A/N: I rewrote the beginning of my only multi-chapter fanfic. If you would like to see the original I still have it posted. I personally don't think it's good though.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha but hopefully I own the plot.
Chapter 1: Into the Sunset
Kagome batted idly at a fly that busily circled her head. The others lounged about in the grass as they rested. Shippo chased after Kirara diligently as Sango lay on her back and stared up disbelievingly at one purple-clad monk.
Miroku tottered precariously on a thin branch singing full-heartedly,
"There once was a farmer who lived by a crick,
And every night he'd play with his hic
Banjo in the moonlight and watch the girl next door,
And you could tell just by looking at her that she was a hic
Decent young lady who rolled in the grass,
And when she turned over you could see her white..."
The branch snapped in the middle and the poor monk caught only a glimpse of the grass rushing towards his face before everything went dark. Inuyasha keeled over laughing as his companions looked down at Miroku, who was quite literally eating dust. Silt flew up into the air and Shippo rubbed at his eyes while everything settled on the ground. "You shouldn't have brought Miroku up into that tree! He could have died." Kagome shouted at the snickering Inuyasha.
He waved her statement off, nonchalantly retorting, "Well if someone hadn't given him that Sake, maybe he wouldn't be drunk in the first place. You can't blame everything on me." He pointed his finger at her nose with a smug grin. Kagome glared furiously back at him and turned around, her arms folded.
Shippo rolled his eyes at Sango, "Are adult relationships always like this, Sango-san?"
"Oh, no, Shippo, not at all. It is only these two who fight and quarrel so vehemently."
Miroku's head quite surprisingly popped up and his mouth shouted "ass!" before turning into gay smile. There was a brief second before Sango very calmly brought Hiraikotsu whizzing down upon his unprotected head and Miroku fell back down.
Shippo stared at the two couples and shook his head happily. He walked off a little ways into the dark forest the group had been wandering through. Finding a small clearing, the young kitsune sat to stare at the stars, forgetting momentarily that he was scared to be alone at night. Lines connected the twinkling stars to form the shape of a more powerful fox-demon than he could ever be. Shippo sighed, depressed at the mere thought of his father. He replayed the day he had met Inuyasha and Kagome in his mind and smiled a smile only one with infinite amounts of knowledge could pull off. They were always arguing back then too, but it certainly seems friendlier now.
He jumped in surprise as one of Kagome's 'pan' things, he never did understand its purpose, barely grazed his head. A streak of silver-white and a near invisible red crawled up a nearby tree. "Inuyasha?" Shippo called out, curious to know what the older one had done now.
"WHAT?"
"Oh, nothing, there's just A HUGE EAGLE BAT-DEMON THING COMING UP BEHIND YOU!"
Inuyasha spun around just as eight talons opened up to receive him. They dug into his face, leaving marks that quickly sealed up. He fell backwards off the branch, dropping a few feet before catching on to a bough. Inuyasha swung onto the branch and his ears swiveled around in search of the demon. It approached from behind again but this time Shippo managed to throw one of his many toys at it. Seeing an opening, Inuyasha slashed at it with his nails then tightly grabbed onto its bat-like wings.
"Shippo! Something isn't right here! Go back to the clearing and bring the others. I smell Naraku." He glared at the demon and dug his nails in deeper.
It flapped wildly in an attempt to escape but to no avail. A long, screeching wail erupted from its beak and Inuyasha suddenly let go to protect his sensitive ears from the sound. The bat-eagle made a dash for the spot where the branch connected with the trunk and with a swift snap of its beak broke the branch off. Inuyasha plummeted once again towards the ground, hitting multiple limbs along the way and ended his drop with a hard landing on his bum. The demon flapped off haphazardly sending the wind created by one of Shippo's stray tops back to knock the child off his feet. Inuyasha leapt off after the demon. He appeared a mere smudge of red in Shippo's eyes.
Kagome came into the clearing, a pot in hand, and a steady frame of mind to back her up. A quick scan of the area told her that something was terribly wrong. The snapped branches told her there had been a short battle high up and the lack of a certain hanyou worried her. Sango, with Hiraikotsu, and Miroku, with his staff, rushed over to Kagome. Miroku asked in all the seriousness he could smother while being drunk, "Are you okay, Shippo? Where's Inuyasha?"
Shippo said nothing as he was still dazed from the conk he had received. Kagome turned to Shippo and repeated Miroku's question. Shippo could only point in the direction of the rising sun and flap his weak arms. The group decided to re-cooperate back at the village. One of them stooped down to gently pick up the kitsune and crawl onto Kirara's back. The cat-demon growled a little and leapt off into the fast-approaching darkness.
----------------------------------------
Sango poured some tea for everyone as Kaede gently interviewed Shippo. "What happened to Inuyasha? Where is he?" She paused for Shippo to answer but when none came her voice rumbled forth again. "Do you know?"
