Naruto

The Chaos Knight

Hey there... Well, I've been able to think a bit and reflect on a few things about my writing as of late. As many people may be aware of, writer's block happens to people in different ways. For some, its either a lack of inspiration or bordem... for others, its laziness or loss of direction/interest. My problem, is the fact that I had fogotten what I enjoyed about writing in the first place. While reading a few of the stories I have written in the past (not on the net), I realized that when I feel the need to type and then stop after 100 words or so, its because there was no real passion in it.

Thats whats been happening with all of my stories lately, and now that I know that, perhaps I can tackle the problem and snap its neck with ruthless abandon by writing the way I'm supposed to. Wish me luck everyone... 'cause I know you're all itching for more updates.

Continuation is a BLESSING!!

PS: This takes place two weeks after the last chapter.

Chapter 9: The Anti-laws of a Chaos Knight

Central Building of Konoha...

A simple D-ranked mission... retrieve that DAMN cat for the Daimyou's wife... Typical. Team 7, as far as Naruto was concerned, was being cut shit for slack when it came to the missions that were being given to them. The lack of any real action was starting to get to the blonde Genin greatly. What purpose was it for a ninja to watch kids, do laundry, apprehend blood-thirsty cats and all of that meaningless which-rather?

NONE, thats what!

This, of course, was all of concern as far as the missions went. Naruto's real dilemma was the slew of strange things that have been happening to him and the area around him. The inexplicable things that his body had been going through and his random outburst were MUCH more than just a little... unsettling, not to mention frightening to some degree. But what caught Naruto's attention the most (as if a 90 degree angled spine wasn't a factor), were his MASSIVE mood-swings.

Enduring the hardships of just being him, has hardened his ability to hide any and all of his negative emotions with a mask of false happiness. However, his little confrontation with Sakura and Ino before his first mission as a Genin, didn't exactly represent that little factor of his personality; he totally lost it. After he had left Sakura to rot, Naruto went to his apartment and felt worse than he had ever felt about anything in his miserable life.

He knew what he was doing and saying to her, but at the time, he simply didn't care. That was not like him in the absolute slightest and he knew it. He would especially hold his tongue around Sakura because of how much respect and love he held for her. What bothered him more, was that as he chewed her ass out, he felt something deep within him; a strange and wild sensation. One that loosened all of his emotions and shut down his brain inhibitors (meaning he held no words back).

He felt willful and free; as if nothing could hold him back from anything.

But this was not to last. Once he was able to isolate himself, Naruto felt lower than the filthy dirt he walked on. He tried to think of anything... ANYTHING he could say to let Sakura and Ino know that he was sorry. A simple apology didn't seem like enough to either of them. As far as he knew, based on his observations of them, they were a bit too high-maintenance for a simple apology. Of course, thinking like that only made him feel more and more helpless on the matter.

Even now, at the Central building, he was debating over what he could possibly say to the pink haired female next to him, despite the fact that he should have been listening to the mission success details.

Little did he know, that same pink haired female was troubled about the same subject...

Sakura felt TERRIBLE about herself after what Naruto had said to her two weeks prior to this day. A small peice of her believed that she didn't deserve that kind of treatment from anyone like Naruto, but the dominant part of her knew she had that coming for a loooooong time. Every searing word Naruto uttered to her was as painful as it was truthful, and now, more than ever, she wanted to make things right with him.

But for reasons that she assumed were massively obvious, Naruto seemed to be avoiding her at every turn.

She blamed him not, for Sakura knew that she must have grossly resembled the Bubonic Plague to him. Perfect example was the high-pitched scream that he lamented when he turned around and abruptly came face to face with her before running for the hills. That, alone, nearly made her chase him down and demand that he listen to what she had to say, though deciding against it.

Deep down, Sakura knew that Naruto probably needed more time, and although she wished she could make him listen, she also knew that attempting so could only make things worse...

So she waited.

If there was anything that both Genin were aware of, it was that they needed something to keep them occupied... to ease their minds of this particular matter. How was this possible?... Mission after mission.

"Well... I'm happy to see that your Team's success rate on these mission hasn't faltered Kakashi", the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi (who was accompanied by Iruka said).

The said Copy Nija bowed politely, "Thank you, Hokage-sama", he said.

Sarutobi rummaged through a few sheets of paper that layed on his desk, "It may interest you to know that we are quite bountiful in our missions these days and we'd like for you and your team to partake in them", he informed.

