Forest of Death 3

Forest of Death
Part III

Naruto tried to look calm as he walked single file with the motley assortment of police officers and pokémon trainers down the narrow trail through the Forest of Death.  It was getting late and already it was pitch black in the forest.  And that meant that soon the ghost pokémon would start coming out.

I’m okay, he reminded himself.  I’ve got Shadow with me.  A big, bad umbreon keeps the ghosts away…

And he was with a very large group with a lot of flashlights, so it was unlikely that any ghost would seriously attack them.  Beside him, Shadow kept alert to any threats while his yellow markings glowed softly in the darkness.  Further up the trail, Naruto could catch glimpses of the flickering tail-flame of Sasuke’s charmeleon.  And if he turned around, he could see the light coming from the crystal-like orb on the striped tail of Hinata’s sheep-like flaafy as the electric pokémon provided light for her section of their expedition.

Everything’s fine…  I can handle this…  No problem…

“You scared yet, Brat?”

Naruto managed not to scream at Tsunade’s voice suddenly coming at him from behind.

…Barely.

“Nope,” he lied, forcing himself to un-tense.  “I’m totally fine.”

“Really now…”  Tsunade strolled casually alongside him with her leafeon.  “I know that grass-types aren’t generally very threatening, and boys are rarely creeped out by bug-types, but there are plenty of aggressive dark-types and mischievous ghost-types out in the forest, and they really only come out at night…”

“Quit trying to scare me,” Naruto grumbled.  “It’s not going to work.”

The blonde woman chuckled.  “So why are you gripping your flashlight so tightly?”

“I just don’t want to drop it,” Naruto shot back.

Tsunade scoffed at him.  “C’mon Nawaki, let’s get back to the front.”

The gym leader picked up the pace and headed for the front of the line with her leafeon bounding after her.

Nawaki?  Naruto scratched at the back of his head.  Didn’t Shizune say that was her dead brother’s name?

***

The camp deep in the heart of the Forest of Death was alive with activity.  Underlings scrambled to break tents, box up equipment, and load supplies onto large, strong pokémon in preparation of dispersal.  But one tent remained untouched, and inside a cluster of men huddled around a heavily encrypted radio link.

“Are you sure about this, Leader-sama?” one of the men asked cautiously.

“Yes,” was the irritated answer, his sharp tone undiminished by the crackle of the voice-only connection (their mysterious leader never, ever used a video-link, and only his most trusted commanders had ever seen what he really looked like).  “We’ve made too big of a move.  Our presence attracted too much attention and our time in this forest has run out.  Finish breaking camp and disperse.  Lay low until I send for you again.”

“But we creamed those police!” another of the men protested.  “And our scouts report that they’ve got the League Champion of Fire Country on the run!  Think what we could do if we got our hands on his pokémon!  Playing with those things would be a real bang!”

“And by taking down Minato Namikaze, we gain notoriety.  Notoriety that we do not need.  Such a bold move is premature at this time.  There is a time when we can take down such famous trainers, but that time is not now.  My decision is final, Deidara.”

The man identified as Deidara was officially a gym leader of Earth Country.  He was highly eccentric with an odd artistic bend.  The blonde-haired man had fashioned a compact digital camera that he always wore over his eye like a high-tech eye patch.  He used it to photograph whatever he was looking at, usually pokémon—wild or tame—in action.  Then he’d use the photographs to sculpt pokémon out of clay as his hobby.  And when his pieces didn’t turn out the way that he wanted…he’d blast them with sticks of dynamite.

Deidara growled, but gave in.  “Of course, Leader-sama.  I understand.”  He turned to another man skulking near the corner of the tent.  “It’s too bad that your worthless minions bungled their operations here.  We could’ve kept going, Orochimaru.”

The target of Deidara’s ire ran a Fire Country gym in Oto City as his day job.  He was a rather creepy individual with limp black hair, pale skin, and faint purple eye make-up that gave him a very snake-like look, which was probably what he was going for.  It was anyone’s guess whether his golden eyes with their slit pupils were special contacts or somehow actually natural.  With his reputation as a protégé of the former League Champion of Fire Country (Hiruzen Sarutobi), his…odder…traits were usually overlooked.

