Dreaming of Sunshine: The Twins of Destiny

Tylerbamafan: Um wow, hard to believe a little snippet in a forum can create a buzz like this. Seriously, this all started with a small snippet over in the Recursive Fanfiction forum for DOS by the Real Chys Lattes. It's incredible how the idea wormed its way into my head. This entire project started with that.

This story is a cowritten project between myself and TsukiRiver, and since I've got a project of my own to manage -an update for which is in the works DAMN YOU UCHIHA MASSACRE- this is being posted on her profile

TsukiRiver: Gosh, I never thought that this would happen. I'm the first to admit that I am terrible at seeing an idea through, but when this idea wormed itself into my head I couldn't help myself. To be honest if it weren't for Tylerbamafan this would have definitely never happened, but here we are, and here we go.

Tylerbamafan: One more thing: Dreaming of Sunshine is credited to Silver Queen, and Pokemon is credited to Nintendo as for Naruto… I still can't spell the guys name… just know we don't own it.

TsukiRiver: let's not forget, thanks The Real Chys Lattes and Dinner for coming up with the idea for this and continuing it n such a way that it demanded more! This would never have happened without you two!

Prologue: The Journey Begins

Sarah groaned in annoyance at the sharp, incessant, wailing of the alarm clock. Fumbling for her covers and pulling them over her head, she wished severe pain on whoever invented the device.

She had been up late the night before, watching tv with her brother, and now she was paying for it.

'That's something that hadn't changed,' she thought to herself, with slight chagrin.

You see she wasn't always Sarah 'Soot' Ketchum, she had memories of another life, another world. A world of Ninja and before that, a perfectly ordinary existence.

Even now, in this life, she wasn't sure why she kept recycling through the dreamsleeve. It was a question she hoped to one day answer, but if the feeling of dread that had been steadily growing for the past ten years was any indication, it wouldn't be in this world when those questions were answered.

She was knocked out of her thoughts and morbid musings- rather timely- by her brother who unceremoniously yanked her sheets out from under her.

"Soot! Come On! We're late!" Ash yelled.

It took a moment for her to realize what he was talking about, and when she did she shot up out of bed like a rocket. It was April 1st, in other words today was the day they would finally get their first Pokemon.

Yeah, she was understandably panicked as she bolted across the room like a Ponyta to their shared closet and grabbed the outfits they had slaved over the night before. After she had retrieved them she sprinted down to the bathroom, throwing the outfit her twin had chosen his way as she passed.

She sighed as she splashed water on her face to help orient herself and calm down a little. She'd learned long ago that panicking never did anyone any good.

Sighing once again she looked longingly at the shower before getting dressed. She'd just have to catch one in the next town's Pokemon Center. Briefly, she entertained the idea of doing her usual morning stretches, but decided against it. If she tried then her brother would probably just drag her along behind him and not stop until they got to the lab.

'Besides,' she thought wryly, 'I'll probably get plenty of exercise today anyway.' She heard a knocking on the bathroom door and smiled,'Speak of the devil.'

"Soot! Let's go! We're late enough as it is!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She hastily pulled on her vest and tied up her hair in it's usual braid before making her way toward the door.

No sooner had her hand touched the doorknob than it was yanked open and Ash grabbed her by the collar and all but dragged her down the hall! "HEY!" She protested as she removed herself from his deceptively strong grip, "I can run fine on my own Ash, no need to manhandle me!" Honestly, she loved him but sometimes he just didn't think things through.

"Then let's go!" Ash exclaimed before taking off at a dead sprint "Race Ya!" he called back to her with a cheeky grin.

"Hey!" she complained "That's cheating!" before taking off after him, swinging over the stairs and landing behind him a moment later.

As they sprinted to the lab, she couldn't help but reminisce about the past ten years, to be honest it was a nice change. She had faced no real danger, nor did she need to worry about the future. She was able to enjoy herself a little more and this world, for all its faults, was absolutely fascinating. To be honest she remembered little about it from her first life, and maybe that was a good thing.

Pokemon were everything in this world. Every skillset, every career, every possible course of the future involved Pokemon in some way or if she'd had knowledge about them from some other lifetime -she did remember some things- it would take away some of the wonder.

In school they learned, not only about math and sciences, which she breezed through because after working on seals that mess with the fabric of spacetime, everything else seemed like child's play.

It was when their teacher brought in Pokemon that ranged from the smallest Pidgey to the largest Ursaring in the area, that she realized that the creatures in this world were going to be keeping her occupied for her entire life. She wanted to know everything she could about these incredible creatures that filled this world, she wanted to know what it was that allowed them to perform the awe inspiring feats that they did at a moment's notice.

Still, that didn't mean she wasn't haunted by memories and nightmares on occasion. Every once in awhile, Ash would say or do something that reminded her painfully of Naruto, or Gary Oak would scoff in a manner reminiscent of Sasuke. She could only be grateful that she'd managed to avoid anything that reminded her of Shikamaru. She'd probably fall to pieces then.

She shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts and focused once more on running, they were almost at the lab now, it was almost time for the two of them to get their first Pokemon.

Considering that they were late despite her influence, -oh the irony- she was fairly certain that Ash would be receiving Pikachu again, and to be honest she was glad. She couldn't imagine a world without Ash meeting that little rodent. Unfortunately, because she was also late, she didn't have the slightest clue as to what her Pokemon might be. She'd put a lot of thought into the strengths and weaknesses of each Pokemon, and had eventually settled on Bulbasaur, but Bulbasaur wasn't there anymore, and there was no way that she would take away the one her brother would befriend from him. Oh sure, it would be a rocky road to that friendship, but eventually that bond would be unshakeable. She remembered that much.

