Lunesca: Alright so the previous chapter went longer than expected so I had to break it up a bit. Fortunately, with my original story, the chapters were only about half the length of the re-write so that means that it should balance out with the minor changes I've made to the story…okay maybe not minor.

A lot of the dialogue and reactions have changed but the storyline itself is the same as the original. I'm just trying to keep the characters more into, well, character. They were a bit OoC in the original Gilded Cage.

Also I know I'm putting up a lot of chapters quickly, about one every day or two, but it would be nice if the people who are reading it could review and tell me what they think of my story, just no flaming please, I don't feel up to roasting marshmallows on your flames. All I would like is some nice, helpful reviews on how I can make this story better or if there is something I missed or need to change. Okay, enough complaining…On to the story.

Legend:

"Talking"

'Telepathic Speak'

Thinking to oneself

Dream/Memories

YYH = Pagebreak/Scene Change/Etc

Chapter 5: Training Day

Raven woke from her nap and, ignoring the protest of her sore body, gave herself a good stretch before getting up. She estimated the time to be just after noon, which meant she only slept for a couple hours. Feeling better and a bit rested she started wondering what Hawk and the others were doing, until she heard people talking outside. Behind her room was a field that seemed to be used for training purposes. Someone had even done a small section that resembled a tournament ring.

A glance out the window showed Hawk outside with the boys. They must be eager to get her started on training. Raven thought to herself. She quickly dressed herself in a dark purple tank top made of some light material, Black cargo pants with her trademark slots for hidden daggers, and combat boots for fighting in. She put her waist length hair up in a high pony tail so that it moved every time that she did and strapped on her sword. Satisfied, she made her way outside just as they were discussing their training regimen.

"Hey Raven! Over here!" Yusuke called out and waved. Kuwabara looked less than happy about something, so with a frown she hurried over. With a small glance around the area she realized it looked even worse than it did from her bedroom window.

"Who's your exterior decorator? This place looks like crap." She said, emphasizing on the fact that she was joking. Yusuke caught on in seconds and wrapped his arm around Kuwabara's neck, pulling the taller man down so that their heads were level.

"That would be us!" Yusuke announced in a loud voice. Hiei rolled his eyes at the Detectives ridiculous comment. "Though, Hiei, Kurama and Grandma helped a little." He added in when he saw the disbelief on Raven's face.

Raven glanced at Hiei, she knew it was reckless to challenge him before she was fully healed but she wanted to go into the training hard and fast and Hiei would satisfy both needs. "Well I guess you boys wouldn't mind showing me how exciting these training sessions get, would you?" She said and glared right at Hiei, silently challenging him.

"Hn, it's your funeral girl." Hiei responded, not giving the others a chance, as he drew his sword and prepared for her attack. He was eager to see just what she had learned without him there to teach her.

Hawk let out a squeak before yelling at her older sister. "Raven! What are you doing? You aren't even fully healed up yet and you're going to take on Hiei!" She shouted, not believing how reckless her elder sister was being; especially after all the lectures of her needing to think things through before doing them.

"I'm sparing, what does it look like?" Raven said from her crouched position. She knew Hiei was fast and wasn't going to chance taking her eyes off of him for a moment. It would be a challenge but she was sure she could hold her own against him. Especially after the arrogant way he acts around her, like she is supposed to listen and obey him. Not a chance in hell of that happening. She thought to herself.

'You know it's not a bad idea.' Hiei said to her telepathically. Raven scowled at him, irritated that he had been reading her thoughts. 'You obeying my every command would come in handy.' He continued with a smirk that Raven wanted to knock off his face.

Everyone watching was confused as to what their conversation consisted of as they could only see the change in facial expressions. From the looks of things Hawk was sure that Raven was going to try and kill Hiei.

'Not a chance buster,' Raven growled back at him. 'I obey no one but myself. And you have no right to come into my life and think you can take it over. You aren't my father and you aren't my mate so back the hell off!'

