A/N: I actually made quite a few modifications to this chapter (The entire Naruto/Sasuke fight, for example.) I realized, belatedly it's true, that I had vastly underpowered everyone that wasn't Naruto in this story, and attempted to correct it later. However, that didn't quite sit well with me, so during these modifications I've changed quite a few things. I also found myself guilty of character neglect. Reading back through my writings, the characters, although funny at times, were very staid in their interactions. I sought to correct that in this chapter and leave you guys wondering at a few things I barely hinted at the first write through.
Chapter Two
Asinine Rationalizations
Sasuke stood outside the tent, diligently awaiting his Seal to go off and force him to chase the Namikaze down as a cat would a mouse.
He was no expert in seals, but he was proficient enough to consider himself literate. It had been very disillusioning for him a child to realize that seals were not the mythological things they were made out to be. They couldn't reform worlds or destroy nations with a swipe of a brush. They were far more straightforward in their use. A good example would be the common explosive tag. The seemingly erratic symbols were, in essence, commands. An example of a command array would be: Store energy and wait until preset stimulus instructed before releasing in the specified manner.
Another example would be the tag he left on the tent. If any living thing left the perimeter, it would glow. And from where he was standing he would see it. The only thing that disrupted his comfy views of Sealing: were space and time Sealing. For those, the laws of physics took a bow.
It surprised him slightly when Jango came out wearing a large grin. Jango's smile only widened when he saw Sasuke standing a couple of meters away, hastening his steps to bounce up to the Uchiha.
"My, you're looking down right grumpy there, Mr. ANBU." Jango said, greeting the stiff backed Uchiha amiably.
Sasuke glanced at Jango briefly before returning his attention back to the tent. It was entirely possible that Jango was attempting to distract him to allow the Namikaze a head start. It wouldn't work, but it was an amusing attempt.
"Naruto is getting changed." Jango said by way of explanation.
Sasuke glanced at the monk as the brown haired man frowned at him, posturing himself to imitate Sasuke's straight-backed and rigid posture. Jango, Sasuke had observed, seemed not to walk so much as he did skip from place to place.
Sasuke grunted in a tone that vaguely resembled a question. Uchiha's were never known for their eloquence, only their efficiency in battle.
"Don't be like that, Mr. ANBU." Jango said cheerfully, gazing at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye, still mocking Sasuke's posture.
"My name is Sasuke. You might as well use it." Sasuke grunted.
Jango nodded wisely, the feather in his fedora bouncing lightly in the air with the movement.
"So, what you bothering Naruto for anyways? I get that you want him to be your leader or something but why does it have to be him?" Jango asked, his accent changing to something more Eastern hemisphere. Sasuke couldn't quite place it.
After a moment's pause wherein Sasuke decided how much he wanted to explain to the monk, he said evenly. "It's as I said in the tent, he's the last of the Namikaze line."
"Oh, I get that." Said Jango dismissively. "It's the fact that his little sister can't just take the position that's got me confused. As the only real member of the Namikaze house, Naruto won't be managing too much, what with the lack of clansmen to manage and all. So I can't imagine that it' be that much of a bother for his sister to do it instead of draggin ol' Naruto down to the city to play 'seek the wealth' games I believe you people call it."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he turned to face the smaller man, an expression of great tolerance scrolled across his face.
"You don't know much about politics, do you?" He asked.
"Nah, that's for the fancy people in the important hats." Jango said easily, waving a dismissive hand in the air.
Sasuke frowned. The 'game' Jango had mentioned earlier had originally been set up by the second Hokage after the first's death. While in its' principles simple, over the years it'd had, in Sasuke's opinion, escaladed to a nearly cannibalistic intensity. 'Seeking wealth to the betterment of yourself and Konoha' was what the Second Hokage had said that every Konohan should aspire to do. Although, from what Sasuke had experienced during his life. This simple motto and degraded to simple, expansionist greed. He'd seen houses sign treaties and break those same treaties the next day.
"If Naruto were not to return, then the house seat would remain empty." Sasuke explained, glossing over what he thought of the matter.
"And what's the problem with that?" Jango asked with what Sasuke could see was a purposefully blank expression. "It's just a seat. I ain't ever heard of anyone getting harmed by a seat."
