I'm rather late and I realize tht but hey this is a work in progress don't get mad

I do not own the rights to Yu Yu Hakusho

so dont bother sueing me

Hotaru walked absentmindedly down the street on her way back to her cousin's apartment, having just left the beauty salon her older cousin worked at. Shizuru was busy today with many customers and Hotaru felt that she just got in the way of the complicated operations that took place in the small building, so deciding that it was for the best, the seventeen year old left her cousin to her work.

The day was still young, nearly one o'clock and it just seemed to drag on and on. Concentrating her vision on the sky above her, Hotaru let instinct take over as she spaced out, staring into the endless blue sky.

The Kuwabara family has always had a heightened sense of awareness to the world around them, but it always seemed that the eldest of the children's children had the stronger gift. Being the daughter of the second oldest daughter, her abilities were nearly nonexistent, only enough to help her avoid most dangers, but mostly only the extreme ones. But with her spiritual awareness she could feel Ki, but not well enough to tell how powerful. It went from 'ok normal' to 'I think I want to start walking the other way', so in other words the sensitivity of her awareness was not very precise. But her spiritual awareness had its ups beside being so weak compared to her cousin's. For example it gave her a strangely accurate sense of direction, which was handy in a lot of the situations she always seemed to get herself into. She sighed in aspiration remembering the time nearly two weeks ago when she got lost, hiking off path at Mount Fuji with her friends, who decided it would be funny to leave her in the middle of nowhere.

Shivering involuntary, Hotaru glanced around realizing that although she managed to avoid danger, she had gotten herself lost. 'Great. Thinking about getting lost gets me lost. I applaud my brilliance. Go me.' Her left hand went through her hair as she turned around and started to head the way that she had came. Footsteps resounded behind her, making her pause and glance over her shoulder.

Nothing was there.

Shaking her head she continued down the street. Again she could her the footsteps of someone else behind her. Slowing her pace, her pursuer did the same. Turning around fully Hotaru observed no one on the street except herself. Shaking her head lightly she went back to walking, 'I must be paranoid. No one's around except for me.'

Nodding to herself, Hotaru closed her eyes and started to deduce where the hell she had ended up at. "I can't be too lost, I mean I only walked on a straight course right? I don't remember taking any turns or something like that… but then again I don't remember walking so long that I would end up in a place that I didn't recognize. God, this just sucks!"

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

Hotaru yelled in surprise, stumbling over her own feet and falling to the ground. Laughing outrageously loud behind her stood Yusuke. He wore a ridiculous face from watching the older female jump about three feet into the air and then trip over her own feet on the landing.

Realizing who the obnoxious laughter belonged to, Hotaru jumped to a crouched position and swept her leg in a low arc, swiping Yusuke's feet from under him. "Who's laughing now you bastard? God Yusuke you are a sick sick man if I ever knew one."

"Well I'm not the one talking to herself in the middle of a sidewalk now am I?" Yusuke rubbed his backside of which he had fallen on muttering under his breath, 'damn that girl kicks just like the old hag.'

"Well don't mess with my mind like that, I don't like that at all."

"Someone has watched too many horror movies and unsolved crimes episodes. So what are you doing down here anyways, didn't think you'd be one to go lookin for trouble or a fight."

"I wasn't looking for any of those things, I just happened to become distracted by my own thoughts on my way back to Shizuru's apartment and ended up here, nothing more nothing less."

"Geez Hotaru, you sound just like Kurama. Maybe you two should get together."

"And I know someone named Kurama?"

Yusuke laughed nervously rubbing the back of his neck, "That's right you don't know that Kurama is Shuichi's nickname. That's what me, Kuwabara, and Hiei call him."

"Uh huh… thanks for the interesting update. Now where the hell are we and why the hell were you sneaking around after me like some kind of stalker?"

"I was NOT stalking you! I was simply following you to see where you were going."

"Yeah… I think that is what they call stalking Yusuke."

"I WASN'T BEING A STALKER!!"

