Chapter Fourteen

After the tournament

Naturally, the celebration after the tournament consisted of eating dinner in the nearby restaurant. Goku had exhausted himself, and was so hungry it hurt, if the look on his face was an indication. I still had huge amounts of energy left, but I was still a saiyan. Saiyans are always hungry.

It didn't take long before Goku and I were the only ones still eating. Everyone else had finished, and were now looking at us in astonishment as we consumed bowl after bowl of various kinds of food. The waiters kept running back and forth, alternating between carrying empty and full plates. I vaguely noticed someone's food falling from his mouth at another table as he stared at us.

Glancing at Goku, I noticed that he was already putting away his twelfth bowl, while I was only hallway through it. Quickly finishing it up I grabbed my next one, concentrating on catching up. There was no way I would lose a speed-eating contest with my father when he was a kid. Even if he didn't know it was a contest.

For the next several minutes the restaurant was silent, except for the sounds of us eating diligently and the occasional whisper between the other customers. After a while however, it seemed Master Roshi got a little impatient.

"Boys, I'd like to congratulate both of you on an excellent tournament," he said to his pupils. "You know everything I have to teach you. It's time for you both to go out into the world, and continue your training on your own."

"Ok," Goku mumbled through a mouthful of rice. "I'll think I'll go find my grandpa's Dragon Ball."

"A Dragon Ball? What do you need one of those for, Goku?" Yamcha asked.

"It's a keepsake of my grandfather. I'd really like it back. And it should also be good training," Goku explained quickly after swallowing. Master Roshi nodded approvingly.

"What are you going to do Krillin?" he then asked his other student.

"I don't know. Can't I stay with you and train some more, Master Roshi? I think you could teach me a great deal more." Krillin said.

Master Roshi looked at him for a second, but then nodded again in response. Though I noticed an odd crestfallen expression on his face for some reason.

"What will you do now, Goten?" Bulma suddenly asked me.

"Um, I don't really know. I'll just continue training, I guess..." I said, after carefully swallowing my food. I wasn't sure how to say I'd like to go with them, I had only known them for a day, after all.

After that I quickly dove into the food again, Goku was getting a lead on me again.

"Hey! Maybe you can come with me! We could train together, and I could learn a lot from you. You're a great martial artist," Goku said excitedly, spraying bits of food around the table.

It was at times like this that I loved my father. Sometimes I really wondered whether he didn't just sense these kinds of things. Somehow he had proposed the one thing I wanted the most.

"Sure, I'd like that. I'm certain you could teach me a lot as well." I agreed happily.

We then finished up dinner, stopping only when an employee came to tell us that all the food was gone. Goku and I looked a bit disappointedly at each other, but decided we had probably had enough.

There was some discussion about who would pay the bill, but I managed to make everyone agree to let me pay it. I wouldn't have any other use for the prize money anyway.

Yamcha offered everyone a ride, but Goku declined, saying he'd like to leave already. Goku took his stuff from Master Roshi, and called for the Flying Nimbus. He climbed on, and then turned to me.

"Come on Goten! You can't come if you can't ride Nimbus. You just need a pure heart, so you should be all right," Goku said impatiently. I smiled at his confidence and quickly jumped on behind him.

"Bye!" we both shouted towards the others, and Goku sent the Nimbus flying off at high speeds.

I had flown far faster in my life, but there was something special about doing it with my father, and it was also fun that I didn't actually have to fly myself. I just had to sit, and enjoy the changing scenery.

"So, where are we going exactly?" I asked.

Goku just pointed to the horizon in front of us. "The radar says there's a Dragon Ball there."

I just nodded in response, and after that we spent a long time just sitting in silence. Goku's happy smile never falling, he looked really excited about going on an adventure. I was excited as well. I was pretty sure this was when my father defeated the Red Ribbon army.

As I was trying to imagine my young father beating up grown men with guns, I suddenly felt a weight pressing against my left shoulder. I looked down and saw Goku sleeping, leaning against me. He looked comfortable, so I decided to leave him. He was probably really tired from our match.

I carefully picked up Goku's bag, making sure not to make sudden movements. Though if he was in any way similar to his future self, I could throw him off the cloud and he wouldn't wake up. I took out the Dragon Radar and looked at it. I pressed the button, and slightly adjusted the Flying Nimbus' course. I just hoped we wouldn't pass the Dragon Ball while we both were asleep.

I just stared at the passing, unchanging blackness of the Moonless night after that. Happy to be there. And eventually drifted asleep myself.

When I woke up in the morning, it was to the sight of us flying over a small river, the water sparkling in the dawning sun's light. I sat enjoying the view for a few minutes, as the Flying Nimbus dutifully followed the river's path.

After a few minutes, Goku woke up as well.

"Huh, it's morning already?" he said, looking at the rising sun in surprise.

"Good morning, Goku," I greeted him, amused.

"Morning Goten! Are we nearly there?"

"It should be just a bit further," I told him, holding out the Dragon Radar.

"Really? That's great! I hope this one is my grandpa's ball."

Just a few moments after he said that, Goku suddenly steered the Nimbus to the ground.

