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Last time: Gohan squares off with Gaara and manages to unleash Shukakku by accident

This time: The prelims conclusion and Sakura's training begins

Gohan was shaking. He was loath to admit it, but he was truly scared of this thing. The sand continued to pile up all around him, leaving the warrior with only the air above him and the rapidly shrinking ground around his feet with which to use.

'Even though I'm scared,' Gohan thought, 'I felt this way during the Cell Games and I pulled through then. So,' his jade eyes steeled, 'I'm not gonna let this time be any different!'

The demon across from him laughed manically.

"Ahhhh," he sighed, flexing and moving Gaara's sand-shrouded limbs. "It feels so good to get a chance to stretch my legs. I haven't been able to do this for almost three months now."

"Just…Just what are you!?" Gohan demanded.

"Who me?" The creature asked, the human form of Gaara giving way totally to some creature who could make and control sand. "You can call me Shukaku. But," he added with a predatory grin, "I prefer your executioner!"

A shadow fell over the young warrior, who looked behind him and paled. A massive wall of sand had risen up behind him without his noticing and was getting ready to slam down on him like a ton of bricks. The wall began its descent and Gohan thrust his hands out to meet it.

"HAAAA!"

The shockwave blew a neat round hole in the onrushing powdery substance and the wave collapsed on him, though the saiyan managed to avoid any real injuries as the hole passed by him.

Something slammed him from behind and carried Gohan straight into the wall, smashing him into it and pinning him. He hissed in pain as the hand clenched tight around him, grinding his elbows into his ribs.

"HAAAHAHAHAHAA!" Shukaku crowed. "This is gonna be FUN! Hope you last a while boy, 'cause you're gonna die slowly!" With that, the arm holding Gohan withdrew then shot out again, slamming him headlong into the door of the arena.

Everyone winced as Gohan cried out when his forehead hit the hard and unforgiving concrete. Then the hand dragged the saiyan sideways, running his head through the walls before slamming him to the floor, into the wall, into the other wall, the bottom of the opposing balcony, against the rail of their balcony, each time Gohan crying out in pain as his body took a bigger and bigger beating. It wasn't long before his face and shoulders, the only parts of him visible, were cut and lacerated, blood flying everywhere as he was thrown around the room like a rag doll in a rabid dog's mouth.

"G-Gohan…-kun," Sakura whispered, looking absolutely horrified at the torture the demon down below was putting him through. The sand claw withdrew then launched straight up.

"Let's see how you like being put through the ceiling, huh!?" the sand demon shouted gleefully. He was taking an absurd amount of pleasure in hurting his victim. There was a crunch as the hand slammed into and through the roof of the arena. The sand hand dissolved and Gohan began to fall, tumbling limply, though his hair remained golden, so he wasn't dead or unconscious.

"Not done yet!" Shukaku cried, launching his left arm forward.

"Gohan look out!" Naruto shouted, leaning over the rail.

That seemed to breath new life into the saiyan warrior, whose jade eyes snapped open and he twisted in mid fall, the sandy claw scraping over his back and opening some minor abrasions. His hands came together in front of his forehead.

"Masenko….HAAAA!"

The yellow beam shot across the arena.

A sand shield sprang up as if by magic, intercepting the attack long before it would've hit the demon. Gohan landed lightly on the sand. It sprang up and tangled him. Shukaku's arms retreated then shot out again.

"Take this!"

The two arms slammed together, Gohan's cry of pain echoing through the chamber. They opened again and the teen staggered then collapsed onto one knee, clutching at his ribs and coughing up blood.

"I don't get it," Sakura said. "Gohan's so powerful. He has to have that demon outclassed, but he's having such a hard time."

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. You're right, Sakura. Gohan does outclass the Shukaku when it comes down to raw power, however, there is more to combat than the amount of chakra or ki you possess."

"What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, never taking his eyes off his roommate, who was staggering back to his feet, wincing with every movement.

"I mean that though Gohan has the power and drive to win, there're other things at work here. One is the inflexibility of ki. It has some amazing uses, that much is true, but when it comes to offensive attacks, it's pretty inflexible. Two is the range. Gohan is primarily a close-range fighter. Most of his attacking involves getting close to his enemy and blitzing them with a barrage of blows. The long range stuff is done with ki."

