Thanks loads for the reviews, guys! Here's the fifth chapter, hope you find it entertaining...

Chapter 5

"What the….?!?" Gojyo stared and stared at the scroll as if he couldn't believe his eyes, pinched himself to see if he was dreaming, then stared and stared some more. It couldn't…. it couldn't possibly be THE Maten Sutra, could it? Of course, he knew the Maten Sutra was some kind of ancient scroll with lines of intelligible gibberish scrawled across it, but that was about as far as his knowledge on the holy script extended to. His eyes narrowed with suspicion as a sudden thought struck him. "Hey…. you trying to pull our legs, idiot saru?? As if we're gonna fall for a fake like this."

It was a very surprised Goku who returned Gojyo's scornful glare with "Huh? What are you talking about" clearly written on his expression. Oh shit. This means that the kid wasn't lying; it was impossible for Goku to lie without turning as red as a beetroot or looking like a bug had just crawled up his ass. Which means that the scroll was the real thing…… It took a little time for both his and Hakkai's mind to process that little fact.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS, BAKASARU?!?!"

"WHAT?!?!? GOKU, PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS!!"

Both outbursts erupted simultaneously. Goku smirked, thoroughly enjoying the reactions his pinched treasure was bringing. Even Hakkai, with a reputation for being the calmest ever living thing on earth – able to lecture others on physics even as underground walls and ceilings are caving in, for example – looked slack-jawed much to Goku's amusement. "I grabbed it off Sanzo's robe," he declared delightedly, as if it was the easiest thing on earth to do. As the others continued to stare at him incomprehensively, he ventured to explain further. "Sanzo was sleeping, so I took this from his robe." Sweatdrops.

"Oh man! The cranky monk is so gonna flip if he knew you took his precious sutra!" Gojyo howled with laughter, having recovered from his initial shock in an amazingly short time. "This is so damn cool! The one thing that Sanzo wouldn't part with for the world in my hands right now! Let me savour this moment for a bit." He fondled the scroll lovingly with closed eyes, and then insisted that Goku snap a picture of him striking a sexy pose with the sutra around his shoulders.

"Goku, this… this is wrong… you should return this to Sanzo immediately!" Hakkai actually looked worried, which, considering the fact that he is perfectly capable of laughing while driving off cliffs, could signify a very serious issue here. He snatched the scroll of Gojyo's still-showing-off-form, ignored the loud outcry that followed, and thrust it into Goku's hands determinedly. A look of horror suddenly flashed across Goku's face. It seemed like the thought of having to return the sutra to its original location had never dawned upon him.

"Oh, come on, Hakkai! Don't be such a spoilsport!" Snatching the sutra back from Goku's limp arms, Gojyo put on his most persuasive look. "Don't you realize the almighty Sutra is here right now, in our hands? We can find out the reason behind its power, the reason behind all this Gyumaoh destruction nightmare, everything! Aren't you ever curious, 'Kai?"

"Well….. I've often wondered what those printed Chinese characters actually mean," Hakkai started slowly then caught himself falling headlong into Gojyo's carefully laid trap. "Wait…. wait a minute! We can't do this! Why, if we ever get caught, Sanzo will… will….."

"Break all our fingers one at a time, set us on fire, tear all our vital organs out then bury us alive. And that's just for starters," Gojyo remarked cheerfully. "Aww, don't be such a wussy, Hakkai! I've never known you to chicken out of doing anything dangerous. And besides, this will only take 15 minutes, we'll have this damned thing scrutinized and examined and returned to Sanzo in two shakes of a duck's tail."

Hakkai finally gave in. There was no way he could persuade Gojyo out of it, and truth to be told, he HAD been rather curious about the sutra since the day he had saw its unleashed power destroying a whole swarm of youkais. And he had to admit Gojyo's little sermon there had some sense to it, what other better opportunity is there to finally settle their inquisitiveness regarding this holy scripture which Sanzo would rather die than to part with? And besides, 15 minutes was a relatively short time, wasn't it? 15 minutes, 15 minutes….. he'll have to keep on reminding himself that. The sutra was laid flat out on the table, and the three of them crowded around it with Goku prodding and sniffing, Gojyo stroking and caressing and Hakkai trying to decipher the complicated characters covering the entire face of the sutra.

Half an hour later, Hakkai finally stirred from his hunched position on the table and noted with surprise that he was the only remaining one still holding an interest for the sutra. Goku was chomping away happily at some pork buns, stolen from the kitchen no doubt, while Gojyo was flipping through some corny looking magazine and grinning away as his imagination ran wild. Busy as he was, Goku noticed Hakkai's slight movement and waved at him readily from the other side of the room. "Is that thing really interesting, Hakkai? All those boring words seemed to make no sense to me," he remarked mournfully. "And it doesn't even look good to eat."

"Oh yes," replied Hakkai cheerfully, all traces of his earlier reluctance long gone, "The words were characters of olden Chinese, a few thousand years ago, that's the reason why you couldn't make head or tail out of it, Goku. I've only had time to understand the first line of the sutra, and its meaning isn't yet clear to me, but give me a couple of hours and everything should be comprehensible by then."

"Tsk. The ape wouldn't even understand a word even if it was written in modern language. I bet…." Gojyo's words were suddenly cut off by a gust of wind that blew into the room and carried the sutra out the window before anyone could even move a muscle. For a split-second, there was sudden, absolute silence in the room. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard. Then the fact that the sutra had flew out the window finally sank in.