Gohan awoke in a cold sweat and nearly panicked when he didn't immediately recognize his surroundings but quickly calmed down when he realized he was in his room in Iruka's house. He took a moment to calm his labored breathing and took a look around to help regain his bearings. He shuddered as he remembered what had happened to him earlier.
'Was it...all a dream?' He immediately dismissed the thought. It had been far to real to be a dream. Gohan got out of bed and made his way over to the dresser and began to rummage through it until he found the outfit he was looking for. He pulled out a blue spandex jumpsuit and white boots, gloves and armor like what Vegeta wore. After being in so many fights already, Gohan had decided it would be best to wear something a little more protective than the gi that Piccolo had given him. After putting the armor on and going through a few stretching exercises he reminded himself to thank Bulma for making it for him. Gohan folded up his gi and set it on the bed so that he'd remember to wash it later when there was a noise at the door and Iruka walked in with a tray of food. He smiled when he saw Gohan.
"I'm glad to see you're up Gohan. How are you feeling?" Gohan tensed up a bit, remembering the words of his Saiya-jin half but relaxed when he didn't feel the urge to kill anything.
"I"m...alright I guess. I'm a little bit shaken up by what happened but other than that I think I'll be okay." Iruka walked over to the bed and sat the tray down before sitting down on the bed himself. He motioned for Gohan to sit next to him. Gohan hesitantly sat down next to him, but kept his guard up just in case his mental barriers should start crumbling even further.
"Would you mind telling me what happened after you were dropped off here? Did your attacker do something to you?" Gohan shook his head.
"No, I don't think it had anything to do with what happened in the village. I think it might have had something to do with that attack Itachi used on me." Iruka's eyes widened and he quickly became concerned.
"Would you mind coming with me then? I know somebody that could scan your mind for any kind of traps that may have been left there." Gohan sighed, still not liking the idea of someone going through his mind, but was beginning to realize that he didn't have much choice.
"Alright. Sakura tried to get me to do this before, but I don't really like the idea of someone messing around in my mind any more than what's already been done, but after what happened I think it's probably better if I go through with it."
"Good, but I would like to ask you what kind of outfit that is you're wearing. I've never seen anything like it before." Gohan chuckled lightly. The armor wasn't really bad looking, but in just about any situation it drew attention to the person wearing it just because of how different it looked from anything else found on Earth.
"This is a special kind of battle armor that a family friend made for me. I've already been in five different fights since leaving home and I'd rather be a bit better prepared just in case." Iruka nodded his approval.
"Good thinking. You'll make a good shinobi yet." He smiled warmly at Gohan who forced a smile in return, beginning to wonder if that would be such a good thing.
Iruka locked up his house and turned to Gohan, putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling reassuringly.
"Don't worry Gohan, it won't be as bad as you think. You've seen this guy before, you know. His name is Yamanaka Inoichi. He's one of the council members that voted to let you into the village as a shinobi."
"How is he supposed to help me?" Iruka pulled his hand away and led the way towards where the Yamanakas resided.
"Well, the Yamanakas specialize in jutsus that allow them to work with people's minds." Iruka led the way through town, where Gohan received more than a few stares for his choice in clothing, though it had more to do with the spandex than anything else. It left people to wonder if Maito Gai had corrupted yet another young person into wearing the obscene stuff, until they realized that the spandex Gohan wore wasn't nearly as much of an eyesore. It didn't take them long to reach the Yamanaka household and in less than fifteen minutes from when they'd started walking Iruka was knocking on the door. A moment later a young girl with a blond ponytail and blue eyes answered the door with a surprised look on her face.
"Iruka-sensei? What are you doing here?" Iruka smiled at his onetime student.
"Hello, Ino-chan." He pointed at Gohan. "Gohan and I need to speak with Inoichi-san if he isn't too busy." When Ino noticed Gohan, she barely managed to keep herself from blushing. 'He's almost as cute as Sasuke-kun.' She shook her head to clear her thoughts and cleared her throat.
"Ummm...yeah, I'll go get him." She disappeared and less than a minute later they were greeted with the man Gohan recognized as the first one to vote for him to be allowed into the village.