"Which the Ichibi is able to neutralize with his sand shield ability," the Sandaime broke it, puffing on his pipe and looking grim. "Furthermore, Shukaku has one thing that Gohan-kun lacks by a tremendous amount."

"What's that?" Tenten asked.

The Hokage smirked ironically. "Bloodlust," he answered simply. "In this world, shinobi battles sometimes come down to who has the greatest bloodlust. Gohan-kun simply does not have it. He wishes to cherish and protect life, which is another type of strength altogether, however, there are times when one needs to let go of that and want nothing more than to decimate the enemy."

'Dammit!' Gohan cursed. 'I need to stop this guy, but his attacks come from wherever there's sand and right now…' He looked around the arena. 'This place is his playground.'

Shukakku held up an arm, the surface bubbling and rippling as if the sand itself was coming to a boil. "Suna Shuriken!" The demon shouted. The bulges shot out, speeding at Gohan who was taken off guard and brought his arms up to defend.

He grunted as the projectiles hit and opened gashes on his arms.

Another arm of sand caught him, this one from behind since it'd sprouted from the ground. He was swept off his feet and carried towards the demon, who shot his attached arm at him. Gohan let out a yell, forcing out ki in a huge pulse. The shock blew away the two hands, opened up a spot on the floor to stand on and shoved Shukakku back a bit.

"An opening!" Naruto shouted. "Get him Gohan!"

The warrior shot a massive ki blast that caught the Shukakku full in the face and blew him head over heels.

"Hell yeah!" The blond shouted. "That's the way!"

Gohan was already skimming over the sand, a small wake rising behind him, reaching the demon just as it got its feet under him. The sand raccoon caught a flash of a foot then he was flying through the air. He flipped and got ready to launch an attack. Sand lunged for Gohan's ankle, but the saiyan leapt into the air, breaking the bonds before they had time to form.

Eyes burning, the Super Saiyan was enveloped in a gold aura and blasted forward with renewed speed, drawing back as he prepared to throw his momentum and body weight behind the strike.

The sand on Gaara's body rushed forward and created a shield.

The blow hit and Shukakku was sent speeding towards the floor. The sand there formed a cushion and caught him, turning into a sphere when Gohan dropped from above with a massive axe kick that landed heavily enough to deform and warp the sphere. Spikes formed, but the saiyan was already leaping away, inches ahead of the spears of sand.

'No way I'm getting through that if it's as hard as the rest of that damned sand,' the warrior thought. 'I need a technique to cut through…' he thought for a moment then it hit him.

"Alright. He showed me, but it was a long time ago…Well, here goes nothing!" Gohan put two fingers to his forehead and forced as much ki into the fingertips as he could. In no time, his fingers began to spark and crackle as electric-like ki gathered, glowing and sparking madly as the small sparkle grew.

"What's he doing?" Lee asked. "That amount of chakra will not make it."

"He's up to something," Neji answered. "Watch and you might learn something."

'Almost there. Don't move for another minute, please!' Gohan pleaded silently. The outside of the sphere roiled and raged then a claw of sand shot out heading straight for him like a runaway train.

"Gohan-kun! Get out of the way!" Sakura shouted.

'I would, but I can't! If I move, I'll lose my concentration then this will be the end! I have one shot to end this, so I gotta make it count!' Gohan thought.

"I don't know what you're planning," Shukakku shouted, "but it won't work!"

The spark on his fingers flashed and Gohan grinned triumphantly. He thrust the spark forward.

"We'll see about that! Makankosappo!"

Whatever the watching shinobi might've been expecting, it wasn't a thin yellow beam of ki with a spiral pattern spinning around the outside like the threads on a screw. The two attacks passed each other and continued on. The spiraling attack reached its target first.

The ki slammed into the sphere of sand and burst straight out the other side, apparently doing nothing. Gohan's world went dark as the sand slammed into him, the claw carried by momentum, and sent him flying into the remains of the hand statue. The impact shook the arena and knocked everyone off their feet as a brown cloud swept over the floor.

The Suna-nin groaned then Temari sat up with a gasp.

"Gaara!"

The sphere of sand was falling away fast and when Gaara was revealed, it wasn't a pretty sight. A ragged and bloody hole had been drilled right through him, missing his spine by the merest of margins. If Gohan's aim had been even a half-inch to the left, the Suna-nin would've been paralyzed from the waist down.

