Chapter 4: Progression

-The Very Next Day-

"Konohagakure Shinobi," the Sandaime began formally, keeping the shaking from his voice. "A few hours ago, Hound entered the Uchiha compound to investigate a report of suspicious activity. Upon arrival, it was discovered that the entire Uchiha clan has been... slaughtered." The collective gasps almost outnumbered the disbelieving stares. Nobody could have managed such a thing; the Uchiha were arguably the strongest clan in the village, many of their members possessing the Sharingan. There was only one group that might have been able to manage it, and even then...

"The culprit," the Sandaime continued, gripping the edge of the podium with such ferocity that the wood splintered around his fingers, "Is Uchiha Itachi."

Silence. And then an ensuing inhale.

"There was only one survivor, one we assumed was left out of pity or attachment. Uchiha Sasuke has been placed in protective custody with Ibiki and will be questioned as soon as he is awake. Itachi is being placed in Konoha's Bingo Book as an S-Rank missing-nin as we speak. He is not to be trusted, and any and all information concerning him is to be surrendered to myself or Ibiki. That is all."

The Hokage turned sharply to slowly retreat into the shadows, tailed by several ANBU and his advisors.

-Three Years Later At Kame Island-

36 months had passed and Goku and Krillin had continued to do their daily routine, except with one-hundred fifty pound turtle shells on their backs and a much harder routine. Roshi had avoided training them in any way other than telling them to do their routine, spar if they want, and that they weren't quite ready to learn anything "more advanced."

"Man, I wish Master Roshi would teach us something new now," Krillin complained after two years of the same training.

"At least the training hardly tires us now," Goku commented. "It must be doing something. But you're right, I wanna learn more!"

"You do have a point," Krillin admitted. "I just don't want my fighting skills getting crappy."

"Well then let's spar!" Goku suggested. "I wanna see how much better I am compared to last year."

"I don't know," Krillin said still remembering how decisively Goku had beat him the last time over half a year ago.

"C'mon, you can do it," the Saiyan said. "I'll wear the shell if you want."

"But then you'll get destroyed," Krillin responded. "I guess I'll keep my shell on too."

"No, let's both drop em," Goku said, grinning in anticipation to the spar. "Let's go!"

Krillin dropped his shell and charged at Goku with a speed that he'd previously never knew he had. The monk shot a fist out at Goku's head, but the young Saiyan managed to move out of the way at the last second. Krillin was very surprised at how much faster they were compared to the last time they went at full speed.

Unfortunately, his moment of surprise was interrupted as Goku's fist shot into his stomach. Krillin doubled over from the blow, and then he shook off the blow to the stomach and blocked an incoming fist that was aimed towards his head. Krillin then proceeded to go on the offensive with a sweeping kick of his own in an attempt to take the feet out from under Goku.

The young boy jumped over the attack and back flipped out of range of the next punch headed towards his body. Goku then shot forward at Krillin with an uppercut aimed at the boy's jaw, but Krillin put an arm in front of the blow, deflecting the arm down and to the side. The monk took this opportunity to shoot a fist into the young Saiyan's stomach causing him to double over. A small drop of spit shot from his mouth and landed on the white tank top he wore. Krillin went on another onslaught, but the palm-haired Saiyan was ready, catching his friends high speed fists and then kneeing him in the chest.

-With Roshi-

Roshi watched the spar from the porch of the house. He knew the day would come when Goku would need to do more than just physical endurance exercises. The boy was impatient and felt the need to be the best he could be as soon as possible. Goku wasn't likely to lose his drive to train as long as there were new heights to be reached. And Krillin wasn't likely to beat Goku if they trained the same amount. Roshi continued to watch the fight, and he decided that they weren't quite ready for the super advanced training. He'd let them train on their own if they wanted. If they got strong enough doing that then he'd start instructing them on more of the advanced techniques of the Kame style. Which he felt would be extremely soon, sooner than he would've reckoned.

