Gohan and Inoichi opened their eyes simultaneously, and Inoichi caught Gohan's eyes with a serious expression.
"Please do not take this decision lightly Gohan. From what I have witnessed this other personality of yours has a lot of influence in your mind and if you are unprepared for the consequences of your choice it could be disastrous." Gohan looked thoughtful for a moment, but decided he should ask for advice before trying to decide for himself.
"What do you think I should do?" Inoichi pondered this for a moment, thinking through his answer carefully.
"Well, I can't tell you what to do, but I would advise giving him what he wants. He did not seem as though he would attempt to do any damage were you to allow him his freedom. However, if you don't want to I'm sure Jiraiya-sama can use his expertise with seals to help you out. I must warn you though, that you shouldn't base your decision off of what I say, as I have no experience with a case like yours. The best advice that I can give you is to follow your instincts. Only you can truly know what is best for you." Gohan smiled and nodded.
"Thank you Inoichi-san." Inoichi smiled warmly at him.
"Any time Gohan-kun. Even though others on the council disagree with me on this, I think you're a hero for saving Naruto." His expression saddened as he thought of the young blond genin. "It's sad really, the way the village treats the boy. He's never really done anything worse than a few pranks. I would've allowed my daughter, Ino to associate with him when they were younger, but for her own safety I had to tell her to stay away from him for fear the villagers would try to harm her." Gohan shook his head sadly.
"Iruka-sensei told me about how the villagers treat him, but they did that to people that tried to be friends with him too?"
"I can't say much, but I will tell you that fear can make human beings very paranoid." Gohan desperately wanted to know why anybody would fear Naruto, but the look on Inoichi and Iruka's faces told him that he wouldn't be getting any more answers on that topic so he relented...for now. Iruka and Gohan said their goodbyes to Inoichi and returned to Iruka's house, where Iruka introduced Gohan to shuriken and kunai throwing. While they weren't techniques that Gohan was particularly interested in, he figured that he ought to learn them if only to help improve his aim. It was to this end that he spent the next two hours throwing shuriken and kunai, after which Iruka spent another hour teaching him hand signs and the basics of chakra molding, which Gohan took to quite well due to his already extensive knowledge of ki manipulation.
It was now about six in the afternoon and Gohan was relaxing on his bed and thinking of how to approach his personality issues while Iruka made food for the both of them. While to most it would seem to be an easy enough decision to just let their mind be whole, Gohan's experiences with Saiya-jins so far and his own knowledge of what happened when he was enraged enough made it difficult for him to trust his Saiya-jin half. After a few moments of weighing the pros and cons of each decision against each other, he sighed and put himself into a meditative state, putting himself deep into his own mind.
He woke in the same hallway that he and Inoichi had been in before, only this time his Saiya-jin half was there waiting for him with a smirk on his face.
"So, you've finally come to a decision eh?" Gohan nodded grimly. While this was logically the best choice, he still didn't have to like it.
"I've decided to let you have your input. I'm warning you though, if you take it too far things are going right back to the way they were and I'll find a way to seal you off for good. His other half's smirk widened into a very unSaiya-jin smile.
"Hey, you don't have to worry about that. This was actually what I was hoping for you to do. While universal domination and widespread death and destruction sound fun, I'd rather our mind was one whole piece rather than divided as it has been." His expression turned dark. "You know I was lying before when I said that I had redecorated this place right?" Gohan quirked an eyebrow at him so he sighed.
"This is all an illusion." He gestured all around him at the relatively clean hallway and it reverted back to its ruined state. "This is the true state of your mind. This is the result of all of those years of me having to force my influence on you and your own self loathing for what you are. Had things continued as they were, our mind would have become severely unstable and there's no telling what would have happened then. Now that you're making the first steps towards fixing the problem, this should eventually repair itself into what you saw before." At Gohan's questioning look he rolled his eyes.
"You're wondering why I put that illusion up in the first place aren't you?" Gohan nodded lightly, waiting for an answer. "It's simple really. We don't need that blond guy interfering with our affairs. If he were to think of that as the true state of your mind he would have panicked and possibly ruined all of our plans." Gohan snorted.
"Our plans? Since when do you want the same things I do?" Saiya-jin Gohan just looked at him as though he'd said the dumbest thing imaginable.
"Since always. You and I just have different ways of accomplishing our goals. You've just let mother influence your attitude towards me too much. Do you honestly think that all Saiya-jins that ever existed have been ruthless killers? If that were the case they would've killed themselves off long before Frieza entered the picture. Come on now, we're smarter than that." Gohan had the decency to blush in embarrassment. He'd never given it any thought that the few Saiya-jins he'd met were just that, a minority, though to his credit all of the information he'd received from said Saiya-jins hadn't helped his opinion either.
