Chapter 2: Path to Power

After separating from his friends, Goku heads to his home on Mount Paozu, where he packs his things and puts on a clean martial arts outfit, and then takes his Kinto'un to Kame House, ready to start his training with the Turtle Hermit. Upon arriving, Goku enters the house and tries to get Roshi's attention, but sees that he's distracted by his collection of women's exercise videos.

Goku spends a few minutes trying to get the Turtle Hermit's attention, but fails each time. When he finally succeeds by yelling directly into Roshi's ear, the old Hermit finally notices Goku and welcomes him, but tells Goku to wait until he's done with the videos. Goku tells him that he's hungry, and Roshi directs him to the fridge, blissfully unaware of the mistake he had just made.

Sometime later, after finishing up his show and realizing that he needs to promptly restock his fridge, Roshi asks Goku what he wants, to which the monkey-tailed boy gleefully tells him that the Dragon Ball hunt is over and he's here to train with the Turtle Hermit. As soon as Roshi hears this, he checks outside, only to see that there's no one else around, and asks Goku where those two girls where.

"Oh, you mean Bulma and Yamcha?" Goku said, swaying his tail. "They went back to Bulma's home in the city." Roshi grumbles under his breath at this, but doesn't push it any further.

Going back inside, Roshi sits Goku down and explains that his training won't be easy. Goku, for his part, doesn't care about that, simply wanting to grow stronger, hopefully even stronger than Roshi himself, to which the old man chuckles at. However, Roshi's training doesn't come for free. The old Hermit gives him a proposal: if Goku can bring him another girl, then they'll start training. Goku, completely oblivious, agrees and heads off on Kinto'un. He returns a little while later…with a large, rotund, muscle-bound woman—in other words, not what Roshi had in mind.

Roshi has Goku take the woman back to wherever he found her, and then sits the spiky-haired boy down and shows him pictures of what kind of girl to bring. Goku heads off again, thinking he now understands, and this time returns with what appears to be a beautiful young woman. Seeing the woman, Roshi pulls Goku aside and, after telling him that he got it right this time, asks Goku to get him the girl's panties. Still confused, Goku asks her about it, and a few minutes later, tells Roshi that the girl said she only has a shirt and no panties. This escalates Roshi's excitement and he goes to talk to the girl…only to discover that she's a mermaid. He tries to ask to touch her chest, which ends in her punching him in the face and jumping back into the ocean.

Roshi tells Goku one last time to find a hot girl, one who isn't sushi on the bottom half. Goku understands and is about to leave on Kinto'un again, but quickly spots something in the distance and points it out. What looks like a dot in the distance at first quickly grows in size, revealing to be a bald boy with no nose around Goku's age, on a boat heading for Kame House. Once he gets close enough, the boy jumps out of the boat and somersaults towards the duo on the island, but ends up landing head-first into the sand.

Goku pulls him out of the sand, and the boy introduces himself as Krillin, a martial artist in training who traveled from the distant east, and wishes to train under the great Master Roshi. Roshi starts to decline this, but quickly changes his tone when Krillin gives him a dirty magazine as a 'token of his appreciation'.

Seeing that Roshi was occupied, Krillin turned his attention to the spiky-haired boy next to him. "And who are you?" he asked, raising a brow at the brown-furred tail that swayed behind the other boy. "A disciple?"

"Uh-huh!" Goku replied eagerly. "I'm Son Goku."

"I see," Krillin looked him up and down a few times. "You don't look like you'd have the stomach for it."

"Oh, I got plenty o' stomach," Goku cheerfully told him, clearly thinking of something entirely different.

Krillin chuckles at him. "An attempt at wit, is that what that was?"

"You're funny!" Goku laughed. "Your head looks like a pachinko ball!"

At that, all amusement left Krillin's face and he glared at Goku. "How dare you?! All who aspire to master the martial arts shave their heads in order to unfetter their ki! Take the venerable Master Roshi as your example!"

"Actually, I'm just bald," Roshi calmly admitted before going back to his magazine, much to Krillin's embarrassment.

Once Roshi is finished with the magazine, he now instructs both Goku and Krillin to find him a hot girl, hoping that the third time will be the charm. Due to not being pure of heart, Krillin has to grab ahold of Goku in order to ride Kinto'un, and the two of them head off.