"What happened to Gohan-kun!?" Sakura asked, looking almost frantic. She made to leap down to the floor, but Kakashi stopped her. "Kakashi-sensei!?"

"Wait," the jounin said, who had the air of being about ready to jump himself. "Hayate hasn't called the match. If you go in now, Gohan will be disqualified." From the roiling dust cloud emerged a shadow, which resolved into Gohan, gold hair and green eyes nowhere to be found. He'd been KO'd for the briefest of seconds, but it was enough for him to drop out of transformation and he didn't have the stamina to try again.

"It's…over…." He panted. "You're…too…wounded to fight."

"Never!" Shukaku shrieked, raising a hand. The sand came when it was called and it sped at Gohan again.

"Look out!"

Gohan wasn't sure who shouted it, but he knew there was no avoiding it.

'So…This ends the Chuunin Exams for me huh?' He thought, with a small smile. 'Oh well. It just means I have to train harder.'

The sand stopped and began to dissolve.

"What?"

Shukaku screamed long and loud, clutching at his head, his golden eyes fading to teal as Gaara took advantage of the demon's weakened state to reassert himself in control. When he finished, he had a coughing fit that made the hole in him burn like a thousand snake bites then he lost consciousness and keeled over backwards.

"Winner!" Announced Hayate as he dropped from the corner of the ceiling where he'd spent most of the match, "Son Gohan!"

Cheer erupted from the balcony to his left as Gohan smiled weakly. Maybe he'd beaten Gaara by chance, but he'd been caught off guard by the demon and his ferocity. Now that he knew about it, it wouldn't happen again. If there was a next time, Gaara would lose, no question.

The warrior wasn't sure when he blacked out but he did and hit the ground with a thud.

"Uhhhh. Wha?" The world began to come into sight again. Gohan hissed as he found himself looking right into one of the fluorescent lights of Konoha General Hospital. "Stupid place for a light," he muttered, shielding his eyes

He tried to sit up but hissed with pain as he felt the wounds on his upper body tear open again and begin to bleed. A nurse came in right then. She looked shocked, her clipboard clattering to the floor.

"You're awake!?" She gasped. "With your injuries we thought you'd be out for a week at least!"

"How long?" Gohan asked as the woman came over to his bed and began to change the bandages that shrouded his upper body and encircled his head.

"Three days, though you've been awake and feverish some of the time. Your wounds got infected." She shook her head. "Seriously, what're they thinking making kids like you fight to the death?"

The warrior didn't respond, knowing the question to be rhetorical. The whole time she was changing the wrappings, the nurse was fuming about his state, marveling at his stamina and wondering why kids had to go and fight like they did. Gohan remained silent through the whole thing, not feeling like he should talk.

"There, finished," the nurse said finally. "now don't move! You'll pop those lacerations open again and I don't wanna have to change the wrappings so soon! Your jounin will be in shortly to check up on you and we'll figure out what to do with you then."

She left and Gohan enjoyed the silence, knowing that with Kakashi, soon meant about two hours from now.

He was wrong

It wasn't long before Team Seven, including a fully conscious Sasuke, came bursting into his room.

"Gohan!!" Naruto shouted, all but jumping on him. "That was awesome! You showed his ass!"

"How're you Gohan-kun?" Sakura asked softly, looking like she was going to cry at seeing him in this state.

The warrior smirked. "I feel like I just got done fighting Broly."

"Who?"

"Someone I never want to fight again," he answered and let it go at that.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well, as thrilling as it is to have you with us again, we have to fill you in on what's going to happen in the future."

"Huh?"

"You will be fighting in the finals one month from now. Here's the pairings." He tossed a small scroll into Gohan's lap, which the saiyan warrior picked up painfully. He struggled to unroll it but kept fumbling it with fingers that were stiff from days of disuse.

"Here, let me." Sakura said, taking the scroll from and unrolling it.

"Thanks Sakura," Gohan murmured. The girl just smiled, but had a look that said she was confused about something.

"What?"

"Huh! Oh! Nothing, Gohan-kun."

The saiyan looked at the roster.

Match 1: Hyuuga Neji vs. Uzumaki Naruto.

