Konnichi wa, minna-san! Here is the second chapter of Finding Home. It has some differences than in the original, but overall I think I did a nice job of keeping the characters in character. The meeting is different, but it gives all the characters a chance to speak and to be introduced. More background information will come, but not much has changed about Gohan or his character. You'll learn more about him later. Oh, and I have decided to keep Gohan with Yukina for this story. Now the trouble is whether to stick Mirai Trunks with someone or not to bother. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy and keeping reading.

Chapter 2

The True Face of Gohan

Well, here he was, at the tournament, waiting for his father, the hero to all his friends and family and most of the world. If Gohan was being truthful, when Videl had black mailed him to teach her to fly and, later, to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament, some part of him had wanted to back out. Well, okay, the majority of him did not want to have anything to do with that black-haired-psycho-mom-double. But the tournament portion of her wager was more than interesting. It was a prospect that when he thought about it methodically was too good an idea to pass up. More to the point, the two sides of his head were constantly warring these days; the human side wanted to back out, to continue living in peace as he had for the past 7 years, while the Saiyan side, the one which had gradually increased in intensity ever since he hit puberty, practically demanded he not only participate in this tournament, but crush his opponents while doing so.

Gohan shook his head in amusement, wondering if he had spent too much time around a certain Saiyan Prince. But really when your father is the only other full blooded Saiyan around and he is dead…well there isn't really much of a choice if he wanted to hang out with another member of his own race, barring Chibi Trunks and his own brother, Goten. Black locks floated around his head as energy welled up inside his heart, begging to be released, to be immersed in battle again. Noting the rise in both temperature and in Ki, a certain blue eyed, violet haired demi-saiyan glanced to his side. "Hey, Gohan, everything okay?" his friend asked. Gohan's eyes slanted to the side, not immediately turning his body to face his best friend, Mirai Trunks, or Mirai, as he was christened upon his return to the past.

"Everything is fine, Mirai," Gohan answered, eyes swiveling up and away from his friend's curious gaze. Mirai was just far too perceptive a person and, as much as Gohan trusted the other demi-saiyan, he simply didn't wish to speak about what was bothering him lately. After all, it was still a bit weird to view the other demi as a friend, rather than a mentor. Mirai Trunks had returned to the past one year ago and appearance wise had not changed a bit. Gohan, however, had grown up immensely during the past seven years and had somehow managed to grow taller than the former older boy.

Standing close by his side, Mirai Trunks Briefs continued staring at his friend for a good solid minute before Gohan finally turned his head and the two locked eyes with each other. The two teenagers stared at each other for a few seconds before both began to chuckle quietly. "Come on, Mirai, turn those lasers off. We have a tournament to participate in and I have no desire to be examined like one of Bulma's new experimental toys." Gohan playfully tousled his friend's silky locks before picking up his pace and joining his father's friends who were gathered impatiently around the entrance, undoubtedly waiting for Goku to arrive.

"Sure," Mirai murmured, smirking as he joined his friend.

As they walked alone, Gohan began to sink into his past again, mind wandering over the past few years and the changes he had gone through.

The years following the cell games had been rather peaceful, but Gohan had continued training, alternating the cycle between studying. It was still his mother's dream for him to grow up to be a scholar and Gohan tried to keep her happy. It was in everyone's best interest since an unhappy Chichi is like dealing with a female Frieza; scary, unpredictable, and prone to continuous bouts of PMS. Although Chichi didn't like her son training all the time, Gohan had been adamant that he should continue training. After all, he didn't want to take the chance of becoming weak. What would happen if another foe popped up to challenge the delicate balance of Earth again? If he couldn't even form a decent punch, the earth would be doomed.

There was also another reason that Gohan continued training, one that he had never shared with anyone, not even Mirai, who he had grown quite attached to. The intensity of such a training regiment brought Gohan a sense of achievement, a sense of self-worth that had not been felt since the defeat of cell. For a long while the demi had been depressed over the loss of his father and had quit training, lost in his studies and self-loathing. Guilt had surpassed pride, and he had wondered what would have happened had Cell been destroyed sooner. Would his father have then lived trough the Cell Games, rather than sacrificing his life for his son? All of these thoughts, along with mind numbing studying and stress finally became too much for the poor demi that, in a moment of pure unrestrictive rage, he released all his pent up energy and frustrations, effectively leveling half his home and the forest surrounding him. The experience had shaken him, shocked him even, not only because of the sheer destructive force behind his power, but of what lay beyond that. When Gohan had been releasing all that pent up energy, he had felt something snap inside his mind, had felt the void within expanding. In short, Gohan realized that there was a possibility of going beyond the power of a Super Saiyan 2.