Sasuke bit back his temper and decided to play along. Until the Namikaze emerged from the tent, he had time to kill.
"Because if the seat remains empty it will invite power struggles." Sasuke said grimly, returning his attention back to the tent. "Clans would vie for the power the empty position would give them. They wouldn't intend it, indeed they may believe they are helping, but that would only harm Konoha. The Namikaze clan is a very new power to Konoha, relatively speaking…"
Sasuke's speech ground to a slow halt. Frowning, he said, "I'm explaining this all wrong. Allow me to start from the beginning."
"Becoming Hokage automatically instates individual's family for Clan status. When Minato Namikaze became Hokage, a new clan was born. What makes this important is that clans have say in how Konoha is run. That tangled path of politicking to see who would claim the unprotected seat would lead to anarchy as my home tears itself apart."
Jango hummed and nodded as he thought about what Sasuke said.
"It seems to me." Jango said slowly after a few moments. "That anarchy wears two faces, both the creator and destroyer. Destroyers go around and topple empires; make a canvas of clean rubble where creators then can build another world. Rubble, once achieved, makes further ruins' means irrelevant."
Sasuke blinked at the depth surprising clarity the monk chose to speak with.
"What do yo-"
"Away with our explosives, then!" Jango declared passionately, throwing a fist to the sky though his face was still downturned.
"Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world. But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most unlovely and most unforgivable. Let's drink their health… Then meet with them no more."
Sasuke blinked again. "That was rather profound, coming from what I've seen of you." He said.
"That was what my pa used to say. He was in the war and all." Jango said softly, a subdued expression on his face as he gazed at the ground.
Then Jango smiled suddenly, and said cheerfully, "Me? I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and –if you're not careful – those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book. And, personally, I like it much better when someone else does the decision-making. That way you have legitimate grounds to whine and complain. I tend to find both whining and complaining quite interesting and amusing, though sometimes – unfortunately- it's hard to choose which one of the two I want to do." Jango sighed dramatically, "Life can be so tough sometimes."
Sasuke snorted lightly. Jango was very much like how from the few memories he had Naruto in his youth, if a bit more thoughtful and a fair deal more eloquent. But the Naruto he'd seen on stage, and in the tent had been… detached, in some way. It was like he was carrying a heavier weight than he had been before.
"How long as Naruto been so solemn?" Sasuke asked. It rankled him that, although they technically grew up together, Naruto had changed so much over a mere seven years. People, in Sasuke's experience, didn't change much or – if they did change- they didn't change that quickly. Which implied that Naruto had always been the way he was now. Quite the contrast of personalities; happy go lucky versus the wary future leader of a new clan.
"Oh, Naruto has always been solemn as long as I've known him, but when he's at his best, there's a smirk underneath. He knows how to kick back and have fun when you need to, though." Jango said, smiling.
Sasuke pulsed his chakra to make sure that the seal was functioning properly. Naruto had been in that tent supposedly changing for a long time.
"You're a bit strange, you know?" Sasuke asked, after he confirmed that the seal was perfectly fine.
"The ways of Jango are mysterious and incomprehensible." Jango said, nodding sagely.
Line Break
Naruto pulled the sleeves of his familiar, gray, black-trimmed jacket over his arms slowly. The jacket was a gift from Jango when they first met and Naruto had kept it in good repair throughout the years. Jango's recant of the tale would be a fair bit different than his own, of course. And it would involve a few ninja, monks, and possibly a demi-god. But then again, just about everything Jango did would be different from anyone else. The way he appropriated things, for example. Jango didn't steal things exactly. Jango traded things that he felt were of equal value to what he wanted. A red rock with orange striations running throughout its core in crisscrossing patterns had replaced his clock, he had discovered.
Naruto had sealed the instrument and the rest of his possessions into one of his scrolls that he usually kept tucked into his pouch on his belt that held his orange cargo pants up.
Jango had mocked him for his choice in coloring for a time when they had first partnered up. 'A terrible ninja color', 'Travesty of fashion everywhere', 'you must be an embarrassment to ninja in general', were a few of the contemptuous phrases that Jango had thrown his way throughout the years. Those had stopped after Naruto had managed to sneak a few snakes and a couple of other poisonous critters into Jango's sleeping bag, sometimes when the monk was still occupying it. No, Naruto could be quite stealthy when he wanted to be. It was how he had evaded Konoha's spy network for so long. However, the fun had all had come to an end now. The heavy mantelpiece of boredom and aristocracy was being set around his neck. Jango would probably make sure he choked on it. That's what friends were for.
