Sasuke was mad. No, he was furious. That man, the one he'd dedicated his life to killing had been right there in front of him. He'd been so close, so close to achieving his life's goal until...until he showed up! That Gohan kid. Sasuke growled loudly and slammed his good fist down on the bed. He hadn't been done yet! He was ready to get back up and attack but Gohan had gotten between him and his target, taking a powerful mental attack from Itachi's mangekyou sharingan that he was no doubt still suffering from. Well, as soon as they both were better, Sasuke would make him pay, not only for taking away his chance but for daring to do what he and his entire clan had failed to do. He'd bested Uchiha Itachi in battle. Sure he hadn't defeated him per se, but he'd actually managed to get a few solid hits on the man before succumbing to his doujutsu. Sasuke's train of thought was broken by a light knocking on his door. He growled again but invited his guest in, seeing as they probably wouldn't go away till they'd been in anyways. No doubt it was Sakura or some other girl here to wish him well and fawn over him like a piece of meat. He rolled his eyes at the thought but immediately twisted his face into a look of utter shock when none other than the source of his previous anger entered the room. Before the boy could take notice of Sasuke's shock he quickly leveled his most lethal death glare at him.
"I'm not even going to bother asking how you've already managed to recover from Tsukuyomi, but I really want to know why you're here." Gohan just raised an eyebrow at him but approached his bed. He reached into his gi and pulled out a small brown pouch, our of which he retrieved a small green bean. He retied the bag and put it back in his gi before offering the bean to Sasuke.
"This is a senzu bean, it'll heal all of your injuries and restore your energy." Sasuke hesitated before taking the bean, and shot Gohan a suspicious glare.
"And why are you giving me this? Don't tell me that you're taking pity on my condition, because I don't need anybody's pity." Gohan shook his head earnestly. What he was actually hoping for was that Sasuke would forgive his intrusion into his battle and allow them to co-exist peacefully.
"Nah, I just heard that you're probably pretty mad at me for interfering with your fight against that Itachi guy, and I was hoping we could let bygones be bygones?" Sasuke just snorted and ate the bean, instantly feeling its healing effects. His eyes involuntarily widened and he opened and closed the fist that had been shattered by Itachi when he'd attempted to hit him with his chidori. He leveled his gaze at Gohan and gave him a predatory smirk.
"Fight me." Gohan gasped in shock. Here Sasuke had just been healed of some pretty nasty injuries and he wanted to fight? Was this guy crazy?
"Why? Do you have something to prove here?" Sasuke chuckled a bit and looked out the window behind him.
"I want to test myself against the guy who successfully managed to hit my brother. Think of it as a friendly spar." Gohan groaned inwardly. Even though he really didn't feel much like a fight right now, this seemed to be the only way to get Sasuke to forget his anger, so he grudgingly accepted.
"I'll go find a doctor so they can come and give you permission to leave." Sasuke just snorted.
"I don't need their permission, I'm leaving anyways. Just wait for me outside and I'll be there when I'm ready." Gohan sighed and walked outside, waiting at the front of the hospital. He wasn't waiting more than five minutes before a fully clothed Sasuke joined him and led him to their destination. After a short walk, Gohan found that Sasuke had led him to the very training area where he'd been the other day when Vegeta and the others had tried to make him go home. Sasuke turned to him and gave him a serious look.
"I'm not going to hold back, so don't you hold back either. Understand?" Gohan mentally rolled his eyes as he nodded. Vegeta said almost the exact same thing anytime they sparred together, the prince always wanting to prove himself stronger than a mere third class baka's half breed son. Of course, he hadn't even come close to matching Gohan's super saiya-jin two power, though he was slowly but surely gaining on him in his first super saiya-jin form even if he did have to use his ultra super saiya-jin forms to do so.
"Alright, no holding back." Gohan agreed, but he was only going to use his base form. Technically that would be holding back, but at the same time his base form did have a limit, so he wouldn't be holding back for that form. Before he powered up though, he wanted to test Sasuke's abilities so he could get an idea of how long the fight would last. Not that it would last more than a few minutes anyways. At least, that's what Gohan assumed.
