Pokénin 027 (Pokemon/Naruto)

More than 50 minutes had passed since Cynthia had unleashed Garchomp on both Tekai and Zinnia, and it was hell. 

Gasping for breath, lungs feeling like they were on fire, and swollen with bruises all over, Tekai's mind was working overtime, and he felt like someone who pulled a triple shift at work. 

His movements were sloppy, his form atrocious, and his strength was a fraction of what it ordinarily was. 

Garchomp had beat them mercilessly, and had been exploiting any tiny gap, hesitation, or weakness with extreme ruthlessness. 

Every five minutes, garchomp would burst out of the earth, and ambush either him or Zinnia. 

Engage in combat for a minute-kick their collective asses-then retreat to the earth down below. 

At this point, Tekai was operating more on instinct than any higher form of intelligence. 

His movements had become increasingly erratic, yet maintained a sort of uniform chaos to them. The technique Uncle Borah had trained him in, Dragons Ascent, went well with Dragon Dance. Both skills were muscle memory for Tekai after years of practice. 

As a result, Tekai had had some small success in evading garchomp's assaults. 

The first five attacks had been relentlessly brutal, and his organs were feeling sore. Yet as he became more weary, and reliant on the boosting effects of Dragon Dance, and his instincts, Tekai realized he was somehow fighting better. 

Leaning on his staff, Tekai was wheezing, and wanted to laugh at the wild girl, Zinnia, who had her hair all tangled up, with scratches on her cute tan skin, yet just trying to laugh left his chest in pain. 

“This what you always wanted?” Tekai tiredly said with some pessimism. 

His mouth spoke to Zinnia, yet his eyes never once strayed from his surroundings, his head was cocked to the side, listening, and he had even taken his shoes off to feel the subtle shifting of the earth. 

“I'm going to eat garchomp soup.” Zinnia replied, her mouth watering. 

“Ha!...owe.” Tekai held his ribs at the-likewise-fried girl. 

Zinnia was totally out of it, and had less chakra than him at this point, but her heart was in the right place. 

Tekai wanted to say something witty, but his brain was much too drowsy for that. 

MOVE MOVE MOVE

His instincts screamed at him, and Tekai tried to muster up something, anything to get his sluggish body into high gear. 

For the first time since he started this training exercise, he felt as if he had a good grasp ahead of time when garchomp was going to strike, but his bloody body was too exhausted to do anything about it! 

“COME ON!!!” Tekai punched himself in his already sore ribcage, and coughed up a small fleck of blood. 

Ears ringing, and hearing the blood rush to his forehead, Tekai unconsciously pressed his body to the next stage, and unlocked the Second Gate. 

Steam rose from his body, and Tekai felt his chakra pathways dilate. 

Cartwheeling to the side, Tekai narrowly dodged garchomp as she burst through the beach sand. 

Putting his staff behind him, Tekai injected the smallest bit of chakra that he could spare into the weapon, and pushed it against garchomp's side to create some distance. 

Garchomp snorted, unimpressed by Tekai's maneuver, and unleashed a cross slash with her fins. 

Having no choice but to block, Tekai went to meet her attack, but felt as if something was off, and deliberately slipped in the sand at the last second. 

As he did so, Tekai felt a whoosh of air over his head, as garchomp swished her tail where he had been a second ago. 

Her attack had been a feint! 

“Food!” Zinnia yelled, and took this opportunity to jump on garchomp's back, and sink her little teeth into garchomp's shoulder. 

The act seemed to incite garchomp, as a murderous bloodlust filled the air, and she reached her clawed hand back towards Zinnia with the intent to do harm. 

Tekai felt his heart stop for a second as he processed what was going on. 

“Garchomp, return!” Cynthia harshly commanded, and brought garchomp back into her pokeball. 

“Whew! I thought I was a goner, big sis Cynthia!” Zinnia tiredly flopped down onto the sandy beach, and looked up at Cynthia with a wide grin. 

“It was a little scary.” Tekai nodded along. 

Cynthia seemed to ignore their brush with mortal peril, and took out a pair of round, blue fruits the size of fists.  

“Eat these Oran Berries. Once you've had a moment to catch your breath, I'll be going over your performance, and where we can improve.” Cynthia said, tossing them to Tekai & Zinnia. She then went to a nearby recliner, and whipped out that same old, frayed book of hers, the one with Unknown symbols on it. 

“Food!” Zinnia caught a berry, and was quick to nom on it, purple-blue juices dripped down her cheeks as she happily gobbled up the fruit. 

Barely catching the Oran Berry, Tekai felt his muscles burn, and barely walked over to a nearby bench, and collapsed in it. 

“So, where's Clair, Cynthia sensei.” Tekai asked. 

