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This should probably go in the fanfiction subforum, but no one EVER goes there, so I wanted to put it here for now. Be prepared for a LONG post!

For the past four years or so, I've been working on a fanfiction that is a crossover between our beloved YYH and Inuyasha. Now, it's only recently that I've begun working on the re-write (the original never got past chapter eight) and I'm realizing how sucky IY is in comparison to YYH. But I digress.

Basically, the main plot is that Naraku has gotten through the barrier into our time (or the 1990's, whatever) and, being the complete idiot he is, decides to start up another Dark Tournament a few months after the last one. He invites Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku as the guest team in order to get rid of them and possibly steal their jewel shards.

Koenma finds out (there's a bit of a side-plot having to do with portals and time-space continuity, but that's irrelevant) and sends in Team Urameshi again to help the guest team and, more importantly, find out who's starting up this new tourny since the guys who used to do so are dead.

Luckily, the final round is the Inuyasha team (with Sesshomaru as a fifth member) versus the YYH team. Now. I'm biased in that I stopped liking Inuyasha about two years ago, but in all honesty, those characters do not stand a chance against the YYH characters (except perhaps Sesshy.) But I still want a suspenseful final round (though Naraku will break up the captains' fight anyway) so I'm trying to decide who is going to fight who.

Thus the predicament. Inuyasha and Yusuke seem like a good match; they're not exactly balanced in power, but they have similar mentalities and they're both captains. From there on out, though, I'm stuck. Kuwabara blatantly refuses to fight girls, so that would mean that he would only be able to fight Miroku or Sesshomaru. I'd hate to pit him against Sesshy because I think Kuwabara would be outmatched by him, so I decided to pit him against Miroku...which isn't necessarily fair either, but it's the best I could do.

That leaves Sesshomaru, Kagome, and Sango versus Genkai, Hiei, and Kurama. I figure Sesshomaru would need to fight the strongest of those three, which I would probably peg as Hiei...but then, I'd really like to see Kurama and Sesshy fight (especially since they have somewhat of a history in this fic, given the time-travel element.) That would leave Hiei to fight Sango, though, and she would be completely DESTROYED by the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.

Hiei would never fight Kagome (since all she has are those stupid arrows) so Genkai would have to fight her. Now, if my logic is all right (and feel free to yell if it isn't) my options are down to this: either Kurama and Sango fight, or Hiei and Sango fight. I have no doubt that Hiei or Kurama fighting Sesshy would make for an interesting round--and for some reason I feel like Kurama might spare Sango some humiliation...but I just don't know.

So, assuming you're not asleep from my boring post, what does the YYH guild think? Should Hiei kill Sango with the DOTDF? Should Kurama slice her up with his rose whip? Would Hiei's dragon be able to beat Sesshomaru's giant dog form? Or would Kurama be better for the job? Feel free to discuss anything along these lines; I'll take all the help I can get with this one.

Well, if you're really really stuck, I think it'd be more canon to have Kuwabara face Seshy. He is kinda unlucky with his fight match-ups, especially in the Dark Tourney. Then I think Kurama and Miroku could have an interesting fight. And yes, that means I agree to have Sango vs. Hiei. I think it'd add lots of drama and be good, but make Sango survive by the skin of her teeth, mkay? Fatal wounds, all that, Miroku's freaking out, all that stuff, but she survives. Cause Sango's awesome. : )

Well, Miroku's wind tunnel just might get him around the Darkness Flame. It would certainly be interesting.

And keep in mind that if you're really worried about power balance, Naraku IS running the Tournament, and he might set some pretty screwy rules. It's not like he'd adhere chapter and verse to the rulebook for the Tournament that used to be run by those dead dudes.

My tentative suggestions are:

Kurama/Sesshomaru
Hiei/Miroku
Yuusuke/Inu-Yasha
Kuwabara/Sango
Genkai/Kagome

For the first, the reasons you listed. For the second, because I'd be curious to see how the wind tunnel might affect the Dragon, and because you can play some with Miroku's priest powers; he seems to be good at barriers, which makes a nice overall counter for Hiei's speed and sword techniques. For the third, I also agree with the reasons listed, and it would be fun to see. For the fourth, I think that if Kuwabara isn't given the chance to choose, he'd defend himself pretty staunchly, but actually winning would be difficult enough for him that it would carry suspense; at the same time, though, even when he's not fighting back Sango would have a hell of a time damaging him, and there could even be some expository conversation and the like. For the last, I like those two because the aged psychic versus the young priestess seems like it has kind of an epic ring to it, and I'd love to see how Genkai would handle it, given that she wouldn't want to necessarily hurt Kagome.