Naruto stepped out of the tent, spotting Jango conversing with the overly formal ANBU.
"So," the ANBU said, "You traded a dead man's scarf for another dead man's sword. But… the sword itself belonged to someone dead, so by the same logic-"
"Don't try," Naruto interrupted, striding towards them. "Logic doesn't work on Jango."
"I bought a seal against it off a traveling fortune-teller," Jango explained. "It lets me add two 'n' two and get a pickle."
Jango turned to face Naruto. "Pack up your stuff?"
Naruto nodded, patting his pouch gently.
Jango smiled, saying, "That's great, mate. I always wanted to visit Zentin."
"Zentin…" Sasuke said slowly. "It wouldn't do for the head of the Namikaze estate to be seen there." 'or the Uchiha.' Sasuke thought.
"You should been seen somewhere… grander."
"Grander?" Naruto smirked. "Mr. ANBU, until roughly twenty years ago, Zentin was an unofficial capital of smugglers from the whole Fire Nation and, in some cases, beyond. It doesn't look it, but trust me - there is a lot of money in that place."
"How do you know that anyway?" The ANBU looked at Naruto curiously.
"Poker."
Sasuke blinked.
Naruto shuffled the deck of cards that appeared in his hand with a faint smile.
"Money. Cards. I need money if I want to play with the big boys and girls in Konoha."
"You're the head of the Namikaze." Sasuke pointed out. "You don't need to worry about the amount of money a few games of poker could bring you. The patents on some of your father's seals that didn't go to the Uzumaki family are still bringing in a sizable amount of money I've heard."
Naruto frowned, and made the cards disappear.
"I'd rather have some money not linked to my families accounts at first. I prefer to err on the side of caution."
Sasuke's brows met in a frown. "How long will this take? We need to make it back to Konoha soon."
"No more than a week or so." Naruto said airily, turning on his heels and began walking away.
"Oi!" Jango called out after him. "Aren't you going to tell your boss that you're leaving?"
Naruto shook his head, not even bothering to slow down. "Gensen should know of my reputation by now well enough to understand that I leave when I wish."
Jango shrugged and broke into a jog to catch up to his friend, Sasuke shadowing just behind him.
Naruto could feel the ANBU's eyes on his back as he and Jango made their way across the yard away from the tent.
"It explains why Jiraiya had a hard time finding you. When you make decisions, its on whim, not foresight."
Naruto smirked, calling out over his shoulder, "I'm impossible to find."
Jango grinned.
"Why's that?" Sasuke asked, an intrigued expression crossing his dispassionate face.
"You could say it started as an exercise that became an addiction." Naruto replied.
Line Break
The three of them had made camp that evening in a small clearing that they'd found just off the trail. Their separate tents stood like the three stars of Orion, in so much that they would disappear with the dawn.
Naruto had volunteered for the first watch of the night. He sat by the campfire that was far removed from the tents so as not to accidently set them aflame with a stray ember or spark, staring at the remains of his unfinished dinner without really seeing. His mind was elsewhere, turning and falling through his quagmire of memories.
Naruto stood and walked into the forest to gather some wood, but not far enough away that he wouldn't sense an intruder. He stooped and picked up a piece wrist sized branch and tucked it under one arm. His motions were precise, his face blank, his eyes far away. As he continued to gather wood, his motions became slower and slower, like a machine winding down. Eventually, he stopped completely and stood for a long minute, as still as stone. Only then did his composure break. And even when there was no one there to see, he hid his face in his hands and wept quietly. His body racked with wave on wave of heavy silent sobs. Crimson coloring bled into his hair, as blood would pool and drift around a corpse in water.
Tears of mourning fell like the cascading tides of a waterfall onto the rocky surfaces of his hands.
Line Break
"Pass."
"Pass."
"Fifty thousand."
"Fifty thousand... And ten more." Naruto slid the tokens forward.
The older man, his hair salt and pepper and face slightly wrinkled, puffed on his pipe calmly.