Kakashi inwardly sighed, "May I ask what they are?", he asked.

"Well, since there hasn't been much help with trash duty, babysitting and what-not, we have-"

"Oh give me break!"

The grey haired Kage looked up and saw a scowling Naruto with his hand up, "Whats that?", he responded.

Kakashi: Here we go...

"I don't mean to be rude or 'insubordinate', but are you serious?... Are you serious, Old Man?? For God's sake, we're Ninja! Why have we been stuck all of these petty missions. In fact, how can they even be calledmissions if we aren't experiencing any real danger or anything. Lets do something more exciting!", Naruto complained.

Iruka would not be havin' any of that, "You idiot! Neither you nor your teammates have enough experience to do anything more than these D-ranked mission. You should be honored just to be helping out your village in any way you can", he declared.

"Yeah, I get that much, but how can you possibly think that we'll get any valuable experience by doing these little 'chores'. If I'm not terribly mistaken, the fact that we're Ninja now, means that we should be going on dangerous missions to help out the village more", Naruto persisted.

Sarutobi sighed, "Naruto... While I understand your sentiments, it seems you need a lesson in how the missions work, "he said in his oh so pattened 'elder' voice.

The very moment that he heard the word 'lesson', Naruto's eyes dimmed out as he let out a big yawn. It would have been considered a perfectly normal reaction from someone like Naruto, IF(!) his entire jaw didn't overly expand and become mammoth-huge when he did so. Sarutobi and Iruka's faces fell into blank stares of hidden shock when they saw this. Naruto's teammates were facing the Hokage's direction to even notice, yet they were aware of the yawn.

After three seconds of silence, Sarutobi cleared his throat and began his little lecture about missions, ninja rank, and all of that boring shit that I won't dare to even get into because we already KNOW IT!!

/\/\/\

MEANWHILE, IN THE REALM OF THE GODS

A flustered Fukyouwaon was intently watching the blonde enigma as he pondered rigorously on a solution for his inconvenient over-growth. He'd plowed through countless plans; all of which had no real rhyme or reason, and thus, held no real solution. For weeks, the God of Chaos fumbled through various plots and schemes that didn't involve tearing the very fabric of reality in any way, shape or form...which proved to be quite a challenge considering the fact that Chaos was the issue here...

Ya never know WHAT the fuck would happen.

"Its the same problem every damn time; when ever Chaos of this magnitude and potential is involved, I get screwed. How the HELL is this possible when I'M THE GOD OF CHAOS?! I had no idea things had such a thick chance spiraling out of control", Fukyouwaon thought out loud before facing one of golden pillars of the Poo lof Visions, "Think Fukyouwaon, you chronic mentally unsustainable bastard (slams his head against the pillar), THINK!!"

With a sudden and short-lived surge of black electricity roaming upon his cranium, the black-robed God continued to mentally reherse plans and schemes. After much deliberation, he reached in his robe and relinqueshed a black book, outlined with a golden trim. He stared at the book blankly for a while before he looked back into the Pool of Visions.

"Hmmmmm... I wonder if he would get upset if I let Naruto barrow this for a while... ... Mah-he'll never figure it out", Fukyouwaon said to himself before he tossed the book into the Holy contraption, "This should buy some time for me to find a way to settle this matter... personally..."

Once the deed was done, the Dark God crossed his arms and began to think hard... that is, of course, until he was interupted by a deeply defined and rugged voice.

"Fukyouwaon..."

The black robed diety reopened his eyes and took in the new presence, "Well... Didn't think you'd find your way back here", he said.

"Well it was because of no desire to see your ugly mug, if thats what you're implying", the mysterious stranger said, "I actually came here to get my book"

Fukyouwan's eyes widened when he heard those words, "Your um... book? What book?", he asked as he tried to surpress his nervousness.

"My book... Ya know; the book that I let you borrow. A lot has happened in the last two hundred years and I finally know a way to finish it", the stranger explained.

"O-Oh... that book... ... Well... you see there's a funny story behind that one, friend-"

"You threw it down into the Mortal Realm... didn't you"

Fukyouwaon grew silent.

The stranger sighed, "... Have I ever told you how much I hate you as of late?", he asks.

"I'd very much appretiate if you didn't", the God of Chaos responded.

"How could you have put literature NOT MEANT FOR HUMAN EYES, in the MORTAL REALM?!"

"... ... ... Oh-I'm sorry, was inclined to answer that quesiton?"

