TheHeartsPath: Holy crap! It's been forever and a day since I last updated! I'm so, so, so sorry about that everyone! Lots of life's hand-baskets of hell have occurred since then. The main reasons I didn't update in so long were two things.

The memory stick that I keep my story on decided to disappear.

Not long before the aforementioned memory stick was finally found, my laptop died. -_-'

So now that I have both a new laptop and the stupid memory stick. (Which has been sentenced to my jewelry box when not in use. Hopefully this will keep the dratted thing from disappearing again.) Now here is the next chapter of Nature's Heart! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!

P.S.: Right after I got everything found/bought I went over all the previous chapters and did some rewriting. That should make them easier to read now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.

"Talking" Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~

Chapter 19: Connection

Hiei's POV

If she hadn't killed that demon she would be dead. I kept telling myself that as I ran to the temple. Ayla was in my arms, staring at nothing with tears rolling down her face. She hasn't made a single sound since we left the clearing.

I had ended up getting separated from her while I was fighting. Once I realized that I started fighting my way back to her. But every time I killed a demon, seven more would get in the way.

When she had screamed I fought even harder to get to her. I had to protect her, keep her safe from these hundreds of bastards that had chased after us. Hopefully she'd be able to hold him off until I could kill the bastard that had hurt her.

The demons had disguised their energy levels while in the city, making it only seem as if they were no more than C class. Once we'd hit the forest each of their energies had shot up to B and A class.

Demons of those levels should not have been here in the Ningenkai. Not unless they had permission from both Enki and Koenma. And those that did knew not to go after a human, whether they were spiritually aware or not. The fact that these ones had meant they were obviously here without permission. Somehow, high class demons were getting into the Ningenkai without anyone noticing.

There had still been a hundred demons between me and the onna when I saw her get thrown back into a bush full of thorns. At seeing the demon raise a dagger to kill her and start to bring it down towards her, my heart had stopped. But less than a second later a flare of energy, demon energy, came from Ayla. Thorny vines suddenly grew and grabbed the demon, killing him instantly.

A couple of minutes later I got rid of the last of the demons and then went to Ayla. With how fast she was breathing it was surprising that she hadn't hyperventilated. As quickly and carefully as possible I got her out of the thorn filled bush. She was covered in scratches and small puncture wounds from the thorns. Her right arm was broken and she had a ring of bruises around her neck. After making sure she didn't have any wounds that needed immediate attention I picked her up and started for the temple once more.

Every now and then I glanced down at Ayla. It had been the first time she had ever killed and her reaction to it had me worried. She was withdrawing into herself. Which wasn't really the best thing for her to do. Unfortunately until we were at the temple where it was safe I couldn't go into her mind and draw her out so she could begin to deal with her first kill.

Two very strong energies, one demon one spirit, flared about a mile ahead of us. It was the detective and the fool. They were heading straight for me and Ayla. In mere moments we met up with each other.

"Hiei what the hell happened?! There was suddenly a fuck ton of upper B to A class demon energies appearing and then disappearing once you let loose!" Yusuke yelled, "Not to mention that one really powerful demon energy that flared up just before the rest disappeared!"

"Aw man, what happened to Ayla? She doesn't look so good." the fool said. He was practically standing on top of me and looking at the onna in worry.

Growling I said, "Contact Kurama, tell him to get to the temple. Once we're all there and Ayla's injuries are being taken care of I'll explain. Until then, keep your foolish questions to yourselves." With that out of the way I took off for the temple again. Leaving them behind for a few moments before they started following.

I could hear Yusuke behind me contacting the fox with his communication mirror. After a couple of minutes there was a clicking sound. Signaling the closing of the communication mirror and the end of their conversation.

"Kurama's already on his way. He sensed those demons attacking you and Ayla. Fox boy contacted Koenma and told him about them. So now pacifier breath is gonna show up at the temple too." the detective informed us.

Koenma...Damn infant is only coming to yell and complain about those demons being in Ningenkai. He better leave the onna alone. She doesn't need to deal with that idiot prince right now.

I was already angry at myself for not protecting Ayla, but hearing that Koenma would be at the temple made my anger grow. Something told me that he was going to yell at the onna and bark orders at her. Meaning I was going to be fighting the urge to kill him.

Ayla shifted in my arms, leaning her head on my shoulder and placing her left hand on my chest. It was the first movement she had done since leaving the clearing.

Judging by her vacant expression, she was still unaware of everything around her. I couldn't help but wonder why she had moved the way she had. There was something about it that was familiar, but at the moment I couldn't place it. All I knew was that after she moved my anger seemed to lessen.

That's it! Now I remember why it's familiar.

FLASHBACK: 2 WEEKS AGO

The detective and the oaf were playing some stupid human game on the television and bickering. I was about ready to cut their tongues out of their heads from their incessant noise making.

Kurama was in another part of the temple with Genkai and Kira. He was curious about what an empath needed to know about their ability in order to stay sane. So while Kira was learning and training with her grandmother, Kurama was gaining knowledge as well.

"HA! I win again! Take that Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled.

"DAMN IT! Urameshi you cheated! I would've won if you hadn't elbowed me in the ribs!" Kuwabara yelled back.

"Yeah right! You just suck at this game!"

Must those idiots be so loud?

Normally I wouldn't even think about staying in the same room as those two when they were being so obnoxiously loud. Unfortunately it was pouring rain outside, causing me to remain indoors. There was also the fact that the window I always sat at was in the same room as the television. The only good thing about being in this room was that both Yukina and Ayla were there.