Goku and Krillin fly around for a while, and eventually come across a young woman with dark blue hair being cornered by police officer, terrified and crying out for help. Seeing the situation, Krillin is a bit hesitant at first, but Goku immediately jumps down and beats up the officers. The girl thanks them, revealing that her name is Launch, and asks how she can repay their kindness. Eventually, they manage to get her on Kinto'un and they head back to Kame House.

Once they're at the island, Goku heads inside to find Roshi while Krillin talks with Launch, who reveals that she's being pursued by the police and tries to explain that whenever she sneezes, she changes personality. Unfortunately, her explanation is cut short as Roshi comes out. Happy that the boys got it right, Roshi accepts Goku and Krillin as his disciples.

Roshi talks with Launch and introduced himself to her, explain that he is a martial arts mentor, and offers her a stay at the Turtle School, to which Launch agrees to, seeing that she has no choice due to running from the law. Immediately afterwards, Roshi asks Launch if she'd like to train alongside the boys.

"W-What? Me?" Launch asked, her wide blue eyes blinking in surprise. "Gosh, it sounds like fun, but…Your training must be so rigorous…"

Hearing this, Goku looks up at her, quickly remembering Yamcha and Chi-Chi's talk at Fry-Pain Mountain. "Is it because you're a girl?" he asked innocently, making the young woman turn to him. "What's the big deal? My friend Yamcha's a girl, and she's really strong and practices martial arts, too."

At his words, Launch gets a thoughtful look in her eyes, as if mulling the idea over in her head. In the end, she decides to accept Roshi's offer to train, honestly wanting to be able to protect herself so she won't be cornered like that again.

Roshi gives Launch a box containing the 'traditional uniform', which is revealed to be some kind of lingerie once she changes into it. Unfortunately, once they're all in their 'uniforms' and outside, a wasp buzzes by Launch's nose, causing her to sneeze. Once she does, her hair turns blonde and her eyes become sharp and green, and after seeing the outfit she's wearing, without so much as a warning, she pulls out her machine gun and angrily fires at Roshi, Goku and Krillin, who dodge her bullets in a panicked manner. Thankfully, Launch sneezes again and her hair turns blue again, and she apologizes for what her other self did.

Roshi immediately made the decision to discard the 'traditional uniform'.

Afterwards, it's decided that the island is too small to train on, so Roshi capsulizes the Kame House and the group of four heads off to another, larger island on a boat. Once they're on land and Kame House is set up, they jumped into some pre-dinner training (changed into their regular clothes, of course).

While Launch has never received any martial arts training, she still regularly exercises. Goku and Krillin, on the other hand, have done plenty of training in the past, with the former training under Son Gohan while the latter trained at the Orin Temple for years. With this is mind, Roshi sets up a test: see how many seconds it will take each of them to run one-hundred meters.

Launch decides to go first, and ends up with a time of 16.7 seconds, which is pretty impressive. Krillin goes next, and gets a time of 10.4 seconds, much to Roshi's amazement. Goku goes third and gets 11 seconds, but after realizing that his shoes were busted and replaces them, goes again and this time gets 8.5 seconds, to the surprise of his three comrades.

Roshi tells that, thought all three of them are incredibly skilled so far, they're still within human limits, and that in order to master martial arts, they'll need to break through the wall of humanity. As a demonstration, Roshi removed his turtle shell and asks Krillin to time him as well. And much to the trio's shock and amazement, he runs the 100 meters in 5.6 seconds. Roshi tells them that that is what it looks like to break past human limits, and that with training, they'll be able to break five seconds with no problem, much to their amazement.

Afterwards, they decide to take a quick break. Launch heads to the island market to pick up some ingredients and then start quickly making dinner. As the sun begins to set, the four of them head back outside, and before the real training begins tomorrow, Roshi gives his students one more test. He draws the Kame symbol on a rock and then throws it off the cliffside and into the jungle below. It's a rock-finding contest, which will require a lot of mental power and concentration, and test their constitution and stamina. And that the one who brings back the rock is the only one who will get dinner, but if none of them find the rock in thirty minutes, then none of them will get to eat.

