Summary: A special guest comes to a school to give a lecture.
A/N This story was requested on tumblr by cammysansstuff. You can read their message on aratinwe.
Thank you for sending it my way, it was sure fun to write!
The Musashi Treasure
"Is it her?" asked an excited voice from the back of the room. Inuyasha pretended he didn't hear. The sound was muffled by his black bandana anyway.
"Yes, it's her!" replied another voice. "And... I think it's her boyfriend?"
"He looks hot!" whispered some girl closer to the front of the class,room, loud enough to be heard by a couple of people and Kagome, who gave her a glare. The girl immediately ducked her head, blushing in embarrassment.
"Isn't she too young to have a degree?"
Inuyasha followed Kagome down the path between rows of chairs towards the front of the room, where stood a single table and a chair. Inuyasha stopped by the first row of chairs and sat on the nearest empty one, practically ignoring all the young humans looking at him in curiosity and awe.
According to Kagome he looked very handsome in his black silk shirt, his hair in a loose braid. an air of silent strength around him. He didn't really like the modern clothing that much, but he couldn't walk around in his usual attire. He was always accompanying Kagome on her trips to various schools and he wanted to avoid drawing too much attention. Still, a lot of people noticed them wherever they went - Kagome was an exceptionally bright, pretty girl, looking a bit fragile, especially with Inuyasha as her shadow, towering over her and carrying a big bag hanging from his shoulder.
Kagome took a seat by the table and smiled at the group of roughly fifty students, all looking now at her.
"My name is Higurashi Kagome," she said. "You might know me as the girl who dug out the Treasure of Musashi, along with other various objects."
The group made some sound of awe and then Kagome started to talk. He listened tot he happy, excited tone of her voice, but paid no attention to her words after all he knew well what she was telling them.
He had been to enough lectures like this.
"You know, I always liked history, but never really thought I'd follow this route. But I guess I grew up in a place where history was always present, my family shrine is five centuries old and my grandpa always told stories of old times. From those tales came a fascination with the Warring Stare era and the Heian period. One could think it was a divine gift that I found the Musashi Treasure. After that I started studying hard to know all there is about the Warring States, especially the lives of the lower classes in this area before the Tokugawa Shogunate started."
When Kagome launched into her story of findings, ancient artifacts and life of a college student that many could recognize, Inuyasha smirked a bit.
He knew the truth.
There was no divine gift in the Musashi Treasure.
.
Miroku peered into a wooden box and raised an eyebrow. There was a tea set of plain cups and a kettle, accompanied with a bunch of other things. Some were brand new, some worn from use.
"So... Where did this stuff come from?" he asked the future-born miko, who was busy wrapping everything neatly.
"Well, Inuyasha used the last few days to hunt and exchange meat and skins for all that stuff," she explained evenly. She didn't look her gaze from her job. The whole group sans Inuyasha, Shippou and Kirara were sitting in Kaede's hut. The two little youkai were playing outside while the hanyou was again on a hunt.
"We know. But why? And why is he so... well-behaved lately? Ever since he came back from your time he's working hard," Sango pointed out. "And he never raised his voice or complained that we're not looking for the jewel..."
"Aye," Kaede agreed from her spot near the pot she was stirring. "It's unlike Inuyasha to be so quiet and productive without a reason."
"Pray, tell, Kagome." Miroku smiled widely and winked. "Did you tame our dog-eared friend in a way only a maiden of great beauty and strong will could?"
Sango glared, but since he didn't say anything openly perverted she decided not to him him this time. Besides, the look on Kagome's face was worth it. The young miko shook her head and put her last cup in the box.
"Okay, I guess I better tell you," she said. "Inuyasha used one of his youki attacks in our kitchen."
"WHAT?!"
"Oh, let me get my hands on him! How could he destroy your home!" Sango hissed.
"I guess he wanted to protect it. You know, when he was waiting for me, no one else was in the house. And a thief came through the kitchen window. I guess Inuyasha took him for a youkai, since he wore a mask and stuff.." Kagome hastily explained.
