Giniro na Kitsune

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Yu Hakusho

Summary: The cunning of the fox is rivalled only by their playfulness.

Author's Notes: Hey ho, people! This is my first Yu-Yu Hakusho fic and so I look forward to learning more about the fandom of YYH. I've been haunting the YGO fandom for almost one and a half years now and have started to gain interest in YYH, so I have progressed onwards!

Since I don't know much about YYH as yet, there are a lot of things you guys can teach me about it. For now, I'll just write from what I know and find out more as I update and watch more DVDs.

Giniro na Kitsune

It is said that the cunning associated with kitsune is rivalled only by their playfulness and tendency towards making fun. More so, if the said kitsune is one of high calibre and great association with the Makai, the kitsune would seldom have need for idleness. Needless to say, the greatest of these Makai kitsune would be the infamous Youko Kurama.

Upon first appearances, Yoko Kurama would seem to be a formidable and dangerous opponent. Indeed his reputation preceded him as a cold-blooded killer with a tendency to be rather cruel to his victims. That, however true it may be, was only half the story to those who have had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the greatest of the kitsune.

To the entire Urameshi Team – a term widely used, though there were members of them who were loathe to admit to a part of it – Yoko Kurama was among one of the most unassumingly devious of them. That was to say, not one of them had escaped unscathed from his love of practical jokes and teasing. Most of all, his close companion and partner, Jaganshi Hiei, who found himself frequently the brunt of the kitsune's jokes.

It was not, however, Yoko Kurama who performed the harmless, little jokes that made up the majority of it all. In such an instant, it was his human incarnate, Minamino Shuichi – rather Kurama – who took pleasure in making a fool of his friends for the sake of his own amusement.

"Who are you to decide who gets to see Yukina-chan?" the orange-haired member of their group screeched.

"Just stay away from her, aho," his partner-in-argument snapped back.

"I'm here on her invitation, yarou," Kuwabara boasted. "Because I have made her the promises of helping her find her brother."

At this, Hiei's eyes narrowed and a scowl crossed his features. Kurama, noticing this, smiled cheerfully and decided to join in this amusing discussion. They were at his house – he having made arrangements for the Jaganshi and his sister to stay there when they were in town. The latter was inclined only to stay for a few weeks at a time, preferring the Land of Glaciers to the city life, but Hiei found himself there more often than not.

"Aa, Kuwabara-kun, so you're here to help Yukina-chan find her brother?" He noted cheerfully. "That's very good of you do so, isn't it Hiei?"

The scowl on Hiei's face deepened, as expected. The amusement grew in Kurama's voice as he cocked his head to the side with a happy smile.

"We should help him too," he added. "After all, remember during the Dark Tournament that we said we would?"

"I made no promises of that kind," Hiei grunted back.

"Still . . ." Kurama lead Kuwabara to the door of one of the guestrooms. He knocked on the door and called. "Yukina-chan, Kuwabara-kun's here to see you."

He left the two of them alone and returned to the living room, where Hiei was. The fire demon glared at him, a look which he returned with one of amiability. He sat down at picked up the book he had left on the couch when Kuwabara came in, completely ignoring the vertically challenged youkai as he engrossed himself again.

"Will you stop doing that?" Hiei burst out suddenly. Kurama raised an eyebrow.

"Doing what?" he asked with innocent surprise.

"It's such a bad habit of yours, kitsune," the youkai growled. "You know well enough how I disapprove of that orange-haired idiot."

"I find the match a very good one, Hiei," Kurama replied with the same surprised amusement lilting his voice. "Kuwabara-kun will go to any lengths for your sister, so you don't have to have any doubts about her safety. He will protect her."

"But who will protect her from him? That's what I'm here for." Hiei gave his partner a sharp look. "And you're not helping matters."

"Frankly, Hiei, I don't see the need to protect her from him." He looked back down to his book. After leaving the conversation in general silence, he spoke again. "It may be in your interest to protect your sister from any possible danger – which, I might add, is unlikely – but if you do not let her know of your connection, what is anyone to assume of this protectiveness? I'm sure they will all but believe that you have taken interest in her."