With this information in mind, Goku, Krillin and Launch don't hesitate to rush off. Goku jumps down the cliffside and into the jungle immediately, much to Krillin and Launch's surprise. Launch rushes off to find a safe yet quick way down the cliff. Krillin starts to follow, but he realizes how impossible it find one rock in an entire jungle, so he decides to find a different rock and draw the Kame symbol on it as Goku and Launch, who made it down safely, continue searching the jungle.

Krillin rushes back to Roshi with the "rock", but Turtle Hermit berates Krillin for trying to trick him and Krillin rushes off again. Time passes and the thirty minutes are almost up as the sun continues to set. As they continue their search, Krillin and Launch (Blonde form) suddenly hear Goku excitedly shouting that he found the rock, and when they both head to the source, they discover that it's true. Amazed, they ask Goku how he found it, to which the monkey-tailed boy responds that it had Roshi's scent on it, much to their confusion.

Krillin asks to see it and Goku naively give it to him, only for the bald boy to rush off with it. Goku and Launch both angrily ran after him, with Goku going far ahead of Launch. Krillin runs across a bridge, and when Goku follows him onto it, Krillin cuts it down by the ropes and causes Goku to fall down with the bridge. But alas, it's still not enough to slow down the wild-haired boy.

Launch, who thankfully wasn't even near the bridge when this happened, sees that the bridge is out and frustratedly decides to run the long way around on the island. Goku, meanwhile, catches up to Krillin and the two of them fight, which ends in Goku beating up Krillin and demanding the rock back. Krillin throws a different rock and goes after it, and by the time Goku and Launch (not a sweating, swearing mess) get back to Kame House, Krillin and Roshi are already enjoying the dinner that Launch made.

"I apologize for this, Launch," Roshi said to the blonde, who was still glaring daggers at the duo while she and Goku, who just looks miserable, stand in the corner, after swallowing his current mouthful of food. "But I must say, you're such an amazing cook!" The compliment didn't do much to sway the hangry blonde's mood.

But it would seem that the phrase "you reap what you sow" would ring true that night. Turns out, that test would have to be the last training session for three days, due to Roshi and Krillin both coming down with bad food poising from poorly prepared 'fugu' puffer fish (due to the rush Launch had been in while making dinner).

During those three days, while Roshi and Krillin recovered, Launch tells Goku that she was amazed with his skills and asks if he can show her some basics of martial arts, which the monkey-tailed boy happily does, showing her a few stances and techniques that Son Gohan had taught him.

OoOoOoO

During this time, Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong and Puar arrive in West City and at Capsule Corp., the company that Bulma's father, Dr. Brief, owns. After introducing her new friends to her parents, and a hearty 'welcome home' meal from Bulma's mother Panchy, Bulma shows her new friends around the Capsule Corp. mansion and gives each of them a place to stay. While they're more than happy about this, it takes Yamcha and Puar a while to adjust to this new lifestyle, as they were used to living as dirt-poor desert bandits.

A day or so after moving in, Yamcha hears about the Tenkaichi Budokai, the 'Strongest Under the Heavens' martial arts tournament, which will be eight months from now, and excitedly decides to start training. She's always wanted to partake in the Budokai, and she finally has the means do to so! Yamcha tells Bulma about this, and in response to the passion in the other girl's dark eyes, the genius decides to surprise her friend by building a fully-functioning gravity room for her to train in. And Yamcha's reaction did not disappoint.

"Oh my goodness!" The black-haired girl practically squealed as she hugged Bulma tightly. "Thank you so much! I'd kiss you if I was into girls!"

Bulma laughed mirthfully at Yamcha's joy. "It's no big deal, I'm happy to help."

Yamcha didn't waste a single moment and did the majority of her training in the gravity room. She started off lightly, going to only twice the Earth's gravity, but as time passed, she was slowly but surely able to increase the number as her strength grew.

Unfortunately, Yamcha couldn't keep training all day like she wanted to. A couple of weeks after arriving in the city, the break for West City High School ended and classes started back up again. And because of the laws placed in the city, Yamcha had to go to school alongside Bulma, much to her displeasure. Despite her dislike of school, Yamcha quickly grew accustom to it, and could continue training and hanging out with Bulma when she wasn't working on homework or other assignments (though it did amuse her to see the other students' and teachers' amazement at her skills in her physical education classes).

