disclaimer: don't own
a/n: sorry it has taken me so long to update, but this chapter was hard for me to get started on. I think I earsed the begining about six times. And something still seems off about it, but I'm tired of dealing with it so here it is I hope it is okay.
"Kurama are you done yet?" Yuusuke asked, as he shifted from foot to foot wanting nothing more than to go after the demons that had taken Kuwabara.
Kurama turned to face Yuusuke after he got what he wanted from the tree, "Yes, Yuusuke as it turns out there was no need for me to manipulate my energy; this tree has no residual memory of the plans that were made."
Yuusuke looked at Kurama with a confused look on his face, "I don't have a clue what you are talking about."
"It's simple. When they used this tree as a ground it left faint traces of memory behind, but when they put the block on the tree it canceled out any memory that was left."
"So, you are telling me that we have know way of knowing where they have taken Kuwabara?" Yuusuke asked starting to look angry.
Kurama looked thoughtful for a few minutes before he answered, "There might be one way, but it requires the cooperation of Hiei and the strength of Kuwabara's mind."
"What do you mean?" replied Yuusuke
"Well, when Hiei got the jagan eye it gave him the power to control people, and it also gave him telepathic abilities, so if we can get him to try may be he can reach Kuwabara and find out where they have taken him."
"I think Kuwabara can speak telepathically," Yuusuke informed Kurama sounding hopeful.
"Explain," Kurama told him.
"When we had to rescue Yukina from that crime lord, Kuwabara was able to talk to her telepathically," Yuusuke explained.
"Then we just might have a chance of finding him, but it will have to wait until tomorrow night," Kurama said as he looked up at the lighting sky.
Yuusuke gave him a perplexed look when he said this, "What are you talking about if we wait that long then it might be to late by then."
Kurama gave him an apologetic look, "I'm sorry Yusuke, but where we are right now it is to risky to look for him. When it gets light there will be hikers all over this mountain, and we cannot afford to get any humans involved in this. Another thing is that we have know idea where Hiei is."
"I guess you are right, but I don't feel right about leaving him like this," Yuusuke said regret clear in his voice.
"I know I feel the same way but there is nothing we can do."
"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but Koenma needs a report from you two before you can go home and get some rest," Boton spoke up.
Both of them looked at her in surprise, they had been so caught up in what to do about Kuwabara and Hiei that they had forgotten she was there.
"Won't Koenma still be in bed at this hour?" Yuusuke asked.
"Yes, he might but this seems more important than letting him get his beauty sleep," Boton replied as she hopped up onto her oar.
Kurama and Yuusuke nodded in agreement.
When they got to the spirit world it still looked like night time, but even at the late or earlier hour there were ogres hurrying all over the place. Boton led them to Koenma's office and told them to wait while she went to get him. While they waited they both wondered why she didn't just send an ogre to fetch the young prince. But they kept their thoughts to themselves, because they had more to worry about than whether or not Boton and Koenma had something going on. It seemed kind of wrong in a way though, because they were used to seeing him in his toddler form most of the time. They had started noticing something was different a few months before. It seemed that whenever they were both in the same room together Boton acted even more ditzy than she usually did and Koenma was in his older form even when he's in his own office. Before Yuusuke could open his mouth and possibly say something that would cause embarrassment for all involved the door opened revealing the two in question.
As they walked through the door Kurama discreetly looked them over to see if their clothes were in there proper order. They looked normal for how early it was in the morning. As Koenma walked passed him to get to his desk, Kurama continued to look him over hoping to find an answer to his questions, but there was nothing there to give him any clues. Kurama put it to the back of his mind vowing to find the answers later when they had Kuwabara back, and he found out what was wrong with Hiei.
"So what brings you two here this early in the morning?" Koenma asked as he hopped up into his chair.
Yuusuke looked at him in surprise, "Are you telling me that Boton actually managed to keep her mouth shut about something?"
"I'm afraid I didn't give her much of a chance to tell me anything," Koenma calmly said as he folded his hands on top of his desk.
Kurama gave him a suspicious look, but passed up the opportunity to ask him what he meant by that. And before Yuusuke could open his mouth to demand an explanation Koenma changed the subject.
"Well, are you going to tell me what brought you here?" Koenma demanded after several moments of silence.
"Right," Yuusuke said nervously as he scratched at the back of his neck, "Kuwabara has been kidnapped by the minions of the demon that you sent us after. Apparently the demon is hungry for humans, so a trap was laid and Kuwabara tripped it."
