A.N.- Wow it's been 2... 3 years since I've updated. Well I decided to check out again and I found this new thing, the C2s and I looked into them and I was quite surprised to find all of my DOA fics in it. I mean it's probably no big deal but as far as I know someone picked them to be part of this C2 so I'm honored. Anyway so that got me to decide to finish up this one or at least work on it a little more seeing as how it was unfinished. So sorry about the really long wait. It's been a long time since I've written so I'm probably a little rusty. Hopefully I'll get some of my old reviewers back like Forevermore or Wolf. Oh and I doubt anyone whose reviewed before is going to do so again so I'll just wait a while before I do all that again. God I hate this new HTML styling... I cant really figure it out... if someone can tell me how to insert an HTML tag that would help me indent the beginnings of each paragraph, tell me please.

Chapter 6
By Spider

Shinden and his Brother Aiko sat in the dining hall of the Matsusuke family's mansion, discussing the events of the mission the previous night. A representative of the Shogun of Edo was on his way and was set to arrive shortly. He was coming to address the mission on which the young German girl was rescued. The group of renegade samurai that had been holding her captive had apparently been trying to buildup their forces to overthrow the Shogun's (Montaro Yamamoto's) rule. They had kidnapped Hitomi in order to get the Sorai family's attention, who were to trade their samurai bodyguards for their daughter. The Sorais however went into Edo to tell the Shogun of this and he in turn hired the Matsusuke clan ninjas to get her back.

"I wonder what he'll want us to do about this. He will probably consider this whole thing a failure. Yamamoto probably would have rather had those samurai commit seppuku than have them killed by us..." Aiko's voice trailed off as he pondered on the consequences of the young ninjas' actions.

Shinden groaned. He hated when the shogunate sent a representative over. It was always to lecture them, tell them how much ninjas are inferior to samurai, and go off about how they shouldn't even be dealing with lowlifes like a ninja saying how it's a huge disgrace, "They should just have kept this among themselves. They don't want out help anyway."

"Well they did say they didn't want it getting out. If other samurai found out, they could join them. If other rich families found out, they would be hesitant to hire samurai bodyguards."

"So where does our clan come into this? Where does any ninja come into this? If anything disarray among the samurai would help us," Shinden was becoming frustrated with his job as clan leader, countless years of having to make decisions for his people gradually drained him from day to day.

"Sir, Seiji Tomeo is here from Edo," Shinden and Aiko nodded and the messenger retreated, shortly replaced by the representative, a tall and lanky man who was probably easily a doormat for Montaro.

Seiji sat down across from the two Brothers, and at once began to go over the events of the previous night, "Have you returned the Sorai girl yet?"

"No, we will in the morning," replied Shinden

The representative hummed in reply then shortly after began again, "So word is that one of your ninjas killed many of those renegade samurai last night."

"Yes, we tried to get the hostage out with no casualties but they had no other choice..." started Shinden.

Seiji interrupted, "You know our rules, a mistake like being noticed shouldn't have occurred."

"Yes but..."

Again he was interrupted, "Samurai are not to be killed like that by a ninja. We are much better fighters than any of you will ever be. And this needs to be shown to all of our people. Word of last night got out and other samurai are becoming nervous. Some are even beginning to fear your people now. Hell a few even ran off and became ninjas in other clans. This isn't good for either of us.

Shinden was silent as he held his head in frustration. Aiko spoke up, "So, what does Shogun Montaro suggest we all do?"

"We aren't going to do anything," started Seiji in a condescending tone, "You all have to make a choice. We know how to solve this, you just have to agree."

"Well?" asked Aiko.

"We wat the young man who killed all of those men," Seiji's eyes widened, "Montaro Yamamoto wants to speak with this ninja in person. He must come to Edo."

"What if we refuse?" Aiko wondered aloud.

"You will comply or the shogunate will take action themselves. And believe me, the result would not be beneficent to your little clan," he threatened, "Even a little shook up, we are still stronger than you."

"Well if he sought to try to intimidate us, he sent the wrong man," Shinden finally spoke, "He should have sent someone more threatening. Not a skinny little man like yourself. I should kill you right here!"

"Fine, if that will be your way," he rose up and despite fearing for his life, kept up his composure, "There will be repercussions."

"Wait, hold on a second!" Aiko then turned to his Brother and whispered, "Maybe we should just give him the child, do we really want to risk our entire clan for one? He is just a trainee anyway, nothing too important to us."

