Disclaimer: Own jack diddly squat.
Sorry if this chapter seems a little below my usual standard. I promise that the next on is much better.
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The laughter of a young child drifted over the heavily forested land close to the Son residence. Chichi, wife of the legendary hero of Earth, Son Goku, stopped her work in the kitchen to look out the open window at the speck that was dancing in the sky with more agility than any bird or plane. Though her face twisted into a frown, she couldn't help but feel proud of her son. After all, how many mothers in the world could brag that their kid had single-handedly saved the world from the threat posed by the freakishly powerful Android, Cell?
Now her eldest son was thirteen and was currently taking a break from his studies. Chichi would not have another Karate bum in this house! Gohan would get an education and be a productive member of society, dammit! She loved her husband dearly, but really, the man needed to get a job! Though that possibility had vanished at the Cell Games. She had found out about what had happened at that vile tournament. Goku had committed the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet from the newest threat to the Earth. It hadn't been enough though, and Cell had returned, greater and more terrible than ever. Her son had taken his father's place as the protector of the planet and killed the evil android in one final Kamehameha duel. Peace had returned and Chichi had suggested (more like bullied, but she would never admit that) that Gohan resume his studies.
High up, at the altitude that most aircraft cruised at, Son Gohan grinned his father's grin and cut his chi, allowing himself to fall out of the sky. He sent himself into a series of tumbles and spins that would have made any normal human pilot pass out. Gohan was anything but normal. In fact, he wasn't even pure human. He was a half Saiyan, because his father was a full-blooded member of that war-like race, and his mom was a normal human woman. He was just glad his dad wasn't an arrogant mean guy like Vegeta.
His face lit up at the sight of a cloud rushing straight up at him. The half-Saiyan cut his freefall and powered straight down, an aura of blue ki blazing into existence around him. The boost in power meant he could go even faster and he streaked down towards the airborne pocket of water vapor like a meteor falling through the sky. The cloud suddenly sprouted a tentacle as Gohan's passage blew the white object in half. The boy himself emerged from the tentacle, heading straight down at a speed approaching Mach 1. Seconds before he hit the ground, he stopped dead before flashing off in another direction, blasting through undergrowth and making hurricane winds that shook leaves and rattled trees for close to a mile to either side of him.
Chichi smiled as her son blazed out of the trees with a roaring wind right behind him. Gohan touched down, skidding from the tree line nearly fifty yards away right up to the front door of the house. She caught a glimpse of his windswept face before the front door opened and Gohan came in. The woman's face brightened as she heard Gohan's footsteps head up the stairs, followed by his bedroom door closing. Now there was a good boy. Going right back to his studies like a good boy.
Gohan listened at the door carefully, checking to see if his mom was coming up the stairs to see if he really was doing his homework. Nothing. Guess she wasn't going to come check on him. Good thing too. Bulma had invited him over to Capsule Corps to see a new invention she'd come up with. The inventor had promised that the demi-Saiyan had never seen anything like this before. The owner of the world's leading capsule manufacturer had called Gohan close to three months ago, asking him if he wanted to see the machine. He would have taken off during the flight he just had, but he knew that his mom would be timing him to the second.
The teen had quickly agreed and promised Bulma that he would come just as soon as he could. That had taken awhile because Chichi kept coming up to check on him whenever she felt like it. She'd caught him training once and there had been hell to pay. That had happened once and kept training, knowing he had to protect the world from people like Cell and Bojack. Now he had a chance and he wasn't about to pass it up.
He snuck over to the window, even going as far as to float a little bit to keep his footsteps nonexistent. Gohan lifted into the sky and made sure that he stayed above the house, so Chichi wouldn't be able to look out the window and see him leaving. When he was finally above cloud level, he turned to face West City and blasted off in a flash of blue.
