The Ultimate Challange by KitsuneDragonheartLove

chapter 1

Well... Here we go again! I finally found someone to beta for me and the chapters have been edited...again. Not much was changed, just the spelling and some of the expressions. Hope you'll like it better now.

The Ultimate Challenge

~~~~~Chapter 1~~~~~~

Four guys were wasting their lunch break in a large office. It was hard to tell if they were actually on their break or not, since they usually wasted their time this way. As I said, it was a large office, with a spectacular view of the city, situated on the 30th floor of the building hosting one of the most important TV stations in the country. The four guys we're talking about, also known as 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', were here because they deserved it, they were good at what they did and, unfortunately, they knew it.

Inuyasha, a silver haired twenty year-old reporter, was currently bouncing a ball off his desk (yes, this is his office) looking as bored as he could. He was dressed in a red T-shirt and jeans, with a baseball cap with the station's logo on his head. Even if his father was the owner of the station, everyone knew he got the job fair and square. Actually it was harder for him to get the job than for anyone else since his father didn't want him to be a reporter. He soon proved to be one of the best reporters they ever had and his father had to accept him working there.

By the window, currently looking very quiet and pensive, something that was totally out of his nature, was Kouga. He was twenty one and the best cameraman in the business. His long dark hair was pined in a high ponytail and he was dressed in a pair of worn-out jeans with a green T-shirt with a peace sign on it. He loved extreme sports and they all knew it. He would do anything to get the best shot and they all knew this as well. He almost got fired after sliding down a cord (`mission impossible' style) during a bank robbery to catch the villains in the act. He was accused of interfering with police business and spent a night in jail. But after the story became the highlight of the year and his footage received a prize for its originality, Kouga became the star cameraman (is that even possible?) of 4DTV*.

Looking through a...let's just say `interesting' magazine, lying on a couch with his mind on the `subject' was Miroku, twenty three and the resident pervert of the group. He was one of the directors here, one of the best as I said, and his only goal in life was to bug women with his presence (he didn't think of it this way though).

Now, on to the forth `horseman', currently fighting over the phone with the guy from a take out clerk over what and where to bring them (maybe this really was the lunch break after all). Hojo was the computer nerd. He was able to find the proverbial needle in the haystack if it were to be hiding on the internet. Every computer in this building practically depended on him and he also managed to put together one of the largest data bases in the business (if it was on the news, he had it, no matter when, where, or by who it was filmed).

You probably ask yourself what these four have in common except the obvious. Well, first of all, they knew each other since forever, going to the same schools and stuff, they all liked their job and were good at it (although they didn't really like to show it), they loved getting into trouble (and got each other out of some nice messes in the past) and, surprisingly enough, they each got here without the others knowing, they were on top of the world when they found out they were going to work together. They never refused a challenge, no matter how it presented itself.

Inuyasha stopped playing with the ball and looked around, his friends were just as miserable as he was (forgot to mention one more tiny, little thing these guys had in common: they all got dumped by their girlfriends in the past five days. Do you think it was a coincidence?).

"Guys, life sucks!" He said, looking around at his friends.

Kouga raised his head and looked back at him. "So...what else is new?" He asked, with a tired look on his face.

Miroku got the magazine out of his face and exclaimed, "Oh, stop complaining! Girls do this sort of thing all the time. Look at me, I had ..." He paused as he started counting on his fingers "...This many girlfriends this year," he said, showing them an uncertain number of fingers and repeating the gesture several times.

"Yah, girls do this all the time, but they do it to guys like you and Hojo. No offence, Hojo," Inuyasha commented off-handedly.

"None taken," the young man answered. He was just nineteen and had been a nerd all his life; it took him two months to talk to a girl and two weeks to get dumped.

"Kouga and his girl were together for six months and Kikyo dumped me in front of the altar. You were supposed to be the best man, so I guess you remember at least that tiny detail," Inuyasha continued.

"Sorry about that!" Miroku sputtered apologetically, "I just don't understand why girls don't stick with us, that's all. I'm not that much of a perv, am I?"

Hojo raised his head from behind Inuyasha's computer, where he was currently surfing the net. Speaking up quietly, he said, "Considering I'm now looking for those hentai sites you asked me to, I guess you are. I just hope you're not gonna rub on us any more than you already did..."

Kouga snickered, drawling slowly before trailing off, "Not the ones with the..."

"Yup, those very ones. I just don't understand you Miroku."

"What?! They're very artistically drawn and it might make a good story someday," Miroku replied defensively.

"Yah, right!" the other three said at once.

A few moments of silence followed as they returned to whatever they were doing (i.e. Inu playing with the ball, Hojo looking for hentai sites, Kouga thinking of his ex and Miroku drooling over the magazine). Suddenly, our favorite perv jumped up.

"Guys, let's get married!" He exclaimed. This remark earned him three pairs of eyes staring at him as if he grew another head.

