Disclaimer: As always, own nothing

Last Time: It was basically a rewrite of the episode where Naruto goes Kyuubi. Sorry again about that.

This Time: The battle comes to a close and Gohan gets his first look at Konohagakure

Naruto and Haku regarded each other, their battle completely forgotten, each wondering different things, Naruto wondering why Haku was even here in the first place and Haku wondering when Naruto was going to get around to killing him. Any conversation that the boys could've had was stopped before it could even begin by shuffling footsteps and ragged breathing. Both boys looked to see just who the newcomer was.

Naruto felt hope spring up in his chest, thinking that it was Sasuke, back from the dead. That hope was mercilessly crushed when he saw that the new arrival was Gohan, who looked like he'd seen better days. Dried blood clung to the various puncture wounds all over his body and the purple gi that the boy had been wearing since they'd met was ragged and tattered at the edges. One eye was drooping and he held his side, as if the young warrior had a few broken ribs.

Haku saw all this and more. Unlike Naruto, he knew that Gohan wouldn't be doing anymore fighting that day. The saiyan looked exhausted, if the panting breaths and the fact that he was leaning on a mirror were anything to go by.

"Gohan!" Naruto cried, running over to his newest friend. "Are you alright? You look like crap!"

The demi-saiyan laughed weakly, the fatigue from the grueling battle evident in his voice. "I'm alright. Trust me, I've been worse." It was true. If the blond kid got all worked up over this, then Gohan would've loved to see his face after the battle with Cell was done and over with. The Super Saiyan hadn't been able to even move a finger for close to a day after he'd killed that accursed android. Piccolo had had to carry him to the Lookout.

The hunter-nin a short distance away looked on with wonder at the two as Naruto laughed at some comment Gohan made and the two began arguing good-naturedly. He turned his attention over to where Zabuza and Kakashi were. A heavy bubble of mist hung over their area, obscuring anything that the ice user would've been able to see. But his senses told him everything. Zabuza-san was losing, and Kakashi was preparing to deliver the final blow, a sudden surge in chakra telling the hunter everything.

Gohan's eyes flickered, picking up the surge in Kakashi's chakra at the same time that Haku did. 'Wha? Is this Kakashi-san?' He looked over at the mist bubble, obsidian eyes wide at the scale of the surge. 'No way!' It stole his breath away. It felt like his father's ki did when the legendary warrior had used a Kamehameha. By concentrating his ki into a single point, the strength was put through the roof.

Zabuza watched with wide eyes as Kakashi held a fistful of lightning, so intense that it charged the air around him, making a ring of the stuff on the ground.

'Impossible!' was the only thought that could make it through the blank wall of shock that had settled over the shinobi's brain and that single word chased itself around and around like a yapping Chihuahua chasing its tail.

"Raikiri!" Kakashi roared, the electrical storm becoming even more intense as the Chidori upgraded itself to a Raikiri. There was no real difference in the look of the jutsu; however, it was like Gohan's Masenko and Kamehameha. Outwardly, the two were practically identical, but the difference in power was astounding. The jutsu complete, Hatake looked up, cold fury in his eye. He wouldn't need the Sharingan for this one, not with Zabuza held down by the Leaf jounin's ninken. "Die."

He rushed forward.

"Zabuza-san!" Haku fazed out of sight, forcing Gohan and Naruto's conversation to a halt.

Zabuza shut his eyes, giving in to the cowardly instincts that hadn't shown themselves since before he was a genin. This was it!

There was a sickening 'splurch' and Zabuza opened his eyes, marveling at how painless Kakashi's jutsu was. Blood splattered him as his eyes opened. And they opened wide, matching Kakashi's surprised look, when he saw just whom the other jounin had hit.

Impaled on the Konoha-nin's electrically charged fist was Haku, eyes glassy with the look only a corpse could have.

Zabuza looked on helplessly, strange new emotions that came from nowhere swirling inside of him as he watched his best tool…no…his only friend crumpled to the deck of the bridge, laying there without so much as a single twitch when Hatake withdrew his hand. Kakashi looked close to startled as tears, actual tears, welled up in the missing-nin's eyes.