Both boys took their fighting stances, and Gohan was shocked when Sasuke's eyes changed from coal black to crimson, with three tear shaped markings in each eye. What was it with the people in this village and having weird eyes? His thoughts turned back to his stare down with Hyuuga Hiashi. The man had no pupils to speak of, only the whites and barely noticable white irises. He shuddered as his thoughts led him even further back to a fight with a Saiya-jin of legend, who'd been not only a powerhouse, but a tank of a man as well. The thing about him that stuck with Gohan the most though was his eyes. They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If that is the case, then perhaps Broli and the Hyuugas had no soul, as their eyes seemed to lead to an empty white void, completely empty of a soul. Wait, now that he remembered, he'd caught a small glimpse of the girl's eyes. Her irises had actually been much more pronounced, having a light lavender tint to them. While her eyes were still slightly creepy, they'd also been semi-attractive in their exoticness. Gohan shook his head to clear his thoughts. Now was not the time to be focusing on people's eyes. He had a spar to win after all.
Gohan smirked confidently at Sasuke and ran at him without warning. To his surprise, Sasuke managed to spin around as Gohan's fist was about to come into contact with his shoulder, leaving his backside open to attack. Sasuke capitalized on the opening by thrusting both open palms forcefully into Gohan's back, pushing more momentum into him than he'd been prepared for and causing him to stumble forward and almost fall. Gohan's sharp hearing picked up a slight whistling in the air and he stepped to the side to avoid a kunai and reached out with his left hand to catch another that had been heading towards his head. He spun around at Sasuke and smirked again as he twirled it around his finger. To Sasuke's horror he stopped spinning the kunai and simply squeezed it with one hand, snapping it in half.
"So, got any more toys for me to break?" His remark was met with a hail of shuriken that he simply dodged by disappearing. He reappeared behind Sasuke and attempted a kick to the back of his head but Sasuke ducked low to the ground so that he was supporting himself with his hands and kicked up, catching Gohan squarely in the jaw and forcing him high into the air. He quickly jumped after Gohan and caught up with him, kicking at his ribcage. Gohan blocked it with an arm but couldn't block the kick that came around from his other side and caught him just below the throat, sending him back towards the ground. Sasuke performed some midair maneuvering and sped up his descent to catch up to Gohan and formed his hands into one large fist, bringing them down onto Gohan's chest and knocking him to the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him and make him bounce. Gohan got to his hands and knees, taking a moment to catch his breath before getting back on his feet and looking around for Sasuke. He heard a noise behind him and spun around in the hopes of catching him with an elbow strike but was caught off guard when his fist encountered no resistance and Sasuke simply shimmered and disappeared. Gohan frowned but then remembered the bunshin that Iruka had shown him during his studying earlier. Now that Gohan gave it some thought though, such a technique could be somewhat duplicated through the use of speed, also known as an afterimage. He kept note of this and stretched out his senses to try and locate the real Sasuke, but growled as he felt two energy sources that were identical. So, apparently these bunshin could fool someone looking for an energy source. A very useful technique indeed. He heard another kunai whistling towards him and just barely managed to dodge in time, though it still put a small tear in his gi where it'd caught him. He whirled around and instinctively fired a burst of energy in the direction it had come from, only to have that Sasuke disappear as well. Gohan furrowed his brow in concentration. From what he understood of these bunshin they were only projections of the user of the technique and couldn't really affect the material world, so that meant that Sasuke was probably hiding somewhere while pulling sneak attacks from the general direction of where the bunshin were. Gohan once again stretched out his senses, only this time concentrated further. He once again found two sources of energy, but upon further focusing noticed that one had a lot more energy than the other. He smirked and disappeared from view. He reappeared just inside the forest that bordered the training ground and saw Sasuke hiding behind a tree in front of him. He stealthily crept up to him until his mouth was right next to his ear.
"Gotcha!" Sasuke jumped and whirled around with an outstretched fist which Gohan caught with his own hand and with a grin disappeared and reappeared about ten feet above the ground with Sasuke still in his hold. He let him dangle for a few moments before he let him into a free fall, but Sasuke tucked himself in just in time and managed to roll, avoiding any serious injuries. Gohan rolled his eyes as he landed and another kunai sped towards him as soon as Sasuke recovered from his roll, but as the kunai streaked past him something caught his eye. There was some kind of tag attached to the handle of the kunai. He turned around and stared at it for a moment as it embedded itself in the ground behind him. His eyes widened and he quickly crossed his arms in front of his face as he felt energy within the tag become unstable and explode, sending smoke up into the air and obstructing his view. He rushed forward out of the smoke to meet with Sasuke's flying kick which he dodged, though too late to avoid a small cut to his face which drew a bit of blood. He smiled excitedly at Sasuke who just gave him a confident smirk as they stood there staring each other down.
"I must say Sasuke, you really are quite talented to keep catching me off guard like that. It's been a while since I've met somebody as skilled as you."
