Disclaimer: I own no stock in Naruto or DragonballZ, therefore, I do not own them.
Two weeks later, Gohan ambled into another town. He looked around, forlorn. He didn't know where he was. Then again, not knowing and choosing not to know were two entirely different things. The boy was certain that he knew where Konoha was. Not many nearby had that many ki signatures, nor were the ones closest to him as strong, but something held Gohan back from returning to the village. Maybe it was shame. Shame at having been defeated so easily. Kakashi and Sakura had held him in such high regard, Naruto even more so, but that regard would be shattered the second they saw his face.
The teen's feet carried him endlessly in a meandering path that would've offended any person trying to get from one side of a map to the other. Gohan's trail crossed itself in so many places that it was a wonder he was making headway at all. Despite all that, headway was indeed what he was making, slowly but surely. For the young man himself, the minutes of walking bled into hours. Hours bled into days and days bled into days without end. Gohan wasn't sure when he was sleeping, when he was walking, when he was eating, and when he was taking a break. If he took breaks that is, since he surely didn't remember stopping for anything.
He passed an eatery and the smell of the food inside made his stomach rumble loudly. The sky was cloudless, not a hint of rain anywhere in the area, but several people stopped and looked up with wonder at the blue skies. Knowing he had no money, Gohan wandered on, passing more restaurants and pubs and food stands. He marveled at how many restaurants and stands seemed to be in the town. Of course, the fact that he hadn't eaten in a while probably had a lot to do with it. If Gohan had been actively looking for a place to eat, then there wouldn't have been a food stand for miles around. It was just one of those mysteries in the world.
Gohan wasn't paying attention to where he was going and slammed hard into someone. He and the person he'd bumped into slammed hard to earth. The teen stood after he hit, dusting himself off with his one good arm, but he wasn't able to reach all of the dust on him, since it was in his dead spot. He gave up, recognizing a futile scenario when he saw it, and turned his attention to the person he'd knocked over in his carelessness.
The woman was wearing a simple deep purple robe with overlong sleeves that dangled long past her hands. Her dark hair was short, cut off just at the nape of her neck. On her feet were the bandage-wrapped sandal-boots that Gohan had only seen shinobi wear. This woman, who couldn't be more than thirty, looked innocuous enough, but she had to be a kunoichi. Gohan's sixth sense confirmed it. No one who wasn't a shinobi had ki that shone this brightly. How Gohan had missed her was beyond him, but maybe that was just one more failing of his. He brushed the thought away and held out his good hand to the woman.
"Sorry about that," Gohan said, "Wasn't watching."
"It happens," the woman answered, taking the proffered hand and allowing Gohan to pull her to her feet even though she was capable of doing it herself. "Just keep a sharper eye out next time, okay?"
"Right." Gohan brushed past her, already intending to put the incident behind him, but the woman stopped him.
"Hey! Haven't I seen you before?" She asked, peering at him closely.
Gohan shook his head negative. "I've never seen you before," he answered, maybe a bit more roughly than he'd intended. He turned again to leave. His stomach let out a thunderous report again.
The woman laughed. "Well, at any rate, you're all alone and you're hungry."
"I'm not…"
"Yes you are," she said with a sudden authoritativeness that Gohan had heard only in doctors and nurses before. It was the kind of command that came across as a suggestion but it was clearly implied to be followed to the letter. "Tell you what, I'll treat you to lunch." She gave him another appraising glance. "And while I'm at it, I'll take you back to our place so you can take a shower and get cleaned off. It looks like you haven't had a shower in a week." Gohan shrugged noncommittally.
A few hours later found Gohan sitting in a restaurant with close to half the diner's plates and silverware in front of him. Beside him were two precariously-leaning stacks of plates and bowls, which Gohan added to every few minutes. His new acquaintance wasn't even through her first plate yet and she hadn't touched her food since she'd noticed Gohan's ravenous eating habits. The young saiyan set his latest plate on top of the stack, set his chopsticks down, and leaned back with a contented smile.
