Arthur was right, there was a great deal they had to do. To start off with Greninja had to, crudely, put together a training regimen for the village Pokémon. He'd already constructed a base plan for the training program, but due to the enemy attacking two days earlier that they'd expected, he needed to hasten its effectiveness if they were to have any chance of defending their home.

Another thing that Greninja had to do was learn the strengths and weaknesses of the Pokémon he'd be teaching. Thankfully Arthur had already gathered everyone who he would train and had them waiting for him at the top of a nearby plateau. As Greninja looked at the faces of his eager cadets, his hopes of winning the ensuing battle growing slimmer and slimmer.

All in all there were around thirty-five Pokémon assembled, the majority of whom were either Grass or Normal type Pokémon. The remainder of the group consisted of three Water types, two Electric types, four Flying types and six Rock types; a fairly decent scope Pokémon typing to fight with.

Greninja thought over their chances of abandoning the village and fleeing elsewhere, but remembered Keshiram saying 'you can run but we'll hunt you down.' and promptly abandoned the idea. Instead he bottled up all his self-doubt and waited patiently while Arthur introduced him.

"Pokémon of the Village of Tenebris Sky's!" He paused as thirty five pairs of eyes looked at him obediently. When he was satisfied he'd captured their attention continued, "We're here today because a great enemy has set their eyes on our village. They think that they can simply waltz in here and take everything we hold dear, they think we're weak and spineless cowards, who'll roll over at the first punch. " He stopped again as a ripple of anger moved through the crowd.

"We're here because we cannot let this insult stand, we're already strong but we're here to become even stronger!" He then gestured for Greninja to step forward. "This Pokémon is here to help you obtain that strength. He has already demonstrated a great deal of skill, by single handily taking down five powerful Pokémon in one battle." There was a murmur of disbelief that this scrawny blue frog could really be that strong.

A large stag Pokémon stepped out of the crowd and walked straight up to Greninja, stopping when there was only breath of distance between them. He simply stood in Greninja's face, leering at him spitefully for ten seconds. The buck stood at eye level with the bipedal frog, his slender yet muscular body a match in high with Greninja's. His antlers were the only thing that gave him any sort advantage over Greninja. They were roughly four feet tall, eight feet across and covered entirely with pink petals that were appropriate for the spring season. The deer shape, ferna growing his antlers and his slender figure all identified this Pokémon as the Normal/Grass type Sawsbuck.

Finally Arthur broke the awkward silence. "Vincent, is there something I can help you with?" His words were kind but held an underlined tone of 'you'd better have a good reason for interrupting me'.

Vincent kept his eyes on Greninja but spoke to everyone there. "What gives this outsider the right to come in here and boss us around; what makes us sure we can trust him to simply be here, after all we didn't have anyone attacking our friends and family until he arrived!"

There was a murmuring of agreement within the ranks assembled Pokémon. The logic behind of Vincent's words holding some weight. Seeing that he was winning over the crowd he shifted his attacks towards Arthur. "And how could you have not only brought him into our home and glorify him when he rendered our friends incapacitated, but also give him permission to tell us how to fight as if we're incompetent fools who'll trip over our own feet!"

Arthur's face harden as Vincent challenged his authority, a line that once someone crossed they should immediately try to return to the other side. Arthur took a menacing step towards the arrogant stag, only to be met by Greninja's outstretched hand telling him to stand down, for now. Restraining his fury for the time being Arthur stepped back, allowing Greninja to handle the situation.

"What did I tell you; this outside just came here to give us orders like we're-!"

"You claim that I attacked your fellow villagers." Greninja said sharply, stopping Vincent mid sentence. "What basis do you have to back up your claim?"

The sudden questioning of Vincent's credibility caught him by surprise leaving him unable to respond. Greninja had asked that question rhetorically and wasn't going to let the stag answer it even if he'd been able. His first move had been an attack on Vincent's credibility, Greninja decided the next stage of his assault would be an attack on Vincent's pride.

"You also have implied that I'm behind the attacks on your village or that I'm in league with the assailants, is that correct?" Greninja waited for Vincent answer this time, leaving the stag with a way to back down before things escalated too far. The prideful Pokémon, however, did not accept up the generosity of Greninja.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying!"