"He is the best fighter we have, even better than my own son I'd say. He may not be much for us now, but someday he will be," snapped back Shinden, "Besides I will never give up one of my clan to them."

"We have no other choice, if we don't give him up, we are giving up the whole clan."

Shinden sunk in his chair like there was no way out. He looked over to Seiji who was still standing at the door, ready to storm out if need be. "Very well," he motioned to his Brother, "Send someone to get Erikku."

Yuuna was sitting in the window of Erikku's room, looking out at the road leading out of the village. Erikku was packing... to leave for Edo. They didn't really know what for yet, Yuuna feared the worst, that he would be executed as an example. To show that the ninja are still below samurai. She noticed two figures returning to the village, she whispered to herself, "Ayane and Ryu..."

"What?" Erikku asked without looking up from his satchel.

Yuuna looked down at him, finally looking at him for the first time since he told her he was leaving, "Nothing..."

She paused, then continued, "Erikku... please... don't go."

"I have to, Shinden ordered it," Erikku finally stopped putting his things together, "Besides we don't know for sure what they want, they probably just want to know more about those rebel samurai."

He took her hand to reassure her and half-smiled incase there was any remaining doubt. Yuuna came down from the window, letting go of his hand, and sat on his desk by the lamp, "That's just it, we don't know what they want."

"I'll be fine," Erikku slipped his arms around her waist, "I'll be back in about a week."

The girl looked down at him from the desk with a solemn look on her face, knowing that this could be the last time she ever saw him and at this realization, had to hold back tears, "I don't know... I can't know that for sure."

Erikku gave her another reassuring smile, "I promise I'll come back. Have I ever broken a promise I've made to you?"

She looked down to the where her legs dangled off of the desk and slightly touched his hips with them. She finally replied softly, as if feeling guilty, "No..."

He lifted her chin again, the same as he did when he first kissed her, "Then you know I will come back."

"Mmm hmm," she nodded. He then kissed her again softly on the lips, causing heat to spread throughout their bodies. Yuuna wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, pulling him closer and timidly slid her tongue into his mouth. Erikku had to slide his hands down from her waist to her rear as she shifted her weight so that she rose off of the desk.

Erikku, though she was very light and he very strong, used the closest wall to help support her. A kiss from Yuuna was enough to make his whole body weaken and every thought in his mind to melt away. Once against the wall he slowly lowered his hands from her rear, causing her to slowly lower until her feet touched the floor. Erikku continued to lower his hand until he came into contact with the soft skin on her thighs, then moved his hands back up, underneath her clothing until he reached her underwear. He then hooked two of his fingers inside and around the edge and, urged on by Yuuna's encouraging moans and the warmth his hand felt, began to pull them down before he caught himself, "I'm sorry Yuuna, I don't think we should be doing this just yet."

As Erikku backed away she sighed in frustration, wanting to feel his touch again, and pouted "Why not?"

He frowned too because there were so many reasons, "We just have to wait."

"But I want you now," she whined as she pulled him back in provocatively.

"I know, I want you too... but if we do this, I won't want to leave. And I have to," he explained as she finally let go of him, "Besides, Yuuna, I love you and I don't want to sleep with you until the time is right for both of us. And the Yuuna I know would be more responsible and wait for that right time."

Yuuna's sad look disappeared and was replaced with a bright smile, the same one that always made Erikku melt, "You love me?"

"Of course, you're always there for me... my whole life all I've really needed was you, how can I not?" he replied. She then kissed him again but before long a knock came at the door to poison shop downstairs.

"Erikku? It's time to go!" it was Aiko, probably along with Seiji and his escorts.

"I have to go now, I promise I will come back," he kissed her on the forehead, "I love you."

He then exited the room, leaving Yuuna alone in his room. She blew out the oil lamp and whispered to herself, "I love you too."

Hitomi laid in her room, and looked in a mirror. They had done a good job of cleaning her up. No more blood was visible, except for that which was on her white dress which was also torn and covered in dirt. This room that the ninjas put her in wasn't any better than that which she was held by the samurai in. It was dark, except for the moonlight that shined in onto her face. She stared at herself in the mirror, the figure she saw was expressionless, dead... as it had been for the past few hours. This whole experience had been traumatizing. Why couldn't she just stay in Germany? She had friends there, a nice house, a good school, she had everything.

