NOTICE: I realized something, I had a major hole in the plot, and since I don't know how to fill in said hole, I had to move some stuff up, that list of what I moved up will be at the bottom, along with review responses. By the way, the kissing scenes will be popping up less often, it will be implied unless I have a huge urge to write one, I dunno, I have trouble with them (along with battle scenes, sex and violence, go figure, but I may be too critical of my own work), also it needed to be done in this chapter, you'll see why. I also wanted to say that I happened to be in a bad state of mind (I was pissed off at something else) when I posted the last chapter, which lead to my whole review plea, though I still appreciate anyone taking the time to review.
I don't like how most of this chapter turned out except the end. But then again, I generally don't like anything I turn out. Ok, enjoy.
A week had passed since the rainy day at the hotspring, and Yusuke's first sword lesson. He hadn't been able to be alone with Kagome since, but had at least managed to get into a few more fights (as well as a few more training sessions, Sango could still kick his ass though), so he wasn't really on edge. He was finding Inuyasha slightly more tolerable as well. Kagome had accepted that if she ever let them be alone, they would probably fight, she just had to make sure that didn't happen. Overall, Yusuke was fairly pleased with the way things were going. The only major drawback was his lack of time with Kagome, he still didn't know why she wasn't telling everyone.
They stopped around midday, they had realized they were getting low on supplies. Kagome hadn't brought enough food to feed all of them for a long period of time back with her, and they were all sick of fish. They were low on medicinal herbs as well.
"Ok, we make camp here, we'll split up and look for supplies," Inuyasha said, "Me and the punk will scout out the area for any demons nearby, Sango, you go with Kagome and the two of you can look for herbs. Miroku, you take Shippo and look for any food."(He rarely called Yusuke by name)
"Inuyasha, that grouping makes no sense." Sango said.
"Why not?"
"You and Yusuke will kill eachother, and Miroku has no means of finding any animals without a strong sense of smell, or any hunting skill, no offense." She added.
"Well, I don't see anyone else coming up with anything!"
"How about this, you go scout for demons alone, I'm sure you can handle anyhting around here. Me and Miroku will take Shippo and Kirara and go look for food, her nose should be powerful enough, and Kagome can look for herbs, Yusuke can protect her." Sango rose instantly into Yusuke's top ten favorite people.
"Feh, fine."
They split up. Each group going in seperate directions. Yusuke was all for blowing off the search and just taking this for "quality time" with Kagome, but she insisted they find the herbs. So Yusuke took this time to talk instead.
"Why are you so concerned with finding some plants anyway?"
"They can help cure poison, fight infection, and heal wounds."
"Oh come on, how often could you possibly use those?"
"...I've used them on you already!" Kagome said, how could Yusuke possibly not remember this?
"When?"
"When you got hurt, you know, you were stabbed in the shoulder, ring any bells?"
"Oh yeah..." He had discarded the bandages the first chance he got, he was an extremely fast healer.
Kagome just stared at him sideways, she knew Yusuke wasn't the best with remembering things, but to forget something like that was rediculous.
It was a while before they found anything. Yusuke and Kagome hadn't really been paying attention, they were both too engrossed in their conversation. Kagome had managed to spot some however, and put them in her pack.
"There, you found some."
"You're relentless," Kagome said.
"Hey, I am a guy you know, I have needs," Yusuke said playfully, he wasn't really disappointed that him and Kagome weren't doing anyhting besides talking, they hadn't been able to talk freely for a while. He started walking backwards, so he could walk while looking at Kagome.
He stayed like this for a while, Kagome was surprised he could keep from hitting anything, or tripping, the roots of the forest they were in were sticking out of the ground all over.
"You know, you really shouldn't walk like that." Kagome said as the roots thickened even more.
"Why not?" Yusuke asked.
"Because, you could-"
"Ungh," Yusuke landed hard on his back.
"...Trip over a tree root..." Kagome finished. She held out a had to help Yusuke up. She had barely realized what hapeeded when she caugfht herself. Yusuke hadn't gotten up, he had pulled her down ontop of himself.
"What if I hadn't caught myself?" She asked.
"Then you'd probably be unconcious right now, I got a hard head." He hadn't even thought about that, but even if he had, he probably would have taken the risk anyway. Kagome was still ontop of him. His face got more serious, he hadn't been planning this, he had just been messing around when he pulled her down. "And now I'm going to kiss you," he said.
A few minutes passed with them kissing before...
"Ahem." Sango cleared her throat.
They parted so quick that the motion was barely noticeable. Kagome got off Yusuke, extremely red in the face. Yusuke simultaeniously looking both pleased and annoyed.
"I'm surprised, Yusuke, I had no idea you were such a ladies man." Miroku said, an impressed smirk playing about his face.
"Do you guys want something?" Yusuke asked.
"We found some food, we thought you might like to eat, so we came looking for you." Shippo sounded embarassed but unsurprised.
