Here comes chapter 4! It could've been posted earlier, but I recently had a problem with my internal HDD and lost the previous version I started. But it isn't really all negative, since I personally think this remake (if you wanna call it that way) came out better.
IV\ Dragon Ball
(Hospital Room – Konoha)
We resume our story a few hours from where we left it, early in the morning, in one of the rooms in Konoha's hospital.
It was a common hospital room, not spacious but not small and all painted in white, a color that helps the patients feel more at ease. However, there always was a smell of alcohol and other medicines that filled these rooms which, on the other hand, didn't help some people since they knew that this smell always reminded them of where they were and that they wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon. That's why, like in every hospital room, there were windows that helped to evacuate that terrible smell and bring fresh air along with bright sunlight to those unhappy persons. Of course, the personal of the hospital would open them only for short periods during the day and would close them for all the night.
But let's get back to the inside of the room. It had all what a hospital room needed: blue curtains to separate the beds and that were closed during operations and sleep time, bedside tables made of wood, each having a vase of flower on them and being built with drawers and cupboards, surely containing medicines of all kind to deal with basic injuries. And finally, beds, three in this room. Two of them where positioned on the right side while the other was on the opposite, on the left. All three were the same; they were made of metal and had the same kind of mattress with blue blankets and white pillows on them.
But, there actually was a difference between the three beds. The first one on the right had something, or more accurately, someone sleeping on it. There also was someone else in the room, a man, who was sitting on a chair that was next to the occupied bed and he was watching the sleeping person that was a child.
The man was wearing the green Konoha vest which meant that he was either a Chûnnin or a Jônin of the village and was also wearing the Leaf's forehead protector that was of purple color. He had long blond hair that were messy on the front and tied in a ponytail on the back. His eyes' color was between blue and green; it was hard to tell. By looking at his facial features which included some very light wrinkles, you could tell that he was in his early thirties.
As we said above, he was watching a child, maybe his son, sleep on the hospital bed, soundlessly, with bandages covering his forehead, but still revealing his black hair. His arm, since he only had one, along with other parts of his body were hidden by the blanket and his hospital clothes.
The man examined the boy while resting his elbows on his legs and supporting his head with his two hands. After a moment, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
'That kid… He sure is something, isn't he?' he thought, reopening his eyes and looking at the dirty bandages in the trash can near the bed 'The Saiyans sure are scary, but he is different: I don't think the Hokage was wrong to trust him, and his strength may only be a gift for the village.'
"Hm…" a feeble noise was heard, coming from the boy: he seemed to be waking up from his slumber.
"So you are finally awake." was the first thing the boy heard upon awakening, before even opening his eyes. He turned his head toward the blond man beside him and stared at him while whispering this question.
"What happened?"
"Your name's Gohan, right? Hum… I shouldn't even ask this question since it's obvious enough."
Now Gohan had his eyes completely opened and was able to identify his interlocutor: it wasn't anyone he knew or ever encountered, the only thing he was sure of was that the blond man was wearing the same outfit as the Hokage's henchmen which hinted that he was the one who brought him here.
Speaking of 'here', he actually didn't know where he was. He took a sitting position on the bed and looked all around him. The room's furniture and the medicines' smell spreading inside of it helped him to realize quickly that he was in a hospital room.
It is then that it hit him.
'What was I thinking? If I keep on rushing things like this, I won't even make it back to Earth in one piece…' he thought, remembering the 'training' he did the previous night and realizing how stupid it was for him to push himself to near death. Now that he thought about it, he felt a lot better, as if he wasn't injured at all to begin with. Sure, he must have been healed while he was asleep, but for his body to recover this fast, his Saiyan blood wasn't the only thing that helped: the people around here must be very skilled with healing methods.
"Are you feeling better?" asked the man, getting back the attention of the Hybrid who answered with a nod.
"Excuse me sir, but… what happened?" he asked.
"You mean, after you fell unconscious? Thankfully, Lord Hokage found you and brought you back to the village so you could be healed." he paused for a moment before releasing a small laugh "I don't know what's the most impressive: how strong you were to cause yourself that much damage or how fast your body heals."
Gohan remained silent, closing his eyes to think better. Silence reigned once more in the room.
"By the way," the adult said, breaking the silence for the second time "since I know you name, it's only fair that you know mine. I am Inoichi Yamanaka."
He extended his hand to Gohan.
"N-Nice to meet you Mr. Yamanaka." the Saiyan said shaking the hand Inoichi gave him.
"Well, you seem to be fine, so I think you'll be able to get out of here today." The man said getting up from his chair "When you can, try to come to Hokage-sama's office; he wants to talk with you. You should find your clothes inside the cupboard."
He turned to the door and walked toward it. But before opening it, he turned again to face the kid and told him with a smile.
"If you need any help here in Konoha, feel free to ask me or my wife, you should find us in the Yamanaka Flower Shop: you can't miss it."
"Uuh… Thank you very much Mr. Yamanaka." with that, Inoichi left, leaving Gohan alone for a moment. The new villager decided to lay on his bed and rest a little.
'I still need to find a way to get even stronger, no matter what!' he thought, before sleeping a little more peacefully.
(Meanwhile – Hokage's Office)
What is it to be a Hokage? The Hokage is the chef of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but we already said that there actually were other hidden villages, so does that mean there are other Hokages? Yes and no, each village has different characteristics including their environment, their military forces, their leaders and their Feudal Lord. So, the 'Ho' placed as a prefix for 'kage' was something exclusive to the Leaf's leader and the other Kages had their own prefixes.