During their free time together, Bulma would take Yamcha out to do 'girly things'—clothes shopping, getting hair and makeup done—but would also take her to do different fun things in the city, such as the Dream Land Amusement Park, the movie theater, and even the water park once it was warm enough (though Yamcha, the bashful woman that she is, could only wear a one-piece swimsuit while Bulma wore a daring red bikini). In spite of her tomboyish nature, Yamcha still enjoyed doing feminine things with Bulma, and grew to love her new life in the city.

As promised, Bulma began to give Yamcha confidence lessons when it came to talking to guys, and thanks to this, Yamcha's social skills grew over the months and it slowly became easier for her to talk to guys without her freezing up and blushing like crazy. During this time, however, Bulma would constantly talk about how she couldn't wait for the Dragon Balls to be active again so she can wish for the 'perfect boyfriend'. Once again, Yamcha found herself rolling her eyes, and this time she told Bulma what she thought.

"Bulma, there's no such thing as a 'perfect' boyfriend," Yamcha told the other woman. "Nobody's perfect. We're human, we all make mistakes. To expect perfection…You're setting someone up for failure. You shouldn't look for someone who is 'perfect'. You should look for someone who will love you and treat you with love and respect."

Bulma mulled Yamcha's words over in her head for a few days, and came to the conclusion that Yamcha was right. She managed to lower some of her unrealistically high expectations after a while, but a part of her was always stuck in that 'romantic dream fantasy', much to Yamcha's amusement. The girls would constantly talk about their dreams and desires to fall in love, get married and start a family someday.

The months continue to pass, with Yamcha growing stronger alongside her friendship with Bulma, as the day of the Tenkaichi Budokai drew closer and closer…

OoOoOoO

Back at Kame House, once Krillin and Roshi recovered from the food poisoning, training officially began. The first day began when Roshi woke the trio up at 4:30 AM just as the sun came up, though he made sure to be extra careful with waking up Launch since she was in the Blonde form. The trio and their master headed outside, wearing their training clothes—Launch's consisted of a red tank top, dark gray pants, black wristbands, and the same martial arts shoes as Goku and Krillin. And of course, she kept her red ribbon in her hair.

Training started off with the trio following Roshi with some light jogging. Roshi led them into town, where the three of them each picked up a crate of milk and were told to deliver them all across the island by foot. Goku, Krillin and Launch work to do just that—skipping, zigzagging through the trees, climbing to the top of a mountain, balancing themselves on a makeshift tree-bridge over a high distance, walking through hot sinking sand, crossing a rapid river, getting chased by carnivorous dinosaurs…you name it, they had to do it.

During their milk run, Roshi met up with an old monk friend who lived atop the mountain, and after mentioning that his students have potential, says that he's planning to enter them into the Tenkaichi Budokai months from now. Krillin is shocked and excited to hear that and explains the tournament to Goku and Launch—Goku had never heard of it, while Launch had heard the name a few times but never really looked into it. Roshi tells them that, if they continue their training without shirking, they'll surely be good enough to enter, much to the trio's excitement.

Once the early morning training is done, they start with the morning training, and once they're done with that, they can get breakfast. They have to plow fields with their bare hands. With the three of them working together, they manage to get it done, but their hands are still dirty and bloody afterwards. They head to a restaurant, and in their hunger manage to go through several bowls and plates before they're done.

After breakfast comes academics. No martial artist become a master by strengthening their body alone, after all. They must train their mind, too! However, studying begins with literature…and Launch promptly smacks the book out of Goku's hands once she realizes what Roshi was making him read. Once they're done with 'academics', the four of them have lunch and then settle down for a nap.

"Move well, study well, play well, eat well, and rest well," Roshi told them as they laid down in the hammocks outside. "That is the Turtle School way."

Naptime ends all too quickly, and the next training exercise begins, which has the trio doing construction work. Not only will they break a sweat and build muscle, but they'll also earn a bit of money. And besides, the construction workers were happy for the help.

