Disclaimer: Own nothing.

In a blur of motion they were both on their feet but Gohan was faster, ever the faster one, hammering Sasuke again and again, driving Sasuke to his knees, unable to even slow the barrage. Sasuke fell forward, completely spent, but Gohan's fist caught his shirt and held him up on his knees, Sasuke's head lolling around, Sharingan no longer clear and sharp but dull and muddied with Sasuke's own dazed confusion. Briefly, Sasuke couldn't tell where he was or even who he was fighting, but when he saw Gohan glaring down at him, seemingly from miles away, gold hair and vivid jade eyes, as cold as green ice, the most outstanding features in Sasuke's memory.

"For the final time, Sasuke," Gohan declared. "I win."

That was how Kakashi, Yamato, Sakura, and a newly-conscious Naruto found the two boys. Sasuke was on his knees, battered, bruised, and very disoriented, and Gohan standing over him, a powerful figure, a hole burned into the fabric of one pants leg, scratched and bruised, but nowhere near as much as Sasuke. The other four drew up short in shock, standing on the precipice that speared almost straight down into the valley. On their right stood the statue of the Shodai Hokage and the waterfall, on their left, the deep chasm in the earth that went for as far as they could see, the river thundering on before it left the crags of the Valley of the End and flowed through much gentler rolling hills to the ocean to the east.

"It's over already?" Sakura asked, looking to Kakashi. The jounin was clearly as startled as she was, his eyes fixed with hawkish intensity on Gohan and Sasuke.

"I'm not sure, Sakura," Kakashi replied and let it go at that. He sounded distracted and it wasn't hard to guess why. They'd expected a much longer battle. Gohan and Sasuke hadn't been fighting for even two hours yet. Kakashi didn't even think they were at the hour mark as a matter of fact.

Naruto remained silent, blue eyes pained as he watched his two best friends battle it out.

Down in the valley, Sasuke's wits began to return to him. He tried to speak, but the marbles in his mouth made the venomous remark he had on the tip of his tongue come out garbled and inaudible. He was still a little loopy though. He'd never been hit that hard in his life. It seemed like Gohan was beyond him. Sasuke's world fell away again and he suddenly drifted on the clouds of his thoughts.

He thought about everything he'd been doing up to this point. Hadn't he worked hard? Hadn't he always strived to be the best? When had everything gone south? His heart began to pound in his ears. Was this all he had? Was this it?

THU-THUMP

Dammit! Sasuke's ire at his own inability to even touch the Super Saiyan that was holding him up became a white-hot ball of phosphorus in his gut, a steaming hot rage that cleansed all of the wooziness from his brain, waking him up fully and completely.

THU-THUMP!

He grabbed Gohan by the wrist and jerked hard. Gohan, not ready for it, had his grip broken, his arm bent to a horrid angle before being bashed in the ribs by a cruel heel, driving him into the ground and away from Sasuke, who stood on his own again.

THU-THUMP!

Itachi would be unattainable without the skills of the best! Sasuke knew that in his bone marrow and he was determined to have the power to avenge his clan. After that, who knew? Maybe he would return to Konoha and reestablish the clan, maybe not. He would cross that bridge when he got there. For now, there was only one thing that was left to him and that was to defeat Son Gohan!

THUMP THUMP!

The spectators on the ridge leaned forward in surprise and maybe a little guilty anticipation when Sasuke suddenly exploded into motion and kicked Gohan away. The blond-haired teen hit the ground, rolled with the impact and bounded right back to his feet, hands coming up into guard. Sasuke glared death at the other boy as black flame marks raced across his skin, but this time they were different. The marks of the Cursed Seal didn't cover Sasuke from head to toe like they did before. Instead they were much more sparse, more conservative somehow.

Gohan's jade eyes narrowed in almost physical disgust when he felt he foul ki begin rushing out from his opponent's body like a fog of miasma. Sasuke flexed his fingers, his cracked arm searing with pain before it vanished entirely. Healed or numbed, Sasuke didn't know and frankly, he didn't much give a damn right then. The power rushing through him was heady, intoxicating. Was this how Gohan felt every time he transformed, Sasuke wondered?

"Now what?" Gohan muttered. "I thought we were done here."