The stranger slapped his forehead in exasperation before pointing and an accusing finger at the black-robed God.

"You... are going down there... to get my FUCKING book!", he demanded.

Fukyouwaon clapped his hands together, "There in lies the problem, old friend; ya see, we gods aren't allow to personally metal in mortal affairs. Thats why I'm conducting certain... experiments from up here. Get my meaning; if a god such as myself just waltzed his merry way into the mortal world without some kind of permission or intentional self-degradation... well... you should know better than anyone, what would happ-...", the dark god stopped in mid-sentence as he noticed that the stranger was gone.

He turned around and the LAST thing he saw was his aquaintance dropping into the pool himself. Fukyouwaon's jaw hung open as he witnessed such a pre-apocalyptic event...

"Oh... crap"

/\/\/\

Back in the Mortal Realm

After much convincing (but predominant bitching), Naruto finally got Sarutobi into allowing him and his team to attend a C-ranked mission. This was a chance to engage in some actual and much needed (in Naruto's eyes) excitement and danger. Finally, the opportunity he's been WAITING for was afoot! The only down-side to this momentous occaision was the fact that a cranky and crabby old man named Tazuna joined the picture.

But, of course, how could it be helped... he was the object of the mission. This little factor was definatly NOT on Naruto's list of things he loved. In fact, he and Tazuna didn't exactly get along... at all.

As the grey haired man observed Team 7 for the second time since he was introduced, he finally came to solid conclusions about each of them.

Sasuke was a brooding emo.

Sakura was a bitch in disguise.

Naruto was an idiot

And Kakashi was just plain lazy.

He inwardly questioned if there had been some sort of mistake. If these were the people that he trusted his life to, than Tazuna may as well jump off of a bridge; at least, thats what hethought. The meat of his worries, however, mostly lied on the blonde, hyperactive one, who was naturally over-come with excitement about his first real mission. Tazuna could understand his reasons of course, but...

seriously?... Acting so childish because of that?

"Hey, kid...", Tazuna rudely called out.

At the sound of that voice and the tone it outed into the air, Naruto threw on a rather comical sneer and stared at the rude old man in response to his call.

"Are you sure you're a Ninja?", Tazuna questioned in an almost mocking sense, "Because you certainly don't look or sound anything of the sort"

At this, Naruto grew VERY defensive.

"Wha-! Of COURSE I'm a Ninja! And what do ya mean I don't look or sound like the sort?!", the blonde boy questioned loudly.

The spiky haired old man pushed up his eye-glasses, "I mean, I don't know if I wanna entrust my safety to a knuckled-brained idiot like you. I mean, look at you; can you even fight?", he said.

"Can I even WHAT?!", Naruto shouted in disbelief, "Oh, thats IT; I've had enough with your STUPID QUESTIONS, old man! I AM a Ninja, I CAN fight and I'M gonna be Hokage some day!"

At hearing that last bit, Tazuna almost laughed for the first time since he arrived in Konoha... but simply scoffed it off.

"You... a village leader?", the gray haired bridge-builder said, "Don't make me laugh. The day an idiot like you becomes Hokage is the day I sprout wings and fly"

Naruto's cheeks puffed up with anger as he tried with all of his might not to go A-wall on this asshole. His face slowly fell into a light shade of red and Tazuna awaited to see his reaction with hidden enjoyment. Naruto clinched his teeth as he shook with anger.

Sasuke: Hey! Don't blow it, you idiot. If you do anything stupid you could blow our chances of even attending this mission.

Naruto: But he's SO ASKING FOR IT!! I swear to God, Sasuke, I'm gonna kill him; I'm gonna FUCKING KILL HIM!!

Sasuke: Just--keep--cool. All we have to do is take him back to his village. So you won't have to worry about any of his insults when we're done.

Naruto: Oh... okay, I guess thats coo-... Wait a second... Isn't it a three day trip to get to Mizu no Kuni?

Sasuke: ... ... ...

Naruto: FUCKING-A!!

After the mental conversation, Naruto actually managed to calm down some before simply turning away from Tazuna and walking ahead of the group with his arms folded behind his head. Watching the whole thing with little interest, the team leader Kakashi, concluded that the hot-headed Naruto had the right idea; to leave while it was still daylight. With his silent signal, the silver haired Jonin signaled to the others and they followed.

The steaming blonde continued on his way, inwardly cursing the old man behind him. But because of his simmering anger, one of his profanities slipped out of his mouth in a slight whisper.