Once the construction is done, Roshi takes them to the lake for their next training exercise: swimming. Goku asks Roshi if he could teach them some moves. The question angers Roshi, who tells them that they haven't even laid the barest foundations of strength or stamina, and yet they expect him to teach them 'moves'?! He tells them that he will teach them martial arts techniques only when they've built up enough power to move a boulder. Krillin argues that nobody can do that, but Roshi immediately proves that he can do so, hoping he can teach his students a lesson…only for Goku to come over and move it even further than Roshi did.

The Turtle Hermit quickly says that he made a mistake, and promptly points a different, much larger boulder. One that's easily ten times the size of the first boulder. Goku tries to push it, but can't make it budge even an inch. Roshi tells them that, if they continue training, they'll be able to do it one day.

They quickly get back to their training. Goku and Krillin strip down naked, while Launch (still in her Blonde form) goes down to her underwear (much to Roshi's enjoyment). Roshi tells them to swim to the far shore and back ten times…which would've been easy had it not been for the shark in the water.

After that, the next exercise will hone their reflexes…which includes the trio being tied to a tree, Roshi sneaking up to a bee hive and breaking it open before running away, and the three of them being forced to unsuccessfully dodge the bees to avoid getting stung. Needless to say, the exercise left all three of them with red, swollen spots all over their bodies.

Roshi tells the that they're done with today's training, and that starting tomorrow for the next eight months, the three of them will do the same exercises they did today…but this time they'll each be carrying a fifty-pound shell on their backs as well.

Though Roshi's training seemed insurmountably harsh at first, Goku, Krillin and Launch pressed on, their determination to not only succeed but to qualify for the Budokai. And as the months dragged wearily on, without realizing it, the trio grew stronger and faster, gradually pushing past their human limitations. And just one months before the tournament, the trio show Roshi that they're finally able to move the boulder. Goku moves it first, much to Roshi's shock, and even though neither of them can move it as far, Krillin and Launch prove one-by-one that they can move it, too.

After this, Roshi tells them that there isn't much else he can teach them. All of the basics of the Turtle School are incorporated into the training they've been doing every day for the past seven months. They may not have noticed it, but their bodies and minds have been forged like steel swords, and martial arts are no more than an application of these abilities. On the path of martial arts, one does not strive for victory over an opponent, but to avoid defeat by one's self. To do so, you must train yourself on the foundation of what you have learned until now. Roshi warns them that, in the Budokai, to not be seduced by the improbable dream of winning, and to take it as an opportunity to test their abilities and further focus their training.

For the final month of training, Roshi won't be teaching them anything new. The trio will continue what they've been doing already…except now they'll be carrying one-hundred-pound turtle shells on their backs.

Goku, Krillin and Launch continue their last month of training under a cloud of uncertainty, until the day of the Tenkaichi Budokai is only a day away. Before leaving to the airport, Roshi tells his students to remove their turtle shells, and when they do, they realize just how light their bodies feel, and when Roshi tells them to jump as high as they can, all three of them easily make it almost a mile up, feeling akin to flying.

The three of them get dressed up—with Goku and Krillin wearing suits and Launch wearing a dress—and with that, they drive off to the airport with Roshi, ready to enter the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai.

Well, this was certainly fun to write ^^ And we've got a few more changes to the timeline here:

Launch decides to start training as well, and become the third student of the Turtle School.

Bulma builds the gravity room at Capsule Corp. early on, and as a result, Yamcha is able to intensify her training much earlier in the series.

Yamcha grows more confident around guys than her male counterpart does with girls, and Bulma lowers her expectations for a 'perfect boyfriend' and matures a bit when it comes to relationship early on.

And lastly, Launch enters into the Budokai as well.

Now, you may have noticed that I tend to use both Japanese and English terms in this fic. It's mostly because I read the manga, which mostly has Japanese/Chinese terms in them, and I just go by those terms most of the time since that's what I'm used to, but I still use the English terms for somethings here and there.

And something I forgot to mention last chapter: to me, Yamcha sounds like a gender-neutral name, which is why I decided to keep it instead of changing it to a more feminine-sounding name.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! God bless you and have a wonderful day/night/whenever you read this!