"Not yet," Sasuke replied, reading the other's lips just as easily as if Gohan had spoken audibly. Gohan blinked in grudging surprise but didn't let on more than that. "There's one last trump card for me to play." The dark marks all over Sasuke's body began to thicken, glowing with unholy power.

Gohan vanished and reappeared far above the valley walls. His hands clasped in front of his forehead. A bright ball of yellow-white light burst to life. "Masenko!" Gohan screamed, unleashing the attack. The pillar of energy filled the gloomy overcast skies with the light of the sun.

Everyone was blown clean off their feet when the attack exploded, blowing a massive bowl out of the Valley of the End in a similar manner to how it had been created those long years ago by Madara and Hashirama. The four watching the battle were forced to run or be consumed. Gohan knew it was reckless to let loose an attack like that with Sakura and the others so close by, but he had no other option. He couldn't let Sasuke complete that…whatever it was he was doing.

Emerald eyes narrowed to green ice chips when he saw the movement in the smoke below. Gohan let out a yell as two balls of ki appeared in his hands, aura blazing to full power at the same time.

Hell rained down on the Valley, peppering the already ravaged landscape below with new explosions, each one going off with the force of a bomb. Gohan couldn't see Sasuke per se but he could sense him and if he could sense him, he could hit him. Gohan rained death and destruction down on the Uchiha's head, showing just why Frieza had so feared the Saiyan race and feared what could come from them should the conditions be right.

Finally, mercifully, Gohan's rain of death let up and silence fell once again. The world was quiet except for the howl of the wind. The clash of the titans in the area had long ago scared off all the wildlife and Gohan had blown most of the fish clean out of the river when he'd transformed. Sakura, Yamato, Kakashi, and Naruto were all prone on the ground, sheltering with their arms over their heads, the only thing they could do when the streaks of yellow death had come screaming down, only a few dozen yards from them.

The concussion of the blasts was something Sakura wouldn't soon forget. The earth had jumped as if it was scared, the very soil vibrating like a drumhead. Her ears were ringing from the cacophony of the strikes and Sakura was surprised that she wasn't blind from the flashes of light, wasn't dead from the burns from the heat of the explosions, and hadn't been torn asunder by the shockwaves.

For a few moments, no one moved, simply listened to the rising roar of the water flooding into the new craters, creating a myriad of whirlpools and the clatter of the small rocks and grit that rained down on them, blasted skyward by Gohan's onslaught, all around them.

"Just when I think I know what that kid can do," Kakashi muttered as he stood up, the others following his lead. Yamato and the rest didn't say anything. Couldn't say anything. They all knew that Gohan was terrifically powerful, but this was the first time that they could remember where he'd simply cut loose and brought down all hell.

Gohan watched and waited, somehow knowing that Sasuke was still alive despite the attack. He didn't have to wait long. The pounding surf and flying spray soon cleared the area. What it revealed only deepened the scowl that every Super Saiyan wore in combat, almost habitually.

There was a pair of hands on the water. At least they looked like hands to Gohan. They were horribly misshapen though, with webbing made up of what looked like smaller fingers stretched between the five main digits. The warrior vanished, fazing out, reappearing on the crags of the shore, what little of it was left. The hands stirred and began to separate like a caterpillar shedding its cocoon. The hands slurped horribly as they pulled apart, like the flesh was moist and was sticking to itself.

First one hand unfurled, then the other and Gohan realized what they were with a thrill of horror. Those hellish hands were sprouting right out of Sasuke's back. They had burst right through his shirt to protect him. And that wasn't all.

Sasuke's once-pale skin was a muddy tan, like he'd been laying out in the sun for too long. His hair was longer and instead of dark black like usual, his tresses were somewhere between a steely blue, gray, and white. It was an odd color. Sasuke's real natural hands ended with fingernails that were long and sharp, like the claws of a big cat or the talons of a predatory bird. Black tattoos laced Sasuke's forearms, swirls of tribal lines that made no sense to Gohan, the lone exception being the four pointed star that splashed right across Sasuke's face, from between his eyes to the edge of his blackened lips and stretching to the edge of his eyes, which were now black, like Jiroubou's had been. Sasuke's eyes would have been tawny, had they been normal, but right now, the black eyes only served to heighten the bloody crimson of the Sharingan.

