Here is chapter four of Renegade! This is moving along swiftly I think…then again I did post three chapters within a week lol, anywho. I'll try and update at least once to maybe twice a week. Thank you to all of you who reviewed the past chapters! I really appreciate it and hope to see even more!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the InuYasha franchise.


~Chapter 4~

Inuyasha left his crummy apartment; it was a Saturday afternoon, and Kagome had asked him to come to her house to work on part of their project. As much as he didn't want to go, he knew he had to. He groaned and began walking down the street. Most of his bruises had cleared up in the week's time except for a small few stubborn ones, which were still slowly receding.

As he walked further into town, he looked around, paying attention to the cars that passed by and the people that passed him on the street. The further he walked, the more he stood out like a sore thumb. His large hoodie versus their name-brand jackets and long sleeved shirts. His worn out jeans compared to their clean-pressed ones.

Inuyasha sighed and decided to wait at the bus stop to avoid further stares. He glanced down at the paper he had written her address on, clicking his tongue once in irritancy.

'Keh…Princess probably lives in a mansion,' he assumed to himself. He didn't have to wait long for the next bus to arrive and he got on, tossing a few coins in the slot and took a seat.

On the way, he watched as an elderly couple got onto the bus. It was crowded, and there was only one seat left available: the one next to him. Inuyasha noticed that no one bothered to relinquish their seats for the seniors and rolled his eyes. 'It appears chivalry is dead after all,' he thought in disdain.

He stood up and stepped aside, gesturing to the now two free seats. The couple smiled at him and thanked him for his generosity. Inuyasha only shrugged in response and stood the rest of the way—not that he minded. It was just a seat, and he didn't need it. He glanced around to the few small stares he received and almost wanted to laugh, but kept it to himself.

Right before the bus was going to drop him off, the teen adjusted his jacket, figuring he might as well look as best as he could for his project partner's home. Once the bus stopped and he got off, he took a deep breath. He knew he probably had to be on his best behavior in case her family of "royalty" was there to add further criticism.

Looking at the street sign, he knew he was in the right place, and he began walking in the direction she had told him her house was in.

His eyes glanced around at the neighboring houses, seeing large white, light yellow, baby blue, and beige homes with balconies peeking out from more than one room. Grass green enough for him to think it was fake. Cars so perfect they might as well have been right off the showroom floor. He began to wonder which one was hers and what it looked like…

As he approached the house, he noticed the long driveway leading up to the large, white two-story home. Its grass was greener than those on TV, just as her neighbors' had been, and an expensive-looking car rested in the driveway to boot, but at least she only had one.

He grumbled to himself unintelligibly and walked towards the house, silently wondering what her parents could possibly do for a living. He noticed the perfectly trimmed hedges and the beautiful flowers of seemingly every sort that lined a portion of the driveway and even the bottom edges of her home. Hell, even the paint on the house was perfect, as if it had just dropped out of the sky that way. He wondered, much to his chagrin, what the inside would look like.

He rang the doorbell once, listening to the chime. It was a long, smooth ring that had a soft melody to accompany it. Even that sounded regal.

His eyes slightly widened as Kagome answered the door; she had actually managed to look "normal" for once. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and she had on sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt.

She gestured for him to come in, and he nodded once in greeting. "Well, I'm glad you managed to make it…" she said softly with a smile, trying her best to be friendly.

Inuyasha ignored her comment, kicking his old sneakers off and looking around her house, the interior looked almost just as he had expected. Her living room was sparkling clean; the carpets and couches as white as they could have possibly been. There were small, burgundy throw pillows on each of the two sofas. The coffee table, which held a blank poster board, pens, markers, and paper, was some sort of dark wood that rested on top of a large, burgundy rug. He noticed how even the curtains in the window were silk and matched the living room's design.

Inuyasha's eyes moved to the giant plasma screen television that was placed directly in front one of the couches. He rolled his eyes and shifted his gaze to the various pictures and paintings that adorned the walls and the few plants that were in the corners of the room, seeing pictures of Kagome from her childhood as well as a few of whom he assumed to be her mother.

He walked in further with a silent Kagome behind him. From her living room, he could see clearly into her kitchen, even that was sparkling white with burgundy accents.

"Is the whole house white and burgundy?" he asked dryly.

