VII\ Where's Gohan?

(The Other World – In front of the Check-In-Station)

When someone dies, their soul travels all the way up to the other world, without any exception. They enter one strange looking place where the sky is pink and the clouds, on top of being yellow, are located below the little blue flame that they became.

So, where do these souls go upon reaching the afterlife?

They have to be judged for their actions, so they do not wander around for long before arriving at the Check-In-Station.

This 'station' was actually a few buildings that were shaped the same way as castles from Asian empires of the ancient eras, and the way leading there was a bridge levitating above the golden clouds. It was on that bridge that the souls would line up and, under the instruction of some blue humanoid ogres, advance toward the office of King Yemma, a giant purple ogre wearing a purple costume and a hat with two horns coming out of each side (they are his, in case you are wondering).

The chief of ogres had a giant register on his desk which held information about all the living being that would, one day or another, be judged there. These records were things such as the actions done by a person during his life: the good and the bad things, and depending on the weight of one of them, he decides whether the soul goes to Heaven or… some other place.

But today, something unusual was happening. As the regular ogres were guiding the souls through their loudspeakers, one of them noticed something. It wasn't in the line of souls, but in the sky above them: two silhouettes were flying above the bridge, looking down, as if scanning the crowd of souls heading to the Check-In-Station.

Upon reaching their level, we could see a man with ridiculously spiky black hair, wearing an orange training outfit. His companion, however, seemed to be an alien with green skin and a purple training outfit and white cape and turban. They both had golden halos above their heads and, as mentioned above, they seemed to be looking for 'someone' in that line of blue flames.

"Where is he?!" yelled the green skinned alien, not averting his gaze from the crowd.

"I dunno. I mean; he should've joined us a while ago, if he DID die that is." answered his companion, causing him to groan while turning to face him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Maybe he isn't really dead: he might've survived and escaped without us noticing."

"Tsk, don't be delusional! You've seen him die too, didn't you?!"

"Yeah, but he didn't just 'die'; he totally disappeared. We didn't find his body, right?" said the man, crossing his arms while looking below his feet at the souls.

"Grr… Trust me, Goku: I'd really like to believe that too, but this isn't the kind of attack you can survive. Plus, you had King Kai scan the whole planet and he didn't find his energy."

"HEY, YOU THERE!" this time, a third voice called them. It was coming from the bridge below them, and it was so strong that it caused them to cover their ears.

"COME DOWN HERE IMMEDIATELY!" it was the ogre who saw them flying above the lines of souls, and he was pretty much annoyed by their presence.

The dead pair exchanged a look before obeying the blue humanoid and landing in front of him.

"So, are we in a hurry to get judged to the point we can't stay in the line?" he asked them ironically taping the ground with his foot.

"Err… actually, we've already been judged a long time ago." said the man now known as Goku, scratching the back of his head with embarrassment.

"We're looking for someone who may have come here a while ago: he should've retained his body and he looks like that guy over here, more or less." the green one pointed at his friend, and the ogre followed his finger.

He began analyzing the tall and muscular man before shaking his head.

"Sorry, but I've never seen someone like him before: maybe you're too early? Anyways, leave this place now; you're disturbing the routine of the souls who wait for King Yemma's judgm—."

"That's right!" said Goku who seemed to have figured something out "Piccolo, let's go and ask King Yemma himself!"

"Huh?! I can't let you disturb our King, he's one busy ogre and—." the minor ogre tried to protest, but the duo already left after Piccolo nodded to Goku's idea.

As a sign of his exasperation, the ogre threw his loudspeaker to the ground and began to childishly jump on it.

(The Other World – Inside King Yemma's office)

"Heaven!*bam* Heaven!*bam* Hell!*bam*"

The giant ogre was, as the workaholic he was, restlessly flipping through the different files of the mortals who visited his office, marking them with either the seal of Heaven or Hell.

"Hey, King Yemma!" called a voice down there, under his desk.

"Hell!*bam* Heaven!*bam* Hell!*bam*… Hum?" he raised his head and stared behind his desk, there stood Goku and Piccolo: one waving at him and the other just crossing his arms.

"What can you two be here for? Haven't I allowed you to go to Heaven an eternity ago?" he asked them, raising an eyebrow.