"Well, I'd better get back out there. I'm gonna practice molding chakra some more after I eat." Without waiting for a response Gohan disappeared from his mindscape and reawakened in the real world to the scent of food and the sound of Iruka calling him to eat. His stomach grumbled a bit and he rushed downstairs to finish his human sized portions in record time and head back to training ground seven after informing Iruka of his plans. Iruka chuckled as the blue and white blur that was Gohan rushed out the door.
'He's just as determined to get stronger as Naruto is. Once those two can really get to know each other I bet they'll hit it off great.' He smiled at the thought of Naruto's ever growing list of friends as he cleared the table off and began washing the dishes.
It wasn't until much later that night that Gohan returned from his training. Instead of just practicing with chakra as he'd originally intended, he'd also ended up getting a few hours of shuriken and kunai practice in as well. Due to having been tossing around energy blasts for so many years, he was catching on to throwing kunai and shuriken rather easily, though he had to get used to compensating for the weight difference since energy felt nearly weightless. He figured that he'd have it down after a month or so. Gohan locked the door behind him as he made his way into Iruka's house and towards his room, ready for some sleep so he could train some more the next day. Once he was in his room he quickly stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed, falling into a pleasant sleep within minutes.
The next day Gohan awoke with a grin and after a quick shower he headed to the kitchen where he could smell Iruka making breakfast. Iruka smiled at him as he took his seat at the table.
"Good morning Gohan. How did your training go last night?" Gohan gave him his brightest grin, happy to be living with someone that was encouraging him to train.
"It went great Iruka-sensei! I think I'll have kunai and shuriken throwing down in a month or so and I've already pretty much got my chakra control to an acceptable level." While having used the kaio-ken was similar to drawing out chakra, it didn't require near the amount of precision to use, and thus Gohan was having a small amount of trouble getting his chakra under control, though he expected to be able to start learning basic tehniques within a week or so.
"That's good to hear. Now, I've decided that it would probably be best to set up a daily schedule for your studying and training so that you'll know what to expect. Does that sound okay to you?" Gohan nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, and that way I can make sure to give myself enough free time during the day to practice what I learn. I was wondering though, could you supervise my shuriken and kunai throwing? I bet I could learn it faster if I had someone who was there giving me tips."
"I think I could do that. Also, I think I'll just give you all of the materials you need to study for history and all of that since you seem to be able to study much faster than any of the students I've had so far. But first, let's eat!" Gohan couldn't help but widen his grin as he and Iruka shared a simultaneous "Itadakimasu!" and dug in. After they finished, Iruka left the room for several minutes and came back with an armload of textbooks which he promptly dropped on the table. The books ranged in topics from mathematics to older versions of the bingo books. Gohan looked at the large pile of books seemingly unimpressed.
"That's it? There doesn't seem to be a lot to study." Iruka just stared at Gohan in shock.
"You're kidding right? That's nearly everything that you'll have to learn aside from the basic ninjutsu techniques you'll need to pass." Gohan just shrugged nonchalantly.
"Heh, don't worry about it, I've got studying down to an art!" With that said he picked the math book out of the pile and began studying it, wanting to get his best subjects out of the way before moving on to the ones he wasn't as familiar with, such as the bingo books and shinobi rules.
Gohan studied in this fashion for three hours, surprising Iruka when he completely finished the math, saying that he'd studied math far more advanced under his mother's tutelage. He also managed to get through a fair amount of the shinobi rules and also some basic battlefield tactics. He looked outside through a window over the sink and saw that it was now daylight out, a stark contrast to the pitch black it had been when he'd first woken up. He stood up and stretched his limbs and after moving the books up to his room Iruka took him to the academy dojo to practice his shuriken and kunai throwing and molding chakra. Gohan trained in this fashion for another two hours, leaving him just a little bit winded from the chakra use as he tried to get a feel for how to draw it out effectively.
It was in this manner that Gohan spent the next month. He dedicated his early morning hours from 6 to 9 to studying his textbooks and taking the occasional test to make sure he understood what he was learning and the rest of his morning until 11 was spent throwing shuriken and kunai and mastering chakra molding and the basic academy jutsu. After that he often spent much of his day with Hinata, during which time they became well acquainted and told each other about their families and friends and even had the occasional spar. Towards the end of that month rumors began circulating that Jiraiya and Naruto would be returning soon with the new Hokage. This frustrated Gohan as he'd wanted to catch up with them and learn some techniques from Jiraiya, but he resigned to trying to convince him to train him once they returned to Konoha, which shouldn't be too long as they were supposedly only a couple weeks away. Presently, Gohan sighed contentedly at the breakfast he'd just devoured and stood up to head to his room and get his books when Iruka motioned for him to sit down. After disappearing for several minutes without explanation Iruka came back to the kitchen with a smile on his face. Gohan raised an eyebrow as he took note that Iruka was hiding something behind his back but the look in the mans eyes kept him from asking any questions.