Kagome shook her head, though he wasn't looking at her. "Just downstairs and my mom's room… Burgundy is her favorite color… Well, any dark reds and purples are, really," she replied. 'Maybe this will make conversation,' she thought to herself.

She was wrong.

He hummed, seemingly unimpressed, though in truth, he had never seen anything in comparison to her hours or her neighbors' other than in a few houses he had assisted in breaking in to. Inuyasha walked over to her couch and looked at her as if asking if he could sit down.

She nodded quickly and sat down beside him. "So, what did you want to work on first? The quotes we found most interesting in the first scene? The drawing we have to make of what we think this Macbeth guy looks like? Or what?" Kagome asked, hoping he would be friendlier to her than he had been the past week. She had an extreme amount of doubt that would be the case, considering how he walked into her house with a judging eye.

"Doesn't matter. Whatever gets us done the quickest…" he muttered, beginning to feel uneasy in her quiet home.

She sighed, figuring that her hopes that they'd get along were futile. 'He probably just wants to leave,' she quietly figured to herself.

She picked up a pencil. "Maybe we should start with the drawing then… I'm not that much of an artist, though; he'll turn out looking like a stick figure," she tried to joke. After receiving no reaction from him, the teen girl cleared her throat. "So, did you want to draw while I wrote down some quotes?" she asked quietly, wishing that the tension in the air would ease up soon before she went absolutely crazy.

Inuyasha only grabbed the pencil from her hand and switched places with the "princess".

Kagome bit her lower lip and pulled out a pen from her sweatpants' pockets to begin jotting down the quotes. They stayed in silence for nearly half an hour when Kagome stopped writing. "Uhm, do you want anything to drink or to eat, Inuyasha?"

He only shook his head and kept drawing. She peeked over at his sketch and quietly gasped, "Wow…that's really good. I didn't know you were an artist." Kagome admired the way he drew the character Macbeth; it was almost as if he was drawing a portrait of someone in the room. The eyes looked realistic, a slight shimmer in them—the hair looked as if it flowed naturally, even taking care to add light patches which she took to be gray patches. He was even so precise as to add small details like crow's feet and worry lines.

"Surprised?" he said in a mocking tone, not bothering to look at her as he kept drawing.

"Why do you do that?" she inquired, finally having enough of his attitude.

"Do what? Treat you the same way you and all your preppy friends treat me?" he muttered, shading in more detail to Macbeth's eyes.

"I've never treated you badly," she defended, crossing her arms in irritation. "I've done nothing but try and make friends with you and—"

"And use a pity tone when speaking to me or a sympathetic one. I don't need pity or sympathy out of you, okay? So instead of acting all high and mighty, Kagome, get off your high horse and speak to me how you would want to be spoken to," he sternly said, still not bothering to look at the young woman next to him.

She was caught off-guard. There was something else he was right about: she did change her demeanor when talking to him, almost as if she pitied him. She began to wonder if somewhere deep down, she did pity him. "Okay, fair enough… Wait, hey, you used my name," she pointed out, feeling a bit happy.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Sorry, princess; I didn't mean to insult your highness," he grumbled bitterly.

Kagome sighed, feeling the happiness deflate, and stood up heading into her kitchen. She looked around for something that she thought he might enjoy, but settled with orange juice. She brought the two glasses back to the living room and set one down next to him.

He eyed the glass and narrowed his eyes a bit. "Thanks, I guess." He continued to draw, adding in the details, more or less to just keep himself busy. Inuyasha set down the pencil once he was done and noticed Kagome had just finished her portion as well.

He hesitantly picked up the glass and took a sip of the juice. He then noticed her smile at him, and he furrowed his eyebrows, "What? Is it poisoned or something?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Kagome's smile faded away. "No, it was a smile of relief that we're getting along, I guess… Not so much now. Forget it. Anyway, we're done with this part. And it only took about an hour and ten minutes according to the clock," she said optimistically as she glanced at her cell phone.

After sitting in silence for a few short minutes as Inuyasha looked over the quotes she wrote down, she finally asked, "You know, if you're so smart, why do you act the way you do in school? It's like you don't care."

Inuyasha's eyes moved to her face. "What does it matter to you, princess?" he wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"I was just curious… I mean, there has to be a reason. You're obviously smart, but you don't show it," she quietly said, pretty sure she was only going to piss him off further.

