1999th Year, 359th Day

It was dark, it was raining, and as the grey clouds above wept over the thickly forested ground they covered, now and there could be seen flickers of light both above and below.

Above was lightning , evidenced by the rumbling growls that sounded like there were ferocious god sized beasts hiding in the clouds, and below was a more humble sight.

This one was caused by the small brief flashes of light, the gleam of lighting glinting off a large shiny and reflective two handed sword.

What was strange was not that the sword could be seen, but that it was not seen as often as one might expect for something so flashy, but since the sword was on the back of a ninja who was skilled in concealment, this wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Actually the ninja was aware of each and everytime that the fearsome sky electricity glinted off their sword and made them visible, and they were actually a bit ashamed about the fact.

‘If only I had thought of grabbing some weapon sealing scrolls before I left’ they thought a bit grievously in regret. But it was too late, if they wanted to reach their destination at the quickest possible speed they couldn’t have wasted their time by searching around for a sealing scroll.

Besides taking a sealing scroll for their weapon at a time that enemy attacks were likely was somewhat selfishly wasteful wasn’t it? As at such a time they would probably end up having to unseal their sword and use it to fight at almost any possible time anyway, making the use of the seal quite futile.

That was also the reason they hadn’t used just a cheap easy to find cloth or leather wrapping.

There was also the sad fact that after the recent attack, and subsequent theft of many precious ninja tools which included no small amount of weapon seals, they were quite leery of using anything even only moderately valued frivolously, let alone the expensive usually one use tool that was a sealing scroll.

However what decided the question of whether or not to use one was not their frugality but rather just plain practicality. For in the end taking such precautions would have probably turned out to be superfluously overcautious of them.

After all, the likelihood that they were being followed in the first place, and then add that to the unlikely possibility that the one who followed them was someone fast enough to keep up with their speed as well as, skilled enough that the small telling gleaming caused by using the sword without taking the time to wrap or seal it would be exploited by them, was probably quite low.

Even so, every time they felt the glint of light reaching them, they had to restrain a wince.

As, expected it turned out that there were no followers, and excepting one little improbable moment where lightning decided to succumb to its attraction to their large metal sword and strike, they felt that the journey had been quite uneventful.

They were completely oblivious to the fact that had they told their meeting with the lightening to almost anyone else that person would have probably gone stupid from their shock, if not outright accuse them of lying, for to most people their ‘unnatural’ calm, in which they would convey it, would have only confirmed their disbelief.

For what they did was quite astonishing. Their reflexes seemed to be quicker then even the lightning or perhaps they were able to predict that it would strike seconds before it did, either way when the heavens wrath rushed towards them, they calmly and efficiently unsheathed the large sword from where it was strapped to their back, and using some sort of mystical technique that coated the blade with a silver glow, they casually parried the lightning away from them, before continuing on their journey like nothing happened.

After a few more hours of travel that this time was truly uneventful to anyone, finally they reached their destination, the hidden outpost containing the reason they had so desperately and with haste had chosen to go on this rushed journey in the first place. Their most important person, the leader of their mission group, and the one they secretly and one sidedly thought of as their master.

As they headed toward the hidden outpost they carefully observed it, the hidden outpost was basically a treehouse, cleverly hidden by some carefully placed camouflage. This deception was the places first and greatest defense, next to the remoteness, it could be considered one of the only hideouts so far from the city while still being inside the Alliances territory.

It was for good reason, while outsiders aware of it would think that it was only a minor safe house, the fact that this hideout was also the entrance to one of the alliances main treasuries, was a secret known only to those of higher clearance in the city.

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It was only because a certain report given by a trusted shinobi, who had nearly died to bring the information, that stated that the location of one of the treasuries had been exposed that so many of the licensed ninja had gone out to protect them leaving the city vulnerable, so vulnerable to the attack they had faced.

Even the reflective sword’s owner had thought, that it would be one of the outside treasuries that would be the probable target, and that this deeply hidden and mostly unknown one would be unlikely to be attacked.

They had felt things were so safe that unfortunately they had even helped the other person currently on duty with their imagined master arrange it so that they would be paired up for this precautionary mission, and at this remote location, rather than stay in the city on guard duty as would be usually expected of them.

Though now filled with regrets, they didn’t really feel guilty for at the time their only thought had been that they had wanted their favorite person to be happy, and they had thought that if that woman’s plan had succeeded and they had actually become their friend’s girlfriend that happiness would be practically guaranteed for he had even said once in their childhood that he liked her.

Never had they thought that what was considered their most protected, most safe place, their beloved city was the target all along, and the enemies was far more deadly than the simple band of thieves they had assumed they were. They should have guessed the possibility that it was far more serious and taken precautions, but it was too late now.

Either the messenger was a betrayer or they had made mistake, either was probably increasingly impossible to discover, for not long before the attack they had been found murdered.

Taking a deep breath, and feeling miserable for it was possible their best friend was currently experiencing heaven and what they would tell them would drop them into hell. After all what they had gone through back in the city had been their worst nightmare and they weren’t even half as loyal as them. Their master…their best friend, the one they trusted most in this uncertain world.

Having prepared themselves to deliver the message they had set themselves to deliver…they moved forward. First they dropped to the ground and lifted a rock that was completely unremarkable, indistinguishable from several others that also accompanied it on the forest floor.

However this rock was part of the key to unlocking the defenses to the shelter, and thus its importance was made to look unimportant. They pushed the sleeve of their right hand upward and reveled what looked to be a bare wrist, but once they infused that area of their arm with a special kind of chakra a small symbol of a shuriken tattoo appeared, they quickly pressed the special ink to the stone and the stone also began to glow.

They then, stone in hand leaped from tree to tree until they were hovering briefly in front of the tree that contained the hideouts ‘door’. They then in that brief second carefully aimed, and threw the rock at a specific place on the tree. Then about the same time they used a small blast of ki to move in a dive towards the door.

Just as it looked like they would slam into the trunk of the tree, the still glowing stone they threw hit its target. And they passed through the bark as if it wasn’t there.

They landed in a crouching position and opened their eyes to see the dim inside of the hideout. They stood and with some hesitancy they knocked on the nearby wall. To their surprise a figure abruptly appeared.

In unison the figure and them reached for their weapons and then relaxed when they realized who the other was the figure made motion that turned on a small glowing light fixed in the ceiling, revealing to their eyes that the figure was the familiar face of man who then stepped towards them a wide toothy grin on their handsome face.

“Nian, what a surprise.” The man embraced them in a bear hug so hard that the armor on his arms clanked loudly against Nian’s sword.

“-Griffen stop you are squishing me” Came the muffled voice of Nian.

Hearing something in that voice that was unnaturally calm even in the most abnormal situations, something odd that most would not be able to tell existed Griffen immediately became concerned and asked.

“What’s wrong?”