Love and War Chapter 13: Jealousy and Realization, an inuyasha fanfic

New Chapter for Love and War

Love and War

Disclaimer: I've got it! I'll buy you from Rumiko Takahashi!

Inuyasha: I didn't know I was on sale…

Me: Well now you are!! So give me a price!

Inuyasha: um…ten million?

Me: -dumps the contents of piggy back- you think I could bargain that price down to five dollars, three pennies and a coke bottle that gets you a free happy meal at McDonalds?

Chapter 13: Jealousy and Realization

Their last week of school…after this it would just be the graduation ceremony and their time at Takahashi High would be over. No more getting up at six and getting home at two. No more year long classes and yellow school buses. They were adults and would go and get jobs with different hours, or go to college where they would leave home to live in dorms with complete strangers. After this day everything would change.

Inuyasha walked down the halls head down in thought ignoring the students brushing past him. He was thinking of the recent news given to him by his older brother Shesshomaru regarding the move to another city.

"Postponed…" Inuyasha couldn't figure out this mystery, "Shesshomaru never postponed anything, especially not because the builders didn't have enough time allotted to them to finish the project."

That was a bunch of trash. Inuyasha knew his brother to, plenty of times, threaten the companies that he hired to build his offices. He could have a building up within a few months with all of the power he had.

"He's not telling me something…" That was the only thing he could think of. Something must have happened that he didn't want Inuyasha knowing about, or he didn't want him going someplace…

The young man shrugged his shoulders and blew out a breath of air. It wasn't like he cared anyways. If anything this relieved him since he hadn't been happy about the prospect of leaving his mother for a few months until he found an apartment that was good enough for her to live in.

"Not that where she is living right now is a walk in the park." He hated where his mother was forced to live. Quite frankly who in their right mind wouldn't? The water and the electricity came on when it felt like it and the place minus well have not had a roof or walls seeing as the wind blew in through all of the cracks and the water was only held at bay by the buckets Inuyasha lay around the house. The bed was horrible and the food in the refrigerator easily got spoiled, once again an electricity problem.

Yep, he hated where she was forced to live at the moment, and moving into a building it would've taken at least two weeks to find an apartment or house that was better for her to live.

"Hate to say that he did me a favor," thinking through what he had just dared to say he rolled his eyes, "never mind if it wasn't for his decision in the first place I wouldn't have had to worry about leaving her."

Inuyasha decided to block those thoughts finally arriving at his locker. Opening it the first thing he laid eyes on was the folders and the various posters made for the presentation at the end of the week; last class. His thoughts instantly traveled to another important woman in his life.

"Kagome," This would be the last day he had with her, afterwords she was going to that University for Tokyo or whatever on that full scholarship. She wouldn't be back for four years

"Hey dog boy!" A punch in the shoulder caught the thinking man by surprise. He grabbed the locker for support as his friend turned to gaze into his eyes.

"Kouga…" There was some realization in his voice while Inuyasha acknowledged the other man who shook his head.

"Meditating on deep thoughts I see, we've been yelling your name down the hall." Miroku said.

"He was probably trying to think of what to think about." A low growl greeted Kouga who just snickered.

"So Inuyasha, I presume you were thinking about going out with lady Kagome?"

Inuyasha held his tongue to both men. He was trapped either way. If he said 'no' they wouldn't believe him, if he said 'yes' they would chew him out for not confronting her. So when stuck change the subject.

"How's it going between you guys and Sango and Ayame?" Inuyasha tried.

"Not bad actually." Kouga shrugged. Miroku nodded with a sort of dreamed out expression, he had been like that ever since Sango had accepted his proposal to be his girlfriend.

"We didn't come to talk about our girlfriends though." Kouga leaned easily against the locker beside Inuyasha with a sly smile, "We just wanted to know if you had seen Kagome."

"Why?" His eyes had narrowed suspiciously to his two best friends. They were up to something, he just didn't know what yet.

"There's a new discovery, apparently Kagome's best friends are Sango and Ayame who happen to be our girlfriends." Miroku had shaken himself from his daze to jump into the conversation, he seemed a bit panicked. "Is it a crime to want to know where are girlfriends are?"

The young man being told of this information shook his head trying to piece together his friends reactions. They seemed nervous apparently wishing he would accept their answers and leave them be. They were both on defense against anything he may have thought of saying. Slacking his shoulders Inuyasha decided to allow them this relief and wait until a more opportune time, "Well if they were looking for Kagome, she usually hangs around her locker right?"

