Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters.
Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder, making sure that annoying human girl wasn't following him. He had managed to slip away while the girl was distracted by her 'mother's' fight. Why the girl had a wolf for a mother, he didn't know, nor was he that interested. That stupid human that nearly killed him with her dagger-throwing, and then slapped him across the face.
Still, it was different to actually talk to someone, even if it was some wild child who seemed to have a rather bizarre lifestyle. He might even talk to her again, but only if he felt like it, which he doubted. He didn't need anyone. Even though only a young hanyou, who was often the target of bullying for full youkai's, he could take care of himself. "Heh," He snorted to himself. "I'm gonna become a hell of a lot stronger that any youkai around!"
"You wantss to become ssstronger?" A soft voice hissed to him. Inuyasha froze, looking slowly around while at the same time yelling at himself for not noticing the soft serpentine scent. "Sssstronger, yesss?"
"What does it matter to you?" Inuyasha snapped to the creature. A long green snake slithered into view. "Who the hell are you?"
"My name isss not of impotancssse." The snake's red, beady eyes flashed.
"Then I'll kill you since you aren't of importance either." Inuyasha glared, cracking his fingers threateningly. Even though he was young, even he could tell that this was a lesser youkai. "I'll slice you to ribbons!"
"Ssstronger, yesss? I know of a waysss." The green serpent swayed back and forth, not looking very afraid of Inuyasha.
"What is it?" Inuyasha asked despite himself.
"I'll tell you, yesss, but only if you helpss me."
"Why don't you just tell me now, before I get angry?" Inuyasha growled, but winced as he heard a slight wining edge in his voice.
"Only if you helpsss me."
"I'm not going to help some stupid snake. I can become stronger on my own." Inuyasha laughed.
"Sssstupid hanyou." The snake hissed. A low growl escaped Inuyasha and in one swipe he held the youkai right below its neck.
"I'm not some stupid hanyou you bastard." He growled, tightening his grip. "I can kill you right now."
"Ssstupid hanyou…I knowsss of a ways to change that." The snake flicked its tongue out knowingly.
"A way?" Inuyasha blinked in surprised, nearly letting go of the serpent. "How!?" He demanded.
"Only if yousss help me." The youkai said softly.
"What do you mean by help?" Inuyasha asked.
"A sssstupid human hasss ssstolen sssome of my eggsss from my nessst." The snake said angrily. "Get them backsss and I'll help yousss."
"Why don't you get them back yourself." Inuyasha narrowed his eyes.
"Becaussse, idiot, they have hasss a miko protecting their village. She'sss hasss ssset up protective barriersss againssst my kind." It's red eyes glowed even brighter.
"How am I suppose to get them then?" Inuyasha demanded.
"You'ssss only half youkaisss and only a child. Sssshe won't be expecting ssssomeone like yousss to go intosss the village. Alssso, sssome wolf youkaisss are planning on raiding the village tommorowss. I'm not ssstupid enough to go their myssself. Wolfsss enjoy my kindssss flesh."
"Coward." He couldn't help but say. "I don't know if that's a good enough reason to help you."
"You'sss the coward then." The snake hissed. "Running away fromsss the chancsse to become full youkai. Maybesss you like being a hanyou'sss, yesss? Like being weaker, yesss?"
"Shut up!" Inuyasha yelled, throwing the snake onto the ground. "I'll get your stupid eggs! I'm going to be stronger than any youkai! Where is that village?"
"Follow the river sssouth. It takesss you there." The snake said. "I'll be waitingssss here."
"Fine." Inuyasha stomped in the direction. 'I am going to become stronger than any youkai!' He vowed to himself.
The serpent slithered up a tree, preparing to wait. "Sssstupid hanyou."
Kagome sat on the river's bank, looking thoughtfully into the flowing water. After training with her mother for just a short while, her mother left her, saying she smelt something 'funny.' Kagome had asked to go, but her mother just laughed and said that she could once she could keep up with her.
'Why can't I be as good as my mother?' She wondered to herself. Suddenly out of the trees came the boy that had been with her earlier. He barely acknowledged her presence, stomping right in front of her with a scowl across his face. "Where are you going?" She asked, standing up.
