A/N: I'm back! I've been gone for far too long and simply could not resist any longer. Well as I've said in the summary, this fic basically follows the anime as close as possible. The scenarios are mostly the same. However, instead of being more Yusuke-centric, this fic delves into the other characters' thoughts and feelings, which is actually twisted in a way to support my KxB infatuation. I hope to give you guys a glimpse of the unspoken relationship that I strongly feel, (and hope!) exists between Botan and Kurama. Oh also, keep your eyes out for a KxBxK love triangle! Ah...

This is set during the Yusuke kidnapping arc. Again, be warned that though this follows the anime closely, several dialogues and scenarios were changed! That is all.

---Chapter 1---

The minute she elaborated on the devices before her, she had a sinking feeling that she was going to end up making a fool out of herself. She looked at the gadgets before her and hesitantly grabbed the demon compass from her briefcase, holding it up to her companions' faces. "U-uhm let's see... how about the demon compass! With this we can find any demons within a few miles."

"But we wouldn't know if we were actually picking up Hiei or someone else, right?"

Botan froze. See? A fool of herself! She knew it! "B-but look, see, with this new improvement we can put a part of Hiei in this chamber and the compass will identify him for us, so we'll be fine! All we need now is a piece of Hiei's hair!"

"Hm, it's really quite a shame I don't carry around with me a lock of Hiei's hair." He remarked, his soft voice sounding deceptively sincere.

"E-eh... right." She let her hand drop limply beside her and let the demon compass slip from her grasp. "Useless. Utterly useless. Yusuke is in danger of being killed, and here I am being useless!" Botan re-gripped the compass, a slight sweat forming on her forehead. She had to come up with something! Anything! "Well what about this psychic spy glass? It can see through anything! We can search every nook, every cranny, and every walls within this city. With this, I'm sure we'll find Hiei!"

"Within one hour?" Kurama's voice again was gentle, but Botan thought she could hear just the slightest hint of impatience underneath his gallantry. She screwed up her face and grabbed the next gadget in line, not even bothering to think anymore, since it obviously did her no good.

"Okay, forget about seeing through walls, with this concentration ring, we'll just blow them all up!"

It took all three of them a full second to process the ridiculous situation they found themselves in. Kuwabara, with less tact and grace than Kurama, screeched at the top of his lungs and impatiently rummaged through all the gadgets, throwing them around like useless toys--useless though they may be but toys they certainly were not. "We've got to have something here that we can use! We only have an hour left before Urameshi's toast!"

Kurama stared at them silently, an idea forming in his brilliant mind. He looked at Botan and offered that perhaps they were going about it wrongly. "Is there anything we can use to summon him to us, instead of us looking for him?"

"What! That's ridiculous, if there were, Botan would have told us all about that a while ago!"

"Oh, we do!" she squealed, slamming her fist unto her open palm, at the same time mentally kicking herself in the head for overlooking such a simple solution. She ignored Kuwabara beside her, who dramatically fell on his face. "Kurama must think I'm an idiot, but I don't care. The most important thing is that we rescue Yusuke!" She stood up and held a whistle in her hand. "The mystic whistle! This whistle cannot be heard by humans, or by those who don't have any spiritual energy. The area that this thing can cover and the strength of its sound depends on its whistler. I can make it go at least a hundred kilometers! If Hiei's around, he'll be sure to hear it." She turned to Kurama to gauge his reaction. Was this good enough? Has she finally shown them something they could use?

She let out a sigh of relief when Kurama nodded his head imperceptibly. She took her stance and warned them to cover their ears. "This could sound really annoying. Alright, here goes!"

A terrible sound erupted almost immediately after Botan placed her mouth to the innocent looking whistle. Even Kurama lost his composure and found himself at mercy of the whistle's shriek. His eyes twitched as his head threatened to explode, his two hands barely protecting his eardrums from collapsing at the immense sound. He wondered how it was possible for Botan's petite body to make that whistle emit such a strong wave that threatened to pull him down on his knees. "What a loud sound!" was all he could manage to say.

