Bargaining with the Wolf
Naruto and Sasuke are on the run, Sasuke looks behind them with his Sharingan and says, "He's gaining on us!" Naruto blurts out a question, "Who is he?" Sasuke says, "I don't know but he's fast." Sasuke looks forward and says, "He might have been watching us the whole time." Sasuke takes one more glance behind before realizing his pursuer is gone, he stops Naruto and says, "Where'd he go?" Naruto responds immediately, "Did we lose him?" Suddenly Sasuke feels something hit him from behind, knocking him forward. He also hears Naruto yell out, the second he touches the ground he jumps back to his feet and turns around only to see Naruto face down on the ground while his arm is pulled behind him by whom he assumes is their pursuer. Naruto yells angrily as their new adversary forces his face to the ground, muffling him.
Sasuke bit his lip as he realized he was in a hostage situation; their new enemy was a man with long black hair and black eyes. He wore a green and orange martial arts gi with a symbol on his chest He wore purple and red wrist braces and shoes as well as orange pants with brown ankle cuffs. Lastly, he wore an orange cloth around his neck that went part way down his back. He said, "Now isn't this interesting, I didn't think I'd find Leaf Shinobi all the way out here, and for them to be just a pair of kids." Sasuke was in a difficult situation, one which Kakashi once used as an example of how being a Ninja is no lighthearted affair. Sasuke bit his lip out of frustration, and suddenly the man said, "Despite how things look, I'm not your enemy."
He then glances at Naruto and then back at Sasuke, he says, "All I want is for you to answer some questions. I'm only doing this because I was worried you two would just attack me if I tried this any other way." The man then said, "I also want to make it clear that me chasing you, that was a risk. I can't track that brat anymore after what he did to the car. Then I notice you two spying on him, just like me." He then made them an offer, "If you come with me to my camp, we can discuss that monkey tailed brat and come to an understanding and maybe we both can offer something that will make this setback worth it." With Naruto as his hostage and being offered potential information on Goku, Sasuke raised his hands and said, "Fine, so long as you keep your end of the deal and release Naruto." Yamcha then paused for a moment and then let go of Naruto who immediately pulled his face off the ground and started coughing up dirt. As Naruto recovers from that experience, the man takes out some Dino caps and brings out a flying car.
Hesitantly Naruto and Sasuke go with the man to his camp and soon they start talking amongst themselves. Sitting at a camp, that's when what's left of Team 7 explains everything about their mission from the collector who has hired them to collect the Dragon Balls all the way to their fight with Goku and Sakura's disappearance afterwards. Yamcha scratched his chin as he pondered the information he was just given. As he does this his companion Puar gives everyone some tea. Yamcha thought to himself, "I doubt this collector knows about the Dragon Ball's true purpose but their story about having them all stolen from him doesn't add up."
He glances at the two ninja and thinks to himself, "They don't seem to know anything about the ball's powers either." He finishes his thoughts, "That's for the best, I don't need more competition and I need them to be cooperative." He then says, "All right you came clean and now so will I." Yamcha explains that he was a desert bandit who tried to rob Goku and his friends. Goku beat him but only after Yamcha discovered he was the grandson of Son Gohan. This is when Sasuke interjected, he asked, "You mention Gohan like he's some celebrity. I remember my mother talking about him one time, but I can't remember what she was saying at the time." Yamcha immediately elaborated, he said, "Son Gohan is a master martial artist, strong warriors of the west. He is the star pupil of Master Roshi, who is also a well-known martial artist, having been given the title "Strongest under the Heavens."" Yamcha then said, "That old man you saw that destroyed that mountain, that was Roshi. It's no surprise Goku impressed him if he's directly related to Gohan."
Yamcha continues his tale by saying he tried to beat Goku, calling him by name, a second time but it didn't work. Overnight however he heard they were searching for the "Dragon Balls" and Yamcha tells them that they are valuable and that all he wants now is to get them. Past that all he says is that he gave them a car with a tracking device in them and was using that vehicle to track them.
Yamcha then says, "However since you two have a tracking device we could catch them at any time all we need is a plan." Naruto repeated that word, "Plan?" Naruto then asked in an uncertain tone, "Do you plan on helping us?" Yamcha then smiled and said, "Actually you are the one helping me, here's the deal. You two want to get little Goku to tell you what happened to your friend, and I want the Dragon Balls." Sasuke then said, "You also know we need those balls for our mission, we can't give them up." Yamcha then said, "That's fine, all you have to do is give them to him, afterwards I can steal them back, after your mission is done. I get the balls and your mission is already complete, it's a win-win situation." Naruto raised his eyebrow wondering if Yamcha can be trusted, he himself admitted to being a bandit after all. Sasuke interjected saying, "Fine." Naruto yelled out of surprise, "Sasuke?" Sasuke immediately replied, "Sakura is more important than our mission, even if he doesn't hold up his end of the bargain, I'm sure Kakashi will understand if we fail this one."
Naruto thought for a moment but said, "Alright, for Sakura." Part of Naruto was happy Sasuke said this. For the past few days, he had wondered if he cared for Sakura at all with how calm he had been acting. It was nice to see his stoic rival prioritizing Sakura's safety. Sasuke then looked at Yamcha and said, "But don't expect us to give up on our mission after Sakura is safe." Yamcha put his hands in front of him in a gesture to calm Sasuke and said, "I know, I know." Sasuke then shifted topics, "If you're talking about a plan then does that mean you have something in mind?"
Yamcha then smiled and said, "As a matter of fact I have a plan that will guarantee us a victory over Goku." Naruto immediately spoke in a surprised voice, "What makes it a guarantee?" Yamcha then said with vigor in his voice, "I found out his weakness." Sasuke scoffed and said, "How did you do that? We've been watching him for a few days, how did you find out and if it's true then why have you bothered with getting our help?" Yamcha immediately replied, "I know because he said it himself and I'm getting your help because it will make exploiting his weakness easier." Naruto chimed in saying, "What is it then?" Yamcha immediately denied this request, "If I were to tell you then what guarantee would I have that you two wouldn't decide to run out on me? After all you two have a way to track him, this piece of information is my only leverage I have left in this partnership."
Sasuke paused for a moment before saying, "Fine, but this plan had better work. Our teammates' life depends on this plan of yours." Yamcha, having finally convinced them, shook their hands and they soon took them to his sky car and flew off in Goku's direction using Team 7's Dragon Ball Tracker.
Before leaving Yamcha thought to himself, "Good thing that worked out, with them helping me I won't have to worry about what they have planned, and I could take the balls when they're busy getting that info out of Goku. Though it's hard to believe Goku would have anything to do with a kidnapping. Maybe they'll figure that out during their talk with him."