"A year after the tournament, hard to believe that the time goes so quickly!" she exclaimed. Not everyone was there, of course. A few had satisfied their motives for entering the tournament, and opted to sever the ties of acquaintances they had made. Some of them had preferred to stay away, not longing for the socialising that a reunion of sorts would make necessary. Of course, there were quite a few in the latter category. One of them was Ryu, but she had dragged him along. Literally.

"Of course you are coming," she had persuaded, to little avail. "It'll be fun, and you get to catch up with everyone! What more could you want?"

"Someone to come and rescue me," the super ninja had deadpanned. "Why don't you find somebody else to aggravate? For example, Gen-Fu?"

Gen-Fu had stayed behind, looking after Mei Lin. She was thrilled to hear how much better the young girl was doing; the second lot of treatment was so far looking to be the last.

"He doesn't have enough room in his suitcase for his painkillers," she had shrugged. After a lot of arguing, threats and empty promises, she had finally managed to haul Ryu along. Now, if nothing else, Tina was going to get a shock.

Of course, the blonde was too busy drinking a soda water to really care, and Ryu had drifted off, talking with Helena. What they were actually talking about was beyond her.

"So, I wonder why he's here?" Tina questioned, gesturing with her head to Ryu. "Doesn't seem like his sort of thing. Like, none of the other ninjas are here,"

She sobered, and decided to not mention Kasumi's untimely demise into the conversation, not even sure whether anybody else knew or not. Kas, you might not be with us any longer, but we still care for you. Heck, we'll never forget you. You know that, right?

"Yeah…" she drifted off casually. Hitomi came walking up, holding two drinks, handing her one with a friendly smile.

"Wow, there're more people here then I would have originally thought. Shame that some couldn't or wouldn't make it, though. Even still, I'm surprised that Leon came. It's nice, actually, because personally, I wasn't expecting him to come,"

She looked over, following Hitomi's finger, to where Leon and Zack were talking about something. Who was here? Ryu, Hitomi, Zack, Tina, Brad Wong, Leon, Helena and her.

Wait a minute… that couldn't be…?

Yes, it was. God knows what had possessed him to come, but he was there, just joined in Leon and Zack's conversation. She tried not to let a frown cross her face, but found it nigh-on impossible. And it was then she saw her.

"Kasumi?"

The amber haired girl turned, as if in a dream, smiling. But it wasn't a dream, it was real. Kasumi was alive.

Alive.

"Kasumi!" she ran over and wrapped her arms tightly around the girl's waist, but regretted it instantly as she felt the girl flinch in her grip. "Sorry. Just that… you… you're not…"

"No, I'm not," Kasumi's smile faded. "I was only lucky. Hayate thought that I was dead, and left. That was it, basically. But someone managed to find me and help me recover,"

The kunoichi's voice dropped. "You'll never guess who!"

She shook her head. "No idea. Tell me,"

"Jann-Lee,"

"WHAT?"

The word was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Kasumi smiled again. "Yes, he helped me. Got me back to health. He's wonderful,"

Almost as though he had finally noticed, Ryu came over, a look of astonishment on his face, which was something in itself.

"…Kasumi?"

The young kunoichi smiled, but Leifang instantly noticed a touch of tenseness around Kasumi's shoulders. "Yes, Ryu. I'm alive,"

"That's… that's wonderful,"

"What's wrong?" she questioned, eyes going from ninja, to kunoichi and back.

Ryu sighed softly. "Kasumi must go,"

"I don't understand,"

Kasumi turned to her, a solemn expression on her face. "Ryu's saying that after this reunion, I have to leave, I can't go back to Japan. Hayate will be hunting for me if he even hears a rumour that he didn't kill me, and I would rather move away then make everyone I know and love suffer for a demise I never truly met,"

She nodded slowly. "You know that we'll all miss you heaps, Kas,"

Kasumi smiled. "Yes, but we can write. And we'll see each other again, someday. Ryu?"

Ryu turned instantly to her.

"I will always love you, you know that. And I always know that you love me, but…"

She squirmed mentally at the pause.

"You and Leifang… get a room already!"
Both she and Ryu blinked in response to the very un-Kasumi like statement, particularly the innuendo.

"Well, maybe not in quite those words, but Tina told me them, so blame it on her. But it's obvious that you two are smitten with each other. You've been shooting each other these looks ever since you've arrived," Kasumi smiled. "I know that you didn't just forget about me, but I'm glad that you've found a special someone, Ryu,"

"Kasumi, I-" Ryu started but the kunoichi interrupted.

"No, Ryu. Leave it as it is. "You write, and I will too. I love you,"

With that, the amber-haired kunoichi faded in a breeze of sakura blossoms, probably for the last time.

"I knew it!" Tina crowed as soon as she had recovered from the shock. "You and Hayabusa are, like, bonking, aren't you? That's so sweet!"

"Bonking?" Ryu's usual stern expression was betraying mild confusion as she and Tina fought to contain their laughter, Tina having kindly explained what she was talking about a minute before Ryu had walked over.

"Never mind. Now, why couldn't I have the luck of picking up some hottie while on holiday? Some girls have all the luck!" Tina sipped on her soda water delicately.

"Well, he's mine, so you can't have him," she playfully slipped an arm around Ryu's waist, not expecting him to reciprocate. However, after a while, she felt a strong, lean arm hesitantly go around her, and she smiled.

I truly can learn to love again. This is great, the way love should be.