A/N
~Dark~ Hello and welcome to the sequel of Another Inu Fic or is it? If you've read the last two chapters of that story you can skip the first two chapters of this one.
~Light~ The third chapter of this one will be posted Sunday so we'll see you then!
We don't own InuYasha! We only own the OCs in this story and make no profit off of it!
"So why are we here if Fluffy doesn't need us to be?" I asked from my perch above Kagome on one of the many bookshelves in the library while she tried to teach a stubborn Masaru to walk.
"Sesshoumaru wanted InuYasha to stay so they both could decide what would happen to the remaining members of the Kuro Inu Clan." Kagome told me and I saw her smile when I huffed in annoyance and crossed my arms to rest my head.
"But he said he didn't need us here." I said and Kagome sighed as Masaru made a sound of disapproval and tried to go back to crawling.
"No, Masaru, big boys need to learn how to walk." Kagome said in a tired voice and lifted Masaru back to his feet to try again. "Sesshoumaru is a very confusing man. He may say something but mean something else. In this case when he said he didn't need us he actually meant he needed InuYasha to stick around and help him while he recovered more, and since your father wouldn't let us travel back with Kouga and my brother we've stayed here with him." Kagome told me and smiled in triumph when Masaru finally stumbled a few steps forward while holding onto her fingers tightly.
"I'm bored," I said after a minute and blinked calmly when Kagome looked at me with a raised brow and a knowing look.
"Why not read something?" She asked me and I shrugged at her question and turned over to lay on my back.
"Don't want to." I told her and could practically see her shake her head at me.
"You can't or you won't?" She asked me and I turned my head to look at her.
"Same thing." I said with a smirk that quickly turned to a slight frown when she motioned me to her with a finger.
"Why don't you answer a question for me." She said as I jumped down and watched her closely, unsure of where this was going. "Do you know how to read?" She asked me and I blinked, I was expecting something strange but this was not what I expected at all. Instead of answering I just looked off to the side and shrugged at her. "Akari..." she said with a slight warning and I nervously flattened my ears.
"I can read...a little." I said, muttering the last part and winced when she spoke in a disbelief.
"You're kidding me!" She said and I looked at her wide eyes.
"I've learned a little bit because of my time on the island, I think, but it's not like I ever needed it." I tried to explain as she shook her head and temporarily forgot about Masaru, who was chewing on his own fist again.
"We'll have to fix that. No child of mine is going to go uneducated, I don't care what time we live in." Kagome said and began to bustle around the library, grabbing several scrolls, a pot of ink, an ink brush, and another cushion that was all set down in front of a small table.
"You know, on second thought maybe I can go find Rin." I said and started towards the door only to have Kagome latch onto the back of my collar.
"Not so fast," Kagome said and I gave her what I hoped was a pleading look while Masaru laughed behind us.
"Please?" I begged and when I saw she wasn't going to budge decided to play my trump card. "Please please please Mom?" I begged and saw her eyes light up at what I called her.
"Yes! It worked!" I thought happily and tried to walk away again only to freeze at the slight tugging on my collar again.
"As wonderful as it is to hear you say that, I'm sticking to my word. You, young lady, will be learning how to read and write while I get Souta to bring back some other textbooks for me to help teach you with." Kagome said making me groan and try to free myself from her grasp while she dragged me to the table.
"See if you hadn't said anything about being bored and not knowing how to read you wouldn't be in this situation. Stupid puppy." My demon side spoke making me inwardly growl while, outwardly, I frowned at the scroll full of words in front of me.
"Show me how much you can read." Kagome said and lifted a smug looking Masaru up into her lap as I bit my lip and flattened my ears at the sight of all the words I didn't know.
"Great, I'm screwed..." I thought in despair as my demon side laughed in amusement.
`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`
"So what have you figured out?" InuYasha asked Sesshoumaru as both demons sat in Sesshoumaru's study looking over several scrolls.
"For the hundredth time InuYasha, nothing." Sesshoumaru growled in annoyance while looking at a scroll.
"So why'd you do it?" InuYasha asked after another minute of silence making Sesshoumaru look up at him with a glare. "Kill Kaiken, I mean. I know your poison's strong but even you can't cook someone from the inside out and make their body turn to sludge." InuYasha said calmly and looked his brother in the eye, waiting for an answer.
"I see, so you noticed." Sesshoumaru said with a sigh and set the scroll down. "I made a gamble that allowed me to win that fight sooner than I anticipated. You are aware of the shard we extracted from Akari?" Sesshoumaru asked and nodded when InuYasha nodded his own head.
"It was the reason your pup was being poisoned so, in order to win the fight quickly, I injected it into Kaiken's side and added my own poison to dissolve it quickly." Sesshoumaru explained and watched calmly as his brother jaw dropped in amazement.