"Oh. So he overreacted, but at least had a reason," Kaede gave a small nod. "I understand now, your family is homeless and he's to blame..."
"Oh..." Kagome shook her head again. "We're not homeless, but the kitchen needs a major rebuild. And since my family doesn't sleep on money... Inuyasha will not see ramen for a long while."
"I kinda feel sorry for our hot-headed friend," Miroku nodded wisely. "I mean he wanted to do good."
Kagome shrugged. "Yeah. But that doesn't change the fact that our kitchen is in shambles."
"But shouldn't he be angry, not helpful? Usually when you put a ban on the ramen, he gets... You know..." Sango waved her hand towards the roof. One would think it was but a meaningless gesture, but for the group it was a meaningful one - after all Kaede's roof was where Inuyasha usually sulked. Kagome giggled.
"He was pretty angry, but then he came up with the idea of paying for the repairs," she explained. "But then we realized there was no work that could give him enough money fast in my time, since he has no papers... So he wanted to sell meat and hides, but that wasn't an option too..."
"But he does that? I mean he does all the trade in this time," Miroku pointed to the box. The young miko nodded.
"Yeah, but, you see...Grandpa and Souta suggested we tried to bury some stuff in this era and unearth it in mine."
"What would this accomplish?" Sango asked. "I'm sure you have enough bowls and cups in your time, judging from what you told us about it..."
"Well..." Kagome shrugged. "We do. But, you see, ancient things are valuable, because they're rare. So we want to sell them, like grandpa does with the stuff he finds in the shrine storage shed and doesn't need."
"Alright, but still, why are you going through all that trouble? Wouldn't it be easier to just take that stuff through the well?" Miroku, the one always looking for easy solutions, frowned and put a finger to his chin. "Is it possible that the well refuses to transport them? I mean it always transports things you bring from your time..."
"Oh, I'm sure it could take stuff from here to my time," Kagome nodded. "But, you see, in my time, we have ways to actually discover the age of objects. So if we carried things through the well they would think that the things are just traditionally made replicas, not a real thing. When we dig the box it will be actually old enough to be very valuable."
"I see. The wonders of your time are always amazing me," the monk nodded. Kagome couldn't help but smile, Miroku was a pretty laid back person and didn't look much like a scholar who loved to learn new things, but he actually was the one who was listening to her stories about her time the most. Sango was also often eager to hear about wonders of her time, but while Miroku's filed of interest was science based, Sango was more interested in military stuff and fighting schools. Sadly, Kagome knew very little about those.
"So, in a way, Inuyasha is still paying for the destruction he caused," Kaede summarized. "I am glad that the boy grew mature enough to accept the consequences of his actions."
"I'm pretty sure he's missing the ramen," Sango giggled. Kagome couldn't help, but laugh along with the rest and return to her work.
.
"So, it was a hot day during the summer break, when Inuyasha and I," Kagome pointed to Inuyasha, who upon hearing his name looked up at her. "We decided to make our own private pool in the Higurashi shrine forest."
'Yeah, right, totally," Inuyasha though, but merely smirked.
"And, since I'm so fragile and weak, my strong, capable boyfriend agreed to dig the hole for the pool in the place I picked," Kagome grinned and a few people in the classroom chuckled when Inuyasha scowled at her.
He remembered the place where he dug - twice - the hole. It was a spot in the forest that was all that was left of his forest. The most annoying part had been that while in the past the hole had been rather narrow, just to fit the box, in the future he had dug a real pool, so it wouldn't be suspicious.
Good thing that after all the ruckus with the journalists, scholars and onlookers, they had really made a pool there, where he was able to bathe without a pesky kitsune or a lecherous monk poking him and asking stupid questions.
"So, who found the Musashi Treasure then?" asked one of the boys, looking between the famous woman and her silent, exotic looking companion. Inuyasha unfolded his arms from where they rested against his chest and pointed at Kagome.
"The wench. She just didn't agree with me on how deep the pool should be, so when I went to get the foil to put in the hole, she went in and tried to make it deeper. When I came back she was sitting there, trying to pull that chest out of the dirt. She even managed to break a perfectly good spade."
