Hooray! Passed the 10-chapter mark and the 100-review mark! Double-digit chapters and triple digit review numbers are good things!

To reviewers (because I can't stand not being able to say something back!)– Here is a present for you for being so kind and taking the time to review.

These were the reviewers for Ch9 and 10: Kineko the Fox, Zana Moon, Forest Sentry Koneji, MikaSono, sesshy (it's a nickname) (A/N: Really!), Morgan, Trigger Happy Bibliophile, inuzrule, soapfiction, wicked angel, L1Ldumie TK, Lady Storm, AFIrockergurl, Shonuff64, Kira the Mizu R … Sorry if I forgot anyone…

Shippo: (gangsta rappin') I wish I had a cooler name,

A name that really rocks.

Like Zana Moon or Morgan, or

Kineko the Fox. (Pronounce it KI-ne-ko or else it don't work!)

I'm not a Bibl'ophile,

For I can barely read;

I ain't Trigger Happy

But "annoy 'em" is my creed!

Forest Sentries hate me

Cuz I trick 'em with my fire;

Koneji likes me well enough–

But my lovin' ain't for hire!

I may be small in stature,

And so my love's pro bono– (Pro bono means it's free!)

Them foxy ladies like me,

You can ask that MikaSono!

L1Ldumie TK (pronounce EL one EL du MI tee KAY)

Is pretty strong, you see,

But when it comes to demons

I'm the bestest there can be!

I rock on like rockergirl ,

I know I have good diction.

I wish though I was smarter

Like collegian soapfiction.

I wish that I made yummy cake

Like Lady Storm knows how,

But I'm really friggin' tiny, so

How can I milk the cow?

Kagome is an angel;

Inuyasha is so wicked.

If I were bigger– Sho' enuff, (Sho'nuff sure enough. Huck Finn is shaking his head)

I'd see his ass and kick it!

Writing's fun and rappin's better,

Kira Mizu's what I drink.(Mizuwater in Japanese)

Product placement over with,

I'm pretty sweet, you think.

Well this poem's long enough,

It's all fleshed-out and messy,

So I'm off because I see

Naraku's kissin' Sesshy!

(It's a nickname.)

On to chapter 11! Thank you Academy!

Important Note: By the way, despite my happiness at the reviews and the wonderful feeling of waking up when you don't have work today and will be seeing my cousins and my sister at Lake Arrowhead soon, this chapter marks a turn for more serious matters. Humor takes a vacation. The rating will not go up but understand that maturish content will be in the chapters to come.

…Which is funny because I am not mature. A girl taking Japanese class with me was stunned to hear what age I am last night. She literally couldn't believe that I was going to be a senior… Ah, well, Shippo and I must share some qualities. Or something. Oh, and she had FMA music in her iPod. Happy days!

CHAPTER 11: Atypical Abstractions

Kagome lowered the fanfiction to look at Koga. "But…how did you get this?"

Koga shrugged. "Well, it just found it lying outside my pack's cave. Thought it was yours. Hey, Chibs, you want to read it?" he offered with a suave grin in Inuyasha's direction.

'Inuchibi' was almost foaming at the mouth. "Did you just call me Chibs?"

Koga laughed. "Here, take this. I read it."

Kagome's mouth was dry. "You did?"

Koga smiled at her, raising an eyebrow. "Of course I did," he said, lying through his teeth and hoping she wouldn't question him. "Hey Inuchibi, read it. It's funny," he said, hoping it was.

Kagome raised her eyebrows. The story was one about her being in a rehab center for cutting herself. (She didn't want to read any farther.) "Here, Koga-kun," she said. "You can keep it. It's not mine."

Though secretly she was worried. Who and what was spreading fanfictions she'd never seen before around the Sengoku Jidai?

--

Kikyo looked up at Sesshomaru from where they were sitting together on a rock overlooking a waterfall. "So you see, Lord Sesshomaru, the girl had made trouble for us once again." She sighed. "But I won't blame her too much."

"Read some of those tall tales yourself?" asked Sesshomaru dryly, and trying not to wonder what she read.

Kikyo half-smiled. "Oh, yes. I'm just much better at concealing my reaction than Naraku is. I beg your pardon my lord," she added, seeing that the mere thought sent hairs standing up on Sesshomaru's head. "Yes, I have found the stories, blowing about of their own accord. Which is partly why I came to you.

"I found myself having thoughts impossible for this age. After I read a few that I had found lying in the dust of the road, not only was I shocked that our personal selves were public to a world hundreds of years beyond ours, but I found myself thinking about things impossible. Like George Bush, elections, and 'off its rocker.' I have no idea what Bush is, nor what an election is, nor what the strange phrase means– yet it all rolled off my tongue as if I did."

