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"Hey! Woman get back here! I'm warning you, if you leave me in a tribe full of savages who want to eat me again, I'm getting a divorce!"

"Oh shut up, Vegeta!" Bulma shouted back at her husband. "You would've been fine anyway and don't try to tell me different. Besides, I need you for this one! The last Dragonball is somewhere deep in the mountains! It's probably under a boulder or something and I'm not a muscle-bound oaf like you and Goku so I can't just throw it out of the way!"

Vegeta spluttered and spat for a second before finally whispering, "Muscle-bound?" He scowled more deeply and followed after his wife, who was suddenly obsessed with finding the Dragonballs and had even had the nerve to drag him away from his training to help out. "Why should I help Kakkarot's brat?" Vegeta asked, but he kept it to himself. Bulma may not have Chichi's inhuman frying pan, oh no. What Bulma had was much worse.

Bulma had a pot.

Gohan's eyes snapped open and he sat up, hands coming up to ward off an attack. He snarled in sudden pain and laid back down, hand moving to his chest, where he found the gauze wrapping his ribs, keeping them where they were supposed to be. "Ow," he muttered. That itself was enough tell the teenager he wasn't dead, no matter how much it felt like he needed to be. "So where am I?"

The room's ceiling was crisscrossed by a bunch of silver tracks. To his left was a white curtain that was hung from the aforementioned tracks. A small stand for personal effects sat right in front of the curtain. The rest of the space around him was taken up by medical equipment. Gohan could see the foot of another, occupied, bed on the other side of that curtain.

The most telling clue to where he was, however, was that…damn…LIGHT!

"Seriously," Gohan grumbled, pushing the button to raise his bed to the sitting position, "who puts a light right were the person in the bed will end up looking right at it?" But he knew where he was. He was in the Konoha Hospital.

Again.

"I'm starting to see why Dad hates doctors," Gohan went on, fuming to himself. There was mirror on the far wall, over a sink. Gohan looked like hell, he had to admit. There were dark circles under his eyes and the saiyan boy's skin looked a little too sallow to be healthy. An IV drip ran into his arm, the one that hadn't been broken. Gohan frowned. At least he thought it had been broken, yet when he moved his arm, there was only some pain, not the debilitating kind. The only clue to any injury was a faded scar that Gohan couldn't even see unless the light in the room caught his skin at just the right angle.

A thick wrap of white gauze wound around his forehead, probably holding some fracture or other together, finishing off a rather depressing series of injuries that were only some in a long line of injuries. "So how did I get here?" Gohan wondered aloud.

He never expected an answer.

"Kakashi and Yamato dragged your sorry ass back from the Valley of the End and into my infirmary," Tsunade said from the doorway, coming in with that brisk, stern walk that all doctors seemed to have. Apparently being the Godaime wasn't keeping the Slug Princess out of the hospital. Gohan wasn't sure if he was happy that she was taking care of him or terrified. Tsunade's bedside manner, after all, left a lot to be desired.

"How long have I been here?"

"A week, give or take," Tsunade replied brusquely as she came over, shined a light in his eyes, took his temperature, felt and moved his arm, making the Saiyan yelp as a sudden spear of pain ran up his arm. "Still sensitive, hm?"

"A little," Gohan admitted.

"A little nothing," Tsunade shot back. "You're lucky you're as tough as you are, brat. If you had been anyone else, we wouldn't be having this conversation and Naruto and Sakura would be crying over your casket." She shot him a sideways look as she removed the IV with practiced hands. "What happened? Kakashi said in the debrief that Orochimaru was back but he said that I had to ask you to get a feel for his new abilities."

Gohan was silent for a long time, during which, Tsunade moved around like a hyper child, doing all sorts of medical things that Gohan didn't understand. Finally Gohan spoke.

"Orochimaru used a Kamehameha."

Tsunade's half-second pause was the only sign that she was startled beyond all belief. "Go on," she said after a second more.

