3 years, it's absolutely nuts how fast time flies.
Though I still stand by the fact that I eventually want to finish this story, I can't make any promises how long it's going to take me .

However, the semi frustration of coming across fanfics that I enjoy that weren't finished, and looked as if they never will be finished due to how long ago they were updated, made me feel terrible about having left this puppy neglected for so long.

I still love Yu Yu Hakusho (which was not written by me and I do not own rights to in any way) and Hiei deserves a happy ending damn it!

So, without further ado:

Being the runt of the litter sucked. Especially being the runt of a demon litter. Everything and everyone is out to get you. And even if you find a niche in a group somewhere, they still make you do all the runt work. The nasty little jobs no one wants to do. The upside? You're rather easily overlooked. Thus, being well acquainted with the honorable position of "runt", Jack was well adept at finding little nooks and crannies where he could snooze the day away. The soon to be starting bloodbaths would require all his energy, so he figured he could afford himself some shut eye for now. That is, until the door suddenly swung open and, after hearing several pairs of feet enter the room, swung shut again with a loud bang. He carefully crawled over to the edge of his little corner and peered down at the new occupants of the room.

Yusuke sat down backwards on a chair, a scowl on his face as he looked around the room at his friends. To Jack's surprise, Koenma was among them in his teenage form. Each and every single person in the room looked contemplative and some even slightly worried.

The silence was strained and felt heavier the longer it lasted, until Yusuke dragged a hand through his slicked back hair and broke the silence. "So what is this shit?" He looked from Hiei to Koenma and back. Koenma sighed and crossed his arms. "We don't know. Nothing makes sense. We finally had a lead with this Kameki demon, only for Hiei to discover he was probably murdered over a week ago when I sent him to investigate." He sucked his baby blue binky, obviously reluctant to continue.

Kurama however, had no such qualms. "Regardless of that leading to a dead end, Rei knew him, she said he was her teacher. He's the one who sent her to the demon world, he's probably the one who told her of our tournament and sent her there as well. The only question is, how much does she know? And what is her agenda?"

Silence once again blanketed them, making Kuwabara shuffle awkwardly in place. "Come on guys. She's been training with us for weeks. Do you honestly think she's one of the bad guys?"

Kurama just cast him an impassive look. "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. The fact is, we still know next to nothing of her and she never volunteers information. No matter how you look at this, she remains suspicious. She knows everything about us, more than what we thought anyone beyond our closest friends would know."
Koenma kept contemplatively sucking on his binky before he interjected. "She is connected to our enemies somehow, whether she knows it or not. Her reaction to her teacher's disappearance however, seemed quite sincere. The question is, can we risk asking her outright and trust her answers will be truthful?"

Yusuke sighed. "I have to agree with the fox on this one. I mean, I don't get a bad vibe from her either, she seems alright. But all the stuff she knows about us, and now her connection to this demon. Something definitely smells far less than minty fresh here."

Kurama nodded. "I was willing to let time unfold her secrets for us, but now I fear we need to find out her disposition and the luxury of time is something we no longer have in abundance."

Kuwabara huffed as he sat down in defeat. "And how do you wanna do that huh? Beat her upside the head with a stick? She's still our team mate you know, and she could be innocent in all this. She's been nothing but nice, and she never tried asking anything about our missions or whatever. If she was a bad guy, wouldn't she have tried to find stuff out? Also why would she even tell us that she knows all this shit about us huh? Makes no sense to give us a heads up like that if you ask me."

Kurama nodded calmly. "I agree that everything we know about her appears contradicting. But she might just have been telling us these things to mess with our heads. In making us suspicious of her she hoped to gain our trust, making us think exactly what you are now thinking Kuwabara."

Mukuro walked forward, filled a glass with water from a ready pitcher and calmly took a sip. "I doubt she's as conniving as that. She seems fairly simple and direct in her actions, I can't imagine she's that good of an actress."