"Really? But I don't hear anything... Damn, I guess my spirit energy still hasn't healed!"

After a few more seconds of torture, Botan finally stopped. "Well," she chirped, "all we can do now is wait for Hiei to come find us."

Kurama placed his hands down and stared at the ferry girl, hardly knowing what for. A full realization just hit him at that moment that this bubbly headed ferry girl had something special about her, almost sort of a... ferocity he couldn't quite explain. He somehow felt it from the kind of sound wave she emitted. Following this train of thought, he realized that there was something about Botan he had not taken as seriously before. Of course he knew she was a spirit guide, that she was no ordinary girl, but that didn't stop him from putting her in the rank of Keiko, or Yukina. Strong willed, sure, but physically weak. Ladies that needed protecting. He even remembered feeling very apprehensive at the dark tournament when she had joined the rest of the team beside the ring, saying that she was going to be their trainer. He didn't want her to be there and always made sure to keep an eye on her, helping her whenever she needed something, standing in front of her to protect her whenever it became too dangerous. He narrowed his eyes and looked her over.

He had been wrong. Botan was different. In addition to being strong willed, she also had some physical and spiritual strength to boast of. Though somewhat ditzy and clueless, she most definitely was no damsel in distress; she was not just a pretty face. All this he thought without betraying emotion, remaining just as impassable and serene as he always had been. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, Kurama saw a black mass fall from a tree not too far from behind Botan and did not miss Kuwabara's question about whether it was a beetle that fell.

"What in the world is that sound which makes my ears bleed?" the little fire demon asked with a scowl on his face.

Botan clasped her hands enthusiastically. "Ah, Hiei, there you are! I knew you would come!"

The boy looked up and scowled even further. "I did not come looking for you."

Kurama saw that Botan was about to retort something back and decided to cut in though he knew it was very impolite to do so. Saving Yusuke took priority over gallantry. "Hiei, here," he said simply, handing him the note.

The scowl on Hiei's face quickly disappeared and was replaced by a smirk as he read it over. Slapping the piece of paper in his hand, he drawled maliciously, "Serves him right. That bastard must have gotten cocky after winning the dark tournament." He handed the letter back to Kurama. "He'll regret being cocky. He should have known that there's always a bigger fish to fry."

This refusal hardly came as a surprise to Kurama who knew the fire demon well enough to predict his reactions, though in fairness, not well enough to really understand the inner workings of his mind. Even though he wanted to believe that Hiei was simply assuming a nonchalant attitude, he could not be sure. He was no psychic after all. But whatever it was that Hiei truly felt towards their spirit detective friend is of no consequence at the moment; Kurama knew that this was a dangerous and sensitive situation for him to be doing alone (Kuwabara's spirit energy still hasn't come back, and surely he wasn't about to ask Botan to fight alongside him). There was no other option. Hiei absolutely must come. He therefore raked his mind for the right words to say that'll bait the little demon. "But surely you must be interested, Hiei. There is actually someone who could take even Yusuke by surprise. Don't you want to know more about these kidnappers?"

The boy shrugged. "No. This is none of my concern."

The fox demon mentally sighed. He had hoped Hiei would be a little bit more cooperative tonight, especially after that comment. He quickly tried to think of another strategy to bait the usually hot tempered and haughty boy, but was quickly cut off when Botan spoke imploringly, trying to reason to Hiei's compassionate side--if he actually had one.

"But Hiei, if you don't come, Yusuke will get killed!" Kurama knew that this type of talking will not work with the uncooperative demon--Kuwabara had merely suspected it, and Botan was only wishing against luck. Nobody even flinched when Hiei said something along the lines of not caring about the detective.

"He pisses me off; what reason do I have to go out and save his ass? I believed him to be strong, but I see my mistake. It turns out he's just a fool. To be taken by these amateurs. Hn. It's ridiculous and I refuse to babysit him any longer."