"Hey!" Kagome exclaimed, making the classroom erupt in giggled again. "It wasn't my fault you strained it!"
"Feh, whatever," he crossed his arms and turned his head. Now the whole room was laughing and it took a few minutes for the students to settle down. He guessed that the easy teasing they shared was seen as 'cute' by the students and would help them think fondly of the miko sitting in front of them. Kagome didn't need their approval, but she always seemed to do this kind of things, making people laugh and relax, making them grow fond of her... Lower their guard and learn to trust her... Love her and desire to protect her...
Or maybe it was just him.
"Okay, be quiet," Kagome waved her hands in front of her. "I will show you some of the stuff that I found and that remains in the Higurashi shrine and then you can ask about everything, okay?"
When the students were again quiet Kagome added a few sentences of encouragement to study hard, follow their hearts and do things to improve themselves. Just a basic, boring shit Inuyasha ignored. When she gave him a sign he stood up and carried his bag to the table. Kagome, followed by eyes of everyone in the room, opened the bag.
"As you may know, the Musashi Treasure was my biggest finding and most of it was sold, but we kept some of the artifacts, since my family already has a pretty big collection of priceless old things," she said as she took out of the bag a few wrapped objects.
Inuyasha watched her unwrap and show every one of them - a wooden bowl carved in Kaede's village and painted to resemble a turtle. A set of decorative chopsticks made from silver - they had little crescent moons and a dog head on the end - a gift from his brother for curing Rin from a flu. A necklace of little beads painted orange and green, made by Shippou. A few paintings made by Miroku and depicting Kaede's village. A pair of earrings that contained purifying salt in little glass bottles, a gift from Sango. For Kagome this was the real Musashi Treasure, even if it wasn't buried in the box with the rest of the items.
Inuyasha glanced to the miko, who was looking at the items with a small smile, then he reached into the bag and pulled out of it the last thing.
"And this is the prize I got for wasting so much time on digging the pool," he said and unsheathed the Tessaiga, not letting his youki transform the blade. It looked battered and old, but it was the whole point of it. The dormant form of the katana looked used and aged without spending even a day buried underground.
Besides, as long as the humans thought it was a part of the collection they were showing during the lectures Inuyasha could carry it around and not get in trouble.
He smirked smugly and sheathed the sword, listening to awed students. While Kagome sat back down he waited by the table for a while and then started to wrap the stuff back and put it away.
"Alright, questions." Kagome clasped and rubbed her hands.
"Is it true that on your last trip you found a real dragon skeleton?" asked one of the students.
"Oh, it turned out to be a few bones only, and they belonged to a dinosaur," Kagome shook her head. 'Yeah, right, it was a dragon and I blasted it to pieces,' Inuyasha thought.
More questions followed and Kagome responded to each and every one of them, telling stories that sounded more possible to the humans, but which were just a bunch of lies to the hanyou.
The first 'finding' had happened seven years ago, when they were still fighting Naraku. It had helped to not only patch the hole in Higurashi kitchen, but also added a hefty sum to their bank account. Since that time Kagome's family could forget what worrying about financial things was. They were rich, and witch every new finding they were getting richer. And Kagome, who had followed the history studies in high school and in college, was now one of the youngest, but very well-versed in Sengoku Jidai period, archaeologists. She was leaving Tokyo to follow various rumors and written sources (some written by Miroku) to look for artifacts from the past. During winter she was traveling the modern time Japan, giving lectures and encouraging others to study.
But during the summer part of the year she was on the other side of the well, looking for shards of the Shikon no Tama, that had been split into little pieces during their final battle with Naraku. The first few findings were just them burying some junk where they knew no one would dig the out, but she also had on her list a few things that were genuine findings.
But no matter where - and when - she went, one thing remained the same. A certain silver-haired man was at her side. And when she noticed a spark in his eye when he glanced her way from his task, she knew he was going to be there forever.
A/N: Here you go, I hope it is passable and isn't too far from what you hoped for! Totally tell me what you think about it!