Few hours prior to present:

Mission Details :

Shadows stretched over the tall pines of the shadow valley as if to create a web of darkness. The trees echoed with the raw silence, other than the droplet of a single dewdrop from a red rose landing on a nearby pond. Near the pond, stood a young man with eyes of crimson blood. Staring at his reflection with a look of disgust and displeasure as if he were not pleased with something about himself. The man stood, growling and mumbling to his reflection. The lofty pines needles underneath his feet made the earth cool and spongy beneath his weight. The mans vision never left the pond as it glistened in the moonlight, turning it a variety of sharp colors. The turned his neck and cracked it softly. His eyes left the point and now were directed to the glittering stars overhead. "Darkness, guide me through this." He whispered bitterly to himself, lowering his head he sighed heavily and thought long and hard about something. His breath caught in his chest when sudden footsteps approached his position with a quickened pace. Shadows stirred as he immediately swung around, his shadow going crazy and swirling around him. His eyes searched the landcape for the source of the sound which had startled him.

There was a sudden stirring in the shadows and the lion felt his muscles tense underneath thin frame. Stealthily a black figure moved from the darkness of the trees, golden orange eyes flashed like amber as the figure came into the spotlight of the light. Sparda quickly realized the person was one of the shinobi who gave him his mission briefing, Joinin Clothing and snowy white hair... He relaxed himself and gave the ninja a look. "Your late...i thought Jonin where suppose to be punctual." Sparda teased, also wondering why he wasn't able to sense him before he arrived, he ignored the notion. Trying to settle the shadows around him as he awaited his answer. The ninja gave a respectful bow and Sparda returned it halfheartedly. He didn't notice.


"I came here to give some advice. We did a bit of digging, and it turns out we know who stole the scrolls. There are three of them, all are Taijutsu specialist based on witnesses who have seen them a few nights before...i came to tell you because i know Taijutsu is your main weakness. Just a heads up." The man quickly explained. Sparda grinned in amusement as he thought of what a couple of simple Taijutsu users would be able to do...


"Well its a good thing my specialty is long distance ninjutsu isn't it?" Sparda asked calmly. The female shook her head and continued.

"If you say so Sparda, but be sure to maintain your chakra. I'm sure you'll figure it out. So what do you plan to do?" He asked with a concerned edge in his voice. Sparda took his time to answer. Weighing the possibilities in his head pondering on the simple question as if it were nothing more than a childish game. The man grimaced in annoyance.

"The only thing i can do...defend." He replied at last sounding only mildly interested. He gave him another look, nodded, then turned away. and stalked off. As he did so he turned his head over her shoulder and smiled. Before heading off again with a nod. Smiling deviously Sparda chuckled lightly and looked to the side of him as he turned to face the entrance to The Dense Forest. "This is where the fun begins." He whispered, placing his hands into his pockets and stalking off into the forest to proceed with his mission.

WORD COUNT: 614

Present Time

It was never unusual for a child to dream of greatness. For the weak to dream of being strong. For the lonely to dream of companionship. For the lost to dream of being found. But what are dreams? A series of thoughts, images, and sensations within the subconscious of the mind. Or a cherished aspiration of ideal of something? These are thoughts that constantly haunted the young mans mind day in and day out as did the merciless memories. Spiraling through her brain like water down a drain. A soft hiss escaped his soft lips as the Genin calmly walked through the dense forest with an observant eye.  

Crimson eyes stared at the sun as the giver of light descending back into the depths of the horizon giving off an Erie twilight. Shadows stretched over the tall pines of the forest. The sky became a mix of several different colors to offer its luminous beauty to the lush vegetation. Light dappled through the sprawled branches above. The wind blew whispering through the leaves a melody of shadow. Sparda carefully observed the environment as if analyzing the mystery of the forest...chances where these so called thieves would be hidden within the thickness of this forest...most likely within the trees or behind them. As he trekked further into the forest Sparda observed his surroundings carefully...slowing down and taking deep breaths.

