MnS: I'm back again, just like I said!!

KnH: Yep. We know.

Hiei: Great. Will the torment never end?

MnS: :P Kurama, will you please do the disclaimer again?

Kurama: ::nodds with an eye roll:: Yes. Megami no Shi doesn't own Yu-yu Hakusho, or any of it's affiliated people, places, or things.

MnS: Thanx!!

Chapter 3:

//

"Please Hiei. Why would you do that to yourself?" then, I muttered half to myself, "especially for me, of all people." And then, he was gone. Dammit! Just what I didn't want him to do, though I knew that eventually, he'd do it, I thought to myself, a tear manifesting in the corner of my eye. Turning angrily in the opposite direction and scrubbing the offending eye with the back of my hand harshly, I fled into the forest, where I could be among friends. I had to get out……

//

Hiei's POV

Yes, I have been avoiding the fox, and yes, it has been going well. That is, until he discovered me in the arena. I don't know why I stuck around; it was stupid of me. I could have been gone from that little round of question and answer, but something kept me there; something wanted to be around Kurama. I would almost be willing to say that I missed him, but that's utterly ridiculous; you can't miss something that you're sorry for being away from in the first place, and I was definitely not sorry that I wasn't around the kitsune. I wasn't. It was a simple fact. I did not miss the fox. At all. Dammit! I don't want to be around him, so why in the hell do I feel like going to look for him right now?

Turning back to the ocean that I was standing on a rock and overlooking in the dim light of the morning, I tried to go back to my training; I had to do something, anything to get my mind off the youkai. I had been training for two days to perfect the Kokuryu-ha, and I still hadn't come up with how to control it fully; it did what it pleased because it didn't know me. Somehow, I had to get it to obey, and I wouldn't rest until I did. That's not a lie either; I've been up for 56 hours straight, and I'm pretty well exhausted, but I'm going to need the Kokuryu-ha for the finals. It's just a feeling that I have.

Concentrating my energy into my right arm, I decided to try summoning the creature again. I had to perfect this; it was becoming an obsession. And obsessions aren't good, I thought as a red-headed half fox demon come into my minds eye. What the hell?! He's not an obsession! I thought, pulling my attention back to my arm. For some reason or another, I couldn't seem to assemble the amount of energy needed to even catch the dragon's eye, let alone bring it here. Growling, I concentrated harder, and still, my arm wouldn't take in the ki that it needed to do it's job. Eyes narrowing angrily, I thought savagely, If you won't do what you're told, then you'll be punished. And with that, the flame that ran through my blood and created my energy boiled out and onto the skin, creating angry looking boils and rashes in seconds, blood staining the now pink flesh. There, I thought, that'll teach you dammit. And then, I realized I was talking to my arm. Baka. I thought to myself, attempting again to summon the creature, ignoring the sting that accompanied my arm's exertion……

Hours later, it was dark out again, though this time the sun had just set, and my arm had disobeyed me quite a few more times. I was going to try summoning again, when I felt a tremendous power down on the beach. Jumping down, I turned the corner just in time to hear Kuwabara say,

"…my totally fresh, bad guy slicin' and dicin' mega awesome super sword!" Walking forward, eyes flashing with the fire in my veins, I said,

"Do you think it's possible that you could shut-up?" I was sick of hearing the gorilla boast about something that wasn't worth even looking at.

"Hey Hiei." Urameshi said in response to my appearance; he seemed to not be surprised that I was there, which didn't bother me in the slightest; I of course didn't waste my breath answering him.

"You really shouldn't sneak up on someone who's holding the world's most powerful sword!" The gorilla was trying to impress those around him most ineffectively. I wasn't paying attention to him though; I felt a slight surge of yoki behind him, and immediately had the urge to run. Kurama.

"Eh, EW!! What the heck happened to your arm!?" The annoying sound crashed through my thoughts; I must have subconsciously stepped forward into the moonlight, and the gorilla had seen the state of my right arm. So it had pissed me of a bit; so what?

"It wouldn't obey when I gave it a specific command, so I decided it needed to be punished." I answered truthfully, looking down at the state of it. It didn't look that bad. Just a mass of external welts and cuts from the elbow down. They would be gone by morning. The fool laughed nervously; I could tell easily that he was extremely perturbed from this answer. But, I hadn't time to pay attention to him; I was paying attention to the fox. Leaving was sounding like a better and better option.

