Cherry Blossoms

Chapter 1

Ohayo, minna-san! Maddie here. Right, so I've been planning on writing an InuYasha fanfiction for a very, very long time. However, since I am extremely unimaginative, I couldn't think of any good ideas at all. So I decided to stick with this one idea that is incredibly unoriginal, and I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you'll like it, although it may be a little clichéd. Anyways, hope you enjoy it! And just in case you were wondering, this is my first anime fanfiction and I'm not used to it, so I hope you pardon a few errors and stuff like that. I appreciate any form of criticism though, so go ahead and feel free to say whatever you think. Again, enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own InuYasha! (though I totally wish I did...)

"Kagome!" Mrs Higurashi called. "It's morning! And what does that mean?"

"I know, I know," Kagome moaned. "It's time to wake up."

"Not just that, but it's also the first day of high school, in case you've forgotten," Mrs Higurashi reminded her, smiling cheerfully.

"What do you look so happy for?" Kagome asked, annoyed. "I'm not excited. Besides, it's my first day, not yours."

"So what? That doesn't mean I can't be excited. Now get up," Mrs Higurashi said, pulling the covers off of Kagome.

"Not fair!" Kagome protested. She sighed. "All right, I'm up. Now what?"

"Get dressed, and quick," Mrs Higurashi ordered.

"Fine, fine," Kagome muttered, stretching.

After getting dressed and eating breakfast, Kagome set off in the direction of her high school.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? If you have any problems, just call me, all right? What if something goes wrong? Don't eat anything that looks inedible, okay? If you have a sudden asthmatic attack, just try to breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, and out—"

"I'll be fine, mum," Kagome insisted. "Just let me go."

"Fine, but make sure nothing goes wrong," Mrs Higurashi frowned.

"Yeah, of course," Kagome said, rolling her eyes. "'Kay, later!"

"See you!"

Kagome walked down the path that led to her high school. What was high school even like? The only things she knew about high school were things she'd read in books and watched in movies. And honestly, she thought, if that's what high school is really like, I'm definitely dead. Who would she even turn to if she had a problem? Of course, her mother was there, but sometimes her mother behaved like she was as old as Sota. Then again, Sota was probably more mature than her.

Kagome sighed. She looked up into the sky. "What am I going to do?" she whispered.

Silence.

"What am I expecting? It's not like he'll come back anyway," she muttered and continued walking. Her father had died a couple of years ago, but Kagome still felt like he was there, watching over her.

The school was only about five minutes away from her house, but Kagome liked taking her time. After all, the scenery was splendid. The birds chirped excitedly, almost as if they were gossiping among themselves. The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom, and the petals fell gently to the ground as Kagome walked down the road, as if they were sending her God's blessing.

She entered the classroom. More than half the students there knew each other. Unfortunately for Kagome, she had to go through the tiring process of making friends. All of her friends were in different high schools, and she was the only one out of all of them who was in Jundo High School.

She scanned the class for empty seats. She noticed one that was in the rightmost corner of the class. Straightening her uniform, she walked to her seat.

Sitting down, she nervously tapped her fingers against her desk and waited for her teacher, Yamaguchi-sensei. She looked around her classroom. All the students were talking and laughing at each other's jokes. Well, almost everyone. Other than her, there were only three students who weren't talking to anyone. The first one was a boy. He had black hair which was tied up in a tiny ponytail and wore tiny earrings, along with silver rings on his fingers. He looked calm and peaceful, liked he'd never try to start a fight. At the same time though, Kagome noticed that he was staring at another girl behind him with a very mischievous grin on his face. "He's one I'm definitely going to avoid," Kagome told herself. Her eyes shifted towards the girl behind the boy. She had long hair which was tied into a ponytail. She was beautiful, and she had a look in her eyes that said "touch me and I will send you to your grave", which Kagome admired. And behind her, right next to Kagome, sat—or rather, slept—a boy with long white hair. Kagome couldn't see his face clearly since he was fast asleep. All she heard was a muffled snore once in a while.

"Good morning, class," a cheerful voice called. "Please take your seats."

All the students shuffled back to their seats.

"As you all know, it's your first day of high school. So, as a method of getting to know each other, the first thing we're going to do today is introduce ourselves. A lot of you know me already, as I taught middle school last year, but for those who don't know: I am Yamaguchi-sensei, and I'm your class teacher whether you like it or not. Right, so now that you know me, I'd like you all to stand up and introduce yourselves one by one. You will get up and say a few things about yourself. This may include your interests, hobbies, favourite television show, anything. Got it?"

"Yes, Yamaguchi-sensei," the class chorused.

"First up—Asahina-san, of course," Yamaguchi-sensei called.

When it was Kagome's turn, Kagome simply mumbled her name and something about reading while the rest of the class snickered. "Kagome," she heard one person say. "What a stupid name!"

"Now, now, everyone," Yamaguchi-sensei said, "please be quiet." He turned to Kagome. "Yes, Higurashi-san, please continue."

"Th-that's okay," Kagome said, blushing, "there's not much I'd like to say about me anyway."

"Well then, please take your seat," Yamaguchi-sensei said, smiling. "Next!"

Kagome sat down again and listened to the others talk. Most of the girls talked about how much they loved shopping and parties and dressing up, and the boys talked about how much they loved sports (and everything except studying, it seemed to Kagome).

"Next up is Kobayashi-kun," Yamaguchi-sensei called.

The boy with the ponytail stood up. "My name is Kobayashi Miroku, and I have only one aim in life—to attain Nirvana, or enlightenment."

