Two Months in the Forest

Two Months in the Forest
Chapter 3: Progress


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.

Thanks Willow

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“Fight!”

Birds scattered at the sound of a whip repeatedly striking human flesh.

“Do you think your opponent will go easy on you?”

Kuwabara grunted in pain, but other than that did not complain. He knew his tormentor, or rather his trainer, was correct. He needed to get stronger and the only way to do that was by pushing himself to limits.

Kurama raised his arm to strike again, but a voice said, “That’s enough.”

The fox looked over his shoulder and addressed the figure concealed in the branches of a nearby tree. “Your time with Kuwabara is over, Hiei. Right now he is my responsibility and I will train him as I see fit.”

All three of the fighters knew the routine. From the moment he woke up until noon Kuwabara was a student at the school of Hiei. Early afternoons he was free to do what he wanted, which was usually resting for his late afternoon training session with Kurama.

The fire demon leapt out of the tree and approached his comrades, eyeing the shorter redhead in particular. “Even if it means beating him to death?”

Kuwabara pulled himself to his feet. “I don’t need you butting in. Kurama is right, it’s his turn to train me.”

Hiei eyed the taller human like he was nothing more than a pesky fly. “Wrong as always,” he lifted his chin in the direction of the sun, “Kurama’s time is up, but if you want to continue letting him whip you senseless then by all means go ahead.” The lush greenery swallowed up his body as he vanished into the forest.

“Hiei is right, our time is over for today,” the fox conceded.

Kuwabara began taking inventory of his fresh injuries. There were quite a few, as usual. By now he was used to it. He knew he should bandage them, but he was just too tired. He sat back down in the cool grass, telling himself that he would only take a few minutes to catch his breath.

“I’m only doing this because I care, Kuwabara.” The fox flicked his wrist causing his whip to return to the rose from which it originated.

The carrot-top responded dryly, “I know.”

“If you don’t get stronger then everyone you care about will suffer. People are depending on you, don’t let them down.”

Kuwabara was glad when Kurama finally left. Every day for the past month he listened to the same speech: ‘Get stronger or everyone you love will die.’ The young man didn’t need to be reminded that he was fighting for people other than himself. He understood all too well the gravity of the responsibility he was shouldering.

Too tired to make his way back to camp just yet, Kuwabara stretched out in the grass, but it caused him great discomfort. No matter what position he took he found that they all aggravated his injuries. He finally settled for laying face down in grass and ignoring the bugs that crawled over him.

‘I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute.’

A minute turned into ten and ten became thirty minutes, which eventually became what the hell I’ll sleep here for the night.


~*~THE NEXT MORNING~*~


“Where is the oaf?”

Kurama rolled over in his sleeping bag and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “It’s morning time and that means he’s your responsibility.”

Noticing the annoyance in the fox’s voice Hiei asked, “What’s your problem?”

“I don’t appreciate the way you interfered yesterday. Kuwabara knew what he was getting into when he enlisted my help. I’m not going to change my tactics just because you’ve got a soft spot.”

Hiei cut his eyes in the direction of the redhead, but didn’t say anything lest the fox tried to twist his words. He grabbed his cloak off the ground and went off in search of his student. The fire demon didn’t have to look very far he found the human in the exact spot where he was last night. He kicked the boy in the ribs and barked, “Wake up you lazy fool!”

Kuwabara sat up and blinked his eyes until he was able to focus on the apparition in front of him. “Is it morning already?”

“What do you think?” Hiei asked with a nasty sneer. “If it wasn’t I wouldn’t be bothering with you.”

The boy let out a loud yawn. His stomach growled, interrupting the still morning air. He rubbed his stomach in an attempt to soothe his hunger pains. “I’m hungry.”

Hiei unsheathed his sword and motioned with it for the human to get off the ground. “Eat on your own time.”

Kuwabara found the will to stand up and summoned his own sword. “Let’s do this.”

The demon’s training was intense as well as insightful. He taught the young human several sword stances, showed him how to break free of different holds and they did some sparring also.

“That’s enough for today.”

Kuwabara nodded his head and mumbled his thanks for the day’s lesson.

“Rest while you can. If yesterday was any indication you’ll need it later.”

Hiei was about to leave, but for some reason he felt compelled to stay a while longer. He watched Kuwabara as he got into the pond. The water came up just below his groin staining his jeans a dark shade of blue. The boy tried to take off his shirt, but his sore muscles granted limited movement. He finally decided to rip his shirt off and be done with it. Dark bruises covered most of the skin on his torso. Long welts crisscrossed his back, intersecting with each other. Fresh blood ran down his arms from the cuts he received while training with Hiei.

“I’m surprised you’re still able to move. Most humans-”

Kuwabara cut his eyes at the demon and said, “I’m not like most people so don’t compare me to them.”

“I was only saying that it’s fairly impressive that you’re still-”

“I like it better when you call me stupid. I don’t need your sympathy. I can handle whatever Kurama throws at me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re staring at my bruises and it’s obvious you think I’m out of my league. You think I’ll never make any progress and will always be weak.”

Hiei didn’t even bother to hide how much he wholeheartedly agreed with the young man’s statement.

“I can handle Kurama's training.” Kuwabara pointed at a long bruise that started at his collarbone and went as low as his abdomen. “You see this? I took a staff full on and didn’t even budge an inch.” The boy directed Hiei’s attention to a bruise that ran horizontally across his ribcage. “The same goes for this one. Kurama hit me as hard as he could and cracked two ribs, but I still didn’t budge.” Kuwabara showed the demon all his injuries and related the story behind each of them. Each wound was a sign of the progress he had made under the tutelage of Kurama.

