When Inuyasha opened his eyes and saw the world only in shades of blue, yellow, and green, he knew he was in for a rough day.
When he went to stand up and found himself balancing on four legs rather than two, he knew that it would, perhaps, be one of the weirdest days of his life. No guarantees, of course.
He sat back on his haunches—at least that felt somewhat normal—and looked around. He decided that not having the color red was probably a sin of some kind and snorted. Next to him, on the grass, was a pile of dark gray cloth. Curious, he bent down to sniff it.
First off, he noticed how much easier it was to get close to the ground to use his nose. Awesome!
Second, he had a tail, which was wagging now. That was less awesome. His tail stopped.
Third, these were . . . his clothes? They smelled like him, anyways. Snuffling around, he eventually found the handle of Tessaiga. So, yes, his clothes. He managed what he thought was a very effective scowl as he eyed the gray fabric. He'd always been somewhat proud of the bright red of his Fire Rat, and having it reduced to such a dingy color wasn't making his day any better.
A small groan nearby caught his attention, and his ears zeroed in on it. A few sniffs let him know there was a human nearby, a little one. Sure enough, a small head popped above the grass a few seconds later. The little human looked around, and he could smell the salt of tears beginning to form. He woofed softly to get its attention and hopefully distract it from what was sure to be far too much crying.
Gray eyes landed on him and tears were forgotten in favor of a massive smile.
Oh no.
"Puppy!" squealed the kid. Inuyasha drew his ears back and felt his tail tuck between his legs, which was perhaps more upsetting than anything. In the moments he took to be indignant about having a cowardly tail, he was tackled by tiny arms and a tinier torso.
"Puppy," the kid cooed happily, burying their probably snotty face in his beautiful white fur.
He sighed. He could shake the kid off, seeing as he was about three times as big, but he didn't smell any parents nearby, which meant this kid was on their own. He wasn't about to abandon the brat.
He did smell Kagome, though, but he couldn't hear her. Had someone taken her?
A growl started at the thought of someone daring to kidnap that spitfire. They didn't know what they were in for. He'd rip them apart, if Kagome hadn't already yelled them into submission.
"Puppy? What's wrong?" Oh, so the kid knew more than one word. That was good. He huffed and stood up, accidentally knocking them over as he followed Kagome's scent. He stopped, suddenly more aware of his lack of arms (or thumbs) and wondering to help the brat without them.
It turned out not to be a problem. With a giggle they were back on their feet, their black wavy hair bouncing. The kid was a girl, it looked like, and entirely naked. What kind of monster parent abandoned a naked toddler in the woods?!
He let her catch up and allowed one tiny chubby fist to hang on to his fur as they walked. Very. Very. Slowly.
Actually, they were walking close to where the kid had come from. Inuyasha felt uneasy but pressed on. Like hell he was letting anyone get away with taking Kagome. So what if he was a dog?
The bright yellow backpack was the easiest thing to see, tipped over and spilling out books and who-knows-what. As they got closer, he realized there was a pile of clothes that couldn't have fallen out of the backpack.
He processed this for a second. Either someone had snatched Kagome literally out of her clothes, Kagome was running around the woods buck naked, or . . .
"Backpack!" the kid cheered, toddling past him.
He felt his ears droop. Seriously? No kid from this time would know what the heck that yellow monstrosity was, with its weird fabric and plastic. But no, here was a kid who knew exactly what it was and seemed to also know what the crayons and paper Kagome kept in the pack were as well.
"Picture! I draw you, puppy." As the girl started to focus on her drawing, her forehead scrunched up in a way Inuyasha had become very familiar with over the past months. It was the exact same way Kagome's forehead scrunched whenever she did her homework.
Yeah, okay. Sure. Kagome was a toddler. Why not?