A/N: Dragon Ball is owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Akira Toriyama. Will only be putting this at the beginning of arcs. Now, since you obviously don't want to read the disclaimer, onto the story!

Deep in the forests of Mount Paozu, within a small shrine like house, a small boy slept in his bed. However, it was not a restful slumber. The boy's head was caked in sweat, and he tossed and turned all over, whimpering in his sleep. Suddenly, his eyes shot open. He sat up, panting heavily as he scanned his surroundings. His onyx eyes softened slightly upon realizing that there was no danger, and his muscles relaxed.

The boy tossed off his blankets and climbed off his canopied bed. The boy stood, before staring at the gem his Master had left him before his death. The dream had come again. It had kept coming ever since his Master's death. He didn't understand why it kept coming, or why it kept troubling him so.

"How can a nightmare continuously fool me. It's disgraceful," the boy said to nothing. He sighed and grabbed his small red pole, tying it around his shoulder, before walking out the door to see the cut of wood he had dragged home in the dead of night before he had slept. It was not a big deal, he had just planned on cutting it later. But to this boy, it only served to remind him of his failures.

"I hate this!" he yelled, tossing the wood in the air, before kicking it dead in the middle, splitting it into even chunks that fell on the ground around him. I'm twelve years old! I should be done with this by now! Raditz was finished with his first mission by the time he was four! Yet here I am, no closer to finishing my mission then when I arrived! He screamed in his mind. Yet this world was obviously much more dangerous than the one his brother had encountered. That fact was obvious by the fact that he had a minder.

She wasn't around often, at least not since Gohan had died. Whenever she was there, she was always distant, and the most frequent thing he heard from her was, "when are you going to continue your mission, Kakarot?" She refused to teach him anything, and almost never answered his questions either. Whenever she looked at him, she looked sad. He hated it most because he knew she was his mother. All of the stories that Gohan had read him, or had in his collection, portrayed mothers as nurturing figures, not distant figures who were almost never around.

As Kakarot thought on this, he came across the apple tree that he often looted for food whenever he needed it. He grabbed an apple and started eating it. He absentmindedly wondered what he would eat today. It's not like there was much else to do. He didn't really live anymore, he just existed, and went wherever life bored him into. He didn't have a benchmark to see how strong he was, and so he just kept training. It was losing it's luster. Isn't that funny? A Saiyan getting tired of training. He tossed the core behind him, laughing all the while. I really have been here too long. Suddenly, an orange blur passed in front of his face. Kakarot let go of the branch, letting his tail flip him upside-down as he watched the tiger jump over him.

Well, I guess that's my lunch. He thought, letting go of the branch and dropping to the ground. He drew his power pole off of his back and readied it for the strike. The tiger lunged at him again. Kakarot sidestepped and slammed the pole into the back of the tiger's neck. A snap sounded through the air as the beast fell to the ground, unmoving. So, that's my meat for tonight. A bit lean, but it works. He grabbed his game and began the walk home.

-R&R-

Kakarot was almost home when he heard a loud whirring sound coming from up the dirt path. He looked in that direction, and saw a dust cloud coming toward him. He tried to move out of the way, but just as he was doing so, a large metal object collided with him, sending him spinning through the air, until he landed face first on the ground.

-R&R-

A girl with braided purple hair poked her head out the car, slightly freaking out. "Oh god, is he dead?!" she screeched. Brilliant job, Bulma. You go off on a quest to wish for a lifetime supply of strawberries and you end up killing a kid. She had started her journey in North City and traveled around the Eastern Part of the continent to get here and get the next Dragon Ball, and of course something bad would happen. It's just like Tights warned her, these kinds of quests often end up going bad for one reason or another! But then again, her sister always hung out with that weird alien cop, so it's- Bulma stopped once the boy stood up again.

Oh good, he's ooo-gaaaah! What is he doing?! The boy extended a red pole and swung at the car, sending it flying into the air before landing on its right side. The boy followed up by continuing to pound away at it with his pole. Not exactly in her right mind, Bulma grabbed her pistol and shoved her head out the broken window, firing as fast as she could at the wild child. The child crashed to the ground on his back before standing up again.

"What the hell was that?!" he screamed.

"You... you shouldn't be alive kid!" Bulma yelled back.

The boy smiled, before holding out his pole in front of him. "Your weapons are useless against my might. Now I shall end your existence right here, monster!"

"Monster?!" she screamed, tossing her gun through the air and waving her arms. Might not have been safe, but she wasn't really thinking right now. "I'm not a monster! I'm a human! Just like you!"

