(A/N: 2020.04.02 UPDATE ~ Hello, all! This part of my project of updating old stories I've done. Editing and correcting some of the mistakes and things that have bugged for me a while. As I've stated in my profile, I'm not doing this with every story. Just a few. Anywho, I'm not changing anything in the story, just updating some old mistakes. That's why I'm also leaving my original Author Notes (A/N) in as well. I want to keep the spirit of the original story while correcting some mistakes. Thank you all and enjoy!)

A/N: I'm crazy. Let me start with that. I have this idea and I have like three other fan fic ideas I'm working on and my book! I'm a nutcase! Anyway, that's neither here nor there! Welcome to a first for me, a chapter Ninja Assassin story! I did a one-shot for Mika and Raizo before but I've been planning this for a while. I hope you guys like it.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to Ninja Assassin. Those rights belong to those good owners who I wish would DO A SEQUEL WITH THE CAST! Okay, Sorry had to get that out.

Also, this has a T-Rating for violence (of course), language (not as bad as the movie, LOL), and suggestive themes (after all, Raizo and Mika are attractive people). I hope to keep the T-Rating but it may change to a M, though I'm doing my best to keep it at T. Okay! Enjoy!

Chapter One

The party at the penthouse ballroom in the downtown Hilton Hotel in Paris was full with people. It was gorgeous and decorated with regal white and crown. While the party went on, Shinsuke walked in. He stayed in the shadows and waited until his target, Harcourt Bertrand, was in the correct position. When Shinsuke saw that Bertrand had gone to speak with a consultant for another corporation by a table near the large window, he knew it was time. He pulled out his cell phone and hit SEND. Suddenly, machinegun fire tore through the windows of the party. Just like the rest of the partygoers, Bertrand ran to duck for cover and Shinsuke, quickly, moved behind him, waited until Bertrand dove down to the floor, and shot him three times in the back, making sure both bullets tore through his target's heart. After that, Shinsuke, quietly, slipped out in the chaos.

Shinsuke took the service stairs, throwing a red shuriken at the wall to make it stick to it, and continued down the stairs. On the bottom floor, he exited into the back alley of the hotel; when he heard the sirens approach, he smiled and let out a chuckle. He put on a pair of sunglasses, dug out a cigarette and lighter, lit the cigarette, and inhaled. "Oh, what a lovely night. Paris. Such a beautiful city." After one good exhale of smoke, he placed the cigarette back in his mouth and disappeared onto the Paris streets.

With a moan, Mika woke up from her dream; same dream for the past six months. Six months since Europol destroyed the Ozunu Clan and their leader was killed by one of his former pupils. It was the pupil that Mika could never forget. She sat up and rubbed her forehead.

"Raizo," she whispered.

The dream didn't happen every night, usually once a week, but it was always the same. And it was always intense.

A romantic setting, a bedroom in the moonlight, candles all around. Her and the deadliest man she'd ever come across. She would find herself standing on balcony and he would suddenly appear behind her. She would turn to say his name but his lips would be on hers before she ever got it out. He would pick her up, still kissing her all the while, and take her in the bedroom. He would place her on the bed and climb over her, leaving her short of breath and only able to whisper his name before he kissed her again.

Much to her chagrin, that was when she would usually wake up. Sometimes, however, the dream was extended a little further but, on those mornings, she would wake up in a cold sweat and out of breath. Those mornings meant a cold shower, a day of difficult focus, and her anger at the ninja would grow just a little bit more each time.

It was due in large part as to how he left her in the first place. In her mind, she often did phrase it "he left me," which she found odd in itself. They were never a couple, he never said that he was in love with her, he never even gave signs to indicate such and they never kissed. For the life of her, Mika couldn't figure out why she was so hung up on him. But she was. She was mad at him and wanted him to come back at the exact same time.

She did her best to ignore it most days and, usually, did a pretty good job. Her work at the Berlin Europol office helped keep her occupied, but she did have her moments. Sometimes, she caught herself daydreaming about Raizo and wondering where he is. In her most private thoughts, she would wonder how her dream would play out in reality, but usually it was just a question of wondering where he was. She thought of doing searches for him but thought it would be too dangerous. For him and her.

She was sitting at her desk, lost in her thoughts when a knock came to her door frame. She let out a small gasp of surprise and looked to see Ryan Maslow staring at her, holding a manila folder in his hand.

"Sleeping on the job?" Maslow asked.

"I wish," Mika replied. "Just… lost in thought, that's all."

"Well, I won't even hazard a guess as to why. Mind if I come in?"

"Sure. We can talk while I get this report together."

Maslow came in, closed the door behind him, and stood kind of awkwardly by the chair in Mika's office. She received a promotion since the whole Ozunu clan deal, but she stayed out of field work, deciding she was better at intelligence gathering and organizing. She and Maslow had spent time together since the Ozunu incident, lunches and things of that nature, but nothing ever too serious. Their work hadn't even crossed each other's path in the past six months, save a couple of items here and there.

But Mika could tell something was different today. He seemed a bit nervous, quietly anxious, and almost overtly exasperated. "Ryan? What is it?" She, just then, noticed the folder he was holding. She motioned toward it, "And, what's that?"

Maslow exhaled and sat down, "Mika… we need to talk."

She stared at him as a worried look entered her eyes and ran through her body. "Ryan, are you firing me?"

He shook his head, "Far from it. I need your help with a new case that fell in my lap."

She was relieved. "What case?"

"You heard about Harcourt Bertrand's murder in Paris?"

