Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dragon Ball franchise and sadly I never will, but let's enjoy ourselves with this fanfiction anyways!

(A:NThe wait was too long and I'm sorry. Here's an interesting take in chapter to try and make up for my absence.)

~Chapter 6: I Found Myself~

Silence ensued following the moment of yet another one of Goku's insurmountable feats. Now the only thing that plagued everyone's minds now was a simple one-worded question. Yet despite its simplicity, it held a valuable and complex answer that they do desperately needed.

"H-how?" Raditz asked, the word summarizing everyone's thoughts. Goku simply looked to his brother and smiled gently.

"It's pretty simple. I trained." Goku winked and that blew Vegeta's gasket.

"Blasphemy! You expect me to believe that you became so powerful just because you punched air while under the duress of gravity? That's just absurd." Vegeta stepped up to the taller Saiyan and Goku looked downward, his face passive but with a little shimmer in his eyes; almost as if he was humoring a naive child.

"Well now Vegeta, I never said that. Although, when I was just starting out it really helped. I'm afraid none of you are ready for the training I endured. I'm not being cocky or saying that I'm supreme or anything, but it's a fact. You all need to train a lot longer and with more determination in order to reach this level. And if you stick with me, I will help you get stronger. But you have to follow what I say and do to the letter." Goku states getting nods from everyone besides a certain two Saiyans.

Nappa and Vegeta looked off to the side with a glare, disbelief that a lower class can have such strength. Goku ignored their smoldering in favor of approaching the blue and blonde haired Launch who had collapsed from her near death experience.

Normally Launch would have stuck it out if she sneezed into her blonde personality, but if it was her blue haired personality, she would have been unconscious by the time she was captured due to her fainting. This Launch however who was the balance between them both had fainted after the rush of adrenaline had worn off. Goku chose in that moment of reflection to carry her up to her room.

"I'm gonna take Launch to her room so that she can recover properly. You guys continue training while I'm gone, try improving your ki control and maximizing the strain your body can take while under heavier gravity. I'm gonna go off somewhere."

Once Goku tucked Launch into her bed he closed the door and flew out of the building and away from the island. He sensed something and he knew its familiarity. There was no way that it was an illusion or that his mind was playing tricks on him by imagining things.

Once Goku was away from the island he used instant transmission to hone in on the energy signal he sensed. If who he was about to teleport to really was what he thought they were then things were about to get interesting.

Goku appeared in front of a slumped figure, a person who was unconscious. But he nonetheless recognized them anyways. After all..

Who could forget the signature orange and blue clothing?

It was him. Goku found himself.

Or should he say.. herself?

Goku looked down at an unconscious but definitely female version of him and all he could to think was how good looking he looked as a girl. Like he did NOT think a gender-switched version of him would be so attractive, but here she was in all her glory.

He noticed she had the same spiky black hair but just a tad longer, long and slender eyelashes, with naturally plump and pink lips that looked great with her white and pinkish cheeks. She also wore the orange turtle hermit gi with the blue undershirt and wristbands, but the difference between his old self and this female version was that her blue belt was tied around a pair of orange loose shorts and black tight shorts that she wore underneath. And then there were the same replicant boots that he used to wear that complimented her shapely legs. Although soon after a minute of inspecting him (or herself?) he sighed.

"Great now I owe Master Roshi money. I never should've bet against that perv."

The bet was that Goku did not think he would be an attractive woman and that if he ever found proof that said otherwise he would have to give Master Roshi who said and he quoted, that he would be a "SMOKING HOT." woman 10,000 Zeni.

Although that did solve a lifetime of curiosity. Which was worth it he supposed. Alas, when this was all over he would pay his timeline's Master Roshi a visit, and most likely get scolded in the 'ways of beautiful women'.