Gohan shuddered as a ki signature was violently snuffed out.

"Hey, Gohan?" Naruto's voice held concern for the saiyan. One moment the two had been talking, and the next the warrior was leaning even more heavily on the mirror, sweat beading on his face, even with the chilly temperatures that came from the mirrors.

"Some…Someone just died." Gohan said with a shudder. It was a feeling he'd felt several times before, but never got used to no matter how often it happened. "I think it's that ice kid." He was the only candidate. He'd vanished, then a second later, the ki had vanished. As if to prove Gohan's point, the ice mirrors shattered as one with the sound of breaking glass, diamond-like fragments glinting in the sun as the fell in slow motion towards the ground.

Now it was Naruto's turn to go pale as the realization dawned on him. "No. Not him! He doesn't deserve this!" Without waiting a second longer, the loud genin hurtled off toward the dissipating mist cloud, ignoring the other boy's yells to come back.

"Dammit!" Gohan swore, not bothering to wonder what his mother would've thought of his language. He shoved to his feet and staggered off, going after the blond before he did something stupid.

Kakashi watched impassively as Zabuza looked at Haku's body with dead eyes, looking for all the world like a man who was totally out of his element. The feelings of grief. It was a whole new and strange experience for the Demon of the Mist.

Harsh laughter caught everyone's attention and there was a flicker of emotion in Zabuza's eyes, and it didn't look friendly either. The annoying 'tap-tap' of an expensive cane began sounding as Gatou strode onto the bridge, looking smug, with a miniature army of ronin, thugs, and assorted criminals in tow, all leering at the weary shinobi.

'This is bad,' Kakashi thought numbly, not wanting to go against so many enemies in his current state. 'We're all too tired to fight, not against these numbers.'

"Well well!" The tiny businessman crowed triumphantly as he continued his advance on the ninja. "You sure talk big, Zabuza. I expected a little bit more out of ya." He looked down his bespectacled nose at Haku's corpse with a superior look on his face. "Even you little boyfriend bit it."

Rage passed through Zabuza's eyes at the insult.

"Kakashi." The Demon's voice was weary and low, probably because of anger and fatigue combined with loss. Knowing he had the jounin's attention, Zabuza continued. "It looks like I've been betrayed, which means my contract is null." He didn't have to finish.

The scarecrow nodded in agreement. "Right. So. What're we gonna do about this little…jam that we're in." Zabuza wasn't given a chance to respond.

"Well Zabuza, it's been fun, but it's time for you to disappear now. I'm sure that you'll see this little runt in Hell!" That was when Gatou made the biggest and last mistake of his life.

He spit on Haku's body.

Kakashi blinked and Gatou was falling back with his chest brutally slashed open, blood spraying everywhere, face frozen in surprise and pain. Zabuza's sole good arm dropped, his zanbatou falling from limp fingers to clatter to the ground, the wielder no longer having the strength to swing it.

"Boss!" One of the ronin cried. It wasn't so much the fact that he was loyal to Gatou, but more of the fact that he wanted to get paid. The disowned samurai's face contorted with rage. "You bastard!" Before Kakashi could move to help, Zabuza was run through by a lightning-fast iaido draw that seemed to defy its user's grubby appearance.

The Mist-nin just looked down numbly at the red blade that stuck out through his stomach. He coughed and blood soaked the bandages covering his mouth. He grinned at the men that surrounded him, leering at every single one, as if daring them to try an attack.

"Damn you!" one of the other henchmen shouted, holding his yari high. "Don't get cocky when you're about to die!" Kakashi watched, horrified, as the tip was buried into Zabuza's already ravaged shoulder.

"Zabuza!" the Copy-Nin shouted as he drew a kunai and prepared to help out. It didn't matter that the two had been enemies just minutes ago, no one deserved the slow death that Momochi was clearly going to get.

"No!"

Zabuza's shout brought the jounin up short. The missing-nin looked at his former adversary and shook his head. "No Kakashi! I'm gonna kill this riffraff myself. If we hadn't met Gatou, Haku would still be alive." An insane light that Kakashi had gotten accustomed to seeing directed at him entered the Demon of the Mist's eyes and killing intent swept over the battlefield. "I'm gonna make that bastard pay by killing everyone associated with him!"