"You…uh…seem to have a healthy appetite for a boy your age," the woman remarked, trying to sound off-hand but failing in her attempt because she kept watching the stack of soiled plates.
"Sorry," Gohan said with a wince, examining the twin towers himself. "I didn't mean to get carried away like that."
The woman laughed. "That's alright." She watched him curiously for a few seconds then spoke again. "You know, I've treated you to lunch and everything but I don't think I ever got your name or gave you mine."
"I'm Son Gohan," the teenager answered.
"Shizune," the kunoichi answered. "You know, I couldn't help but notice your hirai-ate you've got there. You're from Konoha right?"
"Sort of. It's…complicated. I'm from somewhere else a long way away, but the Sandaime thought that giving me the headband would keep uncomfortable questions to a minimum. It's just easier that way."
Shizune nodded. "I see. That's Sarutobi-san for you. He always watches out for the people who need help the most."
"You know the Sandaime?" Gohan asked, incredulous.
"Sure do," Shizune said with a nod. "I don't have my hirai-ate with me or anything, but I'm from Konoha too."
"So what brings you all the way out here?" Gohan asked, curiosity getting the best of him. "A mission?"
"Kind of," Shizune answered. "I'm…on an escort mission right now. I have been for a few years now."
"A few years?" Gohan answered. "Isn't your family worried that you've been gone for so long?"
"I…don't have a family," Shizune answered. "At least not any blood-relatives. My uncle, Dan, died awhile back and I've been traveling with his old girlfriend, trying to keep her out of too much trouble."
"So where is the girlfriend?" Gohan asked.
"Not here," Shizune answered with a sigh. "I got left behind again while she goes on ahead to another city. I'm sure she's all right. Not many people could kill her. I know of only two people who could off the top of my head."
"Who are they?" Gohan asked.
"Orochimaru and Jiraiya-sama. I'm sure you've heard of them."
Gohan blinked a couple of times. Orochimaru and Jiraiya were the only two capable of killing this woman? If that was true, then who was this person? 'I think I already know that,' Gohan thought. 'Orochimaru and Jiraiya-sama are two of the Sannin. San. Three. The Legendary Three Ninja. If they're the only two capable of killing this woman, that means that she must be the third Sannin, the one Naruto and Jiraiya-sama are looking for. Tsunade, the medic-nin.'
He laughed softly to himself. How ironic, he thought, that Naruto and Jiraiya are scouring the countryside looking for this woman and I find her in the first town I happen to wander into. Naruto would be irate. Oh wait, that's right. Naruto never wanted to see his face again. His melancholy, forgotten somewhat in the conversation with Shizune, returned and it must have showed on his features because Shizune's face became one of concern.
"Is something the matter, Gohan-kun?" she asked. "You don't look so good."
"It's nothing," Gohan said with a forced attempt at a smile, one which didn't reach his eyes, leaving them depressed and downcast. "Don't worry about it, Shizune-san."
"Alright," she said, not looking convinced. "But I still owe you a shower."
"You don't have to."
"I know," she interrupted, "but I'm insisting. I can't let you go like this Gohan-kun. Not when you look like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders." They stood and were approached by the waitress.
"The owner says that the meal is on the house, ma'am," she said to Shizune. "He said to inform you that he recognizes a lost cause when he sees one and he knows that you would never have the money to pay for all of that."
"Tell him thank you very, very, much," a relieved Shizune answered with a deep bow.
"Sorry," Gohan said as they left and he followed Shizune to the hotel where she was staying. The room she shared with Tsunade was Spartan to say the least. In the room there was little more than a table for furniture and a single, very small, wardrobe. Two futons were folded in the one corner and the window was dusty and covered with cobwebs.
"Oh don't worry about it," Shizune replied. "Like I said, I'm not gonna turn a blind eye to you." She pointed to a small bathroom that was barely big enough for the tub it held. "That's the tub. Sorry about everything being so cramped. Tsunade-sama likes to keep things cheap."
