Author's note: The challenge for Deidara's Gym actually gave me trouble for the longest time. I spent literally weeks trying to come up with something that would fit both him and the Gym. This is what I came up with LOL

Thanks to the following reviewers: Pen-Woman; PinkiePieParty122894; Paul Breon

Warnings: Nothing in particular; we're finally challenging the sixth Gym!

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 48

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto introduced himself, smiling, while Mimikyu chirped quietly in greeting.

Deidara tilted his head to the left at the sight of Mimikyu sitting in the crook of Naruto's arm but didn't comment on it. Instead he smirked. "Ready for your challenge?"

"Absolutely," Naruto replied, because after all the training they had done they couldn't be any readier than they were now.

"Great, before you can battle me, you'll need to beat my challenge first, un," Deidara said and gestured for Naruto to follow him.

Naruto did so, wondering what this Gym's challenge would entail. Would it be battling other Trainers like the Ghost gym or would it be another type of puzzle he needed to solve before he could challenge the Gym Leader? There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what kind of challenge a Gym chose, so he figured the Gym Leaders were free to come up with whatever challenge they liked. Personally he had no real preference. So far he and his Pokémon had done well during all the challenges, no matter if it had been solving a puzzle or beating other Trainers.

They could do this. This was the second to last Gym, the Elite Four was getting so close; no way would they give up now, no matter what kind of challenge they would face.

Deidara led him to a room filled with … giant Pokéballs?

"Mimi?" Pokéballs? Even Mimikyu was confused.

"While I am a Gym Leader, I am a big fan of art, un," Deidara began to explain enthusiastically in a seemingly non-sequitur way. "Not art made by people, though, that is way too common and most people can do it when they practice enough. No, I'm talking about real art, un, the one created by Pokémon!"

That did absolutely nothing to explain why Naruto was staring at giant Pokéballs in a room.

"Art created by Pokémon?" he echoed mystified. Did this mean his Pokémon were supposed to create art in order to win this challenge? He had no idea what they even could do unless Deidara was about to lend out some art supplies to them.

"Yes, the best kind of art, un!" Deidara insisted; his blue eyes glittering brightly. "And you know which Pokémon creates the absolute best kind of art?"

"Smeargle?" Naruto suggested, naming the first Pokémon he could think of which had a connection with art.

"Nope, Voltorb," Deidara answered decisively.

"Voltorb," Naruto repeated blankly.

Sure, every Pokémon had their own strengths and were capable of performing amazing feats, but how exactly were Voltorb amazing at art when they literally resembled a Pokéball with no arms or legs? Wait, a Pokéball? He looked at the collection of large Pokéballs again. Now that he looked at them more closely, wasn't their size very similar to that of –

"Your challenge is going to be very simple, un," Deidara grinned and pointed at the collection of Pokéballs. "Those Pokéballs? They aren't all just larger replicas, un. The majority of them are actually Voltorb!"

Naruto wasn't certain whether he liked where this challenge was going.

"You see those holes dug in front of that door?" Deidara continued.

Naruto had to lean forwards slightly, but then he saw them: six shallow pits dug out right in front of a wooden door. A peculiar red cable ran from somewhere under the ground up onto the wall right next to the door, disappearing into the frame in the upper right corner.

"In order to complete your challenge, you need to fill those holes with six large copies of regular Pokéballs. Once all six have a Pokéball, a sensor underneath it will register the weight and the door will open," Deidara went on. He smirked then. "I don't think I need to tell you just how sensitive Voltorb are to changes around them, right?"

Naruto grimaced and shook his head. No, no, he didn't need to be informed about that. If there was one Pokémon exceptionally high strung, it was a Voltorb. You had to be extremely careful when walking near them because one wrong move, one step considered too close to them, would result in a massive explosion when Voltorb would use Self-destruct. Naruto still didn't understand why their first reaction to people getting near them was blowing themselves up. That had to hurt a lot, no? Wouldn't it be much easier to instead zap the intruder or simply roll away very fast as an escape mechanism?

Tsunade had once called them "overdramatic, sentient balls" and well, while perhaps worded somewhat crudely, she wasn't wrong.

