AN: As promised, the second chapter of the two-part installment. Warning: I also posted the first of these two new chapters a couple days ago, so if you haven't read that yet, click back first!

Quick note on Hiei's collapse previous chapter, due to a reviewer question: No, it's not poison. Hiei has been overstretching several new muscles and a whole new set of recently rewired neurons. Basically, he's getting good at sprint running, but he's behind on stamina. He was running on an adrenaline high and panic, and was overusing his energy because he's used to being A-class or S-class, not D-class. And it's only been a few months since the operation…

Basically, the same thing that happened to Kakashi in the first fight with Zabuza. Hasn't recently used that special eye for extended periods of time, isn't quite as used to pushing himself in the ways he needs to for the eye to be effective, and gives himself chakra exhaustion. Or in Hiei's case, youki exhaustion combined with blood loss.

Students who crash post-exams often have their immune systems crash with them at the drastic change in stress levels. Same thing.

But Kurama does use poisons, and just plain drugs. And Hiei is going to wonder about their possible effect on him when he wakes up. It's not like he trusts this stranger…

The Greyhound's sinking in the waves, and fast the sea receives her.
Curse the Reaper, bend your back and cheat your sorry grave!
And Captain Bryce is on her deck, so we, her hands, may leave her.
Curse the Reaper, bend your back and cheat your sorry grave!

Curse the Reaper cowled in black, he's laughing at your failing.
Pull that oar until it cracks, we're bound for better sailing, bound for better sailing…!
- excerpt from 'The Greyhound,' sung by Heather Dale

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. – Maya Angelou

Chapter Twelve: Curse the Reaper

He awakens to a white plaster ceiling, a raised bed with a mattress underneath him, sheets neatly made up. He's stripped to his pants and shoes and bandanna. For a moment, he's back with Team Hawk in a hotel room, and tenses, waiting for Karin to sense his chakra switch from sleeping to waking, and come barging in the door.

"You have a fast capacity to recover."

He remembers.

"Only four hours…" the soft, but unmistakably male voice continues, as he sits up. The other male is sitting across the room on the floor, beneath the windows covered in curtains. Out of reach of a sleeping, or abruptly waking, warrior's retailiation, intentional or unintentional. And blocking the escape route.

The rest of the floor is clear, aside from the glass table in the middle, with two cushions by them, and a desk and chair and a bookshelf along the other wall.

His surroundings memorized, Hiei glances down at himself, then looks again.

His wound should be an ugly, raw, red. Instead, it's a healthy, healing pink.

The kind he'd expect to see after a few days of full rest, at his current regeneration levels. Not four hours.

"Your wound was very deep, so I healed them without asking," the redhead continues.

A redhead, a healer, and quiet and polite? Will wonders never cease… Pragmatic in immediate reporting of the situation, however, so somewhat like Karin in her professional moments. More prone to random acts of kindness, though. He's reminded of the one time Naruto ranted about Zabuza's apprentice, when Sasuke was pretending not to listen, and the details of politeness mixed with firmness and skill, all played for underestimation.

And we fell for it. I walked right by him…

"Healing herbs from the Makai are very effective."

…Yep. Zabuza's apprentice. Karin would never be this quiet, even if she managed the polite. It was a damn good mask, too. People saw the loudness and never guessed there might be anything else to look for.

Hiei allows the spark of amusement to flare for an instant, then spots his clothes and katana at the foot of the bed and reaches for them.

Recovery aided or not, he's still stupidly drained his youki. Too damn used to A-Class levels to draw on, and too panicked to recognize he'd gone past the safe limit. It's a miracle he didn't crash sooner. Stubborness, thy name is Uzumaki-partnered Uchiha.

And with the confirmation of healing herbs, Hiei's rescanning that fuzziness in his mindset. He does not need either an allergic reaction to his unique physiology or a deliberate poisoning attempt.

"By the way… did you know that you talk in your sleep?"

…Perhaps not so like Haku, then. Karin had a habit of interrogating and lecturing him when he was down, too. He could usually get out of it…

"Who is Yukina?"

No, no, no!

He's shrugging into his cloak, determinedly and swiftly scanning himself for any sedatives, burning the traces he finds out of his system.

"You weren't born with that Jagan," the redhead continues, not having moved an inch – confident, and with reason, it seems. "The surgery to acquire it was recent, I think; your youki is still weakened from getting it. You must be very determined to use a Jagan. To go after Yatsude all by yourself… you must have a very good reason for doing such a daring thing."

