Fuck it, we ball.

Takai was having a blast!

Oh, wait, no he wasn't. He was actually pretty irritated.

"...why can't you simply establish some trade deal? Or forage from the land?" He proposed to the shrimp woman. Definitely some sort of delegate. She felt about Chunin-level. The crabs outside felt similarly. Maybe there was some sort of ranking system too.

She shook her head vehemently. "Our clans have been at each other's throats for as long as our histories go. Even if I agreed to that, no such thing would fly past both my leadership and the Lizard Clan's. We're particularly proud peoples." She said in that same silky smooth voice.

"And? Nothing is stopping you from simply living together." While the argument was sound in his mind, the moment it left his lips he instantly knew it was hypocritical. Otherwise, he wouldn't be a shinobi.

He'd be some loser orphan.

Qask chuckled lowly. "I find that ironic coming from you, Summoner."

"As do I." The shrimp lady agreed easily. It was then the two looked at each other strangely. Perhaps it was some measure of relatability.

Takai, however, missed that in favor of facepalming at his mistake. "Yes, I see that now."

"Well, I don't have much of a clue to be honest." Takai threw his hands up, "I mean, how do I even solve this problem without fucking one or the other over?"

Qask and the shrimp woman shared a look. "You don't" She eventually said.

"So, I let a village starve?" He said helplessly. He wasn't a damn diplomat. He was a killer.

This wasn't his job.

"Traditionally, yes. In our history, one clan usually received the 'short end of the stick', as it were." Qask supplied.

The shrimp woman nodded, her voice shifting a bit lower. "It's a sad truth."

Takai stared for a moment. How old was she? Her tone spoke of personal experience with the situation.

Huh.

Even here, old blood ruled.

The scenario was absurdly unreasonably and it was seriously getting to him. His breathing picked up. His heart-rate skyrocketed. He felt his hands shake as a cold sweat broke out on his face and back.

What was there to do?

'What can I even do?' He asked himself over and over, like an obsession. These were innocents. A killer he may be, he killed enemy combatants, not civilians.

Who would even have an answer to this question? The Hokage? The genius head of the Nara clan? Kakashi?

No, none of them had that special touch he felt. The empathy to truly understand. So, who did?

'Naruto.' Was his immediate thought.

He suddenly found himself surprisingly calm. His breathing leveled out and his heartbeat slowed.

"No."

The other two's gazes snapped to him.

"No?" Qask repeated curiously, an inquisitive expression on his face. The shrimp woman shared a similar look.

"No." He said firmly. "I will not do such a thing. I won't let an entire clan starve for something as petty as tradition. That's inhuman." He said confidently.

Takai found himself the subject of the other two's surprised looks. Even Qask looked a bit taken aback.

Silence reigned for a few silent moments after his declaration before it once more filled with speech.

"Hm...I look forwards to your solution, Summoner." The shrimp woman said with a small smile as she stood from the couch.

"As do I." His lizard companion agreed. The carriage tilted a bit as the woman's weight went to one side while she departed. The door shut softly, leaving the two in a comfortable quiet.

Takai just lounged on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

"So, do you have a plan?" Qask asked bemusedly.

"No..." Takai replied weakly.

Qask's laughter filled the carriage.

Stupid, dumb, awesome lizard, laughing at his plight.

Takai had traveled back to the surface, ending up at the Lizard Clan village's beach. It was made of stark white sand and crystal clear water.

"I could piss mountain spring water if I drank just this stuff." He snorted as he surfaced.

"Actually, your urine would still smell as such, no matter the amount of our water you consumed." Qask corrected from his shoulder.

Takai half-heartedly threatened. "Next time, I'll just leave you at the bottom."

"I could swim faster than you could under even optimal conditions." Qask said haughtily.

Takai rolled his eyes. "Then why did you sit on my shoulder the whole time?"

"I would not say no to a free ride."

"Free-loader..." Takai grumbled as he began trekking back to the village.

"What do you intend to do?" Qask questioned lazily, stretching out like a cat in the sun.

Takai shrugged. "Not a clue. Maybe something will jump out at us. For now though, I need to build reputation with the clan. Know anyone who needs help?"

