Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z, or Naruto. They are owned by Akira Toriyama and Masashi Kishimoto respectively. I do not claim to own anything in this story.

Raising their spirits, the two presenters of the somewhat known television show arrived in the plain warehouse via their usual methods. The camera crew was waiting, the director was keen to get this upcoming episode ready to be aired - it was only a matter of time until Piccolo and Kakashi gave the entire team an 'all-is-good' thumbs-up. When the gesture was received, the episode began.

"Hello, everyone. I am Kakashi Hatake of the Naruto series and this guy here is Piccolo of the Dragon Ball series," Kakashi started. "Welcome to the Piccolo and Kakashi on Theories show, where we discuss theories based on famous manga, video games, movies and TV shows. Last time, we talked about Lady Tsunade and Naruto Uzumaki being related, which Piccolo here found surprising."

Piccolo nodded, seemingly uninterested. "Yes, it came as quite a shock to me. Anyway, in this episode, we'll be diverging slightly from what our usual topics entail on. Instead of speaking about either of our series, we'll be talking about a certain long-lasting video game series that our director has wanted us to do for a good while."

"It's fast, blue; that's right, it's the Sonic the Hedgehog series. I don't mind Sonic, I just wish that the series had more quality games to overshadow the mediocre and bad ones."

"I wish that it didn't have to copy from my series so much."

Kakashi coughed, attempting to clear the tension created by Piccolo's statement. "So what is it about Sonic that warrants an episode based on it? Well, in one particular game released in 2008, called Sonic Unleashed, there were some changes made to the story during its development."

"The title of this episode gives this away. Knuckles and Shadow, two characters that the Sonic fanbase seem to appreciate, were planned to be involved in the game's story in some way, but there's only one problem. How would they fit into the story shown in the final game?"

"Well, we're here to answer that. Knuckles is a strange case, as he is the protector of the Master Emerald that rests upon Angel Island, keeping the floating land mass suspended in the air. Why would he go down to the surface and be involved with the Dark Gaia problems? There's a possibility that Sega may have retconned the Master Emerald and Knuckles' guardian position by this point, which would mean that the echidna would be available for use in Unleashed's story. But what would he be doing? I theorise that Knuckles, if he's no longer the guardian, would have encountered the Dark Gaia creatures and then have met up with Sonic. Maybe there could have been a rival battle between the two? It could work as a fun little distraction from the shattered planet crisis. From then on, Knuckles could assist Sonic in locating the Gaia Temples or at least help to keep the Dark Gaia monsters in check. That's what we believe he could do."

"Shadow on the other hand, is the easiest character to use, considering he's a nomadic hedgehog with no close friends other than a rampaging robot and a female bat. He would likely also be fighting against Dark Gaia in the similar vein that Knuckles would be, though there's something else about the game's early stages that suggests that these two would have had some larger role in the game's original plot, if there was one. The game was originally intended to be the third game in the Adventure series, but since Sega had implemented far too many features and aspects that made the game differ from Adventure 1 and 2, like the Boost gameplay, they decided to change the game's name and possibly the plot in order to make it all fit into the new direction they were taking."

"The Sonic Adventure series involves a cast of different playable characters, each with their own story. Since Unleashed was meant to be Adventure 3, it's possible that Knuckles and Shadow originally had their own stories. Maybe even Tails or Eggman had their own - obviously Sonic would have his own story, too. Maybe they all had their own playstyles at one point, but all of that was scrapped for what we got in the final product."

Kakashi looked to his side, while Piccolo stretched his neck muscles.

"To summarise, Knuckles and Shadow would probably have fought Dark Gaia by themselves and they probably had their own stories. That ends our episode on these two characters and their roles in Sonic Unleashed. Kakashi and I will see you next episode."

Standing up, the director called for the episode to stop there, satisfied with what the two had been talking about and the theories they put forth. Obviously, the two were great at memorising scripts.

Author Notes: I know I said I'd update another fic before uploading a fifth Piccolo and Kakashi chapter, but it seems that update is getting delayed. My friend, who is writing it, appears to be extremely busy in real life and can't get to his computer much, so that's why the update is taking a while. Until then, expect to see more Luster the Cat chapters and perhaps another One-Shot.

Next chapter starts a side-series of your suggestions, including What-Ifs, Theories and anything, really. Expect to see that coming at some point this month!

Also, this won't be released on Easter, so I might as well...Happy Easter, everybody!