Cloak and scarf secured, katana checked and sliding into place. I am not weak; what right has he to comment or question?

"What does that girl have to do with Yatsude?"

There was no one to get close enough to Hiei to know such things, but anyone who could claim to know Sasuke with any sort of truthfulness knew that pushing him like this was exactly the wrong tactic to take. Karin was one of the few that could get away with it, mainly because Sasuke had mentally appointed her as something of a morality/stupidity chain.

This stranger might share her hair color. But he does not share that privilege.

"You're very talkative, aren't you?" Hiei grits out, turning his flattest stare on the redhead; glares become rather less effective when someone has seen you at your weakest. "If you hadn't helped me… I'd kill you for what you think you've figured out." Actually, more likely, he'd rip his mind to shreds first, then kill him. But he doesn't have enough energy left for even one more Jagan use at the moment. Not without risking unconsciousness again, let alone fight Yatsude and his minions.

He crosses to the window. Time to leave while he still has a fresh trail to follow, before there are any more victims. And preferably while he still has a little dignity.

Damn it. I owe him.

Hiei also remembers exactly what price his last doctor charged.

"Instead of a reward, let me give you some advice." He shoves the curtains aside, and the window open. Ah, good; the next roof is close enough that he needn't jump to ground. "Your naivete is going to get you killed someday."

"Off to fight? It's too soon. What about your injuries?"

—'Did anyone get any leads on Itachi?'

Karin's arms are folded, hip cocked as she stares down at him on the futon. Even sitting up, he's aware of the height difference. And the way she stares reminds him of the bandages around his forehead, the gauze pack on his cheek, the cuts on his arms, the scratches on his face left open to air. He doesn't exactly have much dignity. Especially not when all three teammates are in the room with him, and he's the only one injured

'Are you kidding me!? You're half-dead and you're still trying to be a tough guy?!'

You needn't put it so blatantly that I got my ass kicked kicking the other guy's, he thinks, but he is smart enough not to say aloud. Not when she's legitimately pissed. Karin is scary in healer mode. —

Just like Karin, critiquing his decisions when they hurt him personally. Calling him. One would almost think he cared.

"The more Yatsude eats, the stronger he gets." If the redhead's even half as intelligent as he's implied, given he knows enough to recognize Yatsude by name, that will be enough. There isn't time to waste.

"At least let me know your name?"

Seriously? This guy has done nothing to earn that –

"It's… Hiei."

It's a good thing he already had one foot on the windowsill; he's actually able to get over his startlement at actually giving the name up in time to land properly.

He gave away his name.

To an utter stranger.

And he hasn't wiped the mind. Hasn't even tried.

What is wrong with him?

Two minutes of rooftops later, he hears a panicked shout behind him: "Hiei! Wait! I'm going with you!"

He twitches, startled.

'I'll go… if you insist, I'll go with you.'

"Yeah? And why is that?" he shouts back.

'What are you saying? You changed your mind quickly…'

"I have my reasons…"

'The swords of the 'Seven Ninja Swordsmen' were passed down from generation to generation. I… admired the Seven and trained because of it. As long as I have this large sword, I wouldn't lose even to you… maybe.'

'I can't let you die… you're all I have left to remember Kimimaro.'

This seems very amusingly familiar, suddenly. Suigetsu, who wanted the Seven Swordsmen's Swords; Karin who insisted she was merely going in the same direction; Jugo who needed Sasuke, as inheritor of Kimimaro's will, to control him. They all had their own reasons.

Perhaps Suigetsu had the right idea.

'Come on, let's go, Sasuke. It seems like Karin won't come.'

"That girl?" He even manages to add imaginary wiggling eyebrows into his tone, and is quite proud of himself for it.

'No… She says she'll come…'

"Shut up."

'Wh…Who said I'll go! I'm jus… just heading… to the same direction…! Um…!'

Yep. Exactly like Karin. A shyer, politer Karin, but… he already feels less lonely.

He doesn't know if he's fooling himself or not, but… He always could trust Karin with his back. Even when Team Taka, then Team Hebi, all followed him for their own reasons – Suigetsu for his swords, Karin for her loyalty, Juugo for someone who could control him – he could trust them.

It would be nice to have the companions back who understood him in his darkest days.

"How naïve… Your tongue still hasn't slacked off. You're not saving it for our ki."

"Decide that after we beat Yatsude."

Hiei understands why Suigetsu had so much fun teasing the rest of them, especially when faced with such an Uchiha-like response, short and to the point. It is a great deal of fun when you're not on the end of the teasing, and even when you are.