"Douche-bag..."

"What the HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?!", Tazuna yelled from behind as he quickened his pace to catch up with Naruto.

"What, can you not hear me?", he responded.

"No, I can'thear you! SAY IT AGAIN!!", the angry old man yelled again as he was now directly behind the defiant blonde.

Naruto turned and faced Tazuna, getting right in his face (at least as much as he could, given there difference in height).

"I called you a DOUCHE-BAG!! There, did ya here that one?!"

"You... insubordinate little-!"

Seeing how the hopeless situation could've turned out, Kakashi sighed and intervened.

"I suggest that we keep our voices at a minimum volume from this point out", he calmy suggested, "Don't want to... disturb the peaceful ego-system, now do we?"

Naruto and Tazuna gave that little suggestion some consideration as they traded penetrating sneers toward one another. Before anything could escalate, Naruto decided to break the whole thing off at once. With a hearty 'hrumph!', the blue eyed Jinchuuriki, turned-tail and walked ahead of the group again.

Sakura stared at the walking Naruto, saddened and slightly dismayed. She wanted to run to him and explain herself right than and there. She probably would have done just that, had it not been for the level of disrespect that Naruto was just dealt. Sakura surmised that he really wouldn't be in a listening mood after being talked down to like that. Hell she wouldn't have been a happy camper, herself.

"Oh Naruto...", the pink haired Genin thought solemnly, "If only I could just-..."

Sakura knew that Tazuna didn't have to be so rotten to Naruto. So he was a little excited about going on a mid-ranked mission; big deal? It most certainly didn't mean that he should have been regarded so poorly; and from a geezer none of them even knew? Now even though Sakura still had a distaste for Naruto's antics here and there, she still considered his feelings and was extremely careful...

At least, now she was.

Putting all else aside until the time was right, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi and the reluctant Tazuna followed Naruto. UNFORTUNATELY(!), traveling in peace seemed to be a long-distant luxury as Naruto was suddenly struck in the diaphragm by an object that fell from the sky like an asteroid. The force of the blow sent him flipping and tumbling all the way back to Konoha's gates.

Coming to a stop, only when he hit his head against one of the giant wooden doors, Naruto struggled for breath.

"A-HOA!... Oh God...! My diaphragm...! A-HOUGH!", Naruto writhed in agony.

Kakashi immediately went into red alert and expanded his senses for any pulse of alien chakra.

"Protect the Bridge-builder!", he ordered.

On that wim, Sasuke and Sakura huddled around Tazuna in a defensive stance; each withdrawing their kunai knives. All manner of thinking was abandoned as they all prepared themselves for anything. However... nothing happened, and Kakashi found himself an empty plate; he didn't sense even a trace of enemy chakra. No intent to kill, no quickened heart-beats... nothing at all.

Slowly, Kakashi allowed his gaurd to lower as much as he could allow it and told his subordinates to stand down, but he remained cautious and kept his vision wide and clear. Sasuke managed to calm his mind enough to remember that Naruto had been knocked away. With a casual shrug, the Uchiha turned around and ran back to the gates, following the trail of shifted dirt left in the wake of Naruto's little tumble.

When he found the blonde Genin unharmed, he relaxed as stood a few meters away from him.

"Hey. You alright?", he asked.

Sasuke didn't exactly get an answer out of Naruto, for he seemed entirely fixated on the object that caused and accompanied him during his tumble; a glowing black book with a golden trim. Naruto seemed mesmerised by the book, most likely due to the shining. Only after another call from his teammate, did he snap out of it and stand up.

"What's that?", Sasuke questioned.

"I-I have no idea", Naruto responded without taking his eyes off of the book, "Since when did it rain books all of a sudden?"

"Who cares. Just put it in your back-pack and lets get going before they leave us behind", Sasuke said.

"Oh, gottcha"

With that, Naruto stashed the book into his back-pack and ran to catch up with the others.

-

Back within Konoha...

The slightly disturbed Shikamaru Nara walked down the streets of the village with his hands in his pockets. He was shaken by the unusal experiments that were conducted upon him when he went to the hospital.