Match 2: Rock Lee vs. Son Gohan

Match 3: Sabaku no Temari vs. Haruno Sakura

Match 4: Aburame Shino vs. Sabaku no Kankuro

Match 5: Abumi Zaku vs. Nara Shikamaru.

"Me and Lee huh?" Gohan asked. He grinned. "Should be fun!"

"Yeah, and when you win we get to fight!" Naruto crowed. "I'm gonna make Ero-sennin train me extra hard so I can catch you Gohan!" Sasuke looked pissed that they were in the exams and he wasn't, but he didn't say anything.

"I hope I can make it," Sakura murmured. "Temari-san seems awfully strong."

Gohan leaned back against his pillow with a grunt. "Don't worry," he assured her. "When I'm done with you, you'll be more than able to stand up to her."

"Somehow, that makes me really nervous," the kunoichi muttered under her breath.

"So you intend to train Sakura?" Kakashi asked, looking kind of surprised.

"Yeah. Speaking of which, I want to go outside the village to do it. Can you get that cleared?"

"Shouldn't be too much of a problem," Kakashi answered. "I think Sandaime-sama will be comfortable with your ability to protect her."

"So what about me?" Sasuke asked, sounding slightly sullen. He was still kind of mad at Gohan for getting him disqualified. When they weren't face to face, Sasuke was normal and forgot about it, but when he'd seen the warrior in the flesh, all that rage and negative emotion came rushing right back.

"Well, it doesn't seem fair for Naruto, Sakura and Gohan to get special training," Kakashi said, "so I'm going to train you. Teach you a few of the Sharingan's tricks."

"I look forward to it."

"Well, if that's all, I'll go now," the jounin said. "Gohan, the doc says you can head out three days from now." He looked over at Gohan's new student. "I suggest you pack, Sakura. Something tells me Gohan's gonna go as soon as his foot hits the pavement."

"Sure am." The saiyan warrior muttered. "I hate hospitals!"

Three days later, Gohan was standing at the village gates. Sure enough, Sandaime-sama had cleared them to leave as soon as Gohan was good to go. Thankfully, Saiyans healed faster than normal humans, given enough time to rest, so now the young man was bound only in minimal bandages that he expected to take off in another day or two.

"Gohan-kun!"

He looked over and grinned as he spotted Sakura running towards him with a small brown pack thrown over her shoulder. She'd spent the three days packing, but when she realized that she'd be traveling with Gohan-kun, who probably didn't care how she looked, and training, she realized that a huge load wasn't the way to go, so she'd gone with the basics. "Wow! New look?"

"Yeah. Kakashi said that my clothes and gi were both trashed so he went and bought me this." Gohan was wearing a sleevless gi like what karate masters practiced in with a shinobi's bracer on his right arm, a fishnet shirt like Shikamaru's under the gi, and kung fu pants tucked into the top of shinobi sandal boots. His cape, taken to a clothing shop to get redone, as it was the only salvageable thing from his wardrobe, hung from his shoulders. The teen's hirai-ate was tied around his waist, keeping the gi closed. He pulled out a small tray from a hidden pocket on the inside of his gi top.

"Put your stuff there," he said pointing to a random spot. Sakura did as she was asked then Gohan pulled out a small capsule and chucked it at the pack. It vanished in a puff of smoke.

"What?"

"Don't worry. I'll explain while we walk."

"Huh? You mean we're not flying to wherever we're going?"

"Nope. Training starts now, with this." He opened another capsule. Inside was a vest and what looked like arm and leg guards. He handed them to Sakura who almost tipped over with the weight.

"What the hell!? I won't be able to move!"

"Trust me. While you wear these, you're always training, so we can work on the basics and things during breaks and stuff." The kunoichi scowled, but threw on the equipment, looking slightly shocked when it didn't look half bad on her. Gohan noticed. "It's a gift from Piccolo-sensei. He gave me those about three or four months ago so I would be able to wear them under normal clothing and Mom would never know."

The warrior headed for the gate but stopped. "Coming Sakura?"

The girl was struggling to even lift a leg.

"Shut up! I don't have super strength like you! How can I move with this shit on!?"

"Huh? You mean you can't use chakra to amplify your muscles?" Gohan asked, looking kind of surprised.

Sakura blushed as she remembered that Tsunade of the Sannin was famous for just that thing. She made a hand seal and focused charka into her muscles. Then she lifted her leg. It still took an effort that exhausted her, but at least now she would be able to move.