Zabuza's one good hand began flashing together in one-handed seals. The henchmen seemed to realize what that meant and they all rushed forward to stick the helpless missing-nin with their weapons, hoping to kill him before he finished his jutsu. Hatake recognized the sequence, even without the Sharingan. After all, Zabuza had used it on Gohan not too long ago.

"Suiton! Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

From below the bridge, a churning could be heard as the ocean below began to writhe and toss. A shrieking roar filled the air as a column of water shot high into the sky and took on the form of a dragon with sinister yellow eyes.

"What the hell is that!" One thug shouted, just before the creature lunged and swept over them, slaughtering all the opposition with impunity, either crushing them with tons of water or drowning them in an instant.

Zabuza was in the middle of it all.

Kakashi ran over to the other shinobi, expecting him to be dead, but the second jounin was still clinging to life, despite the weapons in him and the damage done by his own jutsu. The masked shinobi didn't ask why Zabuza had done what he did. It had pretty obvious that the missing-nin had blamed Gatou for what had happened to Haku, and there was a sick and twisted logic to the dying shinobi's thinking.

"Ka..kashi…" Momochi gasped out, hacking from the water and making more blood stain the bandages that hid the lower half of his face. "Take…me…to…" He didn't need to finish. Kakashi picked up the other jounin and carried him to the motionless form of his best weapon and friend. As Hatake set Zabuza down, he couldn't help but marvel at what the other ninja had done. It had been a stupid and ridiculous action, but the missing-nin hadn't had a choice. He'd been mortally wounded anyway. He'd probably thought it would be best to go out with a bang.

Gohan watched as life continued to slip away from Zabuza. He felt sorry for the guy, he really did. It had taken the death of his friend to make him realize what the concept meant.

"Kakashi?" He asked tentatively. "Will he…" The Z fighter trailed off as the masked man shook his head before Gohan had even finished speaking.

"No. He was hit by too many weapons and he's inflicted even more injury to himself by using the Suiryuudan on himself." There was a somber pause as the two lapsed into silence, watching the blood pool beneath Zabuza and the sky begin to get cloudy as a high-level overcast blew in.

A shock ran through both warriors without warning. A quick look at Zabuza's corpse told them everything they needed to know. He was gone, the flinty eyes, once filled with malice and bloodlust, were now blank and glassy. They wouldn't be terrifying anyone ever again.

"Is this the first time you've ever seen someone die?" Kakashi's question caught the other fighter off guard and all he managed in response was an eloquent 'Huh?' Hatake repeated his question and Gohan's eyes shadowed as he hung his head.

"I wish I could say it was…" He trailed off and the jounin knew that no other explanation would be forthcoming. The Copy-nin felt a rush of sympathy for the boy. Gohan wasn't that old, so if he'd already seen death, he'd have been very young indeed.

"Well, that's one person I won't have to give the death speech to," The silver-haired shinobi sighed to himself as he turned around and began walking back to where Sakura and Tazuna were.

"I'll get Naruto," Gohan volunteered and headed for the stricken-looking blond a few yards away. With a thrill, the half-saiyan realized that Naruto had probably seen the whole encounter with Zabuza.

'Great. Looks like Kakashi will have to give that speech sooner than he thought.'

"Gohan?" Naruto asked, his voice devoid of emotion, his eyes conveying nothing but shock. Unlike Gohan, who's first brush with death had been to witness his father's and uncle's deaths at the hands of his eventual sensei, Piccolo. Raditz hadn't been any cause to loose sleep over, but Goku's death had torn the young fighter up for days during his time in the wild. "What happened?"