"Oh Sasuke," Sakura whispered into the eerie silence that had fallen over the valley. "What have you done?"

"Your joining up gift from Orochimaru?" Gohan asked, trying not to show the uneasy disgust he felt. "The Curse Seal did this to you, didn't it."

"Yes," Sasuke answered, flexing a hand, looking satisfied. "I've held off on using this. I don't know what will happen to me if I dye myself with this power. I'll admit I was scared of using it."

"You should be, Sasuke," Gohan replied. "Something like that can't be good for you. You've been told what the Curse Seal does to you, right? Ever since you got it, you've been volatile, angry, conceited, all those things that make you a crappy person to be around. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Gohan gestured angrily. "What do you think will happen if you use the more advanced state! Sasuke, you know that it erodes your mind!"

"And what of it?" Sasuke asked. "Does it matter? All I want in life is to kill my brother. That's been my goal from day one and I've never made a secret about it. You've fought Itachi. You know what he's like, what he can do. You know how much power it takes to slow him down."

Gohan thought of his time in Tsukuyomi and shuddered. He hadn't told anyone, not even Shizune, but ever since he'd gone through that hellish genjutsu, he'd had nightmares, bad ones, terrifying and vivid, that brought him awake in the wee hours of the morning in a cold sweat with a bout of the shakes. The reason he hadn't told anyone was simple. What was he supposed to say? Sorry, but I'm having bad dreams? It sounded stupid, even in his head.

"If I can get the power to kill Itachi through Orochimaru, then I don't care what it does to me in the long term," Sasuke went on. He smirked at Gohan, his lips blue from a lack of blood or a change in the melanin in his skin, Gohan didn't know for sure. "Now stop stalling and attack me. I want to see how I stack up to the oh-so-great Son Gohan."

Gohan came at him like a freight train. His fist had all the subtlety of a flying hammer behind it, every ounce of Gohan's body weight behind it and then some. He had the mass and the acceleration. Physics dictated that Gohan's fist should've met Sasuke's cheek with impunity and blown him clean off his feet and probably through the walls of the valley.

It didn't happen.

Sasuke set his feet, practically glowing with chakra, and met the attack. His block met solidly and stopped Gohan cold, though he was blown back a fair distance. Water wasn't the best for traction after all. But the point had been made. Up to this point, Sasuke had been deflecting and dodging, always trying to roll with the hits when they found him to cut some of the impact out of them. This was the first one he'd actually stood fast against.

The look on Gohan's face, Sasuke decided, was well worth the risk.

"I could get used to this," Sasuke said as he looked at his palms, bruised, but that was it. "And with the Sharingan, I can see your every move coming even before you make it." He grinned, showing canines sharpened to dangerous points. "I've surpassed you."

Gohan relaxed his stance, standing straight, but Sasuke didn't move to attack. He knew that Gohan could snap up an attack pretty damn quick just from the way that the Saiyan boy held his shoulders and set his feet. Gohan knew that Sasuke would just counter any blow that he could make and with this new version of the Curse Seal, it looked to Gohan like the battle had taken another turn for the worst.

"Sasuke…"

"Shut up," Sasuke snarled. "I'm done talking with you. I've had enough of it. Don't keep trying to sell me your damned pretty words about friends and how much they can help."

"But they can," Gohan replied. "No one will work harder with you than those guys up on that cliff." Both boys looked up and saw Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Yamato all watching with keen interest and maybe more than a little trepidation. "They'll help. They'll sweat and bleed for you, Sasuke. They'll motivate you, be there for you when you fight Itachi." Gohan looked at Sasuke again. "Congratulate you when you win." Gohan offered a hand. "Come on, Sasuke. Let's end it here and go back to Konoha. We'll train, all of us. When we're done, you'll be ready for Itachi, I promise you."

Sasuke was silent for a long time, so long in fact, Gohan thought that Sasuke would really go for it and finally come back to the village. Then, to Gohan's surprise, Sasuke's façade dropped away entirely and Gohan saw, again, the tormented, lonely, scared, soul that was buried deep within Sasuke's being. "Maybe if things had happened at little differently, we wouldn't be in this situation," Sasuke said softly, looking more vulnerable than he ever had, despite his fearsome exterior. This was the true Sasuke, the one he had to hide lest he show some weakness that an enemy, Itachi or otherwise, could exploit.

