"Very well young Gohan, I admit defeat. You are an exceptional fighter for one so young. How long have you been in training?" Gohan stopped to think for a moment.

"Well, I've been training since I was four years old so i guess that would make it about seven years." This statement surprised Gai and totally astonished Sakura. This guy was training since he was four?! This brought many questions to their minds, but judging from the look on Gohan's face it would be best for those questions to remain unanswered for the moment.

"Well, I must join you two later. I must now run ten laps around Konoha. If I can't do that, I'll do five hundred sit-ups!" Without another word Gai took off for the edge of Konoha to begin his torturous run. Gohan just blinked at him.

"You mean...he was serious when he said that?" Sakura just rolled her eyes at the man's antics and nodded as she handed Gohan his backpack.

"Yeah, he does weird stuff like that all the time. It's part of his training I guess. His student Lee does stuff like that too. Those two are just creepy sometimes, especially those eyebrows they have."

"Heh. I'll just...take your word for it. By the way, do you know Naruto or Jiraiya?"

"Yeah. Naruto and Sasuke are my teammates. Us three and Kakashi-Sensei make up team seven, and Jiraiya-Sama is one of the legendary Sannin, three of the most powerful shinobi there are."

"Well, do you know if they came back?" She shook her head. From what she'd heard, their mission was of utmost importance and they couldn't waste any time in completing it.

"Sorry, but from what I've heard they're on an extremely important mission and can't afford to waste even one day to wait."

"That's alright, I'll just catch up to them later. I know some techniques that will help me catch up to them quickly as long as I know the general direction they're going in, which I do." They were both silent for a moment, neither really having anything to say, but then Gohan remembered something.

"Say, do you know anyone that might be able to teach me some techniques?" Sakura thought for a moment.

"I'd suggest trying to get Kakashi-sensei to help you, but he's in the hospital right now. His room is the one you broke out of to get away from the hostpital. Oh! Naruto's favorite teacher was always Iruka-Sensei. Maybe he'll be able to help you if he's not too busy." Gohan instantly grew excited at the possibility of learning new techniques. His mood was abruptly cut off as Piccolo's urgent voice cut into his thoughts.

"Gohan you've got to get ready for a fight." Gohan took on a serious look which caused Sakura to become concerned, but Gohan raised a finger to silence any questions she had.

"What's going on Piccolo?"

"Your foolish mother has Vegeta and the others trying to find you and they just noticed your location when you powered up earlier." Gohan silently cursed himself for his lack of judgement.

"What?! I asked her not to do that!"

"Well, I don't think you made it clear enough. Or maybe there was just no convincing the woman. She stopped by here earlier you know. I tried to reason with her but she just got angry." Gohan gave a frustrated sigh at his mother's complete lack of concern for his own feelings.

"Thanks for the warning Piccolo."

"Hn. No problem kid." Gohan again cursed, though this time it was more verbal and Sakura was able to hear him.

"What's wrong Gohan?" He looked at her as though he'd just noticed she was there, then shook his head and regained his composure.

"You've got to get out of here Sakura. Someone's coming for me and there's going to be a fight soon. My Sensei Piccolo and I share a telepathic bond that we can speak to each other through and he just warned me that my Mother has sent some people out to try and take me home."

"Why would she do that?" Gohan growled a bit and proceeded to explain his situation.

"So...even though you asked her not to send anyone to look for you, she's doing it anyways?" Gohan rolled his eyes.

"Yep. She's never really cared too much for what I want. She's got her dreams and that seems to be all that matters to her."

"Can't you get your dad to say something to her about it?" Gohan looked at the ground sadly.

"My father died a year and a half ago. Besides, any time he tried to talk to her about it she'd get mad at him and tell him that he and his friends were bad influences on me." Sakura brought a hand to her mouth and gasped.

"I...I'm sorry Gohan, I didn't know." Gohan shook his head.

"It's not your fault. Acutally, it's my fault."

"What do you mean? How could it be your fault?" Gohan clenched his fists in anger.