Quite simply? The reactions are vastly amusing.

Said amusement holds out until they land in what his companion calls 'an abandoned factory.' What it made, Hiei cannot imagine; the life-sized mannequin parts strewn here and there confuse him. He can find no memory in either lifetime of why they would be useful. Unless for one of Suna's puppeteers, perhaps, but he has found no evidence of chakra users anywhere here, and he does not know if pure ki could pull the same tricks.

The darkness and stench of mixed stages of putrification makes him wrinkle his nose. Even an ordinary human nose could pick up this level of decay without needing Inuzuka ancestry or jinchūriki level senses. If he still believed in the gods, he'd call a miko to deal with this plague.

His companion scowls. "He's got really bad breeding. Mixing the dolls with the parts he's been saving to eat." He carefully steps around a rotting head, one eyeball torn out and the stains gummed across the cheek; beside it, casually arranged atop a porcelain limb, are the tatter flesh remnant of its real-life counterpart. Hiei has seen such damage when animals tear out the bones and suck the marrow. The beasts are generally neater about it.

The redhead (he really needs a name, but doesn't have the energy to waste on the Jagan before it's time) has a point about the squalor. Hiei suspects that, raised among bandits as he was, he would be rather less clued in on such things without the lifetime that included being raised by Uchiha Mikoto. Manners were pounded into the clan head's son from an early age; had the massacre never occurred, Sasuke might well have been groomed to be a diplomat.

Or at least there would have been an attempt. He's not sure it would have actually proven workable in reality.

"Kitajima!" his companion calls aloud desperately.

Damn. There goes the element of surprise.

"You're dead!"

Reflex has him springing away from the punch that hits the ground, splitting to opposite side of the room from the redhead. Hiei simultaneously curses himself for letting someone get the drop on him, and, for the first time, is consciously grateful to the memories.

Eight-Hands, despite having four times the upper limbs of a normal person (with the last set of hands being a replacement for feet that don't exist, and the top pair seem to have replaced his ears), doesn't punch nearly as accurately or powerfully as Sakura. He, no it, barely managed to crack the concrete floor. Despite having muscles to the point of appearing obese. And a face that would rival any Noh mask for sheer creepiness. He's also filthy, beyond what even a self-respecting bandit would counternance –a loincloth so matted with dirt and blood and other fluids it's impossible to tell the original colour, barely held up by a belt of skulls. Skulls about the size of Hiei's own head. Some human, some demonic-humoid, and all remarkably intact.

"You guys are very stubborn," Yatsude rumbles, arms opened wide, ready for a sumo wrestler's crushing grip if they give him the slightest chance.

Hiei takes a deep breath, condenses his youki in preparation for the Jagan. He asked a question of this same importance a lifetime ago, but this time he has an advantage to tell if the answer is true. "I'll ask you just once…"

"I want to ask you one last question… Who is the third Uchiha survivor? The one you told me about?"

"What is the name of that kōrime, that ice maiden that you ate?"

"Oh? Why should I tell you?" Amused condescendence oozes from the unchanged grin. It pissed Hiei off, and he works to control his temper.

"Your underling grabbed a girl earlier today," the redhead speaks up, drawing the thing's attention away. "Where is she?" He hides his panic well, but Hiei can smell it even through the stench of blood and putrification.

"Hm? You know her?" Yatsude's only sign of interest is in his voice, the rest of him is unreadable except for an immense sense of hunger that Hiei refuses to go anywhere near. "I'm sorry…" One of the ear-arms reaches back to scratch the greasy locks, picks something out.

"Was she a friend?"

A bloody foot and calf, limp as a noodle with the bone removed, dangles from the hand.

The only warning is a low, subvocal growl that makes the hair on the back of Hiei's neck prickle in anticipation.

"BASTARD!" The redhead is in the air, leaf-sword grown from his fingertips in a fraction of a second. As Yatsude raises an arm to shield his face from the blade, dropping the foot as fresher prey glides within his reach, Hiei darts under the redhead's path, sliding out his katana to cut the tendons at the knee/elbow.

Shhk!

Yatsude's long claws catch each blade between them, and Hiei can't disengage in time to avoid the punch coming at him, any more than the foolish youkai-turned-schoolboy.

Yatsude is laughing as he sends them flying. "You're not so pathetic after all!"

Hiei curses, rubbing at his jaw as he lands on his feet. For a moment, he's twelve years old again, charging at his jounin instructor, determined to fry the book if not the bells.

Wait. That's it.

