"Agh! Dammit! They're firing arrows at us. Itazura, a little help here? My shuriken can do only so much."

"I got it, I got it."

"Dammit, take your precious time why don'tcha!"

"Just chill, Hikuro, geez."

"Thank you, Kinaga."

"Can it Itazura! I'm going to run out of weapons if you keep sitting there blabbing!"

"Then if you're going to go through your weapons, make sure they hit a target."

Agh! Great. I, Hikuro Atsukai, am here with my pals Itazura and Kinaga cornered by drunken-ass savages who are trying to capture us. Could this get any worse? Yes, it can. They have my weapon. My sword to be more exact. No one takes my sword. If they do, they're ass is mine.

And here we are waiting for back up to arrive and I'm sitting her arguing with my buds. Waytta go Hikuro. If only Ryume were here to knock some sense into you. Ahh, Ryume. How I miss her. I haven't seen her in days and I'm having my cravings for her again. I just hope that damn Uchiha isn't pulling any moves on her right now!

"Hikuro, pay attention. They're coming for us!" Kinaga said.

Itazura suddenly grimaced in pain and pulled an arrow out of his leg.

"Shit."

"RYUME –CHAAAAN!!!!" Rynn and Risu said at the same time while running towards me. Oh boy. Here comes the glomp!

WHAM!!

And there you have it folks. Rynn Kuragari and Risu Yamanaka's welcoming to Ryume Kazemizu. Best friends forever! Both of their blonde hairs were in my face and I finally got them off of me and had them explain the situation. We soon joined Rika who was looking down from a cliff. I looked down with her with Kasaigaru at my side. The group we were after had set up a camp around a fire and I was instantly scanning and absorbing every detail. Every cart, every guard dog, every man. Then I saw the spot where Team 12 was trapped in.

"Tsch. They're trapped in an abandoned shack." Sasuke said from behind me. Holy mother of cheese I was on my knees looking down and he was right behind/above me. I looked back down at the camp, trying to distracting myself.

Rika looked over at me for the first time and blinked at me like she'd never seen me before. "Wow, Ryume. You get taller?"

I laughed weakly. Yep, that's my sensei. The purple-haired Rika Yuhi. Kurenai's older sister. Luckily I got the dumber one… I'm not the only one who thinks so. Kasaigaru and Rika don't really get along. But it's pretty funny to see Rika get outsmarted by Kasaigaru I have to admit.

After a brief conversation and a lot of debating, we finally decided on trying to talk this out peacefully and having to rescue Team 12. We'd see what we'd do with the savages later. If they didn't negotiate, we'd stall while we got the boys out of the shack quickly and quietly. It was pretty simple.

So we all recharged and I sat against a tree right at the edge of the cliff, watching the shack and all the arrows being thrown at it. An occasional spear or knife would shatter an already broken window or door and the shouts and laughter of the drunken men filled the air. I sighed.

A little under an hour passed and I was starting to doze off. When I felt a presence near me, I didn't bother to open my eyes to know it was Kasaigaru. We shared a bond. A very strong one too. That was one of the reasons I had bandages on my right arm. He had bitten me when he was a puppy and tried to breathe fire on me for self-defense. I'm scarred for life but he learned a jutsu that covered up some of the black and red scars. Funky colors, no?

So he put a blanket over me, rubbed my head, and left back to his post. I smiled softly and dozed off.

Two hours later, I was awakened by the sound of footsteps on dirt. I opened my eyes, kunai ready, and rushed to my attacker. It was one of the ninja we were watching. He had rope and an axe in his hand, his beard unshaven and clothes ragged. I knocked him out along with three more of his partners. I stepped back and elbowed another one behind me in the gut. Damn. It was a bigger guy that I expected. He chuckled slightly and picked me up from behind, leaving me to kick the air. Crap. I stepped on his stomach and shot through the air, kicking off of him and air-kicking another man.

I stood up straight and cursed. There were probably over twenty-five of them surrounding me. That wasn't good. All I had was three kunais on me. My fan was still at my post. If I could just go get it…

"Hey cutie, looking for this?" A savage called. It was the big guy I had kicked off of. He was holding up my fan and had it hanging over the cliff.

"Oh you better not." I warned.

"Woops," And that moron threw it over the cliff! That little- He's gonna- Ohhh no one does that to my fan!

"Oh ho ho you really shouldn't have done that buddy," I said and stepped closer to him. All of them were grinning and had that disgusting look while they stared at my body. Geez. Pervs.

Shit. They were grinning for another reason.

I looked down and braced myself. A ninja hound came from out of the ground and I leaped into the air. The hound snapped its fangs at me and I kicked it in the ribs. It hurt to do it. Canines loved me and I loved canines. It killed me to hurt them. But if they were trying to snap my face off, yeah, I'm gonna react people, deal with it you vegetarians.

I landed nicely on the ground and was immediately in fighting mode. I punched and kicked left and right up and down. I was going at it everywhere. It was like training except the real thing… But this time they just kept coming.

"Dammit there's too many of them!" I said to myself. I had gotten a few punches and another arrived straight to the gut. Ouch. I stumbled and broke someone's knee in the process. I tried to move away from the mass but they just kept coming and there was no way out. Then there was that dog again. I swear it came out of nowhere! But it just came from behind and bit my right arm, crunching down into my flesh. Yeah, it hurt. Blood seeped out of my arm and I yelled quickly in pain. Where was Kasaigaru? He should've felt the punches by now. They were probably being ambushed too. Crap!

Then I felt a rush of air behind me. I turned around with my kunai still in my hand and was about to stab my attacker when I suddenly blacked out into complete darkness.