There was a silence. Then Sesshomaru said, very bravely considering that it was a horrific memory for him, "It indeed explains the strange clothing that bastard Naraku wore a few suns ago. Some kind of– of leather." The odd expression on his face caused Kikyo to laugh slightly.

"Well, there you go, Lord Sesshomaru. 'Leather', while sexy, fun to try on, and once again sexy, is completely out of our time period."

"I see," said Sesshomaru gravely, trying to block out the frightening images.

Kikyo sobered, looking out into the beautiful landscape. "This is why I must do something about that girl."

Sesshomaru did not look at her, but instead gazed out as she was doing. "Kill her?"

Kikyo sighed. "I'm not sure."

– – –

When Koga finally left, after another long and disconcerting stare at Inuyasha, Kagome threw the fanfic into the river. To her surprise, the pages did not even get waterlogged. They started to speed out of sight, floating as a flat boat might.

Inuyasha tried to leap into the river and grab them, but fell in a heap. "I hate these woman clothes!" he snarled. "Even if they are flattering on me." He made as if to rip off the clothes, but then found himself stroking the fabric. "This is really good quality, Sango," he said. "Where did you find this?"

"I made it," she said to him.

"You did? Wow, that's so cool!" squealed Inuyasha, fingering the fabric. "That's an amazing talent. I wish I could sew like that." He turned around to find Miroku sniggering. "That's it!" he shouted, suddenly enraged. "You mean bitch, Miroku! I'll never speak to you again!" He stormed off.

Sango said very meaningfully, "Er, Kagome…have you noticed Inuyasha being really moody lately?"

"Well, not much more than usual."

"Well think about it," Sango said even more meaningfully. "He's a woman, now…His physical self corresponds with the moon in another way, now…"

Understanding flooded Kagome. "Oh shit!" she said, hand over her mouth.

Miroku butted in. "What? What?"

Sango pushed him away. "Nothing, you lech." But understanding had suddenly dawned in Miroku's eyes.

Kagome snapped, "Don't you tease him about it!"

Miroku held up his hands. "I won't! But, Lady Kagome…should you be the one to explain when–"

A piercing SHRIEK interrupted them all.

"I'm dying!" came the scream from behind them. Inuyasha came staggering out of some bushes with the kimono all tangled around him, unfortunately revealing quite as much as Miroku would hope to see.

"Kagome-chan, go!" said Sango hurriedly, grabbing Miroku's arm and yanking him behind her.

Kagome sighed. This was not going to be pleasant, she thought sadly as she sprinted toward the figure still screaming and rolling on the ground.

---

Naraku was still smarting where Sesshomaru had punched him. This was distinctly odd. "Hey," he said to himself, "how come it hurts? Me, who've had my arm blown off by two different women and all kinds of other crazy things?"

He sighed, looking around his workroom. Once, this room had been filled with pots oozing an evil smell, with bits of barrier-maker spread about and leftover pieces of failed monsters lay on the floor. Now, it was fairly clean. Kanna, oddly enough, had developed a cleanness fetish.

Of course, that hadn't stopped her powers. Naraku had done precisely one thing in this workroom since finding out his great love for Sesshomaru: craft Inuyasha's womanhood by placing the image, 'woman', in Kanna's mirror.

If he'd had a choice, he would have made Inuyasha a scraggly old witch. But Kanna had showed him in her mirror the effects of the transformation, and though Naraku howled with laughter, he was again stunned that Inuyasha made for a strikingly beautiful woman.

"Hot damn," he said at the mere memory, chuckling. But these were only words. Naraku knew where his heart truly lay.

"Oh, the rejection," he pouted. He pounded his pillow. "Kagura!"

Kagura opened the screen door. "Done with the tantrum already?"

Naraku thought a moment. "It's on hold. But I have another plan. If I'm not sexually appealing to Sesshomaru, even though I'm obviously the most kick-ass demon he'll ever meet–"

"I refuse to jump Sesshomaru and bring him to you. You go ahead and risk your own neck."

Naraku whined, "But Kaaaguraaa! Can't we just…do something? We have a contest here, remember?" he said, suddenly remembering. "Why don't we have a race?"

"Race to Sesshomaru's heart?" Kagura laughed. "I'm still in the contest, just so you know—but you go ahead and try kidnapping him. I can see a big-ass bruise where he coldclocked you once already."

Naraku ground his teeth. "So I'm healing slower."

Kagura's eyes widened. "You must be turning human tonight. Don't go chasing after Sesshomaru, I don't want to have to pick up the bloody pieces of you when he's done."

Naraku jumped up. "You have no faith in me!" he shouted.

"Damn right. Who's failed to kill Inuyasha several hundred times now?" Kagura flounced out the door.