Each village was situated in a nation, they were five actually, and they all were in conflict. Of course, when they are five powerful villages competing to see which one is the best overall and considering the background they all share together; this certainly results in battles and eventually wars. Speaking of wars, the Ninja world has known three so far, each time colder and bloodier than the other.
You already guessed it; things such as fights, betrayals, and collaborations of weaker nations to take on a stronger one were businesses the nations were confronted to on a daily routine. That was why all the Kages had to get the latest updates on daily situations all around the Shinobi World, updates coming as paperwork, to make the best decisions such as calculating an enemy's moves to defend in case of an ambush, make temporary peace treaty with other countries in order to gain their trust or stop a war situation, and even send spies to find any weakness in other countries to exploit.
Such were the duties of any Kage, in addition to their internal problems that included watching over their own village and making sure that they were well advanced economically, militarily and intellectually. Any carelessness could be fatal. But we will get back to these kinds of details later.
For now, Hiruzen Sarutobi was looking the animated streets of Konoha through his office's window, right behind his desk where mountains of paperwork stood, most of them being filled during the night and waiting to be replaced with new ones this morning. The Hokage was watching the streets without actually watching them; he was waiting, his arms crossed behind his back and a pipe in his mouth.
What was he waiting for, by the way? Two things, actually: the first thing being the ANBU ninjas that were supposed to arrive soon to take the mountains of filled paperwork and drop the new ones, and the second thing being news about the intriguing Half-Saiyan that he personally brought to the hospital that night.
'I am at the end of my life and yet I discover so much things that were unknown to me in only one night.' he thought releasing a smoke filled sigh 'The strangest thing is that the pureness in that boy's heart makes it impossible for me to consider him a potential threat or a danger for the village. However, Earth remains his original planet and our technology is way too far less advanced than theirs which makes it impossible to allow him to return there, added to the fact that the distance between our planets may be too huge.'
The Third's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door that he has been expecting for a moment.
"You may enter." he said, allowing whoever knocked to enter his office. As he heard the door open behind him, he turned to see who made it to his office first, and it turned out it was…
"I am back, Hokage-sama." Inoichi said, closing the door behind him without turning his back on the leader and slightly bowing all with respect.
"Um, then it means that he is awake, right?" the Hokage asked getting straight to the point.
"Yes, and he seems to be doing fine; the doctor even said that he would be able to leave his room in a few hours."
"This is good news. Did you tell him to come to my office as soon as he would be able to?"
"I did, Lord Hokage." Yamanaka remained silent for a moment, his eyes resting on an easily noticeable item lying on the Third's desk "I don't think we will be able to hide the fact that we did search in his past while he was unconscious."
"I wasn't planning on hiding it from him." he replied, following the Jônin's eyes to the artifact they both looked at "You successfully did all what I was expecting you to do. You may leave."
Inoichi bowed one last time before getting out of the room, leaving the Hokage alone with his thoughts once again.
'Now I am expecting your visit, Son Gohan.'
(Gohan's Hospital Room – Konoha)
Gohan only slept for an hour after his talk with Inoichi, but it was restful. When he woke up, he didn't feel the pain of the previous night anymore, and he was kind of exited to get out of this place, not only because he was all fired up to get back to his training (more carefully this time), but also because this new environment was intriguing him in a positive way: his mind was already hungry for new knowledge and encounters, even more than his stomach usually was for food.
'All the good conditions are provided for me to get stronger here.' He thought 'If I find my way back to Earth, I might as well get enough strength to defeat the Androids.'
Now that he thought about it, he did put a good fight against them the last time they encountered. Hell, he even had the upper hand at a moment of the battle, before they used their full power and joined forces against him, proving once again that he was still a long way from even reaching their level. And as if he didn't have enough handicaps like this, he completely lost his left arm during one of his fight, and even if he managed to get used to this, it was still a hard task to handle his enemies with only one active arm, especially when there was more than one enemy to fight.
But, there was something else getting on his way, something that bothered him for a while now. Actually, he noticed it right after finding himself on this planet, and this something was the reason why he was able to keep up with his enemies so far: he was unable to transform into a Super Saiyan.
As he told Trunks once, the way to achieve this great level was to find the emotion deep within one's heart and let the 'dam break'. Usually, this advice worked and he would transform without much difficulty, but ever since he woke up after his fight with 17 and 18, he couldn't anymore. No matter how hard he tried to remember how mercilessly Krillin and Piccolo were killed by those monsters, how he had to face Bulma after seeing the dead body of Vegeta with his own eyes, how powerless he was to save millions of people crushed by the demons regardless of their ages and gender daily. He couldn't find the necessary push that would let all the power hidden inside him spread through his body and envelope him in its warm light.
As he was cursing his terrible luck, the door of his room opened and a nurse entered. She told him that he would be able to leave the hospital right after passing a casual test. This casual test ensures that you are fully in shape to be once again free of moving without medical care constantly following you behind. And so, the nurse tested the Hybrid's reflexes, sight, heartbeats and after this he was all ready to go.
After she left so he could change to his normal outfit, he quickly went to the bedside table and opened the cupboard. Just as Inoichi told him, he found clothes inside that he took out. The clothes were his orange gi and his wristband, which were the only clothes he didn't ruin last night, a new pair of orange pants and a blue belt that were more or less similar to the old ones. He also found a pair of blue sandals, the same model everyone wore around here. The only piece of equipment missing was his cape, surely because it was way too heavy for anyone to lift it all the way to this room.
'Well, I might have to wait a moment before I get other weighted clothes. But, my cape should do the job for now: I'll just have to give more strength to my clones.' he thought as he started putting on his outfit.
