Spirit Fighters
Disclaimer I don't own Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho. I wanted to write a story like this for a while now but I needed to re-watch the Yu Yu Hakusho episodes again. Now without any farther delay, on to the story!
We come to the site of two teenage boys floating in the air upside down. The first has tan skin, slander yet muscular build, slicked back black hair, reddish brown eyes, and stands at 5'8". This is 14 year old Yusuke Urameshi; he's wearing a green jumpsuit, and black shoes. The other boy has spiky blond hair that appears to be as bright at the sun, tan skin, cerulean eyes, the build of a trained martial artist, and stands at 5'10". This is 14 year old Naruto Uzumaki and he's Yusuke's best friend. Naruto is wearing a black sleeveless gi with a short sleeved crimson undershirt, baggy black martial artist pants, martial artist wrappings that cover half of his fingers leaving the top halves exposed these are black in color and they stop just shy of his elbows, and black martial artist boots with crimson bottoms as well as crimson accents. Naruto also had a bokken strapped diagonally so he can grab the handle with his right hand. Both boys look at the road where they saw their own bodies laying on the ground unmoving. Yusuke started freaking out and shouting, Naruto smacked him on the back of his head in order to get him to shut up. Yusuke looks at Naruto with a glare while holding the back of his head "What the hell Naruto?!"
Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed while crossing his arms over his chest "You need to be quiet so I can think Yusuke. Now we know our bodies are on the road not moving, that means we're dead therefore we need to think back and find out how we got into this situation."
Flashback
Naruto is sitting next to Yusuke on the roof of their school, Sarayashiki Junior High School. While they were sitting there two of them heard the loud speaker going off with the principal, Mr. Takenaka, is calling for both of them to come to his office. They decided to ignore him while sitting there looking at the sky. A couple of minutes later the door leading from the school to the roof opens and a girl their age walks out. This girl has shoulder length brown hair tied into two braids that hang on both sides of her head, brown hair, tan skin, slime frame, and stands at 4'6". This is the childhood friend of Naruto and Yusuke, while also being the love interest of Yusuke, her name is Keiko Yukimura. The wind blows her head in her face so she uses her left hand to keep in out of her eyes while looking around the roof. She sees both Naruto and Yusuke, she also notices that Naruto is looking right at her and she smiles at him while giving him a small wave which Naruto returns without Yusuke realizing that Keiko is there. She than frowns and gives Yusuke a small glare before shaking her head and sighing. She walks towards them while grapping a piece of gum out of the air that Yusuke was about to catch in his mouth. She huffed and put her hands on her hips while giving Yusuke a stern look "There you are Yusuke; Mr. Takenaka was looking for you."
Yusuke looks at her from the corner of his eyes "Hey Keiko, nice uniform."
She gives him a slight glare "It's the standard girls uniform. The boys have a dark blue jumpsuit, which I noticed neither you nor Naruto are wearing."
Yusuke shrugs uncaringly "Come on Keiko, I look better in green."
She huffed in annoyance "Maybe I'd be more tolerating if I saw you more than once every ten days Yusuke!"
Naruto sighed before rolling his eyes and shaking his head "Don't mind him Keiko, he's just upset since he didn't want to deal with our mom at home, he also didn't want to wonder around the city by himself."
She smiles at Naruto while Yusuke glares at him. Keiko then looks back at Yusuke "You're always skipping class which gets me in trouble with the teachers as a class representative. Not to mention that you don't wear the proper uniform that is required by the school rules for all students to wear. I don't even know why you're still coming to this school if you really hate it here."
Naruto smirks "That's simple; he comes here because of you. If you went to another school than Yusuke would go to another school or just drop out all together, after all he doesn't care about anyone else as much as he does you, Keiko."
This statement caused both Yusuke and Keiko to blush while looking away from each other. Keiko held her cheeks that were turning rather red while Yusuke glared at Naruto while growling "It's not like that Naruto and you know it! Now take back what you just said you damn idiot!"
Naruto rolls his eyes and sighs "How do you think Keiko feels when you talk like that Yusuke, didn't I ever teach you how to speak around the girl you like?"
Yusuke grabs the front of Naruto's gi and glares at him "I don't care what she thinks about at the moment!"
