-Back again! Thanks for the tons of reviews this time! Well… back to the storyline… oh and the last chapter that I had to remove... I'm sorry, mixed up documents, the chapter I have removed was the first draft of the first chapter. SORRY! Here's the real chapter now, without much ado!
TRAITOR. It was burned into Narue's arm… but why? The word sent shivers down Kuwabarra's back and shocked him so much he did not realize that Narue had already rushed upon him and held the sword to his throat.
"You let yourself get distracted… My win…" she muttered and she let the sword slowly drop from his throat and gently she handed it back to Hiei. If anyone had cared to look at the small demon they would have noticed a pained, guilty expression on his face as his crimson eyes leveled onto the scars… but luckily for him, no one did. Their eyes were all fixed on Narue as she slowly made her way down from the platform.
"Hey… Kuwabarra… get you back checked out… I hit you pretty hard and it probably jarred something… 'kay?" she asked quietly. Still stunned, he just nodded and made his way out, followed quickly by Kuwabarra.
"Why don't you hide those?" Hiei muttered quietly to her as he made to leave.
"I feel no need to!" she hissed to his retreating back and sighed. Soon she was left alone in the room with a…. well… Kurama, who was sleeping again…
Kinnara raced down to Shintaro's family's field to see a rather frightening water oni, it's long claws digging huge divots into the freshly tilled earth. Rushing away from the huge behemoth was a large portion of the village's reiki warriors and various spell casters.
"HEY! MOVE IT!" Kinnara hollered as she raced past the humans and up to the front lines, where a few brave, if stupid, warriors and spell casters remained, trying with all their might to defeat the oni. To say it plainly… they were failing.
"We do not need your help, Demon!" one strained warrior spat at her but she just ignored him and slowly stepped forward, past the human, and once they saw the lightning circling around her hands they began to run…
"KURAMA!" Narue screamed as the young red head started awake from his dream. He looked over at her confused, but surprisingly rested.
"Jeez, you really need some rest!" she laughed as she rotated her shoulder painfully, waiting for it to pop back into its socket.
"Yeah…" Kurama muttered as he tried to pull himself out of his daze.
"Well, everyone's gone… Hm… now where did I put that…" she muttered, leaning over the bench and looking under.
"Put what?"
"My spare jacket! I had a feeling my old one might get torn… damn, it gone!" she groaned, then patted a pocket and her pants and cursed loudly.
"What's wrong?" Kurama asked, startled by her coarse language.
"Damn it!" she cried out again and then spotted something very close to the base of the fighting ring and nearly pounced on it. It was a small orange tube with a white cap. Inside were three long white pills. She popped the cap off, downed the contents and then tossed it aside thoughtlessly.
"Guess my jackets not here… see ya later," Narue muttered nonchalantly, as though it didn't bug her at all and with that she left. Quietly Kurama picked up the bottle as cast a quick glance at the label.
It was a high dose of painkiller, very high. He looked at where Narue was with a worried look on his face…
Narue sighed deeply as she filled the old kettle with water, setting on the coils of the stove. Every muscle in her body ached but what worried her most was the pain that was stabbing through her heart.
"Long time no see, sparky." The voice was one that Narue knew all too well. She turned around slowly, trying to ignore the pain as her body resisted the movement.
"Genkai… you're still alive?" Narue asked, shock written across her face.
"Yes… not saying that I haven't died…" she added tersely, pulling up her own seat across from Narue.
"I should have known…" Narue muttered off, looking away from the small woman.
"So… what is this?" she asked, holding up the orange pill container that Kurama had given, hoping that she could talk to Narue about it.
"A pill container? I would indeed think that it was… um… obvious?" she replied sardonically.
"I knew that, you idiot! I mean, what are you doing with this high a dose of painkiller?" Genkai demanded, slamming the small plastic tube onto the gnarled oak table.
"Trying to get by, what else does it look like? I'm in pain, take those away and I won't function!" Narue snapped back, snatching the container and throwing into the rubbish bin. (or… well… trash can, in America!)
"Those old wounds wouldn't cause enough pain for you to need painkillers… what is it then?" Genkai asked, curious.
"Careful there, old hag," Narue warned, "Curiosity killed the cat! Why would you want to know anyway?"
"Because, if your 'Ototou-san' finds out, he's going to start bugging you and me to no end…"
Narue sighed and made her way to the kettle, which had begun to whistle angrily. She poured out two mugs of steaming water and tossed into two small tea bags, watching the water begin to turn a light orange then slowly darken. Silently she made her way back to the table and slid on mug over to Genkai who stopped its slow progress and picked it up, taking a small sip. Narue simply took a swig of hers and sighed, running her slim, still gloved finger around the thick rim and sighed, her eyes downcast.
"Genkai… remember the first time we met?" she suddenly asked. Surprised by the random question, she answered.
"Of course, my memory hasn't gone yet."
"You were a lot younger back then…"
"Don't dodge the question. Why do you need these painkillers?" Genkai demanded, glaring at Narue, but was surprised with what she saw. Hunched in her chair, she looked desolate and defeated. One finger still trailed the rim of her mug and her eyes stared at the motion sadly.
"Because… I probably won't make it to the end of the year," she replied desolately before taking another sip of her tea.
"What do you…" Genkai trailed off as she suddenly just stared at the young woman.
"You see… it started with the pain… then the bleeding," Narue added.
"Does Koenma know?"
"Yeah… Just… please don't tell Hiei… I don't want him to know…"
"Feh, do what you want with your body, not like anyone could stop you anyway!" Genkai shot back and promptly stormed out of the kitchen, leaving her mug half empty.
