Okay, so here's the situation: I, Hikuro Atsukai, am now facing a stupid bad guy with my girlfriend's throat under his hand's grasp and I have no weapon except my fists. And, okay, I lied about one thing. She's not actually my girlfriend but I sure as hell wish she was. Her name's Ryume Kazemizu and, as usual, she was getting sick and tired of being captured and used as hostage, experimented, harassed, or just by accident. It's probably because she was so cute and pretty… well, at least from my point of view. Hey, I'm a guy, what can I say?

"You better back off before I choke your pretty chicky here." The idiot tried to threaten me.

Ryume growled and snapped at him, "For the last time, stop calling me that!" She glared and everything she looked at, obviously in a bad mood. It was kinda rare to see her in a bad mood and her showing it, but I have to agree with her, I'm fed up of these morons too.

I sighed and scratched the back of my head covered with long dark brown hair. My bangs cover pretty much most of my face-according to other people-, but I can see perfectly fine. "Dude, listen, I am really not in the mood for this, and neither is my pretty chicky."

"Excuse me?" Ryume gaped at me.

I'm used to her remarks about mine. "It's early, it's our day off, Mr. Uchiha isn't here to piss me off, and I don't feel like cleaning up the mess when I'm done with you,"

The moron with a sash over his goddamn eyes laughed at me, his voice was pretty raspy as if he drinks…as if I'm the one to talk. But at least I don't get too drunk and drink regularly… So what if I'm just fourteen/fifteen. I'm responsible enough! "You think I'm just going to hand her over? I don't think so punk."

Wow. That's a new one. "Hn. Never heard anyone call me punk. Usually it's other things like jerk, asshole, annoying brat, garbage…"

The bad guy jerked his hand and his grip tightened around Ryume's neck, making her fall to her knees, clutching her throat. "You better hurry up and save your girl, punk. I might just kill her."

"Nahh, I don't think you'll kill her. She's too cute to die." I grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. This got a grin out of him too, but in a different way. He thought what I said was supposed to be a challenge and then started to actually choke Ryume! Holy crap! I didn't know he'd actually try to kill her! Too far, pal. No one messes with my girl.

I ran up to him then in a flash, was instantly behind him, smacking him on the back of the neck with the side of my hand, making him loose his grip on Ryume and fall to the ground. Hikuro saves the day once again. I caught Ryume before she could fall too far and put her in my arms. Geez she was beautiful. She coughed a few times trying to get her breath back then looked up at me, for the first time noticing I was holding her.

Then she glared at me! She glared at me, stood up, and walked away from me just like that. No thank you, no nothing. Ugh, great. Now she's mad at me. I rolled my eyes and walked with her, "All right, what did I do this time?"

"You play around too much."

"Geez, a bit too straight-forward, don't ya think?"

The she stopped and raised an eyebrow at me, her lips in a tight line. "You're the one to talk." She shook her head and mocked me, "No, I don't think you'll kill her. She's too cute to die." And she stomped off.

I thumped myself with my palm to my forehead. Crap. I said too much when she wasn't in the mood. Why the heck was she so angry anyway? Sasuke was on a mission with her teammates Risu and Rynn and my teammates Itazura and Kinaga. We were pretty much alone so we can spend more time together. Just the two of us, something I love to do. But nooo, she just has to be in a bad mood! I sighed, shook my head, put my hands in my deep pockets of my oversized tan jacket, and walked to the ramen bar. Well, then again, her guardian (and only family), Kasaigaru wasn't here. He was a huge blue and black wolf that was always quiet, protective and always knew what was going on. It's like he's always watching her no matter where she was. And he was never here either. He's always away on important missions or meetings with important figures like the Hokage and other leaders from different regions.

But other than Kasaigaru, her teammates (Rynn and Risu), me, Sasuke, and Neji; we were Ryume's only family. Then again, she was half Uchiha so she was a …cousin… to Sasuke. Ugh. Jerk. I hated him with all my heart but Ryume was in love with him. And of course! I'm in love with her along with Sasuke being in love with her! Man, I picked the wrong girl. But it's all worth it. She saved my life so many times. In battles and mentally. I was a pretty bad kid back in my home village (the Sand Village). Ryume went on a mission there with everyone else and she met me. Once I think about it, I was a pretty big jerk to her. If only I could go back and fix that. But if I did, I don't know if I'd still be here with her.

I stopped walked and cried out, messing with my hair furiously. I hate thinking. Thinking was never my thing. I looked up and did an anime sweat-drop. Neji Hyuuga was staring at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Uhh… Hey Neji. What's up?" I said trying to cover up my incident with too much thinking-something Neji does a lot.

"Nothing much…" He gave me look then looked away, thinking. Ew, thinking. "What happened?" He suddenly asked.

It got me off guard and I crossed my arms, "What? Nothing. I have no idea what you're talking about. I have no idea why Ryume's all pissed."

Neji sighed, "So she is mad. What did you do this time?"

"This time? Man, that hurts."

"Well it hurts to see her mad also."

Drat. He's good. "Well it's true. I have no idea why she's mad. She got captured again by an amateur…" and I told him the story.

Neji sighed again, closing his eyes. He's pretty good at dealing with me. Usually people would bonk me on the head or yell at me…then I wouldn't make it any better by yelling back or threatening them. Another reason why everyone thought I was a jerk or annoying. Everyone except Ryume, that is. "Well you better go check up on her before she asks for too many mission from Tsunade."

"Yeah you gotta point there," another thing about Ryume. She lets out her stress by working, cleaning, training, or doing to many missions she's usually not up to. "Guess I'll go look for her. See ya." I walked away with my hands in my pockets again, trying to calm down. Okay, once I get to Ryume, I will not lose my temper. I will talk calmly and try to fix things. It's happened before and I can fix it again. Just calm down.

Then I saw her. She was leaving her apartment and she had a bag over her shoulder. But it wasn't a traveling bag, just a small one. Not a purse either, she hates purses. I followed her and she saw me when she turned around. For a second or two, we just stared at each other. I finally snapped out of it and walked towards her. She put her triangle eyes on and turned her back to me. What the heck? What did I do? Absolutely nothing! That's what I did: absolutely nothing! "Hey, Ryume! What the heck?" I ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder –a little too roughly- and turned her around to face me.

Her brown hair swirled in front of my face and I smelled the lavishing odor of the shampoo she used and then her amazing emerald eyes, which always sparkled. "What do you want?" She asked. "You didn't have to grab me." Her voice wasn't stern but it wasn't pleasant either. And I didn't help at all. I went straight to the point.

"What the heck is wrong with you? Why are you avoiding me? I just saved your life and I don't even get a thanks out of you? And now you're avoiding me? Ever heard of rude?" My voice accidentally rose and my grip on her shoulder tightened me her grimace. Oops.

"You have no reason to yell at me," She replied with emotion in her voice, but she wasn't loud. Why can't I do that? "And you were the one being rude. You act like I'm a toy. I'm not your prize, Hikuro. I'll let you know if I need an owner." Her eyes grew dark and she walked away once my grasp loosened.

Once she was clear of earshot, I yelled and punch the brick wall nearest to me, "Dammit! I'm such an idiot!" Why can't I do anything right? My best friend's angry at me, my other friends aren't here, it's my day off, and I have absolutely nothing to do. Ugh. This is going to be so boring!