Naruto saw the hurt and sadness in Keiko's eyes before she turned around with tears in the corners of them. Just before she can take a step away from the two of them Naruto grabs the front of Yusuke's jumpsuit top and pulls back one of his fist before punching Yusuke in the mouth with a decent amount of force. Yusuke stumbled backwards while holding his mouth. Keiko turned back towards the boy and saw the anger on Naruto's face. Naruto glared at Yusuke before growling "You really shouldn't talk like you don't care about the girl you're in love with Yusuke."
This caused the other boy to look at Naruto with confusion on his face "What are you talking about Naruto? Yes I love Keiko but only as a sister, nothing more."
Naruto and Keiko look at Yusuke with wide eyes. Keiko looks thoughtful after she snapped out of her shock while Naruto looked down in shame. He looks back at Yusuke "Sorry about that man, I thought you loved Keiko in a more romantic way."
Yusuke smiles at Naruto before shaking his head "No need to be sorry Naruto, in your shoes I would have done the same. The only difference is that I would have punched the guy with every ounce of power I could use at once. Besides, Keiko's in love with another guy, she doesn't see it herself either, so I don't expect her or the guy she's in love with to notice it."
Naruto looks down and sighs sadly without Keiko noticing. However Yusuke did notice this and smiles because Keiko was in love with Naruto. Keiko looks at Yusuke with a raised eyebrow before waving him to come closer to her. Naruto is still looking down so he doesn't notice this. Yusuke walks over to her and leans in close so the two of them could talk quietly to each other without Naruto overhearing them. Keiko looks at Yusuke with confusion clear on her face "Who am I in love with if it's not you?"
Yusuke looks over at his best friend and smiles before looking back at Keiko "It's Naruto, you've always be in love with him, you were just scared deep down about telling him so your mind convinced you that you were in love with me. Just so you know, Naruto is also in love with you, however he never told you because he believed that you were in love with me, that's why he's looking at his feet right now. He believes that you're in love with someone that's not him. I can't tell you how to handle this situation but I would be more than happy if the two of you were to get together."
Keiko nods with a thoughtful look on her face "That would be nice but I need some time to figure out how to deal with the feelings I have for him without suppressing them anymore, can you convince him to wait for me a little longer?"
Yusuke smirks and shakes his head "There's no need for me to do that since Naruto has been waiting on you since we were all 7. It's been seven long years since he realized that he's in love with you, however he's kept his feelings locked away since then, he's just happy seeing you happy."
Keiko smiles and looks over at Naruto with a light blush on her cheeks. She looks back at Yusuke and nods "I can tell since he's always going out of his way when it came to cheering me up when I was upset."
Yusuke chuckles "Trust me I know, he doesn't really fight much unless he knows I can't handle it alone or they did something that caused you to be upset. However that second one only happens to guys since the girls here don't upset you, ever."
Keiko giggles "I noticed that the guys here always seem to be on guard when Naruto's around me. I just never figured out that it was because he would beat them up if they upset me."
Naruto snapped himself out of his minor depression and looks at them only to raise one of his eyebrows "What are the two of you whispering about over there?"
The two backed away from each other while Yusuke starts waving his hands around "Nothing that you need to deal with Naruto, just some things that Keiko wants to keep quiet about right now."
Naruto nods and sighs "Fine, now we should get out of here Yusuke, I need to do something without dealing with the teachers here."
Yusuke nods and the two boys started to walk towards the door that will let them leave the roof so they can get out of school for the day. As Naruto waked by Keiko their eyes meant and both of them found themselves getting lost in the other's eyes. Naruto was the one to break the eye contact between the two of them and smiles at the girl "See you tomorrow Keiko."
With that Yusuke and Naruto walk away while Keiko watched Naruto walk away while smiling and holding her hands over her heart "See you tomorrow Naruto."
The two boys started to walk towards the front gate only to stop when they hear two of their classmates talking while hiding behind a building. One boy has square glasses on while the other has eyes small enough that they look to be closed normally. The one with the small eyes was waving a wallet through the air while talking to the other boy. The boy with glasses laughs "You mean he just gave you his wallet? That's fresh."
The boy with the wallet in his hand laughed "I just told him that I was Urameshi's cousin and he gave me his wallet while bagging me not to hurt him."
The boy with glasses looks at the other boy with wide eyes "What if Urameshi hears about the cousin stuff? He'll kill you."
