FW: Ha, see, I can be a good person! I'm updating EARLY this time! Well, sort of.
Botan: Instead of pathetically late.
FW: Yeah! And there's this kid in my gym class who stalks me and my friend Mage! Yay stalkers!
Kurama: (frowns) Stalkers are NOT fun. (remembering Karasu)
Hiei: Hn. (agreement "hn")
FW: Not normally, but this is just plain funny! He looks like a girl, and we're always trying to get away from him, but no luck… and he looks sooo much like Haku from Naruto! So we always trick him into wearing a mask, just so we can laugh hysterically!
Botan: You two really are cruel.
FW: It's high school; everyone's cruel. At least I don't make fun of special needs kids! There's some kid who does, right to her face!
Kuwabara: Then I, the warrior of love-
Hiei: Save it.
FW: Yeah, please do. (I actually like Kuwabara, but I don't feel like hearing a rant right now. I feel like writing them!) sillylittlenothing-sama, WOW, you had a lot to say! Sweet! Um, actually, I don't know what you mean about not wanting to see Botan… yeah, I'm just a BIT slow….
Yusuke: Right…. Tell that to her math teacher.
FW: It's GEOMETRY! As for Kuronue's "dream" maybe, maybe not. But if things go well, we'll find out at the end of this story. Hm, did I just give a spoiler? Dunno…. And to GreyRoseRantings-sama, I used to get Shonen Jump, and he seemed even LESS caring about Kurama in that than in the anime! Maybe I didn't get far enough into it though. I hate how the writer makes Hiei all "Yusuke is my best friend", er, as far as Hiei goes, anyway (ANTISOCIAL!) when Kurama's the one he's obviously got on his side. On another note… ha ha ha, I got a Squad Leader! That's so awesome!
Hiei: (sarcastically) If you're finished….
FW: About. Just have to do the disclaimer, tribute, and the capital "start".
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, or Naruto.
Warning: The ending is kind of… disturbing, I think.
Juniper
START
"How much farther?" Kurama asked, his spirit starting to tire from constant motion and the small battles. His body had given out long ago, the only reason it was still moving being the ancient soul fueling it. This would be very painful later, and he could only pray that later wasn't before they got there.
"Less than 10 minutes," the silver fox answered automatically, having kept perfect check on the time, a way to keep himself preoccupied and to tune out the doubting voice.
The human took a deep breath. 10 minutes… he could make it. He grinned humorlessly. He HAD to make it. Youko wouldn't accept "no" for an answer.
"It will not take Hiei long to escape," Kurama reminded his other half. "And he's very… -"
"Annoying."
"Yes, but I was thinking 'persistent'," the redhead smiled fondly, before a pang of hurt raced through his being. Hiei had betrayed them…. Shaking his head, he continued his train of thought. "Once he is free, he will continue after us. And as you know-"
"He's faster, and will catch up if we don't hurry," Youko finished, admiring the other's ability to think so clearly, even when mentally wounded and physically exhausted. He truly was his other half, even if he did have a bit better self-control.
After all, when's the last time you saw Kurama chasing chickens?
"I'm going to send back a little… "insurance"," Kurama broke into his thoughts, his energy already traveling into the grasses and racing back to the dark demon.
"Don't send too much," Youko warned. "We're here."
The forest was thinning out.
&&&&&&&&
"Urameshi! Urameshi! Darn you, wake up!" Kuwabara was nervous, bordering on frantic. "Darn your no-one-can-take-care-of-themselves-but-me attitude! If you don't wake up…."
The square-shaped cage they still sat in, as Kuwabara earlier predicted, had a large, rusted hole on the side parallel to the one the taller boy currently leaned against. The hair was completely incinerated, leaving no immediate danger to them. Koi had left some time ago, so they should have been home free.
Should have been.
FLASHBACK
"Spirit gun!"
Kuwabara cracked open an eye, and wished he hadn't. The spherical energy was so bright, he could barely see anyway. It was like staring straight at a small sun. "How does Urameshi do this?" He dimly remembered asking himself before the light was suddenly blocked off.
It took his slightly slow mind a minute to grasp that what had moved in front of him was a person, and that person was his best friend. Currently taking the brunt of the explosion, and spitting, burning hair that flew in every direction before being reduced to ashes.
By the time Kuwabara got over his initial shock to push him away, his dark haired friend had already collapsed.
"Urameshi!"