"If you want to swing that way, don't drag me with you!" Inuyasha's remarked blandly.

"Does this mean I have to change the search subject?" Hojo asked, not at all surprised by what he heard.

"Look, I'm miserable, but I'm not that desperate!" Kouga shouted, daggers flashing behind his eyes.

Miroku looked confused for a moment as he processed the information that assaulted his confused mind and burst into a fit of laughter. "You...thought I was...I meant... to each other..." He was currently on the floor, laughing his head off, earning more odd looks from his friends. After four minutes and thirty four seconds (yup, someone bothered to count), he managed to get himself together and with a serious look on his face, he started to speak. "I meant, we're attractive men, aren't we?" He asked and they all nodded. "Our problem isn't about getting the girl, right?" They nodded again, except for Hojo (we know his situation, don't we?) so Miroku continued "All we have to do is figure out a way to keep the girl!" They all looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "It shouldn't take us more than a week to convince a girl we are husband material..."

"I'd pay to see that one!" A low voice growled from the doorway. They all turned to see the owner of the voice.

A tall, silver haired man was standing there, arms crossed and with an amused smile on his face.

"Dad!" Inuyasha blurted out in surprise.

"Taisho-sama!" Exclaimed the other three simultaneously.

"What do you mean?" a choir of confused voices asked in unison shortly thereafter.

"I mean just what I said," he said, a smile still playing at his lips. "I'd give anything just to see you settled down." Four pairs of eyes fixed on him. "Even a million dollars."

The four `horsemen' were speechless (I don't really think that's the word, but, I'll leave it at that).

Someone stuttered out the question all of them had been asking themselves, "You're joking, right?"

"I'm perfectly serious," Taisho stated emphatically, " Miroku, I'm tired of hearing every woman in this station complain about you groping them, a wife should keep you in check." The other three snickered at this. "Inuyasha, you should stop complaining, you knew she was going to leave you anyway. Kouga, you're too possessive, it's no wonder she eventually left. So, the same goes for you too. And Hojo...well, your only fault is your shyness, so take this as practice!" He finished and stopped to look at the effect his words had on his son and his friends.

They were all staring wide eyed at him. Yup, this was the effect he wanted.

Miroku was the first to speak up. "So, all we have to do is get married and we get the money?"

"You've lost it, dad!" Inuyasha said, looking at his father as if he just dropped out of the sky (Who wouldn't if they were told something like this?)

"PRACTICE?" Was all Hojo could say (scream actually).

"What do you mean by `too possessive', uncle?" (Oops, forgot to mention Kouga and Inu are cousins, twice removed, but still cousins.)

"But, guys, it does sound like a good challenge and the winner doesn't only get the money, but the girl as well. Sounds fair to me," Miroku agreed.

"So, are you in?" Inuyasha's father asked. He looked at them, looking for an answer. Miroku was definitely `in', despite his wondering eyes (and hands), he was a nice guy. Hojo, well this wasn't really his thing, but if the other three were `in', so was he. Kouga, not that he didn't care about his old girlfriend, just that he usually got over this sort of thing easy and if he liked a woman, she had no way of getting rid of him. And finally, Inuyasha, what was there to say about him? He needed a distraction anyway and this was better than having him go after anyone in a skirt (good thing he didn't have to go to Scotland). If his plan worked out, everyone was going to be happy; the money was there just to make things more interesting.

"So, what's the catch?" Inuyasha questioned in a suspicious voice.

"The `catch', as you put it, is that it has to be a girl you will meet in the following week and you have to get married by the end of next month, this gives you exactly forty days. It should be enough..." Inu Taisho explained.

Silence engulfed the room for a moment (boy, this happened a lot since we started!) and then

Again, Miroku was the first to speak up. "I'm all for it, this way we'll prove we're serious."

Kouga mumbled something along the lines of, "I'm not possessive," which they all took as a `yes'.

Inuyasha raised his arms in the air, in an act of surrender. "I give!" He said, pausing before asking, "Does this mean `no night bars' for the next month?"

They all started laughing.

"I think you've been around Miroku too long," Kouga commented.

The blue eyed perv retorted immediately, "I resent that!"

All eyes were on Hojo after this little `incident'. The boy (since he was the youngest) looked over the computer back at them. "What, you think I can't do it?" He huffed, clearly offended "Bring `em on!" He said confidently.

"That settles it then. Tomorrow, you start hunting for wives!" He was barely managing to hold back his laughter. He turned to leave the room, but stopped, remembered something. "You know? To make things more interesting, the bet is on, but only if you get Sesshomaru in as well." And with that, he left.

"I knew he'd say something about that icicle of a brother of mine!" Inuyasha snarled from under the desk he fell under when he heard his father's words. "How do we get him in on the bet?"

Hojo suggested helpfully, "Well, let's make another bet! What do you say about five hundred dollars to the one that convinces him?" And after a moment, they all nodded in agreement. "By the way, Miroku, I found the site you wanted."

"Not interested any more!"

"As you wish. I'll just search for something else then."

"On second thought, move over!" Miroku said as he jumped off the couch and leapt to the computer.

~+~+~+~+End of chapter~+~+~+~+