"And you say I'm stupid!" InuYasha laughed loudly making Sesshoumaru want to smack him, but he held his mask of uninterest, barely. "You could have gotten killed with that trick!" InuYasha said with his eyes shining in laughter though Sesshoumaru knew his younger brother was impressed.
"You would have died easily. I am to powerful to die to such arrogant fool that kills his own allies for power." Sesshoumaru corrected before opening another scroll, this one catching his attention. InuYasha immediately noticed the shift of attention and tried to lean over and read the scroll as well only to have Sesshoumaru turn his head to look at him in annoyance.
"Why don't you go find your mate and pups?" Sesshoumaru asked him dryly, earning a look from InuYasha that said 'really?'
"Let me see the scroll." InuYasha demanded, holding out his hand and starring at his brother.
"It's nothing you'd find useful. Just land I was unaware that Kaiken had at his disposal." Sesshoumaru said coolly and calmly rolled up the scroll, setting it aside for later to look over. "Now, I believe your mate is looking for you." Sesshoumaru said calmly just as InuYasha's ears twitched and he caught the sound of Kagome calling for him.
"Alright, I'll be back though. While I'm out, try to eat something you bastard." InuYasha told his older brother and left, leaving Sesshoumaru to himself as he carefully unfurled the scroll and looked at it with a frown.
'Two halves of one whole. An heir of two, yet an heir of none. Of the line of shadow, one will fall.' Was the warning written at the top of the scroll with names and connections leading down the scroll, coming to a stop at one name. A name that made Sesshoumaru wonder if Kaiken had alterior motives for getting Akari.
"Hitomi, the last pure blood heir to the head of the Kuro Clan." Sesshoumaru said to himself, his mind trying to figure out the connection before him.
~Hahaha! You guys better love us! We almost stopped here!~
"Be careful," Rin told us cheerfully as we stood at the West Gate the next day to leave. Sesshoumaru had talked to InuYasha earlier and judging from the stunned look on InuYasha's face I assumed it was something important.
"Don't worry, we will be." Kagome told Rin with a smile while adjusting the comfortable carry basket Masaru sat in. "You be careful too, and behave alright?" She added to a grinning Rin, who nodded her head before bouncing over to her Lord while InuYasha walked over to us with a scroll in his hands.
"Come on," InuYasha told us while pulling Kagome up onto his back and looking at me. Without another word we took off, taking long running leaps and quickly left the castle behind.
"What's in the scroll?" Kagome asked after a while of silence, in which time Masaru had fallen asleep. I looked at InuYasha out of the corner of my eye, curious as well, while making sure not to lose my footing on the branches I was using as spring boards.
"They're deeds, part of my inheritance from my old man." InuYasha said after a minute of silence only broken by the sharp swish of the leafless branches as we raced past.
"That's amazing InuYasha!" Kagome exclaimed cheerfully while I just frowned a bit in confusion.
"His dad must have loved him." I thought with a touch of sadness in my thoughts.
"Shut up Puppy, why are you miserable? You have a pack and family now, Baka." My demon side snapped at me, making me smile a bit for once before my foot slipped and I cried out in surprise. Reacting on instinct I tried to grab onto the next branch while falling forward, only to have my fingers miss and grab air.
"Akari!" I heard both Kagome and InuYasha yell as I tried to flip and land on my feet. Suddenly the sensation of falling vanished and instead I felt as if I was encased with several blankets that vanished almost a second later. I opened my eyes and gasped as I found myself sitting on the ground with InuYasha and Kagome coming towards me.
"Akari! Are you alright?" Kagome asked me, dropping down from InuYasha's back and running her hands over my face and through my ears trying to reassure herself as well as me. After a minute of panting I nodded and looked up at InuYasha, who was looking at me in worry from his spot beside Kagome.
"What happened?" I asked slowly and watched as he frowned slightly and shook his head while pushing his hair out of his face.
"I'm not sure. We heard you cry out and when we turned..." He trailed off, seeming unsure of his next words.
"One minute you were falling and the next it looked like you fell behind something and then you were here on the ground." Kagome said, biting her lip and looking at me with a mix of concern and uncertainty as she pushed my black hair out of my face. "Maybe we should take a break." She said while looking at her mate.
"No, I'm fine. Just startled, come on." I told them and stood up, dusting my dark blue pants and haori off and looking at them. "Well?" I asked them, trying to cover my slight fear with the desire to get home.
"Are you sure? We can stop if you want." Kagome told me and I shook my head at her. Then before either adult could say anything else I jumped up into the trees and started in the general direction of the village, going fast but not fast enough for them to lose sight of me quickly.
"What just happened?" I asked my demon side but for once they were silent, not even giving me an emotion for once.