"Hn, you're not so bad yourself." His face quickly turned serious. "Even though we agreed to take this fight seriously we've both been holding back. I think it's time we stopped playing around and really put our skills to the test." Gohan nodded.
"That's fine with me. This fight has me excited." He could feel his Saiya-jin lust for battle burning in his blood, making his heart race and enhancing his senses. Even though he hated having to fight to protect people, this kind of fight he could really enjoy.
Sasuke suddenly smirked and reached into his tool pouch and withdrew two smoke bombs which he promptly threw to the ground, effectively cutting off both their views of each other and the surrounding area. He formed two bunshin, one of which ran off to Gohan's right side while the other stayed by Sasuke's side. He pulled out several shuriken and tossed them at where he knew Gohan to still be, then took off for Gohan's left side, effectively flanking him. Gohan decided it was in his best interest to not make a move until the smoke cleared, and so after he dodged the shuriken that had come at him, he let out a focused burst of energy that blew the entire cloud away, revealing three different Sasuke's. He wanted to assume that the one in front was the original, but he'd felt their energies shuffling around and so had no clue as to which one was real. Also, he now didn't have the time to find out with his ki sense as all three came running at him. He smirked and thrust one open palm forward and the other to his right, sending out bursts of energy that struck dead on, revealing both to being bunshin. That left the Sasuke on the left. Gohan turned to face the remaining Sasuke to see him moving his hands in strange patterns and then curling a fist around his mouth. He could see a smirk forming on Sasuke's face as he inhaled and added energy to his attack.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Gohan's eyes widened as Sasuke exhaled and an enormous ball of superheated air came rushing out of his mouth, leaving Gohan no choice but to cross his arms in front of his face and weather the attack. This was going to hurt like hell. The attack hit full force, knocking Gohan onto his back and leaving him to writhe in pain on the ground. He quickly collected himself as Sasuke jumped into the air and attempted to bring his heel down on Gohan's gut. Gohan rolled out of the way and sprang to his feet but Sasuke was ready and threw three shuriken, all of which stuck into Gohan, one in a leg, one in an arm and another in his chest. His already aching arm exploded in pain when he irritated it by removing the shuriken and tossing it to the ground. So, if Sasuke wanted a fight like that, he'd give him a fight he'd never forget. Gohan overlapped his palms over his forhead and gathered yellow energy in front of them.
"Masenko ha!" The energy wave flew out of his hands as he thrust his palms out in front of him and Sasuke attempted to jump over the attack, but Gohan guided it to explode on the ground below him, the force of the explosion knocking his ascension out of control. Gohan wasn't going to give him time to recover and cupped his hands at his side, a blue wave of energy growing in size as he called out the name of his father's favorite attack.
"Kamehameha!" he threw his arms forward, throwing the attack at a now defenseless Sasuke who could do nothing to dodge it so he attempted to overpower it. He went through the same hand seals as before and could only hope for the best as he launched another great fireball, but the kamehameha wave collided with and smashed right through it, hitting Sasuke dead on. He fell to the ground and just stayed still for a moment before struggling to his feet. He stood up and the grin of utter insanity and bloodlust on his face sent shivers down Gohan's spine.
"Well, it looks like you know some pretty deadly techniques Gohan. I bet that if this were a real fight I'd be dead right now. I guess I'm really going to have to pull out all the stops for this one." Gohan could feel an anomaly in Sasuke's energy as it began to burst higher and higher as strange flaming marks began to spread over his body. A purple aura exploded into view around him and the resulting shockwave of power nearly knocked Gohan off his feet and forced him to back up a few steps to remain standing. What kind of power was this? Was it a transformation? No, something felt off about this power radiating from Sasuke. Something...very wrong. He considered using Kai-o-ken, but not only would it not be enough power but it wouldn't last long enough to beat him anyways. Damn! This fight was getting way out of hand. Gohan had no more time to think as Sasuke was once again focusing his attention on him, something he wasn't ready for. He moved his hands through a series of seals and once again inhaled.
