Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ A Well Too Deep ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

R rating for later chapters

A big thank you to all those that reviewed the first chapter, I hope this second one lives up to your expectations.

Black Rose: I'm using Kurama's formal tone to separate him from everyone else. It is how he speaks when he is uncomfortable or deep in thought. He won't be quite so formal in this chapter as the team is in a different situation, but, without casual conversation as would happen in…say the Ningenkai, it is difficult for me to write him any other way.

Now we all know that I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho so why do I keep bothering to say it?

Warnings: Profanity and nasty weaponry

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A Well Too Deep: Chapter 2

"I thought! You said! We had! A few days!" Kuwabara's red face was livid from exhaustion, anger, and fear.

It had nearly been four hours, or 30 miles, since they had left last night's campgrounds. And, being the only member not of demonic power, Kuwabara was completely winded and demanded a break.

***Flashback***

"Stupid ningen can't even run for a full day."

"Shut up," Kuwabara retorted lamely. He had collapsed spread eagle upon the ground the moment Yusuke agreed to a break.

Kurama had positioned himself at the perimeter of their little group and had been surveying the area with his honed thief's instincts. A pattern of unnatural growth caught his eye. Only one with his knowledge of flora would know that a broad-leafed plantain doesn't creep or cluster. In fact, now that he scanned the convenient little clearing with a more careful eye, he could locate many other such patches evenly dispersed around them.

Kurama managed to catch Hiei's eye. The demon raised an eyebrow at his friend's stiff posture, though taking the hint to imitate it.

"Hey what's up you two?" Yusuke's question was wary.

"Don't move," said Kurama, his voice firm and authoritative.

At the sounding of a loud grunt, all three snapped their heads around to face Kuwabara who had apparently missed the tense attitudes of his teammates and was casually rising from his prone position. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm pooped." As if in emphasis of his words Kuwabara bonelessly sagged upon the nearest tree.

A panicked yell tore itself from Kurama's throat, "No don't!"

The tree seemed to give beneath his weight. Kuwabara thought nothing of it until he saw the other three tantei leap high into the air among a torrent of expletives. Thin iron spikes whizzed across his vision going every which way. His dodges weren't pretty - having to contort his body into positions no person should ever have to endure, including an upside down posture that involved his chin being firmly planted into the ground, his back arched over his head, and his legs splayed in the widest `v' Kuwabara's tight ligaments would allow - but, for the most part, they worked. Only two of the darts had managed to hit their mark and bury themselves deep within his arm and abdomen.

***End of Flashback***

Kuwabara was booking it, sprinting as fast as his legs would touch the ground and then some, up what he felt was the steepest hill he had ever seen in his life screaming cusswords at his fellow tantei who were watching him from atop the fore mentioned hill.

"Yusuke! You! Fucking! Bastard! I thought! You said! We had! A few days!"

Catching up quite effectively to the man were ten slithering, 15-foot long demons with serpent bodies and really, really big, sharp parrot beaks foaming blue at the mouth.

When Kuwabara neared his team, he was brutally shoved to the ground by a black blur careening into his side. Kuwabara was about to tell Hiei just where to go when a shout of "SPIRIT SHOT GUN!" was heard followed by blinding bullets of Yusuke's energy.

Hiei stood and brushed himself off. Yusuke soon joined him with a concerned expression. Blood was beginning to pool around the glinting metal protruding brutally through Kuwabara's white jacket.

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Kurama was crouching high up in a Native Makai evergreen tree - hardier and larger than Ningenkai evergreens. He watched the damaged demons, their blue blood foaming and evaporating upon contact with the air. A few of the larger ones began to twitch and move, eyes searching for a target, toothless beaks snapping open and closed gulping the air to taste for prey.

Kurama walked easily along the thick branches deeper into the tree. His passage brought a dark change upon the pine needles, mutating them into blue-green missiles, their natural waxy coat giving them a dull sheen. When he deemed his arsenal enough he turned about face and, with a snarl, released the needles with jet force to finish the job Yusuke's shot gun had started.

His face calm once again, he gracefully walked toe-heel to the branches' end to verify all ten creatures were dead.

`Shit.'

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"Hey man, are you going to be alright."

"Yeah. Kazuma. Kuwabara. Will not. Be defeated. By."

"Shut up, be serious with me," Yusuke's voice was kind, but it held an urgent edge. Kuwabara was paling with abnormal speed.

"In that case…remember when Keiko…struck you in the balls…with that curling iron?" Yusuke made an obviously pained wince, "This is worse."