Oh right, because I needed to learn about my Japanese heritage, she thought. She hated it here, and she couldn't wait to leave this place and never return to this shithole for a country. But then she realized what else was in what she had dubbed 'a shithole'. Hayate. She didn't know why she felt so attached to him, yeah he was the only friend she had here. But she had a lot of friends back in Germany. Ones she talked to more... she had only seen Hayate twice, talked to him once. Well, he had saved her life... and she saved his. But they both had to.

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone came in and lit an oil lamp. Well speak of the devil. It was Hayate, "Hey... are you okay?"

He sat down on the floor right next to her, and she raised herself up with the arm she was laying on. Without saying anything she burst into tears and put her head into Hayate's lap, letting go of all the emotion that had built up the past few hours. He was surprised at this and just sat there for a while before he awkwardly patted her head, "It'll be okay Hitomi."

She stopped crying and turned her head back towards the mirror and looked at herself again as she laid in his lap. Then after a while she spoke quietly, "My parents are going to be happy to have me back."

"Of course they will be."

"They're not going to let this happen again though," she began, "they're going to take me back to Germany."

"Well that would probably be a good idea," Hayate replied, "You'll be out of danger."

"Yeah.. that's what I thought at first, but now I don't want to leave as much anymore."

"What? Why not? You've been through so much crap here?"

"I don't know," she lied.

She then smiled up at him, "Maybe I don't want to leave my new friends yet."

Hayate smiled back at her, glad to see that she was able to smile after the previous night. Even though he didn't want to ruin her mood he had to bring her back to reality, "But either way, you have to leave. It's for your own good."

Hitomi frowned again. Hayate wanted to punch himself. She sighed and asked, "Will you come visit me?"

"In Germany?" Hitomi nodded. Hayate had never been outside of Japan, and as far as he knew Germany was the country right to the west side of China, "I'll try someday... I can't make any promises Tomi.."

Hitomi nodded, understanding that it was quite a distance to travel. It took her family 5 months, and the whole time they were rushing. She started to cry a little bit knowing she would never see Hayate again, but soon drifted off to sleep, still on Hayate's lap. He looked down at the sky blue-eyed brunette, leaned back, and began to stroke her hair, "I guess I'll stay here tonight."

Hitomi sat at the breakfast table with her parents and relatives that might as well be strangers to her. Everyone was silent, uneasy to talk about the events that had recently taken place. Hitomi picked at her food, she had no appetite, and she was going to leave this afternoon. Suddenly her father broke the silence, "I'm sorry we have to leave today, but this stuff with our daughter... you understand."

Hitomi's grandfather nodded and smiled, "Yes we understand. Safety is a big issue. I will miss my daughter... But, I'm sure Tomi would be glad to get back to Germany."

All eyes shifted to the young girl as if expecting her to give an answer that would solve some huge problem. She looked down into her lap... Tomi, that's what Hayate had called her the last time they spoke. It was just a silly little nickname, but Hayate gave it to her. She looked up at her father, who had a smile on his face, thinking that his daughter couldn't wait to get back, but his smile vanished as soon as he saw his daughter was anything but happy, "I'm sorry, I think I will need to make sure that Hitomi is all packed and ready, let's go Hitomi."

"Yes daddy," her father jutted out his elbow and she wrapped her arm in his and rested her head on his bicep. Once they got outside of the room, Hitomi began to cry.

Her father took her through a few more rooms, further away from the rest of the family and got down on his knee so that he was eye level with his daughter. He lifted her chin up, "What's the matter Mi-mi?"

Hitomi hated that nickname too. It made her sound like a dog. But she still smiled when she heard it because she knew the genuine love her father had for her and that he cared that something was wrong, "I don't want to leave daddy."

Dietrich was shocked at this. He thought for sure that his daughter would feel safer going home, "Why not?"

"Umm..." she hesitated, she couldn't come up with a lie that made sense. She finally decided on the truth, she knew her father would support her no matter what it was, "I made a new friend."

"But you have tons of friends back home that will be thrilled to meet you when you come back," her father was still confused.

"Yeah but this is different... I haven't known him very long... but I don't know... I still want to stay for him."

"Hmm," Dietrich Cristobal was puzzled, he didn't know what to do, but realized that this is what his daughter really wanted, even though it seemed very foolish... he did want to stay in Japan a while longer, "Well, Mi-mi, if you really want to stay, we'll stay. Your mother would love to anyway. Just, if you ever decide you want to go back to Germany, you tell me, and we'll go back again that instant."