The boy with the small eyes laughed "Spare me; the moron will most likely believe it's true."
The two boys started to laugh at that before the one with glasses glanced behind the other boy and froze in fear while giving out a quick shout. The boy with his back turned to whatever his friend was looking at turned his head only to see both Yusuke and Naruto standing there glaring at the two of them. Both boys shoot to their feet before backing into the wall of the building they were hiding behind. Yusuke walks up to the boy that had the wallet after the boy held out the wallet while telling Yusuke to take it. Naruto just watched on in silence while having his arms crossed over his chest. Yusuke smacked his right hand into the wall next to the boys head while drawing his left hand back while it's balled into a fist "Do you think I want your stupid wallet?!"
The boy dropped the wallet onto the ground while the other one started to shake in fear before all four heard a male's voice "Urameshi, put down your fist!"
The four boys turn towards the voice only to see a grown man with square glasses on his face. The man had dark tan skin, short black hair, stands at 6'1" and has an average build. This is Iwamoto, a teacher at the school and he's wearing a green suit with a white undershirt and a yellow neck tie. Iwamoto walks up to the boys and looks at the two against the wall "You boys don't have to be scared of these two anymore. Now what's going on here?"
Both boys laugh nervously before looking at the ground "Nothing."
The teacher looks at the ground and sees the wallet there before smirking and looking back at the boys. His gaze settles on Yusuke and Naruto "So Urameshi was beating you two up for your wallets while Uzumaki kept watch to make sure neither of you got away."
Naruto glared and the man and scoffed while Yusuke glared at him "Whatever."
Iwamoto waves his right hand through the air "You two are nothing more that scum, neither of you should've been allowed to enter this school."
Naruto turns his back on the teacher without saying anything while Yusuke gave Iwamoto a blank stare "You shouldn't talk, it makes you look stupid."
With that both Naruto and Yusuke walk away while Iwamoto growled and glared at their backs. Naruto and Yusuke walked through the entrance gate to the school only for someone to put a hand on one of their shoulders. Whoever grabbed their shoulders turned them around and both boys saw that it was the principal, Mr. Takenaka. His appearance caused both boys' eyes to widen. Yusuke mutters "Old man."
Naruto shakes his head "What can we do for you Mr. Takenaka?"
The principal smiles and Naruto "I couldn't help but notice that both of you were leaving us when I had been calling for the both of you all morning on the loud speaker."
Yusuke gives him a disinterested look "We didn't hear it, sorry. It must not be all that loud."
Naruto sighs "Sorry about him sir, we've just been kicked out by Iwamoto for something that we weren't doing. Yusuke was about to punch a boy in the face for taking someone's wallet by claiming to by Yusuke's cousin. Iwamoto walked onto the scene before Yusuke could actually hit the boy. However Iwamoto saw the wallet on the ground and just assumed that Yusuke was beating the boy and his friend up for their wallets while I was keeping watch to make sure that neither boy got away. So he told us that we were scum and that we shouldn't have been allowed to enter this school, therefore we're leaving."
Takenaka sighed and shook his head "I'll deal with Iwamoto, you two should get to class. We'll talk some more after school."
Naruto shook his head before giving the principal and small smile "Sorry, Mr. Takenaka, we can't do that because our current class is with Iwamoto and neither Yusuke nor myself could sit through a class with that man. We're going to leave and cool down, we'll be back tomorrow, I promise."
The man nods and pats Naruto on the shoulder "Alright young man, I'll see the two of you tomorrow. Both of you have a good day."
Naruto nods and both boys leave school for the day. Fifteen minutes later Naruto and Yusuke walked into Yusuke's house only to see Yusuke's mom awake and watching tv while lighting a cigarette before laying on her side and resting her head on her right hand. She blew out a stream of smoke "Yusuke what aren't you and Naruto in school?"
Yusuke scoffed and turned his mother "Because they pissed us off."
Naruto sighed and smacked Yusuke on the back of his head "Sorry about him Atsuko. He's only pissed because a teacher blamed the both of us for something without asking any questions and only using what he saw to jump to his own conclusions is all. I'm going to talk with Mr. Takenaka tomorrow and explain everything so we can see what our punishments are going to be."
