-Tricked-

Disclaimer: I do not own YYH.

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Chapter 10: The Battle

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Botan had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Today was the day. She dressed in her training outfit and looked out the window. Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara waited outside under the tree for her. She raced out of the temple. They were all greeted with a serious faced fighter. Her sword hung from her belt and ready to be pulled out when the need grew.

"I'll lead you there." They nodded and she summoned her oar. She took two at a time until only Kurama was left.

"No matter what happens, I'll protect you." He said, his arm going around her waist tighter.

"You won't need to. I'll do just fine. I know how to handle myself. You think that I only know how to use the sword? I've had other training. A ferry girl needs to protect herself, not to mention that using the sword has greatly improved the other techniques I know." She said with a grim frown. They arrived and she led them quietly to the spot. Kaori was there but she was right. He had many fighters with him. "There he is."

"We can beat him." Yusuke said. She shushed him and they watched.

"We're going to rule everything, boys. Power is exhilerating!" Kaori had a deep, scary voice. Botan swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and stood up, stepping into their view. "What the hell?" She glared at him.

"Ruling everything, ne? Power is exhilerating? You're gonna taste a completely different power!" She got into a fighting position and the others jumped out, their weapons in hand. They landed gracefully around her, their battle stances set.

"Get them!" The men launched at them. One of them ran toward Botan, thinking she was nothing but a weak, fragile woman. She gracefully stepped to the side and elbowed him in the back. He fell but jumped up as quick as lightning. He grinned and started launching punches at her. She dodged and started launching punches at him. He dodged and blocked every one then tripped. Botan took this opportunity and drew her sword. She knew how to block people's fists with it, too. Common knowledge for a ferry girl.

Hiei was having the time of his life playing with the little fool that decided to mess with him. He was able to watch all of Botan's motions and everything. His smirk grew and he was filled with a pride he never felt before. His eyes followed his opponet now. He punched the demonic man square in the face. He jumped right up and tried to grab Hiei. The koorime had his sword out and ready by then.

Kuwabara had his spirit sword out and was swinging it around him. His opponet was quite fast. He silently thanked Genkai for the training. He knew well enough by now how to follow this demon. He couldn't attack him, however, due to the fact that he was too busy with just keeping his eyes on this thing. He wasn't ready to attack just yet.

Kurama was having fun playing with the demon he had to face. It was kind of like Kuronue, yet not. It seemed as though he was a bird-like creature with the wit of a hawk. Thats probably it, he thought with a cold smile. He was enjoying this. He had the creature in the palm of his hand. His rose whip lay useless in his hand as he ducked and dodged and blocked. He needed this more than anything. It was play time. He backflipped and landed directly on his feet, behind his prey. This was easy.

Yusuke and Kaori watched for a moment as their fighters fought with each other. Yusuke turned to his enemy and his brown eyes flashed. He took his shirt off and threw it to the side. He glared at the demon in front of him.

"You want to know my plan, don't you?" Kaori asked in amusement. Yusuke glared hard at him and watched his every move.

"I don't care about your little plan. I wanna fight you so that I can get this over with." He said crossly.

"Oh, but you won't be going home any time soon, boy."

"And why not?"

"You see, Makai is looking forward to the invasion. I just love a good rallying. You know what demons hate?" He paused to give Yusuke a minute to shake his head or nod. When he did neither, the demon continued. "They hate when you promise them something and they don't get it. Especially a nice meal once in a while and humans to torture and such." Yusuke dodged a punch that the demon threw at him. He got kicked in the gut and started breathing heavily. He glared at Kaori and growled.

"You're going down!" He launched at the demon and thought about what would happen if Kaori won. His anger and desperation caused him to get stronger and faster. Images of Keiko, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, and his mother.. all dead raced through his head. Botan crying over the loss of them. He was being driven and his anger fed off the images. He landed a punch in the demon's stomach and continued punching. He felt his anger rise when he heard a cry of pain from Botan. She had gotten a cut across her stomach. He gave a final kick to Kaori and turned around to see Botan still fighting. Blood dripped to the floor and soaked her outfit. Kurama killed the demon he was battling and went to go help her. Yusuke turned back around when he heard a groan. He kicked the stupid power-hungry demon and sent him across the room, hitting the wall.

"Botan, are you okay?" Kurama asked and she nodded. "Is it deep?" He looked around the place. Koenma walked in, looking like he was sentenced to die. He looked up and saw the dead bodies of Kaori's fallen partners. He looked over and saw Yusuke standing there, watching Botan and Kurama. He looked behind Yusuke and saw the unconscious leader. He would be going to jail.

"You beat them?" He asked when he got his voice back. They all looked up and nodded.

"It was a battle for human life. We had to win." Yusuke replied. He glared hard at the small god. "Thanks for telling us."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Botan had to tell us, Koenma. Why did you make her do it? Or maybe you didn't want to tell us.." Yusuke continued. Botan opened her mouth but Kurama shook his head.

"Well.. I-I was going to tell you.. but she made it first." Yusuke glared at him.

"Like I'll believe that one." He crossed his arms. "It wasn't going to be a mission, was it?" Koenma shook his head sadly.

