Hmmmm...Not sure if I should be making another story when I'm already working on two as it is but the ideas for this one won't quit screaming at me to be let out lol. Anyways, this is going to be a Dragon Ball Z/Naruto crossover, which is something that I've never seen on this site. Oh yeah, for the DBZ characters this takes place about a year and a half after the Cell games and Gohan has kept up with his training. Also, for the Naruto characters this will take place when Naruto is helping Jiraiya look for the new Hokage after the Chuunin exams.

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or Naruto (Note: This covers all chapters as it's much too troublesome to make a disclaimer for every chapter.)

He hated doing this, but she'd given him no other choice. He knew that she had his best interests at heart, but there's no way he'd be able to live with himself if he were to just give in to what she wanted. The torch of "world's savior" had been passed on to him a year and a half ago and he now had too much responsibility to waste all of his time studying. Not that she would ever allow herself to admit such a thing. Her son, after all, was destined to be the greatest scholar this world has ever seen...even if it did mean the world had to blow up because of it. Well, he'd decided enough was enough. He'd been training for the last eighteen months, but it just wasn't enough. His mother was just too overbearing, especially since Goten was born. He took a second look at the note he'd written before coming downstairs.

Mom,

I'm sorry to have to do this but I'm going on a little trip. I don't know where I'm going or for how long I'll be gone but please try to understand that I don't have any other options. I need to get some training in and I just can't do it with you making me study all the time. I don't mean to sound disrespectful but when Dad died he left me with the responsibility of protecting Earth, and that's not something I can just ignore just because you want something else for me. Please don't think I'm being rebellious, I'm just doing what I have to do, but I'll understand if you get mad. Don't worry though, I'll make sure to do some studying to stay sharp. I know you're going to want to try and get someone to come looking for me but please don't do that, this is hard enough for me as it is. Tell Goten I love him, and I'll be missing you both.

Love, Gohan.

Gohan sighed and taped the note to the table. He hefted the backpack he'd already prepared onto his back and headed for the door. He stepped out into the darkness of the early morning and shut the door behind him, then turned around and took one last look at his home before taking off towards Kami's lookout at a leisurely pace.

After about half an hour of flight Kami's lookout came into view. Mostly Gohan had come here to give Korin a visit and hopefully get some senzu beans for his trip, but he figured he'd stop by and give Piccolo and Dende a visit first. He flew up past Korin's tower, seeing Korin watering one of his latest crops of beans and Yajirobe sitting back and snacking on something. Gohan landed on the lookout and immediately saw Piccolo meditating near some of the trees and started towards him. Piccolo sensed his approach and stood up, taking a good look at the young man. He hadn't seen Gohan since the day that Mirai Trunks returned to the future and noticed some changes. While he wasn't quite a man yet, he'd lost a good portion of the baby fat off his face, narrowing it some. He'd also grown a bit taller, though he still had a good ways to go before he'd be fully grown. One thing that hadn't changed though was his clothing. He noted with pride that Gohan still wore the purple gi and cape that he'd given him prior to the Cell games. Piccolo gave Gohan a small smile.

"Hey kid, what's up?" Gohan waved and returned his smile.

"Not too much. Just thought I'd stop by to see you and Dende before I left. Piccolo noticed that his voice had also deepened a bit, though it would probably go unnoticed to anyone with less sensitive ears.

"So, you've finally decided to get away from that mother of yours for a while?" Gohan chuckled at this.

"Yeah, but I feel kinda bad about it 'cause I know she's gonna be upset."

"Don't feel bad kid, you're only doing what you have to do. She'll understand someday."

"Thanks, Piccolo." His only response was a slight nod. At that moment, Gohan noticed Mr. Popo watering the plants so he called to him. Mr. Popo sat his watering can down and walked over to Gohan.

"Hello Gohan, can I help you with something?"

"Yeah. I was wondering if Dende was busy."