-Six Months Later-

Six months passed as the boys continued to train. Goku stood alone near the beach after their daily routine. He wasn't winded from the workout anymore, which he had to admit was amazing, it was just a warm up to him and Krillin now. He knew he was much stronger then he'd been when him and Krillin had started the training three and a half years ago. He and Krillin had also both been sparring every afternoon after their workout for the past six months intensively. Today Goku had decided to postpone the spar and work on controlling his energy, yearning to learn or do a legitimate ki attack.

With great concentration, Goku accumulated unstable, cerulean ki in his right palm. "HA!" He called out, not knowing what to name his attack, launching the weak cannon of energy into the ocean, sending multiple appreciable-sized ripples throughout. Though it was certainly progress to him, it wasn't anywhere near the level of Master Roshi's legendary Kamehameha Wave. Speaking of that...

"KAAAA… MEEEE… HAAAAA… MEEEEE… HAAAAAA!" Goku shouted as he sent his own Kamehameha Wave into the ocean, making far greater waves in the ocean than before, making the boy sweat bullets from exertion. His grasp of Ki control was sub-par at best, proof was that simply two Ki blasts took plenty of effort to execute, and they both still had lackluster results.

"Very impressive," a voice said from behind him. Goku turned to see Master Roshi standing behind him. "Want some instruction?"

"I think I've got it down!" Goku claimed, a grin plastered on his face. "It was pretty easy to learn and do."

"You may have learned to perform the move very quickly," Roshi said, "but you aren't nowhere near having mastered it yet."

"How's that?" Goku asked, puzzled.

"You need to learn how to put more of your energy into it with less effort," the master replied. "Try holding the energy and putting as much of your energy into it as possible before releasing it. That will build your endurance faster and let you make stronger Kamehameha Waves. And learn to control your energy output as well to make your attacks more efficient."

"Why do you wanna train me now all of a sudden?" Goku asked with curiosity. "You've never been doing this before."

"I didn't think you two were quite ready," Roshi said. "Now I think you both are."

"Alright then, let's do this!" Goku said, cupping his hands together at his side, going through the same motions. "KAAAAAAA… MEEEEEEE… HAAAAAAA… MEEEEEEE…" Goku said as he gathered the blue energy in his hands. He continued to push more energy into his hands until he thought he had no more to give.

"HAAAAAAAAA!"

He finished as he let the much larger Kamehameha Wave go out into the ocean, creating a much larger ripple and making even greater waves in the sea.

"Very good," Roshi said. "I'm amazed you've managed to channel so much energy into it so easily. It took me nearly fifty years to master that move."

"It was nothing," Goku said, panting even more at the exertion of ki. "I really need to work on it more, don't I?"

"Of course my boy, it's the only way to improve. Now, if you do as many of those as you can everyday, you'll be able to do more and more, waste less energy, and get stronger," Roshi explained. "Now to work on your reflexes."

"How do we to do that?" Goku inquired.

"Well," Roshi responded. "Since you seem to like to spar so much I figured we'd get your reflexes tuned by having you spar against someone much stronger than you."

"Heck yeah, let's do this!" The Saiyan exclaimed as he undertook the Kame fighting stance. "You've been owing me a good spar for three years Master!"

"Wait a second," Roshi said. "Krillin," he called.

"Yes master," the monk said running over from where he'd been quietly meditating. Since he'd seen Goku use energy waves, he was determined to duplicate the move as well with just as much efficiency.

"Come over here," Roshi instructed. "You two are going to both spar against yours truly."

"Alright let's get on with it," Goku said, tensing up. "I'm ready to fight."

"Right," Krillin said also getting into a stance. "Get ready Master!"

The two boys both charged at the old master, throwing poorly coordinated punches at the old man's head. Roshi easily ducked Goku's punch and casually sidestepped Krillin's. However, that wouldn't mark the end of the attempted onslaught as the two boys kept coming at the old master. Yet Roshi proved himself to be too good, as he continued to block the uncoordinated attacks without much of hassle.