Yusuke let out a sigh, so now Miroku and Shippo knew too. On the plus side, they wouldn't have to sneak so much anymore. On the minus, Yusuke knew this session was over.
"We'll be along in a few minutes," Kagome said.
The others walked off.
"Do you think we should just go ahead and tell Inuyasha?" Yusuke asked.
"No, it'll end up complicating things." They began to head off to camp, Yusuke was trying to figure out how it would complicate anything, they were nearing camp when he ended up asking.
"How would it complicate anything?"
Kagome hesitated, the time to come clean had to be now. "Well..."
"Tell me later," Yusuke whispered. He could see Inuyasha, and apparently Kagome had her reasons for not telling him.
They stayed there for the night, Yusuke was really starting to wish they had a tent. Sleeping out in the open made him feel vulnerable. Well, maybe there would be a village they could stay at soon at least. That'd also let him be alone with Kagome some more. He wanted to hear about this situation with Inuyasha, he couldn't thhink of any way Inuyasha knowing would be complicated.
The next day they began traveling as usual, it wasn't far into the day when Yusuke sensed something. He stopped walking, Inuyasha stopped too.
"What's wrong?" Kagome asked
"Naraku." Inuyasha said.
"You said Naraku was extremely powerful," Yusuke said, whatever was coming was powerful, but Yusuke could tell that Inuyasha could have taken whoever this was alone, though the fight would have been a difficult one.
The wind picked up at an alarming rate. A woman floated down on a feather.
"Kagura." Inuyasha said.
"Inuyasha, it's been too long." Was her reply.
"Who the hell are you?" Yusuke asked.
Kagura merely glanced at Yusuke.
"She's one of Naraku's incarnations." Kagome said.
"What are you doing here?" Inuyasha asked.
"I've come to see who your new companion is, I expected someone more powerful."
"I'll show you power!" Yusuke yelled as he jumped into action. He delivered an uppercut to Kagura's jaw before she had even seen him move. She flew into the air, but managed to land with a graceful mid-air backwards somersault.
"Dance of Blades!"
Yusuke threw his arms up to block. The blades of wind left shallow cuts.
"Is that all?"
"Insolent brat! Dance of the Dragon!" Kagura yelled back.
Yusuke was forced to jump back in order to dodge. Kagura was keeping him back. None of the others wanted to intervene, for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.
The battle was getting out of control. Yusuke hadn't landed a hit since the intitial uppercut, whereas Kagura had managed to hit him several more times. He wasn't giving this fight his all. "Maybe its time to take things up a notch," Yusuke said in his head.
"EAT THIS! SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke fired a shot at Kagura.
Kagura was momentarily surprised, but managed to alter the course of Yusuke's blast with the wind. "Damn, shoulda figured, that's what Jin did."
The others chose this time to step in, or at least, those that could (Miroku couldn't use his wind tunnel because of Yusuke's position).
"HIRAIKAOTSU!" Sango yelled as she hurled the giant boomerang at Kagura, who blew it aside, the gust blew Yusuke back as well.
Kagome was just beginning to draw an arrow...
Kagura spotted her. She sent her wind blades flying right at her.
"Kagome!" Yusuke cried in desperation, terror gripping him. She wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Inuyasha had jumped in front of her and blocked with Tetsusaiga.
"Forget about me?" Inuyasha asked.
Yusuke charged Kagura, earning a few new cuts as she tried to stop him. He delivered a flurry of punches to her abdomen, and sent her a few feet back with his trademark right hook.
"Damn." Kagura said as she caughed up blood. She drew a feather out of her hair and retreated.
"You're not getting away!" Yusuke yelled. He fired another Spirit Gun, but she was too far away, he missed.
"DAMN IT!" Yusuke cursed.
Yusuke began walking over to Kagome, he was shaking, that had been too close. He wanted to embrace her, to apologize for screwing around and putting her in danger, he didn't even care that Inuyasha would be watching.
"You dumbass! Kagome could have been killed!" Inuyasha raged at him before he could make it to her. Yusuke realized what would have probably happened had Inuyasha not been there, and he was extremely grateful, not that he'd tell Inuyasha that.
"What the hell were you thinking? I know you weren't taking that fight seriously at the beginning!" Inuyasha kept yelling. Kagome was afraid that Yusuke would snap and punch him, but she was surprised, Yusuke was just standing there taking it.
After a short time even Inuyasha seemed galled by Yusuke taking it, he didn't really know Yusuke that well, but he was sure he wasn't the type to just let some one yell at them, not unless they thought they deserved it (and for Yusuke to acknowledge fualt, that meant something).
"Feh, just don't screw around next time."
Yusuke didn't answer.
They made camp early that night. Yusuke had a distant stare and barely touched his food. This escaped no one's notice, but no one mentioned it. A long time after they were done eating Kagome finally went over to him (he had been sitting further away from even her).
"What's wrong?" She asked quietly.
"Nothing."