"Guess you're right." Kouga looked towards the end of the hall catching sight of his girlfriend with a grin, "It looks like they are headed there right now. Thanks Dog Boy!" He ran down the hall waving his hand to catch the young women's attention.

Miroku also ended up following since beside Ayame stood Sango with books in hand. Inuyasha watched as Miroku took her books carrying them for her. He again tried to place what Kouga and Miroku were trying to do but came up with nothing. He shoved the thought to the back of his mind pulling out the folders and books for his first class.

Sango, Ayame, Kouga, and Miroku walked down the hallways each lost in their own thoughts as they headed for the same destination. They were all in on the plan the girls had put together and now they needed to gather the last pieces before playing the game that could make or break a relationship in their best friends.

"Are we doing the right thing? Interfering with their love life?" Sango wondered aloud her hand took the arm of her boyfriend drawing herself closer.

"Those two would break it apart today and never see one another again if we didn't act." Miroku comforted her, he shook his head, "Although I must admit this plan is risky. Not to their lives, but to ours. If they discover how we stepped in…"

"They'll never know you two were involved." Ayame stated her eyes were glued on her destination. She had already made up her mind that day Kaede made the phone call, now it was for better or worse the plan would be completed, "Sango and I have already resolved to take all of the blame. Kagome and Inuyasha will never know that you played any part in helping us."

"What?!" Kouga stepped in front of the party his eyes blazing at the images in his mind. Allow the girls to take the blame? His best friend didn't care about the differences between harming a man, woman, or child if they hurt him or did something as drastic as they were doing he would have them trying to relocate to another country! "There is no way I'm going to allow that! If he finds out then all of us are going down together."

Ayame regarded Kouga with a steady gaze. He was stubborn as a mule when he put his mind to something, just like her. Their matches of wills was always hanging in the air. "Kouga. Sango and I made up this plan, not you or Miroku. We will take responsibility for our actions."

"And we will take responsibility for helping you."

"Helping you do what?"

Everyone whipped around to find themselves staring at a curious Kagome. Her backpack was swung easily on her shoulder while awaiting an answer from the group.

"Nothing important really." Sango chirped unfortunately it came out three pitches too high.

Kagome raised her eyebrows in question, but before she could comment the bell rung indicating they only had three minutes to get to class, "Class is going to start soon…"

"Yep we better get going!" Sango grabbed her boyfriend by the arm dragging him towards their first period class, "See you Kags!"

While Kagome was waving to the departing couple. Ayame and Kouga ran off in two different directions, by the time Kagome had turned around they were just turning the hall, "Must have had a far away class."

For Kagome the last week was going too slow for her taste and yet too fast at the same time. She sat in her seat trying to listen as her teacher talked about college and the changes they would experience, but slowly she found her gaze sweeping to the window where the students were let loose to do whatever they pleased. Among the class was a particular boy that hadn't left her mind since she had woken up that morning.

"This is our last week ever having to see each other Inuyasha…wonder how you feel about that…" The words were foreign to her own mouth. How did he feel? Ecstatic of course! Just like she should have felt too, but the more she thought about the University of Tokyo the more she thought about the distance it put between her and him and instead of smiling about it, she was sighing.

'Isn't this what I've been waiting for?' she thought again looking at the teacher. He was writing down something on the board, talking about meeting different people from various walks of life, 'Didn't I want to escape him?'

The words were completed and Kagome found herself reading "Stay Focused" She again looked out of the window a sad smile across her face, 'Who am I kidding? This is for the best. It would never work out. I need to stay focused on going to get my education instead of chasing after dreams.'

Kagome had more to add to that, but it was lost when she noticed Inuyasha perk up. It wasn't very much, but from knowing him for so long she could tell he had just spotted something that he hadn't expected to see. She frowned trying to get a glimpse at what he was staring at but all she saw was a person wearing a white coat and red slacks, hair as dark as midnight. The figure was taking deliberate steps towards an alert boy who seemed frozen in place. Kagome's eyes widened in disbelief.

"It can't be…" She didn't want to rile herself up over something that couldn't possibly be true, but the scene before her didn't seem like something she was adding towards.

'It can't possibly be her, but then who else looks like that?!' Her mind was screaming. It seemed the world moved in slow motion as the female made her way closer to Inuyasha.

'No, no no no No!' The bell rung at that moment and Kagome ran out of the room quicker than the teacher could breathe. Her books were carelessly tossed inside of her bag crushing papers she would've cried over for ending up crinkled after hours of work, but nothing else crossed through her mind at the moment except one.