Once he knew he was ready to leave, he quickly rushed out of the hospital and found himself in the middle of the village's street. He stood still for a moment, letting the natural and fresh air hit him and looking at the crowded place: it was still a couple of hours before noon and all kinds of people were walking from everywhere going from the shopping housewives to the kids running around either alone or in small groups.
'It sure is a peaceful village.' Gohan thought drawing a large smile across his face before getting back to a more serious expression 'But I shouldn't waste anymore time enjoying myself; Hokage-sama is waiting for me and it seems important.'
He looked around him before spotting the Hokage Monument with, in front of it, the Hokage's Mansion: the biggest building in the whole village.
'Good thing Naruto showed me around the village, yesterday.' he thought 'Right after I'm done with what I have to do, I'll go look for him.'
Without anymore thinking, he started running in Konoha's streets, doooodging his way until his destination. We should mention that he enjoyed running all the way there for some reasons, maybe due to the charm the village had to offer in the morning: the peaceful atmosphere, the birds singing their different, and yet, harmonically well-synchronized songs, and the smells. The smells of the trees surrounding the village mixing with the one of the fruits and vegetables coming from the shops and the one of the hot metals being stroke coming from the weaponry: this whole mixture did give a feeling that the boy was enjoying a lot.
Once he arrived at the doors, he was stopped by a young man wearing the green vests and blue headband that he saw more than once since he came here. The man just got out of the mansion, holding a couple of huge books in one of his arms.
"Where do you think you're going like this?" he asked, wearing an amused/confused expression "Did you get lost or something?"
Gohan looked up; the man talking to him was a brunette who had a long horizontal scar on his nose. He had brown hair held in a ponytail in a chonmage style. He was curiously staring at the Saiyan, inspecting him with his brown eyes and lingering on his left eye and arm (for obvious reasons…)
"I'm not, sir. I actually have to talk with Lord Hokage." he answered right away.
"Lord Hokage?! Are you sure?"
"Y-Yes, sir." the man thought for a couple of seconds before answering.
"I've never seen you around, are you going to the Ninja Academy?" he asked.
"My name is Son Gohan, and tomorrow will be my first day there, if I recall it correctly."
"Anyways, I'll accompany you to the Hokage's office. But if I find out that you've been lying, then you'll be in trouble!" he warned "Now follow me."
With that, our hero found himself walking behind the young man who didn't seem to trust him on the matter that he had to talk with the Third, and it was normal: he was the village's leader and was supposed to be well-protected by elite Chûnnins and Jônins. It's not like some random and loud kid could infiltrate the place and steal a secret 'treasure', RIGHT?!
After going through the floors and corridors of the mansion, they arrived in front of the Hokage's door. The man cleared his throat and knocked on it.
"You may enter." said a voice coming from the inside. The brunette opened the door and entered, bowing in respect.
"Lord Hokage," he started "there is a boy who says that he needs to talk with you."
Inside of the room, Hiruzen Sarutobi was filling paperwork freshly brought to him by an ANBU Ninja some minutes ago, and upon hearing what the man said, he raised his head to look at his visitors.
"Oh, then it must be Gohan. Thank you for guiding him here, Iruka."
"Yes my Lord." Iruka then turned to face Gohan, with an embarrassing smile on his face and scratching the back of his head "I'm sorry, but I had to make sure you were saying the truth."
"I don't blame you; you were doing your job." the warrior forgave.
"I think I should go." He said, getting ready to leave.
"Iruka." the Third called, getting the attention of the man.
"Yes, Lord Hokage?"
"I will need to speak with you about some minor matters later, is that fine?"
"Yes, Lord Third." He bowed one last time in front of his leader before getting out of the room and closing the door, leaving Gohan and the Hokage alone.
"So you have already encountered your teacher." the Third said.
"My teacher? Do you mean Iruka-san?"
"Yes, Iruka Umino is the Ninja Academy's teacher and he will be teaching you all what you need to know about the Shinobi world and how to be an exemplar ninja." he explained, right before getting to the part of the subject that interested them both "So, I deduce by your presence here that you are feeling better."
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Also, thank you; I don't know what would have happened if you didn't find me." he thanked the Leaf leader before asking him a question that has been on his mind for the last hour "But how did you know where I was?"
"As the Hokage, it is my duty to keep an eye on the villagers and the village; see who enters and who leaves. But still, I also realized that you didn't tell me everything about your past yesterday." Sarutobi said in an almost blaming tone a parent would use on their child who kept a truth hidden from them. Gohan only lowered his head, feeling embarrassed and kind of ashamed.
"I'm sorry Lord Hokage, I guess I will have to tell you my whole story from the beginning this time." he thought about starting his story from the day his 'uncle' kidnapped him.
"There actually is no need for that." the wise man said, saving him the trouble "You met Inoichi Yamanaka, right?"
"Yes I did, sir."
"You must know that the people from the Yamanaka clan are skilled with psychic Jutsus, going from simple Mind Control ones to complex Mind Reading ones." Gohan now had his eyes wide open, having an idea of what the Third was getting at "I asked him to search through your past while you were unconscious; I know this is a rude thing to do, but this single way was better than thousands of words and misunderstandings."
Having your mind being read by people you barely knew normally was something you would never tolerate because, admit it, you may or may not be guilty about some things in your past: minor ones or more important ones that you wouldn't want to speak about. But Gohan didn't commit anything in his past that could be considered a crime or that he was ashamed of, except maybe his cowardice which was understandable at some point since he only was four years old back then.
On the other hand, he also owed him that much of knowledge since he was the one who agreed on joining this village and hiding things from its leader would be almost a sin.