Goku glances down at his unconscious girl duplicate before kneeling down and placing his hand on her stomach (which was very toned he noticed) and flooding his ki into her to wake her up gently. He could've just shook her but he was sure this was more efficient. It could've healed any injury she may have had physically and psychologically before he spoke to her.

Her naturally long but pretty eyelashes fluttered open, slowly a blurry vision welcomed her before she blinked it away instinctually sitting up and gazing at the one who awoke her. She was met with silver eyes that spoke to her. Something about them just announced curiosity. She rubbed her own onyx eyes hoping to alleviate the grogginess that strayed there. Like a cute and innocent child the male Goku noticed.

Once done she stared into those same silver eyes and blinked in wonder.

"Say, you have a really thoughtful look in your eyes.. maybe you're thinking what I'm thinking huh?" She giggled softly, like a girl who was flirting and didn't realize she was due to her natural born innocence. Goku kind of missed the naiveté he once had. It made looking at life so much simpler before. Goku didn't respond to her, merely raising an eyebrow at her words. Although she took that as a signal to continue.

"You want to fight me as much as I want to fight you right? From the energy I'm sensing from you, you seem really strong, like excitingly powerful!" She immediately bounced up onto her blue booted feet, feeling her once sluggish demeanor fading. Goku also made a note to himself that she was much shorter than he was, which added to the adorable factor she already held.

Goku then stood up as well, albeit slower and calmer than his counterpart. He looked at her stretching her legs in his signature stretch and smirked.

"Hm, you want to fight me yet you won't even introduce yourself?" Goku asked while rotating his arms. Was he like this before? Most likely, he was pretty sure at one point he was so excited about fighting someone strong that he forgot about all social mannerisms in general, only focusing on himself and his opponent.

His female counterpart had the decency to grin while rubbing her the back of head awkwardly.

"Sorry! I was just so excited to fight that I forgot. I'm Gokine. Goki for short. What's your name?" She asked, a glint forming on her onyx irises, and perhaps a little impatience. Goku chuckled, she was rearing for battle.

"Maybe you'll find out who I am after we fight. That is how warriors communicate best isn't it?" Goku smirked and Gokine smiled, nodding in agreement.

"I guess you're right, I've always felt I learn my best when it comes to fighting. It just comes so easy to me y'know?" Gokine stood in her signiture fight stance, clenched left fist at her side and three fingers open on her right.

"Trust me, I feel the same way. Possibly more than you could ever know right now."

Goku said cracking his neck once right before he mirrored her. She raised an eyebrow at his stance before biting her lip. This was going to be interesting.

Gokine flew toward Goku with her right fist cocked to which Goku deftly dodged. Gokine saw this and raised an eyebrow right as she felt a punch coming toward her, she dodged it and backflipped away, gaining some distance with sweat on her forehead. Not from exhaustion but from nervousness.

'I'm at half my power and yet he dodges everything with ease. I have a feeling he hasn't even scratched the surface to his full potential. I'm getting so excited!' She thought going back in for more; this time at 100% of her full power. She flew in feet first and tried to toe punt Goku's face but Goku caught her boot and threw her down into the rocky ground. She arched her back in pain, clenching her eyes shut right before widening them, quickly dodging out of the way right as Goku's black shoe stomped at where she used to be.

Gokine rolled to her right side while simultaneously trying to sweep Goku's leg who in turn leap upwards and tried to stomp Gokine once more. She saw this and backflipped trying to kick Goku's chin in the midst of it. Goku smirked while catching both of her legs and spinning.

Gokine widened her eyes in shock at her signature move right before feeling her stomach throb. She hoped she had the mental discipline not to throw up as Goku spun her like a speeding windmill. As Goku kept spinning she tried to stop him by sitting up during his spin and trying to punch him in the face.

Goku foresaw this and head butted her instead. Gokine soon felt the same throbbing ache in her face meet with the throbbing face of the ground due to Goku slamming her face first by her legs. She groaned as she sluggishly moved away From Goku who tried to stomp her once more..

