AN: Fun-fact: I was listening to "It Girl" while I wrote this…
Onigumo: 32 yrs.
Kushina, Minato: 40, 41
Ayame: 13 yrs.
Hakudoshi, Kanna: 9 yrs.
Kaguya and Naomi Higurashi: 32, 28 yrs. [Kagome's parents]
Key:
Bold, Italics-Flashback of a Dream
Chapter 4: Meet Kagome
It was the middle of the night, and Naruto was still at his apartment, sleeping. He never was exactly in a peaceful state of mind, awake or asleep, still scarred from the treatments that he always went through. The evil words, insults and beatings dealt out by the civilians... That was why he couldn't sleep at night, and only pretend he was okay during the day.
Tonight was no different, however. He was surprised to find that his dreams were taking a tour that they never ventured before. They were getting a little more vivid and clearer. So much clearer that it almost frightened him to even endure the whole nightmare—but, he's not one to back down. No matter how many beatings he'd taken for no reason, he refuses to cry, and let them get the best of him. And he was shocked that he didn't remember that unspoken rule in his dream.
But, it was only natural, right? He didn't really have control over himself in his subconscious unless he remembers that he has control. And he didn't even realize that he had control until after he woke up.
He stared straight ahead of him with his eyes wide open, suppressing his surprised breaths, while remembering the only part of his dream that caught his attention.
She was the only who didn't care, it seemed. Why-why didn't she care? If there was a specific reason, then he was missing it; could anyone blame him? It was all the same; this happened whenever he was a tot, too. But,he couldn't help his reaction to the girl in front of him, of course. It was an automaticreaction. No matter how much familiarity and warmth he felt around her, he didwhat came naturally to him.
"What do you want?" he whimpered, backing away, into the far end of the corner.
His conscious was screaming at him, though. Why was he acting like this? He'd stopped long ago… but; for some reason he didn't want this girl to get close enough to hurt him… How many civilian kids got close enough to him just to talk to him? None.
They weren't allowed to come near him with their parents supervising their every move; observing his every move to make sure he didn't do anything aghast or anything that would provoke unbarred hatred, which was hard enough, because the adults already hated him.
But, what he went over in his head played like a mantra. No one ever just came to him to talk, not even the civilian kids his age; they usually avoided him. So what does she want?
It was a shame that he couldn't remember what the girl looked like, though. All he could remember was her shockingly beautiful blue-black hair and creamy pale skin that resembled a fragile doll's. She'd have put Sakura, whom he had once thought was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, to shame. Sakura wouldn't hold a candle to the girl.
But, now, Naruto had a different mindset than trying to figure out what his dream meant, and trying to figure out who the girl was, those didn't matter right now. What mattered was, if that girl was real; then there is no doubt that there is someone out there to fight for. Not just to be acknowledged as the Hokage; or as himself… but, someone who he'd fight for, and hold dear to him.
And today, he's going to set out to find her—the beautiful young girl.
"Believe it!" he grinned, watching the sun rise slowly. Right on time, he thought.
Kagome had awoken this morning to a different beat than her usual mood. Usually her mornings were bright and cheerful. Not to mention, she was usually still chipper and in a great mood to learn some new techniques from her sensei. But today, that wasn't exactly the case.
Today Kagome was feeling very sore from the brutal lesson that she'd learned yesterday. She could feel new muscles forming, and the muscles that she had had been stretched and used; she could feel them bulking up. It made no sense that she was so sore, and she hadn't even began to use Chakra swords yet; she did hear that they were the worse training methods ever used.
She knew that it was only a matter of time before Sesshoumaru stepped up the training, and she'd be using Chakra swords and real swords other than the wooden ones, but she hoped that it could wait, because she wasn't exactly in the best shape now days.
