First of all, I want to apologize to all of the Kuwabara fans. He won't play a big part in this, but he does start the story…. So anyway, I'm sorry if you wanted him to play a bigger part. This is my first story, so I'm not quite sure how this is going to work. Please no flames, but you can send me complaints. If I make anyone go too far out of character, please tell me and I'll try to fix it by the next chapter. Also, there will be NO YOAI in this story. As close as Kurama and Hiei may seem, they are only friends. Sorry to Yoai fans. Anyway, please read and review.

You probably already know this, but I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, or any other things that may appear unintentionally with copyrights. I do own Kage Kancho, and my friends have authorized me to use Ryu Shoku and Allie, but they don't come in this chapter

Chapter One:

Kuwabara turned. His black eyes made out a flash of gold, a swish of a putrid greenish gray color, and –

Pain erupted through his shoulder. Flaring, it was as though it burst out and slashed across the rest of is body, as though there was poison in his veins. Before he gave in to the swirling darkness, he had the most ridiculous thought: If I got hit in the shoulder, why do my fingers hurt? His vision swam away from his eyes, leaving him in darkness, but he heard a certain, almost familiar, high-pitched voice croon, "Sleep tight, Kuwa-Chan…" and break off in high pitched cackles as his head erupted in pain, and he slept to escape it.

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Kurama awoke with a start. He took a decisive sniff of the smells floating on the air. Something had awakened him, and he was guessing it was not cinnamon buns, although some wonderful cinnamon-y smells were wafting upstairs.

Another sniff and a second's sifting through the smells, and he hit the acrid odor he was searching for.

Blood. Acidic, human blood, not in its host body. And worse, it smelled…. familiar.

He jumped from his bed, already clothed in a rumpled white fighting outfit with gold trim, and tied a forest green sash around his waist. As he ran toward the hall, he slipped into his white fighting slippers. Jogging downstairs as quickly as being inside a human-inhabited household, he yelled a message to his mom, being, "Mom, I have to go out for an hour or two! I'll be with my friends. Um…" His mind raced as he searched for a reasonable alibi. "Kuwabara needs help with his science report!"

"Alright, Suuichi. I'm going on a date, so I won't be back until late. Don't wait up."

"Yes mother. See you in the morning," he answered his human mother.

"Goodbye, Suuichi!"

"'Bye!" Kurama slipped through the door, sighing with relief as he finally could speed up. Shifting to top speed, he raced off. Nowhere near as fast as Hiei, he was still much faster than most ningens, and should not be seen going that fast to get to Kuwabara's for a report.

Following his nose, Kurama found himself passing under "Hiei's Tree".

Looking down, Hiei saw a curious sight: Kurama going top speed under "his" tree, not even noticing him. Jumping down, he easily matched Kurama's speed.

The emerald eyes flashed over to him in acknowledgement, as if saying, Hi, I see you, now what, I'm busy.

"What is it, Kurama?" The fire demon was terse, as always.

"Blood, to the North." Again, not normal. Kurama had not elaborated, or even checked whose blood it was. However, this was easily explained in his next sentence: "Human."

"Ah." Kurama did have a soft spot for the ningens. To Hiei, this was not quite understandable. How could he care for such weaklings? But no matter, Kurama was his friend, and also, by his standards, the teen was weak. Never mind the actual power levels (although the Koorime was convinced that he was stronger there, too) his emotions got in the way and made him weak. Therefore he could not go alone, for he could not be allowed to be hurt.

Soon they arrived in the forest from which the stench was being emitted. Kurama stepped in, slowing to half speed as a precaution. Hiei sighed as they were reduced to what was, to his standards, a speed slower than crawling. Still, if he went ahead and Kurama got hurt because of it, it could cause complications. Not that he cared, or anything, just that Kurama could fight the lower class demons if need be, keeping them out of his hair while he dealt with the larger prey.

The redhead chuckled at his friend's line of thought. They were opposites in so many ways – while Kurama was thinking about the fight possibly to come, Hiei was caught up on listing Kurama's shortcomings. Yet he, a ruthless bandit of Demon World, had managed to become friends with the bloodthirsty Koorime.

His thoughts were cut off as they reached a secluded ravine. The blood they had smelled started her, in a puddle of drops, and then rolled/smeared in a fashion with random drops – as if someone who was bleeding had been rolled not to gently – toward the ravine. The amount was giant for the predicted time. Whosever blood this was, they were seriously injured.

After a quick sense for obvious demons (he left the rest for Hiei), Kurama rushed to the ravine. Down it he saw a leg in blue scraps of cloth that may have been clothes at one time, and literally, may have been blue. Now, however, they were soaked with blood. Chunks were torn out of the leg, and you could see bone. Following the leg, he saw another leg at a grotesque angle under the body. Amazingly, there seemed to be less piercings on the chest area of the blue-clad, bloody body, just deep impressions that looked like boot marks. Probably some broken or cracked ribs, at least. One arm had many holes going all the way through, starting at the shoulder. The other was not visible as it was twisted under he body, clearly broken. The head was in all right shape, except that it belonged to Kuwabara.

"Kuwabara…!" The cry burst from Kurama's lips before he realized he had moved. Then, again, he moved without consciously deciding to do so. In an instant, the mother figure of the Reiki Tantei was beside the oaf like warrior, cradling him as gently as possible as he lifted the prone body from the ravine. A small moan of pain escaped Kuwabara as the teen fox leapt from the canyon with the ningen in his arms.

