"Tarble! You're up and about!" As soon as I left the ship, I was greeted with five hugs, one from every member of my team, and then one from Zeck.
"Fight me! I wanna see how strong I am now!" For Pepper, that was the same as 'I want to spend time with you!'
"Later, Pep. Right now…-"
"You know you sent us to a planet that barely has any wildlife left, and natives who don't seem to eat, right, Tarble?" Tommy interjected.
"...Yeah. Don't worry. This isn't where we're settling. We're just going to be here for a while. Maybe a few months or so, I don't really know. We just really needed to be here."
"I don't see what's so special about this place." Pepper complained, picking up a rock and throwing it out at the nearest body of water. It skipped until it wasn't in view anymore.
"Don't worry. This place is special, Pep… Even a bit magical. Come on, we need to go greet the locals."
"I…should stay behind. Just in case." Tommy wondered, but I shook my head.
"Don't bother. Namekians are a peaceful race… And their warriors are, on average, a lot stronger than you guys anyways. I'm honestly not entirely sure Pepper could take them in a fight, if it came down to that." I told him. The triplets all made a face.
"I could take a Namekian!" Pepper exclaimed.
"You don't even know what a Namekian looks like." I reminded her, "Besides, I'm not even strong enough to beat their strongest warrior. Just… we're all going to go greet the Namekians. Remember that we're not here to fight with them. Be friendly."
"...I wanna fight them…"
"I'll punch you in the face later, Pepper." Lynn joked. Strangely, that seemed to brighten Pepper's mood, as we flew through the Namekian sky towards the brightest power level we could find, which I hoped was Nail, but wasn't entirely sure, since all Namekians could easily hide their power levels just like martial artists on Earth could in the future.
…
When we got to the power level in question, it actually turned out to be not just one power level, but a few dozens of smaller energy signatures. It was a Namekian village. As we touched down, the Namekians seemed to stop in place to gawk. Children, running around, went silent and retreated into huts, and came back with older Namekians by their sides. Shortly after our feet touched the ground, an elderly Namekian with a cane came out of one of the buildings and greeted us. "Hello, outsiders. Welcome to Namek, we sensed your arrival. I am Elder Kacai, and this is my village. What can we do for you?"
"I would like to speak to the Grand Elder." I said bluntly.
A shadow seemed to form over Elder Kacai's face in response to what I said, but there wasn't any other way I could think of to go about it. I did want the Dragon Balls, but I knew that it was inevitable that I spoke to Guru if I wanted to use them, and he wasn't an idiot.
If I wanted to take a little, then I'd need to give a little, too. And let Guru read my mind.
As such, speaking to him before collecting the Dragon Balls would inevitably save me a lot of time.
Unfortunately, life was never that simple.
"The Grand Elder is aged, outsider. He does not have the wherewithal to speak to everyone who comes to this planet looking for him." Kacai said.
"..." I gritted my teeth, annoyed, but part of me had expected it to not be that easy. Theoretically, we could race around the globe, looking for energy signatures until we found Guru, but I didn't know what would happen. Maybe Guru would tell Nail to let us pass, but there was also a chance that I'd just end up battling the guy, and even if I could beat him, it'd just put us on the Namekians' bad side.
No, we needed to play by their rules. "I understand. What do we need to do?"
The other four looked at me like I'd just chosen to chop my own tail off, but I shot them all a glare before they could complain about playing by the Namekians' rules.
."..." Kacai glared at us for a moment, very obviously assessing the five of us in his mind before he nodded, seemingly making his decision. "Come." Without even giving us a second glance, Kacai's feet left the ground and he began flying away.
After a gesture from me, the team and I followed him. We could all sense some of the warriors from the village following us, but when Tommy nodded toward me about it, I just made a dismissive gesture. It didn't matter.
If we made the Namekians our enemies, then we'd already have lost the entire battle.
I just hoped that my team could get a hold of their Saiyan antagonistic instincts long enough to realize that.