"Only three Voltorb at most can Self-destruct when you attempt this challenge," Deidara said; his eyes definitely gleaming now. "If more Voltorb end up exploding, you have to start all over again, un. Understood?"

"Crystal clear," Naruto replied dryly, masking a groan.

How on earth was he supposed to guess which was a normal Pokéball and which was an actual Voltorb when the Pokémon in question had their backs turned? Only three at most were allowed to explode, which out of – he counted the balls quickly – forty really wasn't that much! He couldn't guess based on weight, because in order to weigh them he would have to pick them up – and picking up a Voltorb resulted nine times out of ten in a huge explosion. Calling out to them would have the same result, because they were prickly bastards like that. A restriction on how many were allowed to explode also meant he wasn't allowed to battle them and weed out the non-Voltorb ones in that manner.

Even Mimikyu was regarding the room with a very doubtful look; his shadowy tendrils sneaking out from underneath the costume to clamp down around Naruto's arms.

Deidara clasped his hands together quietly. "Good luck, don't create too much art now!" he told him brightly before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

Too much art? Was he calling Voltorb's Self-destruction art? Well, if one was into scorched earth and craters with the smell of soot, Naruto supposed that could be considered art.

"Mimi, Kyu, Mimi?" Mimikyu asked curiously, keeping his voice down. How do this?

"I honestly have no idea," Naruto admitted and carefully walked further into the room, making sure not to make any loud noises.

He couldn't just go around lifting up Pokéballs all nilly-willy. He might be lucky sometimes, but would he be lucky six times in a row? That chance seemed too small to really risk it. If he picked up a Voltorb by mistake and it used Self-destruction … He would be stuck at the hospital for two days at least, recovering from those injuries. Even if he managed to throw Voltorb away on time, more than three explosions meant he would have to start the challenge all over again. He would only be wasting time if he was careless and had to start over and over again.

So no picking them up to test the weight because that might backfire – literally. He couldn't just throw his Pokémon at them either because you couldn't fight a Voltorb without the Pokémon going for Self-destruction most of the time. Even something as simple as leaning close to each one and see if they moved could be rather risky if a Voltorb happened to be extremely testy.

The challenge seemed near impossible unless you had a large amount of good luck, but it had to be doable, no? A Gym Leader wasn't allowed to set up impossible challenges, so there had to be a way to beat this and keep the amount of Self-destructions below three. How, though?

Remembering the boy who had told him the Type of this Gym, he wondered whether that Trainer had managed to beat this challenge before losing against the Gym Leader or whether he had remained stuck in this room. He wished he had thought to ask that Trainer what kind of challenge he could expect, but oh well. He just needed to figure this out on his own.

"Kyu, Mimi?" Mimikyu suggested tentatively. Me lift up?

Mimikyu's shadowy limbs were the least substantial, that was true, but Naruto had witnessed an Electrode in Tsunade's care exploding because a Shuppet had brushed against it. That was how sensitive the Voltorb line was.

Naruto shook his head. "If you lift up a Voltorb by mistake, I think they would use Self-destruct," he murmured. "We need to come up with a way that guarantees we'll only pick up the regular Pokéballs. I know Deidara-san said that three Voltorb are allowed to explode, but the less self-destruct the better."

If only because it meant there was little chance he and Mimikyu would be caught in an explosion.

Was there a way to sniff out the regular Pokéballs? He assumed they would smell like metal, maybe plastic? But smelling them again required getting very close to each Pokéball, thereby once more heightening the chance of a Voltorb getting pissed off.

Honestly, he thought aggrieved, staring at the collection of Pokéballs with narrowed eyes, couldn't he haven chosen literally any other Pokémon than a Voltorb?

Slowly he circled around the room, trying to see if his surroundings could give him an idea but the mass of Pokéballs and dormant Voltorb were the only things in the room. There were too windows, looking out on a small pond but he couldn't do anything with them save for wasting time by looking at Goldeen splashing around.

Right as he seriously started to consider whether he shouldn't just try his luck and grab a Pokéball at random, one of Mimikyu's shadowy limbs curled around Naruto's arm and he squeezed Naruto erratically, almost bouncing up and down in the crook of Naruto's arm. He walked over to the windows immediately, figuring they were the furthest located from the mass of Pokéballs and therefore the safest place to talk.