Kuwabara practically beamed at her. "Thank you! At least one of us sees reason, Rei's a nice girl, not some evil mastermind."

Yusuke growled. "Look, the way I see it, there's only one way to get this straightened out. She's going to have to talk, one way or another."

Kuwabara frowned at him. "We can't just force her to talk man, she's our team mate, we still got a tournament to win together. I don't think breaking her fingers if she refuses to talk is a great idea right now. And I still say she's innocent anyhow, why can't we just come clean and ask her?"

Yusuke scowled at him. "God damn it Kuwabara, you're far too trusting you moron. If she is part of the enemy then she's been putting up a good enough act to make us all second guess ourselves right now, she'd simply say she knows nothing and wasn't aware of her teacher's role in all of this. Not to mention by asking her straight up she'd know we suspect her and she'd be able to make a good guess of what we know so far, we can't take that chance."

A small smile appeared on Kurama's lips as he casually leaned back against the wall. "There is another way."

Yusuke, Kuwabara and Koenma curiously looked up at Kurama, who was casting a suggestive look Hiei's way. Hiei in turn sent his friend a death glare that would've frozen any lesser demon on the spot, while Mukuro offered a slight grin of amusement upon the whole situation. Not understanding the silent exchange between the redhead and their short tempered friend, Yusuke quirked a brow in impatience. "And what way is that? Your truth tea is kinda useless if she decides to keep her mouth shut. Though that would obviously not make her look any less suspicious, but like Kuwabara said we do still need her help right now and I can't guarantee I won't pummel her into the ground if she turns out to be a mole."

Not breaking eye contact with Hiei, Kurama answered slowly, though even the fox couldn't hide the slight sense of sadistic amusement he was deriving from the situation. "Hiei can seduce her."

Beyond a low growl, no response was forth coming from Hiei's direction, while Kuwabara's jaw just about hit the floor. "Wait what?! Why would we get short stuff to do that? Am I missing something here?"

Ignoring Kuwabara's bumbling comments, Mukuro nodded. "You would use her infatuation against her."

Hiei simply switched his glare over to her, though this only seemed to amuse the demoness more. Yusuke looked around at the three who appeared to be having some silent argument as he tried to put two and two together. "Wait, the squirt's got a thing for Hiei?" When their prolonged silence answered his question his eyes took on a gleam of disbelief before he burst out laughing, making everyone look at him in bemusement. "Well shit." still laughing he tried to voice his thoughts. "Poor girl." He just shook his head as he continued laughing his head off. Hiei growled in annoyance. "If you're quite finished, we still find ourselves in a situation where our enemy remains several steps ahead of us."

Kurama nodded. "To which I just offered our best solution. She's our closest lead right now."

Kuwabara cleared his throat, looking around at them uncertainly. "Come on guys, you wanna get Hiei to make her fall in love with him just to get information? That's just cruel. That kinda makes us the bad guys you know..."

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Though it pains me to say it, I agree with the idiot." Kuwabara looked up at Hiei with hope shining in his eyes, making the shorter man scoff. "Not the sentimental crap you fool. But the plan itself is ridiculous. I say we break a few bones she won't miss if she refuses to give us the answers we need."

Yusuke snickered as he gave Hiei a sly look. "You sure you want to break apart your one and only fan?" He shook his head, still laughing lightly. "Shit no wonder she changed her dress style and stuff. She really was trying to get in someone's pants." As his laughing picked up again Hiei just rolled his eyes while Kuwabara gave his friend an annoyed look. "This isn't funny Urameshi! A girl's heart is something to be cherished, not dissected for information."