“Our one on one training was fruitful, she's studying inside the manor. Now please, don't disturb me, I'm at a good part. Once you have recovered, I'll answer your questions.” Cynthia replied in a distracted tone, as the majority of her attention was placed on her book. 

‘Fair enough, I've been like that while reading before. At least she didn't snap or get angry with me.’ Tekai thought to himself with a wry shrug. 

Placing the berry in his mouth, Tekai took a nibble to see what it tasted like. 

Raising an eyebrow, he found that he liked it quite a bit. 

The flavor was sweet, yet a little watery. It was almost akin to a blueberry, yet had something else, like no other flavor Tekai had had before. 

But taste wasn't the only thing remarkable about this berry, it was the rate of chakra regeneration too!

Eyes going wide, Tekai was quick to devour the whole thing. He knew in the games that Oran Berries restored 10hp, but it was easy to forget that here, hp typically = total chakra. 

He had read about their restorative properties in the scrolls Lance had gifted him, but this was the first time he had consumed one. It was truly extraordinary. 

By eating this one fruit, he felt as if he had recovered a full 10% of his chakra! 

“Haha, your face is a mess, and you have purple staining your chin!” Zinnia walked over, and pointed her finger right in Tekai's face. 

“The kettle is calling the pot black, I bet your face is more purple than mine.” Tekai lazily drawled from his comfy seat. 

Zinnia turned away for a second, made a ‘hawk tuah’ sound, and rubbed her hands furiously on her face. 

‘She didn't…’ Tekai blinked his eyes repeatedly at what had just transpired. 

Turning around, Zinnia was all smiles, and gave Tekai a big double thumbs up. 

“Challenge accepted!” 

Tekai facepalmed. 

“You really don't want to do this, Zinnia. This is too much.” Tekai looked at the girl as if a screw had gone loose. 

“Nuh uh~ You started the bet this time! Weren't you complaining like a lady earlier that I was unfair, well, weren't you, Mr. Shiny pants?” Zinnia crossed her arms, and grinned at him from a position of superiority. 

“Zinnia, you are a lady.” Tekai deadpanned. 

“Wrong! I may be a girl, a woman, an ass kicker, and a buncha other stuff, but I'm no lady! Leave that high class crap for people who care!” Zinnia put her hands on her hips with an affronted look, and ended her statement with a massive burp. “Now are you going to put up, or shut up?!” 

“Alright…if you insist. But if I win, you have to promise to try out the bow for a month.” 

“Bleh, that's so uncool. Fighting with your body, that's the true passion of a warrior. Bows are for sissies.” Zinnia stuck out her tongue, and gave Tekai the stink eye. 

“Scared?” 

“Pshah, me? Scared? Alright shiny, you're so confident, if you lose this, ahem, when you lose this, you have to give me a piggyback ride to big sis’ house every day for a month!” Zinnia loudly exclaimed, and once more pointed her index finger extremely close to Tekai's face. 

“Sure, sure. Now let's go look at our reflections in the lake’s water.” Tekai slowly stood up, and gently knocked Zinnia's hand away. 

At least, that's what he tried to do, but she grabbed onto his hand, and bounded towards the waterline. 

‘How the hell does she have this much energy?! Like some sort of puppy. Feed her a bit, and she goes bananas!’ Tekai thought to himself as he allowed himself to be dragged along. 

Looking down at his reflection, Tekai grimaced at how purple his chin was, however, it was only his chin. 

Slyly glancing over at Zinnia, the girl only had eyes on his reflection, and looked happy as a clam. 

“Ahahaha! Riding on your shoulders is going to be sweet!” Zinnia giggled to herself. 

“Oh really~ Zinnia, dear, have a look at your own reflection, why don't you?” Tekai said, oozing schadenfreude, and a foul sense of faux sinister intent.

“Pfft, my face is clean, you can't sneak your way out of this-”

 “Do it.” Tekai evilly commanded with a smirk, and forced the tan tomboy's head away from his face-she really was good at invading his personal space-and made her look at her own reflection. 

“You cheating motherfu-” 

“Oi, oi, language~” 

“To hell with that, you, me, right now, shiny! Double or nothin!” Zinnia raised her fists and demanded. 

“Nah, I don't want anything of yours, or for you to do anything for me. I'm good.” Tekai leaned back, and stretched his staff behind his neck with both his hands. 

“I refuse!” Zinnia declared, and lunged at him. 

Tekai had sort of anticipated this reckless act, and had prepared with the placement of his staff. From this angle, it was in a ‘draw’ position, sort of how a swordsman might try to quick draw their sword. 

Having learnt of this maneuver via the book he read in the library the other night, Tekai grinned as he swooped his weapon down and to the side. 

