Hey everyone! So this my first Inuysha story! (First Fanfiction in a very long time!) Very excited for this one, I've got big plans for it! Hope you guys like it! Definitely read my message at the end if you like it, there will be a lot of teaser kinda of things for what you can expect next!
Song inspiration for this chapter was Elective Amnesia by Rise Against.
Chapter 1. With Everything Comes a Price
Kagome sighed heavily, it was going on two days sinse the Band of Seven had kidnapped her and she was getting desperate. Where was Inuysaha? Surely he should have found them by now and rescued her. Not to say she had not tried to escape a few times on her own, the issue was she did not know where she was and so she would not know how to find her friends and would be recaptured shortly after an escape. "This is getting depressing." She thought to herself, resting her chin on her knees. She sat under Suikotsu's supervision as the others worked to set up a camp for the night.
Kagome was pretty sure this was one of the worst situations she'd ever been in in her life. She had no idea when she'd be rescued, Renkotsu shot her murderous looks whenever possible, Jakotsu kept saying they should kill her, and Bankotsu was taking his sweet ass time deciding between killing or handing over to Naraku. Kagome wanted to cry and probably would if she could get more than the minutes she had to go to the bathroom alone, she refused to cry in front of these men, though.
She jumped as Bankotsu dropped a pile of wood down before she and Suikotsu, and looked up at him, his expression was guarded and lost in thought. "Start on the fire, will yah?" he said, Suikotsu nodded and crouched down beside Kagome. At least he was on the good doctor side today.
"You look unwell Kagome." He said as he arranged the wood, genuine concern in his voice.
"Are captives supposed to look healthy and happy?" she asked in return. She didn't mean to be cross with him, but hey, could you blame her?
"If you would like I could give you something to help you sleep." He offered kindly.
"If it's all the same to you, I would rather sleep lightly." She replied, tossing a weary glance in the general direction of where Renkotsu had disappeared with Ginkotsu and Jakotsu. Suikotsu nodded in understanding and said no more. Kagome huffed and leaned back against the rock she'd settled near.
"I HATE FISHING!" Jakotsu shouted. He was currently perched on his own rock on the bank on the river they'd set up next to.
"That's because you have no patients, Ja!" Bankotsu called from a bit down the river where he was gathering more kindling for the yet to be lit fire. Jakotsu shot the leader a glare, not appreciating his amusement with his clear frustration.
"Can't I do something else?" Jakotsu begged dramatically.
"Ask Suikotsu to switch with you." Bankotsu shrugged, popping a few more sticks into his pile.
"Suiiiiiiiiiiiiiikotsuuuuu!" Jakotsu whined, turning to the doctor.
Suikotsu chuckled to himself, "Alright Ja. I'm not having much luck lighting this any." He stood to his full height.
"YES! Thank you Suikotsu! Thank you! You are the best! I'd kiss you if you were more anymore handsome!" Jakotsu cheered, bouncing over to Suikotsu and handing him the line he was using.
"That's kind of you Ja, but the thank you suffices just fine." Suikotsu responded, taking the line and heading over to the river to try his own luck.
Jakotsu plopped down next to her, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about you." He said off handedly, shooting her a hard look before getting to work on the fire.
"I just don't get what Inuyasha sees in you." He said.
"You don't get anything without a dick." Renkotsu called as he and Ginkotsu returned from a patrol.
"Shut up Renkotsu." Jakotsu snapped, finally sparking the fire.
"All clear?" Bankotsu asked, depositing kindling to the small pile.
"As far as I could tell." Renkotsu confirmed.
"Fish with Suikotsu then." Bankotsu instructed, and headed out to find more kindling.
"It's because I look like Kikiyo…" Kagome said, depression getting the better of her, although ever since Inuyasha had saved Kikiyo an brought her outsider the barrier she'd been feeling this way, feeling like second place.
"The creepy priestess lady?! Ew!" Jakotsu shrieked.
"Jakotsu, would you stop shrieking?" Renkotsu snapped.
"Now that you say it, you do bare quiet the resemblance to Lady Kikyo. Is there any relation between you two?" Suikotsu ask, carrying over several fish that Jakotsu had already caught and had forgotten to carry over.
"My Inuyasha likes dead girls?!"Jakotsu yelled in horror.
"He's weirder than you Jakotsu!" Renkotsu called, earning laughter from Suikotsu.
"SHUT UP RENKOTSU!" Jakotsu fumed, throwing a rock in his direction, Renkotsu ducked it and continued to chuckle to himself. Jakotsu sighed a defeated sigh that slightly touched upon how Kagome was feeling herself, and for a moment he looked almost as defeated as she felt. The expression was gone in an instant though.
"So you don't have him either then, wrench?" he asked, a question meant to make him feel better.
It was Kagome's turn to sigh, "I don't even know with him. I don't think even Inuyasha knows what he wants."
"So theres still hope for me!" Jakotsu said gleefully, and then began to help Suikotsu with the fish he'd caught.
"Hey Ja, is big brother alright? Geesh." Ginkotsu asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. Suikotsu looked up at this statement, as if the question had been teetering on his mind as well. Ginkotsu was referring to their leader's habit of drifting off on his own lately.
"Hes not sure what to do with our situation, Gin. I think hes just stressed." Jakotsu responded shooting a look in the direction Bankotsu had disappeared in.