"Hello Iruka-san, Gohan-san. What can I do for you guys?" Iruka looked around a couple of times before answering.
"I think this is best discussed in private, Inoichi-san." Inoichi raised an eyebrow but ushered them both in before leading them to his bedroom in the back of the house. He let them in and locked the door behind them.
"Alright, is something the matter?" Iruka cast a worried glance at Gohan before answering.
"Well, I'd like for you to take a look at Gohan's mind if you could. He recently fell unconscious in my yard for no apparent reason and suspects that it may be some side effect of Itachi's attack on him.
"I see, so you want me to make sure that there isn't any lasting damage on his psyche and that his mind hasn't been tampered with?" Iruka nodded.
"We think it's best, that way it can be dealt with now instead of it possibly becoming a problem later on."
"Very well. The first thing I'm going to do is reverse hypnosis. How long ago was it that you collapsed Gohan?" Gohan thought about it for a moment but realized that he'd lost all track of time in that hellish zone that his mind had created. He looked to Iruka for an answer.
"Hmmm...I believe that your anbu guard said she'd dropped you off two hours ago when I came home, and you were out for about another hour after that so I'd say around three hours ago." Inoichi nodded.
"Very well." He went through several hand seals and green waves of chakra began emanating from his hands and entering into Gohan's mind, effectively putting him to sleep. "Jigyaku no jutsu (time reversal technique). Gohan's body went limp and Iruka had to shift him to a position that wouldn't cause him to fall off the bed. "Alright Gohan, I want you to climb backwards through your memories. You're going back to an hour ago, two hours, three hours. You're going back to the time when you were dropped off at Iruka's house by an anbu guard. What's happening?" Gohan's eyes remained closed and his body limp as he spoke in a low monotone voice that was barely audible.
"Hinata and I had just finished fighting when she showed up. I couldn't stand on my own so she picked me up and took me to Iruka's house. I had enough energy to move around on my own at that time so she put me down and left. I began walking towards Iruka's house but it was on fire. There was someone standing in front of the house like he'd attacked it. He turned around and it was me that had done it. I felt heat on my back and turned around to see that the entire village was on fire, with mangled bodies on the ground. The other me told me it was my destiny to destroy this village. We argued and I tried to fight him but I couldn't power up. He told me that he was going to come out and influence me so that I can no longer lock him up in my mind." Inoichi pondered this for a moment and decided to see if that's all there was too it.
"Have you had any other mental lapses?" Gohan slowly nodded, and automatically went back through his memories to the fight against Kabuto.
"What is happening before you start having your mental lapses?"
"Hinata and I were fighting Kabuto in an alleyway. Kabuto had ducked under Hinata's attack and she hit me instead. He came at us with a counterattack and I pushed Hinata out of the way when I got a headache." Inoichi nodded and seemed to be thinking deeply.
"And what happened after that?"
"I woke up in darkness. I had another headache and I started seeing painful images. I saw Piccolo-sensei killing my Dad and Uncle Radditz. Then I saw young Sasuke ask me to help him practice shuriken throwing. I told him I was busy and that I might do it next time. Then I saw Piccolo-sensei getting killed by Nappa to stop him from killing me. Next I found myself standing in a house with a bloody katana over my Father and Mother's dead bodies. Sasuke came into the room and tried to stop me but I beat him up and used Tsukiyomi on him. Then the memories came faster and faster until I couldn't keep track of them anymore." After a few moments of silence Inoichi urged Gohan to continue.
"Is there more to it Gohan? Please continue."
"The memories stopped, but then people came to me. Everybody said it's my fault, that I killed my father. Cell and Frieza mocked me and everybody else that I know said that I'm a monster and I should die."
"Is that all Gohan?" Gohan slowly nodded his head so Inoichi released the jutsu, allowing Gohan to return to consciousness. He looked to Inoichi expectantly, waiting to hear what he thought so far. Inoichi sighed and rubbed his temples before relaying the news.
