Skull Valley

Tora's Tiger Strike hit the rapids below, exploding water in every direction, but it also accomplished his hope of stopping himself in the air for moment. He smiled for a brief moment before his fall resumed and he fell into the water. The rapids were fast moving and disorienting, it was the best Tora could do just to keep his head above the water, hoping the water would slow down further down stream.

After a minute he heard the sound of the water ahead changing, only to realize as he got closer it was the sound of an approaching waterfall. "Oh, come on!" Tora looked around but there was nothing he could grab onto, and he couldn't swim away, all he could do was brace himself.

Tora fell down the water fall crashing into the water below, swallowing a good amount of salty water, before breaking for the surface as fast as he could. The water here moved at a leisurely pace compared to the rapids above, and he easily pulled himself onto land and began to cough out the water. "I hate this place so much, when this is all done I'm living in a city."

Tora examined his surroundings and found him self in a valley almost comically full of bones. "This looks kind of of familiar. I'm pretty sure this is from early Dragon Ball but I don't remember where exactly." Finding anything familiar was a win for Tora right now.

From his memory Tora remembered Goku coming here looking for food on his own and saving Emperor Pilaf's goons from a large group of wolves very easily. "Wolves might come out soon, I'll have to keep my guard up just in case." Tora figured unless his father the Tiger Hermit was a hack then he should be at least comparable to Goku at the start of the series, or at least strong enough to defeat enemies Goku defeated with no effort.

Tora kicked clear bones until he made a decent sized circle of room to lay out his soaked clothes from his backpack. "All the foods ruined." Tora didn't throw any food away in case he became desperate but he didn't want to eat any salt water drowned onigiri is he didn't have to. He grabbed some dry wood from the nearby dead trees and tried his best to start a fire. "What I would give to have been in boy scouts right now." Tora wanted to dry himself and his clothes off as well have a light for this dark valley, the waxing crescent moon in the sky only helped so much.

During his pitiful attempts at a fire he heard a loud sound above his head. "Nnneeaoowww!" He looked up a saw a small green airplane coming into and landing inside the valley. "No way... is that?"

"Geronimo!" He heard one of the two figures that got out of the plane shout, he looked an anthropomorphic fox dressed like a ninja.

"Shu, be quiet." Said the woman. "Sorry."

Tora couldn't believe it, Shu and Mai, Pilafs minions were here. "And if they were here that means this is early Dragon ball, really early Dragon Ball."

Tora had been silently hoping he had been in this time period for two reasons. The first being the start of the series is when the threats are at their lowest giving Tora time to become stronger before bigger threats arrived. The second being that there was a perfect wish to steal! The very first wish in Dragon Ball was made by Oolong who wished for panties to prevent Pilaf's wish of ruling the world, if Tora could handle it correctly he believed he'd have the perfect opportunity to turn himself into a Saiyan without significantly changing the story.

Shu and Mai being here also meant one more thing, "Goku will be here soon!" If Tora could join up with Goku now, he'd be able to go with him to Pilaf's palace and maybe even go to Master Roshi's for more training.

Tora came back to reality after he heard Shu and Mai step on a bone loudly and began to hold each other shivering in fear. "I wanna chew on one of these bones, but I'm too scared!" said Shu. Tora couldn't help but laugh out loud at that, and they screamed at the sudden noise before turning and seeing that it was just a child.

They quickly composed themselves as if they hadn't just been literally shaking in their boots. "Beat it kid before you get hurt." said Mai.

"You beat it, I was here first." They all stopped as they heard a yell from above, they all turned and looked up. A boy with spikey hair, a blue gi, and a red staff tied to his back jumped off a branch in the cliffside and landed in the valley in between Shu and Mai and their plane.

"This kid likes to jump." said Shu. "He's a hopper alright, how many kids live around here, get out of here already." said Mia.

Goku pointed at all three of them "You guys get out of here, look I'm not going anywhere, that's my big birdy. I saw it first so you three just stay away."

"What in the world is he talking about?" said Shu.

"He thinks your plane is a bird." Tora said before Mai turned and looked at him. "Kids I think I hear your mommies calling, go home."

Suddenly shining red eyes appeared in the darkness encircled around them. Tens of growling wolves came into the light and slowly approached them.

"This is great! Now their is enough for all of us!" said Goku.

"Better than my soaked food I guess." said Tora before getting in his stance.

The wolves charged forward at the group and Shu and Mai started screaming. Tora punched the first wolf that jumped at him, it flew off in the distance but he couldn't see where, he was too preoccupied with the several other wolves enclosing on him. He jumped backward trying to get some distance and turned to see Goku cheerfully laughing while easily beating several wolves. "Should I be less defensive? If I'm almost as strong I might be able to fight the way he is."