"Suicide," the other boy sighed in return, running a hand through his shaggy hair. His mom insisted that he get it trimmed, but Gohan had been able to stave her off in the months since the Cell Games. "Zabuza and Kakashi beat each other up pretty badly and when Gatou's goons showed up, well…" He gestured to the devastation behind him, letting the scene behind him do the talking, complete with soggy bodies, puddles of diluted blood and a very soggy bridge.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke's still form. "What about…"

"He's not dead," Gohan interrupted. "I dunno what you saw that made you go crazy, but when I looked he had a faint heartbeat and he was breathing." He looked at the motionless avenger as well. "I didn't do anything 'cause I wasn't sure about the needles." The young Z fighter wasn't too keen on pulling out the needles only puncture Sasuke's heart and kill the avenger for real. Now he approached the motionless boy and slung an arm around his shoulder. "Help me, maybe Kakashi will know what to do."

Naruto looked frozen by indecision, but eventually nodded and jogged over, slinging Sasuke's other arm over his shoulder. Together the two boys half-carried-half-dragged the unconscious Uchiha over to the others.

Kakashi was busy discussing what they would do now with Tazuna and Sakura when the kunoichi abruptly screamed and ran off behind the jounin. Hatake looked over his shoulder and his visible eye widened when he beheld what Sakura had been screaming about.

Naruto and Gohan, bloody and tattered, were walking slowly over to them, dragging the limp form of Uchiha Sasuke between them. Kakashi was stricken with a sudden burst of grief as he beheld what he believed to be the avenger's body.

The genin's feet were dragging on the ground with a rough rasping noise and his head hung limp, lolling from side to side with each step of his two supporters. It was faint, but the jounin could also see a darker spot on his chest, barely visible against the deep navy blue of his shirt. In the center of that spot was a bright speck. Kakashi wondered what it was for a second then he realized it was one of that ice-nin's senbon.

"Damn," he swore softly, before he followed the team's kunoichi who had reached the other two and was busy sobbing her eyes out over the pale boy. Up close, Sasuke was even worse looking. Dried blood clung to the side of his face and there was a streak on the corner of his lips too, a bad sign for sure. Sasuke's skin was pale, even compared to normal. Before the jounin could ask how the kid had died, Gohan spoke.

"Kakashi, you gotta pull that needle in his chest out." At seeing the shinobi's inquiring gaze, the warrior continued, "He's still alive, but in some kind of death-like sleep."

Surprise rippled through Kakashi and he leaned in closer to inspect the area where the senbon had lodged. Drawing on the dusty knowledge he had from his ANBU days, the Copy-Nin realized that the needle had missed the fatal pressure point by just a few millimeters. It was too close to be a chance. The ice-nin had deliberately aimed to disable and not kill.

"You're right, Gohan," He murmured, almost too softly for the others to hear. Ignoring Sakura's noises of disbelief, the jounin reached up and placed the needle between his index and middle fingers, pinching gently to insure that the senbon wouldn't move that crucial few millimeters and kill Sasuke. He grasped the tip with his other hand and pulled, guiding the weapon out of the Uchiha's chest with a precision that only a high-ranked shinobi could have.

Once the needle was free, the group waited with bated breath to see how fast the stoic kid would come around. One minute passed. Then two. Halfway through that second minute, Kakashi began to doubt if he'd pulled it out properly. Just as Sakura began to shake with held back sobs, Sasuke stirred and opened dark eyes, taking in his predicament and surroundings in a couple of seconds.

While happy tears streamed silently down Sakura's face, Kakashi looked at the young genius as he gingerly stepped back from Gohan and Naruto's support, swaying a little.

"How do you feel, Sasuke?" Hatake asked.

"Like a pincushion," the protégée replied evenly, his face giving away nothing. He rolled a shoulder. "But, I think I'll live."

"You bastard!" Naruto shouted, getting within inches of Sasuke's face. "You damn near gave me a heart attack! If you do that again, I'll kill you!"

The dark-haired shinobi smirked. "Like you could." Even as the two went back and forth, it was clear to everyone that Naruto was relieved to see the grim kid alive and well. The other three members of the group just exchanged glances as the two continued, arguing like no tomorrow.

Three weeks later and Team Seven stood on the completed bridge that linked Wave Country with the mainland. All of the shinobi were packed to travel and Gohan had on his cape, figuring he might as well get something out of the journey to Konoha no matter how small.