"Not at the moment. I'll go get him for you." As Mr. Popo headed into Kami's palace, Gohan sat down next to where Piccolo now hovered, having resumed his meditation. Several minutes later Mr. Popo and Dende emerged, Popo going back to watering the plants and Dende going to see Gohan.

"Hey Gohan, it's good to see you." He smiled. While Gohan hadn't changed much over the last three years, Dende had grown considerably and already had a more mature voice. Gohan blinked in surprise. Piccolo chuckled at this, having expected him to react like that, though it was more from the thoughts he was getting through their bond since he was still meditating. He decided to explain for the boy.

"We Nameks mature much faster during our teenage years than most other races do." This embarrassed Dende, causing him to blush.

"Looks like it'll be a while before I catch up to you then huh?" Dende laughed.

"Yeah. So, what brings you here Gohan? We haven't seen you in a while." Gohan chuckled nervously.

"Sorry about that. Mom keeps me busy studying all the time and I have to keep up with my training so I haven't really had any spare time. The reason I'm here is because I've decided that I'm going away from home for a while so I can get some decent training in and I decided to come see you and Piccolo before I go get some senzu beans." Dende grimaced.

"So we can expect an outburst from your mom then?" Gohan laughed.

"Probably. Sorry about that but there's no way I would've been able to do this if I'd waited until after she woke up."

"Don't worry about it." They just smiled at each other for a moment before Gohan broke the silence.

"Well, I guess I'd better be going. I want to try and find a good place to train as soon as possible. I'll see you guys later." Gohan waved as he walked towards the edge of the lookout and allowed himself to go into a free fall towards Korin's tower. As he saw the mystical cat's home approaching, he exerted his energy under him to slow his descent, eventually stopping in front of it. He floated over to the tower and landed behind a sleeping Yajirobe. A mischievous smirk crossed his lips and he snuck up behind the lazy samurai. He bent down and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, is that Vegeta? He looks pretty mad." Yajirobe awoke with a yell and was immediately down on his knees and shaking in fear.

"I'm sorry for cutting off your tail Vegeta sir! Please don't kill me." After a moment of silence Gohan couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. Yajirobe looked up and glared at Gohan. "What was that for?! You know that guy still scares me!" After a bit more chuckling, Gohan apologized.

"Sorry, i just couldn't help myself. You were just too peaceful." Yajirobe started grumbling about Saiyajins, but was interrupted.

"What's all that commotion Yajirobe? You know it's time for my catnap." Korin got up out of a nearby chair which Gohan hadn't noticed before and proceeded to chew Yajirobe out.

"I was trying to sleep too you crazy cat! But Gohan decided to come up here and scare me half to death. A guy can't get any respect around here."

"Maybe if you made yourself useful for once instead of just eating and sleeping all day you'd get some respect."

"What did you say?!"

"What, did your ears become lazy too? I said you're useless you lazy bum!"

"I don't have to take this from a cat! Especially one that needs a walking stick." Yajirobe stuck his tongue out at Korin and they glared daggers at each other.

"Well maybe you'd like to see just what this "stick" is good for!" He picked it up and began chasing after Yajirobe. Gohan just stood there watching for a few minutes before he decided that enough was enough.

"Uhhhh...Mr. Korin?" The cat stopped trying to clobber Yajirobe and for the first time noticed that Gohan was there.

"Well hello there Gohan, I take it that you need some senzu beans?" Gohan nodded.

"I'm going away for a while to train and I don't know what I'll find while I'm out."

"Alright, just give me a second and I'll have some for you." He walked over to where he grew the beans and came back with a small brown pouch. "I always keep a pouch of five hanging around just in case you guys need them."

"Thanks master Korin! I'd better get out of here though, I don't want to be here when my mom goes to see Piccolo and Dende to get them to look for me." Korin laughed.

"Yeah, your mom can be a real hothead can't she?"