Goku continued to throw kicks and punches at the old master, but Roshi still managed to stay ahead of the blows, even with Krillin attacking him at the same time. He then realized that to beat their master they had to work together as a team.

The young Saiyan saw Krillin throw a left hook at Roshi out of the corner of his eye. Goku shot a foot out as quickly as he could, catching the master in the head with his kick as he dodged Krillin's punch. Roshi went staggering back from the blow, but he quickly recovered as expected.

"Very good," the master said. "You're starting to get it now. But now I'm going to quit going easy on you."

With that Roshi charged at his two pupils. First he threw a punch at Goku that the boy managed to block with great difficulty. At the same time, Krillin came in with a kick aimed at the old man's stomach but Roshi managed to block just in time, returning a punch to Krillin's gut for the boy's trouble. Goku came in behind the old man with a left hook at Roshi's head while he thought the old man was distracted, but received an elbow to the face for his troubles too. The Saiyan then shot up almost immediately and grinned, still eager for more.

Now this was the kind of fight he'd been waiting for!

He charged back into the fray and started throwing kicks and punches savagely at Roshi while Krillin did the same from the other side. Roshi managed to stay ahead of almost all of the blows, but even he couldn't block or dodge them all. To the old master's credit though, he dealt out much more blows than he'd received whilst still holding back.

Goku continued to throw kicks and punches at the old master, but he knew that even his endurance wasn't infinite. As if on cue, Roshi went on the offensive and drove a fist into the boy's stomach, doubling him over and making him lose breath. Without wasting a second, Roshi shot his knee up catching Goku in the chin, sending him flying up into the air. Roshi evaded an incoming kick from Krillin and jumped up, catching the palm haired-Saiyan with an axe handle sending him flying into the sand hard. Seconds later, he turned his attention to Krillin. He sent a kick at Krillin's head, sending the boy flying into a rock formation.

The old man shot to follow the monk, but was interrupted as he was hit in the back of the head by a small yellow Ki blast. He turned to see Goku standing in his small crater with one hand covering his ribs and the other outstretched having shot the blast. The boy's white tank top was ripped a little, and he also sported a few scratches and bruises on his super durable skin.

"I'm not finished yet," Goku said, charging at the old man and throwing numerous kicks and punches at him. Unfortunately for him, Roshi dodged them all and returned several, pummeling the young Saiyan with blows of his own. Minutes later, Roshi landed yet another devastating blow to Goku's face and followed it with a roundhouse kick to the boy's ribs sending him flying to the ground once again in pain.

"No, Goku!" Krillin shouted, scrambling towards his master to try and stop his friend from taking a beating. Roshi turned to see his other pupil running towards him at full speed and sighed. The former monk attacked with great ferocity, but to no avail, his master being much too good for him and his fellow student.

Roshi then blocked his pupils follow up blow with a knee, and then flung him aside via a backhand with his left hand. Krillin caught himself with his hands on the sand and performed a back-flip to right himself. Kicking up sand and seeing his friend struggling to get up, he tried the only attack that might surprise his master; the Turtle Destruction Wave.

Kicking up more sand at his Sensei in a futile attempt to distract him, Krillin cupped his hands at his right side, charging the infamous attack. Just because he wasn't as strong or as gifted as Goku happened to be didn't mean he was his inferior, he still wanted to excel and prove his worth to everyone.

"KAAA...MEEE...HAAAA...MEEEE..." The former monk shouted, making azure Ki form in his cupped palms. This made Roshi have an alarmed expression on his face, not deterring Krillin in the slightest.

"No, stop Krillin!" He ordered, but it was drowned out regardless.

"HAAAAA!" The voice bellowed and a cerulean energy wave launching with it. Though it was very uncanny and weak, it went to show Krillin had made a vast improvement as well. Goku, seeing his friend needed help, got to his feet and cupped his hands at his side as well for a quick wave. "KA…ME…HA…ME…" he chanted as he put as much energy as he could into the wave aimed at the old man as quickly as possible.

"HAAA!" He shouted, sending the wave at Roshi to coincide with Krillins.