“Quit throwing the blame around, Deidara,” the first man sighed.  “As distasteful as Orochimaru’s group is, they have their uses.  You know that as well as the rest of us.  …You’re just disappointed that you haven’t had the opportunities to blow things up like you were expecting.”

“Sasori is right,” the disembodied voice of their distant leader cut in before Deidara could complain further.  “There is no point in casting blame at this point.  I want all signs of our presence in the Forest of Death gone by midnight.  We will lay low for however long it takes, and return to complete our search when we can.  Now get to work.”

There was a click and the connection was broken.

“Well you heard the man,” a velvety, slithery voice purred from the corner.  “Let’s finish breaking camp.”

“Shut up, Orochimaru!” Deidara grumbled.  “I wish you wouldn’t let such worthless scumbags into your organization.”

“Don’t let them hear you calling them that,” Orochimaru chuckled darkly as he slipped out of the tent.  “They just might turn on you.”

“Creep,” Deidara muttered.  “Well, let’s get to work, Sasori!” he added much more cheerfully, slapping the other man on the shoulder.

Sasori was of Wind Country, and guardian of the Puppet badge.  He was always calm and controlled to the point where his youthful, handsome face looked like it was carved from wood.  The red-haired man was an artist like Deidara, but instead of sculpting with clay, he carved intricate marionettes of people and pokémon…and he never blew them up with dynamite.  With his more conservative, traditional views on art, he and Deidara clashed often, though the blonde man seemed to take their arguments more like friendly banter than Sasori did.

“Don’t touch me,” Sasori grumbled as the two of them exited the tent.

The two men who were left in the tent went about breaking down the communication equipment.

“Deidara’s such a whiner,” one of the leftover men chuckled.  “Just because he can’t play with bombs or have his beasties use explosion to ‘end things with a bang!’ he gets so upset…”

“We have a lot of work to do, and not much time to accomplish it all in,” the other man responded quietly.  “Please focus on the task at hand, Kisame.”

Kisame was a man from Water Country and a lover of all things shark-like.  The foreign gym leader had gone so far as to tattoo black gill-like markings on his cheeks and wear blue make-up to further his fishy look.  And he refused to admit whether his pointy teeth were a genetic quirk or purposely funky dental work.

“Fine, fine,” Kisame sighed as he unhooked various wires.  “Why do you have to be so serious all the time, Itachi?”

“It’s an Uchiha thing,” was the younger man’s vague answer.

“Whatever,” Kisame muttered, clicking his unusually pointed teeth together.

Itachi eyed his companion for a moment with sharp red eyes before diligently continuing his disassembly of the equipment.  As he had said, there wasn’t a lot of time to get all their equipment and supplies out of the forest and erase all traces of their presence.  But once things settled down, and he was back at his own gym, he had a thing or two to do.

***

Naruto wanted to kick himself.  The batteries in his flashlight had given out and no one around had any spares.  So now he was a dark spot in the line.

At least we’re almost there…  Naruto jammed his hands deeper into his pockets as he followed the police officer walking in front of him.  …At least I hope so.

Shadow brushed against his legs as they walked along the narrow trail.  The umbreon sensed his unease, and would do its best to protect him.  But the feeble glow put off by Shadow’s yellow markings wasn’t much comfort.

After I get the Leaf badge I should head home and get Hikari to help Bolt learn how to use flash…

The policeman ahead of him stopped suddenly and Naruto almost ran into his back.  Peering around him, the single-file line had clumped up into a blob of police officers and trainers.  But to the boy’s irritation, he was too short to see what was causing the hold up.

Grr…when am I ever going to get taller?!

“Hey,” he spoke up, “what’s going on up there?”

The police ahead of him ignored his question and started murmuring amongst themselves.  Before Naruto got annoyed enough to start loudly demanding answers, several trainers filtered back, including Sasuke and Sakura who had been further ahead of him.  They both looked pale and freaked out.

