Ninja Gaiden IV
The Child of Darkness
by Jonathan A.K Hertzog



Disclaimer:

This follows story takes place after the events in Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. This story was not written by Tecmo, nor I am affiliated with Tecmo is any way. Ryu Hayabusa, Irene Lew, and any other reoccurring characters are the sole property of Tecmo. This story is for FREE DISTRUBTION, but with the condition that I, Jonathan A.K Hertzog am declared to be the sole author. All characters besides the ones mentioned above are the sole property of me, and cannot be used in any story or sequel without my written consent. Finally, this story is not a sequel to Ninja Gaiden III: The Fury of the Dragon by Jeff Nussbaum.



Chapter 1
Aftermath of the Storm


"Humans are always striving to achieve. All creatures living on earth, in all worlds, can never be just a part of someone's plans. Fortunately, mankind is never foolish enough to wipe itself out to achieve some ambition." 
"Ryu," Irene said, "just shut up and kiss me."
He did.
***

Together Ryu and Irene watched the sunrise. It was a long battle. Clancy and Foster were now both dead, and the Ancient Ship of Doom was no more. Ryu saved the world for the third time in two and a half years. All-in-all, a pretty good day. Ryu looked at Irene, who was napping peacefully in his arms. He couldn’t believe that just two days ago, he thought that she was dead. Ryu felt overwhelmed by his love for her. But he just kissed her on her forehead so he  wouldn’t wake her. In fact, he needed some sleep himself.
***

When the two of them woke up, Ryu judged that it was about noon, maybe later. "Come on," he said to Irene as he helped her up, "we need to head back to New York." 
"Just where are we again?" Irene said sleepily 
"You should know, after all, you came here too."
"Right. Arizona desert. Lovely place in the afternoon."
"Why Ms. Lew," Ryu said wryly, "I don’t believe I’ve seen this side of you."
She smiled playfully. "Would you like to see the side that shot in the bar?"
"No, but we do have a real problem here." Ryu suddenly became very serious. "We have no more money, food, or water, we’re in the middle of the desert in Arizona, and we have no way of getting back to New York. Or any other civilized place, for that matter."
Irene held up a radio. "You didn’t think that the Army would send me out here with no pickup point, did you?"
***

Ryu was uneasy on the helicopter flight. He couldn’t shake his doubts about the flight just being another trap to kill them. However, he didn’t talk to Irene about it. Ryu kept to himself about many things. Worrying Irene would just cause more problems. Besides, he thought, now that Foster is dead, I won’t need to worry about the CIA anymore.
Ryu could not have been more wrong.