Naraku clenched his fists. Inuyasha, like in the past, was once again a huge problem.

"I'll do something about him this instant!" he roared. Only to hear Kagura's laughter float back at him: "Goodluck, hanyou…"

Naraku bared his teeth. Damn that uppity witch! But it was true. He slumped down and grabbed up a consoling fanfiction. He couldn't fight Inuyasha now, even when Inuyasha was a frickin' beautiful woman and probably dumb and weak and wimpy. A/N: hmph. Naraku, you chauvanist!

He picked up the fanfiction that had made him laugh so much the other day. And then, as before, he got a brilliant and evil idea. This is where turning Inuyasha into a woman will come so in handy. A beautiful woman. Naraku was proud of his complicated Evil Plot skills, and this was more good work. Like the time he sent Kohaku back to Sango so he could kill Kagome. He started laughing. "Good times," he smiled through a tear.

- - -

When Kagome returned to her time for more supplies– fanfiction, ramen, womanly items, nailpolish (a certain craving of Inuyasha's), and more clothes for him to wear– she found that something stunning and utterly heart-stopping was waiting for her.

She opened the screen door of her home. "Tadaima! I'm home!" she called.

Her mother's voice called back tremulously, "Okaeri nasai, darling. Come here a moment."

Kagome heaved the yellow backpack off her back and onto the floor, shocked that her mother would sound so near to tears.

She went into the living room.

There was a tall, broad-shouldered man sitting across the table from Higurashi-san. When he saw Kagome, he stood up and smiled. "Kagome. It's been so long!…I, er, am your father." He gave her an apologetic grin. "My, how you've grown."

Kagome was stunned. Her heart stopped beating. "But…my father is dead," she whispered. "He died when I was two months old."

"He didn't," said her mother. Kagome took this in with great difficulty.

"Your mother told you that because she didn't want to hurt you," grinned the man. Kagome suddenly found this grin very unsettling. He moved closer to her and placed a hand protectively on her lower back. "What actually happened is, your mother and I split up. She just wanted­–"

–"Nibuhiro, please," said Mrs. Higurashi–

"–she wanted you and your brother not to know about your own father."

"Because you left the family, Nibuhiro!" said Higurashi-san.

"Well, I'm back. I couldn't leave you and never know what had happened to you," said the man tenderly.

Kagome felt herself stiffen, and pushed out of the man's embrace. "You come back after fifteen years because you wanted to see how we were?"

The man looked pleadingly at her. "Kagome. My daughter. I'm home to take care of you now. Don't you want that?"

Kagome was thunderstruck–

–It couldn't be–

–Would she faint? Or just die?

Those words this live human being had spoken rang a bell. She'd read a fanfiction once, where her dad…a dad… an abusive, drinking dad…came home. And he'd said that. At least, while still sober. She hadn't meant to read a fanfiction like that. It was too much a sensitive spot for her. Who could bear reading about themselves being beaten and… and… well, by their father? Kagome had never known her father…still, it was too close to home to read that…and now it had come to life?

She backed away fearfully. "Kagome," her mother said. "It's all right. We'll be all right."

"No!" shouted Kagome. Crying, she raced back to the well. "No!"

She burst through into the feudal era, dry-sobbing. Inuyasha sprang in to help her up right away. Then he froze. She was sobbing, and she had the scent of a man on her…

Being a woman, he semi-had an understanding feeling, albeit mixed with jealousy and rage.

"Kagome! Are you all right?" he asked, putting an arm over her shoulders and forcing the rage to wait for later. Kagome shook her head. Then a thought occurred to her.

How dare she be so selfish! Her mother was at home with a man conjured up by the words of some dickhead writer who didn't know anything! Her mother, having to deal with this alone…Sota, who would come home from school and find–

"Goodbye Inuyasha!" she shouted, and throwing herself back into the well. "I've got to do something. Don't you dare follow me!" If this man found out about Inuyasha…things could get really dangerous…

"Kagome– No!" But she was already gone. Inuyasha stared mournfully at the well. "She doesn't like me that way anymore," he said to himself. "Now that I'm…" He punched one of the tell-tale woman signs in frustration. "OW! Now that I'm a woman…"

But he stared down at the well. What could have made Kagome return and then leave again like that?

- - -

Kikyo was getting up now, smoothly and gracefully. Sesshomaru, once more his tranquil self, gazed neutrally at her, yet trying at the same time to figure this woman out.

He already realized that his heart had found a subtle respect for this woman, but what was she to him? To Naraku (shudder.)? To Inuyasha? To the convoluted events of the last weeks?

She saw his calculating gaze and faced him. "Lord Sesshomaru, I shall be returning soon," she said. "I hope to have you support in this?"

