Chapter 3: The S.S. Ferdinand Tan

Naruto was sitting at his kitchen table with paper and crayons, slaving away at the invitations for his party. When he finished the first one, he held it out in front of himself, and proudly read it out loud:

"Where: Naruto's house

When: Tomorrow at 6:30 pm

Why: Cause I feel like it!!"

He smiled his fox-like smile and laughed out loud.

"This is going to be great!!"

Sasuke walked out to his mailbox and got the mail. When he got inside he went through all of the letters and read what each of them was.

"Bills, bills, junk mail, bills, love letter from Ino, bills....."

All of the sudden, he came across a piece of folded paper that was colored all over with crayon, and he immediately recognized it.

"Oh, great..... Another one of Naruto's stupid parties." He got a sour look on his face as he remembered all of the previous parties.

"Well, when his parties stop sucking, maybe I'll go..."

Sasuke tossed Naruto's invite and the remainder of his mail on the counter and walked upstairs.

"Sakura, would you go out and grab the mail, dear?" Sakura's mom yelled from the kitchen

"MOM!" Sakura´s always really irritated whenever her mother has the nerve to disturb her intense concentration when she gets ready in the morning. "Seriously! I'll do it as soon as I'm done getting ready! GOSH!!"

As soon as Sakura was finished, she went out and got the mail. She came back inside and plopped it on the table.

"Here you go, Mom." She said as she started to walk away.

"Thank you, dear. Now was it that hard?"

Sakura was about to say something rude and defiant when she stopped and looked at the mail on the table. She noticed a homemade looking letter, and she started to panic.

"Oh no! It's an invitation to another one of Naruto's parties!! If mom sees it she'll make me go!! I have to take it before she sees it....." Sakura thought desperately.

Sakura's mother walked up to the table, and right when she was about to pick up the mail to look through it, Sakura had snuck up in a very sneaky fashion, grabbed Naruto's invite, and dashed off to her room like a madman.

"I can't believe he's throwing another stupid party!!" Sakura said in an overly upset manner considering the circumstances.

"There's no way I'm going! Not to another one!!" she screeched as she began to tear up the invitation ferociously and angrily throw the scraps in the trash.

"Hmm, a party huh?" Kakashi muttered to himself out loud.

He was sitting in his breakfast nook eating (duh) breakfast and going through his mail.

"Well, it's not as though I have a life other than reading bad books, teaching and doing other ninja stuff, and it isn't likely that Sakura or Sasuke will go." He started to chuckle as he remembered Naruto's other parties. "That last one sure was fun."

So Kakashi, out of the goodness of his heart, and the absence of a social life, decided to go as the only guest of Naruto's party.

At 6:25 pm, Naruto was rushing around his house to get everything ready for his big party. He was wondering why he hadn't done all of this earlier.

"Geez, what did I do all day?" he thought out loud "Did I just sit here?"

When he started thinking about this, Naruto got sidetracked and simply had to figure it out. So he sat down on the floor Indian style with his arms folded, and made that squinty eye face that he makes when you aren't sure he can actually see anything or not, and went into super thinking mode. This went on for about 5 or 6 minutes until he heard a knock at the door. All at once, as if he weren't doing anything before, Naruto jumped up and energetically answered the door.

"Hey there." Kakashi said as he stood on Naruto's door step reading "Icha, Icha Paradise"

"It's... you? You- you're , ON TIME?!" Naruto said with a totally baffled look on his face

Kakashi was NEVER on time for anything, not practice, lunch, or anything. But he was on time for some 12 year old's stupid party that he knew nobody else was going to? This guy just got weirder the more you got to know him.

Kakashi looked up "You gonna let me in?"

"Oh, yeah." Naruto was still a little stupefied because of Kakashi's sudden punctuality.

"Okay, we'll start the movie as soon as the others arrive!!" Naruto said, oozing with anticipation.

"Oh, by the way," Kakashi started dully "I don't think the others are coming." He said as he started reading again.

"Huh? But, why not? The last party was so much fun, though!!" Naruto started to chuckle as he remembered the last party.

"I dunno." Kakashi said

"Oh well.... More for us then....." Naruto drooped like a wilting flower. He could have cared less if Sasuke came, but he was heartbroken that Sakura wouldn't come.

Kakashi looked around, hoping to find something else to talk about so that he could change the subject, and liven up Naruto's spirits a little.

"So, since when have you owned a La-Z-Boy?"

"Since a couple of days ago! I bought it at a flea market!" since Naruto had a one-track mind, he instantly forgot everything he was thinking about before, and ran over to his busted recliner.

Kakashi followed behind him, reading his dirty book.

"How much did you buy it for?"

"25 bucks! Can you believe it?" Naruto embraced the chair as if it were something special.

"25 bucks? Is there something wrong with it?" Kakashi said, STILL reading.

"Umm, it's not broken, not really. Jo-Chan called it a 'functional comfort adjustment' and....... Hey!! How can you see anything while you're reading that bad book?!"

One of the things that bothered Naruto most is when people didn't give him their full and undivided attention when he was talking.
"A 'functional comfort adjustment'?" Kakashi chuckled

"Put the book down!!" Naruto yelled angrily

"Hey, can I sit in it?" said Kakashi, who was still thoroughly absorbed in his book, as he started for the chair.

"Fine, but don't break it!" said Naruto bitterly, with that squinty-angry-pouty face.

"Not bad. Where's the footrest lever?" Kakashi said as he sat down, got situated and started fumbling around for the lever, doing all of this without ever taking his eyes off of the book, mind you.

"No!" Naruto said firmly, still wearing that squinty-pouty face of his.

Kakashi looked up and laughed a little. "Why not?"

"Because your big, fat body'll break it!"

"Don't you mean 'functionally comfort adjust it?"

"Shut up!! Just don't do it!!"

Kakashi smirked deviously, even if you couldn't see it through the mask. He could see that he was making Naruto upset and he simply had to tease him.

"I'm gonna do it!" Kakashi said sarcastically

"Noo!" Naruto screamed

"I'm pulling it! I'm pulling it!!"

"Nooo!!! Dooon't!!"

Kakashi started to pull it.

"IIIIII'MM PULLING IT!!"

"NOOOO!!!! DON'T!!" Naruto totally snapped. He dashed over and leaped on top of Kakashi in order to stop him, but the impact caused Kakashi to raise the footrest anyway! And the instant the lever was pulled, the world swirled around them, then all of the sudden they accelerated and the world around them stretched until they abruptly entered a world of swirling color.