A Bouquet Above

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A/N: I'm so sorry! I was planning to write more this summer, but things kept coming up. Here is chapter 4 everyone!

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After everything that occurred, everyone decided to stay at the temple for at least that very night. Hinata had already started to doze off in front of her dinner, so I excused myself to go put her to bed. I passed by Yusuke, who was leaned up against a wall watching everyone.

"Hey, so we'll talk tomorrow?" He asked. I guess he picked up on me and Naoki's communication earlier.

I nodded. "Yes, tonight should be one filled with dreams." I said looking at Hinata's peaceful, slumbering face.

Yusuke nodded in agreement, and I continued back to mine and Hinata's room. I was planning to go to sleep with her, but on the bed was Hiei who also seemed to be deep in slumber.

I let out a small sigh. "Like father, like daughter." I said to myself as I placed Hinata next to Hiei. After I tucked her in, I decided I would see if Himawari, or Tsubaki would want to room with me. As I turned around, I felt my wrist being grabbed. I looked back to see Hiei was awake.

"Are you always so tense when you sleep?" I asked him.

"Hn." He replied. He picked up Hinata and placed her on his chest. "Hinata isn't so big that you need to go somewhere else. Unless you're still upset."

I sat down on the bed, where Hinata used to lie. "I'm not upset..." I could feel his eyes lowering and boring into my back. "...as much." I added in to get the third degree stare to stop.

I turned around and he had sat up, still holding Hinata. "So...how was your battle...?" I asked not knowing what else to say.

"I'm alive." He answered.

"I heard from Hinata, you were rather upset I was attacked." I scooted closer, hoping for more details on this.

"You, Hinata, and Yukina with her unborn child were all targets. Anyone would be unhappy with that list." He replied back with a change in beat.

That's true. I wasn't the only one who was at the temple that day. I frowned, and got up to turn the lights off. "Let's just go to sleep. Glad you're alive."

I crawled into bed and turned so my back faced him instead.

"The same could be said for you." Broke through the long silence, and the timing was too great as I was about to fall into a deep sleep for the night.

-x-

As morning started to stream through the windows, my eyes began to flutter open. I couldn't remember waking up feeling so at peace, even despite the near catastrophe. I inhaled deeply and caught whiff of a familiar scent.

That's right, Hiei and I had fallen asleep together. With Hinata as well, but I couldn't see her in his arms anymore. She must have gotten up to play with the other children before they'd leave again.

I thought back to when the last time I had seen Hiei actually sleep in a bed. He was always perched about somewhere. And while it was innocent, for us to sleep next together, well my face felt hot. I really was naive sometimes. Still it got me thinking of the very few times I woke up to see him nearby.

The last time was…

I bit my lip. The last time was how Hinata came to be. I didn't think about it much, but now I laid here wondering why I didn't. It was during the second demon world tournament. We both had fought very strenuous matches. After barely winning his, I remember lecturing him on how worried I was. After barely winning mine, he lectured how much weaker I had gotten since living permanently in the human world.

We actually had been fighting a lot before then. When you build up a lot of tension…you're bound to look for a release. I woke up next to him thinking 'what did we fight about?' It was a lonely thought. It was lonelier when he woke up and just left without a word.

We still fought these days, but not often. Then again, he wasn't around a lot either. Laying next to him was peaceful, but now there was a creeping sadness over the thought of him waking up this time around. I wanted to avoid these thoughts altogether. It was unnecessary stress. Alright, Sakura, just get up and leave very quickly. Hiei wasn't the only one who could be speedy after all. Just one, two, thr-

"Mom! Dad! Get up already! It's almost afternoon and you said we could train!" Hinata came bursting in and before I could get a jump out, she jumped onto the bed. That definitely woke up Hiei.

I groaned now just wanting to hide from seeing Hiei or Hinata over all this. I pulled the covers over my head. Unfortunately when you pull covers over your head make sure you don't do the entire covers.

Now it seemed like both me AND Hiei were hiding from Hinata.

"What on earth are you doing?" I looked over and my maroon eyes met his red ones. I wanted to keel over in embarrassment.

Before I could say anything, Hinata jumped on us again. "Stop hiding! You said we could train, you mean parents!"

Hiei's stare soon changed. "That's your daughter." He said with his eyes narrowing at me.

"You're the one who got her into this whole training craze." I shot back.