And soon, as he reached an open area, he paused. Noticing a small little puddle off a few yards in front of him...Sparda made a face of confusion. 'A puddle...in the middle of the summer...it has not rained for days now...' Sparda then quickly noticed a barely visible glare just in front of the puddle...a trip wire...Sparda smiled slightly and took a few steps back, taking his hands out of his pockets and allowing his mind to expand. Keeping himself calm and composed when he realized he had found where they where...and sure enough. His suspicions where confirmed.

"You where able to see the trap...clever." A voice rang from an unknown location, forcing Sparda to circle in his stationary position. 'They are certainly well hidden...at least two of them are.' He thought to himself, averting his attention back to the puddle before him. The voice spoke again. "So, they only sent one of you...a poor choice of their part." They explained. Suddenly, the puddle of water ahead slowly began to take form, lifting off of the ground as if it had become a solid mass. Quickly a man wearing a red shirt, green pants and having a Mohawk emerged from the puddle and quickly assaulted Sparda, chucking a pair of Shuriken in his direction.

"Surprise mother fucker!" He shouted as he threw them. Crimson eyes narrowed as they grew closer, and just as he was about to move out of the way, Sparda caught glimpse of a second offender. This one a female wielding a Katana Sword. Sparda's eyes went wide as he watched her swing the blade vertically at his head. Acting quickly, the genin ducked down, allowing the Shuriken behind him to fly over his head...however, the woman swung and missed, but quickly followed up with a knee to Sparda's nose. The attack hit, causing Sparda's body to jump backwards. Landing on the ground and rolling a bit he recovered and got back into a stance, brining a hand up to cover his nose bleeding nose Sparda chuckled gently. "Ouch..." He said aloud. Now keeping an eye on both the woman and the man he now had to track down the third one...surely enough, he revealed himself. Holding two Rapiers and walking out from the shadows just up ahead. The man did not say a word, but instead simply snapped his fingers.

And with that, the fight was on. the man and women moving to the sides of Sparda and getting into a battle ready stance...this was going to be difficult. He could always try and run but then they would most likely catch up to him given his inability to keep up physical strain very long. And he could not risk using his Shadow Jutsu so early without analyzing their movements beforehand. Meaning he needed to find a way to deal with these two using Taijutsu, his worst style, however he couldn't fight them all at once. Not without sustaining a lot of damage, he had to find a way to fight them one at a time. in the middle of his thought process, In a flash the man to the left of him had dashed, running full pelt at Sparda without mercy, his Kuni in hand and the intent to kill in his eyes. This man was quicker on his feet, then Sparda, that was obvious. Acting quickly and turning to the man and running at him as well without thinking much about it. When the man swung his blade at Sparda he dropped to both of his knees swiftly. Arching his back backwards and throwing his head back, the flat end of the blade flew past his face, He could almost see his reflection in the blade as he did a baseball like slide underneath the blade.


Just as quickly as Sparda had dropped he recovered himself back to his feet, throwing one foot out to stop him from sliding or going any farther. He stayed on one knee and twirled his body around attempting a leg sweep. It was not successful. The man hopped over the legsweep, preforming an impressive back flip and throwing his arm out while upside down, attempting to strike Sparda with a devastating right hook. Sparda grunted and lifted his arms next to his head to block. The attack landed, dazing Sparda causing his ears to ring and him to stumble to the side, tripping over himself. When suddenly a silver flash appeared right were his arm connected to the ground to catch himself. Sparda recoiled his arm when he realized it was the woman, carrying a Katana. The woman turned to Sparda and did a few fancy spins with the blade as she tried to jab and slice as him with impressive speed.


Sparda dodged and swerved the first dangle attacked but the horizontal attack was hard from him to dodge with him in a current position of his legs bent. He threw his body back and did a backflip to avoid getting his head chopped off, using his hands to support himself as he did a few more backflips to get away from the woman with the sword. Once he was a safe distance Sparda stopped himself and stayed on two feet, his eyes fixed on all three of them. Seeing the one with the eyepatch seemed to just be observing the action from a distance. The one in the red shirt was slowly beginning to circle around him now, with the woman quickly getting into another striking pose.

