Kurama and Hiei were panting as soon as the last demon was killed. As the demon fell to the ground, dead, the sillhoute of the girl who saved them took its place. Kurama's whip was back to a rose and Hiei put his sheathed his sword into the scabbard after the blood was gone.

"Who are you and why were you helping us?" Kurama repeated.

She did not answer. Instead her eyes flickered to Hiei and suddenly smiled. Hiei stared back. His eyes grew wide and his jaw slacked, but he pulled back his stoic expression when he heard Kurama chuckling at his reaction to her smile.

"Long time no see huh?" She said, still smiling at him.

Hiei looked away with an "hn."

"You two know each other?" Kurama asked.

"Of course," She said as she took hold of Hiei's arm. "I'm Yuki's best friend and Hiei's wife to be!" She giggled and planted a kiss on Hiei's cheek. He flushed red as Kurama's lips itched to grin. He only held back for his demon friend's dignity which seemed to dissipate faster than he expected.

"So then you are Hiei's fiancé?" Kurama asked and she nodded happily.

"Get off me." Hiei growled as he pulled his arm out of her grasp. She threw a look at Hiei as he turned his back to her. She sighed exasperatedly.

"My name's Kaminari. You can call me Naru for short." She said as she bowed.

"We should get back to Genkai's Temple to see what's wrong." Hiei said impatiently as he started his way.

Naru sighed. "So impatience, but such a cutie!" She started trailing after him. Kurama blinked, shook his head and followed after the 'happy' couple to-be. At least it was what he hoped for.

Yuki grimaced as she knew who she had expected to see. She stepped back a few steps with Yukina and motioned her to get behind her.

"Well, well. Isn't this a coincidence, Yuki?" The demon said advancing forward, forcing Yuki to take a step back with Yukina behind her.

"Nothing is a coincidence when you are here, Ren." Yuki said calmly, biting back the trembles in her voice, but Ren could hear it clearly along with fear. He smiled deceivingly. Yuki bit back a snarl refusing to take the bait.

"Come now, Yuki. What would I do to hurt you?" Ren asked as he tried to touch her face, but Yuki turned away from him. He sighed. "Now, now Yuki. You wouldn't want this lovely lady to be hurt now do you?"

"What?" Yuki gasped as the warmth she had felt behind her a few seconds ago disappeared.

Yuki's eyes narrowed as turned her attention to Ren who was holding Yukina as hostage with a dagger to her neck. But as she turned her head, the bells tied to her hair, shook and Koto strings shoot out everywhere surrounding the room with strings. The room was secured. No one would get in or out.

"Go ahead," Yuki said smirking. "She doesn't matter much to me anyway." She watched Yukina's expression. It tore her heart seeing the confusion and pain in those eyes. Yukina had taken the bluff, but would Ren? She hoped he would.

Ren watched her eyes carefully and was surprised to see nothing in there. No emotion or connection to the death of this girl, Yukina. She was serious.

Fine then. He thought. If this girl mattered nothing to her, then her life would be uselessly to him.

"Can you bear the guilt, Yuki? When she dies in vain!" Ren snapped as he pulled the dagger back and took his aim.

Yukina shut her eyes hoping it would block out the pain. Slowly, she counted her heart beats.

One. Two. Three. I'm still alive?

Yukina slowly opened her eyes as she felt Yuki's strong and persistent aura. Instantly her hand shot up to her neck. The dagger never went down. She looked up at Yuki and was surprised to see a hint of a victory smile on her lips. She glanced at Ren and was frightened by the anger on his face. The rage and the wrath he had in his eyes at Yuki for playing a trick on him.

"Wh-what the hell is this?" Ren yelled as he tried to untangle himself.

"Stop trying. It won't work." Yuki said playfully. "They're Koto Himo [Koto strings]. They come from the strongest and sharpest Koto Himo."

Ren stopped and smirked. "So this is what you learned in the four years you ran away from me. Instead of making the poison, Lei, you ran and developed the oldest technique style of fighting that died out for more than 200 years. The Kotoko-Ryu. You do deserve to be called Ito no Yuki [Stings/Thread of Yuki]."

"Hm. You're always having spies out watching people. You cease to amaze me, Ren." Yuki said.

"But you have forgotten that I have other demons watching you and there's one now."

Yuki's eyes narrowed and followed to where he was looking. She caught the dark shadow and needles shot towards her. Yuki grabbed Yuki and dodged to the other side of the room.

"Stay here." Yuki ordered quietly. Yukina nodded.

Yuki gasped, stifling a cry of pain as something sharp cut straight across her arm. She reached to her arm and touched the blood as her vision began to blur. Yuki tasted the blood and almost smiled, but panicked knowing that no one else could protect Yukina. The needles were tainted with her own creation, but mixed with something new.

The Lei. And something else.

This. Sucks. Yuki thought as her thinking also became muddled before she fainted. Yukina caught her before she hit the floor.

"Yuki. Yuki! Please, wake up!" Yukina whispered, but she would not move. She dreaded for the worst. Yuki couldn't be dead!

Ren stood over Yukina with someone at his side. "Take care of this."

"Yes, sir."

Yukina heard the feminine voice replying to Ren as she was picked up. Then everything blacked out.

"We're almost there!" Kurama pointed out. Genkai's Temple grew larger and larger as they got closer. Hiei darted forward and darted inside. He reached the door and tried to open it, but it would not budge.

"What the hell?" He was confused as to why the door would be locked. He tried it again and it would not open.

"Hiei, what's wrong?" Kurama said.

"The door. It's stuck." Hiei grunted as he tried again to open the door. Kurama stood above him and pushed at the other side of the frame, but it was futile. It was like the door was bolted and locked down.

Naru sighed. "Men." Bubbles of electricity foamed in her hand. "Move out of the way." Naru demanded as she prepared to knock down the door.

The two demon boys quickly moved out of the way and Naru fired her bubbles of electricity at the door.

The door exploded and Hiei went inside to look for Yukina and Yuki. Kurama and Naru followed. Naru looked around the room curiously and something caught her eye. She didn't like what she saw.

Kurama noticed Hiei's extreme stillness.

"Hi-"

"Naru, tell me what happened!" Hiei snapped, stopping Kurama.

Kurama was surprised by this sudden explosion of rage against Naru. She looked at him with resentment, but remained silent.

"Hiei, Naru wasn't here. She wouldn't know what happened." Kurama said quietly.

"No. She does know what hap –"

"Kotoko-Ryu."

Hiei and Kurama looked at her.

"Look." She simply said, showing them a thin wire for them to see. They only caught a glimpse of it in the dim light. "Ito no Yuki."

Kurama's eyes grew wide. He understood everything now. However, Hiei was blinded by his anger for the loss of his half-sister and wanted a thourgh explaination.

"What does that have to do with this? Hiei demanded as his anger took the better of him.

The rage brought Kurama out of his trance. He had to calm down the Fire demon.

"It has to do with Yuki," Kurama said and added in slowly, "and maybe Yukina."