Greninja sighed internally. He'd hoped to avoid having to do this, but knew that he'd get no respect from the rest of his cadets if he didn't respond to the slandering of his good name. "I can't stand by while you throw insult at my face, therefore I have no choice but to change you to a one on one battle."

There was a roar of whispering among the 34 onlookers as they placed bets, cheered on Vincent and basically became a rowdy mob eager for combat. Vincent smiled victoriously as his fellow Pokémon egged him on to show up the outsider. He waited a moment to let the chanting of his name to reach a roar before he accepted the challenge.

"Alright I accept your challenge," There was another roar from the crowd in approval of his choice, however the ever confident, Vincent decided he'd up the ante on this match, "but how 'bout we add a little wager to make this match more eventful."

"Fine by me." Greninja responded calmly. The casual way Greninja accepted the idea caused some Pokémon to question Vincent's chances of winning. Vincent however was not deterred by Greninja's nonchalant response and put forth the terms of his victory.

"When I win you have to leave the village and Arthur must appoint me as the new chief of the village!"

There was a sudden split between the crowd of Pokémon who had, for the most part, been united behind Vincent for standing against the outsider; however now that he'd made a grab for Arthur's position, nearly half of the crowd was silently rooting for Greninja to win, leaving only those who were loyal to Vincent or had great contempt for Greninja rooting for the contemptuous stag Pokémon.

Greninja glanced over to Arthur, who looked as if he was ready to fight Vincent himself. He then sent a subtle message Arthur's way, asking if he was alright with him going through with the bet. The canine Pokémon gritted his teeth and returned Greninja's question with a hesitant nod full of contempt for the over brash buck.

"Deal, but if I win you have to follow my orders without hesitation nor complain and you must to apologize to me and Arthur."

Vincent gladly accepted Greninja's terms, not thinking for a moment that he might lose; and why should he? Type advantage was in his favor, the terrain was familiar to him and he had the moral boost of his fellow Pokémon cheering him on.

The challenge and stakes claimed, both Pokémon moved to opposite sides of the plateau approximately fifteen feet between them. The remaining thirty five Pokémon moved to a fairly safe distance to watch the match unfold.

The hill top was eerily silent for twelve seconds, no Pokémon making a move or sound. Then a sharp snap was heard from Vincent's side as he charged head first at Greninja, who was calmly waiting for his opponent to reach him. As the stag grew near his antlers started crackling with electricity. The electric type move caught Greninja by surprise for he'd been expecting to be met with a grass attack instead. Vincent took full advantage of Greninja's surprise and slammed his Wild Charge straight into the water type, causing a minor explosion that shrouded both Pokémon in grey smoke.

Vincent winced from the recoil damage but smiled victoriously nonetheless, his attack had made contact and victory was his, or so he thought. As he went to stand up to declare his victory he felt a slight tug on his antlers. Looking up he saw Greninja's left hand holding his antlers in place while he stood off to the side chuckling.

"I have to give you credit where credit is due," Greninja began lightheartedly,"I wasn't expecting you to be able to use an electric type move, you certainly caught me by surprise." Greninja tightened his grip on Vincent's antlers, the tone in his words taking on a slightly more menacing tone, "However I've been hit with Thunder Punches ten times as powerful; SO THAT, WAS, NOTHING!" Following saying those four words Greninja lifted Vincent up by his horns and tossed him behind him as if he weighed no more than a rag doll.

Vincent had been in complete shock during the whole conversation, the reality that his electric type attack had failed was still processing in his mind as he soared through the air. He only accepted it as fact when the air rejected him and handed him off to the ground. Landing with a hefty THUD, Vincent skidded a foot or two before returning to his feet, more determined than ever to defeat his foe.

Greninja had decided to move, by the time Vincent had stood up, and was casually leaning against one of the few trees sown across the plateau. The overly confident way his foe was relaxing, after throwing him through the air as if it were nothing more than a simple trick for him, drove Vincent into a furry. He charged at Greninja with another Wild Charge, angling his trajectory so he'd land dead center on the water types chest.

He took four mighty steps before he reached his unmoving target, with one last burst of energy he threw all his force into the attack. There was a loud CRACK and another small explosion as the move made contact. Vincent winced as the recoil took its affect, but was smiling gleefully at the thought that this attack must have done some considerable damage. Still beaming he looked up at the Pokémon he'd just injured expecting to find him reeling in pain, however what he saw caused his face to pale and a gasp of terror escape from his lungs.

