This is my first story! Please Read (and be merciful if it stinks)!

Disclaimer: I admit, I don't own Naruto; but I do own this: Bobby Joe Chicken walked down the street and was hit by a car. THE END.

Chapter 1

Naruto slurped his ramen hungrily, and finished it within a matter of seconds. The unfortunate woman next to him stared him wide-eyed and thoroughly disgusted. She got up and left then.

"Wow!" Ayame said. "This must be a new record!"

"No," Naruto explained. "My record is 32 bowls of ramen, and I'm only at 29. Getting close though!"

Just then, Sakura charged into Ichiraku, grabbing Naruto's jumpsuit and yanking him out. "Gotta go! No time to explain!"

"Hey! I was just about to eat my next bowl of ramen!" Naruto complained

"And, he hasn't paid the bill yet!" Teuche interrupted.

"The b-bill…" Naruto stammered. Teuche handed the bill to him, and Naruto just stared at it.

"What?" Sakura asked, glancing at the piece of paper in Naruto's hands. "How much ramen did you eat?!" she screamed, when seeing the total. "Gr. Oh, well. This will have to do." She jammed her hand into Naruto's pocket, tore out the frog wallet and slapped it on the counter.

"Hey! That was my wallet!" Naruto complained. Sakura then practically dragged him the rest of the way to the Hokage's office where they were going to be assigned a B- ranked mission that Naruto clearly forgot. Weird, normally Naruto would be excited at this.

"The mission," Tsunade explained once a panting Sakura brought Naruto into the room, "is to retrieve this." She handed them a sketch of what looked like a small beetle with glowing red eyes.

"The silver beetle?" Sakura said. "You know that is just a myth."

"It is. Was. Yesterday, a genin discovered a person with it, though he didn't know what it was. Next time he looked, the person was gone. Apparently it was stolen."

"Stolen?!" Sakura said in disbelief.

"Yes. It is in Wind Country, probably on the outskirts of the Sand Village, although we do not know exactly where."

"So, um, what exactly is the Silver Beetle?" Naruto asked shyly. Everyone froze.

"You don't know anything, do you?" Sakura asked. "The Silver Beetle belongs to the Ishii clan. They won't reveal what it does, or anything else about it for that matter. All we know is that it was made around the time of the founding of the Leaf Village and has belonged to their clan since. This was never confirmed and many claim that it never existed."

"Hang on," Kakashi said, "if someone was guarding it, why are you sending us?"

"They are not a ninja. An anvil was found at the scene, and ninjas don't go around carrying anvils, do they? Anyway, this mission will take about a week, so someone else will join you on this mission. A Jounin."

"Ha! We don't need the help of a Jounin!" Naruto proclaimed. "We can do this ourselves!"

"Here he comes now," Tsunade said, ignoring Naruto. This made him rather annoyed.

The door opened to reveal a boy about Naruto's age, maybe a little older, with messy brown hair and turquoise eyes. He wore a blue t-shirt with red at the waist and ends of the sleeves, with brown shorts that went to his knees, but that was all he wore.

"This is Yutaka Ishii. He is from the Ishii clan himself," the Hokage explained.

"He's a jounin?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes…" Yutaka responded.

"He has already been briefed and is ready to go," Tsunade explained. "You will leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Hai!" they all responded.

………………………………

Naruto spent the rest of the day packing. He wondered what Yutaka was like and whether he really was a jounin. This would be his hardest and longest mission yet, right next to the one to the Mist Village. He also wondered what the Silver Beetle was like. What sort of powers did it have? How come it was so important to them? He hoped he would find answers to all of these questions on his mission.

……

Sakura made sure she had all of the supplies that she needed for the upcoming mission. She couldn't help but wonder, though, what powers did the Silver Beetle have? Did it give the Ishii clan some sort of power? And how on Earth was it made?

……

Sasuke quickly packed and then took a nap. His dream was about their mission. He was in a cave beneath the Sand Village with everybody else. They were locked in a death match against five other ninja. Yutaka was near death, and three of their opponents were dead. Sasuke was pinned to a wall by an enemy ninja, and Kakashi and Naruto were fighting the other one. Sakura was helping Yutaka, but her efforts didn't amount to much. Then, the ninja that was fighting threatened to kill the bug (which was alive). Everybody screamed not to, and Sasuke tried to go help Naruto and Kakashi, but the ninja that held him cut off his arm like he had threatened to do before. Pain shot through what remained of his arm and he couldn't help but scream. That is when he did it. The ninja killed the bug, and Yutaka died with it. Then Sasuke woke up.

……

Kakashi quickly packed and then took a nap. His dream was about him riding a unicorn being chased by flying pink hippos and corrupted garbage trucks. He really should stop eating raw fish before bed.

……

Yutaka was worried. The sacred Silver Beetle had been stolen. He couldn't believe that it had been. It wouldn't just kill the entire clan on the spot if it died, the whole world would be plunged into disaster. The silver beetle was the one thing that connected humans with animals. Well, the best he could do was put on a light-hearted façade and hope for the best. It was times like this where he wondered how he had passed the Jounin Exams. We will never know.