PRESENT
Working up his nerve, Kuwabara slowly placed his two fingers at his best buddy's neck, gently pressing. He breathed in relief. "If you'd had been dead…"
"You'd what, kill me?" Yusuke smirked, eyes still closed, but somehow making fun of the other boy as well.
"Yeah I- wait a second!" Yusuke burst out laughing as his partner roughly shoved him away, then winced as the burns covering his body connected with the unforgiving steel of the floor.
The lanky boy was too enraged to notice his discomfort, so he easily brushed it aside. What Kuwabara didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and right now, there were a lot of things he didn't know.
Like most of the school subjects.
And also, more importantly, Yusuke liked to think, the fact that he HAD been unconscious until about a minute ago, and the fact that he felt like Hiei had been using him for a "pin"cushion. Pins being his swords, of course.
But Kuwabara didn't need to know this. Yusuke really did care about him, and he didn't want him to needlessly worry.
Besides, seeing him rant really was a great stress reliever.
&&&&&&&&
"Da#n… fox…" Hiei forced through tightly gritted teeth. How he could manage a single letter through was a mystery, and undoubtedly difficult seeing how he didn't move his lips or jaw at all.
No plants were fireproof, but the one keeping him in a bear hug was the closest to it. Nearly three minutes of solid fire burning away at the branches, and he was still held captive.
Kurama would pay for this later.
The limbs finally withered and died, and the furious fire demon was able to break them off the spellbound tree. Dropping easily to the ground, Hiei allowed himself a slight, satisfied smirk. If the plant manipulator thought a single overgrown shrub would keep him away….
Hiei took a step forward-
And found the grass around him rapidly growing. Their blades becoming sharp enough to mirror his sword, and higher than his normal eyes could see. Behind those, another row of grass shot up, and another, and another, until they surrounded him on each side, stretching out for a yard in all directions.
The smirk had already disappeared, and he found himself animalisticly growling. He'd been so full of pent up rage, he hadn't even noticed the energy flowing around him. He'd fallen into the fox(es) trap. Again.
Oh yeah, Kurama would definitely pay later.
&&&&&&&&
Kurama and Youko turned their body's gaze ahead wondrously, staring at the huge, gothic structure before them. It was a castle, with three dark pillars reaching toward the sky, darker than a moonless night in the deepest of the woods. Few windows graced the front wall, the only wall the thieves could see from their viewpoint, and a single, curved door in the center.
It had the worn look of having survived for centuries, and the abandoned look of no one having even laying eyes upon it for all that time.
The both recognized it immediately, Youko from experience, and Kurama from countless nightmares shared his the other.
"Ironic," Youko barely whispered. "That he would be here, of all places."
Kurama felt the same, and though his companion kept the unshakable poise, he feared for his friend's sanity now more than ever.
After all, this was the castle he and Kuronue had stolen the mirror from that horrible night.
The forest they'd trekked through was the one Kuronue had been captured in.
And the guards from this timeless building were the ones who had finishedhim off.
Or had they?
Remembering why they were here, Kurama took a deep, calming breath, and ambled numbly, trusting his feet to take them to the door.
"What are you doing?" The thief's voice harshly injected, though the feet kept moving.
"Kuronue's here. We have to find him."
Also realizing they still had a purpose, Youko helped him immediately, filtering the needed energy to steady his steps and keep his failing body upright. In more even, unfaltering steps, they reached the door.
"On three. One…" Kurama began, bracing their hand against the brass knob.
"Three!" Youko cut in again, closing the long fingers around the sphere, turning, and pulling.
Youko pulled the knob right off, staring at it through Kurama's big, disappointed green eyes.
"That was oddly… anticlimactic," Kurama mumbled, also staring at it.
Angered, the silver fox flung the knob away, content to hear it smash into something.
"Hold on, there's nothing for it to collide with- the only object in this clearing was the castle," Kurama pondered, before letting curiosity get the better of him. While Youko rolled his mental eyes at the boy's need to know everything, Kurama turned his head to glance at the object.
Said object was a dull gray, more white than black, gleaming very faintly in the moonlight. It blended in so well with the dirt surrounding it, Kurama felt no need to chastise himself for not noticing. There was more of the same material around it.
Still curious, Kurama led them closer, and stopped, horrified. From this closer distance, it almost looked like a skull.
Youko must have seen the similarity as well, for he took complete control, easily forcing the redhead back. The latter didn't mind; he didn't really want control anymore.
Youko ran with strength neither knew he still had, after using so much energy in chasing, running, keeping Hiei at bay, then running some more.
