{Author's Note: Darn, some of you are real silly with the pairings. There's one easy way to at least find out who Kagome's paired with. There are four main pairings, as you can probably reason out. Pairings that have been guessed and are wrong:

Kag/Kur - Nope, sorry. I doubt I'll ever do this pairing. There are enough of them out there.

Hiei/San - Not this story, sorry.

San/Yus - Still nope, and I won't ever do this pairing either. I wonder why? *smirks* Some of you know why I'm sure.

Keep guessing!}

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha.

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Chapter 3 - It burns!

The eight teenagers, and one hyperactive kitsune child, were standing in the middle of what had once been a horde of demons. Now what was left was a couple hundred bodies and a bunch of dust. The four older boys were staring suspiciously at the girls who had jumped into the fight to help them.

Well, three were staring, Inuyasha was glaring. "Damn it, both of you can't be here! Kagome's too young, and Kikyou shouldn't be out here fighting! What the hell is the Alliance thinking?"

Kikyou and Kagome gave him eerily similar glares and Kagome's hand twitched towards her bow before Kikyou smoothly calmed her down. By inciting Inuyasha's rage of course. "They were probably thinking someone needed to keep you alive, since you apparently can't do it yourself."

Kikyou looked pointedly at the scratches in his uniform, one quite close to his neck. Inuyasha began growling. Hiei was glaring at the girl who had helped him, who also kept trying to heal him.

Yusuke was scowling at Inuyasha. "Hey, how do you know those two Inuyasha?" He didn't notice the two girls freezing, and Kagome's slightly panicked look. Inuyasha saw them and he frowned, remembering a promise he had made.

"Keh."

"Inuyasha! You damn - Never mind. Hiei, are these the people?" Yusuke turned his attention towards Hiei, though he noticed the kitsune kit was staring at Kurama with something akin to awe.

"Yes. The girls are. The fox kit wasn't in the records," Hiei stated as he once again avoided the blue-haired girl's healing energy. She gave an undignified snort and gave up.

"Fine. I'll just go talk to Sango." She sauntered off towards another raven-haired girl with dark brown eyes who had a boomerang strapped to her back.

Kagome cleared her throat and Yusuke's head jerked towards her as she spoke. "The kitsune kit is Shippo, who we recently saved from two Thunder youkai. I'm Kagome Higurashi, this is my sister Kikyou Shento."

She stopped and motioned towards Kikyou before the blue-haired girl stepped forward and the boys' attention switched to her. "And I'm Botan. This is Sango, probably the only one of us who is slightly sane."

Kagome snickered, and couldn't resist adding her own little comment. "And once you know how insane Sango is, you might have to start worrying about your own sanity. After all, only me and Botan were insane at first. But we managed to recruit the others. Isn't that right?"

Kikyou rolled her eyes as the two girls exchanged smirks. "Though they have a point, we can be sane. When we want to." Kikyou's eyes sparkled with mirth as the four boys gave them various looks of disbelief.

Sango grinned at her friends, but her eyes returned to Inuyasha and her eyes narrowed. "I heard about you. You hurt Kagome."

"Stupid wench, I had a goal. She got in my way. If you've heard her story then you to will know not to get in my way." Inuyasha was smirking until a fist hit his face. He stumbled back in shock, feeling the burn of the miko energy and glancing up. He had expected to see a cool looking Kikyou, but instead he saw a furious Kagome. His eyes went round in shock.

"Inuyasha, no matter what you think of me, you will never disrespect my friends, or I'll do a lot worse than give you burns. I've grown a bit since you last saw me, and I'm in better control of my powers," she said, glaring at him all the while. After she finished she immediately brightened up, turning to the rest of the boys with a bright smile.

"Now, would the rest of you like to introduce yourselves?" she asked pleasantly. Inuyasha shrunk back and Hiei quirked an eyebrow up at her sudden mood change. Kurama exchanged confused looks with Yusuke. How did she change moods so fast?

"Well, I'm Kurama, also known as Shuichi Minamino. Please, call me Kurama." Kurama smiled pleasantly, putting all of his charm into his simple words and fervently hoping that girl never decided she disliked him.

As expected all the girls stared at Kurama for a moment, except Kagome. Kurama looked surprised, but she just smirked. "So, you're a kitsune? Or at least have the spirit of one. That's confusing."

Kikyou's only sign of confusion was the slight crinkling of her brow before she focused her senses on the apparently teenage boy. Kagome was right, there was a sense of a kitsune about him. Shippo looked interested as well and quickly jumped up to Kurama's shoulder, sniffing about.

Kurama flushed in embarrassment at the girls pointing out what he had purposefully left out. He wasn't surprised when the kit jumped up to his shoulder, it was common for a kitsune child to do that. Despite it being many years since he himself was a kit, he still remembered seeing the young fox demons doing the same as Shippo.

Yusuke smirked at the look on Kurama's face and introduced himself to the three girls who didn't know who he was. "I'm Yusuke Urameshi, that's Hiei, and apparently you already know Inuyasha."