Hitomi sensed what her father was thinking, "Don't worry daddy, I wont get hurt."

Hitomi's father laughed and picked her up, making her squeal with delight, "Well you better not be, you're still my little Mi-mi, and I don't want someone to hurt you."

He set his daughter back down again, "Now lets get back to breakfast, I know it may not be too good... I hate fish.. but it'll make your mother happy to see you eat again. I wish they had some bratwurst..."

Hitomi giggled as her father exited the room with his last statement. Her father was a huge man, 6'8" and 275 lbs of muscle in comparison to her own slim 5'2" 100 lb figure, so she always felt like his little girl. She was glad to be fortunate enough to have him as a father. She loved her mother, Naemi, very much too, who was also a small lady, and she was shorter than Hitomi now, so the painting made of their wedding that hung in their bedroom back in Germany was quite a funny sight to behold. She then followed her father back into the dining room, all her thoughts on Hayate. She knew where his village was now and hoped that she could go visit him soon.

It was morning, the sun was rising, the village would just be awakening thought Erikku. He would have been opening the poison shop right now. He wondered if he would ever open it again. He suddenly found himself wishing he had a son or daughter to continue running it, to carry on the Kohachirou legacy as the best poison makers in Japan. But that could all be gone now.

Erikku then began to think of his friends back home. He wondered if Hayate and Tai were having another sparring match. If Ryu is out fishing again. If Mari is still following Hayate around. Midori. Erikku chuckled to himself, he actually was starting to miss her too. He decided that he was going to give her a big hug first thing when he got back just so she would get mad at him. And then there was Yuuna... He couldn't think of her, it hurt him too much. It seemed like just as soon as he told her how he felt all these years, he had to leave her.

Seiji then put his hand on Erikku's shoulder, to have it quickly wiped off by the young man. He scoffed and then pointed, "There is the palace of Edo. Magnificent isn't it?"

Erikku marveled at the structure. It had high white walls with a contrasting black roof, beautiful gardens, and a lake surrounding it on all sides. The Matsusuke family's mansion failed miserably in comparison to it. Erikku wished that he would get to stay a while in there, but he knew that this could be his final resting place.

As the small entourage neared the palace, a drawbridge lowered and the gates opened. They were greeted by two samurai guards who sneered at Erikku, who was still in his ninja attire.

They then made their way through numerous rooms and a maze of hallways with their ultimate destination being a room where Erikku would finally come face to face with the legendary Shogun, Montaro Yamamoto. They arrived shortly after the sun rose over the palace walls, illuminating the main garden. They continued on into a large room in the garden, decorated with tapestries and things of the sort. Montaro sat at a chair inside and gestured for Erikku to come and sit down opposite from him. Erikku sat and the samurai waited outside, leaving the shogun alone with Erikku.

"So you are the young ninja who killed all of those samurai," Montaro seemed fascinated with Erikku, "We had one of those samurai here that survived, he was missing an arm. He said that he had never seen anyone fight so well in his life. We had him commit seppuku shortly thereafter. I hope I get to see you fight soon."

"I'm sorry sir, I don't quite understand," Erikku was confused, wasn't he going to be killed, "You're going to kill me right?"

The shogun let out a hearty laugh, "Ha-ha no my son, I'm not. What gave you an idea like that?"

Erikku left out a sigh of relief. He would be able to see Yuuna again, he would be able to keep his shop, and he would be able to give Midori that bear hug, "Well rumors were going around that you were going to kill me as an example."

"And what kind of example would I be making then?"

"That samurai are better than ninja and that your samurai shouldn't be afraid of us," Erikku shyly stated now knowing that the Shogun thought this was absurd.

"Ha-ha no, that was not my cause at all," laughed Montaro. He then took a very serious tone, "Erikku, I want you to become a samurai."

A.N.- Okay well like I said its been a long time since I've written anything... well anything like a story or anything that requires much of a creative process. So I figure that side of my brain still needs to be dusted off. Now if it seems like this chapter isn't up to par with the others, just give me time, I hope I'll get back to how I used to write soon. Anyway, R/R especially if you were one of those who used to a while ago. Years ago. Keep it positive if you can. I'll try and work on other chapters whenever I get the chance. So who knows when the next one will be up.