What was with him and stomping so much? Gokine hastily stood up and leapt away to form a blue light in her palms, Goku knew where this was going.

"Ka... me... ha... me... HAAAA!" Instead of blasting the wave at Goku like some would normally think, she turned toward her back and blasted backwards. Palms facing away from Goku into a makeshift booster. Normally anyone who wasn't Goku would've been caught off guard by this sudden burst of speed but unluckily she was facing Goku who in turn sped towards her. Goku flew and dug a hard knee deep into her back receiving a high pitched screech of pain in return.

Goku from his kneeing position on her back instantly used his legs to wrap around her neck in a chokehold as he grabbed her wrists and held them high up in the air, away so that she couldn't defend herself. Her struggle was fruitless as the oxygen was draining away from her lungs. She kept struggling, feeling her stomach begin to weigh and her eyes to blur.

She couldn't do a thing as Goku locked her in place, except move her legs. Wait, her legs! Gokine looked down at her legs that were completely free and wiggled them a little;she would've giggled gleefully but she was thin enough on air as it was. As she kept getting choked by Goku's legs she charged up a kamehameha wave from her feet. Goku felt the surge of energy and widened his eyes before feeling him and his female duplicate move at an insane speed.

He looked toward his back and noticed that they were heading straight for a boulder, so with his quick thinking he unwrapped himself from Gokine and immediately watched as she sped into the rock, seeing her outlined figure engulfed inside of the hard earthy material.

She groaned from the inside but shook it off as she exhaustedly climbed out of the boulder. She heaved a breath of air heavily as she felt a blue ki blast heading toward her. She made to swipe it away with her hand as it approached her but found it difficult as it stuck to her like hot glue. She tried to take it off but as soon as she touched it, it seemed to irritated, doubling and tripling and soon at least a hundred small ki blasts were all over her body. She looked toward her silver eyed opponent who was donning a victorious smirk.

"Wha-?" She soon felt an explosion of electricity course throughout her entire body, no doubt due to the specialized ki blasts that Goku placed on her. She screamed in agony as the onslaught of electricity never stopped. She never knew such a tricky technique existed, nevertheless how painful it could be. She soon felt her throat scratch up from how much she had been screaming, right as she felt like she was gonna pass out just from the pain alone, the shocks she felt agonizing through her system had subsided.

She fell backwards only to be caught by the man who had caused her such pain. Then again she basically asked for it knowing the stakes of his power. Or not knowing its stakes and where the limits ended.

Gokine looked up into his silver eyes, feeling warmth and relief course through her.

'He's so strong. I have to train hard if I ever need to defeat him. What is this sudden knot I feel in my stomach? Is he healing me? What else can he do?' Questions flooded the young Saiyan as she kept on staring up at her adversary's silver pools they call eyes. Was it just her or did they seem to have more depth than before? Like a gray-white ocean that needed to be explored.

She soon stood up once her wounds were healed and noticed that her clothes were torn to shreds, barely holding on to what decency she had left. She looked up and noticed a glowing palm full of blue lighting up and being blasted at her. She flinched from the blast but noticed it didn't harm her. Merely restoring her once dirtied and torn clothing. She glanced up at Goku and grinned.

"Thanks! That helped a lot." She giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head as she did so.

"My pleasure, besides, the fight was fun despite holding back so much of my power to match your's." Goku said and Gokine nodded, already coming to that conclusion herself.

"Yeah, facing off against you was great! But you're so strong, I didn't stand a chance." Her face became a little saddened at the thought but shook it off and plastered a pleasant smile, almost as if she shook off the weight of the world.

"To be fair, I've been fighting longer than you've been existing, it's only right that I have such an advantage over you. But from the way you fight, I'm sure you'll become as strong as I am one day. Maybe even stronger." Those words seemed to widen Gokine's ebony irises as she grinned childishly.