She couldn't help but smirk as Ash skidded to a stop and hunched over, panting in front of Oak's place. She wasn't even winded. Giving Ash a moment to catch his breath she got ready, mentally for the biggest moment of this life so far.

The door flew open, revealing her friend and Ash's rival Gary Oak standing casually with his hands in his pockets.

"You two do know you're late right?" Gary Oak asked with a raised eyebrow in her direction "I'd have thought you would have made sure he woke up on time."

Ash scowled at his rival "For your information, I was the one that woke her up!" he protested

The other eyebrow joined the first.

She flushed "It's not my fault!" she complained "Agatha was being awesome!"

Gary smirked fondly and gestured toward the lab with his head, "You better get in there, Gramps is waiting for you two."

Sarah nodded, "See you when we get out?"

"Probably," he said with a grin "Got a few things to grab at my place before I hit the road."

She nodded, "Us too, Ash didn't exactly give us time to grab our stuff."

"That so doesn't surprise me."

"HEY! What does that mean!" Shouted Ash.

"Figure it out!" Gary called with a lazy wave as he ambled down the path.

She snickered quietly and grabbed hold of her brothers hand, "Come on Ash, you can worry about that later, we have to get our Pokemon."

Professor Oak's Pokemon lab was in a bit of chaos as always, papers were strewn haphazardly around the rooms and aids rushed from one room to another as some new problem turned up. In times not long past those problems used to often involve herself, her brother or even Gary as they had spent much of their childhood here in this very lab, or in the Pokemon habitats behind it. Sarah could say with certainty that this was her favorite place in the world. It was the one place where she didn't need to hide the fact that she was abnormally good at math and science, and that she understood what the assistants were talking about most of the time. It was, a place where she could shine more and not have to keep her head down.

Needless to say, that was good for her ego.

Eventually they made their way through the chaos to the room where every year new trainer hopefuls got their first official Pokemon. In the room there was many different machines with unknown proposes, but none of them really mattered at that moment to Ash and Sarah. No, the only thing they were interested in was the device in the center of the room that held three Pokeballs.

"Ah. There you are." Oak stood up from behind the desk with a bundle of papers in hand, "I was wondering where you two were."

"Sorry Professor." Sarah said sheepishly "We overslept."

"Indeed?" Oak asked dryly, "Well, I'm sorry to say that due to your tardiness the normal selection of starter Pokemon have all been taken. Fortunately, I have two Pokemon in need of good trainers and I think you two fit the bill quite nicely."

Ash's eyes lit up and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. She'd known, of course that the Professor wouldn't leave them high and dry. However there had still been that little bit of doubt.

"I'll be right back," the aging professor said with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.

After he left the twins turned to each other and grinned, Ash was practically jumping out of his skin and Sarah wasn't much better. They didn't get a chance to speculate about what their Pokemon might be however as Oak came back holding a pair of miniature Pokeballs.

"I should warn you Ash," Oak began "Your starter is a bit aggressive and will take patience to get to know. She's stubborn and prideful."

"Sounds like two peas in a pod" Sarah said with a bit of snark.

"Oi! I thought you were supposed to be on my side!"

"Your Pokemon on the other hand Sarah," Oak continued over the banter "has the opposite problem. She's timid. Comes from being the runt of her litter. It might be best to take her into a separate room to avoid scaring her with all these different people."

Sarah's mind instantly catalogued her Pokemon as a canine of some sort as Oak handed each of them a Pokeball, Ash got one with a little lightning bolt on it and Sarah received one with a single molecule as it would be depicted in a science textbook. She bit her lip nervously and looked at him, silently asking him to go first. She knew what it was going to be, but she hoped that maybe once he discovered what his Pokemon was, then she wouldn't feel as nervous.

Ash grinned and lightly tossed the Pokeball into the air "I choose you!"

There was a flash and as quickly as it appeared it faded into a familiar silhouette.

"Pika?"

She was glad she had thought to make their clothes flame and electricity retardant since, just like she thought She would, Pikachu immediately launched a thundershock attack at them.

The look of confusion at the lack of reaction on Pikachu's face was priceless, and the very singed appearance of Professor Oak even more so.

"Nice try." Sarah grinned,"Unfortunately for you, we came prepared."

She was gratified to see a look of grudging respect in the rodent's eyes.

After that moment of comedic relief Sarah felt much more ready to discover the identity of her new partner.

The trio in the room backed away, giving them space and she knelt before lightly tossing the Pokeball. As expected a bright red light shot out from the ball and quickly formed a shape on the ground.

"Vee?" she breathed a sigh of relief. This was a Pokemon she was familiar with… at least in theory.

"Hey there," she said gently holding out a hand carefully. "Glad to meet you"

The shivering Eevee slowly crept forward, sniffing curiously at her hand before pushing her head into it.

Oak breathed a sigh of relief 'Success.' he thought.

Tylerbamafan: And done. Wow, this is fun. And it's amazing how short the time was it took to get it done. What was it? like four hours? Anyway, this is where everything starts and we wanted to stick close to canon. At least in the beginning. No promises later though.

Eevee. We just loved the idea of Kako with one and it wasn't' even a choice. We've got a LOT of plans for Kako and Ash. If you noticed anything you want to talk about, you can contact us both personally or leave it on the forums.

See ya next time.

TsukiRiver:I have to say, it was hard to decide that we needed to stop, but his is just the prologue and so it wouldn't do to get into the adventure just yet. In any case I am actually very happy with how this turned out, and greatful for Tylerbamafans assistance (forget that he wrote most of it) he made sure I didn't make any slip ups in pov. I look forward to seeing what you all think and getting into the rest of the 'episode'.

(Edited as of 10/8/15)