Right now Kagome was in the bathroom, trying to tame her hair with a straightener that was powered solely on chakra, while trying to figure out which store she was going to have to visit to buy new attire. Sesshoumaru had told her that she has a day off to get appropriate clothing, and so that he could run some errands. She was just happy that she could get out of training for at least a day… despite the fact that she was going to be spending the day with the younger Taisho sibling instead.
Once she was finished taming her blue-black tresses, she carefully pulled her hair back into a high ponytail before getting dressed 'appropriately'. She knew InuYasha hated to be kept waiting, and he usually fussed her out every time she took forever. Not that mattered; she could care less how mad he gets.
Whenever she was done, she left her room and went to the kitchen where she knew InuYasha and Sesshoumaru was, considering it is Sesshoumaru's house that they're living in. The two kids were just decorations.
"Oi, Kagome-chan," InuYasha grumbled from his bowl of ramen. "It's about time you came out. I bet you could have taken a year if you wanted to."
Kagome rolled her eyes, and sat down at the table before drinking a glass of tea that was set out for her. She didn't even want to reply to him, knowing that she and InuYasha would just get into a pointless argument that always seemed to ensue. Besides, if she'd argue with him, it'd just be a moot point anyways. He always gets it in his head that he wins.
"I want you two at home no later than noon; Kagome, you have to run errands for the Hokage later."
Kagome snapped her gaze up from her drink and eyed Sesshoumaru with both of her eyebrows raised, since she couldn't raise just one. "Why? Isn't that the ninja's jobs?"
InuYasha was just as curious. He's been here, every now and then to visit some relatives with his father; and he knew the duties of most ninjas; the genin mainly, considering their extended family was consisted of ninjas. But of all the time he'd been here he wasn't ever sent out on errands for old man Hokage.
So, either Kagome was meeting someone important; like usual, with her being the hime of the Samurai Nation and all; or she was probably going to be kissing up to some of the council elders to get in on good favors, maybe. But, it wasn't like it was a bad thing; their nation could use some boosters, if he actually thought about it.
"If you have a question having to do with his request, ask the Hokage later," Sesshoumaru sighed. "I know not of why he has called you."
"Maybe because she's going to be passed off to another clan's heir again," though his voice was too low for a human to hear, Sesshoumaru heard InuYasha just fine. And he knew exactly what InuYasha meant.
InuYasha was upset one day years ago whenever he overheard his father and Kaguya talking about how another clan had requested that Kagome marries one of their high ranked kids. InuYasha didn't even know that it had happened a first time; but he was upset after he heard, and he wouldn't let Kagome leave his side for weeks.
Sesshoumaru knew why he didn't let her go, too; simply being that InuYasha had looked at Kagome as a possession; someone only he could love and give attention to as her significant other. But Sesshoumaru also knew that Kagome didn't pay him any attention whenever InuYasha started to act this way. Hence the reason that InuYasha kept his jealousy to himself, sort of. Sesshoumaru still heard him.
"Well, I guess we won't find out until later, ne?" she responded, having not heard InuYasha's remark. She finished up her tea and patiently waited for InuYasha to finish his dish, while Sesshoumaru looked thoughtfully out the window that was hanging over the sink, and beside the fridge.
It took him a moment, but he finally remembered what he was going to say, "Kagome, after your errands I have someone I want you to meet."
"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama," Kagome saluted.
Sesshoumaru glared at her in response to the mock-honorific. She's lucky that he didn't make her train today…
It was hours later, and InuYasha and Kagome had been to a lot of stores; much to InuYasha's annoyance. And even more annoying, it felt like Kagome had bought up every store that they visited, since he was the one carrying the bags.
But that was only because Kagome kept complaining that if she carried them, she'd come home crippled after just going shopping. So, he relented and just carried her bags for her instead of listening to her whine.
