Sorry for the late update. No real excuse for the lateness. Enjoy the new chapter though!

Spenge: Good guess, but that's far too tough of a mission for some fresh, wet behind the ears Genin to take.

On the Land of Fire's roads

The group of five walked in a standard formation, one on each side and since there was one extra, a man in the middle. In this case, a girl: Sakura.

It was common place to have the weakest member either in the back or the middle. The group decided wordlessly that it would be Sakura.

Completely fair in Takai's eye.

After all, what was a fan-girl to do against a bandit? Annoy him to death about her so called 'beloved'? Takai scoffed at the thought, drawing a glance from his teammates, but they said nothing to him.

The air was quite humid out. As it always was. He supposed with the lesser foliage density within Konoha itself, the city wasn't ever as humid as the forests surrounding it. He certainly felt it, but the mild discomfort wasn't even worth noting.

Sakura on the other hand complained and whined at every opportunity. "Ugh! I'm getting so sweaty!" She moaned once again.

Takai couldn't resist rolling his one eye.

He couldn't believe her.

How did she become a ninja? She had absolutely nothing besides above average intelligence and amazing chakra control. But even then, that chakra control was on the account of her having next to no chakra.

After being around them so often, he had a good feel for his team's reserves. Kakashi was about Low Jonin. It didn't make much sense to him at first, but he supposed it was due to him not having trained- at all, actually. He'd never observed the man train.

It came as a small surprise to Takai when he realized he had higher reserves than Sasuke. It was a fascinating discovery that Sasuke either didn't noticed or chose not to acknowledge.

But of course, the positively monstrous reserves of Naruto dwarfed all of theirs put together and multiplied many over. If he didn't still have garbage for chakra control, he could probably make more shadow clones than there were ninja in Konoha.

Takai hummed quietly to himself.

Jinchuuriki. They were stupidly powerful. Even one of the lesser tailed-beasts in a Genin put that person solidly over their peers, even with zero training with the beast.

He had read up on the seals used to contain them. Even if they weren't named, he got the basic gist. Did that mean he could create a seal for one? Absolutely not.

Could he start researching the topic properly?

Yes.

Yes, he could.

Days later

Not shockingly, Takai was this close to pulling out a kunai and stabbing Sakura in the spine and leaving her in the road paralyzed.

But of course, he didn't.

Naruto would never forgive him for murdering his crush. Takai still didn't understand what he saw in her. She was loud, rude as hell to him, and her unyielding whining was next level. She wasn't even endearing like Naruto. She didn't have his tenacity, hell, she couldn't even claim to be a good ninja. She nearly failed every physical portion.

Seriously, she could barely get a kunai across the training field.

It was actually depressing. Sakura also couldn't claim to have a good strategic mind like that no-good Nara boy that Takai seldom talked to. She failed that portion of the academy regularly.

She had no redeeming qualities other than than having somewhat pretty hair. It was mind boggling that she could pass.

But Takai was quickly taken from his thoughts when they walked through a small village gate. Team Seven was now in The Land of Hot Water. He looked around him. Several buildings appeared to be burned out and there was smoke in the air. Takai figured that's what burning flesh smells like. He spotted a woman holding a child's hand tight, carefully stalking through buildings.

He lost the pair a moment later.

Suddenly, Kakashi put away his smut and turned on his heel to face them, stopping the team.

"Alright gang, we're in the town of Hondaka. We've been hired to find and clear out a bandit outpost." Kakashi explained.

Takai nodded thoughtfully. It certainly looked like the town had been attacked by bandits. He cringed as he heard Sakura squeak out a question, "Are we going to be killing...people?!" Sakura asked with a stuttering and quivering voice.

He practically heard the other two boys roll their eyes.

Of course they knew they would, at least the others on his team knew what ninja work was about.

"Yep, you guys will. Now, how about we go talk to our employer?" Kakashi replied while pointing behind them.

Takai followed his finger to the sight of a beautiful woman. She seriously looked like royalty. Almond eyes, full lips, a nice nose, very light skin, obviously tailored clothes, and she was quite tall for a woman, being nearly as tall as Kakashi. She wore a dress that was about knee length and had designs of geysers and waterfalls with steam on it.

