Disclaimer- I do not own Dead or Alive.

A.N.- Whoa really sorry for the long wait. As some of you may know, I had something going on, which I won't bother any of you with the details on. Unfortunately (or fortunately for you all) it's ended, so now I can get back to work. I would have sooner, but my files got deleted and I've had to restart. Oh well, I was stuck where I was anyway.

Zeshin Hayabusa- Sorry, I died again.... oh well, I'm gettin the next chapter up now.

digininga- It's alright, sorry I haven't updated for a while. I have the same problems with my writing, school, work, other things... y'kno, the basics. It's hard enough balancing those. So consider this a really late Christmas present.

Wolf Runner- Thanks for not abandoning me. Glad you have patience and can wait so long. I'll try not to keep the next update from you guys.

Chisha- Aww, c'mon Chisha, read on. I'm honored to have a review from someone in kochan's family. All three of you have great writing talent and it's great to have writers of such caliber reading my fic. I did in fact make up their names, so it'll be a real kick in the @$$ if they ever give the real ones.

Snipe- Thanks for reviewing. Hitomi can't fight for plot reasons. I'm glad I can introduce the whole Hitomi/Hayate idea to people. I just hope that it can inspire a lot of other people to write their own Hitomi/Hayate fics. I'm glad other authors I know started their own. Read Forevermore's fics, there really good. She's one of the best writers that I've ever read from. Unfortunately she hasn't updated in a while either, probably for near the same reasons as me.

Forevermore- Ahh... glad to have you back, Forevermore. I really hope you continue to write your fic, because I'm dieing to know who this guy is and what you're bringing back the other characters for. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, sorry it took so long. I'm glad you liked my ideas, especially since they just came to me while typing. I'll try to put in more on Ayane and Ryu and get a little more insight on Hitomi's life, but I'm going with a nice Erikku/Yuuna thing first. I'll try to include them too though, but if I can't, I promise I will put a good amount in the next chapter.

Lan Di- I'm glad you like the story. And yes, I have noticed the gramatical and spelling errors before. I'm way too lazy to check it myself and using spell check in Microsoft Word is a pain in the ass because it says all of the HTML code is wrong. Anyways, thanks to you though, I'm going through all previous chapters to correct all of this. Thanks. And I'm glad you like Midori, Forevermore takes the credit for her though. Thank her.

Chapter 5
By: Spider


Erikku laid back, resting on the rock and looked on as Yuuna sent her younger siblings off to bed as they finished playing. Her parents were both home for the first time in a long while so she decided that she would spend some time with who she considered one of her closest friends. As soon as her brothers and sisters entered through the village gates, she turned to her companion, "I heard about your first mission, are you excited about it?"

"Yeah, I really am. My first chance to go head to head with a samurai," he smiled as he said this.

Yuuna frowned at her friend's bloodlust, feeling that he would do something that would get him in trouble, "Erikku, this is a stealth mission, you're supposed to get her out of there."

"I know..." his voice trailed, "But if things go wrong, I'm supposed to fight to get Hayate out of there. He's nervous about it, so he will slip up."

"What makes you think that?"

"He's being paranoid about Midori and Tai. They're coming on the mission, and he keeps asking me to keep an eye on them. If you ask me, he's scared about this," he threw a rock into the nearby lake. It skipped three times before plunging into the crystal clear water.

Yuuna sat down next to him and hugged her legs up to her chest, now worrying about Erikku's safety, "Don't worry about him. Just be careful, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," he chuckled.

"You can't be sure. Just take all the precautions you can," she turned her head to face him, "I couldn't stand life if I lost you."

Erikku gave a type of sad smile and sat up and scooted back against the rock. He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her back next to him, "Don't think about that. I'll be fine, I promise. Have I ever broken a promise I've made to you?"

"No but..." her protest was stopped by Erikku's finger.

"I'll be fine."

