My boyfriend's dog just got run over by a car yesterday, being why I didn't update like I usually do. Nicest happiest dog in the world too.

He was a beautiful blue-eyed husky, extremely fluffy, hehe. He was after a girl dog when he get hit. Busy street and all. And my boyfriend just lost his other husky two months ago when he got shot by some guy who doesn't like my boyfriend… But yeah… I miss him. RIP Sky and Dash Best dogs in the world.

A special thanks to sofudginbored -heart- thanks for all of the reviews, I'm glad to know one person loves my story :D

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When Kitara woke up the next morning her whole body was tender and sore from the training she had done with Hiei the previous day. She looked over at the clock beside her bed.

"6 o' clock… I'm up early today. Maybe I'll go back to the forest for a while and swim in the lake or something…" She got up and got dressed, brushed her teeth, and showered before leaving Koenma's.

Slowly, she got into the lake and relaxed against the sides. "It looks like it's going to be a nice day." She said as she glanced up to the shining, warm sun. "Maybe I should have left a note or something for the guys just so they know where I am…. Nah, it wouldn't matter. I'm sure none of them will be looking for me anyway." The warm water felt wonderful on her sore and tender muscles. A bath couldn't even compare to the relaxation this place gave her. The fresh air and fresh water, and the sun smiling constantly down on her. This was more or less her heaven.

Her head perked up. "What's that rustling in the forest…" She shook her head. "Probably just some animal looking for food or something."

"Wrong as always, sweetheart." A pair of strong hands grabbed her from behind as the sound of his voice from the statement faded.

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Hiei woke up around 8 that morning, being a little more tired than usual from the previous days scrimmage. Throwing on his cloak and pants, he walked down the hall to the cafeteria area.

"Hiei, do you know where Kitara is?" Yusuke asked him.

"No."

"That's weird… I think I'll go wake her up then!" He happily trotted of towards her room. Everyone continued eating and pecking at their breakfasts until Yusuke came back tumbling down the hallway.

"What is your problem?" Hiei grunted.

"Well… Kitara isn't in her bedroom or anything. I looked in the library too."

"Not there?" Koenma came floating in. "That's odd. After training with Hiei yesterday she should have been asleep for at least a few more hours. I wonder…"

"Wonder what?" Hiei asked.

"Nothing… I'm sure she's just fine." Koenma floated back out of the room, somewhat in a hurry and went back to his office. A few minutes later the guys could see ogres running through the halls, with stacks of papers and worried looks on their faces.

'Something isn't right. That stupid child is trying to hide something from us. I'm not fond of secrets…' Hiei thought.

He got up from the table, leaving his plate there, and went into Koenma's office.

"Child, listen to me. If you don't tell me what is going on right now I'll have your bones as my new wall decoration." He glared as the large chair turned around and Koenma faced him.

"How dare you speak to me to like that, and what gives you the impression that something is going…" The sentence was stopped as Hiei picked Koenma up by his throat.

"Alright…" He managed to choke. "Let me down and I'll tell you." Hiei let him down back into his chair.

"Talk."

"Alright, you see… We just recently lost track of Zratchmana again, and since Kitara was also gone so early, we figured we should try to at least figure out where she went, just to be sure that she's safe."

Hiei started to get growing worried feelings in the pit of his stomach. Another new feeling to him. Koenma continued.

"We found out that she went back to the lake in the forest where we originally found her, which was no problem, but… Then we regained track of Zratchmana and… he's in the forest very near to where she is… But now… We've lost track of both of them, and… that could only mean one thing…

"Why weren't you going to say anything to us?" Hiei tried to subside the anger towards Koenma as he spoke.

"Originally, because it would have been useless for you to know when all we had were suspicions."

Hiei left the room, barely hearing Koenma's last statement. The guys were all still confused as to why Hiei had gotten up without a word and left his food on the table. They saw him pass by the room in the direction to leaving.

"Where do you think he's going?" Kuwabara asked.

'Probably to save Kitara' Kurama thought, but instead he said "Probably just off to train somewhere."

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Hiei ran through the woods, hoping to catch up to them or at least find some kind of trace as to which direction they went. As he was running, he tripped.

'The hell… what did I trip on…' He looked behind himself on the ground and saw a large, unnatural lump that came up from the earth.

'Odd…'

He suddenly remembered something that Koenma had told them when they first started looking for Zratchmana. 'His hideouts are all underground, that's part of what makes it so hard to find him.'