Then the budding pervert in him looked at her body. He felt blood leak from his nose as he quickly snapped his eye to her's. He sniffed and exhaled sharply. He moved in tandem with his team, stopping in front of the lady.

Takai tuned out the conversation for the most part, except for the part of where the bandits were.

'North-East, in old shinobi bunkers. Got it.' He thought as the team started running in said direction.

Three kilometers away

Takai and Naruto were side-by-side in a tree overlooking the bunker's front door which was locked every time the guards traded places. So far, they had seen six unique guards, the guards trading places about every twenty minutes. At one point it seemed the bandit chief had walked out and berated the guards for sleeping on the job. Takai motioned towards Sasuke in the tree adjacent to theirs. He mimed a kunai as he pulled out his own.

He braced himself to leap from the tree as the first bandits went back in.

Sasuke doing the same. Naruto next to him had already descended the tree and was commando crawling over to the side of the bunker to peek through the shutters.

Takai tensed his leg muscles and used his arms to add even more force to his leap.

Crunch

He felt wind whistle in his ears as he shot towards the bandit on the left. He readied his kunai as he arced through the air.

Crash

Slishh

The two bandits were dead. He expected some sort of horrible sinking in his gut at killing a fellow human. He waited a second.

Nothing.

They were bandits after all.

Takai snapped to the door and back flipped away as he heard the locks click. Sasuke mirrored him. Once the door opened, it showed Naruto in a victorious pose.

Takai sighed, "You surprised us, you doofus."

"Of course I did, I'm the king of sneaking!"

"Be careful to not let that go to your head, I might have to beat it out harder next time we spar." Sasuke chipped in.

Takai snickered as Naruto shot him a look. The trio walked into the bunker. Takai held in laughter as he heard Sakura calling to them to wait up. The trio stopped before they went deeper, watching Sakura sprint to catch up.

By the time she got into the bunker with them, she was covered in the sweat she hated oh so much and was a mess. Takai looked closer and realized she was wearing...make-up...

He was bringing this up with the Hokage when he got back.

This girl could not be allowed to continue as she was.

She was not only in danger herself, but she jeopardized her team as an easy to take hostage.

Twelve minutes later

It was quite boring to clear out the bunker. It was extremely extensive and had numerous twists and turns. It was here that he wished he knew Iwa's infamous cave-in jutsu. Say what you will about Iwa, that was one effective attack. But he will say something about them.

"Damn rock-heads." Takai grumbled as he threw yet another kunai into the skull of a bandit.

It granted him no feeling whatsoever, but it did get a strange look from his teammates.

Kakashi was in the bunker with them, but was behind them so they could get some experience without outside interference.

Prick.

He most definitely could have collapsed this bunker with a jutsu and they could be on the way home to Konoha, but no.

The Genin had to get some experience.

Fuck experience.

They were supposed to get the job done.

But he supposed it would prepare them in a way. Seriously though, he felt more from the animals they had to hunt and kill in the Academy to get them used to killing.

Bandits were just sub-human in his eye.

In a mirror in the corner used for looking around said corner (duh), he watched Sakura nearly vomit as she passed another corpse. He positively had it with her pathetic performance. She was the ideal target for hostage taking. Small, skinny, and weak, yet was still apart of their team.

If he was an enemy shinobi, he could have come up with a near infinite amount of ways to nab her and force the team to surrender.

As Takai was judging the girl using the mirror, he snapped his eyes to someone standing in front of the group who had appeared from around the corner.

It was an eight foot tall muscle-bound giant of a man. In his hands was an equally massive two-handed flanged mace that must have weighed easily thirty pounds. It was quite an odd sight. The man himself was draped head to toe in the furs of wild beasts. His head was covered by a wolf head hat and some sort of metal plate mask that resembled an oni.

The mace itself was fully black with a twisted metal grip that unlike the rest, was a dull grey. The head of the mace looked similar to a blooming flower. It had twenty individual spines that would have flown to a point, but instead, they bloomed outwards, forming a rather fancy looking weapon.