"Well, then you know everything that happened during my life, huh?"
"Yes, the Saiyans, how their planet actually was destroyed and who destroyed it, the Super Saiyan and even the Dragon Balls."
"Speaking of the Saiyans, can I ask you a question Lord Hokage?"
"You may ask it."
"How did you know about the Saiyans' existence in the first place?" he asked, doubting that this planet was technologically advanced enough to travel into space. At this question, the Leaf leader took a deep breath of smoke from his pipe before releasing it in an equally deep sigh.
"To be honest with you," he started, looking at the Half-Saiyan "you are the very first person with Saiyan blood that I see with my own eyes."
Gohan remained silent, waiting for Sarutobi to proceed with whatever story the Saiyans had with this planet.
"I may be the only person still alive who knows about the history of the Saiyans here, in this region, back in the days when it still wasn't known as Konoha. Two powerful clans, the Senjus, the clan of my masters, and the Uchihas, were constantly fighting each other to know which clan was the strongest in the Nation. But then, one day, some meteorites violently crashed on the ground. From what my masters told me and from what I saw in your memorize those meteorites actually were called 'space pods', and from them emerged human-like creatures. They were wearing some strange armor, less developed than the ones you came to know, and all had monkey tails wrapped around their hips. They were the Saiyans that came on our planet to conquer it! Compared to the recent ones, those Saiyans were weak. But they still were mighty foes in front of us, to the point they pushed the Senjus, the Uchihas along with some other clans of the Land of Fire to form an alliance and fight the common threat. Of course, the Saiyans not being as powerful as they grew to be and the old days Ninjas being stronger than they are nowadays, the enemy was quickly chased from our planet, running away and taking with them the spaceships of their fallen comrades, surely to prevent us from taking advantage of their technology."
"But why didn't they come back?" asked Gohan who knew that the pure-blooded Saiyans were bloodthirsty and would never miss an opportunity to fight stronger foes.
"This question remained unanswered until last night: we always thought that their planet was destroyed since we never saw or heard of them again, but this night I had that information confirmed through your knowledge." he marked a pause "My masters also told me that before leaving, our enemies revealed something about how they would have crushed us if the moon was full. I never understood what this meant until I saw the answer to my question yet again from you… we were lucky, indeed, that it wasn't and that they didn't knew about artificial moons at that time…"
Our hero could easily picture the fate of this planet if such a thing happened. But what actually is the whole link between a Saiyan and the full moon? The Saiyans are a race of warriors that look a lot like humans, both physically and intellectually, but they had something more: tails. A Saiyan that posses his tail will, if his eyes enter in contact with the full moon, transform. Transform into what? They transform into giant, horrible and murderous Apes. Once a Saiyan transform into a Great Ape, they totally lose the control of their mind and actions and literally become brainless beasts that only have one goal: destroy everything standing on their path and beyond. There is, however, an exception concerning some elite first class warriors that still keep their mind in a perfect state after the transformation.
From what Vegeta once mentioned, transforming into a Great Ape multiplies a Saiyan's base strength by, at least, ten times, which helps them conquer planets populated by stronger opponents.
"Gohan," said the Third, stopping the boy's thoughts. He turned his back on him and walked to his desk "our past with the Saiyans isn't the only thing I wanted to talk about with you."
He sat in front of the paper-filled desk and opened a drawer. Searching through it, he took something inside and handed it to the Hybrid.
"Take a closer look at this." he told the villager.
The Hybrid got closer to the desk and stared at the object that was handed to him: it was a ball, a crystal ball as far as he could tell. It was orange, small, slightly transparent and shining brilliantly with the sunrays caressing it. Upon looking better inside the ball, he spotted red stars, four of them precisely. That item wasn't unknown to the kid, since he saw it more than once in his life, but never saw it again for the past thirteen years.
"This is… a Dragon Ball?!" he shouted stupefied by what he actually had before him. The Four Star Dragon Ball was right in front of him, in perfect shape. Not a mere stone, not a fake, an actual Dragon Ball on the Hokage's hand "B-B-But, how…?"
"One year ago, a patrolling ANBU of mine found it in a nearby forest. He said that it upon inspections; he did feel some kind of magic coming from it, so he took it with him and brought it back here. I kept it all this time, not knowing if it was a piece of art or a treasure, but now I know what it is." he explained.
Gohan's surprised expression was soon replaced with a serious one. He raised his eyes from the crystal ball to Sarutobi.
"Lord Hokage," he firmly said "I need to leave the village and investigate things regarding the Dragon Balls."
"…! What are you talking about?!" he wasn't expecting the boy to ask him to leave on that kind of mission on his own free will.
"Through my mind, you should have learned that those balls don't randomly exist: someone created them, and he must be on this planet, alive, or else they would only be mere stones barren of any power." Silence reigned inside of the room. Gohan was still looking at the Hokage, expecting an answer from him. The latter, however, had his eyes closed, lost in his thoughts. After five (not Namekian) minutes, he reopened them and look at the Saiyan with a sever expression.
"I can't allow this." he strictly opposed to his idea.
"Why?"
"Because you officially are a Konoha villager studying in the Ninja Academy, I cannot send you on an official mission while you still aren't even a Genin." he argued.
"A Genin…? Excuse me for asking, but what does Genin mean, Lord Hokage?" a confused Gohan asked.
"It looks like you still don't know much about Konoha's hierarchical order yet." he took a deep breath (again) before answering back "You, eventually, will get to learn it in the Academy. At least, I will tell you that a Genin is the first rank you are promoted to upon successfully graduating from the Ninja Academy."