"Sasuke and I were fighting," Gohan said, speaking not to Tsunade but to the blankets of his bed, his eyes faraway as the battle replayed itself over and over in his head, from the first blows with Sasuke to the final blow from Orochimaru that sent him into a black limbo. "I was winning, then Sasuke was winning, then me again. I don't know how long it went on for."

"Must have been a hell of a battle," Tsunade said, showing Gohan a photo. It was the crater that was all that was left of the Valley of the End, "to level the Valley like this." Gohan laughed, then lurched, clutching at his ribs, wincing. "Easy. I did my best but you're still tender. You won't be leveling mountains and statues for a while."

"Orochimaru showed up right when I finished Sasuke off."

"Kakashi said Sasuke survived."

Gohan nodded. "I thought I'd killed him at the time. I didn't mean to get carried away like that, but…" He shook his head, not knowing how to explain the intense determination he'd felt, the drive to see Naruto and Sakura smiling and laughing with Sasuke again, even if Sasuke wouldn't smile and laugh with him. It was enough to see his friends happy. "Anyway, Orochimaru must have pulled Sasuke out at the last second. It would've been fast. He's way stronger than he was before. I thought I'd seen it all when it came to that kind of thing, but I was wrong."

"You can't defeat him like you did at Tanzaku. Not now."

Gohan's hand fisted in the linens of the bed. "I tried," he growled, his defeat tasting sour in his mouth. "So help me, I tried. He's inhuman now, Tsunade. You have no idea. He's faster, stronger, tougher, and he's using ki now."

"It's all augments and no work. It's how Orochimaru has always done things and now is no exception," Tsunade said. "There's nothing you can do for now. Yamato and you have both mentioned Orochimaru using a Kamehameha. Care to explain that one?"

"I can't tell you more than you don't already know, if you've talked with Kakashi and Yamato," Gohan replied. "He said something about transplanting unaltered chakra coils into his body from a seven or eight year old kid." Again Gohan's face clouded, his fist tightening until his arm seared and he had to let up. "That's probably the reason his attacks are weak."

"Weak? He kicked your…"

"Ki attacks," Gohan amended. "His Kamehameha and that ki blast of his were pathetic! I don't think it would've hurt like I am now. Like I told him, my Dad's Kamehameha was more powerful than that when he was just a kid!"

"Well that's a blessing at least," Tsunade sighed.

"It'll change," Gohan said. "He'll get stronger with it. Ki isn't something that you can cheat at. You have to work hard for everything you get. When Orochimaru figures that out, his power will take a jump. I can't pretend to know how much or how soon, but he'll get stronger."

"Noted," Tsunade said dryly. She checked a chart that hung from Gohan's bed, looking over a few figures. "I'd say you're fine, but I want to keep you for observation for another night, just to be sure. And," she added with a sigh, "I think she would kill me if I let you leave without letting her know."

"Her?" Gohan asked.

Tsunade pulled back the curtain and tied it to the cloth thong that held it to the wall. Sakura was asleep in the bed next to Gohan's. He smiled as he watched her, a torrent of emotions swirling inside him. Pride, surprise, happiness, joy, all those bright emotions that come from seeing someone you care for immensely chased themselves around inside Gohan's gut.

"She hasn't left your side this entire time," Tsunade fumed, but Gohan could tell it was an act. At least, he hoped her anger was an act. It was tough to tell with Tsunade. "Asks me or Shizune how you're doing every damn time we come in the room. I don't think she's slept or ate since you were admitted. She passed out in the hallway on the way back from the bathroom."

"She did?" Gohan asked, surprised that Sakura was that worried about him. But at the same time, he knew he might end up doing the same in her shoes.

Tsunade walked out the door. "You're a lucky kid," she said over her shoulder. "Be good to her."

Then she was gone, leaving Gohan with his swirling emotions that he couldn't escape in a battle anymore and his thoughts of the future. He tried to sort through them, but it was a hurricane that no amount of ki and transformations was ever going to make go away. He had no idea where to start.

Finally, he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and he dropped off to sleep again.

"How is he?" Jiraiya asked Tsunade as the Hokage came out the doors into the atrium of Konoha General Hospital. He fell into step beside his teammate and oldest friend as she strode briskly out the door and down the street, setting course for the Hokage's Tower.