She was incredibly stubborn about the whole thing, a trait she got from Hiei, and after much persistence, something she inherited from me, we gave in and reluctantly agreed to her request. After much hurrying on Hinata's part, the three of us made it out into the courtyard.

"Well this is rare for you shorty!" I looked up to see Kuwabara with Sonome and Tsubasa. "Didn't know you were the family outing type." He teased at Hiei.

I chuckled a bit at Kuwabara's joke. It did look like a little family outing. Not only that but Kuwabara still referred Hiei as shorty given that he had grown over the past couple of years. He was quite a bit taller than me now.

"Sonome, you know that Hiei would still find pleasure in beating Kuwabara even with you and Tsubasa present." I joked with her.

Sonome let out a laugh. "Oh yes, I'm quite aware. It was nice knowing you sweety!" She said waving to Kuwabara.

"Bye dad!" Tsubasa joined his mother.

"What? You guys!" He screeched in disbelief.

Hinata and I laughed and eventually she reigned herself in so she could lead us to where she wanted to train.

Eventually she led us to the beach that was on the edge of Master Genkai's land. I placed my hands on my hips and looked around. "I'm not sure the beach is such a great place to train, Hinata."

Hinata turned around to face us, and she had a sheepish grin about her. "Well, truth is, I can train with dad anytime. And mom even though we don't really train together, we could do it later. But maybe today…since you're both here…we could just play at the beach together?" Her small feet kicked at the sand.

How could you say no to that? I then turned to Hiei with a pleading look. He looked at us and grumbled. "Do what you want. It's your time, Hinata."

I wanted to lecture him for that pathetic excuse of a 'yes', but before I could Hinata was already excited and bounded straight for the ocean. I let out a sigh. Sometimes I wondered exactly what her thoughts were when Hiei responded half-assed like that.

I didn't know what to really do. Hiei wasn't exactly going to go jumping and splash some water with her. The image of that actually made me shuddered. I looked over at him. "So…you're really okay…with this?" I asked him with a lot of hesitance.

"I suppose." He replied back to me.

I felt a little shocked. And then I went over to him and placed my hand a little to the side of his forehead. "What? You sure?" I stopped a minute. I knew he was taller, but I didn't remember the last time I stood so close, minus this morning. He was a good head taller than me. Maybe a little more now.

"Sakura, I will cut that hand off." He threatened me while swiping away at my hand.

I laughed a little at how I was so easily entranced. "Hiei, you actually have a soft spot for Hinata!" I said to recover from that.

"Mom! Dad! Look at all these shells that just washed up!"

"She's trying to get your attention." Hiei said trying to change the subject.

I frowned. "She's trying to get yours too. You do realize, Hinata is your daughter too. You can't just say that she's mine and show up when you want to train her acting like she's some sort of legacy!" I shouted at him.

Hinata was still a bit off in the distance, so luckily she couldn't hear me. Plus, she seemed preoccupied with her shell collection she was starting.

I thought back to this morning. "It's okay to get close to me, and then you can distance yourself from me. It happens. I'm used to it by now. But don't distance yourself from Hinata." He didn't say anything.

"Fine." I stuck my tongue out of him, even though I really wanted to hit him. I went over and decided to look at the shells Hinata had collected.

When I walked over, I saw that she was using the shells to decorate a sand castle she was starting to build. "Did you and dad fight again?" She asked as I came down to sat by her.

"Wha-?" I was surprised by her question. She was the youngest of the kids, but I feel like she was the most perceptive. I turned my back to see Hiei still stood in the distance and hadn't moved. "Can't really put anything past you kid." I rested my chin in the palm of my hands as I watched her. "Hinata, what do you think of your dad?" I asked her bluntly.

"Me?" She looked up with bewildered eyes. "I love dad!" She said with a huge genuine smile.

I patted her on the head. "Of course you do. You and me both." I whispered the last part more for myself. "You really are my kid. Besides your mom, I can't really think of anyone else who's always giving chances to someone who's always disappearing on us. You don't feel bad that he isn't spending enough time with you?" I asked again.

"No. I see dad enough. I feel bad for taking up his time when he could be spending it with you, mommy." She said adding another mound to her castle. "Dad doesn't have to bring me back to the temple you know. I know my way back, and the area probly better than him. And you know?" She looked up from her sand castle. "He woke up this morning for a little bit, but when you never got back up he went back to bed."

I felt bad. Not so much for the things I said to Hiei. Somehow I felt like both of us were very guilty for using our daughter as a way to communicate to one another. And yet here she was loving us unconditionally.