"Yeah well if you ask me he deserves it!" This earned Yajirobe a lump on the head courtesy of Korin's walking stick. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For being an idiot! Now go make yourself useful and water the senzu!" Yajirobe walked over to the bean plants grumbling.

"Grouchy old cat. What makes him so special?"

"What was that?!" Gohan could see the fire in Korin's eyes and decided that now would be a good time to leave. He stepped over to the railing and took flight in a random direction. Flying slowly so as to enjoy the countryside view below him and the rising sun before him, Gohan flew on for a couple of hours before he looked down and saw a path that was leading to a split, so he landed at the split and read the signs. The path went to three different cities. He decided to go to Otafuku city, which was about 6 miles away. No sooner than he started walking than he heard a couple voices. He turned around and saw an older man with long white hair that reached down his back in a ponytail accompanied by a rather talkative blond boy. He waited for them to catch up to him, suddenly wanting someone to talk to. The older man noticed him and just looked at him.

"You lost or something kid?" Gohan pondered how to respond for a moment. If he'd really wanted to he could've just taken to the air and gotten his bearings that way had he gotten lost, but he really didn't want to scare any potential traveling mates away, so he said no, but that he didn't know his way around here all that well.

"Do you mind if I walk with you guys?" The older man shrugged.

"Whatever. Just don't get in our way kid. We don't have time to baby-sit you."

"You don't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself. Anyways, I'm Son Gohan, what are your names?" The older man opened his mouth to speak but was beaten to the punch by the kid.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha and the old man is Ero-Senin!" The older man's eye twitched and he bonked Naruto on the head with his fist. Naruto's hands immediately shot up to rub the quickly forming bump on his head. "What was that for?!"

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?!" He exhaled and cleared his throat. "Anyways, you can either call me Jiraiya or Frog Hermit."

"Alright. Nice to meet you guys." Gohan turned back around and they resumed walking. "So, you're his teacher?" Once again, Jiraiya wasn't given a chance to respond.

"Yeah! We're looking for a new Hokage for Konoha, but he said he's gonna teach me a new technique along the way." Gohan's eyes widened. This could be just what he needed for his training.

"So, are you guys martial artists?" They both gave him funny looks.

"You must be from pretty far away kid. We're shinobi."

"I see. Actually, I do come from pretty far away."

"So what's a kid like you doing so far away from home by yourself?"

"Well, I need to train and become stronger but I can't when I'm at home cause my mom wants me to study all the time. I managed to train a little bit here and there but it just wasn't enough so I took off for a while, which takes me to a question. I'd like to know if you'd train me as well. I'm a pretty fast learner and I know how to take care of myself if any enemies attack." Naruto instantly took to the idea.

"That'd be awesome! Can he come with us Ero-Senin?!"

"No! Since he's not a shinobi then he doesn't have any knowledge of chakra and I don't have time to teach him all of that! We've got a new Hokage to find and you want to learn that new technique don't you?"

"Jiraiya sir, could you give me a demonstration of this...chakra?"

"Well, if it'll make you realize how complicated chakra is, I guess I can show you. Naruto, you should pay attention as well because this is the technique I'm going to teach you. It's called the rasengan." The stopped walking and Jiraiya turned around to face them. He held a palm up in front of his face and formed a swirling ball of energy in it. He let it dissipate and turned back around. They resumed their walking. "Now then, do you really think you could learn something like that quickly enough without even knowing what chakra is?"

"Actually, I do. I can do similar things to that." He saw a medium sized boulder sitting off to the side of the road and stopped. He pointed his palm at it and with a bright flash of light the boulder exploded. Naruto stared at him in shock, but Jiraiya just looked at him in a contemplating manner. "It looks to me like chakra isn't too much different from ki.

"So you're a ki user huh? I haven't seen one of them in a long time. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let you tag along with us then."

"Ero-Senin, what's ki?"

"Well Naruto, as you know chakra is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. Well, ki is just the physical half of that. Ki and Chakra are very different in nature, as chakra can be used for many different kinds of techniques, where ki is mostly used as an explosive force."