"He's awake, finally."

"Already? You thought that he'd be in a coma for months at the least!"

"Kid's tough," Tsunade said with a shrug. "I don't know what you want me to tell you about it aside from the fact that he's already stronger than the last time I saw him."

"You're serious?"

Tsunade nodded. "It's weird. Gohan has somewhat of a medical history in the village, what with the invasion and all, but his stats have all gotten better since he was here last. It's like every time he gets the snot beat out of him, he comes back for more and tougher to boot."

"From what he says, he's not entirely human," Jiraiya reminded.

"And I'm a believer now," Tsunade agreed. "But enough about the kid. It doesn't change anything. Have you thought about what Kakashi and Yamato said at the debrief?"

Now it was Jiraiya's turn to shrug. "Yeah," he replied. The sage had been present at the meeting to discuss the disastrous mission to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke from Orochimaru. It had only been right, considering Naruto had used four tails worth of Kyuubi's chakra, had almost gone on a rampage if not for Yamato's intervention, and had no memory of doing it!

"Any theories?"

"A few."

"Like?"

"The first one is that the seal is just aging. It happens with seals," Jiraiya said. "They don't last forever and maybe Minato intended for it to just fade away."

"That would release Kyuubi back into the world. And he gave you the key for it."

"Watch where you say that," Jiraiya cautioned. "Only three people know I have that and two of them are right here."

"What's your second thought?"

"That Minato intended for this to happen. That kid could read so far into stuff it was almost like he could see the freaking future. More than a few learned that from the sharp end of his kunai. The seal could be preparing Naruto for a full integration of host and beast, giving Naruto full control over the fox and also granting him power that would probably put him on par with Gohan, if not beyond."

Tsunade chewed over the theory for a second. "And?"

"The last theory is that the fox has found a way past the seal and is gradually forcing itself free by swamping Naruto beneath its charka until it can break the seal through force. It's the worst-case scenario because that would destroy Naruto's mind and probably body, in that order, unless someone steps in and teaches him how to control the damn thing."

They'd reached the Tower and went inside, up the stairs, and into the Hokage's office, where a grim-faced Kakashi and Yamato were waiting. Tsunade sat down behind the desk and surveyed Jiraiya over steepled fingers. "You said someone should teach Naruto how to control the fox?" she said with a smirk. "Are you volunteering?"

"I don't know," Jiraiya answered with a smirk of his own. "Am I?"

"How are you going to do it? Naruto's already reviled enough in the village," Yamato pointed out, still in his jounin cover. "If you start showing him how to control the fox here, people will accuse you trying to bring out the demon again."

Jiraiya nodded. "I know. That's why I want to get Naruto out of the village, train him out on the road, away from people he could hurt."

"How long are we talking?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya shrugged. "Two years at the minimum, three would be preferable."

"Naruto may not go for that," Yamato broke in. "He's going to want to try and get Sasuke back. That kid was the first friend Naruto had after all."

"I'm aware of that and I think he'll come anyway. He knows that Sasuke is going to be training under Orochimaru and he won't want to fall behind more than he already has. He hates coming in second more than anything." Jiraiya looked at Tsunade. "But it's the Hokage's decision if she wants to let a shinobi take an extended leave of absence and a Jinchuuriki at that."

"Are you considering letting the Jinchuuriki leave the village?"

The door burst open and the speaker limped into the room, cane tapping with every step. He was old, grizzled, scarred, with short hair, a perpetual frown and one side of his face wrapped in bandages. He also appeared to be missing his right arm.

"Danzo," Tsunade said without enthusiasm. "I don't recall inviting you here. My meeting with you isn't for another two hours."

"When the Hokage is considering letting one of our village's greatest weapons go, it becomes my business," the commander of ROOT snapped in return. "You can't possibly be considering this!"

"The only thing I'm considering," Tsunade snapped, "is how far up your ass I can get a Sennen Goroshi, assuming I don't break my fingers on the stick you've got up there first."