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"Mimikyu!" Lucario!

Naruto had no idea what Mimikyu was talking about. "What about Lucario?"

"Mimi!" Mimikyu exclaimed in a low voice, his body nearly vibrating with enthusiasm. Sense energy!

Energy? He lowered his bag onto the ground and unzipped it just enough to reach inside and grab his Pokédex. Quickly he opened it and typed in Lucario's name, waiting somewhat impatiently while the screen loaded the necessary information. Quite a bit had been written about Lucario already, from the areas they were most likely to be found in to their strengths. One particular sentence in the general information section stood out, however.

'It's said that no foe can remain invisible to Lucario, since it can detect auras. By catching this aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts and movements.'

That was it! If Lucario could sense auras, all Naruto had to do was let him out of his Pokéball and get him to sense the aura of each Pokéball Naruto wanted to pick up! If the Pokéball was actually a Voltorb, Lucario would be able to sense its aura and warn him. That was an amazing idea!

"You are so smart!" Naruto praised Mimikyu in a hushed voice, stuffing his Pokédex back into his bag before slinging it back over his shoulder.

He thought he could feel the shadowy tendril around his arm warming up and he quickly hugged Mimikyu before removing Lucario's Pokéball from his belt and throwing it in the air. Fortunately while Pokéballs released a red beam upon opening, they didn't make any noise so he wasn't worried about potentially setting off any Voltorb by calling up one of his Pokémon.

'Lot of Pokéballs,' Lucario remarked after taking a look around the room. The appendages on his head quivered slightly as he shifted back and forth, studying the Pokéballs intently.

"Yes, but not all of them are Pokéballs; there are Voltorb mixed in as well," Naruto whispered, eyeing the front row of Pokéballs warily.

He thought he could see the first one on the right shaking slightly; a Voltorb no doubt. That would already be one Pokéball he would not attempt to pick up.

"In order to battle the Gym Leader, we need to finish this challenge first," Naruto continued, making sure to keep his voice low. "We have to put six regular Pokéballs into those holes there," he pointed at the shallow pits in front of the exit, "in order for the door to open. But we can't have more than three Voltorb at most exploding."

"Mimikyu, Mimi." No Voltorb at all better.

"Yes, exactly," Naruto agreed. "Best case scenario, we can complete this challenge without any of them exploding. This is where you come in, Lucario. Do you think you could sense the aura of each Pokéball I'm going to pick up? If you sense an aura, you let me know immediately and I'll go search for another one. What do you think?"

'Can do it,' Lucario reassured him immediately.

"All right, let's do this then," Naruto said with a smile. "Mimikyu, you might waiting near the door for this? The Pokéballs are a bit too big to pick up with just one hand."

"Kyu!" Okay!

He carefully placed Mimikyu down near the door before turning around to look at the mass of Pokéballs and Voltorb awaiting him. There really was no discernible difference at all; it was a bit disconcerting to look at, actually. Of course even the youngest kid was aware that Voltorb resembled a Pokéball – or was it actually the other way around and did a Pokéball resemble Voltorb? – but to actually see it displayed like this, row after row of gleaming red and white balls, it was strange to say the least.

"Ready?" Naruto asked Lucario, who nodded determinedly.

"Okay, let's go hunt for some Pokéballs!"

He approached the left side first, but the first one had Lucario immediately shaking his head already. Right, that was a Voltorb then. The second one was a bust too, as was the third, the fourth, the fifth – but not the sixth.

Breathing out slowly, Naruto carefully reached down, grabbing the Pokéball in question and managing to lift it up in the air without brushing against the Voltorb even once. The Pokéball replica was actually extremely light, surprising Naruto who had expected it to weigh more simply because of the material used. Would the sensor even be sensitive enough to pick up this weight? Well, he supposed he would find out once he had filled up all six holes.

He hurried to the door, placing the Pokéball in the first slot before returning to the collection gathered on the floor in the middle of the room.

"What about this one?" Naruto murmured, his hand hovering over a Pokéball.

Lucario shook his head. 'Voltorb.'

"They really do resembled Pokéballs a lot, huh," Naruto muttered to himself before walking further down the row, inspecting a couple of Pokéballs in the middle.

