Despite the fact that he was supposed to be on holidays, Gohan couldn't quite turn off his brain from his business. Ever since he had the recent sales at satanic supplements where he had more money to play around with, his mind was littered with ideas.
The prototypes of the shirts and leggings he was making for Videl to test out were only the start of it. It lit a fire in Gohan though as it made him realise just how little of a market there was for clothes for those with more athletic / muscular bodies. Clothes just didn't sit the same way on muscle as they did on fat.
It was something that he inadvertently came across as he started training again. The muscle he put on made it harder to find well fitted clothes without a tailor. It was either way too loose around the waist for it to fit right on his upper body or far too constricting on his torso for it to fit right around his stomach.
All of this was the reason why Gohan was in his private room at the Capsule Compound rather than the room he should be in according to the school tour. He had hooked up his laptop to the dual monitor set up which allowed him to be more efficient.
The influx of money meant that the demi saiyan now had samples for a few different garments. The form fitting shirt and athletic shorts for men. A similar form fitting shirt for women and a tank top which was essentially the shirt without the sleeves. The garment that black haired boy was proudest about though was the women's leggings.
These were an item that Gohan had been working hard on with input from both Erasa from a fashion sense and Videl from a performance and fit sense due to her athletic nature and physique. What seemed to be the difference maker in these shorts was that Gohan had given a piece of material from his saiyan armour from way back which kept its shape even when he was in Oozaru form. Gohan got the clothing company to make samples using the saiyan armour as a blue print. This meant that no matter how much of a stretched position the pants in, Videl noticed that none of her body was showing which was great.
For the past week at the capsule compound, Videl had been wearing the leggings and had even had 5 girls come up to her asking about where she got them from. At this stage in the business' infancy, much like his supplement one, Gohan's best form of marketing was word of mouth.
The difference with these clothes and the gimmick shirts that he made a little while ago was that these clothes were not under the Oozaru brand. Gohan was taking Bulma's advice to heart in terms of diversifying his income sources.
The gimmick shirts with fitness puns were shirts that he planned on keeping with the Oozaru brand. These athletic performance clothes though, he created were of a much higher quality. He could already see it moving from a focus from performance clothes to streetwear with a similar fit and even potentially moving towards professional wear for those that like to go to the gym.
The Elite Physique trademark had just come through and now he could delegate Erasa and Lime to work on a logo before getting started on putting the clothes in stores, ready for consumption.
If the comments that Videl was getting though were anything to go by, this was promising.
x-X-x
Having put his laptop down as he had done enough work for this morning, Gohan quickly made his way to the gravity chamber. Today was the first time in around 7 years that Gohan was going to make a fabled transformation into super saiyan 2. Ascended saiyan was fairly easy for him now and he could maintain much the same way back when he was training for Cell.
He didn't have the ability to stay with gold hair all the time as he was hanging out with his friends. Now, he didn't have the same emotional stressors as what he had all of those years ago but Gohan was banking on the fact that subsequent times transforming after the first one are easier.
Gohan went through his normal warmup routine before quickly and effortlessly transforming into a super saiyan. He then went through another warmup at this level before making his way over to the gravity controls and turned it up to 200x, double what he had trouble with when he fought trunks a few months ago.
The transition to the gravity was seemless and Gohan showed no sign of it affecting him. Gohan then went into the ascended saiyan form and calmed himself down for the next big move.
Whilst on the outside Gohan looked like he had it all going for him, what with being from royalty, having a company that was making money and doing well, being incredibly smart and quite attractive, not everyone is perfect.
The thoughts of what happened on that fateful day haunted him still. Watching his friend Mirai Trunks get killed when he knew that he could have done something about it, much the same way Android 16 had to sacrifice his life. Neither of those two deserved to die and it was because of his inability that it happened.
As these thoughts were running through the mind of Gohan, his hair started flowing erratically due to the wind picking up its pace. Fists were clenched, veins were becoming more prominent and blood was flushed to his muscles, making them larger in addition to the influx of Ki.
Most of all though, Gohan was pissed off at a multitude of actions that ultimately ended with his younger brother not being able to have a father. "Ahhh!" Gohan screamed loudly, not caring if anyone was in hearing distance. The building shook as Gohan's Ki skyrocketed in size.
When he opened his eyes, the teenage saiyan noticed that there was lightning scattering around his body, much like it did on that infamous day. He was back in super saiyan two and it felt better than ever!
Unlike what most would do in this situation, Gohan decided to not train.
He knew that he needed to gain control over his emotions in this form to prevent anything close to what happened the last time he was in this state. So instead of training, Gohan sat down in a cross legged stance and started meditating.