With that said she sent him a dangerous looking grin. Her expression was that of a large cat that knew it had gotten its prey exactly where it wanted it. Now it was Hiei's turn to frown, he wasn't sure if telling her the truth now would do any good or make his job that much harder.

Kurama decided to put a stop to the battle before it began. He was worried about Raven pushing Hiei too far and causing more damage to herself than was already there. "Raven, if you don't mind, I would actually like to put you against Kuwabara first."

Raven and Hiei looked away from each other and turned identical scowls towards the red head. Sweating a little at the double dose of danger the two presented he quickly continued. "I meant it as a way for me to see how you fight. Anyone who goes against Hiei has to move so quickly that most attacks are hard to follow. Also, I'd like to keep the strain on your body to a minimum until you've fully healed." He told her hoping it was enough.

Raven let out a growled and walked away from Hiei to stand in front of Kuwabara. Kurama had made sense and she couldn't argue his reasoning. The purpose of the training was to help each other improve in their fighting abilities. Taking on Hiei right away was not conducive to improving. "Fine, I'll fight the idiot first." She conceded.

Phew, Kurama thought to himself, relaxing a bit. I didn't think that would go over so well with her. She seemed pretty intent on finding her place, but Hiei was not the place to start on this. I wonder what they were discussing.

'None of your business fox!' Hiei growled at him mentally before stalking off to watch the battle from the trees. Kurama gave a small nervous chuckle before moving over to where the others were with Raven.

"So how are we going to do this?" Raven demanded, she was irritated that her chance at taking on Hiei had gotten ruined. She was determined to put him in his place regardless of the consequences. She knew the others were right and she wasn't ready but damn she found the fire demon annoying.

"Yeah there's two of them and three of us," Yusuke put in placing his hands behind his head. "So who's going to fight who? I wanna see what these two can do." He seemed very eager to get started.

Kuwabara looked upset about something and it seemed as if the other guys were ignoring him. Hawk looked in his direction then turned to Kurama. "Kurama, what's Kuwabara upset about? I thought these two enjoyed fighting."

"Well…"

Before Kurama could answer Kuwabara interrupted, annoyed that they were more or less ignoring what he had to say. "I don't fight girls!" He claimed sounding really defensive. "It's against my honor code!"

"That's only because you know you'd lose." Hiei's voice trailed over from the nearby tree branch that he had chosen to sit on. Kuwabara turned from his conversation with the others and swung his fist in the air at Hiei.

"Hey why don't you come say that to my face shorty?" Kuwabara yelled back at him. All he received in reply was a 'hn' before Hiei appeared in front of him with his sword at his throat.

"Pathetic, you'd rather challenge me to a fight than spar with a couple of females." Hiei scoffed at the idiot. He twitched the sword so the tip pressed slightly tighter to Kuwabara's throat, not quite drawing blood. "Well, you would be dead by now so I guess you have no choice but to fight the girls."

With that he sheathed his sword and walked back to his tree. Everyone watch in silence as he jumped back into the branch and settled there, one knee raised with his arm resting on it while the other lazily hung off the branch.

As soon as the spell was broken, Kuwabara started going off on some tirade about Hiei trying to kill him and how it hadn't been a fair match so it didn't count. The others ignored him for a bit while Kurama continued on where he had left off.

"Well then, that was interesting." Kurama mumbled before turning to the girls. "Alright, Hawk and Kuwabara will battle each other over in the clearing while Raven and Yusuke battle over here." Kurama instructed then looked to Hiei. "I'll assume you'll be watching their battle while I observe Hawk and Yusuke."

Hiei just nodded to the fox and the groups split up into their separate areas.

YYH Raven's Match

Raven watched her sister travel to the other side of the clearing before turning to face Yusuke. The two of them watched the other prepare for their fight. "You know I'm gonna tear you apart, right Detective?" Raven said with a smirk on her face. Yusuke returned it full heartedly.

"Hah! As if you could, but I'm willing to give you a fair shot." Yusuke mocked at her and took his fighting stance. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you for your first time."

Raven followed suite and took her stance facing him. "Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm weak Detective. This little scratch won't hold me back any."