"Right! I won't stop training until I'm even stronger than you, no matter how long it takes. So you better watch out Goku, you may not be ahead of me for long." Gokine winked and Goku raised an eyebrow. The female version of him was so much more flirty and playful than he was. Although still very naive.

"Oh yeah, also how did you use that technique? I never knew ki blasts could stick to people, let alone expand into tiny balls of electricity. It was really terrifying to go up against." Gokine said, a slight shiver going up her spine. That technique hurt so much that it left her out of commission. It also seemed very useful, no one would expect that if they were deflecting it, it made her curious on what else Goku knew. Maybe she should ask him to train her, he seemed to know the ins and outs of fighting, like the back of his hand she added.

"How about I explain it to you and we'll fly to Master Roshi's?" Goku offered and Gokine nodded before a sudden question popped up.

"Wait, you know Master Roshi? You were taught by him too? Amazing! To think that old timer had another student that I never knew about." She laughed and Goku sweat dropped.

'It seems she still doesn't realize who I am even after the fight. I even mirrored her stance and everything. I guess my style of fighting is so much more different than what it was that she didn't catch on that I was the male version of her. Let's see how long it takes her to solve that mystery.' Goku thought as he floated.

"I was taught by him a long time ago, I usually train myself now these days, doing my own thing and improving upon my own mistakes." Goku informed and Gokine nodded flying next to him.

"Hey, since you're so strong, how about you train me? It would be great, fighting each other, learning new techniques, sounds so exciting!" She giggled gleefully, laughing more ecstatically with the thought.

'I already planned on training her ever since I first sensed her. I was just gonna offer right before she said something. I need to work her hard though. She seems to be only as strong as I was when I first met Raditz. She has to play catch up before taking on the bigger threats.' Goku inaudibly sighed as they kept flying. This new life he was making for himself kept surprising him. He looked toward Gokine who gave him the cute but begging puppy eyes to further accentuate how much she wanted to be trained by him. And he almost chuckled at it. She was one of the most adorable things he's ever seen he swore.

"Sure I'll train you. But you have to do what I say, whenever I say it. If you think this will be easy then you're dead, or dead wrong. I'm sure you prefer the latter. Got it?" Gokine nodded enthusiastically, visibly shaking with excitement.

"Sir yes sir!" She saluted and Goku smirked at her easy obedience.

"Alright, now that we have that settled, let's speed up to meet the rest of the gang." Goku said and Gokine followed. She felt a warm feeling into her chest, only this time she wasn't being healed. Was it excitement perhaps? Nervousness? She didn't know but she had to find out, and she would stop at nothing to find out what her body was going through.

She looked up ahead at her new Sensei and smiled. Training with him is going to be worthwhile. Soon the pair sped off, looking like nothing but blurs to even the most trained eye.

Goku knew then and only then, that more was to come, and he didn't know if he was gonna like it. But he will prepare himself to face all the odds and to make sure his friends do the same. Because he will do everything for the ones he cares about. Like travel back in time for example.

Goku chuckled and the sound did not go unnoticed by his female counterpart.

"What are you laughing about?" Goku looked at her questioning but innocent face and smiled, which further expanded her curiosity.

"Only at all the ways I'm gknna torture you during our training. I sure hope you can handle it." Goku teased, and then it was Gokine's turn to smirk.

"I just hope it isn't too easy. Hate to go through all this trouble for nothing." She said haughtily and Goku raised an eyebrow before flying closer to her.

"Oh yeah?" It wasn't a question but a challenge.

She looked at him and stuck out her tongue.

Goku soon picked her up out of the air and tickled her. She laughed and struggled to get free from his grasp and Goku grinned evilly. They continued like this for the remainder of their flight. Nothing but two knuckleheads having fun in the air.

Although if the atmosphere was quiet enough and if one were to listen closely, then they too would hear the joyful sounds of laughter in the sky.

And they too would laugh, because the sounds of something so beautiful would be infectious.