After this release and overwhelming evidence of yet more potential strength and abilities, Gohan went back into training and hadn't stopped since, gradually increasing in power. Every moment of the last 6 years was spent either training or meditating, much to the chagrin of his banshee of a mother and those fighters who'd given up long ago. And while he still studied, training became his main priority. Pretty much the only people who supported Gohan's decision to begin training again were Vegeta and Bulma, and later Chibi Trunks and his future counterpart. Chichi, although allowing her son to continue fighting, remained largely unsupportive of his efforts, despite having trained her youngest child, Goten.

Ah, brothers, aren't they wonderful? Gohan slyly glanced over at his little brother, who was nervously standing behind his mother's leg. Trunks, Mirai's younger counterpart, was standing beside his own father, copying the prince's pose perfectly. It was amazing how similar those two were, no matter that both father and son would deny it. Gohan snorted in amusement and caught the attention of several of his older friends and teammates.

"Bless you," Krillin interpreted incorrectly.

"Oh, dear, son, perhaps you're coming down with a cold," Chichi remarked, stretching out her arms in an attempt to lay her hand on his forehead. "Perhaps you should sit out this time and let someone else handle the fighting. You know I want only the best for you and if you should get sick, why, how else will you continue you your studies?" Panic had started blossoming across his mother's face, but Gohan moved away hesitantly, unashamed when she flinched in hurt at her son's reaction. It wasn't that he didn't want her to touch him, he just wasn't into being fussed over at the moment. His mother could be a worrier and a dramatist, over reacting about the tinniest things. Before he could open his mouth to apologize, a breeze swept over the group and a figure blurred into shape, Goku's body returning to earth just as promised.

"Goku!" everyone cried. Well, perhaps not everyone. Vegeta copied Gohan's earlier snort, though the smirk on his face was very telling. Perhaps the other Saiyan didn't hate his father after all. Perhaps he even missed the bastard. Gohan glanced to his side and caught the amused smile on Mirai's face and wondered if his friend had caught on to his thread of thought. Gohan couldn't resist teasing the self-proclaimed Prince of all Saiyans.

"Could it be that you actually managed to miss him, Vegeta? My, my, I had no idea you cared so much about my father? Perhaps I should tell him. He would be so happy to know how much you cherish him," Gohan mocked, effortlessly slipping into the proud prince's mind and exploiting Vegeta's mental capabilities.

"Do it and you die first, brat! I won't wait until after my final spar with Kakkarot to take your life," Vegeta returned, swiveling his head and flinging a death glare in his rival's son's direction.

"Uh, Gohan, what did you say to him?" Mirai whispered in his friend's ear, resisting the urge to gulp. His father's glares were famous for reducing his enemies to babbling idiots. Well, they worked for most people, just not on his mother. He supposed that's what made them such a good match. Why people were so surprised when the two hot heads managed to get together and create a child was beyond him.

"Oh, nothing, just wondering whether or not to inform my dad of your dad's love for him, Gohan commented in Mirai's mind, enabling Vegeta to listen in, unwilling to end his teasing of the Saiyan prince. Having lost his fear of Vegeta long ago, Gohan had grown fond of teasing the older male. It was just so funny the way Vegeta's face turned all red with anger.

"What?!" Mirai exclaimed, all too soon realizing he had spoken out loud. He flushed when he realized he had everyone's attention, but let out a breath of air when their attention turned back to the adorable introduction between father and son.

Gohan rolled his eyes upon feeling the nervous tension rising from Mirai Trunks. "I was kidding, Trunks, Kami, grow a back bone, would ya'?"

Mirai, realizing how silly he must look, scowled at his friend. He wondered why, after all this time, Gohan had to turn out more like Vegeta, than his own father. He marveled at the differences between the Gohan of his time and the one standing before him today. This Gohan certainly hadn't been the one he had expected to meet upon his return to the past. Instead of finding some kind of nerd/honor student, Mirai had encountered a Gohan with more grit, attitude, and most importantly, mood swings. All too soon, Mirai found himself lightening up. This Gohan really wasn't that bad. Mirai just had trouble relaxing from too many years of running and hiding and not knowing who to trust. And besides, Gohan was quickly becoming the best friend he had ever had. Mirai Gohan had been his friend, yes, but that Gohan had always been more of a mentor than a buddy.