He let the words sink in, eyes never leaving the pages of his book. He saw, from the corner of his eye, that the youkai was still scowling. Briefly, he wondered whether or not the wind would change and Hiei's face would be stuck in that expression until it did again. The thought humoured him greatly and he could not help but give a tiny smile.

"What's so funny, pray tell?"

Kurama sighed, the smile still evident on his face.

"You," he said simply, "among other things."

Urameshi Yusuke was poring over his day's homework, driven by his slave master of a girlfriend, who was breathing down his neck as he did so. Occasionally she would point out a mistake in a calculation, or words spelled wrongly, and then proceed to lecture him about it.

"You should have paid more attention to sensei in class!" she said sharply, rapping him on the head. "Instead of staring out the window or making faces at Kuwabara-kun across the room!"

"Who needs the sensei when you're around?" Yusuke muttered under his breath.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing, nothing."

About an hour later, they were interrupted by a rap at the window. Yusuke looked up and saw the figure of a blue-haired girl dressed in a kimono, sitting sideways on the oar of a boat.

"Botan!" he exclaimed, relieve evident in his voice. "Right on cue!"

He had long decided that an interruption when he was doing his homework was very welcome. Because of this, he greeted the alleged Grim Reaper enthusiastically as he pulled up the window to admit her. Keiko said her hellos cheerfully as well, though it didn't make her leave her place from beside Yusuke's desk.

"Message from Koenma, I presume?"

"Can't a girl call on her best friends because she feels like it?" Botan sniffed.

"Though you seem the type to . . ." Yusuke cocked an eyebrow. "You're still wearing your kimono, so either you've just gotten off work – which is highly unlikely – or you've been sent here."

"Tantei work suits you more and more each day." Botan shrugged. "It's nothing special this time, really, but he needs you to round up a few youkai downtown."

"A few youkai, eh? I'm right on it!"

He sprinted out of the room with Botan trailing him, wearing normal jeans and sweater. Keiko watched them go, surprised at their hurried departure, before realising something very important.

"YUSUKE! WHAT ABOUT YOUR HOMEWORK?"

The sound of a loud crash was heard from downstairs, followed by a nervous chuckle and the slamming of a door. The girl folded her arms and gave an annoyed huff, sitting on the bed with a pout.

"Botan . . . when you said a few youkai . . ."

Yusuke gritted his teeth in frustration as he watched the swarm of flying youkai above his head. Botan stood next to him, armed with a baseball bat, eyes flitting back and forth as she watched the youkai's movements. The youkai weren't big, more like the size of a bee, but there was a whole swarm of them.

". . . This isn't 'a few', Botan," Yusuke said in frustration. "This is an entire populace of bee-sized youkai!"

"Well, I didn't know it was going to be this many!" Botan protested, batting away several of the youkai as they charged at her. "Koenma-sama just said there were a few! Why do you keep blaming me for this stuff?"

He ground his teeth angrily. There was no point in wasting his Rei Gun on so many tiny youkai and he certainly couldn't take them one-on-one. How was he to round them up – or kill them?

"Need any help, Yusuke?"

Only one male would call him that with no intended malice or mockery. He looked up to the low roof of the nearest building, finding Kurama standing there, a smile on his face.

"Hey, Kurama!" he called. "Be there in a sec!"

The kitsune shook his head with a chuckle. It was very amusing, really, how Yusuke could fail to perform such simple tasks when he could save the world in less than a day. Deciding that he should assist the tantei in this task before he could enjoy himself, he jumped down to the ground.

"Here, let me."

He flicked his wrist once and dropped a seedling on the crack of the pavement. In less than a second, the seedling had grown to ten times its size and into a fully-bloomed Venus fly trap. Yusuke and Botan watched as the bee-youkai swarmed towards it and into its gaping mouth. When all of them had gone in, the trap snapped shut and disappeared.

"There you go, all done."

"Where'd the Venus fly trap go?"

"Well . . . let's just say Koenma will be getting an early birthday gift."

