Disharmony of the leaf

"Huh," Discord hummed as he took in the chaos surrounding him. "I guess dreams really do come true!"

Looking around, it seemed that Fishcake and Pineapple-Head were gone. But where to? Now to find Fishcake and find out what the hay is going on!

Discord took off to the skies, trusting his instincts to lead him right where Fishcake was.

~0~

Discord flew over the village, taking in the sight of pleasant pandemonium. Well, it would have been pleasant without all of the panicked screams and people trying to kill each other. Along with trying to kill him – Discord dodged a few shuriken that were thrown his way by a few of the Sound Ninja.

With a smirk, Discord snapped his paw and turned the shuriken into giant neon purple and pink bees the size of a normal Human's thumb and sent them after the Sound Nin. The Sound Nin gaped at the sight for a few seconds before quickly dodging the bees.

The bees were harmless of course, they simply were creatures that originated in the Everfree Forest. But to get stung by one…well, that was a riot.

A Sound Nin gave a very unmanly yelp as one of the bees stung him in the back. He began panicking as one rightly would after being stung by something as large and mysterious as the strange bee. It took the man about two seconds to realize that he wasn't in pain. When another second passed and nothing seemed to happen, the man gave a brief snort, thinking that the bees were merely another distraction. But instead of snorting, he let out a burp accompanied by bluish-pink bubbles.

His companions looked at him curiously, and he burped again, this time a little more violently. "I (burp) can-(burp) can't (BURP) s-(BURP) stop! (BURP)"

By then, the invading Ninja realized that the Burp-Bees were something to be avoided. The Burp-Bees attacked as if the Sound Nin had invaded their precious hive, and continued their onslaught.

Discord left the Sound Nin to frantically deal with the swarm, and continued on his way. He knew he was close to the Fishcake, when he came upon a scene in the forest where Pineapple-Head was facing eight Sound Nin. They weren't moving, and the boy had an odd, unnerving look on his face as he looked up at the sky, not even noticing Discord.

The Sound Nin began laughing as Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu receded. He was going to die, nothing more to it.

"Cut off his head!" a Sound Ninja called out.

Shikamaru knew he could do nothing as the Sound Ninja shot out of the tree at him, kunai in hand. Suddenly, the ground underneath Shikamaru rippled and he was pulled out of the way at the last second. The Sound Ninja that had been about to kill him stared dumbly between Shikamaru and the space he had previously occupied.

"You know," Discord purred in his usual way when he was about to cause chaos supreme. "This is a great day. I'm able to cause as much chaos as I want, it must be my birthday!"

A giant pink cake appeared in the middle of their little gathering, and another Discord wearing thick makeup, a sparkly headdress and tassels on his chest rose out of the cake. It was a scene that unfortunately burned its way into Shikamaru's mind and refused to leave.

The same could likely be said for the Sound Ninja, as one of them began screaming, "My eyes! My eyes!"

"Party favors all around!" Discord called out, and a pony piñata began chasing one of the Sound Ninja irately screaming, "You want candy? I'll give you candy! You brats are always beating me up, well, let's see how much you like it!"

Another was accosted by blowout noisemakers, while another had finger traps on all of his fingers. One Ninja was running and desperately throwing any projectile he could at the Discord who had come out of the cake and was currently trying to give him a kiss.

Two other Sound Ninja were tangled in Silly-String, another was running from a furious donkey with a stake and wooden mallet, and as for the last two, Discord simply tapped them both on the head. The color drained from them until they were nothing more than muted colors. One began rolling around in the leaves, yelling about money, while the other stood possessively by a tree and angrily screaming and threatening anyone who dared come near it.

"Discord…" Shikamaru stared at the scene in shock. He rubbed his neck which had a barely bleeding scratch on it. "…thanks…this was totally out of character for me…"

Shikamaru collapsed to the ground, exhausted and relieved.

"Here," Discord handed a glass of chocolate milk to Shikamaru. At the Pineapple-Head's questioning glance, Discord added, "It'll help you get back your energy. Now, give me the down-low, the 411: what the hay is going on?"

Shikamaru took a sip of the chocolate milk before almost throwing it when he realized he was drinking the glass, not the milk. But after a quick reassurance that the glass of milk wouldn't harm him, Shikamaru quickly explained about how the Sand and Sound Ninja had invaded. He, Naruto, and Sakura had been sent to follow Sasuke, who in turn was in pursuit of the three Sand Siblings who seemed to have a crucial role in this invasion.

"Naruto and his team went off that way," Shikamaru pointed in the indicated direction.

"Thanks, Pineapple-Head!" Discord grinned. "And don't worry too much about those guys. My chaos lasts for quite a while!"

When Shikamaru finished his glass he threw the milk away, and cocked an eyebrow as it shattered (melted?) into liquid. Okay…But he did have his energy back now.

When Asuma came on the scene, he was expecting the worse. What he wasn't expecting was a man trying to fight off some paper-horse thing spewing out candy; another sobbing as party favors continued blasting around his head; one running away from what had to be a demented Summons in an outfit that made Asuma immediately want to blind himself; two were in a losing battle with neon-pink and blue sticky string; another had resorted to hiding in the giant cake as the donkey banged on the outside of it with his mallet; another was futilely fighting with the finger traps as they flung him around; one Sound Ninja glared hatefully at Asuma as he gathered leaves into one pile of many; and the last one was doing something to one of the trees that would immediately shoot this story up to an 'M' rating.