"Human?" he asked, mostly to himself. "But your hair..." he was interrupted by a loud bang. Her gun must have landed and gone off. Bulma sighed and climbed out of her car, landing on the ground.

"See? I'm not a monster, I won't bite." she said. The boy walked up to her and circled her. He stood on her right and lifted up her dress with his pole briefly.

"Shame on you! What do you think you're doing?!" she screamed, slapping away his pole.

"Checking to see if you had a tail. I didn't think you would, but it can't hurt to check," he said, as if it were obvious. She noticed he had exactly that. "My Master told me that if I met a girl that I should be nice, and not kill them."

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" she mumbled, slightly scared. "Is your Master around here?"

"No, he died a long time ago." he said, walking over to her car. "Oh, if you're not a monster, than this is probably a piece of technology used for transportation."

"Um... yeah, we call it a car." she replied deadpan.

"So, does that mean that you're from the big city?" he asked, curious.

"If you mean Orange Star, then no. I'm from West City, on the other side of the world." she replied.

"Great!" he grabbed his tiger by the tail. "Follow me! I'll give you shelter and some food, and we may discuss your city!"

She quickly pulled out her radar and pressed the button. The Dragon Ball was located not too far in front of her, so it was easy to infer that the kid was in possession of it.If I just follow him, I can easily take my third one. I'll have my lifetime supply of strawberries in no time! I'll show you, sis! I really can do this! She followed after the boy.

"So. We're having... tiger for lunch. What's on your agenda?" She asked, continuing to look around at the heavy forest around the path upon which they walked.

"Were you not paying attention? We can eat and discuss various matters. If you wish, you can watch my exercises, I am a bit of a Martial Artist." He explained, sounding incredibly bored, even closing his eyes and slumping when saying it. Oh right, that reminds me, I need to write Dr. Norimaki to thank him for the assistance in finding out these legends. The two walked in silence for some time, occasionally having to dodge roots laying around a road that likely hadn't been used in decades.

"Hey, kid. Do you have a name?" Bulma asked. It was always possible that this boy didn't have a name, many children that grew up far from civilization either don't have one or don't remember what theirs was.

"Daikyō Kakarotto, I'm not from this planet." Kakarot replied. "However, you may just call me Kakarot. What's yours?"

"Huh... me?" she asked. He nodded in affirmative. "Bulma." Then she thougth about what he said. "Wait, what was that about you being from another planet."

The boy stopped, as if realizing his mistake. He simply turned around and gave what he probably thought was a menacing stare. "I'm sorry, do you reveal your deepest and darkest secrets to someone that you just met?"

"Um... no," she replied. The boy nodded and continued on the path. The trees began to become fewer and the ground was getting lighter in colour, obviously more traveled upon.

"Nice name, by the way," Kakarot stated in deadpan.

"Hey! Bulma happens to be quite elegant!" No, it really isn't. I'm named after underwear; there is nothing elegant about that. "It's certainly better than Kakarot." That I do mean. After walking for several more minutes, the forest finally cleared into a beautiful field, with a small house in the middle that almost looked like a shrine. Firewood was neatly stacked off to the side of the door, and otherwise, there seemed to be very little around it. It was... actually rather nice. Out in the wilderness, away from all the hustle-bustle of the big cities... "Nice little house you got there, kid."

"Thanks," he replied, "it was my Master's." He looked at the house as if noticing something was off. "One moment." He dropped the tiger and ran over to the doors of the house, which he thrust inward. He stood there in the doorway, listening. Bulma looked around and saw a nice bed, several books, especially a large one in the middle that looked like it had lost most of the binding.

However, in the middle of the room, her eyes struck gold. Or, rather, orange. For in the middle of the room lay a Dragon Ball. A smile slowly made its way across her face. She quickly ran forward and picked up the Dragon Ball. Quickly examining it, she found it to be the Four-Star Ball.

"Oi!" Kakarot yelled, walking right up to her. "Put my Master's orange jewel back!"

"Orange Jewel?" Bulma asked, perplexed. Oh, he must mean the Dragon Ball. However, before she could voice this thought, he had snatched it away. He shot her a look of indignation. Bulma sighed and pulled out her two Dragon Balls from her satchel and placed them on the table. Kakarot looked even more confused than before. Resigning herself, Bulma began to tell him about the Dragon Balls.

A/N: I hope you enjoy this one! Remember to Follow/Favourite and Review! And I'll see you next time on Rhyme and Reason!

EDIT 13 March, 2018: Now edited by Ranma-sensei!