The kids headed back down the cliff and into the forest. Following Phineas' lead, they headed deep into the forest. After a while Phineas told them to stop.
"Ok guys if my calculations are correct the rock should be in this area," said Phineas.
They all started searching the area for the rock. They searched the area for what seemed like forever. Phineas started to wounder if he had miscalculated, but he could swear the rock should be around here. Eventually however, Buford found the rock. He thought he could just run away right there and now and take the rock to Master Roshi. He had already proved he was the fastest of the five of them, but for some reason taking it for himself did not feel right. He may have been a bully, but he would never have found the rock without the help of his friends, so he decided to do the right thing and reveal he had found the rock.
"Guy's, I found it," said Buford.
The rest of the gang went over to Buford to see if he was telling the truth. Sure enough it was the exact same rock throne by Master Roshi, right down to the hand drawn turtle symbol.
"Here Dinner Bell, we only found this because of you, so I think you should carry it," said Buford, giving the rock to Phineas. "Also let's face it, you're the most trustworthy of us."
"Wow Buford thanks," said Phineas.
"We'd better get back, before we run out of time," said Isabella remembering time was of the essence.
"Ferb how much time do we have left?" asked Phineas.
Ferb pulled out his pocket watch.
"20 minutes," said Ferb.
"What? We'll never get back in time," said Baljeet.
"Not necessarily. Remember it took about 20 minutes for us to get here, then 20 minutes to find the rock," said Phineas. "Meaning if we run back as fast as we can, we should get back in time."
"Not like we have any other options," said Buford.
"We can do it guys. We just have to believe in ourselves," said Isabella.
"Isabella's right. Let's go, because every second is precious," said Phineas.
They basically sprinted all the way back. The concept of no dinner had given them the adrenaline rush they needed to run back to where they started without taking a break. In about eighteen minutes, they made it back, where Master Roshi had been waiting.
"Master we found the rock," said Phineas, who suddenly realised he was exhausted.
Master Roshi took the rock and examined it and sure enough it was the one he threw.
"Well Phineas looks like you get Dinner tonight," said Master Roshi.
"Actually, sir I'm gonna have to decline that offer," said Phineas.
Master Roshi said nothing in response but seemed like he wanted Phineas to continue.
"We're best friends sir and we're a team. So we've decided that we all eat tonight, or none of us do," said Phineas proudly, as the rest of them nodded.
The Summer Vacation Gang were expecting Master Roshi to be angry at them for insubordination, but instead he started laughing.
"Oh, you kids are too much. I had a feeling you would turn down this offer, because from the moment I met you, I could tell you were an extremely close group of friends who wouldn't let something like Dinner get in the way of you working as a team, no matter how hungry you were," said Master Roshi.
"Your level of teamwork is to be admired. Furthermore, you all demonstrated a willingness to push yourselves beyond you limits," said Master Roshi, noticing that all of them were having trouble standing. "For that we can all have Dinner tonight."
The kids were all super glad to hear this especially when they discovered how hungry they all were. They all followed Mater Roshi to his house and were eager to feel there hungry stomachs. Unknown to the Summer Vacation Gang however, there had been two spectators to their unusual exercise today. One of them was Goku, the other was Goku's best friends and former turtle school classmate Krillin. Both of them couldn't help but be amused at what they saw. While there had been a few parallels to their own attempt at trying to find the rock, at the same time it could not have turned out more differently.
"Wow you were right Goku they really are a highly determined group of kids. They're smart to," said Krillin.
"Yup. They might only be beginners right now, but I have a feeling that with the right training and enough hard work, they could grow into very powerful fighters," said Goku.
"Is it true they accidently turned themselves into Saiyan's?" asked Krillin.
"Yeah. Bulma told them that they weren't likely to get as strong as I am, because I'm a Saiyan, then I explained what a Saiyan was and one of them accidently said he wished they could be Saiyan's while they were in the presence of Shenron. I don't think I need to tell you what happened next," said Goku, scratching his head.
"Well you know what they say. Be careful what you wish for," said Krillin laughing. Goku couldn't help but also join in.
"Still though I'm impressed. They're weaker than we were when we started and they managed to complete one of the first tasks, with only a few handicaps," said Goku.
"Well its like you said Goku, they're smart. We mostly just used brawn, sight and in your case smell to find the rock. They were able to use science and logic," said Krillin.
"True. I'm also glad, that unlike us, they didn't let food stop them from working together. Unlike the two of us who did nothing but compete when we first started training. Then again, I'm pretty sure we were supposed to compete with each other for this exercise," said Goku.
"I have a feeling that was also supposed to be the case here, but I also have a feeling that these kids have been close friends for a long time and they would rather work together, as opposed to working separately," said Krillin smiling.
"Well let's face it, that will be very beneficial to them in the coming weeks, especially when they have to undertake Master Roshi's other exercises," said Goku.
"That it will," said Krillin.
"Still I'm glad that it turned out differently for them in this case," said Goku.
"Well not completely different. You know how that Buford kid tried to give Master Roshi a fake rock?" asked Krillin.
"Yeah," answered Goku not knowing where this was going.
"I actually tried to do that myself and to make a long story short, it ended with the same result," said Krillin a little embarrassed.
Goku could not help but laugh at this.
"Oh, your too much Krillin, but at least these kids will now know that Master Roshi won't be fooled so easily," said Goku.
"No, he definitely won't," said Krillin. "Anyway, is it true you've convinced them to enter the world martial arts tournament at the end of the Summer?"
"Yup I want to see how serious these kids are about training. If they do well enough, I might help train them myself," said Goku.
"Might?" asked Krillin.
"As we keep saying Krillin, these kids are very smart. While I'd be glad to train them, I'm also eager to see what they can learn on their own," said Goku. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of them could learn the basics of a technique, by only seeing it in action once. I was able to do the Kamehameha, after seeing Master Roshi do it, but it wasn't nearly as powerful."
"Well I guess only time will tell," said Krillin who felt Goku made a decent argument about the abilities of these children.
With that both Goku and Krillin decided to head home to avoid being yelled at by their respective wives. Meanwhile the Summer Vacation Gang all enjoyed a meal with Master Roshi. Thankfully, unlike the time when Master Roshi was training Krillin and Goku, none of them got food poisoning and were able to continue training the very next day.