She turns her head and smiles softly at Naruto "Thank you for telling me what's going on Naruto. I just wish you could teach my son to be as kind and understanding as you."
Naruto smiles back at the young mother "It's no problem Atsuko, as for Yusuke, this is just the way he is. You'll have to forgive him for the way he is since he doesn't really like to express his feelings outside of a fight or with someone that speaks the way he does or understands him on a more fundamental level is all. That's why he gets along so well with me since the both of us just like a good fight for other people. The only difference between us is that I train to be better, not just relaying on my natural talent to get me through."
With that Yusuke storms out the door after making his mom a cup of coffee. Naruto and Yusuke are walking down the street. Yusuke kicked a can while shouting about how this day was stupid only for people to get out of the way. Three other boys walked out while blocking any exits for them to leave, two in front of them and one behind. A teen with red hair cut in a pompadour, light skin, an average build with defined muscles and broad shoulders, standing at 6'1", narrow gray eyes, and wearing a light blue jumpsuit. This is Kazuma Kuwabara and he's the rival of Yusuke. Kuwabara smirks at his rival "I hope you're ready to taste the pavement today Urameshi!"
Yusuke gains an evil looking smirk on his face before stepping closer to Kuwabara and getting in his face "I'm so sorry you caught me on a bad day. It makes me a real jerk."
As Yusuke finished his statement he punched Kuwabara in the face while proceeding to beat the boy before smirking and walking away with Naruto following him while they leave Kuwabara on the ground. Yusuke looks at the boy on the ground from over his shoulder "Thanks Kuwabara I feel better now. See you tomorrow for another beating."
Kuwabara's friends run over to him after letting Naruto and Yusuke walk away without any more interruptions. They help him sit up and make sure he's alright. One of them tells him that he should stop picking fights with Yusuke since he's never won a single one of them. Kuwabara shouts no and says that he almost had Yusuke this time before passing out again. His four friends look at each other and sigh before shrugging their shoulders.
We go back to Naruto and Yusuke only to find them walking down a sidewalk. Both boys saw a young boy playing with a ball ahead of them, the boy was playing rather close to the street. The ball rolled into Yusuke's legs and stopped. Naruto bent down and grabbed the ball before Yusuke could and the boy walks up to them and holds his hands out while looking at Naruto. Naruto looks down at the boy and sees the innocents reflected in the child's eyes. The boy titles his head to the side slightly "Can I have my ball back mister?"
Naruto kneels down and smiles at the boy "Sure but you also need to make sure that you're careful about playing with your ball since you're so close to the road. Do you understand?"
The boy nods and Naruto hands the boy back the ball. With that Yusuke started to make faces for the boy. At first he got no reaction from the boy, however when he stuck chopsticks in his nose and the other end in his mouth before he started to jump around making weird laughing noises while waving his hands above his head did the boy start laughing. The boy was also clapping and cheering "Yeah, monster~"
Naruto watched on with a smile before Yusuke stopped and the both of them wave to the boy before crossing the street. They turned back only to see the boy kicking the ball down the sidewalk again without paying attention to what's going on around him. Yusuke gets angry and growls "Stupid kid, he can get splattered across the road for all I care!"
As soon as the words leave Yusuke's mouth the boy kicks the ball to hard and it flies into the street before bouncing towards the middle of the lane that had the vehicles heading in the same direction that the boy was walking while kicking his ball on the sidewalk. Yusuke reaches his hands out "Hey kid, stay out of the road!"
The boy doesn't hear him and walks into the road to get his ball. Naruto and Yusuke notices a red sports car speeding down the road towards the boy while the child grabs his ball before looking at the car hurtling towards him with fear in the boys eyes. Naruto and Yusuke launch themselves towards the boy and mange to push him out of the way only for the two of them to get hit by the car in the child's place. Their bodies hit the street and lay unmoving while people gather around and look at their bodies in shock. Three people snap out of their shock and move into acting. The woman kneels down to calm down the child while one of the men tells the other to phone in for an ambulance.
Flashback End
Naruto and Yusuke look down with wide eyes as they realize that they really are dead. Naruto snapped himself out of his stupor before sighing "Well at least we died making sure that the boy was safe."
Both boys hear a female giggle behind them "That's a wonderful way to look at this situation."