"Nowhere, idiot." He growled. Kagome ran to catch up with him. He didn't even look at her, only increased his speed. She couldn't help herself and ran even faster, trying to keep up with him. 'Mother shouldn't mind—she can smell my trail and this is training.' Kagome told herself as the trees brushed by her, even though her thoughts were less than convincing. Inuyasha glanced back and then sprinted rapidly down the weed covered bank, until he was several yards ahead of her. Kagome narrowed her eyes determinedly and forced herself to speed up. "Will you stop following me!" The boy called back to her.
"Why should I?" She yelled back, though her breath sounded winded. "You obviously must be planning on doing something interesting and I'm bored doing nothing!" She frowned as he ignored her, deepening her expression as the distance between them continued to grow. 'I can't lose to him!' Even though she meant what she said, her legs still refused to go any faster. Suddenly, the boy bounded up a tree along the waters edge and leapt from branch to branch, moving even more rapidly now that he didn't have to worry about the rocks and undergrowth cluttering the edge.
"Can't follow me now, girl!" He mocked, not even looking back behind him.
Kagome jumped onto the trees trunk, her fingers scraping for holds against the nearly smooth surface. She knew that staying on the ground would be safer, but if the boy wasn't going to, then she wouldn't either. 'I can do anything that boy can do!' She told herself, struggling up to the first branch. She stood up, balanced precariously on the narrow limb, and then leapt across to the next tree. While she didn't land on it with her feet, she did managed to get a finger hold on it and struggle up, at the same time pushing her weight forward to leap to the next tree. Even though these actions appeared to take a long time, she managed to do them swiftly enough for the boy not to get too much further ahead.
For awhile, Inuyasha was only able to gain headway by several inches at a time, a lot less than the feet he was collecting while on the ground. Kagome had a somewhat advantage on being able to jump onto the same branches as he had occupied, instead of having to quickly check to see which ones would be able to hold a persons weight. By this time, they were both high above the ground, making this strange chase all the more dangerous. Kagome knew by now that following him was ridiculous and dangerous, but after going this far, she wasn't about to let him get away.
Suddenly, Kagome miscalculated a branch she was jumping towards, causing herself to miss the limb by several inches. She let out a sharp shriek as she plummeted down, one that was quickly silenced as she landed hard across a lower branch. The impact had caught her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs, but she still managed to tighten her grip instinctively around the branch. Her heart pounded violently in her chest and for several seconds she was unable to move for fear of falling. Finally, she opened her eyes she had been unconsciously squeezing shut, finding herself hanging upside down, still far above the ground.
She slowly began sliding one of her hands towards the trunk of the tree, wishing she had landed closer to its solid base instead of onto its outside branches. A soft cracking sound stopped her. "No…" She mouthed to herself, seeing a narrow crack forming on the branch. The sound grew louder and the limp suddenly dipped down low. Kagome struggled to regain a grip on the branch, but the branch continued to dip lower making it nearly impossible to hang on. She slid down the branch, the leaves and smaller sticks cutting with some silent rage into her hands until there was no more branch left to hold onto. She screamed one again as she found herself falling rapidly towards the ground below her…
…only to find herself floating in the air, several feet above the ground. "I told you not to follow me!." A familiar voice said above. Kagome glanced up to see that Inuyasha had grabbed onto the scruff of her leather shirt. He quickly pulled her up to the limb he was standing on.
"Thanks, but why did you save me?" Kagome asked, her heart still pounding rapidly inside from her near death.
"Feh, if you were stupid enough to try to follow me up here, I knew you'd probably also manage to fall too." He snorted. "So, stop following me before you really do die." He jumped down to the ground, Kagome following right behind him. He spun around. "I said to not follow me!"
"I'm not going to give up." Kagome told him.
"Give up what!? I haven't done anything to you except save your life!" Inuyasha growled.
"The chase of course. And training." She smiled.
"Training? What does stupid human like you need training for?"
"I am not a stupid human!" She frowned at him, and then said honestly, "I want to become stronger."
"Heh, like you could ever become strong." He laughed, but he gave it a little thought. "I guess if that's the reason, you can come with me. Just don't get in my way."
"I won't!!" She promised. "Now tell me what you're doing."
"I'm going to a village to get back some eggs the humans stole from this snake." He told her. She looked at him curiously. "This is my way of becoming stronger."
Nateli ran lightly into the trees, smelling scents she had been noticing for a while. One of them she believed was the strange boy Kagome was talking about. She was nearly positive the boy was a hanyou, since she could smell both human and youkai. While that may have been strange, it wasn't the scent that made her curious.
