I want to dedicate this chapter to bonbonchocolate. Believe it or not I had been hesitant to publish the story. I sent her my first chapter and she gave me the courage to publish and continue with it. So this one is for her. I wanted to do this earlier and completely forgot about it! Forgive me for the late dedication.

Disclaimer - I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters, that is the property of Sir Yoshihiro Togashi. Who might I add is an amazing man!

Tora, Jiro, Hiroki and Shaga are all my characters. They are all my creations, no stealing! Anyone recognize Shaga? If so let me know!

Youko's eyes narrowed at the limp form in his arms. This girl, she wasn't what he'd been expecting. When he'd heard the rumors about Jiro's new member he'd assumed it would be another ugly, pig-headed, bastard like all the others. But this girl was not what he'd been expecting. The moment he'd seen her walk into old man Hiroki's home he'd been impressed. She'd even managed to fool that crazy old man. He never trusted anyone, always assuming they were in allegiance with him. With a grunt he threw the girl roughly over his shoulder before looking back towards the trees.

"What did you find this time?"

Came the bored tone of his partner and friend, Kurone. The bat demon approached his friend looking at the girl who was lazily sleeping away.

"I thought we came to find a thief not who-"

"She is the thief."

"Really? Seems Jiro finally realized your one weakness!"

With a hearty laugh Kurone began walking back to their castle. Rolling his eyes Youko followed silently. There wasn't really much to do now but take the Akahana stone back from her, put her in a cell, and wait. That's all they could do.

Tora's ears twitched lightly, before her eyes fluttered open. Sitting up she rubbed the drug induced sleep from her eyes before taking in her surroundings. She was obviously not in the forest anymore. However if this was hell, it was pretty nice. It had two flat futons in the center of the room, one of which she was currently occupying. A small dresser was on the other side of the room, near one of two doors. One was probably the way out, and she could only assume the other was a bathroom. Glancing up she noticed there was even a cleanly cut out square on the wall. A barred window, how original.

The sound of the door slamming open made Tora jump clear out of her skin. A tall lanky girl walked in, her short purple hair hung in a choppy mess around her pale face. Her dark red eyes met Tora's bright teal ones and for an instant she felt somewhat safe.

"Your awake! Oh thank goodness, I was worried Youko had drugged you with something that you couldn't handle!"

The girl ran over plopping down in front of Tora. She couldn't help but notice how pretty her outfit was. It looked like a decorated sleeping robe, mainly because of the fact that it tied around the waist. It was a deep green that contrasted well with her eyes and hair. She must have noticed her strange stare because she started talking again.

"I'm Shaga and I will be escorting you to see Youko and Kurone."

"Tora, and what if I don't want to see them?" She said blankly watching the look of humor form on Shaga's face.

"To bad. Don't think of running. I won't stop you but Youko has ordered the men to kill you if you're caught without me."

Shaga stood up, snatching Tora to her feet along with her. Now she was worried. It was obvious that she wasn't of any threat to Youko. He'd made that clear by keeping her in a room with such little security. Looking at the men, she couldn't help but notice how much they all avoided Shaga. Was she one of the main thieves? If she survived this meeting she'd be sure to ask her. Tora smiled when she saw the woman looking over at her. Something about her was comforting, like a mothers comfort. She smiled once more when she felt the light pat on her shoulder. 'Just like a mother.'

Shaga stopped in front of a large decorative door. It was not only tall but wide, probably to make entrances for the array of demons easy. Tora watched as the woman next to her lightly knocked on the door, the sound seemed to pound deep in her ears. It made her cringe but she'd convinced herself to act strong. It'd always worked with Jiro, it should work here. A muffled reply was all she heard before the door was shoved open. Shaga gave her a comforting smile before leading her into the room. Two feet inside and Tora could already feel herself loosing her resolve. It seemed to get worse when Shaga left the room with a bat demon, which she could assume was Kurone.

The clicking of the door shutting caused her heart to sink straight to her stomach. Looking around the room she noticed it looked more like an office than a conference room. Maps were placed high and low through out the room; colored tacks were placed at random across them. Tora assumed the different colors were for different groups of thieves. Along with the array of maps was a large collection of books. They were scattered all over the floor, so much so that she couldn't tell if the floor was tiled like the hallway or not. Teal orbs traveled upwards to see a very stressed out looking Youko. A small smirk was plastered to his lips; he'd been watching her. But even through the humorous look the tension was still apparent on his face. He pointed lazily to the chair in front of his desk before leaning back in his own chair. Why did this feel like a business meeting?

Sighing Tora stepped around the books the best she could, watching the amusement on his face grow. His messy habits were causing her pain and he found it funny. Typical man. After a couple of stumbles she sat down in the chair. If she'd been nervous at the door, she was hysterical now.

