The first match went pretty much as you saw. That night, as they had the following day free, Yusuke went to visit Kurama after Kuwabara fell asleep. He was exhausted despite sleeping so long, but he also needed the reassurance of the kitsune's presence for a while. He found Kurama sitting at the window, looking out over the view afforded him of the forest. Kurama turned and smiled at Yusuke when the boy entered the room, walking surprisingly easily despite the wound on his heel.
"Trouble sleeping?" Kurama asked gently.
Yusuke moved closer to Kurama, leaning against the wall next to him. "A little. I missed you, too," he admitted, color touching his cheeks. "Where's Hiei?" he asked.
Kurama turned enough to wrap his arm around Yusuke's waist. "He needs to cope with rebalancing his energy alone for now," he said. He was aware enough of Hiei's energy to know that he was safe and didn't want anyone around.
Yusuke nodded, leaning his head against Kurama's shoulder. He was more tired than he wanted to admit, but he still longed to be close to the redhead. "He'll be okay?"
"Most likely," Kurama murmured, letting his cheek rest against Yusuke's hair. He brought his hand up to caress Yusuke's cheek and the boy moved enough to silently ask for a kiss. Kurama was in no mind to refuse him, needing the comfort of physical contact himself. He knew the boy needed the comfort as well, even if not for the same reason, and that he wouldn't be up for sex that night.
Their kiss was long, lingering, slow, remaining just lips for a long time before deepening to include tongues. It remained gentle, an expression of desire to simply be together until Yusuke was forced to bury his face in Kurama's neck to cover a yawn.
"I'll tuck you in," Kurama said as he guided Yusuke back to the bedroom he shared with Kuwabara, who was sleeping soundfully
In a show of vulnerability he would deny to anyone else, Yusuke let his head rest against Kurama's shoulder as they walked. "I'm sorry I'm not up for more," he mumbled as Kurama pulled down his blankets.
"Don't be," Kurama said gently, helping Yusuke into bed. He gave Yusuke another kiss, lingering and sweet. "It's been a long day; we're all tired. Sleep, Yusuke. There will be time later." He pulled up the blankets, smoothing them over Yusuke's chest.
Yusuke's eyes grew heavy and he smiled. "Yeah," he mumbled on his way to sleep. Whether that sleep was aided by Kurama or not didn't matter. Yusuke was tired enough that the mere thought of a soporific from Kurama would have put him to sleep.
Leaving one more kiss, one which Yusuke responded to even in his sleep, Kurama returned to his vigil at the window. He would give Hiei the night to recover before seeking him out. Hiei would resent his interference less if he gave him time. It was past midnight when Kurama finally made his way to bed.
The Masked Fighter was aware of what was going on between Kurama and Yusuke, saw Kurama leading Yusuke to bed and was savvy enough to know what it meant. As long as Yusuke was able for what he needed to face, as long as Kurama didn't do anything that threatened him, the Masked Fighter couldn't care less about what they did. As it was, with Kurama insisting the boy rest, it was obvious that Kurama actually cared about Yusuke.
The next morning, Kurama watched the first round of fights before going into the forest to find Hiei. Hiei was as far away from the tournament as the island would allow him to be. As he was still on the shore, Kurama waited in the forest.
Yusuke was still feeling off from the day before, unable to focus his reiki at all. As stated before, Yusuke's body was learning to use youki and he was, after a fashion, pregnant. Pregnancy uses a lot of energy, especially toward the end, as the fetus ensures its own survival, even at the cost of the 'mother's' health. Basically, that egg is a parasite, keeping Yusuke from recovering as he should. Topaz was aware that Yusuke needed time to recover and wanted to fight him at his best, even if Rugby was after a dirty win, regardless of the validity of it and he wasn't aware enough to be able to sense Yusuke's challenge just then.
Now, Kuwabara did see both the incident in the forest and the fight between Topaz's team and just the younger Toguro. In his mind, Toguro was the Final Boss and he was, roughly, aware of their current levels and knew that they'd be seriously fucked hard core if they had to face Toguro any time soon. But, there were to be other fights before they reached the final boss, that was the way RPGs worked, after all.
While I've said it before, I'll elaborate on it a little more here: Kuwabara needed the framework of a RPG in order to cope with the whole tournament. It wasn't due to a lack of intelligence, though at times he does seem to be more dense than others, nor was it due to a lack of perception, though again he was sometimes denser than others, it was more due to the fact that if this whole situation was real, he stood a very strong chance of dying before it was over. That realization would actually sabotage and cripple him in the tournament. But, there were many things conspiring to help him keep his belief that this was just a game, beginning back when Yusuke first came back to life. Even the rounds of the tournament corresponded to those in RPGs. The framework allowed him to do things that reality would not permit, actually unlocking his potential more and more quickly than it otherwise normally would have been. In his case, being out of touch with reality was a very good thing for his survival even if it isn't a coping mechanism that most psychologists would recommend.