"When do I get to graduate?"
"Normally, you should be able to pass you final exam in five years." this revelation hit the Hybrid like the lightning.
"Five years?!" he repeated, shocked and with an almost comical expression "I don't know if I will be able to wait that long…"
"All I can tell you is that I will watch over your progresses through the Academy, and if I judge your skills and, especially, knowledge of the Shinobi World high enough, you may be promoted a Genin earlier than expected." silence was reigning yet again in the place, before Gohan raised a clenched and determinate fist in front of his chest and showed a confident smile.
"Then I'll give it my all and become a Genin as soon as possible!" that resolution made surprise appear in the Leaf's leader's face, but it soon changed into a satisfied smile.
"With that spirit, I can't doubt that you will."
"Was this all you wanted to discuss with me, Hokage-sama?"
"Yes, Gohan. You may leave." after being dismissed for the moment, the boy put his open hand in front of his face and bowed, respectfully saying goodbye to his Leader and leaving the room.
The Hokage, finally alone, relaxed on his chair, still smoking his pipe. He silently laughed alone, thinking about Gohan's future as a Konoha ninja.
'At this rate, Genin isn't the only rank that boy will reach in no time.' he thought at the probability of the seven years old becoming the youngest Jônin in history.
(Later, in the Afternoon – Konoha Streets)
Right after his talk with the Hokage, Gohan went to his apartment, grabbed his cape and his money, and left to have his meal at Ichiraku's, knocking on Naruto's door while he was at it since he wanted some company. But no answer came from it, hinting that he already left to whatever place he was in.
After eating, he spent the early afternoon searching his whiskered friend around the village, but the foxy boy was nowhere to be found.
As he walked randomly everywhere, he could notice the attention the passers-by directed at him: some were looking at him puzzled, not knowing who he was and maybe because they saw him when he entered the village with the Hokage, and some were throwing daggers at him, surely because they already saw him a day earlier hanging out with Naruto, the not-so-appreciated kid.
"Hah. Hah. Hah." he heard a noise coming from behind him, a noise comparable to a constant breath, but didn't pay too much attention to it as he was proceeding with the search of Naruto.
'Man, the Ramen sure are good: now I get why Naruto likes them so much. It's a shame we couldn't eat together.' he thought, satisfied with the lunch he had. Today, he only finished ten large bowls of Ramen, a Saiyan is supposed to eat way more than that.
"Rrruf!" the same sound, only now it was more like a small bark, it actually caught Gohan's attention as he turned to look back, and slowly lowered his gaze. There, at his feet, was sitting on the ground a white small hairball with two falling ears and a red tongue wet with slaver that was cooling all the way to the bottom of the tongue and dropping to the ground.
Gohan kneeled on one leg and looked at the little thing with wide-open eyes and his mouth in a confused frown.
"What are you, a puppy?" he asked the white ball that responded with a small bark, letting him guess that it was indeed a dog.
Our young Saiyan friend couldn't help but smile at the animal. He extended his hand above the puppy, but it slightly cringed back with fear, closing its mouth.
"C'mon, I won't hurt you, we're going to be friends!" he said, extending his hand further before putting it on the dog's head, caressing its light fur. Soon, the cub showed signs of enjoyment: it opened its mouth again, letting tongue hang with the saliva. Its tail was also waving, showing further signs of pleasure; it wasn't afraid of Gohan anymore.
"There, good boy." The boy told his new 'friend'.
"Akamaru!" called a young boy's voice from across the street, causing the villagers to look at him out of curiosity before turning their gaze away quickly. The boy had messy hair, almost shaped like naruto's only his were brown. He was wearing a light brown sweatshirt and gray shorts, he also wore blue sandals, just like everyone in this place (either their feet have incredible resistance in case of cold weather, or maybe 'the one responsible for this' just loves to draw toes… what? He actually does? Oh well…)
He was running in the direction of the duo and, upon closer view, he had some really incredible features: first, he had some red war-like paints on each cheek. Then, there were his eyes; they were black and sharp which, combined with his marks and spiky hair, gave him that bestial look that would make you wonder if he's totally human.
He finally stopped in front of the puppy and Gohan, the latter got up and was now looking at the other kid who seemed to be around his age.
"There you are! Why did you run away? That's really bad!" he scolded the animal, pointing his finger at it. The dog, now known as Akamaru, responded to the person who seemed to be his master with a sad whimper.
"Is it your puppy?" Gohan asked, getting in the conversation. The boy stared at him with a questioning face before asking.
"Who are you? I've never seen you around."
"My name's Son Gohan, and…" as he was introducing himself, the newcomer got closer to him and began inspecting him from head to toe, front and even back, he was also starting to smell him, just like an animal "I'm new in this village."
The kid finally moved away from the Saiyan and nodded to himself.
"Umm… I've definitely never seen you around." it seemed like he didn't completely focus on what he was told "Wait, you say you're new to the village?"
"Yeah, who are you?"
"Son Gohan, huh? I am Kiba Inuzuka, and this is Akamaru" he pointed at his puppy, the latter happily barked, confirming its presence.
"So, Gohan, when did you arrive in Konoha?" Kiba asked.
"Yesterday, in the afternoon."
"So that's why I've never encountered you in the village or the Academy!" when he realized that he said the 'A' word, Kiba's cheerful expression changed into a depressive one "Please, don't tell me the weekend's over already…"
"Err… I pretty much guess it is since tomorrow's school." Gohan answered, confused about the boy's behavior: he noticed that both he and Naruto weren't very glad to attend class, something that he didn't understand. He always dreamt of going to a real classroom and having classmates and teachers that wouldn't hit him with a whip, being the nerdy child he was, back in the days.