"Perhaps the clan herbalist will have something for you." The summon answered.

"Uh huh. Where would he be?" Takai asked, picking up the pace, speeding up to a light run.

"Not far. He resides in the forest near the village actually. Only to be closer to what he needs to harvest."

Takai's gaze shifted to the towering trees that stood proud above the village situated above the beach. No where close to Konoha's own mighty oaks, but certainly no slouches. "Alright."

Takai came to a stop before a simple wooden hut with a thatch roof. It was quite homely if he was honest.

"He always needs things done." His companion said, gesturing to the door with his lizard foot. Or was it paw?

He shrugged and raised his fist to knock, only for the door to swing open.

"Yes, hello! Come in, come in. I'll need your help right away."

The lizard before him was short. Probably about four feet and eight inches tall. Abnormally short. He had a hunched back, forcing his head down and forwards. Takai couldn't quite tell if it was insanity or genius that sparkled in his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, his pupils were constantly growing and shrinking as if under the effect of some drug. His scales were splotches of a number of colors, yellows, greens, blues, and reds, almost like acid burns. His arms and hands were oddly thick. It reminded Takai of how gorillas were built.

Strangely, he was wearing a primitive tunic with cloth pants and a crisp white lab coat. How'd he get one of those?

"Uh- sure, I guess." Takai obeyed, allowing the lizard to pull him inside. The hut was actually a singular room. It reeked of numerous chemicals. Wooden tables with metal sheets on top lined the walls. In one corner was a small cot with a black fur blanket and an old, stained pillow. Obviously this place wasn't meant for comfort.

One work table had a number of plants in varying states of processing. Freshly picked, partially chopped up, and some being packaged or in other various stages of refinement. Below the tables were several piles of unorganized storage scrolls. Some had labels, others were blank besides the obvious seal.

Takai returned his gaze to the alchemist who waddled around the cottage, murmuring to himself like a madman. It was then that he noticed the lizard seemed to have a slight limp on his left side. Looking closer revealed his left leg to be ever so slightly shorter.

"Yes, yes...yes, some of that. Oh, yes, definitely that..." He snatched a number of scrolls up before waddling back over to Takai who looked quite confused.

"Take these." He said, his voice cracking slightly at the end as he shoved the pile into Takai's arms. He then immediately turned away, fiddling with glasses of various liquids on one of his tables. "Go fetch those." He called over his shoulder.

Takai looked at the short lizard for awhile longer before turning away.

Qask clicked his tongue. Disappointment? Maybe. "He struggles with social interactions. All he has is his alchemy, you see." He said as he jumped off Takai's shoulder and returned to his humanoid form in a puff of smoke.

"We all have our...uh...what's the word? Vices? Something like that." Takai waved his hand as he dropped the scrolls on the ground and sealed them into his own storage scroll.

"I do believe that word does not apply to his behavior." Qask replied simply.

The boy shrugged. Not like he specialized in all that book-stuff anyway.

"So, how much of this stuff do we need?" Takai questioned as he looked at a pile of grotesquely pulsating vines clawing at everything around them. They were striped a timber green and a dark-ish blue almost like the deep ocean. Razor-sharp thorns dotted them irregularly.

Qask reached right towards the root and tugged the whole thing out the ground. They lashed onto his arm but a quick application of lightning chakra put them down. He sealed it right away. "Whatever you can snag. Admittedly, I have little knowledge in this field. I know merely what he uses, not the specifics. Though, we may need to process them when we get back."

Takai pursed his lips as he pushed through some small bushes in search for more ingredients, coming to a stop right next to a small stream. It had a gentle blue hue to it along the stream's bottom. It was luminescent! The boy crouched down to examine it closer, his sharingan spinning to life. As his vision enhanced, the glow grew brighter and more brilliant until it nearly became too bright to look at.

"It's like the Sun!" He exclaimed, squinting at the brightness. Footsteps approached behind him.

Qask knelt at the water, swirling his hand through it. In response, the glowing latched onto his scales, enveloping his hand. Takai watched in amazement as it inched around, crawling along his skin.