“Hey, hey guys!” he whispered loudly and waved them over.  “Do you know what’s going on?”

Sakura looked sick, or like she wanted to cry.  “They’re dead…”  Her espeon looked droopy and shell-shocked.

Naruto blinked.  “Who’s dead?”

“Some of the police officers that we were looking for,” Sasuke mumbled, his usual aloof cracked and letting his shock seep through.  The flickering flame on his charmeleon’s tail cast strange shadows around them, giving their little patch of black forest a campfire-y feel.  “They’re dead—”

“Wait a minute, who’s dead?” Kiba interjected as he and his growlithe, Akamaru pushed through some nearby bushes.  “What’s going on?  What’s the hold up?”

“Eek!” Hinata squeaked as she tried to follow Kiba, but tripped and sprawled on the dirt.

Shino materialized out of the dark with her flaafy and something brown hovering over his shoulder (Naruto was too focused on Sasuke to really pay attention to it) and helped her stand up.

“The police officers that we came here to find,” Sasuke repeated, crossing his arms over his chest as if hugging himself.  “They found some of them dead.  A growlithe, too.”

“What?!” Kiba yelped loudly (causing a nearby policeman to shush him).

“…Did a wild pokémon get them?” Naruto asked hesitantly.

“Police officers only keep a few pokémon, but I’m sure that they are able to sufficiently defend themselves against wild pokémon,” Shino said.  The shade-wearing boy, who always seemed so detached and analytical, hesitantly voiced a hard-to-swallow theory.  “…It was a deliberate attack by trained monsters, wasn’t it?”

“Probably,” Sasuke swallowed, looking almost gray.

“No way!” Kiba hissed.  “That’s so against the law!  What kind of sicko would do that?!”

“They’re dead…” Sakura repeated, trembling with green eyes unfocused and watery.  “They…they’re all…”

A bouncing orb of light approached them through the dense undergrowth and revealed Shizune and her springy spoink acting as a lantern.  The dark-haired woman immediately took Sakura a little way away and started whispering to the pink-haired girl.  Naruto dropped his eyes to the dirt under his sneakers and bit his lip.

His mother had always warned him that there were terrible people out there; that if he went out on the road as a pokémon trainer he had to be careful.  But this went far beyond anything he’d ever imagined.  He’d come to the forest to help out the police like a good citizen, and for the adventure, and to make sure Tsunade didn’t chicken out.  …It wasn’t some great adventure anymore.

Ah, I totally forgot to call home!

With his late arrival into the city, and his fixation on finding Tsunade and challenging her as soon as possible, it had completely slipped his mind to call his mother and let her know where he was and how he was doing.  For all she knew, he was still dragging his feet on the way to Senju City.  She had no idea that he was out in the Forest of Death a few bushes away from some dead bodies.

“This is not what I signed up for,” one of the other volunteer trainers muttered from nearby.

“Yeah,” the guy’s buddy agreed, “I’m so out of here.”

“If someone out there’s willing to kill police, then no one’s safe.”

“I’m all for going back.”

“Are there seriously dead cops up there?!”

“Quiet back there!” one of the policemen barked.  “We don’t know what kind of situation we’re dealing with here so keep any talking to whispers!  If you’re going to go back to the city, do so quietly!”

This caused a ripple of whispers to spread throughout the trainers present and the line of people bunched up even more.  From what Naruto could hear, most seemed ready to leave the company of the police and head back to the safety of the city.  But then, from the very back of the line, there was a burst of panicked yells.

And then there was a flash of light and a deafening crash of sound.

Naruto staggered from the blast wave and rubbed at his slightly ringing ears.  “What the—”

“Electrodes!” someone yelled in the brief, shocked silence that followed the explosion.  “There are electr—”

Another tooth-rattling blast drowned out whatever else was being said.

Full panic exploded along with the next blast.  Everyone tried to run away, but mostly they just ran into each other.  Naruto tried to keep sight of his friends, but in the chaos he even lost track of Shadow as he tried to escape from the explosions that just kept going off every half-minute or so.  In the end, he just put his head down and ran headlong through the bushes to try and get clear of everything.

