Gohan looks down at his desk, staring blankly at the textbook in front of him. The minutes slowly tick by as the young Half-Saiyan's mind runs wild with worries.

'It's been over a week since Mom kicked Uncle Raditz out, and besides his daily training sessions with Dad, he's completely shut himself away in the wilderness... does he even have a place to stay?' he thinks with a frown. 'I sure wish Mom would go back on her decision...'

"Gohan! Dinner is ready!" Chi Chi yells from the kitchen, shaking the six year old out of his thoughts.

"I... uh... I'm really busy studying right now!" he lies as an idea comes to mind. "Could you save me some for later?"

Chi Chi beams with pride as she hears these words, but she shakes her head nonetheless. "Gohan, you can take a break now, sweetie! Come have dinner!"

"Mom, I'm serious! I'm really busy!"

"Oh Gohan... if you're really having that much fun studying, I suppose there's nothing I can do." she says, unable to stop a smile from appearing on her face. "Just be sure to eat before you go to bed! I'll make a little extra since you'll be having a late dinner!"

"Thanks Mom!"

The Earthling woman shoots a smug look at her husband as she busies herself with the various pots and pans she'll need to cook more food for Gohan.

"Hmph. I told you he liked those books! I bet he's never skipped dinner to spend more time training, has he?"

Goku rubs the back of his head in confusion, his Ki sensing abilities easily letting him see through Gohan's lie. Despite his confusion, he doesn't say anything to his wife, instead shaking his head as he digs into the food in front of him.

"That's what I thought." Chi Chi says smugly. "He's a scholar, not a fighter! I think it's about time that you accepted that and stopped roping him into training."

"He fought really well on Namek!" Goku argues. "And he's almost as strong as me if I don't use the Kaioken! How is he supposed to help defend Earth if he doesn't train?"

"I've heard about what happened on Namek. He was this close to dying several times! There's no way I'll let you take our baby boy into such a dangerous situation again!"

"Gohan is six years old and he's almost as strong as I am! If he trains, he'll be stronger than everyone else combined! What if someone stronger than me shows up? Someone like Frieza? At the very least, Gohan should train to be strong enough to defend himself!"

"I don't care if he trains!" she says angrily. "But you can't pressure him into it! If he wants to train, he can decide to do it himself! And under no circumstances are you to drag him into another fight like the one you had on Namek! Understood?!"

"But Chi Chi--"

"UNDERSTOOD?!"

"...Alright. I guess the odds of someone we can't handle showing up are pretty low... but if someone like that does appear to threaten Earth, you have to let me take him into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train!"

"Hyperbolic Time Chamber...?"

"It's a room where we can get a year of training done in a single day." Goku explains. "It's on Kami's Lookout. One day out here is a year in there."

She sighs angrily. "I don't like it... but if someone stronger than you shows up, I guess it'll be necessary... just make sure you talk to me before you bring him in there!"

Goku gives her a thumbs up before focusing on far more important matters... namely, the half-dozen plates of food in front of him.

Hours later, in the dead of night, a small, black-haired child silently creeps out of his room. Unseen and unheard by his mother, Gohan carefully grabs the capsule containing his dinner and leaves the house...

Raditz sighs softly, staring up at the ceiling of his house with a bored expression on his face. As it turns out, an unexpected side-effect of having extremely dense Ki (or pure Ki, he's not exactly sure) is that the amount of sleep he needs is heavily reduced. While that may sound like a good thing on paper... it leads to incredible amounts of boredom. It hasn't been a problem for the past six months, as he's been able to force himself to sleep regardless of how much rest his body actually needs, but now... now things are different.

'It's funny... I missed Kakarot while he was away on Yardrat, but now... I almost wish he was still busy training in space. His Ki is too... powerful? Pure? I'm not sure how to describe it, but it bugs the hell out of my Ki senses.' he thinks sourly.

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'I have to make a conscious effort to stop sensing his Ki, but when I do that, I can't force my body to sleep. The only time I'm able to sleep is when Kakarot does, but even then, I can only sleep for around an hour before my Ki senses wake me up. I knew Kakarot's return would mess with my ability to laze around, but I never thought it'd be this bad...'

He sighs yet again, closing his eyes in frustration.

'How am I supposed to live without my daily naps? Am I really supposed to find a way to pass 20 hours of the day without sleeping? System, please tell me you have advice that can help me.'

...

'Figures. I guess I could fly around the planet more often? I really love flying... but I've been in this world for almost 2 years now, and most of that time was spent training. Flying around a planet is still relatively new and exciting. If I do that for 20 hours a day, I'll surely get bored of it soon. I guess I'll axe that option.'

'Maybe I could try image training? That's what Gohan and Krillin did in the anime. It'll be good training... but I can't imagine doing that all day, every day. Sitting still in one place while forcing my mind to recreate the image of an opponent sounds both boring and mentally draining. I guess that just leaves me with physical training or training with my Ki techniques.'