The two shared a knowing grin before launching themselves at each other simultaneously. They met in the air, Raven blocked a punch from Yusuke and delivered a hard kick to his unprotected ribs. Yusuke let out a grunt as the two separated. "Wow you pack a good kick." He grumbled before launching a second attack at her.

The two exchanged several blows before separating again. Landing apart, the two were breathing a little heavily. They took a moment to examine the others weaknesses and strengths before running at each other again. Raven sent a hard punch to Yusuke's cheek and he delivered a good kick to her stomach, knocking the breath out of her.

I better end this soon or I won't be able to continue much longer. Raven thought to herself. She could feel the wound on her shoulder throbbing.

"You ready to give up yet kid?" Yusuke asked as he rubbed his sore cheek.

Raven gave a short laugh. "Not a chance!"

"Good I was hoping you'd say that." Yusuke grinned. "Now to finish you off!"

With on final effort she ran back at Yusuke as he attacked. Dodging his fist, she rammed her good shoulder into his chest, turned, grabbed his arm and then threw him into the trunk of the tree next to Hiei. Hitting the ground it was obvious that he was knocked out.

As Raven went to check on him he mumbled something about going easy on her before he began snoring. With a grin, Raven looked at Hiei before turning to her sister's match. She looked over just in time to Kuwabara lose.

With a sigh she went over to the other group, leaving Yusuke on the ground in a, now more comfortable, position.

YYH Hawk's Battle

Hawk, Kuwabara and Kurama arrived at the other side of the clearing. They could already hear Yusuke and Raven's battle beginning so they wasted no time in getting into position for their own.

"Are you going to fight me or stand there like an idiot?" Hawk asked as she took her fighting stance. Kuwabara was across from her with his arms crossed and adamantly refusing to fight her.

"I won't fight with a girl." He said firmly. "No matter what you do!"

Kurama placed his hand over his face in embarrassed amusement. "And to think, the four of us have managed to save the three worlds multiple times. I don't know how he survived this long." He muttered to himself.

"I have to give you credit for one thing." Hawk said as she tilted her head to the side a bit. "You sure do stand firm when you want to." She sent him a dangerous looking smile. "But that won't keep you safe from me. I'll just use you for warm up, like a punching bag."

With that Hawk attacked Kuwabara who struggled to dodge her attacks. Barely able to avoid them he ended up scrambling across the ground more than he stood up. Hawk was relentless as she threw a punch at him that just barely missed his head, creating a small crater in the ground.

Kuwabara eep'd as he continued to dodge her attacks. I guess it's okay if I defend myself but I just couldn't hit her! He thought to himself as he grabbed her wrist before she could land the next hit and flipped her over his shoulder.

She landed with a grunt and Kuwabara hovered over her. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" He moaned and went on about Shizuru punishing him for hurting a girl.

Hawk took advantage of his moaning to catch her breath and get back up. Irritated, she saw his back was to her, she kicked him in the back, sending him forward. She proceeded to pound him into the ground with a series of hits that left him dazed and nearly unconscious. With a final kick to the head she sent him flying. Once he landed, Hawk went over to see if he was okay.

Kurama and her stopped and sighed when they saw Kuwabara was completely knocked out from the kick.

YYH After Training

Hawk looked up as Hiei and Raven arrived from her battle with Yusuke. With a shake of his head, Kurama took the oaf over to the detective and set the two of them next to each other to rest. When he came back the sisters were discussing their battles and laughing at the two idiots that they had to fight against. Hawk mentioned wanting to get lunch since the idiots had passed out.

"Well I think it's time we took a break." Kurama suggested liking Hawk's idea about lunch. "Hopefully the two of them will wake up after lunch."

After a unanimous agreement from the group, they decided to go in to eat. As they walked through the doors, Yukina poked her head out of the kitchen and announced lunch would be ready in just a couple minutes. Hiei went to his normal spot by the window while Raven and Hawk went to go get cleaned up for lunch. Kurama went into the kitchen to see if there was anything Yukina needed help with.