"Fifty... and another fifty."
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
The pool was already rather high. With what was on the table it would amount to two hundred thousand, easily, and that was far form his first game.
"I see the intent... But I don't see the cash, Mr. Yutin."
"Tough words for a youngster who barely has more than what he put on the table."
"But I do have it." The blond shinobi riposted calmly. "And more, if I need it. While you don't seem to."
"Cocky brat, aren't you?" The older man said with, cocking his eyebrow.
"You two gentlemen shall play... or talk?" The only woman by the table took a drag of her long, thin pipe.
"Ah, Telana... As to the point as always." The man laughed. "Anyway, since our young friend seems to have... doubts." Yutin calmly wrote something on a scrap of paper.
Naruto picked it up, cocking an eyebrow.
"Sure of yourself, aren't you?" He said finally. "This is not money, Mr. Yutin. And I lack time."
"My little business not to your liking, my boy?" Yutin asked with amusement.
"Lack of time, as I said. I need to be somewhere by the end of a week."
"Ah." The older man nodded. "Though... I'm sure we can work something out."
Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully. While he would have liked the cold, hard cash more, there was something to be said about the more... regular profit for the upcoming months. You never knew just when you could use some extra money. Or a safe heaven – a change of scenery was always an… Option, sometimes sliding into a rather burning need to lay low and avoid those pesky hunter-nin until things blew over. He just had to hope that it never came down to that.
"Tell you what... change it into a five percent profit for the next three months and several meals and board kind of deals redeemable anytime I want, and you have a deal."
"Deal, boy." Yutin laughed. "You have guts. Very well! If you win I-"
"I already did." Naruto smiled. "Royal flush."
Telana chuckled.
"Seems like you will be feeding somebody for free. In every sense of the word, Yutin!"
The older man sighed, showing his full house.
"Alas, it appears so." He said with good humor.
As much as he liked gambling, he was a businessman. He never bet more than he could afford to lose, and the game was interesting.
"Then it appears you will be my guest for the period of your stay in our quaint little city, Naruto." He smiled. "Just as well, just as well. I planned a small party, and it seems you, my young gambler, will be my guest of honor tonight. I invite your companions as well, of course."
Which was just as well, really. He had it planned for several of the wealthier of his clients, yet they were lured away by a banquet at some fat nobles' house.
'Feh. As if some stuffy old baboon can throw such fine parties like mine.'
Drinks were already bought, foods and entertainments reserved... It would be a good publicity in a way. The young man cut a swath through the gambling establishments and he would bet there would be people willing to play against him. People with a lot of money to burn. With a bit of luck, Naruto's patronage might allow him not only to redeem his losses but also make a tidy profit on side bets and some added prestige.
'Ah. I love win-win situations.' Yutin thought as he smiled cheerfully.
Line Break
Naruto was relaxing in the room that Yutin had set up for him. It was a bit much for him, honestly. Half of his life he'd spent in circus tents or cheap inns. The plush cushions on the feather couch or the silk and intricately weaved curtains hanging over his stained glass windows seemed overly extravagant to him. They stuck him just the same way they had when he was young and living in the Namikaze estate: Ostentatious.
'I suppose I'll have to get used to it' he thought grimly, drumming his fingers on the recliner's mahogany armrest.
He'd made quite the sum of money during his time with Yutin. Sasuke – he'd learned the ANBU's name shortly after leaving the circus – hadn't been pleased with all the delays. But then again, the Uchiha scion would just have to learn how to deal with it. Disappointment in life was just as guaranteed as death, and Naruto knew of both.
The Uchiha hadn't told him his last name, but you'd have to be dense not to have noticed his heritage. Black hair, with equally black eyes, a personality that more befitted a rock, and an unerring sense of duty to one thing or another made him rather distinguishable. That and he remembered the Uchiha during his academy years spent back in Konoha. As rookie of the year, Sasuke tended to stand out back then as well.
Naruto yawned lazily. It would be another two hours or so before they were scheduled to leave port and sail for a small village in the Land of Waves. From there it was a quick carriage ride to Konoha, where Konoha would probably put on a small show of his arrival. He'd be properly displayed and then told to manage his estate well for the good of Konoha and all of her interests.