"To tell you the truth, we're here to ask you if you've seen my son." explained the Saiyan, getting right to the point.

"We think he's dead, and if so you should've seen him around, right?"

The big ogre took out of his desk an enormous book and began searching through it.

"Hmm… your son's name is… Son Gohan, right?" he quickly searched through the pages, his guests followed every movement of his anxiously.

*flip**flip**flip*

Reaching a certain page, he stopped and raised his eyes from his book, looking at the impatient intruders.

"I don't have any records hinting about him coming here, so if you were expecting to see him a while ago, he mustn't be dead."

At this news, Goku had one of his big, dumb smiles drawn on his face and started jumping around the office.

"Yay! You heard that Piccolo?! Gohan's still alive!"

*BAM*

The sound of King Yemma's fist hitting the desk was heard through the entire station, he seemed to lose patience.

"Now that you know that, get out of here: look at all these souls behind you, they're waiting for their judgment!"

"Woops… Sorry! Thanks King Yemma!" without warning his companion, Goku grabbed the namekian's shoulder and brought his index and ring fingers to his forehead, before vanishing of the entrance of the office.

"… Now, back to business we go." muttered Yemma under his beard.

(Early Saturday Morning – Naruto's apartment)

Finally! It was finally Saturday; the first day of a long-awaited weekend by everyone, but especially by a certain blond troublemaker who was in his room, spending his Saturday morning 'the right way'. What was that 'right way' anyway? Well, it was basically him extending his sleeping hours, not minding the sunrays that would penetrate through his windows later in the morning since this, we precise it, is happening very early with the sky barely beginning to leave its dark color to wear its blue one.

Naruto was sleeping and snoring, enjoying every second of his slumber. After all, his 'bonus' sleeping hours didn't start yet, so he was still in his regular resting moments. His room was as messy as always and to top it all, the odor spreading in here wasn't quite sweet for the nose, especially the one coming from the dirty boxes and bowls lying everywhere in the place, sometimes hidden by clothes that weren't washed since Iruka's last visit which was more than a week ago. But he was used to that mess, so why care about it anyways? As long as it didn't stop him from dreaming, there was no way he would be bothered. However, was there really nothing to interfere with that?

As we already know, Naruto was carefree enough to, sometimes, let his door unlocked when going out, changing and even sleeping… and this night was one of those!

*Craaack*

This early in the morning, the sound of his door being opened was heard, but it only disturbed his sleep enough to make him turn on the other side of his bed and keep snoring.

Naruto, that 'demon child' and troublemaker, was sleeping soundly without any way to defend himself and alone in his room. How many villagers would 'kill' to be here with a kunai in their hands getting rid of that fool without anyone knowing? It's impossible to list even a few of them since that list would go on and on without seeming to end. But then, what could've opened the young Uzumaki's door like this, or maybe, who?

A dark shadow approached the kid's bed and stood right in front of the sleeping boy, staring down at him.

"Naruto?" called the shadow's voice. If your eyes ended up used enough to the darkness of the room, you would be able to tell that the person standing here was small; as small as a kid, and you would be able to see that he had, along with whatever he was wearing, some kind of long cape almost reaching his ankles.

"Zzzz… I'm not the one who threw the bugs on the girls, 'ttebayo… Zzzz…" was what the blond said more to someone in his dreamland than to the person calling him in reality.

"Seriously, how can I take you with me if you can't even wake up on time? Whatever; waking up early is part of your training!"

With that, he grabbed the prankster out of his bed and dragged him all the way to his bathroom. Once there, he turned on the tap and left the water run, filling the basin. Then, he turned off the tap and glared at the snoring child once more.

'Here's another chance for you to wake up the gentle way…' while thinking about that, he started shaking him to try to wake him up… the result was even more wasted time.

'Well, I tried being gentle!' on this last thought, he grabbed his head threw it inside the washbasin full of cold water.

"Zzz… *gloop*… *gloop*… *gloop**gloop**gloop*… Nggggh…!" after some time with his head under water, Naruto started moving. At first, he was confused as to why he felt so cold upon awaking, but then he understood that, for a reason or another, he was lacking oxygen and started moving even more violently.

"Finally awake?" asked Gohan who released him from his grasp.