"Alright Gohan, I'm giving you a pop quiz today on the jutsu I've been teaching you. If you can pass it I'll give you something good. Let's do this outside though, I don't want my house filling up with smoke." Gohan merely nodded and stood up to lead the way out into Iruka's front yard.
"Good, let's start by having you create two bunshin." With a nod and a quick hand seal a puff of smoke appeared and when it cleared there were three identical Gohans standing in a line. Iruka nodded his approval and Gohan released the bunshins. "Next I want you to perform a henge of someone you've seen in the village." Gohan had to think for a moment to decide on who he wanted to copy. He snapped his fingers and transformed into an exact replica of Hatake Kakashi. Iruka looked Gohan up and down and circled around him, observing from all angles before returning to his original position in front of him.
"Very good Gohan." He looked down to the ground and noticed a small pebble on the ground which he stopped down to pick up. "Alright, next up is kawarimi." He threw the pebble at Gohan only to be surprised when the pebble he'd just thrown struck him in the forehead. It took him a second to realize that Gohan had used him as the replacement. He blinked a few times before regaining himself. "That was...different. It's not very common to use another person, but you still pulled it off effectively so you pass. Now, close your eyes for a minute." Gohan raised an eyebrow in curiosity but quickly obeyed. He nearly opened his eyes when he felt a pressure around his head but decided to play along. He opened his eyes to see a proudly beaming Iruka who held up a small mirror for him to see his reflection. Gohan gasped when he saw the leaf hitai-ate tied to his forehead.
"Iruka-sensei?"
"Congratulations Gohan, you're now officially a genin of Konoha." Gohan grinned excitedly and would've been jumping for joy if his mother hadn't ingrained proper behavior into him from a young age.
"Thank you Iruka-sensei!" Iruka patted the boy on the head and grinned down at him.
"Don't thank me Gohan, you earned it. I must say, if you'd been in an academy class you would've been one of my top students if the amount of devotion you gave to your studies this past month is any indication. You should be proud of yourself, only one person has ever graduated the academy in such a short amount of time." Gohan cocked his head to the side.
"Who's that?" Iruka's gaze darkened a bit at the thought of the man the name represented.
"Uchiha Itachi. He graduated the academy in only one year, and would've actually been out sooner had it not been a requirement that all aspiring genin have at least that much time in a classroom environment. You're a special exception to that rule since not only is the academy mostly unusable right now, but through the fact that you were granted permission by the council." Gohan just smiled and took his leave, stating that he had to go tell Hinata-chan and Sakura-san the good news.
Upon walking out of Iruka's house, Gohan stretched out his senses and found that Sakura was closer than Hinata so he raced to her location first. What he found when he reached her was that she, along with Kakashi and a disgruntled looking Sasuke were sparring in training ground seven, or more accurately, her and Sasuke were sparring and Kakashi was supervising.
"Sakura, you're not putting enough effort into your strikes! Sasuke, you need to calm down and quit allowing your anger to control you!" Kakashi sensed Gohan coming up behind him and coming to a stop next to him to watch as Sasuke pummeled Sakura with a little too much eagerness.
"Yo. Do you need something Gohan?" Gohan grinned and called for him to lean in. After a few seconds of whispering, Kakashi's visible eye arched into an eye smile. "Alright guys, that's enough for now. Now come here, I have some good news for you." Both quickly made their way over to Kakashi who threw their attention over to Gohan with a gesture. "I'd like for you to meet the newest member of team seven, Son Gohan." Nobody missed the intense glare that Sasuke sent Gohan but Sakura was happy for him.
"That's great Gohan! How did you do it so fast?" Gohan rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"Well, I'm just really good at studying and I learn fast." Sasuke just snorted.
"And why is he on our team? We've already got all three members."