"Yes, I suppose it would be to that eye of yours." Qask said muttered, his own orbs on what must have been a gentle glow to him. "We are not sure of what exactly it is, but it carries rather immense healing properties. Sometimes even more efficient than even medical justu in certain cases. It has become something of a sacred river to the village."

Qask's eyes flicked to Takai's own. "And it smells nice" He smirked as he flicked some onto the boy. It had a citrus scent as well as cleanliness. Purity. Quite pleasant.

"Better than medical jutsu you say..? What if someone drank it?" Takai asked curiously, eying the water. "Think it could restore my eye?"

His summon snorted. "If only. No. It just stimulates the body's natural healing factor immensely. At the cost of energy of course. The problem is that it feeds on the natural chakra of the world to live. So, if it entered your system, it would passively consume your chakra. Perhaps if you could recover chakra faster than it could consume it, you would gain something akin to a healing factor. Things like recovering from a sword's slash in mere moments. Normally it could not do that, but since it would be inside of you, it could likely do much more. At the cost of even higher chakra consumption of course."

'So, Naruto could use it, huh?' Takai pondered as he looked at the water closely. His sharingan faded away as it had gotten incredibly bright. "Would it stay in a person's system or would they pass it?"

Qask hummed in thought. "That depends. A few members of my clan have consumed it, but they died of chakra exhaustion afterwords. Without exception. No one has survived long enough to pass it in any manner. Nor has the body's immune system been observed fighting it off."

"Sounds like it forms a symbiotic relationship with the body. Mind if I take some? Maybe I could find a way around the chakra problem." Takai asked, beginning to pull his canteen off his belt.

"Go ahead. Perhaps it would be wise to not tell anyone, but yes. You can."

And so he did. He poured out the contents of his canteen and filled it to the brim with the healing water before hooking it back on his belt. "Thanks. I'm hoping I can use it somehow."

Qask just nodded as he stepped into the stream and waded across to the other side. "Some of the rarer ingredients are deeper in the woods. Come."

"So, what's your clan's story?" Takai questioned as he picked various mushrooms that glowed a multi-colored hue.

Qask himself was sitting on a branch just above Takai, watching what he picked carefully. "A history that predates all the human clans by a substantial amount. Of course, what we have is mainly myth, but it is still something. Allegedly, before my kind learned the ways of chakra, or even the crustaceans, both sides would fight whenever they met. With the introduction of chakra to both sides, the conflict heated up rapidly. It was only when a summoning contract was forming with a man long since lost to time that the fighting stopped."

Takai stopped picking the mushrooms, looking up at him. "And? What else?"

The lizard shrugged helplessly. "We do not know. For some reason after his death, we decided that a summoner would be forced to pick either side. Over time, various grievances stacked up higher than either side could fathom. We mutually agreed it was too much to ever come to peace again. Of course, there are plenty of different details to be disagreed upon. Here, it is taught the crustaceans originally started it whereas the reverse is true under the sea."

"Do you have an account of the man? Anything? A painting? Something he wrote?" Takai asked, his tone suspiciously neutral.

"Perhaps. Nothing I could access. Such clan history would be left to the clan leader to take care of. Once you have the chakra to summon him, I would suggest asking him personally." Qask replied from his branch, swinging a leg idly.

He was met by a questioning look. "Why not just go to his office or whatever that room was I visited last time?"

"Respect. To him, you are nothing at the moment. A summoner, yes. But until you can summon him, you mean not a thing."

Hm. A touch rude, but alright. Nothing Takai can't handle. He'd just have to earn that lizard's respect! That means training more. He hadn't tried to summon the clan leader yet, but Qask warned him that it would cost an immense amount of chakra. Just how much was that? His current capacity certainly was no joke, yet Qask had decidedly said it was not nearly enough.

So, how much was needed?

His musings were interrupted by Qask dropping down from his branch.

"That is likely enough. I can go back now to drop off the ingredients. You should go back as well. I would not be surprised if your people took offense to you leaving your village for an extended period."