"It's not too late to undo old mistakes, Sasuke. Maybe I could have found a different way to tell the Sandaime about your seal, one that didn't get you yanked right away," Gohan admitted.

"And I shouldn't have rushed headlong into fighting Orochimaru," Sasuke replied. "Mistakes were made all around."

"They were," Gohan agreed. "So lets put it all behind us and start over."

"What's happening?" Naruto asked, squinting down at the two boys as they talked, practically dancing on tiptoes.

"I think Gohan might be getting through to Sasuke," Kakashi answered. "Settle down and lets see how this goes."

"But," Sasuke went on and Gohan felt whatever hope he'd had die in his stomach, something that was cemented when Sasuke's vulnerable look faded away and was replaced by the coldly superior look Gohan had known for the last hour or so, "I'm committed to this path. I can't turn back now just because mistakes were made. Itachi is waiting for me at the end of this road and if I back off now…" he shook his head. "This fight will end only one way. One of us will kill the other."

"So it's your ideal, Sasuke?" Gohan asked a thought suddenly occurring to him. "Is that it?"

"This is. I'll never turn from the path I decide to walk." He glanced up at Naruto on the lip of the crater. "That's my Nindo, my Ninja Way."

"I see, Sasuke," Gohan replied, lowering himself into a fighting stance. "I get it now. I don't like it, but I get it." Sasuke believed that he had to kill Itachi to avenge his clan. To that end, he'd decided that he couldn't hesitate. He had to keep moving forward, had to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

No matter the bridges he had to burn and friends he had to leave behind.

The battle he would have with Itachi wouldn't forgive any mistakes. To prepare for that battle, Sasuke lived his life doing what he personally believed in. He couldn't regret any decision, otherwise he might doubt himself during the battle with his elder brother. It was admirable in a way. Not in the present circumstances perhaps, but admirable nonetheless.

"So if you understand, then stand aside," Sasuke said, wings twitching, the Uchiha's fingers flexing .

"I can't Sasuke," Gohan answered. The twin Sharingan across from Gohan narrowed dangerously. "I can't let you go to Orochimaru, dead or alive. I may not like you very much, but people I do care for won't stand back and let you walk away." Gohan held out one fist, determination to match Sasuke's shining in the hard jade eyes. "If your Nindo is to determine your own path whatever the cost, then mine is to do whatever it takes to help my friends!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto snarled as they watched the battle speed toward resumption, the blond unable to just sit by any longer. "I'm not going to let Gohan and Sasuke-bastard fight it out alone!"

"Right," Sakura agreed, legs coiling to follow the blond. They knew it might be a losing prospect. They were both wounded, winded, and tired, but they weren't going to just sit back any longer!

"Stop!"

Kakashi's voice was hard, harsh, and brooked no room for argument. "You both will stay right where you are."

"What?" The duo asked together.

Kakashi looked like he wanted to follow them but something stopped him. "This has become a battle that neither of you can stop either by jumping in or shouting at them from here."

"Why?" Naruto asked sullenly.

"This battle has become one of ideals," Kakashi answered. "Neither of them will stop now, not until one of them has emerged able to walk or breath, whichever comes first. There's no room for you in this battle, not unless you're willing to become an ideal of your own."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"To put it another way," Yamato said, stepping up beside Kakashi. "Those two boys have become fanatics. On the left is Sasuke, who will follow his own heart and ambitions no matter the cost, and on the right is Gohan, who will stop at nothing to help his friends and help them achieve their dreams. If Sasuke loses, his course will be dictated by Gohan. That is reprehensible to Sasuke. If Gohan loses, then he cannot help his friends. That is reprehensible to Gohan. Neither wants to lose but both know that one will. They are both determined to make sure it's the other." The pretend jounin's eyes were serious and somber. "If you were to interfere, they would either shove you out forcefully or simply ignore you. Nothing can stop them now."

"Last chance, Sasuke," Gohan said.

