She let out a scream of despair and shoved her foot into the post next to her. Smoke seemed to be fuming from her ears and her face was as red as a cherry.

She was angry, so it was best to back away for a while.

"SUIGETSU! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME!!" I turned from her, annoyed.

"Somebody's PMSing…" Suddenly I felt my face form into water, Asami's hand gliding through the air. My face quickly reformed to it's normal position, however, so it was fine that I was her punching bag - for the moment. There were some places I couldn't get hit and it being painless. Of course, Asami and I were…intimate? Is that the word I'm looking for? So she wouldn't do that.

I hope.

"Okay Asami. Give me the map."

"No."

"Asami……"

"We'll ask for directions."

I glanced around the barren landscape around us, sighing. We had been going in circles for the past couple of days in this place, Asami refusing to give me the map, keeping it in her clutches even while she slept. "And who, do you suppose, that we ask for the directions? I don't see anything living besides plants, and there's only about three of those. So unless you sprout a flower on the top of your head and learn to speak with our green friends there, we've got no one to help us."

Without even looking, I could feel her glare rest on me, seeming to burn a hole in my skin. This was our second day of the second week of traveling, and though we weren't going anywhere in particular, we still managed to get lost. Although, I had to admit that living off the land and not having to listen to any orders was pretty nice. Asami, though she was in a bad mood, never stayed like that for long. She was never telling me what to do, just asking favors or giving suggestions on what to do. I could always say no, but why? I didn't want to argue with her even on her good days. It's like that saying that says 'Hell ain't got nothing on a woman's anger'. Or something like that.

"Suigetsu, you have a point…but I think we should go somewhere else. I mean, why did we want to go to the Hidden Rock Village anyway?" She sputtered, obviously trying to pass off something that she had thought of.

"So…where do you want to go then?" Folding my arms behind my head, I glanced over to her, looking her up and down, just enjoying the sight of her.

"Hm…well, I really need to relax. I'm stressing and we're basically rurouni. Besides, of course, the fact that we're ninjas…" Pausing, she stood in the road for a moment, and then nodded twice and started walking again. "We're off to find a hot spring!"

Immediately I rolled my eyes, yet ran after her. What fun this will be.

Asami's Point of View

"Ah…nothing beats a hot spring." Sinking into the murky water so my nose barely touched the surface. The warmth sent a tingling feeling through my body down to my toes. Smiling to myself, I leaned back, enjoying the day. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, and I was in a good mood. Plus, I finally had some alone time since I had joined Suigetsu. It was a miracle in itself, so I didn't plan on taking it for granted.

"Asami, could you hurry up?" Suigetsu yelled over the wall at me, agitated.

"It's not my fault you refuse to bathe. You should do it to relax."

"Um, hello! I'm water constantly!" Hearing the tapping of feet, laughter erupted from my throat.

"I'm freaking made of ICE Suigetsu. I could melt you know!"

The tapping stopped. "Don't even talk like that."

Running my fingers through my hair, I sighed. "Now look what you've done Suigetsu. You've spoiled my good mood. I should hurt you for that." I dragged my finger across the surface of the water, watching the ripples collide with each other.

Catching my breath, I saw a shadow in the water, and a second later I had a gash down my arm, the kunai to blame sinking to the bottom of the pool. Blood dripped into the water, making clouds of red, tinting the small circle around me a pinkish color.

"Suigetsu…we've got company." Looking up, my assumptions were proven correct. There was a dark figure sailing towards me from above, dark cloaks billowing around the character. In his hands were more kunai.

"Shit. Above!" Moving to get out of the pool, I quickly realized I was…well, I was naked. Son of a…

"Asami, I'm coming in!" Bursting through the door came Suigetsu, his sword out. I sunk into the water lower, putting ice over my wound. Suigetsu jumped, clashing swords with the rouge ninja, the antagonist grunting.

"Suigetsu, if you look up, I'm going to kill you, do you understand me?"

He didn't reply and kept his glare locked on his opponent. I could hear his teeth gritting, the canines squealing.

Glancing down at my wound, the ice was turning an unsightly color of pink. I hadn't realized the gash was so deep. Pushing the water around, I found the kunai lodged in between two rocks. I stretched my arm out as far as I could, trying to grab the weapon and inspect it. It was odd that a simple kunai had slid that deep through my thick, cold skin. My fingers were inches away from it, and as I gritted my teeth, I finally reached it. Pulling it out of the quickly darkening water, I turned it over in my hand.

It was a steely grey, and the knife part was etched with notches and barbs, and was very long. It was made for shattering hard things like wood, concrete, or ice.

Glancing up, I saw that the two had left the air, and, after a second of looking around, I learned that they were now outside of the fenced-off hot spring area. Jumping out of the water, I sprinted into the dressing room, throwing on my clothes and wringing out my hair. After throwing the kunai in my backpack, I grabbed my sword and ran out, jumping clear over the fence.

I landed right next to the other ninja slicing my already unsheathed sword through his neck. Silently, the assassin fell, and before hitting the dirt was overcome with a cloud of smoke. Sighing, I slipped my sword into its sheath, inspecting my wound. The blood from it was running down my arm and dripping off of my fingertips. While I had changed it had stained the sleeves of my cloak.

"Asami…"

"I'm fine. Look." Pointing one of my not bloodied fingers at the figure through the disappearing smoke, my focus pointed to the substitution. The person before us was not the assassin, but a small child. The assassin had used a substitution so he wouldn't die in battle. I choked. I had just killed an innocent child in cold blood.

My knees buckled, and the ground started to fly toward me, but strong arms caught me before I fell all the way.

"Asami, it's not your fault, you didn't know. I didn't know. There was no way we could have…"

I slammed my fist on the ground, biting my lower lip to bite back tears. Why in hell's name was I so freaking emotional? Suigetsu let me sit, and then knelt beside me, embracing me and stroking my hair.

"Asami, don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry. Whoever is trying to harm you isn't going to succeed."

Pushing my head into the crook of his neck, I let myself look away from the small boy I had killed. What heartless man could do that to such a young and innocent soul? The child looked only five or six.

Whoever had done this was going to pay.

Hey everybody, I'm so glad this chapter is up. I think it's a good way to start a new series. (I tried forever and a day to start without conflict, but that's too hard, and too normal. Conflict is the number one cause for apologies you know. ;)

And for all of you that were confused at Suigetsu's quote mix up - it's really 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'. But Suigetsu probably would find it too difficult to put the hath and scorn in there, so I made it his.