Naruto and Yusuke twisted around a fast as they could and saw a beautiful girl with long light blue hair pulled into a ponytail, light skin, purple eyes, a rather attractive form, and wearing a pink kimono. She was sitting on what appears to be an ore for a small boat. She looks at both boys and smiles at them. This causes Yusuke to gain a slight pink dusting across his cheeks that only Naruto notices. Naruto smirks at this 'Teasing material!'
Naruto turns his attention back to the girl on the ore "Sorry miss, but who are you?"
The girl looks slightly sheepish "Sorry about that, my name is Botan and I'm the pilot of the river Styx."
Naruto raised an eyebrow "You're the grim reaper?"
She nods and Naruto shrugs as he simply accepts her answer. Yusuke however scoffs "Yeah right, the grim reaper is suppose to be a skeleton wearing a black cloak, not a beautiful girl who seems entirely too cheerful to be someone that takes souls to the afterlife for a living."
Naruto rolls his eyes while Botan pulls out a book and opens it to a certain page that only she can see. She starts reading before looking at Yusuke "Oh, I know what kind of person you are now. Instead of acting scare, you scream and tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about."
Yusuke glares at the girl and goes to get in her face while shaking his fist only for Naruto to grab the back of his collar stopping him in his tracks. Yusuke looks over his shoulder at Naruto only to see Naruto shake his head. Yusuke sighs and lowers his fist before Naruto let go of him. Both boys turn their attention back to Botan after hearing her clear her throat. Naruto smiles at her in apology "Sorry about Botan, Yusuke doesn't like people he doesn't know telling him that they know what he's like without getting to know him personally. Anyways, I'm assuming you're here to take us exactly where we're going?"
Botan shakes her head "No, I'm here to take you two to Spirit World to talk to someone, since we didn't expect either of you to die today."
Naruto shakes his head "No, I want to go and check on the boy that we died to protect. After that I'll gladly go to Spirit World with you."
Botan smiles and nods "Sure, let's go to the hospital and check on the boy."
Yusuke is forced shout as Botan grabs his wrist as she flies by. Yusuke looks towards Naruto only for his eyes to widen when he saw that Naruto was flying next to Botan while keeping up with her insane speeds. Naruto glances over at Yusuke and smirks before shooting him a playful wink before focusing back to what was in front of him. About five minutes later all three of them stopped just outside of the hospital. Both Naruto and Yusuke look inside a widow to see the boy with a woman who appears to be his mother while talking to a doctor. The doctor tells the boys' mom that he only has a few scraps and no brain damage at all. The mother sighs in relief while hugging her son "Thank goodness."
Both boys smile before turning to Botan. Naruto speaks up before Yusuke can "Alright Botan, take us to Spirit World so we can talk to whomever sent you here to get us."
Botan smiles "Alright but I need to give you some information before we go see my boss. Now I'm going to take the two of you to speak to my boss so he can give you a chance to go through an ordeal that will let you come back to life. It shouldn't take long for the two of you to come back to life."
Yusuke folds his hands behind his head and turned around "No thanks. I think I like being a ghost. I mean you said yourself earlier Botan, my life wasn't all that good while I was still living. Now others will be happy with me erased. However Naruto should be given the chance to come back to life since there are people that still need him around down there."
Botan looks at Yusuke sadly while Naruto closes his eyes and shakes his head. Botan takes a deep breath "Well how about you spend some time at your wake before you decide."
With that Botan flew into the sky and disappeared in thin air. Yusuke looks at the sky in confusion "You got worms in your ears lady? I did decide!"
Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed the back of Yusuke's collar before dragging him to his house for their wake. When they got there it's dark out and they see their entire class there laughing and joking around. Yusuke raised his hands and started clutching his fingers so they close half way "I beat they're just here because they're getting extra credit!"
Naruto sighed and folds his arms across his chest "Most likely but there are people here that want to be here so shut up and let's see who really cares about you. This way you can make a decision before you let this second chance pass you by without at least trying to take it."
With that Naruto and Yusuke watch as people come in and start paying their respect to the both of them. They soon see Keiko in the middle of two of her friends crying slightly. Keiko fell to her knees before screaming "Yusuke! Naruto! No!"
Yusuke looks down "Is she making all that noise for the both of us?"