"Way too much information for me. Let's stick to something safe like, where's Kurama?" I was done listening to the idiot, but almost laughed as he said that; almost being the key word. He hadn't realized that Kurama had been there through almost the entire conversation?

"Kuwabara, I've been standing next to you for some time now." A smirk broke out on my face that I couldn't stop as the moron jumped a mile. Kurama had gone completely unnoticed by the fool. "A bit nervous are we?" He looked a little more nervous than he had a minute previous, and said as a change of subject,

"Alright, now we just need to find the old lady." I closed my eyes and fought hard with myself not to laugh; the moron still didn't know that Genkai was dead? What in the pits of spirit world was wrong with this ningen fool? And he was supposed to have some kind of power for sensing spirit energy? He didn't even know I had walked up, didn't even know Kurama had slid down the side of the hill and landed next to him… Yeah, the gorilla was completely a waste of time.

"Has anyone seen her?" He was still on that subject? Hmmmm… he could be stupider than I thought; didn't he take the hint when no one answered that no one was going to? I guess Yusuke will handle this one; I was leaving before Kurama caught me alone. I don't need anymore sessions of cross-examination, thank you very much……

Jumping up a tree about an hour later, I decided that I would bandage my arm the next morning; it stung to touch it, and so, why bother? I did have to put a ward on it however; I planned to summon the dragon partially in the morning and hold it in this world, so that it would be easier to bring out in the finals. Hissing as my black cloak brushed roughly against my right arm, I shifted so that it wasn't touching anything but air. Maybe my temper got the better of my judgment; I thought it would have healed to the point where I could at least bandage it tonight. No, I'm just being stupid. I thought as I closed my eyes. I had come up with a way to control the dragon, shall we say…better than I had in the match I had with Zeru, and so, could afford to sleep for a few hours before the finals.

Closing my eyes, I was just about to drift off immediately when I heard a sound. No, not a sound. It was…I don't know. Something. A flash of yoki accompanied it. Very familiar yoki. It immediately made me thing of green, growing things. Oh shit. That's Kurama, and he's not too far away, I thought, willing my overly exhausted body to move. Mental note; don't go 60+ hours without sleep at a time again. It makes escape… difficult. With much effort, I dragged myself into a standing position and jumped a few trees before, in my half awake state, catching my foot on a small protruding branch that I hadn't really taken notice of. Tumbling down, I was too tired to stop myself, and as an automatic reaction, I put out my right arm to break my fall. It was a very bad, very stupid reflex that I had yet to squelch, but it still happened. The yell that emerged from my throat enough to testify to that.

Rolling over and leaning against the trunk of the offending tree, I stopped only for a second to recuperate from that fall, but ended up not wanting to move again, my damned body mutinying against my mind. You will soooooo be punished later dammit, I thought vengefully as my eyes slipped halfway closed; I'm more tired that I guessed. Dammit. Someone's coming, and I can't make myself move to save my life. Cursing as the footsteps came closer, I growled just about in audibly as a voice said,

"Hiei, is that you?" Just my Inari-be-damned luck; it was the fox. What the hell did I do to deserve this? My growl died in my throat though; Kurama really hadn't done anything. He was just going to find out about something that I didn't want him to find out about. Something dropped down very close to my right arm, and I moved it only slightly to get it out of his way, though I really didn't need to; he was being quite mindful of touching me. "Hiei, are you alright? You fell out of this tree, didn't you?" How in the hell could he know that? I thought to myself, and then, voiced this.

"Why do you guess that fox?" I said. My voice was sleep edged and drugged with the grogginess of half-consciousness. Not a good thing.

"Because this lovely old tree Is grumbling about someone bending one of her thumbs backwards and then, hitting one of her feet. In other words, something snagged a small branch, and then landed hard on one of those roots that are sticking out of the ground over there." I gave him a half-hearted 'Hn' in reply, but that was all I could manage as I yawned in a loud, embarrassing fashion. Concern edged his tone as he asked,

"Hiei, how long have you been awake for?" Angry that he was trying to interrogate me again, I argued with my mouth until it finally cooperated into forming words.