Yusuke sighed as he tried to calm himself down again. "Look, kitten lover, I get that you're all lovey dovey with Yukina. So I understand your opinion on this is a bit soft. But we already concluded we can't go torturing her for information, we need her for this tournament and asking her directly is not really a good option either if she turns out to be an enemy." He grinned broadly as he turned his gaze back to Hiei. "As much as it pains me to sacrifice you Hiei, I have to agree with the fox on this. I mean, you wouldn't believe the stuff women are willing to tell you when you're actually dating them. If she really has a thing for you, you could probably get her to tell you her deepest darkest secrets." He winked at Hiei, who remained glaring at the room in general.
"You're just gonna have to 'take one for the team' Hiei." Yusuke slapped his knee while he burst out laughing again.

Koenma cleared his throat, his eyebrow twitching slightly in annoyance at Yusuke's immaturity. "I agree that the 'no torture' method is preferable but, I wonder.." He glanced at Hiei quickly. "And, don't take this the wrong way, however.. Do you even know how to seduce a woman?"
Silence fell over the occupants in the room again, before it was broken harshly by Yusuke's laughter yet again.
Even Kurama cast an amused glance Hiei's way. "Though I understand that women may not be Hiei's particular specialty." He ignored the subsequent glare that was thrown his way again as he calmly continued. "Hiei has been his usual gruff self around her all this time, yet she is interested enough to have confronted Mukuro about it. I don't think he needs to do much to win her over completely." Even Hiei looked surprised this time, casting a disbelieving look towards Mukuro who simply shrugged lightly as she finished her drink.
Koenma sighed, but nodded. "Alright, it's decided then."

Kuwabara looked defeated, Yusuke still overly amused and Hiei appeared just about ready to massacre the entire room. "You guys take care of this Rei business and the tournament. I'll see what else I can dig up from the office." With that Koenma popped open a portal, threw them a casual wave and left. Taking that as their cue Yusuke and Kuwabara stood up. "Well, guess we better go check out the competition then." Mukuro followed after them at a leisurely pace, leaving a fuming Hiei and an ever calm Kurama in their wake.

It took a while before Kurama finally broke the tense silence. "I meant what I said. She is attracted to you as you are, you don't have to go out of your way, just be yourself and allow her to get close to you. Things will work out from there and once she trusts you fully you can ask her what we need to know. A woman in love does foolish things Hiei, she will tell you the truth."

Hiei just turned his head away, glaring out the window. "This kind of roundabout planning is your style Kurama, not mine."

Kurama smiled. "I know, I would do it, but given the situation I'm afraid I would fail at my task."

Hiei scoffed as he looked at his long time friend. "I didn't say I wouldn't do it, just don't get your hopes up."

"You're not going to be pulling punches in the actual fights are you? Cause this is kinda pathetic." Rei scowled up at Rinku from the grassy patch of meadow she was lying in, flat on her back, after having been tossed like a rag doll by several of Rinku's yoyos. It was so damn easy to forget he used them on his toes as well.

She groaned as she got back up, ignoring the amused glances of Shishi, Suzuka and Jin. Touya just appeared disinterested as usual and she had no idea where her actual team mates had run off too. She wiped some of the sweat from her brow and smiled sarcastically. "You're just so cute Rinku, I can't help but be unwilling to actually try to hurt you." Rinku swiped his thumb over the tip of his nose as he looked her over. "Well, I doubt you'll be fighting anyone as cute as me, so there may be hope yet."

Rei rolled her eyes as she took up a battle stance, ready to charge him again. As they'd practiced, she swirled her energy through Jin's, shielding him even though he wasn't part of the fight. Her powers otherwise occupied, she had to try and defend herself from Rinku. Who, despite his scoffing manner about her not fighting full on, was obviously going easy on her as well.

She pushed off, darting forward like an arrow to her target. Rinku just gave her a cheeky grin and threw several yoyos at her, forcing her to alter directions to avoid getting hit. She'd tried blocking one with her arms before, and a lovely bruise was already blossoming in the spot where it had hit. She was pretty sure if Rinku went full power on her, he'd snap her bones like twigs with those demonic toys.

It was very sobering and also frustrating, to be reminded that, despite all her training, she remained human and was still very, very vulnerable. She wasn't sure how much this device thing would reduce the power of her demon comrades, but she sure as hell didn't want to be the weak link that would cause their downfall.