Alone again Narue sighed, bowing her head. Why did everyone worry about her? As she looked up she saw Botan was now standing in the doorway, looking at her apprehensively.
"Hm? Botan, what is it?" Narue snapped, still angered by Genkai little visit.
"Um, Koenma wants to talk to you…"
She sighed, after all she really didn't need this right now. "Fine, tell him I'll meet with him later."
"Well, he kinda said…" Botan tried to finish but was cut off my Narue.
"Let me guess… 'Now'. I get the point…" she groaned as she pulled herself out of the chair and made her way to Koenma's office.
"Narue, I have some good news…" Koenma started talking the moment she made her way into the room, not even waiting until she closed the door.
"Really? Did you find a stronger seal?" she asked, hopeful.
"Fortunately, yes. You'll be able to get the new seals placed tomorrow," Koenma handed over to her a small stack of papers. Her eyes flicked across the surface to see scrawled over with symbols and small, concise handwriting in deep blue ink.
"Great… it'll hurt like Hell tomorrow… until then… thank you, Koenma, sir!" Narue cried out, running out of the large room, clutching the papers to her chest.
Only minutes passed until she had thrown open the door of the library and rushed over to the nearest table. She roughly pulled a chair out and fell into it, slapping the papers onto the table's surface. From the force the sheets spread over the table, a few almost fell off but she caught them. With her right hand she reached into the breast pocked of her jacket and pulled out a pair of square, black rimmed glasses and quickly opened the legs with a flick of her wrist and let them perch on the tip of her thin nose precariously.
Her yellow eyes darted across the papers, scanning the text and drawings and slowly a smile spread across her face. With each word it looked more promising and by the time Hiei came into the room to see what in the world was going on she had broken it a wide grin and was laughing.
"What are you laughing about now," he asked her coldly as he made his way to the table, staring at the clutter with a look of distaste.
"This just might work!" she cried out, thumping a fist against the oak table, sending papers scattering. Bored, Hiei snatched on of the papers out of the air and quickly cast a glance at them and then looked up at her, confused for a moment on what the odd symbols were there for.
"What are you doing now?" he asked, sounding almost exhausted.
"Hm? Saving my sorry butt! Tomorrow I'm getting new seals!" she cried out, exuberant.
"New seals? What's wrong with the old ones?" He asked, looking at her, almost angry that she hadn't told him something was wrong.
"Well…" she looked away from him crimson gaze, suddenly very uncomfortable. She knew she should have told him but what did he expect? They hadn't seen each other since the last fight…
"'Well' what?" he snapped at her and she sighed, and simply took of one of her gloves and cast a look at her palm. Hiei quickly followed suit.
Tattooed onto her palm was an intricate seal in deep blue. Ancient script circled around various old symbols of power. The muscles in her hand were tense and he could see the veins that were pressing against the skin from strain. Then he saw it… running across her wrist was a seiries of long, thin scars… he said nothing…
"These ones… are… well… they're killing me, Ototou-san. I just need new ones placed! Don't worry!" she tried to smile at him, pulling the glove back on but Hiei had something to add.
"Baka! If only you'd stop being hu-" he was cut off when they heard the sound of someone passing out. Narue darted out of her chair to the door, but Hiei had beat her to it. Laying in the middle of the hallway was Kurama…
-YAY!
Trenity170: YAY! The story line progresses! Now to answer some of the reviews…
Narue: Hello, kittyluv! Why is Traitor burned into my arm? If I told you it would begin to spoil the story! And don't worry, everyone's computer gets screwy!
Trenity170: Yeah… mine keeps getting viruses… but I can fix that! (holds up wrench)
Kurama: (sighs and takes wrench from Trenity170) don't beat the computer anymore!
Trenity170: fine… (sulks)
Hiei: To KuwabaraMikey17 I say this: obviously she's a traitor!
Trenity170: (hits Hiei on head) be nice to the reader! Yeah, and thanks for thinking that chappy is great! I also believe that I need to answer the next review too… Having Narue get the dreams? I might or might not! But don't worry, these dreams are really important, now only if Kurama could just get that! And thanks! Oh yeah… that response was to 0ihfih!
Kurama: to brezzybrez, We would all love it if you continued to read this story! And Trenity170 will keep writing or else her friend will hit her on the head!
Trenity170: Speaking of the devil! To AbhoresenSabriel87… I DON'T CARE ABOUT SPELLCHECK! Would you just stop bugging me! You do enough of it over the phone!
Kurama: (sighs) to HieiFan666, we are very glad you keep reading this story! And yes, it is dramatic, but so is Trenity170! She's also eccentric!
Narue: The reason I'm branded as a traitor will defiantly come in soon! And it's a kicker!
Trenity170: (adjusts kimono… yes I spend most of my time at my house in an old, handmade kimono!) ShadeSpirit, thanks! I do adore that ending of the last chappy! And yup! Here's the new chappy! It is readyeth for youeth to readeth! Wow! 'eths really are fun to add! -
Narue: she's an odd one…
Tetsuo: And I'll respond for Niana Kuonji! Thank you for the long review! Yes, Narue doesn't go into Makai for various reasons, the brand just being one of many…. As for Kinnara's fate, you'll find out next chapter, which is another dream! And my mental problem is not Schizophrenia… why do you ask though?
Kinnara: But Tetsuo does have a directional problem!
Narue: And thank you for approving of my way to teach Yusuke not to smoke!
Yusuke: (off someone grumbling about cruel and unusual punishment)
Trenity170: I do believe that that is the end! That that… heh… funny! Well, until the next chapter, au revior!