"You better keep this promise, Erikku... If I ever lose you, nothing will ever make me happy again."

Erikku put his arm around her shoulder and let her rest her head on his chest. He took her hands with one of his own, and the other went to her hip, "Don't say that, you have your family, you have other friends. They all need you, and one person shouldn't have the ability to take all your happiness away."

She looked down at his hand, cradled in her own two and began gently stroking then, "I know... I just can't lose you."

"You will never lose me," he kissed the top of her head, "I promise."

She turned red for a second, but thanks to the setting sun, the deep crimson didn't show on her fair skin, "Thanks."

"No problem, I never break my promises."

A long time of silence fell between the two as they held each other, watching the sunset. Soon the full moon had risen, fireflies began to appear, and toads could be heard croaking from various places around them. Soon enough, Yuuna took it upon herself to break the silence, "Erikku, I need to know... is there's any chance that we could be more than just friends."

Erikku stopped stroking her thigh and let go of her. She sat up straight and looked at him as if she was about to cry, "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up..." she was once again silenced by his fingers.

Yuuna looked back at him, again frowning, trying to hold back tears that were sure to flow. He looked at her for a second and lifted her chin so that she was forced to look at him in the eyes. When she did, he moved in and gently kissed her lips.

She closed her eyes, the kiss was soft, but it still told her the answer she wanted. Their lips parted for mere seconds before he moved back in for another kiss. This time he gently tried to slip his tongue in and she let it. Their tongues intertwined and he ran his one hand up and down her back while the other laid firmly on her rear. After what seemed like eternity, he broke the kiss.

As soon as their lips parted Erikku spoke, "God... you're beautiful."

She blushed as he brushed a strand of her long black hair out of her face, then the two stood up. Yuuna looked up at him hoping to end this on a positive note, "It's getting late, and I don't want my parents to be worried about me. And you have to leave for your mission in a few hours. Can you walk me home?"

Erikku smiled and took her hand to help her up, "I'd love to."


Midori, and Suki aimed their bows at the samurai archers, pulled back on the string until it could take no more and let the arrows fly. The two kunoichi hit their marks, the two guards on the outside fell without a sound. Hayate, Erikku, and Tai made their way down to the small fortress where a few novice samurai held the daughter of a rich family captive. It was obvious to Hayate as to who it was, that's why he begged his father to let them go, despite this sudden turn of events.

Erikku swung the blade of his kyoketsu-shogei, and it flew into a samurai that had just turned the corner of the outside wall, the deadly poison rushed through his veins and he fell to the ground. An arrow flew through the spot where his head once stood. The three scaled the walls easily thanks to the ashiko on their feet and disappeared on the other side.

"So how long do you think its going to take them?" Midori stood up and looked at Suki, who remained fixed on the body that Erikku left behind, ready to shoot anyone who saw it.

The older kunoichi looked up at her, "Be patient, it shouldn't matter. We just need to make sure we get their hostage out alive."

"Jeez... okay I get it, I was just wondering," Midori frowned and lowered her weapon, "It's just not too much fun waiting here while they have all the fun."

Suki looked up at her and sneered. Midori turned away from her, "I get it, and we're not here to have fun. I'm going to go around the back so I could cover them. I'm sure you could handle things here.

She replied with a simple nod and kept her eyes on the corpse. Midori shook her head at the other woman's dedication to her work. As she walked through the forest she spotted Hayate on the inside and knelt down, drawing her bow, "He doesn't do a very good job covering himself does he?"

Before she could release the arrow that she held, Hayate had disappeared again. The girl angrily cursed and silently prayed that one of them would mess up and set off an alarm.

She waited, and after a while decided that they might have been too good to mess up and drew her bow again. Finally a samurai walked into her sight, she fired an arrow and it landed in front of his feet. Almost instantly, he yelled and the torches to the central court were lit. Unfortunately, Hayate wasn't still outside, he must have gotten into the holding cell, "Oh well, they'll get caught."