"Why are we landing already? I don't think we're there yet…"

"I'm thirsty," Goku said, jumping of the cloud and getting on his knees at the river. I could hear him drinking loudly for a short while, and then he reappeared beside me again.

"Let's go!" he shouted, once he was seated.

But, before he could tell the Flying Nimbus to take off again, I quickly interrupted him by jumping to the ground.

"Do you mind if I run? I want to stretch my legs a bit."

"Okay!" Goku agreed enthusiastically. "You'll have to run fast to keep up though!" He shouted as he sped off.

Recognising the challenge, I sprinted forward, intending on getting there before him. Temporarily forgetting that I didn't know the exact destination.

After about five minutes, I had caught up to Goku and was running alongside him, him being astounded over my speed. I knew I was supposed to keep myself in check, but I couldn't resist it. I loved it too much when my dad got all amazed over how powerful I was. Goku then suddenly lowered the Nimbus, quickly landing a few feet in front of me.

I just barely managed to avoid crashing in to him. But just as I was about to ask why he did that, he answered already.

"It's really close by," he said excitedly.

It was then that I noticed two men close by, who had been searching nearby bushes, but then looked up in surprise as we appeared.

"Hey, kids! What're you doing here? Where did you come from?"

Goku ignored them and just started searching through the bushes himself, occasionally looking at the radar.

I however, kept my eye on them, I didn't like the guns on their belts. Just as I had that thought, one of them, the burlier one, took his out and pointed it at Goku.

"What're you doing here! You're not allowed to be here!" he shouted angrily.

Goku just ignored him again and kept searching, yelling after a few more seconds, "found it!" and holding a Dragon Ball up high. Then he examined it closely and looked disappointed the next moment.

"Six stars. This isn't my grandpa's ball."

One of the two guys, the one not holding his gun, pointed at the ball.

"Hey kid! How'd you find that?"

"Never mind that," the other said. "Just hand it over, that belongs to the Red Ribbon army!"

"I'm not giving it if you don't ask nicely!" Goku said stubbornly.

I moved towards Goku, ready to catch a bullet should one be fired. The second guy had also taken out his gun by now. He pointed it at me.

"Hand it over or die!" the impatient man shouted.

"No I won't!" Goku shouted. Then he charged at the man and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him out against a rock.

The moment Goku moved, I attacked the second guy. I decided to be a little more careful, and just knocked him down hard, but he seemed to still be conscious.

"I'll better keep this Dragon Ball, I think," Goku said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I think we should," I said quickly, before he changed his mind.

We then quickly climbed back on the Flying Nimbus, and Goku told it to go towards our next location, somewhere in the north. Goku then carefully put the Dragon Ball in his bag with the Dragon Radar.

After a short while, however, I suddenly saw something from the corner of my eyes. It looked like some sort of missile, headed straight for us.

Acting on instinct, I quickly blew it up with an energy blast. But I regretted it immediately afterwards. Not only wasn't I supposed to know energy attacks, but it was also way overpowered. And the missile wasn't strong enough to really hurt me or Goku either. Even the Flying Nimbus could've survived it without trouble. It was too late to change it now though.

To my surprise, however, Goku didn't say anything about it. He suddenly jumped of the Flying Nimbus, taking his bag with him. He landed in front of a person in a black coat, bearing a red ribbon insignia, and a bazooka lying by his side.

"You attacked us!" he accused.

"My men were right, you are exceptional. I'm afraid I'll have to take that Dragon Ball from you, however." He said, ignoring Goku's words, and snatching the bag with the Dragon Balls from his hands.

I quickly jumped down, but judging from what I could sense about his power level, this wasn't a guy I had to worry about. Goku could easily take him.

"Hey! That's mine!" Goku shouted, before snatching his bag back. Shocking the man as it suddenly disappeared from his hands. But he quickly recovered.

"A really exceptional kid. But I assure you, you stand no chance against me, Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon Army!" The man then took of his coat, showing off his muscles, obviously proud of them, and thinking it would intimidate us.

"Oh yeah? Well see about that!" Goku said in the serious voice he only uses in fights.

Colonel Silver attacked first. He just charged forward and aimed a punch for Goku's head. Goku just ducked and kicked him in the stomach, making him double over in pain. Then all it took was a punch to his head and he was knocked out.

"Let's go Goten," Goku said.

I just nodded and followed him back onto Flying Nimbus. The next moment we were speeding away from an unconscious Colonel Silver, towards the next Dragon Ball.

I am sorry once again for taking so long to update. I would've gotten this up a few weeks ago, but this chapter gave me endless amounts of trouble, I had to fight me a way through it. I hope it turned out all right in the end, I'm personally still not very happy with it though.

Next, I have a piece of good news for you. I've taken the challenge to update this story once a week, so there should be frequent updates from now on. In case you are curious, in my profile there's a link to the amazing forum where you can find this challenge. Actually, you should all just check it out because it's a really fun forum.

I would also like to thank everyone who has read this story, I recently reached twenty thousand hits on this one, which is really amazing. I hope you haven't all given up on it because of my slow updates, I know how annoying that can be, and I apologise for it. But as I said above, I'm going to try to update more often now.

Anyway, I'll see you all next week in chapter fifteen.

PS: If I manage to update once a week until the story is finished, I predict I'll be done in about a year.