"See you around, Inari!" Naruto called, waving at the young boy with a grin. "You better not cry anymore!" The kid shot back with a faint retort, but was drowned out by the rest of the village, which had turned out in force to see off their heros, all waved and shouted good byes and other various wishes before the group turned and headed off down the bridge, their next destination being Konoha.

All too soon, the salty smell of the sea faded, and the deep thumping of the waves on the cliffs faded not too long after. It was just a little past noon and the dirt road the shinobi walked down was dappled with the shadows of the trees that stood thick on the sides of the quiet lane. None of them were willing to break the peace that hung around them and even Naruto seemed to be content to listen to the rhythmic scraping of the group's feet and the warbling cries of various birds.

Gohan was felling relaxed to the highest degree, breathing in the pure air, heavily scented with the perfumes of flowers. He tended to reflect on things in utter silence like this and he stayed true to form, lapsing into his memories of the battle three weeks ago, eventually centering on his failed transformation.

'Why didn't it work?' he wondered to himself pondering everything that he'd seen and felt during the process. He'd done it the same way he'd been doing it since he and his father had pushed themselves to the max in the special room in Dende's Lookout. The lightning had been something new, though.

There had been lighting during the switch before, but it was fleeting and never lasted like it had during the fight. The Ascended Super Saiyan form, what Gohan had come to call Super Saiyan 2, had lightning, but it was static electricity even at its strongest. What really concerned Gohan, though, was the glass ceiling he'd hit towards the end. He'd hit it and been blown away by his own power. He'd never had this problem before, so why now? Nothing had been strange until…the dimension switch! Could that be the cause?

The Super Saiyan didn't remember much about the transition, but he did remember being hit by some weird light that had burned him like a branding iron. It was like…It was like his power had been sealed away behind some kind of barrier. Gohan frowned to himself. Seals were unheard of in his dimension, unless you counted the one that had sealed Bojack away, and the one that had kept the old Piccolo locked up tight…Garlic Jr. didn't count, that had been another dimension. In the long history of his universe, there were only two instances of seals that he knew of.

Seals were much more prevalent in this dimension, so maybe someone here would know the answer. The young half-saiyan's eyes fell on the jounin he was walking next to down the shady lane. When they made camp, he'd talk to Kakashi about it. He hoped it would be one on one. Gohan didn't mind if the others knew he was a Super Saiyan, but for some reason, he wanted to keep it under wraps for as long as he could.

Team Seven kept walking until twilight was well underway and the sun was only half visible above the horizon to the west. Camp was pitched in no time at all, thanks to Naruto using a small army of Kage Bunshins to help set up. Getting a fire going was a snap. Who needed tinder when you had Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu? After that was done, Kakashi sent the four kids to go get dinner while he made sure camp was set up right (meaning he was going to read 'Icha Icha').

Gohan was no fool and saw his chance. While the others were still fishing, he fazed into the stream, grabbed the first big salmon he saw, and fazed out before the other three even realized what had happened.

Kakashi looked up in mild surprise when Gohan strode back into camp, soaking wet, with a huge salmon slung over his shoulder. Hatake knew that the young man wanted a word with him, if the looks he'd been tossing Kakashi's way since leaving Tazuna's were any indication. The movements the half-saiyan made while setting up his fish were almost mechanical and there was a faint glaze in his eyes as if his mind was elsewhere. He finished the set-up and simply stared into the fire for a minute, contemplating something.

Hatake decided he would make the opening move. "Gohan? Something wrong?"

The formidable fighter stood and nodded, keeping his eyes on the crackling flames. "Yeah."

"What?"

"Remember what happened when I fought that ice guy back in the village?"

Kakashi blinked, trying to remember which part. That whole fight had been full of surprises, from Kekkei Genkai to a glimpse of Armageddon. "You mean the part where the world came close to ending?" It was an attempt at humor, but Gohan flinched.

"That's the one. Listen, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the others." Kakashi nodded, knowing that this was something Gohan wanted to confide in him and him alone. "Well…" He proceeded to tell Kakashi the whole story, explaining what a Saiyan and a Super Saiyan were and what had transpired at the bridge. At the end, the sliver of Kakashi's face that could be seen looked pensive.