This is insane!  Crazy!  Nuts—ergh!

A root caught his toe, sending him diving face-first into the dirt.

“…Ow,” he wheezed, winded by the impact.  Coughing to get his breath back and spitting some dirt from his mouth, he staggered back to his feet and looked around…to find that he was completely alone.  “Shadow?” he squeaked.

The umbreon failed to appear, and all he could hear in the pitch blackness was the distant sound of a few more explosions.  Naruto started to sweat as his blue eyes frantically darted around in the darkness.  He was all alone, with some mysterious attack going on not too far away, his flashlight was dead, and he’d lost his umbreon…so now the ghosts could get him.

Naruto slowly sank back down to the ground.  It was so dark he could barely see his hands in front of his face.  The dense foliage drank up the sounds, making everything except very close noises muffled.  It was like he’d fallen into a dark void all alone…

“H-hello?” the boy whimpered, wanting to be heard yet nervous of attracting the attention of ghosts or the mysterious attackers who had everyone on the run.  “Shadow?”

Trembling with nerves, Naruto fumbled with his pokéballs and released his vulpix.

“Demon, can you find Shadow?  Or…or anyone?”

The fire fox whined in confusion.

“Great,” Naruto gulped, shivering.  “I’m lost in the dark in ghost central—what’s that?!”

A faint light shone through some bushes to his left.  Ghosts sometimes used creepy lights to scare people or lead them astray.  The boy cowered from it and the vulpix growled at it.

The leaves rustled, and then a raichu tumbled from the brush.  It was in bad shape with several clear scrapes and bleeding cuts and its flash was weak, hinting at how low its energy was.  Because of the way raichu evolved, Naruto knew that it was tame, but who did it belong to?

“Hi there,” Naruto greeted softly.  The raichu started, and made as if to flee.  “Hey, wait!  I’ve got something for you.”  He dug around in his bag for a moment and fished out a couple of oran berries and a sitrus berry and held them out to the brown electric mouse.  “Here!”

If he could persuade the raichu to stay with him until its trainer turned up, he would get some protection from the light of its flash.  The raichu eyed the berries in his hand before snatching them and bolting them down so fast Naruto worried that the pokémon would choke on them.  As the healing berries started to take effect, the raichu sized him up, and Demon spoke up to the other monster.  Whatever their conversation was about, it really seemed to interest the raichu and—after it sniffed his offered fingers with great intensity—the pokémon actually climbed into his lap to hug him.

“Er, hi.”  Naruto blinked, patting the raichu on the furry back.  “So, you want to stick with me for a while, Raichu?”

The raichu squeaked what sounded like an agreement.

“Thanks,” Naruto grinned weakly as the raichu’s light started to strengthen.  “Let’s…get out of here.”

He slowly stood up and looked around, but wasn’t sure where to go.  He couldn’t see the trail anymore, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to head back there anyway.  The bad guys (whoever they were) might be gathered there.  But he didn’t want to get anymore lost, so that none of his friends or the police could find him.

Maybe…if I find a good landmark, like a big rock or something…  Naruto ran his fingers through his spiky hair as he thought.  Yeah, that could work.  I’ll find a good place and wait—at least until morning.

“Let’s go…this way,” the boy decided, settling on a direction to head off in.

The raichu led off, lighting the way.  Naruto followed close behind, making sure to stay completely within the circle of light.  And Demon trotted alongside, his soothe bell tinkling in the eerily still darkness.

…This is all crazy, he thought as he walked.  What the heck is going on in this forest?  Dead people, explosions out of nowhere…what next?!

A sad moan drifted through the dark trees, freezing Naruto in his tracks.

I wish I hadn’t thought that…

***

Sasuke ran, towing Sakura behind him, until he found a particularly thorny bush.  He shoved the pink-haired girl under the prickly brush before crawling in after her.  The girl’s espeon and his charmeleon hurried to follow.

“Dragon,” Sasuke hissed as he grabbed Sakura’s flashlight and turned it off, “cover your fire.”