Her legs stretched to their limits and she cleared a usually busy hall in record speed. Behind her a vaguely familiar voice was calling her name, but she couldn't place it as she continued outside.

Finally, there was the door! Kagome dug her heels in before running directly into the metal she caught her breath before opening the door and creeping outside. Now every step felt like a thousand weights to carry, but she just had to know, she had to prove that she was being foolish and that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Just infront of her, she could see the woman before Inuyasha. She was closer now having stopped infront of him. The high school student peeked from behind a nearby wall to watch heart hammering in her chest. Inuyasha was parting his lips to speak, to say the name of the woman in front of him. Silently Kagome hoped it wasn't the name she had prayed to never hear him say again.

Inuyasha stood frozen. He couldn't believe who was smiling at him. Who he was talking to after all of these years. He parted his lips to speak feeling a slight resistance but quickly ignoring it to the name he wanted so badly to say.

"Kikyo…" He whispered it softly but still loud enough that anyone nearby could hear.

The woman before him smiled and in one fluid motion was embracing him, "Inuyasha, I've missed you so much."

"Kikyo, didn't you go away to…" She was silencing him with a finger cold to the touch, "I came back."

It was her…

The young woman willed herself not to do something like scream or cry. The name replayed over and over again in her mind.

Kikyo…Kikyo…Kikyo, she was the only woman that had ever come close to taking Inuyasha's heart. She did take it…only to throw it away when she moved away to that shrine that trained priestesses. It had been years since she had last been in their city so why was she back now? At a time like this?

Kikyo had been the only rival Kagome had ever faced. In everything she did, Kikyo could always top her whether sports, popularity, grades…the younger woman hadn't minded so much until she had beaten her in the only thing that Kagome had taken to heart back then. Inuyasha.

It was before they had started dating and she had known the man was madly head over heels for her rival. After all she was his best friend how couldn't she know?

They had went out for awhile, but it was obvious the affection was very one-sided; where Inuyasha gave and gave, Kikyo just continued to take. She just didn't like him the way he did her. Finally she broke it off.

The poor guy had been crushed when Kikyo delivered the words, "Let's go in different directions, and see other people." Kagome had never truly forgiven the girl for leaving her friend so broken. And then she had sent the last nail into the coffin by moving away.

"I need to escape certain…distractions and purify my mind. I am a priestess and it is disgraceful to fall into such lust." She had been talking about Inuyasha the entire way.

Kagome took a deep breath before peeking beyond the wall again. He wouldn't take her back in…not after what she had done to him. He had to remember the pain he felt after she said those things.

Kikyo was speaking again about how she had made a mistake and wanted to go out with him again.

"I know it is really sudden, but lately, all I have been able to think about is what we use to have…is there any way we can bring that back? My love?" Kagome thought she was going to be sick. 'My love? you weren't calling him that the day you packed your bags for that plane!' Kagome growled but not too loudly, she wanted to hear Inuyasha tell her off. She needed to here him say to crawl back up to whatever mountain she had slink from.

She was straining to hear, but no words were touching her senses. The winds blew and the voices of people further away echoed, but none matched those of Inuyasha.

Kagome had to know what was going on, but she dreaded peeking through the corner to see, something told her she wasn't going to like the view.

Her shoulders relaxed and a hand rose to steady herself. Eyes opened slowly while she leaned forward the inside of her stomach burning with dread and foreshadowed sadness.

As her gaze focused she saw him, he wasn't standing stock still like when Kikyo had first embraced him. He was no longer nervous and unsure. He was relaxed, laying his chin comfortably atop her head. Arms wrapped lovingly around her. Those were words enough for Kagome.

Slowly the girl retracted and sat down behind the wall. Her eyes still seeing the man she thought she knew embracing the woman who had betrayed him. She was paralyzed in her spot on the floor, unable to believe it, and yet not seeing him doing anything else.

'Why do I care?' A small thought beckoned, it was pushing her to stand up, trying to get her to function again, 'So what he's back together with Kikyo? It's not like we were anything special…it doesn't matter…you've got a bright future to look ahead to."

But staring ahead all she saw were dark clouds.

Everyone would have thought the next three days for Inuyasha would have been like floating on the clouds. It was the last week of school and not only did he not have to see his ex-girlfriend ever again after that Friday, but Kikyo the first woman he had fallen in love with had returned to him declaring her love and how she never wanted to leave him again. He should've been ecstatic…but he felt more like he had landed himself into a pit void of all joy.