"But you are being too damn loud, Yusuke! My poor ears are hurting from your voice. And I was just joking with you. Don't get so agitated."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Yusuke took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and opened them trying to pull out one of the sticks of doom. Hotaru snatched them from his hand which loosely held them, "Hey what the hell Hotaru?! Give those back!"

"Smoking is no good for your health and besides you are underage you can't have these smokes." Hotaru slipped them into her back pocket.

"Yeah? Well what about you?! You're underage too!"

"Who says I'm going to smoke them? And besides, its only illegal if you get caught, like I when I just caught you."

"Smart ass," Yusuke muttered to himself giving Hotaru a glare.

"And proud of it Yusuke. So, where are we?"

"We're just in the slums, nothing important here," the shorter brunette said folding his arms behind his head, while inspecting the dirt on his shoes. "You want me to bring you to your cousin's? Since you are lost and all?"

"Yeah, that would make my life slightly easier than it is." She gave Yusuke a smile, closing her eyes. Together the teenagers set off down the street walking in a comfortable silence. Soon the seventeen year old started to recognize the surrounding building structures, but not completely sure if they were the same places that she was thinking of at that very moment. "Yusuke… are we near-"

"Yeah, we'll be passing by Shizuru's workplace in a moment or two," he replied almost in a bored tone of voice. He continued to steal small glances at Hotaru as they passed by the beauty solon.'I went the wrong way when I left Shizuru's workplace, no wonder I had no idea where I was,' Hotaru lowered her head in self-embarrassment, 'and I'm supposed to be the smart one of the family.' Hotaru lowered her head in self-embarrassment, 'and I'm supposed to be the smart one of the family.'

"So… Hotaru," Yusuke said casually, his voice hiding his sly intents, "What do you think of Shuichi? Do you like him?"

"Shuichi?" Hotaru paused a moment to think about the polite red haired male she had met that morning, "Well… I didn't really have much time to talk to him, but he seemed rather nice."

"Oh? And what do you think of his physical characteristics?"

Hotaru rose an eyebrow at Yusuke completely unaware of his intentions, "Well I suppose he is nice looking, my age I would think. His hair… is EXTREMELY red, and I think he has green eyes. I hate to say it but he looks a little feminine to me." Hotaru's eyes hardened into a cold glare, "Tell him that and I will beat you in to ground myself Yusuke."

Yusuke sighed inwardly in disappointment hearing the answer Hotaru gave him. Not exactly a love at first thing that he could use to tease Hotaru and Kurama with… not that he really knew whether or not Kurama liked Kuwabara's cousin quite like that, but it would have been even more fun if they did. "So why were you disowned Hotaru, you never told us the details this morning."

"Didn't I?" She shrugged, "Well, you know my father, really demanding and all that, always gets what he wants kind of person you know?" Yusuke nodded in understanding, so the taller brunette continued. "Oh… well, anyways he made this deal with the president of another company saying that if he supplied some materials at a cheaper price he would marry his daughter to him, the daughter being me. So yeah, I said no, so he freaked out on me and was all like, 'You are a stupid spoiled bitch, I do everything you ask of me and when I ask you to do something for me you refuse me, get out of my fucking house you selfish bitch, grab anything you currently own because by the time its two o'clock you'll no longer be my daughter or associated with me' and that's pretty much what he said."

"He said it in those exact words?"

"More or less, I think I left out more of his insults though, I do believe he called me a cunt several times. But I don't really care, he was a mean lying bastard anyways." Her hand flew through her loose locks brushing them back behind her ear. The teenagers now stood in front of the Kuwabara's apartment door both of them looked to each other in a questioning manner. "Do you think he is still asleep?"

Yusuke smirked opening the unlocked door, "Who cares, I got less sleep than him and I'm walking around all fine."

"But that is because you are a freak who lived after being ran over by a car, so therefore your walking about does not count." Walking past the punk with an outraged expression upon his face Hotaru gave Yusuke an innocent look paired with a set of raised eyebrows that seemed to tell him 'I dare you to try and say something different.'