The man spread his arms in a 'come at me' gesture. Naruto and Sasuke, being Naruto and Sasuke, rushed in with nary a thought between their ears. Naruto whipped a kunai at the giant man and Sasuke started performing the hand signs for his fireball jutsu.

The kunai was deflected by the man tilting the shaft. He took a long step forwards, past Naruto and towards Sasuke, lowering the mace to his side and lunging forwards at him. Sasuke slapped the head aside and threw a punch at the man, who, for his credit, stopped the fist with his raw strength, but had forgotten Naruto who sunk a new kunai into the man's kidney.

The man roared, throwing Sasuke aside and spun around, swinging wide with his mace. Unfortunately for him, Takai moved in right as his mace neared Naruto who had already leaned back.

Takai launched himself at the man whose guard was wide open. He jumped off the ground and spun in the air until he was parallel with the ground. He impacted the man's upper body, knocking him down. Takai cartwheeled away once he landed. The man's mace went flying into Naruto's hands who immediately wound it up to crush the man's chest. Sasuke had stepped back from the soon to be dead man.

Naruto froze as he heard Sakura scream "WAIT!"

The man used the opportunity, grabbing Naruto's ankle in a near bone crushing grip, yanking him down. His mace clattered down the hallway. Takai dashed forwards, fist cocked back, ready to strike the man's skull. He found himself soon performing the limbo to avoid a wild haymaker. Sasuke tossed a kunai at the man, striking his shoulder. With a roar, the man got up.

Kakashi had yet to move, deeming the situation under control apparently.

Sakura had frozen this time, hands over her mouth as she cowered next to Kakashi.

Takai once again reared back his fist. This time, the haymaker struck. The bigger man had thrown Takai easily five feet away. His nose felt broken and his cheekbone was likely shattered. He groaned as he fell back.

The man then pulled an unexpected move. As Sasuke leapt at him, he fell back onto the ground and kicked Sasuke in the chest as he flew over him. Sasuke was then thrown past Naruto who was charging with a kunai. He yelled obscenities as the man used his longer reach to get a grip on his throat. Naruto flipped the kunai in his hand and stabbed the man's arm three times before he slammed him into the wall.

Naruto lost his grip on the kunai and his hands went to his neck, attempting to loosen the grip on his throat. Naruto could see the man's smile in his eyes through the slits of his metal mask. The man raised his fist and was about to strike when-

SNAP

Kakashi had appeared behind the man!

Naruto looked relieved as the grip went slack around his throat and he began coughing and gasping for air, rubbing his bruised throat once he fell from the formerly alive bandit.

Kakashi dropped his hands from the man's body and nudged it over, watching it fall.

Takai sat up, groaning and holding his nose. He looked at Sakura who was horrified. His pain turned to rage.

"YOU DUMB BITCH!" He screamed at her, "WHY DID YOU YELL WAIT?!"

He struggled up, his balance shot.

"I-" She started.

"No." Takai said as he approached her. She took a hesitant step back.

"You're a failure as a kunoichi and if Kakashi-sensei weren't here, me and Naruto may very well have been killed by your pure stupidity. You're a spoiled little girl who will never be ready for life as a Shinobi. You stayed in the academy hoping to get Sasuke to knock you up. You are nothing but a desperate wench." Takai ranted, pointing aggressively at Sakura.

Tears burst forth as Takai turned to Naruto.

He reached to his supply pouch and pulled his roll of shinobi bandage and tossed it to Naruto who was scowling while getting up. He caught it easily and approached Takai, unwinding it and beginning to wrap it around Takai's head for his broken bones. While it wouldn't help for the setting of the bones, it would reduce the pain to tolerable levels long enough for them to get medical attention. Takai nearly smirked as he saw Sasuke grumbling while fussing with his hair. It had been messed and he was attempting to keep it from being an annoyance.

Takai took a deep breath as the group got their situation together and advanced. As they neared the corner, Takai realized that the man's weapon was actually quite elegant. He approached the weapon on the ground and stuck his foot under the shaft. He flicked his foot upwards and launched the weapon up into his awaiting hand.