"I mean, seriously; what other twisted inconvievable nonsense do they have brewin' in that shit-hole", Shikamaru inwardly questioned, "They totally forgot about my damn bite wound... I hope the Cloud Gods punish them good"

Despite all of the mind twisting experiments done on him, Shikamaru still had two major issues; one, being his unusal bite wound (recieved from Naruto)that, for some odd reason, bled out whenever we wrapped it up with a bandage; and two, being his hair. For an even STRANGER reason, his hair was no longer stuck as a static-charged afro-puff. Instead, it was divided into several thicks strands; strands that swayed and flowed within the air like it was underwater...

even when there was no wind blowing.

Shikamaru tried his damndest to ignore the dauting and curious stares he got from the other cursed at the fact that even the simplest solution was no longer plausible.

"Dammit; who ever heard of hair that couldn't be cut. I swear, something really screwy's goin' on around here", the wild-haired Genin thought to himself as he continued down the dirt-road.

Suddenly, Shikamaru heard a rather familiar voice from around the corner of one of the buidling he approached. After only a second, he recognized the voice and silently decided that he should steer clear of the person who owned it as much as humanly possible... Or at least he would've, had there not been heaving sobs involved.

He perched himself against the edge of the corner to listen in before immediately went into critical thinking mode with the situation at hand.

On one hand, if he avoided this like the pleague it really was, than he could potentially escape the terrible venting that was sure to come... but on the other hand, his self-serving avoidance would SURELY lead to a future arguement a year from than. Grimacing at the alternative, Shikamaru sighed with exsasperation... and emerged from the corner to confront a crying Ino.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at how tear-soaked Ino's face was; she was obviously crying for quite a while.

"Damn... must've been pretty bad if it has her shaken up this much...", the young shadow wielder thought before deciding to make his presence known, "Ino?-"

"I'M SORRY, OKAY?!", the platinum blonde yelled in a blind desperation

Shikamaru flinched back at the sudden response. When Ino realized that she just yelled at her teammate, she sunk into the bench she sat upon.

"Oh, sorry, Shikamaru... I thought you were someone else", she said sadly before looking at him in confusion, "What's up with your hair?

"Long story...", the lethargic boy said before taking a seat next to Ino, " Now, I don't suppose this 'someone else' is the reason you're all choked up?"

Ino sunk even further into the bench and looked more saddened than before. As much as his trouble senses were going hay-wire, Shikamaru plowed through his reluctance and did something that he wasn't used to doing in the slightest... offering a shoulder.

"Well... if you need to talk-"

"Okay-so Sakura was getting all high-horse about Sasuke-kun being on her team and I wanted to show her what was what, so I used him to make Sakura hate Sasuke-kun but it didn't work-Instead it totally back-fired, he found out how much she hated him, my plan failed, I freaked out on the guy for something that I talked him into-he crashes through my Mom's flower-shop, he wakes up minutes later, walks out-Sakura got on my last nerve with her little attitude-she's all like 'it doesn't matter' and I was like 'yeah right' and she all 'the student-body' and the bullshit-and... and... and he called me a bitch!", Ino ranted at an uncontrolable speed.

Not only was Shikamaru's mind numb from ACTUALLY being able to prossess everything that he just heard, but his mouth was haging open from surprise at how Ino was able to say all of that without taking in a single breath of air. Barely able to shake out of that daze, the raven haired Nara cleared his throat.

"More of your pointless boy-trouble?"

"What do ya mean POINTLESS?!", Ino shrilled as she wiped the exess tears off her face, "I'm in a major crisis here!"

Shikamaru scoffed, "Crisis, indeed. If you could just accept the fact that Sasuke isn't on your team, and never will be, you could avoid your troublesome little crisis", he said uncaringly.

"No, no, NO! You're missing the point! This isn't about Sasuke-kun anymore! Its about-... u-umm", Ino stopped upon finishing.

At hearing (dare I say it) hesitation, of all things, in Ino's voice, Shikamaru raised a rather curious eyebrow. Ino being shy about a boy or anyone else, is like Choji losing an eating contest... deliciously absurd... He simply HAD to hear this one.

"Its abooouuut??", Shikamaru pried.

The platinum blonde kunoichi had to resist biting her nails out of nervousness; she wasn't really sure if she was ready to reveal such sensative info.

"Well-I... uh... I-"

"Look, I can't help if you don't tell me"

"I know, but... you'd laugh", Ino timidly swayed with a embarassed blush.

"And what possible enjoyment could I reap off of this?...", the narrowed eyed Genin pointed out.

"He makes a good point", Ino thought with a bit of a comical sneer, "But... still"

The young Yamanaka seemed like she would comply, but, yet again, Shikamaru was declined of the info when she stared down at the ground and sighed.