"Gah! Where?! What happened, what happened?! *breath**breath*" being released, Naruto quickly got his head out of the basin and started catching breath. He frantically looked around him until he saw Gohan. Then, he looked back at the water-filled washbasin and started linking things together.

It took him at least one minute before understanding what happened and he started yelling at a Gohan who was cringing back, avoiding the saliva the angry prankster was spitting out of his mouth while shouting.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?! YOU WANT ME DEAD TOO OR WHAT?!"

"H-Hey, no need to scream: it's still early in the morning…" he tried to protest.

"Well, that's another reason for you to let me sleep, today's Saturday, right?"

"I thought we agreed to train today." reminded the Saiyan. Of course, Naruto had almost forgotten that promise.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" he loudly remembered.

'Wow that sure is a mood swing. He must've been looking forward to it… even if he overslept.' Gohan thought.

"So, what's first? Are you going to teach me how to break someone's neck? Are you going to-?"

"First thing you'll do is getting ready: we're going to the forest near the village."

The young Saiyan didn't need to repeat the order since the Uzumaki ran straight to his room and, somehow, found his clothes in the mess of boxes and bowls. Once he was prepared, they both, sneakily, went out of the village, toward the forest.

(Early Morning – The Forest)

"Brrr… It sure is chilly out there… a-a-ACHOOO!" complained a voice in the middle of the forest located near the gates of the Leaf Village.

"I told you to bring something warmer than a simple T-shirt." answered a second voice.

"If I'm going to train, I don't want to wear too many clothes: it would make it harder!"

"The sun is about to rise anyways, so the temperatures may just get better."

In the middle of the trees were walking Naruto, who was trembling because of the cold of the early morning, and Gohan who was lost in his thoughts for some reasons. They walked until they arrived at Gohan's usual training spot.

"Alright, here we are." the gashed declared, standing still and leaving his thoughts aside.

"Um… Why here, actually?" the blond asked.

"Because this place is spacious and the trees won't get in our way as long as we don't need them."

"Uh-huh, I get it…" the Uzumaki lied, pretending to understand the explanation of his friend "So, what are we waiting for?"

"Uh? Didn't I tell you before?" he said before looking in front of them, sensing someone coming near.

Indeed, coming out of the forest ahead was the silhouette of someone who seemed to be their age judging from its height. The most noticeable thing about him was his hair that was, despite the fact that we could see some colors on him now, dark and combed up. Speaking of colors, he was wearing a dark shirt with long sleeves and a pair of light gray Bermuda shorts… and dark sandals again!

"Good morning, Sasuke!" greeted Gohan upon recognizing the boy.

"S-Sasuke…?" Naruto repeated showing an amazing expression of disgust. However, it only took a few seconds before the disgust changed into anger. Clenching his fist, he ran toward the still walking raven-haired boy.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?!" he yelled at his face, spitting bits of saliva on his face in the process and forcing him to slightly turn his head because of that.

"Can't you keep your face at a good distance from me, idiot?"

"Who's the idiot?! Stop acting all great, duckbutt!"

"Whatever helps you to sleep at night, knucklehead."

Naruto wasn't showing any sign of letting his comrade's remarks slide and Sasuke was definitely ready to pay back his 'compliments' his own way. In the middle of these exchanges was Gohan who sighed in exasperation, wondering where he would be able to find the strength and, most importantly, the patience to deal with two students unable to bear each other's presence.

'I don't have much skill in dealing with kids, but now it is brought to another level…' he wondered, remembering that he was an adult in his mind and a kid in his appearance 'I noticed in the Academy that they didn't like each other much, but why such hate?'

"Alright, you two either stop fighting or you can give up your plans to train with me!" he shout getting right between their faces.

"He started it." complained the black haired boy.

"He should've stayed away from this whole training thing!"

Once again, Gohan could only sigh while holding his face in his palm (civilized people call this 'facepalm', for short)

"Naruto, I told you yesterday that Sasuke would join us for the training. Were you even listening to me at that moment?" he reminded his blond friend who just scratched his right cheek, as if it would help bring back his memory.

"Really?" is all he answered.

