Author's note: Just a reminder to you all, I'll be starting my first job tomorrow, so while I'll try to keep my updates regular, if I miss a week, you know why.

Thanks to the following reviewers: PinkiePieParty122894; Pen-Woman; oliviaarther9; aLeexheaven

Warnings: Nothing in particular I think

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 51

His first stop in the new town was the Pokécentre, both to heal his team and to send Nickit, Tropius, Cubone and Axew to the professor. She was pleasantly surprised to have him not only sending Pokémon over again so soon, but also four at once. He was quite proud of that as well, because he hadn't even expected to catch so many on the way here.

After waving at Snorlax through the screen – the large Pokémon seemed quite at ease in the professor's lab – Naruto shut down the computer and returned to the counter to pick up his Pokémon. That done, he left the centre and started wandering around. It was late afternoon by now and he decided it would make more sense to keep the Gym for tomorrow when he would also be fully rested. His only objective for now was to find out if he could spend the night in a motel or hotel for once, if there was one and it wouldn't be too expensive. Otherwise he supposed he would just have to return to the Pokécentre. He wouldn't mind setting up his tent in a field nearby or so, but the weather report on the television in the Pokécentre had warned for a fierce bout of rain tonight and he didn't want to test how waterproof his tent actually was.

The town was a quiet one, he quickly noticed. People went about their day, but there was no urgency in their step, not like it often was in the cities. They did their shopping, chatted with friends and colleagues in the streets and children returned from their school laughing and talking animatedly. There were fields tended to by farmers, but the town didn't seem as self-sufficient as some of the others Naruto had visited because he saw several trucks driving through and parking in front of shops to unload their goods.

As he walked through the town, he did spot a small hotel on the northern side of the plaza. It didn't look that particularly expensive, so he decided he would try his luck later tonight after he had found a place to have dinner at.

Leaving the plaza in search for a nice restaurant, Naruto turned into another street and nearly walked straight into somebody. Stumbling backwards, he raised his head to apologise when he recognised who he had nearly walked into.

"What are you doing here?" he asked baffled.

"Walking," was Uchiha Sasuke's incredibly dry response. He wore a long, dark blue cloak; if he had Pokémon with him, they were hidden by the coat. "You're here to challenge the last Gym, I suppose?"

"Yeah, tomorrow normally," Naruto confirmed, tilting his head to the left. "And you? You're here for the Gym too?"

The other man snorted. "No, I don't do the challenge. I was here for business and to meet with my brother."

Without realising it, Naruto fell into step with him as the younger Uchiha started walking down the street. "What's your brother doing here? Is that one group planning another attack?" he asked concerned.

"I guess you didn't get a look around the whole town then," Sasuke said idly. "There hasn't been an attack here, but this place does have a facility where Pokémon recover. That could be a potential target, so nii-san is here to set up the necessary protective measures."

"Don't Pokémon recover in Pokécentres normally?" Naruto frowned, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"They usually do, yes," Sasuke confirmed, remarkably aimable now. "But sometimes Pokémon need a long time to recover and every centre has limited space. There are only so many Pokémon they can take in at the same time without overflooding the system. So facilities like these take Pokémon in to ensure that the Pokécentres still have enough space for the urgent cases. Sometimes abandoned Pokémon end up in such a care facility too; it honestly depends."

"How many people work at the facility here?" Naruto asked curiously.

It made sense why this facility could be a target, though. If they took over Pokémon from Pokécentres, that meant they probably had quite the variety walking around in the facility. If a group with bad intentions wanted to abduct many different Types at once, such a facility would be the prime target. Ah man, when he thought about it, there were really quite a few places that could be targets for this evil group!

"Only one here," Sasuke replied casually and smirked when Naruto stared at him. "Nurse Joy probably stops by every once in a while, but from what I've heard the facility mainly runs itself."

"Only one person works here?" Naruto said baffled. "How does that even work? Ah, do you actually work with your brother?" he remembered to ask.

"You'd have to ask the owner of this facility how it works. And what's with that question?" he inquired amused.

"Well, I've seen you a couple of times with your brother already and you mentioned being here on business," Naruto explained and shrugged. "I figured you two work together or so."

"If I have to work with the people my brother works with, I'd go insane within a week," Sasuke riposted critically. "You couldn't pay me enough money in the world to work with his colleagues."

Well, that was certainly a way to –

"That's not nice, otouto. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my colleagues," Detective Itachi's voice suddenly spoke up, making Naruto jump in surprise.

"Yes, because having an obsession with the afterlife and trying to figure out if the stories about all those Ghost Types like Shedinja and Cofagrigus are true, is the pinnacle of being normal," Sasuke muttered darkly.

Naruto blinked and finally got a good look at his new surroundings. He had followed Sasuke without even thinking twice, which was rather stupid in hindsight considering he didn't even know this town's layout. At the moment he stood in front of a beige coloured building. There were no windows on this side of the building, so he couldn't even peek inside to figure out what its purpose was. The only door was made out of … metal?

"Hidan merely enjoys doing research," Detective Itachi said serenely.

