• It was dark, no light, not even moonlight, to enter the clearing. It was perfect for him and his suqad to enter the base. All shadows and nothing to give them away. Looking to his sensei, jace waited for the order to go and when it was given, gladly took off into the base with his teammates.

    The plan was supposed to be simple and easy. They went in and rescued their captured comrads while their sensei went and took out the leader of the outpost.

    It was supposed to be easy. Just a B-rank rescue and assasination mission, only chuunin to be here.

    It was supposed to be easy, but this was the night Jace learned things in the shinobi world rarely ever were.

    Jace was a genin who came from a medium sized clan known for their swordsmanship. Their blood line intertwining deeply with their swords and the chakra stones used to power them. Jace was a prodigy, he was the only reason they got this mission. Two days later he wished he hadn't. Actually, he cursed his whole clan for pushing the council and hokage into it. Still, his teammates wanted this as well, maybe this was all his fault for giving in.

    As they seperated at an intersection, the genin squad rushed down countless hall ways, knwoing exactly where to go thanks to schematics they had gotten from a spy in town. They met no resisitance, yet none of them found this odd. That mistake would cost them.

    Jace was in the lead, taking his team through twists and turns, every few moments looking back at the two to check that they were still with him. His teammates were Rei Kushana and Kaede Talo, Rei, blue hair and usually wore all white, was the kind of person who was always smiling and always excited by a challenge, alot like Jace in that aspect, while Kaede, dark brown hair tied almost always in a pony tail and dressed in a tight grey shirt with matching shinobi shorts, thought they were both idiots.

    Truth be told they were his best friends, and he even had a small crush on Kaede, though it would take threat of death back then for him to admit it. They both kept up easily, and Jace never had to slow for them. Finally they entered a large chamber, pillars all over the area, eerily shadowed by the room being only lit on one side. they rushed like amatures to the cages they could clearly see on the lit side.

    Rei made it there first, and thus was the one to get caught when a metal cage sprung up and shot electricity through his body, effectively knocking him out. Immediatly Kaede and Jace stopped as the lights on the other side of the chamber lit up and blasted the area with light, showing the three clearly jounin level ninja behind them laughing as they saw their latest victim get captured.

    Growling Jace checked on the other captives and saw something that almost made him sick. In the cages were what used to be their comrads, now mutated and definetly not among the living, victims to more of the snake sannins experiments. Gritting his teeth he turned to a shell shocked Kaede and took charge. "Get Rei out of that cage, now.After that see if you can find anyone else living."

    Kaede blinked, responding a bit more to the situation. "What are you going to do? You can't take down those three by yourself!"

    Turning his eyes away from the three jounin for a moment as he slowly drew his blades from thier sheaths and setting two different stones in the free spots in thier hilts, he smiled slightly, one that seemed accepting of something already predetermined. "Then its a good things I'm not aiming to take them down, huh?"

    Watching her eyes widen more, he knew it clicked and he turned before she could say anymore."I want you to know something. I was going to wait a while to ask, but I was hoping for a date." He smiled at the irony of it as he shook his head. "Just for no regrets."

    With that he sent a pulse of chakra to his legs and was off, heading straight at the three jounin. He knew he had to buy his team as much time as he could, and that meant pulling out all the stops. He saw the three smirk as the two on the right and left threw down some smoke bombs. The one in the middle seemed to phase out and reappear in front of Jace as the smoke began to build. "Tough guy huh? Lets play then, I hope you last longer than those other idiots did."

    Gritting his teeth jace dodged to the left slightly in a spin, swinging a blade sideways and watching in shock as it sliced into the jounin's arm. Jumping back Jace raised an eyebrow as the enemy threw a kunai at him, but it seemed sloppier than jounin back in his village threw. Slower as well. Taking note of that the black haired chuunin dodged to the side and ducked under a punch thrown from his right. Using the senses he had developed under his sensei, he caught the shift in the soke to his left and jumped, clearing the kick meant to take his legs out.

    A smirk appeared on his face as he darted a leg out and slammed it on the kneecap, captializing on the weakness that all leg sweeps gave. You usually overextended your leg, and if someone was fast enough or had good enough reaction time, he could take out the opponents mobility. Jace had both.