"I also have some training with spiritual energy sir. My Dad taught me a technique called the Kaio-ken, which uses a person's spiritual energy to greatly enhance their abilities." Jiraiya stopped and gaped at Gohan in awe.

"The fist of the gods? I've heard of that technique but it was only supposed to be a myth. How did your Dad know such a technique."

"Well, that's something I'd rather not get into right now. My Dad died a year and a half ago."

"Hmmm...touchy subject is it?" Gohan simply nodded his head, but something was bothering Jiraiya. While it seemed that the boy was not being deceptive, there also seemed to be some things that he was withholding for some reason or another. Ah well, he'd find out sooner or later. The three went on their way with few words, not knowing that they were being watched from afar.

Farther away from the path, two figures wearing black cloaks with patterns of red clouds watched as the trio made their way to Otafuku. One of the figures, a grey man that resembled a shark, spoke.

"Perhaps you can fight him evenly, but I cannot. He's too strong."

"Yes. If we both fought him, we would both be killed. Or if we got lucky, we would kill him, but die with him anyways. Even with more men, the result would be the same." His partner, kneeling next to him, looked fairly normal save for his blood red eyes with three tear shaped marks in each one.

"His caretaker is a legendary Sanin, and judging from what that other kid they met up with just did, he may be a threat as well."

"Yes, but all strong opponents have a weakness." Neither one said another word as they wathced the trio fade into the distance.

Meanwhile, at the Son residence...

Chichi had woken up a bit late this morning, and was rushing to get breakfast started for Gohan when she realized that he wasn't up yet. This struck her as odd because no matter what he was always awake before she was, usually outside doing some kind of training until it came time for him to eat. This morning however, she hadn't heard so much as a yell coming from outside. She walked towards the front door and when she passed the table she noticed a piece of paper taped to it. She picked it up off the table but quickly wished she hadn't. Slipping the paper in her pocket she rushed to the bathroom and pulled her hair back into a bun, having not had a chance to fix it yet. She then hurried into Goten's room and snatched him out of his crib and ran outside.

"Kinto-un!" She called out to the legendary cloud and within moments it was there, waiting for her to hop on. She hurriedly jumped on and sat down. "Take us to Kami's lookout as fast as you can!" Within seconds the yellow cloud was flying towards the lookout at speeds rivaling the fastest supersonic jet.

It only took about five to ten minutes for them to reach the lookout and Chichi jumped off the cloud the second it stopped.

"Piccolo! Get your green rear over here now!" A few moments later a rather grumpy Piccolo came out of the palace to confront the chore he'd been expecting since Gohan had left.

"Woman! Don't come up here yelling like that! Have some respect!" Chichi didn't even bother retorting and stormed up to him and handed him the note that Gohan had left for her. Piccolo took it and looked it over for a moment before handing it back.

"I was wondering if he'd left you a note. That's just like him." Chichi narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"You knew about this?"

"Of course I knew, this was the first place he came to after leaving home." Chichi turned a dangerous shade of red and Piccolo knew what was coming next.

"You let him go?! What were you thinking?! This is all you fault! I always told Gohan not to hang around you and now look at what he's done!"

"Of course I let him go! Gohan's a young man who can take care of himself now! He doesn't need you babying him!"

"I'm trying to do what's best for him!" Piccolo laughed at her.

"Do you even care what's best for the boy? Do you even know what he wants? You've been so busy smothering him with studying that you haven't even noticed how unhappy he's been! Frankly I'm proud of him. It's about time he decided to do something he felt needed done instead of letting you crush him under foot with your dreams." Chichi growled at him angrily and stormed back over to the flying nimbus while trying to calm a crying Goten down.

"This is not over Piccolo, not by a long shot. You can count on Gohan not coming back here anymore."

"We'll see about that. That decision is for Gohan to make, not you."

