"You don't need to hide yourself under that cloak all the time, you know?" She grabbed the hat of his cloak and pulled it off, revealing very spiky, but short hair.

He scratched the back of his head, while laughing nervously. "Right."

"Soon, you will no longer have to hide." She turned her head towards the moon, to appreciate its light.

Two teenagers were sitting on the grass, in the clearing of a forest. In front of them, a river gave the environment a relaxing sound. Grass was short, but still more comfortable than expected.

One of them was a girl, of short green hair and eyes of a slightly darker tone, resembling black. She wore a simple lime colored shirt, with a long dress-like red skirt, that hid the shorts of the same color she used underneath. Her forehead protector was put around her neck, and had the symbol of two rocks together.

The other one was a boy, of very spiky hair. It was shorter than it had been at one point, though. He wore a white cloak above his purple attire. He wore no forehead protector at the time, as he found it uncomfortable.

They were sitting right next to each other.

"And you will be able to study as much as you want." She turned to face the boy once again, and gave him a warm smile.

He smiled back. And then, silence.

The two of them swiftly turned to see the moon again, as soon as the silence got uncomfortable. They were not used to staring at each other's face without saying a word, so the weird feeling they got made them blush. It was unusual for them.

"And, how did you meet Kimimaro?" She said, without moving.

He grinned, his sight still fixated on the shining moon. "It's not that long of a story, now that I think about it."

"Huh, really? Thought it would be long since you seem so close now!" Replied the girl.

"Well, I did give up on a lot of things to save him, so that makes up for it, I guess." His smile acquired a feeling of nostalgia, and the girl sitting next to him noticed. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Well, he was with Orochimaru back in the day, you must know him."

"I've heard stories, yeah."

"A friend of us, Sasuke, escaped the village to go with him. And I met Kimimaro as an enemy." As memories flooded his mind, his chest began to feel oddly empty. "But he wasn't like the other soldiers. I felt good intentions in him. A power I have lost, sadly."

"You've gotten weaker from what you've told me, is it because of lack of training?" She turned to look at him.

"I guess..." He lowered his head. The two remained in silence for a short moment. "I killed Orochimaru that day."

The green-haired girl widened her eyes in shock. And the boy of the spiky hair turned to look at her reaction. He smiled. It was the same reaction he had gotten from everyone.

"And as I went back, with my severely injured friend in my arms, I found him unconscious." He put his hand over his forehead. "I'm still not sure if it was a mistake, but I decided to save him. I promised an old friend I would protect the living beings of this planet, and that's exactly what I did and still try my best to do."

"That's a noble promise, Gohan." She moved her hand away from his shoulder.

"But not everybody agrees with that opinion. Me rescuing him was understood as treason, and they launched a search for him, to capture him." Any trace of a smile had disappeared from his face at this point. "To save his life, I had to take him away. And I chose to give up on my life at the Leaf to keep him alive."

"Woah..." She put her hands back on the floor, while still looking at the boy. "That's a very big sacrifice."

"Maybe." Before the girl could say anything else, he threw a question back at her. "And how did you meet the rest?"

"Ah," she scratched the back of her head. "That's a longer story."

"I have time!"

"You always have time," she giggled. "Okay. I met them after I was kicked out of the Stone. And after I was kicked from the Sound."

Gohan swiftly turned to look at her. "You were at the Sound?!"

"Yeah..." She moved her face away from his eyes, not knowing if she could cross glances with him without breaking. "But what's important is that I met them when I had nothing or no one to live for."

He nodded.

"They were just like me. They either didn't remember their past or didn't want to remember it. They had nothing, they were starving and they had been led to believe they were too weak for this world."

"And you all turned out to be some of the strongest people I've met here." Said the boy, catching the girl by surprise.

She blushed, and giggled a bit. "Thank you for killing that monster, Gohan."

"I really don't like killing..." Replied the boy of the spiky hair. "But I've had to learn the hard way that, sometimes, it's necessary."

