AN: Please DO NOT fight in the reviews section. There are many better places to discuss the relative strength level of Naruto vs Dragonball. Whether Frieza or Kaguya would win in a fight is immaterial (and I think we know it wouldn't matter, because Frieza would just blow the planet up as soon as he had a temper tantrum and kill everyone else on the planet anyway), because this is an integration story, not a versus story. The point is not 'who would win if Sakura took on the Dragonball universe' but 'how will Sakura and the Dragonball be impacted by one another'. It doesn't matter to me if you guys disagree with other reviewers, but if I see further insults, I'll have the review removed.
For the curious, my current update schedule is a chapter a day if I can manage it, and on days off I often end up with two because I have nothing better to do.
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Fourteen
He still couldn't figure out what, but he knew there was something off about the girl. Things didn't line up, like why was she holding back against him? For most people, the Tenkaichi Budokai was the perfect place to show off the things they'd learned and the techniques they'd developed. Even if she didn't need to use them, why waste an entire round doing nothing? And why did she allow him to hit her even once?
One didn't survive around murderers and thieves in the wilderness without developing a healthy sense for when things were wrong.
"Are you sure you've never seen her before?" He glanced over at Goku, who didn't even look tired after his fight. Sometimes he wondered if the kid was made out of something invincible.
Goku frowned and shook his head. "She's...kind of familiar...but I don't remember ever seeing anyone like that as strong as her."
"Yeah...neither have I."
His grip slipped, and the tournament coordinator glanced up at where the two of them were perched with a bewildered look.
...He kind of liked the elevated view of the ring, though, so he wasn't about to move. Even if the guy who stood on the sidelines and told the crowd things that they'd already seen was judging him. As long as he didn't look like a complete idiot where Bulma could see...
He glanced over to the section of the crowd where she'd set up camp, and it looked as if his friends (and an old man who...must have been Muten Roshi) were intently watching the ring, not the wall he and Goku happened to be hanging off of.
"I wonder where Sakura went..." Goku huffed and frowned. "She said she wanted to see us fight."
"Who?" His gaze flickered toward Goku as the two competitors squared off against each other.
"She's the girl that Master Roshi made us bring to Kame House before he'd train us. She's really strong, but she didn't want to join the tournament."
He frowned. "...And she's here?"
Goku shaded his eyes briefly, and shook his head. "She isn't here. She must be looking for her cloud."
"Her what?"
Before Goku could respond, Krillin slammed into the wall they were holding onto.
(*)
She expected Goku and Krillin to be the biggest challenges in the tournament. Perhaps they wouldn't approach the level she was used to fighting in the Shinobi war, but she still expected them to be beyond anything the rest of the tournament could offer. Perhaps that was pride or bias interfering, because she knew them, and a part of her refused to shake the feeling that they were just like Team 7.
She wasn't wrong.
Despite his nervous expression (or perhaps partly because of it) once the coordinator announced the start of the battle, Krillin shot toward her with a burst of speed she'd never seen from him before. She only barely twisted out of the way before he would have contacted with his leading punch.
He recovered quickly, and she had to flip backward just to avoid the sweeping kick that he followed with. He was fast. For such a little amount of time training, she was impressed. Inane as it was, the weighted training did increase strength and speed considerably. Even the one she'd been forced to wear for him to teach her about ki had noticeably improved her base agility and speed.
Not by all that much, but if she'd been untrained like the boys, it might have done much more. As it clearly had. She'd need to experiment with that sort of thing when she did more extensive training, later.
He flipped into the air with a powerful kick and a shout. Her previous dodge had moved her too near to the corner of the ring to safely move out of the way. If she didn't know better, she'd think he might have purposefully gotten her to dodge her way into a corner.
He hand shot up and caught his ankle, and the other followed through with a solid punch into his stomach.
He smacked into the far competitors wall, just barely within the range of the ring. Perhaps she could have held back a little more with her counter attack. But...could it be he'd been paying enough attention to her fight to realize she was unfamiliar with such a small ring, and intended to trick her into ring-out?
"That was good." She walked back to the center of the ring as the small boy staggered back to his feet. "But don't underestimate your opponent's strength. There's more to defense than dodging."
He coughed, and stumbled to his feet, mumbling something under his breath.
"You can do it, Krillin!" Goku shouted from his perch.
She stood, hands on her hips, as Krillin charged her again. The trouble with his attacks were a lack of coordination. He was smart, she knew that. He also observed pretty damn well if he could tell from just one fight that she wasn't familiar with the ring. All of his attacks kept boiling down to charging her as fast as he could and hitting as hard as he could.
Unfortunately, there was more to battle than those two things, unless that speed and strength far overwhelmed the opponent.
