disclaimer: don't own
a/n: i am glad there is at least two people who like this story. again sorry for taking so long to update but real life got in the way. and to tel lthe truth it is kind of frusting not getting reviews but I won't ask for a certain amount before I update. The time I take to update depends on if I have the time and the energy to write. I want to say thank you to tmntyyh for her reviews.I will say that Kuwabara is not my favorite character either but it is more his voice and his attuidue that get on my nerves, but I do like some of the things he stands up for.
While they were walking through the forest, Kurama was thinking about Kuwabara's situation. With Kuwabara captured by the demon, maybe Hiei could communicate with him to find out where they had taken him, Kurama was thinking to himself. But it all depended on how strong Kuwabara's mind was, because if he was not strong enough to communicate telepathically then there might be irreversible damage done to him. When Kurama reached his decision he looked behind him to see if he could get Hiei's attention. But when he looked Hiei was nowhere to be found.
"Yuusuke, have you seen Hiei?" Kurama asked Yuusuke turning his head to where Yuusuke was standing.
"I thought he was right behind us," Yuusuke replied also looking behind them.
Kurama frowned; well I guess we will just have to wait for him to come back, Kurama thought as he faced forward again.
Meanwhile Hiei was again standing on top of a tree with his jagan eye opened trying to catch at least a little glimmer of Kuwabara's aura. But something was blocking him from making a connection with him. Hiei rewarded his jagan and jumped out of the trees to catch up with Kurama and Yuusuke. When he caught up with them he found them examining an odd tree.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he looked on in bewilderment. After all they were supposed to be looking for any sign of Kuwabara not admiring the local foliage.
"Oh, there you are Hiei, we were just looking for you," Kurama said as he spun around to face him. Kurama had clearly been caught off guard because he had a very startled look on his face before he guarded his expression again.
"Well, what are you fools doing?" Hiei asked again sounding put out that Kurama had not answered his question immediately.
"What are we doing?" Kurama parroted, before he remembered the question that Hiei had asked previously and what he had been doing before Hiei had interrupted him.
Before Kurama could answer him Yuusuke spoke up. "Kurama suggested that we examine the trees and plants to see if any of them could have been used as a conductor for the portal."
Hiei looked at them like they were crazy. In all his years he had never heard of such a ridiculous thing. Because every time he had encountered a portal it had been made of pure spiritual or demonic power passing through nothing but time and space.
"Ok, either you two have completely lost your minds, or I'm missing something here," Hiei finally said.
"It's like this Hiei because the demon is probably in unfamiliar territory then he does not know how to keep his power from going hay wire. So I figure that he is using a plant or something to ground himself and to help control the portal."
"So in other words you think this might be the place that Kuwabara was dropped by the portal," Hiei said
Kurama looked a little put out that Hiei had broken down his explanation like he did, but he let it go. "Right," Kurama said turning back to his examination. Yuusuke also turned back to what ever he had been doing, but he looked like he didn't have a clue what he was looking for. Now that Hiei had another lead on the demon maybe he could finally lock onto his energy pattern. Hiei once again opened his jagan and almost at once he noticed a faint trace of power. He followed it to its source and he saw that Kurama was right the demon had been using a plant as his ground. He caught Kurama's attention and pointed him in the right direction. When they got to the tree that Hiei had indicated Kurama let out a gasp of pain and fell to his knees holding his head.
"What's wrong, Kurama?" Yuusuke asked as he hurried over to Kurama's side.
"I don't know," Kurama said in a voice that sounded like he had to force it to work.
"Let me look," Hiei told as he opened his jagan once again, but Kurama violently shook his head throwing up a barrier so Hiei could not enter.
"No, Hiei, it's too dangerous," Kurama said panting with the effort of keeping the barrier up and the pain in check.
"Well, tell us what's wrong," Hiei demanded.
"I don't know, but it seems that there is something on the tree preventing anyone from getting information from it," Kurama answered as he slowly backed away from the tree trying not to move his head to much.
"So, you are telling me that even though we know where the portal is we can't do any thing with it?" Hiei asked his annoyance getting the better of him.
"No, that is not what I'm saying we can still get information from the tree, but we have to break the hold the demon has on it before we can," Kurama told him, his voice sounding much stronger now that he was away from the tree.
"Ok, then how do we do that?" Yuusuke asked.
"Maybe he should try and trick the tree into thinking that he is the one that blocked it that way it won't cause him pain when he gets near it," Boton finally spoke up from where she had been hovering up in the air out of the way.
"And how do you suggest he do that," Hiei snapped looking up at her like she had lost her mind.
"Well, he can try and match his energy pattern with that of the demon, therefore he basically becomes the demon to the tree," Boton told Hiei sounding just a tiny bit smug.
Hiei grunted and stomped over to the tree, "How 'bout I instead start chopping off branches until it give us what we want," he suggested pulling out his katana.
"I don't think that is necessary, Hiei," Kurama said dryly as he reached over to push the katana down.
"Why not?" Hiei snapped as he turned to glare at Kurama.
"Well, for one thing even though technically the tree is alive I don't think it would respond to torture. Another thing is even if the plant did respond it would still have the block on it and I would not be able to communicate with it without a lot of pain."
"Whatever, do it your own way then, I never wanted to rescue Kuwabara anyway," Hiei growled as he turned and disappeared into the forest.
"What is his problem?" Yuusuke asked as he looked toward were Hiei had disappeared. Nobody answered, because after all the only one who knew what the problem was, was Hiei himself. Kurama though did tell himself that he would track Hiei down later and get to the bottom of his anger. Meanwhile he was going to try and alter his energy just enough to get through to the tree.
Kuwabara looked around the area where he had thought he had come out of the portal at. It was a heavily forested area with little to no light breaking through the canopy of the forest. He started when he heard the sounds of someone walking his way. As Kuwabara quickly looked around for a place to hide he realized that he was tied to a tree. He struggled to get himself free, but the more he struggled it seemed the tighter the rope got. Finally he slumped panting from the exertion of struggling to get free, and because the ropes had so tight they were cutting into his chest.
"So, you are awake," came a low raspy voice on his left. Kuwabara jerked in surprise as he tried to turn and see who his capture was, but because of the rope he could not turn his head far enough.
"Have you been trying to get free?" the voice inquired sounding like he was getting closer to his ear. Kuwabara shook his head felling panic rising up as he felt hot breath on his neck. He just knew that he was about to become the demon's next meal. But all he felt at first was a strange wetness against his pulse, and then he felt sharp teeth sinking into his neck.
Sorry for the cliff hanger but that seemed to be the best place to stop. I am working on the next chapter and hopfully I can have it out in about a week or two but I amnot making any promises. If you see any mistakes please tell me because I looked over my fourth chapter and I saw a few, but I think it is more this website than my editing because it looked fine on my computer.