"Because after a small display of his skills, the council has decided that he would be a valuable asset to the village. Also, I volunteered since he's saved two of my students' lives already." Sasuke sent a glare at Kakashi, who only eye smiled in response, which only served to further agitate the Uchiha. "Actually, why don't you spar with him Sasuke? I'd like to see how well he can fight." Sasuke's glare quickly turned to an arrogant smirk as he thought of beating on the boy who'd forced him to draw out his cursed seal and earn himself a lecture and warning of being pulled off active duty if it happened again. At least, that's how he saw it. He couldn't let himself lose to someone like that after all. Gohan and Sasuke walked a fair distance away and got into their respective fighting stances.
At Kakashi's signal, Sasuke rushed forward and pulled out three shuriken which he launched at Gohan. Gohan mentally chuckled at such a forward attack and simply caught the shuriken out of the air. He took on a smug look at Sasuke's stunned reaction. Gohan tossed the shuriken up into the air and as they fell into his hand one by one he tossed them back at Sasuke with double the force. Sasuke barely managed to dodge them when he felt Gohan's presence behind him and suddenly felt a pain in his back as he was sent stumbling forward from a rather rough shove. He barely had time to recover as Gohan was already in his face with a left hook that sent him to the ground.
"Your attacks won't be as effective against me this time Sasuke-san. Now that I've seen a little bit of how you ninja fight I'll be more wary. Last time I made a mistake in letting you draw out that much power, and it's a mistake I won't repeat." Gohan phased out of sight and Sasuke instinctively activated his sharingan which allowed him to better track Gohan's movements. He saw him moving to get behind him and struck out with a roundhouse kick which Gohan blocked with a forearm even as he ducked to bring an uppercut into Sasuke's gut. Ignoring the pain, Sasuke drew a kunai and slashed at Gohan's face, nearly carving a gash into his forehead, but Gohan saw the movement and ducked back just in time. Sasuke's eyes widened when Gohan suddenly smirked and an invisible force sent him flying backwards, digging a trench into the ground when he landed. Sasuke was already forming hand signs by the time he'd gotten to his feet and was quick to launch a goukakyu no jutsu at Gohan's still form, but it proved to be an illusion as Gohan dissipated as soon as the fire struck him. Sasuke looked around frantically. 'Was that a bunshin? Where'd he go?' He caught a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye and ducked below a powerful kick that had been aimed at his jaw. He brought a hand up to his cheek and brought his fingers up to eye level to look at them, revealing that they'd come away with blood. Sasuke growled in annoyance but before he could do anything more Gohan had come upon him and twisted his arm painfully around his back. Sasuke rammed a leg back like a piston which forced Gohan to let go in order to protect the area where no male should ever be hit and Sasuke was quick to capitalize on the opening he left and swung around, hoping to catch Gohan with the back of his fist, but Gohan merely smacked his fist aside and slammed his own fist into Sasuke's forehead with just enough force to send him stumbling back a few steps. Gohan was about to press his advantage when Kakashi called a halt to the spar.
"That's enough you two. Well Gohan, it seems that your taijutsu skills are very well honed for someone of your age. Of course, that's to be expected of someone who can manage to land even a couple of good hits on Uchiha Itachi." Sasuke glowered angrily at the mention of his brother.
"Hn, he's just another dobe who gets lucky all the time like Naruto." Kakashi eye smiled at him.
"We'll just have to wait and see now won't we? Anyways, it's unfortunate but I'm not going to be able to train you guys for a while since it seems that I'm going to be doing a lot of high ranked missions for a while until Konoha regains its strength, as the village can't afford to show any weakness at a time like this. Sasuke and Sakura, you two are dismissed. Gohan, I've got one exercise I want to teach you before I go." Gohan nodded eagerly as Sasuke and Sakura went their separate ways, already having a good idea as to what Kakashi had in store for Gohan.
"Alright Gohan, I know you have the ability to at least levitate due to your current skills with energy, but in order to help increase your chakra control I'm going to teach you tree climbing." He chuckled lightly at the confused expression that overtook Gohan's features.
"But sensei, what does that have to do with chakra control?"
"Well, to put it simply, you're going to do it without the use of your hands." He looked around until he found a tree of decent height at the edge of the forest and motioned for Gohan to follow him over to it. Once he was sure he had Gohan's full attention, Kakashi casually walked up to the tree and didn't stop when he'd put both feet on the tree and proceeded to walk clear up to the top and then back down without stopping. Once he was back on solid ground he tossed a kunai at Gohan which was caught easily. "You're going to use that kunai to mark your progress. The idea behind the technique is to find the right amount of chakra to channel into your feet that will allow you to stick to the tree. If you use too much chakra you will be forcefully expelled from the tree and if you don't use enough you'll just slip back down. The theory is that if you can master this technique you'll be able to master nearly any jutsu. Now, since you're just starting at this I would suggest you get a running start." Gohan nodded and crouched in front of Kakashi.