"No, he doesn't. If he did, he wouldn't piss off that Kakuzu guy so much," Sasuke scoffed.

The detective's eyes glittered with mischief. "For someone who claims to never listen when I talk about my colleagues, you sure do remember a lot about them, Sasuke."

Sasuke glowered at him, crossing his arms. "How can I not when you keep yapping about them?"

"I'm going to assume he's not here as part of the protective measures," a new male voice joined the conversation and Naruto twitched in surprise again, not even having noticed the extra person until he had spoken up.

The unknown man was quite tall and wore a mask which covered the lower half of his face for some reason. Even though his face appeared to be still rather youthful, his spiky hair was a silver white colour. Did he dye it? He wore simple black trousers, a black shirt and a sleeveless moss green jacket in spite of the chilly weather. His belt had six Pokéballs attached to it, ranging from the regular Pokéball to a couple of Great Balls and Ultra Balls even.

"No, I've got other things to do," Sasuke replied and sounded rather clipped for some reason. "Itachi, you finished here?"

"Yes, we're finished here," Detective Itachi confirmed before he smiled at Naruto. "Uzumaki-san, it's good to see you again. You here for your last Badge?"

The silver haired man tilted his head to the right.

"Yeah, planning on challenging the Gym tomorrow," Naruto confirmed. "I was just walking around the town to decide whether I would have dinner and spend the night when I nearly walked into your brother."

"Good luck with the Gym; I'm sure you'll do fine," Detective Itachi smiled warmly.

"After seven Badges, the eighth shouldn't be a problem," Sasuke scoffed.

Naruto couldn't really figure out whether he was being just as encouraging as his brother or whether this was somehow a masked insult. The younger brother was too confusing.

"Mah, the eighth Gym is often the trickiest one," the silver-white haired man commented lightly.

"It's merely a stepping stone to the Elite Four," Sasuke snorted derisively, which was quite rude even if the comment wasn't aimed at Naruto.

"That hurts my feelings, it really does, Sasuke," the older man sighed theatrically and placed his hand on his chest.

"You'd need feelings for that in the first place," Sasuke shot back and grabbed his brother's hand. "Come on, Itachi, you said you were finished here."

"Let me know immediately if you notice anything suspicious going on," Detective Itachi told the other man.

The white haired man grew solemn; his dark eyes turning half-lidded. "I will, though frankly given which ones roam around here, I'd say whoever gets sent to abduct them will have an especially bad time. I'd like to state upfront that I will not be responsible for how the Pokémon end up defending themselves."

"Actually you would be responsible," Detective Itachi said deadpan before his eyes started to gleam. "But the law does offer some leeway in this case; if a human attacks a Pokémon they are free to defend themselves naturally."

"Well, I'm getting there in age - " the white haired man began, ignoring Sasuke's derisive snort completely, "so if they do end up attacking the facility while I'm at home, it might take a little while before I can check up on them."

"Such a shame, truly," Sasuke drawled.

"You two take care," the white haired man said cheerfully.

Detective Itachi inclined his head both to him and to Naruto, while Sasuke entirely ignored the other man and dipped his head at Naruto. The two brothers walked away then, discussing something amongst themselves.

"Don't let his brooding disposition fool you; deep inside he cares very deeply," the man said cheerfully, glancing at Naruto.

"I guess," Naruto said vaguely before he looked between the building and the retreating backs of the two brothers. Suddenly the man's first comment about protective measures made sense. "Is this the facility Sasuke was talking about?" he asked excitedly.

"If he was talking about the town's care facility, then yes, this is it," the man answered to his surprise. "You've ever been to one?"

"No, I actually only learnt about them today from Sasuke," Naruto replied with a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "I always thought that hurt Pokémon just remained at the Pokécentre until they were healed. I never thought there would be a facility for the ones who need longer recovery."

"Longer recovery, abandoned by their Trainers, simply showing up because they got tired of the wild life; all sorts of reasons why they might end up here," the man explained and shrugged. "As long as they aren't aggressive and a danger to others and to humans, they can stay here for as long as they want and need."

"It must be nice, being able to look after so many different Pokémon," Naruto mused aloud, glancing at the building again.

The only facilities he had known about so far had been the ones designated to imprison the extremely dangerous Pokémon. While those facilities were interesting in their own right, Naruto couldn't really say he had ever been interested in visiting one, simply because of how dangerous those Pokémon could be. Tsunade had sometimes considered him a fool when he had brought in injured wild Pokémon, but none of them had ever hurt him – or when they had, it had been entirely accidental, them only lashing out because they were in pain and afraid. The Pokémon trapped in those facilities, though? They very rarely were actually in pain or afraid; they were simply too vicious to leave them in the wild. Naruto would never knowingly approach one of those. An injured Pokémon in need of medical aid? Of course! A Pokémon intent on maiming him the second it laid eyes on him? No, thank you. He already had had too much experience with those.

This particular type of facility, though, like the one he was standing in front of currently? He thought he would enjoy visiting one, if only to discover how a facility of this type worked.