DUDE! HIEI AND MIROKU WOULD BE TOTALLY EPIC!!!! Like I have NO CLUE why I didn't CONSIDER Miroku's wind tunnel! Against against against Hiei's Dragon! Ohhh my goodness XD

No no no! You HAVE to do that! : D

Genkai and Kagome I totally agree on. That'd be freaking exciting, for the reasons borderline_mary stated.

Kuwabara and Sango allows fun dialogue, though as to how that would fair against his Spirit Sword...?

Kurama and Sesshomaru...see I'm just really biased against that I guess because they're both kinda animal demons...and it just really pisses me off to put them together...though I do think Kurama would put up a fair fight, seeing the variety of things he'd have to counter...

With Sesshomaru . . . it would depend on the sort of challenge, and the circumstances of its delivery. If he figured it was only to get him into the Tournament, he'd refuse on principal. Of course, I'm not really sure what all their history is supposed to be in terms of previous interaction as demons, so you might have something there with which to work.

As for there being nothing in it for Sesshomaru, how about having Naraku be super-screwy and offer an awesome prize thing? Something immensely valuable which he has no intention of actually forking over anyway? It seems like what he'd do. And, if you can't find positive reinforcement for Sesshomaru, there's always negative. A kidnapped Rin might do it, if combined with something else.

Well, I've only vaguely hinted (even to myself) at their meeting. At first, I thought that they would only know each other by reputation, or in passing, but the more I think about it, I think a full-blown fight is probably in order.

It would be a great fight which got broken up or otherwise distracted so that neither was killed way back when (obviously.) That, I think, might be enough to tantalize Sesshomaru into agreeing--if I played it right. I believe that Kurama possess enough wit to get Sesshomaru to want to fight him again, so I'm not too worried about the presentation. It won't be totally obvious (such as, "you couldn't beat me in a million years,") but it will be clever enough to get him interested, at least.

By that point, Sesshomaru would know that it was to lure him into going to the tournament, but it probably wouldn't matter as much after Kurama's challenge. I'm certain that he won't fight in the first three rounds, if that allays any fears. Also, havi, that's an awesome idea, though I wish IY had gone more into whether Sesshomaru owns a castle or anything of the sort. He seems to be a wandering lord, who would be rather complicated to steal from, don't you think? XD

I like the idea of Naraku offering an amazing prize, and I think I'll toy with it, but Sesshomaru has never really been the type to covet material objects (other than the Tetsusaiga, which was more of pride thing,) right? He seems to have no interest whatsoever in the sacred jewel, which is basically THE most important item in the cosmos. (Reminds me of mary's Orb, actually.) So, I don't know if something like that would be enough to coerce him into helping.

As for kidnapping Rin, it's a great idea, but one that Naraku couldn't pull off without an insanely awesome time paradox, which I think would be out of his league. (Seeing as he's stuck in the present time, at least as far as he knows.)

To me this set up would make the most sense:
Inuyasha vs Yusuke
Sesshoumaru vs Hiei
Miroku vs Kurama
Sango vs Genkai
Kagome vs Kuwabara

I know Kuwabara wouldn't fight a girl, so he'd refuse to fight but Kagome isn't really a fighter to begin with. Koga would be a better choice in my opinion. Kuwabara vs Koga would be an interesting match.

And this way you have two the smart(er) characters going against each other, the female fighters paired off, and the over-powerful, quiet guys going againts one another. (Meido zangetsuha vs the Dragon of Darkness Flame)

Kurama vs Sesshoumaru would be interesting but Hiei vs Miroku wouldn't be within Hiei's personality. I don't think Hiei would want to fight a human. He can be an honorable character and him fighting a human would just be a slaughter even without the dragon. Even with Miroku's wind tunnel Hiei's just too fast; Miroku would be dead before he could open the wind tunnel (especially if Hiei knew about the wind tunnel before the fight.) Even if Miroku could seal all of Hiei's flame techniques, Hiei is still a super fast swordsman.

With this set up it would be possible to make the last match (Inuyasha vs Yusuke) a tie-breaker as well. Kuwabara and Genkai lose and Hiei and Kurama win.

This is just my logic on the most even match ups.

Yeah, because Genkai is quite old and after the Dark Tournament she can no longer become young. Genkai going against Sango means that Genkai has to defeat someone much younger with a similar amount of battle experience. (Sango is a demon exterminator after all, not to mention all of the battles fighting Naraku.) Anyone capable of dealing Naraku significant damage can beat an old woman.

Well, the truth is, in the manga (chapter 175) it is revealed that Genkai died (of natural causes, presumably.)

http://www.onemanga.com/Yu_Yu_Hakusho/175/04/

Last panel on the page if you don't believe me.

Both of the teams would be better off if Kagome and Genkai weren't fighters. Koga and one of guys from the Makai Tournament (Touya or Jin or maybe one of Raizen's old friends) would be more logical. It would also allow for more flexibility in the match-ups.