"Because I lost control of myself in the middle of battle and got over confident. I had my opponent outclassed and I wanted revenge on him for killing innocent people and for hurting and trying to kill my friends. Even though I was so much stronger my opponent started to use an attack that would've killed me but my dad jumped in the way and took the hit instead." There was now blood dripping through Gohan's fingers as he recalled that fateful day when Goku teleported Cell to King Kai's planet to save Earth. Gohan of course had to tweak the story a bit, not wanting Sakura to know just yet what the stakes had really been in that battle. At this point in time it might be unbelievable for her or just plain too much for her to handle. Gohan's eyes widened as he felt four powerful fighters approaching.

"They're almost here! You have to hide!" Sakura shook her head determinedly.

"I want to help you."

"You can't. You might be able to fight one or two of them, but the others are way out of your league, trust me. Besides, even though only one of them might kill you, I don't want you or anyone else getting dragged into my problems so please, go and hide." Sakura just stared at him for a moment but finally relented, or so he thought. What she was actually doing was going to get Gai and maybe some other help as well in case Gohan got in over his head. No sooner than she departed four figures touched down in front of Gohan, who was now facing the forest. Three of them were Humans and one was a Saiya-jin. Two of the Humans were of average height, one wearing an orange gi with the symbol of the turtle hermit style of martial arts on the front and the other wore a simple green toga with a red belt around his waist. Gohan recognized these two as Yamcha and Tien respectively. The third Human was short enough to be considered a midget and wore the same orange gi as Yamcha. This one Gohan knew as Krillin. Then there was the Saiyajin. Falling a bit shorter than the two taller Humans he wore a blue jumpsuit and white body armor with white gloves and boots. This one could be none other than Vegeta, prince of the Saiya-jins. He stood in front while the Humans were lined up behind him. Vegeta took a step forward and gave a cocky smirk.

"Well now, who would ever have thought that you would've made this job so much more easy for us. Do you know why we're here brat?" Gohan glared at him and got straight to the point.

"I'm not going back Vegeta. Don't even bother trying to make me because you know that in the end you'll fail. Even though I haven't been able to do a lot of training this past year doesn't mean I've been slacking off completely." This time Krillin took an opportunity to speak.

"Look Gohan, none of us really want to fight you except maybe Vegeta but your mother threatened us with...terrible fates if we didn't help bring you back."

"I just said I'm not going. Now you can either leave peacefully or we can do this the hard way. I really don't want to hurt any of you guys but I will if you force me." The fighters all got into fighting stances with Gohan being the last one.

"Alright then, you guys leave me no choice." Gohan readied himself to begin powering up, but a shout distracted him along with the four fighters he'd been about to face off with.

"Dynamic entry!" With a huff, Vegeta looked to his right to see who had dared to interrupt his fight only to see a foot that was about to smash him in the face. His eyes widened in the moment before impact and he yelped out his surprise as he suddenly found himself flying through several trees. Gai now stood between Gohan and his three remaining opponents in his fighting stance. He gave the intruders a serious look.

"At this point in time Son Gohan is under the protection of Konohagakure and its shinobi. Any threatening moves made towards him will be interepereted as attacks on the village and will be dealt with accordingly. The bald human wearing the toga stepped forward, taking the role of leader now that Vegeta had been temporarily taken out of the picture.

"We don't mean any harm here. We just want to take Gohan home so his mother will stop worrying about him and leave us alone. If we don't at least try to get him back our lives will be miserable."

"Gohan, do you wish to go with them?"

"No, I don't. I've already told them that and I've told my mother as well, but mom sent them to force me to go back." Gai smirked at the fighters in front of him.

"Very well then. I shall be your opponent."

"Gai, I think..." Gohan was cut off as Vegeta exploded out of the forest and landed in front of Gai. He was seething.

"You! How dare you?!" He stalked forward. "Do you have any idea who you're messing with? I could kill you in an instant!" Vegeta raised his arm up and pointed his palm at Gai, charging blue energy into it. "Get out of my way now if you value your life."

"That's enough Vegeta! I'll fight you!" Vegeta let his energy dissipate and smirked at Gohan.