"Ugh…" Asuma turned away in disgust. Meanwhile, Shikamaru was sitting in another tree's branches watching the clouds.

"Shikamaru?" Relief overtook Asuma's confusion. "What's going on here?"

"Naruto's Summons, Discord, did this." Shikamaru shrugged. "It's kind of a drag."

"Well…" Asuma admittedly started to feel sorry for the man being chased by the candy-spewing horse. (The Ninja had finally collapsed and was now a sobbing mess as the horse threw candy at his head.) "I guess I'll just apprehend them…"

Upon having the chaos disrupted by Asuma's intervention, the nine Sound Ninja (well, seven, actually) gratefully and very willingly surrendered. The one who was gathering leaves refused to part with his precious foliage, and he was screaming accusations at the two Konoha Ninja and his comrades that they were all dirty thieves. The one who had been having some very personal time with his tree had to be dragged away from it kicking and screaming much to Asuma and Shikamaru's dismay.

"…I'll carry his pants," one of the Sound Ninja tiredly volunteered when Asuma and Shikamaru failed to get his pants back on. The Sound Ninja's uniform thankfully covered the man's p****, so everyone was saved from the unpleasant sight.

~0~

Meanwhile, Sasuke's energy had completely drained, and he was fighting back the Curse Mark, leaving him immobile. Sakura was pinned to a tree by one of Gaara's sand claws, and she couldn't move either. Naruto was questioning why he had summoned such a tiny Toad while cursing Discord for not being there to help because those stupid sheep sawing logs above his head had thrown their logs at the two Ninja.

Oh, and to add to their troubles, Gaara was a strange combination of sand-beast and Human, and the guy was extremely bloodthirsty.

"Hey!" the little Toad was complaining about Naruto being a kid and how he wanted candy.

"Sand Shuriken!" Gaara flung his limbs and sand projectiles shot out towards Naruto.

Naruto grabbed the Toad and jumped backwards, successfully dodging the attack, but he misjudged his strength and slammed into a tree, where he fell onto its limbs. Naruto gasped as he had the wind knocked out of him.

"Humph, you're weak…" Little Toad muttered, ignoring Naruto's 'I just saved your life, you ungrateful turd' glare. "But what's with that guy?"

Naruto observed Gaara again, and shivered when he realized that more sand had covered the Ninja.

Those eyes…those hauntingly familiar eyes…

Gaara was taunting and threatening Naruto and his friends. While that truly angered Naruto, he couldn't help but think of how sad it was. Gaara was angry and he was suffering alone.

Naruto felt like he was looking at a mirror image of himself; the thing that he could have become. He had hated all of the villagers and even himself and he didn't understand why. But then, he had Iruka, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei and heck, even Discord. They showed they cared in their own ways. (Somewhere, Discord felt a pang in his chest.) The ones who acknowledged him as an equal; the ones he would fight for.

"What's the matter? Are you afraid of me?" Gaara questioned, squeezing Sakura's prison just a bit more. "To fight for the sake of oneself? To fight for the sake of others? You should just love yourself and fight for yourself! That is the definition of the strongest one!"

Flexing his claws, Gaara demanded, "Now fight me! What happened to that boldness you had earlier?! Show me your strength! I'll just throw that strength to the ground!"

Naruto had a difficult time bringing himself to move. Part of his hesitation was fear, along with the fact that he could see himself in Gaara; the thing that he could have become.

"What's the matter?! If you don't fight me, I'll kill that girl!"

"Darn it!" Naruto forced himself to move.

He charged at Gaara, "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Wind-Style!" Numerous mouths appeared on Gaara's body. "Infinite Sandstorm Devastation!"

Naruto and his clones were hit head-on, all of them dispersing.

Naruto was blown backwards, but instead of slamming into a tree, he landed on a familiar cloud of pink cotton candy.

"Discord?" Naruto looked up at the very welcome sight of the Draconequus.

"So sorry for being late, Fishcake!" Discord grinned.

"You…" Gaara glared at the very unwelcome newcomer.

"Me." Discord. "She," a female statue suddenly rose from the ground, "He," now a male statue, "and It!" and up popped something that looked like Picasso made it while drunk. The various 'art pieces' leapt at Gaara, but the boy easily smashed them with his clawed arm.

"Even if you have shown up to help, it will not make a difference! I will crush you along with everyone else! I will prove my existence!"

"Discord," Naruto stood up on the cloud, a determined grin on his face. "I don't want to lose!"

"Let's do this, Fishcake!" the Chaos Lord cheered, an uncharacteristically serious look on his face, though there was still the glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Who's that guy?" the Toad named Gamakichi asked.

Discord chuckled as he cracked his knuckles (though instead of a crack there was the sound of a duck's quack) and said, "People keep asking me that lately. How's about this for now; I'm an ally to Fishcake and his friends and a nightmare to anyone else! Is that easy enough to understand?"

"Enough talk! Let us begin!" Gaara roared as he leapt forward.

Discord floated up above Naruto while the ninja got into a defensive stance, Gamakichi sitting on his head. The trio prepared for the toughest battle they've ever fought.