"You're a really bad liar."
"Really, don't worry about it."
"Too late, you're acting really wierd." Yusuke wasn't being his usual loudmouthed, cocky self at all, it was slightly fritening to her to see this change.
"I don't know what your talking about."
"Out with it already."
Yusuke waited a moment before responding. "Inuyasha was right, I wasn't taking that fight seriously enough, you could have been hurt, or killed."
"One of these days," Kagome began, "You'll see that I have powers of my own and that I'm not always a damsel in distress. I can take care of myself." She was slightly offended, true Yusuke hadn't seen her powers yet, but she had survived all this time in the fuedal era, and Inuyasha hadn't always been able to save the day, did he really think that she was that weak?
"It's not just that. I should have taken her out, one less damn thing to worry about, I could have beaten her. Now she'll be back, and you'll be in danger again."
Kagome quickly glanced to make sure Inuyasha wasn't looking then moved to kiss Yusuke; he turned his head to the side to avoid her lips.
"Sorry, not in the mood. I just wanna be left alone for a while."
Kagome sighed, Yusuke was too damn stubborn for his own good some times (well, most of the time, really). She went over to sit with the others, it was no use arguing with him.
The next day started early for Yusuke. Sango tried to distract him by teaching him more about swordsmanship, but quit in less then an hour. He wasn't putting any real effort forward, there was no use continuing.
They began moving shortly after. Yusuke lagged behing everyone else. Inuyasha even tried to talk to him.
"You made a mistake. We all do, stop being such a whiney little bitch and get over it ya jackass."
Yusuke knew Inuyasha was trying to make him feel better in his own messed up way. Maybe it was the fact that him and Inuyasha were constantly at odds that made this so effective. He still didn't feel completely normal, and he still didn't really like Inuyasha. He didn't dislike him as much as he did when tyhey first met, one more thing could still tip the scale, but it would take something reeaaalllly bad for that to happen.
By the end of the day, with the collabrative efforts of the group (including Kirara), Yusuke felt about normal again, but he hadn't forgotten his mistake. He wouldn't screw around like that again.
They were sitting around the campfire, nothing was really going on. Inuyasha was leaning against a nearby tree, his eyes shut, he was relaxed. The atmosphere was an overall positive one.
Kagoem was about to call Inuyasha over to join in the fun when it happened. His eyes snapped open, he began sniffing the air, his expression unreadable.
"What's wrong?" Miroku asked.
"Nothing," Inuyasha said before adding "I'll be right back." He leapt off into the night.
"I wonder what's up with him." Sango said.
"Who knows? Maybe he smelled a cat." Yusuke said.
After Inuyasha not returning for ten minutes, however, everyone was starting to get concerned. Yusuke still hadn't sensed any demons.
"I'm going after him, I'll be back soon." He said. He too tore off into the night.
It didn't take Yusuke long to reach him, he had moved fast. Upon seeing Inuyasha, however, he immediately jumped behind a tree. Inuyasha was standing there, but he wasn't alone. Yusuke had glimpsed a woman too, a woman that looked similar to Kagome, but older, sadder. Only an idiot would stay there and listen. Yusuke made sure he was completely hidden by the tree and strained his ears.
"Inuyasha, you said you chose me over that girl..."
"I did, my decision hasn't changed." Inuyasha said, even though his feelings were just confused as always. Him and Kikyo were oblivious to Yusuke's presence.
"And yet you still travel with that girl,"
Yusuke's brain was starting to connect the dots. Slowly, he was seeing things just a bit plainer.
"That's all," Inuyasha said.
"Inuyasha, that girl may be my reincarnation, I may have a piece of her soul, yet we are not one in the same. Could it be that you still have feelings for her?"
Yusuke had put it together, so many more things made sense now. His anger was beginning to boil over.
"Kagome is nothing to me now! She's only here to help with the search for Narak-"
Yusuke could barely keep his anger under control now. NO ONE should EVER call Kagome "nothing." He stepped out from behind his tree as Inuyasha was still talking. Both were caught completely offguard, even Kikyo betrayed a look of surprise. Inuyasha's surprise was replaced with rage almost instantly.
"You should run along now," Yusuke directed at Kikyo, his voice dripping with venom, his face showing his displeasure. He turned to Inuyasha and cracked his knuckles, "Me and Inuyasha need to have a nice friendly talk."
Evil aren't I? Leaving you there? Sorry this chapter took so long, I'd like to say I have a good excuse, but in reality, I bought a new game, and I've been playing the hell outta it instead of writing. Next chapter may or may not take that long, depends on my inspiration. PLEASE REVIEW!
Time on my hands: Thanks for the review, hope this chapter keeps you satisfied.
Trinity the Kitsune Kunoichi: Thank you very much
Jessica: Sorry, but I can't tell you if, how, or why anyone will figure out Yusuke's a demon without potentialy giving stuff away.
NEXT CHAPTER: Yusuke vs. Inuyasha