"Unlike you, I don't like to go around bragging about crap I'm supposedly good at. If I happen to be smart at something, then so be it. But I refuse to spread it around…" he muttered, trailing off as he began thinking about the ridicule he'd get from his fellow gang members if they were to find out he actual managed decent grades in school and didn't just go because he technically had to.

Inuyasha stood up and stretched. "If you're done with your questions, I'm going to go. I have somewhere to be, anyway."

Kagome shrugged a bit and grabbed the glass he left on the table. "I'll see you Monday. I think we're going to have to present the poster."

"Wonderful," he murmured, slipping his shoes back on and leaving out the front door without so much as another word.

xxxxx

Once he was back on his side of town, he saw his neighborhood in a different way.

The apartments looked like shit on the outside to him—nothing compared to the fancy, regal, and debonair look to the houses that he had seen. The air on his side of town even seemed more polluted.

How could the city look so different on different ends?

Inuyasha walked into Naraku's apartment and saw the older male leaned over his small coffee table, and as he came up, he saw Naraku wipe his nose once and inhale deeply. Inuyasha looked away, not caring to see more, his gaze turning to the other people in the apartment. It was hardly six, and everyone was already beginning to get drunk and high.

He walked over to Naraku and stood in front of him. "Do you have any jobs for me?" he asked, hoping that the answer was no.

The gang leader looked up at Inuyasha and shook his head. "You won't be doing anything for a little while longer; go enjoy yourself. There's plenty of whores here to go around," he said dismissively, waving Inuyasha off.

The teen shook his head. "No, thanks…I'm fine." He looked at the table and saw what was obviously cocaine. 'Great…he's getting high,' the teen thought, though he wasn't surprised.

"You're such a little bitch, Inuyasha; you know that? I don't know who I raised. You don't do drugs, you hardly ever drink, you don't even take the opportunities I give you to get laid. What the fuck is wrong with you?" the elder asked.

Inuyasha inwardly flinched at the insults. "I drink. And I have done drugs…I'd just rather not. I'd rather just sell that stuff and make a quick buck…" he said, trying to defend himself. He always lost his voice when speaking to the older male, and he tried to not let his attitude come out. If there was one person he feared, it was Naraku.

The older male stood up and moved in close to Inuyasha. "Are you getting smart with me? You better not be," he said through gritted teeth.

"No, Naraku, I'm not, I just— You took it the wrong way. You're high; just calm down," he pleaded, immediately regretting his choice of words. He braced himself for what he knew was coming.

Soon enough, he felt a hard blow to his cheek as Naraku punched him. He felt the pang shoot along his jaw, down his throat, and throughout his body, ricocheting back into his skull. The hit nearly knocked him down, but he steadied himself, unable to concentrate for a moment, feeling as though his brain was scrambled.

"You better be careful, Inuyasha. Just because I've raised your sorry ass doesn't mean you aren't subject to the same treatment as the rest of these pathetic fucks if you decide to lose your tongue with me, got it?" he yelled, a vein bulging in his neck from his rising temper.

Inuyasha recoiled from the shout and held his throbbing face, nodding. "Sorry, Naraku… It won't happen again. I didn't mean to say it like that."

"You shouldn't have said anything at all!" he snapped, fire burning alive in his eyes.

Inuyasha stayed quiet, trying to detach his mind from what was happening. He knew that if he were to walk away, it'd make things worse, and if he were to say anything back, it'd make things worse. All he could do was attempt to separate himself from the drama in front of him.

It was something he had learned to do early on in his childhood. If something got too bothersome, he would detach from it for fear his emotions would overwhelm him.

In the midst of his ranting and yelling, Naraku was interrupted, becoming distracted by one of his prostitutes that had begun tugging on his shirt before leading him back to a bedroom.

Inuyasha watched as the two walked away and looked around at the room of people who were staring at him. He did his best to shrug off their looks as well as he could and grabbed a packet of cigarettes off the table before leaving. The teen didn't want to face any more ridicule than he had already been subject to.

Back at his own apartment, Inuyasha laid back on his bed, his forearm draped lightly on his forehead. He sighed heavily, hoping to distance himself. If only he could escape…

He closed his eyes, tired, embarrassed, and still in pain from the assault to his cheek. His mind slowly wandered back to how he had ended up in the situation that he was in to begin with.


There is chapter 4...I'm sorry if it was boring DX I hope that this story still captures people's interests. Leave a review to let me know what you think!

The next chapter might not be up until the weekend or Monday. Keep an eye out!