Youko got there easily, in record time. Apparently, he didn't care for the control either, forhe fell to his knees, just staring at what was now recognizable as bones.
The bones were obviously old, dirt and unagreeable weather had dulled them down to the grayish color they now were. The knob lay less than a foot away from the skull, whose eyeless sockets gazed unseeingly into the green ones above them.
Even without the flesh, both knew whom the bones had belonged to. The shape, and build. The location.
It was Kuronue. What was left of him, anyway.
Perfectly steady, Youko gathered what he could of the remains, and carefully, began to construct a figure out of the carelessly dumped bones. Kurama watched, his mind blank, not even on autopilot, as his friend worked to recreate the structure that he'd known, and even trusted.
It's rare, trust among demons. Though Youko would deny it, he had honestly cared about that bat.
Youko concentrated, but found his mind wandering at the same time. Memories.
FLASHBACK
"Youko! Youko, are you listening to me?"
"If I said "yes", would you shut up?" The one addressed growled. He rolled over to face his partner in crime. He had been pulling all nighters for some time, and needed to recover some of his strength. He glared daggers at the still grinning bat, him being one of the few he'd ever encountered that wasn't fazed by it.
He didn't even seem to notice anymore.
"Only if it were the truth," Kuronue replied, the simple answer making the tired and irritable thief want to strangle him even more. "Just a few minutes, then I'll let you go." At Youko's impatient nod, Kuronue continued. "The Eye of Tepurt has gone missing. Someone's got a hold of it. Now's the time to find out who, and get it ourselves."
Youko blinked once, obviously uncaring of the news. "Right. 'Night then." Youko rolled back over, closing his golden eyes and welcoming the darkness behind.
"You don't get it, do you?" Kuronue said, grabbing his friend's shoulder, and forcibly flipping him back to once again face him.
The golden eyes were now filled with fury, as Youko spat, "No. And I don't care."
Kuronue shook his head, still grinning despite Youko's best efforts to faze him. "The Eye of Tepurt, it's a jewel that can find anyone, anywhere in the three worlds," he paused. "Well, four if you count the Netherworld."
"I don't."
"Well anyway, you can find anyone. It tracks down their life-force," Kuronue continued. "It's very specific, so it'll find exactly who you're looking for. The only place it CAN'T go, is into the afterlife."
Youko, still unimpressed, replied, "Who would want to find someone who's dead?"
"You might change you're mind, someday. Maybe you'll miss someone enough to try and get them back," Kuronue smirked enigmatically. Youko rolled his eyes.
"Any amount of energy will be enough for it to find someone by. But it'll only focus of large amounts, unless someone with enough determination to overpower it makes it spot the biggest of any tiny bit of energy," Kuronue put his thumb and index finger close together to emphasize his point.
"I still don't care," Youko closed his eyes again, finally able to fall asleep.
The last words he heard before drifting off completely were, "This way, if anything happens, you'll always be able to find me."
PRESENT
Youko cursed himself for not noticing earlier. He leaned back on his heels, having finished reconstructing the bones and admired his work while his mind figured out everything.
Kuronue was dead. That much was sure. So that's why the Eye wouldn't work. At first. Why did it work at all then?
Youko thought it over, and the answer was obvious. Because his and Kurama's souls combined, and were strong enough to "overpower the Eye of Tepurt". It had led them to the place where his energy was strongest. Naturally, that would be his remains.
He had led both himself and Kurama on a wild goose chase, risking everything along the way.
He was a fool.
Kurama, having somehow wormed some of the control back to himself brushed a crimson lock out of his eyes. "They hadn't even buried him…" he thought, painfully.
Both of them caught the sound of footsteps behind them. They weren't alone.
Neither one moved. Neither one cared.
As Youko rested there, he could hear a disembodied, faded voice whisper to him alone.
"This way, if anything happens, you'll always be able to find me."
END CHAPTER 8
FW: Holy crap, that was so depressing!
Kurama: (stares in shock) How could you?
FW: I don't know! I'm not even in an emo mood! …I kind of like it though. Does that make me sadistic?
Yu Yu Gang: Yes.
FW: Thought so. And man,I think Youko was waaaaaay out of character. Whatever. I tried. And that castle? I don't remember if it was ever in the movies,so I kind of just made it up. So, if I screwed up, sorry. Again, I tried. Wow, I get pretty irritable whenit's wicked late! Ha ha ha, God, I'm tired, so I'll wrap this up.I expect to get flamed for this. But that's ok! I'll take it in stride!