It was practically a miracle for InuYasha that Kagome was finally done shopping since she had found some uniform that caught her interest and was appropriate enough for being a samurai girl… and sucking up to grownups…
Heck, they just got done dropping her bags off at the house, and now they were on their way to the Hokage tower to hear what it is that Kagome had to do. Except this time, Sesshoumaru said that InuYasha would probably only have to show her where to go after the Hokage had told them what Kagome had to do. Which, InuYasha didn't mind; he couldn't think straight with Kagome hanging around him all day long.
The classroom in the Ninja Academy was up in excited titters and gossip again like it was yesterday, Naruto didn't even need to guess why. He heard Iruka-sensei speaking to Mizuki-sensei whenever he first walked into the classroom. He couldn't believe what he had heard at first. It seemed like something someone would make up just for attention or something; but he guessed that since Iruka and Mizuki were talking about it, then it must have been true.
The Daimyo's Daughter was coming to meet his class. Why? Naruto didn't hear that part, but part of him was grinning mischievously on the inside. Maybe his class was going to get an assignment to protect her or something cool like that-he always wondered what it was like to be on a real ninja mission.
Or, he wondered if she was going to be learning in this class with the rest of them. That would have been cool, too. He probably wouldn't talk to her then though, 'cause she's probably like the bastard-child that was Sasuke. But, if she wasn't going to stay here he might make an exception for her. She'd get to meet the future Hokage.
"Alright class, quiet down." Iruka spoke loudly enough for the class to hear, but nobody heeded his order as they continued to converse with their peers. "I said QUIET DOWN!" he yelled, he had his 'Big-head' jutsu working, the jutsu that he always uses in situations like these, and he'd effectively got the class to be quiet.
Mizuki looked around the class once, settling a hard gaze on Naruto, [not that Naruto noticed] before telling Iruka that he had to leave, and he did as he said he would.
Now that the class was quiet, Iruka turned back to them with a small, nervous smile on his face.
"Okay everyone, I'm just going to give you all a heads up," he began, "today we're having a visitor, as ordered by the Hokage. I want you all to be on your best behavior, because you'll be seeing a lot of her around the school. You guys have probably heard of her… Kagome Higurashi…" he looked around the class with a knowing look.
Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno looked abashed as they stared down at their desks. It was partly their fault for everyone hearing that she was going to be coming to their class. How they knew that, no one knows.
"Well, as I was saying; if any of you so much as ruin anything; I'll punish you personally, got it?" He mainly stared at Naruto as he said this, and Naruto knew he was the object of attention just from that warning alone.
"Why is everyone looking at me for?" he grumbled with a small blush on his cheeks.
"Because, baka, you always screw everything up," Sakura answered. "And if you screw things up this time, Kagome-san might not want to come back here at all." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned back to what she was doing before: gazing at the Uchiha.
Everyone else just laughed or glared at Naruto after she finished her reasoning, and Ino just glared at Sakura for staring at her Sasuke-kun.
Naruto just rolled his eyes, and turned back to the front after the laughing fest of was done.
"She should be here in a few minutes…" Iruka muttered.
Kagome had just arrived to the Academy; after the Hokage had tried to explain to her that she was going to have to visit there from time to time, for some reason that he left as 'To learn some basic skills every other day,'. And whenever she asked why, he replied 'You want to be able to protect everyone, don't you?' She thought that he played a dirty one, by saying that. She didn't want to meet anyone right now, but;
What she wanted to know was why couldn't Sesshoumaru teach her? He knows jutsus and the history of just about every country there is; so why is she going to be learning from a ninja academy. . . Every. Other. Day.
Kagome sighed as she pulled open the door to the room that she had to enter. The room that she felt was marking her fate-her destiny even. But that moment died the second it came.
It was nothing. It was just a classroom filled with students that were staring at her like nobody's business, and the teacher was smiling at her for some reason that she didn't get. So, of course, she blushed from gaining so much attention.
Well, it wasn't hard to gain much attention; it looked like the class was just finishing up a discussion, so it really wasn't difficult to get everyone's eyes on her. She's just attractive that way, right? She internally rolled her eyes. That was a thought that was uncalled for.