His attack had made contact with Greninja, but had skewered him through the chest, pinning the, now, lifeless body to the tree. The crowd of Pokémon gasped in horror as the smoke cleared around the two Pokémon, revealing the gruesome sight. Vincent began to panic as he tried to escape the coarse that clung to the wooden horns protruding from his head. He struggled against both the body and bark that held him in place, but couldn't break free from their deathly holds. After six seconds of continuous struggling he slumped to the ground, or as close as he could get with his antlers being lodged in the tree, the terror and regret for what he'd done sapping all the energy from his body. A second later his whole body was lurching as he regretful orbs of water streamed down his face. He'd never intended nor wanted for this to happen.

"I'm so sorry, Greninja. I didn't mean to... Please, forgive me." He quietly said between sobs.

A gentle hand descended on his shoulder offering him support and condolence. The supportive hand allowed Vincent to steel himself against the pain and guilt he felt, but only enough to stifle his sobs to a shallow whimpering. When he was as calm as he could be, he looked back at the owner of the hand grateful for their support. However who was attached to the appendage caused his eyes to widen in fear and his jaw to hang loosely from his mouth in shock.

"I accept your apology." Greninja replied softly.

Vincent continued to gap at the apparition of the Ninja Frog Pokémon, terrified that he'd come back to haunt him. Instead Greninja moved himself between Vincent and the tree granting him the superior leverage over the two.

"Now let's get you out of there." He said as he pulled Vincent free of the tree.

As soon as he was dislodged he scampered backwards extremely quickly, terrified of both Greninja and his corpse. When he was clear of both he did a quick double take to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Standing next to the tree, virtually unscathed, was Greninja who was staring down at Vincent with a look of pity. Vincent then turned to the tree and took note that the body belonging to Greninja had vanished, leaving only a white puff of smoke behind. Terrified out of his wits Vincent slowly pivoted his head towards Greninja and shakily asked him, "What in the name of Arceus is going on!?"

Greninja put a hand on the back of his head and looked sheepishly back at the tree, before responding to the question. "I guess I should explain. The Greninja that you impaled was really just a clone I'd made using Double Team. I'm completely alive. It was all just a tactic I developed over the past year."

Vincent still looked bewildered and was still having faint thoughts that Greninja was a ghost come to haunt him. Greninja sighed, more aggravated with himself for pulling the stunt on Vincent, than with the Pokémon's inability to understand the situation.

Continuing Greninja said, "Look, I'm not dead, okay? I just made a slightly solid clone to distract you while I went for a sneak attack from above. I never intended, nor expected you to be able to run him through like that." Greninja stepped closer to Vincent and helped him back to his feet, "Now we'd better get you to the infirmary, you took a lot of recoil damage from those two attacks."

After Greninja's explanation and the assistance he received, Vincent finally accepted that Greninja was not trying to enact ghostly vengeance upon him and was able to regain enough of his lost pride to refuse the medical treatment. "Thanks, Greninja, but I can patch myself up." And with that Vincent began glowing a luminescent grass green as he used the regenerative move Synthesis. In a matter of seconds the glow died down to reveal all of Vincent's wounds to be healed.

Greninja nodded approvingly, "I guess you've got that handled then. That just leaves you with one more immediate problem."

Vincent was confused for a moment until he saw Arthur waiting smugly by the rest of the Pokémon, who were busy paying and collecting bets. Vincent sighed and resiliently approached the canine to issue an apology, as per the agreement he'd made with Greninja prior to his obvious defeat.

Greninja waited by the tree as all debts and bets were paid for. Once they were all settled, he strolled over to the Pokémon he'd be spending the next few days training. As he approached he was delighted to see more than half of the Pokémon fall into rows and stand at attention. Whether they were standing out of respect or fear Greninja had no clue. What he did know was that he'd grabbed their attention; and with their attention, their obedience would soon follow.