"There you go!" her 'teacher' crowed. "Now, let's get going!"

He started walking away, Sakura lugging her newly increased body weight down the road, moving as if she was trying to drag a massive object behind her. The two chuunin guarding the gate sweatdropped.

"Poor girl," one of them remarked.

"Yeah. I've been hearing rumors about that kid. They say he's a monster who can take on Orochimaru and live to tell about it."

"Seriously? Man, that chick better be tough then."

"You said it."

It was twilight when finally, mercifully, Gohan stopped walking. Sakura keeled over backwards the moment he did, making a small indentation in the ground when she hit, breathing hard and sweating like a pig.

"Finally!" She muttered. For the last few hours they'd been walking, Gohan doing everything from whistling to even convincing a bird to land on his finger and hang around them for awhile. It was as if he didn't even feel the weight of his cape. She'd questioned him on it once during the walk.

"Huh? Oh, I just don't notice it anymore. Actually," he shrugged, looking at the cape with slight apprehension, "this is getting a bit light. I'm gonna have to increase the weight soon."

'Increase the weight he says,' Sakura thought as she stared up at the sky, which looked as if it was on fire, shot through as it was with gold, pink, and red. The clouds were dyed a gentle pinkish color. It was a pretty scene, Sakura supposed.

"Okay, time to really get going!" Gohan announced.

"Huh!? What the hell do you mean!? I'm exhausted here! I don't think I can move!" It was true. She'd used a lot of her charka to get moving, so now she was running low. In the last few hours, every step had taken more effort. Right before they'd stopped, the kunoichi had been dragging her feet like Frankenstein's monster.

"But that's why we're training now," Gohan explained. "You're at your limit, so the time to push you harder is now."

"But I'll die!"

"No you won't!" Gohan laughed. "I thought the same thing when Piccolo-sensei trained me, but the end results were worth it."

"I guess," she answered, getting to her feet like a turtle that'd been flipped. "But if I die, I'm gonna haunt your ass, even if you get back to your dimension!"

"Heheheh. Fair enough. Now, let's see your basics."

For the next week to week and a half, Sakura trained hard every day and late into the night. After only a few hours of sleep, they were on their way again and it became routine. Wake up. Walk all day with a heavy weight load, stop, train for hours on end, doing techniques and working out, then sleep and repeat.

During that time the two grew even closer and Sakura began to get these strange leaping sensations in her stomach whenever Gohan-kun praised her or was pressed close, like when she was working on basic joint locks and throws and Gohan had had to press right against her in order to show her the way it was done. The sensations unnerved the pink-haired kunoichi, but she didn't say anything and even secretly began to enjoy them.

"Gohan-kun?"

"Yeah?" The saiyan asked, stopping and looking back at her as she lumbered along behind him. They'd been walking for most of the day, and while for the majority Sakura had been walking normally, now that her chakra was running low, she had started dragging again.

"Why is this weight thing not getting any lighter?"

For some reason, the teen laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his head. "Well, I guess you just haven't gotten used to it yet. It took me about a week or two to get used to the cape."

"Oh."

"But you are showing improvement! I mean, last week would you have said that you would be able to walk for as long as you have?"

The kunoichi thought. Now that he mentioned it, her chakra had been increasing as of late and she seemed to be gaining muscle up and down her body. "No, I guess I wouldn't have."

"There you see? Just keep at it, you can do it." She nodded and stumbled past him. Gohan watched her go with a hidden smile.

'She really has potential. She doesn't know it, but I've been increasing the weight without her knowing. Piccolo-sensei really knew what he was doing when he made those weights to be able to increase their weight based on how much ki is put in them.' He grinned. 'Just wait Sakura. When you take those weights off, you won't recognize yourself!'

At the end of the second week, the pair, Sakura walking upright but with a noticeable forward lean, strode into a veritable bedlam. The village they'd come across was under attack.

Pillagers of every kind were running amok, whooping and hollering, waving naked swords in the sky and running people down on horseback. Young women cried in terror as they were caught in tight corners and tied up like a cow at a rodeo and loaded onto the back of a horse.

"Ami!" One mother shrieked as her daughter, a teen who looked to be around nineteen, was scooped up as she fled and slung across one bandit's lap.