"What I have heard from you so far is a bit worrisome. It seems that somehow some of Uchiha Itachi's memories have been planted in your mind. Whether that is intentional or not I couldn't even begin to guess, but either way it could cause you some problems later on. Because of this, I think a more complicated technique is in order." Gohan looked a bit hesitant, he had a feeling he wasn't going to like what he was going to hear next. He swallowed hard and asked the question he really didn't want an answer to.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to enter your mind. I should be able to tell what condition your mind is in if I take a look around." Gohan began to look nervous. "Don't worry, I can't read your mind or anything like that. I might get a glimpse of some of your memories, and I won't tell anybody about your memories unless I think that there's important information that the village needs to be aware of." Gohan again looked hesitant, but relented.
"Alright, but how will you be able to tell what condition my mind is in without reading my thoughts?" Inoichi chuckled lightly.
"Because everybody has a mindscape, which is where I'll be going. All I have to do is take a look at the condition of your mindscape and I should be able to determine your mental condition from there. Are you ready?" Gohan steeled himself and nodded, praying to Dende that Inoichi didn't find out too much about him or at the very least that he wouldn't find it to be important enough to tell to the village council. Gohan watched as Inoichi went through a long chain of about twenty hand seals before activating the technique.
"Ninpou: Tabi no Naiteki Seishin! (Ninja arts: Journey to the Inner Mind)" Inoichi's eyes closed and his body went slack as his spirit left his body and traveled directly into Gohan's mind. Gohan felt a pressure in his head which caused him to wince and instinctively bring a hand up to grasp at the offending area. As quickly as it had come, the pressure abated and Gohan allowed himself to relax, forcing the thoughts of what Inoichi might find out of his mind. 'I'd better meditate, maybe I can go into my mindscape and help Inoichi-san." He folded his legs under himself and sat in the lotus position, clearing his mind of all thoughts and bringing his breathing under control. Slowly but surely Gohan entered his mindscape, seeking out Inoichi in order to help him as much as possible.
Inoichi awoke in a hallway lined on both sides by nondescript white doors that had nothing more than a handle. He turned to the door on his right and opened it, revealing nothing but an empty white room. He closed the door and went to the door on the other side, opening it to reveal another white room, except this time it had an occupant whose back was currently turned to Inoichi so that he couldn't make out their identity. He stepped into the room and walked up to the small form that sat on the floor and put his hand on their shoulder. The person turned around to reveal a much younger version of Gohan.
"I don't know who you are but I can't play now. Mom'll get mad at me if I interrupt my studying." Inoichi looked at the book the boy was holding curiously.
"And what is it that you're studying?" The boy cocked his head at him as though studying him for a moment before showing him the book. The cover was bare, except for the title which was in big black letters. It read "All about table manners: Volume I."
"Mom says I eat too much like my Dad and that I need to learn how to eat more like a human being than some savage alien." Inoichi laughed at this, not realizing that the words had been spoken in complete sincerity rather than sarcasm.
"Alright, I'll leave you to your studying then." He turned and walked back out the door, shutting it behind him. He began walking towards the next pair of doors when the entire hallway flickered back and forth between what it was now and some image that Inoichi couldn't quite catch. He hesitated for a moment, but continued on until he came to the next pair of doors and opened the one on his left. The sight before him was entirely different from the last rooms he'd just been to. This door led not to a room, but to what appeared to be a mountainous region with a large crater in the middle of nowhere. Inoichi stepped into the room and saw a tall man with a long mane of spiky black hair reaching down to his waist. The man wore an armor of similar design to what Gohan now wore, save for it was a brownish color and had shoulder pads and leg pads. In addition, this man did not wear a full body spandex outfit or gloves, leaving his arms, legs and hands bare. The man carried a small frightened child down into the crater. Inoichi walked over to the edge to see the man put the child into a spherical pod of some sort and close what appeared to be a personnel hatch, locking the child inside. The man smirked evilly as he walked away from the pod.