"You did the right thing. You always do." She said, turning to give him a reassuring smile.

The two stared at each other in silence. The wind blowing through their hair. Neither of them knew for how long they had been sitting there, just talking to each other. However, they did knew time had flown by.

They were lost in the eyes of the other. This feeling was new for both. Two kids raised with violence and cruelty, learning the gentle touch of a partner. Their hands were together, grabbing each other.

When they realized, their noses were touching, and their lips connected. Instinctively, they closed their eyes, and just let the new sensation fill their minds. A new soft sensation. A warm exchange.

But what seemed as an eternity, was actually a very short instance. The two finally separated, slowly, and opened their eyes once again.

Staring at each other's eyes felt different now. Better than before, even though not too long ago that would seem as an impossible thing. With their hands still together, they smiled at each other.

"I'm lucky to have met you, Erimaki." Said the saiyan.

"So am I to have met you, Gohan."

Giggles began to be heard in the background, and the two snapped out of their newfound reality. The warmth, the feeling of safety, the wish for that moment to never end, was interrupted.

"I really hate interrupting this moment, but it was just so cute I couldn't avoid it!" Said a young man, with a green forehead protector and long brown hair.

"Dobe!" Erimaki yelled, noticeably annoyed.

"You disappeared from the village for several hours, what did you expect?" He tried his best to hold back the laughs.

"Definitely not the Shizenkage himself to look for us!" She replied. "Don't you have work to do?"

"I am doing my job." He shrugged, moving his olive green cape away to show his arms. "Interesting info has come from the Rain."

Gohan stood up at the mention of that village, while the girl raised an eyebrow. The man of the green forehead protector nodded.

"Pain?" She asked.

"The Leaf has found out about your plans and intends to collaborate with the Stone, so you might want to speed up your plans." He explained, with a plain face.

Erimaki punched the floor before standing up. Her hands began shaking, and then she tapped the side of her legs with her fingers. A motor tic of hers. Then, she just played with the ribbon on her wrist to try and suppress it.

"Why... Why do they have to get into other people's business?!"

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Asked the saiyan.

The Shizenkage remained silent for a moment, expecting the pair to guess by themselves, but with the lack of answer he decided to tell them directly. "I am afraid it is. Three years is more than enough for them to finally find you. There's not much we can do about that."

"It's not your fault that you are being chased by those warmongers," she put her hand over his chest, and then began tapping softly over it unconsciously. "They have not learned their lesson, yet."

"You will continue to have our support, however. We believe you will make a good leadership of a great nation like the Stone." The Shizenkage grabbed his traditional hat, like that of any other Kage, but with a light green color and the word 'Grass' written on it with kanji.

"Thank you, Dobe, really." Erimaki gave him a genuine smile, while still tapping over the saiyan's chest.

He put the hat back on. "I just wonder when you will stop tapping."

Gohan laughed softly along with the Shizenkage, while Erimaki blushed as she realized and pulled her hand back.

"But that was it, so I'll leave you alone now." He waved them off and before either could say anything, he disappeared into a cloud of smoke. On the floor, only a pile of grass was left.

Erimaki cleared her throat, not sure of what to say after all that had happened in the last moments. However, she was surprised as she felt the arms of the saiyan wrap around her. Surprised, but relieved in a way.

The sound of steps were the only thing that could be heard on the hallway. It was unusually empty. A jounin, with visibly tired eyes, escorted a younger boy to the office of the Hokage.

The boy was in his early teens, he had short and spiky brown hair that combined with his also brown eyes, and wore a very long blue scarf. He was the one to open the door of the office as they reached it. The sickly jounin followed, though reluctantly.

Inside, the Hokage, a blonde woman of a considerably sized chest, was talking with two jounin. One of them had black hair tied in a tail, and wore his forehead protector on his arm. The other one, was another man, though noticeably older, of silver hair and with red tattoos on his face.

The sudden opening of the door called the attention of all of them. However, the Fifth was happy to see the boy of the blue scarf, and beckoned the two to enter the room.