On Kakashi's mark Gohan took off running at the tree and once he'd reached it managed to get about five or six steps up the tree before he found himself losing control and having to mark it. His loss of control was more than a little spectacular and with an explosion of bark he was repelled from the tree with so much force that he was sent rocketing into an unsuspecting Kakashi and the two found themselves unceremoniously tangled on the ground. Once they'd both regained their composure Gohan ducked his head in embarrasment and Kakashi sweatdropped.
"Okay that was...unexpected. Try using less chakra next time." Gohan only nodded and resumed his training, with Kakashi now making sure to stay at an angle from where he was climbing.
About two hours later, Gohan had now gotten himself halfway up the tree before losing control so Kakashi allowed him to take a short break.
"You're doing very well Gohan. I think you'll have it down by the end of the day." Gohan groaned inwardly. He really didn't want it to take that long, but he had to grudgingly accept it since chakra was still so new to him. It was a good thing that Iruka hadn't waited to give him his headband after all, considering that it didn't seem like he was anywhere near ready to start learning more advanced techniques just yet, so going after Naruto and Jiraiya would've been a waste of time at this point. Once Gohan had resumed his training, Kakashi had stuck around for a while, giving Gohan the occasional tip on how to better control his chakra until an hour later he said he had things to do and left Gohan to train by himself. He trained for another three hours before taking another break, having made it almost all the way up the tree before losing his control this time, and it was during this break that he sensed Hinata approaching. A smile lit up his face as he stood up and turned around to greet her with an excited wave.
"Hey Hinata-chan!" Hinata gave him a small smile and a blush at the excitement he was showing in his greeting.
"H...hello Gohan-kun. What are you doing?" He grinned and pointed to his tree which now had not only a large bare spot but many slash marks leading up its trunk, marking the progress he'd made in his training.
"Kakashi-sensei wants me to learn tree walking, so I'm gonna practice it until I've got it right." Hinata looked at the various slash marks and noticed that they covered a majority of the tree's height.
"Y...you're doing r...really well Gohan-kun. M...my team took two days to l..learn it." It was then that she truly noticed the hitai-ate he wore and pointed to it. "I...is that?" Gohan's grin widened so much it looked like his face was trying to split in half.
"Yep! Iruka-sensei says I'm ready to be a genin so he gave me this headband. I was originally hoping that he'd wait to give it to me so that I could still leave the village and catch up to Naruto, but it looks like he'll be back soon so I'll just have to wait to see him and Jiraiya-sama."
"I...I'm glad you made it Gohan-kun." Gohan's grin turned into a warm smile as he took her hand in his.
"Thanks Hinata-chan, that means a lot to me." Then something occurred to him. "Uhhh...why exactly are you here anyways? Did you come here looking for me or did you just come here to train?" Hinata's face turned a light red and she suddenly found the ground to be very interesting to look at.
"Ano...I was looking for you. Aside from N...Naruto-kun you're the only f...friend I have outside m..my team." Gohan also blushed a little, not being used to such attention from anyone outside his family. Hinata chose this moment to look up and mistook Gohan's blush as his face reddening from anger. With a horrified look on her face she twirled around to leave.
"G...gomen Gohan-kun. I...I didn't know you wanted to be alone." She hurriedly began walking away but Gohan reached out and grabbed her hand, resulting in a squeak of fear that made Gohan's heart sink. He gently turned her around so that she was facing him again and noticed a stray tear falling down her cheek.
"It's not like that at all Hinata-chan. I'm just...not used to this kind of attention. Don't worry, I like being around you, cause you're one of my first real friends." He gingerly wiped the tear away and gave her a comforting smile.
'Heh, that one is strong, you should take her as your mate.' Gohan nearly choked and quickly looked around for the source of the voice, earning him a concerned look from Hinata.
"G...Gohan-kun?" He shook his head and chuckled nervously at her.
"It's nothing, I just thought I heard something."
'Well I should hope you heard me. You did after all finally accept me as a part of you, which means I can communicate with you freely now.'Gohan fought hard to avoid looking around again as he figured out who it was that had spoken to him.
'What? But I thought you'd just integrate into me once I did that.' This earned him a derisive snort.
'Baka, and you're supposed to be the smart one. You denied me as a part of yourself for too long, and as a result I am now my own permanent entity within your mind and thus I can communicate with you at will and vice versa. Anyways, I think you should take that one as your mate. If you pay attention, you'll be able to tell by her scent that she's strong. Just think of it, if you breed with her your kids will inherit her byakugan and be part Saiya-jin as well.'
