he exclaimed.

He rummaged through his bag until he found his Pokédex. He took it out and activated the map icon, watching the roads spread out across the screen. He moved the map until he found the town they were currently in and studied the roads connected to it. There were only two: the one he had used to enter the town and one leading out of it.

"Seems like our next Badge might be in a city again," he observed, lowering his Pokédex when everyone came over to take a look at it. He whistled softly. "A really big one apparently."

The biggest one they had visited so far even. He couldn't remember having visited this city before, which wasn't that surprising considering how far away it was from his hometown. The Gym was right smackdab in the middle of the city; the Gym symbol blinking briefly when he tapped on it. Unfortunately the map wasn't that advanced yet that it could inform him what kind of Gym this one was, but that they couldn't underestimate it was a certainty. Being the seventh Gym, it would no doubt be even more challenging than the previous six. It wouldn't do to become too cocky now with only two Badges left.

"Looks like it's going to take us around a week to get there," he mumbled, estimating the distance between this town and the city.

At least the road seemed fairly straight forwards. No mountain to traverse, no river to cross. Just keep following the road once they left town and they would get there without any problems. There were a couple of other roads connected to the one they would be taking, but it would be easy to ignore those as those were adjacent ones. Unless they went too far off the road, they wouldn't be at risk of getting lost either.

'Training?' Lucario inquired.

Naruto nodded, moving the map back and forth. "Yeah, we'll train every day for at least a couple of hours. It might take us longer than a week to get to the next city then, but not training is too risky especially because we don't know which Type the next Gym specialises in."

'Be fine,' Toxtricity hissed confidently.

Naruto smiled amused and closed his Pokédex. Well, he supposed there was nothing wrong with some self-confidence.

The rain hadn't let up yet by the time Naruto had finished breakfast, but staying cooped up in the Pokécentre wasn't going to do them any good either. At least it wasn't actually storming; he could deal with some minor rain and the quicker he left this dreary town behind, the better. The sombre atmosphere clinging to it was just too much to bear and he didn't understand how these people could stand living in it day in day out.

After saying goodbye to Nurse Joy and thanking her for the hospitality, he walked out of the warm Pokécentre into the chilly rain. He shivered and put on his cap, tugging it low until it covered his ears. He wrapped his scarf around his neck next, pulling at it so that it hid the lower half of his face, his breath providing some warmth.

The few people walking outside didn't pay him any attention which was fine and he made a beeline for the road leading out of the town, eager to leave it behind. The night's rest had done him well and it was with a fresh mind and a spring in his step that he walked out of the town, happy to turn his back to it.

Some Pumpkaboo were dragging themselves to their home, only briefly acknowledging him by glancing at him before they hopped away, disappearing behind some thorny bushes. Some Spearow were having a fierce argument in a tree, making its branches tremble, which had some Zigzagoon scurrying away. A Houndstone was leading a pack of Greavard to a small pond; the flames on top of those ghostly heads forming little pinpricks of light in the low hanging fog.

Naruto had been walking for a little while, pondering where would be the best place to halt and train for a bit, when voices up ahead had him looking up. A girl and a boy, they couldn't be that much younger than him, were walking towards him, seemingly engrossed in a heavy discussion. The girl's orange hair was tied up into two very large pigtails and she was shaking her head at whatever the brown haired boy, who wore a pair of goggles on his forehead, was telling her.

As they neared Naruto, he picked up part of their conversation.

"Told you it wasn't a good idea to skip the sixth Gym," she scolded him.

Unwillingly Naruto slowed down; his interest piqued.

"It's not like we really have to follow a certain order," the boy complained and crossed his arms. "You know my Pokémon aren't exactly a good matchup against Ghost Types. I thought it would be easier to challenge the seventh Gym first. If they could beat him, they definitely would be ready to take on the Ghost Gym. It was a good idea!" he insisted.

"Well, clearly they weren't ready to beat him," she replied mercilessly, making the boy whine and hang his head in defeat.

Naruto paused and right as they were about to walk past him, he asked, "You two took on the seventh Gym?"

They both stopped surprised and turned their head to look at him.

"Well, he tried to take on the seventh Gym," the girl corrected and jerked her thumb at her friend. "I tried to tell him that wasn't a good idea, but do you think he listened?" She sighed exasperatedly.

"It was a good idea!" the boy insisted again and pouted before he squinted at Naruto. "You taking on the Gym Challenge as well?"

"Yeah, I defeated the sixth Gym yesterday," Naruto replied and hesitated briefly before adding, "If you're going to challenge that Gym soon, be careful."

"They that strong?" the boy questioned curiously.

"Fairly," Naruto said, "but that's not why I said it. You have to defeat the assistant of the Gym Leader before you can challenge the Leader and that guy has a Duskull that he seemingly doesn't have under control."

The girl furrowed her eyebrows and adjusted her coat when the wind picked up speed. "What do you mean by that?"

"I got attacked by it yesterday," Naruto replied. He didn't feel guilty about telling them this. He had no idea when Uchiha would be able to start his investigation and he didn't want someone else to be attacked in the meantime. Who knew if these two could manage to beat the Duskull on time before it could attack them? "I already informed the right authorities about it, so they'll be investigating that Gym, but yeah, just be careful in the meantime, all right? That guy might not try that stunt again so soon after I defeated him, but you never know."

"Eugh, figures it has to be a Ghost Type Gym," the boy complained and huffed. "Why do the Trainers have to be just as creepy?"

"I'm not sure if the Gym Leader knows what his assistant is up to," Naruto admitted. "But be on your guard, just in case. Don't let them know I warned you, though. I don't want to mess up the investigation."

If Yakushi caught wind of the fact that Naruto had warned Uchiha about what he had tried to do, no doubt he would act like nothing was amiss by the time Uchiha showed up. At the same time Naruto also didn't want to give him another chance to harm someone else. He had been lucky that Toxtricity had managed to defeat Duskull on time, but these two might not be that lucky.

"We'll be careful," she reassured him and turned to her companion. "Looks like you're going to have to do some extra training regardless. Maybe it might be even better to wait until the investigation is over. By that time surely your team will be a lot stronger."

The boy wrinkled his nose and scratched the back of his head. "Eugh, I suppose. Extra training won't hurt anyways." He glanced at Naruto. "You going to the next Gym then?"

"Yeah, is it a very tough one?" Naruto asked, figuring he might as well try to get some information about it from people who had been there. It might help them prepare themselves better by being able to focus their training if they knew what kind of Gym they were going to take on.

"Yeah, it is," the boy grimaced. "I underestimated it and we paid the price for that."

"The Gym Leader specialises in Electric Types," the girl supplied helpfully. "If you've got Ground Types or have Pokémon with Ground Type moves, you'll have an easy time. If not well, prepare for a very tough fight then." She smiled sympathetically and grabbed the boy's elbow. "Come on, we might as well go to the Pokécentre and come up with a strategy there."

"Eugh, fine," the boy groaned and gave Naruto a half-hearted wave. "Good luck with the seventh Gym."

"Yeah, you as well," Naruto said, but his mind was already elsewhere.

As he started walking again, he worried his lower lip between his teeth, not even paying attention when a faint metallic taste coated his tongue when he accidentally bit down too hard. The next Gym had Electric Types? Those literally only had one weakness: Ground Types. Just the type his team lacked.

Wonderful.

AN2: The seventh Gym is up next! Any guesses who the Gym Leader is? It's one of my favourite characters personally LOL

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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