i vaguely remember that it was an early work of the author of a pretty popular shounen manga.

all i remember about the series was it was about a boy whose family was killed and he had a big sword (something about the moon and a power that was passed down from his father or something)

he teams up with a girl (i think she was a princess) to prevent some war or something and they had to go into a forrest that was really dangerous-when they were about to go in someone turned a bunch of ropes into snakes and tried to scare them off. once they were in the woods they had to fight some giant guard or something and they beat it by destroying a seal or something. and in the woods hey found some old lady who took the girl into a cave to read her fortune or something of that nature.

sorry, im really sketchy on the details- and theres a small chance i added bits of another manga (--_--)