"You're still not at my level kids, Kamehameha!" Roshi chanted as he gathered energy of his own quickly and sent it flying at their combo beam, easily sending both beams back at the boys.

Abandoning his attack, Goku shoved Krillin and jumped back himself to avoid taking the full brunt of the attack. They were still hit with tremendous force though, causing an imminent explosion. When the smoke cleared, Goku and Krillin still stood, even though their clothes were even more worn and torn then before. The young Saiyan started forward, but quickly collapsed due to unconsciousness from the attack, having taken many wounds from it. By the time he hit the sand, Krillin already had his face imprinted on it, knocked out as well.

Roshi grinned. "I've still got it," he said to himself having beaten both his students with a minimal amount of effort. 'Though if Goku and Krillin keep this up, they'll definitely surpass me before long. If I don't wanna fall behind, I'll have to start training again to stay ahead of them. In my old age, I've only gotten weaker, and it's showing.'

-Two Years Later In Konoha-

"Prepare to lose, teme."

Naruto said, crouching into the fighting stances he'd picked up during his bouts with Goku, Hinata, and Sasuke. Over the past years, he'd been missing the former dearly, wondering what he was up to and how much stronger he'd gotten. While he had gotten progressively better with the fundamentals, he was still nowhere close to the best of his contemporaries.

Combined with his horrid academic performance and inability to do the Bunshin no Jutsu, and he was flirting with being ranked bottom of the class. Nothing changed.

"Dobe." Sasuke responded also falling into his own Uchiha fighting stance.

The boy had been mentally scarred for life after the fateful night over five years ago in the form of a massacre. Since then, he had never been close to the same. The Uchiha wanted nothing more than to avenge his clan and kill Itachi. His respect for the likes of Son Goku soured the moment he compared him to the likes of his older brother, he had to be the best in order to achieve his goal.

Unfortunately, he knew the quickest method to gaining more strength was to train with Naruto. He'd been training with Naruto every single chance he could to advance in his strength. While the skill gap was evident, the blonde was the only one able to endure his punishment. It would have to do.

Naruto rushed Sasuke immediately, his punch ready to be thrown. However, the Uchiha swatted his fist to the side and tried to punch him in the gut. Naruto promptly grabbed his fist and pulled the avenger in for a knee to the stomach, which was blocked by Sasuke's free hand. The two growled at each other before breaking apart to gain more clarity.

That moment quickly ended as Naruto rushed forward, his hand clearly wanting to strike the Uchiha in the chest. Sasuke twirled to the side, getting behind Naruto and attempting to lash out with a spinning hook kick, however Naruto turned in time and caught the kick with both of his hands, although it hurt.

Naruto growled. He was on the back foot. Sasuke jumped and span in midair, twirling his caught leg around in Naruto's grasp as he came in with a sweeping kick to the head. Both of Naruto's hands were preoccupied, and he was too close to dodge. Naruto was hit straight in the face, spitting out blood, and making him stumble.

He got his equilibrium back and then glared at Sasuke.

"Nice one teme, but let's see if you can stop this!"

Naruto charged Sasuke, cocking both of his fists back. Sasuke dodged both strikes, however Naruto wanted this. He clasped his hands on the back of the Uchiha's neck and brought him down into his knee, snapping Sasuke's head back, and forcing blood from his nose.

Sasuke stumbled and Naruto took advantage of it. Naruto grabbed his chin and pushed back on it, forcing Sasuke to the ground, however the young Uchiha span and kicked Naruto in the side, forcing him off of him. Naruto stood as Sasuke did, both looking at each other with a new light.

'Sasuke isn't invincible, but he's too damn good,' Naruto thought. While he didn't think he was, compared to all the other Academy students Sasuke seemed invincible.

'The dobe's getting better. Good, I need him to push me more,' Sasuke thought, before he crouched preparing to strike.

Naruto then blocked Sasuke's punch before attempting to slam his elbow into Sasuke's face. However, the raven haired boy avoided the blow and lashed out with a pushing front kick in attempt to push Naruto back. Naruto latched onto his leg as he was hit in the chest, dragging Sasuke along with him. They both tumbled over and shot up immediately, ready to go for another round.

