Author's Note: Well, I consider this a train wreck to anything that I've written beforehand. I wrote this late at night after... watching something I think I can't remember. All I know is that I wrote it for no apparent reason, so here you go. Sorry about demonizing Neji, by the way. I love Neji and he's one of my favorite characters. I was pulling at straws when I was writing this and just sort of picked a Naruto Character. Enjoy!

Little to No Confidence

It was something that only bad girls found themselves in between. In fact, bad girls reveled in being alongside their bad boy and partaking in their own joyous engagements. But, as Brianna found out, that was not to be. For the first time, her good girl instincts and ideals were being tested by this one man, this one named Uchiha Itachi. He who was a senior in High School and she who was a sophomore; none of this could have been real or imagined by her and none of this could have been believed by her friends. But, here she was, caught in between Itachi's arms with his face close to hers against the alleyway where he had saved her from those thugs. Was he really that much of a bad boy or was there something else going on that she didn't understand?

All she knew was that at that moment, Itachi's lips were closing in on her and she wasn't sure about what to do. So, she did the first thing that came to mind and closed her eyes and turned her head aside.

"Please…" she whimpered out.

Itachi watched her with a strange expression in his black eyes. When she opened her teal ones to look up at him to see why he had paused, she was met with the overpowering, rarely shown, emotion that the Uchiha man was showing her.

"Brianna, you fear me," he stated softly.

She nodded, "I'm sorry, I know that you've saved my life a few times this past semester, but… I can't help but to remember all the bad things you've done."

He looked at her some more, this time with contemplation before sighing.

"Those were rumors. I hadn't really done any of that. It is policy to the Akatsuki to spread reputation defiling rumors about yourself. That way, good girls like you won't get in our way of doing what we want," he supplied her.

She pulled a face, "Drugs, alcohol, and sex?"

He laughed bitterly, "I do not partake in alcohol or drugs, but the sex is something that I have perfected. No one in school, accept a few willing girls, have experienced my sexual charms. Though you seem very much resistant and I had originally thought that good girls were easy targets."

Brianna gave him a haughty look, "Guess again, I'm different. I stick to my guns whether you want me to or not."

Itachi chuckled at her show of backbone, which had been lacking at this point.

"That's the Brianna I know," he said though the statement seemed oddly cut short.

She glared at him, "What's so funny?"

Itachi traced her cheekbone; making her blush.

"You. You remind me of a small puppy. You walk around pretending that you can fight back, lash out at what you can fight back with words, yet you cower in fear for a moment when real danger presents itself, then you proceed to try to talk your way out of it. You're a damsel in distress who doesn't want to admit that she is one," he said softly to her with the humor evident in his voice.

Her blush deepened, but this time, with embarrassment.

"I am not like that," she insisted even though she knew that he was right about her.

He smiled at her gently.

"It is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it is strangely becoming of you. I quite like it," he complimented.

She turned away from him for the second time that night.

"You're just saying that. No one likes my personality except my close friends and you're just… some stranger, practically! You're just trying to…" she trailed off and glanced at him in fear.

Itachi guessed it and shook his head.

"That isn't my intention at all," he insisted.

She looked at him and their eyes met.

"I can't be sure about that. I don't trust you and I don't think that I ever will," she muttered.

A flash of hurt flickered across his eyes, but he tried to suppress the feeling as best he could. He should have figured that would have been the case.

"Brianna- I…" he trailed off, suddenly at a loss for words.

And he saw her fear. Itachi sighed and backed away from her.

"If you would like, I can walk you home?" he asked, trying to show that he could be trusted.

Brianna looked up at him and nodded.

"I feel safer with someone I know, so if you want to. I'd rather not go through that again," she said and shivered.

Itachi removed his leather jacket and placed it around her shoulders. She blushed and stuttered out a few protests, but the raven haired man shook them off.

"No, you are cold," he stated bluntly.

Brianna's red cheeks got redder as she mumbled out a 'thanks' and began to shove her arms through the sleeves. It smelled fresh, like it had been worn for only a few hours. She glanced over at Itachi and he smiled.

"If you are worried about sanitation issues, then worry no more. The jacket is a different one then the one that I wore today. If you step into the street lights, you'll soon discover that it's black and not brown," and there was his normal teasing voice directed at her.