He could see that she sensed the imbalance in the world, perhaps more than even he could. Here was a truly strong– though otherworldly– miko, wise in her own humanlike way and yet more.

"Yes," he said simply, and turned around to walk away.

"Lord Sesshomaru."

He stopped.

"You do have a young ward with you, do you not?" said the woman.

He paused, then nodded without facing her.

"Say hello to her for me, please." Then she vanished into the night.

Sesshomaru stood still for a second, getting his thoughts reorganized. Two small figures popped their heads out of the bush near his feet.

"Sayonara, Kikyo-sama!" called the little girl, waving.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Why were you talking with that mortal woman?" squeaked Jaken.

Sesshomaru turned. "That was no mortal woman."

Rin smiled. "She was very nice. Wasn't she, Sesshomaru-sama?"

He said nothing, but looked down on the little girl.

Most uncharacteristically, he picked her up, holding her at arm's length to look into her face.

She beamed broadly at him, wanting to squirm with happiness but restraining so that he wouldn't drop her.

Suddenly she was being held close to him, and just for a second she breathed in his special aroma, his hair silky and soft against her face, his warmth lending to hers. Was Sesshomaru-sama hugging her? No, couldn't be. Then just as suddenly, the ground was hard beneath her feet, the leaves rustling with her weight.

She looked up at Sesshomaru-sama's proud face. He was no longer looking at her, but, jaw set and eyes distant, he was looking out into the dark forest, seeing nothing.

"Let's go," he said, and started walking.

Rin ran to find Aun, who was happily munching on rabbit bones not far away, and she and a flabbergasted and openmouthed Jaken followed their great leader into the mists of night.

---

Inuyasha was furious. Where was Kagome? Why didn't she return?

He paced around the well. At last he didn't care for her rebuke and decided, "What the hell, I'll follow her!" He started to run at the well, but slipped on something.

"What now?" he shouted angrily. Then he stopped. It was more stapled paper, like those fanfiction things Kagome brought. "What's it doing here?" he said aloud.

A wind sprang up, tossing leaves into Inuyasha's face. "Keh!" he spat. "I'll go with Kagome, you can't stop me!"

Then something bigger than leaves whacked him in the face. "Again!" he snarled, peeling a wet fanfiction off his face. Then something occurred to him. He slowly turned around, to face where the wind was coming from. There, above the tall trees, was the even taller and more majestic Goshinboku, the god tree where he'd been pinned for fifty years. The tree whose roots extended from one time to another…

He sucked in his breath. Waving like odd fruits from the branches of the Goshinboku were white, fluttering things…

He sat torn between investigating and following Kagome, when a new smell struck him.

"Kikyo!" he said in surprise.

Now he really couldn't decide what to do. Follow Kikyo or Kagome? He gritted his teeth. It was just like those fanfiction stories, always pitting Kikyo and Kagome against each other…

"Damn it to hell!" he snarled at no one in particular. He leaped into the well. Something's wrong in Kagome's time, and sure as hell I won't sit back and let it happen…

Kikyo walked slowly up to the Goshinboku. The grand tree loomed over her. The memories welled in her…this, the place where she and Inuyasha first met…the place where they both lost their lives. The place where Inuyasha and the girl Kagome had met…the tree whose knowledge spanned hundreds of years. The tree extending beyond time.

"You," she said to it, "have been up to something new."

Its power was great, its wisdom immense, and its influence on the world significant; the same tree had the fanfiction stories growing right out of it.

"You've been reading them too," she said to the tree. It rustled with good humor. Kikyo half-smiled. "Which ones?"

A few fanfictions fluttered down off the tree's branches as apples do when ripe. She could see rolled-up papers emerging like flower buds from the tree, crinkled and small. She picked up the ones that had fallen, and glanced at them. "You naughty thing. You've been spreading this in the Sengoku Jidai? What, bored?"

The tree shook with the wind, or maybe with laughter. Kikyo laid a hand on the bark. It was humming with power. "I accuse you of having fun," she said playfully. Then she turned serious. "But do you know the consequences?"

The tree stopped shaking, but continued to hum under her hand, even more so than before.

It wasn't like the tree to do things rashly. Kikyo glared at it. "All right, what is it you're hiding?"

The tree hummed louder than ever.

Kikyo sighed. "We all have our secrets." She looked at the branches laden with ripening fanfiction all over the branches above her head. "But some are meant never to be divulged." With a rueful glare at the Goshinboku, she left. The tree watched her go, its age-old sense smiling at the miko's back.

It settled back onto its roots. Time for some good reading.

---end---

A small haiku by me.

Fan-fiction is an

Imagination outlet.

Use it well: create!