Woohoo! Silver has finally posted the second installment of this epic tale! Sorry for the delay guys, since it's a collab, it's a little more difficult, considering that the two of us are sharing this wonderful story. (Smiles)

I'll tell you one thing though; this guy knows how to write. It's definitely dynamic and lives up to the name itself.

So, here we go!

Princess Io

Job01: Midnight Rendezvous

The thief seemed to glide through the tree limbs as he made his escape from the inn. He had claimed the innkeeper's jewels and Silver's pack as his prize and was not about to give them up.

As far as this thief knew, he would be within the clear within several more minutes of fleeing.

At least, he thought that until an arrow passed less than an inch from his head and imbedded itself within the next tree limb he was jumping to. Acting fast, he quickly jumped from the tree limb and landed behind the trunk of another tree just in time to avoid two more arrows wiz by him.

"Shoot! There's no way he could've caught up to me that fast," The thief thought to himself as he reached into his cloak to pull out three uniquely styled throwing knives, "Ok, we'll do this the hard way."

The thief mad a sudden dash from behind the tree trunk and instantly began scanning his surroundings to detect any incoming projectiles, or if he got lucky, the person firing them.

Almost immediately the hum of two arrows could be heard coming from his right as he jumped up and hurled to of the throwing knives to deflect them away.

The sparks they made lit up the immediate area in the dark forest which gave the young adult sniper a much clearer shot as he fired a third arrow. The third throwing knife too deflected it as the thief landed, but something went wrong.

The ground he landed on was unexpectedly uneven which nearly threw him off balanced as he landed.

With no time to recover, a fourth arrow could be heard homing in directly to his face as he looked up. With almost no time to react, he leaned back as far as he could as the arrow came so close to his face that its feathers brushed against his nose.

Understandably this made the thief more nervous by the second as he was forced to take cover again.

"This won't work," the thief thought to himself as he silently caught his breath from his near death experience, "I was hoping I would have to use this, but it seems that I have underestimated my pursuer," he thought to himself as he pulled out a dark colored stone and placed it within his palms as he formed a hand sign.

"Whoever this guy is, he's got some decent reflexes to still be alive after all those arrows," the confident sniper thought to himself as he stood in a tree and readied another arrow.

In an unexpected move, the thief made an unexpected charge in his direction. Although caught off guard, he wasn't about to let an easy shot get away from him.

"You're either confident or desperate," the sniper spoke out loud as he fired one well-placed shot that pierced the thief's heart.

"Are you naïve or stupid?" the thief asked right before his body exploded into dust.

Before the sniper could react, two identical figured leaped before him with knives ready to slit his throat. The sniper was forced to leap as hard as he could out of the tree to avoid a fatal blow.

While one knife caught a little of his hair, the other caught his sniping suit in the chest area.

"Take this!" the sniper shouted as he unleashed a Double Strafing to take out both figures at once. They too disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What kind of trick is this?" he questioned out loud as he landed on the soft ground.

Reacting quickly to the sound of running footsteps, he quickly gripped his Damascus and ducked the slash to his backside, and delivered a well-placed stab. This attack proved to be in vein as this figure disappeared like the three before it.

Almost immediately, he could feel the wind pressure rapidly changing behind him and was hit with a strong wind element attack that cut him and his clothes up as he crashed into the bushes.

"What's wrong? I expected more of a challenge from someone who caught up to me so fast," the thief taunted.

"Ok, lets think," Silver thought to himself.

"I know assassins have a throwing knife skill, but those knives are different. They're just like the one back at the inn. A rogue can copy skills, but even they can't make illusions of themselves. Wait…illusions? I see now," a smirk grew on Silver's face a he realized that he wasn't fighting a thief, but a different class altogether.

"You're not dead already are you? It was just getting fun," the thief continued to taunt.

"You want fun? I'll show you fun," Silver's voice was suddenly heard in the bushes.

"This is gonna be interesting. I've never fought anyone from the Ninja class before, but there's a first time for everything. You're not the only one with tricks up your sleeve."

"Is that right?" the thief threw a knife into the bushes, but found himself hitting nothing more than a Talkie Box Trap, "Uh oh…"

"I'm called The Silver Sniper for a reason, and you're about to find out why first hand!" his voice seemed to echo throughout Payon Forest.

"Illusionary Shadow!" the ninja shouted to make five of himself instead of one.

They quickly dispersed in the forest in search of Silver. With seemingly no chance of escape, the only choice left was to fight. As one clone found his way on some high ground, the silhouette of Silver could be seen for a split second within the treetops.

As the clone attempted to pursuit him, he triggered a well-placed Flasher Trap, which gave Silver a clear shot to destroy him. The original ninja was able to sense that his clone had been defeated, and now there were just four of him left.

Two of the clones teamed up in an effort to lure Silver into a trap of their own. As Silver stalked one of them down from the treetops, the other got behind him and unleashed his Wind Blade jutsu against him. Silver turned to duck and weave through the treetops as the other clone turned around to assist his jutsu-spamming partner.

As they charged him once they were all on the ground, Silver grabbed hold of a rope he tied from a tree branch to the ground and cut it. He was propelled well into the air as the two clones slid to where he was once standing and triggered a Blast mine. Three down, two to go.

Both the original and the remaining clone had their backs together in a desperate attempt to keep from getting snuck up on. The sound of leaves rustling in the treetops could be heard as animals began to stir from the commotion. Suddenly the sound of snapping wood could be heard from above.

Large tree limbs came crashing down which forced the two to jump away in separate directions. The original darted down a dark trail while the clone was hit by an arrow in his right side and destroyed. All the clones had been destroyed, and now only the original remained.

"I see you…" Silver's voice whispered from directly behind the ninja. He spun around and slashed quickly in the dark air only to realize that he had triggered another Talkie Trap.

"Just a Talkie Trap…" the ninja spoke quietly.

"Maybe, but it sure helped me find you," Silver spoke as he patted the ninja on the shoulder.

As the ninja spun quickly to attack, he was met with a fierce roundhouse kick to the chest which threw him into the trunk of a large tree where he was then pinned there by several arrows shot simultaneously by Silver.

"Game over…" Silver said as he approached his out of breath captive.

A puff of smoke exploded around the ninja before Silver got to him. Silver was sure that he had destroyed all the clones, so he was confused for a few moments.

"Oh great," Silver said as he watched the smoke dissipate. "This better not have been another clone."

Surprisingly for him, this wasn't a clone. He had succeeded in catching the would-be thief. However the smoke that dissolute was from a jutsu previously used before their confrontation in the inn.

Silver's jaw was left hanging wide open as he saw the effects of this jutsu wear off.

"Ok…you caught me," spoke a new voice, "So what now big shot?"

In all his experiences, which are a lot considering his age, this was something that no amount of his training could have prepared him for. Silver was allowed a better look as the moonlight peeked through the treetops.

Its light reflected from the burgundy and aquamarine eyes of his captive and the locks of chocolate hair shined in the moonlight. Not only was this thief not actually a "thief", but also this man wasn't actually a "man". This man was actually a girl!

Commentary…

Ya know that seemed a lot longer when I was typing that up. Compared to TS's (Princess Io) first chapter, mine seems dwarfed.

Either way, I hope you all like it. This is helping me get back into the loop of writing.