"No good, I have to enjoy every single minutes before tomorrow! You should do the same, Gohan." he told the warrior "Akamaru, TO THE PLAYING GROUND!"
With this departure signal, he started running to where he came from with his dog following him behind, this time. At first, Gohan just stood where he was, looking at them leave. But then, he thought about what to do, and…
'I don't think I have anything better planned, so maybe I could join them?' he then started running behind the beast duo before they disappeared in another street.
"Wait for me!" he called, catching up to them.
(Late Afternoon – Konoha Playing Ground)
The playing ground was, obviously enough, the children's favorite place to hang out and play: sandbox, slide, swings, monkey bars… there was no way they could get bored. During weekdays, the kids would rush here right after getting out of the Academy. While on holydays, like today, they would spend the whole day playing there, excluding meal times, of course, unless they brought a bento with them. At dusk, their parents would come to take them back, and that was usually an hour from now.
As Gohan, Kiba and Akamaru arrived in the space, it was still crowded with the kids happily playing everywhere around it: boys and girls were all enjoying their favorite games in multiple groups, releasing multiple noises, but giving the same ideas: life, youth, and happiness.
They walked inside of the playing ground before the beast boy noticed someone that he seemed to know and ran toward him, leaving the Saiyan a little behind. The boy he saw was lying on top of a wooden table, in a corner of the ground, apparently sleeping. He had black hair tied in a chonmage ponytail, almost like Iruka, but a little more drawn up. He was wearing a dark gray T-shirt with a yellow circle on the middle and a strange red design on it, symbolizing something for sure.
"Hey, Shikamaru!" called Kiba while getting in front of the sleeping corps. He got no answer aside from him turning his back on him.
"Grr… heeey! Can you hear me, Shikamaru?!" he shouted at the sleepyhead who only responded with an annoyed growl.
"What do you want, Kiba?" Shikamaru asked, slightly turning his head towards his friend.
"Try to guess what's up?"
"Just spit it out." The ponytail boy demanded out of impatience.
"There's going to be a new figure in the classroom starting tomorrow, look." he said, getting out of the way to let Shikamaru have a look at Gohan.
The lazy boy made, what seemed to him, a superhuman effort to get on a sitting position, mumbling something under his breath that sounded like "What a drag…" and took a better look at the Saiyan with the weird cape.
"Hello." the Hybrid greeted with a large smile on his face.
"Hi…" responded Shikamaru, barely facing the new kid, then he turned to where Kiba was "You're happy? Good, now go do something less troublesome, like sleeping."
With that, he lay back on the table and resumed his nap without further words exchanged.
"Don't mind it too much: that's Shikamaru Nara to you." the Inuzuka boy said, sparing his lazy friend the 'troublesome' introductions "He sleeps a lot and is always easily tired. Oh, and I should mention that he thinks everything's 'troublesome', but today he seems even more tired than usual, right Akamaru?"
"Ruf!" answered the dog that climbed on his head a while ago.
"Okay…" Gohan answered simply, wondering how someone could get tired of getting tired and thus sleeping all day and night. They judged that bothering their Nara friend any longer wouldn't be the best idea to spend a good time before going back home, so they left him to his sleeping and went around the playing ground, searching for a distraction.
~Later~
While walking, Gohan noticed that the other children would, from time to time, stop playing and stare at him with confused faces, before quickly lowering their heads, almost with fear. That detail troubled him a little, but he more or less knew why they had such reactions: he remembered that he was wearing that cape that was a pretty uncommon model in here, and he also had that scar on his face that would easily creep out a normal kid, not that he wasn't normal himself: he was just you average happy boy who didn't live his childhood to its fullest because of the battles he had all though his life, and that he will continue to have until he know he can rest forever.
"You're quite the center of attention here, aren't you?" Kiba noticed.
"I guess so…"
"By the way, I meant to ask this earlier, but why do you have a scar on your face? Did you have an incident with a kunai during an outdoor class?" this question almost made the gashed boy cringe back. At first he didn't know what to answer, but as Kiba kept on speaking and mentioned the outdoor lessons, an answer came to his head and he quickly responded as he could.
"Err… yeah, that's it: it was during a lesson! My kunai slipped from my hand and it cut my face. Hahah, I'm lucky it didn't cut my eye, though." despite his efforts, his answer seemed forced, and his laugh in the middle was even weirder, it even caused his friend to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"Really…? Whatever, what do you think we could do? We barely played on the swings and in the sandbox. Now that I think about it, it is kinda late since the sun's setting, and is it only me or is the place emptier…?" he raised his head, trying to keep up with the sun's progression before facing reality with wide open eyes and mouth: the big star was almost disappearing in the horizon, indicating 'that' time of the day where children would be picked up by their parents to return home and eventually have dinner… just to sleep early and get prepared for another week in the Academy.
"Kiba!" called a woman's voice, coming from the ground's entrance. The two boys were now facing a woman wearing the Konoha green vest (again). She had average spiky brown hair (again) with two fringes in front (originality!), and for the rest, she had the same features as Kiba: sharp black eyes and red war-paints on the cheeks. Her identity was, obviously, not that much of a mystery for the Saiyan.
"Is this woman your mother?" he asked.
"Yeah… and I guess I'm in trouble." he said with a grimace, looking at his mother's half angry, half impatient expression.
"Why? Did you do something bad?"
