Disclaimer: YYH is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi. If I were him I would be creating more manga, not writing fanfiction.

A/N

Thanks to Yuki Amida for putting me in her C2. It's nice to know people are paying attention to my work. Thanks also to my other reviewers. That's as close as I can get to giving responses without blatantly disregarding rules. You know, it'd be much easier if author's could give responses in their stories because other than that there isn't really a convenient place to do so.

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Hide and Go Sneak

"It's, like, ten and she still isn't up yet!"

"You're one to talk Kuwabara. What's your record?"

"Two p.m.!"

"There, see? She has a ways to go before she sinks to your level."

"Hey! Say that to my face Urameshi!"

"Shut up. Let's just wake Asha up so Genkai will let us go."

"Uh, which room is hers?"

"This one." He paused in front of the screen. "Hey Asha, Genkai wants you to wake up." Silence. "You awake?" Nothing. "Okay, we're coming in."

He opened the shoji screen. In the middle of the room was Asha's futon...minus Asha.

"Shit. Genkai! GENKAI! We have a problem!" He yelled as he ran towards the doors with Kuwabara in tow.

"What is it." She said annoyed.

"Asha's gone!" Kuwabara screamed.

Genkai whirled. She looked to the window, where Yusuke was just barely able to see Hiei flit out of sight.

"Some how Asha got away. Her window wasn't open." Yusuke said, trying to control his rising panic.

"You two go check the city, in case she's trying to escape that way. I'll check the dojo and the surrounding grounds. Hiei'll be in the forest by now. Koenma is not going to like this," she muttered as an after thought.

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"Shuichi!" Shiori yelled up the stairs.

"Yes, Mother?" (A/N: Is 'mother' in Japanese okaa-san? I forget.) Kurama asked as he clambered down into the kitchen.

"Two friends of yours are at the door wondering if you want to go to the park today. It's fine if you go, I have some errands I need to run."

"Alright, Mother."

"Don't forget a jacket!" she reminded as he walked toward the door.

"I won't." Kurama plucked his winter coat of the rack by the door as he slipped on his boots.

"What are you doing here?" Kurama looked at Yusuke.

"We have a bit of a problem--"

"Asha's missing, Kurama!"

"Quiet!" Kurama snapped. After checking to make sure his mother hadn't heard, and that no one was sending strange looks their way, he asked, "She's what?" He sounded very much like the youko he was.

"As I was trying to say before the baka interrupted, Asha's gone. She wasn't in her room and her window wasn't open."

"Shimatta," Kurama swore.

"Genkai's checking the dojo, and Hiei's in the forest. We came to check the city, and decided to hook up with you."

"Good idea, Yusuke." He turned his head to look up at the falling snow. "I bet Hiei will have a difficult time looking for her footprints with this."

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Indeed, Hiei was having trouble looking for her. He stopped and looked around him. Trees that looked the same on every side, and he couldn't sense the assassin at all. "Shimatta. Damned snow." He tried peering at the ground again—nothing at all. No trace, no sign, nothing to say Asha had been there!

"We're are you, shinobi?"

As if in answer to his question, he heard a noise coming from the north, deeper into the woods. For the second time that day, he disappeared from sight.

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A gang of lower class demons were beginning to surround Asha. She was trapped and weaponless; an easy prey.

"She's not very pretty, is she, Zouka?" snickered one demon.

"No, she's not. She's not even ugly."

"Hehehe. She's very ugly." said another.

"I wonder if she tastes better than she looks."

"I dunno, Micha," growled the first. "Let's find out!"

The five demons sprang, falling upon the shinobi like hounds on a steak.

"Ouch! That was my eye!"

"Sorry, Katsu."

"Where is she!" The demons were flustered. It was as if their meal had simply disappeared.

Suddenly, one fell dead. Cautiously, the one called Micha walked over to the body of his fallen comrade.

"It looks like a shi—ungh." He too fell. There were three left. By mere chance, Zouka looked up into the trees. "There!"

Asha seemed to vanish from where she crouched on the tree...and behind him, Katsu fell dead. Zouka attempted to run. He didn't get three steps, a shiruken in his throat.

The assassin appeared again, this time on the snow covered ground. "Not a scratch," Asha whispered. She went to each of the demons, picking her shiruken out of their throats. "It seems a waste to kill such low creatures with such magnificent weapons. However..."

She threw the shiruken seventy-five degrees behind her; they embedded themselves deep into the trees bark, hair-breadths in front of Hiei's chest.

"You'll do."

"Hn."

"Oh very clever Hiei. I can smell your fear...well, anxiousness, really. A mix of surprise and awe. I'm flattered." she said sarcastically.

"You're good."

"I'm sure your better. Don't try to sneak up on me. I may not be so nice next time."

Hiei raised an eyebrow as he watched Asha flicker from his vision. His mouth twisted into the shadow of a wry smile. He had forgotten how fast she was.

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"Anything?" Yusuke panted.

Kuwabara shook his head, not in much of a better condition that the Detective. Kurama ran up, his red hair flecked with the white of the snow, making Yusuke think how much he looked like a Youko-Shuichi hybrid.

"I've found no trace of her! It's as if she never existed!"

"Hn. Trust me, Kurama, she exists. She's back at the dojo."

"What? Hey, Hiei wait!" Yusuke called.

"Well, I suppose we are going to Genkai's."

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"Next time you want to go out and train, you tell me!"

"Whoa, Genkai. Settle down. They weren't even a match for me."

"You are supposed to stay at the dojo or on the grounds."

"I thought the forest was part of the grounds."

"Don't get impudent with me, shinobi. The immediate grounds!"

"Bugger my fun, why dontcha."

The three snow covered Tantei arrived at the dojo only to indirectly experience Genkai's wrath. Even Kurama cringed at the old woman's voice. 'And yet, Asha is not bothered at all.' He wondered why.

"Apologize to them." Genkai pointed to all four of the Reikai Tantei.

"Why? I was fine, I was on the grounds, I wasn't about to go anywhere--"

"We didn't know that," Yusuke mumbled.

Asha didn't even glance at him. She kept her icy gaze on Genkai. "If those two boys and the demons want to be all chivalrous and go looking for me, that's their problem, not mine. I owe no apology."

Kurama had expected her to raise her voice in anger, but if anything it got softer. 'She really is a deadly shinobi,' he thought. 'She really could kill us if she wanted to. Why doesn't she?'

"How did you get out without us knowing?"

"You really should think about replacing those windows, Genkai. No glass and the shutters can be closed from the outside." She said it as casually as if she were discussing remodeling the dojo.

When Asha walked out of the room, Genkai turned to Hiei. "Our black-clad friend has some interesting news for us."

All faces turned to look at him. "She's good. She can't possibly be a normal human shinobi. She has incredible speed, she can jump large distances, she killed five low class demons in less than 30 seconds. She nearly sliced me into ribbons when I tried to get near her without her knowledge. She's very good."

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A/N

Sorry it's shorter than usual, but I wanted to get this out, because now comes the tricky part of the story. Next chapter may be some information on Asha's past, or perhaps the chapter after that. We've come to the middle of the story, I think. Well, maybe not ;)

As a P.S.: I've decided that I will reply to reviews on my homepage. Just go to my profile and you'll find the link there. In future dates I'll also update people on how my story is going, and to let you know that I have indeed not fallen of the edge of the earth.