Kikyo was great, she really was. Inuyasha was reminded of why he had fallen in love with her in the first place every time she smiled at him or touched his arm in that way only she could. Even as they sat across from one another in a restaurant and she flipped through a menu she looked like a goddess.

"Inuyasha sweetheart, have you chosen something?" The voice tossed the young man from his thoughts and retrieving the menu he frowned, "Uhh, pasta."

His mother giggled beside him, shaking her head she opened her menu and continued, "Pasta huh? Well, what sort of pasta? Chicken, shrimp, steak? This is Greenhouse Café you have to be a bit more specific."

"Steak pasta, with the steak 'well done'" He shot back with a smug smile but though his mother giggled again Kikyo was frowning. Inuyasha sighed to himself.

Kikyo had wanted to go out eat, just the two of them, but Inuyasha felt horrible about going out when his mother was left alone at home. It had been quite awhile since she had been able to do something fun so he had told her that he would go, but bring Izayoi along too. Kikyo wasn't happy.

'If I were with Kagome, I wouldn't be having this problem, she would have been thrilled and probably invited her mother also…' After that thought Inuyasha roughly shook himself. What was he thinking about Kagome for?! But lately, the more he had been around Kikyo, the more he thought about Kagome.

The two were similar in appearance. If one didn't know any better they would say that they were related, but the comparison only went skin deep.

Where Kagome was flawed Kikyo excelled and it was the same the other way around.

Picking up a toothpick he began to bite it. The reason he had broken up with Kagome was because of her flaws. She couldn't understand the business world and was horrible in politics, it had frustrated him when she would fall asleep over a problem that would be considered elementary to any successful businessman. Kikyo was the polar opposite to Kagome when it came to this knowledge. She could easily keep up with the complicated math and even successfully hold her own on a deal. Though this should've thrilled Inuyasha he was finding himself missing Kagome's naivety.

Across the restaurant a baby girl was running back to her seat he listened for a moment as the girl's mother told her not to run, and watched as the warning was delivered too late and the child fell. As expected, the mother quickly stood and picked the child up moving to comfort her and stop the tears. Again Inuyasha thought about Kikyo and Kagome.

Kagome was a natural with children, she adored them and if that mother hadn't been right there he could've bet that she would've stood up and moved to comfort the child also.

Across from him Kikyo had rolled her eyes at the display and started to grumble about how they should ban children like that from restaurants.

Inuyasha knew that though Kikyo did like kids, it was more reserved. She enjoyed kids when they were on their best behavior, but when a child did something like that she didn't want to be there to tell them it was alright as much as she wanted to scold them.

"Kikyo…you're everything Kagome wasn't…everything I wanted her to be, so how come I'm not happy?"

"Kagome!" Sango was running through the halls with Ayame at her heels infront of them was a quiet girl with black hair closing her locker door, "Kagome! Wait up!"

Finally the girl seemed to have heard the girls and stopped before walking away, allowing them to catch up to her, "Oh, hey Ayame, Sango."

"We haven't seen much of you at all lately. Where've you been?" Ayame asked throwing on a happy smile. But the joy was lost on Kagome, turning her head she listened to the laughter of a woman's voice echo through the halls. Kagome turned to see Kikyo standing beside Inuyasha's locker leaning against it with a dreamy expression while the young man grabbed his books.

"I've been around." She answered shortly. Turning her head she slammed her locker shut making her friends jump, but she could care less as she brushed past them and walked towards her class.

Sango and Ayame quickly recovered from there shock moving to take the two spots beside their best friend. Sango started in with sympathy, "You upset about Kikyo?"

"Kikyo? What should I be upset about Kikyo?" She had answered with a low growl, but the girl didn't seem to notice.

"You don't mind that her and Inuyasha are dating again?" Ayame tried

"Why should I be?" Kagome stopped abruptly causing her friends to nearly trip over her. There was a flame in her eyes as she addressed Ayame, "Inuyasha has been in love with Kikyo since Jr. High. He's finally gotten his wish to have the love returned. Why should my feelings matter in this situation? I'm leaving in about two weeks anyways!!"

She had yelled the last part and the sound of her breaking heart came through as clearly as the sun that day. Shaking her head she continued again.

"It's not like we were a couple anyways. I'm not mad. I could care less about him getting back together with Kikyo." Kagome repeated this lie to herself just a bit softer hoping that it would become true.

The truth was that ever since she had seen Inuyasha take her back Kagome had found herself unable to think about anyone else except him. She tried to figure out what it was that she had that Kagome didn't and why she felt so strongly about it. More than anything she wanted to know why she missed him so much.