Danzo snarled something under his breath and his grip on his cane tightened. The man didn't do anything rash though. Danzo was nothing if not calculating and he wouldn't make a move to openly assassinate Tsunade now, not with Jiraiya the Gama Sennin, Sharingan Kakashi, Yamato the cloned Shodai, and the Battlefield Angel herself present. And assassination was crude. Anyone could assassinate another person. No, Danzo was much more subtle than that.

"You work for me, Danzo," Tsunade growled. "I don't care if you're ROOT or not, you…work…for…me! Get out of my office. How I decide Naruto's training will be my decision and mine alone."

Danzo wanted to say more, how the fool of a Godaime would be leaving the village dangerously vulnerable for three years, three years! And all so the Kyuubi host could track down some friend of his, that renegade Uchiha, who, in Danzo's professional opinion, was not high up enough on Tsunade's to-do list. She would rather work in the hospital with her head buried in the sand like an ostrich than face the hard reality of commanding a village.

"Are you deaf, Danzo?" Tsunade asked. "Get out." She made a gesture and the two ANBU guards outside, both graduates of the ROOT program themselves, took him by the elbow.

"This way, sir," the one on the left murmured to him.

Danzo allowed himself to be steered to the exit and the door slammed behind him.

"Asshole," Tsunade fumed the second the door clicked shut. "I'm going to have this place swept for bugs. Again. Bastard keeps sneaking them in somehow. It's the only way he could've known what we were talking about, seeing as the room is soundproof."

"Don't underestimate Danzo," Jiraiya cautioned. "And you can't alienate him either. As annoying as he is, we need him."

"I know," Tsunade sighed, rubbing her eyes. "He just gets under my skin in the worst way."

"The Old Man used to say the same thing," Jiraiya laughed. "Now, about Naruto's training?"

"Take whatever time you need, Jiraiya," Tsunade said. "As much as I hate to say it, Danzo has a point. We need the Kyuubi as a deterrent and if Naruto can't control it, it's going to make us look weaker. It might be enough to upset the balance."

"Especially when all the reports are saying that Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails' host has full control at all levels," Yamato added.

"I know about Bee," Jiraiya said with a snort, "I'm the one who sent in that report, remember? Alright. When Naruto's ready to go, we'll leave."

"Good luck with convincing him," Kakashi said as Jiraiya left. It was said as a joke, but Jiraiya knew that Naruto wouldn't leave Konoha so easily.

Gohan woke up the next morning stiff, but in considerably less discomfort. Someone had removed the bandages around his chest and it didn't hurt so terribly to take a breath now. He was still covered in terrible black bruises and a fast prod made him jump. "Still tender," he muttered sarcastically. "Right."

He stopped and looked down. Sakura's pink head of hair was on the side of his bed and she was fast asleep. She was drooling slightly, Gohan noted with a grin, feeling a sudden, powerful, surge of affection for the kunoichi.

He poked her in the forehead just for fun. "Hey," Gohan whispered. "Sakura wake up." She stirred but didn't do any more than that. He poked her again. "Sakura." This time she did wake up, green eyes clouded and unfocused.

"Whozzair?" She slurred. She looked up at Gohan, looked him dead in the eye, blinked once, then again. "GOHAN-KUN!" She threw her arms around him

"Ouch! Hey! Watch the ribs!"

Sakura ignored him. "You're alright! You're alright!" She repeated it over and over until she finally broke down and started sobbing, releasing days worth of tension and worry in one cleansing flood. She clung to Gohan like he was her last link to life and he let her, but remained unsure of what to do next. Finally he settled for a cautious pat on the head.

"Uh yeah," he said finally, when Sakura finally began to calm down. "I'm fine." He sucked in a ragged breath. "But I'd be even more fine if you let up on my ribs for a second!"

Sakura leaped back like she'd been burned, flushing redder than her hair. "Sorry," she said quickly.

Gohan couldn't help himself. He started laughing, each snort making him wince, but he got out a few hearty chuckles until his aching bones made him stop with a groan. "It's alright. Better than yesterday at any rate."