Yusuke fumed as he followed the female into her residence, finding Kuwabara on the couch watching the television, a bowl of chips on his lap.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled into the red head's ear making him jump off the couch and spill his chips all over the floor.

"What ya do that for Urameshi?!"

"You didn't notice we were here! How else was I supposed to get your attention?!"

"Not screaming in my ear is a good idea!"

Shizuru at that moment walked through the door and stopped seeing that both her cousin and brother were there, "Good your both here, I have to tell that I am going to go to Okinawa for a week for training. So Kazuma I want you to stay here with Hotaru and help her find an apartment."

"What?! But Shizuru, I'm supposed to go to Genkai's-"

"Well then bring her with you, I'm sure that Genkai wouldn't mind having someone component around besides Kurama, Hiei and Yukina."

"But-"

"Kazuma. No. Buts. You are taking Hotaru with you and that is final."

"Shizuru, its alright I can stay here by myself."

Shizuru leaned towards Hotaru and started to whisper in her ear, "You should go and meet the people that my brother hangs out with… they are quite entertaining not to mention you'll be able to meet the girl Kazuma has sworn his eternal love to."

Hotaru blinked processing the information through her head, before running her hand through her hair mumbling, "Fine."

"Great, now get your things and go off to Genkai's. I'll see you next week." Shizuru said smiling pushing her younger relatives to their respective rooms. Hotaru sighed as she gathered her bag from her cousin's bedroom floor and walked out to see Kuwabara come out of his room stuffing a change of clothes into his bag.

"Sis, I need you to talk to the neighbor lady so she comes over to feed my dear little baby while I'm gone to Genkai's," he said dejectedly zipping up the bag.

"Its already been taken care of Kuwabara, just make sure you take care of your cousin while you're there."

Hotaru's eye twitched at the comment but she refused to say anything about being able to take care of herself even though she knew that it was true.

Yusuke stood by the door waiting for the two of them as patiently as he could, but that wasn't a very long time. "Hurry up Kuwabara, you and Hotaru are takin' forever!"

"Shut up Yusuke, if you're so bored go on your own! I'm sure Kuwabara knows the way."

"Fine. Maybe I will."

"Good."

Yusuke said nothing as he watched Hotaru stride into the living room and plop onto the couch while she waited for Kuwabara. "I thought you were going to leave."

"No, I thought that you would want company that was able to speak intelligently with rather than just Kuwabara."

"Are you talking about yourself, Yusuke? Because you don't qualify as intelligent." Hiei said appearing in the apartment doorway, walking in like he owned the place.

"Hey Hiei, I thought you would be headin' over to Kurama's place."

"Hn. The fox is coming here, so why waste an extra five minutes?"

'Fox?' Hotaru thought watching Hiei in mild interest… 'so they also call Shuichi fox? How strange.'

Hiei looked at Hotaru with the briefest of glances then turned his gaze to his feet as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall.

"Shrimp? When did you get here?!" Kuwabara yelled in surprise walking into the living room with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"Baka Ningen, I've been here for three minutes."

"Are you trying to pick a fight with me, shorty?"

"Hn. You would be a waste of effort."

Kuwabara fumed in rage trying to throw off his bag which he became entangled in so he could fight with the shorter male who seemed he could actually care even less. Hotaru chuckled under her breath, rolling her eyes to the side, wondering if Kuwabara ever thought about anything besides his cat and fighting.

It didn't take long for the red haired male to show up with a backpack slung over his shoulder. He stood in the doorway observing the situation unfolding in front of him before he thought it better to intervene before someone, also known as Kuwabara got himself injured.

"I'm here, so let's get going." Everyone but Hiei and Hotaru jumped at the sound of Kurama's voice, Hiei having sensed the kitsune and Hotaru having seen him in the doorway.

"Hey Kurama what took ya so long? I thought you would have been one of the first ones here."