"What! The demon I sent you after was a plant eater not a carnivore," Koenma cried as he leapt up onto his desk.
"Well it seems that the plant eater ate a plant that did not agree with him and it screwed with his DNA."
"What are you saying? That this demon got a hold of a plant that made him want human flesh?" Koenma asked as he looked at them in disbelief.
"That's what Kurama told us," Yuusuke replied.
Koenma looked at Kurama for an explanation.
"Like Yuusuke said before, the demon had an allergic reaction to a plant he ate. So now he is even more of a priority for us to capture, because of his hunger for human flesh," Kurama answered calmly as he moved closer to Koenma's desk.
"Yes, but it will be even worse if he manages to get into the human world."
As he was saying this Kurama and Yuusuke where giving each other uneasy looks, they knew that they had to tell him that his fears had already been realized, but they didn't know how to tell him without it sounding worse then it was. Finally they reached a silent agreement and Kurama spoke up.
Kurama looked at Koenma and cleared his throat, "Koenma, I hate to tell you this, but the demon has already found a way into the human world. That is where we were when Kuwabara was taken by that trap."
Koenma looked like he was about to have a heart attack when Kurama told him this. He knew what kind of demon they were after and if he was now hungry for humans then that made him even more unpredictable. Usually all they had to do was find the choosiest harvest of plants and he found near it, now though they had to find out what kind of humans he preferred and stake out the area. But he might not fall for such a trick again after all that was how they captured him before. As Koenma sat there trying to figure out what to do he noticed that Hiei wasn't with the rest of the team.
He looked up at Kurama and asked, "Where is Hiei? It seems that even though he doesn't like Kuwabara he is still his team mate."
Kurama shook his head, "I don't know here he went. While we were trying to get information from the tree that the demon used he left in a fit of temper."
Koenma looked confused, "What does a tree have to do with Hiei disappearing?"
"Right, that is another thing we needed to tell you. It seems that the demon has found a way to make portals in the human world using local plants as a ground until he gets a good feel of the land," Kurama told Koenma as he stifled a yawn.
"Great just another thing we have to worry about," Koenma growled as he shifted to get off of his desk, but before he could complete the movement the ground started shaking forcing Koenma to grab the edge of the desk so that he wouldn't be thrown to the ground. The shaking only lasted for a few seconds before it stopped. When it was over everyone looked at Koenma for an explanation, but to their surprise Koenma did not look scared or confused, he looked very angry, but when he noticed them looking at him his expression cleared and went back to his normal one.
"Koenma, sir what was that?" Boton asked as she picked herself up from the floor. Kurama shot her a look of surprise as he too got up from the floor. When Boton had started to speak Kurama noticed that she did not sound at all surprised about the shaking, but as she got farther into her question her voice changed. There was definitely something weird going on, but from the look on Koenma's face he was not about to start answering their questions. Maybe what ever it was was not serious enough to involve the spirit detectives, or they where just using their most powerful force to deal with any problems that might have risen.
Koenma looked at them before he cleared his throat, "There is nothing that you two need to worry about we have everything under control, but I think it would be best if you two just go home for now. I will have my intelligence crew look for any sign of Kuwabara's ki signature in both the human world and the demon world."
Kurama and Yuusuke both gave reluctant nods before turning to walk out the door. As they were walking down the long hallway they looked around trying to find the source of the shaking, but nothing seemed to be out of place. And Kurama knew from when he broke into the palace that there were security cameras all over the place so they could not risk talking about their suspicions. When they finally got out of the palace they took off for the human world.
Yuusuke turned to look at Kurama from his place on the stairs, "I will talk to you later, but right I'm so tired that if we started talking I would probably fall asleep in the middle of the conversation."
Kurama nodded goodbye, then he turned and started walking home. They had landed in front of Yuusuke's apartment building and Kurama lived about a mile or two from Yuusuke, so he had a little while before he got home. He looked at the sky and was able to judge that it was about seven in the morning, and he knew that when he got home his mother would be waiting for him with all kinds of questions about where he had been who he was with, and if he was in any kind of trouble. As he was thinking about the likely confrontation, he changed his course, he knew of an abandoned building that he could sleep in with no trouble. (Bad Kurama, Bad) my sister put this here when she was looking over my story, I thought it was funny so I left it.
a/n: I will try to get my next chapter up in about a week or so, but if it gives me as much trouble as this one did,thenit will probably be another month. I hope not. but please review.