Yusuke knew this was real, that he had died in truth and that he could die again. This, in his case, offered him strength. Hiei and Kurama were very well acquainted with reality, being demons. For them, reality pushed them where they needed to be. They needed the threat of death over them to achieve their greatest potential.
Hiei moved to the forest when the pain in his hand receded enough for him to function and test himself. Kurama watched, both critically, with a mind to how Hiei would perform in the tournament, and subjectively, as a dear friend. His offer to help was interrupted, though, by an attempt at dirty play to keep them from reaching the ring in time to join the humans for the fight against Dr. Ichigaki's team.
There was a major flaw in Dr. Ichigaki's plan, though, as there tend to be when dealing with Kurama. sent a robot after a geek. Not only did Kurama have a penchant for figuring out puzzles, he was also at the top of his class at a very prestigious school. He could have done the calculations Dr. Ichigaki used the calculator for without the calculator and point out exactly where Ichigaki went wrong and why they didn't work. While the robot might have worked against the boys or Hiei by himself, Kurama knew exactly what needed to be done, once Ichigaki's underling mentioned that it was supposed to be indestructible. The robot was both the irresistible force and the unmovable object. All that had to happen was for them to meet. A little reprogramming and the robot was his to play with.
Hiei was pissy enough that he tossed Ichigaki's underling into the stadium. It was a pleasant distraction and a nice payback for being pinned against the tree. Kurama rode the robot back, very amused at the panic their appearance caused.
Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering why Hiei and Kurama didn't just kill Ichigaki there and then, aren't you? Well, there was the problem of the blood control humps and the safe removal thereof. Ichigaki's death would not have solved that. There was also making sure that the controlled human's sensei managed to make it through into the stadium. He'd insisted, despite his condition and the fact that Kurama's ability with plants only allowed him to do so much. While very smart and very good with plants, human medicine wasn't something he'd studied well enough to do more than the basics. The cure, without knowing exactly what was wrong, was outside his reach.
There was also something resembling sportsmanship. Both of them were familiar enough with the tournament to know that if they fought outside the ring, it was highly likely that it would be counted as a loss against them. They would not jeopardize the effort that Yusuke, the Masked Fighter and Kuwabara were putting into winning, into freeing the humans that were trapped by Ichigaki. Exactly whose motivations were which didn't really matter, the end result was that they would not fight Ichigaki outside the ring.
That is, until the match was won. After that, all bets were off. Especially when Ichigaki took that drug. Kurama was very pleased to see that Yusuke had recovered and was able to not only stand against Ichigaki but also outsmart him, not that Kurama thought that took a lot to do, given his robot, but it was nice to see Yusuke in better form again. Now, given our metaphor earlier, you should know what that means. Yes, it means it's getting very close to birthing time.
Now, Yusuke and company won the match. What they really needed was a chance to recover, to heal. Kuwabara, Hiei and the Masked Fighter were all seriously depleted of energy and injured. They needed time to recover. Yes, demons recover more quickly than humans, but when you consider that what Hiei did in summoning the Kokoryuuha had not been done before nor would a human have survived the process at all, he is recovering quickly.
But, the tournament was stacked against the human team. There were so many bets against and the odds were so ridiculous that the tournaments sponsors had to do everything they could to ensure that they lost just to survive financially. Yes, most of the sponsors bet against them. So, instead of getting a chance to rest, they were in the next match. Two fighters remaining that could do anything worth speaking of, the other three exhausted or injured.
And, to make things even better, the opposition is given the chance to attack even before the match begins, trapping Hiei and the Masked Fighter within a barrier that they were, even combined too weak to escape, even though it normally could not have contained even one of them.
So, we are now set up for the third round for Yusuke and company. Not only are they at a disadvantage for facing their second match of the day, they're also down to just two fighters. But, just outside the stadium, an ace arrived to slip up the sleeves of our handicapped heroes.
Hearing of the tournament even in the glaciers that the Koorime occupy, Yukina had to come, had to see those who'd helped her so much. Boton saw her, being the only one the girls that would recognize her, called out to her and guided her to their seats on the stands. This turned out to be a very fortunate thing. After all, what kind of hero would allow his lady faire to see him such a state as Kuwabara was in just then. And, with the other judging Kuwabara not enough of a threat to contain, he was free to not only see Yukina but to use the RPG hack in his brain to recover much faster than it should have otherwise.