He didn't even need to hear Lucario's warning to realise he was standing close to a Voltorb – too close. Voltorb started lightening up in that threatening way that heralded a vicious explosion and Naruto hastily backed away, flinching and covering his ears with his hands, preparing for the upcoming Self-destruct.

It didn't happen.

Voltorb remained lit up for a very long twenty seconds before it calmed down, turning back into an inconspicuous looking Pokéball. Right, okay, so if you stepped away immediately there was a chance they would calm down again instead of exploding. Good to know.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Naruto stepped forwards again, skipping the next two before picking up his second Pokéball. He had no idea how exactly Lucario was reading these auras, but whatever he was doing, it worked. Even though three more Voltorb were on the edge of exploding when Naruto accidentally came too close to them, they were also quick to calm down once Naruto stepped out of the way.

It took a bit of manoeuvring around, of constantly checking with Lucario before he approached another innocent looking Pokéball but eventually they managed it.

Six Pokéballs in a row greeted Naruto when he took a couple of steps back, staring at the large replicas. He called Lucario back in his Pokéball and picked up Mimikyu, right when red light encased the Pokéballs from below. It started with the one furthest on the left before the light made its way down the row. As soon as the last Pokéball was lit up from below, a soft 'ding' sounded somewhere, followed by the sound of a door unlocking.

When he reached out with his free hand to test the doorknob, an odd clicking noise had him swivelling his head around. To his surprise several Voltorb started to spin around, uttering deep buzzing noises before two of them bumped into each other. The contact saw each of them rolling into another direction and then they began to brighten quickly, glowing from within.

Naruto didn't linger in the room to find out whether this time they would explode or not. He was out of the room and into the next one before the two Voltorb lit up completely.

The next room turned out to be a very spacious battlefield. The field was huge, the windows huger and the ceiling was so high above them, that even craning his neck back didn't allow him to catch a glimpse of the ceiling. With Deidara considering Voltorb's destruction as art, he started to understand why the ceiling was so tall here. The ceiling wasn't so high above them to accommodate Flying Types; it was to deal with explosions of Electric attacks and ensure the ceiling didn't need to be replaced every week!

Deidara was waiting for him on the other side of the field, looking quite amused. "Got to say, un, that you're the first one to use a Lucario in that manner," he said, sounding almost admiring. "Most challengers just take the risk and bank on their luck being good enough to have them pick out Pokéballs and not Voltorb. You thinking out of the box is something I can appreciate, un! Means our battle won't be boring at least." His grin rivalled that of a Sharpedo by now.

Deidara had been watching them? Naruto hadn't even noticed the presence of a camera; had one been hidden in the ceiling? It must have been considering how bare the room had looked.

Deidara clapped his hands loudly together. "Ready for our battle?"

Naruto grinned, butterflies racing like mad in his belly. Sixth Gym already but the rush he felt was still the same as when they had tackled the first Gym. The only difference with back then? He was feeling a lot more confident now. They had trained days on end and Snorlax and Lucario had learnt new moves specifically to counter this Gym's preferred Type. They could do this.

"Bring it on," he called out confidently.

"Let's turn this match into beautiful art, shall we, un?" Deidara smirked and reached down to his belt.

Only to throw two Pokéballs into the air with a flourish, causing Naruto's eyes to widen in surprise. A Double Battle?

"Oh, did I forget to mention this? Double Battles are double the art!" Deidara cackled, opening his arms wide as twin red beams twisted into the forms of two Pokémon.

With a loud cry and a metallic buzzing noise, Raichu and Magneton appeared onto the field.

A Double Battle, huh? Good thing his Pokémon were accustomed to battling multiple Pokémon when they trained together!

Excitement bubbling in the pit of his stomach, he selected his own two choices for this battle.

Ninetales' magnificent tails spread out majestically when she landed gracefully onto the field and she tossed her head back, staring their opponents down. Lucario joined her, coming to stand right next to her, already shifting into his battle pose.

Naruto grinned and he felt Mimikyu quivering with excitement. "Let's keep up our streak of winning from the first time, all right?"

AN2: Hope the challenge didn't disappoint :)

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.