'What are you talking about?! I can't think like that right now! I've got to focus on getting stronger!'
'If you've got time to make friends then you've got time for a mate as well. You need to lighten up and have some fun. The world isn't going to end if you don't become stronger right now.' Gohan didn't answer and simply tuned the voice out. He didn't have time for petty arguments. He noticed Hinata's increasingly worried look and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Sorry about that Hinata-chan, I was just getting lost in thought." Hinata didn't look convinced, but didn't press the issue. Being a Hyuuga gave her a better insight into people's actions than what most had, and Gohan was clearly not telling her everything, but at the same time didn't seem comfortable with discussing it so she just nodded that she understood. Gohan let go of her hand and backed up a couple of steps. "Alright, just let me master this exercise and then we can do something after that." He quickly returned to running up the tree and after less than an hour was able to run up and down the entire tree without losing control of his chakra. After about his third trip up and down the tree, Gohan walked back over to Hinata and helped her stand up. She'd been sitting down so she could comfortably observe Gohan's training and congratulated him on its completion. Now, Gohan was furrowing his brow in an attempt at thinking of something to do. Then it dawned on him.
"Hey Hinata-chan, why don't you introduce me to your teammates? I'd love to meet them." Hinata agreed and led him around Konoha in search of her two teammates and sensei, but it was at another training area that they found both genin. She led Gohan up to a strange boy that wore a high collared trench coat and sun glasses that kept anybody from reading his face and a wild looking boy that wore a fur coat and had a puppy riding on his shoulder. The wild looking one noticed Hinata first and bounded over to her excitedly, giving Gohan a curious look as he did so.
"What's up Hinata? Who's this guy?" The other boy silently made his way over, also curious about Gohan.
"Ano...Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, this is Gohan-kun." Gohan smiled and waved at them in greeting.
"Hey guys, I don't know many people around here yet so I asked Hinata-chan to show me her teammates. My name is Son Gohan, what are yours?" Dog boy was the first to speak up.
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and this here is Akamaru." The puppy on his shoulder barked twice in greeting and Gohan reached over and pet him on the head, but when he got close Akamaru backed away and began wimpering in fear. Kiba cast a questioning glance at him. "Hey, what's wrong Akamaru?" Akamaru let out a couple of terrified barks and Kiba furrowed his brow in confusion. "What are you talking about? He doesn't look any different from the rest of us so what could be different about him? There was another couple of barks which prompted Kiba to roll his eyes and sniff at the air. He nearly recoiled at the scent he was getting and eyed Gohan warily. Gohan only looked at the pair with increasing confusion at their antics until Kiba spoke up.
"There's...something not right here. Your scent...it's...almost inhuman." Gohan tensed up and began panicking. Had he been discovered already?
'No! They can't find out like this! What am I going to do?!' Gohan barely noticed the bug that had been on his shoulder taking off and landing on the finger tip of the more silent teammate.
"It seems that his body chemistry is different from most people and he has a high body temperature." Gohan was about to try and speak in his defense but Hinata beat him to the punch.
"Ano, please be nice to Gohan-kun. He's a precious person to me." Kiba would hear none of this.
"Hinata, we don't know if we can trust him!" Hinata somehow managed to shoot Kiba a withering glare that sent him reeling back a couple steps.
"Gohan-kun has already stood up for me in front of my father and saved my life from enemy shinobi. How can you even think of him as an enemy?" Kiba was stunned to silence and had the decency to look properly chastised. While Hinata hadn't raised her voice the glare she shot towards him coupled with her unusually harsh words were enough that he didn't want to provoke her any more than he already had.
"Please accept our apologies for Kiba's reaction. He tends to be hot headed and irrational at times. One would think that he would have learned better than to judge someone just because they're different." Shino cast a pointed look at Kiba and Gohan rubbed the back of his head nervously while letting out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
"It's okay..."
"Shino. Aburame Shino." Gohan grinned and gave him a thumbs up.
"Thank you, Shino-san."
"Just Shino will be fine." Gohan was forced to briefly wonder if even Piccolo was as stoic as the boy before him. He'd never seen anybody display such a lack of emotion before, and it slightly unnerved him, coupled with the hundreds, if not thousands of tiny energy signatures he could feel from within the boy.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you guys. So where's your Sensei?" Kiba had finally recovered from being berated and had returned to his normal energetic self.
"Kurenai-sensei said she was gonna be taking her own missions for a while so she's not around." Gohan nodded in understanding.