During this time, Gohan and Vegeta had continue battling in mind speak, the saiyan prince becoming more pissed off each time the younger saiyan responded smarmily. Despite his anxiousness around his young father, Mirai found himself listening in on their conversation and even began enjoying the barbed comments each saiyan threw at each other. It seems Vegeta had lightened up a bit over the years, if one disregarded the inventive death threats he swore at Gohan.

"I don't know, Gohan, if you tell Goku such a thing I don't think my dad could ever escape from your dad's friendship clutches. Poor father," Mirai chimed in.

Both demis chuckledat hearing the low growling and grinding of teeth. "If you two think I missed that third-class, idiot of a saiyan, you are both sincerely mistaken and shall be feeling my fists if you dare tell Kakkarot such foolish nonsense."

"Gotta catch us first!" Gohan cried, grabbing Mirai's arm and bellowing out a hurried greeting to his father, who merely blinked at his oldest son's rapid departure. Both demis made a break to escape from the menacing clutches of Mirai's father. Unfortunately for Gohan, in his haste he forgot to check for nearby energies (Ki) and crashed head first into another head of equally dark hair and an equally hard head.

Of the four men ambling almost cautiously through the torrents of people, only two took notice of the group of strangers possessing weird energy.

"Hiei," Kurama murmured; his voice was somber and soft. "I don't suppose you-"

"Felt that?" The fire apparition's garnet eyes flashed once before dimming into opaqueness. "Yes. They were strong."

Glancing at each other, Hiei and Kurama nodded once, concluding that this matter would not be ignored for long. But for now there were other matters to attend to. After all, what was more important; discovering who or what those people were or following two teammates who could and would cause trouble if left unattended for too long in such a large mass of people? Yusuke Urameshi was not known for his patience and with Kazuma Kuwabara tagging along and antagonizing the poor Toushin who knows what could happen.

Hearing a crash and a rather loud expletive that sounded remarkably like said Toushin, Kurama made haste to his friend's side and stopped to make sense of what was occurring. Currently, there were two bodies lying on the ground, though both were struggling to sit up. Yusuke was rubbing his head and still cursing up a storm, while the other person, who resembled a teenage boy on the verge of adulthood, was being propped up by his own acquaintance. Kurama locked eyes with the violet haired boy and didn't have much time to realize that the other boy looked slightly familiar. His attention left the other heavily muscled man and turned to survey his ex-leader, turned demon.

"Are you all right?" Kurama asked, bending down to grab his friend's arm with the intention of helping the poor demon to his feet. In the back of his mind, the ex-king of bandits couldn't help but wonder what kind of human could have caused this much damage the brunette's thick skull. After all, Yusuke was known to possess quite the hard head.

"Yeah, yeah," Yusuke grumbled, before shooting the laughing human at his side a dark look. The fourth member of their team, Kuwabara, was currently on the ground as well; only he appeared to be laughing and largely unhurt. "Shut up, asshole, this really hurts," Yusuke growled, but shot the red headed kitsune a small smile of thanks for his assistance. At least he had one friend that truly cared about him.

"Hmph," Hiei smirked, having joined his wayward teammates and finding enjoyment in the chaos. The small demon crossed his arms in front of his chest mockingly. "It appears your hard head has finally met its match, detective." Even though Yusuke was dubbed one of his true friends, his sadistic side couldn't help but revel in the Toushin's misfortune.

Yusuke, now sitting on his heels, the kitsune still clutching his arm, tried to swipe out at the fire apparition, frowning when he realized how slow his movements were. What the hell had he run into; a brick wall, a skyscraper, a mountain? No, scratch that, he was sure he had been thrown into a mountain before and it hadn't hurt near as bad as this.

"Jesus, dude, what the hell is your head made out of?" Yusuke asked when they were all standing again. Kurama tried to put his arm around his friend's back, but wanting to save face Yusuke shoved him away lightly.

"We could ask you the same question," the lilac haired man replied, calmly surveying the strange group of men.

"Um, I'm sorry about that," Gohan chimed in, teeth chattering with the ache in his skull. Kami, his head hurt. To think that a human could do so much damage to a saiyan of my caliber. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"You think," Yusuke returned snarkily.

"Yusuke!" Kurama barked, elbowing the ex-detective in the stomach, uncaring that he'd just been injured. "That was rude. The least you could do is introduce yourself to this nice young man and apologize for running into him. That hit probably caused him just as much pain, if not more so, than it did to you."

Gees, Yusuke thought inwardly, Kurama can be such a ninny. But still, Kurama was probably right, like always. Damn kitsune.

