Can Pokemon to Naruto? 3 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Anthony Maxwell

Can Pokemon to Naruto?

Chapter 3

-VB-

The Oran Berry tree sapling grew and it grew quickly (for a tree), but that’s because I used grass seed as a base for it. Did you know that bamboo was a grass? Those fast growing hardy wood that Asians chopped up to make improvised spears so readily was a grass. That’s why they grew so fast!

So yeah, I had that in my mind when I chose a rice grain. Did it make sense for a brown rice grain to suddenly start sprouting a bluish green sprout stem? HELL NAH!

But whatever it was that I was doing, it was making shit happen.

And if that meant I got to have pokemon running around, then I wasn’t going to look too deeply into it, or God forbid, not use it, because I now lived in the Naruto-verse filled with thousands of bloodthirsty ninjas! 

But I was also working on something else on the side-.

“Oi, Karu, get to work!” 

“I will if you stop nagging me like you’re my mom!” I snapped back half-heartedly at the other farmers with me in the rice fields. I sniffed before I bent down to pull out the weeds. 

Because weeding was very important, you know? These motherfucking weeds choked out the rice. The more weeds there were in the rice paddies, the more work the village had to do for less rice. That ain’t good.

So even while I worked on the side to introduce new techniques, made new breeds of impossible breeds, and went out of my way to look for wild vegetables to crossbreed into useful domesticated vegetables, I also helped out with weeding the rice paddies because… because everyone did that.

Out here in the rural countryside far from the reaches of centers of trade, power, military, and even basic road network, everyone contributed to everything.

“Also, stop calling me Karu when my name is Karl!” I added.

The farmer whose plot of rice paddy I was helping was, of course, my technical landlords, Yoichi and Aoto. 

Yoichi, the more extroverted of the two brothers, scowled at me. “I’m gonna call you whatever I want while you’re living in my house!” 

“Oh yeah?! Then I’m gonna call you Chichi, then! How’s that for rude?!”

“Hah?! Motherfucker, do you want to get your ass beat?!”

“You think you can beat my ass?!”

“You looking down on us farmers?!”

“You think city boys are weak?! Ya better mellow out before I make you say ‘yamero’!”

“Guys. Please,” Aoto, the shaggy haired introvert, sighed from the side. “Can we finish weeding first so we can get lunch? And Karl, stop trying to do your weird rhyming stuff. You’re ass at it.”

“Never.”

“Agh.”

I chuckled as I got back to work.

Despite the minor ribbing and headbutting we engaged, I appreciated the two brothers. They were nice people, just a bit rough on the surface. And a bit rough on the inside. A little rough but good people.

-VB-

After my morning weeding work, lunch, and then my early afternoon woodcutting work, I finally had time to myself for … tinkering. Yeah, that’s what I’ll call it. Tinkering. Because what I was doing wasn’t exactly science, engineering, or even animal/plant husbandry. I was literally sticking shit into other shit to see what it does. 

And what it did was impossible shit because now I had a rice grain that I planted three weeks ago that was now taller than my forearm was long. 

And the first flowers had bloomed. 

“I thought trees don’t flower until they get to a certain size,” I muttered to myself. “And Oran Berry trees aren’t small either. They’re actual trees.”

Did it have something to do with the fact that I made this using a grass/rice grain as a base? That shouldn’t have mattered because rice plants also took time to flower. Three week wasn’t enough. Hell, bamboo blossoms don’t happen three weeks after they start growing, either.

… But bamboo blossoms do happen unpredictably… but that shouldn’t matter because I planted rice grains.

I threw my hands up and ignored the Oran Berry trees for now. 

Right now, I wanted to try my hand at something else. 

See, there were a lot of pokemons that weren’t living animals. A good example of this was Roggenrola. It was a literal energy core surrounded by rocks. No flesh or even mechanical parts. Just rock and more rock. Another example would be Magnemite, which was a literal ball of steel, screws, and magnets. 

So.

If I could stick needles into a rice grain and turn it into an Oran Berry, then could I, by focusing on what I wanted and giving shape to something while allowing whatever it was that allowed me to do this to affect my crafting hands, to make a pokemon? 

Because pokemon were awesome and having something that could protect me in this bloodthirsty world would be wonderful.

If that pokemon in question could also help out in any way around the village, then that would also be great.

Turning away from the Oran Berry sapling, I focused back onto the mound of clay that I have been messing with. What I wanted to try and make was none other than Baltoy. Aside from the fact that it was a “clay doll” pokemon, it was also, um, easy to take care of. No need for special diet or anything like that which might be hard to get in a rural countryside village.

My fingers sunk into the slowly hardening clay and shaped it towards what I wanted. Baltoy had a conical bottom, a round head with a cone on top, and two flat arms attached to a spherical body. It also had simple markings and closed eyes, so I also shaped that in. 

As I did this, I could feel my mind chugging away, guiding me towards something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I followed along. 

I felt giddy.

Challenged. 

Happy.

Even though I was away from the internet, family, and world that I knew, just sitting in the back of a house I was allowed to live at while messing with a bunch of clay made me happy. Weird.

Carefully, I finished the last of the details and looked at the clay doll I’ve made. 

I nodded. It looked pretty good, if I say so myself. 

Now, I needed to fire this doll to see if it really worked. 

I walked over to the campfire and a hole I’d dug next to it, both of which were not too far away from me, and placed the doll into the hole. Then I shoveled the smouldering bits of charcoal on top of it and fanned it. 

“What are you doing now?” 

I looked up and saw Yoichi. The man had gone drinking, but the alcohol around here wasn’t strong like sake but closer to water with a bit of alcohol. Tasted like ass, though. 

“Experimenting with clay,” I told him. “Wanted to see if I could do something … interesting. Why? Got something to say?”

He stared at me before shrugging. Then he hesitated. “No, I just … wanted say I’m sorry for calling you some other shit other than your name because your name is hard to pronounce.”

I blinked and then grinned. “Aww, man, so you’re a softie! I didn’t think you’d even say anything about that,” I chuckled as I stood up and then gave him a bear hug. Yoichi squawked. “You’re a good guy, man! Nah, no worries if it’s hard. Karu ain’t that bad -.”

Crack.

Both of us froze for a second and turned towards the fire. That crack wasn’t like a fire crack. That crack sounded more like something shattering.

“Well, fuck, I guess I messed up-.”

The burning charcoal mound moved and both Yoichi and I backed away a little. 

And then I saw it. 

Climbing out of the small charcoal pit was my first pokemon.

A baltoy.

Before I knew what was happening, Yoichi took off screaming.

I blinked, glancing towards where he had run off to before looking back at baltoy. “Hey, little guy,” I called out tentatively. “Nice to meet you.”

Baltoy turned to stare at me. Its beige body had a lot of soot on it but it didn’t look… angry? Maybe? 

Then it screamed.

I nearly scrambled back as the clay doll pokemon jumped out of the air… and then landed on top of my head with a light tap. I didn’t even feel anything from tis sharp bottom point touching my scalp.

And then it just lazily spun around on top of me. 

Huh.

Okay.

So.

Um…

Yeah, my first pokemon.

I got jumpscared by my first pokemon.

I laughed as the abrupt tension that had built up just loosened up and bled away. Then baltoy started laughing with me, though it sounded more like a wobbling cry.

When Yoichi and Aoto came back armed with farming hoes and a sickle, they found me and baltoy laughing like a loon.