He hummed as he rubbed his hands along the shaft of the weapon. It was incredibly heavy. Heavier than he had originally thought. Takai looked at Naruto and Sasuke, who looked back at him.

He raised his eyebrows and held the weapon forwards.

Both shook their heads.

His it was he supposed.

As they walked further in, he pulled out one of the several storage seals he and Naruto had created and put the weapon he claimed from the bandit inside it. He slipped it back into his pocket and continued his walk.

The Treasure Room

"Wow." Was all Takai had to say.

They had entered a room that was filled to the brim with scrolls, various currencies, new and old, as well as some interesting looking weapons.

The actual room was in the shape of an octagon. It was probably about fifteen feet tall or more.

The only guard for the room was sitting outside, dead.

Naruto's eyes were the size of dinner plates as he performed a few test swings with a katana. Sasuke was busy examining an ornate fuma shuriken. Sakura was sulking by the door with Kakashi who was reading his smut.

Takai approached the pile of riches and noted an old scroll that was seemingly tossed carelessly aside. He knelt down and picked it up. He unrolled it gingerly as it was extremely old. The paper was yellowed heavily and pieces flaked off.

Interestingly, the ink seemed to be in perfect condition.

His eyes ran over the title of the scroll.

"Katon: Kontororu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Control Jutsu)"

His good eye scanned lazily over the scroll until he hit a picture.

It was of a man on fire who wasn't being harmed. His opponent, however, was being burnt to a crisp in the areas where he was struck.

His eye widened as he stared. This was unheard of! This would require insane amounts of chakra control...as well as chakra.

He quickly rolled the scroll back up and slipped it into his pocket. These scrolls were lost knowledge. Who knew it was being kept by a bunch of bandits? How many other bunkers were there just like this one?

He was familiar with the rules of missions. Unless stated otherwise, whatever the shinobi found, they could keep for themselves.

Takai looked at the other two who had the same idea as him. He looked around and noted a few old scrolls on the ground.. He called Naruto over.

"Make some shadow clones. We need to collect all of these scrolls." Naruto looked confused but obliged. "What about the money?"

"Leave it to the villagers. We can just get paid from missions. They can use it to rebuild." Takai answered.

Naruto nodded as four Narutos poofed into existence around them. They quickly went around collecting the scrolls. It took awhile as they had to dig through the massive piles of money around the room. When all was said and done, they had six more scrolls.

Takai greedily sealed them away and pocketed the storage seals. Naruto was busy sealing away a number of kunai and shuriken as well as the rather bland katana he had found. Sasuke was carrying the fuma shuriken that he had found. Upon closer examination, Takai noticed it had several seals on it. He only recognized the symbols for chakra, transfer, and control.

He would need to borrow that at some point to experiment and learn. He was practically salivating at the chance.

Kakashi occasionally looked up from his book at his team.

Eventually, the group left, passing all the fallen bandits. Takai occasionally kicked a body out of disrespect for the sub-human trash.

It took a good long while to navigate out of the bunker. When they reached the surface, Takai estimated only about two or three hours had passed. With that, the group sped back to the village.

Hondaka Village

The team returned to the village after only a few minutes. When they returned to the place, the fires had been put out and the surviving villagers had come out and began rebuilding. It seemed they were experienced at this sort of thing.

It took a bit, but they had found the village leader.

"Excuse me," Takai said.

The woman who had been talking to a villager, turned to him.

She seemed a bit surprised they had returned so quickly.

"We have slain the bandits. There is a treasure room in their bunker filled with money. You should have enough to rebuild your village, possibly even better than it was." Takai said to the woman.

She nodded solemnly as she turned away and walked off.

Naruto was the first to talk, "That's rude! She didn't even thank us!"

Sasuke punched his arm, "Her village and her people have been destroyed. Look around. Words are too much for right now."

Naruto glared at him but said nothing.

The group turned to the village's gate and began walking back to the village.