The thought of an ANBU squad bearing down on him gave him shivers. Cold, uncaring masks and colder, more uncaring people.

He nodded in agreement, handing the scrolls filled with different plants to his lizard companion. "I'll see you later then."

Qask nodded to him silently, disappearing with a body flicker.

Takai formed a hand sign himself and disappeared with a quick puff of smoke.

He appeared back in the exact place he was earlier. Though, it seemed to be about two to three in the morning if he had to guess.

'Does time flow differently in their area or something?' Takai wondered, walking out of his training ground with his hands in his pockets. The early morning air was fairly humid despite the time. Must have rained.

Takai would need to check with someone to verify the date but he was fairly certain today was the Chunin exam's final stage. Now, who could possibly be awake at this hour?

Mud squished beneath his sandals as he walked. Civilians were hardly out at this hour. There was a bit of a curfew since there were a fair amount of foreign shinobi in the village, but it wasn't too terribly strict. Of course, shinobi were exempt from this rule.

As he walked, buildings and trees parted to reveal the academy with a sole light on. It was Iruka's classroom if he remembered correctly. Figures he would be up this late- or was it early?

Either way really.

Takai hopped onto the shop to his right before breaking into a light run. Various shadows moved at the edge of his vision. He would assume ANBU patrolling for any foreigners snooping around.

He came to the edge of the buildings, reaching the clearing between the academy building and the nearby buildings. He gave a mighty leap, darting across the gap silent as a whisper. The boy landed without a sound even with the dead leaves from trees and the wet glass.

"Iruka-sensei!" Takai said, knocking on the glass. He could see the man in question sitting at his desk, grading papers. Though, the dark shadows beneath his eyes and the jump he did at the sound of Takai's knocking signaled to him that the man had definitely been up all night.

Iruka ran a hand over his face before standing and walking over to the window.

The window swung open with a soft click. "Takai? Surely you know what time it is? You should be asleep!"

"So should you." Takai replied smoothly, an unimpressed look on his face.

Iruka's face morphed into a strained one as he was effortlessly countered. "Either way, what brings you here? Its rare a student comes to visit after they graduate. On account of, you know, not being a student."

"I may or may not have spent some time doing things and I don't know what's happening today." Takai said slowly

"The Chunin exams?" Iruka said like it was a no-brainer.

Takai nodded. So it did take two days! "Great. Thanks Iruka-sensi!" He said, forming a few quick hand signs and seemingly falling into the ground.

Iruka leaned out the window to look down, seeing nothing but unblemished grass. Seems his former student had been busy.

'Good luck.' He thought briefly with a proud, near fatherly smile on his face as he closed the window and returned to his paperwork.

'My old nemesis.' He thought as he rolled his aching wrist.

Takai awoke from his brief nap. Honestly, it was barely worth it. While he had been awake for about two days straight, he didn't feel particularly tired. If anything, he felt more energetic than he had in awhile. Either way, it was also a way to pass the time. His gear had been double, triple, and even quadruple checked.

The sun pierced his closed eye lids quite easily. A few hours had passed by going off the brightness. He should likely get up.

"Takai! Open up!" He heard Naruto yell followed by several harsh knocks on his front door.

He stretched for a moment like a lazy cat in the sun before getting to slip out the window above his bed. It opened without a sound, allowing him to slip through unnoticed by his best friend. His feet touched the now dry road, kicking up a small amount of dust.

"I'll break down the door to get you, lazy bastard!" Naruto shouted again, rearing his hand back to knock again.

"I'm right here. You need to work on your awareness." Takai said, making his friend practically jump out of his skin.

He put a hand to his chest to calm his heart. "Yeah, well maybe you need to use the front door like a normal person." He countered beginning to walk in the direction of the giant arena they would compete within.

The taller of the two was quick to follow him. "Attack could come from any angle. Remember Kakashi's test?"

Naruto gave a small shutter. "That was a close one."

"Yeah, definitely was." Takai agreed, looking up at the sky. The sun was fairly high, but not quite noon. "Come on, I'm guessing tardiness wouldn't help our chances at promotion."

His friend grunted in response before the pair took off in a run.

