Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 5

“Your testing today went well?”

“Well enough.” Natsume agreed, pouring herself more green tea.

Wataru smiled. “And Red?”

“He’s brilliant. Wonderful flame attacks – more than I expected, really. And Kasumi! She ought to specialize in illusions. I couldn’t see in her Mist at all.”

“Interesting.” Wataru nodded. “Well then, she’ll be a good student for a psychic.”

Natsume chuckled. “It will be interesting of having a team of my own. But why haven’t you volunteered?”

Wataru smirked. “Do you really think our esteemed Hokage would ever trust a traitor who might possibly corrupt young minds as a teacher?”

“Wataru…”

“I don’t regret it.” Wataru said simply. “I made my choices, after all, and I am still paying for them. I just…”

He lapsed into silence, and Natsume did not pry, helping herself to another sticky rice cake.

She had more important things to worry about, after all.

Several weeks passed peacefully enough. Kasumi had been surprised when Natsume told her to focus more on genjutsu, illusions, since she had wanted to become a strong user of water-type attacks, but she had managed to master Hypnosis, so maybe water wasn’t right for her after all.

Their missions had been simple ones – weeding, walking dogs, cleaning up trash, and the like. None of them had been exciting, but it gave them lots of time to practice their new skills. Satoshi was busy teaching himself the next move in the scroll, something called a Shadow Blade, and Red was perfecting his flame attacks. They were almost – almost being pleasant to each other. Satoshi would show off, and Red would watch, and not say anything, but sometimes the silence made things worse.

Perhaps two or three months of doing D-rank missions passed. Of course, they would not get C-rank missions until they got some more experience, or moved up to Chuunin. The Chuunin exams wouldn’t be for another three months, and by then, Red wanted to be ready.

The more powerful he got, the closer he would be to defeating Genji…

Thinking of his brother sent a spike of anger through his body, and he yanked viciously at the rope he was holding, causing Satoshi to screech in surprise.

“Hey! I’m still tied to this thing!”

Yes, Satoshi was working on acrobatics in midair, and having the others swing him from tree to tree. Kasumi was reading a book and Natsume had left them to their own devices that day.

Red finally got irritated enough and made a clone, before leaping off to train alone. He was heading home when he ran into someone who looked vaguely familiar.

The man was wearing a long coat, dark red, over the regulation dark blue Jounin uniform. His golden eyes picked out Red, as he smirked.

“Hello, Red.”

“Do I know you?” Red asked.

“Meiji Wataru.” The man said, making a curt bow.

Ah… one of his distant cousins. Red made a bow in acknowledgement, not needing to introduce himself.

“You look tired, Red. Would you like to get something to eat together?”

Red considered, before deciding that talking to an adult would be better than brooding all night, and nodded. Besides, the man didn’t seem threatening, and he had good instincts.

They had teppanyaki, and Red ate quietly, as did the man. He looked a bit tired himself, and familiar, now that he thought of it…

“You’re Ibuki’s older brother, right?”

Wataru nodded, and paid for their meal. They were walking home when Red finally worked up his courage to talk to the older man. “Wataru-san, are you good with flame techniques?”

“I’m not bad, though I prefer ice and water. Why?”

“I need someone to train with.” Red told him honestly. “Natsume-san is spending a lot of time training my teammate Kasumi, but I’m not very interested in learning genjutsu, so...”

“I see. So you would like me to teach you some techniques of mine?”

“Yes please.”

“That can be arranged.” Wataru said thoughtfully. It would only be revenge against him… and Red was more than capable of learning the moves, especially if he had acquired his Trainer’s Eyes. If not, the new abilities would still be helpful.

Red smiled politely, and Wataru said no more as he said goodnight to Red. He was halfway down the block when he frowned.

Something about that conversation…

No, he was overreacting. He shook his head. He needed some sleep after that mission, and he’d probably start training Red tomorrow if he was free.

He closed his eyes as he heard the door click shut behind him, and half-smiled.

The next morning, Red showed up in front of Wataru’s apartment at exactly 7 A.M. sharp. The special Jounin was already awake, and closed his book as he leapt out the window lightly.

“Your team didn’t have a mission today?”

“No.” Red shook his head.

“Then we can start right away. Follow me.” Wataru led Red into the woods, and after they had gotten a mile or so away from the village, stopped in a small clearing next to a stream.

“Now then.” Wataru said, eyes dark. “I want you to demonstrate all the flame attacks you know.”

Red shrugged, and started with Ember, moving on to Flame Wheel and then Flamethrower, his best move.

Wataru watched, smiling slightly. Red had pretty good chakra control, so…

“Let’s get started.” Wataru said, as he began making seals. “I’ll teach you some of my techniques, to balance out the fire.”

“Sounds good to me.” Red agreed.

He watched intently as Wataru finished, before he clapped his hands together at the end. There was a glitter, a glimmer, and then a pair of what looked like wings made of chakra emerged from the man’s back.

“Now you try it.”

Red did, and it was a bit strange, feeling the slight weight on his back, but as he kicked off the ground, he found he could actually flutter a few feet in the air. That… might be useful.

“I call it Flight of Whimsy actually.” Wataru smirked. “When you get good at it, you can fly for several hours.”

“Cool!” Red grinned. He flapped experimentally, and Wataru watched as he managed to get about five feet off the ground and stay there for ten minutes, before the chakra dissipated.

Red grinned brightly. He’d definitely need to work on control, but this was cool! And Wataru seemed fairly nice…

It was a good day.

End Chapter

Started 3/3/07

Completed 3/9/07

I admit it! I’m lazy! I want to hurry up and meet Orochimaru so Red will leave town and Lance will beat him up and stop him! And then I can do romance! *Nod* I couldn’t find the name in Japanese for Orange Island Drake so I used Houen Drake for Itachi instead…