Title: Loyalty
Characters: Kasumi/Ryu
Rating: Teen
Disclaimers: I do not own anyone/anything from the forum Dead or Alive. Team Ninja owns Dead or Alive and its characters. There is no copyright infringement intended. I do not make any profit/money or take any credit.
Summary: I will always protect you
A/N: Prompt for February 4th – Kasumi/Ryu – Loyalty – 'I will always protect you.'
Timeline: Post DOA 4
Word Count: 654
Betaed: No
~~~~Loyalty~~~~
It had started off as a promise made between two best friends. Hayate had been worried for his sister that he had asked Ryu Hayabusa, a close friend of his, to protect Kasumi. Ryu had promised, merely because he wanted to prove that he could keep a promise, to prove his worthiness.
Things shot to hell shortly after that.
Raidou, Kasumi and Hayate's uncle, Ayane's father by rape of Kasumi and Hayate's mother, had made his way back to their village to steal an a ability that was dangerous. He had crippled and nearly killed Hayate. Kasumi, filled with anger and the burning need for revenge, went after him. She had defected from the clan rendering her as a Runaway Shinobi. She was now to live her life on the run from the people she had considered as family as they sought to silence her.
Kasumi had killed Raidou, stealing back the Torn Sky Blast and gained her revenge for her brother and mother. That probably would have been enough to let her back into the clan but Genra, the acting head of the clan and Ayane's adoptive, had issued a warrant on her head. She was to be killed.
Hayate had once asked him why he interfered when it came to the clan attacking Kasumi. He knew of the rules, Kasumi was to die as she had betrayed them. Ryu merely reminded Hayate of the promise he had made. Even with Kasumi a runaway, he would not break it; even it meant protecting her from her own brother. Hayate had been dumbfounded, Ayane had been furious. Even now, people still preferred Kasumi over her. Ryu had pitied Ayane at that moment as he knew Kasumi never saw any rival with Ayane, merely her sister who had been hidden from the world.
Kasumi had asked him the same question, wanting to know why Ryu risked straining his friendship Hayate. Ryu told her the same thing and she had been confused. Surely by her being a runaway meant the promise will null and void. She wasn't known as Hayate's sister anymore. Hayate refused to even acknowledge her, sending their clan after her. He just told her that she was a friend of his, even if her brother was the one who kept the death sentence on her head, he would protect her with everything he had.
His father had been curious to the situation, even going as far to question his son. Ryu had explained the situation and his father had been disappointed to hear how Kasumi was being treated. He had cared about the young girl like she had been his daughter. He was good friends with Hayate and Kasumi's father. He left saying to Ryu that he wouldn't complain if Ryu was to find a wife, making it clear at who he was hinting at. For the first time since he was a teenager, Ryu blushed.
Ryu sighed as he got up from his seat at the table in the kitchen and made his way into the bedroom where he saw Kasumi sleeping in his bed. She had a split bottom lip and a cut along her left cheek. He sighed as he remembered coming across her being attacked by her clans. She had done a good job of keeping them at bay but due to being on the run for so long, she exhausted quickly and he stepped in, protecting her and driving off the remaining attackers before he picked her up and teleported home.
"I will always protect you," Ryu whispered, brushing his fingers against her cheek before he pulled the covers over her and left the room. It was a promise that had become deeply ingrained in him. It had started out as a promise to his best friend…it now has become a personal mission to him. He will not let any harm come to her…not while he was still alive.
The End