"I lost faith in you after the last tournament. Besides, I didn't want you battling when we have to win the tournament less than a week away. Have you found yourself a fifth fighter yet?" He asked with a disapproving look.

"Yes, I have." Yusuke said, turning to look at Botan. "If she wants to fight." She stared at him in fascination and nodded her head slowly. "She did pretty good and she has the courage to do it." Kurama and Hiei stared at him. "We're a team."

"A tough one." Kuwabara said with a grin.

"We're going back to train." Yusuke said to them. "Come on." They followed him out and Koenma watched as they walked away. He shook his head and went to go tell his father the good news.

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Botan was fast asleep, due to the loss of blood. The cut wasn't that bad and Yukina was able to heal her. She was going to be weak with fatigue and the loss of blood. The cut disappeared and Yukina leaned back. She then changed Botan's clothing and made sure to call Kurama in so that she could put clean sheets on the bed. He picked Botan up and she changed the bedding. He then set the diety back down on the bed.

"How did you do? Was it easy or hard?" She questioned him. He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her. She was sitting on a chair next to the bed so that she could sit next to Botan in case she needed anything.

"It was easy for me and I'd imagine the same for Hiei. Botan had a little trouble but she continued to fight even though she was bleeding. Yusuke defeated the leader by knocking him out." He explained. She nodded.

"It's good that it wasn't too hard. Are you all going to train for the tournament now?" He gave her a simple nod then excused himself to go train.

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Kurama trained with Yusuke until it started to get dark. Hiei had been training on his own and Kuwabara had trained with Genkai.

"I'm hungry." Yusuke said, walking into the temple. He went into Genkai's kitchen and raided the refridgerator. Hiei sat himself in a corner and stayed there. Kurama went to check on Botan and Kuwabara stole some food from Yusuke. Yusuke threw an apple at him and it hit him in the head. Kuwabara started yelling at him, but Hiei shut him up with a threat to take his life.

"I will kill you, moron. Shut the hell up." Hiei's cold merciless glare helped out a lot to shut him up.

"Thank you, Hiei." Genkai said with a shake of her head. "These idiots don't know when to stop. I'm never going to get any sleep if they keep blubbering." Hiei gave her a nod of understanding and placed himself back in his corner. His piercing maroon eyes watched them constantly. They ate in silence until Yusuke got up. He stretched and told them all good-night. He went into a guest room and plopped himself on the bed, almost instantly falling asleep.

Kurama watched Botan in her slumber. He couldn't help but stare at her. She groaned once and rolled over to face him, opening her pretty amethyst eyes.

"What time is it?"

"About 10." He answered. "You were out for a while. Since we got here, to Genkai's temple. Yukina told me that you would be weak for a little while because you lost so much blood." She nodded.

"I do feel tired. I guess I'll see you in the morning, then." She then sighed and snuggled deeper into her blankets. Kurama got up and leaned over, kissing her gently on her forehead.

"Good night." He left the room, turning the lamp off on his way. He closed the door to her room and sighed. He went into the room where Kuwabara and Hiei were. Hiei looked up.

"I'm training her tomorrow. She needs to train to keep her strength up. If she doesn't train, she won't win and will likely lose her life in the tournament." He said coldly. Kurama stared at him.

"I understand. I will not fight the decision of the teacher." He stood there staring at the floor for a minute. "The tournament will likely be a life or death situation. Those that we are battling do not fight with codes. They will be merciless in battle. We must be the same. There is no way to change that. Demons and apparitions are all the same." Kuwabara stared at him. "No matter who they are or whether they want to fight or not. We may cherish life and try to get our fill, but fighting is what we were likely made for. For centuries, demons and humans had to live together. It was strongest survive and the weak die or get eaten." He paused to sit down and make himself comfortable. "Just to survive meant that you were strong in will, soul, body, and mind. If you train, steal, raid, and kill then you were strong enough to do anything. Since I have my own territory, so I am feared and respected."

"You really are feared?" Kuwabara asked, his eyes wide. "What about you, Hiei?" Hiei didn't even glance at him.

"I am only Youko Kurama's partner."

"You are not, Hiei. You are strong and feared as well. Look at how many apparitions know you."

"I feel so thrilled." He said sarcastically. "I know they fear me, but your wrath counts as well."

"Hiei, they know that you can summon Dragon of the Darkness Flame. They fear you for that as well." Kurama said seriously. "Now, enough of this nonsense. We have a lot of training to do tomorrow. See you in the morning." He left the room and went to bed in a spare room.

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I HOPE YOU READ THESE AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The chapters of the tournament training will start next. I'm like, a few days early on updating this but I'm sure you don't mind. I was thinking about getting it out in a few days. The latest was the 19th, and I knew that. Well, the next chapter will be out as soon as I can get to it. I might start right now. I have a lot of other stories to attend to as well. I'm now working on Dark Love and Tears of Amethyst too. Not to mention tons of other fics. Its all in my profile thing. So, I'll update as soon as possible and go from there. I hope you like this fic and so far every review I have is nothing but please continue!

I'm happy that you like my fics and I thank you for reviewing.

-Jess-