"I-I don't know"

With a sigh, the lazy Ninja threw a suggestion out there, "Okay, lets take this one little step at a time then. Do I know the guy?", he asked.

Ino nervously pressed one foot over the other and twidled her thumbs together, "Well... more or less; I guess so", she said.

"... Alright, has he graduated with us or is he still at the academy?"

"He, uh... graduated"

Ino was starting to grow more and more reluctant to let this continue. Even more so, when she looked up and saw Shikamaru's eyes widen with anticipation. She inwardly groaned.

"You don't have to think about it too hard...", Ino said, still unwilling to say it right-up-front.

"Well at least give me a hint", the eager boy suggested.

This time, Ino cursed under her breath by accident. But since she was aware that her teammate caught it, it was too late to take it back. She swallowed hard.

"A hint... okay", she began with even more hesitation than before, "H-He... likes Sakura"

Ino was com-PLETELY unable to finish that sentence when Shikamaru began laughing hysterically as he threw his arms into the air before falling off the side of the bench and landing on the side of his head.

"NARUTO CALLED YOU A BITCH?!?", Shikamaru howled with laughter.

Ino's growled with embarassment and stood off of the bench; glaring down at the chordling Shikamaru.

"See?! I knew you'd laugh!"

-

The Outskirts of Konoha...

The journey to Mizu no Kuni was anticipated to be a rather long and quiet one, which is saying a lot seeing how Naruto was involved. The other members of Team 7 were left to themselves in peace without Naruto's ranting about how exciting or cool the mission was gonna be, and how absolutely psyched he was. That was questioning enough, but there was a simple answer behind such a strange phenomena...

Naruto DID have something to occupy himself with, afterall.

Throughout a vast chunk of the trip, NAruto had been positively itching to read the mysterious book that-umm... graciously fell into his lap. At first, he wasn't really sure if it was a good idea, but later he figured it wouldn't do any harm. Its not like he had anything better to do. No longer debating the subject, the blonde Genin reached into his back-pack, pulled out the black book and flipped through the volumes upon volumes of literature that had him speechless.

"Someone certainly has a lot of free-time... But still; I wonder where this book came from", Naruto pondered before flipping the book back to the first page.

Focused, Naruto proceeded to read the opening summary to himself.

'The wonderment that is Chaos is a vastly fasinating and grossly misunderstood entity that has both ransacked the world of its joyous glory, and enlightened those to new perspectives on human life and genuity. Despite its atrocious reputation as a sypher of pre and post-apocalyptic disasters, Chaos has more meaning and depth than one could possibly grasp with simple observations or meaningless perceptions; it is one of the very forces that have made up the fabric of existence itself. Without Chaos, and all of its under-appreciated glory, not only would life in the universe cease to be, but there would be no true order.

As a personal message to those about to steep into the literary world of the Chaos Knight, I strongly implore any and all persons who have even a small connection between the events in your lives and the literature within these pages in any way, shape or form, to lock this book into a box, toss it into the ocean and walk way... now.'

Okay... now he simply HAD to read it. He was a bit lost at how the name of the writer was torn out along with the peice of the page it was written on, but he wuickly got over. Naruto furrowed his brow out of excited curiousity and turned the page.

'Chapter One: Beyond Our Sight...

The common perception of the word peace, is an illusion... To those who seek it, a message is always sent, yet ignored so easily; a message that brings forth enlightenment; enlightenment that real peace lies only within the fabric of Chaos. The illusion of peace is there to decieve those who are foolish enough to belive in it, thus preventing one from truly understanding the knowledge and wisdom that discord brings. Only through seeing beyond our sight can one truly understand without explaination.

In the illusion of peace, one cannot see any threats and is blinded by the false serenity of blissful ignorance. And while blinded by such handicaps, one can be easily mis-lead; there are threats all around us. These threats come in all different shapes and sizes, and can be perfectly hidden bewteen the corners of both reality and the timelessness of our minds. In order to free ourselves from these meaningless illusions... we must learn that Chaos rules us all; we must learn to acknowledge it and to willingly accept it into our souls.

Even the simplest entities can be decieving. The serene system of Nature itself can even blind one to the truth of it all; the animals, the plant-life, the germs that keep everything alive... How can one truly be sure that a trap has not been set in place? How can one see beyond nature and grasp the Chaos within the cooridor of deceptive peace?'