The whole way, Takai could feel a prickly sense at the base of his skull. Like he was being watched or something...

There was a buzzing feeling just beneath his skin. Something felt wrong. Very wrong.

They were in the middle of a massive coliseum structure. Concrete stood tall and proud. Spectators sat in huge rows well above the arena, keeping them far from the action. The stands were filled with a mix of civilians, Konoha shinobi, and a few sections for foreigners.

He was standing there in the middle of the massive arena with the other competitors. He barely looked at them though. An itching feeling told him that his match was with one person alone.

Takai's gaze slowly traversed to his right. On the opposite end of the line-up was Gaara, staring at him. His eyes were filled with venom. The boy's malice was plain to see. Though, one single person was missing. As much as he'd rather not combat the clearly mental red head, his luck wasn't quite that good.

"Hey, where's Sasuke?" Naruto muttered to Takai, looking around as if Sasuke was hiding behind a rock or something.

All Takai could do was give a shrug. He had been getting trained by Kakashi nearly every day now, so he was surely with him now too. "Probably training."

"But...we're competing today?" The more excitable of the two said slowly, evidently not following.

Yet another shrug.

Naruto was about to reply when the referee held up his hand briefly, garnering the full attention of every single pair of eyes in the arena. "My name is Genma Shiranui. I'm the referee for these matches." He said, his voice somehow traveling up to the stands just as clear as it was ten feet away from him. He lowered his hand to his pocket, withdrawing a small card. "The first fight will be Gaara versus Takai Tekkan!"

Unlike the last one, Genma didn't look like he was on his last legs. Takai looked over the man briefly. He didn't have a clue just as to what rank he was, nor his power. He had a face that looked pretty average and light brown hair covered by some sort of bandana or something over his head.

"Yeah! Kick his ass!" Naruto called as he jumped away into the stands with the other competitors.

"Yes, please Takai, win. I look forward to facing you as my final opponent!" Lee said with a blinding smile and thumbs up before following Naruto's lead.

Genma rolled his shoulders a bit with a sigh before speaking. "Alright, the rules here are the same as the preliminaries. The match goes until one of you dies or admits defeat. I can stop the match whenever I feel is right, but that is my decision alone. Get it?" He put special emphasis on the word "die".

Takai merely nodded, flexing his hands a bit, loosening them. Gaara didn't acknowledge Genma, but he obviously didn't care much.

"Alright, back away from each other and I'll start the match." Genma said, shooing them both to either side of the arena with a hand gesture.

Takai didn't dare take his eyes off his match, backing away slowly. Gaara had no such reservations, simply turning around fully. Though given the way his sand worked, he supposed it wasn't much of a big deal. After all, he knew nothing could touch him with it around.

But what if it wasn't?

Genma rose his hand high above him. The tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a kunai. People in the stands began making noise in anticipation for the start.

"START!"

The world slowed down to a crawl before Takai's sharingan. He saw everything. From the slightest twitches in Gaara's face from across the arena to the individual grains of sand flowing out of the creepy gourd on his back.

Pure, unfiltered hatred filled the eyes of the boy across from him. Something so strong it could be considered unbreakable. A force incomprehensible to anyone but Gaara.

Takai's hands shifted down to his pouch, whipping out a storage scroll. He moved it in front of him before channeling chakra into it. With a small puff of smoke, he was holding the much larger scroll he made days prior. This was his chance. He could do this.

His one eye moved to Gaara as his own body lurched forwards into a heavy run at his opponent. Gaara's sand hadn't even fully left his gourd yet. Good.

'Alright. One shot. No mistakes. Disable his biggest weapon and I can kick his ass.' Takai thought to himself as he hurtled towards Gaara. Though, upon approach, his sand shot out like a snake, forming a wall. If the sand worked the way he thought it did, then...

He unfurled the scroll with a flick of his wrist before holding it in front of him like a shield. Gaara couldn't see him, so he had no way to avert his sand to prevent his attack.