"Why? If she's one of the Sannin, then she should have money to spare, right?" Gohan asked.
"You would think, Gohan-kun," Shizune said, shaking her head. "She seems more interested on spending the money we have on gambling and sake."
Gohan kept silent, not knowing how to respond. What was he supposed to say? Sorry that your boss is spending all your cash on alcohol and gambling dens? Yeah right. Instead, Gohan struggled to peel off his gi top. The sling holding his arm tangled in the fabric and the teen struggled to untangle it but found he couldn't.
"Need some help?" Shizune asked, smiling into her hand.
"If it's not too much trouble."
"I've been meaning to ask you about your arm, Gohan-kun," Shizune answered as she helped him disentangle the straps of the sling from the folds of the gi. "How'd this happen?"
"A fight in Konoha," the dark-haired teen answered. "Konoha got invaded by Otogakure and Sunagakure. My friends and I got mixed up in the middle of it and I got my arm hurt."
Shizune stared prodding the flesh and muscle, looking thoughtful. "When was this invasion?"
"I dunno. About a month ago maybe. Could be a little more."
"It's not broken," Shizune said. "It's more like it's dead, but yet it shows no sign of deterioration, or of rotting. No discoloration of the skin, no real deterioration of the muscle tissue. It's like your arm is perfectly healthy but you just can't use it for whatever reason."
Gohan's eyes went wide. "You can tell all that just by looking?"
"Sure. Tsunade-sama is the one who trained me after all. What kind of apprentice would I be if I couldn't tell all of that after all this time of studying and training?"
"Could you heal it!?" Gohan asked, suddenly intense.
"It depends on what's wrong with it," Shizune said, looking surprised at the sudden swing in the boy's mood. Up until this point, she'd been hard-pressed to get him to talk this much, but with the mention of her specialty in healing, he was suddenly alive with new life.
"Please, you have to!" Gohan said.
Shizune backed up a few steps. The kid was starting to get uncomfortably close. "Tell you what," she said, "you go take your shower and when you're done, we'll take a look at it and I'll see what I can do, okay?"
"Deal!" Gohan said with his first real grin in a long time. It felt funny to smile again. Gohan hadn't had much to smile about recently, but this was the first real good thing to happen to him since he'd awoken from Itachi's nightmare.
Gohan tried to be as thorough with his shower as he could but he still rushed it, so eager was he to have his arm in working order again. With two arms, he could stop being an awkward failure and start becoming the warrior he needed to be in order to protect his friends and family. Once Shizune was done with his arm, he would be able to start his training! No longer would he be a failure!
He came back into the main room, toweling off his hair, which hung limp around his face and neck. Wetted down like it was, it almost reached to his shoulders. Shizune eyed his bare chest and stomach with a raised eyebrow, not missing the raindrops of the Cursed Seal on his neck either.
"You like keeping yourself in shape don't you?" she asked. She was kneeling at the side of one of the futons, unfolded from the corner.
He shrugged.
Shizune patted the bedding material. "Lay face down right here." Gohan obliged her and she pulled his arm out from his side. Gohan flinched at the weirdness of it. He could see her moving it but couldn't feel it at all. It was the most disconcerting thing ever. The medic kneeling next to him started poking and prodding the flesh of his lame appendage, watching him closely.
"How much of this can you feel?" She asked.
"To be honest?" Gohan answered. Shizune nodded. "None of it."
"None?" Shizune repeated, incredulous. "What do you mean none of it?"
"That's exactly it. I can't feel anything."
"Can you move it?"
"Nope."
She blinked. "Wow. Then it's not what I thought it was."
"What did you think it was?"
Shizune shrugged. "I don't know. A hairline fracture that someone missed, a misdiagnosis perhaps, that can happen sometimes, poisoning, a birth defect, something, but not what amounts to a localized paralysis." She looked at him sharply. "How did you say you got like this again?"