"Hm…You say that this is the first time this has happened, right?" Gohan nodded. "And it never happened back in your dimension?"

Gohan shook his head. "No. Not even transforming for the first time was this hard." Kakashi glanced around and decided they were alone.

"Show me." Gohan looked wary, but he sank into his stance all the same. "Wait. Take the cape and gi top off. I think that whatever this is is probably on your chest somewhere, seals like this usually are for some reason." The fighter shrugged, trusting the jounin and proceeded to shuck the requested items, allowing the top to fall around his waist.

"Ready?" The kid asked. Kakashi nodded, preparing for the onslaught once again. Gohan began his drawn-out kiai and the blue aura blasted into existence. The power up continued on, sending dust and stones everywhere and even peeling off the bark on some of the trees in the clearing where the group was camped. The earth beneath Gohan fractured and a 'whump' of displaced air blew a sizeable depression in the ground.

Kakashi continued to stare, expecting to see the seal at any minute as the Super Saiyan's aura blasted out of existence, though the wind and earthquake continued. A second later, gold energy appeared around Gohan's feet and flashed into a brilliant aura of gold flame, outlining the Z fighter and giving off its distinctive high-pitched pulsating chirping noise.

Then the kanji appeared.

Lighting streamed into the sky, twisting into the double helix from before then the electricity reversed direction and Gohan yelled in pain before a pulse of white light blew him off his feet and sent him flying. He would've been knocked out again from hitting a tree if Kakashi hadn't caught him with a quick Shunshin no Jutsu. After Kakashi had used his own army of shadow clones to set up the camp again since it had been blown over by Gohan, the jounin looked at the kid again as he pulled on his top and cape.

"Well?" the fighter asked.

Kakashi sighed. "I think you're right about the mark being a seal. But I can tell you that I have neither the knowledge nor the power required to break it." A downcast look flooded the saiyan's eyes. He felt crushed. What if he actually ran into a situation that warranted a change? If he couldn't transform, his ass was grass. "However, I'm sure someone in Konoha will know."

"Who?" Gohan asked in a forlorn voice. If Kakashi couldn't do it, then who could?

"There's Tsuanade-hime and Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin and their teacher, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi-sama. If anyone will know how to break this seal, it'll be them." Gohan's eyes showed doubt. Kakashi sighed. "Look, of those three, Jiraiya is the one who had the best chance. He's a master of Fuuinjutsu, but the other two aren't too shabby either. You also have a chance at it."

The demi-saiyan's head tilted. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Seals can be broken through sheer force, and you have more force than anyone I've ever seen. You could've given Arashi-sensei a run for his money and I can offer no higher compliment than that." It was true. Even after his sensei's death, Kakashi still held the man on a pedestal, even though he knew that the inventor of Hiraishin and Rasengan was only human. "I'll bet if you throw as much ki as you can, despite the effects, at the seal, it'll shatter. I'm not saying it will be easy, but I'm sure if worse comes to worse, you could break it."

After two run ins with this seal, Gohan was sure that breaking the seal with force would be the last thing he did. "So, any ideas on why I got this thing in the first place?"

Kakashi scratched his mask. "I'm not a seal master, not by a long shot, but I do have a theory." Seeing his companion was all ears, the jounin continued. "I think that it's all about balance. See, nature is about balance, and I'm sure that tendency transcends dimensions as well. What happens when you put oil on top of water and shake it?"

"It mixes, then separates."

"Right. In other words, it returns to balance. It's the same with temperature. If I open a cold room and a hot room, one will warm and the other will cool until they're almost equal."

"Or you could say that they're balanced!" Gohan finished.

Kakashi nodded, glad the kid had caught on so fast. "I think that it was the same with your coming here. If you'd come from you dimension as you were, you would've thrown out the balance of our world."

"So what you're saying is, the dimension sealed off my power to decrease it enough to where it wouldn't upset the balance?"

"I think so."

"So what would happen if I broke the seal? Would it just reset?"