"Hahaha!" he laughed, "Lookie here boys! Another one for the camp!" Those within earshot cheered raucously.

"Gohan-kun!" Sakura shouted, "We have to help!" She took a few steps forward, but her companion's hand held her back. "Let go!"

"Sakura, leave it to me," he said, a serious fire beginning to burn in his eyes. The young warrior had a real soft spot for the innocent and his drive to protect was matched only by his father's, "You're not used to the weights you've got on. Do you really think you could fight them?"

"So let me take them off!" She protested. After they'd left Konoha, Gohan had made her promise to not take off the weights until he gave the okay. The kunoichi had been in a real hurry to impress the saiyan, so she'd agreed, but now it seemed that she would have to void that promise.

"I said I'll handle it."

"Hey!" called another bandit, spotting the two as they stood at the entrance to the village. "Here's two more and that girl looks like she could be a pretty good servant!"

Five bandits grinned and ran at them, swords held high, ever single grubby bandit yelling, more to intimidate than anything else. Sakura reached for her weapons pouch, but stopped when her view was blocked by a white cape.

"Gohan-kun!"

"Kill him!" One of the rushing men shouted. Five swords swung down. There was a clash of steel on steel as all five katanas were halted effortlessly by the bracer on Gohan's right arm. The bandits grinned as they pushed down, forcing Gohan's arm down a fraction of an inch.

"HAAAAAAA!"

There was a whump as a shockwave slammed into the bandits knocking them backwards, forcing openings to become glaringly vulnerable.

A blur of motion passed by each one and they were all blown away, swords splintered into shining silver fragments, to crash into other bandits, dive headfirst through the wood planks of houses and one man ended up headfirst in a rain barrel.

Gohan quit moving, his cape snapping tight against his body. The pillagers shrank back as he glared at them. "I'm going to say this once!" he announced. "Leave and don't come back."

"Die brat!"

An arrow flashed from the bow of one of the bandits.

Its flight was stopped between the saiyan boy's fingers. They pushed together and the arrow shaft snapped as if it was a toothpick.

"Not bad!" Yelled a horseman, galloping straight at him. "But let's see you stop…this!?" He was flying through the air before he'd finished speaking. Gohan had fazed in right next to the horse, batted the man's yari aside while simultaneously giving the horse a quick heel hand where the neck met the jaw. The animal's neck had snapped sideways and it'd stumbled then gone down, launching his rider through the air as if he'd been launched from a catapult.

The bandits shrank back.

"What's going on here?" Asked a deep voice. A massive man, three hundred pounds and an easy six foot five, loomed from the shadows, a turkey leg clenched in his hand. Grease spurted as he tore off a strip and gulped it down like a hyena stripping a carcass.

"Ganosuke!" One of the bandits cried, sounding rather relieved. "This kid's scary!"

Beady eyes looked over the boy that'd started dismantling the gang. Booming laughs, ones that came from the man's tremulous stomach, echoed across the street, shaking every inch of the sumo. "This kid is scary!? I've seen Chihuahuas scarier than him!" He thrust the turkey leg into the hands of one of the other bandits. "Hold this, I'll deal with him." Ganosuke lumbered over to Gohan and Sakura had to do a double take at the contrast between the two.

Ganosuke was huge, his fat, tan, body covered with scars and glistening with either sweat or oil, she couldn't be sure which. Gohan was maybe five foot five, five foot six and probably all of around a hundred pounds. It was David vs. Goliath, and she had to wonder, would Gohan really be able to beat this guy?

"I give you one chance to back down, Gaki," the sumo-like man said, "or I crush you where you stand!"

"Leave the villagers alone," Gohan answered, repeating his earlier statement. "I won't let you hurt them anymore!"

Ganosuke laughed again, his stomach swaying with each hearty chuckle. "Leave them alone? I don't think so Tiny. Y'see, these here villagers live in the Yamabushi's territory so we can do anything we want with 'em! Now, looks like I have to flatten your ass kid!" To Sakura's surprise, the man sank into a martial arts stance.

'But whoever taught him didn't do a very good job,' she noted, picking out two major flaws in his defenses right away. 'His entire front is wide open and his center of gravity is high too. Gohan-kun'll toss his ass like a feather.' Then she blinked. 'Wait, I can see that? Wow, I guess I am learning!'