Determination setting in, she feigned left and darted right, charging in as fast as she could she swung up and aimed a high kick at Rinku's head. His eyes grew wide as he tried to dodge, his lax attitude finally catching up to him, but he was too slow. She hit him to the side of his face, sending him careening into the flowery meadow face first. She immediately moved back a few feet to be sure he couldn't lash out at her with one of his yoyos, but relaxed when she saw him smiling as he got back up again. He rubbed his temple and nodded. "Not bad. Only took you about an hour."

She looked up when she heard clapping to the sidelines, recognizing Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Come on squirt, we're supposed to report to the main hall. Let's check out our competition."

She nodded and then smiled at Rinku and Jin. "Thanks guys. I'll see you later I guess." Jin grinned broadly, showing off his canines. "Yer welcome lass, no worries."

She followed closely behind Yusuke and Kuwabara, quickly retying her messy ponytail as she noticed Kuwabara's somewhat morose disposition. She nudged his arm with her elbow as she walked up beside him. "What's up? Not nervous are you? After your inspiring speech of us being the dream team and all that." She grinned up at him, forcing a hesitant smile on his face as he shrugged. "Nah. Just got some stuff on my mind is all."

Worry stealing over her features she looked him up and down. "Nothing serious I hope? Yukina and the kids okay?"

Kuwabara scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "Yeah, yeah they're fine. Nothing like that. Don't worry about it."

When they arrived in the hall, surrounded by demons, she decided to let it drop. Mukuro was already there, easily spotted by the wide berth other demons were giving her. Yusuke casually led them over and took his place beside her. She noticed many eyes swiveled in their direction, making her wonder how many demons had ever actually seen the lords of Tourin and Alaric up close like this. She supposed in a way they were demon world's celebrities. Of course the way they were eyeing herself and Kuwabara was far less awed and far more disdainful, but then, that was to be expected. Rei snorted as a slimy green demon cast her a particularly nasty grin. "They sure do like us don't they." She rolled her eyes as she glared equally back at any who dared look at her.

"For demons it's strength that talks, your glaring will do little if you can't back it up with muscle onna." She jumped slightly from the close proximity of his voice. She hadn't even noticed Kurama and Hiei had joined them, the latter of which stood but an inch from her side. She looked up at him, her heart beating in her throat while she tried to calm herself. He seemed to be looking her up and down, a hint of something indefinable in his deep red eyes. Figuring he must wonder as to her rumpled appearance she shrugged. "I did some sparring with Rinku." Suddenly feeling self conscious, she wiped some dust off her face. "We're not here to win a beauty pageant anyway." She scowled slightly at him when he gave no response, what the hell was he looking so intently at? Kurama stepped closer, his arms folded across his chest as he looked out over the crowd. "Perhaps it is best if we keep sparring to a minimum from now on. Though they know us and our powers, no one here knows yours yet. We shouldn't waste the element of surprise if it can give us an advantage."

She smiled as she shook her head at him. "Ever the strategist."

She cautiously cast her eyes towards Hiei again, who was still standing so close she could feel his energy coiling around her. What the hell was his deal? He normally completely ignored her, not that he was truly giving her any attention any longer, but the way he was standing so close almost seemed as if he was taunting her somehow.

"Lady folk and not so gentle men!"

A hushed silence fell over the crowd as eyes swiveled in every direction to pin point where the voice was coming from. "Welcome! Welcome to the bloodbath that shall be this tournament!"

Noticing several demons look up to the high ceiling she looked up as well, spotting a large bat like creature hanging from the rafters. "As a true demon tournament, there are no rules beyond the participation requirements! 2 men and 2 women per team minimum in a team of six total! You will be filed through the doors at the end to check if your team meets these requirements."

