I don't own either YYH or HP so please don't sue me!
Chapter three:
Kurama hated these missions. He just wanted to go to school, get good marks and please his mother. But no.
Youko had a love hate relationship with the missions. They gave him a chance to push past Shuichi Minamino and test his strength, slash some weaklings and run free for a while. But Youko hated that godling, hated that the missions were controlled and for the greater good and he could never play to his forte in power, he was never allowed to thieve.
And so this mission sucked/ruled. Away from his precious mother for a year or so. Youko being free for most of it. It seemed pretty evenly distributed until it started.
Youko Kurama approached Voldemort's camp carefully. Thinking up a story as to why a nine tails was joining their fucked up crusade, and how to shut up any other apparitions who might recognize him for who and what he was.
As thoughts swam through his head a strange pulse slammed through his mind and body.
'What was that?' Kurama asked
'No idea.' Youko answered.
Kurama hummed in thought.
'Stop humming, you'll get it stuck in my…'a strange feeling pulsated through him.
He felt like killing something. He felt like ripping into flesh and tearing limbs and…
'…ko,…YOUKO!" Kurama's voice shook him out of his bloodlust. 'There it was again! It's forcing our basic killing instinct to the surface!'
'Yeah, but whatever it is it can't seem to,' the pulse came again, 'to get past our humanity, your humanity.'
'A minus wave of sorts, aimed towards demons.'
'One of the forbidden artifacts?'
'Yes I think so'
'What should we do?'
'It doesn't seem to be affecting us that badly, though keeping you in check will be difficult. Still the only thing for it is to continue our mission isn't it?'
'Yes' rumbled Youko. The silver fox bounded through the forest, ignoring the insanity that tried to pry its way into their mind.
As another pulse rocked through them an idea struck.
'Kurama!'
'I know brilliant!'
BREAK
"Youko Kurama, why is he here?"
"…. The demon fox"
"The king of thieves…"
"…. I thought he was dead…"
"Last time I checked he worked for Koenma"
"The lord of spirit realm?"
"Yeah…"
Such whispers followed Kurama as he made his way through the relatively large demon encampment, heading straight for the biggest most elegant tent towards the other end of the field. Out of said tent stormed an A class demon, but it was no one that Kurama recognized.
"Why are you here?" he hissed, his slit snake eyes narrowed even more, his green hair whipping about his head in a self made wind. Kurama held out his hands in a gesture of peace, but kept his eyes cold hard and calculating, warning the other demon not to come any closer. Another man came out of the tent. Kurama could not place his aura as either demonic or mortal, nor could he place it with the living or the dead. He was bald and had snake like everything. This man set off a much more terrifying vibe than the demon standing next to him. Hatred rolled off this man. A large snake followed him out.
Voldemort.
'Hmm. More horrible than I had imagined, being as he is supposed to be a human.' Youko thought.
'Humans can sometimes show even more cruelty than something with horns and a forked tail,' Kurama retorted.
Youko snorted within his head, 'yes but he's still got nothing on Hiei when in a rage.'
"What is Youko Kurama doing here?" asked the snake demon again.
"Youko Kurama is not here." Voldemort interrupted as he looked Kurama straight in the eyes, seeing what Kurama wanted him to see in them.
"What?" the slithery demon snapped, then amended in a greasy tone, "What could my lord mean?"
"I am not the king of thieves, though it humbles me for you to think so." Youko lightened his tone and his form of speech, "I only have four tails," he turned around arrogantly and wagged his butt, and indeed four tails swished back and forth. He faced his enemies yet again, a cocky smile playing around his lips, the murderous pulse pushing Shuichi farther back.
"Then name yourself!" the snake was on the offensive once again.
Kurama smiled toothily at him, "My name? Forgive my cheek my lord," he bent his neck towards Voldemort, "But isn't it polite to name oneself before demanding the name of a guest?"
Voldemort smiled, but the gesture did not reach his eyes. "Of Course, my name is Voldemort, but you rightly name me your lord, and this… is my comrade Slade." The snake demon glowered at the human but quickly hitched up a mask of indifference. Apparently he did not take to the mortal, no matter who that mortal be, giving his name to an unknown demon.
"My name is Nagato, of the swamp lands, it's a pleasure to meet you." This time Kurama's bow was low and long.
"The pleasure is ours," Voldemort stated though he didn't sound that pleased. "The question still stands, why are you here?" he slowed down his words as if he were talking to a child.
"I am here because you are killing humans, and humans are yummy," Kurama did his best to sound like a low class.
Voldemort pulled his mouth into a thin lipped smile, "Well you've come to the right place then, but you're a rather strong demon to be scavenging off the backend of a wizard's war."
