Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny Calls ❯ Growing Pains ( Chapter 3 )

Destiny Calls
Chapter 3 - Growing Pains

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The next morning Kakarott was awakened by his mother far earlier than he was used to being up. Adding to his confusion was the fact that his mother never woke him up. Both she and his father always left early to report to the King and Queen and he . . . Kakarott sat up abruptly as yesterday's events came rushing back. "I'm not late on my first day, am I?!" he yelled, panic entering his voice.

Kiichigo smiled at her youngest son, "Iie, I just thought you'd want breakfast first." Then she left the room so he could get dressed.

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Minutes later, he entered the kitchen only to find both of his parents and his older brother at the table. "Ohayo brat," Bardock greeted Kakarott as he sat down,

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Otousan." Leaning over, he tried to see what his brother was studying so intently. "Whatchya got there, Oniichan?"

Radditz paused in his breakfast assault just long enough to answer, "New training and duty assignments. Haven't you looked at yours yet?"

Kakarott shook his head and dove into his own breakfast, eating just a little faster than normal.

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With his stomach satisfied, Kakarott was now able to concentrate on more important things. Running to his room he went to his computer console and punched up his new assignments. It looked pretty much the same except that all of his teachers had changed, and his training time was much longer. His jaw hit the floor when he saw his new combat instructor. "Nappa?!! The Prince's trainer?!"

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Hours later, when Prince Vegeta entered the training room he had to surpress a grin at the sight of his new training partners. Kakarott and Jianu looked like they were going to faint. The three of them had talked for hours the night before, learning much about each other, now it was time for them to learn to fight together. Placing his customary scowl on his face, Vegeta walked up to them and Nappa who was smirking. "Are we ready to begin Nappa?" The two high-strung elites jumped at the sound of his voice as Nappa assured him that they were.

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"Well. At least they aren't quitters," Nappa admitted as he picked up the limp forms of the three young warriors. Though he hadn't expected Jianu and Kakarott to do as well as they had, he had been relentless with all three of his students. And though together they easily out-powered them, he still had no trouble defeating them all. His prince had fared the best and sported the least amount of injuries, but he had to admit that the two young elites hadn't exactly been pushovers. With his prince under one arm and Kakarott and Jianu under the other Nappa headed for the infirmary. Ceripa was already there, waiting for her mate to be released, when he strode in with his students.

She raised an eyebrow at the royal trainer, "So they gave you some new punching bags did they?"

"Heh. Yeah, but these two hit back. Almost as well as our prince," he replied as the doctors rushed to take the children from his arms.

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Jianu woke groggy and disoriented, wondering where she was, 'Oh. I must be in one of the regeneration tanks,*' Her mother's face appeared in the little window, smiling at her as the fluid began to drain. Once the tank had drained, her mother opened the hatch and unhooked the monitors while Jianu removed the face mask. "Now I know why we do our training last," she told her mother as Yashi toweled her off.

"Saa," Kakarott agreed before his mother began drying his hair. "Okaasan!" he whined as she vigorously scrubbed his head dry.

Vegeta snickered, "Don't whine, Kakarott. It's beneath your status."

'Easy for you to say, your `Kaasan isn't trying to rub your head raw,' he `pathed to both Vegeta and Jianu who began giggling. Anzu smiled at her son knowing he was speaking telepathically to the other two. Nappa had given her a full report on their session and she was very pleased with the results.

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Walking to her and her mate's chambers Anzu couldn't stop the triumphant smile that was coming over her features. She had been right, the two young elites and her son were becoming friends. The ouji was exhausted and had barely had the energy to eat and climb into bed. Entering her bedroom she saw her mate waiting for her.

Vegeta-Ou took note of the look on her face and snorted, "Well, how did they do?"

"Didn't Nappa tell you?"

"I'd rather hear it from you."

"Our son is completely worn out and has already developed a strong bond with the other two. Nappa informed me that they already think as a team. In other words . . ." she moved to wrap her arms around him, "you have nothing to worry about."

Vegeta sighed and kissed her, "Except that the girl will no longer be a possible mate later on."

"There are other elite females, itoushii."

"But none with such promise."

"True, but who knows what the future will bring."

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Three years later . . .

"If one more foreign dignitary pinches my cheek . . ." Kakarott growled as they walked down the palace halls towards their training room.

"I know, I know," Jianu groaned in agreement as Vegeta chuckled. At fifteen years old, Jianu and Kakarott had yet to begin their final growth spurt**. This meant that they still looked about ten years old. Vegeta meanwhile had grown some in the past year and looked about fourteen, two years younger than his actual age of sixteen. This of course led many foreign dignitaries to believe that they were far younger than their actual age. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who's point-of-view you were looking from, there was a strict rule against blasting and/or punching dignitaries. Even if it was an insult. Reaching the training room, the trio spent the next several hours venting their frustrations out on each other.

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Vegeta was exhausted, he always was after training with Kakarott and Jianu. He really wanted nothing more than to eat and go to bed when the sound of his parent's voices reached him.

" . . . conquered another small backwater planet in the Giar system," his father was saying.

'Conquered?'

"Which one?" his mother asked.

"Tarna."

'Tarna conquered? But it's a protected planet! Who would dare?' Vegeta raged silently. It was against intergalactic law to interfere with the progress of young planets incapable of space travel. Planets such as these were to be left in isolation until they were able to make contact first. There were also stringent laws on trade and treaty agreements after that to protect them from becoming dependent on older planets.

"Frieza is growing bolder. Tarna is on the edge of our galaxy."

"So was Chikyuu."

Vegeta snarled and stormed into his room. Chikyuu had been conquered ten years ago. It too had been a young planet and it's people had yet to travel beyond their own solar system. Frieza had taken it with no trouble. The monster had slowly been conquering the west galaxy, and until then had remained out of the northern galaxy. Tarna made two. 'That monster is gaining a foothold in our galaxy!' Unfortunately, no one could stand against Frieza and his army, not now.

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Kakarott scowled at the message on his screen. Frieza had conquered Tarna. How much longer before the tyrant came for the rest of them? His army was said to be undefeatable. Kakarott grinned though when he read the sentence at the end of the message. 'We increase the pace of our training, starting tomorrow.'

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Frieza. The name alone made Jianu shake with rage. He was the reason her father was dead. Her father had once been in the King's elite. Eight years ago, they had been investigating some strange activity on a moon in one of their allies orbit, when they had run into Frieza's Ginyu Force. After losing many of his best soldiers, the King had been forced to retreat. But the Ginyu Force had not let up on them. Jianu's father, who had been the elite commander, brought up the rear, making sure that every man and woman made it to safety. As the King's pod lifted off, the Ginyu captain had leveled a killing blast at it. Seeing this, Jianu's father had gotten between it and his king, but had been disintegrated by the blast. 'Otousan, I will avenge your death.'

May 02, 2001

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*~ There are several names used for these things. The U.S. dub calls them rejuvenation tanks, rejuvenators, or isolation chambers, and may have called them regeneration tanks. I'm not sure on that last one but I like it the best. The manga simply calls them medical machines.

**~ Based on how Goku aged throughout Dragon Ball. He didn't grow significantly until sometime between the ages of 15-18 while he was training under Kami-sama. Before that he looked like he was ten.

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Disclaimer: Here we go. I do not own any of the characters from Dragonball, Dragonball Z, or Dragonball GT. They are all the property of Akira Toriyama, Bird Studio, Toei Animation, and Funimation Inc. However, all the other characters in my stories are mine. I'm not making any money off of this, its just for fun. And to top it off I'm a college student who works part-time at Wal-Mart so you know I don't have any money. So if you sue me you won't get anything.

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