In the Reikai, the child-sized leader of the Reikai Tantei was furiously stamping documents piled onto his large desk. His hands were merely blurs as he pulled the pieces of paper towards him with one hand, stamping it and then throwing it onto another pile on his other side.

His work was interrupted, however, when a large flash of red light engulfed the entire room, sending him and all the workers within it into a temporary state of blindness. When the light cleared away, with them blinking furiously to get the spots out of their eyes, they found a huge Venus fly trap sitting on top of the documents on Koenma's desk.

"K-Koenma-sama!" his closest servant, one of the ogres, stammered.

"What is this?" Koenma screeched, jumping to his feet and pointing at the writhing plant before him. "Is this some sort of practical joke?"

The Venus fly trap opened its wide trap and unleashed the populace of bee youkai into the room. Around the room, the ogres screamed and yelled, batting away the bees and running around in circles, trying to get them away. Koenma's eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"YUSUKE!" he shrieked.

"ACHOO!"

Yusuke rubbed his nose furiously as Kurama looked up from his book once again. They had gone to the park upon the completion of the mission – Yusuke to evade his homework and Kurama because he was sure that Hiei would still be in a bad mood after this morning. Botan had been summoned back to the Reikai shortly after, for what reason no one knew.

"What ails you, Yusuke?" Kurama asked.

"I don't know – maybe someone's talking about me."

"Ah . . ." Kurama smiled and began reading his book again. "It happens often."

"Because I am clearly the topic on every youkai's lips!" Yusuke boasted. "Urameshi Yusuke – the most powerful opponent!"

The red haired kitsune humoured him with another smile, still not looking up from his book. Yusuke peered at the hardcover. It was in English, a subject and language he had never really bothered to master. But, from what he could make out of the katakana above the words, it was a book called 'Pride and Prejudice'.

"I've heard of that book before!" he exclaimed. "Isn't it a girl's book?"

"This isn't manga, Yusuke. There's not differentiation between girl's novels and boy's novels, especially among the English canons."

"I don't know what you're talking about . . ."

Indeed, Kurama had lost his companion in the conversation. Having not exactly paid attention during English classes, he had missed the whole speech about canons and popular culture in the English-speaking world. Kurama, who was also in an accelerated class, totally bamboozled him on the subject.

"It doesn't really matter," he assured the teen with a smile.

"Oh yeah, there's this other thing I've been wondering about . . ." Yusuke looked the kitsune over with a scrutinising eye. "Is your school uniform really dark pink? I mean, that's all I've seen you wear when we're not in the Makai or Reikai."

Kurama chuckled.

"Well . . . it's not dark pink, per se. At least, I like to believe it's red-purple or something similar." He smiled widely. "But as to it being my school uniform, it's not. Your school colours are blue, but you choose to wear green. Likewise, I choose to wear my own colours."

Yusuke blinked for a moment, before hitting his fist on his open palm in realisation.

"I get it!" he exclaimed. "Wow, and here I was thinking that it was only Kurama and Yoko Kurama who were the rebels. I guess Minamino Shuichi is as well."

He looked momentarily confused when Kurama started laughing quietly, under his breath, covering his mouth with a hand. He had seen the kitsune laugh on many occasions, especially at people and he had looked exactly like that. Something clicked in the back of his mind.

"HEY! You're lying about that!"

Kurama's laughter grew as Yusuke growled in indignation. A few moments later, his laughing died down and he controlled himself once more. The corners of his lips twitched upwards as he looked up at the tantei, who had jumped to his feet.

"Gomen, gomen, Yusuke," he apologised cheerfully. "But you have to admit, it was very amusing to see you finally realise it."

"Why you . . .!" he spotted Kurama's book sitting on the bench and picked it up. "I'll blast your book into little pieces!"

"That's just childish, Yusuke! Give me back my book!"

"Not unless you let me slug you one as payback!"

"Mou, Yusuke!"

"YUSUKE!"

"KURAMA!"