Ayla's training for the day had ended a few minutes before the rain had started. We'd all gotten to the temple just as the rain began to fall, so no one got soaked.

Well, almost no one.

Still facing the window I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the onna. None of us had noticed that she hadn't followed us into the temple. It was only after Yukina had asked where Ayla was that we realized she was still outside. I had gone back to the door we'd come in from and seen her standing in the rain, with her face lifted up, eyes closed and smiling.

For a minute all I could do was watch her enjoy the rain.

But then I had remembered that she needed to come inside for her healing lessons before she got sick from standing in the cold rain. She didn't argue or even glare at me when I had told her to get in the temple like I thought she would. She had merely smiled at me and asked if I could tell Yukina that she would be right there after she changed into some dry clothes, before she disappeared inside the temple.

From my place at the window, I watched as Ayla attempted to heal a gash in the lower part of her left leg. She had acquired it during her spar with Yusuke. A large shard of stone from a boulder that Yusuke ended up punching had hit her as it flew past her.

It took her several minutes to completely heal her leg since she was exhausted from today's training. The skin looked as if there had never even been a wound there to begin with. Showing that her skills as a healer were improving rapidly.

Her fighting skills were improving as well. The injuries she obtained today were fewer in number than in previous training sessions. She had even managed to land a few decent hits on the detective. One of which had actually made him stumble for a moment before regaining his balance.

"Whew! I never knew healing would take so much out of me." Ayla said as she leaned back against the wall. "How did I do with fixing up my leg Yukina?"

Yukina checked her leg over with her own healing powers. "You did very well Ayla. Although you did forget to heal a small amount of the bruising deeper in the muscle." she replied.

The onna smiled and was about to say something when a loud crash and yelling came from the other side of the room. Ayla, Yukina, and I all looked towards the noise to see what was going on. What we saw was the detective and the fool wrestling around on the floor, their game obviously forgotten.

After finding out that the two idiots were just being more idiotic I turned back to the window. Ignoring what was going on behind me, I allowed my thoughts to wander. No matter what I thought of somehow my thoughts always came back to Ayla. Her training, what she needs to learn, what she wants to learn, her love of learning and training. So many of my thoughts that revolved around her.

It was both annoying and pleasant. But for the most part it was just damn confusing.

Thoroughly lost in my thoughts as I was, I failed to detect an object that was flying through the air in my direction. Which resulted in said object hitting me in the back of the head. The amount of force it hit with wasn't enough to cause any pain. But being hit with whatever it was did piss me off.

I got up from my spot at the window and glared at both Yusuke and Kuwabara. Both of whom had stopped moving and were staring at me with wide, fearful eyes.

"Which one of you two idiots threw it?" I growled out, "Because the one who did is about to die."

"HE DID!" they both yelled, pointing at the other. "I DID NOT! IT WAS YOU!" they yelled again, but at each other this time. Once again they were bickering like children. Very loud children.

That's it, they're both dead.

I drew my sword and went to stand over them in less than a second. Both of them yelped in fear as I placed the tip of my blade between their faces. It's always amusing to hear either of them yelp in fear like that.

Before I could say or do anything else the onna was suddenly there in front of me, my sword going past her side. "Easy Hiei. No need to slice and dice the idiots. Beat the hell out of them sure, but no killing okay?" she said.

"No one asked you onna. Now get out of my way." I replied as I glanced at her momentarily.

"She may not have been asked, but I like what she said. Well, the no slice and dice, and no killing parts anyways." Yusuke spoke up.

Kuwabara nodded in agreement, "Yeah, same here."

I gave no visible sign of preparing to attack. Yet the moment before I was about to move Ayla prevented me from doing so. All with a single, simple gesture.

She stepped close enough to me that there was no space between us. Placing her left hand on my chest, she then laid her head upon my left shoulder, with her face turned towards mine.

Within seconds my anger at the detective and fool began to fade. It was strange having my anger fade away so easily. Given the fact that such a thing had never happened before, I was surprised that it didn't bother me.

My surprise at what she was doing and its results caused all of my attention to shift from the idiots on the floor to Ayla.

Her face was a reflection of mine. A mixture of surprise and confusion. Although it was more pronounced on her face compared to my own.

We stayed like that for a time, not moving or saying a word. It was as if everything had come to a standstill, save for the two of us. Neither of us noticed when the others left the room, nor how much time passed.

Then at some unspoken word of agreement, we moved apart.

We kept eye contact, speaking without words, either vocal or telepathic and came to an understanding. Neither of us knew nor understood just what was happening between us, but accepted that it was. Things were occurring often enough that we kept noticing this strange connection we had and how it continued growing stronger.

It was obvious that fighting it would be pointless. So we wouldn't. Nor would we try to force it into something we could understand. Instead we would continue on as we had before.

END FLASHBACK

Genkai and Yukina were waiting outside the temple for us. The old woman took one look at her granddaughter before telling me to take Ayla to her room so Yukina could begin to heal her. I didn't bother to listen to anything else Genkai or the two behind me said to each other after that. My focus was solely on the onna in my arms.

It was unnerving how silent and still she was being.

She needed to be brought back from within herself. Even if it meant I had to drag her out. Not dealing with what had happened earlier would only make things worse for her in the end.

I won't let you withdraw from everything onna. I'll help you come to terms with the fact that you have killed for the first time.

This connection we have...It has become important to me...You...Ayla...You have become important to me...I will not lose you to yourself Ayla...I refuse to lose you.