'Maybe I just found one of them…' He stomped on the lump a few times and it seemed that the dirt was covering something hard underneath. A little shaking and digging, loosened the dirt enough to brush it off so that he saw a small metallic door handle. He tried as hard as possible to be quiet while opening the door. Carvings against the inner wall made step-like bulges that were easy to get down.

He walked down the step-like formations carefully, and looked around once he got to the bottom. 'That's odd, there aren't any guards here. Must've gotten so cocky they think they don't need any…'

He continued on his way through the tunnels, and finally found a tunnel that led to a large room, where he could see Kitara chained to one of the walls. Not stopping to think, he ran into the room and met face to face with Zratchmana.

"Why, hello Hiei. Nice too see that you're more impetuous than I thought."

Hiei glared.

"So, you've come to save Kitara? Odd though, I never thought that you cared about people enough to do something like that without being asked."

"Stop with the fancy words." Hiei lunged at Zratchmana but disappeared, the reappeared behind his back to attack from behind.

"Silly Hiei, how awfully stupid of you to think that would work."

Zratchmana turned around and punched Hiei in the stomach, hard. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he coughed up more to accompany it and gasped for air.

"Your little tricks really don't impress me, Hiei. And they definitely won't beat me."

Hiei wiped the blood from his mouth and realized what Zratchmana had said was true. His eyes were quick, and his body quicker. To find a move that would take him off guard was near impossible, so what chance did that leave Hiei with? 'I'll just have to try everything I know…'

Move after move, Hiei tried to catch him off guard, but it all failed. He finally decided to use a move he had just learned. He stopped and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing now, fool? You can gather all of the energy in the world, and that won't help if I can block or dodge your attack." Suddenly, there were multiples of Hiei, or at least, that's what it looked like.

"What an old trick, Hiei."

All of them leaped at Zratchmana at once. Hiei hoped that he would block the wrong one, and he would be able to get a hit in…. but, his hopes failed as Zratchmana chose two of the figures, the ones he thought were real, and blocked them. One of them was real, and Hiei was thrown to the floor.

"I'm done playing games with you, this is a waste of my time. You're mine."

Zratchmana's eyes began to glow red and his hands had a green light surrounding them. His muscles grew to at least five times their normal size and thorns grew from his head. Charging at Hiei, his speed had not been sacrificed for the growth in his form. He flung Hiei against the wall before any dfences could be made against it. The beating Hiei was receiving from Zratchmana was like nothing he had experienced before… Eventually, with all of the blood he was losing, he could do nothing but pass out.

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After what seemed like days later, Hiei finally woke up, but not against the ground, or thrown outside. He was chained up on the wall opposite of Kitara. Her eyes were opened, staring at him.

"Kitara…" He choked..

"Hiei, why did you come here!" She sounded angry, but he didn't respond. "What business did you have to try to save me… I would've done fine saving myself!"

"I regret even bothering with you."

Kitara's heart skipped a beat hearing that, but it was her fault, she pushed him to feel that way. It was obvious she couldn't save herself, it was obvious his help wasn't enough. She didn't want him hurt…

"Oh shut up, the both of you." Zratchmana walked towards where Kitara was chained. "So who to torture first, who to torture first. I really never expected to have two demons to choose from, you just make life all the better for me, Hiei." He smirked. "Or maybe I'll just kill one, and leave the other to torture. Well, I'm sure killing one of you before the other's eyes, would be torture within itself right?"

He ran his sharp, cold nails against Kitara's throat, making a tiny cut, that produced only a drip or two of blood.

"I think I'd like to kill you, Kitara. I've already tortured you for years and I'm looking for some new fun." He said as he motioned to Hiei.

All of his nails grew even longer, and seemed as though they got sharper. He started slashing away at her body, blood dropping from each cut. With each slash he bore the nails a little deeper, and sometimes ran over the same cuts.

Hiei's eyes grew wide as he watched. His stomach felt sick and his heart felt like it was dying along with her body… He heard her blood curdling screams as she tears began to stream down her face, accompanying her pain. He began to get angry… So angry that…

"How do you like this Hiei?" Zratchmana smirked and turned around to face Hiei, just to see the look of anger and contempt on his face. "What the…"

Hiei's body glowed and his bandana fell off his forehead as his Jagan glowed as well. "If you don't leave her alone… I swear you won't see another day." He muttered in a more deep, evil sounding voice as he the chains turned to dust around him.

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Yay cliffhanger! Sorry this chapter took so long… My dog just died, and I just didn't fell like writing for a little while. Don't forget to review!