Inuyasha growled as Yusuke covered up a snicker, then glared at Kagome, baring his fangs. Kagome met his glare with one of her own. Kikyou cleared her throat, stepping in between the two. "Stop that. You can do that later."

Kagome obeyed her sister's sensible suggestion, watching the other team. That Hiei was a demon too. She closed her eyes briefly, focusing, and came back to herself with a smile at Kikyou. "Fire."

Kikyou raised an eyebrow. What did she mean by fire? Kikyou looked around, her eyes focusing on the four boys and finally landing on the suspicious fire apparition. "I see."

Hiei glared at the two girls. "Something wrong with what I am?"

Kagome smiled brightly. "Nothing at all." 'Except that there are three boys with demon blood on our team. This will be harder than I thought. I knew I should have dug deeper into the files when I hacked in.'

Kagome turned to the rest of them, grinning happily, seemingly forgetting the rather tense atmosphere. "So, should we get back to camp then?"

Inuyasha snarled and took a few steps towards her. His pride was injured and he would do anything to return the favor. "What makes you think we would follow you? You're speaking out of turn, let your leader speak for once, which is obviously Kikyou since she's the oldest."

Kikyou at this moment wondered if Inuyasha had a death wish. She expected Kagome to do something rash like when she had punched him, but instead found that the black haired boy, Yusuke, dragged him backwards and was staring at him in disbelief, and a little amusement. "Inuyasha, you're a moron. Look!"

Yusuke indicated the small star on Kagome's traditional brown top of her organization. Kagome grinned cheekily. "That's right puppy, looks like you were wrong. Again. Then again, when it comes to us, when are you not?"

Inuyasha was confused by the last statement, but settled for just snarling at her. Yusuke looked suspiciously between them again. When he got Inuyasha out of the girls' earshot, he would find out exactly what was going on.

"I'm not a puppy," Inuyasha muttered sullenly. No one said anything, but there were suspicious snickers from Yusuke and Kurama, and giggles from Kagome and Botan.

"Hn." Even Hiei's one word held undertones of amusement. Kikyou smiled and cleared her throat.

"Ahem. Kagome did suggest something, everyone remember?" Kagome pouted and Sango rolled her eyes. They'd had enough time to fool around.

"Oh that. Sure, you girls led the way," Yusuke said. Kagome grinned at him and started heading back towards the camp. She was practically skipping, and Botan was whispering something in her ear while looking back towards the boys. Both of them giggled.

The boys hung back a few paces, giving the girls privacy for their own conversations while they talked amongst themselves.

"Inuyasha. Talking now would be a good idea, otherwise you have clean up duty over everything the next two weeks."

Inuyasha glared at their team leader. He hated clean up duty, but he couldn't answer Yusuke. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The mikos." Kurama looked at Hiei in surprise, but his gaze was firmly fixed on the dog hanyou. Apparently Yusuke wasn't the only one curious.

"I met them once. That's it." Inuyasha thought furiously. He needed a good lie that would explain why Kagome had been so mad at him. He winced as he found one. Well, in a way it was part of the truth.

"Why's she so mad at you?" Yusuke's attention was also fixed on the silver-haired boy. Inuyasha seemed to shrink away from their demanding gazes before apparently resigning himself.

"I did something stupid. I liked Kikyou but she didn't even know I existed. Remember that summer after the ship incident when they gave us three months before they called us back for training? I met those two then. I liked Kikyou but she wouldn't even look at me. So I got to her through Kagome." Inuyasha appeared sorrowful, but inwardly he was hoping the lie would work. After all, there was some truth in it. He had gone through Kagome to get to Kikyou. Just not for the reason that he was saying.

Yusuke just glared at the hanyou, but didn't say anything more. They'd all been together since they were 13. He had learned to tell when one of them was lying by now. Though Kurama was always a challenge with his past. Now, one of his teammates was choosing some girls over the trust he had earned from them all over the years.

"Fine," Yusuke said through gritted teeth. Inuyasha winced and dropped back a few paces to take to the trees beside them. When he didn't want to be part of a conversation anymore he went into the trees. Obviously he was upset his team leader didn't believe him. Of course, he was lying so he had no reason to be upset.

Up front the girls were having their own trust issues. Not with each other, but with the boys. Kikyou and Kagome had their own reasons, Sango just didn't think they could be trusted to watch their backs.

"Three of them have demon blood that I can sense. Though it is common in that school they went to. Not many demons on our side send their females to be trained formally." Kikyou spoke thoughtfully, but her eyes kept darting back to watch the boys cautiously.

"That's because they have them act on single missions if their help is needed. Besides, there were some girls who were demons at our school. Saghetra just had more demons because more males are generally sent to war. The demons on our side are still a bit protective of their children, the Alliance hasn't exactly given them the best protection," Kagome pointed out. Kikyou frowned and Sango just snorted.

"I don't trust them. The one you said had a kitsune spirit seemed nice enough, but the other three? Did the fire apparition even speak?"