Even as he has the idea, he's opening the Jagan behind the bandanna, communicating a single thought to the redhead. - It's useless if we attack him separately. - A series of images follow, including the doll on the floor that is most complete, wig and all.

He loosens his cloak – and moves.

In unison to rival a certain Uzumaki's clone coordination, they swing their blades from midair.

"An impromptu double-play?! You attack me as a pair?!" Yatsude is surprised, but still condescendingly amused. Again, he fends off the swords with his claws, but this time, the pair land on their own account – and cross, Hiei behind the other.

The Jagan, still active, catches Yatsude's slimy thoughts.

- He disappeared behind the other? Heh… It's an old trick… -

Indeed it is, one of the oldest tricks in the book – and yet Sasuke used it successfully against both Zabuza and Itachi. It was a shruiken that hid in the shadows, then, not a living being, even if the first case was Naruto in weapon-Henge.

- He's coming from above! -

The oni does not even appear to look anywhere but the redhead, but he's spotted Hiei's cloak. A flying shadow and a white scarf, descending from above.

Again, the schoolboy slashes; again, Yatsude catches the sword, and holds it, readying a punch. "You're pretty new at this, aren't you? It's no use…"

The angle abruptly changes upward; Yatsude is fast for such a gluttonous beast.

"I've seen all through your stupid plan!"

The head above the cloak shatters – with a tinkle of breaking porcelain.

"…A doll? A trap!"

But Yatsude's arm is fully extended in the wrong direction, and Hiei, hidden in the shadow of a doll hidden in the shadow of the redhead, is too close.

Yatsude only has time to swear before simultaneous decaptiation and bisection at the waist.

Even as it falls, however, the head is still talking.

"Not bad… As a reward, I'll tell you… That girl is safe… As for the kōrime… if I'd eaten one of those… I wouldn't have lost…"

The head rolls to a stop, the brain finally having caught up that the body is dead. Yatsude is slow even in death.

She's not with him…

Hiei doesn't know whether to be relieved at the absence of proof of death or despair at yet another dead end.

In the end, he does nothing. He strips the mannequin of his cloak and scarf, and wipes clean his blade. The redhead has found his friend off to one side, and pulls her up for a piggyback.

The last time Hiei was involved in one of those as the carried was when as seven year old Sasuke, before the massacre, on the back of his beloved nii-san. He'd sprained his ankle in training.

The last time he was involved as the carrier was also as Sasuke. Karin had narrowly escaped Amaterasu with a mild case of burns and unconsciousness and despite his own wounds and exhaustion, Sasuke had shrugged off Juugo's offer and pulled her on his own back, the better to monitor her breathing and confirm he hadn't killed her. Juugo got to carry Suigetsu and the false Hachibi.

He can see the same unconscious trust in the slump of the female child on the redhead's back, and the exhaustion and fear in the old-young youkai. And despite shutting off his Jagan, the effects linger. He can feel the resolve forming in his erstwhile battle partner to do something.

He only realizes what when he catches the scent of a flower in spring that should not be outside of Makai. But given the redhead has access to Makai healing herbs, he's no longer surprised when it turns out the redhead has the Pollen of Forgetfulness.

When his friend stirs on his back, she thinks she's dreaming. Hiei makes note of the name she uses, even if 'Minamino' is doubtless a human alias.

Then his ears prick up, as the redhead hypnotizes her back to sleep.

"Right, it's all just a dream… You'll forget it all when you wake up…"

That's about what Hiei would do in his place.

"You'll forget it all, including your love for me…"

He likes to think he would not make the final command.

"That's a mugen flower pollen," he comments. He will not have the redhead erase his memories either; it's doubtful the Jagan would let him succeed, but Hiei is pretty certain his head has been screwed with enough times. And he only just finished reordering his memories. So he has to tell him he's aware of what he's doing. "You're erasing her memories?"

"It's for her own good." The reply is surprisingly cold. Hiei scowls at the reasoning, reminded both of Itachi's high handedness and of Shikamaru's tactical brilliance, only fully fueled with motivation when Asuma was killed. It's the kind of reasoning a commander uses, a reasoning that distances casualties into numbers and statistics. All the same, he mentally notes never to use the jagan on his temporary companion; he's not sure he could cover it up and has no idea how the redhead would react, but given how much the redhead reminds him of Karin, who he learned a few weeks before his death was actually an Uzumaki, it would undoubtedly be unpleasant. Mix that in with the Nara-worthy intelligence and Aburame-level calculation…

But another part of him whispers the memory of their combination attack. He's never coordinated with another person so quickly before. Not even with Naruto. But with this person… even with the Jagan, that's rare.