He took some crayons and a sheet of paper from Kagome and drew Inuyasha at the bottom of the page. Above him, Shippo drew a bat with an eagle's head and feet. Then he drew an arrow pointing to the sun. With each stroke of the crayon, the boy felt more relaxed and began to explain the situation. "Inuyasha just went after this demon. He said something about it being sent from Naraku but that's all I remember."
"Are you sure he didn't say anything else?" Kaede urged, glancing temporarily at the teenagers.
"No… He just grunted a lot." Shippo finally concluded.
"He'll come back, right Kaede?" Kagome whispered, slightly afraid of what Naraku was capable of doing.
"Kagome, you shouldn't worry yourself so. Inuyasha's strong. I doubt a mere eagle bat-demon will defeat him." Kaede assured Kagome. As if on cue, Inuyasha staggered into the hut with a few scratches and eight dents in his red Haori. The group was stunned by his quick entrance and sat there staring at him for a moment.
Suddenly, Kagome leapt up to give him a big bear hug. Then she took a hold of his arms and pestered him with questions about his well-being. After a few minutes of queries and no answers, she stepped back, a blush gracing her cheeks, and took a sudden interest in the floor. Inuyasha stared blankly at her, then at the window. A thick blanket covered the room, muffling everything. Slowly, crickets began their tunes outside and Kaede blinked.
Miroku finally broke the silence. "Are you okay, Inuyasha?"
The hanyou glanced at the monk. "Feh." he muttered tonelessly and walked out of Kaede's hut.
Sango shifted uncomfortably in the heated silence. Miroku cut the air with his words. "Well, Inuyasha seemed rather... heartless. Then again, when isn't he?" He laughed, trying to ease the tension a little, even with his hangover. It didn't help much.
It isn't unlike Inuyasha to answer with a mere 'Feh' but he had never sounded like THAT before, Kagome thought, He never comes and leaves so suddenly or not blush when I hug him in front of others. She shrugged off the feeling. "Who wants some cup noodles?" She asked jovially, expecting aforementioned boy to come running back in with hunger written all over his face. He simply didn't.
So night came and passed. Morning arrived with his good old friend Agitation.
"Inu-YA-SHA! Are we going to look for more jewel shards are not!" Kagome asked desperately. Why isn't he tempted to go get more shards or eat ramen or even hit Shippo? Last time I checked, everyone was attempting to STOP him from doing most of those things. Inuyasha simply sat on his usual branch, absently swinging his right leg. What could possibly have him thinking so much that he will barely glance at me?
Sango walked over dressed in her traveling attire, ready to leave by the time the morning mist had disappeared, their usual departing time. "Kagome, is he still up there? Inuyasha is normally the first to be prepared for our journeys."
"That's because he doesn't have or need anything to pack!" Kagome answered with a heaving sigh.
Inuyasha suddenly went stiff and his eyes blank, for a fleeting moment. He softened immediately afterwards and swung down off the branch, obviously prepared to leave. Kagome stared at him disbelievingly, confused as to what had just happened.
"Let's go then." he muttered in a gruff voice. Shippo had just come out of the hut when Inuyasha barked, "Oi! Go get Miroku, you little, rotten pea-brain! We're leaving!"
Shippo dodged the rocks that came his way. Hey! He's insulting me again! Thank Kami-sama! Wait… That's not right… Shippo scampered off, a confused look on his face.
"Miroku! Everyone else is ready to leave!" Miroku lazily dragged his staff along behind him and blinked a few times once he reached the sun. His staff made a trail in the sand to mark his passage. The others could see that he still had that hangover.
A dog passed in front of Miroku and he grinned sheepishly at it. In one, quick, flowing movement, he groped the dog then took a paw. "WILL YOU BEAR MY CHILD?" Perhaps he didn't have a hangover, everyone thought, maybe he's still drunk... Sango stepped up to Miroku with a slightly angered expression. A stinging slap found its way to his cheek.
Miroku fell sideways, a distinct, red, hand-shaped mark on his face. "What? I only asked you to conceive my kid..." he said protectively and slumped over.
So they set off like that. A shining sun, two alert girls, an ecstatic child, a content cat, and one poor purple-clad monk slung over the back of one agitated hanyou.
After several dozen hours, the sky was overcast with a dark, ominous cloud threatening to ensure living hell if the group didn't find shelter soon. They were walking in a field of billowing wheat, laden with grain and near ready to harvest. The group hadn't seen trees for quite some time and had been wandering on hills since they had escaped the confines of the forest. They could have gone much quicker if Inuyasha had not been too lazy to carry Kagome's bike and if Sango had had the heart to have Kirara change and carry them all when Kirara was already so tired from walking all day.
"Look! I think I see a house!" Shippo cried, over-ridden with joy because they could finally take a rest. The rest of the group scanned the horizon for the house Shippo claimed was just barely peeking above the hill to the left.
Kagome spotted the house next, noticing a gentle curl of smoke rising from the house. "Maybe they know where a nearby hot spring is..." she wondered out loud.
"I doubt it, Kagome. Hot springs are not located in the middle of wheat fields." Sango replied with a yearning look upon her face.