"Invasion of Konoha," Gohan answered. "I got ambushed by a Suna jounin and a Konoha traitor. The traitor was a medic-nin and he's the one who's responsible for this." Shizune was nodding absently as she passed green-glowing hands up and down Gohan's arm, running from the fingertips to his shoulder and back down again. When she was done, she poked him hard, just above the shoulder. Gohan yelped at the sudden prodding.
"You felt that?"
"Yeah."
"How about this?" She poked him a little further down, right about where his arm met his shoulder. Gohan shook his head no. "Okay, so it's nerve damage. How'd he do this?"
"Something he called a chakra scalpel?" Gohan said, questioning his own memory. He really hadn't been paying very close attention to it at the time, being, understandably, more concerned with his arm at the time.
"Really? He used a chakra scalpel in combat and he was able to make a series of cuts this exacting?"
"Wait, cuts? Plural?"
Shizune nodded. "Yes. You've got more than one nerve in your arm you know. This guy, whoever it was, bypassed all your muscles and arteries and veins completely and only slashed the nerves. It was more than just one slice. It was several."
"But he only hit me once."
"Even more impressive because it means that the medic who did this did more than just make his entire hand the scalpel. I'm willing to bet, but this is just speculation, that he made a scalpel of each individual finger to hit the nerves he needed to in one go."
"Will you be able to fix it?"
"Let's take a deeper look, shall we?"
Again green-glowing hands passed up and down his arm, but this time took almost ten minutes for Shizune to finish. Gohan knew she was most likely looking at his arm's nervous system in depth. When she did finish, she was frowning.
"What?"
"He hit them all."
"Huh?"
"There's four main nerves in the arm that control it. These nerves are part of the Peripheral Nervous system, which connect to the Central Nervous System," Shizune explained. "Your opponent has made incisions in the Radial Nerve, Ulnar Nerve, Musculocutaneous Nerve, and the Median Nerve. Bottom line of that is this; these nerves are the highways of the arm's nervous system. Information travels from your brain, down the CNS and to these nerves. By cutting them up near your shoulder, where the nerves are pretty close together, this guy took down an entire limb with one attack." Shizune shook her head. "The skill needed for this type of attack. It's almost unreal. He's almost on par with Tsunade-sama."
"So you can't fix it!?" Gohan all but wailed.
"Relax," Shizune said, pushing Gohan back down on the futon. "I'm just telling you the entire situation. I think I might be able to fix this."
"You think?" Gohan asked.
"Yeah. The cuts are small, just enough to break the flow of information. It was like he was trying to cause you as little damage as possible." Shizune smiled. "It's probably a good thing for you that Orochimaru wants you as intact as possible."
"How'd you know that?"
Shizune patted the seal on his neck. "I knew I'd seen you before, Gohan-kun. The last time I saw you was when you were unconscious from getting this Cursed Seal of yours. Nice to know that kunoichi you were traveling with managed to get you back to Konoha in one piece."
"Why didn't you mention it before?"
"Wasn't sure if it really was you. Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I have good news."
"You can fix my arm!?"
Shizune nodded with a smile. "Should be able to. I'm going to accelerate the regeneration of the nerves. It's going to take time. Most medic-nin aren't able to treat a wound like this because they don't have the chakra control for it. It has to be done slowly, millimeter by millimeter, otherwise the pieces won't match up and you'll have a bad connection. Tsunade-sama and I are probably the only two in the world with the control and patience this will take."
"How long will it take?"
"It's hard to say. How about we fix a nerve and see how it goes from there?"
"Okay."
Shizune's hands glowed green once again and she pressed them to Gohan's shoulder, beginning, at long last, the healing of his limp right arm.
Naruto shouldered his rucksack with a grunt. He and Ero-sennin had stocked up on supplies and provisions while they were in town for Naruto's training and it had added a considerable amount of weight to both student and teacher's payloads. Naruto gave the room he'd come to call home over the past couple of weeks a once-over, looking for forgotten items that he might've left lying around, but found nothing. Jiraiya had been pretty thorough in his own cleaning, not wanting to leave dangerous shinobi tools lying around where just anyone, missing-nin or civilian, could just waltz in and pick them up.