This...needed to be planned, these ninja obviously had a formation Sparda had to figure out. He knew when he attacked one then the other other would come from the side or behind, if he tried to fight them both as once they would kill him. Only option was using his Kekkei Genkai but he could not risk them figuring out his special abilities until darkness consumed a larger fraction of the forest, allowing him to extend his range. He bit his lip as thoughts and different plans ravaged through his mind like a tornado. 'I'm running out of options...only one thing i can do at this point.' Sparda thought to himself, reaching to his spine and applying pressure to fix his cramping back.


He stood to his feet...and smiled. Suddenly Sparda ran his full speed at the man he had attacked before, giving the illusion he was going to attack him first. Both their reactions were exactly what he had been planning. The one he was going for angled his blade as if to block while the other one took two steps back and waited for Sparda. 'Follow the design, and you'll make it through this.' He thought as he lept into the air, going over the man and angling his body in mid air to face the faster one. His eyes flashed with a devilish smirk as he used his Shadow Conjuring Technique in a way they could not see how he used it. He threw out a wired Kuni anchor at the woman, the wire connected, warping itself around the womans neck as she panicked, Sparda hit the ground as this happened and Pulled the wire hard, the women dropped her sword and fell to her knees trying to remove the wire, quickly, he averted his attention to the other man who was now holding up his blade and swinging at Sparda. His eyes widened as he dived and rolled out of the way, and snapped his wrist outward the wrong way. Bending his wrist and twisting it painfully. He grunted and fell over sloppily near a couple of trees. As he tried to get to his feet Sparda saw the other woman he had previously had in the wire was gone! Son of a bitch! His jutsu has retreated and let her go...Sparda cursed in his mind when a silver blade seemed to slash through his cloths and flesh, causing him to grunt and turn around quickly. The woman smiling at the attack she had landed, leaving a nice large slash in his back. She then began to talk to him for the first time.


"Your good boy. Better then most genin, makes me curious who you are. Whats your clan?" The woman asked before taking a few more swings at Sparda, landing two slashes in his chest chest. Sparda grunted and fell to the ground, but rolled backwards and got back on his feet, breathing heavily. His body was begginng to fail him now...his vision blurred and he coughed up blood. Staggering to his feet Sparda covered his wounded chest and gave a devious grin as tears streamed down his cheeks from the pain ravaging within. Watching as both the woman and the man advanced on Sparda in a deadly sprint...

Sparda cried. His sickness taking a toll on his body as he slowly backed into the shadows of the trees. Just as the two got closer to him, Sparda looked up and smiled. "Shadow Guardian...protect me." Sparda whispered as he fell to his knees.

They took their chance to end it...both of them leaping into the air with their blades at the ready, preparing to end Sparda's life...but before they got within three feet of Sparda, the darkness behind him manifested. Suddenly several large deformed eyes and teeth emerged from the shadows behind him, smiling and growing at once. Shadows representing Sparda's soul...and just as they two Genin noticed the odd event, the shadow's tendrils quickly shot out of the darkness in a relentless assault on the both of them. Tendrils moved at impressive speeds and split into several different tendrils, attacking both of the ninja. The male, was hit in the side, shoulders, and eye, the shadow cut deeply into it and split his eyeball open, forcing him to fall to the ground and try to recover. As the shadows continued to assault him he had no choice but to tough out the pain and flee to a safe distance...

The woman however was attacked in three different ways. One tendril, slit her wrist that was weilding the sword, forcing her to drop it. Because she was in midair she was unable to evade him...the second tendril wrapped itself around her leg and lifted her into the air, flinging her around while the third tendril grabbed the Katana she dropped. The extension holding her threw her to the ground while the other chucked the Katana down at her as well. As she hit the ground hard the Katana sliced through her chest and into the ground beneath her. Pinning her to the ground.

Sparda watched as he body struggled, her arms lifting up in am attempt to take the hilt and pull the blade out of her. But the more the struggled, the more useless it became. Sparda smiled proudly and stood there, keeping his arm with the twisted wrist down at his side he placed another hand into his pocket. As her eyes became glassy and hollow and her body went limp her companion yelled her name.  