"Yeah." She pulled out a file she had on her desk about it and read it. "Someone shot up the party where he was the only victim. Three shots right in the back from a silenced Beretta M1951. No one saw the killer come or go. He didn't leave anything behind but the bullets Bertrand's back. Not even any shell casings were found. It's being called perfect execution. No trail, no leads, no evidence."

"That's just it: some evidence was left behind."

"They said it was completely clean. Nothing found but the machineguns that were rigged to a device that dropped down and fired into the room."

"That's what the news covered," he said.

"What else was found?" she asked.

He sighed and put the folder in front of her, setting it on her desk. She looked at him, curiously, but opened the folder, regardless. She looked through it, finding nothing out of the ordinary, until she came to the last page that had a picture of the red shuriken lodged into the wall.

Her eyes widened. She looked up at him, "Ryan…"

"It's real." He exhaled in exhaustion. "I deal with ninjas one damn time and now they pop up in every damn facet of my life."

"Why are you bringing me in on this?"

He paused then sighed.

She already knew what that meant. "Where is he?"

"He'll be here tomorrow."

And, just like that, Mika's life instantly became more complicated than she was ready for. Raizo wasn't in front of her yet and already her heart was beating faster than usual. "How did you find him?"

"He found me," Maslow admitted. "I leaked the information."

Now, she was really confused. "What? How? Why?"

"Because we're outmaneuvered here. This type of assassination with this kind of calling card is completely out of our league. And there have been others exactly like it; no evidence except a shuriken. I'm not even sure how many similar murders were talking here. Luckily, we've been able to keep it out of the public knowledge so no copycats. The murders are sporadic and are usually high-profile and/or political killings. But this same gun has been used in past killings matching the same M.O. of unbelievable stealth and I have never seen anyone kill someone and not leave behind any evidence except for what they wanted to be found, especially since the killer had to be right on top of Bertrand to kill him like this." He sighed. "With a killing this perfectly executed, I thought it best to bring in an expert."

She was still finding this a little hard to swallow. "So, how did Raizo find you?"

"I leaked a bit of the information to a public tabloid site and left a trail that I was hoping he would follow." He scoffed and sat back. "He called me four hours later. That guy is damn good."

Mika's breath caught in her chest as she realized that, very soon, she would be seeing Raizo again. Now, she wasn't so sure if it was she wanted.

Maslow could see her turmoil over this. He always knew she had a soft spot for him. This just confirmed how much. "Mika…"

"I'm fine, Ryan."

He knew she was lying. "Go home. Get some rest. Report back tomorrow so we can get to work."

"Is he going to show up at my apartment again?"

"I couldn't even begin to know the answer to that."

She sighed. "Fine." Maslow left as she started to gather her stuff and head for home. Maslow was right about one thing: she was going to need the rest.

Raizo sat on the plane, looking over his file of what he knew about the killings that matched the one that was committed in Paris. He had seen impressive murders before from the Clans but this was, by far, the most different from any he'd ever seen. Just from his first observation; the fact that guns and a cell phone were used was the dead giveaway. The Clans may use the new ways to get close to a target but the old ways were always used to make the execution. Raizo knew that this killer was someone very different but also very good.

But he could ponder all of this later. There was one thing that weighed far heavier on his mind than this masterfully performed assassination: the woman he met six months ago. More often than not, Mika had been on his mind since he left her. He thought she would be easy to let go of, but there was something about her that kept her on his mind, even more so than Kiriko in recent days.

Raizo couldn't lie to himself: while part of him wanted to know about this killer, nearly all of him contacted Maslow for one reason. For her.

'Mika.'

Raizo didn't know what happened when he first met Mika and got to know her, but, for some reason, she was different. It would've been easier to use her as bait against the Hanta Kirra and Ozunu but he wanted to protect her; no matter how much more difficult it would've made things, he found her worth the risk. Ever since his departure, he thought about her every day. He missed her. He wanted to see her again. He even found himself hoping that he would. Part of him was hoping that seeing her would answer the question as to why he wanted to so badly, while the other part just wanted to see her, and this was the perfect way to do it. He could only hope this business would be a matter that could settled with as little incident as possible.

But he had a gut feeling that it would be nowhere near that simple.

The night looked as though it would come with no sleep for Mika. It just past 1 AM and she wasn't tired and she didn't really want to go sleep because she couldn't risk having another dream about Raizo when she was about to see him so soon. That would make the meeting all the more difficult to handle. She attempted to distract herself with the case and what she had so far, but it was all useless. She stared at one page for a half hour and gave up when she realized she could barely remember how the first sentence started. Raizo's face kept coming to her mind bringing some, admittedly wanted but very useless, thoughts to her mind. She pushed the pages aside and decided to just try and relax for the rest of the night. She had a feeling that the coming days were going to be busy.

The following morning, Mika did everything she could to mentally prepare for what was about to happen but she wasn't sure if she would be, no matter how she prepared. Nevertheless, she readied herself at home the best she could. She got to work and walked into her office and, immediately, knew that someone was there. She looked to her right and, standing at her window, was the ninja she met six months ago. The warrior who fought with shadows and more deadly precision than a sniper. The man who saved her life.

Raizo turned around, pausing the second he laid eyes on her. He looked at her with, surprisingly, an apprehensive look. His voice caught for a second but he, silently, cleared his throat and greeted her, "Hello, Mika."

She had to catch her breath just to say his name and, just like in her dreams, she could barely whisper out, "Raizo…"

A/N: Face to face, at long last. Reunited. Does it feel good? Time will tell. I hope you guys enjoy the start. Be here for the next chapter!