Brianna blushed and bolding made her way out into the city lights. Itachi, holding in a laugh, followed her closely and with an air of overprotectiveness that passing groups of males sensed from across the street and found themselves making a detour. What struck him, Itachi, the most was the fact that while he could clearly see the affect that having him with her was having on the potential threats, Brianna hadn't even noticed. She was walking with her head held high, as bold as brass, talking to him about nonsense that happened in school that day (which she described as nonsense and poked sarcastic fun at) and she didn't even notice the crowd around her. Itachi, of course, did since he was making it his effort to keep the men away from what he considered to be HIS girl.

He almost stopped in shock at that thought. His girl? Was he insane? Of course he didn't own Brianna, he knew that! She wasn't and would never be, his girl! She had made that quite clear. Well… there was that small possibility. If he could show her that most of the rumors about him were wrong and that he really was a man that she could feel proud of dating. Maybe then she would take him?

Suddenly, from the lecherous looks that some other gang boys that he knew at school and were directed at the bronze haired girl in question, Itachi sped up and wrapped his arm around her small, thin waist. She stopped and looked up at him in confusion at his movements and Itachi shook his head.

"Later, just keep walking and acting normal. It will throw them off," he ordered her kindly.

Brianna looked scared for a moment, nodded, then allowed him to continue walking with her in his arms.

Itachi glanced over his shoulders and glared at the group of men from behind. The fear in their eyes told him that his reputation was un-reputable as ever and that any girl with his name on her was off-limits to every male in the world.

Brianna, though hyper aware of the man's arm gently surrounding her waist, kept as cool as she possibly could without blushing as much as she wanted to. It embarrassed and pleased her at the same time to have Itachi show possession for her like he was, even though she knew that he was only doing it for her protection. After all, he couldn't possibly like HER could he?

While Brianna was semi confident that she could sooner or later score the perfect man for her, she knew that, in many cases, Itachi would be considered both above her league and below her league, depending on who it was that she talked to.

"You are not that comfortable around men who are this close to you, why is that?" he asked after a while.

Brianna glanced up at him with a blush on her face, again, and then looked down.

"Because I've never dated anyone before and I'm not used to being this close to a guy," she explained to him.

Itachi looked surprised. Her? Single for this long in high school? He didn't understand how that was even possible! After all, she was beautiful, fun to hang around, and had a fiery temper that he quite enjoyed to ignite. How was it that other men didn't find her charming?

"That is strange indeed. I had thought that your parents would have been beating boys away from you instead of not having to worry about them at all," he commented dryly.

Brianna laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, I'm more of the person that men seem to think fun to hang out with, but not date, if you get my meaning," she said with a resentful tone directed towards herself.

Itachi felt a bit happy about that. It meant that there was no competition that he was going to have to face off with a "she's mine" type of demeanor.

"So, I take it that many nice men have caught your fancy, but they were fools enough to ignore you?" he asked.

Brianna nodded, "Yeah, I… I like this one guy who's a junior, but he refuses to even look at me."

Itachi raised an eyebrow and wondered at the man that he was going to have to take her eyes off of.

"If I may ask, who is this man you have feelings for?" he asked.

She got a bit defensive at his question.

"Why do you ask?" she inquired snappishly.

Itachi chuckled, "Because I feel curious about your love life, or lack thereof."

She glared at him and he sighed, "I do not gossip."

She nodded at his words and looked away from him. After a while, she got his answer.

"Neji Hyuuga," she stated.

Itachi suddenly understood everything that she had gone through concerning Neji. He had probably caught her eyes a month or two ago because of something that he had said in her favor and she couldn't help but hang on to his every word and follow him like a blind sheep. With someone like Brianna with no confidence in her looks (something that was founded by the stupidity of teenage boys), Itachi wasn't surprised that she had fallen for Neji's ploy. It seemed like the perfect thing to happen to her since Neji enjoyed stringing along the innocent girl. A rich boys design; he should know since he too was rich.

"I see," he stated.

She blushed and began to state all of the good qualities that she though Neji had and Itachi couldn't help but feel that he could easily name one hundred bad qualities that would diminish the meager, repetitive list that she was voicing. But, he figured that it would be a bad idea for him to do that with their current relationship. He decided that a better thing to do, for him, would be to change himself for her. Sure, he knew that she never asked him to, but he found that he wanted to. It would prove to her that he wasn't what she thought he was, which, in fact, he wasn't. It was just a series of rumors that never got verified and spread like wildfire. In fact, Itachi realized that most of what he needed to do was get rid of the rumors. But, how was he going to do that?