"ERIA! NO!" He shouted, staring at Sparda with his one good eye. Sparda make a twisted face and chuckled as his shadow coiled itself around him. It's eyes staring back at the man with ill intent. The man continued to rage. "You killed my sister you FUCK!" He shouted. Sparda was going to speak, but their leader cut him off.

"Ahh, i see now. I knew you where not the close combat type given your poor and sloppy Taijutsu. So i figured you where more Nin...and you waited until both of them where confident enough they could take you. And lead them into your domain. Where you attacked them when they least expected it." The man explained, tilting his head and giving Sparda a look. "You are of the Nara clan...and that Jutsu of yours...its a lot more complex then the standard Nara techniques. I've never seen such a pure form of it done before." He informed.

Sparda shrugged lightly. "Ya caught me...this is my style...long rage defense." Sparda told him simply, standing there calmly as the shadows around him continued to move and stir. The one with the mohawk growled and dashed for Sparda once more, attempting to move side to side to avoid getting hit. Sparda narrowed his eyes and allowed the shadows to do the work.

When the man was close enough range, within three meters of Sparda the shadows in front of him shot upward, preventing him from going further. Then, seven tendrils extended from behind the man, shooting upward and slashing him in several different spots on his body. The man suddenly began to cough up blood and attempted to flee once again. But before he could Escape a Tendril extended and chased him, wrapping itself around his neck and pulling him back to Sparda.

As the man grew closer, Sparda used Shadow Conjuring to summon a short bow and arrows, quickly aiming at the man in midair Sparda shot an arrow directly at him. The shadow did the rest, swinging the man downward onto the arrow as if to meet it halfway...the arrow went through the mans heart, ending him. The man fell to the ground, and their leader continued to stand there calmly.

Moments passed...before he attacked as well with zero warning. Two swords in hand and moving at high speeds...once he was within range he quickly dodged Sparda's Shadow Guardian with ease. Everytime the man was going to get hit he would deflect using his blades. Sparda watched as he got closer and closer, bobbing and weaving, jumping and rolling, until finally he was right on Sparda. The man swung both of his blades vertically, attempting to hit him from both sides and cut right through him. But before the attack connected two tendrils shot up and deflected both sides of the blade. The man however followed up with a devastating kick, planting it directly in the center of Sparda's chest and making him fly back into the darkness of the forest. Once he hit the ground Sparda coughed up even more blood and groaned in pain...turning over into his knees and shaking the dizziness away Sparda suddenly felt the coldness of steel penetrate his shoulders. Pinning him to the ground. And just before the shadows could rush to his defense the man suddenly dropped a flash bang. The intensity of the bomb had forced Sparda's shadows to flee. That was it...Sparda had been beaten...at least. Thats what the man thought...Sparda had wanted this man to get through his primary defense...because now he was within range for his secondary offense.

Acting quickly, while the flash died down, Sparda used his Shadow Manifest Jutsu. Allowing himself to sink into the shadows completely. Once he was there he moved into the mans own shadow, and that...was checkmate. Now with full control over the mans body via shadow, Sparda spoke. His voice was corrupted and demented. "Thats Checkmate." Sparda whispered, forcing the man to take his own blades into a reversed grip. He forced the man too stab himself through the chest and belly with his own blades.


With that...the man was let go. Sparda returned to his physical state and watched the man turn around...coughing up buckets of blood and slowly stumbling towards Sparda. Reaching out as if to land one last attack. But before he could do anything. He fell to the ground and died at Spardas feet. He had won...barely. Stabbed in both shoulders, wounded on the chest and back, not to mention a broken nose and internal bleeding. He had pulled the victory using surprise attacks...sighing deeply, he retrieved the scrolls hidden within each of their pockets. And headed back to the village as the moon lifted into the sky. A cold naked eye watching the earth. Mission complete.

Shadow Guardian :

Shadow Manifest :

Shadow Conjuring :