A.N.- The characters are all speaking Japanese, but it's just translated for everyone just incase... and because I don't know it that well either. Oh, and again, a review didn't show up, so thanks to whoever it was.

Zeshin Hayabusa- Like I said before, man. This is an AU fic, so their personalities change too.

digininga- Okay, I sent you an email about the fanficton. Tell me if you got it.

Wolf Runner- Thanks man, and the reason why Midori made it back will be included in this chapter.

SilverLocke980- Thanks. But no, the ninjas weren't always cold-hearted, or brave for that matter. But during a mission, that's what they had to be like, any show of compassion would result in failure. The ninjas were usually farmers, outcasts, and radicals that rebeled against the government of Old Japan and would put themselves up for hire as an assassin. The Japanese government had a few ninjas that worked for them also. Like I said earlier, I'm not taking any more OC's because I can't work with that much. But it was a good suggestion and I might have chosen it had you submitted earlier, sorry. But please continue to reveiw.

Saiyan Warrior Princess- Thanks for reviewing. This is my first time dealing with original characters and I imagined that it was harder than dealing with characters that were alredy in the game or anime and I've dealt with too many characters before. Thanks again.


???

???

By: Joey/Mai fan15 aka Hitomi/Hayate fan aka Spider


Hayate awoke and took his hand to his forehead, it ached more than anything he'd ever felt before. His had touched a wet object and his eyes shot open as he pulled off a wet rag and threw it to the floor. He soon came to realize that he had been caputred the night before. Why hadn't they killed him? Don't they know that if Midori made it back and told the bad news to Shinden, he'd send an army and kill everyone?

The door opened and he shot up into a sitting position, the girl that entered gasped then regained her breath, "Oh... you scared me. So you're okay now?"

Hayate looked at her, dumbfounded. Wasn't she sacred, she did have someone who's supposed to kill her in her bed right now, but he didn't realise that she didn't know that, "How did you find me?"

"I went for a walk alone this morning and found you lying in the grass," she set down a tray on the nightstand to his left, "You should probably eat, seeing as how you fainted out there."

He was about to tell her how he didn't faint and he was caught, but decided that he was safer this way. Hayate picked out a biscut, pulled of a peice, and stuffed it into his mouth, "So, how long have I been out?"

"Well, since I found you, it's been a little over two hours I think," she turned to the window, "You must have hit a rock when you fell, you have a bruise on your forehead."

Hayate touched his forehead to feel a slight pain, telling him where the bruise was, "You don't look Japanese, how come you can speak it?"

"I'm half, and my mother taught me Japanese. I know it just as well as German."

Hayate nodded and took another bite, "Are you hungry?"

She smiled at him, "No, but thanks for offering. I already ate."

A knock on the door startled the two and she went to open it. Hayate swiftly got up and stopped her, putting a hand over her mouth just incase, her eyes widened at this, then whispered into her ear. She shivered at having him so close, "They can't find me. Please, you have to hide me."

A knock on the door came again, "Hitomi, darling. Would you come and join us downstairs? We still havent properly introduced you to the rest of your family yet."

The girl, now identified as Hitomi, looked back up at him and gently pulled his hand down, "Okay, go get under the bed."

He nodded and, in an instant, was under the bed being as silent as possible. Hitomi opened the door, letting her mother in, "I'll come down later. I really don't feel like it right now."

"That's what you said last night. You will come downstairs now."

"Fine, I'll be down in a few minutes," her mother walked out, closing the door behind herself. As soon as it was closed, Hitomi locked it and told Hayate to get out from under the bed, "I have to go downstairs soon so unless you want to stay here for a while longer, you are free to get on with your travels. Just take this bag and bring some of this food with you."

"Thank you," she hugged him, convinced that he would leave, then headed downstairs. Hayate took another biscut from the plate and took a bite. He had noticed earlier that he had a pain in his right ankle when he stopped her, it was probably sprained. There was nothing he could do but wait a while for it to heal.


Ayane sat next to Midori and Kasumi, watching as her father raved to a few of his ninjas, "My son is dead, we have to kill all of them as revenge."

"Sir, if you will," Shinden nodded and the ninja continued, "Such an act of agression would certainly cause an all out war. The family's samurai will be commanded to come here as a counter attack along with other hired clans. We'll be wiped out for sure. Besides, we don't know that he's dead."

"Yes we do, Midori told me that she saw a sword being driven through him with her own eyes."

"I'm sorry sir, but I strongly suggest that we do not go through with that plan."