Bulma was in a special room in Capsule Corps. It was her private lab, where she performed all her most dangerous experiments. She didn't even allow Vegeta in here. Not that the prideful Saiyan Prince ever bothered to take a break from his vicious training schedule to come and visit. She was expecting Gohan to come and see this, but knew that it might be awhile. Chichi had her son in a deathgrip and kept shoving his nose in the books. The blue-haired genius felt glad that Vegeta trained as hard as he did. At least one of her family and friends would be able to step up to defend the planet should the need arise. Which it did every few years. The intercom buzzed, startling her.
Hitting the key she said, "Yes?"
"Ms. Bulma, a Son Gohan is here to see you," her secretary said. Bulma grinned. Finally she would be able to have Gohan's input. The boy learned fast, she would give him that, so she had started giving the half-Saiyan more 'hands-on' lessons in physics and things like that. Every now and again, she would invite him over to spend the day helping her with inventions.
"Thank you, send him down to lab 66A."
"Yes ma'am." The intercom clicked off and Bulma crossed over to the console that controlled the massive machine in the center of the lab. All the unnecessary things like the tables, beakers and flasks, basically everything that defined a lab, had been capsulized and put in a little bin sitting behind the console. The machine itself was a monster. A huge ring sat on a large steel plate, the edges of the slightly oval shaped ring reaching almost to the walls of the lab. It was steel gray with purple squares inset with blue gems of some kind at the top, bottom, and each end. Cables as thick as Vegeta's chest trailed from all over the bottom of the steel plate. Some held coolant, some siphoned off waste generated during the power up, and one brought power up from the nuclear generator that supplied the electricity to run this thing and tear the fabric of space-time.
A hiss sounded behind her, and Bulma turned to greet her visitor, a warm grin on her face.
"Hey Gohan!"
"Hi Bulma!" The black-haired teen strode into the room, wearing a blue and white tee-shirt and jeans. He looked surprisingly normal compared to his father and Bulma's husband, who both wore workout clothes or a gi twenty-four hours a day. Bulma suspected that Gohan's overprotective mother had something to do with this. Seriously, Chichi was good girl, but she really needed to let go and let Gohan do what Gohan wanted to do with his life. "Is this it?"
"Yep!" She said proudly. "This thing can open a doorway to other dimensions. It's still a little unstable, but I think that most of the bugs that would make the transition lethal to anyone below you guys' stamina are gone."
"Have you tried to send anything across?" Gohan asked, interested with this pretty cool machine.
"No. Until now, I've been just trying to get a stable connection. Wanna see it work?"
"Sure."
"Wait a sec." Bulma went to the console that ran the whole operation while Gohan stood at the base of the steel plate that held the portal. Now the half-Saiyan noticed thick channels carved into the spaces in between the four gems. He had just enough time to wonder what the heck they were for when he heard a deep whine that quickly escalated straight up the scale and passed from the range of both human and Saiyan hearing. Gohan looked back and saw Bulma hard at work, flicking switches and turning dials. The four gems lit up, glowing brighter and brighter before lighting surged from each gem and raced through the channels in the oval until a ring of pure energy outlined the thing and each gem glowed like a supernova.
Bits of energy coalesced in the ring, gathering in the center, making a spot that shone with the intensity of a sun. With a sharp crack, the sun erupted and formed a shimmering window that looked like water or mercury suspended in the air.
Next images began to flash across the 'screen'. There was a huge moon-sized space station blowing up. A swordsman with flaming red hair wielding a katana with supreme skill, another red-haired guy that wore a black kimono and had a sword shaped like a kitchen knife. The images flashed faster and faster before stopping on a birds-eye view of a dirt road line with trees.
'So peaceful looking.' Gohan thought as he stepped up on the plate. His messy hair stood up on end like it did when he transformed to Super Saiyan 2 the closer he got to the portal. He was mere inches away from it, looking with great curiosity at the image displayed.
Bulma finished up at the control station, the portal finally stabilized, and looked up. What she saw froze her heart. Gohan was inches from the portal and was slowly getting closer, centimeter by centimeter.