Kurama gave Yusuke an incredulous look, glancing slightly in the direction of Hotaru, who sat on the couch, watching their interaction in mild interest.

"Ah, don't worry about it Kurama, Hotaru here already knows that Kurama is just a nickname that we use for you isn't that right Hotaru?" Yusuke slung his arm over the seventeen year old's shoulders, as if they were really old pals.

Hotaru in return brushed the young spirit detective's arm off before standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulders. "Let's just get going already, I can feel Shizuru's need to kick us out coming." And as if on cue, Shizuru appeared with her bag and keys, ready to leave for her train to Okinawa.

"Ok, time to get out of the house cuz I'm locking up for the weekend." Shizuru quickly ushered everybody out of the house, locking up the door behind her. " Now, Kazuma, be good, don't fight with your cousin, be nice to her and make sure she doesn't get hurt or else you'll regret it when I hear about it." Despite the smile on her face, Kuwabara and Hotaru knew that her words would be true to the T. With a couple of good bye kisses, Shizuru was gone.

There was a short silence, before Kuwabara spoke up, "What just exactly happened?"

"I think that we were just kicked out and you were threatened with pain if I were to be displeased, Kazuma." The cousins looked at each other before shrugging. "So, where are we going exactly, all I know is that it involves Genkai, but after that I got a little lost."

"Well, Hotaru, we are going to go to my master's house and hang out and train."

"Someone accepted you as a disciple?" Hotaru shook her head not daring to continue on that train of thought, following after the already moving group of three ahead of her.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Yusuke chased after the group, slightly ticked at the brunette's implications.

Hotaru tied her black hoodie around her waist as the group of five continued up the hill, revealing the teal tank top underneath. Hotaru was getting slightly tired from all of the walking but put up with it having heard that they were more than halfway to this Genkai's home, which was in the middle of the mountains. The brunette smoothed her hair back as a slight breeze left it rather tousled. Grabbing her bag, she zipped open on of the side pockets, pulling out a hair tie, which she promptly used to tie her hair back with, ignoring the eyes that were upon her exposed back.

"When'd you get the ink, Hotaru?"

'Of course… that's what they were looking at.' "Oh, that? I got that like half a year ago for my sixteenth birthday, pretty cool huh? And for your information, I did not pick it out because I gave the privilege to my friends who were paying for it."

"Oh, I was wondering if there was any reason why you had a fox playing with fireflies on your back, but I guess you answered that already for me."

"People always ask me, so I just decide to answer the question before its asked, its more convenient that way," she laughed as she started to climb the stone stairs that were before them, taking the lead. Without looking she nearly tripped over the second step, but caught herself with her hand. She blinked twice as she came face to face with a golden brown furred fox, its leg twisted so badly that even she knew that it was broken. Without much thinking she reached forward and grabbed the fox before it could get away.

In return the fox sunk its teeth into her hand hard, drawing blood with its razor like canines.

She gave out a slight yelp but didn't relinquish her hold on the small furry animal. The fox eased off, staring at the female that now held him, before biting her hand again.

Hotaru bit her lip, turning around to face the others, "Does someone have something to wrap this fox's snout with? So, he doesn't decide to bite me again?"

Kurama stepped forward taking the fox from Hotaru's arms holding him carefully in his own, for the sake of the small animals leg.

The fox stared at Kurama, taking in his scent before bowing its head and licking his hand.

"Well, I guess that he likes you more than he likes me," Hotaru half sighed, a pained smile on her face as she observed her still bleeding hand. Gingerly, she unwrapped her hoodie from her waist and tucked her hand safely within its folds. "What are we waiting for? Let's get going already."

"You are acting like you weren't even hurt! Let me see your hand! Shizuru is going to kill me," Kuwabara started to panic as he reached for his cousin's injured hand, but Hotaru pulled away jogging up the stairs.