She side-stepped his charge, and lashed out with a kick of her own, sending him spiraling through the air with an alarmed grunt. The small figure impacted the ring a few feet away and slid until the edge of the ring. He'd probably have gone right over, but he managed to stop himself by latching onto the side of the ring in a method similar to the way he'd been hanging off of the wall until then.
"I'm not...gonna lose that easily...!" He shoved himself up from the ground and launched through the air again, rolling in a ball as he went to increase his speed.
As she ducked, she felt his hand land on her shoulder. A moment later, his foot contacted with her back, and sent her flying forward, right off her feet.
"Damn-" The impact had sent her spinning, feet over her head as she flew through the air. She...didn't really want to have to risk showing her ability if she didn't need to, but if she didn't stop herself, the impact would probably send her right off of the ring.
She slapped her hand up against the bottom of the ring, and summoned chakra, bringing her slide to a sharp stop. The rest of the momentum in her body easily flipped her upright again.
"Yeah! Krillin! You've almost got her!" Goku waved in the air, expression excited and cheerful.
Krillin grit his teeth and shifted his stance again. "I'm...gonna win...!"
He shouldn't have decided to charge her again while she stood so close to the edge.
When she stood still as he charged at her, he really should have stopped. But then, the frantic look in his eyes told her that he wasn't thinking clearly anymore. Which would have been solved if he'd been properly trained, as well. Getting over-excited and assuming victory was one of the best ways to die.
She leapt into the air as he charged, and flipped, using his shoulder for support as he'd used hers. As he skidded to a halt she brought up her leg to kick him square in the back. Just in time, he twisted and held up his arm to block her strike.
"Krillin, no-!"
Just as Goku had realized, Krillin didn't possess nearly enough strength to stop her.
Her kick impacted with his arm, lifted him from the ground, and then sent him flying into the crowd.
"That's it folks! With a powerful kick, Ino Yamanaka has secured herself a place in the finals! What an amazing match! Truly, we'll be looking forward to an epic final battle of the tournament!"
As she settled back to her regular stance, she glanced over her shoulder at the old man. If he'd taught Krillin better, he might not have won...but he'd have had a much better chance. Really. The tournament wasn't teaching them there were stronger people in the world, it was showing her just how much more teaching the boys needed.
As Krillin stumbled back into the stadium in a daze, she sighed. "You should have listened to me when I told you. Don't just expect your opponent to dodge. They're also going to counter attack."
He glared up at her, expression...much more sulky than sour, and then marched back to the waiting room.
She shook her head slightly, and glanced back toward where the old man stood in the audience a final time, before wandering back toward the waiting room.
And the suspicious expression of that damn Yamcha.
(*)
His face hurt. Which was weird, because he'd only smacked his face into one or two things during the battle. His back and arms took most of the punishment. That...and his ego, anyway, That hurt pretty bad. Maybe the worst.
He flopped down on one of the benches in the waiting room and stared down at the floor. Even if he made it to the semifinals...he didn't make it to the finals. Somehow, at some point, his perspective shifted from excitement that he'd even make it into the preliminaries into disappointment he didn't get all the way.
But...
No, it wasn't that easy to just change his perspective and go back to the first. Especially when he lost so quickly. It felt like he'd barely been able to put up a fight. It was so bad she actually kept giving him tips! Ugh!
"Hey..." Goku frowned, standing near to him. "You're not hurt, are you?"
He frowned, and shook his head. The gesture made him wince a little...but it wasn't so bad. "No...I guess I'm fine."
"You need to train more."
He stiffened immediately, and glared up at the woman. He'd had just about enough of her trying to be his teacher. He didn't need anyone else, he had Muten Roshi already! "Why do you even care? You already won the match. Just leave me alone, you weirdo."
"Well...it makes sense if she cares." Yamcha, that was his name, appeared behind her, and stared down at her. "You care because you know them, right?"
A look of annoyance passed across her face, and she looked over her shoulder. "Now what are you talking about?"
"You're the one who's been training with them, right?" He crossed his arms. "The one who fell out of the sky. That's why I've never heard of you before. You're from some...other place."
"Uh..." Krillin squinted up at the two older adults. "That's insane."
"Yeah...Yamcha, Sakura doesn't look anything like her." Goku spoke behind him with a tone of confusion. "They aren't even the same height."
Yamcha blinked in surprise. "What?"
He shook his head. "Yeah. Geez. Where'd you get that idea from, anyway? Sakura's totally different. She's all weird and looks like a boy. She's not..." pretty, like the girl who had just kicked him back and forth around the ring and happened to be giving him a weird look right at that moment. "She's...ugly and weird looking, and she has short hair."
The girl, Ino, smacked him upside the head without any kind of warning at all.