A/N: Standard disclaimer about not owning either of these franchises: Tales or Naruto. And, in a change of pace, webcomic reviews. Most anime/manga fans will probably know about Megatokyo, but I'll recommend it anyways. Second in terms of storyline and much funnier is questionable content, though the content is indeed questionable- foul language abounds. Ye be warned, tykes. The Order of the Stick is probably the single funniest webcomic out there, especially to geeks, especially D&D geeks. However, you don't need to play the game to appreciate the comic- it's utterly hilarious either way. XKCD is great and offbeat, but very hard to describe. And I'll finish this with an obscure one- Exterminatus Now. To quote TV Tropes Wiki, a site I'll pimp next chapter, It's what happens when you cross Warhammer 40,000, Sonic the Hedgehog, and a truckload of black comedy. It's utterly hilarious, and really doesn't depend on fans of either for the funny, but again, foul language abounds. Go read it now.

Ch. 6

They reached the desert that day after a few hour's walk, and passed through without incident, arriving back at Triet shortly before nightfall. Kratos handled the check-in, giving them all suitable false names. Takeshi had settled in to his bed, enjoying that everyone else was awake and alert and giving him an opportunity to relax and listen to some music (A/N The Static Jacks. They're actually a band from my high school who somehow managed to get a CD up on iTunes. They're surprisingly really good.) Unfortunately, this peace would not last as Colette burst into the room. Takeshi was instantly alert, jumping out of bed and calling fire in his hand as he looked around for the danger, headphones still on, iPod swinging from the end of the wire. As you can imagine, it looked fairly ridiculous, and Takeshi soon realized that there was no iminent threat. He also noticed a short kid with long, bluish hair he had never seen before.

"Can I help you?"

"Oh it's horrible! Genis just told me! Lloyd's been captured by Desians!"

Takeshi, of course, heard nothing of this. His music was still on and his headphones were very good at canceling out noise. He realized this and took them off, but there was no stopping Colette.

"We've got to save him! I don't know what we're going to do but we've got to save him! He's my best friend, he only followed us to try and protect me (At this, the kid looked a little uncomfortable), oh this is just horrible, we have to go in and rescue him, they'll probably kill him..."

She continued in that vein and showed no sign of stopping. Takeshi decided to take a more proactive role. He turned to the kid.

"So, who're you, and what in God's name is she talking about?"

"Give me your name and I'll give you mine!"

At this Takeshi blinked. He chuckled.

"Takeshi Hojo, ninja."

"Genis Sage, wizard. As for what's going on, our friend was taken prisoner. We were sneaking out here, trying to find you guys, but the Desians were looking for Lloyd and they found him and took us prisoner. They let me go, but I didn't know what to do, so I came back here and now we need to save Lloyd!"

Wonderful. Needless complications already.

Takeshi turned and looked at Colette.

"I'd advise against a detour like this. It's our job to release the seals, not free your friends. It's needless and dangerous, and puts the entire world in danger."

"No! We need to rescue Lloyd! It's my fault that he got captured!"

At this, Genis looked at the ground, looking slightly nervous again. Takeshi noted this, but looked at Colette's face. She had an air of determination about her that would not be easily swayed. Takeshi knew a lost battle when he saw one.

"Alright, let me take a look at the facility, and I'll see what I can do about infiltrating it. I move faster on my own."

He was tempted to borrow a phrase from Shikamaru here. He could just tell what a pain in the ass this was going to be. His rest interrupted, he went down to see Kratos and Raine and make plans.

Sometime later, he was walking quietly up to the facility where the mark was held captive. Lloyd was his name, supposedly easy to recognize due to the fact that he was dressed in nothing but bright red. The plan was simple extraction. He had done such things many times, and Raine, Kratos, Colette, and Genis (who was apparently a fearsome spellcaster) were easily available as backup. He thought it would be a piece of cake.

(A/N: You know that whenever that happens, they're pretty much screwed.)