"Kakashi-sensei said pretty much the same thing. He said it's because the village can't show any weakness after being attacked." Even though Kakashi hadn't outright said that, it didn't take much to figure out what he'd meant, and it was pretty obvious that as an instructor of a team he didn't often take individual missions since he felt the need to alert his team. Gohan sensed the three presences coming well before he could hear the harsh female voice that hurt his ears.
"Quit stuffing your face all the time Chouji! Shikamaru, you should get him to stop, you're his best friend after all!"
"Tch, quit being so troublesome Ino. You should know by now that's how his family uses their jutsu. Besides, even though you say that do you really think even I could make him stop?" This voice was definitely male, though it sounded as though the owner would rather be sleeping than out walking around.
"Well, at least put some effort into your training this time! You may be a chunin now but you need training just like the rest of us!" Gohan turned around to see the blond girl from Inoichi's house walking between a rather large boy who was stuffing potato chips into his mouth and a skinny boy who had his hands clasped behind his head with a rather annoyed look on his face. The annoyed one took one look at Gohan and the others and seemed a bit relieved that the training area was already taken.
"Well Ino, it looks like we've been beaten to the punch this time. I guess we'll just have to postpone our training." Ino took one look at Gohan and recognized him from the other day.
"Hey Shikamaru, that's the kid I told you about before, the one that came to see my Dad. What's he doing with a headband though? He didn't have one before."
"Well, that would probably mean that he's become a ninja since the last time you saw him." This earned him a lump on the head courtesy of Ino's fist.
"I know that you baka! What I mean is how could he have become a ninja in that short time? There aren't any classes at the academy and now we have an odd number of genin!" Shikamaru looked at Ino thoughtfully as a cocky smirk made its way to his face.
"So you can actually be smart after all Ino, congratulations!" He continued before she had a chance to further retaliate. "It seems most likely that he's done something impressive which caused the council to allow him to become a shinobi, probably after some private tutoring. Am I right?" He looked at Gohan pointedly, waiting for an answer. Gohan just blinked for a moment, surprised that someone was able to figure it out so easily.
"Heh, you got me there. Iruka-sensei gave me lessons and said I'm ready so I'm on team seven now." Shikamaru's eyes widened significantly at hearing this.
"Hmm...You must've done something really exceptional to make it into team seven, Kakashi doesn't take on just anybody." Gohan felt a slight blush make its way to his face at all the attention he'd been receiving.
"That's what everybody's been telling me. It doesn't matter right now though, cause Kakashi-sensei said he's gonna be going on individual missions for a while so he won't be able to train us much."
"That's true, it seems most of the jounin are taking on more and more dangerous missions lately. Asuma-sensei said pretty much the same thing. At the same time it also seems that because of that, the genin and chunin will be getting tougher missions as well. It's crucial at a time like this for Konoha to show to the other villages that it's still strong enough to go about its normal business. To show weakness at a time like this could prompt an attack from one of our enemies. It's all rather troublesome, but that's politics." Gohan chuckled at Shikamaru's lazy attitude but realized that they hadn't properly introduced themselves yet.
"So what are your guys' names anyways? I'm Son Gohan."
"I'm Nara Shikamaru, the guy on the other side is Akimichi Chouji, and as you know this troublesome woman is Yamanaka Ino."
"It's nice to meet you guys." Shikamaru gave an unenthusiastic grunt, Chouji stopped eating chips long enough to wave, and Ino grabbed onto both their ears.
"Alright guys, as much as we'd like to stick around and chat, we've got some training to do since these two bums have been slacking off!" She smiled sweetly at Gohan and the others before dragging a complaining Shikamaru and Chouji off by their ears. Once they were out of earshot Kiba began laughing uproariously.
"Man, I'd hate to have a girl like that on my team. She's almost as bossy as my Mom!" Gohan couldn't help but chuckle when Kiba's statement reminded him of how his own mother got. He was forced to suppress a shudder when he remembered the many beatings he and his Father had gotten courtesy of the frying pan of doom. "Well, why don't we find something else to do Hinata-chan? Maybe we could watch some clouds or something."
"I...I'd like that Gohan-kun."
"Alright!" He waved to Kiba and Shino. "It was nice meeting you guys, see you later." Hinata said her goodbyes as well and they took off in a random direction in the hopes of finding one of Konoha's parks to relax in. After they were out of earshot, Kiba threw Gohan a suspicious glance.
"I don't trust that guy. Something's off about his scent." He studied Shino for a reaction, not that he expected one.
"You worry too much." Was all the boy said as he walked off to resume his training.