Another one of the ninja's pulled up a chair behind Shinden and told him to sit, "You aren't thinking rationally because your son's dead. And that's reasonable. But for a while, I suggest that you either forget about this, or turn over all command duties to someone else and just adivse their desicions."

Shinden ran a hand over his face, wiping away the sweat caused by anger, "Fine, I'll pass duties to Aiko. Just make sure he does nothing without my approval. I am still in command, he is just making suggestions that will be judged by me."

"Of course."

"But I want my son's death to be avenged. The mission was a failure, so it was already in vain."

Ayane looked over at Midori, wondering why the mission failed if she had brought back an empty vile. She also was the one who told Shinden that it was a failure, so she wouldn't have dumped them somewhere to hide her own faults.

Shinden stood up, "Children, please leave now. I need some time alone."

The three walked out as they were told and Ayane followed Midori and Kasumi went her own way, obviously upset about what had happened the night before, "What did the mission go like, why did it fail?"

"I guess that Hayate made too much noise while he was in the bushes," she shrugged, "He always was an ametuer. Anyway, I heard a whistle while I was in the kitchen, so I accidentally spilled the mushroom flakes all over the floor and got out of there as soon as I could. I never really looked for Hayate, he was on his own to get out of there. Too bad he didn't, I glanced to the side when I was running and saw a samurai take his sword out of Hayate."

"So you spilled them?"

"Yeah, but it didn't fail because of me. If Hayate had been more quiet, then I wouldn't have had to drop them to run," Midori put the vile in a pouch that was at her waist, "Now, I have to go return this to Erikku."

"Wait, why didn't you go after the samurai that killed him? I know I would have."

"I'm not stupid like you, that's why. Why would I try to kill someone that has better weapons, better skills, and more numbers just because they killed that dumbass. It was his fault he died, so he deserved it."

Ayane wanted to punch her in the gut before she said another word, but remembered what Ryu said, not to provoke any violence because it would just come back later, just against her, "So you don't feel any guilt whatsoever?"

"Uhh... no. Like I said, it was his own stupidity. Besides, this is an advantage to me. Hayate's dead so Kasumi would be training for clan leader, right? Well since she stated that she didn't want that, that would leave you, right?" Midori smirked at her, enjoying the words she was about to say, "Wrong, your father hates you, he'd never let you become clan leader. So that leaves me, Shinden's only neice. Plus, since my father is going to take over duties until Shinden is in his right mind again, I can start my studies later today."

Ayane knew what she said was the truth. Shinden never treated her like a daughter, but he also never treated her like dirt either, at least she had that, "So you're happy about this?"

"Yeah, whatever gets me ahead. I don't really give a shit about anyone else, as long as I get ahead."

Ayane shook her head, "You're never going to have friends, you know that?"

Midori walked off, "Well then I'll be just like you, won't I?"


Hayate sat upright in the large bed, he looked to his left, then his right wondering why such a huge bed was required for such a small person. He was convinced that the rich just wanted to throw their money around and buy stuff like... this. He laid back, "God I wish I had enough money for this."

The door opened and closed, Hayate looked up at Hitomi as she walked through, "Oh, you're still here."

"You wanted me to leave?"

"Well, no. I don't really have any friends here, and I'm not going to make any because my family prevents me from having any other contact with the other families, something about ninjas trying to kill us. I wonder what one of them looks like."

"Me too," he bluffed.

She sat down, "Do you need anything else?"

"No, why?"

"Well, you're still here... so you must need something... right?"

Hayate pulled the blanket off his foot, "It hurts."

"Oh, then you probably should stay here for a while. How long do you think it'll be?" she looked at the ankle which was swelled.

"I'll leave tomorrow morning, if it heals or not. I don't want to intrude."

"No, no, it's alright. I enjoy having you here. Like I said, I don't have any friends here yet."

"Still.. it's dangerous for me to be here."

Hitomi looked at him with a confused expression on her face, "What are you talking about? My family is charitable, they would help you get back on your feet, not kill you. Why would they kill a homeless child?"

"I..." Hayate again was about to let the truth slip out, but abruptly stopped himself, "Well, I'm leaving tomorrow. I have to meet someone somewhere."

"Fine, like I said, take some food with you. Money too if you need it," she sat down at the vanity table and started brushing her hair, obviously she was bored, "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?" he managed to speak through a mouthfull of food.

"Visit me once in a while. At least until I have some new friends. I realize that it probably isn't really convinent for you, but I'd really appreciate it. I'll leave the window open for you during the day since you don't want to be caught."