"Huh? Yesterday?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Tsunade was in here and I happened to be up."

"And she didn't tell me?" Sakura practically howled. "That Old Hag! She promised she would tell me the second you woke up!"

"You'd better not let Tsunade-sama hear you talking like that, Sakura-san," Shizune told the other kunoichi as Shizune came in.

"Sh-Shizune-san!" Sakura spluttered. "I didn't…I mean it's not…" She flushed again. "Dammit."

"It's okay," Shizune whispered conspiratorially. "She won't hear it from me."

"Thank you," Sakura said, genuinely grateful. Tsunade's ire at being called old was almost as legendary as the woman herself and Sakura had no intention of putting Gohan's teaching to the test against another Sannin so soon. Especially with what Sakura had planned for her future.

The check-up was quick and soon enough, Gohan was walking out the doors, Sakura at his side. He was wearing the pants, boots, and undershirt from his gi, the tunic ripped to shreds in the battle. Someone had fixed the burn hole in the leg; Gohan didn't know who and Sakura had denied it, saying she was no seamstress.

Gohan stretched and sighed, managing to keep the pounding in his ribs to a minimum. "Free at last!" he said. "Am I glad to be out of there!"

Sakura giggled. "Gohan-kun, you were unconscious for most of it," she pointed out.

"And the difference is?" Gohan shot back with the Son Grin. "I think I've spent more time in a hospital in this world than I ever did in mine." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a burlap sack, tied with a drawstring. He opened it and poured fossilized remains of something into his palm. "Only wish I had some Senzu with me."

They walked on in a companionable silence for a while, aimlessly wandering the village. The scars from the invasion of Konoha were all but gone. Only a pile of carpentry trash here or a burn scar there was the only evidence the skilled carpenters of Konoha had left behind.

Several times, Sakura tried to tell Gohan how much she cared about him, how she wanted to be more than friends, but each time, uncertainty kept her from even opening her mouth. 'What's wrong with me?' she wondered. 'It's not like he's a total stranger. Go for it!'

"Gohan-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"You want to get something to eat?"

"Sure! Hospital food sucks and IV fluids don't do anything for you! Let's go!" Gohan seized her hand and half-led half-dragged her down one of Konoha's main thoroughfares.

'I am an idiot,' Sakura sighed. 'I'll fight a Sannin without hesitation, fought some of the strongest shinobi I've ever met, spent an entire month with Gohan-kun and I still can't admit to him how I feel?'

"Some kunoichi I am," she muttered.

"Huh?"

"Oh, don't worry, Gohan-kun. It's nothing."

Gohan gave her a look that said he didn't believe her. When they were done, Sakura and Gohan, having paid for their own meals, thank God, left the restaurant, each with their own problems on their minds. They said good-bye to each other, having enjoyed the afternoon in each other's company, and went their separate ways.

Gohan's course was unerringly to the training field once he was sure he wasn't going to bump into Tsunade or Shizune. He had some things on his mind, things like home, Orochimaru's new powers, the stinging defeat he'd been dealt, the swirling emotions that seemed to come over him when Sakura was around him, home again, and a lot more Sakura. He couldn't get her out of his head and he wanted to work out for the simple sake of working out, to allow his body to do something while his mind wandered over the issues.

For Sakura, there was one thing…one person on her mind and she'd just left him and had no idea how to tell him how she felt. There was the festival coming up, to celebrate the end of the Third Shinobi War. It was supposed to be a somber remembrance of those who'd had their names etched into the Hero's Stone, but over time it had become a celebration of their lives and the future they'd died for rather than a yearly reminder that those they were celebrating weren't there partying with them.

Some couples even started going out on that night, following the belief that those who'd passed on would watch over their new relationship and guide them through the rough spots.

Sakura didn't believe that kind of thing, never had, but she couldn't deny that it would be the perfect setting to tell Gohan. The only question was how? Every stinking time she opened her mouth, she said something completely irrelevant or couldn't get the words out at all.

"I'm hopeless," she sighed.