"You want to go for a walk?" I asked her, and she looked up at me. "With your dad too." She smiled with a nod and got up to wipe the sand off her hands. She took my hand and we walked over to Hiei.

Our walks were spent in silence. At least between me and Hiei. Hinata talked about the days she spent at the temple. She talked about time with all of her friends. She talked about what she imagined her weapon to be like when she had trained enough to summon it. Whatever she could think of, she talked about.

Eventually, she became too tired to walk, and Hiei carried her in her arms. This time no one was around to fill in the silence for us.

"You know?" I finally said to start a conversation. "I think we're pretty bad parents." I told him. He didn't say anything. "I'll take the silence as an agreement. Still, Hinata loves us unconditionally." I said looking at her small shape in Hiei's arms. "I really did a good job in naming her."

"You just picked a name of a flower that hadn't been taken from any of your clan." Hiei reminded me.

"Sunflowers. Yes, they are rather bright and happy. But that's not why I chose that name. She was named after someone I've never met, but probably would have liked to very much. Someone who loved one of their own just as unconditionally. She's more like you than you'd think. Hina was the name of your mother, right?"

"Now why…would you want to remember something like that?"

"Because you're very important to me, even if we do fight all the time. And you're even more important to Hinata. I'm not asking you to be a family guy. It'd be too creepy if you were," I lightly joked. "But you know, it'd be nice if we could be together more often instead of just after near-death experiences. Just a thought."

I wanted to say more, but then Tsubaki came running at the two of us. "There you are!"

"Tsubaki? Why are you looking so ragged?" I asked her as she tried to catch her breath.

"We've got trouble!" She exclaimed. "Hurry! Back to the temple!"

Hiei and I looked at each other and nodded. We both followed her back to the temple grounds very quickly. As we got closer, I saw everyone gathered around Naoki.

"I thought you guys returned back to demon world?" I said coming up to our little crowd.

"I did," he said with a grim look on his face.

I frowned. "Naoki…what's up?"

"We should have told them earlier, Sakura. About that netherworld attack being an inside job," he started.

"Wait, what?" Yusuke exclaimed.

"It seemed too fishy for netherworld to just open up like that out of nowhere. We thought of things such as a traitor in spirit world, or a dimension crosser. Sealed worlds don't just undo themselves."

"We're sorry to inform that your victory against the so called netherworld king was merely the eye of the tornado." Himawari chimed in.

"You guys aren't making any sense. Get to it!" I said waving my arm at them. "What's wrong?"

"The portal you closed here over in human world, it ended up transferring to demon world."

We all stood dumbfounded. "The netherworld is opening in demon world?" Yusuke asked.

"What's wrong with that?" Kuwabara asked. "It's like your guys spirit world right?"

"The netherworld acts on its own accord." Naoki corrected. "In case you forgot, the connection between demon world and human world is still up. It's one more entrance to the human world for them."

"So what, we just go over beat some bad guys up, and close that damn hole," Yusuke suggested. "Tell me something new."

"Yusuke, don't tell me you are so blind to the rising tensions in demon world. Raizen's friends have won for far too long. Though they're few, there are those who do not like the peace between the two worlds. This opening of the netherworld could be the start of a very dangerous riot." Naoki explained.

"Any news of this from Spirit World?" Kurama asked wanting to take in all the facts.

"Not from him directly, but I'm sure I'll suffice." We all turned around seeing Botan at the entrance of the temple.

"B-Botan? Are you okay to be flying again?" Keiko asked her. Her injuries were great from a few days prior.

"I'll be fine, Keiko. I had to get this message to you guys. You did so much to save me, so now it's my turn. Koenma is a bit tied up you see. It'll be a bit harder to communicate with him considering Spirit World is nearly on the brink of extinction after what Yakumo did. Who, and what's left are all running amok on the idea of an inside traitor."

"Can you even recover from something like that…" I murmured to myself.

"We're trying our best anyway, Sakura." Botan had heard me and went on. "The one Yusuke fought probably was in fact the ruler of Netherworld, but even if he's gone it doesn't mean the goal of the Netherworld died with him. Demon world may not side with being absorbed, but they may side with the human world being absorbed in their stead."

"Without a human world, spirit world would be inherently useless, and probably overtaken, again." Naoki continued. "Without any balance, it wouldn't be long before the netherworld took over demon world as well. You can see where we would hate for this to happen."