That question gave Kakashi pause. He scratched his mask absently as he compare what he'd seen from Gohan so far to beings he knew in this world. "Hard to say," he said finally. "My opinion is that you'd be fine. You're strong, there's no doubt about that, but there are creatures here who outclass you. The Kyuubi, for instance. Personally, I feel that introducing someone of your strength all at once would've done something bad, so nature decided to prevent it, but now that you're here, if that power were reintroduced, it wouldn't do anything major." He eye-smiled. "Aside from giving us all heart attacks from what your transformations do to the world around you."

This time Gohan smiled feebly at the humor, but he still felt naked being in a world where his greatest trump card was beyond his reach for now. "You're sure about this?"

"No. I've seen and done a lot during my time as a shinobi, but you're the first person I've ever met who's from another world. Everything I've said is just speculation based on what you've told me." Kakashi shrugged. "I think that it's the most probable theory though, if it's any consolation."

Gohan was spared answering by the arrival of the rest of the group, who promptly started bombarding the pair with questions about the phenomena brought by the son of Goku's second transformation attempt. He stared into the fire as Kakashi deflected the questions and made the others sit down and cook.

Three days passed by quickly as Kakashi increased the pace to get the team back to Konoha to collect their pay and file the after action report with the Hokage. The night of his discussion with Gohan, Kakashi had summoned Pakkun and sent him ahead with a missive explaining the incident with the Super Saiyan and the request to file the report in private with only Kakashi, the Sandaime, and Gohan present. Now the team stood before the gate to Konoha, Sakura and Naruto jabbering excitedly about being back home after almost a month's absence. Gohan was looking through the yawning portal at the bustling street before them, line with shops and people giving those shops business, and at the most distinctive feature of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Hokage Monument.

On the ridge that towered over the entire village were four faces, each the size of a house and elegantly shaped out of the rock on which they sat. Naruto was the first one to see where Gohan was looking.

"That's the Hokage Monument!" he said excitedly. "Every Hokage ever has had their face up there and someday, I'm gonna be up there too!" He looked at his instructor. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, can we go? I wanna go find Iruka-sensei and get some Ichiraku!"

"Sure, go ahead. You three are free for the day. I've gotta take Gohan here to the Sandaime so we can get approval for him to be here. I'll take care of the report and get you guys' pay mailed to you." Sakura and Naruto cheered and all three genin jumped away, bounding across rooftops on their way home or whatever they had planned to do that day.

Kakashi looked down at the caped teen next to him. "Well Gohan, you ready?"

"Sure, let's go."

The pair strode off down the street heading for the Hokage's tower.

Well, there you have it. Gohan's in Konoha now and he gets to meet Sarutobi and a few other charachters. I know that this chapter didn't have much action, but it was just intended to get Team Seven back to Konoha and explain the kanji that the dimension warp gave Gohan. Anyway, Read and Review.

Glossary

Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Skill/Technique): THis makes a big ass dragon out of water and it basically eats the enemy. Needs a sizable source of water nearby to work.

Iaido: Sometimes called Iaijutsu or in a certain manga, Battoujutsu. As in Rurouni Kenshin, it's a fast draw, designed to kill the enemy in a single stroke.

Yari: Japanese spear. No not a Naginata, which has a curved blade. This sucker has a straight blade on it, or it can have a blade with a projection called a jitte. (Correct me if I'm wrong on the projection part).

Raikiri (Lightning Edge/Blade): A souped up version of the Chidori. Some people think that it's the same, but I'm inclined to believe that the Raikiri is a tad more powerful, kinda like the difference between a Kamehameha and a Super Kamehameha.

Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God Technique/Skill): One of two signature jutsu used by the Yondaime. He was able to teleport to any location as long as that location had the required seal. If my knowledge is correct, he engraved it on a kunai so he could throw it then teleport after it. This jutsu is how Namikaze Minato got the name Konoha's Yellow Flash. Long story short, it's Naruto's version of Instant Transmission.

Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere): Basically a ball of chakra that can drill through damn near anything or anyone. Second signature jutsu of the Yondaime. Pretty much a handheld hurricane.