"Hey!" Everyone looked up at a patch of red hair and pale skin among the branches. "Get up here!"

It was completely unlikely that Morana had managed to trap the one place they had chosen to rest. All the land around them must be crawling with her servants and their little tricks. Kurama felt safest boarding within something above ground that he could control.

"The oaf can't climb." Hiei's eyes widened at the ill words emitted by the fox his sensitive ears were able to catch. Kurama was pissed and there was only one thing that could really unbalance that kitsune. Hiei grimaced. Kurama messed up.

It took a lot out of him, but Kurama was able to turn one of the larger branches into an elevator of sorts - a wide array of spidery branches at its tip were converted into a stable stretcher. The branch was forced to the ground to allow Yusuke to position Kuwabara on it and then forced to curve upward in a slow controlled nature. Hiei and Yusuke reached Kurama about the same time and were able to assist in laying Kuwabara on a thick network of branches. Slippery, yellow puss had begun to ooze out of his wounds making the whole ordeal much more difficult and disgusting than it already was.

"What ails him?"

"You first, fox."

"One of the demons' heads has taken leave of us. I believe those demons were enchanted, and I, not quick enough to notice."

Hiei uncovered his jagan making the hair on the back of everyone's neck stand up.

"It's gone." They all felt a slight pressure removed from their chest when Hiei retied his warding bandana.

"Now Morana knows where we are," said Yusuke.

"So it would seem," Kurama nodded gravely, "Now, tell me what ails Kuwabara?"

"He was hit by two of those spikes back there. Are they poisoned?" Yusuke asked.

Kurama knelt down, resisting the urge to pinch his nose. Even without his fox's sense of smell, at close up, the wounds were putrid. The spike in Kuwabara's arm had pierced through, this was the one Kurama inspected. They were six inch long, four sided pyramids with bases a quarter of an inch in diameter. Kurama hissed loudly, this was no clean cutting dart.

"What is it?"

"Look here - you too Hiei - there is barbed wire wrapped around the tip, or, at least there was. The wire is only secured to the metal on one end. The rest must be tangled inside his body. An ingenuous weapon, really. I cannot imagine how one would go about removing this without opening, which is something none of us can perform."

"Surgery?" Yusuke gulped. It was lucky Kuwabara was unconscious, he thought.

"Something like that."

"But is it poisoned?"

At Hiei's prodding, Kurama brought Kuwabara's arm and the metal projectile up to his nose. It was a difficult to weed through the scent of blood, puss, and sweat and Kurama nearly gagged in the process, but, beneath it all, Kurama could detect a myriad of scents that shouldn't be present when dealing with the simplicities of metal. And, now that he cared to look, the metal was of impure color with thin rivulets of varying shades and dark flecks within the grainy, cement-like steel. He laid the arm back down and shook his head.

"There is no `poison' additive, but the metal itself is cheap and impure. There is likely to be anything from mercury to demon blood within the ore. It may be that it is accidental blood poisoning. Many demons are not as sensitive to the impurities as humans are. We would do best to remove what of the shafts that we can, but, truthfully, there is little any of us can do."

"I'll melt it out of him, troublesome bastard."

"No Hiei, think, such a high temperature would kill him!"

"Fuck this!" Yusuke angrily smacked the massive trunk, "There has to be something we can do! He's not going to die on us Kurama."

"Yusuke -" Kurama was cut short when Hiei laid a comforting hand upon his shoulder, squeezed it briefly, and released.

"All the more reason we should hurry detective."

Yusuke nodded curtly in agreement. Suddenly he was a no nonsense leader, "What do we gain from staying here - where Morana can easily find us - longer as opposed to leaving right now?"

"That can't have been the only trap set," said Hiei.

"Kuwabara's utterly untreated condition," added Kurama.

"Right. Hiei," Yusuke tapped his own forehead to indicate the jagan implanted in Hiei's, "find us a safe path out of here for the next ten or so miles. You're our eyes. Kurama, see if you can't ease Kuwabara's condition any. I'm going to try and get this damned communication mirror working again. Morana's barrier can't still be entirely in affect this far away from her palace. Everyone not back here in under an hour is being left behind - that includes me. We're getting out of this bitch's territory tonight."

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Chapter 2 done! Please R&R with all of your opinions on my story. I appreciate any and all feedback, especially if it's specific. Talk about my writing style, my grammar, my plot, a specific phrase or event in my story, or an event you would like to see occur here. I can't promise I'll include it, but I'll definitely give it some thought!