"Right, like I said, we just have to head over and kick some ass. Different story, same ending." Yusuke said with fists tight. "There's no way in hell I'm letting some might as well be extinct world take over the only good thing that I've probably managed to do in my life. When can you take us over there?" He asked of Naoki and the others.

"Actually…" Tsubaki started. "We were hoping to relocate all of you."

Shock was expressed from the group, but mostly from those who originated in the human world.

"Leave human world? But why?" Sonome asked.

"People of the netherworld blend in pretty well with demon world. We can only imagine they won't try to stir anything there first, but rather human world since it's an easier target. Knowing who took on their leader last, this place will probably be their first target, and we really can't afford to lose any of you." Tsubaki explained.

Himawari finished up the explanation. "You guys really have been the symbols of unity and should you fall, there's no doubt the peace will too. We don't know where we will go in demon world, but at least you'll have multiple protectors around you." She said looking at the kids.

"They can stay in Yoruka." I chimed in. "Shion's illusions of the place can hide everyone there. She could even create one here so that it looks like the temple is already abandoned."

"Sakura, you can't really think we should leave here do you?" Keiko looked at me with wide eyes.

"It wouldn't be permanent, Keiko. The faster we act, the faster we can come back home." Maybe I was telling this to myself.

"If we're going ahead with this, we must be strategic." Kurama added in. "Perhaps we should all migrate over to mitigate any damage to the human world. But perhaps, we don't need to leave all at once. That in itself could draw attention."

"Agreed." Tsubaki stepped in. "Once we get going, we'll arrive in groups of three, staggered over twelve hour periods."

"So this is really happening then." Maya said as she held Yuuko closer to her.

I walked over to Naoki. "The three of you should head back and make preparations. By the time you're finished and come back for the first group, we should be able to convince the others about this." Naoki nodded and waved Himawari and Tsubaki to leave with him.

"We'll be back at dawn tomorrow." Naoki instructed before leaving.

And so another night was spent with everyone sleeping at the temple. Though between the convincing and worrying, no one got a lot of sleep that night.

True to their word, the three of them and Shion were present at dawn the next day.

"I'll get started on that illusion." Shion said giving me a quick greeting before making her way to the heart of the temple.

"Did you guys decide on an order?" Naoki asked us.

Yusuke stepped up. "Might as well."

Hinata tugged on my arm. "I want to go with Enishi!" She requested.

At this request, Enishi tugged on both his parents asking for Hinata to come along too. Given the unfolding events, it was probably best to preserve their innocent wishes, so Hiei and I decided to go first too.

"I'll be the one to take you guys over." Tsubaki stepped up and gathered us over to a temporary entry to demon world.

The journey over was for the most part quiet, until I started to see unfamiliar points on the way to Yoruka. It had been awhile, but not that long.

"Hey Tsubaki, where are we going?" I asked to double check.

"Still heading to Yoruka. We mapped out three different ways to get there from the usual route. Just to be safe."

It was from then on out that Yusuke spent most of the time gesturing to general areas for Keiko and Enishi on places he had visited and nearly died at. Although it riled up Keiko, it was better for her to be fuming at Yusuke instead of worrying the whole way over.

Enishi and Hinata both seemed to be immune to any negative energy we had been throwing around previously.

"The way those two are, you'd think they have little crushes on each other." I fell back a little to whisper to Hiei since he seemed to want to trail at the end of the group.

"Well considering they're married," he tried to jeer at me.

"Not Yusuke and Keiko. Hinata and Enishi. Even at that age I remember having a crush on a kid in pre-school." I reminisced fondly of much simpler times.

"Hinata wouldn't be so foolish to going around abandoning her life for a boy, even if it is the detective's son." Hiei countered, a little too quickly.

I wanted to laugh so hard at the sight of Hiei actually being a protective father, but he was very quick to glare at me with malice, so I stifled it as much as I could. Through the rest of the journey I kept pointing out small things they'd be together just to rile him up. It certainly made the trip faster.

Tsubaki showed us our lodging and Keiko was the first to pass out once night fell, along with the kids. Yusuke and I stayed up anxiously waiting for morning as that's when the second group would be arriving and we could only hope safely. Hiei probably felt the same way since Yukina would most likely be in the second group, but he tried to be away from us as much as possible.