The charmeleon shifted around so that his flaming tail tip was tucked under the fire-lizard’s belly, hiding their source of light.

They lay there, trying to catch their breath as quietly as possible.  Where anyone else was or what had happened to them the Uchiha boy had no idea.  All he’d thought to do was grab Sakura and run until they found a good place to hide.

Now he was fresh out of ideas.

“Sasuke-kun,” the girl whispered.  “Are we going to die?”

“No,” he growled.  “Be quiet.”

He tried not to think of the bodies—the corpses that they’d seen before the policemen could stop them and send them back.  They’d laid so still and twisted and not breathing.  And they weren’t just dead, but torn up by claws and burned by flames.  Three police officers and one of their growlithe: dead.

Why?

For what?

The foliage rustled, and it sounded like two people, maybe more, walking nearby.  Sasuke held his breath and Sakura curled up tightly to his side.  Their pokémon tensed, but did nothing, waiting for the signal to attack.

The mystery people walked right up to their hiding spot and stopped.

“Man, this is such a mess,” one grumbled.  “We were almost out, and then those cops had back-up show up.  …The boss isn’t going to be happy about this.”

“No duh,” the other snorted.  “It’s a good thing that that Akatsuki creep brought all those electrodes with him.  All those booms should give us enough cover to get free and clear of this place.”

“What are we even doing in this forest again, anyway,” the first complained, and lit a cigarette, casting eerie shadows on his scruffy face.  “The boss had us sniffing around a few months back, we found nothing, we left when the cops got antsy, and now we’re back and in hot water—and what for?”

“Boss wanted to study that Moss Rock…you know, that spot where eevees evolve,” the second muttered.  “And I heard something about some green fairy the Akatsuki want.”

“A green fairy?”  The smoker snorted derisively.  “What are those Syndicate freaks smoking?”

“Who knows,” the other man answered with a shrug.  “Let’s get this over with—finish our sweep and get the hell out of here.  I think we’ve poached enough and stolen enough to make the boss happy.  Who cares what his Akatsuki friends want?”

“Yeah,” the smoker sighed.  He took a few more puffs on his cigarette and then put it out with a grind of his boot heel.  “Let’s get going.”

The two men moved off and when he was sure they were gone, Sasuke sighed in relief.  But what he’d heard troubled him.  They poached pokémon?  They stole pokémon?  There were at least two groups…and one wanted the Moss Stone, and the other wanted some green fairy?  Who were these people?!

And where would they be going?

“Sasuke-kun,” Sakura whimpered, “let’s run.”

“No,” he whispered back, “we sneak around slowly.  We don’t want to run into any more of those guys if we can help it.”

It seemed like a good plan of action, but he really didn’t know.  He was completely out of his depth here.  Just because he had five gym badges and Sakura had four didn’t mean that they were ready to face anything like this.  He wanted to blame the cops for recruiting them for this, but they couldn’t have known how bad it was going to be, and the two of them had volunteered.

Just as they were crawling out from under the bush, more rustling leaves stopped them.  They held their breaths, expecting more faceless bad guys to materialize out of the darkness.  But instead, a frantic umbreon bounded into view, sniffing around as it searched for something.

“…Isn’t that…Naruto’s umbreon?” the pink-haired girl wondered.

“I think so,” Sasuke said as he crawled out of the bush with his charmeleon.  The sudden appearance of light from Dragon’s burning tail startled the black pokémon, but once it recognized Sasuke’s face, it went back to searching.  “It must be…but what’s it doing without Naruto?”

“They must’ve gotten separated,” Sakura theorized as she coaxed her espeon out with her.  “That’s probably what it’s doing—looking for Naruto.”

Sasuke frowned thoughtfully at the black-and-yellow evolved eevee.

Naruto has a ghost phobia.  This forest is known for having a wide variety of ghosts in it.  Naruto’s umbreon protects him against ghosts.  So without it…

“Let’s go find Naruto,” the Uchiha boy sighed, “before a ghost finds him and he falls apart.  And then let’s get the heck out of here.”