Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Kurama no Kanojo ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Hmmm . . . *looks through list of worldly possessions* Nope. Don't own it. Therefore, all you lawsuit happy lawyers, go pick on some other poor fool! But no fair claiming Nadeshiko and Sakura as yours, because they're MINE! MINE, you hear?

Kurama no Kanojo

By Kurama no Miko2003

"Kurama, wait! Where are you going this time?" a female voice called. Youko Kurama turns around and to see another youko behind him. He walks up to her and holds her close.

"Sakura, I . . . if I don't return to you by tomorrow, go to the Ningenkai to find me. I promised you I wouldn't die, remember?"

"Of course I remember, but will I know where you are in the Ningenkai?" She pauses as she looks away to hide her tears. Youko Kurama sees them anyway and wipes them away with his hand.

"You'll know, Sakura, you'll know." With that, Youko Kurama hugs her and walks off into the trees. Youko Sakura does not reply and watches him as he walks off.

Later . . .

Youko Kurama, in his 'four-tailed fox' form, is running from a hunter. A huge explosion lifts him off his feet and into the air, injuring him in the process. He comes to rest on the ground not long after, immobilized and helpless. Realizing that he had little time before the hunter would kill him, he pushes his soul out of the body of Youko Kurama and travels to the Ningenkai. `Sakura, I'm sorry. I wish I could see you again, but I guess I can't . . .'

Kurama suddenly woke up and sat up in his bed to find himself back at the present as Minamino Shuuichi. `Why am I having this dream? Did something happen to Sakura?'

The next morning at Kurama's school . . .

"Minamino-san, have you heard? We have a new transfer student coming in today and she's been assigned to our class. Fukuyama-sensei wants you to go greet her at the school's main office as our class representative," a classmate reported as Kurama walked into the classroom.

"Okay; tell him I'll be going there right now." As Kurama walked towards the main office, he started to wonder if there was any correlation between his dream and the new student. He stops short when he saw the new student from the large floor to ceiling windows that separated the office from the rest of the school. She had dark indigo hair pulled back into a ponytail and two small braids going down each side of her head, sea green eyes, and a warm, friendly smile and was wearing the school's girl's uniform. His eyes went wide with surprise. This, of course, goes by unnoticed by the girl, since she was busily talking to the assistant principal. Masking his surprise, he opens the door and walks in.

"Good morning. You must be the class representative that Fukuyama-sensei said he was going to send to show me the way to his classroom. I'm Umino Sakura. I'll be joining your class today."

"Um, yes, hello, and welcome. I'm Minamino Shuuichi, and I'll show you the way to the classroom." He walks her out of the main office and down the hallway.

"When did you get here?" he asks.

"I transferred here just yesterday. I like this area, it's much better than some of the other places I've been."

"Oh, here we are. (He slides the classroom door open.) Fukuyama-sensei, here is Umino-san. I showed her the way here as you've asked."

"Ah, thank you, Minamino-kun. We will begin class shortly, so you may go take a seat. I'd like a word with Umino-san to see how well she has adjusted."

"Thank you for showing me the way here. Please, do join me for lunch. You're the only person I know here and I'd like to see how you've been these past fifteen years, Kurama. I'll be waiting for you on the roof," she said in a low voice as she walked up to speak to Fukuyama-sensei. Kurama's eyes widen with surprise as her words registered in his brain.

'How . . . How does she know who I am? Is she after me?'

During lunch that same day . . .

'"Please, do join me for lunch. You're the only person I know here and I'd like to see how you've been these past fifteen years, Kurama." How does she know who I really am and who is she, really? I guess there's no other way to find out other than to go and meet her.' He arrived on the rooftop to find it shrouded by a mist. `Mist?! No way . . . but whom else could it be?'

"Nice to see you could make it, Kurama."

"Who's there?" He turns to look, but sees nobody.

"You mean you don't recognize me after fifteen years? I'm shocked."

"Sakura . . . is that really you?" he incredulously asks.

"In the flesh!" She jumped out of the mist in her youko form with tears in her eyes and hugs Kurama. Kurama does nothing, since he's too surprised. "I've been looking for you for fifteen years. You told me to find you if you didn't return that day, right?"

"But how did you know to look for me here?"

"I've been traveling for many years, but this was the first place where I've sensed any strong youki, strong enough for it to be the youki of the reincarnated Youko Kurama. I've missed you." Just then, another voice cut through the fog.

"Kurama, are you alright?"

"Hiei?! What are you doing here?"

"I had seen the mist and thought that someone was attacking your school and decided to investigate."

"I'm fine." The mist suddenly dissipated as Sakura fainted and reverted back into her 'human' form. Kurama lays her down on the ground and holds up her head. "Sakura? Are you all right? Answer me!"

"I've been poisoned by some plant . . . there have been many youkai coming after me . . . please help me . . ." Sakura could not finish what she was saying. Kurama knew that the poison must be a slow one, for it seemed as though it she was exposed to it before she arrived that morning.

"Hiei, go and round up everyone and have them meet us at Genkai's temple."

"Okay." Hiei jumped off towards town as Kurama lifted Sakura's head again.

"Sakura, wake up!" Seeing that she wasn't going to, Kurama pulled a flower from his hair and waved it under her nose. She awoke with a start.

"What the-"

"Calm down, Sakura. I sent Hiei to round up all my friends. Whatever the problem is, they'll help."

"Who's Hiei?" she asks, unsure of Hiei's trustworthiness.