Naruto gulped hard as he continued to read. He was getting excited over a damn book; that, in and of itself, was an enigma to be cautious of. But what really got him wired up was the fact that every word he read had a ring of truth to them. Was peace truly an illusion? Is everything around him really a trap? With those and several other questions now spiraling around his mind, Naruto stopped reading, closed the book and cautiously looked around the forested area that he and the others walked though.

Without freaking out at all, the blonde Genin watched and listened... to the peaceful workings of Nature. He squinted into it, trying to pry through the peaceful scene as best he could. To his discovery, he did find something that stood out a bit... a puddle in the middle of the road. Naruto stopped in front of the puddle and squinted at it while the others simply walked around it and went on ahead.

The only other person who stopped with him was Kakashi, who had his own reasons for studying the puddle. When he saw Naruto observing it as well, the silver haired Jonin looked at the boy curiously.

"Hmm... Does Naruto see what I see?...", he thought, "How could he notice it before the others?"

Once he was finished studying the strange puddle and Naruto, Kakashi signaled that it was time to move on.

"Lets go Naruto... We wouldn't want to get left behind", Kakashi nonchalantly suggested.

Without taking his eyes off of the puddle, Naruto absent-minedly nodded, and Kakashi walked around the puddle and proceeded onward. Naruto, on the other hand, was still squinting hard upon the puddle. He plowed his sight into it to the point where he began to sweat... but he saw nothing wrong with it... just an ordinary puddle.

"Huh... guess there's a big difference between seeing through illusions and being just plain paranoid", Naruto shrugged before jumping over the puddle.

BUT(!), just as he did that, he fell straight into an even bigger puddle, splashing water everywhere; his new book flipped within the air before it dropped to the ground on its spine. Naruto's head slowly emerged from the surface of the water with a comical squint on his face. He cursed beneath the water, making several bubbles rise and pop. Damn thing wasn't even there before.

Lifting his arm unto the ground to pull himself out, Naruto got to thinking that there was more to the little black book than met the eye. Unfotunately for him, getting out of that puddle wouldn't be a walk in the park.

"Hey! What the Hell?", Naruto grunted when he felt a strong tug at his leg.

He tried yanking his limb out, but it wouldn't budge. Upon his failed attempt, Naruto felt a strong and sharp jolt of pain strike at his leg.

"OUGH!! What in blue blazes is-... WHOA!!"

With that last shout, Naruto was completely yanked into the water. Sasuke jerked his head up at the noise and looked back. Thats when he noticed that they were short a person, as did the others.

"Wait... Where's Naruto?", she asked nervously.

"And where did that other puddle come from?", Kakashi inwardly questioned.

Suddenly, the said blonde burst high out of the water, screaming his head off. Not because he was startled, not because of the sudden emerge... but the fact that the lower half of his body was trapped within the jaws of a Great White Shark!

"AAAHAHAHOOW GOD-HELP ME!!", Naruto screamed before he and the shark splashed back into the water.

Sakura shreiked in terror and Sasuke dashed toward the large puddle and dived into it. After a few moments of silence... the Shark emerged out of the water again with a half swallowed Naruto stabbing its nose with a kunai knife and Sasuke mounded upon it's fin slicing into it with his own kunai. It submerged into the puddle.

After another few seconds, the Shark emerged again with Sasuke using his arms and legs to pry it's massive jaws open before launching one of his arms down its thrown and pulling a meesy looking Naruto out by force. Throwing the blonde Genin back unto dry land, Sasuke was now contending with the shark before he, along with it, fell back into the water.

"Sasuke!", Naruto yelled before diving right back in.

The Shark burst out of the water AGAIN(!) with Naruto holding both of it's side-fins from behind as Sasuke proceeded to pound the living shit out of it's stomach. Naruto slammed down on the Shark's head with both of his fist before Sasuke shoved a paper into its mouth. They both gave the beasts head another good slam before scrambling out of the water.

Naruto gave it one last kick in the eye for good measure before they both dived forward and hit the dirt JUST as an explosion of wet shark-chunks erupted from the puddle. Once the rain of sushi ended, both exaugsted Genin flopped to their backs, breathing heavily.

"What... the Hell... is going on?!", Sasuke nearly yelled betwenn his heaving breaths.

"Don't you get it, man", Naruto questiones in mildly freaked out tone, "I-Its the Chaos... It all around us, bro!"

BHHHAAHA-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAHAAAA!! OMG!... ... That was fun... I await your feed back!

Peace!