"GOHAN! NO!" That was the wrong thing to do. Her shout startled him and that jerk was enough. Before her eyes, Gohan pitched forward and fell through. The instant he did, the portal began to go critical. She had no choice. The generator wasn't meant for such a huge mass to be introduced at once. Now it was in danger of exploding which would only wipe out all of West City. Hating herself every moment, Bulma lifted a cover and exposed the emergency cutoff. She flicked it without hesitation, not willing to sacrifice a whole city just to get Gohan back.
All the cables blew away, propelled by explosive bolts on the connectors and the resulting energy backlash from the sudden disconnection fried every circuit in the control panel, raising the acrid scent of melted silicone and wiring. Deprived of power, the portal winked out from existence almost immediately. Bulma could only hope that Gohan had made it through in one piece. She didn't want to have him stuck between dimensions for eternity.
Gohan hurtled down a swirling vortex of color and light. The tunnel seemed to stretch for eternity. The tunnel scintillated and sparked with every color in the rainbow and a few new ones too. Static electricity flared from the Saiyan's body as he flew forward. In front of him, long trains of glowing green balls of energy, looking like spirits hung on a rosary, twisted and contorted around him, making him dizzy. After what seemed like forever, a white light began to shine in the distance, growing ever closer. In between him and the exit, were two yellow streaks that were heading straight toward him.
Suddenly, Gohan was uneasy. Something was screaming at him not to let those balls of light touch him. He tried to twist out of the way, fire a blast of ki, anything! There was nothing he could do. His scream didn't make a noise in void between dimensions as the yellow light hit him full in the chest, vaporizing his shirt and exposing his torso. He was too busy screaming from the pain that assailed him to care. If felt like someone had pushed a branding iron to every nerve in his body. His eyes were closed, so he didn't notice what the light had left behind. Two black kanji had etched themselves into his skin; they were the symbols for the numbers one and two. In the next instant, he was passing through the white light and into the world beyond, a world that would test him just as much, and even more, than the battles with Cell and Bojack combined had done.
Twelve-year-old Uzumaki Naruto strode down the quaint lane with not a care in the world. It was his first time outside the gates of Konohagakure and he was psyched! It didn't matter that he was here with that stuck-up prissy, Sasuke, and his beloved Sakura-chan was always fawning over the brooding Uchiha. Nor did it matter that Kakashi-sensei wouldn't teach him anything cool. Hell, even the old bridge-builder that Team Seven was escorting couldn't bring down his spirits. That old man could sit on a railroad spike for all he cared. It was a beautiful day and the temperature was warm…
The sky turned an angry end-of-the-world black, blotting out the sun. A chill wind whipped down the dirt road the group was traveling on, tousling hair and whipping Sakura's dress around. Thankfully, she wore shorts underneath so she didn't have to worry about showing off her panties.
"Odd." Sakura turned to look at her masked sensei, her long pink hair whipping in the strong gale.
"Sensei? What is it?" The masked ninja turned his only visible eye, the only part one could see of his face, onto her.
"Strange weather we're having eh?" Now Sasuke broke in.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Yeah," Naruto added, hyper as ever. "So it got a little stormy. What's wrong with that?"
The masked ninja sighed heavily wishing, not for the first time, that he'd remained with ANBU. But no, he just had to leave and teach genins. Great. What a way to earn a living.
"Naruto, it was clear a moment ago. There wasn't any hint of a storm. So why is it getting all gloomy now?"
"Some kind of enemy jutsu?" Sasuke asked, thinking it to be the most probable explanation. Kakashi shook his head.
"No. This would be beyond Kage level at the very least, and I don't think that there is anyone that powerful in existence right now…" He trailed off as another phenomenon made itself known in that moment. The sky began to swirl, like someone would see in a hurricane. Lightning arced over clouds, most of it coming from the eye-like hole that had opened up. The electrical storm began to pick up in intensity and frequency before a bulge of white light pushed at the edges of the hole. Naruto thought it looked like something was about to push its way out. The blond was proven right a moment later when something blasted out of the hole with enough force to hit them with a shockwave, even as far away as they were.