"He's a friend of mine. Don't worry, he may be antisocial, aloof, and antagonistic, but he's trustworthy. I know he won't betray me." He pauses a moment. "Do you think you can make through one more hour of school? If you need anything, just ask to go to the Nurse's Office. You can lie down there and wait for me. I'll take you to Genkai's temple."

"Genkai . . . as in Master Genkai, master of Reikohadouken?"

"Yes, that's right. She trained one of the Reikai Tantei, Urameshi Yuusuke. I work with him now so that I could be pardoned by the Reikai."

"I see . . . so the rumors were true after all," she replies with a note of disappointment. She had been hoping that they weren't true.

"Rumors . . . what rumors?" Kurama had no idea what she was talking about, since most of the youkai that he met for the past fifteen years wanted to kill him.

"There have been rumors going around the youkai that you've betrayed them, that you now work for the Reikai. You and Hiei." She notices the worried look on his face. "Don't worry about me. The poison only works if I'm using my powers. It really doesn't do much when I'm not." With that, Kurama gives her a relieved smile and checks his watch.

"Can you get up?" he asks as he extends a hand to help her up. She takes it and gets up from the cement.

"Thanks, Kurama."

"You do know you have to call me Minamino Shuuichi whenever there are humans around, right?"

"Of course! How dumb do you think I am?" The pair walked down the stairs and back to the classroom and sat down as the chime sounded for the beginning of the last class of the day.

Elsewhere . . .

"Yes, Sakura, run to your boyfriend. I thank you for helping me find him. I shall make him and Hiei suffer for betraying all youkai! Are the preparations ready?" a voice said from the shadows.

"Yes, they are."

"Good. Then you may go and have your revenge . . . Yakumo. Just don't forget to leave Kurama and Sakura to me. You have my permission to kill the rest." (AN: Obviously, those of us who have seen the second movie would know what Yakumo looks like. For those of you who haven't, Yakumo has white hair and tends to wear a black cape/mantle. He's powerful and is also the king of the Mekai, or the Netherworld according to the dub.)

"I understand. I will go right away."

After school; at Genkai's temple . . .

"Hi, everyone. This is Sakura," Kurama said as he entered. He steps aside to let everyone see her.

"You must be the friends that Kurama was telling me about on the way here. I appreciate you going through all this trouble just to help me. As you already know, my name is Sakura, but my alias, well, it's not really one, in the Ningenkai is Umino Sakura."

"My name is Urameshi Yuusuke."

"I'm Kuwabara Kazuma."

"I'm Botan."

"I'm Yukimura Keiko." (AN: Alright, before all you dub-happy fans out there kill me, this is how Keiko's name is originally spelled. Since I'm solely basing this off the manga/sub, there are bound to be differences.)

"I'm Yukina."

"I'm Kuwabara Shizuru."

"I'm Genkai."

"Hiei."

"Sakura, could you explain to us what is going on?"

"Yes . . . I arrived in Japan several months ago, in hopes of finding Kurama. When I arrived, some mysterious person attacked me in a forest on Mt. Hiei. I defeated the guy, but just before he died, he hit me with a poisoned dart. I realized that I couldn't use any of my powers without the poison affecting me in some way. So, I've been lying low ever since. I haven't been attacked again, but I'm glad I finally found Kurama. I know he can cure the poison. That and I there's something I want to warn you about. There's been a second rumor going around that someone is after you, Kurama. This guy wants to kill both you and Hiei for supposedly betraying all youkai by teaming up with Urameshi-san. I'd like to help, but I can't in my current state. This guy also supposedly has a cloning device that could clone any youkai, even if they're from the Netherworld, or so I've heard. That was all I have been able to gather; I hope this information will be useful."

"But what about the poison? Is there any way we can cure it?" asked Yuusuke.

"There is. I've heard of this type of poison before, but this is the first time I've actually seen a case of it. I've never actually used it in battle, since it does take a long time for it to work, but I've heard that it's extremely useful. Of course, I do specialize in plant magic, so I do have a seed for this particular plant. It's just that the extract for this plant takes a long time to make and requires a large amount of youki or reiki to refine it. That's why it's basically death if this poison hits you. The poison will kill you before you can make the antidote," Kurama said as he takes out a seed from his hair. "Genkai, do you have a pot I could use?"

"Yes, it's right over here." She walks off and returns five minutes later with a large pot.

"Thank you. Kuwabara-kun, go outside and get me some soil. I'll need it to fill up the pot." Kuwabara returns half an hour later with an armload of soil. "That's good. It should be enough." Kurama then sprouts the seed in his hand and then buries it in the pot once the roots have developed. Within two seconds, the plant had fully grown and had many beautiful pink flowers on it. "The flowers make up the bulk of the antidote, but to get the antidote, it must be refined by using either youki or reiki. This'll take a couple of hours, so I don't think it'll hurt if someone goes outside to post a guard."

Several hours later . . .

"Okay, I'm done. Here, Sakura, drink this. It should counteract the poison with in short while." She does as she is told. When Kurama gets up to go outside to tell the others he was done, he collapses.

"Kurama! Are you okay?" Sakura ran to him and put his head on her lap as she kneeled down next to him.

"Sakura, what happened? Kurama, what-" Yuusuke asks as he pulls the screen door open.

"It's alright, he just used up too much of his youki, that's all. He should be fine after a nap," Genkai interjected before any suspicion could be cast on Sakura.

"Whew . . . that's good. I feel so guilty . . ." Sakura said, relieved.

"Well, stop feeling guilty and drink the medicine that Kurama made for you! It's not going to make him feel any better if you don't!" Botan exclaimed. She'd guessed from the way Sakura treated him that she likes him and vice versa. Sakura only blushes in response and drinks the antidote.