Naruto rose from where he'd been lounging, glancing about the room anxiously. Three days he'd spent in this place gambling and being entertained, and it was already suffocating him. He shuddered to think what being made to be respectable in Konoha was going to do to him.
Naruto strode to the door, flinging it open. Sasuke stood in the doorway, eyebrow raised and hand up as if to knock. The Uchiha had changed out of his 'peasant's disguise' and was dressed in his ANBU gear, black tank top with a white overlaying vest, baggy black pants which no doubt concealed a kunai or two strapped to the inside of his calf. He'd forgone the characteristic mask that most ANBU wore, he hadn't explained to Naruto as to why. The Namikaze hadn't bothered to ask.
"I'm going for a drink." Naruto announced stiffly. It seemed appropriate to him that he should while away the last two hours in pleasant debauchery. The Uchiha seemed to have very fixed views on how Nobility were supposed to act. Doubtless it had been pounded into him since the moment of his birth, like it had been into Naruto himself. The difference between them was that Naruto had managed to escape all that while the Uchiha represented it.
"One of the serving women told me about a gentleman's club not to far from here. We can go there." Sasuke informed him. He wasn't about to let the Namikaze out of his sight, not now that they were so close to being back and his mission almost through.
"Nope. I'm looking for a building that looks like it's about to fall down." Naruto said, pushing past the Uchiha and stepping into the hallway, doing his best to ignore the silk draperies hanging from the ceiling.
Sasuke frowned as they went down the stairs. "Why?"
"Because I want to get drunk, get into a quick fight, get thrown out of a bar, and possibly robbed, before I'm thrown into a comfortable jail back in Konoha."
"We should get Jango before we leave then." Sasuke said, stepping through the door and into the midafternoon sun, blinking against its bright rays.
"He'll already be at the boat." Naruto said distractedly, casting about for the most disreputable street he could find. "Jango's always had a fondness for boats. It was one of the reasons he left the monastery the way he did."
"He wasn't sent on a pilgrimage?" Sasuke asked. It was very unusual for monks to leave their homes unless they are seeking wisdom, are sent by the abbot, or are banished.
"This isn't a talk you should be having with me." Naruto said, picking a direction and heading down it, throwing Sasuke a meaningful look. "That's a discussion you'll have to have with him, if he's willing."
There lapsed a silence between the two as Naruto ducking in and out; down and through alleys until he came across a tavern marked The Horse and Strumpet by a sign that hung lopsided by a single, rusted chain under a rotting awning.
Naruto smiled as Sasuke grimaced. To Sasuke it looked like the building was going to collapse at any second if the moldy wood and entrance columns were anything to go by.
"Perfect." Naruto said satisfactorily, walking up the creaking steps and pushing the door open. The door opened with a creaking, cracking noise that made both of the ninja wince.
Stepping into the bar, both Naruto and Sasuke noted that the interior was slightly better than the exterior in that the wood wasn't moldy, it was just poorly varnished with splashes of different colored staining splotched around indiscriminately.
The bar tender, an old, wizened, bespectacled man with white hair slicked back from his temples glanced at the duo briefly before returning to filling up a white haired, elderly ninja's drink. The ninja appeared to be asleep, his head partially buried in one arm as drool leaked from his agape mouth. The headband the man wore bore an insignia that neither Sasuke nor Naruto could readily identify from the angle they had positioned themselves at the bar at.
"Six pints of whatever you have on tap." Naruto ordered, smiling at the bartender in a friendly, if slightly unnerving manner while placing a wade of bills on the counter.
The bartender was a little worried by the smile one of the young men who'd entered his pub was giving him. People dressed as finely as he was, backed by what was clearly a ninja - did not smile at being in a place like his. So, it was with quick - if fumbling, fingers that he poured the duo their drinks and made a hasty retreat, but not before collecting the wad of cash from the counter.
Naruto gathered his five drinks onto a small, dirty tray and went to sit at the back of the pub at a booth that was ever so slightly cleaner than most, Sasuke following sullenly behind him. The Uchiha wasn't pleased to be here. Naruto found himself not caring.
A man that was sitting at a booth next to the two, looked a the two men, looked at the five pints, did a swift burst of mental arithmetic, arrived at an answer he liked, a grinned a stupid, hopeful grin at them.
