One week later Kuwabara was heading back to school. He has spent the past week being worked to the bone by Hiei. Work out, sword forms, sparing, work out again, meditation/spirit energy practice over and over again. It was exhausting, and truth be told Kuwabara was thankful that he'd get to rest during school. He was also excited to see his three old friends too, who seemed to be waiting for him at the school gates.
"Hey man!" "Kuwabara!" "Yo, Kuwabara!"
Three teenage boys in the same high school uniform as Kuwabara called out to him.
"Wha? Hey guys!" Kuwabara waved excitedly back, greeting each other with a bunch of manly hugs.
'Man I missed those guys, they don't know about anything that has happened. They're so human.' He zoned out, thinking about his relationship with his friends and how that summer will have changed that relationship. He could no longer tell them everything; it felt as though he would have to hide everything now. Just being near him would put them in danger.
When he came back Sawamura was waving a hand in front of his face. "Hey, anyone home?"
"Hua? Oh, sorry guys I just spaced out a bit" he nervously replied laughingly.
"We were just saying how long it's been. We've all been hanging out this summer, but we haven't seen you once."
"Yeah man, where've you been? We swung by your apartment a few times, your neighbors said they hadn't seen you all summer either."
'Crap' Kuwabara panicked. Freezing up and chuckling nervously to himself. 'What am I supposed to tell them? I can't tell them the truth, I mean, even if I could they wouldn't believe me. I was in a demon tournament fighting for my life and turned into a slave. And oh, by the way, I'm not human! I don't know what I am, but it's not human! C'mon, think.'
He took a few calming breaths trying to calm his rising panic. 'Ok, calm down, they're my friends, and I'm a crap liar, I'll just have to tell them the truth…just leave out everything about demons…and spirit world…and special powers. Aww man, how am I supposta do that?'
"Heh heh heh, sorry guys. It's been just been a crazy summer for me. I joined a fighting competition."
"What!" All three of his friends exclaimed. Before they began peppering him with questions. "Really?" "How'd you do?" "Meet any cute babes?" "How come you didn't tell us before you left?"
"Sorry guys, it was kinda hush hush, invitation only, I still can't tell you much about it really. I didn't really have time to tell you guys about it before leaving anyway."
"So, why'd you join some secret fighting tournament? How'd you even hear about it?"
"I didn't."
"Whaduya mean you didn't, if you didn't hear about it how did you enter?"
"I was invited. Every time the tournament is held the guys running it extend an 'invitation' to one team. It's really not optional at that point. If you're invited you're forced to compete."
"Forced? How can they force you into a competition?"
"The guys who run the thing are" he hesitated trying to find the right word "powerful. They have ways of getting what they want. But hey the prizes at the end of the tournament is normally incentive enough." He smiled trying to keep the atmosphere light.
Kirishima continued on with his questioning. "How'd you do? You don't look like you were injured too badly."
"Yeah" Okubo contributed, "and you mentioned a team?"
Kuwabara snorted. "I was in the hospital for three weeks after my last fight, I'm lucky the girl I was fighting had mercy or I'd be dead. Death wasn't exactly uncommon in the matches."
The other three were suitably horrified. Noticing this Kuwabara quickly pacified his friends. "Don't worry, I'm completely fine now." They let out a collective breath they didn't seem to be aware they were holding at Kuwabara's admittance.
"As for my team" he scowled, not seeing his friends exchange glances. "I was stuck with Urameshi, Urameshi's master Genkai, who is a terrifying old lady, Kurama, a freshman at Meiou University, and Hiei, an absolutely ruthless swordsman. We got to the semi-finals before Urameshi and Genkai abandoned us. I mean, there was no way we were going to win that fight even with them, we were fighting legends, but we might not have been crushed as badly. Apparently though, my showing was good enough that I'm starting to be a big name too. I don't like it. I don't want more of their attention" he glared into space thinking about that possibility.
"Sorry man, at least you're ok now though, right?"
He sighed, nodding his approval. "Yeah, I guess." He agreed, inwardly not so sure.
"So, how long ago did you get back?"
"Hua? Oh, we got back like a week ago."
"What!" They all yelled simultaneously. "If you got back a week ago why haven't we seen you until now?"
"Yeah man, even a phone call would have been nice." They ganged up on him.
"Sorry guys. But you remember how I said I was becoming a big name?" He waited for them for respond before continuing. Which they did urging him to continue. "Well it's likely that some of the guys from the tournament will come after me to challenge my reputation and my skills. As you know I'm almost entirely self taught, and a lot of what got me though the tournament was luck. I can't rely on luck to keep me safe, so I got a teacher. He a harsh task master, but I'm learning a lot. I'll be busy training with him continuously, so you probably won't see me outside of school unless I'm running a drill for him or something." He pauses. "Or if it's Sunday, I get Sundays off to rest. But if the schedule keeps up like it was the first week I doubt I'll do much else but sleep on Sundays but I dunno." He shrugged.
"Whoa, you're really taking this seriously. You really think you'll be attacked like that?"
"I dunno really, but I can't risk it. Anyway, enough about me. How was your guys' summers?" He beamed at his friends with his wide smile wanting to get the attention off of him and on to something lighter.
"It was ok I guess, nothin really special." Kirishima answered with Sawamura nodding in agreement. Only thing that really going on was Rugiofuchi tryin to move in to our turf in your absence, especially with Okubo out of it too.
"Hua? What was up with Okubo?" Kuwabara asked worriedly, mind immediately fearing the worst.
Okubo flushed under the attention. "It's nothin; I was just able to work a lot more this summer, without school I was able to pick up more hours." He explained as Kuwabara let out a sigh in relief, embarrassed he immediately thought of the worst.
"Hey guys?" Kirishima said as he checked his watch. "We should hurry if we don't want to be late. I personally don't want a pissed of Rat Face on the first day back. Ya know?"
They made it to class with minutes to spare, grabbing their normal spots in the back of the room.
"Hey Kuwabara!" A loud exuberant voice called from the doorway. Before Kuwabara could respond an arm was wrapped around his shoulder. He didn't have to look to know that Yusuke's smiling face would be attached to the arm.
"What the hell Urameshi!" He shoved the arm off, still sore about being abandoned at the tournament. Truthfully he wasn't sure if he could ever truly trust Urameshi again. The rest of the class was quiet, watching the two punks warily. Either one of them alone was bad enough, they didn't need them teaming up.
"Hey what's up pal, I thought we were friends?"
Kuwabara snorted "What kind of friend abandons his other friends like you did? "
"Hey, I apologized for that already."
"Doesn't mean I accept it. I was in the hospital for three weeks. WEEKS Urameshi! A simple sorry don't cut it!"
"What do you want? Hua?"
"I want you to understand what I'm angry and give me an honest or apology…or" he got a mischievous gleam in his eye. "You remember Kurama and Hiei's bet?" He responded slyly. Yusuke blushed. "How the hell could I forget? Kurama only stopped asking me out yesterday." His eyes widened. "No! No way! I'm not doing it!" He yelled. Kuwabara cracked up laughing.
Calming down enough to talk Kuwabara continued. "Heh heh, not, not that. I just couldn't resist seeing how you'd react. Nah, I want you to come to school every day for two weeks, no skippin. I want you to prove to me that you can see something all the way though even if it will take longer than a day."
Yusuke let out a sigh while the rest of the class groaned, muttering about having to deal with 'the demon' Urameshi for two weeks. "That it. I can do that, easy. They you'll forgive me? I really didn't mean to abandon you, I though you guys could handle yourselves."
"Two weeks Urameshi."
With most of the tension gone the rest of the class started to go back to their own business until Mr. Akashi arrived.