Youko watched as she fidgeted nervously in her chair. This would be interesting. He couldn't help but notice how different her demeanor was now than it was with the old man. An interesting catch she was turning out to be. Not once had she given him the feeling of being a thief, nor did she seem to enjoy it. Yet she was stealing and killing his men, as well as working for Jiro. Reaching across the desk he roughly grabbed her arm, pushing the sleeve of her kimono up. On her wrist was a small cut; a crystal had been pushed into the wound. Youko had studied his competition for a while and had noticed a trend with Jiro's people. Every last one of his team had this crystal. Those members skin had already grown around the small tracking device though. That was unfortunate for those men, he'd had to cut their hands off before questioning them. Looked like this wasn't the case for her.

"Looks like you get to keep your hand kitten."

She inwardly cringed at the nickname. He wasn't too creative was he? Closing her eyes she winced slightly as he pulled the crystal from her skin. It'd already begun branching into her system. Tora watched as Youko looked at it, he looked intrigued as he pulled on one of the appendages that'd been in her arm.

"I have a proposition for you."

His voice seemed faraway, mainly because he was still looking at the stupid crystal. It was obvious what it was, in her opinion he needed to put it away and talk. Youko dragged on for a few moments, not saying a word. It was taking everything she had not to walk out of the room.

"The proposition?"

His eyes flicked to hers, that's when she saw something click. Like he'd just realized she was still in the room. How rude could he be? Calling her in there to just forget she was there.

"Right, you can either join my crew or I can kill you. Considering you're with Jiro you should be happy I'm even considering making a deal with you. If you'd been one of those hideous meatheads he normally sends I probably would have killed you on the spot. What do you say kitten?"

Tora felt herself twitch again, though it seemed this time he picked up on it as well. The smirk returned to his lips, making a small growl slip from her throat.

"My name isn't kitten it-"

"I honestly don't give a damn what your name is right now. Are you joining or not?"

"Yes."

Pursing her lips together she looked down at her hands, which she'd folded in her lap earlier. Her eyes gently followed Youko's form as he stood up walking over to one of the maps. At first she watched as he took the tacks and moved them around the board, obviously forgetting she was in the room again. However after a moment her eyes drifted down to his twitching tail. It was amusing to watch, the longer she watched the more she felt her tail wag along with his. Tora let her eyes wash over the rest of his body, finally taking in the rest of his appearance. His silver hair was long, hanging all the way down his back just like hers. Though his looked a thousand times better than hers did right now. It did become a bit hard to tell where his hair started and ended since it blended in with his clothes. White the color of purity, ironic seeing as everyone knew Youko was the poster boy for everything impure.

She felt her face turn to flames when he looked back at her, a crooked smile on his lips. She'd been checking him out and he'd caught her. Looking down Tora tried to create a curtain between them with her hair. But just as it'd fallen into place she felt something push it back. Looking beside her teal met gold. When had he moved?

"See something you like kitten?"

Tora shook her head no in violent manner, which received a low chuckle from Youko. He wasn't used to shy girls. Normally the only women in the castle were the ones willing to throw themselves at him. But he'd taken her so he hadn't known what to expect. This was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

"My name isn't kitten! It's-"

Another low knock on the door caught both of their attentions, as well as stopped her from telling him her name. Again. Shaga poked her purple head in, a nervous look in her eyes. However once she saw Tora her eyes lit up. Seems she'd expected to find a dead cat when she came back.

"I haven't decided where I want her yet. Get her cleaned up, feed her, do whatever you want after that. She'll be staying with you until I get one of the maids to prepare a room."

"That's fine!"

She said in her usual happy tone before rushing over to Tora, and pulled her from the chair. She couldn't help but be thankful for Shaga's timing. Another minute and her face might have actually caught on fire. She was going to be sure to never get herself into a situation like that again. Just as they were closing the doors she caught a few last minutes words he was saying to her.

"I hope you enjoy your stay, Tora."

She turned around just in time to see his smirk before the door slammed. That tricky fox! He'd messed with her like that on purpose! He'd known her name the whole time!

"You stupid fox!"

Shaga couldn't understand what to be more surprised about, Tora's words or the laughter coming from behind the closed door. There was clearly something she'd missed. But the look on the cat's face was quite cute. Her face was scrunched up in anger, her lips puckered out in a fake pout. She was an amusing character; there was a lot more to her than what met the eye. Grabbing her by the wrist she began walking down the hallway.

"Come on! I wanna get to know you sometime today!" With a small giggle Shaga began running down the hall, dragging the now smiling girl behind her.