"Same to you…Gohan." Sasuke said with a smirk. Gohan nodded in acknowledgement. By using Gohan's first name that way, Sasuke had named the Son boy as a worthy opponent and rival. Gohan had gotten himself his own personal Vegeta.

Gohan lunged forward, clearing the distance between them in seconds. His feet and hands worked in a blur. He knew Sasuke could see every motion, knew it was coming, and so had decided to overwhelm the other boy with sheer blitzkrieg tactics. Sasuke worked in a blur as well, ducking, deflecting, blocking, moving at speeds he'd never been capable of before, the Cursed Seal rejuvenating him with a most satisfying rush of power and adrenalin.

Over the waters they danced, they two, feet and hands and other appendages working in an almost dance like performance that stole the breath of those watching. Before it had been a battle of two strengths clashing, each seeking to outdo the other, but now, now the battle had become something more and the combat reflected it, becoming smoother, more harmonious as Gohan and Sasuke mimicked, watched, and categorized each others movements.

Gohan grunted as they worked their dance back the other way, Gohan giving ground as he decided to shift more towards the defensive, conserve energy for when it would matter. Sasuke pressed in hard during that time, for he had been doing the exact same thing before. The seconds wore on, the boys shifting through their defense-offense routine several times. Gohan knew that he had to act. Sasuke was probably using his Sharingan even then to predict Gohan's next move. He had to have memorized a good portion of Gohan's fighting style, and Gohan had gotten the feel for Sasuke's as well.

This battle was stalemating again and fast. Gohan had to disable the Sharingan.

Gohan turned a blow aside but instead of going on the offense like he had before, Gohan instead hopped back right as Sasuke recoiled. Sasuke, knowing that Gohan was trying set up for something, rushed in.

"I won't give you the chance!" Sasuke shouted as he lunged.

Gohan's hands came up to his temples, fingers spread, palms inward. "Taiyoken!" Gohan shouted.

Sasuke yelled in surprise and a little pain as his world was suddenly a mass of bright white light. It was intense, brighter than the star the technique was named for. An ordinary person would've been blinded for several seconds. A dojutsu user like Sasuke, Itachi, the Hyuugas and others had the effect multiplied several times over. When the light finally faded, Sasuke had long since passed the point to where he couldn't see anything. All he saw was a black blur, his pupils contracted so much that it looked like he didn't have any at all.

He could see dark shapes and nothing more, no details, nothing. The only thing he could see reliably was the afterimage of Gohan launching the technique, that picture almost seared right onto his retina.

Gohan wasted no time and didn't pull any punches. He hammered Sasuke like he had before only harder. Sasuke couldn't see, couldn't feel anything but the drubbing of Gohan's fists, couldn't hear anything but the pounding of bone and flesh.

Gohan drew back with a battle cry and whaled his fist into Sasuke's abdomen so hard that it lifted Sasuke off his feet then dropped him straight down like a sack of wet cement. Sasuke lay at Gohan's feet coughing as the wind was blasted right from his lungs and struggled hard to come back. He lay there for a second or two trying to fill his emptied lungs when the crunch of Gohan's feet on the rocks gave him away.

Sasuke forced his body into motion, wings flaring like an angry hawk, making Gohan stumble back in surprise. Sasuke followed the noise and stayed low kicking out with a leg. His lips curled in a satisfied smirk as he felt his ankle meet Gohan's heel and take it out from under the Super Saiyan. His other wing came around and hammered into Gohan. The large area spread out the impact, but Gohan still flew back and hammered hard into the now sloping rock walls of the Valley.

He cried out as he bounced.

Again Sasuke homed in on the noise, a Chidori flaring to life in his hands. It was small, experimental. Sasuke didn't expect it to hit and it didn't. Gohan kicked his feet up over his head, back rolling upright right as the Chidori slammed home, splitting rock with the shriek of birds. Gohan pushed into the sky, flying up behind the mutated Sasuke. Ki glowed to life in his hands as he leveled the prepping attack, intending to hit Sasuke in the back of the head. The blow would be hard enough to kill or render unconscious. It would depend on Sasuke but Gohan was confident the other boy could survive it, now that he knew what truly drove Sasuke ahead.