They see Kuwabara being held back by two of his friends while he's forcing his way to where Naruto and Yusuke's coffins where resting for their wake. He's screaming and refusing to let his friends take him away from the wake. Kuwabara comes in the door "You're just scared you punk! You're only doing this because you know I'm going to beat you one day!"
The guy in front of Kuwabara grips onto him tighter "Kuwabara we should leave here."
Kuwabara shakes his head "No! I'm not leaving until Urameshi gets out here and fights me himself! Uzumaki also still has to finish my training! Neither of them is allowed to die until everyone around here doesn't need them anymore!"
Kuwabara throws a punch that stops just shy of Yusuke's picture "Who am I suppose to fight now you punk? Who am I suppose to fight now?!"
Kuwabara slightly lowers his fist and tears start to fall onto it as Kuwabara could no longer hold his back. He looks at the pictures of both Naruto and Yusuke "You two are suppose to be here for me, and everyone else here. How are we supposed to get through this without at least one of you?"
With that Kuwabara loses all his will to fight against his friends and goes slack in their arms. This allows them to pull him away. The one behind Kuwabara looks at the people at the wake "Sorry about that, everyone."
Two teachers are watching this with frowns on their faces. One is Iwamoto. The other is a skinny man with brown hair, squinty eyes, light tan skin, long pointy nose, and large buck teeth. This is Akashi and most people would describe his features as rat-like. Iwamoto sneered slightly "Did you see that?"
Akashi walks up to stand next to his fellow teacher "They're just some punks Urameshi hung out with. Too bad that car wasn't big enough for them too."
Iwamoto smirks "Now, now be nice. After a life time of trouble Yusuke did something to get our school a good name."
The rat like teacher starts snickering "Between you and me, Mr. Iwamoto, I think he saved that boy by accident when he was trying to steal his lunch money after pushing him down."
Iwamoto snickered as well "I wouldn't be surprised Mr. Akashi, and knowing Uzumaki, he was just watching before actually trying to save the boy. It's sad that Uzumaki decided to hang out with trash like Urameshi. Uzumaki was a good student; his death will be a significant loss to our school."
Akashi nods his head in agreement. Neither teacher realizing that the ghosts of both boys could hear them. They also didn't realize that their boss was hearing what they said as well. Yusuke and Naruto where glaring at the two teachers before Yusuke start to shakily reach for their shoulders "If I could only…"
Yusuke stopped in surprise when he saw two hands that were solid grab the same shoulders of the two teachers he was about to grab in his ghost form. Both teachers were turned around and their ties grabbed by Takenaka. Their boss gave them both a stern glare "What do you two this is more disrespectful, that boy shouting out in misery or you insensitive words?"
With that Takenaka pushed by the two teachers and walked in and kneels. He bows to Atsuko before turning and doing the same to both coffins "Naruto I'm sorry that you had to die before you could explain to me what really happened earlier today. Yusuke I'm not sure why I don't feel like well of you. I just wish you would've stayed at school, you could have made something great of yourself."
Both boys look over to Atsuko as they hear her start to mutter something "Yusuke… Naruto…"
She starts to cry while hiding her face into her knees which are curled into her chest with her arms around them. They watch in sadness as the woman breaks down in tears over them. Naruto knows that Yusuke is her real son by birth however he started to see her as his own mother due to the way she always told him that she wanted both of them to turn out better than her. She also told Naruto about his birth mom since the two of them were best friends. Atsuko told Naruto that his mother, Kushina, would be proud of the man he was turning into. Botan than appears behind them and looks at them with sadness in her eyes "Have you come to a decision, Yusuke?"
Yusuke didn't turn to her but kept looking down at his house watching his mom cry in despair "Botan?"
She perks up slightly "Yes dear?"
Yusuke sticks his hands in his pockets "Did you ever find something out, something that was obvious to everyone else?"
She sighed and smiles sadly at the back of Yusuke's head "I think we all do when we die, Yusuke."
Naruto and Yusuke look at one another before nodding. Yusuke looks at Botan "Alright Botan, the both of us will go through this ordeal to be brought back to life."
Botan smiles and turns her ore around for Yusuke to grab the back of. When he had a good grip she starts flying into the sky while Naruto follows them. Yusuke looks confused "Hey, where are you taking us?'
Botan looks over her shoulder at him and smiles "Why to the Spirit World of course. That's where you'll talk to my boss about this ordeal!"