Both teens winced at the sound of their names being yelled. Behind Yusuke, an enraged Keiko was storming towards them, textbook in hand and looking very pissed off. Kurama took this time to snatch his book back, but exchanged nervous grins with Yusuke as they resigned themselves to their fate.

"What are you doing out here, Yusuke?" Keiko screeched, yanking on his ear. "Botan-san just came to tell me that you had come here to skip homework!"

"Kurama, if you don't put a restraining order on that orange-haired idiot . . .!"

"Keiko! Itai, all right, all right! I'm coming! Sheesh!"

Keiko bodily dragged the Reikai's most powerful agent out of the park, by the ear, earning them many stares from passers-by. That left Kurama, his book and a very angry Hiei. He turned around slowly to face him and was surprised to find that Yukina was hovering behind one of the nearby bushes nervously. His attention was drawn back to Hiei when he felt the other's yoki flare up.

"Hiei . . ."

"Kurama, I'm going to say this only once more: don't you DARE let that idiot near Yukina – AGAIN!"

It was almost comical to see him so protective of Yukina, but Kurama bit back his smile and tried to look serious. He quickly tucked away his book in case Hiei would try to use it against him like Yusuke did.

"Hiei, I really can't put a restraining order on Kuwabara-kun," he said evenly. "I mean, really, what has he done except admire Yukina-chan? It's harmless."

"Harmless?" Hiei spluttered. "Does harmless include him trying to – to . . ."

Kurama raised an eyebrow in question and looked to Yukina, who was blushing furiously and hiding her face behind the sleeves of her kimono. He approached her with a faint smile of amusement.

"I-I don't know what Hiei-san is angry about," she admitted meekly. "Kazuma-san was just asking me if he could put his hand on my shoulder for balance when I was checking him over for injuries . . ."

"Put his hand on your shoulder?" Hiei burst out. "I know what a shoulder is and that was way too low to be on your shoulder!"

The kitsune sighed in amused exasperation as Hiei began spluttering in anger again, and then patted the Ice Maiden on the shoulder.

"Yukina-chan, there are certain things that shouldn't happen between a boy and a girl . . ." Good Gods, I can't believe I'm giving a lecture about the birds and the bees right here in the park. I mean, can't the birds and bees do that? "Maybe I'm not the one to explain this. You should ask . . . Hiei, since he seems to know so much about what's wrong about it."

He turned to the Jaganshi with a bright smile. Hiei scowled at him angrily and looked ready to draw his sword on the kitsune.

"Kurama, another word about this out of you and I swear . . ."

"Hiei, I really don't think that I can put a restraining order on Kuwabara-kun. After all, he's not really affecting me by his visiting Yukina-chan – and where is he anyway? I thought he would be here with Yukina-chan."

Ten minutes walk away from the park, lying sprawled on the neat lawn, was the said teen. His face was swollen with punches and his nose bleeding.

"Damn that Hiei . . ." Kuwabara grunted, pulling himself to a sitting position. He winced when pain shot through his ribs. "Shit, that smart . . ."

End Chapter One

Author's Notes:

And THAT, my readers, is the result of someone who is bored, likes YYH and doesn't know zip about it. It's not very interesting at the moment, but I might add an actual plot one day. Meaning, I'll get around to it eventually. These YYH teens and their potty mouths (growls). I have to rate this PG-13.

Translations of Japanese:

Kitsune: fox

Makai: Demon Realm

Reikai: Spirit Realm

Yoko Kurama: Demon Kurama

Jaganshi: Master of the Jagan (devil's eye)

-san: formal suffix added onto a person's name (male and female)

-chan: suffix used for young girls (usually to imply closeness of a relationship)

-kun: suffix used for boys (a bit like san, which is used for girls too)

-sama: suffix used for respect (or for those of high importance)

Gomen: colloquial form of gomen nasai, usually heard used by boys (girls tend to say gomen ne), meaning 'sorry'.

Mou: often used to express exasperation, like saying 'really, that's just childish!'

Um . . . if I get anything wrong, please correct me.

Wow, people, this is like . . . my first YYH fic. That's just cool.

REVIEW!

Relinquished