Hayate saw her blush through the mirror, "I'll try my best," he didn't really want to come here anymore, it was too much trouble to keep a promise like this, especially because he was supposed to kill her. Then again, being here was a good break from being a ninja.

"Thank you."

"How often do you want me to come?"

"Whenever you want."

Hayate nodded and laid back into the bed, waiting for the day to finish so he could sleep, then leave the next morning. His father had to be worried about him right now and Mari... Mari would be way too emotional when he would get back. Hayate sighed and picked up a book that Hitomi had put on her nightstand, carefully so he wouldn't remove the peice of lace that provided a bookmark. He began to read, waiting for night to fall so that he could leave.


Yuuna, Mari, Heero, and Tai were all in Erikku's home above the shop, all greiving in their own ways. The only one who wasn't was Yuuna, who had never known Hayate very well.

Mari's face was red and tears fell from her brown eyes, then down her pale cheeks where the eventually dropped to the tabi mat. She lowered her head into her hands and began to loudly sob again. Her cousin Heero, who sat next to her, handed her a white peice of cloth, "Calm down... it's alright."

She had been crying too long to say anything in reply. Her stomach hurt, she felt dizzy, and the combination of the two made her want to vomit. She looked up at him with her sad eyes, then looked back towards the ground. Erikku came up the stairs, "I've closed down the shop. There's no buisness today, Shinden has every ninja in the meeting hall."

Erikku didn't really care about Hayate's death, he beleived that everyone had their time to die, Hayate's was the night before. Greiving would just make the pain worse, "Why are you all here?"

"Because my cousin was, and I knew she needed someone to comfort her," Heero spoke up, "Tai just decided to come along, Yuuna was here when I arrived."

"My parents are still at home, their mission was delayed because of Hayate's death," explained Yuuna, "So I thought I'd come here."

Erikku sighed, he wanted to drug Mari to make her fall asleep, stop all the noise. Heero, as if sensing what he was thinking, shook his head no. He gestured for Yuuna to come over. They went into the second room, leaving Heero, Tai, and Mari alone again.

"It's alright, Mari."

She shook her head no and managed to choke out a few words, "I'll never find... anyone like him."

"You need to get over it. I know it may be hard, but crying won't do anyhting. You need to be strong," he managed to pry one of his cousin's hands away from her face, the other left on it's own, "You've never cried about anything before, don't let me catch you do it now.

"I've never lost so much before."

Tai, feeling like the conversation that had been going on should be between the two cousins, wandered off into the other room where Yuuna and Erikku were. Mari put her head against the window and looked out, but seemed to have an empty stare, "Hayate meant the world to me. When I found out he died, I couldn't bear it. I loved him so much... I still love him."

"Yes, I know that. But you'll find someone better than him for you. You're a beautiful girl."

"It doesn't get much better than him," Mari finally came out of her dazed stature, "I hope Shinden does get back at them for what they did."

"No you don't. Kasumi explained why they can't do that when she came to tell you the bad news, do you want to end up dead too, along with everyone else you love?"

"At least I'll be with him..."

"You're willing to die to see him again? You're insane then. One person dies, and you get all dramatic?" Heero couldn't understand what was going through his cousin's head at the time, he thought that it was just an obsession.

"You don't understand," the three others came back into the room, taking the same spots as they had occupied earlier, "I've loved him since we were four. He loved me too, imagine the pain that was going through his head when he was about to be killed."

"You don't have to worry about that, Midori said he died before he knew what happened," Erikku spoke up and was lightly punched in the chest by Yuuna.

"Oh that's really going to help her feel better," she whispered.

"Listen, Mari, he probably didn't return your feeling to such an absurd extent. For God's sake, he had a lot more on his mind than you," Heero said as he lifted her face.

"Oh yeah, and that will?" Erikku whispered to Yuuna.

"How dare you say that, of course Hayate loved me."

Erikku coughed and the room went silent. He didn't tell her that Hayate hated her, he was dead, there was no harm in it. At least it would keep her a little happier, "Hayate's ceremony is tomorrow. We're all going, right?"

The group replyed in unison, "Yes."

"Mari, talk to Shinden about helping out. It'll do you good to know that you helped him rest in peace."


A.N.- Ugh... sorry for the long wait. I had a lot to do this week. So... the ending for this chapter was typed in about ten minutes. But no worries, I'll probably be back up to speed after August 15th. So, R/R until then, and thank you again to whoever's review didn't show.