This is a contact he needs to keep as an ally. An ally that he wants to cultivate.

(He doesn't need friends. Friends betray you easily and sometimes even unintentionally. Allies don't, because they can prearrange rules.)

He glances over again, nervously. He's never been very good at the social thing. Usually, people introduced themselves to him, not the other way around. Or they weren't around long enough to require names.

But he needs a name for this one.

"By the way, you still haven't told me your name…"

Too forward?

Oh, who cares.

"…I'll make an effort to remember it."

…Damn his brain-mouth filter. That's not something either Uzumaki of his acquaintance would let him get away with. It's an awful, Uchiha-arrogance joke.

Fortunately, the redhead seems amused.

"It's… Kurama." He looks about as surprised to have willingly offered the truth as Hiei was earlier this evening.

Kurama.

Another bit of Reikei office gossip pops into his head, from the department that went over what Uchiha Fugaku would have called 'cold cases.'

Youko Kurama. A famous kitsune thief, A-Class rank, who disappeared from the Makai just over a decade ago, hotly pursued. But no trace of the body was ever found, even if no further activity existed to prove him among the living. Nor had his soul been processed by the Reikei.

…Definitely a contact he wants to keep cultivating.

(If he also wants to be close to the person who has gone through the closest form to his own rebirth that he has found, Hiei will hardly admit it aloud).

Over the months that follow, Hiei begins using Kurama's house as a home base of sorts while he scans the various places of human world. Kurama ends up giving him lessons in human currency, geography, and, he's somewhat ashamed to admit, an update on his kanji and katakana. The former thief eventually offers details of how he wound up in a human body (to regain his own energy) – and why he ended up staying (a mother saving him from a floor of broken glass, a selfless act for a selfish being).

Hiei has to admit, he's a bit envious of Kurama, having Minamino-san as a mother. Hina doesn't even come close, and Mikoto doesn't come nearly as close as he'd like. He makes an effort to study her parenting of Kurama, who treats it with good grace and is mostly well-behaved. After she nearly catches him sleeping over in her son's room, however, he panics enough to take an extended three-month trip away to explore some rumors.

He quickly became convinced that the search would be easier with more eyes. However, he cannot trust anyone else with the information, and he's not experienced enough with the Jagan to make puppets on the scale of White Zetsu's loyal clones, nor ready to deal with the attention such would draw. At this point, he's even been looking at the jewelry market. But there are no kōrime tear gems, or even rumors that match their description.

When he returns home, furious at his lack of progress, it's ten months to the day that he met Kurama. For once, the redhead does not acknowledge him. He's sitting on his bed, staring out at the world. Shock and faded tears mix in his scent, the salt stinging Hiei's nose.

"What happened?" he demands, unnerved at this out of character reaction, hand idly plucking at his sword, wishing for a straightforward foe that he senses does not exist.

Kurama takes a few minutes to respond. When he does, Hiei does not understand him, and is forced to replay the memory using the Jagan – he's High D-class these days, he has the energy and stamina to spare.

Then he pales.

"My mother's in the hospital. It's…not looking good."

After I found out about Yukina, a new search began. I knew I would never be able to rest until I found her. [Pause] I sensed that she was somewhere in Human World. [Pause; sword and rose whip clash. It's Kurama in lower school with short hair] Once there, I became acquainted with the demon named Kurama, who had taken human form.

- Hiei, Yu Yu Hakusho, Episode 100: Secret of the Jagan Eye

AN: And that concludes the events of 'Two Shots.'

Canon timeline: there is a year between Hiei and Kurama's first meeting and their heist at Reikei, when Yuusuke is sent after them. I figured that even a master thief would need a little time to get really desperate, research, find a third partner to take the fall, and finally carry out the heist. Hence the two months to the canon convergence deadline. Probably a couple chapters story wise.

I leave on break tomorrow, and I have exams to study for and then take within the next couple weeks. If you offer some thought provoking reviews to stimulate chapter ideas, I might be able to get one last chapter out before Christmas break starts. If not, I'll try to have one more out by New Year's but no promises.

Optional bonus: When I originally started making notes to write this thing, I went through the TV Tropes page on both characters, then double checked which ones I felt applied to both, and wrote them down, with notes on how each trope applies. If you review to say you're interested, I'll publish them as part of my authors end notes next chapter.

Otherwise: happy Thanksgiving, and a toast to good food and drink.