This was the scene that Vegeta and trunks came to. The saiyan prince woke up when he felt the surge in power and couldn't get back to sleep since it was so close to his normal wake up time. Knowing how much trunks wanted to see one of the older saiyans max out, he decided to wake up his son, to showcase what a true super saiyan was. Despite the amount of shit he gave the eldest offspring of Kakarott, Vegeta grudgingly respected the amount of potential the boy had.
Indirectly giving Trunks motivation was a mere side benefit.
"Wow You're so strong Gohan!" Trunks gushed as he looked on with awe at one of his role models. To see the amount that Gohan had changed over the past six months was nothing short of incredible. In the back of his mind, it made the purple haired boy want to work that much harder. Now that he had seen what was possible.
"Haha thanks Trunks! I'm just trying to get used to it. It's nothing impressive yet. If you want to see someone who can control this easily, look to your left." Gohan replied with a bit of a smirk. He was still feeling the effects of being cocky thanks to Super Saiyan Two.
The Capsule Corporation heir immediately turned to the left and stared right at his dad with a look of desperation and awe. Vegeta knew exactly what Gohan was doing and for once, he decided to go along with it. Trunks had yet to see his own Super Saiyan Two form so at this point, Bakarott's eldest had shown the highest power level out of the two of them.
He couldn't have his son thinking that he wasn't the strongest. With ease, Vegeta quickly transformed into an Ascended Saiyan. "This is a Super Saiyan and this is a Super Saiyan Two." The difference in time that it took Gohan to transform compared to Vegeta was laughable. It took Vegeta 2 seconds whilst it took Gohan 5 minutes.
I need to up my training. To think the brat is capable of getting this strong this quickly… Even if it is easier to regain strength rather than gain it for the first time. Let it be known that even Vegeta fell victim to relaxing when there was no competition around. Now though there was a new potential challenger worthy of his attention, he needed to up his game.
x-X-x
"Did anyone feel that earthquake this morning?" Sharpner questioned. Whilst it had become a phenomenon over the last decade that West City experienced a lot of random, unexplainable earthquakes, he didn't expect to feel one.
Gohan had the decency to look sheepish when Sharpner mentioned this. "Yeah, I noticed it."
The blonde haired teen looked at his friend after finishing the food in his mouth. "I bet. So what'd you go and do this morning. I mean when I woke up you were gone."
This was news to Marker. Erasa and Videl who all looked on with curiosity. They were surprised someone actually wanted to get up that early. "Well I was doing some business stuff. I got confirmation that I now have the patent on the new material for the leggings and I also have the name Elite Physique trademarked so I can start selling the clothes that Erasa, Lime, Videl and myself have been working on."
"That's great!" Erasa squealed with hearts in her eyes. Ever since Gohan had shifted her focus away from the social media and onto being his assistant, she couldn't have been happier. This completely surprised the girl but the end result was what she was working at and she knew that it was getting that much closer.
They were within touching distance of launching their first product which she had put so much effort into. Now all they had to do was get it produced in higher quantities and sell it to stores. The fact that she had had a few of the girls at school asking to get some gave her confidence that it would do well.
"That and I did some early morning training."
This got Videl's interest as she was very keen to find out just what Gohan did for training given that he was very good. She hadn't seen him train hard and wanted to know if there was anything she could do to improve.
"What did you do, were you working on form or were you doing some sparring?"
Gohan looked a bit uncomfortable, something which Sharpner picked up on but didn't comment. The only reason why Gohan was uncomfortable was because he knew that Videl wasn't going to accept this answer and demand more information. "All I did was some meditation and stretching."
It was as if it was fate that before Gohan could get interrogated more, Bulma walked into the cafeteria and spoke up. "Alright kids, you have an hour from now until we meet up in the sports wing where we will go and meet the West City Yankees and see how much technology is helping sports teams get better. Word has it that Yamcha Bandit is going to be there to meet you guys."
"Oh man I would love to meet him. He's arguably the best baseball player ever!" Marker said with hearts in his eyes.
"I'll introduce you to him then. He's an alright guy." Gohan offhandedly mentioned as he went back to using his phone for a second.
"You know Yamcha!?" Marker asked with emphasis, Videl asked with curiosity.
"Uh huh. He's been a family friend since long before I was born. He was the one who taught me about baseball."
"Never would I suspect that the family friend you told me about would also be the best player to have ever played the sport…" Marker said in pure disbelief.
Videl was in a similar frame of mind. It went against everything she was raised by. If you had an avenue to fame, you used it. At least that was her father's motto. For someone like Gohan to be so nonchalant and down playing his connection to famous people was completely foreign.
It was at this time that Videl remembered the interaction that she had with her idol DJ SevenTeen. Gohan was very similar in that situation as well. First DJ SevenTeen, Second Bulma freaking Briefs and now Yamcha Bandit! Just how many famous people did he know!? She intended on finding out by the end of this holiday. Maybe Gohan knew Saiyaman?
