Gohan finally woke up after over twenty hours of sleep. The sun was hitting his face through the small window of the Namekian hut. He felt a little dizzy due to how long he had been asleep.
He stood up and rubbed his eyes. His vision was still somewhat blurry, but it would slowly get better. The first thing he noticed was that Piccolo was already outside, and if he had to guess, his master was probably meditating.
As he came out, he found the Namekian levitating but not meditating. Piccolo noticed that the boy was already up, but chose not speak until Gohan did so first.
"Good morning, Mr. Piccolo."
"Hey, Gohan," the Namekian turned to look at the boy. "Look what I found."
He put his green hand up and showed a little piece of a senzu bean in between two of his fingers. According to the half-blood's estimations, it was probably two thirds of a full bean.
"A senzu bean?" Asked the half-saiyan, already knowing the answer.
"Mhm. Seems we dropped it somewhere around here." He seemed unsure and confused. "I found it on the floor."
Gohan scratched his chin. "I thought Cell blew them up during the battle."
"Me too, but I suppose we got lucky." He threw it at Gohan, who caught it perfectly. "Here. Take it so your arm heals faster."
The boy stared at it for a few seconds. "Why don't we plant it?"
"We're not the cat. It won't grow."
"But if it happens to grow, we will have more beans eventually." Continued Gohan. "If I just eat it, we will completely run out of them for… possibly forever."
Piccolo closed his eyes and thought about it for a while. The kid was right, and his Kami side agreed on the idea. However, the chance of the bean actually growing were very slim, and the chances of Gohan's arm not healing properly were bigger.
"We have to find a doctor for your arm, then."
"That's…" Kakashi stood amazed by the size of the crater left by the supposed demons.
Sakura could only gulp at the sight of it. She was starting to get scared of their mission, and the prospect of it being even worse than the Land of Waves became more realistic. As for Sasuke, he was deep in his thoughts, carefully analyzing the situation, but with no conclusions yet.
Naruto was squinting at the crater. "There is no way anyone could survive that. Are you playing with us, old man?!"
The silver-haired jounin turned to his student. He spoke with a passive-aggressive tone. "Don't be disrespectful, Naruto."
The pinkette was the one to hit him in the head, though the jounin would have also loved to do so himself.
"It's certainly impressive that anyone could come out of this alive." Admitted Kakashi. "But I assume once we see the arm we'll be convinced. Right, Naruto?"
The blonde boy was still rubbing the bump on his head when he nodded in response to his master.
The old man led the group to the outskirts of the town. It was hard to even call it a town when it was so big. The buildings were humble and traditional, but the streets seemed endless and they were always filled with plenty of villagers and merchants.
As they reached the ends of the streets, they were approaching a forest. It was dark and dense, but their destination was just before it. The old man stopped at a small wooden temple, not very well made nor detailed in its architecture.
A group of five men wearing rags stood just outside of it, though the voices of many more could be heard coming from inside. The smell of the place was also strong, given the excessive amount of incense that was being used.
Naruto covered his nose, and his teammates followed. The jounin seemed unfazed by the smell, and so did the old man.
"Here it is. They've already finished the temple, it seems." The old man said, pointing at the building. "If you go inside, you'll find the arm. It's possible they're currently worshiping it."
"You won't come with us?" Asked the man with the face mask.
"It's better if we avoid unnecessary disputes. Saves time for both of us."
The jounin nodded before beckoning his students to follow him. He casually walked past the five men standing outside the temple, and then entered the temple as if it was his own house. His nonchalant entrance called the attention of all the worshippers, who turned around to look at the strangers.
If they had not been wearing their hitai-ate, it's very possible they would have been attacked. The uniform of a jounin was also something that still caused fear and respect to the commoners.
Kakashi pushed a few worshippers out of the way, trying to look at the arm. His single visible eye snapped open as he finally caught it on sight.
It was green, and had some pink and red parts over its muscles. That was no human arm, not even an animal arm.
Sakura gasped as she saw it, while Naruto's jaw fell to the ground. Sasuke simply walked out of the place in disbelief once he witnessed it with his own eyes.
"It's… An actual demon?" Sakura asked, turning to look at her master.
Kakashi could only curse his skepticism and that of the village. If these demons turned out to be real, the mission could easily become S-ranked. A threat that not even he alone could deal with.
He gulped, and then beckoned his assigned genin to follow Sasuke and leave the place. Once he himself came out, the old man questioned him with his glance.
"It seems like we are indeed talking about a demon." Kakashi reluctantly admitted. "Which leaves us with a dilemma, my Lord."
"What would it be?"
"We might have underestimated the stakes of this mission. My students here are very inexperienced, so we might not be able to deal with the threat ourselves." He put his hands on the pockets of his pants. "If that were to be the case, we will have to go back to Konoha, and an elite team of jounin will be sent here to deal with the threat instead."
A scientist placed her cup of coffee on her table. If she had been using disposable cups, then her desk would be completely filled with them. The night had been long, but she was very close to her final objective and could not simply stop working. She would not let herself stop.
The room was dark, with a single fluorescent lamp illuminating it. The light of it only revealed the middle of the room, in which stood a big machine. Her desk, with her computer and mess of papers, was on a corner, away from the strange metallic structure she had presumably built.
Her clothes were dirty as well. Some brown stains of coffee were spread across her blouse and lab coat. Being so focused on work had also meant she had not changed her clothes in several days. Her hair, a mix of gray and blue, was greasier than she would normally let it get.
She pressed one final key before letting the computer run a series of estimations and equations. She drank her coffee anxiously while carefully following the operations. It took around half an hour, given the high complexity of the calculus. After all, even her father had been unable to find the solution for that problem while he lived.
The computer released a beeping noise as it reached a positive result. Bulma almost spit the last sip of her coffee out. Her eyes snapped open as the computer had finally not given errors in the process.
That was it. She finally got it.
She jumped and cheered before running to the door that marked the exit of the room. She ran across the hallway and then upstairs, reaching another hallway within her usual home at Capsule Corp.
She almost jumped out of the window, but decided against it. Instead, she yelled towards the yard of the building, in which a bald man was training alongside a scarred man and two little kids.
"I think I got it!"
"Huh?!" Yelled the man with a scar on his cheek. He scratched his short spiky hair, visibly confused. "Really?"
"Yeah! I'll schedule the test for Monday!" The two kids turned around as well, wanting to know what the adults were talking about. "Make sure to tell Chi-Chi, Krillin."
"A-alright." Replied the bald man nervously.
"Will Goten come?" Asked one of the kids.
Bulma had already turned around to go back to her lab, but was still close enough to hear. "Probably!"
Shorter chapter, but I prefer that than artificially making it longer.
The mission starts next chapter!
Also a little note about the final Bulma scene: Bulma scenes like this will pop up from time to time, but don't expect them to be very frequent. It's all build up for later on in the story. For now, though, don't worry much about them.