"Get off," Said Naruto, pulling the tray closer to himself. "They're mine." Giving him a look that would have made an Iwa Kage think twice.
"Why are we here again." Sasuke asked, reaching for one of the drinks only to have his hand swatted away by an indignant Naruto.
"Because I want to become slightly buzzed for my trip home." Naruto explained, upending one of the drinks down his throat. As the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, intoxication wasn't easy. He'd manage though.
Slamming the bottle on the table, Naruto let out a satisfied sigh as Sasuke stared at him in disbelief. This pattern continued for another two drinks before a thin, wheezy voice interrupted Naruto's jubilations.
"Perception is funny, don't you think?" Naruto asked, shooting the Uchiha over the last remaining pint of his four on the table.
"What?" The Uchiha began to ask before being interrupted by a snarky, weasel-like voice.
"Ah, looks like we got some fine flesh slumming it with the trash in these parts."
Naruto and Sasuke both spared the lanky, skinny, semi-prematurely bald – he had a mist headband wrapped around his head in an attempt to hide just how bald he was - weasel of a man, dressed in his green, overly tight smoking vest and purple slacks. Him and his two khaki clad goons flanking him, big, useless muscles bulging under purposelessly under their small shirts.
Naruto dismissed them as nothing but an annoyance and returned his attention to his drinks. The weasel of a man couldn't be higher than Chunin and the goons weren't even worth bothering with.
Naruto began chugging his fourth drink, musing at what Sasuke was probably thinking. Judging by the lines that had appeared around the Uchiha's eyes, Sasuke's line of thought was probably something like, 'How am I supposed to protect the Namikaze and defeat these idiots while not attracting attention that two nobles are in this dump of a place.'
Naruto was quite certain that under normal circumstances the Uchiha wouldn't have batted an eyelash as he stepped over the three freshly made corpses on his way to wherever it was Uchiha made their way to. However, what the scion didn't know that Naruto already had things well in hand. You didn't survive for long out in the world unless you knew how to either make yourself invisible, or break those who'd seek to take advantage.
"Oi!" The Goon on the left shouted. "Listen to the boss."
'Boss' just nodded, giving Naruto a dark look as he finished his fourth drink, slamming into onto the table with a satisfied sigh.
Around the side of his bottle, Naruto watched Sasuke's eyes flick around the bar.
"Listen to me you blonde prick!" The boss snapped, slamming his hand onto the table sending the drinks clattering to the floor.
Sasuke stiffened in preparation to move.
"Settle down, Sasuke." Naruto said, smiling gently at the Uchiha, ignoring the nearly frothing thug.
Sasuke glared at Naruto.
"This idiot wants to rob us, Naruto and we can't draw attention to ourselves." Sasuke growled, finally using Naruto's first name. The Uchiha must really be angry with him.
"I know." Naruto replied simply. "But you need to ask yourself this. I ordered five drinks. I've already drunk everything I brought to the table. Where did the fifth drink go?"
Sasuke suddenly relaxed – as much as a ninja awaiting a combative show could relax - an interested glint entering his eyes.
Naruto's open-ended question was answered, as another Naruto appeared behind the trio, grabbing the two thugs heads and in one deft motion slammed them together, knocking them unconscious. Before the two idiots could hit the ground, the clone delivered a low kick to the back of the boss's leg knocking him forward and to his knees. The real Naruto slid out of his seat in a quick, easy motion, grabbing the thug's boss by his throat in a vice-like grip with his left hand and delivered a devastating punch into his stupidified face. There was a sickly crunch and Naruto felt the would-be robber's nose break under his fist. Another blow to the forehead and the thug went slack.
"Pansy." Naruto muttered, dropping the man in a heap on the ground.
Naruto withdrew another small wad of cash and dropped it onto the table Sasuke was still seated at.
"Sorry for the mess." Naruto said flatly to the bartender who was regarding him with a critical eye.
"Come on, Mr. ANBU. We'll be late for our trip." Naruto said half heartedly as he made for the bar's exit. "We wouldn't want to be late for my party, would we?"
Naruto opened the door and left, Sasuke trailing behind.
'I think I've seen a little of the smirk Jango was talking about.' Sasuke mused as hoisted himself out of the flat cushion to follow after the Namikaze.
End of Chapter