"I've been hearing some interesting things lately," Kurama began again, refusing to give up, "about some humans all of a sudden possessing strange and unheard of powers. It is possible our dilemma might be related to it. These kidnappers of Yusuke have proven themselves to be strong and very well organized, making it likely that these are the very same humans I've been hearing of. Yusuke is not exactly the kind of guy who would let himself get kidnapped."

"Humans?" Hiei asked. "I'm almost tempted to be curious, but I'm not."

"Ne, Hiei." Kurama turned his head to the side and watched silently as Botan balled her fists, wondering whether she was going to give the Hiei a lecture on honor and camaraderie. He expected her to point accusingly at him, to do a guilt trip about how Yusuke would have jumped first and eagerly for his sake if he were ever in trouble, and that Hiei was a heartless fool who cared about no one but himself. Again he was surprised when she exhibited a quick thinking maneuver and instead abandoned her righteous ideals (which was a trait in which she was perfectly in the right to exhibit, seeing that she was an agent of the heavens) and opted to match Hiei's morality, or lack thereof. "I believe you're not completely off of Spirit World's wanted list, am I right?"

"So what?"

"If you help Yusuke out, I will make sure to plead your case myself and have you freed from Spirit World's grasp. If you help Yusuke out, you will get your freedom. You'd be free to reign wherever you like. How about it?"

Next to them, Kuwabara gulped and protested loudly. "What! Are you sure! You're letting this freak go? You don't know what he'd do!"

"Well we've got no choice, do we!" Botan cried resolutely. "We're running out of time. Make your choice, Hiei."

Hiei gave it a small thought, and then smirked. "Formally aquitted huh? For beating up humans... Fine. It sounds like a good deal." He turned around and walked off on his own.

Both Botan and Kuwabara let out a triumphant cry, looked at each other, and then ran after Hiei, Kurama following a few distance behind. He walked behind his three companions, not prying his piercing emerald eyes from Botan's retreating figure. He was greatly intrigued. At each passing moment she was proving to be more and more of a surprise. How could he not have paid much attention to her before? Once his interest was piqued, there was no quenching it unless it was resolved. But his personal agenda would have to wait--there were challenges ahead. Yusuke was in trouble and he understood that he must undertake the task of leading the team himself if they were to save their natural leader. He only hoped the others would trust him and his decisions explicitly as much they trust in Yusuke's words. Kurama smiled to himself.

"No, I could never inspire in them that same unwavering trust they have for Yusuke. Hiei undoubtedly would be the first to go against me, Kuwabara will be wary, and Botan is possibly acting under strict orders from Koenma and will act as she sees fit to fulfill his demands. All I can do is offer them advice and hope for the best. One can only try to lead a team as stubborn as this. Yusuke, you truly are great..." His face remained impassive throughout the whole way to the rendezvous, but his mind was greatly at work. Since he could not be certain of his team's trust, he would have to carefully plan everything ahead. Holding a leadership position has never been tasteful to him. This was already proving to be a very difficult challenge.

Kurama looked off to the distance. Exactly who were these people and what could they possibly want from the team? Their demands seemed out of the blue and slightly absurd. There was no ransom--they asked for nothing, only that they bring the whole team. Could it possibly be a well thought out, elaborate assassination plot? He could not gain any more than this insight and settled with the fact that for now, all he knew was that they must all be cautious.

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A/N: End of Chapter 1. Ah, I hope I did alright! I really tried to follow it closely. I think, by doing this, I do myself the most favor, since I end up tricking myself into thinking that this is actually cannon! Ha, ha! Now I'll go living the rest of my life believing that these were the events as it happened, and that these are their thoughts as they went through that ordeal.

The Yusuke kidnapping was my most favorite arc of all, since it was KxB interaction haven. On a side note, whenever I watch any episode, I try to look for any KxB moments, whether they be just talking, or casting each other glances. I realized that there's actually quite a lot; you'd be surprised! The animators probably felt a kick out of letting Kurama's eyes sit on Botan whenever they could. I can't blame them.