The thing crashed into the ground a few miles away, sending a cloud of debris screaming towards them. Kakashi had just enough time to make a Kage Bunshin to knock the genin to the ground and tackled a cursing Tazuna to the ground himself before the dust cloud and shockwave hit them. Kakashi waited a split second and was rewarded for his caution as a searing heat blast slammed into them with enough force to make him break out in a cold sweat almost immediately. After semi-quiet had been returned, only then did the Copy-nin let his charges up.
"Let's move out." He commanded sharply, showing the serious side he usually hid under a cloak of laziness and chronic tardiness. "Some one may have been near that. We need to make sure that if anyone's there, they're not dead."
"Yes Sensei!" The three genin shouted before bounding into the trees with more strength and agility than any normal person close to their age. Tazuna was left to run at the classic human pace, accompanied by Kakashi's Shadow Clone.
Kakashi was right to see if some one was there in the epicenter of the blast. Now, under a clearing sky, there was indeed something to behold. Son Gohan laid facedown, shirtless, and clearly either dead or out cold. If someone got close enough to his literally smoking body, though, they would see that the young teen was still breathing, having survived the harrowing trip from his dimension.
The first thing that Gohan became aware of was the all-consuming pain that rumbled up and down his nervous system. He stirred, picking himself up with a groan, only managing to get his chest, suspiciously bare of any kanji etched into him, before collapsing back. His head throbbed viciously and made the world swirl around him. Nausea and disorientation proved to be too much for him, and he dry heaved for close to a minute before his stomach decided it had done enough to torment him.
Blackness swirled around him, and as it consumed him, he heard some one shouting for help. Who could it be? Then everything went away and Gohan knew no more.
Kakashi cast an appraising and cautious glance over the crumpled form of the kid who'd been in the center of the disturbance. The boy was young, around his squad's ages, if a little older. He was muscled, very well defined, as if he was like them, built for power and speed. A general rule of thumb was that the more defined your opponent, the faster and stronger they were. It wasn't a solve-all rule, especially in cases like the Akimichi, but Hatake thought that it would apply for this scenario. If it was true, this kid could be just as strong as Kakashi himself. This teen also seemed to be able to take a great deal of punishment and come back for more, if the numerous cut, bruises and lacerations were anything to go by.
Sakura was busy smearing an ointment that helped to speed the healing process on the worst of the kid's wounds. She thought it was a good thing that she followed that old saying that said 'always be prepared.' This ointment, combined with a few common herbs in the area would cut the healing time in half, and with this kid, any cut was good.
Sasuke was indifferent, who cared what happened to this loser? It wouldn't matter in the end; the Uchiha would ascend beyond all opposition and kill his older brother. His pride wouldn't allow him to admit that he was a little intimidated by this guy. He only looked a year or two older than Sasuke himself, but he had physical strength. That was quite plain. He, like Kakashi, had picked up on Gohan's build and knew that this would be something to watch out for. Sasuke only hoped that this guy knew some half-assed techniques to teach to him.
Naruto was trying to not poke this weirdo with a stick. He knew Sakura-chan, though. If he even tried, he would be hit really really hard by that heavy backpack of hers. As it was, the hyper blond contented himself with squatting a few feet away and staring at the unconscious kid with his squint-face. Just who the hell was this guy? Ah! All this wondering and thinking made his head hurt! He decided to stroll over to the bushes to see what he could dig up.
"Naruto, wait. We're leaving." Kakashi's voice drew everyone's attention to him. "I'll carry our friend here at least until we get to Tazuna's village. We can decide what to do then, or if he wakes up, we can ask him." The three genin nodded and followed their sensei over to Tazuna who was just catching up. The Kakashi clone poofed from existence and the group of five continued on their way, with Kakashi carrying Gohan.