"I shouldn't have told you this after dinner, looks like you can't focus when you're sleepy…"

"Hnnn… Can we start training, now?" Sasuke interrupted his two classmates, obviously impatient to actually do something in this morning that was already ruined by the presence of the 'knucklehead' that would, from his point of view, only slow and disturb his pace.

"Yes, that's why we're here after all." the Hybrid answered, seeing that there was no point in arguing with Naruto.

Once he was sure that they stopped quarrelling, he cleared his throat to get their attention. But since he already had it, it was totally unnecessary.

"So, you're both here to get stronger, right?"

"Yeah!" they, unwillingly, answered in union, causing them to stare again at each other.

"But now the question is; can you tell me what you'll use this strength for?"

At this question, both were now staring at him, as if he asked an unfitting question or said something unclear. Naruto was the first to react to this.

"You mean what I'll do with it?" he asked.

"Yup!"

They both got back to their silent thinking. This time, Sasuke was the one answering first.

"If I get stronger, I'll finally show my family what I'm made of." he said, a little embarrassed to voice what he would've preferred to keep hidden. Gohan just nodded and then turned to look at the blond, waiting for his point of view.

"Well, I want to be the strongest here, and everyone will acknowledge me!" he declared, raising his fist to the sky. Satisfied with the answers he got, the Hybrid linked them together.

'Different ways of putting it, but both seem concerned about the same thing: the others' view on them.'

"Alright, I see where you guys are coming from. My training is pretty hard and harsh, but if you're patient and train every day, I can promise you that you'll improve. Everyone can find something in them that can give them an advantage on the others, so take what you have and work on improving it." he was expecting some reaction from them, truth being told. But they didn't seem too moved by his words; in fact he felt that they didn't get the real meaning of what he said… or maybe they didn't care?

"So, when do we start?" Sasuke dared to ask.

"Ah, err… Yeah." Gohan decided to just shrug it off and get down to business "So for starters, we'll warm up: let's have a jog all the way back to the village."

He pointed toward the horizon were the sun was barely appearing behind a line of mountains.

"We have to get there before the sun rises above these mountains. Then, I'll tell you what we'll do."

As soon as he said that, the trio started their early morning run to the gates of Konoha, with their stomachs still empty.

(Later – Konoha's entrance)

The kids arrived inside the village which's streets were still empty: as Gohan said, they reached the Leaf Village before the sun totally appeared in the horizon, and aside from the shop-owners opening their stores, and a few Chûnins/Jonins passing by, no activity really started yet.

"Gohaaaaan…" weakly called the prankster who was barely standing on his feet after that fasting morning exercise "When are we having breakfast? I'm starving…"

"I'll treat you two to something, once we're done with the little exercise I prepared for you." replied Gohan winking at them before resuming his walk inside the village.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at one another, both raising their eyebrows with confusion before running behind their mentor to catch up to him.

…

Eventually, the group arrived in front of the general goods store.

"Wait here; I'll be back in a minute." with that said, the trainer entered the store alone, leaving behind the two other boys waiting for his return.

The wait wasn't long though: indeed, the store's door opened then, after he picked something off the ground, Gohan came out carrying three cases filled with milk bottles put one on the other.

"Alright guys, each of you take a case, quick!" ordered the Hybrid.

"Why don't you use your other hand to carry them?" asked Sasuke.

"Err… j-just take it already!"

The Uzumaki and the Uchiha did as they were told to do, noticing on their cases pieces of paper with names and detailed addresses written on them, and questioningly looked at the boy with the cape, waiting his new instructions.

"Today," he started "we'll do some milk delivery. Normally, you just do that stuff slowly, but I want to see how fast you can deliver those bottles to their owners' houses: just drop them on their doorsteps. We each have twenty bottles in our cases, we each have a list of destinations… you know what to do now."

Thus, the milk delivering started. People usually get their milk from the supermarkets, nowadays, but there are still some persons, mostly elders, who keep paying a subscription for the traditional milk delivery service.

The little mission went without any noticeable incident, even Naruto managed to do his share of the job without getting lost or dropping the bottles. Sasuke, despite not actually living inside the village also found his way through the districts, trying to be as fast as he could, and eventually finishing his job ten minutes before Naruto. As for Gohan, he was done with his part in less than a minute, relaying on his speed, jumps and, when he was sure no one was looking, a bit of flight. He made sure to check on his friends, keeping track of the time.

