Author's Note: I got on a Dragon Ball kick again so went back to an old story here. I wanna stress that some humans are so strong with barely any training compared to where we see Goku and Krillin start that well…it's wild. Yajirobe dicked around on a mountain fishing his whole life and had a power level that compared to Tamborine easily. Using the Karinga as an example their primary warriors without ki-manipulation techniques were bullet proof. What I'm saying is that Tien and Krillin and all of the crew should have been way less stingy on the recruitment way earlier than Tien starting his school for Super and the Trunks/Goten school AFTER GT. I partially blame this on the lack of World Martial Arts Tournaments after Piccolo and Goku blew up the original arena that final time in Dragon Ball.
Chapter 2: Kame School
Two weeks of paddling his canoe into his trip, Upa began to despair over how long it would take in such a slow vehicle to reach the Kame House where Master Roshi, the martial arts master who had trained Goku, resided. Thankfully Korin had given more specific directions than his previous best of 'some island in the middle of that archipelago'.
He had only just managed to round the bay and was now sitting to the west of Baseru City. The islands where the Kame House sat were still an entire continent away.
It was then that his extra strong senses from his minor ki-enhancement training with Korin picked up the sounds of gunfire.
Increasing his pace he paddled towards the sound, quickly coming upon a rusty fishing skiff with of all things gun emplacements pulled up next to what appeared to be a luxury yacht.
The gunfire was coming from on-board.
Leaping from his canoe onto the yacht, Upa raced towards the sound, which came from the main cabin.
He opened the door to find a luxurious suite, full of chandeliers and gilded furniture, and a group of pirates threatening a well dressed family. One of the pirates held a gun in the air, pointed up, he had obviously shot into the ceiling.
"Hey!" Upa called out, falling into a fighting stance, "Get away from them!"
Confused, the pirates turned to look at him. They were three armed humans and a beastman who looked like an angry doberman pinscher standing on his hind legs.
"Who the Hell are you, kid? Get outta here!" One of them waved a gun threateningly and that was all Upa needed.
Suddenly the gun crumpled and as Upa's form in his initial position faded from view the pirates could see him standing to the side of the threatening gunman, his hand crushing the pistol.
"I don't think these are necessary for you to retreat, do you?"
Gaping the pirate fell backwards onto his ass as the beastman lunged forward attempting a clawed hand strike.
Only to double over in pain that struck him faster than his eyes could realize Upa had moved.
"Leave. Now." Upa stated coldly.
"Y-yeah!" One of the other pirates stated as they quickly grabbed their fallen captain and dragged him out.
Turning to look at the terrified family, probably some businessman and his wife and kids out on a nice summer boat-ride from Baseru City, Upa held his hands up, "It's okay, you are all safe now!"
Shakily standing up the father grabbed his hand, shaking it vigorously, "Thank you, thank you so much! But uh…how did you do that? Who are you? And whatever can I do to thank you?"
"Ah! I am Upa of the Karinga Tribe quite a ways to the west. I am a martial artist on a training journey to find the great Turtle Sage, Roshi! I hear he lives very far to the east, and as for how I got here-OH NO MY CANOE!"
Rushing out of the cabin Upa ran up on deck to find that in the intervening minutes his canoe had drifted or capsized in the wake of the escaping armed fishing scow.
Luckily his important items were in his satchel, but he'd certainly lost most of his food rations.
The man came up behind him, "They got your boat?"
Upa nodded in disappointment.
"Well the least I could do is give you some food and my spare Capsule copter! I'm an advertising executive for Capsule Corporation so I'll get a nice discount on replacing it!"
Upa smiled and turned to the man, "You would really do that for me? Thank you so much, sir!"
After many thanks from both sides Upa shakily took off in the copter. He had occasionally flown the one very old model the tribe had when they had to send someone into town for medicine or similar resources they could not make themselves, but that model was very different from this one. At one point he pressed a button and a nozzle popped out of the dashboard and started attempting to dispense coffee for him!