"Well… I-I'll explain it tomorrow, if I'm still alive that is…"
"Kiba, it's time to go home, young man." the woman scolded, getting closer to her son and pulling his ear. As for Akamaru, his natural instincts immediately led him to hide inside of his master's sweatshirt, trembling and whimpering with fear.
"Ouch! Stop it, mom! I'm coming." the boy defended himself. At the same moment, the Inuzuka woman noticed the presence of Gohan who was watching his new friend being scolded with a confused face, not knowing what to do in such situation.
"I've never seen you here, are you the boy Iruka told me about; the new villager?" she asked the Hybrid.
"Y-Yes, ma'am." the Saiyan answered with his usual respectful manners.
"You seem to be a respectful one." She said, turning to Kiba "Let that be an example to you!"
"What do you mean mom? I'm respectful too!" he said as he was dragged away by the ear by his mother, leaving Gohan behind.
"This isn't what your sensei told me! Did you enjoy skipping Friday classes? Getting out by the window, on top of that!" this sentence of the mother was the last thing the gashed could hear before they disappeared in a corner of the street.
…
…
Silence was the only thing left with the confused boy who was still standing in the same spot where he 'parted' ways with his new friend, looking at the same corner.
'… He sure will get a thrashing.' The warrior thought. 'As for me, there's nobody to do this to me anymore…'
He looked up in the sky with melancholy in his eyes. It was a matter of minutes before night fell on the village of Konoha, now, and he was witnessing the sun's last moments in the horizon.
'I should get going.' and so, Gohan walked back to his apartment, silently.
(Evening – Apartments)
Gohan climbed the stairs of the building, leading to the door of his house and Naruto's. He didn't see the latter all day and was wondering on what he was doing.
He decided to first go toward the door and, after thinking whether he would disturb him or not, knocked on it.
…
No answer.
"Hey, Naruto, are you here?" the new kid asked.
"No! Nobody's here, dattebayo!" replied a voice inside, indicating that somebody actually was in there.
"Naruto, it's me, Gohan." he tried to call, still not sure if the blond would be willing to come out of his nest to talk. Not that he knew why he was hiding inside and pretending not to be there in the first place.
A few seconds later, the door opened and a whiskered face with blonde hair popped out, examining the person in front of his door with wary eyes.
"Gohan? It's really you?"
"Yeah, it's me." that answer was like the 1% adding itself to the 99% Naruto had of expectation that it truly was his friend standing in front of him. His wary expression soon transformed into a happy one as he completely opened his door, revealing a rather dark inside and forcing Gohan to quickly take a step back to avoid getting hit.
"Great! I've been looking for you everywhere all day, dattebayo! Where were you?" asked the hyperactive Uzumaki.
"Well, I've been searching for you as well, and I even knocked on your door this noon but you weren't here."
"Actually…" he stopped to look around them, and especially in the stairs direction before pulling his Saiyan friend by his shirt inside of his apartment.
"Ouaaaaa!" was the only thing Gohan could say as he was being grabbed inside the dark room. Once they were both inside, Naruto quickly closed the door and he was heard locking it, leaving them both in absolute darkness and highly disturbing the Hybrid.
"What's up with you?" asked the confused black-haired boy.
"Shhhhhh." The prankster silenced his friend. "He mustn't hear us."
"Who? And why are you speaking in a low voice."
"I was walking in the streets of the village, looking for you, but then I encountered him! I tried to run away, but he noticed my presence and chased after me, dattebayo!"
"Who?"
"After my prank of yesterday, there's no way he's going to let the Friday thing slide." The foxy boy now seemed to be more muttering to himself than to the gashed.
"Naruto, tell me who you are talking about!"
"I… I-I…" he seemed to have trouble saying the name of the executioner.
"I?"
"I-Iruka-sensei!" at this revelation, Gohan stood still, unable to do or say anything: his brain was too busy analyzing the situation. But then, he understood everything and fell back on the ground with his legs up in a comic way.
He soon got back on his feet and rubbed his head.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I sure am in for some big troubles tomorrow, dattebayo…"
'So this 'Friday' thing isn't something Kiba did alone, huh?' he thought, finding a connection between the two.
"Why did you skip classes in the first place?" at this question, Naruto's eyes widened, as if he just had his mind read which isn't true, but is quite close enough.
"How did you know?!" he asked.
"Kiba. He told me more or less directly about it."
"That stupid bastard…" he cursed, surprising Gohan who wasn't used to listen to swearing, especially coming from a kid his age.
"Err… Anyways, don't you think Iruka-sensei has other things to do than wait in front of your door? There's no need to become paranoid."
"Para—what? Whatever, you don't know him: he won't give up so easily! I tell you that he is just waiting for me to open this door and then, it'll turn into the biggest lecture I ever had in my life, dattebayo."
"*sigh* is it really necessary to lock the door and close your windows? I can barely see my feet in here." the Saiyan said while thinking of a way to make Naruto less worried about their sensei spying on him and get back to his room to get some sleep, but how?
Should he knock out the prankster? No way: that would be an awful thing to do, even in an extreme case. Should he lie about seeing Iruka somewhere else? There was no need for this since he just remembered something that he heard earlier today and that would do the thing.
"Iruka-sensei can't be here, right now: I encountered him this afternoon and he told me that he had something to do in Lord Hokage's office." he half-lied, since their teacher did have to discuss 'minor matters' with the village leader.
"Is that true?" a half-relieve Naruto asked, wanting to make sure that this information was true.
"Uh-huh, so you don't have to worry at all!" before he knew it, the room's light was turned back on, allowing Gohan to have a better look at his surroundings. Naruto's apartment was pretty similar to his; the entrance, as far as he could tell: same wooden ground, same length and width, and same supplies and furniture. There, however, was a difference between the two apartments.