"Ah, that's much better. Now all I have to do is wait for Kakarrot to kill those humans for me and then we can get off this pathetic rock once Vegeta and Nappa get here." A short moment later the man touched the strange device he wore around his eye and gasped in surprise before spinning around to stare in shock at the pod he'd trapped the child in. "Power level seven hundred and ten?! There's no way that's accurate! For a child, even a Saiya-jin child to have that much power..." He was interrupted by two fighters landing in the area behind him. One of the fighters was of the same height as the long haired man and wore an orange gi and pants. The other fighter was a bit taller and wore the same purple gi and cape that Gohan wore, except that he wore a turban as well. Inoichi watched as the two new arrivals argued with the long haired man for a while before they began fighting, that is, if you really could call it a fight. Even though they outnumbered the long haired man, the two other fighters were severely outclassed by the fierce warrior. Throughout the ordeal, Inoichi learned that the kidnapped child was Gohan. Judging by how small he'd been, Inoichi guessed that Gohan couldn't be any older than about 4 years old and yet, the one now known as Radditz had seemed to be impressed with his power. And what is a Saiya-jin? Inoichi had decided he'd seen enough and moved to leave until he heard an explosion behind him that caught his attention. He turned around to look down in the crater to see Gohan standing in the spot where the pod had used to be. The boy had a feral scowl on his face and was standing in some sort of fighting stance before he jumped clear out of the crater and took off flying for a gloating Radditz who was currently standing with one foot on Gohan's father's ribcage. He smashed head first into Radditz's chest, cracking his armor and knocking him flat on his back, leaving him to clutch his chest in agony. Inoichi couldn't believe his eyes. He'd been watching Radditz slaughter the other two, now known as Goku and Piccolo, but yet this four year old child had just nearly killed him, and there was no way he should've been able to jump anywhere near that high without some sort of training!" Gohan seemed to have calmed down though, so Inoichi turned back around and left the room, wondering how a four year old could do the things he'd just seen.
He walked across the hall to the other door, eagerly awaiting what he'd find on the other side but just as he touched the door handle everything around him shifted. He jumped back and took a frantic look around to see that everything around him now had a look of severe disrepair, as though this were an ancient building that had been abandoned hundreds of years ago and left to rot. He cautiously stepped forward and put his hand on the doorknob only to have the door crumble away to dust at his touch. He stared at it in shock for a moment but suddenly everything shifted back to normal, the door standing there in front of him as though nothing had happened. Inoichi found the shifts to be troubling, as they could be a sign of a highly unbalanced mind.
"Hey Inoichi-san." He turned around to see Gohan standing behind him.
"Gohan? Why are you here?" Gohan just shrugged.
"Well, I figured I'd try to help you out if you don't mind."
"As much as I appreciate it considering how large this place is, it would be best for me to do this alone. Having you here might hamper my progress." They both tensed when malicious laughter echoed throughout the hallway and everything returned to its ancient and rotten state, only this time the ceiling had simply vanished, revealing a blood red sky. A large brown figure could be seen stomping around outside the hall, randomly smashing the occasional dead tree in random bouts of violence. Gohan stared in horror at the beast when it turned and glared in their direction, narrowing its ferocious looking red eyes at them.
"What is that thing? It looks like a giant ape."
"Oh, I'd be more worried about me if I were you. That beast has a very short attention span." The voice came from their left, and they turned their heads to see an exact replica of Gohan standing before them, wearing the same armor that Gohan currently wore. Gohan's Saiya-jin half grinned at them. "How do you like the place? I've been doing a little bit of redecorating, with his help of course." He gestured to the giant brown beast who had lost interest in them and had gone back to destroying defenseless trees. Inoichi stepped in front of Gohan, his face taking on a completely serious look.
"And just who are you and what are you doing in this boy's mind?"
"Do you think this is some sort of disguise? I am the boy's better half. I am the half that makes him powerful." Inoichi's eyes widened.
"Are you a split personality?" Saiya-jin Gohan didn't even bother hiding his laughter. He wiped mirthful tears from his eyes and calmed himself down before answering.
"No, I am his Saiya-jin half." He smirked at Inoichi's lost expression. "Don't even bother trying to understand it, as I'm sure Gohan here won't be very forthcoming at the moment, and I'd rather watch you squirm than help you." Inoichi narrowed his eyes. He was learning things about Gohan, but it was all leading to more questions than answers.