Marveling at the modern technologies before him cut much of the drudgery of his remaining trip out. Early the next day he was in the archipelago where the Turtle Hermit was said to live. It took an hour or so of searching but eventually he did find the very flamboyantly designed cottage on an extremely miniscule island. Truly it was more like a permanent sandbar.
As he landed and returned the copter into its capsule form a short, shaven headed man strode out of the cottage, wearing a full orange martial arts gi.
"Hey!" He called, "You have business here with us?"
He did not drop into a fighting stance but the way he held himself said he was used to people showing up looking for trouble.
Instead Upa stood up rigidly and then bowed, "Hello! I am Upa of the Karinga Tribe! Long ago I and my father were saved by Son Goku and so now that I am old enough to be a proper warrior I have climbed Korin Tower and left my tribe to come here and ask for the same training that Goku received! This is the famous Kame Style Master's island correct?"
Krillin relaxed at this and, quite obviously having eavesdropped, an old man hobbled out of the house with a walking stick.
"Ohoho! If you have climbed the Tower then there is not much other than form and technique I could teach you, son! But…hmm…" The man looked him over with a severity that contrasted greatly with his laid back outward attitude.
"Krillin…I haven't been able to teach you much these last few years since the Twenty-Third World Martial Arts Tournament. Perhaps instead you should take the next step, and take a pupil on yourself! Train this boy up to join our school."
The bald man appeared taken aback at his master's words, "R-really? You want me to take an apprentice on?"
"You are more of a successor to the style than Goku is," Roshi explained, "He tweaks and steals too many techniques from other schools. You are more focused. Consider this a test, hahaha!"
The old man's guffaws undermined the seriousness of the rest of his statement.
Swiftly Krillin bowed to his master, "Thank you for the opportunity! I won't let you down!"
"Well get on with testing the kid, I've got an exercise routine to work on, hehehe!" The laugh had some kind of twisted edge to it that Upa could not pinpoint.
Krillin's attention quickly turned back to Upa, "Alright! You look and feel pretty fit. But those weapons you've got give me pause. The Kame Style doesn't really use weapons at all. Are you okay with me testing your abilities without them?"
Upa nodded vigorously, "Of course! I can train those skills on the side, and they are mostly for hunting and resource gathering anyways."
"Perfect! Now, can you use your Ki for anything other than reinforcing your body yet?"
Upa blinked, "Umm…is Ki the word for that life energy I feel? You and Master Roshi seem to have a lot more of it than me. Or my dad. Is that how Goku does that explosion thing?"
Krillin sighed, "Well I can't say I could do anything with it when I started, so let's just test your physical abilities and form."
He led Upa out to the beach area and fell into a combat stance. Upa, having left his gear over by the front door, fell into a similar stance. His tribe did have a little bit of unarmed combat technique, so he used that. Presenting Krillin only the side of his body, feet planted sturdily, and closed fists up, on in front of his body and one crossed over his midsection ready to block.
Krillin put him into the dirt immediately. But he got up, a bit shakily, but with resolve.
And he went down again, and again, and again.
But like with the Sage Korin Upa did better each and every time. He showed stubbornness and adaptability. By the end of a half hour of beatings Upa was getting his arms and knees up to block more than he was not.
Not that a block truly helped with the power disparity, but it softened the damage.
At the end of that half an hour Krillin called a stop.
"I really can't believe you put up with all of that Upa! I was going to start scaling things down, but when I saw the look on your face I wanted to see how far you could go! You're sturdier, stronger, and faster than I was when I started training with Master Roshi next to Goku! And it's obvious you have decent enough sensing skills, too. We can build on this! But let's take a break to get lunch and have you unpack and meet everyone! You still haven't met Oolong or Turtle yet. Yamcha and Puar will also drop by every once in a while so Yamcha can do a little training. He lives out with Bulma at Capsule Corps right now though. Launch is either on a crime spree or staying with Tien Shinhan."
Upa blinked rapidly at the quick fire exposition from his new master but nodded, "Thank you Master Krillin! Lunch sounds amazing!"
And so Upa's training at the Kame House began. The year Seven Hundred and Fifty-Nine was off to a great start for him.