"I think he was a silver." A little voice piped up from Kagome's shoulder and immediately the tension in the group began to seep away as they focused their eyes on the kit.

"A silver? Really? That's impressive, isn't it girls?" Botan winked at the kit and the kit briefly gave her a sly smile. Oh yeah, he knew how to distract them. He'd probably be a wonderful mischief-maker too. She turned her head away from the group and grinned.

"If he's so impressive, then why is he in a human body?" Kikyou asked, grinning at Botan and Shippo. She couldn't be sure, but she would have sworn she'd seen them exchange brief mischievous looks.

"Accidents happen Kikyou. If we really need to know we can ask him later." Kagome was in a foul mood, and she didn't seem to want to come out of it. Seeing that traitorous hanyou Inuyasha had been bad enough, but now she would have to keep the Shikon a secret for as long as she could. She certainly wasn't going to just allow two unknown demons to know she had it. Maybe, if it came down to it and they proved trustworthy, maybe then she would tell everyone. But that was doubtful. It was a burden she could only really share with Kikyou.

"Oh, cheer up Kagome. At least they're all cute." The other three girls stared at her and she shrugged. Shippo rolled his eyes and fell down into Kagome's waiting arms, letting out a yawn and falling asleep in an instant. Kagome giggled and Kikyou shook her head.

"That kit... he still hurts from his parents death, but he has much love in him. Almost as much as you do Kagome. Are you going to adopt him?" Kikyou's tone held only curiosity, she didn't care either way if Kagome took him in or let someone else to it. Botan certainly would if Kagome didn't.

"Let's all adopt him! He can have four mothers!" Botan giggled at the end of Kagome's sentence, and Sango laughed to.

"Hey! Laughing girls! How much longer?" Yusuke yelled at them. The girls considered each other for a moment, but before the other's could answer, Sango decided to take it into her own hands.

"Why? Are you big strong boys getting tired?" The mocking tone in her voice was obvious and the boys bristled at her words. Hiei and Inuyasha had switched places, and Hiei glared at the girl from his tree branch while Inuyasha took it upon himself to answer from his spot beside Yusuke.

"Bored is more like it. The only thing to do is watch you, and that certainly isn't entertaining," Inuyasha said with a smirk. Yusuke and Kurama exchanged a glance as the girls stopped walking and slowly backed away from the oblivious dog-eared boy.

"Stupid idiot. They're going to put him in hell and bring him back to beat on him again." Even Yusuke usually knew better than to say that to a girl. He did now anyway.

"Probably. Especially since three of them seem willing to kill him already." Kurama nodded towards Kikyou, Kagome, and now Sango.

Hiei sat back on his branch and watched as the half-breed pissed off their new allies. 'How intelligent,' he thought dryly.

The four girls had whirled around, teeth clenched and eyes flashing in anger. Kagome and Kikyou both had a firm grasp on their miko powers, and Botan was pondering if it was really wrong to shoot an ally. Sango simply wanted to punch him.

Inuyasha finally seemed to realize his mistake and attempt to fix it. By digging himself deeper. "Keh! I only meant Sango!"

"Oh, so the rest of us aren't even worth looking at, only Sango?" Botan's eyes narrowed into slits and Inuyasha shook his head vigorously.

"No, that's not what I meant! She's not worth looking at either!" Inuyasha realized his mistake to late as the girls pounced on him.

Within a few minutes Kurama and Yusuke found themselves dragging an unconscious dog hanyou towards the camp. "Damn it, Kurama, stop feeding him, he's getting fat!"

Kurama rolled his eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh. "Maybe you're just getting weaker Yusuke."

"WHAT?"

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Bad Kurama! Who wants to see him get shot with the Spirit Gun? *blank stares* Oh come on, wouldn't it be funny? *pitchforks and torches are raised from Kurama fans* Or not. To the reviewer responses then.

FireDemonLord
Have done so! Keep reading and reviewing!

Fire Kitsune Goddess
Updated, and nope! But keep guessing! I like the guesses!

helen (SpringSakura07@aol.com)
Nope! Not Kur/Kag or Sango/Yus. But they both do get a Yu Yu boy! Come one, try to guess which one. Well, actually I just eliminated all the Yu Yu boys but one for Sango, so that's out of the way.

Yusukeholic
Well, I had to have someone get the records. Who better than Hiei? It was either he or Kurama, and Kurama's too much of a good little schoolboy to hack. Yusuke isn't very computer savvy.

wayfarer-redemption
Thanks! I'm glad someone thinks so. Here's a new update, as you've probably already read.

SilentDark
She probably saw them in the fight already, and he's not quite used to some of his new strengths yet. I'll explain, but if she came up against that force, she'd probably have the same problem he did.

Kinky Usagi
Okie-Dokie! Just wondering.

Valkyrie Nienna Helyanwe
Aww, it wasn't that evil! Heh, I think I'm rushing the fic a bit in the meetings and stuff. Probably because I want to get to juicy parts. Bad me.