"Hn. None of your business 'rama." Ok, that was completely pathetic on my part. What the hell was with me being so weak that I couldn't even stay awake for three days straight?

"Will you stop being so stubborn and give me a straight answer please?" he said in a slightly annoyed tone. Hopefully it would make him go away……

"Around 65 hours. Now go away so I can sleep." No such luck as he seemed to only want to ask me more questions that I really didn't want to be coherent enough to answer.

"65 hours?! Hiei, that's more than two and a half days! You really shouldn't sleep out here if you're resting for the first time in that long!" That long? He made it sound like it was an eternity; I've stayed up for more than a week at a time, two and a half days is like nothing to me.

"Hn. Leave me alone fox. I would be sleeping now if you weren't bothering me." I said coldly, turning my head in the opposite direction where than he was sitting. He shifted his weight slightly onto his knees, and the material of his clothing rubbed against my right arm. Hissing angrily, I jerked my arm towards my body, eyes snapping open for a second as I hit my head on the tree trunk. I really need some sleep; my movements are really disjointed.

"Does your arm really hurt that much?" came the whispered question. Growling low in my throat was all the answer I had given him as I swallowed the coppery liquid that filled my mouth; apparently I had bitten my tongue when I hit my head, which only served to further sour my disposition. Why is he asking anyway? It'll be most likely gone in the morning; why does he care? I thought.

"Hn." Was the only sound that I could make, as I was drifting off bit by bit. Dammit, why am I acting so goddamned weak!? I should be fine after an hour or two of sleep, but I should be able to go a few more days without it! Then, something touched my arm that at first stung, but then, felt……really, really nice…something cool… Blinking my eyes and fighting off the sleep that I seemed to so desperately need, I looked over and discovered what this was.

The fox was spreading the crushed powder of some kind of seed over the boils and cuts on my arm; the abrasion of the powder was what stung, but the healing effect of the seed easily took that away. I couldn't find the strength to protest this, though I'm kind of wondering if I want to… I mean, of course I do! What am I thinking? I don't need anyone's charity; I am capable of healing myself! But still, for some reason, my mouth couldn't take the words from my mind to protest, and my arm wouldn't take the command I gave to move; that would earn it a nice burn later.

"Why did you do this Hiei?" he asked after he had just about covered my entire arm with that greenish colored powder.

"Hn?" Was again the only sound my half coherent mind could force my mouth to make. I was really, really close to falling asleep

"I thought you were joking when you told Kuwabara that you had done it to 'punish' your arm; I thought it was the effect of trying to summon the Kokuryu-ha. But, now that I see it, it has not trace of dark flames; at least, not enough that they could have caused the injury. Why did you do this to your arm?" Blinking my eyes so that I didn't fall asleep, I could only open them half way, and I simply couldn't think of what to tell the fox. I apparently couldn't tell him anything even resembling the truth, and my mind was too fatigued to come up with anything believable that I could convey through speech anyway; I could only come up with half uttered affirmative or non answers.

Black entered the edges of my half vision as objects that I saw doubled; I couldn't stay awake anymore, and I knew it. Stopping my fight, I fell into darkness that was usually called 'sleep'……

Kurama's POV

He really hurt himself badly, and his fatigue is keeping his body from healing as quickly as it normally would, I thought as I asked him why he had done this. Looking down at him as I didn't receive an answer, I blinked. He was asleep. Kurama no baka, of *course* he's asleep! He's been up for almost 2 ¾ days! I reprimanded myself. Finishing rubbing the powder of the seeds I had crushed between my fingers, I looked at his sleeping face. Well, you can't sleep here; it's really not a good idea, I thought as I picked him up. I used as much force as I usually needed to lift him, which wasn't a lot to begin with; but I stumbled and almost fell from the extra effort I seemed to use. Looking at him in disbelief, I thought And how much have you had to eat in those same two and three quarter days, Hiei? Walking brusquely, I made it back to the room that I had to myself in less than five minutes, and Hiei hadn't moved since I picked him up.

Laying him down on the sole bed in the room, (he had been sharing the room with me, but his bed had been removed to accommodate for Shizuru, Yukina, Botan, and Keiko when they came, because he insisted on sleeping outside), I set to healing his arm. But the time I was done, it was around 10 o'clock, and it was looking much better than it had, due to his recuperation and my herbs that sped it along.