It took his disciples fifty minutes (in Sasuke's case) and an hour (in Naruto's case) to be completely done with the delivery.

"*pant* So, were we fast enough?" asked an exhausted Uchiha. The mentally older boy looked at his companions: both were hardly catching their breaths, proving that they went as fast they could.

"That good for today, but remember that our goal is to improve: today, you did it in several minutes. Next time you'll try to do it in less time and so on."

He searched in his pocket before handing them a few coins.

"What's that?" asked Naruto.

"Hey, milk delivery isn't free, you know? We're getting paid on top of the training. Each of you take his share." after everyone got his payment, Gohan told them to follow him so that he could treat them to breakfast, as he promised.

…

…

After eating, they headed back outside the village, to the forest, so they could keep moving with the training.

Once there, the mentor had them do the basic warm-up exercises before telling them what their new objective would be.

"You guys see that small rock over there?" he asked. The boys looked at the said 'small rock' which was at least their height.

"I want you" the saiyan jumped all the way from his current spot to land, then sit, above the rock "… to try and make it move, even a little."

The two boys nodded, and then started arguing.

"I'll show you how it's done." Sasuke bragged, wanting to be the first to try.

He moved in front of the rock and started to push it with all his strength.

"Hnnnn…! Aaaaargh…!" no matter how much strength he used or how long he tried, the rock didn't seem to move.

"Hah! What were you saying, duckbutt?!" Naruto provoked his classmate, pushing him out of the way "Now you look how I'll handle it!"

Even with all that confidence, the blond wasn't more successful than the Uchiha.

"W-Why… are you… sitting on the rock…?!" he tried blaming Gohan's weight, but was unsuccessful.

"Come on, my weight isn't affecting the results: just admit you can't do… at least, not that way."

Naruto ended up being pushed away by Sasuke who was back for a retry.

'Oh boy… this is going to be a long morning…' the Hybrid thought.

…

…

The middle of the day was reached. In the end, neither was able to succeed and Gohan had to put an end to the exercise.

"That should do it for today. You can go home and rest a little." he announced.

"How about you?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, w-well… I'll wander around for a little longer, so don't wait for." he said, earning a glare from the raven haired boy.

'He's gonna train on his own, isn't he?' he thought to himself, remembering how he found him training a few days ago.

"When are you gonna teach me how to fly?" the Uchiha decided to ask, resulting in both Gohan and Naruto to make shocked faces.

"F-F-Fly?! You can do that?!" the Uzumaki asked with lights in his eyes.

"Heheh… That will be for later, alright?" the saiyan said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

After that, they said their goodbyes and each one went his way: Naruto returned to the village and Sasuke returned where his clan lived, which was at the outskirts of Konoha. As for Gohan, he remained in the forest as he planned it.

Even though he spent most of his time sitting, he decided to rest a little by meditating.

His mind first went to his friends and their training 'The kids really want to get stronger. Though Sasuke seems to be more talented than him, I can see that Naruto's giving it everything he's got. Right now, their weak spot is their team work: had I not stopped them a few times, they almost started fighting each other during the training.' he briefly opened his eyes to look at the rock his friends tried to move and sighed 'They had no chance of succeeding with this exercise… at least, not the way they tried to: I never told them to move it individually.'

Next, his thoughts were more centered on him 'There really isn't anyone able to match my strength here. I hope I don't get too soft: if I'm going to fight against the androids again, I need it to be the last. The only way for me to find a good opponent is to achieve the rank of Genin as soon as I can and travel this world in search for the Dragon Balls.'

'Gohan!' suddenly, he heard a voice calling him.

He opened his eyes and looked around; no one was there, but the voice seemed so close to him when it called.

'Gohan! Can you hear me?' no, it didn't come from anywhere around him: it actually was inside his head!

'T-That voice… No, you can't be…?!'

That was the seventh chapter! I know you guys who've been following this story have waited a long time, but I hope you can forgive me for my absence: when motivation leaves you, it just leaves you and you end up unable to do anything. Even like that, I can't promise to be more active, but I hope university life allows me more time than high school life.

Enough with my excuses, I just hope you enjoy this chapter and that you'll be able to see more in the near future. See you soon!