Inside the building where the samurai held their prisoner, Hayate fiddled with the key to the locked door and Tai kicked the two guard's bodies out of the way. Erikku unsheathed his katana, "Hurry up, there gonna be in here pretty soon!"

"You know yelling at me isn't gonna help, right?"

"Its encouragement, so get it open," as soon as he finished unlocking the door, the front door to the structure burst open, followed by a few samurai and their shogun. Luckily they were on a lower level and hadn't seen them yet, "There here, get in there and take the prisoner out the window. Tai and I will hold them off for a while, then meet you at the rendezvous point."

"Are you sure we can? There's a lot of them and as soon as the fighting starts, there will be more," said Tai as Erikku handed him the katana he had stolen.

He undid the ropes that tied an ono to his back, "Fine, you can stay up here. I'm going down there to fight... just throw some poisoned shuriken or something."

Erikku jumped down from the balcony just as Hayate rushed through the door and closed it behind himself. Even thought the door he could hear the heavy battle axe demolish armor, metal, wood, anything that was in the way. He looked down at the young German girl, who had her eyes tightly shut as tears rolled down her face, hands bound behind her back, and had a gash in her forehead. He rushed to her side, and rolled a white cloth around her forehead making sure not to let any hair stay in, "Hitomi, its me, it's alright."

She opened her eyes and looked at him, disbelieving what she saw. She wiped her eyes and reached out for him, making sure he was real, "Hayate?"

"Uh huh," he continued to undo the ropes. Once done he opened the window on the opposite side of the room, throwing a rope down, "You have to be very quiet if you want both of us to get out of here, okay?"

Hitomi nodded as Hayate went down the rope, a few seconds later he followed. Luckily all of the samurai had been drawn to the inside of the building that they had just escaped. Normally he would go back to help but these, as Shinden explained, were just novice samurai. The Japanese government had sent ninjas to prevent scandal from reaching the wealthier class who would then fear their own samurai.

Eventually, Hayate and Hitomi were able to escape the small village just as the battle sounds died down. It was impossible for them to have made it, it was too quick. Still, Hayate made way to the point Erikku had specified, just incase. Tai had the best chances of making it out alive, maybe he went out the window too. Besides, he had to meet up wit Suki and Midori.

Eventually they slowed their pace, and began walking. Hayate lowered the sash that covered his face. Hitomi looked at him and smiled, "I thought I was never going to be able to see you again. Thank you for saving me."

"It's no problem."

Hitomi looked at him, noticing that he had a grim look on his face, "What's wrong?"

Hayate sighed, "There were three of us that came in to get you out of there. Two of my friends might be dead because I couldn't get the door open fast enough."

"Ohh, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Hayate reassured her. She gently put her hand on his shoulder.

The two remained silent until they came up on the point to find Suki and Midori already there, as soon as Hitomi sat down on a rock next to the lake, Suki stood up and walked over to Hayate, "Who messed up?"

"I don't know, don't ask me, all three of us were inside when the alarm went off. I thought one of you didn't get a body hidden in time," she scowled at him as he continued, "Besides, we got her out of there, mission accomplished."

"Two of our ninjas are probably dead because someone messed up."

"Father never said anything about casualties."

"That's because the standard is none, you should have known that from your training."

Hayate sighed, frustrated with the woman who continued to nag and scold him. Eventually she shut up and Hayate whispered to her so that Midori, who was talking to Hitomi, wouldn't hear, "I think she must have done something, was she with you the whole time?"

"She went around the back to cover you and the others," before the conversation could continue, Tai walked up to them, followed by a bloody Erikku who dragged his axe behind him. He went straight to the lake and lied down next to it.

Hayate turned to Tai as Suki went off to bandage Erikku, "How'd you get out of there alive?"

"Smoke balls. After a while, I decided that it was hopeless so I jumped down, threw a smoke ball, and had to drag him out the door."