"Alright Kinto-un, take us to capsule corporation." The cloud puttered in response and took off at top speed. Piccolo sighed exasperatedly.

"You know, it's times like this that I actually feel sorry for the boy." He said to no one in particular.

After about half an hour of flight, Nimbus finally arrived at Capsule Corp and touched down on the front lawn. Chichi hurried up to the front door and rang the doorbell. After about two minutes the door opened to reveal an irate Vegeta who glared at her.

"What do you want banshee? I'm in the middle of eating. He growled a little bit but turned around. "WOMAN! GET OVER HERE AND TALK TO THE BANSHEE!" He walked back into the house and disappeared around a corner. A few moments later Bulma appeared at the door and beckoned Chichi in. Bulma led her to the living room and they sat down on the couch.

"What's up Chich? You look stressed." Chichi wordlessly reached into her pocket and pulled out the note, handing it to Bulma. Her eyes widened in shock upon reading it.

"That's not like him."

"I know. I went to see that green beast Piccolo and he already knew about it. He didn't even bother trying to stop him from leaving! And then he had the nerve to try and tell me that I'm not doing what's best for Gohan!" Bulma merely nodded her head, pretending to agree with Chichi. Secretly though, she applauded Gohan for what he'd done. Everyone that knew the Son family saw how overprotective Chichi was of her firstborn.

"Well, I can try to get Vegeta to go look for him. From the way it sounds though, he's gonna make it difficult for anyone to find him."

"We can call those friends of Goku's. Let them make themselves useful for a change." Once again Bulma pretended to agree with Chichi. She wouldn't dare mention how those "useless" friends of Goku's had helped save the world before as that would only get Chichi mad. When she got like this, it was usually best to just go along with whatever she said for the sake of your ears and the ears of everyone within a few miles of your area.

"Oh Vegeeeetaaaaa! Could you come here please?" It wasn't long before Vegeta showed up, grumbling about women and keeping him from training.

"What do you want woman? I'm supposed to be training right now!" Bulma just rolled her eyes.

"It seems that Gohan has decided to run away from home for a little while to train." Vegeta just stared at the women for a moment before bursting out laughing.

"It's about time that brat did something! If he'd stayed the way he was he would've wasted away into nothing. A true Saiya-jin needs to train!" Chich was about to blow up at him but Bulma put a hand up to silence her.

"Yes well, you're going to help find him and bring him back." Vegeta's humored attitude suddenly vanished and was replaced by a scowl.

"You must be out of your tree woman! What's that brat have to do with me?!"

"Well," She said sweetly. "If you don't help find him, you're going to sleep on the couch for a week." Vegeta paled considerably at this. "You won't be looking alone, I'm going to enlist the help of some of the others." Vegeta growled.

"Bah! Do whatever you want!" With that he headed for the door, but stopped when Chichi called out to him. and took off upon stepping outside. He turned his head to see her.

"I want my boy back." The look she was giving him caused him to smirk.

"Very well then. This should make things interesting." Having said that he headed out the door and took flight.

"Isn't that a bit much Chichi? I mean, it's not like he's never coming back..."

"I don't care. It's easy for you to just say that because Vegeta's never died on you. It's hard enough losing Goku, but now Gohan?" her eyes welled up with unshed tears and her voice cracked. "I want my baby back." Bulma just pulled Chichi into an embrace and let her cry on her shoulder. After about five minutes she pulled away and sighed.

"Alright Chichi I'll go call the others, but I want you to think about something. Gohan feels that he has a very big responsibility on his shoulders now that Goku's gone, and judging from that letter it looks like he feels that you're holding him back from fulfilling that." She stood up, walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone. She dialed the number for Roshi's island and let it ring three times before it was picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Krillin. Listen, Chichi and I need your help with something."

Oh boy, seems Gohan is gonna have some trouble if he's found. The question remains though, will they be able to take him back without a fight? Read the next chapter to find out.