Chapter Nine

Awakening, Training, and Gathering Allies

(A/N: Oh, by the way, may I say this, right here, right now? This is an Inu/Kag fic, NOT and Ita/Kag fic. Gomenasai to those who might feel that Itaru-kun and Kagome-chan would be good together, but I'm too much of an InuYasha/Kagome fan to let her or him be with anybody else. Gomen na ja! Now, ON WITH THE STORY!!! --.)

Itaru groaned as he sat up, a hand rising to cup his aching head. "Wha- What the hell!" he muttered, closing his eyes. Pain shot through his head at a slow tempo. Thump, thump, thump…

The slight knock on the door made him jump and whirl around to face it, dark violet eyes stretched wide in surprise. "Come-come in?" he called hesitantly.

Kagome slid the shoji open, slowly sliding into his room and sliding it shut again before facing him. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been crying and had stayed up all night. It seemed to be both, if her pale face, dried tear streaks, and bangs under her eyes were any hint.

"Ka-Kagome-san," Itaru said, swinging his legs over the side and throwing the covers off of him. "Daijobu ka?"

"Dai-daijobu," Kagome said softly, looking down at the floor, not meeting Itaru's eyes.

"What happened? All I remember was trying to make sure I didn't throw up, seeing you, and then… nothing."

Kagome snorted mirthlessly. "Yeah, I know how that feels…" She collapsed into a chair. "Gods… it's as if history is repeating itself… in my lifetime!"

Itaru blinked, confused. "What are you talking about?"

She looked up to face him, her slightly red eyes weary beyond imagination. Taking a deep breath, Kagome looked as if she was attempting of think of how to explain it all to him. Finally, she let it out, her head and shoulders slumping and hanging near her knees. "Itaru-kun," she murmured. "That woman in there… she was attempting to remove your soul from your body and put it in a fact body of InuYasha. Problem is, I think both your and InuYasha's stubbornness about not leaving his sleep in the after life and your hold on your soul kept it in there, but when I appeared, either you stopped concentrating, InuYasha decided to return, or both. Either way, your body became a soulless shell, and InuYasha returned in a body made of clay. The same thing happened with me. You remember when I told you I was a reincarnation as well." Itaru nodded, silent. "Well… Kikyo, my incarnation, was put in a fake clay body. I recalled by soul, but she ran away before I could get all of it back. For a good amount of time afterwards, if I felt a great amount of anger or fear for somebody other than myself, my body would recall the rest of my soul. It took a while before I could let my emotions go haywire around her and keep her safe.

"The same thing happened with you, only slightly different. The only reason I was able to recall my soul was because of my Mikoki (miko/spiritual powers), which you don't have. InuYasha willingly returned over half of your soul, but was… interrupted by a reincarnation of a woman we once knew."

Itaru fell back onto his bed, exhausted from the explanation he had just been given. "Demo… where is he now?"

Kagome sighed and shook her head. "That's the problem. We just… don't know!!!"

InuYasha hung limply by some chains. Ofudas rested on his wrists and ankles, soaked and already slightly drying in his blood. The cuffs dug into his skin and sore flesh every time he pulled forward, attempting to get himself off of the damned wall.

The small creaking of a door made him lift his head, the tips of his bangs crimson, making the world red.

A figure slowly slipped in, closing the door behind it. InuYasha sniffed the air. A woman. The woman who had taken him in here…

She slowly stole down to stand by him, looking from side to side with her bright azure eyes. Finally, she turned back towards him and snorted. "You smell awful."

"I'm covered in blood, hanging on a wall, and the woman I care most about, who I would happily give my life for, is in danger. Smelling bad isn't exactly at the top of my list at this very moment."

The woman snorted again. "Hey… just breakin' the ice. Now…" Slowly, she bent and picked up some food, holding it towards his mouth. InuYasha was starving, but he wasn't desperate. Yet. Still, he had his pride.

"I'm not gonna eat off of your hand like some little lap dog!" he growled, turning away.

The woman slipped her high heel off and kicked him. She had done so so that she wouldn't stab him in the thigh. "Baka! This is so that you can regain strength so that when Naraku unleashes you against his children, you can actually fight, instead of just lying there like a bucket of bones, fat, and bad personality!"

InuYasha glared up at her. "Keh," was all he muttered. "Just unlock one of my chains." She did so, and he grabbed the bread she had proffered towards him. "So…" he said through a mouthful. "Why ya helpin' me?"