"Damn you Naruto/Sasuke!"

-With Son Goku-

"Okay, this is the last day both of you are training here," Roshi started, earning confused looks from his proteges. "Goku, you have to go back to Konoha by order of the Sandaime, and Krillin, Kumogakure wants you back to join their shinobi forces. So to see how far you've both came, first thing that we're going to do is test your speed. Krillin, I take it that you'd like to be the first to run this 500 meter dash."

"Sure thing!" Krillin said, a smile plastered on his face as he reminisced the first day of training. He slowly walked over to the starting line while Roshi awaited him about a good one hundred meters away with a stopwatch in hands and Goku awaited at the finish line.

"Try to keep up with me."

"Go!" The old mentor instructed.

Krillin quickly exerted all of his speed, racing towards the tree where his fellow student stood waiting for him, his speed causing Goku's hair to flow wildly.

"Five point five seconds… a drastic improvement." Roshi said, praising the first of his pupils. "Alright Goku, you're up now."

Goku did as instructed and lined up directly behind the starting line, ready to measure his own growth in natural speed and power.

"Go!" Roshi shouted once more, signaling Goku to begin. Goku quickly charged off, closing the distance between himself and the tree at an astounding pace, dwarfing his former time from five years ago as well.

"Four point four seconds," Roshi smiled, not shocked by the vast improvement of the boy's speed. "Now, I bet that the two of you want to see how fast your old master can run this once again."

Roshi quickly performed his 500 meter dash, finishing the race at three point one seconds flat, leaving a stunned expression upon Goku's and Krillin's faces as their master swept past there speeds once more.

"Wow! You're even faster than you were last time," Goku commented, astounded by his speed.

"Now, towards the next test," Roshi said, pointing towards two 140 ton rocks.

"I want you to push these giant rocks until they're in front of me, and then destroy them with a ki blast."

And needless to say, with a good amount of effort, both pupils managed to pull it off, with Goku finishing it much easier due to his latent, Saiyan strength.

"Good, good. You've both improved to the point that the only thing I can do is give you some pointers, that's all. Because of that fact, the time has come for you boys to venture out into the world for yourselves now. I've trained you for five years and I'm proud to have called you as my students. You'll always be my pupils, but I've taught you everything I could and know. I know you'll both grow to do great things in this world. And I have gifts for you before you depart," Roshi stated, tossing out two boxes to his students.

Goku nodded, catching his and ripping through it with ease. He held up his new gi and smiled, it was the classic turtle hermit uniform with the Kame kanji on the back. Krillin received a similar gi, but his had no undershirt beneath it. They smiled wiht joy, slipping them on and moving around at a fast pace.

"I love it, check it out!" Goku stated, his Gi being orange in front with a navy tee-shirt underneath it, a navy belt, orange dogi pants, and navy boots with an orange line going down the center of the shoes. Krillin's outfit was an orange tank top with no undershirt, a navy belt, orange pants, and white socks with blue fighting shoes.

Both had gotten much taller, well mostly just Goku (around Cell Game's Gohan size) and lost much of their previous baby fat, replacing the majority with a more subtle, muscular frame. Or at least as much as you can get in a twelve year old body.

"These are simply amazing!" Krillin claimed, firing multiple consecutive punches in a few milliseconds then doing the same thing with kicks.

"Yes, they are," Roshi commented, his hands behind his back. "Your body should feel much lighter instead of having all those weighted clothes and turtle shells holding you back. And they're also much more resistant to damage than other clothes. Now, it's time for you both to leave this island and go see the world for yourselves. You boys have great potential and I hope too see you both progress later. Now get the hell off my island!"

"Oh and two more things," Roshi called out, regaining his pupil's attention. "A true martial artist doesn't fight to win — they fight to better themselves. Always remember these words: Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty! The Kame style is with you!

"Hai Master Roshi!"