"All set?" Jiraiya asked, poking his head in through the door.
Naruto nodded. "Yep. I think I got everything I needed to."
"Good."
"Ero-sennin?"
"What?"
"Why are we leaving in such a big hurry anyway? I mean, you just got back in a few hours ago and said we had to move now." It was true. Jiraiya had come in about two hours previously, while Naruto was resting up from his latest attempt at bursting the ball, which he'd finally succeeded in making explode the way it was supposed to, graduating to the last part of the Rasengan training, and said that they were leaving now. Jiraiya hadn't even allowed time for argument before he'd swept from the room, making his own preparations for their departure.
"I finally found Tsunade," Jiraiya answered, strapping his own pack down and slinging it over his shoulder. "She's close by too. According to my information, she's heading for a place called Tanzaku town. It fits with what I know of her rather nicely too."
"What do you mean?"
"She's a gambler, Naruto, and a compulsive one at that, even if she does suck at. Tanzaku is known for its huge casino districts. It's a city about the size of Konoha and about thirty-percent of it is all casinos, neon, and brothels. For a gambling-addict like Tsunade-hime, it's heaven on earth."
"Where is she now?" Naruto asked.
"On her way there, as far as I can tell. She left her assistant Shizune in the hotel where they were last time to gather all their stuff together." Jiraiya shot Naruto a side-long glance. "Seems Shizune is taking care of some kid with messy black hair and a lame right arm."
"Gohan?"
"Probably."
"I thought he was supposed to be in Konoha!" Naruto fumed.
The Sannin shrugged. "What he does is his business right now. Officially, he isn't even a shinobi, so there's not much the Old Man can do to force him back to the village if he doesn't want to go. Besides, we should view this as a good thing."
"Why?"
Jiraiya grinned. "Shizune is one of the best medics in the world. She's number two only to Tsunade, and I'm willing to be she's on par with that Kabuto bastard, and more than likely she's superior to him. If anyone can heal Gohan's arm besides Tsunade, it's Shizune." He cuffed Naruto upside the head. Gently. Of course, from a Sannin, 'gently' sent Naruto tumbling head over heels into the wardrobe. "No more questions and quit fooling around. We've gotta move!"
Orochimaru smiled widely as he beheld the splendor of the Tanzaku castle. It was a huge samurai castle that had been impenetrable for almost a century, in the early days before the major countries had stopped relying on samurai to do their dirty work and turned to the cheaper, and some would say much more able, shinobi. When that had happened, close to a thousand elite, and now masterless, samurai had barricaded themselves in Tanzaku castle and refused to surrender to the expanding Fire Country.
However, the samurai had been ill-prepared to deal with burgeoning might of the shinobi and, in the dead of night, a small group of shinobi, the historical records said no more than twenty or thirty ninja in all, had scaled the walls of Tanzaku castle, taken down the sentries, then slashed the throats of over a hundred and fifty of the ronin in the barracks. The ronin were discovered not too long afterwards and they were forced to retreat, losing over half their number, since the shinobi were outnumbered by a colossal margin.
It was at that point that historical fact stopped and speculation came into play. Some were unsure of how the castle finally fell. Some were sure it was poison left in the water and food by the running shinobi. Others said that the fledgling Senju and Uchiha clans were both hired by the Fire Daimyo and they'd proceeded to butcher the remaining samurai. There was an even more obscure source that said that the Rikudou Sennin himself came and single-handedly destroyed the castle. Of course, the fact that the castle was still standing debunked that particular rumor, but since it features the Rikudou Sennin, the father of all modern ninjutsu, that was the one that most people believed.