The entire class burst into laughter, except for Kagome, the girl who sat behind Miroku and the boy behind her (since he was fast asleep).

"Who the hell would want to attain Nirvana? What are you, some kind of monk? What a joke." The people just wouldn't stop judging him.

Kagome, however, looked at him with newfound wonder. He didn't get embarrassed, he simply stood there proudly, with his head held high. "Looks actually can be deceiving," she told herself, silently scolding herself for criticizing him without getting to know him.

"Yoshida-san."

The girl who was sitting behind Miroku got up. She looked truly beautiful, and Kagome even noticed a small spark in her eyes, which she hadn't noticed in most of the other girls.

"My name is Sango, Yoshida Sango," she said quietly. "I don't really…have any interests."

"You must have some," Yamaguchi-sensei said in a persuasive tone. "I'm sure you do."

"Well…I do fencing," Sango said.

"There you are," Yamaguchi-sensei grinned. "Is that all?"

"I practice some other unusual sports," she continued. "Sword fighting, gymnastics. I like to imagine I'm preparing for the apocalypse." Her face became bright red seconds after she said that. "I mean, I just like to be prepared."

The class stared at her in shock for a moment. After that moment was over, everyone started whispering things and glancing at her fearfully. Sango sat down again, her face still bright red. She caught Kagome's eye and Kagome smiled at her reassuringly, as if to say, "Don't worry, not everyone thinks you're crazy." Sango smiled back gratefully.

"And last but not least…" Yamaguchi-sensei started, but then frowned. The entire class turned to look in the direction Yamaguchi-sensei was frowning. However, Kagome already knew what they were looking at, and she had been looking at it for quite some time already.

"Is he asleep?"

As soon as these words left Yamaguchi-sensei's lips, the boy next to Kagome got up, groaning. "Is it already time for school?"

No one could hold back their laughter this time. Even Kagome had to giggle a bit.

The boy opened his eyes groggily. For the first time, Kagome got a good look at him. His golden eyes shone in the sunlight, and his mouth was wide open, which almost made him look like a starving flesh-eating zombie. Kagome shuddered at the thought, but it also amused her. As she looked closely at him, she realized he looked like a regular human being, but there was just one thing that looked rather…odd. As she looked at the top of his head, she noticed another feature that did not normally appear in a regular human being. "Are those…dog ears?!" she murmured.

"OH!" he shouted, jumping out of his seat. "How did I get to school?"

The class started laughing again, this time even louder.

"All right, enough joking around, Takahashi-san," Yamaguchi-sensei said seriously. "Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"

"Eh?" the boy stared at Yamaguchi-sensei. "What's with the 'Takahashi-san'? My name is Inuyasha, don't go calling me Takahashi-san. It makes me sound like my dad."

"Weird name," a girl said loudly. All the girls around her giggled as well. "And what's with those ears? They're not even cute!"

"My ears? Keh! They're not supposed to be cute, you idiot," Inuyasha growled.

"Now, now, Takahashi-san," Yamaguchi-sensei said calmly, "it's your first day and I understand you're very tired, so I'm pardoning you this time. However, I dislike any form of rude behaviour in my class. Is that clear?"

"Fine, fine, whatever," Inuyasha said, waving his hand. "Anyway—you want to know about me? Let's see. My name is Takahashi Inuyasha, and I really dislike it when people call me 'Inu'. That's all."

"That's it? Nothing else?" Yamaguchi-sensei raised his eyebrows.

"No," Inuyasha said bluntly, shaking his head.

"Okay then, you may sit down. But try not to fall asleep in my class, fine?" Yamaguchi-sensei said sternly.

"Right, sir," Inuyasha said, sitting down.

Kagome stared at him incredulously. A monk and a sword-fighter were strange enough, but a boy with ears who hated being called 'Inu'? He was probably the strangest of them all.

Inuyasha noticed her looking at him and barked, "Whatcha looking at?"

"N-nothing," Kagome said, pretending to be very interested in her Maths textbook.

"You don't have to be frightened, you know," Inuyasha said softly.

Kagome turned towards him, a little surprised. This guy can be gentle?

"I'm not," she replied.

"You sounded like you were," Inuyasha argued, not making eye contact with her.

"In that case, I'm sorry," Kagome rolled her eyes. "It won't happen again."

"Don't mock me," Inuyasha snapped.

"Well, if you sound so scary, I really can't help but be scared, you know," Kagome said, frowning.

Inuyasha was taken aback. He looked into Kagome's eyes intently for a few moments. Kagome noticed that as he looked at her, his eyes suddenly became sad. She felt a pang of guilt. Had she hurt his feelings? He turned away. "Sorry," he said.

"What was that all about?" Kagome peered at his face.

"Nothing," Inuyasha muttered. "You just remind me of someone I once knew."

Kagome turned her head towards the front of the class, her face flushed. She shook her head and laughed silently.

"What a weirdo."

So, that was the first chapter! I've already written the second chapter, but I do need to add the finishing touches and revise it so that it doesn't end up being a complete failure. Anyways, I hope you liked this one, and that you stick around for all the upcoming chapters! At the moment, I don't know how many chapters there'll be, but I can promise that there'll be a very, very interesting end.

Also, I hope you don't mind the fact that I spell the words "behavior" and "favorite" as "behaviour" and "favourite", it's just that I'm more used to spelling it like that. If you have any compliments, questions, suggestions or complaints, feel free to review! Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed it!

~maddie-nee-chan