Days later, Konoha's mission desk

Takai was surprised that the mission didn't go south except for that one near death experience. It really didn't take long at all. He had heard horror stores of a genin team's first C-rank going wrong.

He accepted his forty thousand ryo reward and walked off into the village. Naruto quickly caught up with him.

"So, are we going to look at the scrolls?" Naruto asked.

Takai nodded, "Yeah, obviously."

Naruto nodded as he began playing around with the henge technique. He turned into people as they walked by and made stupid faces.

Takai on the other hand was absorbed in his thoughts, which had been dragged back to the topic of jinchuuriki.

The idea of having so much power was incredibly enticing. And the chakra capacity...he would have the chakra of a kage without all the work associated. The only hitch was finding and capturing one. He would have to defeat a bijuu and stuff it into a seal.

An extremely complicated one at that.

While he could in theory just copy Naruto's seal and slap it onto himself, one needed to understand a seal to make it work.

And he figured there were not any sealing masters willing to help him upset the balance of power between the nations.

Of course, he could learn how one seal worked, but that would require a detailed breakdown-

He stopped so suddenly he tripped over himself and Naruto over him.

He did have one of those! He scrambled up and sprinted back to his apartment, nearly running over civilians as he rushed through the streets.

When he got to his apartment, he nearly broke the door down as he rushed in. He threw his research on his table ground, searching for that notepad.

He began to panic for a moment before he found it.

He flipped through it until he found it. It took up several pages.

His breath stopped and he coughed violently for a moment as he accidentally breathed in his own saliva.

A jinchuuriki seal.

One that he could research and study! This was insane!

While he had no idea where to find a bijuu, now he had part of his plan completed.

A moment later, Naruto skidded into the apartment, panting heavily.

He leaned on the doorway and caught his breath, gasping.

"W-hat the h-hell was that for?" He asked.

Takai pursed his lips. Just having this information likely warrants execution or something along those lines. As much as he would like to, he can't share this, not even with his best and only friend.

"I-" He considered how to word this, "I thought I had made a breakthrough in a technique." He said. It wasn't a total lie. He had made a breakthrough. A huge one!

Takai glanced at Naruto who had bought the lie, "Fine. I'm going to go eat some ramen." He said as he turned around and waved over his shoulder. He closed the door on his way out.

Takai flopped down on one of his old and spindly chairs. He intertwined his fingers and got to thinking.

There were nine bijuu. The nine-tails was in Naruto.

If he wanted a bijuu for himself, he would have to find and kill a jinchuuriki from another village. Then, he would have to subdue the bijuu itself and force it into a seal.

The only problem is that he had no idea if that would destroy the bijuu inside the jinchuuriki. Granted, there's no way a jinchuuriki hasn't been killed before. Surely they simply leave once the host is dead. Or maybe they reform in another place? He didn't have any idea.

His safest best would be to open the seal and extract the bijuu.

Bijuu get connected to their jinchuuriki's chakra network, so such an action would likely kill the jinchuuriki.

So, who does he target?

Obviously he couldn't target a very powerful one. Perhaps there is one out there that has little to no training with their beast. With that, he could in theory kidnap this person, extract the bijuu, and bam! He had a bijuu.

The next problem is how to subdue the beast.

He doubted it would just walk into his seal.

The only solution he had was some sort of powerful illusion. Maybe there are genjutsu specially made for such a purpose?

He looked at his pile of research that had been thrown about. As his eyes rested on the book on fuinjutsu the Hokage gave him, he realized yet another issue.

Takai had no way to hide it once he obtained the beast.

Whatever he did, he would have to reveal what happened to the Hokage.

That would be an issue that he had no workaround for.

The next day, Takai's apartment

Takai's mind was blown.

He had learned so much about the Eight Trigrams Seal yet he still knew almost nothing.

Like, for example, the seal was made of two Four Symbol Seals laid on top of each other. While having them overlap perfectly would seal the beast completely, having them offset just slightly allows the beast to provide chakra to the holder.

Or that the seal allowed the jinchuuriki to access their subconscious which is where the beast is held.