Night fell, and the group stopped to camp for the night, and Kakashi decided to give his bedroll to the mysterious visitor. After getting the kid settled in, they set the watch and began to drop off to sleep. Hatake had decided that he would take first watch, and settled in to the most comfortable tree branch he could find. As he scanned the darkness, careful not to look at the fire and fry his night vision, Kakashi's gaze fell on the strange kid that they had picked up. The masked ninja didn't know why they had taken the boy with them. What if he was an enemy shinobi? It wasn't that strange for other villages to send even new genins out on hunt-and-kill missions. Konoha didn't do it, preferring to keep the green genins at home until they could get promoted to chuunin.
The first thing that Gohan became aware of was that his aches and pains had greatly diminished. It actually felt like he'd be able to sit up without puking up nothing again. Next he registered that he was warm. He could hear the crackling of a fire and could just make out the gentle chirping of crickets. It had to be nighttime. Finally, he stirred and opened his eyes. He was in a very comfortable sleeping bag, in a clearing of some kind. Arrayed around him were four other people. Three appeared to be kids his age, a boy with blond, a boy with black hair and a girl with pink hair. Some might find it strange to see someone with pink hair, but Gohan was used to seeing aliens and people change their hair color at will. Pink hair was pretty tame after all that.
"So. You're awake?" The young Saiyan whirled at the sound of the voice and saw a lanky man with only a single visible eye. The rest of his face was hidden beneath a headband with a metal plate that had a stylized leaf etched into it. He also had a green flack vest on over a black body suit. He also had pouches that clearly had weapons inside
"Who…Where am I?" Gohan asked, feeling real groggy. He could remember the portal incident, but what happened after that was a big black blank. Something happened to him on his way to this dimension, but for whatever reason, he had no clue what it was.
"You're on a road about half way to the Wave Country," the masked guy told him. Wave Country? Was kind of name was that? It was pretty self-explanatory, but still… He decided that he had to know who he was with.
"Who are you?" He asked, feeling a little more alert now that his brain was starting to process again. Now he just had to figure out how to get back to his dimension. Gohan didn't think that Dende knew that he was gone and something told him that Kaio-sama, the guy his dad was living with right now, wouldn't pick up on it, seeing as he was a lord of the northern section of his galaxy.
Gohan was on his own. His only hope was that Bulma would be able to get the generator working again and pull him back.
"I am Hatake Kakashi." The masked man's deep voice startled the young fighter and he jumped, forgetting that he'd even asked the guy his name. "How about you? It would be rude not to tell me your own name after asking me mine."
Gohan thought the guy had a point, so he answered. "I'm Son Gohan."
"Son Gohan…" Kakashi murmured, as if he was trying out the kid's name. "Where're you from?" Gohan frowned, wondering how to phrase this without coming off as insane.
"I'm from…a real long way away." There. That would have to do until the half-Saiyan could figure out how to break this down to believable levels.
"Somewhere…not of this world?" Kakashi's question threw Gohan for a loop. It was clear that the man knew that he wasn't really from around this particular dimension. Hatake, for his part, knew that he'd hit the proverbial nail on the head. Gohan had come from that anomaly in the sky this afternoon. The child should consider himself fortunate that Konoha nins had found him and not others. Other shinobi, especially the Mist village ninja, weren't known for their hospitality, and travelers on the roads needed to watch their backs at all times.
"Yeah. I'm from another dimension." Whatever Kakashi had been expecting, it sure wasn't that. The look on his face would have been comical, if one, the situation wasn't so serious, and two, if the jounin's face had been exposed.
"Another…dimension?" The masked man repeated, thunderstruck. "How's that possible?" Gohan sighed, running a hand through his messy black hair. Then, he took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Kakashi the whole story. He didn't know why he did it, but Gohan's reasoning was that he owed these people his life. It would be rude not to tell them just who they'd taken the time to save. Kakashi looked thoughtful at the conclusion of the kid's story. All this talk about generators and dimension jumping was making the jounin's head spin, even if he wouldn't show it.