"Hello…. Are you Iruka-sensei?" Kagome asked a question that she felt that she already knew.
It was kind of obvious; this was the only class that was still in session for some reason, and every other class; well, there really was none. This seemed to be the only homeroom, and every other class was just that, a class that the beginner ninjas needed to take to become genin.
So was there really a point to asking an obvious question like that? Yes. She didn't want to seem rude. Call her Goody-two shoes; but she won't ever let anyone pin her as rude… It's unladylike, like Sesshoumaru had told her once.
"Hai," the sensei smiled at her.
"Great!" Kagome grinned. "It looks like I'm in the right room…"
The ninja students took the moment to stare and observe her, she didn't look like they thought she would. She was actually pretty civilian-looking; except with much more battle-like clothing.
She wore black leather shorts that came to her mid-thighs and a white-silk tank top under a sea-green off-the shoulder top that was laced with black laces in the front and small kanji on her shoulder that translated to "Samurai of the Tenth Nation- - Higurashi House" and her shoes didn't look like their ninja sandals—they were black leather combat boots—ones that female samurai wore.
Only a few of the boys blushed while staring at the girl, but others just blinked at her owlishly. Even Sasuke just glared at her… for whatever reason he deemed perfect enough to send some innocent girl his hate.
The girls; they had a reaction that Kagome kind of wasn't expecting; while they were glaring jealously at her, much to her disappointment, [she thought for sure that they would!] they were practically glaring at her save for three girls… a blonde, a rosette, and a violet haired girl.
The blonde and pinkette looked as if they were trying to smile at her; trying a bit too hard, actually. Who knows what would happen to their faces if they just decided to stop?
The violet haired girl seemed to bashfully smile at the girl called Kagome and blush slightly; like it was a permanent stain to her cheeks. But, it didn't matter.
These three girls were the only pretty ones that Kagome could tell of; the rest; they were just glaring at her openly, and Kagome didn't really care to ask why. But, other than the few girls that appeared to hate her; Kagome only counted on actually making nice with the three girls that weren't so open about their dislike for her; all she needed was three friends anyways.
"Class, make Kagome-chan feel welcome, alright?" Iruka ordered while staring at the class with a huge smile on his face; he just hopes his class doesn't scare the girl away…
"Hello Kagome-chan!" most of the class greeted.
Kagome nodded and let her head fall before looking around the class for someone who she could hang around, and she found a lucky candidate: the girl with the violet hair and pearly eyes. She'd do.
"Alright Kagome, I want you to take a seat next to…" he looked around the class for a moment before deciding where she was to sit. "Sakura Haruno."
He pointed to the pinkette that was sitting in front a blonde haired boy with bright blue eyes, and sitting beside one of the girls that had already decided to hate Kagome. Kagome was just glad it wasn't directly by the prejudiced girl. She'll deal with the fake pinkette, but the other girl-let's just say she might end up getting detention for, no doubt in her mind about it.
"Well, what I've forgotten to mention before is that Kagome-chan here will only be here on certain days…" Iruka spoke again, dragging the attention off of the small girl sitting in front, and effectively silencing some of the gossipers that were getting ready to whisper. "So, you guys actually won't see her every day."
And after that Kagome's attention was drawn to the lesson that the class was learning that day; something about the Yondaime sacrificing his life for his village to live in a nasty fight against the nine-tailed-fox. This could prove interesting, on her part.
But throughout the whole class period, Kagome didn't seem to notice the bright blue gaze that was burning a hole into her back just from his curiosity alone.
I've seen her before, he thought with a slight shock. He wasn't sure where, but he was sure he's seen her…
AN: Sorry that they aren't moving faster, I'm seriously not the kind of person to rush things that important, like relationships;
But yea, don't worry it will happen soon! ^_^
Review… or else! Muahahah!
Please?
I was kind of having a Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde moment there...
Anyways… I hope you enjoyed it!