"Why are you tormenting Gohan like this?" Gohan's Saiya-jin half took on a deadly serious look.
"Because he never lets me out. That damnable mother of his has him convinced that I'm evil and should never be allowed to see the light of day. I am just as much a part of Gohan as the rest of him, and should be let out as well. However, since he has allowed his harpy of a mother to brainwash him, I'll just have to force my way out and have my fun all at once. Unfortunately for you and the rest of this pathetic planet, that means that I'll be taking over." Inoichi took on a thoughtful look for a moment until an idea struck him.
"What if I can convince Gohan to let you out once in a while? Will you leave him alone and not act threatening towards anyone?" The Gohan look-alike shrugged.
"Well, if he were to let me out willingly then I really wouldn't have so much pent up energy, so I'd say yeah." Inoichi looked to Gohan.
"What do you have to say to all of this Gohan? Do you accept?" A vein was visibly twitching beneath Gohan's forehead as he fought to contain his anger.
"Why should I trust you?! You're the one that influenced me to torture Cell instead of killing him! It's your fault that father is dead!" His lookalike raised an eyebrow at the outburst.
"Are you so sure of that? Sure I wanted to play with him a little bit before I killed him but you're the one that wanted revenge. You're the one that even after letting me out for once still wouldn't allow me complete control. You're such a fool, always fighting against your own instincts just so you can try to please everybody around you." He took on a smug, haughty look. "You think you're strong now? I could've made you so much more if you'd just embraced me! There's so much wasted potential in this body it's embarrassing! You could be just as strong as Broly was, stronger even." Gohan's eyes widened for a second, but he quickly repressed it, his face turning stoic.
"At what cost? Broly had all that power, yet look at what it did to him. He was so unstable that if it weren't for his father controlling him, he would've destroyed himself." Gohan's Saiya-jin half rolled his eyes as though Gohan had just said the dumbest thing imaginable.
"Duh! That's because he was born with too much power and it corrupted his mind! Don't you remember? He was born with a power level of 180,000! Even father didn't get that high of a power until well after he was an adult. You however, have a much stronger mind than father did. You could handle that kind of power easily. You didn't even have any trouble when you unlocked "it". If you'll remember, father said that when he did the same thing he was having a constant battle just to keep from going insane with power. Trust me, I may be Saiya-jin but I still know you just as well as you know yourself. If I promise not to hurt anybody who hasn't earned it, will you trust me and allow me to have my due influence in your life?" Gohan hesitated, then started to open his mouth to say something, but whirled around so that his back was to his Saiya-jin half and Inoichi.
"I...I'll think about it. You'll know when I've made my decision. Can we at least consider this a truce?" His other self smirked.
"For now, yes. I'll be expecting your answer soon though, and if not, then I'll go right back to tormenting you." Gohan turned back around, a smile on his face as he extended his right arm.
"Let's shake on it." His Saiya-jin half looked puzzled for a moment, but grudgingly accepted the gesture, extending his own right arm and grumbling about humans and their odd gestures. After they had shaken, Gohan turned his attention to Inoichi.
"Well Inoichi-san, I think we've done about all we can here." Inoichi almost nodded, but then remembered what Gohan had told him about the foreign memories.
"I have one more question first. Are you the cause of Gohan having to view all of those foreign memories from Uchiha Itachi?" The other Gohan nodded in response.
"When he made his attack on our mind, I reached into his mind and pulled out some of his memories with the intent of using them to confuse and weaken Gohan's mental defenses. To be honest, I pulled enough memories that if I really wanted to, I could make you think you were Uchiha Itachi, thus making it easier for me to take control." Both Gohan and Inoichi seemed satisfied and without another word disappeared from Gohan's mindscape. Gohan's Saiya-jin half smirked after they had gone.
"You'd better make good on your promise Gohan, or things are going to become very difficult for you indeed."
Well, that's it for chapter 9. I need to know your opinions on this chapter, as it really doesn't seem all that good to me, so please review and let me know what you think. Anyways, see you next chapter.