"Don't worry about it Kuwabara, its not the first time that I have had an animal bite me and besides I have a higher pain tolerance than you so of course I wasn't going to go all girly cuz of a simple wound." She half smiled running up the stairs to Genkai's, her hand throbbing in pain as more blood poured onto her sweater. she continued to run up the stairs, wanting to get to Yusuke's master's place faster so that she could take care of her wound before it became infected, Yusuke quickly catching up with Kuwabara trailing behind, trying to catch up. Hiei and Kurama looked at each other silently before following up after the humans.

Hotaru reached the top of the stairs first, seeing the courtyard as well the traditional house with the long wooden covered porches. 'I feel like I just walked into a martial arts film.'

It was quite interesting to say the least, although there seemed to be nobody around.

"Hey ya old Hag! Come out here! We're all waiting for ya!"

"Yusuke, your yelling is loud enough to wake the dead, who is this?" A short pink haired lady appeared before the teenagers, slightly surprising the female, seeing how she just appeared out of thin air before them.

"Hag, this is Hotaru, Hotaru this the old hag."

"Baka! Introduce us right or you'll regret it!" Hotaru yelled, hitting the young spirit detective over the head with her closed fist.

"Fine, Genkai, this is Hotaru Kuwabara, Hotaru this is Genkai."

Hotaru rolled her eyes, but gave Genkai a quick bow, knowing that she was a superior fighting master and deserved more respect than what Yusuke was ever going to give her in open public, "It is my pleasure to meet you Genkai-san. I hope that Yusuke's incompetence has not hindered you too much when training him."

"He does better, when I put him to actual work, Hotaru-san."

"Ok, then. Let's have Yukina look at your hand there Hotaru, its prolly still bleeding all over your sweatshirt."

"Yeah, it may help if I actually take care of it now." Genkai moved aside as Yusuke and Hotaru proceeded to the house talking in a somewhat loud fashion. That girl must have something over Yusuke to make him listen to her that well… more than likely blackmail of some sort. 'My kinda girl,' she laughed in her head, as Kuwabara trudged past her out of breath.

Yukina, Hotaru soon discovered, was a rather petite but very pretty girl that couldn't be much older than perhaps Hiei, seeing as they were about the same height, but she was very beautiful, so Hotaru could see why Kuwabara was obsessive enough to proclaim his undying love to her. And not only was she attractive physically, she was also very polite, feminine and helpful, cleaning the wounds on the seventeen year old's hand, putting on antiseptic and bandaging it without even asking her name. Yusuke had left the girl's realizing that the rest of the group had already arrived at the temple.

"Thanks, Yukina-san." Hotaru murmured admiring the blue haired girl's handy work.

"You are welcome… I'm sorry I don't know your name yet." she blushed innocently averting her eyes, making the brunette smile.

"No, its quite fine seeing as I haven't introduced myself. My name is Hotaru Kuwabara, Kazuma's older cousin."

"It is very nice to meet you, Hotaru-san."

"Same to you Yukina-san." Together they got up to go and see what everyone was up to outside. Hotaru could already guess that this was going to be an interesting weekend.

Reviews

Wannabe Otaku- thank for the review I was so happy to see that you liked the first chapter and that you reviewed. AS my first reviewer I shall praise your name to the world lol

Blackpanzer- why thank you I'm glad you like it so much I certainly hope that you continue reading

-incessant embers- for you I will try my hardest to keep the gang in character for I will start my uber researching as to learn them inside and out…. But if I do change the character for any reason… (it'll prolly be a good reason) it will be a gradual change but the character will keep its same zest so thanks for the review I certainly hope that you continue reading

Doesntmatter- thanks for commenting, I hope that you do continue to read, even though I do now update very often

Cheetos is your god- yeah, I hate mary-sues, I try not to mary-sue them out lol

Ryuudo- sorry I havent updated sooner, thank you for your review

BlackRoses666- thanks coming from you that is a compliement, I hope that you continue to like the story

Abby- thanks I hope that you continue to read and like it

Please review and I hope you enjoyed. Ja Ne