Yawning, I pulled my yellow over coat off and revealed the white pants and shirt underneath. Too lazy to change into real pajamas, I slipped off my black shoes and slipped in the opposite side of the bed as Hiei; I didn't want him to feel awkward when he woke up in the morning……

Hiei's POV

Light pricked my eye lids, and I turned away from it. I was warm and comfortable, and I wasn't at all ready to give that up. Sliding closer to the heat source, I got as close as I could to it…Wait a seconds, I thought as I became a bit more coherent. Heat source? Eyes snapping open, I blinked as I saw white. Where the hell ham I!!?? I thought as I jumped back quickly, landing on the ground. The…ground…? Blinking, I looked around as the groggy effects of sleep tapered off. It looked like the room I was supposed to share with Kurama…but that would make Kurama… Looking up at the bed I had previously jumped off of, I felt myself blanch. Kurama was laying on the far side of the bed, and I could see where I had been laying. Kurama didn't seem to have moved an inch, but I had at some point, seemed to have moved across the mattress to him, and he was the heat source I was so intent on getting to. Dammit, I thought as I jumped up and flew out the window. The sun had just risen, and so, I had about 4 hours before we were to leave the hotel to go to the arena. Just enough time to lure the dragon out of hiding, trap it here, and keep it bound in this realm……

Three and a half hours later, I fell to my knees, breathing heavily, triumphant smirk plastered on my face. There. It had taken a while, but I had managed to trap it here and bind it with a ward, so that the stupid thing couldn't escape back into the pits of spirit world; proof of it being here was a long black shape that had appeared on my arm, trying to burn it's way out of the bandages. A tattoo of the dragon. Pulling the binding tighter still, I almost cut off circulation as I knotted it off. It was done; I had completed what I wanted, and for now, it was good enough. Laying my head on the ground and closing my eyes for a second, I relished in my victory. I could feel the darkness coursing through my arm; it pulled and raged at the bandages that held it with a special ward, made by me just for this specific task.

Standing, I made my way back to the hotel to put on clean clothes; the shirt I had had had been incinerated by my attempts at calling up the dragon, and the pants that I wore were still the ragged ones from the semi-finals. Around ten seconds later, I sat in the window of the room Kurama and I 'shared'. He didn't seem to be in the room at all, thank Inari. Going to the dresser that sat across the room, I pulled out my only other shirt and pants, wanting to take a shower before putting them on; the blood that was caked across my chest and arms from the dragon's wrath not setting very well with me, and the bandages would be able to take the water; they were protected enough that I wasn't going to worry about it.

Unfortunately, as I made my way to the bathroom door, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going; I was more or less trying to remember how to use a ningen 'shower', when my foot caught on something and I sailed into the slightly open door, hitting the floor with a thud. Blinking and looking down at what I tripped over, it looked like a pile of while and yellow cloth. Cursing as I stood up and rubbed my head, I realized that the shower in the bathroom was already on, and there was steam shrouding the entire room. Blinking again (I seemed to be doing that a lot lately) I wondered what was going on; that is, until I realized the dull droning noise I was blocking out to think was the sound of water running. Looking towards the sound, I immediately stopped dead. Red hair. Pale skin. That's all I saw. Kurama was taking a shower…He hadn't noticed me because he was washing his hair…… immediately, I was gone……

About half an hour later, I was clean and dry and ready to pretend that I hadn't walked/fell in on Kurama taking a shower. Standing at the door to the hotel, ready to leave, the four of us stepped out, and Urameshi, who was more than ready to start, said,

"It's time to kick some ass." The gorilla agreed with him, and Kurama nodded. I did nothing but smirk, a small 'hn' sneaking past……

TBC……

MnS: So, how was that?

Hiei: Hn.

Kurama: ::covers mouth as he re-reads shower scene:: ::chuckles slightly::

Hiei: ::glare::

MnS: ^_^ I thought it was a nice touch. R'n'R, and I'll get the next chapter up

KnH: The next subject are the final fights: Kurama vs. Karasu and Hiei vs. Bui.

MnS: ^_^ They'll be up soon!!!