“I was only trying to say that I have noticed how much you have improved.” Hiei rolled his eyes when he saw the young man’s jaw drop. “Now you know why I don’t give people compliments, they can never take them the right way.”

“It’s more like you always mess them up and insult someone instead of complimenting them.”

Hiei was about to give a nasty retort when he realized Kuwabara was right. His mouth was open as if he was about speak and the boy was waiting to hear what he had to say. He could see the smile playing about the young man’s lips as he took pleasure in his speechlessness. Rather then give him fodder for an insult Hiei asked, “Why are you in the water?”

“I need to cool off. I’m gonna take a quick swim.”

Kuwabara lowered his hands to front of his jeans, but paused as he was about to open them. He looked up at Hiei and said, “This ain’t a free show. If you’re gonna watch you’ll have to pay.”

“Imbecile.”

The apparition turned on his heel and beat a hasty retreat. On the walk back to camp he thought about Kuwabara's bruises and how the boy wore them like a badge of honor. The fool seemed proud of them and even though he would die before admitting it, Hiei found that commendable.

He made his way back to camp and saw Kurama reading a book. “So this is how you spend your free time.”

“It’s better than sharpening a sword for hours on end.”

“We need to talk about Kuwabara.”

Kurama shook his head in frustration then placed his book on the ground. “What is it now?”

“You must admit that he’s made remarkable improvement from when we first started.”

“Remarkable improvement won’t keep him from being killed at the Dark Tournament.”

“He won’t have to worry about him being killed at the tournament if you keep pushing him as hard as you are.”

“Not this again.”

“Yes, this again.” Hiei placed considerable thought into what he was about to say next, he didn’t want his words to be misconstrued. “I don’t like Kuwabara and I probably never will, but for the time being our lives are entwined. Therefore, his well-being is of some concern to me.”

“What is the point of this?”

“Perhaps you should find another way of encouraging him. Constantly reminding him of the other lives that are at stake is no way to motivate him.”

Kurama couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice as he asked, “Do you have a suggestion, wise one?”

Hiei shrugged his shoulders. “That’s the extent of my concern.” He turned and walked away, leaving the fox to think about what he had said.

‘Aggravating little demon,’ Kurama thought to himself as he returned to reading his book.


~*~LATER THAT AFTERNOON~*~


“You’re still too slow! It’s like you’re not even trying!”

Angered by the words, Kuwabara lunged at Kurama swinging his sword wildly. By pure luck he managed to graze the fox’s left cheek drawing a thin line of blood. “It took you long enough to strike me. Now let’s see you do it again.”

The wise fox move his arm with blinding speed causing his weapon cut through the air so fast it could be heard whistling. The green whip snaked around its wielder’s body, creating a moving barrier that Kuwabara had no chance of penetrating with a standard attack. The carrot-top knew that if he didn’t act soon the older boy would initiate an attack of his own.

The strike came sooner than he expected. He saw Kurama take a step back and the way the older boy’s shoulder rotated. Kuwabara knew that he only had a few seconds to attack. It was now or never. The whip came at him like a zigzagging missile. Kuwabara willed his sword to move. The energy spiraled around the whip, snaking back towards the weapon’s owner. The younger boy’s attack only landed first by a split second, but it was more than enough. The force of blow was so strong it knocked Kurama off his feet, causing his whip to go flying in the air.

Kurama clutched at his chest. Blood oozed from the wound and spilled over his fingers. He fixed a shocked gaze on Kuwabara and demanded to know, “How did you do that?”

Kuwabara looked at his sword he had formed. “It’s something that I’ve been practicing in my free time.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you remember? It was your idea.”

Kurama knew exactly what the carrot-top was talking about it. “I didn’t think you would be able to control your energy like that yet.”

“I’ve never really liked being told what I can or can’t do, that’s for me to decide.” Kuwabara's sword flickered and dissipated. He sank to his knees and began breathing heavily. “The problem is I still can’t control it very well. That and it uses up a lot of my strength.” The boy fell face first onto the ground. “If you don’t mind I’m gonna lay here and rest for awhile. I just need a little break before we finish training.”

Kurama eyed his sleeping ally with new respect. All this time he had doubted Kuwabara, but in the end the boy surprised him. He had no idea that the young man was conducting his own secret training. He had even less of an idea that the secret training would have been so successful. The fox was also able to notice that Kuwabara had learned something from his weeks of training with both him and Hiei. The ability to anticipate an enemy’s moves was no doubt learned from the fire demon. The cunning to hold onto a secret weapon was something the he had instilled even though he didn’t think Kuwabara would put such a lesson to use.

The redhead walked back to camp and sat down on his sleeping bag. He examined his wound. He was concentrating on healing it when he detected the sound of approaching footsteps.

Hiei asked without even the slightest trace of concern, “What happened to you?”

“Apparently you were right about Kuwabara’s remarkable progress.” He looked at the apparition and told him, “Perhaps you are also right about my method of motivation. Maybe I am being too hard on him. I’m sure there are other ways to encourage him. I think a reward is in order after what he accomplished today.”

The demon raised an eyebrow and questioned, “What do you plan on doing?”

“Nothing drastic, I will need your help though.”

Hiei grimaced at the mention of his involvement, but did not say no. He listened as Kurama told him what to do. “Can you do that for me?”

The fire apparition said, “I can.”

“But will you do it?”

“I suppose.”

“Good.”

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cillaxox: The next chapter will finally have a lemon and so will every chapter after it. In some way or another, somebody will be getting it on.