"Well that's good to hear. I was beginning to think you'd become a coward and were going to hide behind this weakling." Gohan shook his head at Vegeta's attempt to anger him. He should've learned by now that words wouldn't work on the boy like that. Ah well, he'd learn sooner or later after getting beat into the ground enough times when Gohan wasn't as sloppy from rage as he'd expected. Gohan mentally berated himself. Such arrogant thoughts were not going to get him anywhere, only action would. So, as Gai and Tien rushed at each other to begin their fight, Gohan and Vegeta got into their respective fighting stances once Gohan set his backpack down a safe distance away.

Vegeta wasted no time in initiating the fight by disappearing and reappearing behind Gohan with a kick aimed at his mid back. Gohan had sensed his move and twisted his upper body so that he could block it with an open palm. Gohan then took Vegeta's lead and disappeared as well, only appearing above and bringing a drop kick down onto his shoulder, but didn't connect as Vegeta was now behind him again. Gohan allowed himself to drop the short distance to the ground, landing on all fours and immediately pushing back with all his might, slamming himself into Vegeta and knocking him back. He then immediately spun around and ducked under a punch while thrusting his own fist at Vegeta's gut, only to have it grabbed. This gave Gohan an idea and he pretended to try again with his other fist only to have that caught as well, but this was exactly what he'd wanted. As soon as Vegeta had Gohan's hands in his own he jumped up and kicked out with both feet at Vegeta's face, leaving him no choice but to take the blow full force. Vegeta staggered backwards holding both hands to his face as he cursed at the pain but Gohan didn't allow him to recover and came at him with a right hook to the jaw that sent him spiraling out of control and into Tien who'd been on the defensive due to Gai's incredible strength and speed. Gai took this opportunity to land a kick to Tien's jaw and then leap frog over Vegeta and slam his doubled fists down onto his back, knocking him to the ground hard. Gai quickly ran to Gohan's side and both stood facing their opponents in ready stances, Gohan crouching low with his legs spread to shoulder width and his fists at his sides and Gai with his left arm behind his back and his right arm bent at a right angle with the back of his hand facing his opponents.

Krillin and Yamcha stood on the sidelines watching Tien's fight with the weird looking guy in loose green spandex in awe. Their little group of fighters had always been in silent agreement that Tien was the strongest human amongst them, no doubt making him the most powerful human on the planet. This other guy however was really giving the three eyed warrior a run for his money, even seeming to have a slight advantage. They hadn't really come along to fight, just hoping to convince Gohan with words that he should return home, though they were ready to help subdue him if necessary. It seemed however that this was an impossible fight with Gohan outclassing Vegeta and Tien having to fight the other guy. If they had to divide their forces up like that there'd be no way for them to get around Gohan's defenses. They were prepared however to jump in at any second, waiting only for Tien or Vegeta to request their aid, not that they expected Vegeta to. They also briefly wondered why Gohan and Vegeta hadn't transformed yet...

Gai smirked as his opponent got himself up and dusted himself off. He glanced at Gohan and then his opponent as well, who had a rather angry looking scowl on his face at the moment.

"It seems that this fight is going favorable to myself and Gohan at the moment. However I, Maito Gai, would like to know the name of my fiercely youthful and worthy opponent!" Tien raised an eyebrow and for a second wondered if he should ask about the rather...strange choice of words the man now known as Gai had just used, but intuition told him it was best to leave that one...a secret. He cleared his throat.

"I"m Tienshinhan, and you're not such a bad fighter yourself.." The compliment received one of Gai's "nice guy" poses, and left a temporarily blinded Tien wondering if his Taiyoken technique was that bright. He was brought out of his thoughts as Gohan and Vegeta resumed their duel.

Taking Vegeta and Gohan's renewed fight as his queue, Gai got a running start and leaped into the air at Tien and launched himself into a spinning kick. Tien thought he'd ducked under it, but Gai had apparently brought his other foot around as well, though in a lower sweep than the first.