As Zinnia was lunging at him, she took a bone crunching hit to the area between her neck and shoulder. 

Tumbling in the sand, Zinnia growled like a feral animal, and was stumbling to her feet. 

Arm hanging limply, the tan girl dashed at him once more. 

‘This girl has a huge fighting spirit!’ Tekai thought to himself with raised eyebrows. 

Admittedly, he was impressed and maybe even a little intimidated by her will to win. 

Narrowing his eyes, Tekai knew he couldn't lose here. A bet worth twice whatever she had in mind was not going to be good for him! 

As she was better at taijutsu than him, Tekai elected to kite her out, and try to outlast her. 

Waving his staff on the sand, Tekai knocked up a cloud of debris, obfuscating her vision. 

Charging blindly into the stream of sand, Zinnia was left looking around in confusion as Tekai was nowhere to be seen. 

That was because during the commotion, Tekai had pole vaulted over her, and landed in her flank! 

Flicking the hook of his staff backwards, Tekai caught her leg, and tripped her. 

At the same time, he twisted his staff, violently slamming Zinnia down onto her face. 

“I won't lose!” Zinnia loudly declared, and roughly pulled on the staff. 

Caught off guard, Tekai found himself being dragged towards her oncoming fist. 

Thinking quickly, Tekai did a few hand signs, and made a shadow clone, and then kicked him forward so he could jump off his back to gain some distance. 

Chakra coils burning, Tekai felt ill after spending such a large amount of energy, but it allowed him to escape certain defeat. 

“Tekai, you bastar-” The clone cussed, only to pop. 

80% of the chakra spent on the technique was instantly refunded, and Tekai began to breath a little easier as he made his escape. 

“Come and fight me like a man!” Zinnia staggered to her feet, and waved her fist at him. 

“How about no!” Tekai cupped his hands, and shouted back. 

He then took this opportunity to practice his shurikenjutsu, and started throwing his shuriken at her. 

…every single one of them went wide. 

However! 

However, they seemed to spook, or goad Zinnia into action, and she jogged after him. 

“Cheater! Ranged weapons in a spar! Tch, cheater, cheater, cheater!” Zinnia gnashed her teeth, and used her anger to fuel her momentum. 

“Look on the brightside, after today, you'll be using a bow, and can beat me at long distance~” Tekai taunted between heavy breaths. 

“Grr! Stupid Tekai, stupid cheap cheater!” Zinnia mumbled to herself, and continued in her rage. 

Tekai continued to spam Dragons Dance, and narrowly avoided her every punch or kick. 

After ten more minutes of this, Zinnia had collapsed to her knees, and Tekai was sweating profusely. 

“You lost, but at least you looked cool.” Tekai said matter of factly, yet also with a hint of kindness. 

“Haven't lost yet.” Zinnia replied in a muffled tone as she spoke into her chest, her head down. 

“Haaa…you really are going to make me do this, hub?” Tekai sighed as he eyed the little tan tomboy warily. 

“Do it, coward.” Zinnia spat. 

Tekai narrowed his eyes, he totally expected her to lunge at him with a last ditch burst of speed. 

She may act the fool, and was kind of simple sometimes, but she wasn't stupid. Zinnia was a fighter through and through, one who wanted to win. 

If he just stood here, she would regain her energy, but if he recklessly charged at her, he may fall into her trap. 

So Tekai did the responsible thing, and recharged a bit more chakra with Dragon Dance. 

Then, he began to run in a circle around Zinnia, and whipped up some sand. At the same time, he made a shadow clone, and had him do a full frontal assault through the sand stream. 

Running at her back whilst the clone assaulted her front, Tekai was surprised when she ignored the clone, and raised a chakra empowered Dragon Clawed fist at him! 

“Clever girl.” Tekai laughed, and pumped his remaining chakra into his staff, and activated the Dragons Rage. 

Aura flaring, Tekai and Zinnia met in a huge collision, stirring up tons of sand, and shaking the nearby water, creating a mini sonic boom. 

Purple lightning made out of Draconic chakra crackled in the air due to their impact, and both Tekai, nor Zinnia refused to yield to the other. 

Their pride and strength as children of the Ryu was on the line. 

Tekai, thanks to his Dragon Rage, and the leverage of his chakra weapon, had the advantage, and was pushing her arm ever so slowly back. 

He could see her arm straining to keep him away. Perhaps if she had her other arm to work with, this would be a different story. 

As he slowly crushed into her, the clone had finally made his appearance. 

Staff in hand, the clone hooked it under her feet, tripping Zinnia up. 

As she collapsed onto the sandy beach, Tekai reversed his staff so the bottom side-which was sharp, almost like a spear tip-was pointed at her throat. 

It was over.