Orochimaru and Kabuto stood on the pinnacle of the castle now. Tanzaku was built on the only piece of high ground for miles. As such, the tower had a commanding view of the countryside for miles around, which was mostly rolling hills and grassy plains. There were three or four roads into Tanzaku, all only moderately traveled. The town was notorious for being a tourist trap and not much else. If you were going gambling, or coming to see the castle, then it was the town for you but if it was something else, stay away.
"She's coming here?" Kabuto asked. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," Orochimaru answered. "she's been visiting most of the gambling dens in this area. This is the biggest one, and the one she hasn't been to yet."
"Forgive me for asking," Kabuto said, pushing up his glasses, "but how do you know all this?"
Orochimaru chuckled darkly. "My dear Kabuto," he answered silkily. "Don't you know I make it a point to keep tabs all the threats to my ambitions? My two teammates certainly rank in that short list don't you think?"
Kabuto smiled just as darkly. "I suppose they would. What do we do now? Our objective is Naruto-kun is it not? If Tsunade-sama is coming here, then Jiraiya and Naruto-kun will not be far behind."
Orochimaru nodded, still smiling. "Yes. And I've been thinking about what you were talking about earlier, Kabuto."
Kabuto suddenly looked wary. "And that would be?"
"Dealing with Akatsuki. I think that instead of killing Naruto-kun ourselves, we take another, more circuitous route."
"I fail to follow, Orochimaru-sama."
"Tsunade is not an example of sterling character," Orochimaru explained. "She's a coward, running from the haunting memories of her dead lover, Dan, and her brother, Nawaki. One of her deepest desires is to see them alive and well again." Orochimaru's predatory amber gaze focused on Kabuto. "Can you see what we're going to do now, Kabuto?"
"Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei." Kabuto stated. "We'll have Tsunade kill Naruto-kun for us and her reward shall be the 'revival' of her dead lover and her beloved little brother."
Orochimaru nodded. "Exactly. But in order to put this little plan of ours into action, we'll first need Tsunade. Go into the village if you would. Collect her. Bring her to me." The Sound leader pointed to the courtyard of the castle. It was a sizeable area, over two miles across, a perfect place for an out-of-the-way meeting, or perhaps a battle between two Sannin. It all depended on how Tsunade decided to play her cards. "I'll wait here, in the courtyard."
"Consider it done, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto answered. The two men vanished in dark blurs.
"Well, how do you feel now?" Shizune asked, wiping the sweat from her brow. Four hours had passed since she'd begun her work on Gohan. After healing the first nerve, Gohan had reported regaining feeling and some control in his shoulder, which was a definite good thing. Bolstered by the outcome, Shizune had proceeded onto the other three nerves. She'd just closed the gap with the last one and not a moment too soon. She was almost out of chakra. She would have to take it easy for the next few days to recover all her reserves. Gohan was a good kid, though, so it was all worth it.
Gohan sat up, rolling his neck to work out the kinks. He'd just spent the last four hours laying on his stomach and his muscles were protesting it. His dark eyes found his right arm, dangling by his side. A part of him didn't want to move his arm, didn't want to have spent the last four hours hoping for the impossible only to fail at the last second, although that would fit with his life up to this point. Still, there had to be a silver lining in every dark thundercloud right?
It seemed to Gohan that it was a bad thing to be giving himself a pep talk.
"Well Gohan-kun?" Shizune prodded.
Gohan took a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst. He tried to move his arm.
To his incredible delight, his arm responded, for the first time in over a month leaving its resting position by his side and moving at his command. He flexed his fingers, touching each one to his thumb, grinning like a little kid in a candy store. No longer was he handicapped! He was whole again! His arm was back!
Shizune, watching him with a grin on her face, noted how he moved his arm up, rotating it at the shoulder, then winced and dropped his arm down to his side again. "Stiff?" she asked.
"Yeah," Gohan answered. Now that his arm was moving again and he was getting accustomed to it, it seemed like the limb wasn't moving as fast as it should've been. It was sluggish. Slow. Part of that was from disuse, he was sure, the other part from the muscle deterioration. "It's not like it used to be."