Eventually we did sleep, even if very little, and when morning came, we waited until what seemed like forever to see the silhouettes of the second group. All of the edge from this whole temporary transfer seemed to just disappear once Kuwabara, Sonome, Tsubasa, and Yukina were lead in by Himawari.

"So this is your other home, huh Sakura?" Kuwabara asked as he surveyed his new surroundings. "It's not as scary as I thought it'd be; we should vacation here more!"

"Coming from the guy who still gets nervous using the bathroom in the middle of the night." I teased.

"You know Shizuru made that up!"

I laughed and considering it was Kuwabara's first time, I made it a point to show him and his family around personally. Again, anything to help past the time. And we'd only have to wait until nightfall for the last group. It would be nice to get an actual night's sleep. At least until the next step of whatever it is we were going through.

As the sun started to set in demon world, Yoruka fell quiet. Everyone else around us seemed to be anxious for us as well as we waited for the third group. In a way, it was like deja vu of when I first came here. I always felt like I was bringing something to them, and it typically was never all that great.

This feeling multiplied when sunset became night.

"Naoki should have been back by now," Tsubaki worried out loud.

"Should we send someone out?" Keiko asked.

"No, we were told to stay put until everyone made it back." Tsubaki commanded, though it came off less strong given who was in the last group.

"MOMMY! DADDY"

It's one thing when you hear a child screech out for you when everywhere else is quiet around you, but hearing Hinata, my Hinata call out that way, I ran. It didn't take long for Hiei to join me either.

The kids had all been playing under the care of supervision, so every possible scenario that involved Hinata played out in my mind.

Calm down. She's fine.

I heard Hiei's voice clear in my head, as he sped up and made his way to Hinata first.

"Hinata!" I called out when I saw her silhouette surrounded by the other kids.

She turned to me with the biggest smile on her face, putting me at ease.

"Mom, look!"

"What could have possibly made you scream out like that? Do you know how worried we were o-" I started to lecture right away until I got closer and saw what she was doing.

I thought back to another one of mine and Hiei's arguments. It was much more tame compared to the ones as of recent. We talked about her future. Even if she was the youngest, she always seemed stunted in her power development. Fire versus electric. We always wondered who she would take after, and in a way Hiei had won, but not as he had expected.

Beneath Hinata's feet, as her spirit energy slowly radiated out, the ground around her started to slowly freeze.

I was quite upset with her earlier, but here I was a proud and beaming mother. "I told you I named her properly." I remarked to Hiei who only rolled his eyes at me.

Hinata, though she scared us, gave us quite a happy moment, right before everything seemed to take a fall.

Quiet fell again, but this time the sound that broke it wasn't something loud or abrupt. No, if I focused and tuned it, a muffled crying could be heard in the distance. I looked over at Hiei, and he gestured me to scoop Hinata up and make our way back to the rest of the group.

We got closer, and saw more people from before. "Naoki, made it back!" I told Hiei as I started to pick up my pace, but this time when I got closer, it wasn't a delight that I found.

The group surrounded Maya on the ground who was sobbing. Both Kurama and Naoki seemed to be battered, with the former seething in ways I had never seen before. And where was Yuuko?

"We were attacked." Naoki said as he struggled to meet my gaze. "Or so we thought."

"Bring her back!" Maya sobbed out. No one said anything.

I covered my mouth in shock believing the worst.

"It was a distraction." Kurama said as he balled up his fist so hard, I could see blood starting to seep out. "We tried searching for her long after the attack. She's alive, but who knows for how long." Kurama was always one of reasoning, but no one should have to ever think of the worst for their child.

"Who kidnapped her?" Yusuke finally asked.

"Masked demons." Naoki said. "They were a little too prepared." He grimaced.

"Who gives a damn?" Yusuke shouted. "I tolerate a lot of shit, but messing with kids isn't one of them."

I went over to Maya who had now stopped crying, but she seemed devoid of any action of living. "We're going to bring her back." I told her.

I got up not knowing if my words reached her or not and looked over at Yusuke who gave me an affirming nod.

"Let me join you," Kurama said getting up.

"You're hurt!" Sonome said trying to get him to follow her.

"Please."

"Frankly, ripping out a throat while in full health is much more rewarding," Hiei finally spoke. "But I imagine you'll be doing much more to the bastard regardless of your strength."

Kurama staggered to get up, but none of us helped him. We only watched as he made his way to exit Yoruka, and we soon followed after.

-x-

A/N: I would like to say that it won't take me two years to update, but I shouldn't be making promises that I may or may not keep.