"Katon: Housenka no jutsu!" Instead of the gigantic fireball from before, this time Sasuke let out many small, yet clearly powerful fireballs in rapid succession, forcing Gohan to dance around in order to dodge them. This only left one problem though, and that was the fact that they were coming too fast and there were far too many to be dodged properly. So, eventually one of the fireballs struck Gohan's leg, burning right through his gi pants and scorching his leg. He cried out in pain as suddenly he was being hit by twenty different fireballs all over his body, leaving smoking holes in his clothes and adding even more burns to his already tortured body. He fell to one knee once the attack ended, panting heavily and trying desperately to ignore the searing pain he felt all over. He slowly managed to get back on his feet, but Sasuke was no longer in front of him. He sensed energy behind him but didn't have time to react before he was roughly shoved forward by two simultaneous open palm strikes to his back and barely had time to stagger forward before a punch to the chest sent him to the ground, skidding on his back and tearing both his gi and his back up in the process. He groaned and sluggishly staggered to his feet. This had to end now. Sasuke had clearly lost control and if the fight continued there may be at least one casualty. He sighed at the decision he came to. He'd hoped not to have to reveal this kind of power here, and he'd certainly never expected to have to use it against a human, but then this place seemed to be full of surprises.
"Alright Sasuke, this has gone on for too long. You're taking this fight way too seriously for me to continue treating it as a spar, so I"m going to have to stop you now." Sasuke gave him a conceited snort in response.
"Don't underestimate an Uchiha!" he'd been about to charge Gohan, but the look on his face stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Get ready Sasuke. Few people have ever even heard of what I'm about to show you, let alone seen it." Gohan clenched his fists at his sides and concentrated on the power he felt within himself, bringing it out. He smiled as he reached his max in his base form, but had to grunt in concentration as he poured out more and more. His muscles bulged slightly as Gohan's life energy strengthened them to the point where they had to expand. A yellow aura flickered in and out of existence a few times before catching and finally staying put.
"Haaaaaaa!" Gohan yelled out his concentration and the wind began to pick up as his aura intensified and his hair lifted up into gravity defying spikes and turned a golden blond color at the same time that his eyes turned to a soulless turquoise and his facial features hardened into those of a predator. There was an explosion and a blinding light as Gohan yelled out and completed his transformation. When Sasuke's vision cleared he saw before him what appeared to be an angel. An angel...of death. Gohan had transformed into a super Saiya-jin.
On the lookout, Piccolo had been contemplating his next move against Dende in a game of shogi when he suddenly shot up out of his seat and visibly tensed, sweat already forming on his brow. Dende looked up at him worriedly.
"Piccolo-sama? Is everything okay?" Piccolo looked down at him nervously.
"I...I don't know Dende. Can you feel it?" Dende just cocked his head quizzically, assuming he was talking about someone's power level.
"Heh, gomen sir but you know I'm not that good at sensing energy yet." Piccolo mentally slapped himself for forgetting, but decided he'd rectify that later. A guardian of Earth after all, should be able to sense the energies of the charges he was bound to look after. He only gave that thought a moment though, as there were pressing matters that needed attending to.
"It's Gohan. He's...transformed into a super Saiya-jin. He's only at a fraction of his power, only about as much as Goku's level on Namek, but if even that much power is needed, it could spell trouble. I'm going to check it out." He hurried out of Kami's palace and took off at top speed towards where he sensed Gohan's energy, thankfully in the same place he'd come to pick up those idiots who'd allowed Chichi to manipulate them into trying to force him to return home. He was a little more worried than he'd let on to Dende though. He could tell through his and Gohan's bond that the boy was in pain, yet he could not sense the energy of whoever his opponent was.
"Don't tell me it's another android! Hang on Gohan, I'll be there in a few minutes."
His madness forgotten, Sasuke could only stare at Gohan with wide eyes. He'd never seen anything like this before.
"What...are you?" Gohan frowned at his comment.
"I could ask you the same question. Just look at yourself." Sasuke looked down at himself and grimaced in pain as everything came back to him. Yes, this was the guy who'd hit his brother. If he could beat this guy, then surely he'd be strong enough to kill his brother. The bloodthirsty look returned to his eyes and he rushed at Gohan with a punch aimed at breaking his nose, but Gohan easily batted the fist aside and countered with his own to Sasuke's jaw, forcing him back a step and causing him to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. Sasuke quickly recovered and feinted a punch at Gohan's ribcage, only to get him in the gut when he fell for it. Gohan doubled over his fist and gagged before Sasuke gave him a right hook to the jaw, sending him skidding towards the lake. Gohan wearily got to his feet and his eyes widened at the stance that Sasuke had taken. The sound of a thousand birds chirping filled the air as Sasuke dropped his arm towards the ground with his palm facing Gohan and an orb of semi-electrical energy formed in his hand. He grinned maniacally as he charged at Gohan, running at full speed.
