The Snake Reaching for the Moon

Chapter 1

It was a night like any other with a crescent moon shining in the sky above. Most of the animals were already sleeping so most of the sounds came from either the wind hitting the tree branches. You sat on one of the trees completely motionless with one of your knees raised in front of you and one of your wrists resting on it as you relaxed your hand while still holding onto your kunai blade.

You were waiting for the moment one of your targets would make a sound as they moved along the forest. The 9 man squad was down to its last three members, all panicking as they still didn't know who was picking off their teammates. They probably would never had known you were there and you'd most likely have been done by now, but you couldn't help having tossed your first victim's head back to his squad with an explosion tag stuck to it.

Simply the shock of seeing their companion dead led to three of them being caught in the blast and injured another two. They were easy to hunt down and were no fun at all.

Your 6th victim was a bit harder as she used a Substitution Jutsu to avoid your first attack and ambushed you from above... or so she thought. A Jutsu that simple was easy to counter especially since she was attacking from above and couldn't change her path.

You let her drop further down as you prepared your Jutsu, the less time she had to react the better. As soon as she was close enough you moved your hands over each other to make the appropriate signs for your technique and then turned to the shinobi as she was right above you.

(Multiple Striking Shadow Snakes!) The Justu's name rang in your head as a hoard of black snake flew out from the overlong sleeve of your black and green kimono. The swarm of snakes overwhelmed the female shinobi and slammed her back into a tree. As your conjured serpents faded away the woman fell to the ground dead and covered in snake bites.

You remained expressionless as you gave one last look to the corpse and then looked down at your hand to the headband one of your snakes had taken from her. If a single jutsu was enough to deal with shinobi of this level then maybe you could take advantage and... "Experiment" with the remaining targets.

As you sat perched in the tree branch hidden by the shadows of the leaves above you, a feint cracking sound came from a few meters to the left of where you were sitting. The corner of your eyes shined (E/c) in the shadows that hid you as your eyes slowly opened to look in the direction of the sound and then with a single effortless motion threw your kunai.

Your gaze watched the blade fly and almost instantly heard a man scream in pain as he tumbled off his feet and crashed from a small height with his comrades following to aid him. (Predictable) You thought, leaning back relaxed on the tree trunk behind you and comfortably formed the hand signs for your next Jutsu as you continued to watch where the voices where coming from.

In a puff of black smoke 3 clones stood in front of you. They were perfect solid clones identical to you except for a feint red glow in their (E/c) eyes. You stood up to take command of your creations and faced towards the targets voices. You raised your arm up next to your head, dropping your overlong sleeve to your elbow revealing your hand covered with a black fingerless glove then barely moved your hand forward to signal your clones to move out.

When you confirmed each of your clones went in the direction you wanted them to you, you followed the path the kunai had flown just a moment ago until you arrived at a flowing river surrounded by stones. You crouched at the ledge of a small cliff and watched your targets treat the wounded's bleeding leg.

(So I missed? I was aiming for his neck... oh well, I guess this works too.) You thought as you watched them silently before the injured one noticed you and alerted his allies.

One of them threw three shuriken at you as he turned towards you, but you avoided them easily by leaning away from their path. (They're panicking... I've won). You affirmed as you stood up, a bored expression on your face as your (H/l/c) hair and sleeves moved with the wind while your (Y/c) eyes shined in the dark.