"Haha, yeah. It's just that I don't want anyone to think I'm special because of my connections. I want people to think I'm special because the see how awesome I am!" Videl rolled her eyes at this but she could see the point behind the sarcasm.
Once the group finished breakfast, they headed over to the waiting area which Bulma requested.
"Hey kids, how's it going? You guys ready for something interesting?" Bulma questioned to which the group cheered.
"Well the West City Yankees have agreed to come and have a small chat with you guys. There will be a couple of players coming over to sign some autographs, and take some selfies. You can also ask them some questions. Now form a line." Bulma said to which all kids did just that.
At the front of the line were the football players and right behind them was Marker. Despite his favourite team being the Satan City Orange Sox and the West City Yankees being the arch rival, this was a once in a life time opportunity that he was not going to turn down.
The first people went from the football team went through and it was now Marker's turn and he was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Yamcha hadn't really being paying attention. He was just going through the motions and was only doing it as a favour for Bulma. The fact that she also paid his pay check by owning the team also had something to do with it. When the brown haired kid came up, he seemed a bit awkward.
It was then he felt a power spike that could have only come from one source. Actually paying attention for once and looked over the shoulder of the boy and saw none other than Gohan. "Bro didn't expect to see you here! Nice to see that you've gone back to training, looking good. I bet you get a lot of attention from the girls at your school." Yamcha said with a big grin on his face.
Unlike the old Gohan though, this one smirked, much to the surprise of on the baseball star's face. Just from the look in his eyes, Yamcha could tell that Gohan had indeed grown up a lot over the last six months. School was good for him it seemed.
"Haha school has been fun. Hey you know that favour you owe me for… Well I'm cashing it in now." Everyone in the room went still. No one in the school believed the comments that Gohan was making. How did he know the best baseball player enough to be able to ask something like that? Even his circle of friends were surprised. They didn't know he could ask favours like that!
"Oh that's a big call to make. What are you thinking?"
Gohan responded merely by looking in the direction of Marker. Immediately Yamcha started laughing. "Trust you to be looking out for your friends. You're just like your dad." As the Bandit said this, he turned his attention to Marker.
I thought Gohan said that he saw his father as a disappointment. Ehh better not bring that up.
"So kid, what's your name?" Yamcha questioned as he held out his hand.
Marker who was initially in a state of shock quickly shook Yamcha's hand. "My name is Marker and I am a huge baseball fan. It's an honour to meet you!" the glasses wearing boy eagerly replied.
"Awesome! You know I tried to get Gohan into baseball when he was younger but he was never really interested in it." Yamcha said with a smirk.
"Hey!" Gohan replied quickly. "You're just saying that because my mum said no and you were to chicken shit to argue against her."
A bead of sweat fell down the side of Yamcha's face whilst he heard Bulma giggle in the background. "Can you blame me!? Your mum's death stare is what nightmares are made out of. She's the scariest lady I know."
"Sounds like a good role model." Videl commented with a grin on her face. This woman sounded like someone she would want to meet. The fact that she could hopefully get secrets about Gohan was a side benefit. She even forgot that she was the crown princess of Fire Mountain.
That got Gohan to go quiet for a bit, enough for Yamcha to redirect the conversation. "So Marker, how about you ask me a question and I'll answer it and then I ask you one and then you answer it?" The boy quickly nodded.
"Right, so I've been following your career ever since you started playing baseball and have done research into your past. You were a highly competent martial artist" there was a convenient cough in the background at this point that Yamcha chose to ignore. "That then went on to become arguably the best ever baseball player. How are you able to be so good at both?"
Impressed by the question presented to him, Yamcha responded. "Surround yourself with people who are the best at what they do. My closest friends are Bulma who is the richest person in the world due to her hard work and incredible intelligence. Another good friend of mine is the Crown Princess of Fire Mountain who at the moment is transitioning the Monarchy into a parliament and last but not least, I am good friends with the best ever martial artist Son Goku."
Parer who was a massive Hercule fan spoke up in the background. "But what about Hercule?"
Yamcha looked at the kid, scoffed and turned his attention back to Marker. Gohan chuckled whilst Videl was annoyed. That's the second person to openly discredit my dad. I wonder why, I mean he is the world champion!
"My point is that you want to surround yourself with people you know are going to succeed that you can feed off of. They say that you are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. If you surround yourself with people who are either successful or trying to be successful, you will pick up on the positive traits that they use and it will help you out."
As Yamcha said this, Marker couldn't help but think about his friend Gohan. He was already achieving more than what most people did by 30 at the age of 18. He had one company that was able to hire 5 staff and was in the process of starting another company. That combined with the natural charisma and innate leadership ability he exuded, he knew that Gohan was going to make it big.
Marker was not the only one having these thoughts as Erasa who was in the audience was having thoughts much the same. She couldn't wait to see what would happen as she learnt from Gohan and grew as a business woman.