He also learned that the seal is heavily compacted. If the seal were to be expanded out, he could use every surface in his apartment to write the seal, and he still would run out of space.

He hummed as he set down his pen. He would need to have the seal tattooed onto some place on his body. Since Naruto had his on his stomach, that was probably the best place for it. Thankfully the seal wouldn't occupy ever place of his body-

Takai stared at a diagram of the seal.

Could he have more than one bijuu at a time? What if he put another seal on his back? Could he go around and just steal bijuus?

The idea made him queasy. All of that power in one person...

That sounded absurd.

But then again, so was a genin planning to kidnap a jinchuuriki to steal its bijuu.

There was merit to the idea of being the jinchuuriki for multiple bijuu. In theory, he could do something like that. The issue is space.

He could fit maybe...two? Perhaps two eight trigrams seals on both his front and back if he shrunk them down a bit.. From there, he could fit four bijuu into him. Of course, he had no idea about that. There is the possibility that the symbols are at that size for a reason.

While in theory he might be able to get the seal tattooed onto his thigh, he had no idea how the curving surface would affect the seal. The curvature could at best just make it an interesting looking tattoo, or, at worst, kill him.

Neither was what he was looking for.

Takai dropped the idea as he got up and began to pick up the books and papers he had strewn about. Many books that he had borrowed from the library and shinobi archives.

Once that was done he went to his small living room and laid out the spoils of his mission.

A rather heavy weapon. Check.

A multitude of scrolls. Check.

He sat down on his ratty couch and stared at the items.

Takai eventually picked up the two-handed mace he had gotten from that bandit. He held it firmly in his hands, occasionally turning it to look at it from every angle. It was made of steel. Solid steel, in fact.

That wouldn't last a second against even low-tier shinobi weapons. But, he was in love with this weapon.

He might be able to commission a blacksmith to create one for him out of chakra metal. The heft was a nice touch. He could probably use weight a weight seal like that on his vest to make it heavier since chakra metal was so light.

His strikes would have more power, and if someone doesn't train to use heavy weapons, they won't be able to use it properly.

Takai set the weapon down and picked up the first scroll he had found.

"Katon: Kontororu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Control Jutsu)"

After fully reading the scroll, which took a few minutes, he surmised that it was basically punching with fire.

Awesome.

He rolled it back up and set it aside carefully. He grabbed the next and his breath hitched as he opened it.

His face fell as it revealed itself to be old finance records from the Warring States Period. While fascinating, it was ultimately worthless to him. He set the scroll aside, maybe he could give it to the archives for some sort of reward.

He grabbed the next and opened it.

"Doton: Iwa no Yoroi (Earth Release: Rock Armor)"

Armor?

He read the scroll.

Sure enough, armor.

He just needed enough of a rock to use it. Seemed...really strong.

Although, he didn't know how to train earth release and Konoha had a lack of doton users. The only people who could use doton jutsu off the top of his head are Kakash and the Hokage. Unfortunately neither would be willing to teach him. The Hokage is drowning in paperwork, and Kakashi is reading the words of the gods- his smut. Reading his smut.

He set the scroll aside. He would look into it some more at a later date.

Takai was disappointed by the next three scrolls. They were all historical documents and more transactions. The only interesting bit of information was that the Uchiha clan had bought several pallets of paper during the Warring States Period from whoever owned that bunker.

Takai eyed the last scroll, praying it was a useful jutsu that he could actually learn.

He picked it up and slowly unrolled it.

"Suiton: Suiben (Water Release: Water Whip)"

Takai read over the scroll.

This seemed incredibly useful! Easy restraint for targets, whipping people, maybe with some practice, he could make them impale someone. Definitely something to work on.

He rolled up the scroll and put it with the other two techniques he had bagged. He leaned forwards in his sitting position and leaned on his hand.

As he was thinking about what to train first, a sudden thought occurred to him, "What the hell is my affinity?" He asked himself.

Ooooh! An affinity? Maybe even more than one?! Who knows? I sure as hell don't!

Until next time you wonderful main battle tanks, ladies, and gentlemen.