Miroku sat down in the middle of the trampled stalks the rest had walked through. "Ugh! I'm so tired... Can we take a break? I'm starving and the sun is so high up in the sky... no trees for cover... and my clothes are really starting to feel heavy... I'M SWEATING HERE!" Miroku stopped as he looked up into the eight eyes of his friends glaring back at him. Even Kirara was staring at the purple clad being with annoyance. "he he he... grains anyone?" Miroku asked holding up a handful of yellow stalks, hoping that the short-tempered group wouldn't charge at him.
Inuyasha cocked turned around. "I can sense youkai nearby," he suddenly stated, his nose sniffing around like a dog. He crouched down in the tall stalks so that the only way anyone could tell where he was, was the slightly flattened wheat stalks. "Oi, Kagome, do something useful and tell me if you see any Shikon shards nearby."
Her nose tilted upwards and she let out a small hmf. "Ask me more nicely and maybe I'll consider - AH!" a spurt of red splattered all over Kagome's clean school uniform. "What is this..." it tasted like iron... blood. She slowly lifted her gaze to the sky where she could see hoards of flying demons. Many more roamed the ground, closing in around the group. Inuyasha had effectively ripped up a bloody mass of who-knows-what-it-is as the youkai came flooding in from all sides.
The group instinctively stood in a circle, back-to-back. Sango readied Hiraikotsu, Kirara had transformed, Miroku prepared to open up his Kazaana, and Shippo got out his 'toys'. Inuyasha was already slashing at anything and everything with Tetsusaiga and Kagome was aiming at the demons with her arrow.
Kirara bit into one monster with her large fangs and returned to her kitten form as her prey tried to catch her tail. She released her grip on the creature's arm and dodged many legs that ran to catch and/or trample her. Her sharp claws dug into skin as she climbed to the top of a frog demon and slashed at his eyes before leaping onto another offender, another victim of a cute, feline demon.
Sango smiled at her pet through her mask then gracefully kicked some demon ass. Her body leveraged the weight of the giant boomerang so that it was flung with utmost force and easily sliced through numerous evil entities. An over-sized ball of lard threw its entire body into Sango and promptly fell asleep, utilizing the properties of slumber to make himself dead weight.
The girl grunted as she wriggled out from underneath the large being, stones poking into her belly. She breathed a few times to soothe herself as she dodged blows from other creatures. Finally, a few punches were thrown and three more bulky beings lay bubbling on the ground.
A large, rather obese youkai, with little pudgy arms, flew towards Kagome. She slung an arrow and let it fly, trying to dodge another demon at the same time. Her eyes were shut but her elbows and feet made their ways into the stomachs and eyes of youkai. Kagome slowly gained the courage to open her eyes and fight purposefully. After defeating a few youkai (ie she simply knocked them out with her large backpack), Kagome crouched in the stalks to approach the problem stealthily.
Despite Kagome's attempts to be covert, a tall, lanky demon spotted her and made its way over to the girl. She saw the creature closing in on her and tried to crawl away.
"INUYASHA!" The demon picked her up awkwardly from behind and wrapped two slender fingers around her neck, effectively choking her.
Inuyasha turned his head towards Kagome's voice and reached out for her with his free left arm, unable to think of any other reaction. In that brief moment of distraction, a demon knocked him out. He felt a drop of rain and his vision faded. "kagome..."
----------------------------------------
"Inuyasha?" The hanyou opened his eyes with pain and raised a hand to a bump on his head, where the youkai had hit him just hours before. He gingerly fingered the small, healing cut running along the middle of the bump and closed his eyes again.
Inuyasha suddenly sat bolt upright, "OH FUCK!" slamming his face into the head above him. Miroku straightened, held his nose, and grimaced.
"Nice greeting, Inuyasha. I feel so loved." Miroku stated sarcastically.
His friend ignored him and glanced around. "Kagome! Where's Kagome? The demon with the claws, and the pointy ears and – and the small head!"
"You're describing yourself you idiot." Miroku replied easily. "Kagome's fine. While you were getting your forty winks, Shippo came along with his toy and knocked the demon out. We were clearly outnumbered so we picked you up and ran to where there were the least demons, which, lucky for us, was where the house we had spotted was... or is… or whatever." At Inuyasha's still anxious looks he chucked his thumb behind him, pointing towards another room.
Inuyasha walked into the room and was relieved to find Kagome immersed in a conversation with Sango and an old lady. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha politely, returned to the conversation, and then snapped her head back to Inuyasha. In one fluid and lithe movement, Kagome jumped up, cried out his name and hugged him. He turned a brilliant shade of red but Kagome seemed rather content.
Shippo, who had apparently been there all along, nudged Sango and smiled. Kagome pulled away after a moment and grinned sheepishly. Miroku stepped into the room, his back upright and his face straight. He sighed. "Getting sentimental again Inuyasha? Of course, we're all glad you're back but, you know, I think Kagome's the best medicine we've tried on you so far." Miroku almost couldn't stifle his snigger. "You even called out her name as you were blacking out." Moments later, Miroku was looking rather trampled on in the lovely red clay beneath the dazzling sunset.