"Alright, listen up." Greninja said at the crowd. "I've only got five days to turn you into the toughest Pokémon this side of Unova so from here on out the relaxing and bickering stops, and training begins. You will give me your full commitment and follow my orders to the letter, or else I'll deal with you personally." When Greninja promised to 'personally deal' with anyone who disobeyed, quite a few Pokémon began whimpering and grunting, as they either cowered in fear or attempted to stand straighter.

Greninja internally chuckled at their reactions, obedience was already starting to settle on some of his students, even before he truly began. Continuing his speech he said, "Here's how things are going to work. I'm going to appoint four captains to lead four teams of approximately nine Pokémon per team. I will give your captains orders and they will relay them to you to carry out. Any questions?" He paused for a brief second letting anyone with a question ask it. "None? Then let's get started!"

Greninja began diving the crowd into four groups. He started with the captains so everyone would know who they'd be reporting to. The first three captains were difficult to pick because he had little to no insight on their relationships with the others nor any knowledge of their attitude towards him.

In the end he went with a red, white, and blue eagle like Pokémon belonging to the Braviary species of Pokémon and was ironically named Craven, a name that literally means coward. The next captain he choose was a grey squirrel that was using its white fur as a scarf, she was a part of the Cinccino species of Pokémon and had the cheerful name Sunny.

The third Pokémon he picked belonged to the evolutionary line of Oshowott; she had two yellow clam shells attached to her hips and was a light blue, dark blue bipedal otter Pokémon  called a Dewott; her name ,oddly enough, had nothing to do with water but instead was Rosemary, spelt exactly the same as rosemary the plant. Finally Greninja went to fill his final captain slot. He walked directly towards the Pokémon he had in mind and asked him to fill in the position, to which Vincent gladly accepted.

All his captains assigned he then divided the remaining thirty one Pokémon between the captains. Seven went to Vincent, seven went to Rosemary, seven went to Sunny, and seven went to Craven. The remaining three Pokémon stood awkwardly in front of the group.

Greninja ignored them for the time being and gave each of the captains an assignment that doubled as a training exercise. Vincent's group was given the task of gathering berries, which he was about to object to such a simple task until Greninja explained that it was to improve their ability to spot targets from a distance as well as provide essential supplies for the village. He then gave him an extensive list and sent the first group on their way.

Next he demonstrated to Rosemary how to use cut to chop down small trees. He then told he to teach her group the move and set them out to deforest a section of the woods that would not be missed. He also told her to have them stack the severed trees in neat piles for a later task. Her orders understood she too left.

Craven was next, Greninja gave him the task of teaching his group basic fighting tactics. He spent roughly eight minutes teaching the bird what to do before the actions were committed to memory. His instructions finished Greninja sent him off as well.

Lastly was Sunny. Greninja thought for a long hard minute before he decided what he'd have her group do first. He ordered her to oversee a varient of the game hid and seek, where two seekers would work together to find the hidden targets. The twist though was the hiders were also looking for the seekers and each team could tag the other side out if they caught up to them. Sunny found the idea rather fun and gleefully went to inform her members.

With all thirty two other Pokémon heading to their assigned tasks, only Greninja, Arthur, and the three extras were left on the plateau. The three spare Pokémon were squirming nervously, concerned as to why they were made to remain behind while everyone else went on assignment. They continue to move nervously as Greninja and Arthur discussed something in private, occasionally glancing over at the three Pokémon sweating buckets. Finally Arthur and Greninja seemed to reach an agreement as the two nodded and went separate ways, Arthur towards the village and Greninja towards the anxious Pokémon.

The smile on their new bosses face did nothing to ease the tension they felt and his next sentence made them wish they'd snuck away with the other groups when they'd had the chance. "Great new guys! You three get to help me train with Ziva and Freya for the next four hours!" They all plastered grateful smiles over their anguished grimaces as they dreaded their upcoming face off against the notorious sister duo. Greninja didn't share their well founded terror and was practically skipping down the plateau, stopping only once to urge them onwards. Facing no other options the trio of Pokémon followed Greninja with a funeral march like jog.

---------------------------------------------
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I thought having Greninja "die" again was somewhat entertaining and I needed to make some development of certain other chapters that will play key roles in the upcoming chapters. I'll keep trying to write as much as I can but I still have other stuff in my life that needs attention so forgive me if I'm not publishing even other day. As always thanks for reading and I'll see you next time, bye. 😁