"Nice, tiring, fun, take your pick, it differs from day to day," the man said idly before his gaze suddenly sharpened when he looked at Naruto. "You interested in taking a look around?"

"That's possible?" Naruto asked surprised, but hopeful.

"Well, it's not like visitor's days exist, but I don't have anything against someone wanting to discover how the facility is run," the man replied casually.

Naruto stared at him. "You're the owner of the facility?" he asked surprised.

"Owner, manager, keeper, whatever suits your fancy," the man said dismissively. "I'm the one making sure the Pokémon are fed and keeps everything relatively in order at least. So, how about it? You want to take a look around?"

"Yes, please!" Naruto agreed enthusiastically.

He would still have to find dinner, but that could wait until later. The facility sounded much more interesting now!

The facility was indeed very interesting.

As unassuming and almost boring as the building looked on the outside with its lack of windows, its beige colour and its rectangular shape, once you walked through the door, you arrived in a completely different building it felt like. The inside had a bright white ceiling and the walls had been painted in various colours, ranging from a warm yellow to a cooler blue and bright green. Large bags of pellets, kibbles and other food suitable for Pokémon were stored against the right wall or divided into large plastic containers, each one labelled to make clear which container had which content.

The left wall had shelves upon shelves upon shelves, each one filled with Potions; Super Potions; Hyper Potions; Max Potions; Full Restores; Paralyze Heals; Burn Heals; Antidotes; Awakenings; Ice Heals … Containers filled to the brim with berries containing healing properties filled up the corners and were placed underneath the shelves. The regular first aid kit for humans looked almost comically out of place amongst the various healing supplies meant for Pokémon.

The facility's owner led him to the back then, opening a second set of metal doors – which opened up to an extensive field, which in turn assimilated with the small forest surrounding the building. There were several stables built alongside the edges of the property, offering shelter and sleeping places for the roaming Pokémon. The place itself actually reminded Naruto a bit of Kurama's property, but that thought was quickly pushed to the back of his mind when he saw just how many Pokémon meandered around here.

Some were sleeping like the Steelix wrapped around the trunk of a thick, old tree. Others were playing, like a Morgrem who was slightly limping but still trying to catch an Umbreon, who simply skipped out of its reach every time the Morgrem got close. A rather large Rapidash was looking after a Mabosstiff, who laid spread out on the ground. A Zorua and a Thievul were giggling amongst each other while a Snorunt was causing it to snow very locally, causing a Cubchoo to wriggle around in the snowy carpet. A Swinub wiggled past Naruto, making its way to a Glaceon, who appeared to be waiting patiently for the Swinub.

Rookidee, Cramorant, Butterfree and Noctowl were flying around, joining other Flying Types which were flying too high for Naruto to discern which Pokémon they were. Something hit Naruto's leg and when he looked down, he noticed it was a ball. He picked it up right at the same moment a Pancham showed up, sticking out its tiny paws towards the ball.

"Yours?" Naruto guessed and when Pancham nodded, Naruto gently threw the ball back towards it.

Pancham cheered and started kicking it again, moving more towards the border with the forest.

Practically every Type seemed to be represented here. Some Pokémon were visibly wounded, making it obvious why they were here, while others appeared perfectly fine. Either because they had just finished recovering or perhaps because they had been abandoned – Naruto hoped that wasn't the case for too many of them – or maybe simply because they had shown up one day and had refused to leave. Whichever the reason was, all of them, whether they were asleep, playing or simply lounging around, looked quite happy and at ease, even the ones with bandages or visible burns or cuts.

"As you can see, not much I need to do save for making sure they get their medicine on time and they are fed," the man said lazily, belying just how much responsibility that actually was. "They mainly take care of themselves and each other, really. Their reasons for being here might differ, but that doesn't stop them from getting along quite well. The fights that do break out are at last manageable."

"I never imagined the facility would be this large," Naruto said amazed. He remained near the main building, next to the man, not wanting to disturb or scare the Pokémon wandering around. Some of them were staring at him, naturally, but none of them made a move to attack him.

"Well, considering the size some Pokémon can be, a large facility was a necessity," the man said dryly. "I actually had to extend the place already; it's why they are now free to go into the woods as well. There's also a lake just out of view; it's best to mimic the Pokémon's natural surroundings after all."

"They all look very happy," Naruto noted.

"Happy Pokémon are easier to manage than unhappy ones," the man said amused before he turned to face Naruto fully. "We haven't really introduced ourselves, have we? The name's Hatake Kakashi, nice to meet you."

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto introduced himself, grinning. "So this is your fulltime job then?"

Kakashi could act as flippantly about leading this place as he wanted, it was obvious this facility was run really well. Handling the responsibility over this many Pokémon couldn't be easy, though, especially considering the medical needs some of them had.

"Oh no, I actually have a different fulltime job; this is simply something I do in my pastime," Kakashi answered casually.

"Oh? What do you do then?"

"I'm this town's Gym Leader."

Huh.

AN2: Final Gym next chapter, guys! Who saw Kakashi as the final Gym Leader? :)

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.