"It's pretty messy around here…" remarked the blonde's guest as he looked at the clothes, empty boxes of instant Ramen and dirty bowls lying everywhere in the room.
"To celebrate this," said Naruto who was totally ignoring the words of the Saiyan. He ran to the windows and opened them to allow some fresh air to fill the place. He quickly went to the fridge and opened it, searching inside "Ramen!"
With that, he took out of the fridge two boxes of instant Ramen.
~A little more than five minutes later~
After the five minutes required for the noodles to boil in the hot water, the two seven years old sat at the table, enjoying their meal.
"So, Naruto," Gohan started "is Iruka-sensei as terrible as you and Kiba say he is?"
"Umm, not that he's terrible, but his lectures are boring: he has to yell for anything we do, dattebayo! It would be better if he could give us a break."
"Maybe he's doing it because he cares for you."
"Nah, I mean, he doesn't even have a girlfriend, at his age." Naruto stated, getting completely out of the subject.
(Meanwhile – On the roof of the Hokage Residence)
"Achooo! *sniff*" a certain Academy teacher, who was facing the Heroes' Monument, just sneezed all of a sudden. This, of course, caught the attention of the person standing in front him who revealed to be none other than the village Third Hokage. The latter had his back turned on the teacher, but slightly looked above his shoulder, toward him.
"Is the early evening's wind disturbing you, Iruka?" he asked with a small smile on his face "Or, could it be that you caught someone's attention today?"
These teasing words had the desired effects on the shy instructor, since upon understanding the meaning of the Leaf's leader's words started blushing and sweating because of the embarrassment.
"Huh? Err, I-I mean, please Hokage-sama; this is an embarrassing subject that I would rather avoid." he objected as respectfully as possible.
"*chuckle* it's alright, Iruka." the Hokage said before leaving the jokes aside to move to a more serious topic "As you are already aware of it, you will welcome a new student in your classroom starting tomorrow."
"Yes. His name is Son Gohan, right?" the Leader simply nodded as an answer to this question.
"I just wanted keep you informed that he is 'special'."
"Special?"
"His level may exceed the one of his comrades far beyond all expectations, but he barely knows anything about the Shinobi World, that's why I'll ask you to be careful with him."
Iruka was puzzled, to say the least: the level of the boy exceeding any of the other students was already a thing by itself, but him not knowing anything about the Ninja World… he did notice that Gohan seemed strange, but now he was even more curious to know what was up with the kid. On the other hand, teaching the new generation about the world and its surroundings was his duty, after all: a duty he fully took responsibility for, and he would do everything to serve this purpose.
"I understand, Lord Hokage."
"Good." there was a moment of silence during which neither of them did or said anything, just contemplating the monument standing before them, on the mountain dominating Konoha.
The Hokage's Residence's roof sure was the best place in the whole village to have the best sight on the sculptures of the village's heroes. Sometimes, and with the agreement of the Hokage who encouraged such activities, Iruka would take his class on this same roof for lessons; lessons that usually were about Konoha's history and the Hokage's role in taking care of the village and the villagers.
Rarely, and if the time allowed him to, Sarutobi himself would pay them a visit up there and would say a few words to the students, reminding them of their original values and how they should always protect them and fight for their sake, and how one day, they would be the ones transmitting the same knowledge to their children: such was the 'Will of Fire'.
"By the way," the Third broke the silence "how is Naruto doing, lately? Is he still causing you troubles?"
"*sigh* yes, Naruto is still the same, from that point of view: still ignoring the importance of the Academy in making a good Ninja out of him, and yesterday, he even painted absurd things on the monument." he made a short pause "I know he's living a hard life, but I still hope I'll be able to change his mind."
"Don't worry." Hiruzen said; his eyes closed and smoke rising from his pipe "There is more to him than just a troublemaker or a prankster, after all…"
'You know that too,' he thought, opening them back and focusing his glance on the fourth sculptured face 'right, Fourth Hokage?'
As an answer to his thought, the wind gently started blowing again all over the place, transporting leaves gracefully dancing in the air, and flying away as far as it could take them.
And so, this looooooong (just like my… planet? I start to sound like Sai…) chapter ends right here, right now. I sincerely hope you liked it despite its length.
Speaking of length, starting from here on, we can say that the 'big prologue' is over and the chapters, unless they hold important events, will have more 'reasonable' lengths (between 2,5K and 5K words) which will be better for both you and I: tell me what you think of it.
As for the poll, I remember telling you that it would be closed around the time I posted this chapter, but it seems we are experiencing the same thing as Android 17 and 18: a tie! But hopefully, this tie won't last long and once a team will dominate the others by a couple of votes, I'll close the poll and you'll be able to see the results.
As usual, have fun reading this chapter, ask the questions if you have any, and have a nice—
KeyToQuestions: Wait, KeyToUnivers!
KeyToUnivers: What is it KeyToQuestions?
KTQ: Why did you censor the part where Gohan had his mind being read? It could've been super cool and—
KTU: Wow, calm down. First, know that I originally planned to start this chapter from where I left in the previous one and include the whole mind reading. But after thinking, it would have made it uselessly longer than it already is and there isn't much to discuss about. Second, we already know Gohan's story before the fanfic more than enough and writing a mind reading part would've been comparable to a huge and annoying flashback and the readers would've got bored by such a thing: we want to see some new content, here! Do you get it now?!
KTQ: Y-Yeah…
KTU: Good! So, as I was saying, you guys enjoy the chapter and have a nice day!