Chapter 9:

Botan stretched out on the futon, feeling the sun's warmth shining down on her face. Ruling Spirit World was hard work for the blue-haired girl, no one could fault her for taking a break every now and then, could they?

Turning to the lone ogre standing in the corner, Botan said, "I'm bored. Summon my royal harem to entertain me." Leaping from his spot, the ogre quickly vanished. There were many foolish things one could do in this realm of demons and apparitions but to cross the Queen was the most foolish.

Less than five minutes later the door to the Queen's quarters opened, ushering in the royal concubines Kurama and Yusuke Urameshi. Botan began to plan all the devious fun she could have with her servants when she noticed they were not alone. Behind them stood Kazuma Kuwabara, tall and proud despite the french maid outfit he wore.

"I finished scrubbing the floors and doing your laundry. Is there anything else you command milady?" Feeling a wave of frustration and wanting to get to the fun, Botan rolled her eyes and said, "Oh I don't care, go clean out the gutters or something."

As the great warrior/house boy turned to leave he grumbled, "Stuck up Botan. I don't get all high and mighty in MY dreams." Not sure she heard right, Botan called after him, "What's that? What did you just say?"

Walking over to his queen, Kurama sat down next to her and said, "Your highness, you DO realize that you are dreaming right now." Blinking in shock, Botan almost didn't hear Yusuke's snarky reply. "Yeah and you should probably be waking up now because I really don't think Keiko would be happy about any of these crazed sex dreams anyway."

"W-what are you guys talking about?" Botan asked nervously. "Everyone knows that I'm the most popular ruler in the history of Spirit World. Do you really think if this was a dream that you, two of the strongest warriors in this realm, would be here ready to obey my every command…"

Trailing off, Botan listened to the words coming out of her mouth, realizing how they sounded. The oppressive weight of reality was crushing her subconscious fantasy. Letting go of her last vestiges of denial she was faced with the harsh truth.

Pouting over this new course of events, Botan looked at the two boys and plaintively asked, "Do I have to?" When they both solemnly nodded Botan reluctantly said, "Fine! If you two are going to keep hassling me then I'll just wake up." Sitting up she turned to Kurama to whisper, "See you tonight." Then, the blue-haired girl opened her eyes.

A moment later Botan wasn't sure if she had woken up or simply replaced her warm dream with a terrible nightmare. Lying in the middle of a war zone, she rolled over to see the prone body of a redheaded boy that looked vaguely similar to Kuwabara not twenty yards away.

Bolting up, the grim reaper frantically tried to gain an understanding of her surroundings. A short distance away she saw two of her new friends, Miroku and Sango, looking heavily bruised and quite exhausted. Sango's feline companion lay unconscious at their feet. The two warriors raggedly assumed fighting stances as they faced down their opponents…Kurama and Hiei?

Botan stood rooted in place for a moment, her brain still trying to process what her friends from the future were doing here. Snapping out of her daze, Botan made to call out to the demon pair when she heard a scream to her left.

Spinning around gave Botan a view of an equally horrible scene. Inuyasha stood protectively in front of Kagome, sword in hand and fangs bared to his opponent. A tear welled up in her eye when Botan saw Yusuke standing opposite the hanyou, his left arm hanging limply at his side. It broke her heart to see Yusuke; the closest thing to a true friend Botan had ever had, looking terrible, almost as bad as Miroku and Sango.

A great swell of emotion coursing through her body as Botan saw her friends, new and old, having decimated each other. Drawing on every bit of energy in her body, the blue-haired girl took a deep breath and shouted above the bedlam, "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Everyone froze at the sound of a normally perky blue-haired grim reaper screaming her lungs out at them. The first to recover, Yusuke ran over to her and threw his one good arm around her, saying, "Botan, you're alive!"

Stifling a laugh, Botan replied, "Oh Yusuke, of course I am. Though you won't be if Keiko finds out you were putting your arms around me like this." Blood rushing to his face, Yusuke quickly disengaged himself before saying, "Uh, yknow Botan, there's really no need to tell Keiko about that."

Seeing Kurama, Hiei and a newly awoken Kuwabara approaching, Botan exclaimed, "Your all here! I can't believe it." Grabbing Kuwabara, the nearest person to her, in a bear hug, Botan said," Kuwabara! I'm so glad you're okay! And good call on ditching that french maid outfit!"

"Uh…what maid outfit?" Kuwabara asked meekly. A look of concern on his face, Kurama stepped forward to say, "Perhaps we should give Botan a quick medical examination. From the sounds of it she may have suffered a trauma to the head recently." Shaking the idea off, Yusuke replied, "Nah. She's pretty much always like this."

Quite happy to enjoy the reunion with her friends, Botan was brought back down to earth by the sound of a throat being cleared. Looking over, she saw Inuyasha and his companions with weapons still drawn and, at least in the case on the hanyou, ready to resume the battle.

Before the more violent Yusuke and Hiei could take up Inuyasha's unspoken offer to resume hostilities, however, Botan leapt between the two groups of warriors. Holding her hands up she said, "Wait everybody, hold on! No more fighting, I can explain everything."

Several hours later, Botan had finished her story and emotions had cooled off for the most part. While Yusuke and Inuyasha silently scowled at each other from across their makeshift campsite, it was Kuwabara that spoke up.

"So, uh, you guys are like some kinda prehistoric demon hunters then?" Narrowing her eyes, Sango said icily, "Prehistoric?" Rubbing the back of his head, Kuwabara replied, "Uh, yeah I just meant—you know with it being so primitive here and all…"

"Excuse me?" Sango asked, more than a little perturbed. Fortunately, before Kuwabara could insert his foot any farther into his mouth Botan spoke up, chiding, "Cut it out Kuwabara, they're just as smart as you or me. Maybe a little more so."