Kurama shrugged. "Demons of all classes gather where there's a bit of power to be had."
Voldemort studied him intently for a moment, trying to read him, so Kurama gave him very little to read without seeming to do so. Kurama did not flinch away from the intensity of the red eyes. "Very well, find your own lodgings, and be warned Nagato, you now belong to me, and I do not take disobedience or betrayal lightly." And with that Kurama was dismissed, which was fine with him, he bowed and Voldemort swept back into the tent.
"Yes my lord." Kurama muttered.
BREAK
"Yusuke!" Kurama hissed through the branches and leaves. "You can't be wandering around the camp like that!" the Toushin was lucky Kurama was weaker than him, if just by a little, because the fox really wanted to strangle the team leader right then.
"But I was BORED Kurama, you don't understand!" Yusuke whined, though he did so quietly understanding that the fox's patience only went so far.
Kurama messaged his temples, "Yusuke I forbid you to come anywhere near this camp again, because you're lucky I sensed your power and recognized it so early otherwise I would have to be explaining to Voldemort why Yusuke Urameshi the spirit detective gone demon lord is here, and why I look strangely like Youko Kurama…"
`"Oooh whats your undercover name?" Yusuke asked perking up. Kurama hesitated, not wanting to wake the sleeping guards and knowing how loudly Yusuke would laugh.
"I'm not telling you" he finally replied.
Crestfallen Yusuke sighed, "please…"
"Not now Yusuke, Voldemort has one of his most trusted demon lackeys following my every move. If I need you here I will send word with my plants. Other than that you and Hiei are not allowed to contact me at all. If you must, absolutely must contact me do so stealthily, not like this. Do you understand me?"
In all seriousness Yusuke nodded. "Have you found anything out yet?"
"You haven't given me any time to snoop!" Kurama snapped, Yusuke smiled, as if his Kurama really hadn't found anything out yet, yeah right. The silver tailed boy sighed, "not much, mostly low class have flocked to him, but there is at least one higher class demon backing Voldemort, and I suspect more, and there is definitely a relic here which seems to pull out the killing instinct within demon blood…"
"Yeah, I'd noticed that something was off…"
"And heightens bloodlust and an extra burst of another relic that can control the movements of his demons, I don't know for sure… the demons here fear this human, and I must admit that actually having met him face to face he is more demonic than some of our horned friends.
"Can you remember all that so you can pass on this information to Hiei?"
"Course I can," Yusuke said before he sped away.
Kurama sighed.
BREAK
"Done using the potty whelp?" the snake demon hissed as Kurama re-entered his own makeshift tent, "You didn't really bring many material possessions with you fox."
Kurama shrugged, hating this demon more and more. Barely a week had passed and every second of it was spent looking this ugly thing in the face. "I travel lightly," with this six days, going on seven, he had spent in a camp filled with his demon brethren he had found next to nothing out. He had also, surprisingly, done nothing. No raping and pillaging, no mad killing sprees, no wreaking havoc among the good and innocent, nothing that a normal evil wizard with plans on taking over the world with a demon army would do. Youko was starting to get bored and Kurama was starting to get homesick, surrounded by all these smelly low class.
No new information had come pouring in, as if he would be that lucky, Voldemort had left the camp two nights after Kurama had arrived. Apparently he kept his human henchmen and demon cohorts separated, and Kurama would have had to have fallen fairly far down the i.q. chain if he actually believed that Voldemort would bunk in this hole.
Kurama could not snoop around easily without bringing suspicion down upon himself so he sat around devising plots, planning his next moves, planting as many spies in as many homes as he could, getting to know the demons in the camps, listening to every mite of information that moved through the ranks, even the horrible gossip and outrageous rumors about some "chosen one" and doing what Youko did best, thieving. Some demons just couldn't leave the den without a shiny on them. Of course the shinies never made it back and of course Kurama never hid his loot where it could be easily found. It was stashed in the tree that Yusuke had hidden in that first night.
Youko was playing a game of go with Shuichi in his head when the snake (Kurama hadn't bothered to memorize his name) started talking, the snake did a lot of that. What was the old proverb? "…. The wise man is silent and the fool runs his mouth"? or something like that. The fox did not usually pay him too much attention until:
"Time for you to show your metal, your worth. Let's see if you can handle the type of work we do here …" Youko snapped his head up and Shuichi struck the winning blow. "What?"
"Ch… just look outside and see for yourself." Kurama had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
A smell had hit him, one of winter and ice. He popped his head out of the tent to discover ice maidens, from Yukina's home. Their feet shuffled along in chains and there dirty clothes were ripped at as the demons around them cat called and whistled.
This mission had just gotten a whole lot worse.