"And that's what happened." Gohan finished, finally stopping. He'd told Kakashi everything that happened at the lab. He wanted to let off on what he could do. Gohan knew Kakashi could tell that Gohan wasn't normal. After all, how many normal people could survive a trip like that?
"Well," Gohan looked at this masked man who had an unusual feeling ki, as if he was hiding most of it. "Since you have nowhere to go and no place to get home, why don't you come with us? My team and I are on a mission to help that old guy over there. After we complete it, you can come and stay with us in Konohagakure. We'll have to clear it with the village's leader, but the Sandaime Hokage is a benevolent man. We shouldn't have a problem."
"Thank you." Gohan murmured quietly, meaning every word. Now he had a place to stay. The Super Saiyan had no problem living in the wilderness, but really, who actually wanted to do that? Piccolo would say that he would, but that was an outright lie. The Namekian lived at the Lookout with Dende, not out even farther than Gohan did.
"Don't mention it. Konoha's a big place. One more person won't make a difference." With the finality implied in Kakashi's voice, Gohan knew that the conversation was over and it was time to rest. But first the young visitor had something to take care of. He got up, stumbling a little. Gohan still felt a little woozy from the dimension shift. Once in the woods, he pulled a little item that looked a lot like a makeup compact. It couldn't have been any different. This was his capsule case.
He popped it open and selected one of the pill-looking gadgets inside. He pushed the little plunger on the top and waited just a moment. There was an explosion of smoke and the little capsule had turned into Gohan's favorite gi, complete with the weighted cape that Piccolo had given him just before the start of the Cell Games. The young guardian of the earth scrambled into the soft, worn clothes and tied the blood-red sash around his waist and pulled on the thin but durable shoes. The cape and tattered remains of his jeans went back into the capsule along with his tennis shoes. Now appropriately attired for this latest adventure, Gohan returned to camp, startling Kakashi with his sudden clothing change, but the masked jounin said nothing and waited until Gohan was asleep before waking Naruto up for his shift.
The next day found everyone up, helping to break camp. Gohan was noticeably missing from the proceedings as Kakashi had asked the Z fighter to go and see if he couldn't gather some fish from a nearby stream or something before everyone woke up.
"Hey," Tazuna said suddenly, looking around puzzled. "Where's that weird kid you decided to take with us?" Kakashi sighed. Tazuna had caught it before his students, who were supposed to be able to recognize things like this. The other three members of the little party stopped what they were doing and looked around.
"Hey, he's right!" Sakura exclaimed. "Isn't he supposed to be unconscious for a little while longer?"
"Yeah, what gives, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto added, asking what was on the minds of all three genins in the process. There was a sudden rustling in the bushes that had all the ninja, except for Kakashi, reaching for weapons. The bushes parted and Gohan emerged, five very decently sized fish slung over his shoulder on a rope that Kakashi noticed had been woven out of some kind of wild grape vine the young Saiyan had found while scouting for fish.
"Ah. Gohan, excellent work, I see you found us breakfast." The lanky jounin remarked, breaking the sudden silence over the camp. The black-haired powerhouse headed over to the fire and set his catch down. He straightened up and grinned the infamous Son grin at the lazy shinobi.
"Thanks Kakashi-san. It wasn't that hard. If you go in the early morning they're easier to catch because they're eating." The jounin nodded approvingly, knowing that himself, and added the fact that Gohan could fend for himself to the list of attributes that he'd already picked up about the boy.
Gohan appeared to notice the other three kids for the first time. He strode over to them and the four stood in a stare down, waiting to see who would do what first. The young Z fighter finally smiled and raised a hand in greeting,
"Uh, hi?" He sounded like he was really unsure of himself. In fact he was. All the training he did, combined with where he lived and all the studying he did meant that he never really got to meet many kids his age. "Um…My name is Son Gohan." Well, that wasn't so hard.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. It's nice to meet you Gohan-san." The girl with the pink hair said brightly. She didn't seem so bad. This was going rather well for his first chat with people his age.