'...Actually, on second thought, I'm still sick of physical training. I can barely stomach the 3 hours a day I spend with Kakarot in the gravity chamber. If I get really bored, I could maybe stretch it to 4 hours a day? Still, that leaves me with 19 hours to kill...' he trails off, racking his brain for ideas on how to waste his time.

'I think it's about time I started working on a project I've been interested in since the fight against Nappa and Vegeta... ever since I got the Imitation Creation technique, I've been eager to use it to create a weapon. Future Trunks looked badass when he fought with his sword. If I can talk King Kai into letting me see a piece of Katchin, then I'll finally be able to study it, and potentially create all sorts of things with it. The first thing on the list would be a sword... yeah, a Katchin sword...'

Raditz grins, already imaging how cool his snazzy new sword will look.

'I can see it now. I'll train with Kakarot for 4 hours, then spend the rest of my day relaxing and training my Imitation Creation technique. With any luck, I'll have leveled the technique enough for me to comfortably make Katchin items.'

As Raditz decides on the best way to laze around, a six year old child soars through the sky, following his Ki sense to locate the one-armed Saiyan. Seconds after he left home, Gohan arrives at the edge of a dark, dense forest. The Half-Saiyan cocks his head in confusion as he lands.

'Huh... I guess Uncle Raditz really has been living in the wilderness...' he thinks with a frown, checking his pocket to make sure the capsule with his food is still there.

The small child walks slowly, taking his time to weave around the trees as he follows his Ki senses to find his uncle. Occasionally, he stumbles upon an animal, although none have dared to attack him after he punched a bear through a tree. Before long, Gohan finally comes across a large, treeless clearing. In the middle of the clearing sits a small house built out of dark, tightly packed logs. To his surprise, the house looks... comfortable. It looks exactly like he'd expect a cozy home in the woods to look like.

'Did... did Uncle Raditz make this?! The clearing looks relatively new, as if someone recently removed all the trees... I never would've guessed that he'd be able to make something like this! But... why didn't I see this when I was flying...?'

Gohan doesn't have to look for long to find the answer for his question. As soon as he looks up, his eyes widen in surprise.

Large, heavy branches from the nearby trees completely spread out over the top of the clearing. The branches, to Gohan's shock, are still connected to the trees, growing from them in an unnatural way to shield the clearing from the sky above.

'Branches aren't supposed to grow that way... how on Earth did Uncle Raditz manage to do this?! It's almost like a net covering his home! He must've done it with his Ki!' the Half-Saiyan thinks excitedly, studying the way the branches grow in fascination.

'With how heavy the branches must be, along with how long they are... it seems impossible for the trees to be able to hold their weight, and yet there's no obvious strain on the trees! Maybe... maybe he infused his own Ki into the trees? That makes the most sense... I can't believe I never thought of doing something like this!'

Gohan suddenly stops himself from continuing his observations, instead turning towards the small log house sitting in the middle of the clearing.

'Well... even though he has a place to stay, I bet he hasn't had anything as good as Mom's cooking since he left!'

The Half-Saiyan walks towards his uncle's house, reaching into his pocket to pull out the capsule containing his dinner. He raises his hand towards the door...

Raditz jolts up from his bed, startled, as a loud knocking sound comes from his front door. He hurriedly untangles himself from the blankets, quickly throwing his training clothes on as he stumbles towards the entrance to his home. After taking a few moments to reach out with his Ki senses, his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

'Gohan? I wonder what he's doing here in the middle of the night?' he thinks curiously.

Without any further hesitation, the tall Saiyan opens the door, revealing a short, black-haired child with a determined expression on his face. Raditz looks down at his nephew curiously.

"This is a surprise. I didn't expect any visitors... or at least, none in the middle of the night. What brings you here?"

"I... uh..." Gohan stutters, all the confidence he had fading away when he sees his uncle. His hesitation causes the tall Saiyan to frown.

'I can sense that he's worried about someone... shit, did Kakarot's Heart Virus act up already?!' Raditz thinks, alarmed.

"Gohan, is everything ok?" he says calmly, concealing any worries he has.

"Yeah... everything is ok. I'm just here because... um... here!"

The Half-Saiyan stumbles over his words, before suddenly handing a small capsule to Raditz. The one-armed man looks at it curiously, before turning back to his nephew.

"What, did you miss your uncle that much?" he asks with a small grin, one which quickly grows when he presses the button on the capsule, releasing dozens of steaming-hot plates of food onto the floor.

"Woah! Where'd you get all this, Gohan?"

Gohan opens his mouth to speak, before he is suddenly interrupted by a loud growl from his stomach.

"You know... I don't think I can finish all of this by myself." Raditz begins with a grin. "How about you come inside and help? You can tell me where you got this after we eat."

The child's mouth practically salivates as the smell of his mother's cooking reaches him. He hesitates for a few seconds, but eventually relents, stepping inside his uncle's house. Without waiting any further, the duo dig into Chi Chi's cooking...