Just as everyone was finishing lunch Yusuke and Kuwabara came stumbling in. Yukina set some food out for them as the others got up to rest in the common room. No one really wanted to listen to the boys go on about how they 'should have won' or 'were cheated'. They just sat around idly chatting and resting before continuing their training that afternoon.

Several hours later the team was back outside and this time they had switched sparing partners. Now it was Raven vs Kuwabara and Hawk vs Yususke.

"Alright, let's just get this over with." Raven sighed once they were back in the field.

"We've given you enough time to recover." Hawk added as she stretched her arms over her head. "This shouldn't be too hard anyways."

"Ugh, do we really have to?" Yusuke muttered not wanting to get his ass kicked by the girls again. The last thing he wanted was for Genkai to get on him about slacking on his training. Fortunately she was away from the temple for a couple weeks on vacation.

"Yes!" Kurama, Hawk and Raven said at the same time. Trying to hide a smile, Kurama continued on it. "We need to determine the best way for these two to work on their training. Since you and Kuwabara are mainly fighters, Hiei and I can watch to see their fighting strategies and what their weaknesses are. From there we can decide where they need improvement."

"Tch, fine." Yusuke and Kuwabara muttered before returning to the areas they battled in before. Hiei stayed to watch Hawk's battle against Yusuke. He and Kurama could discuss the battles later.

YYH Hawk's Fight

"So I'm guessing that being younger means that your sister is the stronger one right?" Yusuke asked Hawk. He seemed kind of nervous to be fighting the younger sister after his battle with Raven.

Hawk shrugged. "I guess you could say that Raven is stronger, faster and better than me." Yusuke sighed at this. He didn't think he could handle a second training fight with someone who was better than Raven.

"Though," she continued, appearing to be thinking about it by tapping her chin with her finger. "I have beaten Raven on the rare occasion and usually the matches are fairly even. I guess you'll just have to decide huh?" She gave him a big grin with her eyes closed.

Yusuke groaned and readied himself for another fight. Grumbling to himself he glanced over at Kurama and sent the fox a death glare; looking back at his opponent just in time to block a kick coming at his face. "Ha! Is that all you've got?" He challenged.

Hawk gave him a very dark smile. She leapt towards him again, throwing a few punches before catching him with a hook kick to the head. He stumbled backwards, barely defending the next attack she threw at him.

After exchanging a few blows, he barely managed to get a few hits in on her, the two of them were in a deadlock. They had their hands clenched together in the others and were pushing to get the upper hand. Hawk avoided a headbutt from him and using his moment of unbalance she swept his legs out from under him.

Yusuke fell sideways to the grounds, losing his grip on her to try and soften his landing. He rolled to put some space between the two of them only to find her above him, her fist only an inch away from his face.

"I believe that would mean I won." She beamed at him. He was about to retort when they heard Kuwabara's yell of 'Spirit Sword'. They looked over just in time to catch the very end of Raven's battle.

YYH Raven's Fight

Raven stood across from Kuwabara, she figured that it would only take a minute or two to beat the shaking Kuwabara. He stood with his arms crossed, still unhappy at having to fight with a girl. "I still won't fight, no matter what you do to me!" He announced stubbornly.

"Yeah I see how well that worked out with my sister." Raven mocked with a smirk. "How's your head?"

Kuwabara rubbed the lump on the back of his head. He had forgotten it was there until she mentioned it, and suddenly it started hurting again. "Hey! I just didn't want to hurt her, if she had been a boy I wouldn't have been defeated so easily!" He defended.

"Hn," She grunted, amused. She was determined to piss him off enough to attack her. "Right, like you could defeat a flea. Just admit that you won't fight because you can't."

This worked better than Raven had hoped. Kuwabara's face turned redder than Kurama's hair and he balled up his fist. "Hey! That's not true; I could beat you if I wanted to." He yelled at her. After a few more insults were exchanged he finally got mad enough that he charged at her.