"Not surprising. You're going to need physical therapy to rebuild the muscle you've lost."
"Physical therapy," Gohan repeated, distinctly unenthused. "Great."
Shizune laughed. "It's not that bad," she answered with a smile. The two sat in silence for a minute or two. "Hey, I've got an idea. How about you come with me and I'll help you get your arm back into shape?"
Gohan opened his mouth to agree, then stopped, suddenly apprehensive. If he followed Shizune, then sooner or later, he would run into Tsunade. At some point in time, that path would cross with Naruto's, and Gohan didn't want to face the blond shinobi just yet and he said as much to Shizune.
"You've got more than physical problems weighing you down, Gohan-kun," Shizune said sympathetically. "What happened to you to make you say that you don't want to face your best friend again?"
Gohan bit his lip, unwilling to face the nightmares of Tsukuyomi again. It was bad enough they found him when he was sleeping. A huge part of him didn't want to face those memories while during his waking hours too. To buy himself some time to think, he started working his arm again. It still hurt when he rotated it up past the level of his collarbone, but the pain had diminished somewhat. That was good.
"Gohan-kun please. I can help you sort through all of this. Come with me for a little while and we'll get your arm back in shape, and maybe I can help you get over what's wrong with your heart too," Shizune said softly. Something about the sincerity in her tone made Gohan want to go with her. It was like she was a big sister, looking out for her little brother.
"It won't be easy," Gohan whispered.
"No it won't," Shizune agreed, "but rehabilitation rarely is, either mentally or physically. But I can assure you, Gohan-kun, even if I can't help you sort through your problems, I can at least get your arm back into shape so it's one less thing you have to worry about." She stood and held out a hand to the kneeling Gohan. "What do you say?"
Gohan wasn't looking forward to confronting his waking nightmares, but getting his arm back up to par with what he wanted it to be was definitely appealing. Still he hesitated, still unsure of himself.
"I promise we won't start the psychological stuff until you're ready," Shizune said.
"What if I'm never ready?" Gohan asked.
"You will be, and probably sooner than you think. I can tell just by looking at you. You're a strong person who never backs down from a challenge. This is just a different type, one that I'm willing to be you've never faced before."
Gohan wasn't so sure as he reached up and took Shizune's hand, allowing her to help him to his feet. "So," he said, "where are we going, Shizune-san?"
The medic grinned. "Tanzaku. Tsunade-sama's waiting for us there."
"Well then, let's get going." Gohan said and the two of them headed out the door.
Five hundred and ten reviews...FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN!!! Pinch me and tell me I'm not dreaming. I cannot thank you guys enough. When I began writing Gohan's Dilemma, I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as popular as it is now. The current tally stands at four hundred and some odd pages on Microsoft Word, which if you divide that by two, for the front and back of an actual page, comes out to about two hundred pages. For comparison, that's only twenty pages shorter than the United Kingdom version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So anyway, long story short, you've all been awesome and I hope you'll continue to be awesome right until the end of Gohan's Dilemma. Also while I'm talking about the end of Dilemma, I'll announce right now, Gohan's Dilemma WILL be having a sequel, set for the Shippuden half of Naruto, entitled Gohan's Return. It will be featuring Post-Buu Gohan with a few changes. Also, since so many have been asking if there will be additional DBZ characters in Dilemma, I've decided to add a few more to Return, who will remain faceless for the time being. Look forward to that and the next chapter!
~WingedFreedom622
Glossary
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Resurrection): This is the jutsu Orochimaru used to reanimate the Shodai and Nidaime Hokages in his battle with Sarutobi (and in this story Jiraiya) during the Chuunin Exams. It needs a human sacrifice for the resurrected soul to reside in. The corpse of the sacrifice is then covered in dirt and earth to shape it into the likeness of the soul. At this point, the soul still remembers its past life until special seals are inserted into the head, at which point its free will is sapped and it comes under Orochimaru's complete command. The earthen bodies are highly resistant to conventional attacks, making the zombies very hard to kill.