Next up was the blond. Gohan could feel pure energy pouring off the boy. Not ki, even though he had an abundance of that, including an ominous, evil feel that was underlying his normal ki signature. Gohan didn't feel as if the blond was evil, but he definitely held a power to be wary of.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I love ramen and I'm gonna be Hokage!" Gohan had to grin and shake his head at the blonde's exuberance and energy. This would be very exciting getting to know this kid. Now Gohan's gaze rested on the last child in the group. He had an arrogant feel to him. This guy also had the look of someone who had something to prove and would go to any length to do it.
"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke," he said simply before turning and walking away.
"H-hey! Sasuke-kun! Wait up!" Sakura called, chasing after the brooding kid. Gohan's face fell. Did he do something wrong? Just what had he done to deserve such a cold reception?
"Ah. Don't mind him." Naruto told Gohan with a bright grin, folding his arms behind his head. "Sasuke-bastard's just a stuck up spoiled brat." The hyper kid changed the subject fast. "C'mon! Let's help Kakashi-sensei get ready!"
It was past noon almost five days later and everyone had gotten comfortable with Gohan being around. Sakura had even gotten friendly enough with him to add 'kun' to his name. Nothing much fazed Naruto and the blond didn't take much time to adjust and was treating the half-Saiyan like he'd known him for years. As for Sasuke…well, not much progress had been made there. The stoic genin almost seemed to regard Gohan as a threat, or perhaps, didn't consider the fighter human because of his method of arrival in this dimension. Either way, the Uchiha rarely said anything to their newest arrival, and when he did, his answers were monosyllabic and cold.
After a particularly frosty snub, Gohan decided that he would take it up with Kakashi.
"Hey, Kakashi?" The silver-haired jounin looked down at the young warrior.
"Yeah?"
"What's with Sasuke? He's always blowing me off." His reward for the question was an eye-smile from the Copy-nin.
"Don't let it get to you, Gohan." Hatake replied. "Sasuke has a lot of grief in his past. The Uchiha clan was once a very prominent clan within Konohagakure. They had everything. Power. Prestige. They commanded the police force within Konoha. The Uchiha even had a very powerful Kekkei Genkai called the Sharingan. Sasuke had even more, being the son of the Clan Head at the time. Then his brother decided to go rogue."
"Rogue?"
"Yeah. Uchiha Itachi was the single greatest genius that clan ever produced. Then, for whatever reason, he decided to kill his entire clan."
"The entire clan?" Gohan was clearly shocked by the masked shinobi's story. It was akin to his father, Son Goku, deciding to butcher the entire human race. Kakashi nodded at Gohan's exclamation.
"Yeah. Everyone including his own family. Except for Sasuke. No one knows why Itachi left Sasuke alive, but the big thing now is Sasuke is driven by the desire to restore his clan and kill Itachi. To that end, he has gotten it into his head that he doesn't need anyone but himself to do what he desires. I know Naruto told you not to personally and he's right. Sasuke's like that with everyone."
That was the only major thing that happened that day. Little did anyone in the group know that it was about to get a lot more interesting.
And that would be all. To all people new to my work, welcome! To all the others who've read The Ultimate Ace and The Disappearance, Welcome back! This is the third story in my rotation for updates and the cycle will be as follows: Ultimate Ace, Disappearance, Gohan's Dilemma. SO! That means that Ultimate Ace is the next one for an update. Thanks for reading and please review (see top for review policy). See you in a little while. Oh, one more thing. As a gauge for how strong Gohan is in this fic, this is the standard. One level of Super Saiyan is equal to two of Naruto's demon tails. What does that mean? Well, since Orochimaru is about as strong as a four tailed Naruto, that means it would take Gohan SS2 to beat the Snake-bastard. This also means that Kyuubi is stronger than a Super Saiyan 4! (Didn't think that was possible did ya.)
Glossary:
Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone skill/technique): Same as the clone jutsu only the clone is real instead of an illusion. Has half the power of the user. Naruto's signature jutsu.