Chasing the Fox

o0o

Miroku ran past Kaede's hut - he caught a sight of a round woodden thing bigger than any treasure chest he had ever seen roll from under the house and rest in a small hole in the ground. He blinked once at that sight, but had no time to dwell on this matter.

There was a fox to catch and a half naked girl on a battle cat to admire.

"Miroku!" Shippou jumped on his shoulder, tiny claaws digging in Miroku's robe. "Why are you running? You're not gonna to catch up with them!:

"And what do you suggest?" Miroku panted out, leaving the village behind. The little fox was right - both the five-tailed fox and Kirara were moving in a straight line while he had to run around huts and sheds, then follow causeways.

"You're an idiot. Transform!" Shippou said and suddenly he was gone from Miroku's shoulder, changed in the pink floating thing Kagom was calling a balloon. The young monk needed a second to realize why Shippou was advising him to do that - he was of Hachiemon's kin now!

"Oh, you're right, but how do I do that?" Miroku ran past a few kids playing on the road. They looked at him once, but it seemed that village folk was used to more bizzarre stuff than a tanuki and a kitsune running down a road and discussing, following a transformed Kirara chasing after an another fox youkai. With Inuyasha and his friends fighting various youkai and arguing on almost a daily basis Miroku wasn't too surprised their tollerancce to odd was much higher than averge humans.

"Just use a leaf, focus reallly hard on a shape and use your youki!" Shippou advised and floated away to join Sango far in front of the running monk. His message was clear - Miroku had to find it in himself to transform by himself. Itt was not too different from Miroku's master ways of learning - to give advices but let a pupil to find wisdom by himself.

First Miroku needed a leaf. It was pretty easy - he snatched one from a bush growing near the path he was following. Then came the hard part - he had to focus and use youki while still running. He considered stopping for a moment but didn't want to lose his friends. He just dared to slow down a little while concentrating on a shape - since his eyes were trained on Shippou he as using his round shape as a guide. He pressed the leaf to his forehead - just like Shippou had done just a few minutes ago. Youki was much different from spiritual powers, but to his surprise wielding youki came to him quite... Naturally.

In a poof of violet smoke his humanoid form disappeared and a purple balloon floated happily in the sky, made a few spins and then followed the flying cat and the pink balloon.

It took a few minutes to catch up to them, but Miroku was very determined. Shippou gave him a nod of appreciation. Sango spared him a glance before looking back to the ground where the orange fox was running through Inuyasha's forest.

"Stop!" Sango called out again. "We just want to talk!"

The fox looked back at them and all three of them heard him chuckling.

"Sorry, warrior maiden," he replied, dashing between trees. "You chase, I run!"

"We just want to talk!"

While Sango was trying to coax the five-taled fox to stop and listen Miroku and Shippou went to encircle him from both sides. When the fox entered a small glade a tanuki landed on his feet in front of him, a little fox sat on a lone boulder to his left and Kirara right behind his back. Sango took a place to his right, closing the circle. The fox sat on the ground and smiled,

"Aren't you fast," he said. Then all his tails flickered. "So you caught me, you can ask me three things and I shall answer truthfully. One question for each one of you." He fanned out behind himself three of his tails.

"Can you take the spell of Inuyasha, please? We know he acted harshly, but he was just concerned about well-being of people under his protection," Miroku said. "I think he learned his lesson and will think before running at people with his sword," he added hopefully. One of the lifted tail lowered to the grass.

"I can't," the fox replied, a smile on his mouth. "I wouldn't even if I could. The hanyou has to learn his place and never again challenge someone who has more tails than him when he can't defeat them. The spell cannot be removed by me. Next question?"

"I suspected that," Miroku sighed and rubbed a paw against his nuzzle. This was a high-ranking kitsune, probably of Sesshomaru's level, no wonder he found it proper to teach the brash hanyou some humility.

"Um..." Sango asked next, tugging at the hem of her skirt. "How can we lift or break the curse from Inuyasha and ourselves?" she looked at the fox with hope in her eyes.

"You can't," the fox lowered his second tail. "You will be free once the hanyou is freed, but none of you possess the ability to free him."

Two foxed looked at each other. Shippou's eyes were full of wonder, of admiration, of excitement. The older fox dropped his last tail.

"No, I cannot teach you this spell," he stood up. "Yet. Well, that looks like the moment of our parting..."

Before any of them could do anything he flickered all his tails and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a stone statue of a cow. Shippou pouted but still looked awed. Kirara jumped through the smoke and landed on the cow, sniffing it and growling in displeasure upon not finding any clue how to follow the other youkai.

"Well, at least we got some things confirmed," Miroku stood beside Sango and casually reached under her skirt. The girl yelped and jumped to the side, taking off her tiara from her head.

"Hiraikotsu!" she shouted and threw the object at the retreating tanuki. She stared after her weapon changing into a huge boomerang and continuing after Miroku between the trees where it stopped, embedding itself in an old tree.

"Wow," Shippou said as he jumped on Kirara's back. Miroku returned after a minute, eyeing the boomerang warily on his way back to the clearing.

"Did I hear correctly? Is Inuyasha spelled?" asked a cool, monotone voice. The whole group stopped staring at Hiraikotsu and turned to see Kikyou walking from the treeline near them. "I shall assist you, in any way possible."

A/N: OK, so this chapter isn't really as funny as I hoped it'd be. And it's up like 10 years after it should be published, but I had a few bad days.