Sasuke knew his back was vulnerable and closed his wings around himself not a second too soon. The boy lurched as Gohan's attack hit home, followed by another and another as the saiyan tried to break through Sasuke's defense. The fleshy nature of the wings allowed them to absorb the damage but Sasuke didn't get away unscathed. His new wings were torn and bleeding, the pain searing, but he kept his cool and noted, with a flash of relief, that his eyesight was returning.

When he finally faced Gohan again, he was smirking again and Gohan didn't miss that Sasuke's pupils were dilated back to normal again. It wasn't hard to miss with those red eyes of his. Despite himself, Gohan grinned. He hated battles like this, but the innate lust for battle he and all those like him possessed was only magnified by the Super Saiyan transformation and fighting Sasuke, who wasn't exactly a slouch of opponent, was making Gohan's blood boil in a very satisfying way.

Sasuke grinned wolfishly back and in that moment an indelible bond was formed. It wasn't a bond of friendship, though if Sasuke came back to Konoha it would probably blossom into that. No, now Sasuke and Gohan understood each other in a way that few others did. This was different then the brotherly bond shared by Naruto and Gohan and Sasuke and Itachi. This was a bond forged in the fires of battle. Throughout history, there had been such men, warriors who were enemies and would happily kill each other but respected each other enough to welcome the clash of arms, even if the battle proved to be inconclusive. Goku and Vegeta were two and now there was Son Gohan and Uchiha Sasuke. It was communication on a primal level.

The axiom that says history always repeats itself proved to be true after all.

"What are you grinning about?" Sasuke attempted to snarl, but it changed on the way and came out much lighter.

"I could ask you the same thing, Sasuke," Gohan replied.

"You can't win," Sasuke said.

"We'll see about that. I haven't even gotten my second wind."

"You'll need it now. Katon!" Sasuke's hands formed seals so fast that they were nothing but tan blurs. "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" The fireball roared forward, its flames a roiling mass of loose white fire.

Gohan dodged fast, grunting as he felt the air superheat around him almost to the point of causing burns, just by the passage. The fireball hit the slope of the Valley behind Gohan. The very rocks caught fire in a flash, burning so hot and hard that they heated molten, sloughing off as melted glass.

"Wow, clear flames," Gohan muttered. "Hot stuff, no pun intended."

"Katon! Housenka!"

Gohan didn't even look at Sasuke to see where the balls would go. It would be useless if the smaller fireballs were anything like one the other boy had just used. Gohan couldn't see them coming so he plunged straight down, the splash of water from the new lake forming in the Valley rising high into the sky.

The pillar hissed angrily, holes appearing in it as the fireballs drilled through. The fireballs themselves became visible as roiling balls of angry blue and white flame as their temperature dropped sharply on contact with the water.

"Look out!" Kakashi shouted as he tackled Sakura, driving her down out of the line of fire, Yamato pulling Naruto clear as well. The fireballs hit a second later, turning the grasses behind them into an inferno. Yamato molded hand seals, creating a pillar of water that extinguished the flames before they got too far out of hand, leaving scorched earth behind.

Gohan powered down to the lakebed, landing in a cloud of silt. He glared up, stretching his senses. He picked up Sasuke easily enough and crouched, cupping his hands at his side. 'He wants to play hardball?' Gohan thought with a smirk. 'Then let's play!'

The lake exploded outward, the Kamehameha punching its way out with no effort, streaking at Sasuke. The Uchiha hadn't expected Gohan's aim to be dead on and he didn't expect the attack to be so big, so fast. There was no way he could escape in time and his damaged wings wouldn't withstand something like this!

Sasuke felt a solid peace come over him, oddly enough. There was no shame in losing to Son Gohan, he supposed. Something within Sasuke released, a tension he didn't know he'd been carrying, and he smiled, at peace with what was about to happen to him. He'd thought himself ready, thought he could win. He'd gambled and lost. "Well played, Gohan," he said.

The Kamehameha consumed him in a river of bright blue-white light.

The explosion was terrific, larger than the barrage of ki blasts and the Masenko that Gohan had let loose before. The detonation rose over the Valley as a huge white dome that hummed and buzzed, a literal wall of power that would be difficult for anyone to surmount easily.