"Because," she said, looking disdainfully at him. "Hopefully, you can kill Naraku. Then I can get out of this hell!"

The inu hanyou snorted and looked away. 'Fuckin' bitch!' he thought angrily, ignoring the fact that he owned her one for giving him food.

Said woman pursed her lips, looking angrily at him. He looked up, rolled his eyes, looked away, and continued eating, taking the meat since he had finished the bread. "So…" he said again, trying to make polite conversation. "What's ya name?"

"Yasmine," she said tartly.

'Yasmine… it sounds a lot like Jasmine, Sesshomaru's-' Pause. 'Oh HELL no! You gotta be kidding me!'

He watched her. She did look a lot like… but… "Do you have a sister?"

Yasmine froze, her eyes wide as she turned towards him. "How'd you know?"

He shrugged. "Donno… maybe the fact that I saw her sorta… helped."

She watched him, her breathing irregular. "You saw… my twin?"

InuYasha nodded. "Hai. Her name's Jasmine and she works for my baka half brother, Sesshomaru."

Yasmine mouthed her twin's and Sesshomaru's name, contemplating them.

Standing, she took InuYasha's empty plate. "Well then… I had best go. Ja ne." Turning, she walked away, her head lifted high as she opened the door and left, closing it behind him.

InuYasha shook his head. "My life was never simple, but this has to be the most complicated it has ever been," he muttered, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes. Slowly, he slid them half open, not really seeing the room he was in. 'But Kagome… please… be safe.'

The thump of an arrow hitting its mark made Kagome smile. It had been a while since she had fired her arrow, and it had been slightly hard to get back into the swing of things.

Shigeatsu and Hanaka were dueling with wooden katanas, both stumbling, holding them wrong, and not doing a bit of good. Kagome grimaced. It would take a lot of time before either of them were half as good as Miroku or Sango. 'And they weren't good enough to defeat Naraku,' she thought, her heart thumping painfully in her chest.

A shout distracted her as Kagome prepared to fire her bow again. Jumping, her fingers let go of the string, and the arrow slammed into the ground at the foot of the target. She stared at it, a sweat drop slowly slipping down the side of her head.

Sighing, Kagome turned around. More shouting was emanating from Sesshomaru's mansion. Kagome trudged towards the fence where she had placed her water bottle. Quickly unscrewing the plastic top and chugging down the water, Kagome listened intently.

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"AH, COMMON! WHY NOT!?"

"'CAUSE!"

"I NEED MORE OF AN ANSWER THAN JUST THAT!!!"

"ALL RIGHT, BECAUSE!"

"SCREW YOU!"

"THEY'RE TRAINING!"

"FUCK TRAINING! KAGOME'S MY WOMAN!"

'NANI!?' Kagome thought, chocking on her water and spluttering, tears developing at the edges of her eyes. She doubled over, coughing and still spluttering as Hanaka pat her on the back. 'Oh shit… you've got to be kidding me…'

"KAGOME!!!!!" Koga called, leaping from the third story and landing gracefully before racing to her side and gathering her hands in his. "Kagome… it's been five hundred years… I'm so glad to see you again…"

"K-Koga-kun…" Kagome said, her eye twitching.

Shippo appeared behind them, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Hanaka, Shigeatsu… Meet Koga… He was… an ally from the Feudal Era. He, his pack, Ayame, and her pack, and a few other of our friends will be helping us in the fight against Naraku."

"Joy," Kagome said, her voice breathless. 'O-kay… I'll just have to keep myself from strangling Koga-kun in his sleep… hopefully he'll stop with the whole possessive 'Kagome's my woman! Back off or I'll suck your soul out, put it in a jar, eat your body in front of your soul, then devour your soul!' bit… After a while, it kinda gets annoying…'

(A/N: Heehee… devouring souls… Anywho, I hope this chapter's good. So… Koga's back, InuYasha and Yasmine have made a shaky alliance, and Itaru's up… Let the insanity begin… -sigh-

Anywho, Shippo and Koga were arguing about Koga going to Kagome while she and the others were training. They need to train as much as possible, after all… and he wanted to save Kagome a little bit of trouble, ne? --. Anywho, until next time,

The Kikyo Hater/Fluffy Muffin Queen (obey my fluffy goodness and golden-brown authority!)