A sly grin spread over the creature's face. "Naturally, we are not held accountable if your team no longer meets these requirements by the time you reach the doors..." A high pitched cackling laughter could be heard as the creature spread his wings and flew off, leaving the room in a tense atmosphere.

She looked up as she felt a hand on her arm, her eyes meeting Hiei's as he pulled her behind him, effectively positioning her in between their group members. Part of her wanted to protest at being treated like a damsel in distress, but logic told her not to argue. Besides, she'd given him her word she'd follow his every order once shit became real. And when the first screech of some dying demon could be heard, she realized shit had just become very real.

After that first mortal cry, all hell seemed to break loose as demons left and right started going at each other. Her eyes grew wide at the disorganized carnage, at this rate, there wouldn't be a tournament any longer.

"We should head to those doors."

She looked up at Yusuke as he spoke, though he kept his eyes firmly ahead, scanning their surroundings. Thankfully, no demons had actually been brave enough to engage them in a fight just yet.

A loud crack could be heard as the bottom of a massive pillar got blown to bits, the marble monstrosity itself starting to wobble on its foundations. Hiei grabbed the hilt of his sword as he crouched down, his voice low and menacing. "Move!"

As the pillar came crashing down in their direction, they all moved forward through the carnage, heading to the doors like some kind of S.W.A.T. unit.

She noticed there were several others who hadn't gotten involved in the petty fights either, the fact that they weren't being engaged probably meant these were the opponents to watch out for.

Dust and rubble flew around them as the pillar landed heavily on top of several screaming demons and cracked open the floor, making it more difficult for her to see. Not wanting to get separated, she reached her hand out to grab hold of Kuwabara's jacket, only to screech when an arm suddenly grabbed her around her waist. She tensed, but then realized she recognized Hiei's energy as he pulled her against him before he set off from the ground and, with his signature insane speed, rushed them both over to the doors in milliseconds.

She looked up at him in question when he set her down. He was looking ahead at the others' approach, impatience in his features the only change to his usual stoic look as he once again completely ignored her. She noticed a group of demons actually had the guts to try and attack now that they'd separated themselves from the others, only to be intercepted by Kurama's whip before Hiei even had to move. Once the others arrived they quickly moved through the doors one by one, leading them into a spacious room where two lizard like demons in uniforms were sitting casually picking their teeth.

Noticing they were no longer alone, one of them lifted his feet off the counter, spit his toothpick into a metal bowl and stood up to look them over. "Well well, our first team to make it through. That was fast."

He gestured for them to come closer. "Now then.." He grinned slyly. "We have to confirm you are indeed at least two men and two women."

His colleague snorted loudly as he stood and walked over to them. "They got enough men alright. I'm more interested in the women." He leered at Rei, who merely scowled back at him.

He reached a sharp nailed hand out, as if he was going to grope her, but before he got close a sharp metal blade was poised at his neck and Hiei had positioned himself between them. The demon froze as Hiei expertly slid the blade over his scaly skin, a small trickle of blood leaving the shallow cut. Rei's hand went to her own neck, where she remembered he'd done the exact same thing upon their first encounter.

The other guard cleared his throat. "We do need to verify you have 2 women on your team, those are the rules."

Mukuro stepped forward, making the demon swallow and nervously take a step back. "I believe it is well known by now that I am female by gender." He nodded stiffly, then looked at Rei who rolled her eyes. "Oh come on! Do I look like a guy to you? I'm not giving you a striptease you dirty lecher."

Hiei hadn't let up on his stance and the guard in question was now literally shaking on the spot as he sent a pleading look to his colleague. Sighing, the first guard waved his hand. "Alright you may pass, sign your team up on the list and head out that way. Several rooms have been prepared, take your pick, it's first come first serve unless someone takes it from you by force."

He grinned maliciously as they walked past him, though his scared colleague looked just about ready to shit himself as he sagged to the floor once Hiei finally re-sheathed his blade. Yusuke stopped to sign them in on the list before they all head off together to find their new quarters.