    Watching the supposed jounin grit his teeth in pain, something told him this was way too easy. Unfortunately he was right as the one he had sliced before made some hand signal to the other two and all three began to grow strange markings over their bodies.

    Suddenly a blast of wind knocked the air out of the swordsman, sending him flying back. It took four different pillars to stop his momentum and a fifth to stop him completely. Gasping and wincing as he got back up, Jace stared at the now transformed jounin. All three were smirking in confidence and to his surpsie, standing.

    Thats when he saw the leg he had broken on the third jounin was some how twisting and writhing on it's own, repairing it's self. The one who seemed to be the leader smirked and said. "I hope you said good bye to your girlfriend punk, because after we're finished with you we're going to get...acquainted..with her." The lecherous grin on his face let jace know all about what they meant.

    Seething in anger Jace sent chakra into his blade and swept it hard across the air, the former pain replaced by adrenaline as a slash of fire erupted through the air and nailed the one on repairing himself, knowing he was the slowest.

    Using his second stone, jace swiped a blade of wind out, canceling out the bludgeoning force of wind the one who talked sent at him as Jace started running to the side, dodging in and out of pillars as the two jounin seemed to have some odd abilities with their elements that were powered up thanks to that stupid black thing they grew over themselves.

    Running straight at another pilled, Jace glued chakra to his feet and ran straight up it, losing no momentum and jumped from one pillar to the other in a quick zig zag pattern, all the same raining blade after blade of his two elements down at the two in retaliation to their attacks. Fire and wind jutsu mixed between them, causing explosions and slices of air to rain down on the area. One explosion was lucky enough to causing a slight smoke screen and jace used that to his advantage, taking a guess and letting fly a hihgly chakra powere d blade of wind through it. Immediatly the smoke vanished, being pulled along with the wind blade and through the jounin controlling fire. The mans top half fell to the ground before his legs got the message he wasn't fully there.

    Unfortunately for Jace the previously hit jounin had healed up and appeared before him, using a two handed blow to his side and sending him sailing through the air and into the ground hard. Landing with a bounce jace rolled across the ground and was sent airborn once more as the wind manipulating man nailed him in the stomach with a chakra coated kick.
    Coughing up blood on impact jace went sailing through the air towards the other jounin, the two seeming to be attmpting a game of catch with his body as both were grinning wildyl, not in the least affected by the death of one of thier comrads. Not being too fond of this, Jace turned in mid air at just the right moment and with a slick of his wrist sent his blade flying in front of him, burying it's self to the hilt in the man's throat, out through the top of his skull.

    Flipping his body, his feet landed on the now dead man's stomach as he pulled his sword free with a squeltching noise. Now the final jounin seemed angry, because before Jace could do much more than blink he was thrown through more pillars by a blast of air. Blinking blearily, Jace tried to stand and get out of the crater he made in a pillar , but his body wouldn't comply as the angry jounin slowly walked up and grabbed Jace by the front of his now tattered and torn black shirt. "I could kill you, but it would be more fun for you to watch."

    Jace blinked as he was dragged by his hair, the jounin shifting his grip to make it more painful, over the rubble of thier fight and was forced to watch as the jounin, with a pulse of chakra set the cage on an electricty spree, frying the almost free Rei with chakra powered electricty. Kaede had jumped away just in time, and had turned to see the predicament only to have her eyes widen in horror at the state Jace was in. Before she, or anyone could do anything, Jace's sensei burst in the room, her eyes flashing as she took in the situation.

    Apparently the enemy knew he was now out matched because without hesitation jace was thrown through the air and into his sensei, the air wielding jounin appearing behind Kaede and using a swift pinch to the nerve ending to knock her out. Picking her up, the jounin grinned and simply said. "Next time we meet kid, your in for a surprise." With a laugh he vanished after throwing a kunai with a burning exploding note attached at him and his sensei.

    His sensei managed to get them clear, but when the smoke cleared the other jounin and Kaede were gone. A single tear rolled down jace's face before the sweet oblivion of blacking out occured.

    It was supposed to be easy, but it turned out to be a trap. Now two years later, Jace was still training, intent on saving his teammate even if everyone else thought it was a lost cause. His true feelings hidden behind a mask to everyone and a refusal to get close, afraid of getting close to someone else and something happening.