"Bye-bye Tiny!"

The sumo lunged forward at Gohan, who seemed to be watching almost dispassionately. Ganosuke's arms came up high, leaving his entire body wide open, but the saiyan didn't capitalize on it like Sakura thought he would. Instead, he let the sumo's arms come down. If they hit, they might crush Gohan's collarbones or dislocate his shoulders.

Ganosuke stopped, but not by his own choice. The man's piggish eyes went wide as his arms were forced back. Gohan had grabbed his wrists in an iron vice and stopped the attack cold, though there was a ton of force behind the strike because the black-haired boy had felt the force from it ripple through his body and into the ground, forcing his feet to sink a couple of inches in the dusty street.

The boy shoved and Ganosuke stumbled backwards, totally off balance. Gohan slipped into a low stance and Sakura had to hide her grin as his right arm slipped into chamber, left hand extended to help gauge the distance.

"HAA!" The teen's fist flashed, burrowing into Ganosuke's gut, doubling him over as the flesh of the man's stomach twisted around Gohan's fist. The demi-saiyan pulled back, crouched low, and shot straight up, his fist connecting with the sumo's chin, snapping his head back.

The follow through carried the Z fighter over Ganosuke's head. He flipped and touched down, as light as a summer breeze, right as the sumo hit the ground, shaking it from his impact. The beefy guy was out cold.

The bandits all freaked out.

"Ganosuke!"

"Shit that kid KO'd him!"

"Let's get out of here!"

The bandits fled as if the hounds of hell were after them, leaving all their spoils behind, even the women. The town looked at their impromptu savior with stunned expressions then as one erupted into cheers and that night, threw their two new heros a feast.

"Shit!" one of the bandits cursed when they were safe in their hideout. "That damn kid! We'll get even with him! He'll find out why you don't fuck with Yamabushi!"

"Yeah!" The others chorused, Ganosuke waving feebly from his bed, two nasty bruises on his gut and chin where he'd been hit.

"Oh really?" Asked a voice from the shadows. "And how do you propose to do that? That boy is more than a match for you, even if there were a thousand of you." The figure that the voice belonged to stepped forward, purple-rimmed gold eyes flashing with dark amusement.

"Who're you?" demanded the first bandit. "How'd you get past the sentries!?"

"Oh, you mean those two poor fools outside?" Orochimaru asked, standing casually with one arm behind his back, "Why, those two gentlemen wouldn't let me in, so I had to insist and when I did," he shrugged in mock-apology, "well, they lost their heads."

His arm came out and tossed something into the light of the fire that burned in the center of the cave hideout. The object turned out to be a pair of heads with stunned looking expressions.

The heads of the sentries.

"Quite literally," the snake sannin finished straight faced, though his eyes showed that he was rather amused with the shocked faces of the assembled Yamabushi Bandits.

"W-what do you want?" the leader demanded, looking as if he would crap his pants at any time.

"The same thing you men want," Orochimaru answered with a low hiss.

"And that is?"

The pale man's face warped as he grinned sadistically, his long tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Gohan-kun!"

Uh-oh! Gohan's in trouble! One tidbit for the upcoming part of the story, this will set the stage for Gohan's breaking of the second seal, though that won't happen for a while. Well, hope you enjoyed it and I hope I was able to make the Gaara/Gohan fight's end interesting. Now, before you grill me on Gohan's use of Makankosappo, let me explain. Even though Piccolo never taught it to Gohan in canon, I think that it would be stupid for Piccolo to not want to pass along one of his greatest techniques, after all, that's what the Martial Arts is all about. Well, got that out of the way. So...I think that's it. Until next time!

Glossary

Suna Shuriken (Desert/Sand Shuriken): Gaara never really uses it with just sand, but since he can make sand be as hard as steel, I figured it would be possible. It makes shuriken out of sand that can cut just like real ones, or Gaara can absorb the shuriken thrown by enemies and spit it back, kinda like Kirby.

Makankosappo (Demon Piercing Light Ray/Special Beam Cannon): Piccolo's coolest technique, in my opinion. It's a really small beam that drills right through the enemy, like a Rasengan/Chidori mix. Chidori pierces, Rasengan grinds, Makankosappo does both! For obvious reasons, I went with the Japanese name. Honestly, which sounds better, Makankosappo or Special Beam Cannon?