She came into a clearing and looked high into a tree. Beady red eyes peared down at her, widening with recognition. "Natelissss?" It hissed at her. Nateli growned slightly, realizing that it was just Chazzii, a youkai that she had met several years before finding Kagome.
"It's just you." She couldn't help but sound put out. Chazzii was another reason why her mother had found her difficult to deal with, since unlike most wolf youkais, she didn't like to eat snake.
"That tone wasssn't necsssesssssary." The snake said, obviously insulted. "I thoughtssss we wasss on good termssss, yesss?"
"Are you sure?" Nateli asked, an unnervingly wide smile covering her face. "Sure…am so glad to meet…someone like you…" She licked her lips. The snake bobbed out of view for a moment, obviously shaken. Nateli sighed and waved her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry. I don't give a damn about snake food and I wouldn't eat someone that spends most of its time slithering in the dirt anyway."
"Goodsss!" The snake snapped. "And don't dosss thatsss again!"
"Well, why are you here? The last time I checked, you lived several hours further away." Nateli looked at her surrounding. "Unless you have become more ofan idiot and decided to move closer to where a tribe of wolves live."
"Nosss, my nessst was raided by a human and he ssstole ssssome of my eggsss." The snake told her. "If I don'tsss get it backsss ssson, either the humansss will kill them when they hatchsss and come out of their protectivess barrier, or the wolvesss will get them."
"Wolves?" Nateli snapped into attention.
"Yessss." The snakes voice made it impossible to ask how she got the information. "They are your tribessss if I'm not missstaken, yesss?"
"No!" Nateli growled. "I'm not part to their tribe anymore!" Still, this was very useful information. It would mean that she had probably should temporary take Kagome to a different place so that no one would accidentally find them. The village wasn't that close to their current location, but she did know that some of the idiot younger ones would probably run off for awhile. "When are they raiding?" She demanded.
"Tommorrowsss, yesss." Chazzii hissed.
"Well, you're going to need to get a hell of a lot closer or else you're children are going to be grown up and dead by the time you get there." Nateli pointed out.
"I'sss got a ssstupid hanyou to go." The snake said, smiling the best a snake could.
"Others to do your work? That is just like you." Nateli paused, sniffing the area. 'Maybe it's the same hanyou Kagome met?' She thought to herself.
"Of courssse. I am notsss and idiotssss."
"Why did you go and ask a hanyou? Isn't he just a kid?" Nateli asked curiously.
"Becaussse he can probably get passst the youkai sssshield they have in placssse." The snake looked a bit uncomfortable by the question.
"Or maybe it was because most full youkais would probably kill you on sight and the ones that don't, like me, wouldn't give a damn because they'd know that you have been known to kill youkai children for food?" Nateli questioned, nodding when the snake didn't say a word to defend herself. "Sooo, how did you get him to agree?"
"I'sss know of sssomething that could make him intosss a full youkaisss." Chazzii chucked to herself. Nateli couldn't help but look interested.
"What the hell is it?" She asked. "What could be strong enough to change a hanyou to a youkai?"
"The sssshikon no tama." The snake said softly, as though afraid someone else might here her. "I'sss heard rumorsss of it."
"Where is it?"
"Who knowssss? All I hear isss of rumorssss of itss power." It repeated, then added, even more quietly, "It can make youkaisss ssstronger."
"Really now…" Nateli grew thoughtful. "What about humans?"
"I doesss not know. Why sssshould I care if it makessss sssstupid humanssss sssstronger?" The snake hissed. Nateli placed small smile across her face and then slashed the youkai across the nose with her claws. Chazzii twisted in pain, the claw marks visibly showing across its green snout. "Whatsss wasss that for!?"
"Did I forget to mention that I have an adopted human child?" Nateli turned on one heel and started back into the trees. "And this human is going to be stronger than any youkai!!
Yep, yep an update! I hope you enjoyed it!!! I had fun making it so that the snake acted so tough to Inuyasha and then was willing to tell Nateli practically anything, since it somewhat feared her *heheh* Oh yes, I am going to get in the shikon no tama and the fact that Kagome has miko powers ^_^ And I am sure that some/most of you probably can guess who's the heir to the wolfs tribe…
If you did like it and you want me to continue, please, please, please, review!! Reviews are perfect ways to bribe me to go faster….
Review!!!!