Hayate smiled, wondering what the scene would have looked like, "He's too stubborn for his own good. Just look at how much blood he has on him, I wonder how many times he was cut."

"Only once," laughed Erikku who was still lying down, "All this blood, its theirs."

"Yeah right, tell us about it when we get home," teased Midori, knowing that he had to be lying. She then turned to Hitomi, "We're going to have to keep you with us for a week or so, Shinden wants you to be safe."

She nodded, "Okay."

Hayate walked over to her and took her hand to help her up. He then spoke to the whole group, "C'mon, we have to get moving, they could be tracking us right now."

Erikku struggled to his feet and leaned on Midori, hoping to annoy her a little more by getting blood on her, but she stepped to the side and he fell over again, tired from the battle. As soon as she finished laughing she helped him back to his feet and let him hang off her shoulder. After seeing this Suki looked at Hayate, "I think one of you messed up, don't blame it on your cousin, when we get back I want to know who."


"What went wrong?" the angry voice seeped in through the large door of the meeting hall of the Matsusuke family mansion. It couldn't help but make the young girl curious and she gently opened the door and peered inside.

She saw her older brother, Hayate among the other ninjas that had went on his mission. Hayate was the target of the outburst and one of Shinden's officials, his younger brother.

"They must have seen either Midori or Suki, the rest of us were inside when all the shouting started," Hayate remained calm and acted like the situation was no big deal. His half-sister who was watching from the door could still tell that something went wrong.

"How dare you accuse me of messing up! I..."

She was cut off by the official, "Suki has never been on a mission that has failed before. And it seems that every mission you've been on has failed."

"Well so has Midori, I haven't seen you yelling at her."

That shut him up, he wouldn't accuse his own daughter of messing up the mission. Instead he paused and moved on to a different situation, "Now onto the second matter. Erikku, you weren't supposed to kill so many. You were supposed to leave that to the army of Japan."

"It was a diversion, sir. Hayate went in to get the prisoner out, then he slipped out a different way. Tai and I stayed behind to make sure that they get safe passage," Erikku's stated, "Hayate and the prisoner went out the window and got out of there as we lured in every samurai."

"Still, you should have used a stunning poison..." his voice trailed, and Erikku sensed that he was going to let up.

"I didn't have any with me. It wasn't specified in our briefing."

The conversation went on, partly congratulating Erikku for being able to kill thirteen samurai and partly scolding him for leaving only eleven survivors. Midori and Suki had killed a few themselves, but there were too few to be scolded for. The emperor wanted at least fifteen survivors our of the twenty-nine novices.

Ayane listened intently until she felt a hand on her shoulder, she was about to shout in surprise, but a hand over her mouth stopped her and she was gently pulled back as the door was gently closed. The hand had been lowered and she turned around to face Ryu who instantly asked his question, "Why are you spying on the meeting, you know debriefing is to be confidential."

She smiled at him, "I was curious."

He smiled back at her, it was impossible not to when she did, "So what was going on?"

"Hayate and Erikku were being yelled at. They're trying to figure out who caused them to be found out."

"Ohh," Ryu didn't really know what to say, but continued on, "I'm going into Kyoto today. Do you want to go with me?"

"Sure," Ayane excitedly replied had never been into the cities before. Ryu told her what time to meet him at the gates and then hurried off to her room to get ready.

The doors then opened and Hayate wandered out followed by Tai, Erikku, and Midori. They all looked very tired. Ryu walked over to Hayate, "I heard you got yelled at, what'd you do this time?"

"Nothing, Suki's just being a bitch. Someone was seen, so the mission didn't go perfect like planned. I don't see what the big deal was, they would have found her missing at some point."

Ryu chuckled, "What happened?"

"I don't know, we were in the keep when a lot of shouting began. Then a few of them ran in and Erikku and Tai fought them as I ran through the door."