Raven laughed as she dodged his attack. She thought it would take a bit longer before he finally got angry enough to forget who he was fighting but she was getting tired of insulting him. "Is that all you got?!" She said as she bounced off his head while avoiding another attack.

"Why you…" He growled and went after her again. She dodged and blocked his attacks effortlessly. "Stay still so I can hit you!"

Raven laughed at him. It was nothing to avoid his attacks; they were unrefined and had no strategy to them. After a few more minutes of insulting him he finally got tired of getting nowhere. Since they hadn't agreed to no weapons or spirit energy, no one said anything when he summoned his spirit sword to fight her.

Raven was in the middle of jumping over him and couldn't avoid the spirit weapon. She twisted enough to avoid major damage and ended up getting her arm hit with it. It left a scratch on her arm that didn't bleed because of the heat from the sword cauterized the wound.

Dammit, that was too close. She thought to herself, grabbing her arm as she landed. It's time to end this.

Rushing at Kuwabara she avoided his sword with ease since he was upset over hitting her with his attack. Leaping over him, she flipped and landed a kick behind his head. Landing she looked over her shoulder just in time to see him fall to the ground, once again knocked unconscious. With a sigh Raven and Kurama moved the downed fighter to the side under a tree.

YYH Post Fight

Yusuke and Hawk hurried over just in time to see Raven beating Kuwabara. Figuring they missed something interesting Yusuke piped up. "What happened?"

"Obviously the idiot got his ass handed to him by a girl." Hiei muttered, appearing behind the duo. Yusuke jumped and Hawk just raised an eyebrow and smirked at Yusuke's inattentiveness. Raven looked up from her position over Kuwabara and gave a small smirk.

"I kicked his ass, plain and simple." Raven said and headed into the temple.

"Wow how detailed." Yusuke grumbled with a pout. Hawk gave him a playful punch on his shoulder then followed Raven. Kurama noticed Hiei had disappeared as soon as the girls did so while he checked Kuwabara over he told Yusuke what happened during the fight.

YYH The Girls

Raven walked inside and after grabbing a bottle of water turned to head to her room. Hawk gave her an inquiring look and not even needing to read her mind she just shrugged and headed upstairs. She wanted a shower before everyone started to gather for dinner.

Hiei didn't seem to care that I nearly killed Kuwabara. Raven thought to herself as she started the shower. There were two for their floor so it made things a little easier. Its as if he really doesn't care that much.

'Hn, I don't care about that fool.' Hiei's voice entered her mind. It irritated her that he felt he could read her mind whenever he felt like it. Though, she did forget that her barriers need to be tighter now that he's around. With just Hawk around Raven only kept the basic barriers around her mind. It was less work mentally but to keep him out was worth it.

'Stay out of my mind Hiei!' She yelled at him mentally. With a mental slap she kicked him out and raised her barriers to get some peace. Satisfied at the temp, she entered the shower and let the water wash the dirt away.

Chapter 5 End!

Lune: okay so I figured that was a good place to end that chapter. I wasn't sure I was going to make my 4k word quota but I just barely managed it! Yay for me! I want to apologize for how long it took to get this one up but I don't have much access to the computer during the weekends and it's difficult to work on this one from my phone because I want to keep it close to the original story so that means having both the original chapter up as well as working on the new one.

So I want to give a special thanks out to the people who reviewed my story. I'm glad that someone is actually enjoying my re-write. I was so happy when I saw that I not only had reviews but followers and favs. It encouraged me to continue my story as quickly as possible.

So here it is:

Special thanks to

princesslolitatheorca654: I'm glad you like the story. I know you reviewed back on chapter 1 but I put the other chapters up so quickly that I just now got to thanking you. I hope the rest of the story is to your liking.

lolliexbee: I'm glad you find it to be so interesting! I'll try to improve as I keep going.

YuYuHakushoObsesser: It surprised and amazed me to see your review. I've had a few stories lately that have kept me up but I never expected one of my stories to fall into that category. I'm so glad that you love my story!

So what do you guys think? Am I keeping everyone in character or at least close to? Is there anything that should be changed? Please tell me what you think! Until next time!