"I see you have arrived. The timing is ideal!" Said the woman, getting a nod from the boy.

As the boy of the scarf stepped into the room, he saw the faces of the other jounin, and recognized the two. The older one was Yuichi Senju, assistant of his grandfather when he was still the Hokage, student of the Sannin Jiraiya, and also the teammate of the legendary Fourth Hokage. The one of the ponytail was several years younger. Shikamaru Nara, heir of his clan, student of his uncle Asuma and former teammate of Gohan before he disappeared.

There was something different about Shikamaru's eyes, however. Before, he was never specially cheerful, but for some reason he felt as though they were even colder than before. Something he expected to see in someone like Sasuke, rather than him.

"Ah, Konohamaru." Said Nara, who glanced at the boy. "You've grown quite a lot."

"Heir of the Sarutobi..." Yuichi analyzed the boy. "I hope your training in the realm of the monkeys was as good as the Third claimed."

Konohamaru just nodded at all the comments.

"Your arrival is just perfect in timing, as we were talking about the plans for the mission in the Stone Village." Explained the Fifth. "We have finally confirmed the location of the so-called golden warrior, who escaped from the village three years ago. And I'm seriously thinking including you, since you came back from the training with Enma."

"I can include him alongside Naruto, since the two are finally back." Said Shikamaru, turning back to face the Hokage.

"He is in the Stone?"

"If we are to believe the Tsuchikage, yes." Replied Yuichi.

"Now we have to take advantage of this chance and capture him before it's too late to contain him." Shikamaru added. "His sole existence is a threat to the Leaf and its interests. We are in danger if someone like him takes over the Stone."

"Takes over?" Konohamaru was confused with everything that was being said.

Hayate, the sickly jounin, placed a hand over the newly arrived boy's shoulder. Sarutobi noticed this, and weirdly was not bothered by it. Rather, he felt oddly comforted.

"He has allied with a terrorist group, one more in the gigantic net that works for Akatsuki, and they intend to overthrow the Tsuchikage very soon." Explained Nara, not moving a single inch. "However, we will stop him before he can do anything."

"How?"

This time, Shikamaru stood up. The speed and intensity with which he stood up made the other people in the room flinch. Konohamaru was weirded out by his unusual behaviour. He had definitely missed important details during his years of training.

"I have spent ever since becoming a jounin designing the perfect plan to contain him. I've written down every move he has ever done or we know he has ever done. Every possible thing he could do, every person or creature he has defeated in battle. I've found his weaknesses and I've designed a battle plan with several people involved. We will need to overwhelm him, and every person I require already knows about it. Adding you it's just a plus and doesn't need major adjustments, other than explaining it to you in detail." He explained, impressing everyone in the room except for the pair that had recently entered it.

Konohamaru was startled. Were they gonna kill Gohan? That could not possibly be right, could it?

"I expected to be able to have time to include Konohamaru in the team, since it's been incomplete from the beginning." Interrupted Hayate, directing his words to the blonde woman.

"I can include your team, too, if you want to. But that will take longer." Shikamaru said before the Hokage had the chance.

Tsunade was slightly annoyed by this, but she knew she needed that obsession from the Nara, so she tried her best not to shut him up. "Your inclusion is not necessary."

"I want to participate. We will have plenty of time to get to know each other well, teacher Hayate!" Konohamaru cheerfully said, getting a nod from the jounin.

"Then so it is. Just make sure to come back alive, your friends miss you." Replied the gecko enthusiast, with his usual plain tone.

"It's settled then," declared the silver-haired Senju. "Deal with that threat and save the world and the Leaf!"

Short return with a couple of chapters to work as an interlude, as I saw a review asking for some chapters in between ;)

I will post one more apart from this one (probs the least expected, or at least I hope it's a surprise lol), while this one is more of giving context about Gohan's situation and setting up the first arc of part 2. But anyways, the next one I might post today, or maybe later, but it's finished too.

With that I proceed to disappear for a while, see ya!