Hiei's band glowed for a moment as his unnatural third eye searched for the demons who had done this to Kurama's friend. He refused to call the oaf his friend, but he would have his revenge on the perpetrators, if only for Kurama's sake. Indeed, it did seem to be causing the teen some unnecessary stress, as he was pale and shaking slightly, not good traits in our emotionless fox. Besides, the fire apparition reasoned, I can't allow these things to attack Kurama. He'd be defenseless

Had Kurama been listening at that point he would have laughed out loud at Hiei's "reasoning". However, the teenage spirit fox was clearly shaken. His eyes resembled a shocking emerald version of Kayko's, or Botan's, as he stared at the wounds, mentally ticking them off, then trying to push back the creeping possibilities in his mind. Still, there were exactly ten tunnels through his arm – tunnels like fingers. Elder Toguro's fingers. Just as quickly, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, and another quickly took its place. The chunks taken out of his legs looked an awful lot like Karasu's bombs. At that thought he broke out of his reverie, looked at Hiei for a moment, and raced off toward the closest hospital, still carrying the broken Sarayashki Jr. High student.

Kuwabara could still feel the pain through the musky darkness of unconsciousness. He could feel intensified points of pain under his knees and behind his shoulders. Or, should he say, his limb-like things. Why the hell do I hurt so much? What happened? All he could remember was the pain. Trying to sharpen his senses, figure out what was going on, the boy forced himself to breathe clearly. He forced his body to do something but lay there: smell. What was that? Roses? Why would he smell roses? Oh, wait, Kurama uses roses, doesn't he? Thank god he found me and not someone else. With that, he relaxed, and miraculously, the pain did go away. Who knows, maybe he wasn't quite unconscious before. Oh, whatever. He ended his train of thought in favor of rest.

Kurama spied the Keika Hospital in the distance. Not his first choice, but what the hell. What he needed now was speed. Maybe they could still save Kuwabara's life.

Hiei stayed back a ways, zipping along twenty to thirty feet in the distance of Kurama, watching for the things the shocked crimson haired boy would not notice, not with him so oblivious. This concreted his description of the fox: he was weak because he could not override his own feelings.

The redhead slowed to a ningen's top speed as he reached the hospital. People turned to stair as the long, red haired boy in a white, bloodstained fighting outfit ran into the hospital carrying a bloody something. The nurse at the front desk screamed slightly at the state of Kuwabara. Instead of acting calmly, she dropped all protocol and got on the emergency intercom. She practically screamed, "I need a stretcher down here NOW, and some ER, and any med staff we can spare. This is code red emergency status, get this guy some treatment NOW!"

Before she had even finished her speech, a guy had wheeled a stretcher into the hall, and no less than 20 ER plus some miscellaneous med techs had rushed in. Kurama gently placed Kuwabara on the stretcher and watched as they wheeled him away. He then turned to the nurse.

"I'm sorry, Miss, I'll answer any questions you wish, but could I use the phone first?"

"Yes, of course." She pointed out the pay phones. This was, of course, against protocol, but she was too freaked out, and anyway, the pay phones were within visibility. She'd be able to see if he tried to escape.

Kurama shakily pressed the buttons. Normally, an injury, even a death wouldn't shake him up this much, but he had a horrible hunch about the nature of Kuwabara's injuries.

"Yeah, yeah," Atsuko's voice met the line.

"Mrs. Urameshi, may I speak with Yusuke, please?"

"Yea Suuichi, one mo', one mo'."

Yusuke's voice came on the phone. "What's up, Kurama?"

"Yusuke, I hope I haven't interrupted anything important, but this is urgent."

You could hear him snapping off whatever game he was playing at the moment. When Kurama said something's up, you listen. "Nah, 's ok. What, another mission?"

"No, Yusuke, I'm afraid it's much more serious."

"Well, spit it out!"

"Can you meet me at the Keika Hospital on the North side of town?"

"Yeah, why, you hurt?"

"No. I'll explain when you get here. See you soon."

"Uh…Sure." He hung up.

Kurama next dialed the number of the Kuwabara residence. "Hey, it's Shizuru. What's up?" Kuwabara's older sister answered, as expected.

"Shizuru, it's Kurama."

"Hey, fox-boy. Need my bro?"

"No, I was calling for you, actually. It's about your brother."

"What'd Kazuma do this time?" She didn't sound at all concerned.

"I'm sorry, Shizuru, it's quite serious. Could you meet us at the Keika Hospital? They'll probably want to see a family witness to the idea that I wasn't the one who hurt him."

Now she sounded worried. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Could you meet m—"

"Yes! I'll be right there!" She slammed down he phone. Kurama turned to the nurse and explained about finding Kuwabara, leaving out key facts such as the smelling of the blood from home. By the time he was done explaining, Shizuru was coming through the door. He put an arm around her and led her to the waiting room, and helped her onto the couch.

"Kurama, WHERE is my baby bro?" She looked completely stressed.

"He's in critical condition. I'm sorry, Shizuru. I'm not sure he's going to make it." He held her as she broke down, acting completely unlike herself out of fear for her brother, burrowing her head on Kurama's chest, allowing him to hold her while she cried, her tears mixing with the newly dried blood on his uniform.

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Well there you go, my first fan fiction. The next installment should come out soon, I hope. I'm setting a goal of one review, and then I'll try to get the chapter out, hopefully by the end of the week.

Thanks again, please review, and please don't hurt me! (Puppy dog eyes)