Though Yusuke's manners were hardly those of a gentlemen, his retainers had drilled into his head a sense of, well, sense. "Sorry for running into you, dude," Yusuke said, attitude forgone in place of his normal personality. And his 'father' had claimed his son could never be noble. "Even though it was your fault."

Gohan glanced warily at the grinning male before him, finally reaching over and shaking his hand. At the first touch of fingers, both men felt sparks fly and gasped before drawing away and similarly glancing at their hands. "What happened?" Kuwabara asked, noticing the shocked face of his friend.

"I…don't know," Yusuke replied, brown eyes trailing upward in order to take a good long, hard look at the figure he had run into. The boy, no, the man's body was certainly well crafted. He was tall, good looking, and extremely well muscled, but at the same time the muscles seemed to fit this man as if they were right for his body. Other humans who were this beefed up just looked silly, but Yusuke noticed on this man the muscles didn't make him seem as if he were over compensating for something. Atop the man's head stood raven black hair, rivaling Hiei's, though the spiky locks were a bit shorter and stuck out in more than just one direction. But it was the eyes, yes, the eyes that really reached out and called to Yusuke. Those deep, black pools of darkness were the eyes of a serious predator, eyes that had seen much… eyes that had killed before. And yet, there was a certain kindness lurking inside those eyes that caused Yusuke to be sure that this man had not killed out of malicious intent. Despite the power and knowledge this other boy possessed, Yusuke couldn't help but relax, absolutely certain that he had seen this boy before, but not on one of his missions for the Spirit World. Perhaps he was some nameless demon who he had seen fighting the Makai tournament or something.

Gohan had been watching Yusuke in just as much contemplation, intent upon analyzing the strange energies Yusuke, as well as his friends, carried. At first glance, Yusuke didn't look like much. Where he wasn't scrawny, he certainly didn't behold the same muscle mass like his father and the rest of the Z fighters. The brown haired boy was certainly physically fit, no one could disagree with that, but it was the amazing force behind the lidded amber eyes glaring back at him which made Gohan realize this boy was anything but common or weak. The ache in his head, which had dimmed some in the intermittence of time, returned full force, reminding Gohan just how much knocking heads with the other man hurt. If his head could feel like that, imagine what damage his fists could do. Perhaps there were other strong humans on the planet that his group of friends were unaware of. In any case, he didn't think this boy was a threat to him or to humanity, unless one counted his temper as a threat.

Gohan's critical thinking halted when, much to the surprise of the surrounding men, Yusuke began grinning. Sunlight glinted off of Yusuke's gleaming teeth and Gohan couldn't be sure, but were those actually fangs? With a carefree laugh, Yusuke stuck his hand out again. "I'm Yusuke. Urameshi, Yusuke."

Gohan, still staring into Yusuke's eyes, was again surprised by how much knowledge and inner strength the man held inside. Gohan, now grinning himself, stepped forward and clasped hands with Yusuke once again, both relishing in the sudden rush of energy that filled their bodies.

"I'm Son Gohan, but you can just call me Gohan." The two boys grinned at each other idiotically, unaware of the looks that were being exchanged behind their backs. "It looks like we have a lot in common, Urameshi, Yusuke."

Well, there you have it. The boys have met. I don't know whether we'll have Kagome meet them in the next chapter or to provide more background information. Probably both if I have the time. Okay, so I know I've said I'm going to take Time After Time down, but after much deliberation, I have decided to leave it up. However, you guys have to know that I have no intention of completing the original as it is. This is the revised version so if you don't like it or really like the first version, don't complain to me. I am nearing my upper 20's and I am studying to be an editor, so I am able to really anaylze a story in order to correct previous mistakes and character flaws. Time After Time was one of my first stories and I am a much better, more intelligant writer than I was back then. Sorry to disappoint folks, but this is how it is and I'm sticking to my convictions. I will leave Time After Time up for you guys to read, just as long as you know that plot will not be completed. Other than that, thank you to those of you who have reviewed. And to those of you who think I'm moving too slow, sorry but my plots are always longer and more thoughtful than those of a one-shot story. If this was a one-shot or even a two or three-shot I would let you know. But it isn't, so I'm sorry if things don't exactly hit the ground running. Enjoy the plot, savor it, don't rush me! I'm a very busy girl who's every assignment in school is to write papers and read books, so I don't have a massive amount of time to post. Hopefully, I'll be able to post at least once a week, but this story will probably be finished much quicker than I anticipate. For some reason, this is just coming naturally to me. Not bad for someone who has had writer's block for the last few years.

Ja ne

Kura