Gohan and Hinata found a nice sized park not too far from the academy, and found a nice shady tree to lay down next to. For a while they lay there in silence, enjoying the peace and serenity with the occasional sounds of kids playing. All in all, it was very relaxing and a couple times Gohan found himself drifting off, but tried to avoid it. Unfortunately, he didn't notice when he lost the battle and fell into a deep sleep. He startled awake to find that the sun was now setting and already halfway below the horizon. He looked to his left and saw that Hinata had also succumbed to sleep and had rolled onto her side. He smiled down at her and gently shook her awake, inwardly chuckling when she let out a surprised squeak and blushed in embarrassment. She realized where she was a moment later and calmed down, and Gohan showed her the setting sun.
"My Dad and I used to watch the setting sun every night before I had to go to bed. Mom always used to scold him, saying that he was keeping me up too late, but we could tell she didn't really care." Hinata seemed to get a faraway look as Gohan talked about his family.
"Y...your family must've been nice." Seeing the way she drooped, Gohan nodded and decided to change the subject back to the sunset.
"Isn't it pretty?"
"I...It's very pretty Gohan-kun, and I'm glad I c...could watch it with you." Gohan smiled as the sun sank below the horizon and stars began appearing in the night sky. He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment as he stared out into the dark depths of space, thinking about all he'd gone through out there and on planet Namek.
"Say Hinata-chan, do you ever wonder if there's any other people out there? You know, like on other planets?" Hinata took a moment to answer, as though pondering whether or not she should answer truthfully. After a short look into Gohan's eyes, she decided it couldn't hurt.
"Hai, I wonder about it sometimes, but Father says it's foolish and not becoming of a Hyuuga." Gohan rolled his eyes and gave a derisive snort before turning his whole body so that he was looking Hinata right in the eyes.
"Listen Hinata-chan, you can't let your Father run you like that. You have to make your own way through life, that might be part of the reason he sees you as weak. You have to stand up to him and show that you can defend yourself if need be. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"H...Hai. You're saying that I should be my own person instead of letting everybody run my life." Gohan nodded and gave her a thumbs up.
"Bingo! You're a lot like me Hinata, you just want everybody to approve of you so you do everything that everybody tells you to do, and it overwhelms you doesn't it?" She lowered her gaze sadly, which was all the answer Gohan needed. Gohan used a finger to lift her chin up so that she was looking him in the eyes. "Those people who won't accept you for who you are don't matter Hinata-chan. You don't have to do anything but be yourself to make me happy, and I'm sure your friends and Sensei would agree. Now, do you want to know if there is life on other planets?" Hinata looked at him curiously for a moment, but hesitantly nodded. "Are you ready for such an answer right now?" She was now beginning to look confused, wondering what he was getting at, but decided to play along and nodded again. "Well the answer to that is yes, there is life out there on other planets. I know, because I've been out there." He gestured widely out at the sky. "There are many different alien races out there, some of them are friendly, but others are evil." Hinata had an odd look on her face, as though she couldn't figure out what he was saying.
"Y...you mean, you've really been out...there?" When he grinned widely and nodded, Hinata's jaw looked like it was going to hit the floor. "B...but how?" Gohan chuckled at her astonishment. While it was clear that Earth technically didn't have very good space travel technology, it seemed that out here in the shinobi nations it was nigh unheard of.
"Well, actually we first used the spaceship that my Sensei came to earth in, because he's an alien himself. After we got there though, our ship was destroyed and we had to use the ship that my Dad used to catch up to us in." For a moment, Hinata was entirely speechless but after a few moments she found her voice and was able to let Gohan know how impressed she was.
"Th...that's amazing Gohan-kun!" Gohan took on a serious expression, which calmed Hinata down a bit.
"Now Hinata-chan, I need you to promise me that you won't tell anybody else what I've just told you. This needs to be just between the two of us, okay?"
"Okay Gohan-kun." She didn't really understand why he wanted it kept a secret, but she silently vowed to herself that she'd never betray Gohan's confidence. Who knows, maybe he'd eventually tell her more about himself. She found herself hoping he would, as he seemed to have been through some interesting experiences. For a while, they sat there in silence, just enjoying each other's company and the view of the night sky. After about half an hour though, they both agreed that it was time for them to get some sleep, so Gohan walked Hinata home and returned to Iruka's house where he quickly changed out of his clothes and got into bed to enjoy a peaceful night's rest.
Sorry folks, but unfortunately in the last week or so I've gone from working 40 hours a week to 60 hours a week and that's going to cut into my writing time as i'll be quite tired most of the time. Do not fret however, as I do not intend to quit just because of that, it just means that things are going to slow down more than usual.