"Konoha Goriki Senpu!" Tien was knocked face first to the ground and rolled to the side to avoid a falling heel kick that would've surely knocked him unconscious if he'd allowed it to hit. He got up on all fours and repeated a move Gohan had used earlier, launching himself into the air, only instead of using it as an attack he used it to give himself some space. He floated a few feet above an astonished Gai's head and braced himself by clenching his teeth in concentration and bringing his fists to his sides.

"I'm sorry but it's time for me to stop playing around and end this now so we can get Gohan and leave." He shouted out his concentration as a white aura formed around him and the air seemed to warp with the heat generated by his power up. Finishing his power up, Tien disappeared from view, assuming that Gai could no longer follow his movements. He would soon be proven wrong. Gai was indeed shocked by Tien's increase in chakra, but found it a little odd as it felt as though he concentrated much more on the physical half of his energies than the spiritual half. He was ready though, when Tien suddenly displayed a significant increase in speed and, no doubt, strength as well. Gai twisted to the left and used a forearm to block a kick aimed at his neck and tried to grab hold of Tien's leg, but he'd retracted it too fast which caused Gai to only grasp at air. Gai was now on the defensive as Tien was attacking much too fast for him to put up a decent fight. It was then he saw an opening. Tien threw another punch, but this one was just a tad slower than the rest of his movements and Gai capitalized on it by quickly grabbing his wrist and tossing him over his shoulder. Tien performed a midair flip and landed so that he was once again facing Gai.

"It seems that I'm going to have to take this fight seriously as well. Prepare yourself Tienshinhan." With immeasurable speed he ran up to Tien and grabbed him by the neck. He then ran towards the forest and held a helpless Tien out to the side, slamming him through several trees before dropping him and smashing a fist into his gut before he hit the ground, sending him flying several feet away to hit an older tree and fall to the ground gasping for air. Gai sped up to him, picked him back up and threw him back out of the forest before overtaking him and grabbing him by the head to slam him into the ground, knocking him out. Gai stood there, breathing hard and fell to one knee from the stress put on his body from the speeds he'd been moving at, but he didn't count on Krillin and Yamcha coming to Tien's aid, already at full power. .

"I will not allow you to forcibly remove Gohan from this village no matter what." Both fighters suddenly found themselves on the defensive as his speed and strength had gone up even farther. Gai ran at them, arms out to the sides in an attempt to clothesline both at the same time, but they just barely managed to avoid it. Krillin and Yamcha looked at each other and nodded. They braced themselves as though to power up and became outlined in gold energy.

"Multi form!" They shouted simultaneously and where there were one Krillin and Yamcha there were now four of each. Krillin gave a confident smirk and a thumbs down.

"You may be a lot stronger than both of us, but now we outnumber you eight to one." Gai's eyes widened in disbelief. Each copy had its own chakra signature. Were they kage bunshin? No matter. Even if they were they'd only have a quarter of the original's chakra each. It would be easy to take them down. The fight between Gai and the four Krillins and Yamchas was short and before long the copies had all been painfully knocked back into their originals. Krillin and Yamcha winced as they stood up. Krillin cupped his hands at his side and after a moment Yamcha followed suit. Gai watched on in curiosity as blue orbs grew in size in their hands.

"Kamehameha!" Both fighters launched their attacks simultaneously, merging them into one energy wave which Gai did not have time to dodge or block. His eyes widened as he felt the heat from the attack before it struck him dead center in his chest and carried him back into the forest to hit a tree and fall to the ground. Gai groaned as he stood up. What kind of technique was that? He'd never seen anything like it before. What further intrigued him was the complete lack of hand seals. They'd simply cupped their hands at their sides and formed it. Were they among the few shinobi that didn't need them? He eyed them further and decided that wasn't true. These two didn't look or feel like shinobi at all, the lack of headbands aside.

Krillin and Yamcha were more than a little surprised when Gai managed to get back on his feet after such an intense blast.

"Krillin?" Yamcha called out to his friend nervously. Krillin swallowed hard before answering.

"Y-yeah?" he took half a step back as Gai approached them.

"We're in for it now aren't we?" Krillin only managed to nod his head before Gai was upon them.