His shoulders ached with a small pain as he slammed into the sand full force. As the sand sensed his impact and moved to envelop him, his hands came together in a single hand sign and with a pulse of chakra-

"SEAL!" Takai shouted, nerves betrayed with a slightly shrill tone mixed with desperation. He shut his eyes tight, prepared just in case his plan failed.

A huge puff of smoke exploded outwards, obscuring everything. The whole arena was dead silent. Hundreds of eyes were fixed onto the smoke with unwavering gazes.

'I'm alive...which means-' Takai's arm whipped out on instinct, meeting Gaara's jaw with a crunch. His opponent was launched out of the smoke. Takai lunged out of it, a cold, calculating look in his lone eye as he prepared to beat Gaara.

He hit him in the face with a right hook, flattening his cheekbone effortlessly. A sickening noise was released as the bone gave way under his attack. Gaara screamed out in pain as his face snapped to the side only to be met by Takai's elbow, shattering his nose with a swing. The boy staggered back with a hand out and the other on his face. His eyes were no longer filled with hate and malice, but a fear. An unshakeable fear. A fear of him.

Yet he didn't care as he approached. His hand and elbow were caked thickly with blood which dripped steadily to the ground. If anything, it felt good to do this. To fight unrestricted. Though, he felt a small dull pain on his neck. What was that?

"No...no more! S-stop! Please!" He begged, flinching as Takai replied with a straight punch to his throat. His trachea stood no chance. Gaara could only gargle as Takai then put an uppercut to his solar plexus, knocking the wind clean out of him and fracturing his sternum. The boy stumbled backwards, falling to his knees. He wobbled, his breathing a low rattle.

Takai didn't hesitate to step forward and grab the red head by the back of his head. He reared back his knee and drove it into his opponents face.

One time. His teeth were forced out of place, some falling out of his mouth with large drops of blood.

Two times. Takai felt the boy's right brow bone give way under his knee.

Three times. Gaara's chin was crushed with yet another sickening crunching sound.

Finally, Takai let go of his enemy who fell to the ground, kicking up a small amount of dust. He noticed that he was actually breathing quite hard. Apparently he had gotten seriously into that match.

He looked to Genma who had his hand in the air, looking at Gaara just in case he managed to get a second wind.

Of course, if he somehow did, Takai wouldn't stop until he smashed his skull.

Until he felt something...break. A chakra so strong that it felt boundless. A chakra that seemed to be made of hate itself.

Takai spun around to see sand gathering around Gaara's body, lifting him off the ground. Where did that come from? His body began to rise, an aura of bright red chakra surrounding him. The sand carried him higher and higher until he was easily over three hundred feet in the air.

'W-what?!' Takai scrambled back, a look of horror in his lone eye. He was so focused he didn't even notice a genjutsu wash over him, his sharingan seeing through it easily.

An animalistic face formed in the sand, letting out a bone-rattling roar. Takai's blood froze in his veins as he watched the beast immediately begin taking jutsu of all sorts of shapes and sizes. It swung a hastily made arm into the stands on its left, killing countless civilians in a single moment.

"Oh...fuck." Was all he had to say as the beast raged.

Screams built up all around him from civilians and panicking shinobi on both sides. Takai's eye looked to the stands, spotting a shinobi launching various jutsu at the sand beast. Yet the man was attacked by another in a Suna chunin uniform!

An...attack? A fucking invasion! The sand thing was just a cover!

Takai scrambled to his feet, looking at the beast which was only growing bigger by the second. He had to fight that thing. Not to mention however many invaders.

And to his horror, the beast's gaze focused on him.

Fuck this chapter pissed me off. Sat at 2k words for about 5 months and when I finally get to writing, that fight scene with Gaara was deleted two three times on accident. Fuck.

Anyway, quite a bit happened this chapter and goddamn! Takai didn't just give Gaara a 3-piece combo, he got the full 10-piece nugget with a large fry and large drink. My boy would be featured as a throwaway villain in Jojo's.

Since school is starting back up in about a month, I'm going to be placing the rather ambitious goal of getting four more chapters out and bumping the word count to 100k. Wish me luck guys!

As always, feel free to leave reviews! I read every single one yall leave whether its praise or hating on my work :)

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