"Chidori!" Gohan's eyes widened in fear. If he managed to hit with that attack, even with his super Saiya-jin power, he'd almost certainly die. Sasuke was too close and moving too fast for Gohan to dodge, and as his mind sped through possible outs, Sasuke was suddenly only five feet away. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Gohan as he could feel the power radiating off the attack as Sasuke inched closer and closer to him. Just as he'd been about to impale Gohan, an explosion to Sasuke's left sent him flying towards and into the lake, causing him to lose control of the chidori. The resulting explosion sent a massive wave out in all directions, soaking Gohan as part of it raced over the land. He fell to his knees as his super Saiya-jin power left him and he just knelt there, completely dazed at his near death experience. A gruff voice to his left brought him to his senses and he turned to see Piccolo walking towards him.
"You alright kid? That was a close one." Gohan could only nod in response. Both fighters tensed at the sound of someone crawling out of the lake and Piccolo made to attack but Gohan stopped him after catching a quick glimpse of a now normal Sasuke crawling on all fours out of the lake and seeing him fall unconscious. Piccolo gave him an odd look.
"Why are you saving that guy? He almost killed you." Gohan slowly shook his head.
"It's alright now, Piccolo. He just lost control like I did...before." Piccolo nodded in understanding, but one question was still bothering him.
"Why couldn't I sense his energy? I felt you transform and I could tell that you were hurt, but I couldn't sense the energy of your opponent, and yet now I can feel his energy just fine. I'm also wondering how a mere human could force you to transform like that." Gohan just shook his head again.
"I'm not too sure Piccolo. I'm only just starting to learn about this place. What I do know is that they use a different kind of energy than we do. They use something called chakra which is a mixture of both ki and spiritual energy. Maybe somehow the use of the spiritual energy interferes with long distance sensing abilities? As far as how he's so strong? I don't know, but I'll tell you that I didn't beat Vegeta, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin by myself. I actually had someone helping me. As a matter of fact, I only fought Vegeta. The other guy beat the other three on his own." Piccolo's eyes widened at this statement. Tien, Yamcha, Krilllin and Tien's midget friend Chiaoutzu were supposed to be the strongest humans alive. Could he and the others all been wrong this entire time? It didn't seem possible and yet...here was solid proof. Perhaps the human race had been underestimated all along. Piccolo took a good look at Gohan and could tell the boy was close to losing consciousness, his injuries finally catching up to him.
"Do you want a senzu?" Gohan shook his head.
"Take me to Dende please. I've already used two of my five senzu beans and I don't want to waste any more. Just bring me back here after he's done." Piccolo nodded as he allowed a small smile to form for his student. Gohan smiled back, always glad when Piccolo showed him the side that nobody else ever got to see.
"Thank you...Piccolo-sensei." Gohan muttered before falling unconscious. Piccolo lifted him up over his shoulder and was about to take off when he sensed another presence nearby. There was a puff of smoke and a silver haired man with a mask and a headband with a leaf on it covering one of his eyes appeared. Kakashi eyed Piccolo warily.
"It seems these two were playing a little too roughly." Piccolo just snorted in response. "And just what are your intentions with Gohan-kun? If you intend to harm him I'm afraid I'll have to interfere." It was then he noted that the green man before him wore the same style of fighting outfit that Gohan wore. "I see. Do you know him?"
"Hn. I'm his teacher. And as far as 'playing', Gohan is lucky I showed up when I did. That boy over there almost killed him." Kakashi's visible eye widened as he looked over at Sasuke.
"Did he now? It seems that he's got much to learn yet." Piccolo bared his fangs in a toothy and unpleasant predatory grin.
"The boy's lucky Gohan stood up for him. I would've killed him myself if he hadn't asked me not to. He said he'd lost control." Kakashi's eye narrowed at hearing this and he walked over to Sasuke and rolled him over onto his back. He then pushed back his shirt to reveal three tear shaped marks forming a circle and noted the absence of the seal he'd placed on it during the chunin exams.
"Damn! It's that cursed seal of his. Apparently his willpower isn't as strong as everyone seems to think..." Piccolo idly wondered what a cursed seal could be, but Gohan's injuries took precedence.
"I'm taking Gohan to get healed. I'll return him here once it's done." Kakashi nodded and picked up Sasuke, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Piccolo mentally decided that the people living here needed further investigation as he took off for Kami's lookout.
Well there you have it people. I hope this chapter made up for any disappointments in the fights between Gohan and Vegeta and Gai and Krillin, Yamcha and Tien. Either way, I hope this chapter was enjoyable.