"Took you long enough to figure it out, Forehead," a voice said. Sakura spun around, eyes flashing. She knew that voice.

"Ino-pig," Sakura shot back at her friend and rival. "What do you want?"

Ino shrugged and fell into step beside the other girl. "You've got that kicked puppy look again. Thought I'd see what's wrong. Boy trouble? Naruto being an idiot again? That kind of thing?"

Sakura was about to blow Ino off, but stopped. Ino had always been a friend to Sakura, at least until they'd both realized they'd liked Sasuke. It had put their friendship on the rocks for years but now, looking back, Sakura realized it was just all so…trivial. She was silent for a minute or two more then spoke. "Well….I guess you could say it's boy trouble."

Sakura plunged off that cliff and soon was glad that she had as she and Ino began to banter back and forth like it was old times.

Gohan's muscles burned from his movements. He'd been at it for hours, throwing punches, kicks, doing everything short of setting off explosions to push his body to its limits. He had to find those limits again too, dammit, now that he'd gotten that power boost from a near-death experience. Sweat burst from his body with every movement.

He slumped to the ground, clutching his side, ribs on fire, formerly broken arm throbbing, head pounding all along with them at each beat of his heart. And his heart was pounding right now. He stood again, breathing ragged.

He was no closer to any of it, he decided. Gohan was no closer to figuring out his feelings for Sakura, wasn't any closer to having the power to defeat Orochimaru, wasn't any closer to home.

Home.

Not his home, the apartment he shared with Naruto, but Home. His world. With his father and mother and brother, friends, enemies, familiar lands and the cities that made Konoha look like some backwater hamlet. He looked up. The sun was low on the horizon, splashing the clouds with bright pinks and golds, the skies to the east already darkening to purple and navy blue. He'd been here for hours, working until his body threatened to quit unless the brain adopted new union rules.

"How do I even get home from here?" Gohan wondered. "It's not like I can whip up another dimension machine like Bulma's. I don't even know how hers worked! That was what she was supposed to tell me when this whole mess started."

"And what about it?" Gohan asked himself, playing his own devil's advocate. "It's not like this is a bad place. You've made a life here. You've made friends, enemies, you have a roommate, teachers you can look up to, rivals to fight against, all the things you're used to."

"But it's not home."

"So? Make a new home! People move out all the time and live in other countries, cities, and streets. How is this any different?"

Gohan scoffed at what his devil's advocate was saying. "Most people don't move across dimensions!"

"And you aren't most people. If you were, you wouldn't be in this position to begin with, so stop whining about it." He shook his head. "The most you can do now, Gohan, is take it one step, one second, one hour, day, month, and year at a time. You've already been missing for three months or so, assuming time flows at the same rate here."

"That would be even worse," he countered. "What if time flows way differently here? For all I know, three hundred years have passed since I left! Argh! This is getting me nowhere!" he fumed, tousling his already messy hair in frustration. "What do I do, Dad?" he demanded of the sky, asking the one person who might, might, be able to hear him.

Son Goku had nothing to say to him.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

The explosion rocked the village, making people stop and look at the cloud of smoke rising over the training fields nearest the walls.

"That damn kid," Tsunade muttered when she saw the smoke pall. "I told him to take it easy. Whatever, if he snaps a muscle, it's his problem now." She went back to doing paperwork.

"I'll go make sure he's okay," Shizune sighed as she walked out the door, leaving Tonton with the fuming Godaime. She came back quickly enough when she saw a blue-white comet rocket over the village and land in the observation area that was on top of the Hokage Monument overlooking the village. "So much for that."

Tsunade shook her head.

Second to last chapter! That's right, this is the second to last chapter of Dilemma! Hard to believe right? Next chapter is extra long because I wanted to wrap it all up and not keep you guys waiting on Return. Look forward to the last chapter of Gohan's Dilemma and the Epilogue at the end of the month or so. Gohan's Return is already in the works and I've gotten the first two and a half, three chapters or so written and I think that will come about the same time as the chapters usually come out. See you all next time for the finale of Gohan's Dilemma!