"I've never seen Big Brother stressed about something like this." Suikotsu commented, spearing a fish and putting it over the fire.
"Yeah he gets pretty different when something is bothering him, he has only been like this a few times since I've known him." Jakotsu said, spearing his own fish.
"And you've known him practically for forever." Ginkotsu said. Kagome thought about this, realizing that these men had not always been together, they had pasts before the Band of Seven. "How did the Band of Seven come to be what they are now?" she wondered.
"Yeah, its pretty unsettling. You know we're really in a bad situation when Bankotsu starts to worry." Jakotsu sighed.
"That's why we need to discuss our next move." Bankotsu's voice chimed into the conversation and a moment later he padded into view, dropping off his arm full of kindling into that hefty pile he'd collected.
"Renkotsu!" he waved over the only absent member from the group, who was still fishing. The strategist, reeled in his line and joined them, dropping a few fish into the pile. The Mercenary men sat in a circle around the fire preparing the fish except Ginkotsu who stood behind Renkotsu watching.
"So big brother have you come up with a plan?" Renkotsu was the first to breach the tense silence.
"No, all I keep thinking is that we can't really do anything. We need these Shards, and there is a good chance Naraku will take them back." He sighed.
"Are you so sure? " Suikotsu asked.
"What ever these jewel shards are, why would everyone be slitting throats over them if they were so disposable as to just give seven away?" Renkotsu pointed out.
"True." Suikotsu responded. Kagome almost opened her mouth to explain the Shikon jewel but decided instead to keep her mouth shut, they less people who knew about them, the less there was to compete with.
"So what? We play puppet until he decides to rip out our throats? No way! Lets just get out of here!" Jakotsu said, the took a bite of his fish.
"Have you seen Naraku's enemies? It won't be that easy Jakotsu." Renkotsu countered. Kagome couldn't agree more, Naraku was an evil, treacherous pain in the butt who could not be trusted.
"If we can be risen from the grave, there must be a way for us to remain here even if we were to lose the shards. If one impossible is possible, why not another." Suikotsu said, the others nodded with expressions of deep thought on their faces.
"What about that woman?" Jakotsu asked, the air became thicker at this statement. No one made a sound.
"Yeah..." Jakotsu said, agreeing with an unspoken statement. Kagome looked between them, wondering what they were all thinking, who was this woman?
"Damn it!" Bankotsu growled,"we've got our backs against a wall and I have no idea if we can get out!"
"There has got to be a way Bankotsu." Jakotsu said.
"Until that way is revealed to us, it would most likely be in our best interest to play along with Naraku's schemes." Renkotsu advised, though he did not seem happy about this.
"That make it harder, we should be putting all our time and energy into figuring this out but instead Naraku has us running all over this fucking mountain fighting his enemies, then pulling us mid battle." Bankotsu said, referring to their most recent battle with the Inuyasha gang and Koga at the castle where Bankotsu had retrieved Banryu, it was also where Kagome had been kidnapped as a diversion for the bands escape.
"I hate this." Jakotsu huffed tartly.
"I guess we'll just have to go with it like Renkotsu said." Bankotsu decided, examining the fish he'd been cooking then handing it off to Kagome, only acknowledging her with a brief glance. "I'll keep watch tonight. Tomorrow, we begin finding our way out." The men around him nodded, and the rest of the night ensued silently, with few side conversations here and there to crack the tension that had built up in the air.
It wasn't until late that night when everyone else was sleeping that Bankotsu addressed her. He sat beside her poking at the fire when he finally spoke. "So, what do you know about Naraku, wench?" he asked, blowing out the small flame that had caught onto his poking stick.
"My name is Kagome." she stated flatly, tired of all this 'wench' and 'wretch' that she was nonsense.
Bankotsu eyed her, "That was not my question." he stated.
"Well thats not my name, how should I know who you're talking to?" Kagome snapped.
Bankotsu frowned, "Do you know about Naraku Kagome?" he said grudgingly, he probably would not have given into her so easily if he was not pressed to find answers.
"As soon as he recovers he is going to take those shards back." Kagome told him, her words were flat and plain, she knew these things to be fact. She had dealt with Naraku so many times she knew his behaviors like the back of her hand by now. Bankotsu thought about this for a moment.
"I see, so unless we follow his orders there is no hope." he deduced.
"Even if you follow his orders to the T and even manage to kill Inuyasha. You still have no chance, you cannot keep obeying Naraku." Kagome said.
"What else can I do? He has so much power over us. I want my team to live…. I want to live." he whispered this and Kagome was surprised to find a tremor in the leader's voice, as if saying it was something that he was afraid to admit.
Kagome stared at him in surprise. For the first time since she'd met the group she'd found a way to empathize with them, or at least with Bankotsu. She realized with much shock, that they might not be that different from her own group of friends and that this once fearsome group had become just another set of victims to Naraku's evil. It almost made her want to help them.
So first chapter! Kinda slow, but I tried to make it interesting while I set up things for the future. I hope you'll keep reading because I have big plans for this story, I already have the next few chapters in the works.
Chapter two will be posted pretty soon and will have plenty of action and the direction this story is taking will start to take shape
What to expect. The will be more than just BanXKag, other romances as well as other types of relationships forming. As for the story its self, I definitely have plans to take it in a unique direction, and I have stories for how the band came to be in the works so sometime down the road you'll get to see my take on that.
So drop me some feed back, and I will see ever one next chapter!
-Syeil