Again the spectators took flight, this time from their own ally as the dome expanded, carving the bowl in the Valley wider and deeper. The statues of Madara and the Shodai, which had stood as a monument to the creators of the Valley of the End for years, weathered the initial rush of ki, but slowly, pieces began to flake off the statues as the blast expanded outward. It started slowly at first but rapidly picked up the pace until they simply dissolved and were blown away.

The concussion knocked everyone off their feet and deafened them for a long few minutes. Gohan leaped out of the crater floor before the tons of water from what was left of the waterfall could smother him. He landed on the now-gently sloped walls of a much larger crater. In only weeks, maybe even days, there would be a new lake on the border of Fire and Grass Countries, but for now, all there was was a shallow pool, no deeper than a swimming pool, though it was filling at a pretty good rate.

Gohan glanced around for Sasuke, but couldn't see, hear, or sense him. Jade eyes flickered from left to right, scanning, but didn't see anything. Warily, Gohan allowed his transformation to fade, hair bleeding to black, eyes following, and his chirping aura fading to silence last.

"Is it over?" Naruto asked, looking into the valley. "Man," he breathed. "I…I don't think Sasuke made it out of that." His voice cracked at the end and tears began to leak out of his cerulean eyes.

"Has to be some hint of a body somewhere," Kakashi replied. "Even if it is only ash. We'd better go down and look."

They started down the slope but as they took their first steps, Sakura saw something at the upper edge of her vision. She looked and squinted slightly. She didn't recognize the person at first, but she jumped like she'd touched an electric wire when she finally realized who was up there.

"GOHAN-KUN!" She screamed.

Everyone looked back at her, startled at her sudden scream. It wasn't hard to hear the horror and disbelief in her voice.

Gohan's neck cricked he whipped his head around fast, following Sakura's pointing finger. When he saw who was over there, he too felt like he'd touched an electric wire, his heart skipping a beat or two.

"That…it's…That's not possible!" Yamato shouted. "It's an illusion! It has to be!"

"It can't be," Kakashi breathed. "He's…alive!"

"Who is it?" Naruto asked, squinting, shadowing his eyes with one hand. Kakashi, Yamato, and Naruto, standing right next to Gohan, were blown right off their feet when the teen flared right back to Super Saiyan.

"You bastard!" Gohan shouted across the crater, his voice angry, angrier than anyone in his current group of traveling companions had ever heard him. "How the hell are you still alive!"

His appearance changed far beyond what Gohan remembered, beyond what anyone remembered, that shadowy figure threw back his head and laughed.

"!"

Orochimaru was back.

Plot twist! Dundundun! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know I had fun writing it. You didn't really think I would kill off Orochimaru at this stage did you? Nope, he's still around. As to just how he survived Gohan's attack, well that's a story for next chapter. Also in next chapter will be Sasuke's final fate, though I think that should be obvious. We're another chapter closer to the close of this story and the opening of Return! Look forward to it! Speaking of which, I'd better release a few more details...

- It will be the Shippuden continuation of Dilemma

- It will also be Post-Buu, by roughly six months to a year. Keep in mind, Gohan is thirteen here so it's a few years after he fought Cell, which happened when he was 11 or so.

- Yes, Gohan will be Mystic. I'm also changing a few things about Mystic Gohan, but I think they'll be a good thing.

- Power revamp. This has got to be the single most common complaint I've gotten about Dilemma from the purists out there. To those purists, Bite Me. Anyway, since I didn't know that Dragonball GT wasn't canon at the time this story was started, I took SS4 into account. I've since learned differently. So instead of two tails per SSJ, now it's going to be 3, which means that a full Kyuubi will take an SS3 to stop. I've got a few scenes whirling around in my head about just such an encounter. Whether or not I use them is another story. *Insert Evil Grin Here*

- Other DBZ characters. Yes. There will be more. As of right now they will be Gohan, Goku, and Piccolo for starters with others to come in later. Those 'Others' will remain unidentified for now and won't be in the story until much, much, much further down the road.

- Finally, yes, Gohan will keep training for the interlude between Dilemma and Return. He's not going to be the second-string character he was in DBZ at that time.

And that's all! See you next time!