Kagome was finding excuses to call him now. Asking dumb questions about the project's presentation that she already knew the answers to and making him come over to her house because she 'thought' certain things she had packed were really his. But though she continuously did these things the girl couldn't figure out why. They weren't friends anymore! Why couldn't she just accept that?

"It doesn't matter…today is the last day of school. Just get the project over with and then I'm on a one way ticket to the University of Tokyo."

"Alright class. Please quickly take a seat next to your partner in the 'Marriage Project'." Kaede fell quiet allowing the class to begin moving around. As the class fell quiet once again she nodded in approval, "Now this will not be done as many of you expected. The presentations will not be done in this room, but in the room across the hall. I will call on you and your partners name and you will proceed to follow me into the room. There will be a panel of teachers who will each judge you and your partner together on your project. Your grade will be determined by the overall score. You will then be asked questions together, and then will be asked some more questions separately. Then you will be ushered back into this room where you may do as you please for the remainder of the period."

The class accepted this news with no major disappointment. And within minutes the first pair was called and sent into the room. Meanwhile partners again went over their presentations and rehearsed what they would say.

Inuyasha and Kagome sat in silence each consumed in their own thoughts which were both about the same person. Kikyo. Occasionally they would send shy looks towards each other, but every time they had eye contact both would quickly look away.

"Inuyasha and Kagome." Kaede called after half of the class had finished. Nodding Kagome picked up their papers while Inuyasha gathered the posters.

"Well this is it." Kagome whispered to Inuyasha who only nodded and took a deep inhale leaving the room and entering in a much quieter room.

The chairs and desks had been moved away with three tables moved into a corner to allow the teachers to sit comfortably. Inuyasha and Kagome proceeded to set up their materials while the teachers looked through some papers on their desks.

"So Inuyasha, Kagome you may begin."

The presentation went surprisingly well with the two switching between talking to the teachers and holding diagrams and stuff for them to see. They showed off their house and their schedules followed by jobs and income. Towards the end of their presentation the teachers were nodding obviously impressed.

"So…I see here that you two requested different partners on the second day of the project…would you care to explain why you chose to separate and what happened after your decision to stay together." It was Kagome by herself now answering questions while Inuyasha waited outside for his turn. The young woman hesitated for a moment not expecting them to ask her this, but then again she should've known…

"Well," She began nervously, "Before the project we hadn't been the best of friends and didn't agree on many aspects of life so being paired together we just assumed it wouldn't work out…Somehow after speaking to lady Kaede we managed to put aside our disagreements and focus on staying together in the same house without losing our minds. It took a lot of sacrifice on both of our parts…Inuyasha had to change his schedule around and I had to cook for him and care for his wellbeing in ways I wouldn't have before. Somehow after that, everything was more bearable."

"So you would say after you both agreed to deal with a bit of change and sacrifice…you were able to say together?"

Kagome thought about this, slowly she nodded her head, "Yes…I think I would say that."

"Inuyasha, it says here that you knew Kagome before this project, how would you describe your relationship?"

Inuyasha sat down on a chair a ruthless smile crossed his face while thinking about their 'relationship' "We'll to put it lightly we were ready to kill each other."

Some of the teachers in the room's eyebrows rose in shock, "So you were enemies?"

"Not always, I mean along time ago we were the best of friends, and then when we gave dating a try everything fell to pieces."

"So, why would you say that being married worked when dating did not?"

The question made Inuyasha go silent for a second, slowly he opened his mouth to respond, "When we were dating…we didn't see eye to eye on a few things…and that is the reason why it didn't work out. We didn't have those problems on the marriage project."

"You're saying you and Kagome never had a disagreement during the project?"

"No, we did…we had a lot of them…"

"So what was so different this time?" A teacher prodded

"I guess…it was because we compromised."

"So are you saying that dating didn't work because neither of you were willing to compromise…but in the marriage you did which was why is was so successful?"

"Yeah…I guess so."

Hi peeps, this I admit has been laying on my computer for the past year, I kinda finished it, but didn't have the heart to post it.

Yeah, alot of stuff has happened between then and now, and I almost completely forgot about this site. That was until pixiepuff101 reviewed my story today asking me not to update. Sooo I decided to finish it between today and tomorrow.

Writing it I also realized there has to be two more chapters at least to wrap it up. Expect another right after this one! My apologies to those who actually have been waiting for the update on this story. And thanks for being so great everyone, new fans and older ones. This chapter is for you!