Ryu Hayabusa

**Ryu Hayabusa** (リュウ・ハヤブサ / 隼龍 *Hayabusa Ryū*?) is the main protagonist in the Ninja Gaiden series developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo. Ryu is also known as **"the Super Ninja"** or **"the Singular Super Ninja"**, **"Dragon Ninja"**, **"the Modern Day Ninja"** and **"the Ultimate Ninja"**.

## Appearance

Ryu is the epitome of a present day ninja, his Legendary Black Falcon outfit's sleek design is similar to that of the modern special ops agent, while the tabi boots, ninja head piece, mask, scarf and shin/forearm guards are reminiscent of the ancient ninja warrior.

Physically, Ryu Hayabusa is a young man in his early 20s, standing at 5'10" and weighing in at 172 lbs. He is in peak physical condition with a muscular build. As a ninja, most of his costumes and attire conceal his face, revealing only his eyes, one of his most distinctive features. Ryu's eyes feature vibrant green colouration with a slight golden hue. This golden hue feature is more prominent accompanied with his wardrobe composed of mostly dark colours, something that points out even more of his peculiar eyes and gives him an intimidating appearance.

Underneath the ninja mask and hood reveals a youthful face, and brown hair almost always held in a ponytail, a completely opposite appearance to what many would expect, given his deadly skills and calculative, savage brutality in battle. (However, the ponytail was altered to a flat top in the OVA).

## Personality

As a ninja, Ryu ruthlessly kills his enemies without mercy, executing them in a very cold, technical and calculative fashion. His rigorous upbringing in tandem with the many hardships and tragedies he has suffered, has forced Ryu to harden his emotions and disciplined his skills to perfection. He is undaunted by the lives he must take in order to protect the balance within the world, knowing that the balance of the world is more important.

Ryu knows life following the ninja path can be both cruel and short, especially for one of the Dragon Lineage. He has already felt first hand the brutality of this life; watching Kureha, his best friend murdered right in front of his own eyes, his clan massacred and he himself killed as he tries to save his village. Ryu endures these hardships with his unstoppable will, an indomitable spirit shown in his exploits as he overcomes every challenge and obstacle, surviving even the trauma of death to return and exact his vengeance.

Though Ryu cares little for his enemies' well being, he still respects them on a warrior basis, even having mutual respect with some adversaries such as Genshin. Outside of battle, Ryu is modest and refined, he is popular among the local residents in his village. Not only as a strong role model for ninja in training, but he is heralded for being kind and gentle, as he cares for the safety of every resident in his home. This is due to the fact that each Hayabusa clansman from Jonin to cadet is cherished as family.

Ryu has the demeanour and wisdom of a man far older than himself, an understanding of the world around him and the balance of power within it. He ignores the pursuit of power to the dismay of his uncle Murai, showing no signs of curiosity for the dark powers that dwelled within the Dark Dragon Blade. When given a choice, he chooses to destroy it rather than consume its immense dark powers. Ryu also refused to keep its divine counterpart the True Dragon Sword, knowing this weapon's existence upsets the delicate balance of the peaceful world.[1]

Overall, Ryu's exploits have given him an attitude far removed from most others as he understands things in more abstract and philosophical terms. He adopts a tranquil nature, free flowing most of the time, but unforgiving and crushing when roused. Ryu is also very stoic, he is usually seen not speaking very often. He usually speaks in profound bursts of wisdom, even sometimes looking down on his enemies.

## Powers & Abilities

Ryu Hayabusa is stated as being the most powerful ninja in the world, hence his nickname *"the Singular Super Ninja"*. This is further exemplified by his exploits where he defeated his toughest foes and beings of omnipotent nature.

Ryu's ongoing rigorous training from childhood have shaped him into a powerhouse warrior. Physically conditioned Ryu's speed and acrobatic skills are beyond exceptional, and while his strength may not be as immense as those of fiendish bloodlines, it is strong enough to wield hefty weapons and still maintain his agility. His senses are extremely high beyond the potential of a normal human being and predict an approaching attack. Cognitively he is a tactical fighter and highly calculative in battle. His skills in hand to hand combat and weaponry are at the master level, particularly his swordsmanship skill. Due to his level of mastery, Ryu is often seen using his weapons at their peak physical limit, often requiring the services of a legendary blacksmith to upgrade his weapons past these limitations. He also shows multiple chi and elemental abilities like conjuring a giant flaming dragon and using different types of elements with his attacks.

Ryu specializes in a martial art known as Hayabusa style Ninjutsu and his main weapon is the Dragon Sword, a powerful relic passed down from generation to generation, this is his signature weapon. It is also mentioned that he studied other martial arts. Although the Dragon Sword was not originally his, Ryu, who was tasked with safeguarding it during the Dark Dragon Blade Incident, proved his worthiness by demonstrating his proficiency and valor with the sword, allowing his father to proudly part with it and continue the tradition of passing it down his lineage.

## TMNT X Pokemon

When meeting the Turtles, he challenges them to prove their strength against him. After a fight, he decided to train them using the skills he has learned growing up.

## Trivia

* In *Ninja Gaiden* and its remakes, Ryu is 21 years old. In *Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword* and *Ninja Gaiden II/Sigma 2*, he's 22 years old. *[citation needed]*
* The coloration of Ryu's eyes on the Xbox games have a darker green coloration, compared to the PlayStation 3 games, where they have a more brighter golden hue to them. When asked about Ryu's eyes, Tomonobu Itagaki revealed that Ryu's eyes are green because "green seemed to be a cool color".
* In *Dead or Alive*, Ryu was supposed to be a new character named Kamui who was unrelated to the classic Ninja Gaiden, but one of the staffs suggested featuring Ryu Hayabusa from the classic series and Ryu was added to the roster.
* Ryu Hayabusa has been featured in many top videogame character lists, especially ones specializing in the Ninja archetype. These lists are a GameDaily[5] list with Ryu as one of Japan's greatest patriots, GamesRadar[6] and GameDaily[7] which feature Ryu representing the Ninja Archetype, and numerous lists with Ryu ranking #1 including Virgin Media,[8] CrunchGear,[9] Unreality,[10] PC World,[11] Screw Attack[12]and Top Ten FTW.[13]
* In *Yaiba's Weekly Backhand*, a weekly column written by Yaiba about zombie and ninja movies, Yaiba makes an off-hand comment about Ryu Hayabusa going around the world to save his father, implying that the classic series happened sometime before *Yaiba*.[4] However this is ignored by most fans due to continuity issues
* It's commonly thought that the main character from the Arcade Game is Ryu Hayabusa, due to his blue colour. This was later confirmed in *Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z*.[3]
* Ryu is the main protagonist and a playable character in all *Ninja Gaiden* games except *Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z*.