"So Marker, what do you want to do when you get done with school?"
Put on the spot, the boy responded. "Oh well I want to be a website designer. I already have a site that I manage and I'm in the process of building another."
"Oh cool, I'm hopeless with all of that tech stuff. Hey what's your phone number?"
Confused at the sudden request, Marker stumbled for a second but not before giving out his number. Never in a million years did he think that he would be giving his phone number to Yamcha freaking Bandit!
"Sweet. I'll speak to our IT team and get them to put me in contact with whatever company we use to design our website. I'm sure they have a whole bunch of others that they do as well. I'll send you a text in a few days but I'm sure I can get you a two-week internship."
Marker was truly gobsmacked. Never in a million years did he expect something like this popping up when he joined this trip. One of the fears he had for working for Gohan was that if it turned into a full time role, it would mean that he would the most experienced person with very little actual experience.
If this worked out, he could learn a lot more during this time then what he would if he was by himself.
Then he realised what Gohan said at the start. He quickly turned around to his friend and offered out his closed fist. Gohan immediately knocked and when they locked eyes, Gohan nodded and smiled which Marker mirrored.
x-X-x
As the day finished, fresh from eating a tonne of food Gohan retreated back to his room, keen for some sleep. Sharpner was much the same.
"Hey Sharpner, there's been something on my mind that I feel is as good as any time to tell you." Gohan made sure that the door was locked so that no one could enter in on this conversation.
Initially, he didn't know what this was about but when he saw the look in the eyes of Gohan, this was not a time to joke around. It was a serious conversation. Curious and concerned, he waited.
"As you may or may not know, there a quite a lot of things that I like to keep private. Keeping things a secret though makes it hard to really relax as a person because I'm always living in fear of certain people and the general populace finding out. Also, I feel like I'm being a bad friend for keeping you guys in the dark."
"Bro, you know you can tell me anything and I won't judge you or treat you differently right? I mean I haven't used or told anyone about you being a prince." Sharpner replied to which Gohan nodded. He knew that he had made the right choice. Gohan knew that Sharpner was the best person to tell his stuff to willingly. Lime didn't count as she already saw his saiyan side.
"Thanks. It means a lot to me but you have to promise that you won't tell anyone what you find out today. Except for people that already knew me before coming to Orange Star High." When he got a nod, he continued on. "You know those powers that Saiyaman uses right? Those flashing balls which explode?" Well, have a look at this." Gohan then held out his hand and a small ball of yellow light appeared in the center.
"W-w-what is that?" Sharpner who was at a loss for words managed to stammer out. Never before had he seen anything like this.
"That is something called Ki. If you want, put your hand close to it but don't touch it. It's quite hot." Gohan commented to which Sharpner brought his hand closer to Gohan's. He could definitely feel the heat coming off of it
"That's intense! So that's what they use instead of 'smoke and mirrors' as Hercule puts it."
Gohan nodded. "Yes. Ki is something that everyone can learn how to control. I have a genetic predisposition to it."
"So this energy stuff, you can use it to do other things such as fly and make bullets useless?" Sharpner questioned, putting one and two together.
Gohan once again nodded. "Yes. You can do that and I do that to become Saiyaman." Gohan pre-emptively stated. He knew that question was going to come up when it he started this conversation.
"That's so impressive man. Hey thanks for doing that to save Videl. I know she gets into some situations that she probably shouldn't. Plus, despite what she says about Saiyaman, we know that she is grateful for the help that he provides."
"Thanks, that means a lot. Oh and there is something else that you can do with Ki" Gohan mentioned offhandedly. He then proceeded to take off his shirt, to the surprise of the blonde haired teen. Channelling some Ki throughout his body, Gohan's muscles noticeably grew in size.
Sharpner was practically salivating in the utter awe. "Oh my man, you're going to have to teach me that." Drool was almost leaking out of his mouth. He was just thinking of the possibilities of what something like this could do to his intentions of a bodybuilding career.
The whole reason why Gohan was showing him was just that. Ever since he had been training and putting on muscle, he had been getting comments that people thought he couldn't hear about steroids. Gohan then realised that it was something that Sharpner was eventually going to have to do if he wanted to compete.
By showing him Ki, he hoped that Sharpner would Learn how to use this to augment muscles rather than use anabolic steroids. Of course it wasn't going to be easy but he knew that Sharpner had done martial arts previously before so he hoped it wouldn't take too long.
Author's Note: As previously mentioned in recent Naruto story updates, there's no real explanation for lack of updates except for changing life priorities as I get older.
Also, the intent of this story is meant to be similiar to a TV show called How to make it in America. Essentially rags to riches and watch how they protagonists rise to the top. Whilst there is a fair amount of 'business' in this story, I try to make it more about the interactions and how that effects the characters rather than just listing numbers.