Meanwhile, Gohan and Vegeta were nearly even in their fight.

"Brat, why haven't you transformed yet?" Vegeta really wanted to get this over with and get back to his gravity room, but his pride would not allow him to be the first to transform, thus admitting to be the weaker of the two warriors, at least as far as willpower.

"I have no intention of transforming. I'm trying to make some new friends here and I don't want to scare them off." Vegeta scoffed at such a ridiculous idea.

"Why would you want to impress some weakling humans? Don't you already associate with enough of them?"

"Because I want friends that I know from my own experiences, not someone that I met through my dad. The guys my dad knows are good and all, but I want my own friends too. Friends that I had to earn." Vegeta snorted.

"Feh, another one of your useless human emotions. These 'friends' as you call them, will only drag you down in battle. A true Saiya-jin relies on his own strength."

"And what makes you think I want to be a true Saiya-jin?" Gohan threw a punch at Vegeta, but the older Saiya-jin tilted his head to the left and let it pass him by. He retaliated with his own fist which Gohan managed to duck under. Seeing a vulnerable spot, he drove his head up into the Saiya-jin prince's abdomen, doubling him over in pain. Vegeta still managed to move through his pain however, and brought a fist down onto Gohan's back, slamming him to the ground. He followed through with a falling heel that hit Gohan hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He then kicked him up in the air and sent him flying into the lake with a roundhouse kick. There was a mighty splash as Gohan exerted his energy and burst through the surface of the water to float a few inches above it, looking rather irritated. He wordlessly flew forward at Vegeta and just barely managed to nick his cheek with a fist, drawing a thin line of blood out of the wound. Vegeta smirked and took a swing at Gohan's face, but the boy had vanished and reappeared behind him. He struck out with a foot at Vegeta's back, but he'd already been spinning around and brought his own leg up to block it. With a shout from Vegeta, Gohan was blown backwards by a hastily erected energy dome and suddenly found himself doubled over the older man's fist. Vegeta looked down at him and gave him a predatory smirk.

"You may be stronger than me, but I've got years more experience than you. If you don't transform I'll wipe the floor with you boy." Gohan coughed up a bit of blood and spat in Vegeta's face, who scowled in rage. "Very well then. You've just assured that this will be the most painful battle of your life brat." Vegeta smashed his fist into Gohan's face, causing him to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. He dropped Gohan as he brought his knee up and was surprised when the boy somehow managed to concentrate enough to zanzoken behind him. He turned around and smirked at Gohan who just spit up some blood and returned the gesture.

"Sorry Vegeta but I don't have time for this. I'm gonna have to end this fight now. Kaioken times ten!" Gohan grunted at the strain his body was undergoing due to the kaioken, but smiled nonetheless at Vegeta's wide eyed reaction. "Heh, my Dad taught me this while we were training in the hyperbolic time chamber. He didn't really think I'd ever need it but I insisted cause I thought it was cool. Now, let's see how long you last." Before he could make a move though, he hesitated as he felt Gai's energy spike before Tien was defeated and then he felt it go even higher after he felt Krillin and Yamcha split into four each, no doubt using the multiform technique. He was quick to get back on track and furrowed his brow in concentration. He looked at Vegeta and smirked knowingly before rushing at him with such speed that Vegeta couldn't follow and knocked him into the air, followed him and hit him back towards the ground. He then hit him in another direction, passed him up and knocked him into yet another direction. To the untrained eye it would appear as though Vegeta were being yanked about by puppet strings. Gohan landed one final kick to his midriff, sending him plummeting to the ground with such force that he created a small crater. Vegeta did not get up. Gohan dropped the kaioken and fell to his knees, trying to contact Piccolo through their bond before passing out.

"Piccolo, Vegeta and the others are taken care of. Could you please come and get them so they can't just come after me again after they wake up?" Gohan could visualize Piccolo nodding as he responded.

"Sure thing kid." Gohan barely noticed when several ninja wearing animal masks appeared and one picked him up and another one got a collapsed Gai.

"Heh, looks like I'm going back to the hospital." Was Gohan's last thought as he slipped into unconsciousness.