Jumping in, Yusuke demanded, "What's that supposed to mean Botan? Kuwabara's right, this place is primitive. They don't even have indoor plumbing!" Quick to admonish him, Kagome interjected, "Hey! There's more to it than just technology. This time period has a lot to offer, maybe even more than our time." Cracking a smile, Botan added, "Besides Yusuke, someone with a D average in his classes really shouldn't talk about other people's smarts."

"You only have a D average?" Kagome asked incredulously. "Wow, I even do better than that spending the majority of my time here." Before the time-displaced warriors could ponder this statement, however, another voice interceded into the conversation.

"I've given it some thought, and it appears that our goals are rather identical, namely to bring an end to the demon Naraku," Kurama said. "As such it would be quite redundant for our two separate groups to compete in tracking down the same leads and fighting the same battles. There appears to be only one logical course of action."

Partly engulfed in the shadows of the gathering nightfall, Hiei gave Kurama a long glare before stating, "You better not be suggesting what I think you are fox." Ignoring the diminutive fire demon, Kurama continued, "It would be best to pool our resources. I propose an alliance."

Simultaneously leaping to their feet, Yusuke exclaimed, "Like hell," while Inuyasha said, "Over my dead body." After an oar to the head and a sit command respectively, the two team leaders were once again seated, or rather sprawled, on the forest floor.

A bandaged Sango nevertheless said, "I'm inclined to agree with Inuyasha." Turning to her companions she said, "I've been a yokai exterminator my entire life, and I can count the number of benevolent full-blooded demons I've met on one hand."

Sitting back up, one hand on a rising bump on his head, Yusuke said, "Hey that's fine lady, we don't want your help and we don't NEED your help." In order to stave off another conflict, Kurama interjected, "That's fine Yusuke. So what do you propose we do next? We're trapped in a strange time we do not fully understand, our fighting capabilities have been weakened from a number of pointless battles, and we're hunting a demon of unimaginable power that, I might add, we've never even seen before."

By now, however, a slightly dustier Inuyasha had arisen to declare, "Talk all you want. You people aren't coming with us. Run off and hide somewhere and we'll tell you when we've killed the demon."

The hanyou was building up to a great rant when Kagome grabbed him by the ear and dragged him away from Yusuke and his group. Retreating from the group, they huddled up some distance away with Miroku and Sango. Kagome let go of the furry white ear and said, "Look Inuyasha, I don't like this any more than you do. But these guys are from my time, and with their powers and knowledge of the future they can do a lot of damage if they're left unchecked."

Nodding, Miroku replied, "Kagome makes a good point. Best to keep them in our sights where we can make sure they do no harm." Reluctantly agreeing, Sango added, "I don't trust them either Inuyasha, and I have little reason to believe their intentions are noble. All we can do is stay together and not turn our back on them. For now."

Not liking the idea one bit, but not having an argument to counter his friend's logic, Inuyasha grunted his affirmative. "But if they try anything funny," the hanyou said, "I'm going to hit first and ask questions later."

"It's agreed then," Miroku said, rising and moving to rejoin Yusuke's group. "Now I wonder what Botan was up to…" the monks started before feeling the weight of Hiraikotsu come down on his head. Stepping over his prone form, Sango missed the little smile Miroku always got when he succeeded in making her jealous.

Sitting down next to Botan, Kagome said, "We all talked it over and agreed that it would probably be for the best if we teamed up." Feeling her usual chipper self once more, Botan replied, "Oh that's wonderful. So, what do you think out next step should be?"

Joining the girls by the fire, Sango said, "Kagome is able to sense the Shikon jewel shards that Naraku carries with him. We should rest here for the night to recover our strength and begin our search in the morning."

A few yards away Inuyasha stared down Yusuke. "Just remember when we find Naraku, he's mine. You go hide under a skirt and let someone who knows what he's doing handle it." Yusuke, never one to take a challenge lying down, retorted, "Oh, I'm sure you'll beat him. After all you did such a good job all those other times you fought him."

His hand subconsciously dropping to the hilt of Tetsusaiga and his voice becoming a little more threatening, "This coming from some punk human that would have been fertilizer if his little girlfriend over there," Inuyasha said gesturing to Botan, "didn't run in and save him."

"Don't get cocky. I've killed more demons than you could even count. You get lucky once. ONCE! Just because you hit your best attack by sheer dumb luck doesn't mean you'll be able to do it again!" Yusuke roared.

The situation was going from bad to worse as everyone grew quite silent. Kurama and Miroku, chatting quietly off to the side, Kuwabara trying to impress the girls with his muscles and Hiei sulking in the darkness; all eyes were on Inuyasha and Yusuke. The only question would be which of the hotheads would throw the first punch.

Suddenly, as if in a blur, Kagome appeared by Inuyasha's side. "Come on now guys," she said, "it's getting late and I'm sure we're all just a little tired." Looping her arm in Inuyasha's, she began leading the hanyou away from the confrontation before stopping. 'Oh and Yusuke, just so you know," Kagome said sweetly, "that wasn't Inuyasha's strongest attack. Not even close."

The hanyou smiled smugly as he let Kagome lead him away from a spirit detective that was very speechless and more than a little annoyed. Tomorrow they would resume their hunt for Naraku and nothing, Inuyasha told himself, would be able to save the demon from his blade.