"You have the worst luck, you know that? You've nearly gotten killed on every mission you've been in."

"That's only been two times," Hayate pointed out, "It's Midori's fault. She's been purposely trying to get me killed."

"What?" exclaimed Ryu, "She's your cousin, she wouldn't do that to you. Even though you two fight all the time, she still loves you deep down."

"Don't tell anyone about this, okay," Hayate paused and Ryu nodded, "But I have proof that she was the one who knocked me out on our first mission."

"I'll just take your word for it," Ryu didn't feel like listening to him ramble on about this.

"Good, because I don't want to talk about it, I'm just tired," he took the stairs to the upper floor as Ryu walked out through the front arch. Hayate then headed to Hitomi's room to check up on her.


Ryu and Ayane were walking around Kyoto among the bustling city people. By now, the late afternoon, Ayane and Ryu had finished their shopping. By now, Ryu's stomach was beginning to hurt from hunger and he assumed that Ayane's was the same, "Do you want to go get something to eat? All the shops are going to close down when the sun begins to set, so this might be our last chance. My treat."

"Umm... sure, why not?" she then followed him the rest of the way until they reached a restaurant.

The two knelt down at a table that the hostess had brought them to and shortly after receiving their menus Ryu began a conversation, "So how do you like the city?"

Ayane looked up from the menu at Ryu and smiled, "It's been great so far."

Ryu smiled back at her, he loved her smile. It was a rare occurrence but you could never tell because it was so... bright, "Ohh, how so?"

"There's so many different people, so much to do and see. It makes our clan's life seem so boring," Ayane explained, "Besides, I would have been happy enough to just get away from home anyway."

Ryu frowned, "I'm sorry... I know how much you hate having to live every day with everyone treating you like they do."

"Its alright," she glanced down at her menu, "Besides, you and Hayate give me all the love I need. You two make life more bearable for me."

"But... I wish I could do more."

"Really you do enough."

"Everyone makes fun of you all the time though. Every time I hear one of them I wanna beat the shit outta them..."

"Ryu, believe me, you do what you can. Besides, I don't care what everyone is saying about me," she explained, "The only thing that bothers me is that Shinden and Kasumi won't accept me and that my mother can't stop crying about it."

"Still... I wish I could do more for you," Ryu looked back at his menu when he finished.

Ayane took his hand and he looked back up at her, "You do enough."

She let go again and lifted the menu up so that he couldn't see her face when she blushed. "You know, there is one thing you could do though," she had said this in a teasing tone, so he didn't take her seriously. Even if he did, he wouldn't have had a clue what she meant.

Before he had a chance to respond, the waitress came along to take their orders that, along with their desire to change the conversation, distracted them long enough to put the previous words in the back of their minds. The waitress soon left again, and Ryu began to speak, "Did you get excused from your lessons today?"

"Yes, my weapons teacher was out on a mission today so I was free to come."

"Good," Ryu paused briefly, "So how much longer until you can become a kunoichi?"

"I need to increase my accuracy with the bow, then I have a few poisons lessons with Erikku left."

"I'll help you with the bow anytime you want," Ryu then chuckled, "But you're going to need to study for the poisons lessons a lot. I was one of the last students to take one from his father, and it was had. Rumor is that Erikku made it harder once he took over."

Ayane gave him a teasing smile, "Maybe you can stay up with me late at night to help me study."

Ryu chuckled, not knowing that in a way, she was serious, "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

"Very much."

The waitress finally got there with the food, saving Ryu once again. The two ate the rest of their meal pretty much talking about different things going on in each of their lives. Then headed back to their clan's village under a full moon.


A.N.- Well there was more... but I was cut off yet again since there wasn't enough memory in notepad. There was more stuff to put in, but I had to shorten it up. Sorry for those who were hoping for a little more Ryu/Ayane. Chapter 6 is in the works. I will also start to revise my previous chapters for mistakes, thank Dan Li for that.